176 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part 11, 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 



has wisely left the particular modes of 

 worship and the internal regulations of 

 churclies to the judgments and conscien- 

 ces of individuals, provided they do not 

 interfere with the rights of others, or cor- 

 rupt the morals and good order of society. 



In the grants of townships in this state, 

 made by the provincial government of 

 New Hampshire, three rights were re- 

 served for the support and propagation of 

 Christianity, one as a glebe for a minister 

 of the church of England, one for the so- 

 ciety for propagating the gospel, and one 

 for the first settled minister. A right for 

 the first settled minister was also reserved 

 in the Vermont grants. 



An account of the principal religious 

 denominations in this state will be found 

 in the following sections of tliis chapter. 



Section II. 

 Congregational Churches in Vermont. 



BY REV. THOMAS A. MERRILL, D. D.* 



The first congregational church in Ver- 

 mont was organized at Bennington, De- 



* Kindly furnished in behalf of the General Con- 

 vention of the Congregational churches in Vermont, 

 to which body application was made lor the same. 



cember 3d, 1762,* by the union of two 

 small churches, the members of which 

 had removed to that place from Hardwick 

 and Sunderland, in Massachusetts. This 

 church, on the 24th of May, 1763, gave 

 "a call" to the Rev. Jedediah Dewey, 

 pastor of a church in Westfield, Massa- 

 chusetts, and appointed a committee to 

 confer with him and his church, and to 

 make all needed arrangements and stipu- 

 lations. The result was, the church in 

 Westfield of which Mr. Dewey was pas- 

 tor, united with the church in Benning- 

 ton, August 14, 1763, and under the sanc- 

 tion of a council of two pastors and two 

 "messengers," which met at Westfield 

 the same day, Mr. Dewey became pastor 

 of the new or united church. The union 

 was doubtless formed with the under- 

 standing, that the members, who had con- 

 stituted the Westfield church, were about 

 to remove to Bennington. The present 

 churches in the three towns in Massachu- 

 setts from which came the three churches 

 that originally constituted the church in 

 Bennington, all date their organization 

 previous to 1762. It is therefore highly 

 probable, if not certain, especially in view 

 of oral and other testimony, that the three 

 churches, which originally constituted the 

 first church in Vermont, were composed 

 of persons, who in those days were denom- 

 inated separatists. The separatists disap- 

 proved of the authority which the laws 

 then gave the civil magistrates over ec- 

 clesiastical concerns, and which was sanc- 

 tioned by the Cambridge platform. The 

 church in Bennington at its organization 

 made the following record : " It is agreed 

 upon and voted by the church in Ben- 

 nington, that they make an exception in 

 the fourth paragraph in the eleventh chap- 

 ter in the Cambridge platform in respect 

 to using the civil power to support the 

 gospel ; and also the ninth paragraph in 

 the seventeenth chapter in respect to the 

 civil magistrate's coercive force." Few 

 if any other churches in Vermont ever 

 made any reference, at the time of their 

 organization, either to the Cambridge or 

 Saybrook platform. They were substan- 

 tially independent, though acknowledg- 

 ing the necessity of councils in ordina- 

 tions and the utility of them in cases of 

 difficulty ; for Vermont was not settled 

 till the era of lay ordinations among con- 

 gregationalists in New England had pass- 

 ed away. The churches very universally, 

 except in some cases of great disorder, 



* The materials of the following brief sketch of 

 Congregationalism in Vermont are derived almost 

 wholly from original records. The statements, there- 

 fore, are supposed to be as correct as the nature of 

 the case will admit. — T. A. Merrill. 



