186 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part II. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES. 



ASSOCIATIONS OF CHURCHES. 



Sylvanus Haynes, Isaac Webb, Henry 

 Green, Aaron Lcland, Isaac Beal, Joseph 

 Call and Samuel Kingsbury. Tliese min- 

 isters did not all remove into the state. 

 While some came, and took the pastoral 

 care of churches; others came, and serv- 

 ed as itinerants ; and others still were 

 mere adventurers to seek a home, and en- 

 joy religious freedom. The education of 

 these early ministers did not extend gen- 

 erally beyond the rudiments of a common 

 Englisli education, and yet their ministry 

 was well adapted to the condition of the 

 people of that period. They were persons 

 of great natural ability, close students of 

 the Bible, and careful observers of men 

 and things. Having had a thorough 

 ph3'^sical training, they were prepared to 

 endure great hardships, and encounter 

 formidable obstacles. " They toiled in 

 the cold and in the heat, by day and by 

 night, traversing the wilderness from one 

 solitary dwelling to another, by marked 

 trees, and half made roads, fording rivers 

 and streams, often without a guide, and 

 at the hazard of their lives. They tre- 

 quently had to pursue their journeys 

 through storms of snow and rain, to meet 

 their appointments, and administer, to the 

 perishing, the bread of life." Such were 

 the men wliom God was pleased to honor 

 in tlie planting and watering of the early 

 Baptist churches in Vermont. Their lit- 

 erary qualifications, it is admitted, were 

 not great ; but they were men of prayer 

 and experience, intimately acquainted 

 with the truths of the Bible, and posses- 

 sing a strong desire to proclaim these 

 truths to the scattered inhabitants whom 

 they found in the wilderness. And the 

 people of those early days would travel 

 very cheerfully manv miles to hear a ser- 

 mon. And they travelled, not on the good 

 roads, and with the convenient vehicles 

 of modern times ; but over bad roads, on 

 foot, on horse back, and on sleds to the 

 place of meeting, eager to hear the word 

 of life. And moreover the place of wor- 

 ship then was not the commodious and 

 comfortable temple of these days ; but it 

 was a log building — a log barn in sum- 

 mer, and a log dwelling house or school 

 house in winter ; and often the house was 

 so small, that most of the he,^rers were 

 obliged to be without, seated on logs, 

 while the preacher stood at the door, and 

 proclaimed his message. And it is said 

 that under all these privations and incon- 

 veniences the utmost order prevailed. 



The Baptists of Vermont, as well as 

 Baptists generally, have been strenuous 

 advocates of religious liberty. The in- 

 habitants of the territory now called Ver- 

 mont, were, for many years, as to their 



religious affairs, governed solely by the 

 regulations of the places, whence they 

 emigrated ; and as by far the greater part 

 of the early settlers were Congregation- 

 alists from Massachusetts and Connecti- 

 cut, they, of course, gained the ascen- 

 dancy, and advocated the support of the 

 gospel by measures which were repulsive 

 to Baptists. The first act of the state 

 regulating the support of the gospel, wiis 

 passed October 26, 1707.* This law bound 

 the inhabitants of each town or parish to 

 be of, and to support the leading denom- 

 ination ; or to show that they were of 

 different vievi's, and supported the gospel 

 elsewhere. And even this was not a se- 

 curity in all cases ; for sometimes persona 

 were much annoyed after they had sub- 

 mitted to these humiliating regulations. 

 This law was in force, until the year 1807, 

 when it was repealed. The bill proposing 

 the repeal of this law, was contested two 

 years in the legislature, before it passed. 

 At that time, Aaron Leland, a Baptist 

 minister, was speaker of the house, and 

 Ezra Butler, a Baptist minister, was an 

 active member of the council. Since that 

 time, all laws regulating the support of 

 religious worship, have been done away ; 

 and the gospel in Vermont is left, as it 

 ought to be everywhere, to be sustained 

 by its advocates and friends. 



The Baptist churches in Vermont have 

 united generally in clusters, called asso- 

 ciations, not for the purpose of legislating 

 for the churches, since the churches are 

 considered independent one of another, 

 and accountable alone to Christ their 

 head ; but they have associated for the 

 purpose of mutual improvement, and more 

 efficient action. At the annual session of 

 the association, each churcli belonging to 

 the body is required to represent itself by 

 delegates, and an account of what has 

 been its condition during the year. The 

 first association that was formed in this 

 state, was the Shaftsbury association in 

 the town of Shaftsbury, in 1780. This 

 association, being located in the south 

 western corner of the state, was composed 

 for the most part of churches in New 

 York and Massachusetts. These church- 

 es, however, have nearly all been dis- 

 missed to form other associations, so that 

 the Shaftsbury association is now mostly 

 confined to Bennington county in this 

 state. There were belonging to this as- 

 sociation, at its last session, in 1841, eight 

 churches, and about eight hundred com- 

 municants. 



* This is a mistake, go far as relates to its bein? 

 the frst act regulating the support of the goapeh 

 An act precisely similar in principle to the one above 

 named, and nearly the same in detail, was passed on 

 the 19th of October, 1787. 



