THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Baptists were nearer than others to the apostolic norm; jet after a few months of experience he became so doubtful as to the warrantableness of what he had done, that he felt constrained to withdraw from the fellowship of the church he had founded and to spend the rest of his life as a " Seeker " (q.v.)- Nothing short of a miraculously given commission to restore the ordinances would thenceforth meet his requirement. It was after he had assumed this position that he gained immortality of fame as an advocate of liberty of conscience and as, in cooperation with John Clarke (q.v.), the founder of a state in which this doctrine was embodied to an extent never before known.
For some years little is known of the career of the little church. The principle of individualism was so emphasized in the Providence community that complete harmony among the members of the church could hardly have been expected. Within a few years several who had been members of antipedobaptist churches in England (probably of the Arminian type) seem to have reenforced the constituent members and to have introduced elements of discord. Among the Arminian members, afterward to become somewhat prominent, were William
Wickenden, Gregory Dexter, and
2. The Chad Brown, who, like many of the
Providence English General Baptists insisted
Church, upon the laying-on of hands after
baptism as a Christian ordinance and an indispensable qualification for churchfellowship. Williams himself regarded the layingon of hands as an ordinance of Christ. Thomas Olney, one of the constituent members, probably succeeded Williams in leadership, and by 1652 was coelder along with the brethren named. By thisitime diversities of opinion as to the extent of Christ's redemptive work and the laying-on of hands had become so pronounced as to occasion a schism. Olney led the faction that opposed the laying-on of hands as an ordinance and probably insisted on limited redemption, while Brown, Wickenden, and Dexter, on the basis of Heb. vi, 1-2, led the party, probably a majority, that insisted on the laying-on of hands as one of the " Six Principles." The fact that Olney's party did not survive as a church has led to the claim on behalf of the Newport church, organized some years later than the original Providence church, of priority among surviving churches. But the party led by Brown and the others seems equally entitled to be regarded as the original church. Wickenden extended his labors to New York State, where he was imprisoned (1656) for baptizing and administering the Lord's Supper. By 1669 his Arminianism had developed into Socinianism greatly to the alarm of Williams. He died in 1670. Gregory Dexter, who had printed Williams's Key to the Indian Language (1643) in London, removed to Providence about 1644. He was probably a General Baptist before his emigration. He became one of the most prominent men in the colony (President, 1653). Brown was for about twenty-five years a pillar among the Providence Baptists. He is of special interest as the ancestor of the Browns who gave their name to the first Baptist College in America
3. The Newport Church.
and have done so much for its endowment and equipment (see below, II, 2, § 3).
The First Baptist Church of Newport owes its origin to John Clarke (q.v.), an educated Englishman who arrived at Boston in Nov., 1637, and cast in his lot with a company of Antinomians (Anne Hutchinson, Wheelwright, Coddington, and others), who were leaving Massachusetts for conscience' sake and who through Williams's good offices secured from the Indians the island of Aquidneck (Rhode Island), where they organized a colony (Mar., 1638) with recognition of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The first agreement was theocratic, but in 1641 a distinctly democratic constitution with full provision for liberty of conscience was adopted. Clarke was equally prominent with Williams in the later political history of the united colonies that became Rhode Island, and, like Williams, spent much time in England in the public interest. As early as the year 1638 Governor John Winthrop designated Clarke as " a physician and preacher to those of the island." By 1640^1 strife had arisen between Clarke, Lenthall, Harding, and others, and Easton, Coddington, Coggeshall, and others, the latter maintaining the antinomian views of Anne Hutchinson, the former repudiating these views and probably at this time objecting to the baptism of infants. Winthrop wrote of the presence of " professed Anabaptists " on the island in 1641. There is no direct proof of the organization of Clarke's followers on a Baptist basis until 1644 or a little later. Mark Lukar, who was among those baptized by Blount and Blacklock in London in 1641-42, was for many years one of the most influential members of the Newport church. The date of his arrival has not been ascertained. If he arrived in 1644, as seems probable, he may have been a constituent member and have led in the introduction of believers' baptism. Samuel Hubbard, a friend of Roger Williams and a man of intelligence and force of character, removed from Connecticut in 1648, where he had adopted antipedobaptist views and was baptized into the fellowship of the church. In 1665 Stephen Mumford, an English Seventh- Day Baptist, became a member of this church and won to his views Hubbard, Hiscox, and others. Failing to carry the majority of the church for Sabbatarianism, they withdrew in 1671 and formed a separate congregation. In 1649 Obadiah Holmes of Seekonk, Mass., near the Rhode Island border, was baptized into the fellowship of the church and with a number of other persons attempted to carry on Baptist work in the Seekonk neighborhood. Civil interference with their meetings led them to remove to Newport. In 1651 Clarke, Holmes, and Crandall visited Lynn, Mass., to minister to some antipedobaptists there. They were imprisoned, heavily fined, and Holmes, for refusing on principle to pay the fine, was cruelly whipped. In 1652 Clarke published in England III News from New England, a full account of this act of persecution with a somewhat elaborate argument for liberty of conscience. The division of sentiment among the Providence Baptists on the laying-on