Jan 29, 2019
by Janet Thorngate
Part 2
Fifth in a series of spinoff articles from recent research on the Newport, Rhode Island, Seventh Day Baptists1
The Newport Seventh Day Baptist covenant listed no tenets of faith. Once signed by the original seven, its pattern of commitment to a common faith walk and watchcare seemed to hold for generations, but very seldom were specific issues of theology even noted in the records. From the beginning, new members were baptized following a confession of faith acceptable to the church leaders present. The earliest recorded was that of the Indian “Jepeth,” who in 1675, “gave a very satisfactory account of ye work of grace wrought upon his heart.” Others followed and were recorded similarly: “we heard the account of George Lamphere’s faith to our full satisfaction,” and “then Sarah Wetter gave an account of her faith to our full satisfaction.” Baptism by immersion followed and they were “added to the church” usually “by prayer with laying on of hands.” Thus were members welcomed into “full communion”; thereafter they regularly participated in “the breaking of bread.”
Samuel Hubbard apparently held Calvinistic sentiments but there is no evidence that it was made a matter of fellowship in the church. No records of ordination statements or examinations survive for Newport Sabbatarians except for their fourth elder, John Maxson, not when Newport ordained him but twelve years earlier when he declined ordination after the Westerly (1st Hopkinton) church had called him to ordination, examined, and approved him. His position at that time clearly supported a general atonement.2 Henry Clarke, a fifth generation Seventh Day Baptist, writing near the end of the colonial period, noted that, “As to modern popular doctrines, they generally are between the Calvinist and Armenian (sic).”3 David Benedict, writing two years later, observed that “In baptism, church discipline, etc., the Sabbatarians differ in nothing from their First-day brethren; in doctrine, some of them are Calvinists, but perhaps a greater part are inclined to the Arminian system; which, however, they wish to define for themselves.”4
From the beginning, baptism of believers by immersion and observance of the seventh-day Sabbath were Seventh Day Baptist distinguishing tenets. Preaching, prophesying, and open discussion to discern biblical principles was the taken-for-granted norm. During the Sabbath controversy that preceded their withdrawal from John Clarke’s Baptist church in Newport, many meetings over several months, women as well as men participated in the often heated discussion. Specific scriptures were cited to support points, often to counter points made in an earlier sermon. The main issue was whether or not the seventh-day Sabbath was incumbent on Christians within the larger issue of the law in relationship to salvation. The charge most offensive to the Sabbath keepers was that they were “leaving Christ for Moses” by observing it. Yet the cause of the final break had to do with whether or not all were willing to participate together in the sacrament of “the breaking of bread.” Some from both sides of the issue became unwilling.
From the time of Tacy Hubbard’s leading out as the first to begin keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, men, women, Native Americans, and African Americans received individual, equal treatment with regard to baptism and membership. In 1683 Samuel Hubbard had desired church action by the far-flung membership, “if not personally by vote, yet by a free consent at least.” Numbers of votes for or against an action were not recorded. Consensus of members was sought but by the time of the first record book in 1692, all recorded actions were by “vote” of the members.
The records illustrate that by around 1700, Newport Seventh Day Baptists had developed a fairly formalized system of discipline. Upon first identifying a problem in a brother’s or sister’s behavior, the member was called before the church for questioning, or a messenger sent to clarify a breach of covenant. Then, if verified, the offender was admonished to repent of the wrong and change the behavior or make amends. If no result, a second admonition was given, face to face or in writing, and, finally, if no appropriate response, the decision might be to “reject him so as to have no farther fellowship with him in such a relation except he repent and make good his place in the church.” Sometimes it was phrased, to “withdraw our spiritual communion from him until he repent of his evils and manifest fruit meet for repentance.” A small percentage of cases were brought to full “rejection.” Many were simply dropped in mid-process or not recorded. Some were carried on for weeks or months and finally resolved with full restoration to one’s “place in the church.”
It was all about relationships and family. They were brothers and sisters. They were slow to ordain any member above the others in status or responsibility. Slow to adopt a new practice just because other Baptists were doing it. Slow to standardize any procedure, because “the best rule for the government of the Church is the Scriptures.”
1 Sources for this article including the covenant and full church records may be found in Baptists
in Early North America: Newport, Rhode Island, Seventh Day Baptists by Janet Thorngate (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2017), particularly “Legacy of the Newport SDB Church,” p. cvii-cxvi. The book may be ordered for $60 from the Seventh Day Baptist Center (PO Box 1678, Janesville, WI 53547) or from Mercer University Press (www.mupress.org or 501 Mercer Univ. Dr., Macon, 31207).
2 Seventh Day Baptist Memorial, 1 (January 1854): 9-14. He answered “yes” to the question whether the “gospel of salvation by Christ is to be preached and offered to all men,” and when asked “whether Christ died for all men universally or only a few in particular,” he answered, “Christ died for all men, so that all men might have the offer of an opportunity of salvation by Christ.”
3 History of the Sabbatarians, 62. Clarke’s “General Observations as to Tenets and Morals” also included the following:” They universally hold the Bible to contain God’s holy will revealed to man, wherein are exhibited the objects of faith, and the rules of life: they are harmoniously agreed in the important, fundamental, and essential points of the christian religion; yet as to smaller matters, and mere circumstantial points, there may be a great variety of sentiments…. also in explaining the doctrine of the Trinity, so called, as also, that of Original Sin…. Some sections of several of these churches believe in the washing of one another’s feet…. But as the Sabbath and Baptism are their distinguishing tenets,… it is needless to be more particular as to their doctrines for those smaller matters are left to each one’s conscience, and do not affect christian charity or fellowship in case they do not break one of the least of these Ten solemn Precepts, and teach men so.”
4 General History of the Baptist Denomination in America 2 vols. (Boston, MA:Manning & Loring, 1813), 2:124.
Covenant of the Newport
Seventh Day Baptist Church
After serious consideration and seeking Gods face amongourselves for the Lord to direct us in a right way for us and our children so as might be for Gods glory and our souls good and others example, we entered into Covenant with ye Lord and with one another and gave up our selves to God and one to another to walk together in all Gods Holy Commandments and Holy Ordinances according to what the Lord had discovered to us or should discover to be his mind for us to be obedient unto; with sense upon our hearts of great need to be watchful over one another. Did promise so to do, and in edifying and building up one another in our most holy faith
William Hiscox Tacy Hubbard
Samuel Hubbard Rachel Langworthy
Steven Mumford [Ann]Mumford
Roger Baster
7th Day of Decemr 1671