Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. THE BEGINNINGS OF CONGREGATIONALISM IN KHODE ISLAND, AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN PROVIDENCE. Titus i. 5: For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and appoint elders in every city as I gave thee charge. r I HE spread of the gospel required the - founding of churches and a regular ministry. I am to speak at this time of the beginnings of Congregationalism in Rhode Island. In some sense it may be said to have belonged here from the first. Yet it is also true that it was brought here later from Massachusetts and Connecticut. The fathers of New England were all Congregationalists. The first exiles who settled Providence were Congregationalists; among whom were two ordained ministers, ? Roger Williams and Thomas James. In three or four years Williams took up with the doctrine and practice of immersion, and the First Baptist Church was founded. In Newport, a Congregational church was formed as earlyas 1639; but that subsequently became Baptist. It is probable, also, that there was a Congregational church in Kingston before the middle of the seventeenth century, though the records are deficient. We see traces of Congregationalism in various parts of the Colony from the beginning; but the Baptist element ? which, indeed, may be called an offshoot of Congregationalism? was much stronger, and able to form churches which have continued to this day. We rejoice in the good they have done. That a considerable number of the people were still in harmony with the Pilgrim and Puritan churches from which they came is no doubt true; but the general sentiment of the Colony was opposed to a regular ministry. The people not only objected to the tax which other colonies had levied for the support of the gospel, …
