Historical Discourse Delivered on the One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the First Baptist Church of Haverhill, Mass (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890. Excerpt: ... HISTORY OF THE First Baptist Church, HAVERHILL, MASS. Prepared For The 125th Anniversary, Celebrated May 9th, 189o, By The Pastor, W. W. EVERTS, Jr. As Mesopotamia is pointed to by nations east and by nations west as their common birth-place, so Haverhill is recognized by this gathering of representatives of churches to the westward, to the northward and to the eastward as the old homestead of them all. This is the oldest Baptist Church north of Boston. In Dover as early as 1638 the famous Hansard Knollys had proclaimed the pure doctrine, but such was the persecution endured by the little flock that it was led by the Great Shepherd to a sunnier clime and settled in New Brunswick, N. J., where the little one has become a thousand. Another Englishman, William Screven, sounded forth "the faith once delivered to the saints," at Kittery, Me., in 1681, but similar persecution drove him and his fellow disciples as far south as the Carolinas, and in 1693 he established the First Baptist Church in Charleston, where Drs. Stillman and Hezekiah Smith both received ordination. There was an effort made to organize at Newbury, in 1682, with members from the young First Baptist Church, Boston, but there is no trace of the existence of that body except a very admirable appeal to the General Court for freedom of worship. The first person baptized in the Merrimac originated in West Amesbury, but lived in Newton, N. H. Francis Chase was born in 1715, was baptized about 1750, and joined a church at Newton. However, in 1792 Deacon Chase with six others of the Newton Church are received into this Church, for the reason as stated by Hezekiah Smith, its clerk, that the Church in Newton is "now dissolved." Deacon Francis Chase was a slaveholder. One of his slaves, born in his hous...