An Outline of Baptist History

-18- fined and imprisoned for preaching and since he was too poor to pay fines, he was released and finally banished from the colony. WilliamRhodes, a Baptist minister from Rhode Island, began to preach and baptize converts at Oyster Bay, Long Island, about 1700, By 1724 a church had been organized. Robert Feeks was ordained pastor of the church. In 1711, Rev. Valentine Wightman began to preach in New York City. Nicholas Eyers, a wealthy brewer, in whose house the meetings were held was baptized in 1714, Eyers became pastor and at the same time continued his business. Persecutions, discouragements and internal dissentions weakened the church, so, soon after 1730 the church became extinct. Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was one of the most important and influential of the early Baptist centers. The first church was founded in Philadelphia in 1689. The members of this church were connected with the Lower Dublin church until 1746. Lower Dublin, in 1688, had 12 members at the beginning. lts first pastor was Elias Keach, son of the English Benjamin Keach. New Jersey. Religious liberty drew Baptists as early as 1660 to New Jersey. The first church was organized in 1688. It was composed mainly of those who had fled from persecution in New York and other colonies. All the New Jersey churches - Piscatawy (1689), Cohansey (1690), Cape May (1712), Hopewell (1715) - were in fellowship with the Philadelphia group. Origin of the Philadelphia Association. Almost from their origin, the Phila- delphia churches began to hold ''general meetings. '' These meetings were, first of all, annual gatherings, then they were semi-annual, meeting in May and September, The meetings were devotional and evangelistic. In 1707 the meeting became an organized body with five churches. The adoption of a Calvinistic confession of faith in 1742 was a turning point in the history of American Baptists. ''Pretty much everything good in our history, from 1700 to 1850, may be traced to its initiative in active cooperation." . The South. In 1714 Baptists from England settled in the Southeastern part of Virginia. Baptists were persecuted severely in this state because the Episcopal church was the State church but they thrived from the first, in spite of it. In spite of exceptional liberty in Maryland, but two churches had been founded prior to 1772. Even today Maryland is the weakest Baptist state, Traces of Bap- tists were found in North Carolina as early as 1695 but the oldest church can be dated only to 1727. . Influence of Baptists of this period. This period supported the American Revolution. "Their preachers became Chaplains and their men joined the armies and their women supported the sacred cause with heroic sacrifices. Unfailing loyalty became known even to the British soldiers and in consequence their meeting houses were usually de- stroyed or confiscated when the enemy entered conquered territory.' Burroughs, p. 63.