[69] In after-years they seem to have been much troubled by litigation. Dr. Fahnestock says that they considered contention with arms, and at law, unchristian; but that they unfortunately had to defend themselves often in courts of justice. To set an example of forbearance and Christian meekness, they suffered themselves for a long time to be plundered, until forbearance was no longer a virtue. He says (Hazard’s Register, 1835) that the society is just escaping from heavy embarrassments which they incurred in defending themselves from the aggressions of their neighbors. The British officer, whose statement was published as early as 1789, speaks of Peter Miller as often engaged in litigation.
In a recent work (Belcher’s History of Religious Denominations, 1854), the Seventh-Day Baptists at Ephrata are said to possess about one hundred and forty acres.
[70] Morgan Edwards, in speaking of the recluses at Ephrata, says that they took the vow of celibacy. But, as so many of our German Baptists are opposed to oaths, I presume that they did not. “Teach, by example, that a promise is truly an oath,” says a late Pennsylvania paper.
[71] Somewhat altered from the original.
[72] A writer in the Chronicle speaks of being at one of the count’s conferences, where there were Mennonites, Separatists, and Baptists. But when he came home, he told the vorsteher that he regarded the count’s conference as a snare to bring simple awakened souls again into infant-baptism and church-going. Then they held a council, and resolved to have a yearly conference of their own.
The above expression—infant-baptism and church-going—sounds so much like the account of the Baptist or Anabaptist persecutions narrated in the Martyr-book, that we might almost conclude that the Dunkers had a direct connection with the Anabaptists, instead of originating among the Pietists. But it will be remembered that the Ephrata Dunkers had printed an edition of the great Martyr-book, and it is most probable that some of them were familiar with it. Still, there may have been among the Pietists some who were or had been Baptists.
[73] Near the close of this sketch mention is made of “Hoeckers a Creveld.” Perhaps Ludwig belonged to the same family.
[74] Paxton township is now in Dauphin County. The Paxton church was three miles east of Harrisburg.
[75] The Ephrata Chronicle says that, as the enemy approached (the Indians came within thirteen miles of Ephrata), many persons sought refuge in the cloister, with those who were themselves in need of protection. As reports of murders reached Ephrata day after day, the celibates (Einsamen) became despondent, and even the leader turned pale,—a thing that had never been witnessed before. When danger was so imminent, the fathers proposed to take the sisters away on wagons to a safer place. It was then that Beissel received by night a divine revelation to the effect that no Einsamer should perish by the hands of the Indians.
Accordingly they remained at their station, and it really turned out as Beissel had predicted. The people who took refuge in the monastery probably stayed at Ephrata, not with a view of finding protection behind the wooden walls of the cloister, but for the sake of shelter and support. The statement that the government sent a company of soldiers for the protection of Ephrata seems to be verified by the mention in the Chronicle of Rothröcke or Redcoats.