About this time, Zedekiah David, with several others, removed to Fayette County, and became the founders of a Seventh-day Baptist church in that place, where Rev. Samuel Woodbridge exercised his ministry for many years. To his children and to the church in this place, Rev. Enoch David paid a visit in the autumn of 1795, where, preaching in the open air, he caught a violent cold, which settled on his lungs, and finally terminated in a consumption, of which he died in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and the fortieth of his ministry. His remains were deposited in the burial-place at Woodbridgetown, in the certain hope of a joyful resurrection.
This venerable man was one of the good old ministers of the ancient school, who could preach the truth for its own sake, and who neither required nor expected a salary. He supported his numerous family by working at his trade, that of a tailor. Four times he was left a widower, and each time with the care of an infant. He lived to see six of his children consigned to the grave. He had an estate of some value in the city of Philadelphia, which was sold at his decease and the proceeds divided among his family.
From the church in East Nantmill Township, Pennsylvania, a church was formed on Broad River, in the parish of St. Mark, South Carolina, in 1754. In 1770, it had increased to eighteen families, of whom twenty-four persons were baptized. At this time there were several churches of the Dunker Baptists, in this state, who observed the seventh day.
In 1759, eight families of the Seventh-day Baptists passed over from South Carolina, and settled near Suckaseesing, in Georgia. Their leader was Richard Gregory, son of John Gregory. Another of their preachers was named Clayton. After remaining here about five years, the whole company returned to Edisto, in South Carolina.
It is believed that these churches have been for a long time extinct.
SECTION II.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE GERMAN SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS.
The Reformation in Germany and Holland was productive of great and glorious effects, although it was not complete. Errors in doctrine, nearly or quite as incongruous with Scripture as those abandoned, were retained; ceremonies, nearly equal in absurdity to those prohibited, were still celebrated; and persecutions, exhibiting more similarity to the practices of Papacy than to the meekness and quietude of pure Christianity, were still prosecuted. The Reformation required to be reformed, and of this many pious and holy men were aware. At length, in 1694, a violent controversy arose in nearly all the Protestant churches of those two countries, in consequence of the attempts which were being made to promote a practical and vital religion. At this time the pious Spener was ecclesiastical superintendent of the court of Saxony. He was likewise at the head of the party distinguished for its advocacy of reformatory measures. However, neither his dignified and important station, nor the fact that the tenets of his followers were predicated upon scripture according to its literal interpretation, could preserve them from falling under the odium of heresy, and incurring the effects of a virulent opposition. Their doctrines were examined by the ecclesiastical dignitaries, who, instead of instituting a comparison between them and Holy Writ, sought to discover whether or not they were conformable to the tenets deemed orthodox by the Consistory of Wittemberg. The decision was in the negative; hence they were suppressed in their public lectures and ministrations. This prohibition, while it shut up churches, and hushed the eloquence of public lecturers, savoured of persecution, and consequently excited a spirit of inquiry in the minds of the multitude. In such cases as this, reverend divines would consult their own interest by bestowing greater attention upon the study of human nature. Persecution agitates the public mind, excites the sympathy of some, the curiosity of all, and promulgates the very sentiments it is endeavouring to restrain. Besides, persecutors are not omniscient, conventicles will be held, and to their other charms that of secrecy is then added. In the year 1708, Alexander Mack, of Schriesheim, and seven others in Schwartzenen, Germany, met together, regularly to examine, in a careful and impartial manner, the doctrines of the New Testament, in order to ascertain what obligations it imposes upon professing Christians. These inquiries terminated in the formation of the society now called the Dunkers, or First-day German Baptists. Persecution, while it scattered them, likewise led to the dissemination of their doctrines; some were driven to Crefelt, in the Duchy of Cleves, and the mother church voluntarily removed to Sevustervin, in Friesland, whence its members emigrated to America in 1719, and dispersed to different parts of Pennsylvania. In 1723, they formed a church at Germantown, under the pastoral care of Peter Becker. The rapid growth of this church has rarely been excelled, and it received continual accessions of new members from the banks of the Wissahickon, and from Lancaster County. In this county, another community was soon after established by Conrad Beissel, a native of Germany. He was a man of eminent piety and ability, much given to metaphysical speculations, and distinguished for his love of solitude. Being determined to seek out the true obligations of the Word of God, independent of all preconceived opinions and traditional observances, he was soon led to perceive that the sentiments of the Dunkers were erroneous so far as they related to the day designed to be hallowed as the Sabbath. It appeared evident to him "that the seventh day was the command of the Lord God, and that day being established and sanctified by the Great Jehovah, for ever, and no change, nor authority for change, ever having been announced to man, by any power sufficient to set aside the solemn decree of the Almighty, he felt it to be his duty to contend for the observance of that day." These opinions he maintained, not only in many eloquent discourses, but, about the year 1725, he published a short treatise which entered into a full and very able discussion of this point. The publication of this tract formed, in more ways than one, an epoch in the community, and created so much stir and excitement among the Society at Mill Creek, that Beissel quietly retired from the settlement, and took up his abode in a small cell on the banks of the Cocalico, which had been occupied previously by one Elimelech, an anchorite. Here, retired from all the world, he sought, by prayer, fasting, and meditation, to converse with superior intelligences, and to perfect himself in holy knowledge. But the community that had opposed his fervent and spiritual teachings when present, found his absence a great deprivation, and although many inquiries were made, it was a long time before the place of his retirement became known. By this time many members of the society at Mill Creek had become convinced of the truth of his proposition relative to the Sabbath, who now removed and settled around him in solitary cottages. They rested from secular labours and celebrated the public services of religion upon the original Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, which has ever since been observed by their descendants.
In 1728, they resolved themselves into an ecclesiastical body, and a monastic society was instituted in 1732, for the accommodation of which suitable buildings were erected. Other buildings were likewise erected by the community, and all together constituted the irregular, yet lovely village of Ephrata. Both men and women were admitted into the convent, and both appear to have been singularly attached to the monastic state. They wore the habit of the Capuchins, or White Friars, which consisted of a shirt, trowsers and vest, with a long white gown and cowl, of woollen web in winter, and linen in the summer. That of the sisters differed only in the substitution of skirts for trowsers, and some slight peculiarities in the form of the cap. All who entered the cloister received monastic names. Their first Prior was Onesimus, (Israel Eckerlin,) who was succeeded by Peter Miller, surnamed Jabez. Beissel, whose monastic name was Friedsam, received the title of Father—spiritual father,—and subsequently that of Gottrecht, implying together, Peaceable God-right, from the brethren of the community. "In the year 1740, there were thirty-six single brethren in the cloister, and thirty-five sisters; and at one time the society, including the members living in the neighbourhood, amounted to near three hundred." The government and arrangement of this little community were perfectly republican, and all the members stood upon the most fraternal equality and freedom. They were bound by no vows, neither had they any written covenant. The New Testament was their confession of faith, their code of laws, and their rule of discipline. Such property as accumulated with the society, by donation and from the labour of the single brethren and sisters, was held as common stock, but none were obliged to devote their personal property to this purpose or to resign any of their temporal possessions. A considerable income was derived from the farm, which, with the proceeds of the grist-mill, paper-mill, oil-mill, fulling-mill, and the industry of the brethren and sisters, sufficed to support the society in a comfortable manner.
The principles of this society appear to have been superficially understood and partially represented by most writers upon the subject, although there is nothing about them mysterious or intricate.