Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God
(Romans 1:1)
The following is from Chapter VIII of the book, A Welsh Succession of Primitive Baptist Faith and Practice by Elder Michael N. Ivey[1]
The Separate Baptists
The American succession of faith and practice of the Primitive Baptists can be traced through Shubal Stearns and the Separate Baptists. The Separate Baptists received their name as an indirect result of the Great Awakening, which had its beginnings in New England around 1734. Its evangelical appeal was the result of years of religious decline, which was the outcome of the Established Congregationalist Church. Because all citizens were compelled to join at birth, and many could not claim an experience of grace, by 1720 the Congregationalists claimed a large class of what they termed "inferior" members. These members possessed limited rights and privileges of church membership. However, various schemes were launched in attempts to revive the ailing denomination, by vitalizing the membership of inferior members. First they were allowed into communion. Next, they were allowed to hold certain church offices. Finally, it was agreed that "inferior" members, those who made no claim as to an experience of grace, could be ordained to the clergy. None of the Congregationalists schemes were successful. They continued to suffer from lax discipline and defections. In 1734 Jonathan Edwards was blest to participate in a short revival in religion. His relentless preaching stirred some enthusiasm which resulted in short lived religious renewal among the Congregationalists in Massachusetts and Connecticut. However, one positive outcome of Edward's zeal and the slight renewal of interest in religion was the arrival of George Whitfield in America in 1740.
From the moment the world famous Whitfield landed on American soil, at Newport, in September 1740, huge crowds gathered to hear him preach. The effect was electrifying. Whitfield recorded in his journal, "many wept exceedingly, and cried out under the Word, like persons that were hungering and thirsting for righteousness."Wherever Whitfield preached, thousands rejoiced. The heartfelt religion which spontaneously burst forth was in great contrast to the stern and stoic form of religion practiced by the Calvinist Puritan Congregationalists of the Established Church. New converts in Congregational churches soon became uneasy by the coldness and hostility of unawakened members.
Whitfield revival converts came to be known as "New lights." Traditionalists in the Puritan congregations were called "Old lights." In such a climate of contrast, it was only natural the New lights began leaving the old state church to form their own congregations. By 1744 these informal congregations began assuming identities as churches. Those who left the old church and formed into new churches became known as Separates.
In 1745 Whitfield returned to America. His return was not welcomed by many of the Established Churches. However, the Separates greeted him enthusiastically. Because of their fervent support and attendance, the Separate Churches received most of the benefit from Whitfield's second revival tour. Three men of note who joined the Separates during the 1745 revival were Isaac Backus, Daniel Marshall and Shubal Sterns. All three would later join the Baptists, bringing with them their enthusiastic belief in evangelical revival.
The Established Congregational Church may have accepted the existence of the awakened New Light churches but for the fact that the New Lights kept a "closed communion" and would not accept letters of dismissal from the Congregationalists. Even at this early date, the New Lights recognized the need for church order. The Separates brought these practices with them when they joined the Baptists.
Elder Sylvester Hassell provides a brief introduction of the Separates as Baptists. He notes, "These Separates first arose in New England, and made their way eventually, into the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Elders Shubal Stearns and Daniel Marshall were among those evangelical ministers whose labors were greatly blessed in the States above named."
Elder Lemuel Burkitt, in his history, written in 1806, notes; "The Separates first arose in New England, where some pious members left the Presbyterian, or the Standing Order, on account of their formality and superfluity, viz. 1. Because they were too extravagant in their apparel. 2. Because they did not believe their form of Church government to be right. But chiefly because they would admit none to the ministry only men of classical education,and many of their ministers, apparently, seemed to be unconverted. They were then called Separates Newlights. Some of these were baptized and moved into the southern provinces, particularly Elders Shubal Sterns and Daniel Marshall, whose labors were wonderfully blest in Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. Many souls were converted, and, as the work progressed, many churches were established in Virginia and some in North Carolina."
Elder Burkitt continues his somewhat detailed and flattering description of the Separates by describing their preachers as extremely pious and zealous men. He characterized the effect of their evangelical zeal with this quote; "and such a work appeared to be amongst the people that some were amazed, and stood in doubt, saying what means this?" He notes, "The distinction between them and us, was they were called Separates and the Philadelphia, the Charleston, and the Kehukee Associations were called Regular Baptists."
As Elder Burkitt's narrative suggests, the Separates discovered many Baptist practices with which they concurred. They approved of the Baptists practice of democracy in church government, simplicity of their order of worship, believers baptism and ordaining men to the ministry based upon a divine call as demonstrated by qualification of their gifts through preaching.
Baptist Elders crossed into Connecticut to preach for Separate Congregations. Slowly the Separates began to leave the doctrines of pedobaptism and join Baptist churches. At one point Elder Backus, who himself left the Separates and was baptized and ordained by the Baptists, was heard to say that all the Separate churches would soon become Baptists.
During this migration of gospel conversion, Shubal Stearns, a prominent Separate preacher, joined the Baptists and was baptized and ordained in 1751 by Elder Waitt Palmer at Tolland, Connecticut. Elder Palmer had been baptized and ordained by Valentine Wightman.
It was through the evangelical activities of Elder Stearns and his brother-in-law, and brother in the ministry, Daniel Marshall, that primitive Baptist faith and practice was carried to the Kehukee brethren of North Carolina. In 1755 Stearns joined Daniel Marshall in Virginia. Marshall had been baptized earlier at the Particular Baptist Church at Mill Creek in Opekon, Virginia. Stearns was on his way to North Carolina at the request of friends, who petitioned him to come and help with the pathetic spiritual destitution of the area. Marshall and Stearns left Opekon in the summer of 1755, traveling two hundred miles to Sandy Creek, North Carolina.
Upon arriving at Sandy Creek, Stearns and his small congregation built a meeting house. Elder Stearns immediately began his evangelical activities. People from neighboring farms began attending the frequent services held in the new meeting house. Elder Stearns' heartfelt and powerful delivery was a display of religious fervor many had never heard nor seen. They could not decide which was more remarkable, his delivery or the content of his sermons of God's sovreign grace. Both had a very positive effect. There was an outpouring of the Spirit of God and revival began. Word of the lively meetings at Sandy Creek soon reached other settlements. Stearns received invitations to visit in those areas. He gave preference to invitations from the most neglected areas, having a desire to preach to the poorest folk. He accepted no salary for his services, relying on the providence of God through the generosity of His Saints. In 1757 an arm of Sandy Creek Church was extended to Abbott's Creek.
The Spirit of revival heightened dramatically the next year. An arm was extended to Deep River. After his own ordination, Daniel Marshall pushed the revival northward into Virginia, taking with him James Reed, William and Joseph Murphy, and Dutton Lane all newly ordained young preachers. He also traveled south, to Georgia, establishing churches there.
Within three years after their arrival, Stearns and Marshall witnessed a tremendous increase among the Baptists. Beginning with only sixteen members at Sandy Creek, there were now three churches with a combined membership of nine-hundred. More preachers were ordained. John Newton, Joseph Breed, Ezekiel Hunter, Charles Markland, Nathaniel Powell and James Turner were all preaching the gospel. The revival which began at Sandy Creek spread in every direction. In 1758 the Sandy Creek Association was organized.
The first session of Sandy Creek Association met in June 1758. According to Lumpkin "the meeting did not bother with organizational procedures and transaction of business. It did not even go so far as to elect a moderator, although everyone looked to Elder Stearns as the man in charge. The order of the day was preaching and exhorting, singing and recounting successes."
The meeting further energized the Baptists. Preachers were stirred to greater zeal. Many visitors, who attended the association out of curiosity, went away convicted by the message of man's depraved nature and God's free grace. New invitations came from every direction for preachers to be sent. Ingathering occurred in great numbers.
Elders Dutton Lane, baptized and ordained by Elder Stearns, found Virginia to be his field of labor. The first Separate Baptist church in Virginia was constituted in August 1760. Elder Lane served as pastor. According to Elder Robert Semple, in his history, Rise and Progress of the Baptist of Virginia, "The church prospered under the ministry of Mr. Lane, aided by the occasional visits of Mr. Marshall and Mr. Stearns."
Initially the Virginia churches were members of the Sandy Creek Association. However, because of the difficulty of travel and since the Sandy Creek Association had grown quite large, with churches in South Carolina and Virginia, at the 1770 session it was unanimously agreed to divide into three associations.
In 1771 the first session of the Virginia Separate Baptist Association was held. The new association contained fourteen churches. Very quickly, the association grew to more than fifty churches. It eventually divided into districts which later became independent associations. Associations which originated from the Virginia include Dover, Goshen, Culpepper, Albemarie, Middle District, Appomattox, Roanoak, Meherrin, Strawberry, New River, Halston, Mountain and Accomac.
The Separates organized churches in Tennessee. In 1771 a small group from Sandy Creek Church moved west, settling on Boone's Creek in Washington County. However, the churches were soon broken up by the Indian War of 1774. Though no church records are still in existence, correspondence from sister churches in North Carolina identifies the name of one of these pioneer churches as Buffalo Ridge. About 1780 many of the scattered memberships of these early churches reorganized in East Tennessee. In 1776 Elder Tidence Lane arrived in Watauga at Boone's Creek. He settled at nearby St Clair Bottom in 1777, where he established a group from Sandy Creek as a constituted church.
Elder Daniel Marshall traveled to Georgia where he established the first Baptist church in that Colony. In 1772 he constituted a church at Kiokee.
Kentucky also experienced Baptist expansion and ingathering from the Separate Baptists. In 1779 Squire Boone, brother of Daniel Boone, moved with his family from North Carolina down the Kentucky and Ohio Rivers to Louisville. Ordained as a Separate Baptist minister in 1776, Boone started a church there.
The first Baptist church in Mississippi, at Cole's Creek, was constituted by members from Little River Church. In turn, Little River had been organized by members from Sandy Creek and Deep River Church. Her first pastor, Elder Joseph Murphy, was baptized and ordained by Elder Stearns. The first pastor of Cole's Creek was Elder Richard Curtis Jr.. He returned to Little River in 1791 to be ordained. He immediately returned to Mississippi and constituted Cole's Creek Church.
On November 20, 1771 Elder Shubal Stearns died at the age of sixty-five. During his sixteen year ministry in North Carolina and there about, he ordained one hundred twenty-five Elders and helped constitute forty-two churches, plus many branches. Using this able servant, and the small group of Baptists he gathered at Sandy Creek, the Lord effected the most dramatic revival and ingathering ever experienced on American soil.
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As Elder Ivey stated above, Elder Shubal Stearns and fifteen others migrated from Tolland, Connecticut to Sandy Creek in North Carolina in 1755. As soon as they arrived, Elder Stearns began to preach the doctrines of Salvation by Grace among the North Carolina frontiersmen. In 1810, the Baptist historian, Robert B. Semple wrote[2]:
"The Separates in N. England had acquired a very warm and pathetic address, accompanied by strong gestures and a singular tone of voice. Being often deeply affected themselves while preaching, correspondent affections were felt by their pious hearers, which were frequently expressed by tears, trembling, screams, shouts and acclamations. All these they brought with them into their new habitation. The people were greatly astonished having never seen things in this wise before. Many mocked, but the power of God attending them, many also trembled. In process of time some of the natives became converts, and bowed obedience to the Redeemer's sceptre. These, uniting their labours with the chosen band, a powerful and extensive work broke out. — From 16, Sandy Creek Church soon swelled to 606 members ; so mightily grew the work of God!"
This description of the Separates preaching sounds very much like the delivery of many Primitive Baptists in the recent past, including Elder Worth Stephenson, who served churches in the Little River of North Carolina Association in the Raleigh, NC area in mid to late 1900. Elder Stephenson and his father before him, Elder Shepherd Stephenson, preached in this manner. Brother Worth attended the annual communion meetings at Herrin's Grove Primitive Baptist Church as the visiting minister in the 1970's. During these messages, the older sisters that sat at the front of the church would begin to weep and cry out or "shout". Elder Stephenson, like the Apostle Paul, preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified with all his heart. Here is a link to an excerpt from a sermon that he preached at the Original Bear Creek Association in 1985. (You may need to turn up the volume to hear it). Many today may mock at preaching like this, even as they did in Elder Stearns day, but it had a great affect on those dear old Sisters at Herrin's Grove Church, and on those early North Carolina settlers.
The Lord gives gifts to His church, and one man's gift may differ from another in style of delivery, but the message delivered to the church is always the same; God the Father chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world; God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, took upon him a body of flesh like unto his brethren (but without sin) in order that he might shed his blood and die on the cross as an offering unto God, to redeem all the elect from their sins; Christ rose from the dead; God the Holy Spirit quickens or gives spiritual life to every one of the elect sometime between conception and death without the assistance of man; and Christ is coming back to raise the dead and take his elect home to live with him in heaven forever. Elder Shubal Stearns preached this, Elder Worth Stephenson preached this, and faithful Primitive Baptist ministers today still preach this "glorious gospel of the blessed God, that is committed to their trust".
[1] A Welsh Succession of Primitive Baptist Faith and Practice by Elder Michael Ivey
[2] A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia by Robert B. Semple, p. 4.