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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

ISAAC BACKUS

A PAPER

SUBMITTED TO DR. BRUCE SNAVELY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE

AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY

CHHI 692

BY

BRIAN DOUGLAS AUNKST

MORRISON, COLORADO

MAY 10, 2013



ii

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

BACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

ISAAC BACKUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Early Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The New Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Itinerant Preacher and Pastor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Baptism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Theologian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Religious Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Warren Baptist Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Revolutionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Massachusetts Delegate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Historian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22



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INTRODUCTION

No issue in contemporary America is as emotionally intense and politically controversial

as the separation of Church and State. Conservatives argue that America was founded as a

Christian nation and that Christianity should be its exclusive religion, freely practiced publically

and privately. Liberals argue that religion is a personal and private matter and that Christian

doctrine and morality cannot and should not be legislated and do not belong anywhere in the

public sector. Anger, confusion, and ignorance dominate both sides of the debate.

The celebrated authors of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Thomas

Jefferson and James Madison, are hailed as the founders of America’s first freedoms. However,

before them, the fervent belief in religious liberty of a colonial New England preacher named

Isaac Backus and his relentless struggle to see it become a reality secured the freedom of religion

and the Church-State separation that are so firmly entrenched in modern America. As this paper

will demonstrate, Backus was much more than a well-traveled itinerant preacher, a prolific writer

and theologian, and a copious historian of the colonial Baptists; he was also a determined

political activist—the man most responsible for freedom of religion in America.

BACKGROUND

In 1620, a small group of Anglican Separatists who had been enjoying relative religious

toleration in Holland left the economic difficulties in Europe and settled in America, establishing

the first English colony in New England: Plymouth Colony.1 A decade later, another group of

Anglican dissenters established the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony, situated near present-day

1 John Corrigan and Winthrop S. Hudson, Religion in America, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson,

2004), 53.



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Boston.2 Unlike the Separatist Pilgrims of Plymouth who believed the Church of England was

beyond repair, these Puritans sought to restore or ‘purify’ the Church.3 They too had fled the

persecution dissenters suffered in England, and under the leadership of John Winthrop, their

purpose was to establish a wholly Puritan state in the New World: “a city upon a hill” and a

model community for others to follow.4 Greatly outnumbering their Separatist neighbors to the

south, by 1691 when the colonies were merged, Massachusetts and much of New England was

under the domination of the theocratic Puritans.5

Governed by the Cambridge Platform, a statement of polity largely composed by Mather

patriarch, Richard, the Puritans were congregational, and that method of administration came to

be applied to the civil government as well as to the church; in fact, the two were practically

inseparable.6 One could not be a free, voting member of society unless one became a confirmed

member of the church. This “Puritan Way” became the standard throughout much of New

England.7 Outsiders and religious dissenters were not tolerated, much less welcomed; in most

instances they were persecuted by the church and prosecuted by the civil authority.8 “Baptists

were banished from the colony by statute in 1644, and four Quakers, who insisted on returning

after being expelled, were hanged.”9 This 1644 act decreed banishment for all persons who

2 Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,

1992), 40.

3 Edwin S. Gaustad, “Quest for Pure Christianity,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 41: The American

Puritans, 1994, under “Purifying the Church.” Logos ebook.

4 Ibid., under “City Upon a Hill.” Logos ebook.

5

Corrigan and Hudson, Religion in America, 59-60.6 George W. Harper, “New England Dynasty,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 41: The American

Puritans, 1994, under “Richard: Titan in Exile.” Logos ebook.

7 Noll, A History of Christianity, 41.

8 Ibid., 55-58.

9 Michael W. McConnell, “The Origins and Historical Understanding of Free Exercise of Religion,”

Harvard Law Review 103 no. 7 (May 1990), 1423. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1341281 (accessed January 31,

2013).



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“openly or secretly seduced others from baptizing infants.”10

Expelled from Massachusetts,

Roger Williams and fellow dissenters Anne Hutchinson and John Clarke eventually formed the

Rhode Island colony on the basis of religious freedom.11

For the rest of New England, the

Church and the State remained inextricably intertwined into the nineteenth century.12

Several events occurred that began eating away at the roots of this seemingly monolithic

society. First, the 1689 Act of Toleration brought some measure of religious liberty to the

England and her colonies, allowing Baptists and other dissenters to worship without fear.13

Second was the Enlightenment, which shifted man’s view of the world from God toward

himself; faith in human reasoning supplanted faith in God.

14

Finally, a spiritual revival

movement in the early to mid-eighteenth century known as the Great Awakening not only

brought renewed religious fervor, but also a sense cooperation and toleration among the various

American denominations.15

ISAAC BACKUS

Into this religious turbulence of late colonial New England came one who would do more

for the cause of religious liberty and the Separation of Church and State than perhaps any other.

The freedom to worship according to one’s own conscience and the disestablishment of Church-

State bonds became Isaac Backus’ calling—one that he would spend much of his adult life

10 Conrad Henry Moehlman, “The Baptist View of State,” Church History 6, no. 1 (March 1937): 38,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3160059 (accessed March 13, 2013).

11 Edwin S. Gaustad, “John Clarke: ‘good news from Rhode Island,’” Baptist History and Heritage 24, no.

4 (October 1989), 21.

12 McConnell, “The Origins and Historical Understanding of Free Exercise of Religion,” 1423.

13 H. Leon McBeth, A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers,

1990), 79. Logos ebook.

14 Nicholas P. Miller, The Religious Roots of the First Amendment (New York: Oxford University Press,

2012), 1. Kindle ebook.

15 H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1987), 253. Logos ebook.



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pursuing. Because of his fundamental belief in religious liberty, Backus, a Baptist clergyman,

historian, and delegate to the First Continental Congress, was instrumental in bringing freedom

of religion, not only to New England, but also to the entire United States of America.

Early Years

Backus was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 9, 1724.16

His family has been

variously described as “well-to-do,”17

“ordinary,”18

“elite,”19

and even “ruling elite.”20

His

great-grandfather, William Backus, Sr., a blacksmith by trade, had come to Saybrook,

Connecticut, in 1638.21

His grandfather, Joseph Backus, also a blacksmith, began an ironworks

along the Yantic River, which would eventually be run by Isaac’s brother, Elijah, and play a

significant role in the production of arms for the American Revolution.22

Joseph was a local

politician and representative to the Connecticut legislature. Joseph had opposed replacing the

Cambridge Platform with the more moderate Saybrook Platform in 1708.23

Joseph’s wife

outlived him by many years and is mentioned by Isaac in his journals. His mother’s father, John

Tracy, whose strong religious influence upon Isaac was through her, died when Isaac was two.24

16 William G. McLoughlin, Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism: Pamphlets, 1754-1789

(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1968), 2.

17 Ibid.

18 William G. McLoughlin, Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition (Boston: Little, Brown, &

Co., 1967), ix.

19 Daniel G. Reid, Robert Dean Linder, Bruce L. Shelley, and Harry S. Stout, Dictionary of Christianity in

America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990), s.v. “Backus, Isaac.” Logos ebook.

20 William G. McLoughlin, ed., The Diary of Isaac Backus, vol. 1 (Providence, RI: Brown University

Press, 1979), xv.

21 McLoughlin, American Pietistic Tradition, 3.

22 Ibid.

23 Alvah Hovey, Memoir of the Life and Times of Isaac Backus (Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1858), under

“Character of Backus’s Grandparents.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

24 Ibid.



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Samuel Backus, Isaac’s father, while a prosperous farmer and businessman, had very

little to do with Isaac’s religious upbringing, himself only becoming a communicant of the

church in 1736.25

Samuel’s untimely death in 1740 left his wife with ten children and one six-

week old infant. Isaac’s mother, Elizabeth, was greatly shaken and depressed by Samuel’s

death.26

Most of Isaac’s religious training and convictions came from his mother, as she had

experienced conversion in 1721, an incident she often shared with her children.27

Seventeen-forty also marked the year in which George Whitefield and the Great

Awakening swept through New England. Eager to capitalize on the renewed religious fervor,

Benjamin Lord, the Backus’ pastor, invited revivalist James Davenport to Norwich, where on

August 24, 1741 at the age of seventeen, Isaac Backus was convicted of his sin and born again.28

His mother too experienced “a second religious experience,” and soon Isaac and Elizabeth were

numbered among the “New Lights.”29

The New Lights

The Great Awakening brought with it renewed religious experience and enthusiasm,

much to the chagrin of many of the established clergy. These “socially and theologically

conservative opponents of George Whitefield and the mass revivals he inspired” denied that the

Great Awakening was the work of God.30

Leading these so-called “Old Lights” was Boston

clergyman Charles Chauncy who toured many New England churches speaking against revival

claiming that “religion, rather than pertaining to human emotions, primarily appeals to the

25 Ibid., under “Character of his Parents.” Adobe Digital Editions ebook.


27 McLoughlin, Church, State, and Calvinism, 2.

28 McLoughlin, American Pietistic Tradition, 11-12.


30 Reid, Linder, Shelley, and Stout, Dictionary of Christianity in America, s.v. “Old Lights.” Logos ebook.



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understanding and judgment.”31

Opposing Chauncy was Jonathan Edwards, who argued that the

revival was indeed from God, saying, “‘All acts of the affections of the soul are in some sense

acts of the will, and all acts of the will are acts of the affections.’ As such, true religious

experience involved a new ‘sense of the heart,’ transforming the individual from love of self to

love of God.”32

Further adding to the tension was the “Half-Way Covenant.”33

For some time, the New

England Puritans had been relaxing their requirement for limiting membership to only those who

made a profession of faith and had experienced conversion. As the second-generation New

Englanders turned away from the Standing (Congregational) Church and membership numbers

sank in the mid-1600s, the Puritan leadership desperately sought a way to preserve the church’s

influence on as many people as possible. In 1662, as their numbers of members continued to

dwindle, they had adopted this Half-Way Covenant offering essentially “half-way” membership

and baptism for “individuals of good behavior.”34

This practice brought New Lights like Backus into conflict with Old Lights like his

pastor, Benjamin Lord. The pietism of the New Lights contrasted sharply with many in the

church who had not experienced genuine conversion but were nonetheless admitted as half-way

members. The New Lights began to sense God’s calling to return to the former practice of

limiting church membership to only those who had experienced true conversion and to

excommunicate those who had not.35

The Old Lights strenuously opposed those efforts, so in

31 Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker

Academic, 2001), 831. Logos ebook.

32 Ibid., s.v., “New Lights.” Logos ebook.

33 E. Brooks Holifield, “On Toleration in Massachusetts,” Church History 38, no. 2 (June 1969): 199.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3162706 (accessed March 13, 2013).

34 Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 532. Logos ebook.




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1744 Backus and other New Lights, including his mother, left the Norwich parish church and

began to hold meetings by themselves, forming the Separate Church at Bean Hill.36

Itinerant Preacher and Pastor

Feeling an “inward call” to become a minister, Backus preached a ‘test’ sermon to his

brethren at Bean Hill, confirming that he had indeed been given “the gift” of preaching—a fact

that apparently surprised them both.37

Given his preaching license by the Separates, Backus

began to itinerate throughout southeastern New England through 1746-1747. In December 1747,

Backus visited the towns of Bridgewater and Middleborough in Massachusetts in the Titicut

parish—a visit that would change his life forever. Backus noted the people there “appeared to be

really hungering after gospel food.”38

In 1748, the New Lights of the Titicut parish asked

Backus to join the Standing Church and be their pastor; however, Backus instead chose to remain

a Separate, and on February 16, 1748 sixteen New Lights, including Backus, formed “The

Church of Christ in the Joining Borders of Bridgewater and Middleborough.”39

On April 13,

Backus was ordained their minister.40

By the close of 1748, the congregation had grown to

“upwards of sixty members.”41 However, as was characteristic of Separate ministers, Backus

continued to itinerate—a practice he continued to 1789.42

While Massachusetts had begun providing a measure of recognition and tax exemption

for to some dissenting churches (mostly Quakers and Baptists), New Light Separatists were not

36 Timothy Larsen, D. W. Bebbington, and Mark A. Noll, Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals

(Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 27. Logos ebook.


38 McLoughlin, Diary, vol. 1, 12.



41 Hovey, Memoir , under “Fruits of Backus’ Labors.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.




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among those exempt from paying taxes to support the official Congregational Church.43

Because his church was not recognized as legitimate, and because Backus was not recognized as

a minister, he and his followers (including his mother) were required to pay the tax just as if they

were still members of the Standing Church. Those who did not pay had their personal property

seized and sold at auction; some were jailed until their taxes were paid.44

To protest having to

support the Standing Church, Backus wrote to the Titicut parish proposing to pay the tax if they

would let the Separatists use their meeting house for worship and recognize Backus as their

minister. The parish rejected both proposals.45

While many of Backus’ followers yielded and

paid the tax, others did not and suffered the consequences.

46

Backus himself was “Seazed [sic]

by the officer and he threatened to Carry me to Prison…but just as he was a going to drag me

away there Came a man and Called him out and paid him the money. So that he was forced to

let me go.”47

For Backus, this incident began what would be a life long struggle against

religious taxation and for the separation of Church and State.48

Baptism

Taxation and the marriage of Church and State in New England were not the only issues

troubling Isaac Backus. First, since his conversion, Backus had been trying to work out his own

theology and his position in Christ. Second, the issue of infant baptism was tearing at Backus’

church and at the New Light Separates in general.49

In August 1749 two of Backus’ most

zealous parishioners, in an effort to rectify what they perceived to be an error in the established

43 McBeth, A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage, 170-71. Logos ebook.

44 McBeth, Baptist Heritage, 256. Logos ebook.

45 McLoughlin, Church, State, and Calvinism, 475-484.


47 McLoughlin, Diary, vol. 1, 52-53.


49 Larsen, Bebbington, and Noll, Biographical Dictionary, 27. Logos ebook.



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church practice, raised the matter at a church meeting. Lacking any formal seminary education,

these men simply observed the absence of any definitive direction regarding infant baptism in the

Bible. Their proposal was quite radical—drop the practice of infant baptism entirely.50

Steeped

in historic Puritan, anti-Baptist tradition, Backus initially opposed this view. However, he began

to sense a conflict between the New Light Separate position that only professing believers could

be members of the church and the historic Puritan tradition of baptizing infants, who obviously

could make no such profession. This inner struggle tormented Backus for six years.51

The

struggle within Backus’ church between those holding Baptist views and those maintaining

traditional views virtually destroyed it.

52

In an attempt to diffuse the tensions within his church, Backus turned to the Bible,

finding to his astonishment that the texts that supposedly supported infant baptism were not as

unequivocal as he had supposed. Rather he found neither any decisive evidence to sustain the

practice nor any clear command to establish it. Worse, he could not find a single instance of

infant baptism in the biblical record.53

He concluded, “The Baptist way is certainly right,

because nature fights so against it.”54 Backus’ inner turmoil is expressed in his diary: “I

preached upon [baptism] in the after-noon—that none had any right to baptism but Believers,

and that plunging, Seemed to be the only right mode. But before I had done I felt my mind

entangled…, and my mind was turned back to infant baptism.”55

Afterward, Backus left on a

preaching tour for almost a month; still, his message must have proved influential to his

50

McLoughlin, Church, State, and Calvinism, 7-8.51 Ibid., 8.

52 Hovey, Memoir , under “Difference About Infant Baptism.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.


54 Isaac Backus, A History of New England: With Particular Reference to the Denomination of Christians

Called Baptists (Providence, RI: Providence Press, 1777), 2:119. Adobe Digital Edition ebook.




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congregation, for when he returned, he found that nine of them had been baptized during his

absence.56

Nevertheless, Backus remained unconvinced, and his soul remained tortured, describing

this strife within him as “a constant load” and “considerable strugglings.” Finally, after much

“agonizing prayer” and “intense study,” throughout the summer of 1751, Backus “slowly

emerge[d] from darkness into light, from painful suspense into assured belief.”57

On August 22,

while attending the baptism of six of his congregants, Backus became convicted that infant

baptism was without merit; he gave his testimony, went down into the water, and was baptized.58

Borrowing much of his argument against pedobaptism from English Particular Baptist theologian

and pastor John Gill, Backus defended his decision in a tract entitled A Short Description of the

Difference Between the Bond-Woman and the Free, in which he rejected the covenant theology

of the Puritans.59

Unfortunately, rather than easing the situation for Backus, he was now faced with trying

to keep his church together. Having rejected infant baptism in his church, Backus was

confronted with refusing the Lord’s Supper to those who had not been baptized as believers; he

even experimented with open communion, which in turn led to bitter debates among his

congregants.60

Unable to effectively achieve a compromise on these issues and with the

religious tax exemption still beyond reach, his Separate church in Titicut parish ceased to exist,

56 Hovey, Memoir , under “Retraction of Baptist Views.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

57 Ibid.



60 Larsen, Bebbington, and Noll, Biographical Dictionary, 27-28. Logos ebook.



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and on January 16, 1756, Backus and his like-minded followers formed the new First Baptist

Church in Middleborough,61

where Backus served as pastor for the rest of his life.62

Backus soon became a leader among the New England Baptists, as the denomination

grew from fewer than six churches outside of Rhode Island in 1730 to nearly 300 in 1790.63

However, his ‘Separate’ Baptist church stood in direct opposition to the more established “Old

Baptists” who had not participated in the Great Awakening and did not fellowship with the

Separate Baptists.64

The Old Baptists held an Arminian doctrine, while the Backus’ Separates

tended to be strictly Calvinistic; a theology which was best crystalized by Jonathan Edwards and

became known as New England theology.

65

Nonetheless, the 1756 tax exemption laws forced

the two groups together along with all other “members of the Anabaptist church.”66

Under

Backus’ leadership this union eventually resulted in Calvinism becoming the predominant

theology for the Baptists, not only in New England, but in America.67

Theologian

Baptist pastor and theologian Stanley J. Grenz observed that Backus’ theology consisted

of three components. First was his Calvinistic emphasis on the absolute sovereignty of God as

had been articulated by Jonathan Edwards.68

Backus believed in “one supreme BEING whose


62 Larsen, Bebbington, and Noll, Biographical Dictionary, 27-28. Logos ebook.

63 T. B. Maston, Isaac Backus: Pioneer of Religious Liberty (Rochester, NY: American Baptist Society,

1962), 24-25.64 Hovey, Memoir , under “New and Old Baptists.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

65 Maston, Isaac Backus, 24-28.

66 Hovey, Memoir , under “Assistance in Preaching.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

67 Maston, Isaac Backus, 34.

68 Stanley J. Grenz, “Church and State: The Legacy of Isaac Backus,” Center Journal. 2, no. 2 (Spring

1983): 75.



12

kingdom ruleth over all.”69

The second area that influenced Backus’ theology was anthropology.

Influenced by John Locke and the Enlightenment, Backus believed that man’s intellect was his

controlling faculty.70

“The will of man is always determined in its choice by motive or by what

they at present prefer or think the best.”71

Ecclesiology is the third doctrine that formed Backus’

thinking. Differing from his Congregationalist neighbors, Backus believed that the local church

was united by a completely voluntary covenant.72

Quoting Locke, Backus wrote:

Mr. Locke says, “A church is a free and voluntary society. Nobody is born a member ofany church, otherwise the religion of the parents would descend into the children by the

same right of inheritance as their temporal estates, and everyone would hold his faith by

the same tenure he does his lands, than which nothing can be more absurd.”73

From this threefold foundation, Backus’ belief in the separation of Church and State emerged.

This solidification of Backus’ theological and ecclesiastical position is evidenced by a series of

apologetical tracts published from 1754 to 1768. Among these, The Nature and Necessity of an

Internal Call to Preach the Everlasting Gospel (1754) and A Fish Caught in His Own Net (1768)

are the most important.74

Religious Liberty

A Fish Caught in His Own Net was largely a reply to accusations against Backus and the

Separate Baptists by his former pastor Benjamin Lord and Reverend Joseph Fish, a Standing

minister from Stonington, Connecticut.75

Lord and Fish accused the Baptists of inciting “a


70

Grenz, “Church and State,” 76.71 McLoughlin, Church, State, and Calvinism, 297.

72 Grenz, “Church and State,” 78-9.



75 William G. McLoughlin, “Isaac Backus and the Separation of Church and State,” The American

Historical Review 73, no. 5 (June 1968): 1405.



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rebellion against the STATE.”76

Backus recorded his reflections about Lord, “Mr. Lord, the

minister where I was born, has treated us, and the truths which we hold about the ministry, the

church, and baptism, in so abusive a manner...that I have thought it to be real duty to write some

things to him thereupon; and finished the same to-day.”77

Backus’ reply was a vigorous defense

of the Separatists and the Separate Baptists.78

With the publication of A Fish Caught in His Own

Net , Backus rebutted a series of sermons published by Fish and firmly declared his own position

on Church-State separation, noting that man-made attempts to oversee church matters were

contrary to divine law since Christ’s kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36).79

Backus

argued, “No man can rationally be willing to be deprived of the liberty of hearing and judging for

himself in important matters nor to be condemned by others without a fair hearing.”80

This

polemic would guide Backus’ efforts and much of his writing until his death in 1806.

In 1773, Backus published his major treatise, An Appeal to the Public for Religious

Liberty against the Oppressions of the Present Day, which presented his strongest and most

persuasive argument for Church-State separation.81

Relying heavily on John Locke and Roger

Williams,82 Backus maintained, “All acts of executive power in the civil state are to be

performed in the name of the king or state they belong to, while all our religious acts are to be

76 Ibid., 35.


78 Ibid.

79 McLoughlin, “Isaac Backus and the Separation of Church and State,” 1405.


81 McBeth, A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage, 173. Logos ebook.

82 McLoughlin, “Isaac Backus and the Separation of Church and State,” 1405-6.



14

done in the name of the Lord Jesus and so are to be performed heartily as to the Lord and not

unto men.”83

He continued:

And it appears to us that the true difference and exact limits between ecclesiastical and

civil government is this, that the church is armed with light and truth to pull down thestrongholds of iniquity and to gain souls to Christ and into his Church to be governed by

his rules therein, and again to exclude such from their communion, who will not be so

governed, while the state is armed with the sword to guard the peace and the civil rights

of all persons and societies and to punish those who violate the same.84

For the first time, New England Separate Baptists had a voice that expressed their resistance to

“ecclesiastical tyranny” of the Standing Order and that justified their policy of civil

disobedience.85

Warren Baptist Association

In 1763 the Philadelphia Association, the first Baptist association in America,

commissioned a group under the leadership of James Manning and Morgan Edwards to establish

a Baptist college in Rhode Island. Rhode Island was chosen because of its religious toleration

and its large Baptist population.86

Manning became the college’s first president, and in 1765,

Isaac Backus was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Rhode Island College (later Brown

University), a position that he held for the next 34 years.87

Manning also pastored a church in Warren, Rhode Island, which soon became a meeting

center for New England Baptist ministers. On September 8, 1767, the Warren Baptist

Association (also the Warren Association) was formed with Isaac Backus as the association’s

clerk. Eleven churches were represented at the meeting, but only four were willing to unite in

83 Isaac Backus, An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty Against the Oppression of the Present Day,

1773, in Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730-1805, 2 vols. 2nd ed. Sandoz, Ellis. Indianapolis:

Liberty Fund, 1998. http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/816/69205 (accessed January 24, 2013).

84 Ibid.

85 McLoughlin, “Isaac Backus and the Separation of Church and State,” 1406.


87 Hovey, Memoir , under “Founding of R.I. College.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.



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association, the rest expressing reservations about the association’s authority over the individual

churches.88

Backus’ own First Baptist Church of Middleborough waited to join the association

until 1770, wanting to ensure “this association did not assume any jurisdiction over the

churches.”89

By 1772, twenty-one churches were affiliated with the association.90

Two years after its formation, the Warren Association established a Grievance

Committee whose task was to receive cases of alleged persecution of Baptists and to “draft

petitions for redress to be presented to the general courts of Massachusetts and Connecticut.”91

Isaac Backus was appointed a member of the Grievance Committee, and by 1772 he headed the

committee and became the principal spokesman for the cause of religious liberty in New

England.92

The grievance process was time consuming and ineffective; however, under Backus’

leadership that process was redefined. First Backus appealed beyond the local authorities to

London by placing a notice in the Boston Evening Post . Second, in 1773 the Baptist churches

simply stopped paying church taxes and stopped applying for tax exemption certificates. By

their policy of civil disobedience, the Baptists chose to ignore human laws in favor of God’s

higher law.93 In a subsequent letter to the association’s churches, Backus protested, “Liberty of

conscience, the greatest and most important article [of] all liberty is evidently not allowed as it

ought to be in this [cou]ntry,” and he suggested that the origin of these problems rested in “civil

rulers assuming a [power] to make any laws to govern ecclesiastical affairs.”94

88 Ibid., under “Formation of Warren Association.”



91 Hovey, Memoir , under “Petitions for Redress.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.


93 McBeth, Baptist Heritage, 263-4. Logos ebook.




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Backus’ new policies were far more effective in winning tax concessions for the New

England Baptists. His timing could not have been better, as the notion of “taxation without

representation” was quickly becoming a rallying cry throughout colonial America, and Backus

was hasty to compare the English taxation of the colonies with the taxation of Baptists95

by “the

very men who are now making loud [com]plaints of encroachments upon their own liberties.”96

Years later Backus reflected, “The worst treatment we [Baptists] here met with came from the

same principles, and much of it from the same persons, as the American war did.”97

Revolutionary

In September 1774, the Warren Association sent a delegation to the First Continental

Congress in Philadelphia. Isaac Backus was the association’s chosen agent tasked with writing a

defense of religious liberty that the delegation presented to Congressional sub-committee

composed of Massachusetts delegates including John and Samuel Adams.98

James Manning

opened the meeting with a brief memorial noting the Baptist oppression and concluding, “As a

distinct denomination of Protestants, we conceive that we have an equal claim to charter-rights

with the rest of our fellow-subjects; and yet have long been denied the free and full enjoyment of

those rights.”99

Backus noted that both John and Samuel Adams agreed that Massachusetts did

indeed have “an ecclesiastical establishment” but denied that there was any cause for the

Baptists’ complaints despite the evidence presented.100

Samuel Jones, one of Backus’ fellow

lobbyists later noted, “One of them [John Adams] told us that if we meant to effect a change in



97 Backus, A History of New England , 2:197. Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

98 Hovey, Memoir , under “Conference with Adams and Others.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

99 Backus, A History of New England , 2:200. Adobe Digital Edition ebook.




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their measures, respecting religion, we might as well attempt to change the course of the sun in

the heavens.”101

Upon returning home in November, Backus discovered that the members of the Warren

Association had been suspected of treasonous motives in their mission. While planning their

rebuttal, shots were fired at Lexington and Concord.102

Backus observed, “Those called minute-

men gathered and marched off next morning.”103

Preaching from 1 Chronicles 12:32 in his

sermon the following Sunday, Backus asserted, “The doctrine of passive obedience and non-

resistance to kings” had brought the nation “upon the brink of popery and slavery.” He accused

King George of being a usurper, noting that God required people to submit to ministers “for

good” and that a foundation “of the English government [was] that the peoples (sic) property

shall not be taken from them without their consent.” He urged opposition to “the British

parliament hav[ing] the right to bind America in all cases whatsoever” and accused “George the

third [of] violat[ing] his coronation oath.” Backus reflected, “On the whole I declared, I fully

believed our cause was just, and do so still.”104

Massachusetts Delegate

In September 1775, on behalf of the Warren Association, Backus presented a memorial to

the Massachusetts General Assembly regarding the taxation of religious dissenters. In it Backus

argued:

Is not all America now appealing to Heaven against the injustice of being taxed where we

are not represented, and against being judged by men who are interested in getting away

our money? And will heaven approve your doing the same thing to your fellow servants?

101 Samuel Jones, A Century Sermon, 1807, Baptist History Homepage.

http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/phila.century.sermon.1.html (accessed March 2, 2013).



104 Ibid., 938-9.



18

No, surely.…Yet, as we are persuaded that an entire freedom from being taxed by civil

rulers to religious worship is not mere favor from any men in the world but a right and

property granted us by God, who commands us to stand fast in it, we have not only thesame reason to refuse an acknowledgement of such a taxing power here, as America has

the above said power, but also, according to our present light, we should wrong our

consciences in allowing that power to men, which we believe belongs only to God.

105

According to one delegate, the matter was tabled, and when it was taken up again a week later, it

was referred to committee. The memorial was considered there four times but never acted

upon.106

Undaunted by this apparent failure, the Warren Association again tasked Isaac Backus

with writing “a letter to all the Baptist societies on this continent stating the true nature and

importance of religious liberty.”107 Backus drafted an “Address to Baptists in America” asking

them to be “as earnest for the removal of oppression from among ourselves, as we are to repel its

encroachments from abroad,” asserting that the “power of levying money for religious ministers

[is] as dangerous to liberty…as ever the British parliament [was] in taxing America.”108

The

letter called for a general meeting of the Baptists “to consult upon the best means and methods

for obtaining and establishing full and equal religious liberty throughout this continent, and to

promote the general welfare of all; so that truth and peace may prevail, and glory dwell in our

land.”109

Most of the replies received were virtually unanimous in expressing that the moment

for such a meeting was not favorably disposed, and the Warren Association abandoned the

proposal.110

105 Backus, A History of New England , 2:203-4. Adobe Digital Edition ebook.


107 Ibid., 946.

108 Hovey, Memoir , under “A General Meeting Proposed.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

109 Ibid.




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The proposed Massachusetts State Constitution contained a provision in Article III that

gave the government some jurisdiction over religion, essentially maintaining the status quo. In

response, in 1779, Backus wrote “A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the State of

Massachusetts-Bay in New England,” which he proposed as a Bill of Rights to the Massachusetts

State Constitution. In it Backus stated, “Nothing can be true religion but a voluntary obedience

unto His revealed will, of which each rational soul has an equal right to judge for himself, every

person has an unalienable right to act in all religious affairs according to the full persuasion of

his own mind.”111

As a compromise, the provision of the final third article declared that “no

subordination of one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law.”

112

It was

not until the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789 and the subsequent ratification of

the Bill of Rights in 1791 that the Baptists gained a stronger legal foothold for true religious

freedom. Moreover, Backus, a delegate to the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, James

Manning, Morgan Edwards, and their followers are credited with leading the ratification efforts

in Massachusetts and the rest of New England.113

Historian

While lacking the formal education of many of his colleagues, Backus was a prolific

writer, producing thirty-eight tracts on various topics.114

In 1777, Backus published the first

volume of his A History of New England: with Particular Reference to the Denomination of

Christians Called Baptists, which is one of the first historical records of Baptists in the United

States. The second volume was published in 1784, and the third in 1796. A fourth volume


112 Hovey, Memoir , under “Liberty Secured at Last.” Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

113 McBeth, The Baptist Heritage, 266. Logos ebook.




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published in 1804 is an abridgement of the first three and continues on from 1796 until 1804.115

His History is credited with introducing the almost forgotten figure of Roger Williams and with

casting Williams in a leading role in the fight for religious liberty and in establishing the Baptist

Church in America.116

White is quick to point out that Backus was not some “armchair historian

who viewed the past with detached interest and without deep involvement,” and his work was

done with a purpose and therefore is as much propaganda as history.117

As White continues,

“Backus…did not merely tell the story of the persecutions endured by the Baptists in New

England…; his History was deliberately intended as one more weapon in the struggle to reform

attitudes and break the power which made the infliction of persecution possible.”

118

That said,

however, Backus’ History does provide “an invaluable asset for understanding the man and his

times.”119

CONCLUSION

Backus died on November 20, 1806 after a series of stokes, having been preceded in

death by Susanna, his wife of more than fifty years.120

It has been estimated that Backus made

over 900 journeys covering over 67,000 miles and preached over 9,800 sermons.121

Thanks to

his meticulously kept diary and other writings, Backus is one of the most attested persons of his

time. Backus’ strong Baptist beliefs made him instrumental in the passage of the First

Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing religious freedom. Although he did

115 Barrington R. White, “Isaac Backus and Baptist History,” Baptist History and Heritage 5, no. 1 (January

1970): 13.


117 White, “Isaac Backus and Baptist History,” 18.

118 Ibid., 15.






21

not live to see it come to fruition, in 1833 Massachusetts became the last state church in

Massachusetts was disestablished.122

122 Mark A. Noll, The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity (Grand

Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2002), 78.



22

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Backus, Isaac. An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty Against the Oppression of the

Present Day, 1773. In Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730-1805, 2

vols. 2nd ed. Sandoz, Ellis. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998.

http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/816/69205 (accessed January 24, 2013).

________. A History of New England: With Particular Reference to the Denomination of

Christians Called Baptists. 4 vols. Providence, RI: Providence Press, 1777, 1784, 1796,1804. Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

Corrigan, John, and Winthrop S. Hudson. Religion in America. 7th

ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson, 2004.

Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology: Second Edition. Grand Rapids, MI:

Baker Academic, 2001. Logos ebook.

Gaustad, Edwin S. “John Clarke: ‘good news from Rhode Island.’” Baptist History and Heritage 24, no. 4 (October 1989): 20-28.

________. “Quest for Pure Christianity.” Christian History Magazine-Issue 41: The American

Puritans, 1994. Logos ebook.

Grenz, Stanley J. “Church and State: The Legacy of Isaac Backus.” Center Journal. 2, no. 2(Spring 1983): 73-94.

Harper, George W. “New England Dynasty.” Christian History Magazine-Issue 41: The

American Puritans, 1994. Logos ebook.

Holifield, E. Brooks. “On Toleration in Massachusetts.” Church History 38, no. 2 (June 1969):

188-200. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3162706 (accessed March 13, 2013).

Hovey, Alvah. Memoir of the Life and Times of Isaac Backus. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1858.

Adobe Digital Edition ebook.

Jones, Samuel. A Century Sermon, 1807. Baptist History Homepage.

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Larsen, Timothy, D. W. Bebbington, and Mark A. Noll. Biographical Dictionary of

Evangelicals. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Logosebook.

Maston, T. B. Isaac Backus: Pioneer of Religious Liberty. Rochester, NY: American Baptist

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McBeth, H. Leon. A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1990.

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__________. The Baptist Heritage. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1987. Logos ebook.

McConnell, Michael W. “The Origins and Historical Understanding of Free Exercise of

Religion.” Harvard Law Review 103 no. 7 (May 1990): 1409-1517.

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McLoughlin, William G., ed. The Diary of Isaac Backus. 3 vols. Providence, RI: Brown

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Miller, Nicholas P. The Religious Roots of the First Amendment. New York: Oxford University

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________. The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity.

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