Sketches of Church Life in Colonial Connecticut; Being the Story of the Transplanting of the Church of England Into Forty Two Parishes of Connecticut, ... the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel baixar o livro de graça

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902. Excerpt: ... Parochial Histories of Colonial Connecticut Christ Church, Stratford 1690 (1707). ABOUT the year 1690, there were in the town of Stratford "a considerable number of professors of the faith of the Church of England and desirous to worship God in the Liturgy of their forefathers." But there was no clergyman in the State, so no one was found to minister to their spiritual needs. In 1702 an application was made to the Bishop of London for a missionary, but without success. Not meeting with any response, in September, 1705, a request was sent to the Rev. William Vesey of Trinity Church, New York, that he would visit them "to preach and administer the rite of baptism." The distance was so great that he did not personally comply, but the request bore fruit; for one year later, on the second of September, 1706, there came riding into the town two men, whose coming aroused the greatest hostility among the Congregational element. The one was the Rev. George Muirson of Rye, N. Y., a man, we read, having a very happy way of preaching, and considering his years (but 31), wonderfully good in argument, and his conversation without blemish, held by the people in great esteem for his piety and virtue. The other, the Hon. Colonel Caleb Heathcote, a leading man in the Province of New York, a member of the first vestry of Old Trinity, ever active in promoting the interests of the Church at large. Though threatened with prison and hard usage, Mr. Muirson preached to a considerable assembly, and baptized about 35 persons, principally adults. This visit was followed by two or three others in the space of a few months. We read with amazement of the open hostility of those who, while advocates of religious freedom, were unwilling to extend it to those who walked not with them; of...