Congregationalism was for ages the "standing order," or the established
religion, in Connecticut! All the people were taxed for its support;
and no man could have any share in the administration of the civil
government, or give his vote in any election, unless he was a member of
one of the churches. It was not till forty years after the separation
of Church and State in Virginia, where the establishment was Episcopal,
that the example was followed in Connecticut. Happily, however, in 1816
all parties that differed from it--Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists,
Universalists, &c., combined together, gained a majority in the
legislature, and severed the connection between Congregationalism and
the State! There are old men now living who then anxiously and piously
"trembled for the Ark of the Lord." They have, however, lived to see
that the dissolution of the union between Church and State in
Connecticut, as in Virginia, was to the favoured sect as "life from the
dead." The Congregationalist of the one, and the Episcopalian of the
other, would alike deprecate being placed in the same position again.
But this is a digression.
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