Chelsea - Phillips Payson

Phillips Payson was a pastor who prepped and led his American Puritan/Congregationalist group from Chelsea to fight at Concord Bridge. There was no official building for his group until well after the war. He was the minister from 1757-1801. This location was the first church built in Chelsea in 1849.

Payson spoke an Election Sermon in support of the American Revolution and its goals of religious and civil liberty. He advocated a break from political tradition by emphasizing the new start of society in New England with statements (based on Galatians 4:26, 31) such as, "Recollecting our pious ancestors, the first settlers of the country, – nor shall we look for ancestry beyond that period, – and we may say in the most literal sense, we are children not of the bond woman, but of the free."

Rev. Dr. Payson and his congregants thereafter freely elected to support and protect their liberties and formed an armed party to protect their parish. During the Battles of Lexington and Concord, their militia engaged British troops at Menotomy:

"The Rev. Mr. Payson, of Chelsea, in Massachusetts Bay, a mild, thoughtful, sensible man, at the head of a party of his own parish, attacked a party of the regulars, killed some and took the rest prisoners. This gentleman has been hitherto on the side of government, but oppression having got to that pitch beyond which even a wise man cannot bear, he has taken up arms in defence of those rights, civil and religious, which cost their forefathers so dearly. The cruelty of the King’s troops, in some instances, I wish to disbelieve. They entered one house in Lexington where were two old men, one a deacon of the church, who was bed-ridden, and another not able to walk, who was sitting in his chair; both these they stabbed and killed on the spot, as well as an innocent child running out of the house.”– Pennsylvania Journal, August 2.

He was also a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

What fruitage did these spiritual leaders produce? Mt 7:15-20. Consider John 17:16 vs Acts 20:29, 30. What would Jesus have said seeing this?

-Source Links-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Payson_Jr.

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel05.html#obj126

https://www.firstcongchelsea.org/about-historial-sketch/

https://archive.org/details/documentaryhisto02cham_0/page/312/mode/2up (SCREENSHOT)