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The to t The pos oft filnn m n Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagee Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurde et/ou pellicul6e Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque D D D 7\ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes Pages re&'tored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurdes et/ou pelliculdes Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d^colordes, tachetdes ou piqudes Orij beg the sioi oth firs sioi or i I I Coloured maps/ D D D D Cartes g6ographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blur^ or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bl■';■' '•, THE CASE OF THE BAPTISTS. i We are somelimes told that the Baptists are a modern so.ct, never heard of till the sixteenth century, and that all th'?ir assertions about antiquity are unfounded ; and some observations on a book of mine have been recently written by " A Clergyman," who, whatever may be his attainments ill other resp< cts, is grievously defective in Christian courtesy, not to say gentlemanly bearing, and to whom, therefore, I shall make no further reference. But the question is — Who akb the Baptists ? If the inquiry relate to the name, the answer is, that it first began to be used when the principles and practices which it indicates were associated with a distinct and separate religious body, instead of being characteristic of Christendom, as at the first. So of other names. There were no Protes- tants till the sixteenth century, when the celebrated Protest of certain German states and princes at the Diet of Spires (A.. D. 1529) originated Protestantism ; whereas the truths comprised under that appellation have been held by Christians from the beginning, and in that sense Protestantism is as old as Christianity itself. Again : — Presbyterianism is traced to the same sixteenth century ; but Presbyterians will tell us that their mode of church government was the original mode, and that the Church of Christ was Presbyterian from the first. It strikes me that they are almost right on that point — with some exceptions, however, not necessary to be now enumerated. Take the church at Jerusalem, the church at Rome, and other churches, whose beginnings are recorded in the New Testament. What were they ? They were societies of men and women, who professed " repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," and who, when they made that profession, were baptized " into [Dean Alford'a translation] the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," that is, " buried with Christ " in baptism, as all Christians were at that time. Those churches consisted of baptized believers, as Baptist churches do now. Christian history, in the first century, was strictly and properly Baptist history, ulthough the word *' Baptist," as a distinctive mT^^^^m %. nppellation, was not tlien known. How could it be? IIow "fVas it possible to call any Christians Baptist Christians, •when all were Baptists ? We go further. Justin Martyr, writing about the middle of the second century, states how baptism was considered in his time. Thus he writes : — " As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and under- take to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of sins that arc past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regener- ated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Chri>t also said, ' Except ye be born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' " Further on he says, " This washing is called illumination, because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings." (First Apolofjy, Ch. 61.) Without stopping to criticise his use of the word " regenerated," which was not employed by him in its modern acceptation, I may say that it is evident that Justin Martyr was what toe should call a Baptist, and that the Church at Rome, with which he was connected, main- tained and practised our principles. It let them slip, however, before long. Infant baptism and other additions to Christianity made their appearance in the third century. Men thought them- selves at liberty to graft on the Christian profession usages which were unknown in apostolic days. They virtually 'surrendered the sole suftlciency of Scripture, and introduced human tradition as a new element in church aifairs. Then oo.TQmenced a conflict, which has continued from that time to the present. From age to age reformers have risen up bearing their testimony against church abuses, and endeav- ouring to restore the old Christianity. Some of them made specific reference to baptism ; all pleaded for Christian character as necessary to church membership, and' for the maintenance of the purity of the churches. The Novatians led the way, in the third century. I do not endorbe all they said and did ; but it is worth vfhWe to quote the remarks of one of our church historiang (an Episcopalian). " He ;-ifii [Novatian] considered tlio genuine Church of Christ to be a society where virtue and innocence reigned universally, and refused any longer to acknowledge those as its members \ ho had even once degenerated into unrighteousness. liis followers were called Cathari, or Puritans, and they compre- hended many austere and independent Christians, in th»^ ev^t no less than in the west. But this endeavour to revive the spotless moral purity of the primitive faith was found inconsistent with the corruptions even of that early age ; it was regarded with 8us[)icion by the leading prelates, as a vain and visionary scheme ; and tho=e rigid principles, which had characterized and sanctified the Church in the first century, were abandoned to the profession of schismatic sectaries in the third." (Waddington's '* History of the Church," i. 16G). This is candid and liberal. In the fourth century the DonatisU raised the reform standard. They constituted about one-half of the Chriftian population of Northern Africa. Purity was their main object ; they also, as well as the Novatians, called themselves Cathari — the pure — Puritans. Other men called them DonatistSj after Donatus. whose leadership they followed. Robert Robinson, a learned writer of ecclesiastical history, in the last century, says they were "Trinitarian Baptists." The Rev. Thomas Long, Prebendary of Exet t^ compelled to hold their meetings in secret, and to avoid recognition hy their neighbors. The straits and miseries of that enforced seclusion cannot be described. The perpetual cry of the stricken was " How long, O Lord, how long?" — How many were murdered, how many were starved, will never be known on earth. But the register is preserved ; it is correct and fL>)l ; and one day '' the books will bo opened." The Reformation in the sixteenth century broke up the hiding places, and the prisoners came forth" Speaking of the Mennonites, or Geiimin Baptists, Moaheim says — " Prior to the age of Luther, there lay concealed in ahnost every country of Europe, but especially in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany, very many persons, in whose minds was deeply rooted that principle, which the Waldensians, the Wickliffites, and the Hussites maintained, some more covertly, and others more openly ; namely that the kingdom which Christ set up on the earth, or the visible church, is an assembly of holy persons, and ought therefore to be entirely free, not only from ungodly persons and sinners, but from the institutions of human device against ungodliness. This principle lay at the foundation, and was the source of all that was new and singular in the religion of the Mennonites ; and the greatest part of their singular opinions, as is >vell attested, were approved, some centuries before Luther's time, by those who had such views of the nature of the Church of Christ" (Church History, Cent. xvi. Sect. 3). Those were the views which had l)eon held by the Baptists " some centuries before Luther's time," as has been shown in these pages. The Baptists, therefore, did not originate in the .si:^eenth century. The first church of baptized believers was formed at Jerusalem, A. D. 31. Nearly thirty ye!\rs afterwards the Apostle Paul said, " From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Cl.rist :" — *' Thanks be unto God, who always caiiseth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowleilge by us in every place" (Rom. xv. 19: 2 Cor. ii. 11.) The names of a^out thirty churches are found in the records of the ISew Testament ; but those records are manilestly incomplete ; we read of the churches in Acliaia, Galatia, and other countries, but the names of none of thera (Corinth tb excepted) are preserved. We kno^r, however, that the members of those churches had been " baptized into Christ," and "called upon his name:" and we rejoice in the belief that even in the darkest times of the subsequent history — those times in which, as Archbishop Leighton remarks, the Church could only be traced by her blood — could only be seen by the light of the fires in which her martyrs were burnt — the godly succession was kept up. There were gaps which cannot now be filled, and now and then the chain seemed to be broken. But it never was. There was a " falling awa^." " Perilous times " came. Corruptions and abuses crept in. Idols were set up. Will worship prevailed. The word of God was neglected and trampled on. Priestcraft was rampant. Nevertheless, He " left not himself without witness." Every age brought to view champions for the true and right ; and we Baptists are the Novatians, the Donatists, the Paulicians, the Petrobrusi- ans of the nineteenth century. Some one starts up in dismay ; — " Sir ! all those people were heretics and schismatics !" Hard words, these ! But we have been used to them. They called our Lord himself a " Samaritan," and said that " he had a devil." The fact is, that the dominant party always assumed to be the orthodox, and bade the people believe that those who differed from them were heretics. Trinitarians were ortho- dox in the days of Constantine, and the Arians were banished. The Arians were the orthodox in the next reign, that of Constantius, and then the Trinitarians were banished. These alternations were continually taking place. And so it comes to this, that if you waiit to trace the true church of God, you must follow her down the line of those who have been stigmatized, and their names cast out as evil. Patriotism has been oftener found at the headsman's block than in kings' palaces. " The Church " ! What " great swelling words of vanity " have been employed on this subject ! We hear every day of the teaching of " the Church," the laws of " tlie Church," and all people are commanded to do the bidding of " the Church." But what was that mysterious body called " the Church," in the times of her greatest glory, that is, during the ages of dulness and despotism — the vi*. times of Becket and Wolsey? Was . she not t( a cage of 11 V). unclean birds" — a conglomeration of all evils — a nest of vices? Had not public opinion declared against her for centuries, and demanded "reform, in the head and in the members" ? Had not the true meaning of the word " Church " been lost for ages, so that it was understood to refer, not to the congregation of the members, in which sense our Lord used it (Mat. xviii. 17.), but to the prelates, particularly when assembled in Council ? And now, the Greek Church declares itself to be the Church Catholic ; ihe Konmn Ciiurch makes the same averment; the Church of England, admitting that both these are branches of the Catholic Church, maintains that she also is a branch — with all her divisions and contrarieties — the " high " — the "low " — the " broad." Alas I alas ! How unlike they all are to the mother church at Jerusalem ! " We are the priests of the Lord," they say. " We only are authorized to preach the word and administer the sacra- ments : ours is the true Apostolical Succession. We of the Church of England can trace the line of our bishops up to Augustine, in the sixth century, and from him to Peter." Can you ? One of you own archbishops will teach you a differt'nt lesson. *' There is not a minister in all Christen- dom" Archbishop Whately observes, ^'^ who is able to trace up tvith any approach to certainty his own spiritual pedi- gree." His assertion is based on the following considerations : — " If a bishop has not been duly consecrated, or had not been, previously, rightly ordained, his ordinances are null ; and so are the ministrations of those who are ordained by him; and their ordination of others ; (supposing any of the persons ordained by him to attain to the episcopal office) and so on, without end. The poisonous taint of informality, if it once creep in undetected, will spread the infection of nullity to an indelinite and irremediable extent. * * And who can undertake to pronounce that viuring that long period usually designated as the Dark Ages no such taint was ever introduced? Irregularities could not have been wholly excluded without a perpetual miracle ; and that no such miraculous interference existed, we have even historical proof. Amidst the numerous corruptions > doctrine and of practice, and gross superstitions, that crept in, during those ages, we find recorded descriptions not only of the profound ignorance, and profligacy of life, of many of the clergy, but also the *;rossest irregularities in respect of discipline and form. We read of Bishops tonsecrated when mere children —of men officiating who barely knew their letters ; — of prelates expelled, and others put into their places, by violence ; — of illiterate and profligate laynjen, and habitual drunkards, admitted to holy orders ; and in short, of the prevalence of every kind of disorder, and reckless- disregard of Ijie decency which the Apostle enjoins. It is inconcieva- ble that any one even moderately acquainted with history, can I'eel a certainty, that, amidst all thi^ confusion and corruption, every requisite form was in every instance, strictly adhered to, by men, many of them openly profane and secular, unrestrained by public opinion, through the gross ignorance of the population among which they lived ; and that no one, not duly consecrated or ordained, wafi admitted to sacred offices." {Essay on the Kingdom of Christ, pp. 217—219). As to the Apostle Peter, from whom the succession is said to be traced, as bishop of Rome, there is no satisfactory proof that he held that see. It is even denied by many learned men that he was ever at Rome at all. That position was maintained in a public discussion which took f)lace in Rome itself, in Februarv, 1872, between " Certain Catholic priests and Evangelical Ministers," a Report of which has been published. But what is the " Apostolic Succession ?" It is the succession of apostolic men — " faithful men, able to teach others also " (2 Tim. ii. 3) — ordained or unordained — gifted by Christ himself for the service. The views on this subject, generally entertained by our Denomination, were thus expressed by the author, in an ordination sermon, preached at Montreal, in 1851 : — " By Apostolic Succession ive umlerstand a succession of apostolic men^ holding and preaching apostolic truths and leading apostolic lives. No others are in the succession, however regularly, as human laws and customs declare, they may have been ordained and appointed. We may su[)pose a case, not at all unlikely to occur in these days. Duiing the same service the bishop lays his consecrating hands on two candidates for the ministry : — one of them goes forth, preaching full salvation by the death of Christ, and seeking \\ ^ ^ffmt 18 i% to promote evangelical holiness ; the other connects the safety of the soul vritii baptism and the Church, substitutes the world's morality for the life of faith, and derides as fanatics those who plead for the new birth and for spiritual- mindedness. There is no difficulty in deciding that while the former is evidently in the succession, the latter is not — though both received tiie same appointment, from the same person, and at the same time. A man may be a minister of a church — KDf any church — who is not a minister of Christ, and will not be owned by liim at the last day. " That the succession has been maintained is proved by the existence of the Church. It could only have been perpetuated by the means and instruments which the Saviour at first appointed — by the ministry and manifesta- tion of the truth. The fact, that there are at the present day servants of the Lord united together for Christian fellowship, holding the great truths of the gospel, and exemplifying its effects in holy lives and devoted zeal, will surely warrant the inference that in every age there have been such unions, on a greater or smaller scale, maintained by similar instrumentality. The chain of the spiritual succession ha^ not been broken, though we may not be able to put our hands on every link. It ought not to be considered surprising that we cannot always discover the spiritual family. The Church was at one time in the wilderness ; who can wonder that she was not then visible ? " In tracing the true succession we cannot adopt the ordinary course* We have no reverence for episcopal genealogies. The grace of Christ is not limited by eccles- iastical consecrations, with which, in thousands of instances, it has nothing to do. He ' divideth to every man severally as He will.' We trace the succession therefore, in the spiritual line. We see it in Novatian the dissenter, as well as in Cyprian the bishop ; — in Vigilantius the reformer, as .trell as in Jerome who slandered him, and in Augustine, who, though he was a great and good man, would have committed alleged heretics to the civil power, to be punished ; -—in the Waldensian pedlar who carried his wares to the lordly castle and the peasant's hut, and exhorted all to buy the ' pearl of great price ;' — in John de Wycliffe, the canonically ordained Rector of Lutterworth, and in the Lollards who succeeded him, and who, though not canonic- 14 ally ordained, could tell of Christ, and grace, and heaven, and guide men to glory ; — in John Huss and Jerome of Prague, both of them burned a8 heretics ; — in Latimer and Ridley, consecrated bishops, and in Calvin and Knox, unconsec/ated presbyters ; — in Archbishop Leighton, the spiritually minded prelate, aud in John Bunyan, the tinker of Elfetow, the spiritually minded Baptist ;— in Henry Martyn, that 'holy man of God,' the Epi8copalian,and in John Williams, the martyr of the nineteenth century, the Congregationalist ; — and finally we trace the succession in Daniel Wilson, the bishop, who preached at Calcutta, plainly and faithfully, the same gospel which he proclaimed in England's metropolis — and in every native preacher and teacher, encouraged by Christian missionaries of various denominations to make known the great salvation to their fellow countrymen — of every clime, of every tongue, and of all colours — white, yellow, copper, brown, or black — Hindoos, Indians, Chinese, Hottentots, or Negroes. ' Washed, sanctifled, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,' and found to be ' faithful men, able to teach others also' — they are all in the succession." This, then, is the case of the Baptists. We claim to be- long to the restorers of primitive Christianity. We aim to represent, as nearly as possible, the faith, the holiness, and the practice of the churches of the first age ; for Christianity, like its Divine Founder, is " the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." We profess to adopt for ourselves Chilling- worth's celebrated motto — "The Bible, the Bible only, is the Religion of Protestants." Not that we pretend to perfection. Far from it. We know that there has been a tendency to declension all along, and that we, as well as other bodies of professing christians, are exposed to the danger ; and we shaU be thankful to any one who shall point out wherein we are mistaken, and show ai " a more excellent way," according to the Scriptures. Let it be borne in mind, that in making these avowals, and in repeating them from time to time, we pronounce no sentence on brethren of other Denominations, who differ from us in the interpretation of Scripture, and who have as much right to differ from us as we have to differ from them. To their own Master they stand or fall. We have neither power nor inclination to curse men because they will not i 1« tubseribe our creed ; nor to declare that they shall " without doubt perish everlastingly " unless Ihey believe as we do.* One word more. We are fully convinced that infant baptism has been the prolific source of evil, by filling the churches with unconverted members, and tiius putting into the hands of infidels a powerful weapon against Chrislianity. And we heartily subscribe to the declaration of Balthazar Hubmeyer (martyred March lOlh 1528)— "I believe and know, that Christendom shall not receive its rising aright, unless Baptism and the Lord's Supper are brought to their original purity." CHRONOLOGICAL ITEMS. A.D. 81 The Christian Church founded. 68 Martyrdom of Paul and Peter. 251 The Novatians. ' ' ' 811 The Donatists. * * '*' ^' 825 The Council of Nice. 596 Mission of Augustine the Monk to England. 650 The Paulicians. 112< Peter of Bruys put to death. 1155 Arnold of Brescia burned. 1209 Crusade against the Albigenses. 1229 Rise of the Inquisition. 1384 Death of John de Wycliffe. 1517 Commencement of the Reformation. 1559 Rise of the Puritans in England. 1572 Massacre of the Protestants in France. 1580 Rise of the Brownists. 1620 Sett ment of the Puritans in New England. 1649 Rise ^ e Quakers. 1662 Act of Uniformity, England. 1674 Death of John Milton, Nov. 8. 16S8 Death of John Bunyan, Aug. 30. 1739 Methodist Societies formed. i» .' 1. 1 -'••I.'; .-•( *'\ ■'■ ■t r-i *Anecdote of King George III. The following Windsor anecdote was told me by tbe late Dr. Heberden : The clergyman there, on a day when the Athanasian Creed was to be read, began with, Whoeoevir will be saved. &c.) the King, who usually responded with a loud voice, was silent: the minister repeated, in a higher tone, his * Whosoever;' the king continued .silent:— at length, the Apostles Creed was repealed by the minister, and the King followed him throughout, with a distinct and audible voice." Life of Bishop Wat$on, i. 195. ^ I 1764 1792 1799 1800 1804 1815 1831 1833 1834 1830 1850 16 Brown University founded. Bapti-t Missionary Society founded. Religious Tract Society founded. Church Missionary Sociefy founded. Britisii and Foreign Bihle Society founded. Death of Andrew Fuller, May 7. Death of Robert Hal!, Feb. 21. Rise of the Tractarians. Death of Dr. Carey, June 9. Williams the Missionary murdered, Nov. 20. Death of Dr. Judson, April 12. Baptist Statistics. There are in Great Britain and Ireland 2639 Baptist Churches, containing 241,764 Members. In Ontario and Quebec there are 322 Churches, with 17,042 Members. In Nova Scotia [there are 163 Churches, with 18,046 Members. • In New Brunswick, 134 Churches, 10,133 Members. In Prince Edward Island, 14 Churches, 920 Members. In Jamaic'i, 101 Churchns, 2d,412 Members. In Australasia, 141 Churches, with upwards of 6000 Members. In the United States, there are 19,720 Churches, contain- ing 1,585,232 Members. There are 17 Churches in Denmark, 220 in Sweden, 73 in Germany. » In Asia, there are 408 Missi