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V ■ "ii*iv,- 
 
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 I • 
 
 BAPTIST HISTORY. 
 
 ■. • 
 
Mi 
 
 tr. 
 
 
UCATE 
 
 BAPTIST HISTORY: 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 Foundation of the Christian Church 
 to the Present Time, 
 
 By J. M. cramp, D.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "a T:;.\T book of popery " ETC. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY REV. J. ANGUS, D.D. 
 
 Illustrated by Fifty-eight First-class Engi^ayings. 
 
 TORONTO : 
 
 H. LLOYD, BAPTIST BOOK ROOM. 
 
 LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1871. 
 

 5L%t 
 
 V^ 
 
 ^i9 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 T T is desirable that the members of our churches gene- 
 "*• rally should be acquainted with the early history of 
 the Denomination. Hitherto, however, that object could 
 not be attained without the purchase of large and expen- 
 sive works. 
 
 The author has endeavoured to supply this want, and 
 to furnish, in one small volume, an abstract of Baptist 
 records, that all our brethren may know the struggles 
 and sufferings through which their forefathers passed 
 while "witnessing a good confession." 
 
 The work was originally written in the form of Letters, 
 which were addressed " to a Young Christian," and 
 inserted in the Nova Scotia Christian Messenger during 
 the years 1856 — 8. They have been revised and re- 
 arranged, and the authorities carefully consulted afresh. 
 
 J. M. CRAMP. 
 
 Acadia College, Nova Scotia, 
 
 yunc, i858. 
 
 *^* The present edition has been again carefully revisedj with some 
 brief additions, bringing it down to the date of publication. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 
 
 " I ^HOUGH I have undertaken to say a few words on 
 ■^ behalf of this volume of Dr. Cramp's, it really 
 needs no introduction. He himself is well known in 
 both hemispheres, and has laboured in both. He has 
 been a student of ecclesiastical history from his youth. 
 Nor has he studied in vain. His work on the Council 
 of Trent is still a standard book on all questions 
 connected with the doctrines and policy of the Church 
 of Rome. His candour and intelligence, his love of 
 good men, and appreciation of great principles, have 
 won the esteem and affection of all who know him. 
 These qualities will be found to distinguish the volume 
 which is now introduced for the first time to English 
 readers. 
 
 Though there are Histories of " English Baptists," of 
 " Foreign Baptists," and of " American Baptists," there 
 is no volume in which the history of all is given in a 
 condensed and interesting form. The history of Baptism 
 
Vlll 
 
 Introductory Notice, 
 
 in the Early Church and in the Middle Ages is still 
 probably to be written, but the reader will find a fuller 
 and more satisfactory account in these pages than any- 
 where besides. 
 
 The volume deserves and will repay careful study, and 1 
 very heartily commend it. 
 
 JOSEPH ANGUS. 
 
 College, Regent's Park. 
 
jtill 
 Her 
 ny- 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE PRIMITIVE PERIOD. 
 
 ;>ECT. 
 
 I. Introductory Kemarks_P«.do.bap.is, Concession. . , . ""3 
 
 ". The Apostolic Fathers-Justin Ma„j,_j,,„.^„^ ' ' ' 
 
 in, Tertullian-Baptisn, of Cildrcn in Africa-Orieen-yirs. .„. 
 rearan „f Infant.Baptis._The Cinics-Christiani.y „ 
 England .... 
 
 iG 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 
 I. The Catechun^ens-Progress of Infant-Baptism-Delay of 
 
 Ba,u.n,_GregoryNa.ien.en-Chrysosto„,-Basil-Eph™, 
 o^^Edessa-The E.peror Constantine-r.mersion sti'l .: 
 
 - 2i) 
 
 ii' Christian Intolerance— Justinian's T =,». . • • • 
 
 .. ^, ^^ . •'"'''"'^"^ ^^'^^^'''^"JO'ninglnfant-Bap- 
 t.sm-The Novat.ans-The Donatists-Pelagianism 
 
 • • • i/ 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE OBSCURE PERIOD. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 I. The Manichceans — Cautions to the Student — All Opponents of 
 Infant-Baptism not Baptists — Account of the Paulicians — 
 Their Views of Baptism 50 
 
 II. Religious Reform in Europe — The Canons of Orleans — Arras 
 
 — Berengarius — Miscellaneous Anecdotes 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE REVIVAL PERIOD. 
 
 I. State of Affairs in Europe during this Period — The Crusades 
 — Other Important Events — The Scholastic Divines and 
 Philosophers — Universities — Printing 70 
 
 II. Paulicians in France and Italy — General View of th'j Reform 
 Movement — Various Names given to the Re*"ormf.i-s — Senti- 
 ment'' held by them — False Charge of Mr.aichff.ism — Their 
 Activity — Reinerus Saccho's Account 7G 
 
 III. Success of the Reforming Parties — Consternation at Rome — 
 
 Anathemas — The Dominican and Francis:an Orders — San- 
 guinary Persecution — Crusade against the Albigenses — The 
 Inquisition — Movement in England — John de WycliiTe — The 
 Lollards — Bohemia 87 
 
 IV. Various Opinions respecting Baptism— Berengar— Peter of 
 
 Bruys — Henry of Lausanne — Arnold of Brescia — Cologne — 
 England — Lombers — Pope Lucius III 100 
 
 V. Heretics of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries — WycIIffe's 
 Sentiments on Baptism — The Bohemians — Baptism among 
 the Waldenses — Church Government — Immersion. . . . 116 
 
Contents, 
 
 XI 
 
 70 
 
 76 
 
 «7 
 
 lioo 
 
 ii5 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 - THE REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 I. Rise of the Reformation — Opinions held by the Baptists — Mis- 
 represented by the ReforniL-rs — Their Wonderful Increase — 
 Support under Sufferings 124 
 
 II. German Baptists — Thomas Munzer — The Peasant War — 
 Michael Satler — Hans Schaffler — Salzburg — Wolfgang 
 Brand-Hueber — The Burggraf of Alzey — Imperial Edicts. . 133 
 
 III. Persecuting Tenets of the Reformers — German Diets— The 
 
 Congregation at Steinborn — Leonard Bernkop — The Crown 
 of Straw — Johannes Bair — Hans Pichner — Hans Breal — 
 Baptists in Italy 142 
 
 IV. Baptists in Switzerland — Zuingli — Concessions of Bullinger 
 
 and Meshovius — Disputations — Drownings— Felix ivlantz — 
 BaUhazar Hubmeyer — Louis He«:zer — Emigration to Mora- 
 via — ^Jacob Hutter 151 
 
 V. The Netherlands — Sicke Snyder — Furious Edict — The Inquisi- 
 tion — Severities of Philip II. — Torture — Lysken — Gerrit 
 Hase-poot — Joris Wippe — Private Executions — Horrid Rack- 
 ings i65 
 
 VI. Biography of Menno Simon — Account of his Publications — 
 
 Church Government among the Baptists — I-Iissionary Ex- 
 cursions 1C6 
 
 VII. Baptists in England — Proclamation of Henry VIII. — Lati- 
 
 mer's Sermon before Edward VI — Baptists excepted from 
 " Acts of Pardon " — Royal Commicsions against them — 
 Ridley — Cranmer — Joan Boucher— Rogers — Philpot — Bishop 
 Hooper's Scruples — George Van Pare — Protestant Persecu- 
 tions Inexcusable — Congiegations in Essex and Kent — 
 
 9 
 
\ 
 
 xn 
 
 Contents, 
 
 »tCT. PACE 
 
 Bonner — Gardiner — Disputations in Gaol — Queen Eliza- 
 beth's Proclamation against Baptists — Bishop Jewel- 
 Archbishop Parker — Dutch Baptists 204 
 
 VI 11. The Enormities Perpetrated at Munster and other Places — 
 
 Injustice of Ascribing them to Baptist Sentiments . . . . 223 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE TROUBLOUS PERIOD. 
 
 I. Baptists Persecuted by all other Sects — Liberal Policy of 
 William, Prince of Orange — The " Union of Utrecht " — 
 Differences of Opinion — Persecution in Moravia, and in 
 Switzerland 232 
 
 II. Dutch Baptists Persecuted in England — Account of Hen- 
 drick Terwoort and Jan Pieters — Their Martyrdom — Their 
 Religious Sentiments — Whitgift's Invectives against the 
 Baptists 240 
 
 III. Severity of Elizabeth's Government— Bigotry of James I. — 
 
 The Hampton Court Conference — Emigration — John 
 Smyth's Church — Their Confessions — Bartholomew Legate 
 — Extracts from Baptist Publications on Liberty of Con- 
 science — The King's Distress at their Increase 250 
 
 IV. Character of Charles I. — Sufferings during his Reign — First 
 
 Particular Baptist Church — Samuel Howe — Dr. Featley's 
 Book — Baptist Confessions of Faith — Toleration hated by 
 the Presbyterians — Their Attempts to put down the Baptists 
 —Milton's Lines — The Assembly of Divines — Outcry against 
 Immersion — Parliamentary Declaration in favour of the 
 Baptists — Fearful •' Ordinance " against them — Their Ac- 
 tivity during the Commonwealth and the Protectorate — 
 Cromwell's Baptist Officers — The " Triers " — Baptists in 
 Ireland 263 
 
Contents, 
 
 xiu 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 V. Character of Charles II. and James II. — Commencement of 
 Persecution — ^Venner's Rebellion — Disclaimer by Baptists — 
 Severe Sufferings — ^John James — Act of Uniformity — The 
 Aylesbury Baptists — Benjamin Keach Pilloried — Conventicle 
 Act— Five Mile Act— Their Effects 281 
 
 VI. History of the Broadmead Church, Bristol 304 
 
 VII. Declaration of Indulgence — Confession of Faith — Fierce Per- 
 
 secution — Thomas Delaune — The Duke of Monmouth's Re- 
 bellion — Account of the Hewlings — Mrs. Gaunt — The Dark 
 time — Another Declaration of Indulgence — William Kiffin — 
 The Glorious Revolution 313 
 
 VIII. Principles and Practices of the Denomination — Human Tra- 
 
 dition Renounced — Freedom of Conscience Demanded — 
 Personal Piety requisite to Church Fellowship — Purity of 
 Discipline — Cases Cited — Mode of Public Worship — 
 Plurality of Elders — Communion — Singing — Laying on of 
 Hands— The Sabbath 334 
 
 IX. Biographical Notices — John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, and 
 
 John Spilsbury — Henry Denne — Francis Cornwell, A.M. — 
 Christopher Blackwood — Major-Genera! Harrison — Colonel 
 Hutchinson 344 
 
 X. Biographical Notices Continued — Henry Jessey, A.M. — John 
 
 Canne — ^Vavasor Powell — Abraham Cheare 356 
 
 XI. Biographical Notices Continued — John Tombes, B.D. — Francis 
 
 Bampfield, A.M. — Henry D'Anvers — Edward Terril — Dr. Du 
 Veil — ^John Bunyan 369 
 
 XII. Biographical Notices Concluded— Thomas Grantham— Han- 
 
 serd Knollys — Benjamin Keach — William Kiffin .... 382 
 
XIV 
 
 Contents. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 XIII. Baptists in North America — Church at Providence — Baptists 
 
 in Massachusetts — Persecuting Enactment against them — v 
 The Whipping of Obadiah Holmes — First Church at Boston 
 —Newport — Swansea — Other Churches — Roger Williams . 403 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE QUIET PERIOD. 
 
 I. General Character of the Period — Baptist General Assembly 
 in London — Questions — Particular Baptist Fund — Baptist 
 Board — The Dissenting Deputies — The Book Society — 
 Bristol College — Dr. John Ward — Toleration Act — Schism 
 Bill — Dissenters excluded from Office — Restrictions — Relief 
 —Decline of the General Baptists — Communion Controversy 
 — Effects of High Calvinism on the Particular Baptists — 
 Commencement of Revival — Fuller and Sutcliffe — State of 
 the Denomination in England — Foreign and Home Missions 420 
 
 II. Biographical Notices — Dr. John Galef — Dr. Gill — John Mac- 
 gowan — Robert Robinson — Robert Hall, Sen. — John Ryland 
 — The Stennetts — Benjamin Beddome — Samuel Pearce — Dr. 
 Andrew Gifford 441 
 
 III. Prjgress of the Penomination in North America — Sufferings 
 in New England — Mrs. Elizabeth Backus — Mrs. Kimball — 
 , . Virginia— Whitfield's Preaching— The " New Lights "— 
 Philadelphia Association — Other Associations — Correspon- 
 dence with London Ministers — Great Revivals — Brown 
 University — Nova Scotia^-^New Brunswick — Canada . . ; 452 
 
Contents. 
 
 XV 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PRESENT CENTURY, 
 
 Effects of the Mission Enterprise — Revivals— Extension of the 
 Denomination— Statistical Table— Societies— Diversity and 
 Adaptation of Talent— Baptist Agency now Employed— Rev. 
 C. H. Spurgeon— Baptist Union— Peculiarities of the Pre- 
 sent Period— Duties of Baptists 470 
 
■^ 
 
 \ 
 
 7 
 
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 Jl II 
 
 I II H " ■■ ' CSC 
 
 ■'»» Jiymi^My^ 
 
 
 " ■' " " " 
 
 I !■ ■■ II II ^'% 
 
 a£ 
 
 LHAPTER I. 
 THE PRIMITIVE PERIOD. 
 
 FROM A.D. 3T TO A.O. 254. 
 
 -tO»- 
 
 Sectioj^ I. 
 
 Introductory RemarKa — Psedobaptist Concessions. 
 
 BAPTISTS are often asked for information respecting 
 the history of their distinctive opinions and practices, 
 inquirers say that statements various and even contra- 
 dictory are made in their hearing, and they are very desirous 
 of being put on the right track, so that they may be able to 
 correct the erroneous and expose the false. It is the object 
 of this work to endeavour to meet their wishes. 
 
 Let us begin with the New Testament. Who can read 
 that blessed book with serious attention without coming to 
 the conclusion that the religion of which it treats is personal 
 and voluntary, and that none are worthy to be called Chris- 
 tians but those who " worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh"? 
 (Phil. iii. 3). When Moses addressed the Israelites, and 
 exhorted them to obedience, he included their children in 
 his exhortations, because the children were in the covenant. 
 Judaism, with all its privileges and responsibilities, was 
 hereditary. The rights and duties of the parents became 
 
 B 2 
 
 m 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 the rights and duties of their offspring, as such. It is not 
 so under the New Dispensation. Men are not born Chris- 
 tians, but they become Christians, when they repent and 
 beheve. ** As many as received Him, to them gave He 
 power to become the sons of God, even to them that beheve 
 on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the 
 will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " 
 (John i. 12, 13). Judaism was a national institute : Chris- 
 tianity is an individual blessing. The Jews were a nation, 
 dealt with as such, and separated from other nations : 
 Christians are believers, taken out of all nations, and in 
 Christianity '* there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision 
 nor uncircumcision. Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but 
 Christ .is all and in all" (Col. iii. 11). Hence, when the 
 Apostles wrote to Christian churches their mode of address 
 was altogether different from that adopted by Moses. They 
 did not say, "you and your children," or represent the 
 children as in covenant with God, and therefore entitled 
 to certain rights and bound to the performance of cer- 
 tain duties. The churches to which they sent their 
 epistles were spiritual societies, that is, associations of 
 individuals professing " repentance toward God and faith 
 toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts xx. 21), to whom 
 they had surrendered themselves, as their Prophet, Priest, 
 and King. If those individuals were parents, they were 
 taught to bring up their children " in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord" (Eph. vi. 4); but their children 
 were not classed with them, as the children of the Jews 
 were, nor could they be, till they themselves also repented 
 and believed. It is an obvious inference, that no mo- 
 dern society deserves to be called a Christian Church, 
 which is not founded on such principles as have now been 
 explained. 
 
 If you were to place a New Testament in the hands of 
 an intelligent, impartial person, who had never heard of 
 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 our divisions and denominations, what idea would he be 
 likely to form or the spirit and design of Christianity, or of 
 a Christian Church ? Would he not see, in every part of 
 the book, appeals to men's understandings and emotions, 
 and such requisitions as could be addressed to those only 
 who were capable of thinking and acting for themselves ? 
 Would he not conclude that Christianity has to do with 
 mind, that a Christian must be a man of repentance and 
 faith, and that a church is a voluntary society, formed of 
 such men ? 
 
 We come to the question of baptism. What is baptism ? 
 It is *' the answer of a good conscience toward God " 
 (i Pet. iii. 2i). It is "putting on Christ" (Gal. iii. 27). 
 It is the voluntary act of a believer, an act of obedience and 
 self-dedication. Such is the uniform tenor of the history. 
 So the multitudes went out to John, " even all the land of 
 Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him 
 in the river of Jordan " (Mark i. 5). So the Samaritans, 
 "when they believed Philip preaching the things concern- 
 ing the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, 
 were baptized, both men and women " (Acts viii. 12). 
 Mark it well — " men and women," — no children ! So, in 
 later times, the baptized were reminded of their obligations : 
 " We are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like 
 as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
 Father, even so we should walk in newness of life " 
 (Rom. vi. 4). 
 
 The New Testament tells of the baptism of believers, 
 and of churches composed of believers. We read of no 
 other baptism, no other churches. It will not do to say in 
 reply that all who were baptized were not believers, and 
 that all the members of Apostolic churches were not 
 sincere. There were, doubtless, hypocrites then, as there 
 are hypocrites now. Even the Apostles were sometimes 
 deceived. But this does not affect the case. All who 
 
 m^ 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 were baptized professed to be believers, and were bap- 
 tized as such. The profession of faith was held to be 
 essential to baptism and to church fellowship. None could 
 profess faith who were incapable of understandin«; the 
 faith. The act of profession implied approbation, con- 
 viction, choice. 
 
 This, then, is the starting point. Here is the beginning 
 of the history of baptism. With the New Testament only 
 before us, we find baptism connected with the profession 
 of faith. It is a personal, voluntary act ; and such an act 
 only is befitting Christianity. 
 
 But in the Christianity of the nineteenth century, or 
 what is called such, there is a service of anothc* kind. 
 It is sprinkling — not immersion ; and the subjects are 
 infants — not believers. How is this ? In what manner 
 was it introduced ? How and when did it originate ? 
 
 These questir»ns will be answered hereafter. This sec- 
 tion will be closed by placing before the reader a few 
 extracts from Pa^dobaptist writers of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, showing how the learned men of these times regard 
 the subject, from an historical point of view. 
 
 North British Review, Presbyterian (article ascribed 
 to the Rev. Dr. Hanna). " Scripture knows nothing of 
 the baptism of infants. There is absolutely not a single 
 trace of it to be found in the New Testament."* 
 
 Professor Jacobi, University of Berlin, Reformed 
 Clmrch. ** Infant baptism was established neither by- 
 Christ nor by the Apostles. In all places where we find 
 the necessity of baptism notified, either in a dogmatic 
 or historical point of view, it is evident that it was only 
 meant for those who were capable of comprehending the 
 word preached, and of being converted to Christ by an 
 act of their own will."f 
 
 * August, 1852. 
 
 f Kitto's Cyclopadia of Biblical Literature. Art. "Baptism.'* 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 Dr. Hagendacii, Basle, Reformed Church. •' The pas- 
 sages from Scripture which are thought to intimate that 
 infant baptism had come into use in the Primitive Church, 
 are doubtful, and prove nothing."* 
 
 Neandkr, the Church Historian. ** Baptism was ad- 
 ministered at first only to adults, as men were accustomed 
 to conceive baptism and faith as strictly connected. We 
 have all reason for not deriving infant baptism from 
 Apostolic institution ; and the recognition of it which fol- 
 lowed somewhat later, as an Apostolical tradition, serves 
 to confirm this hypothesis." ..." In respect to the form 
 of baptism, it was, in conformity with the original insti- 
 tution and the original import of the symbol, performed 
 by immersion, as a sign of entire baptism into the Holy 
 Spirit, of being entirely penetrated by the same."t 
 
 Professor Stuart, late of Andover, Congregatiojialist. 
 ** There are no commands, or plain and certain examples, 
 in the New Testament relative to infant baptism." :{: 
 
 Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, New Jersey, Presbyterian. 
 '• In no part of the New Testament is any other condi- 
 tion of membership in the Church prescribed than that 
 contained in the answer of Philip to the eunuch who de- 
 sired baptism. The Church, therefore, is in its essential 
 nature a company of believers." § 
 
 Dr. Woods, Congregationalist. "We have no express 
 precept or example for infant baptism in all our holy 
 writings." || 
 
 Dr. Chalmers, Presbyterian. '* The original meaning 
 of the word baptism is immersion ; and though we regard 
 it as a point of indifference whether the ordinance so 
 named be performed this way or by sprinkling, yet we 
 doubt not that the prevalent style of the administrations 
 
 * History of Doctrines, i. 193. 
 
 + History of the Church, i. 310, 311. 
 
 J Hayne's Baptist Denomination, p. 31. § Ibid. \\ Ibid. 
 
8 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 in the Apostles' d?ys was of an actual submersion of the 
 whole body under water."* 
 
 Dr. Bloomfield, Episcopalian. " There is here (Rom. 
 vi. 4) plainly a reference to the ancient mode of baptism by 
 immersion ; and I agree with Koppe an4 Rosenmiiller 
 (two German commentators), that there is reason to regret 
 it should have been abandoned in most Christian churches, 
 especially as it has so evidently a reference to the mystic 
 sense of baptism." t 
 
 Rev. W. J. CoNYBEARE, M.A., Episcopalian. *' This 
 passage (Rom. vi. 4) cannot be understood unless it be 
 borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by im- 
 mersion." J 
 
 Many more quotations might be given, but these will be 
 sufficient. It will be observed that none of these writers 
 are Baptists. But they do not venture to aiifirm that 
 infant sprinkling is derived from the New Testament. 
 Learned Paedobaptists generally admit that believers only 
 were baptized in Apostolic ttmes. 
 
 OECTION II. 
 
 The Apostolic Fathers -Justin Maityr — Irenseus. 
 
 THIS, then, is our starting point. The baptism of the 
 New Testament is the baptism of believers. Our 
 next inquiry v/ill be,, How the post-Apostolic Church 
 thought and acted on this subject ? 
 
 Christian baptism, as instituted by the Saviour, and 
 practised by the Apostles, was the immersion of believers 
 
 * Lectures on Romans, ch. vi. 4. 
 
 f Critical Digest, in loc. 
 
 % Life and Writings of St. Paul, i.i. 172. Quarto Edition. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 in water, " in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost." It was the declaration of their 
 adhesion to Christ, and the symbol of their renrnciation 
 of sin. It was in every case the act of a free agent, and 
 thus it harmonized with the spiritual nature of Christianity. 
 All this is now generally admitted. 
 
 The next inquiry is, Did the usages of the period im- 
 mediately succeeding the Apostolic, accord with these 
 views ? Or did they indicate any change or any depar- 
 ture from them ? 
 
 Here it is necessary to interpose a caution. Apostolic 
 example has the force of authority. It is the inspired 
 exposition of the law. Not so the example of the primitive 
 churches as they are called, that is, as they existed after 
 the Apostolic age. The plainness of the Christian cere- 
 monial offended those who were fond of pomp and show, 
 and the equality of the Christian brotherhood offended 
 those who loved power. Hence corruptions crept in. 
 They were anticipated and forefold by the Apostles. And 
 hence the necessity of distinguishing between Divine law 
 and human tradition. We have no power to change the 
 law, or to make any addition to it. The assumption of 
 such power in primitive times was a fatal error, the evil 
 consequences of which are felt to this day. Instead of 
 adhering strictly to the Scripture rule, men dealt with 
 Christianity as they dealt with systems of philosophy. 
 They treated it as if it were susceptible of improvement, 
 and might be accommodated to circumstances. They took 
 the liberty to engraft on it certain peculiarities of Judaism, 
 and even of Paganism. They multiplied forms to the sore 
 detriment of the spirit and the life. 
 
 It has been customary to appeal to the opinions and 
 practices of the churches of the first three centuries after 
 the Apostles. In the controversy with the Church of Rome 
 it is an available argument to this extent, that it takes from 
 
10 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 that Church the plea of antiquity, since it proves that 
 Romanism, as such, did not exist in the above-mentioned 
 period. Yet it cannot be denied that the first steps towards 
 Romanism were then taken. Professing Christians soon 
 abandoned the high ground of Scripture, and took pleasure 
 in " vain deceit " and " will-worship." In this they are not 
 examples for our imitation. We must go further back — to 
 the Book itself — to the recorded enactments of the Divine 
 
 rt 
 
 THE FORUM AT ROME. 
 
 (As it appeared in the First Century of the Christian Era.) 
 
 Lawgiver , and our object will be to ascertain how far, and 
 by whom, the Saviour's will has been regarded. 
 
 This can only be accomplished by consulting the writers 
 of the times now under consideration. The ** Apostolic 
 Fathers " first claim attention. They are : Barnabas, 
 Hermas, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, and Polycarp. To 
 
 1*1 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 II 
 
 these some add Papias, a few fragments only of whose 
 writings have been preserved by Eusebius. the ecclesiastical 
 historian. They contain no reference to the subject now 
 before us. 
 
 The writings ascribed to Barnabas and Hermas were 
 probably composed in the second century, by some weak- 
 minded Christians, who fathered their own poor effusions 
 on the coadjutor of the Apostle Paul, and the brother men- 
 tioned by him in his epistle to the Romans (ch. xvi. 14). 
 But though they are not genuine books, they may be re- 
 garded as witnesses to the religious views entertained by 
 the Christians of those times. In the work ascribed to 
 Barnabas, we find the following passage : — " We descend 
 into the water laden with sins and corruption, and ascend 
 bearing fruit, having in the heart the fear [towards God], 
 and in the spirit the hope towards Jesus."* There are 
 several references to baptism in the writings bearing the 
 name of Hermas, some of them exceedingly fanciful, but 
 there is not the slightest allusion to infant baptism ; he 
 speaks repeatedly of descendl-ig into the water, and ascend- 
 ing out of it, evidently alluding to immersion. 
 
 Let us pass on to Clement of Rome. He was bishop or 
 pastor of the Church in Rome, and died about the year 100. 
 His epistle to the Corinthians is a precious gem. Baptism 
 is not mentioned in it. A second epistle to the Corinth- 
 ians is attributed to him, but without sufficient grounds. 
 There is one sentence referring to baptism. It is as 
 follows: — "If we do not keep the baptism pur. ar.d un- 
 defiled, with what confideice shall we enter the kingdom 
 GfGod?"t 
 
 Ignatius comes next. He was pastor at Antioch in 
 
 Syria, and suffered martyrdom by exposure to wild beasts 
 
 at Rome, a.d. 116. Several letters were written by him, 
 
 which have come down to us in an interpolated state. 
 
 * Ch. ii. f Sect. 6. 
 
u 
 
 12 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 There are a few allusions to baptism. He refers twice to 
 the baptism of our Saviour by John. He tells the Smyr- 
 neans that the ordinance should not be administered with- 
 out the bishop.* In writing to Polycarp he uses this 
 military phraseology — *' Let your baptism continue as a 
 shield, faith as a helmet, love as a spear.f This is all." 
 
 SMYRNA 
 
 (The Place oj Martyrdom of Polycarp in a.d, 167;. 
 
 Polycarp suffered martyrdom by fire at Symrna, a.d. 167. 
 An epistle to the Philippic.ns is attributed to him. It does 
 not allude either to baptism or to the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Justin Martyr was a philosophic Christian. He wns put 
 * Sect. 8. t Sect. 6. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 13 
 
 to death at Rome, a.d. 166. In his first " Apology," ad- 
 dressed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, he gives the 
 following account of baptism as practised in his days : — 
 "As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach 
 is true, and undertake to conform their lives to our doctrine, 
 are instructed to fast and pray, and entreat from God the 
 remission of their past sins, we fasting and praying to- 
 gether with them. They are then conducted by us to a 
 place where there is water, and are regenerated in the same 
 manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. F or they 
 are then washed in the name of God the Father and Lord 
 of the Universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the 
 Holy Spirit."* Observe the manner in which he speaks of 
 baptism. The candidates are those who are *• persuaded " 
 and " believe ;" and the ordinance is administered, not by 
 sprinkling, but by the washing of immersion. Senr.isch, 
 the learned biographer of Justin, says, " Whenever Justin 
 refers to baptism, adults appear as the objects to whom 
 the sacred rite is administered. Of infant baptism he 
 knows nothing." 
 
 Irenaeus became bishop of Lyons in France, a.d. 177, and 
 died A.D. 202. He mentions baptism several times, and 
 seemingly connects it with regeneration, as Justin had done 
 before him, in the passage just cited : but it is extremely 
 doubtful whether Justin or Irenaeus thought that men were 
 regenerated in or by baptism. Their object was to show 
 that as the convert came under new obligations and entered 
 into new relationships, at his baptism, it was equivalent to 
 the assumption of a new life : he v/as in this profession 
 " born again unto God," and publicly entered into the 
 spiritual family. This view of the subject is confirmed by 
 another representation given of baptism by Justin in the 
 course of his narrative. He says, "This washing is called 
 ' Illumination^ because those who learn these things are 
 
 * Sect. 79. 
 
il r 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 enlightened in their minds."* Baptism is not *< illumina- 
 tion," but it is so called because it is connected with an 
 enlightened state of mmd: in like manner, baptism is called 
 *' Regeneration," not because it regenerates, but because it 
 is connected with a regenerate state and a new life, pro- 
 fession of which is then made. 
 
 Two passages used to be quoted by Psedobaptist writers, 
 as testimonies in favour of infant baptism. One is from 
 
 LYONS. 
 
 (The Scene of the Bishop/ic of Irenceus) 
 
 Justin Martyr. He writes thus : — " Many men and many 
 women, sixty and seventy years old, who from children 
 have been disciples of Christ, preserve their continence."! 
 The other is from Irenasus. These are his words : — " He 
 came to save all persons by Himself; all, I say, who are 
 regenerated by Him unto God — infants, and children, and 
 boys, and 3'oung men, and old men." But baptism is not 
 ♦ Sect. 80. t ApoL i. sect 18. 
 
 tu 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 \ 
 15 
 
 mentioned in either of these passages, and modern critics 
 have confessed that they afford no support to the Paedo- 
 baptist view. All that Justin means is, that he knew many 
 persons who had been disciples of Christ from early life ; 
 and he expressly connects " choice " and ** knowledge " 
 with baptism, of which infants are incapable. The lan- 
 guage used by Irenaeus " merely expresses," says Hagen- 
 bach (a German Paedobaptist), " the beautiful idea that 
 Jesus was Redeemer in every stage of life, and for every 
 stage of life; but it does not say that He became Redeemer 
 for children by water baptism."* 
 
 We are now brought to the close of the second century. 
 But few Christian authors had as yet appeared. Is it 
 not remarkable, liowever, that in none of their vvritings 1 
 which have be en pre served is Ikere any mention of infant 
 b.a|lLisjQa ? If it existed, it must have been a promiq^ent 
 thing in the Church transactions of the period. But these 
 Christians knew nothing of it. Neither Clement of Rome, • 
 nor Ignatius, nor Justin, nor any other author, wrote a ' 
 word which would lead us to suppose that infants were ^ 
 baptized. There is a singular difference in this respect/, 
 between the statements of these Christian fathers andli 
 the correspondence of modern Paedobaptist missionaries. | 
 Read the letters of missionaries in the Reports of Mis-| 
 sionary Societies. How careful they are to give us fullj 
 information respecting the number of children that havel 
 been baptized, and how numerous are the references tof 
 them ! With what solicitude are arrangements made, and \ 
 their operation watched over, with a view to the religious 
 instruction and training of baptized children ! We search 
 the Christian writings of the first two centuries in vain 
 for anything of this kind. That the Christians of those 
 times gave their children the benefit of religious teaching 
 and example is not to be doubted ; but they did not baptize 
 
 * History of Doctrines t i. 193. 
 
 \ 
 
i6 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 Ithem till they could answer for themselves, and voluntarily 
 
 
 assume the vows of the Christian profession. 
 
 We have now advanced two hundred years, and have 
 mit..yet fbuad-infant baptism. It will come in sight soon, 
 along: with other corruptions and inventions. 
 
 Sectiojv III. 
 
 TertuUian— Baptism of Children in Africa— Origen — First Appearance of 
 Infant Baptism— The Clinics— Christianity i.i England. 
 
 WE are now approaching the development of those 
 corrupting influences which had been at work 
 from the Apostolic age, silently sapping the foundations 
 of personal piety. In adverting to the language employed 
 by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, we endeavoured to clear 
 those authors from the imputation of unevangelical sen- 
 timents, and to interpret their expressions in a sound and 
 safe sense. But though it may be possible to hold them 
 guiltless, it is feared that many of their cotemporaries 
 were fairly open to the charge of holding unscriptural 
 opinions. A notion had grown up, that k.ptism actually 
 accomplished what was professed in it. As the miracu- 
 lous gifts of the Spirit were often bestowed upon believers 
 immediately after their baptism, men began to think that 
 it was then first that the Spirit wrought on the soul. 
 And as the act of obedience to the Saviour in the ordi- 
 nance was commonly associated with spiritual enjoyments 
 and manifestations, and happy converts, like the eunuch, 
 " went on their way rejoicing," there were some who 
 came to the conclusion that what was connected with 
 baptism was produced by it. If the convictions that led 
 the candidate to the baptismal water, and impelled him 
 to the act of dedication to the Saviour's service, were 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 17 
 
 greatly strengthened at his baptism, so that he then ex- 
 perienced a more intensely satisfying consciousness of 
 pardon and union with Christ, results were confounded 
 with causes, and the new believer was taught to ascribe 
 to baptism' the Messings which he had in fact enjoyed 
 before, but which he realized more vividly when he obeyed 
 the Lord. 
 
 This step taken, the transition to yet more perilous errors 
 and evils was easy. When baptism was thus invested with 
 a kind of supernatural power, the outward act was soon 
 substituted for the spiritual qualification. Instead of direct- 
 ing inquirers to the Atonement, and encouraging them to 
 seek by prayer for the teaching and aid of the Holy Spirit, 
 the religious instructions of that age expatiated on the vast 
 powers of baptism. TertuUian, for example, a Christian 
 writer who flourished at the close of the second and the 
 commencement of the third century, " declares the follow- 
 ing spiritual blessings to be consequent upon baptism : — 
 remission from sins, deliverance from death, regeneration, 
 and participation in the Holy Spirit. He calls it the 'sa- 
 crament of washing,' the ' blessed sacrament of water,' the 
 * laver of regeneration.' "* When such opinions as these 
 were entertained, is it not evident that the door was open 
 to manifold abuses, and that those who had so far departed 
 from Christian truth, would be likely enough to interfere 
 with Christian worship and obedience ? 
 
 TertuUian was a native of Carthage in Africa, and spent 
 most of his life in that city. It is supposed that he died 
 about the year 220. His tract, '• De Baptismo,'' was pro- 
 bably written twenty years before his death. From that 
 tract and from other writings of his, we learn that at the 
 beginning of the third century, there were some strange 
 additions to the ordinance of baptism. The new convert 
 was placed among the catechumens, that he might be 
 
 * Bishop Kaye's TertuUian, p. 432. 
 C 
 
I 
 
 
 18 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 fully instructed in the faith. After a sufficient probation 
 he was admitted to baptism. The following account of the 
 manner in which it was administered is taken from the late 
 Bishop of Bristol's "Ecclesiastical History of the Second 
 and Third Centuries, illustrated from the Writings of Ter- 
 tullian":— 
 
 " The candidate, having been prepared for its due recep- 
 tion by frequent prayers, fasts, and vigils, professed, in the 
 presence of the congregation and under the hand of the 
 
 RUINS OF CARTHAGE. 
 
 (The Birth-place of Tertullian). 
 
 president, that he renounced the devil, his pomp, and 
 angels. He was then plunged into the water three times, 
 in allusion to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, 
 making certain responses which, like the other forms here 
 mentioned, were not prescribed in Scripture, but rested on 
 custom and tradition. He then tasted a mixture of milk 
 and honey — was anointed with oil, in allusion to the prac- 
 tice under the Mosaic Dispensation of anointing those who 
 were appointed to the priesthood, since all Christians are. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 10 
 
 in a certain sense, supposed to be priests — and was signed 
 with the sign of the cross. Lastly followed the imposition 
 of hands, the origin of which ceremony is referred by our 
 author to the benediction pronounced by Jacob upon the 
 sons of Joseph."* 
 
 The administration of baptism was at that early period 
 encumbered by ceremonies of merely human invention; in 
 fact, Tertullian complains, in another work, that "various 
 forms and observances had been introduced into the Chris- 
 tian worship, of which soniQ bore too close a resemblance 
 to the customs and practices of the Gentiles." The signing 
 with the sign of the cross was a superstition early practiced 
 among the Christians. They crossed themselves perpetually. 
 Whatever they undertook or engaged in — when they went 
 out — when they returned home — when they dressed them- 
 selves, or put on their shoes, or sat down to a meal, or 
 went to the bath or to bed — the sign of the cross was asso- 
 ciated with everything. We need not wonder that the 
 heathen suspected it to savour of magic. 
 
 We have mentioned these particulars for the purpose of 
 showing that, at the beginning of the third century, re- 
 ligious declension had considerably advanced. No one 
 will now be surprised at hearing that an attempt was made 
 to extend the administration of baptism in an unwarrant- 
 able manner. It is referred to by Tertullian in his tract, 
 " De Baptismo,'" in terms of strong disapproval. Some 
 persons had introduced children (not infants) to baptism, 
 or advocated the administration of the ordinance to them. 
 Tertullian indignantly reproves the practice. " Let them 
 come," he says, "when they are taught to whom they may 
 come ; let them become Christians when they are able to 
 know Christ. Why should this innocent age hasten to the 
 remission of sins ? " f Now, is it not obvious that Ter- 
 tullian was entirely unacquainted with infant baptism, and 
 * P. 434. f De Baptismo, ch. xviii. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 that this children's baptism, which then first befjan to be 
 talked of, was regarded by him as an unauthorised innova- 
 tion ? The sign of the cross, the giving of milk and 
 honey, and similar ceremonies, were comparatively small 
 matters, trifling circumstances ; they were uncalled-for 
 additions to the ordinance, and were so far mischievous 
 but they did not change it. It was still connected with 
 knowledge, and repentance, and faith. But the admission 
 of children, if they were not old enough to repent and 
 believe, would change the ordinance. It would dissever it 
 from those religious prerequisites with which it had been 
 hitherto uniformly associated. The Gentile or Jewish rites 
 which had been added to it tended to make it more im- 
 posing, and so attracted the notice of the weak-minded; but 
 to allow children to be baptized, who were not subjects of 
 repentance and faith, would be, in Tertullian's opinion, to 
 revolutionize the institute altogether. We act more wisely, 
 he remarked, in temporal matters ; surely we ought not to 
 admit to baptism those whom we consider unfit to manage 
 temporal affairs. So he argued. 
 
 The case is quite clear. Children (not infants y but 
 probably children from six to ten _ "•.rs old) are first men- 
 tioned in connection with the ordinance at the beginning of 
 the third century, and then with disapproval. "Tertullian's 
 opposition," the learned Baron Bunsen remarks, *'is to the 
 baptism of young, growing children ; he does not say a 
 word about new-born infants."* 
 
 Some writers have laboured hard to prove that Origen 
 referred in his writings to infant-baptism as a then existing 
 fact, and that he assigned to it an Apor.tolic origin. 
 Origen was the most learned Christian of that age. He 
 flourished from a.d. 203 to a.d. 254, and attained high 
 repute, both as a teacher in the catechetical school of 
 Alexandria and as an author. But his references are to 
 * Christianity and Mankind, ii. 115. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 21 
 
 c/nVrf-baptism, not to ^;//rtn^bapt^sm ; and the difference 
 between him and Tertullian is, that the latter decidedly 
 objected to the practice, while Origen spoke of it with 
 approbation. How far, however, did that approbation 
 extend ? Only to the baptism of such children as were 
 capable of instruction, and gave indications of piety; for he 
 uniformly taught that "the benefit of baptism depended on 
 the delibeiate purpose of the baptized." His reply to an 
 objection of Celsus expresses his views. That heathen 
 writer, having stated that ** intelligent and respectable 
 persons " were invii ;d to initiation in the heathen mysteries, 
 proceeds thus: — "And now let us hear what persons the 
 Christians invite. Whoever, they say, is a sinner, whoever 
 is unintelligent, whoever is a mere child, and, in short, 
 whoever is a miserable and contemptible creature, the 
 kingdom of God shall receive him." Origen answers him 
 in the following manner : — ** In reply to these accusations 
 we say, it is one thing to invite those who are diseased in 
 the soul to a healing, and it is another to invite the healthy 
 to a knowledge and discernment of things more divine. 
 And we, knowing the difference, first call men to be 
 healed. We exhort sinners to come to the instruction 
 that teaches them not to sin, and the unintelligent to come 
 to that which produces in them understanding, and the 
 little children to rise in elevation of tJiougJit to the man, 
 and the miserable to come to a more fortunate state, or 
 (what is more proper to say) a state of happiness. But 
 when those of the exhorted that make progress show that 
 they have been cleansed by the Word, and, as much as 
 possible, have lived a better life, then we invite them to 
 be initiated among us."*" 
 
 Such children as Origen here describes would be " ini- 
 tiated," that is, baptized by any Baptist in these days. 
 
 * See Christian Review, April, 1854, containing an article by Dr. Ira 
 Chase on the " Opinions of Origen respecting Baptism." 
 
iH 
 
 22 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 H ! 
 
 If they have been ** cleansed by the Word," what more can 
 we require ? Tertullian's objection seems to have arisen 
 from the undue eagerness of some persons to hurry children 
 to the baptismal water before they could fully understand 
 and receive the truth. But neither of these fathers refers 
 to infants. They ascribed influences to baptism which 
 are nowhere mentioned in the New Testament. They used 
 language implying that an outward ceremony produced an 
 inward, spiritual effect. They taught the necessity of 
 baptism in order to pardon and salvation. And yet they 
 also maintained the necessity of repentance and faith ; and 
 therefore they demanded, that, if young children were 
 baptized, they should not be admitted to the ordinance till 
 they were *' able to know Christ," and were " cleansed by 
 the Word." 
 
 We have at length arrived at the origin of Infant 
 Baptism. Its birth-place was a district of Northern 
 Africa, one of the least enlightened portions of the earth 
 in that age; the time, the middle of the third century; 
 the occasion, certain unscriptural notions which had gra- 
 dually gained prevalence respecting the design and efficacy 
 of the baptismal rite. Having adverted to those extrava- 
 gances in a former section, it is unnecessary to adduce 
 further proof. But the reader can easily trace the pro- 
 gress of error. When believers, newly baptized, rejoiced 
 in the forgiveness of sin, and exhibited satisfactory evidence 
 of a regenerated state, men soon began to regard pardon 
 and regeneration as the effects of baptism. Hence sprang 
 the opinion of its necessity to salvation. That being 
 admitted, the question of time came next under con- 
 sideration. Was it not desirable to obtain pardon and 
 regeneration at the earliest period possible ? And besides, 
 were not infants circumcised under the Jewish law ? 
 These questions v/ere in the mind of Fidus, a bishop of 
 some place in Northern Africa. We can have no doubt 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 23 
 
 irang 
 
 con- 
 and 
 sides, 
 law ? 
 op of 
 loubt 
 
 as to his duty under such circumstances. He ought to 
 have searched the New Testament, if he had one (we 
 cannot be sure of it, for books were scarce and dear in 
 those days), and inquired into the differences between 
 the Old and the New Dispensations, the carnal and the 
 spiritual Israel. If he had carried on the inquiry fairly, his 
 difficulties would have been removed without further re- 
 ference. But he either could not or would not conduct the 
 requisite investigation. Cyprian was at that time Bishop 
 of Carthage, and was reverenced as a great authority in 
 all Church affairs. Fidus wrote to Cyprian. Certain 
 persons, he said, had advised the baptism of infants im- 
 mediately after birth ; but he could not agree with them, 
 and particularly for this reason, that whereas it was cus- 
 tomary to receive the baptized with a brotherly kiss, a 
 newly-born infant could not be so received, being treated 
 as unclean for several days after its coming into the world. 
 He thought it best, therefore, to wait till the eighth day, 
 and to baptize the infant at the same time at which, under 
 the law, it would have been circumcised. But he asked 
 advice of Cyprian, who laid the case before a council 
 which had assembled at Carthage, in the year 252, for 
 the settlement of various ecclesiastical matters. Sixty- 
 six bishops met on that occasion. The answer is given 
 in a letter written by Cyprian, from which the following 
 extract is taken : — 
 
 ** None of us could agree to your opinion. On the con- 
 trary, it is the opinion of us all, that the mercy and grace 
 of God must be refused to no human being, so soon as 
 he is born ; for since our Lord says in His Gospel, ' The 
 Son of Man is not come to destroy men's souls, but to 
 save them,* so everything that lies in our power must be 
 done that no soul may be lost. As God has no respect 
 of persons, so too He has no rejpect of age, offering 
 Himself as a Father with equal freeness to all, that they 
 
3 in 
 
 
 24 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 
 I 
 
 may be enabled to obtain the heavenly grace. As to 
 what you say, that the child in its first days of its birth 
 is not clean to the touch, and that each of us would 
 shrink from kissing such an object, even this, in our 
 opinion, ought to present no obstacles to the bestowment of 
 heavenly grace ; for it is written, ' To the pure all things 
 are pure ;' and none of us ought to revolt at that which 
 God has condescended to create. Although the child be 
 but just born, yet it is no such object anyone ought to 
 demur at kissing it to impart the divine grace and the 
 salutation of peace, since each of us must be led, by his 
 own religious sensibilit}', to think upon the creative hands 
 of God, fresh from the completion of their work, which 
 we kiss in the newly formed man when we take in our 
 arms what God has made. As to the rest, if anything 
 could prove a hindrance to men in the attainment of 
 grace, much rather might those be hindered whose maturer 
 years have involved them in heavy sins. But if even the 
 chief of sinners, who have been exceedingly guilty before 
 God, receive the forgiveness of sin on coming to the faith, 
 and no one is precluded from baptism and from grace, how 
 much less should the child be kept back, which, as it is 
 but just born, cannot have sinned, but has only brought 
 with it, by its descent from Adam, the infection of the 
 old death ; and which may the more easily obtain the 
 remission of sins, because the sins which are forgiven 
 it are not its own, but those of another ?"* 
 
 This is very misty theology. In fact, the religion of 
 great numbers, in the third century, was a compound of 
 Judaism and Paganism, with a slight seasoning of Chris- 
 tianity. Gaudy ceremonials were delighted in, and the 
 strange power which had been ascribed to magical in- 
 fluences was transferred to the ordinances of the Gospel. 
 The immersion in water, the eating of the bread, and the 
 * Labbe and Kossart, Concil. i. 742 — 744. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 25 
 
 As to 
 its birth 
 IS would 
 , in our 
 vment of 
 11 things 
 it which 
 child be 
 )ught to 
 and the 
 1, by his 
 ^e hands 
 c, which 
 e in our 
 anything 
 ment of 
 maturer 
 even the 
 
 before 
 
 e faith, 
 
 ce, how 
 
 as It is 
 
 Ibrought 
 
 of the 
 in the 
 
 )rgiven 
 
 non of 
 bnd of 
 
 Chris- 
 id the 
 lal in- 
 
 ^ospel. 
 
 id the 
 
 drinking of the wine, were associated in their minds, as 
 producing causes, with spiritual transformations and bless- 
 ings. The bodily act was substituted for the mental, 
 and " faith was made void." We do not affirm that 
 every professing Christian was enveloped in this dark- 
 ness ; but it is too evident that the views of the majority 
 were confused, and that, under the leadership of such men 
 as Cyprian, the churches were fast drifting into dangerous 
 notions. 
 
 Nevertheless, they were consistent in some things. They 
 did not separate baptism from the Lord's Supper, as is 
 done by all Paedobaptists in these times. They held that 
 those who were entitled to the one had an equal right to 
 the other. When the infant had been plunged into the 
 baptismal water, it was considered a member of the Church, 
 and received the Lord's Supper. If it was too young to eat 
 the bread, they poured the wine down its throat. This, too^ 
 originated in Northern Africa, and there only we find it, in 
 the period now under notice.* 
 
 Another innovation is traced to the third century. We 
 allude to clinic baptism, that is, the baptism of sick per- 
 sons, confined to their beds. It was not baptism, properly 
 so called, as they were only sprinkled with water, or 
 had water poured on them. The reason alleged for this 
 departure from Apostolic practice, was the necessity of 
 baptism to the salvation of the soul, and the consequent 
 danger of deferring it, lest the sickness should terminate in 
 death. Thus one error led to another. If those clinics 
 recovered, they were not baptized afterwards ; but they 
 were not admitted to the ministry. Novatian, however, 
 was an exception to this rule. He had been sprinkled or 
 received a pouring on his bed, when his dissolution was 
 hourly expected. After his recovery, his eminent qualifica- 
 
 * Bingham's Christian Antiquities, book xii. chap. i. sect. 3, and 
 bool: r.v. chap. iv. sect. 7. 
 
i^ 
 
 .1 
 
 26 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 tions for the ministry induced the churches to deviate from 
 the established custom, and he was ordained. Subse- 
 quently he took a high stand as a reformer. 
 
 We are now brought dov/n to the year 254, the date of 
 Origen's death. The downward tendency Is before us. 
 Baptism, at first the voluntary act of a believer in Christ, 
 has become, in numerous instances, the performance of a 
 ceremony upon an unconscious infant. In all these cases 
 the design of the Christian profession is subverted. Mem- 
 bers are introduced into the churches who are necessarily 
 destitute of the spiritual qualifications enumerated in the 
 New Testament. It does not require the gift of prophecy 
 to foretell the disastrous consequences. Religious declen- 
 sion was both the cause and the effect of the introduction 
 of infant-baptism. The cause, inasmuch as so great a 
 change could not have taken place if the Christian mind 
 had not previously lost a due sense of the spiritual nature 
 of religion : the effect, since the unholy mixture arising 
 from the new arrangement could not but prove injurious to 
 the interests of piety. *' What communion hath light with 
 darkness ?" 
 
 It may be expected that some account of the introduction 
 of Christianitv into England should be given. It is highly 
 probable that the Gospel reached this country at an early 
 period, by means of merchants of Gaul m the first instance, 
 and of missionaries afterwards. But dates and details are 
 wanting. The statements of Tertullian and others are 
 rather rhetorical flourishes than truthful records. That 
 Joseph of Arimathea went to England, with several com- 
 panions, and built a church " made of rods, wattled or 
 interwoven," in which they *' watched, prayed, fasted, 
 preached, having high meditations under a low roof, and 
 large hearts betwixt narrow walls," * is now generally 
 acknowledged to be a fable. That the Apostle Paul visited 
 
 * Fullers Church History , cent, i. sect. 13^ 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 27 
 
 ite from 
 Subse- 
 
 date of 
 fore us. 
 I Christ, 
 ice of a 
 36 cases 
 Mem- 
 :essarily 
 I in the 
 )rophecy 
 1 declen- 
 oduction 
 
 great a 
 an mind 
 .1 nature 
 I arising" 
 
 rious to 
 krht with 
 
 Britain when he travelled *' to the extreme bounds of the 
 West," as Clemens Romanus expressed it, is more easily 
 said than proved. That Claudia, mentioned by Paul in 
 2 Tim. iv. 21, was of British origin, is a conjecture, and 
 nothing more. The story of King Lucius, as Dean Milman 
 observes, *' is a legend."* We must be content to remain 
 in ignorance of the special instrument employed for the 
 enlightenment of England, and can only remark that the 
 Christian Church, ,vhen planted there, harmonized, in its 
 doctrines and services, with the churches of Gaul, from 
 which country missionary expeditions naturally took their 
 westward course. 
 
 * History of Latin Christianity, book iv. chap. iii. 
 
 )duction 
 highly 
 m early 
 istance, 
 tails are 
 >ers are 
 That 
 il com- 
 ttled or 
 fasted, 
 )of, and 
 merally 
 visited 
 
.1 i- 
 
 ! lifi 
 
 1 ! 
 
 » 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 
 
 FROM A.U. 254 TO A.D. 604. 
 
 ^ECTIOjN I 
 
 The Catechumens— Progress of Infant Baptism — Delay of Baptism — Gregory 
 Nazienzen — Chrysostom — Basil — Enhrem of Edessa — The Emperor 
 Constantine — Immersion still the Mode. 
 
 THE Statements made in former sections are abundantly 
 confirmed by impartial divines and historians. One 
 of the most learned men of the present day, the late Baron 
 Bunsen, writes thn? in his work entitled, " Christianity and 
 Mankind." 
 
 *' The Apostolical Church made the school the connecting 
 link between herself and the world. The object of this edu- 
 cation was admission into the free society and brotherhood 
 of the Christian community. The Church adhered rigidly 
 to the principle, as constituting the true purport of the bap- 
 tism ordained by Christ, that no one can be a member of 
 the communion of saints, but by his own free act and deed, 
 his own solemn vow made in presence of the Church. It 
 was with this understanding that the candidate for baptism 
 was immersed in water, and admitted as a brother upon his 
 confession of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 29 
 
 is understood, therefore, in the exact sense (i Pet. iii. 21), 
 not as being a mere bodily purification, but as a vow made 
 to God with a good conscience through faith in Jesus 
 Christ. This vow was preceded by a confession of Chris- 
 tian faith made in the face of the Church, in which the 
 catechumen expressed that faith in Christ, and in the 
 sufficiency of the salvation offered by him. It was a vow 
 to live for the time to come to God and for his neighbour, 
 not to the world and for self; a vov/of faith in his becoming 
 a child of God, through the communion of his only-begotten 
 Son, in the Holy Ghost; a vow of the most solemn kind, 
 for life and for death. The keeping of this pledge was the 
 condition of continuance in the Church ; its infringement 
 entailed repentance or excommunication. All Church dis- 
 cipline was based upon this voluntary pledge, and the re- 
 sponsibility thereby self-imposed. But how could such a 
 vow be received without examination ? How could such 
 examination be passed without instruction and observation? 
 As a general rule, the ancient Church fixed three years for 
 this preparation, supposing the candidate, whether heathen 
 or Jew, to be competent to receive it. With Christian chil- 
 dren the condition was the same, except that the term of 
 probation was curtailed according to circumstances. Pajdo- 
 baptism in the more modern sense, meaning thereby the 
 baptism of new-born infants with the vicarious promises of 
 parents and other sponsors, was utterly unknown to the 
 early Clmrcli, not only down to the end of the second, but 
 indeed to the middle of the third century.'" 
 
 The catechumen institution may be traced back to an 
 early period — as far as the second century.** At first, as we 
 gather from the New Testament, converts were baptized 
 as soon as they acknowledged Christ. Afterwards, it was 
 judged expedient to prepare them for baptism by a course 
 of instruction, generally extending, as Baron Bunsen states 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 105. 
 
• I 
 
 30 
 
 Baptist History » 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 in the above-cited passage, to three years. In the first 
 ages they experienced Christianity, and then professed it. 
 In after times they learned Christianity, and that, in too 
 many instances, was all : conversion and experience were , 
 unknown. But this catechumenical system was adapted to ! 
 those only who were able to learn, and therefore excluded 
 infants. Its very existence was incompatible with infant- ', 
 baptism ; and the consequence was, that when the latter 
 became general the former disappeared, or dwindled down 
 to an unmeaning form. But in the period which is now 
 before us the Catechumens were a distinct order. Certain 
 persons, called Catechists, were appointed to instruct them. 
 They occupied a separate place in Christian assemblies, 
 and were required to withdraw before the celebration of the 
 Lord's Supper, which they were not permitted to witness. 
 From the Latin phrase used in dismissing the assembly, 
 the v/hole service was called "ilfma," from which the 
 English word " Mass " is derived. There were the Missa 
 Catcchumcnorum, or service of the Catechumens, and the 
 Missa Fidclium, or service of the Faithful ; the former 
 comprising the reading of the Scriptures and the sermon ; 
 the latter, the Lord's Supper and the devotional exercises 
 which preceded and accompanied it, denoti g the fellowship 
 of believers, to which class the Catechumens did not belong 
 till after their baptism. 
 
 It is a very noticeable fact, that the baptismal service, as 
 prescribed in the earliest liturgies, was prepared for Cate- 
 chumens only. There was no provision for infants. Had 
 infant-baptism been then in existence, the ecclesiastical 
 arrangements would have re :ognized it, and there would 
 have been a twofold service, as there is now in the Church 
 of England, one for infant, and the other for "those of 
 riper years." 
 
 We have called the period from a.d. 254 to a.d. 604 the 
 " Transition Periodj" becaub", so far as baptism was 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 31 
 
 concerned, and, indeed, in many other particulars which 
 might be adduced if needful, the ecclesiastical system was 
 in a formative state. It was neither one thing nor the 
 other, but a mixture of incongruities. The catechumenical 
 arrangement was founded on the theory of baptism on a 
 personal profession of faith, and so far accorded with the 
 New Testament. But infant-baptism had sprung up in 
 Northern Africa, and was gradu extending itself through 
 the powerful influence of AugUbiine, Bishop of Hippo, who 
 wrote largely on the subject. His sheet-anchor in the 
 argument was the supposed efficacy of baptism in removing 
 the defilement of original sin. These two theories were in 
 opposition to each other, for if all candidates for baptism 
 were to become catechumens and receive preparatory in- 
 struction, infant-baptism had no place. Yet there it was, 
 daily gaining ground. Augustine's authority gave it the 
 advantage in the West ; but in the East, the bpptism of 
 children from three to ten years of age, who could in some 
 sort answer for themselves, lingered much longer. And 
 great numbers followed the example of the Emperor Con- 
 stantine, who deferred his baptism till the latest possible 
 period, that all his sins might be w^ashed away at once, 
 as he, poor man, vainly imagined they would be, by the 
 administration of the ordinance. Thus we find a great 
 diversity of practice. There was infant-baptism spreading 
 from North Africa — child-baptism prevalent in the East — 
 catechumen-baptism, properly so called, the ordinary mode 
 of admitting converts — and procrastinated-baptism, includ- 
 ing such cases as Constantine's. We see, then, that this 
 period is rightly termed the; *' Transition Period." 
 
 Neander says, " It was still very far from being the 
 case, especially in the Greek Church, that infant-baptism, 
 although acknowledged to be necessary, was generally in- 
 troduced into practice. Partly, the same mistaken notions 
 which arosi3 from confounding the thing represented by 
 

 ^1^ 
 
 3-^ 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 baptism with the outward rite, and which afterwards led to 
 the over-valuation of infant-baptism, and partly, the frivo- 
 lous tone of thinkin*;, the indifference to all hifjher concerns, 
 which characterised so many who had only exchanged the 
 Pagai. for a Christian outside, — all this together contributed 
 to bring it about, that among the Christians of the East, 
 infant-baptism, though acknowledged in theory to be neces- 
 sary, yet entered so rarely and with so mucJi difficulty into 
 the Church-life during the first half of this period."* 
 
 ** The baptism of infants," Gieseler observes, **did not 
 become universal tUl after the death of Augustine. "f 
 
 Had infant-baptism been universally regarded as a Divine 
 ordinance, it would have been everywhere observed, and 
 Christian parents would have been scrupulously heedful of 
 their duty towards their children in this matter. But it was 
 not so. Some of the best men of the time were children 
 of pious parents, but were not baptized till they attained 
 maturity. We say again, this could not have taken place 
 if infant-baptism had been from the beginning regarded as 
 an Apostolic institution. A few instances may be given. 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen, Archbishop of Constantinople, who 
 died in the year 389, and whose father was Bishop of 
 Nazianzen, was not baptized till he was nearly thirty years 
 old. He expressly intimated his disapproval of infant- 
 baptism, in one of his public discourses, and advised that 
 children should not be baptized till they were three years 
 old or more, at which time they might be able to answer 
 the questions proposed to candidates. | 
 
 Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed preacher, also Arch- 
 bishop of Constantinople, and born of Christian parents, 
 received baptism at the age of twenty-eight. He died in 
 the year 407. 
 
 Basil of Caesarea, though he could boast of Christian 
 
 * History of the Church, ii. 319. f Ecclesiastical History, ii. 47. 
 I Ullmann's Gregory of Naziatizfit, p. 27. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 33 
 
 ancestry for several generations, was not baptized till he 
 was twenty-seven years old. Addressing Catechumens, 
 he says (a. d. 350), " Do you demur, and loiter, and put it 
 off, when you have been from a child catechised in the 
 Word ? Are you not acquainted with the truth ? Having 
 been always learning it, are you not yet come to the 
 knowledge of it? A seeker all your life long, a considerer 
 till you are old ? When will you become one of us ? " 
 Observe — '■^ from a child catechised " — but baptism still 
 delayed.* 
 
 Ephrem of Edessa, a learned writer of the Syriac Church 
 (died A.D. 378), was born of parents who, as Alban Butler 
 remarks, " were ennobled by the blood of martyrs in their 
 family, and had themselves both confessed Christ before 
 the persecutors, under Diocletian or his successors. They 
 consecrated Ephrem to God from his cradle, like another 
 Samuel, but he was eighteen years old when he was bap- 
 tized. "f They would be called good Baptists in these 
 times. They "consecrated" their child, that is, prayed for 
 him, and trained him *' in the nurture and admonition 
 of the Lord;" but they did not think of his being bap- 
 tized till he was a believer, which was not till he was 
 *' eighteen years old." Would they have acted thus, if 
 infant-baptism had been the universal and binding practice 
 of the Church? 
 
 Speaking of the Emperor Constantine, the historian 
 Gibbon says, " The example and reputation of Constantine 
 seemed to countenance the delay of baptism. Future 
 tyrants were encouraged to believe that the innocent blood 
 which they might shed in a long reign would instantly be 
 washed away in the waters of regeneration : and the abuse 
 of religion dangerously undermined the foundation of moral 
 
 * (( 
 
 ■ Oratio exhortatoria ad baptismum," quoted in Wall's History of 
 Infant Baptism, chap. xii. 
 t Lives of the Saints, Art. " St. Ephrem." 
 
II' 
 
 34 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ! [\ 
 ill 
 
 U 
 
 I 
 
 If ii 
 
 i^ 
 
 
 i'^ 1 
 
 virtue."* The truth of the last observation is undeniable. 
 All ecclesiastical history illustrates it. And there is no 
 more melancholy confirmation than that which is afforded 
 by the records of baptism. The fi<;ment of baptismal re- 
 generation, one of the earliest corruptions of Christianity, 
 was an outrage on morals and religion. It encouraged 
 men in sin, and bolstered them up with a false hope, sub- 
 stituting the outward form for repentance, faith, and a 
 changed heart and life. Infant-baptism, also, soon un- 
 folded its injurious tendencies and effects. They will pre- 
 sent themselves at every step of our progress. It seems 
 astonishing that so gross a perversion of Christianity 
 should have acquired such a firm hold of men's minds. 
 But it is among the things that are doomed, and the day is 
 not far off. 
 
 With the sole exception of the clinics, already referred 
 to, baptism still consisted in the immersion of the candi- 
 date, who was ordinarily divested of clothing. The same 
 method was adopted for children as for adults. And the 
 immersion was still commonly performed thrice. 
 
 The following passages are taken from Bingham's "An- 
 tiquities " (book xi. ch. xi). 
 
 *' Cyril of Jerusalem " (died a.d. 386) ** makes it an em- 
 blem of the Holy Ghost's effusion upon the Apostles ; for 
 as he that goes down into the water and is baptized is sur- 
 rounded on all sides by the water, so the Apostles were 
 baptized all over by the Spirit ; the water surrounds the 
 body externally, but the Spirit incomprehensibly baptizes 
 the interior soul." 
 
 " So St. Ambrose " (died a. d. 396) ** explains it. 'Thou 
 wast asked, Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty? 
 And didst thou answer, I believe ; and then thou wast im- 
 merged in water, that is, buried.' " 
 
 *• St. Chrysostom " (died a. d. 407) " proves the resurrec- 
 Dccline and Fall, chap. xx. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 35 
 
 e resurrec- 
 
 tion from this practice ; ' for,' says he, ' our being baptized 
 and immerf^ed into the water, and our rising again out of 
 it, is a vsymbol of our descending into hell or the grave, and 
 of our returning from thence.' " 
 
 "St. Jerome" (died a.d. 420) "makes this ceremony 
 to be a symbol of the Unity as well as the Trinity. * For,' 
 says he, * we are thrice dipped in the water, that the mys- 
 tery of the Trinity may appear to be but one ; we are not 
 baptized in the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 but in one name, which is God.' " 
 
 " St. Augustine " (died a.d. 430) '• tells us there was a 
 twofold mystery signified in this way of baptizing. The 
 trine immersion was both a symbol of the Holy Trinity, in 
 whose name we are b 'ptized, and also a type of the Lord's 
 burial, and of His resurrection on the third day from the 
 dead. For we are buried with Christ by baptism, and rise 
 again with Him by faith." 
 
 Leo the Great (died a.d. 461) says, "The trine immer- 
 sion is an imitation of the three days' burial ; and the rising 
 again out of the water is an image of Christ rising from 
 the grave." 
 
 Gregory the Great (died a.d. 604) wrote thus to Leander, 
 Bishop of Seville : — •' Concerning the three immersions in 
 baptism, you have judged very truly already, that different 
 rites and customs do not prejudice the Holy Church, whilst 
 the unity of faith remains entire. The reason why we use 
 three immersions at Rome is to signify the mystery of 
 Christ's three days' burial, that whilst an infant is thrice 
 lifted up out of the water the resurrection on the third day 
 may be expressed thereby. But if anyone thinks this is 
 rather done in regard to the Holy Trinity, a single immer- 
 sion in baptism does no way prejudice that ; for so long as 
 the unity of substance is preserved in Three Persons, i*: is 
 no harm whether a child be baptized with one immersion 
 or three ; because three immersions may represent the 
 
 D2 
 
f I 
 
 36 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 Trinity of Persons, and one immersion the Unity of the 
 Godhead." 
 
 At first, baptism was administered in rivers, pools, baths, 
 wherever a sufficient quantity of water could be con- 
 veniently obtained. In the fourth century, baptisteries 
 began to be erected. These were large buildings, con- 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 (The seat of the Bishopric of Leander.) 
 
 tiguous to the churches. There was usually but one in a 
 city, attached to the bishop's or cathedral church. The 
 baptistery proper, or font, was in the centre of the build- 
 ing, and at the sides were numerous apartments for the 
 accommodation of the candidates. Several of these bap- 
 tisteries yet remain, and have been frequently described by 
 
 'A'k 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 37 
 
 travellers. The baptisteries at Rome (in the church of St. 
 John Lateran), Ravenna, Florence, Pisa, and Parma may 
 be particularly mentioned. The fonts in these baptisteries 
 are from three to four feet .deep, and of proportionate size. 
 Of course they were intended for immersion. 
 
 , tt*-%-*^-*-^ 
 
 FLORENCE. 
 
 (Where one of the ancient Baptisteries still remains.) 
 
 Sectioj^ II. 
 
 Christian Intolerance— Justinian's Law, enjoining Infant-Baptism— The 
 Novatians — The Donatists— Pelagianism. 
 
 THE period now under consideration was marked by 
 one " transition " which can never be sufficiently 
 deplored. Hitherto, Christians had endured afflictions 
 for the Lord's sake, and had willingly suffered the loss 
 of all things rather than renounce the faith. But a 
 
\ 
 
 n! i 
 
 38 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 chancre had taken place, involving a temptation which 
 proved too powerful for many of them. When Con- 
 stantine the Great declared for Christianity, he expected 
 to stand in the same position towards that religion as 
 he had before occupied with regard to Paganism. The 
 Emperors were the high priests of Paganism, and the 
 civil government had from time immemorial directed 
 and controlled the religion of the country. Was not the 
 same policy still to be observed ? Had Constantine examined 
 the New Testament, the question would soon have been 
 answered. But he was very imperfectly acquainted with 
 that book; and, besides, the exclusive authority of God's 
 Word in matters of religion had long been given up. 
 The profession of Christianity in those times was a very 
 different thing from what it had been in the first and 
 purest ages. Scripture was smothered by tradition. 
 The simplicity of Apostolic form had given place to 
 complicated ceremonies. Expediencj' had supplanted 
 right. The enquiry was not. What has Christ com- 
 manded ? — but rather. How may influence, and power, 
 and patronage, and wealth be obtained ? How may the 
 Gospel become popular ? Such being the views of the 
 leaders, it is not surprising that the people grovelled in 
 worldliness, or that rulers determined to use Christianity 
 as a State machine, as they had used Paganism. Con- 
 stantine led the way, and his successors naturally trod 
 in his steps. He began by enjoining external com- 
 pliance with Christian institutions. The observance of 
 the Lord's-day was enforced by imperial law. Interference 
 in Christian controversies followed. The bishops were 
 too ready to invoke the exercise of the imperial autho- 
 rity, and there was not religious intelligence enough 
 among the people to discern and resist the usurpation. 
 The State set up the idol, uniformity, and they bowed 
 down and worsliipped it. The views entertained by the 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 39 
 
 n, and the 
 
 majority were called " Catholic," because they were said 
 to be held by all, and " Orthodox," because they were 
 assumed to be right. Those who differed from the 
 majority were termed heretics. The words "orthodoxy" 
 and "heresy" were not always employed, however, in the 
 same sense. As each man deemed himself right and his 
 opponent wrong, every man was orthodox in his own eyes ; 
 and as successive emperors patronized one or another form 
 of belief, he who was orthodox in one reign was liable to 
 be stigmatized as a heretic in the next. Patronage, power, 
 and persecution are closely allied. When imperial inter- 
 vention was called for, to settle Christian disputes or to 
 suppress a rising sect, there was no way of exercising it 
 but by means of penalties, for law must of necessity be 
 powerless unless offences against it are punished. Hence 
 arose the monstrous anomaly of Christian persecution. If 
 orthodoxy was in the ascendant, the Catholic emperor pulled 
 down Arian churches, and fined the people for attending 
 Arian worship. The sarne measure was meted out to 
 other sects. If an Arian sat on the throne, the Catholics 
 were subject to the same indignities. It was unchris- 
 tian on both sides. Pagans and Jews were hardened in 
 their unbelief. When Christianity was forced into an 
 alliance with the State, the form (though even that was 
 disguised) remained, but the spirit had departed. 
 
 Were we writing an ecclesiastical history, we should 
 enlarge here. We should expatiate on the sin of legis- 
 lation in the Church, whose duty it is to obey Christ's 
 laws, not to make new ones, — on the pomp and pride 
 of bishops, — the tyranny of kings, — the arrogance of 
 councils,— and especially on the evils which have re- 
 sulted from the wordly admixture connected with the 
 " introduction of infant-baptism. But just now we must 
 confine ourselves to the influence of the State on religion, 
 and particularly in relation to the subject before us. 
 
'r- ^ 
 
 I 
 
 
 i 
 
 40 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 The Emperor Justinian (who reigned from a.d. 527 to 
 A.D. 565) was a thorough despot. He would acknow- 
 ledge no will but his own. The rights of conscience 
 were altogether ignored by him. He claimed absolute 
 mastery over his subjects, and required them to renounce 
 Paganism and embrace Christianity, because he willed 
 it, without reference to other considerations. A notable 
 edict of his illustrates these remarks. It enacted, "that 
 such parents as were yet unbaptized should present 
 themselves, with their wives and children, and all that 
 appertained to them, in the Church; and there they 
 should cause their little ones immediately to be baptized^ 
 and the rest as soon as they were taught the Scriptures, 
 according to the canons. But if any persons, for the- 
 sake of a public office or dignity, or to get an estate,, 
 received a fallacious baptism themselves, but in the 
 meantime left their wives, or children, or servants, or 
 any that were retainers, or near relations to them, in 
 their ancient error, their goods in that case are ordered 
 to be confiscated, and their persons punished by a com- 
 petent judge, and excluded from bearing any office in 
 the commonwealth." * 
 
 Thus the fabric of infant-baptism rested on two pillars. 
 — delusion and force : delusion, inasmuch as the cere- 
 mony was supposed to be invested with regenerating 
 and saving power,— force, as employed by the State, 
 in the interest of the Church. It is true they called it 
 an •' apostolic institution ;" but that was an after-thought. 
 Exorcism, unction, the sign of the cross, holy water, 
 infant-communion, and many other childish practices, 
 were also called "Apostolic institutions," — not at first, but 
 long after they were invented, to concal their real origin, 
 and prevent men from discovering the trickery. 
 
 Unquestionably the progress of religion in the com- 
 
 * Bingham, book xi. chap. iv. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 41 
 
 .D. 527 to 
 
 I acknow- 
 :onscience 
 
 absolute 
 renounce 
 he willed 
 (^ notable 
 ed, ''that 
 I present 
 
 all that 
 lerc they 
 baptized^ 
 scriptures 
 , for the 
 n estate^ 
 t in the 
 i^ants, or 
 them, in 
 
 ordered 
 ' a corn- 
 office in 
 
 o pillars 
 he cere- 
 nerating- 
 i State, 
 :alled it 
 bought. 
 
 water, 
 ■actices, 
 rst, but 
 
 origin. 
 
 e com- 
 
 if 
 
 munity, which was emphatically designated "the Church,"^ 
 was altogether downward during the "Transition Period."" 
 It is an interesting inquiry, how far the spirit of the Gospel 
 was preserved, and its essential truths maintained, by 
 those whom ecclesiastical historians have denominated 
 " heretics " and " schismatics." We shall pursue this 
 inquiry in succeeding chapters. In order to find the true 
 Church, we must look out of the " Church " commonly 
 so called. 
 
 The Novatians and Donatists were the two leading; 
 sects of the period now under consideration. There 
 were many other sects, so called, for it was the fashion 
 to designate as a " heretic " every individual who thought 
 differently from the majority, and to consider those who 
 agreed with him as constituting a party, usually bearing 
 his name. If we were to do so now, the multiplication of 
 sects would be indefinite. 
 
 Novatian lived at Rome. He had embraced Chris- 
 tianity, but his baptism had been deferred ; and it has 
 been already stated that in sickness which threatened tO' 
 be fatal he had been sprinkled or poured on as he lay on 
 his bed, since it was impossible to immerse him. This 
 is the first recorded instance of clinic baptism. It was 
 in fact no baptism at all, though it differed from infant- 
 sprinkling. In the latter, both the subject and the act 
 are wrong. In Novatian's case, there was a proper 
 subject, but the ceremony performed was not baptism,, 
 though it was the best substitute they could think of. It 
 shows us, by the way, how error was creeping in. 
 Novatian ought to have waited for his recovery, when he 
 would have been in a fit state to receive the ordinance. 
 Had it pleased God that his sickness should be fatal, he 
 would have died without baptism, and he would have 
 been in David's position, who desired to build the 
 temple, but was not permitted. The desire was ap- 
 
42 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 proved, though the ^urpose was not accomplished. He 
 *• did vveir that it was in his heart." Already, however, 
 the pernicious notion o^ the necessity of baptism to salva- 
 tion had become prevalent, and consequently Novatian 
 was sprinkled or received a pouring. 
 
 Novatian possessed such talent and zeal that he became 
 a popular teacher. On the death of Fabian, Bishop of 
 Rome, in the year "250, there was a strong desire that 
 Novatian should succeed him, and so he would, had it 
 not been for his known sentiments on one point. Lax 
 habits of discipline, as he believed, had grown up, and 
 were very mischievous in their tendencies. In the 
 Decian persecution great numbers had apostatized, who, 
 on the return of tranquility, sought re-admission into the 
 churches. Novatian differed from his brethren on this 
 subject. He held that apostacy was a sin which wholly 
 disqualified an individual for restoration 'to Christian 
 fellowship, and that it would be destructive to the purity 
 of the Church to re-admit those who had so grossly fallen. 
 God might pardon them. They might find a place in 
 heaven. But the Church must not be defiled, for it is a 
 congregation of saints. Now, whatever opinion we may 
 form respecting Novatian's particular theory, it is unde- 
 niable that the principle on which it rested was derived 
 from the New Testament. Yet it was too spiritual for 
 the times. A majority declared in favour of Cornelius, 
 who was duly installed Bishop of Rome. Nevertheless, 
 the minority would not yield. The time had come (so 
 they argued) for a decided stand. The holiness of the 
 Church was in danger, and must be maintained at all 
 hazards. Separation was better than corruption. They 
 withdrew, formed a separate church, and invited Novatian 
 to become their pastor. Others imitated their example 
 in various parts of the empire, and Novatian churches 
 sprang up in great abundance. They continued in ex- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 43 
 
 shed. He 
 
 
 however, 
 
 
 n to salva- 
 
 
 Novatian 
 
 
 le became 
 
 
 Bishop of 
 
 
 esire that 
 
 
 Id, had it 
 
 
 int. Lax 
 
 
 1 up, and 
 
 
 In the 
 
 
 zed, who, 
 
 
 1 into the 
 
 
 ti on this 
 
 
 :h wholly 
 
 
 Christian 
 
 
 :he purity 
 
 
 sly fallen. 
 
 
 place in 
 
 
 )r it is a 
 
 
 we may 
 
 
 is unde- 
 
 
 5 derived 
 
 
 •itual for 
 
 
 lornelius, 
 
 
 irtheless. 
 
 
 :ome (so 
 
 
 5 of the 
 
 
 ;d at all 
 
 
 . They 
 
 
 ^ovatian 
 
 fel 
 
 example 
 
 
 :hurches 
 
 s:'.---: 
 
 in ex- 
 
 |y 
 
 istence more than three centuries. In all the principal 
 towns and cities, these dissenting communities might be 
 found. They were the Puritans of those days, and were 
 so designated. There was a wholesome rivalry for some 
 time between them and the " Orthodox " or *' Catholic " 
 body, each operating as a stimulus and a check upon 
 the other. 
 
 Carrying out their governing principle in all its details, 
 they baptized all who J lined their churches, ^ven though 
 they had been already baptized by ministers of the ortho lox 
 body, deeming the baptism of a corrupt church invalid. 
 They were therefore the first " Anabaptists," in the strict 
 and proper sense of that word. They were also genuine 
 reformers. Dr. Waddington, an Episcopalian historian, 
 observes, that Novatian ** considered the genuine Church of 
 Christ to be a society where virtue and innocence reigned 
 universally, and refused any longer to acknowledge those 
 as its members who had even once degenerated into 
 unrighteousness. His followers were called Cathari or 
 Puritans, and they comprehended many austere and inde- 
 pendent Christians, in the East no less than in the West. 
 But this endeavour to revive the spotless moral purity of 
 the primitive faith was found inconsistent with the corrup- 
 tions even of that early age : it was regarded with sus- 
 picion by the leading prelates, as a vain and visionary 
 scheme ; and those rigid principles which had character- 
 ised and sanctified the Church in the first century, were 
 abandoned to the profession of schismatic sectaries in the 
 third."* 
 
 There is no evidence that, at the time of Novatian's 
 separation from the Roman Church, infant-baptism had 
 found its way into Italy. The probability is all on the 
 other side, since one hundred and sixty years after that 
 event we find Boniface, Bishop of Rome, propounding 
 * History of the Church, i. i66 (Second Edition). 
 
r . 
 
 ill' 
 
 44 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 doubts and questions to Augustine which indicated that 
 infant-baptism was looked on by him quite distrustfully. 
 These difficulties would not have existed if he had believed 
 that the rite had a divine origin. The incongruity between 
 the ceremonial employed and the reality struck him forcibly. 
 The ceremonial had been originally prepared for catechu- 
 mens, and was then a reasonable service. When infants 
 were substituted for catechumens, the same forms were 
 observed, but they were strangely out of place. In answer 
 to the usual question, the sponsor replied on behalf of the 
 infant, " I believe," whereas, as Boniface remarked, not 
 only was the child unable to believe, but no one could tell 
 whether he would believe in •'fter life or not. No wonder 
 the good man was puzzled.* It reminds us of an incident 
 that occurred in England some years ago. A lad, the 
 child of Baptist parents, was sent to a school where the 
 Church of England catechism was taught. Abraham 
 (that was his name) was compelled to stand up with the 
 other boys. It happened one day that it came to his turn 
 to answer this question — *« Why then are infants baptized, 
 when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform 
 them " [that is, the conditions, of repentance and faith] ? 
 Abraham looked full in his master's face, and said, ** Why 
 indeed, sir ? " He was not £'sked to recite any more.f 
 
 Novatianism and infant-baptism were diametrically op- 
 posed to each other. It was impossible to preserve the 
 purity for which the Novatians contended in any church 
 which had admitted the novel institution. Those who had 
 been baptized in infancy might evince, when they reached 
 maturity, an utter destitution of vital godliness, and con- 
 sequent unfitness for union with a Christian body ; but 
 
 * See his letter in Atigustin. Opera, xxxix. 235 — 244 (Ed. Caillau). 
 
 f The lad was a son of the Rev. Abraham Austin, many years pastor 
 of the Baptist Church meeting in Elim Chapel, Fetter Lane, London. 
 He died in 1816. See Baptist Magazine, vol. viii. pp. 397, 441. 
 
1 t 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 45 
 
 being already members by virtue of their baptism, they 
 could not be expelled unless they fell into gross vice, and 
 so their influence and example might operate most in- 
 juriously on the religious character of the Church. This 
 could not escape the observation of Novatian Christians. 
 It would prove a salutary caution. We may safely infer 
 that they abstained from, compliance with the innovation, 
 and that the Novatian churches were what are now called 
 Baptist churches, adhering to the Apostolic and primitive 
 practice. Had the writings of Novatian authors been pre- 
 served, we should have had more explicit information ; but 
 it was the ancient policy to destroy all books written by 
 alleged heretics. Novatian publislied a work on the 
 Trinity, which has not been involved in the common de- 
 struction. A copy of it is now before the writer. It is 
 generally commended for its clearness and orthodoxy, but 
 there is no allusion to the baptismal controversy. 
 
 The Donatists first appeared in the early part of the 
 fourth century. A dispute about an election to a bishopric 
 was the occasion of their separation from the Catholic 
 Church. Ccecilian was chosen Bishop of Carthage in a 
 somewhat irregular manner, and hastily ordained. Among 
 those who officiated at his ordination was Felix, Bishop 
 of Aptunga. This man was said to be a traditoVf that is, 
 one who had delivered up copies of the Scriptures to the 
 civil authorities during the Diocletian persecution. His 
 concurrence in the ordination was thought by some to 
 vitiate the service. They refused to regard Caecilian as 
 a regularly appointed bishop. A secession took place, 
 which spread rapidly and extensively, so that in a short 
 time the Donatist churches in Africa were nearly equal in 
 number to those of the hitherto dominant party. 
 
 As in the case of the Novatians, the discussion of the 
 general question of church purity arose out of the circum- 
 stances that originated the division. The Donatists pleaded 
 
' I 
 
 46 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 for purity. They mainta" led that Christian churches should 
 consist of godly persons, and no others, and that, in all the 
 arrangements made for their management, that important 
 principle should be kept in view. They followed the ex- 
 ample of the Novatians in rebaptii^ing those who joined 
 them from other churches. They baptized new converts on 
 a profession of faith, a 5 a mo iter of course, for that was the 
 practice of all churches. Whether they went further than 
 this is open to question. Their principles would undoubt- 
 edly lead them to th2 rejection of infant-baptism. Some 
 authors affirm that they did reject it. For our own part, 
 we are disposed to hesitate on that point. V/e are inclined 
 to think that t^ey were divided in opinion, rnd that some 
 of them admitted infant-baptism, though the admission 
 was inconsistent with their acknowledged principles. The 
 majority, we are willing to believe, adhered to the New 
 Testament practice. 
 
 At one of the African Councils, held about the year 
 397, it was agreed to consult their *' brethren and fellow- 
 priests," Siricius, Bishop of Rome, and Simplician, Bishop 
 of Milan, respecting those who had beeu baptized in in- 
 fancy among the Donatists, and who, when they reached 
 mature age, desired to join the church which assumed the 
 title " Catholic."* It was subsequently decided that they 
 should not be re-baptized. This proves that infant-baptism 
 was practised in that sect ; whether universally or not, is 
 another question. Augustine never charges them, as a 
 body, with heresy on that point ; nor does Opatus, a cele- 
 brated writer against the Donatists. 
 
 There is another circumstance proper to be mentioned. 
 The difference between the Donatists and their opponents 
 had been submitted several times to imperial decision. In 
 the first instance the Donatists, it appears, consented to 
 
 * Labbe and Cossart, ii. 1071. Bingham's Antiquities, bock iv. chap. 
 iii. sect. 12. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 47 
 
 the reference ; but they soon discovered the impropriety. 
 " What has the Emperor to do with the Church ? What 
 have Christians to do with kings, or bishops at court ? " 
 they asked. Were they not right ? Have not the Baptists 
 been distinguished in all age^ by the maintenance c/ these 
 •iew'o ? Have they not ever held that civil government has 
 nothing to do with religion, that Christianity asks for no 
 support from the State, and that the union of Church and 
 Sjate has been productive of some of the worst evils that 
 have defiled the Christian profession ? Have they not 
 always repudiated the use of carnal weapons in the defence 
 and propagption of the truth, and demancicd, for themselves 
 and for all men, entire freedom of thought and action in all 
 religious concerns ? This is their glory, and no man can 
 take it from them. 
 
 Both the Novatians and the Donatists suffered severely 
 for their dissent, especially the latter. The celebrated 
 Augustine taught the unchristian doctrine that heresy 
 should be suppressed by the civil magistrate, and invoked 
 the imperial sword against the Donatists. Their property 
 was confiscated, the prisons were crammed with them, and 
 great numbers lost their lives by the hands of the execu- 
 tioner. A sanguinary law was enacted, that the re-baptizer 
 and the re-baptized should be put to death. That so 
 atrocious an enactment should excite tumults in a country 
 where the separatists constituted one-half of the Christ' i 
 population, cannot be considered surprising. Other per- 
 sons, not connected with them, took advantage of it, and 
 great disorders ensued. But Augustine and his party were 
 the aggressors. 
 
 Pelagianism troubled the Church in the fifth century. 
 As Pelagius taught that infants derive no moral taint 
 from Adam's transgression, it has been inferred that he 
 was of necessity an opposer of infant-baptism, since it 
 had then become a generally admitted notion that baptism 
 
' I 
 
 p 
 
 III 
 
 in 
 
 f- I 
 
 I ! 
 
 
 48 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 cleanses from original sin. Pelagius, however, did not 
 deny the propriety of baptizing infants, who obtained, he 
 said, the kingdom of heaven by their baptism, which 
 *' kingdom of heaven " he distinguished from eternal life, 
 and represented as a kind of intermediate state. We need 
 not dwell on such follies, and therefore pass on to observe, 
 that as many in that age stoutly denied the right of infants 
 to baptism, refusing to acknowledge the power of the 
 Church to add to the ordinances of Christ, the Council of 
 Milevi, held a.d. 416, passed a decree in the following 
 terms : " Whosoever denies that newly-born infants are to 
 be baptized, or affirms that they are indeed baptized for the 
 remission of sins, but that they derive no original sin from 
 Adam, ... let him be accursed."*^* Such are the sup- 
 ports of infant-baptism — the frail buttresses of the build- 
 ing; Justinian's mandate, and this anathematising decree 
 of Milevi. But what has the Saviour said ? " Every 
 plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be 
 rooted up " (Matt. xv. 13). 
 
 Much has been said respecting the contest of Augustine 
 the monk with the British Christians on the subject of 
 baptism. It has been supposed that infant-baptism was 
 then unknown in England, and that Augustine endeavoured 
 to force it on the people, as an integral part of Romish 
 policy. Neither aGsertion is correct. There is no good 
 reason to suppose that infant-baptism, which had been 
 gaining prevalence all over Europe, by the zealous labours 
 and powerful influence of Augustine of Hippo, had been 
 kept out of England. We have just seen that Pelagius, 
 who was a Welshman, did not oppose it. Augustine's ob- 
 ject was to procure uniformity of ceremonies, and to induce 
 the Britons to adopt the observances grafted by the Romish 
 Church on the simple baptismal service of the New Testa- 
 ment. Nothing was said about children. Their baptism 
 
 * Labbe and Cossart, ii. 1538. 
 
 •• Wi,l ' 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 49 
 
 was no doubt gradually introduced into England, as in 
 other parts, and ultimately superseded, as it did elsewhere," 
 the primitive ordinance. At any rate, we find traces of it 
 in Wales in the sixth century.** Whether compliance was 
 refused by any parties, and in what numbers, cannot now 
 be ascertained. Here, as in many other respects, there is 
 a lack of information. God's witnesses lay hid for ages.t • 
 
 • See the Liber Landavensis. Llandovery, 1840. 
 
 f Bede's Ecclesiastical History is the only authority for the account 
 of Augustine's interview with the British clergy. The monk required of 
 them, among other things, that they bhould " administer baptism, by 
 which we are born to God, according to the custom of the holy Roman 
 Apostolic Church " (Dr. Giles's Translation). The word used by Bede 
 was *^ compleatis,^' and his meaning was that they should render the 
 administration complete or perfect, by the addition of Romish cere- 
 monies. In some editions of Fabian's Chronicle, Augustine is represented 
 as saying, " that ye give Christendom to children." Fabian, it may be 
 supposed, knew of no baptism but that of infants, and translated, or 
 'ather paraphrased^ accordingly. He died a.d. 1513. 
 
 £ 
 
( f 
 
 fl '! 
 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 il I 
 
 I 1 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE OBSCURE PERIOD. 
 
 FROM A.D. 604 TO A.D. IO73. 
 
 Sectioj^ 1, 
 
 The Manichaeans— Cautions to the Student— All Opponents of Infant-baptism 
 not Baptists — Account of the Paulicians— Their Views of Baptism. 
 
 SOME may wonder that we have as yet said nothing 
 about the Manichasans, a sect which first came into 
 notice about the latter part of the third century, and con- 
 tinued in existence, if historians are to be beheved, a 
 thousand years or more. They were charged with deny- 
 ing infant-baptism. But we wish it to be understood that 
 we consider those only as Baptists, in the New Testament 
 sense of that term, who hold baptism as an ordinance bind- 
 ing on all believers, and refuse it to all other persons. 
 Now, Manichaeism was a compound of Oriental philosophy 
 and Christianity. The fanciful and wild speculations in 
 which Manes indulged were as ill-founded in reason as in 
 Scripture, and justly entitled their author to the appellation 
 " fanatic." He incorporated sundry portions of Christianity 
 into his incongruous system, and therefore the party has 
 been ranked among the heretics, though, as we think, with 
 little propriety. The heretics, as they are called, were 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 51 
 
 seceders from the established or Catholic Church. Manes 
 originated an independent body, on entirely original prin- 
 ciples, and ought to be placed in the same list as Mo- 
 hammed and other founders of systems. It is said that he 
 admitted baptism and the Lord's Supper among the ser- 
 vices enjoined on his followers ; but the Supper was cele- 
 brated with water instead of wine, and baptism was op- 
 tional ; those only who wished it were baptized ; those who 
 did not desire it were not debarred from membership on 
 that account, and infants were excluded from participation 
 in the rite. After these explanations it will not be deemed 
 strange that we have refrained from classing the Mani- 
 chasans with the revivers of primitive religion.* 
 
 We are now entering on the period which we have 
 denominated " obscure." It is so called because the infor- 
 mation is generally scanty, and sometimes of very doubtful 
 character. We may begin by remarking that the student 
 of ecclesiastical history must beware lest he be led astray 
 by the misrepresentations of bigoted historians. Mani- 
 chaeism was soon looked on as a concentration of all that 
 was outrageous and bad in religious opinion, and it became 
 the fashion to call all heretics ** Manichzeans." Hence 
 many excellent men have been so stigmatized, whose views 
 and practices accorded with the Word of God. It is neces- 
 sary to repair to the original sources of history, and even 
 then to scan very closely the statements handed down to 
 us, that they may be disentangled, as far as possible, from 
 mistake or misrepresentation. 
 
 Further : it is not safe or proper to report all opponents 
 of infant baptism as Baptists, in our sense of the word. 
 Throughout the middle ages there were many dissenters 
 
 Manes was a Persian. He was put to death by order of Varanes I., 
 King of Persia, in the year 278. See Beausobre's Histoire Critique de 
 Manich6e ct du Manicheisme, and Mosheim's De Rebus Christianis, ^c, 
 p. 728-903. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 1 ' i: 
 
 from the Catholic faith, as it was called, who rejected bap- 
 tism altogether, holding sentiments respecting thai ordi- 
 nance which much resemble those of the Quakers in these 
 times. Possibly they were driven to those extreme views 
 by contemplating the absurd ceremonies connected with 
 baptism, and the superstitious notions entertained by the 
 majority. It seemed to them better to have no baptism at 
 all than to countenance such follies. Doubtless they were 
 wrong, although much might be offered in excuse for them. 
 But when these parties are adduced as witnesses for infant- 
 baptism, an unfairness is sometimes committed. Thei: 
 opposition was against all baptism, and not against infant- 
 baptism only. We are not disposed to regard any persons, 
 as Primitive Baptists unless they practised the baptism of 
 believers ; their rejection of infant-baptism will not warrant 
 the imposition of that worthy name on them. Mr. Or- 
 chard's " History of Foreign Baptists," and other works of 
 a similar kind, have now and then fallen into this error.* 
 
 * It is not pleasant to be compelled to make any statements calculated 
 to throw discredit on other writers ; but the interests of truth are para- 
 mount to all other considerations, and Baptists ought to be especially 
 careful in this matter. 
 
 Gibbon writes thus : •* In the practice, or at least in the theory, of the 
 sacraments, the Paulicians were inclined to abolish all visible objects 
 of worship, and the words of the Gospel were, in their judgment, the 
 baptism and communion of the faithful." — Decline and Fall, chap. liv. 
 
 The Rev. W. Jones, referring to Gibbon as his authority, says : " The 
 sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper they held to be peculiar 
 to * the communion of the faithful,' that is, ought to be restricted to 
 believers." — Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, ii. i8i. It will be 
 observed that this is not by any means a correct representation of 
 Gibbon. It is quoted by Orchard as an independent testimony. 
 
 Mr. Orchard (History of the Baptists, p. 130) gives the following as a 
 quotation from Mosheim : *' It is evident they [the Paulicians] rejected 
 the baptism of infants. They were not charged with any error concern- 
 ing baptism." We are sorry to say that the first part of this alleged 
 quotation is not to be found in Mosheim. The second part is a mutila- 
 tion. The words of the historian, which occur in a note, are here 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 53 
 
 At the same time it must be confessed that there is often 
 the utmost difficulty in forming a satisfactory judgment in 
 regard to the opinions held by the reformers of the Middle 
 
 copied : " The Greeks do not charge the Paulicians with any error in 
 respect to the doctrine of Baptism, Yet there is no doubt that they 
 construed into allegory what the New Testament states concerning this 
 ordinance. And Photius {Contra Munich, lib. i. p. 29) expressly says, 
 that they held only to a fictitious baptism, and understood by baptism, 
 i.e., by the water of baptism — the Gospel" — Eccle'AasticaL History, cent, 
 ix. part 2. chap. v. sect. 6. 
 
 Mr. Orchard gives also the following, as a quotation from Dr. Allix : 
 " They, with the Manichaeans, were Anabaptists, and were consequently 
 often reproached with that term." We have looked in vain for this 
 quotation. Dr. Allix, speaking of the Manichees, says : " In those 
 barbarous and cruel ages, a small conformity of opinion with the 
 Manichees was a sufficient ground to accuse them of Manicheism who 
 opposed any uoctrines received by the Church of Rome. Thus would 
 they have taken the Anabaptists for downright Manichees, because they 
 condemned the baptism of infants," — Remarks upon the Ancient Church 
 of Piedmont, chap. xv. 
 
 Mr. Orchard says (p. 300), Ecbertus Schonaugiensis, who wrote against 
 this people, declares, " They say that baptism does no good to infants ; 
 therefore, such as come over to their sect they baptize in a private way, 
 that is, without the pomp and public parade of the Catholics." — Wall's 
 History, part 2, p. 228. 
 
 This seems to be clear and explicit testimony. According to the 
 statement, as here presented, the Cathari not only rejected infant- 
 baptism, but also baptized adults, " in a private way." The reader will 
 be astonished to learn that the very opposite was the fact. These 
 people, according to Eckbert, as very fairly quoted by Wall, rejected 
 baptism altogether. Here is the entire passage, copied from Wall. He 
 is speaking of Eckbert, or, as he calls him, Ecbertus Schonaugiensis : — 
 He says, Sermon I. "They are also divided among themselves; for 
 several things that are maintained by some of them, are denied by 
 others." And of baptism particularly, he says, " Of baptism they speak 
 variously ; that baptism does no good to infants, because they cannot of 
 themselves desire it, and because they cannot profess any faith. But 
 there is another thing which they more generally hold concerning that 
 point, though more secretly, viz., that no water baptism at all does any 
 good for salvation. And therefore such as come over to their sect, they 
 re-baptize by a private way, which they call baptism with the Holy 
 
I 
 
 ti- ' i 
 
 III 
 
 54 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Ages. We know nothing of them but by the reports of 
 their adversaries, who were predisposed against them, and 
 who, for want of rehgious sympathy, were unable to appre- 
 ciate or even to understand their pecuhar views. The same 
 words were sometimes used by opposing parties in different 
 senses, and truths were seen in different aspects. Hence 
 the confusion and contradictoriness which are too often 
 apparent. 
 
 These observations apply to the case of the Paulicians. 
 They first appeared about the middle of the seventh cen- 
 tury, in Armenia, and soon spread wonderfully, till they 
 were numbered by hundreds of thousands. Their enemies . 
 accused them of Manicheeism, which accusation they in- 
 dignantly repelled. The only ancient authorities whence 
 we can derive a knowledge of their sentiments are Photius 
 and Petrus Siculus, who wrote against them v/ith great 
 bitterness, and on that account can scarcely be considered 
 as worthy of entire credence. Photius was Archbishop of 
 Constantinople, and died a. d. 890 ; Petrus Siculus, a 
 learned nobleman, died a few years later. He was sent by 
 the Emperor Basil to Tibrica, a Paulician town, in the year 
 870, to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. He remained 
 there seven months, and availed himself of the opportunity 
 of learning the opinions and practices of the Paulicians, 
 both Tjy disputing with them and by instituting inquiries 
 among the Catholics in the neighbourhood. It is unfor- 
 tunate that there is no better authority to consult, for 
 Petrus Siculus was so bitterly prejudiced against the people 
 that his statements cannot be received without doubt and 
 distrust. The only safe course is to endeavour to disen- 
 
 Spirit and with fire." This was the " consolamentum." It is described 
 in the next chapter. 
 
 Mr. Benedict copies Orchard, and thus unwittingly propagates the 
 mistake. — History of the Baptists, p. 67, edit. 1848. The original pas- 
 sage, translated by Wall, is in Biblioth. Maxim. Lvgdun. xxiii. 601. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 55 
 
 tangle facts from opinions, insinuations, and invectives, 
 and thus to ascertain the truth. Yet even then it is im- 
 possible to furnish a complete picture. Petrus Siculus 
 deals chiefly in negatives. He tells us what the Paulicians 
 denied, and rails at them for presuming to differ from the 
 Catholic party, but he leaves us to guess what they really 
 believed, in many important particulars. We mention 
 these things that the reader may perceive the difficulty 
 which lies in the way of an impartial narrator. 
 "About the year 653, during the reign of the Emperor 
 Constans II., a young man named Constantine, resident at 
 Mananalis, in Armenia, rendered hospitable attentions to a 
 stranger whom misfortune had brought under his roof. The 
 stranger proved to be a deacon of a Christian Church, and 
 he had in his possession a precious treasure, which he gave 
 to Constantine on his departure, in return for the kindness 
 shown him. It was a copy of the Gospels and the Epistles 
 of Paul. Constantine read, believed, and obeyed. Mani- 
 chasism, by which he had been deluded, was immediately 
 renounced. His Manichaean books were thrown aside, and 
 the sacred writings were exclusively studied. Shortly after- 
 wards he removed to Cibossa, where he lived and laboured 
 for twenty-seven years. He was a diligent and successful 
 preacher. Great numbers received the truth. In what 
 manner he proceeded to form them into societies or 
 churches, and how they were governed, we have not the 
 means of knowing. We may conjecture and infer, but 
 inference is not history. If the report of Petrus Siculus 
 be correct, they lay under considerable disadvantage in not 
 having the Book of the Acts in their hands, from which 
 they would have gathered the practices of the Apostolic 
 churches, and perhaps this circumstance exerted an un- 
 favourable influence on their arrangements. But we must 
 not affirm positively on this subject. 
 Constantine died the death of a martyr. The Emperor 
 
t 
 
 >i 
 
 m' fe£' J 
 
 'lis 
 
 *= 
 
 ' ^ -r 
 
 56 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Constantine Pogonatu^ sent Simeon, one of his officers, to 
 Cibossa, with a military detachment. He apprehended 
 Constantine, compelled the congregation to present them- 
 selves before him, and ordered them to stone their minister. 
 Tney stood in silence for a while, no one lifting up his 
 hand in obedience to so cruel a command. At length a 
 man named Justus steppea forward, and the murderous 
 deed was done. Simeon then undertook the work of con- 
 version. He disputed with the followers of Constantine, 
 and laboured hard to' estore them to the Catholic Church. 
 But he laboured in vain. Not only so, the arguments used 
 on the other side were too powerful for him. He yielded 
 to the force of truth, and returned to Constantinople a 
 Paulician in heart. At first he did not avow the change 
 
 BAZAAR IN MODERN CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 that had taken place, but at length he found it impossible 
 to conceal it, and consequently he left the Imperial service, 
 retired to Cibossa, joined the persecuted sect, and became 
 the successor of the very man whom he had murdered by 
 the hand of Justus. After several years of usefulness, 
 Justus, 'who had professed repentance and had been re- 
 stored to the Church, quarrelled with him and betrayed him 
 to a neighbouring bishop, by whose means all the members 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 57 
 
 3ssible 
 irvice, 
 2came 
 •ed by 
 Iness, 
 n re- 
 1 him 
 [ibers 
 
 of the Church then resident in Cibovssa were seized and 
 burned alive in one vast pile. Paulus only escaped. He 
 fled to Episparis. His two sons, Genesius and Theodotus, 
 became Par'.cian ministers. Genesius was on one occasion 
 apprehended as a heretic and taken to Constantinople, 
 where he underwent an examination before the Patriarch. 
 It is thus reported by Petrus Siculus : — 
 
 Patriarch, — " Why hast thou derided the orthodox 
 faith?" 
 
 Genesius. — " Anathema to him who denies the orthodox 
 faith " (meaning thereby his own heresy, which he boasted 
 of as the true " orthodox faith "). 
 
 Patriarch. — -'Wherefore dost thou not believe in and 
 adore the venerable cross ? " 
 
 Genesius. — "Anathema to him who does not adore and 
 worship the venerable and life-giving cross " (meaning 
 Christ Himself, whose outstretched arms present the figure 
 of the cross). 
 
 Patriarch. — ' Why dost thou not worship and adore the 
 holy mother of God ? " 
 
 Genesiits. — '* Anathema to him who does not adore the 
 most holy mother of God, the common mother of us all, 
 into whom our Lord Jesus Christ entered " (meaning the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, into which Christ has entered, as our 
 Forerunner). 
 
 Patriarch. — <' Why dost thou not partake of the immacu- 
 late body and precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, but 
 dost rather despise the same ? " 
 
 Genesius. — " Anathema to him who despises the body 
 and blood of Jesus Christ " (meaning thereby the words 
 " body and blood," and nothing more). 
 
 " In like manner," says Petrus Siculus, *' he spake of 
 baptism, saying that Jesus Christ Himself is baptism, 
 and that there is no other, because He said, ' I am the 
 living water.' And thus, perverting everything by his 
 
I 
 
 il 
 
 58 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 own false interpretations, he was acquitted and honourably 
 dismissed." 
 
 After this, Mananalis was again the head-quarters of the 
 Paulicians. Genesius lived there thirty years, and died in 
 peace. Various troubles and disasters followed. Joseph, 
 who seems to have succeeded Genesius, withdrew to Epis- 
 paris, and '"♦er .ds to Antioch, in Pisidia, where he 
 laboured th uy Vv'^s. He was succeeded by Bahanes. 
 But there mubi ;: . - je^jn many more engaged in the work 
 besides these, for the iiupTfect notices that are left indicate 
 an extensive series of operations, embracing a large number 
 of churches, and a powerful body of adherents. 
 
 About the year 810 the Paulicians were joined by Sergius, 
 who became one of the most eminent men of their com- 
 munity. The account of his conversion is exceedingly 
 interesting. He was an intelligent, well-educated young 
 man, and much esteemed for his many excellent qualities ; 
 but he was profoundly ignorant of religion. One day a 
 Christian woman (evidently a Paulician) met with him and 
 entered into conversation. " Why," said she, " do you not 
 read the Holy Gospels ? " " Because," he replied, ** it is 
 not lawful for us laymen, but only for the priests." " You 
 are altogether mistaken," she rejoined, " for there is no 
 respect of persons with God ; He will have all men to be 
 saved." She then proceeded to expose the priestly tyranny 
 of the age, and the gross superstitions by which the people 
 were deluded, urging the young man to examine the matter 
 for himself. He did so. He read, and thought, and prayed, 
 and became a Christian *' in deed and in truth." The 
 genuineness of his conversion was proved by his eminently 
 holy life and incessant zeal. He traversed a large part of 
 Western Asia, preaching everywhere, and calling on the 
 people to abandon the follies of a corrupted Christianity, 
 and *' worship God in the spirit." Thirty-four years were 
 thus spent, and marvellous results accompanied his efforts. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 59 
 
 nourably 
 
 rs of the 
 i died in 
 
 Joseph, 
 to Epis- 
 'here he 
 Bahanes. 
 the work 
 
 indicate 
 : number 
 
 Sergius, 
 
 eir com- 
 
 eedingly 
 
 d young 
 
 ualities ; 
 
 e day a 
 
 him and 
 
 you not 
 
 , " it is 
 
 *' You 
 
 le is no 
 
 n to be 
 
 [tyranny 
 
 people 
 
 matter 
 
 [prayed, 
 
 The 
 
 inently 
 
 part of 
 
 Ion the 
 
 ;ianity, 
 
 Is were 
 
 ifforts. 
 
 Multitudes were converted. So general was the defection 
 from the established Church, that the Greek emperor was 
 greatly alarmed, and adopted the severest measures for the 
 suppression of the Reformation. The Paulicians had 
 endured persecution from the beginning, and had ♦' in- 
 creased and multiplied " under it. But the storm raged 
 with such terrific fierceness during the first half of the ninth 
 century, that utter extermination seemed inevitable. It is 
 affirmed that under the auspices of the Empres ' Theodora, 
 who held the regency during the minority vt t son 
 Michael, from a.d. 832 to a.d. 846, no fewer *';:^n ^ . i hun- 
 dred thousand Paulicians were put to death. ' '^y 'he sword, 
 the gibbet, or the flames," Sergius was one of le victims. 
 He and his brethren went to join those ot hen it is said 
 that they constantly cry, " How long, O A^Oid, holy and 
 true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on those 
 that dwell on the earth ? " (Rev. vi. 10.) 
 
 •' Oppression maketh a wise man mad." 
 
 There is a point at which resistance becomes venial, if not 
 obligatory. Imperial cruelty provoked retaliation and re- 
 venge. The Paulicians took up arms in defence of their 
 families and their homes. The transition from self-defence 
 to active rebellion is easy, and the provinces of the East 
 were convulsed with civil war, for all the miseries of which 
 the persecutors were responsible. It continued many 
 years. The cooperation of the Saracens was sought, 
 and many provinces of the Empire were desolated. But 
 we will not pursue the history further. It is difficult to 
 trace the progress of religion when ■ carnal weapons have 
 been taken up. We will only observe that the Paulician 
 revival had early extended to Thrace, now the Turkish pro- 
 vince of Roumelia ; that in the tenth century a large num- 
 ber of Paulicians were removed to Philippoplis in that 
 country, and also to Bulgaria, the adjoining province ; and 
 
6o 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 'M 
 
 I 
 
 ^ i*' 
 
 that in the following age they began to migrate into Italy, 
 France, and other parts of Europe.* 
 
 Wher. Petrus Siculus sat down to write his history, he 
 was predetermined to blacken the Paulicians to the utmost. 
 Consequently, he maintained that they were Manichaeans, 
 notwithstanding the disclaimer of Constantine, their 
 founder ; and having taken that position, he was resolved 
 to hold it. We shall not think it worth while to discuss 
 the question. There may have been some amon^' them 
 who Rtill retained a regard to the philosophic speculations 
 with which they were familiar before conversion, and which 
 had for many ages proved very injurious to spiritual 
 Christianity ; and that unworthy persons sometimes crept 
 in among them may be readily admitted. That is the fate 
 of all parties. But here was their distinction ; — they with- 
 <'rew from the Greek Church because that Church had 
 abandoned the high ground of Gospel truth and spiritual 
 worship. They asserted the right and duty of searching 
 the Scriptures, and would admit no other rule. They ab- 
 horred saint-worship. They would not adore the cross, nor 
 bow down before images. They abjured the ecclesiastical 
 hierarchy. In a word, they appear to have been Pro- 
 testants before the Reformation, and even before those who 
 have been commonly reckoned as its precursors. The 
 meagre accounts of them which remain, tinged as they are 
 with obstinate prejudice, fail to give us satisfaction. Had 
 we the letters of Sergius, which Petrus Siculus tells us his 
 followers valued highly, we should be able to obtain full 
 and accurate information. This, however, is certain, that 
 a religious movement, springing from God's word, and so 
 firmly maintained against opposition, that two hundred 
 years after its rise the astonishing number of one hundred 
 
 * The " Historia " of Petrus Siculus is printed in the sixteenth volume 
 of the Biblioth. Maxim. Lugdimens. Gieseler has given an abstract of 
 the statements of Photius in his Ecclesiastical History, ii. 209—212. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 6i 
 
 nto Italy, 
 
 story, he 
 ; utmost, 
 ichaeans, 
 le, their 
 resolved 
 ) discuSvS 
 n<^ them 
 :ulations 
 id which 
 spiritual 
 es crept 
 the fate 
 ey with- 
 ch had 
 spiritual 
 [arching 
 ley ab- 
 oss, nor 
 astical 
 Pro- 
 se who 
 The 
 ley are 
 Had 
 us his 
 full 
 that 
 nd so 
 ndred 
 ndred 
 
 olume 
 ract of 
 
 2. 
 
 in 
 
 thousand of its adherents were cut off without destroying 
 the body, must have possessed a mighty influence. We 
 agree with Joseph Milner, the ecclesiastical historian, who 
 observes that in this case we have "one of those extraor- 
 dinary eff"usions of the Divine Spirit by which the know- 
 ledge of Christ and the practice of godliness is kept alive 
 in the world."* But we cannot agree with that writer in 
 the statement, that the Paulicians "were simply scriptural 
 in the use of the Sacraments." Neander says, more truly, 
 that " they combated the inclination to rely on the magica! 
 effects of external forms, particularly the Sacraments : in- 
 deed, they went so far on this side as wholly to reject the 
 outward celebration of the Sacraments. "f 
 
 On the question of baptism, Photius writes to this effect : 
 that though the Paulicians despise " saving baptism," they 
 pretend that they have received it, inasmuch as: they re- 
 ceived the Gospel, wherein Christ declares that He is the 
 *' living water ;"t and he adds, that they are willing that the 
 priests should baptize their children, notwithstanding their 
 disbelief in any saving benefit accompanying the rite. Ad- 
 mitting the correctness of this account, the Paulicians 
 rejected water-baptism, teaching that the knowledge of 
 Christ, which is spiritual baptism, is sufficient. If they 
 allowed the priests to baptize their children, as Photius 
 states, it was probably to save themselves from annoyance, 
 perhaps from persecution; and as, in their opinion, the 
 baptism did the children neither good nor harm, it was 
 looked on as a matter of indifference. We do not justify 
 or commend them. Whatever their views were, the priests 
 judged that they had saved the children by baptizing them, 
 and there should not have been any opportunity given for 
 cherishing that anti-Christian notion. Still it is to be 
 remembered that we are by no means certain of the truth 
 
 * History of the CLurch, cent. ix. chap. ii. 
 ^ f History of the Chur/th- iii. 263. { Ibid, i. g. 
 
"W 
 
 
 62 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 of the statement, as the writer was a virulent opposer of 
 the Paulicians, and aimed to excite hatred against them. 
 The same remark will apply to Petriis Siculus, who, as 
 Gibbon very properly says, wrote "with much prejudice and 
 passion." 
 
 Some maintain that the Paulicians did not reject either 
 baptism or the Lord's Supper (which also they are said to 
 have held in a spiritual sent,e only), but the unauthorised 
 additions that had been made to the ordinances, and the 
 current opinions respecting their design and efficacy. In 
 other words, they rejected baptismal regeneration, and 
 transubstantiation. The progress of perversion, it is truly 
 affirmed, had brought men to this point, that baptism was 
 no longer regarded as a profession of Christ, nor the Lord's 
 Supper as a memorial of His love ; the former was held to 
 be the instrument of regeneration, and in the latter there 
 was said to be an actual reception of the Saviour's body 
 and blood. Whoever refused to acquiesce in these repre- 
 sentations was reproached as a denier of the ordinances, 
 whereas his opposition was confined to corruptions and 
 abuses. This is not an improbable supposition, but we 
 have not the means of verifying it, for want of historic 
 materials. 
 
 It is, however, to be considered, that the Paulicians were 
 not altogether agreed among themselves. There were divi- 
 sions and parties. It may possibly be that Photius and 
 Petrus Siculus designedly referred to those of them whose 
 opinions were, in their judgment, the farthest removed from 
 Catholic verity, and that while some wandered into errors 
 and excesses, the remainder pursued a scriptural course. 
 Photius himself states that some of them observed the 
 Lord's Supper, though, as he affects to believe, they did it 
 " to deceive the simple." This indicates the existence of two 
 parties. Those who observed one ordinance were not likely 
 to neglect the other. We are therefore not indisposed to 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 63 
 
 believe that there were among the Paulicians many who 
 preserved the truths and worship of Christianity, as derived 
 from the New Testament. 
 
 were 
 e divi- 
 and 
 whose 
 
 from 
 errors 
 
 urse. 
 d the 
 did it 
 f two 
 llikely 
 led to 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Religious Reform in Europe— The \. nons of Orleans— Arrai—Berensarius— 
 
 Miscellaneous Anecdotes. 
 
 ALTHOUGH certain scattered notices in historical 
 writings render it probable that during the "Obscure 
 Period " religious reformers were silently working their 
 way in different parts of Europe, the expressions used are 
 so general and vague that we cannot fully gather from them 
 the opinions supposed to have been held by the said re- 
 formers. Whatever their various sentiments were, we find 
 them indiscriminately libelled as " Manichaeans," which 
 was as much as to say that they were children of the 
 devil, and should be left to their fate. It is a curious fact 
 that Italy was the fountain-head of these heresies. Power- 
 ful and cunning as the Popes were, they could not preserve 
 their own territories from the spiritual infection. 
 
 Now and then the hidden seed sprouted up and showed 
 itself above ground. An instance occurred at Orleans, in 
 France, in 1022. Ten canons of the Church were discovered 
 to be imbu-'d with heretical notions, which they were said 
 to have received from Italy, by means of a lady of that 
 land. The discoveries excited great horror. Forthwith 
 the king and queen, attended by a large retinue ri 
 prelates, hastened to the spot to make inquisition. One 
 Arefastus, who had pretended to be an inquirer into the 
 new opinions, and by that means had won the confidence 
 of the leaders, became a witness against them. They were 
 charged, among other things, with holding that there is no 
 
it'll 
 
 ill 
 
 I, it- 
 
 ;i 
 
 i i I 
 
 ii i 
 
 11 
 
 64 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 washing away of sins in baptism, that in the Lord's Supper 
 the bread and wine are not changed into the body and 
 blood of the Saviour, and that it is unlawful to pray to the 
 saints. These were unpardonable sins. The accused were 
 men of learning and piety, whose unimpeachable characters 
 
 VIEW IN AKRAS, FLANDERS. 
 
 and holy lives were well known, and by whose benevolence 
 many poor were daily relieved ; but they did not believe in 
 baptismal regeneration, transubstantiation, and saint-wor- 
 ship, and therefore they must be burned alive — and burned 
 they were, on the very day of their trial. First, however, 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 65 
 
 's Supper 
 body and 
 •ay to the 
 ised were 
 haracters 
 
 jvolence 
 ilieve in 
 Hnt-wor- 
 burned 
 lowever, 
 
 they were solemnly degraded from the priestly office, the 
 queen standing guard at the church door while the cere- 
 mony of degradation was being performed, lest the populace 
 should push in and anticipate the execution by murdering 
 them. Her majesty gave a striking manifestation of her 
 zeal for orthodoxy, immediately afterwards, by knocking 
 out the eye of one of the sufferers, who had been her own 
 confessor, and against whom, therefore, she was especially 
 enraged. They were then taken outside the city walls and 
 committed to the flames. One author states that three or 
 four other persons, who had embraced the same opinions, 
 and who were of very respectable standing in society, 
 suffered with them.* 
 
 Three years afterwards, another band of heretics made 
 their appearance at Arras, in Flanders. They were appre- 
 hended and brought before a council convened on the 
 occasion, when they gave this account of themselves : — 
 " Our law and discipline," said they, " which we have 
 received from the Master, will not appear to be contrary to 
 Gospel decrees and Apostolic sanctions, if any one will 
 diligently consider the same. For it is this — to relinquish 
 the world, to restrain the flesh from concupiscence, to pro- 
 vide for our support by the labour of our own hands, to 
 seek the hurt of none, to show charity to all. This 
 righteousness being preserved, there is no need of bap- 
 tism ; if this be turned from, baptism cannot save. This 
 is the sum of our justification, to which the use of baptism 
 can add nothing, for it comprises the entire purpose of all 
 Apostolic and evangelical instruction. But if any say that 
 some sacrament lies hid in baptism, the force of that is 
 taken away by these three considerations : First, the 
 reprobate life of the ministers can afford no saving remedy 
 to the persons to be baptized ; secondly, whatever sins are 
 renounced at the font are afterwards taken up again in 
 * Labbe and Cossart, ix. 836 — 842. 
 F 
 
66 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 
 m 
 
 I' I' 
 
 '^1 
 
 I' I 
 
 • i 
 
 I'. 
 
 i! -f. 
 
 : li 
 
 )J ! 
 
 
 life and practice ; thirdly, another's will, another's faith, 
 and another's confession, do not seem to belong to, or to 
 be of any advantage to, a little child, who neither wills nor 
 runs, who knows nothing of faith, and is altogether ignorant 
 of his own good and salvation, and from whom no confes- 
 sion of faith can be expected."* 
 
 These men, up to a certain point, were scripturally 
 orthodox. They saw clearly that religious service must 
 be a personal, voluntary act, flowing from faith, and that 
 therefore infant-baptism could have no foundation in the 
 Word of God, since infants were unable to believe. They 
 rejected it, and in doing so they rejected baptism alto- 
 gether, for at that time infant-baptism was the baptism 
 of the Catholic Church. See here an illustration of our 
 Lord's statement to the Jews, *' Ye have made the Word 
 of God of none effect by your traditions." According to 
 the tradition, regeneration and grace were bestowed in 
 infant-baptism, and hence that ceremony, being generally 
 adopted, superseded the baptism of believers. Hence, too, 
 the effect produced on inquiring minds. " This baptism," 
 said they — and they argued conclusively from the premises, 
 — " is manifestly a vain and useless thing. It cannot 
 accomplish the promised results. It never did. If we 
 are already pious, baptism is needless ; if we are not, 
 baptism cannot make us so." Thus a Christian ordinance 
 was suppressed. The men of Arras were " not far from 
 the kingdom of God ;" but it is evident that they were 
 imperfect Christians. They discerned error, but they did 
 not perceive the whole truth, for the error eclipsed it. 
 This was the position of a large number of the reformers 
 of the Middle Ages. They held Baptist principles as we 
 now hold them, so far as regarded the rejection of infant- 
 baptism. Whether they practised the baptism of believers, 
 ihistorians do not say, though we would not build an argu- 
 * Act. Syvod. Attrebalensls, Gieseler, ii.^gG. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 67 
 
 \ faith, 
 ), or to 
 ills nor 
 jnorant 
 confes- 
 
 )turally 
 J must 
 nd that 
 in the 
 They 
 n alto- 
 )aptism 
 of our 
 2 Word 
 ding to 
 wed in 
 merally 
 ce, too, 
 tism," 
 mises, 
 cannot 
 If we 
 e not, 
 inance 
 r from 
 were 
 |ey did 
 ed it. 
 rmers 
 as we 
 nfant- 
 evers, 
 argu- 
 
 ment on that silence. Those of them who were priests of 
 the Catholic Church, as the canons of Orleans, must 
 have been accustomed to administer infant-baptism. How 
 they reconciled that practice with their convictions, we 
 know not. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that the decrees of councils con- 
 tain no references whatever to heretics for several centuries 
 previous to the eleventh. There are enactments in abun- 
 dance touching the honours and privileges of the clergy, 
 anathemas in rich profusion against breaches of ecclesi- 
 astical law, and threatenings of punishment for gross and 
 unnameable violations of chastity. But heresy is not men- 
 tioned, except in two or three individual cases. It is clear 
 that there was no disturbing movement. The operations 
 of the Paulicians were confined to the East till nearly the 
 close of the " Obscure Period," when they entered Europe. 
 There were men in the West who *' sighed and cried for all 
 the abominations that were done," but they mourned in 
 secret, and they were not numerous enough to attract 
 attention or to excite opposition. 
 
 Certain miscellaneous matters will be now adverted to in 
 conclusion. 
 
 A.D. 692. Ina, King of the Wesi Saxons, enacted a 
 law by which it was enjoined that all infants should be 
 baptized within thirty days after birth, under a penalty of 
 thirty shillings. If the child died without baptism, the 
 father's entire estate was to be confiscated.* 
 
 A.D. 741. Pope Zachary, writing to Boniface, a German 
 bishop, affirmed that immersion in the name of the Trinit}*- 
 was essential to baptism, but that the moral character of 
 the administrator was not essential. The Pope's meaning 
 was, that a bad man might be a good priest. Certainly 
 the Pope was a poor theologian. 
 
 The same pope, writing to the same bishop, referred to 
 ♦ Labbe and Cossart, vi. 1325. 
 F 2 
 
I li 
 
 i 
 
 '! I •!: 
 
 68 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 a priest, who, being ignorant of Latin, the only language 
 then used in Church services, in trying to repeat the form, 
 said, ** Baptizo te in nomine Patria, et Filia, et SpiriUt. 
 Sancta. The reader will see what nonsense he made of 
 it ! Nevertheless, said the Pope, as the priest v/as not 
 heretical, but only ignorant, and as he intended to baptize 
 in the name of the Trinity, though he blundered over it, 
 there was no need to re-baptize the child. It must be con- 
 sidered all right.* 
 
 In another letter the same Pope mentioned one Samson^ 
 a Scotch priest, who held that a person might be made 
 " a Catholic Christian," by the imposition of the bishop's 
 hands, without baptism, and, as far as appears, without 
 repentance or faith. f Verily, there were singular peopl.', 
 in those days. 
 
 A.D. 754. Pope Stephen II. declared that if an infant 
 was baptized in wine, there being no water to be hadj the 
 baptism was valid. And if, the infant being very sick., t\v^ 
 baptism was performed with water, not in it, t'le wafer 
 being poured from a shelf, or ^y the hand, and the proper 
 words used, that baptism was vaiid. '"^he Pope might have 
 spared himself the trouble of giving there decisions. There 
 was no validity in either case.;}: 
 
 Immersion was the ordinary mode of administering 
 baptism during all this period. The case mentioned above 
 was one of the exceptions that were sometimes allowed, 
 when children were supposed to be in danger of death. 
 Yet even in such circumstances the Anglo-Saxon priests 
 were warned to abide 1 y the ritual. At a Synod held at 
 Calcuith, in 816, it was, ordained that the priests should not 
 pour water on the heads of the infants, but should immerse 
 the.rn, according to the example of the Son of God, who 
 »V9« thrice immersed (so the Synod declared) in the water 
 
 * Labk: s'.nd Cossart, 1505. \roid. p. 1520. 
 
 ; Hid, p. 1652. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 69 
 
 above 
 [owed^ 
 leath. 
 )riests 
 ;ld at 
 Id not 
 
 of Jordan.* With this agrees Dr. Lingard's account. He 
 states that " the regular way of administering baptism was 
 by immersion." In the case of an adult, he *' descends 
 into the font, the priest depressed his head three times 
 below the surface, saying, * I baptize thee,' &c." In the 
 case of an infant, " the priest himself descends into the 
 water, which reached to his knees. Each child was suc- 
 cessively delivered undressed into his hands, and he 
 plunged it thrice into the water."-)- 
 
 A.D. 787. By a canon of the Second Council of Nice, all 
 persons were forbidden to conceal heretical bouks. Bishops, 
 priests, or deacons, disobeying the canon, were to be de- 
 posed ; monks or laymen, excommunicated.^ No wonder 
 we are often so much at a loss respecting the opinions held 
 by those who were called heretics, many of whom were not 
 properly heretics, but genuine religious reformers. Their 
 books were carefully gathered and burned, and it was made 
 a crime to conceal them. You may write it thus : — 
 
 ^^ Infallible recipe for the suppression of heresy. 
 " If it is propagated by preaching, silence the preacher : 
 if he will preach, put him out of the way. If it is pro- 
 pagated by writing, burn the books ; should the P'thor still 
 persist, burn him too. Prohatiim est.'' 
 
 -iitains the 
 
 their birth. 
 
 ; a gentle- 
 
 These were 
 
 A.D. 797. A Capitulary of Charlemagne 
 following enactments : — 
 
 Ail infants must be baptized within a year < 
 Penalties for neglect, — a nobleman 120 shilli 
 man 60 shillings; other persons 30 shillings. § 
 heavy fines, for at that time the price of a good sheep was 
 a shilling. A fine of one hundred and twenty sheep for 
 neglecting the baptism of a child ! Is it not monstrous ? 
 
 * Labbe and Cossart, vii. 1489. 
 
 f History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Chunk, i. 317 — 320. 
 
 X Labbe and Cossart, vii. 603. § Ibid. 1152. 
 
I 
 
 I ^ 
 
 m 
 
 i^ 
 
 :• '!' I 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■ ■ ! 
 
 i 1 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE REVIVAL PERIOD- 
 
 FROM A.D. 1073 TO A.D. 1517. 
 
 Sectiojm I. 
 
 State of Affairs in Europe during this Period— The Crusades— Other Impor- 
 tant Events — The Scholastic Divines and Philosophers — Universities— 
 
 Printin<j. 
 
 WE have termed the period we are now entering on 
 the •' Revival Period," not on rehgious grounds 
 only, but also because throughout the whole period a new 
 and powerful impulse was acting on the human mind. In 
 some sense it nnght be said that the darkness had passed 
 away. That expression, however, must be taken in a very 
 modified acceptation. What is meant is this : before the 
 days of Hildebrand the darkness became denser and denser; 
 but after his dayb light gradually forced itself in, and the 
 commingling led to fierce conflicts. The Church of Rome 
 continued as dark as ever ; in some respects, and in certain 
 districts, it was an infernal blackness. Nevertheless, there 
 were gleamings here and there, growing brighter and 
 brighter, and tending to permanence ; so that many men 
 began to see where they were, which was a great point 
 gained. It was as in Egypt of old. While the masses 
 slumbered amid a darkness ** which might be felt," there 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 71 
 
 mser; 
 
 id the 
 
 IRome 
 
 lertain 
 
 there 
 
 and 
 
 men 
 
 [point 
 
 asses 
 
 there 
 
 was a goodly number of God's people in the land, the 
 true " children of Israel," and they *' had light in their 
 dwellings." 
 
 Significant and momentous events characterised this 
 period. All Europe was in a ferment. First came the 
 struggles between the Popes and the Emperors, in which 
 many gallant warriors bit the dust, and flourishing king- 
 doms were laid waste. Then the Crusades — the veriest 
 triumphs of ignorance, folly, superstition, and savagery, 
 that the world had ever seen — which more than decimated 
 the nobility of Europe, exalted crowns at the expense 
 of coronets, and stuffed the maw of the Church of Rome, 
 already pretty well gorged, with ill-gotten wealth. And 
 yet some good came out of the evil. The tyrants of the 
 world, whether despots or republicans (France has furnished 
 types of both), " do not think so, or mean it in their 
 hearts;" but the " King of kings" is on His throne, "judg- 
 ing right," and they work out His will, unwittingly it may 
 be, yet surely. So it was with the Crusades. At first the 
 Popes seemed to have it all their own way. They had hit 
 upon a grand expedient to lull the European population to 
 sleep in the arms of the Church. Those who went to the 
 holy wars travelled blindfold as priests guided them : and 
 those who remained at home handed out gold, and silver, 
 and precious things at the holy father's bidding. Rome 
 drove a profitable trade in those days ! But loss was at 
 hand. The Crusades aroused and expanded men's minds. 
 Commerce found additional avenues. Municipal institu- 
 tions were established. The learning and the arts of the 
 East became known. Intercourse with foreign nations was 
 extended. Curiosity was awakened and inquiry stimulated. 
 The literary treasures which had long been hidden in 
 Eastern monasteries were brought to light and circulated, 
 and " forgotten tongues" were learned again. All this was 
 adverse to anti-Christian interests, and showed how the, 
 
!P 
 
 I 
 
 h 
 
 It 
 
 r 
 
 l\ 
 
 f T 
 
 72 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 wise were once more " taken in their own craftiness." We 
 are reminding the reader of the great events of the period 
 now before us. A simple enumeration must suffice. Think 
 of Magna Charta, and the establishment of the English 
 House of Commons — the invention of the mariner's com- 
 pass, of gunpowder, of linen paper, and of the printing 
 
 ANCIENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 press — the battles of Crec}', Poictiers, and Agincourt, with 
 their consequences — the Great Western schism — the 
 Council of Constance — the Wars of the Roses — the dis- 
 covery of America, and of the passage to the East Indies 
 round the Cape of Good Hope. Were they not times 
 of activity and progr-iss ? 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 73 
 
 i." We 
 J period 
 Think 
 English 
 r's corn- 
 printing 
 
 , with 
 —the 
 e dis- 
 [ndies 
 times 
 
 The reader must not suppo-se that this has no connec- 
 tion with ** Baptist History." It has. We found the 
 records of the last period scant and fragmentary. Why ? 
 The world was asleep, intellectually and morally asleep. 
 Rome had administered an opiate, and Europe lay slum- 
 bering in her lap. It is not surprising that under such 
 circumstances it is difficult to spell out the annals of 
 thought and freedom. Baptist sentiments can hardly be 
 understood, much less appreciated, in such dozing days 
 as those. They require for their full development a time 
 of mental stir. They rejoice in those collisions which 
 produce sparks and flames, and thus illuminate the 
 nations. They have a tendency to produce them. 
 
 Let us proceed, then, to show how enlightenment sprang 
 up and brought forth fruit in the ** Revival Period." 
 
 It began with the Scholastic Philosophers and Divines. 
 *' The scholastic theology," says Mr. Hallam, "was, in its 
 general principle, an alliance between faith and reason, an 
 endeavour to arrange the orthodox system of the Church, 
 such as authority had made it, according to the rules and 
 methods of the Aristotelian dialectics, and sometimes upon 
 premises supplied by metaphysical reasoning." The scho- 
 lastic philosophy, according to the same author, " seems 
 chief!}'' to be distinguished from the theology by a larger 
 infusion of metaphysical reasoning, or by its occasional 
 inquiries into subjects not immediately related to revealed 
 articles of faith."* These philosophers and divines are 
 often described as learned triflers who wasted their time 
 and their energies in speculations, inquiries, and disputes, 
 which might have been as well or better left alone ; and 
 their ponderous folios, scarcely ever read, but mouldering 
 away in public libraries, are pointed at as monuments of 
 laborious folly. But this is a partial, perhaps a prejudiced, 
 
 * State of Europe during the Middle Ages, chap, ix, piart ii. See also 
 Bishop Hampden's Bampton Lectures on "The SchoIas;ic Philosophy." 
 

 I 
 
 'i'l! 
 
 ^ 
 
 11 I 
 
 74 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 verdict. It is true that these men did perplex their brains 
 with questions which they could not answer, and some- 
 times, like the angels Milton speaks of, " found no end, in 
 wandering mazes lost." It is also true that their theo- 
 logical investigations were conducted in a preposterous 
 manner, since they strove to reason out their theology by 
 the aid of the Aristotelian philosophy, instead of deriving 
 it from the pure fountain of Holy Writ. And it must 
 be granted that in their philosophical disquisitions they 
 generalized and distinguished very much in the dark, 
 and that the student of their works is constantly thrown 
 into inextricable doubt and difficulty by their twisted 
 reasonings, the cloudy verboseness of their style, and 
 the barbarous unintelligible epithets they were in the 
 habit of employing. Yet, with all these deductions, it 
 cannot be denied that the school-men rendered great 
 service in their day. There are bright gems in their 
 writings, though hidden beneath much rubbish. If you 
 sometimes meet with the uncouth, the ridiculous, or the 
 hopelessly obscure, there are also vestiges of the profound 
 and glimpses of the sublime. Their powerful intellects (for 
 some of them were literary giants) were devoted, for the 
 most part, to the upholding of Popery, and on that account 
 we may not be sorry for the oblivion into which they have 
 fallen. But they taught men to think, although their 
 methods were as rude as were the mechanical tools of the 
 times in which they lived, and the process of learning was 
 consequently slow. Their influence gradually extended, till 
 at length it reached those who were more desirous of applying 
 to practice the knowledge already acquired than of striking 
 out new paths, which might after all lead into a wilderness. 
 There was an imperceptible and general sharpening of the 
 human mind. The number of independent inquirers contin- 
 ually increased, and the circle of information was widened. 
 Then, improved methods of mental training were devised. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 75 
 
 must 
 
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 1308 
 
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 1361 
 
 1383 
 
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 The estabhshment of numerous schools and universities 
 was the result. , 
 
 The following is a list of the principal school-men, with 
 the curious and whimsical titles given them : — 
 
 Peter Lombard, Master of Sentences 
 
 Alexander of Hales, Irrefragable Doctor 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, Angelic Doctor 
 
 Bonaventura, Seraphic Doctor . 
 
 Alan of Lille, Universal Doctor 
 
 Roger Bacon, Wonderful Doctor 
 
 Richard Middleton, Solid and Copious Doctor 
 
 Duns Scotus, Subtle Doctor 
 
 William Occam, Singular and Invincible Doctor 
 
 Archbishop Bradwardine, Profound Doctor 
 
 John Tauler, Sublime and Enlightened Doctor 
 
 Durand of St. Pourcain, Most Resolute Doctor 
 
 Peter de Alliaco, The Eagle of France, and the Maul of Errorists 
 
 John Gerson, Most Christian Doctor 
 
 Universities have been mentioned. The University of 
 Paris was founded a.d. 1206. Eight others in different 
 parts of Europe, including Oxford and Cambridge, were 
 founded in that century. The next century was the age 
 of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and our own Wycliffe and 
 Chaucer; sixteen universities were founded in that century. 
 Between the commencement of the fifteenth century and 
 the close of the " Revival Period," twenty-nine more were 
 added to the list. Great numbers of students attended 
 these institutions. Many of them did not learn much, and 
 in all cases the course of study was very limited. But 
 assuredly the poet's affirmation — " A little learning is a 
 dangerous thing " — is not to be regarded as oracular. The 
 students of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were un- 
 doubtedly inferior to those of the present age : but was it 
 not better to get ''a little learning" than to remain in 
 ignorance ? And may it not be fairly inferred that the 
 

 
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 Baptist History. 
 
 universities and schools of the times now under considera- 
 tion (for schools also increased aad extended in every 
 direction), exerted a highly beneficial influence on society 
 at large ? 
 
 Printing was invented about the middle of the fifteenth 
 century; and the study of classical literature, which had 
 been revived more than a hundred years previously, re- 
 ceived a powerful impetus after the fall of Constantinople, 
 when educated Greeks emigrated into Italy and France, 
 and the love of learning was everywhere diffused. 
 
 Sectiojh II. 
 
 Paulicians in France and Italy— General View of the Reform Movement- 
 Various Names given to the Reformers — Sentiments held by them — 
 False Charge of Manichseism — Their Activity — Reinerus Saccho's 
 Account. 
 
 WE have spoken in a previous chapter of the 
 Paulicians — their labours — their sufferings — and 
 their various dispersions. Many of them sought a home 
 in Italy and France, about the close of the tenth .?nd 
 the beginning of the eleventh century. There they met 
 with congenial spirits. Right-minded men in those 
 countries had protested from time to time, though un- 
 availingly, against Romish encroachments. The coming 
 of the Paulicians inspired them with fresh courage, and 
 from the middle of the eleventh century we read of a 
 succession of valorous attacks upon those errors, super- 
 stitions, and vices, which not only abounded in less 
 enlightened parts, but disgraced even the metropolis of 
 Christendom. 
 
 These dissidents formed a numerous and compact bod}'' 
 in Italy, where the Papal yoke chafed the necks of the 
 people and made them restive. Had it not been for the 
 
>nsidera" 
 n every 
 I society 
 
 fifteenth 
 lich had 
 asly, re- 
 itinople, 
 France, 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 17 
 
 jvement— 
 
 )y them — 
 
 Saccho's 
 
 of the 
 
 1 — and 
 home 
 I .^nd 
 
 !y met 
 those 
 1 un- 
 
 oming 
 
 e, and 
 of a 
 
 super- 
 less 
 
 >lis of 
 
 body 
 )f the 
 »r the 
 
 support derived from the Imperial pov^er, Italy would 
 have been Protestant before the Reformation? The suc- 
 cess of Arnold of Brescia was an impressive warning. 
 In the year 1143, he established a new form of govern- 
 ment in Rome, which wrested the civil power out of the 
 hands of the Popes, and compelled them to content them- 
 selves with the management of ecclesiastical affairs. That 
 the attempt was ill-advised, because society was not suffi- 
 ciently prepared for it, seems evident ; but the continuance 
 of the new order of things for eleven years, and the alacrity 
 with which the people adopted an anti-Papal policy, were 
 remarkable signs of the times. 
 
 Peter of Bruys began his career as a reformer in the 
 year 1104, and laboured twenty years in the good work, 
 chiefly in the South of France. He was followed hy Henry 
 of Lausanne, who preached the Word of God with great 
 success in the same district. 
 
 In the year 1 170, Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, 
 renounced his secular engagements, and devoted himself 
 to the revival of religion. He procured a translation of 
 the New Testament into the French language, and spent 
 his life in toilsome journeys among the people, during 
 which he circulated portions of the Scriptures, preached, 
 and by other methods sought to promote true godliness. 
 Being joined by a number of like-minded men, their united 
 efforts produced an extensive reformation. The " Poor 
 Men of Lyons," as they were called, because they sacri- 
 ficed worldly prospects and lived in poverty, became a 
 numerous and formidable body. But persecution scattered 
 them. Waldo himself escaped to Bohemia, and died there. 
 Many of his followers settled in the same country. 
 
 Almost everybody has heard and read of the Waldenses. 
 We will not occupy valuable space with any account of the 
 disputes respecting their origin. Some trace them to Peter 
 Waldo, or to some other person of a similar name. Others 
 
— • \ 
 
 \. 
 
 78 
 
 .Baptist History. 
 
 \\\ 
 
 maintain that their name is derived from the Latin word 
 ** Vallis," whence Vallensis, and by a slight corruption, 
 Valdensis, in the plural, Valdenses, and then Waldenses. 
 The valleys of Piedmont and other Alpine districts, 
 secluded from general observation, had given shelter for 
 several ages to numbers of protesters against Romish 
 corruptions. There they studied the Scriptures, culti- 
 vated practical piety, and served God according to the 
 dictates of their consciences. There is no doubt that 
 they sympathised heartily with the religious movements 
 which were going on in other parts of Europe. In perse- 
 cuting times their valleys were welcome places of refuge. 
 
 We have said that the South of France was the scene of 
 the efforts of Peter of Bruys and Henry of Lausanne. 
 Other reformers rose up in the same district. Toulouse 
 and Albi were the towns about which they chiefly clus- 
 tered. From the latter was derived the term "Albigenses." 
 
 Many other appellations were used to designate the re- 
 forming sects of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. An 
 inquirer is apt to be misled by them. He wonders at their 
 divisions, and he asks. What were the diversities of opinion 
 or of practice by which they were distinguished from one 
 another ? But he asks in vain. The fact is, that the 
 numerous names and descriptions found in imperial edicts 
 and decrees of councils refer to parties who held substan- 
 tially the same views. The occupations in which many 
 of them were engaged, the places where they lived, or 
 some peculiarity in their manners, furnished the distinctive 
 titles which appear in ecclesiastical historiei. Thus, they 
 were called Cathari, or purey because they pleaded for 
 personal holiness and a pure church ; or Humiliati, because 
 of their modest deportment. The Arnaldistcs were the 
 followers of Arnold ; the Speronistce, of Speron. The 
 Garatenses, Albanenses, Bagnoroli, Roncaroli, and Concor- 
 rezenses, were inhabitants of the towns from which those 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 79 
 
 atin word 
 )rruption, 
 ^aldenses, 
 districts, 
 belter for 
 Romish 
 2S, culti- 
 g to the 
 )ubt that 
 ovements 
 In perse- 
 refuge. 
 ; scene of 
 /Eusanne. 
 Toulouse 
 efly clus- 
 
 appellations were derived. To the Inzahatati that name 
 was given because so many of them belonged to the lower 
 classes, who wore sabots, or wooden shoes ; or, as others 
 suppose, because they refused to observe saints' days, 
 holding that the Christian Sabbath is the only feast day of 
 the Church, whence they were called Inzahatati, or Sab- 
 bath-men. Those who lived in Southern France were often 
 called Texerants, weavers, a large number of them gaining 
 their livelihood by that trade. But all these names, and 
 many more, were given to persons in Italy, France, Ger- 
 many, Spain, and Flanders (for they were found in all those 
 countries), whose religious views and practices were sub- 
 stantially the same. We say " substantially," because it 
 is not to be supposed that they agreed with each other in 
 every minute particular. The freedom which they claimed 
 in separating from the Roman Church was still further 
 indulged among themselves. They would " call no man 
 Master." But the diversities of opinion which might pre- 
 vail among them were perfectly consistent with unity in 
 regard to the essential truths of the Gospel. 
 
 However they might differ from one another on matters 
 of small moment, they were " of one heart and one soul " 
 in opposing the abominations of the Papacy. They held 
 the Pope to be Antichrist, and they regarded the Church of 
 Rome as the mystical *' Babylon," spoken of in the Book of 
 the Revelation, " the mother of harlots and abominations 
 of the eaith." They maintained that the true Church 
 consists only of believers. They pleaded for the transla- 
 tion of the Scriptures into all modern languages, that men 
 might read " in their own tongues the wonderful works 
 of God." They derided the ceremonies of Romish worship 
 — the holy water, the incense, the bowing and kneeling, the 
 ringing of bells, &c. — and taught that God is to be wor- 
 shipped with " pious affections." They read and studied 
 the Divine Word continually, so that many of them could 
 
8o 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 t i 
 
 in ! 
 
 II i 
 
 repeat large portions of it from memory, and all were 
 skilful in illustrating and defending their sentiments by- 
 appropriate quotations from Holy Writ. They denied the 
 authority of bishops, the validity of the numerous distinc- 
 tions of rank among the clergy, and the lawfulness of 
 ecclesiastical titles. They denounced tithes. They de- 
 claimed against donations and legacies to churches or 
 monasteries. They rejected councils. They abhorred 
 image-woidhip and the reverence paid to relics. Thej/ did 
 not believe in transubstantiation. They would not confess 
 to the priests, saying that confession was to be made 
 to God only. They laughed at dedications, consecrations, 
 exorcisms, blessing of salt, spices, and candles, and other 
 superstitious rites, regarding them as fitter themes for 
 ridicule than for reasoning. They would not pray to any 
 saints. They held purgatory to be a fable, and they knew 
 that it was a profitable one to the priesthood. They 
 mocked at penances, indulgences, and all such trumpery. 
 In a word, they acknowledged no authority in the Church 
 but that of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and they refused to 
 obey any laws relating to religion which were not to be 
 found in the New Testament. 
 
 The ecclesiastical historians charge many of them with 
 ivlanichfeism. But we ought to be careful how we enter- 
 tain that charge. The evidence on which it is founded is 
 derived from the writings of their enemies (their own books 
 have been industriously destroyed), or from statements 
 made by renegades, who saw that the more monstrous the 
 picture which they drew of their former associates, the more 
 acceptable it would be to the priesthood. It may be ad- 
 mitted that some of them indulged in foolish, perhaps in- 
 jurious speculations, mainly derived from the old Gnostic 
 notions, " intruding into things which they had not seen.'* 
 It is well known, too, that most of them were distinguished 
 by such peculiarities as refusing to take oaths or to bear 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 8i 
 
 arms. But the errors of a few ought not to be imputed 
 to all; and it deserves to be considered, that when the 
 Church had substituted trash for truth and form for power, 
 there was a strong temptation to get to the farthest possible 
 remove from her. It might be innocently enough believed, 
 that whatever was denounced and opposed by Rome was 
 therefore worthy of regard; and in that twilight period it 
 was difficult to see all things clearly. 
 
 Another thought or two may be added. Even if it be 
 granted that Manichaean speculations prevailed among some 
 of these sects, it is not to be supposed that they were un- 
 derstood by the mass of their adherents, who were unques- 
 tionably incompetent to engage in controversies of that 
 kind. They knew something of faith in the Lord Jesus ; 
 they could trust, and love, and obey; and they could ex- 
 emplify all Gospel brotherly-kindness : but as for discus- 
 sions respecting the " two principles," the nature of soula, 
 and such like matters, they were altogether out of their 
 reach. Nor is it to be imagined that their teachers en- 
 larged on such topics in their public ministrations, for that 
 would have spoiled their usefulness. It is further to be 
 considered, that the same writers who bring forward the 
 charge of Manichaeism, do also accuse the Cathari of 
 horrible and not-to-be-mentioned crimes, which were said to 
 be perpetrated by them in their religious assemblies — just 
 as the heathen, in the first age of the Church, propagated 
 similar calumnies against the Christians. The accusations 
 were equally baseless in both cases, and were m.et in both 
 by indignant denial. But if one accusation is manifestly 
 outrageous and unfounded, may not the other be ? Are we 
 not entitled to the inference that there was, at the least, 
 gross exaggeration, if not malicious libel ? And, finally, is 
 it credible that those who avowed and manifested unlimited 
 deference to the Word of God should have been led astray 
 by the phantasies of the Manichaean theory ? 
 
\ 
 
 f 
 itl 
 
 iM 
 
 m\ 
 
 |- 'III !! 
 
 ! 
 
 I' m\ 
 
 
 
 Ifir 
 
 82 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 The reader may be suprised that we are saying nothing 
 about the Baptists. Let him be patient. We are working 
 our way towards them. In fact, many of those of whonl 
 we have just spoken advocated Baptist sentiments, and will 
 have to be mentioned again before the account of this 
 period is dosed. But we think it preferable to give first a 
 general outline of the history of all the dissenting parties. 
 
 The old writers bitterly complain of the activity of those 
 who were called heretics. They could not understand 
 it. The priests celebrated mass, heard confessions, at- 
 tended to their various parochial duties, and were satisfied. 
 As for the monks, if they fasted, meditated, prayed, punished 
 themselves, or said they did, that was sufficient. The 
 authors we are speaking of had no sympathy with the 
 yearnings of Christian compassion for souls, and thought 
 such efforts as the sectarians employed extremely irregular 
 and troublesome. Human nature is the same everywhere 
 and at all times. *' They do exceedingly trouble our city," 
 said the men of Philippi. The Jews of Thessalonica 
 inflamed the mob by telling them that the men who " had 
 turned the world upside down " had come to their city. 
 Sleeping sinners wished not to be aroused. False teachers, 
 administering opiates to souls, look upon truth-tellers as 
 intruders and foes, and raise the hue and cry against them. 
 
 Our Lord and His Apostles experienced such treatment. 
 The faithful in succeeding ages shared like sufferings. 
 But they quailed not, nor did they desist. They delivered 
 the message entrusted to them, whether men would hear or 
 whether they would forbear. 
 
 This is attested by all the records. The Cathari in 
 Germany, France, and Italy, in the early part of the twelfth 
 century, and the Lollards of England in the fifteenth, were 
 equally guilty of the unpardonable crime — in Rome's eyes— ^ 
 of endeavouring to save their fellow-men from sin and hell, 
 by directing them to the only Saviour. They saw them 
 
 K • 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 83 
 
 nothing 
 working 
 )f whom 
 and will 
 t of this 
 /e first a 
 parties, 
 of those , 
 iderstand 
 lions, at- 
 satisfied. 
 punished 
 nt. The 
 with the 
 i thought 
 7 irregular 
 verywhere 
 our city," 
 2ssalonica 
 ^ho " had 
 heir city, 
 teachers, 
 tellers as 
 st them, 
 reatment. 
 ufferings. 
 delivered 
 d hear or 
 
 lathari in 
 
 le twelfth 
 
 |nth, were 
 
 's eyes— ^ 
 
 and hell, 
 
 law then) 
 
 "perishing for lack of knowledge." They saw the pre- 
 tended spiritual father giving his children a stone for bread, 
 a serpent for a fish, and a scorpion instead of an Gggy so 
 that the people were dying for want of food. God had 
 given them the " bread from heaven," and they were under 
 orders to distribute it to the starving, " without money and 
 without price." They spent their lives in obeying the 
 command. In the exercise of their pious zeal they some- 
 times exposed themselves to great dangers. Reinerus 
 Saccho, who will be mentioned presently, tells of one of 
 the Cathari who swam over a piece of water in the depth of 
 winter for the purpose of conveying a knowledge of the 
 truth, as he understood and believed, to a person who lived 
 on the opposite side. 
 
 Their zeal was glided by judgment. Preaching occu- 
 pied the first place in their esteem. Whenever they could 
 gain the public ear, they gathered congregations, and 
 proclaimed " the glorious Gospel of the blessed God," 
 striving to convince men of the vanity of their hopes, and 
 to lead the sinner from self and the creature to the finished 
 work of Jesus. As it was in the days of our Lord Himself, 
 many thousands of the ** common people " heard them 
 gladly. Like their Master, they " went about doing good." 
 While some itinerated from place to place, preaching as 
 they could find opportunity, others visited houses and 
 entered into familiar conversation with the inmates. To 
 do this more effectually they carried with them packs of 
 merchandise, like the peddlers of these times, and thus 
 frequently contrived, during the disposal of their wares, 
 to excite in the minds of their hearers an earnest desire 
 to obtain that wisdom which is " better than rubies." Nor 
 was this all. They established schools in many places, 
 in which religioL ^ instruction was freely given ; and it is 
 said that not unfrequently they sent their own youth to 
 the University of Paris, where they received the best edu- 
 
 G2 
 
( !' 
 
 84 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 cation the world at that time afforded, and returned to their 
 friends well qualified to ineet Romish disputants and fight 
 them with their own weapons. Another method adopted 
 by them was the preparation of books. Those among them 
 who were able composed treatises, which were copied (for 
 printing was not invented till the middle of the fifteenth 
 century) and circulated as widely as the means they pos- 
 sessed would allow. . Thus great good was accomplished. 
 But their books have perished. With the exception of 
 ^' The Noble Lesson," a precious Waldensian treatise, 
 which is ascribed to the twelfth century, and which forcibly 
 exposes the follies and frauds of Rome, the publications 
 which were issued by these early reformers have been 
 destroyed. Such was the policy of the false church — to 
 atifle thought, prevent discussion, and exact blind, unin- 
 quiring obedience. 
 
 Reinerus Saccho wrote a book against the Waldenses, 
 under which title he evidently referred to the several bodies 
 of alleged heretics then existing. This was about the year 
 1250. He said that he had belonged to the Waldenses 
 about seventeen years, but had rejoined the dominant 
 church. He received an appointment as inquisitor, doubt- 
 less because his knowledge of the sentiments and practices 
 of his former associates eminently qualified him for that 
 hateful office. In one part of his work he gives the follow- 
 ing account of the manner in which the peddlers introduced 
 religious topics among the families they visited : — 
 
 " The heretics employ very cunning methods, by which 
 to insinuate themselves into the society of the noble and 
 great. They do it in this way. One of them takes with 
 him some suitable articles of merchandise, such as rings 
 or dresses, and offers them for sale. When they have 
 bought what they choose, and ask the man if he has any- 
 thing else to sell, he answers, ' I have more precious jewels 
 than these ; I would give them to you, if you would pro- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 85 
 
 1 to their 
 and fight 
 
 adopted 
 )ng them 
 )pied (for 
 
 fifteenth 
 :hey pos- 
 nplished. 
 option of 
 
 treatise, 
 h forcibly 
 Dlications 
 ave been 
 lurch — to 
 id, unin- 
 
 aldenses, 
 al bodies 
 the year 
 aldenses 
 ominant 
 r, doubt- 
 practices 
 for that 
 e follow- 
 Itroduced 
 
 |>y >vhich 
 )ble and 
 jes with 
 is rings 
 ly have 
 ^as any- 
 jewels 
 lid pro- 
 
 mise not to betray me to the clergy.' The promise being 
 given, he proceeds : — ' I have a gem so brilliant, that a 
 man may know God by it. I have another, whose glow 
 lights up the love of God in the heart of him who possesses 
 it,' — and so forth, speaking of the gems figuratively. Then 
 he recites some chapter of the New Testament, such as, 
 the first of Luke — * In the sixth month the angel Gabriel 
 was sent from God,' &c., or the Saviour's discourse in 
 the thirteenth of John. When he observes that his hearers, 
 are begi: .ing to be pleased, he quotes a passage from 
 Matthew — ' The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat,* 
 &c. — *Woe unto you, for ye shut up the kingdom of 
 heaven,' &c., or that of Mark — ' Woe unto you, for ye 
 devour widows' houses,' &c. If he is asked to whom 
 those threatenings apply, he answers, * To the clergy an(/ 
 the monks.' 
 
 " Then he compares the state of the Roman Church wilV. 
 their own, saying, * The teachers of the Roman Church, 
 are proud and pompous; they love the uppermost rooms 
 at feasts, and to be called of men. Rabbi, Rabbi : but we 
 desire no such rabbis. As for them, they are incontinent ; 
 but all our teachers are married, and live chastely with 
 their wives. They are rich and covetous, as it is said, 
 ' Woe unto you that are rich, fci' ye have received your 
 consolation ;' but we, having sufficient food and clothing 
 for our support, are therewith content. They themselves 
 fight, and they excite others to war, and they give orders 
 to kill and burn Christ's people, to whom it was said, * All 
 they that take the sword shall perish with the sword :' but 
 we suffer persecution for righteousness' sake. They eat 
 the bread of idleness, * working not all ;' but we work with 
 our own hands. They pretend to be the only teachers, as 
 it is said, * Woe unto you, for ye have taken away the key 
 of knowledge,' &c. ; but among us, the women as well as. 
 the men teach, and he who has been a disciple but seven 
 
' 
 
 
 86 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I ! 
 i 
 
 days can instruct another. Among them there is scarcely 
 a teacher to be found who can recite three successive 
 chapters of the New Testament ; but almost every man 
 and woman among us can recite the whole of it ; and 
 because we hold Christ's true faith, and teach a holy life 
 and doctrine, they persecute us to death, as the Scribes 
 and Pharisees persecuted Christ. 
 
 ** Moreover, they say and do not, and they bind heavy 
 burdens on men's shoulders, but will not touch them them- 
 selves with one of their fingers ; but we do all that we 
 teach. They compel men to observe human tradition 
 rather than God's commands — such as fasts, feasts, and 
 many other things, which are human institutes : but we 
 teach that the doctrine of Christ and His Apostles is to 
 be kept, and that dnly." 
 
 " Having talked in this way, the heretic adds — ' Consider 
 now, which is the better state and the better faith — ours. 
 or that of the Roman Church — and make your choice.' 
 And thus many a one is turned aside from the Catholic 
 faith, takes the heretic into his house, conceals him there 
 month after month, and is confirmed in his perversion."** 
 
 In this passage Saccho represents the Waldensian as 
 doing all in his power to inflame the hatred of the people 
 against the priesthood, and would have us believe that 
 that was the main object in view. There can be no doubt 
 that much was said on those occasions that was calculated 
 to induce distrust and avoidance of the Romish clergy. 
 But the pious peddler did not stop there. No ! His aim 
 was to guide souls to Christ, and numbers were led by 
 those conversational sermons to renounce fleshly confidence 
 and seek peace through the blood of the Cross. With 
 that necessary addition to the statement, Saccho's narra- 
 tion may be taken as trustworthy. It is pleasing to reflect 
 that many of our Baptists ancestors were so honourably 
 * Biblioth. Maxima^ xxv. 273. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 87 
 
 s scarcely 
 successive 
 very man 
 f it ; and 
 I holy life 
 e Scribes 
 
 nd heavy 
 em them- 
 l that we 
 
 tradition 
 asts, and 
 
 : but we 
 ties is to 
 
 ' Consider 
 
 ith — ours, 
 
 * choice.' 
 
 Catholic 
 
 lim there 
 
 pion."*» 
 
 nsian as 
 
 le people 
 
 eve that 
 
 no doubt 
 
 alculated 
 
 clergy. 
 
 ^is aim 
 
 led by 
 
 nfidence 
 
 With 
 
 s narra- 
 
 o reflect 
 
 ourably 
 
 and usefully employed. The same spirit animated their 
 successors several centuries afterwards. Gretser, the Jesuit 
 (he died a.d. 1636), who edited Saccho's book, placed this 
 note in the margin of the account which has been now 
 quoted — " A true picture of the heretics of our age, espe- 
 cially of the Anabaptists^ 
 
 -•o*- 
 
 Sectioj^ III. 
 
 Success of the Reforming Parties— Consternation at Rome— Anathemas— 
 The Dominican and Franciscan Orders — Sanguinary Persecution- 
 Crusade against the Albigenses — The Inquisition — Movement in Eng- 
 land—John de Wycliffe— The Lollards— Bohemia. 
 
 ALL the authorities agree in testifying to the astonish- 
 ing success of the Reformers of the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries. The fact is, that they found "a 
 people prepared for the Lord." Disgusted with the ab- 
 surdities which were palmed on them in the name of 
 religion, and shocked at the frauds and crimes which were 
 daily perpetrated, they panted for something better than 
 Rome proffered. The Gospel of Christ, as preached by 
 the persecuted sects, satisfied their souls. Great numbers 
 of them believed and rejoiced in God. And the converts 
 lived so well that they won universal respect. The barons 
 of Southern France encouraged and protected them. It 
 was to their interest to do so, for they were an honest, 
 industrious tenantry, cheerfully paying rates and taxes, 
 and thus contributing mr.terially to the improvement of 
 the estates on which they were located. Peace, prosperity, 
 and good order prevailed wherever their communities were 
 established. How could it be otherwise ? They were all bre- 
 thren, and they v/ere " taught of God to love one another." 
 They trained their children in principles of truth and 
 uprightness. They abjured litigation and violence. Ac- 
 
88 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ( M 
 
 m i*P';-''' 
 
 i' ■ iii 
 
 counting one day as good as another, they lost no time by 
 observing the holidays of the Church. They never left 
 their farms and merchandise to w^ander about on pilgrim- 
 ages. They spent no money in the purchase of indul- 
 gences. They thought it vv'rong to build and endow monas- 
 teries. In short, they were quiet, thrifty people, and the 
 land was the better for them. So their landlords judged 
 and felt, and they shielded them against Papal fury at 
 the risk of their own safety. This kindness cost some of 
 them dear : they were involved in the general ruin which 
 the crusading fiends brought upon the country. 
 
 Rome looked on and trembled. Her subjects were fast 
 leaving her. Her dominion was crumbling away. What 
 was to be done to secure the remainder, and recover lost 
 ground ? 
 
 Cursing was first thought of, because it was easy, and 
 the Church was expert at it. So the bishops met in council, 
 year after year, and in all places where the Reformers 
 appeared right heartily did they curse them. As our Lord 
 had foretold, they said *' all manner of evil against them 
 falsely," hurled anathemas at their heads, and called upon 
 the people to " hate them with a perfect hatred." A long 
 list of those councils is before the writer. The bishops 
 must have been very busy in those days. A large portion 
 of their time must have been spent in attending the 
 meetings. 
 
 A more reasonable plan was next invented. The reform- 
 ing sects owed much of their success to preaching. 
 Adlres^jing ihe people in their own language, and in strains 
 of rough but forcible eloquence, into which Scripture 
 phrases were largely interwoven, they acquired an influence 
 which the clergy sought in vain to snatch from them. A 
 non-preaching priesthood was powerless in such a conflict. 
 Feeling this disadvantage, ecclesiastical ingenuity hit upon 
 a new scheme. In the early part of the thirteenth century 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 89 
 
 3 time by 
 ever left 
 
 pilgrim- 
 of indul- 
 ^monas- 
 
 and the 
 s judged 
 
 fury at 
 
 some of 
 in which 
 
 vere fast 
 . What 
 over lost 
 
 asy, and 
 council, 
 
 eformers 
 
 )ur Lord 
 St them 
 
 ed upon 
 
 A long 
 
 bishops 
 
 portion 
 
 ing the 
 
 the Dominican and Franciscan orders were founded. In 
 their establishment special regard was had to the great 
 necessity of the times. From among the monks of those 
 orders men were chosen v/hose talents pointed them out as 
 best fitted for the work, and they were sent out, after proper 
 training, as public preachers. The churches being open to 
 them, they were placed at once on vantage-ground, which 
 they occupied with much zeal and skill. They cultivated 
 the arts of pleasing, and soon learnt to adapt themselves to 
 the popular taste. And whereas the greedy propensities of 
 the resident clergy had long exposed them to the shafts of 
 ridicule and sarcasm, the new orders professed absolute 
 poverty, received alms from the people for their daily sup- 
 port, and abjured all right to hold property. That self- 
 denying habit did not last long, but reputation was secured 
 by it, and the Dominicans and Franciscans stood high in 
 poblic favour- 
 
 We must not, however, lo jk for uniform and unswerving 
 adhesion to peaceable measures. It was not in the nature 
 of Rome to restrict herself in this matter. She always had 
 a keen scent for blood. Persuasion was very well when 
 there was no power to use force ; but what persuasion 
 could be so effective as that of the dungeon, the sm ord, and 
 the fire? All the various modes of persecution were brought 
 into active operation. The German Emperors, instigated 
 by the Popes, issued sanguinary edicts, threatening the 
 severest punishments to heretics of every name. The 
 Popes themselves acted with characteristic ferocity, and all 
 the councils breathed the same spirit. The general council 
 held at Rome in the year 1179, called the third of Lateran, 
 led the way. If any of the heretics held public offices, they 
 were to be turned out of them as soon as they were detected. 
 All intercourse with them was forbidden ; there was to be 
 no buying or selling with them. Contracts with them were 
 declared to be void. Houses in which they were found 
 
\ 
 
 ! I 
 
 go 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 r"^ii 
 
 * :ii 
 
 were ordered to be destro^ ed ; and if any person allowed 
 them to settle on his lards, those lands were to be con- 
 fiscated. Noblemen were commanded not to offer them 
 protection. In every parish two or three inhabitants were 
 to be appointed to make diligent and constant search for 
 heretics, and to denounce them, whenever found, to the 
 authorities. No advocate was to be permitted to plead for 
 them, when they were placed on trial. On conviction, they 
 were to be delivered over to the secular power, iD be burnt. 
 And all magistrates and judges were warned that if they 
 did not faithfully execute these decrees, they would be 
 excommunicated.* 
 
 Fearful scenes were enacted. The human bloodhounds 
 were at work in all directions. " This year," says one of 
 the writers of the times, speaking of the year 1233, " in- 
 numerable heretics were burnt in every part of Germany." 
 
 Still they were unsubdued. Some evaded the search, 
 and lived in concealment. Some withdrew to more friendly 
 lands. In Southern France the barons were slow to deprive 
 themselves of the advantages which they derived from the 
 residence of industrious, orderly men on their estates, ^;.'ad 
 the exterminating process seemed likely to fall into abeyance. 
 
 This was too much for popes to bear. All the bigotry 
 and brutality by which the holders of the popedom have 
 ever been signalised, appeared to be concentrated in Inno- 
 cent III. Enraged at the failure of the measures hitherto 
 employed, he gave commissions to extraordinary legateL'; 
 authorising them to require the co-operation of th" civil 
 powers in hunting down and extirpating heretics. They 
 prosecuted the murderous enterprise with unremitting ar- 
 dour. Bii<- they were baffled in France. Innocent then 
 proclaimed .i. crusade. Full pardon of sins was promised 
 to all who would engage in the unholy war, with whatever 
 plunder they might obtain, and even the territories of such 
 • Labbe and Cossart, x. 1503 — 1535. 
 
I( 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I] 
 
 91 
 
 ce. 
 
 )igotry 
 
 I r4,ve 
 
 Inno- 
 
 itherto 
 
 fgateL\- 
 
 civil 
 
 They 
 
 ig ar- 
 
 then 
 
 lised 
 
 itever 
 
 such 
 
 princes and nobles as should resist. A large army was 
 quickly gathered. The narrative of their proceedings occu- 
 pies some of the darkest pages of the world's history. We 
 have not space for the horrid details, and must therefore 
 refer the reader to the ordinary sources of information. 
 When he reads the narratives which contemporary historians 
 have transmitted to posterity — how the crusaders attacked 
 town after town, and indiscriminately butchered the inhabi- 
 tants — how, on one occasion, when it appeared that the 
 population of the place was partly Roman Catholic and 
 partly heretical, the monk who controlled the movements of 
 the army said, " Kill all ; God knows who are His own," 
 — how terms of capitulation were granted, and afterwards 
 basely violated — how, at Carcassone, fifty were hanged and 
 four hundred burnt — how, at Lavaur, the lady of the castle 
 was thrown into a well, and stones heaped over her, and 
 "the numberless heretics that were in the fortress were 
 burnt alive \vith great joy," — how, in short, the wL^le 
 country of Languedoc, one of the finest portions of France, 
 was reduced to a desert, tens of thousands of its inhabitants 
 slaughtered, and all property destroyed : — I say, when he 
 reads these accounts, and marks the fiendish barbarity of 
 the men who proclaimed themsv-lves defenders of the faith, 
 and notes that they were taught to expect pardon and 
 heaven for their diabolical outrages, he will be prepared to 
 admit that the system which sanctioned such villainous 
 proceedings could have had no other origin than the pit of 
 darkness. It has been well observed by a modern writer, 
 that Popery is '' the master-piece of Satan." * 
 
 To the crusaders succeeded the Inquisition. The germ 
 of that institution appeared in the direction^ for parochial 
 visitation which have been already mentioned, and in the 
 
 * Sismondi's History of the Crusades against the Alhigcnses. Jones's 
 History of the Waldenses, chap. v. sect. 6. Michaud's History of the 
 Crusades. Rev. R. Cecil's Works, iii. 416. Edition 1816. 
 
 V 
 
92 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 appointment of legates to various districts, armed with 
 special power to punish heretics. In the Pontificate of 
 Gregory IX., about the year 1233, the tribunal of the Inqui- 
 sition was established ; that is, the work of punishing and 
 
 A MENDICANT FRIAR. 
 
 suppressing heresy was taken out of the hands of the 
 bishops and committed co inquisitors. The first court was 
 stationed at Toulouse. Afterwards the arrangement was 
 extended to Spain and other countries, wherever the Pope 
 
I I 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 93 
 
 could gain admittance for it. Dominic had shown so much 
 zeal in forwarding the object, and the members of his order, 
 after his death, evinced such alacrity in the cause, that it 
 was at length judged advisable to entrust the Inquisition 
 wholly to the Dominicans. They have managed the tribunal 
 in the most effective manner for the interests of Rome, 
 while they have covered themselves with deserved infamy. 
 The ecclesiastical historians will fully gratify curiosity in 
 this respect. Those who wish to enter on an extended 
 inquiry may be advised to procure Limborch's " History of 
 the Inquisition," or Llorente's " History of the Inquisition 
 in Spain." The secrecy of its processes, the withholding of 
 evidence from the accused, the refusal to confront him with 
 the witnesses, the employment of spies, the use of torture 
 in every horrible form that malignant ingenuity could devise, 
 and the unmercifulness and hardheartedness of the whole 
 procedure, have fixed a stigma on the Inquisition which 
 can never be effaced. It has accomplished the bloody work 
 of Popery with terrible faithfulness. In doing so it has 
 taught the world that Rome is the relentless enemy of 
 truth, right, and freedom. 
 
 These tremendous demonstrations produced, to a great 
 extent, the desired effect. In France, the Albigenses, 
 though not altogether exterminated, were silenced for a 
 time. Numbers escaped from the murderers and fled the 
 country. Such as remained were compelled to abstain 
 from public acts of worship, and to cease from all attempts 
 to spread their opinions. After the plans of the Inquisition 
 had been brought into regular operation, the Church in 
 France was but little troubled with heretics for the next 
 two hundred years. The suppression was not so complete 
 in Italy and Germany, and other parts of Europe, whence 
 there was freer access to regions beyond the reach of the 
 Inquisition. 
 
 At a Synod held in London, in the year 1286, Arch- 
 
\ 
 
 ,, i 
 
 I k. 
 
 94 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 bishop Peckham condemned certain metaphysical specu- 
 lations which had been recently introduced, and which 
 indicated that those who held them were opposed to tran- 
 substantiation. The seventh article furnishes a key to the 
 whole. It condemns those who affirm that in such matters 
 they ought not to be bound by the authority of Augustine, 
 or Gregory, or the Popes, but only by " Scripture and 
 necessary reason."* These men, whoever they were, had 
 imbibed right principles. One cannot help thinking that 
 they must have been Baptists, so entirely does the position 
 thev maintained harmonise with our own. All honour to 
 those, of every age and of every land, who will not bow, in 
 matters of religion, to any other authority than " Scripture 
 and necessary reason !" 
 
 There were tens of thousands of such men in Europe, in 
 the fourteenth ynd fifteenth centuries. The seed sown by 
 Peter of Bruys, Henry of Lausanne, Peter Waldo, and 
 others, had produced a plentiful harvest. In vain did 
 inquisitors rage, and plot, and torture, and bum. They 
 were neither omniscient nor omnipresent : mighty as they 
 were, they were not omnipotent. If they cursed heresy 
 here, it sprang up there ; and, when hard pressed, fourid 
 shelter in many an inaccessible mountain or secluded 
 valley. It was only in France that the exterminating 
 policy succeeded, or seemed to succeed. In other parts of 
 the Continent, the Reformers, though '* cast down," were 
 not " destroyed." They laboured on noiselessly, with good 
 success, and prayed and waited for better times. They 
 abounded in every part of the German empire, and were 
 found as far East as Constantinople. The Pope could not 
 suppress them in Northern Italy. So numerous were they, 
 that a member of any of their churches might travel from 
 Cologne to Milan, and lodge every night in a brother's 
 house. 
 
 * Labbe and Cossart, xii. 1262. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 95 
 
 l1 specu- 
 d which 
 [ to tran- 
 ty to the 
 1 matters 
 igustine, 
 ;ure and 
 ere, had 
 :ing that 
 position 
 onour to 
 t bow, in 
 Scripture 
 
 urope, in 
 
 sown by 
 
 Ido, and 
 
 vain did 
 
 They 
 
 as they 
 
 heresy 
 
 found 
 
 ecluded 
 
 ninating 
 
 parts of 
 
 1," were 
 
 ith good 
 
 They 
 
 id were 
 
 )uld not 
 
 re they, 
 
 el from 
 
 Irother's 
 
 A quickening impulse was given in the fifteenth century, 
 which may be traced to England. The absorbing propen- 
 sities of the ecclesiastics had excited general disgust, which 
 often ripened into hatred. By operating on the fears of 
 ignorant or seriously disposed persons, they had procured, 
 in return for promised masses and other imaginary benefits, 
 gifts and legacies of property to an immense amount. It 
 was even affirmed that one-half of the freehold estates of 
 the country were in their possession. Profligacy was con- 
 nected with wealth, and it was generally believed that none 
 led more licentious lives than those who had taken the vow 
 of celibacy. Besides this, the Mendicant Orders were daily 
 increasing in numbers and strength, and, as their popularity 
 grew, they became formidable rivals of the parish clergy, 
 whose revenues were proportionately diminished. Hence 
 arose contentions fierce and long. Each party strove to 
 blacken the other, and from the levelations made on both 
 sides, the people gained information which would have been 
 otherwise hidden from them ; for, when rogues fall out, 
 knavery is disclosed. These circumstances combined to 
 create much bitter feeling against the clerical orders. Dis- 
 like of their characters and deeds led to doubts respecting 
 their teachings. Who could hope to hear good words from 
 foul mouths ? Opinions which had been long current in 
 the Church, began to be regarded with suspicion, and 
 customs which had become venerable for their antiquity, 
 were neglected or submitted to with reluctance, perhaps 
 sneered at. 
 
 John de Wycliffe's influence greatly contributed to these 
 results. The insolence and rapacity of the Mendicant 
 Orders first moved his indignation. He lectured against 
 them at Oxford so powerfully, that a determination to with- 
 stand their encroachments became general among thinking 
 men, who were encouraged in their opposition by a con- 
 siderable number of the nobility and gentry. Pursuing 
 
95 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 his inquiries, Wycliffe went further than he originally 
 intended, and propounded opinions which were extremely 
 unpalatable to the staunch supporters of Popery. Rome 
 upheld and protected the Mendicants, and stirred up per- 
 secution against all who opposed them. Wycliffe himself 
 was in great danger, and would have fallen a victim to 
 Papal vengeance but for the protection of the Duke of 
 Lancaster and other men of high rank. He was compelled 
 
 I'll 
 
 f 11 
 
 i s 
 
 ! » 
 
 ii 'ii 
 
 JOHN DE WYCLIFFE. 
 
 to leave Oxford, however, and to retire to his rectory of 
 Lutterworth, Leicestershire, where he died in peace, De- 
 cember 31st, 1384. For many years before his death he 
 had continued to follow the leadings of truth and to yield to 
 conviction. The injustice of the Popes in regard to the 
 Mendicant controversy, and their steadfast resolve to uphold 
 all abuses and resist all reforms, filled him with disgust. 
 
II 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 97 
 
 riginally 
 !:tremely 
 Rome 
 up per- 
 ; himself 
 'ictim to 
 Duke of 
 impelled 
 
 :tory of 
 :e, De- 
 tath he 
 ^ield to 
 to the 
 [uphold 
 lisgust. 
 
 What was the character of the system which cherished 
 such enormities ? In answering that question, he was led 
 to compare the professed Christianity of the fourteenth 
 century with that of the New Testament. The contrast 
 shocked him. He saw that the religion of Christ and His 
 Apostles had long been practically abjured. The cunning, 
 crooked policy of the Church ^'f Rome, in withholding the 
 Scriptures from the people, and thus placing them in a 
 state of abject dependence on the priesthood, was contem- 
 plated by him with abhorrence. He devoted himself to the 
 enlightenment of his countrymen. By the publication of 
 short tracts and carefully written treatises, he set before 
 them, in plain, nervous style, the evils in which they had 
 been involved, and the truths which claimed their faith. 
 He exhorted them to think and judge for themselves. He 
 spent the latter years of his life in translating the Scriptures 
 into the English language, and happily accomplished his 
 purpose. For the first time the people of England had 
 the opportunity of reading the Word of God in their own 
 tongue. A more precious gift than the English Bible 
 could not have been bestowed upon them. 
 
 When the Pope condemned Wycliffe's sentiments, he 
 ordered the Government of England to deal with him as a 
 heretic ; but the Reformer's friends were so numerous and 
 influential, that the Papal shaft fell harmless. The subject 
 was taken up by the Council of Constance, which met in 
 the year 1415, and a sentence of condemnation was issued. 
 Wycliffe was out of their reach, but his books were widely 
 circulated, and his bones were in his grave at Lutterworth. 
 Books and bones were deemed fit objects of revenge, and 
 orders were given to burn them. The sentence was not 
 executed on his bones till the year 1428, when, by com- 
 mand of Pope Martin V., the tomb was violated. After a 
 repose of upwards of forty years, the remains of the good 
 man were disinterred. The fire reduced them to ashes, 
 
 H 
 
I 
 
 I r I 
 
 k\ 1 
 
 
 '1 
 
 
 98 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 and the ashes were cast into the Swift, a small stream that 
 runs through Lutterworth. Thomas Fuller, the quaint 
 Church historian, says : " This brook has conveyed his 
 ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow 
 seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of 
 Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dis- 
 persed all the v/orld over."* 
 
 After Wycliffe's death, the work was carried on bj' the 
 Lollards, as those who embraced his opinions were called. 
 The origin of that appellation is hid in obscurity. Some 
 derive it from the name of one of their traders, Walter 
 Lollard. Others, with Mosheim, regard it as "a term of 
 reproach, brought from Belgium into England." f So great 
 ■was their success that a Romish writer of those times 
 affirms that one-half of the people had become disaffected 
 to the Church. This is an exaggeration ; but it is evident, 
 from the strenuous endeavours of the ecclesiastics to pro- 
 cure the adoption of violent measures, that the reforming 
 party had assumed a formidable appearance. The Lollards 
 travelled from place to place, preaching and teaching, as 
 the Waldenses and others did on the Continent. Some- 
 times they obtained possession of the churches (for many 
 of them belonged to the clergy, and kept their places, as 
 Wycliffe had done before them). Sometimes they preached 
 in the churchyards ; they went to the fairs and markets, 
 where the people congregated in great numbers, and often 
 addressed immense assemblies, who heard them with much 
 sympathy and respect. They circulated portions of the 
 Scriptures as they had opportunity, and thus there grew up 
 a strong attachment to the Word of God. Men would sit 
 up all night to read it, or to hear it read by others. Some 
 ** would give a load of hay for a few chapters of St. James 
 
 * Church History of Britain, book iv. cent. 15, sect. 52 — 54. See Dr. 
 Vaughan's Life and Opinions of jfohn de Wycliffe. 
 
 f Ecclesiastical History, cent. xiv. part 2, chap. ii. sect. 20. 
 
II 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 99 
 
 earn that 
 e quaint 
 eyed his 
 e narrow 
 ashes of 
 )W is dis- 
 
 n b}' the 
 
 re called. 
 
 '. Some 
 
 , Walter 
 
 I term of 
 
 So great 
 
 se times 
 
 safFected 
 
 evident, 
 
 s to pro- 
 
 eforming 
 
 Lollards 
 
 hing, as 
 
 Somt- 
 
 r many 
 
 laces, as 
 
 )reached 
 
 larkets, 
 
 id often 
 
 th much 
 
 of the 
 
 jrew up 
 
 iould sit 
 
 Some 
 
 James 
 
 See Dr. 
 
 or St. Paul in English," as John Foxe testifies. The 
 bishops stormed and raved. In the year 1400 they pro- 
 cured the enactment of the statute de hccretico comburendo, 
 and burnt as many as they could lay their hands on. In 
 some instances even children were compelled to set fire 
 to the pile in which their parents were to be consumed. 
 Others "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings." A 
 large number of them were imprisoned in the Tower of 
 
 THE LOLLARDS' PRISON IN THE TOWER OF LONDON. 
 
 London, and in other prisons of the land. Yet the light 
 of the Gospel was not extinguished. When the Refor- 
 mation broke out, there were many thousands in England 
 who were already prepared to side with the friends of truth 
 against Antichrist and his abettors. 
 
 From England the movement spread eastward as far as 
 Bohemia. To what extent the influence of Wycliffe's 
 writings was felt in the intervening countries, it is not pos- 
 sible to say, but that they were very popular in Bohemia is 
 
 H 2 
 
I 
 
 100 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 matter of history. Anne of Bohemia, Queen of Richard 
 II., befriended the Reformer, and probably transmitted 
 copies of his works to her own country. John Huss pos- 
 sessed them and studied them attentively. Many others, 
 some of them persons of high rank, were eager to obtain 
 the Englishman's books. When the Council of Constance 
 ordered them to be burnt, upwards of two hundred volumes, 
 most of them richly bound and adorned, were thrown into 
 the flames. But many more, we may be sure, were retained 
 by their owners. Wycliffe, though dead, continued to speak 
 and instruct. Peter of Bruys, and other godly men, lived 
 in their successors. At the close of this period there 
 were vast numbers in every part of Europe who " wor- 
 shipped God in the spirit, rejoiced in Christ Jesus, and had 
 no confidence in the flesh." Councils had thundered forth 
 their curses, popes had issued their bulls, and inquisitors 
 had exhausted their ingen ity — but it was all in vain. The 
 Church of God still lived. 
 
 Section IY. 
 
 Various Opinions respecting Baptism— Berengar— Peter of Bruys— Henry of 
 Lausanne— Arnold of Brescia — Cologne — England — Lombers— Pope 
 Lucius in. 
 
 1'^HE Reformers of whom we have given a brief account, 
 although they differed from one another on some 
 minor points, agreed in these three things: — the sole autho- 
 rity of Scripture in matters of religion, in opposition to 
 the burdens of tradition which had been laid upon men's 
 shoulders ; the spiritual nature of Christianity, and the 
 consequent necessity of personal faith and regeneration by 
 the Holy Spirit, in opposition to dead forms and reliance 
 on the priesthood ; and the right of every one to think and 
 act for himself in these all-important affairs, in opposition 
 
 I 
 
t,l 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 loi 
 
 Richard 
 ismitted 
 uss pos- 
 r Others, 
 3 obtain 
 )nstance 
 'olumes, 
 \vn into 
 retained 
 to speak 
 in, lived 
 d there 
 ) ** wor- 
 and had 
 ed forth 
 luigitors 
 n. The 
 
 •Henry of 
 jrs— Pope 
 
 to the tyrannical assumptions of the Romish clergy, sus- 
 tained by the secular power. They sought Bible truth, 
 spiritual life, soul freedom. This three-fold cord will guide 
 us in the labyrinthine darkness of the Middle Ages. When- 
 ever we can lay our hands on it we find the grace and 
 power of God. 
 
 We come now again to the consideration of baptism. 
 On this subject there were differences of opinion. Some 
 retained the doctrine and practice of the dominant church ; 
 others rejected both baptism and the Lord's Supper; for 
 the former they substituted a ceremony which they called 
 "consolamentum," or the "baptism by fire," in allusion to 
 the words of John the Baptist. " They assembled in a 
 room dark and closed in on all sides, but illuminated by a 
 large number of lights affixed to the walls. Then the new 
 candidate was placed in the centre, where the presiding 
 officer of the sect laid a book (probably the Gospel of John) 
 on his head, and gave him the imposition of hands, at 
 the same time reciting the Lord's Prayer." * In arguing 
 against infant-baptism they adopted the same course of 
 reasoning as has beer employed by Baptists in all ages. 
 They uniformly exposed the absurdity of baptizing those 
 who could not believe. A third party propounded scriptural 
 truth, but evidence is wanting as to how far their views 
 were developed. It may be inferred that they abstained 
 from baptizing children, as in all consistency they were 
 bound to do. The fourth class consisted of those who not 
 only taught, but openly practised. Baptist sentiments. We 
 will furnish such information as we have gathered respect- 
 ing them, derived from the original sources. There will be 
 no hazarding of conjectures or surmises. 
 
 Many of the Councils of this peiiod refer in general terms 
 to the heretics of the times, condemning them in the lump, 
 without enumerating the various sects, and sometimes 
 * Eckbert cont. Catharos, in Biblioth. Maxima, xxiii. 615. 
 
102 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 \i 
 
 !i' 1 
 
 without any specification oi their opinions. In some in- 
 stances, however, there is such reference. Those who 
 rejected "baptism of children," were condemned by the 
 following Councils, viz.. Toulouse, a.d. 1119; Lateran II., 
 A.D. 1 139; Lateran III., a.d. 1179; London, a.d. 1391. 
 We do not affirm that all the parties condemned were 
 Baptists, because probably some of them rejected both 
 baptism and the Lord's Supper ; but we wish to direct 
 particular attention to the fact that their denial of infant- 
 baptism was uniformly justified by them on the ground of 
 the non-existence of faith in the child. They saw clearly 
 that, in the New Testament, faith is always represented 
 as the pre-requisite to baptism, and hence they naturally 
 enough said, " These children cannot believe — why do you 
 baptize them ? " ' ' 
 
 Berengar of Tours was an excellent man. He was Prin- 
 cipal of the Cathedral School in that city, and afterwards 
 Archdeacon of Angers. His fame as a teacher induced 
 young men in different parts of France to repair to him for 
 instruction. Neander says, ** He was constantly deviating 
 from the beaten tract — striking out his own path, in matters 
 both of secular and ecclesiastical science — a proof of the 
 independence and freedom of udgment with which he pur- 
 sued all his inquiries. Thus, for example, he studied to 
 make improvements in grammar, and endeavoured to intro- 
 duce a new pronunciation of Latin." * This freedom and 
 independence eminently characterized his theological re- 
 searches. The controversy on transubstantiation attracted 
 his attention, and he was quickly repelled by the absurdities 
 propounded on that subject. He saw that Christian ordi- 
 nances required faith in those who observed them, without 
 which the observance v/as altogether useless; and, in regard 
 to the Lord's Supper in particular, he abjured the commonly 
 received opinion, and taught ihe spiritual presence of the 
 * History of the Chtiri:h, iii. 533. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 103 
 
 some in- 
 ose who 
 i by the 
 :eran II., 
 D. 1391. 
 led were 
 ted both 
 to direct 
 >f infant- 
 ground of 
 w clearly 
 )resented 
 naturally 
 y do you 
 
 i^as Prin- 
 
 ftervvards 
 
 induced 
 
 ) him for 
 
 eviating 
 
 matters 
 
 >f of the 
 
 I he pur- 
 
 Lidied to 
 
 to intro- 
 
 om and 
 
 ical re- 
 
 ttracted 
 
 urdities 
 
 n ordi- 
 
 without 
 
 regard 
 
 monly 
 
 of the 
 
 Saviour, in connection with the believing apprehension, on 
 the part of the communicant, of the truths embodied in the 
 institution. For this he was severely persecuted, con- 
 demned, and compelled, through fear of death, to renounce 
 his alleged heresies. But he re-asserted them, and they 
 were embraced by great numbers of his former pupils, and 
 by many other persons in France and Germany, 
 
 In the following extract from one of Bcrengar's writings, 
 the reader may see in what light he viewed baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper. " Our Lord Christ requires of thee no 
 more than this. Thou believest that out of His great com- 
 passion for the human race. He poured out His blood for 
 them; and that thou, by virtue of this faith, wilt be cleansed 
 by His blood from all sin. He requires of thee, that, con- 
 stantly mindful of this blood of Christ, thou shouldst use it 
 to sustain the life of thy inner man in this earthly pil- 
 grimage, as thou sustainest the life of thy outward man by 
 meat and drink. He also requires of thee that in the faith 
 that God so loved the world as to give His only begotten 
 Son as a propitiation for our sins, thou shouldst submit to 
 outward baptism, to represent how thou oughtest to follow 
 Christ in His death and in His resurrection. The bodily 
 eating and drinking of bread and wine — says he — should 
 remind thee of the spiritual eating and drinking of the body 
 and blood of Christ, that whilst thou art refreshed in the 
 inner man by the contemplation of His incarnation and of 
 His passion, thou mayest follow Him in humility and 
 patience." *■"* A person who held such sentiments as these 
 could not with propriety practise infant-baptism. Conse- 
 quently, we find that he is charged by writers of Lhose 
 times with attempting to overthrow that rite. Deoduin, 
 Bishop of Liege (who died a.d. 1075), says of Berengar, 
 and of Bruno, Bishop of Angers, who had been one of his 
 pupils — ** As far as is in their power they overturn the 
 * Neander's History of the Churchy iii. 525, 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 w 
 
 P 
 
 m 
 
11 
 
 I! 
 
 ;|! 
 
 |) 
 
 104 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 baptism of little children." Guitmund, a Benedictine 
 monk, and afterwards Archbishop of Aversa (who died a.d. 
 1080), uses similar language, and exp.-esses his horror at 
 the ♦ depth of all evil " into which such persons would be 
 likely to fall, whom the devil should persuade, throupfh 
 Berengar, to renounce their baptism in infancy, since, as he 
 supposed, they would hold themselves at liberty to plunge 
 into every vice, in the assurance that whenever they might 
 be baptized all would be cleansed away.* The reader will 
 not sympathize with Guitmund in that matter. He will 
 pity his ignorance. Berengar's teaching did not produce 
 such effects. 
 
 Berengar died a.d. 1088. Later writers have stated that 
 his followers were very numerous. It is even said that in 
 the next century as many as 800,000 persons professed his 
 sentiments. It is obvious, however, that any exact enume- 
 ration is impossible. As Berengarians, the party was not 
 of long continuance. But the principles remained, though 
 the name was disused, anl were spread over a large part of 
 Europe. 
 
 In less than twenty years after Berengar's death, Peter of 
 Bruys was preaching in the South of France with great 
 power and blessing. It is to be wished that we had the 
 materials for the history of this movement, and Peter's 
 own account of his doctrine. We know not by what means 
 he was led to those thoughts and conclusions which issued 
 in his assuming the bold position of a reformer. If the 
 Abbot of Clugny is to be believed, he had been a priest, 
 and for some unmentioned reason had been dismissed from 
 his parish ; but the abbot refrains from any statement of 
 facts. t Certainly Peter must have had a profound convic- 
 tion of the utter worthlessness and injurious tendency of 
 the religion of the age. He saw that people were " mad 
 
 * Biblicth, Maxima, xviii. 441, 531. 
 f Ibid., y';Ii. 1058, 
 
 
':) 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 105 
 
 ledictine 
 iied A.D. 
 iorror at 
 ^ould be 
 throup:h 
 :e, as he 
 i plunge 
 y might 
 ider will 
 He will 
 produce 
 
 ted that 
 
 that in 
 
 3sed his 
 
 enume- 
 
 vas not 
 
 though 
 
 part of 
 
 'eter of 
 great 
 I ad the 
 'eter's 
 means 
 issued 
 If the 
 Driest, 
 1 from 
 ent of 
 onvic- 
 icy of 
 mad 
 
 upon liheir idols," substituting the outward for the inward, 
 the name for the reality. It seemed to him that nothing 
 but a radical change would meet the necessity of the case. 
 Seeing that the churches were held in so great reverence, 
 as consecrated buildings, the only places where worship 
 should be celebrated, he taught that God's blessing was not 
 limited to localities, and that prayer to Him, if sincere, was 
 as acceptable in a shop or iri the market-place as in a 
 church, in a stable as before an altar. Reproving the pomp 
 and splendour and the constant appeals to the senses by 
 which the public services were characterized, especially the 
 chants and the music, he instructed the people that " pious 
 affections " were far more pleasing to God than loud voci- 
 ferations. Instead of conniving at the adoration of the 
 cross, or allowing any respect to be paid to it, he said that 
 it should be regarded only as the representation of an 
 instrument of cruelty, and therefore worthy of all detesta- 
 tion and fit to be destroyed. There was a practical demon- 
 stration of the effects of his instructions. The people 
 assembled in great numbers on Good Friday, collected all 
 the crosses they could lay their hands on, made a bonfire of 
 them, roasted meat at the fire, and ate it publicly. Once 
 more, Peter dissuaded his hearers from attempting to bene- 
 fit the dead by prayers or by payment for priests' masses. 
 No advantage, he told them, could accrue to the departed 
 from anything of the kind. 
 
 Baptism and the Church were contemplated by Peter in 
 the pure light of Scripture. The Church should be ccni- 
 posed, he constantly affirmed, of true believers, good and 
 just persons : no others had any claim to membership. 
 Baptism was a nullity unless connected with personal 
 faith, but all who believed were under solemn obligation 
 to be baptized, according to the Saviour's command. 
 
 Peter v/as not merely what is now called a " Baptist in 
 principle.'' When the truths he inculcated were received, 
 
 I':', 
 
 'M 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 I:, 
 
 I: 
 
 11 i 
 
io6 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 and men and women were raised to *' newness of life," 
 they were directed to the path of duty. Baptism followed 
 faith. Enemies said that this was Ana-baptism, but Peter 
 and his friends indignantly repelled the imputation. The 
 rite performed in infancy, they maintained, was no baptism 
 at all, since it wanted the essential ingredient, faith in 
 Christ. Then, and then only, when that faith was pro- 
 fessed, were the converts reaily baptized.* 
 
 Great success attended Peter's labours. At first he 
 preached in thinly populated places and villages. But, 
 like his Divine Master, he " could not be hid." Multitudes 
 flocked to hear him, and the towns and cities of Narbonne 
 and Languedoc were enlightened by his ministry. This 
 continued for twenty years. What an interesting chapter 
 would it form in the history of the Church, if the record of 
 the facts could be recovered ! What striking conversions ! 
 What penetrating, powerful sermons ! What revival meet- 
 ings ! What lovely manifestations of Christian fellowship ! 
 Doubtless such scenes were witnessed— and ministering 
 angels rejoiced— and the news reached the saints in heaven, 
 causing a fresh outburst of joyful acclaim. And again they 
 sang, *' Thou art worthy — for thou wast slain, and hast r^.- 
 deemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and 
 tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto 
 our God kings and priests ; and we shall reign on the 
 earth ! " 
 
 Instead of recitals which would have gladdened our 
 hearts, we have but the meagre and melancholy jottings of 
 a foe, written with the pen of prejudice. Peter the Vene- 
 rable, Abbot of Clugny, whose treatise against the Petro- 
 brusians is our only authority on this subject, sums up all 
 in these words : — ** The people are rebaptized, the churches 
 profaned, the altars dug up, the crosses burned, fiesh eaten 
 in public on the very day of the Lord's passion, the priests 
 * Magdeburg. Centuriatores, cent xii. 331. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 107 
 
 of life," 
 followed 
 ut Peter 
 n. The 
 baptism 
 faith in 
 vas pro- 
 first he 
 s. But, 
 ultitudes 
 arbonne 
 \ This 
 chapter 
 *ecord of 
 ersions ! 
 al meet- 
 lowship ! 
 listering 
 leaven, 
 lin they 
 last r':- 
 ed, and 
 s unto 
 on the 
 
 ed our 
 ings of 
 Vene- 
 Petro- 
 up all 
 urches 
 eaten 
 )riests 
 
 scourged, the monks imprisoned, and compelled by threaten- 
 ings and torments to marry wives."* When we bear in 
 mind that in the first ebullitions of zeal during the Reform- 
 ation in the sixteenth century, the instruments and objects 
 of superstition, as well as its abettors, sometimes received 
 rather rough usage, the people thus evincing their indig- 
 nation at the trickery which had been practised upon them, 
 we may wonder the less at any uproarious proceedings 
 taking place four hundred years before. We are under no 
 necessity, however, of believing that the *' rebaptized " 
 people committed the outrages spoken of. At such times 
 there are always many to be found who are willing to attach 
 themselves outwardly to an enterprise for the sake of some 
 worldly advantage, and when they run into excesses the 
 blame is laid on the cause with which they are connected. 
 Yet, partial and unsatisfactory as Peter the Venerable's 
 statement is, it indicates the extent and effect of the 
 Reformer's efforts. Labbe, the Jesuit (also one of the 
 editors of the " Concilia "), evidently regarded Peter of 
 Bruys as a man by whose labours great injury was inflicted 
 on Romanism. These are his words : — " Almost all the 
 heretics who came after Peter of Bruys trod in the steps of 
 his heresy ; hence he may be deservedly called the parent 
 of heretics. "t 
 
 Martyrdom awaited him. Having preached with his 
 accustomed fervour at St. Gilles, in Languedoc, the in- 
 furiated populace seized him and hurried him to the stake. 
 It was like the murder of Stephen — the act of a lawless 
 mob. Nor can we doubt that the Lord, whose presence 
 cheered the first martyr, comforted Peter of Bruys, and 
 enabled him to meet death, even in that terrible form, with 
 the composure of faith. 
 
 Such was the end of a Baptist minister in the twelfth 
 
 * Biblioth. Maxima, xxii. 1035. 
 f Concil. X. looi. 
 
 % 
 
 •■ii 
 
 
w 
 
 ill! 
 
 , 
 
 til 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 I 08 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 jcentmy^ Peter's martyrdom is supposed to have occurred 
 about the ye ar 1124.. But the bereaved flocks vi^ere not for- 
 saken. Another shepherd was ready to take charge of them. 
 Henry of Lausanne was a monk, an inmate of the monas- 
 tery of Clugny, a town about forty-six miles from Lyons. 
 The seclusion and inactivity of that mode of life ill com- 
 ported with his fervid spirit. He felt a consciousness of 
 power, and longed to do something for the cause of God. 
 Being eminently gifted as a public speaker, he engaged in 
 a preaching itinerancy. He commenced his labours at 
 Lausanne, in Swit-rerland, about the year 11 16, and thence 
 proceeded to the South of France. His first efforts were 
 directed to the reformation of manners and morals. He 
 declaimed against the vices of the clergy and the general 
 dissoluteness that prevailed, and he preached so eloquently 
 that all classes bowed beneath his rebukes, great numbers 
 confessing their sins and entering upon a course of reform. 
 At Mans, where, while the bishop was absent at Rome, he 
 was permitted to occupy the cathedral, his influence over 
 the people became so powerful that when the bishop re- 
 turned they refused to receive him, and clamorously de- 
 clared that they would adhere to Henry. Hildebert, how- 
 ever (that was the bishop's name), managed the affair with 
 discretion, and Henry chose another field. He repaired to 
 .the district where Peter of Bruys had preached, and entered 
 into his labours. By this time his own views were greatly 
 enlarged. From opposing vice he proceeded to attack 
 error. A treatise which he published, and which unfor- 
 tunately is not now extant, contained a full exposition of 
 his sentiments. It is said that on some points he went 
 farther than Peter, but what they were is not stated. This 
 is certain, that he fully agreed with him on the subject of 
 baptism, and that those who received the truth were formed 
 into "Apostolical societies," or, as we should now say, 
 Christian churches. 
 
\\ 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 occurred 
 i not for- 
 of them. 
 I monas- 
 i Lyons, 
 ill com- 
 sness of 
 of God. 
 ;aged in 
 lOurs at 
 I thence 
 :ts were 
 Is. He 
 general 
 )quently 
 lumbers 
 reform. 
 Dme, he 
 ce over 
 hop re- 
 sly de- 
 t, how- 
 ir with 
 ired to 
 ntered 
 reatly 
 attack 
 unfor- 
 ion of 
 went 
 This 
 ject of 
 rmed 
 say, 
 
 log 
 
 Henry's success alarmed the Church dignitaries of the 
 country, who procured his arrest. He was condemned by 
 the Council of Pisa, in the year 1134, and sentenced to 
 confinement in a monastery. Having obtained his liberty, 
 after a short imprisonment, he resumed the work of preach- 
 ing, and for ten years the cities of Toulouse and Alby, and 
 
 FISAAT THE TIME OF THE COUNCIL OF II34. 
 
 the district in which they are situated, enjoyed the benefit 
 of his exertions. Astonishing results followed. Many 
 nobles sanctioned and protected him. Multitudes were 
 added to the churches, and, as in the times of the Apostles, 
 *' a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." 
 The celebrated Bernard of Clairvaux says, in a letter to 
 
 ii. 
 
 VKH 
 
 i 
 
 ill 
 III 
 
 m 
 
 W 
 
 'i 
 
no 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 ':'l 
 
 a nobleman, " The churches are without flocks, the flocks 
 without priests, the priests are nowhere treated with due 
 reverence, the churches are levelled down to synagogues, 
 the sacraments are not esteemed holy, the festivals are no 
 longer celebrated ;" and he states in one of his sermons, 
 that •' Women forsake their husbands, and husbands their 
 wives, and run over to this sect," and that " Clergymen and 
 priests desert their communities and churches."* Stripping 
 these expressions of their Romish meaning, the facts of the 
 case clearly show themselves. Had Henry been the histo- 
 rian he would have said, " God has blessed His work ; 
 priests and people have received the Gospel ; true churches 
 are now formed ; Christian ordinances have supplanted the 
 old superstitions ; and the commands of Christ, and His 
 only, are obeyed." 
 
 Pope Eugenius heard of it, and sent Cardinal Alberic, 
 accompanied by Bernard, to quash the movement. Bernard 
 was reverenced as a great saint, and was accustomed to 
 carry everything before him ; but the Henricians knew 
 Scripture as well and probably better than he, and quoted it 
 against him with great effect. He met with poor success. 
 But when preaching failed, force was employed. Henry- 
 was again seized. A council held at Rheims in the year 
 1 148 condemned him, and he ended his days in prison. 
 Samson, the Archbishop of Rheims, disapproved of shed- 
 ding blood for the faith, and so the perpetual dungeon was 
 substituted for the stake. Henry languished in solitude 
 and privation (for they put him on meagre diet) till the 
 Master called him. The time of his death has not been 
 recorded.f 
 
 * Epist. 240. In Cantic. Sermoncs, 65. 66. Opera, i. 438—440, iii. 
 415 — 432. Ed. Paris. 1667. 
 
 f Dr. AUix says that he was burnt at Toulouse, a.d. 1147, but he 
 gives no authority for the statement. — Remarks on the AlbigenseSt 
 chap. xiv. 
 
rll 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 MI 
 
 flocks 
 th due 
 jogues, 
 
 are no 
 rmons, 
 Is their 
 len and 
 ripping 
 J of the 
 e histo- 
 
 work ; 
 [lurches 
 ited the 
 nd His 
 
 Alberic, 
 
 Bernard 
 
 med ta 
 
 3 knew 
 
 oted it 
 
 uccess. 
 
 Henry 
 
 e year 
 
 prison. 
 
 shed- 
 
 n was 
 
 lolitude 
 
 ill the 
 
 t been 
 
 f40, iiu 
 
 but he 
 ligenses. 
 
 Hildebert, Bishop of Mans, styled Henry " a great snare 
 of the devil and a celebrated champion of Antichrist.*'* 
 These expressions are significant of extensive influence. 
 And, indeed, it appears that his sentiments spread not only 
 in Languedoc, where he chiefly laboured, but in other parts 
 of France. It is proballe that his disciples travelled into 
 Germany, and propagated the same doctrine there. •{• 
 
 It is much to be regetted that we are not furnished with 
 any particulars respecting the order of worship or the mode 
 of church government adopted by Peter and Henry. There 
 can be no doubt that plainness and simplicity characterized 
 the whole, and that there was a rigid adherence to the laws 
 of the New Testament. They called Jesus " Master and 
 Lord." They rendered obedience to His commandments, 
 as interpreted and exemplified by the Apostles, and they 
 were so scrupulously conscientious in these respects that 
 the title of ** Apostolicals " distinguished them from others. 
 How much pleasure it would afford us to read a full de- 
 scription of one of their meetings — and copies of the hymns 
 they sang — and a sermon or two preached by Peter or 
 Henry — and a few extracts from their church-books — that 
 
 * Biblioth. Maz'una, xxi. 157. 
 
 f Wall says, in his '* History of Infant-Baptism," that Peter of Bruys 
 and Henry were " the first Anti-paedobaptist preachers that ever set up 
 a church or society of men holding that opinion against infant-baptism, 
 and re-baptizing such as had been baptized in infancy " (Vol. ii. p. 250. 
 Third Edition). We do not admit the correctness of Mr. Wall's state- 
 ments, because those churches can be traced a great way farther back. 
 We were about to say, that we can trace their history as far back as the 
 year 31, when the first church was formed at Jerusalem; but Mr. Wall's 
 epithet, "Anti-paedobaptist," stands in the way. That church was not 
 an "Anti-paedobaptist " church, because Paedobaptists had not then ap- 
 peared in the world. Infant-baptism was then unknown. Mr. Wall, 
 however, grants that there were Baptist (or, as he calls them, " Anti- 
 paedobaptist ") churches in the twelfth century. That is so far good. 
 Some persons in these times wish to ignore all this, and to make us 
 start from the s-xteenth century. Mr. Wall knew better. 
 
 
 i,^ I 
 
 i 
 
 
 jf 
 
IK 
 
 Baptist History; 
 
 1 1 
 
 ti:l 
 
 we might know in what manner they sought to " walk and 
 to please God." 
 
 Arnold of Brescia occupies a conspicuous place in his- 
 tory. By some writers he has been classed with ** Baptist 
 Martyrs." There is not sufficient evidence to warrant such 
 a statement. Arnold was a reformer, but not a separatist. 
 Himself an ecclesiastic, he employed all his energies in 
 attempting to restore his Order to primitive plainness and 
 purity, and thus to regain the moral influence which had 
 been lost, and with it to promote a revival of scriptural 
 piety. He declaimed loudly against the wealth and luxury 
 of the clergy. He taught that they should not be pos- 
 sessors of worldly property, but be supported by tithes and 
 the voluntary offerings of the people. So acceptable were 
 his teachings, that commotions were feared, and Arnold was 
 banished from Italy. He pursued the same course in 
 France, whither he had retired, and again he was banished. 
 We then hear of him in Switzerland, where he was still 
 indefatigable .1 his endeavours. The great Bernard, now 
 called Saint Bernard, was unremitting in his efforts to stop 
 Arnold's progress, and the language employed in his letters 
 seems to imply that the reformer did not content himself 
 with inveighing against the pomp and pride of the clergy, 
 but exposed whatever evils he discerned, and laboured to 
 remove all the obstacles that stood in the way of religious 
 restoration. His own life was a pattern of propriety. 
 ** Would that his doctrine," says Bernard, " were as sound 
 as his life is austere ! If you would know the man, he is 
 one who neither eats nor drinks ; like the devil, he hungers 
 and thirsts only for the blood of souls."* Hard words, 
 Bernard ! very unlike a saint ! 
 
 Arnold's sentiments became popular at Rome. He went 
 there, and thundered out well-deserved invectives against 
 the union of secular and ecclesiastical power in the person 
 
 * Epist. 195. 
 
 ! i 
 
1,1 
 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 113 
 
 of ths Pope. His Holiness, he said, ought to be a prelate 
 only, not a prince. He exhorted the people to demand 
 their ancient liberties, and restore the old form of govern- 
 ment. They adopted his policy. The Pope was required 
 to resign his temporal power. Insurrection followed. Rome 
 was in a state of disturbance during the reigns of four suc- 
 cessive Popes, from 1143 to 1154. Arnold was there all 
 the time. But Pope Adrian IV. quelled the storm. He 
 laid Rome under an interdict. The terrified inhabitants 
 promised to expel Arnold if the Pontiff would remove it. 
 Arnold fled. But he was taken prisoner in Tuscany, and 
 conveyed back to Rome, where he was hanged, or, as some 
 say, crucified. His body was burned, and his ashes thrown 
 into the Tiber. This was in the year 1155. 
 
 The only authority for the ascription of Baptist senti- 
 ments to Arnold is Otto of Frisingen, who states in his 
 Chronicle that Arnold was ** said (dicitur) to be unsound 
 in his views respecting the sacrament of the altar and the 
 baptism of children."* The common histories give no 
 support to this affirmation. Indeed, unless there has been 
 an enormous suppression of facts, Arnold's attention was 
 mostly confined to the points above mentioned. Bernard 
 styles him " a flagrant schismatic." Baronius designates 
 him " the patriarch of political heretics." But Neander 
 observes, " The inspiring idea of his movements was that 
 of a holy and pure church, a renovation of the spiritual 
 order, after the pattern of the Apostolical Church. . . . 
 The corrupt bishops and priests were no longer bishops 
 and priests — the secularized church was no longer the 
 house of God. It does not appear that his opposition 
 to the corrupt church had ever led him to advance any 
 such remarks as could be interpreted into heresy ; for, 
 had he done so, men would, from the first, have pro- 
 ceeded against him more sharply, and his opponents 
 * Labbe and Cossart, vi. 1012. 
 
 k 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 ■■i'li 
 
I, 
 
 114 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 II ' 
 
 who spared no pains in hunting up everything which 
 could serve to place him in an unfavourable light, would 
 certainly never have allowed such heretical statements of 
 Arnold to pass unnoticed. But we must allow that the 
 way in which Arnold stood forth against the corrup- 
 tions of the Church, and especially his inclination to 
 make the objective in the instituted order, and in the 
 transactions of the Church, to depend on the subjective 
 character of the men, might easily lead to still greater 
 aberrations."* 
 
 We cannot but acknowledge the correctness of these re- 
 marks, and are disposed to think that either Arnold's oppo- 
 sition originally extended to other particulars besides those 
 specified, or that his followers separated from the Church 
 after his death. The " Arnoldists " were proscribed, with 
 others, by Pope Lucius, a.d. 1183, and by the Emperor 
 Frederic II., in a sanguinary edict against the various 
 classes of heretics, issued in 1224. 
 
 We have not the means of knowing how the societies 
 established by Peter and Henry prospered after their death. 
 None of the names of their successors h.^ve reached us. 
 It can only be affirmed, generally, that the wurk continued 
 to advance, as may be sufficiently gathered from the pro- 
 ceedings of sundry Councils. 
 
 The heretics, as they were called, were very numerous at 
 Cologne. Evervinus, Provost of Steinfeld, wrote against 
 them in 1146, and applied to Bernard for aid, who dis- 
 coursed virulently on the points in debate, and made up in 
 railing for the lack of sound argument. 
 
 Eckbert, Abbot of St. Florin, published thirteen sermons 
 in 1 163, in which he laboured hard to fix the charge of 
 heresy on the Cathari, who, as usual, were accused of 
 
 i I., 
 
 * History of the Church, iv. 149. See also the Biographical Dictionary 
 of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Art. "Arnold of 
 Brescia." 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 "5 
 
 ; which 
 :, would 
 lents of 
 :hat the 
 
 corrup- 
 ition to 
 
 in the 
 ibjective 
 
 greater 
 
 these re- 
 I's oppo- ■ 
 ,es those 
 1 Church 
 led, with 
 Emperor 
 various 
 
 societies 
 ir death. 
 
 led us. 
 Dntinued 
 
 he pro- 
 
 erous at 
 
 against 
 
 /ho dis- 
 
 de up in 
 
 sermons 
 large of 
 used of 
 
 ictionary 
 /Arnold of 
 
 Manichaeism. While both he and Evervinus affirm that the 
 Cathari generally rejected baptism altogether, substituting 
 for it the " Consolimentum," they agree in stating that a 
 portion of them di Tered from the others in that respect. 
 They rejected infant- baptism only, on the ground that 
 infants could not believe, and they taught that baptiam 
 should be administered to none but adults.* 
 
 The thirty " Waidenses," as they are called, who appeared 
 in England about the year 1159, probably belonged to the 
 same party. William of Newbury, the chronicler, charges 
 them with " detesting holy baptism," which may be fairly 
 understood as implying the rejection of baptism as then 
 practised by Rome.f 
 
 In 1 165 a Council was held at Lombers, for the purpose 
 of dealing with some persons who were known by the 
 appellation of boni homines or " good men " (whether im- 
 posed on them by others or assumed by themselves, does 
 not appear), and who were manifestly Baptists. When 
 asked what they thought about baptism, they answered, that 
 they would not say, but that they would reply ** from the 
 Gospel and the Epistles," meaning that they would adduce 
 the Scripture testimony on the subject, and maintain the 
 necessity of abiding by the Word of God. J The bishops 
 failed to convince them of their error. 
 
 In a Bull issued by Pope Lucius III., he denounced all 
 who held or taught any sentiments differing from those pro- 
 fessed by the Church of Rome ; and he particularly refers 
 to baptism. § The Baptists gave a great deal of trouble to 
 the Papists in those days. 
 
 The terrible storm which fell upon Southern France in 
 the Crusade against the Albigenses, doubtless swept away 
 many of the Baptist churches, and scattered their surviving 
 
 * Biblioth. Maxima, xxiii. 601. Gieseler, iii. 397. See Appendix, 
 f Labbe and Cossart, x, 1405. 
 X Ibid, 1470 1479. § Ibid. x. 1737. 
 
 12 
 
 
 v\ 
 
 t 
 
 irn 
 
ii6 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 members. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the persecu- 
 tors, great numbers escaped. Italy, Germany, and the 
 Eastern countries of Europe received them. 
 
 Sectio]^ V. 
 
 ii f 
 
 Heretics of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries— WyclIfFc's Senti 
 on Baptism — The Bohemians — Baptism among the Walden 
 Church Government — Immersion. 
 
 THE references to heretics in the proceedings of 
 Councils dunng the fourteenth and fifteenth centu- 
 ries are comparatively few in number and very general 
 in their character. The particular opinions held are not 
 specified, but directions are given to exercise constant vigil- 
 ance, lest heresies should creep in unawares, and magis- 
 trates are specially charged to apprehend all suspected 
 persons, and to put in execution the laws against them, if 
 convicted. There was no lack of zeal in that respect. The 
 civil powers were completely under the control of the clergy, 
 who, while they indulged their own savage propensities, 
 and sought by such means to perpetuate the reign of ignor- 
 ance and delusion, continued to evade the responsibility. 
 They did not torture and burn the heretics ! How could it 
 be supposed that ministers of mercy would have anything 
 to do with deeds of blood ? Oh no ! They only delivered 
 them up to the secular power ! The base hypocrites would 
 have hurled the thunders of excommunication against the 
 secular power if the heretics had been spared. They did 
 not burn them — but they delivered them up for the purpose 
 oi being burnt ! Were they not more than accessaries 
 to the murders ? 
 
 Many of the Retormers of this period inculcated truths, 
 the legitimate consequences of which involved all, or nearly 
 all, for which we now contend. When they argued that a 
 Christian church should be a society of the piois, and that 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 117 
 
 Jg 
 
 •uths, 
 
 learly 
 
 lat a 
 
 that 
 
 Christian ordinances belonged to believers only, they had 
 but another step to take in order to appear as full Baptists. 
 Take Dr. Vaughan's statement of John de Wycliffe's 
 views : — 
 
 "On baptism his expressions are at times obscure; but, 
 according to his general language, the value of a sacrament 
 must depend vi^holly on the mind of the recipient, not at all 
 on the external act performed by the priest ; and, contrary 
 to the received doctrine, he would not allow that infant- 
 salvation was dependent on infant-baptism."* Connect 
 with this the charge brought against him by the Council 
 of London, in 1391, as contained in one of the " articles" 
 extracted from his " Trialogus," and which was to this 
 effect, — that those who held that infants dying without 
 baptism could not be saved, were " presumptuous and 
 foolish." t Now, if Wycliffe believed that the ordinances 
 of Christianity require faith in those who observe them, 
 he would necessarily see the futility of infant-baptism, and 
 the expression of even a doubt respecting the connection 
 between infant-baptism and salvation, would be regarded 
 in that age as equivalent to a denial of the Divine autho- 
 rity of the rite. That great man, however, lived and died 
 a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. But, as we before 
 hinted, the light he had received would have guided him 
 into Baptist paths had he followed it fully. Probably, if he 
 had lived in France or Germany, he would have been at the 
 head of one of the seceding parties. His writings per- 
 petuated the beneficial influence exerted in his life-time. 
 It may be safely concluded that many of bis immediate 
 followers, and others who obtained possession of those 
 writings, were induced thereby to extend their religious 
 inquiries, and thus became more completely New-Testa- 
 ment Christians than he was himself. That they laboured 
 
 * yohi de Wycliffe, D.D., A Monograph, p. 461. 
 f Labbe and Cossart, xi. 2080. 
 
 
 ■'■ 1 
 
 w 
 
 
 I! 
 
Ii8 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 incessantly in propagating the truth, is manifest from the 
 decrees of a Council held at Oxford in the year 1408, by 
 which the clergy were strictly enjoined not to allow any 
 persons to preach in their churches without episcopal 
 licence, and to be prompt in denouncing to the proper 
 authorities all who were chargeable with heresy. The 
 parties so denounced were to clear themselves of the 
 charge, or be reconciled to the Church, or in default of 
 such clearance or reconciliation, be committed to the civil 
 power, in order to be " burnt in a conspicuous place," for 
 a terror to all others.** Notwithstanding such perils, the 
 servants of God persevered in their efforts. They scattered 
 abroad religious tracts, they taught the young in schools, 
 and they preached in private houses when the churches 
 were shut against them. Thus the English mind was 
 prepared for the Reformation. f 
 
 Some of them, perhaps the majority, opposed infant- 
 baptism. Indeed, it is expressly affirmed by several histo- 
 rians, that they refused to baptize their new-born children, 
 and that they were charged before the ecclesiastical autho- 
 rities with maintaining that infants who died unbaptized 
 would be saved. This was an unpardonable sin in the 
 eyes of the Paedobaptists, and the Lollards suffered griev- 
 ously for it. J 
 
 It was stated in a former section, that in the twelfth 
 century Peter Waldo and many of his adherents retired 
 to Bohemia to escape the fury of the persecution. Others 
 followed them in succeeding centuries. There they served 
 God according to their consciences. Diversities of opinion 
 existed among them. All held that " in articles of faith 
 
 , • Labbe and Cossart, 2089 — 2102. 
 
 f A very full and interesting account of their proceedings is contained 
 an The Lollards^ one of the volumes published by the Religious Tract 
 Society. 
 
 % Martyy^s Mirror, p. 275. 
 
 -y^"^ 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 iig 
 
 the authority of Holy Scripture is the highest ;'* but while 
 Ljme retained infant-baptism, ethers rejected it, and among 
 them the practice of believer's baptism prevailed.* " Au- 
 thentic records in France," says Mr. Robinson, " assure 
 us that a people of a certain description were driven from 
 
 ^..t«.I.XIAM<k 
 
 MODERN PRAGUE. 
 
 thence in the twelfth century. Bohemian records of equal 
 
 authenticity inform us that some of the same description 
 
 arrived in Bohemia at the same time, and settled near a 
 
 ♦ Jones's History of the Waldenses, ii. 44 — ^46, 201. 
 
 k. 
 
 s* 
 
 ''■M 
 
120 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I J 
 
 r I 
 
 1 1 
 
 '■«■ 
 
 hundred miles from Prague, at Sab and Laun on the river 
 Eger, just on the borders of the kingdom. Almost two 
 hundred years after, another undoubted record of the same 
 country mentions a people of the same description, some 
 as burnt at Prague, and others as inhabiting the borders of 
 the kingdom ; and a hundred and fifty years after that, we 
 find a people of the same description settled, by conniv- 
 ance, in the metropolis, and in several other parts of the 
 kingdom. About one hundred and twenty years lower, ws 
 find a people in the same country living under the protec- 
 tion of law on the estate of Prince Lichtenstein, exactly 
 like all the former, and about thirty or forty thousand in 
 number. The religious character of this people is so very 
 different from that of all others, that the likeness is not 
 easily mistaken. They had no priests, but taught one 
 another. They had no private property, for they held all 
 things jointly. They executed no offices, and neither ex- 
 acted nor took oaths. They bore no arms, and rather 
 chose to suffer than resist wrong. They held everything 
 called religion in the Church of Rome in abhorrence, and 
 worshipped God only by adoring His perfections and en- 
 deavouring to imitate His goodness. They thought Chris- 
 tianity wanted no comment, and they professed their belief 
 of that by being baptized, and their love to Christ and one 
 another by receiving the Lord's Supper."* 
 
 There has been much dispute respecting the Waldenses. 
 Some have represented them as being originally all Bap<-ists. 
 Others, on the contrary, persist in affirming that they were 
 all Pasdobaptists. Neither statement is correct. In the 
 first place, we must inquire who are meant by the appella- 
 tion ** Waldenses." The old writers were extremely care- 
 less in the use and application of epithets. After the rise 
 of the Manichgeans, as has been observed in a former 
 chapter, it became the fashion to stigmatize all dissidents 
 ♦ Ecclesiastical Researches, chap. xiii. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 121 
 
 ses. 
 ists. 
 ivvere 
 the 
 ella- 
 are- 
 rise 
 mer 
 mts 
 
 from the established order by that title, whether they 
 harmonized with the Manichaeans in profession and practice 
 or not. So in the twelfth and the subsequent centuries, 
 when Peter Waldo's success had issued in the formation of 
 a new party bearing his name, that was the common appel- 
 lation. Many treatises were written " against the Wal- 
 denses," the authors of which evidently intended their 
 remarks to apply to the Reformers of those times generally. 
 It is obvious, then, that the statements which we have had 
 occasion to make respecting those Reformers are equally 
 applicable to the Waldenses. There was no uniformity 
 among them. A number of them, particularly in the early 
 part of their history, judged that baptism should be ad- 
 ministered to believers only, and acted accordingly ; others 
 entirely rejected that ordinance, as well as the Lord's 
 Supper ; a third class held to Psedobaptism. If the ques- 
 tion relate to the Vv . idenses in the strict and modern sense 
 of the term, that is, to the inhabitants of the valleys of 
 Piedmont, there is reason to believe that originally the ma- 
 jority of them were Baptists, although there were varieties 
 of opinion among them, as well as among other secedes 
 from the Romish Church. 
 
 But the language of some of their Confessions cannot 
 be fairly interpreted except on Baptist principles. One of 
 them, ascribed to the twelfth century, contains the following 
 articles : — " We consider the sacraments as the signs of 
 holy things, or as the visible emblems of invisible blessings. 
 We regard it as proper and even necessary that believers 
 use these symbols or visible forms when it can be done. 
 Notwithstanding which, we maintain that believers may be 
 saved without these signs, when they have neither place 
 nor opportunity of observing them." Here, it will be seen, 
 the use of the sacraments is limited to believers ; and, they 
 add, in another article, " We acknowledge no sacraments 
 (as of Divine appointment) but baptism and the Lord's 
 
 I! I 
 
 Ui 
 
 
1 
 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 122 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Supper." How the Waldenses were led to change their 
 practice, we shall not now inquire : it is sufficiently manifest 
 that their views harmonized with ours in the early stage b ol" 
 their history. 
 
 We have said nothing r.bout church or'ler and govern- 
 ment. The reason is that but Httle is known on those 
 points. It is not safe to rely on the statements of adverse 
 writers, who neither understood nor appreciated Apostolic 
 descriptions and precedents. Their own ecclesiastical 
 affairs being managed without any reference to the New 
 Testament, which was an unknown book to most of the 
 Romish clergy, they were not in a position to form a correct 
 judgment respecting Baptist societies, and were perpetually 
 falling into mistakes. We may o^ather, however, from occa- 
 sional hints and references, that Peter of Bruys and his 
 successors formed the baptized into churches, after the 
 Apostolic pattern ; — that the churches were presided over 
 by pastors, regularly chosen and ordained as far as circum- 
 stances would allow, by whom the ordinances were admin- 
 istered ; — that all the brethren were encouraged to exercise 
 their gifts, by preaching or teaching; — and that brotherly 
 love was practically manifested, by generous contributions 
 in aid of the poor and afflicted, extensive hospitality, and 
 spiritual sympathy in its manifold forms. The communion 
 of saints, with them, was not a theory, but a habit. 
 
 We must now bring the account of thi period to a 
 close. It has been shown that there was a continuous 
 protest against infant-baptism from the eleventh to the 
 sixteenth century ; and that even those who did not sub- 
 stitute believer's baptism for it, or rather who did not 
 restore the ordinance to its primitive form, but who were 
 driven into the other extreme, rejecting the sacraments, 
 grounded their opposition to infant-baptism on the neces- 
 sary absence, in the case of infants, of Christian faith. 
 All confessed the indissoluble connection between faith 
 
 
 1 f: 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 123 
 
 and baptism. All maintained the sole authority of Scrip- 
 ture, in matters of religious belief and practice. All dis- 
 avowed the authority of human traditions. All held that 
 the churches of Christ should consist of truly pious men 
 and women. All demanded and exercised the right of 
 private judgment. Every one was at liberty to think, 
 believe, profess, and worship, as he pleased, without the 
 interference of priests, kings, councils, popes, or any other 
 earthly power. In a word, they taught that man is re- 
 sponsible, in religion, not to his fellow-man, but to God. 
 So have all Baptists taught, in all ages. 
 
 Immersion was still the ordinary mode. The proof of 
 this is abundant, both as contained in theological treatises 
 and in decrees of Councils. Ebrard and Ermengard, in 
 their works *' Contra Waldenses," written towards the 
 close of the twelfth century, repeatedly refer to it.* At 
 the Synod of Exeter, a.d. 1277, explicit directions are 
 given for the baptism of children, should there be danger 
 of death, immediately after birth ; and immersion is 
 strictly prescribed. f The Ecclesiastical Constitutions 
 contain frequent instructions respecting baptismal fonts, 
 directing that they should be made large enough for the 
 convenient immersion of a child. Records of the baptism 
 of royal or noble personages illustrate these statements. 
 Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII., was thus baptized. 
 The Princess Elizabeth and Edward VI. were immersed. 
 It was the universal p'-'.ctice.J 
 
 * Biblioth. Maxima, xxiv. 1542, 1610. 
 
 f Labbe and Cossart, xi. 1266. 
 
 J Baptist Magazine, Feb, 1850, p. 84. 
 
 ii ;• ■ m 
 I:- 
 
 it 'v, ,i 
 
 
 
 
 \ki 
 
 ' n 
 
 U 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 THE REFORMATION PERIOD. 
 
 FROM A.D. 1517 TO A.D. 1567. 
 
 Sectio]m I. 
 
 Rise of the Reformation— Opinions held by the Baptists— Misrepresented by 
 the Reformers— Their Wonderful Increase— Support under Sufferings. 
 
 THE period on which we are now entering is one of 
 wondrous interest. The shackles with which the 
 nations had been long bound were broken, and it was 
 said •* to the prisoners, Go forth, to them that were in 
 darkness. Show yourselves." A great revival of religion 
 took place all over Europe. Popery was renounced by a 
 large portion of the German people, by the Swiss, the 
 Dutch, the Danes, the Swedes, the Norwegians, the 
 English, Welsh, and Scotch, and by great numbers in 
 Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Bavaria, Italy, and France. 
 
 When Luther blew the trumpet of religious freedom, 
 the sound was heard far and wide, and the Baptists came 
 out of their hiding-places, to share in the general glad- 
 ness, and to take part in the conflict. For years they 
 had lived in concealment, worshipped God by stealth, 
 and practised the social duties of Christianity in the best 
 manner they could, under the most unfavourable circum- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 125 
 
 stances. Now, they hoped for peace and enlargement, 
 and fondly expected to enjoy the co-operation of the 
 Reformers in carrying into effect those changes which 
 they knew were required in order to restore Christian 
 churches to Primitive purity. They were doomed to bitter 
 disappointment. The Reformers had no sympathy with 
 Baptist principles, but strove to suppress them. Papists 
 and Protestants, Episcopalians and ^ ^byterians, treated 
 them in the same manner. The aptists travelled too 
 fast and went too far: if they could not be stopped 
 by other means, the fire must be lighted or the heads- 
 man's axe employed. Thus the men were silenced : the 
 Emperor Charles V., whom historians have delighted to 
 honour, ordered the women to be drowned, or buried 
 alive. Hundreds were sent out of the world by these 
 methods ; thousands more lost their lives by the slower 
 processes of penury and innumerable hardships. The 
 demon of persecution reaped an immense harvest in tliose 
 days. 
 
 Although there was not absolute uniformity of opinion 
 among the Baptists, for they were shy of creeds, knowing 
 how they had been used to serve the purposes of soul- 
 bondage, certain important truths were viewed by all of 
 them in the same light. Modes of expression varied, buL 
 they were substantially of one mind, those of Poland only 
 excepted, who leaned to the system which was afterwards 
 termed " Socinianism." Baptist theology harmonized with 
 that of the Reformation in regard to the leading doctrines 
 of the Gospel, such as justification by faith, the necessity of 
 Divine influence, &c. The belief in the sole authority of 
 Scripture in matters of religion was carried out to its legiti- 
 mate issues, and everything was rejected which would not 
 abide the test, so that all rites and observances that were 
 not expressly enjoined in the Word of God were swept 
 away at once. Steadfastly maintaining that believers, and 
 
 nlil' 
 
 •. .1 ' 
 
 it- 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 i \ 
 
126 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 '\ ii, 
 
 THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 127 
 
 believers only, were the proper subjects of baptism, they 
 pleaded for a pure church. The Reformers were astonished 
 at this demand. They said that the thing was impossible ; 
 that there always had been tares among the wheat, and 
 that so it would be till the end of time ; that the good and 
 the bad must be indiscriminately mixed in the Christian 
 commonwealth. We need not wonder at this. Popery 
 and Paedobaptism had blinded their eyes. They had never 
 seen a New-Testament Church, and they practically kept 
 out of sight the teachings of the New Testament on the 
 subject, as it is quite necessary to do when the Paedobaptist 
 theory is fully admitted ; for if infants are baptized, and all 
 who are baptized may claim church-fellowship, the church 
 which is so formed must be a very different organization 
 from that which was instituted at Jerusalem, when " be- 
 lievers were the more added to the Lord, multituaos both of 
 men and women." Children, it will be perceived, are not 
 mentioned. The historian seems to take special pains to 
 exclude tliem, as if he desired his readers to note the differ- 
 ence between Judaism and Christianity, the former being 
 the establishment of a national institute, which was kept up 
 by the ordinary increase of the population, the latter the 
 gathering together of individual servants of the Saviour, 
 who " were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
 nor of the will of man, but of God " (John i. 12, 13). One 
 point more may be alluded to. The Baptists sternly as- 
 serted the rights of conscience. All men might believe and 
 act in religion as they pleased, without the interference of 
 the civil magistrate. His duties, they said, were confined 
 to the preservation of order and the protection of property 
 and life ; God had not given him the power to regulate re- 
 ligious affairs, nor authorized him to impose any mode of 
 worship, or to punish such as might refuse to admit his 
 usurpation. We have mentioned these principles before, 
 but it seems desirable to repeat the statement, because the 
 
 w 
 
 ill 
 
 ■J*? '\ 
 
 l\\ 
 
I 
 
 III 
 
 i' 
 
 128 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 Baptists of the sixteenth century have been singularly mis- 
 represented, v 
 
 In some other particulars there were also great differ- 
 ences between them and other dissidents from Rome. 
 They would not take an oath. While they obeyed magis- 
 trates in all things civil, they regarded the maf^istrate's 
 office as altogether needless among Christians, who, they 
 said, would not commit crime, and therefore such officers 
 would not be wanted among them ; and besides, a magis- 
 trate could not discharge his duties but by force, which is 
 not allowable to Christ's servants. Neither would they 
 engage in war. They denounced it as utterly unlawful. 
 The use of carnal weapons, whether for attack or defence, 
 was abjured by them. Hence they never resisted their 
 persecutors. When the oppressions exercised by the rich 
 and noble engendered hatred of the higher orders, some of 
 the Baptists were disposed to plead for a general equality, 
 or at any rate for such restraint on power and wealth as 
 would take away the means of doing mischief. Among 
 themselves, too, the spirit of true brotherhood so prevailed, 
 in acts of sympathy and kindness, that they were regarded 
 as advocates of the community of goods and opponents of 
 separate personal property. On these accounts they were 
 treated as enemies of civil society, fit only to be extermi- 
 nated. But though they were more scrupulous than most 
 religionists are now, their very peculiarities sprang from 
 the love of peace. Such men could not be dangerous to 
 the commonwealth. All they asked was to be let alone, 
 that they might serve God according to their consciences. 
 And yet they were hunted like wild beasts. 
 
 Impartiality requires us to mention one opinion which 
 some of them held. Unable to conceive how the Lord 
 Jesus could be the Child of the Virgin without partaking 
 of human depravity, they imagined that, though born of 
 Mary, He did not "take flesh" of His mother. Joan 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 129 
 
 irly mis- 
 
 Lt differ- 
 Rome. 
 magis- 
 istrate's 
 10, they 
 officers 
 magis- 
 I'hich is 
 Id they 
 nlawful. 
 lefence, 
 id their 
 the rich 
 some of 
 quality, 
 alth as 
 Among 
 availed, 
 ;garded 
 ents of 
 y were 
 ^termi- 
 most 
 from 
 ous to 
 alone, 
 ences. 
 
 which 
 Lord 
 taking 
 3rn of 
 Joan 
 
 Bouchcrwas burned alive in the time of Edward VI. formam- 
 taining this alleged heresy. It is not necessary to trouble 
 tne reader with any observations on it. It is often better to 
 confess ignorance than to dogmatize. Suffice it to say, 
 that among the Baptists of those days the opinion in ques- 
 tion was a harmless speculation. They believed that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ was " God manifest in the flesh." That 
 was enough. If they did not choose to adopt the current 
 modes of expression, they were at any rate sound at heart. 
 We ought to be very careful how we make a man ** an 
 offender for a word." 
 
 The Baptists of the sixteenth century, generally, were 
 a goodly, upright, honourable race. They hated no man. 
 But all men hated them. And why ? Because they tes- 
 tified against the abominations of the times, and wished 
 to accomplish changes which would indeed have revolu- 
 tionized society, because it was constructed on anti- 
 Christian principles, but which were in accordance with 
 the Word of God. An outcry was raised against them, 
 as if they were ** the offscouring of all things," and their 
 blood was poured out like water. Even the Reformers 
 wrote and acted against them. The writers of that age 
 searched out the most degrading and insulting epithets that 
 the language afforded, and applied them with malignant 
 gratification. Latimer speaks of the ** pernicious " and 
 " devilish " opinions of the Baptists. Hooper calls those 
 opinions " damnable." Becon inveighs against the 
 <' wicked," "apish Anabaptists," " foxish hypocrites," that 
 *' damnable sect," "liars," "bloody murderers both of soul 
 and body," whose religious system he denounces as a 
 '* pestiferous plague," with many other foul-mouthed ex- 
 pressions which we will not copy. Bullinger designates 
 them as " obstinate," " rebellious," " brain-sick," " frantic," 
 ** filthy knaves." Zuingli speaks of the " pestiferous seed 
 of their doctrine," their " hypocritical humility," their 
 
 
 
 
130 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 speech, " more bitter than gall." But enough of this. 
 These men could, notwithstanding all, appeal to those who 
 witnessed their sufferings, and boldly declare, with the axe , 
 or the stake in view, none venturing to contradict, that they 
 were not put to death for any evil deeds, but solely for the 
 sake of the Gospel. 
 
 It has been a common practice to ascribe to a whole 
 community the follies or wrong-doings of a few. In the 
 controversial works o1 ihe period now before us, the reader 
 will meet with heaps upon heaps of representations respect- 
 ing the opinions and conduct of the Baptists, which, if true 
 at all, can only affect individuals, and ought not to be im- 
 puted to the body. 
 
 Notwithstanding the deadly onset that was made upon 
 them from all quarters, they spread and increased mtost 
 astonishingly. L£flaard__B2U3yens^_jLn___£minent_ Baptist 
 minister in Holland, who died, in 1578, left in writing 
 a list of upwards of ten thousand persons whom he had 
 baptized. Menno Simon and other labourers in the cause 
 introduced " great multitudes " into the churches. The 
 spirit of reform must have taken fast hold of the minds 
 of the people, or they would hot have embraced so readily a 
 system, the profession of which was a sure passport to per- 
 secution in its most painful and revolting forms. Luther 
 and his coadjutors opened the door of the temple of free- 
 dom to others, but remained themselves in the porch. 
 They feared to penetrate into the interior. The Baptists 
 passed by them, entered in, and explored the recesses of the 
 hallowed place. For this they were reviled and oppressed. 
 Thousands of them fell in the fight. But multitudes 
 pressed after them, to be " baptized for the dead ; " and 
 
 each could say, 
 
 " I'll hail reproach and welcome shame, 
 If Thou remember me." 
 
 See how the Lord blessed His faithful servants. Alga- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 131 
 
 rius was burned at Rome in the year 1557. Thus he 
 writes, a short time before his martyrdom : — 
 
 " I will relate an incredible thing : that I have found 
 infinite sweetness in the lion's bowels. Who will believe 
 that which I shall relate ? Who can believe it ? In a dark 
 hole I have found cheerfulness ; in a place of bitterness and 
 death, rest and hope of salvation ; in the abyss or depth of 
 hell, joy. Where others weep, I have found laughter ; 
 where others fear, I have found strength. Who will ever 
 believe that in a state of misery I have had great pleasure; 
 that in a lonely corner I have had glorious company ; and 
 in the hardest bonds, perfect repose ? All these things (ye, 
 my companions in Jesus Christ), the bountiful hand of God 
 has granted me. Behold ! He who at first stood far from 
 me is now with me ; and Him whom I imperfectly knew, I 
 now see clearly ; Him whom I formerly saw afar off, I now 
 contemplate as present ; He for whom I longed, now 
 stretches forth His hand ; He comforts me ; He fills me 
 with joy ; He drives bitterness from me, and renews my 
 strength and consolation ; He gives me health ; He sup- 
 ports me He helps me up ; He makes me strong. Oh, 
 how good the Lord is, who suffers not His servants to be 
 tempted beyond their ability ! Oh, how light, pleasant, and 
 sweet is His yoke 1 Is any like unto God most high, who 
 supports and refreshes the tempted, who heals the stricken 
 and wounded, and restores them altogether? None is like 
 unto Him. Learn, my most beloved brethren, how gracious 
 the Lord is; how faithful and compassionate is He who 
 visits His servants in their trials ; He who humbles Kim- 
 self, and condescends to stand by us in our huts and mean 
 abodes. He grants us a cheerful mind and a peaceful heart." 
 The letter is dated "from the most delightful pleasure- 
 garden, the prison called Leonia, thei2th of July, 1557."* 
 * Baptist Martyrology, published by the Hanserd Knollys Society, 
 
 11. 114, 122. 
 
 K2 
 
132 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 ! ■ :» 
 
 The reader vill peruse with much interest the following 
 extracts from letters addressed by a pious mother to her 
 children, "written hastily" — in prison — "trembling with 
 cold : "— 
 
 " Love one another without strife or wrangling. Be 
 affectionate the one to the other. The wisest must bear 
 with the dull, and admonish them with kindness. The 
 strong must have compassion on the weak, and assist him 
 with all his power from love. . , . Love your enemies, and 
 pray for them that speak evil of you, and make you suffer. 
 Rather suffer wrong than do wrong. Endure rather grief 
 than put another to grief. Be yourselves reproached rather 
 than reproach another. Be rather belied than belie ano- 
 ther. Let what is yours be taken from you rather than 
 take what is another's. Be rather stricken than strike 
 another. . . . Oh, my dear lambs, mind that you spend not 
 your youthful days in vanity and pride ; nor in tippling or 
 feasting ; but in sobriety and humility, in the fear of God, 
 diligent in all good works, that you may be clothed with the 
 adorning of the saints ; that God may make you meet, by 
 His grace, to enter into the marriage of the Lamb, and that 
 we may see you there with joy. Your father and I have 
 shown you the way, with many others besides. Take the 
 example of the prophets and apostles. Even Christ Him- 
 self went this way; and where the Head has gone before, 
 there must the members follow."* 
 
 The husband of this good woman had won the crown of 
 martyrdom before her. She followed soon after, and joined 
 her companion before the throne. There " the noble army 
 of martyrs " praise God. " They have washed their robes 
 and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 
 
 * Baptist 3Iartyrology, 289—301. 
 
 -«<>« 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 
 ^ECTIOJ^ II. ' 
 
 German Baptists— Thomas Munzer— The Peasant War— Michael Satler— 
 Hans Schlaffer— Salzburg— Wolfgang Brand- Hueber— The Burggraf 
 of Alzey— Imperial Edicts. 
 
 ON the loth of December, 1520, Luther burnt the Pope's 
 bull against him, together with the decretals and 
 other Papal documents, without the walls of Wittenburg, 
 in the presence of an immense concourse of people. By 
 that act he severed himself from the Church of Rome, and 
 
 MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
 proclaimed the advent of a new order of things. The 
 Baptists hailed it with joy, rightly judging that it indicated 
 a great and favourable change of public opinion. They 
 availed themselves of the advantages thus offered, and 
 immediately engaged in active operations for the spread of 
 
 s 1 
 
 "if 
 
 tm 
 
134 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 truth. Luther had freed himself from the Pope : they pro- 
 claimed freedom from Luther, and from all other human 
 authority, so far as religion was concerned, and called on 
 their fellow-countrymen everywhere to demand their rights. 
 
 This was more than Luther intended. Great and good 
 man as he was, he had his crotchets, like some other great 
 men. He was willing that others should think for them- 
 selves, so that they thought as he thought. If they did 
 not, he looked on them with suspicion, and they soon found 
 it best to keep out of his way. His followers and flatterers 
 regarded him with an awe bordering on superstition. 
 Sleidan, the historian, was struck with surprise at the 
 boldness of Thomas Munzer, who, said he, " not only 
 began to preach against the Roman Pontiff, but against 
 Luther himself! " * Doubtless that was " an iniquity to be 
 punished by the judge." Reference to the earthly judge, 
 in religious affairs, was too common in those days. 
 
 Believer's baptism and martyrdom were closely con- 
 nected. The first witnesses for God in Germany, in the 
 Reformation age, were Baptists. Hans Koch and Leonard 
 Meyster were put to death at Augsburg in the year 1524. 
 
 The reader will find in most church histories doleful 
 accounts of the German Anabaptists. Storck and Stubner, 
 the writers tell us, pretended to prophesy, and demanded 
 submission on the ground of their Divine calling. They 
 advocated a wild millenarianism, maintaining that the day 
 of God's vengeance was at hand, and that the saints would 
 put down all worldly rule, and possess the earth. And 
 Thomas Munzer, they say, not only held similar senti- 
 ments, but also headed the insurrection of the peasants, 
 which brought so much misery on Germany, and ultimately 
 on the poor peasants themselves. 
 
 Now, we have no desire to defend anything foolish or 
 wrong. Granted, if you please, that the men just spoken 
 • De Statu Religionis, lib. v. p. 265. Ed. 1785. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 1,1 
 
 135 
 
 of were visionares, and that their conduct was in some 
 respects indefensible ; but let it be further granted that they 
 were not the Baptist body, and that for their follies that 
 body was by no means responsible. As for the Peasant 
 War, Gieseler justly remarks that "no traces of Anabaptist 
 fanaticism were seen " in it.* This is honourable and 
 important. 
 
 But it is necessary here to repeat the observation, that 
 our accounts of these men are mainly derived from their 
 enemies. Thomas Munzer is blackened in Paedobaptist 
 histories. The reader of those histories would think him 
 the very incarnation of all evil. Yet what are the facts ? 
 Just these ; — that he was a pious, learned man, and an 
 eloquent preacher, whom the people followed amazingly; 
 and that he was driven from place to place, because as fast 
 as he learned the truth he preached it, sometimes to the 
 great annoyance of Luther and his friends, whose miscon- 
 ceptions and errors, as he deemed them, he was not back- 
 ward to expose. Let us listen to Robert Robinson : — 
 
 " He had been a priest, but became a disciple of Luther, 
 and a great favourite with the Reformed. His deportment 
 was remarkably grave, his countenance was pale, his eyes 
 rather sunk as if he was absorbed in thought, his visage 
 long, and he wore his beard. His talent lay in a plain and 
 easy method of preaching to the country people, whom (it 
 should seem as an itinerant) he taught almost all through 
 the electorate of Saxony. His air of mortification won him 
 the hearts of the rustics; it was singular then for a preacher 
 so much as to appear humble. When he had finished his 
 sermon in any village, he used to retire, either to avoid the 
 crowd, or to devote himself to meditation and prayer. This 
 was a practice so very singular and uncommon, that the 
 people used to throng about the door, peep through the 
 crevices, and oblige him sometimes to let them in, though 
 • Ecclesiastical History, v. 352. 
 
136 
 
 Bapthi History, 
 
 he repeatedly assured them that he was nothing, that all he 
 had came from above, and that admiration and praise were 
 due only to God. The more he fled from applause, the 
 more it followed him; the people called him Luther's curate^ 
 and Luther called him his * Absalom,' probably because he 
 * stole the hearts of the men of Israel.' " * 
 
 The Peasant War was an ill-advised, badly managed 
 thing. But the peasants had right on their side. Their 
 manifesto was a plain-spoken, noble document. It told a 
 sad tale of oppression. The historian Robertson epitomizes 
 it thus : — " The chief articles were, that they might have 
 liberty to choose their own pastors ; that they might be 
 freed from the payment of all tithes, except that of corn ; 
 that they might no longer be considered as the slaves or 
 bondmen of their superiors ; that the liberty of hunting and 
 fishing might be common ; that the great forests might not 
 be regarded as private property, but be open for the use of 
 all ; that they might be delivered from the unusual burden 
 of taxes under which they laboured; that the administration 
 of justice might be rendered less rigorous and more impar- 
 tial ; that the encroachments of the nobles upon meadows 
 and commons might be restrained." t The conclusion is 
 admirable. We copy it from Gieseler, who has inserted 
 the entire paper. *« In the twelfth place, it is our conclu- 
 sion and final resolution, that if one or more of the articles 
 here set forth is not in agreement with the Word of God, 
 we will recede therefrom, if it be made plain to us on scrip- 
 tural ground. Or, if an article be now conceded to us, and 
 hereafter it be discovered to be unjust, from that hour it 
 shall be dead and null, and have no more force. Likewise, 
 if more articles of complaint be truly discovered from Scrip- 
 ture, we will also reserve the right of resolving upon 
 these." X It is said that Munzer assisted in preparing this 
 
 • Ecclesiastical Researches^ ch. xiv. 
 
 f Charles V., book iv. 
 
 } Ibid. V. 347—349. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 ^d>7 
 
 od, 
 rip- 
 and 
 ir it 
 ise, 
 rip- 
 pon 
 
 document. If so, it does him honour. Whatever silly or 
 extravagant opinions he fell into, he may be excused, for in 
 those days very few public men escaped connection with 
 some weakness or other. His conduct in joining the insur- 
 gents has brought heavy censure upon him. But he paid 
 dearly for it. Taken prisoner after the battle in which the 
 peasants were defeated, or rather slaughtered, for it was no 
 fight, he was subjected to cruel tortures, after the fashion 
 of the times, and put to death. 
 
 Though the Peasant Wcti- was not in itself a Baptist 
 affair at all, occasion was taken from Munzer's connection 
 with it to raise a storm of indignation against the Baptists, 
 as if they were all rebels. The persecution raged fiercely, 
 and it never wholly ceased during the period. Baptists 
 worshipped God and preached the Gospel at perpetual 
 hazard of liberty and life. Still they held on their way. 
 Sometimes they met in buildings far removed from general 
 observation; sometimes in the woods; and not unfrequently 
 long intervals passed between their meetings, so hot was 
 the pursuit after them. One effect was produced which 
 proved advantageous to their cause : — they were "scattered 
 abroad," — eastward, to Moravia, Hungary, and the adjoining 
 countries- -westward, to Holland. Everywhere numerous 
 churches sprang up. 
 
 Sebastian Franck, a trustworthy historian of those times, 
 affirms that " within a few years not less than two thou- 
 sand Baptists had testified their faith by imprisonment or 
 martyrdom. "<* A few of the details shall be placed before 
 the reader. 
 
 Michael Satler had been a monk. He was converted tc 
 God, and became a preacher. He was put to death at 
 Rottenburg, May 26, 1527. Thus ran his sentence:— 
 ** That Michael Satler be delivered over to the executioner, 
 who shall bring him to the place of execution and cut out 
 
 * Baptist Martyrology, i. 49, 
 
\ 
 
 133 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 his tongue ; he shall then throw him upon a cart, and 
 twice tear his flesh with red-hot pincers ; he shall then 
 be brought to the city gate, and shall have his flesh 
 five times torn in like manner." This fiendish sentence 
 was executed, and the body was afterwards burnt to 
 ashes. Satler's wife and several other females who 
 were arrested at the same time were drowned. A num- 
 ber of brethren who shared the imprisonment with them 
 were beheaded.* Rottenburg was celebrated for such 
 scenes. In 1528, Leon; rd Schoener was beheaded and 
 burnt there, and shortly afterwards about seventy more. 
 Schoener had been six years a barefooted monk, but had 
 left the convent through disgust at the wickedness of the 
 order. He learnt the tailor's trade, and so gained his 
 livelihood. After his conversion he joined the Baptists, 
 and spent the remainder of his life in preaching the Gospel 
 and baptizing throughout Bavaria. f 
 
 At Schwatz, eleven miles from Rottenburg, Hans 
 Schlaffer, who had been a Romish iriest, was beheaded. 
 " He was put to the test by cruel tortures, and examined 
 by the priests concerning infant-baptism ; but he answered 
 them from the Divine Scriptures, and showed, both by 
 argument and by texts of Scripture, that it is commanded, 
 and will be found throughout the New Testament, that 
 men should first teach the Word of God, and they alone 
 that hear, understand, believe, and receive it, should be 
 baptized. This is the Christian baptism, and no re-baptism. 
 The Lord has nowhere commanded children to be baptized. 
 They are already the Lord's. So long as they are innocent 
 and inoffensive, they are in nowise to be condemned. 
 They also asked him on what foundation the sect of the 
 Anabaptists properly rests. To which he answered. Our 
 faith, actions, and baptism rest on nothing else than the com- 
 mandment of Christ" (Matt, xxviii. 18, 19 ; Markxvi. 15). t 
 
 • Baptist Martyyology, p. 27. f Ibid. p. 47. J Ibid. p. 50. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 139 
 
 • Leopold Snyder was beheaded at Augsburg in the same 
 year. The sufferings in that city were very severe. " Not 
 only were they beaten with rods, but their backs were 
 branded, and one had his tongue cut out for his so-called 
 blasphemy. The few who recanted were adjudged to a 
 yearly fine, and were forbidden for five years the exercise 
 of civil rights."* 
 
 Eighteen persons were burnt in one day at Salzburg. 
 Many more suffered in that city. Amon^ them was a 
 lovely young maiden of sixteen, who, refusing to recant, 
 was taken in the arms of the executioner ,*:o the trough for 
 watering horses, thrust under the water, and there held till 
 life was extinct.' The Baptists there "were called garden- 
 brethren, from their custom of meeting by night in the 
 gardens and solitary places of the town, to escape the 
 notice cf their foes." f 
 
 Wolfgang Brand-Hueber and Hans Nidermair, both 
 Baptist ministers, with about seventy others, were put to 
 death at Lintz. "As to the said Wolfgang Brand- Plueber, 
 th jre are still writings in the Church which show how 
 faithfully he taught the Christian community; likewise, 
 that obedience and submission should be rendered to 
 magistrates, in all things not contrary to God. He held 
 fast the true baptism of Christ, and the Supper of the 
 Lord ; rejecting the baptism of infants, the sacraments 
 [that is, the Romish sacraments], and other anti-Christian 
 abominations, as his writings (still extant) sufficiently 
 declare." ^ 
 
 Nearly three hundred and fifty persons suffered in various 
 ways in the Palatinate, in the year 1529. The Burggraf of 
 Alzey was particularly active on the occasion. But his vic- 
 tims were steadfast. ** While some were being drowned, or 
 about to be led to execution, the rest who were to follow, and 
 were awaiting death, sang until the executioner came for 
 
 • Baptist Martyrology, p. 54. f Ibid, p. 57. X Ibid. i. 103. 
 
 
I I 
 
 I 1 
 
 ^1 
 
 I 
 
 ..:.: I ft 
 
 Hiil 
 
 
 
 I ll' ■«») I'lP P '111 i 
 
 iiiiii 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 141 
 
 ^^, 
 
 't 
 
 II 
 
 Hi! 
 
 li^ii- 
 
 them. They remained altogether steadfast in the truth they 
 had embraced ; and, secure in the faith they had received 
 from God, they stood Hke vaHant warriors. By them the 
 nobles of this world and its princes were put to shame. On 
 some, whom they would not altogether condemn to death, 
 they inflicted bodily punishment; some they deprived of their 
 fingers ; others they branded with the cross on their fore- 
 head, and inflicted on them many cruelties; so that even 
 the Burggraf said, * What shall I do ? the more I condemn, 
 the more they increase.' "* 
 
 These persecutions were the fruits of royal and imperial 
 edicts. Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia, issued 
 an edict in 1527, denouncing death to the Baptists. The 
 priests were commanded to read it publicly in the churches 
 four times a year for ten years. The Emperor Charles was 
 equally embittered against them. The Edict of Worms, 
 by which Luther was condemned, did not meet the case ; 
 but the deficiency was supplied ut the Diet of Spires, in 
 1529. By the edict in which the decisions of the Diet were 
 embodied, it was *' clearly ordained that all and every 
 Anabaptist, or rebaptized person, whether male or female, 
 being of ripe years and understanding, should be deprived 
 of life, and, according to the circumstances of the individual, 
 be put to death by fire, sword, or otherwise ; and whenever 
 found should be brought to justice, indicted, and convicted; 
 and be no otherwise judged, tried, or dealt with, under 
 pain of heavy and severe punishment." f 
 
 At the time of the publication of this edict, a number of 
 Baptists (" nine brethren and three sisters ") were in prison 
 at Alzey. " The mandate was then read to the prisoners, 
 » and, as they would not yield, they were, without further 
 trial, in fulfilment of the Emperor's edict, led to execution ; 
 the brethren by the sword, but the sisters by being drowned 
 in the horse-pond. While they were yet in confinement, a 
 ♦ Baptist Martyrology, 118. f Ibid. 116. 
 
 jIU 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
JM « 
 
 142 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 sister came to the prison to comfort the female prisoners. 
 She said to them that they should valiantly and firmly 
 cleave to the Lord, and not regard this suffering, for the 
 sake of the everlasting joy that would follow. This visit 
 becoming known, she also was speedily apprehended, and 
 afterwards burned, because she had comforted and strength- 
 ened the other prisoners."* 
 
 ** But," says Sebastian Franck, " the more severely they 
 were punished, the more they multiplied. Peradventure 
 many were moved by the steadfastness with which they 
 died, or perhaps God marked the endeavours of rulers and 
 tyrants to root out heresy with the sword." t 
 
 Sectioj^ III. 
 
 Persecuting Tenets of the Reformers— German Diets— The Congregation at 
 Steinborn— Leonard Bernkop — The Crown of Straw— Johannes Bair 
 —Hans Pichner— Hans Breal- Baptists in Italy. 
 
 THE Baptists continued to spread in Germany, not- 
 withstanding the odium that was attached to them 
 in consequence of the Munster business. They were plun- 
 dered, tb'-ust into dungeons, banished, numbers of them 
 beheaded or burned alive, yet still they made head against 
 all opposition, and multiplied everywhere. It is stated that 
 "between the Eifel mountains on the Rhine [in Westphalia] 
 and Moravia, not less than fifty churches are said to have 
 been existing at this period [about the year 1557], some of 
 them having from five to six hundred members. Fifty 
 elders and ministery gathered at one time at Strasburg, 
 from a district of about a hundred miles in circumference, 
 to consult together on the interests of Christ's kingdom." J 
 
 • Baptist Martyrology, p. 117, f Jbid, p, 125. X ^^^^- i'- 125. 
 
soners. 
 firmly 
 for the 
 lis visit 
 ed, and 
 rength- 
 
 jly they 
 venture 
 ch they 
 ers and 
 
 egatlon at 
 nnes Dair 
 
 ly, not- 
 lo them 
 •e plun- 
 |f them 
 igainst 
 led that 
 Iphalia] 
 :o have 
 lome of 
 Fifty 
 isburg, 
 jrence, 
 )m."t 
 125. 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 143 
 
 It is distressing to observe how completely the Reformers 
 of those days were imbued with the persecuting spirit. At 
 a Diet held at Hombourg, in Hesse Cassel, in 1536, the 
 opinions of many divines were adduced, sanctioning the 
 punishment of the Baptists by the magistrates. Some 
 would have them scourged; some branded; some banished; 
 but most of them held that death should be the infliction, 
 and Luther, Melancthon, and Bucer were of the number. 
 See how sophistically the last-mentioned Reformer rea- 
 soned. A three days' discussion was held with the Baptists 
 of Marburg. George Schnabet, one of their ministers, 
 disputed with Bucer. "The Hessian Church is not the 
 Church of Christ," said Schnabet, *• because it persecutes 
 the poor, and banishes them from their possessions. The 
 kingdom of God is joy and righteousness ; but this church, 
 with great zeal, commits injustice — it persecutes the inno- 
 cent," &c. To this Bucer replied, "The Church does not 
 persecute ; it is the magistrates, and they only certain mis- 
 chievous Anabaptists. The Church wishes to remain in 
 peace ; but these men despise the Church." ... " It is 
 nowhere written," said Schnabet, ** that unbelievers should 
 be put to death." ** Blasphemy must be punished," Bucer 
 replied. " The disturbance of religion ought to be for- 
 bidden much more than any temporal mischief." " Un- 
 believers," Schnabet argued, " ought not to be punished ; 
 our enemies should be loved." ** When the magistrate 
 punishes an enemy," said Bucer, "he loves him. It is a 
 father punishing his child."* 
 
 The Emperor Charles V. continued to evince his ma- 
 lignity by procuring cruel edicts at German Diets. In 
 1544, at the Diet of Spires, when other Protestants were 
 treated with leniency, severe measures were adopted against 
 the Baptists. At Augsburg in 1551, extermination was 
 denounced against them. Nor was it a vain threat. Priests 
 ♦ Baptist Martyrology, i. 169, 170. 
 
144 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 and people united to put it into execution, and tremendous 
 
 sufferings followed. 
 
 In several instances brethren who had been commis-. 
 
 sioned to visit other churches were discovered as they 
 
 passed through the German territories, betrayed to the 
 
 authorities, and either died in prison or were publicly 
 
 executed. It was a dangerous thing in these days to be ij 
 
 member of a deputation. 
 
 Torture was frequently emplo}'ed, in order to wring from 
 the sufferers the names and places of abode of their asso- 
 ciates, or to force them, under the pressure of anguish, 
 to renounce the faith. 
 
 In the year 1539, the Vienna police, aided by a detach- 
 ment of cavalry, surprised a congregation at Steinborn, 
 and captured nearly all of them. They were lodged in the 
 castle of Falkenstein. After remaining in confinement 
 about five weeks, durin'g which time strenuous efforts were 
 made by the priests to persuade them to abjure, it was 
 notified to them that the women and children would be 
 released, but that the able-bodied men would be sent to 
 sea. The youths, and some that were weak or sickly, were 
 reduced to bondage, and given to Austrian noblemen. 
 Ninety men were sent away under a strong guard, bound 
 two and two, to proceed on foot to Trieste, a journey of 
 more than two hundred miles. *' Man and wife were se- 
 parated from each other, and children of tender years left 
 behind ; which flesh and blood could not have borne, but 
 by the power of God and for His sake. So deplorable was 
 the separation, that the king's marshal, and others like him, 
 could not refrain from tears. .... They were led about 
 by his majesty's messengers through towns, villages, and 
 the open country, from one jurisdiction to another. In 
 their journeys thy were constrained to suffer much, and 
 various kinds of adversity and great affliction, but God 
 always afforded them His gracious help, and in particular, 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 145 
 
 were 
 
 that every morning and evening, without hindrance, they 
 could make and present their prayer to God, and durst, 
 beside, without impediment, speak each one to the comfort 
 of his brethren. This they received with great gratitude 
 as a special favour and gift of God. By this means the 
 people in many places were convinced of their innocence 
 and piety ; so that they who, at their first coming, regarded 
 them as evil-doers, felt great compassion for them. To 
 this, the king's servants who conducted them bare repeated 
 testimony, and told them that they should not pass through 
 the towns and country places in silence, but might make 
 
 known their faith by singing, or in some other way 
 
 God was thus pleased to reveal His Word and truth in all 
 places and lands, to make them known to the people who 
 knew them not, and to cause their sound to be heard. As 
 at all times, in a like manner. He graciously appoints means 
 to draw men away from unrighteousness, so, by these 
 witnesses of the faith and Divine truth, who were led about 
 into a great number and variety of places, amiidst unknown 
 and foreign tongues, where the truth was not heard, being 
 unknown and hidden from the people, were some from 
 Carniola and Italy led to inquire after the truth. Some 
 were brought to the acknowledgment of the truth, who, 
 to this very day, serve God with an upright heart. But 
 how these captive brethren, during their journeys, and in 
 many places, were treated, how they were driven and 
 beaten, and with cords and chains were bound together^ 
 and what in consequence they suffered, were too long to be 
 narrated. Yet, how great soever the oppression they en- 
 dured, their hearts were always comforted by God." * 
 
 When they had been in Trieste nearly a fortnight, they 
 contrived to escape from the prison in which they were 
 lodged. Fifteen of them were re-taken, but the others 
 eluded search, and arrived among their brethren in safety. 
 
 * Martyrology, i. 189—193. 
 L 
 
 ill! 
 
\ 
 
 146 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 They were " received with joy and thanksgiving, as a gift 
 sent by God." The fifteen were never heard of any more. 
 
 Leonhard Bernkop was burned at Salzburg in 1542. 
 ** He was led to the place of execution, and a fire made 
 on one side of him, so that he was, as it were, roasted ; 
 but he cleaved fast to the Lord. He said to the blood- 
 hounds and the servants of the executioner, ' This side 
 is roasted enough, turn me round ; through the power of 
 God, the suffering I feel is but Httle, and it is light com- 
 pared with everlasting glory.' " * 
 
 Two young females, who had been recently baptized at 
 Bamberg, were apprehended, imprisoned, and severely 
 tortured. But they did not swerve from the truth. When 
 they were led out to die, wreaths of straw were placed on 
 their heads, *' by way of contempt and mockery." <* Since 
 Christ," said one of them to the other, ** wore a crown of 
 thorns for us, why should we not, in return, and for His 
 honour, wear this crown of straw ? Our faithful God will, 
 instead of this, set a beautiful crown of gold and a glorious 
 garland upon our heads." So they went cheerfully to the 
 fire.f 
 
 Johannes Bair had been in prison nearly twenty years, 
 when he wrote the following letter : — 
 
 *' Dear brethren, I have received the writing-desk, the 
 account of our worship, faith and teaching, and six lights, 
 or candles, and pens; but the Bible, in particular, I have 
 not received, though standing first in the list. Now, this 
 is my prayer, that, if you have it, you will forward it me ; 
 for this above all things I wish to have, if it be according 
 to the will of God. I suffer much for want of it, and have 
 endured great hunger and thirst for the Word of the Lord 
 during many long years. Of this I make my complaint to 
 God and His Church, for it is full twenty years, save eight 
 v,'eeks, since the day of my miserable imprisonment. 
 * Martyrology, 239. f Ibid, 363. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 H7 
 
 the 
 
 ight 
 
 ' ** I, Johannes Bair, of Lichtenfels, of all men the most 
 miserable and most forsaken, the prisoner of Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, make again this my complaint before God and 
 His angels, and also His servants, churches, and congre- 
 gations. Now, my brethren and sisters, the best beloved 
 of my heart in the Lord, beseech God for me, that He 
 would deliver me out of this peril and great distress — a 
 distress that is unspeakable. This God knows, and my 
 poor self, and you likewise know it with me. Herewith 
 be it commended to God. Written at Bamberg, in a dark 
 hole, in the year 1548." 
 
 Three years afterwards he slept in the Lord in the 
 prison, and obtained the martyr's crown.* 
 
 Here is a specimen of diabolical atrocity. Hans Pichner 
 was '* put to the rack, but all their tortures were unavail- 
 ing. Very vexatious it was to them that they could extort 
 nothing from him. Several times they stripped him, and 
 let him hang in tortures for hours on the ropes. So strained 
 did he become, that he could not set a step, nor stand upon 
 his feet, nor bring his hand to his mouth to eat. Never- 
 theless he could not be turned aside, but remained stead- 
 fast in the Lord. Afterwards, they bound him hand and 
 foot, and kept him confined in a dark prison or dungeon 
 more than half a year. . . . After this they condemned him 
 to death, and led him out to the place of execution, where 
 he exhorted the people, who were numerously collected 
 together, to repentance. He was then placed with his 
 back against a stake, and so beheaded ; for they had so 
 dreadfully tortured and stretched him that he was unable 
 to kneel."! 
 
 Take another case. Hans Breal was apprehended in the 
 
 Tyrol, in the year 1557. Having been repeatedly tortured, 
 
 in the vain hope of compyelling him to betray his brethren, 
 
 be was at length placed in *' a deep, dark, filthy tower, 
 
 ♦ Martyrology, i. 372. f Ibid. ii. 59. 
 
 L 2 
 
 \ 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 • 
 
 i'; 
 
 ■ 
 
 : I 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 • 
 
 
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 ii 
 
 148 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 149 
 
 '. "a 
 
 'A I "^ 
 
 t 
 
 where he could neither see sun, moon, nor daylight. So 
 that he could not tell whether it was night or day ; some- 
 times he could tell that it was night by its being colder than 
 before. The dungeon was moist and damp, so that his 
 clothes became foul and rotted on his body, and for some 
 time he was obliged to sit naked. He had nothing but a 
 coarse blanket that had been given him; this he threw 
 round his body, and sat in misery and darkness. His shirt 
 was so much rotted as not to leave a single slip of it, except 
 the collar of the neck, which he h ing on the wall. When 
 these children of Pilate had him brought out to see if he 
 would recant, the brightness of the light was so painful, 
 that he was glad when they let him go down again into the 
 dark tower. . . . Thus he lay in this foul dungeon, where 
 worms and vermin were his companions, for a long time ; 
 he protected his head with an old hat, that from pity had 
 been thrown to him. No one had been confined in this 
 tower for some years, so that the vermin had greatly in- 
 creased, and caused him much terror until he had got used 
 to it. The worms frequently ate his food. . . . Thus he 
 lay in this foul tower the whole summer, until nearly 
 Michaelmas day in the harvest. When they saw that the 
 i ost began to £et in, they brought him out from thence, 
 and led him into another prison, which could not possibly 
 be worse. There he was obliged to stay for thirty-seven 
 weeks, v/ith one hand and one foot in the stocks, so that he 
 was unable to lie down or sit, and could only stand. He 
 also suffered much mocking and ridicule from the ungodly. 
 ... At length an order was issued by the council at Inn- 
 spruck, which the magistrates brought to read to him. 
 The contents were as follow: — That since he was so 
 obdurate, and would receive no instruction, he should be 
 sent to sea, to which he must go the following morning; 
 there he would find how the obstinate were stripped and 
 flogged. But Hans answered that he would confide in the 
 
\ 
 
 150 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Lord his God, who was on the sea as well as on land, to 
 help him and give him patience. He was then released 
 from prison, and suffered Ic go about the castle for two 
 days, that he might learn again to walk. This he could not 
 easily do, so very infirm had he become through lying in 
 prison and in the stocks, fastened by locks and chains ; for 
 in this state he had lain two years within five weeks, and 
 had for a year and a half never seen the sun."* 
 
 Hans was committed to the charge of an officer, and 
 they journeyed towards the sea. On the second day, while 
 resting at a tavern, the officer became drunk, and Hans 
 took advantage of the opportunity to effect his escape. He 
 recovered strength and health, rejoined his brethren, was 
 called to preach the Gospel, and died in peace in the 
 year 1583. 
 
 Thus God's servants suffered in Germany. There were 
 Baptists in Italy in this period, some of whom attained the 
 honour of martyrdom. Julius Klampherer, who had been a 
 Romish priest, was drowned at Venice in 1561. Franciscus 
 van der Sach, a minister, was drowned with another brother 
 in the same city, in 1564. Hans George, Count of Grov- 
 tenstein, who had fled to Germany some years before, and 
 had returned to Italy in 1566, in the hope of inducing his 
 wife to share his exile, was betrayed by some who recog- 
 nized him, and thrown overboard on the voyage to Venice. 
 *' By faith he forsook all things, disregarding rank, pre- 
 ferring rather to suffer affliction with the people of God 
 than to enjoy the honours and rewards of this world among 
 his own people."! 
 
 * Martyrology, ii. gg, 104. f Ibid. 425. 
 
 I 
 
 -«^«- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 151 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 Baptists in Switr- Hand— Zuingli— Concessions of BulHnger and Meshoviua— 
 Disputations — Drownings— Felix Mantz — Balthazar Hubmeyer — 
 Louis Hetzer — Emigration to Moravia — ^Jacob Hutter. 
 
 THE sketch which has been already furnished describes 
 the position of the Baptists in Germany. We Will 
 now trace their history in Switzerland. 
 
 Zuingli, the excellent Swiss Reformer, was at one time 
 on the eve of becoming a Baptist. But he resisted the 
 arguments in favour of our principles, and became a violent 
 opposer. The Government of Zurich adopted his policy. 
 Zuingli was a good deal annoyed by the Baptists, for they 
 not only pleaded for believer's baptism, but zealously main- 
 tained that none but real Christians were fit members of 
 churches. The natural inference was, that as spiritual 
 societies could not be governed by carnal men, the union of 
 Church and State must be dissolved, and each party attend 
 to its own affairs : the State, to things temporal ; the 
 Church, to things religious. This was going too far for 
 Zuingli. He repudiated the idea of a spiritual church, 
 regarding it as a sheer impossibility. He could not relin- 
 quish the notion that worldly pov/er and law were requisite 
 for the establishment of the faith. Hence he concluded 
 that the Baptist theory must be treated as resistance to 
 authority, and its supporters put down by the secular arm. 
 Poor man ! he fell a victim to his own principles. He was 
 slain on the battle-field of Cappel, while in official attendance, 
 as chaplain, on the Protestant army, fighting against the 
 Papists, October nth, 1531. 
 
 It was about the year 1523 that the Baptists first ap- 
 peared in Switzerland. Their numbers rapidly increased. 
 The appeal to Scripture on behalf of their sentiments was 
 rendered more forcible by the innocence of their lives. 
 
152 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 V t 
 
 Even Bullinger, who was strongly prejudiced against them, 
 was compelled to confess it. " They had," said he, " an 
 appearance of a spiritual life ; they were excellent in cha- 
 racter; they sighed much; they uttered no falsehoods; 
 they were austere ; they spake nobly and with excellence, 
 so that they thereby acquired admiration and authority, or 
 respect, with simpk oiouf " ^opie. For the people said, * Let 
 others say what thf / ■".;:• of the Dippers, we see in them 
 nothing but what is ^, xelleJ, and hear from them nothing 
 else but that we should not tv ^.r or do wrong to any one, 
 that every one ought to do what is right, that every one must 
 live godly and holy lives ; we see no wickedness in them.' 
 Thus they have deceived many people in this land." Me- 
 shovius, adverting to the views of men at that time on this 
 point, writes thus : — ** Some they say, write what they wish 
 of the Anabaptists ; that they are given up to sedition, and 
 plot the destruction of the Christian common weal. But 
 how false this is, is clearly manifest from their lives, actions, 
 and doctrine, since they neither swear, nor blaspheme, nor 
 seek their cv*'n things ; but you will see them promote those 
 only which are of Christ, which are conformable to the 
 Scriptures ; and will any one say that these are not true, 
 nor especially worthy of a Christian man ?"* 
 
 Public disputations were much in fashion at that time in 
 Switzerland. They have rarely proved of any real service 
 to the cause of truth, since it is obvious that the man who 
 has the most fluent tongue, the readiest memory, the keenest 
 wit, and the greatest amount of self-possession, is most 
 likely to prevail, whether he is attached to the right or to 
 the wrong side. Nor was it likely that either party would 
 acknowledge defeat. Perhaps the only benefit that resulted 
 from these disputations was, that many persons had an 
 opportunity of hearing the truth who would not otherwise 
 have enjoyed it, and in some instances they were led to 
 * Quoted in Martyrology, i. 7, 8. 
 
<ri 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 153 
 
 further inquiry, which issued in their joining the Re- 
 forrTic;!:?. 
 
 Three disputations were held at Zurich in the year 1525. 
 In all of them, according to their adversaries, the Baptists 
 were worsted, notwithstanding which they resolutely re- 
 tained their sentiments, and declared themselves ready to 
 seal them with their blood. But the magistracy did net 
 rely on arguments. They issued an edict, prohibiting be- 
 liever's baptism, enjoining the baptism of children, and 
 threatening that the disobedient should be dr -; with 
 severely. And so they were. Some were imprif led, 
 some were banished. Still they persevered. Wbri apoa, in 
 1526, another edict was issued, ordering that if .ui/ 1 -.ptized 
 others, or submitted to baptism (r^-baptism th^;y Cttlled it), 
 they should be "drowned without mercy."* '':liigli, we 
 are sorry to say, approved this infamous enactment. It 
 was no vain threat. Felix Mantz was drowned at Zurich 
 in 1527. Jacob Falk and Heine Reyman were drowned in 
 1528. These three were ministers of the Gospel. Anneken 
 of Friburg, a Christian woman, was drowned at that place 
 in 1529, and her body was afterwards burnt. Many others 
 suffered, whose names are not recorded. They did not 
 inflict capital punishment at Basle, where the Baptists 
 abounded, but they scourged them, threw them into dun- 
 geons, or banished them, hoping to wear them out by 
 suffering. The great Erasmus resided there at that time. 
 He bore honourable testimony on behalf of the sufferers. 
 " The Anabaptists," said he, " although they everywhere 
 abound in great numbers, have nowhere obtained the 
 churches for their use. They are to be commended above 
 all others for the innocency of their lives, but are oppressed 
 by other sects, as well as by the orthodox " (Catholics).t 
 Such were the men, according to an opponent, whom Pro- 
 
 * Martyrology, i. t2I. 
 
 f Letter to the Archbishop of Toulouse, Ibid. i. 165. 
 
 !^m 
 
154 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 m> 
 
 testants, as well as Papists, sought to exterminate. It is 
 gratifying to know that though they were treated so shame- 
 fjlly, their characters would endure the scrutiny of keen- 
 eyed observers. 
 
 We mentioned Felix Mantz. He was a native of Zurich, 
 and had received a liberal education. Having early adopted 
 the principles of the Reformation, he became an intimate 
 fiend of Zuingli and other Swiss Reformers. But in the 
 year 1522, he began to doubt the scriptural authority of 
 infant-baptism, and of the Church constitution which then 
 existed at Zurich, and he suffered imprisonment in conse- 
 quence. After this he preached in the fields and woods, 
 whither the people flocked in crowds to hear him, and there 
 he baptized those who professed faith. For this the Zurich 
 magistrates denounced him as a rebel, and about the close 
 of 1526 he was apprehended and lodged in the tower of 
 Wellenberg. On the 5th of January, 1527, he was drowned. 
 *' As he came down from the Wellenberg to the fish- 
 market," says Bullinger, " and was led through the sham- 
 bles to the boat, he praised God that he was about to die 
 for His truth. For Anabaptism was right, and founded on 
 the Word of God, and Christ had foretold that His fol- 
 lowers would suffer for the truth's sake. And the like dis- 
 course he urged much, contradicting the preacher who 
 attended him. On the way his mother and brother came 
 to him, and exhorted him to be steadfast ; and he per- 
 severed in his folly, even to the end. When he was bound 
 upon the hurdle, and was about to be thrown into the 
 stream by the executioner, he sang with a loud voice : * In 
 manus Tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum.' (* Into 
 Thine hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.') And here- 
 with was he drawn into the water by the executioner, and 
 drowned." 
 
 *« It is reported here," says Capito, writing to Zuingli 
 from Strasburg, on the 27th of January, 1527, *' that your 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 155 
 
 and 
 
 igli 
 our 
 
 Felix Mantz hath suffered punishment, and died gloriously; 
 by which the cause of truth and piety which you sustain, is 
 weighed down exceedingly."* No wonder ! Persecution 
 will "weigh down " any cause. And Protestant persecution 
 is the most hateful of all. 
 
 Balthazar Hubmeyer requires a more lengthened notice. 
 This eminent man was a Bavarian ; born at Friedburg, 
 about the year 14^0. He studied in the high school of that 
 city, intending to become a physician. But he exchanged 
 the study of medicine for that of theology, and in 15 12, 
 being already noted for learning and eloquence, he was 
 appointed professor of divinity and principal preacher at 
 Ingolstadt, where he laboured between three and four years. 
 In 1516 he removed to Ratisbon, and preached in the cathe- 
 dral to immense throngs. His mistaken zeal was directed 
 against the Jews, who were driven from the city, and their 
 synagogue pulled down : on its site was built a chapel dedi- 
 cated to the Virgin, and a wonder-working image placed 
 over the door, to which vast numbers repaired in pilgrimages 
 from the places adjacent. So blind was Hubmeyer at that 
 time. 
 
 The blindness was not of long duration. The report of 
 Luther's movements and of Zuingli's preaching at Ein- 
 sidlen led him to inquiry, and the novelties of Rome were 
 soon abandoned. Before he left Ratisbon he had made 
 considerable progress in practical reformation. He had 
 translated the Gospels and the Epistles into German. He 
 celebrated service in that language instead of in Latin. 
 He administered the Lord's Supper in both kinds. He 
 admonished the people to pray no more to the saints, and 
 he destroyed images. 
 
 The next three years of his life were spent at Waldshut, 
 a town in Baden, where he preached with great success. 
 There also his religious views became matured, and he 
 
 * Maityrology, i. 12 — 16. 
 
 ir' 
 
156 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 fully embraced Protestantism. In 1522 he returned to 
 Rati.^bon, and continued there a year, propagating the 
 principles of the Reformation. When he resumed his resi- 
 dence at Walshut, he formed an acquaintance with the 
 Swiss reformers, particularly Zuingli and Ecolampadius, 
 and enjoyed frequent opportunities of intercourse with 
 
 \,l 
 
 RATISBON. 
 
 \h 
 
 (At the time of Hubmeyer's residence.) 
 
 them. He assisted in conducting the great disputation 
 with the Papists at Zurich, in the autumn of 1523. A visit 
 to St. Gall was attended by a wondrous manifestation of 
 blessing. He preached the Word " in demonstration of 
 the Spirit and of power." His labours at Waldshut were 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 157 
 
 jd to 
 ; the 
 I resi- 
 h the 
 idius, 
 with 
 
 so successful, that the other ministers yielded to the force 
 of truth, and Romanism was abandoned. But Austrian 
 influence was predominant in Baden, so that Hubmeyer 
 soon found himself in a perilous position, and was com- 
 pelled to seek concealment. After much suffering he re- 
 paired to Zurich, hoping to enjoy rest and refuge there. 
 
 But Zuingli was not now Hubmeyer's friend. Hub- 
 meyer's researches had issued in the discovery that 
 infant-baptism is only a human tradition. He had com- 
 municated his thoughts to JT'iingli and Ecolampadius, who 
 were also in a doubting state of mind on that subject, and 
 had sought their assistance. They remained Paedobaptists, 
 while he, following his convictions, took the final step, by 
 which he was utterly estranged from his former brethren. 
 He was baptized, with one hundred and ten others, in a 
 village not far from Waldshut, by William Roubli, a Swias 
 Baptist. He himself baptized three hundred persons in 
 the course of the next few months. A work on baptism, 
 which he published about the same time, received a " viru- 
 lent and violent " reply from Zuingli. " I believe and 
 know," Hubmeyer said, " that Christendom shall not re- 
 ceive its rising aright, unless baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper are brought to their original purity." Those were 
 truthful words. 
 
 " About July, 1525, Hubmeyer entered Zurich, and 
 sought a refuge at the Green Shield Hotel, with a few 
 friends and faithful followers. His coming was soon 
 known am. ng his fellow-brethren, and soon also to the 
 Council of Zurich. He was sought out, and immured in 
 the cells of th • Court-house. For many days and weeks 
 Zuingli and his old associates endeavoured to shake hi? 
 adhesion to the truth. At last the torture was applied. 
 Protestant historians say a promise of recantation was 
 willingly given and written with his own hand. Alas, 
 how willingly ! the pains of the rack were the sharp and 
 
 \ 
 
158 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 :> I 
 
 j 
 
 i . ' 
 
 effectual arguments. On the 22nd of December he is led 
 to the minister, and placed at a desk facing that from 
 which Zuingli long and vehemently declaims against the 
 heresies his friend is there come to confess. The sermon 
 is past, and every eye turns to the rising form of the sick 
 Balthazar. Though not old, his trials have told on his 
 robust frame ; and with a quivering voice he begins to 
 read from the paper of recantation before him. As his 
 articulation becomes distinct, he is heard to affirm that 
 infant-baptism is without the command of Christ. As the 
 words continue to flow, and add certainty to the incredulous 
 ears of the crowd in the thronged cathedral, murmurs float 
 ominously in the resounding rjof, increasing by degrees to 
 audible expressions of approbation or of horror. Zuingli's 
 voice rises above all. He quiets the coming storm, and 
 Hubmeyer is rapidly conveyed to his cell in the Wellenberg. 
 
 *' Redoubled efforts were afterwards made to recall the 
 mischief that had been done. Probably renewed tortures 
 were applied or threatened ; for in a few months the suf- 
 ferer 13 said to have made a public' recantation, both at 
 Zurich and St. Gall ; but with so little satisfaction to his 
 persecutors, that, although released from prison, he was 
 kept in the town under strict surveillance. About the middle 
 of the yeL.; 1526, by the aid of distant friends, he succeeded 
 in escaping from Zurich, and, after preaching at Constance 
 for a short time, he journeyed to Moravia, passing through 
 Augsburg on his way. There he proclaimed the Gospel 
 freely, and in all the region round about, baptizing many, 
 and forming churches of Christ after His Word. 
 
 " In the year 1528 he was arrested, probably at Brunn, 
 where he was teacher of the church, at the command of 
 King Ferdinand, and sent to Vienna. After some days he 
 was thrown into the dungeons of the castle of Gritsenstein. 
 At his own request he was visited by Dr. Faber, of Gran, in 
 Hungary, who had been in former days his friend. Their 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 159 
 
 tl 
 
 [nn, 
 of 
 he 
 
 nn. 
 in 
 
 Heir 
 
 interviews, at which two other learned men assisted, lasted 
 the greater part of three days. The substance of their dis- 
 cussions Faber afterwards published, and hints that on 
 several points Hubmeyer yielded to the cogency of his 
 arguments. A written exposition of his views was after- 
 wards sent to King Ferdinand by Hubmeyer ; but no 
 material change in them could have taken place, since he 
 was immediately sentenced to death. He steadfastly wen^ 
 to the scaffold, and on the loth of March, 1528, from the 
 midst of burning flames and embers, his spirit ascended to 
 that region where those that have come out of great tribu- 
 lation suffer and weep no more. The partner of his lii'e 
 was also partner of his sufferings : imprisoned with him, 
 she, too, was led to Vienna, and in the river Danube found 
 a watery grave."* 
 
 Hubmeyer was a learned man. He published several 
 valuable works, and has the honour of being placed in the 
 Romish Prohibitory Index, in the first class of proscribed 
 authors. 
 
 Louis Hetzer, another Baptist minister, was beheaded 
 at Constance, on the 4th of February, 1529. He also 
 had been on intimate terms with Zuingli, Ecolampadius, 
 and their associates, and was highly esteemed by them, 
 till he became a Baptist. In conjunction with John Denk, 
 he translated the Prophets from the Hebrew. Many other 
 books were published by him. John Zwick, who was pre- 
 sent at his death, said, *'A more glorious and manful death 
 was never seen at Constance. Very many of the opposite 
 party who were present thought that he would have said 
 something on account of our doctrine and against the 
 preachers ; but not a word. We were all with him to his 
 end ; and may the Almighty, the eternal God, grant to me 
 and to the servants of His Word the like mercy, in the day 
 when He shall call us home ! " Thomas Blaurer, another 
 
 * Martyrology, i. 61 — 75. 
 
i6o 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 : i 
 
 n- 
 
 witness, observed, — " No one has with so much charity, so 
 courag'eously, or so gloriously laid down his life for Anabap- 
 tism, as Hetzer. He was like one who spake with God and 
 died."* Slanderous reports respecting him, affecting both 
 his morals and his religious opinions, were propagated after 
 his death ;-j- but they were the inventions of the enemy. 
 " He was condemned," says the Chronicle of the Moravian 
 brethren, " for the sake of Divine truth." 
 
 We cannot give any statistics. The Baptists of Switzer- 
 land were very numerous, not only in Zurich, but also in 
 Berne, and in the Valteline. They were compelled to meet 
 in secret, in woods and unfrequented places, or under cover 
 of the night. No continuous records could be kept. Pro- 
 bably their church organizations were at that time very 
 imperfect. It was not till a more advanced period of their 
 history that they were enabled to secure the full benefits 
 of orderly arrangements. But they did what they could. 
 They obeyed the will of Christ as far as they had oppor- 
 tunity. Other Reformers opposed, and even calumniated 
 them. But they were a God-fearing, peaceable, upright, 
 and holy people. 
 
 The persecution was so fierce in Germany and Switzer- 
 land, that there seemed to be no safety but in emigration. 
 In the year 1530 many thousands of Baptists, inhabitants 
 of the Tyrol, Switzerland, Austria, Styria, and Bavaria, 
 emigrated under the leadership of Jacob Hutter, and settled 
 in Moravia. They bought farms, erected places of worshi 
 
 lip, 
 
 i ^ 
 
 and enjoyed for a time great prosperity, spiritually and 
 temporally. Many other exiles joined them, so that their 
 numbers continually increased. But in 1535 Ferdinand, 
 King of Bohemia, ordered their expulsion, and sent a 
 
 * Martyrology, i, 97 — loi. 
 
 f These calumnies are repeated in the North British Rcviciv for May, 
 1859, Art. " Socinianism." The writer ought to have known that they 
 were not published till after Hetzer's death. 
 
lay, 
 I they 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 i6i 
 
 1 
 
 military force to carry the order into effect. Their property 
 was seized, and all the indulgence they could obtain was 
 liberty to carry away their movables. They withdrew into 
 the forests, and there lived as they could, worshipped God, 
 and possessed their souls in patience. Hutter exhorted 
 and comforted them. '* Be ye thankful unto God," he said, 
 " that ye are counted worthy to suffer persecutions and 
 cruel exile for His name. These are the rewards of the 
 elect in the prison-house of this world, the proofs of your 
 heavenly Father's approbation. Thus did His people Israel 
 suffer in Egypt, in the desert, and in Babylon, Thus have 
 Apostles and all the followers of the Lamb, some in prisons, 
 in exile, and in persecutions, some in torments, in suffer- 
 ings, and in martyrdoms, enjoyed the favour of their Lord, 
 and have passed the more quickly to the paradise above. 
 Sadness be far from you ; put aside all grief and sorrow ; 
 reflect how great the rewards awaiting you for the afflic- 
 tions ye now endure." 
 
 Jacob Hutter's letter to the Marshal of Moravia, written 
 in the name of the brethren, is worthy of an imperishable 
 record. We will copy it entire, that the reader may see 
 what manner of men the Baptists of the sixteenth century 
 were. 
 
 " We brethren, who love God and His Word, the true 
 witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ, banished from many 
 countries for the name of God and for the cause of Divine 
 truth, and have hither come to the land Moravia, having 
 assembled together and abode under your jurisdiction, 
 through the favour and protection of the Most High God, 
 to Whom alone be praise, honour, and laud for ever, we beg 
 you to know, honoured ruler of Moravia, that your ofBcers 
 have come unto us, and have delivered your message and 
 command, as indeed is well known to you. Already have 
 we given a verbal answer, and now we reply in writing : 
 viz., that we have forsaken the world, an unholy life, and 
 
 M 
 
\ 
 
 
 ; ^^ 
 
 162 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 all iniquity. We believe in Almighty God, and in His Son 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will protect us henceforth and 
 for ever in every peril, and to Whom we have devoted our' 
 entire selves, our life, and all that we possess, to keep His 
 commandments, and to forsake all unrighteousness and sin. 
 Therefore we are persecuted and despised by the whole 
 world, and robbed of all our property, as was done afore- 
 time to the holy prophets, and even to Christ Himself. By 
 King Ferdinand, the prince of darkness, that cruel tyrant 
 and enemy of Divine truth and righteousness, many of our 
 brethren have been slaughtered and put to death without 
 mercy, our property seized, our fields and homes laid 
 waste, ourselves driven into exile, and most fearfully per- 
 secuted. 
 
 ** After these things we came into Moravia, and here for 
 some time have dwelt in quietness and tranquillity, under 
 thy protection. We have injured no one, we have occu- 
 pied ourselves in heavy toil, which all men can testify. 
 Notwithstanding, with thy permission, we are driven ]^y 
 force from our possessions and our homes. We at ; now 
 in the desert, in woods, and unf'.er the open canopy of 
 heaven; but this we patiently endnre, and praise God that 
 we are counted worthy to suffer Icr ^Ij^ name. Yet for 
 your sakes we grieve that you should thus wickedly deal 
 with the children of God. The righteous are called to 
 suffer; but alas 1 woe, woe to all those who without reason 
 persecute us for the cause of Divine truth, and inflict upon 
 us so many and so great injuries, and drive us from them 
 as dogs and brute beasts. Their destruction, punishments, 
 and condemnation draw near, and will come upon them in 
 'error and dismay, both in this life, and that which is to 
 com?. For God will require at their hands the innocent 
 blooc' vvhich they have shed, and will terribly vindicate His 
 s&'rls {iccofding to the words of the prophets. 
 
 ** -'nd !iow that you have with violence bidden us forth- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 163 
 
 ; now 
 
 •py of 
 
 id that 
 
 'et for 
 
 deal 
 
 lied to 
 
 •eason 
 
 upon 
 
 them 
 
 lents, 
 
 :m in 
 
 is to 
 
 locent 
 
 His 
 
 Iforth- 
 
 with to depart into exile, let this be our answer. We know 
 not any place where we may securely live ; nor can we any 
 longer dare here to remain for hunger and fear. If we turn 
 to the territories of this or that sovereign, everywhere we 
 find an enemy. If we go forward, we fall into the jaws of 
 tyrants and robbers, like sheep before the ravening wolf 
 and the raging lion. With us are many widows, and babes 
 in their cradles, whose parents that most cruel tyrant and 
 enemy of Divine righteousness, Ferdinand, gave to the 
 slaughter, and whose property he seized. These widows, 
 and orphans, and sick children, committed to en: charge. by 
 God, and whom the Almighty hath commanded us to feed, 
 to clothe, to cherish, and to supply all their need, who 
 cannot journey with us, nor, unless otherwise provided for, 
 can long live — these we dare not abandon. We may not 
 overthrow God's law to observe man's law, althou^^h it cofet 
 gold, and body, and life. On their account we cannot de- 
 part; but rather than they should suffer injury we will 
 endure any extremity even to the shedding of our blood. 
 Besides, here we have houses and farms, the property that 
 we have gained by the sweat of our brow, which in the 
 sight of God and men are our just possession : to sell them 
 we need time and delay. Of this property we ha^ urgent 
 need in order to support our wives, widows, orp is, and 
 children, of whom we have a great number, lest tiiey die of 
 hunger. Now we lie in the broad forest, and, if God will, 
 without hurt. Let but our own be restored to us, and we 
 will live as we have hitherto done, in peace and ^nquillity. 
 We desire to molest no one, nor to prejudice our foes, not 
 even Ferdinand the King. Our manner of life, our customs 
 and conversation, are known everywhere to all. Rather 
 than wrong any man of a single penny, we would suffer the 
 loss of a hundred gulden [worth twenty pence sterling 
 each], and sooner than strike our enemy with ihe hand, 
 much less with sword, or spear, or halbert, as the world 
 
 M 2 
 
 I 
 
 tl 
 
1 64 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 I IS s «•' ■ " 
 
 Vm ' 
 
 iii« 
 
 I ' 
 
 does, we would die and surrender life. We carry no weapon, 
 neither spear nor gun, as is clear as the open day; and 
 they who say that we have gone forth by thousands to 
 fight, they lie, and impiously traduce us to our rulers. We 
 complain of this injury before God and man, and grieve 
 that the number of the virtuous is so small. We would 
 that all the world were as we are, and that we could bring 
 and convert all men to the same belief; then should all 
 war and unrighteousness have an end. 
 
 *' We answer further: that if driven from this land there 
 remains no refuge for us, unless God shall show us some 
 special place whither to flee. We cannot go. This land, 
 and all that therein is, belongeth to the God of heaven : 
 and if we were to give a promise to depart, perhaps we 
 should not be able to keep it ; for we are in the hand of 
 God, who docs with us what He will. By Him we were 
 brought hither, and peradventure He would have us here 
 and not else .vhere to dwell, to try our faith and our con- 
 stancy by persecutions and adversity. But if it should 
 appear to be His will that we depart hence, since we are 
 persecuted and driven away, then will we, even without 
 your command, not tardily but with alacrity, go whither 
 God shall send us. Day and night we pray unto Him that 
 He will guide our steps to the place where He would have 
 us dwell. We cannot and dare not withstand His holy 
 will ; nor is it possible for you, however much you may 
 strive. Grant us bu.'. a brief space ; peradventure our 
 Heaven]}^ Father will make known to us His will, whether 
 we are here to remain, or whether we must go. If this be 
 done, you shall see that no difficulty, however great it may 
 be, shall deter us from the faith. 
 
 *' Woe, woe ! unto you, O ye Moravian rulers, who have 
 sworn to that cruel tyrant and enemy of God's truth, Fer- 
 dinand, to drive away His pious and faithful servants. 
 Woe ! we say unto you, who fear more that frail and 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 165 
 
 V: 
 
 mortal man than the living, omnipotent, and eternal God, 
 and chase from you, suddenly and inhumanly, the children 
 of God, the afflicted widow, the desolate orphans, and 
 scatter them abroad. Not with impunity will ye do this ; 
 your oaths will not excuse you, or afford you any subter- 
 fuge. The same punishment and torments that Pilate 
 endured will overtake you, who, unwilling to crucify the 
 Lord, yet from fear of Caesar adjudged Him to death. 
 God, by the mouth of the 'prophet, proclaims that He will 
 fearfully and terribly avenge the shedding of innocent 
 blood, and will not pass by such as fear not to pollute 
 and contaminate their hands therewith. Therefore great 
 slaughter, much misery and anguish, sorrow and adver- 
 sity, yea, everlasting groaning, pain, and torment, are daily 
 appointed you. The Most High will lift His hand against 
 you, now and eternally. This we announce to you in the 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ ; for verily it will not tarry, 
 and shortly ye shall see that we have told you nothing but 
 the truth of God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and are witnesses against you, and against all who set at 
 nought His commandments. We beseech you to forsake 
 iniquity, and to turn to the living God with weeping and 
 lamentation, that you may escape all these woes. 
 
 " We earnestly entreat you, submissively, and with 
 prayers, that you take in good part all these our words. 
 For we testify and speak what we know, and have learnt 
 to be true in the sight of God. We speak from a pure 
 mind filled with the love of God, and from that true 
 Christian affection which we follow after before God and 
 men. Farewell."* 
 
 The oppressor was melted for once. The order was re- 
 called, and the Baptists enjoyed peace and freedom for 
 some time longer. But in 1547 their expulsion was 
 eff"ected, with indescribable misery and loss. 
 
 * Mariyrology, i. 149 — 153. 
 
 1 I 
 
M 
 
 f 
 
 1 66 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Section V. 
 
 The Netherlands— Sicke Snyder— Furious Edict— The Inquisition- Severities 
 of Philip II.— Torture — Lysken — Gerrit Hase-poot- Joris Wippe— 
 Private Executions — Horrid Rackings. 
 
 IN the year 1525 many of the Baptists took refuge in 
 the Netherlands, hoping to be able to serve God there 
 in quietness. They might have done so, perhaps, if they 
 could have refrained from preaching the Gospel, and had 
 forborne to propagate their distinctive tenets. But that 
 was impossible. In the spirit of Apostolic Christianity, 
 they *' went everywhere preaching the Word." Numbers 
 listened, were converted, baptized, and joined the perse- 
 cuted sect, at Amsterdam, Antwerp, Haarlem, and other 
 places. Then the hand of oppression was heavy upon 
 them. The Emperor Charles V., to whose dominions the 
 Netherlands belonged, directed that the heretics should 
 be treated with unsparing severit}', and that the Baptists 
 should be s'.^gled out for special vengeance. The first 
 martyr whose name is recorded was "Weynken Claes' 
 daughter of Monickendam, a widow," who was strangled 
 at the stake and then burnt, at the Hague, Nov. 20, 1527. 
 She went to the place of execution *' cheerfully, as if she 
 were going to a festival." Her last words were, " I cleave 
 to God."* In the same year Jan Walen, and two others, 
 were put to death at Haarlem. " Being bound to stakes 
 with chains, and a fire being laid around them, they were 
 slowly roasted, till the marrow was seen to ooze from the 
 bones of their legs. They were thus burnt and roasted 
 upwards, until death came to their release. "•{• 
 
 Sicke Snyder (that is, Sicke, the tailor, his proper name 
 being Freerks) was beheaded at Leeuwarden, in 1531. He 
 * Mcrtyrology, pp. 40- -44. ' f Ibid. p. 45. 
 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 167 
 
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1 68 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 
 had ** received Christian baptism on confession of his faith, 
 as a token of being a regenerate child of God, according to 
 the instructions of Christ, seeking thus to live and to walk 
 in obedience to his Maker. For this he became a prisoner 
 in bonds at Leeuvvarden, in Friesland, and experienced 
 much suffering from the adversaries to the truth. And 
 since he could by no torments be brought to apostati/e, he 
 was at the same place executed by the sword, displaying 
 great firmness, bearing testii lony to the true faith, and 
 confirming it by his death and blood. . . . His sentence is 
 thus recorded in the Criminal Sentence Book of the Court 
 of Friesland: — * Sicke Freerks, on this 20th of March, 
 153 1, is condemned by the Court to be executed with the 
 sword ; his body shall be laid on the wheel, and his head 
 set upon a r,f:ake, because he has been rebaptized, and per- 
 severes in that baptism.' "* 
 
 In 1532, three persons were burned at the Hague. They 
 were ** fastened with chains to stakes, and a great fire having 
 been made around them, they were roasted till they ex- 
 pired." At Amsterdam, *' nine men were taken out of their 
 beds by night, upon suspicion of Anabaptism, hurried 
 away to the Hague, and after they had been imprisoned a 
 fortnight, were tliere beheaded by order of the Emperor, 
 Their bodies were buried, but their heads put into a herring 
 barrel and sent to Amsterdam, where they were set upon 
 stakes. "f By edicts published in the following year all 
 persons were forbidden to harbour Baptist preachers in 
 Holland ; and obstinate Baptists, that is, those who re- 
 fused to recant, were doomed to suffer the utmost penalty 
 of the lav. In obedience to these edicts the work of 
 cruelty went on. 
 
 On the loth of June, 1535, a furious edict was published 
 at Brussels. Death by fire was the punishment of all 
 Baptists who should be detected and should refuse to 
 * Martyyology, i. 136. f Ibid. pp. 133, 134. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 169 
 
 abjure. If they recanted they were still to die, but not 
 by fire ; the men were to be put to death by the sword, 
 *' the women in a sunken pit." Those who resisted the 
 operation of the edict by failing to deliver up Baptists to 
 the authorities, were to suffer the same punishment as 
 accomplices. Informers were promised one-third of the 
 confiscated estates. And all persons were forbidden **to 
 claim or seek any grace, forgiveness, or reconciliation for 
 the said Anabaptists, or re-baptizers, or to present, on their 
 behalf, any petitions or bequests ; — it being understood," 
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 permit, that any Anabaptists, or re-baptizers (because of 
 their wicked opinions), shall be received into favour, but be 
 punished as a warning to others, without any dissimula- 
 tion, favour, or delay."* 
 
 A similar edict was published in September, 1540. And 
 a novel experiment was adopted. The portraits of the 
 principal Reformers, Baptists included, were placed at the 
 
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 Baptist History. 
 
 gates of the cities, and in other public situations, that 
 recognition and seizure might be moie easily made. Large 
 rewards were also offered for the apprehension of the 
 ministers.* 
 
 The Inquisition was introduced into the Netherlands by 
 Charles V. in 1550. Great consternation was excited, and 
 some of the towns absolutely refused to publish the edict. 
 So powerful were the remonstrances, that the Emperor 
 consented to modify the provisions of the edict in certain 
 respects ; but there was no relaxation of severity towards 
 the Baptists. " Protestan'-^ and Papists united to oppress 
 and persecute them."f 
 
 When Philip II. succeeded his father, Charles V., on the 
 abdication of the latter, in the year 1556, he renewed the 
 edict of 1550, with additional articles. The publication of 
 Baptist books was prohibited, and the right of disposing 
 of their property, by sale or will, was taken away. Nor 
 were magistrates cr judges to moderate or lessen the penal, 
 ties in the slightest degree. J In 1560, and again in 1563, 
 these edicts were renewed and still further extended, so 
 that there might be no possibility of escape. An abstract 
 of the proclamation issued in the last-mentioned year will 
 serve to show the perilous state of society in the Nether- 
 lands at that time. " No persons were to remove from 
 Flanders to Holland without certificates from the priests 
 and magistrates. Every settler was required to furnish 
 proof that his children had been baptized according to the 
 rites of Rome. Midwives were to be sworn to secure the 
 christening o^" every infant at whose birth they might be 
 present, and in case of any neglect to report it to the 
 magistrates. Conventicles were to be diligently sought 
 out and repressed. Parents were ordered to send their 
 children to church and to school. Booksellers' houses and 
 pedlers' packs were to be searched for heretical publica- 
 • Martyrology, p. 207. f Ibid. i. 364. J Ibid. ii. 64 — 69. 
 
I I 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 171 
 
172 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 \ 
 
 tions. All the people were enjoined to attend mass every 
 Sunday and holiday. A month's continuous absence was 
 to be punished at the discretion of the judges. No persons 
 suspected of heresy were to be placed in offices of trust. 
 In addition, as before stated, all the former enactments 
 respecting burning, bclieading, drowning, and burying alive, 
 remained in full force."* 
 
 The records of this period are truly heart-sickening. It 
 is wonderful that any Baptists survived. And yet it is the 
 fact that they were becoming stronger and stronger. Menno 
 Simon, whose public labours commenced in 1537, preached, 
 bapti; ed, formed churches, published books, and travelled 
 extensively, often exposed to great peril, as will be here- 
 after related ; nevertheless, though a price was set on his 
 head, the designs of the enemy were defeated, and Menno 
 died in peace. Many other ministers were indefatigable 
 in their zeal, among whom Dirk Philips and Leonard 
 Bouwens deserve most honourable mention. 
 
 The Baptist Martyrology contains distinct notices of 
 about four hundred brethren and sisters who were bar- 
 barously put to death in Holland and Flanders under the 
 operation of the aforesaid edicts. The misery and ruin 
 which befel their families cannot be described. Numbers 
 more suffered, of whom no account has been preserved. It 
 was a season of *' great tribulation." 
 
 Tjaert Reynerson, ** a godly farmer," was beheaded at 
 Leeuwarden in 1539, because he had *' from compassion 
 and brotherly love secretly harboured Menno Simon in his 
 house in his great distress." He was frequently examined 
 by torture before his execution, but would neither betray 
 his minister nor deny the faith, f 
 
 Jan Claeson had forwarded the printing and publication 
 of Menno Simon's works. For this he was condemned 
 " to be executed by the sword ; his body to be laid upon 
 * Martyrology, 269, 342. f Ibid. \, 207. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 173 
 
 It 
 
 ay 
 
 on 
 ed 
 on 
 
 the wheel ; the head set on a stake." Bestevaer, an aged 
 brother, suffered with him. " The beloved brother, Jan 
 Claeson, confirmed the Word of God with his crimson 
 blood, and was afterwards given for food to the birds and 
 wild beasts. . . . The aged Bestevaer, numbering eighty- 
 seven years, likewise willingly resigned his grey head and 
 beard to the stroke of these tyrants' sword for the truth of 
 Jesus Christ. They now rest together under the altar."* 
 
 A number of Baptists met in secret at Rotterdam, in 
 1554, ** to speak to each other for mutual edification and 
 establishment in the truth of the holy Gospel which they 
 had received ; likewise, with one mouth and lowly hearts 
 to pray to the great God of heaven and earth for the for- 
 giveness of their sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and 
 also with one accord to praise and thank His most adorable 
 name." They were betrayed, apprehended, tortured, and 
 then put to death; the men, by the sword; the women 
 were '* thrown into a boat, and thrust under the ice till 
 death followed." One of them was ** a young female only 
 fourteen years old." She composed the hymn which is 
 found in the old hymn-book, beginning — 
 
 •' To the wide world Immanuel came, 
 His Father's Kingdom left," &c.t 
 
 Richst Heynes was martyred in 1547. When the officers 
 were sent to the house, her husband escaped. ** But her 
 they severely treated and cruelly bound, without any pity 
 or compassion, although pregnant, and so near her confine- 
 ment that the midwife was already with her. Notwith- 
 standing all this they led her away, regardless of the tears 
 and screams of her little children, to the prison at Leeu- 
 warden, where, after three weeks' imprisonment, she was 
 delivered of a son. . . . They afterwards inflicted great 
 torments on this sheep of Christ, and tortured her to such 
 * Martyrology, 262. f Ibid, 263. 
 
174 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 175 
 
 
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 a degree that she could not raise her hands to her head. 
 Thus was she treated in the inhuman rack, chiefly because 
 she would not give evidence against her brethren. For 
 these wolves were in nowise satisfied, but still thirsted for 
 more innocent blood. But the faithful God, who is a refuge 
 in time of need, and a shield for all those who trust in Him, 
 guarded her mouth, so that no one suffered through her. 
 After all means had thus failed to separate her from Christ, 
 she was condemned at the place above-named, and like a 
 brute beast was put into a sack, and plunged under water 
 until life was extinct."* 
 
 The torture was constantly resorted to, either to force a 
 recantation or to procure the discovery of the hiding-places 
 
 IKOi'l COLLAR AND TlIUMliSLKliW. 
 
 (Used for the purpose of torture.) 
 
 of the brethren. The victims were stretched on the rack ; 
 or suspended by the hands, heavy weights being attached 
 to the feet ; or the thumb screws were employed ; or a 
 similar instrument applied to the ankles. The demons who 
 inflicted these tortures paid no regard to sex, station, or 
 age. The delicate maiden, the honoured minister, the 
 venerable confessor of threescore and ten and upwards, 
 were alike subjected to the brutal test. 
 
 In the year 1551, Jeronimus Segerson and another were 
 
 *_Martyrology, 293. 
 
176 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 burned at Antwerp. Segerson's letters, written while in 
 prison, breathe a spirit of exalted piety and manly en- 
 durance. ** I had rather," said he, "be tortured ten times 
 every day, and then finally be roasted on a gridiron, than 
 renounce the faith I have confessed." 
 
 Lysken, Segerson's wife, was drowned. The narrative 
 of her examination and death is so interesting that we 
 transcribe the greater portion of it. 
 
 ** Lysken, our sister, having long lain in bonds, has at 
 last finished the period of her pilgrimage, remaining per- 
 fectly steadfast in the Word of the Lord even to the end ; 
 the Lord be for ever praised. She very boldly and undis- 
 guisedly confessed her faith at the tribunal, before the 
 magistrates and the multitudes. They first asked her con- 
 cerning baptism. . She said, * I acknowledge but one bap- 
 tism, even that which was used by Christ and His disciples, 
 and left to u? ' ' What do you hold concerning infant- 
 baptism ? ' as. .;■] the sheriff. To which Lysken answered, 
 * Nothing t.it a mere infant's baptism, and a human 
 institution.' On this the bench stood up, and consulted 
 together, while Lysken, in the mean time, confessed and 
 explained clearly to the people the ground of her belief. 
 They then pronounced sentence upon her. Lysken spoke 
 in the following manner to the bench : * Ye are now judges; 
 but the time will come when you will wish that ye had been 
 keepers of sheep, for there is a Judge and Lord who is 
 above all; He shall in His own time judge you. But we 
 have not to wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the 
 principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this 
 world.' The bench said, * Take her away from the tri- 
 bunal.' 
 
 " The people then ran earnestly to see her, and Lysken 
 spoke piously to them. * Know that I do not suffer for 
 robbery, or murder, or any kind of wickedness, but solely 
 for the incorruptible Word of God.' " 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 1 1 
 
 177 
 
 :s; 
 
 lis 
 ri- 
 
 She was then re-conducted to the prison, where two 
 monks visited her, and endeavoured, but in vain, to turn 
 her from the faith. Next morning she suffered. 
 
 " On Saturday morning we rose early, some before day, 
 some with the da/Hght, to see the nuptials which we 
 thought would then be celebrated ; but the crafty murderers 
 outran us. We had slept too long, for they had finished 
 their murderous work between three and four o'clock. 
 They had taken that sheep to the Scheldt, and had put her 
 into a sack, and drowned her before the people arrived, so 
 that few persons saw it. Some, however, saw it. She 
 went courageously to death, and spoke bravely : ' Father, 
 into Thy hands I commend ray spirit.' Thus she was 
 delivered up, and it came to pass, to the honour of the 
 Lord, that by the grace of God many were moved thereby. 
 
 " When the people assembled, and heard that she was 
 already dead, it occasioned a great commotion amongst 
 them, for it grieved them as much as if she had been 
 publicly executed. For the people said, * Thieves and 
 murderers they bring publicly before all men ; but their 
 treachery is thus more manifest.' Some simple-hearted 
 people asked, ' Why must these persons die, for many bear 
 a good testimony concerning them?' Some of the friends 
 were present, and spoke openly to the people, — ' The 
 reason is, that they are more obedient to God's command 
 than to the Emperor's, or men's ; because they have 
 heartily turred to tlie Lord their God, from lies to truth, 
 from darkness to light, from unrighteousness to righte- 
 ousness, from unbelief to the true faith, and have accord- 
 ingly amended their lives, and been baptised, seeing they 
 were true believers, according to the command of Christ 
 and the practice of the Apostles.' They further showed 
 the people, from the Word of God, that the Papists are 
 they of whom the Apostle Paul prophesied, namely, the 
 .seducing spirits who teach the doctrines of devils ; and 
 
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 Baptist History. 
 
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 moreover, that the righteous have had to suffer from the 
 beginning;, from the time of Abel to the present ; that Christ 
 also suffered and entered into the glory of His Father, and 
 left us an example that we should follow in His footsteps ; 
 for * all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer per- 
 secution.' " * 
 
 Gerrit Hase-poot lived at Nymegen. During the heat of 
 the persecution he fled to another place. After a time he 
 returned to fetch his wife and children, but was seen by 
 one of the sheriffs officers, who gave information to his 
 master, on which h was taken into custody and condemned 
 to die. " After his condemnation," says the historian, 
 ♦* his wife came to the Town Hall to speak to him once 
 more, to take her leave of him and to say aa.eu to her 
 beloved husband, carrying a little child on her arm, which, 
 for sorrow, she was scarcely able to support. When wine 
 was presented to him (according to the custom of giving 
 wine to those who were sentenced to death), he said to his 
 wife, * I desire not this wine, but hope to drink new wine, 
 and to receive it above in my Father's house.' With great 
 sorrow they were separated from each other, bidding each 
 other adieu in this world (for the wife could not longer stand, 
 but became faint from grief). He was then led to death. 
 On being taken from the waggon to the scaffold, he raised 
 his voice, and sang the hymn — * 
 
 • Father of heaven, on Thee I call, 
 O strengthen Thou my faith.' 
 
 He then fell upon his knees and made his earnest prayer to 
 God. When fastened to the stake, he threw the slippers 
 from his feet, saying, ' It were a pity to burn these, for they 
 may be of service to some poor person !' The strap with 
 which he was to be strangled coming loose, not having been 
 
 * Marty rology,'u^2'j — 431. 
 N 2 
 
i8o 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 , ) 
 
 properly fastened by the executioner, he again lifted up his 
 voice and sang the rest of the above hymn — 
 
 ' Farewell, ye saints, farewell ; 
 
 What, if I meet this end ! 
 Ere long the Lord shall come, 
 
 Our oi.ly Leader, Friend : 
 Joyous I wait the glorious day. 
 With you to walit in white array.' 
 
 The executioner having adjusted the cord, this witness for 
 Jesus fell asleep, and was then burnt." *•"* 
 
 At the martyrdom of Joriaen Simons and Clement Dirks, 
 at Haarlem, in 1557, there was a great burning of books. 
 Joriaen was a colporteur, and had circulated a large number 
 of Baptist works. •' But when it was observed that the 
 books began to blaze, such a tumult arose among the 
 people, that the magistrates hastily departed. The people 
 then threw the books amongst the crowd, who most eagerly 
 caught them. Thus, through the providence of God, in- 
 stead of the truth being extinguished, as was intended, it 
 was the more spread by the reading of so great a number of 
 these books." f 
 
 At length, even magistrates aud executioners grew weary 
 of the work, and disgusted at the cruelty of the bloodthirsty 
 inquisitors. An instance of this occurred in 1558. Joris 
 ,Wippe was a burgomaster at Menin, in Flanders. When 
 he became a Baptist, he was obliged to leave that place. 
 He settled at Dort, in Holland, engaged in business as a 
 fuller, and was much esteemed by his fellow-citizens. 
 When the magistrates were informed of his being a Bap- 
 tist, and were compelled to take proceedings against him, 
 they did all in their power to prevent his death ; but the 
 higher authorities overruled them. ** When Joris was sen- 
 tenced to die, the executioner lamented, with weeping eyes, 
 that he must put a man to death who had often fed his wife 
 * Maftyrology, ii. 93. f Ibid. ii. 108. 
 
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 Baptist History. 
 
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 and children, and would rather be discharged from his office 
 than execute a man who had done him and others so much 
 good, and never any harm. Joris was finally drowned in 
 the prison by night, in a cask filled with water, by one of 
 the thief-takers, who, at the magistrate's direction, per- 
 formed the olfice of executioner, and threw him backwards 
 into the water. Thus he offered up his body to the Lord on 
 the ist of October, in the forty-first year of his age. The 
 next day his body was suspended by the legs on a high 
 gibbet, at the place of execution, for the sport of the people. 
 Like his Master, Christ, he had to be numbered with the 
 transgressors. The day following, some malefactors were 
 whipped and banished. The executioner, after executing 
 justice on these, said, * They crucified Christ, but Barabbas 
 they released.' " * 
 
 Sometimes the execution took place privately, within the 
 precincts of the prison. Andries Langedul and two others 
 were beheaded at Antwerp in 1559, ** not publicly, but in 
 the prison. The other prisoners (of whom there were then 
 many) could see it through the windows of their cells. 
 When Andries knelt to receive the stroke of the sword, he 
 put his hands together, saying, ' Father, into Thy hands 
 I commend' — but 'I commend my spirit' was not per- 
 fectly uttered, the rapid stroke of the sword prevented it." 
 Several were drowned in the same city, the year follow- 
 ing. ** Peter Gomer the mason and Jacot the fi:oldsmith, 
 for the name of Christ, were drowned together in a tub." 
 Lenaert Plovier and two young females ** were thrust 
 into sacks, put into wine casks, and drowned by night in 
 prison." t 
 
 Joos Verbeek, ** a minister of God's Word and His 
 
 Church," suffered at Antwerp in 1561. He was racked 
 
 twice in four days. He was scourged till the blood flowed. 
 
 His right hand having been " lamed by torture," his last 
 
 * Martyrology, 143. f Ibid. 250, 271, 272. 
 
 1 
 
1 82 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 letter to his wife was written with his left hand, *' with 
 g_reat difficulty." He was burnt in a straw hut, as was the 
 common practice towards the end of the persecution. It 
 was probably adopted to prevent bystanders from witness- 
 ing the manner in which the servants of God met death, 
 and thus to repress all manifestations of sympathy. The 
 martyrs Wvire fastened to stakes inside the huts, and stran- 
 gled, after which fire was applied, and the huts and the 
 bodier^ were burnt together.* 
 
 Thirteen brethren and sisters who were apprehended at 
 Hallewin, on information given by a priest, and committed 
 to prison at Lille (then called Ryssel), were bhortly after- 
 wards all burnt alive, at three separate times. Jan de Swarte, 
 a minister, his wife, and four sons, were of the number. 
 *' When Jan de Sv/arte was apprehended, the two youngest 
 sons were not at home, but came in during the time. As 
 they were approaching the house, the neighbours warned 
 them, and told them who were in the house, and that their 
 father and mother were arrested. The one said to the 
 other, * Let us not run away, but die with father and 
 mc ther.' Meanwhile Jan de Swarte was led out of the 
 house a prisoner, and seeing his sons said to them, ' Chil- 
 dren, will you go with me to the New Jerusalem ?' They 
 said * Yes, father, we will ;' and they were led captive with 
 the . . All these were conducted prisoners together to 
 Ryi^sr.'. '.d there strictly guarded in the castle. Jan was 
 r'aciid oy himself in a dungeon called Paradise. It was so 
 ^pi. ' iL. ! he could not stand upright in it, nor lie down at 
 jf?:;!-. length. 
 
 *' It happened one day, that several brethren and sisters 
 (moved by love and compassion) came from outside the 
 town, and stood over against the castle, calling out over 
 the fortification, and comforting the pr'soners. Amongst 
 them was a brother named Herman. Being observed by 
 
 * Marty rolo'^y, ii. 304. 
 
 if 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 183 
 
 I 
 
 one of the city officers, who had gone out secretly, he also 
 was apprehended. 
 
 " After ten days' imprisonment, Jan de Swarte, his son 
 Klaes, and four others, were executed. While going to 
 death, the clock struck. Jan asked what it was o'clock. 
 He was told four. On this he comforted himself, saying, 
 ^ By five o'clock we hope to be in our lodge, or rest.' " , 
 
 THE TORTURE OF THE RACK. 
 
 A ftw days afterwards, Klaesken, Jan de Swarte's wife, 
 with her three sons, r.nd Herman, were burnt alive. The 
 remaining two suffered a year's imprisonment, when they 
 also were " cast alive into the fire, and burnt to ashes." 
 
 The priest who had betrayed them " was very severely 
 punished. For his flesh became so putrified, that pieces 
 
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1 84 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 fell off from his body, or were sometimes <.\ii off, and no 
 cure could be found for it. . . While he was lying ill, a man 
 came to visit him. When the priest complained of his 
 great misery, the man said to him, * It is the coals of the 
 fire at Ryssel.' This greatly displeased the priest; but he 
 was obliged to endure such scoffing, as well as the punish- 
 ments with which God had visited him. He at last died 
 most miserably, as was of o'd the case with Antiochus and 
 Herod."* 
 
 I will add only one more case. Christian Langedul, 
 with three others, were burned at Antwerp in 1567. In 
 his letters to his wife he gives an account of the manner 
 in which they were tortured : — 
 
 " We were all four, one after the other, sorely racked,, 
 so that we have at present little inclination to write. . ., . 
 
 Cornelius was the first taken ; then Hans Symons 
 
 It was next my turn. You may conceive how I felt. As 
 I approached the rack near the gentlemen, I was ordered 
 to strip or to say where I lived, I looked sorrowful, aa 
 you may suppose. I said, * Will you ask me any more 
 questions besides that ? ' They were silent. I thea 
 thought, ' I know how it must be : they will not spare 
 me.' I therefore undressed, and gave myself up to the 
 gentlemen, fully prepared to die. They novv cruelly 
 racked me. I think two cords fastened on my thighs 
 and legs broke. They also drenched me with water, 
 pouring it into my mouth and nose. After releasing me, 
 they inquired if I would now speak. They entreated me ; 
 then menaced me ; but I did not open my mouth. God 
 had shut it. They thei? said, * Give him another taste 
 of it.' This they did, calling out, ' Away, away ; stretch 
 him another foot.' I thought, ■ You can but kill me.* 
 While thus lying stretched out, drawn by cords on my 
 head and chin, and on my thighs and legs, they said> 
 
 ♦ Martyrology, 338—341. 
 
 ^ 
 
 In 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 185 
 
 s 
 
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 J 
 
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 * Speak, speak.' They now chatted with one another 
 about the account which J. T. had prepared of my Hnen, 
 which amounted to six hundred and fifty pounds, the 
 hum it would fetch by auction. . . . Again I was asked, 
 'Will you not speak?' I kept my mouth closed. They 
 said, * Say where you live, and where your wife and 
 children are.' But I said not a word. 'What a dreadful 
 thing ! ' said they in French ; but I replied not, for the 
 Lord kept the door of my lips. After they had long tried 
 to make me speak, they at last released me. 
 
 " Matthew was tortured after me. He named his own 
 houie, and the street where we live. He also said that we 
 lived in a gateway, and I think there is no other gateway 
 in the street but ours. You had better, therefore, imme- 
 diately remove, if you have not left, for I think the magis- 
 trates will go there. Let no one go to the house who is 
 in any danger of apprehension. He also mentioned the 
 house of R. T., and the str et in which F. V. lives. Do 
 immediately the best you can in this matter. He is very 
 sorry that he did so. Cornelius and Hans did not disclose 
 anything. 
 
 " We were afraid that the margrave would come to tor- 
 ture Cornelius once more, and we also feared thpt we should 
 again be tortured. We tremble much at the prospect, for 
 the pain is frightful ; we do not fear death near so much. 
 Cornelius was so racked and scourged the second time that 
 it required three men to carry him upstairs, who say that 
 he could scarcely move a limb, only his tongue. He sent 
 to us to say that if they come to him again he thinks that 
 he must sink under it. As the margrave did not come 
 yesterday, we expect him here 1 3-day. The Lord help us ! 
 for the pain is excruciating !" * 
 
 While these horrible scenes were enacted, the Baptists cf 
 the Netherlands persevered in the faith. Neither fires nor 
 
 * Marty rology, ii. 426 — 438. 
 
\ 
 
 i86 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 floods appalled them. Menno Simon and other bold-spirited 
 men risked their lives continually in the service of the 
 Gospel. They were always travelling from place to place, 
 and by their itinerant labours an immense amount of good 
 was accomplished. Converts were baptized and added to 
 the churches in every part of the country. The servants of 
 God were confirmed in the faith, useful publications were 
 scattered abroad, and Anabaptism, as it was called, like the 
 bush which Moses saw, though it was '* burned with fire, 
 was not consumed." 
 
 3ectioj^( VI. 
 
 Biography of Menno Simon — Account of his Publications — Church 
 Government among the Baptists — Missionary Excursions. 
 
 WE propose now to give some account of Menno 
 Simon, to whose labours the Baptists of Holland 
 were so deeply indebted. 
 
 This great man was born at Witmarsum, in Friesland, 
 in the year 1505. Very little is known of his early life. It 
 is not known where he studied ; but it is evident, both from 
 his writings and from the admissions of his opponentj^, that 
 he was a first-rate scholar. Mosheim says, that he had 
 acquired " learning enough to be regarded by many as an 
 oracle." Though he was educated for the priesthood, he 
 was entirely ignorant of the Scriptures, excepting such por- 
 tions as are contained in the Missal and the Breviary. 
 Nay, more, he was not only ignorant but hostile, *' speaking 
 evil of things which he knew not," after the manner of the 
 Romish priesthood of that age, who were irritated by the 
 Reformers' constant appeal to the Word of God, and refused 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 187 
 
 to admit it, maintaining that the authority of the Church 
 was supreme. The fact that Luther and his coadjutors 
 proposed to derive their religious views from the Bible, led 
 
 id, 
 It 
 
 le 
 
 le 
 d 
 
 MENNO SIUON. 
 
 these sapient priests to identify the Holy Book with heresy, 
 and therefore to refrain from perusing it. So Menno Simon 
 afterwards confessed. 
 
1 88 
 
 Baptist History 
 
 But he was a thinking man. Having been ordained in 
 1528, he became Vicar of Pingium, a village in Friesland. 
 The celebration of the mass was of course a frequent duty. 
 He had been taught to believe that when the priest uttered 
 the words, *' Hoc est corpus Meum " (This is My body), 
 the wafer was changed into the body of the Lord Jesus. 
 His reason was shocked and disgusted. Could these things 
 be true ? Did Christianity teach them ? Such questions 
 could not be answered unless he examined the original 
 record. He determined to do so, and in the year 1530 he 
 read the New Testament. The perusal opened his eyes. 
 He renounced transubstantiation. Continuing to read, 
 more enlightenment followed. As he learnt, he taught. 
 He preached so differently that he began to be regarded as 
 an evangelical minister. But as yet it was only light ; 
 spiritual life was wanting. 
 
 We mentioned in a former section the martyrdom of 
 Sieke Snyder, at Leeuwarden. Menno heard of it, and 
 then for the first time was informed of the existence of the 
 people called "^Anajbaptists." The effects produced: on his 
 mind, and the ultimate results, were thus stated by himself 
 some years afterwardis ^ — 
 
 " It sounded very strange in my ears tcy apesck of a person 
 being re-baptizedt.- 1 examined the ScuiptiiirB* with dili- 
 gence, and meditatedj ouithem earnestHy;, Hwnt could find in 
 them no authority foir infajnt-baptianr.. Aa I remarked this, 
 I spoke of it to my pa-stor ;. amd aiftleir aeveral conversations 
 he acknowledged that infant-Mptrasm' hoid no ground in the 
 Scriptures. Yet I dare not trust so much to my under- 
 standing.. I consulted some ancient authors, who taught 
 me that children must by baptism be washed from their 
 original sin. This I compared with the Scriptures, and 
 perceived that it set at nought the blood of Christ. After- 
 wards I went to Luther, and would gladly have known from 
 him the ground ; and he taught me that we must baptize 
 
I 1 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 189 
 
 feelf 
 
 ;on 
 ili- 
 in 
 lis, 
 »ns 
 he 
 er- 
 Kht 
 nr 
 nd 
 ;r- 
 
 |ze 
 
 children on their own faith, because they are holy. This 
 also I saw was not according to God's Word. In the third 
 place I went to Bucer. who taught me that we should bap- 
 tize children in order to be able the more diligently to take 
 care of them, and bring them up in the ways of the Lord. 
 But this, too, I saw was a g'oundless representation. In 
 the fourth place, I had recourse to BuUinger, who pointed 
 me to the covenant of circumcision ; but I found, as before, 
 that according to Scripture the practice could not stand. 
 As I now on every side observed that the writers stood 
 on grounds so very difterent, and each followed his own 
 reason, I saw clearly that we were deceived with infant- 
 baptism." 
 
 In 1530 Menno returned to Witmarsum, his native 
 village, where he remained five years, discharging his 
 duties as a Romish priest. *' There," said he, *' I preached 
 and said much from the Word of God, but vithout any 
 influence from the Spirit, or any proper affection for the 
 souls of men ; and I made, by these my sermons, many 
 young persons, like myself, vain boasters, and empty 
 talkers ; but they had very little concern for spiritual 
 things. ... I entered with ardour into the indulgence 
 of youthful lusts ; and like the generality of persons of 
 similar pursuits, sought exclusively after gain, worldly 
 appearance, the favour of men, and the glory of a name." 
 Nevertheless, he continued to inquire after truth, and the 
 Lord graciously guided and blessed him. As his views 
 became clearer, his heart was affected, and at length all 
 the rrarks of genuine conversion appeared. Then came 
 a time of trial. Should he retain his position as a priest, 
 or forsake all and follow Christ? "If I continue in this 
 state," he exclaimed, *' and do not to the utmost of my 
 ability expose the hypocrisy of false teachers, and the 
 impenitent and careless lives of men, their depraved 
 baptism and supper, with their other superstitions, what 
 
\ 
 
 I go 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 will become of me?" True to his convictions, he faith- 
 fully and fearlessly proclaimed the Gospel. 
 
 " I began," he said, " in the name of the Lord, to teach 
 publicly from the pulpit the doctrine of true repentance ; 
 to guide the people in the narrow path ; to testify con- 
 cerning sins and unchristian behaviour, and all idolatry 
 and false worship ; as also concerning baptism and the 
 supper, according to the sense and fundamental prin- 
 ciples of Christ, as far as I at the time received grace 
 from my God. Also, I warned every man against the 
 Munster abominations in regard to a king, to polygamy,, 
 to a worldly kingdom, to the sword, &c., most faithfully, 
 until the great and gracious Lord, perhaps after the 
 course of nine months, extended to me His fatherly 
 Spirit, help and mighty hand, so that I freely abandoned 
 at once my character and fame among men, as also my 
 antichristian abominations, mass, infant-baptism, loose 
 and careless life, and all ; and put myself willingly in all 
 trouble and poverty, under the pressing cross of Christ 
 the Lord. In my weakness I feared God. I sought 
 pious people, and of these I found some, though few, in 
 good zeal and doctrine. I disputed with the perverted ; 
 and some I gained through God's help and power; but the 
 stiff-necked and obdurate I commended to the Lord. Thus 
 has the gracious Lord drawn me through the free favour oi" 
 His great grace. He first stirred in my heart. He has 
 given me a new mind. He has humbled me in His fear. He 
 has led me from the way of death, and through mere mercy 
 has called me upon the narrow path of life into the com- 
 pany of His saints. To Him be praise for ever. Amen." 
 
 This reference to the " Munster abominations" serves to 
 point out the peculiarity of his circumstances. He was 
 fully a Baptist in principle ; but the outrageous conduct of 
 the men of Munster (about whom we shall have to speak 
 at large in a subsequent section) had exposed all persons 
 
 I * 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 igi 
 
 i 
 
 bearing the Baptist name to unmerited opprobrium ; in 
 fact, no man's life was safe who attached himself to that 
 body. Menno distinguished, however, between the precious 
 and the vile. Repudiating the monstrous dogmas and pre- 
 tensions which characterized the Munster mania, against 
 which he always earnestly protested, he embraced the sen- 
 timents held by the genuine Baptists, and joined o ne of 
 thgir rhiirrhps. TUis-was.in the yearj535 
 
 During the first year after his baptism, Menno lived in 
 retirement, meeting with the church from time to time, and 
 diligently employing all the means in his power for the in- 
 crease of knowledge and piety. But he could not be hid. 
 The Church recognized his talents for usefulness, and wisely 
 determined to call him out to labour. We will again cite 
 his own words. 
 
 " He who bought me with the blood of His love, and 
 called me to His service, unworthy as I am, searches me, 
 and knows that I seek neither gold, nor goods, nor luxury, 
 nor ease on earth ; but only my Lord's glory, my salvation^ 
 and the souls of many immortals. Wherefore I have had> 
 now the eighteenth year, to endure such excessive anxiety, 
 oppression, trouble, sorrow, and persecution, with my poor 
 feeble wife and little offspring, that I have stood in jeopardy 
 of my life, and in many a fear. Yes, while the priests lie 
 on soft beds and cushions, we must hide ourselves com- 
 monly in secret corners. While they are at all nuptials and 
 christenings, and at other times make themselves merry in 
 public with fifes, drums, and various kinds of music, we 
 must look out for every dog, lest he be one employed to 
 catch us. Instead of being greeted by all as doctors and 
 masters, we must be called Anabaptists, clandestine holders- 
 forth, deceivers, and heretics. In short, while for their 
 services they are rewarded in princely style, with great 
 emoluments and good days, our reward and portion must 
 be fire, sword, and death. 
 
192 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 
 " What now I, and my true coadjutors in this very difli- 
 cult- and ha;jardous service, have sought, or could have 
 sought, all the well-disposed may easily estimate from the v 
 work itself and its fruit." . . . And through our feeble ser- 
 vice, teaching, and simple writing, with the careful deport- 
 ment, labour, and help of our faithful brethren, the great 
 and mighty God has made so known and public in many 
 cities and lands the word of true repentance, the word of 
 His grace and power, together with the wholesome use of 
 His holy sacraments ; and has given such growth to His 
 churches, and endowed them with such invincible strength, 
 that not only have many proud hearts become humble, the 
 impure chaste, the drunken temperate, the covetous liberal, 
 the cruel kind, the godless godly; but also for the testimony 
 which they bear, they faithfully give up their property to 
 confiscation, and their bodies to torture and to death — as 
 has occurred again and again to the present hour. These 
 are no marks or fruits of false doctrine (v/ith that God does 
 not co-operate), nor under such oppression and misery could 
 anything have stood so long, were it not the power and the 
 word of the Almighty. Whether all the prophets, apostles, 
 and true servants of God, did not through their service, 
 produce the like fruits, we would gladly let all the pious 
 judge." 
 
 The issue was, that Menno became a Baptist minister. 
 The last twenty-five years of his life were spent in toilsome 
 and perilous efforts for the spread of the truth. Repeatedly 
 compelled to change his abode, and living for the most part 
 in a state of wandering and exile, his life was no doubt 
 greatly embittered. Having married, too, at an early period 
 of his ministry, his sufferings were increased by the expo- 
 sure of his wife and children to the same distress as he 
 himself endured. But he laboured on without fainting, and 
 God abundantly blessed him. Let us listen to him once 
 more. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 193 
 
 (( 
 
 Perhaps p year afterwards, as I was silently employing 
 myself upon the Word of the Lord, in reading and writing, 
 there came to me six or eight persons, who were of one 
 heart and soul with me ; in their faith and life (so far as 
 man can judge) irreproachable ; separated from the world, 
 according to the direction of the Scriptures ; subjected to 
 the Cross of Christ ; and bearing a hearty abhorrence, not 
 only of the Munster, but also of all worldly sects, anathema- 
 tisingSf and corrtiptiofis. With much kind entreaty they 
 urged me, in the name of the pious who were agreed with 
 them and me in one spirit and sentiment, that I would yet 
 lay a little to heart the severe distress and great necessities 
 of the poor oppressed souls (for the hunger was great, and 
 very few were the faithful stewards), and employ the talent, 
 which, unworthy as I am, I had received from the Lord. 
 
 " As I heard this I was very much troubled ; anguish 
 and fearfulness surrounded me. For on the one hand 
 I saw my small gift ; my want of erudition ; my weak and 
 bashful nature ; the extremely great wickedness, wilfulness, 
 perverse conduct, and tyranny of the world ; the powerful 
 large sects ; the craftiness of many spirits ; and the heavy 
 cross, which, should I begin, would not a little press me. 
 On the other side, I saw the pitiable extreme hunger, want, 
 and necessity of the devout pious children ; for I perceived 
 clearly enough that they wandered, as the simple, forsaken 
 sheep when they have no shepherd. 
 
 *' At length, after much prayer, I resigned myself to the 
 Lord and His people, with this condition. They were to 
 unite with me in praying to Him fervently, that, should it 
 be His holy pleasure to employ me in His service to His 
 praise. His fatherly kindness would then give me such a 
 heart and mind as would testify to me with Paul, Woe is me 
 if I preach not the Gospel ! but should His will be other- 
 wise, that He would order such means as to permit the 
 matter to rest where it was. * For if two of you shall agree 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 i 
 
 on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be 
 done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where 
 two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in 
 the midst of them ' (Matt, xviii. 19, 20)." * 
 
 Before his time the Baptists of Holland had been unable, 
 from various causes, to realise, as completely as was to be 
 desired, the advantages of church organisation. Menno 
 instructed them in these matters, and in establishing 
 regular government and discipline. It might be said that 
 he exercised a sort of Apostolic supervision over them. At 
 any rate, his labours and journeyings were Apostolical. 
 ** He travelled in West Friesland," says Mosheim, ** the 
 territory of Groningen, and East Friesland, then in Guel- 
 derland, Holland, Brabant, and Westphalia, and the German 
 provinces, along the shores of the Baltic, and penetrated 
 as far as Livonia, and gathered an immense number of 
 followers, so that he was almost the co'nmon father and 
 bishop of all the Anabaptists." f 
 
 Such exertions could not fail to attract the special notice 
 of the persecuting government of the Netherlands. A 
 proclamation was issued, offering pardon (if the informer 
 were a Baptist), the freedom of the country, and a large 
 pecuniary reward, to any one who would deliver up Menno 
 to the authorities. J Sometimes he was in imminent 
 danger of being seized. On one occasion a Christian 
 brother, in whose house he had taken shelter, was appre- 
 hendf I, cruelly tortured, and then put to death, because he 
 would not betray the servant of God. Another narrow 
 escape is thus narrated by his daughter : — 
 
 " A traitor had agreed, for a specified sum of money, to 
 deliver him into the hands of his enemies. He first sought 
 
 * The above account is extracted from Menno Simon's Narrative of 
 his Secession from Popery. 
 f Ecclesiastical History, cent, xvi, sect. 3, part 2, chap. vi. sect. 8. 
 X Martyrology, i. 242. 
 
rrow 
 
 ight 
 
 Ive of 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 195 
 
 to apprehend him at a meeting ; in which, however, he 
 failed of success, and Menno escaped in a wonderful 
 manner. Soon after this, the traitor, in company with an 
 officer, passed him in a small hoat on the canal. But the 
 traitor kept quiet till Menno had passed them to some dis- 
 tance, and had leaped ashore in order to escape with less 
 dan{;er. Then the traitor cried out, * Behold, the bird has 
 escaped us ! ' The officer chastised him, called him a 
 villain, and demanded why he did not tell of it in time ; to 
 which the traitor replied, * I could not speak : for my tongue 
 was bound.' The lords were so displeased at this that they 
 punished the traitor severely — a warning and lesson to all 
 bloodthirsty traitors." ''• 
 
 At last Providence appeared for him. The Lord of 
 Fresenburg, a territory between Holland and Lubeck, had 
 frequently visited the Netherlands, had witnessed the perse- 
 cution of the Baptists, and had admired their piety and 
 steadfastness. When they were driven from their homes, 
 he allowed them to settle on his estates. Great numbers 
 availed themselves of the privilege. Flourishing settle- 
 ments were founded, and many Baptist churches established. 
 There Menno also found a peaceful retreat, and pursued his 
 labours without molestation. A printing establishment was 
 founded there, whence his numerous works were issued. 
 And there he died, on the 15th of January, 1561, in the 
 village of Odesloe. His remains were deposited in his own 
 garden. 
 
 No account of the manner of his death has been pre- 
 served. But his " doctrine, purpose, and manner of life " 
 were "fully known." The "end" of such a man was 
 undoubtedly *' peace." 
 
 Menno Simon was a voluminous writer. His works have 
 been collected and published in a handsome tolio volume. 
 We will mention the principal treatises contained in it. 
 
 * Marty rology, 24 f. 
 O 2 
 
 •?!>1 
 11* 
 
ig5 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I. " An Evident Demonstration of the Saving Doctrine 
 of Jesus Christ." In this work he discusses the following 
 subjects: — i. The time of grace. 2. Repentance. 3. Faith, 
 which he defines, "An embracing of the Gospel through the 
 agency of the Holy Spirit." He shows that the believer 
 relies upon Christ and His grace ; that he embraces His 
 promises ; and that he is justified, not by works, but by 
 faith, which is not of men, but the gift of God ; and that 
 this faith is not without fruits, but worketh by love. 4. 
 Baptism. He defends the confining of baptism to believers 
 from Matt, xxviii. 19, Mark xvi. 16, and by the arguments 
 usually adduced by Baptists; and replies to the arguments 
 in favour of Psedobaptism. In this chapter he employs a 
 very severe style of writing. It was common to the authors 
 of that and the next age. The Reformers, and after them 
 the Puritans, treated their adversaries with very little 
 courtesy ; and certainly they received none from their 
 opponents. 5. The Lord's Supper. 6. Secession from the 
 Church of Rome. 7. The calling of ministers in the Church. 
 8. The doctrines to be preached by ministers, showing that 
 the Scripture is the only rule of faith, g. The life of 
 ministers, and their support. He denies the lawfulness of 
 minioierial stipends. This was one of his mistakes. In 
 this chapter also he cautions magistrates, learned men, 
 and the common people against false ministers, meaning 
 those who had identified thcmsdves with insurrections 
 against the civil power. He shows that the only sword 
 which the Christian ought to use is the sword of the Spirit, 
 and that with this sword Christ so protects His Church that 
 the, gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He also 
 admonishes the Church, under persecution, to walk in the 
 practice of all Christian virtues. 
 
 IT. "Fundamental Doctrines from the Word of God." 
 This treatise closely resembles the first. He writes very 
 clearly and fully on the spirituality of the kingdom of 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 197 
 
 le 
 
 tions 
 
 iword 
 
 Dirit, 
 
 that 
 
 also 
 
 the 
 
 of 
 
 >1 
 
 Christ, and contends that none but the regenerate are true 
 members of the Church. 
 
 III. "A Consolatory Admonition to the People of God 
 under Persecution." Having adverted to the ordinary topics 
 of consolation, he warns his brethren very earnestly against 
 taking up arms in defence of religion. 
 
 IV. "The Doctrine of Excommunication." It is shown 
 that excommunication is designed to bring sinners to repent- 
 ance, and preserve the Church in its purity. This is well. 
 But when Menno goes on to maintain that the pious must 
 withdraw altogether from the excommunicate, r,nd have no 
 dealings with them, and that excommunication dissolves 
 all society between father and children, brothers and sisters, 
 husbands and wives, — union with Christ by faith being 
 infinitely more important than any earthl}' union, — we cannot 
 but confess that his scheme was far harsher than the New 
 Testament would warrant. There was much disputing 
 on this subject between the men of severe measures and 
 their moderate brethren ; but the latter were in the minority 
 during the period now under consideration. 
 
 V. '* Reply to Gellius Faber, Minister at Embden." All 
 the peculiarities of the Baptists were stated and defended in 
 this work. Faber had not only written against them, but 
 had also stirred up persecution and inflamed the minds 
 of the people. Hence Menno hits him hard. F'aber, too, 
 gives sturdy blows. They were both rough men. 
 
 VI. "A Piteous Supplication of Poor Christians, ad- 
 dressed to Magistrates," &c. 
 
 VII. " A Brief Vindication of Miserable Christians and 
 Dispersed Strangers, &c., addressed to all Divines and 
 Preachers in the Netherlands." In these two works Menno 
 defends himself and his brethren against the accusations 
 brought against them. He exposes the calumnies of their 
 foes, and indignantly remonstrates with magistrates and 
 ministers for allowing themselves to be led away by misre- 
 
\ 
 
 ig8 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 presentations and lies, invented for no other purpose than 
 the accomplishment of the ruin of innocent people. 
 
 VIII. The most interesting of all Menno Simon's works 
 is the ** Narration vi his Secession from Popery," in which 
 he traces and describes the various experiences through 
 which he passed, and the struggles he endured ere he 
 attained full deliverance.* 
 
 In common with the Baptists of that period generally, 
 Menno Simon held that no Christian should undertake the 
 office of magistrate, or bear arms, or bind himself by oath. 
 Whatever may be thought of these sentiments now, it is 
 ev. dent that they originate \ in the views entertained by 
 Baptists respecting the purity of the Church. Maintaining 
 that a Church of Christ should consist exclusively of pious 
 persons, they concluded, necessaiily, that such persons 
 would not be law-breakers, that thty Vvould abhor all vio- 
 lence, and that their word might be relied on. Among 
 thctn, therefore, no magistrate would be required. Their 
 principles would be incompatible with the employment of 
 force, even in self-defence. It would be outrageous to call 
 upon them to confirm any statement by an oath, since the 
 word of true men ought alwa.ys to be taken. All this may 
 be admitted. Menno Simon and his friends seem to have 
 forgotten, however, that they were living " in the world," 
 and that there were certain duties incumbent on them as 
 members of society. Yet these were harmless notions, and 
 might have been borne with. They would have been borne 
 with had forbearance been the temper of the age. 
 
 It is manifest that the doctrinal opinions of the Baptists 
 of this period harmonised, with few exceptions not of great 
 moment, with those entertained b} the Reformers of all 
 persuasions. With regard to the constitution and govern- 
 
 * See Baptist Magazine, vol. x., pp. 361 — 368, 401 — 406, contain- 
 ing a Memoir of Menno Simon, by the lute Rev. William Rovv-e, of 
 Weymouth. 
 
 ' 1 
 
 '. iv 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 199 
 
 ntain- 
 we, of 
 
 ; 
 
 
 merit of Christian Churches, they and the Reformers ma- 
 terially differed. According to the latter, infant baptism 
 formed the basis of Church membership, and the Church 
 and the nation were identical. The Baptists, on the con- 
 trary, would admit no members to their churches but on 
 personal profession of repentance and faith, on which 
 profession the parties were baptized. All their subsequent 
 arrangements were founded on these pre-reqnisites. Every 
 church was a family of believers. When they sat down at 
 the table of the Lord, they felt that they were one in Christ 
 and "members one of another." The Church, in their 
 estimation, was a holy society. All the rule and discipline 
 tended to the preservation of that holiness. So Baptists 
 have thought and practised from the beginning. 
 
 We do not find any material difference between them and 
 ourselves in regard to the organisation aid management of 
 churches. The opposition they encountered was so violent 
 that they were compelled to meet in secret, and at such 
 times as they were able. Doubtless, whenever it was prac- 
 ticable, they spent the Lord's-day together in spiritual 
 exercises, " according to the commandment." On these 
 occasions, if ministers were present, they preached and 
 taught, and administered the ordinance of the Lord's 
 Supper : if no minister was present, there was mutual 
 exhortation, with prayer and praise. Care was taken to 
 ascertain who among them were possessed of suitable gifts ; 
 and these persons, after a ,'jeason of probation, were solemnly 
 set apart to the ministerial office, by prayer and the imposi- 
 tion of hands. Sometimes they sent out brethren on mis- 
 sionary tours, to gather together scattered disciples or 
 comfort afflicted churches. This proved not unfrequently 
 a perilous task. Several instances of martyrdom are re- 
 corded, resulting from the discharge of this duty. The 
 Uinerant missionary was apprehended as a suspected man ; 
 for the fact of his bring a stranger, and often a foreigner, 
 
 
\ 
 
 2C0 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 i '\ 
 
 was sufficient to arouse suspicion. Examination disclosed 
 the secret, and death followed. 
 
 We will give a few extracts from the ** Martyrology," 
 which will illustrate this part of the subject. 
 
 Joriaen Simons and Clement Dorks, together with Mary 
 Jones, " fell into the hands of the tyrants at Haarlem," in 
 1557. " From the very gates of their prison they made 
 known the Word of the Lord, for the reformation of all." 
 When called on to declare their faith, they said *' that the}'' 
 had been baptized on a confession of their faith, according 
 to the command of Christ," and that '* infant baptism was 
 not from Gou, but in opposition to His Word." They 
 observed the Supper of the Lord ** agreeably to the institu- 
 tion of Christ, after His own usage and blessing when with 
 His Apostles." They " could not acknowledge the Pope 
 and the Romish Chuich to be the Church of God." They 
 acknowledged '"no other punishment of offeiiuers in the 
 Church than evangelic excommunication, thereby to sepa- 
 rate the bad from the g^od, that a pure Church might be 
 presented to the Lord, in which there might be nothing 
 impure or defiled." * 
 
 It was observed of two godly women who were beheaded 
 at Ghent, in 1564, that " they had separated themselves 
 (agreeably to the direction of the Holy Scriptures) from the 
 Popish Church of Antichrist, as corrupted with many impu- 
 rities, and filled with the unfruitful wo'-ks of darkness, and 
 doctrines and commandments of men, in opposition to the 
 Holy Word of the Lord. They had also united themselves 
 with the true members of Christ, and with them, according 
 to their weak ability, endeavoured to observe the Lord's 
 commandments and ordinances. They were therefore de- 
 prived of life by the persecutors and haters of the truth. "f 
 
 In 1559, "Jan Bosch, commonly called Jan Durps, was 
 a pious, worthy man, a linen-weaver by trade, living at 
 * Martyrolofry, H. 166. f Ibid. 357. 
 
 li 
 
 1 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 201 
 
 de- 
 
 li 
 
 Maestricht. Though the truth was very much obscured by 
 the Papacy, yet the light of Divine grace shone into his 
 mind, and genuine Gospel truth was brought home to him. 
 He repaired to the Church of God, and yielded the obedi- 
 ence which Christ the Son of God prescribed and com- 
 manded. After he had for a season adorned his Christian 
 calling, the Church ordained him, and the charge of it was 
 intrusted to him, that by reading and exhortation he should 
 serve them. After many refusals he consented, and dis- 
 charged his duty with fidelity, and employed his talents to 
 the best of his ability."* 
 
 "Jan de Swarte, a man of excellent character, from 
 Nipkerke, and his wife and children, came to the know- 
 ledge of the truth, and were united to the Church of God. 
 He was afterwards chosen and ordained to be a minister of 
 the Church. In this office he, according to his ability, and 
 in meekness, so conducted himself (not only as deacon by 
 caring for the poor, but also, according to the gift he had 
 received from God, in the dispensation of the word of ex- 
 hortation) that he became greatly endeared to all that knew 
 him."t We have noticed his martyrdom in a previous 
 section. 
 
 *' In the year 1560, the brother Claes Felbinger, a lock- 
 smith, a willing servant of the Word of God (he was then 
 on trial), was apprehended," and put to death. This brother 
 ''was called to the ministry of the Gospel in the year 1556, 
 but had not received the imposition of hands." J ** In the 
 year 1562, the brother Franciscus van der Sach, a native 
 of Rovigo, in Italy, a minister of the Word of God (being 
 still on probation), with another, his fellow-messenger, 
 named Antonius Walsch, was apprehended at Capo 
 d'Istria." He was subsequently drowned at Venice, as 
 has been before stated. § 
 
 The following cases illustrate the statement respecting 
 * Martyrology, 240. f /6t<f. 338. t Ibid. 279. § Ibid. 235. 
 
 ■f! 
 
\ 
 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 II '! 
 
 the darif^ers attending missionary excursions in those days. 
 ** In the bci^inning of the year 1536, Jeronimus Kels, of 
 Kufstein, with Michiel Zeepsieder, of Walt, in Bremen, and 
 Hans Overacker, of Etschland, were commissioned to go 
 into the earldom of the Tyrol ; but being come to Vienna, 
 in Austria, they were seized, having been betrayed by the 
 innkeeper with whom they lodged. While at supper, the 
 people there sought to discern who they were by drinking 
 
 vuNiti;. 
 
 their healths ; and when they found out their views, by 
 their declining to respond to the toasts, the landlord sent 
 for paper, and wrote a letter in Latin, which, among other 
 words, contained the following : ' Here are three persons, 
 who, I think, are all Anabaptists.' They were arrested, and 
 died in the fire at Vienna."*' In 1537, " Juriaen Vaser, by 
 desire of some zealous brethren, was sent to Pogstall, in 
 Austria, where he joyfully began to teach the Word of the 
 
 * Martyrology, i. 157. 
 
 * i M 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 203 
 
 ^\i 
 
 W^-' 
 
 h by 
 
 sent 
 
 )ther 
 
 sons, 
 
 and 
 
 Ir, bv 
 
 M> in 
 
 the 
 
 Lord, notwithstanding that he was just come out of prison 
 at Metlyng. He gathered the faithful together, and formed 
 a church agreeably to God's command. But he could not 
 escape the foils of a crafty knave, who, feigning a desire to 
 learn from him, as a minister, the nature and ground of the 
 truth, brought with him many servants, whom he ordered 
 to lay hold and capture this Juriaen Vaser when a suitable 
 opportunity should occur. This was faithfully performed."''' 
 Vaser was beheaded. In the year 1545, " Brother Hans 
 Blietel, having been sent by the Church to Riet, in Bavaria, 
 was there apprehended ; for money had been offered by 
 them of Riet to any one that should take him. There was 
 in consequence a traitor who gave him good words, affected 
 much zeal, wished ardently to be with him, and drew him 
 to his house. The brother thought it was for the welfare 
 of his soul, and went with him." The wretch endeavoured 
 to extort money from him, and, failing in that, betrayed him 
 to the magistrates, who condemned him to the flames. 
 *' When the dear brother Hans reached the place of execu- 
 tion outside the city, he thought upon the Church, and 
 called out with a loud voice, in the midst of the assembled 
 people, asking if there was any one present who would have 
 courage to inform the Church of God in Moravia, that * I, 
 Hans Blietel, have been burnt for the sake of the Gospel, 
 at Riet, in Bavaria.' A zealous man, full of piety, then 
 discovered himself. His zeal was inflamed by this ques- 
 tion, and, as he could not get n'jar Hans, he called out to 
 him and said that he would tell and make known to the 
 Church in Moravia that he had been burnt at Riet for the 
 faith."t 
 
 * Martyrology, 161. 
 
 •f Martyrology, 268. The Martyrology is an abridgment of a large 
 folio volume, in Dutch, by T. J. van Braght, a Mennonite minister. The 
 first edition was published at Dordrecht, in 1660; the second, illustrated 
 by more than a hundred engravings, at Amsterdam, in 1685. A full 
 
 11 
 
 ■A 
 
 '■SI' 
 
n 
 
 I)' 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 204 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Sectiojm YIl 
 
 Baptists in England— Proclamation of Henry VIII. — Latimer'3 Sermon 
 before Edward VI. — Baptists excepted from " Acts of Pardon " — Royal 
 Commissions against them— Ridley — Cranmer— Joan Boucher — Rogers — 
 Philpot — Bishop Hooper's Scruples — George Van Pare — Protestant Per- 
 secutions Inexcusable— Congregations in Essex and Kent — Bonner 
 — Gardiner— Disputations in Gaol — Queen Elizabeth's Proclamation 
 against Baptists — Bishop Jewel-Archbishop Parke — Dutch Baptists. 
 
 WHEREVER the Reformation prevailed, Baptist 
 sentiments sprang: up with it. So it was in 
 
 Ii)ngland. In 1534, when Henry VHI. assumed the head- 
 ship of the English Church, he issued two proclamations 
 against heretics. The first referred to certain persons who 
 had presumed to dispute about baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper, some of whom were foreigners : these were ordered 
 to depart the realm within eight or ten days. The second 
 stated more explicitly that foreigners who had been bap- 
 tized in infancy, but had renounced that baptism and had 
 been re-baptized, had entered England, and were spreading 
 their opinions over the kingdom. They were commanded 
 to withdraw within twelve days, on pain of suffering death 
 if they remained. Either some of them did remain, or 
 others visited England the following years, for ten were 
 burnt, by pairs, in different places, in 1535, and fourteen 
 more in 1536. In 1538, six Dutch Baptists were detected 
 and imprisoned ; four of them bore faggots at St. Paul's 
 Cross, and two were burnt. Bishop Latimer refers to 
 these circumstances in a sermon preached before Edward 
 VL, in the year 1549. " The Anabaptists," says he, "that 
 were burnt here in divers tovA ns in England (as I heard of 
 
 translation of the work, by J. Daniel Rupp, was published at Lancaster, 
 Pennsylvania, in an octavo volume of 1048 pages, in 1837. The late 
 Rev. Benjamin Millard, of Wigan, was the author of the translation 
 issued by the Hanserd Knollys Society. 
 
 \ 
 
 4 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 205 
 
 credible men, I saw them not myself), went to their death 
 even intrepide, as ye will say, without any fear in the world, 
 cheerfully. Well, let them go! "* That good man was blind 
 on the subject of religious freedom, as the Reformers gene- 
 rally were. He and his fellow-labourers might think for 
 themselves; but if others ventured 'o do so, and thought 
 themselves into Baptist principles, the fire was ready for 
 them, and even Latimer could say, "Well, let them go!" 
 Let us be thankful that the "times of that ignorance" have 
 passed away. 
 
 There is some reason to believe that a Baptist church 
 existed in Cheshire at a much earlier period. If we may 
 credit the traditions of the place, the church at Hill Clifife 
 is five hundred years old. A tombstone has been lately 
 dug up in the burial-ground belonging to that church, 
 bearing date 1357. The origin of the church is assigned, 
 in the " Baptist Hand-Book," to the year 1523. This, 
 however, is certain, that a Mr. Warburton, pastor of the 
 church, died there in 1594. How long the church had 
 been then in existence there are no written records to 
 testify. I 
 
 Henry VHL had a keen scent for heresy. He claimed 
 to be an infallible judge in that matter, as free from error 
 as the Pope himself. And so he was, no doubt ; the one 
 was as good as the other. Baptists were particularly dis- 
 tasteful to him. In the year 1538, Peter Tasch, a Baptist, 
 was apprehended in the territories of the Landgrave of 
 Hesse. It was discovered on searching him that he was 
 in correspondence with Baptists in England, and expected 
 soon to go thither in order to aid them in propagating their 
 opinions. The Landgrave gave information to the King, 
 who immediately appointed a Commission, of which 
 
 ♦ Sermons, p. 160. Parker Society's Edition. 
 
 f These statements are made on the authority of the Rev. A. Ken- 
 worthy, the present pastor ot the church. 
 
 
 '■ • 1 
 
206 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 Cranmer was chairman, charging the Commissioners to 
 adopt severe measures against the alleged heretics if they 
 should be detected, to burn all Baptist books, and, if they 
 did not recant, to burn the Baptists themselves. They 
 were not slow to obey the King's commandment. On the 
 24th of November, three men and one woman escaped the 
 fire by bearing faggots at St. Paul's Cross ; that is, they were 
 brought before the people, assembled opposite the great 
 
 >'A 
 
 I r:]A<'^ k<'>M ^^'^'^^'' d 
 
 LATIMER PREACHING AT PAUL'S CROSS. 
 
 , 5 
 
 %■ • 
 
 A, :' 
 
 I- 
 
 cross outside St. Paul's Cathedral, and walked in proces- 
 sion, each with a bundle of faggots on the shoulder, to signify 
 that they had deserved to be burnt ; after which they con- 
 fessed and renounced their supposed errors. Three days 
 after a man and a woman were committed to the flames in 
 Smithfield. All these were natives of Holland. Fuller, 
 the Church historian, writes of them in his peculiarly quaint 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 207 
 
 style. He says : " Dutchmen flocked faster than formerly 
 into England. Many of these had active souls ; so that 
 whilst their hands were busied about their manufactures, 
 their heads were also beating about points of Divinity. 
 Hereof they had many rude notions, too ignorant to manage 
 them themselves, and too proud to crave the direction of 
 
 :es- 
 lify 
 
 |on- 
 
 lys 
 
 in 
 
 fer. 
 
 Lint 
 
 OLD ST. Paul's, as it was in 1538. 
 
 Others. Their minds had a by-stream of activity more than 
 what sufficed to drive on their vocation ; and this waste of 
 their souls they employed in needless speculations, and 
 soon after began to broach their strange opinions, being 
 branded with the general name of Anabaptists."* This is 
 amusing enough. And yet it is a melancholy specimen of 
 
 • Church History, book v. sect, i, ir. 
 
 .\' 
 
208 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ' < ■ 
 
 I . 
 
 the ignorance in which some men, otherwise well informed 
 and even learned, have been contented to remain. Instead 
 of examining Baptist sentiments for themselves, they have 
 taken them at second hand, and pronounced them " need- 
 less speculations" and "strange opinions." 
 
 The hatred of Baptists was further shown by excepting 
 them from general Acts of pardon. Such Acts were pub- 
 lished in 1538, 1540, and 1550; but those who held that 
 *• infants ought not to be baptized " were excluded from the 
 benefit. Thieves and vagabonds shared the King's favour, 
 but Baptists were not to be tolerated. 
 
 Protestantism nominally flourished in the reign of Ed- 
 ward VI. But there were many un-Protestant doings. The 
 use of the reformed liturgy was enforced by the pains and 
 penalties of law. Ridley, himself a martyr in the next reign, 
 was joined in commission with Gardiner, afterwards noto- 
 rious as a persecutor of Protestants, to root out Baptists. 
 Among the " Articles of Visitation " issued by Ridley in his 
 own diocese, in 1550, was the following : *' Whether any of 
 the Anabaptists' sect or other use notoriously any unlawful 
 or private conventicles, wherein they do use doctrines or 
 administration of sacraments, separating themselves from 
 the rest of the parish ?" * It may be fairly gathered from 
 this article that there were Baptist churches in the kingdom 
 at that time. 
 
 A Royal Commission was issued by Edward VI., em- 
 powering thirty-one persons therein named, Cranmer at the 
 head and Latimer as one of its members, to proceed against 
 all heretics and contemners of the Book of Common Prayer. 
 The " wicked opinions " of the Baptists are specifically 
 mentioned, and the Commissioners (or rather Inquisitors, 
 for such they were) were directed, in case the persons 
 accused should not renounce their errors, to deliver them 
 up to the secular power, that is, to death. Joan Boucher, 
 
 • Cardwell's Documentary Annals of the Church of England, i. 91. 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 209 
 
 Ed- 
 
 |em- 
 
 the 
 
 linst 
 
 '•er. 
 
 lally 
 
 \orSy 
 
 Ions 
 
 lem 
 
 ler. 
 
 T 
 
 or "Joan of Kent," as she was sometimes called, was the 
 first victim. She was a Christian lady, well known at 
 Court, and very zealous in her endeavours to introduce 
 Christian truth among its inmates. Strype says, *• She was 
 at first a great disperser of Tindal's New Testaments, trans- 
 lated by him into English, and printed at Colen [Cologne], 
 and was a great reader of Scripture herself; which books 
 she also dispersed in the Cour^, and so became known to 
 certain women of quality, and was more particularly ac- 
 quainted with Mrs. Anne Ascue [Anne Askew, cruelly 
 tortured, and afterwards burned alive, in the year 1546]. 
 She used, for the more secrecy, to tie the books in strings 
 under her apparel, and so passed with them into Court.'"'' 
 But she maintained the opinion held by many of the foreign 
 Baptists, that the Redeemer, though born of the Virgin 
 Mary, and truly man, did not take flesh of the substance 
 of her body. For this she was condemned to die. A year 
 elapsed between the trial and the execution, during which 
 many efforts were employed, but in vain, to convince her 
 of her error. Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Ridley, and 
 others visited her frequently for that purpose. It was at 
 length determined to burn her. The final sentence bears 
 his name and that of Latimer. On the 2nd of May, 1550, 
 Joan Boucher was burnt in Smithfield. Bishop Story 
 preached on the occasion, and, as Strype says, ** tried to 
 convert her;" but his misrepresentations and calumnies 
 were so gross that she told him he " lied like a rogue," 
 and bade him " go and read the Scriptures." It was 
 doubtless needful advice. 
 
 John Rogers, who was the first martyr in Mary's reign, 
 approved this execution. When some one remonstrated 
 with him on the subject, and particularly urged the cruelty 
 of the mode of death, he replied that '• burning alive was 
 no cruel death, but easy enough." Archdeacon Philpot, in 
 
 * Memorials of the Reformation, ii. 368. Edit. 1816. 
 
 P 
 
 i 
 
210 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 his sixth examination before the Queen's Commissioners, 
 Nov. 6, 1555, six weeks before his own martyrdom, said, 
 *• As for Joan of Kent, she was a vain woman (I knew her 
 well), and a heretic indeed, lacll ivorthy to he burnt.'"* It is 
 distressing to record such utterances. 
 
 C \l (2: -cXAV^ Vit>^W\^ W 
 
 AUCHUISHOP CKANMKK. 
 
 In Edward VI. 's time Hooper was appointed Bishop 
 of Gloucester. His consecration was delayed for some 
 months on acccun*^ of his scruples against the Episcopal 
 habits, which he justly regarded as Popish. He had learnt 
 the truth, which is known now as an elementary principle, 
 but tiicn little understood, except by Baptists, that in the 
 ♦ Examinations and Writings, p. 53. Parker Society's Edition. 
 
 t 
 
 ■fcvi' 
 
 1 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 II 
 
 [ishop 
 
 some 
 
 copal 
 
 learnt 
 
 jciple, 
 
 the 
 
 f 
 
 1 
 
 service of the Church nothing should be admitted for which 
 we cannot adduce Apostolic precept or precedent, or which 
 is contrary to any Apostolic teaching. He was unwilling to 
 defer to Church authority or long-continued custom. Ridley 
 was astonished at his brother's difficulties. In writing on 
 the subject he affected to be very logical, and he was not 
 sparing in rhetorical flourishes; but there was more sophis- 
 tical declamation than either logic or rhetoric. Thus the 
 Bishop writes : *' If this reason should take place, * The 
 Apostles used it not, erf^o it is not lawful for us to use it ' — 
 or this either, ' They did it, ergo we must needs do it ' — then 
 all Christians must have no place abiding, all must, under 
 pain of damnation, depart with [part from] their posses- 
 sions, as Peter said they did [* Behold, we have left all 
 things,' &c.] ; we may have no ministration of Christ's 
 sacraments in churches, for they had no churches, but were 
 fain to do all in their own houses ; we must baptize abroad 
 in the fields, as the Apostles did ; we may not receive the 
 holy communion but at supper, and with the table furnished 
 with other meats, as the Anabaptists do now stiffly and 
 obstinately affirm that it should be; our naming of the child 
 in baptism, our prayer upon him, our crossing, and our 
 threefold ab-renunciation,and our white chrisom [or vesture], 
 all must be left, for these we cannot prove by God's Word 
 that the Apostles did use them. And, if to do anything 
 which we cannot prove they did be sin, then a greatest part 
 is sin that we do daily in baptism. What followeth then 
 other things, than to receive the Anabaptists' opinion, and to 
 be baptized anew ? O, wicked folly and blind ignorancy I " '= 
 Ridley's argument was, " If you take such ground, you 
 had better become an Anabaptist at once. But that would 
 be a shocking thing. Therefore you must admit in these 
 th-ngs the authority of the Church, and yield submission to 
 
 * Reply to Bishop Hooper in Bradford's Letters, Treatises, &c., p. 382. 
 Parker Society. 
 
 P 2 
 
 
I '!i 
 
 if 
 
 \ 
 
 212 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 it." So, in utter contradiction to the principles of true 
 Protestantism, did the Bishop reason. The other alternative, 
 viz., that the Baptists were right, which ought to have been 
 granted, he either had not eyes to see, or was not honest 
 enough to admit. 
 
 One point adverted to by Ridley may require explanation. 
 The Baptists, according to him, taught that the Lord's 
 Supper should be celebrated at the close of a meal. Their 
 practice, it is to be supposed, agreed with the theory. They 
 observed that the ordinance was instituted while our Lord 
 and His Apostles were still at the Passover Supper-table ; 
 and they inferred that the Lord's Supper should be preceded 
 by a meal, taken in common by the assembled disciples. 
 We may think them mistaken, but this is clear, that the 
 Baptists evinced therein their scrupulous regard to the 
 directions, express or implied, of the Word of God. Posi- 
 tive institutions should be observed, in their judgment (and 
 were they not right ?), as nearly as possible in the exact 
 manner in which they were enjoined. The original precept 
 should be literally obeyed, the original precedents followed. 
 This is the characteristic distinction of the Baptist body. 
 Can it be controverted ? 
 
 George Van Pare, a Dutch Baptist, was burnt in Smith- 
 field on the 13th of January, 1551." He was charged with 
 Arianism ; but it is testified that he was a man of fervent 
 piety and active benevolence. His behaviour at the stake 
 was eminently Christian. The condemnatory sentence was 
 signed by Cranmer, Ridley, and Coverdale ! 
 
 Whatever opinion we may entertain respecting the doc- 
 trinal views held by Joan Boucher and Van Pare, there can 
 be no difficulty in deciding on the conduct of Cranmer and 
 his associates. Nor need we seek excuses for them. It is 
 customary to plead in their behalf the general prevalence, 
 in that age, of Church and State] principles of the most 
 ultra kind, and to maintain that at a time when everybody 
 
 I 
 
 :/' 
 
 I 
 
 T 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 213 
 
 of true 
 irnative, 
 .ve been 
 t honest 
 
 mation. 
 Lord's 
 
 Their 
 . They 
 ur Lord 
 r-table ; 
 receded 
 sciples. 
 hat the 
 to the 
 
 Posi- 
 nt (and 
 
 exact 
 recept 
 lowed. 
 
 bodv. 
 
 imith- 
 
 vvith 
 
 lervent 
 
 stake 
 ;e was 
 
 doc- 
 re can 
 and 
 It is 
 lence, 
 most 
 mody 
 
 ;,' 
 
 T 
 
 believed that the magistrate was bound to do the Church's 
 bidding, and, therefore, to rid the country of those whom 
 the Church might condemn, it could not be expected that 
 any ecclesiastics would differ from their brethren, or be dis- 
 inclined to carry out the common policy. We are not 
 disposed to admit the force of this reasoning. The Apostle 
 Paul ** verily thought within himself that he ought to do 
 
 SMrrKFIHLl) IN THE YT.AK 155I. 
 
 many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth '' 
 (Acts xxvi. 9) ; but neither did he, after he became a Chris- 
 tian, nor do we, who walk in the light of the nineteenth 
 century, justify the desolation he caused at Jerusalem, on 
 the ground of his ignorance and prejudice. He might and 
 he ought to have known better, and it was his sin that he 
 
 n 
 
w 
 
 \ 
 
 214 
 
 f W ' 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 did not inquire impartially respecting Christianity before he 
 persecuted it. So it was with Cranmer, Calvin, and the 
 other Protestant persecutors. Rome had trained them in 
 savageness. But she had also brought them up in the 
 fooleries of her superstition, and instructed them to cleave 
 to will-worship and merit. When they forsook those sandy 
 foundations, that they might build on Christ, it was because 
 they had learnt from the New Testament the doctrine of 
 justification by faith. Why did they not also derive from 
 the same New Testament the great truth that the kingdom 
 of the Saviour is '♦ not of this world," and that, therefore, 
 the use of carnal weapons in its propagation or defence is 
 absolutely forbidden ? These truths were as fully taught by 
 the Apostles as were the doctrines of faith and grace. The 
 Baptists were clear on these subjects. They understood 
 the nature and the limitations of magisterial rule. They 
 anticipated Dr. Watts : — 
 
 *' Let Caesar's dues be ever paid 
 To Caesar and his throne ; 
 But consciences and souls were made 
 To be the Lord's alone." 
 
 li 
 
 II! 
 
 ;■ ' 
 
 '■f| 
 
 .11 
 ^1 
 
 • 
 
 I I 
 
 They acted on their convictions, and withdrew from a cor- 
 rupt church to worship God according to His Word. In 
 doing sc they committed no crime against the State. For 
 that act they were responsible to God only. The State had 
 no control over them. As long as they were peaceable 
 subjects and obeyed the laws, they rightfully claimed pro- 
 tection. In regard to religion, they rightfully demanded 
 freedom and independence. The Reformers had put forth 
 the same demand in seceding from Rome. It is true that 
 they coupled with it the false step of asking leave of the 
 civil magistrate to secede, and having fallen into that error 
 required that no one should secede from them, because the 
 magistrate, as tutored by them, forbade it. But, we ask 
 
 k« 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 215 
 
 >efore he 
 and the 
 them in 
 in the 
 a cleave 
 56 sandy 
 because 
 itrine of 
 ve from 
 :ingdom 
 lerefore, 
 ence is 
 ught by 
 2. The 
 lerstood 
 They 
 
 a cor- 
 d. In 
 For 
 te had 
 ceable 
 prb- 
 anded 
 
 forth 
 e that 
 of the 
 : error 
 ;e the 
 e ask 
 
 »> 
 
 again, where was the New Testament all the while ? and 
 how was it that they did not see in it the spiritual Church, 
 and the spiritual King, and the absolute unlawfulness of 
 calling for " fire from heaven," or devising other mischief 
 against those who differed from them ? The Baptists saw 
 all this. Cranmer and his party might have seen it. In 
 refusing to see it they were guilty of treachery to Protestant 
 principles. 
 
 But they could not put down the Baptists, who grew and 
 flourished in spite of them. Congregations were discovered 
 at Bocking, in Essex, at Faversham, in Kent, and other 
 places. Their number must have been considerable, as 
 four ministers were arrested when the discovery was made. 
 The names of the ministers were Humphrey Middleton, 
 
 Henry Hart, George Brodebridge, and Cole. At the 
 
 time of their apprehension the^ 'ere assembled at Bocking. 
 Besides the ministers, about sixty members of the congre- 
 gation were apprehended. Their Christian organisation 
 appears to have been correct and complete. They met 
 regularly for worship and instruction ; the ordinances of the 
 Gospel were attended to ; contributions were made for the 
 support of the cause ; and so great was their zeal that those 
 who lived in Kent were known to go occasionally into Essex 
 to meet the brethren there — a journey of fourscore miles, 
 which, in the sixteenth century, was no small undertaking. 
 When they were brought into the ecclesiastical court they 
 were examined on forty-six articles, and charged with Pela- 
 gianism and other errors. Their religious sentiments, or 
 those imputed to them, would be now called Arminian. 
 This, however, is clear, that they were "Anabaptists." 
 They held also *' that we are not to communicate with 
 sinners." In other words, they advocated believers' bap- 
 tism, and contend.id for the purity of Christian churches. 
 What became of the others we do not know, but Mr. Mid- 
 dleton was committed to prison, where he remained till the 
 
 
fc 
 
 I ! 
 
 \ 
 
 il. 
 
 I'' If '' 
 |i i 
 
 T 
 
 I' 
 
 jiii 
 
 !|il 
 :ll! 
 
 •i'l 
 
 2l6 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 death of Edv/ard VI. The Kentish members of these con- 
 gregations suffered continual annoyance and persecution in 
 various ways. Cranmer did all he could to suppress the 
 Baptist movement. 
 
 We cannot but regret that so little is known of thiq inte 
 resting band of disciples. Strype asserts that they " were 
 the first that made separation from the Reformed Church of 
 England, having gathered congregations of their own." As 
 they confessed that they had not communed in the parish 
 churches for two years, their separation must have taken 
 place about the year 1548, which was before the Presby- 
 terians or the Independents were known in England. The 
 Baptists were the vanguard of the Protestant Dissenters in 
 this country.''' 
 
 There were many Baptists among the sufferers in Queen 
 Mary's reign. Some endured painful imprisonments ; some 
 passed to heaven through the fire. Humphrey Middleton, 
 one of the ministers mentioned above, was burnt at Canter- 
 bury, July 12, 1555. We should have known more about 
 these good men had the historians of the times been more 
 faithful. Even the venerable John Fox allowed his preju- 
 dices so far to influence him that he kept back information 
 respecting Baptist martyrs. But ** their record is on high." 
 
 Bishop Bonner bestirred himself diligently. In his *' Ar- 
 ticles of Visitation," issued in the year 1554, he directed 
 inquiry to be made, *' whether there be any that is a Sacra- 
 mentary or Anabaptist, or Libertine, either in reiterating 
 baptism again, or in holding any of the opinions of the 
 Anabaptists, especially that a Christian man or woman 
 ought not to swear before a judge, nor one to sue another 
 in the law for his right, and that all things should be com- 
 mon." f The last item, it is not necessary to say, was a 
 
 ♦ Strype's Memorials, '' 381. Baptist Magazine, February, 1866, 
 
 pp. 113-115. 
 f Documentary Annals, ii. 156. 
 
 , I 
 
 rl 
 in 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 217 
 
 the 
 
 ^man 
 
 )ther 
 
 :om- 
 
 is a 
 
 t866, 
 
 fc-S 
 
 calumny — or rather, perhaps, a misapprehension of the 
 brotherly hospitality that prevailed among the Baptists. 
 In a " Declaration to be published to the lay people of his 
 diocese concerning their reconciliation," he affirmed that 
 England had been " grievously vexed" and " sore infested " 
 with " sundry sorts of sects of heresies," among which he 
 expressly mentions " Anabaptists." * Next year he pub- 
 lished a book of homilies, in one of which he warned the 
 people against the Baptists. " Certain heresies," said he, 
 " have risen up and sprung in our days, against the chris- 
 tening of infants," — a practice which *' the most wholesome 
 authority of the Church doth command." f 
 
 Bishop Gardiner was Chancellor of the University of 
 Cambridge. In 1555 he published fifteen articles, which 
 were to be signed by all persons desirous of enjoying the 
 privileges of the University. The fourth was to this effect : 
 that " baptism is necessary to salvation, even for infants ; 
 that all sin, actual as well as original, is taken away and 
 entirely destroyed, in baptism ; and that the said baptism 
 is never to be repeated." % This language betrays the 
 existence of Baptists in Cambridge, and the Bishop's fear 
 lest persons holding their opinions should repair thither for 
 education from other parts of the kingdom. 
 
 Henry Hart, one of Humphrey Middleton's colleagues, 
 was committed to the King's Bench Prison, London, with 
 other Baptists. The prisons of the metropolis were crowded 
 with Protestants at that time, many ^f whom, such as Brad- 
 ford, Philpot, and olhers, glorified God in the flames. But 
 the spirit of disputation was so powerful in them that there 
 was hot controversy in the very gaols. Mr. Hart and his 
 friends, as has been before observed, differed from other 
 
 • Documentary Annals, ii. 170. 
 
 t Dr. Underhill's " Historical Introduction " to Tracts on Liberty of 
 Conscience, p. cxxv. 
 J Documentary Annals, i. 195. 
 
!; 
 
 r- •■ 
 
 
 II 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 » !: i 
 ■ V 1 
 
 ■l-f ' .' 
 
 2l8 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Reformers on what is called the Arminian question. Those 
 differences led to fierce disputes, and occasioned consider- 
 able loss of temper. Ridley, Bradford, and Philpot were 
 men eminent for piety; we venerate them to this day; their 
 names will be fragrant in all time coming. But in their 
 zeal for truth they sometimes forgot the claims of charity, 
 and in reference to baptism they held and inculcated tenets 
 oi a truly un-Protestant character. Philpot must surely 
 have felt the weakness of his cause when he pleaded thus : 
 " Since all truth was taught and revealed to the Primitive 
 Church, which is our mother, let us all that be obedient 
 children of God submit ourselves to the judgment of the 
 Church for the better understanding of the articles of our 
 faith and of the doubtful sentences of the Scripture. Let 
 us not go about to show in us, by following any private 
 man's interpretation upon the Word, another spirit than 
 they of the Primitive Church had, lest we deceive ourselves; 
 for there is but one faith and one Spirit, which is not con- 
 trary to Himself, neither otherwise now teacheth us than He 
 did them. Therefore let us believe as they have taught us 
 of the Scriptures, and be at peace with them, according as 
 the true Catholic Church is at this day."* 
 
 Notwithstanding the vigilant ferocity of Bonner and his 
 associates, the Baptists held their ground in Kent and 
 Essex, and it was found impossible to root them out. 
 Commissioners were sent to Colchester in 1558, with full 
 power to proceed against heretics ; and they had entered 
 on their duties with activity and ardour, hoping to make a 
 thorough clearance, when, for some unexplained reason, a 
 letter of recall was despatched. Dr. Chedsey, one of the 
 Commissioners, expressed his feelings on the occasion u: 
 the language of an inquisitor's regret. He was vexed at 
 the loss of his prey. "We be now," he said, writing to 
 the Privy Council, '* in the midst of our examination and 
 * Examinations and Writings, p. 273. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 2ig 
 
 articulation. And if we should give it off in the midst, we 
 should set the country in such a roar, that my estimation, 
 and the residue of the Commissioners, shall be for ever 
 lost. . . . Would to God the honourable Council saw the 
 
 i*^ 
 
 d his 
 and 
 out. 
 full 
 :ered 
 ke a 
 I, a 
 the 
 Bn ii". 
 d at 
 g to 
 and 
 
 gUEEN ELIZABETH AND HER PARLIAMENT. 
 
 face of Essex as we do see ! We have such obstinate 
 heretics, Anabaptists, and other unruly persons here as 
 ne"er was heard of."* 
 
 * Strype's Memorials, v. 265. 
 
220 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 \ 
 
 Bradford, as we have said, was one of those who dis- 
 puted, while in prison, with his fellow-sufferers. He was 
 ingenuous enough to acknowledge that, though he regarded 
 them as heterodox in their opinions, they were men of un- 
 questionable and even signal piety: " He was persuaded of 
 them, that they feared the Lord, and therefore he loved 
 them." 
 
 No sooner had Elizabeth ascended the throne than she 
 began to display the despotic tendencies by which her reign 
 was distinguished. In that respect she closely resembled 
 her father. She would reform, to a certain extent, but not 
 so far as to allow her subjects to think and act for them- 
 selves. She would prescribe to them what they should 
 believe, and how they should worship, under penalty of 
 her high displeasure if they dared to go beyond the allotted 
 bounds. The nation generally submitted in meekness. 
 Some few chafed under the yoke, yet continued to wear it. 
 Others remonstrated against ecclesiastical impositions, and 
 asked for freedom in things indifferent. It seemed to them 
 a monstrous thing, especially at a time when there were so 
 few able and faithful ministers, to demand rigorous uni- 
 formit}', not only in theological opinions, but also in the 
 cut and wear of caps and gowns, and in liturgical services. 
 But Elizabeth was not to be diverted from her purpose. 
 She had made up her mind to go so far and no farther. 
 And she was determined, as far as lay in her power, to 
 check the progress of her subjects. The "Act of Uni- 
 formity," passed in the year 1559, declared her will, and 
 defined their duty. The Puritan clergy grumbled, but the 
 Queen said, "Silence!" And so it was. They must be 
 silent or withdraw ; and if, having withdrawn, they reduced 
 their reforming principles to practice, they incurred all the 
 terrors of the High Commission Court. 
 
 It was not to be expected that Baptists would find any 
 favour with Elizabeth. Many had fled from foreign coun- 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 221 
 
 vho dis- 
 He was 
 egarded 
 1 of un- 
 laded of 
 e loved 
 
 lan she 
 ^r reign 
 iembled 
 but not 
 • them- 
 
 should 
 lalty of 
 illotted 
 skness. 
 vear it. 
 IS, and 
 
 them 
 ^ere so 
 uni- 
 
 n the 
 
 vices. 
 
 pose. 
 
 rther. 
 
 Jr, to 
 
 Uni- 
 
 , and 
 
 t the 
 
 5t be 
 
 uced 
 
 " the 
 
 any 
 )un- 
 
 tries to England, hoping to enjoy there the peace and 
 freedom elsewhere denied them. They had settled chiefly 
 in London and ** other maritime towns." But the Queen 
 would not suffer them to remain. A proclamation was 
 issued September 2nd, 1^60, declaring that her Majesty 
 " willeth and chargeth all manner of persons, born either in 
 foreign parts or in her Majesty's dominions, that have con- 
 ceived any manner of such heretical opinion as the Ana- 
 baptists do hold, and mean not by charitable teaching to be 
 reconciled, to depart out of this realm within twenty days 
 after this proclamation, upon pain of forfeiture of all their 
 goods and chattels, and to be imprisoned and further 
 punished as by the laws, either ecclesiastical or temporal, 
 in such case is provided." ■'• This was a severe and cruel 
 measure. In those days of slow travelling the proclama- 
 tion would not reach some of the outposts till the twenty 
 days had nearly expired ; and the poor people would have 
 little time to dispose of their immovable property, and of 
 such goods as they could not conveniently take away with 
 them. In all cases there was doubtless a great sacrifice. 
 
 Bishop Jewel supposed that the hated sectarians were 
 effectually got rid of. Writing to Peter Martyr, under date 
 of November 6, 1560, he said: — "We found at the begin- 
 ning of the reign of Elizabeth a large and inauspicious corps 
 of Arians, Anabaptists, and other pests, which I know not 
 how, but as mushrooms spring up in the night and in dark- 
 ness, so these sprang up in that darkness and unhappy 
 night of the Marian times. These, I am informed, and I 
 hope it is the fact, have retreated before the light of purer 
 doctrine, like owls at the sight of the sun, and are now 
 nowhere to be found ; or, at least, if anywhere, they are no 
 longer troublesome to our churches." f But he was mis- 
 taken. Many Baptists contrived to elude the proclamation. 
 
 * Documentary Annals, i. 293. 
 f Zurich's Letters, i. 92. Parker Society. , 
 
 
 i 
 
222 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 •in 
 
 n. 
 
 in < 
 
 Next year, Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, was complained 
 of by Secretary Cecil for " winking at schismatics and Ana- 
 baptists." •• Six years after, 1567, " Articles of Visitation " 
 were issued by Archbishop Parker, in which it was directed 
 that inquiry should be made whether any persons did " say, 
 teach, or maintain that children, beinjj^ infants, should not 
 be baptized." f It is evident, therefore, that persons hold- 
 ing those views were still in the realm. And they con- 
 
 fx- ■ > 
 
 "'TE"'^, 
 
 A?. 
 
 
 ■.tj.:r-. 
 
 ^3SJiiJto 
 
 OLD NOK'.VlCll. 
 
 tinued to seek shelter in England from persecution, while 
 the Queen and her minions were indefatigable in their 
 attempts to ferret them out and drive them away. Another 
 proclamation appeared in 1568, in which it is stated that 
 " great numbers of strangers from the parts beyond the 
 seas," some of whom were supposed to be *' Anabaptists," 
 did " daily repair to her Majesty's dominions, but that she 
 ♦ Documentary Annals, i. 338, f Ibid, 340. 
 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 223 
 
 did * in nowise mean to permit any refuge ' to them." '^'■ 
 Permitted or not, however, they were there, and they were 
 neither idle r 3r unsuccessful. ColHer, the ecclesiastical 
 historian, says, " The Dutch Anabaptists held private con- 
 venticles in London, and perverted a great many." | 
 
 pi 
 
 ^Pi 
 
 1.^ 
 
 
 Sectio]^ YIII, 
 
 The Enormities Perpetrated at Munster and other Places— Injustice of 
 ascribing them to Baptist Sentiments. 
 
 THE reader has often heard of the black deeds of 
 Munster, in the year 1534, and of some transactions 
 of a similar kind in Holland, about the ime time. Perhaps 
 he has been taught to consider those events as deeply dis- 
 graceful to the Baptist cause. 
 
 We have no wish to throw a veil over that part of the 
 history. Let the facts be set forth in all their horrid enor- 
 mity, as Paedobaptist historians have portrayed them. 
 Then let them be fairly contemplated, in the light of im- 
 partial truth. 
 
 The facts must first be stated. There had been fierce 
 contests in Westphalia, between the Roman Catholic 
 authorities and the Protestants. The former would have 
 exterminated the latter, but their numbers and their power 
 prevented it. Their superiority over their opponents was 
 shown in the terms of the agreement which had been 
 recently entered into between them and the Bishop of 
 Munster, who was also its Prince. The Protestants 
 secured for their worship the six parish churches, leaving 
 to the Bishop and his co-religionists only the cathedral and 
 a monastery. The Bishop, however, had left the city, not 
 
 * Documentary Annals, 343. 
 
 f Ecclesiastical History of England, vi. 162. 
 
 \ 
 
11^' 
 
 224 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 I 
 
 > 'If 
 
 
 choosinj; to reside there under such circumstances. It 
 could not be surprising that Munster became the resort 
 of many rehgious fugitives whom persecution had driven 
 from their homes, and who hoped to find a peaceful and 
 safe refuge in that city. Nor could it be wondered at, in 
 that ago of excitement, that among the fugitives were 
 found men of discordant and even outrageous opinions. 
 Some of them were Baptists. Rothman, one of the Re- 
 formed preachers, and a man of high repute and great 
 influence, embraced their views, and their numbers were 
 daily increased, both by immigration and conversion. 
 Just at that time, in January, 1534, jan Matthys and Jan 
 Bockelson arrived at Munster. They were fiery fanatics, 
 strong in the belief that the restoration of all things was 
 at hand, that the Lord's kingdom was to be established 
 by the sword, that the saints v/ere to take possession of 
 the earth, and that they and their associates were the 
 saints. Bernhard Knipperdolling, a wealthy burgher, in- 
 vited them to his house, and entered into all their schemes. 
 The fruits of their activity were soon manifest. Proselytes 
 multiplied on every hand. At length, they had secured the 
 adhesion of the majority of the inhabitants. Tumults and 
 conflicts followed, and the reiult wa? the expulsion of all 
 who would not favour the designs of Matthys and Bockelson. 
 The remainder of the narrative shall be given substantially 
 in the words of Ranke, the well-known modern historian : — 
 ♦' The Anabaptists were thus not only the masters of the 
 city, but its sole occupants. What their adversaries had 
 scrupled to do to them they inflicted with fanatical eager- 
 ness. They divided the city among themselves ; and com- 
 munities from different parts of the country took possession 
 of the religious houses. The movable property of the exiles 
 was collected together, and seven deacons were appointed 
 by Matthys to distribute it gradually to the faithful, accord- 
 ing to their several necessities." 
 
 m ;J 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 '225 
 
 ices. It 
 le resort 
 d driven 
 leful and 
 ed at, in 
 es were 
 )pinions. 
 the He- 
 ld great 
 2rs were 
 iversion. 
 and Jan 
 fanatics, 
 ngs was 
 ablished 
 ssion of 
 'ere the 
 her, in- 
 hemes. 
 Dselytes 
 red the 
 Its and 
 1 of all 
 kelson, 
 antially 
 nan : — 
 of the 
 es had 
 eager- 
 d com- 
 ession 
 ; exiles 
 Jointed 
 iccord- 
 
 All the pictures and statues in the cathedral, works of art 
 generally, and even musical instruments, were destroyed. 
 ** I'he rule which had been laid down as to the property of 
 the exiles was very soon applied to the possessions of the 
 faithful. They were ordered, under pain of death, to deliver 
 up their gold and silver, their jewels and effects, to the 
 chancery, for the common consumption. . . . While the idea 
 of property was abolished, each man was to continue to 
 exercise his craft. Regulations are extant, in which 
 journeymen shoemakers and tailors are specially men- 
 tioned ; the latter being enjoined to take heed that no new 
 garment or fashion be introduced. . . . Meat and drink 
 were provided at the common cost; the two sexes, 
 * brethren and sisters,' sat apart from each other at 
 m-^als ; they ate in silence, while one read aloud a chapter 
 of the Bible." 
 
 Matthys being killed in a tumult, Bockelson took upon 
 himself the management of affairs. He soon showed 
 symptoms of the wildest fanaticism. At first he assumed 
 the name and office of the prophet. He was a second 
 Moses : — the people were the ** new Israel :" — twelve elders 
 were appointed to judge them. " Six were to sit to ad- 
 minister justice every morning and afternoon ; the prophet 
 Jan Bockelson was to proclaim their sentences to the whole 
 people of Israel, and KnipperdoDing to execute them with 
 the sword." A table of laws was prepared, drawn chiefly 
 from the books of Moses. Unconditional submission was 
 required. If any refused it, they were denounced as the 
 *^ wicked," who were to be " rooted out of the earth," and 
 Knipperdolling was authorized to put them to death at 
 once, without trial. " Preceded by four heralds, with a 
 drawn sword in his hand, he traversed the streets, carrying 
 terror wherever he went." 
 
 Bockelson's next step was to introduce polygamy. He 
 married Matthy's widow, and many more women. The 
 
 Q 
 
 
i ; 
 
 i[hi 
 
 •I n 
 
 226 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 contagion spread. Rothman, the preacher, took four wives. 
 All the females in the city were soon appropriated. 
 
 The climax was reached when Bockelson procured him- 
 self io be appointed king. The Millennium, it was said,, 
 was just at hand. Christ would then reign with His saints 
 over the whole earth for a thousand years. " The kingdom 
 of Munster would endure until the commencement of that 
 Millennium, and ought, therefore, to foreshadow it, and be 
 an image of it." Bockelson declared ** that in him the 
 kingdom announced by Christ was incontestably come ; 
 that he sat upon the throne of David. He wore round his 
 neck a chain of gold, to which hung the symbol of his 
 dominion — a golden globe, transfixed with two swords, the 
 one of gold, the other of silver, above the handles of which 
 was a cross." Thrice a week he appeared in the market- 
 place, thus attired, and administered justice. As he rode 
 through the city all persons were required to fall on their 
 knees at his approach. 
 
 On one oc( v.sion when the Lord's Supper was celebrated 
 by the whole population, Bockelson fancied that one of the 
 persons present " had not on a wedding garment." He 
 ordered him out, followed him, cut off his head, and then 
 ** returned cheerful and delighted to the feast." At another 
 time, one of his wives having determined to leave him, he 
 led her into the market-place, beheaded her with his owrr 
 hands, and induced his other wives to dance round the 
 corpse, exclaiming, "To God alone in the highest be 
 honour." 
 
 It did not last long. The Bishop of Munster, aided by 
 some of the German princes, besieged the city. Tremen- 
 dous sufferings were endured by the inhabitants, and great 
 numbers died of starvation. At length the city was taken 
 by assault. A fearful carnage took place. Rothman and 
 other leaders were killed. Bockelson, Knipperdolling, and 
 another,' were taken prisoners, and torn to death by red- 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 r wives. 
 
 ed him- 
 as saidy 
 s saints 
 :ingdoni 
 
 of that 
 , and be 
 lim the 
 
 come ;: 
 und his 
 1 of his. 
 >rds, the 
 >f which 
 market- 
 he rode 
 Dn their 
 
 ebrated 
 3 of the 
 :." He 
 id then 
 another 
 lim, he 
 lis own 
 nd the 
 lest be 
 
 ded by 
 remen- 
 d great 
 5 taken 
 an and 
 ig, and 
 by red- 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 227 
 
 hot pincers. The Baptists who remained alive were ba- 
 nished ; not one was allowed, not even a woman, to live 
 in Munster/'^ 
 
 While these things were taking place at Munster, similar 
 outrages were attempted in Holland, particularly at Ley- 
 den and Amsterdam, in which cities certain Anabaptists (so 
 
 LEYDEN. 
 
 called) endeavoured to effect revolutions, and to set up the 
 new kingdom. Extravagance and immoralities marked 
 their proceedings, as at Munster, but they were fortunately 
 unsuccessful. 
 The question now arises. How far were the Baptists, as 
 Ranke's History of the Reformation in Germany^ book vi. chap. ix. 
 
 Q 2 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
I r! 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 n 
 
 228 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 a religious body, responsible for these transactions ? To 
 this we reply : — 
 
 1. That not only among the Baptists, but also among 
 other Reformers of that age, there were persons who were 
 led away by wild notions and unaccountable delusions. It 
 was a time of universal excitement — of new thoughts and 
 new feelings. In the sudden transition from gross dark- 
 ness to the blaze of noon-day it is not surprising that men's 
 vision should prove feeble, imperfect, or even deceptive. 
 Popery had chained down the mind : when the fetters were 
 broken, it ought not to have been wondered at if a period 
 of erratic and wayward movement followed. For our own 
 part, we think that, under all the circumstances, the conduct 
 of the Reform leaders was marvellously sober. 
 
 2. That alihough certain Baptists embraced millennarian 
 and other absurd theories, the whole body cannot be held 
 responsible for such things, since they were discountenanced 
 by the majority. The fair representation would be, that 
 some persons, professing Baptist sentiments, fell into these 
 evils, but that the denomination as a whole was entirely 
 free from them. They are properly enough ascribed by 
 Brandt to *' a new sect of enthusiastical Anabaptists " which 
 arose at that time, widely differing from the " well-mean- 
 ing " people who bore the same name.* 
 
 3. That the men of Munster should have been treated as 
 maniacs. Motley says of some who suffered at Amsterdam, 
 that they were " furious lunatics, who certainly deserved 
 the mad-house rather than the scaffold." f The remark is 
 as applicable to the Germans as to the Dutch. It was 
 insanity produced by intense feeling, a phenomenon not 
 unusual in times of excitement, from whatever cause that 
 excitement may spring. Taught to abandon the old for- 
 malism, and to regard Christianity as essentially identified 
 
 * History of the Reformation, abridged, i. 38. 
 f History of the Dutch Republic, i. 80. 
 
 r. i'l 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 \ t 
 
 229 
 
 s? To 
 
 among 
 ho were 
 )ns. It 
 hts and 
 js dark- 
 it men's 
 ceptive. 
 ;rs were 
 I period 
 Dur own 
 conduct 
 
 innarian 
 be held 
 enanced 
 be, that 
 to these 
 entirely 
 ibed by 
 " which 
 1-mean- 
 
 ated as 
 erdam, 
 eserved 
 mark is 
 It was 
 ion not 
 ise that 
 old for- 
 entified 
 
 with life and power, and as requiring personal choice and 
 action, the Baptists were conscious of an engagedness of 
 heart in religion which was peculiar to such sentiments. 
 The opposition they met with caused them to cling more 
 closely to the truth, and to study it with greater earnest- 
 ness. Firmly believing the promises of Scripture, they 
 looked forward to the triumph of New Testament prin- 
 ciples; and that triumph, they foresaw, would occasion a 
 complete revolution in society, and particularly a dissolution 
 of the union between Church and State, since, in propor- 
 tion as their views prevailed, the right of the civil magis- 
 trate to interfere in religious matters would be denied, and 
 such interference abolished. Then, persecution would cease, 
 and the peaceful dominion of the Saviour would prevail. 
 The majority of the Baptists were content to labour and 
 suffer in the propagation of these truths, confidently expect- 
 ing their ultimate prevalence. They employed spiritual 
 means for the accomplishment of a spiritual end. So far 
 from allowing the use of carnal weapons in the cause of 
 religion, they held all war to be unlawful. But some few, 
 men of warm imagination and weak judgment, were over- 
 powered by their visionary hopes, and thought themselves 
 authorised to establish a new government, on the ruin of 
 he existing order of things. It was at first the fire of 
 enthusiasm — then, frenzy — at last, stark madness. But it 
 was a temporary mania, and soon subsided. The disorders 
 and outrages which attended it, and the disturbances which 
 ensued in various parts of Europe, must be ascribed solely 
 to the individuals who were implicated in them. The 
 Baptists in general were wholly free from participation in 
 riot or rebellion. 
 
 4. That not only at Munster, but in many other places, 
 there was a deadly struggle going on between despotism, 
 civil and religious, on the one hand, and freedom on the 
 other. Numbers of the Germans were prepared to follow 
 
 V. 
 
 n i' 
 
 « 
 
 ♦'li 
 
i 
 
 ii « 
 
 !v 
 
 .1 I 
 
 i \ 
 
 230 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 any leader who would show them the path of deliverance 
 from their hateful bondage ; nor were they very scrupulous 
 as to the means that might be employed. Their efforts 
 failed. As it happened in some instances that Baptists 
 had taken the lead or acquired pre-eminence, they were 
 made to bear all the discredit ; and patriotic risings were 
 stigmatised as Baptist insurrections, whereas, in fact, the 
 majority of those who were termed rebels had no connec- 
 tion with the Baptists in a religious point of view. 
 
 " It is observable, also, that the Baptist martyrs of this 
 period frequently and indignantly rebutted the calumny 
 cast upon them, and maintained that they were not answer- 
 able for the disgraceful doings at Munster and other 
 places. 
 
 " They also asked him [Brother Dryzinger, a.d. 1538], if 
 it were true that if we should become numerous we would 
 rise up against them and strangle them, if they would not 
 join us ? He told them, * If we did so, we should be no 
 Christians, but only such in name.' "* 
 
 Speaking of the Word of God, Hans, of Overdam (mar- 
 tyred A.D. 1550), said, "That is our sword; it is sharp and 
 two-edged. But we are daily belied by those who say that 
 we would defend our faith with the sword, as they of 
 Munster did. The Almighty God defend us from such 
 abominations !"t 
 
 ** Were they not your people," said the wife of the Go- 
 vernor of Friesland, to Jaques Dosie, " that disgracefully 
 and shamefully took up the sword against the magistrates 
 at Amsterdam and Munster?" "Oh, no, madam," Jaques 
 replied ; "those persons greatly erred. But we consider it a 
 devilish doctrine to resist the magistrates by the outward 
 sword and violence. We would much rather suffer perse- 
 cution and death at their hands, and whatever is appointed 
 us to suffer.":}: 
 
 ♦ Martyrology, i. 180. f Ibid. 335. — } Ibid. 357. 
 
1538], if 
 e would 
 
 )uld not 
 
 d be no 
 
 le Go- 
 icefully 
 strates 
 Jaques 
 der it a 
 utward 
 perse- 
 )ointed 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 I > 
 
 231 
 
 iverance 
 rupulous 
 r efforts 
 Baptists 
 ey were 
 gs were 
 fact, the 
 connec- 
 
 j of this 
 :alumny 
 answer- 
 d other 
 
 5. We will only remark, in conclusion, that the history of 
 these transactions has been written by enemies. We live 
 in an age of impartial historical criticism. It is not im- 
 probable, therefore, that discoveries will yet be made, which 
 will enable future historians to tell the tale of the so-called 
 Anabaptists of Munster much more clearly and fully than 
 their predecessors. 
 
 At any rate, this is certain, that the atrocities and im- 
 purities perpetrated at Munster were not more justly trace- 
 able to Baptist sentiments, than the massucres of the Wal- 
 denses and the enormities of the Inquisition v/ould be 
 traceable to Psedobaptism. 
 
 •n (mar- 
 arp and 
 jay that 
 they of 
 n such 
 
 357. 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE TROUBLOUS PERIOD. 
 
 FROM A.D. 1567 TO A.D. 1688. 
 
 J 
 
 I .' I 
 
 » 
 
 $ECTIO)M I. 
 
 Baptists Persecuted by all other Sects— Liberal Policy of William, Prince of 
 Orange— The " Union of Utrecht "—Differences of Opinion — Persecu- 
 tion in Moravia and in Switzerland. 
 
 THE period we now approach we desigriv :e "The 
 Troublous Period," because, while the Baptists 
 were fast increasing in those parts of Europe in which 
 they had already appeared, their history presents one 
 continued scene of disturbance and suffering, inflicted, 
 not only by the Papists, from whom nothing else could 
 have been expected, but by their fellow-Protestants. The 
 Episcopalians and Presbyterians of England, the Lutherans 
 of Germany, and the Reformed in Switzerland, differing^ 
 from one another, and refusing intercommunion, agreed 
 in persecuting the Baptists. They were the ** sect every- 
 where spoken against." It would have been well if the 
 opposition had vented itself in hard words only ; our fore- 
 fathers would have borne these with Christian meekness^ 
 " not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing." But 
 their co-religionists persecuted them with relentless malice^ 
 even to the spoiling of their goods, imprisonment, and 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 233 
 
 death. These things must not be concealed. We hold it 
 to be the special duty of the historian to record with im- 
 partial and scrupulous accuracy the atrocities perpetrated 
 by those who professed the principles of the Reformation. 
 When a Papist persecutes, he acts in accordance with the 
 well-known assumptions of the great apostasy ; and, how- 
 ever we may deplore it, we do not wonder, for it is not in 
 the nature of Popery to practise the charity of the Gospel. 
 But Protestant persecution deserves to be branded w'th 
 double infamy. It is an outrage on Protestant principles, 
 and should be held up to universal reprobation. 
 
 The fires of martyrdom were frequently lighted in Hol- 
 land during the early part of this period. But the esta- 
 blishment of the Dutch Republic quenched them. The 
 Prince of Orange understood the principles of religious 
 freedom, and availed himself of the opportunity which his 
 position gave him to assert the natural rights of his 
 countrymen and the claims of conscience. The Baptists 
 had aided him in the struggle with Spanish tyranny. 
 Their integrity and peaceableness could be trusted. He 
 steadfastly and successfully resisted the endeavours of 
 those who sought to exclude them from the general tolera- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1572 a considerable sum of money had been carried to 
 the Prince, who was then at Dillenberg, by J. Cortenbosch 
 and Peter Bogaert, Baptists (the latter was a minister), as 
 the offering of the brethren. They performed this service 
 at the risk of their lives. When he asked them what he 
 could do in return, they replied that all they wanted was a 
 due share of his favour should he be established in the 
 government. He assured them that all men should be 
 regarded by him as equals, and that they had no cause 
 for fear.* 
 
 William, Prince of Orange, was a man of right noble 
 
 * Ottii Annates, ad. ann. 1572. 
 
 l\ 
 
 / 
 
234 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 i :m\ 
 
 If 
 
 spirit. " He resolutely stood out against all meddling with 
 men's consciences, or inquiring into their thoughts. While 
 smiting the Spanish Inquisition into the dust, he would 
 have noCalvinist Inquisition set up in its place. Earnestly 
 a convert to the reformed religion, but hating and denounc- 
 ing only what was corrupt in the ancient Church, he would 
 not force men, with fire and sword, to travel to heaven 
 upon his own road. Thought should be toll-free. Neither 
 monk nor minister should burn, drown, or hang his fellow- 
 creatures, when argument or expostulation failed to redeem 
 them from error. It was no small virtue in that age to rise 
 to such a height. We know what Caivinists, Zwinglians, 
 Lutherans, have done in the Netherlands, in Germany, in 
 Switzerland, and, almost a century later, in New England. 
 It is, therefore, ,with increased veneration that we regard 
 this large and truly Catholic mind." But it was " impos- 
 sible for the Prince thoroughly to infuse his own ideas on 
 the subject of toleration into the hearts of his nearest asso- 
 ciates. He could not hope to inspire his deadly enemies 
 with a deeper sympathy. Was he not himself the mark of 
 obloquy among the Reformers, because of his leniency to 
 Catholics ? Nay, more, was not his intimate counsellor, 
 the accomplished Saint Aldegonde, in despair because the 
 Prince refused to exclude the Anabaptists of Holland from 
 the rights of citizenship ? At the very moment when 
 William was straining every nerve to unite warring sects, 
 and to persuade men's hearts into a system by which their 
 consciences were to be laid open to God alone — at the 
 moment when it was most necessary for the very existence 
 of the Fatherland that Catholic and Pro<:estant should 
 mingle their social and political relations, it wus indeed a 
 bitter disappointment for him to see wise statesmen of his 
 own creed unable to rise to the idea of toleration. * The 
 affair of the Anabaptists,' wrote Saint Aldegonde, • has been 
 renewed. The Prince objects to exclude them from citizen- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 235 
 
 ship. He answered me sharply, that their yea was equal to 
 our oath, and that we should not press this matter, unles: 
 we were •willing to confess that it was just for the Baptists 
 to compel us to a Divine service which was against our con- 
 science.' It seems hardly credible that this sentence, con- 
 taining so sublime a tribute to the character of the Prince, 
 should have been indicted as a bitter censure, and that, too, 
 by an enlightened and accomplished Protestant."* 
 
 Notwithstanding^ the ignorance and bigotry of those with 
 whom he was associated, William held on his way. When 
 the " Union of Utrecht," the foundation cf the Dutch Com- 
 monwealth, was formed, it was expressly provided that 
 <' every individual should remain free in his religion, and 
 that no man should be molested or questioned on the sub- 
 ject of Divine worship."! 
 
 This auspicious event took place in the year 1579. Then 
 *' the Churches had rest." From that time the Dutch Bap- 
 tists, or Mennonites, as they have been commonly called, 
 enjoyed a good measure of prosperity. Their iiumbers 
 greatly increased. In those very cities where their pre- 
 decessors were so cruelly butchered, they were held in high 
 respect, and often discharged with credit the duties con- 
 nected with the civic affairs to which they were appointed. 
 Their scruples against oath-taking were met by substitut- 
 ing, in their case, a solemn affirmation, as is the practice 
 now in England with regard to the Quakers and some other 
 religious bodies. In lieu of personal service in the army 
 they paid an annual tax. 
 
 During their troubles it was impossible to carry into 
 effect any educational plans. When peace was restored, 
 the desirableness of securing an educated ministry became 
 a. matter of earnest consideration. Sound views were 
 entertained, and a college was established at Amsterdam, 
 which has proved a great blessing to the denomination. 
 * Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic, ii. 362, 206. f Ibid. p. 412. 
 
 ^1 
 
236 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Certain divergences of opinion among them occasioned 
 
 bitterness of feeling, and 
 
 estranged 
 
 brethren from one 
 
 another. These manifestations of human weakness are to 
 be lamented. Their injurious effects were felt by all parties, 
 and at length they agreed to bear with one another, and to 
 cease to regard their differences as hindrances to mutual 
 fellowship. Those differences related chiefly to the manner 
 in which the human nature of the Saviour was produced, 
 and to the effects of exclusion from the Church. As to the 
 former, a resolution was passed at a Synod held in 1615, 
 declaring that harmony on that subject was not essential. 
 The harshness which characterised the discipline of the 
 Churches in the early period of their history gradually gave 
 way to a more Christian policy, and exclusion was not held, 
 by the Mennonites in general, as involving the severance of 
 domestic and social relations. There was another point on 
 which they differed, — the washing of one another's feet, — 
 which some of them regarded as an apostolical ordinance 
 of perpetual obligation. This, too, was placed among 
 things indifferent. But some of the Mennonites hold it to 
 this day. 
 
 The progress of the Baptists in the central countries of 
 Europe is indicated by the number of publications on the 
 baptismal controversy which issued from the press in the 
 seventeenth century. There would have been no need of 
 those works if Paedobaptism had not been in danger. The 
 concurrent testimony of the authors of that age proves that 
 in the German States, in Prussia, and in Poland, Baptist 
 principles were spreading amoiig the people, in spite of 
 continual efforts to suppress them. 
 
 In a former chapter we gave an account of the persecu- 
 tion of the Baptists in Moravia. They had re-entered 
 that country, and lived without molestation for a number 
 of years. Their industrious habits, combined with their 
 honesty and integrity, commanded general respect. But 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 237 
 
 casioned 
 :om one 
 3s are to 
 1 parties, 
 r, and to 
 ) mutual 
 ; manner 
 jroduced, 
 A.S to the 
 
 in 1615, 
 essential, 
 le of the 
 ally gave 
 not held, 
 erance of 
 • point on 
 r's feet, — 
 ordinance 
 i among 
 
 hold it to 
 
 untries of 
 IS on the 
 iss in the 
 I need of 
 er. The 
 •oves that 
 Baptist 
 spite of 
 
 nersecu- 
 re-entered 
 a number 
 vith their 
 lect. But 
 
 the Jesuits, who had obtained complete control over the 
 Emperor Ferdinand II., persuaded him that it would be for 
 the glory of God and for his own welfare to expel them. 
 They had done no wrong ; they owed no arrears of taxes ; 
 they were loyal and peaceable ; and the district in which 
 they lived was improving fast under their good manage- 
 ment. But they were heretics. They would not wear the 
 yoke of Rome, for they were the Lord's freemen. That 
 was enough. The crime of thinking for one's self in mat- 
 ters of religion is unpardonable; it must be visited with the 
 *' great curse," and its perpetrators must be put out of the 
 way. In this case extermination, which would have been 
 preferred, was impossible ; it was not politic, and might not 
 be safe, to attempt the destruction of from twenty to forty 
 thousand of the best subjects of the kingdom. The milder 
 measure of expulsion was resolved on, and the craft and 
 cruelty of the Jesuits were strikingly displayed in carrying 
 this into effect. It was summer, harvest time was near, 
 and the vintage would follow shortly afterwards. Humanity 
 would have dictated that if justice required the banishment 
 of these men, they should have the opportunity of gathering 
 in the produce of their labours, and so be provided with the 
 means of sustenance for themselves and their families 
 during the coming winter. But Jesuitism knows nothing 
 of humanity. Goaded on by his spiritual advisers, Fer- 
 dinand issued an edict in the year 1621, declaring that his 
 conscience would not permit him to allow the continuance 
 of the heretics any longer in his dominions, and ordering 
 them all to depart, within three weeks and three days, on 
 pain of death if they were found, even on the borders of the 
 country, after the expiration of the allotted time. 
 
 '* Heaven had smiled on their harvest labours," says 
 Robinson ; " their fields stood thick with corn, and the sun 
 and the dew were improving every moment to give them 
 their last polish. The yellow ears waved a homage to their 
 
 •f 
 
238 
 
 i : 
 
 I ; i 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 owners, and the wind whistled through the stems, and the 
 russet herbage softly said, ' Put in the sickle, the harvest 
 is come.' Their luxuriant vine-leaves, too, hung aloft by- 
 tendrils mantling over the clustering grapes like watchful 
 parents over their tender offspring ; but all were fenced by 
 an imperial edict, and it was instant death to approach. 
 Without leaving one murmur upon record, in solemn silent 
 submission to the Power that governs the universe and 
 causes * all things to work together for good ' to His 
 creatures, they packed up and departed. In several 
 hundred carnages they conveyed their sick, their innocent 
 infants sucking at the breasts of their mothers who had 
 newly lain in, and their decrepid parents whose work was 
 done, and whose silvery locks told every beholder that they 
 wanted only the favour of a grave. At the borders they 
 filed off, some to Hungary, others to Transylvania, some 
 to Wallachia, others to Poland ; greater, far greater, for 
 their virtue than Ferdinand for all his titles and for all his 
 glory."=:= 
 
 Robinson adds, that ** the Jesuit who executed this busi- 
 ness says ten thousand stayed in Moravia, and became 
 Catholics." That may be set down as a glaring falsehood, 
 for Baptists and the Church of Rome are the spiritual anti- 
 podes to each other. The truth is, that though the greater 
 part obeyed the edict, some ventured to remain. They had 
 to endure tremendous persecution for the first seven years, 
 after which the activity of the bloodhounds slackened, and 
 the Baptists were enabled to live in comparative peace. 
 But freedom of worship was denied them. They met as 
 they could, in small companies, in woods and caves and 
 unfrequented places. God was with them. 
 
 Protestant Switzerland was disgraced by unremitting 
 opposition to the truth. The history of the Baptists in that 
 country is a sad tale of woe. Swiss Presbyterians had won 
 ♦ Ecclesiastical Researches, p. 526. 
 
 M 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 239 
 
 and the 
 harvest 
 aloft by 
 ^ratchful 
 meed by 
 Dproach. 
 in silent 
 rse and 
 to His 
 several 
 nnocent 
 vho had 
 ork was 
 hat they 
 srs they 
 a, some 
 ater, for 
 r all his 
 
 lis busi- 
 became 
 sehood, 
 al anti- 
 greater 
 ley had 
 1 years, 
 ed, and 
 peace, 
 met as 
 i^es and 
 
 mitting 
 
 in that 
 
 lad won 
 
 freedom for themselves, but they were determined not to 
 grant it to others. It seemed as if the ghost of Zuingli 
 haunted them, urging them on in their anti-Christian career. 
 Notwithstanding all the efforts that had been made, the 
 Baptists had multiplied among them, and it was impossible 
 to drive them out. Many emigrated to Moravia, but the 
 majority preferred to remain in their own homesteads ; and 
 they could not be silent and quiet. They felt that they had 
 as much right as others to worship God according to their 
 consciences, and they acted accordingly. When edicts 
 were issued against them they said, ** We ought to obey 
 God rather than men," and refused to acknowledge the 
 authority of the magistrate in things spiritual. If they were 
 sent to prison, they broke out whenever they could get op- 
 portunity; if they were put in irons, in order to prevent 
 escape, they made good use of the files with which their 
 friends supplied them, and so extricated themselves, to the 
 astonishment of their jailers ; and on one occasion they con- 
 trived to throw a quantity of opium into their keepers' wine, 
 and took leave of them while they slept. It was a most 
 perplexing case. Both magistrates and clergy were at 
 fault. The magistrates said to the clergy — " Answer these 
 men's arguments — preach better — live better — make it im- 
 possible for our Swiss to become Baptists." The clergy re- 
 plied — ** All we can do and say is in vain. Our people will 
 listen to the heretics. You must inflict sharper punishments." 
 They tried it. Some were sent to the galleys. John 
 Landis, a Baptist minister, was put to death. All Baptists 
 were required to leave the country. On their refusal their 
 property was confiscated, and held by the Government for 
 the benefit of such of their children or heirs as should con- 
 form to the established religion. All persons were forbidden 
 to show them hospitality. The reader can easily imagine 
 that such barbarous proceedings must have occasioned a 
 vast amount of suffering. 
 
 I 
 
 »: 
 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
240 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 The preceding statements relate chiefly to Zurich. But 
 the Baptists were similarly treated in Berne and in the 
 other Cantons. " All men hated them." * v 
 
 —o*- 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Dutch Baptists Persecuted in England — Account of Hendrick Terwoort and 
 Jan Pieters— Their Martyrdom— Their Religious Sentiments Whit- 
 I gift's Invectives against the Baptists. 
 
 DURING the persecution which raged in the Nether- 
 lands under the Duke of Alva, butcher-general of 
 the Inquisition in that country, numbers fled to other parts 
 of the Continent, or to England, for refuge and safety. In 
 England, at any rate, they ought to have been safe. But 
 the demon of persecution ruled here. In London, on the 
 3rd of April, 1575, a small congregation of Dutch Baptists 
 convened in a private house, outside the City gates (" with- 
 out Aldgate "), was interrupted by a constable while at 
 worship, and twenty-five persons were taken before a magis- 
 trate, who committed them to prison, but released them 
 after two days' confinement, on their giving bail for their 
 appearance whenever summoned. 
 
 Information being given to the Queen, a Royal Com- 
 mission was issued to Sandys, Bishop of London, and 
 some others, to examine the parties and proceed accord- 
 ingly. They appeared before the Commissioners in pur- 
 suance of the summons. Their confession of faith was 
 rejected, and they were required to subscribe to four articles, 
 condemnatory of their own principles. 
 
 " They proposed to us four questions," says one of the 
 prisoners, '* telling us to say yea or nay — 
 
 *" I. Whether Christ had not taken His flesh and blood 
 of the Virgin Mary ? ' 
 
 • Ottil Annales, passim. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 241 
 
 ch. But 
 d in the 
 
 srwoort and 
 ;nts Whit- 
 
 3 Nether- 
 
 eneral of 
 
 her parts 
 
 fety. In 
 
 ife. But 
 
 n, on the 
 
 \ Baptists 
 
 p (" with- 
 
 while at 
 
 a magis- 
 
 sed them 
 
 for their 
 
 raX Com- 
 don, and 
 i accord- 
 3 in pur- 
 "aith was 
 r articles, 
 
 le of the 
 
 ,nd blood 
 
 " We answered : * He is the Son of the living God.' 
 " * 2. Ought not little children to be baptized ? ' 
 ** We answered : 'Not so ; we find it not written in Holy 
 Scripture.' 
 " ' 3. May a Christian serve the office of a magistrate ? * 
 " We answered : 'That it did not oblige our consciences ; 
 but, as we read, we esteemed it an ordinance of God.' 
 " ' 4. Whether a Christian, if needs be, may not swear ? ' 
 " We answered : * That it also obliged not our consciences ; 
 for Christ has said, in Matthew, L^^ jowr words be yea, yea; 
 nay, nay.' 
 
 " Then we were silent. 
 
 " But the Bishop said, that our misdeeds therein were so 
 great that we could not enjoy the favour of God. O, Lord, 
 avenge it not ! He then said to us all, that we should be 
 imprisoned in the Marshalsea." 
 
 In the Marshalsea Prison (now called the " Queen's 
 Bench"), to which they were then conveyed, many efforts 
 were made, by the ministers of the Dutch Church and others, 
 to persuade them to submit and recant. '* Master Joris came 
 to us and said. If we would join the Church, that is, the Dutch 
 Church, our chains should be struck off and our bonds 
 loosed. The Bishop, he said, had given him command so 
 to do. But we remained steadfast to the truth of Jesus 
 Christ. He is, indeed, our Captain, and no other; yea, in 
 Him is all our trust. My dear brethren, and sweet sisters, 
 let us persevere until we conquer. The Lord will then give 
 us to drink of the new wine. O Lord, strengthen our faith. 
 As we have received the Lord Jesus Christ, let us go for- 
 ward courageously, trusting in Him." Five of them were 
 overpowered, and consented to join the Dutch Church. 
 They made a public recantation in St. Paul's churchyard, 
 on the 25th of May, standing there before thousands of 
 people, with faggots bound to their shoulders, as in Popish 
 times. A few days after the remainder appeared again 
 
 R 
 
 ?i 
 
 i '; 
 
 I "i !■: 
 
 if 
 
242 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 before the Commissioners. " We remembered the Word of 
 the Lord," says Gerrit van Byler, ** * When they shall lead 
 you before lords and princes, fear not what you shall say ^ for 
 in that hour it shall be given you.' So we trusted in the 
 Lord. The questions were again proposed, and subscrip- 
 tion demanded ; but we said, * That we would cleave to the 
 Word of the Lord.'" Upon this they were declared to be 
 incorrigible heretics, sentenced to death, and given over to 
 the secular arm to be punished. 
 
 Bishop Sandys was the spokesman on the occasion. The 
 sentence accorded with his theology. In a sermon preached 
 by him before the Parliament this passage occurs : " Such 
 as teach, but teach not the good and right way; such as are 
 open and public maintainers of errors and heresy ; such, in 
 the judgment of God, are thought unworthy to live. Let 
 the false prophet die (Deut. xiii. 5). Elias and Jehu did not 
 think themselves imbrued, but rather sanctified, with such 
 blood. I have no cruel heart ; blood be far from me. I 
 mind [desire] nothing less. Yet needs must it be granted 
 that the maintainers and teachers of errors and heresy are 
 to be repressed in every Christian commonwealth."* 
 
 Fourteen women and a youth were put on board a vessel 
 and sent out of the country. The youth was whipped from 
 the prison to the wharf. The remaining five were consigned 
 to Newgate, where they were put in heavy irons, thrust into 
 a damp and filthy dungeon swarming with vermin, and not 
 pllowed to associate with other prisoners lest the thieves 
 and murderers in the jail should be corrupted by Anabaptist 
 contamination. One of their number, Christian Kemels, 
 sank under the inhuman treatment. He died in the dun- 
 geon, after eight days' confinement. He was " released by 
 death, trusting in God ; his dying testimony filled us with 
 joy." 
 
 The Queen was entreated to spare them. But she re- 
 * Sermons, p. 40. Parker Society. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 243 
 
 Word of 
 hall lead 
 I say y for 
 id in the 
 subscrip- 
 ve to the 
 red to be 
 1 over to 
 
 on. The 
 preached 
 : "Such 
 ch as are 
 
 such, in 
 !ve. Let 
 u did not 
 vith such 
 1 me. I 
 ; granted 
 
 resy are 
 
 a vessel 
 
 ped from 
 
 Dnsigned 
 
 rust into 
 
 and not 
 
 thieves 
 
 labaptist 
 
 Kemels, 
 
 the dun- 
 
 ;ased by 
 
 us with 
 
 she re- 
 
 sented such interference virith her prerogative, and would 
 only consent to a month's reprieve, and that in compHance 
 with the intercession of John Fox, the Martyrologist, whose 
 truly pathetic and eloquent letter to her Majesty on the 
 subject has been often printed and generally admired. 
 Admirable it was in some respects. It was a gushing 
 forth of Christianised humanity, quite peculiar in that age 
 of steel-clad religion. But good old John was still in the 
 dark. He did not understand soul-freedom. According 
 to him, Baptists had no right to hold and p'ofess their 
 opinions. They were ranked with those ** fanatical sects " 
 which ** are by no means to be countenanced in a common- 
 wealth," but ought to be "suppressed by proper correction." 
 He did not ask, therefore, for their release. All he complained 
 of was " the sharpness of their punishment." He would have 
 it changed. " There are excommunications, and close im- 
 prisonment ; there are bonds ; there is perpetual banish- 
 ment, burning of the hand, and whipping, or even slavery 
 itself." But " to roast alive the bodies of poor wretches, 
 that offend rather through blindness of judgment than per- 
 verseness of will, in fire and flames, raging with pitch and 
 brimstone,'" he denounced as "a hard-hearted thing, and 
 more agreeabk to the practice of the Romanists than the 
 custom of the Gospellers." If, however, the Queen would 
 not consent to recall the sentence, he implored her to grant 
 *' a month or two, in which we may try whether the Lord 
 will give them grace to turn from their dangerous errors. 
 Jest, with the destruction of their bodies, their souls be in 
 danger of eternal ruin."* 
 
 Fox wrote also to the prisoners, urging them to acknow- 
 ledge their errors, to give up their "frantic conceptions," 
 and telling them that they had "disturbed the Church by 
 their great scandal and offence." He sent them a copy of 
 his letter to the Queen. In their reply to him, they say : 
 * Crosby's History of the Baptists, i. 70—73. 
 R 2 
 
 m 
 
 '4 
 
 i bi 
 I 
 
244 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 V\ 
 
 "We are sorry that you do not understand our matter, and 
 that you nave another opinion of us than we wish, since 
 you think that by our curiosity and obstinacy we have not 
 only given offence to the Church of God, but also provoked 
 God himself, and frustrated our salvation. What reason 
 you have thus to think of us we know not ; nevertheless, 
 we can assure you that we seek with our whole hearts to 
 serve the one God and Christ in a good conscience, and 
 to edify our neighbour, as far as in us lies. Therefore we 
 gladly receive what the Holy Scripture testifies, and wish 
 to be permitted to adhere to the plainness and simplicity of 
 the Word of God, and not to be urged farther with subtle 
 questions, which our feeble understandings are not able to 
 comprehend, nor by Scripture to justify." 
 
 The prisoners transmitted to the Queen a confession of 
 their faith, accompanied by a " supplication," from whirh 
 we take the following extract : — 
 
 " Vv^'e testify before God and your Majesty, that were we 
 in our consciences able by any means to think or understand 
 the contrary, we would with all our hearts receive and con- 
 fess it ; since it were a great folly in us, not to live rather in 
 the exercise of a right faith than to die, perhaps, in a false 
 one. May it also please your Majesty in your wisdom and 
 innate goodness to consider that it were not right, but 
 hypocrisy in us to speak otherwise than with our hearts we 
 believe, in order to escape the peril of temporal death ; that 
 it is impossible to believe otherwise than we in our con- 
 sciences think ; and also that it is not in our power to 
 believe this or that, as evil-doers who do right or wrong as 
 they please. But the true faith must be implanted in the 
 heart of man by God ; and to Him we daily pray that He 
 would give us His Spirit, to understand His Word and 
 Gospel. 
 
 "Above all, it is evident to your Majesty that we have 
 not sought to stir up any rebellions or seditions against 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 245 
 
 ter, and 
 h, since 
 ave not 
 revoked 
 : reason 
 theless, 
 earts to 
 ce, and 
 jfore we 
 id wish 
 (licity of 
 1 subtle 
 able to 
 
 ssion of 
 1 which 
 
 ivere we 
 
 erstand 
 
 nd con- 
 
 ither in 
 
 a false 
 
 om and 
 
 ht, but 
 
 arts we 
 
 that 
 
 Lir con- 
 
 )wer to 
 
 ong as 
 
 in the 
 
 lat He 
 
 rd and 
 
 I have 
 igainst 
 
 your Majesty ; but, much more, have daily besought the 
 Lord for your happy reign, and the welfare both of your 
 soul and body. Lastly, we have not endeavoured to spread 
 our faith in the land. Thi'- we could not do, for we are 
 only unlearned tradespeople, unskilled in divinity." 
 
 All was in vain. The Baptists remained firm. The 
 <^ueen would not relent. On the 15th of July she signed 
 the warrant for the execution of two of them, commanding 
 the Sheriffs of London to burn them alive in Smithfield. 
 
 A copy of the warrant is now before us. There is also 
 before us a copy of the warrant for the burning of Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer, in Queen Mary's days. These warrants 
 are substantially alike. In fact, they are almost couched 
 in the same language, word for word. Mary, the Papist, 
 dooming to death the Protestant, and Elizabeth, the Pro- 
 tefitant, ordering the execution of the Baptist, advance the 
 same pretensions and adopt the same forms of speech. 
 Both of them call their victims *' heretics." Both assume 
 to be "zealous for justice." Both are ''defenders of the 
 Catholic faith." Both declare their determination to "main- 
 tain and delend the Holy Church, her rights and liberties." 
 Both avow their resolve to " root out and extirpate heresies 
 and errors." Both assert that the heretics named in the 
 warrants had been convicted and condemned "according 
 to the laws and customs of the realm." Both charge the 
 Sheriffs to take their prisoners to a " public and open place," 
 and there to " commit them to the fire," in the presence of 
 the people, and to cause them to be " really consumed " in 
 the said fire. Both warn the Sheriffs that they fail therein 
 at their peril. Herod and Pontius Pilate forgot their differ- 
 ences when they united in crucifying the Saviour. Papists 
 and Protestants agree in murdering His followers.* 
 
 Hendrick Terwoort and Jan Pieters were the two whom 
 the Queen appointed to death. Terwoort was a young 
 * Documentary Annals, i. 201, 394. 
 
 I 
 
 
246 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 t; 
 
 ^ "ii 
 
 man, about twenty-five years of age. He was a goldsmith, 
 and in good circumstances. He was married some eight 
 or ten weeks before his imprisonment. Pieters was aged, 
 poor, and had nine children dependent on his daily toil. 
 His first wife had been martyred at Ghent, in Flanders : his. 
 second wife was the widow of "^ mart r. A statement of 
 his circun stances was laid bt - 'e .; andys, in order to 
 induce him to get permission or I ers to leave the 
 country, with his wife and childrer. QvX he Bishop was 
 inaccessible to pity. 
 
 On Lord's Day, the 17th of July, they were informed that 
 the warrant for their execution had arrived. ** Upon Tues- 
 day," says Gerrit Van Byler, *'a stake was set up in Smith- 
 field, but the execution was not that day. On Wednesday, 
 many people were gathered together to witness the death 
 of our two friends, but it was again deferred. This was 
 done to terrify, and draw our friends and us from the faith. 
 But on Friday our two friends, Hendrick Terwoort and Jan 
 Pieters, being brought out from their prison, were led to 
 the sacrifice. As they went forth, Jan Pieters said, 'The 
 holy prophets, and also Christ, our Saviour, have gone this 
 way before us, even from the beginning, from Abel until 
 now.' " A vast multitude had collected together on the 
 occasion, but few of whom, probably, sympathised with the 
 sufferers. Some preachers were sent to the place of execu- 
 tion to prevent the expression of sympathy by maligning 
 them. One of them exclaimed, "These men believe not 
 on God," ** We believe," replied Pieters, "in one God, 
 our Heavenly Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His 
 Son." When they were bound to the stake, the articles, 
 were again offered to them, and life and pardon promised if 
 they would subscribe. Pieters answered for them both, 
 **You have laboured hard to drive us to you, but now, 
 when placed at the stake, it is labour in vain." One of the 
 preachers said in excuse, "That all such matters were de- 
 
<!'/ 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 247 
 
 dsmith, 
 e eight 
 s aged, 
 ily toil. 
 2rs : his 
 ment of 
 rder to 
 ive the 
 lop was 
 
 led that 
 ti Tues- 
 Smith- 
 nesday, 
 e death 
 bis was 
 le faith, 
 and Jan 
 led to 
 
 'The 
 )ne this 
 el until 
 on the 
 /ith the 
 execu- 
 ligning 
 jve not 
 
 God, 
 ist His 
 articles 
 nised if 
 
 both, 
 t now, 
 : of the 
 ere de- 
 
 J, 
 
 1 
 
 termined by the Council, and that it was the Queen'p inten- 
 tion they should die." " But," rejoined Pieters, "you are 
 the teachers of the Queen, whom it behoves you to instruct 
 better; therefore shall our blood be required at your hands." 
 No answer could be given to this. Fire was applied, and 
 the souls of the martyrs ascended to God. " How utterly 
 absurd," says the Dutch Martyrologist, *• do all such cruel 
 proceedings and sentences as are here seen appear, when 
 contrasted with the Christian faith ! The Christian host is 
 described as sheep and lambs, sent forth among cruel and 
 devouring wolves. Who will be able, v/ith a good con- 
 science, to believe that these English preachers were the 
 true sheep of Christ, since in this matter they brought forth 
 so notably the fruit of wolves ?"* 
 
 This was a black affair. It was essentially unjust and 
 cruel, and admitted of no palHation. These Baptists owed 
 no allegiance to Elizabeth. They were not her subjects. 
 They were refugees, and claimed her protection as exiles 
 for religion's sake from their native land. They were living 
 peaceably, doing harm to none. No rioting or disturbance 
 was laid to their charge. All that could be alleged against 
 them was that they did not go to the parish churches, but 
 exercised Christian freedom, and worshipped God as they 
 understood the Scriptures to teach them. For this they 
 were burnt to death by a Protestant Queen. 
 
 We are willing to believe that Elizabeth was influenced 
 by her bishops. Sandys and Whitgift were furious against 
 the Baptists. They misrepresented and calumniated them 
 continually. Thry held them up to public scorn and indig- 
 nation, as professing sentiments incompatible with the well- 
 being of society. The Queen was instructed by these men 
 to regard the Baptists as hostile to her royal authority. 
 That was touching her in a tender part. The womanly 
 
 ♦ Von Braght's Bloody Theatre^ or Martyr's Mirror, translated by 
 J. Rupp, pp. 915—929. 
 
 M 
 
 Jl 
 I 
 
 1 ;•.. 
 
248 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 I i! 
 
 heart was strangely hardened, and she refused to show 
 mercy. 
 
 Elizabeth could not plead Ignorance respecting the senti- 
 ments of the Baptists. In the confession of faith which 
 Tervvoort and Pieters sent to her, a revised copy of which 
 was signed by them the day before their martyrdom, they 
 thus plainly stated their views : — 
 
 ** We believe and confess that magistrates are set and 
 ordained of God, to punish the evil and protect the good ; 
 which magistracy we desire from our hearts to obey, as it 
 is written in i Peter ii. 13, * Submit yourselves to every 
 ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.' * For he beareth 
 not the sword in vain ' (Romans xiii. 4). And Paul teaches 
 us that we should offer up for all ' prayers, and interces- 
 sions, and giving of thanks ; that we may lead a quiet and 
 peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is 
 good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who 
 desires that all men should be saved ' (i Tim. ii. i — 4). 
 He further teaches us * to be subject to principalities and 
 powers, to obey magistrates, and to be ready to every good 
 work ' (Titus iii. i). Therefore we pray your Majesty kindly 
 to understand aright our meaning; which is, that we do not 
 despise the eminent, noble, and gracious Queen, and her 
 wise councils, but esteem them as worthy of all honour, to 
 whom we desire to be obedient in all things that we may. 
 For we confess with Paul, as above, that she is God's 
 servant, and that if we resist this power we resist the ordi- 
 nance of God ; for * rulers are not a terror to good works, 
 but to the evil.' Therefore we confess to be due unto her, 
 and are ready to give, tribute, custom, honour, and fear, as 
 Christ Himself has taught us, saying, * Render unto Caesar 
 the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that 
 are God's ' (Matt. xxii. 21). Since, therefore, she is a ser- 
 vant of God, we will kindly pray her Majesty that it would 
 please her to show pity to us poor prisoners, even as our 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 249 
 
 Father in heaven is pitiful (Luke vi. 36). We likewise do 
 not approve of those who resist the magistrates ; but con- 
 fess and declare, with our whole heart, that we must be 
 obedient and subject unto them, as we have here set 
 down."* 
 
 But it availed them nothing. They were Baptists. The 
 Queen was told that the Baptists were incorrigible heretics, 
 and that she would be doing God service if she put them to 
 death. So she lighted again the flames of Smithfield. 
 
 We have referred to Sandys and Whitgift. Their writings 
 teem with invectives against the Baptists. In his contro- 
 versy with Thomas Cartvvright, the Puritan, Whitgift en- 
 deavoured to show that the arguments employed by Cart- 
 wright in defence of separation from the Church of England 
 were similar to those used by the " Anabaptists," a sect 
 which was ** hated " by " all estates and orders of the realm." 
 He collected a number of extracts from the writings of 
 Zuingli, Calvin, Bullinger, and others, and adopted them 
 as containing true descriptions of the opinions and practices 
 of the *• hated " party, adding observations of his own to 
 the same effect. He says that they make contentions 
 wheresoever they come ; that the churches are disquieted 
 by them, and magistrates contemned and despised ; that 
 ** they do with as spiteful words and bitter speeches con- 
 demn the Church of England as they do the Papistical 
 Church;" that they count all them as wicked and reprobate 
 which are not of their sect ; that they are " great hypo- 
 crites;" that they constantly "invent new opinions, and 
 run from error to error; " that they are '■ stubborn and wil- 
 ful, wayward and froward, without all humanity;" that they 
 seek to "overthrow commonweals, and states of govern- 
 ment;" that they " reject all authority of superiors;" that 
 they seek •' to be free from all laws, and to do what they 
 list ;" and, finally, that all this is " most true, and therefore 
 
 * Bloody Theatre, as above. 
 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 .* 
 
 i'i 
 
 M 
 
250 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 i 1' 
 
 I J f I, 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 •J J' ■■ 
 
 * I r 
 
 no slander." • No comment on these monstrosities is re- 
 quired. They are fair specimens of the controversial style 
 of the age. 
 
 Doubtless, it was an unpardonable sin in the Baptists 
 that they condemned the interference of the civil power 
 with religion. They were remarkably clear on that subject. 
 Whitgift unwittingly does them justice. He observes that 
 they taught that *' the civil magistrate hath no authority in 
 ecclesiastical matters, and that he ought not to meddle in 
 causes of religion and faith " — that ♦' no man ought to be 
 compelled to faith and religion " — and that *' Christians 
 ought to punish faults, not with imprisonment, not with the 
 sword, or corporal punishment, but only with excommuni- 
 cation." These are scriptural truths, which the bishops 
 aforesaid laboured to suppress, because their own nefarious 
 proceedings were inconsistent with them. 
 
 When Terwoort and Pieters were led out to die, Gerrit 
 van Byler and Hans van Straten were left in Newgate, un- 
 certain as to their fate. How long they remained there is 
 not known. It is said that they were heavily ironed because 
 they had endeavoured to escape by filing asunder the bars 
 of their dungeon. At length they were discharged, probably 
 because the Government were unwilling to incur the odium 
 of another burning. 
 
 -•o»- 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Severity of Elizabeth's Government— Bigotry of James I.— The Hampton 
 Court Conference— Emigration— John Smyth's Church— Their Con- 
 fessions—Bartholomew Legate — Extracts from Baptist Publications 
 on Liberty of Conscience— The King's Distress at their Increase. 
 
 SO great was the severity of Elizabeth's Government, 
 that the Separatists of all classes were scattered 
 about, and forced to hold their meetings in the utmost 
 
 * Works, i. 78 — no. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 251 
 
 privacy. The Baptists, having been especially marked out 
 for expulsion, could scarcely meet at all. Consequently, 
 but little is known of them during the remainder of this 
 reign. There is no doubt, however, of their continued 
 existence. One writer refers to "Anabaptist Conventicles'* 
 in London and other places. Another intimates his suspi- 
 
 cion that there were some, even in the Church of England,, 
 who held their sentiments. A congregation was discovered 
 in London in 1588, whose views and practices point them 
 out as ** Anabaptistical." Strype says, that they were 
 accustomed to meet together on Lord's Days, and listen 
 to exhortations from the Word of God ; that they dined 
 
 
252 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I' v 
 
 ; Id 
 
 together, collected money to pay for the food, and sent the 
 surplus to such of their brethren as were in prison ; that 
 they used no form of prayer; that they refused to regard 
 the Church of England as a true Church ; that they denied 
 the authority of the Queen, and of all magistrates, in reli- 
 gious affairs ; and that they held it unlawful to baptize 
 children. At a still later period a Baptist is mentioned as 
 being in prison at Norwich, and in peril of death, solely on 
 account of his religious opinions.* 
 
 James I. was as bigoted and despotic as Elizabeth. 
 While in Scotland he had affected great zeal for Presby- 
 terianism. When he subscribed the Solemn League and 
 Covenant, in 1590, "he praised God that he w^s born in 
 the time of the light of the Gospel, and in such a place, as 
 to be king of such a Church, the sincerest [purest] kirk in 
 the world. * The Church of Geneva,' said he, ' keep Pasch 
 and Yule [Easter and Christmas] ; what have they for 
 them ? They have no institution. As for our neighbour 
 Kirk of England, their service is an evil-said mass in 
 English; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings. 
 I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, 
 gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to 
 exhort the people to do the same ; and I, forsooth, as long 
 as I brook my life, shall maintain the same.' " f But on 
 his rising to the higher dignity of King of Great Britain he 
 suddenly became enamoured of Episcopacy. Kingcraft, in 
 which he thought himself an adept, harmonised better with 
 bishops than with presbyters. Bishops seemed to be the 
 natural allies of sovereigns. " No bishop, no king," was 
 James's motto. Like all nev/ converts, he evinced remark- 
 able fervour of attachment, and was ready to do anything 
 on behalf of the cause. The Puritan clergy, that is those 
 who wished for more liberty, and desired to assimilate the 
 
 * Broadmcad Record:, Introduction, pp. Ixxii. Ixxiii. 
 •j- Neal's History of the Puritans, ii. 2. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 253 
 
 sent the 
 >n; that 
 3 regard 
 ' denied 
 , in reli- 
 baptize 
 oned as 
 olely on 
 
 izabeth. 
 
 Presby- 
 
 :ue and 
 
 born in 
 
 lace, as 
 
 kirk in 
 
 3 Pasch 
 
 hey for 
 
 ghbour 
 
 lass in 
 
 iftings. 
 
 obles, 
 
 and to 
 
 is long 
 
 But on 
 
 ain he 
 
 aft, in 
 
 r with 
 
 ^e the 
 
 was 
 
 mark- 
 
 ^thing 
 
 those 
 
 te the 
 
 government of the Church to the Genevan model, asked for 
 a hearing. The result was, the event known in history as 
 the Hampton Court Conference. It was no conference, 
 however, for the King had made up his mind beforehand'. 
 His behaviour was rude and overbearing. Nine bishops, 
 with other dignitaries, appeared in support of the Church 
 of England and of things as they were ; Dr. Raynolds, 
 with three other ministers, represented the Puritans. Their 
 demands were comprised in four particulars : " i. That the 
 doctrines of the Church might be preserved pure, according 
 to God's Word. 2. That good pastors might be planted in 
 all churches, to preach in the same. 3. That the Book of 
 Common Prayer might be fitted to more increase of piety. 
 4. That Church government might be sincerely ministered, 
 according to God's Word." In support of these requests. 
 Dr. Raynolds adduced many weighty considerations, and 
 argued with great modesty and forbearance, though often 
 interrupted and insulted by the King. " Well, Doctor," 
 said James, "have you anything else to offer?" ** No 
 more," Dr. Raynolds replied. ** If this," rejoined the 
 King, ** be all your party have to say, I will make them 
 conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or else 
 worse." * 
 
 The Puritans saw that there was nothing to hope for 
 from the Government, and took measures accordingly. 
 Many crossed over to Holland. Among them were some 
 of the Brownist persuasion, afterwards called Indepen- 
 dents, and now Congregationalists. Churches of that 
 order were established at Leyden, Amsterdam, and other 
 places. Such as could not leave their own country wor- 
 shipped God in private, and kept themselves quiet, hoping, 
 though as it were against hope, for better times. Of that 
 class were many Baptists. Enoch Clapham, a writer of 
 that age, speaks of them as ''leaving the public assem- 
 
 * Neal, ut sup. p. 10. 
 
 1'- 
 
 't , 
 
 I 
 
254 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 blies, and running into woods and meadows, and meeting 
 in bye stables, barns, and haylofts for service." * 
 
 John Smyth had been a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, and held the living of Gainsborough, Lincoln- 
 shire. On leaving that Church he became a minister 
 among the Brownists, who esteemed him so highly that 
 Bishop Hall calls him their *' oracle in general." After a 
 toilsome and perilous service of about fifteen years, during 
 which he and his friends had suffered much from Eli;rabethan 
 
 mm 
 
 a. I 
 
 i Ih J ' 
 
 i- W 
 
 HAMPTON COl'RT, Till: SCT.NE OF THli CONIKRENCii. 
 
 tyranny, it was deemed necessary to abandon the field, in 
 order to preserve life and liberty. In the year 1606 he 
 joined a party of emigrants who settled in Amsterdam. 
 There they united with an English Church which had been 
 formed some time before. But Mr. Smyth's connection 
 with that Church was not of long duration. He had left 
 
 * Crosby, i. 88. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 255 
 
 i meeting 
 
 /hurch of 
 Lincoln- 
 minister 
 
 ghly that 
 After a 
 
 rs, during 
 
 i^abethan 
 
 field, in 
 606 he 
 :erdam. 
 id been 
 nection 
 lad left 
 
 the Church of England for the Brownists, and now more 
 mature reflection led him to take another step. The 
 Brownists denied that the Church of England was a true 
 Church, and therefore they re-ordained all ministers who 
 went over to them from that Church, accounting its ordi- 
 nances null and void. But they did not re-baptize. This 
 appeared to Mr. Smyth an inconsistency. He thought that 
 if the ordination was invalid, the baptism was no less so. 
 Investigation followed, which was extended to the whole 
 question of baptism, and issued in the conviction that 
 believers are the only subjects of the ordinance, and that 
 immersion is essential to it. Some of Mr. Smyth's friends 
 shared in the conviction. There has been much dispute 
 respecting the manner in which they proceeded, some main- 
 taining that Smyth baptized himself and then baptized the 
 others. It is a thing of small consequence. Baptists do 
 not believe in Apostolic succession, as it is commonly held. 
 But the probability is, that one of the brethren baptized 
 Mr. Smyth, and that he then baptized the others. The 
 number of these brethren soun increased greatly. A Church 
 was formed, of which Mr. Smyth was chosen pastor. At 
 his death, which took place in 161 1, Mr. Thomas Helwys 
 was appointed in his place. In the above-mentioned year, 
 before Mr. Smyth's death, the Church published a Confes- 
 sion of Faith, in twenty-six articles. We will transcribe 
 those which relate to the constitution of a Church, and to 
 the ordinances. 
 
 " 10. That the Church of Christ is a company of faithful 
 people, separated from the world by the W6rd and Spirit of 
 God, being knit unto the Lord, and one unto another, by 
 baptism, upon their own confession of the faith and sins 
 (i Cor. i. 2 ; Ephes. i. i ; 2 Cor. vi. 17 ; i Cor. xii. 13 ; Acts 
 viii. 37 ; Matt. iii. 6). 
 
 "II. That though in respect of Christ the Church be 
 one, yet it consisteth of divers particular congregations, 
 
 s\ y: 
 
 ill 
 
 m 
 
 : ! 
 
 t j 
 
256 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 even so many as there shall be in the world ; every of which 
 congregation, though they be but two or three, have Christ 
 given them, with all the means of their salvation, are the 
 body of Christ, and a whole Church, and therefore may, and 
 ought, when they are come together, to pray, prophesy, 
 break bread, and administer in all the holy ordinances, 
 although as yet they have no officers, or that their officers 
 should be in prison, or sick, or by any other means hindered 
 from the Church (Ephes. iv. 4 ; Matt, xviii. 20 ; Romans 
 viii. 32 ; I Cor. iii. 22 ; xii. 27 ; xiv. 23 ; i Peter iv. 10 ; ii. 5). 
 
 " 12. That as one congregation hath Christ, so have all. 
 And that the Word of God cometh not out from any one, 
 neither to any one congregation in particular, but unto 
 every particular Church, as it doth unto all the world. And 
 therefore no Church ought to challenge any prerogative over 
 any other (2 Cor. x. 7 ; i Cor. xiv. 36 ; Col. i. 5, 6). 
 
 " 13. That every Church is to receive in all their mem- 
 bers by baptism, upon the confession of their faith and 
 sins wrought by the preaching of the Gospel, according to 
 the primitive institution and practice. And, therefore, 
 Churches constituted after any other manner, or of any 
 persons, are not according to Christ's testancnt <Matt. 
 xxviii. 19; Acts ii. 41). 
 
 " 14. That baptism, or washing with water, is the out- 
 ward manifestation of dying unto sin, and walking in new- 
 ness of life ; and therefore in nowise appertaineth to infants 
 (Rom. vi. 2, 3, 4). 
 
 " 15. That the Lord's Supper is the outward mani- 
 festation of the spiritual communion between Christ and 
 the faithful, mutually to declare His death until He come 
 (i Cor. x. if. 17 ; xi. 26). 
 
 ** 19. That -^vcr/Church ought, according to the example 
 of Christ's disci^ves and primitive Churches, upon every 
 first day of tli i week , being Lord's Day, to assemble to- 
 gether, to pra-;, ; .-ophesy, praise God, and break bread, and 
 
 — i 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 257 
 
 perform all other parts of spiritual communion, for the wor- 
 ship of God, their own mutual edification, and the preserva- 
 tion of true religion and piety in the Church (John xx. 19 ; 
 Acts ii. 42, XX. 7; I Cor. xvi. 2). And they ought not to 
 labour in their callings, according to the equity of the moral 
 law, which Christ came not to abolish, but to fulfil (Exod. 
 XX. 8, &c.). 
 
 *' 20. That the officers of every Church or congregation 
 are either elders, who by their office do especially feed the 
 flock concerning their souls ; or deacons, men and women, 
 who by their office relieve the necessities of the poor and 
 impotent brethren, concerning their bodies (Acts xx. 28 ; 
 I Peter v. 2, 3 ; Acts vi. i. 4). 
 
 ** 21, That these officers are to be chosen when there are 
 persons qualified according to the rules in Christ's Testa- 
 ment, by election and approbation of that Church or con- 
 gregation whereof they are members, with fasting, prayer, 
 and laying on of hands ; and there being but one rule for 
 elders, therefore but one sort of elders " (i Tim. iii. 2, 7 ; 
 Titus i. 6, 9 ; Acts vi. 3, 4, xiii. 3, xiv. 23).* 
 
 Shortly after the publication of the Confession, Mr. 
 Helwys, accompanied by most of the members of the 
 Church, returned to England. They feared that if they 
 remained longer abroad in a foreign country their conduct 
 would be regarded as cowardice. They considered, too, 
 the circumstances of the brethren who had continued in 
 their own land, and who were " as sheep without a shep- 
 herd." So they went back to their native shores, and 
 established themselves in London, meeting for worship 
 in strict privacy. They had encountered a great risk in 
 returning at such a time. The fires of persecution had 
 been lighted again, and men burnt to ashes for heresy. 
 On the iSth of March, 161 2, Bartholomew Legate, an 
 Arian, suffered at the stake in Smithfield ; on the nth of 
 * Confessions of Faith (Hanserd Knollys Society), pp, i — 10. 
 
 S 
 
 P 
 
 5 '' 
 
 in. 
 
 i 
 
 
 (41 
 
Q 
 
 2^,ii 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 
 April, in the same year, Edward Wightman was put to 
 death at Lichfield, in the same manner. This man, if the 
 warrant for his execution may be believed, was a wholesale 
 heretic, for he was charged with " the wicked heresies of 
 Ebion, Cerinthus, Valentinus, Arius, Macedonius, Simon 
 Magus, of Manes, Photinus, and of the Anabaptists, and 
 other arch-heretics; and, moreover, of other cursed opinions,, 
 by the instinct of Satan excogitated, and heretofore unheard 
 of." He maintained " that the baptism of infants is an 
 abominable custom," and " that Christianity is not wholly 
 professed and preached in the Church of England, but in 
 part." There was his real delinquency. But the public,, 
 even in those days, would have protested against burning 
 a man merely for his Baptist and anti-Church of England 
 principles. It was found necessary, therefore, to blacken 
 the victim to such an extent that he might appear perfectly 
 hideous and fit only for the fire. But Bishop Neile, of 
 Lichfield, and his coadjutors, who acted as Ro -al Com- 
 missioners on the occasio'.i, were manifestly ** forgers of 
 lies." No sane man could possibly hold the multifarious 
 opinions imputed to Wightman. Crosby appropriately 
 remarks that " many of the heresies they charge upon hini 
 are so foolish and inconsistent, ihat it very much discredits 
 what they say ;" and that *' if he really held such opinions 
 he must either be an idiot or a madman, and ought rather 
 to heve had their prayers and assistance than be put to 
 such I cruel death."* 
 
 Another person, said to be a " Spanish Arian," was also 
 condemned to die ; but so much sympathy had been ex- 
 pressed by the people at the other executions, that " he was 
 suffered to linger out his life in Newgate, where he ended 
 the same;" for "King James politicly preferred," says 
 Thomas Fuller, " that heretics hereafter, though con- 
 demned, should silently and privately waste themselves 
 * History, i. io8, Appendix, pp. i — 7. 
 
 •rt=s»j I 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 259 
 
 /as put ta 
 
 nan, if the 
 
 , wholesale 
 
 heresies of 
 
 us, Simon 
 
 ptists, and 
 
 i opinions, 
 
 re unheard 
 
 ants is an 
 
 not wholly 
 
 ind, but ir> 
 
 the public,. 
 
 St burning 
 
 )f England 
 
 to blacken 
 
 ir perfectly 
 
 ) Neile, of 
 
 oyal Com- 
 
 forgers of 
 
 ultifarious 
 
 Dropriately 
 
 upon him 
 
 discredits 
 
 h opinions 
 
 ght rather 
 
 be put to 
 
 ' was also 
 been ex- 
 " he was 
 he ended 
 ed," says 
 )ugh con- 
 lemselvea 
 
 away in the prison, rather than to grace them, and amuse 
 others, with the solemnity of a public execution, which in 
 popular judgment usurped the honour of a persecution." 
 Fuller had before observed that *' such burning of heretics 
 much startled common people," and that *' the purblind 
 eyes of common judgments looked only on what was next 
 to them (the suffering itself), which they beheld with com- 
 passion, not minding the demerits of the guilt, which de- 
 served the same."*' Thus wrote a Protestant clergyman of 
 the seventeenth century ; but murder is murder, however 
 perpetrated, whether by the sword, the fire, or the slower 
 process of the dungeon. 
 
 Though the Baptists were debarred the use of the pulpit, 
 the press did them good service. Two tracts, published by 
 them soon after the events just recorded, were honourable 
 alike to their good sense and pious feeling. The first ap- 
 peared in 1614. It was entitled, " Religion's Peace ; or, a 
 Plea for Liberty of Conscience," and is the earliest pub- 
 lished work on the subject in the English language. Of 
 the author, Leonard Busher, no 'account has been pre- 
 served. It may be gathered from the tract itself, that he 
 had formerly belonged to the Brownists. He was ac- 
 quainted with the Greek original of the New Testament, 
 and was a diligent student of the sacred volume. Two 
 other tracts were written by him, which poverty prevented 
 him from printing. One of these was entitled, "A Scourge 
 of Small Cords, wherewith Antichrist and his Ministers 
 might be driven out of the Temple of God!" the other, 
 ** A Declaration of certain False Translations in the New 
 Testament." Our Authorised Version had been published 
 but three years, and here was revision already threatened 1 
 Many of these works were very ably written, and if we had 
 room for extracts from them, they would serve to show that 
 our Baptist forefathers were distinguished for mental vigour 
 • Church History, book x. cent. 17, sect. 14. 
 S 2 
 
 li 
 
 !H 
 
 
 -r 
 
 fi 
 
26o 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 :•', • Ifil 
 
 jit 
 
 ' : I \t 
 
 llll ! : 
 
 and independence. They had shot ahead of their religious 
 contemporaries, too many of whom, instead of sympathizing 
 with them, caricatured their principles and excited popular 
 fury against their persons. 
 
 How severely the Baptists suffered in the reign of James I., 
 may be gathered from a statement made by one of them in 
 1620. " Our miseries are long and lingering imprisonments 
 for many years in divers counties of England, in which 
 many have u; d and left behind them widows, and many 
 small children ; taking away our goods, and others the like, 
 of which we can make good probation ; not for any dis- 
 loyalty to your Majesty, nor hurt to any mortal man, our 
 adversaries themselves being judges ; but only because we 
 dare not assent unto, and practise in the worship of God, 
 such things as we have not faith in, because it is sin against 
 tiic Most High." This passage is taken from a tract en- 
 titled, *' A most Humble Supplication of many of the King's 
 Majesty's loyal subjects, ready to testify all civil obedience, 
 by the oath of allegiance, or otherwise, and that of con- 
 science ; who are persecuted (only for differing in reli;,ion), 
 contrary to Divine ano human testimonies."* After an in- 
 terval of several years, a parliament was about to assemble. 
 The " Humble Supplication " was written on that occasion, 
 and it was hoped that the patriotic men, who had signified 
 their intention to seek redress of all grievances and the 
 restoration of freedom, would hear the complaints of per- 
 secuted Christians. The treatise was probably written by 
 the author of " Persecution Judged and Condemned;" but 
 the arguments are more systematically arranged than in 
 that work. 
 
 " The author of these arguments against persecutions," 
 says Roger Williams, " as I have been informed, being 
 committed by some then in power close prisoner to New- 
 gate, for the witness of some truths of Jesus, and having 
 
 * Tracts, p. igo. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 261 
 
 r religious 
 ipathizing 
 id popular 
 
 f James I., 
 
 if them in 
 
 isonments 
 
 in which 
 
 md many 
 
 s the like, 
 
 ■ any dis- 
 
 man, our 
 
 ecause we 
 
 ip of God, 
 
 in against 
 
 tract en- 
 
 the King's 
 
 bedience, 
 
 .t of con- 
 
 reli-ion), 
 
 "ter an in- 
 
 assemble. 
 
 occasion, 
 
 signified 
 
 and the 
 
 s of per- 
 
 /ritten by 
 
 led;" but 
 
 I than in 
 
 ;cutions," 
 d, being 
 
 V to New- 
 d having 
 
 not the use of pen and ink, wrote these arguments in milk, 
 on sheets of paper brought him by the woman, his keeper, 
 from a friend in London, as the stopples of his milk bottle. 
 *' In such paper, written with milk, nothing will appear; 
 but the way of reading it by fire being known to this friend 
 who received the papers, he transcribed and kept together 
 the papers, although the author himself could not correct 
 nor view what himself had written."* 
 
 This appeal was presented in vain. The persecution 
 continued. Messrs. Dodd and Cleaver, two authors of the 
 time, who published in partnership a pamphlet, in 1621, 
 entitled, " The Patrimony of Christian Children," assign as 
 reasons for engaging in this controversy, " that those of the 
 contrary opinion were very industrious, and took great pains 
 to propagate their doctrine ; that divers persons of good 
 note for piety had been prevailed upon by them ; that several 
 had entreated their help and assistance ; and that they had 
 been engaged already in private debates about this matter, "t 
 Another person, writing in 1662, states, ''that they [the 
 Baptists] separated from the Church, and writ many books 
 in defence of their principles, and had multitudes of dis- 
 ciples ; that it was their custom to produce a great number 
 of Scriptures to prove their doctrines ; that they were in 
 appearance more holy than those of the Established 
 Church. " + 
 
 It would appear, therefore, that the Baptists were an 
 active and growing body. This is further evident from a 
 letter addressed to the clergy by Archbishop Abbot in 1622, 
 in which he tells them that his Majesty was *' niuch troubled 
 and grieved at the heart, to hear every day of so much de- 
 fection from our religion, both to Popery and Anabaptism, 
 or other points of separation, in some parts of this king- 
 dom;" and that he attributed these defections, in great 
 
 * Bloody Tcnent of Persecution, p. 36. 
 f Crcsby. i. 141. 
 
 Hanserd Knollys Society. 
 :j: Ibid. p. 139. 
 
 II 
 
 f^n 
 
 9 
 
 Jii 
 
 
 4 
 
 f 
 
 ,M 
 
 ri 
 
262 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 •r 
 
 measure, to the lightness, affectedness, and unprofitable- 
 ness of that kind of preaching which hath been of late years 
 too much taken up in court, university, city, and country." 
 **The usual scope of very many preacliers," it is added, "is 
 noted to be a soaring up in points of divinity, too deep for 
 the capacity of the people, or a mustering up of much read- 
 ing, or the displaying of their own wit, or an ignorant 
 meddling with civil matters, as well in the private of several 
 parishes and corporations, as in the public of the kingdom, 
 or a venting of their own distastes, or a smoothing up of 
 those idle fancies, which in this blessed time of a long 
 peace do boil in the brains of unadvised people ; or lastly, 
 a rude or undecent railing, not against the doctrines (which 
 when the text shall occasion the same is not only approved, 
 but much commended by his royal Majesty), but against 
 the persons of Papists and Puritans. Now the people bred 
 up with this kind of teaching, and never instructed in the 
 catechism, and fundamental grounds of religion, are for all 
 this airy nourishment no better than ' abrasas tabulae,' new 
 table books, ready to be filled up with the manuals and 
 catechisms of the Popish priests, or the papers and pam- 
 phlets of Anabaptists, Brownists, and Puritans."* 
 
 We think the King was right. The preachers of the day 
 had not been educated, for the most part, in the best school, 
 and knew not how to engage the sympathies of the people. 
 Puritans and Baptists were much more likely to gain the 
 popular ear. It was said of our Lord, that ** the common 
 people heard Him gladly." 
 
 * Documentary Annals, ii. 204. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 263 
 
 rolitable- 
 ate years 
 ountry." 
 Ided, "is 
 deep for 
 ich read- 
 ignorant 
 f several 
 :ingdom, • 
 rjg up of 
 f a long 
 3r lastly, 
 s (which 
 pproved, 
 against 
 )ple bred 
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 ommon 
 
 Section IV. 
 
 Character of Charles I.— Sufferings during his Reign— First Particular Baptist 
 Church— Samuel Howe — Dr. Featley's Book— Baptist Confessions of 
 Faith— Toleration hated by the Presbyterians— Their Attempts to put 
 down the Baptists — Milton's Lines — The Assembly of Divines— Outcry 
 against Immersion — Parliamentary Declaration in favour of the Bap- 
 tists — Fearful "Ordinance" against them — Their Activity during the 
 Commonwealth and the Protectorate — Cromwell's Baptist Officers — 
 The '• Triers "—Baptists in Ireland. 
 
 CHARLES I. succeeded his father, James I., in 1625. 
 In religion, he was a Romish Protestant. Politically, 
 he believed in the one-man system of government, regard- 
 ing the people as cyphers, and lost his life by pertinaciously 
 labouring to put his belief in practice. Morally, he was 
 made up of negations : he wanted principle, sincerity, and 
 steadfastness. The Church of England used to call him a 
 ^' martyr," but the annual service in commemoration of his 
 death is now discontinued. We may call him a " martyr- 
 maker." His reign, up to the time of the assembling of 
 the Long Parliament, was distinguished by unremitting 
 persecution of all dissenters from the Established Church, 
 and of all who still remained in the Church, but scrupled 
 conformity to some of its ceremonies and laws. The High 
 Commission Court, first established by Queen Elizabeth, 
 to which Court was entrusted the exercise of the royal 
 authority in things ecclesiastical, was in reality a Protestant 
 Inquisition. It possessed absolute power to fine, imprison, 
 and otherwise punish all alleged delinquents, and from its 
 decisions there was no appeal. So severe were the proceed- 
 ings of this tribunal, that great numbers fled the country to 
 avoid them ; some to Holland, some to New England. 
 
 The Baptists had their share in those sufferings, but the 
 particulars have been imperfectly recorded. One case, 
 casually mentioned in Neal's *' History of the Puritans," 
 
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 264 
 
 Baptist Histjry. 
 
 may be regarded as an index of their condition. Among 
 the ministers »^hose imprisonment for religion is noticed, 
 the name of Mr. Thomas Brewer occurs, — '^ a Baptist 
 preacher," whose confinement extended to fourteen years. 
 What times were those, when a man was suffered to lie in 
 jail fourteen years for being a " Baptist preacher ! "* 
 
 In the year 1633, an event occurred which requires specific 
 notice. This was the formation of the first Particular or 
 Calvinistic Baptist Church in England. Hitherto the Bap- 
 tists had favoured Arminian views. William Kiffin gives 
 the following account : " There was a congregation of Pro- 
 testant Dissenters of the independent persuasion in London, 
 gathered in the year 161 6, whereof Mr. Henry Jacob was 
 the first pastor, and after him succeeded Mr. John Lathorp, 
 who was their minister at this time. In this society several 
 persons, finding that the congregation kept not to their first 
 principles of separation, and being also convinced that bap- 
 tism was not to be administered to infants, but to such only 
 as professed faith in Christ, desired that they might be dis- 
 missed from that communion, and allowed to form a distinct 
 congregation, in such order as was most agreeable to their 
 own sentiments. The Church, considering that they were 
 now grown very numerous, and so more than could in 
 these times of persecution conveniently meet together, and 
 believing also that those persons acted from a principle of 
 conscience, and not obstinacy, agreed to allow them the 
 liberty they desired, and that they should be constituted a 
 distinct church; which was performed the 12th of Septem- 
 ber, 1633. And as they believed that baptism was not 
 rightly administered to infants, so they looked upon the 
 baptism they had received in that age as invalid ; where- 
 upon most or all of them received a new baptism. Their 
 minister was Mr. John Spilsbury. What number they were 
 is uncertain, because in the mentioning of the names of 
 
 * Neal, ii. 329. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 265 
 
 about twenty men and women, it is added, * with divers 
 others.'"* 
 
 As the time of enlarged freedom drew near, the tyrants 
 increased in rage. Seventeen canons were passed by the 
 Convocation of the clergy in the early part of 1640, the fifth 
 of which was directed *' against sectaries." Having ordered 
 that Popish recusants who refused to conform should be ex- 
 communicated, and that the civil power should be requested 
 to aid in carrying the sentence into effect, these words were 
 added : " The synod decrees, that the canon above-men- 
 tioned against Papists shall be in full force against all Ana- 
 baptists, Brownists, Separatists, and other sectaries, as far 
 as they are applicable." f 
 
 An excommunicated person is forbidden what is called 
 Christian burial. Samuel Howe, a Baptist minister, who 
 died in prison about this time while under excommunica- 
 tion, was buried in the highway ; interment in consecrated 
 ground, so called, being refused. Mr. Howe was a popular 
 preacher, but uneducated, and on that account, it seems, 
 vilified by some, who were unable to distinguish between 
 unj^ersity learning and absolute ignorance ; and who chose 
 to regard those who had not received a college education as 
 disqualified for the ministerial office, notwithstanding their 
 religious attainments, or even their profound acquaintance 
 with Scripture. In this latter respect Mr. Howe excelled 
 most men. But in defending himself from their attacks, he 
 certainly exceeded the bounds of moderation. In a Trea- 
 tise which he published, entitled, '* The Sufficiency of 
 the Spirit's Teaching, without Human Learning," he at- 
 tempted to show, not only that human learning is an 
 insufficient guide in matters of religion, but that it is 
 ** dangerous and hurtful." The following lines appear on 
 the title-page : — 
 
 ♦ Crosby, i. i . f Ibid. p. 151. 
 
■ 
 
 f'f 
 
 U I 
 
 iJ : 
 
 t II 
 
 ill 
 
 263 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 •' What Hoiv? how now? Hath How such learning found, 
 To throw Art's curious image to the ground ? 
 Cambridge and Oxford may their glory now \ 
 
 Veil to a Cobbler if they know but How." 
 
 Nevertheless, Mr. Hows was a good and useful man. 
 Roger Williams has this reference to him : — ** Amongst so 
 many instances, dead and living, to the everlasting praise 
 of Christ Jesus, and of His Holy Spirit, breathing and 
 blessing where He listeth, I cannot but with honourable 
 testimony remember that eminent Christian witness and 
 prophet of Christ, even that despised and yet beloved 
 Samuel Howe, who being by calling a cobbler, and without 
 learning (which yet in its sphere and place he honoured), 
 who yet, I say, by searching the Holy Scriptures, grew so 
 excellent a textu^ry, or Scripture-learned man, that few of 
 those high Rabbies that scorn to mend or make a shoe, 
 could aptly or readily, from the Holy Scriptures, out-go 
 him. And however (through the oppressions upon some 
 men's consciences even in life and death, and after death, 
 in respect of burying, as yet unthought of and unremedied), 
 I say, however he was forced to seek a grave or bed in Jhe 
 highway, yet was his life, and death, and burial (being 
 attended with many hundreds of God's people), honourable 
 and (how much more on his rising again) glorious."* The 
 barbarity attending his burial was characteristic of the age. 
 
 Immediately after the commencement of the contest 
 between Charles I. and the Long Parliament, freedom in 
 religion advanced with rapid strides. The chief restraints 
 of law being removed by the abolition of the High Com- 
 mission Court and the downfall of the hierarchy, all parties 
 claimed and exercised liberty of worship. The Baptists in- 
 creased very fast, greatly to the chagrin of the Presbyterian 
 party, which was then in the ascendant. A book published 
 
 * The Hireling; Ministry nont of Christ's, p. ii. quoted in Ivimey's 
 History of the Baptists, i. 155. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 I i 
 
 267 
 
 in 1644, by Dr. Featley, may be taken as the exponent of 
 the feelings entertained towards them. Dr. Featley had 
 been engaged in a public disputation with the Baptists, and 
 he printed an account of it, in which he claimed the victory. 
 The book was entitled, ** The Dippers Dipt, or the Ana- 
 baptists Ducked and Plunged over Head and Ears at a 
 ]?4«putation in Southwark." He calls the Baptists an illi- 
 terate'and sottish sect — a lying and blasphemous sect — an 
 impure and carnal sect — a bloody and cruel sect — a profane 
 and sacrilegious sect. Hie malice is thus expressed in the 
 ** Epistle Dedicatory : " — ** Of all heretics and schismatics, 
 the Anabaptists ought to be most carefully looked unto and 
 severely punished, if not utterly exterminated and banished 
 out of the Church and kingdom. . . They preach, and print, 
 and practise their heretical impieties openly; they hold 
 their conventicles weekly in our chief cities and suburbs 
 thereof, and there pro;^hesy by turns. . . They flock in great 
 multitudes to their Jordans, and both sexes enter into the 
 river, and are dipt after their manner with a kind of spell, 
 containing the heads of their erroneous tenets. . . And as 
 they defile our rivers with their impure washings, and our 
 pulpits with their false prophecies and fanatical enthu- 
 siasms, so the presses sweat and groan under the load of 
 their blasphemies." We cannot help thinking that these 
 are the words of a defeated champion, venting his spite 
 against his opponents. 
 
 Dr. Featley was a man of influence, and it was therefore 
 judged expedient to furnish an antidote to his book. This 
 was done by the publication of a Confession of Faith, on 
 the part of seven London churches. It appeared in the 
 year 1644, under the following title : — " The Confession of 
 Faith of those churches which are commonly (though falsely) 
 called Anabaptists ; presented to the view of all that fear 
 God, to examine by the touchstone of the Word of Truth : 
 as likewise for the taking off" those aspersions which are 
 
268 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 \i 
 
 u . 
 
 frequently, both in pulpit and print (although unjustly) cast 
 upon them." It was a fair digest of Baptist principles, 
 showing that in all important points of theology, Christian 
 ordinances and Church government excepted, the Baptists 
 agreed with other evangelical Protestants. The compilers 
 were particularly careful to state in full the views on magis- 
 tracy held by the churches, in order to disabuse men of t/Jie 
 absurd notions still cherished by many, who were fain to 
 charge the Baptists with revolutionary tendencies, similar 
 to those of Munster. The concluding paragraph is admir- 
 ably written. It is as follows: — "Thus we desire to give 
 unto Christ that which is His, and unto all lawful authority 
 that which is their due ; and to owe nothing to any man 
 but love ; to live quietly and peaceably, as it becometh 
 saints, endeavoupng in all things to keep a good conscience, 
 and to do unto every man (of what judgment soever) as we 
 would they should do unto us ; that as our practice is, so it 
 may prove us to be a conscionable, quiet, and harmless 
 people (no ways dangerous or troublesome to human society), 
 and to labour and work with our hands that we may not be 
 chargeable to any, but to give to him that needeth, both 
 friends and enemies, accounting it more excellent to give 
 than to receive. Also we confess that we know but in part, 
 and that we are ignorant of many things which we desire 
 and seek to know ; and if any shall do us that friendly part 
 to show us from the Word of God that we see not, we shall 
 have cause to be thankful to God and them. But if any 
 man shall impose upon us anything that we see not to be 
 commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, we should in His 
 strength rather embrace all reproaches and tortures of men, 
 to be stripped of all outward comforts, and, if it were pos- 
 sible, to die a thousand deaths, rather than to do anything 
 against the least tittle of the truth of God, or against the 
 light of our own consciences. And if any shall call what we 
 have said heresy, then do we with the Apostle acknowledge. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 I ' I 
 
 269 
 
 that, * after the way they call heresy, worship we the God 
 of our fathers,' disclaiming all heresies (rightly so called), 
 tecause they are against Christ, and to be steadfast and 
 immovable, always abounding in obedience to Christ, as 
 knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord."* 
 
 The seven churches by which this Confession was pub- 
 i'.^hed, met in the following places, viz. : — Devonshire 
 Squk 'fx : Broad Street, Wapping ; Great St. Helens ; 
 Crutched ' Friars ; Bishopsgate Street ; Coleman Street ; 
 and Glaziers' Hall. The first-mentioned church has existed 
 from that time to the present. The others have been long 
 extinct. 
 
 We have said that Presbyterianism was in the ascendant. 
 But the Presbyterians of the seventeenth century held tole- 
 ration in abhorrence. It was in their eyes the quintessence 
 of all heresy. 
 
 The great Richard Baxter says: — "My judgment in that 
 much disputed point of liberty of religion, I have always 
 freely made known. I abhor unlimited liberty and tolera- 
 tion of all, and think myself easily able to prove the wicked- 
 ness of it."t 
 
 The President of the Scotch Parliament writes thus to 
 the Parliament of England (Feb. 3, 1645) : — " It was ex- 
 pected the honourable Houses would add their civil sanc- 
 tion to what the pious and learned Assembly have advised ; 
 and I am commanded by the Parliament of this kingdom to 
 demand it, and I do in their names demand it. And the 
 Parliament of this kingdom is persuaded, that the piety and 
 wisdom of the honourable Houses will never admit tolera- 
 tion of any sects or schisms contrary to our Solemn League 
 and Covenant." J 
 
 The London Presbyterian clergy bear their testimony 
 against " the error of toleration, patronising and promoting 
 
 • Confessions of Faith, pp. 13 — 48. 
 f Ivimey, i. 169. % Neal, iii. 310. 
 
:l 
 
 1 
 
 [> 
 
 
 '. 
 
 
 
 
 270 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 all other errors, heresies, and blasphemies whatsoever, 
 under the grossly abused notion of liberty of conscience;" 
 and add that they consider it a great grievance, " that men 
 should have liberty to worship God in that way and manner 
 as shall appear to them most agreeable to the Word of God, 
 and no man be punished or discountenanced by authority 
 for the same." " We, the ministers of Jesus Christ," gity 
 they, " do hereby testify to our flocks, to all the kipgclom, 
 and to the reformed world, our great dislike of Prelacy, 
 Erastianism, Brownism, and Independency; and our utter 
 abhorrency of Anti-Scripturism, Popery, Arianism, Socini- 
 anism, Arminianism, Antinomianism, Anabaptism, Liber- 
 tinism, and Familism ; and that we detest the foremen- 
 tioned toleration, so much pursued and endeavoured in this 
 kingdom, accounting it unlawful and pernicious."* 
 
 The Lancashire ministers declare their " harmonious 
 consent " wit^ '^^heir brethren in London as follows : — " A 
 toleration v id be putting a sword into a madman's 
 hands ; a cup of poison into the hand of a child ; a letting 
 loose madmen with firebrands in their hands, and appoint- 
 ing a city of refuge in men's consciences for the devil to fly 
 to; a laying a stumbling block before the blind ; a proclaim- 
 ing liberty to the wolves to come into Christ's fold to prey 
 upon the lambs : neither would it be to provide for tender 
 consciences, but to take away all conscience." f 
 
 These sentiments were reduced to practice as far as pos- 
 sible. In 1645 an Ordinance of Parliament was published, 
 enacting " that no person be permitted to preach, who is 
 not ordained a minister, either in this or some other Re- 
 formed Church, except such as, intending the ministry, 
 shall be allowed for the trial of their gifts, by those who 
 shall be appointed thereunto by both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment." The Ordinance was to be sent to Sir Thomas Fair- 
 fax, with the ** earnest desire and recommendation " of the 
 ♦ Neal, 390. f Crosby, i. igo. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 I',' 
 
 271 
 
 _N 
 
 H 
 
 Houses, that it should be " duly observed in the Army."* 
 The Baptists were particularly aimed at ; because there 
 were great numbers of preachers among them, and they 
 were of course destitute of ordination, in the Presby- 
 terian sense of the word. Next year the Corporation 
 of the City of London interfered in the matter, by pre- 
 senting a memorial to Parliament, called ** The City 
 Remonstrance," in which they prayed, " that some strict 
 and speedy coufse might be taken for the suppressing 
 all separate and private congregations ; that all Ana- 
 baptists, Brownists, Heretics, Schismatics, Blasphemers, 
 and all other sectaries, v/ho conform not to the public 
 discipline established, or to be established, by Parlia- 
 ment, may be fully declared against, and some effectual 
 course settled for proceeding against such persons ; and 
 that no person disaffected to the Presbyterial govern- 
 ment, set forth or to be set forth by Parliament, may 
 be employed in any place of public trust." f But the 
 Baptists and others in the army procured a counter- 
 petition, which was very numerously signed, " applaud- 
 lus: the labours and successes of the Parliament in the 
 cau^v- of liberty, and praying them to go on with managing 
 the atia^rs of the kingdom according to their wisdom, 
 and not to suffer the free-born people of England to 
 be enslaved on any pretence whatever, nor to suffer any 
 set of people to prescribe to them in matters of government 
 or conscience." % Nevertheless, the intolerant principle 
 prevailed ; and in December, 1646, a second Parliamentary 
 Ordinance appeared, forbidding all unordained persons to 
 "preach or expound the Scriptures in any church, or chapel, 
 or any other public place," and directing that all ministers, 
 or others, who should " publish or maintain, by preaching, 
 writing, printing, or any other way, anything against, or in 
 derogation of, the Church government which is now estab- 
 * Crosby, i. 192. f Ibid. p. 184. % Neal, iii. 328. 
 
J 
 
 .,1 1 
 
 'I ' 
 I ; t 
 
 I' > li 
 a 
 
 i ! 
 
 I! 
 
 272 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 llshed by authority of both Houses of Parliament," should 
 be apprehended, and *' due punishment " inflicted on 
 them.* Many Baptists suffered under this ordinance, 
 by imprisonment and otherwise. Had it been rigidly 
 executed, there would have been extensive disturbances 
 of the public peace, for the intolerance of the Presby 
 terian party excited general disgust and loathing. Milton's 
 
 ./'^ 
 
 ',VI' 
 
 JOHK MILTON, 
 
 thoughts and feelings on the subject were expressed vi^ith 
 more force than elegance. There is stinging truth in his 
 lines entitled, " On the new Forcers of Conscience under 
 the Long Parliament " : — 
 
 " Because you have thrown off your Prelate lord, 
 And with stiff vows renounced his Liturgy, 
 To seize the widowed whore Plurality 
 From them whose sin you envied, not abhorred ; 
 
 * Crosby, i. 194. 
 
should 
 ted on 
 inance, 
 
 rigidly 
 rbances 
 Presby 
 Hilton's 
 
 /■^ 
 
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 A '' 
 
 .i 
 
 id with 
 in his 
 under 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 i:' 
 
 273 
 
 Dare ye for this adjure the civil sword 
 To force our consciences that Christ set free, 
 And ride us with a classical hierarchy 
 Taught ye by mere A. S. and Rutherford ? 
 
 Men, whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent, 
 
 Would have been held in high esteem with Paul, 
 Must now be named and printed Heretics 
 
 By Shallow Edwards and Scotch what d'ye call : 
 But we do hope to find out all your tricks, 
 Your plots and packing worse than those of Trent, 
 That so the Parliament 
 
 May with their wh'^lesome and preventive shears 
 
 Clip your phylact -.ies, though bauk your ears. 
 
 And succor our just fears. 
 
 When they shall read this clearly in your charge. 
 
 New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large."* 
 
 These Presbyterian outrages were also exposed by Samuel 
 Richardson, one of the Pastors of the Calvinistic or Parti- 
 cular Baptist church, the formation of which has been men- 
 tioned. Mr. Richardson's pamphlet was entitled : — " The 
 necessity of Toleration in matters of religion ; or, certain 
 questions propounded to the Synod, tending to prove that 
 corporal punishments ought not to be inflicted upon such 
 as hold errors in religion, and that in matters of religion men 
 ought not to be compelled, but have liberty and freedom." 
 The " questions " are such as no persecutor, Roman 
 Catholic or Protestant, Episcopalian or Presbyterian, could 
 satisfactorily answer; and the observations interspersed are 
 so pithy and pungent, that the good cause must have de- 
 rived great benefit from the publication. " Sit still quietly," 
 the author says, " and be humbled, for your folly in calling 
 persecution discipline and just deserved censure ; and in 
 calling your priesthood and presbytery a holy order, and 
 
 * Todd's Milton, vi. 92 — 97. " Bauk," for "both," means to "spare," 
 to " leave untouched." " The mild and gentle parliament will content 
 itself with only clipping away your Jewish and persecuting principles." 
 — Warburton, 
 
 T 
 
Ilf 
 
 f i 
 
 t 
 
 « (I 
 
 lb 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 I 
 
 274 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 yet are but the Pope's priesthood. And we had as good be 
 under the Pope, as under your presbyterian check. . . . You 
 would all be tolerated, and would have none tolerated but 
 yourselves ; you would suffer none to live quietly and com- 
 fortably, but fhose of your way. Is this to do as you would 
 be done by ? " * 
 
 The Assembly of Divines sat from 1643 till 1649, Their 
 
 
 IVI-STMINSTER HALL, IN WHICH THE "ASSEMBLY" TOOK PLACE. 
 
 Confession of Faith and Catechisms will live as long as 
 theological literature lasts. With the exception of those 
 portions in which religious liberty, Church government, and 
 Christian baptism are treated, they are invaluable. The 
 Assembly not only sustained infant-baptism, but also en- 
 j-oined sprinkling as the mode of administering the ceremony. 
 
 * Tracts, p. 284. 
 
I ( 
 
 Baptist H isiory. 
 
 ^75 
 
 ood be 
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 ed but 
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 Their 
 
 mm 
 
 |long as 
 )f those 
 ;nt, and 
 
 le. The 
 
 ilso en- 
 Iremony. 
 
 It was a close division : twenty-five w^re for the injunction 
 cf sprinkling, twenty-four against it. That majority of one 
 was obtained by Dr. Lightfoot's influence, to whose autho- 
 rity as an Oriental scholar and biblical critic great deference 
 was paid. The minority were not willing to legislate on 
 the subject, and would have left it to the option of minis- 
 ters. But it seems that there was a dread of possible 
 consequences ; for if any infants should be immersed, a 
 suspicion might get abroad that sprinkling was insufficient. 
 This might lead to the conclusion that those who had been 
 only sprinkled ought to be baptized. The inquiry might 
 then be extended to adults, and so the interests of the Bap- 
 tists might be furthered. It was judged prudent to prevent 
 all this by positive enactment. 
 
 There was a wonderful outcry against immersion. Even 
 Baxter allowed himself to use expressions which might be 
 laughed at, were it not for the melancholy fact that in his 
 case (for he could not be ignorant on the subject) prejudice 
 and passion prevailed over Christian charity, and impelled 
 bim to adopt a course which in his sober moments he must 
 have condemned. Take a specimen or two: — "That which 
 in a plain breach of the sixth commandment. Thou shall not 
 Jiilly is no ordinance of God, but a most heinous sin. But 
 the ordinary practice of baptizing over head, and in cold 
 water, as necessary, is a plain breach of the sixth com- 
 mandment ; therefore it is no ordinance of God, but a 
 heinous sin, and, as Mr. Craddock shows in his book of 
 Gospel liberty, the magistrate ought to restrain it, to save 
 the lives of his subjects." ..." In a word, it is good for 
 nothing but to despatch men out of the world that are 
 burdensome, and to ranken churchyards. I conclude, if 
 murder be a sin, then dipping ordinarily over head in Eng- 
 land is a sin ; and if those who make it men's religion to 
 murder themselves, and urge it upon their consciences as 
 their duty, are not to be suffered in a commonwealth, any 
 
 T 2 
 
 < i i 
 
\ 
 
 276 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 i i 
 
 ! i 
 
 i I 
 
 )f 
 
 more than highway murderers ; then judge how these Ana- 
 baptists, that teach the necessity of such dipping, are to be 
 suffered." Poor Baxter ! Had he never read the ninth 
 commandment ? * 
 
 Samuel Oates's case is another illustration of the intense 
 hatred against everything Baptist which was at that time 
 indulged in. This excellent minister, who was for some 
 time paj-tor of one of the London churches, was much 
 blessed in his labours. While engaged in a home mis- 
 sionary tour in the county of Essex, in the year 1646, his 
 preaching was attended with such success, that hundreds 
 were converted and baptized. One of the converts having 
 died a few weeks after, Mr. Gates was actually committed 
 to prison, put in irons, and indicted for murder. It would 
 seem hardly creditable that this charge could be seriously 
 entertained ; but malice and bigotry stick at nothing. Mr. 
 Oates's persecutors were disappointed, as it clearly appeared 
 on the trial that the young woman baptized was in good 
 health for some time after her baptism. The jury returned 
 a verdict of "not guilty;" but the attempt to destroy a 
 Christian minister by such means was an ugly symptom, f 
 
 Verily the times were odd and strange ! The same 
 Parliament which denounced preachers who had not been 
 regularly ordained, and ordered the magistrates to seize 
 them, issued, in the following year, a declaration in favour 
 of '1' • Baptists! How it came to pass I know not. Per- 
 haps ^-.^iii thought that they had gone too far, and honestly 
 r'.Ciii-xu to retrace their steps ; or possibly the growing num- 
 jeu- ;<:* ■ influence of the denomination inspired a salutary 
 f'.:';, especially as it was i-nown that there were many 
 Baptists in the army. These words were found in the 
 " Declaration," issued March 4, .1647 : — " The name of 
 Anabaptism hath indeed contracted much odium, by reason 
 of the extravagant opinions and practices we abhor and de- 
 * Ivimey, i. 193. f Crosby, i. 236. 
 
I 1 
 
 56 Ana- 
 re to be 
 3 ninth 
 
 intense 
 at time 
 r some 
 } much 
 le mis- 
 546, his 
 andreds 
 having 
 nmitted 
 t would 
 eriously 
 g. Mr. 
 speared 
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 eturned 
 stroy a 
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 same 
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 10 seize 
 favour 
 Per- 
 onestly 
 num- 
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 many 
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 reason 
 nd de- 
 
 t:. 
 
 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 277 
 
 test. But for their opinion against the baptism of infants, 
 it is only a difference about a circumstance of time in the 
 administration of an ordinance, wherein in former ages, as 
 well ar. this, learned men have differed both in opinion and 
 practice. And though we could wish that all men would 
 satisfy themselves, and join with us in our judgment and 
 practice on this point, yet herein we hold it fit that men 
 should be convinced by the Word of God, with great gentle- 
 ness and reason, and not beaten out of it with force and 
 violence."* 
 
 It wa s t ut a momentary gleam of light. As if terrified at 
 what they said — 
 
 " They back recoiled 
 E'en at the sound themselves had made ; " 
 
 and in May, 1648, they passed a law more fearfully bar- 
 barous than any which had for a long time found a place 
 in the statute book. We refer to the " Ordinance of the 
 Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, for punish- 
 ing blasphemies and heresies." By this law it was enacted 
 that all persons found guilty of Atheism, Deism, or Soci- 
 nianism, and refusing to abjure, should suffer death as in 
 case of felony. If they abjured, they were to remain in 
 prison till they found sureties that they would not maintain 
 their errors any more ; then, if they afterwards recanted, 
 and were convicted a second time, they were to be executed. 
 It was also enacted that all persons convicted before two 
 justices of the peace, of maintaining and defending certain 
 specified opinions held by Papists, Arminians, Antinomians, 
 Quakers, or Baptists, should be ordered to renounce their 
 errors in the parish church, and in case of refusal, to be 
 committed to jail till they should find sureties that they 
 would not maintain or defend such opinions any more. 
 This was equivalent to a sentence of imprisonment for life. 
 
 * Crosby, i. ig6. 
 
 m 
 
 1. 
 
 m 
 
 u 
 
 !-J! 
 
 
\ 
 
 278 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 The Baptist sentiment condemned was thus expressed : — 
 **That the baptizing cf infants is unlawful or such baptism 
 is void, and that such persons ought to be baptized again ;" 
 it is added, " and in pursuance thereof shall baptize any 
 person formerly baptized." Even the Episcopalians were 
 included in the condemnation, for the same penalties were 
 provided for those who should maintain ** that the Church 
 government by presbytery is Antichristian or unlawful."* 
 
 It is no apology for this vile law, that it was practically a 
 dead letter, and was intended to terrify or prevent rather 
 than to punish. The good sense and Christianity of the 
 people would not suffer it to be executed ; but the Presby- 
 terians, whose handiwork it was, were fully p'"epared for 
 the experiment, if power had been entrusted to them. Here 
 again we see ^^ old priest writ large.'' 
 
 During the Commonwealth the Baptists evinced much 
 zealous activity in the cause of the Saviour. The ministers 
 were indefatigable, the people fervent and steadfast. If 
 now and then the fervour evaporated into fanaticism, or 
 something like it, and if diversity of opinion on compara- 
 tively minor points caused a multiplication of small parties, 
 an excuse may be found in the peculiar circumstances of 
 the times. And surely it was better that the waters should 
 be in motion, or even troubled, than that they should be 
 stagnant and corrupted. We are not required lo defend all 
 the measures adopted by our forefathers, any more than to- 
 employ their quaint modes of speech. But it would be well 
 for us to imitate their diligence, their prayerfulness, their 
 strict regard to the authority of the Saviour, their indefati- 
 gable endeavours foi' mutual edification. They laboured " in 
 season, out of season." Those of them who were in Crom- 
 well's army took care no!- to blink their principles there. 
 Prayer and preaching were duly attended to, by officers as 
 well as by privates. A serious, orderly deportment pre- 
 
 * Crosb}', i. 199—205. 
 
 J 
 
 
 T 1 
 
ssed : — 
 japtism 
 igain;" 
 ize any 
 IS were 
 es were 
 Church 
 ful."*- 
 lically a 
 : rather 
 ' of the 
 Presby- 
 ired for 
 . Here 
 
 d much 
 
 linisters 
 
 ast. If 
 
 ism, or 
 
 )mpara- 
 
 parties, 
 
 nces of 
 
 should 
 
 Duld be 
 
 "end all 
 
 han to> 
 
 3e well 
 
 s, their 
 
 defati- 
 
 red " in 
 
 Crom- 
 
 there. 
 
 cers as 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 279 
 
 t pre- 
 
 vailed. In camp and in garrison they observed good dis- 
 cipline ; in the field their prowess was unquestioned. They 
 were the Havelocks of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Under the Protectorate the Baptists were not only un- 
 molested, but prosperous. Some of them disapproved of 
 the new Government, preferring the Commonwealth ; and 
 some joined the Fifth Monarchy men, who held visionary 
 notions respecting the kingdom of Christ. Hence the Pro- 
 tector was thought to look coolly on them, and to wish to 
 lesse.i their influence, particularly in the army. But the 
 main body were satisfied with the existing order of things, 
 and diligently improved their opportunities. 
 
 Crosby has republished a letter from some Baptists in 
 the army to the Protector, in which they accuse him of de- 
 signing to get rid of them, or, as they expressed it, "to 
 purge the army of the Anabaptists." They were not very 
 careful in the choice of words. These are some of the 
 " queries " they put to " his Highness " : — " Whether your 
 Highness had come to the height of honour and greatness 
 you are now come to, if the Anabaptists, so called, h^d 
 been so much your enemies as they were your friends?" 
 " Whether the Anabaptists were ever unfaithful, either to 
 the Commonwealth in general, or to your Highness in par- 
 ticular ? And if not, then what is the reason of your in- 
 tended dismission ?" "Whether the Anabaptists may not 
 as justly endeavour to eat out the bov/els of your Govern- 
 ment, as your Highness may endeavour to eat them out of 
 their employments ? " " Whether the Anabaptists did not 
 come more justly into their employments in the army, than 
 your Highness into the seat of government ? " " Whether 
 the Anabaptist will not be in a better condition in the day 
 of Christ, that keeps the covenant with God and men, than 
 your Highness will be if you break with both?" "Whether 
 an hundred of the old Anabaptists, such as marched under 
 your command in '48, '49, '50, &c., be not as good as two 
 
 M 
 
 m 
 
 ¥ 
 
 \1 
 
 i 
 
 
280 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 4 f 
 
 hundred of your new courtiers, if you were in such a condi- 
 tion as you were at Dunbar in Scotland?" <' Whether 
 your Highness's conscience was not more at peace, and 
 your mind more set upon things above, when you loved the 
 Anabaptists, than it is now, when you hate their principles, 
 or their service, or both?" "Whether your Highness's 
 court is not a greater charge to this nation than the Ana- 
 baptists in the army ? And if so, whether this be the ease 
 which you promised the people ? " f 
 
 This is plain dealing. But Cromwell accomplished his 
 purpose, as regarded his own regiment, the principal officers 
 in which were dismissed, avowedly because they were Bap- 
 tists. The probability is that they were strong republicans, 
 and were afraid of the old tyranny. 
 
 The discontents of the Irish Baptists, some of whom 
 objected to the Protectorate, regarding the title of " Lord 
 Protector" as "applicable to God alone," were allayed by 
 a judicious letter addressed to them by Messrs. Kiffin and 
 Spilsbury. It is inserted in the volume of " Confessions of 
 Faith," published by the Hanserd Knollys Society.! 
 
 Three Baptist ministers (John Toombes, Henry Jessey, 
 and Daniel Dyke) were appointed " Triers," that is, they 
 were members of a committee so called, constituted by the 
 Government for the examination of candidates for Church 
 livings, and the removal of "ignorant and scandalous" 
 clergymen. The ministers above mentioned, and several 
 more, accepted the charge of parishes. We do not vindi- 
 cate their consistency, in consenting to receive tithes and 
 other payments, by which parish ministers are supported in 
 the Church of England ; but the impartial reader will give 
 due weight to the considerations which have been alleged 
 in their defence, viz. : — that the scarcity of qualified minis- 
 ters warranted them in taking this step, as they were 
 thereby put in a position to preach the Gospel to thousands 
 * Crosby, iii. 231—242. f Pp. 322—326. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 281 
 
 L condi- 
 /hether 
 :e, and 
 ved the 
 nciples, 
 hness's 
 le Ana- 
 he ease 
 
 led his 
 officers 
 re Bap- 
 bhcans, 
 
 whom 
 
 " Lord 
 
 ayed by 
 
 ^n and 
 
 ions of 
 
 Jessey, 
 
 1, they 
 
 by the 
 
 Church 
 
 alous " 
 
 several 
 
 vindi- 
 
 es and 
 
 rted in 
 
 ill give 
 
 alleged 
 
 minis- 
 
 y were 
 
 usands 
 
 f ' 
 
 Y 
 
 who would have been otherwise destitute of the means of 
 grace ; that they were bound to no forms and ceremonies, 
 and allowed to conduct worship in whatever manner they 
 pleased; and that some of them retained their own churches, 
 and continued to minister to them, occupying the parish 
 pulpits on only one part of the Lord's-day. 
 
 Statistics were not much thought of in those days. We 
 are unable to furnish an exact account of the number of 
 Baptist churches in England at the time of the Restoration. 
 It may suffice to remark that there were churches of our 
 denomination in about thirty English counties, and that 
 they were numerous in Wales. The principal churches in 
 Ireland were in Dublin, Waterford, Kilkenny, Clonmel, 
 Cork, and Limerick. 
 
 -•o*- 
 
 Sectioj^ v. 
 
 Character of Charles II. and James II. — Commencement of Persecution — 
 Venner's Rebellion — Disclaimer by Baptists — Severe Sufferings— John 
 James— Act of Uniformity — The Aylesbury Baptists — Benjamin Keach 
 Pilloriec'i— Conventicle Act— Five Mile Act— Their Effects. 
 
 WE are now entering upon a dark time. The reigns 
 of Charles II. and James II. were inglorious in all 
 respects. These kings were despicable as men, despotic 
 as rulers. In religion, the first was a hypocrite, the second 
 a bigot. The former was traitorous to British interests, for 
 the sake of his pleasures and his pride; the latter was will- 
 ing to offer up British freedom on the altar of the Papacy. 
 Martyrdom, in various forms, gained fresh laurels while 
 they occupied the throne of which they were utterly un- 
 worthy. 
 
 Charles II. had pledged his royal word at Breda, before 
 his restoration, **that no man should be disquieted or called 
 
 >i<fl 
 
 I 
 
\ 
 
 282 
 
 I f i - 
 
 lil<\ 
 
 1 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion, 
 which did not disturb the peace of the kingdom." Like a 
 true son of his father, he broke his promise. It was doubt- 
 less given with a mental reservation which a Jesuit would 
 applaud. 
 
 ? i 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 The Savoy Conference, like the Hampton Court Confer- 
 ence in the reign of James I., was a mere sham. The 
 design was, first to cheat and then to insult. The Episco- 
 palians and Presbyterians who attended the Conference, 
 
 C I 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 283 
 
 jHgion, 
 
 Like a 
 
 doubt- 
 
 : would 
 
 held their meetings, and partially discussed the points at 
 issue, but without any good result. No Baptists were there. 
 The Conference was ooened April 15, 1661, and was closed 
 July 25, in the same year. 
 
 The religious condition of the kingdom was very peculiar. 
 " Ignorant and scandalous " ministers had been ejected by 
 
 lonfer- 
 The 
 pisco- 
 rence, 
 
 THE SAVOY PALACE. 
 
 f The Scene of the Conference.) 
 
 wholesale during the Commonwealth and under the Pro- 
 tectorate. Their successors were a motley group. The 
 majority were Episcopalians, but there were many Presby. 
 terians, some Independents, and a few Baptists. A large 
 number of the Presbyterians would have submitted to the 
 
 
\ 
 
 284 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I 'I 
 
 restored establishment, if they had been allowed to retain 
 discretionary power with reference to portions of the ritual. 
 They particularly objected to wearing the surplice ; to the 
 sign of the cross in baptism ; to kneeling at the Lord's 
 Supper; to the indiscriminate administration of the Lord's 
 Supper to sick persons ; to the form of absolution ; to the 
 language of the burial service ; and to the declaration re- 
 quired of all clergymen that there was nothing in the 
 Common Prayer Book, the Book of Ordination, or the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, contrary to the Word of God. But 
 the temper of the times was rigid and fierce. The hier- 
 archical party, flushed with victory, and confident of com- 
 plete success, refused all consideration. They would not 
 abate a jot, except in matters of the most trivial importance. 
 A few verbal alterations were made in the Liturgy ; a new 
 edition of the Prayer Book was published, containing forms 
 of prayer for the 30th of January and the 29th of May, with 
 other additions ; and the Parliament, subservient to the 
 wishes of the King and the priesthood, passed the " Act of 
 Uniformity," which came into operation August 24, 1662. 
 
 The reader is now prepared for a tale of woe. The 
 history of our denomination from 1660 to 1688 is not so 
 much a history of progress as of endurance. Persecution 
 commenced immediately after the King's return. The 
 clergymen ejected during the Commonwealth and the Pro- 
 tectorate, with the exception of such as had "justified the 
 late King's murder, or declared against infant-baptism," 
 were restored to their livings by Act of Parliament. Though 
 the High Commission Court was not re-established, it was 
 presumed that the old laws of Elizabeth were in force again, 
 and magistrates in every part of the kingdom were eager to 
 execute them. 
 
 The Baptists saw the storm coming, and took measures 
 accordingly. They asked for no indulgence, no emolu- 
 ments. They sought no office. All they wanted was free- 
 
 I 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 285 
 
 :er to 
 
 dom of worship. They recognised but one course of action 
 in things civil : they were prepared to be obedient subjects. 
 With these views they apjlroached the throne. First, a 
 petition was presented to the King, July 26, 1660, setting 
 forth the sufferings inflicted on the churches in Lincolnshire. 
 **We have been much abused," they say, **as we pass in 
 the streets, and as we sit in our houses ; being threatened 
 to be hanged if but heard praying to our Lord in our own 
 families, and disturbed in our so waiting upon Him, by 
 uncivil beating at our doors and sounding of horns ; yea, 
 we have been stoned when going to our meetings ; the 
 windows of the place where we have met have been struck 
 down with stones : yea, [we have been] taken as evil-doers, 
 and imprisoned, when peaceably met together to worship 
 the Most High in the use of His most precious ordinances. 
 . . . And as if all this were too little, they have, to fill up 
 their measure, very lately indicted many of us at the sessions, 
 and intend, as we are informed, to impose on us the penalty 
 of twenty pounds [each], for not coming to hear such men 
 as they provide us." * Accompanying this was a Confes- 
 sion of Faith, drawn up by Thomas Grantham, said to be 
 ** owned and approved by more than twenty thousand." 
 Another petition, entitled, "The humble petition and re- 
 presentation of the sufferings of several peaceable and 
 innocent subjects, called by the name of Anabaptists, 
 inhabitants in the county of Kent, and now prisoners in the 
 jail of Maidstone, for the testimony of a good conscience," 
 dated Jan. 25, 1661, not only represented the case of the 
 prisoners, but of their brethren in the county of Kent, who 
 were already suffering severely. f These petitions produced 
 no favourable results. The King, indeed, replied to the 
 first, " That it was not his mind that any of his good sub- 
 jects who lived peaceably should suffer any trouble on 
 
 * Ivimey, i. 276. 
 
 f Tracts on Liberty of Conscience, pp. 297 — 308. 
 
 
 
 ill 
 M 
 
I 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 1 1* 
 
 : i: 
 
 :ll 
 
 •86 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 account of their opinions in point of relij^ion," and he made 
 fair promises. I3ut the work of violence still went on. 
 Some of the principal Baptist ministers were lodged in 
 prison during the year i66o. In November of that year 
 John I3unyan entered Bedford jail, which was destined to 
 be his abode for twelve years. In every part of England 
 power was leagued with cruelty and lawlessness for the 
 extermination of freedom. 
 
 The ridiculous affair called " Venner's Rebellion " occurred 
 on the 7th January, 1661. Thomas Venner preached in 
 a small meeting-house in Coleman Street, London. He 
 "warmed his admirers with passionate expectations of a 
 fifth universal monarchy under the personal reign of King 
 Jesus upon earth, and that the saints were to take the 
 kingdom themselves." On the day above mentioned, about 
 fifty of them marched out of their meeting-house, well armed, 
 *' with a resolution to subvert the present government or die 
 in the attempt." In the tumult that followed, they lost about 
 half their number. The remainder surrendered. *' Venner 
 and one of his officers were hanged before their meeting- 
 house door, Jan. 19, and a few days after nine more were 
 executed in divers parts of the city." A proclamation was 
 issued the day after the insurrection prohibiting all meet- 
 ings of Baptists, Quakers, and Fifth Monarchy men, for 
 religious worship, unless in the parish churches, or in pri- 
 vate houses, and then limited to " the persons there in- 
 habiting." The reason assigned was, that the parties above 
 mentioned had met under religious pretexts, but in reality 
 for treacherous purposes ; and the insurrection gave a plau- 
 sible colour to the proceeding. But the proclamation, though 
 not issued till after the rebellion, had been ordered five days 
 before ; and the rebellion was eagerly laid hold of in justifi- 
 cation of the act, which was manifestly an unauthorised 
 stretch of power. That, however, gave little concern to 
 Charles II. or his unscrupulous advisers. The document 
 
i t 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 287 
 
 1 
 
 was a characteristic specimen of Stuart knavery and 
 audacity.* 
 
 The Baptists hastened to disclaim all sympathy with 
 Venner. A " Humble Apology of some commonly called 
 Anabaptists, in behalf of themselves, and others of the same 
 judgment with them, with their protestation against the late 
 wicked and most horrid treasonable insurrection and rebel- 
 lion," signed by thirty ministers and others, at the head of 
 whom were William Kiffin and Henry Denne, was pre- 
 sented to the King the day aftei the outbreak. But none 
 of their number were compromised, and Venner himself had 
 declared that if he succeeded " the Baptists should know 
 that infant-baptism was an ordinance of Jesus Christ."! 
 
 Two publications were issued in 1661. The objects of 
 both were the same, namely, to establish the iniquity of 
 persecution, to claim for the Baptists the rights of religious 
 freedom, and to declare their willingness, as loyal subjects, 
 to obey the King and his officers in all things lawful. 
 
 The first was entitled, *' A Plea for Toleration of Opinions 
 and Persuasions in Matters of Religion, differing from the 
 Church of England." It was written by " John Sturgion, a 
 member of the baptized people." The reasons against per- 
 secution are concisely given, and are expressed in a bold, 
 nervous style. 
 
 The second pamphlet was entitled, " Sion's groans for 
 her distressed ; or, sober endeavours to prevent innocent 
 blood," &c. The names of seven Baptist ministers are 
 appended to the ** Epistle to the Reader." They were all 
 sufferers as well as labourers. One of them, Joseph 
 Wright, spent no less than twenty years in prison for the 
 truth's sake. The others were, Thomas Monck, who 
 
 laboured in Buckinghamshire ; 
 
 George 
 
 Hammon and 
 
 * Documentary Annals, ii. 302. Tracts, pp. 313 — 316. Neal's Puri- 
 tans, iv. 310. 
 t Crosby, ii. 65. Confessions of Faith, &c., pp. 343 — 348. 
 
itf^i 
 
 288 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 V ! 
 
 i ? 
 
 William JefTrey, who laboured in Kent ; Francis Stanley, 
 who laboured in Northamptonshire ; William Reynolds, 
 who laboured in Lincolnshire ; and Francis Smith. v 
 
 It is not likely that the King saw these or any other 
 publications in which the principles of the Baptists were 
 explained and advocated. Nor is it probable that, had he 
 seen them, they would h?ve induced him to change his 
 policy. Immediately after Venner's insurrection, Hanserd 
 Knollys and many more were apprehended and lodged in 
 Newgate and other large prisons. ** Above four hundred," 
 says Crosby, ** were crowded into Newgate, besides many 
 more in the other prisons belonging to the city and parts 
 adjacent." Vavasor Powell, then preaching in Wales, was. 
 treated in the same manner, and many of his brethren in 
 the principality shared his fate. Throughout the kingdom 
 the Baptists were exposed to outrage. " They have been 
 haled from their peaceable habitations," ^aysjohn Sturgion^ 
 " and thrust into prisons, almost in all counties in England, 
 and many are still detained, to the utter undoing of them- 
 selves and families, and most of them are poor men, whose 
 livelihood, under God, depends upon the labour of their 
 hands. So that they lie under a more than ordinary 
 calamity, there being so many thrust into little rooms to- 
 gether, that they are an annoyance each to other, especially 
 in the City of London, where the Lord Mayor crowds them 
 ve:/ close together, that it hath been observed, the keepers 
 have complained they have had too many guests. And 
 whilst they suffer there, some of their wives and tender 
 babies want bread at home."*' 
 
 The execution of John James was a horrible illustration 
 of royal malice. John James was a Sabbatarian Baptist. 
 His meeting-house was in Bulstrake Alley, Whitechapel, 
 London. On the 19th October, 1661, he was dragged from 
 his pulpit and committed to Newgate, on the charge of 
 
 * Tracts, p. 328. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 289 
 
 uttering trpasonable words against the King. The prin- 
 cipal witness against him was one Tipler, a journeyman 
 pipe-maker, a man whose character was so well known, 
 that the magistrate before whom Mr. James was taken re- 
 fused to receive his deposition, unless some other witness 
 
 JOHN JAMES HURRIED TO EXECUTION. 
 
 would corroborate it. Others were found, who confirmed 
 Tipler's testimony ; but one of them afterwards confessed 
 that " he had sworn against Mr. James he knew not what." 
 In fact, there can be little doubt that the witnesses were 
 suborned, probably bribed, to commit perjury. There is 
 
 u 
 
 m 
 
 (('I, 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 in 
 
 ■u\\ 
 
 i 
 
 »-Sj 
 
u^ 
 
 lb M 
 
 290 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 the more reason to believe this, because when the Lieu- 
 tenant of the Tower read the information laid against Mr. 
 James in the presence of his congregation, and asked them 
 how they could hear such doctrines, they all replied, " that 
 they never heard such words, as they shall answer it before 
 the Lord, and they durst not lie." But the death of the 
 victim was predetermined. It was no difficult matter to 
 procure a verdict against him. He was tried and convicted 
 on the 19th of November, and sentenced the next day to be 
 hanged, drawn, and quartered. 
 
 So flagrant was the injustice, that his wife was advised 
 by her friends to present a petition to the King for his life, 
 setting forth the facts which have been mentioned, and 
 entreating his Majesty's interposition. But they had mis- 
 calculated. Charles treated the heart-biroken woman with 
 gross brutality. "With some difficulty she met the King, 
 and presented him with the paper, acquainting him who 
 she was. To whom he held up his finger, and said, * Oh ! 
 Mr. James — he is a sweet gentleman;' but following him 
 for some further answer, the door was shut against her. 
 The next morning she attended again, and an opportunity 
 soon presenting, she implored his Majesty's answer to her 
 reqx.est. Who then replied. * That he was a rogue, and 
 should be hanged.' One of the lords attep.r'ing him asked 
 him of whom she spake. The King answered, • Of John 
 James, that rogue; he shal) be hanged; yea. he shall be 
 hanged.' " « 
 
 On the 26th of November, Mr. James was dragged, 
 after the manner of traitors, from Newgate to Ty- 
 burn, the place of execution. His behaviour under these 
 awful circumstances was dignified and Christian. In his 
 address to the multitude, referring to his denominational 
 sentiments, he said, " I do own the title of a bap.'ized be- 
 liever. I own the ordinances and appointments of Jesus 
 
 ♦ Crosby, ii. 17. 
 
 f 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 291 
 
 :he Lieu- 
 ainst Mr. 
 ked them 
 2(1, " that 
 • it before 
 th of the 
 matter to 
 convicted 
 day to be 
 
 s advised 
 r his hfe, 
 »ned, and 
 had mis- 
 man with 
 the King, 
 him who 
 aid, * Oh ! 
 *ving him 
 ainst her. 
 Dortunity 
 'er to her 
 igue, and 
 lim asked 
 Of John 
 shall be 
 
 dragged, 
 to Ty- 
 er these 
 In his 
 [national 
 ."ized be- 
 of Jesus 
 
 I 
 
 Christ. I own all the principles in Hebrews vi. i, 2." He 
 charged his friends to continue their religious assemblies, 
 at all risks. His closing exhortations were remarkably 
 solemn and impressive, reminding the people of the days 
 of the old martyrs. "This is a happy day," said one of his 
 friends. " I bless the Lord," he replied, " it is so." When 
 all was ready, he lifted up his hands, and exclaimed, with a 
 loud voice, ** Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit." 
 So he died. His quarters were placed over the city gates, 
 and his head was set upon a pole, opposite the meeting- 
 house in which he had preached the Gospel.* 
 
 We have mentioned the Act of Uniformity. It received 
 the royal assent on the igth of May, 1662, and came into 
 operation on the 24th of August following. By this Act, 
 five things were required of all ministers then in possession 
 of livings, as essential to their continuance in the Esta- 
 blishment. I. Re-ordination, if they had not been episco- 
 pally ordained before. 2. A declaration of " unfeigned 
 assent and consent to all and everything contained in the 
 Book of Common Prayer, and administration of the sacra- 
 ments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church " (a 
 new and corrected edition of which was then published, but 
 which great numbers of the clergy could not possibly see 
 before the time specified), affirming that there was nothing 
 in it contrary to the Word of God ; with a promise to use 
 the prescribed form and no other. 3. An oath of canonical 
 obedience and subjection to the bishop. 4. Abjuration of 
 the Solemn League and Covenant. 5. A declaration of 
 the unlawfulness of taking up arms against the King and 
 Government, upon any pretence whatsoever. 
 
 The interval that elapsed between the time when the Act 
 was passed, and the day on which it was to take effect, was 
 a period of anxious suspense, both to the people and their 
 ministers. It was a trial of character. Some came to an 
 
 ♦ Ivimey, i. 325 — 327. 
 u 2 
 
 ^'•■1^1 
 
 I 
 
 ■t,.fl 
 
 •'■■ fIJ 
 
 m 
 
 liil 
 
 a 
 
<^ 
 
 \ 
 
 292 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I' I 
 
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 ^1 
 
 
 |1 ! 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 293 
 
 ■|> 
 
 U 
 
 immediate decision, and left their livings before the ap- 
 pointed day; others waited till the time had expired; and 
 when at length the 24th of August came, there were found 
 more than tiuo thousand worthy, learned, pious ministers, 
 ready to say, " We ought to obey God rather than men." 
 And they acted on the principle. Regardless of conse- 
 quences, they sacrificed all to truth and to God, and cast 
 themselves on Providence for supply and defence, exhibit- 
 ing to the world and to future ages a noble example of dis- 
 interested virtue and conscientious integrity. The loss 
 which they sustained was by no means trivial. They were 
 not only forbidden to exercise their ministry, under severe 
 penalties, but they were left without any visible means of 
 subsistence. No provision was made for them, no mercy 
 was shown to them : on the contrary, one persecuting 
 decree was followed by another, and the governing powers 
 seemed only to be engaged in racking their brains to devise 
 some new method of vexing and tormenting their more 
 worthy fellow-countrymen. 
 
 On the list of the ejected ministers stand the names of 
 Richard Baxter, John Howe, Joseph Alleine, John Owen, 
 Stephen Charnock, John Flavel, and many more, whose 
 writings are still rendering service to the cause of God. 
 About thirty of the ejected belonged to the Baptist denomi- 
 nation. The Church of England sustained a blow from 
 that ejectment from which she has scarcely yet recovered,. 
 Her best men were driven away. Uniformity was the idol 
 set up, and all who would not bow down to it were sacri- 
 ficed without mercy. 
 
 The hand of power was heavy on the Nonconformists in 
 every part of England. In Buckinghamshire the persecu- 
 tion raged with intolerable fierceness. So numerous were 
 the prisoners, that the magistrates were obliged to hire two 
 large houses lor their accommodation, the county jail being 
 too small. On ont occasion, in 1664, the Baptist minister 
 
 I 
 
 
 H 
 
 'IK ij 
 
 m 
 
 •I'H 
 
 s 
 
 \'.l 
 
294 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 M! 
 
 of Aylesbury and eleven of his congregation were seized, 
 among whom were two women. They were placed before 
 the justices at the Quarter Sessions, and advantage was 
 taken of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth to require them either 
 to conform to the Church of England and take the oaths of 
 allegiance and supremacy, or to abjure the realm ; and they 
 were told that if they would not do either, they would be 
 declared guilty of felony, and sentence of death would be 
 passed on them. Unawed by this prospect, they replied, 
 that as they could not comply with the requisitions, they 
 threw themselves on the mercy of the court ; on which they 
 were sentenced to be hanged, and sent back to jail till the 
 day of execution. The sentence would have been executed, 
 had not measures been promptly taken to lay the case before 
 the King, and obtain his interference. The son of one of 
 the condemned persons hastened to London, and, by the 
 assistance of William Kiffin, procured an interview with the 
 Lord Chancellor, who immediately proceeded to the King. 
 Implacable as Charles had proved himself to be in John 
 James's case, he saw that the wholesale murder contem- 
 plated at Aylesbury would bring his government into dis- 
 repute, and might stir up resentment not easily to be ap- 
 peased. He was willing enough to worry his subjects into 
 submission, or at least to attempt to do so, by confiscation 
 and the dungeon ; but the thought of sacrificing twelve 
 lives at once to the demon of intolerance was too shocking 
 even for Charles IL A reprieve was placed in the hands 
 of the applicant, and at the next assizes his Majesty's 
 pardon was produced by the presiding judge, and the 
 prisoners were released. 
 
 Let us now give an instance of interference with the 
 freedom of the press. Benjamin Keach, a Baptist minister* 
 wrote a small book for children, entitled, " The Child's In- 
 structor; or, a New and Easy Primer." In the cat-schetical 
 portion of the book Baptist sentiments were inculcated. It 
 
 i! i 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 295 
 
 was affirmed that ** believers, or godly men and women only, 
 who can make confession of their faith and repentance," 
 should be baptized. The personal reign of the Saviour on 
 earth for a thousand years, held at the time by some Bap- 
 tists, was taught. And, which was peculiarly offensive, 
 Mr. Keach said, that " Christ's true ministers have not 
 their learning and wisdom from men, or from universities, 
 or human schools ; for human learning, arts and sciences, 
 are not essential to the making of a true minister; but only 
 the gift of God, which cannot be bought with silver or gold. 
 And also, as they have freely received the gift of God, so 
 they do freely administer ; they do not preach for hire, for 
 gain or filthy lucre ; they are not like false teachers, who 
 look for gain from their quarters, who eat the fat, and clothe 
 themselves with the wool, and kill them that are fed : those 
 that put not into their mouths they prepare war against. 
 Also, they are not lords over God's heritage ; they rule them 
 not by force and cruelty, neither have they power to force 
 and compel men to believe and obey their doctrine, but are 
 only to persuade and entreat ; thus is the way of the Gospel, 
 as Christ taught them." 
 
 For this he was indicted at the assizes. The language of 
 the indictment may amuse the reader. " Thou art here 
 indicted by the name of Benjamin Keach, of Winslow, in 
 the county of Bucks, for that thou, being a seditious, 
 heretical, and schismatical person, evilly and maliciously 
 disposed, and disaffected to his Majesty's government of 
 the Church of England, didst maliciously and wickedly, on 
 the first day of May, in the sixteenth year of the reign of our 
 sovereign lord the King, write, print, and publish, or cause to 
 be written, printed, and published, one seditious and veno- 
 mous book, entitled, ' The Child's Instructor ; or, a New and 
 Easy Primer ; ' wherein are contained, by way of question and 
 answer, these damnable positions, contrary to the Book of 
 Common Prayer, and the Liturgy of the Church of England." 
 
 
 
 n|! 
 
 'f*l 
 
 ii 
 
 %\ 
 
 m 
 
2g6 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 1 ' im 
 
 
 (■■ 
 
 The trial took place October 9, 1664. Chief Justice Hyde, 
 afterwards Lord Clarendon, presided, and conducted him- 
 self with a malignity wholly unbefitting his office. Under 
 his direction, a verdict of "Guilty" was recorded, and the 
 judge then proceeded to pass sentence, in the following 
 terms : — ** Benjamin Keach, you are here convicted for 
 writing, printing, and publishing a seditious and schis- 
 maticril book, for which the court's judgment is this, and 
 the court doth award : That you shall go to jail for a fort- 
 night, without bail or mainprise ; and the next Saturday to 
 stand upon the pillory at Aylestury, in the open market, 
 for the space of two hours, from eleven of the clock to one, 
 with a paper upon your head with this inscription : — * For 
 writing, printing, and publishing a schismatical book, 
 entitled, " The' Child's Instructor ; or, a New and Easy 
 Primer." ' And the next Thursday to stand in the same 
 manner, and for the same time, in the market of Winslow ; 
 and there your book shall be openly burnt, before your face, 
 by the common hangman, in disgrace of you and your 
 doctrine. And you shall forfeit to the King's Majesty the 
 sum of twenty pounds, and shall remain in jail until you 
 find sureties for your good behaviour, and appearance at 
 the next assizes, there to renounce your doctrines, and 
 make such public submission as shall be enjoined you." 
 
 The punishment of the pillory was abolished by Act of 
 Parliament in the year 1837. The instrument so called 
 was an upright frame placed on a scaffold, upon which the 
 offender stood, his head appearing through one hole of the 
 frame, and his hands fixed in two others. As this punish- 
 ment was generally reserved for persons guilty of perjury 
 and other infamous crimes, the mob were accustomed to 
 pelt them with rotten eggs or various kinds of filth, and 
 even with stones and brickbats, so that death sometimes 
 ensued. To such an exposure the Lord Chief Justice of 
 England dehvered up a worthy minister of the Gospel. 
 
Baptist His*ory. 
 
 297 
 
 :e Hyde, 
 
 ;ed him- 
 
 Under 
 
 and the 
 
 oUowing 
 
 cted for 
 
 d schis- 
 
 his, and 
 
 )r a fort- 
 
 urday to 
 
 market, 
 
 <. to one, 
 
 :_< For 
 
 il book, 
 
 id Easy 
 
 he same 
 
 /inslow ; 
 
 Dur face, 
 
 nd your 
 
 esty the 
 
 ntil you 
 
 ranee at 
 
 les, and 
 
 ou." 
 
 r Act of 
 o called 
 lich the 
 e of the 
 punish- 
 perjury 
 )med to 
 1th, and 
 netimes 
 stice of 
 Gospel. 
 
 The sentence was duly carried into execution, and the 
 sheriff, who was himself a fierce opposer of the truth, took 
 care that the judge's directions should be obeyed to the 
 very letter. 
 
 It was market-day at Aylesbury. The town was thronged. 
 People flocked thither from all parts of the country to see 
 the new and strange spectacle. But though many of them 
 were prepared to deride and sneer, the usual expressions of 
 popular indignation were wanting. Hitherto the pillory 
 had been reserved for the vilest criminals. But Mr. Keach 
 was a good man, and a preacher of the Gospel. They could 
 not find it in their hearts to pelt himJ* 
 
 Precisely at eleven o'clock he was placed in the pillory. 
 Many friends attended him, and stood around the instru- 
 ment of torture for the purpose of sympathy and encourage- 
 ment. And there, too, stood his wife, and " frequently 
 spoke in vindication of her husband, and of the principles 
 for which he suffered." A true *' helpmeet !" 
 
 ** Good people," said he, " I am not ashamed to stand 
 here this day, with this paper on my head ; my Lord Jesus 
 
 was not ashamed to suffer on the cross for me ; and it is 
 for His cause that I am made a gazing-stock. It is not for 
 any wickedness that I stand here, but for writing and pub- 
 lishing His truth." " No !" exclaimed an Episcopal clergy- 
 man, who was standing by; " it is for writing and publishing 
 errors.'' " Sir," replied Mr. Keach, " can you prove them 
 errors?" He would have answc^red, but he was too well 
 known by the multitude. " One told him of his being pulled 
 drunk out of a ditch. Another upbraided him with being 
 lately found drunk under a haycock. At this all the people 
 fell to laughing, and turned their diversion from the sufferer 
 in the pillory to the drunken priest ; insomuch that he 
 hastened away with the utmost disgrace and shame." 
 When the uproar had subsided, the voice from the pillory 
 
 * See Frontispiece. 
 
 !i;M 
 
 m 
 
 MS 
 
 i 
 
 Si ■ 
 
 ft 
 
 111 
 
 II 
 
 1; 
 
'fl 
 
 298 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 'a 
 
 ?v' 
 
 was heard again. Having somehow slipped one of his 
 hands out of the hole, he took his Bible from his pocket and 
 said, ** Take notice, that the things which I have written 
 and published, and for which I stand here this day a 
 spectacle to men and angels, are all contained in this book.'* 
 The jailer snatched the book from him, and replaced his 
 hand in the hole. 
 
 Still the voice came from the pillory. ** A great concern- 
 ment for souls was that which moved me to write and 
 publish those things for which I now suffer, and for which 
 I could suffer far greater things than these. It concerns you 
 therefore to be very careful, otherwise it will be very sad 
 with you, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven ; 
 for we must all appear before His tribunal." 
 
 The officers interposed, and he was compelled to be silent 
 for a time. But again he ventured. " Oh ! did you but 
 experience the great love of God, and the excellences that 
 are in Him, it would make you willing to go through any 
 sufferings for His sake. And I do account this the greatest 
 honour that ever the Lord was pleased to confer upon me." 
 
 The sheriff was furious, and declared that he should be 
 gagged if he did not hold his tongue. So he refrained from 
 speaking. Yet he could not forbear uttering these few words : 
 — ** This one * yoke ' of Christ, which I can experience, is 
 * easy ' to me, and a ' burden ' which He doth make * light.' " 
 
 When the two hours had expired, he was released, and 
 " blessed God with a loud voice for His great goodness unto 
 him." 
 
 That day week he was exposed to the same indignity at 
 Winslow, where he lived, and bore it with equal patience 
 and manliness. There also his book was publicly burnt, 
 according to the sentence.* 
 
 In 1664, the Conventicle Act was passed. The principal 
 clause was to this effect : — ** That if any person above the 
 
 ♦ Crosby, ii. 186—208. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 299 
 
 i of his 
 ket and 
 written 
 3 day a 
 s book.' 
 Lced his 
 
 :oncern- 
 "ite and 
 r which 
 irns you 
 ^ery sad 
 tieaven ; 
 
 36 silent 
 
 you but 
 
 ces that 
 
 igh any 
 
 greatest 
 
 on me." 
 
 ould be 
 
 ed from 
 
 words : 
 
 ence, is 
 
 light.' " 
 
 ed, and 
 
 ss unto 
 
 jnity at 
 atience 
 burnt, 
 
 rincipal 
 ove the 
 
 age of sixteen shall be present at any meeting, under colour 
 or pretence of any exercise of religion, in any other manner 
 than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the Church of 
 England, where shall be five or more persons than the 
 household, he shall for the first offence suffer three months' 
 imprisonment, upon record made upon ath, under the hand 
 and seal of a justice of peace, or pay a sum not exceeding 
 five pounds : for the second offence, six months' imprison- 
 ment, or ten pounds : and for the third offence, the offender 
 to be banished to some of the American plantations for 
 seven years, or pay one hundred pounds, excepting New 
 England or Virginia ; and in case they return, or make 
 their escape, such persons are to be adjudged felons, and 
 suffer death without benefit of clergy."* 
 
 The proceedings under this Act were summary. There 
 was no trial by jury. A single justice of the peace was 
 empowered to levy the fines, or commit the offenders to 
 jail, or even banish them for seven years ; and there was no 
 appeal from his decision. Under the operation of this law, 
 vast numbers suffered in every part of the kingdom. Those 
 who were banished were sent to the West Indies, where 
 they endured very hard treatment. 
 
 Next year the Five Mile Act was passed. It was entitled, 
 "An Act to restrain Nonconformists from inhabiting Corpora- 
 tions." All Nonconformist ministers were required to take the 
 following oath : — " I, A. B., do swear, that it is not lawful 
 upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the King; 
 and that I do abhor that traitorous position of taking arms 
 by his authority against his person, or against those that 
 are commissioned by him, in pursuance of such com- 
 missions ; and that I will not at any time endeavour any 
 alteration of government, either in Church or State." The 
 Earl of Southampton justly observed, that this was an oath 
 which " no honest man could take." But those ministers 
 
 ♦ Ncal, iv. 394. 
 
 ■ In 
 
 'fell 
 II 
 
 m 
 
 
 m 
 I 
 
 
300 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 * i 
 
 1 ■,'■ . i 
 
 who refused to take it were forbidden to go within five miles 
 of any city or town that sent members to Parliament, or 
 within five miles of any place where they had formerly ex- 
 ercised their ministry, before their ejectment. The fine for 
 every offence was forty pounds. They weie also declared 
 " incapable of teaching any public or private schools:" fine, 
 forty pounds. And in addition to the fines, any two justices 
 of the peace might " commit the offender to prison for six 
 months." 
 
 The object of this inhuman Act was to silence the 
 ministers, or compel them to conform for fear of starvation. 
 ** But the body of Nonconformist ministers refused the oath, 
 choosing rather to leave their habitations, their relations 
 and friends, and all visible support, than destroy the peace 
 of their consciences. Those ministers who had some little 
 estate or substance of their own retired to remote and obscure 
 villages, or such little market towns as were not corporations, 
 and more than five miles from the places where they had 
 preached ; but in many c junties it was difficult to find such 
 places of retirement, for either there were no houses un- 
 tenanted, or they were annexed to farms which the ministers 
 were not capable of using, or the people were afraid to admit 
 the ministers into their houses, lest they should be sus- 
 pected as favourers of nonconformity. Some took advantage 
 of the ministers' necessities, and raised their rents beyond 
 what they were able to give. Great numbers were thus 
 buried in obscurity ; but others, who had neither money nor 
 friends, went on preaching as they could, till they were sent 
 to prison, thinking it more eligible to perish in a jail than 
 to starve out of one, especially when by this means they 
 had some occasional relief from their hearers, and hopes 
 that their wives and children might be supported after their 
 death. Many who lay concealed in distant places from their 
 flocks in the day-time, rode thirty or forty miles to preach to 
 them in the night, and retired again before daylight. These 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 301 
 
 in five miles 
 rliament, or 
 formerly ex- 
 The fine for 
 so declared 
 lools:" fine, 
 :wo justices 
 ison for six 
 
 silence the 
 starvation. 
 id the oath, 
 ir relations 
 ' the peace 
 some little 
 nd obscure 
 rporations, 
 e they had 
 
 find such 
 louses un- 
 i ministers 
 d to admit 
 d be sus- 
 advantage 
 ts beyond 
 were thus 
 noney nor 
 were sent 
 
 jail than 
 2ans they 
 nd hopes 
 after their 
 from their 
 preach to 
 It. These 
 
 hardships tempted some few to conform" (says Mr. Baxter), 
 *' contrary to their former judgments; but the body of Dis- 
 senters remained steadfast to their principles, and the 
 Church gained neither reputation nor numbers."* 
 
 The Conventicle Act having failed to accomplish its pur- 
 pose, and the time specified for its operation having expired, 
 a severer law was passed in the spring of 1670. All persons 
 attending conventicles were to be fined five shillings for the 
 first offence, ten shillings for the second ; the preachers were 
 to be fined twenty pounds for the first offence, forty pounds 
 for the second ; the owners of the houses, barns, buildings, 
 or yards, in which the meetings were held, were to be fined 
 twenty pounds each time ; the fines were to be " levied by 
 distress and sale of the offender's goods and chattels ;" the 
 money was to be divided into three parts — one-third for the 
 King, one-third for the poor, and *• the other third to the 
 informer or his assistants, regard being had to their diligence 
 and industry in discovering, dispersing, and punishing the 
 said conventicles ;" and in case of the poverty of the minis- 
 ters, the fines imposed on them were to be levied " on the 
 goods and chattels of any other present." Any justice of 
 the peace refusing to carry the Act into execution was to be 
 fined five pounds ; and it was expressly declared, ** That all 
 clauses in the Act should be construed most largely and 
 beneficially for the suppressing of conventicles, and for 
 the justification and encouragement of all persons to be em- 
 ployed in the execution thereof." f 
 
 If the first Act scourged the Dissenters with whips, the 
 second was a scorpion plague. They were plundered and 
 imprisoned without remorse. To their disgrace be it spoken, 
 Archbishop Sheldon and many of the bishops exerted them- 
 selves in every possible way to enforce the Act. They sent 
 circulars to the clergy, directing them to stimulate and aid 
 the civil authorities : and some of the bishops went in 
 * Neal, iv. 402. + Ibid. 426. 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 i 
 
 n\ 
 
302 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 1 
 
 person to the places where meetings were supposed to be 
 held, in order to encourage the constables, or insure the 
 rigorous discharge of their duty. 
 
 The activity of the informers was excited by the promised 
 share of the penalties. Their infamous trade became lucra- 
 tive ; and many of them amassed large sums, mercilessly 
 filched from the servants of God. A more degrading and 
 detestable occupation cannot well be imagined. They spent 
 their time in prowling about the retired streets and bye- 
 lanes of towns, or in exploring the recesses of woods, and 
 wild, desolate places, if haply they might hear the voice of 
 singing or prayer, or watch the movements of some straggler 
 hastening to join his brethren. With savage glee they 
 darted upon the secret assemblies, gloating over their con- 
 fusion and distress, and specially rejoicing when they seized 
 the preacher, because of the heavier fine. They accom- 
 panied the constables when they executed warrants of dis- 
 tress on property ; and they attended the sales of the goods 
 seized, taking care to get bargains for themselves. They 
 scrupled not to take the bed from under the sick. They 
 robbed children of their bread, whose fathers were languish- 
 ing in prison. The law created their calling, and encoura^^ -J 
 them in diligently pursuing it. Magistrates urged them on. 
 Clergymen and country squires applauded their cleverness, 
 and judges on the bench commended them for their zeal. 
 There was an unholy alliance against truth and righteous- 
 ness, in which the titled and the learned were willing to 
 associate themselves with the meanest, the wickedest, and 
 the most brutal of men. 
 
 The prisons were crowded. Families were ruined. 
 Houses were desolated. Estates were impoverished or 
 abandoned. Numbers fled their native shores, and sought 
 in Holland or in the American wilderness for *' freedom to 
 worship God." 
 We will give the details of one case. On Lord's-day, 
 
 n 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 303 
 
 the 2gth of May, 1670, the IJaptists of Lewes, in Sussex, 
 met for worship in a house about a mile from the town. 
 Two persons watched them and became informers. The 
 minister was fined twenty pounds, and forty of the hearers 
 five shillings each ; but, as the minister was poor, his fine 
 was imposed on five members of the congregation. All the 
 fines were recovered by levying distresses on property, which 
 was done forthwith. 
 
 Walter Brett was a grocer; his fine, six pounds five 
 shillings. The constables took from him two barrels of 
 sugar, which cost him more than fifteen pounds. 
 
 Thomas Barnard was fined six pounds five shillings, 
 and his brother five pounds five shillings. Six cows were 
 taken from them, worth twenty-seven pounds. 
 
 Richard White, brazier, was fined three pounds fifteen 
 shillings ; for which, brass kettles and other articles were 
 seized, the value of which was upwards of ten pounds. 
 
 John Tabret's fine was two pounds fifteen shillings; a 
 cow was taken for it. 
 
 John Price and his wife were fined ten shillings, to pay 
 which sum four cheeses were taken. Price told the con- 
 stables that " he never sold anything to so great an 
 advantage, for this would bring him an hundred fold." 
 (See Matt. xix. 29.) 
 
 The same system of excessive and heartless distraint 
 was pursued in levying the fines of five shillings each upon 
 the other hearers. Five pairs of shoes were taken from one 
 shoemaker ; three pairs from another ; three hats from a 
 haberdasher ; a horse from a butcher ; the sheets from a 
 poor mason's bed, and his wife's under-apparel — and so on 
 
 Shortly after this a meeting was held in a house about 
 three miles from Lewes. The owner was fined twenty 
 pounds, and to meet it they took from him the whole of 
 his stock, being six cows, two young bullocks, and a horse.* 
 
 * Ivimey, i. 366 — 377. 
 
 >^li 
 
 m\ 
 
 f 
 
 ,'H| 
 
 m 
 
 1 
 
 iUirl 
 
 'hi 
 
 I 
 
304 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I'JU 
 
 n 
 
 in 
 
 ■'■■( 
 
 : .{■ 
 
 I it 
 
 hH'IE 
 
 I . 
 
 Section VI. 
 
 History of the Broadmead Church, Bristol. 
 
 PERHAPS we shall obtain a clearer view of the actual 
 condition of the Baptists in the reign of Charles II. 
 from the history of one church than from any other source. 
 We are fortunately furnished with such a history. The 
 records of the church at Broadmead, Bristol, have been 
 published by the Hanserd Knollys Society, end more re- 
 cently in " The Bunyan Library." We will give an extract 
 from the narrative. 
 
 This church was founded in 1640. The members met 
 regularly for worship, whether they could obtain the ser- 
 vices of a minister or not, the gifted brethren helping by 
 prayer and exhortation. In 165 1, Mr. Ewins, who had 
 been a minister in the Episcopal Church, became their 
 pastor. Under his ministry the church prospered. In 
 addition to the Lord's-day exercise, they met on Thursday 
 evenings in private houses for free conference on the Scrip- 
 tures and mutual exhortation. These meetings were found 
 very profitable. 
 
 But in 1661 their troubles began. On the 27th of July in 
 that year, Mr. Ewins was apprehended while preaching. 
 He was released on the 25th of September following, and 
 immediately recommenced his work. Next year he endured 
 another short imprisonment. A heavier trial came upon 
 them in 1663. Mr. Ewins and several others were arrested 
 on the 4th of October, and indicted at the quarter sessions 
 for a riot. VariOUS fines were imposed (Mr. Ewins was fined 
 £50), and the parties were adjudged to lie in prison till the 
 fines were paid. So the prison became the parsonage till 
 the following September, when a compromise was effected, 
 and on payment of part of the money the prisoners were 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 305 
 
 released. Mr. Ewins had not been idle, however. The 
 people were accustomed to gather around the prison, and 
 their pastor preached to them from the window of the room 
 which he occupied, on the fourth storey. ** The word of 
 the Lord was precious in those days." 
 
 Hitherto they had met in a ** chapel called the Friars" 
 but now they were compelled for a time to worship in 
 private houses. The constables frequently disturbed them, 
 and many were imprisoned and fined. Sometimes, when 
 they learnt that the officers were coming, they evaded them 
 
 BRISTOL BRIDGE, IN THE PRESENT TIMH, 
 
 by taking refuge in a cellar, and sometimes by climbing 
 into a garret. Still they resolutely kept up their assemblies. 
 "In the year 1665," they say " we had many disturbances, 
 and divers imprisoned, but lae Lord helped us through it.'" 
 Their firmness was remarkably shown by a resolution 
 passed to the effect, that those who ahsent^l themselves 
 from worship through fear should be dealt with as dis- 
 orderly members. The names of all the members were 
 engrossed on parchment, and the roll was called orce a 
 month, when they met for the Lord's Supper, " to see who 
 
 r t 
 
3o6 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 \i 
 
 II: 
 
 L< n 
 
 n ■ 
 
 doth omit their duty." Not many were willing to expose 
 themselves to church censure ; but now and then a case 
 occurred, and the delinquents were excluded "for neglect- 
 ing their duty of assembling, through fear." 
 
 When the plague broke out in Bristol, in 1666, a stop was 
 put to the persecution. There was peace for four years. 
 In 1667 the Church obtained another ** public meeting- 
 place." It was " a large warehouse, up one pair of stairs." 
 Mr. Ewins died April 26th, 1670. In the following month 
 the police made their appearance again, and took some 
 members of the congregation to the magistrates, who fined 
 them. This was repeated several Lord's-days ; but they 
 secured the preacher by breaking a hole in the wall, so that 
 he could stand in a room of the adjoining house, and preach 
 without being seen. Thus their enemies were baffled. The 
 opposition becoming more violent, they adopted another 
 course. They nailed up the doors of the meeting-house ; 
 and " we were fain," the record states, " to meet in the 
 lanes and highways for several months." 
 
 Another interval of tranquillity was enjoyed. They in- 
 vited Mr. Thomas Hardcastle, who had been preaching^ 
 some time in London, to become their pastor. He was in 
 prison when the invitation reached him. After his release 
 he visited the Church, and subsequently accepted the charge, 
 in 167 1. In that year they procured *' the meeting-house at 
 the lower end of Broadmead, where the heretics called 
 Quakers had formerly used to meet ; it being four great 
 rooms made into one square room, about sixteen yards long 
 and fifteen yards broad." There Mr. Hardcastle preached 
 upwards of three years without any disturbance. 
 
 But in 1674 there came a new bishop to Bristol, " one 
 Guy Carleton " — " though aged and grey, a violent man 
 against good people that separated from that which he called 
 the Church." ..." He resolved to destroy all our meet- 
 ings, and said he would not leave a track of a meeting in 
 
 At i 
 
to expose 
 en a case 
 r neglect- 
 
 a stop was 
 our years, 
 ; meeting- 
 
 of stairs." 
 ing month 
 took some 
 
 who fined 
 ; but they 
 all, so that 
 md preach 
 .ffled. The 
 id another 
 ing-house ; 
 leet in the 
 
 They in- 
 preaching^ 
 [e was in 
 lis release 
 the charge, 
 ig-house at 
 Itics called 
 four great 
 lyards long 
 preached 
 
 |stol, " one 
 
 )lent man 
 
 he called 
 
 our meet- 
 
 leeting in 
 
 4 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 
 307 
 
 Bristol ; but 'vould make us all come to Church, as he called 
 it." With him was leagued George Hellier, a lawyer, who 
 took up the trade of an informer, and found it more lucrative 
 than his profession. He spent the Lord's-days in going 
 from one meeting-house to another, in search of prey. His 
 chief object was to seize the minister, partly in the hope of 
 suppressing the meetings thereby, and partly for the sake of 
 the heavy fine. Mr. Hardcastle was apprehended Feb. 4th, 
 1675, and committed to jail for six months. But the meet- 
 ings were not discontinued, although arrests took place 
 nearly every Lord's-day. In order to protect the preacher, a 
 curtain was prepared, by which, when drawn, a portion of 
 the room was separated. About fifty persons could sit 
 behind the curtain, the preacher being placed among them, 
 undistinguished. Care was taken that a number of " women 
 and maids ' should sit on the staircase, *' so that the in- 
 formers could not quickly run up." By this contrivance, 
 whenever Hellier and his minions were approaching, notice 
 was given, the curtain was drawn, the service ceased, and 
 the whole congregation, according to a preconcerted arrange- 
 ment, commenced singing a psalm. When the informers 
 entered at such a time, they were utterly confused. It was 
 impossible to tell who had been preaching; and singing 
 psalms was no crime. But "justice had fallen in the 
 streets," and they rarely failed to drag away some of the 
 congregation to prison, and to procure the infliction of fines 
 upon them. 
 
 Mr. Hardcastle was released from prison at the end of six 
 months ; but, on the second Lord's-day after his release, he 
 was apprehended while preaching, and sent to jail again. 
 During this second term of imprisonment he wrote a weekly 
 letter to the Church, which was read at the Lord's-day 
 meetings. These letters have been preserved. They are 
 admirably adapted to the instruction and comfort of a people 
 under such trying circumstances. And they were much 
 
 X 2 
 
 i.H 
 
 1 1 
 
 M4| 
 
 
 hi' 
 
\ 
 
 308 
 
 Bapfist History. 
 
 needed. Towards the end of the year the meetings were 
 ** grown very poor and lean, through fines, imprisonments, 
 and constant worrying of us every day." On one occasion 
 the bishop himself was among the constables ! 
 
 From the beginning of 1676 to the middle of 1680 there 
 was a lull in the storm. Mr. Hardcastle died in 1678, and 
 was succeeded by Mr. George Fownes in September, 1679. 
 
 Interruption of their worship was resumed in July, 1680, 
 and continued at times through that year and the next. In 
 December, 1681, Mr. Fownes and a large number of the 
 brethren were seized and sent to prison. He preached to 
 them there. Twenty-four of them were brought up at the 
 quarter sessions, and obliged to give bail for their appear- 
 ance when called on to answer an indictment for a breach of 
 the peace, with which they were most unrighteously threat- 
 ened. Mr. Fownes was detained, but the brethren were 
 determined to test the legality of his imprisonment, and 
 procured a writ oi habeas corpus^ by which means his cause 
 was taken to the Court of King's Bench in London, and he 
 was ultimately discharged, although he was still prevented 
 by the operation of the Five Mile Act from preaching in 
 public. 
 
 The years 1682 and 1683 were the darkest times to our 
 brethren. They held their meetings in private houses, in 
 the fields, or in the woods, wherever they could best escape 
 the vigilance of the authorities. Mayor, aldermen, and con- 
 stables could hardly have gone to Church at all in those 
 years, for all their time was spent in hunting after Dissen- 
 ters' meetings. A few brief extracts from the records will 
 show how our ancestors fared. 
 
 1682. yaw. 29. — The Church met at four different places. 
 Many of them " went in the afternoon on Durdham Down, 
 and got into a cave of a rock towards Clifton, where brother 
 Thomas Whinnell preached to them." 
 
 March 12. — " Met in the fields by Barton Hundred, and 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 309 
 
 Mr. Samuel Buttall of Plymouth preached in the fore-part 
 of the day, and brother Whinnell in the evening. It was 
 thought there v/ere near a thousand persons in the morning." 
 
 March 19. — ** Met in the lanes beyond Baptist Mills." 
 
 April 13. — '• Met in the rain in a lane." 
 
 April 20. — ** A day of prayer, from nine till five in the 
 evening, at Mr. Jackson's, over the Down, in peace." 
 
 May 4. — " information was bro ght to a petty session 
 for Gloucestershire, against brother Jennings, for preaching 
 in the lanes, and a warrant granted for levying five pounds, 
 or else goods, or person." 
 
 ^iine II. — "Brother Fownes being come from London, 
 but not daring to come into the city because of the Corpora- 
 tion Act, met with us, and preached in Kingswood, near 
 Scruze Hole, under a tree, and endured the rain." 
 
 ^idy 2. — " Our pastor pre-^. '^ed in another place in the 
 wood. Our friends took much pains in the rain, because 
 rrany informers were ordered out to search; and we were 
 in peace, though there were near twenty men and boys in 
 search." 
 
 '^uly 16. — " Brother Fownes first, and Brother Whinnell 
 after, preached under a tree, it being very rainy." 
 
 August 20.—" Met above Scruze Hole, in our old place, 
 and heard brother Fownes preach twice in peace. Brother 
 Terril had caused a workman to make banks on the side of 
 the hill to sit down on, several of them like a gallery: and 
 there we met also on the 27th, in peace. On both days we 
 sang a psalm in the open woods." 
 
 '* On the 7th of December we met for our lecture at Mr. 
 Shuter's, on Redcliffe Hill, in peace, taking a great deal of 
 care in going and coming, the women wearing neither white 
 aprons nor patterns." 
 
 1683. Jan. 21. — ** We met at eight in the morning, and 
 though there were seven on horseback and twenty on foot 
 to seek after us, we escaped, having broken up at ten." 
 
 !5^f 
 
 nij 
 
 ,M(1 
 
 
\ 
 
 i' M 
 
 Mi 
 
 310 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 March. — ** This week about 150 Dissenters were con- 
 victed by our recorder, on the statute of 23rd Eliz., for £20 
 a month, for not coming to church." 
 
 March 25. — Mr. Fownes, though " very ill, vv^ent to the 
 meetings in the wood; but after three quarters of an h^ur 
 we were surrounded by horse and foot, the former in am- 
 bush." Mr. Fownes was arrested, and sent to Gloucester 
 jail for six months. 
 
 April 22. — '* We went out at four in the morning, and 
 were in peace." 
 
 November 14. — " A day of prayer, having some hours 
 together in the wood, between London and Sodbury Road : 
 the enemy came upon us unawares, and seized about eight 
 persons ; but the brethren escaped to admiration. The 
 bushes were .of great service to us." A number of the 
 sisters were taken : " they got Justice Fitz-Herbert to come, 
 and upon examination he could get little out of them, and 
 could not learn who was the preacher; so they were let go." 
 
 December 20. — " Watkins, the marshal, and others, v;ent 
 with warrants from Justice Herbert to brother John Morgan, 
 in Temple Street, and took his yarn and what goods they 
 could find, for seven pounds ten shillings. And the day 
 before took away Margaret Seymour's trunk and clothes, 
 with about thirty pounds, for seven pounds odd money, for 
 being at our meeting in the fields." 
 
 December 30. — " Being a hard frost, and snow on th- 
 ground, we met in the wood, and though we stood in the 
 snow the sun shone upon us, and we were in peace." 
 
 1684. March 4. — " We took our sad state into considera- 
 tion ; and brother Terrill signified, that our duty lay in 
 three things : — ist. To watch over one anotner, that none 
 draw back to the world's worship. 2nd. That every one 
 sanctify the Lore'' -day. 3rd. That we endeavour to edify 
 one another as members, and also do what we can for 
 others' souls. And, considering what is above, and that 
 
 'III. 
 
 ti l 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 311 
 
 were con- 
 5., for £20 
 
 it\t to the 
 f an huur 
 er in am- 
 aloucester 
 
 ning, and 
 
 •me hours 
 iry Road : 
 bout eight 
 on. The 
 ler of the 
 t to come, 
 hem, and 
 •e let go.'' 
 lers, v;ent 
 1 Morgan , 
 )ods they 
 I the day 
 clothes, 
 oney, for 
 
 V on thj 
 d in the 
 
 Dnsidera- 
 y lay in 
 lat none 
 very one 
 to edify 
 can for 
 and that 
 
 writs are daily expected to levy £20 a month, £240 per 
 annum a man, upon us, for not coming to church, or im- 
 prison us if it be not be paid, there being thirteen brethren 
 present, we agreed to have circular meetings at five places, 
 where the brethren were to exercise their gifts, and twice in 
 a day, at nine in the morning, and at one in the afternoon. 
 These five places were. — ist, brother Dickson, or Davis ; 
 2nd, brother Clark or Robert Lewis ; 3rd, brother Whinnell; 
 4th, brother Ellis or J. Ciornhs ; 5th, brother Terrill. And 
 also three places for prayer and repetition ; viz. brother 
 Gwilliam's, brother Bodenham's, brother Reeve's. And 
 because some might be sick or otherwise detained, we 
 appointed six or seven to a place, and the first four were to 
 be taken in, and that those that were shut out were to go 
 to the places of repetition. And none were to go to a place 
 but once a day, and not to the same place every Lord's-day ; 
 but round, so they came to the same once in five weeks. 
 And by this means near one hundred might hear every 
 Lord's-day, and in a few weeks have the benefit of all the 
 Church's gifts. And besides, brother Whinnell would re- 
 peat again at some house in the evening, and on week-days 
 at other places. Thus we kept within the law, which allowed 
 four besides the family. And on the ninth of March we 
 began this circular meeting." 
 
 April 10. — " Brother Warren was fined £10 for a riot, 
 being at a meeting near Roe Gate, and fees 47s., which he 
 paid in the hall at Gloucester. Put Lugg was forsworn in 
 it, for he swore it was on the 27^1, and it was on the 29th 
 day that the meeting was. Old brother Cornish was bound 
 to appear again next sessions, and several others. Some 
 were fined 40s. and their fees, and released. Sister Fowles 
 was put in prison at Gloucester. Some were fined five 
 marks, as Mr. Jos. Wey ; some £5, as the justices pleased, 
 and to lie in prison till paid. About this time Pug Read 
 died miserably, being an informer about twenty years old : 
 
 U 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 ,.,.t 
 
 i 
 
 ■;8 
 
312 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 •ii 
 
 i 'I 
 
 had his skull broke, as was said, by one of his companions; 
 he was one that broke into Mr. Terrill's house." 
 
 September i6. — ** Several of our brethren, brother Hunt, 
 William Dickason, &c., and many more, were summoned 
 by the apparitor to the bishop's court, for not receiving the 
 Lord's Supper." 
 
 Oetoher 7. — *' Nearly twenty more friends were indicted 
 for eleven months' not coming to church." . . . "And 
 brother Fownes being brought into court, was by Powell, 
 the chairman, called a ringleader, turbulent, seditious, and 
 told he must find six hundred pounds' bail to appear next 
 sessions at Bristol, and be of good behaviour, or lie in 
 prison." 
 
 October 10. — " New mayor and sheriff being chosen, 
 James Twyford, sheriff, threatens to find out our little 
 meetings, and he would be like death, — spare none." 
 
 1685. January 13. — "At the quarter sessions, brother 
 Fownes was treated as before, and Justice Powell, the 
 chairman, told him. Sir Richard Hart, of Bristol, should 
 say he was a dangerous man. So they still kept him there 
 at Gloucester, prisoner." 
 
 ** On the 29th of November, 1685, our pastor, brother 
 Fownes, died in Gloucester jail, having been kept there for 
 two years and about nine months a prisoner, unjustly and 
 maliciously, for the testimony of Jesus and preaching the 
 Gospel." He was originally committed for six months, but 
 they would not release him unless he would give bond for 
 his good behaviour, which meant, that he would not preach 
 again. This, of course, he would not do. 
 
 Thus the enemy prevailed, and the servants of God were 
 brought low. Truly, they were " perilous times." 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 313 
 
 panions; 
 
 er Hunt, 
 immoned 
 iving the 
 
 indicted 
 . "And 
 / Powell, 
 ious, and 
 3ear next 
 or lie in 
 
 chosen, 
 )iir little 
 
 , brother 
 veil, the 
 should 
 im there 
 
 brother 
 lere for 
 stly and 
 ling the 
 ths, but 
 )ond for 
 
 preach 
 
 •d were 
 
 Sectioj^ VII. 
 
 Declaration of Indulgence— Confession of Faith— Fierce Persecution— Thomas 
 Delaune — The Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion — Account of the Hewlings ' 
 — Mrs. Gaunt— The Dark Time— Another Declaration of Indulgence — 
 William Kiffin— The Glorious Revolution. 
 
 THERE were some intervals of rest during this period, 
 .ving Charles was bent on removing the re^' tions 
 imposed on Roman Catholics, and on several occasions the 
 severity of the persecution was relaxed, in the hope that 
 some general measure would be introduced in Parliament 
 embracing all parties. In 1672, he issued a *' Declaration 
 of Indulgence," by which in the exercise of the prerogative 
 the operation of the penal enactment was suspended during 
 the royal pleasure. Many Nonconformist ministers availed 
 themselves of it, and took out licences to preach. 
 
 But the Dissenters generally refused to receive the " De- 
 claration," declaring it an unlawful exercise of the preroga- 
 tive, and fearing the consequences that might follow the 
 admission of Roman Catholics to power. They did more. 
 They submitted without a murmur to the Test Act, which 
 was passed in 1673, and by which all persons who accepted 
 office of any kind under Government were required to take 
 the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of 
 England, and to subscribe a declaration against transub- 
 stantiation. The primary object of that Act was the ex- 
 clusion of Roman Catholics from power, and that being 
 accomplished, it was expected that the door would be 
 opened to Protestant Dissenters, by a repeal of the test so 
 far as they were concerned. But bigotry kept the door 
 shut till the year 1828, and the Lord's Supper was all that 
 time " an office key, a picklock to a place." 
 
 In the midst of the uncertainties and perils of the times, 
 a meeting of ministers and delegates was summoned in 
 
 
 m 
 
314 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 It V 
 
 1675, to consider the propriety of taking steps for the educa- 
 tion of candidates for the ministry. Whether the meeting 
 was held or not, we are unable to say ; but the proposal 
 itself, under those circumstances, indicates moral courage 
 as well as enlightened views. 
 
 Two years after, a Confession of Faith was published, 
 under the following title: — ** A Confession of Faith, put 
 forth by the elders and brethren of many congregations of 
 Christians (baptized upon profession of their faith) in London 
 and the country. With an Appendix concerning baptism." 
 
 In doctrinal points the language of the Assembly's Con- 
 fession is for the most part adopted, while on baptism and 
 Churc|;i government the views of our denomination are very 
 clearly and fully expressed. The alleged grounds of infant- 
 baptism are critically examined in the Appendix, and their 
 insufficiency proved. " Let it not therefore be judged of us 
 (because much hath been written on this subject, and yet 
 we continue this our practice different from others) that it 
 is out of obstinacy ; but rather, as the truth is, that we do 
 herein, according to the best of our understandings, worship 
 God, out of a pure mind, yielding obedience to His precept, 
 in that method which we take to be most agreeable to the 
 scriptures of truth and primitive practice. ... It would not 
 become us to give any such intimation as should carry a 
 semblance that what we do in the service of God is with a 
 doubting conscience, or with any such temper of mind, that 
 we do thus for the present with a reservation that we will 
 do otherwise hereafter upon more mature deliberation ; nor 
 have we any cause so to do, being fully persuaded that what 
 we do is agreeable to the will of God. Yet we do heartily 
 propose this, that if any of the servants of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ shall, in the spirit of meekness, attempt to convince 
 us of any mistake, either in judgment or practice, we shall 
 diligently ponder his arguments, and account him our 
 chiefest friend that shall be an instrument to convert us 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 315 
 
 from any error that is in our ways ; for we cannot wittinj^ly 
 do anything against the truth, but all things for the truth."* 
 
 This is thoroughly Baptist language. So we have always 
 held and professed. We are " ready to give an answer to 
 any man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us," 
 and we trust that we shall ever be thankful to any man who 
 will convince us of error or show us " a more excellent 
 way." 
 
 The persecution raged furiously in the latter years of the 
 reign of Charles II. It seemed to be the settled policy 
 of the Court to crush the Nonconformists. Informers 
 fattened on them. Judges and magistrates encouraged the 
 informers, and were in their turn urged to greater diligence 
 and zeal in their infamous career by the clergy, even by 
 bishops. Some of the Nonconformists were cited to the 
 spiritual courts, and excommunicated, which was tanta- 
 mount to ruin, as an excommunicated person was out of 
 the protection of the law. Others were prosecuted for attend- 
 ing conventicles or for not going to church, and their pro- 
 perty was seized for the payment of fines. So numerous 
 were these cases, that in the small town of Uxbridge and 
 its neighbourhood (fifteen miles from London) " two hundred 
 warrants of distress were issued." The ministers, particu- 
 larly, were hunted down like wild beasts. Many of them 
 were under the necessity of selling their household furni- 
 ture and books in order to provide food for their starving 
 families. It has been estimated that property o the amount 
 of two millions sterling in value was taken from the Non- 
 conformists during the reigns of Charles II. and James II. 
 
 The prisons were crowded, and gieat numbers died in 
 confinement — as really put to death — murdered — as if they 
 had been hanged or shot. We will select one instance. 
 
 Thomas Delaune was a native of Ireland. His parents 
 were Roman Catholics. The gentleman on whose estate 
 * Confessions of Faith, &c,, p. 232. 
 
 'I 
 ' ' '' 
 
 
 
 111 
 
 
 m 
 
3i6 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 they lived noticing in youn{]f Delaune an aptness for study, 
 sent him to a friary at Kilcrash, about seven miles from 
 Cork, for education. Having; remained there nine years, 
 he obtained a situation at Kinj;sale, as clerk to a Mr. 
 Bampfield, who was largely engaged in the pilchard 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 THE OLD TOWN OF LXBKIDGl-. 
 
 n 
 
 fishery. Mr. Bampfield's efforts were blessed to his con- 
 version from Popery and sin. After some years he found 
 it necessary to leave Ireland, his religious zeal having 
 excited persecution. He settled ultimately in London, as 
 a schoolmaster, and was well known as a pious, learned, 
 and exemplary man. He enjoyed the friendship of Ben- 
 
or study, 
 iles from 
 le 3'ears, 
 o a Mr. 
 
 pilchard 
 
 mil 
 
 t 
 
 jiiii,;tiii:i 
 
 hi U 4 
 
 IIIIIIIIIOIIIIIIIllHlllliillllliil 
 
 "^ 4r::. 
 
 lis con- 
 found 
 having 
 don, as 
 earned, 
 if Ben- 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 317 
 
 jamin Keach, William Kiffin, and other Baptist ministers, 
 by whom he was much esteemed. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Calamy, one of the royal chaplains, pub- 
 lished a sermon, entitled, "A Scrupulous Conscience." He 
 challenged the Nonconformists to a discussion of the points 
 at issue between the Church of England and themselves, 
 and invited them to propose their doubts and difikulties, 
 that the truth might be ascertained. Mr. Delaune accepted 
 the challenge, and wrote his " Plea for the Nonconformists," 
 in which the subject is handled with consummate ability. 
 ** The Book," says Defoe, " is perfect in itself. Never 
 author left behind him a more finished piece ; and I be- 
 lieve the dispute is entirely ended. If any man ask what 
 we can say, why the Dissenters differ from the Church of 
 England, and what they can pleac' for it — I can recom- 
 mend no better reply than this. Let them answer in short, 
 Thomas Delaune, and desire the querist to read the book." 
 Before the work was finished at press, it was seized by a 
 king's messenger, and its author lodged in jail. He was 
 first •* committed to Wood Street Compter, and lodged 
 among the common-side prisoners, where he had a hard 
 bench for his bed, and two bricks for his pillows." Thence 
 he was removed to Newgate, and placed among the felons, 
 whose " horrid company," as he wrote to Dr. Calamy, gave 
 him " a perfect representation of that horrid place which 
 you describe when you mention hell." He was afterwards 
 allowed to associate with prisoners of a better sort. Before 
 his trial he appealed to Dr. Calamy for friendly interference 
 on his behalf. The doctor, as he reminded him, had invited 
 discussion, and in writing the book he had but responded 
 to his challenge. But instead of the treatment which one 
 scholar ought to expect from another, he was cast into 
 prison. He ''would fain be convinced by something more 
 like divinity than Newgate." *' I had some thoughts," he 
 said, in another communication, *' that you would have per- 
 
 if 
 
 „• if 
 
 I 'I 
 
 I 
 f 
 
 I-. : 
 
 
 if 
 
 r 
 
 ill 
 
 III 
 
 
i^ 
 
 \ 
 
 lili' 
 
 Mi 
 
 'J 
 
 1 
 
 If' 
 
 'Vi 
 
 il 
 
 
 % ' 
 
 ? 
 
 318 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 formed the office of a divine, in visiting me in my place of 
 confinement ; either to argue me out of my doubts, which 
 your promised Scripture and reason, not a mittimus or New- 
 gate, could easily do. To the fornier I can yield. To the 
 latter it seems I must. This is a severe kind of iQgic, and 
 will probably dispute me out of this world." — But Dr. 
 Calamy was deaf to his appeal, and ungenerous enough 
 to abstain from exercising any influence in favour of his 
 opponent. 
 
 Mr. Delaune was tried at the Old Bailey in January, 1684, 
 for " a certain false, seditious, and t^randalous libel against 
 the King and the Book of Common Prayer." He entreated 
 that the question might be thoroughly and fairly examined. 
 " I desire," he said, *'■ that the entire paragraphs may be 
 read, from which the crimes charged against me are in- 
 ferred. If fragments only be produced, from which no per- 
 fect sense can be deduced, I shall be unfairly dealt with. 
 The coherence of sense in a continued discourse, not scraps 
 and broken pieces of sentences, can demonstrate the scope 
 of an argument. If what I have written be true, it is no 
 crime, unless truth be made a crime. If false, let Dr. 
 Calamy or any of the guides of your Church confute me (as 
 he promised in his sermon aforesaid), by good Scripture 
 and good reason ; then will I submit. If the latter method 
 be not taken, I must repeat it, 'tis very hard, my lord, 'tis 
 very hard." 
 
 No doubt it was "hard, very hard." But Jeffreys was 
 on the bench. A verdict cf " guilty " was recorded, and 
 the sentence ran thus : — " Thomas Delaune fined a hundred 
 marks, and to be kept prisoner, &c., and to find good security 
 for his good behaviour for one whole year afterwards ; and 
 that the said books and seditious libels by him published 
 shall be burnt with fire before the Royal Exchange, 
 London." 
 
 The sentence consigned him to a slow and painful mar- 
 
 1 1 
 
' place of 
 :s, which 
 or Neiv- 
 To the 
 jgic, and 
 But Dr. 
 i enough 
 ir of his 
 
 .ry, 1684, 
 
 1 against 
 
 intreated 
 
 camined. 
 
 may be 
 
 are in- 
 
 i no per- 
 
 alt with. 
 
 )t scraps 
 
 le scope 
 
 it is no 
 
 let Dr. 
 
 me (as 
 
 cripture 
 
 method 
 
 ord, 'tis 
 
 ;ys was 
 ed, and 
 lundred 
 security 
 Is; and 
 IbHshed 
 phange, 
 
 il mar- 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 319 
 
 tyrdom. We quote Defoe again, who wrote a recommen- 
 datory preface to the seventeenth edition of the ** Plea:" — 
 
 " The expensive prosecution, depriving him of his liveli- 
 hood, which was a grammar school, and long imprison- 
 ment, had made him not only unable to payj his fine, but 
 unable to subsist himself and his family. 
 
 " He continued in close confinement in the prison of 
 
 
 CHEAFSIDE CROSS, THE PLACE OF BURNING HERETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Newgate about fifteen months, and suffered there great 
 hardships by extreme poverty, being so entirely reduced by 
 this disaster, that he had no subsistence but what was con- 
 tributed by such friends as came to visit him. 
 
 " His behaviour in this distress was like the greatness of 
 mind he discovered at his trial. And the same spirit which 
 appears in his writings appeared in his conversation, and 
 supported him with invincible patience under the greatest 
 extremities. But long confinement and distresses of various 
 
 if I 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
\ 
 
 i. V 
 
 ' f 
 
 11 ,1 
 
 320 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 kinds at last conquered him. He had a wife and two small 
 children, all with him in the prison, for they had no sub- 
 sistence elsewhere. The closeness and inconvenience of 
 the place first affected them, and all three, by lingering 
 sorrow and sickness, died in the prison. At last, worn out 
 with trouble, and hopeless of relief, and too much aban- 
 doned by those who should have taken some other care of 
 him, this excellent person sank under the burden, and died 
 there also. We cannot refrain saying that such a cham- 
 pion, of such a cause, deserved better usage. And it was 
 very hard that such a man, such a Christian, such a scholar, 
 and on such an occasion, should starve in a dungeon ; and 
 that the whole body of Dissenters in England, whose cause 
 he died for defending, should not raise him £66 135. 4^. to 
 save his life." 
 
 " Had I been a minister," said John Sharp, pastor of the 
 Baptist Church at Frome, Somersetshire, soon after the 
 Revolution of 1688, " I would have taken a horse, and rode 
 till my skm was off, but I would have got the money to pay 
 his fine."* 
 
 " I am sorry to say," Defoe observes, *' he is one of near 
 eight thousand Protestant Dissenters that perished in prison 
 in the days of that merciful Prince, King Charles H., and 
 that merely for dissenting from the Church in points which 
 they could give such reasons for as this * Plea ' assigns ; 
 and fo** no other cause were stifled, I had almost said 
 murdered, in jails, for their religion." 
 
 Soon after the accession of James H., the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth's rebellion broke out, and involved great numbers in 
 ruin. Some Baptists were compromised in it. That was 
 not to be wondered at. James II. was a Papist and a 
 tyrant. He was known to be a cold-hearted, blood-thirsty 
 man. It was not believed that the liberties of England 
 would be safe in his keeping. Besides this, some of the 
 
 ♦ Ivimey, ii. 556. 
 
 U I 
 
 ( I 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 1 1 
 
 321 
 
 insurgents regarded Monmouth as the legitimate son of 
 Charles II., and therefore the rightful heir to the throne; 
 while others deemed it better to overlook the staia of his 
 birth, and thus to secure a Protestant succession, than to 
 expose the kingdom to the misrule of a Popish despot. 
 Had the enterprise succeeded, they would have been ap- 
 plauded as patriots : by its defeat, their names were handed 
 down to posterity as traitors. Numbers of them suffered 
 the vengeance of the law. The brutal judge, Jeffreys, pre- 
 sided at the trials, and hurried off his victims to the gibbet 
 by the shortest process, and with all the glee of a practised 
 butcher. 
 
 The fate of two young men excited unusual commisera- 
 tion. Benjamin and Thomas Hewling were grandsons of 
 William Kiffin, whose dau<;hter their father had married. 
 The father having died, Mr. Kiffin took charge of the family, 
 and assisted the surviving parent in giving them an excel- 
 lent education and training. William was at a seminary in 
 Holland when the Duke of Monmouth planned his ill-fated 
 expedition. He accompanied the Duke to England. Ben- 
 jamin, " conversing with those that were under great dis- 
 satisfaction, seeing Popery encouraged, and religion and 
 liberty like to be invaded, did furnish himself with arms, 
 and went to the said Duke." After the disastrous battle of 
 Sedgemoor, the two brothers attempted to escape by sea, 
 but were driven back by contrary winds, and compelled to 
 land and surrender themselves prisoners. After a short 
 confinement in Exeter jail, they were conveyed to London, 
 where they were lodged in Newgate, and remained there 
 three weeks, when they were sent back to the West for 
 trial. 
 
 Their grandfather laboured hard to save them. Every- 
 thing was venal in those days. " It being given out," says 
 Mr. Kiffin, " that the King would make only a few who 
 had been taken examples, and would leave the rest to 
 
 y 
 
 tr'l 
 
 M 
 
 m 
 
 ms% 
 
 
 '^^ 
 
 m 
 
 yh 
 
322 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ilHil 
 
 If 
 
 his officers, to compound for their lives, I attempted with 
 my daughter, their mother, to treat with a great man, 
 agreeing to give him three thousand pounds if he would 
 obtain their deliverance. But the face of things was soon 
 altered, so that nothing but severity could be expected. 
 Indeed, we missed the right door, for the Lord Chief 
 Justice IJeiVreys], finding that agreements were made 
 with others, and so little attention paid to himself, was 
 the more provoked to use all manner of cruelty to the 
 poor prisoners, so that few escaped, and amongst the rest 
 those two young men were executed."'* 
 
 Their sister was indefatigable in her endeavours on 
 their behalf. When all other means had failed, she de- 
 termined to present a petition to the King. " For this 
 purpose she jwas introduced by Lord Churchill, afterwards 
 the celebrated Duke of Marlborough. While they waited 
 in the ante-chamber for admittance, standing near the 
 chimney-piece. Lord Churchill assured her of his most 
 hearty wishes of success to her petition. * But, madam,' 
 said he, * I dare not flatter you with any such hopes, for 
 that marble is as capable of feeling compassion as the 
 King's heart.' "t 
 
 So it proved. The King's heart was hard as adamant. 
 The Hewlings were executed : William, at Lyme, Sep- 
 tember 1 2th, 16S5; Benjamin, at Taunton, on the 30th 
 of the same month. How they spent the last few days 
 of their lives, and how they died, has been admirably 
 told by their sister, from whose narrative I will give a 
 brief abstract. 
 
 •• At Salisbury, the 30th of August, I had the first 
 opportunity of conversing with them. I found them in 
 a very excellent composure of mind, declaring their ex- 
 perience of the grace and goodness of God to them in all 
 their sufterings, in supporting and strengthening and pro- 
 
 • Life of K! fin. v 63. * Ibid. p. 64. 
 
I \ 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 323 
 
 viding for them, turning +he hearts of all in whose hands 
 tliey had been, both at Exeter and on shipboard, to show 
 pity and to favour them, although since they came to New- 
 gate they were hardly used, and now in their journey loaded 
 with heavy irons and more inhumanly dealt with. They 
 with great cheerfulness professed that they were better, 
 and in a more happy condition, than ever in their lives, 
 from the sense they had of the'pardoning love of God in 
 Jesus Christ to their souls, wholly referring themselves to 
 their wise and gracious God to choose for them life or 
 death, expressing themselves thus : — * Anything what 
 pleaseth God ; what He sees best, so be it. We know 
 He is able to deliver, but if not, blessed be His name ; 
 death is not terrible now, but desirable.' 
 
 " The sixth of September, Mr. Benjamin HewHng was 
 ordered to Taunton, to be tried there. Taking my leave 
 of him, he said, ' Oh ! blessed be God for afflictions. I 
 would not have been without them for all this world.' 
 
 " I remained still at Dorchester, to wait the issue of 
 Mr. William Hewling, to whom, after trial, I had free 
 access, and whose discourse was much filled with admirings 
 of the grace of God which had been manifested towards 
 him in calling him out of his natural state. He said, 
 God by His Holy Spirit did suddenly seize upon his heart 
 when he thought not of it, in his retired abode in Holland, 
 as it were secretly whispering in his heart, ' Seek ye My 
 face,' enabling him to answer His gracious call and to 
 reflect upon his own soul, showing him the evil of sin and 
 the necessity of Christ, from that time carrying him on to 
 a sensible adherence to Christ for justification and eternal 
 life. Hence he found a spring of joy and sweetness beyond 
 the comforts of the whole earth. 
 
 "When I came to him the next morning, when he had 
 received news that he must die the next day, and in order to 
 it was to be carried to Lyme that day, I found him in a 
 
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324 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 l,SS ii 
 
 '■l 
 
 more excellent, raised, and spiritual frame than before. He 
 was satisfied, he said, that God had chosen best for him. ^■ 
 'He knows what the temptations of life might have been. 
 1 might have lived and forgotten God ; but now I am going 
 where I shall sin no more. Oh, it is a blessed thing to be 
 freed from sin and to be with Christ ! Oh ! how great 
 were the sufferings of Christ for me, beyond all I can 
 undergo ! How great is the glory to which I am going ! 
 It will soon swallow up all our sufferings here ! ' 
 
 ** As they passed through the town of Dorchester to 
 Lyme, multitudes of people beheld them with great la- 
 mentations, admiring his deportment at his parting with 
 his sister. Passing on the road, his discourse was ex- 
 ceedingly spiritual, taking occasion from everything to 
 speak of the, glory they were going to. Looking at the 
 country as he passed, he said, * This is a glorious crea- 
 tion, but what then is the paradise of God to which we; 
 are going. It is but a few hours, and we shall be there, 
 and be for ever with the Lord.' 
 
 " At Lyme, just before they went to die, reading John 
 xiv. 8, he said to one of his fellow-sufferers, ' Here is a sweet 
 promise for us — / will not leave you comfortless, I will 
 come tinto yon. Christ will be with us to the last ! * 
 One taking leave of him, he said, * P'^arewell till we meet 
 in heaven. Presently we shall be with Christ. Oh, I 
 would not change conditions with any one in this world. 
 I would not stay behind for ten thousand worlds.' 
 
 " Afterwards he prayed for three-quarters of an hour with 
 the greatest fervency, exceedingly blessing God for Jesus 
 Christ, adoring the riches of His grace in him, in all the 
 glorious fruits of it towards him, praying for the peace of 
 the Church of God, and of these nations in particular ; all 
 with such eminent assistance of the Spirit of God as con- 
 vinced, astonished, and melted into pity the hearts of all 
 present, even the most malicious adversaries, forcing tears 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 325 
 
 was ex- 
 
 and expressions from them ; some saying, they knew not 
 what would become of them after death, but it was evident 
 he was going to great happiness. 
 
 *' When just departing out of the world, with a joyful 
 countenance, he said, * Oh, now my joy and comfort is that 
 I have a Christ to go to ; ' and so sweetly resigned his spirit 
 to Christ. 
 
 " An officer who had shown so malicious a spirit as to call 
 the prisoners 'devils,' when he was -Guarding them down, 
 was now so convinced that he afterwards told a person of 
 quality that he was never so affected as by his cheerful 
 carriage and fervent prayer, such as he believed was never 
 heard, especially from one so young ; and said, * I believe, 
 had the Lord Chief Justice been here, he would not have let 
 him die.' 
 
 " The sheriff having given his body to be buried, although 
 it was brought from the place of execution without any 
 notice given, yet very many of the town, to the number of two 
 hundred, came to accompany him ; and several young 
 women of the best of the town laid him in his grave in 
 Lyme church-yard, September 13th; 1685. 
 
 *' When I came to Taunton to Mr. Benjamin Hewling, 
 he expressed himself to this effect : — ' We have no cause to 
 fear death, if the presence of God be with us ; there is no 
 evil in it, the sting being taken away. It is nothing but 
 our ignorance of the glory the saints pass into by death 
 which makes it appear dark to ourselves or our relations ; 
 if in Christ, what is this world that we should desire an 
 abode in it ? It is all vain and unsatisfying, full of sin and 
 misery.' He also intimated his own cheerful expectations 
 soon to follov (he had just heard of his brother's death), 
 discovering then and all along great seriousness and sense 
 of spiritual and eternal things, complaining of nothing in 
 his present circumstances but want of a place of retirement 
 to converse more uninterruptedly with God and his own 
 
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 326 
 
 Baptist r^dory. 
 
 soul ; saying that his lonely time in Newgate was the 
 sweetest in his whole life. 
 
 "When there was a general report that no more should 
 die, he said, *I do not know what God hath done contrary 
 to our expectations ; if He doth prolong my life, I am 
 sure it is all His own, and by His gi'race I will wholly 
 devote it to Him.' But on the 29th of September, between 
 ten and eleven at night, we found the deceitfulness of this re- 
 port, they being then told that they must die the next morning, 
 which was very unexpected as to the suddenness of it. But 
 herein God glorified His power, grace, and faithfulness, in 
 giving suitable support and comfort by His blessed presence, 
 which appeared upon my coming to him at that time and 
 finding him greatly composed. He said, ' Though men 
 design to surprise, God doth and will perform His Word, to 
 be a very present help in trouble.' 
 
 ** The next morning, when I saw him again, his cheerful- 
 ness and comfort were much increased, wa'^ing for the 
 sheriff with the greatest sweetness and serenity of mind. 
 . . . With a smiling countenance, he discoursed of the 
 glory of heaven. . . . His hope and comfort still increasing, 
 with the assurance of an interest in that glorious inheritance 
 to the possession of which he was now going, he said, ' Death 
 was more desirable than life, and he would rather die than 
 live any longer here.'. . . Then, reading the Scriptures and 
 musing with himself, he intimated the great comfort which 
 God conveyed to his soul in it ; saying, * Oh, what an in- 
 valuable treasure is this blessed Word of God ! In all con- 
 ditions here is a store of strong consolation.' One desiring 
 his Bible, he said, ' No, this shall be my companion to the 
 last moment of my life.' 
 
 *■'■ Thus praying together, reading, meditating, and con- 
 versing of heavenly things, they waited for the sheriff, 
 who, when he came, void of all pity and civility, hurried 
 them away, scarcely suffering them to take leave of their 
 
 
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 Baptist History. 
 
 y^i 
 
 friends. Notwithstanding this, and the doleful mourning 
 of all about them, the joyfulness of his countenance was 
 increased. Thus he left the prison, and thus he appeared 
 in the sledge, where they sat about half-an-hour before the 
 officers could force the horses to draw ; at which they were 
 greatly enraged, there being no visible obstruction from 
 weight or way. At last the mayor and sheriff haled 
 them forward, themselves, Balaam-like, driving the 
 horses. 
 
 ** When they came to the place of execution, which was 
 surrounded with spectators, many that waited thei* coming 
 said, that when they saw him and them come with such 
 cheerfulness and joy, and evidence of the presence of God 
 with them, it made death appear with another a^^pect. 
 They first embraced each other with the greatest affection ; 
 then, two of the elder persons praying audibly, they joined 
 with great seriousness. Then he [Benjamin] required leave 
 of the sheriff to pray particularly ; but he would not grant 
 it, and only asked him whether he would pray for the King. 
 He answeied, ' I pray for all men.' He then requested that 
 they might sing a hymn. The sheriff told him it must be 
 with the rope round their necks ; which they cheerfully 
 accepted, and sung with such heavenly joy and sweetness 
 that many who were present said it both broke and rejoiced 
 their hearts. Thus in the experience of the delightfulness 
 of praising God on earth, he willingly closed his eyes on a 
 vain world, to pass to that eternal enjoyment. 
 
 *' All present of all sorts were exceedingly affected and 
 amazed. Some officers who had before insultingly said, 
 * Surely these persons have no thoughts of death, but will 
 find themselves surprised by it,' now acknowledged that 
 they saw he and they had something extraordinary within, 
 which carried them through with so much joy. Others said 
 that they were so convinced of their happiness that they 
 would be glad to change conditions with them. The 
 
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 ii 
 
 328 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 so.diers in general, and all others, lamentd exceedingly, 
 saying, * It was so sad a thing to see them so cut off, that 
 they scarely knew how to bear it.' Some of the most 
 malicious in the place, from whom nothing but railing was 
 expected, said, as they were carried to their grave in 
 Taunton church, * These persons have left suflicicnt evi- 
 dence that they are now glorified spirits in heaven.' A 
 great ( fficer also in the King's army, has often been heard 
 to say, ' If you woukl learn to die, go to the young men of 
 Tauntcn.'"* 
 
 The execution of Mrs. Gaunt was another horrible affair. 
 It is one of the blackest in the catalogue of crimes with 
 which James II. stands charged i'l 'listory. 
 
 Elizabeth Gaunt was a Baptist lady, resident in London. 
 Her life wa^ a series of charitable acts. She was con- 
 stantly engaged iv visiting the jails, and administering 
 succour according to her means, to the distressed and 
 unfortunate. On the discovery of the Rye House plot, one 
 Burton, who was deeply implicated in it, and for whose 
 apprehension a reward of £igo was offered, found shelter in 
 her house. She assisted him to escape to Holland, where 
 he lived some months. He returned to England with the 
 Duke of Monmouth, and was at the battle of Sedgemoor. 
 After wandering about some time, he obtained concealment 
 in the house of John Fernley, a barber, in Whitechapel, 
 London. Fernley was a poor man ; but, though he knew 
 of the reward that had been offered for Burton's apprehen- 
 sion, he would not betray him. Much as he wanted money, 
 his honour was not to be sold. That noble feeling cost 
 him his life. The wretch Burton learnt that the King was 
 peculiarly exasperated against those who harboured traitors. 
 He informed against both his protectors. They were both 
 brought to trial and convicted. Fernley was hanged; Mrs. 
 Gaunt was burned alive, that being then the punishment of 
 
 ♦ Life of Kiffin, pp. 66—78. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 329 
 
 females for this offence. The only witnesses against her 
 were the villain Burton and her own maid- servant : but the 
 girl was ignorant of Burton's character and position, and 
 could only testify to the concealment, so that the law's 
 demand, requiring two witnesses, was not satisfied. Hut 
 the judge who presided at the trial over-ruled the exception 
 taken on this account, and a verdict of "guilty" was brought 
 in, in opposition to right. The good woman suffered the 
 terrible punishment in such a manner as to excite strong 
 sympathy in her favour. Bishop Burnet says, " She died 
 with a constancy, even to cheerfulness, that struck nil who 
 saw it. She said, chanty was a part of her religion as well 
 as faith ; this at worst was feeding an enemy. So she hoped 
 she had reward with Him, for whose sake she did this 
 service, how unworthy soever the person was who made so 
 ill a return for it. She rejoiced that God had honoured her 
 to be the first that suffered by fire in this reign,, and that her 
 suffering was a martyrdom for that religion wiiich was all 
 love. Penn, the Quaker, told me that he saw her die. She 
 laid the straw about her for burning her speedily, and behaved 
 in such a manner that all the spectators melted in tears." * 
 
 This execution took place, October 23rd, 1685. When 
 she left the prison for the place of burning, Mrs. Gaunt 
 gave a paper to the keeper of Newgate, from which we 
 extract the following paragraphs : — 
 
 *' Let none think hard, or be discouraged at what hath 
 happened unto me; for He doth nothing without cause in 
 all that He hath done unto me, He being holy in all His 
 ways, and righteous in all His works ; and it is but my lot, 
 in common with poor desolate Zion at this day. Neither 
 do I find in my heart the least regret for anything I have 
 done in the service of my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, 
 in securing and succouring any of His poor sufferers that 
 have showed favour, as I thought, to His righteous cause ; 
 * History of his Own Times, iii. 62. 
 
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 330 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 which cause, though it be now fallen and trampled on, yet 
 it may revive, and God may plead it at another time more 
 than ever He hath yet done, with all its opposers and 
 malicious haters. And I desire to bless His holy name 
 that He hath made me useful in my generation, to the 
 comfort and relief of many desolate ones ; that the blessing 
 of many who were ready to perish hath come unto me, and 
 I have helped to make the widow's heart leap for joy. 
 And I bless His holy name that in all this, together with 
 what I was charged with, I can approve my heart to Him, 
 that I have done His will, though it doth cross man's." 
 
 Having mentioned several persons engaged in the pro- 
 secution, whose malice and cruelty had aggravated her 
 sufferings, she proceeds : — " All which, together with the 
 great one df all [James H.], by whose power all these and 
 multitudes more of cruelties are done, I do heartily and 
 freely forgive, as against me : but as it is done in an implac- 
 able mind against the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteous 
 cause and followers, I leave it to Him Who is the avenger 
 of all such wrong, and Who will tread upon princes as upon 
 mortar, and be terrible to the kings of the earth.''* 
 
 The darkest time in the history of the Dissenters during 
 this period was the interval between the autumn of 1685 
 and the summer c^ 1686. Macauiay says : — *' Never, not 
 even under the tyranny of Laud, had the condition of the 
 Puritans been so deplorable as at that time. Never had 
 spies been so actively employed in detecting congregations. 
 Never had magistrates, grand juries, rectors, and church- 
 wardens been so much on the alert. Many Dissenters were 
 cited before the ecclesiastical courts. Others found it 
 necessary to purchase the connivance of the agents of the 
 Government by presents of hogsheads of wine, and of 
 gloves stuffed with guineas. It was impossible for the 
 sectaries to pray together without precautions such as are 
 
 * Ivimey, i. 456—458. 
 
 
 i[ 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 331 
 
 employed by coiners and receivers of stolen goods. The 
 places of meeting were frequently changed. Worship was 
 performed sometimes just before the break of day, and 
 sometimes at dead of night. Round the building where the 
 little flock was gathering together, sentinels were posted, to 
 give the alarm if a stranger drew near. The minister, in 
 disguise, was introduced through the garden and back-yard. 
 In some houses there were trap-doors, through which, in 
 case of danger, he might descend. Where Nonconformists 
 lived next door to each other, the walls were often broken 
 open, and secret passages were made from dwelling to 
 dwelling. No psalm was sung ; and many contrivances 
 were used to prevent the voice of the preacher, in his 
 moments of fervour, from being heard beyond the walls. 
 Yet, with all this care, it was often found impossible to 
 elude the vigilance of informers. In the suburbs of Lon- 
 don, especially, the law was enforced with the utmost 
 rigour. Several opulent gentlemen were accused o^ holding 
 conventicles. Their houses were strictly searched, and 
 distresses were levied to the amount of many thousands of 
 pounds. . , . Dissenting ministers, however blameless in 
 life, however eminent for learning and abilities, could not 
 venture to walk the streets for fear of outrages, which were 
 not only not repressed, but encouraged by those whose dut}' 
 it was to preserve the peace. Some divines of great fame 
 were in prison. Among these was Richard Baxter. Others, 
 who had, during a quarter of a century, borne up against 
 oppression, now lost heart, and quitted the kingdom. 
 Among these was John Howe."* 
 
 Then the King suddenly changed his policy. Assuming 
 power to suspend the laws, by the exercise of the royal pre- 
 rogative, he first caused licences to be issued, which pro- 
 tected the parties holding them from all persecuting annoy- 
 ances, and permitted them to re-occupy their places of 
 • History of England, vol. i. chap, v. 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 ;!■!(■ \ 
 
 
2>Z'2' 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 f ' il 
 
 ;i I 
 
 
 worship; and this was followed, in April, 1687, by the 
 celebrated "Declaration of Indulgence," removing, during 
 his Majesty's pleasure, all restraints on Nonconformity, 
 whether Protestant or Popish. The design of these acts 
 was the establishment of Popery, but it was cloaked by a 
 pretended regard for liberty of conscience. 
 
 Some few of the Baptists were induced to join in an 
 address to the King, thanking him for this unlooked-for 
 freedom. The majority, however, viewed his proceedings 
 as altogether unconstitutional, and would not compromise 
 themselves by taking any step which might be construed as 
 an admission of their legdity. While they availed them- 
 selves of the newly-acquired liberty, they regarded it as the 
 restoration of a right of which they had been unjustly 
 deprived, and not as the bestowment of a boon. 
 
 Hoping thereby to gain assistance in carrying into effect 
 his ulterior purposes, James II. courted the Dissenters. 
 Among them was William Kiffin. The King had taken 
 away the charter of the City of London, and had under- 
 taken to remodel the government of the city by arbitrary 
 appointments of his own. " Kifiin," says Noble, in his 
 Memoirs of the House of Cronnuell, ** w^as personally known 
 both to Charles and James ; and when the latter of these 
 princes, after having arbitrarily deprived the city of the old 
 charters, determined to put many of the Dissenters into the 
 magistracy, under the rose he sent for Kiffin to attend him 
 at Court. When he went thither, in obedience to the 
 King's commandment, he found many lords and gentlemen. 
 The King immediately came up to him, and addressed him 
 with all the little grace he was master of. He talked of his 
 favour to the Dissenters, in the court style of this season, 
 and concluded by telling Kiffin that he had put him down 
 as an Alderman in his new charter. * Sir,' replied Kiffin 
 * I am a very old man, and have withdrawn myself from all 
 kind of business for some years past, and am incapable of 
 
 ' 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 333 
 
 r'i 
 
 doing any service in such an affair to your Majesty in the 
 city. Besides, sire,' the old man went on, fixing his eyes 
 steadfastly on the King, while the tears ran down his 
 cheeks, * the death of my grandsons gave a wound to my 
 heart, which is still bleeding, and will never close but in 
 
 11 
 
 m 
 
 ./^'S^i^ 
 
 YL-s-^s-:::^ 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 the grave.' The King was deeply struck by the manner, 
 the freedom, and the spirit of this unexpected rebuke. A 
 total silence ensued, while the galled countenance of James 
 seemed to shrink from the horrid remembrance. In a 
 minute or two, however, he recovered himself enough to 
 
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 11 
 
 
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334 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 say, ' Mr. Kiffin, I shall find a balsam for that sore,' and 
 he immediately turned about to a lord in waiting."* 
 
 It is known what followed. The English were not to be 
 cajoled. They had no taste for Popery and arbitrary power. 
 The deliverer came. The tyrant fled. The persecution 
 ceased. Thanks be to God for the revolution of 1688. 
 
 I 
 
 -•o*- 
 
 Sectio]^ YIII, 
 
 If i 
 
 m 
 
 Principles and Practices of the Denomination — Human Tradition Renounced 
 — Freedom of Conscience Demanded — Personal Piety requisite to 
 Church Fellowship — Purity of Discipline — Cases cited— Mode of Public 
 Worship— Plurality of Elders — Communion — Singing — Laying on of 
 Hands— The Sabbath. 
 
 HAVING thus brought down the history of the 
 English Baptists to the end of the "troublous" 
 period, we will close this portion of the narrative by a few 
 observations on the character and state of the denomina- 
 tion, and some biographical notices of the principal 
 ministers. 
 
 The distinguishing principle of the Baptists was clearl}'' 
 discerned by our British forefathers, and consistently 
 maintained. They owned no master but Christ, no rule 
 but His Word. H,ence they were Protestants. When 
 Protestants required submission to human forms, whether 
 the Common Prayer-book or the Directory, they with- 
 drew and became Dissenters. Differing from other Dis- 
 senters on some important points, they separated them- 
 selves, following the light of the Word, and endeavour- 
 ing to render strict obedience to all the Lord's injunctions. 
 They acknowledged no authority in any *' traditions of 
 the Elders." They abhorred all " will-worship." They 
 claimed the right to profess what they believed, and to 
 
 ♦ Vol. ii. p. 463. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 335 
 
 )re, 
 
 and 
 
 not to be 
 ry power, 
 rsecution 
 688. 
 
 I Renounced 
 requisite to 
 de of Public 
 lying on of 
 
 ■y of the 
 
 roublous " 
 
 by a few 
 
 enomina- 
 
 principal 
 
 IS clearly 
 isistently 
 [, no rule 
 When 
 I, whether 
 ^ey with- 
 ther Dis- 
 led them- 
 ideavour- 
 lunctions. 
 litions of 
 They 
 I, and to 
 
 reduce their faith to practice, and they demanded that all 
 others should be allowed to exercise the same right ; for 
 religious freedom, in its broadest sense, was regarded by 
 them as the inalienable patrimony of all mankind. No ex- 
 ceptions were made. The magistrate was bound, in their 
 judgment, to protect all, and to interfere with none, how- 
 ever foolish, superstitious, or perilous to souls their opinions 
 might be deemed, so long as they obeyed the laws in things 
 civil, and refrained from disturbing the peace of society. 
 As we have before remarked, they were in this respect far 
 in advance of other religious communities, the Friends 
 only excepted ; and they had published their sentiments 
 before the Friends were known. 
 
 Closely allied to these views was their requirement of 
 true piety as an indispensable pre-requisite to Church- 
 membership. Whenever infant baptism is an introduction, 
 directly or indirectly, to the fellowship of the Church, the 
 process of corruption is at work. In national establish- 
 ments it is unavoidable. No such communities can be 
 pure. But Baptists have always maintained that religious 
 character is essential to union with a Christian Church. 
 The measures they adtopt, in accordance with New Testa- 
 ment precepts and precedents, afford the best guarantee 
 for purity. They open the doors to the godly ; all besides 
 are excluded. If they are sometimes mistaken in their 
 judgments — if, now and then, a fanatic or a hypocrite creeps 
 in undetected — they are reminded that even in Apostolic 
 times such cases occurred, and they take the earliest 
 opportunity of expelling the intruder. 
 
 The discipline of the English Baptist Churches was in 
 harmony with their doctrines. It was a commentary on 
 2 Cor. vi. 17. As they would not knowingly admit any 
 to fellowship, who were not the subjects of regenerating 
 grace, so they placed members under censure, or excluded 
 them, for immorality, or any unscriptural or disorderly 
 
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 Baptist History. 
 
 I i 
 
 conduct, without respect of persons. We will adduce a 
 few examples illustrative of their care in this matter. 
 
 The Broadmead Church would not admit Mrs. Bevis 
 to fellowship, " by reason of her selling of drink, and 
 some defects in her conversation about her husband's 
 debts that he had contracted." The same church has 
 this record of ** Sister Watkins : " — "Tidings came to 
 the ears of the church, that she walked disorderly and 
 scandalously in the borrowing of money, up and down, 
 of many persons — of some ten shillings, of some twenty 
 shillings, of some more, some less, as she could get them 
 to lend— and took no care to pay it again, promising people 
 and not performing, spending much if not most of her 
 time going up and down ; and so did not work, or but 
 little, to "endeavour honestly to live, and eat her own bread. 
 And thus, she walking disorderly and scandalously in 
 borrowing, contrary to the rule (2 Thess. iii. 6, 10, 12), the 
 church, after her crime was declared, and proved to her 
 face by divers in the church, and that they had heard 
 she had so served some not of the congregation, they 
 consented all universally to withdraw from her. Then the 
 ruling elder. Brother Terril, declared to her, before the 
 church, how that for her so sinning against the Lord, she 
 rendered herself among the wicked ones, as Psalm xxxvii. 
 21, and, therefore, the church, in faithfulness to the Lord 
 and to her soul, must withdraw from her, seeing she had by 
 several of the members been admonished once and again, 
 and by several together witnessing against her evil in so 
 doing; yet she had lately done the like, so that there was 
 a necessity upon them to do their duty. And also ac- 
 quainted her that if the Lord should hereafter give her 
 repentance of the evil that she should reform to the 
 satisfaction of the congregation, they should be willing to 
 receive her into full communion again. And then the 
 sentence, by the said ruling elder, was passed upon her, 
 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 337 
 
 viz. : That in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by 
 the authority He had given to the Church, we did declare 
 that Sister Watkins, for her sin of disorderly walking, 
 borrowing and not paying, making promises and not per- 
 forming, and not diligently working, was withdrawn from, 
 and no longer to have full communion with this church, 
 nor to be partaker with them in the holy mysteries of the 
 Lord's Supper, nor privileges of the Lord's house [that is 
 * if she doth come to the meeting, not to he suffered to 
 stay when any business of the church is transacted '] , 
 and the Lord have mercy upon her soul."* 
 
 The Fenstanton Church made an order, " that if any 
 members of the congregation shall absent themselves from 
 the assembly of the same congregation upon the first day of 
 the week, without manifesting a sufficient cause, they shall 
 be looked upon as offenders and be proceeded against 
 accordingly," and " it was desired that if any member 
 should at any time have any extraordinary occasion to 
 hinder them from the assembly, that they would certify 
 the congregation of the same beforehand, for the prevention 
 of jealousies, &c." Several members were excluded by the 
 same church at different times, for marrying irreligious per- 
 sons, or sucli as were not *' members of the congregation." 
 Joan Parker was excommunicated for ** absenting from the 
 assembly ofthe congregation," for " running from her service, 
 without the consent either of her master or dame, and letting 
 herself to another man," and for " contemning all reproof." 
 John Blows, a preacher, was not only absent on a day ap- 
 pointed for fasting and prayer, but was that day " at a great 
 football play, he being one of the principal appointers 
 thereof." Being called to account for it, he was at first 
 disposed to justify himself, but at length confessed that he 
 had been wrong, and *' promised to abstain from the like 
 for time to come." Nevertheless, as he had " dishonoured 
 * Broadmcad Records, 211 413, 
 
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338 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I 
 
 the Lcid," "grieved the people of God," and "given 
 occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully," it was 
 resolved that " he should not be suffered to preach, until 
 further fruits meet for repentance did appear." * 
 
 The church at Warboys withdrew from Mary Poulter, 
 " for forsaking the assembling with the Church and neglect- 
 ing holy duties, and walking disorderly in pride and vanity ; " 
 and from John Christmas, " for not loving Ann his wife as 
 he ought, and for speaking hateful and despising words 
 against her, giving her occasion to depart from him by his 
 unkindness." But "John Christmas, afterwards sending 
 for Ann his wife again and promising amendment, after her 
 coming again to him, desired to be a partaker with the 
 Church, in holy duties, was joined in fellowship again." 
 " Mary Drage, for sundry times dissembling with the 
 church, and out of covetousness speaking things very un- 
 true, at length it being plainly proved against her in her 
 hearing, and she having little to say for herself, was with- 
 drawn from." " Thomas Bass, for telling of lies and swearing, 
 was withdrawn from." " Ellen Burges, for lying and slander- 
 ingofherrelations, and countingthem and her mother witches, 
 which we have no ground to believe, was withdrawn from." * 
 
 The church at St. Alban's withdrew from " brother 
 Osman," because one day in harvest time " he did very 
 shamefully with others betray his trust, and left his work, 
 his master not being there, and went to an alehouse, where 
 he spent most part of the day sinning against God and 
 spending his money, which should relieve his family, unto 
 excessive drinking." A few months afterwards he "did, in 
 the presence of the congregation, publicly declare his fall, 
 acknowledge his sin, and manifest great trouble for the 
 same. The church gladly embraced him again, believing 
 that God had given him repentance to the acknowledgment 
 of the truth ; he was admitted to his membership." " Sister 
 • Fenstanton Records, pp. 126, 169, 244. f /6/rf. pp. 274, 278. 
 
1 I 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 339 
 
 Searly was by the church accused as to matter of fact. 
 In the first place, she selling strong water let a person drink 
 to excess ; secondly, did gi^'3 herself in marriage to a wicked 
 drunkard, contrary to the rule of our Lord, who saith, 
 * Let her marry to whom she will, only in the Lord ;' 
 thirdly, and was married in the national way with common 
 prayer, with all the Romish ceremonies to it. All these 
 things being considered, the church did think it their duty 
 to withdraw their communion, and yet she lieth under 
 admonition."* 
 
 Their religious serviceswere simple. When the pastorwas 
 present, he preached ; but in the times now under review, 
 he was often in jail, or was compelled to hide himself from 
 the pursuers. Then, prayer and exhortation occupied the 
 ti'.ne ; any brother who felt disposed was at liberty to 
 exhort. Generally, however, there was a sermon by a 
 rr.iing elder, or by some gifted brother. Singing was not 
 commonly practised : many of the Baptists refused to join 
 in that part of worship. In some of the churches the 
 Lord's Supper was observed weekly, or whenever they 
 could meet unmolested on the Lord's-day : in most the 
 monthly observance prevailed. 
 
 There was a plurality of elders in many of the churches. 
 As numbers increased, they judged it conducive to profit to 
 increase the number of teachers, and thus avoid the in- 
 convenience and loss which must accrue from placing a 
 large church under the care of a single pastor. Probably 
 there were not more than a hundred and fifty churches in 
 England during this period, and many of them were small. 
 But there were two or more pastors at Bedford, at Luton, at 
 Farringdon, at St. Alban's,at Portsmouth, at Bessel's Green, 
 at Ashford [four] ; at Glazier's Hall, Devonshire Square, 
 and Mile End Green, London ; at Norwich, at Hooknorton, 
 at Bridgewater, at Bristol, and doubtless at other places. 
 
 * Ivimey, ii. 177, 
 Z 2 
 
 ^ Ii 
 
 >:ia 
 
 '\ 
 
 ii 
 
 ill 
 
 mi 
 
 ■ H 
 
 
ff- 
 
 340 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 : i '■ 
 
 This shows a very commendable care for the spiritual 
 interests of the Church. 
 
 In some of the churches there were " ruling elders," 
 sometimes called "teachers," who preached when their 
 services were required, and presided at the church meetings 
 in the absence of the pastor, .'n ^he Broadmead Church, 
 Thomas Jennings, who 'p . s to have been an ordained 
 minister, was the ** usua .a;.)>. Jstrator" of baptism ; but 
 any preacher, ordained or \w^., mij^ h baptize. 
 
 Strict communion was practised iii the majority of the 
 churches, none but baptized believers being admitted to the 
 Lord's table. In some, however, the want of baptism was not 
 regarded as abar to fellowship, if there was satisfactory evi- 
 dence of piety. The Broadmead Church, the churches at 
 Bedford, Luton, Gamlingay, Hitchin, Tottlebank, and 
 many in Wales — especially those founded by Vavasor 
 Powell — were so constituted. 
 
 Under the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, the 
 freedom which was enjoyed was improved by the churches. 
 Itinerating excursions were frequently made by acceptable 
 preachers, whose aim was not so much to proselytise men 
 to their sect as to convert them to God. Great numbers 
 were converted by their instrumentality. And the stated 
 labours of many of the pastors were extensively blessed. 
 The good work prospered in these days. 
 
 Freedom implies the right to differ. We must not be 
 surprised at the lack of uniformity among our ancestors. 
 There were controversies among them, which were not 
 always carried on with courtesy and forbearance. These 
 qualities were but little valued in the seventeenth century. 
 The greatest virulence was displayed in the disputes about 
 doctrines. The advocates of Arminianism contended with 
 the Calvinists. The former charged the latter with un- 
 charitableness, and were in their turn accused of latitudin- 
 arianism. Each looked on the other with a jaundiced eye. 
 
 if!' 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 341 
 
 the spiritual 
 
 ling elders," 
 when their 
 
 rch meetings 
 
 lead Church, 
 an ordained 
 
 aptism ; but 
 
 ijority of the 
 mitted to the 
 ;5tism was not 
 tisfactory evi- 
 3 churches at 
 tlebank, and 
 by Vavasor 
 
 :ectorate, the 
 the churches, 
 y acceptable 
 selytise men 
 eat numbers 
 d the stated 
 vely blessed. 
 
 Inust not be 
 ir ancestors. 
 :h were not 
 Ince. These 
 [nth century, 
 jputes about 
 litended with 
 ter with un- 
 lof latitudin- 
 indiced eye. 
 
 This controversy has ceased to rage. There have been 
 tacit concessions on both sides, or, at least, an abandon- 
 ment of certain extreme views — perhaps it would be better 
 to say, incautious expressions. 
 
 The question of communion was another cause of agita- 
 tion. Bunyan's gentle temper was sadly ruffled by it. His 
 zeal for open communion led him to speak in such dispar- 
 aging terms of "water baptism " as no other writer of our 
 denomination in that age would have ventured to employ. 
 He was ably answered by D'Anvers and Kiffin. 
 
 Singing in worship was another subject of dispute. 
 Strange as it may appear to us, many good men refuse A 
 to join in it or to allow it. Benjamin Keach had great diffi- 
 culty in introducing the practice in the church under h 
 care. He wrote a book in defence of his views, entitled, 
 " TJic Breach repaired in God's Worship ; or, Singing of 
 Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs proved to be a Holy 
 Ordinance of Jesus Christ." Ivimey observes, that, **in 
 the present day, when this practice is universal, it will 
 appear unaccountable that our forefathers should require 
 arguments to prove the following particulars, viz.; — What 
 it is to sing ; that there can be no proper singing without 
 the voice; 'tis not simple heart -joy, or inward rejoicing, 
 without the voice, a metaphorical singing mentioned in 
 Scripture; no mental singing, as there is no mental 
 praying ! the essence of singing no more in the heart or 
 spirit, than the essence of preaching, &c. ; singing is a 
 musical modulation or tuning of the voice, &c., &c., — with 
 a number of other particulars equall}' curious, and, to us, 
 self-evident. Crosby says : — * Though he had very great 
 success in this controversy, yet it brought upon him much 
 trouble and ill-will. When he was convinced that singing 
 the praises of God was a holy ordinance of Jesus Christ, 
 he laboured earnestly and with a great deal of prudence 
 and caution to convince his people thereof; and first ob- 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 J 
 
 „! 
 
 mi 
 
 1 ■ 
 , , - 
 
 '^1 
 
 
342 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 .1 ii 
 
 iii'f*. 
 
 ; I 
 
 tained their consent to the practice of it at the conclusion 
 of the Sacrament in the Lord's Supper, and had but two of 
 the brethren in the church who opposed him therein. Alter 
 his church had continued in this practice about six years, 
 they further consented to practise the same on public thanks- 
 giving days, and continued therein about fourteen years ; 
 and then, by a regular act of the church, in a solemn 
 manner agreed to sing the praises of God on every Lord's- 
 day, excepting about five or six persons who dissented 
 therefrom : and if I am not mistaken, this was the first 
 church that thus practised this holy ordnance. But, so 
 far was Mr. Keach, or the church, from imposing on the 
 consciences of those few that dissented (though the church 
 then consisted of some hundreds), that they agreed to sing 
 when prayer was concluded after the sermon ; and, if those 
 few who were not satisfied could not stay the time of 
 singing, they might freely go out and the church would not 
 be offended at them ; for they did not look upon singing 
 the praises of God as an essential of communion, nor for 
 the being, but for the comfort and wcll-ht\r\g of a church.' 
 Notwithstanding this care and consideration, however, the 
 malcontents would not yield. They withdrew, and founded 
 another church, upon the same principles, singing only ex- 
 cepted ; so difficult was it to remove long-standing pre- 
 judices."* 
 
 Laying on of hands after baptism was practised by some, 
 but Ftrongly objected to by others, and sometimes churches 
 differing from each other on this subject refused inter-com- 
 munion, in a Confession of Faith prepared by the General 
 Baptists, and presented to Charles IL in 1660, the follow- 
 ing is the twelfth article: — " That it is the duty of all such 
 who are believers baptized to draw nigh unto God in sub- 
 mission to that principle of Christ's doctrine, to wit, prayer 
 and laying on of hands, that they may receive the promise 
 
 ♦ History y ii. 373—375- 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 343 
 
 banding pre- 
 
 of the Holy Spirit (Heb. vi. i, 2; Acts viii. 12, 15, 17; 
 2 Tim. i. 6), whereby they may mortify the deeds of the 
 body (Rom. viii. 13), and live in all things answerable to 
 their professed intentions and desires, even to the honour 
 of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His 
 marvellous light." * Thomas Grantham, a celebrated 
 minister in that connexion, thus explains it : — " That as 
 God has promised to give the Holy Spirit to all that are 
 called of the Lord, so He hath appointed a solemn way 
 wherein His servants and handmaids are to wait upon Him 
 for the reception thereof, which way is the prayers of the 
 Church, performed by her ministers or pastors with laying 
 on of hands, and this, as a principle of Christ's doctrine, 
 belonging to them in the minority of their Christian state."! 
 The practice was first introduced about the year 1645. 
 
 Some few believed in the perpetuity of the Jewish 
 sabbath, but the majority observed the first day of the 
 week, in common with Christendom in general. 
 
 Here and there, a church observed the washing of feet, 
 and had a love-feast before the Lord's Supper. 
 
 But, though in these and some other points the English 
 Baptists were not altogether agreed among themselves, in 
 one thing there was entire union. They were of one mind 
 in resisting Anti-Christianism, even ** unto blood." They 
 were united in pleading for the rights of conscience, and 
 they shrank not from suffering. They could not all sub- 
 scribe to the same confession, nor take part in the same 
 ceremonies; but they were *' of one heart and one soul" 
 in readiness to ** endure all things " for the truth's sake. 
 The plunderings and imprisonments they suffered were 
 frightful, and will never be fully known. Some of their 
 ministers were very cruelly dealt with. F'rancis Bamfield 
 was eight years in Dorchester jail, and spent the last year 
 of his life in Newgate, where he died. John Miller was 
 * Confessions of Faith, &c., p. 113. f Fenstanton Records, p. 157. 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 1- 
 
 ml 
 
 'f ! 
 
 i! 
 
 
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 i 
 
 ! : -I 
 
 344 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 confined ten years in the same jail. Henry Forty was 
 twelve years in prison at Exeter. John Bunyan was in 
 Bedford jail twelve years. Joseph Wright lay in Maidstone 
 jail twenty years. George Fownes died in Gloucester jail. 
 Thomas Delaune, and many other servants of God, died in 
 Newgate.* 
 
 $ECTIOJ^ IX. 
 
 Biographical Notices— John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, and John Spilsbury— 
 Henry Denne — Francis Cornwell, A.M. — Christopher Blackwood— 
 Major-Gcneral Harrison— Colonel Hutchinson. 
 
 WE w^ll now proceed to give some account of the prin- 
 cipal Baptist worthies of the seventeenth century. 
 "It is much to be regretted that we know so little of the 
 personal history of John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, and John 
 Spilsbury. All the information we have been able to gather 
 respecting Mr. Smyth has been already communicated. 
 We are not able to add much respecting Mr. Helwys, whose 
 settlement in London has been recorded in a former section. 
 He wrote several small treatises, which were much prized. 
 His sentiments on persecution, and on the unlawfulness of 
 the magistrate's interference in religious affairs, were so 
 unacceptable to John Robinson, the celebrated Independent 
 minister, to whose church the New England Pilgrims had 
 belonged, that he published a reply, showing that, though 
 he and his friends suffered so much from that interference, 
 they were not willing to give it up. Mr. Robinson held that 
 the magistrate might "use his lawful power lawfully for the 
 furtherance of Christ's kingdom and laws." He observed : — 
 " It is true they [the magistrates] have no power against the 
 
 * For fuller partic'.Iars the reader is referred to Dr. Evans's Early 
 English Baptists (Bunyan Library). 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 345 
 
 laws, doctrine, and religion of Christ ; but for the same, if 
 their power be of God, they may use it lawfully, and against 
 the contrary."* This is a surrender of the whole case. 
 Mr. Helwys's views, which were fully expressed in PersccU' 
 tion yudgcd and Condemned^ were far sounder and more 
 Scriptural. Crosby says, •' How long Mr. Helwys lived, and 
 continued the elder of this church of Baptists in London, 
 I cannot find. The books wrote against them at this 
 time show that they went on with great courage and reso- 
 lution ; and, notwithstanding the severities used against 
 them by the civil power, increased very much in their 
 numbers. "t 
 
 Neither can we satisfy curiosity respecting Mr. John 
 Spilsbury, the pastor of the first Particular or Calvinistic 
 Baptist Church, which met in Broad-street, Wapping, Lon- 
 don. We can only say that his signature is affixed to the 
 Confession of Faith published in 1646, and to sundry other 
 public documents, the last being the " Humble Apology of 
 some commonly called Anabaptists," presented to Charles 
 n. in 1660, as a disclaimer of sympathy with Venner's 
 insurrection. We observe that, though he joined William 
 Kiffin in a letter to the Baptists in Dublin, persuading them 
 to submit quietly to the Protectorate, he afterwards united 
 with a number of others in an address to Cromwell, ear- 
 nestly protesting against his assumption of the kingly title. 
 It may be concluded that Mr. Spilsbury was a man of 
 influence in the der :>mination. How long he lived after 
 the Restoration does r.ot appear. Hercules Collins became 
 pastor of the church in Broad-street in 1677. Whether he 
 was Mr. Spilsbury's immediate successor, we have not the 
 means of deciding. 
 
 Henry Denne was a man of note. He was educated in 
 the University of Cambridge, where he acquired a respecta- 
 ble standing. Having received ordination from the Bishop 
 
 
 m 
 
 'H 
 
 ^•'i 
 
 i «i 
 
 i! 
 
 Tracts, p, 92. 
 
 f History, i. 275. 
 
346 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Am 
 4 hHitl 
 
 \\i 
 
 (; 
 
 of St. David's, about the year 1630, he was presented to the 
 living of Pyrton, in Hertfordshire, which he held for ten 
 years, greatly to he profit of the inhabitants, by whom he 
 was justly esteemed as an instructive and faithful preacher. 
 In 1641 he was appointed to preach at a visitation held at 
 Baldock, and he determined to embrace the opportunity of 
 exposing the evils which had long grieved and vexed him, 
 particularly " the sin of persecution, the vices of the clergy, 
 and the corruptions in doctrine and worship which he appre- 
 hended to be in the Established Church." His text was 
 John v. 3^. After an ingenious introduction, he proceeded 
 to execute his purpose, and laid on the lash quite freely. 
 The pride and covetousness of the clergy, their pluralities, 
 their neglect of duty by non-residence, and other evils, were 
 held up to view, and reformation boldly demanded. ** I 
 must call upon those in authority," he said, *' to make dili- 
 gent search after these foxes. If the courts had been so 
 vigilant to find out these as nonconformable ministers, 
 surely by this time the church would have been as free from 
 them, as the land from wolves. But they have preferred the 
 traditions of men before the commandments of Almighty 
 God. I tell you that conformity hath ever sped the worse 
 for their sakes, who breaking the commandments of God 
 think to make amends with conformity to the traditions of 
 men."* 
 
 We cannot be surprised at hearing that soon after this 
 he announced his change of sentiments. In the early part 
 of 1643, he was baptized by Mr. Thomas Lamb, pastor of 
 the church in Bell Alley, Coleman Street, London. His 
 gifts were thankfully recognised by the church, and by 
 their direction he engaged in a mission to the counties of 
 Staffordshire and Cambridgeshire, where he preached the 
 Gospel with great success and formed many churches. 
 This roused the ire of the Presbyterian authorities. He 
 
 * Crosby, i. 298—301. 
 
 ■ M 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 347 
 
 was arrested and imprisoned at Cambridge. By the inter- 
 ference of a friend, his case was brought before Parlia- 
 ment, in order to which he was removed to the Peterhouse, 
 Aldersgate Street, London. The notorious Dr. Featly wae 
 in the same prison, as a royalist. Mr. Denne challenged 
 him to a disputation. They met and fought, in the usual 
 way, with propositions and syllogisms, till the doctor was 
 tired, and withdrew from the conflict. Mr. Denne carried 
 on the war with his pen, and published a reply to Dr. 
 Featly's famous book. The Dippers Dipt, &c. He was 
 soon released, and was appointed Minister of Eltisley 
 parish, Cambridgeshire, from which place, as a centre, he 
 itinerated in various directions, preaching and baptizing. 
 In 1645 he visited the county of Kent, and his labours 
 were blessed to many. 
 
 The opposition Mr. Denne met with issued in his leaving 
 Eltisley. He then entered the army, and served several 
 years. But he did not desist from preaching, nor was it 
 necessary, for praying and preaching were no strange things 
 among the Parliamentary soldiers. " Cornet Denne " was 
 his military title, but " Parson Denne " was the appellation 
 by which he was known among his associates. We cannot 
 say whether he saw any fighting or not, nor in what parts 
 of England the regiment to which he was attached was 
 from time to time quartered. The only recorded event is 
 his narrow escape from death as a mutineer. In May, 
 1649, he took part in a mutiny of the troops, partly occa- 
 sioned by the men's unwillingness to join the expedition to 
 Ireland, and partly by discontent with the existing state of 
 affairs. Prompt measures were taken, and the revolt was 
 quelled ; but Mr. Denne and three others were sentenced 
 to be shot. 
 
 *' Cornet Denne, being a man of parts, and one who has 
 been esteemed for piety and honesty, received his sentence 
 with great manliness and fortitude of spirit, yet with so 
 
 !.a 
 
 t 
 
 \'r\ 
 
348 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 i 
 
 
 .^i 
 
 >i»h* 
 
 !f:i 
 
 
 i I 
 
 much relenting and acknowledgment of the just hand 
 of God, the justice of the sentence, and his submission 
 thereunto, that he seemed to rejoice with willingness 
 to suffer under so righteous a sentence, and he professed 
 openly, that although his heart could not accuse him of an 
 evil meaning, yet he was convinced of the evil of the action, 
 and dangerous consequences of it ; that if they had but 
 continued three or four days longer, the land had been 
 plunged in misery and ruin." Cornet Tompson and Corpo- 
 rals Church and Perkins were shot ; and " Cornet Denne 
 being called out, came with much composure of spirit, 
 expecting to die, but the general having commanded the 
 Lieutenant-general Cromwell to let him know at the place 
 of execution that his excellency had extended mercy to him, 
 he soberly and suddenly replied, * I am not worthy of such 
 a merc}^; I am more ashamed to live than afraid to die ' — 
 weeping bitterly."* He afterwards endeavoured to repair 
 the mischief by publishing a pamphlet in which the origin 
 and objects of the mutiny were stated, and the deplorable 
 consequences which would have followed if it had not been 
 suppressed were faithfully set forth. 
 
 It is not likely that he continued long in the army after 
 this. We next find him in his place as a member of the 
 church at Fenstanton, in 1653, taking part in certain dis- 
 ciplinary proceedings. At one of their meetings, Henry 
 Denne began to speak, saying, " Brethren, I desire you to 
 consider the Word of Christ, saying, Go ye therefore, and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Spirit ; teaching them to observe whatsoever 
 things I have commanded yon, and lo! I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the taorld [Matt, xxviii. 19) ; which last 
 words are often used by us, yet I think not too often. But 
 I desire that we may seriously consider the former, viz.. Go, 
 teach all nations, baptizing them, S'C. [or] as Mark saith, Go, 
 ♦ Fenstanton Records, Introductory Notice, p. xii. , xiii. 
 
origin 
 
 ihaay, 
 
 |h last 
 
 But 
 
 [., Go, 
 
 I, Go, 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 349 
 
 preach the Gospel to every creature : and so, whether we are 
 not as much bound to observe them as any. And if it 
 appeareth that we are, then I pray consider whether we are 
 not in a great fault, in being so negligent in sending forth 
 persons to divulge the Gospel, in those many places that are 
 ignorant thereof. Truly, I conceive that we are much to 
 blame, and especially seeing there are many towns here- 
 abouts that have no teacher; and who can tell but that the 
 Lord may work in this opportunity."* The result was that 
 Mr. Denne and another member were sent out on a mis- 
 sionary excursion, an account of which was given to the 
 church on their return. Next year he went again into Kent, 
 and spent some time at Canterbury. His labours there 
 were so acceptable that the church invited him to settle 
 among them. The Fenstanton Church consented, appointed 
 another brother to attend him on the journey, and *' money 
 and horses were provided for them." He arrived in safety, 
 and was received with gladness. " He is provided of an 
 house," the Canterbury Church said, in a letter to that at 
 Fenstanton, dated Feb. 19th, 1655, *' and we doubt not of a 
 comfortable being and subsistence amongst us."-J- He was 
 regarded as one of the chief men of the denomination. In 
 1658 he was engaged in a disputation on baptism with Dr. 
 Gunning, a celebrated divine of the day, afterwards bishop, 
 successively, of Chichester and Ely. It was held in the 
 church of St. Clement Dane's, Strand, and was attended by 
 some thousands of persons. Mr. Denne published an 
 account of it, and soon after baptized the lady at whose 
 instance the disputation took place. Her doubts were 
 removed by Mr. Denne's arguments. 
 
 Nothing more is known of Mr. Denne, except the publica- 
 tion of two small pamphlets. His signature appears among 
 those to the Humble Apology, &c., issued after Venner's 
 insurrection. Crosby supposes that he died in the year 
 * Fenstanton Records, p. 71. f Ibid. p. 135. 
 
 1,1 
 
 Ik' 1 ' 
 
 I 
 
 ■f 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 Si.1 
 
f I ( (i*. 
 
 li-'' 
 
 * 1 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 MmII ,i| 
 
 350 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 1661, and states that an episcopal clergyman composed the 
 following epitaph for his tomb : — 
 
 " To tell his wisdom, learning, goodness unto men, 
 I need to say no more — but here lies Henry Denne."* 
 
 Francis Cornwell, A.M., was educated at Emmanuel 
 College, Cambridge. Neal says that " he was one of the 
 most learned divines that espoused the cause of the Bap- 
 tists." This took place under singular circumstances. 
 Mr. Cornwell was vicar of Marden, Kent, where he had 
 refused to conform to certain ceremonies imposed by Arch- 
 bishop Laud, and for his refusal was committed to Maidstone 
 jail. While there, a woman who visited him intimated that 
 she had some doubts respecting the lawfulness of infant 
 baptism. He endeavoured to remove them by the best 
 arguments he could think of, but failed to satisfy her. This 
 led him to further enquiry, the result of which was, that he 
 abandoned infant baptism, and was baptized by Mr. William 
 Jeffery, an eminent Baptist minister. After his release from 
 prison, he was called on to preach a sermon at a meeting of 
 ministers at Cranbrook. This was in 1644. ^^ chose for 
 his text Mark vii. 7, and '* took the liberty of declaring his 
 sentiments freely on this point ; and told them Paxlvibaptism 
 was an anti-Christian innovation, a huniiin tradition, ;uid a 
 practice for which there was neither precept nor true 
 deduction from the Word of God."t Much discussion fol- 
 lowed, and great indignation was manifested ; but Mr. C. 
 Blackwood, one of the ministers present, who had taken 
 down the sermon in shorthand, having promised to furnish 
 a reply to it, the further consideration of the subject was 
 postponed till their next meeting. Instead of replying, 
 however, Mr. r^lackwood followed Mr. Cornwell's example, 
 finding it impossiblito refute him, and was also baptized by 
 Mr. Jeffery. Mr. Cornwell was very zealous for Baptist 
 principles. His vvo'k on baptism., entitled, A Vindication 
 * Fhi' ,.>', i joti. t History, i. 346. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 351 
 
 otism 
 uid a 
 true 
 )n fol- 
 Av. C. 
 taken 
 rnish 
 was 
 
 iple, 
 
 id by 
 
 iptist 
 
 Vation 
 
 of the Royal Commission of Kin^ ^esus, was distributed 
 among the members of the House of Commons, and pro- 
 duced great excitement. He soon left the Establishment, 
 and formed a Baptist Church in the neighbourhood of Cran- 
 brook, over which he presided till his death. 
 
 Christopher Blackwood was an able preacher. He was 
 born in 1606, graduated at Cambridge in 1624, and became 
 curate of Rye, in Sussex. When he embraced Baptist prin- 
 ciples, he became pastor of a church which met at Spills- 
 hill House, near Staplehurst, Kent. After labouring there 
 some years, he went into the army, accompanied the 
 forces sent to Ireland, and was for some time pastor of a 
 church at Dublin, exercising, as it would seem, a general 
 superintendence over the other Baptist Churches in that 
 country. In a letter sent to Secretary Thurloe, in the year 
 1655, he is styled, " The Oracle of the Anabaptists in Ire- 
 land." He appears to have returned to England about the 
 time of the Restoration, as his name is affixed to the Bap- 
 tist declaration against Venner's rebellion. In 1661 he went 
 to Holland, where he remained a year. Shortly after his 
 return he resumed his residence in Dublin, where he died in 
 1670. He was a learned man, well read in the fathers. Both 
 he and Mr. Cornwell were warm advocates of soul-freedom, 
 and protested in their writings against the intolerance of 
 the Presbyterian party. His first publication was entitled. 
 The Storming of Antichrist in his two Last and Strongest 
 Garrisons^ — Compulsion of Conscience and Infants' Baptism.'^' 
 Major-General Harrison was one of Cromwell's be . 
 soldiers, and for a time enjoyed his entire confidence. He 
 commanded the troop of horse appointed to convey Charles 
 I. from the Isle of Wight to Hurst Castle. He was one of 
 the King's judges. He assisted Cromwell in dissolving the 
 Long Parliament. He was a member of the Council of 
 
 * See Baptist Magazine for June, July, August, and September, 1867, 
 for a valuable collection of letters written by Mr. Blackwood. 
 
 t ) 
 
 ! i^ 
 
 i III 
 
 ' m 
 
 :•! fc>i 
 
 ■ii'*i 
 
352 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Bl: , 
 
 State under the Commonwealth. But he was a stern repub- 
 lican, and therefore entirely opposed to the Protectorate. 
 He had also embraced Fifth Monarchy principles. On these 
 accounts Cromwell degraded him and placed him in 
 confinement. At the Restoration he was excepted from 
 clemency. Ten of the regicides (as the King's judges were 
 called) were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Major-General 
 Harrison was one of them. He suffered with great calm- 
 ness and intrepidity, declaring at the place of execution 
 " that he was fully persuaded that what he had done was 
 the cause and work of God, which he was confident God 
 would own and raise up again, how much soever it suffered 
 at that time." 
 
 Mr. Ivimey says that '* though Major-General Harrison 
 was p. Baptist at the time of his trial and execution, yet he 
 was not at the period of the King's death ;" and that "there 
 is no evidence of any Baptist being among the King's 
 judges."* This is not quite clear. Thurloe, in his State 
 Papers, referring to Harrison's refusal submit to the 
 Protectorate, in December 1654, calls him " the most 
 eminent man of the Anabaptist party." He could scarcely 
 have been worthy of that appellation if he had not been for 
 some time connected with the Baptist denomination. 
 
 Harrison is generally described by historians as a fanatic. 
 It is certain that he was an impulsive being, and somewhat 
 tinctured with vanity. Bui there can be no doubt that he 
 WdS sincerely and soberly in earnest, although it may be 
 admitted that he was a singular man even in those singular 
 times. We must not measure the seventeenth century by 
 the nineteenth. A modern writer says of Harrison: " For 
 the integrity of his life, and the Christian heroism with 
 which he endured a cruel and ignominious death, he may 
 deservedly be classed, if he may not challenge priority, with 
 a More, a Russell, a Sydney." f 
 
 ♦ i. 293. I Biirton^s Diary, by Rutt, iv. 432, note. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 353 
 
 Here is an extract from a letter written by him to Crom- 
 well on occasion of his taking the command of the army 
 sent to invade Scotland in 1650 : — " Oh ! that a spirit of 
 faith and supplication may be poured forth on you and your 
 army ! There is more to be had in this poor simple way 
 than even most saints expect. My Lord, let waiting upon 
 Jehovah be the greatest and most considerable business you 
 have everyday; reckon it so, more than to eat, sleep, or 
 counsel together. Run aside sometimes from your com- 
 pany, and get a word with the Lord. Why should you not 
 have three or four precious souls always standing at your 
 elbow, with whom you might now and then turn into a corner ? 
 I have found refreshment and mercy in such a way. Ah ! 
 the Lord of compassion own, pity 3'our burdens, care for 
 you, stand by and refresh your heart each moment ! I 
 would I could in any kind do you good. My heart is with 
 you, and my poor prayers to my God for you." In a former 
 part of the letter he had said, " I doubt not your success ; 
 but I think faith and prayer must be the chief engines."* 
 
 Cromwell loved such talk. " In such spirit," says Car- 
 lyle, " goes Oliver Cromwell to the wars. * A God-intoxicated 
 man,' as Novalis elsewhere phrases it. I have asked my- 
 self, if anywhere in modern European history, or even in 
 ancient Asiatic, there was found a man practising this mean 
 world's affairs with a heart more filled with the idea of the 
 Highest ! Bathed in the eternal splendours, — it is so he 
 walks our dim earth. This man is one of few. He is 
 projected with a terrible force out of the eternities, and in 
 the times and their arenas there is nothing that can with- 
 stand him."f 
 
 Colonel Hutchinson was a man of noble mind and 
 warm heart. He is immortalised in the Memoirs written by 
 his widow, and well known to all students of English his- 
 
 *Fensfanton Records, pp. 315 — 317. 
 f Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, ii. 173. 
 A A 
 
 
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354 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 f' I 
 
 tory. It is valuable, on historical accounts, as elucidating 
 sundry misty paragraphs in other writers. But its great 
 charm consists in the exquisite delineations of character 
 with which it abounds. Mrs. Hutchinson gives us a full- 
 length portraiture of her excellent husband, drawn, it is true, 
 with the hand of affection, and therefore some may be 
 disposed to deem it flattering; but there is such an air of 
 truthfulness in the narrative that it is impossible to doubt 
 the gene. ,il correctness of the picture. There are also many 
 discriminating sketches of other persons who figured pro- 
 minently in the scenes of that struggle for freedom which 
 Clarendon calls " The Great Rebellion." 
 
 The Colonel was for some time Governor of Nottingham, 
 under the Parliament. He afterwards sat in the House of 
 Commons, where he was always listened to with great 
 respect. Having been one of the King's judges, he was in 
 great peril at the Restoration. But he had powerful con- 
 nections, and he had conciliated the regard of his enemies 
 by acts of moderation and kindness when he was in office. 
 His life was spared ; yet he was treated as a suspected per- 
 son, whom any oii'-, might vex and annoy with impunity, and 
 whom, on any pretext, the Government might put in durance. 
 So it proved. He was suddenly apprehended, on a charge 
 of complicity in some treasonable plot, and committed to 
 the Tower, whence he was conveyed to Sandown Castle, 
 near Deal. There was no legal investigation — no trial. 
 The accusation was utterly false : but it was determined to 
 put him out of the way. The keen air of the sea-coast was 
 ill-suited to the delicate state of his health; added to which, 
 the accommodations of the prison were of the mos.t misera- 
 ble kind. The physician declared that " the place killed 
 him." He died in conHnement, September ii, 1664. 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson has given an account of the manner in 
 which she and her husband were converted to Baptist prin- 
 ciples. It occurred at Nottingham in the year 1647. 
 
elucidating 
 it its great 
 )f character 
 IS us a fuU- 
 m, it is true, 
 me may be 
 ch an air of 
 ble to doubt 
 •e also many 
 figured pro- 
 edom which 
 
 Nottingham, 
 he House of 
 with great 
 s, he was in 
 Dwerful con- 
 his enemies 
 ^as in office, 
 spected per- 
 punity, and 
 in durance, 
 on a charge 
 mmitted to 
 3wn Castle, 
 n — no trial, 
 termined to 
 a-coast was 
 d to which, 
 lOf.t misera- 
 lace killed 
 664. 
 
 manner in 
 laptist prin- 
 1647. 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 355 
 
 " When formerly the Presbyterian ministers had forced 
 him, for quietness' sake, to go and break up a private meet- 
 ing in the cannonier's chamber, there were found some 
 notes concerning Paedobaptism, which were brought into 
 the governor's lodgings ; and his wife having then more 
 leisure to read than he, having perused them and compared 
 them with the Scriptures, found not what to say against the 
 truths they asserted, concerning the misapplication of that 
 ordinance to infants ; but being then young and modest, 
 she thought it a kind of virtue to submit to the judgment 
 and practice of most Churches, rather than to defend a sin- 
 gular opinion of her own, she not being then enlightened in 
 that great mistake of the National Churches. But in this 
 year she, happening to be with child, communicated her 
 doubts to her husband, and desired him to endeavour her 
 satisfaction ; which while he did, he himself became as 
 unsatisfied, or rather satisfied against it. First, therefore, 
 he diligently searched the Scriptures alone, and could find 
 in them no ground at all for that practice ; then he bought 
 and read all the eminent treatises on both sides, which at 
 that time came thick from the presses, and was still more 
 satisfied of the error of the Pasdobaptists. After this, his 
 wife being brought to bed, that he might, if possible, give 
 the religious party no offence, he invited all the ministers to 
 dinner, and propounded his doubt and the ground thereof to 
 them. None of them could defend their practice with any 
 satisfactory reason, but the tradition of the Church from the 
 primitive times, and their main buckler of federal holiness, 
 which Tombes and Denne had so excellently overthrown. 
 He and his wife then, professing themselves unsatisfied 
 with the practice, desired their opinions, what they ought 
 to do. Most answered, to conform to the general practice 
 of other Christians, how dark soever it were to themselves; 
 but Mr. Foxcraft, one of the assembly, said, that except 
 they were convinced of the warrant of that practice from 
 
 A A 2 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
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 1 111 
 
 
 
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fi- 
 
 35G 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 the Word, they sinned in doinj; it: whereupon that infant 
 was not hapti/ed. And now the {governor and his wife, 
 notwithstandinjj; that they forsook not their assemhhea, nor 
 retracted their henevolences and civihties from them, yet 
 were they reviled hy them, called fanatics and Anahaptists, 
 and often glanced at in their public sermons. And not only 
 the ministers, i)ut all their zealous sectaries, conceived im- 
 placable malice against them upon this account ; which was 
 carried on with a spirit of envy and persecution to the last, 
 though he, on his side, might well have said to them, as his 
 Master aid to the old Pharisees : * Many good works have 
 I done among you : for which of these do you hate me ? ' "* 
 
 ( I 
 
 SrCTION X. 
 
 Biographical Notices Continued — Henry Jessey, A.M. — John Cannc — 
 Vavasor Powell— Abraham Chcarc. 
 
 HENRY JHSSKY, A.M., was a native of Yorkshire, 
 and the son of an Episcopal clergyman. Having 
 been carefully prepared for University studies, he entered 
 St. John's College, Cambridge, in the seventeenth year of 
 his age, and continued there six years. He was a hard stu- 
 dent. In addition to a competent knowledge of classics and 
 mathematics, he acquired great proficiency in Hebrew and 
 Rabbinical lore, and was well skilled in Syriac and Arabic. 
 
 He was converted to God while at the University — a rare 
 occurrence at that time. After his ordination, he officiated, 
 for a short time, in a country parish, but was removed on 
 account of his nonconformity to some of the rites and 
 services enjoined. In 1637, he became the pastor of an 
 Independent church in London. He had not been long 
 there when the Baptist controversy broke out among them. 
 * Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, pp. 299—301. 
 
 ii ; / 
 
 i ^ 
 
1 that infant 
 nd his wife, 
 icmblies, nor 
 m them, yet 
 Anabaptists, 
 And not only 
 onceived ini- 
 t ; which was 
 n to the last, 
 I them, as his 
 d works have 
 hate me?'"* 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 357 
 
 — John Cannc— 
 
 of Yorkshire, 
 an. Havinj; 
 , he entered 
 enth year of 
 s a hard stu- 
 classics and 
 Hebrew and 
 and Arabic. 
 ;rsity — a rare 
 he officiated, 
 removed on 
 le rites and 
 ipastor of an 
 t been long 
 imong them. 
 
 Many of his congregation withdrew and joined Baptist 
 churehcB. Being led thereby to study anew the points in 
 debate, he was convinced of the unlawfulness of sprinkling, 
 announced the fact to his people in 1G42, and for two years 
 dipped the children that were brought to him. Further 
 tliought and inquiry issued in the conviction that believers 
 only are the proper subjects of baptism. Before he took 
 the final step, he conferred with Dr. Goodwin, Philip Nye, 
 and other eminent ministers of the Independent persuasion, 
 but their arguments for infant baptism failed to give him 
 satisfaction. He followed the dictates of conscience, was 
 baptized by Hanserd Knollys in June, 1645, and became 
 the pastor of a church which is supposed to have met in 
 Woodmonger's Hall, London. He laboured there till his 
 death. 
 
 Mr. Jessey was a hard student. He continued to be so 
 all his days. Biblical criticism was his principal study. 
 A large amount of his time was devoted to a revision of 
 our authorised version of the Scriptures. Crosby gives the 
 following account of his labours in this department : — 
 
 '* Besides his constant labours in the work of the ministry, 
 there was another profitable work wherein his soul was 
 engaged, and in which he took great pains for divers years, 
 and this was no less than the making a new and more 
 correct translation of the Holy Bible. 
 
 *' He was very industrious, in the first place, to under- 
 stand fully those languages in which it was written : the 
 Hebrew and Greek*Testaments he constantly carried about 
 him, frerjuently calling one his ' sword and dagger,' and the 
 other his * shield and buckler.' And besides the Hebrew 
 and Greek, he studied the Syriac and Chaldee dialects, v/hich 
 the unlearned Jews spoke in their captivity. But, notwith- 
 standing his qualifications in this and many other respects, 
 he had not the vanity to think this a work fit for any single 
 man to encounter with, and, therefore, sent letters to many 
 
■>. 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
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 11.25 
 
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 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 

I 
 
 358 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 r I 
 
 learned men of this and other nations, desiring their assist- 
 ance and joint labours with him in this great design. And, 
 by his persuasions, many persons of great note for their 
 learning, faithfulness, and piety, did engage in it ; particu- 
 larly Mr. Rowe, the Hebrew professor of Aberdeen, took 
 great pains with him herein. The writer of Mr. Jessey's 
 life says that he made it the master study of his life, and 
 would often cry out, * Oh ! that I might see this done before 
 I die ! ' 
 
 " In that book there is a specimen given of the errors he 
 took notice of in the present translation, the rules he ob- 
 served in correcting them, and the progress that was made 
 in this work. 
 
 *' It appears that it was almost completed, and wanted 
 little mofe than the appointing commissioners to examine 
 it, and authorise its publication, which was what he always 
 intended, and of which he had from the first some assur- 
 ances given him. But the great turn that was given to 
 public affairs, both in Church and State, by the Restoration, 
 caused this great and noble design to prove abortive."* 
 
 Under the Protectorate, Mr. Jessey was appointed one of 
 the "Triers." He officiated also at St. George's Church, 
 Southwark, every Lord's-day morning, preaching to his 
 own people in the afternoon, and at other places during the 
 week. 
 
 Being an unmarried man, he was able to gratify his 
 benevolent disposition to a large extent. His charities were 
 very liberally bestowed. About thirty families were chiefly 
 sustained by him. Applications for aid pressed upon him 
 daily, and, if they were deserving, he seldom refused them. 
 On one occasion he interested himself in behalf of the 
 poor Jews resident in Jerusalem, who had fallen into great 
 destitution through the failure of customary remittances 
 from Europe. He succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of 
 
 * History, i, 313. 
 
 
I. i 
 
 IS given to 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 359 
 
 London merchants and others, and remitted upwards of 
 300/. for their, relief. ' U 
 
 On account of the high esteem in which he was held, 
 and his well-known learning and admirable judgment, his 
 opinion was frequently sought on a great variety of subjects. 
 Such demands on his time were thereby occasioned, that 
 he affixed the following notice to his study door : — 
 
 " Amice, quisquis hue ades ; 
 Aut agito paucis, aut abi : 
 Aut me laborantem adjuva." 
 
 " Whatever friend comes hither, 
 Despatch in brief, or go, 
 Or help me busied too." 
 
 By Henry Jessey." 
 
 After the Restoration, Mr. Jessey was quickly ejected 
 from St. George's Church. Twice he suffered imprison- 
 ment. But he did not live to see the " great and sore 
 troubles" of the times of Charles II. and his brother. He 
 died September 4th, 1663, and was followed to his grave by 
 thousands of mourners. 
 
 *' He spent his last days and nights in searching his 
 heart, humbling his soul, extolling free grace, and exhorting 
 all about him to keep close to God, to persevere in faith, 
 and prepare for trials; adding, for their encouragement, the 
 long experience he had had of the goodness of the Lord in 
 all times and conditions. The last evening but one before 
 his departure, having a mind to walk, he was led about the 
 room, and often repeated this expression, * God is good ; 
 He doth not lead me whither I would not, as He did Peter: 
 good is the Lord to me.' Being soon tired, he sat down 
 on his bed, and one who sat by him said, * They among 
 whom you have laboured can witness that you have been 
 a faithful servant of Christ ; making His glory your utmost 
 end^ for the good of their souls.' But he replied, * Say no 
 more of that; exalt God — exalt God.' He spent the first 
 
 
 n 
 
 ri*) 
 
i 
 
 If 
 
 /• t 
 
 360 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 part of his last night in blessing God and singing praises 
 to His name, and fell asleep about eleven o'clock. Waking 
 again between two and three, he fell into a wonderful strain 
 of abasing himself, and admiring the love of God, * that He 
 should choose the vilest, the unworthiest, and the basest,' 
 which last word he repeated many times, and then cried out, 
 
 * Oh, the unspeakable love of God, that He should reach 
 me, when I could not reach Him ! ' And when the cordial 
 ordered for that night was brought, he said, * Trouble me 
 not — upon your peril, truubie me not ! ' He was then as if 
 he had seen some glorious vision, or had been in a rapture. 
 . . . The last words he was heard to speak were these : — 
 
 * He counted me worthy.' And when the sound of his 
 words ceased, his lips were observed still to move, and he 
 seemed' to be inwardly adoring that God whom, in his 
 health, he served, feared, and praised, and made his boast 
 of continually; whose law he preached, and whose good- 
 ness he proclaimed. Such was his habitual sense of the 
 goodness of God, that, when he met an acquaintance, it 
 was a common thing for him (after the usual salutations) 
 to say, * Verily God is good — blessed be His name — stick 
 to Him.' . . . He was so great a Scripturist, that if one 
 began to rehearse any passage, he could go on with it, and 
 name the book, chapter, and verse where it might be found. 
 The original languages of the Old and New Testaments 
 were as familiar to him as his mother tongue."* 
 
 John Canne war, another worthy champion of the truth. 
 He was born about the year 1590, and for a short time 
 ministered in the English Church. In 1621 he was chosen 
 pastor of a church which afterwards met in Deadman's 
 Place, Southwark, and which had been formed but a little 
 time before. The church met at first stealthily in private 
 houses, to avoid persecution, which at length became so 
 fierce that Mr. Canne found it necessary to withdraw from 
 ♦ Palmer's Nonconformists Memorial, i, 133. 
 
I I 
 
 !;) 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 361 
 
 England for a time. He fixed his residence in Amsterdam, 
 where he was chosen pastor of " the ancient English 
 Church." In that city he published, in 1634, his work 
 entitled, The Necessity of Separatiottj justifying dissent 
 from the Church of England, and enforcing that duty. 
 During a visit to England in 1641, he formed the church in 
 Broadmead, Bristol. He returned to his pastoral duties at 
 Amsterdam, but visited his native land again after the 
 death of Charles I., and probably spent several years, 
 wholly or partially, in England. It appears that he was 
 dissatisfied with the Protectorate, and as he was a man 
 whose influence might be dreaded, he was not suffered to 
 propagate his opinions undisturbed. He was banished from 
 Hull, where he had been preaching for some time, and .after 
 some wanderings fixed his residence in London. Having 
 embraced Fifth Monarchy principles, although he had no 
 sympathy with the political schemes of their advocates, he 
 was apprehended, in April, 1658, at a meeting held in Cole- 
 man-street, and committed to prison, but acquitted on his 
 trial. Once more he sought refuge in Amsterdam, and 
 exercised his ministry there till his death, in the year 1667. 
 
 Though Mr. Canne was a "baptized man," as he is styled 
 in the records of the Broadmead Church, he maintained and 
 practised open communion. The Rev. Charles Stovel, of 
 London, who edited The Necessity of Separation, for the 
 Hanserd Knollys Society, says, in a letter to the author, 
 recently received : — " I see nothing in his works to indicate 
 a very decided baptistical zeal. I should judge that he was, 
 separating from all hierarchies, a free communionist, in the 
 widest meaning of that designation that could comport with 
 fellowship in vital religion." 
 
 Believing that " Scripture is its own best interpreter," he 
 prepared an edition of the Bible, with marginal references, 
 judiciously selected, and excellently adapted to assist 
 thoughtful enquirers in the search for truth. _ It was first 
 
•41 
 
 
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 I i 
 
 : 91 
 
 ;i!i 
 
 362 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 y 
 
 published in Amsterdam in 1644, and afterwards, repeatedly, 
 both in that city and in England. The Rev. Christopher 
 Anderson says:— "The first English Bible, with Scriptural 
 references on the margin throughout, was prepared and 
 printed in that city [Amsterdam] by John Canne. He pro- 
 ceeded on the principle, that * Scripture is the best interpreter 
 of Scripture, 'and his parallels, therefore, are parallels o( sense, 
 and not of sound, as too many have been since his day. . . . 
 A good reprint would a very valuable and saleable book."* 
 Vavasor Powell has not been inappropriately termed 
 *' the Whitfield of Wales." This excellent man was born 
 at Knocklas, in Radnorshire, in the year 1617. He received 
 a good education, and was well skilled in the learned lan- 
 guages ; but he was such a wild youth that even his young 
 associates called him dux omnium tnalorum — leader in all 
 mischief. Nevertheless, he was considered in those times 
 good enough for a clergyman, and was accordingly ordained, 
 and admitted to a curacy, although, as he afterwards con- 
 fessed, he " slighted the Scriptures, and was a stranger to 
 secret and spiritual prayer, and a great profaner of the Sab- 
 bath." But he did not long continue in this state. God 
 *« called him by His grace.'' The books and sermons of 
 Puritan ministers were blessed to his conversion. Having 
 left the Established Church, and joined the Nonconformists, 
 he engaged in ministerial labour with great zeal. He was 
 an eloquent and popular preacher, and had the honour to be 
 persecuted with no small malice. On one occasion, when 
 he had been preaching at a house in Brecknockshire, he 
 was seized, together with sixty or seventy of his hearers, by 
 a rude mob, who placed their prisoners in the church, as it 
 was too late at night to take them to a magistrate. Mr. 
 Powell improved the opportunity, and preached in the church 
 at midnight from Matt. x. 28. Next morning they went to 
 the magistrate, who was not at home when they arrived. Mr. 
 * Annals of the English Bible, ii. 559. 
 
11 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 363 
 
 Powell thought that time ought not to be wasted, and there- 
 fore preached again, greatly to the chagrin of his worship, 
 who found his house so unceremoniously turned into a con- 
 venticle. His daughter was impressed by the sermon, and 
 interceded for the release of the prisoner, which was reluc- 
 tantly granted. 
 
 The opposition was so violent that, in 1642, Mr. Powell 
 went to London, where he preached to many congregations 
 with much acceptance. Next year he settled at Dartford, 
 in Kent, and was "blessed with great success in his labours, 
 being instrumental in bringing many souls to Christ, and 
 gathering a congregation in that town." After remaining 
 there nearly three years, he was strongly urged to return to 
 Wales, the number of faithful ministers in that country 
 being then very small. He went accordingly, in 1646, and 
 spent fourteen years in his native land, travelling from place 
 to place, preaching incessantly, and planting churches. 
 *' He frequently preached in two or three places in a day, 
 and was seldom two days in a week throughout the year out 
 of the pulpit, — nay, he would sometimes ride a hundred 
 miles in a week, and preach in every place where \ j might 
 have admittance, either night or day; so that there was 
 hardly a church, chapel, or town-hall in all Wales where he 
 had not preached, besides his frequent preaching in fairs 
 and markets, upon mountains and in small villages ; for, if 
 he passed at any time through any place where there was a 
 concourse of people, he would take the opportunity of 
 preaching Christ and recommending to them the care of 
 their souls, and another world."* 
 
 In 1649 he was appointed one of the Commissioners, 
 under authority of an Act passed " for the better propagation 
 and preaching of the Gospel in Wales, for the ejecting of 
 scandalous ministers and schoolmasters, and redress of some 
 grievances." He discharged his duty in that office honestly 
 
 * Crosby, i. 376. 
 
 *V 
 
 
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IT 
 
 »«•»• 
 
 X 
 
 Jjl 
 
 364 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 and conscientiously, though it occasioned him much ill- 
 will. The good effects were apparent in every part of the 
 principality. 
 
 After the Restoration, Vavasor Powell became a marked 
 man. Such representations were made against him, that 
 in August, 1660, orders were issued by government to 
 suppress his congregations. In the following January, 
 immediately after Venner's insurrection, he was thrown 
 into prison, with many more, and continued there nine 
 weeks, when, at the coronation, a general pardon was 
 granted, and he was released. 
 
 But the term of freedom was short. Preach he would, 
 notwithstanding all prohibition. It was impossible to stop 
 him unless he was shut up in jail, and there was no diffi- 
 culty abput that in the days of Charles II. Upon a vague 
 charge of** sedition, rebellion, and treason,'* preferred by the 
 High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire, he was arrested. The 
 Sheriff had no evidence to produce, and the prisoner ought 
 to have been released at the Sessions, but a pretext was 
 found for detaining him, because he refused to take the oaths 
 of allegiance and supremacy. Soon after he was taken to 
 London, and appeared before the King and Council, by 
 whom he was committed to the Fleet Prison, where he 
 remained nearly two years. For twelve months he was not 
 allowed to leave his chamber, under the window of which 
 was a dunghill. His health was so impaired by the noisome 
 effluvia, that he never thoroughly recovered. From the 
 Fleet he was conveyed to Southsea Castle, near Ports- 
 mouth, and was confined there five years more. At the 
 end of that time he obtained his liberty by a writ of habeas 
 corpus. Crosby remarks that this took place ** upon the 
 removal of Chancellor Hyde " [Lord Clarendon], implying 
 that the imprisonment was altogether illegal, and that the 
 Chancellor had illegally prevented the victim, as well as 
 many others, from regaining their liberty. 
 
t t 
 
 Baptist Hist'^y. 
 
 365 
 
 much ill- 
 )art of the 
 
 J a marked 
 him, that 
 rnment to 
 r January, 
 as thrown 
 there nine 
 ardon was 
 
 he would, 
 iible to stop 
 V3is no diffi- 
 •on a vague 
 erred by the 
 2sted. The 
 soner ought 
 pretext was 
 ke the oaths 
 as taken to 
 ouncil, by 
 I, where he 
 he was not 
 [w of which 
 he noisome 
 From the 
 ear Ports- 
 e. At the 
 t of habeas 
 " upon the 
 1], implying 
 d that the 
 as well as 
 
 Mr. Powell repaired immediately to Wales, and recom- 
 menced preaching. He was not permitted to labour long. 
 One George Jones, an episcopal clergyman, and a man of 
 infamous character, lodged a f Jse information against him, 
 to the effect that several of his congregation went armed to 
 their meetings, as if for the purpose of resisting the autho- 
 rities. This was levying war! Again the minister of 
 Christ was shut up in jail. The charge could not be sub- 
 stantiated. Then they tendered the oaths. He refused to 
 
 SCENE ON THE FLEET RIVER, NEAR THE PRISON. 
 
 take them, and offered to give bail for his appearance at 
 the next Sessions. His request was denied, and he was 
 remanded to prison. A writ of habeas corpus was again 
 obfa'ned, and he was taken before the Court of Cornmon 
 Pleas, in London : yet, although the court unanimously 
 decided that " the return was false and illegal," they com- 
 mitted Mr. Powell, in defiance of all law and justice, to the 
 Fleet Prison, where he lay till his death, October 17th, 1670. 
 The Lord was with him there, and gave him " songs in 
 the night." Nor was he even there wholly useless. He 
 
 15* 
 
 'il 
 
 
 ^• 
 
366 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 had opportunities for intercourse with his brethren, and he 
 could use his pen for the advancement of the cause. One 
 of the last acts of his life was a correspondence with the 
 Broadmead Church, respecting Mr. Hardcastle, who after- 
 wards became their pastor. It was singularly illustrative 
 of the hardness of the times. Vavasor Powell, a prisoner* 
 recommends to the church a ministering brother, himself a 
 
 prisoner 
 
 I 
 
 (( 
 
 We are appointed and commanded," he observed, " to 
 be partakers of the afflictions of the Gospel (i Thess. iii. 3). 
 To be some of thf orwardest therein is an honour, which I 
 perceive God is calling you to ; therefore rejoice, and so 
 much the more as tribulations abound (2 Cor. vii. 4). Our 
 trials are like to be sharp, but it is to be hoped s>o much the 
 shorter., However, what are the worst and greatest we can 
 endure here, in comparison of the weight of glory, and 
 crown of righteousness, prepared and reserved for those 
 who continue faithful to the end ? An interest in God 
 through Christ, His presence with, power under. Spirit in, 
 and promises to us, are sufficient to carry us comfortably 
 through fire and water ; herein let us remember one another, 
 and all the Israel of God, who are in several countries now 
 intended by men to be sheep for the slaughter, though the 
 thought of the Lord may be otherwise."* 
 
 ** During the time of his last illness," says Crosby, 
 "though his physician ordered he should be kept from 
 speaking much, yet so zealously was he affected for the 
 glory of God, and with the love of Christ, that neither his 
 pains, bodily weakness, nor the tender advice of friends, 
 could possibly restrain him ; but he would, notwithstanding 
 all, break forth into high and heavenly praises, sometimes 
 by prayer, and sometimes by singing. 
 
 *' His patience under all his pains was very great. He 
 would under the greatest pain bless God, and say, he would 
 
 * Eroadmead Records, p. 108. 
 
I,! 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 367 
 
 not entertain one bad thought of God for all the world. 
 The sight of the pardon of sin, and recdiiciliation with God, 
 was so clear, and without interruption, even to the last, 
 that it was as a fire in his bosom till he spake of it : and 
 very hardly would he be restrained at any time : and when 
 he had spent his strength in speaking, then would he com- 
 pose himself to get a little mc e strength, that he might go 
 on to speak further of the grace of God towards him, and to 
 give reasonable advice to all about him ; and so continued 
 till God took away his strength and speech from him." * 
 
 Among the publications issued by him were two, which 
 were probably written in jail. One was entitled, ** The 
 Bird in the Cage, Chirping ; " the other, *' The Sufferer's 
 Catechism." 
 
 Abraham Cheare was not a scholar, but he was one of 
 the working, suffering men of the seventeenth century, 
 whom the Lord honoured and blessed. He wat. a native 
 of Plymouth, and was by trade a fuller. Whether he had 
 been a minister in one of the Paedobaptist denominations, 
 or whether his preaching abilities showed themselves im- 
 mediately after his conversion, we are not able to decide. 
 This only is recorded, that he was invited to the pastorate 
 of the church at Plymouth in the same year in which he 
 was baptized, viz. 1648. Though the Baptists in that town 
 were " a poor despised people," they were respectably 
 numerous, the invitation of Mr. Cheare being signed by 
 one hundred and fifty members. It is probable that many 
 of them resided in the neighbouring villages, and that Mr. 
 Cheare had a somewhat extensive diocese. He was a dili- 
 gent and faithful observer. After thirteen years of peaceful 
 labours, during which many souls were converted, and a 
 good degree of religious prosperity was enjoyed by the 
 church, Mr. Cheare entered on his course of sufferings. In 
 1661 he was confined for three months in Exeter jail, for 
 
 * History, i. 380, 
 
 ii I 
 
 i 
 
 it 
 
 P 
 
 mi 
 
I ( 
 
 ■:!lt 
 
 368 
 
 Baptt. ''"'story. 
 
 i 
 
 " encouraging religious assemblies." Referring to this im- 
 prisonment, in a letter written some time afterwards, he 
 says : — " Some from our neighbouring parts are sent to the 
 place of ancient experience [the prison], where they have a 
 stock of prayers and presence to begin upon ; they begin on 
 straw, learning to endure hardness as good soldiers. The 
 Lord make that Word good to them which often hatfi been, 
 in that place, sweet to me (Exod. xxiii. 25; Eccles. iv. 14)." 
 
 The Act of Uniformity was the death-knell of Christian 
 freedom. Not only the ejected ministers, but all others 
 who refused obedience, were subjected to persecution. Mr. 
 Cheare became again an occupant of Exeter jail, and lay 
 there three years, " enduring great inhumanities from 
 merciless jailors," yet enjoying the consolations of religion 
 in an eipinent degree. Writing to a friend, who had known 
 something of persecution, he says : — " I received yours of 
 the nth of the seventh month, and in it a testimony of 
 teaching and supporting grace and presence continued to 
 you abroad, which He is pleased not to deny His poor 
 worms here, in these holes of the earth, where violence 
 hath thrust us in as so many slaughter-houses of men ; but 
 over-ruling grace makes them as the presence-chambers of 
 the great King, where He brings and feasts His favourites 
 with the best things, and proclaims among them, * Thus 
 shall it be done to them whom the King delights to honour.' 
 This honour have not all, that yet are saints ; much less 
 have any this mercy, who either through the fear or forma- 
 lity of their unconverted souls are enforced shamefully to 
 put off that profession which hypocritically they did put on 
 in a day of seeming prosperity ; not but these walls, as a 
 draw-net, do enclose bad and good ; but at length a dis- 
 covery is made more manifest ; he chooseth in this .urnace 
 of affliction, a week in a prhon giving plainer discovery of 
 a man's spirit than a month In a church.''^ 
 
 He was released in 1665, and returned to his work, but 
 
! I 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 i.t 
 
 3^9 
 
 had scarcely entered on it when his enemies obtained an 
 order for his perpetual banishment. He was placed on the 
 small island of St. Nicholas, whence he had a full view of 
 his former abode, and doubtless often gazed on it with 
 sadness. But he was not alone. Other Christian friends 
 shareu his exile. Their discomforts were many ; the mili- 
 tary g-flard which was constantly in attendance prevented 
 them from engaging in religious exercises ; and Mr. Cheare 
 had the additional trial of a severe attack of illness, which 
 lasted nine months, and brought him to the brink of the 
 grave. Yet, though ** cast down," he was not ** destroyed." 
 Divine comforts sustained him, and the sympathy of his 
 brethren on the mainland was practically shown in con- 
 tributions for his support. They were not long needed 
 Another illness came on, under which he rapidly sank. At 
 even-tide it was light. His dying experience afforded a 
 beautiful illustration of the power of the Gospel. It cheered 
 those who watched around his bed, and the published record 
 edified many. He exchanged exile for a heavenly home, 
 March 5, 1668.* 
 
 '' i 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 -*o*- 
 
 Section XI. 
 
 Biographical Notices Continued— John Tombes, B.D.— Francis Bampfield, 
 A.M.— Henry D'Anvers— Edward Terrill— Dr. Du Veil— John Bunyan. 
 
 JOHN TOMBES, B.D., was an eminently learned man. 
 His writings in defence of believers' baptism were 
 numerous and weighty. Educf^.'.'^d at Magdalen Hall, 
 Oxford, he was appointed to the •• C -techetical Lecture " in 
 that Hall, on the death of his tutor, when he was but 
 twenty-one years of age, and discharged the duty to the 
 satisfaction of all concerned. About the year 1631, he ob- 
 tained the living of Leominster, in Herefordshire, where he 
 
 ♦ Ivimey, ii. 103 — 116. 
 B B 
 
ifmmmm^mmm. 
 
 370 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I!M 
 
 preached and laboured ten years. His zeal for " a reforma- 
 tion in the Church, and the purging out of all human inven- 
 tions in the worship of God," exposed him to the fury of anti- 
 reformers. When the King's forces occupied Leominster, 
 Mr. Tombes was driven out of the place, and most of his 
 property plundered. After a short stay in Bristol, he re- 
 paired to London, where he preached, first in Fenchurch- 
 street, and afterwards in the Temple Church. But he had 
 been studying the subject of baptism for several years. 
 Doubts respecting the authority of infant-baptism troubled 
 hifTi while he held his lectureship at Oxford. He sought 
 satisfaction with great earnestness and diligence. The 
 Scriptures were carefully examined ; the best writings on 
 both sides were read ; and frequent conferences were held 
 \vith teamed ministers, for which there was ample oppor- 
 tunity at that time, as the Assembly of Divines was then 
 sitting. But his scruples took faster hold of him, and at 
 length he yielded to the conviction of the unscripturalness 
 of infant-baptism. Dismission from his situation in the 
 Temple followed the publication of one of his works on the 
 subject. He then retired into the country, and became 
 minister of Bewdley, Worcestershire. There, in 1646, 
 he was baptized, and formed a Baptist church, to which he 
 ministered separately, still retaining the charge of the 
 parish ; but the want of sympathy between him and the 
 people occasioned his removal, and he returned to Leomin- 
 ster, at which place he closed his public ministry, soon after 
 the Restoration. We have before stated, that he was 
 appointed one of the Triers in Cromwell's time. The terms 
 of uniformity were too hard for him. He withdrew into 
 private life. " Having not long before married a rich 
 widow at Salisbury, by whom he enjoyed a good estate, he 
 resolved to live in rest and peace in his old age."* The 
 latter part of his life was spent in communion with the 
 
 * Crosby, i. 290. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 \.\ 
 
 371 
 
 Church of England, although he refused to accept any 
 benefice or dignity, or to occupy any public position. With 
 singular inconsistency, as it seems to us, he still wrote 
 against infant-baptism. 
 
 Mr. Tombes wrote fourteen treatises on baptism. The 
 principal one was entitled, Antipcedobaptismt or a full 
 review of the dispute about I, if ant-Baptism, 
 
 Francis Bampfield, A.M., was one of the " excellent 
 of the earth " in those days. He received his education 
 at Wadham College, Oxford, where he spent upwards of 
 seven years in the pursuit of knowledge. About the year 
 1639, he entered the ministry of the Church of England. 
 The celebrated Bishop Hall ordained him. Shortly after- 
 wards he obtained a living in Dorsetshire, and a prebendal 
 stall in Exeter Cathedral. In 1655 he removed to Sher- 
 borne, where he laboured, as in his former location, with 
 exemplary diligence, and was greatly endeared to the people 
 of his charge. 
 
 But he had long been dissatisfied with the National 
 Establishment. The corruptions and abuses inherited from 
 Rome were net to be borne with. They could not, in his 
 opinion, be classed among "things indifferent," for they 
 struck at the authorit}'^ of the Redeemer, as sole Head of 
 the Church, and were totally inconsistent with the spiritual- 
 ity of His kingdom. The enactment of the Act of Unifor- 
 mity, in 1662, brought Mr. Bampfield to a decision. He 
 took leave of His flock, and commenced preaching as a 
 Nonconformist. 
 
 In less than a month he was committed to prison, and 
 there, too, he preached the Gospel. His imprisonments 
 were numerous. One of them lasted eight years. He was 
 then an inmate of Dorchester jail, where he continued his 
 ministerial efforts, and had the happiness of forming a 
 church. He preached in jail almost every day. As soon 
 as he was liberated, he resumed his public work, itinerating 
 
 B B 2 
 
 
 .2 
 
372 
 
 Baptist History.- 
 
 \ 
 
 ID 
 
 in several counties. In March, 1676, he became pastor of 
 a Sabbatarian Baptist church meeting in Pinner's Hall, 
 London, which had been gathered by his instrumentality. 
 In the record of the formation of this church, it is stated 
 that ** the persons who then agreed to join together in 
 church-communion, according to the order of the Gospel, 
 under the conduct of the said Mr. Francis Bampfield, as 
 their pastor, laid their church state upon the only sure 
 foundation, and agreed to form and regulate it by the only 
 cerlain rule and measure, expressing the nature and consti- 
 tution of this church in the following terms : — ' We own 
 the Lord Christ to be the one and only Lord and Lawgiver 
 to our souls and consciences ; and we own the Holy Scrip- 
 tures of truth as the one and only rule of faith, worship, and 
 life, according to which we are to judge in all cases.' 
 Accordingly, these principles were subscribed by the pastor 
 and divers brethren on behalf of the rest." * 
 
 This was his last station. Here he met with the usual 
 disturbances, the congregation being often broken up by 
 the officers of mis-called justice. On February 17th, 1683, 
 while he was preaching, a constable entered and interrupted 
 him. " I have a warrant from the Lord Mayor to disturb 
 your meeting," said the constable. " I have a warrant 
 from Jesus Christ to go on," replied the pr^i^cher, and was 
 proceeding with his discourse, when he was seized and 
 taken, with six of his brethren, to the Lord Mayor, who 
 fined them ten pounds each. Nevertheless, they met again 
 in the afternoon, but were compelled to separate, on which 
 they retired to Mr. Bampfield's residence, where he finished 
 the exercises of the day. That day week he was appre- 
 hended once more, and committed to Newgate. At the 
 next Quarter Sessions he and several others were placed at 
 the bar, and the oath of allegiance was tendered to tnem. 
 They dechned to taKe it, because it was understood to 
 
 ♦ Ivimcy, i. 170. 
 
t'.l 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 373 
 
 comprise an obligation to conform to the Church of Eng- 
 land, to which they could not bind themselves ; whereupon 
 the Recorder passed sentence to this effect : — " That they 
 were out of the protection of the King's majesty ; that all 
 their goods and chattels were forfeited ; and that they were 
 to remain in jail during their lives, or during the King's 
 pleasure." It was not " the King's pleasure " to release 
 them. Death in jail was a common thing during the 
 reigns of Charles II. and James II. Mr. Bampfield died in 
 Newgate, February i6th, 1684, being in the seventieth year 
 of his age. 
 
 He was a learned man and a hard student. The titles 
 of two of his works seem to indicate that he had embraced 
 the views which were afterwards more fully developed by 
 Mr. Hutchinson, and are so often referred toin Parkhurst's 
 Hebrew and Gr ^ek Lexicons. The one is: — All in One; 
 All useful sciences and profitable arts in one hook of ^ehovah- 
 ^loini, copied out, and commented upon in created Beings, 
 comprehended "ind discovered in the fulness and perfection of 
 Scripture knowledge, 1677 : folio. The other is : — The 
 House of Wisdom. The House of the Sons of the Prophets: 
 an House of exquisite inquiry, and of deep Research ; where 
 the mind of jfehovah-Mloim in the Holy Scriptures of Truth, 
 in the original words and phrases, and their proper signifi- 
 cancy, is diligently studied, faithfully compared, and aptly 
 put together for the further promoting and higher advance- 
 ment of Scripture knowledge, of all useful Arts, and profit- 
 able Sciences, in one Book of Books, the Word of Christ, 
 copied out, and commented upon in created Beings, 1681: 
 folio. 
 
 Henry D'Anvers is best known as an author, his Treatise 
 on Baptism being regarded as the most learned and com- 
 plete work which at that time had been published on the 
 subject. The full title is: — A Treatise on Baptism; wherein 
 that of Believers and that of Infants is examined by the 
 
 m 
 
 ^MtlH 
 
 ■ I 
 
 j_j 
 

 f 
 
 II 
 
 til 
 
 374 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 Scriptures f with the history of both out of Antiquity ; making 
 it appear that Infants' Baptism was not practised for nearly 
 four hundred years after Christ; with the fabulous traditions 
 and erroneous grounds upon which it was, by the Pope's 
 Canons (with Gossips, Chrysm, Exorcism, Baptizing of 
 Bells, and other Popish Rites), founded: and that the famous 
 Waldensian, and other British Churches, Lollards, and 
 
 THE TOWER OF THE PRISON OF D ANVERS, 
 
 Wicklifians, and other Christians, witnessed against it: with 
 the History of Christianity among the Ancient Britons and 
 Waldensians. Mr. D'Anvers had been a colonel in the 
 Parliamentary army, and was some time Governor of 
 Stafford. While he held that office he became a Baptist. 
 He was very strenuous for laying on of hands after baptism. 
 
I I 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 375 
 
 He was reputed to be a Fifth Monarchy man, and it appears 
 evident that he expected the personal reign of the Redeemer 
 upon earth. In 1675 he was apprehended and committed 
 to the Tower — probably on suspicion of treasonable prac- 
 tices, which Venner's insurrection had led the Government 
 to connect with Fifth Monarchy principles — but as no 
 specific charge was brought against him, he was released 
 on bail. It is stated by Crosby that he was one of the 
 elders of a Baptist church, near Aldgate, London. When 
 he was chosen to that office does not appear. In the reign 
 of James II. he united with some others in consultations 
 and plans relative to the Duke of Monmouth's enterprise, 
 and was so far compromised thereby that he was compelled 
 to flee to Holland, where he died in 1686. The high esteem 
 in which he was held by the principal Baptists of that 
 period is shown by a "Vindication" of his work referred to 
 above, to which were appended the names (among others) 
 of Hanserd KnoUys, William Kiffin, and Thomas De'.aune. 
 Mr. D'Anvers' complicity in the Monmouth rebellion 
 will be differently judged of according to men's political 
 views. That James II. was a tyrant, and that he deserved 
 expulsion, no one now doubts ; but where the obligation to 
 entire submission ceases, and the lawfulness of resistance 
 begins, has not yet, we believe, been decided. We who 
 have lived all our days in sunshine, are but ill qualified to 
 criticise the behaviour of those who endured the peltings of 
 the storm. 
 
 We have read with intense interest the Records of the 
 Baptist Church in Broadmead, Bristol. For those Records 
 we are indebted to Mr. Edward Terrill, who was for 
 eighteen years a ruling elder of that church. He was bap- 
 tized in the year 1658, chosen to the office of elder in 1667, 
 and died in 1685. During the harassing persecutions 
 through which the church passed, he was truly its earthly 
 mainstay. His house was open for worship whenever it 
 
 .V 
 
ff 
 
 f" 
 
 376 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 was deemed more prudent to meet in a private manner. 
 When the pastor was in prison or compelled to be absent, 
 Jie was ready to occupy the post of labour and of danger. 
 He was wise in council, kindhearted to the poor, and fer- 
 tile in expedients to baffle persecutors, and provide for the 
 church's spiritual wants. A Dissenter and a Baptist from 
 conviction, he stood firm to his principles, though despoiled 
 of his property, and not unfrequently committed to prison 
 for maintaining them. In many instances, when tyrant- 
 magistrates thought that they might stretch their power 
 with impunity, he checked their violence by employing the 
 best legal advisers, and thus securing the church from 
 unlawful oppression. In a word, he lived for the cause, 
 and his memory is blessed. 
 
 Having acquired considerable property by his marriage, 
 he resolved to devote it to the Lord. B3' a deed executed 
 in 1678, he placed a large portion — perhaps the whole — of 
 his estates in the hands of trustees, the income derivable 
 therefrom to become available, as it should seem, after the 
 death of his widow, and to be expended on the education 
 of young men for the ministry. This was done, he said, 
 for the glory of God, and the propagation of the Gospel of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the true love and affection 
 he hath and beareth unto the congregation of which he is a 
 member." With this object in view, he directed that ;£'ioo 
 a-year should be paid to " a holy learned man, well skilled 
 in the tongues, viz., Greek and Hebrew, and doth own and 
 practise the truth of believers' baptism, as a pastor or 
 teacher to the congregation." The pastor thus employed 
 was to spend three and a half days in each week in the 
 instruction of young men, not exceeding twelve, members 
 of any baptized congregation in or near Bristol. Ten 
 pounds a year were also to be paid to any four of the 
 students whose friends might be unable to support them. 
 These benefactions may be said to have laid the foundation 
 
M 
 
 II 
 
 ; manner. 
 3e absent, 
 )f danger, 
 r, and fer- 
 ide for the 
 iptist from 
 1 despoiled 
 
 1 to prison 
 en tyrant- 
 leir power 
 )loying the 
 lurch from 
 
 the cause, 
 
 3 marriage, 
 ;d executed 
 
 2 whole — of 
 ,e derivable 
 m, after the 
 e education 
 le, he said, 
 e Gospel of 
 id affection 
 hich he is a 
 1 that £ioo 
 
 well skilled 
 th own and 
 
 pastor or 
 s employed 
 week in the 
 e, members 
 istol. Ten 
 four of the 
 
 port them. 
 
 foundation 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 in 
 
 of Bristol College. By them, Mr. Terrill's usefulness is 
 perpetuated. i' , 
 
 The history of Dr. Du Veil is extremely interesting. 
 He was a native of France and of Jewish extraction. His 
 parents were probably in affluent circumstances, as it is 
 evident that he received a very liberal education. The 
 study of the prophetical writings of the Old Testament 
 convinced him of the Messiahship of Jesus. When he 
 avowed that conviction, and his determination to embrace 
 Christianity, his father was so enraged that he attempted 
 to kill him, and would have accomplished his purpose had 
 he not been prevented by some persons present. Du Veil 
 joined the Roman Catholic Church, and soon became an 
 eloquent and popular preacher. He acquired considerable 
 fame also as an author, by a Commentary on the Gospels of 
 Mark and Luke, in which he displayed much learning and 
 controversial tact. The University of Anjou bestowed on 
 him the degree of D.D., and he was urged to enter into the 
 lists with the Huguenots, whose powerful defences of Pro- 
 testant truths gave no small trouble to Roman ecclesiastics. 
 He engaged in preparation for that work, but found to his 
 astonishment that Protestantism was a purer form of Chris- 
 tianity than he had yet been acquainted with. Honestly 
 following his convictions, he withdrew from France to 
 Holland, since his li^'e would have been in danger had he 
 continued in the fcimer country, and publicly abjured 
 Popery. Shortly afterwards he proceeded to EnHand, 
 where he was received with great respect and liberally be- 
 friended by many prelates and dignitaries of the English 
 Church. 
 
 He was ordained to the ministry in that Church. In 1679 
 he published, A Literal Explication of Solomon's Sojig, 
 and, in the following year, A Literal Exposition of the 
 Minor Prophets. These works greatly enhanced his repu- 
 tation. The Bishop of London (Dr. Compton) was so 
 
 I 
 
 iff 
 It \\ 
 
■I 
 
 i\ 
 
 .1 
 
 ■I )■ 
 
 w 
 
 37^ 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 pleased with them, that he offered every encouragement to 
 the learned author to continue his biblical researches, and 
 gave him the free use of his library for that purpose. This 
 led to another and final change. In the Bishop's library he 
 found the works of Baptist authors, and the perusal of them 
 convinced him that the Baptists were in the right. A pious 
 young woman, a servant in the Bishop's family, introduced 
 him to the church with which she was connected, and of 
 which the Rev. John Gosnold was pastor. L>r. Du Veil was 
 baptized by him, and joined the church, by that act sepa- 
 rating himself from the rich and powerful, by whose means 
 he would most probably have obtained ecclesiastical ad- 
 vancement. In 1685 his Literal Explanation of the Acts 
 of the Apostles was published. This is a valuable com- 
 mentary. It has been reprinted by the Hanserd KnoUys 
 Society. ' 
 
 We have been unable to obtain further information re- 
 specting Dr. Du Veil. Whether he preached after he 
 became a Baptist, or confined himself to literary labour, is 
 not recorded in any works to which we have had access. 
 Doubtless he devoted his talents to the diffusion and de- 
 fence of the truth, and it may be inferred that he was usefully 
 employed. It is not often that we meet with such a case. 
 There have been many in all ages who have seen the light, 
 but failed to follow it, through fear of poverty or suffering. 
 Dr. Du Veil was not one of that class. Every change 
 placed him lower in a worldly point of view ; but that did not 
 move him. Truth was to be embraced, and conscience 
 obeyed at all risks. Peace to his memory ! 
 
 John Bunyan's reputation is world-wide. He was truly 
 a God-taught man. His " Pilgrim " tells his tale in nearly 
 all languages, and it is listened to with rapt interest and 
 admiration by men of every clime, and of all varieties of 
 mental culture. It is the peasant's food and the philo- 
 sopher's luxury. 
 
 f \ 
 
agement to 
 irches, and 
 ose. This 
 s library he 
 sal of them 
 t. A pious 
 introduced 
 ed, and of 
 >u Veil was 
 t act sepa- 
 tose means 
 astical ad- 
 ?/ the Acts 
 jable com- 
 rd KnoUys 
 
 mation re- 
 1 after he 
 r labour, is 
 ad access, 
 on and de- 
 as usefully 
 
 ch a case. 
 
 the light, 
 suffering, 
 change 
 
 lat did not 
 
 7 
 
 onscience 
 
 was truly 
 in nearly 
 erest and 
 rieties of 
 he philo- 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 379 
 
 The history of his life is so well-known, that it is quite 
 unnecessary to reproduce it here. We will only give a 
 chronological note or two. John Bunyan was born at 
 Elstow, Bedfordshire, in the year 1628. He was converted 
 to God in 1653, and soon after began to preach. On the 
 13th of November, 1660, he was committed to Bedford jail 
 for " teaching men to worship God contrary to the law." 
 There, with no other aids than the Bible and Foxe's Book 
 
 f^-,4j»i!-.(.H"'*381,*_ ". J'/l T^y? 
 
 
 BEDFORD JAIL. 
 
 of Martyrs, he wrote the Pilgrim'' s Progress, and other works 
 which have immortalised his name. He was released in 
 December, 1672, and spent the remainder of his life in 
 manifold labours for the cause of Christ. As pastor of the 
 church at Bedford, to which office he was chosen December 
 2ist, 1671, while yet a prisoner, ** he was instant in season, 
 out of season," and the Church greatly flourished under 
 
 I 
 
 ^ rill ■ '■ 
 
 
 f f ' • 
 
 'i ! ) 
 

 380 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 I; I 
 
 I'l !' 
 
 lit 
 
 iiiii 
 
 his ministry. When he visited London, people flocked in 
 crowds to hear him : three thousand persons were known 
 to be assembled for that purpose at seven o'clock in the 
 morning. Not unfrequently the learned and the great were 
 among them. Charles II. once asked Dr. Owen how it was 
 that he was so fond of hearing a tinker preach. " May it 
 please your majesty," the doctor replied, " had I the tinker's 
 abilities for preaching, I would gladly relinquish all my 
 learning." 
 
 He had been engaged in a Christian work when he fell 
 under the death-stroke. A profligate son had so offended 
 his father that he threatened to disinherit him. Bunyan 
 effected a reconciliation. He had been to Reading on this 
 benevolent errand, and was returning home through London, 
 when he iwas attacked by fever, caused by exposure to 
 heavy rain on his journey, and died at a friend's house after 
 a few days' illness. This was in August, 1688, about three 
 months before the landing of William, Prince of Orange, 
 afterwards William III. How his heart would have been 
 gladdened, could he have witnessed his nation's deliver- 
 ance! 
 
 One of the last treatises which he prepared for the press 
 was entitled. Of Antichrist and his Rui7i. It expresses, in 
 his own plain and nervous style, those sentiments respect- 
 ing Popery and religious freedom which Baptists have ever 
 maintained. 
 
 We may indulge in a pardonable pride when we boast of 
 John Bunyan as one of us. We have no name more 
 honoured. But we will not attempt to write his eulogy. 
 His works praise him, and will praise him as long as the 
 Church of God abides. 
 
 i 
 
 T 
 
Dcked in 
 e known 
 k in the 
 tiat were 
 w it was 
 " May it 
 '. tinker's 
 all my 
 
 n he fell 
 offended 
 
 Bunyan 
 J on this 
 London, 
 Dsure to 
 use after 
 Dut three 
 
 Orange, 
 we been 
 
 deliver- 
 
 le press 
 
 esses, in 
 
 respect- 
 
 ave ever 
 
 joast of 
 lie more 
 eulogy, 
 s: as the 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 t t 
 
 381 
 
 SeCTIO]^ XII. I' 
 
 Biographical Notices Concluded— Thomas Grantham— Hanserd KnoUys— 
 Benjamin Keach— William Kiffin. 
 
 WE have given some account of the principal minis- 
 ters of our denomination in England who died before 
 the glorious Revolution. The names of several others, 
 who survived that event, will be recorded here, because 
 their labours as public men must be chiefly referred to the 
 period now under review. 
 
 Thomas Grantham was for many years the principal 
 minister among the General Baptists. He was baptized at 
 Boston, Lincolnshire, in the year 1652, and almost imme- 
 diately afterwards commenced his ministerial labours. In 
 1656 he became pastor of a church at North Elm Chapel. 
 The petition presented to Charles H. in the early part of his 
 reign, said to be " approved by more than 20,000," was 
 written by him. He was several timjs imprisoned, and 
 otherwise annoyed, for his principles and practices as a 
 Baptist. So highly esteemed was he by his brethren, that 
 in 1666 he was removed from the pastoral office and 
 appointed *' messenger," in which capacity he laboured 
 many years, founding churches in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, 
 Warwickshire, and other counties, and exercising a general 
 superintendence over the interests of the denomination. He 
 finally settled at Norwich, where he died, January 17, 1691. 
 Mr. Grantham wrote some useful works, chiefly in expla- 
 nation or defence of Baptist sentiments. The largest was 
 a folio volume, entitled " Christiajiistmis Primitives." * 
 
 Hanserd Knollys was a native of Chalkwell, in Lin- 
 colnshire. While pursuing his studies at the University of 
 Cambridge, he experienced a change of heart, having 
 become acquainted with " several gracious Christians, then 
 ♦ Tayler's History of the General Baptisti, i. 308 — 316. 
 
 \> 1 
 
 Ij. { j 
 
 U 
 
 III 
 
 if 
 
 ;» 
 
 I' I 
 

 i 
 
 fl 1 
 
 ';'i 
 
 382 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 called Puritaus," whose conversation was blessed to him. 
 In 1629 he was ordained by the IJishop of Peterborough. 
 At Humberstone, where he lived several yearn, he was 
 accustomed to preach three and even four times on the 
 Lord's-day, besides sermons on saints' days and at funerals. 
 But scruples and doubts agitated his mind. At length he 
 reached the conviction that his position in the Church of 
 England was not in accordance with the New Testament, 
 and he renounced his ordination, resolving not to preach 
 any more till he had *' received a clear call and commission 
 from Christ to preach the Gospel." 
 
 During his silence he underwent much mental distress, 
 which was removed by the instrumentality of Mr. Wheel- 
 wright, one of the Puritan ministers. He then recom- 
 menced* preaching. ** I began to preach the doctrine of free 
 grace, according to the tenor of the new and everlasting 
 Covenant, for three or four years together, whereby very 
 many sinners were converted, and many believers were 
 established in the faith." 
 
 The persecution was so fierce that he joined the emi- 
 grants who were at that time flocking to New England, and 
 arrived at Boston in the spring of 1638. He was not 
 allowed to remain there, the ministers having unaccount- 
 ably judged him to be an Antinomian, and desired the 
 magistrates to send him away. But he found a home at 
 Dover, on the Piscataqua, where he preached with much 
 acceptance upwards of three years. Cotton Mather, having 
 referred to *' ministers from other parts of the world," who 
 had arrived in New England, says : — " Of these there were 
 some godly Anabaptists, as namely, Mr. Hanserd Knollys 
 (whom one of his adversaries called Absurd Knowlcss), of 
 Dover, and Mr. Miles of Swansley. Both of these have a 
 respectful character in the churches of this wilderness." *' 
 It is observable that Mr. Knollys' arrival was in the spring 
 * Magnalia, book iii. p. 243 (Ed, 1855). 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 383 
 
 of 1638. Roger Williams' baptism did not take place till 
 the winter of that year. 
 
 Mr. KnoUys returned to England about the close of 1641. 
 He settled in London, where he gained his livelihood by 
 
 DEPARTURE OF EMIGRANTS TO NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 teaching a school. His next employment was that of 
 chaplain in the Parliamentary army. When he left the 
 army he established himself again in London as a school- 
 master, and preached in the churches as he found oppor- 
 
 V ,. 
 
 \ ' 
 
384 
 
 Baptist History 
 
 tunity. His labours were very acceptable to the people, 
 but were so disapproved of by the Assembly of Divines, 
 because he preached against national churches, that he 
 withdrew from connection with them, and opened a meet- 
 ing-house in Great St. Helen-street, where he commonly 
 had a congregation of a thousand hearers. A Baptist 
 church was formed there, over which he was ordained 
 pastor in 1645. He held that office till his death, in 1691, 
 though he was often prevented, by the operation of unjust 
 laws, from fulfilling its duties. On several occasions he 
 found it necessary to retire into the country for a while, and 
 during the hottest period of the persecution he l^ft England, 
 and lived two or three years in Germany and Holland. He 
 had his share also of " bonds and imprisonments." But 
 God graciously sustained him. His religious enjoyments 
 abounded, and his labours were eminently successful. 
 
 " My wilderness, sea, city, and prison mercies," he ob- 
 serves, " afforded me very many and strong consolations. 
 The spiritual sights of the glory of God, the divine sweet- 
 ness of the spiritual and providential presence of my Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and the joys and comforts of the holy and 
 eternal Spirit, communicated to my soul, together with 
 suitable and seasonable Scriptures of truth, have so often 
 and so powerfully revived, refreshed, and strengthened my 
 heart in the days of my pilgrimage, trials, and sufferings, 
 that the sense, — yea the life and sweetness thereof, — abides 
 still upon my heart, and hath engaged my soul to live by 
 faith, to walk humbly, and to desire and endeavour to excel 
 in holiness to God's glory and the example of others. 
 Though, I confess, many of the Lord's ministers and some 
 of the Lord's people have excelled and outshined me, with 
 whom God hath not been at so much cost, nor pains, as He 
 hath been at with me. I am a very unprofitable servant, 
 but yet by grace I am what I am." 
 
 Mr. Knollys gives the following account of his recovery 
 
\\ 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 385 
 
 from a di 
 
 illnes 
 
 igerous Illness. We shall copy it without com- 
 ment : — 
 
 *' Two learned, well-practised, and judicious doctors of 
 physic had daily visited me, and consulted several days 
 together, and I was fully persuaded that they did what they 
 possibly could to effect a cure, and knew also that God did 
 not succeed their honest and faithful endeavours with His 
 blessing. Although God had given a signal and singular 
 testimony of His special blessing by each of them unto 
 other of their patients, at least sixteen, at the same time, I 
 resolved to take no more physic, but would apply to that 
 holy ordinance of God, appointed by Jesus Christ, the great 
 Physician of value, in James v. 14, 15: — 'Is any sick among 
 you ? let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them 
 pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the 
 Lord : and the prayer of faith shall [save the sick, and the 
 Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have committed sins, 
 they shall be forgiven him : ' — and I sent for Mr. Kifiin and 
 Mr. Vavasor Powell, who prayed'Jover me, and anointed me 
 with oil in the name of the Lo.J. The Lord did hear 
 prayer, and heal me ; for there were many godly ministers 
 and gracious saints that prayed day and night for me (with 
 submission to the will of God), that the Lord would spare 
 my life, and make me more serviceable to His Church, and 
 to His saints, whose prayers God heard ; and as an ansv. er 
 to their prayers I was perfectly healed, but remained weak 
 long after." 
 
 As the poverty of the church prevented them from pro- 
 viding adequately for his support, Mr. Knollys continued in 
 his employment as a schoolmaster almost to the close of 
 life. His efforts were so successful that he realized consi- 
 derable property. Reviewing his history some time after 
 his wife's death (which took place in 167 1), he says : — *' To 
 my eldest son I had given sixty pounds per annum during 
 life, which he enjoyed about twenty-one years ere he died. 
 
 c c 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 
386 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 
 v-» 
 
 To my next son that lived to be married I gave the full 
 value of two hundred and fifty pounds in money, house, 
 school, and household goods, and left him fifty scholars in 
 the school-house. To my only daughter then liv^ing I gave 
 upon her marriage, above three hundred pounds in money, 
 annuity, plate, linen, and household stuffs, and left her hus- 
 band fifty scholars in the said school-house, in partnership 
 with my said son. To my youngest son that lived to be 
 married I gave more than three hundred pounds sterling; 
 besides, it cost me sixty pounds in his apprenticeship, and 
 forty pounds ai'L-^rwards. Thus my Heavenly Father made 
 up my former losses with His future blessings, even in 
 outward substance, besides a good increase of grace and 
 experience, in the space of the forty years that I and my 
 dear faithful wife lived together. We removed several 
 times, with our whole family ; whereof, once from Lincoln- 
 shire to London, and from London to New England ; once 
 from England into Wales, twice from London into Lincoln- 
 shire ; once from London to Holland, and from thence into 
 Germany, and thence to Rotterdam, and thence to London 
 again. In which removings I gained great exneriences of 
 God's faithfulness, goodness and truth, in His great and 
 precious promises ; and I have gained some experience of 
 my own heart's deceitfulness and the power of my own cor- 
 ruptions, and the reigning power of Christ, and His capti- 
 vating and subduing my sins — making conquests of the 
 devil, world, and sin, and then giving me the victory, and 
 causing me to triumph, and to bless His holy name. ... I 
 would not want those experiences and teachings that my 
 soul hath enjoyed for all that I ever suffered," 
 
 Among the works published by Mr. Knollys was a 
 Grammar of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. It 
 was written in Latin.* 
 
 Mr. Knollys died September 19th, 169 1. He was in the 
 
 =" Ivimey, ii. 347—359- 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 387 
 
 e the full 
 ;y, house, 
 cholars in 
 ing I gave 
 in money, 
 ft her hus- 
 lartnership 
 ived to be 
 s sterling; 
 :eship, and 
 ither made 
 ;s, even in 
 grace and 
 t I and my 
 red several 
 im Lincoln- 
 ;land ; once 
 ito Lincoln- 
 thence into 
 to London 
 leriences of 
 great and 
 :perience of 
 ,y own cor- 
 His capti- 
 .ests of the 
 victory, and 
 jname. ... I 
 gs that my 
 
 )llys was a 
 iguages. It 
 
 was 
 
 in the 
 
 ninety-third year of his age. The " Hanserd Knollys 
 Society," founded in the year 1845, for the republication of 
 the works of early Baptist authors, was named after him. 
 
 Knollys, Keach, and Kiffin might be called *' the first 
 three " among the Baptist ministers of those days. Their 
 talents and characters gave them influence, which appears 
 to have been wisely exerted for the benefit of the deno- 
 mination. They were honoured while living, and their 
 ** memon- is blessed." 
 
 Benjamin Keach's sufferings have been detailed in a 
 former section. He was twenty-four years of age when he 
 endured the pillory. Born in 1640, he was converted in his 
 fifteenth year, and commenced preaching, at the invitation 
 of the Church, three years afterwards, though he did not 
 undertake a pastoral charge till 1668, when he was chosen 
 pastor of a church in Southwark. He remained there till 
 his death. 
 
 An occurrence during his j.. urney to London illustrates 
 the state of society and the deficiency of the police arrange- 
 ments at that time. Mr. Keach, his wife, and three chil- 
 dren were travelling to London by the stage-coach. On 
 their way they were attacked by a band of highwaymen, 
 who robbed the passengers of all their money and valuables, 
 leaving Mr. Keach, who had just sold his effects for the 
 purpose of settling in London, and had the proceed? of the 
 sale in his pocket, in a state of utter destitution. But 
 friends relieved his immediate necessities, and assisted him 
 in bringing an action against the county for the amount of 
 his loss, in which he succeeded. Such a procedure would 
 be accounted strange in these days. 
 
 Mr. Keach's labours were much blessed. For four years 
 the church over which he presided met in private houses, 
 often changing the place of assembly to avoid the pursuit 
 of informers. In 1672, when Charles II. issued a ** Decla- 
 ration of Indulgence," a meeting-house was erected for the 
 
 c c 2 
 
 !,; i J 
 
388 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 church. It was enlarged several times, as the congregation 
 increased, and at length was capable of accommodating 
 nearly a thousand persons. 
 
 Preaching was not the whole of his work. Mr. Reach 
 was a voluminous writer. Some of his works were "po- 
 lemical," some "practical," some "poetical." The "polemi- 
 cal " treated of various subjects, then warmly discussed — 
 including the laying on of hands, the lawfulness of singing 
 in public worship, the authority of the Christian Sabbath, 
 and baptism. On the last-mentioned theme he wrote fre- 
 quently, and with great earnestness. The " practical " 
 portion of his works comprised, besides minor productions, 
 his Tropologia ; oy, Key to Open Seriptnrc Metaphors ; his 
 Gospel Mysteries Unveiled ; or, an Exposition of all the 
 Parables \ and his Travels of True Godliness, and Travels 
 of Ungodliness. The first two were bulky books, which 
 were rather distinguished for ingenuity than for just criti- 
 cism. They have been reprinted several times, but, how- 
 ever valuable in a devotional or experimental point of view, 
 cannot be recommended as models of sound exegesis. The 
 two others are somewhat in Bunyan's style. They are still 
 priced by serious readers. The most important of his 
 " poetical " compositions was, Zio)i in Distress ; or, the 
 Groans of the Protestant Church, first published in 1666. 
 This was written, as he says in the Preface, because " he 
 perceived Popery was ready to bud, and would, if God pre- 
 vented not, spring up afresh in the land." After the Revo- 
 lution, his prolific pen produced another poem, entitled. 
 Distressed Sion Relieved; or, the Garment of Praise for the 
 Spirit of Heaviness. He also published a collection, en- 
 titled, Spiritual Melody, containing nearly three hundred 
 hymns. 
 
 Mr. Keach's constitution was weak, and his illnesses 
 were frequent. In 1689 his life was despaired of; his phy- 
 sicians had exhausted their skill ; and his relatives took 
 
Baptist Histcry. 
 
 389 
 
 leave of him, expecting his departure to be near at hand, 
 when, as Crosby relates, "the Reverend Mr. Hanserd 
 Knollys, seeing his friend and brother near to all appear- 
 ance expiring, betook himself to prayer, and, in an earnest 
 and very extraordinary manner, begged that God would 
 spare him and add unto his days the time granted unto His 
 servant Hezekiah. As soon as he ended his prayer, he 
 said, * Brother Keach, I shall be in heaven before you,' and 
 quickly after left him. So remarkable was the answer of 
 God to this good man's prayer, that I cannot omit it ; 
 though it may be discredited by some, there are yet living 
 incontestible evidences of the fact ; — for Mr. Keach re- 
 covered of l:at illness, and lived just fifteen years after- 
 wards ; and then it pleased God to visit him with that short 
 sickness which put an end to his life." He died July 18, 
 1704, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. 
 
 The historian Crosby was a member of the church under 
 Mr. Reach's pastoral care. His delineation of the cha- 
 racter of his pastor was the result of personal and close 
 observation. It is manifestly a picture from life, and is 
 worthy of preservation. 
 
 " To collect every particular transaction of this worthy 
 minister's life cannot be expected at such a distance of 
 time; nay, even to collect all that was excellent and amiable 
 in him is too great a task to be now undertaken. I shall 
 only observe that he was a person of great integrity of soul ; 
 a Nathanael indeed ; his conversation not frothy and vam, 
 but serious, without being morose or sullen. He began to 
 be religious early, and continued faithful to the last. He 
 was not shocked by the fury of his persecutors, though he 
 suffered so much from them for the cause of Christ. 
 Preaching the Gospel was the pleasure of his soul, and his 
 heart was so engaged in the work of the ministry, that 
 from the time of his first appearing in public to the end of 
 his days his life was one continued scene of labour and toil. 
 
 ' -I ' i 
 
 ^ .1 p 
 
 i 
 
 I i 
 
 ■\ 
 
 11 
 
;n 
 
 390 
 
 Baptist Histo/y. 
 
 »■ « 
 
 His great study and constant preaching exhausted his 
 animal spirits and enfeebled his strength, yet to the last he 
 discovered a becoming zeal against the errors of the day. 
 His soul was too great to recede from any truth that he 
 owned, either from the powers or flatteries of the most 
 eminent. He discharged the duties of his pastoral oflice 
 with unwearied diligence, by preaching in season and out 
 of season, visiting those under his charge, encouraging the 
 serious, defending the great truths of the Gospel, and set- 
 ting them in the clearest light. How low would he stoop 
 for the sake of peace ! And how would he bear the infirmi- 
 ties of his weak brethren ! that such as would not be 
 wrought upon by the strength of reason might be melted by 
 his condescension and good nature. He was prudent as 
 well as peaceable; would forgive and forget injuries, being 
 charitable as well as cautious. He was not addicted to 
 utter hard censures of such as differed from him in lesser 
 matters, but had a love for all saints, and constantly exer- 
 cised himself in this, to keep a conscience void of offence 
 towards God and towards man. He showed an unwearied 
 endeavour to recover the decayed power of religion, for he 
 lived what he preached, and it pleased God so to succeed 
 his endeavours that I doubt not but some yet living may 
 call him their father whom he hath begotten through the 
 Gospel. He affected no unusual tones nor indecent ges- 
 tures in his preaching. His style was strong and mascu- 
 line. He generally used notes, especially in the latter part 
 of his life ; and if his sermons had not the embellishments 
 of language which some boast of, they had this peculiar 
 advantage, to be full of solid divinity, which is a much 
 better character for pulpit discourses than to say they are 
 full of pompous eloquence and flights of wit. It was none 
 of the least of his excellent qualifications for the ministerial 
 work, that he * knew how to behave himself in the house of 
 God,' in regard to the exercise of that discipline which is 
 
( I 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 391 
 
 so necessary to a Christian society. With patience and 
 meekness, with gravity and prudence, with impartiality and 
 faithfulness, did he demean himself in his congregation ; 
 and with prudence in conduct did he manage all their 
 affairs upon all occasions." * 
 
 William Kiffin is the last we shall name of the Baptist 
 worthies of this period. His is a truly honourable name, 
 He was one of the merchant-princes of London, and had 
 won his wealth by honest industry. He sought also to win 
 souls with wisdom and earnestness, answerable to the 
 greatness of the undertaking. Like Mordecai of old he 
 was ** accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the 
 wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed" 
 (Esther x. 3). 
 
 William Kiffin was a native of London. He was born in 
 the year 16 16. When he was nine years of age, he lost 
 both his parents by the Plague, which at that time raged 
 violently in London, and was himself "left with six plague 
 sores " upon him, so that *' nothing but death was looked 
 for" by his friends. It pleased God to restore him and to 
 bless him with long life. His conversion took place in 
 early youth. The instructive and powerful ministry of 
 those times was the means of implanting conviction in his 
 soul, and ultimately of establishing him in the faith. An 
 extract from his autobiography may be here cited : — 
 
 *' At the end of the year 1632, it pleased God to bring 
 Mr. John Goodman io London. I attended upon his 
 ministry and found it very profitable. Delivering his judg- 
 ment about the way of God's dealings in the conversion of 
 sinners, he showed that the terrors of the law were not of 
 necessity to be preached to prepare the soul for Christ, 
 because in the nature and tendency of them they drove the 
 soul further off from Christ ; answering very many objec- 
 tions and Scriptures produced by other ministers to prove 
 
 * Ivimey, ii. 360 — 368. 
 
 vm 
 
 ffi^l m ' 
 
 t i 
 
 J 
 
 11. .f, 
 
 
rr-. 
 
 J: 
 
 392 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 the contrary. This was of j^reat use to me, so far as to 
 satisfy me that God hath not tied Himself to any such way 
 of converting a sinner, but according to His good pleasure 
 took several ways of bringing a soul to Jesus Christ. I 
 had for some time seen the].want of Christ, and believed 
 that it was by Him only I must expect pardon ; and had 
 also seen the worth and excellencies that were in Him 
 above all other objects ; so that I now felt my soul to rest 
 upon and to trust in Him." * 
 
 Again: "About this time [1634] I became acquainted 
 with several young men that diligently attended the means, 
 to whom it had pleased God to make known much of Him- 
 self and His grace. These, being apprentices as well as I, 
 had no opportunities of converse but on the Lord's-days. 
 It being our constant practice to attend the morning lecture, 
 which began at six o'clock, both at Cornhill and Christ 
 Church, we appointed to meet together an hour before, to 
 spend it in prayer and"communicating what experiences we 
 had received from the Lord to each other; or else to repeat 
 some sermon we had previously heard. After a little time, 
 we also read some portion of Scripture, and spake from it 
 according as it pleased God to enable us. In these exer- 
 cises I found very great advantage, and by degrees did 
 arrive to some small measure of knowledge, finding the 
 study of the Scriptures very pleasant and delightful to me ; 
 which I attended to as it pleased God to give me oppor- 
 tunities."! 
 
 The young man became an independent inquirer, pre- 
 pared to follow the leadings of truth, regardless of conse- 
 quences. Observing that some excellent ministers had 
 gone into voluntary banishment rather than conform to the 
 Church of England, he was induced to examine the points 
 in dispute between that Church and her opponents, and this 
 issued in his joining th.=^ Nonconformists. He had been five 
 * Ivimey's Life of Kiffin, p. 9. f Ibid, p. 13. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 393 
 
 years a member of the Independent church, then under the 
 the care of Mr. Lathorp, when, with many others, he with- 
 drew, and joined the Baptist church, the first in England of 
 the Particular Baptist order, of which Mr. Spilsbury was 
 the pastor. Two years after that, in 1640, a difference of 
 opinion respecting the propriety of allowing ministers who 
 had not been immersed to preach to them (in which Mr. 
 Kiffin took the negative side), occasioned a separation. 
 Mr. Kiffin and those who agreed with him seceded, and 
 formed another church, which met in Devonshire Square. 
 He was chosen pastor, and held that office till his death, in 
 1701, — one of the longest pastorates on record. 
 
 Mr. Kiffin was extensively engaged in mercantile pur- 
 suits, trading chiefly with Holland, and acquired large pro- 
 perty. His standing in society, and his well-known inte- 
 grity of character, gave him influence, and he often exerted 
 it for the protection and relief of sufferers. It was much in 
 his favour, too, in those changeful and stormy times, that 
 he stood aloof from all political agitation. He never 
 troubled himself wi*:h party disputes, nor interfered in the 
 intrigues and cabals of politicians. He was a good citizen 
 of the Commonwealth ; he submitted to the Protectorate ; 
 he honoured the King. His policy was, and so he advised 
 his brethren, to yield obedience to the existing government, 
 in things civil, whatever might be the form of that govern- 
 ment. Hence he was held in high esteem by all parties, 
 and great deference was shown him. 
 
 Charles II. v/as always in want of money, and cared not 
 by what means it was obtained. It is said that on one 
 occasion he sent for Mr. Kiffin, and asked the loan of forty 
 thousand pounds. The Baptist merchant replied that he 
 had not then so large a sum at his command, but that, if 
 his Majesty would accept ten thousand pounds as a gift, he 
 was heartily welcome. The King took the money, and 
 Kiffin, as he was accustomed to say, saved thirty thousand 
 
' i! 
 
 394 
 
 Bap list History. 
 
 I 
 
 pounds by his liberality ; for Charles would have forgotten 
 to pay the debt. 
 
 Several attempts v^ere made to involve the good man in 
 trouble. He was summoned before the Lord Mayor, during 
 the Protectorate, for preaching against infant baptism, but 
 the prosecution was not pressed: had it been, Cromwell 
 would probably have quashed it. On some occasions, afl^r 
 the Restoration, he endured brief imprisonments, pending 
 investigation. At one time, he was charged with uttering 
 treasonable words in a sermon ; at another, by means of a 
 forged letter, with being privy to an insurrectionary design ; 
 at another, with having hired two men to kill the King. 
 But his innocence was so clearly apparent that he escaped. 
 Doubtless it was by *' the good hand of God " upon him. 
 '* My Lord Arlington hath told me," he observes, *' that 
 though, in every list of disaffected persons brought him, 
 who ought to be secured, my name was always amongst 
 them, yet the King would never believe anything against 
 me ; my Lord Chancellor also (the Earl of Clarendon) being 
 very much my friend."* 
 
 In 1679, when the Conventicle Act was renewed in a 
 severer form, an attempt was made to bring Mr. Kiffin 
 under its lash. *' It pleased the Lord," he says, " that the 
 laws now began to be put in execution against Dissenters ; 
 and, as I was taken at a meeting, I was prosecuted, for the 
 purpose of recovering from me forty pounds. This sum 
 I deposited in the hands of the officer; but finding some 
 errors in the proceedings, I overthrew the informers on the 
 trial. Though the trial cost me thirty pounds, it had this 
 advantage — that many poor men who were prosecuted upon 
 a similar charge were by this means relieved, the informers 
 being afraid to proceed against them."f 
 
 Four years after, they tried again, but with no better 
 success. " It pleased the Lord, presently after the death 
 * Life, p. 46. f Ibid, p. 58. 
 
II 
 
 i. 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 395 
 
 ; forgotten 
 
 od man in 
 ^or, during 
 ptism, but 
 
 Cromwell 
 lions, af. iv 
 s, pending 
 th uttering 
 neans of a 
 try design; 
 
 tlie King, 
 le escaped. 
 
 upon him. 
 that 
 
 (< 
 
 ves, 
 3Ught him, 
 's amongst 
 ng against 
 idon) being 
 
 evved in a 
 Mr. Kiffin 
 " that the 
 
 3issenters ; 
 
 ted, for the 
 This sum 
 
 iding some 
 
 ners on the 
 it had this 
 cuted upon 
 
 e informers 
 
 1 no better 
 the death 
 
 of my wife, that I was again prosecuted by the informers 
 for three hundred pounds, the penalties of fifteen meetings. 
 They had managed this matter so secretly, as to get the 
 record in court for the money ; but, finding there were 
 some errors also in that record, they moved the court, 
 Judge Jenner being on the bench, to amend the record. 
 Some of my friends who were in court, moved that I might 
 be heard before the order was made. In this way I came 
 to the knowledge of the prosecution, and having employed 
 able counsel, they pleaded that the record could not be 
 mended; and, after several hearings befoT"© the court, the 
 informers let the suit fall.'"" 
 
 Had there been more Kiffins in England at that time, the 
 informers' trade would have been less gainful. Persecutors 
 revelled in ill-gotten riches. They will at length appear 
 before a '* judgment seat" where there will be found no 
 " errors in the record." 
 
 A portion of Mr. Kiffin's domestic history is thus nar- 
 rated : — 
 
 " It pleased God to take out of the world to Himself my 
 eldest son, which was no small affliction to me and my 
 dear wife. His obedience to his parents and forwardness 
 in the ways of God were so conspicuous as made him very 
 amiable in the eyes of all who knew him. The grief I felt 
 for his loss did greatly press me down, with more than 
 ordinary sorrow ; but in the midst of my great distress, it 
 pleased the Lord to support me by that blessed word being 
 brought powerfully to my mind (Matt. xx. 15), * Is thine 
 eye evil, because I am good? Is it not lawful for Me to do 
 what I will with Mine own ? ' These words did quiet my 
 heart, so that I felt a perfect submission to His sovereign 
 will, being well satisfied that it was for the great advantage 
 of my dear son, and a voice to me to be more humble, and 
 watchful over my own ways. 
 
 * Life, p. 59. 
 
30G 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 ** My next son being but of a weak constitution, and 
 desirous ot' travellinj;, I sent him with the captain of a 
 ship, an acquaintance, who was lound to Aleppo. Fearing 
 that in his voyajre and travels he was in danger of being 
 corrupted by those of the Popish religion, I sent a young 
 man, a minister, with him, to defend him from anything 
 (.f that kind. But I was greatly prevented, for this minister 
 left him and the ship at Leghorn, and went to Rome; by 
 which means I was, to my sorrow, disappointed. On my 
 son's return home, when at Venice, he met with a popish 
 priest, and being forward to discourse with him about reli- 
 gion, the priest, to show his revenge, destroyed him by 
 poison. As to the minister's name, I forbear to mention 
 it, he being yet alive. ' I pray God that this sin may not 
 be laid to his charge.' "* 
 
 Here is a fine trait of the good old Protestantism. 
 William Kiffin would not have acted like some of the 
 moderns, who send their children to Roman Catholic schools. 
 So solicitous was he Tor his son's preservation from the 
 insidious error, that he was content to incur a double 
 expense on his tour rather than risk his spiritual safety. 
 All honour to him ; and honoured let him be, too, for 
 his forbearance. The name of the minister who so un- 
 accountably deserted his charge will never be known on 
 earth. Kiffin would not expose him to obloquy, though he 
 richly deserved it. Kiffin was a disciple of the " meek and 
 lowly " One. 
 
 About three years after the last-mentioned affliction, the 
 good man lost his wife, who died October 2nd, 1682. He 
 records the event in his usual strain. "It pleased th(^ 
 Lord," he says, " to take to Himself my dear and faithful 
 wife, with whom I had lived nearly forty-four years, whose 
 tenderness to me and faithfulness to God were such as 
 cannot, by me, be expressed, as she constantly sympa- 
 
 * Life, p. 56. 
 
n 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 * -ii.j 
 
 397 
 
 H 
 
 iition, and 
 ptain of a 
 . Fearing 
 r of being 
 it a young 
 
 I anything 
 is minister 
 Rome ; by 
 1. On my 
 :h a popish 
 
 about reh- 
 ed him by 
 to mention 
 in may not 
 
 testantism. 
 )me of the 
 )Hc schools. 
 
 II from the 
 r a double 
 tual safety. 
 
 :, too, for 
 ho so un- 
 known on 
 though he 
 ' meek and 
 
 fliction, the 
 1682. He 
 ■)leased tho 
 and faithful 
 ears, whose 
 ire. such as 
 itly sympa- 
 
 thized with me in all my afilictions. I can truly say, I 
 never heard her utter the least discontent under all the 
 various providences that attended either me or her; she 
 eyed the hand of God in all our sorrows, so as constantly 
 to encourage me in the ways of God : her death was the 
 greatest sorrow to me that ever I met with in the world."* 
 
 We have given a full account in a previous section of the 
 alTiiction that befel Mr. Kiffin in the death of his grand- 
 sons, the Hewlings. That wound was never healed ; it 
 smarted till his dying day. 
 
 In 16S7, James II. published a ** Declaration of liberty of 
 conscience," assuming for that purpose a power to dispense 
 with the laws of the land by an exercise of the royal prero- 
 gative. Some of the Dissenters, and among them a few 
 Baptists, were so delighted at the prospect of freedom and 
 equality, that they gratefully accepted the proffered boon, 
 and presented addresses to the King on the occasion, ex- 
 pressing in strong terms their sense of obligation to him. 
 But Mr. KiiTm and the majority of his brethren were not to 
 be beguiled. They saw that the measure was wholly un- 
 constitutional, since laws can neither be made, repealed, 
 nor suspended, but by the united legislature; and they were 
 convinced that James's real design was to bestow political 
 power on the Roman Catholics, and ultimately to make 
 Popery rampant. They abstained, therefore, from any de- 
 monstration, and awaited the issue of events. 
 
 When the King deprived the City of London of its 
 charter, and displaced its magistrates, Mr. Kiffin was 
 appointed one of the new aldermen. His account of the 
 transaction is as follows : — 
 
 " A little time after, a great temptation attended me, 
 which was, a commission from the King to be one of the 
 aldermen of the City of London. I used all the means I 
 could to be excused by some lords near the King; and also 
 
 * Life, p. 58. 
 
I 
 
 
 iii 
 
 .If 
 
 '5 I 1 
 
 'M 
 
 "I.'' " 
 
 :Jt' 
 
 398 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 by Sir Nicholas Butler, and Mr. Penn, but all in vain. 
 They said that they knew I had an interest that would 
 serve the King ; and although they knew my sufferings had 
 been very great, by the cutting off my two grandsons, and 
 losing their estates, yet it should be made up to me, both 
 as to their estates, and also in what honour and advantage 
 I could reasonably desire for myself. 
 
 " But I thank the Lord those proffers were no snare to 
 me, being fully possessed in my judgment that the design 
 was the total ruin of the Protestant religion, which, I hope 
 I can say, was and is dearer to me than my life. I re- 
 mained without accepting the office, from the time I 
 received the summons to take it, about six weeks, until the 
 Lord Mayor, Sir John Peake, in court said, I ought to be 
 sent to Newgate ; and in a few days after, I understood it 
 was intended to put me into the Crown Office, and to pro- 
 ceed with all severity against me. Which, when I heard, 
 I went to the ablest counsel for advice (one that is now a 
 chief judge in the nation), and stating my case to him, he 
 told me my danger was every way great ; for if I accepted 
 to be an alderman, I ran the hazard of five hundred pounds 
 [that being the penalty for taking office without first re- 
 ceiving the Lord's Supper according to the forms of the 
 Church of England] ; and if I did not accept, as the judges 
 then were, I might be fined by them, ten, or twenty, or 
 thirty thousand pounds, even what they pleased. So that 
 I thought it better for me to run the lesser hazard of five 
 hundred pounds, which was certain, than be exposed to 
 such fines as might be the ruin of myself and family. Yet 
 did I forbear taking the place of alderman for some time, 
 when the aldermen then sitting agreed to invite the King 
 to dinner on the Lord Mayor's Day, and laid down fifty 
 pounds each alderman to defray the charge ; which made 
 some of them the more earnest for my holding, and they 
 were pleased to tell me I did forbear [in order] to excuse my 
 
 I'm 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 399 
 
 fifty pounds. But to prevent any such charge against me, 
 I desired a friend to acquaint my Lord Mayor and the court, 
 that I should deposit my fifty pounds with them, yet delay- 
 ing accepting the office — which I accordingly sent them. 
 When the Lord Mayor's Day came, and the dinner prepared 
 for the King, I the next day understood that there were 
 invited to the feast the Pope's nuncio, and several other 
 priests, that dined with them, which, had I known they had 
 been invited, I should hardly have parted with my fifty 
 pounds towards that feast ; but the next court-day I came 
 to the court and took upon me the office of alderman. In 
 the commission I was also a Justice of the Peace and one 
 of the lieutenancy; but I never meddled with either of those 
 places, neither in any act of power in that court, touching 
 causes between man and man, but only such things as con- 
 cerned the welfare of the city, and the good of the orphans, 
 whose distressed condition called for help, although we 
 were able to do little towards it. . . . Having been in that 
 office about nine months, I was discharged from it, to my 
 very great satisfaction. . . . My reason for giving this brief 
 account of these things is, that you all may see how good 
 the Lord hath been to prevent those designs, then in hand, 
 to destroy both our religion and cur liberties, and I heartily 
 desire that both myself and all others concerned may 
 acknowledge the great goodness of God therein, that He 
 may have the glory of all our delivering mercies." 
 
 Thus wrote the Christian patriot. We see here the meek 
 dignity of religion. 
 
 Mr. Kiffin died December 29, 1701, in the eighty-sixth 
 year of his age. 
 
 He was generally regarded as the chief man in the 
 denomination. That is, his excellent character, and the 
 position which he occupied, gave him influence among 
 his brethren, and rendered his advice and co-operation de- 
 sirable. His name is connected with all the public pro- 
 
400 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ceedings of the body for half a century. If the Court wished 
 to conciliate th„ Baptists, application waj made to Kiffin. 
 If country churches required aid or counsel, they seemed 
 naturally to ask his interference, and fully confided in his 
 discretion and integrity, knowing that he would honestly 
 endeavour to do right. 
 
 He was an eminently good man. We cannot but admire 
 the quiet composure and filial submission of soul with 
 which he recorded even the most painful events of his life. 
 ** It pleased the Lord" — such was the habitual expression 
 of his views and feelings. Whether the reference was to 
 mercy or to judgment — to manifestations of blessing — to 
 persecuting malice — to domestic sorrow — to storms and 
 perils — or to joyful deliverance — still, the language was the 
 same — "Jt pleased the Lord." Thus he possessed his soul 
 in patience, and "endured as seeing Him who is invisible." 
 
 We might tell of other excellent men whom God raised 
 up in the ** Troublous Period," and by whom the churches 
 were edified. There were John Gosnold, Joseph Wright, 
 George Hammond, Samuel Taverner, Henry Forty, Ben- 
 jamin Coxe, Nehemiah Coxe, D.D., William Collins, 
 Hercules Collins, and many more. But *' time would fail." 
 We must bring this period to a close. 
 
 Our historians have preserved some interesting anecdotes, 
 illustrative of the times. We will transcribe a few. 
 
 George Hammond was the pastor of a church at Canter- 
 bury, and preached frequently in the neighbouring villages. 
 He was once overtaken by a storm, and took shelter under 
 a tree. While there, another person joined him, who in 
 the course of conversation said that he was an informer, 
 and that he had heard there was to be a conventicle in the 
 neighbourhood, at which he meant to be present. " I am 
 a man-taker also," said Mr. Hammond. "Are you so?" 
 replied the informer ; *' then we will go together." They 
 reached the house, and sat some time among the people. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 \\ 
 
 401 
 
 urt wished 
 to Kiffin. 
 ey seemed 
 ded in his 
 l1 honestly 
 
 but admire 
 soul with 
 of his life, 
 expression 
 nee was to 
 lessing — to 
 torms and 
 ge was the 
 ed his soul 
 invisible." 
 God raised 
 e churches 
 )h Wright, 
 orty, Ben- 
 11 Collins, 
 vould fail." 
 
 anecdotes, 
 
 w. 
 
 at Canter- 
 g villages, 
 elter under 
 m, who in 
 informer, 
 tide in the 
 t. ♦' I am 
 you so?" 
 tr." They 
 he people. 
 
 *' Here are the people," said Mr. Hammond, *'but where is 
 the minister ? Unless there is a minister we cannot make 
 a conventicle of it, and therefore either you or I must 
 preach." The informer declined of course, and Mr. Ham- 
 mond preached, much to the man's astonishment. The 
 sermon was blessed to him, and he became a Christian. 
 
 In the early part of his ministry Nehemiah Coxe lived at 
 Cranfield, in Bedfordshire. He was committed to prison 
 for preaching the Gospel. When brought to his trial, he 
 pleaded in Greek, and on examination answered in Hebrew. 
 The judge called for the indictment, and found him de- 
 scribed as " Nehemiah Coxe, Cordwainer," at which he 
 expressed his astonishment, no doubt thinking it exceed- 
 ingly strange that a shoemaker should be a learned man. 
 Mr. Coxe insisted on his right to plead in what language 
 he chose, and, as none of the lawyers could speak Greek or 
 Hebrew, the case was necessarily dismissed. "Well," 
 said the judge to the learned counsel before him, "the cord- 
 wainer has wound you all up, gentlemen." 
 
 Jeremiah Ives, who was thirty years pastor of a church 
 in the Old Jewry, London, was celebrated for his tact and 
 power as a disputant. Charles II. heard of him, and 
 invited him to Court to hold a discussion wit^ a Roman 
 Catholic priest, who was told that his opponent was a clergy- 
 man of the Church of England. Mr. Ives was persuaded 
 to assume that character by appearing in clerical attire. 
 In the course of the dispute he argued, that notwith- 
 standing the authorities which rr.ight be adduced in favour 
 of Romish opinions and practices, and the plausibilities 
 which might be urged in their defence, they could net be 
 sustained, because they were entirely unknown in the 
 Apostolic age. That argument, the priest replied, would 
 be of equal force against infant baptism, which was also 
 unknown in the Apostolic age. Mr. Ives admitted it, 
 intimating that he rejected infant baptism on the same 
 
 D D 
 
402 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Iipr! 
 
 ground ; whereupon the priest abruptly closed the discus- 
 sion, saying that he had been cheated : he had supposed 
 that he was disputing with a Church of England clergyman, 
 whereas they had brought him '* an Anabaptist preacher." 
 The King and his courtiers were highly amused. 
 
 In those days, preachers were often obliged to disguise 
 themselves, that they might not be recognized by the infor- 
 mers. " It is said that Bunyan, to avoid discovery, went 
 from a friend's house disguised as a :arter, with his white 
 frock, wide-awake cap, and whip in his hand, to attend 
 a private meeting in a sheltered field or barn." Andrew 
 Gifford, of Bristol, adopted similar expedients, at one 
 time appearing as an officer, at another as a gentleman. 
 *' Did you not meet me last night," he said one day to a 
 friend, V going through Lawford's Gate ? Why did you not 
 speak to me ? " "I did not see you, sir." Did you not 
 meet a tinker ? " " Yes, sir." That was me," said Mr. 
 Gifford. 
 
 An old memoir of Bunyan contains the following : — 
 '• Being to preach in a church in a country village (before 
 the restoration of King Charles) in Cambridgeshire, and the 
 people being gathered together in the churchyard, a Cam- 
 bridge scholar, and none of the soberest of them neither, 
 enquired what the meaning of that concourse of people was, 
 it being upon the week-day; and being told that one Bun- 
 yan, a tinker, was to preach there, he gave a boy twopence 
 to hold his horse, saying he was resolved to hear the tinker 
 prate, and so went into the church to hear him. But God 
 met with him there by His ministry, so that he came out 
 much changed, and would by his good will hear none but 
 the tinker for a long time after, he himself becoming a very 
 eminent preacher in that county afterwards." 
 
 *' It happened," says Crosby, *' that the magistrates of 
 Sevenoaks sent some officers to the congregation meeting 
 at Brabourne, who took all the men from thence and carried 
 
I *. 
 
 I I 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 403 
 
 them to the town, where by an order they were kept priso- 
 ners all night. On- the morrow, when the justices met 
 together, the prisoners were had before them and examined, 
 and after some little discourse with them were dismissed. 
 They all with one heart, full of wonder and joy, returnerl to 
 the place from whence they were taken, to return thanks to 
 God for this so unexpected a deliverance. When they 
 came to the place, to their great surprise and inexpressible 
 joy, they found the women there, luho had not departed from 
 the honse, but had spent that evening, the night, and morn- 
 ing, in prayer to God on their behalf,'' 
 
 -*o*- 
 
 Sectiojm XHI. 
 
 Baptists in North America— Church at ^Providence— Baptists in Massa- 
 chusetts — Persecuting Enactment against them — The Whipping of 
 Obadiah Holmes — First Church at Boston — Newport — Swansea — Other 
 Churches — Roger Williams, 
 
 WE now proceed to give some information respecting 
 the introduction of Baptist principles into America. 
 There were Baptists among the first emigrants to New 
 England ; but their number must have been small, as no 
 effort was made for some time to set up separate worship. 
 "Some few of these people," says Cotton Mother, "have 
 been among the planters of New England from the begin- 
 ning, and have been welcome to the communion of our 
 churches, which they enjoyed, reserving their particular 
 opinions unto themselves." * 
 
 Roger Williams's preaching at Salem, prior to his banish- 
 ment, of which an account will be hereafter given, was dis- 
 tasteful to some of his hearers, because he continually 
 * Magnalia, book vii. chap, ii. 
 D D 2 
 
 
404 
 
 Baptist Hisiory. 
 
 i i 
 
 testified against the assumption of power in things reli- 
 gious by the magistrate, and they said that he inculcated 
 principles ''tending to Anabaptism." This probably meant 
 nothing more than that he taught the individuality of reli- 
 gion, and laid such stress on personal piety, as essential to 
 union with the Church, as seemed inconsistent with the 
 Pzedobaptist theory of membership. It is certain that he 
 had not then professed Baptist sentiments. 
 
 But shortly after his settlement at Providence, the whole 
 subject of baptism came under consideration and discus- 
 sion. How it originated, and in what way the inquiry was 
 carried on, we know not. The result was, however, that in 
 1638, twelve men declared themselves Baptists in principle. 
 Then the question arose, How were they to be baptized, 
 since they had no minister? They might have sent to 
 England for one ; but the application might not have been 
 successful, and it would have involved an expense which 
 they were ill-prepared to meet ; besides which, a long 
 delay would have occurred. In this dilemma they adopted 
 the only expedient that seemed likely to meet the case. 
 One of their number, Thomas Holliman, was chosen to 
 baptize Mr. Williams, who then baptized the others.* 
 A church was immediately formed, of which Mr. Williams 
 became pastor. But he soon vacated the office ; some 
 think after the lapse of only a few months ; while others 
 are of opinion that he resigned when he embarked for 
 England to procure a charter fo'' the colony, and that it 
 was on that occasion Mr. Chad Brown was chosen as his 
 successor. On his return from England he refrained from 
 fellowship with the Church, and lived in an isolated re- 
 ligious condition, preaching the Gospel to the Indians as 
 he found opportunity, but refusing to participate in the 
 
 * It was not, perhaps, generally known that HanserJ Knoilys was at 
 that time preaching at Dover, and that his services might have been 
 obtained. 
 
■vnoilys was at 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 405 
 
 ordinances. He had embraced a singular notion, which is 
 thus stated by one of his biographers : — " He denied that 
 any ministry now exists, which is authorized to preach the 
 Gospel to the impenitent, or to administer the ordinances. 
 He believed that these functions belonged to the Apostolic 
 race of ministers, which was interrupted and discontinued 
 when the reign of Antichrist commenced, and which will 
 not, as he thought, be restored, till the witnesses shall have 
 been slain and raised again (Rev. xi. 11). . . . He says in 
 his Hireling Ministry None of Christ's, published in 1652: — 
 * In the poor small span of my life, I desired to have been a 
 diligent and constant observer, and have been myself many 
 ways engaged, in city, in country, in courts, in schools, in 
 universities, in church, in Old and New England, and yet 
 cannot, in the holy presence of God, bring in the result of a 
 satisfactory discovery, that either the begetting ministry of 
 the Apostles or messengers to the nations, or the feeding 
 or nourishing ministry of teachers, according to the first 
 institution of the Lord Jesus, are yet restored and extant. 
 The only ministry which, in my opinion, now exists, is that 
 of prophets, i.e. ministers, who explain religious truths, and 
 bear witness against error.' "* 
 
 The second Baptist church in Rhode Island was formed 
 at Newport, in 1644, by Dr. John Clark and eleven others. 
 Dr. Clark became the pastor : he resigned the pastorate in 
 165 1, and accompanied Roger Williams to England on 
 business connected with the charter of the colony. He 
 was succeeded by Obadiah Holmes. 
 
 A second church was formed at Newport, in 1656, by 
 twenty-one persons, who seceded from the first church on 
 account of the use of psalmody, to which they objected, — 
 the " restraints on the liberty of prophesying," — particular 
 redemption, — and the indifference shown by the church 
 to the laying on of hands, a practice regarded by the 
 * Knowles's Memoir of Roger Williams, p. X71. 
 
 m 
 
 , s 
 
 11^ 
 
4o6 
 
 Baptist Histhry. 
 
 t1 
 
 n 'I 
 
 seceders as essential. William Vaughan was the first 
 pastor. 
 
 Four additional churches were organized in Rhode Island 
 during this period, viz., North Kingston, 1665; Seventh 
 Day Baptistc-, Newport, 1671; South Kingston, 1680; Dart- 
 mouth (afterwards removed to Tiverton), 1685. 
 
 Year after year, more Baptists emigrated from England 
 to Massachusetts, and, as a matter of course, openly avowed 
 their sen<^iments. ''The Anabaptists," says Winthron, "in- 
 creasec' and spread in Massachusetts." Various Jiods 
 were adopted to annoy them, which so far pruduced the 
 desired effect that many of them left the country, and took 
 refuge among the Dutch in the State of New York. But 
 others remained, who, it would seem, took no pains to con- 
 ceal their views, naturally concluding that those who had 
 fled from England to gain religious freedom would concede 
 to their fellow-Christians what they sought for themselves. 
 But the New Englanders were very imperfectly instructed 
 in this matter. They still held the Establishment principle, 
 and dreamed that the Jewish theocracy was to be per- 
 petuated in Christian states. An Act was passed for the 
 banishment of Baptists. It was easier to banish than to 
 convince them. Here is a copy of the Act : — 
 
 "Forasmuch as experience hath plentifully and often 
 proved that, since the first rising of the Anabaptists, about 
 one hundred years since, they have been the incendiaries 
 of commonwealths, and the infectors of persons in main 
 matters of religion, and the troublers of churches in all 
 places where they have been, and that they have held the 
 baptizing of infants unlawful, have usually held other errors 
 or heresies therewith, though they have (as other heretics 
 used to do) concealed the same, till they spied out a fit 
 advantage and opportunity to vent them, by way of question 
 or scruple ; and whereas divers of this kind have, since our 
 CO!' ing into New England, appeared amongst ourselves, 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 407 
 
 as the first 
 
 ^hodc Island 
 
 55 ; Seventh 
 
 1680; Dart- 
 
 Dm England 
 enly avowed 
 nthrop, "in- 
 UF .hods 
 reduced the 
 y, and took 
 York. But 
 lins to con- 
 e who had 
 jid concede 
 hemselves. 
 ^ instructed 
 it principle, 
 to be per- 
 5ed for the 
 sh than to 
 
 and often 
 ists, about 
 icendiaries 
 s in main 
 hes in all 
 ; held the 
 :her errors 
 Jr heretics 
 
 out a fit 
 f question 
 
 since our 
 ourselves, 
 
 some whereof (as others before them) denied the ordinance 
 of magistracy, and the lawfulness of making war, and others 
 the lawfulness of magistrates, and their inspection into any 
 breach of the first table [that is, the first four of the Ten 
 Commandments]; which opinions, if they should be con- 
 nived at by us, are likely to be increased amongst us, and 
 so must necessarily bring guilt upon us, infection and 
 trouble to the churches, and hazard to the whole common- 
 wealth ; it is ordered and agreed, that if a ly person or per- 
 sons, within this jurisdiction, shall either openly condemn 
 or oppose the baptizing of inl'ants, or go about secretly to 
 seduce others from the approbation or use thereof, or shall 
 purposely depart the congregation at the ministration of the 
 ordinance, or shall deny the ordinance of magistracy, or 
 the lawful right and authority to make war, or to punish 
 the outward breaches of the first table, and shall appear 
 to the court wilfully and obstinately to continue therein, 
 after due time and means of conviction, — every such person 
 or persons shall be sentenced to banishment." * 
 
 This Act was passed November 13th, 1644. That same 
 year Roger Williams had published his immortal book. The 
 Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Dis- 
 cussed. It was a bitter pill to John. Cotton, the minister, 
 and to the magistrates who were so ready to do his bidding. 
 They gnashed their teeth at Williams, as he passed through 
 Boston on his way from England to Rhode Island, but they 
 durst not bite — they could not even scratch him ; their 
 claws were pared ; they stood in awe of the men at home. 
 So Williams got safe to his free colony; but " a poor man 
 by the name of Painter " was ''tied up and whipt" because 
 he would not have his child sprinkled ! 
 
 There was a pressure on the Baptists in Massachusetts. 
 They were few and fearful. Can we wonder at it ? It was 
 no small trial to be driven beyond the bounds of civilization 
 
 * Benedict (Ed. 1848), p. 370. 
 
^o8 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ii 
 
 in tliose clays. We hear but little of them for seven years, 
 and then it is whipping again ! William Witter, an aged 
 Baptist, lived at Lynn. The distance, coupled with his 
 infirmities, prevented him from enjoying Christian fellow- 
 ship with his brethren of the church at Newport, to which 
 he belonged. There were other brethren in the same 
 neighbourhood. A pastoral visit was resolved on. Dr. 
 John Clark, pastor of the church, accompanied by Obadiah 
 Holmes, a ministering brother, and by another brother of 
 the name of Crandal, repaired to Lynn for that purpose, 
 and proposed to hold a meeting with the brethren on 
 the Lord's Day. They were assembled, and Dr. Clark 
 had commenced his discourse, when the constables made 
 their appearance, charged to apprehend the intruders, and 
 keep them safely till the next day. They obeyed their 
 orders, arid the meeting was broken up. Next day the 
 Puritan magistrates committed them to prison, and, about 
 a fortnight after, the Court of Assistants adjudged Dr. 
 Clark to pay a fine of twenty pounds, Mr. Holmes a fine of 
 thirty pounds, and Mr. Crandal five pounds. Some friends 
 paid Dr. Clark's fine. Mr. Crandal w^as released on pro- 
 mise to appear the next court-day. There was some talk 
 about a disputation on baptism between Dr. Clark and the 
 clergy of Boston, who had intimated a willingness to meet 
 him, but it came to nothing. 
 
 Mr. Holmes's fine was the heaviest, most probably on 
 account of the circumstances mentioned in the sentence, 
 presently to be quoted. He would not allow the ine to be 
 paid for him, nor would he pay it himself. But he must 
 either pay or be "well whipt." So ran the sentence. It 
 is a curiosity, and should be preserved : — 
 
 *'The sentence of Obadiah Holmes, of Seaconk, the 31st 
 of the fifth month, 1651. 
 
 *' Forasmuch as you, Obadiah Holmes, being come into 
 this jurisdiction about the 21st of the fifth month, did meet 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 1 1 
 
 409 
 
 ven years, 
 r, an aj^cd 
 
 with his 
 an fcllow- 
 
 to which 
 the same 
 
 on. Dr. 
 / Obadiah 
 Mother of 
 
 purpose, 
 ithren on 
 :yv. Clark 
 •les made 
 ders, and 
 yed their 
 
 day the 
 nd, about 
 [Iged Dr. 
 
 a fine of 
 e friends 
 
 on pro- 
 ome talk 
 
 and the 
 
 o meet 
 
 •ably on 
 intence, 
 ne to be 
 le must 
 ice. It 
 
 he 31st 
 
 ne into 
 d meet 
 
 at one William Witter's house, at Lynn, and did here 
 privately (and at other times), beinf; an excommunicatec 
 person, did take upon you to preach and baptize upon the 
 Loi'i's Day, or other days, and bein^; taken then by the 
 constable, and coming afterward to the assembly at Lynn, 
 did, in disrespect to the ordinance of God and His worship, 
 keep on your hat, the pastor being in prayer, insomuch as 
 you would not give reverence in vailing your hat, till it was 
 forced off your head, to the disturbance of the congregation, 
 and professing against the institution of the Church, as not 
 being according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and that 
 you, the said Obadiah Holmes, did, upon the day following, 
 meet again at the said William Witter's, in contempt to 
 authority, you being then in the custody of the law, and did 
 there receive the sacrament, being excommunicate, and 
 that you did baptize such as were baptized before, and 
 thereby did necessarily deny the baptism before adminis- 
 tered to be baptism, the churches no churches, and also 
 other ordinances and ministers, as if all was a nullity ; and 
 did also deny the lawfulness of baptizing of infants ; and all 
 this tends to the dishonour of God, the despising the ordi- 
 nances of God among us, the peace of the churches, and 
 seducing the subjects of this commonwealth from the truth 
 of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and perverting the straight 
 ways of the Lord ; the Court doth fine you thirty pounds, 
 to be paid, or sufficient sureties that the said sum shall be 
 paid by the first day of the next Court of Assistants, or else 
 to be well whipt : and that you shall remain in prison till it 
 be paid, or security given in for it. 
 
 " By the Court, 
 
 ** Increase Norvel." 
 
 The sentence was passed in July. Mr. Holmes was kept 
 in prison till September, when he was publicly whipped, 
 and so barbarously "that in many days, if not some weeks, 
 
 \\ 
 
 . li; 
 
 t;;i 
 
410 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 I ii 
 
 \'>^ 
 
 he could take no rest but as he lay upon his knees and 
 elbows, not bein^ able to suffer any part of his body to 
 touch the bed whereon he lay." His own account of the 
 affair, in a letter addressed to Messrs. Spilsbury, Kiffin, and 
 other Baptists in London, is deeply aftecting, but too long 
 for transcription here. He tells the brethren how he de- 
 clined the proffered kindness of his friends, who " came to 
 visit him, desiring him to take the refreshment of wine and 
 other comforts," having resolved ** not to drink wine nor 
 strong drink that day, until his punishment was over," lest 
 the world should say "that the strength and comfort of the 
 creature had carried him through ; " — how he withdrew to 
 his chamber, to seek strength from the Lord, and *' prayed 
 earnestly that He would be pleased to give him a spirit of 
 courage ^nd boldness, a tongue to s'^eak for Him, and 
 strength of body to suffer for His sake, and not to shrink or 
 yield to the strokes, or shed tears, lest the adversaries of 
 the truth should thereupon blaspheme and be hardened, 
 and the weak and feeble-hearted discouraged ; " how he 
 attempted at the place of suffering to address the people, 
 but was prevented by the magistrate in attendance ; and 
 how graciously he was strengthened to endure the pain. 
 "As the man began to lay the strokes upon my back, I said 
 to the people, * Though my flesh should fail, and my spirit 
 should fail, yet my God would not fail.' So it pleased the 
 Lord to come in, and to fill my heart and tongue as a vessel 
 full, and with an audible voice I broke forth, praying unto 
 the Lord not to lay this sin to their charge, and telling the 
 people that now I found He did not fail me, and therefore 
 now I should trust Him for ever, who failed me not ; for in 
 truth, as the strokes fell upon me, I had such a spiritual 
 manifestation of God's presence, as the like thereof I never 
 had nor felt, nor can with fleshly tongue express ; and the 
 outward pain was so removed from me that indeed I am 
 not able to declare it to you ; it was so easy to me that I 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 411 
 
 knees and 
 lis body to 
 )unt of the 
 
 Kiffin, and 
 ut too long 
 low he de- 
 
 " came to 
 f wine and 
 < wine nor 
 over," lest 
 nfort of the 
 withdrew to 
 d " prayed 
 
 a spirit of 
 
 Him, and 
 
 shrink or 
 ersaries of 
 
 hardened, 
 
 ' how he 
 
 he people, 
 
 ance ; and 
 
 the pain. 
 
 ack, I said 
 
 1 my spirit 
 leased the 
 IS a vessel 
 ying unto 
 telling the 
 
 therefore 
 Dt ; for in 
 spiritual 
 of I never 
 
 ; and the 
 leed I am 
 me that I 
 
 could well bear-it, yea, and in a manner felt it not, although 
 it was grievous, as the spectators said, the man striking 
 with all his strength (yea, spitting in his hands three times, 
 as many affirmed) with a three-corded whip, givin^^ me 
 therewith thirty strokes. When he had loosed me from the 
 post, having joyfulness in my heart and cheerfulness in my 
 countenance, as the spectators observed, I told the magis- 
 trates, * You have struck me as with roses,' and said more- 
 over, ' Although the Lord hath made it easy to me, yet I 
 pray God it may not be laid to your charge.'" Mr. Holmes 
 then proceeds to state that John Hazel and John Spur, who 
 expressed their sympathy by shaking hands with him aiier 
 it was over, were sentenced "to pay forty shillings or be 
 whipt ; " and that a surgeon who dressed his wounds was 
 inquired after as if he had committed some crime. But 
 ** it hath pleased the Father of mercies," he adds, '* to dis- 
 pose of the matter, that my bonds and imprisonment have 
 been no hindrance to the Gospel, for before rny return some 
 submitted to the Lord and were baptized, and divers were 
 put upon the way of inquiry. And now, being advised to 
 make my escape by night, because it was reported there 
 were warrants forth for me, I departed ; and the next day 
 after, while I was on my journey, the constable came to 
 search the house where I had lodged ; so I escaped their 
 hands, and was, by the good hand '->f my Heavenly Father, 
 brought home again to my near relations, my wife and 
 eight children, the brethren of our town and Providence 
 having taken pains to meet me four miles in the woods, 
 where we rejoiced together in the Lord." ''^ 
 
 " Bonds and impris'.nment " awaited all Baptists in New 
 England. They met lor worship as they were able, and 
 constantly testified against infant baptism, for which they 
 were harassed by the courts without mercy. In 1665 they 
 ventured to form themselves into a church at Charlestown, 
 
 ♦ Ivimey, ii. 208—211. 
 
 
 
 Hi| 
 
412 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 \ ' 
 
 near Boston. This church was afterwards removed into 
 the city, and considered the first Boston church. Its 
 early history was one long tale of vexation and annoy- 
 ance, inflicted, there is too much reason to believe, at 
 the instigation of the ministers. Thomas Gould, the 
 founder of the church, was ordered, with two others, after 
 a year's imprisonment, to *' depart out of the jurisdic- 
 tion." This occasioned the removal of the church, for 
 some time, to Noddle's Island, in Boston Harbour, — now 
 East Boston. 
 
 The Congregational clergy, by whom the magistrates 
 were instigated, were proof against all influence or entreaty. 
 Nothing softened them. When a number of persons, some 
 of them men of high standing in the colony, petitioned for 
 lenity to tl^e Baptists, they were fined for petitioning. A 
 letter of remonstrance from England, signed by Dr. Good- 
 win, Dr. Owen, Philip Nye, John Caryl, and other eminent 
 divines, failed to produce any effect. Even the king's inter- 
 ference was in vain. A royal letter, *' requiring that liberty 
 of conscience should be allowed to all Protestants," and 
 that **no good subjects should be subjected to fines and for- 
 feitures for not agreeing in the Congregational way," was 
 disregarded. When the Baptists, encouraged by this inter- 
 position, repaired for worship to a meeting-house which they 
 had built, its doors were nailed up, and they were forbidden 
 to open them, ** at their peril." But they insisted on their 
 rights, pleaded the king's authority, and at length were 
 allowed to meet in peace. 
 
 Thomas Gould was the first pastor of the Boston church. 
 Isaac Hull succeeded him, with whom John Russell was for 
 a short time associated. John Emblem, who was sent for 
 from England, became co-pastor with Mr. Hull in 1684. 
 
 We have given full particulars respecting the churches 
 already mentioned, on account of the interesting circum- 
 stances connected with their early history. The remaining 
 
\s 
 
 oved into 
 rch. Its 
 id annoy- 
 elieve, at 
 3uld, the 
 lers, after 
 jurisdic- 
 urch, for 
 ur, — now 
 
 igistrates 
 entreaty, 
 'ns, some 
 ioned for 
 ning. A 
 )r. Good- 
 eminent 
 g's inter- 
 it liberty 
 ts," and 
 and for- 
 ay," was 
 lis inter- 
 lich they 
 orbidden 
 on their 
 th were 
 
 church. 
 
 was for 
 
 sent for 
 
 684. 
 
 hurches 
 
 circum- 
 
 naining 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I \ 
 
 413 
 
 portion of American statistics for this period may be com- 
 pressed into a small space. . 
 
 In 1663, the church at Swansea, Massachusetts, was con- 
 stituted by John Miles, who had just come from Swansea, 
 Wales, with some of his brethren. The place where they 
 ultimately settled was called after that which they had left. 
 Meetings of the Baptists had been held there for thirteen 
 years before, but no church had been founded. The Mas- 
 sachusetts government tried to strangle the church in its 
 infancy, and actually fined all the members five pounds 
 each for worshipping God contrary to the order established 
 in the colony; but at last they yielded, and the church 
 lived. 
 
 A church was formed at Kittery, Maine, in 1682, but it 
 died in its infancy. A church was organized at Charleston, 
 South Carolina, in 1683. There were two churches in 
 Pennsylvania: — Cold Spring, founded in 1684; Pennepek, 
 in 1688. In the same year a church was established at 
 Middletown, New Jersey. 
 
 In 1688, the Baptist denomination in North America 
 comprised thirteen churches only. Seven were in Rhode 
 Island, two in Massachusetts, one in South Carolina, two in 
 Pennsylvania, and one in New Jersey. Times have greatly 
 changed since then ! There are now upwards of thirteen 
 thousand churches! The "little one" has literally "become 
 a thousand ! " 
 
 We conclude this chapter with a brief biographical sketch 
 of Roger Williams, whose ni?me has been already men- 
 tioned. 
 
 Very little is known of the early life of this great man. 
 It is supposed that he was a native of Wales, and that he 
 was born in the year 1599. Sir Edward Coke, as tradition 
 states, observed his attention at church, where he was 
 accustomed to take notes of the sermons, and liberally took 
 charge of his education, thinking that he would prove in 
 
 i 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 ■H 
 
 
 M 
 

 ^i 
 
 414 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 future years an able lawyer. This was a providential inter- 
 position, for Williams's parents were poor, and, had it not 
 been for Sir Edward's generosity, he would have remained 
 in humble life all his days. Having received a good clas- 
 sical education, he " commenced the study of the law, at 
 the desire and under the guidance of his generous patron, 
 who would naturally wish to train his pupil to the honoura- 
 ble and useful profession which he himself adorned. The 
 providence of God may be seen in thus leading the mind 
 of Mr. Williams to that acquaintance with the principles of 
 law and government, which qualified him for his duties as 
 legislator of his little colony. But he probably soon. found 
 that the study of the law was not congenial to his taste. 
 Theology possessed more attractions to a mind and heart 
 like his. To this divine science he directed his attention, 
 and received episcopal orders. It is stated that he assumed, 
 while in England, the charge of a parish ; that his preach- 
 ing was highly esteemed, and his private character re- 
 vered." * 
 
 But Roger Williams's mind was not formed for such sub- 
 jection as the Church of England requires of its members. 
 He understood Christian freedom too well to continue under 
 the heavy yoke of an established church. Nor did he con- 
 ceal his views. He had ** presented his arguments from 
 Scripture " to Messrs. Cotton and Hooker, who afterwards 
 followed him to New England, ** why he durst not join with 
 them in the use of Common Prayer." Whether he was 
 driven out by violence, or whether he voluntarily withdrew 
 from the communion of the Church of England, cannot now 
 be ascertained. This only is certain, that he left his native 
 country, in search of Evangelical liberty, and landed at 
 Boston on the 5th of February, 1630-31. 
 
 He had been but a few weeks in the colony, when he was 
 invited by the church at Salem to become assistant to their 
 
 * Knowles's Memoir, p. 24. 
 
w 
 
 (.1 
 
 ■:m 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 415 
 
 mii.ister. Mr. Skelton. He complied, and laboured there for 
 a short time, when, in consequence of the opposition of the 
 Boston people, he left for Plymouth, and preached there 
 two years. Returning to Salem, and gladly received by 
 the church in that place, he remained with them till his 
 banishment. 
 
 Mr. Williams had been disappointed by the aspect of 
 affairs in New England. He found that the colonists had 
 set up a government of a theocratic kind ; that none were 
 admitted to the exercise of civil rights unless they were 
 members of one of their churches ; and that the offences 
 against religion were punishable by the magistrate. These 
 things he abhorred, and he testified his dislike from the very 
 commencement of his residence. There was much jangling 
 and disputation, and no small amount of high-handed 
 oppression on the part of the colonial authorities. At 
 length, sentence of banishment was passed upon Mr. Wil- 
 liams. It was thus expressed : — 
 
 " Whereas, Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of the 
 church at Salem, hath broached and divulged divers new 
 and dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates ; 
 as also writ letters of defamation, both of the magistrates 
 and churches here, and that before any conviction, and yet 
 maintaineth the same -without any retractation ; it is there- 
 fore ordered, that the said Mr. Williams shal) depart out of 
 this jurisdiction within six weeks now next ensuing, which, 
 if he neglect to perform, it shall be lawful for the governor 
 and two of the magistrates to send him to some place out 
 of this jurisdiction, not to return any more without license 
 from the Court." 
 
 Such were the " tender mercies " of the New England 
 Puritans of those days. They had resisted the magistrate 
 at home by refusing to obey him in things ecclesiastical, 
 and, in consequence, had gone into exile ; and now the}'' 
 banished their ministering brother for the very offence 
 
 .1 1 1 
 
4i6 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 14 
 
 ll 
 
 which they had themselves been guilty of. It seemed as if 
 their boasted love of freedoin was only a love of freedom 
 for themselves, conjoined with the assumption of power to 
 take it away from others. 
 
 This sentence was passed November 3rd, 1635. Six 
 weeks were allowed Mr. Williams for his removal. But 
 he could not be silent. Meetings were held at his house, 
 where he discoursed in his usual manner, much to the 
 annoyance of the magistrates, who concluded that the only 
 way to stop him would be to ship him off for England in a 
 vessel then lying in the harbour. He heard of their design, 
 and prevented its execution by flight. In the month of 
 January, 1635-6, he left his home, and for fourteen weeks 
 wandered about, exposed to the rigours of the seasons — 
 sometimes in an open boat, sometimes in the woods — " not 
 knowing what bread or bed did mean." At last he pitched 
 his tent at Seekonk, where he purchased land of the Indians, 
 and began to build and plant. Yet even there the spirit of 
 persecution followed him. The place was supposed to be 
 within the colony of Plymouth, and the magistrates of that 
 town were afraid of those of Boston ; so they requested him 
 to go further off. Again he sallied forth on pilgrimage, 
 accompanied by some of his friends who had joined him. 
 " As they approached the little cove,. near Tockwotton, now 
 Indian Point, they were saluted by a company of Indians 
 with the friendly interrogation, ' What cheer?* — a common 
 English phrase, which they had learned from the colonists. 
 At this spot they probably went on shore, but they did not 
 long remain there. They passed round Indian Point and 
 Fox Point, and proceeded up the river on the west side of 
 the peninsula, to a spot near the mouth of the Moshassuck 
 
 * A poem called, "What Cheer? " by the Hon. Judge Durfee, would 
 be read with interest. It refers to the incidents above briefly narrated. 
 It was re-published in England some years since, with a Recommenda- 
 tory Preface by the Rev. John Eustace Giles. 
 
VI 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 A^7 
 
 leemed as if 
 
 of freedom 
 
 of power to 
 
 1635. Six 
 
 loval. But 
 
 his house, 
 
 uch to the 
 
 lat the only 
 
 ngland in a 
 
 lieir design, 
 
 ; month of 
 
 teen weeks 
 
 seasons — 
 
 )ods — " not 
 
 he pitched 
 
 he Indians, 
 
 he spirit of 
 
 osed to be 
 
 tes of that 
 
 uested him 
 
 )ilgrimage, 
 
 )ined him. 
 
 otton, now 
 
 of Indians 
 
 a common 
 
 colonists. 
 
 ly did not 
 
 Point and 
 
 2st side of 
 
 loshassuck 
 
 irfee, would 
 \y narrated, 
 commenda- 
 
 river. Tradition reports that Mr. Williams landed near a 
 spring which remains to this day. At this spot the settle- 
 ment of Rhode Island commenced. 
 
 •' Oh, call it holy ground, 
 The soil where first they trod ; 
 They have left unstained, what there they found. 
 Freedom to worship God." 
 
 To the town here founded, Mr. Williams, with his habitual 
 piety, and in grateful remembrance of God's merciful 
 providence to him in his distress, gave the name of 
 Providence."* 
 
 Three years after, Mr. Williams avowed himself a Bap- 
 tist, as has been already stated, and assisted in forming a 
 Baptist church, of which he was the first pastor. The 
 noble principles he had so fearlessly inculcated were 
 adopted by the new colony, and embodied in its consti- 
 tution. The first settlers in Providence signed the fol- 
 lowing covenant : — 
 
 " We, whose names are here under-written, being desi- 
 rous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to 
 submit ourselves, in active or passive obedience, to all 
 such orders or agreements, as shall be made for public 
 good of the body, in an orderly way, by the major consent 
 of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated 
 together into a township, and such others as they shall 
 admit into the same, only in civil things.'' 
 
 When the charter was obtained, a code of laws was pre- 
 pared, of which these are the closing words : — " Otherwise 
 than thus, what is herein forbidden, all men may walk as 
 their consciences persuade them, every one in the name of 
 his God. And let the lambs of the Most High walk 
 
 IN THIS colony, without MOLESTATION, IN THE NAME 
 
 OF Jehovah their God, for ever and ever." 
 
 ♦ Knowles, p. 102. 
 £ £ 
 
 ' : I 
 
 ii 
 
 m\t 
 
 l!> 
 
 %\ 
 
4i8 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Under the influence of certain new views of religion 
 which he had embraced, Mr. Williams did not resume his 
 connection with the church when he returned from England, 
 but lived apart. Yet his was no idle life. He preached 
 the Gospel among the scattered settlers ; he promoted, in 
 various ways, the temporal and spiritual welfare of the 
 Indians ; he was the adviser and friend of all the inhabi- 
 tants ; he took an active part in the government of the 
 colony, of which he was repeatedly chosen President. In 
 1 65 1, he visited England a second time u"< its behalf, and 
 obtained a confirmation of the] original charter. The 
 uniform justice and kindness with which he treated the 
 Indians so impressed them, that when, on occasion of 
 *' King Philip's War," they attacked the colony, in 1676, 
 and " Mr. Williams took his staff, and went to meet 
 them," — endeavouring to dissuade them from their enter- 
 prise, on the ground that the number and power of the 
 English would prove overwhelming, — one of the chiefs 
 said : " Well, let them come — we are ready for them. 
 But, as for you, Brother Williams, you are a good man. 
 You have been kind to us many years— -not a hair of your 
 head shall be touched."* 
 
 Mr. Williams, like many other true patriots, died poor. 
 For several years before his death, he was mainly depen- 
 dent upon his children. 
 
 He died in the early part of the year 16S3, in the 84th 
 year of his age. No record of his last illness, and of the 
 state of his mind at that time, has been furnished. There 
 can be no doubt, however, that he was fully prepared for 
 the event. In a letter addressed to Governor Bradstreet, 
 at Boston, dated May 6th, 1682, after referring to recent 
 intelligence from England, he says : — " All these are but 
 sublunaries, temporaries, and trivials. Eternity (O eternity !) 
 is our business."* In less than a year from that time he 
 
 * Knowles, p. 354. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 419 
 
 f religion 
 isume his 
 
 England, 
 
 preached 
 )moted, in 
 .re of the 
 le inhabi- 
 ;nt of the 
 ident. In 
 ehalf, and 
 :er. The 
 •eated the 
 ccasion of 
 , in 1676, 
 : to meet 
 leir encer- 
 /er of the 
 the chiefs 
 
 for them, 
 food man. 
 
 ir of your 
 
 had entered eternity. His body " was buried with all the 
 solemnity the colony was able to show." His spirit rejoiced 
 in perfect purity and freedom. 
 
 So little is known of Williams's successors at Providence, 
 and of most of the other pastors of the churches founded in 
 this period, that it is not worth while to give mere lists of 
 names and dates. 
 
 i:,| 
 
 'I. ; fl 
 
 ,' f 
 
 lied poor, 
 ily depen- 
 
 i the 84th 
 nd of the 
 d. There 
 pared for 
 radstreet, 
 to recent 
 e are but 
 eternity!) 
 t time he 
 
 E E 2 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE QUIET PERIOD. 
 
 FROM A.D. 1688 TO A.D. 180O. 
 
 »o» 
 
 Section I. 
 
 General Character of the Period — Baptist General Assembly in London — 
 Questions — Particular Baptist Fund — Baptist Board — The Dissenting 
 Deputies — The Book Society— Bristol College— Dr. John Ward- 
 Toleration Act — Schism Bill — Dissenters excluded from OSice — Re- 
 strictions — Relief— Decline of the General Baptists — Communion Con- 
 troversy — Effects of High Calvinism on the Particular Baptists — 
 Commencement of Revival — Fuller and SutcUffe — State of the Deno- 
 mination in England— Foreign and Home Missions. 
 
 WE have named this the " Quiet Period," because it 
 was not only a time of rest, persecution having 
 ceased, but also a time of stillness— of slumber — of com- 
 parative inaction. The excitement had passed away. A 
 season of exhaustion succeeded, in which there was little 
 power or even will to engage in any religious enterprise. 
 It seemed as if there must Le an interval allowed for the 
 gathering of strength, ere the churches could enter the field 
 of labour which was opening before them. It is true that 
 there had been displays, marvellous displays, of moral force, 
 that had startled and confounded the tyrants of the age, 
 and had brought to remembrance the best days of the old 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 421 
 
 r in London — 
 le Dissenting 
 fohn Ward — 
 n Office— Re- 
 
 munion Con- 
 ar Baptists — 
 
 of the Deno- 
 
 Decause it 
 on having 
 — of com- 
 away. A 
 was little 
 enterprise . 
 ed for the 
 r the field 
 true that 
 oral force, 
 f the age, 
 Df the old 
 
 martyrdoms ; and it might have been supposed that the 
 power thus gained would be employed in the work of the 
 Lord with success equally marvellous, after the obstructions 
 were removed out of the way. But strength to endure is 
 very different from strength to labour. If the conflict issues 
 in death, the supernatural energy holds out to tha end, and 
 the triumph is complete. If, on the other hand, the 
 struggle ceases, so that a calm succeeds to the storm, a 
 reaction takes place, and it has not unfrequently happened 
 that a state of spiritual langour has followed a time of sore 
 trial. Other considerations might be adduced, chiefly 
 drawn from the history of the Church, tending to illustrate 
 and confirm this remark. But whether the explanation be 
 admitted or not, the fact in the present instance \z suffi- 
 ciently obvious. The Baptist interest in England fell into 
 decline after the Revolution. Liberty did not bring life. 
 The sunshine had for a time a withering effect. After the 
 lapse of more than sixty years after the close of the perse- 
 cution the denomination was found to have decreased. 
 "There is no reason to doubt," says Ivimey, "that our 
 churches were far more prosperous and numerous at the 
 Revolution in 1688, than at this period [1753], sixty years 
 afterwards ; so that prosperity had indeed slain more than 
 the sword.'"'' 
 
 A General Assembly was convened in London, in iGSg, 
 at which ministers or delegates from upwards of one hun- 
 dred churches were present. The meetings continued nine 
 days, from the third to the twelfth of September. The 
 object was to unite the churches together, that by a com- 
 bination of their energies certain useful purposes might be 
 subserved, besides the benefit which might be expected to 
 result from brotherly communication. It was particularly 
 recommended to raise a fund, by "freewill offerings," and 
 yearly, quarterly, monthly, or even weekly contributions, 
 
 * History, iii. 279. 
 
 W 
 
 ^1'- i! 
 
 s> 
 
422 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 the proceeds of which were to be devoted to the following 
 objects, viz. : — the assistance of such churches as were not 
 " able to maintain their own ministry," so that their 
 ministers might be " encouraged wholly to devote them- 
 selves to the great work of preaching the Gospel ; " the 
 sending of ministers "where the Gospel hath or hath not 
 yet been preached, and to visit the churches;" and the 
 furtherance of the wishes of " those members that shall be 
 found in any of the aforesaid churches that are disposed for 
 study, have an inviting gift, and are sound in fundamentals, 
 in attaining to the knowledge and understanding of the 
 languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew." 
 
 Various questions were proposed at this meeting, and 
 the opinions and advice of the brethren sought ; from 
 which it appears that commendable care was exercised 
 in the matter of discipline. We furnish an extract or 
 two: — 
 
 " Question. Whether, when the Church have agreed 
 upon the keeping of one day, weekly or monthly, besides 
 the first day of the week, to worship God and perform the 
 necessary services of the Church, they may not charge such 
 persons with evil that neglect such meetings, and lay them 
 under reproof, unless such members can show good cause 
 for such their absence ? 
 
 ^^ Answer. Concluded in the affirmative (Heb. x. 25). 
 
 '• Q. What is to be done with those persons that will not 
 communicate to the necessary expenses of the churches 
 whereof they are members, according to their ability? 
 
 *^A. Resolved, that, upon clear proof, the persons so 
 offending, as aforesaid, should be duly admonished ; and, if 
 no reformation appears, the Church ought to withdraw from 
 them (Ephes. v. 3 ; Matt. xxv. 42 ; i John iii. 17). 
 
 " Q. Whether it be not necessary for the elders, minister- 
 ing brethren, the messengers of the churches, to take into 
 their serious consideration those excesses that are found 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 1 1 
 
 423 
 
 ^,1 ;l 
 
 amon'; their members, men and women, with respect to 
 tlieir apparel ? 
 
 **A. in the affirmative: — That it is a shame for men to 
 wear long hair, or long periwigs, and especially ministers 
 (i Cor. xi. 14), or strange apparel (Zeph. i. 8) ; that the 
 Lord reproves the daughters of Zion, for the bravery, 
 haughtiness, and pride of their attire, walking with 
 stretched-out necks, wanton eyes, mincing as they go 
 (Isa. iii. 16), as if they affected tallness, as one observes 
 upon their stretched-out necks; though some in these times 
 seem, by their high dresses, to out-do them in that respect. 
 . . . We earnestly desire that men and women whose souls 
 are committed to our charge may be watched over in this 
 matter, and that care be taken, and all just and due means 
 used, for a reformation herein ; and that such who are 
 guilty of this crying sin of pride, that abounds in the 
 churches as well as in the nation, may be reproved ; espe- 
 cially considering what time and treasure is foolishly wasted 
 in adorning the body, which would be better spent in a 
 careful endeavour to adorn the soul ; and the charge laid 
 out upon those superfluities, to relieve the necessities of 
 the poor saints, and to promote the interest of Jesus Christ. 
 And though we deny not but in some cases r .aments may 
 be allowed, yet v/hatever ornaments in men or women are 
 inconsistent with modesty, gravity, sobriety, and prove a 
 scandal to religion, opening the mouths of the ungodly, 
 ought to be cast off, being truly no ornaments to believers, 
 but rather a defilement."* 
 
 Similar meetings were held in London for several suc- 
 cessive years. The difficulties of transit in those days, 
 with other considerations, led to an alteration, by which 
 Bristol was substituted for London every alternate year. 
 At length those general gatherings were discontinued, and 
 Associations of a smaller kind were instituted, similar to 
 
 * Ivimey, i. 496. 
 
424 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 m 
 
 those now held ; but we are inclined to think that the 
 arrangements were not of a permanent character. The 
 Western Association was an exception. That body has 
 remained till the present day. The others gradually ceased 
 to exist, and new Associations were afterwards organized. 
 A large majority of those now existing were constituted or 
 revived in the present century. 
 
 The churches in London and its vicinity were larger and 
 wealthier than those in other parts of the kingdom. It is 
 pleasing to observe that they were liberally disposed, and 
 that the country churches were indebted to them for very 
 valuable assistance. They originated the Particular Baptist 
 Fund, which was established in 1717, and which still exists. 
 Its objects were, the relief and aid of ministers whose incomes 
 were insufficient for their support, and the encouragement 
 of candidates for the ministry, by helping them to purchase 
 books or to pursue their studies. Large sums were con- 
 tributed for the establishment of the Fund, both by the 
 churches and by individuals, and considerable additions 
 have been since made by donations and legacies. The 
 interest of the funded money constitutes the income, which 
 is further increased by the proceeds of annual collections. 
 In 1869 the income was £"3,232 is. id. This institution 
 has rendered most important service to the denomination. 
 The General Baptists established a Fund of the same kind 
 in 1726. 
 
 The ministers living in London and its vicinity formed 
 themselves into a society, January 20th, 1723 — 4, which has 
 continued till now. The original purposes of the society 
 are thus adverted to by Mr. Ivimey: — "They gave their 
 opinion and advice in any matters of difficulty in the 
 churches that were referred to them by both parties; they 
 received applications from the country ministers to assist 
 them from the Baptist Fund ; they sanctioned and recom- 
 mended cases of building and repairing meeting-houses in 
 
 111 
 
 s: ,',H. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 425 
 
 the country, and to be collected for in London; they watched 
 rigorously over the purity of the members composing thi 
 Board, whether it reiated to charges of immoral conduct, r. 
 of erroneous principles ; they received to tlici'* friendship 
 ministers upon their being settled as pastors in the churche^^, 
 and young ministers who were introduced by the pastois of 
 the respective churches which had called them to the mj;us- 
 try; and they appear to have generally acted in a body in 
 assisting destitute churches, and at the ordination of minis- 
 ters — to have very strictly discouraged separations in the 
 churches — and to have affectionately supported each other 
 against traducers." * The society is now called, *' The 
 Bapt'st Board." 
 
 Certain other organizations from which the Baptists 
 derived benefit were composed of the various bodies of 
 Protestant Dissenters, with whom hey united on these 
 occasions. 
 
 The General Body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers of 
 the Three Denominations was constituted in the year 1727. 
 It c njists of all approved ministers of the Presbyterian. 
 Independent, and Baptist Denominations, resident within 
 ten miles of the cities of London and Westminster. The 
 objects for the promotion of which they are associated are 
 not very strictly defined ; but they may be said to embrace 
 whatever affects the welfare of the Protestant Dissenting 
 interest, in its general or political aspects. Many advan- 
 tages have resulted from this Association. It is the privi 
 lege of this body to present addresses in person to the 
 Sovereign on important occasions, such as the accession, 
 royal marriages, deliverances from danger, great victories, 
 restoration of peace, and the like. At such times the King 
 or the Queen is seated on the throne, attended by the great 
 officers of State. The first opportunity of the k'rd was the 
 accession of King William and Queen Mary. M Ivimey 
 
 * History, iii. 179. 
 
426 
 
 U\ 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 has preserved in his ** History " copies of the addresses 
 presented in the period now under review, and up to the 
 year. 1820, with the royal replies. 
 
 When the general body was formed, in 1727, forty-five 
 Baptist ministers joined it ; the present number is about 
 sixty-four. 
 
 WILLIAM OF ORANGE. 
 
 Another association, formed in 1732, has proved exceed- 
 ingly useful. We refer to the body of Deputies, appointed 
 to defend the civil rights of Dissenters. Two gentlemen 
 are sent by each congregation of the three Denominations 
 in and about the Cities of London and Westminster. They 
 meet annually, and at such other times as may be needful. 
 An Executive Committee is chosen from the Body once a 
 year, to manage its affairs. The objects of this combina- 
 
he addresses 
 id up to the 
 
 27, forty- five 
 iber is about 
 
 r 
 
 ved exceed- 
 appointed 
 gentlemen 
 ominations 
 ster. They 
 be needful. 
 3ody once a 
 combina- 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 427 
 
 tion are, the maintenance of rights and privileges, the 
 prevention of encroachments on the same, the redress of 
 grievances, and the removal of restrictions and burdens 
 incompatible with religious freedom. 
 
 Another society in which Baptists united with other 
 denominations was the " Book Society," originally called, 
 
 " The Society for Propagating Religious Knowledge among 
 the Poor." It was instituted in 1750. The object of the 
 society is stated to be " the gratuitous distribution and sale 
 of Bibles and Testaments, and other books of established 
 excellence, and the publication of original and standard 
 works, adapted to promote religious and moral instruction." 
 
 ! i 
 
 
428 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 It combines the purposes of the Bible and Tract Societies, 
 but was formed before either of them, and continues in 
 useful operation. 
 
 It was stated in a former chapter that Mr. Tcrrill had 
 bequeathed considerable property for the purpose of provid- 
 ing for the education of candidates for the ministry by the 
 pastor of Broadmead Church, Bristol. Possession of the 
 property was not obtained till some years after his death. 
 The Rev. Caleb Jope was the first minister employed under 
 this arrangement. He entered on his duties in 1710, but 
 his services do not appear to have been satisfactory. He 
 was succeeded in 1720 ; by the Rev. Bernard Foskett, who 
 held the office for nearly forty years. On his death, in 1758, 
 the Rev. Hugh Evans became tutor, who was followed by 
 his son, ,Dr. Caleb Evans, with whom, during the last seven 
 years of his life, the Rev. Robert Hall was associated as 
 assistant. Dr. Evans died in 1791, in the fifty-fourth year 
 of his age. His father and he (and the same may be 
 asserted of Mr. Foskett) were eminent men in all respects — 
 as Christians, as ministers, and as theological tutors — and 
 were held in high esteem throughout the denomination. 
 The wishes of good Mr. Terrill were abundantly realized, 
 and the advantages derived from his liberal bequest greatly 
 extended, by the establishment of the Bristol Education 
 Society, founded in 1770, chiefly by the exertions of Dr. 
 Evans. Bristol College, as it is now called, has furnished 
 a large number of excellent ministers and missionaries. 
 About two hundred and fifty persons have received instruc- 
 tion there since its establishment. 
 
 Dr. John Ward, a learned Baptist, Fellow of the Royal 
 Society, and Professor at Gresham College, placed in trust 
 in the year 1754, the sum of 1,200/. Bank Stock, the interest 
 accruing therefrom to be yearly applied, after his decease, 
 ♦* to the education of two young men or more, at a Scotch 
 university or elsewhere, with a view to the ministry, pre- 
 
 ^ . 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 429 
 
 : Societies, 
 mtinues in 
 
 Tcrrill had 
 
 2 of provid- 
 
 istry by the 
 
 3ion of the 
 
 • his death. 
 
 oyed under 
 
 1 1710, but 
 
 ctory. He 
 
 Dskett, who 
 
 th, in 1758, 
 
 ollowed by 
 
 5 last seven 
 
 sociated as 
 
 fourth year 
 
 le may be 
 
 respects — 
 
 utors — and 
 
 omination. 
 
 y realised, 
 
 est greatly 
 
 Education 
 
 ns of Dr. 
 
 furnished 
 
 sionaries. 
 
 d instruc- 
 
 the Royal 
 Id in trust 
 le interest 
 decease, 
 a Scotch 
 Istry, pre- 
 
 ference being given to Baptists." Dr. Ward was a member 
 of the congregation in Little Wild Street, London. He 
 died in 1758. Some of our most celebrated men have 
 enjoyed the benefit of his useful benefaction. It is now 
 administered by five trustees, all of whom are Baptists. 
 
 We will now call attention to the history of religious 
 freedom during this period. 
 
 Although the sufferings of Protestant Dissenters ceased 
 with the Revolution, their position was far from satisfac- 
 tory. The Toleration Act, passed in 1689, legalized their 
 assemblies, under certain restrictions presently to be men- 
 tioned ; but the boon was very grudgingly granted. Wil- 
 liam HL did not grudge it ; he would have removed all 
 restraints, had not the bigotry of the age prevented him. 
 In Queen Anne's time the High Tory party attained such 
 power and influence that measures were taken to place the 
 iron heel once more on the Dissenters. The Schism Bill 
 provided — " That no person in Great Britain or Wales 
 shall keep any public or private school or seminary, or 
 teach or instruct youth, as tutor or schoolmaster, that has 
 not first subscribed the declaration to conform to the Church 
 of England, and has not obtained licence from the respec- 
 tive diocesan or ordinary of the place ; that under failure of 
 so doing, he may be committed to prison without bail or 
 mainprise ; and that no such licence shall be granted before 
 the party produces a certificate of his having received the 
 sacrament according to the communion of the Church of 
 England, in some parish church, within a year before 
 obtaining such licence, and hath subscribed the oaths of 
 allegiance and supremacy." It was further provided, that 
 if any person so licensed should " knowingly or willingly 
 resort to any Conventicle," or ** teach any other Catechism 
 than what is set forth in the Common Prayer," his licence 
 should be void, and he should suffer three months' im- 
 prisonment. This iniquitous enactment passed both 
 
 li 
 
 i|"«*u 1 
 
 R' 
 
 i 
 
 Hi 
 
 nH 
 
430 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 [\\ ! 
 
 Houses, notwithstanding strenuous opposition, received 
 the royal assent, and was to go into operation August ist, 
 1714. On that very day Queen Anne died, the House of 
 Brunswick ascended the throne, and a new policy was in- 
 augurated. The Act was never allowed to be put into 
 execution, and in 17 19 it was formally repealed. 
 
 But during all this period the Dissenters were excluded 
 by law from office and employment under the Crown and in 
 corporations. Communion with the Church of England 
 was a necessary pre-requisite. Several endeavours were 
 made for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, but 
 always unsuccessfully. Presbyterians, Congregationalists, 
 Baptists, and Methodists, were considered unworthy to 
 share in responsibilities and honours with members of the 
 Church ;of England. Nay, more — the Corporation of the 
 City of London meanly took advantage of their position to 
 filch money from them. As no man who was not a member 
 of the Church of England could take any office in a Corpo- 
 ration, and as it was well known that Dissenters would not 
 "qualify" (as it was called) by taking the Sacrament, a 
 bye-law was passed, imposing a fine of 400/. on every 
 citizen who should refuse to serve as Sheriff when nomi- 
 nated by the Lord Mayor, or 600/. when elected by his 
 fellow-citizens. This being done. Dissenters were, from 
 year to year, nominated or chosen, and then compelled to 
 pay the fines, which were appropriated to the rebuilding of 
 the Mansion House. The sum of 15,000/. had been wrung 
 from them in this manner : it was high time to put a stop 
 to the unjust exaction. In 1754, three Dissenters (Messrs. 
 Stratfield, Sheafe, and Evans) were elected to the Sheriffs' 
 office. The Committee of Dissenters encouraged them to 
 refuse payment of the fine, on the ground of the illegality 
 of the bye-law. For this they were sued in the Sheriffs' 
 Court, and condemned. The Judges reversed the decision, 
 whereupon the Corporation took up the cause, by writ of 
 
I I 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 431 
 
 error, to the House of Lords, where the question was 
 gravely and ably argued. By that time two of the defen- 
 dants had died, and the death of Mr. Evans, the survivor, 
 who was in the eighty-second year of his age, was daily 
 expected. Lord Mansfield, the Chancellor, espoused the 
 cause of justice, and nobly vindicated the rights of Dis- 
 senters, at the same time censuring the course adopted by 
 the Corporation in terms of indignant severity. The House 
 confirmed the action of the Judges, February 4th, 1767 ; 
 and so the oppression ceased for ever. Mr. Evans, we 
 may add, who had persevered for thirteen years in his re- 
 sistance to wrong, received the news of the successful 
 issue as he lay on his death-bed. 
 
 It is pleasant to record that no Protestant Dissenters 
 were implicated in the rebellions of 17 15 and 1745. During 
 the first, there were riotous proceedings in various parts 
 of the kingdom, when those who were friendly to the exiled 
 dynasty raised the ecclesiastical war-cry that *'the Church 
 was in danger," and wreaked their fury on Dissenting meet- 
 ing-houses and other property. The Baptists lost two 
 places of worship on that occasion. The breaking out of 
 the second rebellion was the signal for loyal and patriotic 
 demonstrations. The Dissenters took up arms in defence 
 of their King; several of their distinguished men received 
 commissions ; and it was confessed that the vigour dis- 
 played by them tended powerfully to repress the discon- 
 tented, and to embolden the friends of the royal house. 
 But they had incurred the penalties of the law by pre- 
 suming to serve the King without first going to church, 
 and taking the Sacrament ; and, ridiculous as it may 
 appear, it was absolutely necessary to pass an Act of 
 Indemnity, graciously releasing them from the penal con- 
 sequences of their loyalty and zeal 1 
 
 It has been stated that freedom of worship was granted 
 to Dissenters " under certain restrictions." They might 
 
I 
 
 ^i 
 
 I 
 
 ■km 
 
 432 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 worship when and where they pleased, but it was necessary 
 to register their meeting-houses at the Quarter Sessions, 
 and their ministers were required to take the oaths of alle- 
 giance and supremacy, and 'io subscribe the doctrinal Articles 
 of the Church of England (but the Baptists were not called 
 on to subscribe the 27th article, which treats of infant 
 baptism). The latter requisition was peculiarly offensive to 
 them, not because they did not generally believe the doc- 
 trines enunciated in the Articles, but because they repu- 
 diated the authority of the State to demand subscription. 
 In addition to this. Dissenting schoolmasters were still sub- 
 ject to penalties (notwithstanding the repeal of the Schism 
 Bill), if they taught school without first signing a declara- 
 tion of conformity to the Church of England. These 
 grisvahces remained unredressed till the year 1779. 
 
 An attempt to remove them was made in the year 1772, 
 and a Bill for that purpose passed the Commons, but was 
 rejected by the Lords. Only one bishop voted for it. 
 Another attempt was made the next year, with a similar 
 result. On that occasion the Archbishop of York charged 
 the Dissenting ministers with being " men of close ambi- 
 tion." "This is judging uncharitably," replied Lord Chat- 
 ham, " and whoever brings such a charge without evidence 
 defames." His lordship paused for a moment, and then 
 added : " The Dissenting ministers are represented as men 
 of close ambition ; — they are so, my lords ; and their ambi- 
 tion is to keep close to the college of fishermen, not of 
 cardinals — and to the doctrines of inspired Apostles, not to 
 the decrees of interested and aspiring bishops. They con- 
 tend for a Scriptural and spiritual worship — we have a 
 Calvinistic creed, a Popish liturgy, and Arminian clergy. 
 The Reformation has laid open the Scriptures to all ; let 
 not the bishops shut them up again. Laws in support of 
 ecclesiastical power are pleaded, which it would shock 
 humanity to execute. It is said religious sects have done 
 
 ■M 
 
 k 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 433 
 
 LS necessary 
 jr Sessions, 
 iths of alle- 
 •i«a/ Articles 
 re not calhd 
 s of infant 
 offensive to 
 eve the doc- 
 ; they repu- 
 subscription. 
 ere still sub- 
 ■ the Schism 
 ig a declara- 
 ind. These 
 
 779- 
 
 e year 1772, 
 
 ons, but was 
 :oted for it. 
 ith a similar 
 fork charged 
 close ambi- 
 Lord Chat- 
 out evidence 
 It, and then 
 nted as men 
 their ambi- 
 men, not of 
 sties, not to 
 They con- 
 -we have a 
 nian clergy. 
 to all ; let 
 n support of 
 ould shock 
 s have done 
 
 great mischief when they were not kept under restraints ; 
 but history affords no proof that sects have ever been mis- 
 chievous when they were not oppressed and persecuted by 
 the ruling Church."* 
 
 " Christian liberty!" exclaimed Robert Robinson, "thou 
 favourite offspring of heaven ; thou first-born of Christianity ! 
 I saw the wise and pious servants of God nourish thee in 
 their houses, and cherish thee in their bosoms ! I saw 
 them lead thee into public view; all good men hailed thee; 
 the generous British Commons caressed and praised thee, 
 and led thee into an upper house, and there — there didst 
 thou expire in the holy laps of spiritual lords ! " f 
 
 In 1774 Mr. Robinson (he was pastor of the Baptist 
 church at Cambridge) published a work which probably 
 influenced the public mind on this subject, and prepared the 
 way for the repeal of the .'jiioxious enactments. We refer 
 to his Arcana, or the Principles of the late Petitioners to 
 Parliament for Relief in the matter of Subscription. The 
 book was written in the form of letters, and the subjects 
 discussed were — Candour in Controversy — Uniformity in 
 Religion — The Right of Private Judgment — Civil Magistracy 
 — Innovation — Orthodoxy — Persecution — Sophistry. In- 
 comparable wit sparkled in this work. No Churchman 
 could read it without being ashamed of the intolerance of 
 his spiritual rulers. 
 
 At length, even the bishops were mollified. One of their 
 number. Dr. Ross, Bishop of Exeter, in a sermon before the 
 House of Lords on the 30th of January, 1779, expressed his 
 wish that relief might be afforded to Dissenters. The hint 
 was taken. A bill was speedily introduced, which passed 
 both Houses without much difficulty, by which subscription 
 to the Articles was abolished, and instead of it ministers 
 were required to sign the following declaration : — '* I, A. B., 
 do solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that 
 * Ivimey, iv. 28. + Works, ii. 183. 
 
 F F 
 
 ( ' 
 
 % 
 
 wM\ 
 
't 
 
 I I 
 
 m 
 
 434 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 I am a Christian, and a Prote^otant, and as such that I 
 believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, 
 as commonly received among Protestant Churches, do con- 
 tain the revealed will of God ; and that I do receive the 
 same as the rule of my faith and practice." Dissenting 
 schoolmasters also obtained the desired relief. 
 
 We have narrated these transactions, in all which the 
 Baptists were concerned in common with other Protestant 
 Dissenters, in order to put the reader in possession of 
 some facts which ought not to be lost sight of. Persecution 
 in its violent forms existed no longer; but there were 
 men still to be found, and the race is not yet extinct, who 
 gladly embraced every opportunity of venting their spite 
 against those who chose to think and act for themselves in 
 matters' of religion. Let us be thankful that this ill-condi 
 tioned tribe is dwindling away. 
 
 A sad degeneracy had taken place among the General 
 Baptists, who, as the reader is doubtless aware, adopt 
 Arminian views, the Particular Baptists being denominated 
 Calvinistic. Arianism had crept in among them, and with 
 it certain other errors. The loss of life followed the obscu- 
 ration of light. Anti-Evangelical sentiments and practices 
 prevailed to such an alarming extent, that the sound-hearted 
 of that denomination felt the necessity of withdrawment. 
 They peaceably withdrew in the year 1770, and formed the 
 " New Connexion of General Baptists." The blessing of 
 God followed the movemen':. The new body thus consti- 
 tuted is now the General Baptist Denomination, the 
 Arianised churches having for the most part fallen into 
 Socinianism, or become extinct. 
 
 The Communion controversy was revived. Nothing had 
 been published on the subject since the time of Charles II., 
 when Bunyan advocated free communion, and Kiffin replied 
 to him. In 1771 Robert Robinson wrote a pamphlet 
 entitled, The General Doctrines of Toleration applied to Fre& 
 
 
 ' i >. 
 
 
1 1 
 
 I Hi 
 
 III 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 435 
 
 Comm'i, m. Messrs. Ryland, of Northampton, and Turner, 
 of Abi; "uon, men of note and power, published essays, 
 maintaining the same views. They were answered by 
 Abraham Booth, whose Apology for the Baptists was the 
 most masterly production that had yet appeared on that side 
 of the question. No other publications on t!ie subject were 
 issued for many years. 
 
 We have rema'-ked that the denomination had evidently 
 fallen into a state of religious declension almost imme- 
 diately after the restoration of freedom. The statistics 
 prove this. To whatever other causes the condition of 
 affairs may be ascribed, there can be little doubt that the 
 paralysing influence of the doctrinal sentiments entertained 
 by many of the ministers must be regarded as mainly con- 
 tributing to the result. John Brine and Dr. Gill were chief 
 men in the denomination for nearly half a century. They 
 were Supralapsarians, holding that God's election was irre- 
 spective of the fall of man. They taught eternal justifica- 
 tion. Undue prominence was given in their discourses to 
 the teachings of Scripture respecting the Divine purposes. 
 Although they themselves inculcated practical godliness, 
 and so were not justly liable to the charge of Antinomianism, 
 there is reason to fear that numbers of those who imbibed 
 their doctrinal views kept out of sight, or but feebly urged, 
 the obligation of believers to personal holiness. And this is 
 certain, that these eminent men, and all their followers, 
 went far astray from the course marked out by our Lord 
 and His Apostles. They were satisfied with stating men's 
 danger, and assuring them that they were on the high road 
 to perdition. But they did not call upon them to " repent 
 and believe the Gospel." They did not entreat them to be 
 « reconciled unto God." They did not " warn every man 
 and teach every man in all wisdom." And the churches 
 did not, could not, under their instruction, engage in efforts 
 for the conversion of souls. They were so afraid of in- 
 
 F F 2 
 
 >i iiil J 
 
436 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 trudinp: on God's work that they neglected to do what He 
 had commanded them. They seem to have supposed that 
 preservation was all they should aim at ; they had not 
 heart enough to seek for extension. No wonder that the 
 cause declined ! 
 
 The backsliding and coldness had affected all religious 
 communities in England. Had it not been for the merciful 
 
 WHITFIELD. 
 
 W' " 
 
 n\ 
 
 revival which accompanied the labours of Whitfield and the 
 Wesleys, evangelical truth would have well nigh died out. 
 These extraordinary men were raised up for a glorious 
 purpose. The effects of their ministry were felt by all 
 denominations. The churches began to arise and shake 
 themselves from the dust. A new order of things may be 
 dated from the commencement ol their itinerancy, indi- 
 
 'j .*; ' 
 
I ; 
 
 Baptist History » 
 
 437 
 
 eating a gradual return to Apostolical simplicity and fer- 
 vour. Christian ministers preached differently ; if they 
 uttered the same truths, there was more affection and 
 power in the utterance. Some of them found that an 
 addition to their creeds was necessary, to bring them into 
 accordance with the heavenly standard, and Christian 
 
 >.^ 
 
 
 ,:ii.; 
 
 IM 
 !il!:li 
 
 ! ('• 
 
 Iff 
 
 WESLEY. 
 
 churches saw that there were duties incumbent on themy 
 which they could not neglect without incurring guilt. 
 
 The restorative process did not take effect among the 
 Baptists so soon as in some other denominations ; but at 
 length they also felt its influence, and then it was not 
 long beiore improvement was discernible, as the statistical 
 returns show. Another circumstance tended to bring it 
 
438 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ij 
 
 '■ 'r, 
 
 about. Some excellent ministers in the midland counties 
 had long seen and lamented the prevalence of unscriptural 
 opinions, and striven against the stream ; they now saw a 
 turn in their favour, and wisely resolved to avail themselves 
 of it. Robert Hall, of Arnsby, father of the great Robert 
 Hall, delivered a sermon before the Northamptonshire 
 Association, at its Annual Meeting in 1779, founded on 
 Isaiah Ivii. 14 : — " Cast ye up, prepare the way, take up 
 the stumbling-block out of the way of My people." In 
 compliance with the urgent request c^ his brethren, this 
 discourse was shortly afterwards presented to the public, 
 in an enlarged form, under the title of. Help to Zion's 
 Travellers; or, an Attempt to Remove various Stumbling- 
 blocks out of the Way, relating to Doctrinal, Experimental, 
 and Practical Religion. This instructive and useful book 
 had a wide circulation. It corrected the religious senti- 
 ments of many, moulding them after the Divine model, and 
 was thus peculiarly serviceable to the cause of truth. 
 
 From that time we may discern religious progress. 
 Thoughtful concern for the souls of others began to mani- 
 fest itself. A monthly prayer-meeting for the revival of 
 religion and the spread of the Gospel, was instituted in 
 1784. William Carey meditated on the state of the world, 
 and longed to evangelize it. His Enquiry into the Obli- 
 gations of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the 
 Heathen, was published in 1791. This paved the way for 
 the missionary enterprise ; but our fathers did not rush 
 into it unadvisedly or 1:. haste. They thought, and prayed, 
 and marked the leadings of the Divine will, prepared to 
 follow the light. God educated them for the work, and so, 
 when they engaged in it, it was not so much to undertake a 
 project as to develope a principle, trusting in the promises 
 of Him who has said in His Word, " It shall not return 
 unto Me void." 
 Andrew Fuller and John Sutcliffe were " men that had 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 439 
 
 understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to 
 do." When they saw that the time was come, they pre- 
 pared to arouse the people. To this their disccjrsea 
 (delivered at a meeting of ministers at Clipston, North- 
 amptonshire, in 1791) mainly contributed. Fuller preached 
 from Haggai i. 2, on -'The Pernicious Influence of Delay;" 
 Sutcliffe from i Kings xix. 10, on "Jealousy for the Lord 
 of Hosts." Decisive action followed shortly afterwards. 
 
 On the 2nd of October, 1792, twelve ministers, deputed 
 by tho Northamptonshire Association, met in the house of 
 Mr. Beeby Wallis, at Kettering, and, after lengthened and 
 prayerful discussion, adopted a plan of a mission, and 
 formed a society, designated, *• The Particular Baptist 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel amongst the Heathen." 
 The names of the twelve were, John Ryland, Reynold 
 Hogg, John Sutcliffe, Andrew Fuller, Abraham Greenwood, 
 Edward Sharman, Joshua Burton, Samuel Pearce, Thomas 
 Blundel, William Heighton, John Eayres, Joseph Timms. 
 Their joint contributions amounted to ;^I3 2s. 6d. 
 
 William Carey immediately offered himself as a mis- 
 sionary. Mr. John Thomas, who had already performed 
 some Christian labour in Calcutta, while practising there 
 as a surgeon, and was then in England, joined him. They 
 sailed from England June 13th, 1793; John Fountain 
 followed them in 1796; and in 1799 Messrs. Ward, Bruns- 
 don. Grant, and Marshman were added to the little band. 
 Difficulties and trials of no ordinary character oppressed 
 the work for several 3'ears. At length the mission found a 
 home at Serampore, under the protection of Denmark, to 
 which country Serampore then belonged. There, on the 
 i6th of May, 1800, the first sheet of the Bengali New 
 Testament, translated by Carey, was put to press. Thus 
 was a solid foundation laid, on which a fair and noble 
 superstructure was afterwards erected."* 
 
 * See Dr. Cox's History of the Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 ) 
 
440 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 It is observable that, five years after the institution of 
 the Missionary Society, the claims of home began to be 
 deeply felt. Christians saw that, if one thing was to be 
 " done," the other was not to be " left undone." The 
 Baptist Home Mission Society was founded in 1797. 
 
 The denomination had been gathering strength for 
 several years. In 1763 the number of churches was 200. 
 In 1790 there were 326 churches in England and 56 in 
 Wales, besides the churches of the General Baptists, the 
 number of which is not given. 
 
 A ' M 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Biographical Notices— Dr. John Gale— Dr. Gill— John Macgowan— Robert 
 Robinson— Robert Hall, Sen.— John Ryland — The Stennetts — Benjamin 
 Beddome — Samuel Pearce — Dr. Andrew Gifford. 
 
 BEFORE we proceed to furnish information respecting 
 the state of our body in other parts of the world, we 
 will give a brief account of some of the principal ministers 
 who flourished in England during this period. 
 
 Dr. John Gale was educated at the University of 
 Leyden, where he obtained the degree of Doctor in Philo- 
 sophy at the early age of nineteen. Proceeding thence to 
 Amsterdam, he studied theology under Limborch, author 
 of the History of the InqnisitloUj and other works. On his 
 return to England, in 1705, he became assistant to Mr. 
 Allen, then pastor of the Church in Barbican, London, and 
 afterwards to his successor, Mr. Joseph Burroughs. He 
 died in 1721, in the 41st year of his age. 
 
 Dr. Gale is best known by his answer to Dr. Wall, in a 
 volume entitled, Reflections on Dr. Wall's History of In/ant- 
 Baptism. This is a standard work in the Baptist con- 
 troversy. The author's various learning is advantageously 
 employed, and in a very effective manner. Even those 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 441 
 
 who differed from him acknowledged the great merit of his 
 work. It is reprinted in the Oxford edition of Walls History. 
 This evinces remarkable fairness and impartiality. 
 
 We are sorry to be compelled to say that Dr. Gale's 
 religious sentiments were lamentably defective on some 
 points. He inculcated the morals of Christianity rather 
 than its evangelical truths. 
 
 John Gill was born at Kettering, Northamptonshire, 
 November 23^1, 1697. He was educated in the Grammar- 
 school of that town, but was taken from it at the age of 
 eleven, in consequence of the unreasonable conduct of the 
 master, who insisted on the attendance of the scholars at 
 prayers in the parish church on week-day. To this, those 
 of the parents who were Dissenters would not submit, and 
 therefore removed their children from the school. Young 
 Gill had made such extraordinary progress in Latin and 
 Greek that his friends endeavoured to procure assistance 
 with a view to the prosecution of his studies at one of the 
 Universities : but they were unsuccessful. This did not 
 damp his ardour. Part of his time was necessarily spent 
 in attendance on his father's business (he was engaged in 
 the woollen trade) ; every minute^ of the remainder was 
 employed in gathering knowledge. He improved himself 
 in Latin and Greek ; he studied logic, rhetoric, and natural 
 and moral philosophy ; he acquired a knowledge of the 
 Hebrew, in which language " he took great delight ; " he 
 read a large number of Latin treatises on various subjects, 
 but especially on theology. All this was accomplished by 
 his own unaided exertions. 
 
 In 1716 he was baptized on the profession of faith, and 
 immediately afterwards commenced preaching. His labours 
 were very acceptable, and the church at Kettering would 
 have gladly detained him among them ; but that was not 
 his destined sphere. In compliance with the request of the 
 church at Horselydown, Southwark — over which the cele- 
 
442 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 brated Benjamin Keach had formerly presided, who was 
 succeeded by his son-in-law, Mr. Benjamin Stinton, then 
 lately deceased, — he visited them, and, after preaching 
 several months, was chosen pastor. His ordination took 
 place March 22nd, 1720. 
 
 More than fifty years of unremitting toil succeeded that 
 transaction. Mr. Gill's life was emphatically i\ laborious 
 one. His duties as pastor were punctually and faithfully 
 discharged. Besides attending to these, he constantly en- 
 larged his acquaintance with all learning. He watched the 
 movements of the enemies of truth, and held himself in 
 readiness to repel assaults. His pen was never idle. 
 
 The great work of his life was the Commentary on the 
 Scy'ipturcs. It was originally given to his people from the 
 pulpit, in the form of expository discourses. He began 
 with Solomon's Song, on which he preached one hundred 
 and twenty-two sermons. Tlie Exposition was published 
 in 1728, in a folio volume. Three folios more were occu- 
 pied with the New Testament, the third of which appeared 
 in 1748. In that year tht author received from Marischal 
 College, Aberdeen, the degree of Doctor in Divinity. 
 Special mention was made in the Diploma of Dr. Gill's 
 proficiency in sacred literature, in the oriental languages, 
 and in Jewish Antiquities, llie Exposition on the Prophets, 
 in two folios, was issued in 1757, 1758. The remaining 
 volumes appeared in 1763, 1764, 1765, and 1766. Truly it 
 was a gigantic undertaking ! 
 
 The particular excellence of this work lies in its plain, 
 strong sense, its perspicuous style, the care with which 
 every sentence and almost every word is explained, and, 
 especially, the light thrown upon many passages by ex- 
 tracts from Jewish authors. Dr. Gill was a profound 
 Rabbinical scholar. He was familiar with the whole circle 
 of Jewish literature. None could compete with him on 
 this his own ground. 
 
1 
 
 I, who was 
 
 inton, then 
 
 preaching 
 
 nation took 
 
 :eedecl that 
 a laborious 
 d faithfully 
 istantly en- 
 vatched the 
 
 himself in 
 idle. 
 
 tary on the 
 le from the 
 
 He began 
 ne hundred 
 3 published 
 were occu- 
 ;h appeared 
 1 Marischal 
 Divinity. 
 
 Dr. Gill's 
 
 anguages, 
 Prophets, 
 
 remaining 
 Truly it 
 
 its plain, 
 'ith which 
 lined, and, 
 jes by ex- 
 profound 
 hole circle 
 1 him on 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 443 
 
 A judicious reader may derive much benefit from the use 
 of Dr. Gill's Exposition. He will know how to supply the 
 expositor's deficiencies, and will abstain from following him 
 in his interpretation of allegorical passages. For the results 
 of modern criticism he must repair, of course, to other 
 sources. But this Exposition will ever be a mine which 
 will repay the labours of the discreet explorer. 
 
 In addition to the Exposition, Dr. Gill published a Body 
 of Divinity, in three quarto volumes, which, like the Expo- 
 sition, was first preached to his congregation : — The Cause 
 of God and Truth, being an examination of all the passages 
 of Scripture usually adduced in the Arminian controversy ; 
 and Sermons and Tracts (including a learned Dissertation 
 on the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language), in three 
 volumes, 4to. 
 
 Dr. Gill's preaching was rather solid than attractive. 
 He abstained from personal addresses to sinners, by in- 
 viting them to the Saviour, and satisfied himself with 
 declaring their guilt and doom, and the necessity of a 
 change of heart. It is not surprising that the congregation 
 declined under such a ministry. His steady refusal to have 
 an assistant or co-pastor operated also injuriously on the 
 welfare of the Church. 
 
 He preached but once on the Lord's-day during the last 
 two years of his life. Yet he laboured on in his study till 
 within a fortnight of his death. A short time before that 
 event he said to his nephew, the Rev. John Gill, of St. 
 Alban's, ** I depend wholly and alone upon the free, 
 sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love of God, the firm and 
 everlasting covenant of grace, and my interest in the 
 Persons of the Trinity, for my whole salvation ; and not 
 upon any righteousness of my own, nor on anything in me, 
 nor done by me under the influences of the Holy Spirit ; 
 not upon any services of mine, which I have been assisted 
 to perform for the good of the Church ; but upon my 
 
 11 J c: 
 
 I ^4 « 
 
 i i 
 
^ ^;: 
 
 444 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 mtm 
 
 interest in the Persons of the Trinity, the free grace of 
 God, and the blessings of grace streaming to me through 
 the blood and righteousness of Christ, as the ground 
 of my hope. These are no new things to me, but what 
 I have been long acquainted with — what I can live and 
 die byr* 
 
 Dr. Gill died October 14th, 1771, in the 74th year of his 
 age, having been fifty-one years pastor of the church. 
 
 John Macgowan, who was fifteen years pastor of the 
 church in Devonshire-square, London, has acquired con- 
 siderable celebrity among authors, by his Dialogues of 
 Devils, in which he satirizes the follies, vices, and incon- 
 sistencies of men, especially of professing Christians, in a 
 masterly manner. Some affect to be greatly shocked at 
 the dramatic style of the work, and the language ascribed 
 to the interlocutors in the Dialogues ; but for our part, we 
 cannot help thinking that there is a marvellous vein of 
 naturalness in the supposed reports of the conferences 
 of the diabolical preachers ; and we are disposed to believe 
 that the devil has more to do with much that occurs in 
 human history than is commonly supposed. If the ex- 
 istence and operation of good and evil spirits were more 
 thoroughly realized by Christians generally, it might be 
 useful to them. 
 
 In another publication by Mr. Macgowan, entitled. The 
 Shaver, or Priestcraft Defended ; a Sermon occasioned by 
 the Expulsion of Six Young Gentlemen from the University 
 of Oxford, for Praying, Reading, and Expounding the 
 Scriptures, he inflicted a well-merited rebuke on the Uni- 
 versity authorities, and held them up to ridicule for their 
 anti-religious propensities, and the folly of their endeavour 
 to stop the progress of the revival, to which, by God's 
 blessing, even the Church of England has been largely 
 indebted. 
 
 • Rippon's Memoir of Dr. Gill, p. 134. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 445 
 
 Mr. Macgowan died November 25th, 1780, in the fifty- 
 fifth year of his age. 
 
 We wish that it were possible to give a pleasing anr' 
 favourable portraiture of the celebrated Robert Robinson. 
 Gifted with remarkable talents — of sprightly genius — 
 vigorous in imagination — capable of writing in an easy, 
 clear, and flowing style — and well-informed on all subjects 
 — he might have rendered eminent service to the cause of 
 truth, if truth had really obtained a lodgment in his heart. 
 
 Mr. Robinson professed to be converted under the ministry 
 of Mr. Whitfield. He began to preach almost immediately 
 after his baptism. He took charge of a small church at 
 Cambridge, with which he continued all his life. As a 
 preacher ne was deservedly popular with all classes. The 
 educated admired his discourses ;: :b ,i illiterate could under- 
 str.iid them. As a writer, he attra^.'ed great attention. 
 Hi "5 Village Disccurses are models of exquisite tact in the 
 adaptatioi 0*' style and manner to special circumstances. 
 To h's translation of Claude's Essay on the Composition of 
 a Snnon, be appended voluminous notes, curious and in- 
 structive, containing plans of sermons, illustrative of the 
 ad ice given by the author, together with pertinent and 
 pithy observations. His Tracts on Nonconformity were 
 like " sbarj.i arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper." 
 His History of Baptism exhausts the subject ; all writers 
 on the controversy, on our side of the questior> make use 
 of the work. When he compiled his Ecclesiastical Be- 
 searches he had renounced the doctrine ji t';"; Trinity and 
 and other truths connected with it. In effects of his 
 change of sentiments appear in every part of the volume. 
 There is a constant endeavour to write down the Orthodox, 
 or Trinitarian party, while all excellence is ascribed to 
 Arianism and other isms of a lower kind. But being a 
 posthumous work, it is l^ss open to criticism, ns it did not 
 receive a final revision from the author; we will only add, 
 
 i i 
 
 
 ( 
 
 M 
 
 V 
 \\ < 
 
 Mil 
 
 
 ii 
 
446 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 therefore, that the statements in the text should be always 
 carefully compared with the authorities cited in the notes, 
 and that the originals should be consulted, whenever prac- 
 ticable. 
 
 Mr. Robinson died at Birmingham, June gth, 1790, in 
 the fifty-fifth year of his age. He had preached in Dr. 
 Priestley's meeting-house on the preceding Lord's-Day. 
 " His discourse," said Dr. Priestley, *' was unconnected and 
 desultory, and his manner of treating the Trinity savoured 
 rather of burlesque than serious reasoning. He attacked 
 orthodoxy more pointedly and sarcastically than I ever did 
 in my life."* On the following Tuesday morning he was 
 found dead in his bed. What a difference between his 
 beautiful hymn, " Mighty God, while angels bless Thee," 
 &c., and that last sermon ! 
 
 Robert Hall, of Arnsby (the father of the celebrated 
 Robert Hall), has been mentioned as the author of the 
 valuable and useful book. Help to Zion's Travellers. He also 
 wrote several of the Circular Letters of the Northampton- 
 shire Association, which were, in fact, brief treatises on 
 doctrinal and practical subjects. Mr. H^all died March 
 13th, 1791. 
 
 John Collett Ryland, A.M., was, in some respects, 
 an extraordinary man, though now reckoned among the 
 forgotten ones. His Contemplations on Religions Subjects 
 (in three volumes, 8vo.) were received by the public with 
 considerable favour. His Address at the grave of Dr. Andrew 
 Gifford, entitled, The First and Second Coming of Christ 
 Contrasted, was a rare specimen of sublime eloquence. He 
 was an enthusiast in education, and his influence over the 
 young was peculiarly powerful. After a successful ministry 
 at Northampton, where he laboured twenty-six years, he 
 resigned his charge into the hands of his son (afterwards 
 Dr. Ryland, of Bristol), and spent the remainder of his life 
 ♦ Dyer's Memoir of Robinson, p. 397, 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 447 
 
 at Enfield, in Middlesex. There he presided over a large 
 and flourishing school, in which many were trained for 
 future usefulness. The late Dr. Newman, of Stepney Col- 
 lege, was for some time his assistant. Mr. Ryland died 
 July 24th, 1792. 
 
 The Baptist denomination is under deep obligations to 
 the Stennett family. Edward Stennett was some time 
 pastor of the church at Pinner's Hall, London, where he 
 was succeeded by his son Joseph, in the year 1690, who 
 presided over the Church till his death, in 17 13. Both were 
 Sabbatarians. Distinguished among his brethren for the 
 extent and variety of his literary p.^qJrements, his earnest- 
 ness of soul, his profound and practical wisdom, and his 
 unswerving integrity, Mr. Joseph Stennett was held in 
 high esteem by all religious parties. If he would have con- 
 formed to the Church of England, he might have attained 
 an exalted position; but he was proof against temptation, 
 though liberal offers were made him. His influence was 
 known to be powerful, and strenuous efforts were employed 
 by the Court, in the latter end of Queen Anne's reign, to 
 gain him over to the Tory policy, in the hope that other 
 Dissenters might be induced to follow him. Mr. Stennett 
 understood the principles of freedom too well to be caught 
 in such a trap. His firmness had a happy effect on others. 
 Numerous treatises on religious subjects, and a consider- 
 able number of poetical compositions, were published by 
 Mr. Stennett. A collected edition of his works was issued 
 after his death. He is most advantageously known among 
 Baptists by his Answer to Russen, a learned and elaborate 
 work on baptism, to which succeeding writers have been 
 much indebted. 
 
 His son and grandson were also " shining lights." Dr. 
 Joseph Stennett, who died February 7th, 1758, was 
 upwards of twenty years pastor of the Church in Little Wild 
 Street, London. He distinguished himself for loyalty and 
 
 Mf> 
 
 !'ll« 
 
 ! \ 
 
 Hi : i 
 
 ^ i 
 
-? ! 4 
 
 .^kIJ 
 
 448 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 patriotism during the rebellion in 1745. He enjoyed the 
 esteem of the King, George II., and was on terms of 
 friendship with some of the great ones of the day. Advert- 
 ing to an interview with the then Bishop of London, 
 Dr. Gibson, he said, in a letter to a friend, " I told his 
 Lordship that I more than ever saw the usefulness of the 
 Book of Common Prayer; for, considering how little the 
 Scriptures are read by the common people, and how little 
 the Gospel preached by the clergy, if it were not for what 
 is said of Christ in the Prayer Book, multitudes would 
 forget there was any such Person. He heartily joined in 
 my observation, and told me he had lately heard a sermon 
 by an eminent preacher, who seemed to labour to keep the 
 name of Christ out of it. * For my part,' added he, * my 
 time is now short, and therefore my charge to all my clergy 
 is short too.' I say to all of them that come to me : ' See 
 to it that you preach Jesus Christ; don't preach Seneca, 
 nor Plato, but preach Jesus Christ.' "* 
 
 Dr. Samuel Stennett, son of the above, succeeded his 
 Father at Little Wild Street, and held the pastorate till his 
 death. He had been assistant-pastor for ten years pre- 
 viously. Few men have risen so high in general esti- 
 mation. His learning — his discretion — his benevolence — 
 his earnest zeal — his holy and uniformly consistent conduct, 
 secured for him an amount and power of influence rarely 
 enjoyed. His pulpit labours were highly appreciated ; his 
 writings were acceptable and much valued. Besides two 
 treatises on the baptismal controversy, he published three 
 volumes of discourses On Personal Religic n, On Domestic 
 Duties, and On the Parable of the Sower. 
 
 The celebrated John Howard honoured Dr. Stennett with 
 his friendship, and was accustomed to attend his ministry 
 when he visited London. In a letter addressed to him 
 from Smyrna, dated August 11, 1786, he says: — "With 
 
 Ivimey, iii. 581. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 449 
 
 enjoyed the 
 n terms of 
 ly. Advert- 
 of London, 
 " I told his 
 Iness of the 
 w little the 
 d how little 
 lot for what 
 udes would 
 ly joiaed in 
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 to keep the 
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 cceeded his 
 
 )rate till his 
 
 years pre- 
 
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 evolence — 
 
 nt conduct, 
 
 ence rarely 
 
 iated ; his 
 
 esides two 
 
 shed three 
 
 ;/ Domestic 
 
 :nnett with 
 s ministry 
 ed to him 
 -" With 
 
 unabated pleasure I have attended your ministry ; no man 
 ever entered more into my religious sentiments, or more 
 happily expressed them. It was some little disappointment 
 when any one occupied your pulpit. Oh, sir, how many 
 Sabbaths have I ardently longed to spend in Wild Street : 
 on those days I generally rest, or, if at sea, keep retired in 
 my little cabin. It is you that preach, and I bless God I 
 attend with renewed pleasure. God in Christ is my rock, 
 the portion of my soul. I have little more to add— but 
 accept my renewed thanks. I bless God for your ministry; 
 I pray God reward you a thousand fold." "■ Dr. Stennett 
 died August 24th, 1795. 
 
 Benjamin Beddome, A.M., who ministered to the Church 
 at Bourton-on-the-Water more than fifty- four years, was 
 one of those whose "memory is blessed." We are indebted 
 to him for many excellent hymns, in the use of which the 
 churches praise God, and will probably continue to praise 
 Him for ages yet to come. He was accustomed for a long 
 time to compose a hymn to be sung after his sermon on the 
 Lord's-day morning. These were afterwards collected into 
 a volume. It is somewhat remarkable, that having preached 
 on Lord's-day, January 4th, 1778, from Psalm xxxi. 15 — 
 ** My times are in Thy hand," — and read at the close of the 
 discourse that most appropriate hymn, *'My times of sorrow 
 and of joy," &c., he received intelligence next morning of 
 the sudden death of his son, a young physician of great pro- 
 mise. God had graciously prepared him for the stroke by 
 the spiritual exercises connected with the sermon and hymn. 
 
 Mr. Beddome died September 3rd, 1797, in the seventy- 
 fifth year of his age. Three volumes of his sermons were 
 published after his death, and extensively circulated. 
 
 Samuel Pearce, pastor of the church in Cannon Street, 
 Birmingham, died October loth, 1799. He was greatly 
 beloved by his brethren, and justly so ; for his character 
 
 * Baptist Magazine, 1843, p. 142. 
 G G 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 \ i 
 
450 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 Y^ 
 
 was an embodiment of Christian loveliness. Born at Ply- 
 mouth, July 20th, 1766— converted at the age of sixteen — 
 called to the ministry by the Church in 1786 — he studied at 
 Bristol College, under Dr. Caleb Evans, and was ordained 
 at Birmingham in 1790. His ministry in that town was 
 eminently successful, because it was evangelical to the 
 core, and because it was recommended and supplemented 
 by his seraphic and consistent piety. Three hundred and 
 thirty-five persons were added to the church during his 
 pastorate. 
 
 Mr. Pearce was extremely desirous of joining Dr. Carey 
 in missionary labours, but yielded to the advice of his 
 friends and brethren, who judged that he could not be 
 spared from England. They were compelled to give him 
 up, however, for the Lord summoned him to the palace 
 above. 
 
 During a protracted and painful illness, he exemplified 
 Christian character in some of its sublimest aspects. *' Of 
 all the ways of dying," he observed, a short time before his 
 departure, *' that which I most dreaded was by a consump- 
 tion (in which it is now highly probable my disorder will 
 issue). But, O, my dear Lord, // by this death I can most 
 glorify Thee, I prefer it to all others, and thank Thee that, 
 by this means, Thou art hastening my fuller enjoyment of 
 Thee in a purer world." Surely, that was heroism 1 
 
 '* We have seen men," said Mr. Fuller, *' rise high in 
 contemplation, who have abounded but little in action. 
 We have seen zeal mingled with bitterness, and candour 
 degenerate into indifference ; experimental religion mixed 
 with a large portion of enthusiasm, and what is called 
 rational religion void of everything that interests the heart 
 of man. We have seen splendid talents tarnished with 
 insufferable pride; seriousness with melancholy; cheer- 
 fulness with levity ; and great attainments in religion 
 with uncharitable censoriousness towards men of low 
 
 '!!■ 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 45 r 
 
 m 
 
 degree ; but we have not seen these things in our brother 
 Pearce."* 
 
 Dr. Andrew Gifford, whose father and grandfather had 
 been pastors of the Pithay Church, Bristol, presided over 
 the church in Eagle Street, London, nearly fifty years. His 
 ministry was remarkably successful. He was a thoroughly 
 learned man, and possessed excellent taste and judgment 
 in regard to coins, manuscripts, and other relics of anti- 
 quity. In 1757 he was appointed Assistant Librarian to 
 the British Museum, which situation he held till his death. 
 The following anecdote is worthy of preservation. ** Some 
 gentlemen were inspecting the Museum under the Doctor's 
 guidance, amongst whom was a profane youth, who hardly 
 uttered a sentence without taking the name of the Lord in 
 vain. The Doctor, who had kept his eye upon him, was at 
 length asked by him, * Whether they had not a very 
 ancient manuscript of the Bible there ? ' On coming to it, 
 the Doctor asked the youth if he could read it ? Being 
 answered in the affirmative, the Doctor wished him to read 
 a paragraph which he pointed out. It was, * Thou shalt 
 not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' The 
 irreverent youth read and blushed ; the countenances of 
 his companions seemed to acknowledge the justness of the 
 reproof, and the polite and Christian manner in which it 
 was administered." f 
 
 Dr. Gifford died July 19th, 1784, in the eighty-fourth year 
 of his age, and was buried in Bunhill Fields, at an early 
 hour in the morning, in compliance with his own wish, "to 
 testify his faith in the resurrection of Christ, who arose 
 early on the first day of the week, and likewise his hope of 
 the resurrection morning at the last day." 
 
 ♦ Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel Pearce, M.A, 
 J Funeral Sermon, by Dr. Rippon, p. 41. 
 
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 (716) 872-4503 
 
 
o 
 
452 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 Sectiojm III, 
 
 Progress of the Denomination in North America— Sufferings in New 
 England— Mrs. Elizabeth Backus--Mrs. Kimball— Virginia— Whit- 
 field's Preaching— The "New Lights "—Philadelphia Association — 
 Other Associations— Correspondence with London Ministers — Great 
 Revivals— Brown University — Nova Scotia — New Brunswick — Canada. 
 
 AT the commencement of this period there were but 
 thirteen Baptist churches in North America. In the 
 year 1740, the number of churches was thirty-seven, with 
 less than 3,000 members. But in 1790, there were 872 
 churches, containing 64,975 members. Twenty-five new 
 churches v/ere formed in the first half of the period ; in the 
 second half no fewer than 835 churches. This is surely a 
 wonderful increase. 
 
 It will be interesting to note the dates of the establish- 
 ment of the first churches in the several States : — 
 
 1703. Welsh Tract, Delaware. 
 
 1705. Groton, Connecticut. 
 
 1714. Burleigh, Virginia. 
 
 1724. Golden Hill, New York. 
 
 1727. Perquimans, N. Carolina. 
 
 1742. Chestnut Ridge, Maryland. 
 
 1755. Newtown, New Hampshire. 
 
 1764. Berwick, Maine. 
 
 1768. Shaftesbury, Vermont. 
 1772. Kiokee, Georgia. 
 
 1780. Buffalo Ridge, Tennessee. 
 
 1781. Nolinn, Kentucky. 
 1790. Miami, Ohio. 
 
 1796. New Design, Illinois. 
 
 Our Baptist forefathers had a hard struggle in the 
 New England States. The Congregationalists were the 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 453 
 
 *' Standing Order," and the support of their ministers was 
 provided for by law, in the shape of a tax, levied on all the 
 inhabitants. They had fled from one establishment, and 
 had set up another ! A backward movement had taken 
 place, in the introduction of the " half-way covenant," 
 which filled the churches with men who were strangers to 
 godliness.* The assessment for ministers' salaries was 
 rigorously enforced. It was in vain that the Baptists 
 pleaded their conscientious dissent from the " Standing 
 Order," and the obligation under which they lay to support 
 their own ministers. Their oppressors would not listen, 
 nor abate one jot of their demands. The scourge was in 
 their hands, and they applied it without mercy. 
 
 *' From the year 1692 to the year 1728, the Baptists were 
 everywhere, except in Boston and some few other towns, 
 taxed for the support of Congregational ministers. The 
 fact of their maintaining worship by themselves was not 
 allowed to be a sufficient reason for exempting them from 
 rates to sustain a ministry which in point of conscience 
 they could not hear. For their refusal to pay such rates, 
 we are told that they ' oftentimes had their bodies seized 
 upon, and thrown into the common jail, as malefactors, and 
 their cattle, swine, horses, household furniture, and imple- 
 
 • The "halfway covenant" is thus explained by Dr. Lyman Beecher: 
 — " According to the provisions of this anomaly in rehgion, persons of a 
 regular deportment, though destitute of piety, might be considered as 
 Church members, and offer their children in baptism, without coming to 
 the Sacramental Supper, for which piety was still deemed indispensable. 
 The effect was, that owning the covenant, as it was called, became a 
 common, thoughtless ceremony, and baptism was extended to all who 
 had sufficient regard to fashion, or to self-righteous doings, to ask it for 
 themselves or their children. As to the promise of educating their 
 children in the fear of the Lord, and submitting to the discipline of the 
 Church, on the one hand, or of watchful care on the other, they were 
 alike disregarded, both by those who exacted and by those who made 
 them." — Autobiography, i. 270. 
 
454 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ments of husbandry, forcibly distrained from them, and 
 shamefully sold, many times at not one-quarter part of the 
 first value.' And it is added 'that the heavy pressures 
 and afflictions occasioned by these distraints, imprison- 
 ments, and the losses consequent thereupon, made many 
 of the Baptists bend, almost ruined some of our people, 
 and disheartened others to such a degree, that they re- 
 moved, with the remaining effects they had left, out of the 
 Province.' " * 
 
 In the year 1728, an Act was passed by the General 
 Court of Massachusets, exempting Baptists from the tax ; 
 but as it relieved the persons only, but left the property still 
 liable, it was of little service. Other Acts were afterwards 
 passed, to be in force for short periods, professedly to give 
 relief ; but they were clogged with so many difficulties and 
 obnoxious conditions, that the Baptists continued to suffer, 
 in many places, and for many years. The following letters 
 from Christian v/omen furnish painful illustrations of these 
 statements. 
 
 Elizabeth Backus, mother of the Rev. Isaac Backus, 
 writes thus to her son : — 
 
 '• Norwich, Nov. 4th, 1752. 
 
 '* My dear Son, — I have heard something of the trials 
 amongst you of late, and I was grieved, till I had strength 
 to give up the case to God, and leave my burden there. 
 And now I would tell you something of our trials. Your 
 brother Samuel lay in prison twenty days. October 15th, 
 the collectors came to our house, and took me away to 
 prison, about nine o'clock, in a dark, rainy night. Brothers 
 Hill and Sabins were brought there the next night. We lay 
 jn prison thirteen days, and were then set at liberty, by 
 what means I know not. Whilst I was there, a great many 
 people came to see me, and some said one thing and some 
 said another. Oh, the innumerable snares and temptations 
 * Dr. Hovey's Life and Times of Isaac Backus, p. 167. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 455 
 
 that beset me ! more than I ever thought of before. But 
 oh, the condescension of Heaven ! though 1 was bound 
 when I was cast into this furnace, yet I was loosed and 
 found Jesus in the midst of a furnace with me. Oh, then 
 I could give up my name, estate, family, life and breath, 
 freely to God. Now the prison looked like a palace to me. 
 I could bless God for all the laughs and scoffs made at me. 
 Oh, the love that flowed out to all mankind ! then I could 
 forgive as I would desire to be forgiven, and love my 
 neighbour as myself. Deacon Griswold was put in prison 
 the 8th of October ; and yesterday old brother Grover ; and 
 they are in pursuit of others, all which calls for humiliation. 
 The Church has appointed the 13th of November to be 
 spent in prayer and fasting on that account. I do remem- 
 ber mv love to you and your wife, and the dear children of 
 God with you, begging your prayers for us in such a day of 
 trial. We are all in tolerable health, expecting to see you. 
 These from your loving mother, 
 
 ** Elizabeth Backus." 
 
 *' Mr. Backus, — I understand that you are collecting 
 materials for a Baptist History, in which you propose to 
 let the public know how the Baptists have been oppressed 
 in Massachusetts Bay. This is to let you know that in the 
 year 1768, in a very cold night in winter, about nine or ten 
 o'clock in the evening, I was taken prisoner, and carried by 
 the collector in the town where I live, from my family, con- 
 sisting of three small children, in order to be put into jail. 
 It being a severe cold night, I concluded, by advice, while 
 I was detained at a tavern in the way to jail some hours, to 
 pay the sum of 4-8 L. M. \i. e. Legal Money], for which I 
 was made a prisoner, it being for the ministerial rate. The 
 reason why I refused paying it before, was because I was a 
 Baptist, and belonged to the Baptist Society, in Haverhill, 
 and had carried in a certificate to the assessors, as I sup- 
 
 11 
 
 ! <'l 
 
 n 
 
 i 
 
 i ■ '' 
 
456 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 r 
 
 1 1 
 I 
 
 
 r^'t 
 
 pose, according to law. Thus they dealt with a poor 
 
 widow woman in Bradford, the relict of Solomon Kimball, 
 
 late of the said town ; — at whose house the Rev. Hezekiah 
 
 Smith was shamefully treated by many of the people in 
 
 Bradford, who came headed by the sheriff, Amos Mulliken, 
 
 at a time when Mr. Smith was to preach a sermon in our 
 
 house, at the request of my husband, and warmly contended 
 
 with him, and threatened him if he did preach. Mr. Smith 
 
 went to begin service by singing, notwithstanding the 
 
 noise, clamour, and threats of the people. But one of their 
 
 number snatched the chair, behind which Mr. Smith stood, 
 
 from before him. Upon which my husband desired Mr. 
 
 Smith to tarry a little, till he quelled the tumult ; but all his 
 
 endeavours to silence them were in vain. Upon which my 
 
 husband desired Mr. Smith to begin public service ; which 
 
 accordingly he did, and went through then without further 
 
 molestation. 
 
 " Martha Kimball. 
 " Bradford, Sept. 2nd, 1774. 
 
 
 ** N.B. The above I can attest to. It may be observed, 
 that the tavern whither they took me is about two miles 
 from my house. After I had paid what they demanded, 
 then I had to return to my poor fatherless children, through 
 the snow on foot, in the dead of the night, exposed to the 
 severity of the cold."** 
 
 In the other New England States, Rhode Island excepted, 
 the Baptists met with similar treatment. The Rev. Mr. 
 Marshall, for instance, who laboured in Connecticut, was 
 put in the stocks for preaching in another minister's parish, 
 and afterwards sent to jail, for '' preaching the Gospel con- 
 trary to law.'' The tongue of slander was busy against 
 them, and they were ''everywhere spoken against." Un- 
 
 * Hovey, pp. 28, 184. 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 457 
 
 h a poor 
 I Kimball, 
 Hezekiah 
 people in 
 Mulliken, 
 on in our 
 :ontended 
 ^Ir. Smith 
 ding the 
 le of their 
 ith stood, 
 sired Mr. 
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 A^hich my 
 e ; which 
 xi further 
 
 MBALL. 
 
 observed, 
 
 wo miles 
 
 manded, 
 
 through 
 
 d to the 
 
 xcepted, 
 ev. Mr. 
 ut, was 
 3 parish, 
 \pel con- 
 against 
 " Un- 
 
 righteously taxed, unlawfully imprisoned, the butts of all 
 men's ridicule, they quailed not, nor did rhey slacken in 
 zeal or effort; and God wonderfully blessed them. 
 
 Their success was great also in Virginia. After the re- 
 vival under Whitfield and his associates, many Baptist 
 ministers itinerated in that State, and so preached that 
 multitudes believed and were converted. Persecution soon 
 broke out. Several of the ministers were arrested. " May 
 it please your worship," said the lawyer, " these men are 
 great disturbers of the peace ; they cannot meet a man 
 on the road, but they ram a text of Scripture down his 
 throat." As they would not promise to desist from preach- 
 ing, they were committed to prison, to which they went 
 cheerfully, singing as they walked through the street. Dr. 
 Watts's hymn, •« Broad is the road that leads to death." 
 This was in the county of Spottsylvania, in the year 1768. 
 The same course was pursued by the magistrates in other 
 parts of the State. About thirty ministers, besides many 
 exhorters and others who manifested Christian earnestness 
 for the salvation of souls, were imprisoned, some of them 
 repeatedly.* 
 
 ** The magistrates, in all parts of the Commonwealth, 
 impelled and directed by the State clergy and their more 
 zealous friends, commenced a relentless annoyance of the 
 people, and a heartless persecution of the ministers of our 
 churches. Attempts were made to set aside the Toleration 
 Act, and old and obsolete laws were hunted up, and essays 
 were made to enforce their provisions. Assessments were 
 prosecuted with new vigilance; fines were imposed and col- 
 lected ; meetings were disturbed and violently dispersed ; 
 and pastors, and other ministers, were arrested, dragged 
 before the courts, browbeaten, and ignominiously punished. 
 All this, and more, is acknowledged by the ministers and 
 historians of the ' State Church ' themselves. Dr. Hawks, 
 
 ♦ Benedict's History of the Baptists, p. 654. 
 
 f i 
 
,l. 
 
 H'< 
 
 458 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 for example, says : — ' No dissenters in Virginia expe- 
 rienced, for a time, harsher treatment than did the Bap- 
 tists. They were beaten and imprisoned, and cruelty taxed 
 its ingenuity to devise new modes of punishment and 
 annoyance. The usual consequences followed. Persecu- 
 tion made friends for its victims ; and the men who 
 were not permitted to speak in private, found willing 
 auditors in the sympathizing crowd, who gathered round 
 the prisons, to hear them preach from the grated windows. 
 It is not improbable that this very opposition imparted 
 strength in another mode, inasmuch as it at least furnished 
 the Baptists with a common ground on which to make 
 resistance.'"* 
 
 " In all the prisons where our brethren were incarcerated, 
 they preached daily from the windows to the crowds who 
 there assembled to hear them."t 
 
 Irritated beyond measure at this boldness, their enemies 
 resorted to various expedients to check it. ♦* In some 
 cases," says Benedict, '* drums were beaten in the time of 
 service ; high enclosures were erected before the prison 
 windows ; matches, and other suffocating materials, were 
 burnt outside the prison doors." But all was in vain. 
 The servants of God would preach, and the people were 
 equally determined to hear. Converts were multiplied ; 
 new churches sprang up all over the State : " so mightily 
 grew the Word of God, and prevailed." 
 
 The great increase of our denomination took place after 
 the year 1740. In the fall of that year Whitfield landed at 
 Newport, Rhode Island, and commenced that course of 
 Evangelical labour in the United States which was produc- 
 tive, under the Divine blessing, of such remarkable results. 
 The revival at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1734, had 
 already prepared the minds of the people, in some measure, 
 
 ♦ History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virgittia, p. 121. 
 f Howell's Early Baptists of Virginia, p. 39. 
 
ma expe- 
 
 the Bap- 
 
 elty taxed 
 
 ment and 
 
 Peroccu- 
 
 men who 
 
 id willing 
 
 red round 
 
 windows. 
 
 imparted 
 
 furnished 
 
 I to make 
 
 arcerated, 
 owds who 
 
 !r enemies 
 In some 
 le time of 
 le prison 
 ials, were 
 
 in vain. 
 
 pie were 
 iplied ; 
 
 mightily 
 
 ulti 
 
 lace after 
 landed at 
 lourse of 
 produc- 
 results. 
 ^34, had 
 leasure, 
 
 p. 121. 
 
 
 for a general outpouring of the Spirit. It was graciously 
 vouchsafed, and so glorious was the manifestation, that ** in 
 the term of two or three years thirty or forty thousand souls 
 were born into the family of heaven in New England."* 
 Some of the converts joined the existing churches, but a 
 large number formed separate churches, requiring satisfac- 
 tory evidence that the candidates for communion were the 
 subjects of regeneration. This New Testament rule had 
 been departed from by the "Standing Order;" and the New 
 Lights, as they were called, determined to reinstate primi- 
 tive principles in their proper place. The natural effect 
 was that many of them became Baptists. 
 
 The new converts were " fervent in spirit." They 
 thirsted for the salvation of souls. Unexampled efforts 
 were immediately employed for the spread of the Gospel. 
 Some went from house to house in their respective neigh- 
 bourhoods, "warning every man and teaching every man," 
 and exhorting all to turn to the Lord. Pious ministers 
 were stirred up to unusual exertion, and old Christians 
 renewed their youth. " The Lord gave the word ; great 
 was the company of them that published it." They were 
 not all suitably qualified for the work, as we should now 
 judge ; mistakes were committed, and measures of doubtful 
 propriety adopted, in some places ; but such things might 
 be expected in times of great spiritual excitement. It 
 cannot be denied that the labourers were generally men of 
 God, "full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." They had 
 deep convictions of the evil of sin, and of the peril of a 
 rebellious state. The love of God in Christ overpowered 
 their souls. Their views of the solemn realities of another 
 world were vivid and heart-affecting. They " set the Lord 
 always before " them, and walked as in the sight of the 
 judgment-seat. Their earnest appeals made the stout- 
 hearted tremble, awed many a reprobate into silence, and 
 ♦ Trumbull's History of Connecticut, quoted by Dr. Hovey, p. 35. 
 
Ai 1 
 • !;. i 
 
 ..it;! 
 
 Hi f 
 
 460 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 \vrun<^' tears from daring and hardened offenders. Tens of 
 thousands bowed before the majesty of truth. 
 
 Some of tlie most powerful preachers emigrated to other 
 States; and wherever they went, the floods of blessing; 
 poured over the land. Virj;inia was remarkably indebted 
 to their labours. In 1768 there were but ten Baptist 
 churches in that State; in 1790 there were two hundred 
 and ten. The Carolinas and other States in the South 
 were also visited by the New Lights, and marvellous 
 effects followed. 
 
 As soon as the Baptist churches became t. efficiently 
 numerous, they proceeded to combine in Associations, 
 which arrangement has proved eminently conducive to the 
 prosperity of the body. Carefully guarding against the 
 assumption of ecclesiastical power, and avoiding all in- 
 terference with the affairs of individual churches, the 
 ministers and delegates who assembled from time to time 
 exercised a brotherly supervision over the Baptist cause, 
 and often " devised liberal things " on its behalf. Personal 
 edification was promoted by the religious services ; Chris- 
 tian friendship was renewed and extended ; important 
 questions of doctrine and practice were discussed, and 
 advice given in difficult cases ; weak and destitute 
 churches were assisted ; and plans for the wider diffusion 
 of Gospel truth were originated. Almost all our denomi- 
 national enterprises may be referred to the influence of 
 these Associational gatherings. 
 
 The Philadelphia Association was the first of the kind. 
 It was formed in the year 1707. " This Association," says 
 Dr. Samuel Jones, in his Century Sermon, " originated in 
 what they call General and sometimes Yearly meetings. 
 These meetings were instituted as early as 1688, and met 
 alternately in May and September, at Lower Dublin, Phila- 
 delphia, Salem, Cohansey, Chester, and Burlington, at 
 which places there were members, though no church or 
 
Baptist History 
 
 461 
 
 ;. Tens of 
 
 ;(1 to other 
 .)t' blessing 
 ly indebted 
 en Baptist 
 m hundred 
 the South 
 marvellous 
 
 L ..fficiently 
 isoeiations, 
 cive to the 
 i<;ainst the 
 in«; all in- 
 irches, the 
 lie to time 
 ptist cause, 
 Personal 
 s ; Chris- 
 important 
 issed, and 
 destitute 
 diffusion 
 r denomi- 
 luence of 
 
 the kind, 
 ion," says 
 ^inated in 
 meetings. 
 , and met 
 lin, Phila- 
 ngton, at 
 :hurch or 
 
 churches were ct)nstituted, except Lower Dublin and 
 Cohansey. At these mcetinjj^s their labours were chielly 
 confined to the ministry of the Word and the administration 
 of Gospel ordinances. Hut in the year 1707, they seem 
 to have taken more properly the form of an Association ; 
 for then they had delegates from several churches, and 
 attended to their general concerns. We, therefore, date our 
 beginning as an Association from that time, though we 
 might, with but little impropriety, extend it back some 
 years. They were at this time but a feeble band, though 
 a band of faitiiful brothers, consisting of but five churches, 
 viz. those of Lower Dublin, Piscataway, Middletown, Co- 
 hansey, and Welsh Tract. There were at that time but 
 these five in North America, except Massachusetts and 
 Rhode Island."* 
 
 This Association is still a large and flourishing body, 
 notwithstanding the numerous offshoots which it has 
 given out. There are seventeen other Associations in the 
 vState. 
 
 A few years after the establishment of the Philadelphia 
 Association, a correspondence was opened with the Baptist 
 ministers of London. In a letter dated August 12th, 1714, 
 Abel Morgan says :— " We are now nine churches. ... In 
 these churches there are about five hundred members, but 
 who are greatly scattered on this main land. Our ministers 
 are necessitated to labour with their hands. We hope, if it 
 please God to supply us with more help, we shall be more 
 churches in a little time. Most churches administer the 
 sacrament once a month. These ministers are all sound in 
 the faith, and we practise most things like the British 
 churches." Another letter, written the following year, con- 
 tained a request for assistance, in books, &c., " for the pre- 
 servation and further promoting of the truth in those parts." 
 Two gentlemen responded to the request. " Mr. Thomas 
 
 * Benedict's History, p. 605. 
 
I 
 
 * < 
 
 Z 
 
 462 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 
 Hollis and Mr. John Taylor gave a supply of books ; Mr. 
 Hollis sent twelve copies of Mr. iiurkitt's Annotations on 
 the New Testament, directing that each minister in those 
 parts might have a copy; and Mr. John Taylor gave twenty 
 pounds' worth of old books, and several copies of the Bap- 
 tist Catechism." Acknowledging the gift, the church at 
 Philadelphia wrote as follows : — ** Your letter was read in 
 our meetings in town and country. We concluded that the 
 books might be disposed of as intended : the family-books 
 for the benefit of well-disposed folks ; the Annotations to be 
 for particular qualified persons. The other books for the 
 public use, for our leading brethren to resort to, are lodged 
 here in the city, to be lent and returned again ; whereby 
 the rising generation may have the benefit of them as well 
 as the present. The contents of the letters and a catalogue 
 of the books are recorded in our church-books, to prevent 
 all mistakes." An acknowledgment was also forwarded by 
 the Association, at its annual meeting, held September, 
 17 17. An extract from their letter will show the nature of 
 the struggle which the Baptists in Pennsylvania had at that 
 time to maintain : — " We think that the very minds of the 
 people in common here are tainted with Arminianism, 
 Socinianism, and what not. The common notion of re- 
 ligion among them is like a leprous house : it is not to be 
 mended by patching, but must be pulled down, and re-built 
 upon the right foundation — the covenant of grace. This we 
 labour to do, and, therefore, go against the current of the 
 times, that others who succeed us may see no cause to 
 lament our having gone before them ; and this we still do, 
 God permitting."* They did it, and that right well. None 
 of their successors have lamented ''their having gone 
 before them." 
 
 We have adverted to the remarkable increase of our 
 denomination in the latter half of the period now under 
 
 ♦ Ivimey, iii. 127, 131, 133. 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 463 
 
 ooks ; Mr. 
 stations on 
 r in those 
 ive twenty 
 f the Bap- 
 church at 
 as read in 
 ed that the 
 mily-books 
 iions to be 
 )ks for the 
 are lodged 
 1 ; whereby 
 em as well 
 I catalogue 
 to prevent 
 rwarded by 
 September, 
 e nature of 
 had at that 
 nds of the 
 inianism, 
 ion of re- 
 not to be 
 nd re-built 
 This we 
 •ent of the 
 cause to 
 e still do, 
 11. None 
 mg gone 
 
 je of our 
 )w under 
 
 notice. It was the fruit of a series of revivals. The 
 ministers of those times were not satisfied with discharging 
 the duties of their pastorates. They undertook long jour- 
 neys, preaching as they went, often with no preconceived 
 or definite plan, but travelling . nd labouring as they 
 believed themselves to be directed from above. Mighty 
 effects followed, ** the Lord working with them, and con- 
 firming the Word," not indeed by ** signs following," such 
 as Apostolic churches saw, but by still greater displays of 
 power and mercy — by the conversion of souls. These 
 manifestations were not confined to any particular part 
 of the country ; they were everywhere enjoyed. Rhode 
 Island experienced a rich blessing in 1774. The churches 
 in the northern parts of New England were more than 
 doubled in number in the ten years preceding 1792. 
 Many thousands were added in Virginia and other 
 Southern States. In 1791 there was an extensive revival 
 in Massachusetts, which reached far into the State of 
 New York. Two hundred and ninety-three members were 
 added to the churches of Saratoga and Stillwater in that 
 year.='= 
 
 We need not be surprised at some oddities. All society 
 was in a ferment ; strange things bubbled up to the surface, 
 now and then, and were gazed upon, or smiled at, or it may 
 be wept over, till they sank into oblivion. If the churches 
 composing the Sandy Creek Association in North Carolina 
 werj tenacious of the kiss of charity, the laying on of hands 
 upon members, the appointment of elderesses, and such 
 things ; if a large Baptist body in Virginia were so mistaken 
 as to choose, in the year 1774, three of their number, and 
 designate them " apostles," investing them with a power of 
 general superintendence ; and if, in some respects, the fer- 
 vency of New Light feelings got the better of discretion and 
 decorum, we must bear in mind the peculiarities of the 
 
 ♦ Hovey, p. 258. 
 
464 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 times. After a long season of cold and drought, the Lord 
 " poured water upon him that was thirsty, and floods upon 
 the dry ground ;" the spiritual vegetation sprang up thick 
 and strong, requiring skilful cultiv^.tors ; and some detri- 
 ment was experienced for want of care in pruning and 
 training. In the course of a few years these wants were 
 supplied, and suitable arrangements constituted. Surely 
 we ought to prefer a revival of religion, though dashed with 
 some irregularities, to the death-liice coldness of mere ortho- 
 doxy and form. 
 
 The year 1764 was memorable for the founding of Rhode 
 Island College, now called *' Brown University." This 
 Institution originated with the Philadelphia Association. 
 The desirableness of the measure had been long felt. The 
 Rev. Morgan Edwards was the principal mover in the 
 undertaking, and his views were zealously forwarded by the 
 Pennsylvania Baptists. They chose Rhode Island as the 
 seat of the proposed College, because it was supposed that 
 the preponderance of the Baptists in that State would 
 secure the bestowment of a suitable charter of incorporation. 
 The Rev. James Manning, then of Philadelphia, being at 
 Newport, Rhode Island, in 1763, on his way to Halifax, 
 Nova Scotia, called a meeting of the chief Baptists, and 
 laid the subject before them. The result was that a plan 
 was formed, preliminary measures were taken, and applica- 
 tion was immediately made to the legislature for a charter. 
 Some difficulties arose, from the dishonest dealing of a 
 Presbyterian minister whose assistance had been asked in 
 the preparation of the charter, and who actually drew it up 
 in such a manner that the Presbyterians would have had 
 the control. The design was defeated, and the original 
 promoters of the object obtained their wishes. The College 
 was founded on the following plan : — 
 
 " That into this liberal and catholic institution shall 
 never be admitted any religious tests ; but, on the con- 
 
 V I 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 465 
 
 he Lord 
 ds upon 
 ap thick 
 le detri- 
 ling and 
 nts were • 
 
 Surely 
 hed with 
 ;re ortho- 
 
 of Rhode 
 r." This 
 sociation. 
 elt. The 
 sr in the 
 led by the 
 nd as the 
 posed that 
 ite would 
 irporation. 
 being at 
 Hahfax, 
 tists, and 
 at a plan 
 applica- 
 a charter, 
 ling of a 
 asked in 
 ew it up 
 have had 
 original 
 le College 
 
 ion shall 
 [the con- 
 
 trary, all the members thereof shall for ever enjoy full, free, 
 absolute, uninterrupted liberty of conscience ; and that the 
 places of professors, tutors, and all other officers, the presi- 
 dent alone excepte 1, shall be free and open for all denomi- 
 nations of Protestants ; and that youth of all religious 
 denominations shall and may be freely admitted to the 
 equal advantages, emoluments and honours of the college 
 or university, and shall receive a like fair, generous, and 
 equal treatment during their residence therein, they con- 
 ducting themselves peaceably, and conforming to the laws 
 and statutes thereof; and that the public teaching shall in 
 general respect the sciences ; and that the sectarian differ- 
 ences of opinions shall not make any part of the public and 
 classical instruction." 
 
 " The government of the college is vested in a Board of 
 Fellows, consisting of twelve members, of whom eight, in- 
 cluding the president, must be Baptists ; and a Board of 
 Trustees, consisting of thirty-six members, of whom twenty- 
 two must be Baptists, five Friends or Quakers, four Con- 
 gregationalists, and five Episcopalians. These represent 
 the different denominations existing in the State when the 
 charter was obtained. The instruction and immediate 
 government of the college rests in the president and Board 
 of Fellows."* 
 
 Mr. Manning, afterwards Dr. Manning, was chosen pre- 
 sident. He commenced his labours at Warren, in 1766, 
 and was soon encouraged by the resort of students to him 
 for instruction. The erection of a college building became 
 necessary, and Providence was chosen as the site, that city 
 having offered the largest contribution towards the object. 
 The work was accomplished in 1770. On the breaking out 
 of the American war, the Institution was suspended for six 
 years, and the building was used for barrack and hospital 
 purposes by the army. Dr. Manning died in 1791, and was 
 
 * Hovey, p. 151. 
 II II 
 
466 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 I 
 
 .'1 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 succeeded by Dr. Maxry, who resigned his office in 1802, 
 when Dr. Messer became president. He was followed by 
 Dr. Wayland, who resigned, "full of honours," in 1856. 
 The University was next undt^r the presidency of Dr. Barnas 
 Sears, who resigned in 1867, in order to superintend educa- 
 tional arrangements in the South, founded by the munifi- 
 cent liberality of George Peabody, Esq., and is succeeded 
 by Dr. Alexis Caswell. 
 
 This venerable institution is no\7 a hundred years old. 
 About two thousand students have graduated there, up- 
 wards of five hundred of whom have become ministers of 
 the Gospel.* 
 
 Rhode Island Colleg'e was named " Brown University,*' 
 in 1804, in honour of Nicholas Brown, Esq., to whose 
 liberality ft has been largely indebted. In the year above- 
 mentioned he founded a Professorship in Rhetoric and 
 Belles Letters. He afterwards erected " Hope Hall," a 
 spacious structure, designed to afford the increased accom- 
 modation required for the students, which cost 30,000 
 dollars. " Manning Hall," more recently built by the same 
 generous benefactor, has the library on the ground floor, 
 and the upper pf.rt is used for a chapel. The library con- 
 tains between thirty and forty thousand volumes. 
 
 The importance of providing means of instruction for 
 those who intended to enter the ministry was early felt by 
 our brethren on the American Continent. A considerable 
 sum was raised for the assistance of such persons by the 
 Philadelphia As'^iociation, Private seminaries of education 
 were established in different parts of the country, v^hich 
 were attended by many who afterwards became ministers 
 of the Gospel. The first academy of the kind was opened 
 by Mr. Eaton, at Hopewell, New Jersey, in 1756. Dr. 
 Samuel Jones established another, at Lower Dublin, Penn- 
 sylvania, in 1766; and a third was founded at Wrentham, 
 * See Guild's History of Brown University. 
 
i 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 467 
 
 i 
 
 in 1802, 
 owed by 
 
 in 1856. 
 r. Barnas 
 id educa- 
 e munifi- 
 lucceeded 
 
 ^ears old. 
 there, up- 
 nisters of 
 
 diversity,*' 
 to whose 
 2ar above- 
 storic and 
 I Hall," a 
 sed accom- 
 ost 30,000 
 the same 
 )und floor, 
 Drary con- 
 
 uction for 
 arly felt by 
 )nsiderable 
 ons by the 
 education 
 try, which 
 ministers 
 as opened 
 756. Dr. 
 ilin, Penn- 
 rentham, 
 
 ■*■ 
 
 ; 
 
 Massachusetts, in 1776, by Mr. W. Williams, one of the 
 first graduates of Rhode I'^Iand College. These were useful 
 efforts. They were the germs of the noble undertakings 
 which have characterised the present age. 
 
 The introduction of Baptist principles and practices into 
 that part of the American Continent which is now called 
 *' British North America " remains to be recorded. 
 
 In 1760, Shubael Dimock and family, with other persons, 
 emigrated from Connecticut and settled in Newport, Nova 
 Scotia. The vexations they had endured in their own 
 country in being taxed for the support of the ministers of 
 the " Standing Order " (Congregational) led to their re- 
 moval. The Rev. John Sutton, a Baptist minister, accom- 
 panied them. He remained about a year in the province, 
 baptized Mr. Dimock's son Daniel, and many more, and 
 then returned. The Dimocks, father and son, preached 
 the Gospel in the district where they had settled, and many 
 were converted and baptized, hut no church was formed. 
 
 The Rev. Ebenezer Moulton, of Massachusetts, visited 
 the same province in 1761, and preached chiefly at Yar- 
 mouth. The same results followed as at Newport. He 
 also returned. 
 
 In 1763, the Rev. Nathan Mason removed from Swan- 
 sea, Massachusetts, to Sackville, which was then in Nova 
 Scotia, but is now in New Brunswick (the separation into 
 two provinces having taken place in 1784). A church had 
 been formed, of which Mr. Mason was chosen pastor befv^ve 
 he left. The whole church emigrated. They remained at 
 Sackville about eight years, during which tin. j they had 
 increased to sixty members. The original emigrants then 
 returned, and the church died out. Another church was 
 formed in the same place in 1799. 
 
 The first Baptist church formed in the province was at 
 Horton. Ten persons were constituted a church, October 
 19th, 1778, and the Rev. Nicholas Pearson, who had been 
 
 H H 2 
 
 
 
468 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 preaching there some time, was chosen their pastor. His 
 labours were so successful that fifty-two persons were added 
 to the church in 1779 and 1780. In the latter year the 
 church adopted open communion, by admitting Congrega- 
 tionalists to their fellowship. The other churches which 
 were established during the century adopted the same 
 policy. 
 
 The ministers to whose labou/;j the denomination was 
 chiefly indtbtedfor its maintenance and extcnsicn in Neva 
 Scotia were Thomas Handly Chipman, Joseph Dimock, 
 John Burton, James Manning, Theodore Seth Harding, 
 Harris Harding, Edward Manning, Enoch Towner, and 
 Joseph Crandal. All these were eminent men in their time. 
 Uneducated, in the common meaning of the word, they 
 were well versed in Bible theology, and they were powerful 
 preachers. They did not confine themselves to the neigh- 
 bourhoods in which they lived, but itinerated through the 
 province, proclaiming the glad tidings wherever they could 
 gain access to the people, and turning many " from the 
 power of Satan unto God." Their names are held in high 
 honour in Nova Scotia. 
 
 Mixed fellowship prevailed in all the churches, that at 
 Halifax excepted, which was the only Baptist church (pro- 
 perly so called) in Nova Scotia, at the close of the eigh- 
 teenth century. But all the pastors were Baptists, and the 
 converts were invariably baptised. Strict communion be- 
 came the practice of the churches in i8og. 
 
 The fust Association in British North America was 
 formed in Lower Granville, Nova Scotia, June 23, 1800. 
 It consisted of nine churches, viz. : Annapolis and Upper 
 Granville, Digby, Lower Granville, Horton, Newport, Corn- 
 wallis, Chester, Yarmouth, and Sackville, N.B. 
 
 i 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 istor. His 
 were added 
 ir year the 
 
 Congrega- 
 ;hes which 
 
 the same 
 
 nation was 
 en in Neva 
 h Dimock, 
 I Harding, 
 )wner, and 
 their time, 
 word, they 
 re powerful 
 the neigh- 
 brough the 
 they could 
 "from the 
 eld in high 
 
 es, that at 
 lurch (pro- 
 f the eigh- 
 its, and the 
 nunion be- 
 
 469 
 
 A Baptist church was formed in the Township of Ha7. 
 lowell, Prince Edward County, Canada West, about the 
 year 1795. The Rev. Joseph Winn was pastor, and 
 probably exercised a general oversight over other Baptist 
 communities, which were subsequently founded in that 
 part of Canada. The Rev. Reuben Crandell was also 
 an active and successful minister in the same province 
 
 There were many excellent ministers whose names and 
 lives deserve to be recorded here, but space forbids 
 
 [lerica was 
 5 23, 1800. 
 and Upper 
 ■port, Corn- 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE PRESENT CENTURY. 
 
 Effects of the Mission Enterprise— Revivals — Extension of the Denomination 
 — Statistical Table — Societies — Diversity and Adaptation of Talent — 
 Baptist Agency now Employed — Rev.C. H. Spurgeon— Baptist Union 
 — Peculiarities of the Present Period— Duties of Baptists. 
 
 i 
 
 THE history of the century through which we are now 
 passing must be told much more briefly than that of 
 any period that has preceded it. The names of Hving 
 men do not properly belong to history ; and even of those 
 who are recently gone, it is not possible to speak with 
 that degree of impartiality which historical composition 
 demands. A few brief pages must, therefore, complete our 
 narrative. 
 
 The formation of the Baptist Missionary Society was an 
 era in the history of our denomination. Enlarged views 
 took the place of the selfish and narrow-minded notions 
 which had so long prevailed. When the nature and extent 
 of Christian obligation in reference to the diffusion of 
 the Gospel were understood, and corresponding action 
 resulted, a healthy religious condition was soon expe- 
 rienced. The new vigour demanded scope. Other enter- 
 prises besides foreign missions were undertaken, and they 
 were carried on with persevering ardour, characteristic of 
 the altered state of feeling. 
 
 Domestic missions engaged the attention of the British 
 
 T 
 
Denomination 
 n of Talent— 
 taptist Union 
 
 e are now 
 tiaii that of 
 s of living 
 ;n of those 
 ;peak with 
 imposition 
 mplete our 
 
 ty was an 
 
 ged views 
 
 d notions 
 
 md extent 
 
 fusion of 
 
 ng action 
 
 Don expe- 
 
 ler enter- 
 
 and they 
 
 teristic of 
 
 le British 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 471 
 
 churches in England as early as 1797, and have been 
 ever since prosecuted with judicious activity. On the 
 North American Continent extensive itinerancies were 
 the ordinary modes of home effort. The rapidly increasing 
 population could be evangelized in no other way. These 
 exertions are now directed by the Home Missionary 
 Society, or by the respective State conventions. 
 
 In 1813 the Baptist churches of the United States were 
 awakened to a sense of their indebtedness to the world 
 by the gracious interposition which brought Judson and 
 Rice among them. Then their missionary career com- 
 menced. It has been prosperous in an unexampled degree. 
 
 The astonishing revival of religion which occurred 
 throughout the Union at the beginning of this century 
 was an educational process, tending to prepare the ser- 
 vants of God for the adoption of a widely aggressive 
 policy. Sanctified talent was developed eager for em- 
 ployment in the Lord's cause. The spirit of consecration 
 rested powerfully on the churches. Dr. Carey's terse 
 admonitions, *' Expect great things, attempt great things," 
 became the watchwords of the large-hearted. Holy activity 
 was the fruit ; increased power was evolved, to be expended 
 on new exertions ; and the old promise was fulfilled, ** I 
 will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt 
 be a blessing" (Gen. xii. 2). 
 
 And now, let us look around and abroad, and exclaim, 
 *' What hath God wrought ! " 
 
 At the close of the ** Quiet Period," the number of 
 Baptist churches in Great Britain and Ireland somewhat 
 exceeded 400, containing probably about 20,000 members. 
 There are now upwards of 2,400 churches, and the number 
 of members is estimated at 280,000. Besides this, our 
 principles have taken root in the Colonies and depen- 
 dencies of the Empire, and are spreading rapidly. Bap- 
 tist churches have been planted in the West Indian 
 
472 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 \ >i 
 
 m 
 
 Islands, in Australia, in Van Diemen's Land, in Africa, 
 in various parts of India, and plenteously in British North 
 America, where, seventy years ago, there were but two 
 churches of our denomination in existence. 
 
 On the Continent of Europe, the labours of our beloved 
 brother Oncken and his energetic coadjutors have been 
 remarkably blessed. Churches of the primitive faith and 
 order exist in Hanover, in Prussia, in several of the 
 German States, in France, in Switzerland, in Denmark, 
 and in Sweden. 
 
 But it is in the United States that the most marvellous 
 progress has been witnessed. Several causes have con- 
 tributed to this. One is the immense tide of emigration 
 annually conveying to that country many tens of thousands 
 from all parts of Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland, and 
 among them numerous Baptists. Another is the con- 
 geniality of the mode of government and the state of 
 society with the freedom of Baptist principles. The 
 adaptation of the Baptist ministry, generally, to t.he con- 
 dition and habits of the people, is not to be overlooked. 
 These, however, are but secondary considerations, although 
 due weight must be allowed them. Doubtless Baptist 
 churches have shared largely in those outpourings of the 
 Spirit which have peculiarly distinguished Christian effort 
 in that part of the world, and which, it may be believed, 
 are ever specially connected with plain faithful preaching 
 and scrupulous adherence to the laws of the " King of 
 Kings." In the year 1790 there were, in the United States, 
 872 churches, containing 64,975 members. There are now 
 of Regular Baptists, leaving out the Freewill, the Anti- 
 mission, Six Principle, and Seventh-day Baptists, the 
 *' Church of God," the Disciples (or Campbellites), the 
 Tunkers, and the Mennonites, 13,355 churches, with 
 1,109,926 members. 
 Gathering up the statistics into one sum, the following 
 
 ii 
 
 ! 
 
T 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 473 
 
 n Africa, 
 
 sh North 
 
 but two 
 
 r beloved 
 ave been 
 faith and 
 1 of the 
 Denmark, 
 
 larvellous 
 lave con- 
 Tiigration 
 housands 
 land, and 
 the con- 
 state of 
 3. The 
 t.he con- 
 erlooked* 
 akhough 
 Baptist 
 s of the 
 an effort 
 Delieved, 
 reaching 
 King of 
 States, 
 are now 
 le Anti- 
 sts, the 
 es), the 
 s, with 
 
 )llowing 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ii 
 
 table exhibits an approximation to the present strength 
 of the denomination : — 
 
 Churches, Members. 
 
 United States i3)355 1,109,926 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland . . 2,400 280,000 
 
 British North America . . . 567 41,000 
 
 West Indies 205 36,000 
 
 Burmah, Assam, and Siam . 375 17,000 
 
 Continent of Europe .... 292 23,494 
 
 India 70 3,000 
 
 Total .... 17,264 1,510,420 
 
 It is an approximation only. China, Africa, and Aus- 
 tralasia are left out of the account, the returns not being 
 sufficiently clear and full to warrant a definite statement. 
 With the exception of the United States, Europe, and 
 British North America, all the items in the foregoing list 
 are estimates founded on official reports. We believe that 
 they are below the actual amounts ; but it was better to 
 err on that side, if entire accuracy could not be attained. 
 
 There is another view of the subject. This is the age 
 of societies. Designs which would be otherwise imprac- 
 ticable can be carried into effect by combination of effi^rt 
 and division of labour. We have joined other professing 
 Christians in founding and sustaining institutions of 
 general utility, and have borne our full share of the 
 burdens of philanthropy. But there are some departments 
 of Christian enterprise in which we must be content to 
 labour alone. Among our own benevolent organizations are 
 the following : — 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1797. English Baptist Home Missionary Society. 
 1814. Baptist Irish Society. 
 1816. Baptist Highland Mission. 
 
 Society for Aged or Infirm Baptist Ministers. 
 1824. Baptist Building Fund. 
 
 American Baptist Publication Society. 
 
 '• t 
 
474 
 
 Baptisl Hiaioyy, 
 
 1832. American Baptist Home Missionary Society, 
 1838. American and Foreign Bible Society. 
 
 1840. Bible Translation Society. 
 
 1841. Baptist Tract Society. 
 
 1845. Southern Baptist Convention (Home Missions and Bible). 
 1850. American Bible Union. 
 
 1833. American Baptist Historical Society. 
 
 
 -^ -p:;;;:,., ^ III,., .m.| | ,., ^/ ' ^^^a^^^^ s^_^0;^^^^_^^_^^^-^_^,^^,^ --^^_-_-^^, 
 
 NEW BIBLE SOCIETY HOUSE. 
 
 
 In the Foreign Mission Department we have : — 
 
 1792. Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 1814. American Baptist Missionary Union (formerly the *' Baptist 
 
 General Convention "). 
 1816. General Baptist Missionary Society. 
 1843. American Baptist Free Mission Society. 
 1845. Southern Baptist Convention (Foreign Missions). 
 
 In supporting these institutions, we are enabled, by 
 the blessing of God, to expend about £150,000 annually. 
 The income of the Baptist Missionary Society alone has 
 
 li 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 475 
 
 ble). 
 
 -**^% 
 
 •' Baptist 
 
 bled, by 
 innually. 
 lone has 
 
 been reported during the past year at no less a sum than 
 that of £39,339; while the income of the Irish and Home 
 Mission (included since 1854 in one Society) is reported, 
 for the year ending March, 1870, at £7,233 i6s. 3^. 
 
 NEW BAPTIST MISSION HOUSE IN CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN. 
 
 (Designed by Messrs, Searle and Son.) 
 
 It is needless to say that all this expenditure is ad- 
 ditional to that required for sustaining extensive educa- 
 tional operations, and defraying all the expenses connected 
 
 !i| 
 
 1 1 
 
.170 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 with public worship and the maintenance of the Christian 
 ministry. 
 
 Of the character of the agencies by which the great 
 work entrusted to us has been hitherto accompHshed, it is 
 not possible to speak, except briefly. 
 
 It has been often remarked that when God is about to 
 execute some great purpose, He prepares beforehand the 
 appropriate agency ; and providential interferences of a 
 surprising kind, in order to bring about the appointed issue, 
 have been not unfrequently noticed. Let us think, for a 
 moment, of the men God has given us for the work of the 
 last threescore years. Think of the immortal three at 
 Serampore — Carey, Marshman, and Ward. Think of other 
 missionaries, admirably qualified for the positions they were 
 called to occupy — Adoniram Judson, with his incomparable 
 wives, and George Boardman, in Burmah ; Comstock, in 
 Arracan ; Chamberlain and Yates, in India ; Coultart, 
 Knibb, and Burchell, in Jamaica; with many more whose 
 names are familiar to the friends of Missions. Think of the 
 writers by whose powerful pens our principles have been 
 explained and defended. Think of the men of eloquence 
 and the men of counsel, who have swayed and guided 
 public opinion, preserved from discouragement, or prevented 
 mistakes. Think of the men of wealth, whose hearts were 
 moved by the grace of God to ** devise liberal things," and 
 whose examples have so stimulated others that the treasury 
 of Christian benevolence has seemed to be, like the widow's 
 "barrel of meal" and "cruse of oil," inexhaustible. "All 
 this cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonder- 
 ful in counsel and excellent in working " (Isa. xxviii. 29). 
 
 There is yet another fact which must not be lost sight of. 
 We refer to the intellectual machinery now in operation for 
 the benefit of mankind under Baptist superintendence, or as 
 the result of Baptist labour. Our brethren have taken the 
 palm among translators. Their versions of the Scriptures 
 
 L 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 All 
 
 - 
 
 will be read by the nations of the Kast from generation to 
 generation. The swarming multitudes of India are mainly 
 indebted to Carey and Yates for the Word of God, and even 
 Brahmins receive that Word in their own venerated Sai- 
 scrit from Baptist hands. The natives of Burmah, Assam, 
 and Siam, owe to Judson and his associates their acquaint- 
 ance with the Divine oracles. In those Eastern countries, 
 too, and wherever else our Missionaries have planted the 
 heavenly standard, the education of the young has been 
 regarded as a matter of primary importance. By the in- 
 stitutions they have established, or assisted in establish- 
 ing, a foundation has been laid on which the temple of 
 knowledge will be reared in coming times. 
 
 In England, with the exception of theological institutions 
 — which each denomination must necessarily found for itself 
 — Baptists avail themselves of those facilities for the acqui- 
 sition of learning and sciences which are abundantly pro- 
 vided for all classes of the community. But in the United 
 States they have manifested, at the same time, enlightened 
 patriotism and denominational zeal. Colleges and semi- 
 naries of the first order, amply endowed and well furnished 
 with instructors, supply the wants of their own families, 
 and offer inducements to others to participate in the ad- 
 vantages. By this means a salutary influence is exerted on 
 the community at large. The following are the educational 
 statistics of the denomination in Great Britain : — 
 
 Colleges. 
 
 Presidents. 
 
 Founded. 
 
 Bristol College 
 
 Rawdon College 
 
 Pontypool College, Wales . 
 Regent's Park College . . . 
 Haverfordwest College ■ . 
 
 Chilwell College 
 
 Glasgow 
 
 North Wales 
 
 Pastors' College 
 
 Chamber Hall, Bury . . . 
 
 Rev. F. W. Gotch, ll.d. . . . 
 
 Rev. S. G. Green, b.a 
 
 Rev. Thos. Thomas, d.d. . . . 
 Rev. Joseph Angus, d.d. , . . 
 
 Rev. Thos. Davies, d.d 
 
 Rev. W. Underwood, m.a. . . . 
 
 Rev. Jas. Paterson, d.d 
 
 Rev. Hugh Jones, m.a 
 
 Rev. C. H. Spurgeon 
 
 Rev. H. Dowson 
 
 1770 
 1804 
 1807 
 1810 
 1839 
 1797 
 1856 
 1862 
 1861 
 i865 
 
478 
 
 Baptist History, 
 
 While giving the above statement, it is impossible to 
 avoid referring to the influence that has been exerted on 
 the denomination by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. Though 
 still among living men (long may his life be spared !) he 
 has rendered such invaluable service to the Baptist cause, 
 that no Baptist history could possibly be complete which 
 did not include his name. With unprecedented popularity 
 and power as a preacher, endowed with inexhaustible en- 
 thusiasm and untiring activity, possessed especially by an 
 earnest anxiety for souls and a passionate devotion to the 
 Saviour, his great powers have been ever at the service of 
 the churches, with results that every year seems to enlarge. 
 Perhaps his most abiding influence will be exerted in con- 
 nection with the Pastors' College which is named on previous 
 page. There nearly one hundred students are being trained 
 for the ministry of the Word ; and from amongst them there 
 are going out, in considerable numbers every year, pastors 
 of churches, some of whom occupy, not unv/orthily, some of 
 the most prominent positions in the land. Of course all 
 these are marked, more or less, with the special character- 
 istics of him whom they learn so much to admire and 
 reverence ; so that in them Mr. Spurgeon may be said to 
 be continually reproducing himself. The Baptist body is 
 certainly a different thing now, from what it was when, 
 some sixteen years since, the youth from Cambridgeshire 
 made his first appearance in the pulpit of New Park-street 
 Cnapel. 
 
 It would be improper not to mention, in reciting the influ- 
 ences which have tended recently to enlarge and strengthen 
 the denomination, the increased vigour that has been put of 
 late years into the operations of the Baptist Union. The 
 churches will ever be indebted to the venerable John Howard 
 Hinton {clarum et memorabile nomen) for his labours for 
 many years ; but it is to the zeal and perseverance of the 
 junior Secretary, the Rev. J. H. Millard, that the Union is 
 
 ii 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 479 
 
 influ- 
 igthen 
 |put of 
 The 
 
 )ward 
 Irs for 
 
 )f the 
 lion is 
 
 indebted for much of its new and more vigorous life. Its 
 Autumnal Meetings have, especially, been " seasons of re- 
 freshing from the presence of the Lord." Again and again 
 have the brethren gone from them and said, •' Behold, how 
 good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together 
 in unity ! " If the denomination is more consolidated and 
 united than it ever was before, the Baptist Union and its 
 officers deserve much of the praise which will never be 
 ungenerously or inconsiderately withheld. 
 
 Of late years the denomination has been much more 
 attentive to its literature than it ever was before. The 
 Baptist periodicals published in Great Britain are — The 
 Freeman, weekly, edited by the Rev. Dr. Angus, and other 
 gentlemen ; The Baptist Magazine, monthly, established in 
 1809, and now edited by the Rev. W. G. Lewis ; The 
 General Baptist Magazine, edited by the Rev. J. Clifford, 
 M.A. ; The Sword and the Trowel, monthly, edited by the 
 Rev. C. H. Spurgeon ; The Gospel Herald and Voice of 
 Truth, The Church, The Baptist Messenger, The Missionary 
 Herald, The 'juvenile Missionary Herald, and The German 
 Baptist Reporter, — all monthly. There are also eight Welsh 
 periodicals, for the use of the Baptists of the Principality. 
 The Baptist periodicals issued in the United States are too 
 numerous to be even named. Some of them circulate by 
 hundreds of thousands. 
 
 God has assigned us an honourable position. It remains 
 that we prove ourselves worthy of it. 
 
 The principles of the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury are undergoing expansion. Men are busily engaged 
 in examining the foundations, and tracing all things to their 
 origin. The claims of prescription and custom are dis- 
 allowed. In religion, the stand taken by the old Reformers 
 is fully recognized : nothing is to be admitted which cannot 
 be sustained " by Scripture and necessary reason." With 
 such views, inquirers conduct their investigations fearlessly, 
 
48o 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 and push them on in every direction. Abandoning the 
 traditionary, they ask for a system of truth and practice 
 which will abide the test of searching criticism. They 
 desire to clear away all rubbish, and to find *'the old paths." 
 
 We profess to be walking in them, and to carry out the 
 Reformation to its legitimate issues. It is not unreason- 
 able to suppose that, as independent inquiry proceeds, 
 scrutinising all forms of religious profession, our sentiments 
 and practices will be extensively embraced, as presenting 
 the nearest resemblance to primitive Christianity. The 
 observance of infant-baptism is dying awa)- among our 
 Pasdobaptist brethren. We may fairly infer that large 
 accessions to our ranks will follow. 
 
 What, then, are the duties especially incumbent on us 
 under siich circumstances ? To this question, it may be 
 briefly replied — that, if we would maintain our position, we 
 must, in the first place, cultivate with growing earnestness 
 intelligent and warm-hearted piety; we must adopt measures 
 for the exposition and diffusion of our sentiments on those 
 points in which we differ from other religious persuasions ; 
 we must extend our Christian influence by home-missionary 
 efforts, conducted on a liberal scale ; we must foster rising 
 talent, and give to all the Lord's servants opportunities of 
 being employed in His cause, according to their respective 
 gifts ; we must cherish an enthusiastic zeal for education ; 
 we must effectually engage the sympathies of the young ; 
 we must be ever ready to promote social improvements and 
 to forward philanthropic designs ; and we must exemplify, 
 in the whole, unbroken union, devotedness to the Saviour, 
 and believing reliance on Divine aid. 
 
 It would be easy to enlarge on each of the^e topics. We 
 will confine ourselves, however, to the most important — 
 personal piety. 
 
 Baptists should be a pre-eminently religious people. Our 
 profession and practice are peculiar. We deem it our 
 
Baptist History, 
 
 481 
 
 oning the 
 d practice 
 m. They 
 old paths." 
 rry out the 
 unreason- 
 proceeds, 
 sentiments 
 presenting 
 lity. The 
 imong our 
 that large 
 
 bent on us 
 
 it may be 
 )Osition, we 
 earnestness 
 pt measures 
 its on those 
 ersuasions ; 
 
 missionary 
 oster rising 
 
 tunities of 
 respective 
 
 education ; 
 
 he young ; 
 
 ments and 
 exemphfy, 
 
 le Saviour, 
 
 opics. We 
 mportant — 
 
 eople. Our 
 ;em it our 
 
 special mission to plead for personal obedience to the will of 
 the Lord. For this we have always contended. We reject 
 hereditary membership, holding that men are not born 
 Christian, but that they become Christians when they are 
 born again, and that, until then, they have no right to 
 Christian ordinances, because they cannot enjoy Christian 
 blessings. We deny sacramental power, maintaining that 
 the soul is renewed and sanctified, not by any outward act 
 performed upon us or by us, but by the truth of the Gospel 
 and the grace of the Holy Spirit. We gather from the 
 teachings of the Apostles that a man should he a Christian 
 before he avows himself to be one ; and, in full accordance, 
 as we believe, with the instructions of the New Testament, 
 we admit none to our fellowship without a profession of 
 repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Their baptism is at the same time a declaration of 
 their sole reliance on the Saviour, and a symbol of the/'r 
 union with Him in His death and His resurrection — a 
 spiritual, vital union. Our churches, so constituted, profess 
 to be societies of believers, congregations of saints. 
 
 Membership in Baptist churches, therefore, implies piety. 
 The object of our union is to nurture godliness in each 
 other, and to diffuse it abroad to the greatest extent pos- 
 sible. Abjuring all attempts at mere outward attraction, 
 our efforts tend exclusively to the advancement of personal 
 religion. We invite men to the faith and holiness of the 
 primitive churches. Our desire is first to call them to God, 
 and then to train them for heaven by a course of spiritual 
 education. All this cannot be accomplished but by a truly 
 spiritual community, nor can such efforts be long sustained 
 unless there be a continued spiritual progress. Orthodoxy 
 is necessary, and order is necessay ; but neither orthodoxy 
 nor order will insure prosperity without a living likeness to 
 Christ. How earnestly should we aspire after that blessing! 
 How diligently should we labour to obtain it, and in in- 
 
 I I 
 
 II 
 
482 
 
 Baptist History. 
 
 ik 
 
 creasing measure ! With what ardour should we adopt all 
 scriptural means to promote communion with the Redeemer, 
 and to enkindle sympathy and love among His servants ! 
 The extent and saving efficacy of our influence must depend 
 on the amount of our spiritual attainments. There are sects 
 which can prosper without those attainments, because of 
 the worldliness that is inherent in their constitutions, and 
 the connection of church privileges with natural descent ; 
 but the Baptist denomination depends altogether for suc- 
 cess and enlargement on the prevalence of true godliness 
 among its members. Our churches will be fit asylums for 
 those who shall escape from the perils of cold and torpid 
 formality, only as they shall exemplify the " work of faith, 
 and labour of love, and patience of hope," by which the 
 early followers of the Lord were distinguished. If these be 
 wanting, or notably deficient, inquirers will go where there 
 is more power, though the form and order may be less 
 agreeable to the apostolic pattern, and our " future " will be 
 darkened by clouds of disgrace and failure. 
 
 With what eagerness, then, should we engage in all en- 
 deavours by which earnest religion may be promoted among 
 us ! How cioseiy should we cling to evangelical truth, 
 watching against ali tendency to lower the standard, or to 
 substitute the elegant essay for Biblical teaching and fervent 
 appeal ! How carefully should the spirit of the Gospel be 
 cherished ! How Jliligently should all opportunities for fur- 
 thering mutual progress in piety be improved ! How nume- 
 rous and well sustained should be the efforts of benevolence 
 and zeal, thus establishing the connection between Chris- 
 tian activity and spiritual-mindedness, and ** proving what 
 is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God!" 
 And with what vigilant observance should the laws of 
 discipline be honoured, so that, the purity of the churches 
 being maintained, their members may be " epistles of 
 Cnrist, known and read of all men !" If by these methods 
 
Baptist History. 
 
 483 
 
 we adopt all 
 e Redeemer, 
 is servants ! 
 must depend 
 ere are sects 
 , because of 
 itutions, and 
 ral descent ; 
 ther for suc- 
 ue godliness 
 
 asylums for 
 
 d and torpid 
 
 ork of faith, 
 
 ly which the 
 
 If these be 
 
 where there 
 may be less 
 ture " will be 
 
 ge in all en- 
 oted among 
 elical truth, 
 ndard, or to 
 and fervent 
 e Gospel be 
 ities for fur- 
 How hume- 
 benevolence 
 ■een Chris- 
 oving what 
 I of God!" 
 he laws of 
 e churches 
 epistles of 
 se methods 
 
 a vigorous and fruitful godliness become characteristic o 
 our denomination, the force of the attraction will be felt by 
 all around us ; union with our churches will be regarded 
 as not merely a duty, but a privilege ; and thousands will 
 say, *' We will go with you, for we have heard that God 
 is with you." Men will perceive that our profession of 
 adherence to primitive simplicity and purity is warranted 
 by fact — that our devotedness to the Saviour's cause is not 
 impulsive, but habitual — and that in joining our ranks they 
 will not only obey the dictates of scriptural conscientious- 
 ness, but also secure a large m.easure of Christian enjoy- 
 ment, and a fuller unfolding of the Ch'' -lian life. 
 
 "There is a future for the Baptists, " and it is our duty 
 to prepare for it. Thousands of souls, just looking out of 
 obscurity, and " feeling after God," ask our guidance in 
 the search for truth and life. Freedom, outra^;ed and 
 down-trodden by earthly tyrants, calls upon us to assert the 
 rights of conscience, and its entire immunity from human 
 control ; and, while it beckons us to the holy war, reminds 
 us that it is our glory (a glory in which m^st Protestant 
 communities have no share) to wield the sword of the 
 Spirit with hands that have never been reddened by a 
 brother's blood. Our martyrs — burnt, beheaded, strangled, 
 or drowned, in every European country, at the era of the 
 Reformation, and as yet unknown to fame, although their 
 Christian heroism was right noble — expect that, in the 
 diffusion and defence of the truths for which they suffered, 
 we will display a zeal befitting our privileged lot. A great 
 work is before us, both at home and abroad, demanding 
 ardent love, enterprising boldness, and indomitable per- 
 severance. 
 
 I I 2 
 
ii 
 
 ll 
 
 ■I 
 
I . I 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abbott, Archbishop, 220, 261. 
 
 Act of Uniformity, 220, 291. 
 
 Africa, Baptism in, 17. 
 
 Albigenses, 87. 
 
 Aldegonde, Saint, 234. 
 
 Alexandria, 20. 
 
 Algerius, martyrdom of, 131. 
 
 Alva, Duke of, 240. 
 
 Alzey, martyrdoms at, 141. 
 
 Ambrose, 34. 
 
 American Baptist Societies, 471. 
 
 Amsterdam, martyrdoms at, 16S. 
 
 Anabaptists, 188. 
 
 Anderson, Christopher, 362. 
 
 A.nneken of Friburg, 153. 
 
 Anne, Queen, 430. 
 
 Antwerp, martyrdoms at, 181. 
 
 " Apostles," certain ministers so 
 
 called, 463. 
 Apostolic Fathers, 8. 
 Aristotelian Philosophy, The, 79. 
 Arnold of Brescia, 77, 112, 114. 
 Arnoldistae, 78. 
 
 Arras : alleged heretics there, 65. 
 Askew, Anne, 209. 
 Assembly of Divines, 274. 
 Associations, 460 — 462. 
 Augustine, 31. 35- 
 Augustine, the Monk, 48. 
 Austria, sufferings in, 144. 
 Aylesbury : Baptists there, 294. 
 
 B. 
 
 Backus, Elizabeth, 454. 
 Bair, Johannes, 146. 
 
 Bamberg, women tortured at, 146. 
 
 Bampfield, Francis, 343, 371—373. 
 
 Baptism, defined, 5 ; administered 
 to believers only, ib.; by immer- 
 sion, 9; progress of error respect- 
 ing it, 16; how administered in 
 the third century, 17. 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration, 16. 
 
 Baptist Benevolent Organizations, 
 
 474- 
 
 Baptist Board, 425. 
 
 Baptist Books burned, 180. 
 
 Baptist Churches in the i6th Cen- 
 tury, 199 — 202. 
 
 Baptist Colleges, 477. 
 
 Baptisteries, 36. 
 
 Baptist Home Missionary Society, 
 440. 
 
 Baptist Missionaries in the i6th 
 Century, 202 ; in the East, 476. 
 
 Baptist Missionary Society, 439, 
 470, 472. 
 
 Baptist Periodicals, 479. 
 
 Baptist Statistics, 471 — 473. 
 
 Baptist Union, 478. 
 
 Baptists at the Reformation, 124 — 
 128; their petitions to Jharles I., 
 285 ; their principles, 334 ; their 
 worship and church-government, 
 
 336. 
 Baptists, duties of, 480. 
 Barnabas, 11. 
 Basil of Caesarea, 32. 
 Baxter, Richard, 269, 275. 
 Becon, 129. 
 Bede, 49. 
 
 Beddome, Benjamin, 449—451. 
 Bedford Church, 340. 
 Bedford Gaol, 379. 
 
486 
 
 Index, 
 
 Bertngar, 102 — 104. 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, log. 
 
 Bernkop, Leonard, 146. 
 
 Bestevaer, 173. 
 
 Bible Translation by Baptists, 476. 
 
 Bible Society House, 474. 
 
 Blackwood, Christopher, 351. 
 
 Blietel, Hans, 203. 
 
 Bloomfield, Dr., 8. 
 
 Boardman, George, 476. 
 
 Bockelson, Jan, 224. 
 
 Bocking, 215. 
 
 Bohemia, Baptists in, 118; perse- 
 cuted, 141. 
 
 Boniface, Bishop of Rome, 43. 
 
 Bonner, Bishop, 216. 
 
 Book Society, 427. 
 
 Bosch, Jan, 200. 
 
 Boucher, Joan, 129, 208. 
 
 Bouwens, Leonard, 130, 172. 
 
 Brabourne, 402. 
 
 Bradford, John, 220. 
 
 Brand-Hueber, Wolfgang, 139, 
 
 Breal, Hans, 147 — 150. 
 
 Brewer, Thomas, 264. 
 
 Brine, John, 435. 
 
 Bristol College, 428. 
 
 Broadmead Church, 304, &c. ; its 
 discipline, 336. 
 
 Brown, Chad, 404. 
 
 Brown University, 464. 
 
 Brussels, persecutions in, 16S. 
 
 Bucer, 143. 
 
 Bucks, persecutions in, 293. 
 
 Bullinger, 129, 152. 
 
 Bunhill Fields, 451. 
 
 Bunsen, Baron, 28. 
 
 Bunyan, John, 286, 378 — 380, 402. 
 
 Burton, John, 468. 
 
 Busher, Leonard, 259. 
 
 Byler, Gerit van, 250. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cajcilian, Bishop of Carthage, 45. 
 Calcutta, Synod at, 68. 
 Calvin, 214. 
 Canne, John, 360—362. 
 Carey, William, 438, 439. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 353. 
 Carthage, 18. 
 
 Caryl, John, 412. 
 
 Catechumens, 29. 
 
 Cathari, 78 — 84, 114. 
 
 Celsus, 2T. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr., 7. 
 
 Charles V,, 129, 141, 143. 
 
 Charles L, 263. 
 
 Charles H., 281, 393. 
 
 Chatham, Lord, 432. 
 
 Cheare, Abraham, 367 — 369. 
 
 Cheshire, Baptists in, 205. 
 
 Chipman, T. H., 468. 
 
 Chrysostom, 32, 34. 
 
 Claes Felbinger, 201. 
 
 Claeson, Jan, 172. 
 
 Clark, Dr. John, 40S. 
 
 Claudia, 27. 
 
 Clement of Rome, 11. 
 
 Clinic Baptism, 25. 
 
 Coke, Sir Edward, 413. 
 
 Commonwealth, Baptists in, 278. 
 
 Communion, 340, 341 ; controversy 
 
 on, 434, 435. 
 Confessions of Faith, 255 — 257, 
 
 267—269, 314. 
 Connecticut, sufferings of Baptists 
 
 there, 456. 
 Consolamenium, loi. 
 Constantine, the Emperor, 33, 38. 
 Constantine, the Martyr, 55. 
 Conventicle Act, 298. 
 Conybeare, Rev. W. J., 8. 
 Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, 42. 
 Cornwell, Francis, 350. 
 Corporation of London, 271. 
 Coxe, Nehemiah, 400. 
 Crandal, Joseph, 468. 
 Cranmer, 210. 
 Cromwell and the Baptists, 278 — 
 
 281. 
 Crusade against the Albigenses, 
 
 89 — 91. 
 Crusades, the, 71. 
 Cursing, 88. 
 Cyprian, 23. 
 Cyril of Jerusalem, 34. 
 
 D. 
 
 D'Anvers, Henry, 373—375. 
 Declaration of Indulgence,,' 13,332. 
 
Index, 
 
 487 
 
 , 143- 
 J. 
 
 67—369. 
 n, 205. 
 8. 
 
 [. 
 
 I. 
 
 ^I3• . 
 
 ptists in, 278. 
 |.i ; controversy 
 
 lith, 255—257, 
 
 ngs of Baptists 
 
 I. 
 
 iperor, 33, 38. 
 
 irtyr, 55. 
 
 J., 8. 
 Rome, 42. 
 
 so- 
 on, 271. 
 
 Japtists, 278 — 
 e Albigenses, 
 
 3—375- 
 ;ence,,' 13,332. 
 
 Delaune, Thomas, 315 — 320, 344. 
 Denne, Henry, 345—350- 
 Deputies, body of, 426. 
 Devonshire Square, 269. 
 Dimock, Joseph, 468. 
 Dimock, Shubael, 466. 
 Diocletian, 33. 
 
 Discipline, 336—339. 422—424. 
 Dominicans, 8g. 
 Donatists, 45 — 47. 
 Dorks, Clement, i8o, 200. 
 Dutch Baptists, 256 — 262. 
 Duties of Baptists, 240 — 245. 
 Du Veil, Dr., 377. 
 Dyke, Daniel, 280, 
 
 E. 
 
 Edward VI. 208. 
 
 Elders, 339. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 220 — 223, 247 — 
 
 250. 
 Emblem, John, 412. 
 England : Christianity introduced 
 
 there, 26; Baptists in, 204 — 208. 
 Ephrem of Edessa, 33. 
 Erasmus, 153. 
 
 Essex, Baptists in, 215, 218. 
 Evans, Dr. Caleb, 450. 
 Ewins, Thomas, 304. 
 Executions in Prison, 181. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fabian, Bishop of Rome, 42. 
 
 Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 27* >. 
 
 Falk, Jacob, 153. 
 
 Faversham, 215. 
 
 Featley, Daniel, 267, 347. 
 
 Felix, Bishop of Aptunga, 43. 
 
 Fenstanton Church, 337. 
 
 Ferdinand II., 237. 
 
 Fernley, John, 328. 
 
 Fidus, Bishop, 22. 
 
 Fifth Monarchy Men, 279. 
 
 First three centuries, 9, 16. 
 
 Five-mile Act, 299. 
 
 Forty, Henry, 344. 
 
 Fownes, George, 308, 312, 344. 
 
 Foxe, John, 99, 243. 
 
 Franciscans, 89. 
 Fuller, Andrew, 439. 
 Fuller, Thomas, 98, 207, 258. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gale, Dr. John, 441. 
 Gamlingay Church, 340. 
 Gardiner, Bishop, 217. 
 Gaunt, Mrs., 328 — 330. 
 General Assembly, 421 ; questions 
 
 proposed, 422. 
 Genesius, 57. 
 George, Hans, 150. 
 Germany, Baptists in, 472. 
 Gieseler, 32. 
 Gibbon, 33. 
 
 Gifford, Andrew, 402, 451. 
 Gill, Dr., 442—445. 
 Goodman, John, 391. 
 Goodwin, Dr. 412. 
 Gould, Thomas, 412. 
 Grantham, Thomas, 285, 381. 
 Gregory Nazianzen, 32. 
 Gregory the Great, 35. 
 
 H. 
 
 Haarlem, martyrdoms at, 166. 
 Hagenbach, Dr., 7, 15. 
 Hague.the, martyrdoms at, 166, 168. 
 Halfway Covenant, 453. 
 Hall, Robert, jun., 428. 
 Hall, Robert, sen., 438, 447. 
 Hallam, 73, 
 
 Hammond, George, 400. 
 Hampton Court Conference, 253. 
 Hardcastle, Thomas, 306. 
 Harding, Harris, 468. 
 Harding, Theodore S., 468. 
 Harrison, Major-General, 35 1^353. 
 Hart, Henry, 217. 
 Hase-poot, Gerrit, 179. 
 Helwys, Thomas, 255, 344. 
 Henry VIII., 204. 
 Henry of Lausanne, 108 — 112. 
 Hermas, 11. 
 Hetzer, Louis, 159. 
 Hewlings, the, 321 — 328. 
 Heynes, Richst, 173. 
 
488 
 
 Index. 
 
 V'l 
 
 
 Hildebert, Bishop of Mans, iii. 
 Hildebrand, 70. 
 Hill Cliffe, 205. 
 Hinton, J. H., 478. 
 Hitchin Church, 340. 
 Hodge, Dr., 7. 
 Holliman, Thomas, 404. 
 Holmes, Obadiah, 408 — 411. 
 Hombourg, Diet at, 143. 
 Hooper, Bishop, 129, 210. 
 Howard, Jonn, 448. 
 Howe, Samuel, 265. 
 Hubmeyer, Balthazar, 155 — 159. 
 Hull, Isaac, 412. 
 Huss, John, 100. 
 Hutter, Jacob, 160. 
 " Humble Supplication," 260. 
 Humiliati, 79. 
 
 Hutchinson, Colonel, 353 — 356. 
 Hutchinson, Mrs., 354, 
 Hyde, Chief Justice, 296. 
 \ 
 
 I. 
 
 Ignatius, 11. 
 
 Illumination, 13. 
 
 Immersion, 7, 34, 68, 123. 
 
 Ina, King, 67. 
 
 Infant-baptism unknown to Ter- 
 tullian, 17 ; its origin, 20 — 22 ; 
 its slow progress, 32 ; enjoined 
 by Justinian, 40 ; enforced by 
 Charlemagne, 6g ; rejected by 
 Reformers in the 12th century, 
 
 lOI. 
 
 Infant Communion, 25. 
 
 Informers, 302. 
 
 Inquisition, 91. 
 
 Ireland, Baptists in, 2S0. 
 
 Irenagus, 13, 14, 
 
 Italy, Reformers in, 76 ; Baptists 
 
 in, 150. 
 Ives, Jeremiah, 401. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jacob!, Professor, 6. 
 James I., 250, 260. 
 James II., 320. 
 James, John, 288 — 291. 
 
 Jerome, 35. 
 
 Jessey, Henry, 280, 356 — 360. 
 
 Jewel, Bishop, 221. 
 
 Jewish Sabbath, 343. 
 
 Jones, Dr. Samuel, 460. 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea, his supposed 
 
 visit to England, 26. 
 Judaism, 4. 
 Judson, Dr., 477. 
 Justinian, 40. 
 Justin Martyr, 12, 14. 
 
 K. 
 
 Keach, Benjamin, 294 — 298, 341, 
 
 387—391. 
 Kernels, Christian, 242. 
 Kent, Baptists in, 215, 218. 
 Kiffin, William, 332, 391 — 400. 
 Kimball, Martha, 456. 
 Kittery, 413. 
 Klampherer, Julius, 150. 
 Knibb, William, 476. 
 Knipperdolling, Bernhard, 224. 
 KnoDys, Hanserd, 288, 381 — 387. 
 Koch, Hans, 134. 
 
 L. 
 
 Landis, John, 239. 
 Langedul, Andreas, 181. 
 Langedul, Christian, 184. 
 Lateran, third Council of, 8g. 
 Latimer, Bishop, 129. 
 Laying on of Hands, 342. 
 Leander, Bishop of Seville, 35. 
 Legate, Bartholomew, 257. 
 Leo the Great, 35, 
 Lewes : Sufferings of Baptists 
 
 there, 303. 
 Lightfoot, Dr., 275. 
 Lingard, Dr., 69. 
 Lollards, 82, 98. 
 Lombers, Baptists at, 115. 
 Long Parliament, The, 266. 
 Love Feasts, 343. 
 Lucius, King, 27. 
 Luther, 133, 143. 
 Luton Church, 340. 
 
 ! 1, 
 
Index. 
 
 489 
 
 356—360. 
 
 ^6o. 
 
 , his supposed 
 
 ;0. 
 
 >94— 298, 341, 
 
 42. 
 
 [5, 218. 
 391—400. 
 6. 
 
 150. 
 
 i. 
 
 nhard, 224. 
 
 88, 381-387- 
 
 81. 
 184. 
 il of, 89. 
 
 342. 
 ieville, 35. 
 
 257- 
 of Baptists 
 
 "5- 
 e, 266. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 330. 
 
 Macgowan, John, 445. 
 
 Manes, 51. 
 
 Manichaeans, 50. 
 
 Manning, Dr., 465. 
 
 Manning, Edward, 468. 
 
 Manning, James, 464, 468. 
 
 Mansfield, Lord, 431. 
 
 Mantz, Felix, 154. 
 
 Marburg, Discussion at, 143. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, Emperor, 13. 
 
 Marshalsea, The, 241. 
 
 Marshman, Dr., 439. 
 
 Martin V., 97. 
 
 Martyr, Peter, 221. 
 
 Mary, Queen, 216. 
 
 Mason, Nathan, 467. 
 
 Massachusetts : Baptists there, 
 
 406 ; their banishment, 407 ; 
 
 persecution, 408 — 411, 454 — 456. 
 Matthys, Jan, 224. 
 Maxcy, Dr., 465. 
 Melancthon, 143. 
 Mendicant Orders, 95. 
 Mennonites, ig8 — 200, 235. 
 Messer, Dr., 465. 
 Meyster, Leonard, 134. 
 Middleton, Humphrey, 216. 
 Middletown, 413. 
 Miles, John, 413. 
 Milevi, Council at, 48. 
 Millard, J. H., 478. 
 Miller, John, 343. 
 Milton, John, 272. 
 Moravia: Baptists there, 160 — 165, 
 
 236 — 240. 
 Morgan, Abel, 461. 
 Mosheim, 98. 
 Moulton, Ebenezer, 467. 
 Munster: Outrages there, 223 — 231. 
 Munzer, Thomas, 134, 135. 
 
 N. 
 
 Neander, 7, 31, 113. 
 
 Netherlands ; Persecution there, 
 
 166 — 170, 185. 
 New England: Baptists there, 403, 
 
 452, 463, 472. 
 
 New Lights, 459. 
 New Testament Teaching, 5. 
 Nice, Council of, 69. 
 Nidermair, Hans, 139. 
 North British Review, 6. 
 Norvel, Increase, 409. 
 Nova Scotia, 467 — 468. 
 Novatian, 25, 41 — 45. 
 Nye, Phillip, 412. 
 
 O. 
 
 Gates, Samuel, 276. 
 
 Oncken, J. G., 472. 
 
 Opatus, 46. 
 
 Origen, 20 — 22. 
 
 Orleans, Canons of, 63 ; martyrdom 
 
 in, 64. 
 Orthodoxy and Heresy, 29. 
 Owen, Dr., 380, 412. 
 
 P. 
 
 Paedobaptist Concessions, 6 — 8. 
 Pa;dobaptist Missionaries, 15. 
 Palatinate, Martyrdoms in the, 139. 
 Parkes, Archbishop, 222. 
 PaiticularBaptist Church, London. 
 
 first, 264. 
 Particular Baptist Fund, 424. 
 Pastors' College, The, 478. 
 Paul, the Apostle, his supposed 
 
 visit to England, 27. 
 Paulicians, 54—63, 76. 
 Pearce, Samuel, 449. 
 Pearson, Nicholas, 467. 
 Peasant War, 136. 
 Peckham, Archbishop, 94. 
 Pelagius, 47. 
 
 Pennsylvania, Baptists in, 462. 
 Peter of Bruys, 77, 104 — 108. 
 Petrus Siculus, 54. 
 Philadelphia Association, 460. 
 Philip n., 170. 
 Philips, Dirk, 172. 
 Philpot, Archdeacon, 209, 218. 
 Photius, 54. 
 Pichner, Hans, 147. 
 Piedmont, Reformers in, 78. 
 Pieters, Jan, 245 — 250. 
 
490 
 
 Index. 
 
 Pillory, The, 296. 
 
 Pisa, Council of, log, 
 
 Polycarp,, 12. 
 
 Popes, their Cruelties, go — gi. 
 
 Powell, Vavasor, 288, 362 — 367. 
 
 leaver Answered, 403. 
 
 Presbyterians : their intolerance, 
 269 — 274; their objections to the 
 Enj;lish Establishment, 283. 
 
 Providence, R.I., 404. 
 
 Q- 
 
 Quakers, the, 52. 
 
 R. 
 
 "Raynolds, Dr., 253. 
 Reformers : their hatred of Bap- 
 tists, 125, '129, 143, 211 — 2x5. 
 Reinerus Saccho, 84 — 87. 
 *' Religious Peace," 259. 
 Revival Period described, 70. 
 Reyman, Heine, 153. 
 Reynerson, T., 172. 
 Rhode Island, 417. 
 Rhode Island College, 464. 
 Richardson, Samuel, 273. 
 Ridley, Bishop, 208, 211. 
 Riots against dissenters, 431. 
 Robinson, Rob^^rc, 433, 445 — 447. 
 Rogers, John, 209, 223. 
 Rotterdam : Persecutions there, 
 
 173- 
 Russell, John, 412. 
 
 Ryland, John, 447. 
 
 Schnabet, G., 143. 
 
 Sears, Dr., 465. 
 
 Segerson, JcromimuB 175. 
 
 S.gerson, Lyskln, 176. 
 
 Sergiub, 58. 
 
 Sheldon, Archbisho.i, 301. 
 
 Simon, Menno, 130, x86 — igS. 
 
 Simons, Joriaen, 180, 200. 
 
 Simplicius, Bishop of Milan, 46. 
 
 Singing, 341. 
 
 Siricius, Bishop of Rome, 46. 
 
 Smithfield, 213. 
 
 Smyth, John, 254. 
 
 Snyder, Leopold, 139. 
 
 Snyder, Sicke, 166. 
 
 Spilsbury, John, 264, 345. 
 
 Spires, Diet of, 141. 
 
 Sponsors, 29. 
 
 Spurgeon, C. H., 478. 
 
 St. Alban's Church, 338. 
 
 St. Paul's Cross, 206. 
 
 •' Standing Order " in N. England, 
 
 452. 
 Stennetts, The, 448. 
 Stephen II., 68. 
 Stovel, Charles, 361. 
 Straten, Hans Van, 250. 
 Stuart, Professor, 7. 
 Sturgion, John, 287. 
 Sutcliffe, John, 438. 
 Swansea, Mass., Baptist Church, 
 
 413- 
 Swarte, Jan de, 182, 201. 
 Swarte, Klaesken de, 183. 
 Switzerland : Baptists there, 151 — 
 
 154, 160, 238. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sach, F. van der, 150, 201. 
 
 Salzburg, martyrdoms at, 139. 
 
 Sandown Castle, 354. 
 
 Sandys, Bishop, 240, 242, 247. 
 
 Satler, Michael, 137. 
 
 Savoy Conference, 282. 
 
 Schism Bill, 429. 
 
 Schlaffer, Hans, 138. 
 
 Schoener, Leonard, beheaded, 138. 
 
 Scholastic Divines, 73 — 75. 
 
 Tasch, Peter, 205. 
 
 Terrill, Edward, 375. 
 
 Tertullian, 17, 20. 
 
 Terwoort, Hendrich, 245 — 250. 
 
 Test Act, 313. 
 
 Test and Corporation Act, 430. 
 
 Theodora, martyrdoms under, 59. 
 
 Theodotus, 57. 
 
 Theological Seminaries, 477. 
 
 Thomas, John, 439. 
 
 Three Denominations, The, 425. 
 
 Toleration, 429. 
 
n 
 
 Index, 
 
 491 
 
 75. 
 
 31. 
 
 ) — 198. 
 
 30. 
 
 lilan, 46. 
 le, 46. 
 
 «• 
 
 SI. England, 
 
 k 
 
 ist Church, 
 
 II. 
 
 83- 
 
 there, 151 — 
 
 Toombes, John, 280, 369. 
 Torture, Instrumonts of, 175, 183. 
 Tottlebank Church, 340. 
 Tower, E., 4O8. 
 " Triers," Thr, 280. 
 
 U. 
 
 Universities, 75. 
 
 Usages after Apostohc times, g. 
 
 Utrecht, Union of, 235. 
 
 V. 
 
 Van der Sacli, Franciscus, 150,201. 
 
 Van Pare, George, 212. 
 
 Vaser, Juriaen, 202. 
 
 Vaughan, William, 406. 
 
 Venner's Rebellion, 286. 
 
 Vienna : Sufferings of Baptists 
 
 there, 144 — 146. 
 Virginia: Baptists there, 456— 45S. 
 
 W. 
 
 Waddington, Dr., 43. 
 Waldenses, 77, 115, 120—122. 
 Waldo, Peter, 77. 
 Walen, Jan, martyrdom of, i65. 
 Wales, Infant Baptism in, 49. 
 
 Warboys Church, 338. 
 Ward, William, 439, 476. 
 Ward's Trust, 428. 
 Washing of Eeet, 343. 
 Wayland, Dr., 465. 
 Wesley, John, 437. 
 Western Association, 424. 
 Westphalia, Churches in, 142. 
 Weynken Claes' daughter, mar- 
 tyrdom of, 16G. 
 Whitfield, George, 436. 
 Whitgift, Archbishop, 247, 249. 
 Wightman, Edward, 258. 
 William, Prince of Orange, 233 — 
 
 235- 
 Williams, Roger, 440—442, 451 — 
 
 457. 403-405. 4'3— 419- 
 Wippe, Joris, 180. 
 
 Woods, Dr., 7, 
 
 Worms, Edict of, 141. 
 
 Wright, Joseph, 2H7, 344. 
 
 Wycliffe, John de, 95 — 98, 117. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yates, Dr., 477. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zachary, Pop;-, 67. 
 
 Zuingli, I2g, 151. 
 
 Zurich, Disputations at, 153. 
 
 15—250- 
 
 Lct, 430. 
 under, 59. 
 
 477- 
 iThe, 425.