CENTENARY TRACES. 
 
CENTENARY TRACES 
 
 Baptism and Baptists^ 
 
 IN A SERIES OF 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS, '"^'^ 
 
 WITH OCCASIONAL OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 WILLIAM^INGSFORD, Esq. 
 
 rARTICULARZ.Y DESIGNED FOR 
 
 The Information of his Grandchildren, 
 
 CHATHAM : 
 
 PRINTED FOR J HE AUTHOR, 
 
 B\ C. AND W. TOWNSON, AT THE KENTISH 
 COURIER OFFICE, 300, HIGH-STRE&Tt 
 
 1812. 
 
SOME ACCOUNT OF 
 
 3Ir, WILLIAM KINGSFORD. ^ 
 
 T'l/'HILE this \vork was passing tlirough 
 the press, ^the worthy compiler de- 
 parted this Iife,^fter a severe liines.s, atliis 
 house, Barton Mills, Camerbury, on the 
 3lstot' May, 1812, and in the sixty-fourtli 
 year of his age. 
 
 Those wo knew him, rcqnire no de- 
 scription of his character. His virtues are 
 still fresh in their memory, and their lips 
 yet speak his praise. But those who are viow" 
 the living witnesses of his uprightness, 
 piety, and benevolence, will soon fullo\f 
 him to the silence and forgctfulness t)f the 
 tomb. It is therefore due to moral excel- 
 lence — due to posterity, to preserve a me- 
 morial of departed worth, more durable, if 
 a 
 
n SOME ACCOUNT OF 
 
 less honourable, than the tablets of the heart ; 
 and to distino'uish a man who oiioht not to 
 be forgotten, from men who deserve not to 
 be remembered. 
 
 He who lias cumbered, rather than served 
 his generation, can be spared without re- 
 gret, and may depart without marks of 
 respect. The moral delinquent may be 
 permitted to steal out of life unpursued, 
 xinless the good of society require him to be 
 suspended in the chains of ignominy. But 
 the names of the excellent ones of the earth, 
 ought not to mingle in the same undistin- 
 guished heap of inglorious-oblivion. They 
 are precious in the sight of the Lord, and 
 ougiit to be embalmed in the memory of 
 men. 
 
 The writer of this had not the pleasure 
 of early or long acquaintance with the wor- 
 thy man, now no more ; he cannot therefor© 
 give such information respecting the de- 
 ceased, as close intimacy would have sup- 
 plied. But what he hath seen and heard, 
 he may be permitted to testify ; and this he 
 does with a special view to those, for whose 
 information the Cemtenary Traces were 
 
MR. WILLIAM KINGSFORD. ill 
 
 particularly intended, that they may pro%'e 
 themselves worthy of such a sire. His re- 
 corded example, though less efficacious than 
 the living patt. rn, is calculated to inspire 
 them with just sentiment, and to excite 
 them to worthy action. Ho is gone, yet they 
 may view him as beckoning them to follow 
 in his steps, and to emulate his virtaes. 
 
 Mr. William Kingsford sustained through- 
 out life an irreproachable character ,• nor 
 was he negatively praiseworthy only. He 
 exhibited, in no ordinary degree, all the 
 domestic, relative, and social virtues. As 
 a son, he was dutiful and affectionate — as a 
 husband, he was kind and sympathetic — as 
 a father, his care, solicitude, and tenderness, 
 were truly parental — as a kinsman, he was 
 amiable — as a friend, he showed himself 
 friendly — as a man, he was upright and hu- 
 mane. His words were stamped by veracity ; 
 his transactions were marked with probity. 
 His benevolence was operative and diffu- 
 sive ; his beneficence was prompt and 
 liberal. His heart was tender to the cry of 
 woe, and sight of distress ; Jiud the needy 
 he sent not empty away. 
 
IV SOME ACCOUNT OF 
 
 The poor can tell ho\v his looks of benig- 
 nity smiled upon them, — how his eyeb 
 sparkled with delight, when the master oi\ 
 the feast provided only for them, — how 
 kindly lie gave them, not the scanty crnmbs 
 that fell from his table, but the liberal frag- 
 ments of a board well supplied, that much 
 might remain to " feed the hungry." His 
 was the blessedness of giving, theirs of re- 
 ceiving the annual cheer, and daily portion; 
 but their benefactor is no more, and they 
 snrrou' for their loss. 
 
 To conclude this brief and very imperfect 
 sketch of his character : his demeanour was 
 tender to the poor — mild and condescending 
 to inferiors — affable to friends and acquaint- 
 ance — courteous to strangers — respectful to 
 the oood and ixreat — srentle and conciliatory 
 to ail men. 
 
 The description might be extended, but 
 the writer fears that the modesty of rela- 
 tions is already wounded. May they forgive 
 him this wrong, for he could not satisfy his 
 ©wn mind by saying less. 
 
 Posthumous representation of character 
 indeed is oftem so indiscriminate is cciRimcnd- 
 
MR. WILLIAM KINGSFOllD. V 
 
 ution, and lavish of praise, that the faithful 
 portrait of an eminently good man, appears 
 to tliostj who never knew hiui, a caricature 
 of his virtues, or an ideal picture. Ancient 
 but degenerate Rome, consecrated as 
 gods, when dead, men, who were tyrants 
 when they lived. Modern Antichristian 
 Rome has elevated to the rank of demi-gods, 
 the crudest oppressors, and vilest imposters. 
 The partiality of party, of friendship, or of 
 consanguinity, represents as great and good, 
 him who has left behind him only indistinct 
 traces of doubtful virtues. The converts and 
 penitents of the popular religion, are, v/hen 
 dead, canonized, and extolled to heaven, 
 for abject confession, bold assertion, pre- 
 sumptuous hopes, or passionate exclama- 
 tion, — fain, perhaps, to make a virtue of 
 necessit}^, by seeming desirous to resign 
 what they cannot retain, and willing to die 
 when they can no longer live. 
 
 Indiscriminate and unmerited encomium 
 must affect the credit of biography, and 
 therefore counteract, if not destroy, its 
 moral tendency. We are willing to hope, 
 laowever, that this brief sketch of Mr. W. 
 
tl SOME ACCOUNT OF 
 
 Kingsfoid, will not be altogether in vain, 
 V -especially to his numerous descendants. 
 
 His religious sentiments may be inferred 
 not only from the body of christians to 
 whom he was a firm friend and bright orna- 
 ment, but also from the works which he 
 published, especially the last to which this 
 «nemoir is prefixed. 
 
 His faith was not a blind acquiescence in 
 the unexamined doctrines of forefathers, — 
 dogmas of councils, — or systems of divines* 
 He exercised his reason, proved all things, 
 and held fast only what appeared to be 
 good. He was far from indifferent to the 
 sentiments in which he was confirmed by in- 
 vestigation ; yet he never made his opinions 
 the rule and measure of other men's minds, 
 nor erected himself into a dictator, or an in- 
 fallible judge of orthodoxy or right belief. 
 Though firm to his own principles, he did 
 not dogmatize. Thbugh a zealous general 
 baptist, he was not the illiberal bigot of a 
 party. 
 
 He treated, as of great importance, what 
 he considered to be religious truth, and the 
 proper mode of worshipping the deity ; but 
 valued more highly the practical virtues. 
 
MR. WILLIAM KINGSFORD, Yli 
 
 As his religion was not a sort of illuminismf 
 he approached you with no suspicious ob- 
 servation, as if watching doubtful signals, or 
 intent on discovering the constituted sym- 
 bols of mystic initiation. He was open and 
 unreserved, and intending no imposture, 
 suspected none. 
 
 His religion had the happiest influence 
 upon him, it sweetened, not soured his 
 temper, — expanded, not contracted his 
 heart, — rendered him equably peaceful, not 
 alternately rapturous and dejected, — cheer- 
 ful, not gloomy, — free and communicative, 
 not sullen and morose. 
 
 His devotion was apparent, without osten- 
 tation, — uniform, without formality,— seri- 
 ous, without sadness, — and fervent, without 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 A rheumatic gout had for several years 
 confined him from the active scenes of life, 
 to a sedentary retirement, — and a deafness 
 had deprived him, in a great measure, of 
 the pleasure and advantage of conversation ; 
 yet though he could not hear, he chose as 
 often as health would permit, to be present 
 at public worship, that he might set a good 
 example before others. 
 
Viii SOME ACCOUNT, &e. 
 
 During his valetiulinary years he em- 
 ployed himself in composing and compiling 
 for the press. The works thus published, 
 he distributed gratis, seeking no other re- 
 ward buv the conscious satisfaction of in- 
 tending and doing good. Though he lived 
 not ti> see Ans volume printed, he had given 
 directions how to dispose of two hundred 
 and fifty coj^ics at a distance, reserving the 
 remainmg nun)bcr to be distributed nearer 
 home. This was bv one mode of his liber- 
 alit\ , but ns we mean not to enter into a 
 minute specification of his numerous bene- 
 factions, we close this account by observing- 
 that the CR^"^ENARY Traces ought to be 
 considered as his last legacy to his de- 
 scendants, relatives, and all his religious 
 friends, especially the general baptists. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 rpHE holy religion of Jesus is not given 
 in the form of .1 creed, the dogmas of 
 which proscribe the exercise of reason, 
 and interdict tlie unsophisticated dictates 
 of conscience ; but is proposed to our un~ 
 derstanding as rational and moral agents. 
 lis doctrines claim our assent and command 
 our faith, by the light of its own evidence, 
 and not by the offensive constraints of hu- 
 man tests and civil powers. 
 
 As by reasoning on the works of nature 
 we discover the Being and infer the perfec- 
 tions of its author, so it is by the exercise of 
 reason that we perceive the beauty, Witness and 
 truth of the doctrines of revelation, and the 
 necessity ©f our assent to them j " Keason 
 
2, PREFACE. 
 
 marks the raaii, and faith the christian ; not 
 faith in a compilation of huiiiaa articles, 
 generally made up of heterogeneous parti- 
 culars rising out of detached sentences; but' 
 faith jn Ch.rist, or a belicvjng that he is the 
 Messia}]. When Peter made this confession, 
 Jesus told him, Upo?i this rock will I build 
 mr/ churchy and he added, the gates of hdl 
 shall nor prevail against it. Human power 
 and policy have prevailed against eve"y 
 form of worship, and every kind of creed, 
 but they have never been able to dissuade 
 the disciples of Jesus from believing that he 
 is tlie Clirist: as no art can e^tabliah tire 
 fornaer, so no efforts can effect the latter." 
 Robinsoji's Hist, of Baptism, p. 551. 
 
 But is this faith all that is absolutclj' ne- 
 cessary to salvation? Are not some other 
 things so, in tlieir own nature ? " We 
 call those things absolutely necessary, ^^ith- 
 cnt which there can be no salvation at all. 
 Thus, a mind suited to the hap[)iness in- 
 tended by the word salvation, is absolutely 
 necessary ; oi holiness, xiu/hoiil zchich no 
 man shall see tlie Lord. All the titles in tfie 
 vvoria lo heaven, can never give the plea- 
 
PREFACE. o 
 
 sure of heaven, without a suitableness to 
 its eiijoymeiits. Fitness, here, is as the 
 eye to the delights of colours and prospects ; 
 the ear to the pleasures of harmony ; and 
 as the palate to tliose of taste and relish ; 
 that is, a capacity of enjoj'inint. As there 
 must be an ammal nature for an'unal plea- 
 sures, a rational nature for the rational 
 ones, so there mast be a divine and heaven- 
 ly nature for those that are divine and hea_ 
 ■yenly : no man would care to live even with 
 a God whom he did not love." 
 
 *' No merely [xisitivo appointments arc 
 necessary in thisseoLCj t'lat is, absolutely, 
 and in tbeir own nature. If there never 
 had been a sacrament in the world, I might 
 have been happy without it: ) ou cannot 
 say so of love to God and likeness to him." 
 
 *' A disposition to obey divine orders, 
 wherever they are ■ discerned, either po- 
 sitive or moral, is part of that holiness ^ 
 •without rehich no man sJioll see the Lord. 
 I may be saved without a sacrament j 
 but 1 cannot be saved without a dispo- 
 sition to obey God's authority where- 
 ever I see it : a sacrament is a positive rite^ 
 A 2 
 
4 PREF.iCE. 
 
 and not to be compared with moral virtue; 
 but is not a disposition to obey God's order, 
 moral virtue and christian grace ? Or can 
 there be any moral virtue, or christian 
 grace, without a disposition bo obey the au- 
 thority of Christ, wherever I discern it ? 
 Surely obedience to God's command is a 
 moral excellence, though the instances of 
 that obedience may lie in positive rites. 
 The command to Abraham, to sacrifice his 
 son was a positive order, and a very strange 
 one too; seemingly- opposite to some mo- 
 ral orders given out before ; and yet his 
 disposition to obey, when he was sure of a 
 divine warrant in the case, has set him as 
 the head of all the believing world ; as the 
 hero of faith, the father of the faithful, and 
 the friend of God. The command of 
 sprinlding the blood of the passover upon 
 the door posts of the Israelites, was an ex- 
 ternal positive rite; if there had not been a 
 disposition to obey that order, it would have 
 cost some lives. Was not the forbidden 
 fruit, a positive instance? An external 
 thing? Setting aside the divine prohibition, 
 there v,'as nothing immoral in eating of that^ 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 any more, than of any other tree ; but dis- 
 obedience is an immorality, let the instance 
 be what it will." 
 
 " The sincerity and truth of such a dis- 
 position is best known by its being uniform 
 and universal. The author of our rehgioii 
 has told us, and added his example to his 
 word, that, thus it becoyneth us to fulfil all 
 righteousness. And so ordered himself to 
 be baptised. Baptism was a positive rite^^ 
 an external thing; and yet he calls it right-^ 
 eoiisness. Such righteousness as became 
 Him who was the Holy One of God ; be- 
 came Him who had intrinsically no need of 
 any outward ceremony ; whose inward pu- 
 rity was perfectly divine : and if it became 
 Him to fulfil such sort of righteousness, it 
 can hardly become any, who pretend to be 
 biis followers, to neglect it." B, P. E. p, 
 11, 12, 13, 
 
 It appears then that God has been pleased 
 to require something more than faith, or 
 the believing that Jesus is the Messiah the 
 Saviour of the world. And from the ex- 
 ample of our Lord, and his practice of 
 baptising those who believed, we may 
 A 3 
 
e ' PREFACE. 
 
 learn, that believers should comply with hrs 
 will, and honour him in this positive rite. 
 This is further confirmed by the command 
 of Jesus to his disciples : Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture. He that believeth and is baptized 
 shall be S2^^ed. — Mark-^\\. 15, 16^ As this 
 command stands unrepealed, it appears still 
 to be obligatory on his disciples. 
 
 Mr. Wesley observes, that " The rites 
 instituted by Christ himself were only two, 
 and these designed to continue to the end 
 of his church here below, without any Daritt' 
 iion. These rites were Baptism and the 
 Holy Supper; which are not to be consi- 
 dered as mere ceremonies ; but also as or- 
 dinances accompanied with a sanctifying 
 influence on the hearts of true Christians.'* 
 ■ — Eccles. Hist. Cent. I. Part II. chap, iv. 
 o. 4. 
 
 The maintainance of these rites, the Lord 
 Jesus left to his humble, sincere and faith- 
 ful followers ; and his faithful servants 
 should remember that, *' The ordinances 
 of Christianity are nottheir's, but that they 
 are intrusted by the Divine Legislator with 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 the use of them, and ought not to dispose 
 of them without a direction from him ; and 
 he l)ath not given them any order in scrip- 
 ture, to administer the ordinances of his 
 rehgion to infants." — Robinson^ s Hist . Bap. 
 p. 476. 
 
 But in Europe many professing Chris- 
 tians, have changed both the subject and 
 the mode of baptism, without any order 
 from the Lord, and have denominated those 
 who continued to obey him by immersing 
 believers. Anabaptists by way of reproach; 
 perhaps without considering that it was 
 fromconscientious principles, thatthey con- 
 tinued, and endeavoured to maintain the 
 ordinance of Baptism, according to the 
 example, original design, and command of 
 Iheir Lord. And also from a conviction, 
 that if they gave up, or vacated that, they 
 also vacated their right, or title, to the gra- 
 . cious promise annexed to it. 
 
 With a view of tracing those who have 
 observed it in its primitive order, through 
 successive centuries to the establishment of 
 the Reformation ; I have taken the follow- 
 ing extracts from different Authors, and as 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 there are many from the undermentioned, 
 
 the reader is desired to notice, that 
 
 R. H. B. refers to Robinson's History of 
 
 Baptism. 
 R. E. R. to his Ecclesiastical Researches. 
 B. P. E. to Booth's Pedobaptism Examined. 
 
CENTENARY 
 
 TRACES, 
 
 4c. Sfc. Sfc. 
 
 Century the First, 
 
 l^OJVin the fifteenth year of the reign of 
 Tiberius Casary Pontius Pilate being 
 governor of Judea, andlJerod being Tetrarch 
 of Galilee — Thexoord of God came unto John 
 the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And 
 he came into all the countri/ about Jordan, 
 preaching the baptism cf repentance for the 
 remission of sins. — Luke iii, 1,2, 3. 
 
 The Evangelists seem to think it of con- 
 Sequence to affirm, that John's conduct 
 originated in a divine call.— Three of them 
 observe,*' That the coming of this extraor- 
 
2 
 
 dlnary man, had been foretold by the prc- 
 pliet Isaiah ; and a fourth describes him as 
 a man sent from God, which is further con- 
 firmed by Jesus, who dLclared,thatf/2^^ff/)//5?7J 
 of John was from heaven, and not of max.'''' 
 
 To ascertain the precise meaning of the 
 word Baptism, it is sufficient ta observe, - 
 that t'ip word is confessedly Greek, that 
 native Greeks must understand their own 
 languaij^e better than foreigners, and that 
 they have always understood the word 
 Baptism to signify dipping; and therefore 
 from their, firbt embracing of Christianity 
 to this day, they liave always baptized, and 
 do yet baptize by immersion. This is an 
 authority for the meaning of the word bap- 
 tize infinitely preferable to that of European 
 lexicographers; so that a man who is 
 obliged to trust human testimony, anJ who 
 baptizes by immersion, because the Greeks 
 do, understands a greek word exactly as the 
 Greeks themselves understand it ; and in 
 this case the Greeks are unexceptionable 
 guides, and their practice is in this instance 
 safe ground of action. 
 
 The very learned Dr. John Gale, whose 
 
accurate Ivnovvledge of the Greek \yds never 
 doubted, hath traced the origiiial 'vord in 
 propbane writers, and iiath proved that 
 with the Greeks, bapto signified I dip, bap- 
 tai dyers, baphia a dye-kouse, bapsis dying 
 by dippiqg, bamniafa dying drags, baphi- 
 kce the art of dying, dibapfios double dyed, 
 bap/ is/erioii a. dying vat, &c. li II. B. p. 7. 
 Bezaj one of the Reformers says, Christ 
 commatidri us to bj baptized, by which word 
 it is certain immersioi is sigaiiicd — Bapti- 
 zesthui, in this place is more than Cherniptein 
 because that seems to respect the whole 
 body, this only the hands. Nor does 
 Bapfizcin, signify to wash except by con- 
 seqaenc ^ : for it properly signifies to 
 immerse for tha sake of dying. To be 
 baptized in water, signifies no other than 
 to be immersed in water ; which is the 
 external ccmmony in baptism Bapiizo 
 differs from the verb cLuiai which signifies, 
 to- plunge in the deep atid to drown; as 
 appear- from that vers i of an ancient oracle 
 Askos apt{:.e, diC/iUi de :oi o ' themis esi; 
 in which these two tcrui^ are distinguished as 
 
4 
 
 expressing different ideas. — B. P. E. vol. 
 
 .p. '♦6. 
 
 "'" Our English translators did not translate 
 the word baptize, and they acted wisely; 
 for there is no one word in the English 
 language which is an exact counterpart of 
 the Greek word, as the New Testament 
 uses it, containing the precise ideas of the 
 Evangelists, neither less nor more. The 
 difficulty, or rather excellence of the word 
 is, that it contains two ideas, inclusive of 
 the whole doctrine of baptism. Baptize is 
 a dyer's word, and signifies to dip so as to 
 colour. Such as render the word dip give 
 one true idea, but the word stood for two, 
 and one is wanting in this rendering. The 
 word then conveys two ideas, the one literal, 
 dipping ; the other figurative, colouring', 
 a figure however expressive of a real fact, 
 meaning that John by bathing persons in 
 the river Jordan, conferred a character, a 
 moral hue, as dyers by dipping in a dying 
 vat setatinctor colour; John by baptism, 
 discriminating the disciples of Christ from 
 
 other men, as dyers by c;)louring distinguish 
 
 stuffs. Hence John is called by the early 
 
Latins, John tindor, the exact latin of Jo- 
 annes baptistes,' John the Baptist." — R, 
 H B. p. 6. 
 
 Then comtth Jesitsftom Galilee to Jor- 
 dan unto John, to be baptized of him. But 
 John forbad him, saying, I have freed to be 
 baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? 
 
 By this it seems that when a perfect cha- 
 racter presented for baptism, John was at a 
 loss what to do. This character was the 
 spotless Son of God, who neetled no repen- 
 tance ; who when John hesitated, said to 
 him, suffer it to be so now ; for thus it be- 
 Cometh us to fulfil all rii>hteousness. Theii 
 he suffered him. And Jesus when he was 
 baptized, went up straightway out @f the 
 water ■; and lo the heavens were opetud unt& 
 him, and he saw the spirit of God descend- 
 ing like a dove and lighting'upon him ; and 
 lo! a voice front, heaven, saying ; This is my 
 beloved Son^ in whom I am well pleased. — 
 Matt. 3. 
 
 Here it may be observed that perfection 
 excuseth not from obedience, and by con- 
 trasting the conduct of the holy Jesus with 
 that of some others, we may see the dif- 
 B 
 
ference between a person vvho really pos* 
 sesses genuine goodness, piety and excel- 
 lence ; and that of one who imagines he 
 possesses them. The Lord Jesus possessed 
 these qualities in the highest degree, and 
 he desired to be baptized ; but the Phari- 
 sees and Lawyers who imagined that they 
 possessed them, rejected the council of 
 God, and were not baptized. "God I thank 
 thee that I am not as other men," was the 
 language of one of them. Publicans and 
 Harlots may be baptized, but we, who are 
 so pious, so perfect, and so much in the 
 favour of God, need it not. 
 
 The Lord Jesus some little time after his 
 baptism enters on his public ministry, 
 teaching in Galilee; and then came into the 
 land of Judoa with his disciples, and tarried 
 there with them and baptized; many com- 
 ing to his baptism. John iii. 22, 26. Mak- 
 ing and baptizing more disciples than John; 
 though 'tis saia that he himself baptized 
 not, but his disciples. John iv. I, 2. Je- 
 sus taught the people, and when any be- 
 lieved in him, then his disciples baptized 
 
After his resurrection he hegan his reign 
 in the kingdom promised him by God his 
 father, by the mouth of the prophet David^ 
 saying, I have set my king upon my holy 
 hill of Sion. — Thou art my son ; this day 
 have I begotten thee. Ask of me and 1 
 shall give thee the heathen for thine inheri- 
 tance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
 for thy possession. Psalm ii. Then he 
 assembled his disciples, and made kno^7I1 
 to them the power he had received, saying 
 All power is given unto me in heaven and 
 in earth. And in consequence of his legis* 
 lative authority he gave them this commis. 
 sion, go ye therefore, and teach all nations; 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghos' x 
 teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
 ever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am 
 with you even unto the end of the world. 
 Matt, xxviii. 18, 19, 20. 
 
 This commission to teach and baptize 
 was in perfect conformity to the doctrine he 
 had taught them before his death ; and it 
 was now completely established as his law 
 by this command. And the proof of his 
 8 2 
 
 /i 
 
 V 
 
legislative authority was fully confirmed at 
 the day of Pentecost, by the descent of 
 the Holy Ghosr, and the gift of tongues. 
 
 In obedience to t'lis command they pro- 
 claimed the Gospel, not only to the Jews, 
 but to the Gentiles in distant nations, re- 
 ceiving and baptizing, all those who pro- 
 fessed faith .in Christ, as the Messiah, the 
 Saviour of the world. This appears fi-ora 
 many instances boih among the Jews and. 
 Gentiles. 
 
 At Jerusalem Peter and the rest of the 
 Apostles preached the gospel, and when 
 Tiiany were pricked in their hearts, Peter 
 commanded them to repent and be baptiz- 
 ed; and they that gladly received his word 
 were baptized, ^cts ii. 
 
 The Samaritans, after they believed Phi- 
 lip preaching the things concerning the 
 iingdom of God, and the name of Jesus 
 Christ, were baptized, both men and wp- 
 wen. -^c/5 viii. 12. 
 
 The Eunuch upon Philip's preaching t( 
 him, and the evidence he gave, that h 
 believed in Jesus Christ with all his heai 
 wa&baptized. Acts \iii. 35 
 
Paul after his conversion, and believing 
 in Christ was baptized by Ananias at Da- 
 mascuSi Acts ix. 
 
 Cornelius and his friends, upon the evi- 
 dence of their faith in Jesus, were baptiz* 
 ed at Cesarea. Acts x. 
 
 Lydia and her household believing in the 
 Lord, were baptized at Philippi by PauL 
 Acts xvi. 1 4. 
 
 The Jailor, at the same placC) believing 
 in the Lord with all his house, were bap- 
 tized by Paul and Silas. Acts xvi. 33, 34. 
 ^ rhe Corinthians hearing and believing 
 were baptised by Paul, or his companions. 
 Acts xviii. 8. 
 
 The Colossians were baptized in like 
 manner. Col. ii. 10, 11, 12. 
 
 The Believing Romans were also bap- 
 tized. Rom. vi. 3. 
 
 The Galatians believing in Christ were 
 baptized. Gal. iii. 26, 27. 
 
 The Ephesians also upon profession of 
 laith were baptized. Acts xix. 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 
 
 From all this it appears that John, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, their disciples^ and the 
 first Christians were Baptists. 
 B S 
 
10 
 
 The testimonies of several learned au- 
 thors may be prodacsr), not by way of 
 proof, but only, because it may be of 
 weight with some to hear what Pedobaptist 
 authors say of the matter ; and because it 
 shews they allow that not only scripture but 
 antiquity is altogether for believers, and 
 not for infant baptism. 
 
 The MagdebuiginsianCenturiators speak 
 of baptism in this Century, thus. 
 
 First. As to the subjects of baptism, that 
 in this age they find they baptized only tir , 
 Adults, or aged, whether Jews or Genti)»5s, 
 whereof they say we have instances: But as 
 to the baptizing of infants they confess they 
 read of no example. 
 
 Secondly, As to the administrator* of 
 baptism they find that other ministers oJF 
 ihe Church besides the Apostles did bap- 
 tize. 
 
 Thirdly. As to the place of. baptism 
 they find it was as occasion offered, where 
 rivers and fountains and other conveniences 
 for baptizing were. ^ 
 
 Fourthly. As to the time when it was to 
 be done ; they say^ they find it to be at 
 
11 
 
 any fit season; no certain day nor feast 
 being appropriated thereto. 
 
 Fifthly. As to ihe mniiner of baptizing 
 it was by dipping or plungin^r in the water, 
 in the name of the Father, Son, and Ho- 
 ly Ghost, wliich was (they say) so agreea- 
 ble not only to the sense of the word which 
 signifies immersion in water, but to the 
 Allegory of Death, burial, and resurrec- 
 tion ; to which the Apostle so properly al- 
 ludes. Rom. vi. Col. ii. As also to the 
 many places, where it is used for the wash- 
 ing .away of sin ; as St. Peter iii. Heb. ii. 
 10. Eph. V. Titus iii. and in the xxii. of 
 the ActS) where they observe that Ananias 
 commands Paul to be baptized, and to wash 
 away his Sins. 
 
 Sixthly. As to the ceremonies ; they tell 
 us, the parties baptised did freely come and 
 offer themselves professing their faith'; 
 though not in anyybnwa/ Way of confes- 
 sion; which was afterwards enjoined. Cerlt* 
 'i. L. ii, Chap. vi. p. 496, 497, Edit, of 
 ^a^i/ in 7 tomes. Danvers p. -ie, 47. 
 
 Salmasius. ^'Baptism, is immersion ; and 
 wfis administered in Ancient times accord- 
 
12 
 
 ing to the force and meaning of the word. 
 Now it is only thantism or sprinkling, not 
 immersion, or dipping," De Ccesaria Ve- 
 rorump. 669. 
 
 GuRLLERUS. " To Baptize, among the 
 Oreeks, is undoubtedly to immerse, to dip ; 
 and baptism is immersion, dipping — The 
 thing commanded by our Lord, is baptism, 
 immersion into the water.** InsttttU. Theoh 
 C<Zj». xxxii. S. 108, 109, 110, 115. 
 
 ViTRlNGA. " The act of baptizing is, 
 the immersion of believers in water. This 
 expresses the force of the word. Thus 
 also it was performed by Christ and his 
 Apostles.** Aplwrisma Sanet Theolog. Apho^ 
 rz's, 884, 
 
 Bishop Fowler. Christians being plung- 
 ed into the water in baptism, signified their 
 obliging themselves, in a spiritual sense, 
 to die and be buried with Jesus Christ 
 (which death and burial consists, in an ut» 
 ter renouncing and forsaking of all their 
 sins) that so, answerable to his resurrection^ 
 they may live a holy and godly life. De^ 
 sign of Christianity, Sect, i. Chap, viii. p, 
 19, Edit, 4. 
 
13 
 
 Gnonus: *' That baptism used to be 
 performed by immersion, and not by pour- 
 ing., appears both from the proper signifi- 
 cation of the word, and the places chosen 
 for the administration of the rite, ^o/m iii.' 
 23. Acts viii. 38. And also from the many 
 allusions of the Apostles, which cannot be 
 referred to sprinkling. liom. vi. 3, 4. 
 Co/, ii. 12. Apud PoLUM, Sj/nops. Ad. 
 Matt. iii. 6. 
 
 Bishop Fell. " The primitive fashion- 
 of immersion,, under the water, represent- 
 ing our death, and elevation again out of it, 
 our resurrection, or regeneration." On 
 the Epistles of Paul. Note on Rome. vi. 4, 
 
 Danceus. "Baptismos, T^apUsm, h deriv- 
 ed apo tou Baptest ha i, or Baptizesthai : the 
 former of which properly signifies to dye^ 
 the latter, to immerse, especially in water. 
 But, as that which emerges out of the wa- 
 ter appears to be washed, and fair, and 
 clean ; so the term baptism is frequently- 
 used in the holy scripture, for washing and 
 cleansing," In Leigli's Cr it ica Sacra unden 
 fAe zfi^rf/ Baptismos, Edit. 2d. 
 
14 
 
 A great many more extracts of like im- 
 port taken from the writings of respectable 
 Pedobaptist Authors may be found in B. 
 P. E. and many in a smaller piece entitled 
 A concise view of the Evidence for believers 
 Baptism, published in 1812. 
 
 I will only add the testimony of Mr. J. 
 Wesley, ^* In the earliest times of the 
 Church all who professed firmly to believe 
 that Jesus was the only Redeemer of the 
 world, and who, in consequence of this 
 profession, promised to live in a manner 
 conformable to the purity of his religion, 
 were received among the disciples of Christ* 
 This was all the preparation for baptism 
 then required ; and a more accurate in- 
 struction into the doctrines of Christianity 
 was to be administered to them after it."— • 
 The sacrament of baptism was administered 
 in this century, iu places appointed for 
 tliat purpose, and was performad by im- 
 mersion of ihe whole body in w<iter." Ec 
 cles. Hist. Cent. i. Part ii. Chap. iii. S, 4. 
 and Chap. iv. S. 8. 
 
 And the same writer is pleased to say^— 
 ** Let our Lord's submitting to baptism, 
 
15 
 
 teach lis an holy exactness in the observance 
 of those institutions which owe their obli- 
 gation merely to a divine command, sure- 
 ly, thus it becometh all his followers td 
 fulfil all righteousness." Note on Matt. iii. 
 16. 
 
 ** It was for just and noble reasons, wor- 
 thy ^f a wise and benevolent mind, that 
 Jesus estimated John so highly as to pro- 
 nounce him as great a man as had been 
 born of woman: to which he added, the 
 least in the kingdom of heaven is greater 
 than he. It was a comparison between 
 John and his predecessors, and John and 
 his successors, in framing the new cecono- 
 my. He was greater than his predecessors, 
 because he first introduced a moral assort- 
 ment of Jews, a kingdom of heaven upon 
 earth: he was Icis than the Apostles his 
 successors, because under the direction of 
 Jesus, they brought his plan to perfection, 
 by assorting and incorporating Jews and 
 Gentiles in societies expressly united for 
 improvement of the mind, the meliorating 
 of the heart, and the regulation of the 
 life, a compact practice of piety, and an 
 
16 
 
 uniform course of virtue, and so extending 
 and establishing personal excellence, tend- 
 ing to unite all mankind in one family off 
 universal love ; and he who under God gave 
 a sketch of a design so pure, and so gene- 
 rous, o'.ight to be reputed one of the first 
 charact >is amony^ jnankind. How ijreat 
 then must he be, the latchet of whose shoes 
 this great man was not worthy to uidoose P' 
 Ji. IT. B. p. 5. 
 
 "One of the most learned ancl judicious 
 foreign w^ittrs hath observed, that the 
 primitive church, like tiie Jews on their 
 -first coming out of Egypt, was under a re- 
 gulation peculiar and divine, that as the 
 Jews had their theocracy so Christians had 
 tlieir christocracy : that not the Apostles 
 but the laws of Jesus reigned ; that no 
 human powers civil or hierarchical haJ any 
 being in the church ; and that the Apostles 
 assumed no honor to themselves but gave 
 all the glory to God!" Phil. Ja. Ilafl- 
 manni. Dc Rebus Gestis Christ. Chap. iii. 
 M. R. JL B. p.6lO. "It was necessary in 
 the infancy of the church that miraculoas 
 
■powers should be, but it was unnecessary 
 that such powers should continue." 
 
 Nor was 'there' any " absolute necessity 
 for the presence of an Apostle; or any 
 extraordinary persons to congregate a 
 church. Any one baptized Christian was- 
 equal to the task, and tliere is great reason 
 to believe innuinerable churches have in 
 all ages been formed so." God hath said 
 by his prophet: '^Iwill pour out Tny Spirit 
 tipgn thy seed, and my blessing upon thine 
 offspring : and they shall spring up as among 
 the grass y as "willows hy the water courses: 
 one shall say, I am the Lord^s, and another 
 shall call himself by the nanu of Jacob, and 
 another shall subscribe with his hand unto 
 ihe-Lordr. R. H. B, p. 610, 635. 
 
id 
 
 Century the Second. 
 
 nPHEKE was among primitive Ghristiaas 
 an uoiioroi beiiet that Jepus was the 
 Christ, and a perfect harmony of affection. 
 When congregations multiplied so that 
 they became too numerous to assemble ui 
 one place they parted into separate compa- 
 nies, and so agaiti and aga n bu' there was 
 no schism : on the conlrary uil held a com- 
 mon union, and a mt-mber of one co'.rpany 
 was a membe.r of all. If any person re- 
 moved from one place to reside at another, 
 lie receive<l a letter of atte>tation, which 
 was given and taken as proof, and this custom 
 very prudenrly precluded the intrusion of 
 impostors. In this '.lanner was framed a 
 catholic or universal church. One com- 
 pany never pretended to inspect the affairs 
 of another, nor was there any dominion or 
 any shadow of dominion over t 'e con- 
 sciences of any individuals. Overt acts 
 
19 
 
 were the only objects of censure, and ccnr 
 sure was nothing but voting a man oat of 
 tlie community. 
 
 That most learned and liberal foreign 
 lawyer Bochmer, who never wrote super- 
 ficially on any subject, liath investigated 
 this with his usual accuracy and hath prov- 
 ed to a demonstration that the union of 
 primitive Christians- was precisely fraternal : 
 that out of this which he calls the internal 
 union of each congregation, rose another, 
 which he namfs external, uniting several 
 congregations together : that hencs came 
 eommunion or common union : and taat all 
 this was an affair of mutual esteem wholly 
 uiiconnccted with civil 'and political aifairs, 
 implying no obedience of one to another j 
 or any kind of political subjection, to 
 which, adds he, thtj court of Rome and 
 every other hierarchy tend, R. E R.p. 
 125, 123. 
 
 He "hath proved that the primitive dis- 
 cipline was not government but Christian 
 order : that it was a brotherly confederacy 
 against vice : that indeed the people were 
 believers in Jesus, but that vir(>je and not 
 
2.0' 
 
 any mode of faith was the bond of union r-: 
 and that -here was not, and could not be on - 
 the principles of the people any c/u// coer- 
 cion, either to compel an entrance into the: 
 society, cr to enforce virtue white members 
 continued in it, or to punibh them forcle- 
 parting from it." R. II. B. p. 595. 
 
 Everj person ** was admitted singly at 
 his own request^ by the consent of the 
 "whole society. Affairs were debated and 
 transacted by all. Whoever were exclud- 
 ed were excommunicated by joint consent^ 
 and if they repented and requested re-ad- 
 mission, they were re-admitted in the same 
 manner. Church oiRcers were voluntarily 
 ejected for the sake of order. — The whole 
 was a perfect state of popular freedom.*' 
 IL E. R.p. 124. 
 
 *' Writers of all denominations affiriii, 
 atid a strict adherence to truth compels them . 
 to do so, that the churcheii of the earliest 
 times were small Independent societies, who 
 assembled at least once a week on tlie first 
 day, each in its own place to worship God': 
 that in these assemblies prayer and praise 
 were offered to the Deity by one at a time 
 
, 21 
 
 in the name of the rest : that the holy scrip- 
 tures were read, expounded, and enforced, 
 and that giving instruction was open to all ; 
 that the doctrines taught were few, plain 
 and simple, taken immediately from the 
 gospel : that the ceremonies were baptism 
 of adults by immersion, and the Lord's 
 Supper: and that the morals of the people 
 were in*eproachable. — R. E. R. p. 50. 
 
 About the year 140, Justin Martyr gives 
 an account of the manner of solemnizing 
 baptism which much corresponds with the 
 history of it in the New Testament. 
 
 " As many," says he, ** as^are persuaded 
 and do believe that those things, which are 
 taught and spoken by us are true, and en- 
 gage to live accordingly, are instructed to 
 pray, and to implore of God, with fasting, 
 the forgiveness of past sins, we praying 
 and fasting together with them. They are 
 then led by us to a place, where there is 
 water, and they are born again with the 
 same new birth as we were. For in the 
 nam© of God, the Father of all, and of our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spi- 
 rit they are washed in water j for Christ 
 
 c a 
 
2^ 
 
 said * unless ye be born again, ye shall not - 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven.' *' We 
 learned," he adds, *' the reason of this 
 from the Apostles, that since we were born 
 at first, without knowledg^e, by necessity, 
 and brought up in wicked customs, we 
 should not continue children of necessity 
 and ignorance, but of choice and know- 
 ledge, and receive forgiveness of our former ^ 
 sias by water." — Barker's Butj/, Circum- 
 stances and Bene^t of Baptism, j?. 65. 
 
 ** It has been justly remarked upon this < 
 passage, that as Justin has spoken of Chris- 
 tians, as Christians, not as converts, it is the 
 baptism of Christians in general he ought, 
 to describe, for all are baptised. And Jus- 
 tin's reason for baptism, thai religion should 
 he a work of choice and not of necessity/ as- , 
 our first birth was, takes in both native and> 
 convert Christians, but expressly excludes 
 infants, for to them, baptism must be as r 
 aauch a work of ignorance, as their birth." 
 Again, ** they are born again with the same, 
 new birth as we were," that is, as the mem-, 
 bers of the church were, which then cou- 
 ust^d a&jnucU or n^oxQ of tiacive, Chri^tiftxis « 
 
TS 
 
 as'conrevls. Barker, p. 65^ 65, '* Tokl- 
 miii's Four Discourses, p. 50, 51. While 
 this passage is thus conclusivs as to the 
 subjects and extent of baptism, it is proper 
 to observe, that a circumstanc is mentioned 
 here, 'cs attending the ordinance, which has 
 no precedent, or countenance in the New- 
 Testament, namely, joining Justing- with it. 
 It should be also added, that Justin repre- 
 sents baptism under three different views, 
 which though not explicitly pointed out, 
 seem to have some sanction frooa -the Nevv 
 Testament, namely^ being *' made new," 
 *'a new birth," and "an illumination.'* 
 
 And authoFSi observe that a spirit of in- - 
 novation in the introduction of rites and ' 
 ceremonies ; and also a variety of senti- 
 ments, soon prevailed among some of the * 
 leading men, and the most populous- 
 €;hurches in this century. This appears ta- 
 have l)een the case in the Jewish churclf 
 before. Waoever examines the scriptures 
 iHay find a variety of instances which shew 
 it. One may be sufficient. Israel served' 
 the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the 
 iai/i of the Elders ■ who overlived Joshua.— 
 
Josfi. xxtiv, 31. Bat after their departure, 
 the major part of them forsook the corn- 
 man Iments of the hord, a}id went a whoring, 
 as the Psahnist says, wilh their own invent 
 tionsy 106, 39. And the conduct of many 
 Christians appears to have been similar. 
 The Apostles laboured hard to make con- 
 verts to Christ, and faithfully watched over 
 the churches ; yet even in their days, the 
 mystery of iniquity began to work. — 2 Thes, 
 ii, 7. And before the death of John, there 
 was a Diotrephes who aimed at the pre- 
 eminence, and cast some of the brethren 
 out of the church — John'm, 9. And after 
 the departure of John, those who were in-' 
 dined to usurp authority; those who wished 
 to innovate, and introduce their own doc- 
 trines and inventions ; and those who were 
 for introducing a part of the Jewish and Pa- 
 gan theology into Christianity, in order to 
 conciliate the minds of the Jews and Pa- 
 gans to it, and bring them into the church, 
 found opportunities and means to promote 
 their designs. 
 
 Mr, "'.Vesley says truly, ** There is no 
 inbtitution so excellent which the cowup* 
 
£5- 
 
 tion and folly of men will not in time alter 
 for the worse, and load it with additions 
 foreign to its nature and original design. 
 Such was the fiite of Christianity. In this 
 century many unnecessary rites and cere- 
 monies were added to the Christian worship : 
 these changes, while they destroyed the 
 beautiful simplicitly of the gospel, were 
 pleasing to the gross multitude, who were 
 more dcligiited with the splendor of exter- 
 nal institutions, than with the native charms 
 of rational and soHd piety." — Ecclts. Ilist. 
 Cent, ii. Part ii, chap. W. sect. i. 
 
 Theophilus, Bisho}) of Antioch, first 
 made use of the word trinity, to express 
 what divines call persons in the Godhead ; 
 on which first Mosheim, and after him Dr. 
 King, makes this just reflection, " The 
 christian church is very little obliged to him 
 for his invention. The use of this, and 
 other unscriptural terms, to. which men at- 
 tach either no ideas ov false ones^ has de- 
 stroyed charity and peace withoutpromoting 
 truth or knowledge. It has produced here- 
 sies of thevvorst kind." — Mosheim'' s Chva-^^ 
 
26 
 
 biological tables, Cent. ii. Dr. Kmg''s Rites-' 
 of the Greek Churchy p. 1. 
 ' Mr Wesley also says, " The sacrament 
 of Baptism Avas administered publicly twice 
 every year, at the festivals of Easter and - 
 Penticost or Whitsuntide, either by the 
 bishop or the presbi/ter, in consequence of 
 his appointment. The persons that were 
 to" be baptised, after they had repeated the 
 creed, confessed and renounced their sins, 
 and particularly the Devil, and his works, 
 were immersed undet water, and received 
 into Christ's ki<igdom, by a s.ilemn invoca- 
 tion of i'^^iiMt^; ,6'o«, and 7/o/j/ Ghost, accord-: 
 ing to the exprc^ss command of our Lord. 
 After baptism they received the sign of the 
 cross, WQie oTTointed, and by p)-aj/ers and 
 imposition- -of hands, solemnly con^mended 
 to tlie mercy of God, and dedicated to his 
 service; in consequence of which the}^ re- 
 ceived 7?iilk and hone^, which concluded the 
 ceremony." — Eccles'i Hist. cent. ii. part ii. 
 chap. iv. sect. 9. 
 
 From hence we may see, how early the 
 ordinance of baptism was loaded by some 
 professors of the gospel, with '' additions 
 
27 
 
 foreign to its nature, and original de&ign:" 
 And in a tow centuries after, infants were 
 -^supposed to be fit subjects of it. 
 
.S8 
 
 Century the Third. 
 
 'TjnOWARD the laiter end of the second 
 century ,-most of the churches assumed 
 a new form, the first simphcity disappeared; 
 and insensibly as the old discij>les retired to 
 their graves, their children, alongwith new 
 converts, both Jews and Gentiles, came 
 forward . and, new .modelled the cause. The 
 first, and the most fatal of all events to 
 the primitive religion, was the setting up of 
 a Christian academy ^t Alexandria inEgypt. 
 Christians had been reproached with illite- 
 racy, and this seemed a plausible method, 
 to get rid of the scandal. This school was 
 firstkept by Pantaenus, whom Clement fii'st 
 assisted and then succeeded, as Origen did 
 him. Each improved on his predecessor, 
 and all together invented questions about 
 the christian religion sufficient to 'perplex 
 and puzzle the whole world. From a wild 
 enthusiastical philosopher oi iVlexandriaj 
 
^9 
 
 named Amraanius Saceas, these men im- 
 bibed a chaos of gross errors called philoso- 
 phy, because it was the production of idle 
 men, who concealed their love of ease 
 under the specious name of love of 
 wisdom : vain questions about matter and 
 spirit, the whole and the parts, human 
 souls, demons, and the first great cause; 
 time, place, circumstances of events, wei*e 
 all applied by these men to the christiawi 
 religion, and the inspired writers were put 
 on the rack and tortured to sive answers 
 and determine points, of which probably 
 they had never heard the naines, and never 
 entertained a thought. Here youth were 
 bewildered under pretence of toeing taught 
 —here the mos; dangerous of ail rules of 
 interpreting scripture was laid down ; and 
 the tutors first amazed themselves with it, 
 and then distracted the mmds of their pupils. 
 This was, *' that scripture had a double 
 sense, the one obvious and literal, the other 
 hidden and mysterious, which lay concealed 
 as it were under the veil of the outward 
 letter. The former they treated with the 
 utmost neglect, and turned the whole force 
 D 
 
30 
 
 of their genius and application to unfold the 
 latter ; or in other words, they were more 
 studious to darken the holy scriptures with 
 their idle fictions, than to investigate their 
 true and natural sense." These are the 
 words of that excellent historian, Dr. Mo- 
 sheim. — Mos/ieim's Eccles. Hist, cent, ii. 
 part ii. chap, i. and chap. iii. 
 
 Some Christians foresaw the mischief 
 which this school would produce, and re- 
 monstrated against it, but they soon sunk 
 into neglect and contempt. Time, how- 
 ever, hath discovered, that their fears were 
 not groundless, for from this intoxicated 
 house proceeded in a rtgular train most of 
 the evils that have sinee afBicted the church. 
 Having laid down a double sense of scrip- 
 ture as a first principle, all the rest followed 
 ©f course. The four gospels became bard 
 books, common christians could not find 
 out the meaning, for tha clay in the mystical 
 sense, consequently the aid of the school 
 became necessary to inform them. In pro- 
 portion as academics taught in the churches, 
 and were applauded, unphilosophical and 
 illiteral teachers were slighted. The title 
 <aid dignity of philosophers delighted so 
 
31 
 
 much these vain men, that they always ap- 
 peared in the philosopher's cloak, so that a 
 man able to teach was instantly known by 
 his habit. The modest plain people retired 
 and kept at due distance. Some churches 
 chose these superior geniuses to teach them 
 constantly, and called them from the school 
 to settle among themselves, and they re- 
 turned the favour by introducing mysteries, 
 from which proceeded first disputes, and 
 then councils of men of their own order to 
 settle vhem. 
 
 Every effect produced by these causes 
 became itself the cause of another effect ; 
 every church had its hairesis or opinion, 
 and it became of consequence to determine 
 which was the right, for each teacher main- 
 tained his own with a greatdegree of gravity^ 
 and obstinacy, whichsuch a good man would 
 not have done, if it had not been of the last 
 importance to the salvation of his flock. To 
 settle then the right hairesis, it was necessary 
 for the churches to form acouncilof delegates, 
 and who so proper to be elected for the so- 
 lemn purpose as the bishop, the only one in 
 the church who understood the subject and 
 
 D 2 
 
32 
 
 knew how to defend It. In the assemblies, 
 delegated bishops perfected themselves in 
 the art of wrangling, acquired a tone of au» 
 thority, and practised airs of self impor- 
 tance and dominion. Here too, for order 
 sake, it was necessary to appoint a chair- 
 irian, and him time metamorphosed into an 
 arch or head bishop, and him again into a 
 metropolitan, and the metropolitan again into 
 a patriarch. Here these Christians lost their 
 liberties. Here delegates became first the^ 
 masters, and then the tyrants of the people* 
 Here they determined their own hairesis or 
 heresy to be the right opinion, or as they 
 called it, orthodoxy ; and the opinions of 
 others to be onl^' mere opinions unsupported 
 by any learned arguments, and condemned 
 to oblivion by the council, that is said they, 
 by the whole church which Jesus purchased 
 »vith his own precious blood. It was an 
 enormous compliment which these gentle-, 
 men paid themselves. The gospel, said 
 they, is evidently divine, because nothing 
 but the miraculous power of God could 
 support it in the hands of illiterate men. 
 As if they and their quirks were to all sxxq^ 
 
33 
 
 Ceedingageslo supply the miraculous power 
 of God."— i?. E. E.p. 52, 53. 
 
 Heretics, to use the Greek style, '* paid 
 no regard to all this. They formed churches, 
 taught their own doctrines, and held sepa- 
 rate assemblies every where. There was 
 Hermonages, a painter ; Uierae, a booksel- 
 ler; and great numbers more who followed 
 their own convictions, taught churches, and 
 probably were men of more zeal, than that 
 most numerous party who called themselves 
 the catholic and orthodox church, and who 
 calumniated ail the rest as heretics, who 
 troubled the peace of Israel." 
 
 *' Spanheim found out ten reasons for 
 the defections of Christians from the primi- 
 tive simplicity, but professor Bochmer, 
 with a clearness of thought and a simplify- 
 ing precision peculiar to superior geuiusses^ 
 found two sufficient to produce all the bad 
 effects that followed ; the one was, ther intro- 
 duction of Jewish and Pagan ceremonies ; 
 the other, corruption of their own morals ; 
 and the first was the parent of the last. Ce- 
 remonies as he observes, have a natural 
 tendency to catch, and fix, ai)d satiate 
 D 3 
 
34 
 
 the eye, and so to divert the attentioti 
 from that spirituality in which the 
 purity of divine worship consists. Ce- 
 remonies require regulations, regulations 
 are laws, laws are nothing withoitt sanctions, 
 penal sanctions inflicted and suffered dis- 
 turb mens' tempers ; the temper of the 
 uppermost is that of a tyrant, the temper of 
 the underling is that of a free rebel or a 
 ?lave. Hence confusion and every evil 
 work." 
 
 By slow degrees, this Jewish theology 
 depraved the church and subverted the 
 primitive order, by losing the old idea of 
 a confederacy against vice, and by elevat- 
 ing the servants of the church into inspec- 
 tors, and watchmen, and guides, and masters, 
 and monarchs, Avho as they rose, sunk 
 the people in due proportion, first into 
 carelessness through confidence, next into 
 inability through ignorance, and lastly into 
 the most abject slavery ; when tyranny was 
 played off for virtue, and. to stamp the 
 people into dust and ashes was the only 
 method of acquiring distinction and wealth,. 
 honor, ease, and everlasting rep uatioir. Oil; 
 these piteous ruins rose the saintship of 
 
35 
 
 Cyprian, Austen and Becket; and the- 
 ology converted tbesedregs of the world into 
 oracles of God. It should seem, the Africans 
 who never varied a tint from the old Cartha- 
 ginian family likeness, were thefirsit who inia- 
 gined a C'lristian Aaron, an universal bishop. 
 Victor, bishop of Rome,, was an African, 
 and he was the first bishop who presumed to 
 send an order to all the churches of Asia, to 
 keep the passover when he did, for he kept 
 it, forsooth, when l*eter did. Polycrate* 
 bishop of Ephesus, sent him word, in the 
 name of all the bishops of Asia, that they 
 would not alter their custom, for they kept 
 the passover when John kept it, and John 
 laad not only laid his head on the bosom of 
 the Lord, but also be was a priest, and had 
 worn a sacerdotal breast plate. Victor, 
 with true African rage, got together a few 
 neighbouring Levites> held a meeting, which 
 he named a council, and excommunicated 
 all the bishops of the east. Cj'prian, that 
 other Carthaginian zealot, excommunicated 
 Stephen, bishop of Rome, because truly, 
 he would not re-baptise heretics, as the Af- 
 rican's ordered him. Stephen returned the 
 compliment, and m this manner they cur&ed 
 
36 
 
 and combated fill the Roman bishop ob- 
 tained the victory ! These pn.fessors were 
 half Jews, who thought christranity would- 
 be mightily improved by inserting the Jew- 
 ish ritual into christian practice. Of this 
 sort were all the saints, and Jerom expressly 
 saysf, what Moses and ^aron, and the Le- 
 vites were amon^ the Jews, that teacher* 
 and church officers ought to be in the christ- 
 ian church. These, to speak strictly, were 
 more properly reformed Jews, than Christ- 
 ians born again. To attempt to prove this 
 would be holding a torch to the sun ! R. E« 
 B. p. 134, 135. 
 
 A late learned prelate says, truly, ** It 
 was Judaism misunderstood, that supported 
 tliem in their ill-judged schemes. They 
 travestied obicure uncertainties, nay mani- 
 fest errors into truth ; and sought in philo- 
 sophy and logic analogies and quibbles to 
 support them. They didnot know that the 
 more perfect dispensation could not take 
 place, till the less perfect, which prefigured 
 it, and prepared its way^ was set aside and 
 abolished." Bishop Warhurton's JuliarVr 
 Jntroductioiiy xxviii. xxxii. Jul. 8. 
 
 WhAt is aU church history but «in account 
 
37 
 
 of people who under the name of Christians 
 lived as the Jews lived ? Had the Jews a 
 priesthood ? so had they. Had the Jews a 
 priest of priests, an high priest ? They had 
 one in prospect and each aimed to be the 
 man. Did the Jews keep the passover and 
 worship God by rituals ? So did they. Had 
 the Jews ecclesiastical courts ? So had. they. 
 Were the Jews governed by traditions of 
 elders ? So were they. Had the Jews a 
 temple and an altar and a sacrifice? So had 
 they. Did they place religion in the per- 
 formance of cereuiouies, and not in the 
 practice of virtue ? So did they. Have the 
 Jews monopolized God, and hated all man- 
 kind except themselves? So have they. 
 There is no occasion to search for any other 
 cause: this is equal to all the effects, Draw- 
 the attention of the mind frojm the seat of 
 virtue within, and fix it on the show with- 
 out; no matter what it is, piety is inter- 
 rupted, the exercise of virtue is suspended, 
 the mind is under a preparation to sin, and 
 the next step is the actual commission of it ! 
 B.E. R.p. 135. 
 
 Thus it was that in this century.;, Jewish 
 theology drew off the attention Qf Christians 
 
from the simplicity of Jesus and the Gos- 
 pel, particularly in the great corrupt and 
 wealthy churches of Rome, Antioch, Alex- 
 andria, and Carthage. Mosheim says, *' Th« 
 most respectable writers of tbat age have put 
 it out of the power of an historian to spread 
 a veil over the enormities of ecclesiastical 
 rulers. By a train of vice, they were sunk 
 in laxury and voluptuousness, puffed up 
 with vanit)', arrogance, and ambition, pos- 
 sessed with a spirit of contention and dis- 
 cord, and addicted to many other vices. 
 The bishop assumed a princely authority, 
 was exalted above his equals, and had a 
 throne surrounded with ministers. Presby- 
 ters followed their example, neglected their 
 duties, and abandoned themselves to the in- 
 dulgence and delicacy of an effeminate and 
 luxurious life. Deacons imitated their su- 
 periors, and th€ eft'ects of a corrupt ambi- 
 tion wei*e spread through erery rank of the 
 sacred order ! Eccles. Hist. cent. iii. chap. 
 T. Divisions and heresies 
 
 The greatest degree of corruption appears 
 to have prevailed in Africa. There many 
 of the clergy kept mistresses, whom they 
 called single sisters, or beloveds. There 
 
39 
 
 the seeds of infant buptism seem to have 
 been nrst; sown. The Jews long before sup- 
 posed t'hat something of a depravity attend- 
 ed infants )n account of the sins of their 
 fathers. And the Pagans seemed to have 
 supposed that they came into the world in a 
 polluted state, and thei*efore stood in need 
 of lustration, or purification by water. Tiieir 
 custom was this, the water was first conse- 
 crated, then the infant was sprinkled ; a 
 -name was given at the same time, accompa- 
 nied with various solemnities, and the chdd 
 was then carried to the temples of the Gods, 
 and held initiated, &c. R H.B.p. 420 
 
 In ihe 3 ear two hundred and fifty-seven, 
 Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, held an Afri- 
 can council, and they supposed the sin of 
 Adam was tlie cause of the pollution of in- 
 fants, and that baptism was necessary to save 
 them. They reasoned thus, Elisha raised a 
 dead child to life. Jesus came to save all: 
 therefore we should do all we can to same 
 them : beside they sa}*, infants came into the 
 world crying for baptism. R. H. B. p 197. 
 
 Aslhe Pagan v^fricans were much addicted 
 to offering children to idols, it seems likely 
 
40 
 
 i^'hen they professsd the gospel, they might 
 be as much inclined to offer them to God, 
 Salviani, an author of good repute, *' sus- 
 pected the children were dedicated to Jesus 
 by law, and to the old daemon of the country 
 by choice." R. N. B. p. 183. He knev\r" 
 the Africans well, and says of them, " In 
 spite of their vain boasts of an orthodox 
 faith, they were pagans and blasphemers, 
 tvVo worship-ed idols in seciet, and dedi- 
 cated their children m their ififancy to djE- 
 TOons." R E. R. p. 105. 
 
 The Apontle Paul foretold, that some 
 w ould *' depart from the faiths gi'^ing heed 
 to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils''^ 
 I. Tim. iv. i. And bishop Newton hath 
 proved, bv^yond all reasonable contradiction, 
 (hat the Apostle of the Gentiles p:uarded 
 Christians against the doctrines of daemons, 
 that is,. doc^rii>es of which djcmons were the 
 subjects ; and that he foretold, the grand 
 ^postacy vvould consist in this doctrine re- 
 duced to practice. Bishop Newton on the 
 Picphecies. Vol. II. Diss. 20. 
 
 If nifant baptism made any progress, it 
 seeiils to have been confined to Africa, for, 
 
41 
 
 *' during the first three centuries, Christian 
 congregations all over the east suhsisted in 
 separate independent bodies, unsupported 
 by government, and consequently without 
 any secular power over one another. All 
 this time they were baptised churches. And 
 all the baptisms mentioned by writers of 
 these times, are those of adults, not one of 
 infants. 
 
 '' Not one natural infant of any descrip- 
 tion appears in the church of Rome, during 
 the first three centuries, and immersion was 
 the only method of baptising. Professor 
 'Bochmer, with his usual accuracy, makes a 
 just distinction in regard to the place of bap- 
 tism. The place of administering bap- 
 tism, says he, was not the church, but a 
 river, in which people were dipped in 
 presence of witnesses. At Rome, Peter 
 first baptised in the Tiber; but afterward, 
 when Christians were persecuted, they 
 baptised in lavers in the baths : and it 
 is doubtful whether they had any bap- 
 tisteries, properly so called, before the 
 fourth century. Bede's history of the 
 • first baptisms in England, is an exact coun- 
 
terpart of the histories of most places of note 
 in Italy ; there, as here, the first teacliers 
 administered this ordinance in rivers, or 
 in the sea." R. E R. p. 130. ibid. p. 131. 
 TertuUian says, *' that candidates for 
 baptism made a profession of faith twice; 
 once m the church, that is before the con- 
 gregation in the place where they Were 
 assembled to worship, and then again when 
 they came to the water ; and it is quite in- 
 different whether It were the sea, or a pool, 
 a lake, a river^ or a bath. R. H. B. p. 58. 
 That well known sentence of his, " we are 
 made, but not born Christians," expresses 
 the sense of the whole primitive church. 
 Again, when describing the manner oi: bap- 
 tising in his time, he says, *' Men's minds 
 were hardened against it, because the per- 
 son (to be baptised) was brought down into 
 the water without pomp, without any new 
 ornament or sumptuous preparation, and 
 dipped at the pronunciation of a few words. 
 
4S' 
 
 Century the Fourth. 
 
 "TT^HEN Constantine and Licinius pub- 
 lished the first imperial law in favour 
 of Christianity, the preamble set forth, that 
 religion could not be forced, and that the 
 conscience of eveiy man ought to be free. 
 Jews, Pagans, and Christians had all a. 
 mutual interest in preserving this just maxim 
 untainted and pure ; and it is to Christians 
 and to that class of Christians, who took the 
 arrogant titles of orthodox and catholic in 
 opposition to some other Christians, wiser 
 and better than themselves, that the violation, 
 of this just maxim is to be attributed. Per^ 
 haps it may be a sacrificing of the cause of 
 the liberty and virtue of the world to re- 
 deem the broken credit of a few, to call them 
 Christians at all. Certain it is, the virtuous 
 Manicheans thought they were only pagan 
 schis^matics, acting vice in the name of the 
 most virtuous of beings^ Jesu^ Christ, whose 
 E 2 
 
44^ 
 
 character would sink in the same proportion 
 as theirs rose — B. E. R. p. \9\. 
 
 One proof, among many, of the manifest 
 falsehood of the charges brought against 
 the ancient heretics by the fathers is, that 
 they are precisely the same which the Pagans 
 brought against the primitive Christians 
 themselves. Them the Pagans taxed with 
 atheism, incest, infanticide, sedition, illite- 
 racy, magic, worshipping the head of an 
 ass, corrupting the sybeliine oracles, and so 
 on. Apologists attacked these rumours, and 
 refuted these populai* charges with regard 
 to themselves and their own parties ; bat 
 they endeavoured to suppress other com- 
 munities, by repeating the same charges 
 Bgainst them. " The case was the same 
 with the fathers in respect to heretics," says 
 Mr. Bayle, '* as with the heathens in re- 
 spect to Christianity. Is it not more rea- 
 sonable to believe, that the fathers did not, 
 with all the patience requisite, thoroughly 
 inform themselves of the real principles of a 
 sect, than it is to believe that those very 
 men, who held that Jesus Christ by his 
 death was the saviour of mankind, should at. 
 
43 
 
 tliesame time hold, that the beastliest plea- 
 sures are the ready way to paradise ? 
 
 The same observation may serve for all 
 periods ; for the first calumniators of good 
 men, in the early ages of the world, invented 
 scandals, which have been successively used 
 by Pagans against Jews, by Jews against 
 Christians, and by Catholics against Pro- 
 testants of all kinds. Most of these tales, 
 and the arguments that supported them, 
 'originated in fraud, and were authenticated 
 by folly ; and while power was supporting 
 their credit, time rolled on and antiquity 
 became argument. It is, however, a plea- 
 sure to observe, that the same great princi* 
 pies of liberty which justify any profession 
 of Christianity, will support the claims of 
 every society of Christians and of every 
 individual, to a perfect freedom of acting 
 according to their own con victions.—il.^.i?. 
 
 One of the greatest evils that the intro- 
 duction of scholaitical divinity into the 
 christian church produced was, that cruei 
 spirit of slander v/hich from that day to this 
 E 3 
 
46 
 
 hath aspersed the characters of the dead, 
 and perplexed the minds of the living. 
 
 Not to believe what haughty dogmatists 
 affirmed to be true, was reckoned a crime, 
 and it was meritorious to excommunicate an' 
 heretic, to torment him with books of 
 intricate sophistry, to tax him with errors 
 which nobody held, and crimes which were 
 never committed, to destroy his answers, and 
 to deliver his name down to posterity to be 
 held in perpetual execration. That there 
 were great numbers of Christians in the 
 second and third centuries, who held the 
 various opinions that are held now on the 
 points in dispute, cannot be doubted ; but 
 where the crime of doing so lay, none but a 
 man mad with orthodoxy and intolerance,^ 
 could ever yet discover. Hence that per- 
 petual and almost impenetrable darkness 
 which the insignificant opinions, false vir- 
 tues, and wonderful miracles of the saints, 
 interlined by way of contrast with the dam- 
 nable heresies, infernal vices, and horrible 
 deaths of heretics shed over all ancient 
 ecclesiastical history. The orthodox were 
 busily eiTi ployed in g^uch good works as 
 
47 
 
 these, when a revolution took place in theis. 
 affairs, by the removal of the seat of en^pire 
 from Rome to Bysantium, which from henco 
 is-to be named from Gonstantinc the Empe- 
 ror, Constantinople. 
 
 Eleven years before this time a violent 
 dispute had broke out at Alexandria, be- 
 tween Alexander, the bishop of the church,* 
 and Arius, one of the presbyters, concern- 
 ing the nature of Jesus Christ. Origen had 
 paved the way by affirming that the son was. 
 in God, vvhat reason is in man, and that the 
 Holy Ghost was only the energy of God, 
 This is a species of what is called Sabellia- 
 nism ; Alexander affirmed that the Son was 
 of the same essence with the Father : Arius- 
 on the contrary held, that the Son was essen- 
 tially different from the Father, but that ha 
 was the first and most excellent of all crea- 
 tures ; that the Father had created him out 
 of nothing, the firbt of all hisworks, and by 
 him had created the world. The disputes 
 occasioned by these subtilties were agitated 
 with so much violence, that government 
 thought it necessary to take cognizance o£ 
 it : the Emperor Constantine j^cted with 
 
48 
 
 preat moderation and condescension, he 
 thought the dispute, insignificant, and in a 
 friendly letter, advised the parties to settle 
 their differences amicably. As they would 
 not do so, the emperor summoned a coun- 
 cil of the whole church to meet at Nice in 
 B^ythynia to put an end to the dispute 
 There were, it is said, more than two thou- 
 sand catholic bishops in the christian worldj 
 and probably as many heretical bishops, but 
 only three hundred and eighteen met 
 A. D. 325. Arius was condemned, and 
 Jesus was declared consubstantial, or of the 
 same essence with the Father. This was 
 the first general council that ever was held 
 in the world, and the decrees were enforced 
 on all Christians by the civil power. Here 
 then Christian liberty M'as first publioly ex- 
 ecuted by law."— /?. A^ i?. J». 60. The 
 ruling party declai-ed themselves the only 
 Christians;, for they believed the Trinity, 
 and all the rest were heretics, bound over 
 to pr«'sent and eternal perdition. " Con- 
 stantine made exorbitant grants from the 
 crown to the church. .Julian very wisely- 
 resumed them; and humourously told tho 
 
49 
 
 oJergy-, that he only did so to relieve theirv 
 from incumbrances, needless and even dan- 
 gerous to genilemen who were all bound to. 
 heaven," — B. E. R. p. 144. 
 
 John the Baptist had come preaching vir- 
 tue, to make ready a people for the Lord : 
 but these Jewish Christians had been preach-, 
 ing up Judaism, to make the people ready 
 for secular dominion. They had incorpo- 
 rated the whole of the old oeconomy into 
 their system, which wanted nothing to com- 
 plete it J except a David to fight the b-attles. 
 of the Lord. They had laid down a prin- 
 ciple the very worst in the world, that the 
 majority was always in the right, and orv 
 this as on. the sand, they erected their hie- 
 rarchy, denominated it the church, and, 
 when the Emperor Constantiae espoused, 
 the party, they set him on the top like a. 
 gilded statue, less to govern than to grace, 
 the building. They never lost sight of the. 
 primitive maxim, that civil government 
 ought not to be exercised over the church: 
 but they converted it into a monstrous so^ 
 phism, teeming with ten thousand ills. 
 
 It is to the honour of all the heretics and 
 
60 
 
 sehismatics of the empire, that they bore a 
 practical testimony against this ecclesiasti- 
 cal tyranny. By professing themselves 
 Christians, they disowned the pontifical 
 power of paganism ; and. by separating fiom 
 the great party of Christians, they practi- 
 cally denied the pontifical dominion of 
 Judaism. This, it should seem, is the 
 tr*ie ground of all the slanders cast uponv- 
 them for denying the Old Testament, for 
 execrating the God of the old oeconomy, 
 and for a thousand other things of the same 
 kind ;. all which it is highly probable, meant 
 no more than that they distinguished order 
 from government, approved of the first be- 
 cause it provided for liberty of conscience, 
 and the practice of virtue ; and resisted the 
 ia.st, because it oppressed both, merely to 
 make room for enthusiasm, servitude, and 
 priesthood. These parties exactly answer 
 the definition which tne learned Bochmer 
 gives of Christian churches. They were a 
 sort of colleges, an union of colleagues, hav- 
 ing order, but no government, and aiming 
 at none ; and whose end in associating was 
 firlly answered without any, and to whom,- 
 
51 
 
 had the Emperor joined himself, he would 
 have been a chvistian brother, but nothing 
 more. In the world he would have heen 
 adorned with the pomp of his chil offices 
 and would have exercised the power in- 
 trusted to him by the state ; and in. the 
 church he would liave tasted the pleasures 
 of devotion and friendship. He would have 
 been an Emperor in the world, and a Chris- 
 tian in the clnirch;bui not that motley cha- 
 racter, a Christian Kmperor every vvfjere : 
 it was the asstimpt'on of this charact.'r that 
 generated so many misf jrtunes. — R, E. IL 
 137. 
 
 But although the canons and opinions of 
 this council w«te backed by the power and 
 influence of the Emperor, which was very 
 great, yet the Christians who refused to 
 accede to them, were very nuraeous, *' It 
 is not necessary to look for founders of these 
 sects, for they were primitive Christians,who 
 would not conform. They had, as an ancient 
 writer says, neither head nor tail, neither 
 prmces nor legislators, anil consequently 
 no slaves ; they had. no btiginning and no 
 end, and in tliis respect they answered one 
 
bf their nick names, which was Melchisede- 
 cians; for like Melchisedec, they were vvith= 
 t)ut father, without mother, without begin- 
 tiing of da3^s or end of life. The church 
 thought them enthusiasts and blasphemers ; 
 the truth is, they followed no one, but acted 
 as their own understanding ordered them, 
 Us gooa men in all ages have alvvays done. 
 It is pleasant enough to hear the debates of 
 monks and prelates in council, about what 
 terms of commun'.on ought to be offered to 
 these people, ro bring them into the estab- 
 lishm(^ni ; 'whether in Case they shouW 
 offer to conform, they should allow their 
 baptism to be valid, whether tlieir ministers 
 should be coiisuered regularly ordained, 
 ■wiiether they should be allured or com- 
 pelled, and so on. 
 
 This large body of dissenters were resi- 
 dent in the empire from the first establish- 
 hient of the church in the fourdi cer.tury, 
 to the destruction of it inthe fifteenth. They 
 Were named Messaiians and Euchites, the 
 one a Hebrew, the other a Greek name, and 
 both signifying a people that pray, for 
 Vhey placed religion not in speculation but 
 
5S 
 
 milevotion and piety. Euchite among the 
 Greeks was a general name for a dissenter, 
 as Waldensian was in the Latin church, and 
 as Nonconformist is in England. Dr. Mo- 
 sheim says truly, that '* the accounts which 
 have been given of them are not in all re- 
 spects to be depended upon ; and there are 
 several circumstances which render it 
 extremly probable, that many persons of 
 eminent piety and zeal -for genuine Chris- 
 tianity, v/ere confounded by the Greeks 
 with these enthusiasts, and ranked in 
 the list of heretics merely on account 
 of their opposing the vicious practices and 
 the insolent tyranny of the priesthood, and 
 their treating with derision that motley 
 spectacle of superstition that was supported 
 by y)ublic authority." " Under this name,'* 
 adds he *' ail were comprehended, whoop- 
 posed the raging superstition of the times, 
 or looked upon true and genuine piety as 
 the essence of tiie Christian lelision.'* 
 What a pity that such a fine pen as that of 
 Moshoim should stain the character of such 
 a^people with the odious name of enthusiasm. 
 If any confidence could be placed ia 
 
Epipllanius, these people did not belleVc 
 the Trinity. He says, they spoke of one 
 Almighty and worshipped only him. They 
 erected a sort of courts, probably baptiste- 
 ries, like Bethesda ; and they built oratones, 
 and a kind of church's for public worship.. 
 There they assembled morning and evening, 
 and sometimes the meeting held so long 
 that they had candles. There they pra-yed, 
 sung hj^mns, read the scriptures, and the 
 wisest taught the rest. This was the whole 
 of their pubhc reUgion. It would be diffi- 
 cult to find either heresy or enthusiasm in 
 all this. 
 
 This general parent stock, called Euchites, 
 or dissenters, it should seem was divided 
 and subdivided by the clergy into various 
 classes of heretics. They misrepresented 
 their doctrines, blackened their characters, 
 and as often as they could, they excited 
 princes to persecute them. This was the 
 meaning of the artist who drew the Empe- 
 ror Andronicus as a horse v.iih a bridle in 
 his mouth, and Arsenius ih.' patriarch rid- 
 ing on him, with the reins in his hand. 
 Some of these dissenters doarmatised as the 
 
55 
 
 established clergy did, and they became 
 manichean, arian and athanasian Euchites. 
 Others were named after the countries where 
 they most abounded, as Bulgarians, Mace- 
 donians., Armenians, Phrygians^ Cataphry- 
 gians, Gaicitians, Philippopolitans, or as it 
 was corruj>tly sounded in- the west, Popoli- 
 cans, Pobhcans, Publicans. Others were 
 named after some eminent teacher, as Pau- 
 licians and Paulianists from Paul of Samo- 
 sata, or says the Princess Comnjna, from 
 Paul and John the sons of Callinices — IL 
 E. R. p.. 56, 57, 5S, 
 
 Ail the classes who did not hold tlie doc- 
 trine of a trinity of peisons in God, whe- 
 ther called Artimonites Paulianists Arians, 
 ^tonarchians, Patropassians, Sabellians, or 
 by any other name, administered baptism in 
 the name of Chifist, and these were the peo- 
 ple whom the Council of Nice required to 
 be r-e-baptized, in case they came to join 
 the popular party, who believed the trinity 
 ^f persons, who called themselves the or- 
 thodox, and who had managed being the 
 larger and more complying party of Chri*. 
 
 F 2 
 
S6 
 
 tians to get themselves established by the 
 secular power. H. E. R. p. 65. 
 
 The School of Alexandria had " intro- 
 duced a double sense of scripture, the one 
 plain, the other mysterious, and it was iot 
 the sake of initiating people into the mys- 
 terious part, that the intermediate state 
 first of Pupils and afterward of Catechu- 
 mens was invented. Pupillage supplied the 
 church with ministers, and the Catechumen 
 state was intended to furnish it with mem- 
 bers." R. H. B: p. 2Z6. 
 
 It is allowed by all writers of every com- 
 munity, that the whole doctrine of Cate- 
 chumenship proceeds on the ground of some 
 hidden doctrine in Christianity. It seems 
 as clear that there was no such doctrine till 
 the third century, when the rudiments of it 
 were invented at Alexandria*} which grew 
 by the fourth century into creeds for the 
 clergy, and into the Catechumen state for 
 the people, and so went on in following 
 centuries, till it ripened into systematical 
 divinity, of which the matter was furnished 
 by Plato and the manner ^vas taken froffi 
 Ari&totle. The school-men dilated the sub- 
 
57 
 
 ject beyond all bounds, and the reformers 
 reduced it to a compact size, but the whole 
 in every form is antiscriptural, and the con- 
 nection of it with church communion tends 
 to defeat the great end for which Jesus cama 
 into the world. R. B. B. 242. 
 
 During the first Catechumen state it was 
 not a few slight impressions^ such as ceremo- 
 nies make on the minds of children, but it 
 was a rational knowledge and an inward lovo 
 of virtue that inti^led a Catechumen to be- 
 come a competent or a candidate for bap- 
 tism. The first Catechetical lecture of Cy- 
 ril is wholly on this subject, and an excel- 
 lent address it is. Thus he speaks — ^" Yc 
 disciples of ihe. New Testament partakers of 
 the mysteries of Christ, if any of you af- 
 fect disguise in the sight of God he deceives 
 himself, and discovers his ignorance of the 
 Almighty. Beware, O man, of hypocrisy, 
 for fear of him who trieth the heart and 
 reins. Observe how men are enlisted into 
 the army, with what diligence their ages 
 and their bodies are examined : so the Lord 
 when he makes an election of souls, scrutini- 
 zes the wills, and it he discover any secret 
 y 3 
 
58 
 
 hypocrisy, he rejects the man as unqualified 
 for his spiritual army ; but if he finds him 
 worthy he freely bestows grace. The Lord 
 hath prepared you a spiritual table. Say to 
 him with the Psalmist :— Z'Aom Lord art 
 my Shepherdy I shall not want^ The Lord 
 m,aketh me to lie down in green pastures, He 
 leadeth ms by the side of still waters , He 
 restoreth my soul. — R. H. B. 251. 
 
 The two following extracts from the dis- 
 courses of Basil, Archbishop of Casarea, 
 may serve to shew both how and whom they 
 baptized in the Greek Established church m 
 the fourth century. 
 
 ** It is necessary to the perfection ■ of* a 
 christian life, that we should imitate Christ; 
 jiot only such holy actions and dispositions, 
 as lenity, modesty, and patience, which he 
 exemplified in his life ; but also his death, 
 as Paul saith, — ** lam a follower of Christ. 
 I am conformable to his death. If by any 
 ^means J might attain unto the resurrection 
 ef the dead. Horn can we be placed in a con- 
 dition of likeness to his death, By being 
 buried with him in baptism. What is the 
 loimof this burial; and what beue^ts flow 
 
m 
 
 from an imitation of it ? First the couvse 
 of former life is stopped. No man can do 
 this unless he be bo7'7i again, as the Lord 
 hath said. Regeneration, as the word it- 
 self imports, is the beginning of a new life; 
 therefore he that begins a new life must put 
 an end to his former life; Such a person re- 
 sembles a man got to the end of a race, who 
 before he sets off again, turns about, pau- 
 ses, and rests a little : so in a change of life 
 it seems necessary that a sort of death sliould 
 intervene, fiutting a period to the past, and 
 giving a beginning to the future. How are 
 we to go down with him into the grave ? By 
 imitating the burial of Christ in baptism; 
 for the bodies of the baptized aue in a sense 
 buried in water. For this reason the apos- 
 tle speaks figuratively of baptism as 2i laying 
 aside the works of the flesh : ye are circiurn- 
 cised with the circumcision made- without 
 hands, in putting off the body of the sins of 
 the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buiH- 
 ed with him in baptism, which in a man- 
 ner cleanses the soul from the impurity of 
 its natuj-al carnal affections ; agreeably to 
 this saying,— ^a^A me and J shall he white)^ 
 
60 
 
 than snow. This is not-like the Jewish pu- 
 rifications, washing after every defilement, • 
 but we have experienced it to be one cleans- 
 ing baptism, one death to the World, and 
 one resurrection from the dead, of both 
 which baptism is a figure. For this purpose 
 the Lord, the giver of life, hath instituted 
 baptism a representation of both life and 
 death ; the water overflowing as an image 
 of death, the spirit animating as an earnest 
 of life. Thus we see how water and the 
 spirit are united. Two things are proposed 
 in bapiism ; to put an end to a life of sin, 
 lest it should issue in eternal death ; and to 
 animate the soul to a life of future sanctifi- 
 cation. The water exhibits an image of 
 death, receiving the body as into a sepul- 
 chre : the spirit renews the soul, and we 
 rise from a death of sin into a newness of 
 life. This is to be born from above of water 
 and the spirit : as if by the water we were 
 Tjut to death, and by the operation of the 
 spirit brought to life. 
 
 *' Whattimp so proper for baptism as Eas- 
 ter. — Let us receive the benefit of the re^ 
 swriection when we commemorate the re* 
 
61 
 
 surrection of Christ. For this the churrfi 
 lifts up her voice, and calls from far her 
 sons, that those whom she once brought 
 forth she may now bring forth again ; and 
 feed with substantial food them, whom she 
 had hitherto fed with the milk of the first 
 elements of religion. John preached the 
 baptism of repentance, and all" Judea went 
 out to him. — One John preached, and all 
 tlie people repented: but you a prophet 
 calls, saying, wash and be clean ; you the 
 Psalmist addresses^ when he says, — look to 
 the Lord and be enlightened ; to you the 
 Apostles say, — repent and be baptised every 
 one of you dn the name of JeSus Christ , foi" 
 the remission of sins and ye shall receive ilie 
 Holy Ghost ; — the Lord himself invites 
 you — come imto me all ye that labour and 
 are heavy laden, and I mil give you rest. 
 All these passages have been read to you to 
 day. Why do you delay ? Why do yoa 
 deliberate ? What do you wait for? Instruct- 
 ed in the doctrine of Christ from your in- 
 fancy, are you not yet acquainted with it ? 
 Having been always learning will you nev^' 
 come to the knowledge of the truth ? Making 
 
m 
 
 experiments all your life will you continue 
 your trials to ol I age, when then will you 
 bs a christian ? When shall we acknowledge 
 you for dur own ? Last year you deferred it 
 till this ; do you intend now to put it off till 
 the next ?" It seems clear that the homilies 
 ef Archbishop Basil were addressed not to 
 Pagans old or young, but to the children of 
 Christians, whom he calls the church— that 
 tbe Greek church of those times did not 
 force a profession of Christianity upon their 
 children, but conducted them to baptism by- 
 instruction and argument— that baptism was 
 administered by trine immersion — ^^and that 
 as the sermons of their Bishops were intend- 
 ed to persuade, so the lessons for the day 
 read openly in church were intended to ex- 
 plain and enforce the subject of baptism. 
 Nothing like this is to be found in the Lent 
 sermons of modern times, and a translation 
 of the Lent homilies of the ancient Greek 
 Bishop-s could not be read to any congrega- 
 tion of modern Christians without great 
 absurdity except to baptist assemblies, and 
 tliere they would be heard in raptures for 
 
63 
 
 llieir singular propriety and beauty.— ^!^. 
 H. B. p. 65^ eQ, 67. 
 
 The baptism, then, of the Greek church, 
 as well as of St, Sophia the metropolitan — 
 was thai; of instructed adults, whether Pa- 
 gans, or children of ChristianSj by trine 
 immersion. It would be easy to make simi- 
 lar remarks on more eastern churches, as on 
 that of Antiocb, that at Alexandria, that 
 at Jerusalem, and on m.Miy more, for all their 
 baptisteries resembled that at St.- Sophia, and 
 their baptism was that of believers by trine 
 immersion. — R. II, B. p. 70, 71. 
 
 But Anno 381, the year after Basil died, 
 Gregory then Bishop of Constantinople 
 delivered his fortieth oration, and having 
 severely censured a delay of baptism on 
 account of the danger of it, gave his opi- 
 nion on the propriety of baptizing children, 
 and the absolute necessity of baptizing even 
 babes in case of danger of death. These are 
 his words : — ^^But say some what is your 
 opinion of infants, who are not capable of 
 fudging either of the grace of baptism or 
 of the damage sustained by the want of it; 
 shall we baptize them too ? — By all meanSp 
 
64 
 
 ifVhere be eny apparent dj^nger. For it 
 were better they were sanctified without 
 their knowing it, than that they should die 
 without bfting sealed -and initiated. As for 
 others, 1 give my opinion, that when they 
 are three ye^ars- of age or thereabouts (for 
 then they are- able to hear and answer 
 some of the mystical v/orda, and -although 
 they do not fully undv^rstand they may re- 
 ceive impressions) they may be sanctified 
 both soul and body by the great inystery of 
 initiation. R. H. B. p. 249, 230. 
 
 Baptism in the New Testament is plain 
 and hath in it no mystery to be believed and 
 no difficulty ta be practised, but aker the 
 mode and change thesubject and it becomes 
 perpier-red, the most difHcalt thing in the 
 world to be understood, because incongruous 
 with reason, • and impossible to be practised, 
 because it violates the irreversible laws of 
 nature, and of course subverts morality to 
 serve the interest of faith.* — Ji, H. B. p. 
 384. 
 
 Arid therefore Gregory had reason to 
 
 -cloak his infant baptism under the name of 
 
 tke great mystery of initiation ; for how in 
 
1^5 
 
 ?it possible to understand it either by reason, 
 or scripture. Thus under tho name of 
 mystery a *' fata! error is taught that the 
 children are christians made so by baptism, 
 not that they ought to be so by convictions 
 of their own, so that the mind is subverted 
 and seta going wrong at the very beginning 
 of life, and taught to be irrational by tak- 
 ing things for granted without examinatiouj 
 which is doing every thing that can be done 
 to destroy reason and to reduce the noblest 
 xjreature of God to the condition of an un- 
 intelligent animal.— ii. H, B. p. 33G, 
 
m 
 
 Centura/ the Fifths 
 
 rpHOUGH all the fathers of the four first 
 ages down to Jerom were of Greece, 
 Syria, and Africa, and though they give 
 great numbers of histories of the baptism 
 of aduhs, yet there is not one ri'cord of the 
 baptism of a. child till the year three hun- 
 dred and seventy- , when GaJales, the dying 
 son of the Emperor Valens, was baptized by 
 order of a monarch, who swore he would 
 not be conM-aJicted. The age of the prince 
 is uncertain, and theassignuig of his ilhiess 
 as the cause of his baptism indicates clearly 
 enough that infant bapti!>m was not in prac- 
 tice. When therefore in the fourth century 
 government espoused one party of the christ- 
 ians, and established them by law to be for 
 ever distinguished from other citizens by 
 subscribing a speculative test, neither did 
 the establishment alter the ordinance of 
 baptism, nor did all the non. conformists 
 
G7 
 
 refuse to comply with the terms of commuo. 
 jiion on account of this ordinance 
 
 But in this century things began to wear 
 a different aspect, that African weed infant 
 baptism had been transplanted into Europe 
 the latter end of the last, and in the begin- 
 ning of this century it began to flourish un- 
 der the fostering influence of Austin and 
 Pope Innocent. 
 
 Austin, or as the catholics call him St. 
 Augustine, was born in Africa, and when he 
 was about twenty years of age he became a 
 teacher of rhetoric at Milan. Here he wrote 
 books in defence of that religion he was 
 about to embrac-' ; at length he became ac- 
 quainted with Ambrose the bishop, set his 
 heart on the ministry, renounced rhetoric 
 for a better trade, turned off his mistress, 
 vowed he would become a monk, and, in 
 company with his bastard son, then fifteen 
 years of age, and his friend Alypius, was 
 baptized by immersion in the baptistery at 
 Milan by Ambrose, in the year thi'ee hun- 
 dred and eighty seven, and in the thirty- 
 third year of his age He named his son at 
 his baptism Adeodatus, God's gift : ze/iose 
 G 2 
 
68 
 
 gifts the jnodest Ludics of Milan thought /#. 
 gitiiiiale child) c?i a't/e the history doth no^' 
 say. 
 
 Soon after he bpcam assistant to Valerius, 
 bishop of H:,ipo, ati.l lastly his successor ; 
 and all Africa, if the Fmperor woiikl help 
 Irim, should believe what he ordered them. 
 
 Whila Austin was at Milan he covertly 
 blowed up the coals of persecution in Spain, 
 where Priscillian and many of his followers 
 suffered for conscience sake. — R. E. R. p. 
 55, 190 to 193. 
 
 When he became bishop of Hippo, he 
 says, his city of Hippo had been full of 
 conventicles and schismatics, till he pro- 
 cured penallaws from the Emperor, and it 
 was the terror of them which converted his 
 flock. 
 
 Mr. Le Clerc, speaking of this pretended 
 juminary of Africa, says, " Augustine was 
 one of the very first who promoted two 
 doctrines^ which take away all goodness and 
 justice both from God and man. By the 
 one, God is represented as creating the 
 greatest part of mankind to damn them, and 
 to sentence them to eternal torments, for 
 
69 
 
 sins committed by another, and which tliey 
 themselves could not avoid. By the other, 
 he stirred up magislrates, and all who have 
 the administration of public affairs, to per- 
 secute those who differ from them in religi- 
 on." 
 
 It has been noticed before that he was 
 baptized in the thirty- third year of his age. 
 And in his book, De Fide and Con. oper. 
 cap. 6, he says, that none without due ex- 
 amination, both as to doctrine and conver- 
 sation, ought to be admitted to baptism. 
 By which it appears that he was not at first 
 an advocate for infant baptism. 
 
 But in his fourth book against the Dona- 
 tists, c. 23, he says, infants are to be bap- 
 tized, who can neither believe with their 
 hearts to justification, nor confess with their 
 mouths to salvation. 
 
 And in his sermon, De Baptismo Parvalo- 
 rum, against the Pelagians, c. 14, he saysj 
 that children should be baptized, because 
 of original sin, and that, without which 
 they could never be regenerated or saved. 
 
 Dr. Barlow, speaking of infant baptism^ 
 G 3 
 
70 
 
 says, Austin was the first that ever said it' 
 was necessary — Danvers. p. &i. 
 
 Dr. Taylor says, Austin was the first that 
 ever preached it to be absolutely necessary. 
 Liberty of Prophecying. p. 321. 
 
 He also taught the necessity of giving 
 them the Lord's supper as soon as they were 
 baptized. And in his 107th epistle, from 
 John vi. 53. he boldly says, In vain do we 
 promise hifants salvation without it. 
 
 And !ie appears to have used his utmost 
 efforts to establish his doctrines of original 
 sin, infant baptism, and infant communion. 
 
 Austin contended chiefly with four class- 
 es : Arians, Pelagians, Manicheans, and 
 Donalists, not forgetting others of less 
 note. 
 
 The Arians are so well known, that there 
 needs no description of them. But it may 
 be necessary to observe, that in these 
 times, they baptized only believers. That 
 the Actians, Unomians, Anomians. and 
 many more, whom people named after their 
 own ideas, but all heretics, are often con- 
 founded with the Arians. And that these 
 also baptized only believers, 
 
Pelagius was a native of Britain, who not 
 darinor to imaG;ine that a just God would 
 punish one being for the crime of another, 
 denied the doctrine of original sin, and as- 
 serted, that it was in every man's power to 
 sin, or not to sin. Herearroned thus, — *' If 
 sin be inevitable, it can be no crime, or 
 God must be unjust : but sin is a criui?, and 
 God is just ; ergo, sin may be avoided. 
 St. Austin, the Emperor, and the Pope, 
 answered his arguments with anathematiz- 
 ation, " He had a great multitude of dis- 
 ciples, wKo in spite of Jerom and Austin 
 and the Pope, thought and acted for them- 
 selves." 
 
 Manes was a Persian physician, who em-- 
 braced Christianity, and of whom an end- 
 less number of idle tales are told. What is 
 certain is that he professed and taught the 
 Christian religion, and had a great number of 
 followers, in the third and succeeding cen- 
 turies, called, after him, Manicheans. The 
 catholics taxed them with such errors as they 
 did some other classes of Christians, who 
 would not receive the orthodox doctrines. 
 The general charges were these, they are 
 
72 
 
 said to deny baptism, but this is to be under- 
 stood PS ttic other charges of denying the 
 Old Testament and the Godhead of Christ 
 are. They denied these in the sense in 
 which their oponents affirmed them. They 
 thought the oM Testament a true histor3',but 
 not a rule of Christian action. Great num- 
 bers of them called Jesus God, though they 
 supposed him so only by office ; and the 
 bulk seemed to have explained the matter 
 as they do, who hold the indwelling scheme. 
 In regard to baptism they were so far 
 from rejec'^ing it in the East, that if they 
 erred it was by baptizing too much, if the 
 expression may be allowed. They re-bap* 
 tize, said one of their opponents, but instead 
 of being immersed in water, they ought to be 
 plunged into hell ! R. H. B. p. 208. They 
 denied the validity of catholic baptism, and 
 for that reason baptized those catholics who 
 joined them. It was for this they were tax- 
 ed with denying baptism. This was the 
 sin never to be forgiven, and for this they 
 ought to be plunged into bell in the opinion 
 ©f their enemies o 
 
73' 
 
 The Manlcheans " accounted for the otU 
 gin of evil as many a icient eastern sages 
 had done, ant-t as some modern philosophers 
 do now, by supposing that moral evil rose 
 out of pliysicyj or natural imperfection. It 
 should seem by Scrapion, Titus, and others 
 who wrote irst against them, that this was 
 their meaning. 
 
 *' They held the unity of the first great 
 cause, and explain the natures of the Son 
 and the Spirit how they would, they dis- 
 owned personality and trinity. 
 
 *' Their morals were rigid and severe, their 
 worship simple and oriental, consisting in 
 the adoration of one God by prayer and 
 praise. — They refused oaths, remonstrated 
 against penal sanctions, and denied the au- 
 thority of magistrates over conscience. One 
 of the most learned antiquaries hath produc- 
 ed ancient manuscripts, which prove they 
 denied the baptism of infants, and others 
 who had been intimate with tliem describe 
 their manner of baptizing adults, as that of 
 the Bogomilans antl others is described in 
 the Greek church. Manicheans in England 
 would be called Unitarian Baptists. Fo^ 
 
74 
 
 Br. Mosheim hath proved that they didbap- 
 tize adults, and that they did not baptize 
 any but such as requested it." 
 
 Donatus was a man of afreat learning and 
 virtue, and his followers were called Dona- 
 tists. The Donatists thou^jht the church 
 ought to be kept separate from the world, 
 a religious society voluntarily congregated 
 together for pious purposes, and for no 
 other. With this viev/ they admitted none 
 without a personal profession of faith and 
 holiness, and them they baptized ; or, if they 
 had belonged to the great corrupt party, 
 re-baptised... They used for all this the 
 New Testament. . The Catholics, of whom 
 Austin was the head, taxed them with de- 
 nying iii effect, if hot in express words, the 
 Old Testament, and particularly such 
 prophecies as spoke of the accession of 
 kings, and gentiles, and nations to the 
 church of Christ. " Is it not foretold, 
 said Austin, that, to me every knee shall 
 bow ?" 1 he Catholics then were for a national 
 church for the sake of splendour : the Do- 
 natists, for a congregational church, for the 
 
•;T5 
 
 sake of purity of faith and manners. — R. H, 
 B,p. 215, 496. 
 
 *' It is generally supposed the Donatists 
 were Trinitai'ians, and held all the doctrines 
 of Rome, for writers of the times expressly 
 affirm this ; but other writers of equ^l au- 
 thority affirm the contrary : probably both 
 say tile truth, and their clue is the. bond of 
 union. The Romans wrote after, their own 
 ideas, and as they had no notion <!)f any tyo 
 exc.pt that uniform belief, each affirmed, 
 that of all the Donuists, wliich was true only 
 of that part, which fell, qnder. his notice. 
 Variety of sent imoni., was the natural con- 
 comitant of their discipline, as immorality 
 "was that of the Romans. ■ It is more natural 
 to reconcile seepaing contratlictions in this 
 manner, than to. suppose historians guilty 
 of writing, known falsehoods." — II. E. R, 
 p. 8. ,And if the generality of them had not 
 materially differed in sentiment from the 
 cburc'i of Rome, why should Austin perse- 
 cute then, with such fury. 
 
 Twisk says, " That the followers of Do- 
 natus, were all one with ti:e Anabaptists, 
 denying baptism to children j admitting the 
 
76 
 
 •believers only thereto, who desired t-he 
 same." — Cr<in. 1.6, p. 201. 
 
 Osiander tells us, "That our modern 
 Anabaptists wcr.^ the same with.^the Dona- 
 lists of old."— /,j(??Y. ce)it. xvi./?. 175. 
 
 Fuller says, *' '1 h;n the Anabaptists are 
 -the Donatibts new dipped." — Eccles. Hist> 
 I. 5, p. 229. 
 
 Bullinger tells us, ^' That the Donatists, 
 and the then Anabaptists, held the same 
 opinions. "—Z//;. v./y/. .216, 22J, of Bap' 
 . iism. 
 
 *' AusMn's third and fourth books against 
 .the Donatists demonstrate, that they denied 
 infant baptisa^ ;= wher.;in he manageth the 
 .arguments for infant baptism against them 
 ..wiih great zeal ; enforcing it from several 
 arguments, but especially from apostolical 
 tradition; and cursingwith great bi.ter- 
 ness those that would not embrace -it."— 
 Dunvers Traat. on Bap. p. 223. 
 
 The Donatists were very numerous, there 
 were about four hundred congregations in 
 Africa. Austin excited the Catholic bishops 
 to exert themselves witk the utmost vigor 
 -against them : '* and deputies were seat ia 
 
:7T 
 
 'the year four hundred and four, from the 
 
 ^rcouncil of Carthage to the Emperor Hono- 
 rus, to request that the laws enacted against 
 heretics by tbe preceding Emperors, might 
 have force agauist the Donatists: and the 
 year following, new laws, much severer than 
 
 ''the former, were enacted against them. 
 And as the magistrates were remiss in the 
 execution of these, the council of Carthage, 
 
 .in the year four hundred and seven, sent a 
 
 -second time deputies to the Emperor, to 
 desire that certain persons might be ap- 
 pointed to execute these edicts with vigour, 
 
 -and their request was granted. But in four 
 hundred and nine, the Emperor published a 
 law in favour of liherty of conscience, pro- 
 hibiting all compulsion in matters of religion. 
 This law, however, was not of long duration; 
 it was abrogated at the earnest and repeated 
 solicitations of the council held at Carthage, 
 in the year four hundred and twelve : and 
 
 ;from the sequel of the account, it appears, 
 that Austin and his ecclesiastical tyrants, 
 never rested until the Donatists were re- 
 duced by fines and imprisonment, banish- 
 ment and death. And it was not Austin's 
 
- ^6 
 
 '^fauU, that there was one Donatist )cft ta 
 
 •tell the barbarous tale. — See Mosiieim^^^ 
 Ecdcs. Hist vol. ii, p. 58, 59, 60. 
 
 WliPii tne Donatists reproaclied him 
 with making martyrs of their b shops and 
 elders, as RIarculus, Maximinn,: Isaac, atKi 
 
 -Others, and tol I hiin God would require an 
 account of their blood at the day of judg- 
 ment, be answered, " I, I know nothii>g 
 about your martyrs — martyrs ! — martyrs to 
 the devil! — They were not martyrs — it is 
 the cause, not the suffering that makes a 
 
 .martyr. There is. no such thir.g as a mar- 
 tyr out of thec:uirch. Beside, it was. owing 
 to their obstinacy, they kill-'d themselves; 
 
 .and now you blame the -magistrate." 
 
 Thus four hundred congregations of 
 
 -Christians. were delivered over to banish- 
 ment and death, to graliiy the boundless 
 ambition of Au.;tin and the Pope, to rule 
 over conscienc ". 
 - *' If the name of Augustine had not sut>k 
 
 , below cGiilempt iix every free country, his 
 conduct in procjuring the first law to com- 
 pel Christians to baptize their infants, in a 
 
 -council held at Mela, in Nutrjidia,. in tbc 
 
r9^ 
 
 year four* hundred and sixteen, would de-- 
 serve a treatise by itself," The canon runs 
 thus : " Also it is the pleasure of the bi- 
 shops to order, that whoever denieth that 
 infants newly born of their mothers are to 
 to be baptized, or saith that baptism is to 
 be administered for the remission of their 
 own sins, but not on account of original - 
 sin derived from Adam, and to be expiated 
 by the lavcr of regeneration — be accursed." 
 
 An honest indignation rises at the sound 
 of such tyranny. To curse Christians for 
 not saying more of a subject than the scrip- 
 ture says, and for denying what there is 
 neither precept, president, or example 
 for in thew'ortl of God. Who can help being 
 offended at tlie sight? who can be grieved 
 to see the Vandals come forward and subvert 
 all the labours of Austin's life ? 
 
 ** Austin and his company were the first 
 who ventured to attack at law believer's bap* 
 tism : they went therefore on the forlorn 
 hope, and a plain tale puts them down. 
 They did not pretend to ground infixnt bap- 
 tism on scripture, but tradition ; and as 
 they could not possibly cite a law human 
 H 2 
 
80 
 
 or divine, they ventured to place it' cm 
 umversa! custom. Had custom been for it, 
 and reason against it, reason should Jiave 
 t;»ken place of custom ; but with what pos- 
 s ble decency could Austm dure to affirm 
 this? Some, who have no very favourable 
 opinion of either the sincerity or modesty 
 of the man, are so shocked at this affirma- 
 tion, that they suspect his works have been 
 interpolated, and think he could not say 
 so. Yes, he is allowed by those, who have 
 most studied his works, to have constant- 
 ly affirmed this. Was he himself then bap^ 
 tized in his infancy ^ — was Ambrose, who 
 baptized him, baptized in his infancy? — was 
 his own natural son baptized when he was 
 an infant? — was his father Patricius baptized 
 when an infant? — had he, who pretendedhe 
 had been a Manichean, never heard that 
 they did not baptize infants ? — had all other 
 heretics escaped his notice ? — had he forgot 
 himself when he taxed the Pelagians with 
 denying infant baptism ? and when he com- 
 plained in another book of people who op- 
 posed it ? — if it were an established universal 
 custom, for whose use was the law made xq. 
 
81 
 
 compel it ? A thousand more such questions 
 might be put, all serving to contradict this 
 falsehood." 
 
 Some Christians said to Austin, "the 
 ground on which you place baptism, is not 
 able to bear the baptism of babes ; it sets 
 aside the necessity of baptism itself to the- 
 children of all Christians. You say, infants 
 must be baptized because they are sinners. 
 We ask, when they sinned ? you say, never 
 in their own persons, but they were in the 
 loins of Adam when he sinned. And pray 
 were they not in the loins of their imme- 
 diate parents, when they were baptized ? 
 how came they to derive guilt from a re- 
 mote ancestor, and not grace from an im- 
 mediate parentj whose sins both original 
 and actual^ you say were all washed away 
 in his baptism ? Austin knew all this ; buC 
 as Adam was the very foundation of his 
 system, and he could not possibly preach 
 once without him, he was forced to write a 
 book to answer these objections, against 
 both the practice of baptizing infants, and 
 the reason on which his canon was founded. 
 H©vv was it possible this man could c^Ui 
 B 2 
 
83 
 
 infant baptism an apostolical custotn ?'*— • 
 R.H. B.p,2\. 
 
 It appears this council was held first at 
 Carthage, and then adjourned to Mela or 
 Melevitan in Numidia. " Augustine was 
 present, and he with four other bishops, 
 sent a long letter to their most honoured and. 
 blessed Lord Pope Innocent I, In which 
 they inform him, that though they hoped 
 Pelagius was silenced, yet his adherents 
 were very numerous ; and they said infants 
 were not born in sin, and therefore had no 
 need of baptism to wash it away. This order to 
 baptize infants, therefore, was intended to 
 involve the people in the profession of a 
 doctrine taught by Augustine, by entan- 
 gling them in a practice from which the 
 bishops intended to argue for the doctrine; 
 this was artful enough — most of the dis- 
 ciples of Augustine entered thoroughly into 
 Jiis views, and at the reformation, when 
 Herman, archbishop and elector of Cologne, 
 attempted to reform his church, and pub- 
 lished a directory for the purpose, he ordered 
 the oificiating priest, when he administered 
 baptism, to pray to i^ighiy God, ^ bjn 
 
85 
 
 oaptismal water, to drown the filth which: 
 the infant had taken of Adam, as he iiad. 
 drowned Pharaoh in the red sea, 
 
 *' In the spring of the next year, Inno- 
 cent wrote a letter to Augustine, to signify 
 his approbation of what was done. The 
 same Innocent ver}' consistently introduced^ 
 infant communion : this grew out of infanti 
 baptism, as that did out of original sin. And> 
 if there be such a thing as original sin iiv 
 the sense of these innovators^ and if water 
 can wash it away, it is certainly a great 
 amendment, and one that Jesus with all- 
 his wisdom and compassion did not think 
 jfit to appoint. 
 
 The Magdeburginsians say, the proceed- 
 ings of this council were transmitted to 
 Pope Innocent I. " for his further ratifica- 
 tion ; and accordingly received the same ii> 
 bis decretal epistle at large, inscribing their 
 letters thus : — The fathers of the council, to 
 Innocent, the pope and high priest ; styling 
 him most holy father." — Cent, v, p. 822^ 
 
 As the bapiism of infants was first decreed 
 
84 
 
 !}}' this pope, it may not be amiss to de- 
 scribe his character. 
 
 The authors just mentioned tell us, 
 *' That he most strenuously laboured for 
 tlie universal bishopric, and supremacy 
 over all churches, as appears (say they) in 
 all his epistles, designing to bring the de- 
 termination of all the principal ecclesiasti- 
 cal causes into that see ; especially in his 
 epistle to Victricium and Decentium ; and 
 he blasphemously attributed divine honor 
 to the popedom, as appears in that epistle 
 to Victricium.'' 
 
 He was a great establisher of human tra- 
 dition — he made confirmation a sacramenty 
 and confined it to the bishops to lay hands 
 on baptized infants ; and appointed that 
 the eucharist should be given to young 
 children as soon as they were baptized. 
 
 " He instituted many of the Jewish and* 
 Pagan laws, as appears, they say, in his 
 book De Pontiff. — Hen. v. Also forbade 
 tlie marriage of priests, and damned the 
 nuns if they married." — Cent. v. 'p. 122* 
 to 1231. 
 
 And to wimesiB his supremacy he excom- 
 
m 
 
 xnunicated the Emperor Arcadius and all 
 his ecclesiastics, that had any hand in the 
 banishment of John Chrysostom." — p. 662, 
 663. He was also a great persecutor and 
 expelled the novations from Rome.— Socrates.- 
 L 1. p. \9 
 
 This decree of Pope Innocent was after- 
 wards confirmed by the Popes Fosimus and. 
 Boniface his successors, as appears in CocL. 
 Can. cap. 110, Jff. cap. 17, and Be Conse- 
 crat. Distinct. 
 
 The Magdeburginsians say in their epis- 
 tle to this fifth century, " That it might 
 then be understood that Rome, that had 
 hitherto governed the world, was now made- 
 the very seat Qf Antichrist."— by the bishop. 
 g£ Rome's lifting up himself in supremacy- 
 above all other bishops and churches." 
 
 When we retlect on the character and. 
 conduct of this Pope, his readiness to inno- 
 vate, and his endeavours to exalt himself 
 and the Popedom; — when we consider the 
 conduct of Augustine, and the African 
 bishops, the spirit they manifested in their 
 councils, and compare their canons with 
 the scriptures ; It is evidenJ:, that both, tlie 
 
|5ope and the bishops weresadlj degenerated" * 
 fi'xjm the apostolic character. It appears > 
 that they had lost sight of the beautiful sim- - 
 plicity of the gospel, the spirituality of its • 
 ordinances, and of the excellency and ef- - 
 fects of genuine faith and love; and \ver«; > 
 actuated by a fiery zeal for some doctrinal 
 points devised by men, and a stupid zeal " 
 for asenseless round of rites and ceremo-^ 
 iiies. And therefore we need not be sur- • 
 prised at the measures taken by them to > 
 impose on mankind the baptism and com- 
 munion of infants, perverting those ordi-- 
 nances of their Lord, and their spiritual 
 intent, l>y applying or forcing them on 
 those who had little, if any more capacity ' 
 to receive them.^ than the offspring of the • 
 brute creation » 
 
 Faustus the Manichean said to Augustine, 
 *' How dare you call me a Pagan schismatic* 
 The Pagans honor Goa, they think by 
 building temples, erecting altars and images, 
 and by offering sacrifices and incense. I 
 have quite other notions, I consider myself 
 iP I be worthy a rational temple of God, I 
 lioiiour Je&us Christ his son as his ex press- 
 
.•4riiagc. A well instructed mind is his altar, 
 ■and jnirc and simple adoration the only ac- 
 ■ cepta'dG-sacriiice to GiA. For your parts 
 you .'lavesubsiitut d tlie ceremo.d -s of your 
 love feasts .-in the plate of bacrificeSj 
 rmart)' rs n)stead of i.lols, and you iionour 
 tlieui as rho Paoans do t.ieir deities by votive 
 /oflferinis. You a )pjase the manes of the 
 dead by wine and festivals. You celebrate 
 the feasts of Pagani.!<ii3 by observing- days ; 
 and in regard to their morals you preserve 
 them entire, and have altered nothing-. It 
 is you then, not.vve, vylm are Pagan schis- 
 niat'.cs, and nothing disting'jishes you from 
 : the rest of the heattiens, but your holding 
 separate assemblies. Vou ask me whether I 
 believe the gospel ? Is that a questipn to 
 put to a man who observcs.all the precepts 
 of it? I might witii. propriety pur the ques- 
 tion to yoUj because yuur life gives no 
 proof of it. As for me, 7 have quitted fa- 
 ther, mother, and children. I have re- 
 nounced all that the gospel commands me to 
 ..renounce: and you ask whether I believe 
 -the gospel? I perceive you do not un- 
 vilerstand the gospel, which is nothing ipuut 
 
88 
 
 Jtlie doctrine and the precepts of Jesus 'Christ. 
 I have renounced silver and gold ; I carry 
 none in my purse ; I am content with daily- 
 bread; I am free from anxiety about the 
 movrow, what I sliall eai and where- wiihai 
 1 siial! be clothed : and yet you keep asking 
 'me whether 1 believe the gospel. 
 
 You say the son of God was born of a 
 "virgin. Now, let u-^fuppose that the his- 
 tory of the birth of Christ' is one part of the. 
 gospel, you will not pretend to affirm it is 
 "the whole gospel. The commandments of 
 Jesus arc another part. If you accuse me 
 of not bv>lievi ng the gospel because I do not 
 admit the history of the birth of Christ, I 
 accuse you in my turn of not l>elieving the 
 gospel, and with much more reason, be- 
 cause you do not practise the precepts of it. 
 We are both alike then. I do not admit the 
 genealogy of Christ, and you do admit it: 
 you do not practise the precepts of Christ, 
 - and I do practise them. Thus neither of 
 us admits the whole gospel : but it must be 
 -allowed, you have cliosen the easy, and I 
 the difficult part, and that Jesus hath not 
 annexed the promise of salvation to your 
 
•15-9 
 
 ^■part, but he hath to mine. He hath said 
 ye are my friends, if ye do \vhatsoe\tjr ~1 
 command you : but he hath not said ye are 
 Irjy friends, if ye believe I was born of a 
 virgin. R. E. R. 151, 194. 
 
 Thus froni the historical accounts of those 
 times, it evidently appears, tliat Pope In- 
 nocent and Augustine were the men who 
 imposed, established and enforced the bap- 
 tism of babes in tile catholic church. And 
 the Emperor Honorus who acted in concert 
 "with these innovating persecuting despots, 
 •published the following edict. 
 
 That tlie person re-baptized, as well as 
 the administrator, should be punished witii 
 acath. — Baronius Annals p. 413, numb. 6. 
 'Sebastian Frankyfol. 136, col. 3. 
 
 And from henceforth if any of those who 
 "■were baptized by the catholics in their in- 
 fancy, should afterwards be convinced that 
 the Lord Jesus required faith as a pre-re- 
 quisite to his baptism, and that nothin(T 
 short of their own personal profession of 
 faith in him, could entitle them to baptism, 
 and the gracious promise annexed to it, 
 ■ they must not comply with the command of 
 I 
 
90 
 
 their Lord, on pain of death. And if any 
 baptist minister dared to baptize suchj death 
 was his doom. And Albanus, with several 
 others were put to»death on the said edict, 
 in the year four hundred and twenty-four.— 
 Twisk Cron. I. 5, p. 149. 
 
 The African councils are the contempt of 
 every liberal mind, both for the doctrines 
 which they dehver, as articles of faitii and 
 for the presumption of pretending they 
 were the oracles of God. The orthodox 
 church practiced this very ancient mode of 
 governing by councils, and pretended that 
 Almighty God by the lips of his trusty and 
 v/ell-beloved Carthaginian bishops in coun- 
 cil, issued an order to persecute all who de- 
 nied original sin and infant baptism, a Trin- 
 ity of persons in the Deity . of heaven and 
 the divine right of bishops. Every weak- 
 ling who sat there is called a father, the 
 bench is denominated a most holy council, 
 the canons are set in a light of importance, 
 and take place of the genuine oracles of 
 God, and the Holy Infallible Spirit is al- 
 ways supposed to preside thcs'e. 
 
91 
 
 In'a council at Alexandria held in the year 
 four hundred and thirty, no less than twelve 
 Anathemas were hurled at the head of Nes- 
 torius, who, instead of calling the Virgin 
 Mary the mother of God, (a title with which 
 the catholics had long honoured her) choose 
 to call her only the 7nother of Christ: and 
 the year after, another council was called 
 by the Emperor Theodosius the younger, 
 to settle this doctrine so important to them, 
 when Nestorius was charged with blasphe- 
 Bfly, condemned without being heard, and 
 sent into banishment. — Mosheini's JEccles, 
 Hist. vol. W.p. Q5, to 69. 
 
 While the Pope Augustine and the Em- 
 peror were carrying on their persecutions, 
 and enforcing the baptism of babes. The 
 Goths were wasting the Roman empire. 
 The famous Alaric began his incursions 
 about the year 395. He first ravaged 
 Greece, then wasted Italy, besieged Rome, 
 and was bought off at an exorbitant price. 
 Besieged it again in the year 410, took and 
 plundered the city, then set it on fire in 
 several places, 
 
 I 2 
 
92 
 
 Genseric, king of the Vandals, over-TOn , 
 Spain, then embarked for Africa, attacked^ 
 and conquered the Roman provinces there. 
 Augustine was turned of seventy-five years 
 of age, when his city of Hippo was besieged, 
 liaving lived long enough to see that wicked 
 doctrine of persecution which he had 
 taught the orthodox to practice on such as 
 he called schismatics and heretics, returned 
 with a vengeance on him and his devoted 
 party. During the siege he sunk into the 
 grave ; this appears, to have taken place in 
 429, after having spent a great part of his 
 life in banishing: and butchering the dissen- 
 ters. His friend, the Emperor Honorus, 
 died before him, in the year 423. 
 
 The catholic historians say, that in less 
 than one year after the conquest of Africa 
 by the Vandals, that " of all the innume- 
 rable churches of the orthodox, only three 
 remained in all Africa." Salvian truly says, 
 ** they had only the appearance of Chris- 
 tians, and hardly that. Other nations, says 
 he, have some good qualities to abate the 
 horror of their crimes, but Africans are no- 
 thing but vice." When the bishops and 
 
93 
 
 saints decamped, it is said, the people set 
 a wailing ; some cried — ** Who will baptize 
 these infants at Easter when you are gone ? 
 Who will hear confessions ? Who will -ap- 
 point pennance ? O ! miserable people ! that 
 we are, who but you can give us absolu- 
 tion ? You have power to bind and loose— 
 and whatsoever you bind or loose on earth , 
 is loosed or bound in heaven.'* 
 
 The account Salvian gives of these Afri- 
 can Christians, shews the propriety of an 
 observation by Mr, Robinson. — '* The 
 worst consequences that followed the bap- 
 tism of babes were, the loss of principle in 
 the baptised, and the loss of evidence to the 
 truth of Christianity itself. A virtuous pro- 
 fession of the Christian religion, is founded 
 on faith in Christ, and from tijis first ele- 
 ment, all after actions naturally flow ; but 
 where^ as in professing infants, the primor- 
 dial element is not, and cannot be, religion 
 rises on a postulatum or assumed proof, 
 and can be no more than a prejudice. The 
 lives of such nommal Christians give too 
 much evidence that they are Christians only 
 by prepossession, and hence comes their 
 I 3 
 
94 
 
 innumerable errors, passions and vices-. 
 Having no reasons of iheir own for either 
 faith or virtue, they l^now nothing of the 
 religion vi^hich they profess, and avoid none 
 of the crimes, which it was intended to 
 destroy. Hence blaspheming Christians, 
 debauched Christians, and so on. 
 
 It may be asked, how a church so grossly 
 wicked obtained the character of purity ? 
 —and on what account some of the clergy 
 were canonized as saints, and the principal 
 of them considered as pillars of the catholic 
 church unto this day ? The true answer is, 
 they placed all religion in faith, not in 
 virtue, and their bishops were the most zea- 
 lous contenders for hierarchial power of 
 any that ever appeared under the Christian 
 name, and nothing serves the- purpose of 
 absolute dominion more directly than the 
 baptism of babes. 
 
 About the year four hundred and seventy- 
 six, Odoacer, King of the Heruli, took the 
 imperial city of Rome, put an end to the 
 western empire, and caused himself to be 
 j)roclaimed King of Italy. But about the 
 year four hundred and ninety-thi-ee, he \5ias 
 
96 
 
 defeated, and slain by Theodorick, who 
 founded the kingdom of the Osrrogoths, in 
 Italy, where he reigned thirty-three years., 
 with great moderation and glory, granting 
 liberty of conscience to all, — i?; JFI. B, 1 83^ 
 207 J 335. 
 
96 
 
 Centurtj the Sixth. 
 
 ^'BOUT the beginning of this century, 
 Lorenzo, bishop oi Novara, in his ho- 
 mily on repentance, which seems to have 
 been a preparation sermon for baptism, or 
 a directory discourse immediately after it 
 proceeds to-shew ho^v Jesus took away the 
 sin oUh^ world hy being baptised in the 
 river Jordan ; which sin of the world he 
 supposes to be original sin: and then he 
 says, "Christ by being dipped in Jordan, 
 sanctified the waters. Baptismal water is 
 water of remission— at the font you re- 
 ceive not a Jewish but an evangelicd sign 
 That day, that hour, when you come out 
 of the laver, you have within yourself a 
 perpetually running water, a daily remis- 
 sion : you have no need of a teacher." and 
 so on. <^ Be the baptist to thyself-au 
 *hou defiled after >ptism? Is thy heart vi- 
 
97 
 
 Irated, thy mind . contaminated ? Dip thy* 
 self in the waters of repentance, wash thy^ 
 self in abundance of tears : let the fountain 
 of compunction diffuse itself through every 
 pore, let it be a living water overflowing 
 every fibre." All this is very spiritual, 
 however, the meaning is clear : repentance 
 and a teacher are necessary before baptism, 
 and baptism is not to be repeated ; because, 
 though a Christian may sin after baptism^ 
 yet as he continues to repent, it is not ne- 
 cessary that he should be baptized again^ 
 Moreover^ the homily shews a principle 
 received by many Christians, which ac- 
 counts for the conduct of such as do not 
 baptize infants,:, although they do believe 
 original sin. They think- Adam's sin 
 charged on all his posterity, was that which 
 John the. Baptist called the sin of the world ; 
 and which he said Jesus took avray : so that 
 neither infants nor adults are accountal)Ie 
 for Adam's transgr.ession, of course baptism 
 is unnecessary before the commission ol 
 actual sin."— 7?. //. B. p.. 93, 94, 95. 
 
 Theodorick departed this life on the this - 
 teeuth of August, in the year five hundred 
 
9S 
 
 and twenty six. He was free from tbe viees 
 of the princes of his age, and in all cases 
 h^ discovered a sound understanding, and a 
 love of virtue. He was a sincere lover of 
 liberty : he preserved it among all his own 
 subjects by an administration of equal 
 justice — he obtained it for foreigners in their 
 states by negoeiation — he acquired it for 
 slaves, by methods just and generous — and 
 at one time he redeemed six thousand cap- 
 tives from the Burgundians. He wanted 
 nothing of an emperor but the title, and that 
 was in his power had he chosen to adopt it. 
 
 It was nobly said by him, by way of per- 
 suading some in Pannonia to lay aside the 
 practice of deciding ..disputes by combat, 
 and to content themselves with decisions in 
 a regular course of justice by law,—" Of 
 what use to man is i.ls tongue, if all his 
 affairs are to be determined sword in hand ? 
 Where is peace to be sought, if not in ci- 
 vilized states ? Imitate our Goths, who are 
 brave in arms in the field of battle, but live 
 at home in habits of modesty with their fel- 
 low citizens. We wish to see you live like 
 children of one family, flourishing under 
 
99 
 
 the blessing of God." It was a day much 
 to be lamented, when these nations were 
 converted from ali this barbarism and heresy 
 to the holy catholic and apostolic faith. 
 
 This is the man whom providence sent to 
 bless the western world, as prophets had been 
 anciently sent to the Jews to guide them 
 into the paths of peace. The Catliolics like 
 the Jews, never knew the worth of such a 
 messenger of good. Orthodoxy not liberty j 
 hierarchy not social happiness, ritual wor- 
 ship, and not virtue were their objects; to 
 obtain these they conspired ^.gainst hira 
 during his life, and since his departure, they 
 hand his name down to posterity, trom book 
 -to book, under the odious appellation of 
 Arian, Anabaptist, heretic, and so on. 
 
 The successors of Theodorick were Arian 
 Baptists, and followed his example in main- 
 taining religious liberty. Totilas the Fifth 
 in succession, was a second Theodorick. ; It 
 was an axiom with him, and it seems to have 
 been an opinion universally received among 
 the Goths, that God was neither a general 
 approver of all mankind, nor of any particu- 
 lar .party ; but that he. was the friend and 
 
"100 
 
 -q>atroi) of every good and upright man. 
 The boasted founder of the Roman church 
 ■uas of the same sentiment. " I perceive, 
 said he, God isiw respecter of persons ; but in 
 ^evcry nation, he thatj'eareth God, and work- 
 'cth righteousness, is accepted with him.'''* 
 
 Battenburg informs us, that in the be- 
 ginning of this century, many opposed 
 "infant baptism. 
 
 AnticathoHcs were of two classes ; the 
 "first were such as the~ Cathohcs called here- 
 *tics, and who lived among them. These 
 'were very numerous, arid the penal statutes 
 say, the Donatists and the Manicheans were 
 the worst. This is a great presumption in 
 'favour of these two blasses. The civil and 
 the canon -laws of those times mention seven- 
 ty or eighty sorts of heretics : considering 
 the whole as one large body of free-thinkers 
 * unsubdued by authority, there are two re- 
 : marks worth making : first, it is impossible 
 f to prove, that these non- conformists did 
 ••baptize their children ; on the conlrarj', it 
 ^is absolutely certain that some of them did 
 -:t;ot. For example, the singular case <>f 
 
101 
 
 ; that spark, who was baptized at the sailing 
 of the fleet of Behsarius proves, that the 
 Eunomians did not. Secondly, it is unde- 
 niable, that many, and it is probable that 
 all disapproved of Catholic baptism, and 
 always re-baptized. The laws against re- 
 baptizing, and the histories of the Donatists 
 and the Puritans, are decisive oh this ar- 
 ticle. 
 
 The other class of Anticatholics were 
 such as resided in all other kingdoms, and 
 were not in communion with the Catholic 
 church. These were infinitelyvmore nume- 
 rous than the first class ; for at the begin- 
 ning of the sixth century, there was only 
 one Catholic King in the world, this was 
 Clovis, King of the Franks, all the rest were 
 Anticatholics, and most of them Arians. 
 Accuracy, however, requires a division of 
 the Arians into two classes. Such as re- 
 sided ill the empire make one class ; and 
 these again are to be subdivided, for a part 
 was a faction for power in the church ; and 
 another part desiring nothing but liberty of 
 conscience dissented. It should seem 
 these latter, when the former got into power, 
 K. 
 
102 
 
 united with them for mutual safety against 
 their common enemy, the Catholics ; but 
 foreign Arians abounded in their own sense 
 of scripture, and not only tolerated one 
 another, but persecuted nobody. When 
 Catholic historians represent the Gotiis, 
 and the Suevi, the Lombards, tke Burgun- 
 dians, and the Franks, toe Saxons, and 
 all the other German nations, as barbarians 
 and persecutors, they not only offer a cruel 
 insult to the memory of a brave and gene- 
 rous people, but they contradict all, even 
 Catholic historians who lived among them 
 at the time; and who, while they execrate 
 their faith as heartily as the most bitter per- 
 secutor can wish, speak in the highest terms 
 of their justice and c'emenc}'. It is very 
 probable from their principles, their laws, 
 and their history, that they practised the 
 baptism of minors ; but that they knew 
 nothing of the baptism of infants till the 
 Catholics taught them that, and the trinity, 
 and intolerance, three congenial friends, 
 which seldom part compan3^ 
 
 Some of these Unitarians administered 
 baptism in the name of .Christ; others in the 
 
103 
 
 name of tbe Father, and of tlie Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost, which they understood as 
 the Jews did, when they named Jehovah the 
 God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and tlic 
 God of Jacob ; not as descriptive of the na- 
 ture of God, but of three different charac- 
 ters or niodcs of manifestation. In one 
 point they all agreed, they re- baptized alt 
 who had been baptized among the Catholics., 
 and for this reason the Catholics calied theiri 
 Anabaptists. The Catholics were Trini- 
 tarians, and they held Unitarian baptism 
 valid, wliere it was performed in three 
 names, which they explained their own 
 way ; but they re-baptized such as had been 
 baptized only in the name of Christ, The 
 Catholics baptized their own children in 
 childhood after instruction, except the 
 sickly, and them they baptized at any time. 
 Thus stood baptism in the West, in the 
 middle of the sixth centurj^. 
 
 Justinian succeeded Justin in the empire 
 of the East, in the year five hundred and 
 twenty seven. In five hundred and tvyenty 
 nine, his code of law, called the " Justl- 
 uian Code" was first published, by whicli ^ 
 K 2 
 
104 
 
 those powers, privileges and immunities 
 were secured to the clergy, that union per- 
 fected between things civil and ecclesiasti- 
 cal, and those laws imposed on the church, 
 which have proved so injurious to Chris- 
 tianity, and so calamitous to mankind. And 
 whic'i code throuL^h the zeal of the clergy, 
 has been received more or less, as the foun- 
 dation of the jurisprudence of almost every 
 s:ate in Christendom, and that not only in 
 things civil, but ecclesiastical. — Bichend^s 
 Signs of the Times, p. 59. 
 
 Justinian was a Trinitarian, as his uncle 
 Justin had been; " but being safer on the 
 throne than he, all heretics were punished 
 with a barbarity which Justin had not dared 
 to exercise. V/ith the spoils of these unfor- 
 tunate sufferers, with taxesunjustly laid, and 
 infamously collected, and with literary 
 stipends formerly granted, the pious Justi- 
 nian built churches and monasteries to the 
 honor of Michael the Archangel, and the 
 mother of God, and enriched the orthodox. 
 — i?. E. R.p. 157, 166, 370,394. 
 
 Rulicius p. 249, and Glanaus, p. 627, 
 jrpeaking of the Baptists in Justinian's time. 
 
105 
 
 say, " They were honest and godly teachers, 
 and Christians, that from the example of 
 Christ's baptism, did reprove the evil cus- 
 tom of children's baptism, that like an 
 inundation was then broken in." — 3Iermng 
 p. 487, out of Rulicius, p. 249. 
 
 About the year five hundred and thirty- 
 four, Justinian declared the Pope the head 
 of all churches ; all were to be subject to 
 his judgment, but himself was to be judged 
 by none. And the Pope in return, promoted 
 bis design of recovering the western empire, 
 out of the hands of the Vandals and Goths, 
 and annexing it to the eastern. 
 
 Belisarius was appointed commander in 
 chief. The Emperor ordered the Admiral's 
 ship to be towed up to the front of the 
 palace, to receive benediction in the name 
 of the whole fleet, before it sailed. Epiph- 
 anius, patriarch of Constantinople, per- 
 formed the ceremony, one principal p-art 
 of which was putting on board a soldier im- 
 mediately after he had been baptised in the 
 Christian faith. A Christian, in the Greek 
 church, was supposed to bury all his sins in 
 K 3 
 
106 
 
 the act of immersion in v/ater, and for this 
 reason as the learned father Montfaucon hath 
 observed in his notes in his elegant edition 
 of Chrysostonij the Greeks called baptism 
 burial : and burial and baptism were syno- 
 nymous. Theophylact speaks accurately, 
 when he says, Jesus and his followers were 
 buried ; he in earth, they in water : he 
 three days, they three times, by being 
 three tunes immersed at baptism. When a 
 newly baptised man came up out of the wa- 
 ter, he was supposed to rise as it were from 
 the dead, to enter on a life like that of the 
 blessed in Heaven, all composed of right- 
 eousness and true holiness. What a sight 
 at Constantinople ! How full of conviction 
 to the gazing multitude ! A soldier at full 
 age in the prime of life, having well consi- 
 dered the matter, comes to the baptistery, 
 pauses before he enters, coolly confesses 
 that he had formerly lived in error and vice, 
 but that having weighed the matter, he had 
 come to the resolution to renounce all sin, 
 and to embrace that religion, which the just 
 and holy Jesus had exemplified : that to 
 express his renunciation of sin, he would 
 
107 
 
 renounce Lis former life in a fijrure, by be- 
 in^ buried in water, and prove his sincerity 
 by rising out of it and practising in future 
 piety and justice. Down he goes with an 
 holy man into the water, and, in the sight 
 of all comes up a new creature ; a few mo- 
 ments he disappears to put off his wet 
 habits, and put on his regimentals. Then 
 following the patriarch he goes on board, 
 and the first act of the holy man's hfe is the 
 unfurling of a flag, or the pulling of a rope, 
 to express that the war is undertaken on 
 principles of the purest justice. The admi- 
 ral, and his lady, his family, and his train 
 follow : the fleet sails, and if the expedition 
 succeeds, Te Deum brings up the rear, and 
 the empire bless God for prospering such an 
 upright undertaking. R. II. B. p. 410. 
 
 This account shews us that the heads of 
 the Greek church still entertained right no- 
 tions of baptism, although they were so 
 abominably corrupt and so wicked as to 
 abuse it, by applying the institution of the 
 prince of peace to promote and encourage 
 war and bloodshedding. And it also proves 
 that the orthodox were fully capable of ap- 
 
108 
 
 plying it to fleets, children, bells, or any 
 thing else that suited their caprice and 
 whims. 
 
 Belisarius succeeded in subduing the van- 
 dais in Africa ; after which he landed his 
 army in Italy, and took Rome. And in five 
 hundred and fifty-tree, Narses put a period 
 to the gothic kingdom in Italy. 
 
 The Catholics gave out that the revolution 
 was in answer to their prayers; and that the 
 Virgin Mary honored the general with sig- 
 nals for battle, at the express command of 
 God. The Emperor's edicts were enforced, 
 and the heretics persecuted of course. 
 
 But fifteen years afterwards, Albion, king 
 of the Lombards, conquered great part of 
 Italy. Who gave him the signals for battle ? 
 or why the Virgin Mary did not give the 
 Emperor's generals signals as before, the 
 Catholics do not tell us. But this we know, • 
 that under the Lombard government the 
 power of the Catholics to persecute cear^ed, 
 and the Unitarian baptists enjoyed full 
 liberty of conscience. 
 
 But reign who would, the Popes con- 
 tended for exemption from the civil power. 
 
109 
 
 binder pretence of religion, meaning by 
 that to ascend to dominion over it. 
 
 Justinian committed crimes and murders 
 inniunerable, to suppress heresy; and yet 
 in his old age became an heretic himself. 
 The church holds him in the highest esti- 
 mation, and makes this apology, by affirm- 
 ing, he was superannuated when he believed 
 heresy. 
 
 In Spain, the Priscillianists, Arians, Bo- 
 nosians, and others, who maintained the 
 baplism of believers, were very numerous. 
 In the acts of the catholic council of Toledo, 
 the Priscillianists are charged with holding 
 eighteen errors, which are evidently the 
 same in substance, as those which the 
 Manicheans, and Hierachites held. They 
 are not taxed with any one immorality, for 
 they were Unitarians, who- placed religion 
 in virtue. Their enemies never taxed them 
 with omitting baptism, and the above-men- 
 tioned conncil ex.pressly affirms that they 
 did administer it. They did not baptise in- 
 fants, but they baptised adulis, by dipping 
 once in tiie name of Christ. 
 
 Leovigild, was king of the Wisigoths, ia 
 
110 
 
 Spain, and he was an Arian. " When the 
 two sons of Leovigild acceded to the Catho- 
 lic faith, they were both baptised by the 
 Cathohc Priests ; consequently, they had 
 not been baptised in their infancy. Hence 
 it follows, that the Unitarians did not bap- 
 tise infants, for the Catholics did not re- 
 baptise these princes, because they had par- 
 taken of an invalid baptism. But they 
 baptised them because they had not been 
 baptised at all." — R, E. B. p. 162, 197, 
 207, 394. 
 
 The Catholics stirred up his son Herme- 
 nigild \0 rebel, and he " put himself at the 
 head of an army, and distributed a medal 
 with a motto importing, that an heretic, 
 thougha King waste be destroyed. Here^^y 
 is a glorious reason for a son to imbrue his 
 hands in the blood of his father." 
 
 Leovigild conducted his affairs in this 
 critical conjuncture, with the tenderness of 
 a parent, and the prudence of an experi- 
 enced governor. He convened an assem- 
 bl}' at Toledo, to tr}', if possible, to abate 
 the zeal of the enthusiastical Catholics, and 
 
Ill 
 
 to form an ,union between them and tlie 
 Ariatis. The chief article of discussion was 
 baptism, for all the Ariai) Goths, the Pris- 
 cillianists, the followers of Bonosius and 
 others, deemed heretics by the Catholics, 
 were literally Anabaptists in regard to the 
 Catholics. Themselves were baptized once 
 only, by dipping in the name of Christ; 
 but when Catholics who had been dipped in 
 the name of the Trinity, joined their 
 churches, they re.baptized them. The 
 Catholics resented this, and considered it, 
 a? it really was, a tacit denial of the whole 
 of their religion. Against this they pub- 
 lished books, and filled Spain with lamen- 
 table declamations and outcries against 
 lieresv and the sacrilege of re-baotizinor. 
 Yet the Goths tolerated Pagans, Jews, Ca- 
 tholics, and all others, and did not compel 
 any to join their churches. In this assembly 
 the mode of administering baptism was qua- 
 lified, and it was agreed that Catholics should 
 be baptized in the name of the Father, 
 through the Son, by the Holy Ghost ; 
 many acceded to this, and Vincent, bishop 
 of Saragossa, among the rest j and were re- 
 
112 
 
 baptized, joined the Arian church, and a 
 declaration of their conversion was pub- 
 lished. This manoeuvre drew off many 
 from the pars.y of Hermenigild. 
 
 By a second stratagem, Leovigild di- 
 vided and dissipated the army under the 
 command of his son. A part he bought off 
 by presenthig the general with thirty thou- 
 sand pieces of gold, and another part he 
 subdued by force of arms. To his son he 
 sent a most affectionate letter, in which he 
 contrasts his own generous conduct to the 
 undutiiul prince, with that of the prince to 
 him. Toward the close he informs him, 
 that religion in the present case was nothing 
 but a pretence, a name to conceal ambition 
 and love of dominion ! — that his pretended 
 piety went to subvert all laws human and 
 divine, and to provoke the displeasure of 
 God ; — that Providence had always pros- 
 pered the kingdoms of the Goths in their 
 profession of rehgion, and that be might 
 easily perceive the vanity of the new reli- 
 gion which he had embraced, by observing 
 that it taught a son to hate, resist, and de» 
 stroy his own father. He closes by offermg 
 
113 
 
 to forgive all his offences on condition he 
 gave up his enterprise, and by observing 
 what dreadful consequences must follow if 
 he persisted. Mariana hath preserved the 
 whole letter, and it will always do honour to 
 the writer. 
 
 Hennenigild persisted, but was subdued 
 and imprisoned by his father, where he 
 ended his days. 
 
 Leovigiid died in the year five hundred 
 and eighty-six, and was succeeded by Kec- 
 carrid, who had embraced the catholic faith; 
 under him the Catholics strongly shewed 
 their disposition, but his majesty was not 
 much disposed to persecute his Christian 
 subjects ; and their fiery zeal was in a great 
 measure restrained to their councils and 
 canons, in one of which a curse was de- 
 nounced against anabaptism. But the Jews 
 more severely felt the effect of their malice. 
 
114 
 
 Century the. Seventh. 
 
 ECCAIUD after a reign of fifteen years, 
 departed this life in the first j'ear of 
 this century. He was the first Catholic 
 king of Spain, and with him orthodoxy 
 died, and his successors vvere either Arians, 
 or Demi-catholics, or profligates, for one 
 hundred and thirty -eight years, when Al- 
 fonso I. sirnamed for persecuting the 
 Arians, the Catholic, hecamc King of the 
 petty kingdoms of Leon an J Asturias. The 
 saints and their books fell into oblivion, and 
 about forty years after the death of Recca- 
 rid, there could not be found in all Spain, 
 onie copy of Gregory's Exposition of Job. 
 J\nd of course the Arians, Priscillianists, 
 Bonosians, and other classes, who would 
 now be called Unitarian Baptists, enjoyed 
 religious liberty. 
 
 All parties baptized by immersion single 
 or trine, and all re-baptized, the catholics 
 niade a distinction between some who ad^ 
 
115 
 
 ministered baptism in vague terms, capable 
 of a trinirarian meaning, and others who 
 did not. The first they admitted to their 
 communion by the ceremony of unctio'j, 
 the latter they re-baptized ; as their decrees 
 in council concerning the Bonosians and 
 others, abundantly prove. Bonosius was a 
 bishop of a church in Macedonia ; he taught 
 as Photiuus, a bishop of Sirmium did, that 
 God was one undivided essence ; that th-re 
 was no plurality of persons in th'- Deity; that 
 Jesus vvab an extraordinary man, born of a 
 virgin by the POWEii of God; for so they 
 understood the scriptural phraseology, Holy 
 Ghost, Spirit of Go.l, and so on. 
 
 Isidore of Seville, about the year six hun- 
 dred and ten, published a treatise on the 
 offices of the church, in which he says, 
 *' Baptism conslsrs of immersion in repre- 
 sentation of the burial of Christ, and emer- 
 sion in a representation of his resurrection." 
 
 In a council held at Toledo in the year 
 six hundred and thirty-three, it was deter- 
 mined that baptism should be adminisrered 
 by single immersion. Reeves, in a note on 
 Justin Martyr's Apology, p. 97., says, 
 
116 
 
 '• Trine immersion, not being of absolute 
 ijecessity, was laid aside iu Spain by the 
 church, that they might not seem to gratify 
 the Arians, who made nse of it to denote 
 the persons in the trinity to be three dis- 
 tinct substances, and gloried that the Catho- 
 lics used it to denote the same." 
 
 In the beginning of this century, Adria- 
 nus, bishop of Corinth, did publicly oppose 
 the baptism of infants, insomuch as he would 
 neither baptize them himself, nor suffer 
 them to be baptized by others, but wholly 
 denied baptism to them, wherefore he was 
 accused by Gregory the Great, bishop of 
 Rome, to John, bishop of Larissa ; as ap- 
 pears by Gregory's epistle to the said John, 
 in which among other things, he com- 
 plains against the said Adrian, that he turned 
 away young children from baptism, and let 
 tiiem die without it, for which they proceed- 
 ed against him, as a great transgressor and 
 blasphemer. — Mhgd. Cent. p. 653. — Mon- 
 ianus^p. 80. — Dutch Martrol,p. 234. 
 
 Since the conquest of Africa by Justinian, 
 the Doiiatists had struggled against un- 
 righteous Jaws : and under all their hard- 
 
117 
 
 ships, they flourished bO muc!i, that Pope 
 Gregory wrote to two African bishops to 
 suppress them. — R. E. R. p. 112. 
 
 Gregory sent Austin the monk into Brit, 
 tain, who in the beginning of this century, 
 caused the murder of twelve hundred Bri- 
 tish Christians, and forced Monachism on 
 the Savons ; and as a part of it infant bap- 
 tism.—i?. H. B. p. 123. 
 
 Antharis the Arian king of the Lombards, 
 published an edict, to forbid the Catholics 
 baptizing the children of the Lombards the 
 Easter following. This was just, for it sup- 
 posed a right in the Romans to dispose of their 
 children, and it only prohibited their prac- 
 tising on the weak minds of the orphans 
 or minors of Arian families. It did not for- 
 bid them to baptize Lombards at age, who 
 had a right to dispose of themselves, but it 
 restrained minors from disposing of them- 
 selves before they were competent to judge 
 of what they were about. So it happened, 
 Antharis died before the Easter of the next 
 year, and pope Gregory wrote to all the 
 Roman bishops in Italy, to congratulate 
 them on the event. He calls this most just 
 L 3 
 
118 
 
 anJ excellent King the most execrable of 
 men J and says, iiis death v\as a judgment 
 inflicted on him by God, for the late edict, 
 and he advised them by all means to incul- 
 cate among the Lombards, that the wrath of 
 Almighty God was then inflict!' g on them 
 a general mortality, and that the only way 
 to appease the anger of the Deity was, to give 
 their children catholic baptism. He advised 
 them to be incessantly lavish of their pro- 
 mises of heaven in case of compliance — -a 
 fnie story for children ! The wisdom of 
 the latter edict, however, soon appeared ; 
 for Theodelinda, the widow of Antharis, 
 married Agiluf, duke of Turin, and the 
 Lombards made him king. Gregory cor- 
 rupted this lady, practised his arts on her 
 children, by sending them books, toys, trin- 
 kets, and tales, and procured the baptism of 
 her eldest son Adelvvald, into the catholic 
 faith, at which he felt raptures neither few 
 Bor small, ^t should seem Adelvvald was 
 about seven years of age at his baptism. 
 The baptism of Adelwald is another proof 
 that the Lombard Arians did not practice 
 infant baptism."— i?. £". R. p, 395, 396. 
 
119 
 
 ** Gregory affirmed every individual had 
 in him, Adam and Eve, and Satan ; bap- 
 tism washes away all the three, and super- 
 induces the Holy Spirit of God and saving 
 grace, therefore nothing can be more natu- 
 ral than to baptize infants as soon as pos- 
 sible." He says, *' We baptize by dipping 
 three times."— i2. E. R. p. 392, 385. And 
 as he had got tiu'ee persons to expel from 
 the infant, it is not to be wondered at that 
 he dipped it three times to drive them out. 
 *' But the fathers speak most emphatically, 
 when they declare in express words, that 
 water in baptism sufl'ocates and drowns the 
 devil."— iJ. H. B. p, 440. 
 
 By the exertions of pope Gregory and 
 others, *' baptism in this period underwent 
 a considerable change among the Catholics ; 
 it is said among the Catholics, because it 
 doth not appear that any other party bap- 
 tized natural infants, and this is the change. 
 The state Arians did not believe original sin, 
 and therefore they did not baptize on that 
 account. They never encouraged mona- 
 chism, therefore they did not baptize infants 
 by way of dedicating them to God. (Dissi- 
 
120 
 
 dents or) Dissenters of all sorts acted on 
 tlie one great principle, the ground of their 
 whole practice, which was that a Christian 
 church was a society of virtuous believers 
 in Christ, and they dissented from all estab- 
 lishments lest their churches should dege- 
 nerate into worldly corporations. No alter- 
 ation was made in the mode of administer- 
 ing baptism, it was dipping every where and 
 nothing else. 
 
 " During these times there were, in most 
 cities, both a Catholic and an Arian bishop, 
 and that there were many dissidents beside, 
 who did not unite with either, is clear, by 
 the writings of those times against them. 
 Heretics thought man a rational creature, 
 and supposed as God had made men reason- 
 able beings, they ought to be dealt with 
 rationally. On this ground they allowed 
 the Catholics places of worship to reason in, 
 or to work miracles as they thought proper, 
 but they did not gratify them with civil 
 power to punish such as did not believe 
 them. 
 
 In the reign of the first Lombards in Italy, 
 Monachism was checked, and many houses 
 
121 
 
 taken from thelv sacred inhabitants : but 
 the latter Lombard kings revived the frenzy. 
 Basil reduced the confused ideas of his 
 contemporaries to a rule, and had made 
 one for receiving children ; the babe was 
 carried into the chapel, his hand was wrap- 
 ped in the altar-cloth, a few ceremonies were 
 performed, and an offering of property for 
 his support, and for a reward to the monks, 
 was made. Basil laid it down as an axiom, 
 that instruction was to precede baptism : 
 his words are express ; and he not only 
 urges the command of Christ as an autho- 
 rity to baptize, but he strenuously pleads 
 for an observation of the order of words as a 
 rule for the order of things. Thus he be- 
 gins : — " Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only 
 begotten son of the living God, having re- 
 ceived after his resurrection the promise 
 which God his Father made by the prophet 
 David, saying, Thou art my Son, this day 
 have I begotten thee : ask of me, and I will 
 give ihee the heathen for thine inheritance^ 
 and the utmost parts of the earth for thy pos- 
 session, — assembled his disciples, and first 
 made known to them the power which he 
 
122 
 
 had received from God his Father : — saying. 
 Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in 
 the name of the Father, and the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you. The Lord first commanded them to 
 teach all nations, and afterwards subjoined 
 baptizing them," and so on. Now, though 
 there is reason to believe, that some monks 
 had departed from Basil's rule in this point, 
 yet, not ail ; for in the tnonastry of Bobbie, 
 in the North of lialy, was a manuscript sa- 
 cramentary, a perfect liturgy for the whole 
 year, and supposed ro be of the time of the 
 abbot Bertulf, who flourished in the seventh 
 century, which shews that the Popes had 
 not at that time reduced baptism to babes 
 under the Lombard government; for though 
 Columban by a formal deed, put his monas- 
 try under the government of the Pope, yet 
 in this liturgy, there is no office for the 
 baptism of children, nor the least hint of 
 pouring or sprinkling; on the contrary, 
 there is a directory for making a Christian 
 of a Pagan before baptism, and for washing 
 his feet after it ; And there is the delivery of 
 
123 
 
 the creed in Lent with exhortations to com- 
 petents, and suitable collects, epistles and 
 gospels, as in other ordinals, preparatory 
 to baptism on holy Saturday. The introduc- 
 tory discourse of the presbyter before 
 delivering the creed, runs thus : — " Dear 
 brethren, the divine sacraments are not so 
 properly matters of investigation as of faith, 
 and not only of faith but also of fear, for no 
 one can receive the discipline of faith, un- 
 less he have for a foundation the fear of 
 the Lord ; for, as Solomon saith, the fear of 
 the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. He 
 that fears the Lord in all things which the 
 Lord hath commanded, is both wise and 
 faithful. You are about to hear the creed 
 therefore to day, for without that, neither 
 > can Christ be announced, nor can you exer- 
 cise faith, nor can baptism be administered. 
 The creed is the token of the Catholic faith, 
 the sacrament of eternal religion. You, 
 therefore, competeni:s, prepare your senses 
 with all reverence; hearken to the creed, 
 which the holy catholic church in the lan- 
 g'jage ot a mother delivers to you: / believe 
 in God the Father Almighty ;" and so on. 
 
124 
 
 After he had repeated the creed, he ex- 
 pounded it sentence by sentence, referred 
 to trine immersion, and closed with repeated 
 observations on the absolute necessity of 
 faith, in order to a worthy participation of 
 baptism. In brief, while baptism was left 
 to the choice of the people, it was not admi- 
 nistered to babes, and although the sordid 
 monks, with the views of enriching their 
 houses, had reduced it to the size of all who 
 could ask for it, yet they did not prevail 
 over parents to allow them to dip babes till 
 the Emperor Charlemagne, whose piety 
 they celebrated in the highest strains, en- 
 dued them with secular authority by co- 
 vering the western country with carnage and 
 blood. Before that period, all the words, 
 child, little one, infant, innocent, and all the 
 diminutives of these little words, stood for 
 such as could ask to be baptized, as a letter 
 of a certain bishop, published by Florus, 
 deacon of the church at Lyons, not long 
 after the death of Charles, proves beyond 
 all contradiction. — R. E. R. p. 36b, 384, 
 471, to 475. 
 
 In the close of this century, Wulfran, 
 
125 
 
 bishop of Sens, succeeded so far, as to en- 
 ga^^e Rathbod, king of the Frisian^, to agree 
 to be baptized. " The day appointed for 
 the ceremony came, and the people with the 
 priests, proceeded with the royal convert to 
 the font ; when the service had been per- 
 formed so far that the king had set one foot 
 into the water, he stooped short, and with a 
 stern dignity becoming his raid<, solemnly 
 adjured the bishop in the name of Almighty- 
 God, to inform him, wnecher his departed 
 ancestors, the an'uent nobility and kings of 
 Friesiand, were in that celestial region, 
 which had been promised him on condition 
 he were baptised, or in that infernal gulf 
 which he had been describing as the future 
 abode of the unbaptized ? Wulfran re- 
 plied : " Excellent prince, be not deceived; 
 God haih a certain number of his elect ; 
 your predecessors, former princes of the 
 Frisians, dying unbaptized, are undoubted- 
 ly damned ; but henceforth whosoever be* 
 lieveth, and is baptized shall be happy with 
 Christ for ever in heaven." " Oh ! if that 
 he the case," exclaimed Rath|:)od, with- 
 drawing his foot from the font, *''l camiot 
 M 
 
126 
 
 consent to give up the companj-^ of my noble, 
 predecessors, in exchange for that of a 
 few poor people in your celestial region ; 
 or ratiier, I cannot admit your novel posi- 
 tions, but I prefer the ancient and universal 
 opinions of my own nation." Having so 
 said, he retired, refusing, says the historian, 
 ty be dipped in the font of regeneration. 
 
 By fonts o^ necessity, are meant such con- 
 venient places to baptize in as missionaries 
 made use of when they had not time or abi- 
 lity lo erect regular chapels for artificial 
 baths. The old chronologers of this coun- 
 try say, the first missionaries from Rome 
 baptized the Anglo Saxons in rivers ; and 
 John Fox observes that, " Whereas Austin 
 baptized then in rivers, it followcth there 
 was then no use of fonts." But this is not 
 quite accurate, for the monks called those 
 parts of the ril'ers in which they adminis- 
 tered baptism, fonts. It is also remarkable 
 that Pauhnus, chaplain of the Queen of Nor- 
 thumberland, when he had prevailed on 
 Edwin, her consort, to profess the religion 
 of the queen, hastily ran up a wooden booth 
 
127 
 
 at Yorli, which lie called St. Peter's church, 
 and in which he catechised and baptised the 
 king and many of ilie nobility. The same 
 I'aulinus baptised openly in the nver Swale, 
 for, says Bede, " they could not build 
 oratories or baptisteries there in the infancy 
 of the church." R. H. B. ;;. 114, 115, 
 116. 
 
 The first come 11 of Nice took notice of 
 two sorts of dissentars, (for the Ariani and 
 Athanasians were two great factions in the 
 establishment), vvhoheldpeparateas->embl.es, 
 though some of them agreed in speculation 
 with the Arians, and others with the Atha- 
 nasians. These were the Cathari and Paul- 
 ianists. The first held the doctrine of the 
 trinity, as the Athanasians in the churcii did ; 
 but tiiinking the church a worldly commu- 
 nity, they baptised all wiio joined- their 
 assemblies by trine immersion, in the name 
 of the Father Son and Holy Ghost, on their 
 own personal profession of faith, and if thc>v 
 had been baptised before they Te-baptiscd 
 them. The latter baptised by dipping once 
 in the name of Christ, and though they 
 varied from the Arians, yet they all thought 
 ]M 2 
 
128 
 
 Cliibt only a man. The fathers of Nice 
 provided, as was observed before, for the 
 admission of both if they should offer them- 
 selves, ai)d the latter were re-baptised. 
 They were very far from complying ; for 
 the next council, six and fifty years after, 
 declared, th^t there were many, particularly 
 in Galatia, out of the pale of the church. 
 And it seems the more ttiey tried to increase 
 nn'formity, the faster heretics multiplied in 
 their hands ; for, a council held at Constan- 
 tinople in this century anathematizes ih'rty- 
 nine sects by name, beoide a great number 
 of individuals. 
 
 Mahommed began to propagate his im- 
 posture about the year of Christ six hun- 
 djred and twelve, and in the space of twenty 
 three years he founded a new rehgion and a. 
 new empire, throughout the large country 
 ti Arabia. 
 
 Mahommed and his follov.^ers set aside 
 baptism : and since his time some who pro- 
 fessed Christianity have followed the exam- 
 ple, and have set it aside without any more 
 authority from God, for their conduct, than 
 he had. 
 
129 
 
 Abubeker succeeded Mahommed, and in 
 liis short reign of two years and a few 
 months, the Saracens made a great progress, 
 entered far into Syria, and took Damascus. 
 Omar, who succeeded Abubeker, reigned 
 ten years and an half, and in that time 
 subdued Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and other 
 parts of Africa. 
 
 The military laws of the Mahommedans 
 made a difference between those people 
 they called Harbi, and the people of a booky 
 The Harbi were either Atheists, and per- 
 sons of no religion, or idolaters, who did 
 not worship the true God, according to 
 any book of Revelation. These were not 
 tolerated in the Mahommedan law ; but 
 they were to be prosecuted with war, till 
 they embraced the religion of Mahommed. 
 But the people of the book were such as. wor- 
 shipped God^ according to a book, of Re- 
 velation, as the Jews and Christians, these 
 were to be prosecuted with war, till they 
 embraced Mahommedism, or agreed to pay 
 a tribute : but then they were to be left in 
 peace, and in the quiet use of their own 
 religion, even where the Mahommedan 
 U 3 
 
130 
 
 authority was fully settled. The Saracens 
 persecuted none of these, Jews andChristians 
 of all parties lived happy among them ; 
 numbers worshipped one God, practiced 
 virtue, and expected immortality. 
 
 "It is allowed by all, that the infernal 
 cruelties of pretendedly orthodox Christians 
 both in the eastern and western empires had 
 rendered the name of Christianity hateful. 
 'J^heir dissentions were perpetual, their rage 
 for uniformity unquenchable, and there 
 was not a crime in all the list of human 
 vices, unknown or unpracticed under the 
 name of Jesus Christ. This prepared the 
 cast for a revolution in religion." 
 
 *' After the Saracens had settled all dis- 
 putes by overwhelming the country with 
 arbitrary power, and the religion of Ma- 
 hommeJ, vagabonds drew up long renunci- 
 ations of Mahommedism for tlieir con- 
 querors to sign, on being baptised into their 
 orthodox and universal church, and inserted 
 execrations on all tne ancient heads of 
 families whom the Saracens had been used 
 to celebrate for their wisdom and virtue," 
 
131 
 
 all vvhicli was concluded by saying, *' I 
 curse the God of Mahommed, who, hesa^'s, 
 is one entire deity neither begetting nor 
 being begotten, and like whom there is no 
 other being. And I believe in God, Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost, the holy co-essential 
 and undivided trinity," and so on. These 
 are a sort of last dying speeches and con- 
 fessions of expiring orthodoxy, and of the 
 Augustine African church, it is no breach 
 of charity to say, it was begotten in melan- 
 choly, lived in frenzy, and died raving 
 mad : for how horrible is the expression, 
 Anatheniatizo Mohamedis Deum ! R. E. 
 R. 72, 112, to 115. 
 
 About the year six hundred and seventy, 
 believers baptism was practised in Egypt, 
 and in such esteem, that some, in other 
 lands, did restore this ordinance of the 
 Christian religion according to their exam- 
 ple; which makes Jacob Pamelius upon 
 Tertullian say, " That the beginners of the 
 Christian religion who had separated them- 
 selves from the church of Rome, had placed 
 religion upon its first apostolical foundation. 
 
132 
 
 in teaching faith before baptism, ais owned 
 by the Egyptian divines." Jos. Vkecomes. 
 1, 2. c. 3. Pamelius upon TertuUian Dutch 
 Martrol. Cent. vii. 
 
153 
 
 Century the EigJith, 
 
 npHE Pyrenean mountains which separate 
 France and Spain, extend fiotn the 
 Mediterranean aca, to the Atlantic, that is 
 above two hundred n)il<'s, and in breadth in 
 several places more than a hundred. The 
 surface is wonderfully diversified, liills rising 
 upon hills, mountains over mountains. 
 Deep dells, encircled with inaccessible 
 mountains, to be entered only by narrow 
 passes, and these unknown to all but the 
 inhabitants; in some places bleak perpenai- 
 cular rocks, in others beautiful fertile and 
 extensive vallies, &c. &c. To these recesses 
 reputed heretics emigiated at varous times, 
 abiding only where religious hberty could 
 be enjoyed. 
 
 A spectator, from the tops of these 
 mountains, might observe that at the foot 
 ©f the Spanish side, lie Asturias, Old Cas- 
 
134 
 
 tile, Arragon, and Catalonia; and on the 
 French side Guienne, and Languedoc, 
 Thoulouse, Berne Abby, Rousillon and 
 Narbonne : places all remarkable in the 
 darkest times for harbouring Christians 
 called heretics. 
 
 When the Moors conqaered Spain about 
 the year 714, many of the Gothic and 
 Spanish Christians, who did not know what 
 liberty they should enjoy undi^r the Saracen 
 government, or who chose to be free, fled 
 to tliese abodes of freedom, the Pyrenean 
 mountains and either mixed with the old 
 inhabitants or settletl near them. For al- 
 though the Moors carried their conquests 
 over the Pyrenees, yet it should seem they 
 occupied only some passes into Gaul, and 
 left the fugitives as well as the old inhabi- 
 tants to enjoy the rocks and vallies ; or they 
 were a sort of little republics protected by 
 the Moors with whom they were in league, 
 as they were also with tlieir neighbours on 
 the other side of the mountains in Narbo- 
 DPnsian Gaul, for they and their allies were 
 all Unitarians, as their ancestors had always 
 been. R. E. R. p. 242, 295.. 
 
135 
 
 It is not unlikely but the vallies of the 
 Pyreneans might be over-peopled by the 
 numbers which fled there, and from that, 
 or some other cause near the middle of this 
 century, many thousands of these people, 
 with their wives, children, and servants, 
 emigrated over the Pyrenees, from the 
 Spanish and French foot of the mountains. 
 
 *^ Here heresy erected its standard in 
 seven hundred and eighty-three, and ex- 
 cepting the persecution of one man by the 
 Emperor Charlemagne, here the voice of 
 religious oppression was not heard till the 
 year twelve hundred and seventy, a period 
 of near five hundred years." Then, as 
 Zuritasaj'S, " In the month of November, 
 friar Peter Cadrieta, and friar William, of 
 Colonico, who had been appointed by the 
 Pope inquisitors of heretical pravity in the 
 kingdoms and lordships of the king of Arra- 
 gon, assisted by the bishops of the diocese 
 of Urgel, proceeded against such as were 
 accused of tne crime of holding the heresy 
 of the Albigenses, and other errors, and 
 condemned the memory of Arnold Viscount 
 of Castelbo, and declared that he had been 
 
136 
 
 an heretic, and a receiver and protector of 
 heretics, and ordered that his bones should 
 be dug up. The same sentence was passed 
 on his daughter Ermesenda, late Viscountess 
 ofCastelbo. 
 
 Some of the inhabitants of the Pyrenees, 
 and of the adjacent States, and not those of 
 the vallies of Piedmont, were ihe true ori- 
 ginal Waldenses, for to them, and them 
 only, do the descriptions in the books of 
 the inquisitors agree : true it is that at the 
 reformation, a people appeared m the val- 
 ~lies of Piedmont, who gave proof of their 
 antiquity, and produced some vv^ritings 
 which indicated their connection with the 
 Catalonians. But there is one demonstrative 
 proof mentioned by Ledger, that they are 
 not the ancient Waldenses of Ecclesiastical 
 history. The Piedmontese were Trinitarians 
 uniform in religion ; but the old Waldenses 
 had no notion of uniformity, and many of 
 them were Manicheans and Arians. The 
 Piedmontese were a handful, the Pyreneans 
 were thousands, and tens of thousands. 
 The Piedmontese were a tame dejected 
 
137 
 
 people ; the P3-reneans hiG;h spirited and 
 ardent for universal freedom, as their ances- 
 tors had been. 
 
 Daiivers says, they were called Waldenses 
 in this century by Claudius Sciscelius, 
 councellor to Charles the Great, who men- 
 tions them by that name in his book, Advers 
 Waldenses. And that those who resided in 
 the city of Alby and the country round, 
 were afterwards called Albigenses on that 
 account. 
 
 But leaving the inhabitants of these moun- 
 tains, vallies, and forests who appear to have 
 been Christians of the primitive stamp, let 
 us take a slight view of those who continued 
 in Spain. Who could have supposed that 
 under the government of Mahommedans, 
 they would have enjoyed more religious li- 
 berty than under that of Catholics, but so it 
 was : the Manicheans, Priscillianists, Bono- 
 sians, Felicians, and others, who lived dis- 
 persedly all over Spain, enjoyed the liberty 
 of worshipping God according to the dic- 
 tates of their own consciences. 
 
 In the language of (Catholic) councils, 
 canons, and books of divinity, other Chris- 
 
 N 
 
138 
 
 tians in Spain are rlenominatcd, either with 
 a view to their opinions, heretics, or with 
 regard to their discii)Hne schismatics; and 
 as there was one article of discipline in 
 which they all agrreed, they are frequently 
 named from that — '.his article was baptism. 
 They all held that the catholic corporation 
 was* not the church of Christ, and they 
 therefore rebaptized such as had been bap- 
 tized in that community, before they ad- 
 mitted them into their own societies. For 
 this rea^^on they were called in general Ana- 
 baptists — and they baptized none without 
 a personal profession of faith : they called 
 themselves Christians ; they censured the 
 fraud and folly of those who imposed on the 
 world by culling themselves Catholics, and 
 who ought rather to call themselves Cypri- 
 aniies, being the apostate followers of that 
 pretended saint ; they quoted abundance of 
 scripture to prove, that a new testament 
 church consisted of only virtuous persons, 
 born ot wate and the spirit ; they separated 
 from the Catholics on account of the im- 
 purity of their church ; they despised 
 • ouncils, and expres.^ed their ustonishment 
 
139 
 
 tliat Christians approve of such superficial 
 writings as those of Cypriaa and others, 
 called fathers ; and they took the New Tes- 
 tament for the rule of a Christian's faith and 
 practice. They reprovjd the Catholu s 
 for calling themselves saints, while they ex- 
 ercised the violent passions of anger, and 
 malice, and revenge against all who differed 
 from them ; to wliich one saint, Pacianus, 
 bishop of Barcelona, replied, — " We only 
 follow the example of bees, guarding the 
 honey with the stingy." Whether by the 
 honey y he meant the doctrines of the 
 church, or the money their rich endowments 
 brought them in, the historian doth not 
 say. 
 
 *' It was with a very ill grace in Spain 
 that this faction called themselves Catholic, 
 or universal, for, as Cardinal Baronius 
 properly enough observes, between the Pris- 
 cillianists and Arians they were cooped up 
 in a very narrow compas?, and bore no pro- 
 portion to heretics in numbers." — U. E. IL. 
 p. 215,210, 280, 300. 
 
 While the Catholics and other classes of 
 Chi'istians in Spain, enjo3'ed their religious 
 N 2 
 
140 
 
 rights and privileges under the Mahomme-' 
 dan government, Charles the Great, when 
 he had conquered the Saxons, reduced 
 " the whole nation to the dreadful alterna- 
 tive, either of being assassinated b}^ the 
 troops, or of accepting life on condition of 
 professing themselves Christians by being 
 baptized; and the severe laws yet stand ia 
 the capitularies ofthismonarch,by which they 
 were obliged, on pain of death, to be baptized 
 themselves and of heavy fines to baptize their 
 children within the year of their birth."— 
 In this unjust and savage manner did Char- 
 lemagne subdue the Saxons, the Frisians, 
 and the Huns, to the profession of the 
 Christian religion. The example was fol- 
 lowed by other princes, both of that and 
 succeeding ages ; and Denmark, Sweden, 
 and almost all the northern parts of Europe, 
 were brought within the pale of the church 
 by the same means." 
 
 It was on account of such unjust proceed- 
 ings that the old baptists used to apply the 
 words of the Revelation to the Catholics; 
 the beast cameth all., both small and great, 
 rich and poor, free and hon^, to rccfivea 
 
" 141 
 
 mark in their right hand, or in their fore- 
 heads : and that no man might buy or sell, 
 save he that had the mark, or the name of the 
 beast, or the number of his name. — Rev. xiii. 
 16. n. But wherever the orthodox had 
 the power, they generally took care that the 
 Baptists should prophecy — clothed in sack- 
 cloth. — Rev. xi, 3. 
 
 But " though the Catholics established 
 their pretended Christianity by fraud, in- 
 justice, and murder, yet there were otlier 
 Christians at that time living peaceably 
 among these very Saxons, who remonstrated 
 against such violent measures of enlarging 
 the profession of Christianity, but they 
 were overpowered, and pronounced here- 
 tics by the domineering party. — R. H. B. p. 
 232, 286. 
 
 Charles the Great, spake as a dragon ; 
 and the sword of the dragon, or civil ty- 
 ranny, was more congenial to the temper, 
 and much more suitable to the purposes of 
 the Popes and iheir clergy, than the sword 
 of the spirit, or the word of God. It was 
 the keenest argument these lordly tyrants 
 over conscience could make use of ; and 
 N 3 
 
142 
 
 the most expeditious method of making dis- 
 ciples to a practice unsupported by scrip- 
 ture and reason. The baptism of infants 
 was the best means they could devise, to 
 make national churches for them to rule and 
 tythe,j and they were not very scrupulous 
 about the means used to accomplish these 
 things. They taught the people that every 
 individual had in him, Adam, and Eve, and 
 Satan, and that baptism by trine immersion 
 washed away all thd three, therefore infants 
 ought to be baptized as soon as possible, 
 for none could be saved vvitkout it. Thus 
 by every means in their power, they spread 
 and maintained their doctrine and practice; 
 and having established their influence with 
 the ruling powers, they cast down the truth 
 to the ground y and practised and prospered. 
 ' — Dan. viii. 12. The institution of be- 
 lievers baptism, established by the Lord, 
 was superceded, and those who maintained it 
 denominated heretics and held up as men to 
 be hated and persecuted. They had suffered 
 much on account of their principles and 
 practice for nearly three centuries before this 
 commenced, and nearly eight centuries and 
 
143 
 
 an half after it, a Pedobaptist author tofd 
 the world that, " Christian magistrates had 
 never left burning, drowning, and destroy^ 
 ing them, till their number was contempt- 
 ible." This is too true— but still there has 
 been some of this contemptible number in 
 all ages, who have taught and practiced 
 believers' baptism ; thus in this century it 
 was practiced in Spain and elsewhere, and 
 taught by several learned men j for in- 
 stance: — 
 
 Birinius, a learned man in Lower Saxony, 
 taught instruction to be necessary before 
 baptism ; and that without it, baptism ought 
 
 not to be administered to high nor low. 
 
 Bedc i. iv. c. 16, and i. iii. c. l.~Dutch 
 Mar. p. 205. 
 
 Hamo, in Postil. upon Matt. Go and teach 
 all nations, baptizing them, &c. — Fol. 278, 
 says, — In this place is set down a rule hov/ 
 to baptize ; that is, that teachhig should go 
 before baptism ; for he saith, teach all na- 
 tions — and then he saith baptize them : for 
 he that is to be baptized must be first in- 
 structed, that he first learn to believe that 
 which in baptism he shall receive ; for as 
 
144 
 
 faith mthout works is dead, so works, 
 •when thej/ are not of faith, are nothing 
 worth. 
 
 Bede says, — Thar men were first to be 
 instructed into the knowledge of the truth, 
 then to be baptized, as Christ hath taught ; 
 — because without faith it is impossible to 
 please God. 
 
 Again — If the word or water be wanting it 
 jg no baptism. And again— All those that 
 came to the apostles to be baptized, were in- 
 structed and taught — then they received the 
 holy administration thereof. — Magd. Cent. 
 v\\\. p. 218, 220. 
 
 In the council of Laodicia, Tit. 46. 
 —It was decreed, that those that will 
 come to baptism, ought first to be in- 
 structed in the faith, and to make a con- 
 fession thereof. 
 
 Rebanus, cap. 4, says, — That the cate- 
 chism which was the doctrine of faith 
 must go b fore baptism, to the intent 
 that he that is to be baptized, may first 
 learn the mysteries of faith — when he 
 doth believe tnen he is to be admitted to 
 baptism. 
 
145 
 
 Remigius taught, — That faith is the 
 principal thing in baptism ; for without 
 it, it is impossible to please God.— JWa^c?. 
 Cent, y'lii, p. 144 J 145, 
 
146 
 
 Century the Ninth. 
 
 "OROM the coming of Odaocer into Italy 
 to the reign of Charlemagne, is a space 
 of three hundred years ; and the greater part 
 of Italy during the whole time, enjoyed re- 
 ligious liberty. At Rome, the Popes, and 
 at Ravenna, the Exarchs exercised intole- 
 rance ; but the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and 
 the Lombards, who had embraced Christi- 
 anity in the Unitarian form, long before 
 they came into Italy, persecuted none, and 
 protected all who submitted to civil govern- 
 ment — R. E. R. p. 364. During the king- 
 doms of the Goths and Lombards, the Uni- 
 tarian Baptists, or as the Catholics called 
 them, Anabaptists, had their share of 
 churches and baptisteries, and held no com- 
 munion with either Rome, Milan, Aquileia, 
 Ravenna, or any other hierarchy. Chapels 
 aad oratories were annexed to baptismal 
 
14T 
 
 cliurcHes, and went along with them. After 
 the rum ot these kingdoms laws were 
 issued by the Emperors to deprive the laity 
 and the Unitarians of baptismal churches, 
 and to secure them to the Catholic clergy ; 
 it was not very easy to effect this, however, 
 time did effect it : then dissidents under va- 
 rious names worshipped either in their own 
 houses, or in places hired for the purpose, 
 v^^hich places, it should seem, were tenanted 
 by oneof the brethren ; their pubUc religion 
 consisted of nothing but social prayer, read- 
 ing and reasoning on the gospel, baptism 
 once, and the Lord's gupper as often as was 
 convenient; and this was practicable in any 
 place where two or three could assemble to- 
 gether. 
 
 As there are no histories of these dissi- 
 dents written by themselves, and as all the 
 accounts of them come from their persecu- 
 tors, who detested them with a mortal haired, 
 so the inference which is drawn by all Pro- 
 testants, and by many modern Catholics, is 
 very fair; that it is credible their names 
 Avere unjustly aspersed, their characters 
 blackened, and their opinions grossly mis- 
 
148 
 
 represented : dear as noon it is, they well 
 understood civil and religious liberty, and 
 practised the duties of it. They are re- 
 proached with diversity of sentiment, but 
 this was no crime in their societies, for vir- 
 tue more than faith seems to have been the 
 bond of their union. Their history defies 
 every effort to class them after the modern 
 fashion, in speculative division, and it is 
 certain they allowed of a variety of modes 
 of speculation, and were held together by 
 ties of a far superior kind, principles of 
 freedom and virtue, in which they all had 
 a general interest. 
 
 The dissidents sometimes ventured to 
 reside in Rome, the seat of tyranny itself, 
 but when they were discovered by its tyran- 
 nical bishop, he bestirred himself, banished 
 them from the city, and burnt their books ; 
 Pope Gelasius, Symmachus, and Hormis- 
 das, all did them this honor. — R. E. R. p. 
 381, 382. 
 
 Italy was full of such Christians, and 
 omitting many names by which they were 
 called, and which are local and indescrip- 
 tive, there are three, which describe them 
 
149 
 
 in different points of light and the union of 
 the three is probably their true character. 
 
 1 hey were cailcd Manicheans, this re- 
 garded their speculations — they were called 
 Paterines, this described their condition in 
 life — diey were called Gazari, this regarded 
 their morals. 
 
 If they were called Manicheans, it was 
 because they denied the catholic doctrine of 
 a trinity, held the indivisible unity of the 
 first great cause, and of course believed that 
 Jesus was a man ; they denied the popular 
 dnctrine of original sin, and accounted for 
 the origin of evd as the Persian Manicheans 
 and the Magi had done, by supposing mo- 
 ral evil to arise out of natural imperfection, 
 for this seems to be what they intended. 
 
 Many writers have misrepresented their 
 sentiments : but Mr. Beausobre who hatii 
 unravelled many of the sophisms of sucli 
 writers, hath given a very different account 
 of the men and their manners, and hath 
 clearly shewn, that real Manicheism is but 
 little understood, and that the passion of 
 divines, for criminating all churches but 
 their own, is not under the government of 
 o 
 
150 
 
 a kind and wise criticism as it ought te 
 be. 
 
 If they were called Paterines, it seems to 
 be because they wei*e chiefly of the -Imver 
 order of people, mechanies, artificers, ma- 
 nufacturers, and others, who lived by their 
 honest labours. 
 
 Gazari is a corruption of Cathari puri- 
 tans, and it is remarkable, that in the exam- 
 inations of these people rhey are not taxed 
 ■with any immoralities, but were condemned 
 for speculations, or rather for virtuous lules 
 of action, which all in power accounted 
 heresies. They said a christian church 
 ought to consist of only jrood people ; a 
 church had no po»ver to frame any consti- 
 tutions, it wa.> nor right to take oaths; it 
 uas not lawful to kill mankind, a man ought 
 not to be dclivex'ed up to officers of jus- 
 tice to be converted ; the benefits of society 
 belonged alike to all the memhcrs of it : 
 faith alone could not save a man : the 
 church ought not to persecute an}' even the 
 wicked : the church cannot excommunicate ; 
 the law of Moses was ntj rule to christians.: 
 there was no iiwed of Priests especially 
 
151 
 
 wicked ones ; the sacraments and orders and 
 ceremonies of the church of Kome were 
 futih', expensive, oppressive, and wicked; 
 with many more such positions all inimical 
 to the hierarchy. In these reasons and rules 
 of action they all agreed, but in doctrinal 
 speculation they widely differed. 
 
 As the catholics of those times baptised by 
 immersion, the Patennes by what naaie 
 soever they were called as Manicheans, Gaz- 
 ari, &c. made no complaint of the mode of 
 baptising ; but when they were examined 
 they objected vehemently against t'le bap- 
 tism of infants, and condemned it as an 
 error. Tiiey said, among other things, 
 that a child knew nothing of the matter ; 
 that he had no desire to be baptised, u!td 
 was incapable of making any confession of 
 faith, and that the willing and professing of 
 another could be of no service to him. 
 
 They were zcdous for the doctrine of the 
 unity of God. They denied the popular 
 notions of the trinity, the deity of Christ, 
 and the separate existence of the holy spirit, 
 B. E, R. p. 405 to 408. 
 
 O 2 
 
152 
 
 The wisdom of the Paterines in separating 
 wholly from the church of Rome, appears 
 in a striking li^ht, when contrasted with 
 ti»e' weakness of those who endeavoured to 
 incoroorate the moraHty of the Paterines 
 into the established church, in oraer to re- 
 form the community. In such little free 
 societies as those of the Paterines, every 
 house hath an allowed right, and a real 
 ])o\verto reform itself; and an impropriety 
 discovered in April, may be remedied in 
 JMay , by a vote of the house, or if this can- 
 not be obtained, dissidents may constitu- 
 tiuna!!}-' depart in peace; but in the catholic 
 church, wiiich is a great monarciiy, subject 
 to the will of one, none but the despot bath 
 a rit^ht, and he generally hath no power ; 
 because his despotism is restrained by cabi- 
 nets and councils to reform the church. 
 
 The Paterines knew theirdiscipline could 
 not possibly be practiced in the church, 
 they therefore withdrew, and let the church 
 alone, constantly avowing the sufficiency 
 of scripture, the competency of each to 
 reforin himself, the right of all, even women, 
 to teach, and openly disclaiming all manner 
 of coercion, i?. E. R.p. 414-. 41,5, 
 
153 
 
 It seems to have been a favourable cir- 
 cumstance for the dissidents, that in this 
 century several bishops in the north of 
 Italy, had not submitted to the usurpations 
 of the Roman Pontiff. Thus, Angilbertus, 
 Archbishop of Milan, would not acknow- 
 ledge the the supremacy of Pope, nor did 
 the church of Milan submit to the See of 
 Rome, till two hundred years afterwards. 
 
 In the eighth century "there were two 
 christian teachers, Elipand and Felix, who 
 supposed Jesus was the Son of God by 
 adoption, not by nature." Claude, bishop 
 of Turin, who flourished in this century, 
 was a disciple of Felix. He asserted the 
 equality of all the Apostles, with St. Peter, 
 and maintained that Jesus Christ was the 
 only head of the church. He overthrew the 
 doctrine of merit, and all pretences to 
 works of supererogation. He rejected tra- 
 ditions in matters of religion — he may in a 
 manner be said to have sown the seeds of 
 the reformation in his diocese of Turin ; 
 and his doctrines took such deep root, 
 especially in the vallies of Piedmont, that 
 they continued to flourish there for &oine 
 O 3 
 
154 
 
 cemturies, as the catholics themselves ac- 
 knowledge. Goadbi/ on Rev. xi. 
 
 In regard to baptism amongst his disci- 
 ples, the Vaudois, nothing can be deter- 
 mined by any writings of their own, for 
 they published nothing. The most probable 
 opinion is, that they baptised minors after 
 they had been instructed, which was the 
 general practice in the time of Claude — and 
 dipping was then the mode. If their modern 
 papers describe their ancient customs, they 
 baptised no babes. R. E. R. p. 471, 468. 
 The Calvinists of Geneva have introduced 
 Claude and the Vaudois in their pretended 
 apostolical succession, a succession made up 
 of men of all principles and all communi- 
 ties, and, what, is very surprising, of 
 I'opes, Arians, and Anabaptists, exactly 
 such men as Calvin and his comrades com- 
 mitted to the flames for heresy. No writer 
 hath chastised them more severely or more 
 justly, for claiming apostolical succession 
 through the Vaudois than bishop Bossuit. 
 Said he, '' provided any person complained 
 of any one doctrine of the church, and 
 especially if he murmured against the Pope, 
 
355 
 
 whatever he were in other respects, or 
 whatever opinions he held, he is put into a 
 catalogue of predecessors of protestants, 
 and judged worthy to support the succession 
 of their churches. As to the Vaudois they 
 were a species of donatists, and worse than 
 the ancient donatists of Africa. They held 
 opinions which we all, both reformed and 
 catholics, abhor. They never heard of pre- 
 destination, and justification, till the Cal- 
 vinists preached to them. They refused in 
 all cases to take oaths. They all, without 
 distinction, if they were reputed good peo- 
 ple, preached and administered ordinances. 
 They made no provision for a clergy, but 
 required all to work for their bread. They 
 formed their churches of only good men. 
 They published no creeds; How can these, 
 whom we both count heretics, be put into 
 a succession of protestants ?" His lordship 
 observes the same of individuals : " You call 
 Claude of Turin one of your apostolical 
 church ; but Claude wasan Arian, a disciple 
 of Felix, of Urgel. You adopt Henry and 
 Peter Bruis ; but both these every body 
 knows were anabaptists. All these people 
 
156 
 
 held many articles intolerable to you as 
 well as to us: but all these you pass by in 
 favour of five or six points in which they 
 agree with you, and in spite of their hypo- 
 cricy, and heresy, these people are regis- 
 tered as your predecessors." *' These are 
 loose desultory hints, taken from a con- 
 nected well written piece, which never hath 
 been answered, and never can, till protes- 
 tants change the ground of attack ; and, 
 on the broad plan of universal freedom, 
 allow the variety proved by the prelate, and 
 justify it as an excellence of the Christian 
 religion, which can never be endangered 
 by diversity of sentiment, as long as unin>. 
 terrupted revelation is made the ground of 
 action, thetest of a Christian, and the bond 
 of society." R. E. R. p. 476, 477. 
 
 In Spain, the several classes of Christians 
 who readily paid the regular taxes, enjoyed 
 as many of their rights and privileges as 
 could be expected under the Moorish go- 
 vernment, and an absolute monarch. But 
 some of the enthusiastical catholics pre- 
 tended that the clergy ought not to be taxed. 
 They argued that estates given to the 
 
157 
 
 church were oblations to God and the 
 saints, in their representatives, the Monks, 
 who were appointed general receivers by 
 heaven ; and that it was sacrilege to pro- 
 fane such oblations to secular purposes ; 
 and that it was the most infernal of all 
 kinds of sacrilege to apply the property of 
 saints to the support of infidels ; and they 
 added, all the saints in heaven would re- 
 venge the crime. 
 
 The Mohammedan financiers did not un- 
 derstand this logic, and they levied their 
 taxes equall}'. The Mozarabick commis- 
 sionei-s thought the pretended saints revilers, 
 who should not enter into the kingdom of 
 God : they therefore took the side of the 
 Moors, justified their conduct by scripture, 
 and made impartial assessments. The 
 Monks gx'communicated the commissioners, 
 called these mild maxims, though expressed 
 in literal words of scripture, heresy, and 
 fomented riots ; in suppressing which some 
 suffered, and the survivors put them in a 
 list of martyrs, and published their merits 
 to the world, as if they had suffered for 
 conscience sake. This was about the year 
 350. B. E. R.p. 233,'2:5i-. 
 
158 
 
 Walafridus Strabo, wlio lived in this cen- 
 tury, says, ** It should be observed, that 
 in the primitive times, the grace of bap- 
 tism was usually given to those only who 
 were arrived at such maturity of bod} and 
 mind, that they could understand wiiat 
 were the benefits of baptism, what was to 
 be confessed and believed, and, finally, 
 what was to be observed by those that are 
 regenerated in Christ." On this passage 
 the remark of Colomesias, as quoted by 
 a nameless writer, is as follows: "Hence 
 with reason you may infer, tiiat adults only 
 are the prcner subjects of baptism." Per- 
 fectly conformable to which is a canon of 
 the council of Paris, in the year eight hun» 
 dred and twenty-nine, as produced by the 
 same anonymous author ^ thus it reads, 
 *' In the beginning of the holy church of 
 God, no one was ad ml ted to baptism, un- 
 less he had before been instructed in the 
 sacrament of faith and of baptism ; which 
 is proved by the words of Paul." Ram, vi. 
 3, 4, 5. B, P. E. vol. ii.p. S3. 
 
159 
 
 Century the Tenth. 
 
 'T^HE genius, and consequently the history 
 of the Greek church are totally differ- 
 ent from those of Rome. The great spring 
 of action at Rome was love of dominion, for 
 the head of the church was a secular prince; 
 Idut the patriarch of Constantinople always 
 had a master at his side, the reigning Em- 
 peror. The patriarch excommunicated he- 
 retics, but the Pope destroyed them ; this 
 church, therefore, cannot justly be called a 
 bloody church The patriarch Chrysostom, 
 declaimed perpetually against heresy, and 
 excommunicated heretics ; but with a rem- 
 nant of true Grecian spirit, he reasoned 
 against penal sanctions. — R. E, R. p. 95. 
 
 There is in the history of the Greek 
 church an amazing and instructive variety. 
 The human heart unfolds itself in every 
 
160 
 
 dissimilitude of form in regard to religion 
 both speculative and practical, as it tends 
 toward the common parent of mankind, 
 feeling after God, if haply it may find him. 
 When the church recovers that primitive 
 coolness of t' moer which human tests have 
 disconcerted, some pen free from the venom 
 of party zeal, will write an history rich with 
 information, and abounding with motives to 
 moderation, the ground-plot of virtue. 
 Free thmking in an empire, is the same to a 
 church established on human tests, as health 
 is in a city in an unwholesome clime, every 
 now and then the blessing visits every fa- 
 mily. In some periods of this history, Em- 
 perors caress and favour dissenters, so did 
 Nicephorus by the Paulicians ; in others 
 they persecute them with bitterness and 
 rage ; so Constans, Justinian the second, 
 and Leo the Isaurian, oppressed the same 
 people : Leo the Armenian inflicted capital 
 punishment on them ; and that fury Theo- 
 dora destroyed above an hundred thousand 
 of them by fire and sword, drove them to 
 madness, and forced them to take up arms. 
 Yet all this could not prevent the ingress, of 
 
I6l 
 
 heresy to the church, ,and Palamas, arch- 
 bishop of Thessalonica, became a mystic, 
 and was both applauded and abused for 
 being an Eachite. Greek heretics explained 
 themselves differently, but whoever casts his 
 eye on Zygabene's book, will see renson to 
 think they would most of them be now called 
 Unitarian Baptists. — B. H. B. p. 89, 90. 
 
 Nonconformists had always bcv^n dis- 
 persed all over the empire, and had trusted 
 for liberty to the chapter of accidents. Tlie 
 clergy were always troublcaome, but impe- 
 rial apostles never attempted to convert 
 them, while they had other affairs of more 
 importance in hand ; for domestic factions 
 for the purple, insurrections against oppres- 
 sion in the provinces, and irruptions of 
 neighbouring nations into the empire, ge- 
 nerally found them full employ. Some 
 Emperors had been indifferent, others had 
 cherished them, others had persecuted 
 them ; but in the middle of this tenth cen- 
 tury, they had obtamed a settlement at Plii- 
 Ijppolis, where, and in the aajacent country 
 they lived, of various sentiments but iij 
 perfect concord, till the reign of Alexias. 
 p 
 
162 
 
 About the year nine hundred and seventv, 
 Theodoras, the patriarch of Antiocli said, 
 his patriarchate was full of heretics, and he 
 besought the Emperor, John Zimisces, to 
 rid him of them ; the Emperor compUed, 
 but he d iscovered great prudence in the me- 
 thod of doing It, he removed them to Phi- 
 lippolis, and all the adjacent country was 
 filled with inhabitants free and happy. And 
 what was best of all, from hence they dis- 
 persed themselves all over Europe. Here 
 were Euchites of all sorts ; as Manicheans, 
 Paulianists, Bogomilans, and various parties 
 that is multitudes of people who thought for 
 themselves, and who unawed by authority, 
 despised sup- rstition, and placed religion in 
 piety and virtue. — R. E. R. p. 73,74, 75. 
 
 The Phiiippolitans in time dispersed 
 themselves over Europe, where their name 
 was corruptly sounded Popolicans, Publi- 
 cani, or Publicans. Venema mentions 
 them under the name of Publicans, and tells 
 us, they asserted, that infants were not to be 
 baptized, till they arrive at years of under- 
 standing. — See Da Piriy cent. p. xii. jj. 88. 
 — In B. P. K. VOL. n.p. 125. 
 
163 
 
 What Venema says uf their sentiments is 
 strengthened by the consideration of thefr 
 being the descendants of the Greek Eu- 
 chites, or Dissenters, who were Baptists, 
 particularly the Eunomiaas, who den, ed the 
 trinity and rejected the baptism of trine im- 
 raersion of the estLblished church, and ad- 
 ministered baptism by single immersion.— 
 li, II. B. /?. 48, 514. 
 
 Rapin says, Henry II. ordered a council 
 to meet at Oxford m 1 166, to examine the 
 tenets of certain heretics, called Publicani. 
 • — Hist. Enq. vol. i. p. 350. William of 
 Kewbury calls them i-'ublicans, who being 
 convened before a council, held at Oxford 
 for that purpose; and being interrogated 
 concerning certain articles of faith, said 
 perverse ihings concerning the divine sa- 
 craments, detesting holy baptism, the eu- 
 charist, and marriage : — Neubrigensia de 
 Rebus, Anglicanisy i. ii. c. %\n.p. 155. And 
 his Annotator Picardus, out of a manuscript 
 of Radulph, the monk, shews that the here- 
 tics called publicans, affirm, that ^ve must 
 not pray for the dead ; that the suffrages of 
 the saints were not to be asked ; that they 
 P 2 
 
164 
 
 believe not purgatory, with many other 
 things ; and particularly, " iheij iissert that 
 infants are not to be baptized till they come 
 to the age of understanding. — Note in ibid, 
 p. 720, 123. Mr. Fox says, tliey were all 
 burnt in the forehead, and so driven out of 
 the realm, and afterwards slain by the Pope. 
 • — j^cts and Monuments, vol p. 233. 
 
 Walden says, — the Publicani denied bap- 
 tism to little ones. — De Bap. Sacramen. tit. 
 V, c. Mil. /ol. 118. 
 
 These circumstances are introduced, to 
 A\QVf the principles of those Christians the 
 Emperor removed from Antioch to Philip- 
 •polis. 
 
 '' Catholics allow the ignorance, immo- 
 rality, and barbarism of their church in 
 these times, but they say, foreigners over- 
 whelmed them with ignorance, and barba- 
 rism was the universal character of tha 
 times.. Nothing can be less true, for arts, 
 sciences, and literature of every kind flou- 
 rished in Spain, among Mohammedans and 
 Jews ; and their mathematicians, physicians, 
 and philosophers, obtained immortal r<;pu. 
 imony—R. IJ.B, p. 302,303. 
 
165 
 
 *^ There were no heretics at Granada. la 
 the same street a man might see, without 
 wondering at the sight, the snug monk 
 trudging along with his crown shaven, and. 
 in the habit of '•his order : the mussuhnan 
 sailing in his striped robes of Persian silk 
 or cotton : the rabbi plodding in the dis- 
 play of his silver beard ; tlie nun tripping 
 in her weeds and her veil ; and the honest 
 Manichean carrying home his work to Aaron 
 the Jew,"— J?. E. R. p. 256. 
 
 Baronius denominates this an iron, a 
 leaden, and obscure age ; and declares that, 
 *' Christ was then as it appears, in a very 
 deep sleep, whe» the ship was covered with 
 waves ; and what seemed worse, when the 
 Lord was thus asleep, there weie wanting dis- 
 ciples, who by their cries might awaken 
 him, being themselves all fast asleep."—- 
 Goadby on Rev. xi. 
 
 But sleepy as the Catholics were, they 
 could discern the dissidents ; and Atto, 
 bishop of Vercelli, complained of them 
 about the middle of this century, but com- 
 plaints did not seem to hurt them, as it will 
 
 P 3 
 
166 
 
 be shewn in the next century that they 
 were upon the increase. 
 
 But even Atto himself, Rutlierius, Abbo, 
 and other sober bisheps, in this dark age, 
 could see, and in their sermons urged the 
 necessity of instructing before baptizing. 
 Tf)ey knew infant baptism was an innova- 
 rion, but they were obliged to wink at 
 worse things than that, among their profli- 
 gate clergy. 
 
 There was an officer in the church of Mi* 
 Ian, named Ambrose, who wrote to Atto, 
 to desire an account of the original insUtu- 
 tioTi of the female officers, called deacon- 
 jiesses, Atto answered, they had been 
 appointed formerly for the purposes of 
 baptising women. He adds, very truly, 
 that in the primitive church there were 
 female elders who taught, as well as female 
 deacons who baptized.— iJ. H. B. p. 308, 
 309. 
 
 In this century, Auslebertus taught, 
 that the faithful are born not of blood, but 
 of God, viz. of the word of God preached, 
 and of the baptism of God duly adminis- 
 
167 
 
 tered ; by which sacraments, God's chil- 
 dren are begotten. 
 
 Smaragdo, in the latter part of Matt, 
 saith, first men are to be taught in the faith, 
 then after to be baptized therein ; for it is 
 not enough that the body is baptized, but 
 that the soul first by faith receive the truth 
 thereof. 
 
 Theophilact saith, whoever are truly 
 baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.— 
 Magd. Cent. p. 186, 187, 189. 
 
 Gistbertus, a learned man, heretofore of 
 another mind, opposed the Pope and Ro- 
 mish church on the point of baptism ; for 
 in general it was by them taught, that upon 
 pain of salvation, it is necessary to baptize 
 young children, although they be not re- 
 generated, and cannot desire it ; which 
 nevertheless is required in those that are 
 baptized. In opposition thereto, he taught 
 that baptism only accompanied salvation to 
 those that were re-generated, and did desire 
 the same ; which he considered as the chief 
 means, with the grace of God, to attain 
 salvation ; yet, nevertheless, denied not sal- 
 vation to a believer, through the grace of 
 
168 
 
 God, though he had not attained baptism, 
 an opportunity being wanting to him, 
 though concluding it very necessary and 
 desirable to every believer to obey Christ 
 therein— 3/a^c?. Cent. x. c. 4. 
 
169 
 
 Century the Eleventh, 
 
 TOROM the tenth to the thirteenth century 
 the Italian dissidents continued to mul- 
 tiply' and increase ; several reasons may be 
 assigned for this. The excessive wicked- 
 ness of the court of Rome, and the Italian 
 prelates, was better known in Italy than in 
 other countries ; and the adjacency of 
 France and Spain contributed to their in- 
 crease, for both abounded with Christians 
 of this sort. 
 
 About the year one thousand and forty, 
 the Pater ines had become very numerous 
 and conspicuous at Milan, v/hich was their 
 principal residence, and here they flourished 
 at least two hundred years. They had no 
 connection with the church, for the\' re- 
 jected not only Jerom of Syria, Augustine 
 •f Africa, and- Gregory of Rome, but Am- 
 
170 
 
 brose of Milan; and they considered them 
 and all other pretended fathers, as corrup- 
 ters of Christianity. They particularly con- 
 demned Pope Sylvester, as the antichrist, 
 the son of perdition, mentioned by Paul, as 
 sitting in the temple of God as God. 
 
 The churches of the Italian dissidents 
 were divided into sixteen compartments, 
 such as the English Baptists would call asso- 
 ciations: each of these was subdivided 
 into parts, which would be here called 
 churches or congregations. In Milan there 
 was a street called Pararia, where it is sup- 
 posed they met for divine worship — at Mp- 
 dena they assembled at some water mills — 
 they had houses at Ferrara, Brescia, Viterbo, 
 Verona, Vicenza, and several in Rimini, 
 Romandiola, and other places. One of the 
 principal churches was that of Concorezzo, 
 in the Milanese ; and the members of 
 churches in this association were more than 
 fifteen hundred : the houses where they met 
 seem to have been hired by the people, and 
 tenanted by one of the brethren ; there were 
 several in each city, and each was distin- 
 guished by a mark known only by them- 
 
171 
 
 selves. They had three, some say four sorts 
 of officers : the first were teachers called 
 bishops — John de Casalolto was the resi- 
 dent teacher at Mantua; — Albert and Bona- 
 venluru Belasmagra, at Verona ; — Lorenzo 
 ox Lawrence, at Sermione. The second 
 are called questors, and by some elder and 
 younger sons ; here they would be named 
 teaching elders or deacons. The third were 
 messengers, that is men om ployed in tra- 
 
 vellino: to administer to the relief and corn- 
 ed 
 
 fort of the poor and persecuted. In times 
 of persecution they met in small companies 
 of eight, twenty, thirty, or as it happened, 
 but never in large assemblies, for fear of 
 consequences. The different associations 
 held different dccirines, but they were all 
 united in opinion against the whole of po- 
 pery, and in perfect agreement among 
 themselves on the great leading points 
 above mentioned. They received members 
 by imposition of hands, and some practised 
 the washing of feet. 
 
 The Paterineb were decent in their de- 
 portment, modest in their dress and dis- 
 course^ and the.r morais were irreproach- 
 
172 
 
 able. In their conversation there was no 
 levity, no scurrility, no detraction, no false- 
 hood, no swearing^ ; their dress was neither 
 fine nor mean ; they were chaste and tem- 
 perate, never frequenting taverns or places 
 of public amusement ; they were not given 
 to anger and other violent passions ; they 
 were not ea::;or to accumulate wealth, but 
 were content with a plain 'plenty of the ne- 
 cessaries of life ; they avoided commerce, 
 because they thought it would expose them 
 to the temptation of collusion, falsehood 
 and oaths ; and they chose to live by labour 
 or handicraft. They were always emplo^-ed 
 in spare hours either in giving or receiving 
 instruction : their bishops and officers were 
 mechanics, weavers, shoemakers, and others, 
 who maintained themselves by their indus- 
 try. In vain to avoid the fury of the 
 clergy, the}' sometimes took a cross and 
 walked in procession with their neighbours; 
 their speech and even their looks betrayed 
 them. The great Muratori observes, that 
 authentic writers of those times do not 
 charge them with immorality. — B. E. R. p. 
 4iO, 411, 417. 
 
173 
 
 At Parenza, many wlio opposed Pedo- 
 
 baptism, and other articles of the Roman 
 
 church, were condemn'.^d and put to death. 
 
 — Baron. Annals J 1095. t. ii. — Ab. Mellinf 
 
 fol. 395. 
 
 Mr. Stennett relates a passage from Dr. 
 AUix concerning Gundulphus and his fol- 
 lowers in Italy, divers of whom, Gerard, 
 bishop of Cambray, and Arras, mterroyatod 
 upon several iiea.ls in the year 1025 ; and 
 among other thmgs, that bishop mentions 
 the following reasons which they gave 
 against infant baptism. — •* Because an in- 
 fant that ntnther wills nor runs, that knows 
 nothing of faith, is ignorant of its own sal- 
 vation and welfare, in whom tliere can be no 
 desire of regeneration or confession of fa:th; 
 the will, faith, and confession of another 
 man, seems not in the least to appertain.— 
 Stennett against Russen. /?, 84, 85. 
 
 It has been supposed tne^e men were Ma- 
 nicheans, and that the Manicheans denied 
 baptism, because tbe Catholics almost al- 
 ways taxed those with deiiying baptism who 
 were against the baptism of infants. But 
 Dr. Mosiieim and others, have clearly 
 
174 
 
 proved, that the INIanicheans did baptfze 
 believers by immersion, on the profession 
 oftheir faith.— 7?. //. B. p. 211, 212,496. 
 
 The Waldensian Christians have been 
 mentioned in the eighth centmy. The 
 learned Archbishop Usher, in his book en- 
 titled — The Succession andStafe of the Chris- 
 tian Churches — traces its succession through 
 them, in distinction from, and in opposition 
 to the Romish Church, and tells us, out of 
 the fragments of tlic history of Aquitain, 
 written by P. Pithas, p. 81, 82, that in the 
 time of Robert, King of France, (about the 
 year 1017,) that tliey of Aquitain and 
 Thoulouse (principal places of the Wal- 
 denses in France,) did deny baptism, (for 
 so they called denying baptism to little 
 ones,) the sign of the cross, the real pre- 
 sence in the Eucharist, and oiher rites of 
 the church ; and that many of them were 
 sentenced by the council and burnt. 
 
 He also tells us out of I'iipir. Masson, in 
 his French Annals, that fourteen citizens of 
 Orleans in thi- reign of King Robert, were 
 convicted of the same heresy, for denying 
 baptismal grace and the real presence, and 
 
175 
 
 were all burned alive ; and that the names 
 of three of the chief of them v/ere ilerbert, 
 Lisius, and Stephanas ; this, according to 
 Vignier's Eccles. Hist, was in 1022. Their 
 enemies as usual char^ced them with holding 
 many absurdities to excuse their own 
 cruelty. 
 
 About the year 1035, Bruno, bishop of 
 Anglers, and Bercngarius, archdeacon of 
 the same ^ hurch, i)egan to spread their 
 particular notions. What they taught re- 
 specting baptism and the Lord's Supper, 
 may be learned in part from the letter sent 
 by Deodwinns, bishop of Liege, to Henry 
 I, King of France, in which are the follow- 
 ing words, " There is a report come out of 
 France, and which goes through all Ger- 
 many, that these two do maintain, that the 
 Lord's Body (the Host) is not the body, 
 but a shadow and figure of the Lord's Body, 
 and that they do disannul lawful marriages, 
 and as as far as in them lies, overthrow the 
 baptism of infants." And also from Gui- 
 mundus, bishop of Aversa, who wrote 
 against Berengarius, who says, " that he 
 did not teach rightly concerning the bap- 
 Q.3 
 
176 
 
 tism of infants, and concerning marriage." 
 '—Magd. Cent. xi. c. 5. This is to bo un- 
 derstoo.l in the Cat'io'ic sense of disannul- 
 ling mamaj^e, they denied it to be a ^acra- 
 ment of Christianity as the Catholics had 
 made it. 
 
 The Mag Jebargenses, speaking of Beren- 
 garius, say, that Berengarius of Turain, in 
 Anjou, did publicly maintain his heresies 
 about the year 1049, denying transubstan- 
 tiation and baptism to little ones, which 
 Lanfranck, archbishop of Canterbury, in 
 his book called Seintillaris, answers at large; 
 and to his denying infant baptism, he an- 
 swered by saying — he doth thereby oppose 
 the general doctrine and universal- consent 
 of the church. — Cent. xi. c. v. p. 240. 
 
 Durandus, bishop of Leodiences, charges 
 them with denying, and as much as in them 
 lay, destroying the baptism of infants. — ^ib. 
 Famp. 432. 
 
 Dr. Usher tells us, in the succession of 
 the church, p. 252 — that Bruno, bishop ot 
 Tryers, did expel several of the Berenga- 
 rian sect, that had spread his doctrine in 
 several of the Belgic countries, and that 
 
177 
 
 several of them upon examination did say 
 that baptism did not profit children to salva- 
 tiop. 
 
 Thuanus in his preface to his history says, 
 —•the learned Berengarius and his followers, 
 were great assertors of baptism after faith, 
 and that many of them did witness the same 
 unto blood — Ab. Millen, I. 2, fol. 395. — 
 Saxon Chron. Annoy 1135. 
 
 Pope Leo the ninth, in his decretal epistle 
 to the bishop of Aquitain (a country where 
 the Waldenses resided) about the year 1050, 
 commanded that young children should be 
 baptized because of origmal sin. And 
 why should this decree be made, if tjiere 
 were none who opposed the baptism of 
 infants. — Danvers Treat, on Bap. p. 249. 
 
 And about the same time, in the reign of 
 the Emperor Henry III. several were put to 
 death at Goslar, for opposing infant bap- 
 tism, under the name of Manicheans.— .^^. 
 MilltJi , from fol. 8 to 422. 
 
 Peter Abalardus, a learned man, and a 
 great opposer of infant baptism, was im- 
 prisoned and martyred at Rome.— '^^. Mil- 
 len ^ I. ii.p. 425. 
 
 q^3 
 
178 
 
 Bishop Usher, out of Radulph Ard. Ho- 
 mil. tells us, — that in Germany, under the 
 reign of Henry III. about the 1054, some 
 called Manicheans inhabited the country of 
 Aganensis, who denied baptism and the sa- 
 crament of the altar. That is, they denied 
 infant baptism and the mass. 
 
 Pope Gregory VII. anno 1070, decreed, 
 •—that those young children, whose parents 
 are absent or unknown, should, according to 
 the tradition of the lathers, be baptized. 
 Thus when the parents were put to death or 
 driven away by persecution, they took care 
 that their children should receive catholic 
 baptism. 
 
 In this century Anselm taught,— that be- 
 lievers are baptized into the death of Christ, 
 that believing his death, and conforming 
 thereto, may as dying with him, live also 
 with him. 
 
 Again, — the baptism of Christ is the 
 "washing of water into the word of life ; take 
 away either water or word, baptism cea$- 
 cth. 
 
 And again — whoever is baptized, hath hea- 
 ven opened to him, and knows God is there 
 
179 
 
 above, ready to receive him ; which, as by 
 the steps of a ladder, he musr from his bap- 
 tism ascend to him ; for as Solv)mon says, 
 the way of life is above to the wise. — Magd. 
 Cent. p. 169 J 116, 160, 170. 
 
 Buchardus Normatienses saith, — that 
 repentance and faith must precede baptism. 
 — In his sixth hook de Sacrameyit. 
 
 Ado. Treverenses says, — that faith and 
 repentance must go before baptism. — Vice- 
 corn. /. 3. c. 12. 
 
 Bonizo, bishop of Placentia, about the 
 year lu80, wrote a book on the sacraments. 
 On baptism, he observes, — " that Jesus 
 ordered his disciples to teach and baptize ; 
 that instruction ought to precede baptism, 
 because as faith without works was dead, 
 so works without faith was unprofitable"— 
 that ** it was not till the end of Peter's ser- 
 mon, when the people were pricked in their 
 heart, and said, men and brethren what shall 
 we do ? — that the Apostle said, — Repent 
 and be baptized every one o/'j/oz*,"— R. H. B, 
 p. 313. 
 
180 
 
 Century the Ttvelftk, 
 
 TN the j'ear 1105, ?everal were banished 
 from the bishopric of Tryers, for op- 
 posing infant baptism — Twisk Cron. i. 
 12, anno 1105, — Montanus, p. 83. — Mer^ 
 ningj p. 592. 
 
 In the reign of Alexias, great numbers of 
 Armenians and enthusiasts, as the Imperial 
 family called them, resided at Constanti- 
 nopJe. When their teachers were men of 
 remarkable talents and became popular— 
 when in consequence of this they taught in 
 the houses of great famihes, — and when any 
 of the clergy became infected with their 
 doctrines, government nipped them a little, 
 and forced them to retire and skulk into 
 corners. The emperor sent for Nilus, one 
 of their preachers, and endeavoured to in- 
 form him of the hy postatical union, but Nilus 
 defended his doctrine, and could not say 
 
181 
 
 after his condescending master. The em- 
 peror desired the patriarch Nicholas to 
 instruct the man and his followers. Tlie 
 patriarch called a synod, iind summoned the 
 principal of these enthusiasts, and as they 
 went to reasoning with the synod, instead of 
 repenting of their errors, he anathematised 
 them ; this fnghtcd the lower people. But 
 as a mock emperor started just at the time 
 in the provinces, Alexias headed his army, 
 the synod went to sleep, and enthusiasm was 
 left to itself. — R. E. R. p. 78. 
 
 An event fell out which called the empe- 
 ror into Thrace, when ho took an oppor- 
 tunity of endeavouring to convert the de- 
 scendants or disciples of those people, which 
 Zimisces had placed there in the tenth cen- 
 tury. His majes'-y caused his converts to 
 be baptized, that is re-baptized, for the 
 members of churches had been dipped once 
 in the name of Christ: many, however, 
 persisted in error, like the Maccabees, says 
 the historian. There were three principal 
 men named Coulcoon, Pholos, and Cusinos, 
 whom his majesty could not convince, and 
 them he sent to Constantinople. After his 
 
182 
 
 arrival, he condescended to take great pains 
 to convert the three, one yielded, and the 
 other two were confined for life in the ivory 
 tower. 
 
 But when the infirmities of old age came 
 on. Alexias grew more severe, and being 
 informed, that there was a people in great 
 repute for an apparent sanctity of manners, 
 and very numerous, in various parts of the 
 empire, who were called by the people of 
 Mysia, Bogomilans, from two Bulgarian 
 words, which signified God be merciful ; 
 and that one Basil, a physician, was the 
 man of greatest note among them, and a 
 popular preacher. He sent for him, and 
 used every method he could invent to make 
 him recant his doctrine, that he might save 
 his life. Basil was immoveable, his judges 
 agreed to pass sentence of death upon him, 
 and the virtuous old man was committed to 
 the flames. A great fire was prepared in a 
 public place, and in the presence of innu- 
 merable spectators, he suffered say, histo- 
 rians, with a courage and a calmness worthy 
 of a better cause ; as if there were any 
 better cause than that of liberty and virtue,^ 
 
183 
 
 The confusion of the populace was great, 
 and some of his expressions were perverted ; 
 however, he was heard to say, as he ap- 
 proached his fate, those words of the psal- 
 mist : — Thou shalt not be afraid of the 
 destruction that waxeth at noon day. The 
 fire was excessive, and he was instantly- 
 consumed. 
 
 Although the religious principles and 
 practices of the Bogomilans, have been pur- 
 posely mangled and misrepresented, yet it 
 is not very difficult to obtain probable 
 evidence of what they were. They believed 
 in one God ; they denied the doctrine of 
 persons in the Deitj' ; they thought Jesus a 
 man in whom the Deity dwelt j they re- 
 baptized such as joined their churches; 
 they worshipped God by prayer and sing- 
 ing his praise ; they read and enforced the 
 scriptures, and simply administered the 
 Lord's Supper 5 they placed religion in 
 what it really consists, piety and virtue. — 
 R. E. R. p.?>0) 85, 90. And they admi- 
 nistered baptism to adults, as the Mani- 
 cheans and others did by immersion— 
 R.H.B.p. 211. 
 
184 
 
 Many Greeks from Bulgaria and Pkilip- 
 polis, settled ir? Italy about the time that 
 the emperor Alexias disturbed the Philip- 
 politans, and burnt Basil. These encreased 
 the number of dissidents in Italy, and the 
 clergy preached, prayed, and published 
 books against them with unabated zeal. 
 About the year 1190, one Bonacurse, who 
 pretended he had been one of these Pata- 
 rines, made a public recantation of his 
 opinions, embraced the Catholic faith, and 
 filled Milan witn fables, as many renegades 
 do. This good Christian published, that 
 cities, suburbs, towns and castles were full 
 of these false prophets, and this was the 
 time to suppress them ; and that the pro- 
 phet Jeremiah had directed the Milanese 
 what to do, when he Stud, —Cursed be he that 
 keepeth back his sword from blood.-— B. £. R. 
 p. 409, 412. 
 
 It has been said before, that these dissi- 
 dents were often called Cathari, and here it 
 is noticed, that the clergy preached and 
 wrote against them. Erbrardus, a great 
 doctor of this time, saith, that the Cathari 
 do deny baptism to children, because they 
 
185 
 
 want understanding; and therefore spend* 
 his sixth chapter to confute them, the title 
 of which is, — children which cannot speak 
 ought to be baptized — and concludes thus ; 
 by this therefox-e we find, that we ought to 
 call little ones to faith by baptism. — Bib. 
 Pat. foyn. iv. p. 1 108. 
 
 Arnold of Brescia appears to have been a 
 man of considerable note among the Italian 
 dissidents, and at the Lateran council under 
 Innocent II. anno 1139, he was condemned, 
 as was also Peter Bruis, for opposing infant 
 baptism, and other catholic doctrines.— 
 Fn'do's Introduct. to Hist. Latin Councils^ 
 p. 23. — WaWs Hist. Bap. vol. ii. p. 184. 
 And at Rome, in the year 1155, he was first 
 hung, then his body was burned, and his 
 ashes thrown into the TihQv .—*Usher' s Suc- 
 cess. Goadby on Rev. xi. 
 
 Peter Bruis was an eminent man among 
 the WaJdcnses, who publicly and most suc- 
 cessfully preached the gospei in the city of 
 Thoulouse, and the provinces round about 
 it, for nearly twenty years ; and who for his 
 opposing the doctrines of the church of 
 Home was apprehended, imprisoned and 
 
186 
 
 burnt in the fields of St. Giles's, near Thou- 
 louse, about the middle of this century, 
 whose doctrines and positions for which he 
 sufl'ercd, we have, recorded by the Magdeb. 
 cent. Kn._S43, and L'Osiandcr, ce)2f. xii. 262 
 — And amongst which we find these about 
 baptism. 
 
 First. — That infants are neither to be 
 saved nor to be baptized by the faith of 
 another, all being to be baptized, and ex- 
 pect to be saved by their own proper 
 faith. 
 
 Secondly — That baptisni without proper 
 faith saves not. 
 
 Thirdly — That little children that are 
 under age and without understanduig, that 
 are brought to baptism, are not saved 
 thereby. 
 
 Fourth])- — That those that are baptized 
 in tlieir infancy, after they are come to nn- 
 derstandiug, are to be baptized again, and 
 which is not to be esteemed re-baptizatiion, 
 but riidit bajjlism. 
 
 Mosiieim assTires us, that Peter de Brnis, 
 who u adf. the most laudable attempts to 
 reform the abuses and to remove the super- 
 
187 
 
 Slltions that disfigured the beautiful simpli- 
 city of the gospel insisted, that no persons 
 whatever were to be baptized before they 
 were come to the full use of thunr reason. — 
 Eccles. Hist. cent. y.\\. part \i. 
 
 Vencma shews, that the Petrobrusians it; 
 the twelfth century maintained, that pedo- 
 baptism cannot save infants, nor the faith of 
 another be profitable to them. — Eccl<js. Ilisi . 
 torn. v\.p. 129. 
 
 Peter, the abbot of Clugncy , wrote against 
 Peter Bruis and i^enry his colleague, an:i 
 among other errors he imputes to them, ari> 
 those : — *' That infants are not baptized or 
 saved by the faitli of another, but ought to 
 be baptized and saved by their own faith, 
 or that baptism without their faith docs not 
 save ; and that those that arc baj)tized in 
 infancy, wiicn grown up, should i)e bap- 
 tized again j nor are the}' then re baptized, 
 but rightly kaptized." — Hist. EccL Magd. 
 cent. xii. c. v. p. 332. 
 
 Cassander, in his preface to his book of 
 
 J.nfant Baptism, imputes the denial of this 
 
 principle to Peter Bruis, and his disciple 
 
 Henry, from whom the Petrobresians and 
 
 R 2 
 
188 
 
 Henricians took their name ; and speating 
 oftlieir pretended heresy, has thesv; words ; 
 — " which heretics first openly condemned 
 infant baptism, and stiffly asserted that bap- 
 tism was fit only for the adult, which they 
 both verbally taught, and really practised 
 in their administration of baptiSm/' 
 
 I^rateolus, speaking of Peter Bruis, says, 
 - — " He asser'ed that baptism was useless to 
 children, who wanted the exercise of rea- 
 son, because infants who wanted the use of 
 reuson car. not have faith, so as to believe the 
 woid of God when preached to them ; whicli 
 he asserted to be absolutely necessary to 
 every one who submitted to baptism, so 
 that if any one should be baptized without 
 previous iaith, lie said his baptism would be 
 pf no use to him." This autiior charges the 
 samo opinion on lienricus, tlic disciple of 
 Peter Bruis. — StenneWs answer to Russen, 
 f. 83, 84. 
 
 Henry, the friend and colleague of Peter 
 Bruis, was condemned for preaching the 
 same doctrines, and imprisoned for4ife. 
 
 Arnold was another eminent man among 
 the Waldensians. who with two of his asso- 
 
189 
 
 dates, Marsillius and Theodoricus, had a 
 public dispute at Cologne, against one Eck- 
 bertus, and were afterwards condemned as 
 heretics. Arnold and eight of his disciples 
 were burnt at Cologne, August 2, 1'63. 
 Theodoricus and Marsillius, were afterwards 
 burnt at Bunnea, near Cologne. Eckber- 
 tus saith, — that the principal argument they 
 brought against infant baptism, was the 
 commission of Christ. — Usher Sue, p. 292. 
 
 In the year 11T6, Pope Alexander III. 
 called a Gallican council, to convince and 
 condemn the Allegensian heresy, in the 
 third canon whereof they say, they do con- 
 vince and judge them of heresy, for deny- 
 ing baptism to children, or that they are 
 to be saved tiiereby, &c. which may be seen, 
 at large in the book of decretals. 
 
 The same pope, in the year 1 179, in the 
 general Lateran council, condemns the Wal- 
 densian or Catharian heresy, and in the 
 twenty-seventh canon, anathematizes the 
 Cathari, &c. dvvelhng in Gascoyne, Alby, 
 and other parts about Thoulouse, and 
 among the rest of their heresies, for deny- 
 ing baptism to children, and for their coa- 
 
190 
 
 tempt of all the sacraments. — Decretals as 
 before. 
 
 In the year 1181, Pope Lucius held his 
 general council at Verona, in the time of 
 Fred.. I. wherein the Albigensian sect and 
 heresy were damned, and anathematized 
 under the names of Cathari, Patrini, Humi- 
 liati, poor people of Lyons, and Arnoldists, 
 for daring to preach without apostolical ap- 
 probation — and fpr teaching otherwise 
 about the Eucharist, baptism, confession, 
 marriage, and the other sacraments of the 
 church, than the church of Rome preacheth 
 and observeth. — Favhi Hist. p. 290. 
 
 Roger de Hovenden, in his annals, says 
 — *' that in the year 1182, Henry IL was 
 very favourable to the Waldensian sect in 
 England, for whereas they burnt theny in 
 many places of Flanders, Italy, and France, 
 in great numbers, he would not suffer any 
 such thing here, and being in his own, and 
 his Queen's right, possessed of Aquitain, 
 Poictou, Guienne, Gascoyne, Normandy, 
 &c. the principal places inhabited by the 
 Waldenses and Albigenses, and they being 
 
191 
 
 his subjects, they had free egress into his 
 territories here." 
 
 Burnt them in great numbers, — yes, Giles ■ 
 le Maitre told Henry II. of France, that 
 Phillip Augustus caused six hundred Albi- 
 genses to be burnt in one day. Phillip 
 began his reign in 1 180. — MartirCs Meinoirs 
 of French Protestants, p. 15. 
 
 In 1182, many of the Waldensian faith 
 suffered death in Flanders under the Eari 
 Phillip Erbzates, for opposing pedo-bap- 
 tism. — Jo. Andriesg, Hist, of Antiq. Twisk. 
 C?wz. i. xii. anno 1182, p. 489. 
 
 In 1182, many of the Waldenses who op» 
 posed the church of Rome in the business 
 of infant baptism, were burnt in Germany;, 
 by Conradus van Morpurgh.— ^fd. Bzov. t. 
 xiii. Baron Annals, anno 1232. 
 
 In this century, Rupertes taught, that 
 they who do belierve and make confession 
 thereof, are to be baptized. — That many 
 who are baptized with water, are not re- 
 newed in the spirit of their minds— 7 hat 
 the visible baptism of water we may confer, 
 but that in which the virtue of baptism doth 
 consist, we cannot. 
 
192 
 
 Peter Lumbard says, — that the reason 
 why baptism was instituted was, that the 
 mind might be changed, that the man, who 
 by sin was made old, by grace might be re- 
 newed. And that believers, who arc bap- 
 tized in faith, receive both the sacrament 
 and the thing, but they who have not faith, 
 may receive the sacrament, but not the 
 thing intended in the sacrament. — Magd, 
 Cent. p. 597, 598, 529. 
 
 *' Otho, bishop of Bamberg, baptized his 
 converts in Pomerania in bathing tubs let 
 into the giound, and surrounded with posts, 
 ropes from post to post, and curtains hang- 
 ing on the ropes ; within the curtains the 
 people undressed, were baptized, and after- 
 wards dressed again. Many of these were 
 also used for baptism in the depth of winter, 
 and the baths and tents were warmed by 
 stoves."— i?. 2J, B.p, 116. 
 
193 
 
 Century the Thirteenth, 
 
 TN the account of the eighth century it 
 was noticed, that many thousancls of the 
 Spanish Unitarians, Baptists, and others, 
 emigrated from the Spanish to the French 
 side of the Pyrenean mountains, near which 
 lay Guienne, Languedoc, Gascoyne, Thou- 
 louse, Beavne All>y, Roussillon, and Nar- 
 bonne, places remarkable- in the darkest 
 ages for harbourinjr Christians, called here- 
 tics by the Catholics. 
 
 And also thai it was highly probable, that 
 they and their descendants were the true 
 original Waidcnscs, for to them and to them 
 only do the descriptions in the books of the 
 Inquisitors agree. 
 
 And here we may endeavour to give a 
 more particular account of them. 
 
 They appear to have been called by 
 several other names at different limes and. 
 places, either on account of the names ot" 
 
194 
 
 llie places where they chiefly resided, as 
 the Albigenses from the city of Alby, raen- 
 tioned above, or from the names of some of 
 the most eminent men who rose up among 
 them at different periods ; as that of Beren - 
 garians Peter, Brusians, &.c. or by names 
 of reproach given them by their enemies, 
 as Turpehns, because hke wolves they some- 
 times inhabited unfrequented places to avoid 
 persecution. But by whatever names they 
 were called, the vallies in and about the Py- 
 renees, and on both sides were full of such 
 Christians as the Catholics counted here- 
 tics. 
 
 The Jesuit Gutser, abating the Catho- 
 licism of his language, gives a just account 
 of them, when he says, — The Wtiklcnses 
 were cojleetions of various sects of Mani- 
 cbeani, Arians, and others ; some did be- 
 lieve the doctrines of the church, but did 
 not embrace the worship, or the discipline; 
 others renounced the whole, In plain style 
 they were Christians in different degrees 
 of religious improvement. — R. E. li. p. 
 303, 
 
 They were of all manner of sentiments. 
 
195 
 
 In regard to the gi'eat leading points, the 
 most were Unitarians, but mafjy held the 
 same opinions as the church of Rome did, 
 consequently the doctrine of the trinity, so 
 the Inquisitor says. The truth is, they 
 placed religion in piety and virtue, and left 
 speculation uncontrouled and free. — II. E, 
 R. p. 316. 
 
 They seem to he considered as the prede- 
 cessors of the European baptists., by those 
 eminent pedo-baptist authors who were best 
 acquainted with their history : — thus 
 
 Liuiborch. — " If the doctrines and rites 
 of the Waldenses be well examined without 
 prejudice, it must, I think, be said, that 
 among uU the denominations of Christians, 
 which there are at this day, none have a 
 greater agreement with them, than that 
 which is called Mennonists." — Uist. /«- 
 qiiisit. cap. viii. p. 32. That is the Dutch 
 Baptists. 
 
 Venema. — " The nearest origin of the 
 Mennonists, in my judgment, is better de- 
 rived from the Waldenses ; and from them 
 also that of the Anabaptists." — Hist. Ecdts, 
 torn. vii. p. 443. 
 
196 
 
 And^s to their antiquity, Cardinal Ho> 
 sius asserted, that the sect of the Anabaptists, 
 of which kind says he, the Waldensian bre- 
 thren seem to have been, was not a modern 
 heresy, for it existed in the time of Austin. 
 *^Apud. Schyn. Hist. Me^inanity p. 135. 
 Reiner of Saccho, who deserted them, 
 turned preaching friar, informer and inqui- 
 sitor, among other things declared that some 
 affirmed their faith and practice was as an- 
 cient as church estabhshments : they said 
 the truth, but the monk did not know their 
 history. — li. E. E.p. 299. 
 
 It is not clear that the ancient Waldenses 
 had any ck rgy. It is certain they practised 
 no coercion, and their opponents affirm, 
 that they thought none ought to be exer- 
 cised ; thty held priesthood in abhorrence : 
 they allowed women to teach, and laughed 
 at the distinction between clergy and lait)^. 
 Reiner describes the manner in which they 
 insinuated their principles into the gentry. — 
 ** Sir, will you please to buy any rings or 
 seals, or trinkets. — Madam, will you look at 
 any handkerchiefs or pieces of needle work 
 for veils. I can afford them cheap." If after 
 
197 
 
 If after a purchase, the company ask— - 
 *' Have you any thing move?" — the sales- 
 man would reply, — '* O yes, I have com- 
 modities far more valuable than these, and 
 I Will make you a present of them if you 
 will protect me from the clergy." Secu- 
 rity being promised, on he would go. " The 
 inestimable jewel I spoke of, is the word of 
 God, by which he communicates his mind 
 to men, and which inflames their hearts with 
 love to him." — Then he would repeat some 
 partof the gospels, and if the company should 
 seem pleased, he would proceed to repeat 
 the twenty-third of Matthew. — " The 
 Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat — Woe 
 unto you, ye shut up the kingdom of heaven 
 against 7nen : for ye neither go in yourselves, 
 neither suffer ye them that are enteriufi; to 
 go in — Woe unto you, ye devour widows 
 houses.'''' " And pray," should one of the 
 company sa}', — ** ag'ainst whom are these 
 woes denounced, think you ?" He would 
 reply, " Against the clergy and the monks," 
 The doctors of the Roman church are pom- 
 pous both in their habits and their manners. 
 *' They love the uppermost rooms f and the 
 s 
 
igs 
 
 chief seats in the synagogues ^ and to be 
 called Eabbi, Babbi''* For our parts, we 
 desii'e no such rabbis. They are inconti- 
 neut — we live each in chastity with his own 
 wife. They are the rich and avaricious, of 
 whom the Lord says — " Woe unto j/ou richy 
 for ye have received your consolation ;" but 
 we, " having food and raime^it are therewith 
 content^ — They are voluptuous, and devour 
 widows houses ; we only eat to be refreshed 
 and supported. They fight and encourage 
 war, and command the poor to be killed and 
 burnt, in defiance of the saying — " he that 
 taketh the s'd'ord shall perish by the szmrdj'^ 
 For our parts, they persecute us for righte- 
 ousness -'-ake. They do nothing; they eat the 
 bread of idleness; we work with our hands. 
 They monopolize the giving of instruction 
 and " woe be to them that take away the key 
 of knowledge.''^ — But among us, women teach 
 as well as men ; and one disciple as soon as 
 he is informed himself, teaches another. 
 Among tliem you can hardly find a doctor 
 who cm repeat three chapters of the New 
 Testament by heart ; but of us there is 
 hardly man or woman who doth Bot retain 
 
199 
 
 the whole. And because we are since?!:) 
 believers in Christ, and all teach and en- 
 force a holy life and conversation, these 
 scribes and pharisees persecute us to death, 
 as their predecessor did Jesus Christ. Fa- 
 ther Gretzer, the first editor of the complete 
 book of Reiner, hath put in the margin 
 against the above, these words :-^'' Tins is a 
 true picture of the heretics of our age, par- 
 ticularly Anabaptists." Happy for the 
 Anabaptists indeed if they can affirm all 
 that with truth of themselves which tiic old 
 Waldensian prcacliing pedlar afhruied of 
 himsi.lf and his company. — R. E. R. p. 
 311, 315. 
 
 Izani, adominican persecutor of these he- 
 retics comp!aine(i, tliat although tlic prayers 
 of the piiest, and the sign of the cross ab, 
 solved the child, when it came out of the 
 water, from every sin, yet tliese heretics, 
 perjured liari;, admitted another baptism. — 
 R. E. R. p. 4G3. 
 
 And Erminq^endus biiinrs the like charjZf^ 
 against them in his book Contra Waldenses. 
 In which he endeavours to prove the bap- 
 tism of infants from these pas:>agcs ; Safer 
 f^ 2 
 
200 
 
 little children to come unto me., &V, And from 
 the words of the Apostle, baptized /or th^ 
 dead. — Bib. Pat. torn. 4, 
 
 Everinus, inaletter to St. Bernard, writ- 
 ten before the year 1146, speaks of a sect 
 which approved of adult baptism upon be- 
 lieving, and opposed infant baptism. He 
 says, '* They make void the priesthood of 
 the church, and condenm the sacraments 
 besides, baptism only, and this only in those 
 wlio were come to age." — Dr. Jlli:r, p. 
 143.- 
 
 St. Bernard, about the same time writinor 
 upon the canticles in his 65th and 66th ser- 
 mon •, takes notice of a sort of people, lie 
 calls Apostolici, who, he says, launii at us fof 
 baptizing infants.— /i^fniej/'j Hist. Bcip. p. 
 20. 
 
 . Dr. Allix gives us an extract taken by 
 Claudius Cassord, in the year 1548, out of 
 an old manuscript of Rainerus, a friar, 
 wrote hy him 296 years before, against the 
 Waldenses, wherein he has these words ;— 
 " They say, that when a man is baptized, 
 then he is received into this sect ; some 
 of them hold, that baptism is of no advaii- 
 
201 
 
 tage to infants, because tliey cannot ac- 
 tually beheve."— p. 188, 191. 
 
 Eckburtus, in his sermon against the Ca- 
 thari or Waldenses, saith, *' That they say, 
 concerning the baptism of children, that 
 through their incapacity, it nothing profit- 
 eth them to salvation ; and that baptism 
 ought to be deferred till they came to years 
 of discretion ; and that then only those 
 ought to be baptized who desire it, and 
 make a profession of faith. Which he en- 
 deavours to confute in that sermon. — Bib. 
 Pat. torn. \\.fol.99. 106. 
 
 And it is a well-known fact, that Peter 
 Bruis, a very eminent man among the Wal- 
 denses, maintained and taught, — that infants 
 are neither to be saved nor baptized by the 
 faith of another, all being to be baptized, 
 and expect to be saved by their own proper 
 faith. — Magd. Cent. xii. p. 843. 
 
 Favin, in his history of Navarre, says — 
 that the Albigois, do esteem the baptizing 
 •f infants^ superstitious. — p. 290. 
 
 Chassanion, in his history of the Albi- 
 gois, has these words : — " Some writers 
 have affirmed^ that the Albigois approved 
 S 3 
 
202 
 
 not of the baptisra of infants ; others that 
 ihey entirely slighted this holy sacrament, 
 as if it was of no use either to sreat or small. 
 The same has been said of the Vaudois, 
 though some affirm, that they have always 
 baptized their children ; this difference of 
 authors kept me for some time in suspence, 
 before I could be resolved on which side the 
 truth lay. At last considering what St. Ber- 
 nard says of this matter, in his 66th Homily, 
 on the second chapter of the Song of Songs, 
 and the reasons he brings to refute this 
 error, and also that he wrote Ad Hildefonsum 
 Comitcm Sancti Egidii, I cannot but think 
 that the Albigois for the greatest part, 
 ■ivere of that opinion ; and that which con- 
 iirms me yet more in the belief of it, is, that 
 in the history of the city of Treves, which 
 I have mentioned before, at the end of the 
 4th chapter, it is said, — that at Ivoi, in the 
 diocese of Treves, there were some . who 
 denied that the sacrament of baptism was 
 available to the salvation of infants. And one 
 Catharine Saube, who was burnt atMontpel- 
 jier, in the year 1411, for being of the mind 
 of the Albigois, in not believing the tradi- 
 
203 
 
 tions of the Romish church, had the same 
 thoughts concerning infant baptism, as it js 
 recorded in the register of the town house 
 of the said city of Montpellier, of which we 
 shall speak at the end of the fourth book. 
 The truth is, they did not reject this sacra- 
 ment, or say it was useless, but only counted 
 it unnecessary to infants,' because they are not 
 of age to believe, or capable of giving evi- 
 dence of their faith. That which induced 
 them (as I suppose) to entertain this opi- 
 nion, is what Our Lord says, thatj-^^e that 
 hclieveth and is baptized shall be saved j but 
 he that beli&veth not shall be damned. 
 
 *' Thus, this historian who was a pedo- 
 baptist, and who says, he collected his his- 
 tory from two ancient manuscripts ; one of 
 which was written in the Languedoc tongue, 
 and the other in old French, declares him- 
 self convinced, that the greatest part of the 
 Albigois, were against infant baptism."— 
 Stennett against Bussen, p. 81 , 82, 83. 
 
 Limborch informs us that Peter Auterius, 
 an eminent minister among the Albigenses, 
 was accused and condemned by the court of 
 inquisition, for saying, among other things^ 
 
204 
 
 '* that water baptism performed by the 
 church, is of no use to children, because they 
 do not consent ; nay they weep." — Hist. 
 Inqidsit. I. \. c. viii.p, 31. 
 
 Certain it is, that the generality, if not all 
 the writers of those early times, say,— that 
 the Waldenses and Albigenses were Ana- 
 baptists, and several of the canons of the 
 councils, and the decrees of the popes to 
 suppress them, which confirm the same, 
 have been mentioned before. 
 
 The orthodox positively affirm, ** they 
 were not guilty of manichaism, and other 
 abominable heresies." — *' Yes, (replies the 
 learned Limborch, than whom, no man 
 knew their history better,) they were ma- 
 ny of them Manicheans : — it is not fair, 
 (adds he) to deny a fact, which is as clear 
 as noon day." " They scent a little, (says 
 the celebrated Trancowitz) of Anabaptism, 
 but they were nothing like the Anabaptists 
 of our times." " Yes, (replies Limborch) to 
 say honestly what I think, of all the modern 
 sects of Christians, the Dutch baptists most 
 *esemble both the Albigenses and the Wal- 
 denses, but particularly the latter," 
 
205 
 
 -Historians, who affirm they wrote from 
 ancient and authentic records, expressly 
 declare, that the Catholics thought they 
 were all Arians, and therefore they divided 
 their army into three parts, in honour of the 
 trinity, before they attacked them. — R. E^ 
 R. p. 311, 316, 318. 
 
 The attack so disgraceful to the Catho- 
 lics, was effected by the malice, influence, 
 and power of Pope Innocent III. About 
 the beginning of this century, be writes his 
 decretal epistle to the bishop of Aries, (the 
 principal city in Provence), respecting the 
 Albigensian sect, to which Baronius in his 
 annals, writes this preamble ; and which is 
 also expressed b}' Spondanus, in his epitome 
 981, 1199, viz. Among the Arlatenscs were 
 heretics who excluded infants from baptism, 
 counting them incapable of that heavenly 
 privilege. Therefore did Innocent write 
 this excellent epistle to the archbishop of 
 Aries, to confute and confound them ; 
 which hei'ecites at large, as it is also found 
 both in Gratian, and the book of decretals. 
 
 After the epistle, Baronius adds, this In- 
 UQcent wrote in a time of great emergency 
 
206 
 
 concerning the sacrament of baptism, which 
 the poor people of L3'ons, those Albigensian 
 Anabaptists did deny. 
 
 The Waldenses and Aibisrenses had been 
 condemned and anathematized for denj^ing 
 baptism to infants by several Popes be- 
 fore : now upon these considerations, and 
 from this Pope's epistle, and the comments 
 upon it, does it not appear, that one great 
 cause of the cruel persecutions commenced 
 against them, was on account of their beinj 
 what their enemies called Anabaptists. 
 
 After the epistle the Pope sent a great 
 number of friars, to go up and down those 
 countries, to preach and dispute amongst 
 them ; then legates, and after them iiKjuisi- 
 tors upon inquisitors, to make havock, burn 
 and destroy the people of God without mer- 
 cy. And when all this availed not, he 
 proclaimed a bloody crusade against them, 
 with a determination, if possible, to exter- 
 minate the whole race. The effects and 
 consequences of which are thus concisely 
 described by Goadby. 
 
 ^* In the thirteenth century, the Walden- 
 ses and Albigenses had spread and prevailed 
 
207 
 
 so far, and were prevailing still farther, that 
 the pope thought it necessary to exert his 
 utmost efforts to suppress them. For this 
 purpose, the first crusade was proclaimed, 
 of Christians against Ciiristians, and the 
 office of inquisition was first erected ; the 
 one to bubdue their bodies, the other to en- 
 slave tlujir souls. It is enough to make the 
 blood run cold, to read of the horrid mur- 
 ders and devastations of this time ; how 
 many poor innocent Christians were sacri- 
 ficed to the blind fury and malice of their 
 enemies. It is computed, that in France 
 alone, were slain five hundred thousand. 
 And what was the consequence of these 
 shocking barbarities. No writer can better 
 inform us than the wise and moderate histo- 
 rian Thuanns. *' Against the Waldenses, 
 saith he, when exquisite punishments availed 
 little, and the evil was exasperated by the 
 reineuy, which had been unseasonably ap- 
 plied, and their number increased daily, 
 complete armies were at length raised, and 
 a war of no less weight than what our people 
 had u aged against the Saracens was decreed 
 against them ; the event of which was, that 
 
208 
 
 that they were rather slain, put to flight, and 
 spoiled every where of their goods and dig„ 
 nities, and dispersed here and there, than 
 that convinced of their error they repented. 
 So that they who at first had defended them- 
 selves by arms, at last overcome by arms, 
 fled into Provence and the neighbouring 
 Alps of the French territory, and found a 
 shelter for their life and doctrine in those 
 places. Part withdrew into Calabria, and 
 continued there a long while even to the 
 pontificate of Pius the IVth ; part passed 
 into Germany, and fixed their abode among 
 the Bohemians, and in Poland and Livonia, 
 others turning to the west, obtained refuge 
 in Britain. — GoaUby on Rev. xi. 
 
 P. Perin, m his history, says much the 
 same. The following is a brief sketch of it : 
 — The popes stirred up kings and princes to 
 raise armies and root up the whole people, 
 and by fire and sword to lay waste their 
 cities and country, which they did with 
 great devastation, especially in Provence, 
 Dauphine and Languedoc. First, they were 
 excommunicated and anathematized, or ac- 
 cursed by the pope j then they were con- 
 
209 
 
 fiscated, imprisoned, tortured, publicly dis- 
 graced, shewn upon scaffolds, wearing 
 mitres in derision, spit upon, their ears 
 cut off, their flesh plucked off' with pincers, 
 drawn with horses, dragged up and down, 
 broiled, roasted, stoned to death, burnt, 
 drowned, and beheaded. Vast numbers 
 were slain with the sword, and a great many 
 fled into other countries, in several of which 
 they met with a measure of the same spirit 
 of persecution ; they were fugitives, in- 
 jured, reproached, forsaken, despised, aban- 
 doned, and many hundreds put to death : but 
 God carried them through wonderfully, so 
 that they could rejoice and glory in their 
 tribulations, that they were accounted wor- 
 thy to suffer for Christ's sake ; choosing 
 rather to suffer affliction with the people of 
 God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin 
 for a season ; esteeming reproach for 
 Christ the greatest riches, because they had 
 respect to the recoropence of reward. 
 
 Danvers at the close of his history of 
 
 Christianity amongst the ancient Waldenses, 
 
 says,—" This was the people that b.ore so 
 
 great a witness for believers', and so firmly 
 
 T 
 
210 
 
 opposed wfanfs' baptism ; as by so many ar- 
 guments in the sevejith chapter is made good 
 to you." — Treat. o?i Bap. p. 539. 
 
 Another writer says, — " They underwent 
 the most dreadful persecutions, and every 
 means which malice and cruelty could in- 
 vent, was used to exterminate them and their 
 principles from the earth. The crusade 
 against them consisted of five hundred thou- 
 sand men; more than three hundred gentle- 
 men's seats were razed, and many walled 
 towns destroyed." — Iverney's Hist. Bap. 
 p. 55. 
 
 Thus it was, that these orthodox profes- 
 sors, who divided their army into three parts 
 in honour of the trinity, attacked and de- 
 stroyed them ; wherever they came, nothing 
 was to he seen but flight and slaughter, burn- 
 ing and devastation. The land was as the 
 garden of Eden before them, and behind 
 them a desolate wilderness ; and for no other 
 reason than this- — because they would not 
 subject tiieir consciences to the creeds and 
 decrees of the popes, whose insatiable thirst 
 for dominion over conscience, could be sa- 
 tisfied with nothinir ^hort of that or the de- 
 
211 
 
 struction of their bodies. Dec^th or submis- 
 sion was the law of the popes, while the 
 Mohammedans granted a safe asylum to all 
 who could flee into Foain : there they en- 
 joyed the liberty denied them by the Ca- 
 tholics, assistance and comfort from Chris- 
 tians of their own class. 
 
 The revelator describes the dragon as 
 being wroth with the woman, anil as making 
 war with the remnant of her seed, who kept 
 the commandments of God, and the testimo- 
 ny of Jesus Christ. — Rev. xii. n. Mr. 
 Henry, on this passage, says, — ^*' Some 
 think, hereby are meant the Albigenses, 
 that were first, by Dioclesian, driven up 
 into barren and mountainous places, and 
 afterwards cruelly murdered by'popish rage 
 and power, for several generations ; and for 
 no other reason, but because they kept the 
 comma7idments of Gody and held the testimo- 
 ny of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Yes, even the catholics bear their testi- 
 mony to the mora! character and piety of 
 these pco[jle. Claudius, archbishop ol Tu' 
 rin, in his treatise against the Waldenses. 
 gives this testimony of them, — '^ Thut a* 
 T 2 
 
212 
 
 touching their lives and manners, they have 
 been always sound and unreprovable, with- 
 out reproach or scandal amongst men, giving 
 themselves to their oovver, to the observa- 
 tion of the commandjnents of God." — 
 Perin's Hist. p. 40. 
 
 Cardinal Baronias attributeth to the 
 Waidcnses of Thoulouse, the title of good 
 men, and says, they were a peaceable 
 people. — Tom. xii, — Anno 1176/7. 835. 
 
 Bernard de Girard, Lord of Haillon, in 
 his history of France, lib. x. says, "The 
 Waldenses have been charged with wicked 
 things they were not guilty of, because they 
 stirred the popes and great men of the world 
 to hate them for the liberty of their ?peech, 
 which they used in -condemning the vices 
 and dissolute behaviour of princes and ec- 
 clesiastical persons. 
 
 In 1210, the Paterines had become so 
 numerous, and so odious, for Paterine was 
 become a common name for all sorts of 
 persons ill affected to the church, that 
 Huge, the old bishop of Ferrara, obtained 
 an edict of the Emperor Otho the IVth. for 
 the suppression of them ; but this extended 
 
only to the city of Ferrara. Five years 
 after, Pope Innocent III. held a council at 
 the Lateran, and denounced anathemas 
 against heretics of all descriptions ; and 
 against the lords and their bailiffs who suf- 
 fered them to reside on their estates. The 
 canons complain of thj Greeks for re-bap- 
 tizing the Catholics, and declare that bap- 
 tism was efficacious to little ones as well as 
 adults. And 1220, Pope Honorus III. 
 procured an edict of Frederick II. the day of 
 his coronation, and this extended over all 
 the imperial cities. Thirteen years after, 
 a stone was placed in a square of Milan, 
 with an inscription on it to the honour of 
 Oldrad, the governor of the city, for doing 
 his duty by burning the Gazzari ; the 
 bloody office, however, was generally per- 
 formed by the inquisitors,, who made it the 
 sole business of life (to use the language of 
 Jesus Christ), to steal, to kill, and to de- 
 stroy. But it would be miserable to attend 
 the courts and the executions of these 
 merciless men. — R. E. R. p. 413. 
 
 But it does appear that the imperial civil 
 magistrates were slower to punish heresy than 
 T 3 
 
214 
 
 the priests were. For in twelve hundred 
 and fifty-nine, the Paterine church of Alba 
 consisted of about five hundred members j 
 that of Conrezzo of more than fifteen hun- 
 dred ; and that at Bagnole about two 
 hundred. And in various parts, this one 
 party, the Paterines, had four thousand 
 members of churches ; so Reiner Sacco, 
 the inquisitor says ; and he adds, this 
 number was on their own lists. — R. E. R. p. 
 418, 455. 
 
 And Wilhelmina, a zealous Bohemian 
 female, who settled at Milan, taught and 
 baptized with great success, died in peace, 
 anno 1281, and was buried at Milan in the 
 church of St. Peter ad Hortum, when not 
 her followers, as Mosheim says, but the 
 ignorant catholics, having known the holi- 
 ness of her life, said their prayers at her 
 tomb. Her followers were accounted here- 
 tics, and in the year 1300, the inquisitors 
 discovered, and ' commenced the usual 
 process against them,— .ff. E.B. p. 413, 
 
215 
 
 Century the Fourteenth. 
 
 TT was shewn before from Thuanus, that 
 the Waldenses and Albigenses fled for 
 refuge into foreign nations ; some to Pied- 
 mont and the Alps, some into Germany, 
 some into Britain. In Germany they grew 
 and muhiplied so fast, notwithstanding the 
 rage and violence of crusaders and inquisi- 
 tors, that at the beginning of this century, it 
 was computed that there were eighty thou- 
 sand of them in Bohemia and Austria, and 
 the neighbouring territories. And they 
 pertinaciously defended their doctrines 
 even unto death. Among a variety of names 
 they were called Lollards, from one Walter 
 Lollard, who preached in Germany, about 
 the year 1315, against the authority of the 
 pope, the intercession of saints, the mass, 
 extreme unction, and other ceremonies and 
 ^superstition of the church of Rome, and 
 
216 
 
 was burned alive at Cologne in the year 
 1322. In England, also, they were deno- 
 minated Lollards, though there was a man 
 more worthy to have given name to the t.ect, 
 the deservedly famous John Wickliffe, the 
 honour of his own and the admirationof all suc- 
 ceeding times, rector only of Lutterworth, 
 he filled England, and almost all Europe 
 with his doctrine. He began to grow fa- 
 mous about the year 1360, by preaching 
 and writing against the superstition of the 
 age, the tyranny of the pope, the erroneous 
 doctrines and vicious lives of the monks and 
 clergy ; and that he maintained the prin- 
 ciples of the Wiildenses,. and Albigenses, re- 
 specting the sufficiency of scripture and 
 baptism, the following extracts sufficiently 
 shew. 
 
 First. — He asserted and maintained two 
 sacraments only, viz. Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper, in opposition to the popish seven, 
 as appears by the 45,. 46, and 49 articles 
 condemned by the council of Constance.-— 
 James Apol.p. 31. 
 
 Second. — That he taught that believers 
 after the example of Christ, should be bap- 
 
217 
 
 tJzed in pure water.— /Vac lilyricus Catal, 
 Test. p. 453. And how he esteemed the 
 same, he further saith, that it was not lawful 
 for believers, though they had received the 
 baptism of the spirit, to omit the baptism 
 of water, but that as opportunity and cir- 
 cumstances might concur, it was necessary 
 to receive it. — See his Trialog^. iv. c. xii. 
 
 Third — That believers are the only sub- 
 jects of baptism, as appears in his 11th 
 chap, of his Trialog. when he saith, that 
 persons are first to be baptized with what 
 he calls the first or insensible baptism, viz. 
 with the blood of Christ, before they are 
 baptized in water, without which their 
 baptism in water profits not ; and therefore, 
 so positive for faith and regeneration to 
 be first laid, that in his book De Veritate 
 Scripture p. 490, he saith, that for any to 
 bring wicked or unregenerate persons into 
 the church, they do wed Christ and the 
 devil together, taking the members of an 
 harlot, coupling them to the body of Christ, 
 ^- James Apol. p. 15. 
 
 Fourth — That baptism doth not confer, 
 but only signifies (or is a symbol of) grace 
 
218 
 
 given. So Fuller out of Chocleus, in his 
 Eccle. Hist, upon the life and doctrine of 
 Wickliffe. 
 
 Fifth — That they are fools and presump- 
 tuous which affirm such infants not to be 
 saved which die without baptism. So 
 Fuller words it out of Chocleus, and Wick- 
 liffe's own words as c. ii. De Trialog. 
 
 Sixth — That all truth is contained in the 
 holy scriptures, and that which is not origi- 
 nally there, is to be accounted prophage. — 
 L. D. Verit. scrip, p. 39. That Christ's 
 law sufficeth by itself to rule Christ's church 
 — Exposit. Decalog. p. 5. And again, that 
 we must receive nothing but what is in the 
 scripture, and that whatever is added to it 
 or taken from it is blasphemous ; and that 
 no rite or cerem; ny ought to be received in 
 the thurch, but that which is plainly con- 
 firmed by God's word. — De Ferit. scrip, p. 
 581. And therefore saith, wise men leave 
 that as impertinent, which is not plainly 
 expressed. — Fuller out of Chocleus, And 
 further, that we are to admit of no 
 science or conclusion that is not proved by 
 scripture testimony, and that whoever holds 
 
ng 
 
 tlie contrary opinion, cannot be a Christian, 
 but flatly the devil's champion. — De Verii. 
 Scrip, p. 128. 
 
 These particulars prove, beyond all rea- 
 sonable contradiction, that Wickliffe was 
 against the baptism of infants ; for certain- 
 ly that is not a scripture instituiion, as Pe- 
 dobaptists allow. And that he was an 
 advocate for believers baptism, so plainly 
 insti uted in the scripture, and practiced by 
 Christ and his apostles. 
 
 And we have the testimony of authors of 
 great note and learning, who have left it 
 upon record, that Wickliffe dissented from 
 the church of Rome, on the point of bap- 
 tism as well as on other doctrines. 
 
 " Thomas Waldcn and Joseph Vice- 
 comes, who had access to his writings, have 
 charged him with denying Pedobaptism, and 
 they brought their charge at a time when it 
 might have been easily contradicted, if it 
 had not been true." — Ivemey's Hist. Bap. p. 
 12. 
 
 Walden also says, that this was the Albi- 
 gensian heresy, who denied baptism to little 
 
220 
 
 ones, as Wicldiffe and the Lollard's do now. 
 — De Bapfisma Sacra, tit. v. c. \m, fol. US. 
 
 Walsinghani says, that in this time it was, 
 that that most damnable heretic, John 
 Wickhffe, reassumed the cursed opinions 
 of Berengarius, which was as you have 
 heard, to deny infant baptism, transubstan- 
 tiation, &:c. — Ypodigma Nustria, upon the 
 year 1381, p. 139. 
 
 Dr. Hurd, in his History of all Religions, 
 says *' it is pretty clear from the writings 
 of many learned men, that Dr. John Wick- 
 liffe, the first English reformer, either con- 
 sidei'ed infant baptism unlawful, or at best 
 not necessary." 
 
 The author of a History of Religion^ 
 published in London in 1764, in four vo- 
 lumes, octavo, says, " It is clear from many 
 authors, that Wickliffe rejected infant bap- 
 tism, and that on this doctrine his followers 
 agreed with the modern Baptists." 
 
 Wickhffe vehemently attacked confirma- 
 tion, which was ordained together with in- 
 fant baptism, and especially calculated for 
 the ratification thereof; concerning which 
 he says, tliat as there is not the least syllable 
 
2^1 
 
 from the word of Go J, so not the least co- 
 lour trom reason for the same. — Triang. iv. 
 C, 15. 
 
 This great man died peaceably at Lutter- 
 worth, Dec. 31, 1384 ; by the command of 
 the pope, his bones weru taken up out of 
 the grave and burnt, and his ashes cast into 
 a brook, in 1428. 
 
 Rapin says, that ** in the year 1389, the 
 Wickhffites or Lollards, began to separate 
 from the church of Rome, and appoint 
 priests from among thcmsdves, to perform 
 divine service after their way. Though 
 some were from time to time persecuted by 
 the bishops, yet their persecutions were not 
 rigorous." — Hist. Englandf vol. \. 
 
 Mr. Robert Robinson, a baptist minister 
 at Chesterton, near Cambridge, says, " I 
 ^ have before me a manuscript of Gray , bishop 
 of Ely, which proves that in the year 1487, 
 there was a congregation of this sort, in the 
 village of Chesterton, where I now live; wlio 
 privately assembled for divine worship, and 
 had preachers of their own, who taught them 
 the very doctrines we now preach. — Disser- 
 tation prefixed to Claude's Essay. 
 
S22 
 
 When the Lollards were persecuted, there 
 were several articles that the inquisitors 
 were to examine the suspected upon, and 
 amongst the rest this, — whethlr an in- 
 fant DYING UNBAPTIZED CAN BE SAVED ? — 
 which the Lollards believed and asser;ed, 
 for Walsiugham tells u^;, that one Sir L. 
 Clifford, an apostate Lollard, did discover 
 to to the Atchbishop of Canterburj', that 
 the Lollards would not baptize their new 
 born children. — Danvcrs,p. 303. 
 
 Hall in his Encyclopedia on the article 
 Baptists, observes, they bore a considerable 
 share in the persecutions of the east, and of 
 the preceding centuries, and as it should 
 seem in those of some centuries before, for 
 there were several among the Lollards, and 
 the followers of Wickliife, who disapproved 
 of infant baptism. 
 
 And the partialit}'^ of John Fox, the mar- 
 tyrologist, ought not to be passed over 
 unnoticed, for of the forty-five errors 
 chartred on Wickliffe, he omits those which 
 opposed the common practice of infant bap- 
 tism, and giv'es us only forty-two ; and 
 thib appears to have been his usual way. 
 
^23 
 
 Caroliis, bishop of Meyland, did exhort the 
 ministers under his charj^e, tliat first they 
 should teach in the faith, and that only upon 
 confession of faith, and a good conversa- 
 tion, they should administer baptism. — 
 Merningy p. T40. Vicccom. t. v. c. xlv. 
 
 At Crema, in Austria, in the bishopric of 
 Passau, many of the Waldenses were burnt 
 for opposing infant baptism, anno 1315.— 
 Toithem, Cron. Anno 1315, /?. 211. Hai' 
 Boch, Jol. 27. 
 
 A pious woman, named Peronne, of Au- 
 biton, in Flanders, was burnt for opposing 
 infant baptism, anno 1313. — Dutch Mariym 
 rol. part \\,Jol. 497. 
 
 Paul Stransky, dc Rcpubllca Bohemorum, 
 p. 212, (as quoted by David Cranz in his 
 Jlistorv of the United Brethren, translated 
 by La Trobe, p. 16.) says, *' the Wal- 
 denses, in 1176, arrived in Bohemia, and 
 settled at Satz and Laun, on the river Egcr." 
 This is confirmed by other Bohemian l)is- 
 torians, " and many affirm, that there was a 
 set of Arian vagrants there long before, who 
 had fled from Mesopotamia, from the Atha» 
 oasian persecution, and who were joined by 
 
224 
 
 others, fleeing from persecution in succes- 
 sive ages, from all parts of Europe. On 
 this account, most Bohemian catholic histo- 
 rians, call their country a sink of heresy, 
 and Prague the metropolis, a common and 
 safe asylum for ail sorts of heretics." — B. E. 
 M. p. 5. 
 
 Now, as authentic records in France as- 
 sure us, that such a people were driven 
 from thence in the twelfth century, and as 
 both these classes are mentioned by Bohe- 
 niian historians, as resident therein, this 
 fourteenth, it uiay not be amiss to inquire 
 on what account these Waldensians were 
 driven there, and how it was, that Bohemia 
 afforded, for so many ages, an asylum fot 
 the persecuted Christians, 
 
 Archbishop Usher, in his Succession of 
 the Church, p. 292, tells us out of Dcxretal, 
 1. V. tit. vi. c. X. — That Pope Alexander the 
 third, in the Turonensian Synod, held iu 
 1163, touching the Albigenses, made the 
 following canon. 
 
 To damn that heresy that had so infected 
 as a canker, all those parts about Gascoyne, 
 requiring the clergy of every sort, to give 
 
225 
 
 their utmost diligence to detect and suppress 
 it, and to require all upon penalty of ex- 
 communication, not only to refuse harbour- 
 ing of them, but to avoid all civil communi- 
 on and converse with them, and if taken by 
 any catholic princes, that they be impri- 
 soned, and their goods and estates confis- 
 cated. 
 
 And inasmuch as multitudes, under pre- 
 tence of sojourning together in one mansion 
 house, (which was very much the custom 
 of the Waldenses to do), do under that 
 colour, carry on their errors in such co-ha- 
 bitations, that all such conventicles should 
 diligently be searched out, and if found, to 
 be proceeded with by canonical severity. 
 
 And in the year 1176, Pope Alexander 
 called another Galilean council, to convince 
 and condemn the Albigensian heresy. 
 
 In the third canon whereof they say, they 
 do convince and judge them of heresy, for 
 denying baptism to children, or that they are 
 to be saved thereby, urging arguments 
 from Christ^s dying for all, and from the 
 circumcising of infants of old, for their bap- 
 tizing, and affirming, that the faith of the 
 u 3 
 
226 
 
 gossips is sufficient to baptize upon, &c. 
 which may be seen at large in the book of 
 Decretals. 
 
 And further, the bishop tells us, out of 
 Hovenden's Annals, fol. 139, that the said 
 Pope Alexander HI. did, in the year 1176, 
 the better to extirpate the Albigenses, send 
 a cardinal and three bishops, as commis- 
 sioned inquisitors against them, and others, 
 under the names of Credenles, Lyonists, 
 Patrinos, Bonhomes or Manichees, with a 
 creed to put to them for the better discover- 
 ing of them, in which these following are 
 some of the articles. We believe we can- 
 not be saved except we eat the body of 
 Christ, which is not so, except consecrated 
 in a church by a priest. We believe that 
 none are saved, except they are baptized ; 
 and that children are saved by baptism, and 
 that baptism is to be peformed by a priest, 
 in the church. 
 
 From hence we may learn, it was by the 
 persecutions stirred up against them, that 
 they were driven from Fiance. The de- 
 scription given of them as sojourning in num- 
 beis together in one mansion house, is such; 
 
227 
 
 that this class of people cannot well be mis- 
 taken, as it corresponds with the accounts 
 we have of them in Bohemia, as will be 
 shewn hereafter. 
 
 It may be deemed mercy in the King of 
 France, Lewis VII. to permit these people 
 to depart, when compared with the cruelty 
 of his successors j for Phillip Augustus, who 
 began his reign in 1130, caused 600 of their 
 Albigensian brethren to be burnt in one 
 day. — Memoirs oj the Persecutions of Pro-^ 
 testants in France, hy John Martin, p. 15. 
 And his son, Lewis, afterward Lewis VIII. 
 engaged in that formidable crusade and 
 terrible massacre of the Waldenses and Albi- 
 genses, in whicli hundreds of thousands 
 perished. Thus it was, that persecution and 
 cruelty increased, in proportion to the in- 
 creased influence of the popes, over the 
 despotical tyrants of the earth. 
 
 It is an unquestionable fact, that when these 
 people fled from France, a great part of Bo- 
 hemia, Hungary, Muscovy, Moravia and 
 other places thereabout, was a vast desart 
 of forests, marshes, mountains, and immense 
 tracts not asqertained, and partly uninha- 
 
228 
 
 bited. A little before the time of Jesus 
 Christ, Cesar described the Hercynian fo- 
 rest thus: — ** It is nine days journey over 
 — It begins on the confines of the Helvetii 
 —it runs through an infinite number of 
 countries, none could ever yet come to the 
 end of it, or know its utmost extent, though 
 some have gone sixty days journey in it.'* 
 In process of time, part of the Hercynian 
 forest was grubbed up, and inhabited by 
 different nations. The Black forest, and 
 the forest of Bohemia, were formerly parts 
 of the Hercynian. It is needless to prove, 
 that the skirts of this forest were inhabited 
 by different classes of people, different from 
 each other in manners custom and lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Let us observe next, that the people of 
 whom we are now in search (or the original 
 Waldenses who fled there before their bre- 
 thren, referred to by Thuanus) were fitted, 
 by their own avowed principles, to inhabit 
 such places. They aimed at no honours, 
 — they coveted neither wealth nor fame — 
 they held all things common — they despised 
 the literature of the pagan and papal 
 
schools — ^they placed religion in virtue 
 more than in fuith — they thought every man 
 competent to understand the New Testa- 
 ment, and their public worship with the 
 administratiort of baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper, exactly resembled that of the very 
 respectable body of Christians among* us, 
 whom the lower sort of people in derision, 
 call Quakers. Let it not seem romantic, if 
 we suppose that theWaldenses, who we know 
 studied the Revelation of John, tliought 
 themselves directed to retire by God him- 
 self, to sequestered places, for by the New 
 Testament prophet, he had said, — The 
 u^oman fled into the wilderness ^ where she 
 hath a place prepared of God i that they shovld 
 feed her there a thousand two hundred an^ 
 threescore dat/s, — R. E. R. p. 509, 510. 
 
 Further, it is clear by the statutes of ^a 
 ancient king of Bohemia, Charles IV. that 
 Christian fugitives did certainly reside 
 about the borders of this kingdom. Prol^- 
 bly they did, as all men in such circum- 
 stances would do, shift their quarters to suit 
 their convenience, according to prospects 
 pf safety or danger. Several of the Carp- 
 
23t 
 
 line laws, the magna charta of Bohemia, are 
 for the regulation and preservation of the 
 forests. In these statutes, the king thought 
 fit to allow the borderers to burn the dead 
 wood of the forest, and to direct that here- 
 tics, who, he had been informed, had fled 
 from other countries, and dwelt near the 
 borders of his kingdom, and who denied the 
 doctrine of the trini y, should be in the 
 sight of all the orthodox, committed to the 
 flames. It is doubtful whether the barons, 
 or the woodwards on the borderers under- 
 stood statute law, or whether they could 
 have read this statute had they seen it, and it 
 is very credible that nobody minded it, for 
 a reason we shall presently give. What a 
 contrast does history present to our view ; 
 the pious and orthodox Charles, whose first 
 article in his statutes is a declaration of his 
 faith in a triune God, the Virgin Mary, and 
 the Catholic church, in the next article but 
 one condemns Christians to the flames ; 
 \vhile John Basilowitz, one of the most 
 bloody tyrants that ever existed, who pu- 
 nished Jews only, because he could not 
 trust them, allowed all the subjects of hU 
 
231 
 
 vast empire, liberty of conscience. It was 
 wise advice which Jesus gave his disciples, 
 •when thex/ persecute in one city flee to another, 
 for tyrants are seldom all disposed to be 
 cruel at a time. Such despots as Basilo- 
 witz always governed some of these con- 
 tiguous kingdoms, and the advice of Jesus 
 was always practicable." 
 
 It was said before a reason would be given, 
 why the law of Charles for burning here- 
 tics was not regarded. We have an authen- 
 tic document to prove, that the governors 
 of cities both secular and sacred, made no 
 scruple of employing the Jews to promise 
 heretics security of their liberties and pro- 
 perties, on condition of their paying a cer- 
 tain sum. Many embraced those offers, and 
 paid what the Jewish factors demanded ; 
 and such as could not raise the money were 
 expelled. The Jews knew no heretics but 
 bankrupts. 
 
 Such was the situation of these fugitive 
 Christian labourers and manufacturers, who 
 chiefly resided in and about solitary places, 
 and who have been since reproached for 
 what was their highest honour, and called 
 
232 
 
 ioandering Anabaptists. JR. E. R. p. 509, 
 510, 511, 512, 513. 
 
 A further account of them and their ex- 
 pulsion from Moravia, by the Emperor 
 Frederic, will be given in the succeeding 
 centuries. 
 
233 
 
 Centuries the Fifteenth and Sixteenth 
 
 npHE fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are 
 united, for the sake of giving at one 
 view, the supplementary traces of the Bap- 
 tists and heretics before mentioned, down to 
 the full establishm nt of the reformation, 
 or the grand schism f'om theclmrchofRome. 
 
 In the beginning of this period, John 
 Huss, and Jerom of Prague, two zealous 
 Bohemian ministers, preached the gospel 
 with great success ; and among other prin- 
 ciples which they taught vyere the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 The law of Jesus Christ is sufficient of 
 itself for the government of the church mi- 
 litant. 
 
 The church is the mystical body of 
 Christ, of which he is the head 
 
 Tiiey are not of the world, as Christ is 
 not of the world. 
 
 The world hates them, because it hates 
 X 
 
234 
 
 Christ ; that is, the virtue and the truth of 
 God. 
 
 Christians ought not to believe in the 
 church. 
 
 All human traditions savour of folly. 
 A multitude of human doctrines and sta- 
 tutes is useless, and on many accounts per- 
 nicious. 
 
 No other law beside the rule of scripture, 
 ought to be prescribed to good men. 
 
 Tiic devil was the author of multiplying 
 traditions in the church. 
 
 Deacons or elders, by the instinct of God, 
 by the gospel of Jesus Christ, without any 
 license from the pope, or a bishop, may 
 preacli and convert spiritual children. 
 
 Huss was condemned at the council of 
 Constance, and burnt in the year fourteen 
 hundred and fifteen ; and the year follow- 
 ing, Jerom shared the same fate. The 
 men who composed this council, considered 
 tlie article of the creed, — '' I believe in the 
 holy catholic church^'''' — as the foundation of 
 all religion ; and they thouglit, that a man 
 wh'o pretended to judge for himself, and pro- 
 fessed' to beuuve only what he himself was 
 
QS6 
 
 convinced was true, was the most dangerous 
 of all heretics. *' It was reported, and it is 
 extremely probable, that Jerom was bap- 
 tized by immersion, by some of the Greek 
 church." 
 
 We do not say that these reformers fol- 
 lowed their principles whither they led ; 
 but we do contend, that some of their hear- 
 ers reasoned consequently from them, and 
 so became baptists. — R E. R. p. 4S2) 
 483, 514. 
 
 And it appears, that another class of Bap- 
 tists sprang up about the same time, who, 
 afterwards are often mentioned by Bohe- 
 mian historians under the name of WaK 
 denses, or Pygherds ; which names it is 
 likely were given them, from a certain re- 
 fugee who settled here ; for in a letter writ- 
 ten by Costelecius, out of Bohemia, to Eras- 
 mus, dated Oct. 10, 1519, among other 
 things, said of them, which agree with the 
 said people, this is one ; " such as come 
 over to their sect, must every one be bap- 
 tized anew, in mere water ;" the writer of 
 the letter calls them Pygherds, so named, 
 he says, from a certain refugee, who came 
 X 2 
 
236 
 
 tbither ninety, seven years before the date of 
 of the letter, which was anno 1422. — Dr. 
 GilVs Div. Right of In. Bap. Disproved, 
 p. 10. 
 
 The greatest diffr^nce between these 
 people, and the Moravian Baptists, was, in 
 their not dwelling together in fraternities, 
 but living dispersedly over Bohemia ; and 
 on this account it should seem, tliey were by 
 t»ocne hbtodam, ranked with ths Buht^iiiian 
 Baptists. 
 
 The term Picard or Pygherd, or Begherd, 
 is of very general meaning, applied in dif- 
 ferent ages, to people of very different de- 
 scriptions ; to the pious and to the profli- 
 gate, to monks in the church of Rome, and 
 to Vaudois who had departed from it ; and 
 which signified only an importunate beggar 
 — Moshdni's Eccles. Hist. vol. iii. ce?it. xiii^ 
 pai^t. ii. 
 
 Rokyzan, the archbishop of Prague, at 
 first favoured the followers of Huss, but 
 when many of them renounced infant bap- 
 tism, and the ministers baptized them before 
 they received them into the church ; when 
 they were called Waldenses, Picards, and 
 
237 
 
 other opprobius names, and became too 
 numerous and too scandalous, for an arch- 
 bishop in Rokyzan's situation to patronize, 
 he was obliged to treat them with indiffer- 
 ence, and keep them at a distance. 
 
 About the year 1457, George, Lord Po- 
 diebrad, was elected king ; but the pope 
 refused to acknowledge him, nor would he 
 invest the archbishop, unless they took an 
 oath to re-establish the old religion, and 
 clear the kingdom of heresy. The king 
 took the oath and was crowned. The arch- 
 bishop first published a book against the 
 Taborites, then silenced the answer, by im- 
 prisoning the authors. When a tide- of 
 threaten ings came in from Rome, his ambi- 
 tion and fear excited him to use severity, 
 and he proceeded to break up religious 
 assemblies, and to commit the refractory 
 preachers to prison. When reflection and 
 early impressions returned, he visited the • 
 prisons and condoled with the sufferers, 
 embraced and wept over his nephew who 
 was one, and exclaimed, — '' O ! my Gre- 
 goT} , 1 wish to God I were as thou arc." In 
 the end he became a confirmed persecutor, 
 X 3 
 
S38 
 
 and though he woulel not go so far as tq 
 burn heretics, yet by his great influence 
 with the king, he procured their banishment 
 and continued to persecute till his death. 
 
 But notwithstanding this, in various parts 
 of Bohemia and Moravia, heretics obtained 
 a settlement. Some had long ago lived in 
 remote parts of the kingdom, about the 
 forests and the mines. These were now 
 multiplied by an accession of foreigners, and 
 b}- converts of Huss and Jerom, who rea- 
 soning on the principles laid down by 
 their teachers, entertained the same ideas of 
 religion as the old Vaudois did. They were 
 all indiscriminately called Waldenses and 
 Picards, and they all re-baptized, but they 
 were of very different sentiments ; some 
 held the divinity of Christ, others denied it, 
 some believed more, others less, but they 
 were all obliged to act with caution, for 
 though they were generally connived at, yet 
 they were not allowed to hold their assem- 
 blies publicly by ^aw. New Prague was 
 very friendly to them, and so were Boles- 
 laus and Wilenji, and thence they were 
 sometime called Wilemites and Boleslavians, 
 
239 
 
 - It should seem, these people were not in 
 Ziska's army during the war ; they do not 
 seem to have borne arms at any time : they 
 were always going and coming, some retir- 
 ing from the cities, and others going there 
 to reside. They do not seem to have had 
 any regular ministers, but when they as- 
 sembled together, they exercised their abi- 
 lities alternately. The most teachers we 
 hear of at a time in Prague, were four or five. 
 When they were persecuted in Prague, they 
 left the city and settled in Moravia, and in 
 time that settlement became their chief resi- 
 dence, though a great number went into 
 Austria, and other places. In France they 
 were still persecuted, and Catharine Saube 
 was burnt at Montpellier, in 1417, for op- 
 posing infant baptism, and other Catholic 
 doctrines. 
 
 Maximilian after he became emperor, 
 openly declared to Henry III. of France, 
 as he passed through Vienna, that such 
 princes as tyrannize over the consciences of 
 men, attack the Supreme Being in the no- 
 blest part of his empire, and frequently 
 lose the earth by concerning themselves 
 
240 
 
 too much with celestial matters. He used to 
 say of Huss, they very much injured that 
 good man. 
 
 His physician, Erato, was one day riding 
 with him in his carriage, when his imperial 
 majesty, after much lamenting the conten- 
 tions of mankind about religion, asked the 
 doctor, what sect he thought came nearest 
 to the simplicity of the apostles ? Erato re- 
 plied, " I verily think, the people called 
 Picards." The emperor added " I think 
 so to." During this reign every body en- 
 joyed liberty of conscience, and when it was 
 attacked, the effort came to nothing. A 
 faction of Catholics at Prague, envying 
 the happiness of the Picards, formed a ca- 
 bal of senators, who sent the chancellor of 
 Bohemia to Vienna, to entreat the emperor 
 to empower them to restrain these heretics. 
 By some means the chancellor succeeded, 
 and set out for Prague with the instrument j 
 but attempting to pass a bridge over the 
 Danube, the bridge gave way, and he and 
 his company fell into the river and were 
 drowned. His corpse was taken up by 
 
241 
 
 some fishermen, but the diploma was never 
 found. 
 
 A letter describing the sentiments of Hus- 
 sites, written frem Bohemia to Erasmus, 
 dated October 10, 1519, states as follows : — 
 ** They renounce all the rites and ceremo- 
 nies of our church — they ridicule our doc- 
 trine and practices in both sacraments— 
 they deny orders (the hierarchy) and elect 
 officiary i'rom among 'he laity— th«y receive 
 no other rule than the bible—they admit 
 none into their community, till they be 
 dipped in water or baptized— and they 
 reckon one another without distinction of 
 rank to be called brothers and sisters." 
 •— Colonies ius's Collection of Letters to Men 
 cf note. 
 
 About the year 1520, Lewis Hetzer, a 
 a man of learning, wrote a book against the 
 divinity of Christ, which was suppressed by 
 Zuinglius. He published another against 
 the use of inaages in churches ; but his 
 chief work was a translation of the four 
 greater and the twelve lesser prophets, into 
 the German language, which was printed at 
 Worms, in the year 1527, in octavo, and 
 
242 
 
 again in folio, at Augsburg, the year after. 
 • — Some say he was assisted in this work, 
 by John Denckius, another member of the 
 Baptist churches in Moravia. Hetzer was 
 put to death at Constance, for denying the 
 doctrine of the trinity ; but the Baptists 
 ^continued to increase so much, that when 
 disciples of Luther, went into Bohemia an^ 
 Moravia, they complained, that between 
 Baptists and Papists, they were verj much 
 straightened, though they grew up among 
 them, Ike lilies among thorns. — R. E. R. 
 p. 499, 500, 513, 517, 519, 521. 
 
 Jacob Merningus saith, — that " he had 
 in his hand, in the German tongue, a con- 
 fession of faith of the Waldenses, in Bo- 
 hemia, asserting, that in the beginning of 
 Christianity, there was no baptizing of 
 children ; and that their forefathers prac- 
 ticed no such thing." — Merningus' Hist of 
 Bap. fart ii, p. 738. 
 
 The Waldenses and Albigenses, not- 
 withstanding the dreadful persecutions car- 
 ried on against them in the preceding centu- 
 ries, were still very numerous in different 
 countries ; and in the fifteenth and the early 
 
243 
 
 paft of the sixteenth century, great numbers 
 suffered in Flanders, Germany, Holland, 
 Switzerland, and France, and more lay con- 
 cealed in almost every country in Europe, 
 till after the commencement of the Refor- 
 mation, when the Protestants became con- 
 versant with them ; and by their example, 
 influence and arguments, the generality of 
 the Waldenses and Albigenses deviated from 
 their former principles and practice, by 
 embracing many of the doctrines and for- 
 malities of the Protestants and Hugenots, 
 while those who continued to maintain the 
 principles and practice of their predeces- 
 sors, were called by the Protestants, Ana- 
 baptists ; a title which the Catholics had, 
 ages before, given unto them. Thus in 
 process of time, their ancient name of Wal- 
 denses and Albigenses, were hidden and lost 
 —in those of Protestants, Hugenots, and 
 Anabaptists. — Danver''s Treat, on Lap. par-- 
 ticularlj/, p. 3 1 1 to 32 1 , 4^ 
 
 When Ferdinand the Second intended the 
 conquest of Bohemia, he paid a visit to our 
 Lady of Loretto, and made a vow to extir- 
 pate heresy out of his dominions, on condi- 
 
244 
 
 ''dition her Ladyship would give his atmy 
 success. In his letters and orders to his 
 generals, he bestowed the title of generalis- 
 simo, on the Blessed Virgin ; and the army 
 and the cause, was represented as belonging 
 to the mother of Almighty God. 
 
 When the country was conquered, it was 
 thought proper to begin with that part of 
 the Baptists, whose principles would not 
 allow them to make any resistance, and who 
 would remove at a word, without giving his 
 majesty the trouble of putting them to 
 death, who at this time resided in Moravia. 
 
 These people lived in forty five divisions 
 called colleges or fraternities, exactly as 
 their ancestors had done before their banish- 
 ment from France, four hundred and fifty 
 years back : each of these fraternities con^ 
 sisted of many families, who held all things 
 common. 
 
 It is extremely difficult, not to say im- 
 possible, to determine the number of inha- 
 bitants : Carafa, the Jesuit, who was the 
 immediate cause of their banishment men- 
 tions the least number, and he says, they 
 consisted of more than twenty thoui:»and» 
 
245 
 
 Others say, each fraternity contained be- 
 tween some hundreds and a thousand, and 
 thenceic is inferred, that they were about 
 forty thousand. Some of these houses car- 
 ried on manufactories, others were factors 
 and merchants, and others were employed 
 in agriculture and the wine trade : all were 
 busv , peaceable, and happy, under regula- 
 tions of their own making, having none of 
 that class of mankind among them, who live 
 on the vices and folhes of their fellow crea- 
 tures. They were no burden to any body, 
 on the contrary, they served and enriched 
 the community : they founded liberty on 
 independence, and independence on indus- 
 try. . 
 -~— It was not an easy matter to get rid of 
 these baptists , the emperor's chaplains, 
 who were priv}' counsellors, talked of he- 
 resy, but it was difficult to bring a charge 
 against a people who had no pubhc faith, 
 and who never attacked any religion by 
 publishing creeds: they could notbecharged 
 with perjury, for they had never taken any 
 oaths, and one of their maxims was, — 
 ** swear not at all.'''' Sedition could not be 
 
^6 
 
 pretended, for they never bore arms ; they 
 could not be awed by one another, for they 
 had no master; they could not be bribed, for 
 they had no necessitous gentry. Filled with 
 that unsuspicious freedom wliich innocence 
 inspires, they had not even one patron 
 at the imperial court ; and their whole ex- 
 pectation was placed on the superintending 
 providence of God. Prince Lichtenstein, 
 on whose domain they lived, and to whom 
 they paid rent, and many other noblemen, 
 endeavoured to save these people on account 
 of the benefits they derived from them : so 
 that the Jesuit who effected their banishment, 
 might well compliment himself for sur- 
 mcHinting these seemingly insuperable dif- 
 ficulties-. " When I thought, (says he) of 
 proscribing the Anabaptists of Moravia, I 
 well knew it was an arduous undertaking; 
 however, by the help of God, 1 surmount- 
 ed many obstacles, and obtained an edict 
 for their banishment ; it was against the 
 consent of M.mo prince;jand governors, who 
 had a woridiy interest in supporting these 
 profitai)le ruscais.*' 
 
 Comenius sa^'s,this crael act was coloured 
 
247 
 
 with a pretence, that King Frederick, when 
 he passed through Moravia, visited these 
 people, and was ho<;pitably entertained by 
 them. It might be reported so at the time, 
 but this was not mentioned in the edict ; 
 the truth is, government stood in no fear of 
 these people, and they were banished first 
 only, by way of trial. It was intended to rid 
 all the emperor's dominions of all denomi- 
 nations except Catholics, who as they were 
 nursed in ignorance, and habituated to an 
 impUcit confidence in their priests, are the 
 only subjects fit for despotical governmtnts. 
 But the Lutherans and Calv:|inists were nu- 
 merous, and powerfully protected by pro - 
 testant princes in the empire, and it was no:, 
 time to provoke them ; but the expulsion 
 of Anabaptists would offend nobody, for all 
 protestant princes had bqen taught by their 
 priests to do them the same honour. 
 
 Ferdinand wrote first to prince Lichten- 
 stein and Cardinal Uietrichstein ; the first, 
 general of the army in Moravia, and the last 
 governor of the province, to inform them 
 of his design, and to require their concur- 
 rence on pain of his displeasure. Thr-n 
 
 Y 2 w 
 
248 
 
 follows the edict, in which his majest}' ex- 
 presses his astonishment at the number of 
 the Anabaptists, and his horror at the prin- 
 cipal error they had embraced, which was, 
 that according to the express declaration of 
 holy scripture, they were t,o submit to no 
 liuman authority — (he should have said in 
 matters of conscience.) He adds, that his 
 ci nscience compels him to proscribe them, 
 and accordingly he did banish them, both 
 natives and foreigners, from all his heredi- 
 tary and imperial dominions, on pain of 
 death. 
 
 The Jesuits contrived to publish this edict 
 just beiore harvest and vintage came on, for 
 two reasons ; first, that the neighbouring 
 g- ntry would be absent ; and next, that the 
 p.-ople might not carry off the produce of 
 lo« present year. They allowed them only 
 three weeks and three days for their depar- 
 ture, and it was death to be found even on 
 the borders of the country, beyond the ex- 
 piration of the hour. 
 
 It wai aiuumn, the prospect and the 
 pride of husbandmen. Heaven had smiled 
 on their honest labours, their fields stood 
 
249 
 
 thick with corn, and the sun and the dew- 
 were improving every moment to give them 
 the last polish. The yellow ears waved 
 homage to their owners, and the wind whist- 
 .ling through the stems and the russet her- 
 bage, softly said, put in the sickle the har- 
 vest is come. The luxuriant vine leaves too, 
 hung aloft by tendrils mantling over the 
 clustring grapes, like watchful parents over 
 their offspring. But all was fenced by an 
 imperial edict, and it was instant death to 
 approach. "Without leaving one murmur 
 upon record, in solemn silent submission to 
 that power who governs the universe, and 
 cause? all things to work together for the 
 good of his creatures, they packed up and 
 departed. In several hundred carriages 
 they conveyed their sick, their innocent 
 infants sucking at the breasts of their mo- 
 thers, who had newly laid-in — and their 
 decrepid parents, whose work was done, and 
 whose silvery locks told every beholder, 
 that they wanted only the favour of the 
 grave. At the borders they filed off, some 
 to Hungary, others to Transflvania ; some 
 to Wallachia, others to Poland, &c. greater, 
 Y 3 
 
250 
 
 far greater for their virtue, thdiT\ Ferdinand 
 for all his titles, and for all his glory. '/ ^ ^ ,*,. 
 To recapitulate the histories of theTe' ^ 
 Baptists, authentic records in France assure 
 us, that a people of certain description were 
 tlriven from thence in the twelfth century, 
 Bohemian records of equal authenticity in- 
 form us, that yome of the same description 
 arrived in Bohemia at the same time, and 
 iiettled near a hundred miles from Prague, 
 at Satz and Laun, on the river Eger, just 
 on the borders of the kingdom. Almost 
 two hundred years after, another un- 
 doubted record of the same country, men- 
 tions a people of the same description, some 
 as burnt at Prague, and others as inhabiting 
 the borders of the kingdom. And one hun- 
 dred and fifty years after, we fmd a people 
 of the same description, settled by conni. 
 Vance in the metropolis, and in several other 
 parts of the kingdom. About one hundred 
 and twenty years lower, we find a people in 
 the same country, living under the protec- 
 tion of law, on the estate of prince Lichten- 
 f t-iin, exactly like all the former, and about 
 *^hirty or forty thousand in number. The 
 
251 
 
 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 nei- 
 ther exacted nor took oaths ; the)' bore no 
 arms, and rather chose to suffer than to re- 
 sist wrong ; they held every thing called 
 religion in the church of Rome in abhor- 
 rence, and worshipped God only, by ador- 
 ing his perfections, and endeavouring to 
 imitate his goodness. They thought Chris- 
 tianity wanted no comment, and they pro- 
 fessed the belief of that by being baptized; 
 and their love to Christ and one another, by 
 receiving the Lord's Supper. They aspired 
 at neither wealth nor power, and their plan 
 was industry. We have sfeewn how highly 
 probable it is, that Bohemia afforded them 
 work, wages, and a secure asylum, (till its 
 conquest by Ferdinand), which were all they 
 wanted. If these be facts, they are facts 
 that do honour to human nature, they exhi- 
 bit in the great picture of the world, a few 
 small figures in the back ground, unstained 
 
^S2 
 
 with the blood, and unruffled with the dis- 
 putes of their fellow creatures. It was their 
 wisdom in their times> not to come forward 
 to deliver apologies to the world, and creeds 
 with flattering prefaces to princes, the tur- 
 bulence of the crowd would have caused the 
 still voice of reason not to be heard. — R. E. 
 R.p. 522 to 521. 
 
 The benevolent mind may be pleased to 
 hear, that this class of Baptists exist at the 
 present day, and maintain the same Chris- 
 tian simplicity. 
 
 The Turks had greatly reduced the Eas- 
 tern empire, and in the year 1453, they 
 put a period to it, by the capture of Con- 
 stantinople. This event greatly reduced 
 the Greek church, and lessened the number 
 of the Greek Euchites, or dissenters, there- 
 fore what has been said upon these subjects, 
 may be concluded with a few observations* 
 
 Greatly as the Greeks were divided iu 
 speculative opinions, and numerous as the 
 congregations were, which dissented from 
 the established church, it is remarkable, and 
 may serve to confirm the meaning of the 
 word baptize, that there is not a shadow of 
 
253 
 
 dispute in all their history in favour of 
 sprinkling. Because they were Greeks, 
 they all thought that to baptize was to bap- 
 tise, that is, that to dip was to dip. They 
 all baptized and re-baptized ; the established 
 church, as was observed before, by order 
 of council, for speculative reasons, and tiic 
 dissenters for moral reasons. Thus the 
 people called Acephali, or headless, were 
 reproved and hooted in council, for re-bap- 
 tizing in private houses, and holding 
 conventicles ; and thus the Manicheans are 
 censured for reprobating the baptism of 
 children, and the Cathari, for calling the 
 established church a worldly community, 
 and re-baptizing such as joined their 
 churches. The sum of the matter seems to 
 be, that the established Greek church held 
 both the subject and the mode of baptism, 
 as the first institution prescribed, for four or 
 five hundred years, losing the subject by 
 degrees, but retaining the mode lo this day; 
 and that the bulk of the dissenters, perhaps 
 all, retained both the subject and the mode, 
 ilways dipping, and never dipping any but 
 
254 
 
 upon their own personal profession of faith.. 
 ^B. E. R. p. 92, 93. 
 
 Groiius says, that in every age, many of 
 the Greeks, unto this day, keep the custom 
 of deferring baptism to httle ones, till they 
 could themselves make a confession of their 
 faith. — Dayiver's Treat, on Bap. p. 80. 
 
 Voltaire says, the Greek-, who never 
 received baptism, but by immersion, hated 
 the Latins, who in favour of the Northern 
 Christians, introduced that rite by aspersion 
 t—Wo7^kSi vol. i. chap. vii. 
 
 Nor would the Greeks admit aspersion to 
 be valid baptism, so late as the year 1745 ; 
 for Sophia Augusta, who had been christen- 
 ed by the Protestants in her infancy, was 
 that year espoused to Peter, afterward the 
 Czar, Peter III. upon which she was bap- 
 tized by immersion, according to the rites 
 of the Greek church. This person was no 
 other than the celebrated Catharine III. who 
 reigned over the Russian empire with so 
 much glory — Cox^s Travels, vol. ii. book v. 
 
 In Spain, the Baptists and other denomi- 
 nations, had long enjoyed liberty of con- 
 science, under the Mohammedan govera- 
 
255 
 
 ment, and the intolerant catholics enjoyed 
 the same privilege. They held synods, 
 and made what canons they pleased, but 
 they had not power to enforce them with 
 fire and sword. Their language used to be 
 when they could do no other, if any person, 
 king, nobleman, prelate, priest, or monk, 
 or any of inferior rank, native or foreigner, 
 shall at any time deny this creed, or disobey 
 these canons, may he be numbered with 
 Judas, Dathan, and Abiram ; may all his 
 limbs be broken ; may his eyes be plucked 
 out ; and may he suffer the pains of eternal 
 damnation with the devil and his angels. — 
 R. E. R. p. 250. 
 
 But though councils and curses could not 
 suppress heresy in Spain, the Inquisition 
 did. " Before the institution of that court, 
 innumerable heretics resided in Spain."— 
 R, E. R.p. 240. 
 
 In the year 1491, Ferdinand conquered 
 the Moors, and then the Catholics obtained 
 power. The court of inquisition was intro- 
 duced by him and his consort Isabella, and 
 %vas principally intended to prevent the 
 relapse of the Jews and Moors, who had 
 
256 
 
 been converted, or pretended to be con- 
 verted to the faith of the church of Rome. 
 " In 1512, Don Diaco Deza, archbishop of 
 Seville, opened a synod with a sermon, in 
 which he referred to Christians not in com- 
 munion with the Catholic church, and whom 
 he calls a church of malignants. In 1565, 
 Don Christopher Roxas de Sandaval, bishop 
 of Cordova, held a provincial council at 
 Toledo, and apprized the fathers of the danger 
 of the whole company, inconsequence of the 
 success of that singular wild beast Luther, 
 after whose example multitudes had broken 
 the yoke, and burst the bonds of their God. 
 The truth is, the news of the reformation in 
 Germany, and the revolution in the Nether- 
 lands, animated the friends of freedom and 
 virtue in Spain, who were emboldened and 
 multiplied by the accession of many in 
 high rank both in church and state. They 
 decried the popular religion, assembled in 
 separate societies to worship God, in which 
 mechanics and women taught, and struggled 
 to set conscience free for more than forty 
 years. The inquisitors of those times say, 
 and they say truly, if they had not come 
 
25r 
 
 into the aid of the church at this critical 
 moment, in spite of all the power of the 
 Emperor Charles V. all the policy of his 
 son, Phillip II. all the learning ot the uni- 
 versities, all the influence of the hierarch}-, 
 and all the treasures of Mexico and Peru, 
 dyers and coblers would have preached the 
 Catholic religion clean out of Spaiu. — 
 R. E. 11. p. 272. 
 
 One of the curses denounced by a Catho- 
 lic council, when they had not power to 
 burn, has been mentioned before. Mr. Ro- 
 binson alludes to such anathemas against 
 those who disobeyed their creeds and canons, 
 in the following paragragh. 
 
 *' When they burnt thirty, sixty, ninety 
 heretics at a time — when they hung their 
 tribunals with scarlet, stained the walls of 
 their torture rooms with human blood, 
 adorned their parlours with pictures of exe- 
 cutions, of ninety persons consuming to 
 ashes in the flames — when they made heresy 
 a capital crime, and conceived a court only 
 of three or four persons for the trial of the 
 criminal, the inquisitor, one or two secre- 
 taA'ies, and the prisoner— when they coff.- 
 z 
 
258 
 
 ducted all this infernal policy in the name 
 of Jesus, and under the banner of the cross, 
 — while they cloalhed the wretched suftcrers 
 Avith habits and caps, on which was repre- 
 sented devnls and flames — What did they 
 more than finish and colour a picture, of 
 which the most ancient and sanctimonious 
 synods had given them a sketch, a picture 
 when finished, so dreadful, thateven theartists 
 shuddered at the sight of their own work? "An 
 inquisitor calls it, Horrendimict tre77ienduvi 
 spectaculum : but liberal men have hardly 
 words to express their abiiorrence of iu— • 
 " The dreadful ccrcnionj, (says an excel- 
 lent writer), is more repugnant to huraanitj', 
 as well as to the spirit of the Christian reli- 
 gion, than the most abominable sacrifices 
 recorded in the annals of tl)c pagan world." 
 These abominable sacrifices, these horrible 
 spectacles, these diabolieai cruelties, all ori- 
 ginated in the aflixing ideas of guilt to mere 
 mental errors, or, in other words, in making 
 faith and not virtue the mark of a good 
 xx\iil^.~-L\E.Ii. p, 25 1. 
 
 '* Authors of undoubted credit affirm, 
 and without the least exaggeration, that. 
 
259 
 
 tn'ulions of persons have been ruined by this 
 horrible court — Heretics of all ranks and of 
 various denominations were imprisoned and 
 burnt, or fled into other countries, and 
 the gloom of despotism overshadowed all 
 Spain; and at first the people reasoned, and 
 rebelled, and murdered the inquisitors, then 
 the aged murmured and died ; the next ge- 
 neration flattered and complained, but their 
 successors were completely t;.med by educa- 
 iion, and Spaniards are now trained up by 
 the priests to shudder at the thought oi' 
 thinkinc: for themselves." 
 
 Among those that suffered, — *' Not the 
 least respectable class is that, which the in- 
 quisitor says, consisted of the dregs of the 
 people, tinkers, coblers, dyers, butchers, 
 and women, who in defiance of a long list 
 of synodical canons, none of which they 
 could read, mounted the pulpit and preached. 
 The surly judges of the inquisition, forget- 
 ing they were men, burnt some of these 
 female orators at Valladolid ; they had been 
 nuns, and were committed to the flames in 
 all the bloom of youth and beauty, while 
 orthodox hags of the court sat iij splendour 
 Z 2 
 
'260 
 
 by the side of the king, to behold the infer- 
 nal sacrifice. Catholic historians, not well 
 versed in the distinguishing characters of 
 different sects of Protestants, confound all 
 these sufferers in one common mass, called 
 }ieretics ; but the reformed know, that this 
 class was composed of such as are now called 
 eitlier Independent Baptists, oi: Quakers,, 
 for these are the only Christians that disal- 
 low the distinction of clei"gy and laity, and 
 suffer illiterate mechanics to teach ; and the 
 two VeMdi- were the only sorts, who at the 
 A'eformation allowed of the public preachmg 
 of women. Dr. Paramo said, the single sect 
 of the Anabaptists produced twelve sects. 
 Had he understood their affairs, he would 
 have said, twelve independent congrega- 
 tions, or twelve associations of congrega- 
 tionj : he adds, that in places vs'here they 
 were allowed to multiply, you could not go 
 into one of their houses, without observing 
 that the husband was of one opinion and tliQ 
 wife of another; the father held one sentiment 
 the son another ; and the very servants had 
 a creed different from that of their mastei's. 
 He v.'iis shocked at this, and he did not know 
 
 ' V 
 
261 
 
 that in this freedom of believing, according 
 to their own convictions, the Baptists placed 
 their glory. A man educated as he was, 
 among conformists and creeds, where a dead 
 midnight silence reigned in the name of 
 faith ; one who spent his life in taking de- 
 positions, extorting confessions, browbeat- 
 ing heretics, and sentencing them to the 
 flames — a man whose understanding was 
 suffocated with canons, comments, and 
 quibbles — such a man could not conceive it 
 possible for families to be happy in a va- 
 riety of sentiment." — R. E.R.p. 240, 249, 
 251, 272, 275, 276. 
 
 But though the inquisitors did not distin- 
 guish the different classes of Christians who 
 suffered in Spain, we know that in conse- 
 quence of the edicts published in the Ne- 
 therlands, while they were under the domi- 
 nion of Charles V. and his son Philip, that 
 four hundred and thirty-two Baptists, were 
 burnt drowned, or otherways put to death 
 there. '* All of whom, with many more 
 hundreds of confessors and martyrs,, sealing 
 the truth of believers against infant baptism 
 with their blood, you have recorded, with 
 Z 3 
 
262 
 
 itnany of their choice sayings at their death, 
 and their ex'bellent epistles to their friends* 
 in that most elaborate and worthy collection 
 written in Dutch, by Theolem J. Van 
 Braght, in his book called the Bloody Thea' 
 ire : being not only a continuation of their 
 ancient books of martyrs, but a confirma- 
 tion of former and latter instances, out of 
 the, best historians and records, a piece done 
 with great judgment and exactness." — Dan* 
 ver'^s Treat, on Bap. p. 270. 
 
 The last reference to the Italian Dissi- 
 dents, was about the beginning of the four- 
 teenth century, when the inquisitors had 
 discovered the sect of Wilhelmina, a zealous 
 female Bohemian Baptist, and were com- 
 ^ mencing thfeir persecutions against them. 
 In 1308, Dulcinus, of Novaria, with his wife 
 Margaretha, were burnt at that place.— 
 Twisk. Cron. I. xiv. p. 649. — Han. Boch. 
 jol 26. 
 
 But it does not appear that the power of 
 the inquisitors in Italy, was sufficient to 
 extirpate the dissidents, that country 
 being under so many different governments. 
 And credibie writers affirir, that paapy parts 
 
265 
 
 »f Italy were infected with heresy. — R.E.It. 
 p. 44b. 
 
 Achilles Melvezzi, was one of the six- 
 teen regents of the city of Bologna, he was 
 an heretic, and a protector of heretics, and 
 he died at ease in his heresy, in the year 
 i46S, and his family succeeded to his office 
 and honours at the same time. 
 
 John Faelli published a book in defence 
 t)f heresy, and although the Dominicans 
 frequently censured ecclesiastical heretics, 
 yet it was only by a faction that they pro- 
 cured the punishment of any one at Bologna. 
 Thus in 1481, tjiey burnt a young student, 
 George, of Montferratt, because they pre- 
 tended lip w^ a Jew, an obstinate heretic, 
 who denied Christ and his Mother. B^jt- 
 the citizens would not suffer the inquisitora 
 to pupish Gabriel de Salodio, in 1497, who 
 denied the divinity of Christ, aud vyas taxed 
 with pubhshing his errors. 
 
 John Valdesius, of Naples, ip Italy, w^ 
 an Unitarian Baptist of eminent Ijearnjng^^ 
 and piety, and published several books, in 
 one of which he says, that he knew nothing 
 of the disputes about the trinity, except 
 
^64 
 
 that there was one God Most High, the Fa- 
 ther of Jesus Christ; one Lord Jesus 
 Christ, his Son, and one Spirit of both. 
 
 It has been mentioned befoi-e^ that!'3ne of 
 the societies of Paterines was at Vizenza : 
 
 y 
 
 and it is a well known fact, that the revivers 
 of the Unitarian Baptist churches, at . the 
 reformation, proceeded from a society of 
 about forty men of eminence at this place : 
 this company was broken up by Catholic 
 persecutors, who put two of the number 
 Trevisa and De Ruego to death. The rest 
 fled into Poland, Switzerland, Germany^ 
 and other places. Out of Italy too, came 
 the celebrated Bernard Ochin, Matthew 
 Grimaldi, Francis Lismanini, Dr. Blandra- 
 tra, and probably Sebastian Castellio. Little 
 did these learned men imagine, when they 
 fled for conscience sake from Catholic fury, 
 some into Turkey, and others into the arras 
 of Calvin and Beza, fugitives for conscience 
 themselves, as they pretended ; that the 
 omnipotent Mohammedan despots would 
 grant them religious liberty, and the god- 
 ly exiles strain every nerve to get them, 
 put to death for heresy — yet so it was. 
 
265 
 
 Gentilis was beheaded at Berne, for nof 
 believing the trinity ; while Leonardi en- 
 j('>ycd his sentiments at Damascus, and lived 
 by selling old clothes. — i?. £. E. p. 442, / 
 443, 444, 447^ 
 
 Anno 1557, Algerius, a learned man of 
 Padua, for opposing infant baj7\ism, had 
 scalding oil cast on his body, and was after- 
 ward burnt to ashes at Rome. — Dutch Mar- 
 tijrol. L ii./;. 246. 
 
 It is observable that the Italian dissidents 
 *' censured and described by Rinicri, were 
 not such Chrisiia.ns as the Lutherans or the 
 Calvinists ; but, on the contrary, such as 
 they persecuted for heresy. Father Gretzer 
 hath fully discussed this point, and clearly laid 
 0|;cn the fraud and foliy of the whole affair. 
 it may suffice to observe, that three articles^ 
 which the Lutherans and Calvinists most of 
 all abhorred, were three principal parts of 
 the religion of most, and two of them of all 
 the Italian churches : the unity of God in 
 opposition to a trinity, which most of them 
 held ; and the baptism of only believers, and 
 the right of private judgment, in whicli 
 t'ley were all agreed. With what emotiois 
 
266 
 
 would the Italian dissidents have read the 
 books of Calvin and Beza, ou the right of a 
 consistory to condemn men for heresy, and 
 the obligations of a senate to destroy them ! 
 How would they have felt, had they seen 
 Servetus burnt alive ? 
 
 The Popes had long claimed a universal 
 dominion over conscience, and their claim 
 had been maintained by canon law, penal 
 statutes, and civil tyranny. But in the first 
 part of the sixteenth century, his dominion 
 'was disputed, and his yoke thrown ofiF, by 
 some eminent characters ; who also dis- 
 carded those doctrines and ceremonies that 
 were most disagreeable to them, and this they 
 termed a reformation. 
 
 The term reformation implies a great deal, 
 but is often applied to very little ; thus this 
 reformation, as it is called, " may be more 
 properly said, to have exposed the evil than 
 to have cured it ; for it was out of this mass 
 of insignificance, absurdity and cruelty^ 
 called civil and canon law, that many Pro- 
 testants derived their maxims of church 
 ocvernment. In all such churches there is 
 a standard of speculative theology, called 
 
267 
 
 orthodoKy ; and of course a crime called 
 heresy, and even suspected heresy. Merit 
 and demerit are affixed to modes of think- 
 ing, and virtue alone unconnected with theni 
 is not a little either to reward or esteem." — ■- 
 *' By orthodoxy is to be understood what- 
 ever the ruling party please to say, and by 
 heresy a differing from it." — B. E. E. 
 p. 14S, 
 
 It is said befoi'e, that these reformers 
 threw off the yoke which the popes had im- 
 posed upon them ; but did they not them- 
 selves usurp the same dominion over con- 
 verts, and maintain it by the same means ? 
 A few instances of their conduct will be the 
 best answer to this question. 
 
 About the year 1522, or soon after Luther 
 returned from his exile, in the. castle of 
 Wartpurg, and found his influence and 
 power sufficiently established to enable him 
 to effect his purposes, ho banished Nicholas 
 Stork from Wirtemburg, for daring among 
 other things, to support the scripture doc- 
 trine and practice of believer's baptism. — - 
 Mes/wv. I. i. e. 2, ^. So that it was *' truly 
 •said by Cardinal Hosius, that Luther did 
 
268 
 
 ilid not intend to make all manlviiid as free 
 as himself; he had not foreseen that other 
 men would apnly the same reasoning to his 
 tyrann}' over conscience, that he had so 
 {fuccessfully applied to that of the pope, and 
 therefovQ he dethroned him to set up him- 
 self. His colleague, Caralostad, found this 
 to his sorrow. It was not enough for Lu- 
 ther to render his coiitinuance at Wirtem* 
 burg impossible ; he followed him to other 
 places, where he exercised his ministry, and 
 expelled him uy order of the Duke." — JR. 
 E. R. p. 543. 
 
 Calvin, by his influence and power, 
 established a consistory at Geneva, and of 
 course canon and penal laws for the govern- 
 ment of his church, the prevention and 
 punishment of heretics. Michael Servetus, 
 a Spanish physician, and a Unitarian Bap- 
 tist, havingoccasionto passthrough Geneva, 
 was by Calvin's means arrested and thrown 
 into prison. Calvin accused him of heresy, 
 and by his influence, Servetus was sentenced 
 to combustion by a slow fire ; this sentence 
 was executed on the L'7th Oct. 1553, by 
 using green bushes v/ith the leaves on them, 
 
269 
 
 to burn liim, and thereby prolonging his 
 inisery, an evident proof that there was no 
 reformation in the artieles of tyranny and 
 cruelty. — R E. R. p. — And the Mon. 
 Repos. for Jugust 1810, p. 384, 386. 
 
 And we find much the same spirit mani- 
 fested by otiier reformers. There was in 
 England, one Joan Boucher, a woman of an 
 excellent character, who hazarded her life 
 in the reign of Henry VIII. to bring others 
 to the knowledge of the truth ; she was a 
 great dispcrscr of the New Testament, 
 translated by Tyndall into English, which 
 she used to carry to court under her apparel, 
 where she was known to several ladies of 
 quality, and was particularly acquainted 
 with Ann Askew, who was burnt for con- 
 science sake, in the year 1546. This wo- 
 man being charged with holding erroneous 
 opinions concerning the incarnation of 
 Christ, baptism, &c. she being a Baptist, 
 was condemned by archbishop Cranmer, 
 the bishops Latimer, Ridley, &c. The 
 young king, Edward VI. set his hand to the 
 ■warrant with tears in his eyes, telling arch- 
 bishop Cranmer, " that if he did wronj, 
 A A 
 
270 
 
 since it was in submission to his authority, 
 he should answer for it to God." The sen- 
 tence was put in execution, and she was 
 burned the second of May, \5jO, and suf- 
 fered with great constancy. — Lhiseys Hist 
 View, p. 86. — Crosby's Hist, Bap. vol. i. p 
 46. — Slnjpe's Eccles. Mem. vol. ii. p. 214 
 — Ridley's Life of Bp. Ridley. — Rapin's Hist 
 of England with TyndaVs notes, vol. ii. p 
 14, 15. — Burnett'' s Hist. Reform, vol. i. p 
 J 05. 
 
 Thus says an excellent writer, the refor- 
 mers, in following the example of the clun'ch 
 of Rome, and adopting the most pernicious 
 of her maxims, shewed that in rejecting 
 many of her doctrines, they were still ac- 
 tuated by her spirit. — BigknuVs View of the 
 World, vol. \.p. 305. 
 
 A number of instances might be produced 
 to prove, thai though these Reformers de- 
 throned the pope in his dominion over con- 
 .sciencc, they usurped it themselves, and 
 maintained it by the very same means. 
 They said the pope was Antichrist, *' but 
 as conscience every where is a throne of 
 God, so a usurper of his throne is Anti- 
 
271 
 
 tlirist any where." — R. E. R. p^. ITS.— 
 The excellent axiom of the emperor Max- 
 imilian, will apply to all : *' Those who 
 tyrannize over the consciences of men, 
 attack the Supreme Being in the noblest 
 part of his empire." 
 
 Cardinal Hosius exposed them all for re- 
 nouncing popery, only with a view to in- 
 vade the office of the' pope, and instead of 
 one pontiff at Rome, setting up popes everjr 
 where — Pope Calvin, Pope Beza, and bo 
 on— 7?. £'. R.p. 583. 
 
 But to those who reproved, and to those 
 who expostulated with them, on this and a 
 few other favourite points, they were deaf 
 as the dead ; and too often, if they had them 
 in their power, cruel as a bear bereaved of 
 her whelps. 
 
 Andrew Dudith, one of the greatest men 
 among the Baptists, who was beyond the 
 reach of the malice of these reformers, 
 wrote to several, and endeavoured to con- 
 vince them of the absurdity of their con- 
 duct. "Tell me, (says he to Wolff), my 
 learned friend, now that the Calvinists have 
 burnt Servetus, and beheaded Gentilis, and 
 AA 2 
 
272 
 
 murdered many others, having banished 
 Bernard Ochin, with his wife and children, 
 from your city, in the depth of a sharp 
 Avinter — now tliat the Lutherans have ex- 
 pelled Lasco, with the congregation of fo- 
 reigners that came out of England with him, 
 in an extremely rigorous season of the year 
 — having done a great many such exploits, 
 all contrary to the genius of Christianity, 
 how, (I ask) how shall we meet the papists ? 
 With what face can we tax them with 
 cruelty? How dare we say, our weapons 
 are not carnal ? — R. E. R. p. 592, 593. 
 
 When the Baptists reproached Beza for 
 preaching nothing but faith to people who 
 did believe in God, and argued for the 
 necessity of pressing home morality, so that 
 the intoxicated might become sober, and 
 the miser liberal, he exclaimed,—** Good 
 God, what are we come to ! — Is it possible 
 that such things can be spoken, written, 
 and printed in a christian city, and the 
 writer of them tolerated?" In Beza, this 
 was not passion, this was zeal for the funda- 
 mental tiuths of the gospel. Drunkards, 
 and misers, and kept mistresses were not 
 
^73 
 
 heretics, they were tolerated. But the 
 baptists were the men, "whom Beza, like 
 Saul, breathing out threatenings and slaugh- 
 ter, persecuted unto strange cities." — R. E. 
 E. p. 345. Yet even Beza had acknow- 
 ledged their practice consistent Avith scrip- 
 ture, for in his note on Gal. iii. 27. he said, 
 it was, " the ancient custom of plunging 
 the adult in baptism." 
 
 The reformers were not ignorant that the 
 baptism of believers was consistent with the 
 scripture, for they had acknowledged this. 
 Thus Luther said, *' If you receive the 
 sacraments without faith, you bring your- 
 selves into a great difficulty ; for we oppose 
 against your practice, the saying of Christ, 
 He that believeth and is baptizi'd, shall be 
 savedy — Stan. Hosii^ de Heresy Nastri. 
 Temporis. lib. i. 
 
 Again, " The term baptism is a Greek 
 word, it may be rendered dipping, when 
 we dip something in water, that it may be 
 ihtirely covered with water." — In A. R's 
 Vanity of Inf. Bap. part ix. p. S. 
 
 And Calvin said, " Because Christ re- 
 quires teaching before baptizing, and will 
 AA 3 
 
274 
 
 have believers only admitted to baptism 
 baptjsni dues nol seem to be rightly admi- 
 nistered, excey>t faith precede." — In Har- 
 monrj^ Evang. Comment ad loc. 
 
 Again — " The word baptize signifies to 
 imm-^rse ; and the rite of immersion was 
 observed by the anc'ent church." — Insti- 
 tut. Christ. Relig. 1. iv. c. xv. 5 19. 
 
 But as the adiierence of the sciibes and 
 pharisees to the traditions of the fainers was 
 <oo violent to be overcome by the teach- 
 ings of the Lord Jesus, so it appears,, that 
 the attachment of these reformers to the 
 baptism of infants was too gr. at to be over- 
 come by the power of tiut'i, or the teach- 
 ings of Christ in his word. And t.iey were 
 determined to enforce it by the secular arm, 
 as the Catholics had done befoie; one in- 
 stance for a proof of this may suffice. 
 
 In the year 1525, an edict was pubhshed 
 at Zurich, commanding ail sorts of persons 
 to baptize their childreo, and to forbear 
 re-baptizing, upon the penalty of pecuniary 
 mulcts and imprisonmeut. — Dunver's Hist, 
 Bap. p. 260. And the year after, Zuingiius, 
 one of the reformers at that city, proaounced 
 
275 
 
 this sentence on Feljx Mans, a baptist mi- 
 nister, He wJio re-baptizes let him be 
 drowned; upon which he was drown -d at 
 Zuricli. — Branfs Hist -Reformat, vol. i. 
 i. ii. p. 51. 
 
 In 153u, a second edict was published at 
 Zurich, by which adult baptism was pu- 
 nishable with death. — Lavatherup. sup. xxv. 
 —J)anver''s Treat. Bap. p. 260. 
 
 Nor were these laws made to be hune; up 
 in terrorem, for in consequence of these 
 edicts, ten baptists were put to death in this 
 and the three foUoiving years. 
 
 After which, they seemed to decline 
 public executions, and then seven of the 
 baptists were cruelly starved to death in 
 prison ; and five more imprisoned till death 
 released theai.—Danver^s on Bap. p. 264, 
 265. 
 
 Thus having neither precept nor example 
 for the baptism of infants in the word of 
 God, they made use of carnal weapons to 
 enforce it. It is true, they sometimes had 
 recourse to the fathers for its defence. But 
 *' the Jesuit Possivin laughed at these di- 
 vines, for quoting fathers against the Poles, 
 
276 
 
 after tliey had rejected their authority 
 against themselves. *' Thus (says he) he- 
 retics are forced to plough with our heifer, 
 and have no other arguments against the 
 Anabaptists, than those which we have 
 brought against themselves." — R. E, R 
 p. 583. 
 
 Where, said the Catholics was your reli- 
 gion, churches, and ordinances, before the 
 rise of Luther and Calvin ? And truly they 
 could not show where their ordinance of 
 infant baptism was instituted by Christ, but 
 were obliged to have recourse to the catho- 
 lic fathers to defend it, as the Jesuit as- 
 serted. 
 
 By far the greater part of the baptists in 
 these times, like their predeccbsors, the Ita- 
 lian dissidents, and the Waldenses, didnot 
 believe the doctrines of origmal sin, aod 
 the trinity, and their sentiments on those 
 points, together with that on the baptism of 
 infants, were unpardonable heresies in the 
 opinion of these reformers. 
 
 Dr. Mosheim says, *' 1 here were some 
 sects and doctors, against whom the zeal, 
 vigilance, and severity of Catholics, Luthe- 
 
277 
 
 rans and Calvinists were united, and in op- 
 posing whose settlement and progress, these 
 three communities forgetting their dissen- 
 tions, joined their most vigorous counsels 
 and endeavours. The objects of their 
 common aversion, were the Anabaptists, 
 and those who denied the divinity of Christ, 
 and a trinity of persons in the Godhead." — 
 R.E. It. p. 581. So true is that saying of 
 Christ, *' And ye shall be hated of all men 
 for my name's sake. — Mark xiii. 13. 
 
 For many centuries past, the Catholics 
 had enacted penal laws against sueh Chris- 
 tians, and now the Protestants did the same. 
 Little did they think, that by these penal 
 laws, they obliged those Christians to bear 
 witness to the truth, cloathed in sackcloth.-— 
 Rev. xi. 3. 
 
 Nearly a century after this, Ephraim Pa- 
 gitt, a Protectant minister, told the good 
 people of England, that in other countries, 
 *' Christian princes and magistrates never 
 left burning, drowning, and destroying 
 them, till their remainder was contemptible j 
 and he hoped the Parliament would suppress 
 
278 
 
 them here. — Hiresiography^ London^ 1645, 
 4to. p. 131. 
 
 What a contrast does history present to 
 our view ! on one hand, Christians called 
 heretics, who for many ages were despised, 
 persecuted, and clothed in sackcloth, or 
 oinder tke pressure of penal laws. On the 
 other hand, those who called themselves 
 orthodox, in favour with the world, loaded 
 with riches, and clothed with power, flt 
 ■supported by the kings and princes of th« 
 earth. Well might the Revelator describe 
 this worldly corporation, as " the great 
 whore that sitteth upon many waters ; with 
 whom the kings of the earth have committed 
 fornication^ and the inhabitants of the earth 
 have been made drunk with the wine of her 
 fornication. And the woman was arrayed in 
 purple and scarlet colour, and 'decked with 
 gold and precious stones and pearls, having a 
 golden cup in her hand, full of abominations 
 and filthiness of her fornications : and upon 
 her forehead was a najne written mysti-.ry, 
 
 BABYLON, THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HAR- 
 LOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THF EARTH. 
 
 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood 
 
279 
 
 of the saints, and mth the blood of the mar^ 
 tyrs of Jesus : and when I saw her, I won- 
 dered 'with great admiration. — Rev. xvii. 
 1, 2, 4,5, 6. 
 
 As some writers pretend to derive our 
 origin from the Munster Anabaptists, it 
 seems necessary to introduce a few observa- 
 tions on that subject, from l\Ir. Booth, 
 which with the addition of two quotations 
 from other Pedobaptist authors, are to the 
 following- import. 
 
 Many Pedobaptists, it is well known, have 
 endeavoured to render our practice odious, 
 by exhibiting in frightful colours, the con- 
 duct of some German Baptists in the six- 
 teenth century ; and by representing our 
 distinguisliiDg sentiment, as derived from 
 tliose obnoxious characters. To that evi- 
 dence, therefore, of the high antiquity and . 
 heavenly origin of our baptismal practice, 
 which arises from the concessions and rea- 
 son. ngs of Pedobaptists, I wdl now pro- 
 duce a few testimonies from our learned 
 opposers, more directly fitted to free us 
 from all suspicion of being descended from 
 the Munster Baptists. Thus, for example, 
 
280 
 
 that famous Arminian, Limborch. *' If the 
 doctrines and rites of the Waldenses be well 
 examined, without prejudice, it must, I 
 think. b€ said, that among all the denomina- 
 tions of Christians, which there are at this 
 day , none have a greater agreement with 
 them, than that which is called Menot.ites," 
 (the Dutch Baptists) — Hist. Inquisit. cap. 
 ix. 32. 
 
 Venema, after assigning various reasons 
 against considering the Menonites, as de- 
 scended from the Baptists at Munster, pro- 
 ceeds thus: — " The nearest origin of the 
 Menonites, in my judgment, is better de- 
 rived from the Waldenses, and from them 
 also that of the Anabaptists. The Meno- 
 nites desired to have the innocence and pu- 
 rity of the primitive Church restored, 
 and to CAX'ty on the reformation further than 
 Luther and Calvin intended. Certainly the 
 Waldenses, if you except the origin of the 
 flesh of Christ, held the principal articles of 
 religion almost in common with the Meno- 
 nites, as appears by the history of the for- 
 mer already given in the twelfth century. 
 The errors of the Menonites concerning: 
 
281 
 
 Pv^'lobaptlsm and the incaa*nation of Christ, 
 are to be considered as proceeding from a 
 different source. We have no need to 
 search for other principles from which Me-» 
 jiotism flowed ; much less of those invidious 
 ones maintained by the disorderly person at 
 Munster, and other fanatics of a similar 
 iind, from which the Menonites vindicated 
 themselves a great while ago ; and now for a 
 long time they have so cleared and justified 
 themselves, both as to life and doctrine, 
 that they cannot be any longer confounded 
 with those at Munster, without notorious 
 injustice and signal injury." Such is the 
 language of this impartial historian. 
 
 Mr. Hall in his Encyclopedia, on the 
 article Anabaptists, candidly acknowledges, 
 that they appear to be supported by his- 
 tory, in considering themselves as the de- 
 scendants of the Waldenses, who were so 
 grievously oppressed and persecuted by the 
 despotic heads of the Roman hierarchy. 
 
 Mosheim says truly, '* that before the 
 rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay con- 
 cealed in almost all the coiuitries of Europe, 
 persons who adhered tenaciously ta the 
 B B 
 
282 
 
 principles of the modern Dutch Baptists.'* 
 Eccles. Hist. cent. xvi. sect iii, part. ii. 
 chap. iii. 2. Thus in the davs of Elijah, 
 the people of God lay concealed among the 
 apostatizing Israelites : for the Lord said 
 to him. *' Yet I have Itft mc seven thousand 
 in Israel, all the knees which have not bo-wed 
 unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not 
 kissed him. — 1 Kings, xix. 18. 
 
 I will here add the following testimony 
 from Cai'dinal Hosius, wlio was president of 
 the Council of Trent. *' The Anabaptists 
 are a pernicious sect,* of which kind the 
 Waldensian brethren seem also to have been 
 — concerning whom it appears, that not 
 very long ago they re-baptized persons, 
 though some of them lately, as they testify 
 in their apology, have ceased to repeat 
 baptism. Certain it is, however, that in 
 many things they agree with the Anabap- 
 tists. Nor is this heresy a modern thing, 
 for it existed in the time of Austin." — Jpud. 
 Schyn. Hist. Menonit. p. 135. 
 
 Thus it appears, that these eminent au- 
 
 * It was common with the Catholics to apply such Ian» 
 guage to Protestants aad their doctrines. 
 
283 
 
 thors consider the Baptis«^s as deriving their 
 pedigree not from the Munster enthusiasts, 
 but from the WalJensian confessors, which 
 is a line of descent that we are not ashamed 
 to own : it is, however, quite as honourable 
 as the derivation of sprinkling, or of pour- 
 ing from the mother of abominations.— 5. 
 P. E. ml. ii.p. 476, 477. 
 
 PRINTEi) BV C. & W. T0W^SON, CHATHAM,