CO
~> -7
7
THE ENGLISH BAPTISTS, /*v
WHO THEY ARE, AND
WHAT THEY HAVE DONE.
Being Eight Lectures, Historical and Descriptive, given byGeneral
Baptist Ministers in London, dnring tne past winter.
EDITED BY
JOHN CLIFFORD, M.A., LL.B.
E. MAliLBOROUGH & CO., 51, OLD BAILEY,
1881,
PublisJied under the Sanction of the General Baptist
Publication Board.
CONTENTS.
I._ ENGLISH BAPTISTS : TIIKIII OKIGIN AND GROWTH, By
J. CLIFFORD.
II. DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. J. BATEY.
III. BAPTIST MARTYRS. W. J. AVERY.
IV. SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS DENNE, KEACII,
BUNYAN, AND OTHERS. W. IlARVEY SMITH.
V. D AN TAYLOR AND ENGLISH BAPTISTS. J. FLETCHER.
VI, BAPTISTS AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. J. F. JONES,
VII. BAPTISTS AND SLAVERY. G. W, M CiiEE.
VIII. BAPTISTS AND THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. DAWSON
BURNS, M.A.
PREFACE.
HPHESE lectures originated at a meeting of the G. B. M. F. :
which hieroglyphics being interpreted describe the London
General Baptist Ministers Fraternal : a gathering held once a
month for good fellowship, friendly counsel, and sympathetic co
operation in Christian work.
The suggestion of such an effort as this is due to the fertile mind
of our friend Mr. M Cree. Some reasons urged, and accepted for
it were, the interchange of services on week evenings by the
ministers ; the development of a fraternal feeling in the churches ;
the distribution of information amongst our younger members on
topics not too often coining within the range of their reading ; and
the production of a healthy and manly denominational
enthusiasm. Those reasons vindicated the delivery of these
Lectures ; and the two latter are sufficient warrant for their
publication,
ii PREFACE.
We have spoken of Baptists not because we think them
perfect. We know them too well to cherish any such mistakes.
Nor have we chosen this topic because we are vain ; at least we
think not. We take no credit to ourselves for being Baptists.
Some of us certainly would not have been such if we could have
helped it. Talking after the manner of men, we could have done
"better for ourselves" if we had helped it. But necessity was
laid upon us. We are simply true. We have followed such
light as we had and have striven to receive every ray that
fell within our reach. And though we rejoice that we are
Baptists and General Baptists, yet we rejoice far more in our
fellowship with the holy Church throughout the world. We are
Christians. We take our best and foremost name from Christ,
a name, we are glad to add, that unites us with the good of all
ages, and of all churches, and of all lands, with all who have
sought, and with all who still seek, the best in character and the
purest in service : and we hope to promote by this labour,
the real welfare of that vast and far reaching spiritual com
munity, the Universal Church.
It will not be forgotten that these are " popular lectures," not
elaborate treatises. Much is omitted of necessity, and many
points are discussed in a fragmentary way. Prof. Freeman says,
PREFACE. iii
in his " Growth of the English Constitution," " In a popular
lecture, it is impossible to deal with everything with which it is
desirable to deal ; it is impossible to go to the bottom of those
things which one picks out to deal with. It is enough because
it is all that can be done if the choice of subjects is fairly well
made, and if the treatment of those that are chosen, though neces
sarily inadequate, is accurate so far as it goes. Many things
must be left out altogether ; many things must be treated im
perfectly ; the attention of the hearer must be caught by putting
some things in a more highly wrought shape than one would
choose at another time. The object is gained if the lecturer
awakens in his hearers a real interest jn the subject on which he
speaks, and if he sends them to the proper sources of more minute
knowledge." We cannot hope to have fully realized this ideal of
a popular lecture, but we have honestly striven to give accurate
information, to present leading and typical facts, and to stimulate
that loyalty to truth which shines with such radiance in the
story of the English Baptists, and is, according to John Morley,
"the mainstay of human advancement."
JOHN CLIFFORD.
THE
ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF ENGLISH BAPTISTS ;
BY
JOHN CLIFFOED, M.A.
AT a Meeting of the Students of Yale College, Governor Bates, of
Missouri, was called upon to make a speech. Several grad
uates had preceded him, each out-doing the other in eulogy of
his illustrious Alma Mater. Mr. Bates, who had not received the
benefits of University training, in rising, said, " Gentlemen, you
all have the advantage of me. I have no Alma Mater; but this
I can say, that I came from a part of the country where they
don t ask a man who his mother is ; but what can you do ?" That
latter question is the one addressed with persistent and increasing
energy, to all Christian Churches in our day. It avails nothing
to tell a practical and utilitarian age like this of a hoary ecclesias
tical ancestry and a spotless apostolic descent. We must prove
our right to exist by the perennial faithfulness of our lives, and
make our " origin " an interesting theme by rendering our exist
ence a benediction and a joy. What does it matter where a Church
came from if it has lost its original inspiration has no soothing
words for bruised hearts, no eager sympathies and helpful fellow
ships, and no lever lifting the souls of men nearer to God, and
truth, and righteousness ! It is a doomed Church,let its " origin"
be never so saintly, and its past growth never so extensive. It
will die, as it ought, and the hurrying world will not interpose
the slightest obstacle to its certain approach to its deserved fate.
Baptists, so far as I know them, welcome the most strenuous
2 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
application of this utilitarian test. They care less than most about
denominational pedigrees and brilliant traditions. Their hearts
beat with the throbbing life of the age. They are, for the most
part, eager to do the work of to-day while the day lasts, and
before it is too late, and are slow to take credit to themselves
because they were born after their fathers. Their history is
valued chiefly because it illumines the eternal principles of
human progress, and breathes the refreshing inspirations of un
changing truth.
For the "past " is not really " dead," if the men are but alive
who handle it. No doubt it is the present radiance of the sun
that hangs a jewel on every grass-blade, and sows the earth at
large with orient pearls, yet the consolidated heat-beams of far-
back Carboniferous times, stored in the coal-seams of the globe,
come forth at the touch of living men, and form one of the
mightiest and most necessary forces of our active age. So it is the
living Church, of any and of every name, that is doing Christ s
redeeming and regenerating work amongst men ; but since He is
not only the light of the present, but has also been the light of the
past, therefore that past is the storehouse of some of the most
beneficent energies living Christian men can use. For "History"
is, according to a supreme witness, " the most profitable of all
studies ;" forms "the message all mankind delivers to every man";
and Church History "is a sort of continued Holy Writ our
sacred books being, indeed, only a history of the primeval Church,
as it first arose in man s soul and symbolically embodied itself in
his external life."* We believe we do not make too large a claim
when we assert that the story of " The Origin and Growth of the
English Baptists," is a page of that " continued Holy Writ " which
owes its fruitful existence to the ever- living Spirit Who guides and
rules the universal Church for the perfection of individual char
acter and the salvation of the world ; nor are we without a hope
that the study of this subject, in some of its manifold aspects in
this course of lectures, will be fraught with as much profit for
others as it will have interest to ourselves.
* Carlyle s Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 261.
THEIR PATTERN. 3
I. THE DIVINE ORIGINAL.
Everybody knows that, like most other Christians, Baptists
claim to fashion their ideas and practices after the New Testament
type ; but it is far more pertinent to note, that there are very few
competent persons who dispute the legitimacy of their claim.
Whatever else may be in the Church of the Apostolic age, or
may be developed out of it, it is universally allowed, that the
central, magnetic Baptist ideas are there, with unmistakable distinct
ness and reiterated emphasis. Jesus Himself was baptized ; and His
disciples, in His name and as His representatives, baptized others.
The Church of Pentecost was a community of Baptists. The
eunuch heard Philip the deacon "preach Jesus," and forthwith
asked for baptism as a personal privilege embraced within what
he had just listened to, and from the enjoyment of which he was
not to be debarred. Gentiles who had been baptized on becoming
proselytes to the Jewish faith, were baptized again in the name of
Jesus. Pagans called out of darkness into the marvellous light of
the Gospel, signalized the divine event by their baptism.
New Testament baptisms, however, were in rivers, like the
Jordan or ^Enon, not in founts or basins, or by means of a few
drops of water from a leathern bottle. There is no infant
baptism in the Sacred Scriptures. Dr. Jacob, a scholar of
unimpeachable eminence, and a clergyman in the established
Church, wrote : " Notwithstanding all that has been written by
learned men upon this subject, it remains uiidisputable that Infant
Baptism is not mentioned in the New Testament. No instance of
it is recorded there ; no allusion is made to its effects ; no direc
tions are given for its administration. It ought to be distinctly
acknowledged that it is not an apostolic ordinance."*
In short, there is not a Biblical exegete of high repute who
does not admit that we are exegetically right in teaching that
New Testament Baptism was a personal profession of personal
trust in the personal Christ, of loyalty to His august authority,
and of consecration to His blessed service. There is not a widely
recognized ecclesiastical historian who denies that we are histori-
Jacob s Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament, p. 270.
4 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
cally right in maintaining that the original copy of baptism con
tains in it the two elements of faith and immersion, and that the
faith precedes the immersion ; and finally, there is not a student
of the New Testament ordinances who does not allow we are symbo
lically right when we affirm, that New Testament baptism denotes
that the believer in Christ had passed the crisis in which he broke
with sin, and became "dead" to self-seeking and self -pleasing,
and " alive unto God " and all His claims and gifts.
So that whatever may have happened since the death of the
Apostle John whatever changes and developments may have
taken place, it is hardly to be denied that these phases of the
Apostolic Church are clearly reproduced in the teaching and prac
tice of those who inculcate
1. That " Salvation " is annexed to personal trust in Christ.
2. That such trust takes precedence of, and qualifies for
baptism.
3. That such baptism is by immersion, and
4. Signifies not less and not more than that the baptized
person is already a believer in the Lord Jesus, consciously
a recipient of the blessings of His sacrifice and resurrec
tion, and is lovingly consecrated to the service of His
Kingdom.
Thus we go at once to Jesus Christ, and to the Churches formed
directly under the inspiration of His leadership at Jerusalem,
Cesareea, the Syrian Antioch, and Home, for " the patterns of the
things " after which we shape our life and construct our spiritual
communities. Father Stand-fast said, when he was dying, "I have
loved to hear my Lord spoken of ; and wherever I have seen the
print of His shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot
too." We believe and are sure that we see "the print of His shoe"
in the institution of this ordinance, and in its beautiful teaching,
and our love of Him Who first loved us and makes our hearts now
glow with ardent regard for Him and His will, urges us to " covet
to set our feet there too."
II. DEPARTURES FROM THE FIRST PATTERN.
But whatever is thought about our conformity to the Divine
Original shown us in the Scriptures of the New Testament, we
THE SECOND CENTURY. 5
make no pretension to trace a distinct and unbroken ecclesiastical
Baptist existence through all the centuries up to the Primitive
Church of Paul and John. Indeed, supposing we had irrefragable
evidence of the continuity of Baptists, it would do us no good ; it
would not add a jot to our truthfulness, or a tittle to our useful
ness. Moreover, we know, that Baptists, as an organized and re
productive body, having importable lineal descendants and a
corporate history, are of recent growth.
It is to be feared that Baptist, like other leading ideas of the
New Testament Church, began to shine with a confused and
nickering light soon after the close of the Apostolic age. Some
critics assert that Irenseus (who was born about 126 A.D., accepted
the pastorate of the Church at Lyons in 177, and died in 202),
makes a passing allusion to the Baptism of infants, sufficient to
prove that the practice was in existence in the middle of the
second century, and recognised by one who was familiar with the
Apostle John ; but over this reference we need not linger here, since
such a competent Pcedolaptist authority as Hagenbach, declares,
in his History of Doctrines, that the statement in question " is no
decisive proof " that " Infant Baptism had come into use in the
primitive Church," but only " expresses the beautiful idea that
Jesus was Redeemer in every stage of life, and for every stage
of life."*
But, say what we will of the second century, it is evident
that deep and wide-spread changes took place in the third century
Church affecting its constitution, its polity, its theology, its
ordinances, its spirituality, and its power. Infant Baptism became
generally prevalent. Threefold immersion, which had become
the universal method, gave place, under Eunomius (A.D. 360) to
single immersion f ; and in the fifth century, sprinkling, which,
according to Dean Stanley, had only been resorted to in cases of
dangerous illness, became the customary practice in large sections
of the Christian Church.J
Nevertheless it is a matter of historical certainty, allowed by
* See Note A.
f Smith s Dictionary of Chri.-tian Antiquities, vol. I., 161.
t Note B.
6 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
authorities whose judgment and accuracy are above suspicion, that
the essential Baptist ideas were fought for through these centuries
of thickening ecclesiastical mist, as true and divine, both by illus
trious individuals such as Tertullian, Novatian, Paulinus, and the
Venerable Bede, and by bodies of Christians, such as the Euchites,
Novatians, Donatists, Waldenses, Lollards, and others.* And
authors, not Baptists, have gone so far as to maintain, that at
no time since the day of Pentecost have Baptist principles lacked
earnest adherents, and eager, though often persecuted, exponents, f
III. BAPTISTS IN ENGLAND.
Be this so, or be it not, there is reason to believe, that when
Christianity came to our own country, it brought with it the
blinding haze and weakening confusion of the third and fourth
century Church, rather than the strong simplicity and " dry " light
of Apostolic days. Of British Christianity in the time of the
ascendency of Imperial Eome, we have little more than plausible
guesses ; nor is there much of a different character concerning the
Saxon period. Camden reports, in Fuller s Church History, that when
Augustine, who was sentto England by Pope Gregory in596,"baptized
about 10,000 persons in the North, he commanded, by the voice of
criers, that the people should enter the river confidently, two by
two, and in the name of the Trinity, baptize one another by
turns." Suggestive of similar ideas is the statement that
Paulinus, of York, the companion of Augustine, and sent by the
same Gregory in 601, baptized in the rivers Swale and Trent.
Bede, born in 672, historian of the Saxon Church, says, "Men
are first to be instructed in the knowledge of the truth,
then to be baptized as Christ hath taught, because without faith
it is impossible to please God ; " and he further affirms that the King
and Queen of the Northumbrians, having been instructed in the
word of Christ s salvation, " were washed in the river Glen as a
bath of remission." The Waldenses, some of whom held Baptist
ideas, abounded in England in the days of William the Conqueror,
and Bishop Lanfranc wrote against the "heretics" in 1087.
* See Note C. f See Note D.
EARLY SOCIETIES. 7
It is likely that a Church formed on Baptist " lines " existed at
Hillcliffe, a mile and a half from Warrington, as early as 1357, and
it is certain that John Wy cliff e, who was born in 1324, and died in
1384, was not far from the Baptist faith ; whilst it is notorious
that many of the Lollards held and practised it with great daring
and burning zeal. Herzog s Encyclopedia says, Henry VIII.
executed fourteen Hollanders, accused as Anabaptists, in 1535,
whilst ten others escaped by recanting ; and in the following
year, certain Baptist societies in England, probably of Dutch
origin, sent a deputation to a large gathering of the Anabaptists
near Buckholt, in Westphalia.* Foxe says, a Baptist yeoman
of the guard, at Windsor, suffered martyrdom under Queen Mary,
and Bishop Jewel complains of the Antipsedo-baptists in the
time of Elizabeth " as a great and inauspicious crop ; "t and ac
cordingly her Imperial Highness Queen Elizabeth commanded
all Anabaptists to depart out of the kingdom within twenty-one
days, England not being sufficiently large and free for such
pestilent persons.!
There is, therefore, no doubt (1) that the Christianity of
Britain contained Baptist ideas within it from the beginning, as
witness the practice of men like Augustine, and the teaching of
Apostles, like the Venerable Bede : (2) that right onward to the
closing years of Elizabeth s reign these "ideas" struggled with varying
degrees of intensity to gain an organic shape and vital prominence
in the religious life of the nation, and (3), owing mainly to a large
accession of force from Dutch Baptists, actually found living
expression in a few Baptist Societies in the fourteenth, fifteenth,
and sixteenth centuries, as at Hillcliffe, in Cheshire ; Booking,
in Essex ; Faversham and Eyethorne, in Kent ; and Epworth
and Crowle, in the Isle of Axholme. But the times
were not favourable to the organizing of these sporadically
distributed churches into a compact, coherent, and aggressive
unity ; nor yet to the creation of any means by which they might
* Barclay. Life of the Relig. Soc. of the Commonwealth, p. 13-14.
f Stoughton s Ecc. Hist, (first edition), II. 234.
I McClintock and Story s Cyclo. of Bib. and Eccl. Lit. I. 663.
6 See Note E.
8 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
report their existence and doings to subsequent generations. Even
in the days of Elizabeth, to be a Baptist was to be a criminal.
The hour had not yet dawned for the emancipation of the human
conscience. But it was coming : and the persecuted Baptist was
privileged to take a momentous part in ushering in that sublime
hour in the history and progress of the human race.
IV. THE PLACE OF ENGLISH BAPTISTS IN THE PROTESTANT
REFORMATION.
Thestoryof the "origin" of the English Baptists, is a vital portion
of the records of one of the most thrilling and heroic eras in the
history of the English people. It carries us into the midst of the fierce
controversies, fine culture, grandly real beliefs, soul-impelling
convictions, and great movements of the times of the strong-
willed Elizabeth, the vain if not vacuous James, the vacillating
Charles, and the brave and lion-hearted Cromwell, " the soul of
the Puritan revolt." These were confessedly " stirring times " in
the history of the upbuilding of the British people ; and though such
Baptists as then existed were persecuted with a ghastly and tragic
zeal, yet they were faithful, unselfish, and death-daring men ;
plenteously endowed with the faults of temper characteristic of
the age, but resolute and uncompromising in their search for truth,
and doing a work that was real, inspired by exalted motives, and not
wanting in a certain glow of divineness ; and therefore it is a work
which counts for something in the sum of those forces that have
helped to make the England and the world of this year, 1881 ; and
"the soul of it remains part of the eternal soul of things."
You cannot rend the continuity of the centuries. To-day is the
child of yesterday. To-morrow will be the growth of to-day and
all preceding days. History is a unity, and every honest fight for
principles has an eternal value. No men, whether few or many,
solitary or crowd-surrounded, persecuted or petted, hidden in
dark, dank prisons, banished into strange and inhospitable
lands, or dwelling in the courts and palaces of the great, can
engage in a manly effort to realise a Divine Idea, to obtain a larger
and nobler spiritual life, to find out and hold God s everlasting
Truth, without contributing real aid to humanity in its advances
THE GREAT QUESTION. 9
towards its divinely predestined goal. History is not made with
Jclat. It does not sound a trumpet before it, like the Pharisees.
Men live and think, sigh, suffer and pray, speak and toil, do, dare,
and die, and the great life of humanity moves for ward, huge problems
are solved, and abiding and universally valuable results are
secured. Of all the men living on our isle at the close of the
sixteenth and at the dawning of the seventeenth centuries, the
Baptists, or Anabaptists, as they were then called, were the most
despised and the most hated, and yet they were making one of
the most solid and valuable contributions to the commercial,
political, and spiritual progress of Great Britain and the world.
(1.) For the story of the "origin" of the English Baptists is
a chapter in the struggle of English Christians to discover for
themselves, from the Scriptures, and to put into shape, THE
DIVINE IDEA OF A VISIBLE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. The people
who are called Baptists came into existence as the logical and
inevitable result of an attempt, on the part of believers in Christ
in this realm, to purify and develop England s life, to set its
parishes free from practical ungodliness, by supplying, amongst other
things, a true answer to the questions, What is a Christian Church?
and of what kind of persons ought it to consist ? The chief motive
was the purification of the Church of God ; and the capital
method was a true and practical definition of the New Testament
Church.
At that time there was no question of equal gravity. It was
the "blazing" subject of the hour. No topic required so much
daring in those who handled it ; so much steadfast heroism in
those who were prepared to follow their answer to its legitimate
issues. It was a new question, and it was as revolutionary as it
was new. Merely to put it suggested to many minds the profanest
hardihood, and lifted whirlwinds of scorn. Ineffably worse was
it then to ask, " Is the State Church the New Testament Church ?"
" Ought all parishioners to be Church members ? " than it is to
ask to-day, "Is there a God?" "Is the Bible true?" "Is
Christianity historically verifiable ? " And the men who put the
enquiry had to be ready for banishment to the wilds of America, or
the more genialj-efuge of Holland, or even for martyrdom, if the
10 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
response they found carried them into opposition to the reigning
notions of the hour, and to the state-supported and state-defended
religious institutions of the day.
Do not let us disguise this fact. Whatever English Baptists
may be and do now, it is certain their ORIGIN is not due to the
quiet investigation of two or three passages of Scripture con
cerning the way in which believers in Christ should be baptized ;
whether by sprinkling, by pouring, or by dipping ; whether once
or three times ; nor to the rejection of infant baptism ; nor even
to the denial of the magical sacramental efficacy of baptism ; it
goes far deeper, and includes immeasurably more. The Baptist
Church sprang into being, as other churches did in that day not
from wild fanaticism ; not from excessive vanity ; not from ques
tions of much or little water in a rite, but from unswerving
loyalty to God ; from a profoundly religious effort to form a visible
Christian Church after the idea and according to the teaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It was a real human struggle for the
realization of divine ideas, born out of the love of God and the desire
for the establishment of His reign upon earth. Baptist history is
therefore a bush aflame with the presence of God, and the ground it
covers is not less holy than that on which Moses, with bared feet,
stood hopeful, yet trembling, as near to the God of Israel.
(2.) The story of the " origin " of the English Baptists, is,
then, a fragment of the larger story of the " English Reformation,"
and takes rank by the side of those sections of our country s
history which narrate the rise of Protestantism ; the appearance
and work of the Puritans ; the origin and progress of the Separatists
and Brownists, Independents and " Quakers." The religious spirit
was supreme it dominated everywhere. William Tyndall* had
fanned into a flame the smouldering embers of Lollardism, and
roused into newness of life and baptized with fresh energy, the
work of the illustrious John Wycliffe, by sending forth the New
Testament in a version which, in substance, is still in use amongst
us. Luther s famous defence of faith and purity at Wittenberg
* Born at Nibley, Gloucestershire, 1477 ; sent out his New Testament
in 1525, and was burned to death, after a protracted imprisonment, in
September, 1536.
PURITANISM. 11
had resounded throughout Europe like a peal of thunder echoing
amongst the Alpine hills ; and had stirred an enthusiasm hardly
second to that of the Crusades.* Protestantism wa s rapidly taking
shape in England ; but under such dubious circumstances, and
with so many questionable surroundings, royal, ecclesiastic, and
theological, that it had not long existed, before there grew by the
side of it, if not actually from it, a second Protestantism, with a
sharper accent, a more decided ring, carrying the revolt against
the paganized Christianity of the Papacy to a further extreme.
The first protest was mainly against the Pope of Rome and his
jurisdiction in these realms. The second protest was an endorse
ment of the first, but it went beyond it, and protested with even
a stronger vehemence against copes, stoles, and altars, and the
priestly dogmas, practices, and paraphernalia of the Roman
Catholic hierarchy. Protestantism had positively and inevitably
protested itself into Puritanism.
(3.) It could not help it. It must be so. Protestantism was
essentially and centrally the beginning of a return to the Divine
Original of Christian faith and practice in the Scriptures ; and once
on that road, Protestantism could not be a finality. PURITANISM was
the logical issue of the Protestant spirit. "One of the noblest hero
isms ever transacted on this earth," owed its rise to the appeal to the
Scriptures ; and its surprising energy and rapid progress were also due
to the tremendous impulse given to the religious life of the nation,
about the middle of Elizabeth s reign, by the circulation of those
same Holy Scriptures. The Bible became the diief literature of
England ; its fable and its history, its poetry and its philosophy,
its manual of practice and its guide and inspiration to devotion
so that Grotius said of this country, ten years after the Queen s
death, " Theology rules there ;" and Professor Green affirms that,
" the whole nation had become, in fact, a Church."f
But the Puritan protest was restricted to men who still belonged
to the English Parliamentary Church, and whose one aim was not to
* Luther was born in 1483 ; published his Theses against Indulgences,
at Wittenberg, in 161? ; burned the Pope s Bull in 1520 ; died in 1546.
f History of the English People, 449.
12 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
leave that Church and substitute a better, but to stay in and
gradually purify it, and, indeed, Calvinize, i.e. t Presbyterianize it.
Just as in the English Church of this day, there are many who
bitterly denounce the Romanist practices of the Ritualistic Clergy,
and yet are content to minister in an institution which has done
more, the last forty years, to foster and develop Roman Catholic
ism in England, than all other forces and institutions put together,
so the majority of the Puritans were at first ready to regard the
Church of Henry and Elizabeth, as a true visible Church of
Jesus Christ, and directed their opposition mainly against certain
practices and theories, being themselves ever intent on maintain
ing its integrity, and perfecting its methods.
(4.) But the Biblical and Spiritual forces at work in the
English nation, revolutionizing its religious ideas and practices,
could not stop there. As the first protest led on to the second, so
the second led on a third.
Puritanism advanced to SEPARATISM. Bodies of men appeared
who were unwilling to admit that the Church of England, even if
reformed according to the Genevan pattern, was a true Church of
Christ. A deeper Reformation was requisite than a change of
dress and of ritual. The terms of membership required alteration.
" It is contrary," said the Separatists, " to the will of Christ that
the area of the Church should be fixed by the area of the land.
"We are profoundly convinced that the practical reform of the
spiritual life of England can never be realized in connection with
that parochial system of churches which considers all baptized
persons to be redeemed children of God, until excommunication
has furnished proof to the contrary." Thus a third form of
Protestantism arose, more advanced than the second, and inculca
ting the necessity of forming "particular churches." Led by
Robert Browne, an "erratic individual," (according to Fuller and
Masson) ; Henry B.irrowe, Francis Johnson, John Penry, John
Greenwood, and Henry Jacob, such separated churches grew
exceedingly, and according to Green, numbered 20,000 souls in
the middle of Elizabeth s reign.* Some of these churches were
* Green, Hist. Eng. People, 469.
SEPARATISTS AND BAPTISTS. 13
called Brownists, after Eobert Browne, and subsequently Indepen
dents, from their assertion of the sufficiency of the Church to care
for and govern itself, and their death-defying insistance upon the
principle that the Church of Christ ought not, and could not, con
sist of any but those who were really believers in Him, and avowedly
subject to His authority. They vehemently opposed the pernicious
doctrine of sponsorship,* and would not accept the theory of
Whitgift and Hooker, that the nation makes the Church, and that
being born in a parish of the nation gives a right to be in the
Church of Christ. Strongly, and even fiercely, they denounced
the deed by which " in one day, with the blast of Queen Eliza
beth s trumpet," ignorant papists and gross idolaters were made
faithful Christians and true professors.f The unit of the Church
of Christ is, and always must be, a Christian man.
(5). Now out of these Separatists, with their cardinal principle
that the members of a New Testament Church should be Chris
tians, grew logically and inevitably the ENGLISH BAPTISTS. The
first protest was against Romanism as concentrated in a Pope,
and subjecting the King of this land to his authority ; the second
protest was against all papal practices, and in favour of getting
rid of a prelacy and bringing in synodical authority ; the third
protest was against the inclusion of all the subjects of the King
in the Church, irrespective of their spiritual character and in
favour, ultimately, of the self-governing powers of each separate
Christian Society ; but still, INFANTS were included, at least the
infants of Christian parents, and yet how could they be person
ally conscious Christians ? how could they aid in the government
of a church ? what spiritual character had they to qualify them
for membership 1 It was certain as to-morrow that a FOURTH
PROTEST should come. The forces of the living Word, and of
their own faith impelled them to oppose the inclusion of any
persons in the Church of Christ Jesus, excepting such as intelli
gently, and consciously received Him, and were possessed of Hia
divine life. THAT FOURTH PROTEST WAS MADE BY THE ENGLISH
Dexter, H. L., Dr., Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, 77-
f Henry Barrowe s Brief Description of the False Church (1590) p. 10,
14 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
BAPTISTS AND is THEIR HISTORICAL ROOT. To cite the language
of one of these, they reasoned thus, "The Separation must
either go back to England, (i.e., the English Church), or
forward to true Baptism ; all that shall in time to come separate
from England must separate from the baptism of England ; and
if they will not separate from the Baptism of England, there is
no reason why they should separate from England as from a false
Church." Eight as far as they went, yet the Separatists and
Independents did not go far enough to satisfy these root and
branch men. They had got firm grip of a principle, and they
were willing to go with it wherever it might take them. They
were contending for eternal realities. The battle was not about
words, but spiritual facts. Christ Jesus was central to Hia
Church, and a living personal and conscious relation to Him was the
fundamental condition of fellowship in His societies. Personal
faith in, and personal subjection to, the Lord Jesus, is all and in
all. But faith is a conscious act. It requires intelligence. It
involves will. It is not possible to a babe ; therefore babes have
no more right in the Church of the New Testament because they
are born in a Christian family, than Englishmen have perforce a
right in the Church because they are born in a Christian parish.
The principle which excludes the parishioner allows no pla ce to
the babe. So they reasoned, so they felt and acted, and thus
English Baptists came into being as a vital and enduring product
of the Great Protestant Kefonnation, and in fact advancing that
Eeform a stage further than it had before marched, but along its
own original lines of the pre-eminence of the Scriptures, and the
absolute necessity of a really personal godliness. It was a logical
and conclusive application of the governing rules and controlling
spirit of Puritanism, carrying, if we may mathematically
express it, Protestantism up to its fifth power, as a denial of the
right of men to substitute any merely external conditions and
accidental circumstances, for a living, sincere, and real faith in
Christ, and a hearty personal subjection to His august authority.*
* The genealogical tree of the English Baptists may therefore be
expressed thus, beginning with the root. I. PROTESTANTS, II. PURITANS,
JOHN SMYTH. 15
VI. JOHN SMYTH AND THE ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
The man who illustrates these successive stages in the history
of the Protestant Reformation in his own career, and holds one of
the most memorable names in the Baptist annals, is John Smyth,
Vicar of Gainsborough. Standing at the head of distinctly consecu
tive Baptist history, he may be regarded as the father and founder
of the organized Baptists of England ; and of the General
Baptists specially and primarily. Like not a few of the Separa
tists he was a Cambridge man, matriculated as a prizeman of
Christ s College in 1571, took his B.A. in 1575-6, was elected
a Fellow, and commenced his M.A. in 1579 ; afterwards he was
lecturer at Lincoln, and then became Vicar of Gainsborough, on
the Trent. Seized by the Time-Spirit he was restless and
agitated, earnest and thoroughgoing. At the University he was
cited before the Vice-Chancellor for vindicating the Sabbath day
from the profanation of " Sports," and he was not likely to be
long before coming into collision with the high-handed ecclesias
tical authorities for his zeal as a Reformer. Protestantism was
not enough for him, and slow as he was in making up his mind,
yet his relentless pursuit of truth forbade him finding content in
mere Puritanism. For " nine months "he was perplexed " about the
separation," and betook himself to the house of Sir William Bowes
at Coventry, to confer with such noted Puritan leaders as Dod,
Hildersham, and Barbour, but this long " disputation " did not
bring him satisfaction. Though not without misgiving, he still
clung to the National Church, meanwhile fearlessly seeking the
truth, and forming his convictions. His supreme duty was not
to be consistent ; it was to be true, and so, faithful to his convic
tions, he went forward, and at length became pastor of a church
formed on the Separatist, or Independent type, in the year 1602.
But that stage was not final. At Crowle, in Lincolnshire, a
few miles from Gainsborough, there was, according to an old Church
III. SEPARATISTS, IV. INDEPENDENTS, V. BAPTISTS. The " Friends,"
or Quakers have passed on beyond the Baptists, and abolished all ordin
ances whatever. They are not only subsequent to the Baptists, but drew
their numbers very largely from amongst the General Baptists. See
W. Tallack on "George Fox, and the Early Baptists."
16 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
book, recently copied, a Baptist Society as early as 1599.* To
tliat rural community Smyth went in the year 1604, and " debated
nearly all night with Elders Henry Helwise and John Morton, who
defended our cause well." Not yet, however, was he convinced,
but after three months reflection, his mind had advanced beyond
the position of the Separatists. He had, says the Church book,
" consulted the Scriptures, and admitted that he was deceived in
the way of Paedo-baptistry," and " so embraced the faith in a true
Christian and Apostolic baptism," and on the "24th of March, 1606,
at midnight," to avoid the satellites of the persecuting Church, and
under the glare of torchlight, "he was baptised by Elder John
Morton, in the river Don, and then walked to Ep worth, a distance
of two miles, in his wet clothes."
These were terribly perilous times for men who dared to think,
speak, and act differently from the legalized religion. Puritanism
was beaten and chagrined at the Hampton Court Conference
of 1604, and King James, in his absolutism, had declared that he,
would " harry the Puritans out of the country, if they would not
conform." The separatists " were hunted and persecuted on every
side." None befriended them. " Some were taken and clapped
in prison ; others had their houses beset and watched night and
day [by apparitors and pursuivants], and hardly escaped their
hands ; and the most were fain to flee, and leave their houses and
habitations and means of their livelihood." Separatists, Brownists,
and Barrowists had heard and accepted the glad tidings that a
few leagues distant from the fens of Lincolnshire, there was a
country where " the Church was without a bishop and the state
without a king," and "freedom of religion was given to all men."
" John Smyth and his company" followed their example, and left
England for that paradise of religion, the Low Countries, and in
Amsterdam he supported himself by practising physic, " taking,"
as he says, " nothing of the poorer sort, and if they were rich, he
took half as much as other doctors did, except some who were
well able and well minded, urged more upon him," which we fear
they did not, for he seems to have lived on very humble fare ;
* See Note F.
JOHN SMYTH. 17
and reminds us of his fellow-sufferer Ainsworth, who, being " a
fine scholar," and the most profoundly learned of all the Brownists,
lived in that same city, "upon nine-pence a week and some
boiled roots."
But Smyth had other work than that of a doctor. Although
he had found freedom, he had descended upon strange quarters,
and strange folk. The Separatist Church was in a sadly perplexed
and violently agitated state. All the faults of the Puritan temper
had free course. Opinions gravitated towards extravagance, and
crotchets were exalted into first principles. Disputes ran high.
The whalebone of Mrs. Johnson s (the Pastor s wife) too fashion
able bodice, and the corks of her high-heeled shoes," had been
matter of grave Church discipline. The awful power of excom
munication had been wielded. Defamatory pamphlets had been
flying in the air like shots at a rifle practice. The atmosphere was
super-charged with the electricity of theological and ecclesiastical
discussion. Moreover, and this is a critical item for John Smyth
since 1591, James Arminius had been teaching his theology in
opposition to Gomarus ; and the Church of the Separatists, under
pastor Ainsworth, had contended against that "damnable" faith.*
Was it likely John Smyth, with his courageous quest for truth,
his unreserved fidelity to conviction, and his magnetic personal
enthusiasm, would dwell long in the midst of such conditions
without marking out a course for himself, and carrying others
away with him in his fervid zeal. No ; he accepted an Arminian
theology ; proclaimed an Antipsedo-baptist view of baptism, held
" no part of saving righteousness to consist in outward ceremonies,"
and disputed, at large very much at large, it is to be believed
on questions of Church polity and Christian worship ; the issue
of which was, that he, with a considerable body of followers,
seceded and formed themselves into a Church, published " a con
fession of Faith," in twenty-six articles, approximating closer than
any other to the General Baptist pattern. Smyth died in 1612 ;
and Thomas Helwys, who had been associated with him in the
direction of the Amsterdam society, came over to London, together
* See Note G.
18 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
with a company of his believing comrades ; and to their hearty
union, courageous labours, advanced principles, and accumulated
sufferings, in 1611 and onwards, must be traced the origin of the
General Baptist Connexion.
Obscure, confused, and contradictory as the notices of Smyth s
history are, it is clear that he was a man of noble make, of fine
spirit, and incorruptible sincerity. He had what lazy people call
a " restless mind ;" and, in the opinion of selfish persons, he was
" reckless " as to his own interests. Eager to follow the light as
he saw it, he was daring enough to avow his successive changes
of opinion. What mattered it to him that he thought differently
yesterday 1 His business was not to repeat yesterday, but to be
true to-day. The Anglican Church was wrong, and therefore
he left it, though it was dear to him as a mother. The Brownists
had more light than the English Church, but he saw truth farther
afield, and he went towards it, and became a Baptist and a Baptist
cherishing a theology broad and clear, tender and strong. Listen
to his manly confession :
"Although in this writing, something there is which over-
thwarteth my former judgment in some treatises by me formerly
published, yet I would intreat the reader not to impute that as a
fault unto mee ; rather, it should be accounted a virtue to retract
errors. Know, therefore, that latter thoughts oft-tymes are better
than the former ; and I do professe this (that no man account it
strannge) : that I will every day, as my errors shall be discovered,
confesse them and renounce them."*
That splendid conscientiousness was matched by a beautiful
humility and a glowing charity. I know he had (as we all have),
the faults of his virtues, and the errors of his time. He was
incapable of theological perspective, disputative, and crotchety;
but he did not assume to himself a "plenary knowledge and
assurance." He was ready to be taught, and was full of charity
towards all who differed from him. A more potent witness to his
beautiful personal qualities cannot be desired than the " Declara
tion " made by those from whom he seceded. Read in the light
* Differences of the Churches of the Separation, etc. iv.
PARTICULAR BAPTISTS. 19
of those days, it is one of the most eloquent panegyrics ever
pronounced. " What," say they, " would we not have endured
or done ; would we not have lost all we had ? would we not
have plucked out our own eyes 1 would we not have laid down
our lives (could we still in conscience have enjoyed and followed his
teaching), doth not God know this ? Do not men know it ? Doth
he not know it ? Have we not neglected ourselves, our wives, our
children, and all we had, and respected him 1 And we confess we
had good cause so to do in respect of those most excellent gifts and
graces of God that then did abound in him : and all our love was
too little for him and not worthy of him."* Norman Macleod
wished to be "broad as the charity of Almighty God, " and
"narrow as His righteousness." Faulty in many things as
John Smyth undoubtedly was, yet we claim for him that he was
an admirable exemplification of this spirit, and not an unworthy
illustration of the best men in one of the best eras of our British life.
The same principles are embodied in the origin of the first dis
tinctively PARTICULAR, or CALVINISTIC BAPTIST CHURCH. Its date
is given with precision, and the circumstances of its formation are
clearly reported. Even the day is mentioned. It was Sep. 12, 1633.
No doubt a good number of churches of the General Baptist order
holding Arminian views, came into existence during the prior
twenty years ; but the Church at Broad Street,Wapping, was not
directly connected with, or derived from, any of them. It grew, as
William Kiffin tells us, out of an Independent Church (in the
way we have described) which was formed in London in 1616,
and was under the pastorate of Henry Jacob. The subject of
the baptism of infants pushed itself forward as they read the
Scriptures, and they reasoned thereupon, and urged, partly by
that, and partly by the consideration that they were too numerous
to meet together secretly, as was necessary, a score of men and
women, "with divers others ; "f whatever that may mean, seceded
and formed a new Church on Baptist "lines," but with a Particular,
or Calvinistic, Theology, electing to the pastorate Mr. JOHN
* A Declaration of the Faith of English people remaining at Amsterdam,
f Crosby, I. 1.
20 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
SPILSBURY, a man of high repute amongst his brethren, and
one of the Early Baptist Leaders.
That was the year in which William Prynne, as Carlyle reminds
us, was " brought to the Star Chamber, to the pillory, and had
his ears cropped off for the first time ; who also, strange as it
may look, manifested no gratitude, but on the contrary, for
all that trouble."* It was the year in which the little Dr. Laud
was executing with terrible emphasis his measures for the
total suppression of Puritanism, and the year in which a denomi
nation was born that has exhibited that same Puritanism, in
its essential strength and conquering energy, not only in this, but
also in many other lands.
VII. BAPTIST GROWTH.
(1.) FROM 1611 TO 1688.
So long as Puritanism retained its original force, and persecu
tion kept the fires of its malignity in full blaze, " the Word of the
Lord " among Baptists grew and multiplied. Hence, from the
days of John Smyth to the time of William of Orange, the course
of the General Baptists was one of bitter suffering, noble
testimony, and conspicuous prosperity. Fiercely assaulted and
heavily oppressed, they clung to each other with a heartier love,
saw the truth with clearer vision, and propagated their opinions
with increasing zeal, and irrepressible devotion. Under the
leadership of men of such heroic temper as Thomas Helwys,
Leonard Busher, Thomas Lamb, Henry Denne,and Samuel Oates,f
they developed a host of fearless confessors, and contributed not
a few serviceable books. Their own liberties being restricted,
they saw the need for a free gospel, a free worship, a free church,
a free State, and a free conscience. And what they saw they
proclaimed. The Seer became the Apostle. They were the first
to state with distinctness and energy the great modern doctrine
of " Liberty of Conscience ;" and from a " dingy " General
Baptist "meeting-house somewhere in Old London," in 1614,
* Oliver Cromwell, I, 45 and 63.
f Of. Lecture by W. Harvey Smith on Seventeenth Century Baptists."
ROGER WILLIAMS. 21
"there flashed out first in England the absolute doctrine of
Eeligious Liberty."*
This brave proclamation of freedom and of truth was magnetic.
It cast a spell over men. " Multitudes of disciples " gathered
about them. General Baptist Churches sprang up in the East
and West and Midlands, as well as in London and the South. At
Yarmouth, in Norfolk ; Stony Stratford and Amersham, in Bucks ;
Ashford, in Kent ; Tiverton, in Devon ; and many other places,
congregations were gathered and the word of the Lord diffused.
Men had got back to primitive truth and convictions, and, in spite
of overwhelming persecutions, they continued to advance.
For England was not now the whole planet. A new world
had been created, and a new and nobler England was being born.
ROGER WILLIAMS,! a clergyman of the Established Church, was
in the track of John Smyth. He too had become a Puritan, and
had abandoned " holy orders ;" and he embarked for America in
1630, and there took rank (showing the influences of the dingy
meeting-house doctrines) not only as the founder of the first Baptist
Church, but also as the first legislator who provided for full and
free and absolute liberty of conscience ; thus planting the seed
which, on the one hand, has grown up into the strong, aggressive,
and conquering Republic of the West, and on the other, into the
largest religious denomination contained within that Republic.
Three years after Roger Williams sailed for America, as we
have seen, the first Particular Baptist Church was formed. The
same year saw the first Welsh Baptist Church come into existence at
Olchon, on the borders of Wales. Soon afterwards Baptists spread
into Ireland and Scotland ; and in London they were so formidable
a body by 1644, that the Lord Mayor thought fit to stop a public
dispute]}:, and in the following year, no less than forty-seven
Baptist churches were reported as existing in London alone, the
majority of these, no doubt, being General Baptists ; for, in 1644,
* Professor Masson, but see Note H.
f Born in Wales, in 1604 ; reared in London and Oxford; founder of
Rhode Island, United States.
t Stoughton s Ecc. Hist. II. 237.
$ Wall s Infant Baptism.
22 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
only seven Metropolitan Particular Baptist churches were found
to join in a memorable confession of faith addressed to Parliament,
and to the ignorant, in reply to the aspersions unjustly cast upon
the Baptists.*
Cromwell was favourable to our predecessors. They were in
his army when he fought the King near Market Harborough and
pursued him towards Leicester, in 1645, and Oliver says they were
" honest men, who did their work faithfully, "f Later still, Cromwell s
"Triers" passed clergymen holding the Baptist ideas "as
brethren," and the names of thirty-five Baptist ministers occur as
holding livings at the restoration of Charles the Second, J Thomas
Grantham being witness, General Baptists alone had increased in
their first fifty years to 20,000. Cramp says, in 1660, Baptist
" churches existed in thirty English counties, were numerous in
Wales, and occupied the principal towns of Ireland."
Persecution was renewed with intolerable fierceness under
Charles the Second,and reigned with intermittent but tremendous
violence from 1660 to 1688. Dissenters were not allowed to meet
in public : and could only steal occasions for fellowship and
teaching under the shelter of forest trees, or in the quiet of
private homes. The State was bent on their extinction. Families
were ruined. Houses were desolated. Estates were impoverished.
Many fled to freer climes. Eight thousand perished in the
prisons : and yet the more they were persecuted, the more they
grew. Thomas Granthan, whose work ceased in 1692, said that the
General Baptists had increased 10,000 since the second year of the
restored Charles, so that, though they were scattered in rural
districts, and had changed ther centre from London to an obscure
spot, like Fenstanton, yet they now numbered 30,000. The
Particular Baptist churches had been considerably reinforced by
an accession of learned Calvinistic clergymen from amongst the
" ejected," which gave an impetus to their progress, and so had
they extended, that in 1689, a Confession of Faith was published,
* Confessions of Faith, pp. 13-48. Haneerd Knollys Society.
f Carlyle s Cromwell I. 193.
Stoughton s Ecc. Lit. II. 239- 24.
| History of the Baptists, p. 281.
"THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION? 23
representing, as they themselves said, upwards of one
baptized congregations in England and Wales (denying Armin-
ianism)" and signed by such honoured names as Hanserd Knollys,
William Kimn, and Andrew Gifford. Thus, in a little more than
half a century, the one Church in Wapping had become more
than a hundred churches, dispersed through England and Wales.
We may therefore conclude that the FIRST PERIOD of organized
British Baptist life, was one of solid and extensive growth in
numbers and influence, in the conception and development of
great principles, in patient energy, and in evangelistic activity.
(2.) FROM 1688 TO 1770.
A.D. 1688 is one of the most significant dates in the history of
Britain, and, indeed, of Europe and the world, whether viewed
in relation to the rise and establishment of revolutionary political
principles, or to the chequered fortunes of religion. " The Glorious
Revolution," as we still call the momentous change which centres
in the arrival of William of Orange at Torbay, on the fifth of
November, 1688, shattered the power of Roman Catholicism on
the Continent ; saved England from the cruel tyranny and fierce
corruptions of the Papacy ; substituted the sovereignty of the
House of Commons for that of a King or Queen ; inaugurated the
era of those " Great Commoners," of whom Robert Walpole was
the first, and Mr. Gladstone is, at present, the most consummately
able and accomplished, and, far ahead, the most lofty in genius,
spirit, and character ; and finally, brought to the much-enduring
Dissenters, the long-coveted boon of " freedom to worship God ac
cording to the dictates of their own consciences." The sun of political
prosperity rose high in mid-heaven ; the sky was swept clean of its
most maleficent elements, and a far freer course was given to the
religious energy of the nation, than it had hitherto enjoyed.
But strange is the irony of life ! The era of religious freedom
ushers in a fearful and wide-spread suppression of spiritual life,
and a general torpor and decay amongst the Churches. Universal
toleration is the attractive preface to the " intolerable " eighteenth
century, with its rose-water imbecilities, washed-out convictions,
rank corruptions, and increasing vice. Puritanism, alas ! became
24 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
defunct. Its grand ideal was discredited and disgraced. The
" age of faith " and of sublime heroisms, divine patiences, and
majestic meeknesses, and heavenly serenities, gave place to an age
of acute reasoning, subtle speculations, and everlasting grinding
of "logic mills." Christianity became itself a hard and acrid
syllogism instead of a rich and inspiring life. It existed as a
whetstone to sharpen men s wits, not as a mystic angel to
strengthen and beautify men s souls. "The creation of the
world," said Usher the archbishop, with an irritating precision,
" was finished on the 3rd of September, on a Wednesday." Why
did he not add, "at 5, 55 , 59", p.m. !" Men could not rise higher
than the Socinian conception of Christ. Unitarianism spread
so rapidly amongst the Presbyterians, that the English branch of
that body was nearly extinguished ; and the Episcopal community
was so much more disputatious than evangelistic, that only one
Church was erected in London and its neighbourhood, during
fifty-five years (1675 to 1730.)*
The strong free spirit of Puritanism had two courses before
it. It ought to have elected a career of philanthropic work of
sympathy with the poor and the ignorant, and help for the needy,
and become the chief healer of the physical and spiritual maladies
of society. Instead of that, it chose to talk and debate, and died
of it, as was meet.
Added to this gigantic blunder of Puritanism, there were other
influences sapping the moral strength, and enfeebling the spiritual
sinew of the nation. Walpole was a gifted financier, an ardent
friend of peace, a true helper of commerce, and a wise champion
of the Kevolution, but he despised virtue, and laughed at appeals
to the loftier and purer motives of human action as " School-boy
flights," scorned by men of experience. So he helped to deteri
orate the morals of the nation, though he fostered its wealth; and cor
rupted its best and highest life, though he gave solid splendour to
the English name, and just and wide influence to English opinion.
Coincidently there was the rise of British manufactures into a
front and governing position. The Colonies stood open with their
* Barclay, Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, 516.
A PERIOD OF DECAY. 25
young and eager life. Large towns were increasing. Manchester
and Birmingham doubled their population in thirty years, and
Liverpool leapt from a village to the rank of third port in the
kingdom. In fact, the golden era sung by poets had arrived,
and Peace and Prosperity met together, Intellect and Wealth
kissed each other. Or seen from a loftier height, the outer and
inner life of the nation presented two pictures ; inside, there
was endless disputation about words to no profit, and little
practical godliness ; and outside, there was the glitter of increasing
wealth added to the subtle temptation of corruption in high
places. It was inevitable that the best life of the nation should
decay.
Baptists did not escape the contagion, and General Baptists, for
reasons easily understood, suffered acutely and long.* Dissent
being tolerated they had not to light for their liberties ; what
should they do with their skilled forces but fight one another about
the imposition of hands ; about Arianism, and Socinianism, and
Trinitarianism ! And this they did with a will, and with the usual
desolating effect. Nonconformists forgot the grounds of their
Nonconformity ; Baptists ceased to care whether they were
"Particular" or " General," and not a few" Generals " passed over to
the " Particulars " on the one hand, and to the " Quakers " on the
other. Neal speaks of only 247 Baptist congregations in England
and Wales in 1715, and Josiah Thompson mentions but 390 in
1772 ; whilst in London, in 1738, the General Baptist churches
were reduced to nine, and the Particular Baptists that had been
so largely favoured during Restoration times by the services of
such men as Kiffin, and Knollys, and Bunyan, only numbered
twenty-six,! fully proving that the SECOND PERIOD of organic
English Baptist Life though one of exceptional outward advan
tage compared with the first, was unspeakably inferior to it in
all the high qualities of a living and aggressive Christian
Church.
* See Note I.
f Maitland s History of England, p. 517, quoted in Freeman of May 13,
1881.
26 ENGLISH BAPTISTS.
(3.) FROM 1770 TO 1850.
The year 1770 marks an epoch of special interest to
General Baptists ; for in the month of June of that year, Dan
Taylor,* the brave, heroic Saint Dan, of immortal memory, co
operated with a few other earnest souls in forming the NEW
CONNEXION OF GENERAL BAPTISTS, in Church Lane Chapel,
Commercial Road, " with the design," as they themselves said,
" to revive experimental religion, or primitive Christianity, in
faith and practice."
So thoroughly had the defective theology, excessive disputatious-
ness and spiritual torpor of the age, penetrated the General Baptist
Churches, that this " new departure " was absolutely necessary.
Eleven ministers of the Old Connexion, representing 728 mem
bers in eleven churches, met eight ministers belonging to five new
churches, containing 900 members, discussed the grounds of
secession, and agreed upon " the Articles of Religion " which they
were prepared to practise. The churches of the ancient order
were located in London, Kent, Essex, and Yorkshire ; those of
the new type came from Barton and Kegworth, Loughborough,
Longford, and Melbourne, and had started as Independents, but,
purely by the study of the Scriptures, had been led to accept and
avow General Baptist ideas.t
But, it must be remembered, those General Baptists were, and
their successors of 1881 are, the offspring of that great Evan
gelical Revival, which, while it has created Methodism as its most
conspicuous monument and memorial, has also sent its refreshing
streams through all the churches, and begotten theModern England in
which we live. Dan Taylor began as a Methodist in Yorkshire, and
David Taylor was a servant of Lady Huntingdon s, at Donington,
in Leicestershire, who, by his village preaching, originated the Bar
ton Church. The theological affinities of Methodism with General
Baptist teaching formed a convenient and capable conductor for the
regenerating influence of that mighty Renovation ; thereby pre
venting the extinction of the General Baptists, and giving them a
new beginning under new and better conditions, and with new life.
* Cf. J. Fletcher on "Dan Taylor and the English Baptists."
f See^NoteJ.
a H. SPUBGEON. 27
Independents and Baptists generally looked shyly on the
Bevival at first, and gained little from it. But gradually it
reached them, and Foreign Missions were originated before the
century closed, Antinomianism was suppressed, their theology
modified,* and philanthropic work was undertaken . Still it seems
Baptist advance was by no means rapid, for between the years
17381816, i.e. in nearly .80 years, the London churches had only
grown from thirty-five to forty-one,t and, according to Dr. Cramp,
the number of churches in Great Britian and Ireland at this
period somewhat exceeded 400, containing probably about
20,000 members,^ * & all Baptists did not count more than the
General Baptists, at the beginning of Charles the Second s reign,
and 10,000 less than they numbered at the end of his career.
But the Evangelical leaven was at work, and signal progress was
made in the next forty years. Three colleges for the training of
men for the Baptist Ministry were started within six years,
(Rawdon, Pontypool, and Regent s Park). "Work for the heathen
began to re-act powerfully at home, and at the middle of this
century the London Churches had doubled in number, the General
Baptists had grown from 1,628 members in 1770, to 18,277, and the
Baptists of Great Britain and Ireland are returned at 100,391.
Clearly the sun of prosperity had risen with special radiance and
luminous promise upon the English Baptists, at the close of this,
the THIRD PERIOD of their organized existence.
FROM 1850 TO 1880.
I cannot linger to signalize the principal features in the growth
of the last thirty years, and sketch the present status of Baptists all
over the world. Such a theme demands another lecture; but
I may say, there has been advance of all kinds, all along
the line, during the last quarter of a century, and most
notably since the advent of the prodigious influence of the Rev.
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON. His is the most pronounced
Baptist force of the last quarter of a century. His works are as
* See Note K.
f Ivimey s Constitution of the Baptist Churches, appendix, 1816.
$ Cramp. History, 741.
28 PRESENT STATUS OF BAPTISTS.
abundant as his position is unique. The enthusiasm of the great
Evangelical Eevival reappears in him ; and the strong passion
for "saving souls," characteristic of Whitfield,is supreme. But he has
at the same time the practical and organizing skill of Wesley, and is
the centre of a splendid system of energetic and evangelistic benefi
cence. Theologically, he claims to stand by Calvin ; but he will
leave Calvin, and all the theologies, to bring a man to Christ, and
to extend the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. As no work has been
marked with more faith or zeal, tact or daring than his, so none
has been more reproductive. " Spurgeon s men " are going all
over the planet ; and the number of church members represented
at the last Conference of the Spurgeonic section of Baptists, reached
the total of 44,505, i.e., nearly a sixth of the whole denomination.
The numerical increase of this FOURTH PERIOD is a cheering
feature. 227 Churches exist in London, where a quarter of a cen
tury ago were only 130. The returns of Baptists of all kinds, for
Great Britain and Ireland, are given as 281,061. In the United
States they exceed two millions and a half, so taking the lead of
all other denominations of Christians ; and the grand total for the
world is not less than three millions.
But this is not the principal sign of growth. There is a fuller
life, a broader sympathy, a larger charity, and a more manifold
and wide-spread activity. Baptist ideas being conceded by the
ablest interpreters of Scripture, and the most thorough historians of
the Church, we have learnt to be faithful to conscience, without
being exclusive ; and to insist on loyalty to Christ, without confound
ing it with loyalty to ourselves. Colleges have increased in number,
and in perfectness of machinery. Our Literature has grown, though
Baptists have yet to learn to appreciate, at its real value, this
mighty organ for good. The BAPTIST UNION has taken shape,
and is blending together Baptists of all shades and conditions for
the common welfare of the Churches, the good of the nation, and
the salvation of the world. Missions to the heathen embrace new
and wider areas, and sedulously till the old fields with a larger
hope and an expanding toil.
It is undeniable that Baptist Ideas are alive, and beneficially
aggressive, and were never more so since the days of the Apostles.
BAPTISTS; THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES.
BY THE
EEV. JOHN BATEY.
HPHE Distinctive Principles of the Baptists admit of a much
* wider survey than I at first contemplated in the present
Lecture. Viewed in distinction from those of the Church of Rome,
they include the right of private judgment in all matters of religion,
together with the perfect sufficiency of the Word of God as the
only rule of faith and practice. In distinction from the Church
of England, as by law established, we hold that the religion of
Christ "is not of this world," and is therefore absolutely in
dependent of all State control. In distinction from the Society
of Friends, we believe in the perpetuity of the Christian Ordi
nances of Baptism and the Lord s Supper. In distinction from
the Presbyterians, the Moravians, and the various bodies of
Methodists, we maintain that each separate Church has, within
itself, the exclusive right to choose its own Pastors and Office
bearers, to receive and exclude its members, and to manage its own
affairs irrespective of all external control. Finally, in distinction
from the practice of Paedobaptists of every name, we hold that the im
mersion of believers on a profession of repentance toward God, and
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, is the only baptism that is
authorised by the precepts, or sanctioned by the examples, of the
New Testament Scriptures.
From the uniform practice of the Apostles, as recorded in the
Book which bears their name, as also in their several epistles to
the Churches which they planted and governed, it is clear in
c
30 BAPTISTS;
what light they understood the Commission which they had re
ceived from their Lord and Master, to preach the Gospel, and to
administer the ordinances of His Kingdom.
The time and circumstances under which their Divine Leader
gave them their final instructions are very significant, and should
be carefully considered by all who wish to know the place which
Baptism occupies in His Kingdom. He had but recently been
raised from the dead. Before His death, and just after He had
broken bread with the disciples at the celebration of the Passover,
He said unto them, " After I am risen again I will go before you
into Galilee." On the morning of His resurrection the Angel of
the Lord said unto them that were early at the sepulchre, " Go
quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead ; and,
behold, He goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see Him.
And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them,
saying, All hail." Here then, on one of the mountains of Galilee,
He called the eleven disciples unto Him, and said " All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth." It was at this most
solemn and interesting moment that He instituted Christian
Baptism. If ever it were necessary for the great Teacher to use
great plainness of speech, to speak so that He could not be mis
understood, it was at this solemn crisis. He was about to take
His final departure from His disciples. He had completed the
work which His Father had given Him to do, and was about to
enter into that glory, which He had before the world was created.
They would not, therefore, have the opportunity of applying to
Him personally to settle any dispute which might arise among
themselves in the execution of the work which He had called
them to perform. It is true, He promised to send them the Holy
Spirit to lead them into all truth, and to bring all things to
their remembrance whatsoever He had said unto them. Ac
cordingly He poured out the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost,
and it is owing to His inspirations that we have the infallible
teachings of the New Testament Scriptures. But the Holy Spirit
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 31
was not given to teach the meaning of words which had been em
ployed by the Saviour during His ministry on Earth. It was,
according to His promise, to " bring all things to their remem
brance, whatsoever He had said unto them." Now, if we can find
that the Holy Spirit brought Infant Baptism to their remem
brance, it will be a decisive proof that Christ had taught them to
baptize infants, but if we find that they never, in any single
instance even referred to it, then it is impossible that demon
stration can be more complete, that it was not instituted by
Christ, but that it was, as is admitted by many of the most
learned Pajdobaptists themselves, introduced into the Church
long after the death of the last of the Apostles. This remark
applies with equal force both to the nature and subjects of
baptism.
In the course of the present Lecture I shall have occasion to
refer to numerous writers who admit the Scriptural character of
the distinctive principles of the Baptists, but only as confirma
tory of their validity, and not as the foundation of their authority.
" The Bible, and the Bible alone" being the standard of our final
appeal in all that we believe and practise on all matters of our
religion : what then, do the Holy Scriptures teach concerning
the institution of Christian Baptism 1
I. ITS NATURE. I say nature rather than mode, for the same
thing may have several different modes, hence those who are
not Baptists say the mode of baptism is of little consequence as it
may be performed either by dipping, pouring, or sprinkling.
Now, we maintain that immersion only is baptism. It would
be as proper to say that sprinkling or pouring are modes of dip
ping as that they are modes of baptism. It is well known that
the word " Baptism" is not an English word. It is a Greek word
left untranslated. The word " Baptize" in the New Testament,
differs only from the Greek word "Baptize" in the
last letter ; E being substituted for o. A most singular method
this, certainly, of conveying the meaning of a Greek word to an
32 BAPTISTS;
English reader. The impropriety of this will appear by considering
that if the same method had been adopted by the translators with
every other word in the Sacred Scriptures, the Bible would have
been to the unlearned a dead letter, and they must have remained
for ever in utter ignorance of God and Christ, and the way of
salvation. And was it not wrong in the translators, in this way,
to conceal the Christian s duty and privilege under a Greek word 1
They could not be ignorant of the fact that its proper meaning was
" to immerse" for they have actually translated the word " Bapto"
" to dip" in several places in the New Testament. " He that
dippeth his hand with me in the dish," " That Lazarus may dip
the tip of his finger in water," " He it is to whom I shall give a
sop when I have dipped it." Let the English reader remember
that neither " Bapto " nor " Baptize " is ever translated "sprinkle"
or "pour" in the New Testament ; and that wherever sprinkling or
pouring occurs, quite different words are used. Now, would not
our Saviour, if He had meant pouring or sprinkling have used
these words, and not \v ords which had a totally opposite signifi
cation ? If He had intended His disciples to sprinkle, would He
not have used the Greek word " Rhantizo " which signifies " to
sprinkle" and not "Baptizo" which signifies "to immerse?" Is it
consistent to suppose that the infinitely wise Jesus would use a
word which means " to dip," when He only meant pouring or
sprinkling ? Impossible ! That the word " Baptizo " ought to have
been translated "to dip," "plunge " or "immerse" is capable of the
fullest demonstration.
As a matter of fact it is admitted by the most learned Divines
that ever lived, that this is its proper signification, although for
the sake of convenience they substituted " sprinkling or pouring."
Before I quote these authorities, I will appeal to several
classic writers to show that dipping is the meaning of the word.
These must be admitted to be competent and disinterested wit
nesses. And let it be borne in mind that what is true of the
Sacred Scriptures is equally true of these, that there is not a single
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 33
instance to be found in all their writings where " Baptizo " is used
for sprinkling or pouring, but invariably for dipping, sinking,
covering, overwhelming, or immersing.
The word " Baptizo " is used in the following quotations :
Anacreon. "Taking hold of Cupid by the wings, im
mersed, or plunged him into the wine."
jEsop. "The dolphin vexed at such a falsehood, im
mersing him, killed him."
Diodorus Siculus. " Most of the land animals, if they are
intercepted by the river, are destroyed, being im
mersed."
Josephus speaking of the death of Aristobulus, says, "The
young man was sent to Jericho, and there, according to
his order, being immersed in a fish pond, he came to
his end." Again, speaking of one Simon, he says
" Going through all his kindred, and standing con
spicuously on their bodies, as if to be concealed from
no one, he plunged his whole sword into his bowels."
Polybius uses the word " Ebaptizon " when speaking of a
sea fight between the Romans and Carthaginians, "They
immersed or sunk," he says, "many vessels of the
Romans."
It is surely unnecessary to multiply instances, although a
volume could be produced to the same purpose. These are suf
ficient both in number and perspicuity to show its literal meaning
in classic authors. The force of the argument derived from this
source has been felt and acknowledged by many learned Psedo-
baptists. Dr. Wall, the Psedobaptist historian, tells us that the
Greek Church has always used immersion. An authoritative writer,
Alexander de Stourzas, says "the word baptizo has but one significa
tion, it signifies literally and perpetually, to immerse ; baptism
and immersion are identical, and to say baptism by sprinkling is
the same as to say immersion by sprinkling, for any other contra
diction in terms,"
34 BAPTISTS;
I will add to these testimonies, the concessions of some of the
most learned and pious divines. And, let it be remembered that
they are the statements of men who did not hold our distinctive
principle, and that therefore, the evidence in favour of immersion
must have been absolutely irresistible. With their- consistency or
inconsistency I have nothing to do. I shall simply quote their
words, and leave others to form their own opinion, but at the same
time, would affectionately caution them against following a prac
tice, which their own j udgment and consciences tell them is
unauthorised by the word of God, the only rule of faith and
practice.
Bishop Bossuet says : " It is certain that John the Baptist
baptized in no other way than by dipping."
John Calvin says : " The word baptism signifies * to dip,
and it is certain that the manner of dipping was used
by the old Church."
Beza says : " Christ commanded us to be baptized, by
which it is certain immersion is meant."
Martin Luther says : " I could wish that such as are to be
baptized should be completely immersed into the water,
according to the meaning of the word, and the signifi
cation of the ordinance, as also without doubt it was
instituted by Christ."
James Mede says : " There was no such thing as sprinkling
used in the Apostles days, nor many years after then."
Dr. Whitby says : " Immersion was religiously observed
by all Christians for thirteen centuries, and was approved
by the Church of England. And since the change of
it into sprinkling was made without any allowance
from the Author of the institution, or any license from
any Council of the Church, being that which the
Komanist still urgeth to justify his refusal of the cup
to the laity, it were to be wished that this custom
might be again of general use,"
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 35
Dr. Campbell says : " The word * baptism, both in sacred
and classical writers, signifies to dip, to plunge, to
immerse"
Dr. Chalmers, commenting on Eomans vi. 4, 7, says : " The
original meaning of the word baptism is immersion, and
though we regard it as a point of indifferency whether
the ordinance so named be performed this way or by
sprinkling, yet we doubt not that the prevalent style
of the administration in the Apostles days was by the
actual submerging of the whole body under water. We
advert to this for the purpose of throwing light on the
analogy which is instituted in these verses. Jesus
Christ, by death, underwent this sort of baptism, even
immersion under the surface of the ground, whence
He soon emerged again by His resurrection. We, by
being baptized into His death are conceived to have
made a similar translation, in the act of descending under
the water of baptism to have resigned an old life, and in
the act of ascending to emerge into a second, or new life."
Albert Barnes says : " It is absolutely certain that John
immersed. There is not room for even the shadow of a
doubt."
Neander says : " The practice of immersion was beyond
doubt prevalent in the ivhole Church"
Dean Stanley says : " There can be no doubt that the ori
ginal form of baptism the very meaning of the word
was complete immersion in deep waters. The change
from immersion to sprinkling has set aside the apostolic
language regarding Baptism and has altered the very
meaning of the word."
Now the question is, do the Holy Scriptures agree with this
signification of the word baptism ? If they teach immersion to
be baptism, then it is to be expected that they will not speak of
a basin containing a little water, nor of a Minister putting his
36 BAPTISTS;
fingers into water, nor of pouring or sprinkling a few drops upon
the heads of either babes or men. On the contrary, if they dipped
or immersed we may expect to find that they went to a river, to
a place where there was " much water" that they were " buried in
baptism " and that they " went into the water" Now, do the Scrip
tures speak in this way 1 Let us hear them. " And were all
baptized of him in the river Jordan." " John was baptizing in
jEnon, near to Salim, because there was much water there."
" And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the
eunuch ; and he baptized him." To suppose these baptisms to
have been sprinklings is preposterous, but if they were immer
sions, all is beautiful and consistent. The baptism of our Blessed
Lord is recorded in Mark i. 9, " And it came to pass in those
days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized
of John in Jordan." Dr. Bloomfield, in his Greek Testament with
English notes, gives the following translation : " Literally, dipped
or plunged into." How forcible must truth be, thus to compel
a dignitary of the Church of England so to translate the word of
God as to prove that those who pour or sprinkle for baptism,
depart from the precept and example of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We may ask again, do the sacred writers ever allude to baptism
in such forms of expression as imply that immersion and not
sprinkling is the very nature of the ordinance ? The words of
the Apostle, Koman vi. 3-4, give a decisive answer : " Know
ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into His death ? Therefore we are buried with Him by
baptism into death." Now what is burial ? That we may have an
unbiased answer let Dr. Johnson give it : "Burial the act of placing
under earth and water." Now baptism is of course the placing of
the candidate under water. This testimony to the Scripture nature
of baptism, though undesigned at the time by the Prince of lexi
cographers, is worth a volume of the hard pleading of Ewing,
Wardlaw, and Beecher That this passage alludes to immersion is
admitted by some of the best and most learned Psedobaptists.
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 37
Bishop Burnet asserts : " We know that the first ritual of
baptism was by going into the waters, and being laid
as dead backwards all along in them, and then the per
sons baptized were raised up again, and so they came
out of them. This is not only mentioned by St. Paul,
but in two different places he gives a mystical signifi
cation of this rite, that it signified our being buried
with Christ in baptism, and our being raised up again
to a new life."
Archbishop Tillotson says ; " Anciently, those who were
baptized were immersed, and buried in the water."
Dr. McKnight says : " The baptized person is buried under
the water."
Dr. Doddridge remarks : " It seems the part of candour to
confess that here is an allusion to the mariner of bap
tizing by immersion."
George Whitfield observes : " It is certain that in these
words there is an allusion to the manner of baptism
which was by immersion."
Dr. Earth remarks : " The expression appears particularly
appropriate when we recollect the custom prevalent
at the time of immersing the whole body in bapt
ism."
What need have we of further witness ? When will the
Church of Christ be consistent ? " To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no
light in them."
It may be deemed necessary here to notice a few objections
which have been raised against immersion. This I shall gladly
do for the sake of those who have been kept from embracing the
Scripture view of the subject, by the mists which have been
thrown around it from false principles of criticism and supposed
expediency. The Greek word " Baptizo it is said is only a deri
vative from " Bapto," and therefore a diminutive. Now this is
38 BAPTISTS;
contrary to the opinion of one of the most profound Greek
scholars that ever lived. " Not long before the death of Professor
Person, " says Dr. Newman, " I went, in company with a much
respected friend, to see that celebrated Greek scholar at the Lon
don Institution. I was curious to hear how he read Greek. He
very condescendingly at my request, took down a Greek Testament
and read perhaps twenty verses from one of the Gospels, in which the
word Bapto occurred. I said, Sir, you know there is a contro
versy among Christians respecting the meaning of that word. He
smiled and replied, The Baptists have the advantage of us. He
cited immediately the well known passage in Pindar, and one or
two of those in the Gospels mentioned in this letter. I enquired
whether in his opinion Baptizo must be considered equal to
Bapto J which he said was to tinge as dyers ; he replied to this
effect, That if there be a difference he should take the former to
be the strongest. He fully assured me that it signified a total
immersion." In this learned professor s opinion "Baptizo"
although a derivative is not a diminutive, but like its root
" Bapto " signifies " to dip ; " and what is remarkable, while
" Bapto " is used in a secondary sense " to dye" " Baptizo " is never
used with any other signification than to immerse. This fully
corroborates the opinion of the late Dr. Carson.
Another objection has been raised on the supposed indeterminate
nature of Greek prepositions. It is said eis (into), and ek (out of), may
be rendered to and from. What then, does it imply that they went
to rivers and places where there was " much water " to sprinkle ?
Do those who sprinkle go to rivers now ? What would be thought
of a Wesleyan or a Congregationalist going to the river Thames, or
to the Serpentine in Hyde Park, to sprinkle any number of persons 1
That into is the true meaning of eis will appear from the following
texts : " Enter into thy closet ; " "A net cast into the sea ; " " He
falleth into the fire and into the water ; " " Carried up into
heaven." The absurdity of raising an objection to immersion
because eis may be rendered " to " or "at " must appear to every
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 39
one. Besides, the narrative of the Baptism of the Eunuch
puts it beyond all doubt that into is the only proper rendering, in
connection with baptism. Luke tells us that as Philip and the
Eunuch " went on their way and came unto a certain water," and
then " they went down both into the water." If this does not prove
that they went into the water, it would be impossible to find
words to convey such an idea.
Another objection is founded on 1 Corinthians x. 2, where
it is said that " the Israelites were baptised unto Moses in the
cloud and in the sea." But this agrees much better with immer
sion than sprinkling. The Israelites resembled persons immersed
or buried. Moses says : they " went into the midst of the sea
upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on
their right hand and on their left," while the cloud literally
covered them. This was, therefore, a complete though figurative
immersion. So it was regarded by Dean Alford, who says they
" entered by the act of such immersion into a solemn covenant with
God."
Again it is objected that the washing of cups, pots, beds, &c.,
is inconsistent with immersion, but that eminent and learned
Jewish commentator, Eabbi Maimonides, says : " Every vessel of
wood, as a table or bed, receives defilement, and these were washed
by covering in water, and very nice and particular they were that
they might be covered all over." Again, " If the Pharisees
touched but the garments of the common people, they were defiled
all over as if they had touched a dead person and needed im
mersion, and were obliged to do it." Dr. Bloomfield, in his " Greek
Testament with English notes," says : " Wash themselves, that
is, their bodies, as opposed to the washing of the hands only. 3
Now, this, so far from being in favour of sprinkling, is an irre
futable argument for immersion.
Another objection is founded on the " divers washings "
(baptisms) mentioned, Heb. ix. 10. The most unwarrantable
inference has been drawn from this verse. It has been said that
40 BAPTISTS;
the apostle alludes to washings by sprinklings ! But where is
the proof ? There is none. But there is the reverse. We have
the true key to the " divers baptisms," Num. xix. 7 : " Then
the Priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in
water." By comparing this passage with others of a similar im
port, in other parts of the writings of Moses, it will be clearly
seen that St. Paul is not referring at all to the sprinkling of blood,
but to divers immersions in water.
Others, again, object that there was not sufficient water, and
that it was impossible to immerse three thousand on the day of
Pentecost ! If this were a fact, of course the question would be
settled in favour of sprinkling. But is it a fact ? We maintain
not. It is well known that Jerusalem was well supplied with
reservoirs, besides immense pools and fountains abounding with
water. This is testified by many travellers. Dr. Robinson says :
" There are, on the North side of the city, outside of the walls,
two very large reservoirs, one of which is 300 feet long, and more
than 200 feet wide ; and the other over 600 feet long by over 250
wide." Inside the walls, he mentions the pool of Bathsheba, the
pool of Bethesda, and the pool of Hezekiah, all being several
hundred feet in length and breadth, besides which, he refers to
numerous fountains. As to the 3,000, it is not said that they were
all baptised on the day of Pentecost, or that they were all bap
tized by the Apostles. Many of the seventy other disciples might
baptize, so that there would be time enough and to spare.
The last objection I shall name is founded on the Baptism of
the Holy Spirit. That must be a poor cause that takes refuge in
a figure of speech. But even this proves that immersion, and not
sprinkling or pouring, is baptism. The celebrated Dr. Campbell,
though a Psedobaptist, renders the words of John, " He will bap
tize in the Holy Spirit and fire." And there is nothing absurd in
speaking of being immersed in the Holy Spirit. We speak of
being immersed in debt or in trouble. But it is said that the
Holy Spirit was poured out. True, but it is not said the pouring
TBEI& DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 41
was the baptism. The water is often poured into our baptistries,
but will it be said we therefore baptize by pouring ? It was when
He was poured out that they were immersed in the Holy Spirit.
That eminent Greek Professor, J. Casaubon, says : " Regard
is had in this place (Acts i. 5) to the proper signification of the
word baptism, to immerse, or dip ; and in this sense the Apostles
are truly said to be baptized, for the house was filled with the
Holy Ghost, so that the Apostles seemed to be plunged into it as
into some pool."
Having proved, as I believe, that immersion only, is baptism,
and answered the most plausible objections against it, I proceed
to consider
II. THE SUBJECTS OF CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. It is well
known that the subject is as much contested as the nature. As I
am reasoning with Protestants, and not with Romanists, it must
be borne in mind that my standard of ultimate appeal will be to
the written word of God. " If any man speak, let him speak as
the oracles of God." Our inquiry must not be, " What saith the
Church 1 " but " What saith the Lord ? " Now, the Lord has
spoken, and spoken so explicitly and definitely, that it is impos
sible for us to mistake, if we are only prepared to take His word
and let that decide the controversy. This distinctive principle
of our Protestant faith is forcibly put by Dr. Chalmers. " The
Bible," he says, " will allow of no compromise. It professes to
be the directory of our faith, and claims a total ascendency over
the souls and the understandings of men. It will enter into no
composition with us, or our natural principles. It challenges the
whole mind as its due, and it appeals to the truth of heaven for
the high authority of its sanctions. Whoever addeth to, or taketh
from, the words of this book, is accursed, is the absolute language
in which it delivers itself. This brings us to its terms. There
is no way of escaping this. We must bring every thought
into the captivity of its obedience, and closely as ever lawyer
stuck to his document or to his extract, must we abide by the
42 BA PTISTS;
rule and the doctrine which this authentic memorial of God sets
before us."
Now we will first refer to the Commission of Christ respecting
Baptism. It reads : " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap
tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost." So Matthew. It is equally explicit in Mark,
and by its very terms excludes infants. " Go ye," said the Saviour,
" into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature ; he
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." These words so
positively restrict baptism to believers, that many of the most pious
and learned Pa^dobaptists have admitted it. Baxter says : " This
is not like some occasional, historical mention of baptism, but it
is the very Commission of Christ to his Apostles, for preaching
and baptizing, and purposely expresseth their several places and
order. Their first task is by teaching to make disciples, which are,
by Mark, called believers; the second work is to baptize them,
whereto is annexed their salvation ; the third work is to teach
them all things, which are afterwards to be learned in the school
of Christ. To contemn this order is to renounce all rules of order ;
for where can we expect to find it if not here ? I profess my
conscience is fully satisfied from this text, that it is one sort of
faith, even saving, that must go before baptism, and the profession
whereof, the minister must expect." Dr. D wight says, "Here they
were to make disciples of mankind first, and then baptize them,
and thus to seal their discipleship." It is certain therefore that if
infant baptism be scriptural, it cannot be proved by this com
mission. This excludes them, whatever else may include them.
It would be as easy to establish the baptism of idiots, or even bells,
as the baptism of infants from this commission. It is " he that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved." The command of St.
Peter on the day of Pentecost to those who inquired what they
must do to be saved, may be regarded as a correct application of
the commission. " Repent," said he, " and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 43
Look in the next place to the examples of baptisms as re
corded in the New Testament. Here again, strange as it may
appear to some, there is the most absolute silence in regard to the
baptism of infants. There is not one single instance of the
baptism of a child. This is freely admitted by many Psedobaptists.
Dr. Wall confesses, " Among all the persons that are recorded as
baptized by the Apostles, there is no express mention of an
infant." Calvin says, " It is nowhere expressed by the Evan
gelists that any one infant was baptized." T. Boston says, " There
is no example of baptism recorded in the Scriptures where any
were baptized but such as appeared to have a saving interest in
Christ." Dr. Paley says, "At the time the Scriptures were
written none were baptized but converts} 1 Dr. Goodwin says,
"Read all the Acts, still it is said, they believed and were
baptized." Olshausen remarks, "There is altogether wanting
any conclusive proof for the baptism of children in the age of the
Apostles." Hence, if there is nothing in the Commission of Christ
respecting the baptism of infants, and if there is no , instance in
Scripture of the Apostles baptizing infants, then it must be clear
that infant baptism is a human invention. If it is not in the
Scriptures, it cannot be scriptural. Consequently, it is a tradi
tion of men, and altogether without the highest authority in
the service of Christ. The very nature of His religion proves
that infants are unfit subjects of baptism. It is entirely
personal and voluntary. No commandment of Christ can be
obeyed by proxy. Parents are not commanded to have their
children baptized, as they were, under the law, to have them
circumcised. The duty is personal. " He that believeth and is
baptized." " Repent and be baptized every one of you." Faith
and repentance are not more personal than is baptism. The great
Teacher says, " Whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after
me, cannot be my disciple." We are first to be made disciples j
and then, and not till then, baptized. " Jesus made and baptized
more disciples than John."
44 BAPTISTS;
That infants are not proper subjects of baptism is evident from
the symbolical import of the ordinance. It clearly represents our
death unto sin, and our new birth unto righteousness. "Knowyenot
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were bap
tized into his death ? therefore we are buried with Him by baptism
unto death : that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life." Now, are infants baptized into Jesus Christ 1 Are they
baptized into His death ? Do they die to sin 1 Do they rise from
the dead into a new life ] We know they do not. Do they put
on Christ 1 Certainly not. But the Apostle declares, that " as
many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ"
It appears plain also from the command to teach the baptized,
that infants are not its legitimate subjects. Our Lord says in the
Commission, " Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you." Now, can you teach infants these things
as soon as they are baptized 1 If you cannot, then it is evident,
they are not to be baptized. It is vain to say that they can be
taught after they grow up, for the command is connected with
baptism, and the teaching therefore is immediately to follow. In
this ordinance a profession of faith in Christ is made before men.
But, can infants profess faith which they do not possess ? They
cannot even seem to have faith ; Their baptism therefore is utterly
without meaning. The Church of Eome, and after her the
Church of England, seeing this, have invented an order of
sponsors, or sureties, called godfathers and godmothers, who
solemnly promise that they will renounce the Devil and all his
works and follow a life of piety ; and this, while it is well known
that the persons very frequently have no faith, and no religion,
and are in fact sometimes persons of immoral character. Then, when
the children are arrived at a certain age, they are what they call
confirmed, and are made to say that in their baptism they were
" made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the
kingdom of heaven." It is thought by some that the words of
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 45
Christ, " Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto
me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven," is a sufficient warrant
for the baptizing of infants. But this text is more against it than
for it. It does not say one word about their baptism. The
children were not brought to Christ to be baptized, but to be
blessed. It will as much prove that children ought to be brought
to the Lord s table as to baptism. Neither does the text say that
little children are in the kingdom of heaven, but that, as Mr.
Barnes says, " Of such as these, that is, of persons with such
tempers as these, is the church to be composed. He does not say
of those infants, but of such as resemble them." This is put in
its true light by the Saviour when He says, " except ye be con
verted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven." What the passage proves is this, that
children may be brought to Christ to receive His blessing. It lays
a sufficient foundation for their salvation, but none for their
baptism.
Others have found a reason for infant baptism in 1 Cor. vii. 14,
" For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband, else were your
children unclean ; but now are they holy." Now, whatever may
be the meaning of the terms " holy " and " unclean " in this text,
it is clear that it proves too much to be of any service in the argu
ment. For if the children were to be baptized because in some
sense they were holy, then the unbelieving husband, and the
unbelieving wife, were equally eligible, for each was sanctified, by
the believing partner. Even Dean Stanley says that " the pas
sage on the one hand is against the practice of infant baptism in
the Apostles time, "although, he imagined "on the other hand, it con
tained the principle on which it is founded." H. J. Gamble says,
" I am not prepared to urge it in favour of infant baptism." The
practice of circumcision in the Jewish Church is considered by
many a sufficient ground for infant baptism in the Christian
Church. It ought to be a sufficient reply to this that it is never
D
46 BAPTISTS;
so said in the word of God. It is a mere assumption. Why ! if
baptism came in the place of circumcision, then only male
children should be baptized. But Dr. Halley, the champion of
infant baptism, has conclusively proved, in opposition to his
brethren, that the law of circumcision is no warrant for the baptism
of a child. He remarks, "The Jewish parent transmitted the
natural relation to his child, and, of course transmitted its privi
leges, but the Christian does not transmit the spiritual relation,
and therefore, does not transmit its privileges"
The baptism of households is considered by many an un
answerable argument in proof of the baptism of infants. Now, if
it could be shown that there were infants in the three households
which are named, then there might be a presumption in favour of
their baptism. But can this be proved ? By no means. That
there were not is clearly implied. As it regards Lydia, it is not
even known that she was a married woman, and those of her house
hold are called " brethren" As to the Jailer s family, the Apostles
Paul and Silas preached the gospel to all that were in his house,
and when he and all his were baptized, he rejoiced, believing in
God with all his house. "Here was a hearing, a believing, a
baptized, and a rejoicing household." The members of the house
hold of Stephanas were the first fruits of the gospel in Achaia,
who " addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints." Any
Baptist minister would be glad to baptize such households as these,
and many such have been baptized. St. John mentions a noble
man, who himself believed, and his whole house.
Some plead Acts ii. 39, " The promise is unto you and to your
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord
our God shall call." But it is certain, the " children " mentioned
in this text are not infants but descendants according to Acts iii. 35,
" Ye are the children of the prophets." Besides it was the promise
and not baptism, and that is limited to " as many as the Lord our
God shall call" But, now it is shown that there is no authority in
the New Testament for infant baptism, some will be ready to
THEIR DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLES. 47
plead its Antiquity. But is it consistent for Protestants to argue
in this way ? It is the very argument by which a Romanist
would prove all his dogmas. But alas ! as old as infant baptism
^s, it cannot be traced to the days of the Apostles. It is extremely
doubtful whether it is even named for two hundred years after Christ.
Referring to the latter part of the Apostolic age, Neander, the great
church historian, says, "It is in the highest degree probable that the
practice of infant baptism was unknown at this period" Then remem
ber, that infant fellowship at the Lord s table can be traced as far back
on the pages of history as infant baptism ! They must stand or
fall together ! Infants are as fit for one as for the other. If faith is
required for communion, so it is for baptism. " He that be-
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved." This is Christ s
own law of baptism. The distinctive principles of Baptists
will not allow us to alter His law. That all who die
in infancy are saved we rejoice to believe. " They die, for Adam
einned : they live, for Jesus died," for " He died for all."
Our distinctive principles save us from the pernicious errors of
baptismal regeneration and sacramental grace. Our practice in re
gard to baptism is an explicit and perpetual testimony to the reality
of our Saviour s death and resurrection, and, by consequence, to the
truth and divine origin of the Christian religion. Herein we show
forth His death and resurrection "till He come," who "being made
perfect, became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey Him. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen."
BAPTIST MARTYRS.
BY
W. J. AVEKY.
A MARTYR is a witness. That is the primary and essential
meaning of the term. But it is applied more especially to
those who witness for the truth of their convictions. And its
signification is still further restricted by reference to those only
who suffer death for conscience sake, whilst comparatively few
lay claim to it, save those who perish in the behalf of the
Christian Faith. To this elect body, Baptist confessors un
doubtedly belong. They have witnessed witnessed for principles
for the principles of the Christian religion and have shown
themselves " faithful unto death " in the testimony they bore.
" The noble army " of Baptist Martyrs is so vast that only a
selection of names can be made for the present purpose. If, how
ever, the first available name were not to be mentioned, a most
illustrious association would be ignored, and we should practically
deny our historic interest in that brave champion for righteous
ness concerning whom our Lord Himself affirmed " Among them
that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John
the Baptist." He was emphatically a witness of Christ, and the
terms of his testimony are ever before us " Behold the Lamb of
God." He it was through whom his Master, in example and in
precept, instituted that ordinance by which Baptists are chiefly
distinguished. " Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."
Significant motto that, for those who bear the Baptist name !
Would that it were adopted amongst us in all things unto the
BAPTIST MARTYRS. 49
perfect obedience of His law, who is " The Truth." And was it
not this strict fidelity that made John the Baptist a martyr ? " Fulfil
all righteousness." That is the teaching echoing and re-echoing
in all his ministry, until at length, in the face of Herod s corrupt
court, that denunciation rings out which brings down the wrath
of Herodias, and the speedy execution of the prophet. First of all
martyrs since the Advent of the Messiah, may not we Baptists,
for the best of reasons, place his name upon our roll ?
We need do no more than glance at the great names of the
early Christian Church, to recognize in them a strong support to
the Faith we profess. " With only one known exception," for the
first, second, and third centuries of the Christian era, all Christian
martyrs were Baptists. The exception was "Cyprian of Carthage,"
who has been styled " the father of psedo-baptism." He " was a
man of God, and a martyr;" but even he " did not plead any law
of Christ, or Apostolical tradition for infant baptism." He and his
clergy " put the whole thing upon analogy and inference, upon
the necessity of infants on the one hand, and the unlimited grace
of God on the other." They did not so much as assert a belief for
the foundation of their practice, but merely stated what was their
" opinion"
In A.D. 251, The Novatians, who assumed the names of
Cathari (Puritani), or Pure Churches, separated from the so-called
Catholic Church. These Churches held the Catholics to have
so far departed from the principle of pure membership, communion,
and discipline, that they regarded " the baptism administered by
so corrupt a Church as null and void." Hence they baptized
all who joined them from the Catholics, and so are the first in
history who were called Anabaptists, that is, re-baptizcrs.
When Constantine came into power, it is estimated there had
been three millions of Christian martyrs, and these, with the
solitary exception of Cyprian, however much they might have
departed from the truth in other respects, held faithfully to the
doctrine of Baptism as taught by Jesus Christ.
50 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
In the fifth century, the Novatians, having previously refused
incorporation with the Roman Catholic Imperial Church, set
themselves resolutely against the practice of infant baptism. The
writings of Augustine had given a stimulus to that innovation
upon primitive ritual, and Augustine himself presided over the
Council of Carthage, of which the following is one of the canons :
" We will that whosoever denies that little children by baptism
are freed from perdition and eternally saved, that they be accursed."
" From this influence came also, the edict of Honorius and Valen-
tinian III. (A.D. 413) forbidding re-baptism (as it was termed) under
the penalty of death . . . From this time, therefore, the Pure
Churches, became the victims of perpetual persecutions from the
hands of the Koman Catholics."
But I have cited enough to show that Believers Baptism is a
doctrine which has been tested not only in the martyrdoms of the
Middle Ages and of Reformation times, but also in those of the
first five centuries of Christian history. It will be more in
teresting to know of men and women, who, in later times,
forfeited their lives in refusing to yield principles which we also
declare and defend.
I. By far the greater number of Baptist Martyrs suffered on
the Continent, or at least, more persons known as Baptists have
suffered there than in England. But everywhere, observes Dr.
Underhill, in the introduction to " Baptist Martyrology," page v.,
" by common consent Baptists are excluded from the category of
martyrs ; or if perchance a stray name be inscribed in the regis
ters of the reformed, the religious belief of the honored individual
is carefully concealed on those points that were obnoxious to
the orthodoxy established by Luther, Zwingle, or Calvin." This
statement is confirmed by an American writer, as follows : " Good
old * Father Foxe in his { Actes and Monuments, conceals, where
he can, the views of our fathers on their peculiarities ; and when
he cannot do this, he labors to extenuate and excuse what the good
old man personally considered 4 the errors of the Anabaptists,
ARNOLD OF BRESCIA. 51
Still, however, the facts are sometimes developed, even by him
self, and in other instances by contemporary writers ; so that no
small difficulty presents itself in making a selection from the
great number of those who died not only for the Gospel, "but also
to keep in the Church the ordinances as they were delivered. "
1. ARNOLD OF BRESCIA
appeared about A.D. 1137 and became "a powerful opponent to
the Church of Koine." Having studied in early life under the
renowned Peter Abelard, " he returned into Italy, assumed the
habit of a monk, and began to propagate his opinions in the
streets of Brescia, where he soon gained attention. He especially
directed his zeal against the wealth and luxury of the Koman
clergy," and consequently, was condemned in an ecclesiastical
Council "to perpetual silence." He next went to Zurich, but it
was soon necessary for him to leave the canton because of the
opposing influence of the famous Bernard of Clairvaux the
author of several of our sweetest hymns, e.g., that commencing
" Jesus, the very thought of Thee." " The bold man now con
ceived the plan and hazarded the desperate experiment of visiting
Rome, and fixing the standard of reform in the very heart of the
capital." Fur a while he appeared to succeed, but " at length, in
1155, the Pope laid an interdict on the city. As the sword was
no weapon in Arnold s panoply the noble champion retired to
Tuscany. There he was seized, brought back to Rome, condemned,
crucified, and burnt. His ashes were thrown into the Tiber." In
the sketch given of his career it is added, " Many very decisive
facts show Arnold to have been a Baptist. Bernard accuses his
followers of mocking at infant baptism. And, Arnold himself
was formally condemned by the Lateran Council for rejecting
infant baptism." Moreover, his followers (whom Bernard accused
as we have seen) " the Arnoldists are often met with in eccle
siastical history as a body who were worthy of his name, and of
our high respect," and concerning them, " Evervinus, in Germany,
52 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
says, the Arnoldists condemn the (Catholic) sacraments, particu
larly baptism, which they administer only to the adult ; alleging
that place, whoever shall believe and be baptised shall be saved. "
Truly here is a bright light in the dark days of Rome s apostacy
and ignorance. Arnold testified seven hundred years ago to the
very truths distinctively taught to-day by our brethren Wall,
Grassi, and Shaw, in that same old city !
2. FELIX MANTZ
was " a leader in the Reformation in Germany." Born in Zurich,
he " was educated in all the learning of the age, his father being
a canon of the great minster " of his native city. In 1519 he was
" studying the Hebrew language with Zwingle, under the tuition
of Carlstadt," and about the year 1522 he began to doubt the
scripturalness of infant baptism. At first he and Zwingle held
friendly discussion upon the subject, but at length they separated,
and finally Mantz adopted Baptist principles. In 1523 he began to
preach accordingly, and to insist upon the Church of God being
composed only of believers. Zwingle says of him" He wished
to form a church free from sin." He was imprisoned in March,
1525, but escaped, and proceeded to declare his principles in
various parts of Switzerland. " He was baptized by Blaurock, a
companion in suffering," and forthwith seized every opportunity
of preaching the gospel in the open air. Having, however, been
previously prohibited by the magistrates of Zurich from doing this
work, " he was deemed a rebel against legitimate authority and an
exciter of the people to sedition.
"Towards the end of 1526 he was seized and imprisoned in the
tower of Wellenberg. He confessed that he had baptized contrary
to the edict. It was right, he said, to obey God rather than man.
Exhibiting no sign of repentance, he was at last adjudged, and on
January 5, 1527, was drowned.
"Bullinger thus writes, As he came down from the Wellenberg
to the fishmarket, and was led through the shambles to the boat,
MANTZ AND FREERKS. 53
he praised God that he was about to die for His truth ; for ana-
baptism was right, and founded on the word of God, and Christ
had foretold that His followers would suffer for the truth s sake.
And the like discourse he urged much, contradicting the preacher
who attended him. On the way, his mother and brother came to
him, and exhorted him to be steadfast ; and he persevered in his
folly, even to the end. When he was bound upon the hurdle, and
was about to be thrown into the stream by the executioner, he
sung with a loud voice, " Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my
spirit." And herewith was he drawn into the water by the
executioner and drowned. His body was then taken to the Place
and buried at St. Jacob s. It is reported here, says Capito,
writing to Zwingle, near the end of the same month, that your
Felix Mantz hath suffered punishment, and died gloriously ; by
which the cause of truth and piety, which you sustain, is weighed
down exceedingly. "
Significant words those of Bullinger "he persevered in his
folly even to the end." Brave Felix Mantz ! Thine was indeed
an apostolic spirit. Like thy predecessor, the Great Teacher of
the Gentiles, thou didst not shun to preach the doctrine that was
" foolishness to those who were perishing," for thou didst know
right well that " the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and
the weakness of God is stronger than men." It was thine to be
chosen of God to confound the wise who charged thee with folly, for
the Eternal Wisdom has been manifested in thee, demonstrating to
us at this later time, thy godly strength and Christian heroism !
3. SICKE SNYDER, OR FREERKS.
Early in the sixteenth century a reward was offered for the
apprehension of any Baptist preachers found in the Netherlands,
and the authorities forbade the harboring of them. Those who
had been rebaptized were ordered to recant, and mercy would be
shown to them, " but the obstinate were to be punished with the
utmost severity."
54 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
At this time there was a faithful follower of Christ bearing the
name of Sicke Freerks a Snyder, or tailor by trade, and hence
called Sicke Snyder who, soon after the edict was published,
left the Romish Church, and, determined to obey Christ as his
King in all things, was baptized upon confession of his faith. He
was consequently imprisoned at Leeuwarden in Friesland, and
"endured much suffering from the adversaries of the truth.
And, as he could not, by the torments he sustained, be persuaded
to apostatize he was there put to death by the sword, displaying
great firmness in testifying to the truth, and showing its power on
his soul by the manner of his death. His sentence is thus
recorded in the criminal sentence-book of the court of Fries-
land : Sicke Freerks, on this 20th of March, 1531, is condemned
by the court to be executed with the sword, his body shall be laid
on the wheel, and his head set upon a stake, because he has been
rebaptized, and perseveres in that baptism. "
It is particularly interesting to learn the effect of this martyr
dom upon Menno Simon, a man who afterwards became "zealous
for God, and one of the most eminent teachers and elders."
Menno himself says, " It now happened, that I heard from some
brethren that a God-fearing pious man, Sicke Snyder by name,
had been beheaded at Leeuwarden, because he had renewed his
baptism. This sounded wonderfully in my ears, that any should
speak of another baptism. I searched the Scriptures with diligence,
and reflected earnestly upon them, but could find no trace of
infant baptism."
To us, the unscriptural character of infant baptism seems so
obvious, that is hard to understand why the emphatic witness of
a martyrdom should be needed to rouse anyone to consideration
of the matter. And yet one only need remember how hard-
beaten the track of superstitious dogma had become, to see the
necessity for a demonstrative presentation a tragic representa
tion of the truth, such as could be given only in resistance "unto
blood." Freerks did not perhaps make a single convert in his
FYE AND EELKEN. 55
life-time, but, in his death, he brought Menno Simon to Jesus,
and, " Menno Simon drew great multitudes from the darkness and
errors of popery, and from dumb idols to the living God, who
were converted and won for God." Thus is individual influence
multiplied for the kingdom of light, as abundantly as for the king
dom of darkness.
4, 5. FYE AND EELKEN
were apprehended about three weeks before the Easter of 1549 in
the town of Olde Boor, West Friesland. They were excellent
men, and when brought before the magistrates, boldly confessed
their faith. Eelken was asked, inter alia, if he had been
baptized and he replied, " I have not been baptized ; but I
earnestly desire to be." Both he and Eye received sentence, and
so evident was their affection the one for the other, that " the
capuchin friars and servants ran and said to the magistrates,
Never did persons love each other like these. " Elken said to
Eye, "Dear brother, do not reproach me for having been the
occasion of your being brought into suffering." Eye s answer
was, " Dear brother, do not think that : for it is the power of
God."
Eelken was executed first, by the sword. Eye was tempted in
the confessional with the bread and wine of the sacrament, but,
refusing to partake of them, he affirmed that food was prepared
for him in heaven, whereupon " the constable said, I have in my
life seen many a heretic ; but never a more obstinate one than
this."
Have we not here, harshly named, the quality with which
martyrs are signally constituted? Enmity brands it as "obstin
acy," but in the estimation of our King it represents the fulfilment
of His charge, " Be thou faithful unto death." It is very notice
able in our present review how often this term " obstinate " is
reproachfully applied to martyrs. As though they could be
excused for having had convictions at variance with ecclesiastical
56 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
authority, but could have no quarter if they persistently adhered
to their beliefs ! Such is the irrational tendency of the persecuting
spirit.
Fye was strangled, and then burnt. His firmness did not
forsake him right through. Without that, mere effusive earnest
ness will avail but little. This man being constant, everybody
could discern his sincerity, insomuch that " the common people
cried out, That was a pious man ! If he was not a Christian,
there is not one in the whole world. "
6. JAQUES DOSIE
was a youth of fifteen years of age, who, about A.D. 1560 was
apprehended at Leeuwarden " for the sake of the truth of the
gospel." The Governor s lady took a deep interest in him, and
besought him to repent of his baptism, for the sake of life and
liberty. " He could by no means be brought to deny Christ ; and
so was condemned by rulers of the darkness of earth to pass from
life to death. He witnessed a good confession in life before many
witnesses, and proved the sincerity of his faith in the truth by
suffering a bloody and cruel death ; thus obtaining the crown of
martyrdom, and by the infinite grace of God, we doubt not, the
crown of everlasting glory."
7, 8. STEVEN DE GBAET AND SYNTGEN.
The following is a brief account given by Van Braght " In
the year 1564 was likewise apprehended, at Ghent, in Flanders,
for the truth s sake, a brother named Steven de Graet, with
Syntgen his aged mother. They were both strong in faith, and
persevered therein amidst all temptations and sufferings, even
unto death, which they were called to suffer publicly for the
name of Christ. They shall also publicly praise the Lord above,
before the heavenly throne, and help sing the joyful and new song
to the honor of the Lamb, and of Him that sitteth on the throne."
But there is no need to multiply instances of martyrdom
DE GRAET. GERARD. 57
in the ranks of Continental Baptists. "The time would fail
me to tell of " Jerome of Prague, George Wagner of Emmerick,
Leonhard Keyser, Hans of Overdam, and a host of others whose
record is to "be found in the pages of " Baptist Martyrology."
Enough has been cited to show that no age, or class, escaped per
secution in those times of established intolerance. The young
and the old, the cultured and the ignorant, the wealthy and the
destitute, alike fell before the destroyer. t The offence for which
they were in common adjudged to death was the intelligent and
devout observance of baptism by immersion, whereby they ignored
the spurious rite administered by the Church in their infancy.
II. Baptist Martyrs in England. Near the middle of
the twelfth century, about thirty men and women appeared
at Oxford, who were called Publicans a name supposed to
be a corruption of " Paulicians." They were thorough
Baptists, of eminent spirituality, and by the singularity of their
religious opinions and practices, they soon attracted the attention
of the government. " William of Newbury, a monkish historian,
tells us that these persons, whom he calls vagabonds, emigrated
from Gascony, and spread their doctrine into many regions." He
roundly abuses them for their fidelity to conviction as well as for
the simplicity of their manners abuse we may observe, not more
reasonable in the one case than in the other. A man may as well
be blamed for wearing a plain coat, as for holding to the plain
truth. " Their pastor named
1. GERARD
was, it is said, the only person of any learning among them, and
to him they all looked up, as their prince and preceptor."
Henry II. being informed of them, would not allow them to
be punished without a hearing, hence they were arraigned before
a council of Popish bishops at Oxford. Gerard answered for him
self and his friends. They denied infant baptism and everything
contrary to the Word of God. " The bishops reported them to
68 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
the King as obstinate heretics, worthy of death ; and he, under
priestly influence, sentenced them all to be branded with a red
hot iron on their foreheads, as heretics ; that then they should be
publicly whipped through the streets of Oxford, and be afterwards
delivered to the secular power for further punishment, or, in
other words, should be put to death The sentence
was fully carried into execution. Gerard, to distinguish him
from the rest, had a mark burnt on his chin as well as on his fore
head, and, in the depth of winter, when the hedges and the fields
were covered with snow, every man, woman, and child, was cast
into the fields, almost naked, and the whole of them perished with
cold and hunger. . . . They went forth to endure death, not
with lingering steps, but actually rejoicing with much joy ; while
their master preceded them, and sang, Blessed are ye when all
men shall hate you. "
This was at the time when Thomas Becket was at the height
of his prosperity. Within the next ten years, he also became a
martyr. But what a contrast between his martyrdom in defence
of the monstrous usurpations of the church, and the witness of
these humble disciples, to the simple truths of the Gospel. Verily,
they shine by the comparison !
The first Englishman burnt as a heretic, and for religion only,
was
2. WILLIAM SAWTRY,
who suffered martyrdom in London, A.D. 1400. Concerning him,
Crosby, the Baptist historian thus writes : Sawtry " had been
sometime minister of the parish of St. Margaret, in the town of
Lynn ; but having entertained the opinions of the Lollards, was
first convicted of heresy by the bishop of Norwich, and afterwards
brought to make a public recantation of the same, and so escaped
for that time ; but coming to London, and retaining still a zeal
for the true religion, he petitioned the parliament that he might
be heard in some matters relating to religion, which he believed
SAWTRY AND BAINHAM. 59
would be for the benefit of the whole kingdom. The clergy sus
pecting his design, which must have been to get the established
religion reformed, or a toleration for such as dissented, got the
matter to be referred wholly to them in convocation ; who soon
condemned him as an obstinate heretic, and procured a decree
from the king for his burning.
" This proto-martyr of the English nation is thought by some
to have been a Baptist] ; because the Lollards, who lived in the
diocese of Norwich, where this man first received and professed
his notions, were generally of that opinion ; and Mr. Foxe, in
relating the errors of which he (Sawtry) was accused by the
Papists, uses the same partiality that he had clone before in Wick-
liffs case ; for out of the ten errors of which he was convicted by
the Bishop of Norwich, he conceals the two last, as may be seen
in the scroll and recantation."
As it may be asked why the Lollards of Norfolk more especially
held the opinions of the Baptists, it will be as well to remind
ourselves that at an early date those opinions extensively pre
vailed upon the Continent, particularly in the Netherlands ; that
the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk from their geographical
position afforded a good point of arrival for settlers and refugees
(from persecution and other causes) ; and, in all probability, it
was by such immigrants that the foundation of Baptist principles
was laid in that part of our country. Even now, in conversation
with Norfolk people, we find evidence of their Continental extrac
tion, for their "speech agreeth thereto," and the Baptist de
nomination is strongest there in the antique order.
Evans, in his " Early English Baptists" (vol. i., p. 43), gives
the following account of the martyrdom of an English barrister
of the Middle Temple, and styled a knight by Crosby :
3. JAMES BAINHAM (Sin)
married the widow of Simon Fish, the author of " The Beggar s
Petition," and this "connexion had excited the suspicions of the
60 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
sleepless guardians of the faith. That he was connected with the
Christian brethren appears probable ; and Fox assures us that he
repudiated the baptism of infants."
[It seems only right to interpose the remark here, that certain
words of Bainham quoted by Foxe go so far as to show that he
held also positive views on the question of baptism, for those
words clearly indicate that Bainham regarded as baptism such a
rite only as symbolizes death, burial, and resurrection with Christ.]
" To be suspected, however, was enough. He was called before
the ecclesiastical tribunal. Dissent from the leading doctrines of
the Church was the crime of which he was guilty. Kefusing to
recant, he was, with his wife, committed to prison. Sir Thomas
More, who had succeeded Wolsey in the Chancery, was more
learned and had more culture than the great high priest, but he
had more cruelty. By his orders the prisoner was stretched on
the rack and tortured with severity. On the 17th February,
1532, he was carried before the Lord Bishop of London. Suffer
ing from his torture, his spirit failed him, and he abjured his
errors. Fearful as the rack may be, it is feeble as compared with
the pangs of conscious guilt. His misery was unutterable. The
following Sunday the congregation, which had assembled in the
church of St. Augustine, was startled during the service. A man
rose in their midst, pale from recent suffering, holding in his hand
a copy of the New Testament, and with tears flowing down his
cheeks, confessed his crime in denying God in a moment of weak
ness. * If, said he, I should not return to the truth, this Word
of God would damn me body and soul at the day of judgment.
He urged the people to fidelity, declaring that he would not feel
such a hell again for all the world s good.
" The die was now cast. On endless ruin he was now bent.
Spiritually dead, it was the loftiest exercise of mercy on the part
of the spirituality to save him. What mattered a moment s torture
of the body, even the wasting of it at the stake, if the soul could
be saved from everlasting burning? This doctrine soothed the
RICHARD WOODMAN. 61
conscience, whilst it inflamed the zeal, of the spiritual man. We
now find Bainham manacled and in the stocks, in the coal-cellar
at Fulham, the residence of his lordship of London. The chill
winds of March, and the damp and gloom of his prison, only
augmented his zeal. The bishop failing, the chancellor would try
his hand. Before him many a criminal had quailed. Will Bain-
ham tremble ? Of the power of More s persuasive eloquence we
have no record. Of other arguments, the martyrologists give us
some report. In his house at Chelsea the confessor was kept, and
for two nights was fastened to a post and whipped. The lash
drew blood, but it produced no conviction. A week at Fulham
was again tried ; then the Tower for a fortnight, where the gaoler
attempted, but ineffectually, to flog the heresy from him. A
month later, sentence was pronounced. The charity of the Church
was exhausted, and on April 30, 1532, Smithfield witnessed the
blazing faggots which consumed the hero, and the crowd listened
to his last words. Thus died one of the noble army of martyrs."
Ivimey, in his " History of the English Baptists," says :
" During the reign of the sanguinary Mary, it is not to be doubted
that the Baptists came in for their full share of suffering, and that
many of the martyrs were of that denomination, which was then
numerous, although their sentiments have not been handed down
to us upon that subject."
We have an account of the examination of
4. RICHARD WOODMAN
a worker in iron of Warbleton, in Sussex before the Bishop
of Winchester, in the church of St. Mary Overy s, during the first
year of Mary s reign (1553.) In the course of the enquiry, the
bishop said " Hold him a book : if he refuse to swear he is an
Anabaptist, and shall be excommunicated." Woodman was burned
in company with nine others who, it is observed, " were all at
large, some say, the very day before they were committed to the
flames. No time was allowed for a writ to come down from
2 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
London to Lewes, in the county of Sussex, where they suffered.
Such legal proceedings were then scarcely thought of. The pro
cess of the murderers was like that of the Babylonian tyrant on
the plains of Dura. Whosoever would not worship the idols, was
seized, bound, and cast into the fire."
The following concerning
5. EDWARD WIGHTMAN
is also given by Ivimey : James I. "in order to show his zeal against
heresy, took an opportunity to exercise it, by burning alive two of
his subjects. These were Bartholomew Legate, who was charged
with Arianism, and burnt in Smithfield, March 18, 1611 ; and
Edward Wightman, a Baptist, of the town of Burton-upon-Trent,
who was convicted December 14, 1611, of divers heresies, before the
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; and, being delivered up to the
secular power, was burnt at Lichfield on the llth April following.
"Amongst other charges brought against him are these :
1 That the baptizing of infants is an abominable custom, that the
Lord s Supper and baptism are not to be celebrated as they are
now practised in the Church of England ; and that Christianity
is not wholly professed and preached in the Church of England,
but only in part.
"Who would have thought that a person would have been burnt
by Protestants for holding such opinions ! Happily for our native
country, this day of bigotry is passed, and Edward Wightman
was the last who suffered death in this way. It is rather a curious
fact, that on the supposition of William Sawtry, the Lollard,
opposing infant baptism, which is highly probable, the Baptists
have had the honour of leading the van, and bringing up the rear
of that part of the noble army of English martyrs, who have laid
down their lives at the stake."
Now begin examples of Baptist martyrs who suffered in the
effort to gain general religious freedom, rather than in the defence
of their own distinctive principles.
ANNE ASKEW. 63
Anne Askew and Joan Boucher were associated " in the good
work of circulating books and tracts in the court of Henry VIII.
The probability says J. Newton Brown, of Philadelphia, in his
Baptist Martyrs that these two friends entertained the same views
on the subject of baptism, seems confirmed by uncontradicted
tradition, and the fact that no other body of Christians ever seems
to have claimed either the one or the other."
6. ANNE ASKEW
" was the intimate friend and companion of the lovely Queen
Catherine Parr, and was singled out by the crafty Bishop Gardiner
and others, as well as by the popish ladies of the court, hoping that
through her they might find an accusation against the queen, for
holding the faith and principles of the Eeformation."
C. B. Tayler (a clergyman of the Church of England), in his
" Memorials of the English Martyrs," says, " Perhaps the most
interesting victim of the fires of Smithfield was the celebrated
Anne Askew." She had been obliged by her father to marry the
widower of her deceased sister a harsh and bigoted papist.
" Being compelled to come up to London (from Kelsey in Lincoln
shire), to sue for a divorce, the persecution of her husband and the
popish priests followed her, and she fell into the toils which they
had laid for her." Eemarkable shrewdness, not devoid of a simple
humor, was manifest in her replies at the various examinations
she had to undergo. But, because she would not divulge who
were Protestants at court, the Lord Chancellor and Eich took
pains to rack her with their own hands till she was nigh dead.
" Unable to walk or stand from the tortures she had suffered,"
says Tayler, " poor Anne Askew was carried in a chair to Smith-
field, and when brought to the stake, was fastened to it by a chain
which held up her body, and one who beheld her there, describes
her as * having an angel s countenance, and a smiling face. At the
very last, a written pardon from the King was offered to her, upon
condition that she would recant. The fearless lady turned away
64 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
her eyes and would not look upon it. She told them that she
came not thither to deny her Lord and Master. The fire was
ordered to be put under her, and thus, to use the words of John
Foxe, the good Anne Askew .... having passed through
so many torments, having now ended the long course of her
agonies, being compassed in with flames of fire as a blessed sacri
fice unto God, she slept in the Lord, A.D. 1546, (July 16th), leaving
behind her a singular example of Christian constancy for all men
to follow.
7. JOAN BOUCHER
more frequently called Joan of Kent says J. Newton Brown
"was unquestionably a Baptist. Uninterrupted and uncontra-
dicted tradition reports her as a member of the Baptist Church,
then meeting at Canterbury and Eyethorne, and which still
flourishes in the latter place, near the south-eastern extremity of
England, a few miles from Dover, and about sixteen miles from
Canterbury, where not a few of her friends endured the fire of
martyrdom.
"Strange as it may appear to some of our readers, in 1547 was
established a Protestant inquisition, of which Cranmer and Lati-
mer, who were themselves in after years martyrs, and other men
of great eminence, were commissioners. Only eighteen days after
the commission was issued, Joan Boucher was arraigned for heresy
before this body, and her sentence formally pronounced."
Burnet, in his "History of the Reformation," (Vol. II. p. 112),
says : " When the compassionate young king could not be pre
vailed upon to sign the warrant for her execution, Cranmer, with
his superior learning, was employed to persuade him. He argued
from the practice of the Jewish Church in stoning blasphemers,
which rather silenced his highness than satisfied him : for when, at
last, he yielded to the importunity of the archbishop, he told him
with tears in his eyes, that if he did wrong, since it was in sub
mission to his authority, he should answer it before God, This
JOAN OF KENT. JOHN JAMES. 65
struck the archbishop with surprise, but yet he at last suffered the
sentence to be executed." On the 2nd of May, 1550, Joan Boucher
appeared at the stake in Smithneld, and there, in spite of efforts
made to shake her confidence, " she closely adhered to those words
of truth which were her joy and strength in the moments of her
dying agony. She loved and adored the holy and immaculate
Lamb of God," although one of the charges brought against her
had been that of gross misbelief concerning His incarnation.
8. JOHN JAMES,
minister of the seventh-day Baptist Church meeting in Bulstake
Alley, Whitechapel, was apprehended whilst preaching, at the
close of 1660, upon a charge of having spoken against King
Charles II. Members of his congregation were brought up as
witnesses against him, but when pretended extracts from his
sermon were read over to them, and the question was put " how
could they hear such things as those ? they unanimously replied
in the fear of the Lord, * That they never heard such words, as
they shall answer it before the Lord, and they durst not lie. " His
wife attempted to plead with the King, but at the mention of the
name, Charles " held up his finger and said, Oh ! Mr. James, he
is a sweet gentleman ; but, following him for some further answer,
the door was shut against her." The next morning she attended
again ; and an opportunity soon presenting itself, she implored
his Majesty s answer to her request, who then replied, That he
was a rogue, and should be hanged. Being brought to the bar to
receive sentence (there was no real trial for him), he was asked
what he had to say for himself why sentence of death should not
be passed upon him, and answered in a few words of scripture
wonderfully apposite for the occasion, " Which being spoken, they
silenced him, and the court proceeded to sentence ; and the judge
pronounced sentence of death against him," according to which he
was hanged, drawn, quartered, &c., at Tyburn, November 26, 1661.
His last words were, "Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit."
66 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
Benjamin and William Hewling were grandsons of the vener
able William Kiffin, of Baptist notoriety. They were sacrificed in
the struggle for liberty during the reign of the infamous James
II. Noble, the historian, thus speaks of them : " These two
amiable, but unfortunate gentlemen, were the only sons of Mr.
Benjamin Hewling, a Turkey merchant of great fortune in Lon
don, who, happily for himself, died before them. After their
father s death they were most carefully brought up by a tender
mother, and their maternal grandfather, Mr. William Kimn, who
though very much advanced in years, as well as his wife, sur
vived them both." From Kimn s account we gather that
9. BENJAMIN HEWLING
joined himself to the Duke of Monmouth against the King, but
they were defeated in the first fight. Benjamin and his brother
William then attempted flight by sea, but they were driven back,
(presumably by adverse weather), were taken prisoners, and
brought to Newgate. Their trial, of course, resulted in sentence
of death, ( as their own words were, for the English liberties, and
the Protestant religion.
10. WILLIAM HEWLING
was executed at Lyme, September 12, 1685, at the early age of
nineteen years ; and Benjamin at Taunton, eighteen days later,
aged twenty-two years.
Brave young men ! true Baptists indeed, but proving by their
patriotism that they were Englishmen first and Baptists after
wards. Or, shall we not rather say, they were Christians right
through, and thoroughly Christian, hence their loyalty both to
conscience and to country? "When just departing out of the
world, with a joyful countenance William Hewling said, Oh,
now my joy and comfort is that I have a Christ to go to ; and so
sweetly resinged his spirit to Christ." When Benjamin was ready
to be offered, " he requested, that he and his fellow-martyrs might
HEWLINQ. GAUNT. 7
sing a hymn. The sheriff told him it must be with the rope about
their necks ; which they cheerfully accepted, and sung with such
heavenly joy and sweetness, that many who were present said, that
it both broke and rejoiced their hearts. Thus, in the experience
of the delightfulness of praising God on earth, he willingly closed
his eyes on a vain world to pass to that eternal enjoyment . . A
great officer in the King s army was often heard to say, If you
would learn to die, go to the young men of Taunton. "
11. "ELIZABETH GAUNT (MRS.)
a Baptist in humble life, was charged with harboring a man
and his family, named Burton, who was suspected of being con
cerned in the Rye-house plot." The following is Bishop Burnet s
statement of the whole affair : " There was in London one
Gaunt, a woman that was an Anabaptist, who spent a great part
of her life in arts of charity, visiting the jails, and looking after the
poor, of what persuasion soever they were. One of the rebels
found her out, and she harbored him in her house, and
was looking for an occasion of sending him out of the
kingdom. He went about in the night, and came to hear
what the King had said, viz., that he would sooner pardon
the rebels than those who harbored them. So he, by an
unheard-of baseness, went and delivered himself up, and accused
her that had harbored him. She was seized on and tried. There
was no witness to prove that she knew the person she harbored
was a rebel, except he himself. Her maid witnessed only that he
was entertained at her house ; but though her crime was that of
harboring a traitor, and was proved only by this infamous witness,
yet the judge charged the jury to bring her in guilty, pretending
that the maid was a second witness, though she knew nothing of
that which was the criminal part."
She was condemned and burnt, as the law directs in the case
of women convicted of treason. She died with a constancy even
to cheerfulness, that struck all who saw it, She said, Charity
68 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
was a part of her religion as well as faith ; this at worst was
feeding an enemy. So she hoped she had reward with Him for
whose sake she did this service, how unworthy soever the person
was who made so ill a return for it. She rejoiced that God had
honored her to be the first that suffered by fire in this reign, and
that her suffering was a martyrdom for that religion which was
all love. Penn, the Quaker, told me that he saw her die. She
laid the straw about her speedily, and behaved herself in such a
manner that all the spectators melted in tears." She was exe
cuted according to her sentence, at Tyburn, near London,
October 23, 1685.
" Richard Baxter somewhere says, that he * could as soon die
for Charity as for any article of the Creed. While he was uttering
this just and beautiful sentiment, Elizabeth Gaunt was exemplify
ing it in the flames" (J. Newton Brown.)
Last of all, and coming to modern times, we have the name of a
III. Baptist Martyr in one of our Colonies. As a witness for
political justice,
GEORGE WILLIAM GORDON
may fairly be mentioned in the list of those Baptists who have
died for their convictions. We have not forgotten the outbreak
in Jamaica fifteen years ago. For a long time previously the
island had been in an unquiet state, and its troubles were really
"a survival of the slave system." The disturbances of 1865,
however, had a more direct cause. Certain lands had been
allowed to run out of cultivation, and the Crown officials had
given the negroes permission to cultivate them, on the condition
that they should pay the arrears of quit-rent then due. This was
naturally resented by the owners of estate, and no sooner did the
negroes begin to avail themselves of the privilege, than an agent of
one of the estates attempted to evict one of them from his holding.
This led to legal proceedings, which were still pending when the
insurrection broke out.
GEORGE WILLIAM GORDON. 69
Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P., in his " History of our own Times,"
(Vol. IV., p. 33 sq.) has given so admirable a review of this case
that we cannot do better than take his account, leaving the reader
to judge whether Gordon is, or is not, fitly classed as a martyr
"On October 7, 1865, some disturbances took place on the
occasion of a magisterial meeting at Morant Bay, a small town on
the south-east corner of the island. The negroes appeared to be
in an excited state, and many persons believed that an outbreak
was at hand. An application was made to the Governor for
military assistance. The Governor of Jamaica was Mr. Edwaad
John Eyre, who had been a successful explorer in Central, West,
and Southern Australia, had acted as resident magistrate and
protector of aborigines in the region of the Lower Murray in
Australia, and had afterwards been Lieutenant-Governor of New
Zealand, of the Leeward Islands, and of other places. All Mr.
Eyre s dealings with native races up to this time would seem to
have earned for him the reputation of a just and humane
man ....
"On October 13, the Governor proclaimed the whole of the
county of Surrey, with the exception of the city of Kingston, under
martial law . . . . At this time, Jamaica was ruled by the
Governor and Council, and the House of Assembly ....
Among the members of the Assembly was a coloured man of some
education and property, George William Gordon. Gordon was a
Baptist by religion, and had in him a good deal of the fanatical
earnestness of the field-preacher. He was a vehement agitator
and a devoted advocate of what he considered to be the rights of
the negroes. He appears to have had a certain amount of eloquence,
partly of the conventicle and partly of the stump. He was just
the sort of man to make himself a nuisance to white colonists and
officials who wanted to have everything their own way. Indeed,
he belonged to that order of men who are almost sure to be
always found in opposition to officialism of any kind. Such a
man may do mischief sometimes, but it is certain that out of his
70 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
very restlessness and troublesomeness lie often does good. No
really sensible politician would like to see a Legislative Assembly
of any kind without some men of the type of Gordon representing
the check of perpetual opposition .... He had been
appointed churchwarden, was declared disqualified for the office
in consequence of his having become a Native Baptist, and he
had brought an action to recover what he held to be his rights. He
had come to hold the position of champion of the rights and claims
of the black man against the white. He was a sort of con
stitutional opposition in himself. The Governor seems to have at
once adopted the conclusion urged on him by others, that Gordon
was at the bottom of the insurrectionary movement ....
There does not seem to have been one particle of evidence to con
nect Gordon with a rebellious movement more than there would
have been to condemn Mr. Bright as a promoter of rebellion, if
the working men of the Keform period .... had been
drawn into some fatal conflict with the police .... We
have mentioned the fact, that in proclaiming the county of Surrey
under martial law, Mr. Eyre had specially excepted the city of
Kingston. Mr. Gordon lived near Kingston, and had a place of
business in the city ; and he seems to have been there attending
to his business, as usual, during the days while the disturbances
were going on. The Governor ordered a warrant to be issued for
Gordon s arrest. When this fact became known to Gordon, he
went to the house of the General in command of the Forces at
Kingston and gave himself up. The Governor had him put at
once on board a war steamer and conveyed to Morant Bay.
Having given himself up in a place where martial law did not
exist, where the ordinary courts were open, and where, therefore,
he would have been tried with all the forms and safeguards of the
civil law, he was purposely carried away to a place which had
been put under martial law. Here an extraordinary sort of court-
martial was sitting. It was composed of two young navy lieu
tenants and an ensign in one of Her Majesty s West India
THE FORCE OF THEIR TESTIMONY. 71
regiments. Gordon was hurried before this grotesque tribunal,
charged with high treason, found guilty, and sentenced to death.
The sentence was approved by the officer in command of the
troops sent to Morant Bay. It was then submitted to the
Governor, and approved by him also. It was carried into effect
without much delay. The day following Gordon s conviction was
Sunday, and it was not thought seemly to hang a man on the
Sabbath. He was allowed, therefore, to live over that day. On
the morning of Monday, October 23, Gordon was hanged. He
bore his fate with great heroism, and wrote just before his death
a letter to his wife, which is full of pathos in its simple and
dignified manliness. He died protesting his innocence of any
share in disloyal conspiracy or insurrectionary purpose.
"The whole of the proceedings connected with the trial of Gor
don were absolutely illegal ; they were illegal from first to last.
It is almost impossible to conceive of any transaction more entirely
unlawful. Every step in it was a separate outrage on law. But
for its tragic end the whole affair would seem to belong to the
domain of burlesque rather than to that of sober history."
We Baptists have no need to be ashamed of our ancestry. On
the contrary, considering only the great number and the high
character of those who were martyrs for the truth of our principles,
we have every reason to be proud of it. " Cardinal Hosius, one of
the Pope s presidents at the Council of Trent, says, if the truth of
religion were to be judged of by the readiness and cheerfulness
which a man of any sect shows in suffering, then the opinions and
persuasions of no sect can be surer than of the Baptists ; since
there have been none for these twelve hundred years past that
have been more grievously punished, or that have more cheerfully
undergone, and even offered themselves to, the most cruel sorts of
punishments, than these people. " " Anabaptists, says old
72 BAPTIST MARTYRS:
Bishop Latimer, were burned in different parts of the kingdom,
and went to the stake with good integrity. "
Be it noted also, that Baptists have nowhere and at no time
retaliated upon their enemies, when the balance of power has
shifted in their favor. In this they have been like their Master,
" Who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered,
He threatened not." They have been, and still are, consistent
supporters of the principle of perfect liberty of conscience and
thorough religious equality.
Above all, let it be remembered, that it is for us to keep alive
the martyr spirit in these days, though we do not anticipate the
martyr s death. But, to be wholly devoted to God and God s
work to present ourselves a living sacrifice thereunto is not this
reasonable service, and as important in itself, as if we were required
to confirm it with our blood ? If we yield such an offering, Martin
Luther s prophecy will be fulfilled in us :
" Flung to the heedless winds,
Or on the waters cast,
Their ashes shall be watched,
And gathered at the last :
And from that scattered dust,
Around us and abroad,
Shall spring a plenteous seed
Of witnesses for God.
Jesus hath now received
Their latest dying breath ;
Yet vain is Satan s boast
Of victory in their death.
Still, still, though dead, they speak,
And, triumph-tongued, proclaim
To many a wakening land
The one availing Name."
" Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, (jua/oTt/joe?), let us lay aside every weight,
"OUT OF GREAT TRIBULATION." 73
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith ; who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God."
What sound is this I hear ?
Tis one of joyous song
Of many voices blending clear
From one triumphant throng.
They once the toil endured,
As we now labor hard,
They e en to pain become inured,
Hence now their full reward.
Already morning breaks,
Our hearts are beating high,
The night is o er, and golden streaks
Tell Truth s great day is nigh.
SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS:
DENNE-KEACH-BUNYAN; AND OTHERS,
BY
W. HARVEY SMITH.
TAMES the First was dead, and his son Charles the First reigned in
^ his stead. Charles the First figured before the world as the
nominal ruler of the people of England, but he himself was ruled
by personal vanity. By this passion he appears to have been as
completely enthralled and swayed, as is the drunkard by his cups,
or the libertine by his lusts.
As might be expected under the rule of such a King, England
was neither prosperous at home nor respected abroad. The law
ceased to be respected ; the people were ignorant, debased, and
discontented ; and Religion was at a terribly low ebb. " Like
Priest, like people," is an old adage, and when the King is the
head of the Church, perhaps it ought not to be expected that the
national religion of the day should reach a much higher standard
han the religion of the King. In James the First s reign, the preach
ing of the Word was entrusted to sorely incapable men, as is seen
in a letter written by Archbishop Abbot in 1622, three years before
the death of James. In this letter addressed to the Clergy, he
says: " His Majesty is much grieved at the heart, to hear of,
every day, so much defection from our religion, both to Popery
and Anabaptism, or other points of separation in other parts of the
THE "BOOK OF SPORTS. 1 75
Kingdom ; and he attributes these defections, in great measure, to
the lightness, a/ectedness, and unprofitableness of that kind of
preaching which hath become of late too much taken up with
in our Universities, Cities, and Towns." After a little fuller
description, he adds : " Now the people bred up with this kind
of teaching, and never instructed in the Catechism and fundamental
grounds of religion, are for all this airy nourishment, no better than
New table looks, ready to be filled up with the manuals or
Catechisms of Popish Priests, or the papers and pamphlets of
Anabaptists, Brownists, and Puritans." This does not say much
for the religious teaching of that clay, even in the principal seats
of learning ; and we may safely conclude that the bulk of the
country was in a far worse state.
In Charles the First s reign, the Clergy of the rural districts
were " mere readers of prayers ;" and on this account they were
styled " Reading Vicars," " Reading Curates" &c. But what is
far worse, in addition to their incapacity for preaching, " they were
for the most part immoral and dissolute ;" and the religion of the
"Book of Sports" was in full swing. In 1618, James issued a
declaration to the effect, " that on Sundays, after Divine service,
no lawful recreation should be barred from his good people, which
should not tend to a breach of the laws of his Kingdom, or the
canons of his Church. The sports specified were dancing, archery,
leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsunales, Morrice-dances, and
the setting up of May-poles."
This declaration was ordered to be read in the parish Churches ;
Nonconformists and all who refused to attend Church, being
prohibited from taking part in the sports. Charles had republished
the said declaration, with an order that it be read in all the
Churches of the land ; severe penalties being imposed on any
Clergyman who refused compliance with the order. Is it singular
that with such a law the masses of the people were steeped in
irreligion and vice, and that persecution of honest and good men
had free course ?
76 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
In a petition presented by a persecuted Baptist about this period,
the writer says : " Our miseries are long, and lingering imprison
ments for many years, in divers counties of England, in which many
have died and left behind them widows and many small children ;
taking away our goods, and others the like of which we can make
probation ; not for any disloyalty to your Majesty, nor hurt to any
mortal man our adversaries themselves being judges but only
because we dare not assent unto, and practice in the Worship of
God, such things as we have not faith in, because it is sin against
the Most High."
During the reign of Martial Law, and under the rule of the
bold " Protector," the Baptists, with other Dissenters, enjoyed a
season of rest, and, like the Apostolic Churches, " grew and
multiplied." But though not actively persecuted, they were
much despised : every man s tongue was against them. Papists,
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, all alike heaped
reproach upon them.
The noble Cromwell passed away, the Stuarts were restored f
and Charles the Second ascended the English throne. In direct
violation of his solemn promise to allow freedom of conscience in
matters religious, this false son of a false father commenced at once
the persecution of all Dissenters. An old act of Elizabeth was
revived, which decreed that all who refused to attend Church should
be fined .20 per month ; and under this act great numbers were
siezed and cast into prison until the money should be forthcoming,
" It is estimated that during this reign, upwards of 8,000 dissenters
died in prison," amongst whom were a large number of Baptists.
This state of things continued until the "Declaration of
Indulgence " in the year 1672.
That the Baptists were a somewhat numerous body at the
beginning of these evil days is certain. Undeniable authority
reports at least seven congregations in London, and many more
in the provinces, and memorable names figure in their history.
One of their preachers, THOMAS LAMB, was arraigned before the
SOWS AND DENNE. 77
revived Star Chamber and sent to gaol. THOMAS BREWER was
imprisoned for fourteen years. SAMUEL HOWE, "a popular
Baptist preacher, during this reign died in prison, and was
buried like a dog in the highway." He wrote and published
a book, entitled, "The Sufficiency of the Spirit s Teaching,
without Human Learning," on the title page of which appeared
the following lines :
" What How ? how now ? hath How such learning found,
To throw art s curious image to the ground ?
Cambridge and Oxford may their glory now,
Veil to a Cobbler, if they know but How ? "
Roger Williams says of him : " Amongst so many instances, dead
and living, to the everlasting praise of Jesus Christ, and of His
Holy Spirit, breathing and blessing where He listeth, I cannot
but with honourable testimony remember that eminent Christian
witness and prophet of Christ, even that despised and yet beloved
Samuel Howe, who being by calling a cobbler, and without
learning (which yet in its sphere and place he honoured), who
yet, I say, by searching the Holy Scriptures, grew so excellent
a textuary, or Scripture-learned man, that few of those Rabbis,
who scorned to mend or make a shoe, could aptly or readily, from
the Holy Scriptures, outgo him." His life and death were
honourable, and though buried in the highway, and in spite of
the troublous state of the times, his funeral was attended by
hundreds of godly men.
HENRY DENNE,
a noted Baptist of this time, was educated at the University of
Cambridge, ordained by the Bishop of St. David s, in or about
the year 1630, and appointed to the "living" of Pyrton, in
Hertfordshire. This living he held for ten years, and acquired a
well-deserved celebrity as a faithful pastor and instructive
preacher. His fearlessness as a preacher may be seen in the fol
lowing fact. Appointed to preach the " Visitation Sermon " at
78 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
Baldock, in 1641, he took for his text, John v. 35. In the course
of his sermon he boldly denounced the pride and covetousness of
the clergy their pluralities their neglect of duty by non-
residence, and other evils ; and like the prophet to whom his
text referred, he sternly demanded reformation. " I must call
upon those in authority," he said, " to make diligent search after
these foxes. If the courts had been as vigilant to find out these
as in hunting out Non-conformists, surely by this time the Church
would have been as free from them as the land is from wolves ; but
they have preferred the traditions of men before the commandments
of Almighty God. I tell you that Conformity hath ever sped the
worse for their sakes, who, breaking the commandments of God, think
to make amends by conforming to the traditions of men."
After such a declaration, we do not much marvel to find him
ere long turning his back upon a corrupt Church and casting in
his lot with the despised Dissenters. In the early part of 1643,
he was baptised by Thomas Lamb, then pastor of the Baptist Church
meeting in Bell Alley, Coleman Street, London. Henry Denne
now became a "General Baptist" HOME MISSIONARY, preaching the
Gospel with great success throughout the counties of Staffordshire
and Cambridgeshire, and establishing many new churches.
Like his Lord and Master he soon made enemies. He was
arrested and imprisoned at Cambridge, but through the interven
tion of friends, was removed thence to the " Peterhouse Prison,"
Aldersgate Street, London.
Mr. Denne was soon released, and such was the confused state
of the times, that he (though a pronounced Baptist) was appointed
minister of Eltisley Parish Church, in Cambridgeshire ; from
which place he travelled as before, in all directions, preaching
and baptizing. In 1645, in the course of his mission tour, he
visited the County of Kent, and many through his labours were
added to the despised sect in that region. Soon after we find him
in the Parliamentary army but as a soldier he still continued his
evangelistic work, and while " Cornet Denne" was his military title
DENNE IN TEE ARMY. 79
" Parson Denne " was the name by which he was best known
among his comrades.
While in the army he narrowly escaped death as a mutineer.
In May, 1649, he took part in a mutiny of his regiment, partly
occasioned by unwillingness to join the expedition to Ireland, and
partly by a general discontent with the conduct of affairs. The
mutiny was promptly quelled, and Cornet Denne, with three
others, was sentenced to be shot.
Denne was a man of sterling piety and sound common sense ;
and realising at once the folly of his action, and the terrible con
sequences which might have resulted from his success, he
acknowledged the justness of his sentence. He said, that
although his heart could not accuse him of an evil meaning, yet
he was convinced of the evil of his action, and that if they had
continued three or four days longer, the land would have been
plunged in misery and ruin.
The other three were shot, and Denne was led to the place of
execution, expecting a like fate, but on arriving at this spot,
Lieutenant-General Cromwell informed him that the General
in command had extended mercy to him. Whereupon he ex
claimed, " I am not worthy of such a mercy ; I am more ashamed
to live, than afraid to die."
Next we find him at a meeting of the Baptist Church at
Fenstanton, exhorting the brethren to home missionary labours.
As the result of this address, he with another, was sent out on a
missionary excursion, an account of which was given on their
return. The year following, he was invited to the pastorate of
the Baptist Church at Canterbury. The Fenstanton Church re
cognizing the greater need of her sister Church gladly consented,
and furnished a companion, money, and horses for the journey.
A Clergyman of the Church of England is accredited with
writing the following epitaph for his tomb
" To tell his wisdom, learning, goodness unto men,
I need to say no more, but here lies Henry Denne."
80 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
FRANCIS CORNWELL, M.A.
was educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and afterwards
became Vicar of Harden, in Kent. For refusal to conform to
certain ceremonies, imposed by Archbishop Laud, he was com
mitted to Maidstone Jail. While there, one of his parishoners,
being much exercised in her mind, sought his advice on the
subject of Baptism. He marshalled up his most powerful argu
ments, but in vain. His failure led him to further research, he
became convinced of the unscripturalness of " Infant Baptism ;"
and, true to his conviction, was baptized by Mr. William Jeffery,
an eminent Baptist Minister.
Appointed soon after to preach before an assembly of Divines
at Cranbrook, he chose for his text, Mark viii. 7. " Howbeit in
vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men." He told his hearers that " Infant Baptism was an anti-
christian innovation, a human tradition, and a practice for which
there was neither precept nor true deduction from the Word of
God." As might be expected, an animated discussion followed
this unpalatable discourse, in which passion was made to play the
part of logic. One Clergyman who was present took down the
sermon in shorthand, and undertook to prepare a reply, but the only
reply he could give was to submit himself to the ordinance of
" Believers Baptism," which he did in the course of a few months.
Mr. Cornwell published a work on Baptism, entitled, "A
vindication of the Eoyal Commission of King Jesus." This book
was freely circulated amongst the Members of the House of
Commons, and produced great excitement. He formed a Baptist
Church in the neighbourhood of Cranbrook, over which he presided
till his death. Neal says, "He was one of the most learned
divines that espoused the Baptist cause."
CHRISTOPHER BLACKWOOD,
the Clergyman who was converted to Baptist principles by his
attempt to refute the arguments of the last named, was born in
BLAGKWOOD AND REACH. 81
1606, graduated at Cambridge in 1624, and became Curate of
Rye, in Sussex. On his secession to the Baptists, he was elected
to the Pastorate of a Church at Spillshill, near Staplehurst, Kent.
He afterwards served in Cromwell s army. Then we find him
pastor of a Church in Dublin, and taking a general oversight of
the Baptists in Ireland. He was a learned man, and a jealous
advocate for religious liberty. One of his books on this subject
was entitled, "The storming of antichrist in his two last and
strongest garrisons Compulsion of Conscience, and Infant Baptism"
BENJAMIN KEACH,
another famous Baptist, was one of the earliest Pastors of the
Church, now meeting in the " Metropolitan Tabernacle," and over
which the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon has long and ably presided, a
most worthy successor of worthy men.
Mr. Reach wrote a small book entitled, "The Child s Instructor;
or, a New and Easy Primer," inculcating Baptist principles amongst
others. He also affirms, that " Christ s true ministers have not their
learning and wisdom from men, nor from Universities, nor from
human schools for human learning, arts, and sciences, are not
essential to the making of a good minister but only the gift of
God, which cannot be bought with silver or gold." " Also, they are
not lords over God s heritage they rule them not by force and
cruelty, neither have they power to force and compel men to
believe and obey their doctrines, but are only to persuade and
entreat ; this is the way of the Gospel as Christ taught them."
For publishing this book he was arrested, and indicted at the
assizes as follows :
" Thou art here indicted, by the name of Benjamin Reach, of
Winslow, in the county of Buckinghamshire, for that thou,
being a seditious, heretical, and schismatical person, evilly and
maliciously disposed and disaffected to his Majesty s government
of the Church of England, didst maliciously and wickedly, on the
first day of May, in the seventeenth year of our Sovereign Lord
82 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
the King, write, print, and publish, or cause to be written, printed,
and published, one seditious and venemous book, entitled, The
Child s Instructor, wherein are contained, by way of question and
answer, these damnable positions, contrary to the Book of Common
Prayer and the Liturgy of the Church of England." Of this
heinous crime he was duly convicted, and sentenced as follows :
" Benjamin Reach, you are here convicted for writing, printing,
and publishing a seditious and schismatical book, for which the
Court s judgment is this, and the Court doth award that you shall
go to jail for a fortnight, without bail or mainprize, and the next
Saturday to stand upon the pillory at Aylesbury in the open
Market, for the space of two hours from eleven of the clock till
one with a paper upon your head with this inscription : For
writing, printing, and publishing a schismatical book entitled,
" The Child s Instructor." And the next Thursday to stand in
the same manner and for the same time in the market of Winslow ;
and there your book shall be openly burnt before your face by the
common hangman, in disgrace of you and your doctrine. And you
shall forfeit to the King s Majesty the sum of ,20, and shall remain
in prison until you find sureties for your good behaviour and
appearance at the assizes there to renounce your doctrines and to
make such public submission as shall be enjoined you."
The sentence was fully carried out ; and at eleven o clock on
the Saturday morning as if he were a wretch, convicted of some
infamous offence this faithful servant of God was placed in the
pillory at Aylesbury. Imagine a man set in an upright wooden
frame with three holes, his head through one and his hands through
the other two : a paper on his head stating his crime ; and the
whole fixed on a raised platform, in the centre of a Market-place
on a Market-day, with a gaping multitude of country people all
around some sympathising and others jeering, and you have at
once a rough picture of the scene.
On his way to the Market-place, he cheerfully remarked to his
sorrowing friends who accompanied him, "The Cross is the way to the
JOHN BUNYAN. 83
Crown" When his head and hands were fixed in the pillory, he
addressed the crowd as follows : " Good people, I am not ashamed
to stand here this day, with this paper on my head ; my Lord Jesus
was not ashamed to suffer on the Cross for me, and it is for His cause
I am made a gazing stock. Take notice, it is not for any wicked
ness that I stand here, but for writing and publishing His truths,
which the Spirit of the Lord hath revealed in the Holy Scrip
tures."
A Clergyman called out : " No, Mr. Reach, you are there for
writing and publishing errors ; and you may now see what your
errors have brought you to." This specimen of the bulwark of Chris
tianity, was now himself attacked by the justice-loving farmers
about Him. One told him of his being pulled drunk out of a ditch :
another reminded him he had lately been discovered drunk under
a haycock. At this the crowd united in a hearty English display
of ridicule ; and this drunken defender of the faith hurried away,
let us hope, to repent before the Lord whose cause he had dis
honoured, and whose servant he had sought to injure. The
following week Keach was subjected to the same indignity at
Winslow, where his book was publicly burnt, according to the
sentence.
But standing head and shoulders above the Baptists of his
time, was
JOHN BUNYAN,
born at Elstow, near to Bedford, in the year 1628. Of his parents
we know little excepting that his father was a tinker or brazier,
and that they were poor but honest folk. No costly portraits of
a lordly ancestry lined the walls of their humble village home,
nor were any traditions of former greatness handed down as heir
looms from sire to son. Our hero himself says, " My generation
was low and inconsiderable, and my father s house of that rank
which is meanest and most despised of all the families of the land."
John at what age we do not know was sent to school, where
he assures us he " learned to read and write after the rate of other
84 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
poor men s children." But this knowledge, he confesses with
shame, he soon almost entirely lost.
Endowed by nature with a robust frame, an excitable tempera
ment, a strong will, and a vivid imagination, he was the ring-leader
of the boys and youths of the neighbourhood, in all kinds of
legitimate sports, and in lying, swearing, mischievous pranks, and
practical jokes. In common with other healthy, high-spirited lads,
he had his share of narrow escapes. Once he fell into a creek of
the sea, again he fell into the river Ouse, on both which occasions
he barely escaped drowning. Another perilous adventure shows
unmistakably the grit of which he was made. Walking in the
fields with some companions, an adder crossed his path ; acting
on the spur of the moment, the daring lad struck it on the back,
thrust open the creature s mouth with his stick, and plucked out its
sting with his fingers thus placing himself in great peril of his life.
One cannot but feel that this incident shadows his own internal
conflict with the Tempter, and is strangely prophetic of the Bunyan
of later life, who dealt such masterly strokes on " Apollyon" and
with such marvellous courage and skill, laboured to pluck out the
sting from the mouth of " that old Serpent, the Devil. 1
His early life was singularly wicked, as his after life was
singularly good. To argue as Macaulay, Froude, and others have
done, that because he was free from the vices of drunkenness and
unchastity, therefore his own bitter condemnations of himself are
not to be taken in a literal sense, is, we think, simply to beg the
whole question. The most elementary knowledge of human
nature would lead us to expect and Banyan s plain, unvarnished
statement compels us to believe that his early life was extremely
wicked and godless. Whatever Bunyan did, he did thoroughly.
His nature was such that he could not do anything not even sin
by halves : with him it was the whole or none. As he was a ring
leader in all kinds of sports, so he assures us that in lying, cursing,
swearing, and blaspheming the Holy Name ol God, he had few
equals. That statement tallies exactly with what we should expect
BUNYAWS EARLY LIFE. 85
from such a temperament, with such godless surroundings and
without any Christian training ; and any attempt to explain it
away appears to us as the futile hair-splitting of maudlin
sentiment.
In that age, when tyranny and hatred usurped the throne of
Jesus religion of love ; when the baneful superstitions of Rome
imbued the minds of the multitUvle ; when the majority of
preachers voted every one to eternal burnings who could not
pronounce their shibboleths ; when ignorant parents threatened
their children with the evil one every time they crossed their
erratic wills ; when the most eloquent discourses of brawling
women and effeminate priests, consisted of the horrors of fire and
brimstone it is not very remarkable that young Buiiyan s earliest
religious impressions mere made up chiefly of terrible fears and
horrible thoughts of Hell.
His childish dreams were of devils and wicked spirits, who
laboured to drag him down to the pit. While awake, his childish
fancy was occupied with thoughts of dwelling with devils " in
darkness, fire, and chains." Even at the early age of nine or ten
years, when in the midst of his companions, and engaged in little
boyish games, his mind would often revert to these awful things.
So much was this the case that he says, " I often wished that there
were no hell, or that I had been a devil ; that if it must needs be
that I must go to hell, I might be rather a tormentor of others
than be tormented myself."
These unnatural and unhealthy religious thought-seeds blown
into his heart by the breath of the all-pervading superstition of
the age, and fostered by injudicious friends, produced, as could
only be expected, unwholesome fruit. His childish thoughts and
dreams, worthy only of a heathen mythology, were succeeded by
an utter callousness to serious subjects. The very thought of
religion was hateful to him ; and he would as soon have been in
prison as have listened to anything from a good book. " Then,"
says he, "I said unto God, depart from me, for I desire not the
86 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
knowledge of thy ways. " But even in this, the midnight of hia
soul, one ray of light, like some shooting star, pierces the darkness.
The thought of hypocrisy made his heart to quake, and the sound
of an oath or a lie from one who professed religion cut him to the
quick.
At the age of seventeen we find him in the army, though on
which side is a somewhat doubtful point. Macaulay, and indeed
most of his biographers, think that he fought on the side of the
parliament, and we think they are right, indeed, it is difficult to
conceive of Bunyan, as fighting unless under compulsion for
the cause of such a king as Charles. While in the army on one
occasion he was ordered out with a besieging party, but one of the
company volunteering to go in his stead, took his place, and while
standing sentinel was shot in the head and killed. This marvel
lous escape failed at the time to produce any effect upon him, and
he continued his former wicked course of life.
At twenty he married an orphan girl as poor as himself, the
only dowry she brought him being the cherished memory of a
godly father, and a parental legacy of two books, entitled, " The
Plain Man s Pathway to Heaven," and " The Practice of Piety."
Besides, their united wealth in household stuff did not amount to
so much as a dish or a spoon. Though such marriages cannot be
recommended, yet, in Bunyan s case, it seems to have been a wise
step. He read with his wife in the books aforementioned, and
frequently conversed with her on the character and habits of her
father. Under her almost imperceptible influence, his hatred of
religion slowly vanished, like the receding mists before the rising
dawn. He was as one awaking out of a heavy, troubled sleep, his
mind gradually opening to sacred things, as the mind of the
sleeper to the realities of day. At first, he fell into the religious
formalism of the time attended Church twice on the Sunday,
and eagerly imbibed the national superstition as to the sacredness
of Church and all things pertaining thereto. The building,
furniture, vestments, priest, clerk, all received his adoration. So
BUNYAN S CONVICTION OF SIN. 87
fully did this feeling possess him, that he tells us he would gladly
have laid himself down in front of any priest that he might
trample upon him the name, the garb, the work, did so intoxicate
and bewitch him. All this time he appears not to have thought
of the guilt of sin, and Christ as the Saviour of men seems never
to have entered his head.
His first thought of sin, as sin, was produced in his mind by a
sermon he heard on the wrong of Sabbath-breaking. This
unsettled him a little, but in the afternoon of the same day he
went to his usual Sunday sports, and entered into them with all his
accustomed zest. Whilst engaged in a game of " Cat," he suddenly
stopped a small voice seemed to say to him, " John, wilt thou leave
thy sins and go to Heaven, or have thy sins and go to Hell? n But
the pause was only momentary, and the solemn question of the "still
small voice " received no answer. A few minutes later there was a
break in the game, and looking up, he thought he saw Jesus, who
looked on him with hot displeasure. At once the conviction
fastened upon him that for him there was no hope he could not
be forgiven. He strove to shake off thoughts of the future, and
to take his fill of sin, but in vain, for that look of the " Man of
sorrows" was graven deeply on the fleshy tablet of his heart.
Very soon after this, at the rebuke of a godless woman, he shook
off his habits of swearing and lying. Now began a long conflict,
evil thoughts and soul-racking doubt. Now he had sinned the
unpardonable sin ; now, like Judas, he had sold his Lord : now
he was a reprobate given up to destruction. Sometimes despair
gave place to hope. Once he thought he had faith ; now he would
put that faith to the test. He went out into the highway, resolved
to say to the puddles, " be ye dry," and to the dry places, " be ye
puddles ;" but fearing lest the test should fail, and thinking he
had better first pray for faith, despair again enveloped his soul.
Anon the talk of some devout women at Bedford, who were con
versing joyously on religion, fired his soul with hope. Conversa
tions with these joyous Christians, and the study of Luther
88 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
on the Galatians, helped him by the way, till at length, after
two years of almost unbroken agony, meditation on " Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption," broke the spell, and peace
possessed his soul. The gates of " Doubting Castle " were opened
" Giant Despair " was left far behind Bunyan had gazed on
the Cross his burden had rolled into the sepulchre and he
went on his way rejoicing.
He was baptised by Mr. Gifford in the river Ouse, at Bedford,
and received into fellowship with the Baptist Church there, in
the year 1654 ; being then twenty-six years of age.
That he had prospered in worldly matters is evident from the
following. When Cromwell dismissed the " Long Parliament,"
an address was sent from Bedfordshire, approving his conduct,
recognising him as the Lord s instrument, and recommending the
county magistrates to serve in the Assembly about to be appointed,
and among the thirty-six signatures to this address appear the
names of Gifford and Bunyan. " This," says Froude, " speaks for
itself, he must have been at least a householder and a person of
distinction." Another biographer said, " God had increased his
stores so that he lived in great credit among his neighbours."
But God had other work for him to do, and another path for
him to tread, as will shortly appear. The Baptist friends at Bed
ford early recognised his gifts, and soon pressed him into work.
At first he could only be persuaded to go out with the village
preachers and give now and then a short application after others
had spoken, but after a while he ventured on more public services.
The first time he preached in Bedford the whole town turned out
to hear him, so great was the sensation produced by his wonderful
change. As they listened to his earnest address, some mocked,
but others were deeply impressed.
The state of his mind at this momentous period of his career
may be gathered best from his own words : " At first," he says,
" I could not believe that God should speak by me to the heart
BUNYAN S CALL TO TEE MINISTRY. 89
of any man, still counting myself unworthy : yet those who were
thus touched would love me and have a particular respect for me,
and though I did put it from me that they should be awakened
by me, still they would confess and affirm it before the saints of God.
. . . . " Wherefore, seeing them in both their words and deeds to
be so constant, and also in their hearts so earnestly pressing after the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, rejoicing that God had sent me w T here
they were, then I began to conclude it might be even so that
God had owned in His work such a foolish one as I. And
then came that word of God to my heart with such sweet refresh
ment, The blessing of them that were ready to perish, is come
upon me ; yea, I caused the widow s heart to sing for joy.
"At this, therefore, I rejoiced, yea, the tears of those whom
God had awakened by niy preaching, would be both solace arid com
fort to me. " I thought much on those sayings : Who is he then that
maketh me glad, but the same that is made sorry by me 1 And
again : * If I be not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to
you ; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. These
things were as an argument unto me, that God had called me to,
and stood by me, in this work."
His sole thought was now, how best to consecrate his energies
to the service of Christ. He preached all over the Midland
Counties, in London, and other places in barn or wood, in mar
ket-place or quiet alley, in village cottage or town chapel, wherever
there was an open door and he was soon the most popular
Baptist preacher of his time. This continued for about six years,
when the "Restoration" under Charles the Second, gagged his
mouth and stayed his public work. On the evening of November
the 12th, 1660, he was engaged to preach at Samsell, in Bedford
shire. This coming to the magistrates ears, a warrant was issued
for his apprehension. He was aware of their intention to arrest him,
but following the example of Him who said, " Behold I go up to
Jerusalem," he went to Samsell. His host, at whose house the
meeting was to be held, urged him to flee, but he answered,
90 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
" Come, be of good cheer, our cause is good, we need not be
ashamed of it ; to preach God s Word is so good a work, that
we shall be well rewarded hereafter, if we suffer here." He
then went out into the fields to meditate. Conflicting
thoughts struggled in his mind ; he had a family at home one
child was blind his wife was ill what should he do ? His
thoughts on the other side may be surmised as follows : 1. Bold
words should be supported by bold action. 2. What will the
new converts think, if such an one as I flee 1 3. What will the
world think if I play the coward 1 4. If I am called of God to
lead a forlorn hope, it is my duty to set an example to those who
shall be my followers in the path of suffering. The conflict was
severe, but he triumphed. Taking one lingering heart-look at
home, wife, and children, he turned his face to Christ, and in
effect said, " My Master expects that every man of His shall do
his duty, and by His grace that will I do." The meeting
was opened at the time appointed, and when just in the act of
commencing his address from the words, " Dost thou believe on
the Son of God ? " the constables appeared and Bunyan was arrested.
He was taken before the magistrates and, after an examination
characteristic of the times, committed for trial at the sessions.
Substantial bail was offered, but refused on the ground that he
would not promise not to preach. Several other attempts were
made to bail him out, but in vain. After lying in prison seven
weeks, he was brought up at the Quarter Sessions, and indicted
before Justice Keeling and others, as follows :
" That he being a person of such and such a condition, had
since such a time, devilishly and perniciously abstained from
coming to Church to hear Divine Worship, and was a common
upholder of unlawful meetings and conventicles, to the great
disturbance and distraction of the good subjects of the kingdom,
contrary to the laws of our Sovereign Lord the King."
Bunyan boldly defended himself and sought to prove from
the Scriptures his authority and duty to preach the Gospel to his
BUNYAWS PRISON LIFE. 91
fellow men, but Justice Keeling called his arguments " Pedlar s
French," and sternly commanded him to leave off his " canting."
And when in his simplicity he asked if it were not his duty to
obey God rather than man, another of the judges asked him with
a sneer, " Is not your god Beelzebub ? "
His conviction was a foregone conclusion. He had broken
the law of the land, infamous law though it was, and there
was no alternative but to convict him. The jury found him
guilty, and his sentence was pronounced in this form :
" John Bunyan, you must be had back to prison and there lie
for three months following, and if at three months end you do
not submit to go to Church to hear Divine Service and leave off
your preaching, you must be banished the realm. And if after
such a day as shall be appointed you to be gone, you shall be
found in this realm, or be found to come over again without ex
press licence from the King, you must stretch by the neck for it,
I tell you plainly." This threat of banishment was never carried
out, neither was he again brought before the justices, yet for
twelve long years Bunyan remained a prisoner in Bedford Jail.
To such a man, alive all over, his life at blood heat, and hia
soul all ablaze with " yearning pity for mankind and burning
charity," one would have thought this lengthy prison-life beyond
the powers of mortal endurance : yet the grace of God sustained
him. He was a kind husband and father, and to part from his
wife and his poor blind child was, he says, as the " pulling the
flesh from his bones." No wonder that he was often and sorely
troubled with thoughts of their present and future hardships
until almost in despair. But for all this, his prison-life was
happier, and a thousandfold more useful for God and man,
than even his life at large. His prison walls shut him out
from much social intercourse and the society of friends that
were dear to him, but they served also to shut him in to more
frequent and undisturbed communion with his God and Saviour.
Speaking of his prison-life with the object of stilling up the
92 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
godly to bless God and take courage, he says : " I never had so
great an inlet into the Word of God as now. Those Scriptures
that I saw nothing in before, were made in this place and state to
shine upon me. Jesus Christ was never more real and apparent
than now ; here I have seen and felt Him indeed. Oh ! that
word, We have not preached unto you cunningly devised fables,
and that other, God raised Him up from the dead that your faith
and hope might be in God, 3 were blessed words unto me in this im
prisoned condition. So that sometimes when I have been in the
favour of them I have been able to laugh at destruction, and to
fear neither the horse nor his rider. I have had sweet sights of
the forgiveness of my sins in this place, and of my being with
Jesus in another world. Oh ! the Mount Zion, * the heavenly
Jerusalem, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and God
the Judge of all, and Jesus, have been sweet unto me in this
place. I have seen here what I am persuaded I shall never, while
in this world, be able to express. I have seen a truth in this
scripture, Whom having not seen, ye love ; in Whom, though
now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable,
and full of glory. I never knew what it was for God to stand
by me at all times, and at every offer of Satan to afflict me, as I
have found Him since I came in hither. For look how fears have
presented themselves, so have supports and encouragements : yea,
when I have started, even as it were, at nothing else but iny own
shadow, yet God has been very tender to me, and hath not suf
fered me to be molested, but with one scripture or another,
strengthened me against all : insomuch that I have often said,
Were it lawful I would pray for greater trouble, for the greater
comfort s sake" . . . . " Many more of the dealings of God
towards me I might relate, But these out of the spoils won in
battle, have I dedicated to maintain the house of God. "
Like a more ancient prisoner for righteousness sake, Bunyan
seems to have found favour in the eyes of his jailor, and .to have
enjoyed unusual liberty. He preached to his fellow prisoners ;
RELEASED FROM PRISON. 93
he preached occasionally in the woods around : once he journeyed
to London ; frequently he spent a day and a night at home, and
on several occasions he presided over Church meetings at Bedford.
Rumours of the laxity of his imprisonment reached those in
authority, and once a messenger was despatched in hot haste to
see if these things were so. Bunyan was out and had leave of
absence for the night, but a presentiment of something wrong led
him to hasten back to the jail, just before midnight. The jailor
reprimanded him for not staying out instead of disturbing him at
that hour of the night. He had not been in many minutes when
the messenger arrived, who demanded to know if the prisoners
were all in ward, asked personally after " that fellow Bunyan,"
and demanded to see him. When he had gone, the jailor said,
" Bunyan, you may go out when you like, for you know better
when to return than I can tell you."
" In 1672 Charles the Second pardoned about five hundred
Quakers, who had been languishing in prison for not attending
the services of the Church. Upon this Bunyan and his fellow-
prisoners at Bedford petitioned for liberty, and at a Court of Privy
Council at Whitehall, held on the 17th of May, 1672, present the
King and twenty-four of his councillors, the following minute was
made : " Whereas by order of the Board of the 8th instant, the
humble petition of John Penn, John Bunyan, John Dunn, Thomas
Haynes, Simon Haynes, and George Parr, prisoners in the goale
at Bedford, convicted upon several statutes for not conforming to
the rights and ceremonies of the Church of England, and for
being at unlawful meetings, was referred to the Sheriff of the
County of Bedford, who was required to certify this Board
whether the said persons were committed for the crimes in
the said petition mentioned, and for no other j which he
having accordingly done by his certificate of the llth instant,
It was thereupon, this day, ordered by his Majesty in Council,
that the said petition and certificate be (and herewith) sent to
his Majesty s Attorney-General, who is authorised, and required
94 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
to insert them into the general pardon to be passed for the
Quakers. "
Thus at length, Bunyan was released, his release being speedily
followed by the "Act of Indulgence," and from this time he
ceased not to preach and to teach with untiring zeal. He was also
much in request as a peace-maker, and it was while returning
from a journey to Reading, whither he had gone to reconcile a father
and son, that he took the severe cold which resulted in his death.
" He died at the house of one Mr. Strudwick, a grocer, at the
Star, on Snow Hill, on the 12th of August, 1688, and was buried
in the new burying ground, near the Artillery Ground, now known
as Bunhill Fields, where his tomb may still be seen."
BUNYAN THE PREACHER
attracted great multitudes. It was no uncommon thing for him to
have, when in London, an audience of twelve hundred people at
seven o clock on a cold winter s morning. On one recorded occasion
three thousand gathered to hear him in South wark. His marvellous
success was owing to the fact that he preached only the realities of
his own experience and convictions.
He preached to the " dead in trespasses and sins," as one raised
from the dead ; to the awakened, as one who had sought and
found ; to the tempted, as one who had himself suffered being
tempted ; and to the sceptical, as one who had himself with
reeling brain, and " swimming, swollen, senselessness of soul "
paced the damp and gloomy cells of " Doubting Castle." To the
Borrowing, to the straitened, and to the struggling, his word came
as from one who had himself sounded the deep, and fought, as for
very life, with the surging waves of adversity. He preached to
the sleepy disciples, as one who, having broken the spell of drowsi
ness, had watched in the garden, had seen the agony, and was
wide awake with an all-constraining and self-consuming love.
While to the babes in Christ he spake as one who had not forgotten
his own childhood, but becoming a man in Christ Jesus, had cast
off childish littleness in talk and character.
PREACHER AND WRITER. 95
His preaching was realistic ; the preacher and his word were
real ; sin and salvation were real ; God and Christ were real. The
Holy Spirit was a real present power, while before him were real
men and women in real danger or in real safety, and with real
needs of various kinds.
He says : " Oh ! that they who have heard me speak, did but
Bee as I do, what sin, death, hell, and the curse of God is ; and
also what the grace, and love, and mercy of God is through Christ,
to men in such a case as they are who are yet estranged from
Him." "And indeed I did often say in my heart before the Lord,
1 that if I be hanged up presently before their eyes, it would be a
means to awaken them and confirm them in the truth, and I
should be contented. " Again speaking of the realized presence
of God in his preaching, especially when speaking on " life by
Christ without works," he says, " Oh ! it hath been with such
power and heavenly evidence upon my own soul, that I could not
be contented with saying, I believe and am sure, methought I
was more than sure that those things were true."
Genius alone was not the grand secret of Bunyan s success, but
reality, which is the soul of genius. His natural genius without his
reality would have been as powerless as the most muscular frame
without life, and the most ingenious machine without its propelling
force. Reality produces reality, and a real man cannot but do real
work. No wonder that Dr. Owen, chaplain to the King, when asked
by his Majesty how he, a learned man, could go and hear a tinker
preach, answered, " If I could have the tinker s power, I would give
all my learning to get hold of it."
As A WRITER OF ALLEGORY,
Bunyan stands alone, unsurpassed and unequalled. The highest
skill of the painter is shown in the reality of his painting in his
power to make his human figures speak, his fields " stand dressed
in living green," and his flowers almost send forth their varied
scent. The success of an allegorist is shown in like manner.
Bunyan displayed this power in a very high degree hence his
96 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
fame. At first, and indeed for a long time, his power was scarcely
recognised save by the lower and middle-classes of society.
But Cowper, Johnson, Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Macaulay,
and a host of other learned critics have given him unstinted
praise, and Dean Stanley has recommended, that if anyone has
read his "Pilgrim s Progress" ninety-nine times, he should at
once begin to read it the hundredth.
Macaulay says of this book " Every reader knows the straight
and narrow path, as well as he knows a road in which he has gone
backward and forward a hundred times. This is the highest
miracle of genius that things that are not, should be as though
they were that the imaginations of one mind should become the
personal recollections of another. And this miracle the tinker
wrought. There is no ascent, no declivity, no resting-place, no
turnstile with which we are not perfectly acquainted the tall and
swarthy Madam Bubble, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, and my Lord
Hate-Good, Mr. Talkative, and Mrs. Timorous, are all actually
existing beings to us."
" Bunyan is almost the only writer who gave to the abstract the
interest of the concrete .the spirit of beauty, the principle of good,
the principle of evil, when he treated of them, ceased to be abstrac
tions. They took shape and colour : they were no longer mere
words, but intelligible forms, fair humanities, objects of love,
of adoration, or of fear."
In the judgment of Macaulay, Bunyan is one of the only two
men of genius produced by the 17th century.
BUNYAN WAS A BAPTIST.
Some writers have laboured hard to prove that he was not, but
every faithful and impartial Biographer has honestly assigned him
to us. " Facts are stubborn things ;" and the facts in this case are
unanswerable.
He was baptized : he was received into fellowship with a
Baptist Church. He never left that fellowship for any other. He
was chosen pastor of that same Church. He held the office of
BUNYAN A BAPTIST. 97
pastor over that Church until his death ; and that Church has
continued a Baptist Church unto this day.
But he belonged to the Advance Guard. He was a true liberal
in Church fellowship, and, in consequence, he was viewed by many
of the leading Baptists of his day, much in the same light, and
with the same feeling of alarm, as that in which an honest and
consistent " Tory " regards a " Radical " in politics.
Baptists were the pioneers of liberty of conscience, as touching
the different sections of the Church ;. and he among Baptists was
the pioneer of that liberty of conscience extended to individual
faith and practice.
He held, that as evident faith in Christ makes a man a member
of Christ, so also it should place him on a full equality with
Christ s other members of His body, which is the Church. And
therefore he admitted into Church fellowship all who gave evidence
of faith, without respect to baptism, leaving that as a matter for
further instruction and light. In his " Reason for my practice in
Worship," he says " Touching shadowish or figurative ordinances
I believe that Christ hath ordained but two in His Church, viz.,
Water-Baptism and the Supper of the Lord : both which are of
excellent use to the Church in this world they being to us
representations of the death and resurrection of Christ and are,
as God shall make them, helps to our faith. But I count them
not the fundamentals of our Christianity, nor grounds or rale to
communion with saints : servants they are, and our mystical
ministers, to teach and instruct us in the most weighty matters of
the Kingdom of God. I therefore here declare my reverent esteem
for them, yet dare not remove them, as some do, from the place
and end where by God they are set and appointed ; nor ascribe
unto them more than they were ordered to have in their first and
primitive institution. It is possible to commit idolatry even with
God s own appointments. The Church must first look to faith,
then to good living, according to the ten commandments ; after
that she must respect those appointments of our Lord Jesus, that
98 SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BAPTISTS.
respect her outward order and discipline, and then she walks as
becomes her sinning if she neglecteth either, sinning if she over-
valueth either."
In answer to the question as to with whom he would hold
communion, and by what rule he would gather persons into
Church fellowship, he says, " I dare to have communion, Church
communion, with all those who are visible saints by calling," and,
" my only rule for their reception is that rule by which they were
discovered to the Church to be visible saints, and willing to be
gathered into their fellowship. By that Word of God therefore,
by which their faith, experience, and conversation, being examined,
*s found good ; by that, the Church should receive them into
fellowship."
Answering an opponent, he says, " To make Baptism the in
cluding and excluding charter, when in the Word of the Everlasting
Testament there is no word for it, to speak charitably, if it be
not for want of love, it is for want of light. Strange ! take two
Christians e^ual in all points ; nay, let one go beyond the other
in grace and goolness as far as a man is beyond a babe, yet water
shall turn the scale, shall open the door of communion to the
one, and command the other to stand back."
These opinions are permeating the Baptist body all over the
world, and a large number of churches now follow Bunyan s
practice. May the day soon come when the Church s offer of
membership shall be as far-reaching as is Christ s offer of salvation,
and the only test of membership, Christ s test of faith in Himself !
In all this remarkable life we see the master-hand of the
Divine Sculptor, finely chiseling that rude, shapeless block of
humanity, and bringing forth feature after feature, until there
stands before us a " Jesus Christ s man," a grand model for future
generations of preachers and writers.
Let us praise Him Who in such a wondrous way, out of such
heathen darkness, produced such a bright and shining light, and
THE END. 99
out of the blaspheming tinker of Bedford, made the man, who
wrote that marvellous description of man s pilgrimage from sin to
God, which has been the pole-star to thousands of lost sinners,
and will be to generations yet unborn : a book so simple that the
most ignorant can understand it, so interesting that children
delight to read it, and withal so grand that the most capable
intellects have read and re-read its pages, and have reverently
bared their heads to its author s genius.
Young men, if you want character, usefulness, and enduring
worth, do as Bunyan did ; believe something, be something, do some
thing. Seek Bunyan s God, hold fast to Bunyan s Saviour, and
reverently bend your will to His. He Who made the " immortal
dreamer J> out of such raw material, what can He not make of
you, with your larger opportunities and fuller light 1
DAN TAYLOR AND THE ENGLISH BAPTISTS,
BY
KEY. J. FLETCHER.
HPHE Rev. Dan Taylor was bom in 1738, and died in 1816. He
* was 22 years of age when George II. ceased to reign, and he
saw 56 years of the long reign of George III. Dying as he did, in
the year after the Battle of Waterloo, he is distinctly remembered
by persons now living ; but it is for us to remember that the
subject of this Lecture belonged not so much to the 19th century
as to the England of a hundred years ago. How fondly some
people look back to that time ! It was the time " when George
III. was. King ;" and what more need be said for it ? They were
" the good old days." It should not be forgotten, however, that
the days referred to were neither so good nor so old as the days in
which it is our happiness to live. The material, the intellectual,
and the moral advancement which distinguishes the present
century, was then unknown, and the spiritual condition of the
people was mournful in the extreme. The contrast in all these
respects, between that time and this, is very remarkable. Then,
they had no gas, and no electric light, but had to make darkness
visible by means of candles and oil lamps. They had no penny
post, no psnny newspapers, no electric telegraph, no telephone ;
there were no railways, no locomotive engines, and no steam ships.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 101
Macadam had not taught the art of making roads, and in onr large
cities, asphalte and wood paving were unknown. Dick Turpin is
almost a legendary character to the youth of our land, so strangely
do his exploits strike on modern ears, and yet that notorious
highwayman flourished in England little more than a hundred
years ago. He was executed the year after Dan Taylor was born,
but i jr years after his death, deeds of robbery and violence were so
common, that travellers went armed at mid-day as though they
were going to a battle.
Profane swearing was the constant practice of the higher classes
at that time. It was to be heard everywhere. Ladies swore in
their drawing-rooms ; Navy Chaplains swore at the sailors ; Judges
swore in our Courts of Law ; and the King swore in the Royal
Palace. A single anecdote will reveal the habit of the time better,
perhaps, than any lengthened statement. Lord Campbell mentions
a call made by the Duchess of Marlborough, in 1738, on William
Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield. Murray was not in : the lady
declined to leave her name, but the clerk in describing who had
called, said, "I could not make out, sir, who she was, but she
swore so dreadfully, that she must be a lady of quality." Another
evil of that time was the passion for gin-drinking, which infected
the masses of the people like a plague. Gin was cheap. The
retailers of that spirit hung out painted boards announcing that
persons could be made drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two
pence, and be accommodated with clean straw for nothing. The
result was a fearful increase in poverty, crime, immorality, disease,
and death. Added to this was the wretched state of the law
relating to marriage ; no publication of banns was required. Any
priest in orders could marry persons at any time and place.
Numbers of dissolute clergymen made this their business. The
marriages were commonly performed in taverns. Touters stood
outside to ask passers-by if they would like to be married, just as
they now stand outside tlie shops of photographers to ask if people
will have_their portraits taken. " Fleet marriages " they were called,
102 DAN TAYLOR.
because performed in the vicinity of Fleet Prison, which once stood
on the east side of Fairing Ion. Street. One of these Fleet Parsons
married 173 couples in a single day. Multitudes were married when
they were drunk, and hundreds who were thus united had not
seen or known each other more than a few hours.
The criminal law was equally bad. Our prisons were so badly
kept that a malignant disease called jail fever broke out in them.
At the present time only one crime is punishable with death, but
in 1765 there were over two hundred offences to which that penalty
was attached. Executions were a favourite public spectacle. It
was a very ordinary thing to see ten or twelve culprits all hung
at the same time.
Education was in the same unsatisfactory condition. It was a
mockery to speak of the Universities as " Seats of learning ;" and
as for the common people, they were sunk in an ignorance so
deplorable, that down in Somersetshire a Methodist preacher was
actually brought before a Magistrate and charged with swearing,
because he had quoted in a sermon the words : " He that believeth
not shall be damned." In fact, until quite recent years, not half
the children of the land were sent to school, and not half the
mothers of those children could write their own names.
The state of religion was simply lamentable. Both Conformists
and Non-conformists had become cold and dead. The land was
almost destitute of vital religion, as Bishop Butler and Joseph
Addison both testify. The habit of extemporaneous preaching
had almost died out. Vast numbers of the parochial Clergy knew
more of hunting, shooting, swearing, drinking, and gambling, than
they did of the Gospel. With rare exceptions, the highest aim of
the best of them was simply to make men moral. So little was
there of real Gospel preaching, that Blackstone, the learned author
of the " Commentaries on the Laws of England," said, after hear
ing every clergyman of note in London, that from no single dis
course could he discover whether the preacher were a follower of
Confucius, of Mahomet, or of Christ" ; and Berridge, of Everton,
THE WESLEYS AND WHITFIELD. 103
speaking of the same time, said, in his odd but striking way, that
" an angel might preach such doctrine as was commonly preached
till his wings dropped off, without doing any good."
Such were the times in which Dan Taylor spent his earlier years.
They were times to call loudly for holy and earnest men, but they
were hardly the times to call forth such men. Yet how often has it
been observed that "When things are at the worst they mend." An
old Jewish proverb says : " When the tale of bricks is doubled,
then comes Moses." Even so, when the spiritual needs of England
were greatest, God raised up a triumvirate of deliverers in the
persons of John and Charles Wesley, and George Whitfield. The
highest place must always be accorded to these three men when
speaking of the religious revival of the last century. But they
were not the only men. In the time of David there were three
mighty men, but besides these there were thirty others who were
heroes of the second rank, and among the thirty was Benaiah, who
was more honourable than all the rest, and worthy to be named
with the first three, although he was not actually among them.
(2 Sam. xxiii. 23.) It was like that in the 18th century.
Spiritual hero, as Dan Taylor certainly was, and anxious as I am
to do full justice to his worth, it would be folly in me to give him
a place which impartial history has not given him. Dan Taylor is
known by his thousands, but the Wesleys and Whitfield are known
by their tens- of thousands. I cannot therefore claim for my hero a
place in the front rank, but I can and do claim for him a distinguished
place among the heroes of the rank of Benaiah. He was more
honourable than his compeers, though he "attained not to the
first three."
Having looked at the time in which Dan Taylor lived, and
having glanced at his relation to the religious reformers of that
time, let us now turn to the man himself, and to the consideration
of his life and work.
The paternal grandfather of Dan Taylor was born in 1650.
He was a farmer of good repute, was twice married, and had 22
104 DAN TAYLOR.
children. Six of these he lost in a single fortnight throngh the
ravages of small pox. Adam Taylor did not name his children
out of his own experience as Brewster, one of the Pilgrim Fathers
did, calling one Wrestling, another Fear, a third Patience, and a
fourth Love. He seems rather to have named them out of the
Scriptures ; for the six just referred to were called respectively-
Tamar, Terah, Zara, Er, Abiah, and Tirzah. The 20th child in this
large family hid also a Scripture name. He was called Azor.
In fact the entire record is so much after the Bible fashion that I
cannot do better than give the genealogy in Scripture phrase and
say, Adam begat Azor, and Azor begat Dan.
Dan was born on December 21st, 1738, at Sour-milk Hall, in
the parish of Northowram, near Halifax, in the West Riding
of Yorkshire. Sour-milk Hall, as I remember it, from having
seen it scores of times in my own boyhood, had the appearance of
an ancient mansion. Like another building, called Scout Hall,
not far away from it, in the beautiful Vale of Shibden, it retained
its ancient name long after it had been divided into tenements.
Plas Mawr, or the Great Mansion, which is shown to visitors at
Conway, in Wales, has undergone a similar change. The home
was a very humble one, for the father of Dan Taylor, like the
father of Martin Luther, was only a working miner. Here the
child grew and increased in knowledge. At the age of three he could
read well, and before he was five years of age he was famed for being
able to read that " hard chapter," the 10th of Nehemiah. At
Church, the clergyman, struck with his ability, inquired, " Who
taught you to read, my boy 1 " Dan proudly and loudly
replied, " My mother, sir." As to the rest of his education we
may adopt the answer given of Charles Dickens by his father,
who said, " Why indeed, sir, he may- be said to have educated
himself." It was well for Dan that he learned to read so early,
for we are told, incredible as it may seem, that " when almost five
years of age " he had to go down and work with his father in the
darkness of a coal-mine some 300 feet deep. It was a common
HIS YOUTH. 105
thing in those days for little children to labour in the mines from
14 to 16 hours a day. Their work was to drag away the corves,
or little waggons, which the pitmen had filled with coal. This
they did by means of a chain fastened round the waist, and some
times the poor little fellows had to crawl 011 hands and feet in
order to drag the heavy load. If this occupation retarded the
growth of Dan, it does not appear to have otherwise injured his
vigorous frame, and however much it diminished his opportu
nities, it did not in the least diminish his thirst for knowledge.
Difficulty added zest to his pursuit of learning. He carried books
down into the mine, and in spite of the coal-dust, he improved
the candle-light of those grim caverns by occasional snatches of
reading.
Once whilst engaged in the mine he had a remarkable escape
from death. An immense volume of water burst, without warning,
through a thin partition of coal, and quickly flooded the pit to
the height of several fathoms. Before the collier with whom he
was working could rise to his feet, Dan leapt over his body, and
ran faster than the rushing water to the bottom of the shaft, and
was at once drawn up to the surface. It was afterwards found
that the man was also saved in an equally marvellous manner.
An event of a very different kind made a most lasting and salu
tary impression on the mind of the young miner. When only nine
years of age he was accidentally struck with a pickaxe, and having
a passionate temper, he began to swear at the striker. His father,
hearing of the circumstance, flogged him most severely, but he
mingled with the chastisement such expostulation and warning
as the lad never forgot. Among other things the father reminded
him in solemn tones of these words, " The great day of His wrath
is come and who shall be able to stand ? " Thirty-five years
afterwards, when that godly father was in his coffin, the son
preached his funeral sermon from the same words, and con
fessed that a correction so solemn had carried to his soul the
conviction of sin.
106 DAN TAYLOR.}
As they grew up it was the rare privilege of Dan and his
brother John to hear the preaching of Whitfield and the two
Wesleys, and it was their meat and drink to trudge 20 or 30 miles
on such an errand. But the preacher Dan liked best was the
Rev. Wm. Grimshaw, of Haworth, a place since celebrated as the
abode of Charlotte Bronte and her sisters. Haworth was a wild,
outlandish place, 12 miles away from Halifax, but Dan felt amply
repaid for walking that distance if he could only hear Mr. Grim
shaw. Hundreds did and felt the same. Mr. Grimshaw was a
wonderful man. During his ministry at Haworth the communi
cants increased from 12 to 1200. He was a plain preacher, spoke
" market language," and was intensely fervent. Regardless of
parish bounds, he scoured the country for miles round, and
frequently preached from 20 to 30 times a week. He was a terror
to evil-doers. At his approach, those who were drinking in
public-houses would flee out of the back-doors and windows to
escape his admonitions. Many anecdotes are told of his eccentric
ways, but one will show the sterling worth of the man. The
Archbishop appointed a confirmation at his church. When the
day arrived the clergy and laity assembled in great numbers.
Before the service the Archbishop said, "I have heard many
extraordinary reports respecting your conduct, Mr. Grimshaw,
how you preach in private houses in other parishes than your
own, and that in fact you can and do preach about anything.
That I may judge for myself, I shall expect you to preach before
me and the clergy present in two hours hence, from the text I am
about to name." He named the text and gave Mr. Grimshaw
leave to retire while he confirmed the young people. Mr. Grirn-
shaw, looking at the assembled multitude, replied, " My Lord,
why keep them out of the sermon for two hours ? Send a clergy
man to read prayers, and I will begin immediately." The
Archbishop did so. Mr. Grimshaw ascended the pulpit, and so
prayed and wrestled with God for the Archbishop and people, that
the congregation, the clergy, and the Archbishop himself, were
BEGINS TO PREACH. 107
moved to tears. After the sermon, the Archbishop took him by
the hand, and turning to those who stood near, said, " I would to
God that all the clergy in my diocese were like this good man."
How much of Mr. Grimshaw s spirit was caught by Dan Taylor
will appear by and by. Meanwhile he attached himself to the
Methodists. At prayer meetings and class meetings he was often
in deep anguish of soul, till at last the light came through the
beautiful window in Johniii. 16, " God so loved the world," &c.
words which have led thousands to Christ and His salvation. In
his twentieth year he formally joined the Wesley an Society, and
was soon thrust forth to preach. Thrust forth, for when he had de
clined frequent invitations, the Superintendent of the circuit
ended the matter by informing him one evening that he must
preach early next morning before a select company of judges.
This intimation came upon Dan so suddenly, and at the same
time so coolly, that to refuse was out of the question. He retired
to his lodging, and there by the light of the fire sat up the greater
part of the night preparing for the ordeal. His sermon was
delivered from Eph. ii. 8, " By grace are ye saved." The preacher
stepped down from the pulpit very much ashamed of his work,
but the judges felt otherwise, and he was at once placed on pro
bation as a local preacher.
No sooner had this sturdy coal-miner begun to preach than
his friends advised him to apply to Mr. Wesley for an appoint
ment in the itinerant ministry. This Mr. Taylor declined to do.
He had no objection to the Methodists on the ground of doctrine,
for like them he was a decided Arminian, but he was too jealous
of his rights as an individual Christian, and too independent in
spirit to be kept bound under the oligarchy of Methodism.
In company with others, three of whom became Calvinistic
ministers, Mr. Taylor seceded from the Wesleyan body. A few
others, like minded with himself, had previously taken the same
course. These resided in a village nine miles from Halifax, in
the township adjoining Heptonstall. It was a hilly district,
108 DAN TAYLOR.
where pastureland and moorland blended with each other, and
where the wildness of nature was visibly retreating before the
advancing foot of civilization. The inhabitants were scattered,
igaorant, and depraved. Mr. Taylor knew but four Christians in
the place. At their invitation he entered the ministry. He
preached for them in the summer-time under a tree, in the open
air, at a place called the Nook, in Wadsworth. Not one man in
a thousand would dream of entering the ministry under circum-
stancas so repellant. There was no place for preaching except the
place just named ; there were none to render him support save
a mere handful of poor people without means or influence ; in
fact there was nothing whatever to tempt him to such a sphere
but the opportunity for self-sacrifice in preaching the Gospel.
But let it be said, to the eternal honour of Dan Taylor, that
throughout the whole of his long career he never sought for self.
The opportunity for self-denial in the cause of Christ was all he
ever craved, and all he ever got.
At Michaelmas, 1762, he bade farewell to the coal mine and
settle 1 in this unpromising region. At the approach of winter, a
room was taken for the double purpose of week day teaching, and
Lord s day preaching, Mr. Taylor s earnings in the former occupa
tion helping to support him in the latter. Having found a local
habitation, the assembled Christians wanted a name. They had
seceded from Methodism without considering what they should
become. They were only prevented from joining the Independ ents
by a difference of opinion as to the extent of the atonement. A
double difference kept them at that time from joining the Particular
Baptists. The term " Particular," spoke of particular redemption,
whereas Mr. Taylor and his friends believed that Jesus Christ
tasted death for every man. The term " Baptists " spoke of the
immersion of believers, and that was a doctrine which Mr. Taylor
had no wish to believe. But when the question came up among
the members of his small community, he felt bound to study it.
The study made him a Baptist in spite of himself, and, strange to
SEEKS BAPTISM. 109
say, it was the most learned work he could find on the Paedo-
Baptist side (Dr. "Wall s History of Infant Baptism) that " con
tributed more than any other book, except the New Testament, to
convince him that infant baptism has no foundation in Scripture,
but is wholly an invention of man." Mr. Taylor s friends were
neither Epicureans nor Stoics. None of them said, "may we
know what this new doctrine is ?" Nevertheless he told them.
One by one they embraced the same view, and wanted to put on
Christ in baptism. How were they to obtain baptism ? Theii
minister was himself unbaptized, and under the circumstances, he
hesitated to baptize any of the rest. Who baptized John the
Baptist, or whether he ever was baptized, none can tell ; but
among these people it was felt that he who baptized others should
first seek baptism for himself. This Mr. Taylor assayed to do, but
can you believe it in this 19th century ? Because he believed that
Christ died for the sins of the whole world, no Particular Baptist
minister would baptize him. Of any other Baptists Mr. Taylor
and his friends knew nothing. They were hardly likely to know
anything about the small sect called Six Principle Baptists, whose
distinguishing tenets are contained in Heb. vi. 1, 2, viz., repent
ance, faith, baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of
the dead, and eternal judgment. Still less were they likely to
know anything about the Seventh-day Baptists, who worship on
the Jewish Sabbath, for these have never been numerous in this
country, and but two congregations exist in England, I believe, at
the present time. The Scotch Baptists, with their weekly observ
ance of the Lord s Supper, their plurality of elders in every Church,
their love feast, kiss of charity, washing of one another s feet, and
abstinence from things strangled and from blood, had not yet come
into existence.
At length Mr. Taylor heard of the oldest Baptists in the
country the General Baptists. He was told that at Boston, in
Lincolnshire, there was a minister of the same faith as himself, who
would probably be glad to baptize him, To Boston, therefore, he
110 DAN TAYLOR
must go. The distance was 120 miles, and the place could only be
reached on foot. In company with John Slater, Mr. Taylor set
out on this long journey. The winter was at its worst. The
water was out in many places, and at the close of the first day s
journey, the hapless travellers found themselves in a field sur
rounded by floods. The darkness prevented their escape ; and the
two candidates for baptism were compelled to sleep all night under
the shelter of a haystack. Rising early to pursue their journey,
the next night found them at a place eight miles beyond Gamston,
near Retford. Learning that some General Baptists existed at
Gamston, they returned to that village the next day, which was
Sunday, and entered the quaint old chapel, which has recently
given way to a new one. Mr. Dossey, the minister, gave them a
hearty welcome, and introduced them to his colleague, Mr. Jeffrey.
The father of Mr. Jeffrey founded the cause at this place, while
in the service of the Earl of Clare ; and it is worthy of remark
that he had obtained a situation under the noble Earl, simply and
solely on the confession " I am a General Baptist." The Gamston
friends treated the inquirers with every hospitality. Two or three
days were spent in converse with the ministers, and on Wednesday,
Feb. 16th, 1763, Dan Taylor was baptized in the river Idle, by
Mr. Jeffrey.
Eager to know more of this denomination, and finding that the
Lincolnshire Association of General Baptists would meet at Boston
in the following May, Mr. Taylor resolved to be present. Arriving
at the appointed time, he found the chair occupied by the Rev.
Gilbert Boyce, who was messenger of the Churches. This office is
still preserved, in name at least, by the General Baptist Assembly.
One writer describes it as " an episcopacy, a presbytery, and an
inquisition all in one." By Grantham the Messengers are styled
"Subordinate Apostles of Christ." Here Mr. Taylor made the
acquaintance of the Rev. W. Thompson, of Boston, the minister
he had set out to see in February, and a life-long friendship sprang
up between them. Mr. Thompson went back with him into
A GENERAL BAPTIST. Ill
Yorkshire, formed the fourteen members at Wadsworth into a
Church, and on a subsequent visit, when accompanied by Messrs.
Boyce of Coningsby, and Dossey of Gamston, Mr. Taylor was
ordained.
Soon after this event a new Chapel was projected. A site was
purchased on the steep hill-side called Birchcliffe, near Hebden
Bridge. The Chapel was to cost 140, a formidable sum in those
days to that people. To raise the money Mr. Taylor travelled,
on one occasion, into the five Shires of Derby, Leicester, North
ampton, Rutland, and Nottingham : preached thirty-four times,
and took home ,22. To raise the building he was "in labours more
abundant." He bought the timber and engaged the builder. He
was by turns architect, quarryman, over-looker, and clerk of the
works : and when the building was finished he crowned his labours
by carrying the pulpit on his back from the old meeting house to
the new.
Soon after his acquaintance with the Lincolnshire General
Baptists, Mr. Taylor found to his regret that anti-evangelical
sentiments had taken deep root among them. They were fast
becoming Unitarians. Mr. Taylor tried long and hard to bring
them back to his own views, but all in vain. He must try another
course. In the Midland Counties Mr. Taylor had discovered
some General Baptists whose sentiments were as evangelical as his
own. Their head centre was Barton-in-the-Beans, a small hamlet
near to where Richard III., the last of the Plantagenets, met his
death at the battle of Bosworth Field. Between these unassociated
Churches, and the Churches of the Assembly, Mr. Taylor sought
to form a union, in the hope that the new leaven would purge out
the old. This attempt also failed. There was no alternative but
to attempt the formation of a new connexion. The venerable
Gilbert Boyce did all he could to prevent the secession, and had
the reasons for withdrawal been less serious than they were, he
might have succeeded. It was no personal question, no mere
struggle for supremacy, no friction in the machinery which a little
US DAN TAYLOR.
oil would remove : to Mr. Taylor s mind it was a battle for God s
Truth. " It is not to be doubted," said he, " if we regard the
Bible, that some of the vilest errors are, in this age, maintained by
some of the General Baptists, with as much warmth as they have
ever been by any party of men in former ages. It behoves us
therefore to take the alarm, and with all the little might we have
to militate against those pernicious tenets which our forefathers so
much abhorred, and which the Word of God so expressly con
demns." That these were the only reasons for the step Mr. Taylor
took, is abundantly evident from the friendly relations he long
sustained, both to individuals in the Assembly and to the Assembly
itself.
I need not discuss the preliminary steps which were necessary
to start the new denomination. Suffice it that on June 6th, 1770,
Mr. Taylor met his friends at Mr. Brittain s Meeting-House, Church
Lane, Whitechapel, that on the following morning he delivered a
discourse from the words " Be not thou ashamed of the testimony
of the Lord," that in the afternoon he was called to the chair, and
that six Articles of Faith which Mr. Taylor had prepared, were
read, approved, and signed by the nineteen ministers present,
(himself included), that the Churches represented numbered 1,635
members, and that the name by which they called themselves was,
The Assembly of Free Grace General Baptists. Thus sprang into
being, what is now called the General Baptist Association, or in
other words the New Connexion of General Baptists.
Mr. Taylor at this time was exceedingly popular as a preacher,
and indefatigable as a worker. He cultivated his gifts with
untiring toil. Usually he rose at five and went to bed at ten, but
many a time and oft his growing labours compelled him to sit up
half the night. He read incessantly and systematically, theology,
history, biography, and- philosophy, and kept up an acquaintance
with mathematics, Greek, and Latin. His recreation he found in
his work. He preached, on an average, six times a week the year
through. Having preached in the morning and afternoon at
CHAPEL BUILDING 113
Birchcliffe, lie would set off across the wild and rugged country to
Queenshead (now Queensbury), to Shore, to Halifax, to Worsthorn,
or to Burnley. At Worsthorn some " lewd fellows of the baser
sort," threatened to drag him from the pulpit, and one of them
rose during the service and moved forward with that intent, but
the preacher eyed him with a look so stedfast that he relinquished
his purpose before reaching the pulpit stairs. The distance to
Burnley was fourteen miles, and it was generally two o clock in
the morning before he got back home. In several of these places
he was the means of building Chapels, and in all he made himself
responsible for the regular preaching of the Gospel. In addition
to all this, it was his habit to make frequent excursions on foot
among all the Churches of the denomination, preaching every
day. After a fortnight s work of this kind, among the Midland
Churches, he took home .70 towards the new Chapel at Queenshead.
During the year in which the Chapel at Halifax was being built,
he made seven of these excursions in order to aid the work. When
the Church complained of his frequent absence, he made what
amends he could by training local preachers to fill his vacant
pulpit.
In order to provide things honourable in the sight of all men,
he added to his school a shop, but this not succeeding, he sold off
the goods and took a farm, and at the same time began a board
ing school, which soon numbered fourteen boarders and about
thirty other pupils. Amid all these labours he found opportunity
to publish in rhyme an answer to a Socinian pamphlet by the
celebrated Dr. Priestley of Leeds. He also published a Catechism,
which during his life-time went through about eleven editions.
He subsequently published an " Essay on the Right Use of Earthly
Treasure ;" and dealt with that delicate subject in a manner and
in a spirit which would have delighted the soul of John Wesley.
But his great work, his chef-d oeuvre, originally published in 1775,
was the " Fundamentals ;" or, " Principal parts of the Christian
Religion in Faith and Practice." It is a plain but solid work
114 DAN TAYLOR.
permeated with Scripture truth, and it remains to this day the best
volume of its class in General Baptist Literature.
His habit of treating texts was quite puritanical. One of his
sermons delivered at an Ordination, had three main divisions, forty-
four sub-divisions, and six reasons for enforcing the foregoing, making
fifty-three in all. But the charge delivered to his brother John as
pastor at Queenshead was the most extraordinary of all. No wonder
his brother deemed it both "long and heavy," for one of the
hearers said it contained 600 particulars. His usual plan in pre
paring for the pulpit was to compose notes and outlines, these
would frequently contain a score of particulars. He seldom used
them in preaching, but placed them between the leaves of his
Bible to be used if needful.
Mr. Taylor was also a master in debate. He was fearless as
Luther. When the young and gifted minister of the church at
Kegworth began to teach Socinian errors, and when four neigh
bouring ministers had failed in public discussion to convince him
of his error, Mr. Taylor was sent for. He went. A public dis
cussion was agreed upon between himself and the Kegworth pas
tor, which took place in the chapel at Castle Donington. On the
appointed day the building was crowded to excess. The fate of
all the churches far and near seemed to hang upon that discus
sion. The debate lasted for ten hours, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and
was attended with the most satisfactory results. The heresy was
checked, the cause of evangelical truth triumphed : then had the
churches rest throughout all the denomination.
Some time after this event Mr. Taylor received a call from the
Church at Halifax, his native town, to be their minister. " Of
course," you will say, " it was for more money." On the contrary,
it was for less. True, Halifax was the most flourishing town in all
that district, but the cause at Haley Hill (since transferred to
North Parade) was in its infancy. That, however, was not the
main difficulty. The removal of an ordained minister from his
sphere of labour was an unknown thing in the denomination, and
AT HALIFAX. 115
the spirit of the time was against it. Mr. Taylor would neither
say yes nor no. After the Association and several Conferences had
been consulted, the matter was left to "the decision of Pro
vidence," which was that Mr. Taylor should go to Halifax for six
months, while another minister should take his place at Birch-
cliffe, in order to see how the change would be likely to work.
The experiment was successful. His people at Birchcliffe were
constrained to part with him, but it was a fine tribute to their
pastor s worth when they said it was " one of the greatest troubles
they had ever known."
Mr. Taylor was now 45 years of age, and what with a family
of seven young children, and a small Church, meeting in a heavily
burdened chapel, he had hard work to live. Nevertheless he
threw himself into his work with unwonted energy. He preached
three times on Sundays, the Lord "confirming the word with signs
following." One notable instance of this occurred in the case of
an Irishman, Patrick Phelon by name, who had been a Roman
Catholic and a soldier. This man, who had no sympathy whatever
with the "Dippers," was induced one Sunday morning to hear Mr.
Taylor preach. He went also in the afternoon, and again in the
evening. In the morning he learned that he was not a child of
God ; in the afternoon he heard the way of salvation ; and in the
evening he adopted Joshua s resolution to serve the Lord. The
resolution thus formed he kept by the grace of God to the end of
life, and when he came to die, the doctor was so impressed with
his conversation that he said, " I never before had such a patient
he knows the way to heaven ! "
In addition to his home work, Mr. Taylor, in order to reduce
the chapel debt, resorted to his usual method of visiting the
churches near and far, preaching and collecting money. Mounted
on his pony he rode sixty miles one day, and fifty-five the next,
preached in London the same night, and then wrote that "after very
great fatigue, he and his pony were in good spirits." To wards the close
of another excursion he came to Epworth in Lincolnshire. On
116 DAN TAYLOR
the Friday he baptised some candidates, and preached three times.
On the Saturday he started for home. It was a " frightful journey."
He rode on a borrowed galloway twenty-four miles, and walked
thirty-eight more amid rain and mire. He went to bed, and on the
following day preached three times, held three other meetings
between the services, and, to use his own words, got through the
whole " with moderate ease and pleasure."
So passionately did he prosecute his work, that before he was
47 years of age, this zealous pastor, this ardent home missionary,
this successor to labours, if not to endowments, apostolic, had tra
velled, preaching the Gospel and confirming the churches, no less
a distance than 25,000 miles, or more than the entire circuit of
the globe.
Mr. Taylor had been only two years at Halifax when he was
invited to London. The Society of General Baptists, meeting at
Church Lane, Whitechapel, had existed from the time of Oliver
Cromwell and the early years of the Commonwealth. Its
foundation is ascribed to Samuel Loveday. The Church Lane
Chapel, a plain brick building, was opened in 1763. It was
relinquished for Beulah, now called Commercial Koad, Chapel, in
1821. In 1770, the Church numbered about 300 members, but in
fourteen years the numbers had declined to 150. The aged pastor,
Mr. Brittain, felt the need of help. Mr. Taylor was invited. The
invitation reached him as he was following the plough. He knew
not how to decide, nor did any of his friends know what to
advise. The question agitated the whole Connexion for twelve
months. At length the matter was left to the decision of the
Association, and, after a ten hours discussion, it was agreed " that
it would be most for the glory of God for Brother Taylor to
remove to London." Selling off his farming stock, his furniture,
and most of his books, Mr. Taylor left Yorkshire for London, with
his wife and nine children, on July 21st, 1785. Their mode of
travelling was as primitive as that which characterised the removal
of the patriarch Jacob into Egypt, for this journey, like that, was
IN LONDON. 117
accomplished by means of a waggon lent for the purpose. The
distance was 217 miles, and after eight days riding, the whole
family arrived safely at their new home, Turville Street, Cock
Lane, Spitalfields.
What he would want in London with such a family Mr. Taylor
did not know. What the Church offered him was ,100 a year.
Meat was cheaper then than it is now, but wheat, which for a few
years was at its present value, gradually rose in price, till in the
year 1801 the quartern loaf was sold for a time at one shilling and
tenpence. Mr. Taylor s friends thought him exceedingly venture
some in coming to London for so small a salary, but they consoled
themselves and comforted him, by saying, that he was " so hard,
as to be able to get though anything that could be gotten through."
As co-pastor with Mr. Brittain, Mr. Taylor undertook the
preaching almost entirely. The congregations increased and many
were added to the Church. Nor were the claims of a London
pastorate allowed to interfere with his former practice of preaching
the Gospel in the regions beyond. " The care of all the churches "
was upon him. They looked up to him as their chief adviser and
friend. In short, he was like Ahithophel of old: "the counsel
which he counselled was as if a man inquired at the oracle of
God." He had mentioned the claims and expectations of other
churches to the people at Church Lane, as a reason why they
should not invite him ; but they, anxious to obtain his services
upon almost any terms, promised him " full liberty respecting his
journeys." In London, as in previous spheres, he became engaged
in various controversies. One of them was about singing. This
important and delightful feature in Divine worship was once
considered a dangerous and unscriptural innovation. Volumes
have been written about it, both for and against. Thomas Gran-
tham said, that more could be urged " for all praying at once than
for all singing at once." The solo-singing revived of late years
by Mr. Sankey, was once regarded as more scriptural than con
gregational singing. The singing of "rhymes by set-form, by all
118 DAN TAYLOR.
the people together, whether saints or sinners, members or no
members," was described by Dr. Russell, in 1696, as a "mere
human invention of ballad-singing" At Bristol a congregation
was divided on this subject half of them liked singing, and half
of them were opposed to it. Those who disliked it, gravely asked
permission, if this thing were practised, either to keep on their hats,
or to go out during that part of the service. At Church Lane the
practise had been introduced very cautiously. It began, in 1722,
with one hymn at each service, and it was seven years later before
they ventured to sing after the sermon. The old General Baptists
held out against the practice in Mr. Taylor s time, and its revival
in the New Connexion moved the venerable Gilbert Boyce to
publish " Serious Thoughts " upon it. He also wrote to Mr.
Taylor a very severe letter on the subject. Thus challenged, Mr.
Taylor replied in a pamphlet, entitled, "A Dissertation on Singing
in the Worship of God," in which he gave advice, replied to
objections, and vindicated the practice of the New Connexion
churches.
With the Rev. Andrew Fuller, of Kettering, he had a contro
versy of a more formidable character. Mr. Fuller published a
pamphlet, entitled, " The Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation : or,
the Obligation of Men fully to credit and cordially to approve
whatever God makes known." Under that title Mr. Fuller
claimed to make free use of the universal calls of Scripture,
whilst at the same time he held the doctrines of election and
particular redemption. The high Calvinists were alarmed at his
concessions ; the more moderate of them rejoiced that he yielded
so much ; the Arminians were sorry he did not yield more. At
the urgent request of several friends, Mr. Taylor published a reply
in the shape of " Nine Letters to a Friend : " by Philanthropes.
In those letters Mr. Taylor took the ground that the Gospel ought
indeed to be preached to every man, and that every man ought to
believe it for the simple and sufficient reason that Christ had
made an atonement for the sins of all mankind. Mr. Fuller
ANDREW FULLER. 119
published a rejoinder, and Mr. Taylor followed with another
reply, to which he subscribed his name. Some three years after
wards, a pamphlet was issued from the press, bearing the following
title, " The Keality and Efficacy of Divine Grace ; with the
certain success of Christ s Sufferings on behalf of all who are
finally saved : considered in a Series of Letters to the Rev.
Andrew Fuller : containing remarks on the observations of the
Rev. Dan Taylor, on Mr. Fuller s reply to Philanthropes. By
Agnostos"
A prominent Baptist minister, a friend of Mr. Fuller, was
thought to be the writer. People were confirmed in this view by
the fact that the letters praised Mr. Fuller very highly. Years
afterwards it was discovered that Agnostos, who wrote the letters
to Mr. Fuller, was none other than Mr. Fuller himself. Mr.
Taylor published a " Friendly Conclusion," and the subject forth
with dropped. There is no need to claim the victory for one side
over the other. Suffice it, that the concessions made by Mr. Fuller
exhibit a wide departure from the old Calvinism, and make a
very near approach to Arminianism ; and that the discussion
secured what Mr. Taylor had at heart, viz., a wider, freer, and
more earnest proclamation of the everlasting Gospel.
The ink shed over this controversy was scarcely dry when Mr.
Taylor had to attack a doctrine which has found new advocates
in recent years I mean the doctrine of Universal Restoration.
Its promoter at that time was the Rev. Elkanah Winchester, from
America, and Mr. Taylor, at the double request of the Rev.
Abraham Booth, and a clergyman of the Established Church,
prepared and printed a reply. Referring to that reply some seventeen
years after its publication, the Rev. Dr. Winter pronounced it so
forcible, so judicious, and so complete, as to leave nothing to be
desired. His busy pen and busier brain had little or no rest.
He sent to the press a work on Baptism, which went through
seven editions. He also issued a volume on the "Truth and
Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures." So large a share did he
120 DAN TAYLOR.
take in compiling the first General Baptist Hymn-book, that it
was frequently called by his name. He also commenced, and
conducted for three years, the first General Baptist Magazine.
Amid these varied labours, affliction entered his home. His
wife and three daughters were all ill at one time with scarlet
fever ; and such was the devotion of the husband and father, that
for six weeks he never took off his clothes, except to change them.
Worn with constant anxiety, he was himself seized with rheu
matism and an affliction of the eyes. Embarrassment trod on the
heels of affliction, and to increase his slender salary he opened a
bookseller s shop in Union Street, Bishopsgate Street. Then came
the heaviest blow of all, in the loss of her who for twenty-nine years
had been to him a most devoted wife. Mrs. Taylor died, leaving nine
children out of a family of thirteen. Immediately after this painful
bereavement, the Kev. W. Thompson, of Boston, his intimate and
valued friend, was taken away. Mr. Brittain, his aged colleague in
the ministry, soon followed. Then came a severe personal affliction,
in the form of a burning fever, and an ulcerated sore throat.
This laid him aside from his pulpit for the first time in his whole
ministry of more than thirty years. It was in the month of February,
1795. The buoyancy of his nature soon threw off the disease,
and the summer found him as busy as ever. On one of his
excursions he preached fourteen times in the space of a fortnight.
At home he composed five or six sermons a week, and
only complained because he had not much time left for
general reading.
In 1797, at a time of life when many men lay down their
work, Mr. Taylor entered upon a new and responsible undertaking.
He had long wished to see established an institution for the
training of young ministers ; and even when in Wadsworth he
had taken one or two young men into his house for that purpose.
At last the Association resolved to open an Academy, and Mr.
Taylor was earnestly asked to become the Tutor. He accepted
the office, and served in it both faithfully and usefully for fifteen
OLD AGE AND DEATH. 121
years, performing at the same time his duties as a pastor, and
combining with both a remarkable amount of other labour.
The memorable language of the 90th Psalm runs thus : " The
days of our years are threescore years and ten ; and if by reason
of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour
and sorrow : for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." When past the
age of 70, Mr. Taylor had much strength, and even at the age of
76 he journeyed long distances and preached to crowded congre
gations almost every day. Yet was his labour mingled with
sorrow. His Church was sadly weakened by internal dissensions.
His slender income was reduced one third ; and the building of
a house for the better accommodation of his family and students,
almost brought him to financial ruin. Just then his second wife,
who had been an " unspeakable blessing " to himself, his family,
and the Church, for more than fifteen years, was taken away. After
a period of eighteen months he married a third time, but he found it
far easier to please himself than to satisfy his Church, even though
he married a deacon s daughter. At the age of 78, having lost
his third wife, he married again, and this time all approved his
choice.
At intervals, during the last years of his life, he had suffered
from various illnesses, and at length the end came. He had
preached twice on the Sunday ; had been out to tea on the
Monday, but in the night was restless, and felt some pain. On
Tuesday he relished his dinner, after which, as his manner was,
he took his pipe and began to read. Suddenly, without any
warning, the pipe fell from his hand, his eyes closed, and " he
was not, for God took him." His funeral was performed according
to his own wish, without hearse, or coach, or escutcheon. He was
buried in the ancient burial-ground of Bunhill Fields, on Dec.
the 5th, 1816, and strangers, his own people, and the whole
denomination mourned for him.
To do anything like justice to Mr. Taylor s various qualities,
and to set out fully all his immense labours, would require not a
122 DAN TAYLOR
brief lecture but a large volume. But I think I have said enough
to show that Dan Taylor was a man of no ordinary type. Under
the average height, he was what Tennyson would call
" A square-set man and honest."
He wore a fine grey wig. His portrait may be seen in the well-
known engraving of contemporary ministers, published many
years ago, and I venture to say, that amid Carey, Knibb, Bippon,
Byland, John Foster, and Bobt. Hall, no finer face is found. He
had little or no humour, but was sustained in a sea of troubles by
a cheerfulness which never failed. In his time he had been
collier, schoolmaster, quarryman, architect, shopkeeper, farmer,
preacher, poet, controversialist, editor, and Tutor of the College.
With the exception of a single year, he was President of the
Association from the time of its foundation to the day of his
death. He preached before the Association almost as often, and
wrote nearly twenty of its Circular Letters. He took part in thirty-
eight ordinations, giving the charge in each case either to the
pastor or to the Church. He was also present at 200 conferences,
wrote forty books, and preached 20,000 sermons.
If genius be a capacity for plodding, he had genius. Of the
capacities with which he was endowed he made the most. He
had, moreover, a zeal which is better than ability. Napoleon once
wrote saying that he enjoyed studying the position of his armies,
" like a school-girl her romance." Like Napoleon, but in a very
different sphere, Mr. Taylor enjoyed his work. He loved his
Bible dearly, a nd in a portrait, taken when he was 71 years of
age, he is represented as clasping the New Testament to his breast
with a firmness of grip and a stedfastness of look, as if the very
picture were saying :
" Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my faith with treacherous art,
I d call them vanity and lies,
And bind the gospel to my heart."
To him, a " Thus saith the Lord " was more than all else in
HIS CHARACTER. 123
framing a theory or conducting a discussion. Hence he delighted
in quoting the conduct of a countryman who, when the preacher
kept saying " I think " this, and " I think " that, called out in the
midst of the sermon, " What signifies it what thou thinkest ?
Tell us what God says." Like Wm. Gobbet, he made it a rule to
write and to speak so that he might not only be understood, but
so that he could not be misunderstood. Having mastered what
he professed to teach, he used great boldness of speech ; indeed
his boldness in the pulpit and with the pen was but another
manifestation of the same determined spirit which characterised
all he did. As our poet-laureate would say, he was
" A strong man :
For where he fixt his heart, he set his hand
To do the thing he will d, and bore it through."
He fought the fight ; he kept the faith ; and what Paul anticipated,
he has found, for to-day, beyond a doubt,
" He wears a truer crown
Than any wreath that man can weave him."
THE BAPTISTS & MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE;
BY
REV. J. F. JONES.
AF the large number of memorable men who lived during the
^ second half of the last century, by no means the least
conspicuous was William Carey. He was born in 1761, and in the
26th year of his age, being ordained to the pastoral office, became
the minister of the Baptist Church at Moulton, a village in the
county of Northampton.
William Carey was by trade a shoemaker, or, to be more
correct, a cobbler, for it is reported that he made only one pair of
shoes, which, when finished, were much too long, and which he
put right by cutting off the toes and sewing them up again.
Subsequently he became the village schoolmaster, and in this
capacity found employment much more suitable both to his tastes
and abilities. Whether engaged in mending shoes, or in teaching
children, he was a student, chiefly of languages, to the mastery
of which he applied himself with the utmost diligence.
His mind was however occupied for some years with one
overmastering thought. He had ascertained that of the population
of the world, estimated at 731,000,000, not more than 44,000,000,
or about one-sixteenth, were Protestants ; whilst 420,000,000, con
siderably more than one-half of the entire human race, were
WILLIAM CAREY. 1^5
pagans. This fact haunted him continually, and being convinced that
the religion of Christ alone could satisfy and save mankind, he
conceived the idea of planting the Gospel in heathen lands, and
was impelled by an irresistible passion to carry it out.
Having repeatedly consulted his personal friends on the
subject, he ventured to raise the question at a meeting of Baptist
ministers. From them he received no encouragement ; few
sympathised with him ; none were prepared to support him.
They declared "the time had not come," "the denomination
would not concur in the undertaking," and, above all, that " there
was quite sufficient work to be done at home." Though somewhat
disappointed, he was by no means daunted. He could think and
speak of nothing else, and in a most excellent sense, he became " a
man of one idea."
At one of these ministerial meetings presided over by Mr.
Byland, it was suggested that one of the younger brethren should
propose a topic for discussion. After a few moment s silence,
Carey rose. No question of theological debate did he suggest, but
the one question which was always uppermost in his mind, " the
duty of Christians to attempt to spread the Gospel among heathen
nations." The meeting was thrown into consternation, not another
dared to speak save the Chairman, who, with unrestrained
vehemence, denounced the young man as an enthusiast.
Being thus treated when he spoke, Carey determined to fight
his battle with the pen, and he issued a pamphlet, entitled " An
inquiry into the obligation of Christians to use means for the
conversion of the heathen." The effect of this pamphlet was
marvellous, or rather the work itself was marvellous, and its
effect only natural. It presented the duty of the Church so
clearly that men dared no longer to disregard it ; and by this, the
"young enthusiast" made his first real impression. In 1788 he
removed from Moulton to Leicester, and became the pastor of the
Baptist Church in Harvey Lane, afterward the scene of the labours
of one of the most zealous supporters of the mission, the accom-
I
126 BAPTIST MISSIONS.
plished and eloquent Eobert Hall. But his intense longing for
the Gospel to be made known in distant lands was still
undiminished.
Three years later, when he again introduced the question at a
meeting of Baptist ministers, to his great delight he was encouraged
by Mr. Sutcliffe and Mr. Andrew Fuller, each of whom preached
a sermon in defence of him and in support of his proposal.
Whilst opposition and discouragement had failed to quench the
fire of his passion, sympathy served to fan it into a still fiercer
flame, and at the next meeting of the Association, held at
Nottingham in the spring of 1792, he preached a sermon on the
subject. He chose for his text the words of Isaiah : "Enlarge the
place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine
habitations. Spare not; lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy
stakes, for thou shalt break forth, on the right hand and on the left,
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities
to be inhabited." The sermon, divided into two parts, "Expect
great things from God " and " attempt great things for God," was
animating as it was criminating. Many who had openly opposed
the project wept for shame ; others, who had treated it with
indifference, were scarcely less affected ; old prejudices fell away,
and it was at once resolved "that against the next ministers
meeting at Kettering, a plan should be prepared for the purpose
of forming a Society for propagating the Gospel among the
heathen." In accordance with this resolution, on Tuesday the
2nd of October, 1792, twelve men met together in a house at
Kettering, by whom a Society was formed, to be called "The
Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the
Heathen."
This having been done, money was required ; and how much
do you think was realised 1 How many thousands of pounds do
you suppose were laid upon God s altar, for the purpose of making
known His love to the heathen world ? Talk not of thousands !
The whole fund with which this Society commenced operations
FIEST EFFORTS. 127
amounted to 13 12s. 6d. The objectors to the scheme (for there
were some who had survived the shocks of Carey s pamphlet
and sermon), were amused. " What," said they, "is .13 the
mighty sum with which it is proposed to undertake so vast
a scheme 1 " Yes ; it was contributed by a few earnest men,
who gave what they could, and was as the first droppings of a series
of showers of the most splendid generosity which the Christian
world has ever known.
Six weeks later, Mr. Thomas, formerly a surgeon in Bengal,
was accepted as the first Baptist missionary, and was directed to
India. Carey was asked if he would accompany him, and scarcely
was the question asked, when it was answered by a joyful " Yes,"
for though he had a desire to make his way to the South Sea
Islands, he cared but little where he went so long as he could
only have the opportunity of preaching the Gospel to those who
had never heard it.
The Church at Harvey Lane at once gave up its pastor, and
so far all w T as well, but unfortunately Mrs. Carey, forgetting the
vow which she had made " to obey " her lord, absolutely and
obstinately refused to accompany him. Doubtless this good man
loved his wife much, but he loved his duty a great deal more, and
therefore he resolved to go without her, and to take with him
Felix, his eldest son.
A farewell service having been held at Leicester, the mission
aries embarked for India. They were not yet, however, fairly off
the captain of the vessel having received an anonymous letter,
warning him at his peril to proceed with them, at once ordered them
to disembark. Poor Carey, stout-hearted as he was, was utterly
dejected, whilst the no less indomitable Fuller exclaimed, " We
are all undone /" It is often the case, however, that good is brought
out of evil, and on this occasion (perhaps the only one since the
creation of the world) good came out of an anonymous letter, for
Mr. Thomas, doubtless prompted by pity for his lonely companion,
visited Mrs. Carey, and prevailed upon her to accompany them.
128 BAPTIST MISSIONS.
when it should be found possible for them to set sail ; and on the
13th day of April, 1793, they all embarked on board the Kron
Princess Maria.
It was with a true, unselfish gladness that they broke away
from their native land. They looked forward to the strange
country, rather than backward upon old England ; and on the
morning of the day on which they sailed, their joyous feelings
were well expressed by one of them who wrote : " The ship is
come, the signal made, the guns are fired, and we are going with a
fine fair wind. Farewell ! my dear brethren and sisters, farewell !
May the God of Jacob be ours and yours, by sea and by land, for time
and for eternity : most affectionately adieu /"
No sooner had they bidden farewell to their friends in England,
than Messrs. Carey and Thomas set to work at the translation of
the Book of Genesis into Bengalee, a language familiar to one, and
not altogether unknown by the other ; and on Nov. 7th they
reached their much longed-for haven.
Such was the origin of the Baptist Missionary Society; for
nearly ninety years it has existed, extending its operations year
by year ; and to-day it matters not to which part of the globe we
look, whether North or South, East or West, for in Europe,
Asia, Africa, and America, there are God-fearing, Christ-
loving men and women supported by this Society, the origin of
whose work may be traced to the vigorous mind and the noble
heart of William Carey.
On the arrival of the missionaries in India, they made their
way to Calcutta, where, though kindly received by the natives,
they remained only until they had arranged their secular affairs,
and travelled about, viewing a small portion of the land which
they had determined should be conquered for Christ. Right
patiently and ploddingly did they labour, though they could see
almost no results from their work. Being in a strange land, they
were often sorely pressed by temporal needs. Heavy was the
burden of affliction which had to be borne by each of them, yet
MARSHMAN AND WARD. 129
they pushed along, unable to despair because of the conviction
that God had sent them, and that God was with them. For some
years they " went about doing good," until in the last year of the
century they found a settled home at Serampore.
At a committee meeting held in 1795, two young men, Jacob
Grigg and James Eodway, were selected to go out to Africa, and
they set sail on Nov. 2nd of that year. Their prospects of success
were most encouraging, but the health of the one, and the prudence
of the other, proving defective, the one returned to England, and
the other, hid his face, in America. The collapse of this mission
to Africa, though greatly disappointing to the Committee, did not
in the smallest degree, either shake its faith or damp its zeal.
Almost the only objection to mission enterprise which has
survived to the present time is based upon the spiritual needs of
our own country. " Why," it is sometimes asked, " should all
this money and all this energy be expended in the attempt to
convert the heathen world, when there is so much need for Gospel
light at home ? This objection ought by this time to be worn
out, for it was one of the earliest, and how do you think it was
answered nearly a hundred years ago I Why, the first Baptist
Foreign Missionary Society was the first Baptist Home Missionary
Society ; a sum of money was voted out of the general funds for
the purpose of evangelising England. So it has been ever since,
and so it must always be. Let the missionary spirit be active,
and the home of the mission will reap a large benefit.
In 1796, John Fountain was welcomed to the soil of
Hindustan, and was followed, three years later, by Ward,
Brunsdon, Grant, and Marshman. The attention of Carey and
Thomas had from the first been given to the translation of the
Scriptures into the native tongues. In their cabins on board the
Kron Princess Maria, they commenced this work ; under the
burning sun of India they continued it ; most devoted was their
diligence, and almost incredible was their progress. Within five
years after their arrival, they had completed translations of the
130 BAPTIST MISSIONS.
Pentateuch, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, part of Ezekiel, and
the whole of the New Testament ; and it was resolved to send
from England a supply of paper for the printing of the New
Testament. Thomas was no less earnest in this matter than
Carey, and the latter entered into the spirit of the words of the
former, who said, " I would give a million pounds sterling if I
had it to see a Bengalee Bible."
Early in the first year of the present century, Mr. Carey
arrived at Serampore, and this Danish settlement became thence
forth the headquarters of the Mission. The Governor was
favourably disposed to the work, and suitable premises were
obtained. The press, which had been fixed at Mudnabutty, was
removed to Serampore, and with the indefatigable Ward to
superintend it, whilst the Word of God was being preached to
the thousands, it was printed for the millions of India.
The death of Mr. Fountain at this time cast a deep shadow
over the brightening prospects of the Mission. His too short
career had been one full of noble deeds. A stone was erected to
mark the place of his burial, upon which, according to his own
request, were inscribed the words, " John Fountain, missionary
to the Indies, aged 33, a sinner, saved by grace"
Up to this date, although a continually increasing band of
men and women had been working for fully seven years, not
a single Hindoo had given evidence of conversion to the
Chrisian faith, but at length the reward of patient waiting
came. On December 29th, 1800, Dr. Carey baptised his son,
Felix, and the first Hindoo convert, named Krishnoo. We
will not speculate as to which was the happier moment to
him, that in which he led into the water his first-born son, or
that in which he pronounced the sacred name over the first
Bengali convert. The ceremony was witnessed by many hundreds
of people who poured anathemas on the convert and his family,
but in the crowd there was one who shed tears of joy, and that
was the good-hearted Governor of the settlement. Other natives
OBJECTORS. 131
quickly followed the example of Krishnoo, and Carey s second
son followed the example of his elder brother.
The membership of the Church rapidly increased to the
number of thirty-six, consisting of fourteen Europeans, and
twenty-two natives. Preaching was commenced at Calcutta, and
the printing press was kept steadily at work. The Pentateuch,
the Psalms, the Prophecies of Isaiah, and the New Testament,
had already been printed, and it was the ambition and the
intention of the missionaries to circulate the Word of God in ten
distinct languages.
Early in 1805 an insurrection broke out at Vellore, in which
a number of British soldiers were massacred, for which these
simple-hearted peace-loving men were blamed ; and though it
was proved that not a single missionary had approached that part
of Hindustan, certain reports being carried over to England, an
attempt was made to work upon the fears of the Government, and
induce the authorities to recall the missionaries. For this purpose,
pamphlets were published by individual writers, which were full
of invective, whilst the Edinburgh Reviewers joined in the attack,
and directed their bitterest sarcasm against Carey and his fellow-
workers. Mr. Andrew Fuller, who was the very soul of the Mission,
at once joined issue with these assailants ; pamphlet followed pam
phlet in quick succession, each of which was a masterly production
of his splendid mind. The Quarterly Review also took up the
question, and boldly defended the missionaries. Keplying to their
opponents, who called them fools, madmen, Tinkers, Calvinists, and
schismatics, the Quarterly Review says : " These low-born and low
bred mechanics have translated the whole Bible into Bengalee, and
have by this time printed it. They are printing the New Testament
in the Sanscrit, the Orissa, Maharatta, Hindustanee, and Guzarat,
and translating it into Persic, Feluiga, Karnata, Chinese, and the
language of the SeiJcs and of the Burmans; and in four of these
languages they are going on with the Bible. Extraordinary as this is,
it will appear more so when it is remembered, that of these men, one
131 BAPTIST MISSIONS.
was originally a shoemaker, another aprinter at Hull, and a third, the
master of a charity school at Bristol. Only fourteen years have
elapsed since Thomas and Carey set foot in India, and in that time
have these misssonaries acquired this gift of tongues. In fourteen
years these low-born and low-bred mechanics have done more towards
spreading the knowledge of the Scriptures among the heathen, than
has been accomplished, or even attempted, by all the world besides"
These opponents having been vanquished, the work progressed
more rapidly than formerly. In 1807, operations were commenced
in Burmah, and two years later there were, in all, nine stations
occupied by ten Europeans and two native missionaries ; and in
1811, the number of members in all the stations exceeded three
hundred, one-third of whom had been received into fellowship in
a little more than a year.
On March llth, 1811, fire broke out in the printing office at
Serampore, and the building, 200 feet long, was totally destroyed.
Paper, type, manuscripts, and books were also consumed ; and the
total loss amounted to the value of ,10,000. As soon as the
intelligence of this disaster arrived in England, the Christian
people of all denominations became eager to repair the loss. A
subscription list was opened, and now we may talk of thousands,
for one thousand pounds followed another thousand pounds, until,
in a little more than six weeks after the news of the fire was
known, Mr. Fuller suggested, that as the entire amount had been
collected, they were bound in all honesty to stop the contributions.
Undoubted progress was now made. The hearts of the natives
seemed gradually opened for the reception of the Word ; and to
the joy of all, and to the unspeakable rapture of one, another of
Dr. Carey s sons became decided for Christ and dedicated to his
service. Jabez Carey had displayed a most decided aversion to
Christianity. At the first annual meeting of the Society held in
London, Dr. Ryland referred to the happiness of Dr. Carey in
having two of his sons working with him, " but," he said, " there
is a third who gives him pain. Brethren, let us send up a united,
SUTCLIFFE. 133
universal, and fervent prayer to God, for the conversion of Jabez
Carey" A most solemn and prayerful spirit at once fell upon the
audience ; and call it a coincidence if you will amongst the
first letters afterward received from India, was the announcement
of that conversion, which was said to have taken place almost at
the very hour of prayer in London. Jabez Carey was cordially
accepted as a member of the missionary staff ; and his father and
two brothers united in " laying hands " upon him.
In the year 1813, considerable interest was awakened by the
question of renewing the Charter of the East India Company.
It was 110 secret that this Company was most unfriendly to the
work of the missionaries, who were compelled to proceed to India
by the circuitous route of America. Andrew Fuller and Robert
Hall united in a vigorous and successful effort to secure the
insertion of a clause in the renewed Charter, " authorising the
peaceful dissemination of the gospel in India." Four clauses were
inserted, favourable to "persons desirous of going to India for
the purpose of promoting the religious and moral improvement
of the natives."
In the following year a heavy loss was sustained in the
death of Mr. Sutcliffe, who had from the first been a staunch
friend to the Mission. Born in Halifax in the year 1752,
after spending a life distinguished for prudence, kindness, and
integrity, he died on the 22nd of June, 1814, in the 62nd year of
his age.
Mr. Sutcliffe had been for many years the intimate friend of
Mr. Andrew Fuller, and they were scarcely divided even in death,
for within twelve months of the decease of the one, Mr. Fuller,
who had been secretary of the Society ever since its formation,
was also called away. The extraordinary power of this popular
preacher is well known. He proved himself to be, if not a ready,
at least a dangerous foe in controversy. He was eminently
adapted to lead men. He spent a life of splendid industry, and
having " served his generation, fell on sleep."
134 GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONS.
During the years 1815-16-17, upwards of 400 members were
added to the chapels in India, and in the last of these years, the
total membership was not less than 1,200. Day and Sunday
schools were conducted at almost every station ; and the translation
of the Scriptures already completed, together with that in process
of being carried out, gave the Word of God, in its own language,
to almost every nation from China to the borders of Persia, com
prising nearly a half of the entire human race.
But before we leave this, the FIRST PERIOD of Missions, we
must refer to the formation of our own Society.
In 1809, the Rev. J. G. Pike, of Derby, author of "Persuasives
to Early Piety," and similar works, at the annual Association
of the General Baptist Churches, held at Quorndon, in the county
of Leicester, suggested, overtures having been made in vain to
co-operate with the existing Particular Baptist Society, that they
themselves should engage a missionary, and form an additional Society
for propagating the Gospel among the heathen. His suggestion
was not then carried into effect, but his appeals were in
cessant and his enthusiasm contagious, and the fire at Serampore
co-operating to awaken sympathy in the hearts of all Christians,
a resolution was passed at the Association held at Boston in June,
1816, that "a GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY should
be established." The first missionaries of this Society, Messrs.
Bampton and Peggs, set sail in May of 1821, and reached Seram
pore in the following November. They proceeded to the province
of Orissa, in which well chosen field they have been succeeded by
an illustrious band of devoted men and women.*
And now, having glanced at the principal features of Indian
Missions during the first quarter of a century of its existence, let
us turn to what may be called the SECOND PERIOD of the Mission s
history, the most prominent feature of which is the unparalleled
progress of the work in Jamaica.
For some time the Gospel had been preached on this island
by certain freed men from America ; and at length Mr. John Rowe
Cf. page HI.
JAMAICA MISSIONS. 135
Was sent out by the Society ; others followed him, but the climate
being unfavourable to the health of Europeans, some were removed
by death, and sickness compelled others to withdraw. With the
arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Coultart, the JAMAICA Mission may be
said to have been fairly commenced in the year 1817, the 25th
year after the formation of the Particular Baptist Society.
On the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Coultart, they applied them
selves with much heartiness to their duties amongst the simple-
minded Negroes. In 1822, only five years after their landing,
Mr. Thomas Knibb arrived and found a Church of 2,700
membars ; on the second Sunday which he spent on the island he
baptised 152 converts ; but the work of Thomas Knibb was
speedily brought to a close by his deeply lamented death, the
vacancy caused by which was promptly filled by his more illus
trious brother William, whose name is still familiar to the freedom-
loving people of the whole world.
Fourteen years after the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Coultart, there
were on the island twenty-four churches, presided over by fourteen
missionaries. During the year 1830 nearly 2,000 had been
baptised, making a total membership of the Baptist Churches in
Jamaica, 10,838. It is impossible to say where this rapid growth
would have stopped, had it not been checked by an event
apparently most terrible, yet in reality most glorious.
Towards the close of 31, a report was circulated amongst the
slaves that a "free paper " had arrived from England, which gave
to them a right to liberty. The missionaries assured them that
they had been deceived, but so eagerly did they long for freedom,
that the great mass of them resolved that they would not work
for their masters after Christmas. When the insurrection broke out,
the missionaries were accused of having incited the slaves to
rebellion. Abbot, Knibb, Gardner, and Burchell were arrested
on this charge, the animosity shewn towards them by the white
people being most fierce. As Mr. Burchell was being conducted
through the streets, they thronged round him in a frenzy of
136 BAPTIST MISSIONS
excitement, gnashing their teeth in rage, and shouting, " Hang
him !" "Shoot him !" "Have his blood !" and had it not been
for the protection afforded by the coloured people, who had learned
to love these men, he would doubtless have been murdered.
" Yea" to use his own words, " I should have been torn limb from
limb by my countrymen, yea, by enlightened, respectable Christian
Britons."
The assizes were opened and the missionaries tried. Numbers
of witnesses had been bribed to give evidence against them, but
the Negroes were too simple for their cowardly masters ; so
amusingly false were their statements, that it was utterly impos
sible to convict, and consequently, to the grievous disappointment
of judge and jury, they were discharged, without one of their
own witnesses being called, 300 of whom had voluntarily come
together from all parts of the island. Mobs were thereupon
organised for the purpose of destroying the Baptist chapels, and
the Colonial Church Union having pledged itself to support and
protect the chapel destroyers, they were made bold to do their work
most completely. Almost every chapel and other building
belonging to the Mission was either totally destroyed or seriously
damaged, the total loss thus caused amounting to more than
,23,000.
When quietness had been partially restored, Messrs. Knibb
and Burchell came over to England, that they might represent
the true state of affairs, and they found much practical sympathy
with the Christian public. Upon the details of their visit I have
no right to dwell. They went to the root of the matter, and
demanded the abolition of slavery. We know what a victory
they won. The effect of Mr. Knibb s speeches was most striking ;
those who listened to him, and those who read his words, were
aroused to a state of wildest excitement. Not only the Baptist
denomination, but all Christian people were stirred to their very
souls. Public opinion rolled on as a resistless torrent ; it could
not be stopped, it could not be checked ; with ever increasing
IN JAMAICA. 137
volume it rushed on, and the fate of slavery was sealed.
Whenever we are reminded of the emancipation of the slaves,
let us not fail to think of the names of William Knibb, Thomas
Burchell, and their co-workers, not only Baptists, but Baptist
missionaries, to whose impassioned exertions it was most largely
due.
The appeals for money to repair the damage done to the
Mission property were readily responded to. A grant of more
than ,11,000 was made by Government, to which the sum of
14,000 was added by the British public. In the meantime, the
members of the churches in Jamaica clung to their principles and
to their pastors with most commendable tenacity. The congre
gations rapidly increased. Multitudes flocked into the Church,
and the school became more prosperous than ever.
In the autumn of 34, Messrs. Knibb and Burchell returned,
and the reception given by the natives is described as being most
enthusiastic. They looked at them all round, scarcely believing
their own senses ; they laughed, and they wept, but both for joy ;
they clapped their hands and waved their hats, " and when the
whole multitude, consisting of three or four thousand, set up
their shouts, they made the whole town resound with their
thundering huzzas."
In 1833, the Mission was extended to the Bahamas. Already
about twenty churches had been established in these islands, but
the people were in a most benighted condition, and Mr. Burton
states, that the first prayer he heard, offered by one of the members
of one of the most influential churches in the Colony, was partly
offered to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Turning our attention again to the work carried on in India,
the progress which was made, though not so evident, was probably
not less real than that in Jamaica. Many new institutions were
established. The native mind became more and more willing to
receive the truths of the Gospel, and converts were being
continually received into the Church,
138 BAPTIST MISSIONS.
In 1818, Serampore College was founded, and the usefulness of
the " Benevolent Institution, a school established some years pre
viously in Calcutta, began to be observed. The Mission press
was kept working with unflagging rapidity. Sutteeism was
abolished, very largely through the determined efforts of the
missionaries. The connection of the Government with Juggernaut
was greatly weakened by them ; whilst caste had received at their
hands a shock from which it has never recovered. In the month
of March, 1840, " The Bible Translation Society " was established,
and the invaluable services which it has ever since rendered to
the Mission gives it a claim upon all English Baptists.
Whilst referring to this stage of the Missions history, we must
not fail to make mention of the death of its great originator,
Dr. William Carey. On the 9th of June, 1834, he passed away
to his great reward. He was a splendid specimen of what a man
may become by the grace of God. Eminently simple in his
manner ; full of benevolence ; whole-hearted in everything which
he undertook ; carried along by a mighty, Christlike love for his
fellow men, he had worked most devotedly through a life of
more than three-score years and ten ; and the epitaph chosen for
himself by this distinguished scholar, skilful teacher, and
unselfish philanthropist was simply this :
" A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On thy kind arms I fall ;
Be thou my strength and righteousness,
My Saviour and my all."
In 1837, Mr. Pearce, one of the missionaries in India, visited
England, when he was successful in creating a more lively interest
in the Eastern Mission. He begged that ten more men might be
sent out to India, and that .6,000 might be contributed to aid
them in their work. He said, " When I asked a number of
children what I should bring them from Europe, even they asked
for more missionaries to instruct themselves and their country men."
His appeals were so earnestly made, and the necessity for providing
THE JUBILEE. 139
all that he requested was made so apparent, that both men and
money were speedily forthcoming.
During this quarter of a century, new stations were opened
in India and Ceylon ; and in addition to the Bahamas, Central
America received the missionaries, whilst assistance was also
rendered to the Church of Christ in South Africa.
At the close of this period, fifty years after the first meeting
of the Society was held at Kettering, the churches of the East
Indies were composed of 978 members, with about 300 Europeans
in separate fellowship. The number of members in Jamaica was
32,000 ; in the Bahamas, 1,1*76 ; and in Central America, 132.
Native helpers had sprung up to strengthen the hands, and lighten
the burdens of the European missionaries, and the number of
children receiving secular and religious instruction was, in the
West 6,700, and in the East 2,700.
In the year 1842, the Jubilee services were held at Kettering.
Only one of the founders of the Mission survived to this date,
the Venerable Reynold Hogg, who at the age of ninety years
joined, with all youthfulness of soul, in the jubilant song of
praise which was sung, and in the sanguine predictions of future
progress. During the Jubilee year, .33,000 were raised, by which
a heavy debt was removed, premises in Moorgate Street erected,
and new missions started in Trinidad and Hayti.
As we look westwards at this period, we discover that the
emancipation of the slaves had produced a most remarkable effect
upon the natives of Jamaica. Crime was almost unknown on the
island, save when committed by the white people. At the Assizes
held in a district of 125,000 inhabitants, nineteen were tried, six
of whom were white men, and three of the natives were acquitted.
At the Quarter Sessions held in a parish of 30,000 inhabitants,
only one person was tried ; and when Mr. Gurney visited the gaol
at Falmouth, he found there only one person, and that one was a
white man. Mr. Knibb paid a visit to one of the largest gaols on
the island, and seeing the treadmill, asked permission to go on it,
140 BAPTIST MISSIONS.
but the supervisor said, " Mr. Knibb, it s no use, it is rusty, for
since the first of August, we have never been able to muster hands
enough to turn it." In the parish of St. Ann s, where Mr. Abbot
laboured, the gaol had been closed for six months, and the gaoler
pensioned off until he should be wanted again.
The membership of the churches increased most rapidly, many
of the scenes described by the historian reminding one of the day
of Pentecost. So strong indeed did the cause become, that at a
united meeting of the missionaries, it was unanimously resolved
to detach themselves from the funds of the parent Society, and
trust, for their entire support, to the liberality of their own
churches.
Immediately after the liberation of the slaves, the Negro
members of the Jamaica churches were fired by the noble ambition
to carry the Gospel into their fatherland. A black man named
Keith sold all that he possessed, and worked his way out to
Africa, with the intention of preaching Christ on the very spot
where he had been stolen. He was not disappointed, for he did
stand upon that spot, and in his own simple manner besought his
fellow countrymen to embrace the religion of Christ. Many
others were actuated by the same spirit of unselfish love. Mr.
Knibb, having called together twenty or thirty of the African
members of the churches at Kingston, informed them of his
intention to visit Africa, at once they expressed a desire to accom
pany him. One of them said, "I will go with you as your
shoeblack, if you will take me." He asked him when he would
be ready to go. " To-morrow," was the prompt reply. " But,"
said Mr. Knibb, " perhaps you would be made slaves again, if
you went into Africa." And what do you think was the answer
given by these men who were only just released from cruel
bondage ? They replied, " We have been made slaves for men, we
can be made slaves for Christ." The Committee cheerfully took
up this work, and commenced a Mission to Western Africa. The
Rev, J, Clarke and Dr. Prince were sent out from England, and
IN AFRICA. 141
selected, as the seat of the Mission, the Island of Fernando Po ;
there they formed a Church, and were shortly afterwards joined
by four additional missionaries and eight teachers. But the
Spanish Government, to which the island belonged, having
previously sent Jesuit priests to instruct the people, in the year
1858, proclaimed the religion of the Colony to be that of the
Roman Catholic Church, though there was not a single native
Roman Catholic on the island. All other forms of religion were
prohibited ; and the result was, that not a few, preferring religious
liberty in a strange land to a fettered conscience at home, went
out to the foot of the mountain of Cameroons, where the Colony
of Victoria was established, and where they were permitted to
worship God in their own way.
In 1843, a Mission which had for some time been worked by the
Welsh churches, in Brittany, was taken over by the Society. The
Scriptures were printed in the Breton language, and there, in
spite of the hostility of the priests, chapels were erected and the
Gospel very successfully preached.
It had long been desired that something should be done for
the salvation of the millions in China, but it appeared impossible
to establish a Mission there until the year 1859. The Rev. John
Angell James, believing that the right time had then come, called
the churches to the enterprise, and two men, both of them
acquainted with the language, were despatched to the port of
Chefoo, where, in the face of the most bitter opposition, they
established a Baptist Church.
In the year 1850, the Mission in India was visited in behalf
of the Society by the Revs. J. Russell and Dr. Leechman. They
spent about twelve months in examining the stations in Ceylon,
Madras, Bengal, and the North West Provinces of India. The
report which they presented on their return was highly grati
fying ; they were fully convinced of the reality of the conversions
which had been recorded ; whilst the general condition of
the churches, the success of the College at Serampore, and the
142 BAPTIST MISSIONS.
eminent usefulness of the Mission press, gave to them the most
complete satisfaction.
The year 1857 was doubtless, in many respects, the most
memorable in the history of Indian Missions. At this period,
events occurred which threatened to involve not only the Christian
Church which had been established there, but also our Eastern
Empire itself, in utter ruin. We refer to the Indian mutiny.
For many months the labours of the missionaries were entirely
suspended. All they could do was to look on whilst the most
horrible atrocities were committed, to keep out of the way of
danger as far as possible, and to hide themselves from the ferocity
of those who thirsted for English blood. One, and strange to
say, one only of the Baptist missionaries fell a prey to this deadly
animosity. This was J. Mackay, who had displayed the utmost
zeal in the Mission work. Of the native Christians, many suffered
the most terrible persecutions, and not a few, after being tortured
to the extemity of human endurance, died as Christian witnesses
should die, courageously, and even cheerfully, being sustained by
the assurance that they laid down their lives in the service of
their crucified Lord.
In looking at this quarter of a century, 1843-67, we find that
100 new missionaries had been sent out from England, making a
total of 229 since the formation of the Society, and the services
of 300 native evangelists were engaged. There were at the close
of this period, stations in India, Ceylon, China, Western Africa,
Jamaica, Hayti, Trinidad, The Bahama Islands, Brittany, and
Norway. There had been an increase in the membership of
almost all the churches. In India, the membership had risen
during the twenty-five years from 1,278 to 2,300 ; showing a gain
of more than 1,000, allowing for all deductions. Excluding Jamaica,
the period commenced with 1,580 members in the West, and
closed with 3,200. In Jamaica the membership decreased, but
this is fully accounted for by the ravages of cholera and small
pox, which in the year 1850 threatened to depopulate the island,
SUMMARY. 143
and which cut off about ten per cent, of the native Christians.
A considerable number were received into fellowship, and not
withstanding very large deductions, in the year 1867 the churches
in Jamaica contained from 20,000 to 25,000 members.
The translation of the Scriptures was carried on in the East
with unabated zeal. The schools both in the East and West
were largely multiplied. The day scholars connected with all
the schools, excepting those in Jamaica, numbered not less than
3,000 ; and in Jamaica there were U 2,451 day, and more than
10,000 Sunday scholars.
Having now arrived at the year 1867, we will simply refer
to the statements contained in the report presented in March
of last year to show the progress during the past few years.
In China there are three missionaries, nineteen chapels, and
500 Church members. On the Island of Ceylon, four mis
sionaries report that they have twenty-nine stations, twenty
chapels, thirty-three school houses, and a total of 670 members.
In India there are thirty-five missionaries, 110 stations; ninety
chapels, and a membership of 3,796.
In the West Indies and Africa, excluding Jamaica, there are
fifteen missionaries, forty-eight stations, ninety-seven chapels, and
5,238 church members ; whilst in Jamaica there are six mis
sionaries, partly or totally supported by the Society, fifty-one
pastors of self-supporting Baptist churches, 123 stations, and
22,767 members.
There is also an evangelical Mission in Rome. James Wall
was among the first to enter the city on the destruction of the
Pope s temporal power; and at the present time, three of the
Society s missionaries are in Rome, who are assisted by eight
evangelists, and report a membership of 133.
Taking a summary of the statistics for the year ending March
31st, 1880, we have the following interesting figures. There are
sixty-eight missionaries wholly supported, and fourteen partly
supported by the funds of the Society, and 57 pastors of self-
144 GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONS.
supporting churches. There are 241 evangelists, 407 stations,
and 33,805 church members.
The labours of the General Baptist missionaries have been similar
to those of their brethren and sisters of the Particular Baptist Mis
sionary Society. They, like them, have been diligent in translating
and printing the Scriptures, providing school books and
general literature, and careful to educate the Hindoo youth.
They have held to their posts in the face of difficulty, persecution,
and death ; and they too have been rewarded by large conquests over
heathen superstition. The fires of suttee have been extinguished ;
infanticide hasbeen abolished ; human sacrifices have been abandoned,
and "victims rescued from a barbarous death have presented
themselves a living sacrifice to God ; " " the Ghurruck Poojah, or
swinging on hooks, has been suppressed ; " orphanages have been
established, and numbers were rescued from the cruel horrors of
the terrible Orissa famine, Churches and Christian villages have
been established, and a glorious work done for God and souls. The
names of Lacey, Sutton, Goadby, Buckley, Bailey, Miller, Brooks,
Packer, Stubbins, Wilkinson, and many others not less worthy of
mention, remind us of strong faith, heroic effort, Christ-like zeal, and
continuous success in the evangelisation of Orissa. The report
of 1880 shows that sixteen missionaries, male and female, are
supported in their work amongst the millions of Orissa, by twenty
native preachers. The number of chapels is twelve, and the total
membership, 994. Besides that, we have a Mission in Rome,
under the superintendence of the Rev. N. H. Shaw, assisted by
Paul Grassi, once a Canon of the Romish Church.
It is characteristic of all kinds of Christian work that its
results can never be fully shown by statistics ; and this is par
ticularly the case in regard to the Mission enterprise. It is not
a little thing to know that so many thousands have been won
from their idolatry and superstition to the service of the true
God ; but if not one single conversion had been brought about,
the work of Carey and his successors would have been by no
OUR DUTY. 145
means in vain. If nothing else had been done, the regions of
idolatry have been penetrated, and at least an opening made
for the Gospel by the breaking of caste. Not only has a victory
been gained over caste, but a scarcely less illustrious triumph
has been won over language, and the native tongues of the
millions of heathendom have been made to communicate the
truths of Christ s Gospel. Churches have been established in
every quarter of the globe, which have themselves become
centres of usefulness ; whilst, not least, a generous missionary
spirit has been created and sustained for nearly a hundred
years in the hearts of Christian English people. Many memor
able days have there been in the history of Christianity, and
in the history of India during the last hundred years, but,
few more memorable than the 2nd day of October, 1792. The
character of the Indian Empire has been changed by the unselfish
charity of the English Baptists, and many are the millions who
have, directly or indirectly, been blessed by their labours.
Our duty is to pray, to give, and to believe. Let not that
strong missionary spirit which has been displayed for nearly a
century be suffered to languish now. Christ died for the
inhabitants of India, and of China, and of Africa, as well as
for the people of England, and the blessings of His Gospel are
suited equally to men of all climes and of all characters. May
the work of Christian missionaries prosper, and may the time
come quickly when that divinely taught prayer, which has been
breathed by the Church every day for eighteen hundred years,
shall be answered, and God s kingdom come, and His " will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. "
THE BAPTISTS & THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY,
BY
REV. GEOEGE WILSON M CREE.
QLAVERY is an ancient curse. It has afflicted and degraded
^ humanity from the earliest ages. The Chaldeans held men
in slavery. The youths of Lacedemonia slew, for amusement,
three hundred slaves in one night. In the year 337 B.C. Attica
contained four hundred thousand bondmen and bondwomen. The
Romans chained slaves to their gates to act as porters to their
guests. Our own Alfred the Great made laws respecting slaves
on English soil, which was to be often wet with their tears and
blood. In Bristol market, children were sold like cattle for
exportation. Queen Elizabeth had slaves, whose freedom, how
ever, she promoted. And, in fact, slavery prevailed in England
in some form or other, until the year 1772, when, it was decided
in our Courts of Law, that slavery could not exist within the blue
seas that wash our shores, and that any slave landing on British
ground became free.
The prevalence of slavery in the world so late as 1840 may
be seen in the vital statistics of that time. In the United
States, the slave population was 2,750,000 ; in the Brazils, 2,500,000;
in the Spanish colonies, 600,000 ; in the French colonies, 265,000 ;
in the Dutch colonies, 70,000 ; and an innumerable multitude
was held in bondage by Oriental powers and people.
In reference to the United States, it may be noted here, that
at the World s Anti-Slavery Convention assembled in London in
FREE-WILL BAPTIST MANIFESTO. 147
May, 1840, a letter, signed David Marks, was read from the Free-
Will Baptists, which contained this memorable declaration: "As
a people we mourn that the Church in this land is so deeply
involved in the sin of slavery, and have endeavoured to keep our
garments pure and unspotted from its foul stains. We neither
receive into our churches, or at the communion table, any whose
hands are polluted with slavery. Our Board of Foreign Missions
refuse to receive any donations or bequests from slaveholders, on
the principle that their wealth is the wages of iniquity and the
price of blood." Such a noble declaration deserves immortal
record, and shows that there were Baptists then who had long been
in the van of Human Progress, and were splendid examples of
enlightened manhood.
We may well marvel that so late as 1772 slaves were permitted
to remain bondmen in England. A brighter era then dawned.
James Somerset was an African slave, the property of Mr. Charles
Stewart, and was brought to London by his master in 1769.
Finding himself in England, he claimed the right to belong to
himself, and left his master, who, thereupon, had him seized, and
sent on board the Ann and Mary to be deported to the West
Indies as a slave. His case was brought before the Judges by Mr.
Granville Sharp, and, after the case had been argued at three
different sittings, it was proclaimed, " That as soon as ever any
slave set his foot upon English territory he became free." This
memorable verdict from the Bench inspired William Cowper to
pen these noble words :
" Slaves cannot breathe in England, if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free :
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
That s noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it, then,
And let it circulate through every vein
Of all your Empire ; that, where Britain s power
Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too."
148 BAPTISTS AND
But this decision of the Judges did not abolish the African
Slave Trade. Three centuries ago the Spaniards commenced that
atrocious traffic. Tens of thousands of African men, women, and
children were torn from their homes ; were chained, beaten,
insulted, outraged, and sold like cattle at the coast, and taken in
slave-ships (where hundreds of them died, in the small holds, of
suffocation, and were then thrown to the sharks), to the West
Indies, and there consigned to hopeless bondage.
It took William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, aud other
great^ Englishmen, twenty years of laborious agitation to induce
the British Parliament to abolish the Slave Trade ; but, at last,
the glorious victory was won, and, on Wednesday, the 25th of
March, 1807, to use the words of Thomas Clarkson, " as the sun
was in its meridian splendour to witness this august act, the
establishment of a Magna Charta for Africa in Great Britain was
completed."
The abolition of the Slave Trade did not, however, sweep the
curse of Slavery from the West Indies. It still nourished in
deadly luxuriance there. Commenced by the Spaniards, who had
destroyed the aborigines of Jamaica, it was continued by the
English, and for two hundred and fifty years the slave-ship bore
its living cargo to the shores of that beautiful island, "where only
man was vile."
On these enslaved sons and daughters of Africa the pure light
of the Gospel dawned through one of their own race. His name
was George Lisle. He was a freed negro from Virginia, a member
of a Baptist Church, and when he came to Jamaica, and arrived in
Kingston, he began to preach the Gospel to them. In a room he
formed a church of four members all of them refugees from the
United States. Working diligently with his hands, he went on
preaching, and in seven years he baptized five hundred persons,
and presided over a church of three hundred and fifty members.
He had incredible annoyances. A gentleman rode his horse into
the chapel, and cried, " Now, old Lisle, give my horse the Sacra-
SLAVERY IN JAMAICA. 149
ment !" Mr. Lisle replied, with quiet dignity, "No, Sir, you are
not fit yourself to receive it." His enemies cast him into prison,
loaded him with irons, tried him for his life, but had at last to set
him free.
Moses Baker was another pioneer of Gospel freedom. He was
once a drunken negro, but he and his wife having been converted
to God and baptized, joined the church of which Mr. Lisle was
the pastor, Moses Baker became a preacher, and had access to
twenty sugar estates. God greatly blessed him to the degraded
negroes, but, one Sunday, a planter s book-keeper heard him give
out the words of a hymn :
" Shall we go on in sin,
Because Thy grace abounds,
Or crucify the Lord again,
And open all His wounds ?
* *
" We will be slaves no more,
Since Christ has made us free,
He s nailed our tyrants to the Cross,
And bought our liberty."
And he charged the innocent evangelist with teaching the slaves
rebellion and sedition. He was arrested, put in irons, and brought
down to Montego Bay, where he was admitted to bail. As
nothing disloyal could be proved against him, he was released,
and went forth as before on his holy mission.
A great era now begins to dawn upon the West Indies. The
roseate morning of the day of Freedom was at hand. In January,
1821, Messrs. Phillippo, Phillips, and Burchell arrived in Jamaica.
Chiefly, at present, we shall speak of Thomas Burchell. A culti
vated man, of fine presence, gentle, but fearless, saintly in spirit,
an eloquent preacher, and a true man in all things, he was
destined to play a leading part in the battle of emancipation.
In February, 1825, William Knibb, surnamed the Lion-
Hearted, followed, and Jamaica s soil was now trod by two of the
150 BAPTISTS AND
noblest men the modern church ever had. "There were giants in
those days."
Thomas Burchell s ministry was soon made useful to hundreds
of coloured persons, mostly slaves. In June, 1827, there were
eight Baptist churches in the island, comprising 5,246 members.
Conflicts and persecutions were common. The missionaries were
hated by the planters and the mob, and they were often slandered,
insulted, and cast into prison. Two men, members of Mr.
Burchell s church, had their houses levelled, their feet put into the
stocks, and were sent in chains to the workhouse, simply for
praying to their God ! One of them prayed so much in his chains,
however, that he was told to go, and he went forthwith.
James Finlayson was a coloured man, who proceeded to market
one Sunday to sell his honey. Wandering into Mr. Mann s chapel,
he heard the Gospel, became anxious about his salvation, left his
honey to take care of itself, and went away home. Having
believed in Christ, he was baptized by Mr. Burnley, and, being a
zealous man, he began to tell his brother slaves "what a dear Saviour
he had found." For this he was flogged nearly to death. Such atro
cious cruelty was often inflicted upon devout slaves who were mem
bers of churches, and they had no redress whatever. Nevertheless,
the Word of God prevailed, and in 1831 the clear increase of the Bap
tist Churches was about 2,000, making a total of 10,838 members.
Now began a great and weary fight for Freedom. Englishmen
were free, but they maintained slavery abroad, and felt and spoke
like certain Americans in our time :
" I do believe in Freedom s cause,
As far away as Paris is ;
I love to see her stick her claws
In them infernal Pharisees.
It s very well agin a king
To draw resolves and triggers,
But Liberty s a kind of thing
That don t agree with niggers."
WILLIAM KN1BB. 151
But the bondmen of Jamaica would not wait on the pleasure of
planters and Britons. They struck a heavy blow for their freedom.
A terrible insurrection broke out in 1832 a fiery volcano of
passion and murder. Fire, destruction, struggle, and death raged
like a tornado. The planters were like madmen thirsting for
blood. They shot the negroes as though they were dogs. Scores
of slaves hung dead from trees on every roadside. Messrs. Knibb,
Whitehorn, and Abbot were made prisoners, put into a canoe,
taken for seven hours under a burning sun to Montego Bay,
and finally consigned to a prison, the mob swearing their blood
should redden the stones in the morning.
The personal narrative of William Knibb of this episode in his
history is full of interest. He says :
" On Monday, the 2nd of January, after committing our
selves and our little ones to the divine protection, I went to the
Court-house, and was forced to enlist, or to be enrolled, in the 4th
company as a private soldier, but was granted leave of absence
until the following morning, on account of indisposition.
"Tuesday, 3rd. Not knowing what might befall me this day,
I took a solemn farewell of my dear wife and children, earnestly
commending them to the care of that God who had hitherto never
failed to be our help. With calm reliance upon my Heavenly
Father, I went to perform my duties as a soldier, though rather
anxious, from the conviction that my life would be attempted by
the infuriated whites whenever I leit the town. Soon, however,
God released me from one trouble by permitting another to over
take me. While exhorting one of my deacons, Lewis Williams,
to live near to God, I was arrested in the most brutal manner by
a man named Paul Doeg commanding two black men to take me
prisoner, he paraded before me in all the pomp of petty power,
with a drawn sword, and had me conveyed to the guard room.
Soon afterwards I was removed to the barracks, where I found
brethren Whitehouse and Abbott, who, like myself, were under
arrpst, none of us knowing why or wherefore. In about an hour
152 BAPTISTS AND
Captain Christie came and informed us that Colonel Cadien had
sent him to tell us that we were to be sent to headquarters at
Montego Bay, and that a conveyance would be ready in half-an-
hour. I asked permission to see my wife and children, but was
denied this pleasure. I then requested to write to them, but this
small gratification was refused. Soon afterwards we were searched.
When all was ready, we were paraded through the streets to the
sea-side, guarded by four soldiers with a sergeant, and put into an
open canoe. After a long and tedious voyage of seven hours, we
were landed at Montego Bay about seven in the evening. The
canoe being leak}*, my feet were completely soaked, and this, as I
had taken medicine, tended to increase the indisposition under
which I was labouring. On landing we were marched to the
Court-house, then to head-quarters, Sir William Cotton s, back to
the Court-house, then up a steep hill to his honour the custos s,
then back to the Court-house (which was a barracks), where we
were placed in the jury-box under a guard of four soldiers,
militiamen. Every epithet of abuse that infuriated malice could
invent was henped upon me. The most horrid oaths that men or
devils could conceive were poured upon us, with the most vulgar
allusions that depraved nature could imagine. Twice was a
bayonet pointed at my breast, and when I requested permission
to lie down on the floor, being ill and fatigued (having been
harassed since the morning) I was damned and blasted, and
told that if I moved I should be instantly shot. Hell could
scarcely be worse. Value your privileges, ye Britons, and feel
and pray for those poor Christian slaves who are entirely
under the control of such beings. No Algerine pirate, or savage
Moor, would have treated me worse than I was treated by
Englishmen.
" No fault had I committed ; with none was I charged ; but I
was a missionary, and that was enough. I was calm, and happy,
and thankful that I felt a disposition to pray for my enemies, who
were taunting me that I should be shot on the morrow, and
WILLIAM KNIBB. 153
pleasing themselves with the sport. In the midst of this, and
when all seemed against us, God raised up a friend in Mr. Roby,
who, after much trouble and fatigue, succeeded in delivering us
from our foes, and provided for us a bed in his own office. About
twelve at night we had the pleasure of praying unmolested, of
thanking God for his great kindness in not permitting us to be
murdered, and of laying our weary limbs to rest.
"On Wednesday morning the same kind friend procured our
liberation on bail J. Manderson, Esq., Member of Assembly,
standing bail for me. Our good wives had arrived by land, and
again we joined in grateful thanksgiving to that God who was
better to us than all our fears. The same day I was attacked
with fever brought on by exposure, wet feet, and anxiety. God
mercifully restored me, and enabled me to cast my cares upon
Him."
The noble spirit of William Knibb is further seen in an affect
ing letter to his mother :
" Montego Bay, Feb. 10, 1832.
" Whether this will 1)6 the last letter you will receive from your
son, is known only to that kind and indulgent God who has
hitherto preserved my unworthy life. To give you a detailed
statement of the scenes through which I have lately passed is
impossible ; my soul hath them in remembrance, and is humbled
within me. What is before me I cannot tell, but all is known to
that God whose I am, and whom I serve. 0, for grace and faith
to trust him ! Through the medium of Mr. Gotch you will, I
expect, have heard that I was taken a prisoner on the charge of
being concerned in the rebellion that has broken out among the
slaves. Although I have been five weeks in this state, or rather
on bail, I do not know yet what the specific charges are. I know
that I am innocent ; but such is the awful state of feeling here,
that my only hope of escape is in Him who turneth the hearts of
men as the rivers of water are turned. Should I escape I shall
return to England, as I am not safe from assassination in this
154 BAPTISTS AND
part of the world. Our chapels at this place, at Falmouth, Kio
Buene, and I doubt not at other places, are levelled with the
ground. Two days ago I escaped for my life, and took refuge on
board one of His Majesty s ships in the harbour. I have this
morning returned, being bound not to leave this place. Does my
mother ask me, Do you repent becoming a missionary? My
answer is, NO ; gladly would I spend the few remaining days of
my pilgrimage in this land, were it the will of God. That I
should not be tried and found guilty appears at present to be
impossible. May the Lord in his great mercy direct me to act as
in his sight ! My dear Mary is divinely supported under this
deep trial, and has been of much comfort to me. May the Lord
in his tender mercy prepare her for every afflictive dispensation !
The two children, William and Catherine, I have not seen for
five weeks. I believe they are well ; may the Lord protect and
preserve them. Little Ann is with us in ill health. I have been
informed this morning that the mob have destroyed, or intended
to destroy, my books and furniture. I shall feel the loss of the
books much, as I have striven hard for seven years to obtain
them, and intended them as a legacy to my children ; however,
may God grant a sanctified use, and all will be well. The kind
ness of my thrice dear people at Falmouth makes my heart over
flow with gratitude to God ; my heart is with them, but I fear I
shall never preach to them again. Of the charge brought
against me I am perfectly innocent. O, this does support me.
My Heavenly Father knows it, and however it may issue
on earth, I hope to be acquitted when I, and those who are
thirsting for my blood, stand at the tribunal of God. Com
mending you to God, and to the Word of his Grace, with earnest
desires that His glory may be extended to earth s remotest
bounds.
" I remain, my dear mother,
" Your affectionate son,
" WILLIAM KNIBB,"
SLAVERY. 155
His mother never had this letter placed in her hands.
She died before it arrived, but her last moments were
brightened by the knowledge that her son was fighting the battle
of freedom.
Meanwhile, Thomas Burchell was sailing from England on his
return voyage in the Garland Grove. On his arrival in the harbour,
he was peremptorily arrested, taken on board the Blanche, and
conducted to the commodore s cabin. He w 7 as there informed that
he would be allowed to walk as far as the mainmast, and that if
he went beyond it he would be shot.
Yet Thomas Burchell was as innocent of any complicity with
the insurrection as the waters beneath the ship which formed his
prison.
The feeling against the Baptist Missionaries was most malig
nant. The Jamaica Courant said : Three Baptist preachers are
now in custody. Shooting is too honourable a death for men
whose conduct has occasioned so much bloodshed. There are fine
hanging- woods in St. James and Trelawney, and we do sincerely
hope that the bodies of all the Methodist preachers who may be
convicted of sedition may diversify the scene."
Shameful attempts were made to suborn witnesses against Mr.
Burchell. Susan Mackenzie, a slave, but honourably known as
"A great Baptist woman," was asked for evidence against him ;
and because she would not, and could not give any, three men
flogged her dreadfully, and she was then sent to the workhouse for
medical treatment. She never walked upright again. A coloured
man George Spencer by name refused to say a word against
Mr. Burchell ; and he was taken into the open air, and shot dead !
But " the triumphing of the wicked " was short. The Battle
for Freedom went on in England, and the day of Emancipation
drew nigh. To promote its dawn, and the shedding forth of its
blessed light, Thomas Burchell and William Knibb arrived in
England, and the final struggle between Slavery and Freedom
began,
156 BAPTISTS AND
Recently, on a calm Sunday afternoon, I walked down Ket-
tering to Market Street, to look up at the window whence,
early one morning, Knibb s mother, an invalid, having bade him
farewell on his departure for the West Indies, called him back on
his way to the coach, and said " Remember, William, I would
rather hear that you had perished in the sea, than that you had
disgraced the cause you go to serve." Blessings on her memory
noble mother !
When the ship bearing William Knibb on board entered the
Downs, in June, 1832, the pilot came on deck, and Knibb said,
"Well, pilot, what news?" "The Reform Bill has passed."
"Thank God," Knibb rejoined; "now I ll have slavery down.
I will never rest, day or night, till I see it destroyed root and
branch."
On the 19th, William Knibb met the open meeting of the
Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, and had to endure a
good many solemn counsels and counsels not solemn as to a
temperate policy in reference to slavery ; and some present even
ventured to advise silence ! The days of heroism are not past.
William Knibb rose to his feet, and said : " Myself, my wife, and
my children are entirely dependent on the Baptist Missions ; we
have landed without a shilling ; but if necessary I will walk
barefoot through the kingdom, but what I will make known
to the Christians in England what their brethren in Jamaica are
suffering." The effect of these great words was manifest. Objectors
sat dumb under their force. Dr. Thomas Price, Charles Stovel,
John Howard Hinton, and others, stood by William Knibb, and
spoke words of cheer and love.
A grave crisis was at hand. On Thursday, the 21st, the
annual meeting of the Society was held in Spa Fields Chapel, (not
Exeter Hall, as some have it) when Mr. Richard Foster, of Cam
bridge, presided. Several speeches were made, but none touched
the burning question of slavery. Then came William Knibb,
tall, ruddy, and fearless, and began his memorable speech. " I
SLAVERY DOOMED. 157
appear," he said, in the course of his address, " as the advocate of
20,000 Baptists, who have no places of worship, no Sabbath, no
houses of prayer, and I solemnly avow my belief that by far the
greater part of those 20,000 will be flogged every time they are
caught praying." As he went on speaking, his fervour and frank
ness increased, until at last the Rev. John Dyer pulled his coat
tail. William Knibb wrenched himself away, and, in clarion
tones, exclaimed, " I will speak. At the risk of my connection
with the Society, and of all I hold dear, I will avow this. And
if the friends of Missions will not hear me, I will turn and tell
it to my God : nor will I desist till this greatest of curses is
removed, and Glory to God in the highest is inscribed on the
British Flag."
From this sublime moment slavery was doomed. Thomas
Burchell, William Knibb, Dr. Price, Dr. Hoby, Charles Stovel,
William Brock, Frederick Trestrail, Dr. F. A. Cox, John Howard
Hinton, and a host of other Baptist ministers, began a triumphant
crusade against slavery, and other noble men, like Joseph Sturge,
Joseph John Gurney, William Forster, Samuel Bowly, Robert
Gharlton, and George Thompson, " the eloquent orator," fought
with them, and, at last, on the 1st of August, 1838, by the will
of the English people,
THE SLAVE WAS FREE !
The previous day and night were most memorable in the history
of Baptist Missions in Jamaica. A glorious page was then written
in immortal lines. A transparency with the word FREEDOM shone
in front of Knibb s chapel. Towards midnight the building was
crowded with coloured people waiting for the moment of emanci
pation. Every heart palpitated with hope. Every eye blazed with
expectancy. As midnight drew near, the clock began to strike twelve.
Knibb, standing erect in his pulpit, pointed to the dial, and cried,
" The hour is at hand ; the monster slavery is dying." When the
last note of the clock sounded, he shouted, " The monster is dead ;
the negro is free ! " The excitement of the freed ones was
L
158 BAPTISTS AND SLAVERY.
boundless. They shouted aloud. " Never," said Knibb, " did
I hear such a sound. The winds of freedom appeared to have been let
loose. The very building shook at the strange, yet sacred joy."
The battle fought so nobly by Thomas Burchell and William
Knibb was won, and, from that day to this, England has owed
a debt to the Baptists for having purged the national flag from
the disgrace of protecting and perpetuating slavery.
What were the results of emancipation ? A competent writer
in the The Year of Jubilee says : " The change that now took
place in the community was most remarkable. There was an
almost entire cessation of crime ; thousands of persons who had
been living in concubinage were married, vice was either aban
doned or hidden, industry took the place of idleness, the schools
were filled, the places of worship could not contain the multitude
who crowded to hear the word of God, and large numbers gave
delightful evidence that they had not heard it in vain."
In August, 1839, in reply to an address from the Baptist
Missionaries, Sir Lionel Smith bore gratifying testimony to the
beneficial results of their labours, and to the conduct of the
people. " On my assuming the government of this colony," he
said, * I strongly expressed my reliance on the whole body of
missionaries, in their high integrity of purpose, and in their loyal
principles. You more than realized all the benefits I expected
from your ministry, by raising the negroes from the mental
degradation of slavery to the cheering obligations of Christianity ;
and they were thus taught that patient endurance of evil which
has so materially contributed to the general tranquillity. Even
with the aid of a vicious and well-paid press, both in England and
Jamaica and, it may be presumed, some habitual confidence in
Jamaica juries the enemies of your religion have never dared to
go to the proof of their audacious accusations against you.
" Gentlemen, the first year of freedom has passed away. What
were the forebodings of its enemies ? Where are the vagrants ?
where the squatters ? where the injuries against proprietors or the
EFFECTS OF FREEDOM. 159
persons of white men ? Out of the 800,000 oppressed slaves
let loose in one day to equal rights and liberty, not a human
being of that mass has committed himself in any of those
dreaded offences.
"The admirable conduct of the peasantry in such a crisis has
constituted a proud triumph to the cause of religion, and those who
contributed to enlighten them in their moral duties, through
persecutions, insults, and dangers, have deserved the regard and
esteem of the good and just in all Christian countries."
Joseph John Gurney, the eminent Quaker, in his "Winter in
the West Indies," wrote similar words in 1840. Thus he said :
" The Baptist missionaries in Jamaica, for many years past, have
been the unflinching, untiring friends of the negro. No threats
have daunted them, no insults or persecutions have driven them
from the field. They are now reaping their reward in the devoted
attachment of the people, and the increasingly prevalent acknow
ledgment of their integrity and usefulness." Speaking of the
general improvement of the island, Mr. Gurney thus writes :
" But while these points are confessedly of high importance, there
is a fourth, which at once embraces and outweighs them all, I
mean the diffusion of vital Christianity. I know that great appre
hensions were entertained, especially in this country, on the cessa
tion of slavery, that the negroes would break away at once from
their masters and their ministers. But freedom has come, and
while their masters have not been forsaken, their religious teachers
have become dearer to them than ever. Under the banner of
liberty the churches and meeting-houses have been enlarged and
multiplied the attendance has become regular and devout, the
congregations have, in many cases, been more than doubled
above all, the conversion of souls (as we have reason to believe) has
been going on to an extent never before known in these colonies.
In a religious point of view, as I have before hinted, the wilderness
in many places has begun to blossom as the rose ; instead of the
thorn has come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar has come
160 BAPTISTS AND SLAVERY.
up the myrtle-tree : and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. "
William Knibb was a very affectionate man. The Rev. Phillip
Saffery once told me a charming anecdote about him. Knibb
went, accompanied by a friend, to have his portrait taken. As he
sat in the chair waiting for the operation, his face became fixed
and sombre. The artist said : " Think of something pleasant,
Sir." A beautiful light beamed over Knibb s face, and the portrait
was taken at once. His friend afterwards asked him what he
thought about. " My wedding clay," said Knibb.
The great eloquence of William Knibb at this period of his
grand life is vividly described by the Eev. T. Pottinger. Speaking
of a meeting held in Aberdeen, he says : " The meeting was
held in the place of worship at which the Rev. Mr. Simpson
then preached, and which was capable of holding a large congre
gation. The platform was filled by magistrates, merchants, pro
fessors from both colleges, and ministers of all denominations in
the city ; while the building was crammed to excess by all ranks,
eager to see and hear this champion of the negroes. Knibb felt
that the occasion was a great one; and his address that night
surpassed all that his most devoted friends had anticipated. One
tale of woe followed another in rapid succession, and either excited
the feelings of the auditors to indignation or drew floods of tears
from their eyes. The fire of eloquence which burst from the
speaker may be said to have electrified the assembly. At one
moment they were convulsed with laughter, and next they were
sobbing aloud, or clenching their fists, ready to knock down the
monster which the magician had conjured up in their midst ; and,
as when the great orator of Greece had delivered his orations, the
Athenians were accustomed to say, Let us march against Philip !
so, when the man of God had finished his noble speech on that
memorable occasion, the multitude seemed to say, * Let us march
against slavery ! On the platform near me sat a gentleman, I
believe either a professor in one of the colleges or a minister in one
SLAVERY STILL EXISTS. 161
of the parish churches, whose spirit was deeply stirred within him.
As the speaker continued to expose and denounce the abominations
of colonial slavery, he made free use of a large stick which he held
in his hand ; but at length, after one of the finest bursts of
eloquence to which I ever listened, he suddenly jumped on his
feet, exclaiming, This is Demosthenes !
" Thirteen years at least have passed away since that meeting
rang the knell of slavery ; but even now the speaker, the excited
multitude, the shouts of applause, the tears of grief, and the whole
scene, are as fresh in my recollection as they were that night, when
I went home wondering at what I had heard."
It may be asked whether the Baptist missionaries deserve all
the praise we have accorded to them 1 I reply : 1. The clergy of
the Church of England in Jamaica, with one exception, took no part
in the battle for freedom ; and, 2. The want of sympathy felt
by the missionaries of other denominations was universally
manifested.*
Let not the Baptist denomination regard its work in relation
to slavery as completely accomplished. Slavery still exists in the
world. In Morocco there are 137,000 slaves. Persia holds 200,000
in bondage. In Egypt, 850,000 human beings groan in their
chains. And in Turkey, 1,500,000 souls endure the misery of
being bought and sold, outraged and worked to death.
There is therefore a loud cry sounding through the heavens,
calling upon us to " remember them that are in bonds." Let us
give most earnest heed to that pathetic and solemn summons, and
seek in every way we can to give liberty to the captive, for
Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of life its lustre and perfume,
And we are weeds without it."
We do therefore implore the young men of our Churches espe-
* See Knibb s Life, page 55L
162 BAPTISTS AND SLAVERY.
cially to study this great question of slavery, become the worthy
followers of Burchell and Knibb, Sturge and Gurney, and, avoiding
trivial pursuits, keep in mind that
" Tis not for man to trifle; life is brief
And sin is here ;
Our age is but the falling of a leaf,
A dropping tear.
"We have not time to sport away the hours :
All must be earnest in a world like ours.
Not many lives, but only one have we,
One, only one.
How sacred should that one life ever be,
That narrow span !
Day after day filled up with blessed toil,
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil."
BAPTISTS AND THE TEMPERANCE REFORM;
BY
EEV. DAWSON BURNS, M.A.
"PRECEDING lectures have exhibited the relation which, as
* Baptists, we consider ourselves to hold to the Primitive
Church ; to a scriptural polity and creed ; and to the shining ranks
of martyrs, confessors, teachers, missionaries, and philanthropists,
who " have kept the faith " and entered on the great reward. It
is left for me to show the relation sustained by Baptists to the
Temperance Reform in the past ; their connection with it at the
present time; and the place they ought to take in its future
prosecution and successes.
I. THE PAST.
As there were Religious Reformers before the Reformation of the
sixteenth century, so there were Baptists who, prior to the Temper
ance movement, were in sympathy with its principles and aims.
The greatest epic poet of England, and the greatest poet the
world has seen for 600 years John Milton was a Baptist in con
viction, as is clear from both his prose and poetic works. He was
also most abstemious in his habits ; and in two of his lesser poems,
" Comus " and " Samson Agonistes," he has depicted the degra
dation arising from sensual indulgence, and the virtue and beauty
164 BAPTISTS AND
of a temperance finding its fitting and fullest expression in abstin
ence from all intoxicants.
During the eighteenth century, a protest was made by some of
the wisest and best of men against the use of intoxicating liquors.
Among these were John Wesley, Dr. Johnson, John Howard,* and
several medical men of distinction. Of the latter, in America, was
Dr. Benjamin Eush, whose attacks on the use of ardent spirits
attracted considerable attention. Whether connected or not with
this crusade I cannot say, but at that time there was living in
Newport,. Ehode Island, a Baptist minister, familiarly known as
" Father Thurston," whose small stipend compelled him to work
with his hands, as did the Apostle Paul. Father Thurston, how
ever, was not a tentmaker, but a cooper, a trade some what nourish
ing at Newport, as it was then engaged in the West Indian trade and
furnished many casks for the transit of rum. But Father Thurston
having a dislike to this abuse of industry, would not make casks,
and limited his labour to the production of vessels that were
otherwise applied. It is believed, says the biographer of Dr.
Channing, that this example of adhesion to temperance principle,
made an impression on the mind of the young student residing in
Newport, and prepared his way for a subsequent union with the
Temperance Reform, and advocacy of its claims.f Honour to
Father Thurston ! We may be sure that if he would not use his
hands to fabricate casks for holding rum, he did not turn his own
body into a vessel for its reception.
About the same time, a young Baptist minister at Cambridge,
in England, was becoming known as one of the most eloquent
preachers of the day ; and according to Dr. Stanley, the Dean of
* John Howard, though not a Baptist, was for some time a trustee and
member of the " Old Meeting " at Bedford, whose line of ministers comprised
the "glorious dreamer," John Bunyan.
t See life of Dr. Channing, hy his nephew, W. H. Channing, Vol. I.
p. 32. This incideiit was referred to in felicitous terms, by Dr. James
Martineau, in his address at the Charming Celebration in St. James s Hall,
April 9th, I860.
TEMPERANCE WORK. 165
Westminster, the greatest preacher England has ever had was this
same Baptist minister, Kobert Hall. In the early period of his
ministry at Cambridge, Mr. Hall was acquainted with a gentleman
who, when calling upon him, was accustomed to ask for " a little
brandy and water." Mr. Hall knew that this habit was his bane,
and resolved upon " a strong effort for his rescue." Accordingly,
when the gentleman called one day and asked for a glass of
brandy and water, Mr. Hall said, "Call things by their right
names, and you shall have as much as you please." He answered,
"Why, don t I employ the right name? I ask for a glass of brandy
and water." Mr. Hall replied, " This is the current, but not the
appropriate name ; ask for a glass of liquid fire and distilled
damnation, and you shall have a gallon !" Did ever Temperance
"fanatic "utter a more fiery and scathing denunciation of alcoholic
liquor ? By the side of it, how pale is even the definition of
alcohol as the "Devil in solution!" a definition credited to Dr.
Richardson, and adopted by Mr. Walter, M.P. It is pleasing to
know that though the gentleman was at first disposed to be angry,
he received the rebuke in good part, and, said Mr. Hall, " from
that time ceased to take brandy and water."*
Early in 1826 the Temperance Reform began in earnest by the
formation of the American Temperance Society, in Park Street
Church, Boston, United States. This church (Congregational) I
have visited as a pilgrim, and have stood with deep emotion
within the building where, fifty-five years ago, this mighty
Reform was born and cradled. The Christian churches of America
were generally quick in their replies to the call for help and
service, and the Baptists were not last, or least active in their
allegiance to this cause of patriotism and humanity. The Tem
perance movement crossed the Atlantic in 1829, and for several
years was advocated on the basis of abstinence from distilled
* Works of Robert Hall, edited by Dr. Gregory, vol. vi. pp. 23-4.
166 BAPTISTS AND
spirits, the use of fermented liquors being optional. Kev. Dr. F.
A. Cox, of Hackney, was on the Committee of the British and
Foreign Temperance Society, and one of its early agents, and for
a long time its Secretary was Rev. Owen Clarke, of Vernon
Chapel, Pentonville. But in 1832 the principle of ^Total Abstin
ence from all intoxicating liquors was vigorously advocated, and
in a few years the old societies were mostly reconstituted on this
basis, and many others were established.
In this work, English Baptists were conspicuous by their
presence and energy. In the North of England, where this
reformed Reformation originated, it found two able and zealous
allies in John and Joseph Andrew, of Leeds. Mr. John Andrew,
who became a Baptist, was Secretary of the British Temperance Asso
ciation, and both in Leeds, where he resided, and throughout that
whole region, was recognized as one of the leaders of the cause,
and he still lives to rejoice in its larger triumphs. In Manchester
laboured the Rev. Francis Beardsall, minister of Oak Street
General Baptist Chapel, one of the first used for the promotion of
total abstinence. Mr. Beardsall, besides preaching and lecturing,
edited the Temperance Star, and gave expression to views on the
Bible Wine question which brought ridicule upon him, but which
have since found favour with the most distinguished scholars.
Wishing to reside in America, he took passage in a sailing-ship,
but he died on the voyage, and his body was committed to the
Atlantic depths, but his courageous devotion to the Temperance
movement, in its struggling days, deserves to be had in undying
remembrance. From 1836 to 1840, the Temperance Reform had
few devoted supporters among the Christian ministers of London,
but some of that few were Baptists, including the Rev. J. Woodard,
of Ilford, deceased ; Rev. J. Sears, of Camberwell, still living ; and
the Rev. J. Stevenson, M.A., of Borough Road Chapel, deceased.
More prominent in Baptist circles, and both men of remarkable
ability, were Rev. Charles Stovel and Rev. J. Howard Hinton,
M.A. The former survives, and retains for the good cause an
DR. JABEZ BURNS. 167
affection which he displayed forty years ago by speeches that
delighted and convinced. Mr. Hinton was less decided and stead
fast ; but as one of the adjudicators of the prize of .100 for the
best essay on the Temperance subject, in 1839, he gave his vote in
favour of "Anti-Bacchus," and thus probably encouraged the
author (Rev. B. Parsons) to print his essay one of the most
useful and valuable contributions to Temperance literature ever
published, though less elaborate and lore-laden than its successful
rival, " Bacchus," by Dr. Grindrod. Within this period, however
(1836-40), another Baptist minister was labouring in a Western
London parish ; and having been associated while in Scotland with
the old Temperance Society, he entered into the Total Abstinence
movement with the full ardour of an enthusiastic nature, and
until the day of his death he was constant in his devotion to its
interests. He edited for years Temperance periodicals; lectured
and preached to numerous audiences in every part of the kingdom ;
entered heartily into every department of Temperance effort ;
delivered one of the inaugural discourses of the United Kingdom
Alliance in 1853, and travelled far and wide to introduce its
principles to public notice. In his own chapel he commenced the
series of annual Temperance sermons, thirty-five of which he was
privileged to deliver ; and in 1841 began to celebrate the Lord s
Supper in unfermented wine. No other Christian minister of any
denomination ever did more to advance the Temperance cause than
did he ; and I have no hesitation, in the exercise of an unbiassed
judgment, in declaring, that among the highest and brightest
names on the roll of Temperance pioneers and champions, stands,
and ever will stand, the name of Dr. Jabez Burns. It is no flattery
to say this. He has gone where the voice of the flatterer is never
heard, and where the works of the just appear before the Judge of
All, to testify that they were done for His glory and according to
His holy will.
In Wales, the Temperance Reform found many friends among
the Christian ministry Baptists not excepted, who imitated in
168 BAPTISTS AND
this respect the example of men like Christmas Evans, one of the
greatest preachers Wales has known. That "Son of Thunder"
was a strong advocate of Temperance, and once remarked that
when he gave up his occasional glass he thought he was offering
up a fat ox from the stall, but afterwards discovered that it was
only a rat ! This comparison rightly illustrates the imaginary
nature of the sacrifice which persons make by the surrender of
strong drink. To get rid of the " rats " can scarcely be classed
among the acts for which the title of heroic benevolence may be
claimed !
In Scotland, the Temperance movement of 1829-35 met with
the active and able co-operation of Mr. Robert Kettle, a Baptist
merchant of Glasgow, who entered with the same zeal into the
Total Abstinence enterprise. He was the first editor of the
Scottish Temperance Journal, and was appointed President of the
Scottish Temperance League in 1848. A worthy fellow-labourer,
who has recently joined him in the heavenly home, was the Eev.
Dr. Paterson, of Glasgow, President of the Baptist Theological
Institution of Scotland, and editor of some of the principal
periodicals of the Scottish Temperance League.
It is only possible to name some out of many others who render
ed cordial help to the Temperance cause in different parts of the
kingdom at this period : Rev. C. H. Rae, of Birmingham ; Rev. C.
M. Birrell, of Liverpool ; Rev. T. W. Matthews, of Boston ; Rev. Dr.
Evans, of Scarborough ; Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, of London ;
Rev. Francis Johnstone, of Edinburgh ; and the Rev. James Wells,
of London.
Besides the work done by the fore-named, a glance at the early
records of the Temperance Reform gives evidence of the eminent
service rendered to it by Baptists, most of whom have passed away,
but some of whom continue "unto this present." Mr. John
Meredith, who had retired from business in the country, and
removed to London, was one of the Secretaries of the New British
and Foreign Temperance Society ; a most diligent and laborious
BANDS OF HOPE. 169
Temperance organizer in the South of London, and Superintendent
of the Metropolitan Temperance Mission, which for a time em
ployed a staff of agents. Mr. Meredith was very successful in his
private persuasions to the adoption of total abstinence, and being
aided by an excellent wife, he had the joy of seeing his whole
family attached to the cause he long and lovingly promoted. Mr.
James Balfour was very assiduous and popular for a series of years
as a Temperance Agent and Missionary (doing an excellent work
in France in 1845, among the English workmen employed on the
Havre and Rouen Railway), and in his 85th year retains a lively
interest in all that concerns the Temperance Reform. The late
Rev. T. J. Messer for more than a generation and a quarter
consistently, and persistently, advocated the Temperance principle
from the pulpit and the platform. Mr. Thomas Smeeton was for
years an energetic and able lecturing agent ; and afterwards when
settled in Ipswich, edited the Temperance Recorder, and wrote a prize
essay for young men. Sixteen years have passed since the death
of the Rev. Jabez Tunnicliff, of Leeds, General Baptist Minister ;
by whom the first Band of Hope was formed in this country,
in the August of 1847. Mr. Tunnicliff continued through
his life to be actively concerned in the Temperance training of
the young.
It is but recently that the movement has lost in Mr. Jabez
Inwards an advocate of portly presence, and very popular address,
whose voice constantly, and pen occasionally, were plied for forty
years on behalf of the Teetotalism in which he believed with all
his heart.
Having as a youth embraced Temperance principles in
Newcastle-on-Tyne, and having proved their worth in Home
Missionary work in Norwich, and St. Giles , London, the Rev. G.
W. M Cree, now the pastor of the Borough-road General Baptist
Church, is ever at home, in any place, in commending the Temperance
Reform, to which by his lectures, speeches, and writings, he has
170 BAPTISTS AND
rendered signal service.* For thirteen years Mr. M/Cree was
widely known and appreciated as the Secretary of the United
Kingdom Band of Hope Union. An early Temperance Worker
in London, and author of a useful Catechism, Mr. J. P. Parker,
may claim a place in this list of Baptist Temperance "Worthies.
The late Mr. Simeon Smithard employed with success the
charms of music, both to attract assemblies and to win them to the
cause he loved. In the Rev. Samuel Couling the Temperance
Movement acknowledges a recorder of its progress and an accept
able contributor to its periodical literature ; and as the author of
an illustrated work, " The Worship of Bacchus," and an earnest
Band of Hope worker, Mr. Ebenezer Clarke, a Baptist deacon,
ought not to pass unnamed. Honourable mention must also be
made of the late Mr. Walter Ludbrook as the publisher of a series
of " London Temperance Tracts," and an energetic friend of all
Temperance measures. Popular as a lecturer, and still more
popular as a writer, is Mr. J. W. Kirton, author of " Buy your
own Cherries," the " Four Pillars of Temperance," &c. ; and he is
still adding to the stores of knowledge by which converts are to be
won, and abstainers edified and confirmed. Who has not heard
of the cosmopolitan Excursionist, Thomas Cook? But all the
world does not know that he is a General Baptist, and one of the
principal supporters of the Baptist mission in Rome ; and that for
forty-four years he has been a zealous advocate of Temperance by
the use of the pen and press. From him proceeded the scheme by
which a cluster of mean houses, including a public-house, was
swept away and replaced by a block of handsome buildings com
prising the Temperance Hall and Hotel in Leicester. It is also
an interesting fact, that his Excursionist system had its germ in
*The Conference of Temperance Workers held Feb. 17, 1871, from
which has sprung the London Temperance Hospital, was convened by two
Baptists, one of whom was Mr. M Cree, and the other the writer of " this.
Name known far and near as the Metropolitan Superintendent of the United
Kingdom Alliance, and author of some most valuable works on Temperance.
[Ed.
SIR HENRY HAVELOGK. 171
the arrangements he made during successive years for a temperance
excursion from Leicester to adjacent places of rural or historic fame.
About the year 1836, an officer in the 13th Light (Native)
Infantry Regiment in India was noted for his Christian character
and Temperance principles. He sought, and not in vain, to show
that piety and abstinence are contributive to the best qualities of
a British officer. He took part in the invasion of Afghanistan in
1842, and was besieged with Sir Robert Sale in Jellalabad, where
the health and general conduct of the troops were remarkable, and
were attributed by Sir Robert Sale to the absence of strong drink.
From grade to grade he rose as years went by, and the time
arrived when his matured abilities found a theatre worthy of them
all. The Indian Sepoy Mutiny began in the June of 1857, and it
seemed for a while as if our Indian Empire was about to become
"the baseless fabric of a vision, leaving not a wraak behind."
Hope revived when it became known that a body of troops was
put under the command of this able General. His march from
Allahabad to Cawnpore was a march of battles and of victories.
But his destination was Lucknow, where a British garrison, with
women and children, had been besieged in the Residency for
many weeks. At length came the glad news that the relieving
force, small as it was, had thrown itself into Lucknow s narrow
streets crowded with foes, and had entered the Residency, where
it was itself beleagured, but ensuring the safety of the half-
despairing defenders, till an army under Sir Colin Campbell
advanced and opened up a way to the Residency amidst the ruins
of the city. The meeting of the Generals has become historical.
One name, however, was more in men s minds and hearts than any
other. It wanted not the distinction of a baronetcy conferred on
the dying soldier to mark the national sense of the high position
he had gained ; and when the news of his decease arrived, I well
remember how the tribute of a nation s grief was paid to the
unblemished Christian hero Baptist and abstainer Sir Henry
Havelock !
172 BAPTISTS AND
It has ever been admitted that woman s influence in the
Temperance Reform is of vast importance, and would be decisive,
were it cast at once and wholly in its favour. Many Christian
women have done excellent work for this great cause ; but if there
were one palm alone to be assigned, little doubt would exist but
that it ought to be awarded to a Baptist. She had lived for years
in obscurity, but having embraced the principle of Abstinence,
her talents were quickly recognised and called into exercise both
as a writer and a speaker. In a short time she had edited two
Temperance publications, refuted a medical opponent, and pub
lished a " Garland of Water Flowers." As co-editor of the Temperance
Journal she wrote a series of Temperance Tales, and issued the
" Juvenile Abstainer," which, under the later name of " Morning
Dew Drops," is a standard book for young Abstainers. In subse
quent years, her remarkable abilities as a lecturer on literary and
other topics were called into constant request, and her pen threw
off, loom-like, products, rich in colour, and beautiful in design ; but
her heart and life remained consecrated to Temperance work ; and
when, in the July of 1878, she passed away, it was unanimously
confessed that of all the women who had nobly directed noble
gifts to the service of this Reform, none could compare with Mrs.
Clara Lucas Balfour. Her Temperance Addresses had a pathos
all their own, and her Temperance Works constitute a library
abounding in whatever can gratify the taste, and elevate the
mind.
II. THE PRESENT.
Towards the latter end of 1859, I drew up, at the instance of
the National Temperance League Committee, an address to
Baptist ministers on the Temperance Question. This received
the signature of 224 ministers and thirty-six students. Some years
later, a second address of a similar kind received the names of
about 260 ministers. But in 1881, the names of 537 ministers,
and of 228 students (out of 287 four-fifths of the whole number)
TEMPERANCE REFORMERS. 173
are recorded as Total Abstainers. This is gratifying numerical
progress, and it proves that, as a denomination, we have been
changing for the better our attitude to the Temperance Reform.
Nor is this all. Omitting those living Baptists who have been
previously referred to as Temperance workers, there is encourage
ment to be drawn from the position and influence of many
of the men among us who have taken their place on the side of
Total Abstinence. Who preaches by voice and print to so large a
congregation as the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, or has done a greater
work for the training of a ministry fervent in spirit and serving
the Lord ? And whether speaking in his own name, or under
that of John Ploughman, Mr. Spurgeon s words for Temperance
are ever welcome, and ever weighty. Among the heads of Colle
giate Institutions may be named, Rev. Dr. Thomas, Ex-President
of Pontypool College; Rev. G. T. Rooke, LL.B., of Rawdon
College, Bradford ; and Dr. Culross, of the Theological Institution,
Glasgow. Among ministers and pastors of acknowledged eminence,
and who have been called to offices of trust and consequence in
connection with our body, may be named, Rev. S. H. Booth, Rev.
W. Brock, Rev. J. P. Chown, Rev. John Clifford, M.A., LL.B.
(Editor of the General Baptist Magazine), Rev. J. H. Cooke (editor
of the Freeman), Rev. Dr. Stanford, Rev. Dr. Stock, and Rev. C.
Williams ; while of others, including younger brethren of power
and promise, there is a goodly and interesting company in
sympathy with the Temperance Cause. Of these, Rev. J. Fletcher
is an example. Justly esteemed as a successful evangelist and pastor,
while pursuing his business as a merchant, is Mr. W. P. Lockhart,
of Liverpool. Consistent, too, in utterance and example, has been
Mr. Henry Varley, so widely-known for his evangelistic labours.
The officers of our churches are still furnishing, as they have
done, valuable assistance in the diffusion of Temperance principles.
The late Mr. J. S. Wright, M.P., was one of these, and has left a
filial successor in the same good work. Other examples are sup
plied by Mr. W. S. Caine, M.P. (President of the Baptist Total
174 BAPTISTS.
Abstinence Association) ; Mr. G. W. Anstie, of Devizes ; Mr.
Peter Spence, J.P., senior deacon of Dr. MacLaren s Church,
Manchester ; Mr. Alderman Strachan, of South Shields ; Mr-
Cory, of Cardiff ; Messrs. Bacon and Waland, of London ;
with a long list of others who have " earned to themselves a good
degree " in this particular labour of love. The medical profession
is now, by means of some of its members, nobly assisting the
Temperance Eeform, and Dr. Pearce, of Plymouth, is a Baptist
representative of enlightened medical sentiment and practice on
this subject.
The United Kingdom Band of Hope Union, one of our largest
Temperance Institutions, had a Baptist, Mr. Stephen Shirley, for
its principal founder, who is also its present chairman ; and at a
still earlier date, the Band of Hope movement in London owed
very much to the zeal and toil of Mr. J. H. Esterbrooke, who is a
Baptist. The National Temperance League has pursued, and is
still pursuing, a career of distinguished Temperance activity and
usefulness ; and none can doubt that it owes much of both to the
tact and ability of its indefatigable secretary, Mr. Kobert Rae, who
is a Baptist. Foreign Missions move the hearts and stimulate the
hopes of the Christian world. Every missionary should be a
Total Abstainer, both for his own sake, and for the sake of the
people among whom he lives and labours. Not a few Baptist
missionaries are so, but to 110 other missionary, of any denomina
tion, has it yet fallen to effect so much good for the British Army as
the Rev. J. Gelson Gregson, has been privileged to bring about by
means of the Soldiers Total Abstinence Society of India. About
9,000 English soldiers there are members of Regimental Temperance
Societies, and the benefits resulting from this Temperance propa
ganda in the army, called forth, some time ago, emphatic com
mendation from Lord Napier of Magdala, when Commander-in-
Chief, and from the Earl of Northbrook, when Governor-General
of India.
OUR FUTURE WORK. 175
III. THE FUTURE.
In regard to the Temperance Reform, " can " and " should "
are terms of co-ordinate meaning, and as it cannot be pretended
that Baptists have done all they can in behalf of the Total
Abstinence cause, it is proper to enquire, What can, and, therefore,
ought they to do for its promotion ? Speaking generally, it may
be replied that they can do at least what is done by the Baptists
of America, both in the United States and in Canada, viz,, practise
Abstinence from intoxicating drinks. As early as 1830, the annual
Conference of Baptists of Nova Scotia passed a resolution strongly
recommending the Temperance cause to the united and vigorous
support of the Baptists of that province,
At the present time, personal Abstinence is understood to
be the rule among Baptists of all sections across the Atlantic,
whether ministers, officers, or private members, Men and women
professing godliness, profess to abstain from all intoxicating
liquors, and that the overwhelming majority are true to their
profession, I do not doubt. At the Free-Will Baptist Triennial
and Centennial Conference, which I attended in the July of 1880,
the strongest resolutions were passed on this question, and it was
clear that the practice and promotion of Abstinence were regarded
as a Christian duty not to be violated with a conscience void of
offence to God or man. So it has been for many years ; and I
may here diverge for a moment to observe, that both the physical
and spiritual results have been found of a self-rewarding character,
As to the former, it may suffice to state that of seventy-five
ministers who had died since the last Triennial Conference, the
average age at death was 69 ; and, but for the decease of a few
younger men, the average would have been nearer 80 than 70,
Now I do not see why American Baptists should be in advance of
British Baptists in. this, or any other, track of Christian philan
thropy, and I am sure than if even every Baptist were a Total
Abstainer, not one would have done more than adopt a course at
once beneficial to himself, and contributive to his greater useful-
176 BAPTISTS.
ness in the family, society, and the Church. But again as it
seems to me we may, and ought, as Baptists to take action on this
great question in three ways : 1st, Denominationally ; 2ndly,
Congregationally ; Srdly, Educationally. Let me venture a few
words on each.
1st. Denominational Action. Eesolutions, more or less, of a
Temperance character have been passed by the General Baptist
Association, and several County Associations ; but owing to our
form of union being different to that of Methodists and Presby
terians, there would be difficulties in the way of direct denomi
national action on behalf of the Temperance Reform. Yet, as
the Baptists do unite voluntarily for various objects, there is no
reason why they should not add the Temperance question to the
others. This conjoint action has been rendered easy by the
formation of the Baptist Total Abstinence Association in May,
1874. Membership in it is provided for in the case of ministers
students, and officers of churches, by forwarding the name and
address of any such person being an Abstainer ; and in the case
of other abstaining Baptists, by a subscription of 2s. 6d. a year.
I have before referred to the number of ministers and students
whose names have been so transmitted, but it is curious to find
that the officers and others who are entered as members do not
exceed (by the last report) 325 in number. It is probable that the
Abstaining officers of Baptist churches are three or four-fold greater
than the ministers, so that the figures in the report witness to a
lamentable remissness in forwarding the names of abstaining
officers. Cannot this be corrected ? Each Abstaining minister
might assist to supply the deficiency. And as to the small sub
scription which others have to pay to be enrolled as members, it
can offer no hindrance where the heart is interested in the work.*
In one particular this denominational Society has set others an
* Mr. J. T. Sears, the Secretary of the Baptist Total Abstinence Asso
ciation, will be glad to receive the names of Baptist Abstainers addressed
to him at 232, Southampton Street, Camberwell Road, London, S.E.
EDUCATION AND TEMPERANCE. 177
example by the appointment of a travelling and organizing agent,
Eev. W. L. Lang.
2ndly. Congregational Action. A Temperance organisation
should exist in each Congregation, holding its meetings from time
to time, and existing for the good of the neighbourhood in which
the Church is situated. The minister, if a Total Abstainer, would
be the appropriate president ; and, in any case, there would be a
natural identification of the Temperance Movement \\ith the work
of the Congregation. To sustain this action, official encourage
ment will be valuable, but not indispensable. An active
Committee would keep the fire burning and make it spread.
Srdly. Educational Action. At proper seasons, the value of
Total Abstinence should be impressed on Sunday School children,
and a vigilant teacher would find many opportunities of doing
this without diverging from the lessons of the day. Then a Band
of Hope, either distinct from the Sunday School or in connection
with it, should be formed, and suitable exercises provided. The
Wesleyan Conference passed, some years ago, a resolution, that a
Band of Hope should be attached to every chapel in the Con
nexion, and though this rule has not been absolutely carried out,
the Bands of Hope reported in August, 1880, numbered 1,831,
with a membership of 178,207. There are few who object to the
training of the young in Temperance principles and practice, and
it is by the gathering in. of the young, and their preservation, that
very much of the future progress of the cause is to be secured.
As Baptists we ought to take a part, and a leading one, in such
means for saving the rising race from the paths of the destroyer.
On one point I would be explicit. The Temperance Reform is not to
be forwarded, much less accomplished, by one method of operation.
All the causes of drinking and drunkenness must be attacked, if
the conquest is to be gained ; and, therefore, in the field of
legislation, Baptists should be conspicuous for their energy and
ardour. Sunday Closing Bills, restrictive proposals, and, above
all, Local Option ought to be demanded by Baptists with one
178 BAPTISTS.
mind and voice. We have often witnessed against tyranny and
oppression, but the archives of history may be ransacked in vain
for an example of greater oppression than that which is presented
tinder our licensing system. A small body of magistrates license,
from year to year, a traffic which is the nation s plague, and no
legal power of prevention is yet afforded. By a law of Local
Option this would be remedied, and the inhabitants of districts
would enjoy the blessed liberty of shaking themselves free from a
Weight which neither they nor their fathers have been able to bear.
A prelate of the Church of England once ventured to say he would
rather see England free than sober, I have replied to him by
Baying, what I now repeat^ that England cannot be free without
being sober ; that she is not now free, because under the power
of brewers, distillers, and liquor sellers ; and that Local Option, by
making it possible for her to be sober, would inaugurate an era of
freedom from social suffering and demoralization, which would
place her civil and political liberties on a firmer basis, and make
her great and prosperous beyond all present possibility.
If I am asked to define the Temperance position of Baptists as
compared with other prominent denominations, I do not pretend
to exquisite precision, but negatively I may say we are not first,
and, more encouragingly, that we are not last. Perhaps, as to
relative numbers and influence, the Society of Friends (usually
called Quakers) takes the lead in England. The Methodist bodies
come next ; one of the lesser the Bible Christians deserving to
be placed beside the Friends, The English Presbyterians follow ;
then the Congregationalists ; then " we Baptists " ; next, the New
Church and Unitarians may be linked for this purpose, if for no
other ; and the rear is brought up by the Established Church.
Looking, however, at the matter not numerically, but organi
sationally, I am not sure whether the Church of England may not
claim to be foremost in the work, for though its dual basis admits
large numbers into the Church of England Temperance Society
Who are not abstainers, it is to be remembered that every local
THE NEED OF WORK. 171)
society has a total abstinence section, which is generally the most
active and numerous ; and that the number of abstainers both
among clergy and laity is rapidly increasing. Late in moving,
the Church of England has made steady progress in the last few
years, and Nonconformist bodies must look to their laurels if they
desire them to be retained. For myself, I wish the utmost success
to all Christian Churches in this Christian work, though I should
like our own denomination to be just a little ahead of every other !
The others, I am sure, will pardon this touch of special affection.
Sure I am that the whole Church would find enough to do in
breaking down the power of the drinking system. And what a
heart-rejoicing spectacle will it be when Christ s Church is
combined against the antichrist of Alcohol ! Oh, to see the
armies of the faithful casting themselves with one accord upon the
sources and defences of intemperance, and by their irresistible
onset sweeping them away ! It is perfectly certain that the forces
by which the present system is kept in operation are so potent
that the need for action to counterweight and remove them is
absolutely imperative. Ignorance, Apathy, Appetite, Greed,
Custom, are not opponents to be despised, and they are all in
league to sustain and extend the manufacture, sale, and use of
intoxicating liquors, and to thwart efforts for the abolition of the
drinking system. Who shall enlighten the ignorant, stir the
apathetic, persuade the victims of appetite to deny themselves,
and put away evil customs, and defy the " vested interests " of
the traffickers in strong drink I Christians must be looked for,
and relied upon, to do this, if it is to be done at all ; and that it
ought to be done, and must be done, if the country is to be saved,
who that has studied this social problem can doubt fora moment?
If it is arduous, are not Christians to be expected to show hardness
as good soldiers of Jesus Christ \ If it is heroic, who ..should be
heroes but those who say, "We can do all things through
Christ who strengthened us" ? And, brethren, if we are Baptists,
we are Christians Christians first and ought to be eager to
180 BAPTISTS AND TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
make our Christian calling and election sure. If we claim, as
Baptists, to trace our origin to the primitive Church, let us prove
our relationship by primitive good works. If we claim a Scrip
tural polity and creed, let us remember that these need vitalizing
by the spirit of love and zeal, without which ecclesiastical organi
sations are but painted pageants, and dogmatic standards, tinkling
cymbals. If we claim, as we justly may, that Baptists are in no
small numbers to be found in the shining ranks of martyrs,
confessors, teachers, missionaries, and philanthropists, let us be
emulous of a place in the ranks of Temperance reformers, who
have set their hands to a work of unparalleled social importance,
and one profoundly connected with the prosperity of the Church
and the salvation of men.
Doing what we might, and with all our might, who can
predict the consequences, both immediate and ultimate ? This we
know, that they will be gladdening and glorious ; and that we
may then consistently, and believingly, pray "Thy Kingdom
come !" And then the Kingdom of God will come with a power
and a brightness for which the world has long been waiting !
NOTES.
NOTES.
LECTURE i. ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF BAPTISTS.
NOTE A. THE ORIGIN OF INFANT BAPTISM
Is involved in some obscurity. Pressense, a recent Psedobaptist witness,
says, in his Apostolic Age, pp; 374-376, " Faith was required from every can
didate for baptism. The idea never occurred to Paul that baptism might be
divorced from faith the sign from the thing signified." " Christian baptism
is not to be received any more than faith, by right of inheritance. This
is the great reason why we cannot believe that it was administered in the
Apostolic age to little children. No positive fact sanctioning the practice
can be adduced from the New Testament : the historical proofs alleged are
in no way conclusive." The first century is without a solitary note in favour
of infant baptism, and the whole genius of the practical and personal Chris
tianity of that age forcibly precludes the idea of its appearance.
What is the witness of the second century to infant baptism? The
passage in Irenseus (Heresies, Book II. cxxii. 4) is thus given by
Neander (Church History, Bohn s edition, vol. I. 431) " He (ChrL-t) came
to redeem all by Himself, all who through Him are born again unto God
infant", little children, boys, young men and old. Therefore He passed
through every age ; for the infants He became an infant, sanctifying the
infants ; among the little childi en He became a little child, to sanc ify those
who are of this age, and at the game time to present to them an example of
piety, uprightness, and obedience; among the young men, He becaaae a
young man, that He might set them an example, and sanctify them to the
Lord."
Now the accomplished Neander, though saying, " There does not appear
to be any reason for deriving infant baptism from an apostolical institution,"
yet claims the above passage as a witness in favour of infant baptism, and thus
cites the authority of the greatest bishop of the second century for the
existence of that rite at so early a date. Is this interpretation right?
NOTES.
Pressense (Heresy and Christian Doctrine, 399), like Hagenbach, asserts
that it is "a purely gratuitous supposition." Let us look for ourselves.
(1.) Clearly Irenseus is not directly or even indirectly discoursing of
baptism. It is not in the text or context. It does not lie in the course of
the drift of his teaching.
(2.) It is obvious that he is expounding that grand Johannine
conception of " the "Word made flesh," that the Incarnation is the sanctifi-
cation of universal human life, omitting no individual of the race, and no
stage in the life of any individual. Christ was the " perfect man, that is to
say, man perfectly united to God."* " He recapitulates, as it were, in
Himself the whole human race. He is the head of mankind ; representing
not only all generations, but all ages ; for He redeemed childhood, youth,
and mature age, by being Himself successively child, youth, and full-grown
man."f It is of the effect of the Incarnation and not of baptism that he
is speaking.
(3.) It ought to go for something that the idea of the intrinsic virtue of a
sacrament had not yet gained a secure footing. Pressens6 says, that in
speaking of the primitive Church, we must set aside all notions of sacra
mental grace by which the operation of God is assimilated to the arts of
magic,J and Bunsen affirms that such conceptions of Divine grace were
borrowed from the lustrations of decaying paganism ; and the former goes
so far as to affirm, that " the essential feature of the institutions of the
second and third centuries is this very predominance of the baptism of
adult catechumens with their foregoing training." Of Justin Martyr, the
Greek philosopher of Samaria, who from a decided Platonist became a
Christian about the year 132, and was martyred in Rome for refusing to
sacrifice to the gods about the year 168, he says : " The notion of sacrament
is scarcely at all developed in his writings. He attaches much importance
to baptism ; he opposes it to natural birth, which is a necessity, and brings
us into a state of ignorance, whilst baptism renders us children of God by
the forgiveness of our sins. But it produces these results only by means of a
living faith ; it is not similar to the washings of the Jews, for all the waves
of the sea ceuld not wash away sin. It purifies only by faith in Christ
crucified. Baptism is salutary only to therepentant sinner ; then it becomes
a spring of life, and deserves to be called a source of light : but this is
entirely due to the truth which it calls to mind. Justin does not mention
" Hceres " III. 33, V. 1. t Ibid III. 20, II. 39.
J Apostolic Age, 373. Hippolytus II. 127.
NOTES. v
the baptism of infants, but speaks only of their being instructed."* We
may therefore warrantably affhm, that it was highly improbable Irenseus
had infant baptism in his mind when he wrote of the wide and glorious
effects of the Incarnation. The conclusion, long-established, and recognised ;
that infant baptism did not originate in the second century will require other
evidence than this before it is disturbed.
But that it had arisen in the third century is evident (a) from " The
Constitutions of the Egyptian Church " (II. 46), which direct thus, " Let
any one of them who can speak, speak when required in the service. If he
cannot speak, let the parents answer for him; " (b) from Origen (born, 184
A.D. ; died, 253) who " connected the baptism of infants with his favourite
theory of a fall antecedent to an earthly existence ;" (c) and Tertullian,
who " complained bitterly of the abuse which had so soon followed on this
practice."
To sum-up, there is not a jot of evidence in favour of the existence of
infant baptism in the first century ; the witness is exceedingly dubious as
to its origin in the second ; but that it was recognised by some, and opposed
by others, in the third, there is no doubt.
NOTE B. THE PRIMITIVE MODE OF BAPTISM.
Is Sprinkling New Testament baptism ? Let Dean Stanley answer " There
can be no question that the original form of baptism the very meaning of
the word was complete immersion in the deep baptismal waters ; and that
for at least four centuries any other form was either unknown, or regarded,
unless in the case ot danger us illness, as an exceptional, almost a monstrous
case. To this form the Eastern church still rigidly adheres ; and the most
illustrious and venerable portion of it, that of the Byzantine Empire, abso
lutely repudiates and ignores any other mode of administration as essentially
invalid. The Latin church has wholly altered the mode, and with the
two exceptions of the cathredal of Milan and the sect of the Baptists, a few
drops of water are now tha Western substitute for the three-fold plunge
into the rushing rivers or the wide baptisteries of the East." Hist. East.
Ch. Lee. I.
Add to this Professor Maine s testimony, also a learned Ptedobaptist,
" It may be honestly asked by some, Was immersion the primitive form of
baptism ; and if so, what then ? As to the question of fact, the testimony
* Life and Practice of the Early Church, 21.
vi NOTES.
is ample and decisive. No matter of church history is clearer. The
evidence is all one way, and all church historians of any repute agree in
accepting it. We cannot claim even originality in teaching it in a Con-
greg itional seminary. And we really feel g lilty of a kind of anachronism
in writing an article to insist upon it. It is a po : nt on which ancient,
mediaeval, and modern historians alike Catholic and Protestant, Lutheran
and Calvinist have no controversy. And the simple reason for this
unanimity is, that the statements of the early farhers are so clear, and the
light shed upon these statements from the early customs of the church is so
conclusive, that no historian who cares for his reputation would dare to
den> it, and no historian who is worthy of the name would wish to."
In the face of such witnesses, need we say more ?
NOTE C. BAPTISM IN PATRISTIC AND PAPAL TIMES.
(1.) The evidence of the Apostles Creed
The Apostles Creed is one of the most precious heirlooms of the
Christian church ; and for the simplicity and directness of its affirma-
tiofls of the fundamental facts and conquering hopes of Christianity,
not surpassed by any literary fragment in existence. No prying and
unsatisfactory speculation mars it. The smoke of theological conflicts
does not hang over it. Minatory clauses do not convert it into an
unchristian imprecation. It is less like a high and battlemented castle
than the plain but ever attractive grounds and walls of the old home
stead, where we spent our happy and careless youth, and formed aU.
our bright- winged fancies of the future. It is so thoroughly apostolic
in its ring, that it is the only portion of religious literature outside
the Bible that one would fcarcely object to have printed with it.
Grave doubts have been expressed as to the antiquity of this
document. Canon Swainson held that the Nicene Creed is older ;
others have brought the so-called Creed of the Apostles nearer
by several centuries to our times than it used to be put. But Dr.
Caspari, Professor of Theology in the Norwegian University,
establishes upon data of unquestionable accuracy and weight the
following important positions :
(1.) That the Apostles Creed must have been that of the
church at Rome.
(2.) That it cannot be of later date than the year 140.
(3.) That there is nothing to prevent us from thinking that in
NOTES. \ 7 ii
some of its parts it had been in use in Rome long before that even
at the time when Paul met the first Christians in the house of Aquila
and Prifcilla.
Of course, like other products of that sort, it has grown. The
earliest form in which it is found exactly as it stands now is the
eighth century. At the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth
century it, is much shorter than it is now several clauses being
absent.* Dr. Salmonf gives the fourth century form thus, the dash
indicating an omission as compared with the eighth century or
present form.
" I believe in God the Father Almighty : And in Jesus
Christ His only Son our Lord : who was born of the Holy Ghost
and the Virgin Mary : under Pontius Pilate was crucified : And
the third day rose again from the dead : ascended into Heaven :
sitteth at the right hand of the Father : whence he cometh
to judge the quick and the dead :
And in the Holy Ghost: the Holy Church :
the forgiveness of sins : the resurrection of the flesh :
The steps by which Caspari passes from Rufinus and
Ambrose up to the Apostles are too long to be taken here. One
point is, that the church at Rome had such strong regard for the
Apostles Creed that the decree of the Council of Nice could not
supplant it. TERTULLIAN, J at the end of the second century, in his
tract on the Soldier s Crown, says, that the Baptismal Confession was
something more than of faith in the three Persons of the Trinity ;
and that the addition was " sanctioned by inveterata observatio ; and
from his writings it appears that the " something more " " included
belief in our Lord s birth, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, present
sitting at the right hand of God and future coming, in the holy
church and, in the resurrection of the flesh." So we are sure that
baptized believers at the end of the second century confessed a faith
similar to that, the express words of which we have as used at the
beginning of the fifth.
But the creed itself warrants the inference of an earlier date.
* Eufinus wrote an Exposition of the Creed, which belongs to the first ten years of
the fifth century. St. Ambrose, at a date a little earlier, maintained the apostolic
oiigin of this Roman form of the creed.
t Contemporary Keview, August, 1878.
J Bom about 160, and died 245. Cf. De Bapt. 6, and Adv. Marc. v. 4.
viii NOTHS.
The church is not Catholic in it. No emphasis is laid on the onencs*
of God, or the oneness of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is not de
scribed as maker of heaven and earth. The life everlasting is omitted.
Had these been in at the first, it is fair to say they never would have
been dropped out ; for those very points were in hot controversy at
Rome after 140 A.D.
Hence Christian Baptism in the early days required the pro
fession of Christian doctrine. It was not a mechanical act performed
upon an unwilling and unwitting babe, but the expression of the
soul s intelligent homage to Christ, and was preceded by an accept
ance of the cardinal facts and truths of Christianity. Justin Martyr,
whose account of the ceremonies of baptism is the earliest we have,
witnesses that the candidates confessed their belief that the doctrines
taught by the Christians were true, and made a promise to regulate
their lives by the precepts of the gospel.
The place held by baptism in the beginning of Papistic times
was this : the sign of an intelligent acceptance of the truths of the
gospel of Christ, and of a purpose to live to and for Him.
This is the witness of the earliest baptismal creed, the most vener
able document the church has outside of the records which ought to
govern her faith and practice in all things.
(2.) Novatian, a presbyter of distinction, took part in a vehement con
troversy in the church about the middle of the third century. His
main contention was for the purity of the church, and one of his methods
was antagonism to infant baptism. Numbers accepted his leadership, and
Novatians, or Cathari, spread far and wide, planting Churches as far west
as Paris, and, according to the historian Kurtz, establishing their com
munities almost throughout the whole of the Roman Empire.
(3.) Referring to the Donatists, Merivale in his Lectures, writes, " They
represented the broad principle of the Montanists and the Novatians, that the
true Church of Christ is the assembly of really pious persons only, and ad
mits of no merely nominal membership." And as showing the continuity of
this agitation and its connection with Baptist ideas, Hast observes (Geschichte
der Taufgesinnten), " The doctrine of spiritual regeneration, the soul of
Christianity, has perhaps never been taught with deeper feeling, and
adhered to with greater zeal, than by the despised Anabaptists. Their aim
was the highest possible, a church of saints. Nowhere in church history
is found such a subjugation of all other motives to the religious, such an
NOTES. ix
approach to the order and life of the church of the apostles." And Jorg
(History of Protestantism} testifies " that all the Anabaptists wanted was an
entirely new church, a church of believers."
D. BAPTIST CONTINUITY.
Barclay, in his comprehensive account of the Inner Life of the Religious
Societies of the Commonwealth, declares (p. 12) " We have strong reasons
for believing that on the Continent of Europe, small hidden Societies, who
have held many of the opinions of the Anabaptists, have existed from the
time of the Apostles. In the sense of the direct transmission of divine truth,
and the true nature of spiritual religion, it seems probable that these
churches have a lineage or succession more ancient than that of the Roman
Church."
Another interesting witness may be cited. In the " Origin and History
of the Dutch Baptists," by Dr. S. Ypeij and Dermout (published in Breda,
1879), is the following: " We have seen that the Baptists those who in
former times were named Anabaptists, and in latter days, Mennonites
were originally Waldensians, the men who in the history of the Church, in
times so far back, have obtained a well-deserved renown. In consequence,
the Baptists may be regarded as being from of old the only religious de
nomination that have continued from the time of the Apostles, as a Christian
Society who have kept the faith pure through all the ages hitherto. The con
stitution, never perverted internally or externally, of the Society of the
Baptists serves them as a proof of that truth, contested by the Romish
Church, that the Reformation of Religion, such as was brought about, was
necessary, was indispensable, and serves too as the refutation, at the same
time, of the Roman Catholic delusive fancy, that their own is the oldest
Church Society."
But it must not be forgotten that the Dutch Baptists were not Immer-
sionists. They rejected infant baptism, but the mode of baptism adopted by
them was affusion or: pouring, and not immersion. MENNO SIMON, leader
of the Dutch Baptists, taught that there is " not more than one baptism,
viz., the baptism on belief;" but he speaks of that baptism as administered
with " a handful of water." Hubmeyer, who established the Anabaptist
Churches of Moravia, was also an affusionist, and, like Menno and Luther,
came out from the Church of Rome retaining some of the Romish practices.
The Anabaptists of the sixteenth century were in the main affusionists,
though some of them taught the view of the act of baptism which became
x NOTES.
established in England by John Smyth and his followers ; so that when
any one tries to establish Baptist continuity, it is very necessary that he
should define with rigorous accuracy what is meant by the word " Baptist."
And if he does that, it is not unlikely Baptist continuity will thin off into a
most unsubstantial vapour. And what of that ? If antiquity and continuity
were " notes " of truth, Satan would have the advantage of all the denomi
nations.
NOTE E. EARLY ENGLISH BAPTIST CHURCHES.
Rev. J. J. Goadby, in his " Byepaths in Baptist History," recites and
examines with skill and care the evidence in connection with the ancient
Baptist Churches in England. He states that there is some probability
that the chapel at Eillcli/e was built by Baptist Lollards. " One of the
dates on the tombstones is 1357, the time when WyclifFe was still a Fellow
at Merton College, Oxford," p. 22.
Eyethorne " owes its origin to some Dutch Baptists who settled in this
country in the time of Henry VIII." This is a typical fact of that time.
English Baptists are largely indebted to the Dutch.
NOTE F. THE CROWLE CHURCH BOOK.
The Church Book, from which the statement is taken about John
Smyth s Baptism, belonged to the Church at Epworth and Crowle, in Lin
colnshire. The Rev. Jabez Stutterd, Minister at Epworth and Crowle,
heard his deacons speak of the existence of this work ; and being interested,
found that it was in the possession of the Rev. Smith Watson, a minister
at Butterwick, hard by. He obtained a sight of it, and discovered that it
consisted of a few moth-eaten leaves, which had been given to Mr. Smith
"Watson by an old Baptist family of the district, who met with it in an old
oak chest many years before.
Mr. Stutterd thought the pages might be of value, and the opinion of
an expert, & skilled antiquarian, of the district was sought, and he reported
as follows :
"Nov. 9th, 1866.
"As keeper of the Manor-Charts of North -Lincolnshire, I
have examined the Old Baptist Records, and believe them to refer
to the last days of Queen Elizabeth and James the First. And
recommend the friends connected with the Baptist Cause, to quickly
copy them, or they will surely vanish away.
" F. CHAPMAN, Antiquarian."
NOTES. xi
The book was now guarded with jealous care, but at the request of the
deacons, and with their aid, Mr. Stutterd made a number of extracts, and
after some time forwarded them to me.
I was surprised at their contents, and specially at the statement con
cerning John Smyth s baptism, and asked to see the original ; meanwhile
Smith Watson had deceased, and the book could not be found. Search has
been made again and again, but at present in vain.
The following document bears date December 16th, 1879 :
" We, the undersigned, Deacons of the Baptist Churches at
Butterwick, Epworth,Crowle,havirjg seenand handled the Old Records
of seven or eight leaves, long before the Rev. J . Stutterd came into
the County. And at our request and desire, and with our assist
ance, he copied the same moth-eaten records. We, as a Church,
tendered him our sincere thanks, and requested him to send them to
the Editor of the General Baptist Magazine for insertion.
" When copied, they were taken back to Butterwick, and con
signed to the care of the late Rev. Watson Smith, and now we can
not, at present, place our hands on the document, or it would
have been sent for Mr. Clifford s inspection.
"ANDERSON HIND.
"PETER GLOSSOP.
" JOHN CHAPMAN.
"BENJM. BATTY.
" GEORGE SINCLAIR.
" THOMAS SMITH.
"WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN."
II. Now, what is the witness of the book itself?
(1) It contains a Church Covenant; date, January 4, 1599:
" We, this Church of Christ meeting at Epworth, Crowle, and
West Butterwick, in ye county of Lincoln, whose names are under
written,* give up ourselves to the Lord, and one to another, according
to ye will of God. We do promise and covenant, in ye presence of
Christ, to walk together in the laws and ordinances of baptized
believers according to ye rules of ye gospel, through Jesus Christ.
So helping us.
" JAMES RAYNER JOHN MORTON, J
" HENRY HELWISE WM. BREWSTER, > Elders of ye Church."
"WILLIAM BRADPORD, )
* Thirty two signatures or marks are given.
xii NOTES.
(2) It says, "William Bradford "was baptized in ye old River Don
below Epworth town, at midnight," Nov. 20, 1598.
(3) It speaks of persecutions and of efforts to get away to " Holland,
where we hear there is freedom of religion for all men."
(4) It affirms that John Smyth, vicar of Gainsborough, enquired about
baptism in Feb. 1604 ; was convinced of its truth, May 7 ; and baptized,
March 24, 1606.
(5) It says, John Smyth baptized John Norcott, March 24, 1609.
(6) It records that at a meeting of the Church held on the 4th of April,
1609, " John Smith, John Morton, Henry Helwise, Richard Carver, Edward
"Winslow, "William Bradford, James Rayner, William Brewster, Eli Kelsey,
John Wood, all met to consult on removing ye church to Holland," and that,
excepting James Rayner, "Wm. Brewster, Eli Kelsey, and John Wood, they
started on that night down the river Trent from Butterwick to Hull, and
from thence to Holland ; John Norton, who had not been baptized a fortnight,
accompanying them.
(7) News arrives of the death of John Smith and John Norcott,
through one, Thomas Fetch, who returned from Holland to Crowle.
III. It is necessary very special caution should be taken in speaking of
events belonging to the time comprised within this Church Book, and pre
eminently of such events as it was the business or pleasure of a Church
scribe to record. We know but little of the details of the movements of
persecuted Separatists in those days. Secrecy was a duty. Means of
communication were scant to a degree we can scarcely imagine.
Moreover, the subject of "Baptism" was only just struggling into a
denned position in the English life of the time. At first the Separatist members
were not all averse to dwelling together in Church communion, though they
held opposed views on the mode and subjects of baptism. That is clear even
as far on as 1633, when John Spilsbury s Church was formed, or why cite as
a reason for the formation of the Church the fact that they were too
numerous to meet together safely, and therefore might separate ?
Remembering these points, is the Church Book account of John Smyth s
baptism (1) consistent with what we know of his character ? It is exactly
what we should expect. There is the same caution, the same slowness, and
then the same decision and courage we have seen in other portions of his
career.
(2) Is it consistent with what he himself says in any writings of his ? Does
he anywhere say that he actually baptized himself ? He says, in a book
NOTES. xiii
published in 1609, three years after his baptism, The character of the Beast,
or the false constitution of the Church, " The Anabaptists, as you call
them, do not set up a new covenant and gospel, though they setup a new
or apostolic baptism, which Antichrist had overthrown ; and whereas, you
say, they have no warrant to baptize themselves, I say, as much as you
have [he was writing to a Brownist or Congregationalist] to set up a new
Church, yea, fully as much. For if a new Church may be erected, which is
the most noble order of the New Testament, much more may baptism," etc.
Here he is simply vindicating the right of Christians to set up a new
Church on Baptist lines, if they think fit. That passage is no witness against
the statement of the Crowle Church Book.
That this is the gist of the controversy appears from Robinson s words
("Of Religious Communion," works iii. 168), in 1614, "As I have heard
from themselves Mr. Smyth, Mr. Helwise, and rest, having utterly
dissolved and disclaimed their former Church state and ministry, came
together to erect a new Church by baptism"
So if we look at other passages in the light of the fierce controversy of
those times, we shall find that there is nothing in Smyth s statements which
may not be explained by reference to his claim to the power of Christians to
constitute a separate Church on the ground of baptism.
(3) But is not the Crowle book in violent collision with other testimonies ?
So it seems. The testimonies cited by Dr. Dexter (who writes as if he
were at Amsterdam in 1608-14, and saw everything) to prove that John
Smyth baptized himself, and that the Crowle record is a " feeble forgery,"
will carry conviction to some minds. But let us not forget, first, the prodi
gious facility of the Christians of those days in attack; secondly, the
unutterable ignominy attaching to an Anabaptist, and the temptation to a
controversialist to disparage an antagonist by charging him with acts
thought opprobrious.
We have not space to report in detail our examination of Dr. Dexter s
criticism, but we believe it will be found that the statement of the Crowle
book not only fits exactly into Smyth s character, and is in accord with what
he says about himself, but also may be reconciled with the allegations of
others, concerning his baptism, when those allegations are interpreted by
the light of the great question of the time, viz., the right to form new Chris
tian Churches, and on what grounds.
"Whether Smyth baptized himself, or was baptized in the river Don by
another, is a matter of no importance whatever except as a question of truth
xiv NOTES.
NOTE G. JAMES ARMINITJS.
This accomplished scholar and gifted theologian was horn in 1560, the
year of Philip Melancthon s death, at the ancient town of Oudewater, in
South Holland, midway between Rotterdam and Utrecht. He studied at
Leyden with extraordinary ardour and success : gave his days and nights
to theology, Hebrew, and mathematics, and took first rank amongst his
fellow-citizens. In 1582, so conspicuous were his merits, the Merchants
Guild of Amsterdam sent him at their own cost to study at Geneva. There
he heard Beza; from thence he went and studied and lectured at Basle, and
whilst there visited Italy, and saw Popery in its native conditions and
corruptions. In 1587 he began his ministry in the Reformed Church at
Amsterdam, and gave full proof of his incorruptible sincerity, loyalty to
truth and conviction, piercing intellect, warm heart, and high character.
In 1603 he was appointed to the Professorship of Divinity in the Uni
versity of Leyden, and he died October 9, 1609.
He was a true Reformer. Finding the Church in bondage to a cruel
and false scholastic philosophy, and God s Word made void by the vain
reasonings of men, he boldly set himself to break the chains and let the
captive go free. He averted the doctrine of General Redemption; and
taught the actual, the real, and unreserved universality of the provision of
salvation, as to its source in the Father s love for all, as to its means in
the Son s sacrifice for all, and as to its application in the Spirit s convincing
work for all. He said : " There are two stumbling-blocks against which 1
am solicitously on my guard not to make God the author of sin, and not to
do away with the inherent freedom of the human will : which two things,
if any one knows how to avoid, there is no action he shall imagine which 1
will not most cheerfully allow to be ascribed to the Providence of God, if due
regard be only had to the Divine excellence" Those are golden words ; and
their defence was maintained at the risk of many years of ignominy and
painful suffering, and in the face of bitter antagonism and personal loss.
Arminius was of royal make, and he was willing to lay down his life for the
truth. But he was more pager to use his life in embodying the truth. It is
an egregious mistake which reduces him to a vigorous theological disputant.
Grotius, who knew him well, says of him
" Subtle in intellect, and great in speech,
But careful mo^t his life to regulate;
Arminius, dead, thus speaks, thus all would teach
(Of life approved, and matchless in debate)
I, as in life, in death this counsel give,
Be less disposed to argue than to live."
NOTHS. XT
NOTB H. GENERAL BAPTISTS AND LIBERTY OP CONSCIENCE.
In a Confession put forth in 1611, this luminous article occurs, "The
magistrate is not to meddle with religion or matters of conscience, nor
compel men to this or thai form of religion ; because Christ is the King
and Lawgiver of the Church and Conscience."
Professor Masson, in his " Life of Milton," says, this is " the first
expression of the absolute principle of liberty of conscience in the public
articles of any body of Christians." Thomas Helwisse, who had the chief
hand in drawing up this document, was Smyth s successor, and he drew
around him some unforgettable men. Leonard Busher, who published the
first English tract on Liberty of Conscience, in 1614, was one of his flock ;
and John Morton, who sent out a tractate entitled, " Objections Answered
by Way of Dialogue, wherein is proved by the Law of God, by the Law of
our Land, and by His Majesty s Many Testimonies, that no Man ought to
be Persecuted for his Religion, so he Testifie his Allegiance by the Oath
Appointed by Law," was his assistant. Thus, as Professor Masson says,
" from a dingy meeting-house, somewhere in Old London, there flashed
out first in England the absolute doctrine of Religious Liberty."
Dr. Dexter, in his Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, p. 102-3,
cites the following words from Robert Browne : the magistrates " have no
ecclesiastical authoritie at all, but onelie as anie other Christians, if so be
they be Christians."
On this Dr. Dexter claims for him the proud pre-eminence of having
been the first writer clearly to state and defend in the English tongue the
true doctrine of the relation of the magistrate to the Church. Now Robert
Browne wrote the above a generation before Busher s book appeared.
Professor Masson, describing the state of the Toleration Controversy in
1644, says (Life of Milton, vol. iii.) :
" The history of the modern idea of toleration could be written completely
only after a larger amount of minute and special research than I am able
here to bestow on the subject. Who shall say in the heads of what stray
and solitary men, scattered through Europe in the sixteenth century,
nantes rari in gurgite vasto, some form of the idea, as a purely speculative
conception, may have been lodged? Hallam finds it in the Utopia" of
Sir Thomas More (1480-1535), and in the harangues of the Chancellor of
1 Hcspital of France (1505-1573) ; and there may have been others. But
the history of the idea, as a practical or political notion, lies within a more
precise range. Out of what within Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries was the practical form of the idea bred? Out of pain, out of
zvi NOTES.
suffering, out of persecution ; not pain inflicted constantly on one and the
same section of men, or on any two opposed sections alternately ; but pain
revolving, pain circulated, pain distributed, till the whole round of the
compass of sects had felt it in turn, and the only principle of its prevention
gradually dawned on the common consciousness! In every persecuted
cause, honestly conducted, there was a throe towards the birth of this great
principle. Every persecuted cause claimed at least a toleration for itself
from the established power; and so, by a kind of accumulation, the cause
that had been last persecuted had more of a tendency to toleration in it, and
became practically more tolerant, than the others. This, I think, might be
proved. The Church of England was more tolerant than the Church of
Rome, and Scottish Presbyterianism or Scottish Puritanism was more
tolerant (though the reverse is usually asserted) than the Church of England
prior to 1640. Not to the Church of England, however, nor to Scottish
Presbyterianism, nor to English Puritanism at large, does the honour of
the first perception of the full principle of liberty of conscience, and its
first assertion in English speech, belong. That honour has to be
assigned, I believe, to the Independents generally, and to the Baptists in
particular."
The principle of religious liberty is almost logically bound up with the
theory of the independency of particular churches. Every particular
church being a voluntary concourse of like-minded atoms, able to declare
themselves converts or true Christians, it follows that the world, or civil
society, whether called heathen or professedly Christian, is only the other
wise regulated medium or material in which these voluntary concourses or
whirls take place. It follows that there must be large expanses or interspaces
of the general material always unabsorbed into the voluntary concourses, and
that for the secular power, which governs the general medium, to try to
stimulate the concourses, or to bring all into them, or to control any part of
the procedure of each or any of them, would be a mingling of elements that
are incompatible, of necessary worldly order, with the spiritual kingdom of
Christ. And so it was maintained against the Roman Catholics, and
against the confessions of all the various established Protestant churches,
that there could be and ought to be no Imperial or National Church. This
being the principle of some of the early Protestant movements that went
beyond Luther, Zuinglius, or Calvin, and perplexed these Reformers, little
wonder that flashes of the fullest doctrine of liberty of conscience should be
found amoner the records of those movements, whether on the Continent or
in England. Little wonder, either, that the principle of toleration should
NOTES. xvii
be discernible in the writings of Robert Brown, the father of the crude
English Independency of Elizabeth s reign.
To this passage Professor Masson appends the following note :
See notices of such flashes among the English Baptists of the reign of
Henry VIII., and among the Continental Anabaptists, in Mr. Edward
Bean Underbill s "Historical Introduction" to the reprint of Old
Tracts on Liberty of Conscience by the "Hanserd Knollys Society"
(1846). Mr. Underbill writes as a zealous Baptist, but with judgment and
research.
But Professor Masson also says : " Passages which we have already had
occasion to quote on the writings of Barrowe, Greenwood, and even of the
liberal Robinson, the fatber of Congregationalism proper, prove beyond all
dispute, that the chiefs of the Separatists and Semi-Separatists, who followed
Brown in the latter part of Elizabeth s reign, and in the reign of James,
had not worked out Toleration into a perfect or definite tenet. They did
want something that tbey called Toleration ; but it was a limited and ill-
defined Toleration.
There is no doubt then that the General Baptists may, in the face of the
present evidence, keep their forward rank as the first promulgators of the
absolute doctrine of religious liberty.
NOTE I. BAPTIST DECADENCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Ivimey says : " There is no reason to doubt that our churches were far
more prosperous and numerous at the Revolution in 1688 than at this
period (1753) sixty years after, so that prosperity had, indeed, slain more
than the sword." (Hist. iii. 279.)
But whilst Baptists declined in numbers, spirituality, and energy, in
common witb all other Christians during this century, General Baptists
suffered most. Some of their leaders were specially disputatious, and per
sisted in controversy, whilst Kiffin, Knollys, and other?, were " bewailing
the state of their Churcbe?," and fearing that "much of the former
life and vigour wbicb attended us is gone," tbat " Congregations had
languished," and that they had neglected "giving that fit and proper
encouragement for raising tip of an able and honorable ministry for the time
to come."
In addition to this, General Baptists, from three special causes, suffered
most extremely.
xviii NOTES.
(1) Their centre was rural and not metropolitan. This is a mistake
they have never repaired, and from which they have suffered and suffer
still. To work from Fenstanton might be inevitable in the days of Grantham ;
but it was blind and foolish in times of greater freedom.
(2) They received no accessions at the time of the "Ejection" from the
more learned ministry of the establ shed church, like their brethren who
" denied Arminianism" ; and in any time of theological crisis, a denomina
tion led by men of well-disciplined minds will always suffer less than one
that is under the guidance of men who lack effective scholastic training.
(3) Again, the "Generals" were slow to appreciate the worth of a
trained ministry. The " Particulars " had a system for training men for
the ministry as early as 1710. The General Baptist College only struggled
into existence as the century closed.
If there be meaning in history, and if it is any advantage to live after
the fathers, General Baptists ought to know what to do to repair their errors
and redeem the time.
NOTE J. WHAT GENERAL BAPTISTS BELIEVE.
The Denominational Tear Book recites at length the Six Articles of
faith and practice agreed upon by the fathers and founders, and states the
Constitution and Laws of the Associated Churches. Those Articles do not
contain all that is believed and taught ; but, along with laws passed since,
they signalize the special and distinctive features of our creed and polity of
the General Baptists, viz. :
I. THE DEITY OP THE LORD JESUS.
II. THE THREE GRAND UNIVERSALITIES OP THE GOSPEL REVE
LATION.
III. THE BAPTISM or BELIEVERS BY IMMERSION.
IV. THE GOVERNMENT OP EACH CHURCH BY ITS OWN MEMBERS.
V. THE ASSOCIATION or THE CHURCHES POR THE PROMOTION
or SPIRITUAL LIFE AND WORK.
VI. THE RESPONSIBILITY OP EACH CHURCH MEMBER FOR THE
HOLINESS, VIGOUR, AND GENERAL EFFICIENCY, NOT ONLY OF THE
PARTICULAR CHURCH IN WHICH HIS OR HER MEMBERSHIP IS
RECORDED, BUT ALSO FOR THE WELFARE OF THE MISSIONARY,
EDUCATIONAL, AND LITERARY INSTITUTIONS BELONGING TO THE
ASSOCIATED CHURCHES.
NOTES. xir
As to the Person and Rank of Christ they are in complete accord with
the Evangelical faith as ordinarily understood.
On Baptism they teach that believers of any age are the fit subjects, and
the only fit subjects ; and that immersion is the New Testament mode ; and,
in virtue of this belief, they take their place in the Baptist Union of Great
Britain and Ireland.
That which gives the title of " General" is their interpretation of the
" Atonement." They hold and teach (1) The Universality of the love of God
to mm. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten
Son, that WHOSOEVER should believe in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." (2) The universality of the redeeming work of the Son.
" For He is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world." Christ s death, the creed says, is a provision
of salvation " FOR ALL THE SINS OF ALL MEN." (3) The universality of the
convincing work of the Spirit. "When He is come He will convince the
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come."
The sublime end contemplated in this wonderful manifestation, which ia
at once one and yet three-fold, is RIGHTEOUSNESS ; an ever-active, tender,
and strong love of right, fully displayed in God ; and to be finally wrought
out by His grace in man, His child.
This they maintain to be " the mind " of God ; and fundamental to any
true representation of the character of God. In their judgment God s saving
work for the world is not restricted by any Divine decree, by any foregoing
election, or any withholding of the convincing work of the Holy Spirit.
Men are "lost," and continue so, for no other reason than that they will not
be saved.
NOTE K. THEOLOGICAL CHANGES.
" Among Evangelical Nonconformists, the severe and rigid lines of Cal
vinism have been gradually relaxed. Mr. Spurgeon stands alone among
the modern leaders of Evangelical Nonconformists, in his fidelity to the
older Calvinistic creed. The change became evident about the times of
Andrew Fuller among the Baptists, and of Edward Williams among the
Congregationalists. Edward Williams was a former pastor of this Church,
and wrote a book, faimus in its day, intended to reconcile what he called
the Divine equity with the Divine sovereignty. My immediate predecessor,
John Angell James, was a characteristic representative of the transition
period. He was intensely Evangelical loyal from the very core of his heart
to the spirit of the Revival ; and in his later days he was greatly depressed
xx NOTES.
by the dangers which threatened the central articles of the Evangelical
creed the articles which are held in common hy Methodists and Calvinists.
But he followed with close interest the controversies which led to the
temporary schism in the Presbyterian Church of the United States, and
his sympathies and convictions went with the men of the " new school."
Many of the old Calvinistic phrases were on his lips to the last, hut the
genuine Calvinistic meaning bad gone out of them. The decay of Calvin
ism among Evangelical Nonconformists has been largely due to the influ
ence of Methodism. John Wesley rendered us immense service by the
vigour with which he asserted the moral freedom of man as against the
Calvinistic doctrine of the Divine decrees, and the universality of the
Atonement as against the Calvinistic doctrine which limited the relations
of the death of Christ to the elect."
The Evangelical Revival, by R. W. Dale.
MORTON AND HURT, PRINTERS, 103, STAR STREET, PADDINGTON, W.
1.
OLD BRISTOL:
A STOKY OF PURITAN TIMES.
Price 3s.
2.
T UK OB OS I A EARNEST,
Price 4s. nett.
3.
MISSIONARY SKETCHES.
By S. F. SMITH, D.D.
Price 4s. nett.
* Both of the above are the American Editions.
4.
PRINCIPLES and PRACTICES of the BAPTISTS.
By REV. C. WILLIAMS.
Price Is.
5.
UOW TO REAB THE BIBLE.
By REV. J. T. BRISCOE.
Price 2s. 6d. & 2s.
6.
All! ML TO A YOUNG CHRISTIAN.
By REV. J. STOCK, LL.D.
Price 6d.
7.
THE BAPTIST VISITOR;
A Monthly Magazine. Interesting Anecdotal Expository.
For General and Local use.
BAPTIST TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY,
CASTLE STREET, HOLBORN, E.G.
Fifth Englith Edition, enlarged to 587 Pages (Price Gs.J
THE TEMPERANCE BIBLE COMMENTARY;
BY
DR. F. R. LEES & REV. DAWSON BURNS, M.A.
The work gives at one view the Original Texts, the renderings of the prin
cipal Ancient Versions, with the critici-m and exposition of about seven
hundred passages in the Old and New Testaments bearing on wine and
strong diink, or illustrating the piinciples of the Temperance Reformation ;
also answers to all objection?. In addition to the Notes, there are a General
Preface, a Preliminaiy Dissertation, Preface to the Notes, Essay on the
conneciion between tie Old and New Tt stament, many Appendices, and
copious Indexes. The pment edition contains a reprint of Dr. Kerr s
" Unfermented Wine a Fact."
REV. DR. ANGUS (one of the New Testament Revisers). " I am sure
we shall find it of great value."
REV. DR. ROBERTS. " A glance has been sufficient to excite my admi
ration. It is evidently a scholaily production, and I anticipate much plea
sure from its perusal, whether or not I am able to agree with its criticisms
and conclusions."
[ LONDON; S. W. PARTRIDGE & Co., 9, Paternoster Row, E.G.;
and
ALLIANCE OFFICES, 52, Parliament Street, S."W.
332 Pages, with a copious Index, cloth gilt. (Price 5s.)
CHRISTENDOM AND THE DRINK CURSE;
An Appeal to Christians,
BY THE
REV. DAWSON BURNS, M.A., F.S.S.
The Fireside. " The standard work on the Temperance question. All
that need be said, if not all that can be said, is here said, and said well."
The Freeman. " At once the completest and most elegant volume we
have on this theme."
General Baptist Magazine" As persuasive as it is cogent, and as
genial as it is forcible."
ALLIANCE OFFICES, 52, Parliament Street, London.
*** Church Members, Superintendents, and Sunday School Teachers,
will have a special reduction in price, by applying to Rev. DAWSON BURNS,
M. A., with reference to either of the above Works.
Now ready. Crown Svo., 448 pages, with PORTRAIT, ekth boards,
bevelled, price 6s. Qd.
LIFE OF JAMES MVRSELL PHILLIPPO,
Missionary in Jamaica.
By E. B. UNDERBILL, LL.D., Hon. Sec., Baptist Missionary Society.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
" Dr. Underbill has selected his abundant materials with skill, arranged
them with fine literary fact, and added to the number of religiously helpful
and stimulating books one of the most interesting and instructive
volumes." General Baptist Magazine.
" In this goodly volume Dr. Underbill has furnished one of the most
compact and complete, and, at the same time, one of the most fascinating
biographies it has ever been our privilege to read." Baptist Magazine.
" Will prove alike instructive and at ractive to those who are interested
in Missionary enterprize." Eastern Daily Express.
" We thank Dr. Underbill for this remarkably cheap, but remarkably
rich, contribution to our missionary biography." Freeman.
" To a Baptist the volume will be delightful reading." Record.
" Dr. Underbill has given us in this work one of the best biographies of
one of the best and most honoured of modern Missionaries." Non
conformist and Independent.
"Dr. Underbill s book is one which the friends of missions, and Baptists
especially, will be delighted to read." Christian World.
A most Valuable and Imporlanl Work on Baptism.
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF BAPTISM,
By the late Dn. WOLFRED N. COTE, Missionary in Rome.
Price 105. 6d.
" We could wish that a copy of this volume were on the book-shelves of
every Baptst minister in England. Baptist Magazine.
" Of great and permanent value." Freeman.
Second Edition, handsomely bound in cloth, with Eight Illustrations, price
35. Qd., post-free.
A SAVIOUR FOR CHILDREN,
By REV. JAMES DUNCKLEY, Upton-upon Severn.
" We most heartily commend Mr. Dunckley s book, and wish it a very
large sale." C. H. SPURGEON, in Swordand Trowel.
" Mr. Dunckley has a rare aptitude for the work of teaching young
children the fundamental truths of Christianity." Nonconformist.
" A copy should be placed in the hands of every child in the kingdom."
OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D.D., Incumbent of Emmanuel Church, Brighton.
Large crown Svo., cloth, price 4s., post-free.
MEMORIALS OF BAPTIST MISSIONARIES IN
JAMAICA,
Including Sketch of the Labours of the Moravians, Wesleyans, and early
American Teachers in Jamaica, Bahamas, Hayti, and Trinidad, and an
account of the Presbyterian and London Missionaries Societies Missions,
By JOHN CLARKE, Corresponding Member of the Ethnological Society, and
late Missionary in Western Africa.
LONDON: YATES & ALEXANDER, 21, Castle Street, Holborn, E.G.
E. MARLBOROUGH & Co., 61, Old Bailey; and aU Bookseller*,
BAPTIST PUBLICATION BOARD.
THE GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE.
Edited by KEV. JOHN CLIFFORD, M.A., LL.B., B.Sc., &c.
Published Monthly, price 2d.
Contains news of the Churches at home and abroad, and interest
ing papers on the topics of the day.
THE BAPTIST HYMNAL.
A new and beautiful Selection of Hymns for use in Families and
Congregations.
Published in three sizes (large type, small type, and medium), and
in prices ranging from 8d. to 8s., according to size and binding.
THE NEW BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL HYMN BOOK.
ENTITLED,
THE SCHOOL HYMNAL.
Contains 343 choice Hymns for the Young.
Published in December, 1880, it has already been introduced into
many Sunday Schools, and everywhere gives satisfaction.
Prices Paper covers, 3d. ; limp cloth, 4d. ; cloths boards, 6d. ;
roan gilt, Is. ; Persian morocco, 2s. ; cloth, red edges, gilt let
tered, 8d.
INFANT CLASS HYMNAL.
A Selection of 89 Hymns from the School Hymnal, suitable for
use in Infant Classes, and Services for young Children.
Prices Paper covers, One Penny j limp cloth, Twopence.
In Preparation.
A TUNE BOOK
For the School and Infant Class Hymnals.
GENERAL BAPTIST PRINCIPLES,
An Exposition;
By KEV. THOS. GOADBY, B.A., President of Chilwell College.
Price Id. ; a liberal allowance on quantities.
The General Baptist Year Book or "Minutes"
for 1881.
Will be ready August 1st, containing Statistics and " Reports " of
the Churches, Institutions, &c., of the Denomination. Price 6d.
The Publications named above, may all be obtained through any
Bookseller ; or from
E. MARLBOROUGH & Co., 51, Old Bailey, London.
BY JOHN CLIFFOED.
Third Thousand. Grown 8vo., 132 pp., Boards, Gilt Price Is. G<7.
IS LIFE WORTH LIVING?
An Eightfold Answer.
THE ECHO.
" Mr. Clifford argues ably, .... proves himself a close
observer of the various schools of modern thought, and grapples
in earnest with the question."
CHRISTIAN WORLD PULPIT.
" Without shrinking from looking honestly at the evils and sor
rows of life, without unduly minimising them for the purposes of
argument, the author shows, and we believe convincingly, that
. . . . there is an amount of happiness enjoyed by men on
earth, and a measure of hope permitted as regards the future,
which DO make life worth living. Mr. Clifford always writes as a
man of culture and not less as one possessed by full and joyous
faith in God. We sincerely trust that this volume will have a
large circulation, for it is peculiarly adapted to the times."
BAYSWATER CHRONICLE.
" All the sermons are marked with an unusual wealth of in
tellectual culture and range of communion with the best minds,
and, above all, by the stamp of a personal and hard-won ex
perience in the wide field over which his subject takes him. _ The
reader feels the unspeakable assurance that the author is living
among the conditions which qualify him for his task and enable
him to offer to others the help and strength he has acquired for
himself. It will be many years before the subject outgrows _ the
capacious intellectual and psychological treatment it has received
at the hands of Mr. Clifford. "
THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON IN THE SWORD AND
TROWEL.
"A fine book . . . his work is well done, and is of a
high order of literary effort, but we like best its firm faith and
bright encouragement to souls half-blinded by the smoke of life s
fierce battle."
GREENOCK DAILY TELEGRAPH.
" Mr. Clifford unites a rare power of popular exposition to
richly varied scholarship, breadth of view, and of sympathy to
evangelical fidelity and fervour. The work deserves, as we have
no doubt it will secure, a wide circulation."
NORTH BRITISH DAILY MAIL.
" Thoroughly orthodox, but no less scholarly in substance and
sympathetic in tone, as well as popular in form, it is admirably
adapted for distribution among the modern race of doubters."
George Mostyn : A Tale for Young Christians.
Price 2s.
LONDON : PASSMORE & ALABASTER.
" It deals skilfully with various forms of doubt and religious
difficulty, and is calculated to be of great service to youth in their
first consideration of religious life. Every Sunday School library
should have a copy." Christian World.
"Well got up, and would make a nice New Year s gift.
Christianity in Rome.
A Sermon preached at the opening of the New Chapel in Rome.
Price 2d.
Religious Life in the Rural Districts of England.
Paper read at the Baptist Union.
Price 2d.
The Future of Christianity.
Sermon before the Baptist Missionary Society.
Price 3d.
The Attitude of Men of Science to Christianity.
Price 3d.
Jesus Christ and Modern Social Life.
Price 3d.
TRACTS ON BAPTISM; LORD S SUPPER; AND
THE CHURCH : By JOHN CLIFFORD, M.A.
2jd. the dozen, or Is. Qd. per hundred.
JVeed I be Baptised."
Id. ectch, or at the rate of 6s. per hundred.
The Place of Baptism, in the Life and Teaching
of Jesus.
Baptism a Privilege ; or, the Place of Baptism in
the First Ten Years of Church History.
" One of the best tracts on the subject ; the church will do
well to circulate it by hundreds of thousands" Baptist Messenger.
The True Use of the Lord s Supper.
A New Testament Church in its Relation to the
Needs and Tendencies of the Age.
The Church of Christ : Its Work, Character, and
Message.
The Work of Church Members.
An Address from the Chair of the London Baptist Associa
tion.
The Surest Way of Bringing the Young to Christ.
The Church s War with National Intemperance.
Ninth Thousand.
" Thou shalt not Hide Thyself."
Sermon in Metropolitan Tabernacle for National Temperance
League.
Eomanism Judged and Condemned ly Christ
Jesus.
NEW TEMPERANCE PUBLICATIONS.
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT ON TEMPERANCE. By Canon FARBAR,
Rev. J. CLIFFORD, and other Authors. Cloth, limp boards, gilt, Is. 6d.
THE VOICE OF SCIENCE ON TEMPERANCE. By various Authors. Cloth,
limp boards, gilt, IB. 6d.
RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS OF TEMPERANCE. By
various Authors. Cloth, limp boards, gilt, la. 6d.
THE HISTORY OF TOASTING; or, Drinking of Healths in England. By the
Kev. R. VALPY FRENCH, D.C.L., F.S. A., etc. Cloth, limp boards, gilt, Is. 6d.
NON-ALCOHOLIC HOME TREATMENT OF DISEASE. By Dr. JAMES J.
RIDGE. Cloth, limp boards, gilt, Is. 6d.
THE TEMPTER BEHIND. By JOHN SAUNDERS, Author of "Abel Drake s
Wife," etc. A powerful Story, dedicated to Dr. B. W. Richardson. Illus
trated. Cloth, 3s. 6d.
HAROLD HASTINGS; or, the Vicar s Son. By the Rev. JAMES YBAMES,
Author of " Tnglenook," etc. Illustrated. Cloth, gilt, 2s. 6d.
PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING. A True Story. By LAURA L. PRATT,
Author of " Our Sister May," etc. Illustrated. Cloth, gilt, Is. 6d.
MISS MARGARET S STORIES. By a Clergyman s Wife, Author of " Katie s
Counsel," &c. Illustrated. Cloth, gilt, Is. 6d.
THE JUVENILE TEMPERANCE SERIES of Short Stories, in three Packets.
No. 1 contains Twelve little Books of 16 pp. each. Nos. 2 and 3 contain Six
Books of 32 pp. each. 6d. per packet. These are also issued as
JUVENILE TEMPERANCE STORIES, in two neat Volumes. Cloth boards,
gilt, at Is. each.
THE STANDARD BOOK OF SONG is really becoming The Standard Book
for Temperance Societies, Bands of Hope, etc. The Words are published at
2d., 3d., and 6d.; and the Music Edition (in either Notation), at 3s. 6d. and 5s.;
also in nine separate parts at 4d. each.
The Musical Times says : " The music is generally well chosen and excellently
arranged throughout."
THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE LEAGUE S ANNUAL FOR 1881.
Paper covers, Is.; cloth boards, Is. 6d. It should be in the hands of every
temperance worker; it has been characterised as the teetotalers vade mecum.
THE TEMPERANCE RECORD. The Organ of the National Temperance
League. Published every Thursday. Price One Penny; post free, 6s. 6d. per
annum.
THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE MIRROR. An Illustrated Monthly Maga-
zine for the Home Circle. Price One Penny : Is. 6d. per annum, post free.
THE MEDICAL TEMPERANCE JOURNAL Published Quarterly, price 6d
(free by post 2s. per annum).
A COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF TEMPERANCE LITERATURE. Com
prising nearly all the known publications on the Temperance Question in Great
tfntam, and the various requisites of Temperance Societies of all kinds. Post
free on application.
NATIONAL TEMPERANCE PUBLICATION DEPOT.
337, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.
vjx_ *
o
BINDING SECT. APR 9 1975
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
BX Clifford, John
6276 The English Baptists
A1C35
