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BAPTISTS
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BAPTISTS
, a See also:body of Christians, distinguished, as their name imports, from other denominations by the view they hold respecting the See also:ordinance of See also:baptism (q.v.)
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This distinctive view, See also:common and See also:peculiar to all Baptists, is that baptism should be administered to believers only
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The mode of See also:administration of the ordinance has not always been the same, and some Baptists (e.g. the See also:Mennonites) still practise baptism by pouring or sprinkling, but among those who will here be styled See also:modern Baptists, the mode of administration is also distinctive, to wit, See also:immersion
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It should, however, be See also:borne in mind that immersion is not peculiar to the modern Baptists
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It has always been recognized by Paedobaptists as a legitimate mode, and is still practised to the exclusion of other modes by a very large proportion of paedobaptist Christendom (e.g. the Orthodox Eastern See also: The characteristic teaching of the Zwickau movement, so closely linked with the See also:peasant rising, was the great emphasis laid upon the " inner word." Divine See also:revelation, said Munzer, was not received from the church, nor from See also:preaching, least of all from the dead See also:letter of the See also:Bible; it was received solely and directly from the Spirit of See also:God . It is this daring faith in divine See also:illumination that brings the Zwickau teachers most nearly into See also:touch with the Anabaptists . But if they are not typical of Anabaptism, still less are the later representatives of the movement in the last sad months at Munster . The beginnings of the Anabaptist movement proper were in See also:Zurich, where Wilheld Reubli (148o-1554), Konrad Grebel (d . 1526), See also:Felix Manz (d . 1527) and See also:Simon Strumpf separated from See also:Zwingli and proposed to See also:form a See also:separate church . They repudiated the use of force, advocated a scriptural See also:communism of goods, and asserted that Christians must always exercise love and See also:patience towards each other and so be See also:independent of worldly tribunals . But their most radical See also:doctrine was the rejection of infant baptism as unscriptural . They rapidly gained adherents, among whom was Hans BrOdli, pastor of Zollikon . Their refusal, however, to baptize infants, and the formation of a separate church as the outcome of this refusal, brought upon them the condemnation of Zwingli, and a number of them were banished . This See also:act of banishment, however, drove Jorg Blaurock, Konrad Grebel and others to take the step which definitely instituted " Anabaptism " : they baptized one another and then partook of the See also:Lord's Supper together . This step took them much farther than the repudiation of paedobaptism . It formed a new religious community, which sought to See also:fashion itself on the See also:model of See also:primitive See also:Christianity,. rejecting all tradition and accretions later than New Testament records . Its members claimed to get back to the See also:simple church founded on brotherly love . The result was that their See also:numbers See also:grew with astonishing rapidity, and scholarly See also:saints like Balthasar Hubmaier (ca . 1480-r 528) and Hans Denck (ca . 1495-' 1527) joined them . Hubmaier brought 1 ro new adherents with him, and in 1525 himself baptized 300 converts . This baptism, however, was not immersion . Blaurock and Grebel baptized each other, and many adherents, kneeling together in an See also:ordinary See also:room . Hubmaier baptized his 300 from one bucket . The mode was sprinkling or pouring . In all this the Anabaptists had maintained one central See also:article of faith that linked them to the Zwickau prophets, belief in See also:conscience, religious feeling, or inner See also:light, as the See also:sole true beginning or ground of See also:religion; and one other article, held with equal vigour and sincerity, that true Christians are like See also:sheep among wolves, and must on no See also:account defend themselves from their enemies or take vengeance for wrong done . Very soon this their faith was put to fiery test .
Not only were Catholics and Protestants opposed to them on doctrinal grounds, but the See also:secular See also:powers, fearing that the new teaching was potentially as revolutionary as Mtinzer's radicalism had been, soon instituted a persecution of the Anabaptists
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On the 7th of See also:
1498-1543 or 1544) having taken the Anabaptist teaching to See also:
Whatever See also:opinion may be held as to the orthodoxy of the seven articles of the Anabaptists, the vehemence with which they were opposed, and the epithets of abuse which were heaped upon the unfortunate See also:sect that maintained them, cannot fail to astonish those used to See also:toleration
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Zwingli, who details these articles, as he says, that the world may see that .they are " fanatical, stolid, audacious, impious," can scarcely be acquitted of unfairness in joining together two of them,—the See also:fourth and fifth,—thus making the article treat " of the avoiding of abominable pastors in the church " (Super devitatione abominabilium pastorum in See also:Ecclesia), though there is nothing about pastors in the fourth article, and nothing about abominations in the fifth, and though in a marginal See also:note he himself explains that the first two copies that were sent him read as he does, but the other copies make two articles, as in fact they evidently are
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It is See also:strange that the See also:Protestant See also:Council of Zurich, which had scarcely won its own See also:liberty, and was still in dread of the persecution of the Romanists, should pass the See also:decree which instituted the cruel persecution of the Anabaptists
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After Munster had fallen the harassed remnants of the See also:Ana-baptists were gathered together under Menno Simonis, who joined them in 1537
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His moderation and piety held in check the turbulence of the more fanatical amongst them
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He died in x56r after a life passed amidst continual dangers and conflicts
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His name remains as the designation of the Mennonites (q.v.), who eventually settled in the See also:Netherlands under the See also:protection of See also:
His friend had written to ask his See also:judgment concerning the baptism of infants
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Philpot in a See also:long reply, whilst maintaining the See also:obligation of infant baptism, yet addresses his correspondent as, " dear See also:brother, See also:saint, and See also:fellow-prisoner for the truth of Christ's See also:gospel "; and at the See also:close of his See also:argument' he says, " I beseech thee, dear brother in the gospel, follow the steps of the faith of the glorious martyrs in the primitive church, and of such as at this day follow the same."
Many Anabaptist communities existed in England toward the end of the 16th See also:century, particularly in See also:East Anglia, Kent and London
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Their most notable representative was See also:Robert See also:Cooke, but they were more notorious for heretical views as to the Virgin Mary (see ANABAPTISTS) than for their anti-paedobaptist position
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It was for these views that Joan See also:Boucher of Kent was burnt in 1550
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There is no doubt that these prepared the way for the coming of the modern Baptists, but " the truth is that, while the Anabaptists in England raised the question of baptism, they were almost entirely a See also:foreign importation, an See also:alien See also:element; and the rise of the Baptist churches was wholly independent of them."
II
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THE MODERN BAPTISTS
r
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Great See also:Britain and See also:Ireland: If the Anabaptists of England were not the progenitors of the modern Baptist church, we must look abroad for the beginnings of that movement
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Although there were doubtless many who held Baptist views scattered among the Independent communities, it was not until the time of John See also: 1616) and See also:Morton he joined the " See also:Ancient " church there, but, coming under Mennonite teaching in 16o9, he separated from the Independents, baptized himself (hence he is called the " Se-baptist "), Helwys and others probably according to the Anabaptist or Mennonite fashion of pouring . These then formed the first See also:English Baptist Church which in 1611 published " a See also:declaration of faith of English people remaining at Amsterdam in Holland." The article See also:relating to baptism is as follows:—" That every church is to receive in all their members by baptism upon the confession of their faith and sins, wrought by the preaching of the gospel according to the primitive institution and practice . And therefore churches constituted after any other manner, or of any other persons, are not according to Christ's testament . That baptism or washing with See also:water is the outward manifestation of dying unto See also:sin and walking in newness of life; and therefore in no See also:wise appertaineth to infants." They held " that no church ought to See also:challenge any See also:prerogative over any other"; and that "the See also:magistrate is not to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience nor compel men to this or that form of religion." This is the first known expression of See also:absolute liberty of conscience in any confession of faith . Smyth died in Holland, but in 1612 Helwys returned to England with his church and formed the first Baptist church worshipping on English See also:soil . The church met in Newgate See also:Street, London, and was the origin of the " General " Baptist See also:denomination . Helwys and his followers were Arminians, repudiating with See also:heat the Calvinistic doctrine of See also:predestination . They thus differed from other Independents . 'They also differed on the See also:power of the magistrate in matters of belief and conscience . It was, in See also:short, from their little dingy See also:meeting See also:house . . . that there flashed out, first in England, the absolute doctrine of Religious Liberty" (Prof . See also:Masson) . 
Leonard Busher, the author of "Religious See also:Peace: or a Plea for Liberty of Conscience," was a member of this church . The next great event in the See also:history of the Baptists (though it should be mentioned that the last See also:execution for See also:heresy in England by burning was that of a Baptist, Edward Wightman, at See also:Lichfield 1612) is the rise of the first Calvinistic or Particular Baptist Church . This was the See also:Jacob church in See also:Southwark, which numbered among its members JohnLothropp or See also:Lathrop (d . 1653), Praise-God See also:Barbon (ca . 1596-1679), Henry Jessey (1601-1663), Hanserd See also:Knollys (ca . 1599-1691) and William Kiffin (1616-r7o1) . It was originally Independent but then became Baptist . From this six other churches sprang, five of which were Baptist . Before the Jacob church, however, had itself become Baptist, it dismissed from its membership a See also:group of its members (the church having grown beyond what was regarded as proper limits) who, in 1633, became the first Particular Baptist Church . Thus there were now in existence in England two sets of Baptists whose origins were quite distinct and who never had any real intercourse as churches . They differed in many respects . The General Baptists were Arminian, owing to the See also:influence of the Mennonite Anabaptists . The Particular Baptists were Calvinist, springing as they did from the Independents . But on the question of Baptism both groups, while they utterly rejected the baptism of infants, were as yet unpledged to immersion and rarely practised it . The development of their doctrine as to baptism was marked along three lines of dispute:—(1) who is the proper See also:administrator of baptism ? (2) who are the proper subjects? and (3) what is the proper mode ? Eventually agreement was reached, and in 1644 a Confession of Faith was published in the names of the Particular Baptist churches of London, now grown to seven, "commonly (though falsely) called Anabaptist." The article on baptism is as follows:—" That baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament given by Christ to be .dispensed only upon persons professing faith, or that are disciples, or taught, who, upon a profession of faith, ought to be baptized." " The way and manner of dispensing this ordinance the Scripture holds out to be dipping or plunging the whole body under water." They further declare (particularly in See also:order that they may avoid the See also:charge of being Anabaptists) that " a See also:civil magistracy is an ordinance of God," which they are See also:bound to obey . They speak of the " breathing time " which they have had of See also:late, and their See also:hope that God would, as they say, " incline the magistrates' See also:hearts so for to See also:tender our consciences as that we might be protected by them from wrong, injury, oppression and molestation "; and then they proceed: " But if God withhold the magistrates' See also:allowance and furtherance herein, yet we must, notwithstanding, proceed together in See also:Christian communion, not daring to give place to suspend our practice, but to walk in obedience to Christ in the profession and holding forth this faith before mentioned, even in the midst of all trials and afflictions, not accounting our goods, lands, wives, See also:children, fathers, mothers, brethren, sisters, yea, and our own lives, dear unto us, so that we may finish our course with joy; remembering always that we ought to obey God rather than men." They end their confession thus: If any take this that we have said to be heresy, then do we with the apostle freely confess, that after the way which they See also:call heresy See also:worship we the God of our fathers, believing all things which are written in the See also:Law and in the Prophets and Apostles, desiring from our souls to disclaim all heresies and opinions which are not after Christ, and to be stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the See also:work of the Lord, as knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." The " breathing time " was not of long continuance . Soon after the Restoration (166o) the meetings of nonconformists were continually disturbed and preachers were fined or imprisoned . One instance of these persecutions will, perhaps, be more impressive than any general statements . In the records of the Broadmead Baptist Church, See also:Bristol, we find this remark: " On the 29th of See also:November 1685 our pastor, Brother Fownes, died in Gloucester jail, having been kept there for two years and about nine months a prisoner, unjustly and maliciously, for the testimony of Jesus and preaching the gospel . He was a man -of great learning, of a See also:sound judgment, an able preacher, having-great knowledge in divinity, law, physic, &c.; a bold and patient sufferer for the Lord Jesus and the gospel he preached." With the Revolution of 1688, and the passing of the Act of Toleration in 1689, the history of the persecution of Baptists, as well as of other Protestant dissenters, ends . The removal of the remaining disabilities, such as those imposed by the Test and See also:Corporation Acts repealed in 1828, has no See also:special bearing on Baptists more than on other nonconformists . The ministers of the " three denominations of dissenters,"—Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists,—See also:resident in London and the neighbourhood, had the See also:privilege accorded to them of presenting on proper occasions an address to the See also:sovereign in See also:state, a privilege which they still enjoy under the name of " the General Body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers of the three Denominations." The " General Body " was not organized until 1727 .
The Baptists, having had a See also:double origin, continued for many years in two sections—those who in accordance with Arminian views held the doctrine of " General Redemption," and those who, agreeing with the Calvinistic theory, held the doctrine of " Particular Redemption "; and hence they were known respectively as General Baptists and Particular Baptists
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In the 18th century many of the General Baptists gradually adopted the Arian, or, perhaps, the Socinian theory; whilst, on the other See also:hand, the Calvinism of the Particular Baptists in many of the churches became more rigid, and approached or actually became Antinomianism
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In 1770 the orthodox portion of the General Baptists, mainly under the influence of See also:Dan See also: The difference now under See also:consideration is expressed by the terms " strict " and " open," according as communion (or membership) is or is not confined to persons who, according to their view, are baptized . In 1891, largely under the influence of Dr John See also: |