A Concise History of the Baptists

A Concise History Of The Baptists FROM THE TIME OF CHRIST THEIR FOUNDER TO THE 18TH CENTURY. Taken from the New Testament, the first fathers, early writers, and historians of all ages; CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED; Exhibiting their churches with their order in various countries under different names from the establishment of Christianity to the present age: with correlative information, supporting the early and only practice of believers’ immersion: also OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES on the abuse of the ordinance, and the rise of minor and infant baptism. By G. H. Orchard Baptist Minister, Steventon, Bedfordshire, England, 1855 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Section 1: Primitive Baptists Section 2: Primitive Baptists Continued Section 3: Primitive Baptists Continued Section 4: Primitive Baptists Continued CHAPTER TWO Section 1: Churches in Italy Section 2: African Churches Section 3: African Churches Continued Section 4: Oriental Churches Section 5: Oriental Churches Continued Section 6: Churches in Italy Resumed Section 7: Churches in Gaul Section 8: Churches in France Continued Section 9: Churches in France Continued Section 10: Churches in Bohemia Section 11: Churches in Piedmont Section 12: German and Dutch Baptists BAPTIST HISTORY A Concise History Of The Baptists By G. H. Orchard CHAPTER 1 SECTION I: PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS. "From the days of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent taketh it by force."--Matt. 11:12. 1. Ecclesiastical history must ever prove an interesting subject to every true lover of Zion. Not only does every saint feel personally interested in her blessings, but he solicitously wishes and prays for their diffusion, as widely as the miseries of man prevail. Psal. 73:19. Feelings of holy jealousy are awakened within the bosom of each of Zion’s offspring, for the success and purity of that cause, in which all his soul is enlisted: emotions, therefore, of pain or pleasure, will accompany all his discoveries in historic details, in proportion as he views his adorable Lord honored or dishonored, by the obedience or disobedience of his professed followers. 2. Among those duties clearly revealed, and which the New Testament enjoins on the disciples of our Redeemer, Believers’ Baptism holds a very conspicuous place. This ordinance was particularly regarded in the days of the Redeemer and his apostles with their successors, and no satisfactory reason can be assigned for its perversion or neglect. Its importance has occasioned some kind of attention from the general body of professed Christians in every after age, though its scriptural character has been observed and perpetuated by one class or branch of the professing church, while other sections degenerated into the most unscriptural customs and heathenish rites. In ancient and modern times, it has been the apple of strife, as to its place and importance in the divine economy. By the great body of disputants, it has been diverted from the subject to which the Scriptures assigned it (Acts 8:37, and 18:8,) from various motives, all which have made it to convey the essentials of purity and spiritual life. Yet it has a scriptural aspect and import, for which we contend; and our desire is, to be found succeeding in spirit, views, and practice, those Christians who, under different names, and in various parts of the world, contended earnestly from apostolic days. Our design is, to trace and record the existence and practice of those Christian societies, which scripturally administered the ordinance, and this we hope to do, from the Jewish Jordan to the British Thames. 3. The first mention of this divine ordinance is found in Matthew the third. John, the son of Zechariah, is allowed to have been the first administrator of it. The way of John’s administering the ordinance occasioned his being called THE BAPTIST. [The word "baptist," as distinguishing now a class of Christians, was given to express the act of John in administering the ordinance, and this term left with the prevailing expectation among the Jewish community of his sustaining some important embassy, rather than the doctrines he preached, attracted the attention of multitudes inhabiting Judea.] [Some have asserted that immersion could not have been practised in Judea from scarcity of water; but, "the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, that spring out of the valleys and hills, Deut. 8:17. Ezek. 19:10. Joseph. Wan, b. 1, c. 16, b. 5, c. 4, which confutes the objector, since Judea was to be different to Egypt in this very point, Deut. 11:10.] The novelty of John’s ordinance, by the Holy Spirit, without translating, is the only scriptural cognomen for that sacrament, and which has been through all ages, used to distinguish those who followed the first example. M’Knight, Gill on Matt. 3:1. The Koran has rendered the word to dip; and total immersion is frequently enjoined in the Mahometan code. See Sale’s Koran, vol. i., sec. 4, p. 138, &c. Pococke’s Description of the East, vol. ii., b. 2, chap. 8, p. 120. Pitt’s Relig. and Manners of the Mahometans, pp. 80-82. The word baptize is rendered in all ancient versions of the Scriptures to dip. See Greenfield’s Del. of the Seramp. Marrh. version, pp. 39-44. Dr. Ryland’s Candid Statement: notes at the end. Many were reformed by John’s ministry, and agreeably to his terms were admitted to his baptism. "And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all immersed of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins," Mark 1:5. Some Pharisees became candidates for this ordinance, when John inquired into their motive, assuring them, that their parents’ holiness would now avail them nothing, neither could he confer the ordinance on account of any promise made to their believing father; but that each candidate must bring forth the fruits of repentance, as an indispensable qualification for the New Testament dispensation ordinance. John’s extraordinary proceedings occasioned some inquiry among the leaders of the nation, seeing he had introduced a new ordinance into society of a religious aspect, John 1:25. The deputation from the Sanhedrim made inquiries of John, who assured them he received his commission from heaven. John 1:21; Matt. 21:25.* That his ordinance was appointed to make the Messiah and his adherents manifest to Israel. John 1:31. He also required of the deputation an acknowledgment of its heavenly origin by their obedience, and in order to express their desire of escaping the wrath to come, Matt. 3:7, which they refusing, excluded themselves from the privileges of the gospel kingdom, Luke 7:30. [* Had Jewish proselyte baptism been in use at this period, this inquiry would not have been made, nor would the rulers have felt any difficulty in answering the Redeemer, Matt. 12:25. Some of the rabbins speak of John as being the innovator of this rite, and affirm the newness of its character. When proselyte baptism came into use, is not known: the proselyte dipped himself, but his posterity was not subject to the rite; no repentance, faith, or belief was required. If it existed, there is no part of scripture for the practice; and if it belonged to the Jewish dispensation, all ceremonies were abrogated by Christ’s death. Yet this rite is said to be the "basis of infant baptism." Many able divines, as Owen, Jennings, Benson, &c., declare the absence of such rite in the Jewish church. See this ably handled in Gale’s Reflect. on Wall, and Appendix. edit. 1820.] 4. John, having exercised his ministry about six months, was visited by Jesus of Nazareth, who came as a candidate for baptism. John hesitated, but when he understood that the ordinance constituted part of "the righteousness" in the new dispensation, they both descended into the river Jordan,+ and John became the administrator. John and Jesus exercised their ministry for a short time to the same people, and during the same period both administered the ordinance, John 4. But the multitudes which attended John’s ministry awaken in Herod’s mind apprehensions of a revolt, he consequently shut up John, to prevent any political disturbance, or rather, as the evangelists say, his reproving Herod of incest, occasioned his duresse, and afterwards he removed him by decapitation. [+ The river Jordan is an interesting object. It was divided by divine power for Israel, Elijah, and Elisha. By dipping in this water, Naaman was cured. It was the place of John’s ministry, and of attesting the Messiah’s character. "Some stripped and bathed themselves in Jordan, others cut down boughs from the trees; every one employed himself to take a memorial of this famous stream: the water was turbid and too rapid to be swam against. For its breadth, it might be about twenty yards over: and in depth, it far exceeded my height."--Maundrell’s Journey, &c., p. 111. Madden’s Travels in Syria, &c., vol. ii., lett. 38, p. 307.] 5. It had been predicted that John should make ready a people for the Lord. The Saviour declared John as the harbinger of the new dispensation, and that his ministry had virtually terminated "the law and the prophets," Luke 16:16, and commenced the gospel kingdom, Mark 1:1. The instruction given by John to those persons whom the Saviour chose to discipleship, plainly fulfilled those predictions, Acts 1:21. These disciples went forth by his authority to preach and baptize during the Saviour’s personal ministry; and after his resurrection, they were invested with authority to preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing those who acknowledge themselves willing disciples to his doctrines.

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