BAP 



250 



Baptists, and arc beautifully ornamented with various figures 

 """"" relative to the baptism of our Saviour, and to the 

 ceremonies which were annexed to baptism in the 

 dark ages. Some of these fonts were moveable: 

 amongst which may be mentioned the silver one 

 which was kept at Canterbury, and which was ge- 

 nerally brought from thence to the place where any 

 child of the royal family was to be baptized. It was 

 hung round on the outside with cloth of gold, and 

 lined on the inside with cloth of linen, puckered and 

 folded, to prevent the child being bruised. The 

 whole was covered with a canopy of rich damask, 

 bordered with fringe or cloth of gold, and above the 

 bason, or font, was a gold or silver dove, to represent 

 the Holy Spirit. See Justiui Mart. Apol. 2. Ter- 

 tulliani de Baptissimo. Joan. Ciampini Vet. Mo?ii- 

 menta, cap. xxv. Du Cangii, Glossar. in verb. Bap- 

 tisterium. Paciandius. Muratori, Anliq. Ital. Bing- 

 ham's Antiq. book viii. Robinson's History of Bap- 

 tism. ( n. ) 



BAPTISTS, are a sect of Christians who deri\ed 

 their name from the peculiar opinions which they 

 held respecting baptism, and began, about the time 

 of the Reformation, to claim the attention of the ec- 

 clesiastical historian. When we take a superficial 

 view of this sect, collected as it were into one so- 

 ciety, and in its present embodied form, nothing ap- 

 pears more easy than to write its history, and to spe- 

 cify the doctrines which are peculiar to it. But 

 when we come to examine it more minutely, and en- 

 deavour to analyse it into its elementary parts, we 

 find that it is composed of very different materials, 

 that its origin is hid in the darkness of antiquity, and 

 that its history, for many centuries, is only the his- 

 tory of individual persons. If opposition to the 

 mode in which baptism is commonly administered be 

 the distinguishing characteristic of this sect, Tertul- 

 lian, who lived about the end of the second century, 

 may be accounted one of its earliest founders. A 

 short time afterwards, Agrippinus, a Carthaginian 

 bishop, and many of the neighbouring clergy, re- 

 jected the baptisms which were then administered, 

 and re-baptized all those who joined this society. 

 Cyprian and his followers adopted the same sentiments 

 in the third century. From Carthage these opinions 

 migrated to the East, and Firmilian, bishop of Ca> 

 jaria, and many other bishops in Asia, re baptized. 

 The Novatians and Donatists likewise condemned 

 baptism as then commonly administered, and em- 

 braced the sentiments of those who re-baptized. The 

 ostensible reason which all these persons assigned for 

 this conduct, was the wickedness of those who were 

 universally admitted to baptism, and which, in their 

 opinion, rendered the ordinance altogether invalid. 



But soon a different cause impelled the professors 

 of Christianity to the same line of conduct. In the 

 council of Nice, held in the year 325, it was decreed, 

 that as the Paulianists denied the doctrine of the Tri- 

 nity, and consequently omitted the names of the Son 

 and of the Spirit in the administration of baptism, 

 their baptism was nugatory ; and hence all that joined 

 the orthodox from that sect were re-baptized. The 

 Arians, on the other hand, rejected the baptism of 

 the orthodox, because it implied an acknowledgment 

 tf the divinity of the Son, and of the personality. of 



BAP 



the Spirit, and therefore they re-baptized all those 

 who came over to them from the orthodox. It is a 

 very curious fact, therefore, that at that time the 

 whole church, though for very different reasons, 

 might be accounted baptists, and esteemed re-baptiza- 

 tion necessary for preserving the purity of the church. 



But in the twelfth century several denominations 

 of Christians arose, who, from the peculiar tenets 

 which they adopted, pursued the s.;me line of con- 

 duct respecting baptism. The Waldenses and Albi- 

 genses at that period, as well as the Wickliffites in 

 the fourteenth century, inveighed bitterly against the 

 immorality of the clergy, accounted baptism invalid 

 when performed by a priest whose conduct was un- 

 worthy of the Christian character, and re-baptised 

 all those to whom that ceremony had been adminis- 

 tered by men who were openly profane. Socinus 

 and his followers, who lived about the time of the Re- 

 formation, as well as the baptist churches in Holland 

 and Germany at the present day, imagine that a per- 

 sonal profession of Christianity is essential to baptism, 

 and hence they re-baptize all those who were bap- 

 tized in infancy. The Greek church maintains that 

 immersion is absolutely necessary to the validity of 

 the deed, and for this reason they re-baptize all those 

 to whom baptism had been administered by sprink- 

 ling. The baptists of Britain, Poland, Lithuania, 

 Transylvania, and America, all agree, that immersion, 

 and a personal profession of faith and repentance, 

 constitute the very essence of baptism ; hence they 

 re-baptize all who have been baptized in infancy in 

 any manner, or by sprinkling, when they have ar- 

 rived at manhood. 



But though there were many individuals, and even 

 some small societies, who maintained the opinions, and 

 deserved the appellation of baptists before the Refor- 

 mation, yet it was only about that period that the 

 insulated members were collected into one body, 

 were properly organized, and attracted the attentios 

 of Europe. As many of the nations, who had 

 groaned for ages under the superstition and tyranny 

 of the see of Rome, began then to break their fet- 

 ters, to assert their independence, and to rise to the 

 dignity of men end Christians, the baptists imagined 

 that the glorious period was come, when their opi- 

 nions would universally prevail, and the personal 

 reign of Christ would commence upon the earth. 

 Giddy and intoxicated with liberty, for which they 

 had long sighed in secret, but to which they had 

 never before been accustomed ; and animated and di- 

 rected by passion and imagination rather than by rea- 

 son and the word of God, they surrendered their un- 

 derstandings to all the wildness of enthusiasm, and 

 hurried into those scenes of indecency, of rapine, and 

 of bloodshed, which in the year 1533 alarmed the 

 states of Germany, desolated the city of Munster, 

 and disgraced the character of the whole party. ( See 

 Anabaptists.) But though the odium of absur- 

 dity and wickedness has been indiscriminately thrown 

 upon the whole party, yet it is as ungenerous as un- 

 just to affirm, that all the baptists approved, far less 

 followed, the standard of Matthias or Boccold. No 

 sooner, therefore, had the arm of power inflicted upon 

 the leaders of the insurgents that punishment which 

 their crimes merited, and struck with terror such as 



Baptist*. 



