by much, the smaller portion. The great majority of baptists believe the doctrines which are usually called calvinistic, of which the election of particular persons being one, they are called particular baptists. There was a subdivision, which was denominated, the seventh-day baptists; because they believed that the seventh day of the week should still be sanctified by Christians as a Sabbath. Of these there are now but few.

Some baptists, upon the liberal consideration that those who differ from them conceive themselves baptized, admit them to the Lord's supper, which is called open, or more properly, mixed communion. As those independents, who practise infant baptism, generally admit baptists to their communion; in some churches there has been such an intermixture, both of pastors and of members, that it would be difficult to know under which denomination they should be classed'.

In tracing up the history of the baptists to their origin, those who hold their sentiments would ascend to the first churches planted by the labours of the inspired apostles: but those who conceive infant baptism to be authorised by Scripture, must, of course, deny them the honours of an antiquity so high and sacred. Richard Baxter, who will not be suspected of favouring their system, grants, however, that, in the ancient church, while the baptism of infants was esteemed lawful, there were some who, with Tertullian and Nazianzen, thought it better to make no haste. "Nothing more free (says he) than baptism in primitive times. To some it was admi

1 See J. Ryland's funeral sermon for Joshua Symmords, and J. Sutcliff's account of the Bedford church at the end of it.

nistered in infancy; to some at ripe age; and to some a little before death." Crosby, whom we may call the baptists' own historian, has indeed unequivocally claimed the suffrage of the ancients, as decisively in favour of his communion. But on this, as well as on other subjects, the study of antiquity is an inextricable maze; and to consult, what are called, the fathers, is to ask counsel at an oracle, whose response is usually of ambiguous import. There were, however, early indications of a difference among Christians on the rite of baptism; and such is the nature of the argument, that the well-informed and liberal, on both sides, will not be surprised that this difference should early arise, and be still maintained. It is said, that among the Waldenses there were some baptists. But the first notice of them, as a distinct communion, is about the time of the reformation by Luther.

By the triumphs of the Saxon reformer, many were inspired with courage to avow openly the opinions, which they had otherwise been content to foster in secret. And to those who reflect on the appearance of mystical incantation, with which the church of Rome administered baptism, and their revolting dogma of the damnation of all infants who died unbaptized, it can excite no surprise that reasonable men should spurn at a ceremony which had lost every characteristic of the religion of Jesus. Some of those who rejected infant baptism, finding that the reformers were no more willing to allow others to differ from them than the bigoted catholics, joined themselves with the peasants, whom the oppressions of the feudal system had roused to arms. A foreign

m Baxter's Life and Times, by Calamy, p. 115.

writer, who seems to have taken great pains to amass intelligence on the subject", affirms, that Nicholas Storch, Mark Stubner, and Thomas Munzer, founded the sect in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-one. They are said to have been distinguished not only by denying the validity of infant baptism, and thus baptizing according to their own mode, all who joined their communion, but also by peculiar notions of Christian liberty, or exemption from authority, both ecclesiastical and civil. But it is most probable that this latter part of their tenets has been mistaken by enemies, who were more eager to receive and propagate evil reports, than to examine into their truth.

The insurrection of the German peasants was evidently occasioned by that intolerable "oppression which will make a wise man mad;" and as it was at first distinct from all questions of religion, nothing but the coincidence of time and place gave their enemies an apportunity of confounding them with the sect of baptists. Some of those peasants who took arms, probably were of that communion; and the confusion occasioned by the civil war opened a field for the propagation of their tenets, which they took care to improve. Their principles spread with rapidity over many parts of Germany, and extended also to Moravia and Switzerland. The reformers, forgetting their own differences, wrote against the rising sect with an unanimity produced by the consciousness, that the protestant doctrine was charged with all the irregularities, of which the anabaptists were supposed to be guilty. Luther, from whose writings they were said to have derived the germ Bayle Dictionaire au mot Anabaptist.

YOL. I.

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their principles, thundered against them with all the heat of his genius.

But when the leaders of the protestants, who were themselves scarcely out of the reach of the inquisition, found that their opponents would not yield to the force of their arguments, they employed the last reason of kings, the secular sword, to exterminate the rising sect. This produced reaction. At Munster, an imperial city in Westphalia, the brethren rose, seized the arsenal and senate-house in the night, and running through the streets with drawn swords, cried, "repent, and be baptized: depart, ye ungodly." The senators and principal citizens, both protestants and catholics, fled and left the city to their uncontrouled dominion. Here they are said to have rushed from fanatical austerities to boundless licentiousness.

While, however, this is usually recorded as a striking feature in the history of this denomination of Christians, it seems that their distinguishing sentiments had little or no share in these transactions. The brethren of Friezland and Holland condemned those of Munster, and continued to propagate their own sentiments of baptism, in a manner which proves that mankind could not reasonably identify the opinions of the baptists with the licentious tenets of the insurgents at Munster.

But this communion received its most important accession, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-six, when Menno Simon, a native of Friezland, renounced the church of Rome, of which he had been a priest, and joined the baptists, who received from him the name of Menonites. He was a man of eminent worth, and his indefatigable labours were

Bayle. Robertson's History of Charles the fifth.

crowned with distinguished success; as well in correcting the internal discipline, and sentiments of the society, as in procuring for those sentiments a more extensive adoption. In the united provinces especially, their numbers were great, and their reputation high', notwithstanding their subdivisions, under vari

ous names.

Some writers have expressed their surprise at what they supposed a singular revolution in this society, from opinions productive of outrageous licentiousness, to the most inoffensive tenets, and exemplary virtues. Yet, is it not more probable that the baptists, as such, never adopted any principles hostile to morals, or the social order; but that prejudice and enmity availed themselves of the enormities committed by some who agreed with this society in certain points, to blast the reputation of the whole body?

While the sword of persecution pursued the baptists on the continent of Europe, some of them fled to England, where the opposition of Henry the eighth to the papal see, encouraged them to hope that they should enjoy the same liberty of religion which the monarch claimed for himself. In him, however, they found a secular pope; for in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-five, fourteen Hollanders, accused of being anabaptists, were put to death, and ten others escaped the same fate,

P The principles on which the States of Holland tolerated this defamed sect, may be learned from a conversation, which the Dutch ambassador, Van Beuning, held with the celebrated M. de Turrenne. "Why should you wish," said the ambassador," that we would not tolerate them? They are the best and most convenient people in the world. They never aspire to posts of honour, nor rival us in glory. One could wish that, every where, half the