Antichrist

TREATISE ON ANTICHRIST
By the ancient Waldenses and Albigenses of Southern France
12th Century
Antichrist is a falsehood, worthy of eternal damnation, covered with an outward appearance of the truth, and the righteousness of Christ and his spouse, but opposite to the way of truth, righteousness, faith, hope and charity, as likewise to the moral life; and also the ministerial verity of the church, administered by the false apostles, and obstinately defended by both powers, ecclesiastical and secular. Or antichrist is a delusion, which hides the truths necessary to salvation, both in things substantial and ministerial. Or it is a fraudulent contradiction to Christ and his spouse, and every faithful member thereof. It is not any special person ordained in any degree, or office, or ministry; but it is that falsehood itself, which opposeth itself against the truth, which covereth and adorneth itself with a pretence of beauty and piety, not suitable to the church of Christ, as by the names, and offices, and scriptures and, and divers other things, may appear. That iniquity which is after this manner, with all the ministers thereof, great and small, with all those that follow them with a wicked heart, and hoodwinked eyes; this congregation I say, thus taken all together, is called antichrist, or Babylon, or the fourth beast, or the whore, or the man of sin, or son of perdition.

His ministers are called false prophets, lying teachers, the ministers of darkness, the spirit of error, the apocalyptic whore, the mother of fornication, clouds without water, trees without leaves, dead, and twice rooted up, waves of a troublesome sea, wandering stars, Balaamites and Egyptians.

He is called antichrist, because being covered and adorned under the colour of Christ, and of the Church, and the faithful members thereof, he oppugneth (contradicts) the salvation purchased by Christ,and truly administered in the church of Christ, whereof the faithful are partakers by faith, hope and charity. Thus he contradicteth the truth by the wisdom of the world, by false religion, by counterfeited holiness, by ecclesiastical power, secular tyranny, riches, honours, dignities and the delights and delicacies.

And therefore let every one take notice thereof, that antichrist could not come in any wise, but by all these things above mentioned that must needs meet together, to make a complete hypocrisy and falsehood; that is to say, the worldly wise, the religious orders, pharisees, ministers, doctors, the secular power, with the people of the world joined together. And thus all of them together make up the man of sin and error complete.

For notwithstanding antichrist was long since conceived in the apostles' times, yet he was then in his infancy, and wanted members both inward and outward. And therefore he was the more easily known and destroyed, and excommunicated, as being but rude and raw, and as yet wanting utterance. For he was then destitute of rational, definitive, decretive, or determinative wisdom; he wanted as yet those hypocritical ministers, and human ordinances, and the outward show of those religious orders. And therefore, though he were fallen away into that error and sin, yet he had then that with which to cover his villainy, or the shame of his errors, or of that sin, yet having none of those riches nor endowments, whereby to allure to himself any minister for his service to be enabled to multiply, preserve, or defend his adherents; for he wanted the secular strength and power, and could not force, nor compel any from the truth unto falsehood. And because he wanted many things yet, therefore he could not defile nor scandalize any by his deceits; and thus being so weak and tender, he could obtain no place in the church.

But growing up in his members, that is to say, in his blind and dissembling members, and in worldly subjects, he at length became a complete man, grew up to his full age, to wit, then when the lovers of the world, both in church and state, blind in faith, did multiply in the church, and get all the power into their hands. And so it came to pass, that as evil as they were, they would be sought unto, and honored in spiritual matters,covering their authority, malice and sins; for which end they made use of the worldly wise, and of their pharisees, in manner aforesaid.

For it is a great wickedness to cover and colour iniquity worthy of excommunication, and go about to establish one's self by such means, as cannot be attributed to men, but belongs to God alone, and to Jesus Christ as mediator. And for men to deprive God of such and such things, by fraud and usurpation, and to arrogate the same unto themselves, and their works, appears to be the greatest felony; as when one doth attribute to himself the power of regeneration, of pardoning sins, of dispensing the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and to represent Christ (as 'Vicar'), and such like matters. And in all these things, to cover themselves with the cloak of authority, and the word, thereby deceiving silly people, who follow the world in such things that are of the world, separating themselves from God and the true faith, and from the reformation of the Holy Spirit, withdrawing themselves from true repentance, pious practice, and perseverance in goodness, and turning their backs upon charity, patience, poverty, and humility; and that which is worst of all, they forsake the true hope, and rely on all evil, and on the vain hope of the world, serving all those ceremonies instrumental hereunto, and deceitfully causing the people to commit idolatry with all the idols of the world, under the name of saints and relics and their worship. The people perniciously err from the way of truth, being persuaded they serve God, and do well.

Stirred up to hate and to be enraged against those that love the truth, even to murder so many of them; so that according to the apostle, we may truly say, this is that man of sin complete, that lifts up himself against all that is called God, or worshipped, and that setteth himself in opposition against all truth, sitting down in the temple of God; that is his church, and showing forth himself as if he were God, being come with all manner of deceivableness for those that perish. And since he is truly come, he must no longer be looked for, for he is grown old already by God's permission.

Nay, he begins even to decay, and his power and authority is abated; for the Lord doth already kill the wicked one, by the spirit of his mouth; by divers persons of good dispositions, sending abroad a power contrary to (antichrist), and those that love him, and which disturbeth his place and his possessions, and puts division into that city of Babylon, wherein the whole generation of iniquity doth prevail and reign.

The first work of antichrist is to take away the truth, and to change it into falsehood, error, and heresy.

The second work of antichrist is to cover falsehood over with the semblance of truth, and to assert and maintain lies by the name of faith and graces, and to dispense falsehood intermingled with spiritual things unto the people under his subjection, either by the means of his ministers, or by the ministry, or any other ways relating to the church.

Now it is certain these two ways of proceeding do contain so perfect and so complete a wickedness, the likes no tyrant and no power in the world were ever able to compass (attain to) since the creation, until the time of antichrist. And Christ had never any enemy like this, so able to pervert the way of truth into falsehood, and falsehood into truth, and who in like manner did pervert the professors of the one or the other, viz. of truth and of falsehood. For holy mother the church, with her true children, is altogether trodden under foot, especially in the truth, and in what concerneth the true worship, in the truthful exercise of the ministry, and the children who partake thereof; causing her to weep bitterly, in the language and complaint of Jeremiah, saying, Ah! How desolate art thou, O city of the heathen people, and uncircumcised! She is become a widow. Being destitute of the truth of her bridegroom; lady of people by reason of their subjection to errors and to sin; princess of provinces by partaking with the world and the things that are in the world.

Weep and look but abroad a little, and thou shalt find those things now accomplished at this time; for the holy church is accounted a synagogue of miscreants (infidels or heretics), and the congregation of the wicked is esteemed the mother of them that rightly believe in the word. Falsehood is preached up for truth, iniquity for righteousness; injustice passeth for justice, error for faith, sin for virtue, and lies for verity.

THE WORKS OF ANTICHRIST:

The first work of antichrist is that it perverts the service of Latreia; that is, the worship properly due to God alone, by giving it to antichrist himself, his works, and to the poor creature, reasonable and unreasonable, sensible and senseless. To the reasonable, man, male or female, the deceased saints. To the senseless, images, carcasses and relics. The works of antichrist are the sacraments, especially the sacrament of the eucharist, which he adoreth as God, and as Jesus Christ, together with the things blessed and consecrated by him, prohibiting the worship of God alone.

The second work of antichrist is that he robs and bereaves Christ of his merits, together with all the sufficiency of grace, of justification, of regeneration, remission of sins, sanctification, confirmation, and spiritual nourishment; and imputes and attributes the same to his own authority, to a form of words, to his own works; unto saints, and their intercession, and unto the fire of purgatory. He separates the people from Christ, leading them away to those things aforesaid, that they may not seek those of Christ, by Christ, but only in the works of their hands, not by a living faith in God, nor in Jesus Christ, nor in the Holy Spirit, but by the will, pleasure and works of antichrist, according to he preacheth, all salvation consists in his works.

The third work of antichrist consists in this: attributing regeneration of the Holy Spirit unto the dead outward work, baptizing children in that faith, and teaching that baptism, regeneration must occur. He confers and bestows orders and other sacraments. His Christianity is grounded on such, and is against the Holy Spirit.

The fourth work of antichrist is that he hath constituted and placed all religion and holiness in going to the mass, and hath patched together all manner of ceremonies, some Jewish, some heathenish, and some Christian. By leading the congregations of people to hear this, he deprives them of the ordinances and spiritual, seducing them from the true religion and from the commandments of God. He withdraws them from the works of compassion by his offerings; and by such a mass he has established the people in vain hopes.

The fifth work of antichrist is that he doth all his works so as to be seen, that he may glut himself with his insatiable avarice (covetousness), that he may set all things to sale, and do nothing without simony (selling pardons, offices, etc).

The sixth work of antichrist is that he allows of manifest sins, without any ecclesiastical censure, and doth not excommunicate the impenitent.

The seventh work of antichrist is that he doth not govern nor maintain his unity by the Holy Spirit, but by secular power, and maketh use thereof to effect spiritual matters.

The eighth work of antichrist is that he hates and persecutes and searches after and despoils (robs) and destroys the members of Christ.

CONCEALED WORKS AGAINST THE TRUTH:

These things are, in a manner, the principal works which he commits against the truth, they being otherwise numberless, and past writing down. It sufficeth for the present to have observed the most general, and those whereby this iniquity lies most covered and concealed.

First and chiefly, he makes use of an outward confession of the faith; and it is that whereof the apostle speaketh, "For they confess in words that they have known God,but by their deeds they deny him." (1 John 2:4)

Secondly, he covers his iniquity by the length or succession of time, and allegeth that he is maintained by certain wise and learned men, and by religious orders of certain votaries of single life (vows of celibacy), men and women, virgins and widows; and besides, by numberless people, of whom it is said in the Revelation that "Power is given him over every tribe, language, and nation, and all that dwell on the earth shall worship him." (Revelation 13:7-8)

In the third place, he covers his iniquity by the spiritual authority of the apostles; against which the apostle speaketh expressly, "We are able to do nothing against the truth, and there is no power given us for destruction." (2 Corinthians 13:8-10)

Fourthly, by many miracles here and there, according to that of the apostle, "Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, by all manner of miracles, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)

Fifthly, by an outward holiness, by prayers, fastings, watchings, and alms-deeds; against which the apostle testifies, saying, "Having a show of godliness, but having denied the power thereof." (2 Timothy 3:5)

Sixthly, he covers his iniquity by certain sayings of Christ, and by the writings of the ancients, and by councils. These they observe only so far as they do not destroy and overthrow their wicked life and pleasures.

Seventhly, by the administration of the sacraments in which they lay open the universality of their errors.

Eighthly, by correction or discipline and mere verbal preachings against vices; for they say and do not. (Matthew 23:3)

Ninthly, by the virtuous lives of some, who seemingly live so, but especially of such as really live so among them. For the elect of God, which desire and do that which is good, are detained there, as in Babylon; and are like unto gold, wherewith the wicked antichrist doth cover his vanity, not suffering them to serve God alone, nor to put all their hope in Christ alone, nor to embrace the true religion. These things, and many others, are, as it were, a cloak and garment wherewith antichrist doth cover his lying wickedness, that he may not be rejected as a pagan, or infidel, and under which he can go on to act his villainies boldly, and likethe whore. the whore of Babylon.

SEPARATION FROM ANTICHRIST:

Now it is evident, as well in the Old, as in the New Testament, that a Christian stands bound, by express command given him, toseparate himself from antichrist.

For the Lord saith, Isaiah 52:11-12, "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing,go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight," etc. '

And Jeremiah 1:8, "Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks. For lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall set themselves in array against her, from thence she shall be taken."

In the 16th chapter of Numbers, verse 21, "Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment."

And again verse 6, "Depart, I pray you, from the tabernacle from the tabernacle of the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins."

In Leviticus 20:24, 25, 27, "I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make yourselves abominable by beast,or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean."

Again, in Exodus, chapter 34:12, "Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land wither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee."

And a little further, verse 15, "Make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice. Nor shalt thou take thee a wife from among their daughters, lest they having played the harlot;" That is to say, committed idolatry.

Leviticus 15:31, "And therefore ye shall teach your children and bid them beware of their uncleanness, and that they may not die in them, having polluted my sanctuary."

Ezekiel 11:21, "But the heart that walks on offending and in its offences, I will render their way upon their head, saith the Lord."

Deuteronomy 20, "When thou shalt enter into the land, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, take heed thou do not according to the abominations of those people; forthe Lord abhorreth all those things: and by reason of such sins, he will blot them out. When thou shalt enter their land, thou shalt be clean, and without spot with thy God. Those people whose land thou goest to possess, hearken to the soothsayers and diviners; but thy God hath disposed otherwise in thy behalf."

Now it is manifest in the New Testament, John 12, that the Lord is come and hath suffered death, that he might gather together the children of God; and by reason of this truth of unity and separation from others, it is that he saith in St. Matthew 10:35-36, "For I am come to separate a man from his father, and set the daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law; and they of a man's household shall be his enemies."

And he hath commanded this separation, saying, "Whosoever doth not forsake his father and his mother," etc.

And again, "Beware of false prophets which come unto you in sheep's clothing."

Again, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees."

"Take heed lest any seduce you; for many shall come in my name, and seduce many. And then if any tell you, behold, Christ is here or there, believe them not, and walk not after them."

And in the Revelation, he warneth by his own voice, and chargeth his to go out of Babylon, saying, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, O my people, come forth out of her, and be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive none of the plagues: for her sins are come up into heaven, and the Lord remembereth her iniquity." (Revelation 18:4)

The apostle saith the same, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple ofthe living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

Again, Ephesians 5:7-8, "Do not partake with them, for ye were in the way of darkness, but now ye are in the light of the Lord."

Again, 1 Corinthians 10:20-21, "I would not have you become the companions of the devil. Ye can not participate of the Lord's table and of the table of devils."

So 2 Thessalonians 3:6-7, "O brethren, we declare unto you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,that you beware of every brother walking dishonestly, and not according to the customs which you received from us. For ye know after what manner ye ought to be followers of us."

And again, a little after he saith, "If there be any that obey not our word, set down in this Epistle, haveye nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed."

Again, Ephesians 5:11, "Have no communion with the works of darkness, which are unfruitful."

And 2 Timothy 3:1, "Be it known unto you that in the latter day, there will be troublesome times."

And afterwards, "Having a show of piety, but denying the power thereof, turn thyself away from such."

By what hath been said hitherto, it appears clearly what is the wickedness of antichrist, and his perverseness. Also the Lord commands our separating from him, and joining ourselves with the holy city Jerusalem. Therefore,knowing such things, the Lord having revealed them to us by his servants, and believing this revelation, according to the holy Scriptures, and being admonished by the commandments of the Lord, we do both inwardly and outwardly depart from antichrist; because we know him to be the same: and we keep company and unity with another, freely and uprightly, having no other intent or purpose, but purely and singly to please the Lord, and be saved. And by the Lord's help, we join ourselves to the truth of Christ, and his spouse, how small soever she appear, as far forth as our understanding is able to comprehend. And therefore we thought good to set down here for what causes we departed, and what kind of congregation we have, to the end that if the Lord be pleased to impart the knowledge of the same truth unto others, those that receive it may love it altogether with us.

CAUSES OF SEPERATION FROM ANTICHRIST:

Now then the causes of our separation are these ensuing. Be it known to everyone in general, and in particular, that the cause of our separation is this: namely, for the real truth's sake of our faith, and by reason of our inward knowledge of the only true God, and the unity of the divine essence in three persons; which knowledge flesh and blood doth not afford; and for the befitting service due only God; for the love of him above all things; for sanctification; and for his honour above all things and above every name; for the living hope through Christ in God; for regeneration and the inward renewing by faith, hope and charity; for the merit of Jesus Christ, with all the sufficiency of his grace and righteousness. for the communion of saints; for the remission of sins; for a holy conversation; and for a faithful accomplishment of all the commandments in the faith of Christ; for true repentance; for final perseverance and life everlasting.

The ministerial truths are these: the outward congregating of the pastors with the people in convenient place and time, to instruct them in the truth by the ministry; leading, establishing and maintaining the church in the truth aforesaid. The said ministers press faith and a good life, and are exemplary for manners and obedience, and watchfully follow the example and work of the Lord towards the flock.

The things which the ministers are obliged to do for the service of the people are these; the preaching of the word of the gospel; the sacraments joined to the word, which do certify what the intent and meaning thereof is, and confirm the hope in Christ, unto the faithful; the ministerial communion hath all things by the essential truth. And all other ministerial things may be reduced to the aforesaid. But as to the particular truths, some of them are essentially necessary to man's salvation, other some conditionally. They are contained in the twelve articles of the Christian faith. As for Antichrist, he hath reigned a good while already in the church by God's permission.
A various and endless idolatry, against the express command of God and Christ.
Divine worship offered not to the Creator, but to the creature, visible and invisible, corporal and spiritual, rational and sensible, natural and artificial, under the name of Christ, or saints, male and female, and of relics and authorities. Unto creatures they offer the service of worship of faith, hope, works, prayers, pilgrimages, alms, oblations and sacrifices of great price.
And those creatures they serve, honour, and adore several ways: by songs and hymns, speeches, solemnities, and celebration of masses, vespers fitted unto the same, by certain hours, vigils, feast-days, thereby to obtain grace, which is essentially in God alone, and meritoriously in Christ, and is to be obtained by faith alone through the Holy Spirit.
And indeed there nothing else that causeth idolatry, but the false opinions of grace, truth, authority, invocation, intercession, which this antichrist hath deprived God of, to attribute the same to these ceremonies, authorities, the works of a man's own hands, to saints, and to purgatory. And this iniquity is directly against the first article of faith, and against the first commandment of the law.

Also, the excessive love of the world that is in antichrist is that from which springs such a world of sin and mischief in the church, as well in them that govern, as in them that officiate in the same; who sin without control. They are against the truth of faith, and against the knowledge of God the Father. Witness St. John saying, "He that sinneth, knoweth not, nor seeth God: for if any love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)

THE INIQUITY OF ANTICHRIST:

The iniquity of antichrist lies in the hope which he giveth of pardon, grace, justification, truth and life everlasting, as things not to be sought and had in Christ, nor in God by Christ, but in men, either living or already deceased; in human authorities, in ecclesiastical ceremonies,in benedictions, sacrifices, prayers, and such other things as were before mentioned; not by a true and lively faith, which worketh repentance by love, and causeth one to depart from evil, and give himself up to God. Again, antichrist teacheth not to settle a firm hope in regeneration, spiritual confirmation, communion, remission of sins, sanctification of eternal life; but to hope through the sacraments, or by means of his wretched simony (sale of indulgences), wherewith the people are greatly abused; insomuch, that putting all things to sale, he invented a number of ordinances, old and new, to get monies; that if any do such and such a thing, he shall get grace and life. And this two-fold iniquity is properly called in the Scriptures, adultery and fornication; and therefore such ministers as lead the simple people into these errors are called the whore of the Revelation. And this iniquity is against the second article, and again, against the second and third commandment of the law.
The iniquity of antichrist consists in this: that he hath invented besides the matters aforesaid, certain false religious orders and rules of monasteries, putting men in hope of acquiring grace, by building certain churches; and also because they do therein often and devoutly hear mass, receive the sacraments, make confession to the priest, though seldom with contrition, observe his fasts, and empty their purse for him, and be a professed member of the church of Rome. Or if he hath dedicated or vowed himself to be of such an order, cap, or frock, all that he does press as duties contrary to all truth. And this iniquity of antichrist is directly against the eighth article of the creed, "I believe in the Holy Ghost."

The iniquity of antichrist is, notwithstanding his being the fourth beast described by Daniel, and the whore of the Revelation, he nevertheless adorns himself with the authority, power, dignity, ministry, offices, and the Scripture, and makes himself equal with the true and holy mother the church, wherein salvation is to be had ministerially, and nowhere else; wherein is found the truth of life, and doctrine, and of the sacraments,and subjects. For if he should not cover himself in this manner, his ministers being such notorious sinners, he would soon be abandoned by all: for kings and princes supposing him to be like, or equal to the true and holy mother the church, they loved him, and endued him against the commandment of God. And this iniquity of the ministers, subjects and ordained persons, given up to error and sin, is against the ninth article, "I believe a holy church."

In the second place, those that being partakers of the outward ceremonies, instituted only by human inventions, do believe and hope to partake of the reality of pastoral cures and offices, if they be shaved or shorn like lambs, and anointed or daubed like walls, and made holy by touching the mass book; and by taking the chalice into their hands, they proclaim and publish, that they are ordained lawful priests to all intents. In like manner, as is said before, the people subject to them, communicating with them by words, signs, andother outward exercises, they conceive that they partake of the truth. And this is against the other part of the ninth article, "I believe the communion of saints." But it behooves us to depart from the wicked communion of the monks, by whom carnal men were easily drawn away. Through covetousness, make men trust in things of naught, riotous and wretched, provided give liberally unto them, such men are made partakers of their poverty and chastity.

The iniquity of antichrist consists in this: that he doth feign and promise remission of sins unto sinners, not unto the truly contrite, but such as are wilfully persevering in their evil practices: in the first place,he doth promise them forgiveness of their sins for their auricular confessions' sake, and human absolution, and through their pilgrimages. This he does out of covetousness. And this iniquity is against the eleventh article, "I believe the remission of sins." For this is in God authoritatively, and in Christ ministerially, through faith, repentance and charity, and obedience to the word, and in man by participation.

The iniquity lies herein, that to the very end of their lives they goon, hoping and trusting thus in the forementioned iniquities and coverings, especially till they come to the extreme unction, and their invented purgatory; insomuch, that the ignorant and rude multitude do persevere in their error, they being taught and made to believe, that they are absolved of their sins, though they never really depart from them, so as to hope for forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting. And this iniquity is directly against the eleventh and twelfth articles of the faith.


SOURCE:
Perrin, Jean Paul, History of the Old Albigenses Anterior to the Reformation, originally published in 1618. Book III: Precious Remains of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Old Waldenses and Albigenses, and their Noble Testimony Against the Roman Antichrist.


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Waldenses Confession of 1120

1. We believe and firmly maintain all that is contained in the twelve articles of the symbol, commonly called the apostles' creed, and we regard as heretical whatever is inconsistent with the said twelve articles.
2. We believe that there is one God - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. We acknowledge for sacred canonical scriptures the books of the Holy Bible. (Here follows the title of each, exactly conformable to our received canon, but which it is deemed, on that account, quite unnecessary to particularize.)
4. The books above-mentioned teach us: That there is one GOD, almighty, unbounded in wisdom, and infinite in goodness, and who, in His goodness, has made all things. For He created Adam after His own image and likeness. But through the enmity of the Devil, and his own disobedience, Adam fell, sin entered into the world, and we became transgressors in and by Adam.
5. That Christ had been promised to the fathers who received the law, to the end that, knowing their sin by the law, and their unrighteousness and insufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ to make satisfaction for their sins, and to accomplish the law by Himself.
6. That at the time appointed of the Father, Christ was born - a time when iniquity everywhere abounded, to make it manifest that it was not for the sake of any good in ourselves, for all were sinners, but that He, who is true, might display His grace and mercy towards us.
7. That Christ is our life, and truth, and peace, and righteousness - our shepherd and advocate, our sacrifice and priest, who died for the salvation of all who should believe, and rose again for their justification.
8. And we also firmly believe, that there is no other mediator, or advocate with God the Father, but Jesus Christ. And as to the Virgin Mary, she was holy, humble, and full of grace; and this we also believe concerning all other saints, namely, that they are waiting in heaven for the resurrection of their bodies at the day of judgment.
9. We also believe, that, after this life, there are but two places - one for those that are saved, the other for the damned, which [two] we call paradise and hell, wholly denying that imaginary purgatory of Antichrist, invented in opposition to the truth.
10. Moreover, we have ever regarded all the inventions of men [in the affairs of religion] as an unspeakable abomination before God; such as the festival days and vigils of saints, and what is called holy-water, the abstaining from flesh on certain days, and such like things, but above all, the masses.
11. We hold in abhorrence all human inventions, as proceeding from Antichrist, which produce distress (Alluding probably to the voluntary penances and mortification imposed by the Catholics on themselves), and are prejudicial to the liberty of the mind.
12 We consider the Sacraments as signs of holy things, or as the visible emblems of invisible blessings. We regard it as proper and even necessary that believers use these symbols or visible forms when it can be done. Notwithstanding which, we maintain that believers may be saved without these signs, when they have neither place nor opportunity of observing them.
13. We acknowledge no sacraments [as of divine appointment] but baptism and the Lord's supper.
14. We honour the secular powers, with subjection, obedience, promptitude, and payment.


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The Apostles' Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty
And in Christ Jesus, his only Son, our Lord
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried
And the third day rose from the dead
Who ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of the Father
Whence he cometh to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Spirit,
The holy church,
The resurrection of the flesh,
The remission of sins,
The life everlasting.

A similar statement of faith was used during baptism by Hippolytus (170–235 AD), Pastor of the Church of Portus near Rome. Hippolytus wrote:

When the person being baptized goes down into the water, he who baptizes him, putting his hand on him, shall say: "Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?" And the person being baptized shall say: "I believe." Then holding his hand on his head, he shall baptize him once. And then he shall say: "Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?" And when he says: "I believe," he is baptized again. And again he shall say: "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy church, and the resurrection of the body?" The person being baptized shall say: "I believe," and then he is baptized a third time."

Hippolytus was a disciple of Irenaeus, Pastor at Lyons, who was a disciple of Polycarp, the pastor at Smyrna, who was a disciple of the Apostl John, who was a disciple of Christ Jesus, the only Son of God.

Why Baptist?

Baptist History Conference
At The First Baptist Church of America
In Providence, Rhode Island

Why I Am a Baptist


A Revolution Back to the Bible


Becoming a First Century Church

Christ's Church

Witnesses For Christ's Church
THE WORD OF GOD:

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:18-20)

["Observe" here in Matthew 28:20 is defined by Websters 1828 Dictionary thusly: "Latin, observo; ob and servo, to keep or hold. The sense is to hold in view, or to keep the eyes on." The same Greek word, "tereo," used here in Matthew 28:20 is translated "the keepers" in verse 4 of the same chapter. "Tereo" is found 75 times in the NT. It is translated "keep" 57 times, "reserve" 8 times, "observe" 4 times, "watch" 2 times, "preserve" 2 times, "keepers" 1 time, and "hold fast" 1 time. The first and foremost meaning is not to do, but to protect and preserve. It becomes clear then that the Lord Jesus charged the church with the responsibility to protect and preserve "all things whatsoever [He] commanded" the church.]

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:19-21)

"... [T]he holy scriptures ... are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:15-16)

"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31-32)

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." (John 16:13-14)

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." (John 17:17)

"... [T]hou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." (1 Timothy 3:15-16)

"Beloved, ... ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 3; cf. Romans 3:1-3: Note that "the faith of God [v. 3] is synonymous with "the oracles of God" [v. 2]. Epherians 4:4-5 says, "There is one body, ... one faith ...")

"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." (1 John 2:19)

"They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." (1 John 4:5-6)

"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." (1 Peter 2:2-3)

"For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." (2 Corinthians 2:17)

CATHOLICS & PROTESTANTS:

"Neither did this [Baptist] heresy begin yesterday, or the day before, for it reigned also in saint Augustine's time [354 - 430 A.D.]. ... For if so be, that as every man is most ready to suffer death for the faith of his sect, so his faith should be judged most perfect and most sure, there shall be no faith more certain and true, than is the Anabaptists', seeing there be none now, or have been before time for the space of these thousand and two hundred years [back to Augustine's time], who have been more cruelly punished, or that have more stoutly, steadfastly, cheerfully taken their punishment, yea or have offered themselves of their own accord to death, were it never so terrible and grievous. Yea in Saint Augustine's time, as he himself saith, there was a certain monstrous desire of death in them. For at what time the worshipping of Idols did as yet continue, he writeth that great throngs of Donatists did come to the solemnities of the Pagans, that they might be killed of the Idolators. ... Neither have the Anabaptists of our time swerved from their predecessors, neither have they been less stout and cheerful in sustaining all kind of death in the behalf of their faith, as among other one Justus Menius an eyewitness of this thing hath left in writing, in that book in the which he confuteth their heresies. So by and by even at the beginning, the Anabaptists' heresy began to be very hot of spirit, and afterward so often as it burned, the heat of it was nothing cooled or abated. ... If you behold their cheerfulness in suffering persecutions, the Anabaptists run far before all other heretics. If you will have regard to the number, it is like that in multitude they would swarm above all other, if they were not grievously plagued, and cut off with the knife of persecution. If you have an eye to the outward appearance of godliness, both the Lutherans and the Zwinglians must needs grant, that they far pass them. If you will be moved with the boasting of the word of God, these be no less bold than Calvin to preach, that their doctrine must stand aloft above all the glory of the world, must stand invincible above all power, because it is not their word, but the word of the living God. Neither do they cry with less loudness than Luther, that with their doctrine which is the word of God, they shall judge the Angels. And surely how many so ever have written against this heresy, whether they were Catholics or heretics, they were able to overthrow it not so much by the testimony of the scriptures, as by the authority of the Church." -- Catholic Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius who presided over the third period of the Council of Trent from 1561 to 1563 (Text from Richard Shacklock's 1565 translation entitled, The Hatchet of Heresies, the translation of The Origin of Heresies of Our Time, Chapter entitled, True Doctrine of the Catholic Christian, A Solid Defense, fol. 44v-49v; [brackets mine].)

"The institution of Anabaptism is no novelty, but for three hundred years has caused great disturbance in the church, and has acquired such a strength that the attempt in this age to contend with it appears futile for a time." -- Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), Swiss Reformer contemporary with John Calvin who to leadership after Calvin.

"Now, I think it not labour lost to speak somewhat of anabaptism. In the time that Decius [201-251 A.D.] and Gallus [201-311 A.D.] Caesar were Emperors, there arose a question in the parts of Africa of rebaptising heretics; and St. Cyprian, and the rest of the Bishops, being assembled together in the council of Carthage, liked well of anabaptism ... Against the Donatists St. Augustine, with other learned men, disputed. There is also an Imperial Law made by Honorius and Theodosius, that holy Baptism should not be iterated [perform again]. Justinian Caesar [483-565 A.D.] hath published the same, in Cod. lib. I. Tit. 6, in these words. 'If any Minister of the Catholic Church be detected to have rebaptised any, let both him which committed the unappeasable offence, (if at least by age he be punishable) and he, also, that is won and persuaded thereunto, suffer punishment of death.'" -- Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), Swiss Protestant reformer, who succeeded Zwingli (Bullinger, Heinrich, Sermons On The Sacraments, Cambridge, University Press for T. Stevenson, London, 1811, pp. 186, 187)

"I believe the Mennonites are not altogether in the wrong, when they boast of a descent from these Waldenses, Petrobrusians, and others, who are usually styled witnesses for the truth before Luther. Prior to the age of Luther, there lay concealed in almost every country of Europe but especially in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and Germany, very many persons, in whose minds were deeply rooted that principle which the Waldenses, Wyclifites, and the Husites maintained, some more covertly and others more openly; namely, that the kingdom which Christ set up on the earth, or the visible church, is an assembly of holy persons; and ought therefore to he entirely free from not only ungodly persons and sinners, but from all institutions of human device against ungodliness. This principle lay at the foundation which was the source of all that was new and singular in the religion of the Mennonites; and the greatest part of their singular opinions, as is well attested, were approved some centuries before the time of Luther, by those who had such views of the Church of Christ. -- Johann Lorenz Mosheim, a Lutheran historian (Mosheim, Johann Lorenz, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, New Havan: Maltby, 1832, Book IV, Cent. XVI, Sec. III, Part II, Chap. III. p. 228).

"The modern Baptists formerly called Anabaptists are the only people that never symbolized with the Papacy." -- Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), English scientist and mathematician.

"They affirm that they alone are the Church of Christ and his disciples. They declare themselves ... to have apostolic authority and the keys of binding and loosing. They hold the Church of Rome to be the Great Whore of Babylon and all that obey her are damned. ... They hold that none of the ordinances of the Church, that have been introduced since Christ's ascension ought to be observed, as being of no worth: the feasts, fasts, orders, blessings, offices of the [Roman Catholic] Church, and the like, they utterly reject. ... They say, that then first a man is baptized, when he is received into their sect. ... They do not believe the body and blood of Christ to be the true sacrament, but only blessed bread, which by a figure only is called the body of Christ, in like manner as it is said, "and the rock was Christ," and such like. ... According to them there is no purgatory; and all that die do immediately pass either into heaven or hell. That therefore the prayers of the [Roman Catholic] Church for the dead are of no use. ... They hold, that the saints in heaven do not hear the prayers of the faithful, or regard the honours which are done to them. ... They add, that the saints do not pray for us ... Wherefore also they deride all the festivals which we celebrate in honour of the saints, and all other instances of our veneration for them. ... They do not observe Lent or other fasts of the [Roman Catholic] Church. ... They do not receive the Old Testament; but the Gospel only, that they may not be overthrown by it, but rather be able to defend themselves therewith; pretending, that upon the coming of the Gospel, all old things are to be laid aside." -- Peter Allix, D.D., historian and scholar of the Church of England (Allix, Pierre, The Ecclesiastical History of The Ancient Churches of Piedmont originally published in 1690, reprinted at Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1821, reprinted by Church History Research & Archives, Gallatin, TN, 1989, pp. 209-212.)

"The Mennonites are descended from the tolerably pure evangelical Waldenses, who were driven by persecution into various countries; and who during the latter part of the twelfth century fled into Flanders; and into the provinces of Holland and Zealand, where they lived simple and exemplary lives, in the villages as farmers, in the towns by trades, free from the charge of any gross immoralities, and professing the most pure and simple principles, which they exemplified in a holy conversation. They were, therefore, in existence long before the Reformed Church of the Netherlands. We have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times, Mennonites, were the original Waldenses, and who have long in the history of the church received the honor of that origin. On this account, the Baptists may be considered as the only religious community which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the gospel through all ages. The perfectly correct external and internal economy of the Baptist denomination tends to confirm the truth, disputed by the Romish Church, that the Reformation brought about in the sixteenth century was in the highest degree necessary, and at the same time goes to refute the erroneous notion of the Catholics, that their denomination is the most ancient." -- King William I of the Netherlands commissioned two Dutch Reformed scholars, Dr. Annaeus Ypeij, Professor of Theology at Graningen and Dr. Izaak Johannes Dermout, Chaplain to King William I of the Netherlands [1815 - 1840] (Ypeij en Dermout, Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Hervornude Kerk [History of the Dutch Reformed Church], Breda, 1819; quoted in John T. Christian's A History of The Baptists [Texarkana, Bogard Press, 1922], Vol. 1, pp. 95-96.)

BAPTISTS:

"I have no question in my own mind that there has been a historical succession of Baptists from the days of Christ to the present." (Christian, John T., A History of The Baptists (Texarkana, Bogard Press, 1922), Vol. 1, pp. 5-6.)

"But if it should be said, that the apostolic succession cannot be ascertained, and then it is proper to act without it; we say, that the loss of the succession can neither prove it futile, nor justify any one out of it. The Pedobaptists, by their own histories, admit they are not of it; but we do not, and shall think ourselves entitled to the claim, until the reverse be clearly shewn. And should any think authority derived from the MOTHER OF HARLOTS sufficient to qualify to administer a Gospel ordinance, they will be so charitable as not to condemn us for preferring that derived from Christ. And should any still more absurdly plead that ordination, received from an individual is sufficient; we leave them to shew what is the use of ordination, and why it exists. If any think an administration will suffice which has no pattern in the gospel; they will suffer us to act according to the divine order with impunity." (Mercer, Jesse (1838). A History of the Georgia Baptist Association. pp. 196–201; From a circular letter by Mercer for the Georgia Baptist Association dated 1811.)

"He has been for several sessions one of the vice-presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention, and is now first vice-president of the board of trustees of the Southern Baptist Seminary. He is possessed of a rare dignity of manners, fine scholarship, and a blessed record." (Cathcart, William, The Baptist Encyclopedia, Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts, 1881, pp. 620-621.)

"... They have always maintained that their churches are as ancient as Christianity itself. That their foundations were laid by no less honorable hands than those of Christ and his apostles. In all ages since the first, the Baptists have believed their denomination more ancient than themselves. The American Baptists deny that they owe their origin to Roger Williams. The English Baptists will not grant that John Smyth or Thomas Helwysse was their founder. The Welsh Baptists strenuously contend that they received their creed in the first century, from those who had obtained it, direct, from the apostles themselves. The Dutch Baptists trace their spiritual pedigree up to the same source. The German Baptists maintained that they were older than the Reformation, older than the corrupt hierarchy which it sought to reform. The Waldensian Baptists boasted an ancestry far older than Waldo, older than the most ancient of their predecessors in the vales of Piedmont. So, too, may we say of the Lollards, Henricians, Paterines, Paulicians, Donatists, and other ancient Baptists, that they claim an origin more ancient than that of the men or the circumstances from which they derived their peculiar appellations. If in any instance the stream of descent is lost to human eye, in 'the remote depths of antiquity,' they maintain that it ultimately reappears, and reveals its source in Christ and his apostles.  Now we think that this singular unanimity of opinion among the Baptists of all countries and of all ages, respecting their common origin in apostolic and primitive times - a unanimity the existence of which might easily be established by numerous quotations from historians and other writers among them, is of itself a fact of no little value, as furnishing a presumptive argument of much force in support of the Baptist claim. In England and in the United States especially, the Baptists are now numerous, intelligent, and in every way as respectable as any denomination of Christian people. Among them are men, not only of unimpeachable moral and Christian character, but of profound learning and extensive historical research. And all these, as well as the humblest and most unlearned among them, believe that Baptists, (whether with or without the name, is a matter of indifference,) have existed 'from the days of John the Baptist until now.'" (Jones, Tiberius Gracchus, The Baptists: Their Origin, Continuity, Principles, Spirit, Polity, Position, and Influence. A Vindication, 1860; Philadelphia, American Baptist Publication Society, pp. 23-25.)

"In proceeding to sketch the History of the Baptist body at large, their writers rejoice that early historical documents are in existence which very materially aid them. They cannot, they say, but be thankful to Mosheim when he tells them that their origin is hidden in the depths of antiquity, because such a testimony, like that of Cardinal Hosius, when he says that the Baptists have furnished martyrs for twelve hundred years, goes to show that they are not so modern in their origin as some recent writers would pretend. ... But as the Baptists lay claim to the highest antiquity, even to be the lineal descendants of the primitive church ..." (Joseph Belcher, The Religious Denominations in The United States, New and Revised Ed., (Philadelphia, John E. Potter, 1861), p. 120, 124.)

"It will be seen that the Baptists claim the high antiquity of the commencement of the Christian church. They can trace a succession of those who have believed the same doctrine, and administered the same ordinances, directly up to the apostolic age." (Joseph Belcher, Religious Denominations in Europe and America, p. 53 as quoted by James Robinson Graves in Old Landmarkism, Texarkana, Bogard Press, 1881, p. 86.)

"The Baptist denomination was founded by Jesus during his earthly ministry. Next to the Teacher of Nazareth, our great leaders were the apostles, and the elders, bishops, and evangelists, who preached Christ in their times. The instructions of our Founder are contained in the four Gospels, the heaven-given teachings of our earliest ministers are in the inspired Epistles. The first Baptist missionary journal was the Acts of the Apostles." (Cathcart, William, The Baptist Encyclopedia, Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts, 1881, p. 74.)

"I am not ashamed of the denomination to which I belong, sprung as we are, direct from the loins of Christ, having never passed through the turbid stream of Romanism, and having an origin apart from all dissent or Protestantism, because we have existed before all other sects ..." (Spurgeon, C.H., New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 16, 1860, (Pasadena, Texas, Pilgrim Publications, 1973 reprint), p. 66.)

"We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther or Calvin were born; we never came from the church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. ... "And now it seems to me, at this day, when any say to us, 'You, as a denomination, what great names can you mention? What fathers can you speak of?' We may reply, 'More than any other under heaven, for we are the old apostolic Church that have never bowed to the yoke of princes yet; we, known among men, in all ages, by various names, such as Donatists, Novatians, [sic] Paulicians, Petrobrussians, Cathari, Arnoldists, Hussites, Waldenses, Lollards, and Anabaptists, have always contended for the purity of the Church, and her distinctness and separation from human government. Our fathers were men inured to hardships, and unused to ease. They present to us, their children, an unbroken line which comes legitimately from the apostles, not through the filth of Rome, not by the manipulations of prelates, but by the Divine life, the Spirit's anointing, the fellowship of the Son in suffering and of the Father in truth." (Spurgeon, C.H., Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 7, 1861 (Pasadena, Texas, Pilgrim Publications, 1973 reprint), pp. 225, 613.) 

"History has hitherto been written by our enemies, who never would have kept a single fact about us upon the record if they could have helped it, and yet it leaks out every now and then that certain poor people called Anabaptists were brought up for condemnation. From the days of Henry II to those of Elizabeth we hear of certain unhappy heretics who were hated of all men for the truth's sake which was in them. We read of poor men and women, with their garments cut short, turned out into the fields to perish in the cold, and anon of others who were burnt at Newington for the crime of Anabaptism. Long before your Protestants were known of, these horrible Anabaptists, as they were unjustly called, were protesting for the 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.'" (Spurgeon, C.H., Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 7, 1861, Pasadena, Texas, Pilgrim Publications, 1973 reprint), Vol. 27, p. 249.)

"Christian history, in the first century, was strictly and properly Baptist history, although the word "Baptist," as a distinctive appellation, was not then known. How could it be? How was it possible to call any Christians Baptist Christians, when all were Baptists? ... In the fourth century the DONATISTS raised the reform standard. They constituted about one-half of the Christian population of Northern Africa. Purity was their main object; they also, as well as the Novatians, called themselves CATHARI - the PURE - PURITANS. Other men called them DONATISTS, after Donatus, whose leadership they followed. Robert Robinson, a learned writer of ecclesiastical history, in the last century, says they were 'Trinitarian Baptists.' The Rev. Thomas Long, Prebendary of Exeter, [a Church of England clergyman] whose 'History of the Donatists' was published in 1677, asserts that they 'were generally anabaptistical; for they did not only rebaptize the adults that came over to them, but refused to baptize children, contrary to the practice of the Church, as appears by several discourses of St. Augustine, (Page 103).' ... Every age brought to view champions for the true and right: and we Baptists are the Novatians, the Donatists, the Paulicians, the Petrobrussians of the nineteenth century. ... Some one starts up in dismay; - 'Sir! all those people were heretics and schismatics!' Hard words, these! But we have been used to them. They called our Lord himself a 'Samaritan,' and said that 'he had a devil.' The fact is, that the dominant part always assumed to be the orthodox, and bade the people believe that those who differed from them were heretics. Trinitarians were orthodox in the days of Constantine, and the Arians were banished. The Arians were the orthodox in the next reign, that of Constantius, and then the Trinitarians were banished. These alternations were continually taking place. And so it comes to this, that if you want to trace the true church of God, you must follow her down the line of those who have been stigmatized, and their names cast out as evil. Patriotism has been oftener found at the headsman's block than in kings' palaces." (Cramp, J.M., D.D. The Case of The Baptists, Stated and Explained, Addressed to all Whom it May Concern, Halifax, N.S., "Christian Messenger" Office, 1873, pp. 3-5, 10.)

"This great prophet John, had immediate commission from heaven, Luke iii 2, before he entered upon the actual administration of his office. And as the English Baptists adhere closely to this principle, that John the Baptist was by divine command, the first commissioned to preach the gospel, and baptize by immersion, those that receive it; and that this practice has ever since been maintained and continued in the world to this present day; so it may not be improper to consider the state of religion in this kingdom; it being agreed on all hands that the plantation of the gospel here was very early, even in the Apostles days." (Crosby, A History Of The Baptists, Vol. II, p. ii., as quoted by John T. Christian in his A History of the Baptists, Vol. 1, Chap. XIV, p. 172.)

"And sometimes anciently they were called Anabaptists, as they have been of late times, and for the same cause, for when others innovated in the worship of God and changed the subject in baptism, they kept on their way, and men grew angry, and for mending an error, they called them Anabaptists, and so they came by the name, which is very ancient ..." (Hooke, Joseph, A Necessary Apology for The Baptized Believers, London, 1701,, p. 66.)

"... I should think the valleys of Piedmont, which lie between France and Italy, are intended, where God has preserved, and continued a set of witnesses to the truth, in a succession, from the beginning of the apostacy to the present time, living in obscurity, and in safety, so far as not to be utterly destroyed ..." (Gill, John, Gill's Expositor, London, Matthews & Leigh, 1809, Vol. VIII, p. 691.)

Walter Lollard

The Lollards

By Kirkland & Hassell
In Germany - and later, in England - many of the Waldenses were called "Lollards," as some suppose, after the celebrated Walter Lollard, of Germany, who exercised his ministry in the early part of the fourteenth century. Others think the name "Lollard" was derived from "lolium" (a tare), as if the Lollards were tares in the kingdom of Christ. Another theory is that the name is from the German "loben" ("to praise") and "herr" ("lord"), because the Lollards went from place to place singing psalms and hymns. Still others think the name is from "lullen," "lollen," or "lallen," with the termination hard, with which "many of the high Dutch words end. 'Lollen' signifies to 'sing with a low voice,'" etc. Mosheim thinks they got this name from their attending the funerals of the poor and offcast with their solemn funeral dirge.

"Fuller, however, informs us that in the reign of Edward III., about A.D. 1315, Walter Lollard, a German preacher - or, as Perrin, in his 'History of the Waldenses,' calls him, one of the 'barbs' (pastors) - of great renown among them, came into England, and was so eminent in England that, as in France, they were called 'Berengarians,' from Berengarius, and 'Petrobrusians,' from Peter Bruis; and in Italy and Flanders, 'Arnoldists,' from the famous Arnold, of Brescia. So did the Waldensian Christians for many generations afterwards bear the name of this worthy man, being called 'Lollards.'"

Whatever may have been the origin of the name, it is quite evident that Walter, since the days of his ministry, has been known by the name "Walter Lollard," and there is but little doubt but that the Lollards in Germany and England were so called from him.

Bishop Newton said of the Lollards: "There was a man more worthy to have given name to the sect - the deservedly famous John Wycliffe, the honor of his own time and the admiration of succeeding times."

Brown states that the first English Lollards came from Germany.

The Waldenses, in these characteristics, were identical with the Novationists: (1) Independent form of church government; (2) baptism by immersion upon a profession of faith; (3) they baptized anew all that came to them from any church not in fellowship with them; (4) they refused baptism to infants; (5) they were predestinarians (SEE NOTE BELOW); (6) they taught freedom of conscience; (7) they acknowledged no rule of faith and practice but the Scriptures.

"In the time of King Edward II," says Jarrel, "about the year A.D. 1315, Walter Lollard, a German preacher, a man of great renown among the Waldenses, came into England. He spread their doctrine very much in these parts; so that afterwards they went by the name 'Lollards,'" (Page 319).

Benedict and others give about the same account of Walter Lollard's visiting England. The Baptists in England were frequently called "Lollards" by their enemies for more than a century after the visit of Walter Lollard. They were generally among the common people, as their principles were held in mortal abhorrence by the clergy of the established religion. Those who believed or advocated them had to do so privately, or suffer; yet they were of the purest character and had many learned men to espouse their cause and boldly advocate their doctrine. When Walter Lollard visited England, his extensive learning and superior ability no doubt were the means of bringing many of the more distinguished people of England in contact with these holy principles; and to know them is to love them. As a result, many who were occupying distinguished positions in the established church broke away from the tyranny of the established priest and breathed the pure spirit of the Lollards - such as John Wycliffe (1328 - 1384), who was professor in the University of Oxford, and who gave the first English translation of the Scriptures. When he began to teach this pure doctrine of freedom of conscience and to instruct the people to read the Scriptures and make them their rule of faith and practice, he incurred the everlasting displeasure of the corrupt clergy, who saw that such measures would strike at the root of ignorance and superstition; and, as observed by Brown, "like the Ephesians of old, they trembled for their craft." At length they obtained letters patent from the king, directing that Wycliffe should be expelled from the University of Oxford, and that all of his publications should be everywhere seized and destroyed. When Wycliffe could no longer resist this flood of cruel intolerance, he gave up his professorship at Oxford and retired to Lutterworth.

The names of some of the prominent ministers and authors who were the exponents of the Baptist principles in England from the time that Walter Lollard visited England (A.D. 1315) until the first church of English Baptists was planted in America were John Wycliffe, Thomas Bodby, John Claydon, William Sawtree, David George, Thomas Mann, Christopher Shoomaker, William Tyndale, and John Frith.


Excerpts from: A Condensed History of The Church of God, written around 1896, By J. V. Kirkland & C. B. Hassell


NOTE:

PREDESTINARIANS:

1 Peter 1:2-3, 20, 23: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, ... which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ... 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, ... 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

Romans 8:29-30: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

Ephesians 1:4-12: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ."

1 Corinthians 2:6-9,11-14: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. ... 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (cf. Acts 4:28)

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14: "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

James 1:17-18, 21: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. ... 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."

Therefore, we can see that God had a simple plan to save all who would "lay apart all filthiness" (loathsome & disgusting behavior) and "superfluity" (excessive and unnecessary) "naughtiness" (moral wickedness and evil), in other words, repent of sin; and "receive with meekness the engrafted word" by faith in Jesus Christ. Only this "is able to save your souls.

Romans 10:17: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

So in God's foreknowledge He has know all things "from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 13:35, 25:34; Luke 11:50; Heb. 4:3; Rev. 13:8, 17:8), and has directed events for maximum salvations and good for people, but without superseding the right He has given to man to choose to receive or reject Him as touching salvation. (Lam. 3:31-36)

1 Timothy 2:3-6: "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."

2 Peter 3:9: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Romans 2:4-10: "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 11 For there is no respect of persons with God."

J. R. Graves

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM

THE PROFESSION OF THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL

By J. R. Graves, 1820 - 1892



BAPTISM IS THE PROFESSION, ON THE PART OF
THE SUBJECT, OF "THE FAITH" OF THE GOSPEL
TEXT: "Unto what then were ye baptized!" -- Acts 19:3

CHRISTIAN BAPTISM is not the celebration of a religious rite by modes indifferent; but a specific act to be administered by a specific body, to persons professing specific qualifications, for the profession of specific truths. When one of these properties is wanting, the transaction is "null and void," since, unless the ordinances are observed as Christ commanded, they are not kept, but perverted, and bring upon the parties not the commendation, but condemnation, of the Master.

The Divine Institutor of the rite selected but one word to indicate the act he designed to be observed, and that word—baptizo-which never had but one meaning, when referring to persons, viz: "To dip in or under water,'' and therefore immersion in water was the act he expressly commanded, and thereby as expressly forbade any other act to be performed in his name for Christian baptism.

It is admitted by all that a Scriptural church is the only organization he authorized to administer this rite; and it is a notable fact that all the most eminent Pedobaptist scholars of both continents freely admit that there is neither precept nor example in the Scriptures for the administration of baptism to any other than to those who give credible evidence of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; while some, whose scholarship can not be doubted, frankly admit that the baptism of unbelieving children is not only not justified by the Scriptures, but utterly opposed to the genius of the gospel, and the fundamental principles of the New Testament. It only remains to ascertain what are the specific truths or facts Christian baptism was instituted to express, and this is what I propose to do in this discourse.

That baptism was instituted by Christ for some definite purpose all denominations admit. That it is for the profession of something on the part of the subject is not only set forth by all Catholic and Protestant creeds, but must be the conviction of every reader of the Scriptures. The question of Paul to the twelve disciples, at Ephesus, which I have chosen to discuss, clearly supposes this.

When Paul heard from these disciples that they had not so much as heard of the existence of the third person in the Trinity, he asked, with evident astonishment: "Unto what then were ye baptized?" He was understood by them to ask what faith they could have professed by their baptism; and they answered: "Unto John's baptism," i. e., the faith preached by John the Baptist. They did not say they had been baptized by John, and their very answer implies that they had not; for they could not have heard John preach, or been baptized by him, without having heard of, and experienced, professedly, at least, the convicting and regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit. John baptized only those who gave him satisfactory evidence of repentance toward God and faith in Christ soon to appear, and no one could exercise these graces without the influences of the Holy Spirit. They had doubtless been instructed and immersed by Apollos, a disciple of John, who was preaching in these parts, and he knew nothing but the baptism of John, and he had no authority to baptize. Three of the four essential properties of Christian baptism were wanting in their case:

1. The proper authority: No one but John was authorized to administer his baptism; and he certainly authorized none of his disciples to baptize.
2. They were evidently unregenerate, and therefore disqualified to receive Christian baptism.
3. They did not profess the proper faith in their baptism.

Paul therefore rightly instructed and baptized them.

We learn from this Scripture:

1. That persons may be immersed, and yet not have received the Christian immersion.
2. That they may be immersed by an administrator who had himself been immersed, and yet not obey Christ in the act.
3. That persons may have been immersed, and satisfied with their baptism, and yet not have received Christian immersion or baptism.
4. That unless professing the proper qualifications, and professing the proper faith, an immersion by even a proper authority is null and void.

This example is positive instruction to the churches in all subsequent ages to re-administer the act, where there has been an irregularity, which is nothing less than a violation of the law governing the ordinance. The church at Corinth conscientiously believed they were correctly administering the Lord's Supper, while they were shamefully perverting it, and making themselves "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus." -- I Cor. XI. 27.

Now that Christian baptism has been and still is regarded as the act, on the part of the subject, of professing the faith of the church baptizing, whether true or false, is proven by the fact that from the third century onward the "catechumeni" -- those under course of instruction for baptism--were required to repeat the creed of the church, and then the question was invariably asked: "Wilt thou be baptized into this faith?" i. e., do you desire to profess that you receive to hold and rest your salvation upon it? Only upon the candidate answering, "I will," was baptism administered.

Even when those post apostolic churches that perverted the rite of baptism to a "sacrament" and "seal" of salvation, and administered it to unconscious infants to secure their salvation, sponsors and godfathers and mothers were invented to answer for the speechless babe.

The Episcopalians retain this custom, and of every infant sprinkled by them this question is asked:

"Dost thou believe all the articles of the Christian faith as contained in the Apostles' Creed?" The sponsor answers (for the infant), "I do." "Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?" Sponsor (for infant), "That is my desire.''

The subject of baptism does not then profess any private faith he may entertain, but always the faith of the denomination baptizing him. Let us here briefly notice the design of baptism held and taught by the leading ones around us, as we find in their published Articles of Faith and Confessions:

ROMAN CATHOLICS.
"Baptism is a sacrament instituted by Christ to wash away original sin, and all those we may have committed; to communicate to mankind the spiritual regeneration and grace of Jesus Christ, and to unite them to the living head. If any man shall say that baptism is not essential to salvation, let him be accursed. In baptism, not only our sins are remitted, but all the punishment of sins and wickedness."— Council of Trent.

It is into this faith, and to secure the remission of sins, that every one who receives the rite from the Catholics is baptized. The earliest perversion of the primitive faith touching this ordinance was by an inversion of the Scriptural order, placing the water of baptism before the blood of Christ, and thus making it necessary to reach the blood that cleanseth from all sin through the water of baptism. This change corrupted the whole gospel, and effectually subverted the whole plan of salvation, and made regeneration depend upon the will of men--the priesthood. A person baptized into this faith, and for this purpose, though immersed by Protestants or Baptists could not be considered scripturally baptized.

THE FAITH OF THE CAMPBELLITES.
Mr. Campbell, the originator of this sect, certainly qualified to explain this. He says:

"In and by the act of immersion, as soon as our bodies are put under the water--at that very instant--all our former or old sins are all washed away."--CH. Bap., p. 100

"Immersion is the means divinely appointed for the actual enjoyment of the first and greatest blessings."--Mill. Har.

"Remission of sins can not be enjoyed by any person before immersion."

"Belief of this testimony is what impelled us into the water, knowing that the efficacy of his blood is to be communicated to our consciences in the way which God has pleased to appoint; we stagger not at the promise, but flee to the sacred ordinance ([water) which brought the blood of Jesus in contact with our consciences. Without Knowing and believing this, immersion is as a blasted nut -- the she is there, but the kernel is wanting."-Ch. Bap., p. 521.

The standard writers of the "Disciples," M. E. Lard, Benj. Franklin, Dr. Hobson, of this day, perfectly accord with Mr. Campbell in teaching that baptism is in order to the remission of sins.

We see that the Campbellites baptize into the self-same faith that the Catholics do. Mr. Campbell asserts, with all the force he can give his language, that the sinner can only come to Christ "Thought the water;" that he can only reach the blood of Christ by being immersed into the water, and without the candidate knows and believes this, and receives the rite to secure this, his baptism is "as a blasted nut!"

This sect, therefore, unite with the teachers of an apostate Christianity in placing the water before the blood, thus bringing an unpardoned, unregenerate sinner to water baptism as the sacrament of salvation. Surely no church of Christ can indorse this pernicious doctrine, by receiving those immersed by Catholics or Campbellites as Scripturally baptized without rejecting the faith of the gospel.

EPISCOPALIANS.
That the Protestant Episcopal branch baptizes into the same faith as its parent body--the Catholic--her own standards attest and her scholars freely admit.

Every one ever yet confirmed as a member of that body at his confirmation was and still is required to give this answer to the question:

Ques.--"Who gave you this name?"

ANS. -"My sponsors in baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven."

All adults as well as infants who receive the baptism of this church are properly baptized into that state of pardon, regeneration and salvation. Mellville, the distinguished preacher of that church, says: "I do not see how I can be commonly honest and yet deny that every baptized person is on that account regenerate.

THE METHODISTS.
Many come to us from the Methodist denomination, and let us seek from them the answer to the question: "Into what faith do they baptize?" Mr. Wesley, who asserted that he was the father and founder of the whole system, says: "It is certain that our church supposes that all who are baptized in their infancy are at the same time born again." …"If infants are guilty of original sin they can not be saved in the ordinary way, unless this be washed away by baptism. "

"Into what do Methodists baptize adults?"

"By baptism we, who are by nature children of wrath, are made the children of God. … In all ages the outward baptism is a means of the inward. ... By water then, as a means--the water of baptism--we are regenerated or born again."-- Wesley's Works, vol. 6, sec. 4.

The last Methodist Conference that met in Memphis, Tenn., in an official report condemned the growing practice of baptizing persons upon a profession of regeneration as an evil! I quote a paragraph: "Baptism, too, has been unnecessarily deferred, not only in case of children, but sometimes postponed to an indefinite period in the case of adults. The practice of requiring a public profession of regeneration before baptism has resulted in evil, and that the design of the sacrament is perverted, and the people encouraged to expect the divine blessing without the use of the means (i. e., baptism). We call attention to these evils that we may seek diligently to remove them."--Copied from the Western Methodist.

It is a fact, the truth of which every one can easily satisfy himself about by examining the Methodist Ritual for the baptism of adults, that no regenerate person can be baptized according to its teachings. Every adult, without exception, is required to profess himself an unregenerate, unpardoned sinner, and that he comes to baptism to obtain remission of sins and regeneration of heart, and be is baptized in the hope of obtaining there. You have very properly decided that immersions into such a faith, by Baptist churches, would be worse than null, since the subject would profess a false and pernicious faith; and such baptisms, if they could be so called, would only introduce professedly unregenerate adults into the church, and aid in deceiving them to their own ruin.

PRESBYTERIANS.
By referring to the "Shorter Catechism" we have a concise statement of the faith into which the Presbyterian church baptizes:

QUES.-- "What is a sacrament?"

ANS. -- "A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein (i. e., in the receiving of which), by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the New Covenant are represented, sealed and applied to believers."

It is evident that the Covenant of Grace is worthless to any one, unless sealed and applied to him. Therefore, unless the sacraments are received, none of the benefits of Christ's death can be enjoyed by any one. This is clear.

QUES. -- "NOW what ordinances are sacraments wherein, or by and through which, alone the benefits of Christ's death are enjoyed?"

ANS. -- "The Sacraments of the New Testament are baptism and the Lord's Supper."

QUES. -- "What is baptism?"

ANS. --''Baptism is a Sacrament of the New Testament, wherein Christ hath ordained the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, to be a sign and seal of the engrafting into himself, of remission of sins by his blood, and regeneration by his Spirit, of adoption, and resurrection unto everlasting life."

If any one doubts that the design held and taught by Presbyterians differs from that held and taught by the Catholics, let him hear how the most distinguished expounders of Presbyterianism, Professors in their Theological Seminaries, explain it:

Dr. Hedge, of Princeton, says: "We are baptized in order that we may be united to Christ, and be made partakers of his benefits. This baptism unto repentance is a baptism that the remission of sins may be obtained."

Dr. Nevin, the scarcely less distinguished Professor of Theology in the Mercersburg Seminary, understood this to be the teaching of the Catechism and Confession of Faith: "The Church (Presbyterian) makes us Christians by the sacrament of holy baptism, which she always held to be of supernatural force for that very purpose."-See Pritchard, p. I24.

BAPTISTS.
We now inquire, Into what do Baptist churches baptize?

Our historical ancestors-A. D. 1120, four hundred years before a Protestant sect existed, or Luther and Calvin had been born--taught this concerning the above doctrine of remission and regeneration by baptism, in a little work defining Anti-Christ, viz:

"A third work of Anti-Christ consists in this, that he attributes the regeneration of the Holy Ghost unto the mere external act--baptizing infants into the faith, teaching that thereby regeneration must be had; on which principle he bestows orders, and, indeed, grounds all his Christianity, which is contrary to the word of the Holy Scriptures."

Can it be that there is a Baptist church in this age that will condemn the decision of the martyr Baptists of the twelfth century, and approve and indorse the baptismal acts of those sects that hold and teach baptism for regeneration by receiving them as valid?

From the fourteenth Article of Faith put forth by them, I copy the seventh:

ART. 7. -- "We believe in the ordinance of baptism. The water is the visible, external, which represents to us that which, by virtue of God's invisible operation, is within us, viz: the renovation of our minds, and the mortification of our members through faith of Jesus Christ; and by this ordinance we are received into the holy congregation of God’s people, previously professing and declaring our faith and change of life."

It is certain that no Catholics or Protestants ever held or taught such sentiments as these: but this design of baptism Baptists alone hold and teach to-day. It is the characteristic doctrine that distinguishes us from all other denominations.

Now to develop more clearly the work or righteousness of Jesus Christ, upon which our faith takes hold and rests, I point you to the baptism of Christ himself. He is our great exemplar, as well as teacher; and he not only determined the act by his example, but he expressly declared the profession we should make, and the belief which we should be immersed.

He declared that his own baptism was in some sense "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt iii: 15; cf. Titus 3:5), and we may say our baptism is to do the same thing in the same sense.

We know Christ was not baptized "in order to the remission" of his sins—" to wash away'' his sins--for he was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners;" nor are we to come to the water for any such purpose, for we are not warranted to come until we have been washed in his blood, which cleanseth from ail sin. Therefore we have no sins for water to cleanse, if it had cleansing power. We come not to the water for pardon, but with pardon--with the sweet consciousness of pardon in our hearts. Nor did Christ receive the "seal" of any covenant; for "him God the Father," not John the Baptist, "sealed." No more is it a seal of the covenant of grace to us, for the Holy Spirit distinctly teaches that we are "sealed by the Holy Spirit'' the moment we believe, and never before. "In whom, after that ye believed, ye were sealed by the Holy Spirit," etc. -- Eph. i: 13.

Nor was Christ baptized to induct him into his priestly office, as so many falsely teach; for-I, John had no authority to make a high priest; 2, No one could induct a high priest into office at the Jordan, and by immersing him; 3, Christ came not of the tribe to which belonged the priesthood; nor, 4, Was Christ made a priest by any law of carnal commandment, as Jewish high priests were made? Will those who have believed this stop and think, for one moment, what the fearful conclusion must he? No one could have been saved until Christ was truly made a High Priest—" inducted into his office;" and therefore this theory inevitably consigns the whole human family to helpless and hopeless perdition, up to the very hour John baptized Christ, leaving the world for' four thousand years without a Savior! The covenant of grace had no retrospective force or efficacy—only prospective.

Let us clearly understand for what purpose Christ was baptized in the river of Jordan. He came to earth to work out a perfect righteousness for his people--to satisfy the infinite claims of divine justice for all who would that grace receive. It Was this "all-righteousness" he declared he wished to fulfill in his baptism. This he evidently could not literally accomplish by being baptized, else he might have ascended from the water in a chariot of glory to the right hand of the Father. But if he did fulfill the "all-righteousness" he came to earth to accomplish, he must have done it figuratively. We know that it was in a figure he fulfilled it; for the Holy Spirit expressly declares that the rite of baptism is only a figure—"The like figure where-unto baptism doth now also save us;" If baptism is only a figure, whatever it is said to do, or we are said to do in or by it, must be done figuratively. If it saves us, it saves us figuratively. If it washes away our sins, it does it figilraiively, i. c., declaratively. If we are by it baptized into Christ, it is done figuratively, as the Jews were into Moses. If we are baptized into his death, we only figure symbolize it. So if Christ did in his baptism, fulfill all righteousness, he must, he could only have prefigured the acts which constitutes the all-righteousness. He set before their eyes, in a vivid figure, the three great acts by which he did fulfill the "all-righteousness" the law required in order that those for whom he appeared might be set free from the divine law, and their redemption eternally secured.

1. The law required the death of the transgressor, and Christ must therefore sink under the stroke of death for them. The penalty of sin, threatened to the first Adam, was borne, by the second, "the Lord from heaven," not by his mere humanity, in which he was made manifest to us. That penalty was death, not mere physical, but spiritual, death, i e., separation from God, the withdrawing of God from the soul. Physical death and all our sorrows are but the inseparable consequence Of God's favor withdrawn from It is sin that separates between us and God. "But your Iniquities have Separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." -- Isa. lix: 2.

It was upon our divine Redeemer, who alone was able to bear them, that all our sins were laid, and thus "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor v: 21). It was for this cause the Father hid his face from his Divine Son. It was the second Adam-the Lord from heaven, not the mere fleshly tabernacle in which his divinity was veiled--that suffered this infinite penalty. It none other than the Second Person in Godhead, who, before the foundations of the earth were laid, covenanted with his Divine Fellows to Satisfy by suffering all the demands of the divine government, to be a Mediator, that he might be the Redeemer of his people. It was therefore the Fellow, a coequal Person in the Godhead, whom the Father commanded the sword of justice to smite. It was that fiery two-edged sword, bathed in the wrath of an incensed God, due to our sins, and the averted face of his Father, which extorted that fearful cry: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt xxvii: 46), a cry that struck the banners of heaven at half-mast, rent the solid rocks of Calvary ; a cry whose echo still reverberates over a lost world to-day, arresting the attention, and drawing, by its wondrous power, all men unto the Cross. It was he who made the worlds who yielded up his spirit and sank in death to save us from death.

"He suffered!" Was it, Lord, indeed for me,
The Just One for the unjust, Thou didst bear
The weight of sorrow that I hardly dare
To gaze upon, in dark Gethsemane?
"He suffered!" Thou, my near and gracious Friend,
And yet my Lord, my God! Thou didst not shrink,
For me that full and fearful cup to drink,
Because Thou lovedst even to the end!
"He suffered!" Savior, was Thy love so vast,
That mysteries of unknown agony,
Even unto death, its only gauge could be,
Unmeasured as the fiery depths it passed?
Lord, by Thy sufferings on Calvary,
Seal Thou my quivering love forever unto Thee!
2. But Christ had more than to suffer the infinite penalty of violated law, and sink in death under its direful curse; more than merely to make satisfaction for sin, in order to redeem us. The fiery sting of Death had to be extracted, the dread power of the grave had to be vanquished, and a way prepared for the release of its captives from its darkness and hopelessness. It must not be lost sight of that Christ, in the Covenant of Redemption, engaged to redeem our bodies from the power of the grave, as well as our souls from endless death. For four thousand years Death, seated upon his throne of human skulls, had reigned undisputed monarch over Adam's whole race--king of terrors, and the terror of kings. Into his subterranean empire of eternal silence, into which no ray of light or hope had ever dawned, he had dragged down the generations of the living, and ground them into dust at his feet.

This dread tyrant must be vanquished, his sting extracted, his scepter broken, and the key of his impregnable citadel taken forever from him. Christ, our Almighty Redeemer, could do this. "He was buried"--he went down into the dark dominions of death, and the bolts of its ponderous doors were turned upon him to cut off his retreat. Did not angels tremble while hell triumphed at this fearful step, for the key of that door was in the hands of Death! But Christ entered to conquer; and he who was the ''Mighty One'' was able to deliver his people from the power of the grave, and open up to them a way of life and salvation. He broke the iron scepter of Death; he spoiled the principalities and powers of darkness, and made a show of them openly; he robbed Death of his sting, and tore from his girdle the keys of Hades and the grave; he burst the bars of death, and illumed the dark valley and shadow of death with the light of heaven itself, and filled it with the songs of angels who wait there "to minister unto those who are heirs of salvation." "Glory to God in the highest!" for what Christ has done for his saints. I have been made to understand and realize that the victory Christ obtained in the grave gives victory to his saints over Death. In I867, I stood by the bedside of a dying mother. The thought of witnessing her death had always filled me with dread and pain; the thought of seeing her struggle and writhe in the grasp of the fearful, merciless monster alone, and I could not succor her! But how was it on that midnight hour on earth, that heaven's noontide of glory broke upon the vision of that departing spirit; and the valley of the shadow of death grew brighter and brighter as I followed her up until she was lost to my sight in the very splendors of the tomb? What could I say but "Blessed Jesus, Savior of my mother, I thank thee for this hour, that thou hast given me to see and realize that thou hast given her the victory over death." It was but one week after that, the mother of my children, a fearful, timid woman, struck down by the pestilence, was called to pass into the dreaded valley; and when she bade me farewell, in answer to my earnest inquiry, if there was a fear, a doubt, a cloud, she answered: "No, all is bright--so bright; I am so happy." And when she closed her eyes--gently as ever babe sank to its slumbers-there was the light, not of earth, on that brow, and a smile upon those lips left by the angels. It is meet for his wearied children to rest--to sleep a little while--though it be in the grave, it is upon a bed made soft by a Savior's loving hands, and is overarched by the rainbow of his promise. It is only for a little season--while he goes to prepare a place for them; and when he comes again—gentle as a mother wakes her child from its restful sleep, will he wake up all his sleeping saints to behold the glories of the resurrection morning! Who, save the Child of God, can sing, in view of death and the grave--

"I would not live always; no! welcome the tomb;
Since Jesus hath lain there, I dread not its gloom;
There sweet be my rest till he bids me arise,
To hail him in triumph descending the skies."
3. He must needs rise from the dead. "He rose," says the apostle, "for our justification." He had engaged, in everlasting covenant, to rescue his people from the power of the grave. While the claims of the divine law were unsatisfied, no power in heaven could, in equity, open that prison-house, or allow a prisoner to go free. Christ's release was a proof that he had discharged all claims against oil believers. His resurrection from the dead was therefore an earnest of our own. As certainly as he rose, his people are free from the dominion of law, the power of the grave, and they will rise from the dead also. Thus, then, did he, by his baptism, prefigure these three acts, which Paul says constitute the gospel by which we are saved, and thus in figure did he "fulfill all righteousness."

"Thus did the glorious Prince of Life
All righteousness fulfill
In emblem of that fearful strife,
When by his Father's will,
He sank beneath death's darker flood,
And angels saw him bathed in blood."
I can not have mistaken His meaning, for He himself called his crucifixion a baptism -- "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?" -- Luke xii: 50.

Paul also declares that three acts constitute the whole gospel by which we are saved, if we rightly apprehend and believe:

1. "How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures;
2. That he was buried;
3. That he rose again the third day." -- I Cor. xv: 1-5.

Christ, then, in a lively figure, set before the eyes of all his sacrificial work--the ground of our salvation. He also declared to the Galatians that Christian baptism was a figure--picture-of the crucifixion of Christ; that in witnessing baptism they had, in a figure, seen Christ crucified. "O foolish Galatians! Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose EYES Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth [literally, represented] crucified among you?" -- Gal. iii: 1.

The reader will notice that the crucifixion had been represented to their eyes, not to their ears, and, therefore, it must have been by some figure, and not by words. In their own and in every baptism they had witnessed, the crucifixion of Christ had been evidently set forth before their eyes in a figure.

Christ, our great Exemplar, did, by his own baptism, set before us the acts which constituted the "all righteousness" he came to fulfill for us, and this "all righteousness" he positively commands us to fulfill in the same way in our baptism--to be immersed into the faith of what we /rave realized Christ did for us, and on which we solely rest for our salvation--the "all righteousness" of Christ. We must be able to say, when we come to baptism: "I know, whom I have believed," and to feel that Christ is indeed my righteousness; and that--

"My hope in built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.''
I ask you, my Christian brother or sister, who have never represented in your baptism the death, burial and resurrection of your Redeemer, is it too much for Christ to require of those whom he died to save, to represent the great acts of his redemptive work, and profess their own personal faith in, and conscious salvation by them as they enter his church on earth? The soul redeemed by his precious blood will rejoice to do it, despite the sneers of an ungodly world. It sees in it a sublimity and a grandeur beyond a mere mortal's comprehension! It glories in the privilege of representing before the eyes of the world the "all righteousness" of its Savior; of setting forth the crucifixion, and thus preaching the gospel of Christ to all beholders.

This, be assured, is the baptism into which Christ commanded his church to baptize, and by the institution of this he forbade us to observe or to recognize any other.

CONCLUSIONS FROM THESE POSITIONS.
If Christian baptism was designed to commemorate the "all righteousness" of Christ, and in which we are to profess before the world our personal faith and conscious participation in it, then--

1) Baptism is in no sense a "sacrament," or means of securing the grace of remission of sins or regeneration of heart.

a) We can see, therefore, to baptize the unregenerate, to obtain for them spiritual regeneration and salvation, is to pervert the gospel to the subversion of men's souls.

b) We can see how unscriptural and absurd it is to give baptism to infants. Baptism is a "profession" of a faith in Christ already possessed--of a salvation already enjoyed. Well says Dr. Lange, the pedobaptist theologian: "Infant baptism is utterly opposed to the fundamental principles of the New Testament."

2) We see that baptism can not be "the law of pardon," nor the act that unites the soul to Christ.

Faith, and faith alone, independent of all overt acts, unites to Christ, and secures our justification before God. "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. iii: 24). Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without deeds of law. To faith, as the medium of salvation, nothing can be added without destroying the whole scheme of salvation.

"Christ has become of none effect unto you, whosoever of you are (or seek to be) justified by law (the law of pardon or any other law), ye are fallen from grace." -- Gal. v: 4.

The "all righteousness" of Christ is the only efficient, and faith the only instrumental, cause of our salvation. Neither Baptism, nor any other rite or ordinance, is a means in order to this end. Rom. x.

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

3) Nor is it by baptism that we become the children of God.

"For we are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." -- Gal. iii: 26.

4) Nor is baptism the seal of the Covenant of Grace.

"In whom (Christ) also after that ye believed, ye were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise." -- Eph. 1:43.

5) We also see that baptism does nothing toward cleansing the soul from the guilt, or securing the remission, of sin.

The blood of Christ alone does this. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." -- I Jno. i: 7.

To say that something must be added to his blood, is to say that his blood alone is not sufficient, which is to profane it. While false religions direct the sinner to water for his cleansing, the Holy Spirit, by all the types, and the evangelists and apostles in all their writings, point us to the blood of Christ alone, by which we have peace, and by which our consciences are purified from dead works, and by which we have access unto God.

6) Nor are we anywhere in Gods Word taught that we come to this blood of Christ through water, but by faith alone.

"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past." -- Rom. iii: 25.

7) We learn the great central truth, that, in the plan of salvation, the blood of Christ must, in every case, be applied to the conscience before water is applied to the body.

It is Blood before Water.

All the types of the Old Testament, referring to remission of sin, teach this. All the teachings of Christ assert this. The teachings of the apostles establish this: "Having your hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith." -- Heb. x: 22.

The unbroken practice of the apostles confirm this as the divine order. This is the grand and distinguishing test of genuine Christianity. It teaches the sinner to come to the water through blood--to the church through Christ; and not through water to blood, or through the church to Christ.

This is the vital saving doctrine that distinguishes us as Baptists from all other denominations. We put blood, in every case, before water. All others put water before the blood. We do not teach that baptism is essential to salvation, but that salvation is essential to Baptism.

To those who have never been baptized into the faith of the gospel--have never professed a correct faith, or professed no faith--let me, in all affection and earnestness, beg and entreat you to seriously and prayerfully think on these things. Will you not, as you love your own souls, and as you hope you love Christ, carefully examine the New Testament, and learn for yourselves what Christ requires of you as the act and the profession of baptism? Do not fail to do it; do not refuse to do it, and still hope to be saved. Not because there is any saving merit in the act of baptism; not that it is "a sacrament of grace and salvation," for it is not; but because an aversion to know and do the will of Christ should be an all-convincing proof to you that your heart is not right in the sight of God. Can you hope to be saved while you openly contemn the authority of Christ, and reject the counsel of God against your own soul? Your neglect of Christian baptism will not, on its own account, condemn you; but it certainly will be indicative of the state of your heart. Your persistent disobedience is certainly evidence against you. Christ says: "If a man loves me, he will keep my commandments." Your inexcusable neglect and disobedience declare you not the friend of Christ. It may be that you are willing to wear the name, but unwilling to bear the cross of Christ. Can you then be his disciple? "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.'' Does not this cross of Christ try you, and find you wanting? Do fleshly ties and love of kindred prevent you? Christ has said: "If any one love father or mother, brother or sister, husband or wife, more than me, he is not worthy of me." Is it the reproach of the world and shame to be associated with the people of God because poor and moving in an humbler circle of society ? Christ has said: He that is ashamed of me and of my word--and it is equally true of his people--before men, of him will I be ashamed before my Father and the holy angels. Again: "Except a man deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me, he can not be my disciple."

"Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend
On whom my hopes of heaven depend!
No, when I blush, be this my shame,
That I no more revere his name."