the Apostles, and as a Christian society, which has preserved pure the doctrines of the Gospel through all ages.' So Dr. Keller, in his recent work, which throws a flood of light upon the early history of the German Baptists, says, after describing their great numbers: 'It would be a great mistake if one should believe that all these remarks have reference only to the period of the Münster kingdom; much rather can it be proved that in the lands mentioned Baptist Churches existed for many decades and even centuries.' He also adds: The more I examine the documents of that time at my command, the more I am astonished at the extent of the diffusion of Anabaptist views, an extent of which no other investigator has had any knowledge. Even Zwingli, who died in 1531, said: "The institution of Anabaptism is no novelty, but for thirteen hundred years has caused great disturbance in the Church. Yet, in the main, these writers do not trace the line beyond the statement of the countries and cities where they existed, of which Keller, who is possibly the most learned investigator of the subject now living, gives a long list, but adds that a perfect list of Baptist Churches cannot be enumerated, for the reason that their existence was a profound secret.'

For the same reason it is difficult to trace the history of the Collegiants to their origin, but this, at least, is known, namely, that they were found in Holland as early as 1619, and can be traced down for about two hundred years, under the name of Collegiants, from their collegia, and Rheinsbergers, from the name of the village near Leyden, where they held their great assemblies. They are supposed to have received immersion from certain Baptists exiled from Poland. They laid out grounds and put up buildings at Rheinsberg, where they sunk a stone baptistry on their own premises and immersed their converts, the candidate kneeling in the water, his head being bowed forward and buried. Their Confession made the Bible their standard of faith and life, they required faith in Christ as the Son of God, before the reception of baptism and the Supper, they demanded a holy life, exercised the liberty of prophesying, defended the right of private judgment, and kept their piety active by prayer and conference meetings, when these were unknown elsewhere in Holland. They first organized into an Assembly, after the decree of the Synod of Dort, 1619, which removed two hundred Arminian pastors, for they were Arminian in doctrine, and were opposed to war and oaths. Their leaders were the brothers Van der Kodde, members of a devout family, which had suffered persecution for more than a hundred years, as Reformers. Their grandfather, William Jansoon, was a great Bible student, who kept the Scriptures hid for safety on his farm. His seven grandsons were good Latin scholars and one of them taught Hebrew in the high-school at Leyden. Prince Maurice said to D'Aubert, the French embassador, one day as they rode through the Collegiant lands: 'Our peasants can read Latin.' He then summoned these brothers from their work in the field, and, to the astonishment of the diplomat, talked with them in Latin and French.

They established an orphan asylum, for which the widow of the clerk of Rotterdam gave them 10,000 gulden; they frequently raised 60,000 gulden a year to take care of their own poor, and when the dykes burst, in 1740, they commenced a subscription for repairs which reached 60,000 gulden. They had meetings in eighteen different towns in 1740, but their meetings ceased at Rheinsberg in 1787. At the beginning of the present century Hefele still traced some remains of the

sect, but they divided into two parties, one of them running into Unitarian views. They built two places of worship at Rheinsberg, and continued the contest for thirty years; but at present the sect is about extinct, some of them being absorbed into the Mennonite and other bodies, from which originally they were entirely separate. Dr. Angus kindly forwards the above picture of baptism as administered in Rheinsberg by the Collegiants, and as representing the Mennonite baptism of those times.

6

The history of the Netherland Baptists is a most exhilarating and sad one. As a body, they have largely faded away in their original testimony. Perhaps they did the great work which called them into existence and kept them alive so long, namely, the defense of Denk's great principle, That the civil magistrates should not use force in matters of faith.' For this they suffered all that men can suffer. In the language of Froude: On them the laws of the country might take their natural course, and no voice was raised to speak for them. For them no European agitated, no courts were ordered into mourning, no royal hearts trembled with indignation. At their death the world looked on complacently, indifferently, or exultingly. For them history has no word of praise.' Menno Simon said that while their murderers were 'saluted by all around as doctors, masters, lords, we are compelled to hear ourselves called Anabaptists;' and so are treated as the pests of society. What misery and anxiety have I felt in the deadly perils of persecution for my poor sick wife and little children! While others lie on soft beds and cushions, we must often creep away into secret corners. While others engage in festivities to the music of fife and trumpet, we must look around whenever a dog barks, fearing the spies are on our track. Yet those who suffered with Jesus then

reign with him now.'

BAPTISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

FR

CHAPTER I.

IMMERSION IN ENGLAND.

ROM the introduction of Christianity into Britain, its baptism was immersion. Simpson says, in the preface to his 'Ancient Baptismal Fonts,' of which he names 353 in England: As immersion was practiced in this Church until the Reformation, and perhaps oc

casionally later, as will afterwards appear, all fonts were up to that period sufficiently large for the purpose.' Grose also says of the baptisteries in the churches, that: "The basins were very large. There was an anteroom where the ceremony of immersion was performed.' So Lingard, in his History of the Early English Church' tells us: When an adult solicited baptism, he was called upon to profess his faith in the true God, by the repetition of the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, and to declare his intention of leading a life of piety.

He then descended into the font, the priest depressed his head below the surface, saying, I baptize thee,' etc. The candidate was plunged into the water, the mysterious words were pronounced, and he emerged a member of the Church.' The same author says again, that when infant baptism had been introduced, "The priest himself descended into the water, which reached to his knees.

426

TESTIMONIES GIVEN BY BEDE.

Each child was successively delivered undressed into his hands, and he plunged it thrice into the water.' Gregory the Great is the authority for the statement that in 597 Austin and his missionaries baptized ten thousand in one day, to which Gocelin, Bede and others add that this baptism was in the river Swale. This river is in Kent, running between the Isle of Sheppy and the main land, and is navigable for ships of 200 tons burden. Green speaks of this scene, saying: 'The Kentish men crowded to baptism in the river Swale.' And Gocelin calls it 'the river of holy baptism,' adding: All entered the dangerous depth of the river, two and two together, as if it had been a solid plain; and in the true faith, confessing the exalted Trinity, they were baptized one by the other in turns, the apostolic leader blessing the water. . . . So great a progeny for heaven born out of a deep whirlpool! '4 After the Venerable Bede has given an account of a large wooden baptistery hastily built at York, A. D. 627, for the baptism of Edwin, king of Northumberland, he describes the baptism of Paulinus in the Yorkshire river 'Swale, which flows past the village of Cateract (Carric); for as yet oratories or baptisteries, in the very beginning of the infant Church there, could not be built.' Alcuin, when speaking of the immersion of the king and his nobles in the sacred fountain,' says that York remained illustrious: 'Because in that sacred place King Edwin was washed in the water.' Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 669, enjoined triple immersion. Canon Ladaius said: 'If any bishop or presbyter does not perform the one initiation with three immersions, but with giving one immersion only, into the death of the Lord, let him be deposed.' Brown's History of York Minster' marks the position of the wooden baptistery, 'inclosing a spring, still remaining, which, according to Dr. Giles, was discovered while making repairs of the present cathedral.' In gathering up these and other cases, Bede, who died A. D. 735, says: For he truly who is baptized is seen to descend into the fountain, he is seen to be dipped in the waters, he is seen to ascend from the waters.' The Council of Calichyth (Chelsea), held under Kenwolf, king of the Mercians, in 816, passed this canon: 'Let the presbyters know when they administer sacred baptism, not to pour holy water upon the heads of the infants, but always to immerse them in the laver, after the example given by the Son of God himself to every believer, when he was three times immersed in the waters of Jordan.' In the following century the baptism of Ethelred took place on this wise, according to William of Malmesbury: 'When the little boy was immersed in the font of baptism, the bishops standing around, the sacrament was marred by a sad accident.' Such immersion is in keeping with the Sarum Use' (Liturgy), which existed from 1087, and of which Dr. Wall remarks, that it did all along

THE VENERABLE BEDE.