_About the year 60._--In, or very near this time, it is recorded, even by several papistic writers, that there were such people and such a sect as were afterwards designated by the name, _The Poor of Lyons, Waldenses, Albigenses_, who were also called _Anabaptists_, or _Baptists_, on account of the like faith which they had in common; as shall be shown hereafter. Therefore the papists complain of their being considered of such high antiquity; for some say that they existed in the time of Sylvester, A. D. 315, and others assert, with more justness, too, in the time of the apostles. _Baptism, histor. pag. 615_, from a very old book. Also, _pag. 670 and pag. 682. from Flaccius_. Also, _D. Balthazar Lydius_ (though he misinterprets their doctrine) in the tract, “Where the church was before the year 1160,” printed at _Dort, A. 1624. pag. 2. col. 1. from Reynerius Priester_.
_About the year 68._--It is stated that in the time of Nero, two daughters of Valentinian, a Christian at Aquileia, who had been brought up by their father in the Christian faith and the fear of God, were instructed by the priest or teacher Hermagoras, and baptized at a running water. See _De gantsch klare en grondige bewijsinge van den Doop_, printed _A. D. [15] 81. letter Bv._
_About the year 70._--In or about the time of the death of the apostle Peter is placed the bishop or teacher Linus, of whom it is testified that he baptized, after preceding instruction, the son of Perpetua, a Christian woman. See the above. Also, _Kort verhael van den loop der werelt, by F. H. H._, printed at _Franeker, A. 1611. pag. 47._
_From the year 71 till the year 111._--It is stated that between these years there flourished Ignatius, who was the second bishop of Antioch after Peter, and, according to the chronicles, discharged the duties of his office in the time of the apostle John. Writing of baptism, he employs no other manner of speech, than which clearly implies that baptism must be accompanied with faith, love and patience.
In his letter to Polycarp, bishop at Smyrna, he writes among other things these words: Let none of you be found an apostate: “Let your baptism be your weapon, your faith your helmet, love a lance, patience a full armor.”
In a letter to the Tralienses he writes likewise: “It appears to me, that you do not live after the flesh, but after Jesus Christ, who died for our sakes; so that you, believing in his death, may, through baptism, be partakers of his resurrection.”
Again, in the letter to those at Philadelphia he writes thus: “Seeing, then, that there is one only ungenerated God and Father; and one only begotten Son, Word, and Man; one Comforter, the Spirit of Truth; and one faith, one baptism, and one church, which the apostles have founded with their sweat and labor, in the blood of Christ from one end of the earth to the other; therefore, you, as a peculiar people and holy generation, must also do all things with a unanimous heart in Christ.”
Who does not see here, that Ignatius by joining together in this order of sequence, preaching, faith, baptism, and the church, intends to say, that according to the ordinance of Christ, preaching has the first place, and, therefore, must precede; that after faith comes baptism, and that after baptism the one baptized is a member of the church? and that then the members of the church, as a peculiar people and holy generation, must do all things with unanimous hearts in Christ? For this is the import of the words of Ignatius. See, concerning the aforementioned letters of Ignatius, H. Montanus in _De nietigheyd van den Kinder-doop_, printed the second time, _pages 4 and 5_. Also, _Jac. du Bois_ (though he misinterprets these letters), _Tegen Montanus_, printed _Anno 1648. page 16–22_.