RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Baptists
adopted open communion in 1830. A General Association was formed in 1870 to embrace all the churches of the connection. Unlike most of the smaller Baptist bodies, this had increased from 8,000 members in 1870 to 21,362 in 1890. More recent statistics are not available. Their confession of faith indicates closer agreement with Regular Baptists in doctrine and in practise than does that of the Free- Will Baptists. They have about 400 churches in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Nebraska.
(/) A few churches in Indiana have retained the name Separate Baptists. They are in general agreement with Free- Will Baptists. They seem to be confined to Indiana, where they have an association with 24 churches and about 1,600 members.
(g) In the union of Regular and Separate Baptists in Kentucky in 1801 a doctrinal basis not strictly Calvinistic was adopted. About 200 churches in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, and Arkansas, with a membership of over 13,000, still call themselves United Baptists and hold aloof from the great Baptist body. They are moderately Calvinistic, practise restricted communion, and insist upon foot-washing as an ordinance to be practised by all baptized believers. They have several associations.
(h) Mention has already been made of the bitter opposition that arose in many Baptist communities to the missionary and educational enterprises that centered in the Triennial Convention (1814 onward). The Chemung Association (N. Y. and Penn.) seems to have been the first (1835) to disfellowship other associations that had departed from the simplicity of the doctrine and practise of the gospel by " uniting themselves with the world and what are falsely called benevolent societies founded upon a monied basis." This example was speedily followed by many other associations, especially in the South and Southwest. Besides holding to extreme necessitarian (supralapsarian) doctrine in accordance with which human agency in the conversion of men is absolutely ineffective and the attempt to employ it impertinent, they practise foot-washing as an ordinance and utterly repudiate missionary, Bible, tract, Sunday-school, and temperance societies, State conventions, theological schools, and similar organizations. The United States census of 1890 brought to light 121,- 347 Baptist communicants of this type, with churches in twenty-eight States and the District of Columbia. They are most numerous in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia, but are found all the way from Maine to Texas and from Nebraska to Florida. They call themselves Primitive Baptists; they are commonly called " Hardshells " and Anti-Mission Baptists by their opponents.
(i) The followers of Daniel Parker, the most virulent opponent of the organized work of the denomination (b. in Georgia, ordained in Tennessee in 1806, active in Illinois 1817-36, and in Texas after 1836), are known as the Old Two-Seed-in-the- Spirit Predestinarian Baptists. They still persist in twenty-four States and had in 1890 nearly 500 churches with nearly 13,000 members. They
derive their name from the peculiar doctrine of Parker set forth in certain pamphlets (1826-29) on the doctrine of Two Seeds. This was a fantastic dualistic account of the introduction and perpetuation of evil in mankind, reminding of Gnostic speculations. God created Adam and Eve and infused into them particles of himself so that they were wholly good. The devil corrupted them by infusing particles of himself. It was predetermined by God that Eve should bring forth a certain number of good offspring, the seed of God, and that her daughters should do likewise. The evil essence infused by the serpent led to an additional brood of offspring, the seed of Satan or the serpent. For the former the Atonement was absolute, they will all be saved. The Atonement did not apply to the seed of the serpent, who are hopelessly lost. The doctrine of Parker was absolutely fatalistic and was in the worst sense antinomian. His followers go beyond the other Primitive Baptists in their uncompromising hostility to " human institutions."
(k) The Baptist Church of Christ came into separate existence by way of reaction against the antinomian hyper-Calvinism of the churches led by Daniel Parker. They teach general redemption along with perseverance of the saints. Like most of the minor Baptist parties they practise footwashing as an ordinance. This, more than anything else, prevents their union with the great Baptist body; but, like the Primitive Baptists, they seem to object to organized denominational missionary and educational work. The chief strength of the body is in Tennessee, but congregations are found in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas. In 1890 the party had 152 churches with a total membership of 8,254.
The Dunkers (q.v.) have much in common with Primitive Baptists, and, with the Church of God founded in Pennsylvania in 1830 by John Winebrenner (see Church of God, 1), are more worthy to be classed with Baptists than some of the above parties. The River Brethren (q.v.) and the Mennonite body known as the Bruder-Gemeinde (see Mennonites) have much in common with Baptists. The Disciples of Christ (q.v.), originally an offshoot from the Baptists, agree with the latter in insisting upon immersion as the only valid baptism and in their recognition of the sole authority of the Scriptures in matters of faith and practise. They differ from Baptists in a number of important matters, but there is more in common between progressive Disciples and the great Baptist body than there is between the latter and several of the minor parties that bear the Baptist name. The body who call themselves " Christians," frequently known as the Christian Connection (see Christians) also regard immersion of believers as the only true baptism. They practise open communion and admit to membership those who do not agree with them respecting immersion. In England they would pass for satisfactory Baptists.
III. Baptists in the British Possessions. — 1. The Dominion of Canada: The Maritime Provinces were the first to receive Baptist influence. In 1752 a Dutch Baptist named Andres is said to have
Baptists