§ 105. The Regular or Calvinistic Baptists.

§ 105. The Regular or Calvinistic Baptists.

Literature.

Confessions of Faith and other Public Documents illustrative of the History of the Baptist Churches of England in the Seventeenth Century. Edited for the Hanserd Knollys Society by Edward Bean Underhill. London (Haddon Brothers & Co.), 1854. Contains reprints of seven Baptist Confessions from 1611 to 1688, the Baptist Catechism of Collins, and several letters and other documents from the early history of Baptists in England.

Thos. Crosby: The History of the English Baptists, from the Reformation to the Beginning of the Reign of King George I. London, 1740. 4 vols. Contains important documents, but also many inaccuracies.

Joseph Ivimey: History of the English Baptists, including an Investigation of the History of Baptism in England. London, 1811-23. In 3 vols. 8vo.

Isaac Backus (d. 1806): History of New England, with especial Reference to the Baptists. In 3 vols. A new edition, by David Weston, was published by the Backus Historical Society, Newton Centre, Mass. 1871.

David Benedict (Pastor of the Baptist Church in Pawtucket, R. I.): A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and other Parts of the World. Boston, 1813, in 2 vols.; new edition, New York, 1848, in 1 vol. (970 pp.). A chaos of facts.

Francis Wayland: Notes on the Principles and Practices of the Baptist Churches. New York (Sheldon, Blakeman, & Co.), 1857.

Sewall S. Cutting: Historical Vindications; . . . with Appendices containing Historical Notes and Confessions of Faith. Boston (Gould & Lincoln), 1859.

J. M. Cramp: Baptist History, from the Foundation of the Christian Church to the Close of the Eighteenth Century. Philadelphia (American Baptist Publication Society), 1868. For popular use.

J. Jackson Goadby: Bye-Paths in Baptist History: A Collection of Interesting, Instructive, and Curious Information, not generally known, concerning the Baptist Denomination. London, 1874 (pp. 375). Chap. VI. treats of Baptist Confessions of Faith.

The Baptists and the National Centennial: A Record of Christian Work, 1776-1876. Edited by Lemuel Moss, D.D. Philadelphia (Baptist Publication Society), 1876. Contains a chapter on 'Doctrinal History and Position,' by Dr. Pepper, pp. 51 sqq.

William R. Williams: Lectures on Baptist History. Philadelphia, 1877.

The English and American Baptists have inherited some of the principles without the eccentricities and excesses of the Continental Anabaptists and Mennonites. [1620] They are radical but not revolutionary in politics and religion, and as sober, orderly, peaceful, zealous, and devoted as any other class of Christians. They rose simultaneously in England and America during the Puritan conflict, and have become, next to the Methodists, the strongest denomination in the United States.

The great body of Baptists are called Regular or Particular or Calvinistic Baptists, in distinction from the smaller body of General or Arminian or Free-Will Baptists. They are Calvinists in doctrine and Independents in Church polity, but differ from both in their views on the subjects and mode of baptism. They teach that believers only ought to be baptized, that is, dipped or immersed, on a voluntary confession of their faith. They reject infant baptism as an unscriptural innovation and profanation of the sacrament, since an infant can not hear the gospel, nor repent and make a profession of faith. They believe, however, in the salvation of all children dying before the age of responsibility. Baptism in their system has no regenerative and saving efficacy: it is simply an outward sign of grace already bestowed, a public profession of faith in Christ to the world, and an entrance into the privileges and duties of church membership. [1621] They also opposed from the start national church establishments, and the union of Church and State, which one of their greatest writers (Robert Hall) calls 'little more than a compact between the priest and the magistrate to betray the liberties of mankind, both civil and religious.' They advocate voluntaryism, and make the doctrine of religions freedom, as an inherent and universal right of man, a part of their creed.