ed Luther probably nexpected Dot Luthe e Moshea 3, Part 127, speak This sa in severa ention a that the established upon earth, was an assembly were usually con of true and real saints, and ought From this testimony of Dr. Mosheim 1. That the Mennonites were baptists, or anabaptists; for these different names he uses to express one and the same thing. 2. That the Petrobrusians were baptists; for the baptists assert, and Mosheim allows it, that they were their progenitors in principle and practice. Besides, in his history of the twelfth century, part 2, chap. v. sect. 7, he expressly tells us that one of their tenets was, that no persons whatsoever were to be baptized before they were come to the full use of their reason. 3. That the Waldenses, Wickliffites, and Hussites were baptists; for, as Mosheim says, they all held to the been witnesses of t of darkness and un How differently f consider them in o 5. That before and Calvin there almost all the co particularly in F Switzerland, and persons who held and discipline with day, and were, of consequence, of th tion. IV. We have baptists up to th We have also fou scattered over alm of Europe, and ages of popery, t truth, or have been sidered. Besides, the Waldenses wer practice, baptists. to what origin we denses. Dr. Maclaine Mosheim's church original Latin, give 118, 119, under n history of the Wald "We are, may ve contrary (i. e. fro had just said of the their name from P Beza and other wr seems evident, fro that Valdus derived true Valdenses of Piedmont, which in their re called Vaux. Hence eir true name; hence Peter hers call him, John), of called in Latin Valdus, had adopted their doctrine; the term Valdenses and used by those who write or Latin, in the place of The bloody inquisitor, acco, who exerted such a for the destruction of the lived but about eighty Valdus of Lyons, and must supposed to know whether as the real founder of the or Leonists; and yet it is that he speaks of the a sect that had flourished hundred years, nay, menrs of note who make their o back to the apostolic age. ount given of Sacco's book it Gretser in the Biblio-um. I know not upon iple Dr. Mosheim mainne inhabitants of the valleys at are to be carefully disfrom the Waldenses; and aded that whoever will be ns to read attentively the and 27th chapters of the of Leger's Histoire des udoises, will find this distirely groundless. When ask us where our religion Luther, we generally answer le; and we answer well. ify their taste for tradition authority, we may add to -and in the valleys of wings too caistence of the papusto, a religious sect, up to the fifth centu 2. That this same Reinerus Sac mentions authors of note, who ma the antiquity of the Waldensean ba tists go back to the apostolic age. 3. That the baptists are the mo ancient of all the religious sects wh have set themselves to oppose th ghostly powers of the romanists. 4. That if there be any body christians who have existed during th reign of antichrist, or of the man sin, the baptists have been this livin church of Jesus Christ. 5. The consequence of the whol is this: The baptists have no origi short of the apostles. They arose in the days of John the Baptist, and in creased largely in the days of our blessed Saviour and in the days of his apostles, and have existed, under the severest oppressions, with intervals o prosperity, ever since. But as to the pædobaptists, their origin is at once traced to about the middle of the second century, when the mystery of iniquity not only began to work, but, by its fermentation, had produced this error of fruitful evils, namely, that baptism was essential to salvation; yes, that it was regeneration. Hence arose the necessity of baptizing children. Now comes forward Irenæus, and informs that the church had a tradition from the apostles to give baptism to infants. We are told in the appendix to Mosheim's Church History, that one of the remarkable things which took place in the second century was the bap * In President Edwards's History of Redemption, p. 267. mystery which was then working. V. The following is the testimony which president Edwards bears in favour of the Waldenses and other faithful ones, who were scattered through all parts of Europe in the dark ages of popery. "In every age of this dark time there appeared particular persons in all parts of christendom, who bore a testimony against the corruptions and tyranny of the church of Rome. There is no one age of anti-christ, even in the darkest time of all, but ecclesiastical historians mention a great many by name, who manifested an abhorence of the pope and his idolatrous worship. God was pleased to maintain an uninterrupted succession of witnesses through the whole time in Germany, France, Britain, and other countries, as historians demonstrate and mention them by name, and give an account of the testimony which they held. Many of them were private persons, and many of them ministers, and some magistrates and persons of great distinction. And there were numbers in every age who were persecuted and put to death for this testimony. Besides these particular persons, dispersed here and there, there was a certain people, called the Waldenses, who lived separate from all the rest of the world, who kept themselves pure, and constantly bore a testimony against the church of Rome through all this dark time. The place where they dwelt was the Vaudois, or the five valleys of Piedmont, a very moun the ancient party never submitted t Rome. This plac mountainous count the place especially chap. of Revelation place prepared of G that they should fee the reign of antich Some of the pop selves own that that mitted to the churd of the popish writer Waldenses, says, Waldenses is the ol world. It is suppos first betook themse secret place among hide themselves fro the heathen persecu before Constantine thus the woman fle ness from the fac Revelations xii. 6, And to the woma wings of a great eas fly into the wildern where she is nouris times and half a tin the serpent. And settled there their I there from age to as being, as it were, b well as by God's gr the rest of the worl the overflowing cor It is hoped that carefully and cand is testified to us by men,-Dr. Moshei and president Ed vaidenses, with other wit the truth, scattered over the dark ages of popery, ntially the same with the later times, or that they all we call baptists. [aclaine testifies that the = flourished as early as the ry; yes, he informs us that ors of note carry their anto the apostolic age. nt Edwards informs us that denses were the main body urch in the dark ages, and together with their scattered the pure church of Jesus ing the reign of antichrist, tain consequence, were the of the pure church from the arist and his apostles. - consequence of all this is, ptists have been the uninchurch of our Lord from the ay to our's. ndeed, exclaim, What have lieving, what have I been respect to the baptists all I know, and I confess, story of the church assures e denomination of christians I have belonged, and to O still visibly belong, came e church of Rome, and was From the Mother of Harlots; ot greatly to be wondered er filth should not yet be y. At the same time, the ry assures me that the bapr have submitted to her s and filthy abominations. short history of the baptists continued accomplishment Christ's promissory predic romanists, that ne could never s due. It is true satan hath join many of his legions to it, as he many false brethren to the disciples the days of the apostles. But he ha never, no, not for an hour, prevai upon this ancient and primitive chu to give up the doctrines of grace, the administration of the ordinances Christ delivered them to his people That which she first received s still holds fast, and will. In all t history of the church we read of other body of professing christia after which satan hath cast such continual flood of waters; but hither the earth hath helped the woman, an the flood of persecution hath not pre vailed. Neither shall it ever prevai [The above sketch we found in the firs number of the first volume of the Bap tist Magazine, which appeared in Januar 1809. Up to about that period th Evangelical Magazine had been the orga of the various evangelical denomination in England, and of the evangelical party in the Establishment. Twenty year before this Dr. Rippon had published his Baptist Annual Register, and twelve years before Dan Taylor had published his General Baptist Magazine. These, however, did not acquire a regular and permanent circulation; and the baptist body had not a monthly organ to utter its sentiments until this number appeared. No sooner, however, did our fathers resolve to issue a publication of their own, than they put forth this historical sketch-a thing they would not have been permitted to do in the pages of the Evangelical. We might demur to some of the statements and remarks of this writer, but we give the whole as we found it. At all events it forms an expression of the views of our fathers on the history of a people of whom the religious world knew but little, and perhaps desired to know less.] are fair, and naturally springing out of the line of thought we have pursued. The reply is this: That whilst, in the case of any creature, however holy and exalted, death brought about by self-purpose would be a crime, in the case of Christ it is not so, because he was the proprietor of his own existHe was the only being that ence. say, ever walked this earth who could "I am my own: this body is minethis soul is mine-this nature, with all its wondrous elements, susceptibilities, and powers, absolutely belongs to me." Jesus, in effect, did say, "My humanity is mine; I can do with it whatever I please; and I offer it, pure and holy, on the altar of eternal justice, as an oblation for the race whose nature it is." Oh! it is this fact that separates his death immeasurably from that of any other being; that gives to it a moral energy to work out the reformation of mankind- -a sacrificial virtue to atone for the sins of the world. IF Christ is the "I and the living," then accidental in huma presides over all the He directs our steps ordered by him. V to us are purposes to changes are the de immutable laws. we talk of "accide "premature graves; the abridgment and life: but, in real tru has no meaning; it not truths. The language, moreover, implies that he rose, as well as died, by his own personal purpose. If he died from his own will, then he rose from the force of the same will; for it is said, ' "For to this end he both died, and revived." It is not said that he was revived, but that he revived. This is wonderful. There does not seem anything incongruous in the supposition of a living being dying by his own determination, but there does appear something amounting to absurdity in the notion of a dead being Since of death it never occ his appointment. I mortality. No grav his hand. "Man's mined, and the num |