An Outline of Baptist History

II. -12- carnal mind. The two parties, "high" who favored discipline far beyond the Scriptures and the, ''low" favored a more rational means of Christian liberty. The "high" people, of course, refused the use of buttons, and the "low" people accepted this and rejected the necessity of wearing hooks and eyes. Menno Simons followers appeared in England in the 16th century. They fled there to escape persecution but found the same thing in England. Henry VIII of England gave testimony of their beliefs. He charged them with heresy. He said they taught that "infants ought not to be baptized, it is not lawful for a Christian man to bear office or rule in the commonwealth, every manner of death with the time and hour thereof is so certainly prescribed, ap- pointed and determined to every man by God that neither any prince by his sword can alter it or any man by his willfuliness prevent or change it." In 1589, Dr. Some charged the Anabaptists with holding the following deadly er- rers: ''That the ministers of the Gospel ought te be maintained by the voluntary contributions of the people, that the civil power has no right to make an imposed ecclesiastical law, that the people ought to have the right of choesing their own ministers, that the high commiccion court was an anti-Christian usurpation, and that those who are qualified to preach ought not te be hindered by the civil power." (3) Similarity to the Present Day Baptists and Anabaptists. The Mennonites believed in the competency of the soul for God; they attested that the church should have a spiritual and regenerated membership; they believed in complete separation of church and state; and most of them baptized by immersion all whom they received. The Evangelizing Church. 1. The English Baptists. With the first decade of the 17th century we are on solid ground in Baptist history. From 1641 at the latest, Baptist doctrines and practices have been the same in all essential features that they are today. (1) First English Baptist church composed of Englishmen. This church was organ- ized in Holland. Rev. John Smyth, born sometime between 1550 and 1555 after graduation from Cambridge, distinguished himself as an opponent to the separa- tists, but he soen adopted their views, and became pastor of an independent church. To escape persecution, Smyth fled to Holland where he became acquainted with the theology of Arminius, and it is reasonable to believe that he learned the Mennonite theery of the nature of the church. There he rejected infant baptism and accepted the position that the church was for the regenerate only. Smyth and Thomas Helways with 36 others, founded in 1608 the first Baptist church composed of Englishman, that is known to have existed. Smyth was a "Se-Baptist'' which means he baptised himself. ''He held that the real apestolic succession is a succession not of outward ordinances and visible organizations but of true faith and practice.'' Soon after, this group issued a Confession of Faith which was Arminian in theology. Later Smyth left the Anabaptist views and joined the Mennonites. Smyth died in 1612. Before this his church had dis-- appeared in Holland. The important thing to remember about this group is that this was the first church ever organized cemposed of Englishmen.