The history of the Puritans Author:Daniel Neal Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SUPPLEMENT, CONTAINING SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS AND QUAKERS. CHAPTER I. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE BAPTISTS, OR ANTIPjEDOBAP- TISTS, FROM THE ... more »DAYS OF WICKLIFFE TO THE REIGN OF JAMES I. A. D, 1370—1600. Although the Baptist profession does not assume a visible appearance in England, by the formation of churches in a state of separation from their brethren of the Paedo- baptist persuasion, earlier than the reign of James I.; it is beyond all reasonable doubt that individuals were to be found, maintaining those principles in every subsequent age, from the days of Wickliffe, that morning star of the Reformation. It is perhaps impossible for us, after a lapse of four or five centuries, to decide the question, whether the great English reformer, did or did not oppose the baptism of infants. It is a fact, however, which admits of no dispute, that he maintained and propagated those principles, which, when carried out into their legitimate consequences, are wholly subversive of the practice in question. And if Wickliffe himself did not pursue the consequence of his own doctrines so far, yet many of his followers did, and were made Baptists by it. One of the maxims held by this reformer was, " that wise men leave that as impertinent, which is not plainly expressed in Scripture:" in other words, that nothing should be practised in the church of God, as a branch ofworship, which is neither expressly commanded nor plainly exemplified in the New Testament. It is upon this principle that the Baptists make their stand. They examine the sacred writings, and there find, that in their Lord's commission, baptism stands connected with the preaching of the everlasting gospel; that the apostles, who well understood their Master's will, administered it to none but those who pr...« less