could as well say because one Baptist church in America became corrupt in faith, therefore they all had. The few individuals who were drawn into infant baptism and the like errors, by Luther and Calvin, are but slight exceptions.

Dr. MOSHIEM says, "The sect in England which reject the custom of baptizing infants, are not distinguished by the title of Anabaptists, but by that of Baptists. It is, however, probable, that they derived their origin from the German and Dutch Mennonites.- From their confession of faith, which was published in A. D. 1643, it appears plain that their religious sentiments were the same then that they are at this day.———————The true origin of that sect which acquired the denomination of Anabaptists, by administering anew the rite of baptism to those who came over to their communion; and derived that of Mennonites from the famous man to whom they owe the greatest part of their present felicity, is hid in the remote depths of antiquity, and is of consequence difficult to be ascertained.- -The modern Mennon

ites not only consider themselves as the descendants of the Waldenses, who were so grievously oppressed and persecuted by the despotic heads of the Romish church, but pretend, moreover, to be the purest offspring of those respectable sufferers.

-The

Mennonites are not entirely mistaken when they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrusians, and other ancieut sects, who are usually considered as witnesses of the truth in times of universal darkness and superstition. Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay concealed in almost all the countries of Europe, particularly in Bohemia, Morovia, Switzerland and Germany, many persons who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrines, which the Waldenses, and Wickliffites, and Hussites had maintained, some in more disguised, and others in

more open and public manner, viz: That the kingdom of Christ, or the visible church which he had established upon earth, was an assembly of true and real saints, and ought therefore to be inaccessible to the wicked and unrighteous, and also exempt from all those institutions which human prudence suggests to oppose the progress of iniquity, or correct or reform transgressors.The religious opinions which still distinguish the Mennonites from all other Christian communities, flow directly from the ancient doctrine of the Anabaptists concerning the nature of the church. It is in consequence of this doctrine that they admit none to the sacrament of baptism, but persons that have come to the full use of their reason, because infants are incapable of binding themselves by a solemn vow to a holy life, and it is altogether uncertain whether or no in mature years they will be saints or sinners.-- -Before the rise

of Luther and Calvin, there lay concealed in almost all the countries of Europe, persons who had adhered tenaciously to the principles of the Dutch Baptists."Church History, cent. 16th, sec. 3, part 2.

In A. D. 1530, Bullinger, in the preface to his sermon on the Revelation, says, "for 400 years and more, in France, Italy, Germany, Bohemia and other countries, throughout the world, the Waldenses have sustained their profession of the gospel of Christ.”— Perrin's History, chapt. 6.

A. D. 1533, Luther published the confession of faith of the Waldenses, with a preface of his own, in which he acknowledges them the true church of God. Beza, in his treatises of "the famous pillars of learning and religion," says, "as for the Waldenses, I may be permitted to call them the very seed of the primitive and pure Christian church."-Moreland's History of the Churches of Piedmont, p. 58.

JACOB MERRINGUS says "that he had in his pos

session a confession of faith, in the German language, of the Baptists called Waldenses, which asserts that in the beginning of Christianity there was no baptizing of infants, and that their forefathers practiced no such thing."--History, part 2, p. 738.

LIMBORCH says, "To speak candidly what I think of all the modern sects of Christians, the Dutch Baptists most resemble the Albigenses and Waldenses."-History of the Inquisition, vol. 1, chapt. 8.

A. D. 1530, George Moreland published a history of the Waldensian churches, in which he says that at that time there were more than 800,000 communicants." See Moreland's Evangelical Churches, p. 224.

A. D. 1400, Henry IV., King of England, enacted a law for the burning of Waldensian heretics, and from that time up to April 11, A. D. 1612, when Edward Wightman was burnt at Litchfield, there were multitudes who suffered imprisonment and death for refusing to believe infant baptism, and other Romish traditions. A. D. 1415, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, two famous Baptist ministers, and leaders of the reformation in Boheinia, were burnt, by order of the Popish council of Constance. Wickliff's writings were destroyed, and his bones dug up and burnt. William Sawter, Thomas Badby, and Sir John Oldcastle, and હૈ number of the stars of the true church fell during this century, but still the Baptist church flourished and multiplied throughout the world. It was in A. D. 1365, that John Wickliff began to be popular as a reformer, and great multitudes followed him. During his labors nearly all England was awakened.

He translated the Bible into English, and wrote many books. His followers were called Lollards, after Walter Lollard, a Dutch Baptist, who came from Germany into England, A. D. 1315. Lollard was so active, and blessed of God, that it was with much difficulty that the Catholics

kept the kingdom from a religious revolution. Dr. Hurd says, "it is pretty clear, from the writings of many learned men, that Dr. John Wickliff, the first English reformer, either considered infant baptism unlawful, or at least unnecessary."--Ivemy, Hist. p. 56.

A. D. 1382, July 12, Richard II., King of England, published an order for the bishops to seize and imprison all persons suspected of Lollardism; and, during this persecution, Hereford, Rapyngdon, Ayshton and many others suffered. Reinerius says that "in A. D. 1259, the Paterine (another nickname for true Christians,) church at Alba, had more than 500 members; and, that at Coneorezza, more than 1500, and many others were very large." A. D. 1254, the Popish council of Alba condemned the Waldenses as heretics, and because there were many of them in and about that place, they called them Albigenses. A. D. 1229, during the French persecution, the Waldenses spread themselves throughout Italy, and Reinerius says that about A. D. 1250 they had churches in Albinia, Lombardy, Milan, Romagna, Vencenza, Florence, &c., and in A. D. 1280, they were quite plenty in Sicily.”—Perrin's History, book 2, chapt. 16.

A. D. 1215, the Bishop of Arles wrote to Pope Innocent III., complaining that his place was troubled with a great many Waldensian heretics, who said it was to no purpose to baptize children."-Opera Innocent, tertii tom 2, p. 776. A. D. 1110, Peter Bruis, and A. D. 1147, Henry wrote, against the Catholics, and in reply, Peter, the Catholic Abbot of Clugny, wrote against the Petrobrusians and Henricians, and charged them with holding the following errors, "that infants are not baptized or saved by the faith of another, or that baptism, without their own faith, does not save, and that those that were baptized in infancy, when grown up, should be baptized again,-nor are

they then rebaptized, but rather rightly baptized."— Hist. Eccl. Mag. cent. 12, chapt. 5, p. 332.

Dr. STENNET quotes the following words from Cassanion's history of the Waldenses: "Some writers. have affirmed that they approved not of the baptism of infants, and I can not deny that the greatest part were of that opinion; but the truth is, they did not reject the sacrament of baptism, but only accounted it unnecessary to infants, because they are not of age to believe, or capable of giving evidence of their faith." -Appendix to Stennet, pp. 81, 82.

Dr. WALL admits that the Waldenses were antipedobaptists. (See Wall's History of Baptism, p. 171.) As the Catholics baptized by immersion, the ancient. Baptists had no difficulty with them about the mode. Hence, image worship, infant baptism, transubstantiation and the Pope's authority, were the chief subjects of contention; and, for opposing these, they suffered persecution. A. D. 1166, thirty Waldenses suffered martyrdom at Oxford, England; and, during the persecution in the South of France, there were so many of them came into England, that in the reign of Henry III. the orders of the Friars Minorites were introduced, to suppress the Waldensian heresy."-Arch Bishop Usher, in Ivemy, vol. 1, p. 59.

A. D. 1160, Peter Waldo was a famous Baptist preacher; and, some have supposed, the Waldenses derived their name from him, but it is evident that they were at first called Valdenses, from their being in the vallies of Piedmont, and that Valdenses was finally changed into Waldenses; aud Reinerius Saccho, the Inquisitor, who wrote but 80 years after Peter Waldo, assures us that the Albigenses, or Waldenses had flourished more than 500 years before Waldo's time. See Dr. Rankin's History of France,

vol. 3, p. 198-202.

A. D. 1160, and forward for about 20 years, Waldo