"There is a great fluttering among our brethren in the United States and Canada on the question whether there were any real baptisms (immersions on a profession of faith) in England between 1509, the year of the accession of Henry VIII and the year 1641. . . . That there was no such delay in forming Baptist churches as our American friends have supposed is proved by the dates of the formation of a number of them. Churches were formed, chapels built, and doctrines defined long before 1641, and others, down to the end of that century, owed nothing probably to the discussion of that year. . . ."But there is another kind of evidence even more decisive showing that 'the immersion of believers' was the common faith and practice of our fathers. I refer to the books published by them and against them in the century to which 1641 belongs. I mention a few of the most important, giving the names in the briefest possible form. Most of them show clearly what the writers, or their opponents, the Baptists, were supposed to hold."
(The above article was authored by Dr. Joseph Angus, and originally published in the London Freeman in 1896. It was republished by Samuel H. Ford in the "Christian Repository" in the January 1897 issue. Dr. Angus gives the names of at least 21 pamphlets which opposed the Baptists and their manner of immersion, all written before 1641. Dr. Angus was pastor of Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle {then New Park Street Church} from 1838-1840 and president of Regent's Park (Baptist) College from 1850 into the late 1800s.)AErnstelodamus Dissertation, Contra Anabaptist . . . . 1535 AErnstelodamus, Baptimus Christianus . . . . 1539 Ampsing, J. A. Disputationes, Contra Anabaptist . . . . 1619 Almsworth, H., A seasonable Discourse on Anabaptism . . . . 1623, 1644 Anabaptist, Proclamations against . . . . 1560 Articles of Visitation (Edward VI., and Elizabeth) . . . . 1559 Apocalypsis on Anabaptists . . . . 1640 Articles of Visitation, 1562, 1612 Barber, E. A., A Treatise on Dipping . . . . 1641 Dale, J., A Declartion that He is not a Dipper . . . . 1547 Baptismi de Erroribus . . . . 1592 Ballinger, agt. Anabaptists . . . . 1535-6 Ballinger, Three Dialogues . . . . 1551 Cassander, Geo., De. Bapt. Ifanm . . . . 1562, 1616 Catrou, Hist. des Anabaptists depuis 1521 . . . . 1699 Common Prayer, First Ed. Of . . . . 1549 Clyfford, Answer to Anabaptist Opinions . . . . 1608-10 Cole, Thos., Sermons against Anabaptism . . . . 1553 Coleford (Maidstone), Anabaptists Errors Refuted . . . . 1550 Day, J., Summe of Scripture on Baptism . . . . 1549 Edward VI. Articles to be Inquired into . . . . 1547 Edward VI. Common Prayer, 1st and 2nd edition . . . . 1549, 1552[From Homepage: The Landmark Southern Baptist, Ben Stratton, editor. Used with permission.]
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