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TJie Nonconformist. No. VlL &f
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Nonconformist. No. Vii. An Inquiry I...
will sufficiently demonstrate what dangerous heretics this sect were esteemed . In the examination of Archdeacon Philpot * before the lords , Nov . 6 ,
1555 , one of them said to him , « All heretics do boast of the Spirit of God , and every one would have a church by himself ; as Joan of Kent , and the Anabaptists / 't Poor , narrow-minded
bigot ! You intended to convey a censure and you pronounced an eulogium ! Yes , Joan of Kent and the Anabaptists had learned that to which you were a stranger ^—they had learned to regard religion as an affair between
God and their own souls , and therefore dared to think for themselves , in defiance of tyrants , of prisons , and of death in its most horrid forms . I must pass over the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth with barely mentioning that the reputed Anabaptists shared largely in the sufferings which were endured for conscience' sake .
Fox in his Latin edition mentions several who suffered in the reign of Mary , whom he omits in his English edition . This omission Crosby conjectures , with great probability , was With the view of doing more honour to the other martvrs . He was a
Paedobaptist himself , and could perhaps , therefore , hardly consider the opposers of infant baptism as entitled to be ranked among martyrs of that class which were to be held up to admiration . But it would be an act
of greater injustice than his , if his supposed endeavour to save Joan Bocher , in Edward ' s , and two Dutch Baptists in Elizabeth ' s reign , from * It is a melancholy reflection that this undaunted Protestant martyr should so imperfectly have understood the spirit of
that ^ religion for the sake of whteh he suffered , as to aggravate the sufferings of his fellow-prisoners by cruel taunts and invectives , calling them cc men , or rather not men , hut Covered with man ' s shape , persons of a beastly understanding 1 , —dead dog's , blasphemously barking against our Lord ; " "—thai he should have thought it
a proof of fidelity to his compassionate Saviour , to justify his having-spat on an Ariariy by such an exhortation as the following * : —— " Speak ye that have tengues to praise and confess God , against these Arians , , Suffer them not to pass by you unpointed at . Refrain not to spit at such inordinate ricine " ' ! f &> k ) p . 15 * 78 ' ftrst ed . ¦
The Nonconformist. No. Vii. An Inquiry I...
pose after reading it . The reign of James T . is remarkable for being the last in which the law IPe heeretico comburendo was put in force . Two persons suffered death under this form in the year l 6 ll , viz . Bariko lomeiv Legate , who Was a decided Unitarian , and Edward Wightinan 9 a . Baptist . The list of charges against the latter is a self-contradictory farrago ;
evincing the ignorance no less tban the malignity of his enemies , who , it would appear , were determined to lay so many heresies to his charge , that If one were not sufficient to justify his being put to death , another might .
On this man s martyrdom Crosby makes the following remark : — - •« The first who was put to this cruel death in England was William Sawtre , sapposed , upon very probable grounds , to have denied infant baptism ; and this man , the last who was honoured
with this kind of martyrdom , was expressly condemned for that opinion : so that this sect had the honour both of leading the way , and bringing up the rear of all the martyrs who were burnt alive in England * *
In the year 1614 , a number of families emigrated to America , hoping to find in New England that peaceable enjoyment of their religion which was denied them at home . They were known by the general name of Puritans , but appear to have
consisted chiefly of Presbyterians . It is truly lamentable that men flying from persecution , so soon learned to become persecutors : for , not only did they persecute the Quakers , but also the Baptists , who had sought an asylum in that distant wilderness .
Mr . Cotton Mather * says , «• Having done with the Quakers , let it not tafe misinterpreted , if , into the same chapter , We put the inconveniences Which the Churches of New England have also suffered from the Anabaptfefs . " - — €€
But at length it came to pass , that while some of our churches Used , it may be , a little too much cogency towards the brethren , which Would weakly turn their backs when infants were brought forth to hebaptiredm — ——mn mr ^^ _ _ iju ^ i ~ . _ " r ¦ ¦ - 1 _ rfi % ni t xi . " j -. j » i . ifiijj K ru _ r * Hist , of New England , b . vii . p % 26 .
being burnt , were passed over in silence . 1 His letter to the Queen will remain an everlasting monument to his own honour , and of disgrace to her who could retain her bloody pur *
Tjie Nonconformist. No. Vll &F
TJie Nonconformist . No . VlL & f
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/29/
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