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    To the Editor . Sir , Loughboroughy May 4 , 1827 . I have been lately reading the History of the General Baptists , by Adara Taylor , a member of the New Connexion of General Baptists , who form the principal body of Dissenters in this place and neighbourhood . As their

    history and principles are in general little known among us , perhaps a brief abstract of this history may be acceptable to the readers of the Repository . The first volume is the history of the English General Baptists in the seventeenth century , and it is obviously the purpose of the author to represent them as universally Arminian Trinitarians , and thus to charge the old connexion of General Baptists with having entirely departed from the creed of their forefathers . But it is evident , that the principles of free inquiry

    and of the right of individual judgment , equally justify the present race in departing from the creed of their ancestors , as they justify those ancestors in separating from the Church of England . Besides , this history contains many proofs that , even at a very early period of their history , many individuals among the General Baptists were scarcely believers in the doctrine of the Trinity . Thus , in 1654 , a letter was written beginning , " The brethren in and about Caxton and Fenstanton , in the counties of Huntingdon and

    Cambridge , to the faithful in Christ Jesus at Canterbury , wish grace , mercy , and peace from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . " This is indeed scriptural language , but , I think , it would hardly have been employed by rigid Trinitarians . Their reasonings in favour of liberty of conscience were very explicit and excellent . Thus , in 1662 , they published an address to the King , Parliament , and People , " in which they oppose the right of the magistrate to impose any thing in the worship or service of

    God . " In 1677 , a friendly separation was agreed upon in the Church at Spilshill , Kent , on account of a difference of opinion on the Trinity , part of the congregation and some of the preachers having embraced the tenets of Mr . Caffin , which bordered very closely , at least , upon what are now called Unitarian sentiments . The author allows " that there was not

    any system of doctrine and discipline universally adopted by the General Baptists . Among such a number of professors , each a jealous advocate for the right of private judgment , it would be unreasonable to expect complete uniformity either in sentiment or practice . " Most of them no doubt were Trinitarians , yet it is obvious that there were Unitarians among them . It was early objected to them , " that some of them held that Christ is not the true God . " They certainly in a great measure explained away the doctrine

    of original sin . They said , that " the same penalties that were inflicted on our first parents for that sin , which penalties are death , and those temporal miseries that came upon them as the effect of that sin , do certainly come upon their posterity . They are brought into a mortal , dying state , liable to all the miseries of this life , and , in fine , to death itself . But , that this transgression did procure in itself the second death in the lake of fire or hell torments , either to Adam himself or any of his posterity , as is by some

    not only imagined but affirmed ; as it is a doctrine that is altogether scriptureless and so false , so it is altogether irrational ; from whence it has no room in our faith . " Dr . Wall , vicar of Shoreham , in Kent , published a work against them in 1705 , in which he says , " They have some Socinians that creep in among them ; but I have not heard of one church or congregation of them that makes profession of that doctrine . " This is probably a correct statement of their situation at that time . They baptized " eithef

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    PN THE HISTORY OF THE GENERAL BAPTISTS .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 483, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/11/