Baptists, a body of Christians sometimes called Antipedobaptists, as opposed to Pedobaptists, or those who advocate Infant Baptism. They reject the name of Anabaptists, as expressing what, from their point of view, is not their practice—viz. the rebaptising of converts from Pedobaptist communions—for they regard the baptism of professed believers alone as valid—and also as associating them with the scandals of the German Anabaptists (q.v.) of the 16th century, from whom they claim to be historically distinct. Baptists refuse to acknowledge any great name as founder of their sect. They trace their origin to the primitive church itself, and refer to the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles as affording, in their opinion, incontestable evidence that their leading tenets have the sanction of inspiration. When Christianity became corrupted, their scriptural practice was, they hold, maintained among the Cathari and Albigenses and other sects of the middle ages. They sprung into notice in England under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. They were persecuted under both reigns, but, with other Noneconformists, they received freedom to meet for worship from James II., and complete religious liberty under William III. Ever since, they have been diffusing their principles extensively in Great Britain and North America.
The Baptists hold the plenary inspiration and supreme authority of the Holy Scriptures as a revelation from God; the equal deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit in the unity of the ever blessed Trinity. But they have amongst them many shades of belief. They have among them Calvinists both hyper and moderate, also high and low Arminians. The great body of them in Britain and America hold the doctrine of Calvinism in a modified form—that is to say, they maintain the sufficiency of the Atonement for all men; the limitation which some have maintained, lies, they consider, in its application to the sinner by the sovereign grace of God through faith. At the present day, however—especially in Britain—the tendency of thought is towards the recognition of no other limitation than that which results from the exercise of man's free-will. They maintain the necessity of regeneration and holiness of life as essential to true religion, and that 'without holiness no man shall see the Lord.'
Particular Baptists, so called because holding that Christ died for an elect number, and General Baptists (called in America Free-will Baptists), who maintain that he died for all men, constitute the two leading sects into which the body is divided. English Baptists, in their church order and government, are the same as Congregationalists, the rite of baptism excepted. Scottish Baptists, properly so called, insist on a plurality of pastors in every church, and the exercise of mutual exhortation by the members in their public assemblies. There are Baptist churches in England that are Scottish in their order, but both in England and in Scotland they are, at the present day, few in number. All the churches in the Baptist Unions of England and Scotland are English in their order. There are, besides these great divisions, various small associations of Baptists scattered over Great Britain, America, and the Continent of Europe, whose opinions cannot be gathered up into systematic arrangement. In America, the following communions baptise by immersion, and decline to administer the rite to infants: The Seventh-day Baptists, who observe, not the first day of the week, but the seventh, as the day of rest; the Six Principle Baptists, so called from the circumstance that their creed is summed up in the six points named in Heb. vi. 1, 2; the Christian Connection Baptists, who are Unitarians; the Disciples or Campbellites, who are understood to teach the dogma of baptismal regeneration; the Brethren or Tunkers (q.v.), and the Anti-mission, or, as they are often called, Hard-shell Baptists, who object to all missionary societies and other organised schemes of benevolence, as not having, in their view, the sanction of Scripture. They decline to hold fellowship with those who seek by such means to further the cause of truth and righteousness. Their numbers are falling off from year to year. Some of these are represented in Britain, but their following is very small.
The particular tenet which characterises Baptists among their fellow-Christians is, that baptism is an ordinance the validity of which depends on an intelligent faith on the part of the recipient. Their views on the matter of baptism may be reduced to two heads—the subjects and mode of baptism. The subjects of the baptismal rite they hold to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. They ground their faith in this matter on the following positions—namely: 1st, The Lord in his commission to his apostles associates teaching with baptism, and limits the administration of the rite to the taught. 2d, The Book of the Acts shows how the apostles understood their Master, for they baptised none but believers, or such as appeared to be so. 3d, The kingdom of Christ as it appears in this world is restricted to credibly converted persons, as is shown in his discourse with Nicodemus: 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;' whilst his subsequent statements on to the hour of his memorable confession before Pilate, 'My kingdom is not of this world,' uniformly prove that its subjects and institutes form a distinct and separate community from the Jewish theocracy, which embraced parents and children in nonage in one commonwealth. 4th, They maintain that the ordinance, as explained in the New Testament, always points to a moral and spiritual change, apart from which it were indeed a meaningless ceremony.
As respects the mode, the Baptists hold that only immersion in water is baptism. They argue, that the original term baptizo conveys this meaning, and no other; that nothing less can possibly answer to the apostle's explanation in Rom. vi. 4, 5, and Col. ii. 12, 'buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him;' that the many allusions in the epistles to the churches manifestly bear out this interpretation; and, finally, that the fact of John baptising at a spot selected for the purpose 'because there was much water there,' is perfectly conclusive. For the arguments on the other side, see BAPTISM.
Their form of church-government is congregational. They maintain that the only order of officers remaining to the church, since inspiration ceased, are pastors (otherwise called elders and bishops), deacons, and evangelists; that the number of official persons in each of the apostolic churches cannot be ascertained from the record, but must of necessity have depended—and always must depend—on circumstances; that each church is possessed of the power of self-government under its exalted head, Jesus Christ, subject to no foreign tribunal or court of review; that discipline is to be exercised by the rulers in presence and with the consent of all the members, and parties received or excluded at their voice.
The Baptists are divided among themselves regarding communion—one portion receiving conscientious Pædobaptists to the Lord's table and membership; the other refusing this privilege to any but Baptists. The churches of the former are called open communionists; the latter, strict communionists.
The Baptists were early in the field of missions, their missionary society having been founded in 1792. Theirs has been the honour of planting Christian churches in many parts of India, in Ceylon, in the Bahamas, the West Indies, Africa, and China. No mission band has surpassed the agents of the Baptist Missionary Society in zeal, perseverance, and fortitude. The names of Carey, Marshman, Ward, and Knibb will be had in grateful remembrance by all succeeding generations.
The Baptists have excellent schools for training young men for pastoral duties, presided over by men of great ability. At Bristol, Rawdon (near Leeds), Regent's Park (London), Pontypool, Haverfordwest, and Nottingham, there exist seminaries of learning which are entitled to give certificates qualifying for matriculation at the university of London; and many of the students have already taken degrees and honours there. There are also the Pastors' College, in connection with the Tabernacle, London, and theological institutions at Edinburgh, Manchester, and Llangollen.
In 1890 the Baptists of various connections had in the United States (where, next to the Methodists, they are the largest religious body) over 4,292,000 members; in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands, they claim 337,500 members (with 3574 churches); throughout the world accordingly they have more than four and a half million members, besides regular hearers.