Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives
New England Baptists 1638-1776 AD – Old Landmarkers
Protestants Persecute Baptist in Colonial New England
PART FIVE
Some thoughtless Baptists will think this act of Bro. Clark unchristian and discourteous, but he believed that he, in common with all, favored, and by act approved, of the worship he attended; and he knew that he was forbidden, in any way, to bid an unscriptural worship or teacher of error “God-speed,” and so, by “gesture,” he declared his dissent.
Do we, as Baptists, declare our dissent from the teachings and ministrations of Pedobaptists and Campbellites when we attend upon their preaching with our families, month after month, and thus aid, by our presence and personal influence, to increase their congregations, and swell their collections to pay their preachers to oppose our faith, and build up societies in our communities to destroy our own churches?
There are many Baptists in the South who give annually far more to support Pedobaptist preachers than their own, because they take their families three times a month to such meetings, where the collection is never missed, and only once to their own. There are many places where they would cease preaching altogether for want of congregations and support were it not for the attendance and contributions of Baptists.
It is a great thing to be consistent Baptists—like John Clark, Holmes, and those early Baptists of New England were. Who dare, before God, to charge them with inconstancy or inconsistency? They were committed to prison. Mr. John Spur, then a member of the Baptist church at Newport, was present and relates: “Mr. Cotton, in his sermon, immediately before the Court gave their sentence against Mr. Clark, Holmes, and Crandel, affirmed, that denying infant baptism would overthrow all, and this was a capital offense; and therefore they were soul-murderers.”
(tomorrow Clark, Holmes & Crandal – Pay the Fine or suffer the Three Cord Whip?)
Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from excerpts: Graves, James R.. Old Landmarkism: What is it? . First Vision Publishers. Kindle Edition. Chapter 15