1688–1702.
A second assembly of the same nature met in London upon the 2nd of June, 1691, and another on the 3rd of May, 1692. They proposed to divide their annual assembly into two—one for the east in London, and the other for the west in Bristol, and they enjoined the making of quarterly collections for objects specified, at the same time expressly repudiating all idea of exercising synodical control.
NONCONFORMISTS.
Musical harmony had been a cause of discord; some of the Baptist celebrities, including Kiffin and Keach, had plunged into disputes on the subject, and it was alleged that facts had been misrepresented and unwarrantable reflections published to the world. The matter came under the notice of a committee, which appears to have given an impartial decision. They declared that both parties were in the wrong; that, granting some statements might be true, they had laid open one another’s errors in an unbecoming spirit; that they ought to remember how Ham, for discovering the nakedness of Noah, was accursed of God, and how failings were forbidden to be told in Gath and Gilgal. They recommended that all the publications produced by the dispute should be called in and disposed of by the Assembly; and they finished their award by entreating, as upon their knees, that the brethren would keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.[537]
Kiffin and Keach were amongst the Baptist magnates at the end of the Revolution, and were far more influential than Bunyan. Of Kiffin I have had occasion to speak. It only remains to add, that he continued his ministry to old age, and that his latter days were adorned by an act of beneficence. After the French Protestants had been driven from their own land, he took under his protection and entirely supported a family of rank, nor would he when these refugees recovered a portion of their fortune, accept any return for past services. He died in 1701, leaving a reputation for piety, consistency, and theological knowledge, and also for moderation, together with firmness in the maintenance of Calvinistic and strict communion views.
1688–1702.
Of Benjamin Keach I have also spoken. Although a good man, and of an ingenious turn, he must have been rather pugnacious, for his works are of a controversial stamp, relating to the seventh-day Sabbath and the question of psalmody. He was one of those who have not the smallest doubt of being themselves right, and of everybody else being wrong. Adult Baptism he described as Gold Refined; the Athenian Society he attacked for what it had said respecting Pædobaptism; he rectified a Rector by proving Infant Baptism unlawful in his Axe Laid to the Root, or one blow more aimed at that practice, which one blow would beat down for ever the arguments of Mr. Flavel, Mr. Rothwell, and Mr. Exell; finally, by A Counter Antidote, he strove to resist the assaults upon what his antagonists would call Anabaptism. His congregation is spoken of as the first to sing in public worship. So cautious were they, because of the prejudices of their brethren, that they went on step by step, for a long time restricting the practice to the close of the Lord’s Supper, then venturing upon a hymn amidst the exultation of a thanksgiving-day, and at last, after a struggle of fourteen years, becoming so bold and yet so temperate, as to sing every Sunday, after objectors to the practice had been allowed to retire.[538]
The distinction between Particular and General Baptists assumed sharper form and greater prominence after the Revolution. The General Baptists of the county of Somerset, in the year 1691, published an original manifesto of doctrine. These articles, upon the Will of Man, the Work of the Spirit, God’s Decrees, and the Saints’ Perseverance, are decidedly anti-Calvinistic, and the final chapter bears a millenarian impress; but, to avoid being charged with the excesses of the old fifth monarchists, the brethren declared that the “kingdom ought not to be set up by the material sword,” that being “contrary to the very nature of Christianity.”[539]
NONCONFORMISTS.
Matthew Caffin was a celebrated man amongst the General Baptists. Five times he suffered imprisonment for his Nonconformity, besides which he was repeatedly fined under the Conventicle Act. Opposed to the doctrine of Calvinism, like the rest of his brethren, he also distinguished himself by opposition to the Athanasian Creed. He objected to its definition and to its damnatory clauses, although he did not adopt either Socinian or Arian tenets.