Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

In church government the Waldenese were essentially Baptists. Gieseler
speaks of “their anti-hierarchal system.” f418 “The Catholic hierarchy and its
pretensions to a mediatorial character, ordained of God, they rejected.” f419 To
reconcile Gieseler’s statement, that they may have had some kind of bishops,
with their being anti-hierarchal, it is only necessary to remember that they used
the term bishop as Baptists use it — a term they, like the Baptists, rarely used
— and that some Waldenses, who were just coming out of Rome, probably had
bishops. f416
Dr. Lord: “They have had It ministry of their own, consisting only of
presbyters and deacons.” f420 Lord farther says:
“It has held, professed and vindicated the great doctrines of the Bible: (1.)
That God has the sole right to legislate in respect to his worship.
(2.) That the Scriptures are the only authoritative rule of faith.
(3.) That Christ is the only redeemer.
(4.) That yet it is by the RENEWING agency of the Spirit alone that men are led
to repentance, faith and love.
(5.) That neither rulers nor ecclesiastics have any right to oppress and
persecute. …
(6.) It has disowned alike the authority of the civil magistrate and the
nationalized church to dictate its faith and worship. They obstinately
maintained that nothing that is not expressly commanded by Christ or taught
by the Apostles can over be constituted alone by those of latter ages, though
decreed even by synods, inasmuch as the latter church has no legislative
authority.” f421
Muston says of the Waldenses:
“‘In place of priests and cures,’ says a Catholic of that country, ‘they had
ministers, who, under the names of Barbas, presided in their secret religious
conventicles. However, as they were seen to be quiet and reserved, and as
they faithfully paid their taxes, tithes and seigneural dues, and were,
moreover, very industrious, they were not disturbed upon the subject of their
practices and doctrines.’” f422
Of the Waldenses in the fifteenth century, Muston says:
“The right was granted them of combining themselves into one or more
independent communities, of naming their own rulers, both civil and
ecclesiastical.” f423
As proof that their ministers were controlled by no higher authority than the
church, in one of their general meetings, in the sixteenth century, they say:
“The ministry of the word of God ought not to wander about, nor to change
their residences, unless it shall be for the good of the church.” f424