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Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

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thereof. Now it is reason-able to conclude, that his practice was conformable<br />

to this.” f817<br />

Ivimey adopts Crosby’s argument. f818 That any reasonable person can see its<br />

force, I feel sure.<br />

Dr. Cutting, when professor of history in Rochester University, wrote:<br />

“The biographers of Mr. Smyth, and the <strong>Baptist</strong> historians, Crosby and<br />

Ivimey, have been entirely skeptical in regard to this alleged self-baptism. It<br />

has been argued that the charge proceeded from enemies only, and that if there<br />

had been any truth in it, some intimation of the propriety of such an act would<br />

have been found somewhere in the writings of Mr. Smyth, or in those of his<br />

friends.” f819<br />

Noticing the statement, made by Mr. Robinson, that Smyth baptized himself,<br />

Prof. Cutting says:<br />

“Was Mr. Robinson mistaken? He was not an eye witness, he was in<br />

Amsterdam for a brief time only, and then went to Leyden. He ‘heard’ the<br />

manner of establishing the new church narrated. Did he understand correctly<br />

what he heard?”<br />

Or, did he misinterpret instituting baptism among themselves, by supposing<br />

that to mean self-baptism? The controversy seems to be narrowed down to this<br />

single question. …<br />

“On the supposition that Mr. Robinson misinterpreted what he heard, the<br />

circumstances of the case render it easy enough to suppose that the statement<br />

might pass to history uncontradicted.” f820<br />

“Mr. Smyth was already dead, and Mr. Helwisse, if still alive, was in<br />

England. It is not certain, however, that Mr. Helwisse was still living.” f820<br />

Thus, the story, of which <strong>Baptist</strong> enemies make so much, rests mainly on the<br />

testimony which Mr. Robinson received of Mr. Smyth’s enemies, which he<br />

may have misunderstood and which was thus started on foot after Mr. Smyth’s<br />

death, after Mr. Helwisse was probably dead, but if living, had left the country,<br />

and which was never noticed by Mr. Smyth or any of his friends!<br />

(5.) The latest, and seemingly the true statement, is by Dr. John Clifford, one<br />

of the most scholarly and prominent of living English <strong>Baptist</strong> ministers. Before<br />

me lies a complimentary copy from himself, of his excellent work, entitled:<br />

“The Origin and Growth of the English <strong>Baptist</strong>s.” From pages 15-16 I copy the<br />

following on this point:<br />

“At Crowle, in Lincolnshire, a few miles from Gainsborough, there was,<br />

according to an old <strong>Church</strong> Book, recently copied, a <strong>Baptist</strong> society as early<br />

as 1550. To that rural community Smyth went in the year 1604, and ‘debated

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