Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

“It is a disputed point as to where and when Baptists first appeared in Wales.
There are presumptive evidences that individuals held their views from the
opening of the seventeenth century, and some have thought that the first
Baptist church was formed at Olchon, 1633. Joshua Thomas, of Leominster,
perhaps the most reliable authority on the subject, doubts this. He leans to the
belief that there were Baptists then at that date,”
— and here comes in the quotation made in the beginning of this chapter. f840
The reader will see that instead of Armitage dating the origin of Welsh
Baptists in the seventeenth century, he says the “first after the Reformation”
meaning the first of which we have a clear account of its origin, while he gives
strong evidence of Welsh Baptists existing many centuries previous to the
seventeenth century, leaving it a “disputed point as to when and where Baptists
first appeared in Wales.” Considering that Dr. Armitage is so ready to slur
“Succession,” this is no insignificant concession in favor of Church Perpetuity.
Considering that the Romish church has always op-posed rendering the
Scriptures into the language of the people and that she has done so only when
forced by increasing light to do so; and, further, that such versions are
exclusively the trophy of Baptists, the following, from Dr. Armitage, is
presumptive evidence for Welsh Baptists having continued in Wales
throughout the dark ages:
“Portions of the Scriptures were translated into manuscript before the
Reformation, but some of them were lost. Taliesin, a bard of note, in the sixth
century, gave paraphrase in verse of a few passages, and it is said that there
was a manuscript translation of the gospels in the thirteenth century in the
library of St. Asaph’s cathedral. In the thirteenth century it was already
looked upon as old, and the Archbishop of Canterbury allowed the priests to
exhibit it as a sacred thing. … Dafydd Ddu, another bard, wrote a poetical
paraphrase in the fourteenth century on a part of the Psalms, the song of
Zecharias, the angels’ greeting to Mary, and the song of Simeon, found in
Luke’s Gospel. Some other fragments of Scripture were given by others.” f841
The statement that there was no Bible in Wales at the time of the Reformation,
except in cathedrals, in view of the foregoing and of the undoubted existence
of evangelical Christians there and of their history being known only by
occasional glimpses, should be taken with much allowance.
Including Wales, Bede says the Britains were converted to Christianity in the
second century and that they
“preserved the faith, which they had received uncorrupted and entire, in peace
and tranquility, until the time of Diocletian, A.D. 286.” f842