C. H. Spurgeon on Perpetuity
"We believe that the Baptists are the original
Christians. We did not commence our existence at the
reformation, we were reformers before Luther or Calvin were born;
we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it,
but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We
have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our
principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which
may travel underground for a little season, have always had
honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and
Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a
Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others;
nor I believe any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to
put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have
ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but
we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute
the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with the
government, and we will never make the Church, although the
Queen, the despot over the consciences of men". (From The New Park
Street Pulpit, Vol.VII, Page 225).
"History has hitherto been written by our enemies, who never
would have kept a single fact about us upon the record if they
could have helped it, and yet it leaks out every now and then
that certain poor people called Anabaptists were brought up for
condemnation. From the days of Henry II to those of Elizabeth we
hear of certain unhappy heretics who were hated of all men for
the truth's sake which was in them. We read of poor men and
women, with their garments cut short, turned out into the fields
to perish in the cold, and anon of others who were burnt at
Newington for the crime of Anabaptism. Long before your
Protestants were known of, these horrible Anabaptists, as they
were unjustly called, were protesting for the 'one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism.' No sooner did the visible church begin
to depart from the gospel than these men arose to keep fast by
the good old way. The priests and monks wished for peace and
slumber, but there was always a Baptist or a Lollard tickling
men's ears with holy Scriptures, and calling their attention to
the errors of the times. They were a poor persecuted tribe. The
halter was thought to be too good for them. At times ill-written
history would have us think that they died out, so well had the
wolf done his work on the sheep. Yet here we are, blessed and
multiplied; and Newington sees other scenes from Sabbath to
Sabbath.
As I think of your numbers and efforts, I can only say in wonder
- what a growth! As I think of the
multitudes of our brethren in America, I may well say, What hath
God wrought! Our history forbids
discouragement." (From the
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1881, Vol. 27, page 249.)