CONTEXT 1 Baptism A Fundamental Practice of
F. THE MENNONITES
63 fanatical group was responsible for it. For years the name Anabaptist was despised and ridiculed. From 1536 onward, this group in the Netherlands went by the name Mennonites, from the name of their leader, Menno Simons, who died in 1559*
A complete history of this group cannot be given;
for their activities were many and varied. Their teach- ings on baptism and other doctrines greatly influenced the English Baptists. It was from them that John Smyth received many of his ideas. Their teachings on baptism are seen in the writings of Menno Simons and in their confessions of faith.
Menno SimonsT Teachings on Baptism. Burrage quotes Prof. Howard Osgood, of Rochester Theological Seminary, who says that in all of Mennofs writings he has found only two passages which indicate his practice of baptism.
Osgood states:
On page 22 of the folio edition, 1681, he says:
fI think that these £to love enemies, crucify flesh and lust7 and similar commands are more painful and difficult to perverse flesh, which is naturally so prone to follow its own way, than to receive a handful of water*.
On page 88 of the same edition Menno says: fHow any one who is so unbelieving and rebellious that he refuses God a handful of water can conform himself to love his enemies, to mortify the flesh to the service of his neighbor, and to take up
64 the cross of Christ, I will leave the serious
reader to reflect upon in the fear of GodT.89
The First Mennonite Confession of Faith. McGloth- lin, in Baptist Confessions of Faith, wrote that at
first the Mennonites would make no Confession of Faith, but because of the dissension among the various groups of Mennonites about the middle of the sixteenth century, they began to issue statements of their views in the form of Confessions. The earliest was issued by the Waterlanders of North Holland. This was the group which may have influenced John Smyth to the view of believers1
baptism. This Confession was written by Hans de Ries and Lubbert Gerrits. These men perhaps more than any
90 other Anabaptists influenced the Baptists in England.
In this Confession, Baptism and the Lordfs Supper are called "external and visible actions, and signs of the immense goodness of God toward us. . . .n Also it states:
Holy Baptism is an external, visible and evangeli- cal action, in which, according to Christ!s pre- cept (a) and the practice of the Apostles (b), for a holy end (c) are baptized with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, those who hear, believe and freely receive
89 Burrage, 0£. cit., p. 141.
90 McGlothlin, 0£. cit., p. 24f.
65 in a penitent heart the doctrine of the holy
gospel (d); for such Christ commanded to be baptized, but by no means infants.91
This statement reveals that the Mennonites, in keeping with the earlier Anabaptists, held to believers1 baptism;
for only those who hear, believe and freely receive the gospel in a penitent heart are proper subjects for bap- tism. This rules out all infant baptism.
This Mennonite Confession also states:
The whole action of external, visible baptism places before our eyes, testifies and signifies that Jesus Christ baptizes internally (a) in a laver of regeneration (b) and renewing of the Holy Spirit, the penitent and believing man:
washing away, through the virtue and merrits of his poured out blood, all the spots and sins of the soul (c) and through the virtue and
operation of the Holy Spirit, which is a true, heavenly (d), spiritual and living water,
/washing a w a ^ the internal wickedness of the soul (e) and renders it heavenly (f), spiritual (g) and living (h) in true righteousness and goodness. Moreover baptism directs us to Christ and his holy office by which in glory he per- forms that which he places before our eyes, and testifies concerning its consummation in the hearts of believers and admonishes us that we should not cleave to external things, but by holy prayers ascend into heaven and ask from Christ the good indicated through it /Faptism/
(i): A good which the Lord Jesus graciously concedes and increases in the hearts of those who by true faith become partakers of the sacraments.92
McGlothlin gives several other Mennonite Con- fessions of Faith, but he thinks this was the only one
91 Ibid., p. 42.
92 Ibid., p. 42f.
which directly influenced the Baptists. From this
statement of belief it can be seen that they administered baptism only to penitent and believing men. Baptism was an external and visible act by which Christ placed before the eyes the internal renewing of the soul. The blood of Jesus Christ washed away the sins of the soul, and baptism was a symbol of that washing.
The Testimony of Historians Concerning Mennonite Baptism. Because of the influence of the Mennonites
on the English Baptists, the question is discussed, "What was the mode of baptism used by the Mennonites?" This
section of the thesis will be concluded with several testimonies of able historians on the mode used by the Mennonites.
De Hoop Scheffer, in A History of the Free Church- men, states that "The Mennonites baptize only adult
94 persons, who have made a profession of their own faith".
In A History of the Modes of Christian Baptism, Chrystal asserts that the Mennonites practiced affusion, and did
95 not make the mode essential.
93 Ibid., p. 49o
>
94 J. De Hoop Scheffer, History of the Free Church men (Ithaca, New York: Andrus and Church, 1922), p. 31*
95 Chrystal, 0£. cit., p. 294f.
67 Newman states that no Mennonite group at that time
/cT16057 practiced immersion, for when Smyth and his
followers applied to them for admission into their church they were examined by the Mennonites who stated that tfwe have not found that there was any difference at all, neither in the one nor the other thing between them and
96
usTT. The testimony is also given by Newman that "The most competent Mennonite scholar of the present time
(Dr. J. G. De Hoop Scheffer) does not hesitate to assert that the universal practice of Mennonites of all parties
97
about 1609 was affusion". De Hoop Scheffer makes the significant observation that the use of the term "washing with water" by Smyth, Helwys and others does not prove immersion, for this term was used by the Mennonites who practiced affusion, and by many others who did not immerse.
A Summary of the Mennonite Teachings on Baptism.
It seems that around loOO the Mennonites did not practice or teach concerning baptism anything different to that practiced and taught by the Anabaptists. They rebaptized those who had been baptized as infants, insisted on
96 A. H. Newman, A History of Antipaedobaptism (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1902), p. 387.
97 Loc. Cit.
98 De Hoop Scheffer, 0£. cit., p. 52f.
68 believers1 baptism, and rejected infant baptism;
but they did not practice immersion as the proper mode of baptism.
69