Were Our Baptist Ancestors “Landmarkers”?
The short answer? No, they were not. At least, so long as we’re looking at Baptists living prior to the mid-19th century. But let’s see what they have to say for themselves.
First, a brief foreword…
If you’re new to this conversation: “Landmarkism” refers to a popular theory amongst 19th century Southern Baptist churches, and later independent Arminian and Calvinistic Baptist churches, that entailed Baptist exclusivity and Baptist church succession. “Old Landmarkism,” as it is sometimes called, holds that only local Baptist churches are true churches and that these churches have existed since the time of the apostles.
Because of this, brothers who hold this theory reject the universal church or “church catholic” (little “c”). They do not believe Paedobaptists, of any sort, can ever constitute a gospel church. They may be saved, but they are not part of Christ’s church. This means Baptists were neither “Protestant” nor “Reformed.”
The question set before us is, Did our older Baptist ancestors hold to this same view? Or did they instead know of a way to affirm true, yet erring churches, while maintaining standards for church communion that did not compromise Baptist principles?
The following are the words of some of our Baptist forefathers. These men are cited frequently in support of Landmarkism. But would they hold to the tenets of Landmarkism as mentioned above?
The Waldenses
Though debated by scholars, we will grant that this medieval group of Christians were at least baptistic. The Waldenses, at the very least, appear to be an earnest sect of Christians who protested Rome as far back as the 12th century. Here is what they have to say in a catechism composed, according to Samuel Moreland, “hundreds of years before Luther or Calvin”:
Min[ister]. What is a Dead Faith?
Answ. According to St. James, It is that which without works is dead. Again, Faith is null without works. Or, a Dead Faith is, to believe that there is a God, to believe on God, and not to believe in him.
Min. What is your Faith?”
Answ. The true Catholick and Apostolick faith.
Min. What is that?
Answ. It is that which in the Result (or Symbole) of the Apostle, is divided into twelve Articles. (Emphasis added)
Min. What is that which thou believest concerning the Holy Church?
Answ. I say, that the Church is considered two manner of ways, the one Substantially, and the other Ministerially. As it is considered Substantially, by the Holy Catholick Church is meant all the Elect of God, from the beginning of the World to the end, by the grace of God through the merit of Christ, gathered together by the Holy Spirit, and fore-ordained to eternal life; the number and names of whom are known to him alone who has elected them; and in this church remains none who is reprobate; but the Church, as it is considered according to the truth of the Ministery, is the company of Ministers of Christ, together with the People committed to their Charge, using the Ministry, by Faith, Hope, and Charity. (Moreland, Samuel, History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont, [London: Henry Hills, 1658], 76. “Result [or Symbole] of the Apostle” is a reference to the Apostles’ Creed)
Even the Waldenses held to “the Holy Catholick Church,” and they defined their faith according to the Apostles’ Creed.
John Spittlehouse
John Spittlehouse (17th century) was a “fifth monarchy man” who believed that Christ’s kingdom had two “arms,” the civil government and the church (which would grow to be a universal, global institution on earth under Cromwell’s Protectorate). Here is what he says:
I take these two Tables of the Moral Law or ten Commandements, with the Statutes and Judgments aforementioned, to be the Royal Law or Government of Jehovah the Lord Christ, and that those Statutes and Judgements, are that Civil Law, by which be will rule the Nations with a rod of iron, in that they produce the Sword of Justice in the hands of the Civil Magistrate, which Sword of Justice, I say, is that iron rod, formerly mentioned, and no other thing, and hence it is, the Saints are said to have a two edged sword in their band, as well as the high prayses of God in their mouths, Psal.149. the one edge offensive, and the other defensive. (Spittlehouse, John, The Royal Advocate, (London: Popes-Head-Alley, 1655), 33)
And, to Oliver Cromwell, Spittlehouse writes:
Israel continually together in a lump, but dispersed them as occasion was offered, making the same Elders he had chosen, heads over the people, &c. Exod. 18. 25, &c. reserving the chief management of affairs to himself, which certainly was not barely to himself alone, but with the assistance of his faithful Officers of war about him, of which I hope you may be plentifully supplyed, so that the Church or kingdom of Jesus Christ may appear in its now proper posture (viz. terrible as an Army with Banners, unto all the Nations upon the face of the whole earth)… but to persevere in the work of the Lord, in forreign parts, and not to make peace with the Gibeonites, or any other Nation which the Lord hath a controversie withal, and who are designed to destruction, to the end you may rest quietly upon your beds of Ivory. (Spittlehouse, John, “The first addresses to His Excellencie the Lord General…” [London: Seven Stars in Paul’s Church-yard, neer the great North-door, 1653])
While Spittlehouse believed that the infant baptism of the prelacy, presbytery, and papacy were false expressions of baptism, and rejected their hierarchies, he nevertheless embraced the congregational paedobaptists (he worked for Cromwell), and thought of them as fellow “kingdom-builders.” Further, Spittlehouse clearly hoped that the true church would reach global proportions, even by political means.
Thomas Crosby
Thomas Crosby was a renowned Baptist historian, who began publishing his The History of the English Baptists in 1738. He argued that the early church relegated the mode and manner of baptism to an article of Christian liberty, and positively mentions a “catholick spirit” in Henry Jessey. Our Landmark brethren adopt Crosby as their own because he traces believers’ baptism to the earliest years of the New Testament church in the preface to volume I. However, Crosby did not believe that the Baptist church was the only church, nor did he define the term “Baptist” in the same way as Landmarkism. For Crosby, a “Baptist” is simply a person who believes and practices believers’ baptism.
Concerning the early Christians, he writes:
But, if that term (“Baptist”) be used to signify such as hold the doctrine, on which infant-baptism is rejected, viz. That a personal profession of repentance and faith is necessary from those who are admitted to baptism, this was taught and practiced by persons of greater authority than Tertullian, and who lived long before his time; as will appear by the next account, which some have given concerning this matter, viz.
That the baptism of infants was, in the primitive times, left as an indifferent thing; being by some practiced, by others omitted.
Some Paedobaptists, of no small reputation, finding themselves so hardly pressed in the business of antiquity, are willing to halve the matter with their Brethren.
I find several men of great learning, and diligent fearchers into antiquity, to go this way, as Grotius, Daillee, bishop Taylor, and Mr. Baxter. (Crosby, History, vol. 1, xlix.)
Favorably describing the early 17th century Baptist, Henry Jessey, Crosby relates:
But notwithstanding his differing from his brethren in this, or any other point, he maintained the fame christian love and charity to all faints as before, not only as to a friendly conversation, but also in respect of church-communion. He had always some of the Padobaptist persuasion mixed and blamed those that made their particular opinion about baptism the boundary of church communion. He published the reasons of his opinion in this cafe; and when he travelled thro’ the north and west parts of England to visit the churches, he made it his principal business to excite them to love and union among themselves, notwithstanding their differing from one another in some opinions; and was also the principal person that set up, and preserved for some time, a meeting at London of some eminent men of each denomination, in order to maintain peace and union among those Christians that differed not fundamentally; and this catholick spirit procured him the love and esteem of the good men of all parties. (Crosby, History, vol. I, 312)
Noting the “nearness” of Baptists to the “other” Protestants, Crosby states the following:
…the Baptists in general consist of two parties, distinguished by the title of general and particular; so I find when the one have published a general Confession of their Faith, the other have soon after like wise done the same ; both which I shall place in order of time, that so a just estimation of their principles, and their near coherence with the other Protestant parties in this kingdom may appear. This seems to me the best and only method to answer the many misrepresentations which have been published by their ill-natured opponents, both of their principles and practices. (Crosby, History, vol. II, 345)
Concerning Thomas Grantham, Crosby notes that he was “an excellent apologist for the baptized churches in England…” (Crosby, History, vol. IV, vi) Quoting Grantham positively, he produces the following:
WE are ready in the preparation of our minds to believe and practice whatsoever the catholick church even of this present age doth universally and unanimously believe and practice… That however [the Baptists] were slandered and injuriously charged as schismatical, yet they were a body of her subjects, who claimed the titles of Christians and Protestants, and as such, hoped for a share in her zeal, for propagating and protecting the true religion. And that, [the Baptists] were Chriftians of the same orthodox faith, and of the same universal catholick church of God, of which her Majesty always professed her self a member, and of which the church of England, is declared to be a branch. (Crosby, History, vol. IV, xxiii)
Through a retrieval of Grantham, Crosby demonstrates a distinctly Baptist interest in the “universal catholick church of God” and in the “Protestant” way. Crosby, through Grantham, can assert catholicity between Baptists and certain paedobaptists while also stating the following:
And though it be neither lawful nor possible for us to hold actual communion with all sorts of Christians in all things; wherein they vary from the truth, yet even in those things we hold a communion with them in our desires, longing for their conversion and reunion with us in truth. (Crosby, History, vol. IV, xiii)
John Gill
Because John Gill does similarly to Crosby in admitting baptistic Christians throughout church history, e.g. the Waldenses and Albigenses, our Landmark friends often appeal to those areas of his work that seem most supportive of their position. But Gill, speaking of the universal church, writes:
There is another in which the church may be said to be catholic, or general, as it may consist of such in any age, and in the several parts of the world, who have true faith in Christ, and hold to him the head, and are baptized by one Spirit into one body; have one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, and are called in one hope of their calling; and this takes in, not only such who make a visible profession of Christ, but all such who are truly partakers of his grace; though they have not made an open profession of him in a formal manner; and this is the church which Polycarp called, the whole catholic church throughout the world… (John Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, vol. 2 [Tegg & Company, 1839], 561.)
Prior to the 19th century, Baptists utilized a distinction found in others, such as the 17th century congregationalist John Owen, to properly identify what made a church a gospel church — matter and form. Of the matter, Gill writes that it is, “regenerate persons… of whom it is meet to think, and, in a judgment of charity and discretion, to hope and conclude that God hath begun a good work in them…” (p. 563) The form “lies in mutual consent and agreement, in their covenant and consideration with each other.” (p. 565)
In other words, Gill doesn’t answer the question, “What makes a church a true church?” by an appeal to the proper mode and manner of baptism, but by describing fit matter and right form. Those to whom baptism ought be administered, and the mode by which it is administered, would be placed under the category of “church discipline.” (Cf. Benjamin Keach, The Glory of a True Church, Introduction & ch. 1) And indeed, so long as it has fit matter and right form, a church may still be a gospel church with poor discipline.
While they differed from their paedobaptist brethren, and urged a redress of their church government and administration of baptism, the men surveyed above generally held gospel-believing paedobaptist churches to be true (albeit irregular) churches.