44 BAPTISTS, The, Their origin, Sylvester Hassell It is exceedingly interesting to notice the candid admission of the careful Lutheran historian, J. L. Mosheim, in reference to the origin of the Baptists. “The true origin of the Anabaptists or Mennonites (or Baptists),” says this learned and impartial writer, “is hidden in the depths of antiquity, and is, of consequence, extremely difficult to be ascertained. They are not entirely in an error when they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrusians and other ancient sects, who are usually considered as witnesses of the truth in the times of general darkness and superstition. Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay concealed in almost all the countries of Europe, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and Germany, many persons who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrine, which the Waldenses, Wycliffites and Hussites had maintained, some in a more disguised, and others in a more open and public manner, viz.: “That the kingdom of Christ, or the visible church which he established upon earth, was an assembly of true and real saints, and ought, therefore, to be inaccessible to the wicked and unrighteous, and also exempt from all those institutions which human prudence suggests, to oppose the progress of iniquity, or to correct and reform transgressors.”
I know of no people who are, by their principles, so closely identified as Old School or Bible Baptists with this primitive, spiritual, truly apostolical succession.
Again: Two learned members of the Dutch Reformed Church, Ypieg and Dermont, the first a professor of theology at Groningnen, and the second the Royal Chaplain, appointed by the King of Holland to examine into the origin and history of the Dutch Baptists, made a careful investigation of the facts, and in their book, published in 1819, made the following important declaration as the result of their careful and impartial researches: “The Baptists may be considered as the only Christian society which has stood since the days of the Apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrine of the gospel through all ages. The notion of the Catholics that their communion is the most ancient is erroneous.” The doctrine of the gospel is, I believe, nowhere else maintained in such purity as among Bible Baptists.” (Hassell’s History ppg 470,471)