the wounded, and to dry the tears of the weeping eyes; to convince, sinners, to edify saints, and to build up Zion in her most holy faith; to bring sinners to repentance, to restore backsliders, and to settle the minds of wavering souls. Religion appears to have been the element in which he breathed; religious duties his constant delight; and the dignity of his whole deportment was such, that it interested the feelings of all who knew him.

Our Welsh historians inform us, that there were several other noted ministers among the Welsh Baptists, at that time; such as Cadog, Dewi, and many more. In what respects they were noted, we have not been able to ascertain. Neither have we seen all the written documents relative to them, which might have been interesting to the public, as some of them have never been printed in any language.

Infant Baptism was in vogue long before this time in many parts of the world, but not in Britain. The ordinances of the gospel were then administered exclusively there, according to the primitive mode. Baptism by immersion, administered to those who professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Welsh people considered the only bap tism of the New Testament. That was their unanimous sentiment as a nation, from the time the Christian religion was embraced by them in 63, until a considerable time after the year 600. As soon as any of them renounced paganism during that period, they embraced Christianity, not as corrupted by the Romans, but as founded by Christ and his apostles. This we assert to be a fact that cannot be controverted; for the proof of which, we refer our readers to the dispute between Austin and the ministers in Wales, sometime after the year 600. When Austin came from Rome to convert the Saxons from paganism to popery. Having succeeded in a great measure in England, he tried his experiments upon the Welsh; but was disappointed. At this period the Welsh were not ignorant pagans like the Saxons, but they were intelligent, well-informed Christians. It is true, they had no national religion; they had not connected church and state together; for they believed that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world.

However, they agreed to meet with Austin, in an association held on the borders of Herefordshire. Austin said he would propose three things to the Welsh ministers and messengers of the different churches of the Principality. First, he proposed infant baptism. He was immediately answered by the Welsh, that they would keep this ordinance, as well as other things, as they had received them from the apostolic age. On hearing

this, Austin was exceedingly wroth, and persuaded the Saxons to murder one thousand and two hundred of the Welsh ministers and delegates, there present; and many more afterwards were put to death, because they would not submit to infant baptism. The leading men being dead, king Cadwalader and the majority of the Welsh people submitted to popery; at that time more out of fear than love. Those good people that did not submit, were almost buried in its smoke; so that we know but little of them from that time to the Reformation.*

Since the above was written, we find that Theophilus Evans, in his Drych y prif oesoedd, or Looking-glass of the Ancient Ages, could see the remnant of the Welsh Baptists, through the darkness of popery, to the year 1000. And Peter Williams, a Methodist preacher, who wrote an exposition on the Old and New Testaments in Welsh, has followed them through the thick clouds till they were buried out of his sight in the smoke, in the year of our Lord 1115. However, it is a fact that cannot be controverted, that from this time to the Reformation there were many individuals in Wales, like the seven thousand left in Israel, whose knees had never bowed to this Baal of Rome. Since we wrote the foregoing translation, we have seen Benedict's History of the Baptist denomination in America, and take the liberty of making the following quotation from his works:

"About sixty years after the ascension of our Lord, Christianity was planted in Britain, and a number of the royal blood, and many of inferior birth, were called to be saints. Here the gospel flourished much in early times, and here also its followers endured many afflictions and calamities from pagan persecutions. The British Christians experienced various changes of prosperity and adversity, until about the year 600. A little previous to this period, Austin the monk, that famous Pedobaptist persecutor, with about forty others, were sent here by Pope Gregory the Great, to convert the Saxon pagans to popery, and to subject them to the dominion of Rome. The enterprise succeeded, and conversion (or rather perversion) work was performed on a large scale. King Ethelbert and his court, and a considerable part of his kingdom, were won over by the suc cessful monk, who consecrated the river Swale, near York, in which he caused ten thousand of his converts to be baptized in one day. Having met with so much success in England, he

* See Acts and Monuments, p. 149. Preface to Crosby, vol. 2. Drych y prif oesoedd, p. 249. Dr. Godwin's Catalogue, p. 43. Thomas's History of the Baptists in Wales, first part.

+ Thomas's History of the Baptists in Wales, published in Welsh,

6

There were many times, to avoid the The monk held a

resolved to try what he could do in Wales. British Christians who fled hither in former brutal ravages of the outrageous Saxons. synod in their neighborhood, and sent to their pastors to request them to receive the pope's commandment; but they utterly refused to listen to either the monk or pope, or to adopt any of their maxims. Austin meeting with this prompt refusal, endeavored to compromise matters with these strenuous Welshmen, and requested that they would consent to him in three things; one of which was, that they should give baptism to their children. But with none of his proposals would they comply. Sins, therefore,' said this zealous apostle of popery and pedobaptism, 'ye wol not receive peace of your brethren, ye of other shall have warre and wretche.' And accordingly he brought the Saxons upon them to shed their innocent blood, and many of them lost their lives for the name of Jesus. The Baptist historians in England, contend that the first British Christians were Baptists, and that they maintained Baptist principles until the coming of Austin. 'We have no mention,' says the author of the Memoirs, of the christening or baptizing children in England, before the coming of Austin in 597; and to us it is evident, that he brought it not from heaven but from Rome.' But though the subjects of baptism began now to be altered, the mode of it continued in the national church a thousand years longer, baptism was administered by dipping. From the coming of Austin, the church in this island was divided into two parts, the old and the new. The old, or Baptist church, maintained the original principles. But the new church adopted Infant Baptism, and the rest of the multiplying superstitions of Rome."*

Austin's requesting the Ancient British Christians, who opposed his popish mission, to baptize their children, is a circumstance which the English and Welsh Baptists consider of the greatest importance. They infer from it, that before Austin's time, infant baptism was not practised in the Isle of Britain, and that though he converted multitudes to his Pedobaptist plan, yet many, especially in Wales and Cornwall, opposed it; and the Welsh Baptists contend, that Baptist principles were maintained in the recesses of their mountainous Principality, all along through the dark reign of popery.

"God had a regular chain of true and faithful witnesses in this country, in every age, from the first introduction of Christianity to the present time, who never received nor acknowledged

* Benedict's History of the Baptist Denomination in America, p. 190.

the pope's supremacy: like the thousands and millions of the inhabitants of the vale of Piedmont, residing on green and fruitful meadows, surrounded by high and lofty mountains, sepa. rated from other nations, as if the all-wise Creator had made them on purpose, as places of safety for his jewels that would not bow the knee to Baal."*

No wonder, then, that Dr. Mosheim said that the true origin of that sect called Anabaptists, is hid in the depth of antiquity. Dr. Richard Davis, Bishop of Monmouth, said, "there was a vast difference between the Christianity of the Ancient Britons, and that mock Christianity introduced by Austin into England, in 596; for the Ancient Britons kept their Christianity pure, without any mixture of human traditions, as they received it from the disciples of Christ, and from the church of Rome when she was pure, adhering strictly to the rules of the word of God."

President Edwards of America, said: "In every age of this dark time, (of popery,) there appeared particular persons in all parts of Christendom, who bore a testimony against the corruptions and tyranny of the church of Rome. There is no one age of Antichrist, even in the darkest times, but ecclesiastical historians mention by name, who manifested an abhorrence of the pope and his idolatrous worship, and pleaded for the ancient purity of doctrine and worship. God was pleased to maintain an uninterrupted succession of many witnesses through the whole time, in Britain, as well as in Germany and France; private persons and ministers; some magistrates and persons of great distinction. And there were numbers, in every age, who were persecuted and put to death for this testimony."+

The faith and discipline of the Scottish churches in Ireland, were the same with the British churches, and their friendship and communion reciprocal. The ordinances of the gospel in both islands, at this time, were administered in their primitive mode. The venerable Bede says, that the supremacy of Rome was unknown to the ancient Irish. The worship of saints and images was held in abhorrence, and no ceremonies used which were not strictly warranted by Scripture. All descriptions of people were not only allowed but desired to consult the sacred writings as their only rule of conduct.

In short, from what we have stated, and the evidence produced by the learned Archbishop Usher, quoted by the Rev.

* See Doctrine of Baptism, by Benjamin Jones, P. A. Mon. p. 149; and Sir Samuel Moreland.

+ Edwards's History of Redemption, p. 205.

William Hamilton, "we have the strongest reason to conclude that these islands enjoyed the blessings of a pure enlightened piety, such as our Savior himself taught, unembarrassed by any of the idle tenets of the Romish church.

"When we cast our eyes on King Henry the second, advancing towards this devoted nation, bearing the bloody sword of war in one hand, and the iniquitous bull of Pope Adrian in the other, we have one of the strongest arguments to prove that this was not originally an island of popish saints, and that the jurisdiction of Rome unquestionably was not established here."*

Respecting the Culdduon, singular Culdu,† or Culddu, the plural of which our English friends made to end in s—thus, Culdees-Bede says "preached only such work of piety and charity as they could learn from the prophetical, evangelical, and apostolical writings. They firmly opposed the errors and superstitions of the church of Rome. When the Romish monks poured into the kingdom, they supplanted the Culdduon, or Culdees, and by degrees got possession of their colleges.

"The Culdees existed no longer in colleges, but they continued to teach true Christianity apart; so that the reign of error in these parts was very short, and the darkness of the night was intermixed with the light of many stars."

The above is taken from the Parish church, in the Religious Magazine published in Philadelphia, in 1829. Note how remarkably well this agrees with the Welsh History of the Baptists, in the fact that the darkness of the night of popery was intermixed with many brilliant stars of Baptist ministers and Baptist members, who maintained Baptist sentiments as they received them of the apostles in the year 63, to the present time.

It is well known to all who are acquainted with the history of Great Britain, that Carleon, in South Wales, was a renowned city in past ages, and a notable place for religion. In the tenth persecution under Dioclesian, the pagan Roman Emperor, many of the seed of Gomer suffered much. No less than three of those martyrs were citizens of Carleon: Julius, Aaron, and Amphibal, Baptist ministers. Many of the Welsh writings, which were more valuable than the precious gold, were de stroyed at that time, which was about the year 285. And it

*Bede, Vita S. Columbi. Bede, Hist. Gent. Angl. lib. 3, c. 27. Brit. de Hiberni, p. 703. Vide a curious treatise of Archbishop Usher on the religion of the Ancient Irish. Vide Harding's Chron. c. 241. Also Hamilton's Letter, p. 38 and 43. Also Bishop Lloyd's Historical Account.

† Culdu is a compound Welsh word. Cul, thin; du, black. Gwr cul du, a thin black man; a thin, grave, dark-looking man,