A General History of the Sabbatarian Churches: Embracing Accounts of the Armenian, East Indian, and Abyssinian Episcopacies in Asia and Africa, the Waldenses, Semi-Judaisers, and Sabbatarian Anabaptists of Europe; with the Seventh-day Baptist Denominaton in the United StatesDavis, Tamar
Religion
A General History of the Sabbatarian Churches: Embracing Accounts of the Armenian, East Indian, and Abyssinian Episcopacies in Asia and Africa, the Waldenses, Semi-Judaisers, and Sabbatarian Anabaptists of Europe; with the Seventh-day Baptist Denominaton in the United States
Davis, Tamar
Sabbatarians -- History
There does not appear to have been any regularly organized churches of
Sabbatarians in England, until the commencement of the seventeenth
century, though subsequent to that period there were eleven of these
fraternities, besides many scattered Sabbath-keepers, in different parts
of the kingdom. These churches were located in the following places,
viz.: Braintree, in Essex; Chersey; Norweston; Salisbury, in Wiltshire;
Sherbourne, in Buckinghamshire; Natton, in Gloucestershire; Wallingford,
in Berkshire; Woodbridge, in Suffolk; and three in London—the Mill-Yard,
Cripplegate, and Pinner's Hall Churches. Eight of the eleven are now
extinct, and hence a complete account of them cannot be obtained.
A very interesting correspondence between the Mill-Yard Church and the
General Conference of the Seventh-day Baptists in the United States has
been carried on for the last fifty years. In 1844, George B. Utter, as
delegate from that body, visited the brethren in England, where he was
hospitably entertained. The worthy pastor of the Mill-Yard Church is, I
understand, collecting materials for a history of the Lives and Writings
of Sabbatarians in England, and likewise preparing a list of Sabbatarian
authors, together with an account of all the books which have been
published that relate to the Sabbath controversy.
From an attention to the foregoing it will be perceived that
Sabbatarianism has greatly declined in England; and that decline seems
to have been produced by the operation of a variety of causes. There are
certainly great inconveniences, particularly in large towns and cities,
connected with the observance of a day of rest so utterly at variance
with the popular custom as that of the seventh day has ever been. This,
with that spirit of conformity by which men are ever prone to accede to
established usages, together with the fact that they never instituted
any associational organization, sufficiently accounts for their early
declension, without supposing any unsoundness in their creed.[35]
We have every reason to believe that formerly, and down so late as the
commencement of the seventeenth century, Seventh-day Baptist churches,
of considerable magnitude, existed at the foot of the Grampians, and
among the Welsh mountains, but their history appears to be buried in
oblivion.
I have also been recently informed that there is a Seventh-day Baptist
church near Burton-upon-Trent, and nine miles from Derby. That a Mr.
Witt, in 1832, officiated as pastor. That they own a large brick
meeting-house, in which their meetings are solemnized every Sabbath day,
and are a very respectable body of people.
[15] Historical Annals, published in Paris, 1667, p. 230.
[16] With the former inhabitants of the valleys, whom they closely
resembled in principles and practices, and to whom, in times of
persecution, they would naturally fly for refuge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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