Featured Whitsitt controversy

Technically, immersion was prescribed by the first Book of Common Prayer (probably written or edited by Cranmer) in 1549 under Edward VI, although pouring was allowed for "weak" children. That was continued in the 1662 version, which is the last authorized revision. There is no instruction for baptizing adults.

The 1662 book also contained instructions for baptizing those of "riper" years, authorizing indifferently dipping or pouring. I suspect that the instructions for adults arose from England's imperialistic affairs, which resulted in adults being candidates for baptism. (It's also not unlikely that, after more than a century of religious strife, there were many adults who had not been baptized as children at all.)

 

RLVaughn has pointed out that baptism, in the English church (both Catholic and Protestant) was for children, not adults. The mode, in that case, is irrelevant to believer's baptism being discussed in the Jessey document.

 

Busher is a wild card in this story. Was he a Baptist? (Christian thought so; Vedder thought it incontrovertible.) Did he actually baptize by immersion or did he just advocate it?

W.T. Whitley, a Baptist minister who once held that English Baptists were a result of the cross-pollination of Separatism and Anabaptism (not an unreasonable conclusion, I think) said that Busher had "nothing at all to do with Helwys and Murton."

This would not matter except that Christian tries to tie Busher to Smyth and Helwys (apparently wanting to maintain the connection with Anabaptists on the Continent to keep with his successionist beliefs).

Christian also maintains that Smyth was baptized by immersion in 1604. H.M. Dexter (admittedly a Congregationalist and a supporter of infant baptism) subjected Christian's evidence to a far more scathing scrutiny than Christian did of the Jessey documents and finds so many discrepancies as to render it worthless.

Christian buttresses his case with quotes from other scholars that Smyth baptized himself by immersion, without any proof.

 

"The Ministration of Publick Baptism of Infants" - Book of Common Prayer, 1662.

"Then the Priest shall take the Child into his hands, and shall say to the Godfathers and Godmothers, Name this Child. And then naming it after them (if they shall certify him that the Child may well endure it) he shall dip it in the Water discreetly and warily, saying,
I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

But if they certify that the Child is weak, it shall suffice to pour Water upon it, saying the foresaid words, I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

In 1689 this was changed to "And then naming it after them, he shall pour or sprinkle Water upon it, or (if they shall certify him that the Child may well endure it) he shall dip it in the Water discreetly and warily, saying, I baptize thee In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

 

Kiffin's pamphlet is at http://particularbaptistlibrary.org/LIBRARY/Ecclesiology/A Brief remonstrance Wm Kiffin.pdf.

George A. Lofton's defense of Whitsitt (which has been mentioned in passing, I believe, though it may not be on this thread) is at https://books.google.com/books?id=4...SzFBJM4ChDoAQg1MAc#v=onepage&q=busher&f=false

 

What little we know of Busher provides no help in determining whether he ever baptized anyone by immersion — or that he baptized anyone at all. It may have been a purely intellectual (or spiritual) exercise. Luther advocated immersion, but he never put it into practice.

Was Busher a Baptist? The standard answer is that he was — because he advocated immersion. We're talking in circles here; we're assuming that holding to immersion is the single distinguishing characteristic of Baptists to the exclusion of everything else (although Busher does hold to another Baptist basic principle, absolute freedom of conscience in religion.) Was Alexander Campbell a Baptist because he practiced immersion in spite of his other disagreements with the Baptists?

We have an extensive record of other early Baptists (such as Murton) who repeatedly rail against paedobaptism yet never mention the proper mode of credobaptism. It seems to me that advocating credobaptism over paedobaptism was much more subservice to the established order than was immersion, so why would they fail to mention the mode?