Mick - I have been working on a book for a few years on The Story of Radical Christianity - one of the elements to the book is the place of the power and gifts of the Spirit in Church history - you would be shocked at how much there is. Anyway, because of my interests, I have a
large section on the early Baptists....let me share just a little (there is much more):
Apostolic Messengers
Thomas Grantham, a leader among the seventeenth century General Baptists, wrote:
"The first Churches had a Ministry of many Apostles or Messengers, beside the chief Apostles. This Ministry was never taken away, or de jure made to cease. Therefore the Church of Christ has, or ought to have, such a Ministry of Apostles or Messengers to the end of the World."
Primitive Christianity, Book IV, Treatise V, p. 159
Anointing of Oil for the sick :
"Thomas Grantham wrote: "The gift of healing, is not wholly taken away, if we dare believe our Eyes, or the persons who have been restored to health very suddenly, at the earnest Prayer of Faithful men, and often times in the use of that ordinance James 5:14."Primitive Christianity p.38.
Morgan Edwards related the following example of the pastor Hugh Davis:
"Some years before his death he had a severe pain in his arm, which gradually wasted the limb and made life a burden. After trying many remedies he sent for the elders of the church to anoint him with oil, according to James v: 14-17. the effect was a perfect cure, so far that the pain never returned. One of the elders concerned (from whom I had this relation) is yet alive [1770], and succeeds Mr. Hugh Davis in the ministry, viz, Rev. John Davis." Materials Vol. I, p.28.
When Hansard Knollys (early Particular Baptist) was sick, he called for the elders to anoint him with oil:
"I resolved to take no more physic, but would apply to that holy ordinance of God, appointed by Jesus Christ, the great Physician of value, in James 5:14, 15:—‘Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him:’—and I sent for Mr. Kiffin and Mr. Vavasor Powell, who prayed over me, and anointed me with oil in the name of the Lord. The Lord did hear prayer, and heal me; for there were many godly ministers and gracious saints that prayed day and night for me (with submission to the will of God), that the Lord would spare my life, and make me more serviceable to His Church, and to His saints, whose prayers God heard; and as an answer to their prayers I was perfectly healed, but remained weak long after." Quoted by Cramp.
http://www.reformedreader.org/history/cramp/s06ch12.htm.
The Old Baptist Union of Great Britain (of which I was a member when I lived in England) still teaches ‘the possibility and privilege of divine healing’, citing in support, 1 Corinthians 12:9, and James 5:14-15. It was practiced amongst the Shubal Stearns Separatist Baptists also.
Baptism with the Spirit by Laying on of Hands after Baptism
The General Baptist 1660 Confession says:
"That it is the duty of all such who are believers baptized to draw nigh unto God in submission to that principle of Christ’s doctrine, to wit, prayer and laying on of hands, that they may receive the promise of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:1, 2; Acts 8:12, 15, 17; 2 Tim. 1:6), whereby they may mortify the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:13), and live in all things answerable to their professed intentions and desires, even to the honour of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvellous light."
The General Baptist Orthodox Creed of 1678 likewise stated:
"Prayer, with imposition of hands by the bishop, or Elder, on baptized believers, as such, for the reception of the holy promised spirit of Christ, we believe is a principle of Christ’s doctrine, and ought to be practiced and submitted to by every baptized believer in order to receive the promised spirit of the father and son."
This doctrine of the laying on of hands is still taught today in some General Baptist churches, such as the Old Baptist Union, which has congregations in England, Wales, and the Netherlands. Henry Squire who founded the Union in the 1880s in Stoke Newington, London, had met with Six Principle Baptists in Rhode Island, where he learned of the practice. At one of these churches in Stockwell, a nineteen year old young man named
Frank W Boreham received the laying on of hands. He was to become a famous Australian Baptist minister.
He recorded in his autobiography (My Pilgrimage) how "it really did seem to me that a gracious tide of spiritual power poured itself into my soul, and, for weeks afterwards, I lived in such ecstasy that I could scarcely believe that the earth on which I was walking was the dusty old earth to which I had always been accustomed."
Curing Demonic Oppression
The year 1653 "One of the members of the congregation, sister Tylly by name, had a daughter then about – years of age, that was bewitched as termed; but the child was very much changed and had strange fits, and as it were haunted by an evil spirit, that it would say such a woman was in the room; though they carried it to Bath. The whole church put apart a day for it to seek the Lord by fasting and prayer, when brother Jessey was here, and the child was restored well as before and to this day. The glory only be given to our God."
Records of the Church of Christ Meeting at Broadmead, Bristol 1640 – 1687, cited Henry Cadbury, George Fox’s Book of Miracles, p.3.
Have the Gifts Ceased?
In his work, St Paul’s Catechism, answering the question, "But are not the gifts of the Spirit ceased," Grantham writes, "No such matter! unless our unworthiness deprive us of them. Are not these exhortations still in force? Covet earnestly the best Gifts. Follow after Charity, and desire spiritual Gifts, and rather than ye may prophesy. Covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with Tongues."
"the truth," he adds, "is that Miracles are rarely found, yet from what mine Eyes have seen, and from what I have heard by report from some, whom charity will not suffer me to think would affirm an untruth, I may not say (as some) they are not at all to be found."
Hansard Knollys looked for a time when these things would be restored to the Church:
"The gifts of the Holy Spirit shall be restored in the last days, [...] Acts 2:17, 18, And it shall come to pass in the last days (saith God) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, etc. This is that which God has promised and will again perform … And it shall come to pass (saith God) in the last Days, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, etc. 1 Cor. 12:4, There are diversities of Gifts, but the same spirit. As in the Days of the Apostles, so shall it be in the last Days, Joel 2:21, 28, 29, much more poured forth… The Anointings of the Spirit, the Gifts and powerful operations of the Spirit will be upon Virgin Professors [both the wise and foolish Virgins] in the later Days."
The Parable of the Kingdom of Heaven Expounded, 1674.
Concluding Remarks
Lastly, here is a quote from the Baptist historian Vedder concerning Baptists in the seventeenth century:
"Fasting was a common observance, feet-washing was practised by many churches, though its obligation was earnestly questioned, and the anointing of the sick was so common as to be almost the rule. Pastors and deacons were often elected by the casting of lots, and love feasts before the Lord’s Supper were a common practice."
Congragulations on being a "full Baptist"!
Dean
