fession thus: "If any take this that we
have said to be heresy, then do we with the apostle freely confess, that
after the way which they call heresy worship we the God of our fathers,
believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets and
Apostles, desiring from our souls to disclaim all heresies and opinions
which are not after Christ, and to be stedfast, unmovable, always abounding
in the work of the Lord, as knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the
Lord." The "breathing time" was not of long continuance. Soon after the
Restoration (1660) the meetings of nonconformists were continually
disturbed and preachers were fined or imprisoned. One instance of these
persecutions will, perhaps, be more impressive than any general statements.
In the records of the Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol, we find this
remark: "On the 29th of November 1685 our pastor, Brother Fownes, died in
Gloucester jail, having been kept there for two years and about nine months
a prisoner, unjustly and maliciously, for the testimony of Jesus and
preaching the gospel. He was a man of great learning, of a sound judgment,
an able preacher, having great knowledge in divinity, law, physic, &c.; a
bold and patient sufferer for the Lord Jesus and the gospel he preached."

[v.03 p.0373] With the Revolution of 1688, and the passing of the Act of
Toleration in 1689, the history of the persecution of Baptists, as well as
of other Protestant dissenters, ends. The removal of the remaining
disabilities such as those imposed by the Test and Corporation Acts
repealed in 1828, has no special bearing on Baptists more than on other
nonconformists. The ministers of the "three denominations of
dissenters,"--Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists,--resident in London
and the neighbourhood, had the privilege accorded to them of presenting on
proper occasions an address to the sovereign in state, a privilege which
they still enjoy under the name of "the General Body of Protestant
Dissenting Ministers of the three Denominations." The "General Body" was
not organized until 1727.

The Baptists, having had a double origin, continued for many years in two
sections--those who in accordance with Arminian views held the doctrine of
"General Redemption," and those who, agreeing with the Calvinistic theory,
held the doctrine of "Particular Redemption"; and hence they were known
respectively as General Baptists and Particular Baptists. In the 18th
century