Oates, Rev. Samuel, charged with Murder for Baptizing a Lady, who died soon after.

Visiting Essex, England, in 1646, he preached in several places, and baptized large numbers of people. This created great indignation among Pedobaptists (baby baptizers), and especially among the ministers.

They endeavored to stir up the magistrates to arrest Mr. Oates, but they had no charge against him, and they were afraid to imprison him.

Among those baptized by Mr. Oates was a young woman, named Anne Martin, who died a few weeks after, her baptism.

This furnished the clergymen the charge which they required, and forthwith Mr. Oates was sent to jail, accused of murdering Anne Martin by administering immersion to her.

He was actually tried for his life at Chelmsford assizes for this dreadful crime: In that day in the writings of Pedobaptists immersion was frequently denounced as a very dangerous practice, and some branded the Baptists as “a cruel and murdering sect for using it.”

If the trial against Mr. Oates had been successful it would not only have sent him to the gallows, but it would have been a heavy blow at the administration of the Saviour’s only baptism.

Great efforts, Mr. Crosby tells us, were made to secure the conviction of Oates; it was asserted that he held Miss Martin so long in the water that she immediately became sick, and stated on her death-bed that the dipping caused her fatal illness; all the falsehoods told about her case, on the trial, were completely exposed. Several witnesses were produced, and among them her own mother, whose testimony proved that she had better health for several days after her baptism than she had enjoyed for years before.

(Crosby’s History of the English Baptists, i. 236-240. London, 1738.)

Roger William Heritage Archives Editors. (2003; 2003). Baptist Biographies. Roger Williams Heritage Archives.

Separatist Baptist Daniel Marshall, who was sixty-five years old, introduced Baptist principles into Georgia on January 1, 1771.

The scene is in a sylvan grove, and Daniel Marshall is on his knees making the opening prayer.

While he beseeches the Throne of Grace, a hand is laid on his shoulder, and he hears a voice say: “You are my prisoner!”

Rising, the sedate, earnest-minded man of God, whose sober mien and silvery locks indicate the sixty-five years which have passed since his birth, finds himself confronted by an officer of the law.

He is astonished at being arrested, under such circumstances, “for preaching in the Parish of St. Paul!” for, in so doing he has violated the legislative enactment of 1758, which established religious worship in the colony “according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England.” Rev. Abraham, in his sketch of his father, published in the Analytical Repository, 1802, says that the arrested preacher was made to give security for his appearance in Augusta on the following Monday, to answer for this violation of the law, adding: “Accordingly, he stood a trial, and after his meekness and patience were sufficiently exercised, he was ordered to come, as a preacher, no more into Georgia.”

The reply of Daniel Marshall was similar to that of the Apostles under similar circumstances, “Whether it be right to obey God or man, judge ye;” and, “consistently with this just and spirited replication, he pursued his luminous course.”

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Luther Rice, who returned to America to arouse the Baptists to the support of Judson and foreign missions, was a most remarkable man. He was not without faults, he made mistakes, but his virtues and zeal outshone them all. He has been described as follows:

By nature he was endowed with many of the essential attributes of an effective speaker. His appearance was highly prepossessing. Above the ordinary height, with a robust and perfectly erect form, there was at once produced on the mind of the beholder a most favorable impression.

None could fail to entertain respect, for it was demanded by a peculiar dignity of appearance and manner. Especially was this true, when he arose in the pulpit. With a full face, and comparatively small eyes, there was sometimes rather a dull and heavy cast of countenance, which immediately changed when he became animated by speaking; his voice was clear and melodious. He had but little action, which, however, was appropriate and graceful.

He was, at all times, when he addressed an assembly, remarkable for selfpoesession. Nothing seemed capable of discomposing his mind. Perhaps few speakers have been apparently less affected by external circumstances; whatever might be the character of the congregation, whether large or small, intelligent or ignorant, whether in the city or country, he was always distinguished for the same dignity and readiness of utterance. … The style of Mr. Rice’s sermons was, in many respects, superior.

A refined, critical taste, could, perhaps, have discovered, at times, a redundancy of words and phrases; but this was no more than might have been expected from discourses which were always extemporaneous, especially when it is known that the multiplicity of other duties allowed but little time for preparation. … The moment he began to speak, attention was roused, and uniformly the interest thus awakened was kept up throughout the services. The clearness of his conceptions, the accuracy and force of his language and the solemn dignity of his manner, all contributed to render him one of the most interesting public speakers of our land. Occasionally, his eloquence was overpowering, particularly when he advocated the more sublime doctrines of our holy religion.

Indeed, in the discussion of such topics, he may be regarded as having been most felicitous. There seems to have been a coincidence between the operations of his own mind, and those truths which, in their very nature, are vast and grand. The terribleness of Jehovah’s wrath, the severity of his justice, and the rectitude of all of his decisions, were themes which gave ample scope to his vigorous intellect, and in the discussion of which, he was not only instructive, but exceedingly impressive (Taylor, Memoir of Luther Rice, one of the First American Missionaries of the East, 271-273. Baltimore, 1841).

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