Early English Baptist texts

There is a new series of books with writings by Baptists that is entitled Early English Baptist Texts.

I obtained and read one book in that series. It is entitled The Life and Writings of Thomas Helwys by Joe Early, Jr. It is printed by Mercer University Press. Its copyright is 2009.

 

The projected titles listed in the first book about Thomas Helwys include the following:

Collected Writings of John Smyth

John Murton and the General Baptists

Collected Works of Hanserd Knollys

Katherine Sutton

Collected Works of William Kiffin

Thomas Grantham

 

This book Life and Writings of Thomas Helwys has a short biography of his life (pp. 14-50), and then it has a reprint of his known writings (pp, 53-303).

His most famous writing was entitled A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity in which he advocated a defense of freedom of religion. It has been claimed that Helwys made the first appeal in English for complete religious liberty. He claimed that the first beast in the book of Revelation was the Roman Catholic Church and that the second beast was the Church of England.

Helwys sent a copy of this writing to King James I, and the king had Helwys thrown into Newgate prison where he stayed until he died.