A Review of
A Brief Defense of the Antiquity, History & Practice of the Baptists
By William Calmes Buck

      While in Columbus, Mississippi, William Calmes Buck wrote "A Brief Defense of the Antiquity, History & Practice of the Baptists" which was then published by McDowell & Kimbrough, Columbus, Mississippi in 1854. This book was actually two sermons. Each sermon was said to be three hours long! It appears that Wm. C. Buck delivered these sermons in response to a sermon delivered by a local pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He then edited his sermons for a wider audience.

      The book begins with a quote from Psalms 23.23: “Buy the Truth and Sell it not”. Wm. C. Buck then wrote “This is a divine aphorism; teaching the superior value of TRUTH above all other human attainments of possessions. I adopt it as an inspired maxim, and lay it down as the foundation of the discourses which I am to deliver before you this day. I have not quoted the text for exegesis, but as an exemplar to be followed and imitated in all that I may say.”

      Wm. C. Buck was adamantly against pedobaptism and pedobaptists (which he always wrote as Pedobaptists and Pedobaptism) and much of his sermon and book argue against pedobaptism.

      Pedobaptism is the practice of baptizing infants whereas Wm. C. Buck believed only in credobaptism; that is, a believer’s baptism. This belief put him strongly opposed to Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists and many other religions.

      Wm. C. Buck goes into some detail to point out that the first Christians were baptized believers and therefore essentially the first Baptists. Pedobaptism developed centuries later (amazing that he could even find some of his references and sources).

      "A Brief Defense of the Antiquity, History & Practice of the Baptists" is an extremely difficult book to read and must have been virtually impossible to follow as a sermon.

      Wm. C. Buck ends his book with “I say in all earnestness, to all who truly love our Lord Jesus Chris; do you not know that infant baptism – infant sprinkling, is an invention of ‘the man of sin’, a tradition of the papacy and the mark of the Apocalyptic Beast? Why not abandon this pernicious heresy, and take the Word of God, alone, for the rule of your faith and practice; upon which we may all meet ‘in the unity of the Spirit and the bonds of peace’.”

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[From George C. Buck, "Buck Family of Virginia" Blog. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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