This appellation is given to those who hold the imposition of hands, subsequent to baptism, and generally on the admission of candidates into the church, as an indispensable prerequisite for church membership and communion. They support their peculiar principle chiefly from Heb.6:1, 2 -- "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment," As these two verses contain six distinct propositions, one of which is the laying on of hands, these brethren have, from thence, acquired the name of Six-Principle Baptists, to distinguish them from others, whom they sometimes call Five-Principle Baptists. They have fourteen churches in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.