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SECTION V : ORIENTAL CHURCHES CONTINUED.
It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude 3.
* Lardner, Cred. of the Gos. v. iii. p. 2, c. 47, p. 310.
† During the last century, baptism was viewed as preparing the soul for glory, and sequently, it was delayed for years, or till death approached. This delay and neglect, these prelates were anxious to recover the people from, and in their expressions and zeal for the ordinance, they brought the people to the other extreme, and pernicious consequences ensued.
360 Basil expressed to his people the bitter complaints those would make, who died unbaptized.
360 Gregory Nazianzen speaks of different punishments for different persons, in another world, which is to be regulated by their treatment of baptism.
374 Ambrose says, "For no one comes to the kingdom of heaven but by baptism. Those not baptized may have a freedom from punishment, which is not clear."
380 Chrysostum declares, there is no receiving the bequeathed inheritance before one is baptized.
388 Angustin asserts, "Salvation of a person is completed by baptism and conversion."
These assertions awakened each person under these prelates' charge, to receive baptism; the penitent, the prisoner, sickly persons and children, the dying, and dead bodies, received the purifying rite, in order to avoid the purgatory of the unbaptized. This was the strong limb to paedobaptism !!!
‡ Rob. Res. pp. 71—3.
* Mosheim History, C. 4, pt. 1, chapter 1, S 19. note. No one circumstance ever gave such footing, or ever strengthened national establishments so much, as infant baptism. Minor baptism was confined to no age; it might have been at fourteen years, as in the Georgian nation, which embraced Christianity under Constantine, Wall, pt. 2, p. 260, or at seven or six, as recorded, Rob. Hist. Bap. pp. 144, 299. But the general 381 delay of baptism was a distress to the clergy. Id. 249. Gregory at Constantinople, A. D., 381, and Austin, at Hippo, introduced new views and rites. The first considered children might be dipped at three years of age, Id. 349, and also babes, if in danger of death. Id. 249, as dying unbaptized, left their future state uncertain, ut sup.; the latter asserts, infants are baptized for the pardon of sin. Wall, i. 303. The anxiety on the part of the orthodox, to rescue children from the errors of the Arians, was in this age manifest. No way promised so much success as the obligations to keep the creed into which each was solemnly baptized. This charity in both parties, Arians and Trinitarians, furthered the infant cause, and gave additional importance to those interests which aspired to orthodoxy or eminency in numbers. See Eight causes furthering Paedobaptism, Rob. Bap. c. 27.
…375 Presbyter monk. "He excited divisions," says Mosheim,* throughout ARMENIA.† Pontus, and Cappadocia, by propagating opinions different from those that were commonly received. He condemned prayers for the dead, stated fasts, the celebration of Easter, and other rites of that nature, in which the multitudes erroneously imagine that the life and soul of religion consists. One of his principal tenets was, that the bishops were not distinguished from presbyters by any divine right; but, that according to the institution of the New Testament, their offices and authority were absolutely the same. His great purpose seems to have been that of reducing Christianity to its primitive simplicity.‡ He erected a new society, and we know, with the utmost certainty, that it was highly agreeable to many good Christians, who were no longer able to bear the tyranny and arrogance of the bishops of this century.
* Mosh. Hist. c. 4, p. 2, ch. 3, S 21.
† Wolf, the Missionary, says, "The priest (of Armenia) puts the child 1825 into the water, and washes the head with three handfuls of water, and prays, and saith, 'I baptize thee in the name,' &c., and then dips the child," &c., Bap. Mag. 1826, v. xviii. p. 29. This is confirmed by Missionaries 1832 Smith and Dwight, who say, according to the rules of the Armenian church, baptism consists in plunging the whole body in water three times, as the sacred formula is repeated. Miss. Resear. in Armenia, p. 512, & c. See Simon's Critical History of the Relig. and Customs of Eastern Nations, chap. 12 and 13, p. 134,&c.
church." Geog. v. ii. p. 48O, col. 1.
Each house in the East has its bagnio, where there is every convenience for bathing in hot or cold water, Lady Montague's Letters, let. 43, v. ii. Rob. Bap. c. 9.
"The Russians baptize adults in the river, by trine immersion," by Millar's Geog. ib. and see Authorities quoted in Robinson's Letter to Dr. Turner, Works, v. iv. p. 235.
Bathing was a practice of great antiquity; the Greeks, as well as the heroic age, are said to have constantly bathed. Immersion would to such be very agreeable, Floyer's Hist. of Bathing. Dr. G. S. Howard's New Royal Encyclo. v. i. Art. Bathing. Sir R. Ker Porter's Travels, v. i. p. 231. On Baths.
* Mahomet has rendered baptizo in the Koran, divine dying. Immersion is only one part, the tinging of the soul with faith and grace, is the other; or tincturing the mind with the doctrines of the gospel, we should say. In this way all through the Koran, he has fully translated the word, Rob. Bap. p. 7, and 493. But dying is not done by sprinkling or pouring, but the subject dyed is dipped. Gale's Ref. Let. 3, p. 83. The Mahometans are totally immersed, or bathed in water. Sale's Koran, v. i. s. 4, pp. 138-40. This mode of baptizing is further evident from the most respectable historians. The mosque of Damascus, says Dr. Pocock, has an octagon baptistery, View of the East, v. ii. b. 2, c. 8, p. 120. On each side of the mosque, are fountains for the purpose of washing before worship. Id. v. ii. b. 5, ch. 1, p. 128. No unbaptized person may enter a Mahometan church, Lon. Ency. v. i. p. 59, col. 2. Pitt's Relig. and Customs of the Mahom. pp. 80—2. Robins. Hist. Bap. c. 35. Gale's Ref. Let. 4, p. 122.
The Syrians, the Armenians, the Persians, and all the oriental nations, who must have understood the Greek word baptize, have practised dipping, and it is so rendered in their versions of the Scriptures, Rob. Hist. Bap. p. 7. Ryland's Cand. Reasons.
Baptizo is rendered to dip, by the Peshito, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Coptic, Gothic, German or Luther, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish versions. See Greenfield's Def. of the Mahratta version, pp. 40—44.
…with whom the Greek church was engaged in the most bitter and violent controversy. This drooping faction in 650 Armenia, he calls Manicheans, and says they were revived by Paul and John, two brothers, who revived the doctrine, and modified it, from which sprang a new sect. But as Dr. Mosheim's account is at variance with others, we shall select our materials of this new sect from other sources.
653 4. It was about the year 653, that a new sect came into notice in the East,* under the name of Paulicians, which deserves our attention. There resided in the city of Mananalis, in Armenia, an obscure person of the name of CONSTANTINE, with whom this sect appears to have originated. One day, a stranger called upon him, who had been a prisoner among the Saracens, in Syria, and having obtained his release, was returning home through this city; he was kindly received by Constantine, and entertained some days at his house. To requite the hospitality of his generous host, he gave Constantine two manuscripts, which he had brought out of Syria; and these were the four gospels, and the Epistles of the apostle Paul.
* In Vaughan's Life of Wickliff , v. i. c. 2, s. 1, p. 115, the denominational aspect of this sect is suppressed, though Gibbon has spoken out; this course is pursued through that work. Those who neglect part of the commission, are afraid to mention its performance in other denominations.
*Jones's Lect. on EC. Hist. v. ii. p. 179.
† History of Church, Cent. 9, ch. 2.
6. In confirmation of the above historian, as to their views of the ordinance of Baptism, we subjoin the authorities of a few respectable writers.
* Gibbon's Ro. Hist. Ch. 54.
* Jones's Lect. v. ii. p. 181.
† Rob. Bapt. p. 211; and Res. pp. 90 —93.
‡ Mosh. Hist., Cent. 2, pt. 2, ch. 5, S 4 and note.
S Rem. Ch. Pied. ch. 15, p. 138, and Rob. Bap., p. 497.
|| Ch. Hist. Cent. 9, ch. 2.
* Res. p. 90, and Hist. of Bap. p. 450.
† Milner's Ch. Hist. Cent. 9, ch. 2.
…embraced their views. In a little time, congregations were gathered in the provinces of Asia Minor, to the westward of the river Euphrates. Their opinions were also silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and in the kingdom beyond the Alps (France).
* Ro. Hist., ch. 54.
† Id. note, "The candor of Gibbon is remarkable in this part of his history."—Milner.
‡ Rob. Res. p. 80.
S Jortin's Rem. on Hist. v. iii., p. 498, and Lardner's Cred. of the Gosp. History, pt. 2, ch. 63, v. iii., p. 546.
|| Lardner, Id. p. 407.
* These two classes can be traced through the Albigensian, Waldensian, German, and Dutch Baptist Churches, from this parent stock.
† Mosh. Hist. C. 9. p. 2, ch. 5. S 5.
…COBOSSA, and disseminating his opinions all around. The united exertions of these people, their scriptural views, doctrine, discipline, and itinerating system, were attended with evident displays of divine approbation, and multitudes embraced a gospel simply and fully preached.
10. Alarmed at the progress these novel opinions were making, and discovering the growing importance of the Paulicians, the church party "engaged in the most bitter and virulent controversy with them." Ineffectual in their efforts the Greek emperors began to persecute them with the most sanguinary severity. The Paulicians were sentenced to be capitally punished, and their books, wherever found, to be committed to the flames; and further, that if any person was found to have secreted them, he was to be put to death, and his goods confiscated.
A Greek officer named Simeon, armed with legal and military authority, appeared at CORONIA to strike the shepherd, Sylvanus, and to reclaim, it possible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty, this minister of justice placed the unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples, who were commanded, as the price of their pardon, and as proof of their penitence, to stone to death their spiritual Father. The affectionate flock turned aside from the impious office; the stones dropped from their filial hands; and of the whole number, only one executioner could be found. This apostate, Justus, after putting Sylvanus to death, gained by some means admittance into communion, and again deceived and betrayed his unsuspecting brethren; and as many as were treacherously ascertained, and could be collected, were massed together into an immense pile, and by order of the emperor, consumed to ashes. Simeon, the officer, struck with astonishment at the readiness with which the Paulicians could die for their religion, examined their arguments, and became himself a convert, renounced his honors and fortune, and three years 692 afterwards went to Cobossa, and became the successor of Constantine Sylvanus, a zealous preacher among the Paulicians, and at last sealed his testimony with his blood.* To free the East from those troubles and commotions said to arise from the Paulician doctrines, a great number of them were transported into THRACE during this century; but still a greater number were left in Syria and the adjoining countries. From Thrace these people passed into Bulgaria and Sclavonia, where they took root, and settled in their own church order.
From these churches, at after periods colonies were sent out, and they are said to have inundated Europe, † though some relics of these ancient communities were to be traced till the fifteenth century.
* Milner and Jones, ut sup.
† Mosh. Hist. c. 11, p. 2, ch. 5, S 2, 3.
…could reach, he spread abroad the savor of the knowledge of Christ, and with such success, that the clergy in the hierarchies considered him to be the forerunner of Antichrist; and declared he was producing the great apostacy 703 foretold by Paul. The emperors, in conjunction with the clergy, exerted their zeal with a peculiar degree of bitterness and fury against this people. Though every kind of oppressive measure and means was used, yet all efforts for their suppression proved fruitless, "nor could all their power and all their barbarity, exhaust the 741 patience nor conquer the obstinacy of that inflexible people, who possessed," says Mosheim, "a fortitude worthy of a better cause"!!!
* Chambers' Cyclop. Art. Paulicians.
† Gibbon renders an indirect apology for the conduct of these people at this period. Hist. ch. 54.
…of their clerical oppressors, and also of taking refuge in those provinces governed by Saracens, and that in union with those barbarians, they infested the Grecian states.
…throughout different provinces. From Bulgaria they removed into Italy, and spreading themselves from thence through the other provinces of Europe, "they became extremely troublesome to the Roman pontiffs upon many occasions." Here the history of this interesting people rests, so far as it respects the Levant; but we shall give a slight statement of their migratory movements in order to make our future sections illustrative of these people, though under different names.
13. "From Italy," says Mosheim, "the Paulicians sent colonies into almost all the other provinces of Europe, and formed gradually a considerable number of religious assemblies, who adhered to their doctrine, and who realized every opposition and indignity from the popes. It is undoubtedly certain, from the most authentic records, that a 1050 considerable number of them were, about the middle of the eleventh century, settled in Lombardy, Insubria, but principally at Milan; and that many of them led a wandering life in France, Germany, and other countries, where they captivated the esteem and admiration of the multitude by their sanctity. In Italy, they were called Paterini and Cathari. In France, they were denominated Bulgarians, from the kingdom of their emigration, also Publicans, instead of Paulicians, and boni homines, good men; but were chiefly known by the term Albigenses, from the town of Alby, in the Upper Langue doc. The first religious assembly which the Paulicians 1017 formed in Europe is said to have been at Orleans, in the year 1017, on which we shall enlarge under the churches in France, to which we shall repair after we have traced their existence and labors in the kingdom of Italy.
14. Here we may be permitted to review the apostolic character and exertions of this extensive body of people, while we may express our surprise at the virulent opposition, the cruel measures used, and the extensive sacrifice of human life, for successive ages, on the alone ground of religious views. A special instance of divine grace was displayed in this people's rise and early success; and we must attribute their preservation and enlargement to the exercise of the same compassion. An evident mark of apostolic spirit possessed by this people must be admitted by all; without any funds or public societies to countenance or support the arduous undertaking, otherwise than their respective churches, the Paulicians fearlessly penetrated the most barbarous parts of Europe, and went single-handed, and single eyed, to the conflict with every grade of character. In several instances they suffered death or martyrdom, not counting their lives dear, so that they could promote the cause of their Redeemer. See Mosheim's History. Gibbon's Ro. Hist. ch. 54. Robinson's Eccl. Res. ch. 6, pp. 74—79. Jones's Lectures on Eccl. Hist. v. ii., pp. 179-184.

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