Chapter 26

The Rev. Robert Hall, of England, one of the most learned and eloquent Baptist ministers of the age, was an unflinching opposer of the practice of “close communion,” which he denounced as “unchristian and unnatural.” In a tract written in defence of his views on this subject, he remarks, “It is too much to expect an enlightened public will be eager to enroll themselves among the members of a sect which displays much of the intolerance of Popery, without any portion of its splendor, and prescribes, as the pledge of conversion, the renunciation of the whole Christian world.”

In reference to the mode of baptism, Mr. Hall says, “I would not myself baptize in any other way than by immersion, because I look upon immersion as the ancient mode; that it best represents the meaning of the original term employed, and the substantial import of this institution; and because I should think it right to guard against the spirit of innovation, which, in positive rites, is always dangerous and progressive; _but I should not think myself authorized to rebaptize any one who has been sprinkled in adult age_.”

This class of Baptists are found chiefly in the western and northern parts of the state of New York. They number between forty and fifty churches and ministers.

TRANSCENDENTALISTS.

TRANSCENDENT and TRANSCENDENTAL are technical terms in philosophy. According to their etymology, (from _transcendere_,) they signify that which goes beyond a certain limit; in philosophy, that which goes beyond, or transcends, the circle of experience, or of what is perceptible by the senses. Properly speaking, all philosophy is in this sense transcendental, because all philosophical investigations rise above the sensual, even if they start from that which is perceptible by the senses. But philosophical inquiries are to be distinguished according as they proceed from experience, or from principles and ideas not derived from that source. The latter sort are called, in a narrower sense, _pure_, or _transcendental_. The school of Kant makes a still further distinction: it gives the name of _transcendental_ to that which does not, indeed, originate from experience, but yet is connected with it, because it contains the grounds of the possibility of experience; but the term _transcendent_ it applies to that which cannot be connected with experience, but transcends the limit of possible experience and of philosophizing.

As applied in this country, especially when used as a term of reproach, Transcendentalism would designate a system which builds on feeling, rather than on reason, and relies more on the imagination than on the judgment. In the main, however, the Transcendentalists are persons who hold that man has the power to perceive intuitively truths which transcend the reach of the senses; but they divide, some taking the unction of Sentimentalism, and others of Mysticism.

AUGSBURG CONFESSION OF FAITH.

The first Protestant Confession was that presented, in 1530, to the diet of Augsburg, by the suggestion and under the direction of John, elector of Saxony. This wise and prudent prince, with the view of having the principal grounds on which the Protestants had separated from the Romish communion distinctly submitted to that assembly, intrusted the duty of preparing a summary of them to the divines of Wittemberg. Nor was that task a difficult one; for the Reformed doctrines had already been digested into seventeen articles, which had been proposed at the conferences both at Sultzbach and Smalcald, as the confession of faith to be adopted by the Protestant confederates. These, accordingly, were delivered to the elector by Luther, and served as the basis of the celebrated Augsburg Confession, written “by the elegant and accurate pen of Melancthon”—a work which has been admired by many even of its enemies, for its perspicuity, piety, and erudition. It contains twenty-eight chapters, the leading topics of which are, the true and essential divinity of Christ; his substitution and vicarious sacrifice; original sin; human inability; the necessity, freedom, and efficacy of divine grace; consubstantiation; and particularly justification by faith, to establish the truth and importance of which was one of its chief objects. The last seven articles condemn and confute the Popish tenets of communion in one kind, clerical celibacy, private masses, auricular confession, legendary traditions, monastic vows, and the exorbitant power of the church. This Confession is silent on the doctrine of predestination. This is the universal standard of orthodox doctrine among those who profess to be Lutherans, in which no authoritative alteration has ever been made.

ARMENIANS.

The chief point of separation between the Armenians on the one side, and the Greeks and the Papists on the other, is, that, while the latter believe in two natures and one person of Christ, the former believe that the humanity and divinity of Christ were so united as to form but _one nature_; and hence they are called _Monophysites_, signifying _single nature_.

Another point on which they are charged with heresy by the Papists is, that they adhere to the notion that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only; and in this the Greeks join them, though the Papists say that he proceeds from the Father and the Son. In other respects, the Greeks and Armenians have very nearly the same religious opinions, though they differ somewhat in their forms and modes of worship. For instance, the Greeks make the sign of the cross with three fingers, in token of their belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, while the Armenians use two fingers, and the Jacobites, one.

The Armenians hold to seven sacraments, like the Latins although baptism, confirmation, and extreme unction, are all performed at the same time; and the forms of prayer for confirmation and extreme unction are perfectly intermingled, which leads one to suppose that, in fact, the latter sacrament does not exist among them, except in name, and that this they have borrowed from the Papists.

Infants are baptized both by triple immersion and pouring water three times upon the head; the former being done, as their books assert, in reference to Christ’s having been three days in the grave, and probably suggested by the phrase _buried with him in baptism_.

The latter ceremony they derive from the tradition that, when Christ was baptized, he stood in the midst of Jordan, and John poured water from his hand three times upon his head. In all their pictures of this scene, such is the representation of the mode of our Savior’s baptism. Converted Jews, or Mahometans, though adults, are baptized in the same manner.

The Armenians acknowledge sprinkling as a lawful mode of baptism; for they receive from other churches those that have merely been sprinkled, without rebaptizing them.

They believe firmly in transubstantiation, and worship the consecrated elements as God.

Unleavened bread is used in the sacrament, and the broken pieces of bread are dipped in undiluted wine, and thus given to the people.

The latter, however, do not handle it, but receive it into their mouths from the hands of the priest. They suppose it has in itself a sanctifying and saving power. The Greeks, in this sacrament, use leavened bread, and wine mixed with water.

The Armenians discard the Popish doctrine of purgatory but yet, most inconsistently, they pray for the dead.

They hold to confession of sins to the priests, who impose penances and grant absolution, though without money, and they give no indulgences.

They pray through the mediation of the virgin Mary, and other saints. The belief that Mary was always a virgin, is a point of very high importance with them; and they consider the thought of her having given birth to children after the birth of Christ, as in the highest degree derogatory to her character, and impious.

They regard baptism and regeneration as the same thing and have no conception of any spiritual change; and they know little of any other terms of salvation than penance, the Lord’s supper, fasting, and good works in general.

The Armenians are strictly Trinitarians in their views, holding firmly to the supreme divinity of Christ, and the doctrine of atonement for sin; though their views on the latter subject, as well as in regard to faith and repentance, are somewhat obscure. They say that Christ died to atone for original sin, and that actual sin is to be washed away by penances,—which, in their view, is repentance. Penances are prescribed by the priests, and sometimes consist in an offering of money to the church, a pilgrimage, or more commonly in repeating certain prayers, or reading the whole book of Psalms a specified number of times. Faith in Christ seems to mean but little more than believing in the mystery of transubstantiation.—See _Coleman’s Christian Antiquities_.

PRIMITIVE METHODISTS.

This sect forms a party in England, which seceded from the Wesleyans in 1817. They differ from the Wesleyans chiefly in church government, by admitting lay representation. They are said to increase rapidly. Their present number is about seventy thousand.

NOVATIANS.

An heretical sect in the early church, which derives its name from Novatian, an heresiarch of the third century, who was ordained a priest of the church of Rome, and afterwards got himself clandestinely consecrated bishop of Rome, by three weak men, upon whom he had imposed, and one of whom afterwards did penance for his concern in the business. He was never acknowledged bishop of Rome, but was condemned and excommunicated. He still, however taught his doctrine, and became the head of the party that bore his name. He denied, in opposition to the opinion of the church, that those who had been guilty of idolatry could be again received by the church.

NESTORIANS.

The branch of the Christian church known by this name is so called from Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople, who was born in Germanica, a city of Syria, in the latter part of the fourth century. He was educated and baptized at Antioch, and, soon after his baptism, withdrew to a monastery in the vicinity of that city. His great reputation for eloquence, and the regularity of his life, induced the emperor Theodosius to select him for the see of Constantinople; and he was consecrated bishop of that church A. D. 429. He became a violent persecutor of heretics; but, because he favored the doctrine of his friend Anastasius, that “the virgin Mary cannot with propriety be called the mother of God,” he was anathematized by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, who, in his turn, was anathematized by Nestorius. In the council of Ephesus, A. D. 431, (the third General Council of the church,) at which Cyril presided, and at which Nestorius was not present, he was judged and condemned without being heard, and deprived of his see. He then retired to his monastery, in Antioch, and was afterwards banished to Petra, in Arabia, and thence to Oasis, in Egypt, where he died, about A. D. 435 or 439.

The decision of the council of Ephesus caused many difficulties in the church; and the friends of Nestorius carried his doctrines through all the Oriental provinces, and established numerous congregations, professing an invincible opposition to the decrees of the Ephesian council. Nestorianism spread rapidly over the East, and was embraced by a large number of the oriental bishops. Barsumas, bishop of Nisibis, labored with great zeal and activity to procure for the Nestorians a solid and permanent footing in Persia; and his success was so remarkable that his fame extended throughout the East. He established a school at Nisibis, which became very famous, and from which issued those Nestorian doctors who, in that and the following centuries, spread abroad their tenets through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and China.

The Nestorian church is Episcopal in its government, like all the other Oriental churches. Its doctrines, also, are, in general, the same with those of those churches, and they receive and repeat, in their public worship, the Nicene creed. Their _distinguishing_ doctrines appear to be, their believing that Mary was not the mother of Jesus Christ, _as God_, but only _as man_, and that there are, consequently, _two persons_, as well as _two natures_, in the Son of God. This notion was looked upon in the earlier ages of the church as a most momentous error; but it has in later times been considered more as an error of words than of doctrine; and that the error of Nestorius was in the words he employed to express his meaning, rather than in the doctrine itself. While the Nestorians believe that Christ had _two natures_ and _two persons_, they say “that these natures and persons are so closely and intimately united that they have but one _aspect_.” “Now, the word _barsopa_, by which they express this _aspect_, is precisely of the same signification with the Greek word προσωπον, which signifies _a person_; and hence it is evident that they attached to the word _aspect_ the same idea that we attach to the word _person_, and that they understood, by the word _person_, precisely what we understand by the term _nature_.”

The Nestorians, of all the Christian churches of the East, have been the most careful and successful in avoiding a multitude of superstitious opinions and practices, which have infected the Romish and many Eastern churches.

Our readers are referred to an interesting volume recently published by Asahel Grant, M. D., in which is contained strong evidence that the Nestorians and the “Lost Tribes” are one people.

HIGH-CHURCHMEN.

A term first given to the Nonjurors, who refused to acknowledge William III. as their lawful king, and who had very proud notions of church power; but it is now commonly used in a more extensive signification, and is applied to all those who, though far from being Nonjurors, yet form high conceptions of the authority and jurisdiction of the church.

ANCIENT AMERICAN COVENANT OR CONFESSION OF FAITH.

_Copy of the first Covenant, or Confession of Faith, of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts._

The first ordination to the pastoral office, and the first complete organization and erection of a Protestant church, in North America, took place in that town, in the year 1629.

The First Covenant, Or Confession Of Faith, Of The First Church In Salem.

“We covenant with our Lord, and one with another, and we do bind ourselves, in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal himself unto us in his blessed word of truth; and do explicitly, in the name and fear of God, profess and protest to walk as followeth, through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ:—

“We avouch the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, in the truth and simplicity of our spirits.

“We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of his grace, for the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying of us in matters of worship and conversation, resolving to cleave unto him alone for life and glory, and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and constitutions of men, in his worship.

“We promise to walk with our brethren, with all watchfulness and tenderness, avoiding jealousies and suspicions, backbitings, censurings, provokings, secret risings of spirit against them; but, in all offences, to follow the rule of our Lord Jesus, and to bear and forbear, give and forgive, as he hath taught us.

“In public or private, we will willingly do nothing to the offence of the church, but will be willing to take advice for ourselves and ours, as occasion shall be presented.

“We will not, in the congregation, be forward, either to show our own gifts and parts in speaking or scrupling, or there discover the weakness or failings of our brethren; but attend an orderly call thereunto, knowing how much the Lord may be dishonored, and his gospel, and the profession of it, slighted by our distempers and weaknesses in public.

“We bind ourselves to study the advancement of the gospel in all truth and peace, both in regard to those that are within or without; no way slighting our sister churches, but using their counsel, as need shall be; not laying a stumbling-block before any, no, not the Indians, whose good we desire to promote; and so to converse, as we may avoid the very appearance of evil.

“We do hereby promise to carry ourselves in all lawful obedience to those that are over us, in church or commonwealth, knowing how well pleasing it will be to the Lord, that they should have encouragement in their places, by our not grieving their spirits through our irregularities.

“We resolve to approve ourselves to the Lord in our particular callings, shunning idleness, as the bane of any state; nor will we deal hardly or oppressingly with any, wherein we are the Lord’s stewards.

“Promising, also, unto our best ability, to teach our children and servants the knowledge of God, and of his will, that they may serve him also; and all this, not by any strength of our own, but by the Lord Christ, whose blood we desire may sprinkle this our covenant, made in his name”

“The above is a covenant,” says a learned divine, “to which all good Christians, of every denomination, to the end of time, will be able to subscribe their names,—written in a style of touching simplicity, which has seldom been equalled, and containing sentiments which are felt to be eloquent by every amiable and pious heart,—and should form the bond to unite the whole church on earth, as they will unite the church of the redeemed in heaven. This Covenant might well be adopted by all Congregational and Protestant churches; and it will forever constitute the glory, perpetuate the fame, and render precious the memory, of FRANCIS HIGGINSON, the first minister of Salem.”(12)

STATISTICS OF CHURCHES.

Baptists.

The following table, from the Baptist Register of 1842, exhibits the statistics of the Regular or Associated Baptists in a perspicuous light:—

Churches, Ministers, &c.

States. Churches. Ministers. Baptized. Members. Maine 261 181 2249 26490 New Hampshire 104 77 1042 9557 Vermont 134 94 784 10950 Massachusetts 209 179 2355 25092 Rhode Island 32 25 348 5196 Connecticut 98 92 559 11266 New York 814 697 7533 82200 New Jersey(13) 55 53 961 6716 Pennsylvania 252 181 2370 20983 Delaware 9 8 326 Maryland 27 18 661 1710 Virginia 477 238 3086 57390 North Carolina 448 193 1543 26169 South Carolina 367 192 1434 34092 Georgia 651 276 1043 44022 Alabama 503 250 908 25084 Mississippi 150 64 615 6050 Louisiana(14) 15 9 288 Arkansas 43 21 105 798 Tennessee 666 444 938 30879 Kentucky 627 300 5842 47325 Ohio 502 284 3594 22333 Indiana 437 229 1794 18198 Illinois 351 250 1227 11408 Missouri 282 161 817 11010 Michigan 130 82 668 6276 Iowa 14 9 10 382 Wisconsin 15 9 58 385 British Provinces 225 125 4414 37127 Total 7898 4741 46958 573702

PUBLICATIONS.—QUARTERLY: _Christian Review_, Boston, Mass.—MONTHLY: _Missionary Magazine_, Boston, Mass.; _Sabbath School Treasury_, Boston, Mass.; _Mother’s Monthly Journal_, Utica, N. Y.; _Sabbath School Gleaner_, Philadelphia, Pa.; _Baptist Memorial_, N. Y.; _Michigan Christian Herald_, Detroit, Mich.—SEMI-MONTHLY: _The Register_, Montreal, Ca.; _Baptist Library_, Lexington, N. Y.—WEEKLY: _Zion’s Advocate_, Portland, Me.; _N. H. Baptist Register_, Concord, N. H.; _Vermont Telegraph_, Brandon, Vt.; _Vermont Baptist Journal_, Middlebury, Vt.; _Christian Watchman_, Boston, Mass.; _Christian Reflector_, Boston, Mass.; _Christian Secretary_, Hartford, Ct.; _N. Y. Baptist Register_, Utica, N. Y.; _Baptist Advocate_, New York, N. Y.; _Baptist Record_, Philadelphia, Pa.; _Religious Herald_, Richmond, Va.; _The Truth_, Morristown, Pa.; _Christian Index_, Penfield, Ga.; _Banner and Pioneer_, Louisville, Ky.; _Cross and Journal_, Columbus, Ohio; _Christian Messenger_, Halifax, N. S.

Free-Will Baptists.

This denomination of Baptists have in their connection nine hundred and eighty-one churches, six hundred and forty-seven ordained ministers, one hundred and seventy-two licensed preachers, forty-seven thousand two hundred and seventeen communicants, eighty-seven quarterly and fourteen yearly meetings. Of this number of members, thirty-five thousand two hundred and eighty-seven reside in New England and New York. They are most numerous in Maine and New Hampshire.

PUBLICATIONS, &c.—There are two periodicals published by this denomination at Dover, N. H.: the _Morning Star_, a weekly paper, and the _Sabbath School Repository_, published monthly; also the _Christian Soldier_, Providence, R. I., once in two weeks.

The Free-Will Baptists have several benevolent institutions in Maine, and flourishing seminaries of learning at Parsonsfield, Me., Strafford, N. H., Smithfield, R. I., and at Clinton and Varysburgh, N. Y.

These people do not believe in the doctrine of election and reprobation, as taught by Calvin, and invite to the Lord’s table all evangelical Christians in good standing in their churches.

Seventh-Day Baptists.

This people have in the United States about forty-eight churches, thirty-four elders, twenty licentiates, and five thousand communicants. They reside principally in Rhode Island and New York; but have a few churches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, &c. They are divided into three associations, and meet by delegation annually in general conference. Their government, however, is Independent. They have a general _Missionary Society_, a _Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews_, a _Tract_ and an _Education Society_. Their principal institution of learning is at DE RUYTER, N. Y., and is in a flourishing state, having several teachers, and about two hundred scholars. They are close communionists.

Christian Connection.

This denomination of Christians are found in almost every state in the Union, and in Canada. In 1841, there were in America forty-one conferences, five hundred and ninety-one churches, five hundred and ninety-three ordained preachers, one hundred and eighty-nine unordained preachers, and about thirty thousand church members.

PUBLICATIONS.—This connection has three religious periodicals, viz. The _Christian Palladium_, Union Mills, N. Y.; _Christian Journal_, Exeter, N. H.; and the _Christian Messenger_, Jacksonville, Illinois.

Calvinistic Congregationalists.