"Now I command you,
brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw
yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly."--2
Thess. 3:6.
1. We have endeavored to
detail, in the previous pages, the features of the Christian
churches generally. While the interests of religion retained
their scriptural character, all were upon equality, and each
society possessed its government within itself; so that no one
church originally can claim our attention more than another. The
churches, during this early period, were strictly Baptist in
their practice and constitution. [See above, oh. 1, s. 3, ~ 7]
These early interests stood perfectly free of Rome, and at after
periods refused her communion. As churches rose into importance,
contentions about offices were frequent, and tumults ensued; but
having no secular aid, their rage against each other spent itself
in reproaches, and often subsided into apathy. The disappointed,
the disaffected, the oppressed, the injured, with the pious, had
only to retire from the scene of strife, and they were safe;
which evidently they did: and while the express command, 2 Thess.
3:6, regulated dissidents, other causes and motives combined to
increase their number, since by 250 they became very numerous, as
already stated. These dissidents, in small companies, or in more
general associations, unostentatiously worshipped God under their
own vine, and were not disturbed, unless the government adopted
measures involving all; but as dissidents increased, political
considerations regulated the governors.
2. The religion of the New
Testament commenced with Dissent. John, Jesus, and His disciples
were charged with innovations, both at Jerusalem and in other
cities, John 1:22; Luke 23:2,5; Acts 6:28; 17:7; and 18:13. Their
want of conformity was a crime in the eyes of the unthinking or
secularizing multitude. The genuine spirit of religion has
been and will be preserved by those only, who dissent from all
establishments devised by human policy. [Church records prove
purity to have existed only out of establishments.] Liberty of
soul is the breath, the element, the existence of that religion
inculcated in the New Testament, of which liberty the Baptists
have ever been the most open advocates. [Robins. Reseat. pp. 641
and 551, from Voltaire] "Ye have one master, even Christ,
and all ye are brethren." The voice of Moses and the
prophets, with Jesus and his apostles, urge on all who fear God,
singleness of motive, blamelessness of character; and in their
social stations, purity of communion. In obedience to these
heavenly injunctions, men and women have "come out" of
impure communities, and with such persons, actuated by divine
motives, we now hope to associate.
3. When Decius came to the
throne in 249, he required by edicts all persons in the empire to
conform to Pagan worship. Forty years’ toleration had
greatly increased professors, and they were found in every
department of the government. They had been so long unaccustomed
to trials, that the lives of many were unsuited to suffering.
Decius’s edicts rent asunder the churches, multitudes
apostatized, and many were martyred. In two years the trial
abated, when many apostates applied for restoration to Christian
fellowship, and sanctioned their application by letters, written
251 by some eminent Christians who had been martyrs during the
persecution. [From this circumstance arose prayer to saints.]
The flagrancy of some
apostates occasioned an opposition to their readmission. In the
time of peace, many had entered the church without calculating on
trials, and when persecution arose such persons revolted easily
to idolatry, and on trials subsiding, gained but too easy
admittance again to communion. One NOVATIAN, a presbyter
in the church of Rome, strongly opposed the readmission of
apostates, but he was not successful. The choice of a pastor in
the same church fell upon Cornelius, whose election Novatian
opposed, from his readiness to readmit apostates. Novatian
consequently separated himself from the church, and from
Cornelius’s jurisdiction. [Dupin’s Hist., c. 3, p. 125,
&.]
4. Novatian, with every
considerate person, was disgusted with the hasty admission of
such apostates to communion, and with the conduct of many
pastors, who were more concerned about numbers than purity of
communion. Novatian was the first to begin a separate
interest with success, and which was known for centuries by his
name. One Novatus, of Carthage, coming to Rome, united himself
with Novatian, and their combined efforts were attended with
remarkable success. It is evident that many persons were
previously in such a situation as to embrace the earliest
opportunity of uniting with churches whose communion was
scriptural. Novatian became the first pastor in the new interest,
and is accused of the crime of giving birth to an innumerable
multitude of congregations of puritans in every part of the Roman
empire; and yet all the influence he exercised was, an upright
example, and moral suasion: these churches flourished until the
fifth century. [Euseb. b. 6, c. 42. Dupin’s Hist., c. 3, pp.
125 and 146. Mosh., c. 3, 17, 18]
5. There was no difference
in point of doctrine between the Novatianists and other
Christians. Novatian had seen evils result from readmitting
apostates; he consequently refused communion to all those who had
fallen after baptism. The terms of admission in those churches
were, "If you wish to join any of our churches, you may be
admitted among us by baptism; but observe, that if you fall away
into idolatry or vice, we shall separate you from our communion,
and on no account can you be readmitted among us. We shall never
attempt to injure you, in your person, property, or character; we
do not presume to fudge the sincerity of your repentance, or your
future state; but you can never be readmitted to the fellowship
of our churches, without our giving up the securest guardian we
have for the purity of our communion." [Robins. Res., p.
127; Jones’s Lect., 1, 306] "They considered,"
says Mosheim, "the Christian Church, as a society where
virtue and innocence reigned universally, and none of whose
members, from their entrance into it, had defiled themselves with
any enormous crimes; and, of consequence, they looked upon every
society, which readmitted heinous offenders to its communion, as
unworthy of the title of a true Christian church. On account of
the church’s severity of discipline, the example was
followed by many, and churches of this order flourished in the
greatest part of those provinces which had received the gospel.
[Hist. c. 3, ~ 17] Many advenient rites had been appointed, and
interwoven with baptism, with a threefold administration of the
ordinance, in the old interests, which obscured the original
simplicity and design of the institutor. To move all human
appendages, the Novatianists said to candidates, "If you be
a virtuous believer, and will accede to our confederacy against
sin, you may be admitted among us by baptism, or if any catholic
has baptized you before, by rebaptism." They were at later
periods called anabaptists. [Rob. Res., p. 127; Baronius’
Ann., v. iii. 231; Chamb. Ency.; Collier’s Dict.; Ency.
Brit. Art. Anabap.; Forney’s Ecc. Hist., v.i.p. 64; and
Mosh. ubi sup.] The churches thus formed upon a plan of strict
communion and rigid discipline, obtained the reproach of
Puritans; they were the oldest body of Christian churches, of
which we have any account, and a succession of them, we shall
prove, has continued to the present day. Novatian’s example
had a powerful influence, and puritan churches rose in different
parts, in quick succession. So early as 254, these Dissenters are
complained of, as having infected France with their doctrines,
[Mezeray’s Hist., p. 4. Miln. Ch. Hist., c. 3, c. 13] which
will aid us in the Albigensian churches, where the same severity
of discipline is traced, [Allix’s Pied., c. 17, 156] and
reprobated. [Mosh. Hist., cent. 13, p. 2. c. 5, ~ 7, note]
6. Learned men and
historians have investigated the pretensions of these churches to
puritanical character, and have conferred on them the palm of
honor. Dupin says, "Novatian’s style is pure, clean
and polite; his expressions choice, his thoughts natural, and his
way of reasoning just; he is full of citations of texts of
Scripture, that are always to the purpose; and besides, there is
a great deal of order and method in those treatises of his we now
have, and he never speaks but with a word of moderation and
candor." [Dupin, c. 3, pp. 125, and 146] "Their
manners," says Dr. A. Clarke, "were, in general, simple
and holy; indeed, their rigid discipline is no mean proof of
this." We well know that those called Pietists in Germany,
and Puritans in England, were in general, in their respective
times, among the most religious and holy people in both nations.
[Suc. of Sac. Lit. Mosh. i. 2 22; Gill’s cause of God,
&c., v. iv. pp. 57 and 131; Miln. Ch. Hist., c. 3, oh. 3 and
11; Nears Hist. of the Puritans, v. i. pref. vii.]
7. These churches existed
for sixty years under a pagan government, during which time, the
old corrupt interests at Rome, Carthage, and other places,
possessed no means, but those of persuasion and reproach, to stay
the progress of Dissent. During this period, the Novatian
churches were very prosperous, and were planted all over the
Roman empire. [Jones’s Lect., v. i. pp. 305 and 436]
"They were very numerous," says Lardner, "in
Phrygia," and a number of eminent men were raised up in the
work of the ministry. It is impossible to calculate the benefit
of their services to mankind. Their influence must have
considerably checked the spirit of innovation and secularity in
the old churches. Although rigid in discipline and schismatic in
character, yet they were found extensive, and in a flourishing
condition, when Constantine came to the throne, 306. Their
soundness in doctrine, evident unity among themselves, with their
numbers, suggested to Constantine the propriety of uniting them
with the catholic church, but this union they refused. These
churches with other dissidents, realized religious liberty in
313, from Constantine.*
[* Constantine’s father
lived in Britain at the time of his birth, 271. He was not
baptized during infancy, though his father was favorable to
Christianity, if not a professor of it. When he came to the
throne, he professed to receive the gospel, and many of officers
and servants did the same. He gave Bishop Sylvester his mansion,
for a baptistery, and conferred freedom on those slaves who would
receive baptism. He offered a reward to others, on their
embracing Christianity, so that 12,000 men, besides women and
minors, were baptized in one year. In 319 he relieved the clergy
of taxes, and in 320, issued an edict against the Donatists. He
abolished heathen superstition, and erected splendid churches,
richly adorned with paintings and images, bearing a striking
resemblance to heathen temples. Places were erected for
baptizing, some over running water, while others were supplied by
pipes. In the middle of the building was the bath, which was very
large. (Dr. Cave.) Distinct apartments were provided for men and
women, as are found in Baptist meeting houses at this day. See
Bing. Antiq.; Robins. Hist. Bap. and Res.; Gibbon’s ch. 20;
Campbell’s Lect. No. 3, p. 35; Fosbroke’s Ency. of
Antiq., v. i. p. 103; Pilkington’s Sac. Elucidations, v. 2,
part 4.]
In 331 Constantine changed
his policy towards the Novatians, and they were involved, with
other denominations, in distress and sufferings. Their books were
sought for, they were forbidden assembling together, and many
lost their places of worship.+ The orthodoxy of the Novatian
party, with the influence of some of their ministers, is supposed
to have procured some mitigation of the law. Constantine’s
oppressive measures prompted many to leave the scene of
sufferings, and retire into more sequestered spots. Claudius
Seyssel, the popish archbishop, traces the rise of the Waldensian
heresy to a pastor named Leo, leaving Rome at this period, for
the Valleys. [Facts Opp. to Fict. p. 37]
[+ Constantine’s conduct
in the church, has proved a kind of Pandora’s box to the
interest of religion, and the hope of deliverance has tried the
faith of the godly to this day. The evils of splendid churches
and pensioned bishops were soon seen in their persecuting
ascendency, and in the ministers of religion, exhorting their
congregations to crown their talents with clapping their hand,
and loud applause.--See Lardner’s Credibility of the
Gospel History, v. 4, part 2, c. 70, p. 169.]
The succeeding emperor,
Constantius, embraced the Arian faith, and severely oppressed the
orthodox. In the territory of Mantinium, a large district of
Paphlagonia, the Novatianists were extremely numerous. Being
involved in the massacre sanctioned by Constantius, a body of
four thousand troops was sent to exterminate them, with other
Trinitarians. The Novatian peasants, however, arming themselves
with scythes and axes, fought the invaders of their homes in so
desperate a manner, that they even vanquished and destroyed the
disciplined soldiery. They lost several of their places of
worship, but Julian on ascending the throne, required the Arians
to rebuild and restore them. In 375, the emperor Valens embraced
the Arian creed. He closed the Novatian churches, banished their
ministers,+ and probably would have carried his measures to
extreme severity, had not his prejudices and zeal been moderated
by a pious man, named Marcion. During this severe trial, the
benevolent feelings of the Novationists became so apparent, as to
extort admiration from their enemies. About this period, 380,
Pacianus, Bishop of Barcelona, wrote some treatises against these
people. He observes to Sempronianus, one of the Novatian
ministers, "You have forsaken the tradition of the church,
under pretence of reformation: likewise you say, that the church
is a body of men regenerated by water and the Holy Spirit, who
have not denied the name of Christ, which is the temple and house
of God, the Pillar and Ground of truth: we say the same
also." [Dupin, cent. 4. pp. 81-3]
[+ This Valens, who required
baptism for his dying son, sent 80 ministers into banishment, but
before the vessel had gotten far from land, it fired, and all of
them perished.]
In 383, Theodosius assembled
a synod, with a view to establish unity among churches. On the
Novatianists stating their views of discipline; the emperor, says
Socrates, [Lib. 5, cap. 10] "wondered at their consent and
harmony touching the faith." He passed a law, securing to
them liberty, civil and religious, all their property, with all
churches of the same faith and practice. While these pure
churches were in peace and. concord, it is stated that discord
prevailed in the national churches.
8. At the conclusion of
the fourth century, the Novatianists had three, if not four
churches, in Constantinople; they had also churches at Nice,
Nicomedia, and Cotiveus, in Phrygia, all of them large and
extensive bodies, besides which, they were very numerous in the
Western empire. There were several churches of this people in
the city of Alexandria, in the 410 beginning of the fifth
century.
In 412, Cyril was ordained
bishop of the catholic church in this city. One of his first
acts, was to shut up the churches of the Novatianists,+ to strip
them of all their sacred vessels and ornaments. They experienced
very similar treatment at Rome, from Innocent, who was one of the
first bishops to persecute the Dissenters and rob them of their
churches. This proceeding is easily accounted for. The clergy of
the establishments were an idle and ignorant class of men, and
unacquainted with the Scriptures. Innocent wrote many letters to
various bishops, containing the rules of discipline in his
church, plainly with the intention of establishing uniformity.
[Dupin, c. 5. pp. 195-8] This uniformity could not be imposed on
the Novatianists, nor would they receive his views on
children’s baptism and communion; they, consequently, became
the object of his aversion. Another means of awakening the
catholic prelates’ anger, was rebaptizing. When this was
first introduced, purity of communion, with a strict adherence to
Zion’s laws, was no doubt intended; but when the Arians
arose, different creeds were formed, and the candidates’
acquaintance with the creed was, in each church, the sine qua non
for baptism. The catholic party, now accumulating power, saw, in
other churches’ rebaptizing, a virtual renunciation of the
baptism they had conferred upon those who went over to the other
party; as understood by the paedobaptists of the present day:
consequently a spirit of persecution was raised against all those
who rebaptized catholics. In the fourth Lateran council, canons
were made to banish them as heretics, and these canons were
supported by an edict in 413, issued by the emperors, Theodosius
and Honorius, declaring that all persons rebaptized, and the
rebaptizers, should be both punished with death. Accordingly,
Albanus, a zealous minister, with others, was punished with
death, for rebaptizing.* The edict was probably obtained by the
influence of Augustine, who could endure no rival, nor
would he bear with any who questioned the virtue of his rites, or
the sanctity of his brethren, or the soundness of the Catholic
creed; and these points being disputed by the Novatianists and
Donatists, two powerful and extensive bodies of dissidents in
Italy and Africa, they were consequently made to feel the weight
of his influence. These combined modes of oppression led the
faithful to abandon the cities, and seek retreats in the country,
which they did, particularly in the valleys of Piedmont, the
inhabitants of which began to be called Waldenses. [Bap. Mag.
ib.]
[+ Persecution in the first
ages was confined to the edict of the Emperors; but in Cyril and
Innocent’s conduct, we see the spirit and rising power of
the man of sin.]
[* Bap. Mag. vol. i.p. 256.
Circumstances become here apparent, and unite their evidence to
prove when infant baptism was publicly espoused. We have already
noticed the writers who declared against the innovation. In 412,
the Baptists were banished as heretics. In 413, Innocent sent
letters of advice to various ministers. In the same year, the
Baptists, for rebaptizing, were sentenced to death. In 416, a
council at Mela, accursed all those who denied forgiveness to
accompany infant baptism, and in 418, a council at Carthage
enforced the same curse. Augustine, Cyril, Innocent and others,
concurred in its expediency, Rob. Res. 151. They borrowed the
sword of the magistrate, to enforce what their arguments and
views could not do, Wall, i. p. 111. The sword, and the infant
rite have always been companions, Rob. Bap. 438 and 450; and the
early advocates accursed the parents who withheld the blessing
from the child. Its support by the sword has called the Baptists
to extreme sufferings, but they are additionally convinced of its
origin from its companion and defence, and know that every rite
defended by the sword shall perish by the sword.]
9. The Novatianists had
hitherto flourished mightily in Rome, having a great many places
of worship, and large congregations; but the rising power of the
Catholic interest, its union with the sword, the ambitious
character of its officers, with the tyrannical spirit of its
bishops, prompted them to crush every opposing interest.
They, consequently, robbed the Novatianists of all their
churches, and drove them into obscurity. About this time, some
epistles appeared against them, written by different individuals,
which had a baneful influence at this period on the interests of
this people. One individual, whose hostility was felt by the
Novatianists, was Celestines, one of Innocent’s successors,
A.D., 432. He took possession of all their churches in the city
of Rome, and compelled them to worship in private houses, in the
most obscure places.
A council was convened at
Aries, and at Lyons, in 455, in which the views of the
Novatianists on predestination were controverted, and by which
name they were stigmatized. [Mezeray, p. 19, Clovis]
These holy people now retired
from public notice; yet it is pretty manifest that, while some of
them sought asylums in other kingdoms, many of these despised
people continued in Italy, and a succession of them will be found
under another name. [Mosh. Hist. cent. 12, p. 2, c. 5, ~ 4, note;
and cent. 11, p. 2, c. 5, ~ 2, note; and cent. 11, p. 2, c. 2, ~
13, note]
In 476, on the 23rd of
August, a period was put to all persecution in Italy, by the
subjection of that kingdom to the Goths, whose laws breathed the
purest spirit of equal and universal liberty. The state of
religion out of the Catholic church is not made apparent. This
civil and religious liberty continued for about three centuries,
during which time the dissidents, no doubt, greatly increased.
[Rob. Res. ch. 8, pp. 151, 157] The accounts given of the
Novatianists, by Eusebius and Socrates in their histories, are
decided proofs of their extensive influence. That they subsisted
towards the end of the sixth century, is evident from the book of
Eulogius, Bishop of Alexander. Dr. Lardner remarks, "The
vast extent of this sect is manifest from the names of the
authors who have mentioned or written against them, and from the
several parts of the Roman empire in which they were found. It is
evident, too, that these churches had among them some individuals
of note and eminence."
10. The rise of these
puritans at so critical a period, their soundness in the faith,
their regard to character and purity of communion, their vast
extent, and long success, must have had a powerful influence in
all the vicinity of their churches, in checking the ambition and
secularity of the established clergy, and in shedding a moral
auspice on benighted provinces. These sealed witnesses were
the first protestant dissenters from assuming hierarchies; and it
is most gratifying to be able to prove ourselves the successors
of a class of men who first set the example of contending for the
purity and simplicity of Christian worship, and a firm adherence
to the laws of the King of Zion. [Robins. Ec. Res. ch. 8.
Jones’ Lect., 25. See a detailed account of the Novatianists
in Lardner’s Credibility of the Gospel History, vol.
iii. part 2, c. 47, p. 206--seq.]
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