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Hassells History of the Church of God |
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 C.B. Hassell |
TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Sylvester Hassell |
The great object of the present volume the promotion of the cause of truth—Circumstances of its compilation—The best stores of religious knowledge, with proper acknowledgment, freely laid under contribution—The extraordinary Phariseeism and religious superficiality of the nineteenth century—The unique path of the church of God—The authors of this work lay no claim to inspiration or infallibility—The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments the only inspired and infallible works in all literature—The Baptist and Protestant and Bible doctrine of the inalienable right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures—Papacy equally offensive to reason and to faith—There must be no Popes among Bible Baptists—Value of church history—Christianity, above all others, a historical religion—Its acts symbolical of spiritual and eternal truths—Christ its center and substance—Invocation of the all important divine blessing upon these pages.
Incomparable character and value of the Bible—The utter failure of all the attempts of criticism, science and philosophy to invalidate a single one of its statements—The objections of its enemies carnal and theoretical, and abundantly refuted by more competent authorities—The designedly rudimentary, preparatory and typical nature of the Old Testament or evening dispensation, the introduction to the spiritual, final, New Testament or morning dispensation of the militant church—The Hebrew Scriptures utterly distinct in tone and essence, spirit and monotheism, from those of heathen antiquity—Monotheism and expiatory sacrifice parts of the primitive religion, but entirely corrupted among all ancient peoples except the Hebrews—Christ the substance and the chief witness of the truth of the Old as well as of the New Testament—The dissolution of the fundamental hypotheses of the Tubingen criticism—Not Paul, but Jesus, the author of Christianity—The gospels, as well as the epistles, written in the first century—The dates and characteristics of each gospel—The authenticity and the transcendent spirituality and importance of the gospel of John—Bible miracles the divine credentials of inspired teachers—The silliness of the so-called Apocryphal “Gospels”—No history more certainly true than the Acts of the Apostles—All the real discoveries of science corroborate and illustrate the truth of the sacred Scriptures, while demonstrating the falsity of all heathen religions—Prof. Arnold Guyot’s dying testimony to the perfect truth of the Mosaic record of creation—Man knows not even the alphabet of the volume of Natures whose Author is God—Man’s science never to be substituted for God’s revelation—The universe presupposes the existence of an eternal, infinite and holy creative Spirit—Utter irrationality, morality, inconsistency, senility and unscientific character of materialistic, agnostic, atheistic, chance evolution—Godless human philosophy a wilderness of darkness—Summary of the religious history of the Hamitic, Japhetic and Shemitic races—The decrease of vital and increase of formal godliness in the latter days, foretold in the Scriptures—The Obscure Age, A. D. 70-100, the dark, impenetrable gulf in which Divine Providence forever buried all claims to a merely material succession of churches or ministers—A spiritual succession found in most of the centuries of the Christian era—The spiritual marks of God’s people by which they may be traced through the ages—The principles which they have generally professed—The unspeakable solemnity of human life.
THE CREATION.
Seal of God upon the Bible—The Divine Trinity—Perfect harmony of the scriptural and the scientific accounts of creation—Inadequacy of evolution—Biogenesis—Vanity and folly of Pan-Gnostic agnosticism—Professors Dawson, Dana, Guyot and Kerr—Modesty of true science—Mosaic record—Assyriology—Existence, character and names of God—Jehovah, the unchangeable God of the covenant, and His church—Bara and Asah—Origin of sin and Satan—Language of the Bible phenomenal—The two methods of reconciling Genesis and Geology—Work of each creative day—The ever-living God the only Author of life—Essential distinction between man and all other earthly creatures—The latter earth-born and earth-bound; but man animated by the breath of God, and created for eternity—Man has but two constituent elements, soul and body—No human being knows whether creationism or traducianism is true—Unity and recentness of the human race—Science shows that the gulf between man and the ape widens as we ascend to their origin—Chronology—Samaritan Pentateuch—Septuagint version of the Old Testament—God, the Author of nature and the Bible—Spiritual meaning of the first and second chapters of Genesis—The Sabbath—Symbolical use of numbers in Scripture—Respects in which man was made in the image of God—Formation of Eve—Marriage.
FROM THE FALL OF MAN TO THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM.
Garden of Eden—The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—The mysterious principle of representation—The law—The tempter—The transgression—Nature of sin—The penalties—The sword-like flame and the cherubim—The promise—The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent—The final triumph of Christ and His people—Intermarriage of Sethites and Cainites—Consequent increase of depravity—God’s warnings—The ark—The flood—Comparison of the antediluvian and the present times—God’s covenant with Noah—Flesh allowed for food, but blood forbidden—Murder prohibited—Power of inflicting death given the civil magistrate—Noah’s three sons—The history of their descendants for all time prophetically given by Noah—Confusion of tongues at Babel—Consequent dispersion of mankind over the earth—Shortening of human life—Job—His time, country and trials—Abraham—His family, and call, and change of location and of name—Melchizedek—Polygamy—Ishmael—Circumcision—Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—The great trial of Abraham’s faith—Sarah’s death—Abraham s character and death.
FROM ISAAC TO THE DEATH OF JOSHUA.
Isaac and his two sons—Jacob—His dream‑Significance of dreams—Jacob’s marriage and twelve sons—His wrestle with the angel of God—Peace with Esau—His settlement first at Shechem and then at Bethel—Isaac’s death—Joseph—A forcible type of Christ—Sold into Egypt—God prospers him—Makes him ruler over Egypt—Joseph settles his kindred in Goshen—Wonderful Increase of the Israelites—Jacob’s dying prophecy of Christ—Moses—His spiritual training in the desert—His call—Plagues upon the Egyptians—Paschal supper—Departure of the Israelites from Egypt—Destruction of Pharaoh and his host—Elim—Manna—Water from the rock—Battle with Amalek—Giving of the law at Sinai—Golden calf—Wilderness wanderings—The tabernacle—Its furniture and spiritual meaning—The sacrifices and their spiritual meaning—The day of atonement—The three annual festivals—The marvelous correspondence of types and antitypes—The specialty and ceremonial efficacy of every Levitical atonement annihilates the Arminian idea of the indefinite and conditional nature of Christ’s atonement—Number of men of war—Aaron’s death—Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, defeated, and their country occupied by Israel—Balak and Balaam—Death of Moses—Joshua succeeds him—Spiritual meaning of wilderness sojourn—Fall of Jericho and Ai—The Gibeonites—Slaughter of the Amorites—Standing still of the sum and moon—The Israelites chosen of God to execute His righteous judgments on the wicked Canaanites—The most of Canaan subdued by Joshua—His farewell exhortation and death.
FROM THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY.
Canaan—Its extent, peculiar situation, boundaries and unrivaled excellence—Declension and oppression of Israel—The fifteen judges—Ruth and Boaz—The ark of the Covenant—The prophets and the prophecies of Scripture—The fulfillment of these predictions proves the divine inspiration of the Bible, and the foreknowledge and predestination of God—Sons of the prophets; they could not be made prophets by their teachers—The Theocracy—Saul—Ishbosheth—David—His enemies, sins, repentance and forgiveness—Solomon—The temple; its spiritual meaning—Revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam—Idolatry and sad declension of Israel—The ten tribes carried into captivity in Assyria—Heathen settlement of Samaria—Peculiarity of the Samaritans—Rehoboam’s reign over Judah—Invasion of Shishak, king of Egypt—Abijah—Righteous reigns of Asa and Jeboshaphat—Wicked reign and wretched end of Jehoram—Ahaziah—Usurpation of Athaliah—,Jehoiada, the High Priest—Joash—Murder of Zechariah, the High Priest—Amaziah—Jonah—Uzziah’s long reign—The prophets Zechariah, Joel, Isaiah, Hosea and Amos—Jotham’s reign—The abominable idolatry of king Ahaz—The righteous reign of Hezekiah—Exceedingly wicked reign of Manasseh—His captivity and repentance—Amon—Josiah, the last pious king of Judah—The prophets Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk—Jehoahaz—Jehoiakim—Babylonish captivity of Judah—Daniel and his three companions—Jehoiachim—Ezekiel and Mordecai—Zedekiah, the nineteenth and last king of Judah—The Governor Gedaliah—Johanan carries Jeremiah down to Egypt, where the prophet dies—Duration of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah—A summary of their spiritual history—True Israelites—The Lamentations of Jeremiah—The desolation of Israel—Reflections—As the kings, so the people—Necessity of the prophetic order Books of the Old Testament thus far written.
THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY AND THE RESTORATION TO CANAAN.
The land of Judah enjoys her Sabbaths—The ten lost tribes—Nebuchadnezzar—Judah and Israel reunited in captivity—Daniel and his three friends—Life and prophecies of Ezekiel—Daniel resembles Joseph—His characteristics—Authenticity of the book of Daniel—The prophet was sustained by divine faith—In his second and seventh chapters he predicts the four great world-kingdoms, to be followed by Christ’s kingdom—We live under the divisions of the fourth universal empire—The fiery furnace—Nebuchadnezzar humbled and changed by the almighty power of God—Evil-Merodach—Belshazzar—Handwriting on the wall—Awful doom of the impenitent sinner—Faithfulness of Daniel—God’s servants are not covetous—Isaiah’s wonderful prophecies, one hundred and seventy-four years beforehand, in regard to the details of the fall of Babylon—Darius the Median—Cyrus the Persian—Daniel’s fearless devotion to his God—Similar steadfast adherence of Bible Baptists to God—Gabriel’s revelations to Daniel, in the ninth chapter—The Messiah to come in seventy weeks (from the command to restore Jerusalem), to suffer for others, make an end of sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness; and then. the Jewish State-Church, with its capital city, to be destroyed—Exact fulfillment of the Prophecy in Jesus of Nazareth—Remarkable confession of the Jewish chief Rabbi, Simon Luzzato—Sir Isaac Newton’s view—Christ refers Daniel’s “abomination of desolation” to the Roman conquest of Jerusalem—Deliverance of all the Christians from the unexampled horrors of the final siege, In accordance with Christ’s admonition to them—So at last all God’s people will be saved, while all His enemies will be destroyed—The Messiah universally expected on earth during the first century of the Christian era—After Daniel’s humble confession of sin, Christ is revealed to him—Events predicted in the eighth, eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel—Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, the Old Testament antichrist, the product of the highest ancient civilization; a type of the New Testament antichrist of the last days, who will be a product of the highest modern civilization Signs of these times—We are verging on the period of the last great apostasy—Time dissolves and eternity opens in the last chapter of Daniel—The Jews cured of material idolatry by the Babylonish captivity—Dealings of God with the heathen—The king’s heart in the hands or the Lord—The Medo-Persian kings, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, order the return of the Jews to Jerusalem—Some of all the tribes, but chiefly members of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, return—Rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel—Haggai’s prophecy of the coming of the Desire of all nations to the second Temple, fulfilled in Christ—Esther—Ezra and Nehemiah—Illumination of the opening and the closing pages of the Old Testament with the light of the Sun of Righteousness—The Apocrypha—Josephus—Ezekiel’s three great overturnings, after which He should come whose right it was to reign—Spirituality of God’s worship.
FROM THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS TO THE COMING OF CHRIST.
The Jews under the Greco-Macedonian empire—Visit of Alexander the Great to Jerusalem—Palestine a province of the Greco-Egyptian kingdom—The High Priest Onias—Simon the Just—Eleazar—Ptolemy Philadelphus—The Septuagint, or Greek Old Testament—Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, of Syria, attempts to destroy the people and the worship of God—His horrible end—Revolt of the Maccabees against Syrian tyranny and blasphemy—Chasidim and Zadikim; Sadducees and Pharisees—The Asmonean Princes—The Essenes—Pompey captures Jerusalem and enters the Holy of Holies—Establishes five Sanhedrims—Antipater appointed by Julius Caesar procurator of Judea, B.C. 47—His son, Herod the Great, made Governor of Galilee and Coele-Syria—Obtains the favor of Mark Antony—Contest between Antigonus and Hyrcanus—Herod flees to Masada, to Egypt, and to Rome—Made by Antony and Octavius king of Judea, 40 B.C.—Attacks Jerusalem, and is defeated—Marries Mariamne, granddaughter both of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus—Jerusalem taken—Herod installed king of Judea, B.C. 37—Upheld by Rome—Adorns the second temple—His great jealousy and cruelty—An inhuman monster—Murders many of his own family, and the infants of Bethlehem—His terrible illness and death—Work of sin and of grace under the old dispensation—Wars and idolatry—Human depravity—Faith and suffering of God’s people—The Old Testament Canon—In the Old Testament the New is concealed, and in the New the Old is revealed—The Old the type, the New the antitype—Pre-ordained connection between the two—The Old the shadowy, and the New the clear, revelation of the same great essential truths: the holiness of God, the heinousness of sin, and the only method of God’s spiritual and eternal salvation—The law our pedagogue to bring us to Christ—Its imperfect, preparatory and onerous nature—Its outward ordinances carnalized by national Israel—God destroys the outward by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar—Preparation for the introduction of a spiritual kingdom on earth—The gospel of realities supersedes forever the gospel of shadows: the spiritual takes the place of the material—The spiritual church of Christ the true theocracy: an organized community of kings and priests, subject, in religious matters, to no earthly potentate or aristocracy—False typology—Judaizing errors of Romanists and Protestants: hierarchism, formalism, traditionalism, sacerdotalism and sacramentalism—Unscriptural perversion of the doctrine of personal, unconditional, eternal election—All the Old Testament Messianic prophecies perfectly fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES—THE GOSPELS AND THE EPISTLES.
The New Testament—Rise of the Sun of Righteousness—Mission of the angel Gabriel to Mary—Birth of Jesus—Adoration of the shepherds—Exact date of Christ’s birth—Born in the fullness of the time during a period of universal peace—Jesus, at the age of twelve, disputes in the temple with the doctors of the law—Baptized, at the age of thirty, by John the Baptist in the Jordan—Approving presence of the Father and the Spirit—The ministry of John the Baptist—Christ sends out the twelve Apostles and seventy disciples to preach—The numbers gathered in by them but few—The Apostles are the spiritual judges of Israel, and have no successors, except their own inspired writings—The marvelous life and teachings and sufferings of Christ—His incomparable perfections—Why He chose poor and illiterate Apostles—His death, resurrection and ascension—Necessity of His sufferings—The supernatural darkness at His death—The same body was crucified, raised again, and glorified—The doctrine of Christ—The judicial law designed for the special government of the ancient Hebrew nation—The ceremonial law a prefiguration of Christ, and fulfilled and ended in Him—The moral law perfectly kept by Him for His people, in whose hearts He graciously writes the same holy law—The entire eternal salvation of the church based upon the perfect righteousness of Christ—The Day of Pentecost—The first church in Jerusalem a Baptist Church of baptized believers—Each primitive church a little Republic—Diligence and success of the Apostles in preaching the word—God still able to convert sinners—Appointment of seven deacons at Jerusalem—Martyrdom of Stephen—Philip preaches in Samaria and to the eunuch—The two classes of conversion illustrated by that of Saul of Tarsus and that of Cornelius the centurion—Both the effect of sovereign and efficacious grace—All true conversions are miracles—The most devout saved only by Christ’s atonement—All true devotion the work of God’s Spirit—Remarks on the Gospels and the Epistles—Christianity, as established by Christ, perfect.
THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM—THE THREE PERIODS OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE—THE BOOK OF REVELATION.
Nero’s persecution of Christians—The destruction of Jerusalem—The awful calamities of the Jews, as predicted by Moses and Christ—The escape of the Christians from Jerusalem to Pella, in accordance with Christ’s warning direction—Dispersion of the Jews over all the world, according to the predictions of Moses, and their continued distinctiveness as a people, to prove to the world the truth of the Old Testament, and for the fulfillment of prophecies still future—They are to return to the Lord in the latter days—Persecution of the Christians under Domitian—Death of John, the last Apostle—The spiritual nature of Christ’s kingdom—The Petrine, Pauline and Johannine periods of the apostolic age—Lives, labors and teachings of Peter, Paul and John—James the Lord’s brother, aid the Apostle James—Gnostic—The Revelation, or Apocalypse—Date and contents of the book—The seven churches of Asia—The destruction of Jerusalem a prophetic miniature of the destruction of the world—The Apocalypse gives the general principles of the Divine government—The preterist, futurist and historical schools of interpretation—The book of the coming of Christ—Intended to console God’s people under their great trials, with the certain prospect of final victory—The prophecies are both historical and spiritual—Zoon and therion—The Dragon, Beast and False Prophet form the hellish Anti-Trinity—The first beast a persecuting world-power—The second beast, or False Prophet, or Mystery Babylon, a more oppressive pseudo-religious power—The mark in the right hand and forehead—The number 666—The destruction of all the enemies of God’s people—The time unknown to creatures—The Millennium—The final apostasy—The second personal coming of Christ—The general resurrection and final judgment—The mercy of God glorified in the everlasting salvation of His people, and His justice vindicated in the everlasting punishment of the wicked—Union of Christ and His church.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
Twelve characteristics of the apostolic church of the first century, with a history of the observance and the perversions of these features in succeeding ages—The apostolic age pre-eminently the age of the Holy Spirit, and the standard of all succeeding ages in doctrine and discipline—Twelve marks of the apostolic church: 1. A regenerate church membership—History of the unscriptural Catholic practice of infant baptism, the principle of which involves the horrible doctrine of the everlasting damnation of all unbaptized children who die in infancy. 2. The baptism (by which, of course, is meant the immersion-the word “baptism” means nothing else) of believers in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost—History of the unscriptural Roman Catholic substitute of sprinkling or pouring for baptism—Man has no right to change the perfect ordinances of God—Bapto, baptizo, louo, nipto, rantizo, cheo and katharizo, as used in the New Testament—Tabal and machats, as used in the Old Testament—The Greek preposition en—Baptism not intended to represent the mysterious mode of the communication of the Spirit, but a burial and resurrection with Christ—Much water—The large baptisteries of the early centuries—The most of the apostolic expressions regarding baptism set aside by sprinkling or pouring—The origin of the Baptists, says Mosheim, hidden in the remote depths of antiquity. 3. The frequent observance, by baptized and orderly-walking believers, of the Lord’s Supper; the bread representing the broken body, and the wine the shed blood of their precious Redeemer—The spiritual origin and nourishment of the Divine life—The Lord’s Supper a symbolic ordinance, and not a sacrament or seal of salvation, or effective means of grace—History of the idolatrous, doctrine—Open and close communion. 4. The maintenance of strict discipline—Gibbon’s testimony to the pure and austere morals of the early Christians—Ananias and Sapphire—The Corinthian offender excluded, and after repentance restored by the church—The brethren took part with the Apostles and Elders in the conference at Jerusalem—Hymeneus and Alexander excluded for denying the doctrine of the resurrection—Need of genuine brotherly love for the prevention and cure of offenses—Different treatment of private or personal and public or moral offenses—Necessity of a tender, faithful, scriptural discipline in the churches. 6. The independent or congregational polity or government of each local church, subject only to the Headship of Christ—Kakal and ecclesia—The local church the highest and last ecclesiastical authority on earth, according to the teaching of Christ—Ecclesiastical monarchies and oligarchies of worldly and unscriptural origin—Each true scriptural church, in its independence, a breakwater against the countless tides of error, strife and corruption—These churches are united not by mechanical, but by spiritual bonds, and have always corresponded with each other, on terms of perfect equality, by brotherly letters and messengers—No New Testament authority for an organic union of churches, or for the legislative or disciplinary powers of Associations, Synods, Councils, Conferences or Conventions—The apostolic church not a copy of the humanly invented Jewish synagogue, and not governed by Elders—All Christ’s people are kings and priests, and He is their only Master. 6 The complete separation of Church an State—Emancipation from the unscriptural traditions and commandments of men—The typical Jewish Church-State power superseded by the unworldly, spiritual church of the New Testament—The alliance of “Church” and State, since the coming of Christ, always productive of corruption and persecution—Fifty millions of human beings murdered by Papal Rome, armed with the sword of the civil magistrate; the same power of life and death still claimed by the Pope—The principle of the union of “Church” and State adopted by Protestants, but always repudiated by Baptists—The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forbidding Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, adopted mainly through Baptist influence—Washington’s, Locke’s, Newton’s and Story’s testimonies to the Baptists as the friends of liberty—The peculiar and inestimable privilege of religious liberty enjoyed by the people of the United States. 7. The general poverty, illiteracy, obscurity, and afflicted and persecuted condition of the members—The Old Testament Prophets, John the Baptist, Christ and His Apostles and the primitive disciples, and the people of God during the last eighteen centuries. 8. The fraternal equality of the ministry as well as of the membership—Only two classes of church officers, Bishops, or Elders, or Pastors, and Deacons—The Apostles were extraordinary foundation officers, princes sitting upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and are, in their writings, their own perpetual successors—The utter baselessness of all claims to a material succession from the Apostles—All scholars admit that, in the New Testament, the terms Bishop, and Presbyter or Elder, and Pastor, designate the same class of church officers—In the second century the Bishop simply the presiding officer among the Presbyters of a church, the Pastor of a single congregation—Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, A.D. 248-258, the father of Diocesan Episcopacy, and of Romanism—Leo I., A.D. 440-461, the first Pope, in the teal sense of the word—The False Decretals of the ninth century—Brief History of Papal encroachments—The Apostles were clothed with humility—Ordination-So-called “confirmation”—The class or official distinction between teaching and ruling Elders not in the New Testament, but invented by Calvin in the third edition of his Institutes—Deacons—Evangelists. 9. A humble, God-called and God-qualified ministry, mostly destitute of human training—The foolish things of the world chosen of God to confound the wise, that the glory may be His—Paul, when called to the service of Christ, conferred not with flesh and blood, and was made by God an able minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, which killeth, but of the Spirit, which giveth life—Sons or companies of the Prophets—The history of Theological Seminaries—Spurgeon’s experience—The learned religionists of Judea crucified Christ—Ministers should search the Scriptures in humble dependence upon God for enlightenment. 10. An unsalaried ministry, helped by the voluntary contributions of their churches, but also laboring more or less for their own support; freely receiving of God, and freely giving of their spiritual things to their brethren, while the latter also freely ministered of their carnal substance to them—The true ministry are not hirelings, preaching for filthy lucre’s sake—The noble, self‑denying, Christ-like example of Paul—Salaries attract unqualified men into the ministry—Unstipulated voluntary contributions to the ministry practiced for the first three centuries. 11. The sending forth of the ministry by the Holy Spirit, and their going forth, whithersoever the Lord directed, in simple dependence upon Him, to preach the gospel to every creature, and to shepherd the lambs and sheep of Christ—The twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples—The gospel, and not the preaching of it, the power of God unto salvation to believers—No man able to do the quickening work of the Divine Spirit—The Apostles went forth as directed, not by man, but by the Spirit, who alone knows where His elect and redeemed people are—And, as directed by Christ, when they were persecuted in one city they fled to another, and thus they traversed the Roman Empire—The true ministry, since the apostolic age, have gone forth in the same manner. 12. Separation from all worldly, men-made, money-based religious organizations, corruptly uniting believers and unbelievers, for the avowed object of converting the world—Ancient Israel forbidden to confederate with the heathen nations for any purpose—The church the only society organized or authorized by Christ and His Apostles, and perfectly adapted for all the purposes of God toward spiritual Israel—The especial corruption of professedly religious organizations based upon money, the god of this world, and the love of which is a root or all evil —All these modern human inventions and institutions utterly unknown in the apostolic and primitive churches—Not by worldly might and power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, did the word of God, in the first century, grow mightily and prevail — No religious institutions of men found in the New Testament, and all to be rejected.
THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, AND MISSIONS.
History of the doctrine of grace, and of scriptural and unscriptural missions—Bible Baptists not fatalists, or rationalists, but scriptural predestinarians—The Greek Arminian anthropology the doctrine of the dead Greek Catholic “Church,” and, since the sixth century, of the Roman Catholic “Church”—The first Protestant reformers decidedly rejected this false doctrine, but retained many Romish unscriptural traditions—Baptists have no succession from Rome, and are the only thorough-going, consistent antagonists of Romanism—The Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Calvinistic Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist communions—Superior moral results of Bible predestinarianisim—The almost total departure of Protestants and New School Baptists from this doctrine during the last hundred years, and the sad moral results—The nineteenth century preeminently the century of religious profession and pride—Vice and crime increasing with the increase of religious profession, at least in the United States—Modern evangelization—The prevalence of Arminianism among the most of the anti-Romanists of the Dark Ages, and among the early Baptists of modern times—The first Predestinarian Baptist Church formed in 1633, in London—The most of Baptists since that time have professed predestinarianisim—All are Arminians by nature—Babes in Christ need grace to establish them in the doctrine of God our Savior—All human authority fallible and imperfect—The Scriptures the only infallible authority—The soundness of the devout and learned English Baptist ministers, John Skepp, John Brine and John Gill, of the eighteenth century—Covert Arminianism of Andrew Fuller—Long and bitter controversy—Prevalence of Fullerism, and consequent large ingathering of goats into the “sheepfold”—The first Baptist Missionary Society—Modern missioners unlike the Apostles and primitive ministers, have more faith in men and human learning and money than in God—Modern missionary methods derived, not from the New Testament, but from the Roman Catholics especially the Jesuits, the most zealous and successful men-made Missionaries in the world—Such methods no sign of spiritual life—Remarkable and candid admissions of Mr. W.F. Bainbridge, a “Missionary Baptist” preacher, who has recently visited a thousand Protestant mission stations—More than two-thirds of the “Christian Church” practically anti-missionary—Miserably small annual contributions of the advocates of Foreign Missions, averaging less than three cents apiece—Prayer needed as well as money—“Missionary” criticism of Paul’s methods—Christ’s example—The heathens more honest than professing Christians—The warlike and self-aggrandizing course of Protestant England Partial material resemblance of the nineteenth to the first century; God’s purposes of grace—Infidelity disseminated by professing Christians in Japan, China and India—Salaries and qualifications of foreign missionaries—There should be less reliance on means and methods, and more on God—Number and cost of heathen converts—Time needed to convert the world—Testimony of the greatest of Southern Baptist Missionaries to the scripturalness of Primitive Baptist principles who, though stigmatized as anti-missionaries, are the most active, self-denying, scriptural home missionaries in the United States, traveling tens and hundreds of thousands of miles without Missionary Boards or Funds, as directed by the Spirit and providence of God, as did the Apostles and the ministers of all the early centuries—Far more than human means or money the world needs a Pentecostal baptism of God’s Holy Spirit—Unscripturalness of modern “Missions,” and scripturalness of Primitive Baptist position.
SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH CENTURIES.
Second Century. The age of inspiration and infallible teaching ended—The ten great persecutions—Letters of Pliny and Trajan—Pliny’s testimony to the excellent character of the Christians—The infidel Celsus a prototype of the infidels of the nineteenth century—The Pagans persecuted Christians because the latter, maintaining the exclusive truth of their own religion, would not worship the Pagan idols—Primitive Baptists of today are exactly like the Christians of the second century in non‑fellowshipping the worshipers of idols—Establishment of the first Theological Seminary, at Alexandria, Egypt, A.D. 180—Its gross corruption of Christian doctrine—Neo-Platonism—Gnosticism—Origen—Plotinus—Tertullian—Montanists—Church at Pella—Ebionites or Nazarenes—Christians persecuted as atheists, and as the causes of public calamities—Ignatius—Irenaeus—Condition and manners of the Christians of the second century—Gibbon’s testimony—No infant baptism—The churches were Baptist. Third Century. Rapid growth of errors in faith and practice—Persecution of faithful Christians—Episcopal aggrandizement—Birth of Roman Catholicism—Sabellianism—Manichaeism—Porphyry historical record of an infant baptism in the first three centuries. Fourth Century. The tenth, last and greatest persecution of Christians by Pagan Rome, under Diocletian and Galerius—Accession of Constantine—His nominal “conversion” to Christianity—He patronizes Catholics, and persecutes Donatists and others—The Arian controversy—Council of Nicaea—The seven so-called Ecumenical Councils—Constantine unites “Church” and State—He inaugurates the corrupting and unscriptural practice of paying regular salaries to ministers, thus making them hirelings—Controversial bitterness—Unfathomable depths of the Godhead—Enormities of Roman Catholicism—Baptism of unconverted youths—Tertullian, Novatian, and their followers—The Donatists—Julian the apostate—The Circumcelliones—Constantine establishes Sunday as a partial day of rest—With the people of God during the first three centuries, all times and places sacred—Origin of the Catholic “Forms of Prayer,” pictures in houses of worship, clerical celibacy, and funeral sermons—Council of Constantinople—The first legal shedding of blood for “heresy”—Increasing corruption with the increasing profession, without the possession, of Christianity.
FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES.
Fifth Century. Characteristics—Increasing idolatry and corruption—Barbarian invasions—Professing civilized “Christians” more corrupt than barbarian heathens—Increase of formalism—“Pillar saints”—Worship of the elements of the communion, “saints,” and relics—The Augustinian, Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian controversies in regard to sin and grace—Arminianism—Consistency, scripturalness, and the admirable moral results of the Pauline or Augustinian or Calvinistic doctrine of salvation by grace alone—Life a clear, indivisible, Divine gift, totally distinct from death—Spiritual life is eternal life—Christ Himself is the Life of His people—God’s Spirit works in His children all their holy willing and doing, all their repentance, faith, lone and obedience—He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life—Science Illustrates and confirms this doctrine—Augustine’s sacramentalism and persecution of the Donatists—The imperfection of human knowledge—Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon—Nestorianism—Eutychianism—Foundation of the Greek Catholic oligarchy and of the Roman Catholic monarchy—John Chrysostom—Jerome—The British and Irish churches—“Christmas” established. Sixth Century. Characteristics—Increasing superstition, idolatry and corruption—Pretended conversion of northern barbarians—Monophysite controversies—Fifth General Council, at Constantinople—Justinian—His conquests, laws and buildings—He requires all infants to be baptized, and persecutes “heretics” and Pagans—The people of God flee to deserts and mountains, especially in northern Italy, southern France and northern Spain—The titles “Pope,” “Universal Bishop” and “Sovereign Pontiff”—Gregory I. sends “missionaries” to convert England—Corrupting compromises—Yule and Easter—Papal Rome imitates imperial Rome—The Welsh Christians refuse alliance with Rome—The so-called Culdees essentially Roman Catholics Benedictines—The birth of Christ made a chronological epoch.
SEVENTH, EIGHTH, NINTH, TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES.
Characteristics of the Middle or Dark Ages: Traditionalism, superstition, salvation by works, vice and crime. Seventh Century. Thousands of Welsh Christians slain by heathen Saxons instigated by Roman Catholics—The Church of England, the daughter of the Church of Rome, founded by Theodore, the Popish Archbishop of Canterbury—The Monothelitic controversy—The Sixth General Council, at Constantinople—The Quinisextan Council of Constantinople the perpetual apple of discord between the Greek and Roman Catholic communions—Roman Catholic persecution of the Jews in Spain—Rise, progress and character of Mohammedanism—The Paulicians, and the Catholic persecutions of them. Eighth Century. Repulse of Mohammedans by Charles Martel—Foundation of the temporal power of the Pope of Rome—Severance of Roman and Greek Catholic communions—Charlemagne Baptism or death offered to the barbarians—Boniface, the Roman Catholic “Apostle” of Germany—Ecclesiastical alliance of Rome, France, Germany and England—Iconoclastic controversy—John of Damascus—Corrupt Catholic doctrines and practices. Ninth Century. Increase of ignorance, idolatry, superstition and corruption—Continuance of nominal conversion, or civilization, of barbarians—Division of the empire of Charlemagne—The Forged Papal Decrees, the foundation of Papal supremacy over the national “churches”—The Papal Pornocracy—Increase of monasticism, priestly celibacy and corruption—Final establishment of image-worship among the Greek Catholics—Increase of relic-worship—Transubstantiation—The Northmen—Great persecution of the Paulicians by the Greek Catholics—Gottschalk’s doctrine of double predestination—John Scotus Erigena—Claudius of Turin advocates a pure spiritual Christianity, and was probably the forerunner of the Waldenses. Tenth Century. Midnight of the Dark Ages—Politics, religion and morals all adrift—Ignorance, vice and crime almost universal throughout “Christendom,” while Arabic literature flourished in Mohammedan Spain—The so‑called “Holy Roman Empire” revived—Continuance of the Roman Catholic “conversion” of barbarians—Great wealth and corruption of the “clergy”—The first Roman Catholic “baptism of a bell” and “canonization of a saint”—Multiplication of false relics—Increased dependence on works and increased corruption—End of the world expected A.D. 1000—Almost universal consternation and demoralization—The Paulicians spread over Europe. Eleventh Century. But little light visible in the thick darkness—Building of castles and Gothic cathedrals—Anselm—The Scholastic Theology—Berengar of Tours—Transubstantiation and consubstantiation—Summa Theologiæ of Thomas Aquinas—Final rupture of Roman and Greek Catholic communions—Popes Sylvester II., Nicholas II. and Gregory VII.—The latter enforces priestly celibacy, and inaugurates the Controversy of Investitures—He humiliates the German Emperor, Henry IV., at Canossa—The great era of Papal Rome, 1050-1299 A.D.—Ubiquitous and tremendous dominion of Roman Catholicism—Religious Orders, Purgatory, Abbeys, Cathedrals, Universities, Confessional, Inquisition, Excommunication and Interdict—The Crusades—The Cathari.
TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.
Twelfth Century. Increase of Roman Catholic wealth: superstition, corruption, and “conversions” by fire and sword—Second and Third Crusades—The doctrine of the “Immaculate Conception” of Mary—The seven Roman Catholic “Sacraments”—Bishops only Vicars of the Pope—Tithes—Withholding cup from the “laity”—Supremacy of tradition—Thomas A. Beckett—First persecution, in England, for “heresy”—The Anti-sacerdotalists—Petrobrusians, Henricians, Arnoldists, Albigenses and Waldenses were predecessors of the Baptists. Thirteenth Century. Culmination of Papal power, pretension. and Theology—Fourth Crusade—Latin conquest and loss of Constantinople—Children’s Crusade—Filth, Sixth and Seventh Crusades—Roman Catholic Crusades against the Moors in Spain, and against Prussia and the Albigenses—Franciscans and Dominicans, Roman Catholic “missionaries”—Hundreds of religious institutions founded by Roman Catholicism—The Inquisition—Works of supererogation—Sale of indulgences to sin— “Laymen” prohibited from possessing or reading the Bible, and from discussing doctrine—Penance by flagellation—Magna Charta—House of Commons—Pragmatic sanction—Gallican liberties—Unprecedented pretension and fall of Pope Boniface VIII.—The Pantheistic “Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit”—Bible Baptists are Pauline Antinomians—The Waldenses.
FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.
Fourteenth Century. The “Babylonish Captivity” of the Papacy—Profligacy and extortion of the Popes—John XXII.—The Fratricelli-Knight Templars—The great Western Schism; the head of Antichrist cloven in twain—Sale of “church” offices, and of pardons for sins—Multiplication of “Jubilees”—All the commandments condensed into one “Give Gold”—Rienzi—Revival of Pagan literature and profligacy—The Black Death—Roman Catholic persecution of Jews—The Poles compelled to submit to baptism—The first Roman Catholic legalization of sprinkling or pouring for baptism—The Lollards—Milicz, Conrad and Matthias—Thomas Bradwardine, the highest of supralapsarian predestinarians—John Wycliffe, “the Morning Star of the Reformation”—First translation of the entire Scriptures into English. Fifteenth Century. Greatest corruption in doctrine and practice—Providential preparation for the Protestant Reformation—The General Councils of Pisa, Constance and Basel—John XXIII., “the Incarnate Devil”—Martin V.—Eugenius IV.—Felix V.—The three councils showed the necessity of the reformation, or rather regeneration, of Roman Catholicism, but they utterly failed to effect such renovation—Nicholas V. designs the “Vatican” and “St. Peter’s”—The Humanists—Pagan Popes—Sixtus IV.—Innocent VIII.—Alexander VI., the wickedest of all the Popes—Caesar Borgia—Machiavelli—Rome the centre of the rottenness of the world—First English statute for burning “heretics,” remaining in force 276 years—William Sautre the first person burned—John Badby the second person burned—Death the penalty for reading the scriptures in the mother tongue—Persecution of the Lollards, or Wycliffites—They flee into other countries—Secret worship—Execution of Sir John Oldcastle—Burning of Hus and Jerome of Prague—Roman Catholic crusade against the Bohemians—Resistance of the latter—Calixtines and Taborites—The Bohemian Brethren—Feudal and priestly oppression of the poor—Dreadful persecution of the Waldenses by the Roman Catholics—Savonarola—The Spanish Inquisition—Persecution of the Jews, Moors and Morescoes in Spain—Invention of printing—Discovery of America and of a marine route to India—Mosheim’s, and Ypeig and Dermont’s testimonies to the antiquity and scripturalness of the Baptists—The long night of the Dark Ages drawing to a close.
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
The sixteenth century; next to the first century, the richest and deepest in church history—The century of the early stormy morning—Building of “St. Peters” by the sale of indulgences to sin—Augustinianism of all genuine and successful church reformation—Martin Luther’s trumpet-blast of the sovereignty of Divine grace, and justification by faith alone—Counter-blast of Rome—Reformed Inquisition—Jesuits—Council of Trent—Protestant and Catholic persecutions of “Ana”-Baptists—Excesses at Munster—Popes Julius II. and Leo X.—Cost of “St. Peter’s”—Tetzel—A price for every sin, past or future—Life of Luther—His Pauline experience—His ninety-five Theses—Protestant Reformation begun—Contest between the Pope and Luther—Diet of Worms—Luther under the ban of the Empire—Ten generations involved in revolution—Luther at the Wartburg—Translates the New Testament into German, and afterward the Old Testament—During the first period of his Christian life he came near being a Baptist, but gradually inclined to sacramentalism—Recalled to Wittenberg by the excesses of some reformers—The Peasants’ war—Luther’s wrong course—Thomas Munzer—The “Ana”-Baptists not responsible for the Peasants’ war—Luther marries a former nun—His controversy with Erasmus on the Freedom of the Will—President Edwards on the Will—Luther’s errors and death—Long religious wars between Roman Catholics and Protestants—Philip Melancthon—Three great principles of the Protestant Reformation—Charles V.—Formula of Concord—Ulrich Zw1ugli—His controversy with Luther at Marburg—John Ecolampadius—Henry Bullinger—Oswald Myconius—William Farel—John Calvin, the ablest theologian of the Reformation—His conversion, and “Institutes of the Christian Religion”—His invention of the Presbyterian Church polity—His grossly antichristian severity—Servetus—Bolsec—Calvin’s sincerity, unworldliness and death—His Hebrew spirit—His doctrine of Predestination—The Reformation an Augustinian reaction from Romanist Semi-Pelagianism and idolatry—Calvin recast Augustinianism in its Protestant form—God’s permissive decree of sin—Supralapsarianism never incorporated in any church Confession of Faith—Predestinarianisim in accordance with the stern facts: the two-edged sword of Divine Justice—The sharp point being the Eternal Decree, and the two keen edges, Free Grace and Salvation by Faith—Unequalled moral effects of this doctrine—Calvin’s errors—Beza—The Satanic and unrivalled antichristianity of Roman Catholicism—Intolerance of Protestants—Birth of the Lutheran, Episcopalian and Presbyterian “Churches”—Macaulay on “Apostolical Succession”—Henry VIII.—Edward VI.—The thirty-nine Articles—Bloody Mary—Elizabeth—Spanish Armada—Wealth of the “Church of England”—The “Ana”-Baptists and Mennonites—Munzer, Hoffman, Matthiesen and Bockhold—Munster—The true Baptists—Their poverty, peacefulness, ministry and persecutions—Hubmaier—Menno Simons—Earliest Baptist Confessions of Faith—The persecuting Protestants were Predestinarians, while the persecuted Baptists of this century were Arminians, but the latter strenuously maintained the spirituality of the church—The principles and practices of the Bohemians and Waldenses corrupted by the Protestants.
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Continued storm and persecution—The Thirty Years’ War in Germany—The Puritan Revolution in England—Cromwell—Stuarts restored—Revolution of 1688—Religions toleration—Turks repulsed—Secularization of politics—Expulsion of Huguenots from France—The King James version of the Bible—Independents, Baptists and Friends—Westminster Confession of Faith—Expulsion of Jesuits from Japan—The pretended “conversions” of heathen in the East Indies by the Dutch—John Eliot—“Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England”—“Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge”—Rapid growth of Arminianism—Rise of modern philosophy, latitudinarianism, rationalism and pantheism—James Arminius—Original Arminian creed—Many Arminians became Pelagians and Arians—Characteristics of modern philosophy—Blaise Pascal—Milton, Newton, Locks, Grotius and Leibnitz—Truth mutilated between Christ’s first and second comings—Synod of Dort—Persecution of Arminians—The Jesuits—The first Missionary Board (the “Propaganda”) established by Pope Gregory XV. in 1622—The first Missionary College established by Pope Urban VIII. in 1627—Roman Catholic persecutions of Protestants and Waldenses—The “Church of England” the servile and efficient agent of tyranny—The Independents—Pilgrim fathers—Puritans—The “Church of England” in the American colonies—Persecutions of Scotch Covenanters, Quakers and Baptists—The last man burned in England for his religion, Edward Wightman, a Baptist—Imprisonment substituted for burning—Act of Uniformity—Conventicle Act—Five-Mile Act—Second Conventicle Act—Severe persecution of Dissenters in England, and in Massachusetts and Virginian—Baptist Churches, principles, practices and ministers—Laying of hands on all baptized believers—Roger Williams—Feet-Washing—John Bunyan—William Kiffin—Judge Jeffries—Benjamin Leach—Hanserd Knollys.
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Lurid calm followed by rationalistic storm—Arianism, Pelagianism, philosophism, materialism and atheism—Moral chaos—Voltaire—Bolingbroke—Frederic the Great—Deism—Rationalism—French Revolution—Immanuel Kant—Writings of Butler, Lardner, Paley and Watson—Dead formalism—Moral essays for sermons—Suppression of Jesuits—General religious toleration, with occasional persecution of Dissenters—“Hyper‑Calvinism”—Andrew Fuller’s “Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation”—Pietism—Moravianism—Methodism—Swedenborgianism—Shakers—Sandemanians—Modern Protestant Missions—The Missionary Societies of Protestantism a substitute for the Religious Orders of Roman Catholicism—Sunday Schools—Extermination of Jesuits in China—The German Rationalists, Ernesti, Michaelis and Semler—Anglicanism in England and America—Romaine—Toplady—John Newton—Cowper—Milner‑Richard and Rowland Hill—Thomas Scott—My own first hope in Christ—Speculative and practical Antinomians—Apostolic proportion of doctrinal preaching—John Wesley—Charles Wesley—Congregationalists—Isaac Watts—Philip Doddridge—Matthew Henry—Presbyterians—Jonathan Edwards—George Whitefield—Wide-spread predestinarian revival in America—Three-fourths of the American churches predestinarian in 1776—Another predestinarian revival—Peculiarities of American Church History—The American Baptist Churches—Welsh Tract Church—Hopewell—Kingwood—Kehukee—Southampton—Bryan’s—Elders Ambrose and Thomas P. Dudley—Primitive Baptist Associations—Two causes of Baptist success: a spiritual membership and a spiritual ministry—The Bible their sole authority—The doctrinal belief of the Philadelphia Association—The Trinity Freeness of God’s grace—The fall of man—God not the author or approver of sin—Effectual calling—Condemnation of the doctrine of universal atonement, and of the use of distilled liquors as a beverage—Difference between legal and gospel repentance—Warning against the new system of divinity—Condemnation of Universalism—Final perseverance of the saints—Difference between the law and the gospel—The Lord’s Day—Modern Protestant Missions admitted to have been derived from Papal Rome—Gill’s Commentary on the Bible recommended by the Philadelphia Association in 1807—The qualifications of a gospel minister—Reading sermons not preaching—Apostolical character of the first propagation of the gospel in America—Persecutions of Baptists and Quakers in Virginia and Massachusetts—God’s methods of spreading His gospel exactly the same in the eighteenth century as in the first century, and why not the same in the nineteenth century.
NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Day advancing, but abounding ungodliness and impending judgments—Almost universal skepticism—Man his own god—A spiritual worship of the true God stigmatized as behind the times—Faith and reverence needed—The most composite and heterogeneous of all the centuries—Political, social, industrial, scientific, moral and religious features—Effects of alcohol—Blasphemous culmination of Roman Catholicism—Some of God’s people even yet in Rome—Sunday Schools—Protracted meetings—Theological Seminaries—Hireling shepherds—All the commandments, as in the Dark Ages, reduced to one, “Give Gold”—Assyriology and Egyptology—Lutheran and Anglican “churches”—Religious unions and societies—Home and Foreign “Missions”—Growing infidelity—A very small remnant according to the election of grace—More than fifty “isms”—Midnight storm of atheistic materialism—Internationalism—The gospel of Christ the only remedy—The Laodicean age—The three downward steps of Modern Advanced Thought—Old Catholics—Reformed Episcopalians—Scottish “Free Church”—Old and New School Presbyterians—Northern and Southern Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists—Old and New School Baptists—Unitarians—Universalists—Literal as well as spiritual truth of Scripture—Tennyson—Pantheism and atheism—Schleiermacher—Atheistic Agnosticism—Strauss—Renan—J.S. Mill—Carlyle—Herbert Spencer—“Church of England”—Five minute sermons—Tractarianism—Ritualism—Broad-churchism—Privy Council—Evangelical Alliance—Unionistic spirit—Almost universal Arminianism—The piping times of peace—Juvenile discipleship—“Church” entertainments—The Mixed Multitude—The “Church” courting the World—Departure from primitive purity of doctrine and practice—“Modern Christianity a Civilized Heathenism”—Mediaeval architecture—Catholic and Protestant Missions—Self-supporting, industrial and medical Missions—China Inland Mission—Ministers with whom preaching is a money-making business exert but little influence for good upon the heathen—The advocates of modern Missions contribute, on an average, but three cents apiece per year to save a thousand million perishing heathen souls—The peculiar spiritual blessings of the Anglo-Saxon race—“Christian Connection”—“Disciples of Christ”—Plymouth Brethren—Winebrennerians—Mormons—Second Adventists—Irvingites—Modern moneyed Missions—Spiritualists—Modern socialism—Wm. Huntington—Robert Hall—Richard Watson—English Evangelicals—John Newton—Richard Cecil—Thomas Scott—Comparative conservatism of Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists—230 new translations of the Bible—Anglo-American Revision—King James’s Version—Geneva Bible—Recent changes in original text, conjectural, premature, and the most of them unnecessary, inexpedient and worthless—English Strict Baptists—Wm. Gadsby—J.C. Philpot—The Old School or Primitive Baptists in the United States—John Leland—Wilson Thompson—Two-Seedism—Charge of Arianism—Charge of lack of benevolence—Quality of membership more important than quantity—Age of works and Missions and infidelity—Religious statistics of the world—Number of Bibles in the world—Progress of morality—Increase of crime and of religious profession in the United States since 1850—Divinity and omnipotence of Christ—His gospel the power of God unto salvation—Indispensable need of the Holy Ghost—Science a child: Revelation the perfect man—Corrupting idolatry of money—Need of the grand old Calvinistic truths of the Reformation—Scriptural predestination and election—God’s permission, foreknowledge and overruling of sin—Unworldliness and unselfishness of true religion—Apostolic faith and practice of Old School or Primitive Baptists—“Rock of Ages”.
KEHUKEE ASSOCIATION FROM 1765 TO 1802.
Adherence to the faith once delivered to the saints—Black-Rockism and Kehukeeism—Object of the present History to show who are the true Primitive Baptists—The four oldest Baptist Associations in America—The seven churches first composing the Kehukee Association—At first General and then Particular Baptists—Paul Palmer—Elders Vanhorn and Miller—The Bible the only infallible standard of faith and practice—The old London Confession of Faith, of 1689—Church Covenant and Rules of Decorum—Early ministers—Regular and Separate Baptists—United Baptists—Ten churches; 1,581 members—Articles of Faith adopted in 1777, and still maintained—Two sessions per year—No session in 1780 and 1781, on account of the Revolutionary War—Rules of Decorum for the Association—The Association only a collection of churches, and an advisory council, having no power to govern the churches—The church the highest ecclesiastical power on earth—Associations convenient methods of brotherly correspondence and intercourse—The Bible the Baptist Confession of Faith—Creeds convenient summaries to explain views to others—Why Bible Baptists believe and love their Articles of Faith—Queries received and answered—Four annual “General Conferences”—Four annual “Occasional Associations”—Elder John Leland present in 1785—Petition against an alliance of Church and State—Qualifications, license and ordination of a gospel, minister—Certificate of ordination—Frequenting Masonic Lodges, disorder—Two sessions per year—Not contributing to the support of the ministry, covetousness—Elder Isaac Backus present in 1789—Union between Regulars and Separates completed—Constitution of the Kehukee Association—Minutes first printed in 1789; 61 churches, 3,344 members—First Circular Letter written in 1790—Itinerant preaching—Virginia Portsmouth Association set off in 1790; Neuse Association, in 1793—Monthly prayer-meetings for a revival of religion—Plans for itinerant preaching abandoned—Extensive revivals of religion in 1801-3—Zeal not according to knowledge—Union Meetings—Their object and constitution.
KEHUKEE ASSOCIATION FROM 1803 TO 1833.
1,200 Baptist Churches in the United States, with more than 100,000 members—The Query on Missions, submitted by Elder Martin Ross, the source of divisions and animosities from 1803 to 1827—Committee appointed—The new Missionary scheme partially and feebly adopted—Missionary Convention at Cashie M.H.—Chowan Association set off in 1805—Relations of the Virginia Portsmouth, the Neuse and the Chowan Associations to the Kehukee—“Meeting of General Correspondence,” in 1811—Constitution of said “Meeting” disapproved by the Kehukee Association—Changes proposed—Report of the Philadelphia Board of Baptist Foreign Missions received in 1815—No more funds to be sent by the Kehukee Association to the “General Meeting”—Delegates to said “Meeting” discontinued in 1816—Baptist Board of Foreign Missions born in 1814—Circular Address of the Baptist “General Convention”—Second rebuke to members visiting Masonic Lodges—Declaration of the Reformed Baptist Churches of N.C., in 1826—Remarkable session of 1827—Unanimous and cordial rejection of all money-based religious institutions—Black Rock—Country Line Association—Elder Joshua Lawrence—Departure of New School Baptists from apostolic doctrine and practice—Decision of 1827 reaffirmed in 1828 and 1829—Elder C. B. Hassell—Correspondence discontinued with the Neuse and Chowan and taken up with the Little River and Nauhunty Associations—Elder Joseph Biggs appointed to write the continuation of the Kehukee History from 1803—Tar River Association.
MODERN RELIGIOUS INVENTIONS.
Causes of the division among the Baptists in the nineteenth century—False doctrine led to false practices—Confidence lost in God and placed on man—Phariseeism and persecution—Portsmouth, Chowan. Neuse and Tar River Associations—Sharp contention—Recent attempts of the New School to prove themselves Old School Baptists—New Pseudo-Religious Institutions have divided the Baptists—Arminianism of Missionary Baptists—Fusion with other societies and the world—Modern Missionism not conceived in North Carolina till 1803—So-called “Missionaries” in disorder, and excluded from the fellowship of the true church—David Benedict’s “Fifty Years Among the Baptists”—His unimpeachable testimony to the novelty of the entire Missionary machinery among Baptists—Almost incredible changes, he says, among the Baptists in his day—Springing up of Mission, Mite, Tract and Bible Societies, Sunday Schools, Theological Colleges, Written Sermons, Delicate and Salaried Ministers, Excited Meetings, Efforts for Large Numerical Gains in Membership, and Frequent Changes of Ministers—No money-collecting agents in the whole Baptist field fifty years ago, says Benedict in 1860—A broad distinction then between the church and the world—Baptists did not go to law with one another—They were familiar with the. Scriptures—Pews free—Associations the only large meetings—No money-hunting agents at Associations—Non-intercourse with Pedobaptist—An uneducated ministry—Conversion of Adoniran Judson and Luther Rice to Baptist sentiments—“Baptist Triennial Convention”—“Primitive” as far back as 1814—Missionary dissensions, avarice and ambition—Fullerite Arminianism—The old Baptist divines strong Calvinists—Charges of fatalism on the one hand, and of salvation by works on the other—Fullerite changes in style of preaching—Lowering of the standard of orthodoxy—Ministerial manners and eloquence more regarded now than doctrine—Contrast of the Old-Fashioned and the New—Fashioned Baptists, as described by David Benedict—The terms “Brother” and “Sister” formerly much used among Baptists—Ministers were called “Elders”—So-called “revivals” few and far between—New measures of recent times—Rising for prayers—Protracted meetings—Popular revival ministers—Converts by wholesale—Great changes in Associations—Money qualification for membership in Missionary Conventions—Formerly Baptists contended for a God-called and God-qualified ministry—Recent and secular origin of Sunday Schools, since made an engine of priestcraft—Adoniram Judson’s “Golden Calf”.
KEHUKEE ASSOCIATION FROM 1834 TO 1885.
A resolution in 1840 not to countenance “Missionary” preachers—Almost a famine from storms in eastern N.C. in 1842, but the Association well accommodated—Elder James Osbourn, of Baltimore, being solicited, issues a Hymn Book—Elder Joshua Lawrence—Elder Joseph Biggs—Circular Letter on Ministerial Support—Last Circular Letter, by appointment, written in 1846—The “Primitive Baptist” periodical—Petition, Memorial and Remonstrance to the Legislature of N.C. and to the Congress of the U.S. against the incorporation of Religious Societies, and against paid chaplaincies in the Army and Navy and Congress—Elder Wilson Thompson’s Address to the Regular Baptists in the U.S., appended to the Minutes of 1850—Elder W. Thompson visits the Association in 1852—Voluntary Circular Letter of Elder R. D. Hart in 1854—Elder Thomas Biggs—Elder C. B. Hassell first chosen Moderator in 1857—Elder John Stadler—The question of continuing the Kehukee History brought up in 1860, and referred to the churches—The war between the States—Primitive Baptists not at all divided by the war—Elder William Hyman—Elder R C. Leachman—Centennial Meeting of Kehukee Association in 1865—The church of Christ not divided—In 1872 a standing committee appointed to arrange for preaching—In 1873 from 10,000 to 13,000 persons estimated to be present at Cross Roads—The resumption of the Kehukee History again considered in 1875—In 1876 Elder C. B. Hassell appointed to write the ancient history of the church, and bring down the Kehukee History to date; the book to contain some 600 pages, and to cost not more than $2—Subscription papers ordered to be distributed—Elder John Stamper—Great labor in writing a conscientious history of thousands of years—Elder S. Hassell appointed in 1880 to complete the History—The Association instruct Elder S. Hassell in 1881 to call upon such subscribers as were willing to prepay the price of the book to secure its publication—Elders C.B. Hassell. J.W. Purvis, C.T. Crank and Gilbert Beebe—Elder Clayton Moors—The 120th Annual Session of the Kehukee Association in 1885 at Beargrass—Isaiah 1:9 the subject of the Introductory Sermon—The History to be printed, Providence permitting, in 1886—Separate Associations for White and Colored churches—41 churches, 1,891 members, 32 Elders and 4 Licentiates—Elders R. H. Harriss and R. Tucker.
QUERIES.
1. Presbyterian baptism—2. Difference in judgment about water-baptism—3. Suspicion of fault in a member—4. Proofs of true ministry—5. Marriage of servants—6 Breaking marriage of servants—7. Worldly evidence against a member—8. Feet‑Washing—9. Causes of a civil nature—10. Suspension from communion—11. Publication of excommunication—12. Support of the ministry—13. Rending one’s self from the church—14. Voluntary absence from communion—15. Christian marriages—16. Attendance of servants on family worship—17. Restoration of Deacon to office—18. Trial of gifts—19. Receiving members excluded from other churches at a distance—20. Essentials of communion—21. Right of pastor to dismission—22. Unanimity in call to pastorate—23. Right of women to speak in conference—24. Administration of Lord’s Supper to one person alone—25. Frequenting Masonic Lodges—26. Corroboration of worldly evidence—27. A Presbytery—28. Covetousness in neglecting the support of the ministry—29. Work of the Deacon—30. Right of pastorless churches to receive and exclude members—31. “Christening” children—32. Respective duties of ministers and churches—33. Testimony of but one witness against a member—34. Family worship—35. Ordination of Deacons—36. Missions—37. The bringing up of children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord—38. Arminianism—39. Letters. without delegates, to the Association—40. Publishing the religious appointments of other denominations—41 Attending the preaching of excluded persons—42. Letters of dismission—43. Course in regard to unedifying ministers—44. Members not in fellowship—45. Race-paths and five batteries—46. Withdrawal from a church—47. Inviting ministers of other denominations to occupy our pulpits—48. Administration of Lord’s Supper by one not an ordained minister—49. Reception of members by a church having no male members—50. Receiving a member on an experience written by a “Missionary”.
A CHURCH—EDUCATION—ITINERANCY—ROMANIZING OF PROTESTANTS—SOCIETIES—SUNDAY SCHOOLS—PERSECUTION—FEET-WASHING.
Essentials of a church—Reception of members—Number of members—Meetings for business and worship—Articles of faith—Education—Theological Schools—Itinerancy, scriptural and unscriptural—Abominations of some “Modern Missions”—Reversal of the gospel rule—Making a trade of religion—Ministerial aggrandizement—Mystery Babylon and her daughters—Secret Societies—Moral Reform Societies— “Sabbath” Schools—Persecution—Feet-Washing among Primitive Baptists.
CHURCHES COMPOSING THE KEHUKEE ASSOCIATION.
Beargrass—Bethlehem, in Tyrrell Co.—Bethlehem, Pasquotank Co.—Beaverdam—Briery Swamp (Grindell Creek)—Castalia—Conoho—Conetoe—Concord—Coinjock—Cross Roads—Daniel’s—Deep Creek—Elim—Falls of Tar River—Flat Swamp—Flatty Creek—Great Swamp—Hickory Rock—Hopeland—Jamesville (Picot)—Kehukee—Lawrence’s—Lebanon—Morattock—North Creek—Peach Tree—Providence—Pungo—Rocky Swamp—Sandy Grove—Sappony—Skewarkey—South Mattamuskeet—South Quay—Sparta—Smithwick’s Creek—Spring Green—Tarborough—White Plains—William’s.
PREDESTINARIAN BAPTISTS OF CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.
Covenanted Baptists of Canada—Primitive Baptists in the United States—Alabama—Arkansas—California—Delaware—Florida—Georgia—Illinois—Indiana—Iowa—Kansas—Kentucky—Louisiana—Maine—Massachusetts—Maryland—Mississippi—Missouri—New Jersey—New York—North Carolina—Ohio—Oregon—Pennsylvania—South Carolina—Tennessee—Texas—Virginia—West Virginia—Wisconsin.
Life of Elder C. B. Hassell—Autobiography of Elder Gilbert Beebe—Elder G. Beebe’s Editorial on “Ecclesiastical History and Church Creeds” —Absolute Predestination of All Things—The Celestial Railroad.