An Essay on the Importance of Baptist History
By J. R. GravesThe comparatively little interest taken by the world, and even by professed Christians, in Church History, is truly astonishing. In how small a proportion of the, not to say libraries, but houses of such can a book, purporting to be a Church History, be found! And in what profound ignorance of the history of Christianity is the world to-day! That non-professing men should take so little interest in Church History is indeed strange, that Christians should be indifferent to it is unaccountably so. An ancient historian justly remarks:
“Nothing can be more becoming a Christian than a general knowledge of Church History. It is a shame, that most of those who profess Christianity should be acquainted not only with the History of their own country, but even with that of the remotest nations, which only serves to satisfy their curiosity; and should at the same time know nothing of Church History, whence they may draw such light as may be conducive to their salvation. What advantage may not be reaped from it? It teaches us religion, it shows us what we are to believe and practice, what errors are to be rejected, what things we are to imitate; it furnishes us with abundance of examples of heroic virtue and instructs in duty. It is a great abuse that the study of it is so much neglected. Men are very careful to instruct their children in profane history, which very often only serves to spoil their minds and corrupt their manners, and they leave them altogether ignorant of the history of Jesus Christ and his Church. Worldly people read the ancient and modem histories of nations and countries, without casting their eyes upon the Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, and those historians who have writ what have happened concerning religion.”Excepting the study of the Bible, the life and teaching of Christ, the teachings and Acts of his Apostles, what study can or should be more delightful or more intensely interesting to the Christian than the study of the history of the churches which succeeded those planted in the days of the Apostles, and which have existed, preserving a pure faith and a pure practice through centuries of the fiercest persecutions and martyrdoms, unto this time? Are not Christians concerned to know whether that prophecy, concerning the Kingdom of Christ, spoken by Daniel 2:44, has thus far been fulfilled? If we understand the prophet he foretells the setting up of a kingdom in the days of the kings of the fourth universal Empire the Roman - which was never to be broken in pieces - utterly disorganized - or given to another people, but to stand forever and ultimately fill the whole earth. Was there a kingdom set up in the days of the Caesars by the God of Heaven? Has that kingdom, or organizations in all respects similar to it, existed from the days of Christ until now? And has it been composed of the same class and character of people during all subsequent ages until this time?Ought not Christians to interest themselves to learn the fulfillment of those promises of Christ himself concerning his Church and people? “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” “lo, I am with you alway even unto the end” (Matthew 28:20). These promises certainly to secure the integrity and perpetuity of churches of Christ in and through all subsequent ages, even unto the end of this dispensation. Says Dr. S. Miller,
“This promise seems to secure to his people that there shall be, in all ages, in the worst of times, a substantially pure Church; that is, there shall always be a body of people more or less numerous, who shall hold just the doctrines and order of Christ’s house, in some good degree, in conformity with the model of the primitive Church. Accordingly, it is not difficult to show that, ever since the rise of the ‘Man of Sin’ there has been a succession of those whom the Scriptures style ‘Witnesses for God’ - ‘Witnesses for the truth,’ who have kept alive ‘the faith once declared to the Saints,’ and have in some good degree of faithfulness, maintained the ordinance and discipline which the inspired apostles, in the Master’s name committed to the keeping of the Church.”The Christian who reads and so understands this promise, must feel a painful solicitude touching the history of his brethren - that company of faithful and true witnesses who have preceded him - and especially knowing as he does, that the powers of darkness and the gates of hell have ceased not in their attempts to prevail against them; that Apostate Rome, for nearly 1260 years, has employed armies and crusades, inquisitions and tortures, prisons, famine and the stake, to break in pieces this and kingdom, and utterly exterminate these witness throughout the world: - to consummate that work which Pagan Rome attempted ages before him. Will not the Christian ask, who have been these suffering witnesses during the past eighteen centuries? In what lands of earth have they been fed for these twelve hundred and sixty prophetic days, - and by what countries has the bride or Christ been “nourished from the face of the serpent - in the mountains and caves, and forests of what wilderness,” has she been securely hid by the Saviour from their hand?Will not the Christian desire to know the gracious manner in which the Saviour has thus far fulfilled his promise to his followers in the fearful ages of persecutions past? Will not the questions rise within him, “How grievous were the trials, how merciless the persecutions, how intense the sufferings, how many and great the sacrifices which those who have kept the testimony of Jesus, have been called upon to undergo, since the days of the last Apostles, - and what have been the faith and patience of the Saints during them all?”
And having ascertained the sources from whence the history of such a people can be gathered, will he not be moved, owing to the present distracted state of Christendom and the conflicting claims of modern sects, to belong to the family of Christian churches, to inquire with great carefulness, “what were the peculiar doctrines which in every age distinguished this unbroken body of witnesses, - under what form of Church government did they exist, how did they observe the ordinances God’s house, - did they admit of human traditions, - did they recognize human legislation in the churches, - and in what light did they regard, and with what measure of charity treat lose persons and powers that opposed them with human and worldly organizations, into which they sought to coerce men? The right answers to these inquiries would at once determine which one of all the different opposing denominations in this our day, can claim kindredship with those two witnesses, and are therefore the legitimate and only surviving heirs to the promises of the “Lord Messiah,” to his Church. Are not these en questions of paramount concern to all denominations - since, if not from the New Testament, certainly, from the history of these, the form, subjects, ordinances and doctrines of the true Churches of Christ can be learned?
If the solutions of the above questions could be ascertained from the pages of Church history - and they undoubtedly can from one faithfully written - would they not immensely strengthen the faith of the Christian? Would they not tend to add immeasurably to their boldness “and the faithfulness of their testimony for Christ, to their zeal and sacrificing in the kingdom and patience of the Saints? Would not the unshrinking faith, the heroic virtue, and patient sufferings of his brethren, the martyrs, through such ages of inconceivable afflictions and wrongs, loudly reprove his own sinful luke-warmness, repinings and murmurings, when called upon to “endure but a little hardness as a good soldier of Christ?” When he has learned by the light of God’s Word and the History of his people, that he is indeed a member of the same household, resting upon the same immutable rock upon which apostles and martyrs, so securely based, were grounded through ages of such fearful whirlwinds of Pagan enmity and Papal wrath, will he not feel indeed a thousand fold more confidence in the immutability of his foundation, and more confidently challenge the malice of devils, and the “gates of hell” to “shake his sure repose?” And will he not, from the mouths and lives of those whom Christ himself pronounces “faithful and true witnesses,” learn how to testify against all informal and corrupt churches” in this our day against human traditions, and mutilated and profaned church ordinances, and those who impiously presume to enact laws in place of Christ, and to change the order of his Church?
The study of the history and lives and testimony of those preceding us, who have been accounted “faithful and true,” is certainly praiseworthy and of great advantage. Did not Paul recount the faith, and sufferings, and patience of the holy men and prophets who had lived before his day to animate the zeal of his brethren? Did he not intimate that they were, through their whole Christian race, being inspected by that “so great a cloud of witnesses” who, from their blissful seats, were gazing intently down upon them, and ready to receive the victors with triumphant shouts and acclaims of joy? Surely with advantage may we then study the history of the holy men and martyrs through whom the church of Christ, and its doctrines and ordinances, have been transmitted to us in their primitive integrity and purity; and with profit may contemplate their lives and their sufferings, their patience in trials and their triumphs in death - all having been made more than conquerors through him who was with them to the last.
Their history introduces us to the countries - not that they inhabited, not in which were their homes, but in which they were pilgrims and strangers, as it were - in which were their refuges and hiding places from the face of their pursuers. Who can imagine the feelings of the Christian traveler visiting those Alpine valleys in which the witnesses of Jesus were hid and nourished in those fearful times, descrying here and there the foundations upon which, traditions tell him, once stood their houses of worship, and from which they were driven by their enemies - and then gazing upward to the “munitions of rocks,” the cloud-capped citadels of the everlasting hills to which they fled for refuge, as into the very bosom of their God! Or wandering through those mountains and deep forests, he enters, perhaps, the very caverns in which they hid, and which they made to echo - not with murmurs and complainings, but with the voice of worship, songs of praise, and “their hymns of lofty cheer.” Cold and insensible must be that heart whose piety would not be rebuked, and whose zeal would not be energized by the contemplation of scenes hallowed by such memories! If a visit to the homes of the ancient patriots and philosophers of Athens, the rostrums from which they spoke, the groves in which they taught, and the tombs in which they slept, could so inflame the ardor of Cicero in the imitation of their virtues, how must a visit to the vales of Piedmont, and the mountains of Wales affect the heart and influence the life of a Christian! And yet in all the pilgrimages of modern times, to scenes of sacred history, never do we hear of one to the valleys of Pragela, or St. Martins, of Perouse, Angrogne, or Luserne.
The little interest felt in, and the almost universal ignorance of Church history, are attributable to the unfaithfulness of those who have professed to write it. There ever has been more or less anxiety on the part of Christians to inquire into the history of the churches that have preceded them, but while they have asked for bread, they have received a stone, and a scorpion for an egg.
Seventeen centuries of the Christian era have passed, and the history of the Christian church is still unwritten; while a thousand works have been palmed upon the world for Church Histories. The only true history of Christian churches that has been extant during these centuries, are the Acts of the Apostles by Luke, and the prophetic history of the Church by John, the beloved disciple, and was this last but thoroughly understood, no other history would be necessary; unless to show the world with what particularity and faithfulness Christ has fulfilled its predictions. As we have said, tomes and epitomes of books, purporting to be Church Histories, have been written, and each year adds to their number, but still, not until within a few years past has a solitary effort been made upon the proper basis, or in the right direction. The Church Histories with which our bookstores are crowded, were written by Paedobaptists, and they wear a falsehood upon their very title pages, as samples of their contents.
Do Paedobaptists regard the Romish Church as the Church of Christ, or the trunk or even branch of the true church? They certainly do not, if their standards are the exponents of their views.
Since this has lately become a question of vital importance with all Paedobaptist sects, we quote the language of Dr. Beman, in the Genl. Assembly of the N. S. Pres., Church, 1854, to establish our position:
“Our standards declare the Pope to be Anti-Christ, and that his ministers must be excluded from the Christian ministry. Let us not shrink from the conclusion which flows from this principle; the Scriptures have declared this thing: Rome is the scarlet harlot, riding on the beast with seven heads and ten horns. This Church is drunk with the blood of saints.”This is most unquestionably so; all Protestant sects so affirm. Now, if that Church has been manifestly Anti-Christ, since it has been under the jurisdiction of the Pope, then has it been Anti-Christ since the year 606, when the first bishop of Rome assumed the name of universal bishop, and for the first time begirt himself with both swords. But for full three hundred years before 606 - from the time of the Pure Secession - this Church was a corrupt secularized hierarchy, without the least claims to be considered a Church of Christ. How then do these facts bear upon the subject before us? Evidently the history of this “Man of Sin” - this “Son of Perdition” - “THIS ANTI-CHRIST” - has been written and palmed off upon the world for the History of the Churches of Christ! Was ever any thing one-half so preposterous? Historians acknowledge the New Testament to be an authentic history of the Church until its Canon closes, A.D. 100. Commencing with this date, they trace its history down for two centuries, when the first secession took place, when the Puritans - who maintained the primitive simplicity and integrity of church government and of the ordinances repudiated the claims of the corrupt party to be considered a church, although assuming to be, par excellence, the Church Catholic. This corrupt party, which called itself, so early as the fourth century, the Catholic Church, in 606 became the Roman Catholic Church, anathematizing all who dissented from it as heretics, and consigning them to destruction. All Pedobaptist historians have recognized the impious claims of the Catholics to be the Church, and have written their history for the history of the Church of Christ, down to the sixteenth century, and then reformed the churches of Christ out of the bosom of the Mother of Harlots! Examine the standard Church histories of our day, and mark, they all include the history of sixteen centuries; thirteen of which belong to the Catholic and Romish Church, and only two of the sixteen to the Church of Christ. It is no longer strange that the world is so profoundly ignorant of Church History. It is not strange that the people are disgusted with the books that purport to be Church Histories, and have “wondered after the Beast,” with whose history they have been surfeited. Do not such histories wear a falsehood on their title pages? Dr. Beman, pursuing this same track, writes a history, and calls it a “History of the Church of Christ.” His history includes sixteen centuries; you ask him as a historian, if his book is a correct history of the Church of Christ during these sixteen centuries, and he avers that it is. You ask him as a theologian, if this party, the history of which he has written from A.D. 300, to A.D. 1600, is the Church of Christ, and he answers you with great warmth and indignation; - “No, sir, it is Anti-Christ; it is the scarlet harlot riding on the beast with seven heads and ten horns; she is drunk with the blood of saints.” Why then, sir, have you written the history of Anti-Christ, instead of the history of the Churches of Christ, for Church History? And what can Dr. Beman, or all the doctors of Presbyterianism in the world, answer? The question is involved in inextricable difficulties. It is a fearful question for them; it devolves awful consequences upon them.A little history connected with the last N. S. Presbyterian General Assembly, which held its session in Buffalo, May, 1854, will illustrate this, and it ought not to be allowed to pass without improvement.
A query was introduced into that body to this effect: - Are Romish baptisms and ordinations valid? A Committee of junior and senior patriarchs, was sent out to report an answer. They failed to agree. The majority reported negatively. But there were sundry gray-haired doctors, who saw the logical consequences that lay behind such a decision, and indeed, any decision they as Pedobaptists could make; and those consequences would certainly be precipitated upon them by their Baptist friends and Catholic foes.
The reports were read in the Assembly, and a warm discussion ensued. Unfortunately, very little of that discussion has been given to the public; but the positions taken by the two parties were substantially these:
The majority reported that all ordinances at the hands of Romish priests were invalid, because the Romish Catholic Church was no Church of Christ, and no part or branch of Christ’s Church; but manifest Anti-Christ - the scarlet harlot riding on the beast with seven heads and ten horns, drunk with the blood of saints; the baptism and ordinations of such an apostate body are null and void; and to pronounce them valid, is to pronounce the Romish Church - the Church of Christ; and more, to involve Presbyterians and all Protestant sects in the guilt of schism, since they rent the body of Christ when they came out of Rome!
But the party who sustained the minority report, or were unfavorable to a decision, urged on the other hand: If you deny the Church of Rome to be a true Church, and decide that her baptisms and ordinations are invalid, then do we to all intents and purposes unchurch ourselves, unless we can baptize the- ashes of Luther and Calvin, from whom we have received our baptisms and ordinations! If the baptisms and ordinations of Antichrist, of the Man of Sin, and Son of Perdition are invalid, then Luther and Calvin were unbaptized, as were all the members that composed the first churches of the Reformation! then were they unordained, and consequently had no authority to baptize their followers, or ordain other ministers to follow them; in a word, all Protestant societies are unbaptized bodies, and consequently no Churches of Christ, since a body of unbaptized persons, however pious, cannot be considered a Church; all Protestant ministers are both unbaptized and unordained, and consequently unauthorized to preach officially and administer the ordinances.
Thus we see the trilemma into which the query precipitated them:
1. To decide that “Antichrist,” “the Man of Sin,” “the Mother of Harlots” is a true Church of Christ, would be a monstrous solecism. But this would convict all Protestant sects of sin, and destroy at once every claim they could set up to be churches of Christ; for they confess themselves schismatics.
2. To decide that the Romish apostacy is not the true Church of Christ, is to decide that all her ordinances are invalid, and consequently that all Protestant societies are bodies of unbaptized persons, and therefore not churches of Christ, and all Protestant ministers are both unbaptized and unordained, and consequently unauthorized either to preach or administer the ordinances.
3. To say that we cannot decide a question so manifest, will arouse the attention of the people, and awaken their suspicion, at once, that there is a great wrong and a great failure about Protestant churches somewhere.
Finding that they could not extricate themselves from this labyrinth of fatal consequences, they moved an indefinite postponement of the question! Their membership which they have led into their societies, and the world which they are now using every possible effort to entice into their societies, should loudly and constantly demand of them to decide whether the Romish apostacy is a true Church of Christ or not, for let Protestant societies decide it affirmatively or negatively, according to their own admissions, they equally cut off all their own claims to be considered Christian Churches!
It is “high time” for the history of the Church of Christ to be written. The world has quite long enough wondered after the Beast, and the Church of Christ left in the obscurity of the wilderness. One thing settled by the late discussion in the Presbyterian Assembly, is that no Protestant can write the history of the Christian Church! Unless he writes the history of the Romish church, he has no church to write about for sixteen centuries, - until the Reformation of Luther. He may well be asked, Had Christ no church, no witnesses in the world during the roll of one thousand five hundred years? and if he had, why did not Luther and Calvin unite themselves and their followers to the then existing Christian churches, instead of setting up rival churches, originating new and never before heard of, schemes of church governments, and thus distracting Christendom.
If the world is ever favored with a faithful history of Christian Churches, it will receive it from Baptists, and that history will rest upon a new basis, and will look after communities of Christians from the third to the sixteenth, and down to the nineteenth centuries, far different from Catholics of the former period or the Protestants of the latter.
During the last thirty years, several efforts have been made in the right direction. Robert Robinson, in his History of Baptism and Ecclesiastical Researches, aided in indicating the direction such a work should take. Wm. Jones, with the light thrown upon his path by Paul Perrin, and Robinson, did still more, and left us, not a complete but a valuable church history.
But the most valuable chronological history of the Churches of Christ, now extant, and excepting Jones’s, the only one passing over eighteen centuries, that deserves the name of Church History, now before the Christian world, is the one we now present to the American public for the first time, in a reprint. A full, philosophic history, it claims not to be, but it does claim to prove, by the most unquestionable authorities, the existence of large communities of Baptists, in the various countries of Europe, and a succession of them from the earliest ages down to the present time; and we think the author has been successful. It has been before the public in England for several years, and if its authority has been questioned we have the fact to learn.
It is a history especially needed by Baptists, to assist them in replying to the taunting interrogations of Paedobaptists, “Where were you before the days of Roger Williams, or before the days of Muncer?”
{In Progress}
[From editor: Eld. Joseph Sidders, The Berea Baptist Banner, December, 2022. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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