idea, that, when men had neglected to receive baptism in their life-time, some compensation might be made for this default by receiving it after death. sufferings of Christ, Matt. xx. 22; and to so much of the Gospel as John the Baptist taught his disciples, Acts xviii. 25. BAPTISTS, a denomination of Christians who maintain that baptism is to be administered by immersion, and not by sprinkling, See BAPTISM. Although there were several Baptists among the Albigenses, Waldenses, and the followers of Wickliffe, it does not appear that they were formed into any stability until the time of Menno, about the year 1536. See ANABAPTISTS and MENNONITES. About 1644 they began to make a considerable figure in England, and spread themselves into several separate congregations. They separated from the Independents about the year 1638, and set up for themselves under the pastoral care of Mr. Jesse; and, having renounced their former baptism, they sent over one of their number to be immersed by one of the Dutch Anabaptists of Amsterdam, that he might be qualified to baptize his friends in England after the same BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD, a practice formerly in use, when a person dying without baptism, another was baptized in his stead; thus supposing that God would accept the baptism of the proxy, as though it had been administered to the principal Chrysostom says, this was practised among the Marcionites with a great deal of ridiculous ceremony, which he thus deScribes-After any catechumen was dead, they hid a living man under the bed of the deceased; then, coming to the dead man, they asked him whether he would receive baptism; and he making no answer, the other answered for him, and said he would be baptized in his stead; and so they baptized the living for the dead. If it can be proved (as some think it can) that this practice was as early as the days of the apostle Pau! it might probably form a solution of those remarkable words in 1 Cor. xv. 29: "If the dead rise not at ail, what shall they do who are baptized The Baptists subsist under two denofor the dead?" The allusion of the minations, viz. the Particular or Calapostle to this practice, however is re- vinistical, and the General or Armijected by some, and especially by Dr. nian. Their modes of chu ch governDoddridge, who thinks it too early: he ment and worship are the same as the thus paraphrases the passage: "Such Independents; in the exercise of which are our views and hopes as Christians; they are protected, in common with else, if it were not so what should they other dissenters. by the act of tolerado who are baptized in token of their tion. Some of both denominations allow embracing the Christian faith, in the of mixed communion; by which it is room of the dead, who are just fallen understood that those who have not in the cause of Christ, but are yet sup-been baptized by immersion, on the proported by a succession of new converts, who immediately offer themselves to fill up their places as ranks of soldiers that advance to the combat in the rooms of their companions who have just been slain in their sight?" Lay baptism we find to have been permitted by both the common prayer books of king Edward and queen Elizabeth, when an infant was in immediate danger of death, and a lawful minister could not be had. This was founded on a mistaken notion of the impossibility of salvation without the sacrament of baptism; but afterwards, when they came to have clearer notions of the sacraments it was unanimously resolved in a convocation held in 1575, that even private baptism in a case of necessity was only to be administered by a lawful minister. BAPTISM METAPHORICAL. In Scripture the term Baptism is used as referring to the work of the Spirit on the heart, Matt. iii. 11; also to the manner. fession of their faith may sit down at the Lord's table with those who have been thus baptized. Others, however, disallow it, supposing that such have not been actually baptized at all. See FREE COMMUNION. Some of them observe the seventh day of the week as he Sabbath, apprehending the law that enjoined it not to have been repealed by Christ Some of the General Baptists have, it is said, gone into Socinianism or Arianism; on account of which, several of their ministers and churches who disapprove of these principles. have within the last forty years formed themcelves into a distinct connexion, called the New Association. The churches in this union keep up a friendly acquaintance, in some outward things, with those from whom they have separated; but in things more essential disclaim any connexion with them, particularly as to changing ministers, and the admission of members. The General Baptists have BAR 45 monk. Vossius published it, in 1656, in some of their churches, three distinct || from a copy of father Hugh Menaed, a orders separately ordained, viz.-messengers, elders, and deacons. Their ge- with the epistles of Ignatius.-The Gosneral assembly is held annually in Wor-pel of Barnabas is another apocryphal the history of Jesus Christ is given in a ship Street, London, on the Tuesday in work ascribed to Barnabas, wherein the Whitsun week. different manner from that of the evangelists. The Baptists have two exhibitions for students to be educated at one of the universities of Scotland, given them by Dr Ward, of Gresham College. There is likewise an academy at Bristol for students, generally known by the name of the Bristol Education Society. The Baptists in America and in the East and West Indies are chiefly Calvinist, and hold occasional fellowship with the Particular Baptist churches in England. Those in Scotland, having imbibed a considerable part of the principles of Messrs. Glass and Sandeman have no communion with the other. They have liberally contributed, however, towards the translation of the Scriptures into the Bengalee language, which some of the Baptist brethren are no accomplishing in the East See Rippon's Baptist Register, vol. i. p. 172-175; Adams's View of Religions, article Baptists; Evans's Sketch of Religious Denomi- || nations. BAPTISTERY, the place in which the ceremony of baptism is performed. In the ancient church, it is said, it was generally a building separate, and distinct from the church. It consisted of an ante-room, where the adult persons to be baptized made their confession of faith; and an inner room where the ceremony of baptism was performed Thus it continued to the sixth century, when the baptisteries began to be taken into the church. BARDESANISTS, a sect so denominated from their leader Bardesanes, a Syrian, of Ede sa in Mesopotamia, who lived in the second century. They belie ed that the actions of men depended altogether on fate, and that God himself is subject to necessity-They denied the resurrection of the body, and the incarnation and death of our Saviour. BARLAAMITES, the followers of Barlaam, in the fourteenth century who was a very zealous champion in behalf of the Greek against the Latin church. It is said that he adopted the sentiments and precepts of the Stoics, with respect to the obligations of morality and the duties of life; and digested them into a work of his, which is known by the title of Fthica ex Stoicis. BARNABAS, EPISTLES OF, an apocryphal work ascribed to St. Barnabas. It was first published in Greek, BARNABITES; a religious order, BARTHOLOMITES, a religious BASILIDIANS, a denomination, in the second century, from Basilides, chief of the Egyptian Gnostics. He acknowledged the existence of one Supreme God perfect in goodness and substance seven beings, o aions, of a Two of these wisdom, who produced from his own most excellent nature. aions, called Dynamis and Sophiz (i. e. power and wisdom,) engendered the an contrary, shall pass successively into other bodies. BATANISTS, or ASSASSINS; a famous heretical sect of murderers among the Mahometans, who settled in Persia about 1090 Their head and chief seems to have been Hassan Sabah who made fanatical slaves of his subjects. Their gels of the highest order. These angels formed a heaven for their habitation, and brought forth other angelic beings. of a na ure somewhat inferior to their own. Many other generations of angels followed these. New heavens were also created, until the number of angelic orders, and of their respective heavens, amounted to three hundred and sixty-religion was a compound of that of the five, and thus equalled the days of the year. All these are under the empire of an omnipotent Lord, whom Basilides called Abraxas. The inhabitants of the lowest heavens, which touched upon the borders of the eternal, malignant, and self-animated matter, conceived the design of forming a world from that confused mass, and of creating an order of beings to people it. This design was carried into execution, and was approved by the Supreme God, who to the animal life, with which only the inhabitants of this new world were at first endowed, added a reasonable soul, giving at the same time to the angels the empire over them. Magi, the Jews. the Christians, and the Mahometans. They believed the Holy Ghost resided in their chief; that his orders proceeded from God himself, and were real declarations of his will. 66 one of his guards he said, "Draw your dagger, and plunge it into your breast;" which was no sooner said than obeyed. At the command of their chief, they made nodifficulty of stabbing any prince, even on his throne; and for that purpose conformed to the dress and reli This chief, from his exalted residence on Mount Lebanon, was called the old || man of the mountain; who, like a vindictive deity, with the thunderbolt in his hand, sent inevitable death to all quarters, so that even kings trembled at his sanguinary power. His subjects would prostrate themselves at the foot of his throne, requesting to die by his hand or order, as a favour by which they were sure of passing into paradise. Are our subjects," said the old man of the These angelic beings, advanced to the mountain to the son-in-law of Amoury, government of the world which they had king of Jerusalem, "as ready in their created. fell by degrees from their ori- submission as mine?" and without stayginal purity, and soon manifested the ing for an answer made a sign with his fatal marks of their depravity and cor- hand, when ten young men in white, ruption. They not only endeavoured to who were standing on an adjacent tower, efface in the minds of men their know-instantly threw themselves down. To ledge of the Supreme Being, that they might be worshipped in his stead, but also began to war against each other, with an ambitious view to enlarge every one the bounds of his respective dominion The most arrogant and turbulent of all these angelic spirits was that which presided over the Jewish nation.gion of the country that they might be -Hence, the Supreme God, beholding with compassion the miserable state of rational beings, who groaned under the contest of these jarring powers, sent from heaven his son Nus, or Christ, the chief of the aions, that, joined in a substantial union with the man Jesus he might restore the knowledge of the Supreme God, destroy the empire of tho e angelic natures which presided over the world, and particularly that of the arrogant leader of the Jewish people. The It is said, hey once thought of emgod of the Jews alarmed at this, sent bracing he Christian religion, and some forth his ministers to seize the man Je-have thought the Druses a remnant of sus, and put him to death. They exe- this singular race of barbarians. cuted his commands: but their cruelty BATH-KOL (i. e. the daughter of a could not extend to Christ, against voice,) an oracle among the Jews, frewhom their efforts were vain. Those quently mentioned in their books espesouls who obey the precepts of the Son cially the Talmud. It was a fantastical of God, shall, after the dissolution of way of divination invented by the Jews, their mortal frame, ascend to the Fa-though called by them a revelation from ther, while their bodies return to the God's will, which he made to his chosen corrupt mass of matter whence they people after all verbal prophecies had were formed. Disobedient spirits, on the ceased in Israel. less suspected. To animate them on such attempts the Scheik previously indulged them with a foretaste of the delights of paradise. Delicious soporific drinks were given them; and while they lay asleep they were carried into beautiful gardens, where, awaking as it were in paradise, and inflamed with views of perpetual enjoyments, they sallied forth to perform assassinations of the blackest dye. BAX 47 ་་ BAXTERIANS. so called from the life, and justification in judgment; glolearned and pious Mr. Richard Baxter, rification of the soul at death and of the who was born in the year 1615. His de-body at the resurrection, Phil. iii. 20, 21. sign as to reconcile Calvin and Armi-2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3. nius: for this purpose he formed a middle scheme between their systems. He taught that God had elected some, whom he is determined to save, without any foresight of their good works; and that others to whom the Gospel is preached have common grace, which if they improve they shall obtain saving grace, according to the doctrine of Arminius. This denomination own, with Calvin, that the merits of Christ's death are to be applied to believers only; but they also assert that all men are in a state capable of salvation. Mr. Baxter maintains that there may be a certainty of perseverance here, and yet he cannot tell whether a man may not have so weak a degree of saving grace as to lose it again. Christ has made a conditional deed of gift of these benefits to all mankind; but the elect only accept and possess them. Hence he infers, that though Christ never absolutely intended or decreed that his death should eventually put all men in possession of those benefits, yet he did intend and decree that all men should have a conditional gift of them by his death. Baxter, it is said, wrote 120 books, and had 60 written against him. 20,000 of his Call to the Unconverted were sold in one year. He told a friend, that six brothers were converted by reading that Call. The eminent Mr. Elliott, of New England, translated this tract no the Indian tongue. A young Indian prince was so taken with it, that he read it with tears, and died with it in Baxter's Catholic Theology, p. 51—53; his hand. Calamy's Life of Baxter; Baxter's End of Doctrinal Controversy, p. 154, 155. BEATIFICATION, in the Romish church, the act whereby the pope declares a person happy after death. Sec CANONIZATION. In order to prove that the death of Christ has put all in a stare capable of salvation. the following arguments are alleged by this learned author. 1. It was the nature of all mankind which Christ assumed at his incarnation, and the sins of all mankind were the occasion of his suffering.-2. It was to Adam, as the BEATITUDE imports the highest common father of lapsed mankind, that God made the promise, (Gen. iii. 15.) The conditional new covenant does degree of happiness human nature can 'equally give Christ, pardon, and life to arrive to, the fruition of God in a future all mankind, on condition of acceptance. life to all eternity. It is also used when The conditional grant is universal: Who-peaking of the theses contained in soever believeth shall be saved-3. It is Chris's Sermon on the Mount, wherenot to the elect only, but to all mankind, by he pronounces the several characters that Christ has commanded his ministers there mentioned blessed. to proclaim his Gospel, and offer the benefits of his procuring. BEGHARDS, or BEGUARDS, a sect that arose in Germany in the thirteenth There are, Mr. Baxter allows, cer-century, and took S. Begghe for their tain fruits of Christ's death which are patroness. They employed themselves in making linen cloth, each supporting proper to the elect only: 1. Grace evenhimself by his labour and were united tually worketh in them true faith, repentance, conversion, and union with only by the bonds of charity without Christ as his living members.-2 The having any particular rule but when actual forgiveness of sin as to the spiri- pope Nicholas IV. had confirmed that tual and eternal punishment.-3. Our of the third order of St. Francis in 1289, BEGUINES a congregation of nuns reconciliation with God, and adoption they embraced it the year following. and right to the heavenly inheritance. founded either by St. Begghe or by Lam4. The Spirit of Christ to dwell in us. and sanctify us by a habit of divine love, bert le Begue. They were established, Rom. viii. 9-13. Gal. v. 6-5. Employ- first at Leige, and afterwards at Neville, ment in hol, acceptable service, and in 1207; and from this last settlement hich are spread over all Flanders, access in prayer, with a promise of be- sprang the great number of Beguinages ing heard through Christ, Heb. ii. 5, 6. John xiv. 13.-6. Well grounded hopes and which have passed from Flanders of salvation. peace of conscience, and into Germany. In the latter country spiritual communion with the church some of them fell into extravagant mystical in heaven and earth, Rom. verrors, persuading themselves that it 12 Heb xii. 22-7. A special interest in Chris', and intercession with the Father, Rom. viii. 32, 33.-8. Resurrection unto was possible in the present life to arrive to the highest perfection, even to impeccability, and a clear view of God; in short, to so eminent a degree of contemplation, that there was no necessity after this, to submit to the laws of mortal men, civil or ecclesiastical. The council of Vienna, in 1113, condemned these errors: permitting, nevertheless. those among them who continued in the true faith to live in charity and penitence, either with or without vows. There still subsists, or at least subsisted till lately, many communities of them in Flanders. What changes the late revolutions may have effected upon these nurseries of superstition we have yet to learn. working will of the holy triune incomprehensible God, manifesting himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through an outward perceptible working triune. power of fire, light, and spirit, in the kingdom of heaven.-2. How and what angels and men were in their creation; that they are in and from God, his real offspring that their life begun in and from this divine fire which is the Father of light, generating a birth of light in their souls; from both which proceeds he Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love in the triune creature, as it does in the triune Creator.-3. How some angels, BEHMENISTS, a name given to and all men are fallen from God and those mystics who adopt the explica their first state of a divine triune life tions of the mysteries of nature and in him; what they are in their fallen grace, as given by Jacob Behmen. This state, and the difference between the writer was born in the year 1575, at Old fall of angels and that of man.-4. How Seidenburg, near Gorlitz in upper Lu- the earth, stars, and elements, were satia: he was a shoemaker by trade. He created in consequence of the fallen anis described as having been thoughtful gels-5. Whence there is good and evil and religious from his youth up, taking in all this temporal world, in all its peculiar pleasure in frequenting public creatures, animate and inanimate; and worship. At length, seriously consider- what is meant by the curse that dwells ing within himself that speech of our every where in it.-6. Of the kingdom Saviour, My Father which is in heaven of Christ. how it is set in opposition to will give the Holy Spirit to them that and fights and strives against the kingask him, he was thereby thoroughly dom of hell.-7. How man, through faith awakened in himself, and set forward to in Christ, is able to overcome the kingdesire that promised Comforter; and, dom of hell, and triumph over it in the continuing in that earnestness, he was divine power, and thereby obtain eternal at last, to use his on expression, "sur- salvation also how, through working rounded with a divine light for seven in the hellish quantity of principle, he days, and stood in the highest contem- casts himself into perdition.-8. How and plation and kingdom of joys!" After why sin and misery, wrath and death, this, about the year 1600, he was again shall only reign for a time, till the love, surrounded by the di ine light, and re- the wisdom, and the power of God shall plenished with the heavenly knowledge;n a supernatural way (the mystery of insomuch as, going abroad into the fields, God made man) triumph over sin, miand viewing the herbs and grass, by his sery, and death'; and make fallen man inward light he saw into their essences, rise to the glory of angels, and this mause, and properties, which were disco-terial system shake off its curse, and vered to him by their lineaments, figures, enter into an everlasting union with that and signatures. In the year 1610, he heaven from whence it fell. had a third special illumination, where- The year after he wrote his Three in still farther mysteries were revealed Principles, by which are to be underto him It was not till the year 1612 stood-the dark world, or hell, in which that Behmen committed these revela- the devils live-the light world, or heations to writing. His first treatise is en- ven, in which the angels live-the extitled Aurora, which was seized on and ternal or visible world, which has prowithheld from him by the senate of Gor-ceeded from the internal and spiritual litz (who persecuted him at the insti- worlds, in which man as to his bodily gation of the primate of that place be life, lives; Behmen produced his Threefore it was finished, and he never after-fold Life of Man, according to the Three wards proceeded with it farther than by adding some explanatory notes. The next production of his pen is called The Three Principles. In this work he more fully illustrates the subjects trea'ed of in the former, and supplies what is wanting in that work. The contents of these two treatises may be divided as follow: 1. How all things came from a Principles. In this work he treats more largely of the state of man in this world: 1. That he has that immortal spark of life which is common to angels and devils.-2. That divine life of the light and Spirit of God, which makes the essential difference between an angel and a devil, the last having extinguished this divine life in himself; but |