ATONEMENT ATONEMENT and as it was not designed for one man more than the Gospel, assuring them that if they will bo another, but has an equal bearing upon the whole lieve they shall be saved; whereas, if they wilfulworld indiscriminately, the offers of salvation can ly reject the overtures of mercy, they will increase now be freely made to all mankind without dis- their guilt and aggravate their damnation. At tinction. Some of the friends of this theory go the same time, the Scriptures plainly teach, that still further, and deny that Christ made a plenary the will and disposition to comply with this consatisfaction for the sins of believers, because such dition depends upon the sovereign gift of God, a satisfaction would, in their view, be incompati-and that the actual compliance is secured to those ble with the grace that reigns in the salvation of only for whom in the divine counsels the atonesinners; and consequently, although a provisionment was specifically intended. has been made by which all who believe will be saved, yet they assert that the claims of the law will remain for ever unsatisfied, that the ransomed of the Lord will never be free from guilt, and that Paul and his companions now in glory, are at this moment as guilty as when on earth, and will for ever deserve the punishment of hell. This view of the atonement is supported by the following considerations:-1. The language of Scripture. "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." "All that the Father hath given me shali come unto me." "I lay down my life for the sheep." "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me." As to The grounds upon which this theory of the passages of apparently a contrary import, which atonement is urged, are the following:-1. The seem to extend the object and design of the atonestyle of the Scriptures; which, in speaking of ment to all, these they say are capable in general the atonement, apply to it the most universal and of being interpreted, according to the plain usages unlimited language. "Who gave himself a ran- of Scripture, as implying some of all sorts, instead som for all to be testified in due time." "Who of every individual, or as pointing out every one is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that of the class or body spoken of. 2. That the docbelieve." "He is the propitiation for our sins, trine of vicarious or substitutive atonement was and not for ours only, but for the sins of the taught by the typical sacrifices of the Jewish whole world."-2. If Christ has made an atone- economy. 3. That the meaning of the term ment for the elect, and for them only, then salva- implies an actual reconciliation as the effect of a tion is not provided for all, and those for whom it satisfaction to the demands of divine justice; conis not provided, cannot be guilty in not receiving sequently, if the atonement was made for all men, It. But this is contrary to the whole tenor of the all men are actually reconciled, which is contrary Gospel, which every where exhibits sinners as to fact. 4. That inasmuch as it is admitted on all greally guilty for rejecting Christ. 3. The Gos- sides that the Saviour suffered and died, not with pel, or glad tidings published by Christ, is said to the actual intention of securing the salvation of all be good tidings unto all people. But if there be men universally, but only of a definite number no atonement made for the sins of all people, the determined by the gift of the Father in the decree Gospel, instead of being good news to them, is not of election, the atonement is therefore properly to addressed to them at all. 4. Ministers are re-be denominated a definite atonement, and that quired to preach faith, as well as repentance, to all sinners as their duty. But if no atonement has been made for their sins, they cannot believe; for to them Christ is in no sense a Saviour, and therefore not a possible object of faith. every objection brought against this view of it falls directly against the doctrine of election. If it be conceded that the Father gave to the Son in the covenant of redemption a particular definite number of the human race to save; that for these, and these The advocates of the limited or definite atone- alone, did the Son die with an intention to save ment, on the other hand, maintain, that the atone-them; that to none but this elect number will the ment cannot properly be considered apart from atonement ever be in fact applied, the consequence its actual application, or from the intention of the is affirmed to be inevitable, that the atonement is author in regard to its application-that, in strict- definite, because election is definite. "We may ness of speech, the death of Christ is not an call it otherwise; we may call it general, we may atonement to any until it he applied-that the suf-call it indefinite. But it retains its true charac ferings of the Lamb of God are therefore truly ter. It is what the divine purpose has made it vicarious, or in other words, that Christ in suffer- definite, limited; not, indeed, in its value, which ing became a real substitute for his people, was is unlimited and infinite; but in its application, charged with their sins, and bore the punishment and in respect to the intention of the Father who of them, and thus has made a full and complete appointed, and of the Son who made, the atonesatisfaction to divine justice in behalf of all who ment." As to the objection, that if the atoneshall ever believe on him-that this atonement ment was not made for all, then those for whom will eventually be applied to all for whom in the it was not intentionally made are not guilty for divine intention it was made, or to all to whom not receiving it, and therefore cannot justly be God in his sovereignty has been pleased to decree condemned on this account, it is answered, that its application. They believe, however, notwith-the primary ground of a sinner's condemnation standing the atonement is to be properly consi-is not so much his rejection of the Gospel as his dered as exactly commensurate with its intended previous violation of the law. The rejection of application, that the Lord Jesus Christ did offer the Gospel when sincerely, though conditionally, a sacrifice sufficient in its intrinsic value to expi- offered, aggravates his guilt, and according to ate the sins of the whole world, and that if it had human modes of speech adopted in the Scrip Deen the pleasure of God to apply it to every in-tures, there is no impropriety in referring his con dividual, the whole human race would have been demnation to his slighting the terms of pardon; saved by its immeasurable worth. They hold, as he knows nothing of the secret purposes of therefore, that on the ground of the infinite value Heaven in regard to himself, and, therefore, has of the atonement, the offer of salvation can be no excuse to offer for his perverseness. Thus, if consistently and sincerely made to all who hear a capital offender were doomed to die for a crime BACKSLIDING BACKSLIDING posed to affection, and not to desire. We have an affection to one person, we have an aversion to another; the former dispuses us to do good, the latter to do ill. against the laws of his country, and a pardon | sire after riches, attended with extreme diffidence were tendered him on certain terms while under of future events, making a person rob himself of sentence of death, which pardon he madly rejects the necessary comforts of life, for fear of dimifrom disaffection with the terms, it might be said, nishing his riches. See COVETOUSNESS and MISER the man dies, because he rejected the offered par- AVERSION, hatred, or dislike. Dr. Watts don, whereas the real ground of his condemna- and others oppose aversion to desire. When we tion is his previous crime. The same holds in look, say they, upon an object as good, it excites the case of sinners under the Gospel. Their desire; but when we look upon an object as evil, voluntary rejection of proffered mercy greatly it awakens what we call aversion or avoidance. illustrates the deep-rooted depravity of their hearts, But Lord Kaimes observes that aversion is op and in the same proportion displays the justice of God in their punishment. See Dwight's Theology, vol. ii. serm. 56. Janeway's Letters on the Atonement. Beman on the Atonement. Murdock's Sermon on the Atonement. Review of AUDIENTES, an order of catechumens in Murdock in Christian Advocate, vol. v.-B.] the primitive Christian church. They were so ATTRIBUTES OF GOD are the several called from their being admitted to hear sermons qualities or perfections of the Divine nature. and the Scriptures read in the church; but they Some distinguish them into the negative and po- were not allowed to be present at the prayers. sitive or affirmative. The negative are such as AUGSBURGH, or AUGUSTAN CONremove from him whatever is imperfect in crea-FESSION, a celebrated confession of faith drawn tures: such are infinity, immutability, immor-up by Luther and Melancthon on behalf of tality, &c. The positive are such as assert some themselves and other ancient reformers, and properfection in God which is in and of himself, and which in the creatures, in any measure, is from him. This distinction is now mostly discarded. Some distinguish them into absolute and relative: absolute ones are such as agree with the essence of God; as Jehovah, Jah, &c.: relative ones are such as agree with him in time, with some re spect to his creatures, as Creator, Governor, Preserver, Redeemer, &c. But the more commonly received distinction of the attributes of God, is into communicable and incommunicable ones. The communicable ones are those of which there is some resemblance in men; as goodness, holiness, wisdom, &c. the incommunicable ones are such as there is no appearance or shadow of in men; as independence, immutability, immensity, and eternity. See those different articles in this work; and Pates, Charnock, Abernethy, and Saurin on the Divine Perfections. sented in 1550 to the emperor Charles V. at the diet of Augusta, or Augsburgh, in the name of the evangelic body. This confession contains twenty-eight chapters, of which the greatest part is employed in representing with perspicuity and truth the religious opinions of the Protestants, and the rest in pointing out the errors and abuses that occasioned their separation from the church of Rome. The leading doctrines of this confession are, the true and essential divinity of the Son of God; his substitution and vicarious sacrifice, and the necessity, freedom, and efficacy of Divine grace. A civil war followed this diet that lasted upwards of twenty years, but which only spread the new opinions, instead of extirpating them. AUGUSTINS, a religious order, who ob served the rule of St. Augustin, prescribed them by pope Alexander IV. in 1256. This rule was ATTRITION. The casuists of the church to have all things in common; the rich who enof Rome have made a distinction between a per- ter among them to sell their possessions, and fect and an imperfect contrition. The latter they give them to the poor; to employ the first part call attrition; which is the lowest degree of re- of the morning in labouring with their hands, pentance, or a sorrow for sin arising from a sense and the rest in reading: when they go abroad, to of shame, or any temporal inconvenience attend-go always two in company; never to eat but in ing the commission of it, or merely from fear of their monastery, &c. the punishment due to it, without any resolution AUSTERITY, a state of rigid mortification. to sin no more: in consequence of which doe-It is distinguished from severity and rigour thus. trine, they teach that, after a wicked and flagitious course of life, a man may be reconciled to God, and his sins forgiven on his death-bed, by confessing them to the priest with this imperfect degree of sorrow and repentance. This distinction was settied by the council of Trent. It might, however, be easily shown that the mere sorrow for sin because of its consequences, and not on account of its evil nature, is no more acceptable to God than hypocrisy itself can be. AVARICE is an immoderate love to and de Austerity, relates to the manner of living; se rerity to the manner of thinking; rigour to the manner of punishing. To austerity is opposed effeminacy; to severity, relaxation; to rigour, clemency. A hermit is austere in his life; a casuist severe in his application of religion or law; a judge rigorous in his sentences. AUTOCEPHALI BISHOPS. This denomination was given to such bishops in the primitive church as were exempted from the juris diction of others. B. SLANDER. BACKBITING. See DETRACTION and | slide with the whole bent of their will; as voluntary, when applied to those who, after professing BACKSLIDING, the act of turning from the to know the truth, wilfully turn from it, and live path of duty. It may be considered as partial in the practice of sin; as final, when the mind is when applied to true believers, who do not back-given up to judicial hardness, as in the case of Judas. Partial backsliding must be distinguish- | not, however, essential to salvation; for mere par ed from hypocrisy, as the former may exist where ticipation of sacraments cannot qualify men for there are gracious intentions on the whole; but heaven: many have real grace, and are conse the latter is a studied profession of appearing to quently in a salvable state, before they were bap be what we are not. tized: besides, to suppose it essential is to put it in the place of that which it signifies. The causes of backsliding are the cares of the world; improper connexions; inattention to secret or closet duties; self-conceit and dependence; indulgence; listening to and parleying with temptations. A backsliding state is manifested by indifference to prayer and self-examination; trifling or unprofitable conversation; neglect of public ordinances; shunning the people of God; associating with the world; thinking lightly of sin; neglect of the Bible; and often hy gross immorality. The consequences of this awful state are-loss of character; loss of comfort; loss of usefulness; and, as long as any remain in this state, a loss of a well-grounded hope of future happiness. To avoid this state, or recover from it, we should beware of the first appearance of sin; be much in prayer; attend the ordinances; and unite with the people of God. We should consider the awful instances of apostacy, as Saul, Judas, Demas, &c.; the many warnings we have of it, Matt. xxiv. 13. Heb. x. 38. Luke ix. 62; how it grieves the Holy Spirit; and how wretched it makes us; above all things, our dependence should be on God, that we may always be directed by his Spirit, and kept by his power. See APOSTACY. Baptism has been supposed by many learned persons to have had its origin from the Jewish church; in which, they maintain, it was the practice, long before Christ's time, to baptize proselytes or converts to their faith, as part of the ceremony of their admission. "It is strange to me," says Dr. Doddridge, "that any should doubt of this, when it is plain from express passages in the Jewish law, that no Jew who had lived like a Gentile for one day could be restored to the communion of this church without it. Compare Numb. xix. 19 and 20, and many other precepts relating to ceremonial pollutions, in which it may be seen, that the Jews were rendered incapable of appearing before God in the tabernacle or temple, till they were washed either by bathing or sprinkling." Others, however, insist that the Jewish proselyte baptism is not by far so ancient; and that John the Baptist was the first adminis trator of baptism among the Jews. The baptism of John, and that of our Saviour and his apostles, have been supposed to be the same; because they agree, it is said, in their subjects, form, and end. But it must be observed, BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY, so call- that though there be an agreement in some par ed from Bangor, or the bishop thereof. Bishop ticulars, yet there is not in all. The immediate Hoadley, the bishop of that diocese, preaching be-institutor of John's baptism was God the Father, fore George I., asserted the supreme authority of John 1. 33; but the immediate institutor of the Christ, as king in his own kingdom; and that he Christian baptism was Christ, Matt. xxviii. 19. had not delegated his power, like temporal law-John's baptisin was a preparatory rite, referring givers during their absence from their kingdom, the subjects to Christ, who was about to confer to any persons, as his vicegerents or deputies, on them spiritual blessings, Matt. iii. 11. John's This important sermon may be seen reprinted in baptism was confined to the Jews; but the the Liverpool Theological Repository, vol. v. p. Christian was common to Jews and Gentiles, 301. In 1717, he also published his Preservative, Matt. iii. 5. 7. xxviii. 19. It does not appear in which he advanced some positions contrary to that John had any formula of administration; temporal and spiritual tyranny, and in behalf of but the Christian baptism has, viz. "In the the civil and religious liberties of mankind: upon name," &c. The baptism of John was the conwhich he was violently opposed, accused, and per- cluding scene of the legal dispensation, and, in secuted, by the advocates for church power; but fact, part of it; and to be considered as one of he was defended and supported by the civil pow-those "divers washings" among the Jews; for ers, and his abilities and meekness gained him the plaudits of many. BANIANS, a religious sect in the empire of the Mogul, who believe a Metempsychosis; and will therefore eat no living creature, nor kill even noxious animals, but endeavour to release them when in the hands of others. The name Banian is sometimes extended to all the idolators of India, as contradistinguished from the Mahometans. BAPTISM, the ceremony of washing, or the application of water to a person, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by which he is initiated into the visible church. Baptism exhibits to us the blessings of pardon, salvation through Jesus Christ, union to and communion with him, the out-pouring of the Spirit, regeneration, and sanctification. From baptism results the obligation of repentance, love to Christ, and perpetual devotedness to his praise. Baptism does not constitute a visible subject, but only recognizes one. Ministers only have a right to administer it, and have a negative voice in opposition to all claims. It is an ordinance binding on all who have been given up to God in it; and to be perpetuated to the end of the world. It is he did not attempt to make any alteration in the Jewish religion, nor did the persons he baptized cease to be members of the Jewish church on ac count of their baptism: but Christian baptism is the regular entrance into, and is a part of, the evangelical dispensation, Gal. iii. 27. It does not appear from the inspired narrative (however probable from inferential reasoning), that any but John himself was engaged as operator in his bap tism; whereas Christ himself baptized none; but his disciples, by his authority, and in his name. John iv. 2. Baptism has been the subject of long and sharp controversy, both as it respects the subject and the mode. To state all that has been said on both sides would be impossible in a work of this kind. An abstract, however, of the chief arguments, I think it my duty to present to the reader, in order that he may judge for himself. As to the subject. The ANTIPÆDOBAPTISTS hold the belief that adults only are proper subjects, be cause Christ's commission to baptize appears to them to restrict this ordinance to such only as BAPTISM are taught, or made disciples; and that, consequently infants, who cannot be thus taught, are to be excluded It does not appear, say they, that the apostles, in executing Christ's commission, ever baptized any but those who were first instructed in the Christian faith, and professed their belief of it. They contend that infants can receive no benefit from it, are not capable of faith and repentance, which are to be considered as pre-requisites. As to the mode. BAPTISM That infants are to be received into the church, and as such baptized, is also inferred from the following passages of Scripture: Gen. xvii. Isa. xliv. 3. Matt xix. 13. Luke ix. 47, 48. Mark ix. 14. Acts ii. 38, 39. Rom. xi. 17, 21. 1 Cor. vii. 14. Though there are no express examples in the New Testament of Christ and his apostles baptizing infants, yet this is no proof that they were excluded. Jesus Christ actually blessed little children; and it would be hard to believe that such received his blessing, and yet were not to be members of the Gospel church. If Christ receivThey observe that the meaning of the word ed them, and would have us receive them in his B signifies immersion or dipping only; that name, how can it be reconciled to keep them out John baptized in Jordan; that he chose a place of the visible church? Besides, if children were where there was much water; that Jesus came not to be baptized, it would have been expressly up out of the water; that Philip and the eunuch forbidden. None of the Jews had any apprehenwent down both into the water. That the terms sion of the rejection of infants, which they must washing, purifying, burying in baptism, so often have had, if infants had been rejected. As whole mentioned in Scripture, allude to this mode; that households were baptized, it is probable there immersion only was the practice of the apostles were children among them. From the year 400 and the first Christians; and that it was only to 1150, no society of men, in all that period of 750 laid aside from the love of novelty, and the cold-years, ever pretended to say it was unlawful to ness of our climate. These positions, they think are so clear from Scripture, and the history of the church, that they stand in need of but little argument to support them. Further, they also insist that all positive institutions depend entirely upon the will and declaration of the institutor, and that, therefore, reasoning by analogy from previous abrogated rites, is to be rejected, and the express command of Christ respecting baptisin ought to be our rule. PÆDOBAPTISTS. baptize infants; and still nearer the time of cur Saviour, there appears to have been scarcely any one that so much as advised the delay of infant baptism. Irenæus, who lived in the second century, and was well acquainted with Polycarp, who was John's disciple, declares expressly that the church learned from the apostles to baptize children. Origen, in the third century, affirmed that the custom of baptizing infants was received from Christ and his apostles. Cyprian, and a council of ministers (held about the year 254), no less than sixtysix in number, unanimously agreed that children The Padobaptists, however, are of a different might be baptized as soon as they were born. opinion. As to the subject, they believe that quali- Ambrose, who wrote about 274 years from the fied adults who have not been baptized before apostles, declares that the baptism of infants had are certainly proper subjects; but, then, they think been the practice of the apostles themselves, and also that infants are not to be excluded. They of the church, till that time. The catholic believe that, as the Abrahamic and the Christian church every where declared, says Chrysostom, Covenants are the same, Gen. xvii. 7. Heb. viii. in the fifth century, that infants should be bap 12; that as children were admitted under the tized; And Augustin affirmed that he never former; and that as baptism is now a seal, sign, heard nor read of any Christian, catholic, or or confirmation of this covenant, infants have as sectarian, but who always held that infants were great a right to it as the children had a right to to be baptized. They further believe, that there the seal of circumcision under the law, Acts i. 39. needed no mention in the New Testament of reRom. iv. 11. That if children are not to be ceiving infants into the church, as it had been baptized because there is no positive command once appointed and never repealed. The dictates for it, for the same reason women should not come of nature, also, in parental feelings; the verdict to the Lord's Supper; we should not keep the of reason in favour of privileges; the evidence in first day of the week, nor attend public worship, favour of children being sharers of the seals of for none of these are expressly commanded; that grace, in common with their parents, for the space if infant bap.ism had been a human invention, of 4000 years; and especially the language of prohow would it have been so universal in the first phecy, in reference to the children of the Gospel 300 years, and yet no record left when it was in-church, make it very probable that they were not troduced, nor any dispute or controversy about it? Some bring it to these two ideas: 1. That God did constitute in the Jewish church, the membership of infants, and admitted them to it by a religious ordinance, Gen. xvii. Gal. iii. 14, 17. 2. That this right of infants to church membership was never taken away. This being the case, infants must be received, because God has instituted it; and, since infants must be received, it ruust be either without baptism or with it: but none must be received without baptism, therefore infants must, of necessity, be baptized. Hence, it is clear, that under the Gospel, infants are still continued exactly in the same relation to God and his church, in which they were originally placed under the former dispensation. to be rejected. So far from confining it to adults it must be remembered that there is not a single instance recorded in the New Testament in which the descendants of Christian parents were baptized in adult years. That infants are not proper subjects for baptisra because they cannot profess faith and repentance, they deny. This objection falls with as much weight upon the institution of circumcision as infant baptism; since they are as capable, or are as fit subjects for the one as the other. It is generally acknowledged, that, if infants die (and a great part of the human race do die in infancy,) they are saved: if this be the case, then, why refuse them the sign in infancy, if they are capable of enjoying the thing signified? "Why," my APOSTACY APOSTOLIC APOSTLE, properly signifies a messenger or person sent by another upon some business. It is particularly applied to them whom our Saviour deputed to preach.-2. Apostle, in the Greek liturgy, is used for a book containing the epistles of St. Paul, printed in the order wherein they are to be read in churches through the course of the year.-3. The appellation was also given to the ordinary travelling ministers of the church, Rom. xvi. 7. ̊ Phil. ii. 25., though in our translation the last is rendered messenger.-4. It is likewise given to those persons who first planted the Christian faith in any place. Thus Dionysius of Corinth is called the Apostle of France, Xavier the Apostle of the Indies, &c. #PUTT, to hide or conceal. They seem most | fourthly, of those who voluntarily relapsed into of them to have been composed by Jews. None paganism. A postacy may be farther considered of the writers of the New Testament mention as 1. Original, in which we have all participated, hem; neither Philo nor Josephus speak of them. Rom. iii. 23;-2. National, when a kingdom re The Christian church was for some ages a stran- linquishes the profession of Christianity;-3. ger to them. Origen, Athanasius, Hilary, Cyril Personal, when an individual backslides from of Jerusalem, and all the orthodox writers who God, Heb. x. 38;—4. Final, when men are given have given catalogues of the canonical books of up to judicial hardness of heart, as Judas. See Scripture, unanimously concur in rejecting these BACKSLIDING. out of the canon. The Protestants acknowledge such books of Scripture only to be canonical as were esteemed to be so in the first ages of the church; such as are cited by the earliest writers among the Christians, as of divine authority, and after the most diligent inquiry, were received and judged to be so by the council of Laodicea. They were written after the days of Malachi, in whom, according to the universal testimony of the Jews, the spirit of prophecy ceased, Mal. iv. 4—6. Not one of the writers in direct terms advances a claim to inspiration. They contain fables, lies, and contradictions. 1 Maccabees, vi. 4, 16. 2 Maccabees, i. 13, 16. ix. 28. The apocryphal books are in general believed to be canonical by the church of Rome; and, even by the sixth article of the church of England, they are ordered to be read for example of life and instruction of manners, though it doth not apply them to establish any doctrine. Other reformed churches do not so much as make even this use of them. See Prideaux's Connection, vol. i. p. 36-42; Lee's Dis. on Esdras; Dick on Inspiration, p. 344; Alexander on the Canon; Horne's Introduction, vol. iv. p. 239. APOLLINARIANS were ancient heretics, who denied the proper humanity of Christ, and maintained that the body he assumed was endowed with a sensitive and not a rational soul; but that the divine nature supplied the place of the intellectual principle in man. This sect derived its name from Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea. Their doctrine was first condemned by a council at Alexandria in 362, and afterwards in a more formal manner by a council at Rome in 375, and by another council in 378, which deposed Apollinaris from his bishopric. This, with other laws enacted against them, reduced them to a very small number; so that at last they dwindled away. APOSTLES' CREED. See CREED. POSTOLATE, in a general sense, is used formission; but it more properly denotes the digty or office of an apostle of Christ. It is also used in ancient writers for the office of a bishop. But as the title apostolicus has been appropriated to the pope, so that of apostolate became at length restrained to the sole dignity of the popedom. APOSTOLIC, apostolical; something that relates to the apostles, or descends from them. Thus we say, the apostolical age, apostolical doc trine, apostolical character, constitutions, traditions, &c. APOSTOLIC, in the primitive church, was an appellation given to all such churches as were founded by the apostles; and even to the bishops of those churches, as being the reputed successors of the apostles. These were confined to four, viz. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In after-times, the other churches assumed the same quality, on account, principally, of the conformity of their doctrine with that of the churches which were apostolical by foundation, and be cause all bishops held themselves successors of the apostles, or acted in their dioceses with the The first time the term apostolical is attributed to bishops, as such, is in a letter of Clovis to the council of Orleans, held in 511, though that king does not there expressly denominate them apostolical, but (apostolica sede dignissimi) highly worthy of the apostolical see. In 581, Guntram calls the bishops, met at the council of Macon, apostolical pontiffs, apostolici pontifices. APOLOGY, a Greek term, literally import-authority of apostles. ing an excuse or defence of some person, cause, or action. Both in ancient and modern times the word has been applied to works written for the professed design of defending or vindicating Christianity from the attacks of its enemies, and also to those written in defence of certain religious sects by their advocates. Thus, among the ancients, we meet with the Apology of Justin Martyr, the Apologetic of Tertullian, &c. And among the moderns, with Watson's Apology, Barclay's Apology, and others.-B. APOSTACY, a forsaking or renouncing our religion, either by an open declaration in words, or a virtual declaration of it by our actions. The primitive Christian church distinguished several kinds of apostacy: the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism: the second, of those who complied so far with the Jews, as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a formal profession of their religion; thirdly, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and In progress of time, the bishop of Rome grow ing in power above the rest, and the three patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusa lem falling into the hands of the Saracens, the title apostolical was restrained to the pope and his church alone; though some of the popes, and St. Gregory the Great, not contented to hold the title by this tenure, began at length to insist that it belonged to them by another and peculiar right, as being the successors of St. Peter. The council of Rheims, in 1049, declared that the pope was the sole apostolical primate of the universal church. And hence a great number of apostoli cals; apostolical see, apostolical nuncio, apostoli. |