BAPTISM BAPTISM tion of divine influences. There is no object Dr. Owen, "is it the will of God that unbelievers | the Spirit, pouring must be the mode of adininisshould not be baptized? It is because, not grant-tration; for that is the Scriptural term most ing them the grace he will not grant them the commonly and properly used for the communica sign. If God, therefore, denies the sign to the infant seed of believers, it must be because he denies them the grace of it; and then all the children of believing parents (upon these principles) dying in their infancy, must, without hope, be eternally damned. I do not say that all must be so who are not baptized; but all must be so whom God would not have baptized." Something is said of baptism, it is observed, that cannot agree to infants: faith goes before baptism; and, as none but adults are capable of believing, so no others are capable of baptism; but it is replied, if infants must not be baptized because something is said of baptism that does not agree to infants, Mark xvi. 16, then infants must not be saved, because something is said of salvation that does not agree to infants, Mark xvi. 16. As none but adults are capable of believing, so, by the argument of the Baptists, none but adults are capable of salvation: for he that believeth not shall be damned. But Christ, it is said, set an example of adult baptism. True; but he was baptized in honour to John's ministry, and to conform himself to what he appointed to his followers; for which last reason he drank of the sacramental cup: but this is rather an argument for the Padobaptists than against them; since it plainly shows, as Doddridge observes, that baptism may be administered to those who are not capable of all the purposes for which it was designed; since Jesus Christ, not being a sinner, could not be capable of that faith and repentance which are said to be necessary to this ordi nance. As to the mode. It is urged that John's choosing a place where there was much water is a certain proof of immersion. To which it is answered, that as there went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, that by choosing a place where there were many streams or rivulets, it would be much more expeditiously perform ed by pouring; and that it seems in the nature of things highly improbable that John should have baptized this vast multitude by immersion, to say nothing of the indecency of both sexes being bap tized together. They believe that the word Bar signifies to dip or plunge; but that the term BTC, which is only a derivative of S, and consequently must be somewhat less in its signification, should be invariably used in the New Testament to exJesus, it is said, came up out of the water; but press plunging, is not so clear. It is therefore this is said to be no proof of his being immersed, doubted whether dipping be the only meaning, as the Greek term ao often signifies from; for and whether Christ absolutely enjoined immer-instance, "who hath warned you to flee from," sion, and that it is his positive will that no other not out of, "the wrath to come," with many should be used. As the word Br used for others which might be mentioned. the various ablutions among the Jews, such as Again: it is said that Philip and the eunuch sprinkling, pouring, &c. Heb. ix. 10; for the went down both into the water. To this it is custom of washing before meals, and the washing answered that here is no proof of immersion; for of household furniture, pots, &c.; it is evident if the expression of their going down into the from hence that it does not express the manner water necessarily includes dipping, then Philip of doing, whether by immersion or affusion, but was dipped as well as the eunuch. The prepo only the thing done, that is, washing, or the appli-sition () translated into, often signifies no more cation of water in one form or other. Dr. Owen observes, that it no where signifies to dip but as denoting a mode of and in order to washing or cleansing; and, according to others, the mode of use is only the ceremonial part of a positive institute; just as in the upper of the Lord, the time of the day, the number and posture of communicants, the quality and quantity of bread and wine, are circumstances not accounted essential by any party of Christians. As to the Hebrew word Tabal, it is considered as a generic term; that its radical, primary, and proper meaning is to tinge, to dye, to wet, or the like: which primary design is effected by different modes of application. If in baptism also there is an expressive emblem of the descending influence of than to or unto. See Matt, xv. 21. Rom. x. 10. Acts xxviii. 14. Matt. xvii. 27. iii. 11. So that, from all these circumstances, it cannot be concluded that there was a single person of all the baptized who went into the water ankle deep. As to the apostle's expression, "buried with him in baptism," they think it has no force; and that it does not allude to any custom of dipping, any more than our baptismal crucifixion and death has any such reference. It is not the sign but the thing signified that is here alluded to. As Christ was buried, and rose again to a heavenly life, so we by baptism signify that we are cut off from the life of sin, that we may rise again to a new life of faith and love. To conclude this article, it is observed against BAPTISM BARDESANISTS [ture the term Baptism is used as referring to the work of the Spirit on the heart, Matt. iii. 11.; also to the 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. the mode of immersion, that, as it carries with it too much of the appearance of a burdensome rite for the Gospel dispensation; that as it is too indecent for so solemn an ordinance; as it has a tendency to agitate the spirits, often rendering the subject unfit for the exercise of proper thoughts and affections, and, indeed, utterly incapable of them; as in many cases the immersion of the body would in all probability be instant death; as in Although there were several Baptists among other situations it would be impracticable for want the Albigenses, Waldenses, and the followers of of a sufficient quantity of water, it cannot be con- Wickliffe, it does not appear that they were formsidered as necessary to the ordinance of baptism. ed into any stability until the time of Menno, See Gale, Robinson, Stenneit, Gill, and Booth, about the year 1536. See ANABAPTISTS and on Antipædobaptism; and Wall, Henry, Brad- MENNONITES. About 1644 they began to make bury, Bastwick, Torgood, Addington, Williams, a considerable figure in England, and spread Edwards, Miller, Evans, &c. on the other side. themselves into several separate congregations. BAPTISM OF THE DEAD, a custom They separated from the Independents about the which anciently prevailed among some people in year 1638, and set up for themselves under the Africa, of giving baptism to the dead. The third pastoral care of Mr. Jesse; and, having renounced council of Carthage speaks of it as a thing that their former baptism, they sent over one of their ignorant Christians are fond of: Gregory Na-number to be immersed by one of the Dutch Anazianzen also takes notice of the same superstitious baptists of Amsterdam, that he might be qualified opinion. The practice seems to be grounded on a to baptize his friends in England after the same vain idea, that, when men had neglected to receive manner. haptism in their lifetime, some compensation might The Baptists subsist under two denominations, be made for this default by receiving it after death. viz. the Particular, or Calvinistical, and the BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD, a practice General, or Arminian. Their modes of church formerly in use, when a person dying without government and worship are the same as those of baptism, another was baptized in his stead; thus the Independents; in the exercise of which they supposing that God would accept the baptism of are protected, in common with other dissenters, by the proxy, as though it had been administered to the act of toleration. Some of both denominations the principal. Chrysostom says, this was prac-allow of mixed communion; by which it is untised among the Marcionites with a great deal of derstood that those who have not been baptized by ridiculous ceremony, which he thus describes :- immersion, on the profession of their faith, may "After any catechumen was dead, they had a sit down at the Lord's table with those who have living man under the bed of the deceased: then, been thus baptized. Others, however, disallow it, coming to the dead man, they asked him whether supposing that such have not been actually bap he would receive baptism: and he making no an-tized at all. See FREE COMMUNION. swer, the other answered for him, and said he would be baptized in his stead; and so they bap tized 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 Paul, it might The Baptists in America and in the East and probably form a solution of those remarkable West Indies are chiefly Calvinists, and hold ocwords in 1 Cor. xv. 29: "If the dead rise not at casional fellowship with the Particular Baptist all, what shall they do who are baptized for the churches in England. Those in Scotland, having dead? The allusion of the apostle to this prac imbibed a considerable part of the principles of tice, however, is rejected by some, and especially Messrs. Glass and Sandeman, have no commuby Dr. Doddridge, who thinks it too early: henion with the other. They have liberally conthus paraphrases the passage: "Such are our tributed, however, towards the translation of the views and hopes as Christians, else, if it were not Scriptures into the Bengalee language, which o, what should they do who are baptized in token some of the Baptist brethren are now accomplishof their embracing the Christian faith, in the rooming in the East. See Rippon's Baptist Register, of the dead, who are just falien in the cause of vol. i. p. 172-175; Adams's View of Religions, Christ, but are yet supported by a succession of article Baptists; Evans's Sketch of Religious new converts, who immediately offer themselves Denominations. [See APPENDIX, No. 4.] to fill up their places, as ranks of soldiers that BAPTISTERY, the place in which the cereadvance to the combat in the room of their com-mony of baptism is performed. In the ancient panions who have just been slain in their sight?" church, it is said, it was generally a building Lay baptism we find to have been permitted by separate and distinct from the church. It contoth the common prayer-books of king Edward sisted of an ante-room, where the adult persons to and queen Elizabeth, when an infant was in im- be baptized made their confession of faith; and mediate danger of death, and a lawful minister an inner room, where the ceremony of baptism could not be had. This was founded on a mis- was perforined. Thus it continued to the sixth taken notion of the impossibility of salvation century, when the baptisteries began to be taken without the sacrament of baptism; but afterwards, into the church. when they came to have clearer notions of the sa- BARDESANISTS, a sect so denominated craments, it was unanimously resolved, in a con- from their leader Bardesanes, a Syrian, of Edessa, vocation held in 1575, that even private baptism in in Mesopotamia, who lived in the second century. a case of necessity was only to be administered by They believed that the actions of men depended lawful minister. altogether on fate, and that God himself is subject BAPTISM METAPHORICAL. In Scrip-to necessity.-They denied the resurrection, of Some of them observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, apprehending the law that enjoined it not to have been repealed by Christ. BASILIDIANS the body, and the incarnation and death of our Saviour. BARLA AMITES, 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 Ethica ex Stoicis. BARNABAS, EPISTLES OF, an apocryphal work ascribed to St. Barnabas. It was first published in Greek, from a copy of father Hugh Menaed, a monk. Vossius published it, in 1656, with the epistles of Ignatius.-The Gospel of Barnabas is another apocryphal work ascribed to Barnabas, wherein the history of Jesus Christ is given in a different manner from that of the evangelists. BARNABITES, a religious order, founded in the sixteenth century, by three Italian gentlemen, who had been advised by a famous preacher of those days to read carefully the epistles of St. Paul. Hence they were called clerks of St. Paul; and Barnabites, because they performed their first exercise in a church of St. Barnabas at Milan. Their habit is black; ard their office is to instruct, catechise, and serve in mission. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, ST. (the 24th August) is a day distinguished in history, as the anniversary of the horrid and atrocious sacrifices of human blood, called the Parisian Massacre. See PERSECUTION. BARTHOLOMITES, a religious order founded at Geneva in 1307; but, the monks leading irregular lives, it was suppressed in 1650, and their effects confiscated. In the church of the monastery of this order at Geneva is preserved the image, which, it is pretended, Christ sent to king Abgarus. BASILIAN MONKS, religious of the order of St. Basil, in the fourth century, who, having retired into a desert in the province of Pontus, founded a monastery, and drew up rules, to the amount of some hundreds, for his disciples. This new society soon spread all over the East: nor was it long before it passed into the West. Some pretend that St. Basil caw himself the spiritual father of more than 90,000 monks in the East only; but this order, which flourished for more than three centuries, was considerably diminished by heresy, schism, and a change of empire. The historians of this order say that it has produced 14 popes, 1805 bishops, 3010 abbots, and 11,085 martyrs, besides an infinite number of confessors and virgins. This order likewise boasts of several emperors, kings, and princes, who have em braced its rule. BASILIDIANS, a denomination in the second century, from Basilides, chief of the Egyp tian Gnostics. He acknowledged the existence of one supreme God, perfect in goodness and wisdom, who produced from his own substance seven beings, or aions, of a most excellent nature. Two of these aions, called Dynamis and Sophiz (i. e. power and wisdom), engendered the angels of the highest order. These angels formed a heaven for their habitation, and brought forth other angelic beings of a nature somewhat inferior to their own Many other generations of angels followed these. New heavens were also created, until the number of angelic orders, and BATANIST'S of their respective heavens, amounted to three hundred and sixty-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. These angelic beings, advanced to the government of the world which they had created, fell by degrees from their original purity, and soon manifested the fatal marks of their depravity and corruption. They not only endeavoured to efface in the minds of men their knowledge 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.-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 those angelic natures which presided over the world, and particularly that of the arrogant leader of the Jewish people. The God of the Jews, alarmed at this, sent forth his ministers to seize the man Jesus, and put him to death. They executed his commands; but their cruelty could not extend to Christ, against whom their efforts were vain. Those souls, who obey the precepts of the Son of God, shall, after the dissolution of their mortal frame, ascend to the Father, while their bodies return to the corrupt mass of matter whence they were formed. Disobedient spirits, on the 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 religion was a compound of that of the 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. 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 your subjects," said the old man of the mountain to the son-in-law of Amoury, king of Jerusalem; "as ready in their submission as mine?" and without staying for an answer, made a sign with BAXTERIANS his hand, when teh young men in white, who were standing on an adjacent tower, instantly threw themselves down. To 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 no difficulty of stabbing any prince, even on his throne; and for that purpose conformed to the dress and religion of the country, that they might be 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, awakening, as it were, in paradise, and inflamed with views of perpetual enjoyments, they sallied forth to perform assassinations of the blackest dye. It is said, they once thought of embracing the Christian religion; and some have thought the Druses a remnant of this singular race of barba rians. BATH-KOL (i. e. the daughter of a voice), an oracle among the Jews, frequently mentioned in their books, especially the Talmud. It was a fantastical way of divination invented by the Jews, though called by them a revelation from God's will, which he made to his chosen people after all verbal prophecies had ceased in Israel. BEGUINES ance.-4. The Spirit of Christ to dwell in us and sanctify us, by a habit of divine love, Rom. viii. 9-13. Gal. v. 6.-5. Employment in holy, ac ceptable service, and access in prayer, with a pro mise of being heard through Christ, Heb. ii. 5, 6. John xiv. 13.-6. Well-grounded hopes of salvation, peace of conscience, and spiritual communion with the church mystical in heaven and earth, Rom. v. 12. Heb. xii. 22.-7. A special interest in Christ, and intercession with the Father, Rom. viii. 32, 33.-8. Resurrection unto life, and justification in judgment; glorification of the soul at death, and of the body at the resurrection, Phil. iii. 20, 21. 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3. 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 into the Indian tongue. A young Indian prince was so taken with it, that he read it with tears, and died with it in his hand. Calamy's Life of Baxter; Baxter's Catholic Theology, p. 51-53; Baxter's End of Doctrinal Controversy, p. 154, 155. BAXTERIANS, so called from the learned and pious Mr. Richard Baxter, who was born in the year 1615. His design was to reconcile Calvin and Arminius: 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 BEATITUDE imports the highest degree of preached have common grace, which, if they im-happiness human nature can arrive to, the fruition prove, they shall obtain saving grace, according of God in a future life to all eternity. It is also to the doctrine of Arminius. This denomination used when speaking of the theses contained in own, with Calvin, that the merits of Christ's Christ's sermon on the Mount, whereby he prodeath are to be applied to believers only; but they nounces the several characters there mentioned also assert that all men are in a state capable of blessed. BEATIFICATION, in the Romish church, the act whereby the pope declares a person happy after death. See CANONIZATION. 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. BEGHARDS, or BEGUARDS, a sect that arose in Germany in the thirteenth century, and took St. Begghe for their patroness. They employed themselves in making linen cloth, each supporting himself by his labour, and were united only by In order to prove that the death of Christ has the bonds of charity, without having any particuput all in a state capable of salvation, the follow-lar rule; but when pope Nicholas IV. had coning arguments are alleged by this learned author. firmed that of the third order of St. Francis, in 1. It was the nature of all mankind which 1289, they embraced it the year following. Christ assumed at his incarnation, and the sins of BEGUINES, a congregation of nuns, founded all mankind were the occasion of his suffering.—either by St. Begghe or by Lambert le Begue. It was to Adam, as the common father of They were established, first at Liege, and afterlapsed mankind, that God made the promise wards at Neville, in 1207; and from this last setGen. ii. 15.) The conditional new covenant tlement sprang the great number of Beguinages does equally give Christ, pardon, and life to all which are spread over all Flanders, and which mankind, on condition of acceptance. The con-have passed from Flanders into Germany. In the tional grant is universal: Whoever believeth latter country some of them fell into extravagant all be saved.-3. It is not to the elect only, but errors, persuading themselves that it was possible tall mankind, that Christ has commanded his in the present life to arrive to the highest perfecsters to proclaim his Gospel, and offer the tion, even to impeccability, and a clear view of benefits of his procuring. God; in short, to so eminent a degree of contemThere are, Mr. Baxter allows, certain fruits plation, that there was no necessity, after this, to of Christ's death which are proper to the elect submit to the laws of mortal men, civil or ecclealy: 1. Grace eventually worketh in them true siastical. The council of Vienna condemned futh, repentance, conversion, and union with these errors; permitting, nevertheless, those Christ as his living members.-2. The actual among them, who continued in the true faith, to rgiveness of sin as to the spiritual and eternal live in charity and penitence, either with or withpanishment.-3. Our reconciliation with God, out vows. There still subsists, or at least subadoption and right to the heavenly inherit-sisted till lately, many communities of them in BEHMENISTS Flanders. Their grand rule of conduct was universal charity, and their only motive, the love of God. BELIEVERS self into perdition.-8. How and why sin and misery, wrath and death, shall only reign for a time, till the love, the wisdom, and the power of God shall in a supernatural way (the mystery of God made man) triumph over sin, misery, and death; and make fallen man rise to the glory of angels, and this material system shake off its curse, and enter into an everlasting union with that heaven from whence it fell. The year after he wrote his Three Principles, by which are to be understood-the dark world, or hell, in which the devils live-the light world, or heaven, in which the angels live-the external and visible world, which has proceeded from the internal and spiritual worlds, in which man, as to his bodily life, lives; Behmen produced his Threefold Life of Man, according to the Three 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 that man can only attain unto this heavenly life of the second principle through the new birth in Christ Jesus.-3. The life of the third principle, or of this external and visible world. Thus the life of the first and third principles is common to all men; but the life of the second principle only to a true Christian or child of God. BEHMENISTS, a name given to those mystics who adopt the explications of the mysteries of nature and grace, as given by Jacob Behmen. This writer was born in the year 1575, at Old Seidenburg, near Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia; he was a shoemaker by trade. He is described as having been thoughtful and religious from his youth up, taking peculiar pleasure in frequenting public worship. At length, seriously considering within himself that speech of our Saviour, My Father which is in hearen will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, he was thereby thoroughly awakened in himself, and set forward to desire that promised Comforter; and, continuing in that earnestness, he was at last, to use his own expression. "surrounded with a divine light for seven days, and stood in the highest contemplation and kingdom of joys!" After this, about the year 1600, he was again surrounded by the divine light, and replenished with the heavenly knowledge; insomuch as, going abroad into the fields, and viewing the herbs and grass, by his inward light, he saw into their essences, use and properties, which were discovered to him by their linea ments, figures and signatures. In the year 1610, he had a third special illumination, wherein still further mysteries were revealed to him. It was not till the year 1612, that Behmen committed these revelations to writing. His first treatise is Behmen wrote several other treatises, besides entitled Aurora, which was seized on and with- the three already enumerated; but these three held from him by the senate of Gorlitz (who per-being, as it were, the basis of all his other writings, secuted him at the instigation of the primate of that place) before it was finished, and he never afterwards proceeded with it further 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 treated 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 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 began in and from this divine fire, which is the Father of light, generating a birth of light in their souls; from both which proceeds the Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love in the triune creature, as it does in the triune Creator.-3. How some angels, and all men, are fallen from God, and their first state of a divine triune life in him; what they are in their fallen state, and the difference between the fall of angels and that of man.-4. How the earth, stars, and elements were created in consequence of the fallen angels.-5. Whence there is good and evil in all this temporal world, in all its creatures animate and inanimate; and what is meant by the curse that dwells every where in it.-6. Of the kingdom of Christ; how it is set in opposition to and fights and strives against the kingdom of hell.-7. How man, through faith in Christ, is ble to overcome the kingdom of hell, and triumph over it in the divine power, and thereby obtain eternal salvation; also how, through the working of the hellish quantity or principle, he casts him it was thought proper to notice them particularly. His conceptions are often clothed under allegorical symbols; and in his latter works he has frequently adopted chemical and Latin phrases to express his ideas, which phrases he borrowed from conversation with learned men, the educa tion he had received being too illiterate to furnish him with them: but as to the matter contained in his writings, he disclaimed having borrowed it either from men or books. He died in the year 1624. His last words were, "Now I go hence into Paradise." Some of Behmen's principles were adopted by the ingenious and pious William Law, who clothed them in a more modern dress, and in a less ob scure style. See Behmen's Works; Okely's Memoirs of Behmen. BELIEF, in its general and natural sense, de notes a persuasion or an assent of the mind to the truth of any proposition. In this sense belief has no relation to any particular kind of means or arguments, but may be produced by any means whatever: thus we are said to believe our senses, to believe our reason, to believe a witness. Belief, in its more restrained sense, denotes that kind of assent which is grounded only on the authority or testimony of soine person. In this sense belief stands opposed to knowledge and science. We do not say that we believe snow is white, but we know it to be so. But when a thing is propounded to us, of which we ourselves have no knowledge, but which appears to us to be true from the testimony given to it by another, this is what we call belief. See FAITH. BELIEVERS, an appellation given, toward the close of the first century, to those Christians who had been admitted into the church by bap tism, and instructed in all the mysteries of religion. |