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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.

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. Chrysos tom 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 Paul, it might probably form a solution of those remarkable words in 1 Cor. xv. 29: "If the dead rise not at all, what shall they do who are baptized for the dead?" The allusion of the apostle to this practice, however, is re. jected by some, and especially by Dr Doddridge, who thinks it too early: he thus paraphrases the passage: "Such are our views and hopes as Christians;|| else, if it were not so, what should they do who are baptized in token of their embracing the 'Christian faith, in the room of the dead, who are just fallen in the cause of Christ, but are yet supported 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 room of their companions who have just been slain in their sight?"

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 Christains 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 man

ner.

The Baptists subsist under two denominations, viz. the Farticular or Calvinistical, and the General or Arminian. Their modes of church government and worship are the same as the Independents; in the exercise of which they are protected, in common with other dissenters, by the act of toleration. Some of both denominations allow of mixed communion; by which it is understood, that those who have not been baptized by immersion, on the profession 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.

Lay baptism we found to have been Some of them observe the seventh day permitted by both the common prayer of the week as the Sabbath, apprehendbooks of king Edward and queen Eliza-ing the law that enjoined it not to have beth, when an infant was in immediate been repealed by Christ. 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

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 themselves 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,

1

in some of their churches, three distinct || from a copy of father Hugh Menaed, a orders separtely ordained, viz-mes- monk. Vossius published it, in 1656, sengers, elders, and deacons. Their ge- with his epistles of Ignatius.-The gosneral assembly is held annually in Wor-pel of Barnabas is another apocryphal ship Street, London, on the Tuesday in work ascribed to Barnabas, wherein the the Whitsun week. history of Jesus Christ is given in a 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 Calvinists, 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 Bangalee language, which some of the Baptist brethren are now 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.

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; and 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 sacrifice of human blood called the Parisian Massacre. See PERSECUTION.

served the image, which it is pretended, Christ sent to king Abgarus.

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 mo. BAPTISTERY, the place in whichnastery of this order at Geneva is prethe 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 Edessa, in Mesopotamia, who lived in the second century. They believed 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 Ethica ex Stoicis.

BARNABAS, EPISTLES OF, an apocryphal work ascribed to St. Barnabas. It was first published in Greek,

BASILION 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 saw 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 11085 martyrs, besides an infinite number of confessors and

virgins. This order likewise boasts of several emperors, kings, and princes, who have embraced its rule.

BASILIDIANS, a denomination, in the second century, from Basilides, chief of the Egyptian Gnosnics. He ac knowledged 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 an

gels of the highest order. These angels || contrary, shall pass successively into formed a heaven for their habitation, other bodies. 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 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.

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

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.

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 re

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 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 endeavour to who were standing on an adjacent towefface in the minds of men their know-er, instantly threw themselves down. 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.ligion of the country, that they might -Hence the Supreme Ged, beholding be less suspected. To animate them o with compassion the miserable state of such attempts, the Scheik previously inrational beings, who groaned under the dulged them with a foretaste of the decontest of these jarring powers, sent lights of paradise. Delicious soporific from heaven his son Nus, or Christ, the drinks were given them; and while chief of the aions, that joined in a sub-they lay asleep, they were carried into stantial 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 It is said they once thought of embra. god of the Jews, alarmed at this, sent cing the 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, espe souls 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.

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.

life, and justification in judgment; glorification of the soul at death, and of the body at the resurrection, Phil. iii. 20, 21.

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 these benefits, yet he did intend and decree that all men should have a conditional gift of them to his death.

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 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.

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.

BEATIFICATION, in the Romish church, the act whereby the pope declares a person happy after death. See CANONIZATIONS.

by he pronounces the several characters there mentioned blessings.

In order to prove that the death of Christ has put all in a state 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 common father of lapsed mankind, that God made the promise (Gen. iii. 15.) BEATITUDE imports the highest 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: speaking of the theses contained in Whosoever believeth shall be saved.-Christ's Sermon on the mount where3. It is not to the elect only, but to all mankind, that Christ has commanded his ministers to proclaim his Gospel, and offer the benefits of his procuring. There are, Mr. Baxter allows, certain fruits of Christ's death which are proper to the elect only: 1. Grace eventually worketh in them true faith, repentance, conversion, and union with Christ as his living members.-2. The actual forgiveness of sin as to the spiritual and eternal punishment.-3. Our reconciliation with God, and adoption and right to the heavenly inheritance. 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. Employ ment in holy, acceptable service, and access in prayer, with a promise 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 carth, Rom v. 12. Heb. xii. 22.-7. A special interest it Christ, and intercession with the Father Rom. viii. 32, 33-8. Resurrection unto

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 the bonds of charity, without having any particular rule; but when pope Nicholas IV. had confirmed that of the third order of St. Francis in 1289, they embraced it the year following.

BEGUINES, a congregation of nuns founded either by St. Begghe or by Lambert le Begue. They were estabished, first at Leige, and afterwards at Neville, in 1207; and from this last settlement sprang the great number of Beguinages which are spread over all Flanders, and which have passed from Fianders into Germany. In the latter country some of then fell into extravagant errors, persuading themselves chat it was possible in the present life to arrive to the highest perfection, even to l'impeccability, and a clear view of God ;

in short, to so eminent a degree of con- || working will of the holy triune incomtemplation, that there was no necessity prehensible God, manifesting himself as after this, to submit to the laws of mor- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through tal men, civil or ecclesiastical. The an outward perceptible working triune council of Vienna, in 1113, condemned power of fire, light, and spirit, in the these errors; permitting, nevertheless, kingdom of heaven.-2. How and what those among them who continued in the angels and men were in their creation; true faith to live in charity and peni- that they are in and from God, his real tence, either with or without vows. offspring; that their life begun in and There still subsists, or at least subsisted from this divine fire which is the Father till lately, many communities of them in of light, generating a birth of light in Flanders. What changes the late revo- their souls; from both which proceeds tutions may have effected upon these the Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love nurseries of superstition we have yet to in the triune creature, as it does in learn. 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 engels 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 able to overcome the kingdom of hell, and triumph over it in the divine power, and thereby obtain eternal salvation; also how, through working in the hellish quantity of principle, he casts himself 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.

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 heaven will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, he was thereby thoroughly awakened in himself, and set forward to desire that promised Comfortor; 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 lineaments, figures, and signatures. In the year 1610, he had a third special illumination, wherein still farther mysteries were revealed to him. It was not till the year 1612 that Behmen committed these revelations to writing. His first treatise is entitled Aurora, which was seized on and withheld from him by the senate of Gorlitz (who persecuted him at the instigation of the primate of that place) before it was finished, and he never af terwards 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 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 all

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 ex ternal 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