.;j„. ■k W ■■''#«>£- •;• 2r • - -«■■ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY • :*& •^v ,-. jw '■■■■ PRINTED IN U. S. A. '*?»■#*;•/* (W^ CAT. NO. 232 3 BR145 JHST" U, " VerS " y Ubrary Hf8 |?iXiiNiiin , i!SLf hurch of God r ,rom "W olin 3 1924 029 245 128 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029245128 I HISTORY OP THE CHURCH OF GOD, FROM THE CREATION TO A. D. 1885; INCLUDING ESPECIALLY THE HISTORY OF THE KEHUKEE PRIMITIVE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION. BY ELDER CUSHING BIGGS HASSELL. REVISED AND COMPLETED BT ELDER SYLVESTER HASSELL. PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF THE KEHUKEE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION. " The truth of the Lord endureth forever."— Psalm cxvii. 2. " Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, ■where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."— Jeremiah vi. 16, " Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."— Matthew v. 3. "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." — Matthew xvi. 18. " It was needful for me to write uuto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."— Jude 3. GILBERT BEEBE'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, " Signs op the Times " Office, MIDDLETOWN, ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK. /\imii Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by Sylvester Hassell, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Electrotyped by LOVEJOY. SON & CO., New ¥obk. FOOTSTEPS OF THE FLOCK. •' Search the Scriptures."— John v. 39. " To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."— Isaiah viii. 20. " The footsteps of the flock."— Canticles i. 8. Genesis iii. 15, 21 ; iv. 4, 25, 26 ; v. 24 ; vi. 8, 9 ; xii. 1-3 ; xt. 6 ; xxxii. 24-32 ; Deuteronomy xxxii. 9, 10 , xxxiii. 29 ; Ruth i. 16, 17 ; 1 Kings xix. 18 ; Job i. 21 ; xix. 25, 26 ; Psalms i. 1-3 viii. 2 ; xxxii. 5 ; xxxiv. 1, 18, 19 ; xl. 1-3 ; xlii. 2 ; lxxxlii. 3 ; cii. 17 ; ciii. 1-5 ; cvii. 1-32 ex. 3 ; cxi. 9, 10 ; cxv. 1. 9-15 ; exxi. 1-8 ; exxii. 1-9 ; exxv. 1,2; exxvi. 1-6 ; exxx. 1-8 exxxiri. 1-3 ; exxxyiii. 1-8 ; cxlv. 1-21 ; Isaiah xxxiii. 20 ; xli. 17-20 ; xlv. 17-19, 22-25 ; liii liv; lv; lrti. 15; lxi. 1-3, 10, 11; Jeremiah xyii. 5-8; xxxi. 3, 8, 9, 31-37; Ezekiel xxxvt 25-27; Daniel i. 8; iii. 18; vi. 10; Jonah ii. 9; Hahakkuk iii. 17, 18; Zephaniah iii. 12 Zechariah xii. 10-14 ; xiii. 1,7-9; Malachi iii. 16-18 ; iv. 2. Matthew v. 3-12, 43-48 ; vi. 6 ; vii. 12, 14, 24, 25 ; xi. 25-30 ; xxv. 40 ; xxviii. 18-20 ; Luke xii. 32; xviii. 14; Johni. 12, 13; iii. 3, 5, 7, 8; iv. 24; v. 25; vi. 37; viii. 32; x. 11, 26-28; xi. 25-'.7 ; xiii. 35 ; xiv. 15-17 ; xvi. 13, 14 ; xviii. 36 ; Acts ii. 41, 42 ; v. 29 ; viii. 36-38 ; xvi. 31-34 xvii. 11 ; xix. 1-5 ; xx. 33, 34 ; xxiv. 11-J6 ; xxvi. 13, 19 ; xxviii. 22 ; Romans iii. 19, 20, 27, 31 v. 19, 21 ; viii. 14, 15, 28-39 ; xi. 2-7 ; 1 Corinthians i. 26-31 ; xiii. 4-13 ; 2 Corinthians iii. 7, 8 vi. 16, 18; Galatians i. 6-12; ii. 19-21; iii. 10-13, 17, 18, 24, 25; v. 1-6; Ephesians i. 3-23; ii. 1-22 ; Iv. 1-32 ; Philippians i. 6, 29 ; ii. 12, 13 ; iii. 3-15 ; Colossians i. 18 ; ii. 6-23 ; iii. 1-17 ; 2 Timothy i. 9, 10 ; iii. 12 ; Titus ii. 11-14 ; Hebrews iv. 3, 9, 10 ; vi. 9-20 ; viii. 7-12 ; x. 5-25, 33, 39; xi. 1-40; xii. 6-11, 18-24; xiii. 9; James i. 27; ii. 5, 26; 1 Peter i. 1-9; ii. 5, 9; iv. 12-14; 1 John i. 6-10 ; iii. 14 ; iv. 7 ; v. 1-5 ; Revelation v. 9 ; vii. 13-17 ; xv. 2,3; xxi. 1-7. SPECIAL NOTICE TO ETEEY READER. This book will be found benevolently iconoclastic,— seeking, with the Divine help, to deliver the people of God, for their good and His glory, from every form of idolatry, and thus to promote the pure, spiritual and acceptable worship of the Most High.— Exodus xx. 3 ; 1 John v. 21 ; Matthew xv. 9 ; John iv. 24. Every doctrine defended by the Authors of this volume, and by all orthodox Old School or Primitive Baptists everywhere, is in perfect and Divine harmony with such gracious Scriptures as the following : Psalm cvii. ; Isaiah lv. ; Matthew v. 3-12 ; xi. 28-30 ; Reve- lation xxii. 17. SUMMARY OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THREE PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE. " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, "whom he hath ap- pointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds ; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."— Hebrews i. 1-3. By faith "the elders obtained a good report;" " choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." " Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of Are, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." "And others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were 1 tempted, were slain with the sword : they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented ; of whom the world was not worthy : they wandered in deserts, and mountains, and dens and caves of the earth."— Hebrews xi. 2, 25, 26, 33, 34, 36-38. " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered all na- tions : and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. * * * And these shall go away into everlasting p uni shment : but the righteous into life eternal."— Matthew xxv. 31, 32, 46. THE EDIFICATION OF THE BODY OF CHRIST. "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the minis- try, for the edifying of the body of Christ : till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ : that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning crafti- ness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ : from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."— Ephesians iv. 11-16. PREFACE, A hundred or a thousand years hence the good or the evil opinions of human beings with reference to this book will not be of the slightest im- portance to me ; while I shall be wholly interested in the approval or the disapproval of God. And, by reason of the entire uncertainty of the con- tinuance of this mortal life, such may become the state of my feelings at any moment. Such indeed have been my feelings, I believe, to a great extent, in the preparation of this volume. For the Preface, Introduction, and General History of the Church, no one but myself is responsible ; while of the Kehukee and Primitive Bap- tist History in the latter part of this work, with very little exception, my father is the sole author. It was the intention of the early members of the Kehukee Baptist Association to have its history written up and published at the close of each generation. The Association was organized A. D. 1765. The first history was written by Elders Lemuel Burkitt and Jesse Read, and pub- lished in 1803. The second history was written by Elder Joseph Biggs, and published in 1834. And my father, Elder Cushing Biggs Hassell, was in 1876 appointed by the Association to prepare the third history of the body, as well as a sketch of the History of the Church from the creation. After having written nearly all the Kehukee and special Primitive Bap- tist History, and the history of the Church from B. C. 4004 to A. D. 350, he passed from the scene of his earthly labors, April 11, 1880. I was ap- pointed by the Association in October, 1880, to complete the work. Upon the examination of my father's manuscript I found that the General His- tory of the Church needed considerable and laborious revision, which he designed, but did not live to accomplish. I have made this revision to the best of my ability, and I have also brought forward the history from A. D. 350 to A. D. 1885. My father traveled and preached extensively among the Old School or Primitive Baptists of nearly all parts of the United States from 1840 to 1880, and was cordially received by them everywhere ; and if any one un- derstood their views he must have done so. He was, and I am, the Mod- erator of the Kehukee, the oldest Primitive Baptist Association in Amer- ica ; and, while this book does not profess to be the organ of the Primitive Baptists, still I am satisfied that the views of my father and myself on spiritual subjects are, in general, substantially the same as those of the VI PREFACE. great majority of our brethren. In regard to the religious innovations of post-apostolic times, with reference both to doctrine and to practice, the words of the Lord in Proverbs xxii. 28, Jeremiah i. 17-19, vi. 16, and Jude 3, have been especially and deeply impressed upon our minds. For about two years I earnestly endeavored, by private correspond- ence and notices in our religious periodicals, to obtain complete lists of all the Old School or Primitive Baptist Churches and Elders in the United States ; but so very few responded that the list is entirely too defective to be published. I have inserted in the history of the eighteenth century a list of all our churches of which I have been able to get any account, formed during that century. At the close of the Kehukee History is given the list of our associations in the United States, very much as left by my father. The most eminent of modern churcu historians have zealously devoted from thirty to fifty years to the accomplishment of their labors. The present work has occupied the careful attention of my father and myself about nine years, he having employed upon it about three-and-a-half, and I about five-and-a-half years. As we have had comparatively so short a period for the survey of the history of the church for nearly six thousand years, we have been absolutely compelled to avail ourselves extensively of the best results of investigations made by other men, indicating our indebtedness by quotation marks, and frequently giving the authors' names. We have aimed, not at a vain show of originality, but at utility ; and we have freely laid under contribution the best stores of religious knowledge on earth. It would require not only great intellectual and spiritual ability, but a long lifetime spent diligently in the great libraries of Europe, to write the history of the church as it ought to be, but never has been written. My father and I have, in general, at points where the truth is assailed, purposely used the very language and the reluctant admissions of such as occupy the highest positions among the enemies of the truth, so as effectually to silence the gainsayings of those who defend error with less information and less ability. We have dwelt sorrowfully, but emphatically and solemnly, upon the extravagant Pharisaism and the extraordinary religious superficiality of the nineteenth century. The world presses into the nominal church, multitudes compass sea and land to make proselytes, while the unfelt horror of spiritual death reigns through- out almost the entire extent of the civilized as well as the uncivilized pop- ulations of the globe. But while gross darkness covers the rich, proud and corrupt Egypt of the world, as of old, the few poor, humble and despised Israel of God are blessed with divine light in their dwellings ; and, to the spiritual mind, it is intensely interesting and edifying to observe the providential course and circumstances of that heavenly light as it comes down to us through the historical wilderness of the ages. Straight and narrow, high and holy, spiritual and divine is the mysterious path along which patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, and all the dear people of God have been led by the Spirit and providence of the PREFACE. Vll Most High. The infallible Scriptures, illuminated by the Divine Spirit in our hearts, alone can enable us to discover that heavenly path, and to walk therein, and find rest to our souls. As is well known by those best acquainted with my conduct in accept- ing and carrying on the difficult and onerous task of revising and com- pleting this work, and in arranging for its publication, I have not been influenced by motives of worldly gain, but, as I trust, by a desire to pro- mote the cause of truth, even at a great sacrifice of my temporal interests ; and I hope that I have been divinely enabled in the compilation of the history, to rise above worldly considerations, and, in the solemn light of eternity and the consciousness of my great responsibility, to set forth what I believe to be the truth. I have not tried to write a popular or salable book. I seek neither the ephemeral applause nor the perishing riches of men ; and I hope that the fear of God has been implanted in my heart, and delivered me from the fear of the face of clay soon to moulder into dust. I have not written for the purpose of either pleasing or dis- pleasing men ; but I have endeavored, like an impartial witness, to state plainly, calmly and essentially " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," whether men like it or not. If the truth please them, I shall be glad, for nothing else can make them free ; if it displease them, I am not responsible. Tor the truth, however distasteful, I am not respon- sible ; but for accurately reporting what I am satisfied is the truth, I am responsible to God. While it is impossible, as Macaulay says, for history to give the whole truth, the best historians exhibit such parts of the truth as most nearly produce the effect of the whole, and seek to discover and explain the principles interpenetrating and underlying the facts. Such has been my view of the true province and object of history ; and this ideal I have endeavored, as best I could, to exemplify in the present work. I have labored to set forth the truth in creation, in history, and in Scripture. There is but one God, and He is equally the God of nature, of providence, and of grace, as everywhere recognized by the sacred writers ; and it is disloyalty to Him to deny or contemn His work in either of these great domains. May He always preserve me and my readers from such irreverence. I lay no claim to inspiration or infallibility. I believe the Old and New Testament Scriptures to be absolutely the only inspired and infalli- ble book in human literature ; such is the fundamental doctrine of the Baptist Church and of the Protestant Reformation. By this divine stand- ard I desire the present volume and every other creatural work to be fin- ally tested— to be accepted if and when in accordance, and rejected if and when not in accordance, with the standard. " The best of the interpre- tations of the Bible are but the interpretations of fallible men." The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scrip- tures is also a fundamental Baptist and Protestant doctrine ; such right I not only claim for myself, but I willingly allow to every other human being— only let each one remember and admit that no person and no set Vlll PKEFACE. of persons now on earth are infallible. Papacy is equally offensive to reason and to faith. He who claims infallibility for himself or for any other man since the Apostolic Age, ceases to that extent to be a Baptist, or a Protestant, or a follower of Christ, and renounces those precious principles of religious liberty, in defense of which have flowed rivers of the best blood on earth. A proper knowledge of genuine church his- tory delivers us from the tyranny of both ancient and modern popes of every name, and directs us to the Bible as the only authoritative standard of faith and practice. Old School, Primitive, or Bible Baptists, should be the last people in the world to have a pope or popes among them. No book, no pamphlet, no periodical, no document of any kind, must be taken as a substitute for the Bible ; and no author, no editor, no preacher, no teacher, no writer, and no body of men must be substituted for Christ, who is the only Prophet, Priest, and King of His people. The great importance of church history is shown by the fact that it occupies two-thirds of the Bible. It has been called " the backbone and storehouse of theology, and the best commentary of Christianity itself. Next to the Holy Scriptures, which are themselves chiefly a history and depository of divine revelation, there is no ,stronger proof of the con- tinual presence of Cluist with his people, no more thorough vindication of Christianity, no richer source of spiritual wisdom and experience, no deeper incentive to virtue and piety, than the history of Christ's kingdom r as sublimely indicated by the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the He- brews." — Prof. P. Schaff.* The history of the past gives us a more cor- rect knowledge of the present, and a more correct judgment as to the future. The history of the people of God " eminently illustrates the laws of the divine administration, evinces the truth of prophecy by showing its fulfillment, and, in due subordination to the study of the Scriptures and of our own hearts, furnishes the best school of human nature, although commonly postponed to that of frivolous society and superficial worldly wisdom. It tends to elevate and enlarge our views beyond the petty bounds of personal, sectarian and local interests ; to discourage bigotry, and moderate controversial bitterness, without impairing our attachment to the truth itself; and to suppress crude innovations and absurdities, both in theory and in practice, by showing that the same, in substance if not in form, have been canvassed and exploded centuries ago." — Prof. J. A. Alexander. * To such of my readers as may desire to pursue the study of church history, since the coming of Christ, beyond the limits of the present volume, I believe that I am doing a real service to say that the most recent, accurate, impartial, thorough, and satisfactory works on the subject with which I am familiar are the f ollowing by Prof. Philip Schaff, of New York : ' ' History of the Christian Church " (4 volumes already published, A. D. 1-1073— to be followed by others) • ' ' The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes 1 ' (3 vols.): and the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge" (3 vols.). As of especial interest and value to all loving students of the New Testament, I take sincere pleasure in recommending the first volume of his "History of the Christian Church, " entitled "Apostolic Christianity A. D. 1-100," which may be purchased separately, for $4, from the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. For a study of the vrioxncu authorities, J. C. L. Gieseler's Church History, in 5 vols., is indispensable to those acquainted with ancient and foreign languages. These commendatory remarks are made after a careful study of the best church histories pub- lished in Europe and America; and, like all similar remarks in the present volume, are entirely unsolicited on the part of the authors of the works recommended. PREFACE. IX A feature distinguishing Christianity from all other religions is its unique historical character— the religion and history being inseparably and supernaturally blended during a period of 4,100 years ; the very facts themselves being parables and symbols illustrating spiritual and eternal truths. In the midst of a depraved polytheistic world the God of the Universe, the God of History, the God of Grace, preserved for forty cen- turies the pure faith and worship of Himself, in the lines of Seth and Shem and Abraham, until, in accordance with His repeated promises and types recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures, He manifested His great and glorious salvation in the spotless life and atoning death and tri- umphant resurrection and ascension of His incarnate Son ; and then, in accordance with His purposes and declarations from the beginning, He dispersed the descendants of Abraham, with their ancient prophetic Scrip- tures, and sent his servants with the Scriptures of the New Testament, showing the fulfillment of the Old, among all the Gentile nations of the earth, and to the latter also mercifully displayed His spiritual, holy and everlasting salvation. " Holy men of God foresaw and foretold that the Gentile nations would come to worship the God of Judah, the Jehovah of Zion, at a period when nothing in the possible horizon of the times could have afforded the faintest indication of the wonderful future. To their minds the future was not as it is to other men, for they spoke of the com- ing ages just as the ages indeed have come." " Christ," says Prof. H. B. Smith, " is the centre of God's revelation and of man's redemption ; of Christian doctrine and of Christian history ; of Christian sects and of each believer's faith ; yea, of the very history of this our earth, Jesus Christ is the full, the radiant, the only centre — fitted to be such because He m the God-man and the Redeemer. Christ is the centre of the Christian system, and the doctrine respecting Christ in the heart of Christian theology. Christianity gives us all that philosophy aims after, and in a more perfect form ; it also gives us more than phil- osophy can give ; and this more that it gives is what man most needs, and what reason alone could never divine. And therefore we conclude that it is not within the scope of the human mind to conceive a system more complete, richer in all blessings. The highest ideas and ends which Teason can propound are really embraced, the deepest wants which man can know are truly satisfied, the sharpest antagonisms which the mind can propose are declared to be reconciled in the ideas, the means, and the ends which are contained in that revelation which centres in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord." May the God of all grace vouchsafe to bestow His all-important bless- ing upon these pages. Without Him neither writers nor readers can do anything acceptable in His holy sight. To his merciful, righteous and sovereign will, would I desire to commit myself, my labors, my natural and spiritual kindred, and all my fellow-creatures, both for time and for eternity. Sylvester Hassell. Wilson, N. C, February, 1886. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Title of tills Work i Copyright ii Footsteps of tlie Flock Hi Special Notice to Every Beader iii Summary of Church History in Three Passages of Scripture iv The Edification of the Body of Christ iv PREFACE. The great object of the present volume the promotion of the cause of truth— Circum- stances of its compilation — The hest stores of religious knowledge, with proper ac- knowledgment, freely laid under contribution— The extraordinary Phariseeism and religious superficiality of the nineteenth century— The unique path of the church of God— The authors of this work lay no claim to inspiration or infallibility— The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments the only inspired and infallible works in all literature — The Baptist and Protestant and Bible doctrine of the inalienable right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures — Papacy equally offen- sive to reason and to faith — There must be no Popes among Bible Baptists — Value of church history— Christianity, above all others, a historical religion — Its facts symbolical of spiritual and eternal truths — Christ its centre and substance— Invocation of the all- important divine blessing upon these pages v— ix Table of Contents xi— xxi\r INTRODUCTION. Incomparable character and value of the Bible— The utter failure of all the attempts of criticism, science and philosophy to invalidate a single one of its statements— The objections of its enemies carnal and theoretical, and abundantly refuted by more com- petent authorities— The designedly rudimentary, preparatory and typical nature of the Old Testament or evening dispensation, the introduction to the spiritual, final, New- Testament or morning dispensation of the militant church — The Hebrew Scriptures utterly distinct in tone and essence, spirit and monotheism, from those of heathen an- tiquity—Monotheism and expiatory sacrifice parts of the primitive religion, but entirely corrupted among all ancient peoples except the Hebrews— Christ the substance and the chief witness of the truth of the Old as well as of the New Testament— The dissolution of the fundamental hypotheses of the Tubingen criticism— Not Paul, but Jesus, the author of Christianity— The gospels, as well as the epistles, written in the first century— The dates and characteristics of each gospel— The authenticity and the transcendent spirituality and importance of the gospel of John— Bible miracles the divine credentials of inspired teachers— The silliness of the so-called Apocryphal " Gospels"— No history more certainly true than the Acts of the Apostles— All the real discoveries of science corroborate and illustrate the truth of the sacred Scriptures, while demonstrating the falsity of all heathen religions— Prof. Arnold Guyot's dying testimony to the perfect truth of the Mosaic record of creation— Man knows not even the alphabet of the volume of Nature, whose Author is God— Man's science never to be substituted for God's revela- tion—The universe presupposes the existence of an eternal, infinite and holy creative Spirit— Utter irrationality, immorality, inconsistency, senility and unscientific character of materialistic, agnostic, atheistic, chance evolution— Godless human philosophy a wilderness of darkness— Summary of the religious history of the Hamitic, Japhetic and Shemitic races— The decrease of vital and increase of formal godliness in the latter days, foretold in the Scriptures— The Obscure Age, A. D. 70—100, the dark, impenetrable gulf in which Divine Providence forever buried all claims to a merely material succession or churches or ministers— A spiritual succession found in most of the centuries of the Christian era— The spiritual marks of God's people by which they may be traced through the ages-The principles which they have generally professed-The unspeakable solem- nity of human life Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE CREATION. Seal of God upwi the Bible— The Divine Trinity— Perfect harmony of the scriptural and the scientific accounts of creation— Inadequacy of evolution— Biogenesis — Vanity and folly of PanGnostic agnosticism— Professors Dawson, Dana, Guyot and Kerr— Modesty of true science— Mosaic record — Assyriology— Existence, character and names of God— Jehovah, the unchangeable God of the covenant, and His church— Bara and Asa?t— Origin of 3in and Satan— Language of the Bible phenomenal— The two methods of reconciling Genesis and Geology— Work of each creative day— The ever-living God the only Author of life— Essential distinction between man and all other earthly creatures— The latter earth-born and earth-bound ; but man animated by the breath of God, and created for eternity— Man has but two constituent elements, soul and body— No human being knows whether creationism or tradueianism is true— Unity and recentness of the human race — Science shows that the gulf between man and the ape widens as we ascend to their origin --Chronology — Samaritan Pentateuch— Septuagint version of the Old Testament— God the Author of nature and the Bible — Spiritual meaning of the first and second chapters of Genesis— The Sabbath — Symbolical use of numbers in Scripture— Re- spects in which in an was made in the image of God— Formation of Eve — Marriage . 23 — 49 CHAPTER II. FROM THE FALL OF MAN TO THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM. Garden of Eden— The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil— The mysterious principle of representation — The law — Thetempter — The transgression — Nature of sin -The penalties— The sword-like flame and the cherubim— The promise — The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent— The final triumph of Christ and His people — Intermarriage of Sethites and Cainites— Consequent increase of depravity — God's warnings- -The ark — The flood — Comparison of the antediluvian and the present times— God's covenant with Noah — Flesh allowed for food, but blood forbidden — Murder prohibited — Power of inflicting death given the civil magistrate— Noah's three sons— The history «>I their descendants for all time prophetically given by Noah— Confusion of tongues at Babel— Consequent dispersion of mankind over the earth — Shortening of human life- -Job— His time, coimtry and trials— Abraham— His family, and call, and change of location and of name— Melchizedek — Polygamy— Ishmael— Circumcision— De- struction of Sodom and Gomorrah— Lot — The great trial of Abraham's faith— Sarah's death— Abraham's character and death 50—71 CHAPTER III. FROM ISAAC TO THE DEATH OF JOSHUA. Isaac and his two sons— Jacob— His dream — Significance of dreams— Jacob's marriage and twel T o sons— His wrestle with the angel of God— Peace with Esau — His settlement first at SUechem and then at Bethel— Isaac's death— Joseph— A forcible type of Christ- Sold into Egypt— God prospers him— Makes him ruler over Egypt— Joseph settles his kindred in Goshen— Wonderful increase of the Israelites— Jacob's dying prophecy of Christ- -Moses — His spiritual training in the desert — His call — Plagues upon the Egyp- tians— Paschal supper— Departure of the Israelites from Egypt — Destruction of Pharaoh and his host— Elim— Manna— Water from the rock— Battle with Amalek — Giving of the law at Sinai — Golden calf — Wilderness wanderings — The tabernacle — Its furniture and spiritual meaning— The sacrifices and their spiritual meaning— The day of atonement— The three annual festivals— The marvelous correspondence of types and antitypes— The specialty and ceremonial efficacy of every Levitical atonement annihilates the Armlnian Idea of the indefinite and conditional nature of Christ's atonement; — Number of men of war— Aaron's death— Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, defeated, and their country occupied by Israel— Balak and Balaam— Death of Moses— Joshua succeeds him— Spiritual meaning of wilderness sojourn— Fall of Jericho and Ai— The Gibeonites — Slaughter of the Amorites— Standing still of the sun and moon— The Israelites chosen of God to execute His righteous judgments on the wicked Canaanites— The most of Canaan subdued by Joshua — His farewell exhortation and death 72 — 107 CHAPTER IV. FROM THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN TO THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY. Canaan— Its extent, peculiar situation, boundaries and unrivaled excellence— De- clension and oppression of Israel— The fifteen judges— Ruth and Boaz— The ark of the covenant— The prophets and the prophecies of Scripture— The fulfillment of these pro- ductions proves the divine inspiration of the Bible, and the foreknowledge and predesti- TABLE OF CONTENTS. XJil nation of God— Sons of the prophets ; they could not be made prophets by their teachers— The Theocracy— Saul— Ishbosheth— David— His enemies, sins, repentance and forgive- ness— Solomon— The temple ; its spiritual meaning— Revolt of the ten tribes under Jero- boam—Idolatry and sad declension of Israel— The ten tribes carried into captivity in Assyria— Heathen settlement of Samaria— Peculiarity of the Samaritans— Rehoboam's reign over Judah— Invasion of 8hishak,.king.of Egypt— Abijah— Righteous reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat— Wicked reign and wretched end of Jehoram— Ahaziah— Usurpation of Athaliah— Jehoiada, the High Priest— Joash— Murder of Zechariah, the High Priest— Amaziah — Jonah— Uzziah's long reign — The prophets Zechariah, Joel, Isaiah, Hosea and Amos — Jotham's reign — The abominable idolatry of king Ahaz— The righteous reign of Hezekia.li — Exceedingly wicked reign of Manasseh— His captivity and repentance — Amon— Josiah, the last pious king of Judah— The prophets Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Nahuni and Habakkuk— Jehoahaz— Jehoiakim— Babylonish captivity of Judah— Daniel and his three companions— Jehoiachim— Ezekiel and Mordecai— Zedekiah, the nineteenth and last king of Judah— The Governor Gedaliah— Johanan carries Jeremiah down to Egypt, where the prophet dies— Duration of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah— A summary of their spiritual history — True Israelites — The Lamentations of Jeremiah— The desolation of Israel — Reflections — As the kings, so the people— Necessity of the prophetic order — Books of the Old Testament thus far written 108—136 CHAPTER V. THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY AND THE RESTORATION TO CANAAN. The land of Judah enjoys her Sabbaths— The ten lost tribes— Nebuchadnezzar— Judah and Israel reunited in captivity— Daniel and his three friends— Life and prophecies of Ezekiel — Daniel resembles Joseph— His characteristics— Authenticity of the book of Daniel— The prophet was sustained by divine faith— In his second and seventh chapters he predicts the four great world-kingdoms, to be followed by Christ's kingdom— We live under the divisions of the fourth universal empire— The fiery furnace— Nebuchadnezzar humbled and changed by the almighty power of God— Evil-Merodach— Belshazzar— Handwriting on the wall— Awful doom of the impenitent sinner— Faithfulness of Daniel -- God's servants are not covetous— Isaiah's wonderful prophecies, one hundred and seventy-four years beforehand, in regard to the details of the fall of Babylon— Darius the Median— Cyrus the Persian— Daniel's fearless devotion to his God— Similar steadfast adherence of Bible Baptists to God— Gabriel's revelations to Daniel, in the ninth chap- ter—The Messiah to come in seventy weeks (from the command to restore Jerusalem), to suffer for others, make an end of sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness ; and ther the Jewish State-Church, with its capital city, to be destroyed— Exact fulfillment of the prophecy in Jesus of Nazareth— Remarkable confession of the Jewish chief Rabbi, Simon Luzzato— Sir Isaac Newton's view— Christ refers Daniel's "abomination of desolation to the Roman conquest of Jerusalem— Deliverance of all the Christians from the unex- ampled horrors of the final siege, In accordance with Christ's admonition to them- So at last all God's people will be saved, while all His enemies will be destroyed— The Messiah universally expected on earth during the first century of the Christian era— After Daniel s humble confession of sin, Christ is revealed to him— Events predicted in the eighth, eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel— Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, the Old Testament antichrist, the product of the highest ancient civilization ; a type of the New Testament antichrist of the last days, who will be a product of the highest modern civilization— Signs of these times— We are verging on the period of the last great apostasy— Time dissolves and eternity opens in the last chapter of Daniel-The Jews cured of material idolatry by the Babylonish captivity— Dealings of God with the heathen— The king s heart in the hands of the Lord-The Medo-Persian kings, Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, order the return of the Jews to Jerusalem-Some of all the tribes, hut chiefly members of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, return-Rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel— Haggai's prophecy of the coming of the Desire of all nations to the second tenrole, fuelled in Christ^Esfher^Ezra and Nehemiah-Illnmination of the opening and the closing pages of the Old Testament with the light of the Sun of Righteousness- The Apocrypha-Josephus-Ezekiel's three great overtiirnmgs, after which He should come whose right it was to reign-Spirituality of God's worship 137-159 CHAPTER VI. FROM THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS TO THE COMING OF CHRIST. The Jews under the Graeco-Macedonian empire-Visit of Alexander the Great to Terusalem-Palestine a province of the Graeco-Egyptian kingdom-The High Prie*t Onial-limon the Just-Eleazar-Ptolemy Philadelphus-The Septuagmt, or Greek Old T? s tament^AntiochiisIV., Epiphanes, of Syria, attempts to destroy the people and the worship f ofGod-Hii horrible end-Revolt of the Maccabees against Syrian tyranny and Warohlmy-Chasidim and Zadikira; Sadducees and Pharisees-The Asmonean Prmces- The Snes-Pompey captures Jerusalem and enters the Holy of Holies-Establishes five SaXdrims^ntipater appointed by Julius Caesar procurator of Judea, B. C. 47- 31V TABLE OF CONTENTS. His son, Herod the Great, made Governor of Galilee and Ccele-Syria— Obtains the favor of Mark Antony — Contest between Antigonus and Hyreanus — Herod flees to Masada, to Egypt, and to Rome — Made by Antony and Octavius king of Judea, 40 B. C. — Attacks Jerusalem, and is defeated — Marries Mariamne, granddaughter both of Aristobulus and Hyreanus— Jerusalem taken— Herod installed king of Judea, B. C. 37— Upheld by Rome- Adorns the second temple— His great jealousy and cruelty — An inhuman monster- Murders many of his own family, and the infants of Bethlehem— His terrible illness and death— Work of sin and of grace under the old dispensation— Wars and idolatry — Human depravity— Faith and suffering of God's people— The Old Testament Canon— In the Old Testament the New is concealed, and in the New the Old is revealed— The Old the type, the New the antitype — Pre-ordained connection between the two — The Old the shadowy , and the New the clear, revelation of the same great essential truths : the holiness of God, the heinousness of sin, and the only method of God's spiritual and eternal salva- tion—The law our pedagogue to bring us to Christ — Its imperfect, preparatory and onerous nature — Its outward ordinances carnalized by national Israel — God destroys the outward by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar— Preparation for the introduction of a spiritual kingdom on earth — The gospel of realities supersedes forever the gospel of shadows : the spiritual takes the place of the material— The spiritual church of Christ the true theoc- racy : an organized community of kings and priests, subject, in religious matters, to no earthly potentate or aristocracy— False typology — Judaizing errors of Romanists and Protestants: hierarchism, formalism, traditionalism, sacerdotalism and sacramental- Ism — Unscriptural perversion of the doctrine of personal, unconditional, eternal elec- tion—All the Old Testament Messianic prophecies perfeotly fulfilled in Jesus of Naz- areth 160—180 CHAPTEE VII. THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES— THE GOSPELS AND THE EPISTLES. The New Testament— Rise of the Sun of Righteousness— Mission of the angel Gabriel to Mary— Birth of Jesus— Adoration of the shepherds— Exact date of Christ's birth— Born in the fullness of the time during aperiod of universal peace— Jesus, at the age of twelve, disputes in the temple with the doctors of the law— Baptized, at the age of thirty, by John the Baptist in the Jordan— Approving presence of the Father and the Spirit— The ministry of John the Baptist— Christ sends out the twelve Apostles and seventy disciples to preach— The numbers gathered in by them but few— The Apostles are the spiritual judges of Israel, and have no successors, except their own inspired writings— The mar- velous life and teachings and sufferings of Christ; — His incomparable perfections— Why He chose poor and illiterate Apostles — His death, resurrection and ascension— Necessity of His sufferings— The supernatural darkness at His death— The same body was crucified, raised again, and glorified— The doctrine of Christ— The judicial law designed for the special government of the ancient Hebrew nation— The ceremonial law a preflguration of Christ, and fulfilled and ended in Him— The moral law perfectly kept by Him for His people, in whose hearts He graciously writes the same noly law— The entire eternal salvation of the church based upon the perfect righteousness of Christ; — The Day of Pentecost— The first church in Jerusalem a Baptist Church of baptized believers— Each primitive church a little Republic— Diligence and success of the Apostles in preaching the word— God still able to convert sinners— Appointment of seven deacons at Jerusa- lem—Martyrdom of Stephen — Philip preaches in Samaria and to the eunuch— The two classes of conversion illustrated by that of Saul of Tarsus and that of Cornelius the cen- turion—Both the effect of sovereign and efficacious grace — All true conversions are miracles— The most devout saved only by Christ's atonement — All true devotion the work of God's Spirit— Remarks on the Gospels and the Epistles— Christianity, as estab- lished by Christ, perfect 181—213 CHAPTEE VIII. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM— THE THREE PERIODS OF THE APOS- TOLIC AGE — THE BOOK OF REVELATION. Nero's persecution of Christians— The destruction of Jerusalem— The awful calami- ties of the Jews, as predicted by Moses and Christ— The escape of the Christians from Jerusalem to Pella, m accordance with Christ's warning direction— Dispersion of the Jews over all the world, according to the predictions of Moses, and their continued dis- tinctiveness as a people, to prove to the world the truth of the Old Testament, and for the fulfillment of prophecies still future— They are to return to the Lord in the latter days— Persecution of the Christians under Domitian— Death of John, the last Anostle— The spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom-The Petrine, Pauline and Johannine neriods of the apostolic age— Lives, labors and teachings of Peter, Paul and John— James the Lord's brother, and the Apostle James— Gnosticism— The Revelation, or Apocalypse— TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV tem e n a ^S!i« nts ?ltl l e "ook-Theseyen cnurches of Asia-The destruction of Jerusa- ffener'af ^n^i^^+^T?* * he de8t ™ c ti°n of the world-The Apocalypse gives the fc^ls.,f/n^™ t »« tU6 ^ lv l ue 1 s °Jfr nmeilt - Tlle Preterist, futurist aid historical BeoDlemid?rtS^»?^=^?^ theo .°P in Sof clrist-Intended to console God's ?r A^othTS-S? i gre 5* tria } 8 ' ^ th , ^ the cer 'ain prospect of final victory-The prophecies St f»™^h B S.rf fP^^ 1 -^, ™ J 11 " 1 MerimZ-Tte Dragon, Beast and Fafse Pro- £«* wS 1 feSf U t> Aa1 l"^ Mlt ?r T I >e flrat beast a Persecuting worid-power-The sec- Sl™ m«Ji 9 &^ Mystery Babylon, a more oppressive pseudo-religious JnThr^^ff^fA 11 ^ 116 "^ ha S? a J? d forehead-The number 666-The destruction of 8U«i .™S^i 8 mv God s People-The time unknown to creatures-The Millennium-The SH a l Si^STr ™ e 8ecolld P/rsonal coming of Christ-The general resurrection and .SaJn? fSwT? 11 ,? m ? T 2 y , °L Qod SlorWed in the everlasting salvation of His people, and His justice vindicated in the everlasting punishment of the wicked— Union of Christ and His church ^ _ _ 214 268 CHAPTER IX. CHARACTERISTICS OP THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Twelve characteristics of the apostolic church of the first century, with a history of the observance and the perversions of these features in succeeding ages— The apostolic age pre-eminently the age of the Holy Spirit, and the standard of all succeeding ages in doctrine and discipline— Twelve marks of the apostolic church : 1. A regenerated church membership— History of the unscriptural Catholic practice of infant baptism, the princi- ple of which involves the horrible doctrine of the everlasting damnation of all unbap- tized children who die In infancy. 2. The baptism (by which, of course, is meant the tmmeraiore— the word " baptism " means nothing else) of believers in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost— History of the unscriptural Roman Catholic substitute of sprinkling or pouring for baptism— Man has no right to change the perfect ordinances of God— Bapto, baptizo, louo, nipto, rantiso, cheo and Tcathanzo, as used in the New Testament— Tabal and macliats, as used in the Old Testament— The Greek preposition en— Baptism not intended to represent the mysterious mode of the communication of the Spirit, but a burial and resurreotion with Christ— Much water— The large baptisteries of the early centuries — The most of the apostolic expressions re- garding baptism set aside by sprinkling or pouring— The origin of the Baptists, says Mosheim, hidden in the remote depths of antiquity. 3. The frequent observance, by baptized and orderly-walking believers, of the Lord's Supper j the bread representing the broken body, and the wine the shed blood of their precious Redeemer — The spiritual origin and nourishment of the Divine life — The Lord's Supper a symbolic ordinance, and not a sacrament or seal of salvation, or effective means of grace — History of the idol- atrous doctrine — Open and close communion. 4. The maintenance of strict discipline — Gibbon's testimony to the pure and austere morals of the early Christians — Ananias and Sapphira — The Corinthian offender excluded, and after repentance restored by the church — The brethren took part with the Apostles and Elders in the conference at Jeru- salem — Hymeneus and Alexander excluded for denying the doctrine of the resurrection— Need of genuine brotherly love for the prevention and cure of offenses— Different treat ment of private or personal and public or moral offenses— Necessity of a tender, faithful, scriptural discipline in the churches. 5. The independent or congregational polity or government of each local church, subject only to the Headship of Christ— Kakal and ecclesta — The local church the highest and last ecclesiastical authority on earth, accord- ing to the teaching of Christ— Ecclesiastical monarchies and oligarchies of worldly and unscriptural origin— Each true scriptural church, in its independence, a breakwater against the countless tides of error, strife and corruption— These churches are united not by mechanical, but by spiritual bonds, and have always corresponded with each other, on terms of perfect equality, by brotherly letters and messengers— No New Test anient authority for an organic union of churches, or for the legislative or disciplinary powers of Associations, Synods, Councils, Conferences or Conventions— The apostolic church not a copy of the humanly-invented Jewish synagogue, and not governed by Elders — All Christ's people are kings and priests, and He is their only Master. 6. The complete separation of Church and State — Emancipation from the unscriptural tradi- tions and commandments ofmen — The typical Jewish Church-State power superseded by the nnworldly, spiritual church of the New Testament— The alliance of " Church " and State, since the coming of Christ, always productive of corruption and persecution — Fifty millions of human beings murdered by Papal Rome, armed with the sword of the civil magistrate ; the same power of life and death still claimed by the Pope — The princi- ple of the union of " Church " and State adopted by Protestants, but always repudiated by Baptists— The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forbidding Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, adopted mainly through Baptist influence— Washington's, Locke's, Newton's and Story's testimonies to the Baptists as the friends of liberty— The peculiar and inestimable privilege of religious liberty enjoyed by the people of the United States. 7. The general poverty, illiteracy, obscurity, and afflicted and persecuted condition of the members— The Old Testament Prophets, John the Baptist, Christ and His Apostles, XVI TABLE OP CONTENTS. and the primitive disciples, and the peopled God during the last eighteen .centuries. 8. The fraternal equality oi the ministry as well as of the membership—Only two classes of church officers, Bishops, or Elders, or Pastors, and Deacons— The Apostles were ex- traordinary foundation officers, princes sitting upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and are, in their writings, their own perpetual successors— ine utDer baselessness of all claims to a material succession from the Apostles— AU scholars aomii; that, in the New Testament, the terms Bishop, and Presbyter or Elder, and castor, designate the same class of church officers— In the second century the Bishop simply the presiding officer among the Presbyters of a church, the Pastor of a single congrega- tion—Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, A. D. 248-258, the father of Diocesan Episcopacy , and of Romanism— Leo I., A. D. 440-461, the first Pope, in the real sense of the word— 1 he False Decretals of the ninth century— Brief History of Papal encroachments— The Apos- tles were clothed with humility— Ordination— So-called " confirmation "—The class or official distinction between teaching and ruling Elders not in the New Testament, but invented by Calvin in the third edition of his institutes— Deacons— Evangelists. 9. A humble, God-called aud God-qualifled ministry, mostly destitute of human training— The foolish things of the world chosen of God to confound the wise, that the glory may be His— Paul, when called to the service of Christ, conferred not with flesh and blood, and was made by God an able minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, which Mlleth, but of the Spirit, which giveth life— Sons or companies of the Prophets— The history of Theological Seminaries— Spurgeon's experience — The learned religionists of Judea crucified Christ— Ministers should search the Scriptures in humble dependence upon God for enlightenment. 10. An unsalaried ministry, helped by the voluntary con- tributions of their churches, but also laboring more or less for their own support ; freely receiving of God, and freely giving of their spiritual things to their brethren, while the latter also freely ministered of their carnal substance to them— The true ministry are not hirelings, preaching for filthy lucre's sake— The noble, self-denying, Christ-like ex- ample of Paul— Salaries attract unqualified men into the ministry— Unstipulated volun- tary contributions to the ministry practiced for the first three centuries. 11. The sending forth of the ministry by the Holy Spirit, and their going forth, whithersoever the Lord directed, in simple dependence upon Him, to preach the gospel to every creature, and to shepherd the lambs and sheep of Christ— The twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples — The gospel, and not the preaching of it, the power of God unto salvation to believers — No man able to do the quickening work of the Divine Spirit; — The Apostles went forth as directed, not by man, but by the Spirit, who alone knows where His elect and redeemed people are — And, as directed by Christ, when they were persecuted in one city they fled to another, and thus they traversed the Roman Empire — The true ministry, since the apostolic age, have gone forth in the same manner. 12. Separation from all worldly, men-made, money-based religious organizations, corruptly uniting believers and unbe- lievers, for the avowed object of converting the world — Ancient Israel forbidden to con- federate with the heathen nations for any purpose — The church the only society organ- ized or authorized by Christ and His Apostles, and perfectly adapted for all the purposes of God toward spiritual Israel— The especial corruption of professedly religious organ- izations based upon money, the god of this world, and the love of which is a root of all evil — All these modern human inventions and institutions utterly unknown in the apostolic and primitive churches— Not by worldly might and power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, did the word of God, in the first century, grow mightily and pre- vail—No religious institutions of men found in the New Testament, and all to be re- jected 269—326 CHAPTER X. THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE, AND MISSIONS. History of the doctrine of grace, and of scriptural and unscriptural missions— Bible Baptists not fatalists, or rationalists, but scriptural predestinarians — The Greek Ar- minian anthropology the doctrine of the dead Greek Catholic " Church," and, since the sixth century, of the Roman Catholic " Church "—The first Protestant reformers decid- edly rejected this false doctrine, bnt retained many Romish unscriptural traditions- Baptists have no succession from Rome, and are the only thorough-going, consistent antagonists of Romanism— The Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Calvinisfic Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist communions— Superior moral results of Bible predestinarianism —The almost total departure of Protestants and New School Baptists from this doctrine during the last hundred years, and the sad moral results— The nineteenth century pre- eminently the century of religious profession and pride— Vice and crime increasing with the increase of religious profession, at least In the United States— Modern evangeliza- tion—The prevalence of Arminianism among the most of the anti-Romanists of the Dark Ages, and among the early Baptists of modern times— The first Predestinarian Baptist Church formed in 1633, in London— The most of Baptists since that time have professed predestinarianism— All are Arminians by nature— Babes in Christ need grace to establish them in the doctrine of God our Savior— All human authority fallible and imperfecta The Scriptures the only infallible authority— The soundness of the devout and learned English Baptist ministers, John Skepp, John Brine and John Gill, of the eighteenth cen- TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV11 nf pvni Co ^ ert Ar minianism of Andrew Fuller— Long and bitter controversy— Prevalence TiaXtM™' aud consequent large ingathering of goats into the " sheepfold"— The first Sffri Iarr Society— Modern missiouers, unlike the Apostles and primitive min- J,. i«S ve mo J e faitn ln m< "i and human learning and money than in God— Modern Vi7a A^2. ry m Jl ods deriv( 3