PREFACE. In presenting to our readers the Twenty-First Volume of the "PRIMITIVE CHURCH MAGAZINE," it behoves us to tender our cordial thanks to those who have so kindly contributed to its pages, as also to all our friends who have aided its circulation. In the early part of the year, as is well known, Mr. STOKES retired from the post which he had so assiduously occupied for the space of seven years, receiving on his retirement the grateful acknowledgments of the Committee of the Baptist Evangelical Society for the zeal and ability with which he had discharged his official duties. At the urgent request of the same Committee, the present Editors consented to fill, for a time at least, the vacant post. Whether their work thus far has been performed in a satisfactory or efficient manner, it belongs to others to determine. But this we may be allowed to affirm, that our aim has been to make the Magazine the consistent exponent of those principles for the maintenance and diffusion of which it was originated. Such will still be our endeavour. Without at all instituting invidious comparisons, or attempting to detract in the slightest degree from the value of contemporary religious periodicals, it will, we think, be freely admitted, that the "PRIMITIVE CHURCH MAGAZINE" has a sphere of its own-a sphere which other Magazines, pledged, as they are, to "neutrality" on certain points which we deem of grave importance, cannot possibly occupy. We might on this ground alone appeal to all those who desire to see the "truth as it is in Jesus" clearly and fully stated, and who earnestly long for a return on the part of all Baptists to apostolic doctrine and practice in the constitution and order of our churches, to give us, not their good wishes merely, but also, that which is of much greater value, their active, energetic, and constant support. The Lord Jehovah hath given a banner to his people, "that it may be displayed because of the truth." Let but the pastors and members in the Baptist churches throughout the kingdom assist us in unfurling this banner, and we have no fear as to the issue. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" We therefore again affectionately urge upon our friends the necessity of individual effort in this matter, and as one means of advocating the principles they maintain, let them help us in securing for this Magazine during the coming year such a circulation as it has never yet attained. At the same time we promise that no effort shall be spared on our part to render the Magazine worthy of the support which we bespeak on its behalf. Thus aided by our brethren and friends, and, above all, enjoying the gracious assistance of Him whom we serve, the labour we have undertaken in the fear of God, and under a solemn sense of responsibility to him, will prove to us a "labour of love." November 20th, 1864. JOHN HOWE. EDWARD PARKER. THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH (OR BAPTIST) MAGAZINE, No. CCXLI.—JANUARY, 1, 1864. Essays, Expositions, &c. SECTS AND HERESIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. No. 3. PELAGIANISM. "This [freewill, without any antecedent bias] has been so generally received, and so much insisted on by PELAGIANS, JESUITS, SOCINIANS, ARMINIANS, and others; it may deserve a more full consideration."-President Edwards. In the three former papers on Arianism, and Sabellianism, the leading errors respecting the nature of God, were placed before the reader's attention; but in the present one the error exposed is of a lower order, having to do almost exclusively with man. The Arian and Sabellian alike dishonour the Creator; but the Pelagian falsely honours the creature, by awarding to him a liberty wholly incompatible with his condition of depravity, and by imputing to him a power which sin has ruthlessly taken away. This error strikes at the root of the gospel of mercy, by representing man to possess a liberty, which, were it his prerogative, would fender him independent of gospel assistance. If already free he does not need a deliverer, and if morally alive, which free action must necessarily imply, then he requires no one to come as "the way, the truth, and THE LIFE." Such being the dangerous and mischievous character of Pelagianism, every lover of divine truth should understand its nature, in order to resist its approaches whenever a foe so fatal may happen to cross his path. Pelagius, the founder of this heretical sect, was a native of Britain, and it is credibly stated that his real name was Morgan, and that he went from Wales. He was a man of considerable learning, and, so far as known, of blameless life. The venerable Bede says of him that in VOL. XXI.-NO. CCXLI. B the reign of Arcadius, he "spread far and near the infection of his perfidious doctrine against the assistance of divine grace." It appears that he was at Rome in, or about A.D. 405, and there, in connection with one Celestius who, it is probable, went from Ireland, propagated, first in a quiet way, and afterwards more openly, the peculiar sentiments that have given notoriety to his name for above fourteen hundred years. On the approach of the Goths to Rome in A.D. 410, they went first to Sicily, and afterwards to Africa, among whose credulous people they dissemminated their views with great boldness and considerable success. Pelagius then departed to Palestine, but his companion remained at Carthage seeking preferment in the church. His errors, however, having become too well known, they were condemned in a council held in Carthage in A.D. 412, on which he too left for the east, much in the character of a religious adventurer, but zealously spreading his poisonous doctrines wherever he went. It was at this period that the celebrated Augustine, bishop or pastor of Hippo, began to controvert these pernicious errors, and to maintain in opposition to them man's indispensable need of divine grace in order to salvation; and the labours of that eminent divine did much to check, though they failed to destroy, the dangerous views of Pelagianism respecting human nature. Pelagius enjoyed the favour of John, who was chief pastor at Jerusalem, and afterwards that of Zosimus the leading cleric at Rome. But notwithstanding the countenance of these influential pastors, the doctrines of these men were condemned by various councils held for the purpose of examining their nature; and at a general synod held at Ephesus A.D. 431, they received a blow from which they never fully recovered. "In short," says Mosheim, "the Gauls, the Britons, and Africans, by their councils, and the emperors, by their edicts and penal laws, demolished this sect in its infancy, and suppressed it entirely before it had acquired any tolerable degree of vigour or consistence." Upon this statement of the historian it may be remarked, that it is to be regretted that the Church was unequal to its own proper work; and that in the suppression of religious error, it was weak and guilty enough to permit the employment of the civil magistrate and penal laws in the noble cause of divine truth. Thus early did the daughter of heaven consent to an alliance that has made her the tool and shame of a carnal policy for the greater part of two thousand years. The The precise tenets of Pelagius it is difficult to discover except on a few essential points. He was frequently ambiguous, and, unless misrepresented, not always candid. The fullest account of them of a recent date is given from Walch in the Faiths of the World, vol. ii., where, in a list of twenty-nine different doctrinal articles, the nature and extent of his errors are exhibited with great minuteness. following are among the chief:-That men come into the world, in the same state as to power and ability, that Adam did,—that the sin of Adam hurt himself only,—that human nature is not changed by the fall,—that Adam would have died even if he had not sinned,-that Adam's sin is not imputed to his posterity,—that human nature is not depraved in consequence of Adam's sin,—that man is free to sin or not, as he pleases,—that salvation |