Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

CHAPTER 3. — CHURCH PERPETUITY. A BAPTIST
POSITION.
1. That Church Perpetuity is a Baptist position is inevitable from its being a
Bible position. (See Chapter II. of this book.)
2. Notwithstanding that Dr. Armitage has denounced Church Perpetuity, in a
letter to the author of this book, dated January 31, 1886, after his “History of
the Baptists” was published, he virtually destroys his denunciation when, he
says:
“For nearly fifty years I have been feeling after that land with perpetual
disappointment so far as the trend of ecclesiastical history is concerned. As is
natural with every honest Baptist, there is a good instinct in his loving soul
which feels after the links of a holy chain, which binds him to the apostolic
age. … No person living would be more thankful than myself, if you will
show by unquestionable facts that since the Holy Spirit established the church
at Jerusalem there never has been a time when the church did not repeat itself
in living and organic bodies of Christians.”
If Church Perpetuity is “a bulwark of error” and “is the very life of
Catholicism,” why did Dr. Armitage so long after proof for it, and why did he
say that the belief in it “is natural with every honest Baptist?”
Geo. B. Taylor, D.D., a late writer, says: “Baptist principles and Baptist
practices have existed in all ages from the Reformation back to apostolic
times.”
“I humbly claim that we originated not at the Reformation, nor in the dark
ages, nor in any century after the Apostles, but our marching orders are the
commission, and that the first Baptist church was the church at Jerusalem.” f71
Pengilly:
“Our principles are as old as Christianity. We acknowledge no founder but
Christ.” f72
Dr. Peck:
“Baptists in every age from the Apostles remained true to the kingdom which
Christ came to establish.” f73
Dr. Howell:
“I assert that from the days of John the Baptist to the present time the true
Baptist church has ever been a missionary body.” f74