Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

he had not been elected bishop; that he managed to get himself elected by
three prelates. whose reason had been clouded by the fumes of wine, and that
pardon granted to those who sacrificed to idols during the persecution excited
by Decius against the church was buta pretext for his schism.” f132
Says Schaff: “Novatian against his will was Chosen bishop by the opposition.”
f133
Of Cornelius’ letter, whence these charges against Novatian are mainly
gathered, Neander says:
“Not less wanting in, good sense than unworthy of a Christian.” f134
Neander says:
“According to the accusation of this passionate opponent we must, indeed,
suppose at the outset he was striving, from motives of ambition, after the
episcopal dignity, and was thence trying to throw himself at the head of a
party. … We have the less reasons to doubt that it was his zeal for the more
rigid principles which inspired Novatian from the first, because they accorded
so perfectly with his character. The accusations of his opponents should not
be suffered to embarrass us; for it is the usual way with the logical polemics
to trace schisms and heresies to some untoward, unhallowed motive, even
when there is no evidence at all that any such motive exists. Novatian had on
some occasion solemnly declared, after the Roman bishopric was vacated by
the death of Fabian, that he would not be a candidate for the Episcopal dignity
— an office to which, perhaps, on account of the high respect entertained for
him by a large portion of the community he might easily have attained. But he
said he had no longing for that office. We have no reason, with Bishop
Cornelius, to accuse Novatian in this case with falsehood. He could say this
with perfect sincerity; he, the quiet, loving ascetic, the theologian, glad to be
left undisturbed to his dogmatic speculations, surely had no wish to burden
himself with an office so overwhelmed with cares as that of a Roman bishop
had already become. … Novatian was only contending for what he conceived
to be the purity of the church and against the decline of discipline, without
wishing or seeking for anything beside. Settled in his own convictions,
zealous in the defence of them, but averse, by natural disposition, to
everything that savored of boisterous, outward activity, he was, against his
own will, made the head of a party by those who agreed with him in
principles, and compelled by them to assume the episcopal dignity. In this
regard he could say with truth, in his letter to Dionysius, Bishop of
f135 f138
Alexandria, that he had been carried on against his will.”
To the charge that Novatian never was immersed, f136 the reply is
(1.) His pouring was intended to be so pro-fuse as to cover him in his sick bed
— to be an immersion. “Baptizo” signifies that its object shall be covered and
has nothing to do with how that covering is effected. While there may be a