Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

debatable question as to whether they really got Novatian covered with water,
the intent being immersion as near as possible is clear from the Greek record.
f137
(2.) Considering that immersion was the universally recognized law and
custom at that time, as he recovered, if they did not get him covered in baptism
at first, there is reason to believe that on his recovery he was baptized. Vales
states that clinics, when they recovered, were required to go to the bishop to
supply what was wanting in that baptism. f139
That Novatian did not so do may be only another slander against him.
Considering the extent to which he was slandered, to believe that on his
recovery he was baptized, is much easier than to believe that, against the rule,
the custom and the Scriptures, which were for only immersion, he was content
with his clinic baptism and that so many hundreds of ministers and churches
followed his leadership when he was unbaptized, and that, too, without
protesting against his imperfect baptism.
(3.) Admit all that Baptists opponents claim, viz.: that he never was, in any
way, immersed, as the Novatians were not founded by him and did not get
their baptism from him, all it proves is, that one Baptist minister, among
hundreds, from a failure in the attempt to cover him with water, was never
baptized. But, as Novatian baptized by the authority of immersionist churches,
his baptisms were all valid, though the churches were censurable for allowing
him to baptize while himself imperfectly baptized. Should it, then, be conceded
to Baptist opponents that Novatian was imperfectedly baptized, it proves but a
censurable irregularity, in but one case, in no way invalidating any church
claim.
As to Novatian and his people believing in baptismal regeneration, the charge
rests on Cornelius’ slanderous account of his baptism. In fact, Cornelius does
not say Novatian was baptized to save his soul. He says he was baptized on
what was, at the time of his baptism, thought to be his death bed. Death bed
baptisms are as reliable as death bed conversions. The Novatian high
conception of spiritual life and the consequent battle of the Novatians for a
spiritual church are utterly incompatible with the charge that Novatian and his
people believed in water salvation. No party has ever contended for a
scripturally regenerate church while holding to baptismal regeneration.
Hippolytus has been quoted as a Novatian and as proving the Novatians
believed in baptismal salvation. But Armitage says f140 Hippolytus “is supposed
to have suffered martyrdom by drowning in the Tiber, A.D. 235-239.” Hase f141
says: “Hippolytus could hardly have lived to witness the Novatian schism.”