Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

… But later investigations have failed to discover any trace of Manichaean
tenets in their system.” f214
Universal Knowledge:
“The charge of Manichaeism was falsely brought against them by their
persecutors.” f215
Cramp:
“Manichaeism was looked upon as a concentration of all that was
outrageously bad in religious opinion and became the fashion to call all
heretics Manichaeans. Hence many excellent men have been so stigmatized
whose views and practices accorded with the word of God.” f216
Armitage:
“They have always been coupled with Manichaeans and nothing has been too
base to say of them. Bossuett and Bowers have distinguished themselves in
this calumny, but Bowers has been effectively answered by the learned
Lardner. … The Paulicians themselves certainly should have known what they
were, and both these witnesses (Photius and Siculus) explicitly state that they
repelled the charge with great spirit. But what differences did it make with
these maligners? So long as they could befoul their fame by that odious brand,
they pinned it to them as if it were true. Gibbon states that the Paulicians
disclaimed the theology of Manes, and the other kindred heresies, and the
trinity generations of eons which had been created by the fruitful fancy of
Valentine. The Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory and the opinions
of the Manichaean sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed the
invidious name on the simple votaries of St. Paul and of Christ. Although
these witnesses judged them by a false standard of. their own raising, to
which the Paulicians are allowed no counter evidence, nor cross examination,
nothing but denial and protest, Photius pretended fair play when He took up
his pen to write ‘Contra Manichaeas’ in one book, without telling what they
did believe; and then, on a false assumption, followed by three others to
confute them as though they were disciples of Manes. … There were different
classes of Manichaeans as well as Paulicians, but Photius and Siculus lump
them en masse and convict themselves again and again of misrepresentations
in matters of public notoriety. … They admit that Constantine, the leader of
the Paulicians, received the New Testament as his inspired guide, and cited it
to prove his tenets, and then charged him with claiming to speak by the Holy
Spirit. They failed to charge him with any new doctrine, but alleged that he
pretended to speak by the Holy Spirit, and then charged him with borrowing
his doctrines from the Scythian, Pythagorean, and other pagan teachers. They
condemned him for professing to be the power of God, but failed to show that
he ever attempted miracles! They ridicule the Paulicians as an aristocratic
organization, then sneered at them because they gave the Scriptures to
everybody because they had no priests, and because instead of listening to the