Seekers

An obscure Puritan sect which arose in England in the middles of the seventeenth century. They represented an Antinomian tendency among some of the Independents, and professed to be seeking for the true Church, Scripture, Ministry, and Sacraments. In his contemporary account Richard Baxter says of them: "They taught that our scripture was uncertain; that present miracles are necessary to faith; that our ministry is null and without authority, and our worship and ordinances unnecessary or vain, the Church, ministry, scripture and ordinances being lost, for which they are now seeking." He adds the absurd statement: "I quickly found that the Papists principally hatched and actuated this sect, and that a considerable number that were of this profession were some Papists and some infidels." (Life and Times, 76). According to Baxter, they amalgamated with the Vanists. Weingarten considers that they held Millenarian views. Probably the name denotes a school of thought rather than a definitely-organized body.

Sources

BAXTER, Reliquiæ Baxterianæ (London, 1696); WEINGARTEN, Die Revolutionskirchen Englands (Leipzig, 1868).

About this page

APA citation. Burton, E. (1912). Seekers. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13681a.htm

MLA citation. Burton, Edwin. "Seekers." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13681a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Maria Medina. Dedicated to Nomer Candelaria.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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