95 ..8 76 I&50 F R O N T 1 S P J E C E S3 o> In explanation of the Engravings in tliis volume, see articles Persecution, Inquisition, Massacre, Reformation, &.c. V K II S F, C U T I O N. Plate III. A Pi-irailive Christian flayed alive by Heathen Persecutors. PI ale IV. Martyrdom of St. Stephen. — Acts vii. 50. P E R S E C b T I O N. Plate V. Horrible cruelties inflicted on the Primitive Christians. Plate VI. Primitive Martyrdoms. P E It S E C U T 1 O N. Plate VII. Entrails of Martyrs, while living', devoured by Swine, in the fourth Century. Plate VIII. Horrible Cruelties inflicted on the Protestants in Ireland, in 1641. V E It S E C (J T I O N. Piute IX. Cruelties of the Inquisition. Plate X. Cruelties of the Inmiisition. — Rack P E RSF.CUTIO N. Plate XL Dress of a Male Penitent who recants to the Inquisition. Dress of a Female Penitent who recants to the Inquisition. Plate XII. Dress of a Woman condemned by the Inquisition. Dress of a Man condemned by the Inquisition. I> E It S E C U T 1 0 N. Piute XIII. Pope Alexander treading on the neck of Frederick, Emperor of Germany Plait XIV. The Burning of Bishops Ridley and Latimer, 1555. V E it s i: C U T I O N. Plate XV. Dreadful Sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs. Plate X\ f. Cruelties practised on the Protestants in Scotland, 154:5. Four men hung; and a Woman with her Infant tied up in a bag, and thrown into the river, for violating a fast. A THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY, CONTAINING DEFINITIONS OF ALL RELIGIOUS TERMS ; A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF EVERY ARTICLE IN THE SYSTEM OF DIVINITY, AN IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF ALL THE PRINCIPAL DENOMINATIONS WHICH HAVE SUBSISTED IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO THE PRESENT DAY: TOGETHER WITH AN ACCURATE STATEMENT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE TRANSACTIONS AND EVENTS RECORDED IN ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY- / ^ I BY THE REV. CHARLES BUCK. NeU) American, from tijc latest Hcmtron ISTittion. REVISED, AND IMPROVED BY THE ADDITION OF MANY NEW ARTICLES, AND THE WHOLE ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT STATE OF THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE AND OF THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. BY THE REV. GEORGE BUSH, A. M. With an Appendix : containing impartial and elaborate Histories of, The Methodist Episcopal Church in Atnerica ; The Presbyterian Church in the United States; The Methodist Protestant Church ; The Baptists of the United States; and, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United Slates: also a history of the Adventists or Millerites. CORRECTED EDITION. PHILADELPHIA : CRISSY & MARKLEY, No. 4 MINOR STREET. 1850. Entereo. according to the act of congress, in the year 1844, by J. J. Woooward in tlie clerks office ol the district court of the United States in aad tor the easteru district of I'etidsvhania. jr PHIHCETGH t PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. Knowledge, in a great measure, forms the true dignity and happiness of man : it a that by which he holds an honourable rank in the scale of being, and by which he is rendered capable of adding to the felicity of his fellow-creatures. Every attempt, there- fore, to enlarge its boundaries, and facilitate its acquisition, must be considered as worthy of our attention and regard. The present work is designed to promote these valuable and important ends. The plan of conveying knowledge by dictionaries has been long established, and well received in the republic of letters. A dictionary, however, of a religious and ecclesias- tical nature was still a desideratum in the religious world ; for although we have had dictionaries which explained Scripture terms, yet it is evident these could not embrace the history of the church since the sacred canon was concluded, nor explain the numerous terms which have been used; nor, indeed, point out the various sects and denominations which have subsisted since that time. I do not mean, by these remarks, to depreciate the valuable works above referred to: I am sensible of their excellences, and I have no wish to undervalue them in order to exalt my own. This work, however, is of a different nature, as the reader will easily see, if he takes the trouble to compare and examine. There may, doubtless, be defects in this publication which may have escaped my atten- tion ; but whoever considers the various books that must have been consulted ; the dis- criminations that were necessary to be made ; the patient investigation required ; and the toil of selecting, transcribing, and composing, must be convinced that it has been at- tended with no small difficulty. The advantages, however, which my own mind derived from the work, and the probability of its being useful to others, greatly encouraged me in its prosecution. Besides, to be active, to be useful, to do something for the good of man- kind, I have always considered as the honour of an intelligent being. It is not the student wrapt up in metaphysical subtilties ; it is not the recluse living in perpetual soli- tude; it is not the miser who is continually amassing wealth, that can be considered as the greatest ornaments or the greatest blessings to human society : — it is rather the useful than the shining talent that is to be coveted. Perhaps it may be said, the work is tinctured too much with my own sentiments, and that the theology is too antiquated to please a liberal, philosophising, and refined1 age. In answer to this, I observe, that I could do no other, as an honest man, than communi- cate what I believe to be the truth. It is a false liberality to acquiesce with every man's opinion, to fall in with every man's scheme, to trifle with error, or imagine there is no difference between one sentiment and another : yet, notwithstanding this declaration, I trust the features of bigotry are not easily discernible in this work ; and that, while I have endeavoured to carry the torch of Truth in my hand, I have not forgotten to walk in the path of Candour. It is almost needless here to say, that I have availed myself of all the writings of the best and most eminent authors I could obtain. Whatever has struck me as important in ecclesiastical history ; whatever good and accurate in definition ; whatever just views of the passions of the human mind ; whatever terms used in the religious world ; and whatever instructive and impressive in the systems of divinity and moral philosophy, I have endeavoured to incorporate in this work. And in order to prevent its being a dry detail of terms and of dates, I have given the substance of what has been generally advanced on each subject, and occasionally selected some of the most interesting practi- cal passages from our best and celebrated sermons. I trust, therefore, it will not only be of use to inform the mind, but impress the heart ; and thus promote the real good of the reader. The critic, however, may be disposed to be severe ; and it will, perhaps, be easy for him to observe imperfections. But be this as it may: I can assure him I feel myself happy in the idea that the work is not intended to serve a party, to encourage bigotry, nor strengthen prejudice, but "for the service of Truth, by one who would be glad to attend and grace her triumphs ; as her soldier, if he has had the honour to serve successfully under her banner ; or as a captive tied to her chariot wheels, if he has, though undesign- edly, committed any offence against her." After all, however, what a learned author said of another work I say of this : — " If it have merit, it will go down to posterity ; if it have none, the sooner it dies and is forgot the better." 3 CHARLES BUCK. PREFACE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. The numerous and extensive editions of Buck's Theological Dictionary published both in England and in this country since its first appearance, together with the continued and increasing demand, sufficiently attest the estimate in which the work is held by the Christian public. The judgment, industry, candour, and impartiality evinced by the Author in the selection and compilation of the articles, embracing, as they do, the wide field of Theology, didactic and polemic, Ecclesiastical Polity, Church History, Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, and Biblical Literature, together with a copious list of refer- ences to the most valuable authorities in each department, are universally acknowledged. So far as the merit of sterling utility can entitle any book to favourable acceptance, the Dictionary of Mr. Buck presents claims which will not be contested. As a theological and ecclesiastical manual, embodying a vast amount of useful information in a moderate compass, and clearly and judiciously arranged, it would not be easy to designate ita superior. Yet while this tribute of deserved commendation is readily bestowed, it must still be admitted, that the work hitherto has not been altogether adapted to the circumstances of our own country, or the wants of the present day. Considered in this view the Theological Dictionary labours under manifold defects, which it would be as easy to specify as it is obvious to perceive. As might have been expected, its local bearings and allusions are to the state of things in England, and not in this country. But a work of this nature is needed, which shall be suited to the state of religious opinion in the Christian community of the United States. Moreover, since the first publication of Mr. Buck's work, great changes have occurred in the religious world; great advances have been made in theological as well as in natural science ; a fresh impulse has been given to the investigation of revealed truth ; new sects, especially in our own country, have risen up, and with them new controversies, or new forms of old ones ; the ever varying field of religious discussion, while it has been contracted in some of its limits, has been widened in others; besides which, nearly every department treated in the Theological Dictionary has been enriched with new treasures from the writings of modern divines, to which the reader will look m vain for any references in the previous editions. While therefore the active spirit of progress and improvement is urging its way in the pro- vince of Theological inquiry as well as every other, while modern researches are shed- ding light upon numberless points of Christian and Jewish antiquities, upon Ecclesiasti- cal institutions, and Biblical criticism, it is doubtless desirable that a Theological Dic- tionary should be prepared, fitted to meet, in some good degree, the exigences of the pre- sent period. With this view the present edition of Buck has been undertaken. In the prosecution of the plan, the steady aim has been to increase the amount of new and valuable matter, at the same time that the accession should not swell the size, nor enhance the price of the volume. The whole work therefore has undergone a careful revision — Some few articles of trivial moment have been expunged to make way for others of more consequence — Several have been abridged — Several in whole or in part re-written : But the principal feature of the present edition is the addition of a large mass of new matter under the following heads: Abyss, Accommodation of Scripture, Annihilation, Anti- christ, Antichristianism, Atonement, Church, Commentary, Congregationalists, Episcopalian, Glassites, New Independents, Neology, Presbyterians, Unitarians, besides many others, which will be pointed -out to the reader, wherever they occur, by the letter B. being annexed to them. Notices of all or nearly all the existing religious denominations in the United States are given, accompanied with historical sketches and ecclesiastical statistics. In this department of the work the Editor acknowledges his obligations to the very valuable Quarterly Register and Journal of the American Edu- cation Society, for February, by means of which, and from other sources, he has been enabled to bring down the records of the various denominations to a very late period. In the earnest hope that the attempted improvements of the present edition may be found to be a benefit, and not a bar, to its general reception, it is submitted to the candour of the public. 4 G. B. pEIfli THEOLOGlGfck THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. ABBEY A. ABBOT ABBA, a Syriac word of Hebrew origin, sig- nifying Father. It is more particularly used in the Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic churches, as a title given to the bishops. The bishops them- selves bestowed the title Abba more eminently on the bishop of Alexandria, which occasioned the people to give him the title of Baba, or Papa ; . that is, Grandfather : a title which he bore before the bishop of Rome. It is a Jewish title of honour given to certain tRabbins called Tanaites: it is also used by some writers of the middle age for the superior of a monastery. Saint Mark and Saint Paul use this word in their Greek, Mark xiv. 3b\ Rom. viii. 15. Gal. vi. 6. because it was then commonly known in the synagogues and the primitive assemblies of the Christians. It is thought by Selden, Witsius, Doddridge, and others, that Saint Paul alluded to a law among the Jews which forbade servants or slaves to call their master Abba, or Father; and that the apostle meant to convey the idea that those who believed in Christ were no longer slaves to sin ; but, being brought into a state of holy freedom, might consequently address God as their Father. ABBE, the same with Abbot, which see. Also the name of curious popular characters in France ; who are persons who have not yet ob- tained any precise or fixed settlement in church or state, but most heartily wish for and would accept of either, just as it may happen. In the mean- while their privileges are many. In college, they are the instructors of youth, and in private fami- lies the tutors of young gentlemen. ABBESS, the superior of an abbey or convent of nuns. The abbess has the same rights and authority over her nuns that the abbots regular have over their monks. The sex, indeed, does not allow her to perform the spiritual functions annexed to the priesthood, wherewith the abbot is usually invested ; but there are instances of some abbesses who have a right, or rather a privilege, to commission a priest to act for them. They have even a kind of episcopal jurisdiction, as well as some abbots who are exempted from the visi- tation of their diocesan. ABBEY, a monastery, governed by a superior under the title of Abbot or Abbess. Monasteries were at first nothing more than religious houses, whither persons retired from the bustle of the world to spend their time in solitude and devotion ; out they soon degenerated from their original in- stitution, and procured large privileges, exemp- tions, and riches. They prevailed greatly in Britain before the Reformation, particularly in England : and as they increased in riches, so the state became poor, for the lands which these re- gulars possessed could never revert to the lords who gave them. These places were wholly abolished by Henry VIII. He first appointed visitors to inspect into the lives of the monks and nuns, which were found in some places very dis- orderly ; upon which the abbots, perceiving their dissolution unavoidable, were induced to resign their houses to the king, who by that means be- came invested with the abbey lands : these were afterwards granted to different persons, whose descendants enjoy them at this day : they were then valued at 2,853,000Z. per annum; an im- mense sum in those days. Though the suppres- sion of these houses, considered in a religious and political light, was a great benefit to the nation, yet it must be owned, that at the time they flou- rished, they were not entirely useless. Abbeys were then the repositories as well as the semina- ries of learning : many valuable books and na- tional records have been preserved in their libra- ries; the only places wherein they could have been safely lodged in those turbulent times. In- deed the historians of this. country are chiefly beholden to the monks for the knowledge they have of former national events. Thus a kind Providence overruled even the institutions of su- perstition for good. See Monastery. ABBOT, the chief ruler of a monastery or abbey. At first they were laymen, and subject to the bishop and ordinary pastors. Their monas- teries being remote from cities, and built in the farthest solitudes, they had no share in ecclesias- tical affairs ; but, there being among them several persons of learning, they were called out of their deserts by the bishops, and fixed in the suburbs of the cities ; and at length in the cities them- selves. From that time they degenerated, and, learning to be ambitious, aspired to be independ- ent of the bishops, which occasioned some severe laws to be made against them. At length, how ever, the abbots carried their point, and obtained the title of lord, with other badges of the episco- pate, particularly the mitre. Hence arose new distinctions among them. Those were termed mitred abbots who were privileged to wear the mitre, and exercise episcopal authority within their respective precincts, being exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop. Others were called crosicrcd abbots, from their bearing the crosier, or pastoral staff. Others were styled cecumenical or universal abbots, in imitation of the patriarch of Constantinople; while others were termed cardinal abbots from their superiority over ail other abbots. At present, in the Roman Catho- a 2 ABSOLUTION lie countries, the chief distinctions arc those of re- gular and com mendatory. The former take the vow and wear the habit of their order; whereas the latter are seculars, though they are obliged Ly their bulls to take orders when of proper age. ABELIANS, or Abei.onianp, a sect which arose in the diocese of Hippo in Africa, and is supposed to have begun in the reign of Arcadius, and ended in that ot Theodosius. Indeed, it was not calculated for being of any long continuance. They regulated marriage after the example of Abel, who, they pretended, was married, but lived in a state of continence : they therefore al- lowed each man to marry one woman, but era- >oined them to live in the same state. To keep up the sect, when a man and woman entered into tlus society, they adopted a boy and a girl, who were to inherit their goods, and to marry upon the same terms of not having children, but of adopting two of different sexes. ABESTA, the name of one of the sacred books of the Persian Magi, which they ascribe to their great founder, Zoroaster. The Abesta is a commentary on two others of their religious books called Zend and Pazcnd ; the three together in- cluding the whole system of the Ignicola?, or wor- shippers of fire. ABILITY. See Inability. ABLUTION, a ceremony in use among the ancients, and still practised in several parts of the world. It consisted in washing the body, which was always done before sacriheing, or even en- tering their houses. Ablutions appear to be as old as any ceremonies, and external worship itself. Moses enjoined them, the heathens adopt- ed them, and Mahomet and his followers have continued them. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews, all had them. The ancient Christians had their ablutions before communion, which the Romish church still retain before their mass, and sometimes after. The Syrians, Copts, &c. have their solemn washings on Good Friday : the Turks also have their ablu- tions, their Ghast, their Wodou, Aman, &c. ABSOLUTION signifies acquittal. It is taken also for that act whereby the priest declares the sins of such as are penitent remitted. The Romanists hold absolution a part of the sacra- ment of penance ; and the council of Trent and that of Florence declare the form or essence of the sacrament to lie in the words of absolution, " I absolve thee of thy sins." According to this, no one can receive absolution without the privity, consent, and declaration of the priest; except, therefore, the. priest be willing, God himself can- not pardon any man. This is a doc-trine as blas- phemous as it is ridiculous. The chief passage on which they ground their power of absolution is that in John xx. 23 : " Whosesoever sins ye re- mit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." But this is not to the purpose; since this was a special com- mission to the apostles themselves, and the first preachers of the Gospel, and most probably re- ferred to the power he gave them of discerning spirits. By virtue of this power, Peter struck Ananias and Saiiphira dead, and Paul struck Elymas blind. But, supposing the passage in question to apply to the successors of the apostles, and to ministers in general, it can only import that their office La to preach pardon to the peni- tent assuring those who believe that their sins u ABYSS are forgiven through the merits of Jesus Christ and that those who remain in unbelief are in a state of condemnation. Any idea of authority given to fallible, uninspired men, to absolve sin- ners, different from this, is unscriptural ; nor can I see much utility in the terms ministerial or de- clarative absolution, as adopted by some divines, since absolution is wholly the prerogative of God • and the terms abovementioned may, to say the least, have no good influence on the minds of the ignorant and superstitious. ABSTEMII, a name given to such persons as could not partake of the cup of the eucharist, on account of their natural aversion to wine. ABSTINENCE, in a general sense, is the act of refraining from something which we have a propension to or find pleasure in. It is more particularly used for fasting or forbearing from necessary food. Among the Jews, various kinds of abstinence were ordained by their law. Among the primitive Christians, some denied themselves the use of such meats as were prohibited by that law; others looked upon this abstinence with contempt; as to which Paul gives his opinion, Romans xiv. 1, 3. The council of Jerusalem, which was held by the apostles, enjoined the Christian converts to abstain from meats strangled, from blood, from fornication, and from idolatry. Acts xv. Upon this passage Dr. Doddridge ob- serves, "that though neither things sacrificed to idols, nor the flesh of strangled animals, nor blood, have or can have any moral evil in them, which should make the eating of them absolutely and universally unlawful ; yet they were forbid- den to the Gentile converts, because the Jews had such an aversion to them, that they could not converse freely with any who used them. This is plainly the reason which James assigns in the very next words, the 21st verse, and it is abund- antly sufficient. This reason is now ceased, and the obligation to abstain from eating these things ceases with it. But were we in like circumstan- ces again, Christian charity would surely require us to lay ourselves under the same restraint." — The spiritual monarchy of the western world introduced another sort of abstinence, which may be called ritual, and consists in abstaining from particular meats at certain times and sea- sons, the rules of which are called rogations. If I mistake not, the impropriety of this kind of ab- stinence is clearly [minted out in 1 Tim. iv. 3.— In England, abstinence from flesh has been en- joined by statute, even since the Reformation ; particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, on vigils, and on all days commonly called fish days. 1 he like injunctions were renewed under queen Eliza- beth; but at the same time it was declared, that this was done not out of motives of religion, as if there were any difference in meats, but in fa- vour of the consumption of fish, and to multiply the number of fishermen and mariners, as well as to spare the stock of sheep. See Fasting. ABYSS, from the Greek* /Svo-o-c,-, composed of » priv. and gueside the name of Christianity among them. Should the reader be desirous to know more of this sect, he may consult Father Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia ; Bruce 's Travels; Ludolph's History of Ethio- pia ; and Did. of Arts and Sciences, vol. i. p. 15. ACADEMICS, a denomination given to the cultivators of a species of philosophy originally derived from Socrates, and afterwards illus- trated and enforced by Plato. The contradictory systems which had been successively urged upon the world, were become so numerous, that, from a view of the variety and uncertainty of human opinions, many were led to believe that truth ky beyond the reach of our comprehension. The consequence of this conclusion was absolute seep ticism : hence the existence of God, the immor- tality of the soul, the preferableness of virtue tn vice, were all held as uncertain. This sect, with that of the Epicureans, were the two chief that were in vogue at the time of Christ's appearance, and were embraced and supported by persons of high rank and wealth. A consideration of the principles of these two sects [see Epicureans] will lead us to form an idea of the deplorable state of the world at the time of Christ's birth; and the necessity there was of some divine teacher to con- vey to the mind true and certain principles of re- ligion and wisdom. Jesus Christ, therefore, is with great propriety called the Day Spring from on high, the Sun of Righteousness, that arose up- on a benighted world to dispel the clouds of igno- rance and error, and discover to lost man the path of happiness and heaven. But, as we do not mean to enlarge much upon these and some other sects, which belong rather to philoso- phy than theology, we shall refer the reader to Budaius's Introduction to the History of Philoso- phy ; Stanley's Lives ; Snicker's History of Philosophy ; or (which is more modern) En- field's Abridgment. ACCLAMATIONS, ecclesiastical, were shouts of joy which the people expressed by way of approbation of their preachers. It hardly seems credible to us that practices of this kind should ever have found their way into the church where all ought to be reverence and solemnity. Yet so it was in the fourth century. The people were not only permitted, but sometimes even ex- horted, by the preacher himself, to approve his ta- lents by clapping of hands, and loud acclamations of praise. The usual words they made use of were, "Orthodox," "Third apostle," &c. These acclamations being carried to excess, and often misplaced, were frequently prohibited by the an- cient doctors, and at length abrogated. Even as late, however, as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we find practices that were not very decorous ; such as loud humming, frequent groan- ing, strange gestures of the body, &c. See ar- ticles Dancers, Shakers. ACCOMMODATION of SCRIPTURE, is the application of it not to its literal meaning, but to something analogous to it. Thus a pro- phecy is said to be fulfilled properly when a thing foretold comes to pass ; and by way of accommo- dation, when an event happens to any place 07 people similar to what fell out some time before to another. Thus the words of Isaiah, spoken to those of his own time, are said to be fulfilled in those who lived in our Saviour's "Ye hypo- crites, well did Esaias prophesy, " &c. which suite ACOLYTIII words St. Paul afterwards accommodates to the Jews of his time. Isa. xxfar. 11. Matt. xv. 8. Acts xiii. 41. Great cure, however, should be taken by preachers who are fond of accommo- dating texts, that they first clearly state the literal sense of the passage. ACCOMMODATION SYSTEM, a name given to a peculiar mode of scriptural interpreta- i .. adopted during the last century by Semler and other German divines, which teaches, that many tilings, uttered by our Saviour and his Apostles, in the course of their instructions, are not to be understood as expressing the actual reality and verity of things, or conveying true doctrines, but as merely adopted in accommoda- tion to the popular belief, and the deep-rooted prejudice of the. Jews. For instance, when our Saviour speaks of persons being possessed with evil spirits, we are not according to this theory, to imagine there was really any such things as demoniacal possession, or that Christ intended ti) teach thaUdoctrine; but as the notion had been long prevalent among the Jews that men under the influence of certain bodily diseases were possessed by the devil, he accommodated himself in his language to their weakness and simplicity, "that he might win the more." And so the Apostles. See this dangerous doctrine ably canvassed and refuted in Stun-'* Essay on the Historical Sense, translated by Gibbs, or the original treatise in liis Opuscula. — B. ACCURSED, something that lies under a curse or sentence of excommunication. In the Jewish idiom, accursed and crucified were synonymous : among them, every one was ac- counted accursed who died on a tree. This serves perhaps to explain the difficult passage in Horn. ix. 2, where the apostle wishes himself ac- cursed after the manner of Christ; i. e. crucified, if happily he might by such a death save his countrymen. The preposition xtto here made use of, is used in the same sense, 2 Tim. i. 3, when it obviously signifies after the maimer of. ACEPHALI. i. e. headless; from the priva- tive x, and xf;-«M head; such bishops were ex- empt from the discipline and jurisdiction of their ordinary bishop or patriarch. It was also the denomination of certain sects ; 1. of those who, in the affair of the council of Ephesus, refused to follow cither St. Cyril or John of Antiocn; 2. of certain heretics in the fifth century, who, at first, followed Peter MougUS, but afterwards abandoned him upon his subscribing to the council of Chalce- (1mi, they themselves adhering to the Eutychian heresy : and, !>. of the followers of Severus of An- tioeh, and of all, in general, who held out against the council of Chalcedon. ACOEMETJE, or AcoemetI, an order of monks at Constantinople in the fifth century, whom the writers of that and the following ages called ai, that is, Watchers, because they performed divine service day and night without intermission. They divided themselves into three classes, who alternately succeeded one an- other, su that they kept up a perpetual course of v jFship. This practice they founded upon that passage — " Pray without ceasing," 1 Thess. v. 17. ACOLYTIII, or Acolutui. from «xoxou8of,a follower, young people who, in the primitive tunes, aspired to the ministry, and for that pur- pose continually attended the bishop. In the Romish church, Acolythi were of longer coiitinu- ACT OF FAITH ance ; hut their functions were different from those of their first institution. Their business was to light the tapers, carry the candlesticks and the incense pot, and prepare the wine and water. At Rome there were three kinds : 1. those who waited on the pope • 2. those who served in the churches ; 3. and others, who together with the deacons, officiated in other parts of the city. ACT OF FAITH (Auto daFe,) in the Ro- mish church, is a solemn day held by the Inquisi- tion for the punishment of heretics, and the abso- lution of the innocent accused. They usually contrive the Auto to fall on some gTeat festival, that the execution ma > pa. s with the more awe ; and it is always on a Jsuhd .y. The Auto da Ft may be called the last act of the inquisitorial tra- gedy : it is a land of gaol delivery, appointed as often as a competent number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the evidence of certain witnesses. The process is this : — In the morning they are brought into a great hall, where they have certain habits put on, which they are to wear in the procession, and by which they know their doom. The procession is led up by Dominican friars, after which come the penitents, being all in black coats without sleeves, and barefooted, with a wax candle in their hands. These are followed by the penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, who over their black coats have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the negative and relapsed, who are to be burnt, having flames on their habits pointing upwards. After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who besides flames pointing upwards, have their picture painted on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all open-mouthed, about it. Each prisoner is attended by a fami- liar of the Inquisition; and those to be burnt have also a Jesuit on each hand, who are continu- ally preaching to them to abjure. After the prisoners, comes a troop of familiars on horseback ; and after them the Inquisitors, and other officers of the court, on mules: last of all the inquisitor- general on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hatbands. A scaffold ia erected big enough for two or three thousand people; at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other the Inquisitors. After a sermon made up of encomiums on the Inquisition, and invec- tives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the scaffold, and having taken the abjuration of the penitents, recites the final sentence of those who are to be put to death, and delivers them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching at the same time the secular power not to touch their blood, or put their lives in danger!!! The prisoners, being thus in the hands of the ci\il magistrate, are presently loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular gaol, and from thence, in an hour or two, brought before the civil judge; who, after asking in what religion they intend to die, pronounces sentence, on such as declare they die in the communion of the church of Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes: or such as die in any other faith, that they be burnt alive. Both are immediately car- ried to the Ribera, the place of execution, where there are as many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a quantity of dry fur74» about them. The stakes of the professed, that w ACTS OF THE APOSTLES such as persist in the heresy, are about four yards high, having a small hoard towards the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the Srofessed mount their stakes by a ladder, and the esuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the church, part with them ; telling them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow, to receive their souls, and carry them with him to the flames of hell. On this a great shout is raised ; and the cry is, "Let the dogs beards be made .'" which is done bvthrusting flaming furzes fastened to long poles against their faces, till their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with the loudest acclamadons of joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over wliich the professed arc chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on ; so that they ra- ther seem roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle : the sufferers continu- ally cry out while they are able, " Pity for the love of God !" Yet it is beheld by all sexes and ages with transports of joy and satisfaction. — O merciful God! is this the benign, humane re- ligion thou hast given to men? Surely not. If such were the genius of Christianity, then it would be no honour to be a Christian. Let us, however, rejoice that the tune is coming when the demon of Persecution shall be banished out this our world, and the true spirit of benevolence and candour pervade the universe ; when none shall hurt or destroy, but the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ! See Inquisition. ACTION FOR THE PULPIT. See De- clamation. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, the fifth and last of the historical books of the New Testament, containing a great part of the lives and transactions of Peter and Paul, and of the history of the infant church for the space of twenty-nine or thirty years from the ascension of our Lord to the time of Paul's arrival at Piome after his appeal to Cag- sar, A. D. 65. That Luke was the author of the Acts of the Apostles is evident both from the in- troduction, and from the unanimous testimonies of the early Christians. This book, as well as the Gospel bearing his name, is inscribed to Theophilus, and in the very first verse of the Acts there is a reference made to his Gospel, which he calls the former treatise. From the frequent use of the first person plural it is clear that he was present at most of the transactions he relates. The design of the author does not appear to have been to give a complete ecclesias- tical history of the Christian church during the period embraced in -the work; for he has almost wholly omitted what passed among the Jews af- ter the conversion of PauL and is totally silent concerning the spread of Christianity in the East and in Egypt, as well as the foundation of the church of Christ at Rome, as also concerning the labours and sufferings of most of tlic other Apos- tles besides Peter and Paul; but to relate the most prominent events connected with the esta- blishment of Christianity, and such as may be considered to have had the most important bear- ings upon its subsequent prosperity, among winch may be reckoned the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the persecutions and dispersions of the early disciples, the conver- 9 B ADAMITES sion of Paul, the ail mission of the Gentiles info the church, the council of Jerusalem, and the planting of Christian Churches in the principal provinces of the Roman empire. The history is written with a tolerably strict attention to chro- nological order, though the author has not affixed a date to any one of the facts recorded by him. But as political events, the dates of which are known, are frequently introduced or alluded to in connexion with the ecclesiastical narrative, the chronology of the whole book is for the most part capable of being pretty definitely settled. The style of the Acts, which was written in Greek, is perspicuous and noble. Though tinc- tured with Hebraisms, it is in general much purer than that of most other books of the New Testa- ment, particularly in the speeches delivered by Paul. The book forms one of the most import- ant parts of sacred history ; for without it neither the Gospels nor Epistles could have been so clearly understood; and by the correspondence of incidental circumstances mentioned in this history and in the Epistles, of such a nature as to show that neither the one nor the other could have been forged, an irrefragable evidence of the truth of Christianity is afiorded. Among the most im- portant works expository or illustrative of the Acts of the Apostles are Cradock's Apostolical History ; Benson's First Plantingof Christian- ity; Paley's Horce Paulina; Hcinrich's Acta Apostolorum; Bnddeus' Ecclcsia Apostolica. — B. There have been several acts of the apostles, such as the acts of Abdias, of Peter, of Paul, St. John the Evangelist, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Philip, and St. Matthias ; but they have been all proved to be spurious. ACTS OF PILATE, a relation sent by Pi- late to the Emperor Tiberius, concerning Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the crimes of wliich he was convicted before him. It was a custom among the Romans, that the proconsuls and governors of provinces should draw up acts or memoirs of what happened in the course of their government, and send them to the emperor and senate. The genuine acts of Pilate were sent by him to Tiberius, who re- ported them to the senate ; but they were rejected by that assembly, because not immediately ad- dressed to them ; as is testified by Tertullian, in his Apol. cap. 5, and 20, 21. The heretics forged acts in imitation of them ; but both the genuine and the spurious are now lost. ADAMITES, a sect that sprang up in the second century. Epiphanius tells us that they were called Adamites from their pretending to be re-established in the state of innocence, such as Adam was at the moment of his creation, whence they ought to imitate him in going naked. They detested marriage; maintaining that the conjugal union would never have taken place upon earth, had sin been unknown. This ol«- scure and ridiculous sect did not last long. It was, however, revived with additional absurdities in the twelfth century. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, these errors spread in Ger- many and Bohemia: it found also some partisans in Poland, Holland, and England. They as- sembled in the night; and, it is said, one of tha fundamental maxims of their society was con- tained in the following verse : Jura, perjura, socretum prodcre noli. Swear, forswear, and revtul not the secret. ADOPTION ADTAPTIORISTS, a name riven in the six- teenth century to the moderate Lutherans who adhered to the sentiments of Melancthon; and afterwards to those who subscribed the Interim of Charles V. [See Intbrih.] The word is of Greek origin (*Ti*?cpos,) and signifies indiffer- ence or lukewarmness. ADMIRATION is that passion of the mind which is excited by the discovery of any great excellence in an object. It has by some writers been used as synonymous with surprise and wonder; but it is evident they are not the same. Surprise refers to something unexpected; wonder, to something great or strange; but admiration in- cludes the idea of high esteem or respect. Thus, we say we admire a man's excellencies ; but we do not say that we are surprised at them. We wonder at an extraordinary object or event, but we do not always admire it. ADMONITION denotes a hint or advice given to another, whereby we reprove him for his fault, or remind him of his duty. Admonition was a part of the discipline much used in the an- cient church ; it was the first act or step towards the punishment or expulsion of delinquents. In case of private offences, it was performed accord- ing to evangelical rule, privately.; in case of pub- lic offence, openly before the church. If either of these sufficed for the recovery of the fallen person, all further proceedings, in a way of cen- sure, ceased ; if they did not, recourse, was had to excommunication. — Tit. iii. 10. 1 Thess. v. 14. Eph. vi. 4. ADONAT, Hebrew <:nX, a title of the Su- preme Being in the Scriptures, rendered in En- glish by the word Lord. The original comes from Aden, a base, pillar, or supporter; and it is not a little remarkable that the etymology of our vernacular Lord is precisely similar, it being a contraction of the old Saxon laford, or hlafford, from larf, to support or sustain, the same root from which also comes the English word loaf. The Hebrew Jehovah is likewise translated Lord in our Bibles, and this is known by its being printed in capital letters, whereas in the other case the common small character is employ- ed. The Jews, from excessive reverence, never pronounce the name Jehovah when they meet with it in reading the Hebrew Scriptures, but invariably substitute Adonai, which has the same vowel points. But there is no law forbidding the enunciation of ttie name Jehovah; nor does it appear to have been scrupled by the ancient Jews. — B. ADONISTS, a party among divines and critics, who maintain that the Hebrew points or- dinarily annexed to the consonants of the word Jehovah are not the natural points belonging to that word, nor express the true pronounciation of it; but are the vowel points belonging to the words Adoiuii and Elokim, applied to the con- s mints of the ineffable name Jehovah, to warn the readers, that instead pf the word Jehovah, which the Jews were forbid to pronounce, and the true pronunciation of which had been long unknown to them, they are always to read Ado- nai. They are opposed to Jehovuts, of whom the principal are Drusius, Capellus, Buxtorf, Ailing, and Reland. Al >< U' I'll ).\, an act whereby any person re- ceives another into his family, owns him for his son, and appoints him his heir. 2. Spiritual 10 ADOPTION adoption Is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. 3. Glorious, is that in which the saints, being raised from the dead, are at the last day solemnly owned to be the children of God, and enter into the full possession of that inheritance provided for them. Rom. viii. 19, 23. Adoption is a word taken from the civil law, and was much in use among the Romans in the Apostles' time; when it was a custom for persons who had no children of their own, and were possessed of an estate, to prevent its being divided or descending to strangers, to make choice of such as were agreeable to them, and beloved by them, whom they took into this political relation of children ; obliging them to take their name upon them, and to pay respect to them as though they were their natural pa- rents, and engaging in deal with them as though they had been so ; and accordingly to give them a right to their estates, as an inheritance. This new relation, founded in a mutual consent, is a bond of affection ; and the privilege arising from thence is, that he, who is in this sense a father, takes care of and provides for the person whom he adopts, as though he were his son by nature ; and therefore civilians call it an act of legitima- tion, imitating nature, or supplying the place of it. It is easy, then, to conceive the propriety of the term as used by the apostle, in reference to this act, though it must be confessed there is some difference between civil and spiritual adoption. Civil adoption was allowed of and provided for the relief and comfort of those who had no chil- dren ; but in spiritual adoption this reason does not appear. The Almighty was under no obli- gation to do this; for he had innumerable spirits whom he had created, besides his own Son, who had all the perfections of the divine nature, who was the object of his delight, and who is styled the heir ot all things, Heb. i. 3. When men adopt, it is on account of some excellency in the persons who are adopted : thus Pharaoh's daugh- ter adopted Moses because he was exceeding fair, Acts vii. 20, 21 ; and Mordecai adopted Esther because she was his uncle's daughter, and ex- ceeding fair, Est. ii. 7; but man has nothing in him that merits this divine act, Ezek. xvi. 5. In civil adoption, though the name of a son be given, the nature of a son may not : this relation may not necessarily be attended with any change of disposition or temper. But in the spiritual adop- tion we are made partakers of the divine nature, and a temper or disposition given us becoming the relationship we bear. Jer. iii. l'J. Much has been said as to the time of adoption. Some place it before regeneration, liecause it is supposed we must be in the family l>efore we can be partakers of the blessings of it. But it is diffi- cult to conceive of one before the other; for al- though adoption may seem to precede regenera- tion in order of nature, yet not of time; they may be distinguished, but cannot be separated. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that be- lieve on his name." John i. 12. There is no adoption, says the great Chamock, without re- generation. "Adoption," says the same author, " is not a mere relation : the privilege and the image of the sons of God go together. A state of adoption is ntver without a separation from defileou-nt." 2 Cor. vi. 17. 18. The new name ADULTERY m adoption is never given till the new creature be formed "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Rom. viii. 11. Yet these are to be distinguished. Regeneration, as a physical act, gives us a likeness to God in our nature ; adoption, as a legal act, gives us a right to an inheritance. Regeneration makes us formally his sons, by conveying a principle, 1 Pet. i. 23; adoption makes us relatively his sons, by conveying a power, John i. 12. By the one we are instated in the divine affection; by the other we are partakers of the divine nature." See Ridgley's and Gill's Body of Div. art. Adoption; Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 32 — 72; FlaveVs Works, vol. ii. p. 601 ; Brown's System of Nat. and Rev. Religion, p. 442; Witsii (Econ. Feed. p. 165. ADORATION, the act of rendering divine honours, including in it reverence, esteem, and love : this is called supreme, or absolute. The word is compounded of ad, " to," and os, oris, "mouth:" and literally signifies to apply the hand to the mouth, "to kiss the hand;" this be- ing, in the eastern countries, one of the great marks of respect and submission. See Jobxxxi. 2(5, 27. The attitude of adoration, however, we find has not been confined to this mode; standing, kneeling, uncovering the head, prostration, bow- ing, lifting up the eyes to heaven, or sometimes fixing them upon the earth with the body bend- ing forward ; sitting with the under j>arts of the thighs resting on the heels, have all been used, as expressive of veneration and esteem. Whatever be the form, however, it must be remembered, that adoration, as an act of worship, is due to God alone, Matt. iv. 10. Acts x. 25, 26. Rev. xix. 10. There is, 2. what may be called adoration human, or paying homage or respect to persons of great rank and dignity. This has been performed by Itowing, bending the knee, falling on the face. The practice of adoration may be said to be still subsisting in England, in the ceremony of kiss- ing the king's or queen's hand, and in serving them at table, both being performed kneeling on one knee. There is also, 3. adoration relative, which consists in worship paid to an object as be- longing to or representative of another. In tliis sense the. Romanists profess to adore the cross, not simply or immediately, but in respect of Jesus Christ, whom they suppose to be on it. This is generally, however, considered by Protestants as coming little short of idolatry. See Idolatry. ADULTERY, an unlawful commerce be- tween one married person and another, or between a married and unmarried person. — 2. It is also used in Scripture for idolatry, or departing from the true God, Jer. iii. 9. — 3. Also for any species of impurity or crime against the virtue of chastity, Matt. v. 28. — 4. It is also used in ecclesiastical writers for a person's invading or intruding into a bishopric during the former bishop's lite. — 5. The word is also used in ancient customs for the punishment or fine imposed for that offence, or the privilege of prosecuting for it. Although adultery is prohibited by the law of God, yet some have endeavoured to explain away the moral tur- pitude of it ; but it is evident, observes Paley, that, on the part of the man who solicits the chastity of a married woman, it certainly includes the crime of seduction, and is attended with mischief still more extensive and complicated : it creates a new sufferer, the injured husband, upon whose 11 AERIANS affection is inflicted a wound the most painful and incurable that human nature knows. The infidelity of the woman is aggravated by cruelty to her children, who are generally involved in their parent's shame, and always made unhappy by their quarrel. The marriage vow is witnessed before God, and accompanied with circumstances of solemnity and religion which approach to the nature of an oath. The married offender, there- fore, incurs a crime little short of perjury, and the seduction of a married woman is little less than subornation of perjury. But the strongest apo- logy for adultery is, the prior transgression of the other party; and so far, indeed, as the bad effects of adultery are anticipated by the conduct of the husband or wife who offends first, the guilt of the second offender is extenuated. But this can never amount to a justification, uidess it could be shown that the obligation of the marriage vow depends upon the condition of reciprocal fidelity : a con- struction which appears founded neither in expe- diency, nor in the terms of the vow, nor in the design of the legislature, which prescribed the marriage rite. To consider the offence upon the footing of provocation, therefore, can by no means vindicate retaliation. " Thou shalt not commit adultery," it must ever be remembered, was an interdict delivered by God himself. This crime has been punished in almost all ages and nations. By the Jewish law it was punished with death in both parties, where either the woman was mar- ried, or both. Among the Egyptians, adultery in the man was punished by a thousand lashes with rods, and in the woman by the loss of her nose. The Greeks put out the eyes of the adul- terers. Among the Romans, it was punished by banishment, cutting off the ears, noses, and by sewing the adulterers in sacks, and tluowing them into the sea ; scourging, burning. &c. 1 n Spain and Poland they were almost as severe. The Saxons formerly burnt the adulteress, and over her ashes erected a gibbet, whereon the adulterer was hanged. King Edmund, in this kingdom, ordered adultery to be punished in the saTie manner as homicide. Canute ordered the man to be banished, and the women to ha\e hei nose and ears cut off. Modern punishments in different nations, do not seem to be so severe. In Britain it is reckoned a spiritual offence, and is cognizable by the spiritual courts, where it is pun- ished by fine and penance. Sec Paley's Alora^ and Political Philosophy, p. 309. vol. i, 12th edition. AERIANS, the name of a sect which arose in the fourth century, under the reign of Constau- tine, so called from Aerius, a presbyter of Scbas- tia in Pontus, their founder. The errors laid to the charge of Aerius by Epiphanius are, 1. That a presbyter or elder differs not in order and degree from a bishop, but he who is a presbyter is called a bishop. 2. That there is properly speaking no passover remaining to be observed or celebrated among Christians. 3. That fasts ought not to be fixed to certain and stated annual days and so- lemnities. 4. That prayers ought not to be offered for the dead. It must he accounted st.'ange, that these doctrines should, with orthodox Christians, ever be adduced as evidence of heresy. And, accordingly, the reader will find in the works ot Mr. John Glas, vol. iv. an able attempt to vindi- cate the character of Aerius from the opprobrium usually cast upon it by ecclesiastical writers. — B. AFFECTION AETIANS, those who maintained thai the Pirn and Holy Ghost were in all things dissimi- lar to the Father. They received their name from A'tius, one of the most zealous defenders of Arianism, who was l>orn in Syria, and flourished al>out the year 3".5(>. Besides the opinions which the Aetians held in common with the Arians, they maintained that faith without works was sufficient to salvation; and that no sin, how- ever grievous, would lie imputed to the faithful. Aetius, moreover, affirmed, that what God had ronceuled from the apostles, he had revealed to him. AFFECTION, in a philosophical sense, re- fers to the manner in which we are affected hy any thing for a continuance, whether painful or pleasant ; but in the most common sense, it may lie defined to be a settled bent of mind towards a particular being or thing. It holds a middle place between disposition on the one hand, and passion on the other. It is distinguishable from disposi- tion, which, being a branch of one's nature ori- ginally, must exist before there can be any op- portunity to exert it upon any particular object; whereas affection can never be original, because, having a special relation to a particular object, it cannot exist till the object have once, at least, been presented. It is also distinguishable from passion, which, depending on the real or ideal presence of its object, vanishes with its object ; whereas affection is a lasting connexion, and, like other connexions, subsists even when we do not think of the object. [See Disposition' and Passion.] The alfections, as they respect reli- gion, deserve in this place a little attention. They may be defined to be the "vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul towards religious objects." Whatever extremes stoics or enthusiasts have Tun into, it is evident that the exercise of the affections is essential to the existence of true religion. It is true, indeed, "that all affectionate devotion is not wise and rational ; but it is no less true, that all wise and rational devotion must be affectionate." The affections are the springs of action : they belong to our nature, so that with the Inghest percep- tions of truth and religion, we should be inactive without them. They have considerable influence on men, in the common concerns of life ; how much more, then, should they operate in those important objects that relate to the Divine Being, the immortality of the soul, and the happiness or misery of a future state ! The religion of the most eminent saints has always consisted in the exercise of holy aflections. Jesus Christ himself affords us an example of the most lively and vigorous aflections ; and we have every reason to believe that the employment of heaven consists in the exercise of them. In addition to all which, the Scriptures of truth teach us, that religion is nothing, if it occupy not the aflections, Deut. id. 4 and"). Deut. xxx. (3. Horn. xii. 11. 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Ps. xxvii. 11. A distinction, however, must be made between what may be merely natural, and what is truly spiritual. The affections may be excited in a natural way under ordinances by a natural im- pression, E/.ek. xxxiii. 32; by a natural syvipa- tliy, or by the natural temperament of our con- stitution. It is no sign that our affections are spiritual because they are raised very high ; pro- duce great eHects on the body ; excite us to be a AFFLICTION very zealous in externals; to be always conversing about ourselves, &c. These things are often found in these who are only mere professors of religion, Matt. vii. 21, 22. Now, in order to ascertain whether our affec- tions are excited in ;i spiritual manner, we must inquire whether that which moves our affections be truly spiritual; whether our consciences be alarmed, and our hearts impressed; whether the judgment lie enlightened, and we have a percep- tion of the moral excellency of divine things ; and, lastly, whether our affections have a holy ten- dency, and produce the happy effects of obedience to God, humility in ourselves, and justice to our fellow-creatures. As this is a subject worthy of close attention, the reader may consult Lord Kaimes's Elements of Criticism, vol. ii. p. 517; Edwards on the Affection*; Pike and Hayward's Cases of Conscience ; W'atls's J 'se and Abuse of the Passions ; M'Laurin' a Essays, sect. 5 and ti, where tins subject is handled in a masterly man- ner. AFFLICTION, that which causes a sensa- tion of pain. Calamity or distress of any kind. The afflictions of the saints are represented, in the Scripture, as appointed, 1 These, iii. 3. Job v. G, j ; numerous, Ps. xxxiv. 19; transient, 2 Cor. iv. 17. Heb. x. 37; and, when sanctified, beneficial, 1 Pet. i. 6. Ps. cxix. G7, 71. They wean from the world ; work submission ; produce humility ; excite to diligence ; stir up to prayer ; and conform us to the divine image. To bear them with patience, we should consider our own unwerthiness ; the design of God in sending them; the promises of support under them ; and the real good they are productive of. The afflic- tions of a good man, says an elegant writer, never befal without a cause, nor are sent but upon a pro- per errand. These storms are never allowed to rise but in order to dispel some noxious vapours, and restore salubrity to the moral atmosphere. Who that for the first time beheld the earth in the midst of winter, bound up with frost, or drenched in floods of rain, or covered with snow, would have ima- gined that nature, in this dreary and torpid state, was working towards its own renovation in the spring? Yet we by experience know that those vicissitudes of winter are necessary for fertilising the earth ; and that under wintry rains and snows lie concealed the seeds of those roses that are to blossom in the spring ; of those fruits that are to ripen in the summer ; and of the corn and wine which are, in harvest, fo make glad the heart of man. It would be more agreeable to us to be always entertained with a fair and clear atmo- sphere, with cloudless skies, and perpetual sun- shine ; yet in such climates as we have most knowledge of, the earth, were it always to remain in such a state, would refuse to yield its fruits ; and, in the midst of our imagined scenes of beauty, the starved inhabitants would perish for want of food. Let us, therefore, quietly submit to Provi- dence. Let us conceive this life to be the winter of our existence. Now the rains must fall, and the winds must roar around us; but, sheltering ourselves under Him who is the "covert from the tempest," let us wait with patience till the storms of life shall terminate in an everlasting calm. Blair's Ser. vol. v. ser. 5; Vincent, Case, and Adtlington, on Affliction; ll'illison's Afflicted Man's Companion. AGAPit, or Love-Feasts, (from <*> **•!,, AGNOET.E "love,") feasts of charity among the ancient Christians, when liberal contributions were made by the rich to the poor. St. Chrysostom gives the following account of this feast, which he de- rives from the apostolic practice. He says, — " The first Christians had all things in common, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles ; but when that equality of possessions ceased, as it did even in the apostles' time, the Agape or love-feast was substituted in the room of it. Upon certain days, after partaking of the Lord's Supper, they met at a common feast ; the rich bringing provisions, and the poor, who had nothing, being invited." It was always attended with receiving the holy sa- crament; but there is some difference between the ancient and modern interpreters as to the circumstance of time ; viz. whether this feast was held before or after the communion. St. Chry- sostom is of the latter opinion ; the learned Dr. Cave of the former. These love-feasts, during the first three centuries, were held in the church without scandal or offence; but in after-times the heathens began to tax them with impurity. This gave occasion to a reformation of these Agapse. The kiss of charity, with which the ceremony used to end, was no longer given be- tween different sexes ; and it was expressly for- bidden to have any beds or couches for tin conve- niency of those who should be disposed to tat more at their ease. Notwithstanding these pie- cautions, the abuses committed in them became so notorious, that the holding them (in churches at least) was solemnly condemned at the council of Carthage in the year 397. Attempts have been made, of late years, to revive these feasts : but in a different manner from the primitive custom, and, perhaps, with little edification. They are, how- ever, not very general. AGAPETiE, a name given to certain virgins and widows, who in the ancient church associated themselves with and attended on ecclesiastics, out of a motive of piety and charity. See Deacon- esses. AGENDA, among divines and philosophers, signify the duties which a man lies under an obligation to perform: thus we meet with the agenda of a Christian, or the duties he ought to i>erform, in opposition to the credenda, or tilings he is to believe. It is also applied to the ser- vice or office of the church, and to church books compiled by public authority, prescribing the or- der to be observed ; and amounts to the same as ritual, formulary, directory, missal, &c. AGENT, that which acts ; opposed topaticnt, or that which is acted upon. AGENTS, moral. See Moral Agent. AGNOET^E, (from *yv„£co, " to be ignorant of?') a sect which appeared about 370. They railed in question the omniscience of God ; alleg- ing that he knew things past only by memory, and things future only by an uncertain prescience. There arose another sect of the same name in the sixth century, who followed Themistius, deacon of Alexandria. They maintained that Christ was ignorant of certain things, and particularly of the time of the day of judgment. It is supposed they built their hypothesis on that passage in Mark xiii. 30. — "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man ; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." The meaning of which, most probably, is, that this was not known to the Messiah himself in his human 13 ALBIGENSES nature, or by virtue of his unction, as any part of the mysteries he was to reveal ; for, considering him as God, he could not be ignorant of any thing. AGNUS DEI, in the church of Rome, a cake of wax, stamped with the figure of a lamb sup- porting the banner of the cross. The name lite- rally signifies " Lamb of God." These cakes, being consecrated by the pope with great so- lemnity, and distributed among the people, are supposed to have great virtues. They cover them with a piece of stuff cut in the form of a heart, and carry them very devoutly in their processions. The Romish priests and religious derive conside- rable pecuniary advantage from selling them to some, and presenting them to others. AGONISTICI, a name given by Donatus to such of his disciples as he sent to fairs, markets, and other public places, to propagate his doctrine. Thev were called Agonistici from the Greek xyw, "combat," because they were sent, as it were, to fight and subdue the people to their opinions. See Doxatist. AGONYCLIT^E, a sect of Christians in the seventh century, who prayed always standing, as thinking it unlawful to kneel. AGYNIANI, a sect which appeared about 694. They condemned all use of flesh and mar- riage as not instituted by God, but introduced at the instigation of the devil. ALASCANI, a sect of Anti-lutherans in the sixteenth century, whose distinguishing tenet, besides their denying baptism, is said to have been this, that the words, " This is my body," in the institution of the eucharist, are not to be un- derstood of the bread, but of the whole action or celebration of the supper. ALBANENSES, a denomination which com- menced about the year 796. They held, with the Gnostics and Manicheans, two principles, the one of good, and the other of evil. They denied the divinity and even the humanity of Jesus Christ ; asserting that he was not truly man, did not suffer on the cross, die, rise again, nor really ascend into heaven. They rejected the doctrine of the resur- rection, affirmed that the general judgment was past, and that hell torments were no other than the evils we feel and sutler in this life. They denied free-will, did not admit original sin, and never administered baptism to infants. They held that a man can give the Holy Spirit of him- self, and that it is unlawful for a Christian to take an oath. This denomination derived their name from the place where their spiritual ruler resided. See Manicheans and Catheimst. ALBANOIS, a denomination which sprung up in the eighth century, and renewed the great- est part of the Manichean principles. They also maintained that the world was from eternity. See Manicheans. ALBIGENSES, a party of reformers about Toulouse and the Alhigeois, in Languedoc, who sprung up in the twelfth century, and distinguish- ed themselves by their opposition to the church of Rome. They were charged with many errors by the monks of those days ; but from these charges they are generally acquitted by the Protestants, who consider them only as the inventions of the Romish church to blacken their character. The Albigenses grew so formidable, that the Catholics agreed upon a holy league or crusade against them. Pope Innocent III. desirous to put a B ALMARICIANS stop to their progress, stirred up the great men of the kingdom to make war upon them. After suffering from their persecutors, they dwindled by little and little, till the time of the Reformation ; when such of them as were left, fell in with the Vaudois, and conformed to the doctrine of Zuin- glius, and the disciples of Geneva. The Albi- genses have been frequently confounded with the Waldenses ; from whom it is said they differ in many respects, both as being prior to them in point of time, as having their origin in a different country, and as being charged with divers here- sies, particularly Manicheism, from which the Waldenses were exempt. See Wai.df.nses. ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT, a fa- mous copy of the Scriptures, in four volumes quarto. It contains the whole Bible in Greek, including the Old and New Testament, with the Apocrypha and some smaller pieces, but not quite complete. It is preserved in the British Museum : it was sent as a present to king Charles I, from Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople, by Sir Thomas Rowe, ambassador from England to the Grand Seignior, about the year 1628. Cyril- lus brought it with him from Alexandria, where probably it was written. In a schedule annexed to it, he gives this account : — That it was written, as tradition informed them, by Thecla, a noble Egyptian lady, about 1300 years ago, not long after the council of Nice. But this high anti- quity, and the authority of the tradition to which the patriarch refers, have been disputed ; nor are the most accurate biblical writers agreed about its age. Grabe tliinks that it might have been writ- ten before the end of the fourth century ; others are of opinion that it was not written till near the end of the fifth century, or somewhat later. See Dr. Woide's edition of it. ALEXANDRIAN VERSION, another name for the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, so called from its having been made at the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, for the use of the great library at Alexandria. See Septuagint. — B. ALKORAN. See Koran. ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF GOD, is that power or attribute of his nature whereby he is able to communicate as much blessedness to his crea- tures as he is pleased to make them capable of re- ceiving. As his self-sufficiency is that whereby he has enough in himself to denominate him completely blessed, as a God of infinite perfection ; so his all-sufficiency is that by which he hath enough in liimself to satisfy the most enlarged dt'sirvs of his creatures, and to make them com- pletely blessed. We practically deny this perfec- tion, when we are discontented with our present condition, and desire more than God has allotted f>r us, Gen. iii. 5. Prov. xix. 3. Ridgley's Body of Div. ques. 17 ; Saurin's Scr. scr. 5. vol. i. : Barrow's Works, vol. ii. ser. 11. ALMARICIANS, a denomination that arose in the thirteenth century. They derived their origin from Almaric, professor of logic and the- ology at Paris. 11:.* adversaries charged him with having taught that every Christian was obliged to believe himself a member of Jesus Christ, and that without this belief none could be saved. His followers aaserta I that the power of the Father had Continued only during the Mosaic dispensation, that of the Son twelve hundred years after his en- trance upon earth; and that in the thirteenth 11 AMAURITES century the age of the Holy Spirit commence^ in which the sacraments, and all external wor- ships were to be abolished ; and that every one was to be saved by the internal operation of the Holy Spirit alone, without any external act of re- ligion. ALMONER, a person employed by another, in the distribution of charity. In its primitivo sense it denoted an officer in religious houses, to whom belonged the management and distribution of the alms of the house. ALMS, what is given gratuitously for the re- lief of the poor, and in repairing the churches. That alms-giving is a duty is every way evident from the variety of passages which enjoin it in the sacred Scriptures. It is observable, however, what a number of excuses are made by those who are not found in the exercise of the duty; 1. That they have nothing to spare ; 2. That cha- rity begins at home; 3. That charity does not consist in giving money, but in benevolence, love to all mankind, &c. ; 4. That giving to the poor is not mentioned in St. Paul's description of charity, 1 Cor. xiii; 5. That they pay the poor- rates; 6. That they employ many poor persons, 7. That the poor do not sutler so much as we imagine ; 8. That these people, give them what you will, will never be thankful ; 9. That we are liable to be imposed upon ; 10. That they should apply to their parishes ; 11. That giving money encourages idleness; 12. That we have too many objects of charity at home. O the love of money, how fruitful is it in apologies for a con- tracted mercenary spirit ! In giving of alms, how- ever, the following rules should be observed: first, They should be given with justice ; only our own, to which we have a just right, should be given. 2. With cheerfuhiess, Deut. xv. 10. 2. Cor. ix. 7. 3. With simplicity and sincerity, Rom. xii. Matt. vi. 3. 4. With compassion and affection, Is. Iviii. 10. 1 John iii. 17. 5. Season- ably, Gal. vi. 10. Prov. iv. 27. 0. Bountifully Deut. xviii. 11. 1 Tim. vi. 18. 7. Prudently, according to every one's need, 1 Tim. v. 8. Acts iv. 35. See Dr. Barrow's admirable Sermon on Bounty to the Poor, which took him tip three hours and a half in preaching ; Saurin's Ser vol. iv. Eng. Trans, ser. 9; Palcy's J/or. PhL. ch. 5. vol. i. ALOGIANS, a sect of ancient heretics who denied that Jesus Christ was the Logos, and con- sequently rejected the Gospel of St. John. The word is compounded of the privative a and >.«> °; q. d. without logos, or word. They made their ap- pearance toward the close of the second century. ALTAR, a kind of table or raised structure whereon the ancient sacrifices were offered. 2. The table, in Christian churches, where the Lord's Supper is administered. Altars are, doubt- less, of great antiquity ; some suppose they wore as early as Adam ; but there is no mention made of them till after the flood, when Noah built one, and offered burnt-offerings on it. The Jews had two altars in and about tlieir temple ; 1. the altar of burnt offerings ; 2. the altar of incense : some also call the table for shew-brcad an altar, but improperly, Exod. sx. 24, 25. 1 Kings xviii. 30. Exod. xxv. xxvii. and xxx. Heb. ix. AMAURITES, the followers of Amauri, a clergyman of Bonne, in the thirteenth century. He acknowledged the divine Three, to whom he attributed the empire of the world. But, ac- AMYRALDISM rording to him, religion had three epochas, which bore a similitude to the reign of the three persons in the Trinity. The reign of God had existed as I jng as the law of Moses. The reign of the Son would not always last. A time would come when the sacraments should cease, and then the religion of the Holy Ghost would begin, when men would render a spiritual worship to the Su- preme Being. This reign Amauri thought would succeed to the Christian religion, as the Christian had succeeded to that of Moses. AMAZEMENT, a term sometimes employ- ed to express our wonder; but it is rather to be considered as a medium between wonder and astonishment. It is manifestly borrowed from the extensive and complicated intricacies of a laby- rinth, in which there are endless mazes, without the discovery of a clue. Hence an idea is con- veyed of more than simple wonder ; the mind is lost in wonder. See Wonder. AMBITION, a desire of excelling, or at least of being thought to excel, our neighbours in any thing. It is generally used in a bad sense for an immoderate or illegal pursuit of power or honour. See Praise. AMEDIANS, a congregation of religious in Italy ; so called from their professing themselves amantes Deum, "lovers of God;" or rather amati Deo, "beloved of God." They wore a grey habit and wooden shoes, had no breeches, and girt themselves with a cord. They had twenty- eight convents, and were united by pope Pius V. partly with the Cistercian order, and partly with that of the Soccolanti, or wooden shoe wearers. AMEN, a Hebrew word, which, when pre- fixed to an assertion, signifies assuredly, cer- tainly, or emphatically so it is ; but when it con- cludes a prayer, so be it, or so let it be, is its ma- nifest import. In the former case it is assertive, or assures of a truth or a fact ; and is an asse- veration and is properly translated, verily, John lii. 3. In the latter case it is petitionary, and, as it were, epitomises all the requests with which it stands connected. Numb. v. 25. Rev„xxii. 20. This emphatical term was not used among the Hebrews by detached individuals only, but, on certain occasions, by an assembly at large. Deut. xxii. 14. 20. It was adopted, also, in the public worship of the primitive churches, as appears by that passage, 1 Cor. xiv. 16, and was continued among the Christians in following times; yea, such was the extreme into which many ran, that Jerome informs us, that, in his time, at the con- clusion of every public prayer, the united amen of the people sounded like the fall of water, or the noise of thunder. Nor is the practice of some professors in our own time to be commended, who, with a low, though audible voice, add their amen to almost every sentence as it proceeds from the lips of him who is praying. As this has a tendency to interrupt the devotion of those that are near them, and may disconcert the; thoughts of him who leads the worship, it would be better omitted, and a mental amen is sufficient. The term, as used at the end of our prayers, sug- gests that we should pray with understanding, faith, fervour and expectation. See Mr. Booth's Amen to Social Prayer. AMMONIANS. See New Platonics. AMYRALDISM, a name given by some writers to the doctrine of universal grace, as ex- plained and asserted by Amyraldus, or Moses 15 ANABAPTISTS Amyrault and others his followers, among the rof brined in France, towards the middle of the seventeenth century. This doctrine principally consisted of the following particulars, \iz. that God desires the happiness of all men, and none are excluded by a divine decree ; that none can obtain salvation without faith in Christ ; that God refuses to none the power of believing, though he does not grant to all liis assistance that they may improve this power to saving pur- poses ; and that they may perish through their own fault. Those who embraced this doctrine were called Universalists , though it is evident they rendered grace universal in words, butpa?- tial in reality. See Cameronites. ANABAPTISTS, those who maintain that baptism ought always to be performed by immer- sion. The word is compounded of »>, " anew," and &x7rTtis, " a Baptist ;" signifying that those who have been baptized in their infancy ought to be baptized anew. It is a word which has been indiscriminately applied to Christians of very dif- ferent principles and practices. The English and Dutch Baptists do not consider the word as at all applicable to their sect; because those persons whom they baptize they consider as never having been baptized before, although they have under- gone what they term the ceremony of sprinkling in their infancy. The Anabaptists of Germany, besides their notions concerning baptism, depended much upon certain ideas which they entertained concerning a perfect church establishment, pure in its members, and free from the institutions of human policy. The most prudent part of them considered it pos- sible, by human industry and vigilance, to purify the church ; and seeing the attempts of Luther to be successful, they hoped that the period was arrived in which the church was to be restored to this purity. Others, not satisfied with Luther's plan of reformation, undertook a more perfect plan, or, more properly, a visionary enterprise, to found a new church, entirely spiritual and divine. This sect was soon joined by great numbers, whose characters and capacities were very dif- ferent. Their progress was rapid : for, in a very short space of time, their discourses, visions, and predictions, excited great commotions in a great part of Europe. The most pernicious taction of all those which composed this motley mu'titude, was that which pretended that the founders, of this new and -perfect church were under a divine im pulse, and were armed against all opposition by the power of working miracles. It was this fac- tion, that, in the year 1521, began their fanatical work under the guidance of Munzer, Stubner, Storick, &c. These men taught, that, among Christians, who had the precepts of the Gospel to direct, and the Spirit of God to guide them, the office of magistracy was not only unnecessary, but an unlawful encroachment on their spiritual li- berty ; that, the distinctions occasioned by birth, rank, or wealth should be abolished ; that all Christians, throwing their possessions into one stock, should live together in that state of equality which becomes members of the same family ; that, as neither the laws of nature, nor the pre- cepts of the New Testament, had prohibited polygamy, they should use the same liberty as the patriarchs did in this respect. They employed, at first, the various arts of persuasion, in order to propagate their doctrines ANAGOGICAL «nd related a number of visions and revelations, with which they pretended to have been favoured from above: but, whcji they found that this would not avail, and that the ministry of Luther and other reformers was detrimental to their cause, they then madly attempted to propagate their sentiments by force of arms. Munzer and his associates, in the year 1525, put themselves at the head of a numerous army, and declared war against, all laws, governments, and magistrates of every kind, under the chimerical pretext, that Christ himself was now to take the reins of all government into his hands: but this seditious crowd was routed and dispersed by the elector of Saxony and other princes, and Munzer, their leader, put to death. Many of his followers, however, survived, and propagated their opinions through Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. In 1533, a party of them settled at Munster, under two leaders of the names of Matthias and Bockholdt. Having made themselves masters of the city, they deposed the magistrates, confiscated the estates of such as had escaped, and deposited the wealth in a public treasury for common use. They made prepara- tions for the defence of the city; invited the A nabaptists in the Low Countries to assemble at Munster, which they called Mount Sion, that from thence they might reduce all the nations of the earth under their dominion. Matthias was soon cut off by the bishop of Munster's army, and was succeeded by Bockholdt, who was proclaimed by a special designation of heaven, as the pretended king of Sion, and invested with legislative powers like those of Moses. The city of Munster, how- ever, was taken, after a long siege, and Bockholdt punished with death. It must be acknowledged that the true rise of the insurrections of this period ought not to be attributed to religious opinions. The (irst insur- gents groaned under severe oppressions, and took up arms in defence of their civil liberties; and of these commotions the Anabaptists seem rather to have availed themselves, than to have been the prime movers. That a great part were Anabap- tists seems indisputable; at the same time, it ap- pears from history, that a great part also were lloman Catholics, and a still greater part of those who had scarcely any religious principles at all. Indeed, when we read of the vast numbers that were concerned in these insurrections, of whom it is reported that 100,000 fell by the sword, it ap- pears reasonable to conclude that they were not all Anabaptists. It is but justice to observe also, that the Bap- tists in England and Holland are to be considered in a different light from those above mentioned: they profess an equal aversion to all principles of rebellion on the one hand, and to enthusiasm on the other. See Robertson's Hist, of Charles V. ; Enc. Brit. vol. i. p. 644; and articles Baptists u:id Mennonites. ANACHORETS, or Anchorites, a sort of monks in the primitive church, who retired from the society of mankind into some desert, with a view to avoid the temptations of the world, and to be more at leisure for prayer, meditation, &c. Such were Paul, Anthony, and Ililarion, the first founders of monastic life in Egypt and Pa- lestine. ANAGOGICAL, signifies mysterious, trans- porting : and Lj used to express whatever elevates 16 ANATHEMA the mTnd, not only to the knowledge of divine things, but of divine things in the next life. Tha word js seldom used, but with regard to the dif- ferent senses of the Scripture. The anagogical sense is when the sacred text is explained with regard to eternal life, the point which Christians should have in view ; for example, the rest of the sabbath, in the anagogical sense, signifies the re- pose of everlasting happiness. ANALOGY OF FAITH, is the proportion that the doctrines of the Gospel bear to each other, or the close connection between the truths of re- vealed religion, Rom. xii. 6. This is considered as a grand rule for understanding tlie true sense of Scripture. It is evident that the Almighty doth not act without a design in the system of Chris- tianity, any more than he does in the works of nature. Now this design must be uniform ; for as in the system of the universe every part is pro- portioned to the whole, and made subservient to it, so in the system of the Gospel all the various truths, doctrines, declarations, precepts, and pro- mises, must correspond with and tend to the end designed. For instance, supposing the glory of God in the salvation of man by free grace be the grand design ; then, whatever doctrine, assertion, or hypothesis, agree not with this, is to he con- sidered as false. — Great care, however, must be taken, in making use of this method, that the in- quirer previously understand the whole scheme, and that he harbour not a predilection only for a part ; without attention to this, we shall be liable to error. If we come to the Scriptures with any preconceived opinions, and are more desirous to put that sense upon the text which quadrates with our sentiments, rather than the truth, it be- comes then the analogy of our faith, rather than that of the whole system. This was the source of the error of the Jews, in our Saviour's time. They searched the Scriptures; but, such were their favourite opinions, that they could not, or would not, discover that the sacred volume testi- fied of Christ. And the reason was evident ; for their great rule of interpretation was, what they might call the analogy of faith, i.e. the system of the Pharisean scribes, the doctrine then in vogue, and in the profound veneration of which they had been educated. Perhaps there is hardly any sect but what has more or less been guilty in this respect. It may, however, be of use to the serious and candid inquirer ; for, as some texts may seem to contradict each other, and difficulties present themselves, by keeping the analogy of faith in view, he will the more easily resolve those difficul- ties, and collect the true sense of the sacred ora- cles. What "the aphorisms of Hippocrates are to a physician, the axioms in geometry to a ma- thematician, the adjudged cases in law to a coun- sellor, or the maxims of war to a general, such is the analogy of faith to a Christian.'' Of the analogy of religion to the constitution and course of nature, we must refer our readers to Bishop Butler's excellent treatise on that subject. AN ATHEM A, imports whatever is set apart, separated, or divided ; but is most, usually meant to express the cutting off of a person from the communion of the faithful. It was practised in the primitive church against notorious offenders. Several councils also have pronounced anathe- mas against such as they thought corrupted the purity of the faith. Anai'hcma MaraimHia, men- tioned by Paul, (1 Cor. xiv. 22,) imports that he ANGELS who Io'ts not the Lord Jesus will be accursed at Lis coming. Anathema signifies a thing devoted to destruction, and Maranatha is a Svriac word, signifying the Lord comes. It is proba'ble in this passage there is an allusion to the form of the Jews,° who, when unable to inflict so great a punishment as the crime deserved, devoted the culprit to the immediate vindictive retribution of divine vengeance, both in this life and in a future state. ANDRONA, a term used for that part in churches which was destined for the men. An- ciently, it was the custom for the men and women to have separate apartments in places of worship, where they performed their devotions asunder, which method is still religiously observed in the Greek church. ANGEL, a spiritual intelligent substance, the first in rank and dignity among created beings. The word angel (xyy.Ke;) is Greek, and signifies a messenger. The Hebrew word "1X7E signi- fies the same. Angels, therefore, in the proper signification of the word, do not import the na- ture of any being, but only the office to which they are appointed, especially by way of message or intercourse between God and his creatures. Hence the word is used differently in various parts of the Scripture, and signifies, 1. Human messengers, or agents for others. 2 Sam. ii. 5. "David sent messengers (Heb. angels) to Jabesh Gilead." PAv. xiii. 17. Mark i. 2. James ii. 25. — 2. Officers of the churches, whether pro- phets or ordinary ministers, Hag. i. 13. Rev. i. 20.— 3. Jesus Christ, Mai. iii. 1. Is. lxiii. 9.— 4. Some add the dispensations of God's provi- dence, either beneficial or calamitous, Gen. xxiv. 7. Ps. xxxiv. 7. Acts xii. 23. 1 Sam. xiv. 14 ; but I must confess, that, though I do not at all see tbe impropriety of considering the providences of God as his angels or messengers for good or for evil, yet the passages generally adduced under this head do not prove to me that the providences of God are meant in distinction from created an- gels.— 5. Created intelligences, both good and bad. Heb. i. 14. Jude vi. ; the subject of the pre- sent article. — As to the time when the angels were created, much has been said by the learned. Some wonder that Moses, in his account of the creaiion, should pass over this in silence. Others suppose that he did this because of the proneness of the Gentile world, and even the Jews, to idola- try : but a better reason has been assigned by others, viz. that, this first history was purposely and principally written for information concerning the visible world; the invisible, of which we know but in part, being reserved for a better life. Some think that the idea of God's not creating them before this world was made, is very con- tracted. To suppose, say they, that no creatures whatever, neither angels nor other worlds, had been created previous to the creation of our world, is to suppose that a Being of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, had remained totally inactive from all eternity, and had per- mitted the infinity of space to continue a perfect vacuum till within tluse 6000 years ; that such an idea only tends to discredit revelation, instead of serving it. On the other hand it is alleged, that they must have been created within the six days; because it is said, that within this space God made heaven and earth, and all things that arc therein. It is, however, a needless; specula- 1 17 C ANGELS tion, and we daTe not indulge a spirit of conjec- ture. It is our happiness to know tnat they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who are heirs of salvation. As to the nature of these beings, we are told that they are spirits; but whether pure spirits, divested of all matter, or united to some thin bodies, or corpo- real vehicles, has been a controversy of long stand- ing ; the more general opinion is, that they are sub- stances entirely spiritual, though they can at any time assume bodies, and appear in human shape, Gen. xviii. xix. and xxxii. Matt, xxviii. Lukei. &c. The Scriptures represent them asendued with extraordinary wisdom and power, 2 Sam. xiv. 20. Ps. ciii. 20 ; holy and regular in their inclinations; zealous in their employ, and completely happy in their minds, Job xxxviii. 7. Heb. i. 7. Matt, xviii. 10. Their number seems to be great, Ps. Ixviii. 17. Heb. xii. 22 ; and perhaps have dis- tinct orders, Col. i. 16, 17. 1 Pet. iii. 22. 1 Thee, iv. 16. Dan. x. 13. They are delighted with the grand scheme of redemption, and the conversion of sinners to God, Luke ii. 12. 1 Pet. i. 12. Luke xv. 10. They not only worship God, and exe- cute his commands at large, but are attendant on the saints of God while here below, Ps. xci. 11, 12. Heb. i. 13. Luke xvi. 22. Some conjecture that every good man has his particular guardian angel, Matt, xviii. 10. Acts xii. 15 ; but this is easier to be supposed than to be proved ; nor is it a matter of consequence to know. "What need we dispute," says Henry, "whether every particular saint has a guardian angel, when we arc sure he has a guard of angels about him?" They will gather the elect in the last day, attend the final judgment, Matt. xxv. 31. Rev. xiv. 18. Matt. xiii. 39 ; and live for ever in the world of glory, Luke xx. 36. Although the angels were originally created perfect, yet they were mutable : some of them sinned, and kept not their fust estate; and so, of the most blessed and glorious, became the most vile and miserable of all God's creatures. They were expelled the regions of light, and with hea- ven lost their heavenly disposition, and loll into a settled rancour against God, and malice against men. What their offence was is difficult to de- termine, the Scripture being silent about it. Some think envy, others unbelief; but most suppose it was pride. As to the time of their fall, we are certain it could not be before tbe sixth day of the creation, because on that day it is said, "God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good ;" but that it was not long after, is very probable, as it must have preceded the fail of our first parents. The number of the fallen angels seems to be great, and, like the holy angels, per- haps, have various orders among them, Mat!, xii. 21. Eph. ii. 2. vi. 12. Col. ii. 15. Rev. xii. 7. Their constant employ is not only doing evil themselves, but endeavouring by all arts to seduce and pervert mankind, 1 Pet. v. 8. Job. i. 6. It is supposed they will be restrained during the millennium, Rev. xx. 2 ; but afterwards again, for a short tune, deceive the nations, Rev. xx. 8; and then be finally punished, Matt. xxv. 41. The authors who have written on this subject have been very numerous; we shad only refer to a few : Reynolds's Inquiry: into the Slate and (Kcu~ nomy of Ike Angelical World ; Cudworth's In tclleciu-al System ; Doddridge's LeeL p. 10. lect. 210 to 214 ; Mili-m's Paradise Lvat i Up. .Yckk b2 ANGER ion's Works, vol hi. p. 538. 566 ; Slicpherd of An- gvU, Gilpin on Temptation} CasmwtniAngeh- ip-ciphi'i; QUI and Ridgelcy's Bodies of Divinity. A.NGELITE8, a sect in the reign of the Em- beror Anastasius, about the year 404; so called from Angeliom, a place iii the city of .Alexandria, where they held their first meetings. They were called likewise Seterites, from Severus, who was the head of their sect ; as also Theodoeiana, from one. Theodosius, whom they made Pope at Alex- andria. They held that tlie persons of the Tri- nity are not the same ; that none of them exists of himself, and of his own nature ; lint that there is a common God or Deity existing in them all, and that each is God by a participation of this Deity. ANGER, a violent passion of the mind, arising upon the receipt, or supposed receipt, of any in- jury, with a present purpose of revenge. All anger is by do means sinful; it was designed by the Author of our nature for self-defence : nor is it altogether a selfish passion, since it is excited hv injuries offered to others as well as ourselves, and sometimes prompts us to reclaim offenders from sin and danger, Eph. iv. 2*3, but it becomes sinful when conceived upon trivial occasions or inadequate provocations ; when it breaks forth into outrageous actions : vents itself in reviling language, or is concealed in our thoughts to the degree of hatred. To suppress this passion, the following reflections of Archdeacon Paley may not be unsuitable: — "We should consider the possibility of mistaking the motives from which the conduct that offends us proceeded ; how often our offences have been the effect of inadvertency, when they were construed into indications of ma- lice ; the inducement which prompted our adver- sary to act as he did, and how powerfully the same inducement has, at one time or other, operated upon ourselves ; that he is suffering, perhaps, under a contrition, which he is ashamed, or wants opportunity, to confess; and how ungenerous it is to triumph, by coldness or insult, over a spirit already humbled in secret ; that the returns of kindness are sweet, and that there is neither honour, nor virtue, noi use, in resisting them ; for some persons think themselves bound to cherish and keep alive their indignation, when they find it dying away of itself. Vie may remember that others have their passions, their prejudices, their favourite aims, their fears, their cautions, their interests, their sudden impulses, their varieties of apprehension, as well as we : we may recollect what has sometimes passed in our own minds when we have got on the wrong side of a quarrel, and imagine the same to be passing in our adver- sary's mind now: when we became sensible of - jects beyond the^grasp of human intellect, and that speculations upon them are entirely profit- less.— B. ANTICHRIST ANNUNCIATION, the tidings brought by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of the in- carnation of Cnrist. It is also usen to denote a festival kept by the church on the 25tn of March, in commemoration of those tidings. ANOMOEANS, the name by which the pure Arians were called in the fourth century, in con- tra-distinction to the Semi-arians. The word is formed from the Greek «vo/ioio;, different. See Arians and Semi-arians. ANTEDILUVIANS, a general name for all mankind who lived before the flood, including the whole human race from the creation to the de- luge. For the history of the Antediluvians, see Book of Genesis, Wfiiston'sJosephus. Cockbum's Treatise on the Deluge, and article Deluge. ANTHEM, a church song performed in ca- thedral service by choristers who sung alternately. It was used to denote both psalms and hymns, when performed in this manner ; but, at present, anthem is used in a more confined sense, being applied to certain passages taken out of the Scriptures, and adapted to a particular solemnity. Anthems were first introduced in the reformed service of the English church, in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. ANTHROPOMORPHITES, a sect of an- cient heretics, who, taking every thing spoken of God in the Scripture in a literal sense, particu- larly that passage of Genesis in which it is said, "God made man after his own image," main- tained that God had a human shape. ANTHROPOPATHY, a figure, expression, or discourse, whereby some passion is attributed to God which properly belongs only to man. Anthropopathy is frequently used promiscuously with anthropology ; yet in strictness they ought to be distinguished, as the genus from the species, Anthropology may be understood of any thing human attributed to God, as eyes, hands, &c. but anthropopathy only of human alfections and pas- sions, as joy, grief. We have frequent instances of the use of these figures in holv Scripture. ANTIBURGHERS, a numerous and re- spectable body of dissenters from the church of Scotland, who differ from the established church chiefly in matters of church government; and who differ, also, from the Burgher seceders, with whom they were originally united, chiefly, if not solely, respecting the lawfulness of taking the Burgess oath. For an account of their origin anil principles, see Seceders. ANTICHRIST, from «,.T«, against, and Xe<, when Pepin wrested the ex- archate of Ravenna from the Lombards, and made it over to the pope and liis successors. ANTICHRIST ANTINOMIANS Others think that it was in 727, when Rome and [ own will. See Up. Newton on Hie Prophecies the Roman dukedom came from the Greeks to >limpsons's Key to ditto; the Roman pontiff. Mede dates his rise in the vcar 456; hut others, ami I think with the great- est reason, place it in the year GOG. Now, it is generally agreed that the rei:_rn of Antichrist is 1360 years; consequently, it' his rise is not to be reckoned till he was possessed of secular autho- rity, then his fall must be when this power is taken away. According to the first opinion, he must have possessed his temporal power till the year "201G; according to the second, he must have possessed it till the year li)87. If his rise began, according to Medc, in 45G, then he must have fallen in 1716. Now that these dates were wrong, circumstances have proved; the first and second being too late, and the third too early. As these hypotheses, therefore, must fall to the ground, it remains for us to consider why the last-mentioned is the more probable. It was about the year GOG that pope Boniface III., by flattering Phoeas, the emperor of Constantinople, one of the worst of tyrants, procured for himself the title of Universal Bishop. The bishops of Rome and Constantinople had long been strug- gling for this honour; at last, it was decided in favour of the bishop of Rome ; and from this time he was raised above all others, and his supremacy established by imperial authority: it was now, also, that the most profound ignorance, debauch- ery, and superstition reigned. From this time the popes exerted all their power in promoting the idolatrous worship of images, saints, reliques, and angels. The church was truly deplorable ; all the clergy were given up to the most flagrant ami abominable acts of licentiousness. Places of worship resembled the temples of heathens more than the churches of Christians; in tine, nothing could exceed the avarice, pride, and vanity of all the bishops, presbyters, deacons, and even the cloistered monks! All this fully answered the description St. Paul gave of Antichrist, 2 Thess. ii. It is necessary also to observe, that this epoch agrees best with the time when, according to prophecy, he was to be revealed. The rise of Antichrist was to be preceded by the dissolution of the Roman empire, the establishment of a dif- ferent form of government in Italy, and the divi- sion of the empire into ten kingdoms; all these events taking place, make it very probable that the year 606 was the time of his rise. Nor have the events of the last century made it less proba- ble. The power of the pope was never so much shaken as within a few years : " his dominion is, in a great measure, taken from him;" and every thing seems to be going on gradually to terminate his authority, so that, by the time this PJGO years shall be concluded, we may suppose that Anti- christ shall he finally destroyed. As to the cruelties of Antichrist, the persecu- tions that have been carried on, and the miseries to which mankind have been subject, by the power of the beast, the reader may consult the articles Inuuikition and Pf.rskcutiov. In this we have to rejoice, that, however various the opinions of the learned may be as to the time when Antichrist rose, it is evident to all that he is fast declining, and will certainly fall, Rev. xviii. 1, 5. What means the Almighty may further i>se, the exact time w hen, and the manner how, ill shall he accomplished, we must leave to Him who urdereth all thing! after the counsel of his •JO mpsons's Key to ditto; Moseleifa Set. on Pm, of Babylon ; Ward's Three Discourses on Pro- phecy, and Iwoks under that articic. ANT1CHRISTIANISM, a state or quality in persons or principles, which denominates then, antichristian or opposite to the kingdom of Christ. M. Jurieu takes the idea of the visible unity of the church to have been the source of Anti- christianism. Had not manKind been infatuateo with this, they would never have stood in such awe of the anathemas of Rome. It was on this the popes erected their monarchical power. ANTIDORON, a name given by the Greeks to the consecrated bread ; out of which tho mid- dle part, marked with the cross, wherein the con- secration resides, being taken away by the priest, the remainder is distributed after mass to the poor. ANTINOMIANS, those who maintain that the law is of no use or obligation under the Gos- pel dispensation, or who hold doctrines that clearly supersede the necessity of good works. The An- tinomians took their origin from John Agricola, about the year 1538, who taught that the law is no way necessary under the Gospel ; that good works do not promote our salvation, nor ill ones hinder it ; that repentance is not to be preached from the decalogue, but only from the GospeL This sect sprung up in England during the pro- tectorate of Cromwell, and extended their system of libertinism much farther than Agricola did. Some of them, it is said, maintained, that if they should commit any kind of sin, it would do them no hurt, nor in the least affect their eternal state ; and that it is one of the distinguishing characters of the elect, that they cannot do any thing dis- pleasing to God. It is necessary, however, to observe here, and candour obliges us to confess, that there have been others, who have been styled Antinomians, who cannot, strictly speaking, be ranked with these men ; nevertheless, the un- guarded expressions they have advanced, the bold positions they have laid down, and the dou- ble construction which might so easily be put upon many of their sentences, have led some to charge them with Antinomian principles. For instance ; when they have asserted justification to be eternal, without distinguishing between the secret determination of God in eternity and the execution of it in time ; when they have spoken lightly of good works, or asserted that believers have nothing to do with the law of God, without fully explaining what they mean ; when they as- sert that God is not angry with his people for their sins, nor in any sense punishes them for them, without distinguishing between fatherly correction and vindictive punishment; these things, whatever be the private sentiments of those who advance them, have a tendency to in- jure the minds of many. It has been alleged, that the principal thing they have had in view, was to counteract those legal doctrines which have so much abounded among the self-righteous ; but granting this to be true, there is no occasion to run from one extreme to another. Had many of those writers proceeded with more caution, been less dogmatical, mere explicit in the expla- nation of their sentiments, and possessed more candour towards those who uift'ered from them, they would have been more serviceable to th« cause of truth and religion. Some of the chief of those who have been charged as favouring the ANTITYPE above sentiments are, Crisp, Richardson, Salt- marsh, Husscy, Eatom, Town, ijixs avTiTujrov vuv vji'O' &xx-Ti, from, an J APOSTACY «3u^T»), to hide, or conceal. They seem most of them to have bean composed by Jews. None of the writers of the New Testament mention hem; neither Philo nor Josephus speak of them. The Christian church was for some ages a stran- ger to them. Onsen, Athanasius, Hilary, Cyril of Jerusalem, ami all the orthodox writers who have given catalogues of the canonical hooks of Scripture, unanimously concur in rejecting these out of the canon. The Protestants acknowledge such hooks of Scripture only to be canonical as were esteemed to be so in the first ages of the church ; such as are cited by the earliest writers among the Christians, as of divine authority, and after the most diligent inquiry, were received and judged to be so by the council of Laodicea. They were written alter the days of Malachi, in whom, according to the universal testimony of the Jews, the spirit of prophecy ceased, Mai. iv. 4 — G. Not one of the writers in direct terms advances a claim to inspiration. They contain fables, lies, and contradictions. 1 Maccabees, vi. 4, 1G. 2 Maccabees, i. 13, 1G. ix. 28. The apocryphal books are in general believed to be canonical by the church of Rome; and, even by the sixth ar- ticle of the church of England, they are ordered to be read for example of life and instruction of manners, though it doth not apply them to esta- blish any doctrine. Other reformed churches do not so much as make even this use of them. See Pridcaux's Connection, vol. i. p. 36 — 42; Lee's Dis. on Esdras; Dick on Inspiration, p. 344 ; Alexander on the Canon ; Home's Introduction, vol. iv. p. 239. APOLLINARIANS were ancient heretics, who denied the proper humanity of Christ, and maintained that the body he assumed was en- dowed with a sensitive and not a rational soul ; but that the divine nature supplied the place of the intellectual principle in man. This sect de- rived its name from Apollinaris, bishop of Lao- dicea. Their doctrine was first condemned by a council at Alexandria in 302, and afterwards in a more formal manner by a council at Rome in 373, and by another council in 378, which de- posed Apollinaris from his bishopric. This, with other laws enacted against them, reduced them to a very small number; so that at last they dwin- dled away. APOLOGY, a Greek term, literally import- ing an excuse or defence of some person, cause, or action. Both in ancient and modern times the word has been applied to works written for the professed design of defending or vindicating Christianity from the attacks of its enemies, ami also to those written in defence of certain reli- gious seels by their advocates. Thus, among the ancients, we meet with the Apology of Justin Mart;, r, the Apologetic of Tertuilian, &c. And amou_r the moderns, with "Watson's Apology, Barclay's Apology, and others. — 1). APOSTAC V, a forsaking or renouncing our religion, cither by an open declaration in words, ora virtual declaration of it by our actions. The E punitive Christian church distinguished several [rids of apostacy : the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism: the se- cond, of tho e wiio complied so far with the Jews, as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without making a lor ma! pro- fession of their religion; thirdly, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together; and » APOSTOLIC fourthly, of those who voluntarily relapsed into paganism. Apostacy may he farther considered as 1. Original, in which we have all participated, Rom. iii. 23; — -. National, when a kingdom re- linquishes the profession of Christianity ; — 3. Personal, when an individual backslides from God, Heb. x. 38 ; — 4. Final, when men are given up to judicial hardness of heart, as Judas. See Backsliding. APOSTLE, properly signifies a messenger or person sent by another upon some business. It is particularly applied to them whom our Saviour deputed to preach. — 2. Apostle, in the Greek liturgy, is used for a book containing the epistles of St. Paul, printed in the order wherein they are to be read in churches through the course of the year. — 3. The appellation was also given to the ordinary travelling ministers of the church, Rom. xvi. 7. Phil. ii. 25., though in our translation the last is rendered messenger. — 4. It is likewise given to those persons who first planted the Christian faith in any place. Thus Dionysius of Ccrinth is called the Apostle of France, Xaviei the Apostle of the Indies, &c. APOSTLES' CREED. See Creed. APOSTOLATE, in a general sense, is used for mission ; but it more properly denotes the dignity or office of an apostle of Christ. It is also used m ancient writers for the office of a bishop. But as the title apostolicus has been appropriated to the pope, so that of apostolate became at length restrained to the sole dignity of the popedom. APOSTOLIC, apostolical; something that relates to the apostles, or descends from them. Thus we say, the apostolical age, apostolical doc- trine, apostolical character, constitutions, tradi- tions, &c. APOSTOLIC, in the primitive church, was an appellation given to all such churches as were founded by the apostles ; and even to the bishops of those churches, as beLng the reputed successors of the apostles. These were confined to four, viz. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In after-times, the other churches assumed the same quality, on account, principally, of the con- formity of their doctrine \\ ith that of the churches which were apostolical by foundation, and be- cause all bishops held themselves successors of the apostles, or acted in their dioceses with the authority of apostles. The first tune the term apostolical is attributed to bishops, as such, is in a letter of Clovis to the council of Orleans, held in 511, though that king does not there expressly denominate them apos- tolical, but (apostolica scde dignissiTni) highly worthy of the apostolical see. in 581, Gun tram calls the bishops, met at the council of Macon, apostolical pontiffs, apostolici pontificss. In progress of lime, the bishop of Rome grow ing in power above the rest, and the three pa- triarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusa- lem falling into the hands of the Saracens, tho title apostolical was restrained to the pope and his church alone; though some of the popes, and St. Gregory the Great, not contented to hold the title by this tenure, began at length to insist that it belonged to them by another ami peculiar right, as being the successors of St. Peter. The coun- cil of Rheims, in 1049, declared that the pope was the sole apostolical primate oi the universal church. And hence a great number of apostoli- cals ; apostolical see, upostulical nuncio, apost APPROPRIATION c3, and Cornish's Tract on the Prc-cxistence of Christ. On the opposite side, Bogne and Bennett's Hist of Dissenters, vol. iii. Abbadie, Waterland, Guysc, Hey, Robinson, Erelcigh, Hauler on the Divinity of Christ; — Calamy, Taylor, Gill, Jones, Pike, and Simpson on the Trinity. ARISTOTELIANS. The followers of Aris- totle. They believed in the eternity of the world, and represented the Deity as somewhat similar to a principle of power giving motion toa machine ; and as happy in the contemplation of himself, but regardless of human affairs. They were uncer' tain as to the immortality of the soul. — As this was rather a philosophical than religious sect, we shall not enlarge on it. ARK, or JNoau's Ark, a floating vessel built by Noah for the preservation of his family, and the several species of animals, during the deluge. The form of the ark was an oblong, with a flat bottom, and a sloped roof, raised to a cubit in the middle ; it had neither sails nor rudder ; nor was it sharp at the ends for cutting the water. This form was admirably ealculated to make it lie steady on the water, without rolling, which might have endangered the lives of the animals within. The length of this ark was 300 cubits, which, according to Dr. Arbuthnot's calculation, amount to a little more than 517 feet ; its breadth, 50 cu- bits, or 91-2 feet ; its height, 30 cubits, or 54-72 feet : and its solid contents 2,730-782 solid feet, sufficient lor a carriage for 81,0(12 tons. It con- sisted of three stories, each of which, abating the thickness of the floors, might bo about 18 feet high, and no doubt was partitioned into a great many rooms or apartments. This vessel was doubtless so contrived, as to admit the air and the light on all, though the particular construction of the windows be not mentioned. ARE OF THE COVENANT, a small chest or cotter, three feet nine inches in length, two feet three inches in breadth, and two feet three inches in height, in which were contained the golden pot that had manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of the covenant. The ark was ivposit- ed in the holiest place of the tabernacle. It was taken by the Philistines, and detained twenty (some say forty) years at Kirjath-jearim; but, the people being afflicted with emerooson account of it, returned it with divers presents. It was after- wards placed in the temple. The lid or covering of the ark was called the propitiatory or mercy- seat; over which two figures were placed, called chcrnbims, with expanded wings of a peculiar form. Hero the Shechinah rested both in the ARMINIANS tabernacle and temple in a visible cloud : hence were issued the Divine oracles by an audible voice; and the high priest appeared before this mercy-seat once every year on the great day of expiation ; and the Jews, wherever they worship- ped, turned their faces towards the place where the ark stood. In the second temple there was also an ark, made of the same shape and dimensions with the first, and put in the same place, but without any of its contents and peculiar honours. It was used as a representative of the former on the day of expiation, and a repository of the original copy of the holy Scriptures, collected by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue after the captivity ; and, in imitation of this, the Jews, to this day, have a kind of ark in their synagogues, wherein their sacred books are kept. ARMENIANS, the inhabitants of Armenia, whose religion is the Christian of the Eutychian sect; that is, they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ. See Etjtychians. They assert also the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father only. They believe that Christ, at his descent into hell freed the souls of the damned from thence, and reprieved them to the end of the world, when they shall be remanded to eternal flames. They believe that the souls of the righte- ous shall not be admitted to the beatific vision till after the resurrection, notwithstanding which they pray to departed saints, adore their pictures, and burn lamps before them. The Armenian clergy consist of patriarchs, archbishops, doctors, secular priests, and monks. The Armenian monks are of the order of St. Basil ; and every Wednesday and Friday they eat neither fish, nor eggs, nor oil, nor any thing made of milk ; and during Lent they live upon nothing but roots. They have seven sacraments; baptism, confirmation, pe- nance, the cucharist, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony. — They admit infants to the commu- nion at two or three months old. They seem to place the chief part of their religion in fastings and abstinences; and, among the clergy, the higher the degree, the lower they must live; insomuch, that it is said the archbishops live on nothing but pulse. They consecrate holy water but once a year; at which time every one fills a pot, and carries it home, which brings in a considerable revenue to the church. ARMINIANS, persons who follow the doc- trines of Arminius, who was pastor at Amster- dam, and afterwards professor of divinity at Ley- den. Arminius had been educated in the opinions of Calvin ; but, thinking the doctrine of that great man with regard to free will, predestination and grace, too severe, he began to express his doubts concerning them in the year 1591 ; and, upon further inquiry, adopted the sentiments of those whose religious system extends the love of the Supreme Being and the merits of Jesus Christ to all mankind. The Arminians are also called Re- monstrants, because, in Kill, they presented a remonstrance to the. states-general, wherein they state their grievances, and pray for relief. The distinguishing tenets of the Arminians may be comprised in the five following articles relative to predestination, universal redemption, the corruption of man conversion, and perseve- rance, viz. I. That God, from all eternity, determined to bestow salvation on those who he foresaw would '25 D ARMINIANS persevere unto the end ; and to inflict cvorlastinr punishments on those who should continue in their unbelief, and resist his divine succours; so that election was conditional, and reprobation in like manner the result of foreseen infidelity and persevering wickedness. II. That Jesus Christ, by his sufferings and death, made an atonement for the sins of all man- kind in general, and of every individual in par ticular; that, however, none but those who be licve in him can be partakers of divine benefits. III. That true faith cannot proceed from the exercise of our natural faculties and powers, nor from the force and operation of free will ; since man, in consequence of his natural corruption, is incapable either of thinking or doing any good thing; and that, therefore, it is necessary, in order to his conversion and salvation, that he be rege- nerated and renewed by the operations of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. IV. That this divine grace or energy of the Holy Ghost begins and perfects every thing that can be called good in man. and, consequently all good works arc to he attributed to God alone ; that, nevertheless, this grace is offered to all, and does not force men to act against their inclinations, but may be resisted and rendered ineffectual by the perverse will of the impenitent sinner. Some modern Arminians interpret this and the last ar- ticle with a greater latitude. V. That God gives to the truly faithful, who are regenerated by his grace, the means of pre- serving themselves in this state. The first Ar- minians, indeed, had some doubt with respect to the closing part of this article; but their follow- ers uniformly maintain "that the regenerate may lose true justifying faith, fall from a state of grace, and die in their sins." After the appointment of Arminius to the theo- logical chair at Lcyden, he thought it his duty to avow and vindicate the principles which he had embraced ; and the freedom with which he pub- lished and defended them, exposed him to the resentment of those thai, adhered to the theologi- cal system of Geneva, which then prevailed in Holland ; but his principal opponent was Goniar, his colleague. The controversy which was thus begun became more general after the death of Arminius, in the year 1609, and threatened to involve the United Provinces in civil discord. The Arminian tenets gained ground under the mild and favourable treatment of the magistrates of Holland, and were adopted by several persons of merit and distinction. The Calvinists or Go- marists, as they were now called, appealed to a national synod; accordingly the synod of Dort was convened, by order of the states-general, in lb'lfl; and was composed of ecclesiastic deputies from the United Provinces as well as frcm the reformed churches of England, Hessia, Bremen, Switzerland, and the Palatinate. The principal advocate in favour of the Arminians was Episco- pius, who at that time was professor of divinity at Leyden. It was first proposed to discuss the principal subjects in dispute, that the Arminians should be allowed to state and vindicate the grounds on which their opinions were founded; but, some difference arising, as to the proper mode of conducting the debate, the Arminians were excluded from the assembly, their case was tried in their absence, and they were pronounced guilty G ARTICLES, LAMBETH of pestilential errors, and condemned as corrupt- ers of the true religion. A curious account of the proceedings of the above synod may be seen in a series of letters written by Mr. John Hales, who was present on the occasion. In consequence of the abovementioned deci- sion, the Aruiinians were considered as enemies to their country, and its established religion, and were much persecuted. They were treated with great severity, and deprived of all their posts and employments ; their ministers were silenced, and their congregations were suppressed. The Treat Barnevcldt was beheaded on a scaffold ; and he learned Grotius, being condemned to per- petual imprisonment, fled, and took refuge in France. After the death of prince Maurice, who had Dccn a violent partisan in favour of the Goma- rists, in the year 1625, the Arminian exiles were restored to their former reputation and tranquillity ; and under the toleration of the state, they erected Churches and founded a college at Amsterdam, appointing Episcopius the first theological profes- sor. The Arminian system has very much pre- vailed in England since the time of Archbishop Laud, and its votaries in other countries are very numerous. It is generally supposed that a ma- jority of the clergy in both the established churches of Great Britain favour the Arminian system, not withstanding their articles are strictly Calvi- nistic. The name of Mr. John Wesky hardly need be mentioned here. Every one knows what an advocate he was for the tenets of Arminius, and the success he met with. See Methodists. Some of the principal writers on the side of the Arminians have been Arminius, Episcopius, Vorstiua, Grothis, Curcelaus, Ldmborch, he Clerc, Wetstcin, Goodwin, Whitby, Taylor, Fletcher, &c. Some of the principal writers on the other side have been Polhill in his Book on the Decrees ; John Edwards in his Veritas Redux ; Cole in his Sovereignty of God ; Edwards on the Will, and Original Sin; Dr. Owen in his Display of Arminianism, and on Particular Redemp- tion; Gill in his Cause of God and Truth; and T&plady in almost all his works. ARNOLDISTS, the followers of Arnold, of Brescia, in the twelfth century, who wras a great declaimer against the wealth and vices ot the clergy. He is also charged with preaching against baptism, and the eucharist. He was burnt at Rome in 1155, and Ms ashes cast into the Tiber. ARRHABONARII, a sect who held that the eucharist is neither the real flesh or blood of Christ, nor yet the sign of them, but only the pledge or earnest thereof'. ARTEMONTES, a denomination in the se- cond century ; so called from Artemon, who taught that at the birth of the man Christ, a cer- tain divmc energy, or portion of the divine nature, united itself to him. ARTICLE OF FAITH is, by some, dsfmed a point oi Christian doctrine, which we are obliged to bolieve as having been revealed by Gad himself, and allowed ami established as such by fue church. See ' Ionfjsssions. ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. See Ci ohch dp England. ARTICLES, LAMBETH. The Lambeth articles were so called, because drawn up at Lam- 26 ASCENSION OF CHRIST beth palace, under the eye and with the assistance of archbishop Whitgift, bishop Bancroft, bishop Vaughan, and other eminent dignitaries of the Church. That the reader may judge how Calvi- nistic the clergy were under the reign of queen Elizabeth, we shall here insert them. " 1. God hath from eternity predestinated certain persons to life, and hath reprobated certain persons unto death. 2. The moving or efficient cause of pie- destination unto life is not the foresight of faith, or of perseverance, or of good works, or of any tiling that is in the persons predestinated ; but the alone will of God's good pleasure. 3. The pre- destinati are a pre-determined and certain number, which can neither be lessened nor increased. 4. Such as are not predestinated to salvation shall inevitably be condemned on account of their sins. 5. The true, lively, and justifying faith, and the Spirit of God justifying, is not extinguished, doth not utterly fail, doth not vanish away in the elect, either finally or totally. 6. A true believer, that is, one who is endued with justifying faith, is certified by the full assurance of faith that his sins are forgiven, and that he shall be everlastingly saved by Christ, 7. Saving grace is not allowed, is not imparted, is not granted to all men, by which they may be saved if they will. 8. No man is able to come to Christ, unless it be given him ; and unless the Father drew him ; and all men are not drawn by the Father, that they may come to his Son. 'J. It is not in the will or power of every man to be saved." "What gave occasion to the framing these articles was this: — Some persons had distinguished themselves at the uni- versity of Cambridge, by opposing predestination. Alarmed at the opinions that were vented, the above-mentioned archbishop, with others, com- posed these articles, to prevent the belief of a contrary doctrine. These, when completed, were sent down to Cambridge, to which the scholars were strictly enjoined to conform. ARTOTYRITES, a Christian sect in the primitive church, who celebrated the eucharist with bread and cheese. The word is derived from ap-ros, bread, and -rvpo;, cheese. The Ar- totyrites admitted women to the priesthood and episcopacy; and Epiphanius tells us that it was a common thing to see seven girls at once enter into their church robed in white, and hold- ing a torch in their hand ; where they wept and bewailed the wretchedness of human nature, and the miseries of this life. ASCENSION OF CHRIST, his visible ele- vat'.on to heaven. The ascension of Jesus Christ was not only presignified by many Scripture types, but also by many remarkable Scripture prophecies, Ps. xlvii. 5. ex. 1. Dan. vii. 13, 14. Mic. ii. 13. Ps. lxviii. 18. The evidences of h is ascension were numerous. The disciples saw him ascend, Acts i. 9, 10. Two angels testified that he did ascend, Acts i. 11. Stephen, Paul, and John saw him in his ascended state, Acts vii. 55, 56. ix. Rev. i. The mar- vellous descent of the Holy Ghost demonstrated it, John xvi. 7. 14. Acts ii. 33. The terrible over- throw and dispersion of the Jewish nation is a standing proof of it, John viii. 21. Matt xxvi. 64. The lime of his ascension. It was forty days after his resurrection. He continued so many days on earth, that he might give many re- peated proofs of his resurrection, Arts i. 3; that he might instruct his followers in e\ery thing ASSURANCE which pertained to the abolishment of the Jewish ceremonies, Acts i. 3 ; and that he might open to them the Scriptures concerning himself" and re- new their commission to preach the gospel, Acts i. 5, ('). Mark xvi. 15. The manner of his ascension. It was from Mount Olivet to heaven, Acts i, 12 ; not in ap- pearance only, but in reality and truth; visibly and locally; a real motion of his human nature; sadden, swift, glorious, and in a triumphant man- ner. He was parted from his disciples while he was solemnly blessing them ; and multitudes of angels attended him with shouts of praise, Ps. lxviii. 17. xlvii. 5, 6. The effects or ends of Christ's ascension were, 1. To fulfd the prophecies and types concerning it. 2. To take upon him more openly the exer- cise of his kingly office. 3. To receive gifts for men both ordinary and extraordinary, Ps. lxviii. 18. 4. To open the way into heaven for his people, Heb. x. 19, 20. 5. To assure the saints of their ascension also, John xiv. 1, 2. ASCETIC, one who retires from the world for the purpose of devotion and mortification. When the monks came in fashion, this title was bestowed upon them, especially such as lived in solitude. It was also the title of several books of spiritual exercises, as the Ascetics, or devout ex- ercises of St. Basil, &c. ASCODROGITES, a denomination which arose about the year 181. They brought into their churches bags or skins filled with new wine, to represent the new bottles filled with new wine, mentioned by Christ. They danced round these bags or skins, and, it is said, intoxicated them- selves with the wine. ASCOODRUTES, a sect, in the second cen- tury, who rejected the use of all symbols and sa- craments, on this principle, that incorporeal things cannot be communicated by things corporeal, nor divine mysteries by any thincr visible. ASSEMBLIES OF THE CLERGY are called convocations, synods, councils. The an- nual meeting of the church of Scotland is called a general assembly. In this assembly his majesty is represented by his commissioner, who dissolves one meeting and calls another in the name of the king, while the moderator does the same in the name of Jesus Christ. See Convocation, Pres- byterians, Westminster Assembly. ASSENT, that act of the mind, whereby it takes or acknowledges any proposition to be true or false. There are three degrees of assent ; — conjecture, opinion, and belief. Conjecture is but a slight and weak inclination to assent to the thing proposed by reason of the weighty objections that lie against it. Opinion is a more steady and fixed assent, when a man is almost certain, though yet some fear of the contrary remains with him. Belief is a more full and assured assent to the truth. See Belief. ASSURANCE is the firm persuasion we have of the certainty of any thing, or a certain expectation of something future. Assurance of the Understanding is a well- grounded knowledge of divine things founded on God's word. Col. ii. 2. — Assurance of Faith does not relate to our personal interest in Christ, but consists in a firm belief of the revelation that God has given us of Christ in his word, with an entire dependence on him. Heb. x. 22. — As- swance of Hope is a firm expectation that God 27 ASSURANCE will grant us the complete enjoyment of what rw has promised, Heb. vi. 11. The doctrine of assurance, i. e. the belief thai we have an interest in the divine favour, has af- forded matter for dispute among divines. Some have asserted that it is not to be obtained in the present state, allowing that persons may be in a hopeful way to salvation, but that they have no real or absolute assurance of it : but this is clearly refuted by fact as well as by scripture. That it is to be obtained is evident, for we have reason to believe many persons have actually obtained it. Job xix. 25. Ps. xvii. 15. 2 Tim. i. 12. The Scriptures exhort us to obtain it, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Heb. vi. 11. 1 Thess. v. 21. The Holy Spirit is said to bear witness of it, Rom. viii. 16. The ex- ercise of the Christian graces is considered as a proof of it, 1 John iii. 14. 1 John ii. 3. We must, however guard against presumption ; for a mere persuasion that Christ is our's is no proof that he is so. We must have evidence before we can have genuine assurance. It is necessary to ob- serve, also, that it is not a duty imposed upon all mankind, so that every one, in whatsoever state lie may be, ought to be fully persuaded of his salva- tion. "We do not aflirm," says Saurin, "that Christians, of whose sincerity there may be some doubt, have a right to assurance; that back- sliders, as such, ought to persuade themselves that they shall be saved ; nor do we say that Christians who have arrived to the liighest degree of holiness can be persuaded of the certainty of their solva- tion in every period of their lives ; nor, if left to their own efforts, can they enjoy it; but believers, supported by the Divine aid, who walk in all good conscience before him, these only have ground to expect this privilege." Some divines have maintained that assurance is included in the very essence of faith, so that a man cannot have faith without assurance ; but we must distinguish between assurance and justify- ing faith. The apostle, indeed, speaks of the full assurance of faith ; but then this is a full and firm persuasion of what the Gospel reveals; whereas the assurance we are speaking of re- lates to our personal interest in Christ, and is an effect of this faith, and not faith itself. Faith in Christ certainly includes some idea of assurance ; for, except we be assured that he is the Saviour, we shall never go to rely upon him as such ; but faith in Christ does not imply an assurance of our interest in him; for there may be faith long be- fore the assurance of personal interest com- mences. The confounding of these ideas has been the cause of presumption on the one hand, and despair on the other. When men have been taught that faith consists in believing that Christ died for them, and been assured that, if they can only believe so, all is well ; and that then they are immediately pardoned and justified, the conse- quence has been, that the bold and self-conceited have soon wrought themselves up to such a per- suasion, without any ground for it, to their own deception ; whilst the dejected, humble, and poor in spirit, not being able to work themselves to such a pitch of confidence, have concluded that they have not the faith of God's elect, and must inevit- ably be lost. The means to attain assurance are not those of an extraordinary kind, as some people imagine; such as visions, dreams, voices, &c. ; but such as are ordinary; self-examination, humble and con ATHEIST stant prayer, consulting the sacred oracles, Chris- tian communication, attendance on the divine ordinances, and perseverance in thepnthof duty; without which all our assurance is but presump- tion, and our profession but hypocrisy. Assurance may be lost for a season through bodily diseases which depress the spirits, unwateh- rulneee, fidling into sin, manifold temptations, worldly can's, and neglect of private duty. He, therefore, who would wish to enjoy this privilege, let him cultivate communion with God, exercise a watchful spirit ngainst his spiritual enemies, and give himself unreservedly to him whose he is, and whom he professes to serve. See Svarin'a Ser. vol. iii. ser. 10, F,ng. ed. ; Gate's Sermons, ser. 13.; Lambert's Ser. on Johnix. 35; Herrey's Tlicron and Amasio, dialogue 17 ; Howe's Worlts, vol. i. p. 342, 348; Brooks, Burgess, Roberts, Baxter, Polhill, and Davye on Assurance; Horace Sol. vol. it p. 869. ASSURITANS, a branch of the Donatists, who held that the Son was inferior to the Father, and the Holy Ghost to the Son. See Don-atists. ASTONISHMENT, a kind or degree of wonder introduced by surprise. This emotion always relates to things of the highest importance ; to things which appear too vast and extensive for the grasp of intellect, rather than to any thing of an intricate nature. The body marks in a striking manner the singular slate of the mind under this emotion. The eyes are firmly fixed, without bring directed to any particular object; the. cha- racter of countenance, which was formed by the habitual influence of some predominant affection, is for a time effaced ; and a suspension of every other expression, a certain vacuity, strongly notes this state of mind. ATHANAS1ANS, those who profess the sentiments held in the Athanasian creed. See Crkkd. ATHEIST, one who denies the existence of God: — this is called speculative atheism. Pro- fessing to believe in God, and yet acting contrary to this belief, is called practical atheism. Absurd and irrational as atheism is, it has had its vota- ries and martyrs. In the seventeenth century, Spiuosa, a foreigner, was its noted defender. Lucilio Vanini, a native of Naples, also publicly taught atheism in France; and being convicted of it at Toulouse, was condemned and executed in 1619. It has been questioned, however, whe- ther any man ever seriously adopted such a prin- ciple. The pretensions to it have been generally founded on pride or affectation. The open avowal of atheism by several of the leading members of the French convention seems to have been an ex- traordinary moral phenomenon. This, however, as we have seen, was too vague and uncomfort- able a principle to last long. Archbishop Tillot- son justly observes, that speculative atheism is unreasonable upon five accounts. 1. Because it gives no tolerable account of the existence of the world. — 2. It docs not give any reasonable ac- count of the universal consent of mankind in this apprehension, that there is a God. — 3. It requires more evidence for things than they are capable of giving. — 1. The atheist pretends to know that which no man can know. — 5. Atheism contra- dicts itself. Under the first of these he thus argues. — "1 appeal to any man of reason whe- ther any thing can be more unreasonable than obstinately to impute an effect to chance, which 28 ATONEMENT carries in the very face of it all the arguments and characters of a wise design anil contrivance. Was ever any considerable work, in which there was required a great variety of parts, and a regu- lar and orderly disposition of those parts, done by chancel Will chance fit means to ends, and that in ten thousand instances, and not tail in any one ? How often might a man, after he had jumbled a set of letters in a bag, fling them out ujton the ground before they would iall into an exact poem; yea, or so much as make a good dis- course in prose? And may not a little book be as easily made by chance as the great volume of the world 1 How long might a man be in sprink- ling colours upon canvass with a careless hand, before they would happen to make the exact pic- ture of a man 7 And is a man easier made by chance than his picture ? How long might twenty thousand blind men who should be sent out from several remote parts of England, wan- der up and down before they would all meet upon Salisbury plain, and fall into rank and file in the exact order of an army'? And yet this is much more easy to be imagined than how the innume- rable blind parts of matter should rendezvous themselves into a world. A man that sees Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster might with as good reason maintain (yea, with much better, considering the vast difference betwixt that little structure and the huge fabric of the world.) that it was never contrived or built by any means, but that the stones did by chance grow into those curious figures into which they seem to have been cut and graven; and that upon a time (as tales usually begin) the materials of that building, the stone, mortar, timber, iron, lead, and glass, happily met together, and very fortunately ranged themselves into that delicate order in which we see them, now so close compacted, that it must be a very great chance that parts them again. What would the world tliink of a man that should advance such an opinion as this, and write a book for it ? If they would do him right, they ought to look upon him as mad ; but yet with a little more reason than any man can have to say, that the world was made by chance, or that the first men grew up out of the earth as plants do now. For, can anv thing be more ridiculous, and against all reason, than to ascribe the production of men to the first fruitfulncss of the earth, without so much as one instance and experiment, in any age or history, to countenance so monstrous a suppo- sition 1 The thing is, at first sight, so gross and palpable, that no discourse about it can make it more apparent. And yet, these shameful beg- gars of principles give this precarious account of the original of things; assume to themselves to be the men of reason, the great wits of the world, the only cautious ami wary persons that hate to be imposed upon, that must have convincing evi- dence for every thing, and can admit of nothing without a clear demonstration of it." Sec EX- ISTENCE OF GOD. Some of the principal writers on the existence of a Deity have been Char nock, Newton, Boyle, Ckeync, Locke, Nicuvcntyt, Derham, Bcnt'ley, Bay, 'Cudworth, Samuel and John Clarke, Aber- ncthy, Balguy, Baxter, Fenelon, - stacle in the way of the sinner's salvation — that in consequence of the death of Christ, God can now consistently with all his perfections and the honour of his law, exercise his sovereign mercy and bestow eternal life upon whom he pioases— c9 ATONEMENT ami as it was not designed for one man more than another, bat has an equal bearing upon the whole world indiscriminately, the offers Of salvation can now be freely made to all mankind without dis- tinction. Some of the friends of this theory go still further, and deny that Christ made a plenary satisfaction for the sins of believers, because such a satisfaction would, in (heir view, be incompati- ble with the grace that reigns in the salvation of sinaeTB; and consequently, although a provision has been made by which all who believe will be saved, yet they assert that the claims of the law will remain for ever unsatisfied, that the ransomed of the Lord will never be free from guilt, and that Paul and his companions now in glory, are at this moment as guilty as when on earth, and will for ever deserve the punishment of hell. The grounds upon which this theory of the atonement is urged, are the following: — 1. The style of the Scriptures; which, in speaking of the atonement, apply to it the most universal and unlimited language. " Who gave himself a ran- dom for all to be testified in due time." " Who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." " He is the propitiation for our sins, and not fdr ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." — "2. If Christ has made an atone- ment for the elect, and for them only, then salva- tion is not provided for all, and those for whom it is not provided, cannot be guilty in not receiving tt. But this is contrary to the whole tenor of the (jfospel, which every where exhibits sinners as greatly guilty for rejecting Christ. 3. The Gos- pel, or glad tidings published by Christ, is said to be, good tidings unto all people. But if there be no atonement made for the sins of all people, the Gospel, instead of being good news to them, is not addressed to them at all. 4. Ministers are re- quired to preach faith, as well as repentance, to all sinners as their duty. But if no atonement h;is been made for their sins, they cannot believe; for to them Christ is in no sense a Saviour, and therefore not a possible object of faith. The advocates of the limited or definite atone- ment, on the other hand, maintain, that the atone- ment cannot properly be considered apart from its actual application, or from the intention of the author in regard to its application — that, in strict- ness of speech, the death of Christ is not an atonement to any until it be applied — that the suf- ferings of the Lamb of God are therefore truly vicarious, or in other words, that Christ in suffer- ing became a real substitute for his people, was charged with their sins, and bore the punishment of them, and thus has made a full and complete satisfaction tc divine justice in behalf of all who shall ever believe on him — that this atonement will eventually be applied to all for whom in the divine intention it was made, or to all to whom God in his sovereignty has been pleased to decree its application. They believe, however, notwith- standing the atonement is to be properly consi- dered as exactly commensurate with its intended application, that the Lord Jesus Christ did offer i sacrifice sufficient in its intrinsic value to expi- ate the sins of the whole world, and that if it had neen the pleasure of God to apply it to every in- dividual, the whole human race would have been saved by its immeasurable worth. They hold, therefore, that on the ground of the infinite value of the atonement, the offer of salvation can be consistently and sincerely made to all who hear 30 ATONEMENT the Gospel, assuring them that if they will he- lieve they shall be saved; whereas, if they wilful- ly reject the overtures of mercy, they will increase their guilt and aggravate their damnation. At the same time, the Scriptures plainly teach, that the will and disposition to comply with this con- dition depends upon the sovereign gift of God, and that the actual compliance is secured to those only for whom in the divine counsels the atone- ment was specifically intended. This view of the atonement is supported by the following considerations: — 1. The language of Scripture. "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." " All that the Father hath given vie shali come unto me." " I lay down my life for the sheep." " I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me." As to passages of apparently a contrary import, which seem to extend the object and design of the atone- ment to all, these they sav are capable in general of being interpreted, according to the plain usages of Scripture, as implying some of all sorts, instead of every individual, or as" pointing out every one of the class or body spoken of. 2. That the doc- trine of vicarious or substitutive atonement was taught by the typical sacrifices of the Jewish economy. 3. That the meaning of the term implies an actual reconciliation as the effect of a satisfaction to the demands of divine justice; con- sequently, if the atonement was made for all men, all men are actually reconciled, which is contrary to fact. 4. That inasmuch as it is admitted on all' sides that the Saviour suffered and died, not with the actual intention of securing the salvation of all men universally, but only of a definite number determined by the gift of the Father in the decree of election, the atonement is therefore properly to be denominated a definite atonement, and that every objection brought against this view of it falls directly against the doctrine of election. If it be conceded that the Father gave to the Son in the co- venant of redemption a particular definite number ot the human race to save ; that for these, and these alone, did the Son die with an intention to savo them ; that to none but this elect number will the atonement ever be in fact applied, the consequence is affirmed to be inevitable, that the atonement is definite, because election is definite. "We may call it otherwise; we may call it general, we may call it indefinite. But it retains its true charac- ter. It is what the divine purpose has made it — definite, limited; not, indeed, in its value, which is unlimited and infinite; but in its application, and in respect to the intention of the Father who appointed, and of the Son who made, the atone- ment." As to the objection, that if the atone- ment was not made for all, then those for whom it was not intentionally maid? are not guilty for not receiving it, and therefore cannot justly be condemned on this account, it is answered, that the primary ground of a sinner's condemnation is not so much his n jection of the Gospel as his previous violation of the law. The rejection of the Gospel when sincerely, though conditionally, offered, aggravates his guilt, and according to human modes of speech adopted in the Scrip- tures, there is no impropriety in referring lus con- demnation to his slighting the terms of pardon; as he knows nothing of the secret purposes of Heaven in regard to himself, and, therefore, has no excuse to offer for his pervcrseness. Thus, if a capital offender were doomed to die for a crime BACKSLIDING against the laws of his country, and a pardon were tendered him on certain terms while under sentence of death, which pardon he madly rejects from disaffection with the terms, it might be said, the man dies, because he rejected the offered par- don, whereas the real ground of his condemna- tion is his previous crime. The same holds in the case of sinners under the Gospel. Their voluntary rejection of proffered mercy great]) illustrates the deep-rooted depravity of their hearts, and in the same proportion displays the justice of God in their punishment. See Dwiglit's Theology, vol. ii. serm. 50. Janewai/s Letters on the Atonement. Bemanon the Atonement. Mur- dochs Sermon on the Atonement. Review of Murdock in Christian Advocate, vol. v. — B.] ATTRIBUTES OF GOD are the several qualities or perfections of the Divine nature. Some distinguish them into the negative and po- sitive or affirmative. The negative are such as remove from him whatever is imperfect in crea- tures: such arc infinity, immutability, immor- tality j Sue. The positive are such as assert some perfection in God which is in and of himself, and which in the creatures^ in any measure, is from him. This distinction is now mostly discarded. Some distinguish them into absolute and relative : absolute ones are such as agree with the essence of God; as Jehovah, Jah, &c: relative ones are such as agree with him in time, with some re- spect to his creatures, as Creator, Governor, Pre- server, Redeemer, &c. But the more commonly received distinction of the attributes of God, is into communicable and incommunicable ones. The communicable ones are those of which there is some resemblance in men ; as goodness, holi- ness, wisdom, &c. the incommunicable ones are such as there is no appearance or shadow of in men ; as independence, immutability, immensity, and eternity. See those different articles in this work; and Bates, Charnock, Abernethy, and Saurin on the Divine Perfections. ATTRITION. The casuists of the church of Rome have made a distinction between a per- fect and an imperfect contrition. The latter they call attrition ; which is the lowest degree of re- pentance, or a sorrow for sin arising from a sense of shame, or any temporal inconvenience attend- ing the commission of it, or merely from fear of the punishment due to it, without any resolution to sin no more : in consequence of which doc- trine, they teach that, after a wicked and flagi- tious course of life, a man may be reconciled to God, and his sins forgiven on his death-bed, by confessing them to the priest with this imperfect degree of sorrow and repentance. This distinc- tion was settled by the council of Trent. It might, however, be easily shown that the mere sorrow for sin because of its consequences, and not on account of its evil nature, is no more ac- ceptable to God than hypocrisy itself can be. AVARICE is an immoderate love to and de BACKSLIDING sire after riches, attended with extreme diffidence of future events, making a person rob himself of the necessary comforts of life, for fear of dimi- nishing his riches. SeeCovKTorsNEss and Miser, AVERSION, hatred, or dislike. Dr. Watts and others oppose aversion to desire. When we look, say they, upon an object as good, it excites desire ; but when we look upon an object as evil, it awakens what we call aversion or avoidance. But Lord Kaimes observes that aversion is op- posed to affection, and not to desire. We have an affection to one person, we have an aversion to another ; the former disposes us to do good, the latter to do ill. AUDIENTES, an order of catechumens in the primitive Christian church. They were so called from their being admitted to hear sermons and the Scriptures read in the church ; but they were not allowed to be present at the prayers. AUGSBURGH, or AUGUSTAN* CON- FESSION, a celebrated confession of faith drawn up by Luther and Melancthon on behalf of themselves and other ancient reformers, and pre- sented in 1550 to the emperor Charles V. at the diet of Augusta, or Augsburgh, in the name of the evangelic body. This confession contains twenty-eight chapters, of which the greatest part is employed in representing with perspicuity and truth the religious opinions of the Protestants, and the rest in pointing out the errors and abuses that occasioned their separation from the church of Rome. The leading doctrines of this confes- sion are, the true and essential divinity of the Son of God ; his substitution and vicarious sa- crifice , and the necessity, freedom, and efficacy of Divine grace. A civil war followed this diet that lasted upwards of twenty years, but which only spread the new opinions, instead of extirpa- ting them. AUGUSTINS, a religious order, who ob- served the rule of St. Augustin, prescribed them by pope Alexander IV. in 1250. This rule was to have all things in common ; the rich who en- ter among them to sell their possessions, and give them to the poor ; to employ the first part of the morning in labouring with their hands, and the rest in reading : when they go abroad, to go always two in company ; never to cat but in their monastery, &c. AUSTERITY, a state of rigid mortification. It is distinguished from severity and rigour thus : Austerity, relates to the manner of living; se- verity to the manner of thinking ; rigour to the manner of punisliing. To austerity is opposed effeminacy ; to severity, relaxation ; to rigour, clemency. A hermit is austere in his life; a casuist severe in his application of religion or law ; a judge rigorous in his sentences. AUTOCEPHALI BISHOPS. This de- nomination was given to such bishops in the pri- mitive church as were exempted from the juris- diction of others. B. BACKBITING. See Detraction and Slander. BACKSLIDING, the act of turning from the path of duty. It may be considered as partial when applied to true believers, who do not back- 31 slide with the whole bent of their will ; as volun ■ tary, when applied to those who, after professing to know the truth, wilfully turn from it, and live in the practice of sin ; asfnal, when the mind is given up to judicial hardness, as in the case vl BAPTISM Jiutas. Partial backsliding must be distinguish- ed from hypocrisy, as the former may exist when' there are gracious intentions on the whole; but the latter is ;i studied profession of appearing to be what we are not. The causes of backsliding are — the eares of the ■world ; improper connexions ; inattention to se- cret or closet duties; self-eoneeitand dependence; indulgence; listening to and parleying with temptations. A backsliding state is manifested by indifference to prayer and self-examination; trifling or unprofitable conversation; neglect of public ordinances; shunning the people of God; associating with the world; thinking lightly of sin; neglect of the Bible; and often by gross im- morality. The consequences of this awful state are — loss of character ; loss of comfort; loss of usefulness; and, as long as any remain in this state, a less of a vSett-groundcd hope of future happiness. To avoid this slate, or recover from it, we should beware of the first appearance of sin; he much in prayer; attend the ordinances ; and unite with the people of God. We should consider the awful instances of apostacy, as Saul, Judas, Demas, &c.; the many warnings we have of it, Matt. xxiv. 13. Heb. x. 38. Luke ix.62 ; how it grieves the Holy Spirit; and how wretched it makes us; above all things, our dependence should be on God, that we may always be directed by his Spirit, and kept by his power. See Apostacy. BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY, so call- ed from Bangor, or the bishop thereof. Bishop Hoadley, the bishop of that diocese, preaching be- fore George 1., asserted the supreme authority of Christ, as king in his own kingdom ; and that he had not delegated his power, like temporal law- givers during their absence from their kingdom, to any persons, as his vicegerents or deputies. This important sermon may be seen reprinted in the Liverpool Theological Repository, vol. v. p. 301. In 1717, he also published his Preservative, in which he advanced some positions contrary to temporal and spiritual tyranny, and in behalf of the civil and religious liberties of mankind: upon which he was violently opposed, accused, and per- secuted, by the advocates for church power; but he was defended and supported by the civil pow- ers, and his abilities and meekness gained him the plaudits of many. BANIANS, a religious sect in the empire of the Mogul, who believe a Metempsychosis ; and will therefore eat no living creature, nor kill even noxious animals, but endeavour to release them when in the hands of others. The name Banian is sometimes extended to all the idolators of India, as contradistinguished from the Mahometans. BA PTISM, the ceremony of washing, or the application of water to a person, in the name of the Fath3T, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, by which he is initiated into the visible church. Baptism exhibits to us the blessings of pardon, Balvation through Jesus Christ, union to and communion with him, the out-pouring of the Spirit, regeneration, and sanctification. From baptism results the obligation of repentance, love to Christ, and perpetual devoted ness to his praise. Baptism does not constitute a visible subjee', hut only recognizes one. Ministers only have a right to administer it, and have a negative voice in op- position to all claims. It is an ordinance binding on all who have been given up to God in it ; and to be wrpetuated to the end of the world. It is 32 BAPTISM not, however, essential to salvation ; formerepar ticipation of sacraments cannot qualify men lot heaven : many have real grace, and are conse- quently in a salvable state, before they were bap- tized : besides, to suppose it essential is to put it in the place of that which it signifies. Baptism has been supposed by many learned persons to have had its origin from the Jewish church ; in which, they maintain, it was the practice, long before Christ's time, to baptize pro- selytes or converts to their faith, as part of the ceremony of their admission. " It is strange to me," says Dr. Doddridge, " that, any should doubt of this, when it is plain from express passages in the Jewish law, that no Jew who had lived like a Gentile for one day could be restored to the communion of this church without it. Compare Numb. xix. 19 and 20, and many other precepts relating to ceremonial pollutions, in which it may be seen, that the Jews were rendered incapable of appearing before God in the tabernacle or tem- ple, till they were washed either by bathing or sprinkling." Others, however, insist that the Jewish proselyte baptism is not by far so ancient ; and that John the Baptist was the first adminis- trator of baptism amongThe Jews. The baptism of John, and that of our Saviour and his apostles, have been supposed to be the same ; because they agree, it is said, in their sub- jects, form, and end. But it must be observed, that though there be an agreement in some par- ticulars, yet there is not in all. The immediatt institulor of John's baptism was God the Father, John 1. 33 ; but the immediate institutor of the Christian baptism was Christ, Matt, xxviii. 10. John's baptism was a preparatory rite, referring the subjects to Christ, who was about to confer on them spiritual blessings, Matt. iii. 11. John's baptism was confined to the Jews; but the Christian was common to Jews and Gentiles, Matt. iii. 5. 7. xxviii. 19. It does not appear that John had any formula of administration; but the Christian baptism has, viz. " In the name," &c. The baptism of John was the con- cluding scene of the legal dispensation, and, in feet, part of it ; and to be considered as one of those "divers washings" among the Jews; for he did not attempt to make any alteration in I he Jewish religion, nor did the persons he baptized cease to be members of the Jewish church on ac- count of their baptism : but Christian baptism is the regular entrance into, and is a part of, the evangelical dispensation, Gal. iii. 27. It does net appear from the inspired narrative (however pro- bable from inferential reasoning), that any but John himself was engaged as operator in hisbap- tism; whereas Christ himself baptized none ; but his disciples, by his authority, and in his name. John iv. 2. Baptism has been the subject of long and sharp controversy, both as it respects the subjoctand the mode. To state all that has been said on both sides would be impossible in a work of this kind. An abstract, however, of the chief arguments, I think it my duty to present to the reader, in order that he may judge for himself. As to ihc subject. The ANTIPJEDOBAPTISTS hold the belief that adults only are proper subjects, lie- cause Christ's commission to baptize appears to them to restrict this ordinance to such only as BAPTISM are taught, or made disciples ; and that, conse- quently infants, who cannot be thus taught, are to be excluded It does not appear, say they, that the apostles, in executing Christ's commission, ever baptized any but those who were first in- structed in the Christian faith, and professed their belief of it. They contend that infants can re- ceive no benefit from it, are not capable of faith and repentance, which are to be considered as pre-requisitcs. As to the mode. They observe that the meaning of the word g«roj« signifies immersion or dipping only; that John baptized in Jordan ; that he chose a place where there was much water; that Jesus came up out of the water; that Philip and the eunuch went down both into the water. That the terms washing, purifying, burying in baptism, so often mentioned in Scripture, allude to this mode ; that immersion only was the practice of the apostles and the first Christians; and that it was only laid aside from the love of novelty, and the cold- ness of our climate. These positions, they think are so clear from Scripture, and the history of the church, that they stand in need of but little argument to support them. Further, they also insist that all positive institutions depend entirely upon the will and declaration of the institutor, and that, therefore, reasoning by analogy from previous abrogated rites, is to be rejected, and the express command of Christ respecting baptism ought to be our rule. P^DOBAPTISTS. The Pffidobaptists, however, are of a different opinion. As to the subject, they believe that quali- fied adults who have not been baptized before are certainly proper subjects; but, then, they think also that infants are not to be excluded. They believe that, as the Abrahamic and the Christian covenants are the same, Gen. xvii. 7. Heb. viii. 12 j that as children were admitted under the former; and that as baptism is now a seal, sign, or confirmation of this covenant, infants have as great a right to it as the children had a right to the seal of circumcision under the law, Acts i. 39. Rom. iv. 11. That if children are not to be baptized because there is no positive command for it, for the same reason women should not come to the Lord's Supper; we should not keep the first day of the week, nor attend public worship, for none of these are expressly commanded; that if infant baptism had been a human invention, how would it have been so universal in the first 300 years, and yet no record left when it was in- troduced, nor any dispute or controversy about it? Some bring it to these two ideas: 1. That God did constitute in the Jewish church, the membership of infants, and admitted them to it by a religious ordinance, Gen. xvii. Gal. iii. 14, 17. 2. That this right of infants to church membership was never taken away. This being the case, infants must be received, because God has instituted it; and, siace infants must be received, it must be either without baptism or with it : but none must be received without baptism, therefore infants must, of necessity, be baptized. Hence, it is clear, that under the Gospel, infants are still continued exactly in the same relation to God and his church, in which they were originally placed under the former dispensation. 33 E BAPTISM That infants are to be received into the church, and as such baptized, is also inferred from the following passages of Scripture : Gen. xvii. Isa. xliv. 3. Mattxix. 13. Luke ix. 47, 48. Mark ix. 14. Acts ii. 33, 39. Rom. xi. 17, 21. 1 Cor. vii. 14. Though there are no express examples in the New Testament of Christ and his apostles bap- tizing infants, yet this is no proof that they were excluded. Jesus Christ actually blessed little children; and it would be hard to believe that such received his blessing, and yet were not to be members of the Gospel church. If Christ receiv- ed them, and would have us receive them in his name, how can it be reconciled to keep them out of the visible church ? Besides, if children were not to be baptized, it would have been expressly forbidden. None of the Jews had any apprehen- sion of the rejection of infants, which they must have had, if infants had been rejected. As whole households were baptized, it is probable there were children among them. From the year 400 to 1 150, no society of men, in all that period of 750 years, ever pretended to say it was unlawful to baptize infants ; and still nearer the time of cur Saviour, there appears to have been scarcely any one that so much as advised the delay of infant baptism. Irenams, who lived in the second centu- ry, and was well acquainted with Polycarp, who was John's disciple, declares expressly that the church learned from the apostles to baptize children. Origen, in the third century, affirmed that the cus- tom of baptizing infants was received from Christ and his apostles. Cyprian, and a council of minis- ters (held about the year 254), no less than sixty- six in number, unanimously agreed that children might be baptized as soon as they were born. Ambrose, who wrote about 274 years from the apostles, declares that the baptism of infants had been the practice of the apostles themselves, and of the church, till that time. The catholic church ever)' where declared, says Chrysostom, in the fifth century, that infants should be bap- tized; And Augustin affirmed that he never heard nor read of any Christian, catholic, or sectarian, but who always held that infants were to be baptized. They further believe, that there needed no mention in the New Testament of re- ceiving infants into the church, as it had been once appointed and never repealed. The dictates of nature, also, in parental feelings ; the verdict of reason in favour of privileges ; the evidence in favour of children being sharers of the seals of grace, in common with their parents, for the space of 4000 years ; and especially the language of pro- phecy, in reference t<* the children of the Gospel church, make it very probable that they were not to be rejected. So far from confining it to adults it must be remembered that there is not a single instance recorded in the New Testament in which the descendants of Christian parents were baptized in adult years. That infants are not proper subjects for baptism because they cannot profess faith and repentance, they deny. This objection falls with as much weight upon the institution of circumcision as infant baptism ; since they are as capable, or are as fit subjects for the or*3 as the other. It i> generally acknowledged, that, if infants die (and a great part of the human race do die in infancy,) they are saved: if this be the case, then, wby re- fuse them the sign in infancy, if they are capable of enjoying the tiling signified? "Why," say* r* BAPTISM Dr. Owen, " is it thn will of God that unbelievers should not Ik? baptized? It is localise, not grant- ing them the grace he will not grant them the sign. It' Cod, therefore, denies the sign to the infant seed of believers, it must be because he de- nies them the grace of it; and then all the chil- dren of believing parents (upon these principles) dying in their infancy, must, without hope, be eternally damned. 1 do not say that all must be BO who are not baptized; but all must be so whom God would not have baptized." Something is said of baptism, it is observed, that cannot agree to infants: faith goes before baptism; and, as none but adults are capable of believing, so no others are capable of baptism; but it is replied, if infants must not be baptized because something is said of baptism that does not agree to infants, Mark xvi. 16, then infants must not be saved, because something is said of salvation that does not agree to infants, Mark xvi. 16. As none but adults are capable of believing, so, by the ar- gument of the Baptists, none but adults are capa- ble of salvation : for he that believeth not shall be damned. But Christ, it is said, set an example of adult baptism. True ; but he was baptized in honour to John's ministry, and to conform liim- self to what he appointed to his followers; for which last reason he drank of the sacramental cup : but this is rather an argument for the Pse- dobaptists than against them; since it plainly shows, as Doddridge observes, that baptism may be administered to those who are not capable of all the purposes for which it was designed ; since Jesus Christ, not being a sinner, could not be capable of that faith and repentance which are said to be necessary to this ordi- nance. As to the mode. They believe that the word £:»*■-» signifies to dip or plunge; but that the term£«irTi£», which is only a derivative of 3«^to>, and consequently must be somewhat less in its signification, should In: invariably used in the New Testament to ex- press plunging, is not so clear. It is therefore doubted whether dipping be the only meaning, and whether Christ absolutely enjoined immer- sion, and that it is his positive will that no other should be used. As the word g»sn-i£u> is used for the various ablutions among the Jews, such as sprinkling; pouring, &c. Heb. ix. 10; for the custom ot washing before meals, and the washing of household furniture, pots, &c.; it is evident from hence that it does not express the manner of doing, whether by immersion or affusion, but only the thing done, that is, washing, or the appli- cation of water in one form or other. Dr. Owen observes, that it no where signifies to dip but as denoting a mode of and in order to washing or cleansing; and, according to others, the mode of use is only the ceremonial part of a positive in- stitute; just as in the supper of the Lord, the time of the day, the number and posture of com- municants, the quality and quantity of bread a: id wine, are circumstances not accounted es- sential by any party of Christians. As to ths 1 lebrew word Tubal, it is considered as a generic term; that its radical, primary, and proper mean- ing is to tinge, to dye, to wet, or the like: which primary design is effected by different modes of application, If in baptism also there is an ex- pressive emblem of the descending influence of BAPTISM the Spirit, pouring must be the mode of adminis- tration; for that is the Scriptural term most commonly and properly used for the communica- tion of divine influences. There is no object whatever in all the New Testament so frequently and so explicitly signiticd ny baptism as these divine influences. Matt. iii. 11. Mark i. 8, 10. Luke iii. 16 to 22. John i. 33. Acts i. 5. ii. 38, 39. via. 12, 17. xi. 15, 16. The term sprinkling, also, is made use of in reference to the act of pu- rifying, Isa. Iii. 15. Heb. ix. 13, 14. Ezck. xxxvi. 25, and therefore cannot be inapplicable to bap- tismal purification. But it is observed that John baptized in Jordan : to this it is replied, to infer always a plunging of the whole body in water from this word, would, in many instances, be false and absurd : the same Greek preposition » is used when it is said they should be baptized with fire ; while few will assert that they should be plunged into it. The apostle, speaking of Christ, says, he came not (ev) by water only, but (iv) by water and blood. There the same word i» is translated by, and with justice and propriety, for we know no good sense in which we could say he came in water. It has been remarked, that iy is more than a hundred times, in the New Testament, rendered "at," and in a hundred and fifty others it is translated with. If it be rendered so here, " John baptized at Jordan," or with the water of Jordan, there is no proof from thence that he plunged his disciples in it. It is urged that John's choosing a place where there was much water is a certain proof of im- mersion. To which it is answered, that as there went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, that by choos- ing a place where there were many streams or rivu- lets, it would be much more expeditiously perform- ed by pouring ; and that it seems in the nature of things highly improbable that John should have baptized this vast multitude by immersion, to say nothing of the indecency of both sexes being bap- tized together. Jesus, it is said, came up out of the water; but this is said to be no proof of his being immersed, as the Greek term t.™ often signifies from ; for instance, "who hath warned you to flee from," not out of, "the wrath to come," with many others which might be mentioned. Again : it is said that Philip and the eunuch went down both into the water. To this it is answered that here is no proof of immersion; for if the expression of their going down into tho water necessarily includes dipping, then Philip was dipped as well as the eunuch. The prepo- sition (nt) translated into, often signifies no more than to or unto. See Matt. xv. 24. Rom. x. 10. Acts xxviii. 14. Matt. xvii. 27. iii. 11. So that, from all these circumstances, it cannot be conclu- ded that there was a single person of all the bap- tized who went into the water ankle deep. As to the apostle's expression, " buried with him in baptism," they think it has no force; and that it docs not allude to any custom of dipping, anv more than our baptismal crucifixion and death has any such reference. It is not tlic sign but the thing signified that is here alluded to. As Christ was buried, and rose again to a heavenly life, so we by baptism signify that we are cut off from the life of sin, that we may rise again to a new life of faith and love. To concludo this article, it is observed against BAPTISM the mode of immersion, that, as it carries with it too mucii of the appearance of a burdensome rite for the Gospel dispensation ; that as it is too in- decent for so solemn an ordinance; as it has a tendency to agitate the spirits, often rendering the subject unfit for the exercise of proper thoughts and affections, and, indeed, utterly incapable of (.hem ; as in many cases the immersion of the body would in all probability be instant death ; as in other situations it would be impracticable for want of a sufficient quantity of water, it cannot be con- sidered as necessary to the ordinance of baptism. See Gale, Robinson, Stennett, Gill, and Booth, on An/ipcedobaptism ; and Wall, Henry, Brad- bury, Bastwick, Towgood, Addington, Williams, Edwards, Miller, Evans, &c. on the other side. BAPTISM OF THE DEAD, a custom which anciently prevailed among some people in Africa, of giving baptism to the dead. The third council of Carthage speaks of it as a thing that ignorant Christians are fond of: Gregory Na- zianzen also takes notice of the same superstitious ©pinion. The practice seems to be grounded on a vain idea, that, when men had neglected to receive baptism in their lifetime, some compensation might be made for this default by receiving it after death. BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD, a practice formerly in use, when a person dying without baptism, another was baptized in his stead ; thus supposing that God would accept the baptism of the proxy, as though it had been administered to the principal. Chrysostom says, this was prac- tised among the Marcionites with a great deal of ridiculous ceremony, which he thus describes : — " After any catechumen was dead, they had a living man under the bed of the deceased : then, coming to the dead man, they asked him whether he would receive baptism: and he making no an- swer, the other answered for him, and said he would be baptized in his stead ; and so they bap- tized the living for the dead." If it can be proved (as some think it can) that this practice was as early as the days of the apostle Paul, it might probably form a solution of those remarkable words in 1 Cor. xv. 29 : " If the dead rise not at all, what shall they do who are baptized for the dead?" The allusion of the apostle to this prac- tice, however, is rejected by some, and especially by Dr. Doddridge, who thinks it too early : he thus paraphrases the passage : " Such are our views and hopes as Christians, else, if it were not so, what should they do who are baptized in token of their embracing {he Christian faith, in the room of the dead, who are just fallen in the cause of Christ, but are yet supported by a succession of new converts, who immediately offer themselves to fill up their places, as ranks of soldiers that advance to the combat in the room of their com- panions who have just been slain in their sight?" Lay baptism we find to have been permitted by iKith the common prayer-books of king Edward and queen Elizabeth, when an infant, was in im- mediate danger of death, and a lawful minister could, not be had. This was founded on a mis- taken notion of the impossibility of salvation without the sacrament of baptism ; but afterwards, when they came to have clearer notions of the sa- craments, it was unanimously resolved, in a con- vocation held in 1575, that even private baptism in a case of necessity was only to be administered by a lawful minister. BAPTISM METAPHORICAL. InScrip- ■ 3i BARDESAN1ST8 ture th« term Baptism is used as referring to the work of the Spirit on the heart, Matt. iii. 11. ; also to the sufferings of Christ, Matt. xx. "22; and to so much of the Gospel as John the Baptist taught his disciples, Acts xviii. 25. BAPTISTS, a denomination of Christians who maintain that baptism is to be administered by immersion, and not by sprinkling. See Baptism. Although there were several Baptists among the Albigenses, Waldcnses, and the followers of Wickliff'e, it does not appear that they were form- ed into any stability until the time of Menno, about the year 153G. See Anabaptists and Mennonites. About 1644 they began to make a considerable figure in England, and spread themselves into several separate congregations. They separated from the Independents about the year 1638, and set up for themselves under the pastoral care of Mr. Jesse ; and, having renounced their former baptism, they sent over one of their number to be immersed by one of the Dutch Ana- baptists of Amsterdam, that he might be qualified to baptize his friends in England after the same manner. The Baptists subsist under two denominations, viz. the Particular, or Calvinistical, and the General, or Arminian. Their modes of church government and worship are the same as those of the Independents ; in the exercise of which they are protected, in common with other dissenters, by the act of toleration. Some of both denominations allow of mixed communion; by which it is un- derstood that those who have not been baptized by immersion, on the profession of their faith, may sit down at the Lord's table with those who have been thus baptized. Others, however, disallow it, supposing that such have not been actually bap- tized at all. See Free Communion. Some of them observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, apprehending the law that enjoined it not to have been repealed by Christ. The Baptists in America and in the East and West Indies are chiefly Calvinists, and hold oc- casional fellowship wi*h the Particular Baptist churches in England. Those in Scotland, having imbibed a considerable part of the principles of Messrs. Glass and Sandeman. have no commu- nion with the other. They have liberally con- tributed, however, towards the translation of the Scriptures into the Bengalee language, which some of the Baptist brethren are now accomplish- ing in the East. See Nippon's Baptist Register, vol. i. p. 172 — 175; Adams's View of Religions, article Baptists; Evans's Sketch of Religious Denominations. [See APPENDIX, No. 6.] BAPTISTERY, the place in which the cere- mony of baptism is performed. In the ancient church, it is said, it was generally a buildtno separate and distinct from the church. It con- sisted of an ante-room, where the adult persons to be baptized made their confession of faith ; and an inner room, where the ceremony of baptism was j>erformed. Thus it continued to the sixth century, when the baptisteries began to be taken into the church. BARDESANISTS, a sect so denominated from their leader Bardesanes, a Syrian, of Edessa, in Mesopotamia, who lived in the second century. They believed that the actions of men depended altogether on fate, and that God himself is subject to necessity. — They denied the resurrection of BASILIDIANS the body, and the incarnation and death of our Saviour. BARLA AMITES, the followers of Barlaam, in the fourteenth century, who was a very zealous champion in behalf of the Greek against the Latin church. It is add that he adopted the sentiments and precepts of the Stoics, with respect to the obligations of morality and the duties of life; and digested them into a work of his, which is known b\ the i it to of Ethica ex Stoicis. ' BARNABAS, EPISTLES OF, an apocry- phal work ascribed to St. Barnabas. It was first published in Greek, from a copy of father Hugh Menaed, a monk. Vossius published it, in 1656, with the epistles of Ignatius. — The Gospel of Barnabas is another apocryphal work ascribed to Barnabas, wherein the history of Jesus Christ is given in a different manner from that of the evangelists. BARNABITES, a religious order, founded in the sixteenth century, by three Italian gentlemen, who had been advised by a famous preacher of those days to read carefully the epistles of St. Paul. Hence they were called clerks of St. Paul ; and BarnabUcs, because they performed their first exercise in a church of St. Barnabas at Milan. Their habit is black ; and their office is to in- struct, catechise, ami serve in mission. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY, ST.(the 24th August) is a day distinguished in history, as the anniversary of the horrid and atrocious sacrifices of human blood, called the Parisian Massacre. See Persecution. BARTHOLOMITES, a religious order founded at Geneva in 1307; but, the monks leading irregular lives, it was suppressed in 1650, and their effects confiscated. In the church of the monastery of this order at Geneva is pre- served the image, which, it is pretended, Christ sent to king Abcrarus. BASlLfAN^MONKS, religious of the order of St. Basil, in the fourth century, who, having retired into a desert in the province of Pontus, founded a monastery, and drew up rules, to the amount of some hundreds, fir his disciples. This new society soon spread all over the East: nor was it long before it passed into the West. Some pretend that St. Basil Raw himself the spiritual father of more than 00,000 monks in the East only; but this order, which flourished for more than three centuries, was considerably diminished by heresy, schism, and a change of empire. The historians of this order say that it has produced 14 popes, 1805 bishops, 3010 abbots, and 11,085 martyrs, besides an infinite number of confessors and virgins. This order likewise boasts of several emperors, kings, and princes, who have em- braced its rule. BASILIDIANS, a denomination in the se- cond century, from Basilulcs, chief of the Egyp- tian Gnostics. lie acknowledged the existence of one supreme God, perfect in goodness and wisdom, who produced from his own substance seven beings, or aions, of a most excellent nature. Two of these aions, called Dynamis and Sophiz (i. e. poicer and wisdom), engendered the angels of the highest order. These angels formed a heaven for their habitation, and brought forth other angelic brings ot a nature somewhat in- ferior to their own Many other generations of angels followed these. New heavens were also crea'.cd, until the number of angelic orders, and 36 BATANIST3 of their respective heavens, amounted to three hundred and sixty-five, and thus equalled the days of the year. All these are under the empire of an omnipotent Lord, whom Basilides called Abraxas. The inhabitants of the lowest heavens, which touched upon the borders of the eternal, malig- nant, and self-animated matter, conceived the design of forming a world from that confused mass, and of creating an order of beings to people it. This design was carried into execution, and was approved by the Supreme God, who to the animal life, with which only the inhabitants of this new world were at first endowed, added a reasonable soul, giving at the same time to the angels the empire over them. These angelic beings, advanced to the govern- ment of the world which they had created, fell by degrees from their original purity, and soon manifested the fatal marks of their depravity and corruption. They not only endeavoured to efface in the minds of men their knowledge of the Su- preme Being, that they might be worshipped in his stead, but also began to war against each other, with an ambitious view to enlarge every one the bounds of his respective dominion. The most arrogant and turbulent of all these angelic spirits was that which presided over the Jewish nation. — Hence the Supreme God, beholding with compassion the miserable state of rational beings, who groaned under the contest of these jarring powers, sent from heaven his son .Yw.s, or Christ, the chief of the aions, that, joined in a substantial union with the man Jesus, he might restore the knowledge of the Supreme God, destroy the empire of those angelic natures which presided over the 'world, and particularly that of the arrogant leader of the Jewish people. The God of the Jews, alarmed at this, sent forth his ministers to seize the man Jesus, and put him to death. They executed his commands ; but their cruelty could not extend to Christ, against whom their efforts were vain. Those souls, who obey the precepts of the Son of God, shall, after the dissolution of their mortal frame, ascend to the Father, while their bodies return to the cor- rupt mass of matter whence they were formed. Disobedient spirits, on the contrary, shall pass suc- cessively into other bodies. BATAN1STS, or Assassins; a famous he- retical sect of murderers among the Mahometans, who settled in Persia about 1090. Their head and cliief seems to have been Hassan Sabah, who made fanatical slaves of his subjects. Their religion was a compound of that of the Magi, the Jews, the Christians, and the Mahometans, They believed the Holy Ghost resided in thei- chief; that his orders proceeded from God him- self, and were real declarations of liis will. This chief, from his exalted residence on Mount Lebanon, was called the old man of the mountain ; who, like a vindictive deity, with the thunderbolt in his hand, sent inevitable death to all quarters, so that even kings trembled at his sanguinary power. His subjects would prostrate themselves at the foot of his throne, requesting to die by his hand or order, as a favour by which they were sure of passing into paradise. "Are your subjects," said the old man of the mountain to the son-in-law of Amoury, king of Jerusalem; "as ready in their submission as mine?* and without staying for an answer, made a sign*, with BAXTERIANS his hand, when ten young men in white, who were standing on an adjacent tower, instantly threw themselves down. To one of his guards he said, " Draw your dagger, and plunge it into your breast ;" which was no sooner said than obeyed. At the command of their chief, they made no difficulty of stabbing any prince, even on his throne ; and for that purpose conformed to the dress and religion of the country, that they might be less suspected. To animate them on such at- tempts, the Scheik previously indulged them with a foretaste of the delights of paradise. De- licious soporific drinks were given them; and while they lay asleep, they were carried into beautiful gardens, where, awakening, as it were, in paradise, and inflamed with views of perpetual enjoyments, they sallied forth to perform assassina- tions of the blackest dye. It is said, they once thought of embracing the Christian religion ; and some have thought the Druses a remnant of this singular race oi barba- rians. BATH-KOL (i. e. the daughter of a voice), an oracle among the Jews, frequently mentioned in their books, especially the Talmud. It was a fantastical way of divination invented by the Jews, though called by them a revelation from God's will, which he made to his chosen people after all verbal prophecies had ceased in Israel. BAXTERIANS, so called from the learned and pious Mr. Richard Baxter, who was born in the year 1615. His design was to reconcile Cal- vin and Arminius : for this purpose he formed a middle scheme between their systems. He taught that God had elected some, whom he is deter- mined to save, without any foresight of their good works ; and that others to whom the Gospel is preached have common grace, which, if they im- prove, they shall obtain saving grace, according to the doctrine of Arminius. This denomination own, with Calvin, that the merits of Christ's death are to be applied to believers only ; but they also assert that all men are in a state capable of salvation. Mr. Baxter maintains that there may be a cer- tainty of perseverance here, and yet he cannot tell whether a man may not have so weak a degree of saving grace as to lose it again. In order to prove that the death of Christ has put all in a state capable of salvation, the follow- ing arguments aTe alleged by this learned author. — 1. It was the nature of all mankind which Christ assumed at his incarnation, and the sins of all mankind were the occasion of his suffering. — 2. It was to Adam, as the common father of lapsed mankind, that God made the promise SUen. iii. 15.) The conditional new covenant oes equally give Christ, pardon, and life to all mankind, on condition of acceptance. The con- ditional grant is universal : Whoever believcth shall be saved. — 3. It is not to the elect only, but to all mankind, that Christ has commanded his ministers to proclaim his Gospel, and oiler the benefits of his procuring. There are, Mr. Baxter allows, certain fruits of Christ's death which are proper to the elect only : 1. Grace eventually vvorketh in them true faith, repentance, conversion, and union with Christ as his living members. — 2. The actual forgiveness of sin as to the spiritual and eternal punishment. — 3. Our reconciliation with God, and adoption and right to the heavenly inherit- 37 BEGUINES ance. — 4. The Spirit of Christ to dwell in us and sanctify us, by a habit of divine love, Rom. viii. 9 — 13. Gal. v. 6. — 5. Employment in holy, ac ceptable service, and access in prayer, with a pro mise of being heard through Christ, Heb. ii. 5, 6. John xiv. 13. — G. Well-grounded hopes of salva- tion, peace of conscience, and spiritual commu- nion with the church mystical in heaven and earth, Rom. v. 12. Heb. xii. 22. — 7. A special interest in Christ, and intercession with the Fa- ther, Rom. viii. 32, 33. — 8. Resurrection unto life, and justification in judgment ; glorification of the soul at death, and of the body at the resur- rection, Phil. iii. 20, 21. 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3. Christ has made a conditional deed of gift ot these benefits to all mankind ; but the elect only accept and possess them. Hence he infers, that though Christ never absolutely intended or de- creed that his death should eventually put all men in possession of those benefits, yet he did intend and decree that all men should have a conditional gift of them by his death. Baxter, it is said, wrote 120 books, and had 60 written against him. 20,000 of his Call to the Unconverted were sold in one year. He told a friend, that six brothers were converted by read ing that Call. The eminent Mr. Elliott, of New England, translated this tract into the Indian tongue. A young Indian prince was so taken with it, that he read it with tears, and died with it in his hand. Calamy's Life of Baxter ; Bax tcr's Catholic Theology, p. 51 — 53 ; Baxter's End of Doctrinal Controversy, p. 154, 155. BEATIFICATION, in the Romish churcfc, the act whereby the pope declares a person happy after death. See Canonization. BEATITUDE imports the highest degree ot happiness human nature can arrive to, the fruition of God in a future life to all eternity. It is also used when speaking of the theses contained in Christ's sermon on the Mount, whereby he pro- nounces the several characters there mentioned blessed. BEGHARDS, or Bkguards, a sect that arose in Germany in the thirteenth century, and took St. Begghe for their patroness. They employed themselves in making linen cloth, each supporting himself by his labour, and were united only by the bonds of charity, without having any particu- lar rule ; but when pope Nicholas IV. had con- firmed that of the third order of St. Francis, in 1289, they embraced it the year following. BEGUINES, a congregation of nuns, founded either by St. Begghe or by Lambert le Begue. They were established, first at Liege, and alter- wards at Neville, in 1207 ; and from tliis last set- tlement sprang the great number of Beguinages which are spread over all Flanders, and which have passed from Flanders into Germany. In the latter country some of them fell into extravagant errors, persuading themselves that it was possible in the present life to arrive to the highest perfec- tion, even to impeccability, ana x clear view ot God ; in short, to so eminent a degree of contem- plation, that there was no necessity, after this, to submit to the laws of mortal men, civil or eccle- siastical. The council of Vienna condemned these errors ; permitting, nevertheless^ those among them, who continued in the true faith, to live in charity and penitence, either with or with- out vows. There still subsists, or at least sub- sisted till lately, many communities of thein in D BEIIMENTSTS Flanders. Their grand rule of conduct was uni- versal charity, and their only motive, the love of God. BEHMENISTS, a name given to those mys- tics who adopt the explications of the mysteries of nature and grace, as given by Jacoh Behmen. This writer was born in the year 1 575, at Old Sekienburg, near Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia ; he was a shoemaker by trade. He is described as having been thoughtful and religious from his youth up, taking peculiar pleasure in frequenting public worship. At length, seriously considering within himself that speech of our Saviour, My father which is in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, he was thereby tho- roughly awakened in himself, and set forward to desire that promised Comforter; and, continuing in that earnestness, he was at last, to use his own expression. " surrounded with a divine light for seven days, and stood in the highest contempla- tion and kingdom of joys !" After this, about the year 1000, he was again surrounded by the divine light, anil replenished with the heavenly know- ledge; insomuch as, going abroad into the fields, and viewing the herbs and grass, by his inward light, lie saw into their essences, use and proper- ties, which were discovered to him by their linea- ments, figures and signatures. In the year 1610, he had a third special illumination, wherein still further mysteries were revealed to him. It was not till the year 1612, that Behmen committed these revelations to writing. His first treatise is entitled Aurora, which was seized on and with- hold from him by the senate of Gorlitz (who per- secuted him at the instigation of the primate of that place) before it was finished, and he never afterwards proceeded with it further than by add- ing some explanatory notes. The next produc- tion of his pen is called The Three Principles. In this work he more fully illustrates the subjects treated of in the former, and supplies what is wanting in that work. The contents of these two treatises may be divided as follow : — 1. How all things came from a working will of the holy triune incomprehensible God, manifesting him- self as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through an outward perceptible working triune power of fire, light, and spirit, in the kingdom of heaven. — 2. How and what angels and men were in their creation ; that they are in and from God, his real offspring ; that their life began in and from this divine lire, which is the Father of light, generat- ing a birth of light in their souls ; from both which proceeds the Hoiy Spirit, or breath of divine love in the triune creature, as it does in the triune ( Sreator. — 3. How some angels, and all men, are fallen from God, and their first state of a divine triune life in him ; what they arc in their fallen state, and the difference between the fall of an- gels and that of man. — I. How the earth, stars, and elements were created in consequence of the fallen angels. — 5. Whence there is good and evil in all this temporal world, in all its creatures ani- mate and inanimate; and what is meant by the curse that dwells every wherein it. — 0. Of the kingdom of Christ ; how it is set in opposition to and tights and strives against the kingdom of hell. — 7. How man, through faith in Christ, is hie to overcome the kinird. >u> of hell, and triumph over it in the divine power, and thereby obtain eternal salvation ; also how, through the working (if the hellish quantity or principle, he casts hiin- 3d BELIEVERS self into perdition. — 8. How and win *m anrf misery, wrath and death, shall only reign for a time, till the love, the wisdom, and the power of God shall in a supernatural way (the mystery ol God made man) triumph over sin, misery, and death ; and make fallen man rise to the glery ol angels, and this material system shake off its curse, and enter into an everlasting union with that heaven from whence it fell. The year after he wrote his Three Principles, by which are to be understood — the dark world, or hell, in which the devils live — the light world, or heaven, in which the angels live — the external and visible world, which has proceeded from the internal and spiritual worlds, in which man, as to his bodily life, lives; Behmen produced his Threefold Life of Man, according to the Three Principles. In this work he treats more largely of the state of man in this world : — 1. That he has that immortal spark of life which is common to angels and devils. — 2. That divine life of the light and spirit of God, which makes the essential difference between an angel and a devil, the last having extinguished this divine life in himself; but that man can only attain unto this heavenly life of the second principle through the new birth in Christ Jesus. — 3. The life of the third principle, or of this external and visible world. Thus the life of the first and third principles is common to all men ; but the life of the second principle oidy to a true Christian or child of God. Behmen wrote several other treatises, besides the three already enumerated ; but these three being, as it were, the basis of all his other writings, it was thought proper to notice them particularly. His conceptions are often clothed under allegori- cal symbols ; and in his latter works he has fre- quently adopted chemical and Latin phrases to express his ideas, which phrases he borrowed from conversation with learned men, the educa- tion he had received being too illiterate to furnish him with them : but as to the matter contained in his writings, he disclaimed having borrowed it either from men or books. He died in the year 1621. His last words were, "Now I go hence into Paradise." Some of Behmen's principles were adopted by the ingenious and pious William Law, who clothed them in a more modern dress, and in a loss ob- scure style. See Behmen's Works ;. Okcly's Memoirs of Behmen. BELIEF, in its general and natural sense, de- notes a persuasion or an assent of the mind to the truth of any proposition. In this sense belief has no relation to any particular kind of means or ar- guments, but may be produced by any means whatever : thus we are said to believe our senses, to believe our reason, to believe a witness. Belief, in its more restrained sense, denotes that kind of assent which is grounded only on the authority or testimony of some person. In this sense belief stands opposed to knowledge and science. We do not say that we believe snow is white, but we know it to be so. But when a thing is propound- ed to us, of which we ourselves have no know- ledge, but which appears to us to be true from the testimony given to it by another, this is what we call belief. See Faith. BELIEVERS, an appellation given, toward the close of the first century, to those Christians who had been admitted into the church by bap- tism, and instructed in all the mysteries of religion. BENEFICENCE They were thus called in contradistinction to the catechumens who had not been baptized, and twere debarred from those privileges. Among us it is often used synonymously with Christian. See Christian. BENEDICTINES, an order of monks, who professed to follow the rules of St. Benedict. They were obliged to perform their devotions seven times in twenty-four hours. They were obliged always to go two and two together. Every day in Lent they fasted till six in the even- -.ig, and abated of their usual time in sleeping, eating, &c. — Every monk had two coats, two cowls, a table-book, a knife, a needle, and a hand- kerchief; and the furniture of his bed was a mat, a blanket, a rug, and a pillow. The time when this order came into England is well known, for to it the English owe their conversion from idola- try. They founded the metropolitan church of Canterbury, and all the cathedrals that were af- terwards erected. The order has produced a vast number of eminent men. Their Alcuinus form- ed the university of Paris ; their Dionysius Exi- guus perfected the ecclesiastical computation ; their Guido invented the scale of music ; and their Sylvester the organ. "BENEDICTION, in a general sense, the act of blessing, or giving praise to God, or return- ing thanks for his favours. The Jews, it is said, are obliged to rehearse a hundred benedictions per day, of which eighty are to be spoken in the morning. It was usual to give a benediction to travellers on their talcing leave ; a practice which is still preserved among the monks. Benedictions were likewise given among the ancient Jews as well as Christians, by imposition of hands. And when at length the primitive simplicity of the Christian worship began to give way to ceremo- ny, they added the sign of the cross, winch was made with the same hand as before, only elevated or extended. Hence benediction in the modern Romish church is used, in a more particular manner, to denote the sign of the cross made by a bishop or prelate as conferring some grace on the people. Benediction is also used for an ecclesiastical ceremony, whereby a thing is rendered sacred or venerable. In this sense benediction differs from consecration, as in the latter unction is applied, which is not in the former: thus the chalice is consecrated and the pix blessed ; as the former, not the latter, is anointed ; though in the common usage these two words are applied promiscuously. The spirit of piety, or rather of superstition, has introduced into the Romish church benedictions for almost every thing : we read of forms of bene- ■ dictions for wax candies, for boughs, for ashrs, for church vessels, for ornaments, for flags, or en- signs, arms, first-fruits, houses, ships, paschal eggs, ciliciutu, or the hair-cloth of penitents, church-yards, &c. In general, these benedictions are performed by aspersions of holy water, signs of the cross, and prayers suitable to the nature of tire ceremony. The forms of these benedictions •ire found in the Roman pontifical, in the Roman missal, in the book of ecclesiastical ceremonies, printed in Pope Leo X.'s time, and in the rituals and ceremonies of tlie different churches, which are found collected in father Martene's work on the rites and discipline of the church. BENEFICENCE, the practice of doing good; 39 BENEFICENCE active goodness. — Next to justice, the most pro- minent virtue in the system of morality, is benefi- cence. Power makes us to be feared, riches to be flattered, learning to be admired ; but benefi- cence renders us amiable and useful in the scale of society. Some qualifications are solitary, and centre mostly in ourselves ; but this is social, dif- fusive and kind. The objects of our beneficence are all those who are in the sphere of our influ- ence and action, without respect to party or sect. Towards superiors, beneficence expresses itself in respect, honour, submission, and service ; toward inferiors, in liberality, condescension, protection, and support ; toward equals, in all the offices of love their cases require, and which they have ability for. It includes all the kind exertions on the behalf of the poor, the sick, the fatherless, the widow, the distressed, &c. and especially those " who are of the household of faith," GaL vi. 10. The means of beneficence are — commu- nication of temporal supplies, Gal. vi. G ; prayer, James v. 1G; sympathy, Rom. xii. 15; appropri- ate advice and conversation, Col. iii. 16. — Obli- gations to beneficence arise from the law of na- ture, Acts xvii. 2G ; the law of revelation, Heb. xiii. 1G ; the relations we stand in to each other, Gal. vi. 1, 2 ; the example of Christ and illustri- ous characters, Acts x. 38 ; the resemblance we herein bear to the best of Beings, Acts xiv. 17 ; and the pleasure we receive and give in so noble an employ. See Benevolence, Charity, Love. BENEVOLENCE, the love of mankind in general, accompanied with a desire to promote their happiness. It is distinguished from benefi- cence, that being the practice, benevolence the desire of doing good. Benevolence must be uni- versal, reaching to every man without exception; but beneficence cannot be so universal, for it is necessarily confined by several considerations; such as our knowledge of objects, and their (lif- erent circumstances, as well as our own abilities and opportunities of exercising them. Bene- volence or good will to others does not imply that we are to neglect our own interests. Our salvation, health, prosperity, and reputation, should all be objects of concern : nor will this clash with the affection we may bear to others ; on the contrary, experiencing the importance of these blessings ourselves, we shall be anxious for others to possess them also. The duties of benevolence include those we owe to men, purely on the ground of their being of the same species with ourselves; such as sympa- thy, relief, &c. ; those w-e owe to our country, desiring its honour, safety, prosperity; those we owe to the church of God, as love, zeal, &c. ; those we owe to families and individuals, as af- fection, care, provision, justice, forbearance, &c. Benevolence manifests itself by being pleased with the share of good every creature enjoys; in a disposition to increase it ; in feeling an uneasi- ness at their sufferings; and in the abhorrence of cruelty under every disguise or pretext. The desire of doing good unconnected with any idea of advantage to ourselves is called disinterested benevolence, though some doubt whether, strictly speaking, there be any such thing; as benevo- lence is always attended with a pleasure to our- selves, which forms a kind of mental interest. So far, however, as we are able to prefer the good of others to our own, and sacrifice our own com- BEREANS fort for the welfare of any about us, so far it may be said to be disinterested. See Hutclieson on the Passions, p. 13 — 26; Doddridge's Led. 65; Seattle's Elements of Moral Science, vol. i. p. 244 — 249; Brown's Second Essay on Shaftes- bury's Characteristics; and articles Love and SkLp-lote. BEREANS, a sect of Protestant Dissenters from the church of Scotland, who take their title from and profess to follow the example of the ancient Bereans, in building their system of faith and practice upon the Scriptures alone, without regard to any human authority whatever. As to the origin of this sect, we find that the Bereans first assembled as a separate society of Christians, in the city of Edinburgh, in the au- tumn of 1773, and soon after in the parish of Fet- tercaim. The opponents of the Berean doc- trines allege, that this new system of faith would never have been heard of, had not Mr. Barclay, the founder of it, been disappointed of a settle- ment in the church of Scotland. But the Be- reans, in answer to this charge, appeal not only to Mr. Barclay's doctrine, uniformly preached in the church of Fettercairn, and many other places in that neighbourhood, for fourteen years before that benefice became vacant, but likewise to two different treatises, containing the same doctrines, published by him about ten or twelve years before that period. They admit, indeed, that previous to May 1773, when the general assembly, by sus- taining the king's presentation in favour of Mr. Foote, excluded Mr. Barclay from, succeeding to the church of Fettercairn (notwithstanding the almost unanimous desire of the parishioners), the Bereans had not left the established church, or at- tempted to erect themselves into a distinct society ; but they add, that this was by no means neces- sary on their part, until by the assembly's decision they were in danger of being not only deprived of his instructions, but of being scattered as sheep without a shepherd. And they add, that it was Mr. Barclay's open and public avowal, both from the pulpit and the press, of those peculiar senti- ments which now distinguish the Bereans, that was the first and principal, if not the only cause of the opposition set on foot against his settle- ment in Fettercairn. The Bereans agree with the great majority of Christians respecting the doctrine of the Trinity, which they hold as a fundamental article; and they also agree in a great measure with the pro- fessed principles of both our established churches respecting predestination and election, though they allege that these doctrines are not con- sistently taught in either church. But they differ from the majority of all sects of Christians in va- rious other important particulars, such as, 1. Re- specting our knowledge of the Deity. Upon this subject they say, the majority of professed Chris- tiana stumble at the very threshold of revelation; and, by admitting the doctrine of natural religion, natural conscience, natural notices, &c. not found- ed upon revelation, or derived from it by tradition, they give up the cause of Christianity at once to the infidels; who may justly argue, as Mr. Paine in fact docs in his Age of Reason, that there is no occasion for iinv revelation or word of God, if man can discover his nature and perfec- tions from his works alone. But tliis the Bereans argue is beyond the natural powers of human reason) and therefore our knowledge of God is 40 BEREANS from revelation alone, and that without revelation man would never have entertained an idea of hia existence. — 2. With regard to faith in Christ, and assurance of salvation through his merits, they differ from almost all other sects whatsoever. These they reckon inseparable, or rather tha same, because (say they) "God hath expressly declared, he that believeth shall be saved; and therefore it is not only absurd but impious, and in a manner calling God a liar, for a man to say, 1 believe the Gospel, but have doubts, neverthe- less, of my own salvation." With regard to the various distinctions and definitions that have been given of different kinds of faith, they argue that there is nothing incomprehensible or obscure in the meaning of this word as used in Scripture ; but that as faith, when applied to human testi- mony, signifies neither more nor less than the mere simple belief of that testimony as true, upon the authority of the testifier, so, when applied to the testimony of God, it signifies precisely " the belief of his testimony, and resting upon his ve- racity alone, without any kind of collateral sup- port from concurrence of any other evidence or testimony whatever." And they insist that, aa this faith is the gift of God alone, so the person to whom it is given is as conscious of possessing it as the being to whom God gives life is of being alive ; and therefore he entertains no doubta either of his faith or his consequent salvation through the merits of Christ, who died and rose again for that purpose. In a word, they argue that the Gospel would not be what it is held forth to be, glad tidings of great joy, if it did not bring full personal assurance of eternal salvation to the believer ; which assurance, they insist, is the present infallible privilege and portion of every individual believer of the Gospel. — 3. Consist- ently with the above definition of faith, they say that the sin against the Holy Ghost, which has alarmed and puzzled so many in all ages, is no- thing else but unbelief; and that the expression — " it shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor that which is to come," means only that a person dying in infidelity would not be forgiven, neither under the former dispensation by Moses (tho then present dispensation, kingdom, or govern- ment of God), nor under the Gospel dispensation which, in respect of the Mosaic, was a kind of future world or kingdom to come. — 4. The Be- reans interpret a great part of the Old Testament prophecies, and in particular the whole of the Psalms, excepting such as are merely historical or laudatory, to be typical or prophetical of Jesus Christ, his sufferings, atonement, mediation, and kingdom ; and they esteem it a gross j perversion of these Psalms and prophecies to apply them to the experiences of private Christians. In proof of this, they not only urge the words of the apos- tle, that no prophecy is of any private interpreta- tion, but they insist that the whole of the quota- tions from the ancient prophecies in the New Testament, and particularly those from the Psalms, are expressly applied to Christ. In this opinion many other classes of Protestants agree with them. — 6. Of the absolute all-superintend- ing sovereignty of the Almighty, the Bereans entertain the highest idea, as well as of the unin- terrupted exertion thereof over all his works, in heaven, earth, and hell, however unsearchable by his creatures. A God without election, they argue, or choice in all Ids works, id a God with- BERENGARIANS out existence, a mere idol, a non-entity. And to deny God's election, purpose, and express will in all his works, is to make him inferior to ourselves. ' As to their practice and discipline, they consi- der infant ba])tism as a divine ordinance, insti- tuted in the room of circumcision ; and think it absurd to suppose that infants, who, all agree, are admissible to the kingdom of God in heaven, should, nevertheless, be incapable of being ad- mitted into his visible church on earth. They commemorate the Lord's Supper generally once a month ; but as the words of the institution fix no particular period, they sometimes celebrate it oftener, and sometimes at more distant periods, as h may suit their general convenience. They meet every Lord's day for the purpose of preach- ing, praying, and exhorting to love and good works. With regard to admission and exclusion of members, their method is very simple : when any person, after hearing the Berean doctrines, professes his belief and assurance of the truths of the Gospel, and desires to be admitted into their communion, he is cheerfully received upon his profession, whatever may have been his former manner of life. But if such a one should after- wards draw back from his good profession or practice, they first admonish him, and, if that has no effect, they leave him to himself. They do not think that they have any power to deliver a backsliding brother to Satan ; that text, and other similar passages, such as, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven," &c. they consider as restricted to the apostles, and to the inspired testimony alone, and not to be ex- tended to any church on earth, or any number of churches or of Christians, whether decided by a majority of votes, or by unanimous voices. Neither do they think themselves authorized, as a Christian church, to enquire into each other's political opinions, any more than to examine into each other's notions of philosophy. They both recommend and practise, as a Christian duty, submission to lawful authority ; but they do not think that a man, by becoming a Christian, or joining their society, is under any obligation by the rules of the Gospel to renounce his right of private judgment upon matters of public or pri- vate importance. Upon all such subjects they allow each other to think and act as each may see it his duty, and they require nothing more of the members than a uniform and steady profes- sion of the apostolic faith, and a suitable walk and conversation. It is said that their doctrine has found con- verts in various places of Scotland, England, and America ; and that they have congregations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, Stirling, Crieff, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, Fettercairn, Aber- deen, and other towns in Scotland, as well as in London, and various places in England. For further particulars of the doctrines of this sect, see the works of Messrs. Barclay, Nicol, Brooksbank, and M'Rae. See also Mr. A. 3/' Lean's Treatise on the Commission, first edition, p. 88, in which Mr. Barclay's notion of assurance is combated. BERENGARIANS, a denomination in the eleventh century, which adhered to the opinions of Berengariu.!, who asserted that the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper are not really and es- sentially, but figuratively changed into the body and blood of Christ. His followers were divided 41 F BIBLE in opinion as to the eueliarist. Some allowed them to be changed in effect; others admitted a change in part ; and others an entire change, with this restriction, that, to those who commu- nicated unworthily, the elements were changed back again. BERYLLIANS, so called from Beryllus, an Arabian, bishop of Bozrah, who flourished in the third century. He taught that Christ did not exist before Mary ; but that a spirit issuing from God himself, and therefore superior to all human souls, as being a portion of the divine nature, waa united to him at the time of his birth. BETHLEHEM1TES, a sect called also Star- bearers, because they were distinguished by a red star having five rays, which they wore on their breast, in memory of the star which appeared to the wise men. Several authors have mentioned this order, but none of them have told us their origin, nor where their convents were situated ; if we except Matthew Paris, who says that, in 1257, they obtained a settlement in England, which was at Cambridge, in Trumpington-street. BIBLE, the name applied by Christians, by way of eminence, to the collection of sacred writings, or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. 1. Bible, ancient Divisions and Order of. After the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, Ezra collected as many copies as he could of the sacred writings, and out of them all prepared a correct edition, arranging the several books in their proper order. These books he di- vided into three parts. I. The law. II. The prophets. III. The Hagiograpliia, i. e. the holy writings. I. The law contains — 1. Genesis; — 2. Exodus ; — 3. Leviticus ; — 4. Numbers ; — b. Deuteronomy. II. The writings of the prophets are — 1. Joshua; — 2. Judges, with Ruth; — S.Sa- muel;— 4. Kings ; — 5. Isaiah ; — 0. Jeremiah, with his Lamentations ; — 7. Ezekiel ; — 8. Daniel ; — 9. The twelve minor prophets ; — 10. Job; — 11. Ez- ra ;— 12. Nehemiah ;— 13. Esther. III. The Ha- giograpliia consists of — 1. The Psalms; — 2. The Proverbs; — 3. Ecclesiastes ; — 4. The Song of Solomon. This division was made for the sake of reducing the number of the sacred books to the number of the letters in their alphabet, which amount to twenty-two. Afterwards the Jews reckoned twenty-four books in their canon of Scripture; in disposing of which the law stood as in the former division, anil the prophets were dis- tributed into former and latter : the former pro- phets are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; the latter prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. And the Ha- giograpliia consists of the Psalms, the Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, Ruth, the Lamenta- tions, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, the Chro- nicles. Under the name of Ezra they compre bended Nehemiah: this order* hath not. always been observed, but the variations from it are of no moment. The five books of the low are divi- ded into forty-five sections. This division many of the Jews hold to have been appointed by Moses himself; but others, with more probability, ascribe it to Ezra. The design of this division was, that one of these sections might be read in their synagogues every sabbath day : the number was fifty-four, because, in their intercalated years, a month being then added, there were fifty-four sabbaths : in ;>ther years they reduced them to v> 2 BIBLE fifty-two, by twice joining together two short sec- tions. Till the persecution 01 Antiochus Epipha- nes, they read only the law; hut the reading »f it being then prohibited, they substituted in the room of it fifty-four sections out of the prophets ; and when the reading of the law was restored by the Maccabees, the section which was read every sabbath out of the law served for thelv first lesson, and the section out of the prophets for their se- cond. These sections were divided into verses ; of which division, if Ezra was not the author, it was introduced not long after him, and seems to have been designed for the use of the Targumists, or Chaldee interpreters ; for after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, when the Hebrew language ceased to be their mother tongue, and the Chaldee grew into use instead of it, the custom was, that the law should be first read in the original Hebrew, and then interpre- ted to the people in the Chaldee language ; for which purpose these shorter sections were very convenient, II. Bible, History of. It is thought that Ezra published the Scriptures in the Chaldee character, for, that language being generally used among the Jews, he thought proper to change the old Hebrew character for it, which hath since that time been retained only by the Samaritans, among whom it is preserved to this day. Pri- deaux is of opinion that £zra made additions in several parts of the Bible, where any thing ap- peared necessary for illustrating, connecting, or completing the work; in which he appears to have been assisted by the same Spirit in which they were first written. Among such additions are to be reckoned the last chapter of Deute- ronomy, wherein Moses seems to give an account of his own death and burial, and the succession of Joshua after him. To the same cause our learned author thinks are to be attributed many other interpolations in the Bible, which created difficulties and objections to the authenticity of the sacred text, no ways to be solved without al- lowing them. Ezra changed the names of seve- ral places which were grown obsolete, and, in- stead of them, put their new names by which they were then called, in the text. Thus it is that Abraham is said to have pursued the kings who carried Lot away captive as far as Dan; whereas that place in Moses's time was called Laish, the name Dan being unknown till the Danites, long after the death of Moses, possessed themselves of it. The Jewish canon of Scripture was then settled by Ezra, yet not so but that several variations have been made in it. Malachi, for instance, could not be put in the Bible by him, since that prophet is allowed to have lived after Ezra; nor could Nehemiah be there, since that book mentions (chap. xii. v. 22. ) Jaddua as high priest, and Darius Codomanus as king of Persia, who were at least a hundred years later than Ezra. It may be added, that, in the first book of Chronicles, the genealogy of the sons of Zerubbabel is carried down for so many generations as must necessarily bring it to the time of Alex- ander; and consequently this Iwok, or at least this pari of it, could not beinthecanon in Ezra's days. It is probable the two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi, were adopted into the Bible in the time of Simon the Just, the lasi of the men of the great synagogue. The Jews, at first, were very reserved in com- 42 BIBLE municatingtheir Scriptures to strangers; despising and shunning the Gentiles, they would not disclose to them any of the treasures concealed in the Bible. We may add, that the people bordering on the Jews, as the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Arabs, &c, were not very curious to know the laws or his- tory of a people, whom in their turn they hated and despised. Their first acquaintance with these books was not- till after the several captivi- ties of the Jews, when the singularity of the He* brew laws and ceremonies induced several to desire a more particular knowledge of them. Jo- sephus seems surprised to find such slight foot- steps of the Scripture history interspersed in the Egyptian, Chaldean, Phoenician, and Grecian history ; and accountsfor it hence, that the s.tcred books were not as yet translated into Greek or other languages, and consequently not known to the writers of those nations. The first version of the Bible was that of the Septuagint into Greek, by order of that patron of literature, Ptolemy Philadelphus ; though some maintain that the whole was not then translated, but only the Pentateuch; between which and the other books in the Septuagint version, the critics find a great diversity in point of style and expression, as well as of accuracy. III. Bible, modern Divisions of. The di- vision of the Scriptures into chapters, as we at present have them, is of modern date. Some at- tribute it to Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reigns of John and Henry IIL But the true author ol the invention was Hugo de Sancto Caro, commonly called Hugo Cardina- lis, because he was the first Dominican that ever was raised to the degree of cardinal. This Huge flourished about A. D. 1210 : he wrote a comment on the Scriptures, and projected the first con- cordance, which is that of the vulgar Latin Bible. The aim of this work being for the more easy finding out any word or passage in the Scriptures, he found it necessary to divide the book into sec- tions, and the sections into sub-divisions; for till that time the vulgar Latin Bibles were without any division at all. These sections are the chap- ters into which the Bible hath ever since been divided ; but the subdivision of the chapters was not then into verses, as it is now. Hugo's method of subdividing them was by the letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, placed in the margin, at an equal dis- tance from each other, according to the length of the chapters. The subdivision of the chapters into verses, as they now stand in our Bibles, had its original from a famous Jewish rabbi named Mordecai Nathan, about 1445. This rabbi, in imitation of Hugo Cardinalis, drew up a con- cordance to the Hebrew Bible, for the use of the Jews. But though he followed Hugo in his di- vision of the books into chapters, he refined upon his inventions as to the subdivision, and contrived that by verses : this being found to be a much more convenient method, it has been ever since followed. And thus, as the Jews borrowed the division of the books of the Holy Scriptures into chapters from the Christians, in like manner the Christians borrowed that of the chapters into verses from the Jews. The present order of the several books is almost the same (the Apocrypha excepted) as that made by the council of Trent IV. Bible, rejected Books of. The apocry- phal books of the Old Testament, according to the Romanists, are the books of Er jch (see BIBLE Jade xiv.,) the third and fourth hooks of Esdras, tlie third and fourth books of Maccabees, the prayer of Manasseh, the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, the Psalter of Solomon, and some other pieces of this nature. The apocryphal books of the New Testament are the epistle of St. Barnabas, the pretended epistle of St. Paul to the Laodiceans, several spurious Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and Revelations ; the book of Hennas, entitled the Shepherd; Jesus Christ's letter to Abgarus ; the epistles of St. Paul to Seneca, and several other pieces of the like nature. ; as may be seen in the collection of the apocryphal writings of the New Testament made by Fa- bricius. Protestants, while they agree with the Roman Catholics in rejecting all those as uncano- nical, have also justly rejected the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and 1st and 2d Maccabees. V. Bible, Translations of. We have already mentioned the first translation of the Old Testa- ment by the LXX. (§2.) Both Old "and New Testaments were afterwards translated into Latin by the primitive Christians; and while the Roman empire subsisted in Europe, the reading of the Scriptures in the Latin tongue, which was the Universal language of that empire, prevailed every where ; but since the face of affairs in Europe has been changed, and so many different monarchies erected upon the ruins of the Roman empire, the Latin tongue has by degrees grown into disuse ; whence has arisen a necessity of translating the Bible into the respective languages of each peo- ple : and this has produced as many different ver- sions of the Scriptures in the modern languages as there are different nations professing the Chris- tian religion. Of the principal of these, as well as of some other ancient translations, and the earliest and most elegant printed editions, we shall now take notice in their order. 1. Bible, Ar men ian. There is a very ancient Armenian version of the whole Bible done from the Greek of the LXX. by some of their doctors, about the time of Chrysostom. This was first printed entire, 1664, by one of their bishops at Amsterdam, in quarto, with the New Testament in octavo. 2. Bible, Bohemian. The Bohemians have a Bible translated by eight of their doctors, whom they had sent to the schools of Wirtemberg and Basil on purpose to study the original languages : it was printed in Moravia in 1539. 3. Bible, Croatian. A translation of the New Testament into the Croatian language was pub- lished by Faber Creim, and others, in 1562 and 1563. 4. Bible, Gaelic. A few years ago, a ver- sion of the Bible in the Gaelic or Erse language was published at Edinburgh, where the Gospel is preached regularly in that language in two chapels, for the benefit of the natives oi the High- lands. 5. Bible, Georgian. The inhabitants of jeorgia, in Asia, have long had a translation of the Bible in their ancient language: but that language having now become almost obsolete, and the Georgians in general being very ignorant, few of them can either read or understand it. 6. Bible, Gothic. It is generally said that Ulphilas, a Gothic bishop, who lived in the fourth century, made a version of the whole Bible, ex- cept the book of Kings, for the use of his coun- BIBLE trymen; that book he omitted, because of the frequent mention of the wars therein, as fearing to inspire too much of the military genius into that people. We have nothing remaining of this version but the four Evangelists, printed in quar- to, at Dort, in 1665, from a very ancient manu- script. 7. Bible, Grison. A translation of the Bi- ble into the language of the Grisons, in Italy, was completed by Coir, and published in 1720. 8. Bible, Icelandic. The inhabitants of Iceland have a version of the Bible in their lan- guage, which was translated by Thorlak, and published in 1584. 9. Bible, Indian. A translation of the Bi ble into the North America Indian language, by Elliot, was published in quarto, at Cambridge in 1685. 10. Bible, Irish. About the middle of the sixteenth century, Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, set on foot a translation of the Old Testament into the Irish language, the New Testament and the Liturgy having been before translated into that language : the bishop appointed one King to execute this work, who, not understanding thw oriental languages, was obliged to translate it from the English. This work was received by Bedell, who, after having compared the Irish with the English translation, compared the latter with the Hebrew, the LXX. and the Italian version of Diodati. When it was finished, the bishop would have been himself at the charge of the im- pression ; but his design was stopped, upon ad- vice given to the lord lieutenant and the arch- bishop of Canterbury that it would seem a shameful thing for a nation to publish a Bible translated by such a despicable hand as King : however, the manuscript was not lost, for it went to press in 1685, and was afterwards published. 11. Bible, King James's. See No. 24. 12. Bible, Malabarian. In 1711, Messrs. Ziegenbald and Grindler, two Danish mission- aries, published a translation of the New Testa- ment in the Malabarian language, after which they proceeded to translate the Old Testament. 13. Bible, Malayan. About 1670, Sir Ro- bert Boyle procured a translation of the New Testament into the Malayan language, which he printed, and sent the whole impression to the East Indies. 14. Bible, Rhemish. See No. 23. 15. Bible, Samaritan. At the head of the oriental versions of the Bible must be placed the Samaritan, as being the most ancient of all (though neither its age nor author have been yet ascertained), and admitting no more for the Holy Scripture but the five books of Moses. This translation is made from the Samaritan Hebrew text, which is a little different from the Hebrew text of the Jews : this version has never been printed alone, nor any where but in the Polyglots of London and Paris. 16. Bible, Swedish. In 1534, Olaus and Laurence published a Swedish Bible from the German version of Martin Luther: it was re- vised in 1617, by order of king Gustavus Adol- phus, and was afterwards almost universally re- ceived. 17. Bible, Anglo Saxon. If we inquire into the versions of the Bible of our own country, we shall find that Adelm, bishop of Sherburn, who lived in 709, made an English Saxon version of BIBLE the Psalms; and that Edfrid, or Eebert, bishop of Lindisferne, who lived about I'M), translated ■several of the books of Scripture into the same language. It is said, likewise, that the venerable Bede, who died in 785, translated the whole Bi- ble into Saxon. — But Cuthbcrt, Bede's disciple, m the enumeration of his master's works, speaks only of his translation of the Gospels, and says nothing of the rest of the Bible. Some say that king Alfred, who lived about 800, translated a great part of the Scriptures. We find an old version in the Anglo Saxon of several books of the Bible, made by Ell'ric, abbot of Malmesbury : it was published at Oxford in 1699. There is an old Anglo Saxon version of the four Gospels, published by Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1571, the author whereof is un- known. Air. Mill observes, that this version was made from a Latin copy of the old Vulgate. The whole Scripture is said by some to have been translated into the Anglo Saxon by Bede, about 701, though others contend he only translated the Gospels. We have certain books or parts of the Bible by several other translators ; as, first, the Psalms, by Adelm, bishop of Sherburn, contem- porary with Bede, though by others this version is attributed to king Alfred, who lived two hundred years later. Another version of the Psalms, in Anglo Saxon, was published by Spclman, in 1640. — 3. The evangelists, still extant, done from the ancient Vulgate, before it was revised by St. Jerome, by an author unknown, and published by Matthew Parker in 1571. An old Saxon version of several books of the Bible made by El- frie, abbot of Malmesbury, several fragments of which were published by Will. Lilly, 1638 ; the genuine copy by Edm. Thwaites, in 1699, at Ox- ford. 18. Bibles, Arabic. In 1516, Aug. Justinian, bishop of Nebio, printed at Genoa an Arabic ver- sion of the Psalter, with the Hebrew text and Chaldee paraphrase, adding Latin interpretations: there are also Arabic versions of the whole Scrip- ture in the Polyglots of London and Paris; and we have an edition of the Old Testament entire, printed at Rome, in 1671, by order of the congre- gation de -propaganda fide; but it is of little esteem, as having been altered agreeably to the Vulgate edition. The Arabic Bibles among us are not the same with those used with the Chris- tians in the East. Some learned men take the Arabic version of the Old Testament printed in the Polyglots to be that of Saadias's, who lived about A. D. 900 : their reason is, that Aben Ezra, a great antagonist of Saadias, quotes some pas- sages of his version, which are the same with those iajthe Arabic version of the Polyglots; yet others are of opinion that Saadias's version is not extant. In 1622, Erpenius printed an Arabic Pentateuch, called also the Pentateuch of Mau- ritania, as being made by the Jews of Barbary, and for their use. This version is very literal, and esteemed very exact. The four evangelists have also been published in Arabic, with a Latin ver- sion, at Rome, in 1591, folio. These have been since reprinted in the Polyglots of London and Paris, with some little alteration ol Gabriel Sionita. Erpenius published an Arabic New Testament entire, as he found it in his manuscript copy, at Leyden, 1616. There are some other Arabic versions of later date, mentioned by Walton in bis Prolegomena, particularly a version of the 44 BIBLE Psalms, preserved at Sion College, London, and another of the prophets at Oxford; neither of which have been published. Proj»sals were is- sued for printing a new edition of the Arabio Bible, by Mr. Carl vie, chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle, and professor of Arabic in the uni- versity of Cambridge ; but his death prevented hia finishing it. 19. Bibles, Chaldee, are only the glosses or expositions made by the Jews at the time when they spoke the Chaldee tongue : these they call by the name of Targumim, or paraphrases, as not being any strict version of the Scripture. They have been inserted entire in the large Hebrew Bibles of Venice and Basil ; but are read more commodiously in the Polyglots, being there at- tended with a Latin translation. 20. Bibles, Coptic. There are several manu- script copies of the Coptic Bible in some of the great libraries, especially in that of the king of Prance. Dr. Wilkins published the Coptic New Testament, in quarto, in 1716; and the Penta- teuch, also in quarto, in 1731, with Latin trans- lations. He reckons these versions to have been made in the end of the second or the beginning of the third century. 21. Bibles, Danish. The first Danish Bible was published by Peter Palladus, Olaus Chrysos- tom, John Synningius, and John Maccabseus, in 1550, in which they followed Luther's first Ger- man version. There are two other versions, tha one by John Paal Resenius, bishop of Zealand, in 1605; the other of the New Testament only, by John Michel, in 1524. 22. Bibles, Dutch. Sec No. 26. 23. Bibles, East Indian. See Nos. 12, 13, 14. 24. Bibles, English. The first English Bible we read of was that translated by J. Wicklilfe, about the year 1360, but never printed, though there are manuscript copies of it in several of the public libraries. A translation, however, of the ^ew Testament by Wickliffe was printed by Mr. Lewis, about 1731. J. de Trevisa, who died about 1398, is also, said to have translated the whole Bible; but whether any copies of it are re- maining does not appear. The first printed Bible in our language was that translated by W. Tin- dal, assisted by Miles Coverdale, printed abroad in 1526 ; but most of the copies were bought up and burnt by bishop Tunstal and Sir Thomas More. It only contained the New Testament, and was revised and republished by the same per- son in 1530. The prologues and prefaces added to it, reflect on the bishops and clergy; but this edition was also suppressed, and the copies burnt. In 1532 Tindal and Ids associates finished the whole Bible, except the Apocrypha, and printed it abroad; but, while he was afterwards preparing a second edition, he was taken up and burnt lor heresy in Flanders. On Tindal's death, his work was carried on by Coverdale, and John Rogers, superintendent of an English church in Germany, and the first martyr in the reign of queen Mary, who translated the Apocrypha, and revised Tindal's translation, comparing it with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German, and adding prefaces and notes from Luther's Bible. He dedicated the whole to Henry VIII. in 1537, under the l>orrovved name of Thomas Matthews; whence this has been usually called Matthews'a Bible. It was printed at Hamburgh, and licence obtained for publishing it in England, by the fa- BIBLE vour of archbishop Cranmer, and the bishops Latimer and Shaxton. The first Bible printed by authority in England, and publicly set up in churches, was the same Tindal's version, revised and compared with the Hebrew, and in many places amended by Miles Coverdale, afterwards bishop of Exeter; and examined after him by archbishop Cranmer, who added a preface to it; whence this was called Cranmer's Bible. It was printed by Grafton, of the largest volume, and published in 1540; and by a royal proclamation, every parish was obliged to set one of the copies in their church, under the penalty of forty shil- lings a month; yet, two years after, the popish bishops obtained its suppression by the king. It was restored under Edward VI., suppressed again under queen Mary's reign, and restored again in the first year of queen Elizabeth, and a new edi- tion of it given in 1562. Some English exiles at Geneva, in queen Mary's reign, viz., Coverdale, Goodman, Gilbie, Sampson, Cole, Wittingham, and Knox, made a new translation, printed there in 15G0, the New Testament having been printed in 1557; hence called the Geneva Bible, contain- ing the variations of readings, marginal annota- tions, &c. on account of which It was much valued by the puritan party in that and the fol- lowing reigns. Abp. Parker resolved on a new translation for the public use of the church; and engaged the bishops, and other learned men, to take each a share or portion; these, being after- wards joined together and printed, with short annotations, in 15G8, in large folio, made what was afterwards called the Great English Bible, and commonly the Bishops' Bible. In 1589, it was published in octavo, in a small but fine black letter ; and here the chapters were divided into verses, but without any breaks for them, in which the method of the Geneva Bible was followed, which was the first English Bible where any distinction of verses was made. It was afterwards' printed in large folio, with corrections, and several pro- legomena, m 1572; this is called Matthew Par- ker's Bible. The initial letters of each transla- tor's name were put at the end of his part; e.gr. at the end of the Pentateuch, W. E. for William Exon ; that is William, bishop of Exeter, whose allotment ended there ; at the end of Samuel, R. M. for Richard Menevensis, or bishop of St. David's, to whom the second allotment fell; and the like of the rest. The archbishop oversaw, directed, examined, and finished the whole. This translation was used in the churches for forty years, though the Geneva Bible was more read m private houses, being printed above twenty times in as many years. King James bore it an inveterate hatred, on account of the notes, which, at the Hampton Court conference, he charged as partial, untrue, seditious, &c. The Bishops' Bible, too, had its faults. The king frankly owned that he had seen no good translation of the Bible in English; but he thought that of Ge- neva the worst of all. After the translation of the Bible by the bishops, two other private ver- sions had been made of the New Testament; the first by Laurence Thompson, from Beza's Latin edition, with the notes of Beza, published in 1582, in quarto, and afterwards in 1589, varying very little from the Geneva Bible ; the second by the Bipists at Rheims, in 1584, called the Rhemish ible, or Rhemish translation. These, finding it impossible to keep the people from having the 45 BIBLE Scriptures in their vulgar tongue, resolved to give a version of their own, as favourable to their cause as might be. It was printed on a large pa- per, with a fair letter and margin; one complaint against it was, its retaining a multitude of He- brew and Greek words untranslated, for want, as the editors express it, of proper and adequate terms in the English to render them by; as the words azymes, tunike, holocaust, prepuce, pasche, &c. : however, many of the copies were seized by the queen's searchers, and confiscated ; and Thomas Cartwright was solicited by secre- tary Walsingham to refute it ; but, after a good progress made therein, archbishop Whitgift pro- hibited his further proceeding, as judging it im- proper that the doctrine of the church of England should be committed to the defence of a puritan; and appointed Dr. Fulkc in his place, who re- futed the Rhemists with great spirit and learning. Cartwright's refutation was also afterwards pub- lished in 1618, under archbishop Abbot. About thirty years after their New Testament, the Ro- man Catholics published a translation of the Old, at Douay, 1609 and 1610, from the Vulgate, with annotations, so that the English Roman Catho- lics have now the whole Bible in their mother tongue ; though, it is to be observed, they are forbidden to read it without a licence from their superiors. The last English Bible was that which proceeded from -Hampton Court conference, in 1603; where, many exceptions being made to the Bishops' Bible, king James gave order for a new one; not, as the preface expresses it, for a trans- lation altogether new, nor yet to make a good one better; or, of many good ones, one best. Fifty- four learned men were appointed to this office by the king, as appears by his letter to the arch- bishop, dated 1604; which being three years be- fore the translation was entered upon, it is pro- bable seven of them were either dead, or had declined the task ; since Fuller's list of the trans- lators makes but forty-seven, who, being ranged under six divisions, entered on their province in 1607. It was published in 1613, with a dedication to James, and a learned preface; and is commonly called king James's Bible. After this, all the other versions dropped, and fell into disuse, ex- cept the Epistles and Gospels in the Common Prayer Book, which were still continued accord- ing to the Bishops' translation til) the alteration of the liturgy in 1661, and the psalms and hymns, which are to this day continued as in the old ver- sion. The judicious Selden, in his Table-talk, speaking of the Bible, says, " The English trans- lation ot the Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best; taking in for the English translation, the Bishops' Bible, as well as king James's. The translators in king James's time took an excellent way. That part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent in such a tongue, (as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downs,) and then they met together, and one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, or Italian, &c. If they found any fault, they spoke ; if not, he read on." [King James's Bible is that now read by authority in all the churches in Britain.] Notwithstanding, however, the excellency of this translation, it must be acknowledged that our increasing acquaintance with oriental customs and manners, and the changes our language had BIBLE Undergone since king James's time, are very pow- erful arguments for a new translation, or at least a correction of the old one. There have been various English Bibles with marginal references by I <8H- ne, Hayes, Parker, Scattcrgood, Field, Tennison, Lloyd, Blarney, Wilson, &c.; but the best we have, perhaps, of this kind, are Brown's and Scott's. 25. Bibles, Ethiopic The Ethiopians have also, translated the Bible into their language. There have been printed separately the Psalms, Canticles, some chapters of Genesis, Ruth, Joel, Jonah, Zephaniah, Malachi, and the New Tes- tament, all which have been since reprinted in the Polyglot of London. As to the Ethiopic New Testament, which was first printed at Rome in 1548, it is a very inaccurate work, and is re- printed in the English Polyglot with nil its faults. 26. Bibles, Flemish. The Flemish Bibles of the Romanists are very numerous, and for the most part have no author's name prefixed to them, till that of Nicholas Vinck, printed at Louvain in 1548. The Flemish versions made use of by the Calvinists till 1637, were copied principally from that of Luther. But the Synod of Dort having, in 1618, appointed a new translation of the Bible into Flemish, deputies were named for the work, which was not finished till 1637. 27. Bibi.es, French. The oldest French Bible we hear of is the version of Peter de Vaux, chief of the Waldenses, who lived about the year 1160. Raoul de Prcste translated the Bible into French in the reign of kins Charles V. of France, about A. D. 1383. Besides these, there are several old French translations of particular parts of the Scripture. The doctors of Louvain, published the Bible in French, at Louvain, by order of the emperor Charles V. in 1550. There is a version by Isaac le Maitre de Sacy, published in 1672, with explanations of the literal and spiritual meaning of the text ; which was received with wonderful applause, and has often been reprinted. Of the New Testaments in French, which have been printed separately, one of the most remark- able is that of F. Amelotte, of the Osatory, com- posed by the direction of some French prelates, anil printed with annotations in 1666, 1667, and 1670. The author pretends he had searched all the libraries in Europe, and collated the oldest manuscripts; but, in examining his work, it ap- pears that ho has produced no considerable vari- ous readings which had not before been taken notice of either in the London Polyglot, or clse- whe re. ^ The New Testament of Mons, printed 1665, with the archbishop of Cambray's permis- sion, and the king of Spain's licence, made great noise in the world. It was condemned by pope ( 'lement IX. in 1669; by pope Innocent XI. in 1669; and in several bishoprics t»f France at se- veral times. The New Testament, published at Trevoux, in 1702, by M. Simon, with literal and critical annotations upon difficult passages, was condemned by the bishops of Paris and" Meaux in 1703. P. Honours, a Jesuit, with the assist- ance of F. F. Michael Tollior and Peter Bernier, Jesuits, likewise published a translation of the New Testament in 1697; but this translation is for the most part harsh and obscure, which was owing to the anthor"s adhering too strictly to the Latin text. There are likewise French transla- tions published by Protestant authors; one bv Robert Peter Olivetan, printed in 1535, %n>\ often reprinted with the corrections of John Cuhin and 4ti BIBLE others; another by Sebastian Castalio, remark able for particular ways of expression never used by good judges of the language. John Diodati likewise published a French Bible at Geneva in 16-14; but some find fault with his method, in that he rather paraphrases the text than translates it Faber Stapalensis translated the New Testament into French, which was revised and accommo- dated to the use of the reformed churches in Piedmont, and printed in 1531. Lastly, John le Clerc published a New Testament in French at Amsterdam, in 1703, with annotations taken chiefly from Grotius and Hammond; but the uso of this version was prohibited by order of the States-general, as tending to revive the errors of Sabellius and Socinus. 28. Bibles, German. The first and most an- cient translation of the Bible in the German lan- guage is that of Ulphilas, bishop of the Goths, in the year 360. An imperfect manuscript of this version was found in th,e abbey of Vcrden, near Cologne, written in letters of silver, for which reason it is called Codex Argenteus; and it was published by Francis Junius in 1665. The oldest German printed Bible extant is that of Nurem- burg, in 1547; but who was the author of it is uncertain. John Emzer, chaplain to George duke of Saxony, published a version of the New Tes- tament in opposition to Luther. There is a German Bible of John Ekeus, in 1537, with Emzer's New Testament added to it ; and one by Ulemburgius of Westphalia, procured by Fer- dinand duke of Bavaria, and printed 1630. Mar- tin Luther, having employed eleven years in trans- lating the Old and New Testaments, published the Pentateuch and the New Testament in 1522, the historical books and the Psalms in 1524, tlie books of Solomon in 1527, Isaiah in 1529, the Prophets in 1531, and the other books in 1530. The learned agree that his language is pure, and the version clear and free from intricacies. It was revised by several persons of quality, who were masters of all the delicacies of the German language. The German Bibles which have been printed at Saxony, Switzerland, and elsewhere, are, for the most part, the same as that of Luther, with little variation. In 1604, John Piscator published a version of the Bible in German, taken from that of Junius and Trcmellius ; but his turn of expression is purely Latin, and not at all agreeable to the genius of the German language. The Anabaptists have a German Bible printed at Worms in 1529. John Crellius published his version of the New Testament at Racovia in 1630, and Fclbinger his at Amsterdam in 1660. 29. Bibles, Greek. There are many editions of the Bible in Greek, but they may be ail reduced to three or four principal ones; viz. that of Con>- plutum, or Alcala de Henares ; that of Venice, that of Rome, and that of Oxford. The first was published in 1515 by cardinal Ximencs, and in- serted in the Polyglot Bible, usually called the Complutensian Bible : this edition is not just, the Greek of the LXX. being altered in many places according to the Hebrew text. It has, however, been reprinted in the Polyglot Bible of Antwerp, in that of Paris, and in the quarto Bible commonly called Vatablus's Bible. The second Greek Bi- ble is that of Venice, printed by Aldus in 1518. Here the Greek text of the Septuagint is reprint- ed just as it stood in the manuscript, full of faults of the copyists, but easily amended. This edition BIBLE was reprinted at Strasburg in 152(5, at Basil in 1515, at Frankfort in 1507, and other places, with some alterations, to bring it nearer the Hebrew. The most commodious is that of Frankfort, there being added to this little scholia, which show the different interpretations of the old Greek trans- lators. The author of this collection has not added his name, but it is commonly ascribed to Ju- nius. The third Greek Bible is that of Rome, or the Vatican, in 1587, with Greek scholia, collected from the manuscripts in the Roman libraries by Peter Morin. It was first set on foot by Cardinal Montalbo, afterwards pope Sixtus V. This fine edition has been reprinted at Paris in 1628, by J. Morin, priest of the Oratory, who has added the Latin translation, which in the Roman was printed separately with scholia. The Greek edition of Rome has been printed in the Polyglot Bible of London, to which are added at the bot- tom the various readings of the Alexandrian ma- nuscript. T his has been also reprinted in England, in 4to. and 12mo. with some alterations. It was again published at Franeker, in 1709, by Bos, who has added all the various readings he could find. The fourtn Greek Bible is that done from the Alex- andrian manuscript, begun at Oxford by Grabe in 1707. In this the Alexandrian manuscript is not printed such as it is, but such as it was thought it should be, i. e. it is altered wherever there ap- peared any fault of the copyists, or any word in- serted from any particular dialect : this some think an excellence, but. others a fault, urging that the manuscript should have been given absolutely and entirely of itself, and all conjectures as to the readings should have been thrown into the notes. We have many editions of the Greek Testament by Erasmus, Stephens, Beza ; that in the Com- plutensian Polyglot, the Elzevirs, &c.: and with various readings by Mill, Bengelius, Wetstein, &c. Those of Wetstein and Griesbach are thought by some to exceed all the rest. 30. Bibles, Hebrew, are either manuscript or printed. The best manuscript Bibles are those jopied by the Jews of Spain : those copied by the Jews of Germany are less exact, but more com- mon. The two kinds are easily distinguished from each other ; the former being in beautiful characters, like the Hebrew Bibles of Bomberg, Stevens, and Plantin: the latter in characters like those of Minister and Grypheus. F. Simon observes, that the oldest manuscript Hebrew Bi- bles are not above six or seven hundred years old ; nor does Rabbi Menahem, who quotes a vast number of them, pretend that anyone of them exceeds 600 years. Dr. Kennicott, in his Disser- tatio Generaiis, prefixed to his Hebrew Bible, p. 21, observes, that the most ancient manuscripts were written between the years 900 and 1100; but though those that are the most ancient are not more than 800 or 900 years old, they were transcribed from others of a much more ancient date. The manuscript preserved in the Bodleian Library is not less than 800 years old. Another manuscript not less ancient is preserved in the Caesarian Library at Vienna. The most ancient Jrinted Hebrew Bibles are those published by the ews of Italy, especially of Pesaro and Bresse. Those of Portugal also printed some parts of the Bible at Lisbon before their expulsion. This may be observed in general, that the best Hebrew Bi- bles are those printed under the inspection of the Jews ; there being so many minutias to be ob- 47 BIBLE served in the Hebrew language, that it is scarcely possible for any other to succeed in it. In the beginning of the 16th century, Dan. Bomberg printed several Hebrew Bibles in folio and quarto at Venice, most of which were esteemed both by the Jews and Christians: the first in 1517. which is the least exact, and generally goes by the name of Felix Pratensis, the person who revised it : this edition contains the Hebrew text, the Tar- gum, and the commentaries of several rabbins. In 1528, Bomberg printed the folio Bible of Rabbi Benchajim, with his preface, the rnasoretical di- visions, a preface of Aben Ezra, a double masora, and several various readings. The third edition was printed in 1618, the same with the second, but much more correct. From the former editions, Buxtorf, the father, printed his rabbinical He- brew Bible at Basil, in 1618 ; which, though there are many faults in it, is more correct than any of the former. In 1623, appeared at Venice a new edition of the rabbinical Bible, by Leo, of Mode- na, a rabbin of that city, who pretended to have corrected a great number of faults in the former edition ; but, besides that it is much inferior to the other Hebrew Bibles of Venice, with regard to paper and print, it has passed through the hands of the inquisitors, who have altered many passages in the commentaries of the rabbins. Of Hebrew Bibles in quarto, that of R. Stevens is esteemed for the beauty of the characters ; but it is very incorrect. Plantin also printed several beautiful Hebrew Bibles at Antwerp ; one in eight columns, with a preface by Arias Montanus, in 1571, which far exceeds the Complutensian in paper, print, and contents : this is called the Royal Bible, because it was printed at the expence of Philip II. king of Spain : another at Geneva, 1619, besides many more of different sizes, with and without points. Manasseh Ben Israel, a learned Portuguese Jew, published two editions of the Hebrew Bible at Amsterdam ; one in quarto, in 1635 ; the other in octavo, in 1639 : the first has two columns, and for that reason is more commo- dious for the reader. In 1639, R. Jac. Lombroso published a new edition in quarto at Venice, with small literal notes at the bottom of each page, where he explains the Hebrew words by Spanish words. This Bible is much esteemed by the Jews at Constantinople ; in the text they have distin- guished between words where the point camets is to be read with a camets catuph ; that is, by o, and not an a. Of all the editions of the Hebrew Bible in octavo, the most beautiful and correct are the two of J. Athias, a Jew of Amsterdam. The first, of 1661, is the best paper; but that of 1667 is the most exact. That, however, published since at Amsterdam, by Vander Hooght, in 1705, is preferable to both. After Athias, three He ■ braizing Protestants engaged in revising and pub- lishing the Hebrew Bible, viz. Clodius, Jablonski, and Opitius. Clodius's edition was published at Frankfort, in 1677, in quarto : at the bottom of the pages it has the various readings of the former editions; but the author does not appear suffi- ciently versed in the accenting, especially in the poetical books ; besides, as it was not published under his eye, many faults have crept in. That of Jablonski, in 1699, in quarto, at Berlin, is very beautiful as to letter and print ; but, though the editor pretends he made use of the editions of Athias and Clodius, some critics find it scarcely in any tiling different from the -juano edition oi BIBLE Romberg. That of Opitius is also in quarto, at Kril, in 170f) : the character is large and good, hut the paper had : it is done with a great deal of rare: hut the editor made use of no manuscripts hut those of the German libraries, neglecting the French ones, which is an omission common to all the three. They have this advantage, however, that, besides the divisions used by the Jews, both general and particular, into parages arid pesukim, tliev have also those of the Christians, or of the Latin Bibles, into chapters and verses; the keri ketib, or various readings, Latin summaries, &.c. which made them of considerable use with re- spect to tin- Latin editions and the concordances. The little Bible of R. Stevens, in lGmo., is very much prized for the beauty of the character. Care, however, must he taken, there being an- other edition of Geneva exceedingly like it, ex- cepting that the print is worse, and the text less correct. To these may be added some other He- brew Bibles without points, in 8vo. and 24mo., which are much coveted by the Jews : not that they are more exact, but more portable than the rest, and are used in their synagogues and schools. Of these there are two beautiful editions; the one of Plantin, in 8vo. with two columns, and the other in 24mo. reprinted by Raphalengius, at Leyden, in 1G10. There is also an edition of them by Laurens, at Amsterdam, in 103 1, in a larger character ; and another in l'2mo. at Frank- fort, in 16'.) 1, full of faults, with a preface of Mr. Leusden at the head of it. Houbigant published an elegant edition of the Hebrew Bible at Paris, in 1753, in 4 vols, folio : the text is that of Van- der Hooght, without points ; to which he has added marginal notes, supplying the variations of the Samaritan copy. Dr. Kennicott, after almost twenty years' laborious collation of near GOO co- pies, manuscripts and printed, either of the whole or particular parts of the Bible, published the He- brew Bible in 2 vols, folio : the text is that of Everard Vander Hooght, already mentioned, differing from it only in the disposition of the poetical parts, which Dr. Kennicott has printed in hemistiehs. into which they naturally divide themselves : however, the words follow one ano- ther in the same order as they do in the edition of Vander Hooght. This edition is printed in an excellent type : the Samaritan text, according to the copy in the London Polyglot, is exhibited in a column parallel with the Hebrew text ; those Siarts of it only being introduced in which it dif- ers from the Hebrew. The numerous variations, both of the Samaritan manuscript from the print- ed copy of the Samaritan texts, and of the He- brew manuscripts from the printed text of Vander Hooght, are placed separately at the bottom of the page, and marked with numbers referring to the copies from which they are taken, hour quarto volumes of various readings have also been published by De Rossi, of Parma, from more than 400 manuscripts (some of which are said to be of the seventh or eighth century), as well as from a considerable number of rare and unnoticed edi- tions. An edition of Reineccius's Hebrew Bible, with readings from Kennicott and De Rossi, has been published by Dodderlein, and will be found a useful work to the Hebrew student. 31. Bint.K.s, Italian. The first Italian Bible published by thi' 'louianists is that of Nicholas Mali fine, a Benedictine monk, printed at Venice in 1471. It was translated from the Vulgate. 48 BIBLE The version of Anthony Rruoioli, published at Venire in 1532, was prohibited by the council of Trent. The Calvinists likewise have their Ita- lian Bibles. There is one of John Diodati in 1G07 and 1G41 ; and another of Maximus Theo- philus, in 1551, dedicated to Francis de Medieis, duke of Tuscany. The Jews of Italy have no entire version of the Bible in Italian; the Inqui- sition constantly refusing to allow them the liber- ty of printing one. 32. Bibles, Latin, however numerous, may he all reduced to three classes ; the ancient Vul- gate, called also Italics, translated from the Greek Septuagint; the modern Vulgate, the greatest part of which is done from the Hebrew text ; and the new Latin translations, done also frctn the Hebrew text, in the sixteenth century. We have nothing remaining of the ancient Vulgate, used in the primitive times in the western churches, but the Psalms, Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes. No- bilius has endeavoured to retrieve it from the works of the ancient Latin fathers ; but it was impossible to do it exactly, because most of the fathers did not keep close to it in their citations. As to the modern Vulgate, there are a vast num her of editions very different from each other Cardinal Ximenes has inserted one in the Bible of Complutum, corrected and altered in many places. R. Stevens, and the doctors of Louvain, have taken great pains in correcting the modern Vulgate. The best edition of Stevens's Latin Bible is that of 1540, reprinted 1545, in which are added on the margin the various readings of several Latin manuscripts which he had consult- ed. The doctors of Louvain revised the modern Vulgate after R. Stevens, and added the various readings of several Latin manuscripts. The best of the Louvain editions are those in which are added the critical notes of Francis Lucas, of Bru- ges. All these reformations of the Latin Bible were made before the time of pope Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. ; since which people have not presumed to make any alterations, excepting in comments and separate notes. The correction of Clement VIII. in 1592 is now the standard throughout all the Romish churches ; that pontiff made two reformations ; but it is the first of them that is followed. From this the Bibles of Plantin were done, and from those of Plantin all the rest; so that the common Bibles have none of the after- corrections of the same Clement VIII. It is a heavy charge that lies on the edition of pope Cle- ment, viz. that they have some new texts added, and many old ones altered, to countenance and confirm what they call the Catholic doctrine- There are a great number of Latin Bibles of the third class, comprehending the versions from the originals of the sacred hooks made within these 200 years. The first is that of Santes Pagninus, a Dominican, under the patronage of Leo X., printed at Lyons, in quarto, in 1527, much es- teemed by the Jews. This the author improved in a second edition. In 1542 there was a beau- tiful edition of the same at Lyons, in folio, with scholia, published under the name of Michael Villanovanus, i. e. Michael Servetus, author of the scholia. Those of Zurich have likewise pub- lished an edition of Pagninus's Bible in quarto; and R. Stevens reprinted it in folio, with the Vul- vae, in 1557, pne tending to give it more correct than in the former editions. There is also ano- ther edition of 1580, in four columns, under the BIBLE name of Vatablus; and we fin:l it again, in inc Hamburg edition of the Bible, in four languages. In the number of Latin Bibles is also usually ranked the version of the same Pagninus, cor- rected, or rather rendered literal, by Arias Mon- tanus; which correction being approved of by the doctors of Louvain, &c. was inserted in the Poly- glot Bible of Philip II., and since in that of Lon- don. There have been various editions of this in folio, quarto and octavo; to which have been add- ed the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and the Greek of the Newv The best of them all is the first, which is in folio, 1571. Since the Re- formation, there have been several Latin versions of the Bible from the originals, by Protestants. The mast esteemed. are those of Munster, Leo Juda, Castalio, and Tremellius; the three lust of which have been reprinted various times. Mun- ster published his version at Basil in 1531, which he afterwards revised : he published a correct edition in 1616. Castalio's fine Latin pleases most people ; but there are some who think it af- fected : the best edition is that of 1573. Leo Juda's version, altered a little by the divines of Sala- manca, was added to the ancient Latin edition, as published by R. Stevens, with notes, under the name of Vatablus's Bible, in 1545. It was con- demned by the Parisian divines, but printed, with some alterations, by the Spanish divines of Sala- manca. Those of Junius, Tremellius. and Beza, are considerably exact, and have undergone a great number of editions. We may add a fourth class of Latin Bibles, comprehending the Vulgate edition, corrected from the originals. The Bible of Isidorus Clarus is of this number; that au- thor, not contented with restoring the ancient Latin copy, has corrected the translator in a great number of places which he thought ill rendered. Some Protestants have followed the same method ; and among others, Andrew and Luke Osiander, who have each published a new edition of the Vul- gate, corrected from the originals. 33. Bibles, Muscovite. See Nos. 38, and 39. 31. Bibles, Oriental. See Nos. 12, 13, 15, 19, 20, 23, 35, 41, 42. 35. Bibles, Persian. Some of the fathers seem to say that all the Scripture was formerly translated into the language of the Persians; but we have nothing now remaining of the ancient version, which was certainly done from the Sep- tuagint. The Persian Pentateuch, printed in the London Polyglot, is without doubt the work of rabbi Jacob, a Persian Jew. It was published by the Jews at Constantinople, in 1551. In the same Polyglot we have likewise the four evange- lists in Persian, with a Latin translation; but this appears very modern, incorrect, and of little vise. Walton says, this version was written above four hundred years ago. Another version of the Gospels was published at Cambridge, by Wheloc, in the seventeenth century. There are also two Persian versions of the Psalms made from the vulgar Latin. 36. Bibles, Polish. The first Polish version of the Bible, it is said, was that composed by Hadewich, wife of Jagellon, duke of Lithuania, who embraced Christianity in the year 1390. In 1599 there was a Polish translation of the Bible published at Cracow, which was the work of se- veral divines of that nation, and in which James Weick, a Jesuit, had a principal share. The Protestants, in 1590, published a Polish Bible 49 O BIBLE tf-om Luther's German version, and dedicated i1 o T71adislaus, fourth king of Poland. 37. Bibles, Polyglot. See Nos. 29, 31. 38. Bibles, Russian; or, 39. Bibles, Sclavonian. The Russians oi Muscovites published the Biblein their language n 1581. It was translated from the Greek by it. Cyril, the apostle of the Sclavonians ; but this ild version being too obscure, Ernest Gliik, who lad been carried prisoner to Moscow, after the aking of Narva, undertook a new translation of he Bible into Sclavonian ; who dying, in 1705, the Czar Peter appointed some particular divines to finish the translation ; but whether it was ever irinted we cannot say. 40. Bibles, Spanish. The first Spanish Bi- ble that we hear of, is that mentioned by Cyprian le Valera, which he says was published about 1590. The epistles and gospels were published in that language by Ambrose de Montesian in 1512 ; the whole Bible by Cassiodore de Reyna, i Calvinist, in 1509; and the New Testament, dedicated to the Emperor Charles V. by Francis Enzina, otherwise called Driander, in 1543. The first Bible which was printed in Spanish for the use of the Jews, was that printed at Ferara in 1553, in Gothic characters, and dedicated to Her- cules D'Este, duke of Ferara. This version is very ancient, and was probably in use among the Jews of Spain before Ferdinand and Isabella ex- pelled them out of their dominions in 1492. After very violent opposition from the Catholic! cler- gy, the court of Spain ordered Spanish Bibles to be printed by royal authority in 1790, and put into the hands of people of all ranks, as well as to be used in public worship. 41. Bibles, Syriac. There are extant two versions of the Old Testament in the Syriac lan- guage ; one from the Septuagint, which is ancient, and made probably about the time of Constanii i le ; the other called antiqua et simplex, made from the Hebrew, as some suppose, about the time oft he apostles. This version is printed in the Polyglots of London and Paris. In 1502, Wedmanstadius printed the whole New Testament in Syriac, at Vienna, in a beautiful character ; and since his time there have been several other editions. Ga- briel Sionita published a beautiful Syriac edition of the Psalms at Paris in 1520, with a Latin in- terpretation. There is a Syriac copy of the Bible written in the Estrangelo character, and was brought from the Christians of Travancore, being a present from Mar Dionysius, the resident bishop at Cadenatte to Dr. Buchanan. The size is large folio in parchment : the pages are written in three columns, each column containing 60 lines. It is supposed to have been written about, the 7th century. Dr. White, it is said, has for sometime been engaged in reprinting the Syriac Old Tes- tament. 42. Bibles, Turkish. In 1666, a Turkish New Testament was printed in London, to be dispersed in the East. In 1721, it is said, the Grand Seignior ordered an impression of Bibles at Constantinople, that they might be cont rasted with Mahomet's oracle, the Alcoran. The mo- dern Greeks in Turkey have also a translation of the Bible in their language. 43. Bibles, Welsh. There was a Welsh trans- lation of the Bible made from the original in the time of Clueen Elizabeth, in consequence of a bill brought into the House of Commons fortius pur- BIDDING [v>*e in 1363: it wis printed in folio, in 1588. Another version, which is the standard transla- tion for t hat language, was printed in 1620: i is called Parrtfa Bible. An impression of this was printed in 1690, called Bishop Lloyd's Bible. these were in folio. The fir.t octavo impression of the Welsh Bible wis made in 1630. •11. BlBLE, Bengalee. It is with pleasure we adJ to all the above account*, that a translation of the .New Testament into the Sanscrit, and the last volume of the Bengalee Bible, are now completed, by the missionaries resident in that »wrt. Much has been done by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in printing new edi- tions vf t'.ie Scriptures in various languages. The reader will find much pleasing information on the subject in the Annual Reports of that Society. See Le Long's Bibliotheca Sacra ; Wolfii Bib- liothcca Hebrdca, vol. ii. p. 338 ; Johnson's His- torical Account of English Translations of the Bible; Lewies History of the Translations of the Bible into English ; Neiccomc's Historical View of English Translations ; Butler's Horae Bihliccc ; and the article Bible, in the Encyclo- pedia Brilannica and Perthensis. Biblical, a term applied to that depart- ment of writing which treats of the Bible, con- sidered as the prominent subject of sacred litera- ture. The use of the term has, of late years, become more common in proportion as the study of the Scriptures in the original languages, and the criticism of the sacred text, have been more extensively cultivated. See Herjiexeu- tics.— I). BIBL1QMANCY, a kind of divination per- formed hrineans of the Bible. It consisted in taking passages of Scripture at hazard, and draw- ing indications thence concerning things future. It was much used at the consecration of bishops. F. J. Davidius, a Jesuit, has published a biblio- mane)' under the borrowed name of Veridicus Christianus. It has been affirmed that some well- meaning people practise a kind of bibliomancy with respect to the future state of their souls ; and, when they have happened to fix on a text of an awful nature, it lias almost driven them to despair. It certainly is not the way to know the mind of God by choosing detached parts of Scrip- ture, or by drawing a card on which a passage may be written, the sense of which is to be gath- ered onlv from the context. BIDDELIANS, so called from John Biddle, who, in the year 1644, formed an independ- ent congregation in London. He taught that Jesus Christ, to the intent that he might be our brother, and have a fellow-feeling of our infirmi- ties, and so become the more ready to help us, hath 00 other than a human nature; and there- fore in this very nature is not only a person, since none hut a human person can be our brother, but also our Lord and God. Biddle, as well as Socinus and other Unitari- ans before and since, made no scrapie of calling Christ God, though he believed him to be a hu- man creature only, on account of the divine sovereignty with which he was invested. BIDDING PRAYER, It was part of the office of the deacons in the primitive chnrch, to be monitors and directors Of the people in their public devotions in the church. To this end, 51) BIOGRAPHY they made use of rert;iin known forms of word*, to give notice when cacn part of the service uegtiiL Agreeable to this ancient practice, is the form. "Let us pray," repeated before several of the prayers n the English liturgy. Bishop Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 20. has preserved the form'as it was in use before the Reformation, which was this : — After the preach- er had named and opened his text, lie called on tho people to go to their prayers, telling them what they were to pray for: Ye shall pray, says he, for the king, the pope, clc. After which all the peo- ple said their beads in a general silence, and tho minister kneeled down likewise, and said his: they were to say a paternoster, ace Maria, &c. and then the senium proceeded. BIGOTRY consists in being obstinately and perversely attached to our own opinions ; or, as some have defined it, " a tenacious adherence to a system adopted without investigation, and de- fended without argument, accompanied with a malignant, intolerant spirit towards all who dif- fer." It must be distinguished from love to tr ifh, which influences a man to embrace it wherever he finds it ; and from trite zeal, which is an ardour of mind exciting its possessor to defend and propagate the principles he maintains. Bigotry is a kind of prejudice combined with a certain degree of malignity. It is thus exempli- fied and distinguished by a sensible writer. " When Jesus preached, Prejudice cried, Can any good tiling come out of Nazareth 1 Crucify him, crucify him, said Bigotry. Why? what evil hath he done? replied Candour." Bigotry is mostly prevalent with those who are ignorant; who have taken up principles without due ex- amination ; and who are naturally of a morose and contracted disposition. It is often manifested more in unimportant sentiments, or the circum- stantials of religion, than the essentials of it. Simple bigotry is the spirit of persecution with- out the power ; persecution is bigotry armed with power, and carrying its will into act. As it is the effect of ignorance, so it is the nurse of it, be- cause it precludes free inquiry, and is an enemy to truth : it cuts, also, the very sinews of charity, and destroys moderation and mutual good-will. If we consider the different make of men's minds, our own ignorance, the liberty that all men have to think for themselves, the admirable example our Lord has set us of a contrary spirit, and the baneful effects of this disposition, we must at once be convinced of its impropriety. How con- tradictory is it to sound reason, and how inimical to the peaceful religion we profess to maintain as Christians ! — See Persecution, and books under that article. BIOGRAPHY, (Religious,) or the lives of il- lustrious and pious men, are well worthy of pe- rusing. The advantages of religious biography, are too well known to need a recital in this place. We shall only, therefore, point out some of the best pieces, which the reader may peruse at his leisure : — Hunter's Sacred Biography ; Bobinson's Scripture Characters; Hunter's History of Christ; J. Taylor's Life of Christ; Care's Lives of the Apostles-; Can's Lirrs of the fa- thers ; Eo.v's Lives of the Martyrs; Melchior Adains's Lites; Fuller's and Clark's Lives; Gilpin's Lives of W'iclif, Cranmer, Latimer, $•<-.; Walton's Lives by Zouch; Baxter's Aorro- BLASPHEMY live of the most remarkable Passages of his Life and Times, by Silvester ; Palmer's Noncon- formist Memorial ; Lives of P. and M. Henry; Jyf1 of Hah/bur/on ; Orton's Memoirs of Dod- dridge; Gillies' Life of Whitfield; Doddridge's Lfr of Gardiner ; lAfe of Wesley by Hampson, Coke, More, and Whitehead ; Middleton's Bio- graphia Evangelica ; Edwards's Life of D. Brainerd ; Gibbon's Life of Watts; Brown's Lfe of Hcrvey ; Fawcelt's Life of Hey wood ; Brown's Lives in his Student and Pastor; Burnet's Life of Rochester ; Hayley's Life of Cowper; Benson's Life of Fletcher ; Jay's Life of Winter ; Cecil's Life of yewton ; Priestley's Chart of Biography, rcilh a Book describing it, 1 2 mo.; Huweis's Life of Romaine ; Fuller's Life of Pearce. BISHOP, a prelate consecrated for the spi- ritual government of a diocese. The word comes from the Saxon bischop, and that from the Greek i^iTtonj, an overseer, or inspector. It is a long time since bishops have been distinguished from mere priests, or presbyters ; but whether that dis- tinction be of divine or human right ; whether it was settled in the apostolic age, or introduced since, is much controverted. Churchmen in gene- ral plead for the divine right ; while the Dis- senters suppose that the word no where signifies more than a pastor or presbyter ; the very same persons being called bishops and elders, or pres- byters, Acts xx. 17, 28. 1 Pet. v. 1, 3. Tit. i. 5, 7. Phil. i. 1. See Episcopacy. All the bishops of England are peers of the realm, except the bishop of Man ; and as such sit and vote in the house of lords. Besides two archbishops, there are twenty-four bishops in England, exclu- sive of the bishop of Sodor and Man. The bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, take the precedence of the other bishops, who rank after them according to their seniority of consecration. See Episcopacy. BLASPHEMY, from^xc.n?^.*, according to Dr. Campbell, properly denotes calumny, detrac- tion, reproachful or4 abusive language, against whomsoever it be vented. It is in Scripture ap- plied to reproaches not aimed against God only but man also, Rom. iii. 8. xiv. 10. 1 Pet. iv. 4. Gr. It is, however, more peculiarly restrained to evil or reproachful words offered to God. Ac- cording to Lindwood, blasphemy is an injury offered to Go 1, by denying that which is due and belonging to him, or attributing to him what is not agreeable to his nature. " Three things," says a divine, " are essential to this crime ; 1. God must be the object. — 2. The words spoken or written, independent of consequences which others may derive from them, must be injurious in their nature. — And, 3. He who commits the crims must do it knowingly. This is real blas- phemy : but there is a relative blasphemy, as when a man may be guilty ignorantiy, by pro- pagating opinions which dishonour God, theten- aency of which he docs not perceive. A man tnay be guiity of this constructively: for if he .speak freely against received errors, it will be con- strued into blasphemy." By the English laws, blasphemies of God, as denying his being or pro- vidence, and all contumelious reproaches of Jesus Christ, &c. are offences by the common law, and punishab'e by fine, imprisonment, and pillory ; and, by the statute law, he that denies one of the persons in the Trinity, or asserts that there are 51 BORRELLISTS more than one God, or denies Christianity to !>e true, for the first offence is rendered incapable of any office ; for the second, adjudged incapable of suing, being executor or guardian, receiving any gift or legacy, and to be imprisoned for years. According to the law of Scotland, blasphemy is punished with death : these laws, however, in the present age, are not enforced : the legislature thinking, perhaps, that spiritual offences should be left to be punished by the Deity rather than by human statutes. Campbell's Prcl. Diss. vol. i. p. 395 ; Robinson's Script. Plea., p. 58. BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. Sec Unpardonable Sin. BODY OF DIVINITY. See Theology. BOGOMILI, or Bogarmitje, a sect of here- tics which arose about the year 1179. They held that the use of churches, of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and all prayer except the Lord's prayer, ought to be abolished ; that the baptism of Catholics is imperfect ; that the persons of the Trinity are unequal, and that they often made themselves visible to those of their sect. BOHEMIAN BRETHREN, a sect of Chris- tian reformers which sprung up in Bohemia in the year 1467. They treated the pope and cardinals as Antichrist, and the church of Rome as the whore spoken of in the Revelations. They rejected the sacraments of the Romish church, and chose laymen for their ministers. They held the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith, and re- jected the popish ceremonies in the celebration of the mass; nor did they make use of any other prayer than the Lord's prayer. They consecrated leavened bread. They allowed no adoration but of Jesus Christ in the communion. They rebap- tized all such as joined themselves to their con- gregation. They abhorred the worship of saints and images, prayers for the dead, celibacies, vows, and fasts ; and kept none, of the festivals but Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. In 1503 they were accused by the Catholics to king Ladislaus II., who published an edict against them, fcrbidding them to hold any meetings, cither privately or publicly. When Luther de- clared himself against the church of Rome, the Bohemian brethren endeavoured to join his party. At first, that reformer showed a great aversion to them ; but, the Bohemians sending their depu- ties to him in 1535, with a full account of their doctrines, he acknowledged that they were a so- ciety of Christians whose doctrines came nearest to the purity of the Gospel. This sect published artother confession of faith in 1535, in which they renounced anabaptism, which they at first prac- tised : upon which a union was concluded with the Lutherans, and afterwards with the Zuing- lians, whose opinions from thenceforth they con- tinued to follow. BOOK OF SPORTS. See Sports. BORRELLISTS, a Christian sect in Hol- land, so named from their founder Borrel, a man of great learning in the Hebrew, Greek, and La- tin tongues. They reject the use of the sacra- ments, public prayer, and all other external acts of worship. They assert that all the Christian churches of the world have degenerated from the pure apostolic doctrines, because they have suf- fered the word of God, which is infallible, to be expounded, or rather corrupted, by doctors who are fallible; They lead a very austere life, ajki employ a great part of their goods in alms. BRETHREN BOURIGNONISTS, the foUowerB of Antoi- nette Bourignon, a lady in France, who pre- tended to particular inspirations. She was born at Lisle, in 1616. At her birth she was so de- formed, that it was delated some days in the family whether it was not proper to stifle her as a monster; but her deformity diminishing, she was spared; and afterwards obtained such a decree or beauty, that she had her admirers, from her childhood to her old aLre she had an extraordinary turn of mind. She set up for a reformer, and published a great number of books filled with very singular notions; the most remarkable of which are entitled The Light of the World, and The Testimony of Truth. In her confession of faith, she professes her belief in the Scriptures, the divinity and atonement of Christ. She be- lieved also that man is perfectly free to resist or receive divine grace; that God is ever unchange- iihle love towards all his creatures, and does not inflict any arbitrary punishment ; but that the evils they sutler are the natural consequence of Kin ; that religion consists not in outward forms of worship nor systems of faith, but in an entire resignation to the will of God. She held many extravagant notions, among which, it is said, she asserted that Adam, before the fall, possessed the principles of both sexes ; that in an ecstaey, God represented Adam to her mind in his original state; as also the beauty of the first world, and how he had drawn from it the chaos ; and that every thing was bright, transparent, and darted forth life and ineffable glory, with a number of other wild ideas. She dressed like a hermit, and travelled through France, Holland, England, and S oilind. She died at Fanekir, in the province of Prise, October 30, 1680. Her works have been printed in 18 vols. 8vo. BOYLE'S LECTURES ; a course of eight sermons, preached annually ; set on foot by the honourable R. Boyle, by a codicil annexed to his will, in 1691, whose design, as expressed by the institutor, is to prove the truth of the Christian religion against infidels, without descending to any controversies among Christians, and to an- swer new difficulties, scruples, &c. For the sup- port of this lecture he assigned the rent of his house m Crooked Lane to some learned divine within the bills of mortality, to be elected for a term not exceeding three years. But, the fund proving precarious, the salary was ill paid ; to remedy which inconvenience, archbishop Tenni- son procured a yearly stipend of 50/. forever, to be paid quarterly, charged on a farm in the parish of Brill, in the county of Bucks. To this ap- pointment we are indebted for many excellent de- fences of natural and revealed religion, among which may be mentioned those at Clarke, Kid- der, Bentley, Burnet, Berri man, Whiston,4v. BRANDENBURG, CONFESSION OF. A formulary or confession of faith, drawn up in the city of Brandenburg bv order of the elector, with a view to reconcile the teneis of Luther with those of" Calvin, and to put an end to the disputes occasioned by the Confession of Augsburg. See AUGSBlfttG ( lONFESSION. ^ BRETHREN AND SISTERS Ob 1 HE FREE SPIRIT, an appellation assumed by a sect which sprung up towards the close of the thirteenth century, and gaLied many adherents in Italy, France, and Germany. They took their denomination from the words of St. Paul, Rom. BROWN ISTS viii. 2, 14, and -maintained that the true children of God were invested with perfect freedom from the jurisdiction of the law. They held that all things flowed by emanation from God ; that ra- tional souls were portions of the Deity, that tze universe was God; and that by the power of contemplation they were united to the Deity, and acquired hereby a glorious and sublime liberty, both from the sinful lusts and the common in- stincts of nature, with a variety of other enthu- siastic notions. Many edicts were published against them ; but they continued till about the middle of the fifteenth century. BRETHREN AND CLERKS OF THE COMMON LIFE, a denomination assume! by a religious fraternity towards the end of the fif- teenth century. They lived under the rule of St. Augustine, and were said to be eminently useful in promoting the cause of religion and learning. BRETHREN, WHITE, were the followers of a priest from the Alps, about the beginning of the fifteenth century. They and their leader were arrayed in white garments. Their leader carried about a cross like a standard. His apparent sanc- tity and devotion drew together a number of fol- lowers. This deluded enthusiast practised many acts of mortification and penance, and endeavour- ed to persuade the Europeans to renew the holy war. Boniface IX. ordered him to be appre- hended, and committed to the flames; upon which his followers dispersed. BRETHREN, UNITED. See Moravians, BREVIARY, the book containing the daily service of the church of Rome. BRIDGETINS, or Brigittins, an order de- nominated from St. Bridget, or Brigit, a Swedish lady, in the fourteenth century. Their rule is nearly that of St. Augustine. The Brigittins profess great mortification, poverty, and self-de- nial ; and they are not to possess any thing they can call their own, not so much as an half-penny ; nor even to touch money on any account. 1 his order spread much through Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. In England we read of but one monastery of Brigittins, and this built by Henry V. in 1415, opposite to Richmond, now called Sion House ; the ancient inhabitants of which, since the dissolution, are settled at Lisbon. BRIEFS (Apostolical) are letters which the pope dispatches to princes and other magistrates concerning anv public affair. BROTHERS, LAY, among the Romanists, are illiterate persons, who devote themselves rn some convent to the service of the religious. BROWN1STS, a sect that arose among the puritans towards the close of the sixteenth cen- tury; so named from their leader, Robert Brown. He was educated at Cambridge, and was a man of good parts and some learning. He began to inveigh openly against the ceremonies of the church, at Norwich, in 1580: but being much opposed by the bishops, he, with hi> congrega- tion, left England, and settled at MiddlebuTgh, in Zealand, where they obtained leave to worship God in their own way, ami form a church ac- cording to their own model. They soon, how- ever, began to differ among themselves; so that Brown, growing weary of his office, returned to England, in 1689, renounced his principles of separation, and was preferred to the rectory of a church in Northamptonshire. He died in pa- BROWNISTS son. in 16.30. The revolt of Brown was attended with the dissolution of the church at Middle- burgh ; but the seeds of Brownism which he had sown in England were so far from being destroy- ed, that Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, computes no less than '20,000 of this sect. The articles of their faith seem to be nearly the same as those of the church of England. The occasion of their separation was not, therefore, any fault they found with the faith, but only with the discipline and form of government of the churches in England. They equally charged corruption on the episcopal and presbyterian forms; nor would they join with any other re- formed church, because they were not assured of the sanctity and regeneration of the members that composed it. They condemned the solemn cele- bration of marriages in the church, maintaining that matrimony being a political contract, the con- firmation thereof ought to come from the civil magistrate ; an opinion in which they are not sin- gular. They would not allow the children of such as were not memlters of the church to be baptized. They rejected all forms of prayer, and held that the Lord's prayer was not to be recited as a prayer, being only given for a rule or model whereon all our prayers are to be formed. Their form of church government was nearly as follows : When a church was to be gathered, such as de- sired to be members of it made a confession of their faith in the presence of each other, and signed a covenant, by which they obliged themselves to walk together in the order of the Gospel. The whole power of admitting and excluding mem- bers, with the decision of all controversies, was lodged in the brotherhood. Their church officers were chosen from among themselves, and sepa- rated to their several offices by fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands. But they did not allow the priesthood to be any distinct order. As the vote of the brethren made a man a minister, so the same power could discharge him from his office, and reduce him to a mere layman again ; and as they maintained the bounds of a church to be no greater than what could meet together in one place, and join in one communion, so the power of these officers was prescribed within the s.i me limits. — The minister of one church could not administer the Lord'* Supper to another, nor baptize the children of any but those of his own society. Any lav brother was allowed the liberty of giving a word of exhortation to the people ; and il was usual for some of them after sermon to ask questions, and reason upon the doctrines that had been preached. In a word, every church on their model is a body corporate, having full power to do every thing in themselves, without being accountable to any class, syncd, convocation, or other jurisdiction whatever. The reader will jinh'e how near the Independent churches are allied to this form of government. See INDE- PENDENTS.— The laws were executed with great severity on the Brownists ; their books were pro- hibited by queen Elizabeth, their persons impri- soned, and some hanged. Brown himself de- clared on his death-bed that he had been in thirtv-two different prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at noon-day. They were so much persecuted, that they resolved at last to qui* the country. Accordingly many retired and sen led at Amsterdam, where they formed a church, and chose Mr. Johnson their pastor, and 53 EURIAL after him, Mr. Ainsworth, author of the learned Commentary on the Pentateuch. Their church flourished near 100 years. Among the Brownists, too, were the famous John Robinson, a part of whose congregation from Leyden, in Holland, made the iirst permanent settlement in North America ; and the laborious Canne, the author of the marginal references to the Bible.- Fuller's Church History of England, B.'.l.p. 166; Strype's Life of Parker, p. 326 ; Neale's History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 375; Mosheim's Eccl. History, vol. iv. p. !)8 ; Hornbeck's History of Brownism. BUCHAN1TES, a set of enthusiasts who sprung up in the west of Scotland about 1783, and took their name from a Mrs. Buchan of Glasgow, who gave herself out to be the woman spoken of in the Revelations ; and that all who believed in her should be taken up to heaven without tasting death, as the end of the world was near. They never increased much; and the death of their leader, within a year or two afterwards, occasioned their dispersion, by putting an end to their hopes of reaching the New Jerusalem with- out death. BUDNiEANS, a sect in Poland, who dis- claimed the worship of Christ, and ran into many wild hypotheses. Budnseus, the founder, was publicly excommunicated in 15S4, with all his disciples, but afterwards he was admitted to the communion of the Socinian sect. BULLS, (Popish,) are letters called apostolic by the Canonists, strengthened with a leaden seal, and containing in them the decrees and com- mandments of the pope. BURGHER SECEDERS, a numerous and respectable class of dissenters from the church of Scotland, who were originally connected with the associate presbytery ; but, some diilerence of sen- timent arising about the lawfulness of taking the Burgess oath, a separation ensued in 173!); in consequence of which, those who pleaded lor the affirmative obtained the appellation of Burgher, and their opponents that of Anti-burgher Sece- ders. See Skcedkhs. BURIAL, the interment of a deceased person. The rites of burial have been looked upon in all countries as a debt so sacred, that such as neglect- ed to discharge them were thought accursed. Among the Jews, the privilege of burial was de- nied only to self-murderers, who were thrown out to putrefy upon the ground. In the ( hristian church, though good men always desired the pri- vilege of interment, yet they were not, hive the heathen^ so concerned for their bodies, as to think it any detriment to them if either the barbarity of an enemy, or some other accident, deprived them of this privilege. The primitive church denied the more solemn rites of burial only to unbaptized persons, self-murderers, ami excommunicated persons, who continued obstinate and impenitent in a manifest contempt of the church's censures. The place of burial among the Jews was never particularly determined. We find they ha lie preached only to them ; and, therefore, cannot invite all to come CALVINISTS to Christ Eut to this it is answered, that an un- known decree can be no rule of action, Deut. xxix. 29. Prov. ii. 13 ; that, as we know not who are the elect, we cannot tell but he may succeed our endeavours by enabling those who are ad- dressed to comply with the call, and believe; that it is the Christian minister's commission to preach the Gospel to every creature, Mark xvi. 15 ; that the inspired writers never confined them- selves to preach to saints only, but reasoned with and persuaded sinners, 2 Cor. v. 1 1 : — and, lastly, that a general address to men's consciences has been greatly successful in promoting their con- version, Acts ii. 23, 41. But it has been asked, if none but the elect can believe, and no man has any ability in himself to comply with the call, snd as the Almighty knows that none but those •o whom he gives grace can be effectually called, y{ what use is it to insist on a general and external call ? To this it is answered, that, by the exter- nal call, gross enormous crimes are often avoided; habits of vice have been partly conquered ; and much moral good at least has been produced. It is also observed, that though a man cannot con- vert liimself, yet he has a powe; to do some things that are materially good, though not good in all those circumstances that accompany or flow from "egeneration : such were Ahnb's humility, 1 Kings xxi. 29 ; Nineveh's repentance, Jer. iii. 5 ; and Herod's hearing of John, Mark vi. 20. On the whol<", the design of God in giving this com- mon call in the Gospel is the salvation of his people, the restraining of many from wicked practices, and the setting forth of the glorious work of redemption by Jesus Christ. See Gill and Ridgleifs Body of Div. ; Witsius on the Cov. ; and Beimel's Essay on the Gospel Dis- pensation. CALVINISTS, those who embrace the doc- trine and sentiments of Calvin, the celebrated reformer of the Christian church from Romish superstition and doctrinal errors. John Calvin was born at Nogen, in Picardy, in the year 150'.>. He first studied the civil law, and was afterwards made professor of divinity at Geneva, in the year 1536. His genius, learning, eloquence, and piety, rendered him respectable even in the eyes of his enemies. The name of Calvinists seems to have been given at first to those who embraced not merely the doctrine, but the church government and dis- cipline established at Geneva, and to distinguish them from the Lutherans. But since the meeting of the Synod of Dort, the name has been chiefly applied to those who embrace his leading views of the Gospel, to distinguish them from the Ar- menians. The leading principles taught by Calvin were the same as those of Augustine. The main doc- trines by which those who are called after his name are distinguished from the Arminians, are reduced to five articles; and which, from their being the principal points discussed at the Synod of Dort, have since been denominated the Jirc points. These arc, predestination, particular re- demption, total depravity, effectual calling, and the certain perseverance of the saints. The following statement is taken principally from the writings of Calvin and the decisions at I Sort, compressed in as few words as possible. I. They maintain that God hath chosen a cer- tain number of the fallen race of Adam in Christ CALVLN1STS before the foundation of the world, unto eternal glory, according to his immutable purpose, and of his free grace and love, without the least fore- sight of faith, good works, or any conditions per- formed by the creature; and that the rest of man- kind he was pleased to pass by, and ordain to dishonour and wrath, for their sins, to the praise of his vindictive justice. In proof of this they allege, among many other Scripture passages, the following: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without Llame before him in love. — For he saith to Mo- ses, 1 will have mercy on whom I. will have mer- cy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God, that showeth mercy. Thou wilt say, then, Why doth he. yet find fault; for who hath resisted his" will? Nay, but O man! who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour? — Hath God cast away his people whom he foreknew ? Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias ? Even so at this present time, also, there is a remnant accord- ing to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. What then? Isra- el hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest are blinded. — Whom he did predestinate, them he also called. We give thanks to God always for you brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanetification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. — As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." Eph. i. 4. Rom. ix. xi. f — 6. yiii. 29. 30. 2 Thcss. ii. 13. Acts xiik 48. They think also that the greater part of these passages, being found in the epistolary writings, after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, who was promised to guide the apostles into all-truth, is an argument in favour of the doctrine. They do not consider predestination, however, as affecting the agency or accountableness of creatures, or as being to them any rule of coiiduct. On the contrary, they suppose them to act as freely, and to be as much the proper subjects of calls, warnings, exhortations, promises, and threatenings, as if no decree existed. The con- nection in which the doctrine is introduced by the divines at Dort, is to account for one sinner's believing and being saved rather than another; and such the Calvinists say, is the connection which it occupies in the Scriptures. • With respect to the conditional predestination admitted by the Arminians, they say that an election upon faith or good works foreseen, is not that of the Scriptures ; for that election is there made the cause of faith and holiness, and cannot, for this reason, be the effect of them. With re- gard to predestination to death, they say, if the question be, Wherefore did God decree to punish those who are punished? the answer is, On ac- count of their sins. But if it be, Wherefore did he decree to punish them rather than others? there is no other reason to be assigned, but that so it seemed good in his sight. Eph. i. 3, 4. John vi. 37. Rom. viii. 29, 30. Acts xiii. 46. 1 Pet. i. ]. Rom. ix. L5: Id. xl 5, G. CALVIN1STS 2. They maintain that though the death of rfhrist be a most perfect sacrifice, and satisfaction for sins, of infinite value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world ; and though on this ground the Gospel is to be preached to all mankind indiscriminately ; yet it was the will of God that Christ, by the blood of the cross, should efficaciously redeem all those, and those only, who were from eternity elected to salva- tion, and given to him by the Father. < 'alvin does not appear to have written on this subject as a controversy, but his comments on Scripture agree with the above statement. The following positions arc contained in the resolu- tions of the synod of Dort, under this head of doctrine : — " The death of the Son of God is the onlv and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sins, of infinite value and price, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world. — The promise of the Gospel is, that whosoever believeth in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have everlasting life ; which promise, together with the command to repelit and believe, ought promiscuously and indiscriminately to be publish- ed and proposed to all people and individuals, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the Gos- pel.— Whereas, many who are called by the Gos- pel do not repent nor believe in Christ, but perish ia unbelief; this proceeds not from any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross, but from their own fault. As many us truly believe, and are saved by the death of Christ from their sins, and from destruction, have, to ascribe it to the mere favour of God, which he owes to none, given them in Christ from eternity. For it was the most free counsel, and gracious will and intention of God the Father, th I the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should exert itseli i;i ill the elect, to give unto them only justifying faith, and by it to conduct them infallibly to sal- vation ! that is, it was the will of God that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should efficaciously redeem out of every people, tribe, nation and language, ull those, and those only, who were from eternity elected to salvation, and given to him by the Fa- ther." These positions they apnear to have considered a- not only a declaration of the truth, but an an- swer to the arguments of the Remonstrants. In proof of the doctrine, they allege among others the following Scripture passages : " Thou h ist given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou heist given him. — The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. — I lay down my life for the sheep. — He died not for {hat nation only, but that he rtligKt gather together in one the children of 0 id that are scattered abroad. — He gave himself for us, thai lie might redeem us from all iniqui- t . /mi! purify unto himself a peculiar people, "•' °f good works. He loved the church and gave himxclffur it, that he might sanctity and cleanse it, and present it to himself, &c — .A nd they sang a new song, saying Thou art wor- thy; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out nf every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Johnxvii.2. x. 11,15. \i. 52. Tit. ii. 1 I. Eph. v. •>">— \!7. Rev. v. i). :'». They maintain that mankind are "totally de- praved, in consequence of the fall of the first man, 5G CALV1NISTS who, being their public head, his sin invol- ved the corruption of all his posterity, and which corruption extends over the whole soul, and ren- ders it unable to turn to God, or to do */iy thing truly good, and exposes it to his righteous dis- pleasure, both in tins world and that which is to come. The explanation of original sin, as given by Calvin, is as follows : — " Original sin seems to Iw the inheritable descending perverseness and cor- ruption of our nature, poured abroad into all the partsofthe soul, which first maketh us deserving of God's wrath, and then also bringeth forth those works in us, called, in Scripture, the works of the flesh. These two things are distinctly to be noted, that is, that, being thus in all parts of our nature corrupted and perverted, we arc now, even for such corruption, only holden worthy of damnation, and stand convicted before God, to whom nothing is acceptable but righteousness, innocence, and purity. And yet we are not bound in respect of another's fault; for where it is said that by the sin of Adam we are made subject to the judg- ment of God, Rom. v. 18. it is not to be so taken, as if we, innocent and undeserving, did bear the blame of his fault ; but, as in consequence of his offence, we are ultimately clothed with the curse, therefore it is said that he hath bound us. Never- theless, from him not the punishment only came upon us, but also the infection distilled from him abideth in us, to the which the punishment is justly due.'' The resolutions of the divines at Dort on this head, contain, the following positions. " Such as man was after the fall, such children did he beget — corruption, by the righteous judgment of God, being derived from Adam to his posterity — not by imitation, but by the propagation of a vicious nature. Wherefore, all men are conceived in sin, and are born the children of wrath, unfit for every good connected with salvation, prone to evil, dead in sins, and the servants of sin ; and with- out the Holy Spirit regenerating them, they nei- ther will nor can return to God, amend their de- praved nature, nor dispose themselves for its amendment." In proof of this doctrine, the Calvinists allege, among other Scripture passages, the following : " By one man sin entered into the world, aiid death by sin : and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. — By one man's disobe- dience many were made sinners. 1 was born in sin, and shapen in iniquity. — God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every imagination of his heart was only eul continually. — God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back ; they are altogether become filthy ; there is none that doth good, no not one. — And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, among whom also we all had our conveisation in times past, in t'te his! ofourfesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and wire by nature the children of wrallu,cren as others." - Rom. v. 12—19. 1's. ii. 5. Gen. \i. 5. Ps. liil 2,3. Rom. iii. Eph. ii. 1 — 3. 4. They maintain that all whom God hath pre- destinated onto life, he is pleased, in his appointed time, effectually to call by his word and Spirit CALVLN13TS out of that state of sin and death in which thev are by nature, tograce and salvation by Jesus Christ. They admit that the Holy Spirit, as calling men by the ministry of the Gospel, may be resisted ; and that where this is the ease, " the fault is not in the Gospel, nor in Christ offered by the Gos- pel, nor in God calling by the Gospel, and also conferring various gifts upon them ; but in the called themselves. They contend, however, that where men come at the divine call, and are con- verted, it is not to be ascribed to themselves, as though by their own free will they made them- selves to differ, but merely to him who delivers them from the power of darkness, and translates them into the kingdom of his dear Son, and whose regenerating influence is certain and effi- cacious." In proof of this doctrine the Calvinists allege, among others, the following Scripture passages : — " Whom he did predestinate, them he also call- ed ; and whom he called, them he also glorified. That ye may know what is the exceeding great- ness of his power, to us-ward who believe, accord- ing to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. — Not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, cre- ated in Christ Jesus unto good works. — God, that commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, &c. — I will take away the stony heart out of thfeir flesh, and will give them hearts of flesh." — Rom. viii. 29. Eph. i. 19, 90. 2 Cor. iv. 6. Ezck. xxxvi. 26. 5. Lastly : They maintain that those whom God has effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, shall never finally fall from a state of grace. They admit that true believers may fall partially, and would fill totally and finally but for the mer- cy and faithfulness of God, who keepeth the feet of his saints; also, that he who brstoweth the grace of perseverance, bestoweth it by means of reading and hearing the word, meditation, exhor- tations, threatening?, and promises ; but that none of these tilings imply the possibility of a believer's falling from a state of justification. In proof of this doctrine, they allege the follow- ing among other Scripture passages : — " I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me. — He that believcth, and is baptized, shall be saved. — The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. — This is the Father's will, that of all which he hath given me I siiould lose nothing. — This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin because he is born of God. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they hail been of us, they would tiave continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. — Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen." — Jer. xxxii. 10. Mark xvi. lb". John iv. 14. vi. 40. xvii. 3. 1 John iii. 9. ii. 19. Jude 21, 25. Such were the doctrines of the old Calvinists, and such in substance are those of the ] resent times. In this, however, as in every other deno- 57 // CALVINISTS mination, there are considerable shades of differ- ence. Some think that Calvin, though right in the main, yet carried tilings too far: these are com- monly known by the name of Moderate Calcin- isls. Others think he did not go far enough ; and these are known by the name of High Calvinists. It is proper to add, that the Calvinistic system includes in it the doctrine of three co-ordinate per- sons in the Godhead, in one nature, and of two natures in Jesus Christ, forming one person. Justification by faith alone, or justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, forms also an essential part of this system. They suppose that, on the one hand, our sins are imputed to Christ, and on the other, that we are justified by the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us; that is, Christ, the innocent, was treated by God as if he were guilty, that we, the guilty, might, out of regard to what he did and suffered, be treated as if we were innocent and righteous. Calvinism originally subsisted in its greatest purity in the city of Geneva ; from which place it was first propagated into Germany, France, the United Provinces, and Britain. In France it was abolished by the revocation of the edict of Nantz. It has been the prevailing religion in the United Provinces ever since 1571. The theological sys- tem of Calvin was adopted and made the public rule of faith in England under the reign of Ed- ward VI. The Church of Scotland also was modelled by John Knox, agreeably to the doc- trine, rites, and form of ecclesiastical government established at Geneva. In England, Calvinism had been on the decline from the time of queen Elizabeth until about sixty years ago, when it was again revived, and has been on the increase ever since. The major part of the clergy, indeed, are not Calvinists, though the articles of the church of England are Calvinistical. It deserves to be remarked, however, that Calvinism is preached in a considerable number of the churches in Lon don : in nearly all the dissenting meetings of the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Independents; and in all the chapels of Whitfield, Lady Huntingdon, and others of that class. In Scotlaim it continues also to exist as the established religion ; and with- in a few years it has much revived in that country, through the influence of Mr. Haldane and others ; but as those among whom this revival has taken place are not of the established church, they have been treated with inuirierenee by the clergy, and called Haldanists. Calvin considered every church as a separate and independent boilv, invested with the power of legislation for itself. He proposed that it should be governed by presbyteries ami synods composed of clergy and laity, without bishops or any cleri- cal subordination ; and maintained that the pro- vince of the civil magistrate extended onlv to its protection and outward accommodation. He ac- knowledged a real though spiritual presence of Christ in the eucharist ; and he confined the pri- vilege of communion to pious and regenerate be- lievers. These sentiments, however, are not im- bibed by all who are called Calvinists. See < 'alriu's Institutes; Life of Calvin; Brine'i Tracts; Jonathan Edwards's Works; Gill's Causi if God and Truth ; Toplady's Historic Proof and Works at large; Assembly's Cate- chism ; Fuller's Calvinistic and Socinian Sys- tems Compared. CANDOUR CAMALDOLITES, an order founded by St. Romuald, an Italian fanatic, in the eleventh century. The manner of life he enjoined his disciples to observe was this: — They dwelt in se- parate cells, and met. together only at the time of prayer. Some of them, during the two Lerrts in the year, observed an inviolable silence, and others for the space of a hundred days. On Sundays and Thursdays they fed on herbs, and the rest of the week only on bread and water. CAMBRIDGE MANUSCRIPT, a copy of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, in Greek and Latin. Beza found it in the monastery of Irenams, at Lyons, in 1562, and gave it to the University of Cambridge in 1582. It is a quarto, ami written on vellum: sixty-six leaves of it are much torn and mutilated ; and ten of these are supplied by a later transcriber. From this and the Clermont copy of St. Paul's epistles, Beza published his larger annotations in 1582. See Dr. Kipling's edition of it. CAMERONIANS, a sect in Scotland, who separated from the Presbyterians in 1666, and continued long to hold their religious assemblies in the fields. They took their name from Rich- ard Cameron, a famous field preacher, who, re- fusing to accept the indulgence to tender con- sciences, granted by king Charles II., thinking such an acceptance an acknowledgment ef the king's supremac}', made a defection from his bre- thren, and even headed a rebellion, in which he was killed. Tne Cameronians adhere rigidly to the form of government established in 1648. There are not, it is said, above fourteen or fifteen congregations among th*m, and these not large. CAMERONIANS, or Cameromtes, the denomination of a party of Calvinists in France, who asserted that the will of man is only deter- mined by the practical judgment of the mind ; that the cause of men's doing good or evil pro- ceeds from the knowledge which God infuses into them ; and that God does not move the will phy- sically, but only morally, in virtue of its depend- ence on the judgment, They had this name from John Cameron, who was born at Glasgow in 1580, and who was professor there, and after- wards at Bordeaux, Sedan, and Saumur. The synod of Dort was severe upon them ; yet it seems the only difference was this : — The synod had defined that God not only illuminates the under- standing, but gives motion to the will, by making an internal change therein. Cameron only admit- ted the illumination whereby the mind is morally moved; and explained the sentiment of the synod of Dort so as to make the two opinions consistent. CANDOUR is a disposition to form a fair and impartial judgment on the opinions and actions of others ; or a temper of mind unsoured by envy, unruffled by malice, and unseduced by prejudice, sweet without weakness, and impartial without rigour. Candour is a w >rd which, in the present day, is found exceedingly convenient. To the infidel it is a shelter for his scepticism, to the ig- norant for his ignoranee, to the lukewarm for his indifference, and to the irreligious for their error. "True candour is different from that gnarled, inoffensive language, and that studied openness of behaviour, which we so frequently meet with among men of the world. It consists not in fair- ness of speech onlv, but in fairness of heurt. It is not bund attachment, external courtesv, or a lime-serving principle. Exempt, on the one hand, 53 CANON from the dark jealousy of a suspicious mind, it is no less removed, on the other, from that easy cre- dulity wliich is imposed on by every specious pretence. Its manners are unaffected, and its professions sincere. 'It conceals faults, but it does not invent virtues.' In fine, it is the happy medium between undistinguishing credulity and universal suspicion." See Liberality; CANON, a word used to denote the authoriz- ed catalogue of the sacred writings. " The Greek word XXV jov," says Dr. Owen, "which gives rise to the term canonical, seems to be derived from the Hebrew JfJp kaneh, which in general signifies any reed whatever, 1 Kings xiv. 15. Isa. xliii. 3, and particularly a reed made into an instrument, wherewith they measured their buildings, contain- ing six cubits in length, Ezek. xl. 7. xliii. 16 ; and hence indefinitely it is taken for a rule or mea- sure. Besides, it signifies the beam and tongue of a balance, Isa. xlvi. 6. 'They weighed silver on the cane;' that is, saith the Targum, 'in the balance.' This also is the primary and proper signification of the Greek word. Hence its me- taphorical use, which is most common, wherein it signifies a moral rule. Aristotle calls the law Kxi'ovxtms 5Tc*.iTsi»,-, the rule of the administration; and hence it is that the written word of God be- ing in itself absolutely right, and appointed to be the rule of faith and obedience, is eminently call- ed ' canonical.' " The ancient canon of the books of the Old Testament, ordinarily attributed to Ezra, was di- vided into the law, the prophets, and the hagio- graphia, to which our Saviour refers, Luke xxiv. 45. The same division is also mentioned by Jo- sephus. This is the canon allowed to have been followed by the primitive church till the council of Carthage ; and, according to Jerome, this con- sisted of no more than twenty-two books, answer- ing to the number of the Hebrew alphabet, though at present they are classed into twenty-four di- visions. That council enlarged the canon very considerably, taking into it the apocryphal books; which the council of Trent further enforced, en- joining them to be received as books of holy Scrip- ture, upon pain of anathema. The Romanists, in defence of this canon, say, that it is the same with that of the council of Hippo, held in 393; and with that of the third council of Carthage in 397, at which were present forty-six bishops, and among the rest St. Augustine. Their canon of the New Testament, however, perfectly agrees with ours. It consists of books that are well known, some of which have been universally acknowledged : such are the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen epistles of St. Paul, first of St. Peter, and first of St. John ; and others, concerning which doubts were en- tertained, but which were afterwards received as genuine ; such are the Epistle to the He- brews, that of James, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, that of Jude, and the Revelation. These books were written at dif- ferent times; and they are authenticated, not by the decrees of councils, or infallible authority, but by such evidence as is thought sufficient in the case of any Other ancient writings. They were extensively diffused, and read in every Christian society ; thev were valued and preserved with care by the first Christians: they were cited by Christian writers of the second, third, and fourth centuries, as Irenaeus, Clement the Alexandrian CANONIZATION Tcrtullian, Origen, Eusebius &c. ; and their genuineness is proved by the testimony of those who were contemporary with the apostles them- selves. The lour Go&pels, and most of the other books of the New Testament, were collected either by one of the apostles, or some of their dis- ciples and successors, before the end of the first century. The catalogue of canonical books fur- nished by the more ancient Christian writers, as Crimen, about A. D. 210, Eusebius and Athana- sius in 315, Epiphanius in 370, Jerome in 38'2, Austin in 31)4, and many others, agrees with that which is now received among Christians. See articles Bible, Christianity, Scrip- tures; Blair's Canon of Scripture ; Jones's Ca- nonical Authority of the New Test. ; Michaelis's Lcct. on the New Test.; Du Pin's Canon of Script, v. i. ; Prideaux's Connexions, v. i. ; Dr. Owen on the Hebrews, Inlrod. ; Alexander on the Canon. CANON, a person who possesses a prebend or revenue allotted for the performance of divine service in a cathedral or collegiate church. Ca- nons are of no great antiquity. Pachier observes, that the name was not known before Charle- magne ; at least, the first we hear of are in Gre- gory de Tours, who mentions a college of canons instituted by Baldwin XVI. archbishop of that city, in the time of Clotharius I. The common opinion attributes the institution of this order to Chrodegangus, bishop of Mentz, about the mid- dle of the eighth century. CANON, in an ecclesiastical sense, is a nlz either of doctrine or discipline, enacted especially by a council, and confirmed by the authority of the sovereign. Canons are properly decisions of matters of religion, or regulations of the policy and discipline of a church made by councils, either general, national, or provincial ; such are the canons of the council of Nice, of Trent, &c. CANONICAL HOURS are certain stated times of the day consigned more especially by the Romish church to the offices of prayer and devo- tion ; such are matins, lauds, &c. In England the canonical hours are from eight to twelve.in the forenoon ; before or after which marriage cannot be legally performed in any church. CANONICAL LETTERS, in the ancient church, were testimonies of the orthodox faith, which the bishops and clergy sent each other to keep up the catholic communion, and distinguish orthodox Christians from heretics. CANONICAL LIFE, the rule of living prescribed by the ancient clergy who lived in community. The canonical life was a kind of medium between the monastic and clerical lives. CANONICAL OBEDIENCE is that sub- mission which, by the ecclesiastical laws, the in- ferior clergy are to pay to their bishops, and the religious to their superiors. CANONIZATION, a ceremony in the Ro- mish church, by which persons deceased are ranked in the catalogue of the saints. It suc- ceeds beatification. Before a beatified person is canonized, the qualifications of the candidate are strictly examine;! into, in some consistories held for that purpose, after which one of the consislo- rial advocates, in the presence of the pope and cardinals, makes the panegyric of the person who is to be proclaimed a saint, and ^ives a particular detail of bus life and miracles ; vs liicb being done, 5'J CARE the holy father decrees his canonization, and ap- points the day. On the day of canonization, the pope officiates in white, and their eminences are dressed in the same colour. St. Peter's church is hung with rich tapestry, upon which the arms of the pope, and of the prince or state requiring the canoniza- tion, are embroidered in gold and silver. A great number of lights blaze all round the church, which is crowded with pious souls, who wait with devout impatience till the new saint has made his public entry, as it were, into paradise, that they may offer up their petitions to him without danger of being rejected. The following maxim with regard to canoniza- tion is now observed, though it has not been fol- lowed above a century, viz. not to enter into the inquiries prior to canonization till fifty years, at least, after the death of the person to be canon- ized. By the ceremony of canonization, it ap- pears that this rite of the modern Romans has something in it very like the apotheosis or deifica- tion of the ancient Romans, and in all probability takes its rise from it ; at least, several ceremonies of the same nature are conspicuous in both. CAPUCHINS, religious of the order of St. Francis. They are clothed with brown or grey ; always barefooted ; never go in a coach, nor ever shave their beards. CAPUTIATI, a denomination which ap- peared in the twelfth century, so called from a singular kind of cap which distinguished their party. They wore upon their caps a leaden image of the'Virgin Mary, and declared publicly that their purpose was to level all distinctions, to abrogate magistracy, and to remove all subordina- tion among mankind, and to restore that primi- tive liberty, that natural equality, which were the inestimable privilege of the first mortals. CARAITES, a Jewish sect, which adheres closely to the text and letter of the Scriptures, rejecting the rabbinical interpretations and the cabbala. The Talmud appearing in the begin- ning of the sixth century, those of the best sense among the Jews were disgusted at the ridieidous fables°with which it abounded. But about the year 750, Anan, a Babylonish Jew, declared openly for the written word of God alone, ex- clusive of all tradition ; and this declaration pro- duced a schism. Those who maintained the Talmud, being almost all rabbins, were called rabbinists; and the others, who rejected tradi- tions, were called Caraites, or Scripturists, from the word cara, which in the Babylonish language signifies Scripture. CARDINAL, one of the chief governors of the Romish church, by whom the pope is elected out of their own number, which contains six bishops, fifty priest*, and fourteen deacons : these constitute the sacred college, and are chosen by the pope. See PoeE. CARDINAL VIRTUES : justice, prudence, temperance, and' fortitude, are called the four car- dinal virtues, as being the basis of all the rest. See Justice, &c. CARE, concern, or anxiety of mind arising i»;oin the uncertainty of something future, or the oppression of the present calamity. Caution, attention to a particular subject; regard and sup- port, when followed with the particle of. Pro- dence signifies wisdom applied to practice; dis- cretion is the ellbct of prudence, and means a CARTHUSIANS knowledge to govern or direct one's self: by care we undersl ind heed in order to preser- vation ; caution implies a greater degree of wari- ness. CARE OF THE SOUL, a term used for religion, or that serious attention we ought to pay to our best interests. It imports repentance, faith, devotion, and obedience. " It is considered as the one thing needful: as 1. It is matter of universal concern. 2. Of the highest importance. 3. In- ludes every tiling worthy of our regard." 4. Essential to our peace here. 5. Without it. we cannot obtain everlasting life. Luke x. 42. Jer. vi. l(i. Heb. xii. 14. CARE OF GOD, is his attention to and con- cern for the promotion of the welfare of his crea- tures, 1 Pet. v. 7. 1. That God does manifest this care is evident from the blessings we enjoy, the. ordinances he has instituted, the promises he has given, and the provision he has made. Ps. /xxxiv. 11. Matt vii. 1:2. 2. This care is en- tirely free and unmerited on our part- Gen. xxxii. 10. Deut. vii. (J. Rom. iii. 23. 3. It is every Way extensive, reaching to all its creatures and to all cases. Ps. cxlv. 4. It is superior to all human care and attention. He cares for us when others cannot; when others will not care for us; or when we cannot or will not care for ourselves. Ps. cxlii. 4, 5. Jer. xlix. 11. Ps. xli. 3. 5. It is not only groat, but perpetual. Through all the scenes of life, in death, and for ever. Hcb. xiii. 5. John xvii. 9. See Providence. I 1ARMATHITES, the followers of a noted impostor in the ninth century, who endeavoured to overthrow all the foundations of Mussulman- ism. Carmath their prophet was a person of great austerity of life; and said that God had commanded him to pray not Jive times, with the Mussulmans, but fifty times a-day. To comply with this, they often neglected their business; they ate many things forbidden by the law of Mahomet, and believed that angels were their guides in all their actions, and that the demons or ghosts are their enemies. CARMELITES, one of the four tribes of Mendicants, or begging friars; so named from Mount Carmel, formerly inhabited by Elias, Eli- sha, and the children of the prophets; from whom this order pretends to descend in uninterrupted succession. Their habit was at first white; but pope Honorius IV. commanded them to change it for that of the Minims. They wear no linen shirts, but, instead of them, linsey-wolsey. CARPOCRATIANS, a branch of the an- cient. Gnostics, so called from Carpocrates, who in the second century revived and improved upon the errors of Simon Magus, Menender, Saturni- n us, ami other < fnostics. See Gnostics. ( JARTHUSIANS, a religious order, founded A. D. 1080, by one Bruno; so called from the desert Chartreu.r, the place of their institution. Their rule is extremely severe. They must not go out of their cells, except to church, without leave of their superior; nor speak to any person without leave. They must not keep any meat or drink till next day: their beds are of straw covered w itli a felt ; their clothing, two hair cloths, two cowls, two pair of hose, and a cloak: all coarse. In the refectory they must keep their Cyea on the dish, their hands on the table, their attention to the reader, ami their hearts lived on God. Women must not come into their churches. CO CATECHISING CASUALTY, an event that is not foreseen or intended. See CONTINGENCY. CASUIST, one that studies and settles cases of conscience. It is said that Escobar has made a collection of the opinions of all the casuists be- fore him. M. Le Fevre, preceptor of Louis XIII. called the books of the casuists the art of quib- bling with God; which does not seem far from truth, by reason of the multitude of distinctions and subtleties they abound with. Mayer has published a bibliotheea of casuists, containing an account of all the writers on cases of conscience, ranged under three heads; the first comprehend- ing the Lutheran, the second the Calvinist, and the third the Romish casuists. CASUISTRY, the doctrine and science of conscience and its cases, with the rules and prin- ciples of resolving the same; drawn partly from natural reason or equity, and partly from the au- thority of Scripture, the canon law, councils, fa- thers, &c. To casuistry belongs the decision of all difficulties arising about what a man may lawfully do or not ilo ; what is sin or not sin ; what things a man is obliged to do in order to discharge his duty, and what he may let alone without breach of it. Some suppose that all books of casuistry are as useless as they are tiresome. One who is really anxious to do his duty must be very weak, it is said, if he can imagine that he has much oc- casion for them; and with regard to one who is negligent of it, the style of those writings is not such as is likely to awaken him to more attention. The frivolous accuracy which casuists attempt to introduce into subjects which do not admit of it, almost necessarily betray them into dangerous errors; and at the same time render their works dry and disagreeable, abounding in abstruse and metaphysical distinctions, but incapable of ex- citing in the heart any of those emotions which it is the principal use of books of morality to produce. On the other hand, I think it may be observed, that, though these remarks may apply to some they cannot apply to all books of casuistry. It must be acknowledged that nice distinctions, metaphysical reasonings, and abstruse terms, can- not be of much service to the generality, because there are so few who can enter into them; yei, when we consider how much light is thrown upon a subject by the force of good reasoning, by viewing a case in all its bearings, by properly considering all the objections that may be made to it, and by examining it in every point of view; if we consider also low little some men are accus- tomed to think, and yet at the same time possess that tenderness of conscience which makes them fearful of doing wrong ; we must conclude that such works as these, when properly executed, may certainly be of consi lerable advantage. The reader may consult Amei s Power and Cases of Conscience; Bishop '1'uytor's Ductor Dubitan- tium ; Dr. Saundcr sort's lie Obligatione Con- sricntia: ; Pike and Ilayirard's ( 'oses ; and Sau- rin's Christian Casuistry, in the 4th vol. of his Sermons, y. •J(i.">. English edition. CATECHISING, instructing by asking questions and correcting the answers. L'ate- chising is an excellent mean of informing the mind, engaging the attention, and affecting the heart, and is an important duty, incumbent on all who have children under their care. Children CATECHISM •hould not be suffered to grow up without in- struction, under the pretence that the choice of religion ought to be perfectly free, and not biassed by the influence and authority of parents, or the power of education. As they have capacities, and are more capable of knowledge by instruc- tion than by the exercise of their own reasoning powers, they should certainly be taught. This agrees both with the voice of nature and the dic- tates of revelation, Deut. vL 7. Prov. xxii. 6. Eph. vi. 4. The propriety of this being granted, it may next be observed, that, in order to facilitate their knowledge, short summaries of religion ex- tracted from the Bible, in the way of question and answer, may be of considerable use. — 1. Hereby, says Dr. Watts, the principles of Christianity are reduced into short sentences, and easier to be understood by children. — 2. Hereby these princi- ples are not only thrown into a just and easy me- thod, but every part is naturally introduced by a proper question ; and the rehearsal of the answer is made far easier to a child than it would be if the child wert> required to repeat the whole scheme of religion. — 3. This way of teaching hath something familiar and delightful in it, be- cause it looks more like conversation and dia- logue.— 4. The very curiosity of the young mind is awakened by the question to know what the answer will be ; and the child will take pleasure in learning the answer by heart, to improve its own knowledge. See next article. CATECHISM, a form of instruction by means of questions and answers. There have been various catechisms published by different authors, but many of them have been but ill suited to convey instruction to juvenile minds. Catechisms for children should be so framed as not to puzzle and confound, but to let the beams of divine light into their minds by degrees. They should be accommodated as far as possible, to the weakness of their understandings; for mere learning sentences by rote, without comprehend- ing the meaning, will be of but little use. In thi , way they will know nothing but words : it will prove a laborious task, and not a pleasure ; con- firm them in a bad habit of dealing in sounds in- stead of ideas ; and, after all, perhaps create in them an aversion to religion itself. Dr. Watts tfdvises that different catechisms should be com- posed for different ages and capacities ; the ques- tions and answers should be short, plain, and easy ; scholastic terms, and logical distinctions, should be avoided ; the most practical points of religion should be inserted ; and one or more well-chosen texts of Scripture should be added to support almost every answer, and to prove the several parts of it The doctor has admirably exemplified his own rules in the catechism he has composed for children at three or four years old ; that for children at seven or eight; his assem- bly's catechism, proper for youth at twelve or fourteen ; his preservative from the sins and fol- lies of childhood; his catechism of Scripture names ; and his historical catechism. These are superior to any I know, and which I cannot but ardently recommend to parents and all those who have the care, and instruction of children. CATECHIST, one whose charge is to in- struct by questions, or to question the uninstruet- cd concerning religion. The calecfusts of the ancient churches were usually ministers, and distinct from the bishops 61 CATHEDRAL and presbyters; and had their catechumena, ©I auditories, apart. But they did not constitute any distinct order of the clergy, being chosen out of any order. The bishop himself sometimes per- formed the office ; at other times, presbyters, readers, or deacons. It was his business to ex- pose the folly of the pagan superstition; tore- move prejudices, and answer objections ; to dis- course on behalf of the Christian doctrines ; and to give instruction to those who had not sufficient knowledge to quality them for baptism. CATECHUMENS, the lowest order of Christians in the primitive church. They had some title to the common name of Christians, be- ing a degree above pagans and heretics, though not consummated by baptism. They were ad- mitted to the state of catechumens by the imposi- tion of hands, and the sign of the cross. The children of believing parents were admitted cate- chumens as soon as ever they were capable of instruction ; but at what age those of heathen pa- rents might be admitted is not so clear. As to the time of their continuance in this state, there were no general rules iixed about it ; but the prac- tice varied according to the difference of times and places, and the readiness and proficiency of the catechumens themselves. There were four orders or degrees of catechumens. The first were those instructed privately without the church, and kept at a distance, for some time, from the privi- lege of entering the church, to make them the more eager and desirous of it. The next degree were the audicntes, so called from their being ad- mitted to hear sermons and the Scriptures read in the church, but were not allowed to partake of the prayers. The third soit of catechumens were the genu Jlectcntes, so called because they received imposition of hands kneeling. The fourth order was the compete ntes ct elccti ; de- noting the immediate candidates for baptism, or such as were appointed to be baptized the next approaching festival ; before which, strict exami- nation was made into their proficiency, under the several stages of catechetical exercises. After examination, they were exercised for twenty days together, and were obliged to fasting and confession. Some days before baptism they went veiled ; and it was customary to touch their ears, saying, Ephphatha, i. e. Be opened ; as also to anoint their eyes with clay : both ceremonies being in imitation of our Saviour's practice, and intended to signify to the catechumens their con- dition both before and after their admission into the Christian church. CATHARISTS, a sect that spread much in the Latin church in the twelfth century. Their religion resembled the doctrine of the Mani- clweans and Qnostics [see those articles]. They supposed that matter was the source of evil ; that Christ was not clothed with a real body; that baptism and the Lord's Supper were useless in- stitutions; with a variety of other strange no- tions. CATHEDRAL, the chief church of a diocese : a church wherein is a bishop's see. The word comes from xxltSpx, chair: the name seems to have taken its rise from the manner of sitting in the ancient churches or assemblies of private Christians. In these the council, i. e. the elders and priests, were called Presbyterium; at their head was the bishop, who held the place of chair- man, Calhcdralis or Cuthedraticus ; and the F CELIBACY presbyters, who sat on either aide, also called by the ancient fathers Assessores Episcoporum. The episcopal authority did not reside in the 1 »I— shop alone, but in all the presbyters, whereof the bishop was president. A cathedral, therefore, originally was different from what it is now ; the < Christians, till the time of Constantine, having no liberty to build any temple. By their churches they only meant assemblies; and hy cathedrals nothing more than consistories. CAT I tOLIC, denotes any thing that is uni- versal or general. The rise of heresies induced the primitive Christian church to assume to itself the appellation of catholic, being a characteristic to distinguish itself from all sects, who, though they had party names, sometimes sheltered them- selves under the name of Christians. The Rom- ish church now distinguishes itself by catholic in opposition to all who have separated from her communion, and whom she considers as heretics and schismatics, and herself only as the true and Christian church. In the strict sense of the word, there is no catholic, church in being ; that is, no universal Christian communion. CELESTINS, a religious order in the thir- teenth century; so called from their founder, Pe- ter De Meuron, afterwards raised to the pontifi- cate under the name of Celestine V. The Ce- lesiius rose two hours after midnight to say matins ; ate no flesh, except when sick ; and often fasted. Their habit consisted of a white gown, a capuche, a black scapulary, and shirts of serge. CELIBACY, the state of unmarried persons. Celibate, or celibacy, is a word chiefly used in speaking of the single life of the popish clergy, or the obligation they are under to abstain from marriage. The church of Rome imposes an uni- versal celibacy on all her clergy, from the pope to the lowest deacon and subdeacon. The advocates for this usage pretend that a vow of perpetual celibacy was required in the ancient church as a condition of ordination, even from the earliest apostolic ages. But the contrary is evident from numerous examples of bishops and archbishops who lived in a state of matrimony, without any Erejudice to their ordination or their function. feither our Lord nor his apostles laid the least restraint upon the connubial union : on the con- trary, the Scriptures speak of it as honourable in all, without the least restriction as to persons. Heb. xiii. 4. Matt. xix. 10, 13. 1 Cor. vii. 2, 9. St. Paul even assigns forbidding to marry as characteristic of the apostaey of the latter times, 1 Tim. iv. 3. The fathers, without making any distinction between clergy and laity, asserted the lawfulness of the marriage of all Christians. Marriage was not forbidden to bishops in the Eastern church till the close of the seventh cen- tury. Celibacy was not imposed on the Western clergy in general till the end of the eleventh cen- tury, though attempts had been made long before. Superstitious zeal 1'ora sanctimonious appearance in the clergy seems to have promoted it at iirst ; and crafty policy, armed with power, no doubt rivetted this clog on the sacerdotal order in later periods of the church. Pope Gregory VII. ap- pears in this business to have had a view to sepa- rate the clergy as much as possible from all other interests, and to bring them into a total depend- ence upon his authority; to the end, that all tem- poral power might, in a high degree, be subju- gated to the papal jurisdiction Forbidding to G-2 CEREMONY marry, therefore, has evidently the mark c." tho beast upon it. See MARRIAGE. CEMETERY, a place set apart for the burial of the dead. Anciently, none were buried in churches or church-yards: it was even unlawful to inter in cities, and the cemeteries were with- out the walls. Among the primitive Christians these were held in great veneration. It even ap- pears from Eusehiua and Tertullian, that in the early ages they assembled for divine worship in the cemeteries. Valerian seems to have confis- cated the cemeteries and other places of divine worship; but they were restored again by Gal- lienua As the martyrs were buried in these places, the Christians chose them for building churches on, when Constantine established their religion ; and hence some derive the rule which stili obtains in the church of Rome, never to con- secrate an altar without putting under it the relics of some saint. CENSURE, the act of judging and blaming others for their faults. Faithfulness m reproving another differs from cemoriousness : the former arises from love to truth, and respect tor the person; the latter is a disposition that loves to find fault. However just censure may be where t here lshlame, yet a censorious spirit or rash judging must be avoided. It is usurping the authority and judg- ment of God. It is unjust, uncharitable, mis- chievous, productive of unhappiness to ourselves, and often the cause of disorder and confusion in society. See Rash Judging. CERDONIANS, asect in t he first century, who espoused most of the opinions of Simon Magus and the Manichamns. They asserted two prin- ciples, good and bad. The first they calied the Father of Jesus Christ ; the latter the Creator of the world. They denied the incarnation and the resurrection, and rejected the books of the Old Testament. CEREMONY, an assemblage of several ac- tions, forms, and circumstances, serving to render a thing magnificent and solemn. Applied to re- ligious services, it signifies the external rites and manner wherein the ministers of religion perform their sacred functions. In 1646, M. Ponce pub- lished a history of ancient ceremonies, tracing the , rise, growth, and introduction of each rite into the church, and its gradual advancement to su- perstition. Many of them were borrowed from Judaism, but more from paganism. Dr. Middle- ton has given a fine discourse on the conformity between the pagan and popish ceremonies, which he exemplifies m the use of incense, holy water, lamps and candles before the shrines of saints, vo- tive gifts round the shrines of the deceased, &c. In fact, the altars, images, crosses, processions, miracles, and legends,, nay, even the very hier- archy, pontificate, religious orders, &c. of the pre- sent Romans, he shows, are all copied from their heathen ancestors. An ample and magnificent re- presentation in figures of the religious ceremonies and customs of all nations in the world, designed by Picart, is added with historical explanations, and many curious dissertations. It has' been a question, whether we ought U. use such rites and ceremonies which are merely of human appointment. On one side it has been observed that we ought not. Christ alone is King in his church; he hath instituted such or- dinances and forms of worship as he hath judged fit and necessary j and to add to them seems, at CERINTHIANS feast, to carry in it an imputation on his wisdom and authority, and hath this unanswerable objec- tion to it, that it opens the door to a thousand in- novations (as the history of the church of Rome hath sufficiently shown), which are not only in- different in themselves, but highly absurd, and extremely detrimental to religion. That the ceremonies were numerous under the Old Testa- ment dispensation is no argument ; for, say they, 1. We respect Jewish ceremonies, because they were appointed of God ; and we reject human ceremonies, because God hath not appointed them. — 2. The Jewish ceremonies were esta- blished by the universal consent of the nation: human ceremonies are not so. — 3. The former were fit and proper for the purposes for which they were appointed ; but the latter are often the contrary. — 1. The institutor of the Jewish cere- monies provide** for the expence of it; but no provision is made by God to support human cere- monies, or what he has not appointed. These arguments seem very powerful ; but, on the other side, it has been observed, that the de- sire of reducing religious worship to the greatest possible simplicity, however rational it may ap- pear in itself, and abstractedly considered, will be considerably moderated in such as bestow a mo- ment's attention upon the imperfection and in- firmities of human nature in its present state. Mankind, generally speaking, have too little ele- vation of mind to be much affected with those forms and methods of worship in which there is nothing striking to the outward senses. The great difficulty here lies in determining the length which it is prudent to go in the accommodation of religious ceremonies to human infirmity ; and the grand point is, to fix a medium in which a due regard may be shown to the senses and ima- gination, without violating the dictates of right reason, or tarnishing the purity of true religion. It has been said, that the Romish church has gone too far in its condescension to the infirmi- ties of mankind ; and this is what the ablest de- fenders of its motley worship have alleged in its behalf. But this observation is not just; the church of Rome has not so much accommodated itself to huvxan weakness, as it has abused that weakness, b\T taking occasion from it to establish an endless variety of ridiculous ceremonies, de- structive of true religion, and only adapted to promote the riches and despotism of the clergy, and to keep the multitude still hood-winked in their ignorance and superstition. How far a just antipathy to the church puppet-shows of the Papists has unjustly driven some Protestant churches into the opposite extreme, is a matter that certainly deserves a serious consideration. See Dr. SlenneWs Ser. on Conformity to the World; Robinson's Sermon on Ceremonies; Booth's Essay on the Kingdom of Christ ; Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History ; with Mac Ijaine's Note, vol. i. p. 203, quarto edition. Jon&s's Works; vol. iv. p. 267 Condcr's Protestant Non- conformity. CERINTHIANS, ancient heretics, who de- nied tne deity of Jesus Christ ; so named from Cerinthus. They believed that he was a mere man, the son of Joseph and Mary ; but that in his baptism a celestial virtue descended on him in the form of a dove ; by means whereof he was consecrated by the Holy Spirit, made Christ, and wrought so many miracles; that, as he re;eived 63 CHAOS it from heaven, it quitted him after his passion, and returned to the place whence it came ; so that Jesus, whom they called a -pure man, really died, and rose again ; but that Christ, who was distin- guished from Jesus, did not suffer at all. It was partly to refute this sect that St. John wrote his Gospel. They received the Gospel of St. Mat- thew, to countenance their doctrine of circum- cision ; but they omitted the genealogy. They discarded the epistles of St. Paul, because that apostle held circumcision abolished. CHALDEE PARAPHRASE, in the rab- binical style, is called Targum. There are tnree Chaldee paraphrases in Walton's Polyglot: viz. 1. of Onkelos; — 2. of Jonathan, son of Uziel ; — 3. of Jerusalem. See Bible, sect. 19, and Targum. CHALICE, the cup used to administer the wine in the sacrament, and by the Roman Ca- tholics in the mass. The use of the chalice, or communicating in both kinds, is by the church of Rome denied to the laity, who communicate only in one kind, the clergy alone being allowed the privilege of communicating in both kinds; in direct opposition to our Saviour's words — " Drink ye all of it." CHANCE, a term we apply to events to de- note that they happen without any necessary or foreknown cause. When we say a thing hap- pens by chance, we mean no more than that its cause is unknown to us, and not as some vainly imagine, that chance itself can be the cause of any thing. " The case of the painter," says Chambers, "who, unable to express the foam at the mouth of the horse he had painted, threw his sponge in despair at the piece, and by chance did that which he could not do before by design, is an eminent instance of what is called chance. Yet it is obvious all we here mean by chance, is, that the painter wa 3 not aware of the effect, or that he did not throw the sponge with such a view : not but that he actually did every thing necessary to produce the effect ; insomuch that, considering the direction wherein he threw the sponge, to- gether with its form and specific gravity, the colours wherewith it was smeared, and the dis- tance of the hand from the piece, it was impossi*- ble, on the present system of tilings, that the ef- fect should not follow." — The word, as it is often used by the unthinking, is vague and indetermi- nate— a mere name for nothing. CHANCELLOR, a lay officer under a bishop, who is judge of his court. In the first ages of the church the bishops had those officers, who were called church lawyers, and were bred up in the knowledge of the civil and canon law : their business was to assist the bishop in his diocese. — We read of no chancellors till Henry the Second's time ; but that king requiring the attendance of the bishops in his councils, it was thought necessary to substitute chancellors in their room for the dispatch of business. CHANT is used for the vocal music of churches. In church history we meet with divers kinds of these; as, 1. Chant Amhrosian, esta- blished by St. Ambrose; — 2. Chant Gregorian, introduced by pope Gregory the Great, who esta- blished schools of chanters, and corrected the church music. This, at first, was called the Ro- man song ; afterwards the plain song ; as tbt choir and people sing in unison. CHAOS, the mass of matter supposed to he CHAPLET !n confusion before it was divided by the Almighty into it-s proper classes and elements. It dees not appear who first asserted tlie notion of a chaos. Moses, the earliest of all writers, derives the origin of this world from a confusion of matter, dark, void, deep, without form, which he calls TOHU BOHU; which is precisely the chaos of the Greek and barbarian philosophers. Moses goes no further than the chaos, nor tells us whence it took its origin, or whence its confused state; arid where Moses stops, there precisely do all the rest. CHAPEL, a place of worship. There are various kinds of chapels in Britain. 1. Domes- tic chapels, built by noblemen or gentlemen for private worship in their families. 2. Free chapels, such as are founded by kings of England. They are free from all episcopal jurisdiction, and only to be visited by the founder and his successors, which is done by the lord chancellor: yet the king may licence any subject to build and endow a chapel, and by letters patent exempt it from the visitation of the ordinary. 3. Chapels in uni- rersities, belonging to part'.cular universities. 4. Chapels of case, built for the ease of one or more parishioners that dwell too far from the church, and are served by inferior curates, provided for at the charge of the rector, or of such as have bene- fit by it, as the composition or custom is. 5. Parochial chapels, which differ from parish churches only in name : they are generally small, and the inhabitants within the district few. If there be a presentation ad ecclcsiam instead of capcllam, and an admission and institution upon it, it is no longer a chapel, hut a church for them- selves and families. (>. Chapels which adjoin to and are part of the church : such were formerly built by honourable persons as burying-places. 7. The places of worship belonging to the Cal- vinistic and Arminian Methodists are also gene- rally called chapels, though they are licensed in no other way than the meetings of the Protestant Dissenters. CHAPLAIN, a person who performs divine service in a chapel, or is retained in the service of some family to perform divine service. As to the origin of chaplains, some say the shrines of relics were anciently covered with a kind of tent, cape, or capella, i. c. little cape; and that hence the priests who had the care of them were called chaplains. In time, these relics were reposited in a little church, either contiguous to a larger, or separate from it; and the name capella, which was given to the cover, was also given to the place where it was lodged; and hence the priest who superintended it came to be called ca- pcllanus, or chaplain. In England there are forty-eight chaplains to the king, who wait four each month, preach in the chapel, read the service to the family, and to the king in his private oratory, and say grace in the absence of the clerk of the closet. While in waiting, they have a table and attendance, but no salary. In Scotland, the king has six chap- 1 lins with a salary of 50/. each ; three of them ) aving in addition the deanery of the chapel roval divided between them, making ui> above 100/. to each. Their onlv duty at present is to say prayers at the election of peers for Scotland, to sit in par- liament. CHAPLET, a certain instrument of piety made use of by the papists. It is a string of beads, 04 CHARITY by which they measure or count the number of their prayers. CHAPTER, a community of ecclesiastics, belonging to a cathedral or collegiate churclv. The chief or head of the chapter is the dean; the body consists of canons or prebendaries. The chapter has now no longer a place in the administration of the diocese during the life of the bishop; but succeeds to the whole episcopal juris- diction during the vacancy of the see. CHARGE: 1. A sermon preached by the bishop to his clergy; — 2. Among the Dissenters, it is a sermon preached to a minister at his ordi- nation, generally by some aged or respectable preacher. CHARITY, one of the three grand theologi- cal graces, consisting in the love of God and our neighbour, or the habit or disposition of loving God with all our heart, and our neighbour as our- selves. " Charity," says an able writer, " consists not in speculative ideas of general benevolence floating in the head, and leaving the heart, as speculations often do, untouched and cold, neither is it confined to that indolent good-nature which makes us rest satisfied with being free from in- veterate malice, or ill-will to our fellow-creatures without prompting us to be of service to any True charity is an active principle. It is not properly a single virtue ; but a disposition residing in the heart as a fountain ; whence all the virtues of benignity, candour, forbearance, generosity, compassion, and liberality flow, as so many native stieams. From general good will to all, it ex tends its influence, particularly to those with whom we stand in nparest connexion, i>nd who are directly within the sphere of our good offices. From the country or conununity to which we be- long, it descends to the smaller associates of neighbourhood, relations, and friends ; and spreads itself over the whole circle of social and domestic life. I mean not that it imports a promiscuous undistinguishing affection, which gives every man an equal title to our love. Charity, if we should endeavour to carry it so far, would be rendered an impracticable virtue, and would resolve itself into mere words, without affecting the heart. True charity attempts not to shut our eyes to the dis- tinction between good and bad men; nor to warm our hearts equally to those who befriend and those who injure us. It reserves our esteem for good men, and our complacency for our friends. Towards our enemies, it inspires forgiveness and humanity. It breathes universal candour and liberality of senti- ment. It forms gentleness of temper, and dictates affability of manners. It prompts corresponding sympathies with them who rejoice and them who weep. It teaches us to slight and despise no man. Charity is the comforter of the afflicted, the pro- tector of the oppressed, the reconciler of differ- ences, the intercessor for offenders. It is faithful- ness in the friend, public spirit in the magistrate, equity and patience in the judge, moderation in the sovereign, and loyalty in the subject. In pa- rents it is care and attention ; in children it w reverence and submission. In a word, it is the soul of social life. It is the sun that enlivens and cheers the abodes of men; not a meteor which oc- casionally glares, but a luminary, which in its orderly and regular course dispenses a benignant influence." Sec Barrow's Works, vol. i. ser. 27, 28; Blair's Ser. vol. iv. ser. 2; ScolCs Scr. ser. 14; Tillolson's Scr. ser. 153; Paley's Alvr. CHILDREN Phil., vol. i. p. 2*31; and articles Benevolence, Love. CHARM, a kind of spell, supposed by the ig- norant to have an irresistible influence, by means of the concurrence of some infernal power, both on the minds, lives, and properties of those whom 't has for its object. "Certain vain ceremonies," says Dr. Dod- dridge, "which are commonly called charvis, and seem to have no efficacy at all for producing the effects proposed by them, are to be avoided ; seeing if there be indeed any real efficacy in them, it is generally probable they owe it to some bad cause ; for one can hardly imagine that God should permit good angels in any extraordinary manner to interpose, or should immediately exert his own miraculous power on trifling occasions, and upon the performance of such idle tricks as are generally made the condition of receiving such benefits." CHASTITY, purity from fleshly lust. In men it is termed continence. See Continence. There is a chastity of speech, behaviour, and imagination, as well as of body. Grove gives us the following rules for the conservation of chas- tity:— 1. To keep ourselves fully employed in labours either of the body or the mind : idleness is frequently the introduction to sensuality. — 2. To guard the senses, and avoid every thing which may be an incentive to lust. Does the free use of some meats and drinks make the body ungo- vernable 1 Does reading certain books debauch the imagination and inflame the passions 1 Do temptations often enter by the sight ? Have pub- lic plays, dancings, efl'eminate music, idle songs, loose habits, and the like, the same effect 1 He who resolves upon chastity cannot be ignorant what his duty is in all these and such like cases. — 3. To implore the Divine Spirit, which is a spirit of purity ; and by the utmost regard to his presence and operations, to endeavour to re- tain him with us. Grove's Moral Philos. p. 2. sec. 6. CHEATS are deceitful practices, in defraud- ing, or endeavouring to defraud, another of his own right, by means of some artful device con- trary to honesty. See Honesty, Justice. CHEERFULNESS, a disposition of mind free from dejection. Opposed to gloominess. If we consider cheerfulness, says Addison, in three lights, with regard to ourselves, to those we con- verse with, and to the Great Author of our being, it will not a* little recommend itself on each of these accounts. The man who is possessed of this excellent frame of mind is not only easy in his thoughts, but a perfect master of all the powers and faculties of his soul ; his imagination is always clear, and his judgment undisturbed; his temper is even and unruffled, whether in ac- tion or in solitude. He comes with a relish to all those goods which Nature has provided for him, t;istes all the pleasures of the creation which are poured about him, and does not feel the full weight of those evils which may befal him. See Happiness, Joy. CHILDREN, duties of, to parents. Dr. Doddridge observes, " 1. That as children have received important favours from their parents, gratitude, and therefore virtue, requires that they should love them. — 2. Considering the superi- ority of age, and the probable superiority of wis- dom, which there is on the side of parents, and G5 / CHRISTIAN also how much the satisfaction and comfort of a parent depend on the respect shown him by his children, it is fit that children should reverence their parents. — 3. It is fit that, while the parents are living, and the use of their understanding continued, their children should not ordinarily undertake any matter of great importance, with- out advising with them, or without very cogent reasons pursue it contrary to their consent. — 4. As young people need some guidance and go- vernment in their minority, and as there is some peculiar reason to trust the prudence, care, and affection of a parent, preferable to any other per- son, it is reasonable that children, especially while in their minority, should obey their parents, without which neither the order of families, nor the happiness of the rising generation could be secured : nevertheless, still supposing that the commands of the parent are not inconsistent with the will of God. — 5. Virtue requires, that if pa- rents come to want, children should take care to furnish them with the necessaries of life, and, so far as their ability will permit, with the conve- niences of it." Doddridge's Lectures, p. 241. vol. i. Pale-t/s Moral Philosophy, p. 372. vol. i. CHILIASTS, the same with Millennarians, a name given to those who hold the peculiar views relative to the Millennium, which the reader will find detailed under that article. — B. CHOREPISCOPI (r« *«,>»« miM, bi- shops of the country.) In the ancient church, when the dioceses became enlarged by the con- versions of pagans in the country and villages at a great distance from the city church, the bishops appointed themselves certain assistants, whom they called Chorepiscopi, because by their office they were bishops of the country. There have been great disputes among the learned concerning this order, some thinking that they were mere presbyters; others that there were two sorts, some that had received episcopal ordination, and some that were presbyters only ; others think that they were all bishops. CHRISM, oil consecrated by the bishop, and used in the Romish and Greek churches in tho administration of baptism, confirmation, ordina- tion, and extreme unction. CHRIST, the Lord and Saviour of mankind. He is called Christ, or Messiah, because he is anointed, sent, -and furnished by God to execute his mediatorial office. See Jesus Christ. CHRISTIAN, by Dr. Johnson is defined "a professor of the religion of Christ;" but in reality a Christian is more than a professor of Christianity. He is one who imbibes the spirit, participates the grace, and is obedient to the will of Christ. The disciples and followers of Christ were first denominated Christians at Antioch, A. D. 42. The first Christians distinguished themselves, in the most remarkable manner, by their conduct and their virtues. The faithful, whom the preaching of St. Peter had converted, hearkened attentively to the exhortations of the apostles, who failed not carefully to instruct them as per- sons who were entering upon an entire new life. They attended the temple daily, doing nothing different from the other Jews, because it was yet not time to separate from them. But they made a still greater progress in virtue ; for they sold all that they possessed, and distributed their goods F 2 CHRISTIANS to the wants of their brethren. The primitive Christians were not only remarkable for the con- sistency of their conduct, but were also very emi- nently distinguished by the many miraculous gifts and graces bestowed by God upon them. The Jews were the first and the most invete- rate enemies the Ckristians had. They put them to death as often as they had it in their power ; and when they revolted against the Romans, in the time of the emperor Adrian, Barcochebas, who was at the head of that revolt, employed against the Christians the most rigorous punish- ments, to compel them to blaspheme and renounce Jesus Christ. And we find that even in the third century they endeavoured to get into their hands Christian women, in order to scourge and stone them in their synagogues. They cursed the Christians three times a day in their synagogues ; and their rabbins would not suffer them to con- verse with Christians upon any occasion; nor were they contented to hate and detest them, but they dispatched emissaries all over the world to defame the Christians, and spread all sorts of ca- lumnies against them. They accused them, among other things, of worshipping the sun, and the head of an ass; they reproached them with idleness, and being a useless set of people. They charged them with treason, and endeavouring to erect a new monarchy against that of the Ro- mans. They affirmed that in celebrating their mysteries, they used to kill a child and eat his flesh. They accused them of the most shocking incests, and of intemperance in their feasts of charity. But the lives and behaviour of the first Christians were sufficient to refute all that was said against them, and evidently demonstrated th;it these accusations were mere calumny, and the effect of inveterate malice. Pliny the Younger, who was governor of Pontus and Bithynia be- tween the years 103 and 105, gives a very par- ticular account of the Christians in that province, in a letter which he wrote to the emperor Tra- jan, of which the following is an extract: "I take the liberty, Sir, to give you an account of every difficulty which arises to me ; I had never been present at the examinations of the Chris- tians ; for which reason I know not what ques- tions have been put to them, nor in what manner they have been punished. My behaviour towards those who have been accused to me has been this: I have interrogated them, in order to know whether they were really Christians. "When they have confessed it, I have repeated the same question two or three times, threatening them with death if they did not renounce this religion. Those who have persisted in their confession have been by my order led to punishment. I have even met with some Roman citizens guilty of this frenzy, whom, in regard of their quality, I have set apart from the rest, in order to send them to Rome. These persons declare that their whole crime, if they are guilty, consists in this : That on certain days they assemble before sun- rise to sing alternately the praises of Christ, as of God; and to oblige themselves, by the perform- anee of their religious rites, not to be guilty of theft or adultery, to observe inviolably their word, and to he true to their trust. This disposition has olili. That, admitting the facts which they testified concern- ing Christ to be true, then it was reasonable for their contemporaries, and is reasonable for us, to receive the Gospel which they have transmitted to us as a divine revelation. The great thing they asserted was, that Jesus was the Christ, and that he was proved to be so by prophecies accom- plished in him, and by miracles wrought by him, and by others in his name. If we attend to these, we shall find them to be no contemptible argu- ments ; but must be forced to acknowledge that, the premises being established, the conclusion most easily and necessarily follows ; and this con- clusion, that Jesus is the Christ, taken in all its extent, is an abstract of the Gospel revelation, and therefore is sometimes put for the whole of it, Acts viii. 37. xvii. 18. See articles Miracle and Prophecy. — 7. The truth of the Gospel lias also received further and very considerable confirma- tion from what has happened in the world since it was first published. And here we must desire every one to consider what God has been doing to confirm the Gospel since its first publication, and he will find it a further evidence of its Di- vine original. We might argue at large from its surprising propagation in the world ; from the miraculous powers with which not only the apos- tles, but succeeding preachers of the Gospel, and other converts, were endowed ; from the accom plishment of prophecies recorded in the New Testament; and from the preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, notwithstanding the various difficulties and persecutions through which they have passed. We must not, how- ever, forget to mention the confirmation it re- ceives from the methods which its enemies have taken to destroy it ; and these have generally been either persecution or falsehood, or cavilling at some particulars in revelation, without entering into the grand argument on which it is built, and fairly debating what is offered in its defence. The cause has gained considerably by the opposition made to it: the more it has been tried, the more it has been approved; and we are bold to say no honest man, unfettered by prejudice, can examine this system in all its parts, without being con- vinced that its origin is divine. III. Christianity, general doctrines of. "It must be obvious," says an ingenious author, "to every reflecting mind, that, whether we attempt to form the idea of any religion d priori, or contem plate those which have already been exhibited, certain facts, principles, or data, must be pre-es tablished ; from whence will result a particulai frame of mind and course of action suitable toth« character and dignity of that Being by whom th« religion is enjoined, and adapted to the natur* and situation of those agents who are comma*]- CHRISTIANITY ed to observe it. Hence Christianity may be di- vided into credenda or doctrines, and agenda or precepts. As the great foundation of his religion, therefore, the Christian believes the existence and government of one eternal and infinite Essence, which for ever retains in itself the cause of its own existence, and inherently possesses all those perfections which are compatible with its nature ; such ire its almighty power, omniscient wisdom, infinite justice, boundless goodness, and universal presence. In this indivisible essence the Chris- tian recognizes three distinct subsistences, yet distinguished in such a manner as not to be in- compatible either with essential unity, or sim- plicity of being, or with their personal distinction ; each of them possesses the same nature and properties to the same extent. This infinite Be- ing was graciously pleased to create an universe replete with intelligences, who might enjoy his glory, participate his happiness, and imitate his perfections. But as these beings were not immu- table, but left to the freedom of their own will, degeneracy took place, and that in a rank of in- telligence superior to man. But guilt is never sta- tionary. Impatient of itself, and cursed with its own feelings, it proceeds from bad to worse, whilst the poignancy of its torments increases with the number of its perpetrations. Such was the situation of Satan and his apostate angels. They attempted to transfer their turpitude and misery to man, and were, alas, but too success- ful ! Hence the heterogeneous and irreconcilable principles which operate in his nature ; hence that inexplicable medley of wisdom and folly, of rectitude and error, of benevolence and malignity, of sincerity and fraud, exhibited through his whole conduct ; hence the darkness of his under- standing, the depravity of his will, the pollution of his heart, the irregularity of his affections, and the absolute subversion of his whole internal economy. The seeds of perdition soon ripened into overt acts of guilt and horror. All the hos- tilities of nature were confronted, and the whole sublunary creation became a theatre of disorder and mischief. Here the Christian once more ap- peals to fact and experience. If these things are so ; if man be the vessel of guilt, and the victim of misery, he demands how this constitution of tilings can be accounted for? how can it be sui>- posed that a being so wicked and unhappy should be the production of an infinitely good and infi- nitely perfect Creator 1 He therefore insists that human nature must have been disarranged and contaminated by some violent shock ; and that, of consequence, without the light diffused over the tiice of things by Christianity, all nature must re- main in inscrutable and inexplicable mystery. To redress these evils, to re-establish the empire of rectitude and happiness, to restore the nature of man to its primitive dignity, to satisfy the re- monstrances of infinite justice, to purify every original or contracted stain, to expiate the guik and destroy the power of vice, the eternal Son of God, from whom Christianity takes its name, and to whom it owes its origin, descended from the bosom of his Father, assumed the human na- ture, became the representative of man ; endured a severe probation in that character; exhibited a pattern of perfect righteousness, and at last rati- fied his doctrine, and fully accomplished all the ends of his mission, by a cruel, unmerited, and ig- nominious death. Before he left the world, he 69 CHRISTIANITY delivered the doctrines of salvation, and the rules of human conduct, to his apostles, whom he em- powered to instruct the world in all that concern ed their eternal felicity, and whom he invested with miraculous gifts, to ascertain the reality of what they taught. To them he likewise promised another comforter, even the Divine Spirit, who should remove the darkness, console the woes, and purify the stains of human nature. Having remained for a part of three days under the power of death, he rose again from the grave ; appeared to his disciples, and many others; conversed with them for some time, then re-ascended to heaven ; from whence the Christian expects him, accord- ing to his promise, to appear as the Sovereign Judge of the living and the dead, from whose awards there is no appeal, and by whose sentence the destiny of the righteous and the wicked shall be eternally fixed. Soon after his departure to the right hand of his Father (where in his human nature he sits supreme of all created beings, and invested with the absolute administration of hea- ven and earth,) the Spirit of grace and consola- tion descended on his apostles with visible signa- tures of divine power and presence. Nor were his salutary operations confined to them, but ex- tended to all who did not by obstinate guilt repel his influences. These, indeed, were less con- spicuous than at the glorious sra when they were visibly exhibited in the persons of the apostles. But, though his energy be less observable, it is by no means less effectual to all the purposes of grace and mercy. The Christian is convinced that there is and shall continue to be a society upon earth, who worship God as revealed in Jesus Christ, who believe his doctrines, who observe his precepts, and shall be saved by the merits of his death, in the use of these external means of salva- tion which he hath appointed. He also believes that the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, the interpretation and application of Scripture, the habitual exercise of public and private devotion, are obviously calculated to dif- fuse and promote the interests of truth and re- ligion, by superinducing the salutary habits of faith, love, and repentance. He is firmly per- suaded, that at the consummation of all things, when the purposes of Providence in the various revolutions of progressive nature are accomplish- ed, the whole human race shall once more issue from their graves; some to immortal felicity in the actual perception and enjoyment of their Crea- tor's presence, and others to everlasting shame and misery." IV. Christianity, morality and superiority of. It has been well observed, "that the two grand principles of action, according to the Chris- tian, are the love of God, which is the sovereign passion in every gracious mind ; and the love of man, which regulates our actions according to the' various relations in which we stand, whether to communities or individuals. This sacred con- nexion ought never to be totally extinguished by any temporary injury. It ought to subsist m some degree even amongst enemies. It requires that we should pardon the oii'ences of others, as we expect pardon for our own ; and that we should no further resist evil than is necessary for the preservation of personal rights and socia. happiness, it dictates every relative and recipro- cal duty between parents and children, masters and servants, governors and subjects, friends and CHRISTIANITY friends, men and men : nor docs it merely c. join the observation of equity, but likewise inspires the most sublime and extensive charity : abound- less and disinterested effusion of tenderness for the whole species, which feels their distress, and operates for their relief and improvement.'' " Christianity," it has also been observed (and with the greatest propriety,) "is superior to all other religions. The disciple of Jesus not only contends that no system of religion has ever yet been exhibited so consistent with itself, so con- gruous to philosophy and the common sense of mankind, as Christianity; he likewise avers that it is infinitely more productive of real consolation than all other religious or philosophical tenets which have ever entered into the soul, or been applied to the heart of man. For what is death to that mind which considers eternity as the career of its existence ? What are the frowns of men to him who claims an eternal world as his inherit- ance? What is the loss of friends to that heart which feels, with more than natural conviction, that it shall quickly rejoin them in a more tender, intimate, and permanent intercourse, than any of which the present life is susceptible ? What are the vicissitudes of external things to a mind which strongly and uniformly anticipates a state of endless and immutable felicity? What are mortifications, disappointments, and insults, to a spirit wliich is conscious of being the original offspring and adopted child of God; which knows that its omnipotent Father will in proper time effectually assert the dignity and privileges of its nature ? In a word, as this earth is but a speck in the creation, as time is not an instant in proportion to eternity, such are the hopes and prospects of the Christian in comparison of every sublunary misfortune or difficulty. It is there- fore, in his judgment, the eternal wonder of an- gels, and indelible opprobrium of man, that a re- ligion so worthy of God, so suitable to the frame and circumstances of our nature, so consonant to all the dictates of reason, so friendly to the dig- nity and improvement of intelligent beings, so pregnant with genuine comfort and delight, should be rejected and despised by any of the human race." V. Christianity, propagation and success of. Despised as Christianity has been by many, yet it has had an extensive progress through the world, and still continues to be professed by great numbers of mankind ; though it is to be lamented many are unacquainted with its genuine in- fluence. It was early and rapidly propagated through the whole Roman empire, which then contained almost the whole known world ; and herein we cannot but admire both the wisdom and the power of God. " Destitute of all human advantages," says a good writer, "protected by no authority, assisted by no art; not recommend- ed by the reputation of its author, not enforced by eloquence in its advocates, t/te word of God grew miglUlly and prevailed. Twelve men, poor, artless, and illiterate, we behold triumphing over the fiercest and most determined opposition; over the tyranny of the magistrate, and the subtleties of the philosopher; over the prejudices of the Gentile, and tin' bigotry of the Jew. They esta- blished a religion which held forth high and venerable mysteries, such as the pride of man would induce him to :uspect, because he could not perfectly comprehend them ; which preached a) CHRISTIANITY doctrines pure and spiritual, such as corrupt na- ture was prone to oppose, because it shrunk from the severity of their discipline ; which required to followers to renounce almost every opinion they had embraced as sacred, and every interest they had pursued as important ; which even exposed them to every species of danger and infamy ; to persecution unmerited and unpitied ; to the gloom of a prison, and to the pangs of death. ' Hopeless as thk prospect might appear to the view of short- sighted man, the Gospel yet emerged from the obscurity in which it was likely to he overwhelm- ed by the complicated distresses of its friends, and the. unrelenting cruelty- of its foes. It succeeded in a peculiar degree, and in a peculiar manner ; it derived that success from truth, and obtained it under circumstances where falsehood must have been detected and crushed." "Although," says the elegant Porteus, "Chris- tianity has not always been so well understood, or so honestly practised, as it ought to have been, although its spirit has been often mistaken, and its precepts misapplied, yet, under all these dis- advantages, it has gradually produced a visible change in those points whicli most materially concern the peace and quiet of the world. Its beneficent spirit has spread itself through all the different relations and modifications of life, and communicated its kindly influence to almost every public and private concern of mankind. It has insensibly worked itself into the inmost frame and constitution of civil states. It has given a tinge to the complexion of their govern- ments, to the temper and administration of theil laws. It has restrained the spirit of the prince and the madness of the people. It has softened the rigour of despotism, and tamed the insolence of conquest. It has in some degree taken away the edge of the sword, and thrown even over the horrors of war a veil of mercy. It has descended into families, has diminished the pressure of pri- vate tyranny ; improved every domestic endear- ment; given tenderness to the parent, humanity to the master, respect to superiors, to inferiors ease ; so that mankind are, upon the whole, even in a temporal view, under infinite obligations to the mild and pacific temper of the Gospel, and have reaped from it more substantial worldly bene- fits than from any otlrer institution upon earth. As one proof of this (among many others,) con- sider only the shocking carnage made in the human species by the exposure of infants, the gladiatorial shows, whicli sometimes cost Europe twenty or thirty thousand lives in a month ; and the exceedingly cruel usage of slaves, allowed and practised by the arc ient pagans. These were not the accidental and temporary excesses of a sud- den fury, but were legal, and established, and constant methods of murdering and tormenting mankind. Had Christianity done nothing more than brought into disuse (as it confessedly has done) the two former of these human customs, entirely, and the latter to a very great degree, it had justly merited the title of the benevolent r< !i- gion: but this is far from being all. Throughout the more enlightened parts of Christendom, there prevails a gentleness of manners widely different from the ferocity of the most civilized nations of antiquity; and that liberality with which every species of distress is relieved, is a virtue peculiar to the Christian name." But wc may ask, further, what success has it CHRONOLOGY had on the mind of man, as it respects his eter- nal welfare ? How many thousands have felt its power, and rejoiced in its benign influence, and under its dictates been constrained to devote themselves to the glory and praise of God? Bur- dened with guilt, incapable of finding relief from human resources, the mind has here found peace unspeakable, in beholding that sacrifice which alone could atone for transgression. Here the hard and impenitent heart has been softened, the impetuous passions restrained, the ferocious tem- per subdued, powerful prejudices conquered, igno- rance dispelled, and the obstacles to real happiness removed. Here the Christian, looking round on the glories and blandishments of this world, has been enabled, with a noble contempt, to despise all. Here death itself the king of terrors, has lost its sting ; and the soul, with a holy magna- nimity, has borne up in the agonies of a dying hour, and sweetly sung itself away to everlasting bliss. In respect to its future spread, we have reason to believe that all nations shall feel its happy effects. The prophecies are pregnant with mat- ter as to this belief It seems that not only a na- tion or a country, but the whole habitable globe, shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ ; and who is there that has ever known the excellency of this system ; who is there that has ever experienced its happy efficacy ; who is there that has ever been convinced of its divine origin, its delightful nature, and peaceful tendency, but what must join the benevolent and royal poet in saying, " Let the whole earth be filled with its glory, amen, and amen." See article Christianity in Enc. Brit.; Pa- *ey's Evidences of Christianity ; Lardner's and Macknight's Credibility of the Gospel History ; Lord Hailes on the Influence of Gibbon's five Causes ; FawceWs Evidences of Christianity ; Doddridge's ditto; Fell's and Hunter's Lec- tures on ditto ; Beattie's Evidences of the Chris- tian Religion; Soame Jcnyns's Evidences of ditto ; White's Sermo7i's ; Bp. Purteus's Ser- mon?, vol. i. ser. 12, 13 ; and his Essay on the Beneficial Effects of Christianity on the Tem- poral Concerns of Mankind ; Alexander's Evi- dences. CHRISTMAS, the day on which the nati- vity of our blessed Saviour is celebrated. The first footsteps we find of the observation of tins day are in the second century, about the time of the emperor Commodus. The decretal epistles, indeed, carry it up a little higher, and say that Telesphorus, who lived in the reign of Antoninus Pius, ordered divine service to be celebrated, and an angelic hymn to be sung the night before the nativity of our Saviour. That it was kept before the time of Constantine we have a melancholy proof; for whilst the persecu- tion raged under Dioclesian, who then kept his court at Nicomedia, that tyrant, among other acts of cruelty, finding multitudes of Christians as- sembled together to celebrate Christ's nativity, commanded the church doors where they were met to be shut, and fire, to be put to it, which soon reduced them and the church to ashes. See Holyday. CHRONOLOGY, the science of computing end adjusting the periods of time, referring each event to the proper year. We have not room here to present the reader with a system of chronology ; but should he be desirous of studying this science, CHURCH he may consult the systems of Cluvier, Cairo sius, Usher, Simson, Bedford, Marshman, Blair Playfair, and Dr. Hales. CHURCH. The English word church, like the Scotch kirk, is supposed to be derived from the Greek 01x05 xvp<*xo;, the Lord's house, and is usually employed in our version of the Scrip- tures as a translation of ixxxrimx, an assembly. The original term, derived from =x, out of, and xxKeai, to call, denoted any kind of convocation or assembly of men called out from among other men. In this general sense it is applied in the Scriptures not only to a lawful court of judica- ture, Acts xix. 39, but also to a disorderly multi- tude brought together by Demetrius, v. 32, and making an uproar in the theatre. But its pre- dominant import, as used by the sacred writers, is to denote a religious society or congregation, and in this sense its leading applications are the two following. It stands 1. For the whole collective body of the saints or peculiar people of God, redeemed out of every nation, kindred, and tongue, and usually denomi- nated the Church Catholic or Universal. 2. For a particular society of Christians pro- fessedly devoted to God according to the rules of the Gospel, believing in Christ as their Saviour, subjecting themselves to him as their spiritual Lord and Ruler, voluntarily agreeing together to partake of the privileges, discharge the duties, and support the means of Christian faith, fellowship, worship, and discipline, and usually meeting to- gether in one place for public religious exercises. Such a society may be called a particular visible Gospel church, of which there is frequent men- tion in the New Testament. Another sense of the word occurs in popular use, and among ecclesiastical writers, viz. that of a particular denomination of Christians, distin- guished by peculiar doctrines, ceremonies, modes of government, &c: as the Romish church, the Greek church, the Episcopal church, the Presby- terian church. It is strenuously contended, how- ever, by many, that there is no foundation in the Scriptures for this latter application of the term, inasmuch as the thing to which it k applied is not recognized as having an existence. " Pro- perly there are," says Campbell, " in the New Testament but two original senses of the word ixx\>|o-i(» which can be called different, though re- lated. One is, when it denotes a number of peo- ple actually assembled, or accustomed to assemble together, and is then properly rendered by the English terms, congregation, convention, assem- bly, and even sometimes, crowd, as in Acts xix. 32, 40. The other sense is to denote a society united together by some common tie, though not convened, perhaps not convenable, in one place. And in this acceptation, as well as in the former, it sometimes occurs in classical writers, as signi- fying a state, or commonwealth, and nearly cor- responding to the Latin civitas. When the word is limited or appropriated, as it generally is in the New Testament, by its regimen, as church of God — of the Lord — of Christ, or by the scope of the place, it is always to be explained in one or other of the two senses following, corresponding to the two general senses above mentioned. It denotes either a single congregation of Christians, in correspondence to the first, or the whole Chris- tian community, in correspondence to the second. But in any intermediate sense, between a single cnuRcri congregation anil the whole community of Chris- 1 nans, not one instance can be brought of the ap- plication of the word in sacred writ. We speak j now indeed (and this has been the manner for j ages,) of the Gallican church, the church of England, the church of Scotland, as of societies independent and complete in themselves. Such phraseology was never adopted in the clays of the Apostles. They did not say, the church of Asia, the church of Macedonia, or the church ofAchaia, hut the churches of God in Asia, the churches in Macedonia, the churches in Achaia. The plural number is invariably used when more congrega- tions than one are spoken of, unless the subject be of the whole commonwealth of Christ. Nor is this the manner of the penmen of sacred writ only. It is the constant usage of the term in the writings of ecclesiastic authors for the two first centuries. The only instance to the contrary that I remember to have observed is in the epistles of Ignatius, on which 1 have already remarked. It adds considerable strength to our argument that this is exactly conformable to the usage in regard to this term which had always obtained among the Jews. The whole nation cr commonwealth of Israel, was often denominated n-« general smse of the word, as used by us signifies the body of ecclesiastics of the Chris- tian church, in contradistinction to the laity ; but strictly Bpeaking, and according to Scripture, it means the church. — " When Joshua," as one ob- serves, "divided the Holy Land by lot among the Israelites, it pleased (ind to provide" for a thirteenth 1 urt of them, called Levites, by assigning them a personal estate equivalent t.) that provision made l>y real estate which was allotted to each of the twelve parts. In conformity to the style of the transection, the Levites were called God's lot, inheritance, or dcigy. This style, however, CLERGY is not always used by the Old Testament writers. Sometimes they call all the nation God's lot, Deut. xxxii. 9. Ps. lxxviii. 71. xxviii. 9, &c The New Testament writers adopt this term, and apply it to the whole Christian church, 1 Pet. v. 3. Thus it is the church distinguished from the world, and not one part of the church as dis- tinguished from another part." The word clergy, however, among us, always refers to ecclesiastics. The clergy originally consisted of bishops, priests, and deacons; but in the third century many inferior orders were appointed; such as sub-deacons, acoluthists, readers, &c. The clergy of the church of Rome are divided into regular and secular. The regular consists of those monks or religious who have taken upon them holy or- ders of the priesthood in their respective monas- teries. The secular clergy are those who are not of any religious order, and have the care and di- rection of parishes. The Protestant clergy are all secular. For archbishops, bishops, deans, &c. &.C see those articles. The clergy have large privileges allowed fhern by our municipal laws, and had formerly much greater, which were abridged at the Reformation, on account of the ill use which the popish clergy had endeavoured to make of them ; for the laws having exempted them from almost every personal duty, they attempted a total exemption from every secular tie. The personal exemptions, indeed, for the most part, continue. A clergyman cannot be compelled to serve on a jury, nor to appear at a court leet, which almost every other person is obliged to do ; but if a layman be summoned on a jury, and before the trial takes orders, he shall notwithstanding appear, and be sworn. Neither can he be chosen to any temporal office ; as bai- liilj reeve, constable, or the like, in regard of his own continual attendance on the sacred function. During his attendance on divine service, he is privileged from arrests in civil suits. In cases of felony, also, a clerk in orders shall have the bene- fit of clergy, without being branded in the hand, and may likewise have it more than once ; in both which cases he is distinguished from a layman. Benefit of clergy was a privilege whereby a clergyman claimed to be delivered to his ordinary to purge himself of felony, and which anciently was allowed only to those who were in orders; but, by the statute of 18th Eliz., every man to whom the benefit of clergy is granted, though not in orders, is put to read at the bar, after he is found guilty, and convicted of felony, and so burnt in the hand ; and set free for the first time, if the ordinary or deputy standing by do say, Legit utclericu8: otherwise he shall suffer death. As the clergy have their privileges, so they have also their disabilities, on account of their spiritual avocations. Clergymen arc incapable of sitting in the house of commons; and by statute 21 Henry VII 1. C. 13, are not in general allowed to take any lands or tenements to farm, upon pain of 10/. per month, and total avoidance of the lease ; nor, upon like pain, to keep any tap-house, or brewhouse; nor en^- ge in any trade, nor sell any merchandise, under forfeiture of the treble value; which prohibition is consonant to the canon law. The nuinbcr of clergy in England and Wales amount, according to the best calculation, to 18,000. — The revenues of the clergy were form- erly considerable, but since the Reformation they i are comparatively smtJ.1, at least those of the in- CCENOBITE ferior clergy. See the Bishop of Llandqf's Valuation of the Church and University Re- venues ; or Cove on the Revenues of the Church, 17!)7, 2d edition ; Burnett's Hist, of his own Times, conclusion. See article Minister. CLERK: 1. A word originally used to denote a learned man, or man of letters ; but now is the common appellation by which clergymen distin- guish themselves in signing any deed or instru- ment.— 2. Also the person who reads the re- sponses of the congregation in the church, or gives out the hymns at a meeting. COCCEIANS, a denomination which arose in the seventeenth century ; so called from John Cocceius, professor of divinity in the university of Leyden. He represented the whole history of the Old Testament as a mirror, which held forth an accurate view of the. transactions and events that were to happen in the church under the dispensation of the New Testament, and unto the end of the world. He maintained that by far the greatest part of the ancient prophecies foretold Christ's ministry and mediation, and the rise, progress, and revolutions of the church, not only under the figure of persons and transac- tions, but in a literal manner, and by the very sense of the words used in these predictions; and laid it down as a fundamental rule of interpreta- tion, that the words and phrases of Scripture are to be understood in every sense of which they are susceptible, or, in other words, that they sig- nify in effect every thing that they can possible signify. _ Cocceius also taught, that the covenant made between God and the Jewish nation, by the mi- nistry of Moses, was of the same nature a-> the new covenant, obtained by the mediation of Jtwus Christ. In consequence of this general principle, he maintained that the ten commandments were promulgated by Moses, not as a rule of obedience, but as a representation of the covenant of grace — that when the Jews had provoked the Deity by their various transgressions, particularly by the worship of the golden calf, the severe and servile yoke of the ceremonial law was added to the de- calogue, as a punishment inflicted on them by the Supreme Being in his righteous displeasure — that this yoke, which was painful in itself, be- came doubly so on account of its typical signifi- cation ; since it admonished the Israelites from day to day of the imperfection and uncertainty of their state, filled them with anxiety, and was a perpetual proof that they had merited the right- eous displeasure of God, and could not expect, before the coming of the Messiah, the entire re- mission of their iniquities — that indeed good men, even under the Mosaic dispensation, were imme- diately after death made partakers of everlasting glory; but that they were nevertheless, during tne whole course of their lives, far removed from that firm hope and assurance of salvation, which rejoices the faithful under the dispensation of the Gospel— and that tlreir anxiety flowed naturally from this consideration, that their sins, though they remained unpunished, were not pardoned ; because Christ had not as yet offered himself up a sacrifice to the Father, to make an entire atone- ment for them. CCENOBITE, one who lives in a convent, or in community under a certain rule ; in opposition to a hermit, who lives in solitude. Cassiun makes this difference between a convent and a monastery, 77 COMMENTARY that the latter may be applied to the resilience of a single religious or recluse ; whereas the convent implies coenobites, or numbers of religious living in common. Fleury speaks of three kinds of monks in Egypt; anachorcis, who live in sob- tude ; ceenobites, who continue to live in commu- nity ; and sarabailcn, who are a kind of monks- errant, that stroll from place to place. He refers the institution of coenobites to the time of the apostles, and makes it a kind of imitation of the ordinary lives of the faithful at Jerusalem; though St. Pachomius is ordinarily owned to be the in- stitutor of the coenobite life, as being the first who gave rule to any community. COLLECT, a short prayer. In the liturgy of the church of England, and the mass of the Romanists, it denotes a prayer accommodated to any particular day, occasion, or the like. In ge- neral, all the prayers in each office are called col- lects, either because the priest speaks in the name of the whole assembly, whose sentiments and de- sires he sums up by the word " Oremus," " Let us pray," or because those prayers are offered when the people are assembled together. The popes Gelasius and Gregory are said to have been the first who established collects. Dr. Despence, of Paris, wrote a treatise on collects, their origin, antiquity, &c. COLLEGIANS, or Collegiants, a sect formed among the Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland, about the beginning of the seven- teenth century : so called because of their col- leges or meetings twice, every week, where every one, females excepted, has the same liberty of expounding the Scriptures, praying, &c. They are said to be all either Arians or Socinians : they never communicate in the college, but meet twice a year, from all parts of< Holland, at Rhinsbergli, (whence they are also called Rhinsbcrghcrs) a village two miles from Leyden, where they com- mumcate together ; admitting every one that pre- sents himself, professing his faith in the divinity of the Holy Scriptures, and resolution to live suitably to their precepts and doctrines, without regard to his sect or opinion. They have no particular ministers, but each officiates as he is disposed. They baptize by immersion. COMMENTARY, as applied to the Scrip- tures, an exposition, book of annotations or re- marks, designed to elucidate the sacred volume by illustrating obscure passages, interpreting am- biguous phrases, reconciling apparent contrailic- tions, exhibiting the relation or parallelism of the different parts,— in fine, by furnishing every facility to the biblical reader towards the attain- ment of the genuine sense of the inspired writ- ings. It is unquestionable, that there are many passages in the sacred Scriptures both difficult and obscure, in consequence of the various times when the different books were written, the diver- sified topics of which they treat, their allusion to ancient customs, and the languages in which they were originally composed. So far, indeed, as relates to the way of salvation, " he that runs may read ;" but there are many important poirjts which, to common and unlettered readers, require explanation, and in which we may profitably avail ourselves of the labours of inquirers win: have preceded us, especially of those who have been deeply versed in the original languages, Who have collated the different parts, the Mew Testament and the Old, the prophetic with the- COMMENTARY historical books, and have brought forward the testimonies of profane antiquity to confirm or illustrate th<' word of God. To reject their assist- ance in the interpretation of the Scriptures, is to throw away the labours of many ages. As well might we reject all our historians, and insist on believing nothing but what we derive immedi- ately*from state papers, original records, and other documents on which all history is founded. " The Bible," says a sensible writer, '•' is intended as a directory of our faith and practice. Now, to have an experienced friend, who has long been in the habit of perusing it with patient study and hum- ble prayer, to have such a friend at hand to point out in every chapter what may be useful or import- ant, and especially to disclose its latent beauties, may be no less desirable and useful, than it is, when travelling in a foreign country, to have with us a companion who has passed the same route, an 1 is acquainted both with the road, and with the objects most worthy of notice." Yet widely different opinions are, and ever have been, enter- tained respecting the utility and advantage of commentaries, annotations, and other expositions of the sacred writings. By some, who can ad- mire nothing but their own meditations, and who hold all human helps in contempt, commentaries are despised altogether, as tending to found our faith on the opinions of men, rather than on the divine oracles ; while others, on the contrary, trusting exclusively to the expositions of some fa- vourite commentators, receive as infallible what- ever views or opinions they may choose to de- liver, as their expositions cf the Bible. The safest way in this case, is, to take the middle path, and occasionally to avail ourselves of the labours of commentators and expositors, while we diligently investigate the Scriptures for ourselves, without relying exclusively on our own wisdom, or being fascinated with the authority of an eminent name. In order to derive the utmost advantage from the labours of expositors, the following suggestions may be profitably carried along with us in our reading. 1. We should take care that the pe- rusal of commentators does not draw us away Croon Studying the Scriptures themselves; from investigating their real meaning, and meditating on their important contents. 2. We should not inconsiderately assent to the interpretation of any expositor or commentator, or yield a blind and servile obedience to his authority. 3. The best commentators and interpreters only are to be read 4. Where it does not appear that either ancient or modern interpreters had more know- I idge than ourselves, respecting particular pas- sages, and when they offer only conjectures, their expositions ought to be subjected to a very strict examination before they are adopted. 5. As there are some commentaries which are either wholly compiled from the previous labours of others, or contai n obecn at ions extracted from their writings, if any tiling appear confused or perplexed in such commentaries, the original sources must be refcr- re I to. and diligently consulted. To these remarks and directions relative to the use of commentaries, we shail subjoin the advice of Dr. Campbell, in his Lectures on Systematic Theology, as to the study of the Bible : — " Begin with studying the Scriptures in the original lan- guages; attend carefully to the distinction that should always be made between classical or pure 7d COMMENTARY Greek, and the Greek, of the Septuagint and Testament, where the words taken separately are pure Greek, but where the idiom of the language, and even the acceptation of many words, are de- rived from the Hebrew, the Chaldaic,orthe Syriac, Be acquainted with the civil history, the manners and customs of ancient times and nations, espe- cially with that of the Jews, where the reading of Josephus will be often useful. But whatever books you read occasionally, read the Scriptures frequently. Mark the different passages which you do not understand ; read them with patience, not being too anxious to understand every thing at the first reading. But persevere, and read the Scriptures in the original a second and a third time ; and, without consulting any commentator, those difficult passages will always become fewer as your knowledge increases. Read the Scrip- tures, also, with modesty, without being too full of yourself, nor supposing that human reason can always comprehend divine mysteries : and read them always with fervent prayer to God, the source of wisdom and light, that he would assist and direct you in your researches after truth. Do not complain that you want books, when you have the Scriptures themselves in the original languages. If you have a Hebrew Bible, a Sep- tuagint, and a Greek New Testament, you have the most necessary and the most useful of all books to a Christian divine. Read carefully all the versions which are given of disputed pas- sages ; make much use of versions, and compare them all carefully with the original. Read the Vulgate, though a translation authorised by the Romish church, as well as the versions of indi- viduals, such as Castalio, Beza, Junius, and Tre- mellius, and also Houbigant, if you have access to his translation. You cannot be hurt by read- ing versions, and comparing them with the ori- ginal. Consult commentators sparingly: never use them till the last ; and then use them only as dictionaries. In this viewr, however, read com- mentators of all parties ; and judge of them more from their freedom of thought, abilities, and erudi- tion, than from considering to what party they be- long. In comparing the dilferent kinds of commen- tators, remember that paraphrasts are the Worst, because they undertake too much, or promise most ; while scholiasts are the best, because they undertake and promise least. Be on your guard against too much ingenuity in commentators; for genius, in this case, has often led them astray, when humble piety and plain common-sense, would have kept them in a right path. Beware, particularly, of any attachment to a preconceived system, and do not think you will be (always) safe, if you use what you call an approved com- mentator. Sec always with your own eyes, and not through the spectacles of glossarists, com- mentators, or paraphrasts. Remember that your errors will be much more pardonable, when you use your own eyes, and when you come short of the truth after making the best use of your o%vn reason, than when you are led implicitly by pas- sion or by prejudice. When you have formed a religious system in early life, be still correcting it as you acquire more knowledge, not contending for the opinions of men, but inquiring after the mind of the Spirit." To the present article we shall append a co- pious list of the most valuable commentaries, both 'n our own and other languages, particularly the COMMENTARY Latin, which is a repository of many of the most valuable treasures of biblical exposition. English Commentators on the whole Bible. 1. He.vrv. — An Exposition of the Old and New Testament ; by the Rev. Matthew Henry, folio, 5 vols. 4to. 6 vols. 8vo. 6 vols. In the former editions of the Theological Diction- ary, Mr. Buck, in speaking of commentaries, gives the following testimony to the great value of Henry. " In my opinion, Henry takes the lead for common utility. The sprightly notes, the just inferences, the original thoughts, and the warm applications to the conscience, make this work justly admired. It is true that there are some expressions which do not agree with the evangelic system; but, as the late Mr. Ryland ob- serves, ' 'tis impossible for a person of piety and taste *o read him without wishing to be shut out from all the world to read him through without one moment's interruption.' Mr. Henry did not live to complete the work. He went as far as the e»d of Acts." The re- mainder was finished by fifteen different hands, pious and able ministers, contemporary with Mr. Henry, whose names will be found affixed to their several por- tions. The estimate in which the work is held in the United States is sensibly growing, and the religious public are to be congratulated on the recent ediiion published in Philadelphia, with a valuable preface by the Rev. A. Alexander, of Princeton, New Jersey. 2. Scott. — The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments ; with original notes, practical observations, and copious marginal re- ferences. By Thomas Scott, Rector of Aston Sandford, 5 vols. 4to. 6 vols. 8vo. "The capital excellency of this valuable and im- mense undertaking, perhaps consists in following more closely than any other, the fair and adequate meaning of every part of Scripture, without regard to the nice- ties of human systems : it is in every sense of the ex- pression, a scriptural comment. It has a further and a strong recommendation in its originality. Every part of it is thought out by the author for himself, not borrowed from others. The later editions, indeed, are enriched with brief and valuable quotations from seve- ral writers of credit ; but the substance of the work is entirely his own. It is not a compilation, it is an ori- ginal production, in which you have the deliberate judgment of a masculine and independent mind on all the parts of Holy Scripture. Every student will un- derstand the value of such a work. Accordingly the success of the work has been steadily and rapidly in- creasing from the first, not only in our own country, but wherever the English language is known. Nor is the time distant, when, the passing controversies of the day having been forgotten, this prodigious work will generally be confessed in the Protestant churches, to be one of the most sound and instructive commenta- ries produced in our own or any other age." — Wilson's Funeral Sermon. 3. Poole. — Annotations upon the Holy Bible ; by the Rev. Matthew Poole, folio, London, 2 vols. 1683. Edinburgh, 1803, 4 vols. 4to. This is an extremely valuable work, by the author ef the celebrated Synopsis. It was published subse- quently to that work, and may be supposed to contain the results of the immense collection and comparison of interpretations contained in the Synopsis. The anno- tations are mingled with the text, and for the most part are eminently judicious. The author wrote them only as far as the 58th chapter of Isaiah ; the remain- der being executed by several distinguished dissenting ministers. 4. Assembly's Annotations. — Annotations upon all the Books of the Old and New Testa- ments ; by the labour of several learned divines thereunto appointed. London, 1657, 2 vols, folio. This valuable work was composed by the members of the Westminster .assembly of divines. See Calamy'n life of Baitfr, p. 66. 5. Clarke. — The Old ami New Testaments, 79 COMMENTARY with Annotations and parallel Scriptures ; lijr Samuel Clarke, A. M. London, 1690, folio. " The selection, of parallel texts is admirable ; and the notes, though very brief, are written with great judg- ment. The work was commended in very high terms by Drs. Owen and Bates, as well as by Mr. Baxter and Mr. Howe." — Borne. 6. Gill. — An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, illustrated by notes from the most an- cient Jewish writings; by John Gill, D. D.London, 1748—1763, 9 vols, folio. London, 1809, 9 vols. 4to. In rabbinical literature, Dr. Gill had no equal, and he has been enabled to illustrate many important pas- sages of Scripture. — Home. 7. Brown. — Brown's Self-Interpreting Bible, 2 vols. 4to. " Its chief excellencies are the marginal references which are exceedingly useful to preachers, and tht close, plain, and practical improvement to each chap- ter."— Buck. 8. A. Clarke.— The Holy Bible, with a Commentary and Critical Notes ; by Adam Clarke, LL. D. 5 vols. 4to. 6 vols. 8vo. Latin Commentators on the whole Bible. 1. Critici Sacri. — Sive Annotata doctissi- morum Virorum in Vetus ac Novum Testamen- tum; quibus accedunt tractatus varii, Theologico- Philologici, 9 tomis in 12 volmninibus, Amster- dam, 1698. " This great work, first published at London in 166C, in 9 vols, folio, under the direction of Bishop Pearson, John Pearson, Anthony Scattergood, and Francis Gouldman, is considerably augmented in the above se- cond and best edition. The notes of Grotius, Vatablus, Drusius, Munster, Castalio, Clarius, Junius, and Tre- mellius, are to be found in this collection, besides a multitude of commentators on particular books, and numerous valuable disquisitions on particular subjects, which are enumerated by Dr. A. Clarke in the general preface to his Commentary. To complete this great work there were published at Amsterdam, in 1701, Thesaurus Theologico-Philologicus, in two vols, folio, and in 1732, in two folio volumes also, Thesaurus No- vus Theologico-Philologicus — two valuable collections of critical and philological dissertations by the most eminent biblical critics of that day. These are neces- sary to complete the Critici Sacri." — Home. The great defect of this work is the want of due se- lection in the original materials. Several authors are included of very little note, and who were altogether unworthy of a place in such a body of critics as were intended to have been enrolled in this college of com- mentators. Many, too, of the annotations of more distinguished authors are scarcely worthy of their names, and as several sets of notes are written upon the same books, the same things are frequently re- peated. A reprint of the whole work, therefore, is neither to be expected nor desired, although many of the disquisitions richly deserve to be drawn out of their obscurity and given anew to the world. 2. Matth^i Pooi.i, Synopsis Criticorum Aliorumque SS.Interpretum. — London, Utrecht, and Frankfort, 5 vols, folio. On this most elaborate work the learned author spent ten years. Although not designed to be a mere abridgment of the Critici Sacri, it contains all that is most valuable in their annotations, besides many im- portant additions from other sources, and his own ju- dicious decisions in many places. Notwithstanding, however, that the Synopsis brings together an immense mass of valuable interpretation, the work would ad- mit of being greatly synopsized itself. The vast accu- mulation of different senses crowded together to explain a single sentence or a single word, many of them pal- pably false or trifling, many of them without the shadow of a reason for their adoption, and apparently introduced merely to increase the amount of matter, so effectually perplexes the mind, that the reader often COMMENTARY closes th" book more unsettled in his opinion than when he opened jt. it is greatly la be desired thai a work on the plan of Poole, only more moderate in its dimensions, and m ire select in rts materials, should be execute I at the presenl day. Hut the task would be a Herculean one, and arduous in proportion to the supe- rior advantages p iteessed for such a work by the pre- senl generation of scholars. Of the different editions of Poole, thai of Utrecht, by Professor Leusden, is the best. Tli" Frankfort edition is said to be scarcely worth purchasing, on account of its incorrectness. The quarto edition is somewhat better, but is badly printed and sells at a low price. — H. 3. Joannis COCCEII Commentarii in Sacras Scriptures, in ejus Operibus. — Amsterdam, 10 vols, folio. Notwithstan ling the character of Cocccius, as a com- mentator, labours under the imputation of excessive mysticism, and of having in lulgeda vein of t he wildest fancies in spiritualizing the Old Testament, it should b • rem imb ired that his grand object was to oppose the Afiystemof mere literal or grammatical exposition adopt - pbd by Grotius an I his followers. And when it is said of two commentators, as it was of him and Grotius, that "one finds Christ every where, and the other no Where," the in liciousand pious reader will readily de- cide Which is the most innocent error. Buddeus, the great master in historic-theology, while he admits that Cocceius has occasionally refined loo much in his in- terpretations, still affirms that he ranks' among "the most illustrioiisteachersof the Reformed Church," that he was pre-eminently endowed with the qualifications of a good interpreter, and that, turning away from the frivolous miu it he of th • popular critics of the age, he sedulously aim id to unfold the sense of the Scriptures in such a manner as toinrrcasc the knowledge of divine and sowing -truth among men. "His commentaries," says Home, "particularly on the JV>» Testament, abound with valuable illustrations, and will amply repay the trouble of a p irusal." The critical reader of the Pro- phetical Books will seldom consult him in vain. — B. 4. Rossxmulleri Scholia in Vetus atquc Novum Testamentum, '23 tomis, 8vo. This work is very much prized by those who have a high opinion of the modern school of German critics an I comm mtators. B it as the most valuable parts are drawn from other sources, which can be obtained at a cheaper rate, and which are not interlarded with neo- logical scholia, we do not esteem the want of it a very serious desideratum in a biblical library. English Commentators on the New Tes- tament. 1. BtJRXITT's Expository Notes, with Practi- cal Observations. — London, 1814, 4to. "Burkitt contains many ingenious observations, fine turns, natural plans, and pungent addresses to the conscience. -Buck. -London, 2. Doddridge's Family Expositor.- 4 vols, lto., and ti vols. 8vo. " This a Imirahle commentary is in th? list of books recommi nde I by Bishops Watson and Tomline, and almost every other theological tutor." — Home. 3. Whitby's Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament, 2 vols, folio. " Divines of every denomination concur in pro- nouncing Dr. Whitby's Commentary to be, upon the whole, the best upon the New Testament that is extant in the English language.'' — Home. I. Gi \ bb's Practical Expositor in the Form of a Paraphrase, with occasional Notes. — London, 3 vols. 4to. 1 vols. 8vo, " Dr. Guyse wni an emieent dissenting divine of the eighteenth century, and in hie religious principles Unlviniatic. His Paraphrase has never been popular, Ihoug i it is said to display sound judgment, intimate acquaintance with the original, and considerable criti- cal powers." — Home. D. Hammond's Paraphrase and Annotations 60 COMMENTARY on the New Testament. — London. 1702, folio best edition. " Many good criticisms, but many that are much mistaken." — Borne. Latin Commentators on the New Testa- ment. 1. Bencelii Gnomon Novi Testamenti. "This work contains an instructive preface, a per- spicuous analysis of each hook, with short notes, in the true taste of judicious criticism. Bengel excels in shew-ng the connexion and harmony of Scripture, and how Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture." Home. Another critic observes, "his work is an unknown storehouse of valuable matter, consisting of acute re- marks, striking illustrations of the text by the context, just inferences, and practical observations; the whole offered in a strain of true piety and Christian simpli- city."— Critica Biblica. vol. iv. p. 100. 2. Wetstenii Novum Testamentum Grae cum. — Amsterdam, 1752, 2 vols, folio " Almost every peculiar form of speech in the sacred text he has illustrated by quotations from Jewish, Greek, and Roman writers." — Dr. Adam Clarke. 3. Wolfii Curse Philologicae in Novum Tes- tamentum.— Basil, 1741, 5 vols. 4to. " This is a very valuable compilation ; as Wolfius does not simply relate the opinions of others, but fre- quently animadverts upon them with great critical discernment." — Home. 4. Chemnith Harmonia Quatuor Evangeli- starum. — Hamburgh, 1704, folio. " Deservedly held in the highest estimation," — Horn*. 5. Koppe Novum Testamentum Graeci. — 1791, 8vo. 2d edition. Commentators on Select Parts, or Single Books, of the Old Testament. 1. Ainsworth's Annotations on the Penta- teuch, the Psaims, and the Song of Solomon. — London, 1G39, folio. The collector of a biblical apparatus is advised by no means to let slip an opportunity of procuring this work. In affording aid to the attainment of the exact meaning of the original, Ainsworth is unrivalled ; his parallelisms never fail to cast lieht on the point for which they are adduced ; his quotations from the Jew- ish writers, in which he discovers great judgment, form an exceedingly valuable source of illustration and his translation, particularly of the Psalms, is often to be preferred to the common version. No more valua- ble service could be performed to the cause of Biblical Literature than the republication of Ainsworth's An- notations in a more convenient form, and somewhat modernized in orthography and style. In order to be duly appreciated, it should be used by one who is in the habit of consulting the original. Such an one will discover in this venerable puritan an acquaintance with the minute peculiarities of the Greek and Hebrew forms of expression, and a tact of illustration, which for the age and circumstances of the writer, is truly astonishing. 2. Bishop Patrick's Commentaries on the Historical Parts of the Holy Scriptures. — Lon- don, 3 vols. 4to. Well worth possessing, though not of frequent oc- currence. Patrick, Lowth, Whitby, and Arnold, are embodied in one extensive and valuable work, pub- lished in 8 vols. 4to. 3. Not*: Uberiores in Hagiographa. — Halae, 3 vols. 4to. The student of Hebrew who makes use of Michaelis's Hebrew Bible, (and such an one will net feel the want of any other) should not suffer himself to be without COMMENTARY this work if it bo in his power to obtain it. Ab the notes are a continuation of those in the above-men- tioned edition of the Bible, printed in a type less try- ing to the eye, they form a supplement indispensable to the completeness of that work. The authors of the Annotations are, J. H. Micliaelis, C. B. Michaclis, and J. J. iiainbach. Genesis. Sebastian Schmidt : all the expository works of this learned and pious man are extremely va- luable.— Andreas Rivctus, ("Opera, torn. i. folio:) of groat value to the theologian. — Johannes Mer- ccrus : prolix, but sound and judicious. — Light- foot, (Works, vol. i. p. 698 :) the very name of Lightfoot supersedes all commendation. — J. H. Heidegger, (Historia Patriarcharum, 2 vols. 4to.) — J. F. Buddcus, (Historia Ecclesiastica Veteris Testament!, 2 vols. 4to.) — Fr. Junius. — Daw- son on the First Seventeen Chapters of Genesis, Lond. 3 vols. 4to. — Andrew Fuller's Expository Discourses on Genesis, 2 vols. 8vo. Exodus. And. Rivctus, (Opera, torn. i. folio.) — Chris- toph. Cartwright : replete with rabbinical learn- ing.— Lightfoot, (ut supra.) — WMett, (in Hcxa- pla.) — Braunius de Vestitu Heb. Sacerdotum : this work, though not professedly a commentary, is very important in the explication of many parts of Exodus. Joshua and the other Historical Books. Andreas Masius on Joshua: an author highly commended by Poole in his Synopsis. — Lectures on Ruth by G. Lawson. — Chandler's Life of David: "a book above all praise." Home. — Lawson on Esther. — Michaelis's Nota? Ube- riores. — Stackhouse's History of the Bible. — Bud- dcus's Historia Ecclesiastica. — Macgowan on Ruth. — Lavater, Jackson, and Sirigelius on Joshua. Jon. Hugh Broughton, (Works, folio, pp. 246 — 294.) foscph Caryl, 2 vols, folio : " a most ela- borate, learned, and pious work, containing a rich fund of critical and practical divinity." Williams. — Albcrtus Schulten. — Leonard Chappeiow. — Sebastian Schmidt. — Pcters's Critical Disserta- tion on the Book of Job. — J. H. Hottinger. — Fred. Spaiihcim. — Chr. Scholanus. — Joh. Mer- oerus. Psalms. Ainmcortn, (see above, on the Pentateuch,.) — Mollerus. — Hammond's Paraphrase. — Gidiel- tnus Ames. — Martinus Geierus: extremely va- luable.— Vencma : held in the highest esteem among the divines of Holland. — Zech. Mudgc. — Bp. Home's Commentary. — Horsley on the Psalms. — Fry's Lyra Davidis. — Hildcrsham on the 51st Psalm.— Owen on the 130th Psalm.— Greenham on the 119th Psalm. — Manton on the 119th Psalm. — Luther on the Fifteen Psalms of Degrees. — Theodore Be~a. — John Calvin. — Da- rid Dickson. — Edward Leigh. — And. Rivetus, (Op. vol. ii.) * Proverbs. Martinus Geierus : excellent as a critical com- mentary ; the general character of all Geier's works. — Albert Schullens: profoundly learned. — Mayer. — Taylor. — Trapp: quaint, but striking and pertinent. — llolden. — Lawson. — Hunt. — Schleusner. til L COMMENTARY Ecclesiastes. A. V. Desvoeux : a very valuable work. — M. Geierus. — Bp. Reynolds. — R. Wardlaw — Hugh Broughton. — Jcrmyn. — Luther. — Melanctho)\. — Cartwright. — Leigh. — -Pcmbcl. — Trapp. Song of Solomon. Ainsworlh. — Joannes Marckius. — Gill on the Canticles. — J. Mason Good. — Williams. — Per- cy.— Davidson. — Durham. — Harmcr. — Dure.ll. — Trapp. Isaiah. Campegius Vitringa: an immense and inva- luable storehouse of sacred criticism. — Lowth on Isaiah : a work of unquestionable importance to the biblical student, but evincing too great a rea- diness to innovate upon the readings of the esta- blished text. — Macculloch's Lectures on Isaiah. — Bp. Slock. — J. C. Daderlin. — Horsley on the 18th chapter of Isaiah. — J. Calvin. — J. Ailing. Jeremiah. Benjamin Blayney : an exceedingly valuable work on the plan of Lowth's Isaiah. — Vencma. — Broughton. — J. D. Michaclis. — Spohn. — Pu- rcau. — Piscator. — Lavater. Ezekiel. Bp. Ncwcom e. — Villalpand. — Venema.— Starck. — Greenhill. — Calvin. — Strigelius. Daniel. Mart. Gcierus: the Preelections of Geicr on Daniel surpass any other commentary in givincr the exact sense of the prophet. — Vcnema's Dis- sertations on Daniel. — H. Broughton : this au- thor's English translation of Daniel is said to be the best in the language. — Sir Isaac Newton's Observations on the Prophecies. — Bp. Xewton on the Prophecies. — Willett, (in Hexapla.) — Winllc. — Amner. — Fabcr. — Blayney on the Se- venty Weeks. — Brightman. — Parker. — Pem- bel. — Rollock. — Jos. Mede : the works of the ve- nerable Mede are indispensable to the student of Prophecy. Minor Prophets. Lowth on the Prophets. — Pocockc on Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Malachi. — Ncwcome on the Minor Prophets. — Marck on do. — Burkii Gno- mon in do. — Tarnovius in do. — Merccrus in do. — Drusius in do. — Jcr. Burroughs on Hosea: the work of a mind most deeply imbued with the spirit of piety, and with a skill in making practi- cal the abstrusest parts of the scriptures scarcely to be paralleled. — Horsley on Hosea. — Chandler on Joel : this author is entitled to rank among the first biblical critics in the English language. — Pfeiffer on Jonah. — Blayney on Zechariah. — Stock, Vencma, and Van Til on Malachi. Commentators on Select Parts, or Single Books of the New Testament. 1. Campbell's Four Gospels, 1 vol. 4to. 4 vols. 8vo. Particularly valuable for the dissertations and notea, which contain a treasure of sacred criticism. 2. Macknight's Harmony of the Four Gos- pels, 2 vols. 8vo. A work of the greatest utility to the critical readel of the New Testament. 3. D. C. Thcophili A~*n n oe/ Oommontarius in Libros JNTovi Testament] Historicos, 4 vols. 8vo COMMENTARY. Valnnhle as a pliiloloqicnl commentary, hut rontnin- i n(7 sentiments revolting to a believer in the divine authority anil plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. 4. Z. Pearce'a Commentary on the Evange- lists, Act-., and II. Corinthians, 2 vols. 4to. Displaying deep learning and sound judgment. 5. Macknight on the Epistles, 0 vols. 8vo. " It is a work of theological labour not often paral- ; ' id, and an ample >i"r ihoue • ofobs irvations to exer- cise not only Hi? student, but the adept in divinity. If tvedonot always coincide implicitly with the author in opinion, which in such various matter cannot rea- sonably be expected, we can always praise his dili- •: nee, his learning, and his piety." — British Critic. The work is said to have been the unremitting la- hourof nearly thirty years, during which period seldom less than eleven hours a day were employed upon it. Matthew. Bp. Porteusrs Lectures on Matthew. — Ole.a- t'ims. — Eisner. — Parens. Mark. Heupclius Commentary. Luke. Moms' s Pnelcctiones. — Schleirmachcr. John. Larnpe: the most valuable work on the Gospel of John ever published. — Titman., Meletemata. —Shepherd. — Moras. — Se mler. — Hildersh a m on Johniv. — Burgess on John xvii. — Manton on John xvii. Acts. Biscoc. — Trapp. — Mayer. — Heinrichs. — Wil- te. — Cradock's Apostolical History. — Benson's Planting of Christianity. — Bcrans's Life of Paul. —Buddeus's Historia Ecclesia? Apostolicae. — Dick on Acts. Romans. Reimbach. — Morns. — Edwards. — Welter. — Adam. — Wilson. — Parr. — Sch midius. — Fry. I. and II. Corinthians. Storr, (Opuscula.) — Krause. — Holman. Galatians. Luther: an inestimable work. — Chandler. — Perkins. — Ferguson. — Borger. — Winer. Epiiesians. Gnndwin. — Ferguson. — Tarnovius. — Locke. — Chandler. CoLOSSIANS. hi. — Davcnant. — Elton. — Gisborne. Philippians. Pierce. — Tarnovius. I. AND II. TlIESSALONIANS. Bp. Jewell. — Turretin. — Tarnovius. — Ben- son. Titus. Taylor. Hedp.ews. Owen. — Pierce. — Schmidius. — Braunius. — ( " i rpioimu. — Sykcs. — Erncsli. — Scyffarth. — Maclca n . — Stuart. The Catholic Episti.es. heighten on Peter: an incomparable work. Byfield on the first three chapters of Peter. hf ■■') on James. — Stoma on James and Peter. ■ -Adam on II. Peter. — Haickinson John's Epis- i!es. — Hardy undu. — Bforueon do. — Wi/sius on Jude. — MarJon, Jcnkiru, and Otes on do. &2 COMMUNICATING. Revelation. Daubuz . a work of stupendous erudition, ri- valling any commentary ever published on any part of the Scriptures. In unfolding the symbo- lical language not only of John, but of the inspired prophets generally, probably no exposition in the world allbrds such invaluable aids ; and the wri- ter's judgment equals liis amazing learning. — Vilringa on the Apocalypse : a commentary worthy the name of its great author. — Jos. Mcde: the acknowledged father of Apocalyptic interpre- tation.— Goodwin. — Waple. Bright man. — Durham. — Sir Isaac Newton. — I: p. Thos. New- ton.— Lowman. — Whiston. — //. More. — Forbes. — Johnston. — Glass. — Ben gel. — Cradock. — Reader. — Rudd. — Ju rie u . — Pyle. — Faber. — M'Leod.— Fry. As this article may be consulted for the pur- pose of obtaining information as to the best helps For understanding the Scriptures, we may add to the above: — J acobi Eisner, Observat. Sacra;; Al- berti, Observ. Philolog. ; Lamberti Bos, Exercitat. Philolog. ; Lamberti Bos. Observat. Miscell. For- tuita Sacra. These, together with Wollius and Raphclius, before mentioned, says Dr. Doddridge, are books which I cannot but recommend to my young friends, as proper not only to ascertain the sense of a variety of words and phrases which occur in the apostolic writings, but also to form them to the most useful method of studying the Greek classics; those great masters of solid sense, elegant expression, just and lively painting, and masculine eloquence, to the neglect of which I cannot but ascribe that enervate, dissolute, and puerile manner of writing, which is growing so much on the present age, and will probably con- sign so manv of its productions to speedy oblivion. See also books recommended under articles Bi- bles, Scriptures. COMMINATION, an office in the church of England appointed to be read on Ash Wed- nesday. It. is substituted in the room of that godly discipline in the primitive church, by which (as the introduction to the office expresses it) "such persons as stood convicted of notorious sins were put to open penance, and punished in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord ; and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more afraid to of- fend." This discipline, in after-ages, degene- rated in the church of Rome into a formal confes- sion of sins upon Ash Wednesday, and the empty ceremony of sprinkling ashes upon the head of the people. Our reformers wisely rejected this ceremony as mere shadow and show ; and sub- stituted this office in its room, which is .4 denun- ciation of God's anger and judgment against sinners ; that the people, being apprised of God's wrath and indignation against their sins, might not, through want of discipline to the church, be encouraged to pursue them. COMMISSARY, an officer of the bishop, who exercises spiritual jurisdiction in places of a diocese so far from the episcopal see, that the chancellor cannot call the people to the bishop's principal consistory court without great incon- venience. COMMUNICATING a term made use of to denote the act of receiving the Lord's Supjier. Those of the reformed and of the Greek church communicate under both kinds; those of the Ro- mish only under one. The oriental communi COMMUNION cants receive the species of wine by a spoon ; and anciently they sucked it through a pipe, as has been observed by Beat. Rheanus on Tertullian. COMMUNION, in its strict and proper sense, signifies holding something in common with ano- ther, Acts ii. 42. — 2. In a more general sense, it denotes conformity or agreement, 2 Cor. vi. 14. Eph. v. 11. — 3. It signifies converse, or friendly intercourse, wherein men contrive or consult to- gether about matters of common concern, Luke vi. 11. Ps. iv. 4. — 4. Communion is also used for the Lord's Supper, because we herein make a public profession of our conformity to Christ and his laws ; and of our agreement with other Chris- tians in the spirit and faith of the Gospel. See Lord's Supper. The fourth council of Lateran decrees, that every believer shall receive the communion, at least, at Easter ; which seems to import a tacit de- sire that they should do it oftener, as in effect they did it much oftener in the primitive days. Gratian, and the master of the sentences, pre- scribe it as a rule for the laity to communicate three times a year ; at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas: but in the thirteenth century the practice prevailed of never approaching the eucharist at Easter; and the council thought fit to enjoin it then by a law, lest their coldness and remissness should go farther still : and the coun- cil of Trent renewed the same injunction, and recommended frequent communion, without en- forcing it by an express decree. In the ninth century the communion was still received by the laity in both kinds, or rather the species of bread was dipped in the wine, as is owned by the Ro- manists themselves. M. de Marca observes, that they received it at iirst in their hands ; and be- lieves the communion under one kind alone to have its rise in the West, under Pope Urban II. in 1096, at the time of the conquest of the Holy Land. It was more solemnly enjoined by the council of Constance, in 1414. The twenty-eighth canon of the council of Clermont enjoins the com- munion to be received under both kinds distinctly ; adding, however, two exceptions, — the one of ne- cessity, the other of caution; the first in favour of the sick, and the second of the abstemious, or those who had an aversion for wine. It was formerly a kind of canonical punishment for clerks guilty of any crime to be reduced to lay communion; i. e. only to receive it as the laity did, viz. under one kind. They had another punishment of the same nature, though under a different name, called foreign communion, to which the canons frequently condemned their bishops and other clerks. This punishment was not any excommunication or deposition, but a kind of suspension from the function of the or- der, and a degradation from the rank they held in the church. It had its name because the com- munion was not only granted to the criminal on the foot of a foreign clerk ; i. e. being reduced to t he lowest of his order, he took his place after all those of his rank, as all clerks, &c. did in the churches to which they did not belong. The se- cond council of Agda orders every clerk that ab- sents himself from the church to be reduced to foreign communion. Church, communion is fellowship with any particular church. See Church Fellowship. It is sometimes applied to different churches united in doctrne and discipline. The three 83 COMPASSION grand communions into which the Christian church is divided, are those of the church of Rome, the Greek church, and the Protestant church ; but originally all Christians were in communion with each other, having one communion, faith and discipline. i-Yee communion, a term made use of in relation to the Lord's Supper, by which it is understood that all those who have been baptized, whether in infancy or adult age, may, on profession of their faith, sit down at the Lord's table with others of different denominations. Some of the Baptists object to free or mixed communion, and do not allow persons who have been baptized in their infancy to join in the celebration of the Lord's Supper with them ; because they look upon such as not having been baptized at all, and conse- quently cannot be admitted to the table. Others, however, suppose that this ought to be no objec- tion ; and that such who believe themselves to be really baptized (though in infancy), are partakers of grace, belong to the true church of Christ, and are truly devoted to God, ought not to be rejected on account of a different opinion about a mere ordinance. Mr. Killingworth and Mr. Booth have written against free communion; John Bunyan, Dr. Foster, Mr. Bulkely, Mr. Wichc, Mr. Robinson, and Robert Hall for it. COMMUNION, spiritual or divine, is that delightful fellowship and intercourse which a be- liever enjoys with God. It is founded upon union with him, and consists in a communication of di- vine graces from him, and a return of devout af- fections to him. The believer holds communion with God in his works, in his word, and in his ordinances. There can be no communion with- out likeness, nor without Christ as the mediator. Some distinguish communion with God from the sense and feeling of it ; that is, that we may hold communion with him without raptures of joy ; and that a saint, even under desertion, may have communion with God, as really, though not so feelingly, as at any other time. This commu- nion cannot be interrupted by any local muta- tions : it is far superior to all outward services and ordinances whatsoever ; it concerns the whole soul, all the affections, faculties, and motions of it being under its influence : it is only imperfect in this life, and will be unspeakably enlarged in a better world. — In order to keep up communion with God, we should inform ourselves of his will, John v. 39 ; be often in prayer, Luke, viii. 1 ; em- brace opportunities of retirement, Ps. iv. 4; con- template on the divine perfections, providences, and promises, Ps. civ. 34 ; watch against a vain, trifling, and volatile spirit, Eph. iv. 30; and be found in the use of all the means of grace, Ps. xxvii. 4. The advantages of communion with God arc, deadness to the world, Phil. iii. 8. pa- tience under trouble, Job. i. 22 ; fortitude in dan- ger, Ps. xxvii. 1 ; gratitude for mercies received, Ps. ciii. 1 ; direction under difficulties, Prov. iii. 5, G ; peace and joy in opposition, Ps. xvi. 23 ; hap- piness in death, Ps. xxiiL 4 ; and an earnest desire for heaven and glory, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. See Shaw's Immanucl ; Owen and Henry on C&m- munion ; and article Fellowship COMPASSION is that species of affection which is excited either by the actual distress of its object, or by some impending calamity which ap- pears inevitable. It is a benevolent sonow tor the sufferings or approacluiig misery of another. The CONCEPTION etymology of the word expresses this idea with f.trict propriety, as it ugolnea suffering with the object. I Lobbes makes this a mere selfish passion, and defines it as "being fear lor ourselves." 1 [utcheaon resolves it into instinct ; but Dr. But- ler much more properly considers it as an original distinct particular affection in human nature. It may be considered as a generic name, compre- hending several other affections; as mercy, com- miseration, pity. This affection (as well as every •»ther of our nature) no doubt was wisely given us by our Creator. " Ideas of fitness," as Saurin observes, "seldom make much impression on the bulk of mankind ; it was necessary therefore to make sensibility supply the want of reflection ; and by a counterblow with which the miseries of a neighbour strike our feelings, to produce a dis- position in us to relieve him." COMPASSION OF GOD is the infinite greatness of his mercy and love, whereby he re- lieves the miseries of bos people. This perfection of Jehovah is conspicuously displayed in the gift of his Son, John, iii. 16; the revelation of his will, Hos. viii. 12; the bounties of his providence, Ps. cxlv. 9; the exercise of his patience, Rom. ii. 4; the promise of his mercy, Ps. Ixxviii. 38; the ma- nifestation of his presence, Matt, xviii. 20; and the provision of eternal 7-N. for relaxing the terms of conformity on behalf of the Protestant Dissenters, and admitting them into the communion of the church. A bill for this purpose was drawn up by Judge Hale, but disallowed. The attempt was renewed by Tillotson and Stillingrleet, in lb74, and the terms were settled, to the satisfaction of the non-conformists ; but the bishops refused their assent. The scheme was likewise revived again immediately after the revolution. The king and queen expressed their desire of an union :"how- ever, the' design failed, after two attempts, and the Act of Toleration was obtained. CONCEPTION OF CHRIST, the super- natural and miraculous formation of the human nature of Jesus Christ. " It were not difficult to show," says a divine, " that the miraculous con- ception, once admitted, naturally brings up after u the great doctrines of the atonement and the incarnation. The miraculous conception of our Lord evidently implies some higher purpose of his coming than "the mere business of a teacher. The business ofa teacher might have been performed bv a mere man, enlightened by the prophetic spirit. tor whatever instruction men have the capacity to receive, a man might have been made the instru- ment to convey. 1 Lad leaching, therefore, beenthe sole purpose of our Saviour's coming, a mere man iiiiur|n have done the whole business, and the su- pernatural conception had been an unnecessary miracle. 1 !■• therefore, whocame in this miracu- lous way, came upon some higher business, to which a mere man was unequal lie came to be made a sin-offering for us, that we might l>e made the righteousness of I rod in him." See L'p.Hurs- lry\< Practs, and article HUMANITY OF CHRIST. < !< >N< T.I' I'll >.\ IMMACULATE, of the Holij I7r,".'fi, is a popish festival established in honour of the Virgin Mary, on the supposition of bcr having been conceived, and bom immaculate, CONCORDANCE i. e. without original sin : held on the Bth of D*>' cembcr. The immaculate conception is the great head of controversy between the Scotists and Thomists ; the former maintaining, and the latter impugning it. Peter D'Alva has published 48 huge folio volumes on the mysteries of the conception. CONCLAVE, the assembly or meeting of the cardinals shut up for the election of a Pope, f Conclave also signifies the place in which the cardinals of the Romish church meet for the , above-mentioned purpose. The conclave is a range of small cells, ten feet square, made of wainscot : these are numbered, and drawn by lot. They stand in a line along the galleries and hall of the Vatican, with a small space between eacli. Every cell has the arms of tiie cardinal over it. The conclave is not fixed to any one determinate place, for the constitutions of the church allow the cardinals to make choice of such a place for the conclave as they think most convenient : yet it is generally held in the Vatican. — The con- clave is very strictly guarded by troops : neither the cardinals, nor any person shut up in the con- clave, are spoken to, but at the hours allowed of, and then in Italian or Latin : even the provisions for the conclave are examined, that no letters be conveyed by that means from the ministers of foreign powers, or other persons, who may have an interest in the election of the pontiff. CONCORD, form of— Form of concord, in ecclesiastical history, a standard-book among the Lutherans, composed at Torgaw in 1576, and thence called the book of Torgaw, and reviewed at Berg by six Lutheran doctors of Germany, the principal of whom was James Andera. This book contains, in two parts, a system of doctrine, the subscription of which was a condition of communion, and a formal and very severe con- demnation of all who differed from the compilers of it ; particularly with respect to the majesty and omnipresence of Christ's body, and the real manducation of his flesh and blood in the eucharist. It was first imposed upon the Saxons by Augustus, and occasioned great opposition and disturbance. The dispute about it was revived in Switzerland in 1718, when the magistrates of Bern published an order for adopting it as a rule of faith ; the consequence of which was a contest that reduced its credit and authority. CONCORDANCE, a dictionary or index to the Bible, wherein all the leading words are r-anged alphabetically, and the books, chapters, and verses wherein they occur referred to, to as- sist in finding out passages, and comparing with the several significations of the same word. Cardinal Hugo de St. Charo seems to have been the first who compiled a concordance to the Holy Scriptures ; and for carrying on this work, it is said, he employed 500 monks to assist him. Rabbi Mordecai Nathan published a Hebrew concordance, printed at Venice in 1523, contain- ing all the Hebrew roots, branched into their va- rious significations, and under each signification all the places in Scripture wherein it occurs; but the best and most useful Hebrew concordance is that of Buxtorf, printed at Basil in i6'A2. Cala- sius, an Italian cordelier, has given us concord- ances of the Hebrew, Latin, anil Creek, in two columns; the first, which is Hebrew, is that of Rabbi Mordecai Nathan verbatim, and according to the order of the books and chapters: in the other column is a Latin interpretation of each CONDITION passage of Scripture quoted by R. Mordccai : this interpretation is Calasius's own; but in the mar- gin he adds that of the LXX. and the Vulgate, when different from his. The work is in 4 vols, folio, printed at Rome in 1621. A new edition of this work was published by subscription in Lon- don, in 1717, 8, 0, by Mr. Romaine, to which he obtained the signature of every crowned head in Europe, his Holiness not excepted. Dr. Taylor published, in 1754, a Hebrew concordance, in 2 vols, folio, adapted to the English Bible, and dis- posed after the same manner as Buxtorf. This is perhaps the best for English readers. The Greek concordances are only for the New Testament, except one by Conrad Kircher on the Old, containing all the Hebrew words in al- phabetical order : and underneath, all the inter- pretations of them in the LXX, and in each in- terpretation all the places where they occur in that version. In 1718, Trommius published his Greek concordance for the LXX, at Amsterdam, in 2 vols, folio; and Schmidius, improving on a similar work of H. Stephen, has given an ex- cellent Greek concordance for the New Testa- ment, the best edition of which is that of Leipsic, anno 1717. Williams's concordance to the Greek Testament gives the English version to each word, and points out the principal Hebrew roots corresponding to the Greek words of the Septu- agint, 4to. 17ti7. We have several concordances in English, as Fisher's, Butterworth's, Newman's, Brown's; but the best esteemed is that in 4to. by Alexander Cruden, which no minister or student should be without, except he have such a prodi- gious memory as to supersede the necessity of it. Orutwell's concordance of Parallels may also be consulted with profit : Talbot's complete Analy- sis, and new Arrangement of the Bible ; Dodd and Locke's Common-place Books; with Clark an the Promises, and Gastrin's Institutes, may also be useful to preachers. CONCUBINAGE, the act of living with a woman to whom the man is not legally married. It is also used for a marriage with a woman of inferior condition (performed with less solemnity than the formal marriage.) and to whom the hus- band does not convey his rank. As polygamy was sometimes practised by the patriarchs, it was a common thing to see one, two, or many wives in a family, and besides these several concubines, 2 Sain. hi. 3, &c. 1 Kings, xi. 2. 2 Chron. xi. 21 ; but ever since the abrogation of polygamy by Jesus Christ, and the reduction of marriage to its primitive institution, concubinage has been forbid leu and condemned among Christians. CONDESCENSION is that species of be- nevolence which designedly waves the supposed advantages of birth, title, or station, in order to accommodate ourselves to the state of an inferior, and diminish that restraint which the apparent distance is calculated to produce in him. It is enjoined on the Christian, and is peculiarly orna- mental to the Christian character, Rom. xii. 16. The condescension of God appears every way great, when we consider his infinite perfection, his absolute independence of his creatures, his purposes of mercy toward them, and his continual care over them. CONDITION, a term of a bargain to be performed. It has been debated whether faith should be called the condition of our salvation. If by it we mean a valuable equivalent lor the 85 CONFESSION benefit received, or something to be performed in our own strength, or that will be meritorious, it is certainly inapplicable; but if by it be meant, that it is onlv a mean, without which we cannot be saved, in that sense it is not improper. Yet, as the term is often made use of improperly by those who are mere legalists, perhaps it would be as well to decline the use of it. CONFERENCE, the act of discoursing with another in order to treat upon some subject, or to settle some point of dispute. Conference Meet- ings, iri a religious sense, are meetings assembled for the purpose of relating experience, discoursing on some religious subject, or for transacting reli- gious business. " Religious conference," says a divine, "is oneway of teaching religion. We all have leisure time, and it is well spent when it is employed in set conferences on religion. There the doubting man may open all his suspicions, and confirmed Christian.* will strengthen his be- lief; there the fearful may learn to be valiant for the truth ; there the liberal may learn to devise liberal things ; there the tongue of the stammerer may learn to speak plainly ; there Paul may with- stand Peter to the face, because he deserves to be blamed: there the Gospel maybe communi- cated severally to them of reputation ; there, in one word, we may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. One hour in a week spent thus will contribute much to our edification, provided we abstain from the disorders that have often disgraced, and some- times destroyed, this excellent Christian practice. Time should be kept, order should be preserved, no idle questions should be asked; freedom of inquiry should be nourished ; immodest forward- ness should lie restrained; practical, experimental, and substantial subjects should be examined ; Charity with all its gentle train should be there, for she openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness." See Expe- rience: Meetings. CONFESSION, the verbal acknowledgment which a Christian makes of his sins. Among the Jews, it was the custom, on the annual feast of expiation, for the high priest to make confes- sion of sins to God, in the name of the whole people: besides this general confession, the Jews were enjoined, if their sins were a breach of the first table of the law, to make confession of them to God; but violations of the second table were to be acknowledged to their brethren. Confes- sion, according to Dr. Watts, is the third part of prayer, and includes, 1. A confession of the meanness of our original, our distance from God, our subjection to him, and constant dependance on him. — 2. A confession of our sins, both origi- nal and actual, in thought, life, omission, and commission. — 3. A confession of our desert of punishment, and our unworthiness of mercy.— A confession or humble representation of our wants and sorrows of every kind. - Confession also may be considered as a relative duty, oi lie acknowledgment of any offence we have been guilty of against a fellow-creature. The Romish church requires confession not only as a duty, but has advanced it to the dignity of a sacrament. These confessions are made to the priest, and are private and auricular; and the priest is net to re- veal them under pain of the highest punishment. This, however, is both unnecessary and unscrip- tural: for, in the first place, there is no proof tuat H CONFESSION the power of remitting and retaining sins (the pretended ground of sacramental confession) was imparted to any bul the apostles, or at the most to those to whom a discernment of spirits was communicated. — 2. If our Saviour had designed this to have been a duty, he would most probably have delivered us an express command to this purpose. — 3. This authority of pardoning sins immediately in relation to God, (the foundation of the pretended duty of secret confession) with- out any reference to church censures, was never claimed for many ages arter Christ. Notwithstanding, however, private auricular confession is not of divine authority, yet, as one observes, "there are many cases wherein men under the guUt and trouble of their sins can nei- ther appease their own minds, nor sufficiently direct themselves, without recourse to some pious and prudent guide : in these cases men certainly do very well, and many times prevent a great deal of trouble and perplexity to themselves by a timely discovery of their condition to some faith- ful minister; and to this purpose a general con- fession is for the most part sufficient: and where there is occasion for a more particular discovery, there is no need of raking into the particular cir- cumstances of men's sins to give that advice which is necessary for the ease and comfort of the penitent." See Ausolutiox; Watts on Prayer ; Tillotson's Scr. ser. 1G0, 161 ; Smith's Errors of the Church of Rome. CONFESSION OF FAITH, a list of the several articles of the belief of any church. There is some difference between creeds and confes- sions. Creeds in their commencement were sim- ply expressions of faith in a few of the leading and undisputed doctrines of the Gospel. Con- fessions were, on tin- contrary, the result of many a hazardous and laborious effort, at the dawn of reviving literature, to recover these doctrines, and to separate them from the enormous mass of erro- neous and corrupted tenets, which the negligence or ignorance of some, and the artifices of avarice and ambition in others, had conduced to accumu- late for a space of 1000 years, under an implicit obedience to the arrogant pretensions of an abso- lute and infallible authority in the church of Rome. Objections have been formed against all creeds or confessions of faith, as it is said they in- fringe Christian liberty, supersede the Scriptures, exclude such as ought not to be excluded, and ad- mit such as ought not to be admitted; are often too particular and long; arc liable to be abused; tempt men to hypocrisy; preclude improvement; and have been employed as means of persecution. < >n the other hand, the advocates for them ob- Bfcrve, that all the arts and sciences have been re- duced to a system; and why should not the truths of religion, which are of greater importance? that tpendiouB view of the chief and most neces- sary p>ints of the Christian religion, which lie scattered lip and down iii the Scripture, must be Useful to inform the mind, as well also to hold forth to the world what are in general the senti- ments of such a particular church or churches; that they tend to discover the common friends of the same faith to one another, and to unite them; that the Scriptures seem to authorize and coun- tenance them; such as the moral law, the Lord's E raver, the form of doctrine mentioned by Paul, lom. vi. 17; and again, "the fonn ef sound words," in 2 Tim. i. K'.. &c ; that tlieir becoming CONFIRMATION the occasion of hypocrisy is no fault of fjho arti- cles, but of those who subscribe them ; that per- secution has been raised more by the turbulent tempers' of men, than from the nature ot confes- sions. Some think that all articles and confessions of faith should he expressed in the hare, words of y Scripture; but it is replied, that this would de- stroy all exposition and interpretation of Scrip- ture ; that it would have a tendency to make the ministry of the word useless ; in a great measure cramp all religious conversation ; and that the sentiments of one man could not be distinguished from another in some points of importance. Some of the most noted confessions are, the 39 Articles, and the Constitutions and Canons of the Church of England ; the Westminster Assembly's Con- fession of Faith ; the Savoy Confession, or a declaration of the faith a?id order oirned and practised in the congregational churches in England. See also Corpus et Syntagma con- fessionum fidci, quce in divcrsisregnis el nation- ibus ecclesiarum nomine, fucrunt aidhentice cditcs, which exhibits a body of numerous con- fessions. See likewise, An Harmony of the Confessions of Faith of the Christian and Tie- formed Churches; Watts's Rational Foundation of a Christian Church, qu, 8; Graham on Esta- blishments, p. 2G5, &c. ; Bishop Cleaver's Ser- mon on the Formation of the Articles of the Church of England ; Foley's Phil. vol. ii. p. 321. CONFESSOR, a Christian who has made a solemn and resolute profession of the faith, and has endured torments in its defence. A mere saint is called a confessor, to distinguish him from the roll of dignified saints, such as apostles, mar- tyrs, &c. In ecclesiastical history, the word con- fessor is sometimes used for martyr ; in aftertimes it was confined to those who, after having been tormented by the tyrants, were permitted to live and die in peace : and at last it was also used for those who, after having lived a good life, died un- der an opinion of sanctity. According to St. Cy- prian, he who presented himself to torture, or even to martyrdom, without being called to it, was not called a confessor, but a. professor; and if any out of want of courage abandoned his coun- try, and became a voluntary exile for the sake of the faith, he was called ex terris. Confessor is also a priest in the Romish church, who has a power to hear sinners in the sacrament of penance, and to give them absolution. The confessors of the kings of France, from the time of Henry IV. have been constantly Jesuits; be- fore him, the Dominicans and Cordeliers shared the office between them. The confessors of the house of A ustria have also ordinarily been Do- minicans and Cordeliers, but the latter emperors have all taken Jesuits. CONFIRMATION, the act of establishing any thing or person, — 1. Divine confirmation is a work of the spirit of God, strengthening, com- forting, and establishing believers in faith and obedience. 1 Pet. v. 10. 1 Cor. i. 8.— 2. Eccle- siastical confirmation, is a rite whereby a person arrived at years of discretion, undertakes the per- formance of every part of the baptismal vow made for him by his godfathers and godmothers. In the primitive church it was done immedi- ately utter baptism, if the bishop happened to be present at the solemnity. Throughout the Fast it still accompanies baptism; but the Romanists make it a distinct independent sacrament. Seven CONFLAGRATION years is the stated time for confirmation ; how- ever, they are sometimes after that age. The person to be confirmed has a godfather and god- mother appointed him, as in baptism. In the church of England, the age of the persons to be confirmed is not fixed. Clarke's Essay on Con- firmation; Wood on ditto; How'' s Episcopacy ; p. 107, 174. CONFLAGRATION, GENERAL, a term used to denote that grand period or catastrophe of our world, when the face of nature is to be changed by lire, as formerly it was by water. 1. Scripture assures us in the general, that this earth in its present form will not be perpetual, but shall come to an end. — 2. It further tells us, that this dissolution of the world shall be by a general conflagration, in which all things upon the face of the earth shall be destroyed, by which the at- mosphere shall also be sensibly affected, as in such a case it necessarily must be, 2 Pet. iii. 5, 7, 10, 12; where, from the connexion of the words, the opposition between the conflagration and the deluge, as well as the most literal and apparent import of the phrases themselves, it is plain they cannot, as Dr. Hammond strangely supposes, refer to the desolation brought on Judea when destroyed by the Romans, but must refer to the dissolution of the whole earth. — 3. The Scrip- ture represents this great burning as a circum- stance nearly connected with the day of judg- ment, 2 Pet. iii. 7, compared with 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. Heb. x. 37. 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13 ; and it is probable there may be an allusion to this in several passages of the Old Testament, such as Ps. xi. 0. 1. 3. xcvi. 3. Isa. xxxiv. 4, 8, 10. lxvi. 15. Dan. vii. 9, 10. Mai. iv. 1. Zeph. iii. 8 Deut. xxxii. 22; to which many parallel expressions might be added, from the canonical and apocrypha! books. — 4. It is not expressly declared how this burning shall be kindled, nor how it shall end : which has given occasion to various conjectures about it, which see below. The ancient Pythagoreans, Platonists, Epicu- reans, and Stoics, appear to have had a notion of the conflagration ; though whence they should derive it, unless from the sacred books, is diffi- cult to conceive ; except, perhaps, from the Phoe- nicians, who themselves had it from the Jews. Mention of the conflagration is made in the books of the Sibyls, Sophocles, Hystaspes, Ovid, Lucan, &c. Dr. Burnet, after J. Tachard and others, relates that the Siamese believe that the earth will at last be parched up with heat, the mountains melted down, the earth's whole surface reduced to a level, and then consumed with fire. And the Bramins of Siam do not only hold that the world shall be destroyed by fire, but also that a new earth shall be made out of the cinders of the old. Divines ordinarily account for the conflagration metaphysically, and will have it take its rise from a miracle, as a fire from heaven. Philosophers contend for its being produced from natural causes, and will have it effected according to the laws of mechanics. Some think an eruption of the central fire sufficient for the puri>ose ; and, add, that this may be occasioned several ways, viz. either by having its intension increased, which again may beellccted either by being driven into less space by the encroachments of the super- ficial cold, or by an increase of the inflammability of the fuel whereon it is fed; or by having the resistance of the imprisoning earth weakened, 67 CONFLAGRATION which may happen either from the diminution of its matter, by the consumption of its central parts, or by weakening the cohesion of the constituent parts of the mass by the excess or the defect of moisture. Others look for the cause of the con- flagration in the atmosphere, and suppose that some of the meteors there engendered in unusual quantities, and exploded with unusual vehemence from the concurrence of various circumstances, may effect it without seeking any farther. — Last- ly, others have recourse to a still more effectual and flaming machine, and conclude the world is to undergo its conflagration from the near ap- proach of a comet in its return from the sun. Various opinions are also entertained as to the renovation of the earth after the conflagration. — 1. Some suppose that the earth will not be entire- ly consumed, but that the matter of which it con- sists will be. fixed, purified, and refined, which they say will be the natural consequence of the action of fire upon it ; though it is hard to say what such a purification can do towards fitting it for its intended purpose, for it is certain a mass of crystal or glass would very ill answer the fol- lowing parts of this hypothesis. — 2. They sup- pose that from these materials thus refined, as from a second chaos, there will, by the power of God arise a new creation, and then the face of the earth, and likewise the atmosphere, will be so restored, as to resemble what it originally was in the paradisaical state; and consequently to render it a more desirable abode for human creatures than it at present is: and they urge for this purpose the following texts, viz. 2 Pet. iii. 13. (compare Isa. lxv. 17. lxvi. 22.) Matt. xix. 28, 29. (com- pare Mark x. 29, 30. Luke xviii. 29, 30.) Ps. cii. 25, 20. Acts iii. 21. 1 Cor. vii. 31. Rom. viii. 21. — 3. They agree in supposing, that in this new state of things there will be no sea, Rev. xxi. L 4. They suppose that the earth, thus beautified and improved, shall be inhabited by those who shall inherit the first resurrection, and shall here enjoy a very considerable degree of happiness, though not equal to that which is to succeed the general judgment; which judgment shall, accord- ing to them, open when those thousand years are expired, mentioned in Rev. xx. 4, &c. 1 Thess. iv. 17, compare ver. 15., which passage is thought by some to contain an insinuation that Paul ex- pected to be alive at the appearance of Christ, which must imply an expectation of being thus raised from the dead before it : but it is answered that the expression we that are alive may only signify, "those of us that are so," speaking of all Christians as one body, 1st Cor. xv. 49 — 52. Dr. Hartley declared it as his opinion, that the mil- lennium will consist of a thousand prophetical years, where each day is a year, i. e. 300,000; pleading, that this is the language used in other parts of the Revelation. But it seems an invin- cible objection against this hypothesis, which places the millennium after the conflagration, that the saints inhabiting the earth after the first resurrection are represented as distressed by the invasion of some wicked enemies, Rev. xx. 7-9. Ezek. xxxviii. xxxix. See Millennium. After all, Utile can be said with certainty as to this subject. It is probable that the earth will survive its fiery trial, and become the everlasting abode of righteousness, as part of the whole em- pire of God, but seeing the language used in Scripture, and especially in '.he book of Rcvclu* CONGREGATIONALISTS tion, is often to be considered as figurative rather than literal, it becomes us t'> Ik> cautious in our conclusions. Burnet's Theory of the Earth ; Whitby on the Millennium; Hartley on Man, vol. ii. p. 101); Firming on the first Resurrec- tion; Ray's Three Discourses; Whiston's Theory of the Earth ; and article Dissolution in tins work. CONFUSION OP TONGUES, a memora- ble event which happened in the- one hundred and first year, according to the Hebrew chrono- logy, and the tour hundred anil first year by the Samaritan, alter the flood, at the overthrow of Babel, Gen. xi. Until this period there had been but one common language, which formed a bond of union that prevented the separation of man- kind into distinct nations. Writers have differed much as to the nature of this confusion, and the manner in which it was effected. Some think that no new languages were formed; but that this event was accomplished by creating a misunder- standing and variance among the builders with- out any immediate influence on their language ; and that a distinction is to be made between con- founding a language and forming new ones. Others account for this event by the privation of all language, and by supposing that mankind were under a necessity of associating together, and of imposing new names on things by com- mon consent. Some, again, ascribe the confusion to such an indistinct remembrance of the original language which they spoke before as made them speak it very differently : but the most common opinion is, that God caused the builders actually to forget their former language, and each family to speak a new tongue; whence originated the vari- ous languages at present in the world. It is, how- ever, but of little consequence to know precisely how this was effected, as the Scriptures are silent as to the manner of it ; and alter all that can be said, it is but conjecture still. There are some truths, however, we may learn from this part of sacred writ. 1. It teaches us God's sovereignty and power, by which he can easily blast the greatest attempts of men to aggrandize themselves, Gen. xi. 7, 8. 2. God's justice, in punishing those who in idolizing their own fame, forget him to whom praise is due, ver. 4. 3. God's wisdom in over- ruling evil for good : for by this confusion he fa- cilitated the dispersion of mankind, in order to execute his own purposes, vcr. S, !). See Henry and Gill in loc; StUlingfieet's Grig. Sac. 1. iii. c. v. § 2-4'; Shuc/ford's" Con. vol. i. p. 12-1-1 40; Vi'ringa's Obs. vol. i. diss. 1. c. ix.; Le Clerc's Diss. No. vi.j Hutchinson on the Confusion of Tongues; Bishop Law's Theory of Religion, p. 66. CONGREGATION, an assembly of people met together for religious worship. The term has been also used for assemblies of cardinals ap- pointed by the pope fur the discharge of certain functions, after the manner of our offices and courts; such as the congregation of the inquisi- tion, the congregation of rites, of aims. &c &c It also signifies a company or society of religious persons cantoned out oi' this or that order,' b ml making an inferior order, &C. Such am the con- gregations of the I Oratory those of Cluny, .e found among the Dissenters of Great Britain, and in the New England States, in America. They originated from the Brownists, or Independents, (see Independents) but disapproving of, and disavowing, the name Independent, they have, for the most part, since the days of the Rev. John Robinson, whose congregation emigrated from Holland to Plymouth, and became the founders of the New England churches, been known by the appellation of Congregationalists. They de- clare themselves " abhorrent from such principles of independency as would keep them from giving an account of their matters to their brethren ot neighbouring societies who might regularly de- mand it of them." As their distinguishing title is predicated entirely upon the order and consti- tution of their churches, and not upon any pecu- liar system of doctrines set forth in a public standard, which their ministers or members are required to subscribe, they are not properly to be considered as a religious sect ; for the principles of Congregational church-government are adopted by different sects, especially the Baptists. In- deed, the very genius of the congregational policy is to exclude separate sects and communions from the Christian world, inasmuch as it disclaims any symbol or formula of doctrine, or order establish- ing an ecclesiastical uniformity, and admits tho Bible alone as the great bond of unity among Christians. Vet the mass of the Congregational churches in New England are Calvinistic in sen- timent, and in the preface to the Platform of Church Discipline., drawn up in 1048, and agreed upon by the elders and messengers assembled at ( 'ambridgo, (Mass.) it is expressly declared, that, "having perused and considered the Westmin- ster Confession of Faith, lately published in England, they judge it (with the exception of the parts on church government,) to be very holy, orthodox, and judicious, in all matters of faith, and do freely and fully consent thereunto, for the. substance thereof, and commend it to the churches of < 'hrist, as worthy of their due consi- deration and acceptance." On the subject of church government, their principles may be summarily stated in the form of the following syllogism: The constitution and government of the pri- mitive churches established by the Apostles, as far as can be ascertained from the Scriptures, CONGREGATIONALISTS were designed to serve as a model for all other Christian societies in all ages. But the primitive churches, founded by the Apostles, were strictly congregational or inde- pendent, not subjected or subordinated to the authority of bishops, synods, or councils. Ergo, the congregational is the only true and scriptural scheme of ecclesiastical government. The following are the principal heads of argu- ments relied upon in support of the above con- clusion. In proof that the apostolic model of Church polity is of binding obligation in all ages, it is alleged, 1. That all Scripture is practical, and that it is our duty to attend to every part of the revealed will of God. — But every one must admit that much is said in the New Testament about the manner in which the churches of Christ ought to be regulated. But this part of Scripture is not practical, if we are not bound to follow it : in that case, it is like any other history, which affords us matter of speculation rather than of instruction. Many arguments may be suggested a priori in favour of a divine directory being contained in the Scriptures concerning the worship and conduct of Christian societies, and the combined weight of all these arguments bears directly upon the present question ; for it is certain, that if we are not bound by the example of the apostolic churches, there is no model whatever for the constitution of a Christian church. 2. Those to whom the Apostles wrote were, in several in- stances, reproved for deviating from the precise order established by them in the churches, conse- quently we, the successors of the first disciples, are not at liberty to deviate. 3. Either the Apos- tles acted by divine direction, or by their own wisdom, in the constitution of churches. If the latter, they would undoubtedly have told us so. But if the former, as is doubtless the fact, the form of church government they instituted can never be changed but by the same authority. If any form is better than another, the apostolical is best. It cannot then be. a matter of indiffer- ence whether we follow the best, or adopt a worse. 4. Paul expressly tells us he delivered the same ordinances to every church. " For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church." 1 Cor. iv. 17. He elsewhere alludes to the uni- formity of his practice in the churches. "As God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk, and so ordain I in all churches." 1 Cor. vii. 17. But after ages are no where addressed but in the persons, as it were, of the apostolical churches; we are not known but as members of them. Whatever is said to them is said to us. It is therefore unreasonable to expect a formal didac- tic treatise on the subject of church government. Every necessary instruction was doubtless given in the original forming of the churches, but as to posterity, all that can reasonably he expected is I an incidental account of apostolical practice, and j wherever we meet with that we are to consider ourselves bound by it. .">. No person who pleads the authority of apostolical example for observ- ing the. first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath can consistent!); reject it in this instance. 6. The general sense of professing Christians of all sects is on the side of the obligation of apos- 89 3/ CONGREGATIONALISTS tolic example, for they all eagerly catch at every thing that looks like approving their respective churches. Every sect goes as far as it can in company with the Apostles ; and it is not till they cannot follow any farther, that the Apostles are acknowledged as insufficient guides. 7. There can be no danger in the closest imitation of the apostolical churches. On the other hand, can any man be sure that he does not displease God by refusing to imitate them 1 Between the cer- tainty of pleasing on the one side, and the possi- bility of offending on the other, the choice which a Christian should make is evident. As to the second proposition, that the primitive churches were strictly congregational, and not episcopal or presbyterial, this it is said is manifest, 1. From the prevailing scriptural usage of the term church, to which it is affirmed only two senses arc attached by the sacred writers. For an ex- pansion of this argument, see the article Church. 2. From the direction which Christ has given relative to the settling of private offences among his disciples, Matt, xviii. 15, 18 ; " Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy bro- ther. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of one or two witnesses every word may be esta- blished. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church : hut if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." Here, it is said, the last appeal is to the church. He does not say, if he does not hear the church take it to the presbytery, and if he does not hear the presbytery, take it "to the synod, but " if he hear not the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a pub- lican." True, indeed, a multiplicity of meanings has here been affixed to the word church, and every sect has attempted to find its own disci- pline in this passage. But whatever may be said about allusions to the ecclesiastical tribunals among the Jews, whether of the synagogue or the sanhedrim, the safest and surest mode of inter- pretation is to explain the term according to its predominant sense in other parts of the New Testament, particularly the Epistles, which were unquestionably intended, in many reelects, as a commentary on the Gospels. As Moses is in many cases to be explained by the prophets who came after him, so if any tiling is obscurely deli- vered or hinted at by Christ, we are to have re- course to the Ap. sties, who were to finish the revelation he had begun, and fully illustrate what lies in embryo in his words. It is no valid objection to this to say, that Christ could not have been understood by those to whom he immediately spake. The Holy Ghost was ere long to be jiourcd out upon the disciples to enlighten them fully. And it is unquestionable that the Saviour uttered many things to the Apostles which they did not fully understand till after his death and resurrection. So Moses delivered many things in the wilderness concerning the future govern- ment of the Jewish church, when they should be settled in cities and towns, which they could not so well understand till they came into the land of Canaan, and though they did not know the pre- cise place which God would choose, yet many of the laws that Moses gave depended upon it. In the present case, it was more important that 0'ir h2 C0NG11EGATI0NAL1STS Lord's words should be intelligible to the great body of his people in all subsequent ages, though for a time a little obscure to the disciples, than that they should be clear to them, and yet blind ever after to the largest, portion of his followers. la order, then, to understand what our Saviour meant by the word church in this place, we must institute an inquiry into apostolic practice, and ascertain, from the Acts of the Apostles, and from their epistles, what kind of churches they did actually form, and in what manner they were governed. But such an examination, it is main- tained, will bring to our view no other churches than those constituted on the congregational plan, that is, purely independent churches, having the power of discipline and excommunication vested, not in a representative body, either great or small, but in the whole society or brotherhood. This is evident, 3. From the language of the Apostle in the first epistle to the Corinthians. This epistle is ad- dressed to the church of God at Corinth, which is explained (1 Cor. i. 2.) to consist, not of mi- nisters and elders, but of " them that are sancti- fied in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." Now the power of excommunication is expressly lodged in the whole church, not in church rulers alone ; — "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, wlten ye are gathered together, and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one to Satan," 1 Cor. v. 4, 5. Here even the power of an Apostle is not exercised tut in concurrence with that of the church. Again, the same church, addressed collectively, are com nianded "to put away from among themselves that wicked person," (v. 13.) and to purge out the old leaven, (v. 7.) and to examine and judge whether a crime be chargeable upon an accused member, is also stated (v. 12.) to be the business of the whole church: "Do ye not judge them that are within '?" The whole church is to judge the accused person, though the church rulers are to execute the judgment. How can these things be predicated of a society where all the power is exclusively in the hands of the rulers? But a church wliieh is not susceptible of an apostolical direction cannot be apostolically constituted. In the e.ise, however, of the Corinthian church, we find that the incestuous member was not only cut off by the unanimous voice of the whole society, it being called "a punishment inflicted by many" (2 ( Vr. ii. 6,) but afterwards, when he exhibited sufficient tokens of unfeigned repentance, they were commanded to restore the fallen brother and to receive him to their fellowship and affection. If it be said, that this language is to be interpre- ted according to the common and well-known idiom of Scripture, by which a society is said to do that which is done by their representatives, it is replied, that this takes for granted a fact which remains to be established, viz. that the churches Were furnished with such representatives, who bad all the ruling power ill their hands to the ex- clusion of the brethren, and that they are every where called the church, in contradistinction from the rest of the members. Congregationalists ad- mit that there were officers and rulers in the apostolic churches, as there ought to be in all others, but the question to be determined is, whether their ruling power was to be exercised otherwise than with the concurrence of the whole liody. The eye is set in the human bodv for the 90 CONGREGATIONALISTS purpose of seeing, and no other part of the body can perform the office of the eye; yet the eye cannot see apart from and independent of the body. So in respect to church rulers. Indeed the whole controversy between Congregation- alists and others relative to the ruling power in a particular church, turns not so much upon the fact of such a power, as upon its nature. What is precisely the nature of that regimen which Christ has instituted in his churches 1 4. That the congregational mode of church go- vernment has superior claims to any other is argued from the fact, that we have no sufficient evidence in the New Testament of the existence of stated ecclesiastical courts or judicatures rising one above another, in regular gradation; or in other words, that a church representative is a thing entirely unknown in the word of God. From all that can be gathered of apostolical usage, and the directions given in Scripture concerning discipline, it is evident that the administration of the laws of Christ is committed to single churches duly organized. Therefore a particular visible church, with its 'elders or presbytery, the only presbytery known in the Christian church, may decide in all cases of discipline ; and its decision cannot be lawfully reversed by any jurisdiction under heaven. The Great Head of the Church makes no provision for an appeal from the judg- ment of a single church to any authoritative tri- ounal short of the court of heaven. This is a plain and just inference from the solemn declare tion annexed by Christ to his directions concern- ing the several steps of discipline. "Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Churches may err in judgment, yet they are ac- countable to Christ alone. Nevertheless, though no appeal lies from the judgment of a particular church and its presbytery, to any higher judica- ture on this side of heaven, yet in difficult cases, and when doubts, disunion, and dissatisfaction prevail in a church, or individuals are grieved and offended on account of any particular decision, Congregationalists allow that it may be prudent to ask advice ; as " in the multitude of counsel- lors there is safety." Whether this is done by calling a council of elders and delegates from the neighbouring churches, to hear and advise in the case, or by calling one or more ministers, or pri- vate brethren, or both, to hold forth light from the word of God, and deliberate with the church, since the Scriptures give no particular directions, must be determined according to circumstances. But that the word of God gives any intimation of standing courts of this nature is strenuously denied by the advocates of this system. For, 1. It is held that the Scriptures contain nothing as to the duties of elders as members of an eccle- siastical assembly, or of the duties of private Christians as members of an associated church. Now. if there were such a thing as an associated church under the same government, how comes it that we have no rules with respect to it; that elders should have no directions as to their duties in those assemblies ; and private Christians as to their relations to them? The individual Mock is often called upon to obey their pastors or rulers, but never is cither rlock or shepherd commanded to obey a superior assembly. In fact there are no appropriate names in Scripture for such courts, CONG REG ATI0NALIST3 and it is fair to presume that the institutions which have not a name in Scripture, have not an existence in Scripture. 2. Tt is said, moreover, that when the apostles ordained elders in every church, and left them, they did not commend them to the care of any superior judicature, or to the care of a diocesan bishop, or many bishops joined together, having a common oversight and jurisdiction over them ; but commended them to the Lord. So Paul, in taking leave of the elders of Ephesus, commends the flock to their care, and exhorts them " to take heed to themselves," but not a word of a superior judicature, not an insinuation of any advice to have recourse to it, even when he forewarns them of the entering in of "grievous wolves" among them, and of the rising of men who should "speak perverse tilings to draw away disciples after them" — the very oc- casions usually pleaded as making a subordina- tion of judicatures absolutely necessary. But to this it is objected that the 15th chapter of Acts contains a plain warrant for courts and assem- blies of this kind. The matter of fact there re- lated is briefly this : Certain teachers had gone down to Antioch from Judca, who had inculca- ted the necessity of the observance of the Mosaic law. From verse 24, it appears, that if they were not actually sent out by the church of J eru- salem to preach the Gospel, they at least wished to have it understood that they had apostolical authority. The church of Jerusalem, in their subsequent letter, acknowledge that they went out from them, but affirm that they had no such doctrine in charge from them as the circumcision of the Gentile converts. Previous to this, Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch from their first missionary tour. Of consequence, they opposed this doctrine ; and after they had had much fruit- less discussion on the subject, it was resolved that Paul and Barnabas and certain others should go up to Jerusalem and consult the apostles and the church in that place relative to the subject matter of the dispute. The New Testament not being yet written, to which they might have re- course to decide the point ; the word of God having confessedly sounded out from Jerusalem, the mother church; and the apostles being still there, to whom, in a particular manner, the pro- mise of the Spirit was given to guide them into all truth, to whom could they so properly apply- as to that church, especially as a matter of fact, as well as an abstract doctrine, was to be deter- mined? On their arrival they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders. These came together to consider the question of the ne- cessity of circumcision to salvation. After much disputing, similar to what had taken place at Antioch, Peter and James delivered their opinion. This was adopted unanimously, (v. 22) and letters were written in the name of the apostles and elders, and the whole church, declaring not merely the opinion of a church that the Gentiles should not be circumcised, but the decree and de- termination of the Holy Ghost. It was there- fore an inspired decision. The question was thus finally settled, and the sentence was inserted as a part of that Scripture which cannot be broken. Indeed this decision was the very first part of the New Testament that was committed to ■writing. And although the " brethren," or the whole church, are associated with the apostles in sending forth the decree, this fact derogates no CONGREGATIONALISTS more from its inspired character, than it derogates from the inspiration of Paul's epistle to the Gaia- tians that it is addressed to those churches in the name of Paul and of "all the brethren which were with liim." From the history of this ecclesiastical pro- ceeding, it has been inferred, that there ought to be such an organization of churches as shall lay a foundation for successive appeals to superior courts, till they are ultimately brought before some judicature which is clothed with the power of making an authoritative decision. But to this it is replied, 1. That this was not properly an appeal to an assembly of delegates from a num- ber of associated churches, but to the decision of a particular church. 2. There is no evidence that they exercised a jurisdiction over cases of discipline occurring in churches, as they merely decided upon a point of doctrine. 3. Even if it be allowed to have been a representative synod, it only warrants their meeting as occasion may re- quire ; it gives no countenance to regular periodi- cal meetings. 4. This was an appeal to inspired authority, which, in after ages, could be imitated only by an appeal to the apostolical writings. Our council of Jerusalem is in the New Testa- ment Scriptures. Consequently this meeting cannot be pleaded by any body of men to deter- mine in matters of religion for others, unless they can preface their decision with — "It seemed good unto us, and to the Holy Ghost." Otherwise, if it claim to be authoritative, it is as invalid as an act of Congress without the signature of the President. 5. It does not appear from church history that the transaction recorded in Acts xv. was ever employed as a warrant for clerical con- ventions, notwithstanding the repeated occasions that would seem to have rendered them necessary, if of divine institution, till the time of Victor, who was bishop of Rome from A. D. 192 to 201. lie called a synod to excommunicate the bishops of Asia, because they would not celebrate Easter on the same day with him. Under Constantine tha authority of synods and councils came more gene- rally into vogue, and from that period became stated, and duly subordinate, according to tha situation of the empire and its provinces. See Dupin and Mosheim. On the subject of ordination, Congregational- ists maintain that church officers, after being chosen by the church, are to be ordained by the imposition of hands, and with prayer. This or- dination is accounted nothing else than the solemn putting a man into that place or office to which he previously had a right by the election of the people, it being like the induction or installing a magistrate into office in the commonwealth. The essence and substance of the outward calling of an ordinary officer in the church does not consist in his ordination, but in his voluntary and free election by the church, and his acceptance of that election ; ordination does not constitute an officer, nor give him the essentials of his office, any more than the mere ceremony of inauguration consti- tutes the President of the United States chief magistrate, apart from the election of the people. The apostles were elders without imposition of hands by men. Paul and Barnabas were officers before that ordination mentioned, Acts, xiii. 2. The posterity of Levi were priests and Levites, before hands were laid on them by the children of lsra< 1. In churches where these are already i lders appoint- CONSCIENCE ed, the imposition of hands is to bo performed by those elders; i>ot in churches where there are no eiders, the ceremony may be performed by some of the brethren orderly chosen for that purpose. For if the people may elect their officers, which is the greater, they may doubtless impose hands upon them, which is the less. At the same time, in churches where there are no elders, and the brethren so desire, it is usual us a mailer of prac- tice, for the imposition of hands to bo performed by the elders of other churches, as a sisterly rela- tion in the nature of the case is held to exist among all the true churches of Christ, The above are the peculiar distinguishing cha- racteristics of Congregationalism, especially as it exists in the United States. The reader who is desirous of seeing a more extended view of the arguments employed in support of this peculiar polity of church government, is referred to the fol- lowing works. Oirca on the Nature of a Gospel Church, and its Government ; Goodwin's Consti- tution, Rights, Order, and Government of the Churches of Christ; WaWs Rational Foundation of a Christian Church ; Glass's Works, vol. i ; Carson's Letters in Answer to Brown; ditto on Independency ; Haldane's View of Social Wor- ship; Mather's Magnolia, vol. ii; Mather on the Nature, Grounds, Antiquity, and Advan- tages of Congregational Churches; Wise's Vindication; Brysen's Compendious View; Cot ten' 8 Power of the Keys ; Turner's Com- pendium of Social Religion ; fuller's Remarks on Iho Discipline of the J'rimitire Churches. From the most recent statistical documents it appears, that the whole body of orthodox or evan- gelical Congregationalists in the United States, numbers about eight hundred ministers, and nine hundred and twenty thousand members. CONONITES, a denomination which ap- peared in the sixth century. They derived their name from Conon, bishop of Tarsus. He taught that the body never last its form; that its matter alone was subject to corruption and decay, and was to be restored when this mortal shall put on immortality. CONSCIENCE signifies knowledge in con- junction ; that is, in conjunction with the fact to which it is a witness, as the eye, is to the action done before it; or, as South observes, it is a double or joint knowledge, namely, one of a divine law or rule, and the other of a man's own action. It may be defined to be the judgment which a man passes on the morality of his actions as to their purity or turpitude ; or the secret testimony of the soul, whereby it approves things that are good, and condemns those that arc evil. Some object to its being called an act, habit, or faculty. An act, say they, would be represented as an agent, whereas conscience is a testimony. To say it is a habit, is to speak of it as a disposition act- uig, which is scarce1 more accurate than ascribing one act to another; and, besides, it would be strange language to say that conscience itself is a habit. Against defining it by the name of a power or faculty, it is obji eted, that it occasions a ial-o notion of it, as a distinct power from reason. The rules of coi, teienee. We must distinguish Detween a rule that ot itself and immediately oinds the conscience, and a rule that is occasion- ally of use to direct and satisfy the conscience. Now, in the first sense, the will of God is the only rule immediately binding Ilia conscience. 93 CONSCIENCE No one has authority over the conscience but God. All jienal laws, therefore, in matters of mere conscience, or things that do noc ?\idently affect the civil state, are certainly unlawful ; yet, secondly, the commands of superiors, not only natural parents, but civil, as magistrates or mas- ters, and every man's private engagements, are rules of conscience in thugs indifferent. — 3. The examples of wise and good men may become rules of conscience; but here it must be observed, that no example or judgment is of any authority against law : where the law is doubtful, and even where there is no doubt, the side of example cannot be taken till inquiry has been first madu concerning what the law directs. Conscience has been considered as, 1. natural, or that common principle which instructs men of all countries and religions in the duties to which they are all alike obliged. There seems to be something of this in the minds of all men. Even in the darkest regior.s of the earth, and among the rudest tribes of men, a distinction has ever been made between just and unjust, a duty and a crime. 2. A right conscience is that which decides aright, or according to the only rule of rectitude, the law of God. This is also called a wcll-in- fortned conscience, which in all its decisions pro- ceeds upon the most evident principles of truth. 3. A probable conscience is that which, in cases which admit of the brightest and fullest light, contents itself with bare probabilities. Tlie consciences of many are of no higher character; and though we must not say a man cannot be saved with such a conscience, yet such a con- science is not so perfect as it might lie. 4. An ignorant conscience is that which may declare right, but, as it were, by chance, and with- out any just ground to build on. 5. An erroneous conscience is a conscience mis- taken in its decisions about the nature of actions. G. A doubting conscicr.ee is a conscience un- resolved about the nature of actions ; on account of the equal or nearly equal probabilities which appear for and against each side of the question. 7. Of an evil conscience there are several kinds. Conscience, in regard to actions in general, is evil when it has lost more or less the sense it ought to have of the natural distinctions of moral good and evil : this is a polluted or defiled con- science. Conscience is evil in itself when it gives either none or a false testimony as to past actions ; when reflecting upon wickedness it feels no pains, it is evil, and said to be seared or harden- ed. 1 Tim. iv. 2. It is also evil when, during the commission of sin, it lies quiet. In regard to future actions, conscience is evil if it does not startle at the proposal oH sin, or connives at the commission of it. For the right management of conscience, we should, 1. Endeavour to obtain acquaintance with the law of God, and with our own tempers and lives, and frequently compare them together. 2. Furnish conscience with general principles of the most extensive nature and strongest in- fluence : such as the supreme love of God ; lov© to our neighbours as ourselves ; and that the care of our souls is of the greatest importance. 3. Preserve the purity of conscience. 4. Maintain the freedom of conscience, particu- 1 irly against interest, passion, temper example, and the authority of great names. CONSECRATION 5. We should accustom ourselves to cool re- flections on our past actions. See Grove's and Paley's Moral Philosophy; South's Sermons, vol. ii. sermon 12; and books under Casuistry. CONSCIOUSNESS, the perception of what passes in a man's own mind. We must not con- found the terms consciousness and conscience; for though the Latin he ignorant of any such dis- tinction, including both in the word conscientia, yet there is a great deal of difference between (hem in our language. Consciousness is confined to the actions of the mind, being nothing else but that knowledge of itself which is inseparable from every thought and voluntary motion of the soul. Conscience extends to all human actions, bodily as well as mental. Consciousness is the know- ledge of the existence ; conscience of the moral nature of actions. Consciousness is a province of metaphysics; conscience, of morality. CONSECRATION, a rite or ceremony of dedicating things or persons to the service of God. It is used for the benediction of the elements at the eucharist : the ordination of bishops is also called consecration. The Mosaical law ordained that all the first- born, both of man and beast, should be sanctified or consecrated to God. We find also, that Joshua consecrated the Gibeonites, as David and Solo- mon did the Nethinims, to the service of the temple ; and that the Hebrews sometimes conse- crated their fields and cattle to the Lord, after which they were no longer in their power. Among the ancient Christians, the consecration of churches was performed with a great deal ot pious solemnity. In what manner it was done for the first three ages is uncertain, the authentic accounts reaching no higher than the fourth cen- tury, when, in the peaceable reign of Constanline, churches were every where built, and dedicated with great solemnity. The Romanists have a great deal of foppery in the ceremonies of conse- cration, which they bestow on almost every thing; as bells, candles, books, water, oil, ashes, palms, swords, banners, pictures, crosses, agnus deis, roses, &c. In England, churches, have been al- wavs consecrated with particular ceremonies, the form of which was left to the discretion of the bishop. That observed by Abp. Laud, in conse- crating Saint Catherine Cree church, in London, gave great oft'ence, and well it might. It was enough, as one observes, to have made even a popish cardinal blush, and which no protestant can read but with indignant concern. " The bishop came attended with several of the high commission, and some civilians. At his approach to the west door of the church, which was shut, and guarded by halberdiers, some that were ap- pointed for that purpose, cried with a loud voice — Open, open, ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in! Presently the doors were opened, and the bishop, with some doctors and principal men, entered. As soon as they were within the place, his lordship fell down upon his knees; and, with eyes lifted up, and his arms spread abroad, said, This place is holy; the ground is holy : in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I pronounce it holy. Then, walking up the middle aisle towards the chancel, he took up some of the dust, and threw it into the air several times. When he approached near '.he rail of the communion-table, he bowed towards it five or six times : and, returning, went round the 93 CONSISTORY church, with his attendants in procession; say- ing first the hundredth, and then the nineteenth Psalm, as prescribed in the Roman Pontifica-. He then read several collects, in one of which he prays God to accept of that beautiful building, and concludes thus : We consecrate this church, and separate it unto thee as Holy Ground, not to be profaned any more to common use. In another he prays — That ALL who should hereafter be buried within the circuit of this holy and sacred place, may rest in their sepulchres in peace, till ChrisVs coming to judgment, and may then rise to eternal life and happiness. Then the bishop, sitting under a cloth of state in the aisle of the chancel, near the communion-table, took a written book in his band, and pronounced curses upon those who should hereafter prolane that holy place by musters of soldiers, or keeping profane law courts, or carrying burdens through it ; and at the end of every curse he bowed to the east, and said, Let all the people say, Amen. When the curses were ended, which were about twenty, he pronounced a like number of blessings upon ALL that had any hand in framing and building that sacred and beautiful church ; and on those that had given, or should hereafter give, any cha- lices, plate, ornaments or other utensils; and, at the end of every blessing, he bowed to the east, and said, Let all the people say, Amen. After this came the sermon, then the sacrament, which the bishop consecrated and administered in the following manner : — As he approached the altar, he made five or six low bows ; and coming up to the side of it, where the bread and wine were covered, he bowed seven times. Then, after reading many prayers, he came near the bread; and gently lifting up the corner of the napkin, beheld it; and immediately letting fall the nap- kin, he retreated hastily a step or two, and made three low obeisances: his lordship then advanced, and, having uncovered the bread, bowed three times as before. Then he laid his hand on the cup, which was full of wine, with a cover upon it; which having let go, he stepped back, and bowed three times towards it ; then he came near again, and lifting up the cover of the cup, looked in it ; and seeing the wine, let fall the cover again, retired back, and bowed as before. 1'hen the elements were consecrated; and the bishop, having first received, gave it to some principal men in their surplices, hoods, and tippets; after which many prayers being said, the solemnity of the consecration ended." CONSISTENTES, a kind of penitents, who were allowed to assist at prayers, but who could not be admitted to receive the sacrament. CONSISTORY, a word commonly used for a council-house of ecclesiastical persons, or place of justice in the spiritual court : a session or as- sembly of prelates. Every archbishop and bishop of every diocese hath a consistory court, held be- fore his chancellor or commissary, in his cathedral church, or other convenient place of his diocese, for ecclesiastical causes. The bishop's chancellor is the judge of this court, supposed to be skilled in the civil and canon law ; and in places of the diocese far remote from the bishop's consistory, the bishop appoints a commissary to judge in all causes within a certain district, and a register1 to enter his decrees, ecc. Consistory at Rome, de- notes the college of cardinals, or the pope's senate and council, before whom judiciary causes ara. CONTENTMENT pleaded. Consistorv is also used amnn? the re- formed far a council or assembly of ministers ami elders to regulate their affairs, discipline, && CONSTANCY, in a general sense, denotes immutability, or Lnvariableness. When applied to the human mind, it is a steady adherence to those schemes and resolutions which have been maturely formed: the effect of which is, that a man nriver drops a good design out of fear, and is consistent with himself in all his words and actions. Constancy is more particularly required of us — 1. In our devotions, Luke xviii. 1. 1 Tlies.v. 17, 18.— & Under our sufferings,Matt.v. 10, 13. 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13. — 3. In our profession and character, Heh. x. 23. — 4. In our beneficence, Gal.vi. 9. — 5. In our friendships, Prov. xxvii. 10. CONSUBSTANTIAL, a term of like im- port with co-essential, denoting something of the same substance with another. Thus, we say that Christ is consubstantial with the Father. The term o^oauno?, consubstantial, was first adopted by the fathers of the councils of Antioch and Nice to express the orthodox doctrine the more precisely, and to serve as a barrier and precaution against the errors and subtleties of the Arians, who owned every thing except the consubstan- tiality. The Arians allowed that the Word was Cod, as having been made God ; but they denied that he was the same God, and of the same sub- stance with the Father ; accordingly, they exerted themselves to the utmost to abolish the use of the word. The Emperor Constantino used all his authority with the bishops to have it expunged out of the symbols ; but it was retained, and is at this day, as it was then, the distinguishing crite- rion between an Athanasian and an Arian. See articles Arians and Jesus Christ. CONSUBSTANTIATION, a tenet of the Lutheran church, with regard to the manner of the change made in the bread and wine in the eucharist. The divines of that profession main- tain that, after the consecration, the body and blood of our Saviour are substantially present, to- gether with the substance of the bread and wine, which is called consubstantiation, or impanation. See Traxsubstanti at ion. CONTEMPLATION, studious thought on any subject; continued attention. " Monks and mystics consider contemplation as the highest de- gree of moral excellence ; and with them a silent spectator is a divine man:" but it is evident we are not placed here only to think. There is something to be done as well as to contemplate. There are duties to be performed, offices to be discharged ; and if we wish to be happy in our- selves, and useful to others, we must be active as well as thoughtful. CONTENTMENT is a disposition of mind in which our desires are confined to what we en- joy, without murmuring at our lot, or wishing ardently for more. It stands opposed to envy, James iii. 1G; to avarice, Heb. xiii. 5; to pride and ambition, Prov. xiii. 10; to anxiety of mind, Matt. vL 25. 31 j to murmurings and repinings, 1 Cor. x. 10. Contentment does not imply un- concern about our welfare, or that we should not have a sense of any thing uneasy or distressing; nor docs it give any countenance to idleness, or prevent diligent endeavours to improve our cir- cumstances. It implies, however, that our desires of worldlv good be moderate j that we do not in- ill CONVENTICLE dulge unnecessary care, or use unlawful efforts to liettcr ourselves ; but that we acquiesce with and make the best of our condition, whatever it be. Contentment arises, not from a man's outward condition, but from his inward disposition, and is the genuine offspring of humility, attended with a fixed habitual sense of God's particular provi- dence, the recollection of past mercies, and a just estimate of the true nature of all earthly things. Motives to contentment arise from the considera- tion of the rectitude of the Divine government, Ps. xcvii. 1, 2; the benignity of the Divine provi- dence, Ps. cxlv. ; the greatness of the Divine pro- mises, 2 Pet. i. 4; our own un worthiness, Gen. xxxii. 10; the punishments we deserve, Lain. iii. 39, 40; the reward which contentment itself brings with it. 1 Tim. vi. G; the speedy termina- tion of all our troubles here, and. the prospect cf eternal felicity in a future state, Rom. v. 2. Bar- roir's Works, vol. iii. ser. 5, G, 7, 8, 9; Burroughs on Contentment ; Watson's Art of Ditto ; Hale's Con. p. 59 ; Mason's Christian Morals, vol. i. ser. 2. CONTINENCY is that moral virtue by which we restrain concupiscence. There is this distinction between chastity and continence : — Chastity requires no effort, because it may result from constitution ; whereas continency appears to be the consequence of a victory gained over our- selves. The term is most usually applied to men ; as chastity is to women. See Chastity. CONTINGENT, any thing that happens without a foreknown cause ; commonly called ac- cidental. An event not come to pass is said to be contingent, which either may or may not be ; what is already done, is said to have been contingent. if it might or might not have been. What is con- tingent or casual to us, is not so with God. As eflects stand related to a second cause, they are many times contingent; but as they stand related to the first cause, they are acts of God's counsel, and directed by his wisdom. CONTRITE: this word signifies beaten or bruised, as with hard blows, or a heavy burden ; and so, in Scripture language, imports one whose heart is broken and wounded for sin, in opposition to the heart of stone, Is. lxvi. 2 Ps. li. 17. lvii. 15. The evidence of a broken and contrite spirit are; 1. Deep conviction of the evil of sin. — 2. Humi- liation under a sense of it, Job. xiii. 5, 6. — 3. Pungent sorrow for it. Zee. xii. 10. — 4. Inge- nuous confession of it. 1 John. i. 9. — 5. Prayer for deliverance. from it, Ps. li. 10. Luke xvii. 13. — 6. Susceptibility of good impressions, Ezek. xi. 19. CONTROVERSIAL DIVINITY. See Disputation-. CONVENT. See Abbey, Monastery, Monk. CONVENTICLE, a diminutive of convent, denoting properly a cahal, or secret assembly of a part of the monks of a convent, to make a party in the election of an abbot. The term conventicle is said by some to have been first applied in Eng- land to the schools of Wickliile, and has since been used in a way of reproach for those assern. blies which dissent from the established church. In 1GG4, what was called the conrenlicle act was passed, decreeing that if any person above sixteen years of age was present at any meeting for worship, different from the church of England, CONVERSATION where there should be five persons more than the household, they should, for the first offence, suffer three months' imprisonment, or pay 51.; for the second the punishment, is doubled, and for the third they were banished to America, or pay 100/., and if they returned, to suffer death. This art having expired, it was revived in 1669 : for by 23 Car. II. cap. 1. it is enacted, That if any persons of the age of sixteen years, subjects of this king- dom, shall be present at any conventicle where there are five or more assembled, they shall be fined five shillings for the first offence, and ten shillings for the second : and persons preaching incur a penalty of twenty pounds. Also suffer- ing a meeting to be held in a house is twenty pounds penalty : justices of peace have power to enter such houses, and seize persons assembled ; and if they neglect their duty, they forfeit 100/. And if any constable, &c. know of such proceed- ings, and do not inform a justice of the peace or chief magistrate, he shall forfeit 5/. But the first of William and Mary, cap. 18. ordains that Pro- testant dissenters shall be exempted from these penalties : though if they meet in a house with the doors locked, barred or bolted, such dissenters shall have no benefit from the 1st of William and Mary. Officers of the government, &c, present at any conventicle at which there shall be ten persons, if the royal family be not prayed for in express words, shall forfeit 40/., and be disabled. Stat. 10 Ann. cap. 2. CONVERSATION, or discourse, signifies an interlocution between two or more persons, with this distinction, that conversation is used for any general intercourse of sentiments whatever, whereas, a discourse means a conversation limit- ed to some particular subject. To render conversation at all times agreeable, the following rules have been laid down : 1. The parties should meet together with a determined resolution to please and to be pleased. — 2. No one should be eager to interrupt others, or be un- easy at being interrupted. — 3. All should have leave to speak in turn. — 4. Inattention should be carefully avoided. — 5. Private concerns should never be mentioned, unless particularly inquired into, and even then as briefly as possible. — 6. Each person should, as far as propriety will admit, be afforded an opportunity of discoursing on the subject with which he is best acquainted. — 7. Stories should be avoided, unless short, pointed, and quite d propos. — 3. Each person should speak often, but not long. Haranguing in private company is insupportable. — 9. If the majority of the company be naturally silent or reserved, the conversation will flag, unless it be often renewed by one who can start new subjects. — 10. It is improper to laugh at one's own wit and humour ; this should be left to the company. — 11. When the conversation is flowing in a serious and useful channel, never interrupt it by an ill-timed jest. — 12. It is at all times extremely indelicate to whis- per to one's next neighbour ; this is in some degree a fraud, conversation being a kind of common property. — 13. In speaking of absent people, the infallible rule is, to say no more than we should say if they were present. " I resolve," said bishop Beveridge, " never to speak of a man's virtues to his face, nor of his faults behind his back." A golden rule ! the observation of which would at once banish flattery and defamation from the world. 95 CONVICTION CONVERSION, a change from one state to another. Conversion may be, 1. Merely external, or that which consists only in an outward reforma- tion.— 2. Doctrinal, or a change of sentiments. — • 3. Saving, which consists in the renovation of the heart and life, or a turning from the power of sin and Satan unto God, Acts xxvi. 18, and ia produced by the influence of Divine grace on the soul. — 4. Sometimes it is put for restoration, as in the case of Peter, Luke xxii. 32. The instru- mental cause of conversion is usually the minis- try of the word ; though sometimes it is produced by reading, by serious and appropriate conversa- tion, sanctified afflictions, &c. " Conversion,' says the great Charnock, " is to be distinguished from regeneration thus ; — Regeneration is aspi- ritual change ; conversion is a spiritual motion . in regeneration there is a power conferred ; con- version is the exercise of this power : in regene- ration there is given us a principle to turn ; con- version is our actual turning. In the covenant, God's putting his Spirit into us is distinguished from our walking in his statutes from the first step we take in the way of God, and is set down as the cause of our motion, Ezck. xxxvi. 27. In renewing us, God gives us a power ; in converting us, he excites that power. Men are naturally dead, and have a stone upon them : regeneration is a rolling away the stone from the 'heart, and a raising to newness of life ; and then conversion is as natural to a regenerate man as motion is to a lively body. A principle of activity will pro- duce action. In regeneration, man is wholly passive ; in conversion, he is active. The first reviving us is wholly the act of God without any concurrence of the creature; but after we are re- vived we do actively and voluntarily live in his sight. Regeneration is the motion of God in the creature ; conversion is the motion of the creature to God, by virtue of that first principle : from thia principle all the acts of believing, repenting, mor- tifying, quickening, do spring. In all these a man is active ; in the other he is merely passive." Con- version evidences itself by ardent love to God, Ps. lxxiii. 25; delight in his people, John xiii. 35; attendance on his ordinances, Ps. xxvii. 4 ; confi- dence in his promises, Ps ix. 10; abhorrence of self, and renunciation of the world, Job. xlii. 5. James iv. 4: submission to his authority, aud uniform obedience to his word, Matt. vii. 20. Sije Calling, Regeneration. CONVERT, a person who is converted. In a monastic sense, converts are lay-friars, or bro- thers admitted for therservice of the house, with- out orders, and not allowed to sing in the choir. CONVICTION, in general, is the assurancj of the truth of any proposition. In a religious sense, it is the first degree of repentance, and im- plies an affecting sense that we are guilty befor i God; that we can do nothing of ourselves to gain his forfeited favour ; that we deserve and are ex- posed to the wrath of God ; that sin is very odiouu and hateful, yea, the greatest of evils. There iis a natural conviction which arises from natural conscience, fear of punishment, moral suasion, or alarming providences, but which is not of a per- manent nature. Saving conviction is the worls of the Spirit, as the cause; though the law, the conscience, the Gospel, or affliction, may be the means, John xvi. 8, 9. Convictions of sin differ very much in their degree m different persons. It has been observed that those who suffer the most CONVOCATION B yed tin' external call of the < lospel, or were not favoured with the tuition of religious parents, but have neglected, or notoriously abused the means of grace. To these, conviction is often sudden, and produces thai horwr and shame which are Dot soon overcome; whereas those who have sat under the Gospel from their infancy have not had such alarming convictions, because they have al- ready some notion of these things, anil have so touch acqu untance with the Gospel as adminis- ters immediate comfort. As it is not, therefore, the constant method of the Spirit to convince in one way, it is improper for any to distress them- selves because they are not, or have not been tor- mented almost to despair; they should be rather thankful that the SpiritofGod has dealt tenderly with them, and opened to them the source of con- solation. It is necessary, however, to observe, that, in order to repentance and conversion to Goil, there must he real and lasting conviction, which, though it may not be the same in degree, is the same in nature. Evangelical conviction differs from legal conviction thus: legal arises from a consideration of God's justice, power, or omniscience; evangelical from God's goodness and holiness, and from a disaffection to sin : legal conviction s|,ill conceits there is some remaining good ; hut evangelical is sensible there is no good at all : legal wishes freedom from pain ; evangeli- cal from sin : legal hardens the heart ; evangelical softens it: legal is only temporary , evangelical lasting. CONVOCATION, an assembly of persons for the worship of God, Lev. xxiii. Numb, xxviii. Exod. xii. 10. An assembly of the clergy for consultation upon matters ecclesiastical. As the parliament consists of two distinct houses so does this convocation. The one called the up- per house, where the archbishops and bishops sit severally by themselves; the other the lower house, where all the rest of the clergy are repre- sented by their deputies. — The inferior clergv are represented by their proctors ; consisting of all the deans and archdeacons; of one proctor for every chapter, and two for the clergy of every diocese — in all, one hundred and forty-three di- vines; viz. twenty-two deans, fifty-three archdea- cons, twenty-four prebendaries, and forty-four proctors of the diocesan clergv. The lower house c!i loses its prolocutor, who is to take care that the members attend, to collect their debates and votes, and to carry their resolutions to the upper house. The convocation is summoned by the king's writ, directed to the archhishop of each province, re- quiring him to summon all bishops, deans, arch- deacons, &c The power of the convocation is limited by a statute of Henry VIII. They are not to make any canons, or ecclesiastical laws. Without the king's license; nor, when permitted, can they put them in execution but under several restrictions. — They have the examining and cen- suring all heretical and Bchismatical hooks and persons, &C.; but there lies an appeal to the king In chancery, or to his delegates. The clergy in convocation, and their servants, have the same privileges as members of parliament. In 1665, the convocation of the clergy gave up the privi- lege of taxing themselves to the house of com- mons, in consideration of their being allowed to vote at the election of members fur that house. Since that period, thev have been seldom allow- CORDELIER ed to do any business; and are generally pro> rogucd from time to time till dissolved, a new convocation being "enerallv called along with a new parliament. COPHTI, Copiit, or Copti, a name given to the Christians of Egypt who are of the sect of the Jacobites. See Jacobites. The Cophts have a patriarch, who resides at Cairo; but he takes his title from Alexandria. He has no archbishop under him, but eleven or twelve bishops. The rest of the clergy, whether secular or regular, are composed of the orders of St. Anthony, St. Paul, St. Macarius, who have each their monasteries. Besides the orders of priests, deacons, and sub- deacons, the. Cophts have, likewise, archiman- drites, or abbots ; the dignity whereof they con- fer with all the prayers and ceremonies of a strict ordination. By a custom of six hundred years5 standing, if a priest elected bishop be not already archimandrite, that dignity must be conferred on him before episcopal ordination. The second person among the clergy after the patriarch, is the titular patriarch of Jerusalem, who also resides at Cairo. To him belongs the government of the Cophtic church during the vacancy of the patri- archal see. To be elected patriarch, it is neces- sary the person have lived all his life in conti- nence. To be elected bishop, the person must be in the celinate ; or if he have been married, it must not be above once. The priests and infe- rior ministers are allowed to be married before ordination ; but not forced to it, as some havo observed. They have a great number of dea- cons, and even confer the dignity frequently on their children. None but the lowest rank among the people commence ecclesiastics ; whence arises that excessive ignorance found among them : yet the respect of the laity towards the clergy is very extraordinary. The monastic life is in great esteem among them: to be admitted into it, there is always required the consent of the bishop. The religious Cophts, it is said, make a vow of perpetual chastity ; renounce the world, and live with great austerity in deserts, they are obliged to sleep in their clothes and their girdle, on a mat stretched on the ground; and to prostrate themselves every evening one hun- dred and fifty times with their face and breast on the ground. They are all, both men and women, of the lowest class of the people, and live on alms. The nunneries are properly hospitals, and few enter but widows reduced to beggary. CORBAN, in Jewish antiquity, were those offerings which had life ; in opposition to the minchab, or those which had not. It is derived from the word karab, which signifies, " to ap- proach ;" because the victims were brought to the door of the tabernacle. The corban were always looked upon ns the most sacred offerings. The Jews are reproached with defeating, by means of the corban, the precept of the fifth commandment, which enjoins the respect due to parents; for when a child had no mind to relieve the wants of his father or mother, he would say to them — "It is a gift (corban) by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;" i.e. "1 have devoted that to God which you ask of me, and it is no longer mine to give." Markvii, 11. CORDELIER, a Franciscan, or religious of the order of St. Francis. The denomination cordelier is said to have been given in the war of St. Lewis against the inlidcls, wherein the friar* COVENANT minor having rervilsed the barbarians, and that kin'f having inquired their name, it was answered, they were people cordeliez, " tied with ropes;" alluding to the girdle 0f rope, or cord, tied with th'ee knots, which thev wore as part of their habit. CORNARISTS, "the disciples of Theodore Cornhert, an enthusiastic secretary of the states of Holland. He wrote, at the same time, against the Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists. He maintained that every religious communion needed reformation ; but he added, that no per- son had a right to engage in accomplishing it without a mission supported by miracles. He was also of opinion, that a person might be a good Christian without being a member of any visible church. COVENANT, a contract, or agreement, between two or more parties on certain terms. The terms made use of in the Scriptures for covenant, are ry"!3 and SiaS^*,. The former sig- nifies choosing; or friendly parting; as in cove- nants each party, in a friendly manner, consented, and so bound himself to the chosen terms ; the latter signifies testament, as all the blessings of the covenant are freely disposed to us. The word covenant is also used for an immutable ordinance, Jer. xxxiii. 20; a promise, Exod. xxxiv. 10. Ts. lix. 21; and also for a precept, Jer. xxxiv. 13, ! 11. In Scripture we read of various covenants ; such as those made with Noah, Abraham, and the Hebrews at large. Anciently covenants were made and ratified with great solemnity. "The Scriptures allude to the cutting of animals asun- der , denoting that, in the same manner, the per- jured and covenant-breaker should be cut asun- der by the vengeance of God, Jer. xxxiv. 18. The covenants which more especially relate to the human race, are generally called the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The covenant of works is that whereby God requires perfect obedience from his creatures, in such a manner as to make no express provision for the pardon of offences committed against the precepts of it on the repentance of such offenders, but pronounces a sentence of death upon them, Gen. ii. Gal. iv. 24. Fs. lxxxix. 3, 4. The cove- nant of grace is generally defined to be that which was made with Christ, as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed, Is. xlii. 1—6. 1 Pet. i. 20. Is. lii. 13. I. The covenant of works was made with Adam ; the condition of which was, his perse- verance during the whole time of his probation : the reward annexed to this obedience was the continuance of him and his posterity in such per- fect holiness and felicity he then had, while upon earth, and everlasting life with God hereafter. The penalty threatened for the breach of the command was condemnation ; terminating in death temporal, spiritual, and eternal. The seals of this covenant were, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life ; and, perhaps, the Sabbath and Paradise, Gen. ii. hi. Gal. vi. 21. Rom. v. 12. 1!). This covenant was broken by Adam's eat- ing of the forbidden fruit, whereby he and his posterity were all subject to ruin, Gen. iii. Rom. v. 12. 19 ; and without the intervention of the divine grace and mercv, would have been lost for ever, Rom. iii. 23. The Divine Being, foreseeing this, in infinite wisdom and unspeakable compas- sion, planned the covenant of grace; by virtue of which his people are reinstated in the blessings 97 A' COVENANT of puritv, knowledge, and felicity, and that with. out a possibility of any farther defalcation. II. The covenant of grace. Some divines makes a distinction between the covenant of re- demption and that of grace; the former, they say, was made with Christ in eternity ; the latter with believers in time. Others object to this, and sup- pose it a needless distinction; for there is but one covenant of grace, and not two, in which the head and members are concerned; and, besides, the covenant ot grace, properly speaking, could not be made between God and man; for what can man restipulate with God, which is in his power to do or give him, and which God has not a prior right unto? Fallen man has neither in- clination to yield obedience, nor power to perform it. The, parties, therefore, in this covenant, are generally said to be the Father and the Son; but Dr. Gill supposes that the Holy Ghost should not be excluded, since he is promised in it, and, in consequence of it, is sent down into the hearts of believers ; and which must be by agreement, and with his consent. If we believe, therefore, in a Trinity, it is more proper to suppose that they were all engaged in this plan of the covenant, than to suppose that the Father and Son were engaged exclusive of the Holy Spirit, 1 John v. 6, 7. As to the work of the Son, it was the will and appointment of the Father that he should take the charge and care of his people, John vu 39. Heb. ii. 13; redeem them by his blood, John xvii, Heb. x ; obey the law in their room, Rom. x. 4; justify them by his righteousness, Dan. ix. 24, &c,, and finally, preserve them to glory, Isa. xl. 11. Jesus Christ, according to the divine purpose, became the representative and covenant head of his people, Eph. i. 22, 23. Col. i. 18. They were all considered in him, and represented by him, Eph. i. 4 ; promises of grace and glory made to them in him, Tit. i. 2. 1 Cor. i. 20 ; he suffered in their stead, 2 Cor. v. 21. He is also to be considered as the mediator of the covenant by whom justice is satisfied, and man reconciled to God. See art. Mediator. He is also the surety of this covenant, Heb. vii. 22, as he took the whole debt upon him, freed his people from the charge, obeyed the law, and engaged to bring his people to' glory, Heb. ii. 13. Isa. xlix. 5, 6. He is called the testator of the covenant, which is denominated a Testament, Heb. vii. 22. ix. 15. He disposes of his blessings, according to his will or testament, which is unalterable, signed by his hand, and sealed by his blood. In this covenant, as we before observed, the Holy Spirit also is engaged. His assent is given to every part thereof; he brings his people into the enjoyment of its blessings, 1 Pet, i. 2. 2 Thess. ii. 13. He was concerned in the incarnation of Christ, Matt i. 18, and assisted his human na- ture, Heb. ix. 14. He takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us; cleanses, en- lightens, sanctifies, establishes, and comforts his people, according to the plan of the covenant. Rom. viii. 15, 16. See Holy Ghost. III. The properties of this covenant are such as these : 1. It is eternal, being made before time. Eph. i. 3, 4. • 2 Tim. i. 9 —2. Divine ;>.s to its origin, springing entirely from free grace, Rom. si. 5, 6. Ps. lxxxix. 2, "3. 28.-3. It is absolute and unconditional, Eph. ii 8, '.').— 4. It is perfect and complete, wanting nothing, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5 — 5. It is sure and immoveable, Isa. liv. 10. Iv. 3 — 1 COVENANT (>. Called new in opposition to the old, and as its blessings will be always new, 1 [eb. \iii. 6. 8. IV. These two covenants above-mentioned agree in some things, in others they differ. 1. "In both," says Wit si us, " tho parties concerned are God and man. — 2. In both, the same promise of eternal life. — 3. The condition of both is the sum •, perfect obedience to the law prescribed ; for it is not worthy of God to admit man to a blessed communion with liim but in the way of holiness. — •J. In both is the same vn:\, the glory of God. But they differ io the following respects: 1. In the covenant of works, the character or relation of God is that of a supreme lawgiver, and the chief good, rejoicing to communicate happiness to his creatures. In the covenant of grace he appears as infinitely merciful, adjudging life to the elect sinner, agreeably to his wisdom and jus- tice.— 2. In the covenant of works there was no mediator: the covenant of grace has a mediator, Christ. — 3. In the covenant of works, the condi- tion of perfect obedience was required to be per- formed by man himself in covenant. In the co- venant oi" grace the same condition is proposed, but to be performed by a mediator. — 1. In the covenant of works man is considered as working, and the reward is to be given of debt. In the covenant of grace the man in covenant is consi- dered as believing ; eternal life being given as the merit of the mediator, out of free grace, which excludes all boasting. — 5. In the covenant of works something is required as a condition, which being performed, entitles to reward. The cove- nant of grace consists not of conditions, but of promises : the life to be obtained ; faith, by which we are made partakers of Christ; perseverance, and, in a word, the whole of salvation, are abso- lutely promised. — 6. The special end of the co- venant of works was the manifestation of the holiness, goodness, and justice of God ; but the special end of the covenant of grace, is the praise of the glory of his grace, and the revelation of his unsearchable and manifold wisdom." — 7. The covenant of works was only for a time, but the covenant of grace stands sure for ever. V. The administration of the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace, under the Old Testament, was exhibited by promises, sacrifices, types, ordinances, and prophecies. Under the New it is administered in the preaching of the Gospel, baptism, and the Lord's Supper; in which grace and salvation are held forth in more fulness, evidence, and erlicacy ^o all nations, 2 Cor. iii. 6 — 18. Heb. viii. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. But in both periods, the mediator, the whole substance, bless- ings, and manner of obtaining an interest, therein by faith, are the very same, without any differ- ence, Heb. xi. (!. Gal. iii. 7. 14. The reader, who may wish to have a more enlarged view of this subject, may peruse Witsius, Strong, or Boston on the Covenants, in the former of which especially he will find the subject masterly handled. COVENANT, in ecclesiastical history, denotes a contract or convention agreed toby the Scotch, in the year 1638, for maintaining their religion free from innovation. In 1681, the general assembly of Scotland drew up a confession of faith, or na- tional covenant, condemning episcopal govern- ment, under the name of hierarchy, which was signed by James 1. and which he enjoined on all his subjects. It was again subscribed in 1590 98 COVETOUSNESS and 159G. The subscription was renewed in 1638, and the subscribers engaged by oath to maintain religion in the same state as it was in 1580, and to reject all innovations introduced since that time. This oath, annexed to the con- fession of faith, received the name of Covenant, as those who subscribed it were called Covenant- ers. Solemn league and covenant was established in the year 1643, and formed a bond of union be- tween Scotland and England. It was sworn to and subscribed by many in both nations ; who hereby solemnly abjured popery and prelacy, and combined together for their mutual defence. It was approved by the parliament and assembly at Westminster, and ratified by the general assem- bly of Scotland in 1045. — King Charles I. disap- proved of it when he surrendered himself to the Scots army in 1646 ; but, in 1650, Charles II. declared his approbation both of this and the na- tional covenant by a solemn oath ; and, in Au- gust of the same year, made a further declaration at Dunfermline to the same purpose, which was also renewed on occasion of his coronation at Scone, in 1651. The covenant was ratified by parliament in this year ; and the subscription of it was required by every member, without which the constitution of the parliament was declared null and void. It produced a series of distrac- tions in the subsequent history of that country, and was voted illegal by parliament, and provi- sion made against it. Stat. 14 Car. II. c. 4. COVETOUSNESS, an unreasonable desire after that we have not, with a dissatisfaction with what we have. It may further be considered a* consisting in, 1. An anxious carking care abenu the things of this world. — 2. A rapacity in tret ting.— 3. Too frequently includes sinister and ille- gal ways of obtaining wealth. — L A tenacious- ness in keeping. It is a vice which marvellously prevails upon and insinuates itself into the heart of man, and for these reasons : it often bears a near resemblance to virtue ; brings with it many plausible reasons ; and raises a man to a state of reputation on account of his riches. " There cannot be," as one observes, "a more unreason- able sin than this. It is unjust; only to covet, is to wish to be unjust. It is cruel; the covetous must harden themselves against a thousand plaintive voices. It is ungrateful; such forget their former obligations and their present supporters. It is foolish; it destroys reputation, breaks the rest, unfits for the performance of duty, and is a con- tempt of God himself: it is unprecedented in all our examples of virtue mentioned in the Scrip- ture. One, indeed, spoke unadvisedly with his lips ; another cursed and swore ; a third was in a passion; and a fourth committed adultery; but which of the saints ever lived in the habit of co- vetousnessl Lastly, it is idolatry, Col. iii. 5, the idolatry of the heart ; where, as in a temple, the miserable wretch excludes God, sets up gold in- stead of him, and places that confidence in it which belongs to the Great Supreme alone." Let those who live in the habitual practice of it con- sider the judgments that have been inflicted on such characters, Josh. vii. 21. Acts v. ; the misery with which it is attended , the curse such persons are to society ; the denunciations and cautions respecting it in the Holy Scripture; and how effectually it bars nien from God, from happiness, and from heaven. Scott's Essays 72, 73. South'* COUNCIL Scrm., vol. iv. ser. 1. Robinson's Mor. Exercises, ex. iv. Saurin's Serin, vol. v. ser. 13. Eng. trans. COUNCIL, an assembly of persons met t(- gether for the purpose of consultation ; an assem- bly of deputies or commissioners sent from seve- ral churches, associated by certain bonds in a general body, Acts i. vi. xv. xxi. Council, (Ecumenical or General, is an ar.- Femblv which represents the whole body of the Christian church. The Romanists reckon eigh- teen of them, Builinger six, Dr. Pridcaux seven, and bishop Beveridge eight, which, he says, are all the general councils which hjtve ever been held since the time of the first Christian emperor. They are as follow: — 1. The council of Nice, held in the reign of Constantino the Great, on account of the heresy of Arius. — 2. The council of Constantinople, called under the reign and by the command of Theodosius the Great, for much the same end that the former council was sum- moned.— 3. The council of Ephesus, convened by Theodosius the Younger, at the suit of Nes- torius. — 4. The council at Chalcedon, held in the reign of Marcianus, which approved of the Eutychian heresy. — 5. The second council of Constantinople, assembled by the emperor Justi- nian, condemned the three chapters taken out of the book of Theodorusof Mopsuestia, having first decided that it was lawful to anathematize the dead. Some authors tell us that they likewise condemned the several errors of Origen about the Trinity, the plurality of worlds, and prc-existence of souls. — 6. The third council of Constantinople, held by the command of Constantius Pogonatus, the emperor, in which they received thc^lcfinitions of the first live general councils, and particularly (hat against Origen and Theodorus of Mopsues- tia.— 7. The second Nicene council. — 8. The fourth council of Constantinople, assembled when Louis II. was emperor of the West. Their regu- lations are contained in twenty-seven canons, the heads of which the reader may find in Dupin. Whatever may be said in favour of general coun- cils, their utility has been doubted by some of the wisest men. Dr. Jortin says, "they have been too much extolled by Papists, and by some Pro- testants. They were a collection of men who were frail and fallible. Some of those councils were not assemblies of pious and learned divines, but cabals, the majority of which were quarrel- some, fanatical, domineering, dishonest prelates, who wanted to compel men to approve all their opinions, of which they themselves had no clear conceptions, and to anathematize and oppress those who would not implicitly submit to their determinations." Jortin' s Works, vol, viL charge 2; Br ought oris Did.; Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., Index. Councils, Provincial or Occasional, have been numerous. At Aix-la-Chapelle, A. D. 81(3, a council was held for regulating the canons of ca- thedral churches. The council of Savonnieries, in 859, was the first which gave thrf. title of Most Chris! ian King to the King of France ; but it did not become the peculiar appellation of that sove- reign till 1 169. Of Troyes, in 887, to decide the disputes about the imperial dignity. The second council of Troyes, 1107, restrains the clergy from marrying. The council of Clermont, in 1095. The first crusade was determined in this council. The bishops had yet the precedency of cardinals. In this assembly the name of Pope was for the first time given to the head of the church, exclu- 99 CREATION si very of the bishops, who used to assume that title. Here, also, Hugh, archbishop of Lyons, obtained of the pope a confirmation of the primacy of his see over that of Sens. The council of Rheims, summoned by Eugenius III. in 1148, called an assembly of Cisastrian Gaul, in which advowees, or patrons of churches, are prohibited taking more than ancient fees, upon pain of de- privation and ecclesiastical burial. Bishops, dea- cons, subdeacons, monks, and nuns, are restrain- ed from marrying. In this council the doctrine of the Trinity was decided : but upon separation the pope called a congregation, in which the car- dinals pretended they had no right to judge of doctrinal points ; that this was the privilege pe- culiar to the pope. The council of Sutrium, in 1046, wherein three popes who had assumed the chair were deposed. The council of Clarendon in England, against Becket, held in 1164. The council of Lombcz, in the country of Albigeois, in 1200, occasioned by some disturbances on account of the Albigenses; a crusade was formed on this account, and an army sent to extirpate them. In- nocent III. spirited up this barbarous war. Do- minic was the apostle, the count of Toulouse the ■victim, and Simon, count of Montfort, the con- ductor or chief. The council of Paris, in 1210, in which Aristotle's metaphysics were condemned to the flames, lest the refinements of that philoso- pher should have a bad tendency on men's minds, by applying those subjects to religion. The coun- cil of Pisa, begun March the 2d, 1409, in which Benedict XI 11. and Gregory XII. were deposed. Another council, sometimes called general, held at Pisa, in 1505. Lewis XII. of France assem- bled a national council at Tours (being highly disgusted with the pope,) 1510, where was present the cardinal De Gurce, deputed by the emperor; and it was then agreed to convene a general coun- cil at Pisa. Murray's History of Religion* Council of Trent. See Trent. COURAGE is that quality of the mind that enables men to encounter difficulties and dangers. Natural courage is that which arises chiefly from constitution ; moral or spiritual is that which is produced from principle, or a sense of duty. Cou- rage and fortitude are often used as synonymous, but they may be distinguished thus : fortitude is firmness of mind that supports pain; courage is active fortitude, that meets dangers, and attempts to repel them. See Fortitude. Courage, savs Addison, that grows from constitution, very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it ; and when it is only a kind of instinct in the soul, it breaks out on all occasions without judgment or discretion ; but that courage which arises from a sense of duty, and from a fear of offending Him that made us, always acts in an uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason. CREATION, in its primary import, signifies the bringing into being something which did not before exist. The term is therefore most gene- rally applied to the original production of the materials whereof the visible world is composed. It is also used in a secondary or subordinate sense, to denote those subsequent operations of the Deity upon the matter so produced, by which the whole system of Nature, and all the primitive genera of tilings, receive their form, qualities, and laws. There is no subject concerning which learned men have differed hi their conjectures more than in this of creation. "It is certain," as a good CREATION writer observes, "that none of the .indent philo- sophers had the smallest idea of its being possible to produce a substance out of nothing, or that even the power of the Deity himself could work without any materials to work upon. Hence, some of them, among whom was Aristotle, as- serted that the world was eternal, both as to its matter and form. Others, though they believed that the gods had given the world its form, yet imagined the materials whereof it is composed to have heen eternal. Indeed, the opinions of the ancients, who had not the benefit of revelation, were on this head so confused and contradictory, that nothing of any consequence can be deduced from them. The free-thinkers of our own and of former ages have denied the possibility of cre- ation, as being a contradiction to reason; and of consequence nave taken the opportunity from thence to discredit revelation. On the other hand, many defenders of the sacred writings have as- serted that creation out of nothing, so far from being a contradiction to reason, is not only pro- bable, but demonstrably certain. Nay, some have gone so far as to say, that from the very inspec- tion of the visible system of Nature, we are able to infer that it was once in a state of non-exist- ence." We cannot, however, here enter into the multiplicity of the arguments on both sides ; it is enough for us to know what God has been pleased to reveal, both concerning himself and the works of his hands. Men, and other animals that in- habit the earth and the seas; all the immense va- rieties of herbs and plants of which the vegetable kingdom consists ; the globe of the earth ; and the expanse of the ocean, these we know to have been produced by his power. Besides the terrestrial world, which we inhabit, we see many other ma- terial bodies disposed around it in the wide extent of space. The moon, which is in a particular manner connected with our earth, and even de- pendent upon it; the sun, and the other planets, with their satellites, which like 'the earth cir- culate round the sun, and appear to derive from him light and heat; those bodies which we call lived stars, and consider as illuminating and che- rishing with, heat each its peculiar system of pla- nets; and the comets which at certain periods surprise us with their appearance, and the na- ture of whose connexion with the general system of Nature, or with any particular system of planets, we cannot pretend to have fully disco- vered; these are so many more of the Deity's works, from the contemplation of which we can- not but conceive the most awful ideas of liis cre- ative power. "Matter, however, whatever the varieties of form under which it is made to appear, the rela- tive disposition of its parts, or the motions com- municated to it, is but an inferior part of the works of creation. We believe ourselves to be animated with a much higher principle than brute matter; in viewing the manners and eco- nomy of the lower animals, we can scarce avoid acknowledging even them to consist of something more than various modifications of matter and motion. The other planetary bodies, which seem to be in circumstances nearly analogous to those of our earth, are surely, as well as it, destined for the habitations of rational, intelligent beings. The existence <,\' intelligences of an higher or- der than man, though infinitely below the Deity, appears extremely prolwble. Of these spiritual 100 CREATION beings, called angels, we have express intimation in Scripture (see the article Angel.) But the limits of the creation we must not pretend to de- fine. How far the regions of space extend, or how they are filled, we know not. How the planetary worlds, the sun, and the fixed stars are occupied, we do not pretend to have ascertained. We are even ignorant how wide a diversity of forms, what an infinity of living animated beings may inhabit our own globe. So confined is oui knowledge of creation, yet so grand, so awful, that part which our narrow understandings can comprehend. i "Concerning the periods of time at which the Deity executed his several works, it cannot be pretended that mankind have had opportunities of receiving very particular information. Many have heen the conjectures, and curious the fan- cies of learned men, respecting it ; but, after all, we must be indebted to the sacred writings for the best information." Different copies, indeed, give different dates. The Hebrew copy of the Bible, which we Christians, for good reasons, con- sider as the most authentic, dates the creation of the world 3944 years before the Christian era. The Samaritan Bible, again, fixes the era of the creation 4305 years before the birth of Christ. And the Greek translation, known by the name of the Septuagint version of the Bible, gives 5370 as the number of the years which inter- vened between these two periods. By comparing the various dates in the sacred writings, examin ing ho-.v these have come to disagree, and to be diversified in different copies ; endeavouring to reconcile the most authentic profane with sacred chronology, some ingenious men have formed schemes of chronology plausible, indeed, hut not supported by sufficient authorities, which they would gladly persuade us to receive in preference to any of those above mentioned. Usher makes out from the Hebrew Bible 4004 years as the term between the creation and the birth of Christ, Josephus, according to Dr. Wills and Mr. Whis- ton, makes it 4G58 years; and M. Pezron, with the help of the Septuagint, extends it to 5872 years. Usher's system is the most generally re- ceived. But though these different systems of chronology are so inconsistent, and so slenderly supported, yet the differences among them are so inconsiderable in comparison with those which arise before us when we contemplate the chrono- logy of the Chinese, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians, and they agree so well with the gene- ral information of authentic history, and with the appearances of nature and of society, that they may be considered as nearly fixing the true period of the creation of the earth." Uncertain, however, as we may be as to the exact tune of the creation, we may profitably apply ourselves to the contemplation of this immense fabric In- deed, the beautiful and multiform works around us must strike the mind of every beholder with wonder and admiration, unless he be enveloped in ignorance, and chained down to the earth with sensuality. These works every way proclaim the wisdem, the power, and the goodness of the Creator. Creation is a took which the nicest philosopher may study with the deepest attention. Unlike the works of art, the more it is examined, the more it opens to us sources of admiration of its great Author; the more it calls for our inspec- tion, and the more it demands our praise. Here CREED every thing is adjusted in the exactcst order; all answering the wisest ends, and acting according to the appointed laws of Deity. Here the Chris- tian is led into the most delightful field of con- templation. To him every pehhle becomes a preacher, and every atom a step by which he as- cends to his Creator. Placed in this beautiful temple, and looking around on all its various parts, he cannot help joining with the Psalmist in saying, " O Lord, how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all !" See Eter- nity of God. See Ray and Blaekmore on the Creation ; art. Creation'. Enc. Brit.; Dcr ham's Astro and Physico-thcology ; Harvey's Meditation ; ha Pluchc's Nature Displayed; Sturm's Reflec- tions on the Works of God. CREDULITY, the belief of any proposition without sufficient evidence of its truth. CREED, a form of words in which the ar- ticles of faith are comprehended. See Confes- sion. The most ancient form of creeds is that which goes under the name of the Apostles' Creed (see below) ; besides this, there are several other an- cient forms and scattered remains of creeds to be met with in the primitive records of the church ; as, — 1. The form of apostolical doctrine collected by Origen. — 2. A fragment of a creed preserved by Tertullian. — 3. A remnant of a creed in the works'' of Cyprian. — 4. A creed composed by Gregory Thaumaturgus for the use of his own church. — 5. The creed of Lucian, the. martyr. (J. The creed of the apostolical constitutions. Besides these scattered remains of the ancient creeds, there are extant some perfect forms, as those of Jerusalem, Cesarea, Antioch, &c, CREED, APOSTLES', is a formula or sum- mary of the Christian faith, drawn up, according to Ruffinus, by the apostles themselves; who, during their stay at Jerusalem, soon after our Lord's ascension, agreed upon this creed as a rule of faith. Bnronius and others conjecture that they did not compose it till the second year of Claudius, a little before their dispersion; but there are many reasons which induce us to ques- tion whether the apostles composed any such creed. For, 1. Neither St. Luke, nor any other writer before the fifth century, make any men- tion of an assembly of the apostles for composing a creed. — 2. The fathers of the first three centu- ries, in disputing against the heretics, endeavour to prove that the doctrine contained in this creed was the same which the apostles taught; but they never pretend that the apostles composed it. 3. If the apostles had made this creed, it would have been the same in all churches and in all ages ; and all authors would have cited it after the same man- ner. But the case is quite otherwise. In the se- cond and third ages of the church there were as many creeds as authors; and the same author sets down the creed after a different manner in seve- ral places of his works ; which is an evidence, that there was not, at that time, any creed reput- ed to be the apostles'. In the fourth century, Ruffinus compares together the three ancient creeds of the churches of Aquileia, Rome, and the East, which differ very considerably. Be- sides, these creeds differed not only in the terms and expressions, but even in the articles, some of which were omitted in one or othcT of them ; such as those of the descent into hell, the com- 101 CRISPITES munion of the saints, and the life everlasting. From all which it may be gathered, that though this creed may be said to be that of the apostles, in regard to the doctrines contained therein, yet it cannot be referred to them as the authors of it. Its great antiquity, however, may be inferred from hence, that the whole form, as it now stands in the English liturgy, is to be found in the works of St. Ambrose and Ruffinus; the former of whom flourished in the third, and the latter in the fourth century. The primitive Christians did not publicly recite the creed, ex- cept at baptisms, which, unless in cases of neces- sity, were only at Easter and Whitsuntide. The constant repeating of it was not introduced into the church till the end of the fifth century ; about which time Peter Gnaphius, bishop of Antioch, prescribed the recital of it every time divine ser- vice was performed. See King's History of the Apostles' Creed; and Barrow's Exposition of it, in his Works, vol. ii. CREED, ATHANASIAN, a formulary or confession of faith, long supposed to have l>een drawn up by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in the .fourth century, to justify himself against the calumnies of his Arian enemies ; but it is now generally allowed not to have been his. Dr. Wa- terland ascribes it to Hilary, bishop of Aries. This creed obtained in France about A. D. 850, and was received in Spain and Germany about 180 years later. As to our own country, we have clear proofs of its being sung alternately in our churches, in the tenth century. It was in common use in some parts of Italy in 9C0, and was receiv- ed at Rome about 1014. As to the Greek and Oriental churches, it has been questioned whether they have ever received it, though some writers are of a contrary persuasion. The episcopal churches of America have rejected it. As to the matter of it, it is given as a summary of the true orthodox faith. Unhappily, however, it has proved a fruitful source of unprofitable controversy. See Dr. Waterland's Critical History of it. CREED, NICENE, a formulary of Christian faith ; so called, because it is a paraphrase of that creed which was made at the. first general council of Nice. This latter was drawn up by the second general council of Constantinople, A. D. 381 ; and therefore might be more properly styled the Constantinopolitan creed. The creed was car- ried by a majority, and admitted into the church as a barrier against Arius and his followers. The three creeds above mentioned are used in the public, offices of the church of England, and subscription to them is required of all the esta- blished clergy. Subscription to these was also required of the dissenting teachers by the Tolera- tion Act ; but from which they are now relieved by 19 Geo. III. CRIME, a voluntary breach cf any known law. Faults result from human weakness, being transgressions of the rules of duty. Crimes pro- ceed from the wickedness of the heart, being ac- tions against the rules of nature. See Punish- ment and Sin. CRISPITES, those who adopt the sentiments of Dr. Crisp, a divine of the seventeenth century. He was fond, it is said, of expressions which alarm, and paradoxes which astonish; and per- plexed himself much about the divine purposes. He did not distinguish as he ought, between God's secret will in his decrees, and his revealed j 2 CROISADE will in his covenant and promises. The root of his emir seems to be this.-— he viewed the union between Christ and the believer to be of such a kind as actually to make a Saviour of the sinner. and a sinner of the Saviour, lie speaks as if God considered the sinner as doing and Buffering what Christ did and Buffered ; and Christ as hav- ing committed their sins, and as being actually guilty of them. See books under articles Anti- nomy ns and Neonomuns. Crisp's Scrmo?is, edited by Dr. Gill; Bogue and Bennett's His- tory of Dissenters, vol. i. p. 400. CROISADE, orCROSADE, may be applied to any war undertaken on pretence of defending the cause of religion, hut has been chiefly used for the expeditions of the Christians against the infidels for the conquest of Palestine. These expeditions commenced A. D. 109G. The foundation of them was a superstitious vene- ration for those places where our Saviour per- formed his miracles and accomplished the work of man's redemption. Jerusalem had been taken and Palestine conquered by Omar. This proved a considerable interruption to the pilgrims, who flocked from all quarters to perform their devo- tions at the holy sepulchre. They had, however, still been allowed this liberty, on paying a small tribute to the Saracen caliphs, who were not much inclined to molest them. But, in 10G4, this city changed its masters. The Turks took it from the Saracens ; and being much more fierce and barbarous, the pilgrims now found they could no longer perform their devotions with the same safety. An opinion was about this time also prevalent in Europe, which made these pilgrim- ages much more frequent than formerly: it was imagined that the 1006 years mentioned in Rev. x:c. were fulfilled; that Christ was soon to make his appearance in Palestine to judge the world; and consequently that journeys to that country were in the highest degree meritorious, and even absolutely necessary. The multitudes of pilgrims who now flocked to Palestine, meeting with a very rough reception from the Turks, filled all Europe with complaints against those infidels, who pro- fused the holy dty, and derided the sacred mys- teries of Christianity even in the place where they were fulfilled. Pope Gregory VII. had formed a design of uniting all the princes of Christendom against the Mahometans ; but. his exorbitant en- croachments upon the civil power of princes had created him so many enemies, and rendered his schemes so suspicious, that he was not able to make great progress isi his undertaking. The work was reserved for a meaner instrument. Pe- ter, commonly called the Hermit, a native of Amiens, in 1'icardv, had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem; ami being deeply affected with the (i tngera to which that act of piety now exposed the pilgrims, as well as with the oppression under which the eastern Christians now laboured, form- ed the hold, and, in all appearance, impracticable design of leading into Asia, from the farthest ex- tremities of the West, armies sufficient to subdue those potent and warlike nations that now held the holy land i,i slavery. 1 le proposed his scheme ti pope Martin 11., who, prudently resolving not to interpose his authority till he saw a probability of success, summoned sit Placentiaa council of ■1000 ecclesiastics, and 30,000 seculars. As no hall could be found large enough to contain such a multitude the assembly was held in a plain. 103 CROISADE Here the pope himself, as well as Peter, ha- rangued the people, representing the dismal situa- tion of their brethren in the East, and the indig- nity offered to the Christian name in allowing the holy city to remain in the hands of the infidels. These speeches were so agreeable to those who heard them, that the whole multitude suddenly and violently declared for the war, and solemnly devoted themselves to perform this service, which they believed so meritorious in the sight of God. But though Italy seemed to have embraced the design with ardour, Martin thought it necessary, in order to obtain perfect success, to engage the greater and more warlike nations in the same enterprise. Having, therefore, exhorted Peter to visit the chief cities and sovereigns of Christen- dom, he summoned another council at Clermont in Auvergne. The fame of this great and pious design being now universally diffused, procured the attendance of the greatest prelates, nobles, and princes : and when the pope and the hern sit re- newed their pathetic exhortations, the whole as- sembly, as if impelled by immediate inspiration, exrlsiimed with one voice, "It is the will of God !" These words were deemed so much the effect of divine impulse, that they were employed as the signal of rendezvous and battle in all future ex- ploits of these adventurers. Men of sill ranks now flew to arms with the utmost ardour, and a cros3 was affixed to their right shoulder by all who en- listed in this holy enterprise. At this time Eu- rope was sunk in the most, profound ignorance and superstition. The ecclesiastics had gained the greatest ascendency over the human mind : and the people, who committed the most horrid crimes and disorders, knew of no other expiation than the observances imposed on them by their spiritual pastors. But amidst the abject super- stition which now prevailed, the military spirit had also universally diffused itself; and, though not supported by art or discipline, was become the general passion of the nations governed by the feudal law. All the great lords possessed the right of peace and war. They were engaged in. continual hostilities with one another : the open country was become a scene of outrage and dis- order : the cities, still mean and poor, were nei- ther guarded by walls nor protected by privileges, Every man was obliged to depend for safety on his own force, or his private alliances; and valour was the only excellence which was held in es- teem, or gave one man the pre-eminence above another. When all the particular superstitions, therefore, were here united in one great object, the ardour for private hostilities took the same direc- tion; "and all Europe," as the princess Anna Comnena expresses it, "torn from its founda- tions, seemed ready to precipitate itself in one united body upon Asia." All ranks of men now deeming the crusades the only road to heaven, were impatient to open the way with their swords to the holy city. No- bles, artisans, peasants, even priests, enrolled their names; and to decline this service, was branded with the reproach of impiety or cowardice. The nobles were moved, by the romantic spirit of the agej to hope for opulent establishments in the Bast, the chief seat of arU and commerce at that time. In pursuit of these chimerical projects, they sold at low prices their ancient castles and inheritances, which had now lost sJl value in their eyes. The infirm and aged contributed to tins CROISADE expedition hy presents and money, and many of them attended it in person ; being determined, if possible, to breathe their last in sight of that city where their Saviour died for them. Even women, concealing their sex under the disguise of armour, attended the camp ; and often forgot their duty still more, by prostituting themselves to the army. The greatest criminals were forward in a service which they considered as an expiation for all crimes ; and the most enormous disorders were, during the course of these expeditions, committed by men inured to wickedness, encouraged by example, and impelled by necessity. The adven- turers were at last so numerous, that their saga- cious leaders became apprehensive lest the great- ness of the armament would be the cause of its own disappointment. For this reason they permitted an undisciplined multitude, computed at 300,000 men, to go before them under the command of Peter the hermit, and Gautier or Walter, sur- named the Moneyless, from his being a soldier of fortune. These took the road towards Constan- tinople through Hungary and Bulgaria; and trusting that heaven, by supernatural assistance, would supply all their necessities, they made no provision for subsistence in their march. They soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plun- der what they vainly expected from miracles; and the enraged inhabitants of the countries through which they passed attacked the disorder- ly multitude, and slaughtered them without re- sistance. The more disciplined armies followed after ; and, passing the straits of Constantinople, were mustered in the plains of Asia, and amount- ed in the whole to 700,000 men. The princes engaged in this first crusade were, Hugo, count of Vermandois, brother to Philip I. king of France; Robert, duke of Normandy; Robert, earl of Flanders; Raimond, earl of Toulouse and St. Giles ; the celebrated Godfrey of Bouil- lon, duke of Lorrain, with his brothers Baldwin and Eustace; Stephen, earl of Chartres and Blois ; Hugo, count of St. Paul; with many other lords. The general rendezvous was at Constan- tinople. In this expedition, Godfrey besieged and took the city of Nice. Jerusalem was taken by the confederated army, and Godfrey chosen king. The Christians gained the famous battle of Ascalon against the sultan of Egypt, which put an end to the first crusade, but not to the spirit of crusading. The rage continued for near two centuries. The second crusade, in 1144, was headed by the emperor Conrad III, and Louis VII. king of France. The emperor's army was either destroyed by the enemy, or perished through the treachery of Manuel, the Greek em- peror; and the second army, through the unfaith- fulness of the Christians of Syria, was forced to break up the siege of Damascus. The third crusade, 1188, immediately followed the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin, the sultan of Egypt. The princes engaged in this expedition were, the emperor Frederic Barbarossa ; Frederic, duke of Suabia, his second son ; Leopold, duke of Aus- tria; Berthold, duke of Moravia; Herman, mar- quess of Baden ; the counts of Nassau, Thurin- gia, Missen, and Holland ; and above sixty other princes of the empire ; with the bishops of Be- sanfon, Cambray, Munster, Osnaburg, Missen, Passau, Visburg, and several others. In this ex- pedition the emperor Frederic defeated the sultan of Iconium : his son Frederic, joined by Guy 103 CROISADE Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, in vain endeavour- ed to take Acre or Ptolemais. During these transactions, Philip Augustus, king of France, and Richard T. king of England, joined the cru- sade : by which means the Christian army con- sisted of 300,000 fighting men ; but great disputes happening between the kings of France and England, the former quitted the holy land, and Richard concluded a peace with Saladin. The fourth crusade was undertaken in 1195, by the emperor Henry VI. after Saladin's death. In this expedition the Christians gained several bat- tles against the infidels, took a great many towns, anil were in the way of success, when the death of the emperor obliged them to quit the holy land, and return into Germany. The fifth crusade was published by pope Innocent III. in 1198. Those engaged in it made fruitless efforts for the reco- very of the holy land ; for, though John de Neule, who commanded the fleet equipped in Flanders, arrived at Ptolemais a little after Simon of Mont- fort, Renard of Dampierre, and others, yet the plague destroyed many of them, and the rest either returning or engaging in the petty quarrels of the Christian princes, there was nothing done; so that the. sultan of Aleppo easily defeated their troops in 1204. The sixth crusade began in 1228 ; in which the Christians took the town of Damietta, but were forced to surrender it again. In 1229, the emperor Frederic made peace with the sultan for ten years. About 1240, Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry III, king of England, arrived at Palestine, at the head of the English crusade ; but finding it most advantage- ous to conclude a peace, he re-imbarked, and steered towards Italy. In 1244, the Karasmians being driven out of Turkey by the Tartars, broke into Palestine, and gave the Christians a general defeat near Gaza. The seventh crusade was headed, in 1249, by St. Lewis, who took the town of Damietta; but a sickness happening in the Christian army, the king endeavoured a re- treat ; in which, being pursued by the infidels, most of his army were miserably butchered, and himself and the nobility taken prisoners. A truce was agreed upon for ten years, and the king and lords set at liberty. The eighth cru- sade, in 1279, was headed by the same prince, who made himself master of the port and castle of Carthage in Africa ; but dying a short time after, he left his army in a very ill condition. Soon after, the king of Sicily coining up with a good fleet, and joining Philip the Bold, son and successor of Lewis, the king of Tunis, after se- veral engagements with the Christians, in which he was always worsted, desired peace, which was granted upon conditions advantageous to the Christians; after which both princes embarked to their own kingdoms. Prince Edward, of England, who arrived at Tunis at the time of this treaty, sailed towards Ptolemais, where he landed a small body of 300 English and French, and hindered Bendochar from laying siege to Ptolemais ; but being obliged to return to take possession of the crown of England, this crusade ended without contributing any thing to the re- covery of the holy land. In 1291, the town of Acre or Ptolemais was taken and plundered by the sultan of Egypt, and the Christians quite driven out of Syria. There has been no crusade since that period, though several popes have at- tempted to stir up the Christians to such an un- CROISADES dertaking; particuiarlv Nicholas IV. in 1292, and Clement V. in 1311. Though these crusades were effects of the most absurd superstition, they tended greatly to promote the good of Europe. Multitudes, indeed, were destroyed. M. Voltaire computes the peo- ple who perished in the different expeditions at upwards of two millions. Many there were, however, who returned ; and these having con- versed so long with people who lived in a much more magniticent way than themselves, began to entertain some taste for a refined and polished way of life. Thus the barbarism in which Europe had been so long immersed began to Wear off soon after. The princes also who re- mained at home, found means to avail themselves of the frenzy of the people. By the absence of such numbers of restless and martial adventurers, peace was established in their dominions. They also took the opportunity of annexing to their crowns many considerable fiefs, either by pur- chase, or the extinction of the heirs; and thus the. mischiefs which must always attend feudal governments were considerably lessened. With regard to the bad success of the crusaders, it was scarcely possible that any other thing could hap- pen to them. The emperors of Constantinople, instead of assisting, did all in their power to dis- concert their schemes : they were jealous, and not without reason, of such an inundation of barba- rians. Yet, had they considered their true in- terests, they would rather have assisted them, or at least stood neuter, than enter into alliances with the Turks. They followed the latter me- thod, however, and were often of very great dis- service to the western adventurers, which at last occasioned the loss of their city. But the worst enemies the crusaders had were their own inter- nal feuds and dissentions. They neither could agree while marching together in armies with a view to conquest, nor could they unite their con- quests under one government after they had made them. They set up three small states, one at Jerusalem, another at Antioch, and another at Edessa. These states, instead of assisting, made war upon each other, and on the Greek emperors ; and thus became an easy prey to the common enemy. The horrid cruelties they committed, too. must have inspired the Turks with the most in- vincible hatred against them, and made them resist with the greatest obstinacy. They were such as could have been committed only by bar- barians inflamed with the most bigoted enthu- siasm. When Jerusalem was taken, not only the numerous garrison were put to the sword, but the inhabitants were massacred without mercy and without distinction. No age or sex was Bpared, not even sucking children. According to Voltaire, some Christians who had been suffer- ed by the Turks to live in that city, led the con- querors into the most private caves, where wo- men had concealed themselves with their children, and not one of them was suffered to escape. What eminently shows the enthusiasm by which these conquerors were animated, is, their beha- viour after this terrible slaughter. They marched over heaps of dead bodies towards the holy se- pulchre; and while their hands were polluted with the blood of so many innocent persons, sunn anthems to the common Saviour ^\' mankind ! Nay, so far did tin ir religious enthusiasm over- come their fury, that the.-*; ferocious conquerors 104 CROISADES now burst into tears. If the absurdity and wick- edness of their conduct can be exceeded by any thing, it must be what follows. In 1204, the frenzy of crusading seized the children, who are ever ready to imitate what they sec their parents engaged in. Their childish folly was encour- aged by the monks and schoolmasters ; and thou- sands of those innocents were conducted from the houses of their parents on the superstitious interpretation of these words :' " Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou per- fected praise." Their base conductors sold a part of them to the Turks, and the rest perished miserably. Hume's Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 292, &c" and vol. ii. p. 280; Enc. Brit.; and Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. CROISIERS, a religious order, founded in honour of the imention or discovery of the cross by the empress Helena. They were, till of late, dispersed in several parts of Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, France and Bohemia ; those of Italy were suppressed even before the late revolutions. These religious follow the rule of St. Augustine. They had in England the name of Crouched Friars. CROSIER, or Crozier, a shepherd's crook ; a symbol of pastoral authority, consisting of a gold or silver staff, crooked at the top, carried occasionally before bishops and abbots, and held in the hand when they give the solemn benedictions. CROSS, in Scripture language, means the sufferings of Christ, Gal. vi. 14. The sufferings. trials, or persecutions of the people are also called a cross, Matt, xvi 24. Cross signifies also a gibbet, made with two pieces of wood, placed crosswise, whether they cross with right angles at the top like a T, or in the middle of their length like an X. The cross on which our Sa- viour was fastened, and on which he died, was of the former kind ; being thus represented by old monuments, coins, and crosses. The death of the cross was the most dreadful of all others, both for the shame and pain of it ; and so scan- dalous, that it was inflicted as the last mark of detestation upon the vilest of people. It was the punishment of robbers and murderers, provided that they were slaves too; but otherwise, if they were free, and had the privilege of the city of Rome, this was then thought a prostitution of that honour, and too infamous a punishment for such a one, let his crimes be what they would. The form of a cross being such as has been already described, the body of the criminal was fastened to the upright piece by nailing the feet to it, and on the other transverse piece generally by nail- ing the hands on each side. .Now, because these parts of the body, being the instruments of action and motion, are provided by nature with a much greater quantity A nerves than others have occa- sion for ; and because all sensation is performed by the spirit contained in the nerves; it will fol- low, as Stanhope observes, that wherever they abound, the sense oi' pain must needs in propor- tion be more quick and tender. The Jews con- fess, indeed, that tbey crucified people in their nation, but deny that they inflicted this punish- ment upon any one alive. They first put their. to death, and' then fastened them to the cross, either by the bands or neck. But there are in- disputable proofs of their crucifying men fre- quently alive. The worshippers of Baal-pear and the King of Ai were hungup alive; as were CROSS also the descendants of Saul, who were put into the hands of the Gibeonites. '2 Sam, xxi. 9. Before crucifixion, the criminal was generally scourged with cords • sometimes little bones, or pieces of bones, were tied to these scourges, so that the condemned person might suffer more severely. It was also a custom, that lie who was to be crucified should bear his own cross to the place of execution. After this manner, we find Christ was compelled to bear his cross ; and as he sunk under the burden, Simon the Cyrenian was constrained to bear it after him and with him. But whereas it is generally supposed that our Lord bore the whole cross, i. e. the long and transverse part both, this seems to be a thing im- possible; and therefore Lipsius (in his treatise De Supplicio Cruris) has set the matter in a true light, when he tells us that Jesus only carried the transverse beam, because the long beam, or the body of the cross, was either fixed in the ground before, or made ready to be set up as soon as the prisoner came ; and from hence he observes, that painters are very much mistaken in the description of our Saviour carrying the whole cross. There were several ways of cruci- fying ; sometimes the criminal was fastened with cords to a tree, sometimes he was crucified with his head downwards. This way, it is said, Peter chose, out of respect to his master, Jesus Christ, not thinking himself worthy to be cruci- fied like him ; though the common way of cruci- fying was by fastening the criminal with nails, one through each hand, and one through both feet, or one through each of them ; for this was not always performed in the same manner; the ancients sometimes represent Jesus Christ, cruci- fied with four nails, and sometimes with three. The criminal was fixed to the cross quite naked; and, in all probability, the Saviour of sinners was not used with any greater tenderness than others upon whom this punishment was inflicted. The text of the Gospel shows clearly that Jesus Christ was fastened to the cross with nails ; and the Psalmist (Ps. xxii. l(j) had foretold long be- fore, that they should pierce his hands and his feet; but there are great disputes concerning the number of the nails. 1' he Greeks represent our Saviour as fastened to the cross with four nails ; in which particular Gregory of Tours agrees with them, one on each hand and foot. But several are of opinion, that our Saviour's hands and feet were pierced with three nails only, viz. one on each hand, and one through both his feet : and the custom of the Latins is rather for tliis last opinion ; for the generality of the old crucifixes made in the Latin church have only three nails. Nonnus thinks that our Saviour's arms were Besides bound fast to the cross with chains ; and St. Hilary speaks of the cords wherewith he was tied to it. Sometimes they who were fastened upon the cross lived a good while in that condi- tion. St. Andrew is believed to have continued three days alive upon it. Eusebius speaks of cer- tain martyrs in Eg'r,it, who were kept upon the cross till they were starved to death. Pilate was amazed at Jesus Christ's dying so soon, because naturally he must have lived 'onger, if it had not been in his power to have laid down his life, and to take it up again. The thighs of the two thieves, who were crucified with our Saviour, were broken, in order co hasten their death, that their bodies might not remain upon the cross on 105 O CRUCIFIX the Sabvath-day, John .ux. 31. ^3; and to com- ply with the law of Moses, which forbids ihe bodies to be left there alter sun-set. But, among other nations, they were sutler ed to remain upon the cross a long time. Sometimes they were de- voured alive by birds and beasts of prey. Guards were appointed to observe that none of their friends or relation should take them down and bury (hem. The Roman soldiers, who had cru- cified Jesus Christ and the two thieves, continued near the crosses till the bodies were taken down and buried. Intention of the Cross, an ancient feast solem- nized on the 3d of May, hi memory of St. Hele- na's (the mother of Constantine) finding the true cross of Christ deep in the ground on Mount Calvarv, where she erected a church for the pre- servation of part of it ; the rest being brought to Rome, and deposited in the church of the Hoiy Cross of Jerusalem. Exaltation of the Cross, an ancient feast held on the 14th of September, in memory of this, that Heraclitus restored to Mount Calvary the true cross, in G42, which had been carried off four- teen years before by Cosroes, king of Persia, upon his taking Jerusalem from the emperor Phocas. The Adoration of the Cross seems to havo been practised in the ancient church, inasmuch as the heathens, particularly Julian, reproached the primitive Christians with it; and we do not find that their apologists disclaimed the charge. Mornay, indeed, asserted that this had been done, by St. Cyril, but could not support his allega- tion at the conference of Fontainebleau. St Helena is said to have reduced the adoration of the cross to its just principle, since she adored Christ in the wood, not the wood itself. With such modifications, some Protestants have been induced to admit the adoration of the cross. John Huss allowed of the phrase, provided it were expressly added, that the adoration was relative to the person of Christ. But, however Roman Catholics may seem to triumph by virtue of such distinction and mitigations, it is well known they have no great place in their own practice, lrnbert, the prior of Gascony, was se- verely persecuted in 1G83 for telling the people, that, in the ceremony of adoring the cross, prac- tised in that church on Good Friday, they were not to adore the wood, but Christ, who was crucified on it. The curate of the parish told them the contrary. It was the wood ; the wood they were to adore. Imbert replied, it was Christ, not the wood: for which he was cited before the archbishop of Bourdeaux, suspended from Ids functions, and even threatened with chains and perpetual imprisonment. It little availed him to cite the bishop oi' Meaux's dis- tinction; it was answered, that the church allow ed it not. CROSS-BEARER, in the Romish Church, the chaplain of an archbishop, who bears a cross before him on solemn occasions. Cross-bearers also denote certain officers in the inquisition, who make a vow before the inquisitors, or their vicars, to defend the Catholic faith, though with the loss o\' fortune and life. Their business is also to provide the inquisitors with necessaries. CRUCIFIX, a cross, upon which the body of Christ is fastened in effigy, used by the Roman catholics, to excite in their minds a strong idea et our Saviour's passion. CURIOSITY CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST. See Cross. CRUSADE. See Croisade. CURATE, the lowest degree in the church of England; he who represents the incumbent of a church, parson, or vicar, and officiates in his stead : he is to he licensed and admitted by the bishop of the diocese, or by an ordinary having episcopal jurisdiction ; and when a curate hath the approbation of the bishop, lie usually appoints the salary too; and, in such case, if he be not I .aid, the curate hath a proper remedy in the ecclesiastical court, by a sequestration of the pro- fits o( the benefice ; but if the curate be not li- censed by the bishop, he is put to his remedy at common law, wdiere he must prove the agree- ment, &c. A curate, having no fixed estate in his curacy, not being instituted and inducted, may be removed at pleasure by the bishop or in- cumbent. But there are perpetual curates as well as temporary ; who are appointed where tithes are impropriate, and no vicarage endowed : these are not removeable, and the impropriators are obliged to find them; some whereof have certain portions of the tithes settled on them. Curates must sub- scribe the declaration according to the Act of Uni- formity, or are liable to imprisonment. Though the condition of curates be somewhat amelior- ated by a late act, it must be confessed that they are still, in many respects, exposed to hardships ; their salaries are not equal to many dissenting ministers, who have nothing to depend on but the liberality of their people. Can there be a greater reproach to the dignified ecclesiastics of this country, than the comparatively miserable pittance allowed the curates, who do all the la- bour? Surely they must be a set of useless beings, to reap so little wages ; or else they are unjustly treated. CURIOSITY, a propensity or disposition of the soul which inclines it to inquire after new ob- jects, and to delight in viewing them. Curiosity js proper, when it springs from a desire to know our duty, to mature our judgments, to enlarge our minds, and to regulate our conduct ; hut impro- per, when it wishes to know more of God, of the decrees, the origin of evil, the state of men, or the nature of things, than it is designed for us to know. The evil of this is evident. It reproaches God's goodness ; it is a violation of Scripture, Deut. xxii. 29; it robs us of our time; it often makes us unhappy ; lessens our usefulness,'and produces mischief. To cure this disposition, let us consider the divine command, Phil. iv. (!, that every thing essential is revealed ; that God can- not err; that we shall be satisfied in a future state, Isa. xiii. 7. Curiosity concerning the af- fairs of others, is exceedingly reprehensible. " It interrupts," says an elegant writer, " the order, and breaks the peace of society. Persons of this disposition are dangerous troiiblers of the world. I 'fosaing the lines in which others move, they create confusion, and awaken resentment. Hence, many a friendship has been broken ; the peace of many a family has been overthrown; and much bitter and lasting discord has been propagated through society. Such a disposition is entirely the reverse of that amiable spirit of charity our Lord inculcates. Charity, like the sun, brightens every object on which it shines ; a censorious dis- position casts every character into the darkest ■hade it will bear. It is to be further observed, lhat all impertinent curiosity about the affairs of 106 CYNlGfc others tends greatly to obstruct personal reforma- tion. They who are so officiously occupied about their neighbours, have little leisure, and less in- clination, to observe their own defects, or to mind their own duty. From their inquisitive researches, they find, or imagine they find, in the behaviour of others, an apology for their own failings ; and the favourite result of their inquiries generally is, to rest satisfied with themselves. We should con- sider, also, that every excursion of vain curiosity about others is a subtraction from that time and thought which are due to ourselves, and to God. In the great circle of human affairs, there is room for every one to be busy and well employed in his own province, without encroaching upon that of others. It is the province of superiors to di- rect, of inferiors to obey : of the learned to be in- structive ; of the ignorant to be docile ; of the old to he communicative ; of the young to be advisa- ble and diligent. In all the various relations which subsist among us in life, as husband and wife, masters and servants, parents and children, relations and friends, rulers and subjects, innumer- able duties stand ready to be performed ; innumer- able calls to activity present themselves on every hand, sufficient to fill up with advantage and ho- nour the whole time of man." — Blair's Serm. vol. iv. ser. 8 ; Clark's Scrm. ser. on Deut. xxix. 29 ; Seed's Post. Serm. ser. 7. CURSE, the action of wishing any tremend- ous evil to another. In Scripture language, it signifies the just and lawful sentence of God's law, condemning sinners to suffer the full punish- ment of their sin, Gal. iii. 10. CURSING and Swearing. See Swearing. CUSTOM, a very comprehensive term, de- noting the manners, ceremonies, and fashions of a people, which having turned into habit, and passed into use, obtain the force of laws. Cus- tom and habit are often confounded. By custom, we mean a frequent reiteration of the same act ; and by habit, {he effect that custom has on the mind or the body. See Habit. " Viewing man," says Lord Karnes, " as a sen- sitive being, and perceiving the influence of no- velty upon him, would one suspect that custom has an equal influence ? and yet our nature is equally susceptible of both : not only in different objects, but frequently in the same. When an ob- ject is new, it is enchanting ; familiarity renders it indifferent ; and custom, after a longer fami- liarity, makes it again desirable. Human nature, diversified with many and various springs of ac- tion, is wonderful, and, indulging the expression, intricately constructed. Custom hath such influ- ence upon many of our feelings, by warping and varying them, that we must attend to. its opera- tions, if we w-ould be acquainted with human na- ture. A walk upon the quarter-deck, though in- tolerably confined, becomes, however, so agreeable by custom, that a sailor, in his walk on shore, confines himself commonly within the same bounds. I knew a man who had relinquished the sea for a country life: in the corner of his garden he reared an artificial mount, with a level summit, resembling, most accurately, a quarter- deck, not only in shape, but in size : and here was his choice walk." Such we find is often tho power of custom. CYNICS, a sect of ancient philosophers, who valued themselves upon their contempt of riches and state, a ts and sciences, and every thing, in DEMONIAC short, except virtue, and morality. They owe their origin and institution to Antisthenes of Athens, a disciple of Socrates ; who bein, the doctrine of demoniacal possession. It is mentioned in the New Testament in such language, and such nar- ratives are related concerning it, that the Gospels cannot be well regarded in any other light than as pieces of imposture, and Jesus Christ must be considered as a man who took advantage of the weakness and ignorance of his contemporaries, if this doctrine be nothing but a vulgar error; it teaches nothing inconsistent with the general conduct of Providence; in short, it is not the caution of philosophy, but the pride of reason that suggests objections against this doctrine. See the essays of Young, Farmer, Wortliington. Dr. Lardner, Macknight, Fell, Burgh, dj'c. on Dce- moniacs ; Seed's Posthumous Sermons, set. vi. and article D,emomac in Enc. Brit. DAMNATION, condemnation. This word is used to denote the final loss of the soul ; but it is not always to be understood in this sense in the sacred Scripture. Thus it is said in Rom. xiii. 2, "They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation, i. e. condemnation, " fi om the rulers, who are not a terror to good works, but to the evil." Again, in 1 Cor. xi. 29: " He that, eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself;" i. e. condemnation ; ex- poses himself to severe temporal ju Igments from God, and to the judgment and censure of the wise and good. Again, Rom. xiv. 23 : " He that doubteth is damned if he eat ;" i. e. is con- demned both by his own conscience and the word of God, because he is far from being satis- fied that he is right in so doing. DANCERS, a sect which sprung up about 1373 in Flanders, and places about. It was their custom all of a sudden to fall a dancing, ijnd, holding each other's hands, to continue thereat, till, being suffocated with the extraordinary vio- lence, they fell down breathless together. During these intervals of vehement agitation they pre- tended they were favoured with wonderful vi- sions. Like the Whippers, they roved from place to place, begging their victuals, holding their secret assemblies, and treating the priest- hood and worship of the church with the utmost contempt. Thus we find, as Dr. Haweis ob- serves, that the French Convulsi onists and the Welch Jumpers have had predecessors of the same stamp. There is nothing new under the sun. Haweis and Mosheim's Ch. Hint. Cent. 14. DARKNESS, the absence, privation, or want of natural light. In Scripture 1 mguage it also signifies sin, John iii. 19; trouW - Is. viii. 2:2; obscurity, privacy, Matt. x. 27 'orgetfulness, contempt, Ecc. vi. 4. Darkness, says Moses, was upon the face of the deep, Gen. i. 2 • that is to sav, the chaos was 109 DAVIDISTS plunged in thick darkness, because hitherto the light was not created. Moses, at the command of God, brought darkness upon Egypt, as a plague to the inhabitants of it. The Septuagint, our translation of the Bible, and indeed most other*, in explaining Moses's account of this darkness, render it "a darkness which maybe felt;" and the Vulgate has it, ;i palpable darkness ;" that is, a darkness consisting of black vapours and exha- lations, so condensed that they might be per- ceived by the organs of feeling or seeing ; but some commentators think that this is carrying the sense too far, since, in such a medium as this, mankind could not live an hour, much less for the space of three days, as the Egyptians are said to have done, during the time this darkness last- ed ; and, therefore, they imagine that instead of a darkness that may be felt, the Hebrew phrase may signify a darkness wherein men went grop ing and feeling about for every thing they want- ed. Let this, however, be as it may, it was an awful judgment on the Egyptians ; and we may naturally conclude that it must have also spread darkness and distress over their minds as well as their persons. The tradition of the Jews is, that in this darkness they were terrified by the appa- ritions of evil spirits, or rather by dreadful sounds and murmurs which they made. What made it still worse, was the length of time it continued : three days, or as Bishop Hall expresses it, six nights in one. During the last three hours that our Saviour hung upon the cross, a darkness covered the face of the earth, to the great terror and amazement of the people present at his execution. Tins ex- traordinary alteration in the face of nature, says Dr. Macknight, in his Harmony of the Gospels, was peculiarly proper, whilst the Sun of Right- eousness was withdrawing his beams from the land of Israel, and from the world ; not only be- cause it was a miraculous testimony borne by God himself to his innocence, but also because it was a fit emblem of his departure and its effects, at least till his light shone out anew with addi- tional splendour in the ministry of his apostles. The darkness which now covered Judea, and the neighbouring countries, beginning about noon, and continuing till Jesus expired, was not the effect of an ordinary eclipse of the sun, for that can never happen but at the new moon, whereas now it was full moon ; not to mention that the total darkness occasioned by eclipses of the sun never continues above twelve or fifteen minutes : wherefore it nmst have been produced by the di- vine power, in a manner we are not able to ex- plain. Accordingly Luke (chap, xxiii. 44, 45.) after relating that there was darkness over all the earth, adds, " and the sun was darkened ;" which perhaps may imply that the darkness of the sun did not occasion, but proceeded from, the darkness that was over all the land. Further, the Chris- t'an writers, in their most ancient apologies to the heathens, affirm that as it was full moon at the passover when Christ was crucified, no such eclipse could happen by the course of nature. They observe, also, that it was taken notice of as a prodigv by the heathen themselves. DA ViDlSTS, the adherents of David George, a native of Delft, who, in 1525, began to preach a new doctrine, publishing himself to be the true Messiah; and that he was sent of God to fill heaven, which was quite empty for want of peo- K DEAN pie. to deserve it. He is likewise said to have de- nied the existence of angels, good and evil, and to have disbelieved the doctrine of a future judgment He rejected marriage with the Adamites; held with Manes, that the soul was not defiled by sin; and laughed nt the self-denial so much recom- mended by Jesus Christ. Such were his princi- pal errors, lie made his escape from Delft, and retired first into Kriesland, and then to Basil, where he changed his name, assuming that of John Brack, and died m 1556. He left, some disciples behind him, to whom he promised that he would rise again at the end of three years. Nor was he altogether a false prophet herein ; for the magistrates of that city being informed, at the three years' end, of what he had taught, ordered him to be dug up, and burnt, together with his writings, by the common hangman. DEACON, Aixxcvuf, a servant, a minister. 1. In ecclesiastical polity, a deacon is one of the lowest of the three orders of the clergy. He is rather a novitiate, or in a state of probation for one year, after which he is admitted into full orders, or ordained a priest. 2. In the New Testament the word is used for any one that ministers in the service of God : bishops and presbyters arc also styled deacons ; but more particularly and generally it is under- stood of the lowest order of ministering servants in the church, 1 Cor. iii. 5. Col. i. 23, 23. Phil. i. 1. 1 Tim. iii. The office of deacons originally was to serve tables, the Lord's table, the minister's table, and the poor's table. They took care of the secular affairs of the church, received and disbursed mo- nies, kept the church's accounts, and provided every thing necessary for its temporal good. Thus, while the bishop attended to the souls, the deacons attended to the bodies of the people: the pastor to the spiritual, and the deacons to the tem- poral interests of the church, Acts vi. DEACON ESS, a female deacon. It is gene- rally allowed, that in the primitive chun h there were deaconesses, i. e. pious women, whose par- ticular business it was to assist in the entertain- ment and care of the itinerant preachers, visit the sick and imprisoned, instruct female catechumens, and assist at their baptism; then more particularly necessary, from the peculiar customs of those countries, the persecuted stale of the church, and the speedier spreading of the Gospel. Such a one it is reasonable to think Phcbe was, Rom. xvi. 1, who is expressly called Ataxovo;', a deaconess or stated servant, as Doddridge renders it. They were usually widows, and, to prevent scandal, generally in years, 1 Tim. v. 9. See also Span- hcim. HUt. Christ. Sposed office, or any rules about it, it is very justlv laid aside, at least as an office. DEAN, an ecclesiastical dignitary, next under the bishop, in cathedral churches, and head of the 110 DECALOGUE chapter. The .Latin word is decanus, derived from the Creek a.-**, ten, because the dean pre- sides over at least ten canons, or prebendaries. A dean and chapter are the bishop's council, to assist him in the affairs of religion. DEATH is ire ncrally defined to be the sepa- ration of the soul from the body. It is styled, in Scripture language, a departure out of this world to another, 2 Tim. iv. 7 ; a dissolving of the earthly house of this tabernacle, 2 Cor. v. 1 ; a going the way of all the earth, Jos. xxiii. 14; a rcturnimi to the dust, Ecc. xii. 7; a sleep, John xi. 11. Deatii may be considered as the effect of sin, Rom. v. 12: yet, as our existence is from God, no man has a right to take away his own life, or the life of another, Gen. ix. 6. Satan is said to have the -power of death, Heb. ii. 14; not that he can at his pleasure inflict death on man- kind, but as he was the instrument of first bring- ing death into the world, John viii. 44 ; and as he may be the executioner of God's wrath on im- penitent sinners, when God permits him. Death is but ffnee, Heb. ix. 27; certain, Job xiv. 1, 2; powerful, and terrific, called the king of terrors, Job xviii. 14; uncertain as to the time, Prov. xxviii. 1: universal, Gen. v; necessary, that God's justice may be displayed, and his mercy manifest- ed; demable to the righteous, Luke ii. 28 — 30. The /«» of death is a source of uneasiness to the generality, and to a guilty conscience it may indeed be terrible; but to a good man it should be obviated by the consideration, that death is the termination of every trouble ; that it puts him be- yond th-; reach of sin and temptation; that God has pron.secl to be with the righteous, even to the end, Heb xiii. 5; that Jesus Christ has taken away the sting, 1 Cor. xv. 54; and that it intro- duces hm' to a state of endless felicity, 2 Cor. v. 8. Prep n ationfor death. This does not consist in bare morality; in an external reformation from gross sins; in attention to a round of duties in our own strength; in acts of charity ; in a zealous profession ; in possessing eminent gifts; but in reconciliation to God; repentance of sin; faith in Christ; obedience to his word ; and all as the ef- fect of regeneration by the Spirit. 3 John iii. 6. 1 Cor. xi 3. Tit. 5. 'Bates's four last Things, Hopkins, Drelincourt, Sherlock, and Fcllowes, on Death; Bp. Porteus's Poem on Death; Grove's Admirable Sermon on the Fear of Death; Watts's World to Come; Law's Theory of Rcligim. Spiritual Death is that awful state of igno- rance, insensibility, and disobedience, which man- kind are in by nature, and which exclude them from the Hvour and enjoyment of Cod, Lukei.79. See Sin. Broil. t-s of Death, a denomination usually given to ihe religious of the order of St. Paul, the first hermit. They are called brothers of (hath, on recount of the figure of a death's head which t.Uev were always to have with them, in order to keep perpetually before them the thoughts of death. The order was probably suppressed by pope Ur'n.n VIII. See Atonement; Pearson and Banow on the Creed; Owen's Death of Death in the Death of Christ; Charnock't Works, I'd. ii. on the Necessity, Voluntariness, qV. of the Death of Christ. DEC A LOG UE, the ten commandments given by God to Moses. " The ten commandments were engraved by God DECLAMATION on two tables of stone. The Jews, by way ot eminence call these commandments the ten words, from whence they had afterwards, the name of decalogue ; but they joined the first and second into one, and divided the last int6 two. They understand that against stealing to relate to the stealing of men, or kidnapping ; alleging, that the stea'ing one another's goods or property is forbidden in the last commandment. The church of R.ime has struck the second command- ment quite out of the decalogue ; and, to make their number complete, has split the tenth intc two. The reason is obvious. DECEIT consists in passing any thing upon a person for what it is not, as when falsehood is made to pass for truth. See Hypocrisy. DECEPTION, SELF. See Self-Decep- .ON. DECLAMATION, a speech made in public in the tone and manner of an oration, uniting the expression of action to the propriety of pronun- ciation, in order to give the sentiment its full im- pression on the mind. It is also used in a dero- gatory sense ; as when it is said, such a speech was mere declamation, it implies that it was defi- cient in point of reasoning, or had more sound than sense. Declamation of the Pulpit. "The dig- nity and sanctity of the [dace, and the importance of the subject, require the preacher to exert the utmost powers of his voice, to produce a pronun- ciation that is perfectly distinct and harmonious, and that he observe a deportment and action which is expressive and graceful. The preacher should not roar like a common crier, and rend the ear with a voice like thunder ; for such kind of de- clamation is not only without meaning and with- out persuasion, but highly incongruous with the meek and gentle spirit of the Gospel. He should likewise take particular care to avoid a monotony : his voice should rise from the beginning, as it were, by degrees, and its greatest strength should be exerted in the application. Each inflexion of the voice should be adapted to the phrase and to the meaning of the words ; and each remarkable expression should have its peculiar inflexion. The dogmatic requires a plain uniform tone of voice only, and the menaces of God's word de- mand a greater force than its promises and re- wards ; but the latter should not lie pronounced in the soft tone of a flute, nor the former with the loud sound of a trumpet. The voice should still retain its natural tone in all its various inflexions. Happy is that preacher who has a voice that is at once strong, flexible, and harmonious. An air of complacency and benevolence, as well as de- votion, should be constantly visible in the coun- tenance of the preacher ; but every appearance of affectation must be carefully avoided ; for no- thing is so disgustful to an audience as even the semblance of dissimulation. Eyes constantly rolling, turned towards heaven, and streaming with tears, rather denote a hypocrite than a man possessed of the real spirit of religion, and who feels the true import of what he preaches. An air of affected devotion infallibly destroys the effi- cacy of all that the preacher can say, however just and important it may be. On the other hand, he must axoid every appearance of mirth or raillery, or of that cold unfeeling manner which is so ?pt to freeze the heart of his hearers. The body should in general be erect and in a natural 111 DECREES and easy attitude. The perpetual movement or contortion of the body has a ridiculous effect in the pulpit, and makes the figure of a preacher and a harlequin too similar ; on the other hand, he ought not to remain constantly upright and motionless, like a speaking statue. The motions of the hands give a strong expression to a dis- course; but they should be decent, grave, noble, and expressive. The preacher who is incessantly in action, who is perpetually clasping his hands, or who menaces with a clenched fist, or counts his arguments on his fingers, will only excite mirth among his auditory. In a word, declama- tion is an art that the sacred orator should study with assiduity. The design of a sermon is to convince, to affect, and to persuade. The voice, the countenance, and the action, which are to produce the triple effect, are therefore objects to which the preacher should particularly apply him- self." See Sermon. . DECREES OF GOD are his settled pur- poses, whereby he foreordains whatsoever comes to pass, Dan. iv. 24. Acts xv. 18. Eph. i. 11. This doctrine is the subject of one of the m>st perplexing controversies that has occurred among mankind ; it is not, however, as some think, a novel doctrine. The opinion, that whatever occurs in the world at large, or in the lot of private indi- viduals, is the result of a previous and unalterable arrangement by that Supreme Power which pre- sides over Nature, has always been held by many of the vulgar, and has been believed by specula- tive men. The indent stoics, Zeno and Chry- sippus, whom the Jewish Essenes seem to have followed, asserted the existence of a deity, that, acting wisely but necessarily, contrived the st change in God's under- standing, it would bo an instance of imperfection, Mai. iii. (!. — 5. They are extensive or universal, relating to all creatures and things in heaven, earth, and hell, Eph. i. 11. Prov. xvi. 4.-6. They are secret, or at least cannot he known till he be pleased to discover them. It is therefore presump- tion for any to attempt to enter into or judge of his sec r>t purpose, or to decide upon what he has not revealed, Deut. xxiv. 2f>. Nor is an unknown or supposed decree at any time to he the rule of our conduct. His revealed will alone must be considered as the rule by which we are to judge of the event of things, as well as of our conduct at large, Rom. xi. 34. — 7. Lastly, they are effec- tual; for as he is infinitely wise to plan, so he is infinitely powerful to perform: his counsel shall stand, and he trill do all his pleasure, Isa. xlvi.10. This doctrine should teach us, 1. Admiration. " He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his wavs are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he." Deut. xxxii. 4. — 2. Reverence. " Who would not fear thee, O King of nations ? for to thee doth it appertain," Jer.x. 7.— 3. Humility. "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! — how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !" Roin. xi. 33.' — 4. Sub- mission. For he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou '?" Dan. iv. 35. — 5 Desire for heaven. " What I do, thou know- est not now ; but thou shalt krow hereafter," John xiii. 7. See Necessity, Predestination. Decrees of Councils are the laws made by them to regulate the doctrine and policy of the church. Thus the acts of the Christian council at Jerusalem are called, Acts xvi. 4. DECRETAL, a letter of a pope, determining some point or question in the ecclesiastical law. The decretals compose the second part of the ca- non law. The first genuine one, acknowledged by all the learned as such, is a letter of pope Si- ricius, written in the year 383, to Himerus, bishop of Tarragona, in Spain, concerning some dis- orders which had crept into the churches of Spain. Gratian published a collection of decretals, con- taining all the ordinances made by the popes till the year 1130. Gregory IX. in 1227, following the example of Theodosius and Justinian, formed a constitution of his own, collecting into one body all the decisions and all the causes which served to advance the papal power ; which collection of decretals was called the Pentateuch, because it contained five books. DEDICATION, a religious ceremony, where- by any person or thing is solemnly consecrated, or set apart to the service of God and the pur- poses of religion. The use of dedication is very ancient, both among the worshippers of the true God, and among the heathens. In the Scripture we meet with dedications of the tabernacle, altars, &q. Under Christianity dedication is only applied to b church, and is properly the consecration there- of! See Consecration. DEFENCE. See Self-defence. DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, (Fidei Defensor,) a peculiar title belonging to the king of England; as Callwlicus to the king of Spain, and Christ ianissimus to the king of France. 112 DEISTS These titles were given by the popes of Rome. That of Fidei Defensorwas first conferred by Lee X. on king Henrv VI 11. for writing against Mar- tin Luther: and the bull for it bears dnte rjuinto idus, October 1521. It was afterwards confirmed by Clement 711. Eut the pope, on Henry's suppressing the houses of religion, at the time of the Reformat'O'i, not only deprived him of his title, but deposed him from his crown also; though in the 35th year i f his reign, his title, &c. was con- firmed by parliament, and has continued to be used by all his successors. Chamberlayne says, the title belonged to the kings of England before that time, and for proof hereof appeals to several charters gran'ed to the University of Oxford: so that pope Leo's bull was only a renovation of an ancient right. DEGRADATION, Ecclesiastical, is the de- privation of a priest of his dignity. We have an instance of it in the eighth century at Constanti- nople, in the person of the patriarch Constantine, who was made to go out of the church backwards, stripped of his pallium, and anathematized. In our own couittry, Cranmer was degraded by or- der of the bloody queen Mary. They dressed him in episcopal r.bes, made only of canvass; put the mitre on his head, and the pastoral staff in his hand, and in this attire showed him to the people, and then stripjt'd him piece by piece. DEISTS, a class of people whose distinguish- ing character it is, not to profess any particular form or system of religion ; but only to acknow- ledge the existence of a God, and to follow the light and law cf Nature, rejecting revelation and opposing Chiistianity. The name of deists seems to have been first assumed, as the denomination of a party, about the middle of the 16th century, by some gentlemen in France and Italy, who were desirous of thus disguising their opposition to Christianity by a more honourable appellation than that of atheists. Viret, an eminent reformer, mentions certain persons in his epistle dedicatory, prefixed to the second volume of his Instruction Chritiennc, published in 1653, who called them- selves by a new name, that of deists. These, he tells us, professed to believe in God, but show- ed no regard to Jesus Christ, and considered the doctrine of the apostles and evangelists as fables and dreams. He adds, that they laughed at all religion, though they outwardly conformed to the religion of those with whom they lived, or whom they wished to please, or feared to offend. Some, he observed, professed to believe the immortality of the soul ; others denied both this doctrine and that of provide! ice. Many of them were consid- ered as persons of acute and subtle genius, and took pains in disseminating their notions. The deists hold, that, considering the multiplicity of religions) the numerous pretences to revelation, and the precarious arguments generally advanced in proof thereof, the best and surest way is to re- turn to the simplicity of nature, and the belief of one God; which is'the only truth agreed to by all nations. They complain, that the freedom of thinking and reasoning is oppressed under the yoke of religion, and that the minds of men are tyrannized over, by the necessity imposed upon them of believing inconceivable mysteries; and contend that in thin_' sIhhiKI be required to be as- sented to or believed but what their reason clearly conceives. The distinguishing character of mo- dern deists is, that they discard ail pretences to DEISTS revelation as the effects of imposture or enthusi- asm. They profess a regard for natural religion, though they arc far from being agreed in their notions concerning it. They are classed by some of their own writers into mortal and immortal deists : the latter acknowledging a future state ; and the former denying it, or representing it as very uncertain. Dr. Clarke distinguishes four sorts of deists. 1. Those who pretend to believe the existence of an eternal, infinite, independent, intelligent Being, who made the world, without concerning himself in the government of it. — 2. Those who believe the being and natural providence of God, but deny the difference of actions as morally good or evil, resolving it into the arbitrary constitution of human laws; and therefore they suppose that God takes no notice of them. With respect to both these classes, he observes, that their opinions can consistently terminate in nothing but down- right atheism. — 3. Those who, having, right ap- prehensions concerning the nature, attributes, and all-governing providence of God, seem also to have some notion of his moral perfections ; though they consider them as transcendant, and such in nature and degree, that we can form no true judgment, nor argue with any certainty concern- ing them : but they deny the immortality of hu- man souls ; alleging that men perish at death, and that the present life is the whole of human existence. — 4. Those who believe the existence, perfections, and providence of God, the obligations of natural religion, and a state of future retribu- tion, on the evidence of the light of Nature, with- out a divine revelation ; such as these, he says, are the only true deists : but their principles, he apprehends, should lead them to embrace Chris- tianity ; and therefore he concludes that there is now no consistent scheme of deism in the world. The first deistical writer of any note that ap- peared in this country, was Herbert, baron of Oherbury. He lived and wrote in the seven- leenth century. His book De Vcritatc was first published at Paris in 1624. This, together with his book De Causis Errorum, and his treatise De Religione Laid, were afterwards published in London. His celebrated work De Religione Gentilium was published at Amsterdam in 1663 in 4to., and in 1700 in 8vo. ; and an English translation of it was published at London in 1705. As he was one of the first that formed deism into a system, and asserted the sufficiency, universality, and absolute perfection of natural religion, with a view to discard all extraordinary revelation as useless and needless, we shall sub- join the five fundamental articles of this universal religion. They are these: 1. There is one su- preme God. — 2. That he is chiefly to be wor- shipped.— 3. That piety and virtue arc the prin- cipal part of his worship. — 4. That we must re- pent of our sins; and if we do so, God will par- don them. — 5. That there are rewards for good men and punishments for bad men. both here and hereafter. A number of advocates have appeared m the same cause; and however they may have differed among themselves, they have been agreed in thsir attempts at invalidating the evidence and authority of divine revelation. We might men- tion Hobbes, Blount, Toland, Collins, Wool- Bton, Tindal, Morgan, Chubb, lord Bolingbroke, Hume, Gibbon, Paine, and some add lord Shaf- tesbury to the number. Among foreigners, Vol- 113 P DELUGE taire, R msseau, Condorcet, and many other cele- brated French authors, have rendered themselves conspicuous by their deistical writings. " But," as one observes, " the friends of Christianity have no reason to regret the free and unreserved dis- cussion which their religion has undergone. Ob- jections have been stated and urged in their full force, and as fully answered ; arguments and raillery have been repelled ; and the controversy between Christians and deists has called forth a great number of excellent writers, who have il- lustrated both the doctrines and evidences of Christianity in a manner that will ever reflect honour on their names, and be of lasting service to the cause of genuine religion, and the best in- terests of mankind." See articles Christianity, Infidelity, Inspiration, and Scripture, in this work. Leland's View of Deistical Writers; Sermons at Boyle's Lecture ; Halyburton's Na- tural Religion insufficient ; Leslie's Short Me- thod with the Deists ; Bishop Watson's Apology for the Bible ; Fullers Gospel of Christ its own Witness; Bishop Porteus's Charge to the Cler- gy, for 1794 ; and his Summary of the Evi- dences of Christianity. DEITY OF CHRIST. See Jesus Christ. DELUGE, the flood which overflowed and destroyed the earth. This flood makes one of the most considerable epochas in chronology. Its history is given by Moses, Gen. vi. and vii. Its time is fixed by the best chronologers to the year from the creation 1656, answering to the year before Christ 2293. Fiom this flood, the state of the world is divided into diluvian and ante- dilwcian. Men who have not paid that regard to sacred history which it deserves, have cavilled at the ac- count given of an universal deluge. Their ob- jections principally turn upon three points: 1. The want of any direct history of that event by the profane writers of antiquity. — 2. The ap- parent impossibility of accounting for the quan tity of water necessary to overtiow the whole earth to such a depth as it is said to have been. — And, 3. There appearing no necessity for an uni- versal deluge, as the same end might have been accomplished by a partial one. To the above arguments we oppose the plain declarations of Scripture. God declared to Noah that he was resolved to destroy every thing that had breath under heaven, or had life on the earth, by a flood of waters ; such was the threatening, such was the execution. The waters, Moses assures us, covered the whole earth, buried all the mountains ; every thing perished therein that had life, excepting Noah and those with him in the ark. Can an universal deluge be more clearly expressed 1 If the deluge had only been partial, there had been no necessity to spend a hundred years in the building of an ark, and shutting up all sorts of animals therein, in order to re-stock the world : they had been easily and readily brought from those parts of the world not over- flowed into those that were ; at least, all the birds never would have been destroyed, as Moses says they were, so long as they had wings to bear them to those parts where the flood did not reach. If the waters had only overflowed the neighbour- hood of the Euphrates and the Tigris, they could not be fifteen cubits above the highest mountains* there was no rising that height but they must spread themselves, by the laws of gravity, over ' k2 DEPRECATORY the rest of the earth ; unless perhnps they had (>een retained there by a miracle; in that case, Aloises, no doubt, would have related the miracle, as he did that of the waters of the Red Sea, &C. It may also be observed, that in regions far remote from the Euphrates and Tigris, viz. Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, &c. there are frequently found, in places many scores of leagues from the sea, and even in the tops of high moun- tains, whole trees sunk deep under ground, as also teeth and bones of animals, fishes entire, sea shells, ears of corn, &e. petrified ; which the best naturalists are agreed could never have come there but by the deluge. That the Greeks and western nations had some knowledge of the flood, lias never been denied; and the Mussulmen, Chinese, and Americans, have traditions of the deluge. The ingenious Mr. Bryant, in his My- thology, has pretty clearly proved that the deluge, so far from being unknown to the heathen world at large, is in reality conspicuous throughout every one of- their acts of religious worship. In India, also, Sir William Jones has discovered, that in the oldest mythological books of that country, there is such an account of the deluge as corresponds sufficiently with that of Moses. Various have been the conjectures of learned men as to the natural causes of the deluge. Some have supposed that a quantity of water was created on purpose, and at a proper time anni- hilated by Divine power. Dr. Burnet supposes the primitive earth to have been no more than a crust investing the water contained in the ocean ; and in the central abyss, which he and others suppose to exist in the bowels of the earth sit the time of the flood, this outward crust broke in a thousand pieces, and sunk down among the water, which thus spouted up in vast cataracts and over- flowed the whole surface. Others, supposing a sufficient fund of water in the sea or abyss, think that the shifting of the earth's centre of gravity drew after it the water out of the channel, and overwhelmed the several parts of the earth suc- cessively. Others ascribe it to the shock of a comet ; and Mr. King supposes it to arise from subterraneous fires bursting forth with great vio- lence under the sea. But are not most, if not all these hypotheses quite arbitrary, and without foundation from the words of Moses ? It is, per- haps, in vain to attempt accounting for this event by natural causes, it being altogether miraculous and supernatural, as a punishment to men for the corruption then in the world. Let us be satisfied with the sources which Moses gives us, namely, the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven opened ; that is, the waters rushed out from the hidden abyss of the bowels of the earth, and the clouds poured down their rain incessantly. Let it suffice us to know, that all the elements are under God's power ; that he Can do with them as he pleases, and frequently in vays we are ignorant of, in order to accomplish nis own purposes. The principal writers on this subject have been Woodyard, Cockburn, Bryant, Burnet, Whis- oii, Slillingjlcet, King, Catcott, Tytlcr, and Yforthington. DEPRAVITY, corruption, a change from perfection to imperfection. See Fall, Sin. DEPRECATORY, a term applied to the manner of performing some ceremonies in the form of prayer. The form of absolution in the 111 OBSTRUCTIONISTS Greek church is deprecative, thus expressed — May God absolve you ; whereas in the Latin church it is declarative — / absolve you. DES( 'F.XT of Christ into Hell. See Heu.. DESERTION, a term made use of to denote an unhappy state of mind, occasioned by the sen- sible influences of the divine favour being with drawn. Some of the best men in all ages have suffered a temporary suspension of divine enjoy- ments, Job xxix. 'J; l's. li ; Isn.xlix. 14; Lain, iii. 1; Isa. i. 10. The causes of this must not be attributed to the Almighty, since he is always the same, but must arise from ourselves. Neglect of duty, improper views of Providence, self-con- fidence, a worldly spirit, lukewarmness of mind, inattention to the means of grace, or open trans- gression, may be considered as leading to this state. As all things, however, are under the divine controul, so even desertion, or, as it is sometimes expressed in Scripture, "the hidings of God's face," may be useful to excite humility, exercise faith and patience, detach us from the world, prompt to more vigorous action, bring us to look more to God as the fountain of happiness, conform us to his word, and increase our desires for that state of blessedness which is to come. Ilcrrci/s Titer, and Asp. dial, xix.; Wattes Medit. on Job, xxiii. 3; Lambert's Ser. vol. i. ser. 16 ; Floret's Works, vol. i. p. 167. folio. DESIRE is an eagerness to obtain or enjoy an object which we suppose to be good. Those desires, says Dr. Watts, that arise without any express ideas of the goodness or agreeableness of their object to the mind beforehand, such as hun- ger, thirst, &c, are called appetites. These which arise from our perception or opinion of an object as good or agreeable, are most properly called passions. Sometimes both these are united. If our desire to do or receive good be not violent, it is called a simple inclination or propensity. When it rises high, it is termed longing: when our desires set our active powers at work to obtain the very same good, or the same sort of good, which another desires, it is called emulation. Desire of pleasures of sense, is called sensuality ; of honour, is called ambition; of riches, coretous- ness. The objects of a good man's desires are, that God may be glorified, his sins forgiven and subdued, his affections enlivened and placed on God as the supreme object of love, his afflictions sanctified, and his life devoted to the service of God. Prov. xi. 23 ; Ps. cv. 19 DESPAIR, loss of hope ; that state of mind in which a person loses his confidence in the di- vine mercy. Some of the best antidotes against despair, says one, may be taken from the consideration, 1. Of the nature of God, his goodness, mercy, &c. — •2. The testimony of God : he hath said, he de- sireth not the death of the sinner. — 3. From the works of God : he hath given his son to die.— 4. From his promises, Heb. xiii. 5. — 5. From his command : he hath commanded us to confide in his mercy. — 6. From his expostulations, &c. Baxter on Religious Melancholy ; Claude's Essays, p. 388, Robinson's Edit. ; Osborne's Sermon on Religious Despondency. DESTRUCTIONISTS, those who believe that the final punishment threatened in the Gos- pel to the wicked and impenitent consists not in an eternal preservation in misery and torment, but in a total extinction of being ; and that the sen- OBSTRUCTIONISTS fence of annihilation shall be executed with more or less torment, preceding or attending the final period, in proportion to the greater or less guilt of the criminal. The name assumed by this denomination, like those of many others, takes for granted the ques- tion in dispute, viz. that the Scripture, word de- struction means annihilation : in strict propriety of speech, they should he called Annihilationists. The doctrine is largely maintained in the ser- mons of Mr. Samuel Bourn, of Birmingham ; it was held, also, by Mr J. N. Scott; Mr. John Taylor, of Norwich; Mr. Marsom, and many others. In defence of the system, Mr. Bourn argues as follows : — There are many passages of Scripture in which the ultimate punishment to which wick- ed men shall be adjudged is defined, in the most precise and intelligible terms, to be an everlasting destruction from the power of God, which is equally able to destroy as to preserve. So when our Saviour is fortifying the minds of his disci- ples against the power of men, by an awe of the far greater power of God, and the punishment of his justice, he expresseth himself thus : Fear not them that kill the body, and after that hare no more that they can do; fear him who is able to de- stroy both soul and body in hell. Here he plainly proposes the destruction of the soul (not its end- less pain and misery) as the ultimate object of the divine displeasure, and the greatest object of our fear. And when he says, These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal, it appears evident that by that eternal punishment which is set in opposition to eternal life, is not meant any kind of life, how- ever miserable, but the same which the apostle expresses bv everlasting destruction from the presence and power of the Lord. The very term, death, is most frequently made use of to signify the end of wicked men in another world, or the final effect of divine justice in their punishment. 77te wages of sin (saith the apostle) i* death; but eternal life is the gift of God, through Christ Jesus our Lord. See also Rom. viii. G. To imagine that by the term death is meant an eternal life, though in a condition of extreme misery, seems, according to him, to be confound- ing all propriety and meaning of words. Death, when applied to the end of wicked men in a fu- ture state, he says, properly denotes a total ex- tinction of life and being. It may contribute, he adds, to fix this meaning, if we observe that the state to which temporal death reduces men is usually termed by our Saviour and his apostles, sleep; because from this death the soul shall be raised to life again : but from the other, which is fully and properly death, and of which the former is but an image or shadow, there is no recovery ; it is an eternal death, an everlasting destruction from tlie presence of the Lord, and the glory of hii power. He next proceeds to the figures by which the eternal punishment of wicked men is described, and finds them perfectly agreeing to establish the same doctrine. One figure or comparison, often used, is that of combustible materials thrown into afire, which will consequently be entirely con- sumed, il'the fire be not quenched. Dcpartfrom vie, ye cursed, into everlasting fi re, prepared for the devil and his angels. The meaning is, a to- tal, irrevocable destruction : for, as the tree that M5 OBSTRUCTIONISTS bringcth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, and is destroyed ; as the useless chaff when separated from the good grain, is set on fire, and, if the fire be not quenched, is con- sumed : so, he thinks, it plainly appears, that the image of unquenchable or everlasting fire is not intended to signify the degree or duration of tor- ment, but the" absolute certainty of destruction, bevond all possibility of recovery. So the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to have suffered the vengeance of an eternal fire, that is, they were so effectually consumed, or destroyed, that they could never he rebuilt ; the phrase, eternal fire, signifying the irrevocable destruction of those ci- ties, not the degree or duration of the misery of the inhabitants who perished. The images of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched, used in Mark ix. 43, are set in opposition to entering into life, and intended to denote a period of life and existence. Our Saviour expressly assigns different degrees of future misery, in proportion to men's respec- tive degree of guilt, Luke xii. 47, 48. But if all wicked men shall suffer torments without end, how can any of them be said to suffer but a few stripes 1 All degrees and distinctions of punish- ment seem swallowed up in the notion of never- ending or infinite misery. Finally, death and eternal destruction, or anni- hilation, is properly styled in the New Testament an everlasting punishment, as it is irrevocable and unalterable forever; and it is most strictly and literally styled, an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and fro in the glo- ry of his power. Dr. Edwards, in his answer to Dr. Chauncey, on the salvation of all men, says that this scheme was nrovisionally retained by Dr. C. ; i. e. in case the scheme of universal salvation should fail him ; and therefore Dr. E., in his examination of that work, appropriates a chapter to the consideration of it Among other reasonings against it are the following : — 1. The different degrees of punishment which the wicked will suffer according to their works, proves that it does not consist in annihilation, which admits of no degrees. 2. If it be said that the punishment of the wicked, though it will end in annihilation, yet shall be preceded by torment, and that this will be of ditierent degrees, according to the degrees of sin; it may be replied, this is making it to be compounded partly of torment, and partly of anni- hilation. The latter also appears to he but. a small part of future punishment, for that alone will be indicted on the least sinner, and on account of the least sin; and that all punishment which will be inflicted on any person above that which is due to the least sin, is to consist in torment. Nay, if we can form any idea in the present state of what would be dreadful or desirable in another, instead of its being any punishment to be anni- hilated after a long series of torment, it must be a deliverance, to which the sinner would look for- ward with anxious desire. And is it credible that this was the termination of torment that our Lord held up to his disciples as an object of dread ? Can this be the destruction of body and soul in hell? Is it credible that everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, shouTd constitute only a part, and a small part, of future punishment ; and such too. DETRACTION «s, after a scries of torment, must, next to being made happy, he the most acceptable thin;,' that could belal them ? Can this be the object threat- ened by such language, as recompensing tribula- tion, and talcing vengeance in naming fire? 2 Thess. i. Is it possible that God should threaten them with putting an end to their miseries? Moreover, this destruction is not described as the conclusion of a succession of torments, but as taking place immediately after the last judgment. When Christ shall come to he glorified in his saints, then shall the wicked be destroyed. 3. Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. cannot mean annihilation, for that would be no exertion of divine power, but merely the suspen- sion of it ; for let the upholding power of God be withheld for one moment, and the whole creation would sink into nothing. 4. The punishment of wicked men will be Me same as that of wicked angels, Matt. xxv. 41. Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. But the punish- ment of wicked angels consists not in annihila- tion, but torment. Such is their present punish- ment in a degree, and such in a greater degree will be their punishment hereafter. They are "cast down to hell;" they "believe and trem- ble ;" they are reserved in chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day ; they cried, saying, " What have we to do with thee ? Art thou come to torment us before our time ?" Could the devils but persuade themselves they should be annihilated, they would believe and be at ease rather than tremble. 5. The Scriptures explain their own meaning in the use of such terms as death, destruction, &c. The second death is expressly said to con- sist in being ca*t into the lake of fire and brim- stone ; and as having c part in that lake, Rev. xx. 14 ; xxi. 8 ; which does not describe anni- hilation, nor can it be made to consist with it. The phrase cut him asunder, Matt. xxiv. 51, is as strong as those of death or destruction ; yet that is made to consist of having their portion vith hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. G. The happiness of the righteous does not consist in eternal being, but eternal well-being; and as the punishment of the wicked stands every where opposed to it, it must consist, not in the loss of being, but of well-being, and in suffering the contrary. The great Dr. Watts may be considered, in some measure, a destructionist ; since it was his opinion that the children of ungodly parents who die in infancy arc annihilated. See Annihila- tion', Hell; Bourn's Sermons; Dr. Edicards an the salvation of all men strictly examined ; Adams's View of Religion ; M' Alia on Univer- salism. DETRACTION, in the native importance of the word, signifies the withdrawing or taking off from a thing ; and as it is applied to the repu- tation, it denotes the impairing or lessening a man in point of fame, rendering him less valued and esteemed by others. Dr. Barrow observes (Works, vol. i. ser. 1!),) that it differs from slan- der, which involves an imputation of falsehood; from reviling, which includes bitter and foul language; and from censuring, which is of a nwre general [iurj>ort, extending indifferently to 116 DEUTEROCANONICAL all kinds of persons, qualities, and actions, btl detraction especially respects worthy persona, good qualities, and laudable actions, the reputa- tion of which it aimeth to destroy. It is a fault opposed to candour. Nothing can be more incongruous with the spirit of the Gospel, the example of Christ, th« command of God, and the love of mankind, than a spirit of detraction ; and yet there are many who never seem happy but when they are em- ployed in this work ; they feed and live upon the supposed infirmities of others; they allow excel* lence to none ; they depreciate every thing that is praiseworthy ; and, possessed of no good them- selves, they think all others are like thein. " O ! my soul, come thou not into their secret; untu their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united." DPWIL, AiaSoxo;, calumniator, or slanderer; a fallen angel, especially the chief of them. He is called Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek, that is, destroyer. — Angel of the bottom- less pit, Rev. ix. 11. — Prince of the world, John xii. 31. — Prince of darkness, Eph. vi. 12. — A roaring lion, and an adversary, 1st Pet. v. 8. — A sinner from the beginning, 1 John iii. 8. — Beel- zebub, Matt. xii. 24. — Accuser, Rev. xii. 10. — Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15. — Deceiver, Rev. xx. 10. — Dragon, Rev. xii. 3. — Liar, John viii. 44. — Le- viathan, Isa. xxvii. 1 — Murderer, John viii. 44. — Serpent, Isa, xxvii. 1. — Satan^ Job ii. 6. — Tor- mentor, Matt, xviii. 34. — The God of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4. See Satan. DEVOTEE, in the primary sense of the word, means a person wholly given up to acts of piety and devotion ; but it is usually understood, in a bad sense, to denote a bigot, or superstitious person. DEVOTION, a religious and fervent exer- cise of some public act of religion, or a temper and disposition of the mind rightly affected with such exercises. It is also taken for certain reli- gious practices which a person makes it a rule to discharge regularly. " Wherever the vital and unadulterated spirit of Christian devotion pre- vails, its immediate objects will be to adore the perfections of God ; to entertain with reverence and complacence the various intimations of his pleasure, especially those contained in holy writ; to acknowledge our absolute dependence on and infinite obligations to him ; to confess and lament the disorders of our nature, and the transgressions of our lives; to implore his* grace and mercy through Jesus Christ ; to intercede for our bre- thren of mankind ; to pray for the propagation and establishment of truth, righteousness, and ]>cac«, on earth ; in fine, to long for a more en- tire conformity to the will of God, and to breathe after the everlasting enjoyment of his friendship. The effects of such a spirit habitually cherished, and feelingly expressed before him, must surely be important and happy. Among these may be reckoned a profound humility in the sight of God, a high veneration for his presence and attri- butes, an ardent zeal for his worship and honour, a constant imitation of our Saviour's divine ex- ample, a diffusive charity for men of all denomi- nations, a generous and unwearied self-denial, a total resignation to Providence, an increasing esteem for the Gospel, with clearer and firmer hopes of that immortal life which it has brought to light " DEUTEROCANONICAL, in the school DIET theology an appellation given to certain books of holy Scripture, which were added to the canon tiler the rest, either by reason they were not written till after the compilation of the canon, or by reason of some dispute as to their canonicity. The word is Greek, being compounded of o{, second; and xxvovixo?, canonical. The Jews, it is certain, acknowledged several hooks in their canon, which were put there later than the rest They say that, under Esdras, a great assembly of their doctors, which they call, by way of eminence, the great synagogue, made the collection of the sacred books which we now have in the Hebrew Old Testament; and they agree that they put books therein which had not been so before the Babylonish captivity : such as those of Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai, &c.; and those of Esdras and Nehemiah. And the Romish church has since added others to the canon, that were not, and could not be, in the canon of the Jews, by reason some of them were not composed till after : such as the book of Ecclesiasticus, with several of the apocryphal books, as the Macca- bees, Wisdom, &c. Others were added still later, by reason their canonicity had not been yet ex- amined : and till such examen and judgment they might be set aside at pleasure. But since that church has pronounced as to the canonicity of those books, there is no more room now for her members to doubt of them, than there was for the Jews to doubt of those of the canon of Esdras. And the deuterocanonical books are with them as canonical as the proto-canonical ; the only dif- ference between them consisting in this, that the canonicity of the one was not generally known, examined, and settled, as soon as that of the others. The deuterocanonical books in the mo- dern canon are, the book of Esther, either the whole, or at least the seven last chapters thereof; the epistle to the Hebrews ; that of James, and that of Jude ; the second of St. Peter, and the second and third of St. John, and the Revelation. The deuterocanonical parts of books are, the hymn of the three children ; the prayer of Aza- riah ; the histories of Susannah, of Bel and the Dragon ; the last chapter of St. Mark ; the bloody sweat ; and the appearance of the angel, related in St. Luke, chap. xxii. and the history of the adulterous woman in St. John, chap. viii. See Canon. DIET, an assembly of the states of Germany. We shall only take notice, in this place, of the more remarkable of those whi<*h have been held on the affairs of religion. 1. The diet of Augs- burgh, in the year 1530, was assembled to re- unite the princes of the empire, in relation to some religious matters. The emperor himself presided in this assembly with the greatest mag- nificence imaginable. The elector of Saxony, followed by several princes, presented the confes- sion of faith, called the Confession of Augsburgh. The emperor ended the diet with a decree, that no alteration should be made in the doctrines and ceremonies of the Romish church till the council should order it otherwise. — 2. The diet of Augs- burgh, in 1547, was held on account of the elec- tors being divided concerning the decisions of the council of Trent. The emperor demanded that the management of that affair should be referred to him ; and it was resolved, that every one should conform to the decisions of the council. — 3. The diet of Augsburgh. in 1518, was assembled to 117 DIET examine some memorials relating to the confes- sion of faith ; but, the commissioners not a. Haruspiey, by inspecting the bowels of animals. — 7. Horoscopy, a branch of astrology, marking the position of the heavens when a man is born. — 8. Hydromancy, by water. — !). Physiognomy, by the countenance. (This, however, is considered by sonic as of a different nature, and worthy of being rescued from the rubbish of superstition, and placed among the useful sciences. Lavater has written a celebrated treatise on it.) — 10. Pyromancy, a divination made by fire. Thus we see what aVts have been practised to deceive, and how design- ing men have made use of all the four elements to impose upon weak m'nds. DIVINE, something relating to God. The word is also used figuratively for anv thing that is excellent, extraordinary, and that seems to go beyond the power of nature anil the capacity of man. It also signifies a minister, or clergyman. See M in ist Fa. DIVINITY, the science of theology. See TnF.oi.oriY. DIVISIONS, ECCLESIASTICAL. See Schism. DIVORCE, is the dissolution of marriage, or separation of man and wife. Divorce a viensa el thoro, i. e. from bed and boa>;!, — in this case the wife has a suitable maintenance allowed her out of her husband's effects. Divorce a vinculo matrimonii, i. e. from the bonds of matrimony, is strictly and properly divorce. This happens either in consequence of criminality, as in tho case of adultery, or through some essential im- pediment ; ;is consanguinity, or affinity within the degrees forbidden, pre-contract, impotency, &c. of which impediments the canon law allows do DOCTRINE less than 14. In these cases the woman receives again only what she brought. Sentences which release the parties a vinculo matrimonii, on account of impuberty, frigidity, consanguinity within the prohibited degrees, prior marriage, or want of the requisite consent of parents or guard- ians, are not properly dissolutions of the marriage contract, but judicial declarations that there never was any marriage; such impediment subsisting at the time as rendered the celebration of the marriage rite a mere nullity. And the rite itself contains an exception of these impediments. The law of Moses, says Dr. Paley, for reasons of local expediency, permitted the Jewish husband to put away his wife ; but whether for every cause, or for what cause, appears to have been contro- verted amongst the interpreters of those times. Christ, the precepts of whose religion were cal- culated for more general use and observation, re- vokes his permission as given to the Jews for their hardness of heart, and promulges a law which was thenceforward to confine divorces to the single cause of adultery in the wife, Matt. xix. 9. Inferior causes may justify the separation of husband and wife, although they will not au- thorise such a dissolution of the marriage contract as would leave either at liberty to marry again ; for it is that liberty in which the danger and mis- chief of divorces principally consist. The law of this country, in conformity to our Saviour's in- junction, confines the dissolution of the marriage contract to the single case of adultery in the wife ; and a divorce even in that case can only be brought about by an act of parliament, founded upon a previous sentence in the spiritual court, and a verdict against the adulterer at common law ; which proceedings, taken together, compose as complete an investigation of the complaint as a cause can receive. See Paley1 s Mor. and Pol. Phil. p. 273; Doddridge's Lectures, lect. 7o. DOCETiE, the followers of Julius Cassianus, one of the Valentinian sect, towards the close of the second century. They believed and taught that the actions and sufferings of Jesus Christ were not in reality, but only in appearance. DOCTRINE, the principles or positions of any sect or master. As the doctrines of the Bible .are the first principles and the foundation of reli- gion, they should be carefully examined and well understood. The Scriptures present us with a copious fund of evangelic truth, which, though it has not the form of a regular system, yet its parts are such, that, when united, make the most complete body of doctrine that we can possibly have. Every Christian, but divines especially, should make this their study, because all the va- rious doctrines should be insisted on in public, and explained to the people. It is not, however, as some suppose, to fill up every part of a minis- ter's sermon, but considered as the basis upon which the practical part is to be built. Some of the divines in the last century overcharged their discourses with doctrine, especially Dr. Owen and Dr. Goodwin. It was common in that day to make thirty or forty remarks before the imme- diate consideration of the text, each of which was just introduced, and which, if enlarged on, would have afforded matter enough for a whole sermon. A wise preacher will join doctrine and practice together. Doctrines, though abused by some, yet, proper- ly considered, will influence the heart and life. 121 Q DOMINICANS Thus the idea of God's sovereignty excites suh mission; his power and justice promote fear; his holiness, humility and purity ; his goodness, a ground of hope ; his love excites joy ; the obscu- rity of his providence requires patience ; his faith- fulness, confidence, &c. DOMINICANS, a religious order; in some places called Jacobins, and in others Predicants, or preaching friars. The Dominicans take their name from their founder, Dominic de Guzman, a Spaniard, born in 1170, at Cabroga, in Old Cas- tile : he was first canon and archdeacon of Ossu- na ; and afterwards preached with great zeal and vehemence against the Albigenses in Languedoc, where he laid the first foundation of his order. It was approved of in 1215 by Innocent III. and confirmed in 1216, by a bull of Honorius III. under the title of St. Auguslin; to which Domi- nic added several austere precepts and observances, obliging the brethren to take a vow of absolute poverty, and also the title of preaching friars, be- cause public instruction was the main end of their institution, and to abandon entirely all their reve- nues and possessions. The first con vent was found ed at Thoulouse, by the bishop thereof and Simon de Montfort. Two years afterwards they had ano- ther at Paris, near the bishop's house ; and some time after, a third in the Rue St. Jacques, (St. James's street,) whence the denomination of Ja- cobins. Just before his death, Dominic sent Gil- ben de Fresney, with twelve of the brethren into England, where they founded their first monas- tery at Oxford, in the year 1221, and soon after another at London. In the year i27G, the mayor and aldermen of the city of London gave them two whole streets, by the river Thames, where they erected a very commodious convent : whence that place is still called Blackfriars, from the name by which the Dominicans were called in England. St. Dominic at first only took the habit of the regular canons : that is, a black cas- sock and rochet: but this he quitted, in 1210, for that which they have ever since worn, which, it is pretended, was shown by the Blessed Virgin herself to the beatified Renaud d'Orleans. This order has been diffused throughout the whole known world. They reckon three popes of this order, above sixty cardinals, several patriarchs, a hundred and fifty archbishops, and about eight hundred bishops, besides masters of the sacred palace, whose office has been constantly discharg- ed by a religious of this order ever since St. Do- minic, who held it under Honorius III. in 1218. Of all the monastic orders, none enjoyed a higher degree of power and authority than the Dominican friars, whose credit was great, and their influence universal. But the measures they used in order to maintain and extend their autho- rity were so perfidious and cruel, that their infiu ence began to decline towards the beginning of the sixteenth century. The tragic story of Jet- zer, conducted at Bern, in 1509, for determining an uninteresting dispute between them and the Franciscans, relating to the immaculate concep- tion, will reflect indelible infamy on this order. In order to give the reader a view of the impious frauds which have sometimes been carried on in the church of Rome, we shall here insert an ac- count of this stratagem. The Franciscans maintained that the Virgin Mary was born without the blemish of origins sin ; the Dominicans asserted the contrary. DOMINICANS The doctrine of the Franciscans, in an age of darkness and superstition, could not but l>e popu- lar; anil hence the Dominicans lost ground from day to day. To support the credit of their order, they resolved, at a chapter held at Vimpsen, in the vear 1504, to have recourse to fictiti >us visions and dreams, in which the people at that time had an easy faith; and thev determined to make Bern the sc«ne of their operations. A person named Jetzer, who was extremely simple, and much in- clined to austeritits, and who had taken their habit as a lav-brother, was chosen as the instrument of the delusions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans, who had undertaken the ma- nagement of this plot, conveyed himself secretly into Jetzer' s cell, and about midnight appeared to him in a horrid figure, surrounded witn howling dogs, and seemed to blow fire from his nostrils, by the means of a box of combustibles which lie held near his mouth. In this frightful form he ap- proached Jetzer's bed, told him that he was the ghost of a Dominican, who had been killed at Paris, as a judgment of Heaven for laying aside his monastic habit; that he was condemned to purgatory for this crime; adding, at the same time, that by his means he might be rescued from his misery, which was beyond expression. This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howl- in gs, frightened poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promise to do all that was in his power to deliver the Dominican fiom his torment. Upon this the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifi- cations, such as the discipline of the uhip, per- formed during eight days by the whole monastery, and Jetzer's lying prostrate in the form of one crucified in the chapel during mass, could contri- bute to his deliverance. He added, that the per- formance of these mortifications would draw down upon Jetzer the peculiar protection of the Blessed Virgin ; and concluded by saying, that he would appear to him again, accompanied with two other spirits. Morning was no sooner come, than Jet- zer gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who all unanimously advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined him, and every one consented to bear his share of the task imposed. The deluded simpleton obeyed, and was admired as a saint by the multitudes that crowded about the convent ; while the four friars that managed the imposture, magnified in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this appari- tion, in their sermons, and in their discourses. The night after, the apparition was renewed with the addition of two impostors, dressed like devils, and Jetzer's faith was augmented by hearing from the spectre all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had learned from his confes- sor. In tliis and some subsequent scenes (the detail of whose enormities, for the sake of brevity, we shall here omit) the impostor talked much to Jetzer of the Dominican order, which he said was peculiarly de;ir to the Blessed Virgin: he added, that the Virgin knew herself to be conceived in original sin ; thct the doctors who taught the con- trary were in purgatory; that the Blessed Virgin abhorred the. Franciscans for making her equal with her son ; and that the town of Bern would be de- stroyed for harbouring such plagues within her wall?. In one of these apparitions Jetzer imagined that the voice of the spectre resembled that of the prior of the convent, and he was not mistaken ; 122 DOMINICANS but, not suspecting a fraud, he gave little attention to this. The prior appeared in various forms, sometimes in that of St. Barbara, at ethers in that of St. Bernard : at length he assumed that of the Virgin Mary, and, for that purpose, clothed him- self in the habits that were employed to adorn the statue of the Virgin in the great festivals. The little images, that on these days are set on the altars, were made use of for angels, which, being tied to a cord that passed through a pulley over Jetzer's head, rose up and down, and danced about the pretended Viigin, to increase the delu- sion. The Virgin, thus equipped, addressed a long discourse to Jetzer, in which, among other things, she told him that she was conceived in original sin, though she had remained but a short time under that blemish. She gave him, as a miraculous proof of her presence, a host, or con- secrated wafer, which turned from white to red in a moment; and after various visits, in which the greatest enormities were transacted, the Vir- gin-prior told Jetzer that she would give him the most affecting and undoubted marks of her son's love, by imprinting on him the five uounds that pierced Jesus on the cross, as she had done before to St. Lucia and St. Catherine. Accordingly, she took his hand by force, and struck a large nail through it, which threw the poor dupe into the greatest torment. The next night this mas- culine virgin brought, as she pretended, some of the linen in which Christ had been buried, to soften the wound ; and gave Jetzer a soporific draught, which had in it the blood of an unbap- tised child, some grains of incense and of conse- crated sait, some quicksilver, the hairs of the eye- brows of a child ; all which, with some stupifying and poisonous ingredients, were mingled toge- ther by the prior with magic ceremonies, and a solemn dedication of himself to the devil in hope of his succour. The draught threw the poor wretch into a sort of lethargy, during which the monks imprinted on his body the other four wounds of Christ in such a manner that he felt no pain. When he awakened, he found, to his unspeakable joy, those impressions on his body, and came at last to fancy himself a representative of Christ in the various parts of liis passion. He was, in this state, exposed to the admiring multi- tude on the principal altar of the convent, to the great mortification of the Franciscans. The Dominicans gave him some other draughts, that threw him into convulsions ; which were followed by a pijie into the mouths of two images, one ol Mary, and another of the child Jesus, the former of which had tears painted upon its cheeks in a lively manner. The little Jesus asked its mother, by means of this voice (which was that of the priors,) why she wept 1 and she answered that her tears were owing to the impious manner in which the Franciscans attributed to her the ho- nour that was due to him, in saying that she was conceived and born without, sin. The apparitions, false prodigies, and abomina- ble stratagems of these Dominicans were repeat- ed every night ; and the matter was at length so grossly over-acted, that, simple as Jetzer was, he at last discovered it, and had almost killed the prior, who appeared to him one night in the form of the Virgin with a crown on her head. The Dominicans, fearing, by this discovery, to lost the fruits of their imposture, thought the best method would be to own the whole matter to Jet DONATISTS tier, and to engage him, by the most seducing promises of opulence and glory, to carry on the cheat. Jctzer was persuaded, or at least appear- ed to be so. But the Dominicans suspecting that he was not entirely gained over, resolved to poi- son him ; but his constitution was so vigorous, that, though they gave him poison five several times, he was not destroyed by it. One day they sent him a loaf prepared with some spices, which growing green in a day or two, he threw a piece of it to a wolf's whelps that were in the monas- tery, and it killed them immediately. At another time they poisoned the host, or consecrated wafer ; but, as he vomited it up soon after he had swal- lowed it, he escaped one* more. In short, there were no means of securing him, which the most detestable impiety and barbarity could invent, that they did not put in practice ; till finding, at last, an opportunity of getting out of the convent, he threw himself into the hands of the magis- trates, to whom he made a full discovery of tliis infernal plot. The. affair being drought to Rome, commissaries were sent from thence to examine the matter; and the whole cheat being fully proved, the four friars were solemnly degraded from their priesthood, and were burnt alive on the last day of May, 1509. Jetzer died some time after at Constance, having poisoned himself, as was believed by some. Had his life been taken away before he had found an opportunity of making the discovery already mentioned, this execrable and horrid plot, which in many of its circumstances was conducted with art, would have been handed down to posterity as a stupen- dous miracle. The Dominicans were perpetually employed in stigmatising with the name of heresy numbers of learned and pious men ; in encroaching upon the rights and properties of others, to augment their possessions ; and in laving the most iniqui- tous snares and stratagems, for the destruction of their adversaries. They were the principal coun- sellors by whose instigation and advice Leo X. was determined to the public condemnation of Luther. The papal see never had more active and useful abettors than this order, and that of the Jesuits. DOMINION OF GOD, is his absolute right to. and authority over, all his creatures, to do with them as he pleases. It is distinguished from his power thus : his dominion is a right of mak- ing what he pleases, and possessing what he makes, and of disposing of what he possesses ; whereas his -power is an ability to make what he has a right to create, to hold what he possesses, and to execute what he has purposed or resolved. DONATISTS. ancient schismatics, in Afri- ca, so denominated from their leader, Donatus. They had their origin in the year 311, when, in the room of Mensurius, who died in that year, on his return to Rome, Cecilian was elected bishop of Carthage, and consecrated, without the con- currence of the Numidian bishops, by those of Africa alone, whom the people refused to acknow- ledge, and to whom they opposed Majorinus, who accordingly was ordained by Donatus bishop of Casaj Nigra?. They were condemned in a council held at Rome, two years after their sepa- ration; and afterwards in another at Aries, the year following; and again at Milan, before Con- stantine the Great, in 316, who deprived them of tlieir churches, and sent their seditious bishops 123 DORT into banishment, and punished some of them with death. Their cause was espoused by an- other Donatus, called the Great, the principal bishop of that sect, who, with numbers of his fol- lowers, was exiled by order of Constans. Many of them were punished with great severity. — See Circumceuliones. However, after the acces- sion of Julian to the throne in 302, they were permitted to return, and restored to their former liberty. Gratian published several edicts against them, and in 377 deprived them of their churches, and prohibited all their assemblies. But, not- withstanding the severities they suffered, it ap- pears that they had a very considerable number of churches towards the close of this century; but at this time they began to decline on account of a schism among themselves, occasioned by the election of two bishops in the room of Parmenian, the successor of Donatus : one party elected Pri- mian, and were called Primianists; and another, Maximinian, and were called Maximinianists. Their decline was also precipitated by the zealous opposition of St. Augustine, and by the violent measures which were pursued against them by order of the emperor Honorius, at the solicitation of two councils held at Carthage, the one in 404, and the other in 411. Many of them were fined, their bishops were banished, and some put to death. This sect revived and multiplied under the protection of the Vandals, who invaded Africa in 427, and took possession of this pro- vince ; but it sunk again under new severities, when their empire was overturned, in 534. Ne- vertheless, they remained in a separate body till the close of this century, when Gregory, the Ro- man pontiff, used various methods for suppressing them: his zeal succeeded, and there are few traces to be found of the Donatists after this period. They were distinguished by other ap- pellations, as Circumcelliones, Montenses or Mountaineers, Campetes, Rupites, &c. They held three councils, that of Cita in Numidia, and two at Carthage. The Donatists, it is said, held that baptism conferred out of the church, that is, out of their sect, was null ; and accordingly they re-baptized those who joined their party from other churches , they also re-ordained their ministers. Donatus seems likewise to have embraced the doctrine of the Arians ; though St. Augustine affirms that the Donatists in this point kept clear of the errors of their leader. DORT, Synod of; a national Synod, sum- moned by authority of the States-General, the pro- vinces of Holland, Utrecht and Overyssel ex- cepted, and held at Dort, 1618. The most eminent divines of the United Provinces, and deputies from the churches of England, Scotland, Switzerland, Bremen, Hessia, and the Palatinate, assembled on this occasion, in order to decide the controversy between the Calvinists and Armi- nians. The synod had hardly commenced its deliberations before a dispute on the mode of pro- ceeding drove the Arminian party from the as- sembly. The Anninians insisted upon beginning with a refutation of the Calvinistic doctrines, especially that of reprobation ; whilst the synod determined, that, as the remonstrants were ac cused of departing from the reformed faith, they ought first to justify themselves by a scriptural proof of their own opinions. All meens to per- suade the Arruinians to submit to this procedure DOXOLOGY having failed, they were banished the synod for their refusal. The synod, however, proceeded in their examination of the Arminian tenets, con- demned their opinions, and excommunicated their persons ; whether justly or unjustly, let the reader determine. Surely no one can be an ad- vocate for the persecution which followed, and which drove these men from their churches and country into exile and poverty. The authority of this synod was far from being universally ac- knowledged, either in Holland or in England. The provinces of Friesland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guclderland, and Groningen, could not be per- suaded to adopt their decisions ; and they were opposed by king James I. and archbishop Laud, in England. DOSITHEANS, an ancient sect among the Samaritans, in the first century of the Christian sera: so called from Dositheus, who endeavoured to persuade the Samaritans that he was the Mes- siah foretold by Moses. He had many followers, and his sect was still subsisting at Alexandria in the time of the patriarch Eulogius, as appears from a decree of that patriarch published by Pho- tius. In that decree, Eulogius accuses Dosi- theus of injuriously treating the ancient patriarchs and prophets, and attributing to himself the spirit of prophecy. He makes him contemporary with Simon Magus; and accuses him of corrupting the Pentateuch, and of composing several books directly contrary to the law of God. DOUBTS and Fears, are terms frequently used to denote the uncertainty of mind we are in respecting our interest in the divine favour. The causes of our doubts may be such as these : per- sonal declension; not knowing the exact time, place, or means of our conversion; improper views of the character and decrees of God ; the fluctuation of religious experience as to the enjoy- ment of God in prayer, hearing, &c; the depth of our affliction; relapses into sin; the fall of pro- fessors ; and the hidings of God's face. While some are continually harassed with doubts and fears, there are others who tell us they know not what it is to doubt; yea, who think it a sin to doubt ; so prone are men to run to extremes, as if there were no medium between constant full assurance and perpetual doubt. The true Chris- tian, perhaps, steers between the two. He is not alwa\% doubting, nor is he always living in the full exercise of faith. It is not unlawful at cer- tain seasons to doubt. " It is a sin," says one, " for a believer to live so as not to have "his evi- dences clear; but it is no sin for him to be so honest and impartial as to doubt, when in fact his evidences are not clear." Let the humble Chris- tian, however, beware of an extreme. Prayer, conversation with experienced Christians, read- ing the promises, and consideration of the divine goodness, will have a tendency to remove unne- cessary doubts. DCXOLOGY, a hymn used in praise of the Almighty, distinguished by the titles of the Greater and the Less. Both the doxologies are used in the church of England ; the former being repeated alter every psalm, and the latter used in the communion service. Doxology the Greater, or the angelic hymn, was of great note in the an- cient church. It began with the words the angels sung at the birth ot Christ, "Clory to God," &c. Doxology the Less, was anciently only a single sentence without a response, running in these DRUIDS words : " Glory be to the Father, and to the f^n, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end, amen." Part of the latter clause, "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," &c. was inserted some time after the first com[)osition. DRAGOONING, one of the methods used by papists after the revocation of the ed;ct of Nantz, under Lewis XIV., for converting refractory here- tics, and bringing them within the pale of their church. If the reader's feelings will suffer him to peruse the account of these barbarities, he will find it under the article Persecution, in this work. DREAD, is a degree of permanent fear, an habitual and painful apprehension of some tre- mendous event. It keeps the mind in a perpetual alarm, in an eager watchfulness of every circum- stance that bears any relation to the evil appre- hended. DRUIDS, the priests or ministers of religion among the ancient Gauls, Britons, and Germans. They were chosen out of the best families ; and the honours of their birth, joined with those of their function, procured them the highest venera- tion among the people. They were versed in astrology, geometry, natural philosophy, politics, and geography ; they were the interpreters of re- ligion, and the judges of all affairs indifferently. Whoever refused obedience to them was declared impious and accursed. We know but little as to their peculiar doctrines, only that they believed the immortality of the soul, and, as is generally also supposed, the transmigration of it to other bodies ; though a late author makes it appear highly probable that they did not believe this last, at least not in the sense of the Pythagoreans. The chief settlement of the Druids in Britain was in the isle of Anglesey, the ancient Mona, which they might choose for this purpose, as it is well stored with precious groves of their favourite oak. They were divided into several classes or branches, such as the priests, the poets, the augurs, the civil judges, and instructors of youth. Strabo, however, does not comprehend all these different orders under the denomination of druids : he only distinguishes three kinds ; bardi, poets ; the vatcs, priests and naturalists; and the druids, who, besides the study of nature, applied them- selves likewise to morality. Their garments were remarkably long; and when employed in religious ceremonies, they like- wise wore a white surplice. They generally car- ried a wand in their hands, and wore a kind of ornament, enchased with gold, about their necks, called the druid's egg. They had one chief, or arch-druid, in every nation, who acted as high priest, or pontifex maximus. He had absolute authority over the rest, and commanded, decreed, and punished at pleasure. They worshipped the Supreme Being under the name of Esusot He~ sits, and the symbol of the oak ; and had no other temple than a wood or a grove, where all their re- ligious rites were performed. Nor was any person permitted to enter that sacred recess unless he car- ried with him a chain in token of his absolute dependence on the Deity. Indeed, their whole religion originally consisted in acknowledging that the Supreme Being, who made his abode in these sacred groves, governed the universe; and, that every creature ought to obey liis law* and pay him divine homage. They considered the oak as the emblem, or rather the peculiar re« DUNKERS eidence, of the Almighty ; and accordingly chap- lets of it were worn, both by the druids and peo- ple, in their religious ceremonies : the altars were strewed with its leaves, and encircled with its branches. The fruit of it, especially the mistle- toe, was thought to contain a divine virtue, and to be the peculiar gift of Heaven. It was, there- fore, sought for on the sixth day of the moon with the greatest earnestness and anxiety : and when found, was hailed with such rapture of joy, as almost exceeds imagination to conceive. As Boon as the druids were informed of the fortunate discovery, they prepared every thing ready for the sacrifice under the oak, to which they fastened two white bulls by the horns ; then the arch- druid, attended by a prodigious number of people, ascended the tree, dressed in white ; and, with a consecrated golden knife, or pruning-hook, crop- ped the mistletoe, which he received in his robe, amidst the rapturous exclamations of the people. Having secured this sacred plant, he descended the tree ; the bulls were sacrificed ; and the Deity invoked to bless his own gift, and render it effica- cious in those distempers in which it should be administered. DRUNKENNESS, intoxication with strong liquor. It is either casual or habitual ; just as it is one thing to be drunk, and another to be a drunkard. The evil of drunkenness appears in the following bad effects : 1. It betrays most con- stitutions either to extravagance of anger, or sins of lewdness. — 2. It disqualifies men for the du- ties of their station, both by the temporary disor- der of their faculties, and at length by a constant incapacity and stupefaction. — 3. It is attended with expense, which can often be ill spared. — 4. It is sure to occasion uneasiness to the family of the drunkard. — 5. It shortens life. — 6. It is a most pernicious awful example to others. — 7. It is hardly ever cured. — 8. It is a violation of God's word, Prov. xx. 1. Eph. v. 18. Is. v. II. Rom. xiii. 13. " The appetite for intoxicating liquors ap- pears tome," says Paley, " to be almost always acquired. One proof of which is, that it is apt to return only at particular times and places; as after dinner, in the evening, on the market-day, in such a company, at such a tavern." How careful, then, should we be, lest we form habits of this kind, or choose company who are addicted to it ; how cautious and circumspect should we act, that we be not found guilty of a sin which degrades human nature, banishes reason, insults God, and exposes us to the greatest evils ! Palei/s Mor. Phil. vol. ii. ch. 2. FlaveVs Works, vol. ii. p. 349 ; Buck's Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 82, 5th edi- tion ; LanonCs Ser. vol. i. ser. 15, 10. DULCINISTS, the followers of Dulcinus, a layman of Novara in Lombardy, about the be- ginning of the fourteenth century. He taught that the law of the Father, which had continued till Moses, was a law of grace and wisdom ; but that the law of the Holy Ghost, which began with himself, in 1307, was a law entirely of love, which would last to the end of the world. DUNKERS, a denomination which took its rise in the year 1724. It was founded by a Ger- man, who, weary of the world, retired to an agreeable solitude within fifty miles of Philadel- phia, for the more free exercise of religious con- templation. Curiosity attracted followers, and his mmple and engaging manners made them pro- selytes. They soon settled a little colony, called 125 DUNKERS Euphrate, in allusion to the Hebrews, who used to sing psalms on the border of the river Eu- phrates. This denomination seems to have ob- tained their name from their baptizing their nev* converts by plunging. They are also called tum- blers, from the man ner in which they performed ba p- tism, which is by putting the person, while kneel- ing, head first under water, so as to resemble the motion of the body in the act of tumbling. They use the trine immersion, with laying on the hands and prayer, even when the person baptized is in the water. Their habit seems to be peculiar to themselves, consisting of a long tunic, or coat, reaching down to their heels, with a sash or girdle round the waist, and a cap, or hood, hanging from the shoulders, like the dress of the Dominican friars. The men do not shave the head or beard. The men and women have separate habitations and distinct governments. For these purposes they have erected two large wooden buildings, one of which is occupied by the brethren, the other by the sisters of the society; and in each of them there is a banqueting room, and an apartment for public worship ; for the brethren and sisters do not meet together, even at their devotions. They live chiefly upon roets and other vegetables, the rules of their society not allowing them flesh, ex cept on particular occasions, when they hold what they call a love-feast ; at which time the brethren and sisters dine together in a large apartment, and eat mutton ; but no other meat. In each of their little cells they have a bench fixed, to serve the purpose of a bed, and a small block of wood for a pillow. The Dunkers allow of no inter- course between the brethren and sisters, not even by marriage. The principal tenets of the Dunkers appear to be these : that future happiness is only to be attained by penance and outward mortifica- tion in this life ; and that, as Jesus Christ by his meritorious sufferings, became the Redeemer of mankind in general, so each individual of the hu- man race, by a life of abstinence and restraint, may work out his own salvation. Nay, they go so far as to admit of works of supererogation, and declare that a man may do much more than he is in justice or equity obliged to do, and that his superabundant works may therefore be ap- plied to the salvation of others. This denomina tion deny the eternity of future punishments, and believe that the dead have the Gospel preached to them by our Saviour, and that the souls of the just are employed to preach the Gospel to those who have had no revelation in this life. They suppose the Jewish sabbath, sabbatical year, and year of jubilee, arc typical of certain periods, after the general judgment, in which the souls of those who are not then admitted into happiness are purified from their corruption. If any within those smaller periods are so far humbled as to acknowledge the perfections of God, and to own Christ as their only Saviour, they arc received to felicity; while those who continue obstinate are reserved in torments until the grand period typi- fied by the jubilee arrives, in which all shall be made happy in, the endless fruition of the Deity. They also deny the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity. They disclaim violence even in cases of self-defence, and suffer themselves to be defrauded or wronged rather than go to law. Their church government and discipline are the same with the English Baptists, except that L 2 EBIONITES every brother is allowed to speak in the congre- gation ; and their best speaker is usually ordained to De the minister. They have deacons and dea- conesses Erom among their ancient widows and exhoiters, who are ail licensed to use their gifts statedly. They have, in the United States pro- bably forty or fifty churches, to be found, for the most part, in the states west of the Allegheny. DUTCH (REFORMED) CHURCH' IN THE UNITED STATES.— The city and state of New York was first settled by this people. The oldest church was formed about the year 163d. The first minister was the Rev. Evorardus Bogardus. The place of worship first erected was in the fort at New York, i» 1G 12 ; the se- cond in what is now called the Bower}'. Others were soon formed in Albany, Esopus, on Long Island, Sec The Dutch Reformed was the es- tablished religion of the colony till IGo-l, when ECCLESIASTICAL New York was surrendered to the English. The church was dependent for the ordination of its ministers, &c. on the Classis of Amsterdam, m Holland, till 1737, when the first Classis was formed in this country. Its government is com- mitted to Consistories, Classes, and Synods. There are in connexion with this body one hun- dred and fifty pastors, one hundred and eighty- five churches, and eleven thousand seven hundred communicants. They have a College and Theo- logical Seminary under their control at New Brunswick, New Jersey. — B. DUTY, any action, or course of actions, which flow from the relation we stand in to God or man : that which a man is bound to per- form by any natural or legal obligation. The various moral, relative, and spiritual duties, are considered in their places in this work. iii. EASTER, the day on which the Christian church commemorates our Saviour's resurrec- tion. It is called by the Greeks Pasga ; and by the Latins Pascha, a Hebrew word, signifying passage, applied to the Jewish feast of the Pass- over. It is called Easter in English, from the Saxon goddess Eostre, whose festival was held in April. The Asiatic churches kept their Easter upon the very same day that the Jews observed their passover, and others on the first Sunday after the first full moon in the new year. This controver- sy was determined in the council of Nice, when it was ordained that Easter should be kept upon one and the same day, which should always be Sunday, in all Christian churches in the world. EBIONITES, ancient heretics, who rose in the church in the very first age thereof, and form- ed themselves into a sect in the second century, denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. Origen takes them to have been so called from the He- brew word ebion, which in that language signifies ■poor; because, says he, they were poor in sense and wanting understanding. Eusebius, with a view to the same etymology, is of opinion they were thus called, as having poor thoughts of Je- sus Christ, taking him for no more than a mere man. It is more probable the Jews gave this ap- pellation to the Christians in general out of con- tempt ; because, in the first times, there were few but poor people that embraced the Christian reli- gion. The Ebionites were little else than a branch of the Nazarenes; only that they altered and corrupted, in many things, the purity of the faith held among the first adherents to Christian- ity. For this reason, Origen distinguishes two kinds of Ebionites in his answer to Celsus : the one believed that Jesus Christ was born of a vir- gin; and the other, that he was born after the manner of other men. The first were orthodox In every thing, except that to the Christian doc- trine they joined the ceremonies of the Jewish law, with the Jews, Samaritans, and Nazarenes, together with the traditions of the Pharisees. They differed from the Nazarenes, however, in several things, chiefly as to what regards the au- thority of the sacred writings; for the Nazarenes received all for Scripture contained in the Jewish eauou; whereas the Ebionites rejected all the 136 prophets, and held the very names of David, Solo- mon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, in abhor- rence. They also rejected all St. Paul's epistles, whom they treated with the utmost disrespect. They received nothing of the Old Testament but the Pentateuch. They agreed with the Nazarenes, in using the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, otherwise called the Gospel of the twelve apostles ; but they corrupted their copy in abundance of places; and particularly had left out the genealogy of our Saviour, which was preserved entire in that of the Nazarenes, and even in those used by the Corinthians. Besides the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, the Ebion- ites had adopted several other books under the title of St. James, John, and the other apostles ; they also made use of the travels of St. Peter, which are supposed to have been written by St. Clement; but had altered them so, that there was scarce any thing of truth left in them. They even made that saint tell a number cf falsehoods, the better to authorize their own practices. ECCLESIASTICAL, an appellation giver, to whatever belongs to the church ; thus we say ecclesiastical politv, jurisdiction, history, &c. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, a na»- ration of the transactions, revolutions, and events that relate tothechurch. Astothe utility of church history, Dr. Jorlin, who was an acute writer en this subject, shall here speak for us : he observes. 1. That it will show us the amazing progress ox Christianity through the Roman empire, through the East and West, although the powers of the world cruelly opposed it. 2. Connected with Jewish and Pagan history, it will show us the total destruction of Jerusalem, the overthrow of the Jewish church and state ; and the continu- ance of that unhappy nation for 1700 years, though dispersed over the face of the earth, and oppressed at different times by Pagans, Chris- tians, and Mahometans. 3. It shows us that the increase of Christianity produced, in the countries where it was received, the overthrow and extinction of paganism, which, after a feeble resistance, perished about the sixth century. 4. It shows us how Christianity has been continued and delivered down from the apostolical to the present age. 5. It shows us the various opinion* ECTHESIS which prevailed at different times amongst the fathers and other Christians, and how theydeparted more or less from the simplicity of the Gospel. 6. It will enable us to form a true judgment of the merits of the fathers, and of the use which is to be made of them. 7. It will show us the evil of imposing unreasonable terms of communion, and requiring Christians to profess doctrines not propounded in Scriptural words, but inferred as consequences from passages of Scripture, which one may call systems of consequential divinity. 8. It will show us the origin and progress of popery; and, lastly, it will show us — 9. The origin and progress of the Reformation. See Dr. Jortin's Charge on the Use and Impor- tance of Ecclesiastical History, in his Works, vol. ii. ch. 2. For ecclesiastical historians, see Eusebius's Eccl. Hist, with Valesius's notes; Baronii An- nates Eccl.; Spondani Annates Sacri; Parei Universalis Hist. Er.c. ; Lampe, Dupin, Span- heim, and Mosheim's Eccl. Hist.; Fuller's and Warner's Eccl. Hist, of England; Jortin's Re- marks on Eccl. Hist.; Millar's Propagation of Christianity; Gillies' s Historical Collections; Dr. Erskine's Sketches, and Robinson's Researches. The most recent are, Dr. Campbell's, Gregory's, Milner's, and Dr. Howeis's; all which have their excellencies. See also Bogue and Rennet's His- tory of the Dissenters. For the history of the church under the Old Testament, the reader may consult Miller's History of the Church; Prideaux' s and Shuckford's Connections; Dr. Watts's Scripture History; and Fleury's His- tory of the Israelites. ECLECTICS, a name given to some ancient philosophers, who, without attaching themselves ".0 any particular sect, took what they judged good and solid from each. One Potamon, of Alexandria, who lived under Augustus and Tibe- rius, and who, weary of doubting of all things, with the Sceptics and Pyrrhonians, was the per- son who formed this sect. ECLECTICS, or modern Platonics, a sect which arose in the Christian church towards the close of the second century. They professed to make truth the only object of their inquiry, and to be ready to adopt from all the different systems and sects such tenets as they thought agreeable to it. They preferred Plato to the other philoso- phers, and looked upon his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the Chris- tian doctrine. One of the principal patrons of this system was Ammonius Saccas, who at this time laid the foundation of that sect, afterwards distinguished by the name of the New Platonics in the Alexandrian school. ECSTACY, or Extacv; a transport of the mind, which suspends the functions of the senses by the intense contemplation of some extraordi- nary object. ECTHESIS, a confession of faith, the form of an edict, published in the year 639, by the empe- ror Heraclius, with a view to pacify the troubles occasioned by the Eutychian heresy in the east- ern church. However, the same prince revoked it, on being informed that pope Severinus had condemned it, as favouring the Monothelites ; declaring, at the same time, that Sergius, patri- arch of Constantinople, was the author of it. See Euty;hians. 127 ELDER EDIFICATION : this word signifies a build ing up. Hence we call a building an edifice. Applied to spiritual things, it signifies the im- proving, adorning, and comforting the mind ; and a Christian may be said to be edified when he is encouraged and animated in the ways and works of the Cord. The means to promote our own edification are, prayer, self-examination, reading the Scripture?, hearing the Gospel, meditation, attendance on all appointed ordinances. To edify others, there should be love, spiritual con- versation, forbearance, faithfulness, benevolent exertions, and uniformity of conduct. EFFRONTES, a sect of heretics, in 1534, who scraped their foreheads with a knife till it bled, and then poured oil into the wound. This ceremony served them instead of baptism. They are likewise said to have denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. EICETiE, a denomination in the year 680 who affirmed that, in order to make prayer ac- ceptable to God, it should be performed dancing. EJACULATION, a short prayer, in which the mind is directed to God on any emergency. See Prayer. ELCESAITES, ancient heretics, who made their appearance in the reign of the emperor Tra- jan, and took their name from their leader, Elce- sai. They kept a mean between the Jews, Christians, and Pagans : they worshipped but one God, observed the Jewish sabbath, circumci- sion, and the other ceremonies of the law ; yet they rejected the Pentateuch and the prophets ; nor had they any more respect for the writings of the apostles. ELDER (VpsovSuTspos,) an overseer, ruler, leader. Elders, or seniors, in ancient Jewish polity, were persons the most considerable for age, expe- rience, and wisdom. Of this sort were the 70 men whom Moses associated with himself in the government : such likewise afterwards were those who held the first place in the synagogue as pre- sidents. Elders, in church history, were origi- nally those who held the first place in the assem- blies of the primitive Christians. The word pres- byter is often used in the New Testament in this signification ; hence the first councils of Chris- tians were called Presbyteria, or councils of elders. Elders, in the presbyterian discipline, are officers who, in conjunction with the ministers and deacons, compose the kirk sessions, who for- merly used to inspect and regulate matters of reli- gion and discipline ; but whose principal business now is to take care of the poor's funds. They are chosen from among the people, and are re- ceived publicly with some degree of ceremony. In Scotland there is an indefinite number of elders in each parish, generally above twelve. See Presbyterians. It has long been a matter of dispute, whether there are any such officers as lay-elders mention- ed in Scripture. On the one side it is observed, that these officers arc no where mentioned as being alone or single, but always as being many in every congregation. They are also mentioned separately from the brethren. Their office, more than once, is described as being distinct from thai of preaching, not only in Rom. xii., where lie that ruleth is expressly distinguished from him that exhortelh or teacheth, but also in that pas- sage, 1 Tim. v. 17. On the other side it is said EMULATION that, from the above-mentioned passages, nothing can be collected with certainty to establish this opinion; neither can it be inferred from any other passage that churches should he furnished with sue!) officers, though perhaps prudence, in some circumstances, may make them expedient. " I incline to think," says Dr. Guise, on the pas- sage, 1 Tim. v. 17, "that the apostle intends only preaching ciders, when he directs double honour to be paid to the elders that rule well, especially those who labour in the word and doc- trine ; and that the distinction lies not in the order of officers, but in the degree of their dili- gence, faithfulness, and eminence in laboriously fulfilling their ministerial work ; and so the em- phasis is to be laid on the word labour in the word and doctrine, which has an especially an- nexed to it." ELECTION: This word has different mean- ings.— 1. It signifies God's taking a whole na- tion, community, or body of men, into external covenant with himself, by giving them the ad- vantage of revelation as the rule of their belief and practice, when other nations are without it. Deut. vii. 6. — 2. A temporary designation of 6ome person or persons to the filling up some particular station in the visible church, or office in civil life. John vi. 70 ; 1 Sam. x. 2-4. — 3. That gracious and almighty act of the Divine Spirit, whereby God actually and visibly separates his people from the world by effectual calling. John xv. 11). — i. That eternal, sovereign, uncondi- tional, particular, and immutable act of God, whereby he selected some from among all man- kind, and of every nation under heaven, to be redeemed and everlastingly saved by Christ. Eph. i. 4; 2 Thess. ii. 13. See Decree, and Predestination'. ELOQ.UENCE, PULPIT. "The chief characteristics of the eloquence suited to the pul- pit are these two, — gravity and warmth. The serious nature of the subjects belonging to the Eulpit requires gravity ; their importance to man- incl requires warmth. It is far from being either easy or common to unite these characters of elo- quence. The grave, when it is predominant, is apt to run into a dull, uniform solemnity. The warm, when it wants gravity, borders on the theatrical and light. The union of the two must be studied by all preachers, as of the utmost con- sequence, both in the composition of their dis- courses, and in their mariner of delivery. Gravity and warmth united, form that character of preach- ing, which the French call onction: the affecting, penetrating, interesting manner, flowing from a strong sensibility of heart in the preacher, the im- portance of those truths which he delivers, and an earnest desire that they may make full im- pression on the hearts of his hearers." See De- clamation, Sermons. EMULATION, a generous ardour kindled by the praiseworthy examples of others, which impels us to imitate, to rival, and, if possible, to excel them. This passion involves in it esteem of the person whose attainments or conduct we emulate, of the qualities and actions in which we emulate him, and a desire of resemblance, toge- ther with a joy springing from the hope of suc- cess. The word comes originally from the Greek KpiA.A.%, contest; whence the Latin ccmulus, and thence our emulation. Plato makes emulation the daughter of envy ; if so, there is a great dif- 128 ENTHUSIASM ference between the mother and the offspring; the one being a virtue and the other a vice. Em- ulation admires great actions, and strives to imi- tate them ; envy refuses them the praises that are their due ; emulation is generous, and only thinks of equalling or surpassing a rival; envy is low, and only seeks to lessen him. It would, there- fore, be more proper to suppose emulation the daughter of admiration; admiration being a prin- cipal ingredient in the composition of h. ENCRATITES, a sect in the second century, who abstained from marriage, wine, and animals. ENDOWMENT, ECCLESIASTICAL* a term used to denote the settlement of a pension upon a minister, or the building of a church, or the severing a sufficient portion of tithes for a vicar, when the benefice is appropriated. Among the Dissenters, they are benefactions left to their place or congregation, for the support of their ministers. Where the congregation is poor or small, these have been found beneficial ; but in many cases they have been detrimental. Too often has it tended to relax the exertions of the people ; and when such a fund has fallen into the hands of an unsuitable minister, it has pre- vented his removal; when, had he derived no support from his people, necessity would have caused him to depart, and make room for one more worthy. ENERGICI, a denomination in the sixteenth century; so called because they held that the eucharist was the energy and virtue of Jesus Christ ; not his body, nor a representation thereof! ENERGUMENS, persons supposed to be pos- sessed with the devil, concerning whom there were many regulations among the primitive Christians. They were denied baptism and the eucharist; at least this was the practice of some churches ; and though they were under the care of exorcists, yet it was thought a becoming act of charity to let them have the public prayers of the church, at which they were permitted to be present. ENTHUSIASM. To obtain just definitions of words which are promiscuously used, it must be confessed, is no small difficulty. This word, it seems, is used both in a good and a bad sense. In its best sense it signifies a divine afflatus or inspiration. It is also taken for that noble ardour of mind which leads us to imagine any thing sub- lime, grand, or surprising. In its worse sense it signilies any impression on the fancy, or agitation of the passions, of which a man can give no ra- tional account. It is generally applied to re- ligious characters, and is said to be derived (M, Touv iv iwrtxii ^a.vo/Mvcv) from the wild gestures and speeches of ancient religionists, pretending to more than ordinary and more than true com- munications with the gods, and particularly ■» Suears in our Lord's epistles to them (Rev. ii. and iii.) they might tie no more than the pastors of single congregations with their proper assistants. 4. To the fourth argument it is answered, 1. That the word Pupi*Jsj may only signify great numbers, and may not be intended to express that there were several times ten thousand, in an exact anil literal sense : compare Luke, ch. .xii. ver. 1. (Greek.) — 2. That no sufficient proof is brought from Scripture of there being such num- bers of people in any particular place as this sup- poses ; for the myriads of believing Jews spoken of in the preceding text, as well as the num- bers mentioned, Acts ii. 41. iv. 4, might very probably be those who were gathered together at those great feasts frcoi distant places, of which few might have their staled residence in that city. Se*. Acts, viii. 1. — 3. If the number were so great as the objection supposes, there might be, for any thing which appears in Scripture, several bishops in the same citv, as there are, among 130 EPISCOPACY those who do not allow of diocesan episcopacy, several co-ordinate pastors, overseers, or bishops; and though Eusebiusdocs indeed pretend to give us a catalogue of the bishops of Jerusalem, it Lsta be remembered how the Christians had been dis- persed from thence for a considerable time, at and after the Roman war, and removed into other parts, which must necessarily very much increase the uncertainty which Eusebius himself owns there was, as to the succession of bishops in mo6t of the ancient sees. 5. As to the ancient writers, it is observed, that though Clemens Romanus recommends to the Corinthians the example of the Jewish church, where the high priest, ordinary priest, and Le-' vitea, knew and observed their respective offices, yet. he never mentions presbyters and bishops as distinct, nor refers the contending Corinthians to any one ecclesiastical head as the centre of unity, which he probably would have done if there had been any diocesan bishops among them ; nay, he seems evidently to speak of presbyters as exer- cising the episcopal office. See sec. xxxix. of his epistle. — 2. As for Irena'us, it does not appear that he made any distinction between bishops and presbyters. He does indeed mention the suc- cession of bishops from the apostles, which is re- concilable with the supposition of their being pa- rochial, nor altogether irreconcilable with the supposition of joint, pastors in those churches. — 3. It is allowed that Ignatius in many places dis- tinguishes between bishops and presbyters, and requires obedience to bishops from the whole church ; but as he often supposes each of the churches to which he wrote to meet in one place, and represents them as breaking one loaf, and surrounding one altar, and charges the bishop to know all his flock by name, it is most evident that he must speak of a parochial and not a dio- cesan bishop.— 4. Polycarp exhorts the Chris- tians at Philippi to be subject to the presbyters and deacons, but says not one word about any u:"hop. — 5. Justin Martyr speaks of the president, but then he represents him as being present at every administration of the eucharist, which he also mentions as always making a part of their public worship; so that the bishop here must have only been the pastor of one congregation. — 6. Tertullian speaks of approved elders ; but there is nothing said if them that proves a dio- cesan, since all he says might be applied to a pa- rochial bishop. — 7. Though Clemens Alexan- drinus speaks of bishops, priests, and deacons, yet it cannot be inferred from hence that the bi- shops of whom he speaks were any thing more than parochial. — 8. Origen speaks distinctly of bishops and presbyters, but unites them both, as it seems, under the common name of priests, saying nothing of the power of bishops as ex- tending beyond one congregation, and rather in- sinuates the contrary, when he speaks of offenders as brought before the whole church to be judged by it. — !). The apostolic constitutions frequently distinguish between bishops and presbyters ; but these constitutions cannot be depended on, as they are supposed to be a forgery of the fourth century. — 10. It is allowed that, in succeeding ages, the difference between bishops and presby- ters came to be more and more magnified, and various churches came under the care of the same bishops ; nevertheless, Jerome does expressly speak of bishops and presbyters as of the same EPISCOPAL order; and Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the great and affecting distinction between mini- sters in prerogative of place, and other tyrannical privileges (as he calls them,) as a lamentable and destructive thing. III. Episcopacy, how introduced. It is easy to apprehend how episcopacy, as it was in the primitive church, with those alterations which it afterwards received, might be gradually intro- duced. The apostles seem to ha\ e taught chiefly in large cities ; they settled ministers there, who, preaching in country villages, or smaller towns, increased the number of converts : it would have been most reasonable that those new converts, which lay at a considerable distance from the large towns, should, when they grew numerous, have formed themselves into distinct churches, under the care of their proper pastors or bishops, independently of any of their neighbours; but the reverence which would naturally be paid to men who had conversed with the apostles, and perhaps some desire of influence and dominion, from which the hearts of very good men might not be entirely free, and which early began to work, (John iii. 9. 2. Thess. ii. 7,) might easily lay a foundation for such a subordination in the ministers of new erected churches to those which were most ancient : and much more easily might the superiority of a pastor to his assistant presby- ters increase, till it at length came to that great difference which we own was early made, and probably soon carried to an excess. And if there were that degree of degeneracy in the church, and defection from the purity and vigour of reli- gion, which the learned Vltringa supposes to • have happened between the time of Nero and Trajan, it would be less surprising that those evil principles, which occasioned episcopal, and at length the papal usurpation, should before that time exert some considerable influence. IV. Episcopacy, reduced, plan of. Archbi- shop Usher projected a plan for the reduction of episcopacy, by which he would have moderated it in such a manner as to have brought it very near the presbyterian government of the Scotch church; the weekly parochial vestry answering to their church session ; the monthly synod to be held by the Chorepiscopi, answering to their presbyteries; the diocesan synod to their provin- cial, and the national to their general assembly. The meeting of the dean and chapter, practised in the church of England, is but a faint shadow of the second, the ecclesiastical court of the third, and the convocation of the fourth. Bingham's (Jrigincs Ecclesiastic3. EVIL is distinguished into natural and moral. Satural evil is whatever destroys or any way disturos the perfection of natural beings ; such as blindness, diseases, death, &c. Moral evil is the disagreement between the actions of a moral agent, and the rule of those actions, whatever it is. Applied to a choice, or acting contrary to the moral or revealed laws of the Deity, it is term- ed wickedness or sin. Applied to acting contrary to the mere rule of fitness, a fault. See article Sin. _ EVIL SPEAKING, the using language either reproachful or untrue respecting others, and thereby injuring them. It is an express command of Scripture, " To speak evil of no man," Titus hi. 2; James iv. 11. By which, however, we are not to understand that there are no occasions on which we are asarca, showed and procured for them at their first rise. EXAMPLE EUSTATHI ANS, a name given to the Ca- l.iolics of Antioch, in the fourth century, on oc- casion ot" their refusing to acknowledge any other bishop beside St. Eustathius, deposed by the Arians. EUSTATHIANS, a sect in the fourth cen- tury, so denominated from their founder, Eusta- thius, a monk, so foolishly fond of his own profes- sion, thnt he condemned all other conditions of lite. Whether this Eustathius were the same with the bishop of Sebastia, and chief of the Semi-arians, is not easy to determine. He ex- cluded married people from salvation ; prohibited his followers from praying in their houses, and obliged them to quit all they had, as incompatible with the hopes of heaven. He drew them out of the other assemblies of Christians, to hold secret ones with him. and made them wear a particular habit ; he appointed them to fast on Sundays ; and taught them that the ordinary fasts of the church were needless after they had attained to a certain degree of purity, which he pretended to. He showed great horror for chapels built in ho- nour of martyrs, and the asemblies held therein. He was condemned at the council of Gangra, in Paphlagonia, held between the vear 3:2b* and 341. EUTUCH1TES, a denomination in the third century; so called from the Greek jut-dx*'", which signifies to live without pain, or in pleasure. Among other sentiments, they held that our souls are placed in our bodies only to honour the an- gels who created them ; and that we ought to re- joice equally in all events, because to grieve would be to dishonour the angels, their creators. EUTYCHIANS, ancient heretics who de- nied the duplicity of natures in Christ; thus de- nominated from Eutyches, the archimandrite, or abbot of a monastery, at Constantinople, who be- fan to propagate his opinion about A. D. 448. le did not, however, seem quite steady and con- sistent in his sentiments ; for he appeared to al- low of two natures, even before the union, which was apparently a consequence he drew from the principles of the Platonic philosophy, which sup- ikjscs a pre-cxistence of souls ; accordingly he be- lieved that the soul of Jesus Christ had been united to the Divinity before the incarnation ; but then he allowed no distinction of natures in Jesus Christ since his incarnation. This heresy was first condemned, in a synod held at Con- stantinople, by Flavian, in 448: approved by the council of Ephesus, called con renins lalronum, in 449; and re-examined and fulminated in the general council of Chalcedon, in 451. The Eu- tychians were divided into several branches, as the Agnoetw, Tkcodosians, Scverinns, &c. &C. &x. Eutychians was also the name of a sect, half Arian, and half Eunomian, which arose at Constantinople in the fourth century. EXALTATION OF CHRIST consisted in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day. See articles Uksurhkction', Ascension, Intercession, and Judgment-Day. EXAMINATION, Self. See Self-exami- nation. EXAMPLE, a copy or pattern. In a moral sense, is cithir taken for a type, instance, or pre- cedent for our admonition, thai we may be cau- tioned against the faults or crimes which others 136 EXARCH have committed, by the bad consequences which have ensued from them ; or example is taken for a pattern for our imitation, or a model for us to copy after. That good examples have a peculiar powei above naked precepts, to dispose us to the prac- tice of virtue and holiness, may appear by con- sidering, " 1. That they most clearly express to us the nature of our duties in their subjects and sensible effects. General precepts form abstract ideas of virtue; but in examples virtues are most visible in all their circumstances. — 2. Precepts instruct us in what things are duty, but exam- ples show us that they are possible. — 3. Exam- ples, by secret and lively incentive, urge us to imitation. We are touched in another manner by the visible practice of good men, which re- proaches our defects, and obliges us to the same zeal, which laws, though wise and good, will not effect." The life of Jesus Christ forms the most beau tiful example the Christian can imitate. Unlike all others, it was absolutely perfect and uniform, and every way accommodated to our present state. In him we behold all light without a shade, all beautv without a spot, all the purity of the law, and the excellency of the Gospel. Here we see piety without superstition, and morality without ostentation ; humility without meanness, and fortitude without temerity ; patience without apathy, and compassion without weakness ; zeal Without rashness, and beneficence without prodi- gality. The obligation we are under to imitate this example arises from duty, relationship, en- gagement, interest, and gratitude. See article Jesus Christ. Those who set bad examples should consider 1. That they are the ministers of the devil's de signs to destroy souls. — 2. That they are acting in direct opposition to Christ, who came to save, and not to destroy. — 3. That they are adding to the misery and calamities which are already in the wjiid. — 4. That the effects of their example may be incalculable on the society to the end of time, and perhaps in eternity ; for who can tell what may be the consequence of one sin, on a family, a na- tion, or posterity'? — 5. They are acting contrary to the divine command, and thus exposing them- selves to final ruin. Mansil/on's Ser. vol. ii. ser. 9. Eng. tran.; Clarke's Looking Glass, ch. 48; Tillotson's Ser. ser. 189, 190; Barrmr's W'orks, vol. iii. ser. 2 and 3 ; Flarel's Works, vol. i. p. 29, 30 ; Mason's Ser. vol ii. ser. 17. EXARCH, an officer in the Greek church, whose business it is to visit the provinces allotted to him, in order to inform himself of the lives and manners of the clergy, take cognizance of eccle- siastical causes ; the manner of celebrating divine service; the administration of the sacraments, particularly confession; the observance of the canons : monastic discipline ; affairs of marriages, divorces, &c. ; but, above nil, to take an account of the several revenues which the patriarch re- ceives from several churches, and particularly as to what regards collecting the same. The ■ex- arch, after having enriched himself in his post. frequently rises to the patriarchate himself. Ex- arch is also used, in the eastern church antiquity, for a general or superior over several monasteries, the same that we call archimandrite; being ex- empted by the patriarch of Constantinople from the jurisdiction of the bishop. EXCOMMUNICATION EXCISION, the cutting off a person from fellowship with the community to which he be- longs, by way of punishment for some sin com- mitted. The Jews, Selden informs us, reckon up thirty-six crimes, to which they pretend this punishment is due. The rabbins reckon three kinds of excision : one, which destroys only the body ; another, which destroys the soul only ; and a third, which destroys both body and soul. The first kind of excision they pretend is untimely death ; the second is an utter extinction of the soul ; and the third a compound of the two for- mer; thus making the soul mortal or immortal, says Selden, according to the degree of misbeha- viour and wickedness of the people. See next article. EXCOMMUNICATION, a penalty, or cen- sure, whereby persons who are guilty of any no- torious crime or offence, are separated from the communion of the church, and deprived of all spiritual advantages. Excommunication is founded upon a natural right which all societies have of excluding out of their body such as violate the laws thereof, and it was originally instituted for preserving the pu- rity of the church ; but ambitious ecclesiastics converted it by degrees into an engine for pro- moting their own power, and inflicted it on the most frivolous occasions. In the ancientchurch, the power of excommuni- cation was lodged in the hands of the clergy, who distinguished it into the greater and less. The less consisted in excluding person? from the partieipa • tion of the eucharist, and the prayers of the faithful ; but they were not expelled the church. The greater excommunication consisted in absolute and entire seclusion from the church, and the participation of all its rights : notice of which was given by circular letters to the most eminent churches all over the world, that they might all confirm this act of discipline, by refusing to admit the delin- quent to their communion. The consequences were very terrible. The person so excommuni- cated, was avoided in all civil commerce and out- ward conversation. No one was to receive him into his house, nor cat at the same table with nim ; and, when dead, he was denied the solemn rites of burial. The Jews expelled from their synagogue such as had commi'.ted any grievous crime. See John ix. 22. xii. 42. xvi. 2, and Joseph. Antiq. Jud. lib. 9. cap. 22, and lib. lti. cap. 2. Goodwyn, in his Moses and Aaron, distinguishes three degrees or kinds of excommunication among the Jews. The first he finds intimated in John ix. 22; the second in 1 Cor. v. 5 ; and the third in 1 Cor. xvi. 22. The Romish pontifical takes notice of three kinds of excommunication.— -1. The minor, in- curred by those who have any correspondence with an excommunicated person. — 2. The major, which falls upon those who disobey the commands of the holy see, or refuse to submit to certain points of discipline : in consequence of which they are excluded from the church militant and tri- umphant, and delivered over to the devil, and his angels. — 3. Anathema, which is properly vhat pronounced by the pope against heretical princes and countries. In former ages, these papal ful- minations were most terrible things ; but latterly they were formidable to none but a few petty States of Italy. 137 S EXCOMMUNICATION Excommunication, in the Greek church, cuts eff the offender from all communion with the three hundred and eighteen fathers of the first council of Nice, and with the saints ; consigns him over to the devil and the traitor Judas, and condemns his body to remain after death as hard as a flint or piece of steel, unless he humble him- self, and make atonement for his sins by a sincere repentance. The form abounds with dreadful imprecations; and the Greeks assert, that, if a person dies excommunicated, the devil enters into the lifeless corpse : and, therefore, in order to prevent it, the relations of the deceased cut his body in pieces, and boil them in wine. It is a cus- tom with the patriarch of Jerusalem annually to excommunicate ti" i pope and the church of Rome ; on which occasion, together with a great deal of idle ceremony, he drives a nail into the ground with a hammer, as a mark of malediction. The form of excommunication in the church of England anciently ran thus : " By the authority of God the Father Almighty, the Son, and Holy Ghost, and of Mary the blessed mother of God, we excommunicate, anathematize, and sequester from the holy mother church," &c. The causes of excommunication in England are, contempt of the bishops' court, heresy, neglect of public wor- ship and the sacraments, incontinency, adultery, simony, &c. It is described to be twofold ; the less is an ecclesiastical censure, excluding the party from the participation of the sacrament; the greater proceeds farther, and excludes him not only from these, but from the company of all Christians; but if the judge of any spiritual court excommunicate a man for a cause of which he has not the legal cognizance, the party may have an action against him at common law, and he is also liable to be indicted at the suit of the king. Excommunication in the church of Scotland consists only in an exclusion of openly profane and immoral persons from baptism and the Lord's Supper ; but is seldom publicly denounced, as, in- deed, such persons generally exclude themselves from the latter ordinance at least ; but it is attend- ed with no civil incapacity whatever. Among the Independents and Baptists, the persons who are or should be excommunicated, are such as are quarrelsome and litigious, Gal. v. 12; such as desert their privileges, withdraw them- selves from the ordinances of God, and forsake his people, Jude 11) ; such as are irregular and im- moral in their lives, railers, drunkards, extortion- ers, tornicators, and covetous, Eph. v. 5; 1 Cor. v. 11. " The exclusion of a person from any Christian church does not affect his temporal estate and civil affairs; it does not subject him to fines or imprisonments ; it interferes not with the busi- ness of a civil magistrate ; it makes no change in the natural and civil relations between husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and ser- vants; neither does it deprive a man of the liberty of attending public worship; it removes him, however, from the communion of the church, and the privileges dependent on it : this is done that he may be. ashamed of his sin, and be brought to repentance ; that the honour of Christ may be vindicated, and that stumbling blocks may be re- moved out of the way." Though the act of exclusion be not performed exactly in the same manner in every church, yet (according to the congregational plan) the power m 2 EXISTENCE cf excision lies in the church itself. The officers take the sense of the members assembled together; ami after the matter has been properly investigat- ed, and all necessary steps taken to reclaim the offender, the church proceeds to the actual exclu- sion of the person from among them, by signifying their judgment or opinion that the person is un- worthy of a place in God's house. In the con- clusion of this article, however, we must add, that too great caution cannot be observed in procedures of this kind ; every thing should be done with the greatest meekness, deliberation, prayer, and a deep sense of our own unworthmess ; with a compassion for the offender, and a iixed design of embracing every opportunity of doing him good, ny reproving, instructing, and, if possible, restor- ing him to the enjoyment of the privileges he has forfeited by his conduct. See Church. EXCU3ATI, a term formerly used to denote slaves, who, flying to any church for sanctuary, were excused and pardoned by their masters. EXHORTATION, the act of laying such motives before a person as may excite him to the performance of any duty. It differs only from suasion in that the latter principally endeavours to convince the understanding, and the former to work on the affections. It is considered as a great branch of preaching, though not confined to that, as a man may exhort, though he do not preach ; though a man can hardly be said to preach if he do not exhort. It seems, however, that there are some, who believing the inability of man to do any thing good, cannot reconcile the idea of ex- horting men to duty, being, as they suppose, a contradiction to address men who have no power to act of themselves. But they forget, — 1. That the Great Author of our being has appointed this as a mean for inclining the will to himself, Is. lv. 6, 7; Luke xiv. 17, 23. — 2. That they who thus address do not suppose that there is any virtue in the exhortation itself, but that its energy depends on God alone, 1 Cor; xv. 10. — 3. That the Scripture enjoins ministers to exhort men, i,hat is, to rouse them to duty, by proposing suitable motives, Is. Iviii. 1 ; 1 Tim. vi. 2 ; Heb. iii. 13 ; Rom. xii. 8. — I. That it was the constant prac- tice of prophets, apostles, and Christ himself, Is. i. 17 ; Jer. iv. 11 ; Ezek. xxxvii. ; Luke xii. 3 ; Luke iii. 18 ; Acts xi. 23. " The express words," says a good divine, " of scriptural invitations, ex- hortations, and promises, prove more effectual to encourage those who are ready to give up their hopes, than all the consolatory topics that can possibly be substituted in their place. It is, there- fore, much to be lamented that pious men, by ad- hering to a supposed systematical exactness of expression, should clog their addresses to sinners with exceptbns and limitations, which the Spirit of God did not see good to insert. They will not say that the omission was an oversight in the in- spired writers ; or admit the thought for a mo- ment, that they can improve on their plan : why then cannot they be satisfied to 'speak according to the oracles of God,' without affecting a more entire consistency? Great mischief has thus been done by very different descriptions of men, who undesignedly concur in giving Satan an occasion of suggesting to the trembling inquirer that perhaps he may persevere in asking, seeking, and knocking, with the greatest earnestness and importunity, and yet finally be cast awav." EXISTENCE of GOD. The methods usual- 133 EXISTENCE ly followed in proving the existence of God are two- the first called argumentum a priori, which beginning with the cause descends to the effect; the other argumentum a posteriori, which, from a consideration of the effect, ascends to the cause. The former of these hath been particularly laboured by Dr. Samuel Clarke ; but after all he has said, the possibility of any one's being convinced by it hath been questioned. The most general proofs are the following : 1. " All nations, Heathens, Jews, Mahometans, and Christians, harmoniously consent that there is a God who created, preserves, and governs all things. To this it has tren objected, that there have been, at different times and places, men who were atheists, and deniers of a God. But these have been so few, and by their opinions have shown that they rather denied the particular pro- vidence than the' existence of God, that it can hardly be said to be an exception to the argu- ment stated. And even if men were bold enough to assert it, it would not be an absolute proof that they really believed what they said, since it might proceed from a wish that there were no God to whom they must be accountable for their sin, rather than a belief of it, Ps. xiv. 1. It has also been objected, that whole nations have been found in Africa and America who have no notion of a Deity: but this is what has never been proved; on the contrary, upon accurate inspec- tion, even the most stupid Hottentots, Salda- nians, Greenlanders, Kamtschatkans, and savage Americans, are found to have some idea of a God, 2. " It is argued from the law and light of Na- ture, or from the general impression of Deity on the mind of every man, i. e. an indistinct idea of a Being of infinite perfection, and a readiness to acquiesce in the truth of his existence, whenever they understand the terms in which it is express- ed. Whence could this proceed, even in the minds of such whose affections and carnal interests dis- pose them to believe the contrary, if there were no impression naturally in their hearts 7 It has been observed by some writers, that there are no innate ideas in the minds of men, and particularly concerning God ; but this is not so easily proved, since an inspired apostle assures us that even the Gentiles, destitute of the law of Moses, have the ' ^ork of the law written in their hearts,' Rom. ii. 15. 3. " The works of creation plainly demonstrate the existence of a God. The innumerable alter- ations and manifest dependence, every where ob- servable in the world, prove that the things which exist in it neither are nor could be from eternity. It is self-evident that they never could form them- selves out of nothing, or in any of their respective forms ; and that chance, being nothing but the want of design, never did nor could form or put into order any thing ; far less such a marvellous and well connected system as our world is. Though we should absurdly fancy matter to be eternal, yet it could not change its own form, or produce life or reason. Moreover, when we con- sider the diversified and wonderful forms of creatures in the world, and how exactly those form-; and stations correspond with their resj«c- tiveends and uses; when we consider the mar- vellous and exact machinery, form, and motions of our own bodies; and especially when we con- sider the powers of our soul, its desires after an infinite good, and its close union with, and in- EXISTENCE comprehensible operations on our bodies, we are obliged to admit a Creator of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. 4. " It is argued from the support and govern- ment of the world. Who can consider the mo- tions of the heavenly luminaries, exactly calcu- lated for the greatest advantage to our earth, and its inhabitants; the exact balancing and regu- lating of the meteors, winds, rain, snow, hail, vapour, thunder, and the like; the regular and never-failing return of summer and winter, seed- time and harvest, day and night; the astonishing and diversified formation of vegetables ; the pro- pagation of herbs, almost every where, that are most effectual to heal the distempers of animal bodies in that place ; the almost infinite diver- sification of animals and vegetables, and their pertinents, that, notwithstanding an amazing similarity, not any two are exactly alike, but every form, member, or even feather or hair of animals, and every pile of grass, stalk of corn, herb, leaf, tree, berry, or other fruit, hath some- thing peculiar to itself: the making of animals so sagaciously to prepare their lodgings, defend themselves, provide for their health, produce and protect, and procure food for their young; the direction of fishes and fowls to and in such mar- vellous and long peregrinations, at such seasons, and to such places, as best correspond with their own preservation and the benefit of mankind ; the stationing of brute animals by sea or land, at less or greater distances, as are most suited to the safety, subsistence, or comfort of mankind, and preventing the increase of prolific animals, and making the less fruitful ones, which are used, ex- ceedingly to abound ; the so diversifying the countenances, voices, and hand-writings of men, as best secures and promotes their social advan- tages ; the holding of so equal a balance between males and females, while the number of males, whose lives are peculiarly endangered in war, navigation, &c, are generally greatest ; the pro- longing of men's lives, when the world needed to be peopled, and now shortening them when that necessity hath ceased to exist; the almost uni- versal provision of food, raiment, medicine, fuel, &c., answerable to the nature of particular places, cold or hot, moist or dry; the manage- ment of human affairs relative to societies, eo- EXORCISM in their respective periods, and of the fulfilmcni of which there are at present thousa nds of demon- strative and sensible documents in the world, could proceed from any but an all-seeing and in- finitely wise God. 7. " The existence of God further appears from the fearful punishments which have been inflicted upon persons, and especially upon nations, when their immoralities became excessive, and that by very unexpected means and instruments ; as in the drowning of the old world ; destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ; plagues of Pharaoh and his servants ; overthrow of Sennacherib and his army ; miseries and ruin of the Canaanites, Jews, Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Egyp- tians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Tartars, and others. 8. "Lastly, the existence of God may be ar- gued from the terror and dread which wound the consciences of men, when guilty of crimes which other men do not know, or are not able to punish or restrain : as in the case of Caligula, Nero, and Domitian, the Roman emperors ; and this while they earnestly labour to persuade themselves or others that there is no God. Hence their being afraid of thunder, or to be left alone in the dark, &c." As to the modus of the divine existence, would be presumption to attempt to explain. That he exists, is clear from the foregoing argu- ments; but the manner of that existence is not for us to know. Many good men have uttered great absurdities in endeavouring to explain it, and after all none of them have succeeded. The wisest of men never made the attempt. Moses began his writings by supposing the being of a God ; he did not attempt to explain it. Although many of the inspired writers asserted his exist- ence, and, to discountenance idolatry, pleaded for his perfections, yet no one of them ever pre- tended to explain the manner of his being. Oui duty is clear. We are not commanded nor ex- pected to understand it. All that is required i? this : " He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- gently seek him." Heb. xi. 6. See Gill's Body of Div. b. i. ; Charnock's Works, vol. i. ; Ridg- ley's Div. ques. 2 ; Brown's System of Die. ; Pierre's Studies of Nature; Sturm's Refkc vernment, peace, war, trade, &c, in a manner tions ; Spect.de la Nat. ; Bonnet's Philosophi different from, and contrary to, the carnal policy of those concerned ; and especially the strangely similar but diversified erection, preservation, and government of the Jewish and Christian churches; who, I say, can consider all these things, and not acknowledge the existence of a wise, merciful, and good God, who governs the world, and every thiug in if? 5. " It is proved from the miraculous events which have happened in the world : such as the overflowing of the earth by a flood ; the confusion of languages; the burning of Sodom and the ci- ties about by fire from heaven ; the plagues of Egypt; the dividing of the Red Sea; raining manna from heaven, and bringing streams of water from flinty rocks; the stopping of the course of the sun, &c. &c. G. " His existence no less clearly appears from the exact fulfilment of so many and so particu- larly circumstantiated predictions, published long before the event took place. It is impossible that these predictions, which were so exactly fulfilled 131) cat Researches ; and writers enumerated under the article Atheism. EXORCISM, the expelling of devils from persons possessed, by means of conjurations and prayers. The Jews made great pretences to this power. Josephus tells several wonderful tales of the great success of several exorcists. One Elea- zer, a Jew, cured many dsemoniacs, he says, by means of a root set in a ring. This root, with the ring, was held under the patient's nose, and the devil was forthwith evacuated. The most part of conjurors of this class were impostors, each pretending to a secret nostrum or charm which was an overmatch for the devil. Our Sa- viour communicated to his disciples a real power over daemons, or at least over the diseases said to be occasioned by daemons. See Demoniac. Exorcism makes a considerable part of the superstition of the church of Rome, the ritual of which forbids the exorcising any person without the bishop's leave. The ceremony is performed a the lower end of the church, towards the door. EXPERIENCE The exorcist first signs the possessed person with the sign of the cross, makes him kneel, and sprinkles him with holy water. Then follow the litanies, psalms, and prayer; after which the exorcist asks the devil his name, and abjures him by the mysteries of the Christian religion not to afflict the person any more ; then, laving his right hand on the demoniac's head, he repeats the form of exorcism, which is this: "1 exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ : tremble, 0 Satan, thou enemy of the faith, thou foe of mankind, who hast brought death into the world; who hast deprived men of life, and hast rebelled against justice; thou seducer of mankind, thou root of all evil, thou source of avarice, dis- cord, and envy." The Romanists likewise ex- orcise houses and other places supposed to he haunted by unclean spirits; and the ceremony is much the same as that for a person possessed. EXORDIUM. SeeSKRMOx. EXPEDIENCY, the fitness or propriety of a mean to the attainment of an end. See Obli- gation. EXPERIENCE, knowledge acquired by long use without a teacher. It consists in the ideas of things which we have seen or read, which the judgment has reflected on, to form for itself a rule or method. Christian experience is that religious know- ledge which is acquired by an)' exercises, enjoy- ments, or sufferings, either of body or mind. Nothing is more common than to ridicule and despise what is called religious experience as m°re enthusiasm. But if religion consist in feeling, we would ask, how it can possibly exist without experience ? We are convinced of, and admit the propriety of the term, when applied to those branches of science which are not founded on speculation or conjecture, but on sensible trial. Why, then, should it be rejected when applied to religion"? It is evident that, however beautiful religion may be in name, its excellency and ener- gy are only truly known and displayed as expe- rienced. A system believed, or a mind merely informed, will produce little good, except the heart be affected, and we feel its influence. To expe- perience, then, the religion of Christ, we must not only be acquainted with its theory, but enjoy its power ; subduing our corruptions, animating our affections, and exciting us to duty. Hence the Scripture calls experience tasting, Ps. xxxiv. 9 ; feeling, &c. 1 Thess. ii. 13, &c. That our experience is always absolutely pure in the pre- sent state, cannot be expected. " The best ex- perience," says a good writer, "may be mixed with natural affections and passions, impressions on the imagination, self-righteousness, or spiritual pride ;" but this is no reason that all experience is to he rejected, for upon this ground nothing could be received, since nothing is absolutely per- fect. It is, however, to be lamented, that while the best of men have a mixture in their experience, there are others whose experience (so called) is entirely counterfeit. They have been alarmed, have changed the ground of their confidence, have had their imaginations heated and delighted by impressions and visionary representations ; they have recollected the promises of the Gospel, as if spoken to them with peculiar appropriation, to certify them that their sins were forgiven; and having seen and heard such wonderful things, they think they must doubt no more of their adop- 140 EXPERIENCE tion into the family of Go.J-. They hpve also fre- quently heard all experience profanely ridiculed as enthusiasm ; and this betrays them into the opposite extreme, so that they are emboldened to despise every caution as the result of enmity to internal religion, and to act as if there were no delusive or counterfeit experience. But the event too plainly shows their awful mistake, and that they grounded their expectations U|>on the ac- count given of the extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on the minds of prophets, rather than on the promises of his renewing influence in the hearts of believers. When, therefore, they lose the impressions with which they once were elated, they relapse nearly into their old course of life, their creed and confidence alone excepted." Christian experience may be considered as genuine, 1. When it accords with the revelation of God's mind and will, or what he has revealed in his word. Any thing contrary to this, how- ever pleasing, cannot be sound, or produced by divine agency. — 2. When its tendency is to pro- mote humility in us : that experience, by which we learn our own weakness, and subdues pride, must be good. — 3. When it teaches us to bear with others, and to do them good. — i. When it operates so as to excite us to be ardent in our de- votion, and sincere in our regard to God. A powerful experience of the divine favour will lead us to acknowledge the same, and to manifest our gratitude both by constant praise and genuine piety. Christian experience, however, may be abused. There are some good people who certainly have felt and enjoyed the power of religion, and yet have not always acted with prudence as to their experience. 1. Some Doast of their experiences, or talk of them as if they were very extraordinary ; whereas, were they acquainted with others, they would find it not so. That a man may make mention of his experience, is no way improper, but often useful; but to hear persons always talking of themselves, seems to indicate a spirit of pride, and that their experience cannot be very deep. — 2. Another abuse of experience is, de- pendence on it. We ought certainly to take en- couragement from past circumstances, if we can ; but if we are so dependent on past experience1 as to preclude present exertions, or always expect to have exactly the same assistance in every state, trial, or ordinance, we shall be disappointed. God has wisely ordered it, that though he never will leave his people, yet he will suspend or bestow comfort in his own time; for this very reason, that we may rely on him, and not on the circum- stance or ordinance. — 3. It is an abuse of expe- rience, when introduced at improper tunes, and before improper persons. It is true, we ought never to be ashamed of our profession ; but to be always talking to irreligious people respecting ex- perience, which they know nothing of, is, as our Saviour says, casting pearls before swine. Bun- yan's Pilgrim's Progress; Buck's Treatise on Experience; Gornall's Christian Armour ; Dr, Owen on Psalm exxx ; Edwards on the Affec- tions, and his Thoughts on the Revival of Reli- gion in New England ; Dor/iei/s Contempla- tions. EXPERIENCE MEETINGS, are assem- blies of religious persons, who meet for the pur- pose of relating their experience to each other. It has been doubted by some whether these meet- FAITH tngs are of any great utility ; and whether they do not in some measure force people to say more than is true, and puff up those with pride who are able to communicate their ideas with facility ; but to this it may be answered, 1. That the abuse of a thing is no proof of the evil of it. — 2. That the most eminent saints of old did not ne- glect this practice, Ps. Ixvi. 16 ; Mai. iii. 1G. — 3. That by a wise and prudent relation of expe- rience, the Christian is led to see that others have participated of the same joys and sorrows with himself; he is excited to love and serve God; and animated to perseverance in duty, by finding that others, of like passions with himself, are zealous, active, and diligent. — 4. That the Scriptures seem to enjoin the frequent intercourse FAITH of Christians for the purpose of strengthening each other in religious services, Heb. x. 24, 25 ; Col. iii. 10; Matt, xviii. 20. See Conference. EXPIATION, a religious act, by which sa- tisfaction or atonement is made for some crime, the guilt removed, and the obligation to punish- ment cancelled, Lev. xvi. Sec Propitiation. EXPOSITIONS. See Commentaries. EXTORTION, the act or practice of gaining or acquiring any thing by force. Extortioners are included in the list of those who are excluded from the kingdom of heaven. 1 Cor. x. 6. EXTREME UNCTION, one of the sacra- ments of the Romish church, the fifth in order, administered to people dangerously sick, by anoint- ing them with holy oil, and prajing over them. F. FAITH is that assent which we give to a pro- position advanced by another, the truth of which we do not immediately perceive from our own reason and experience; or it is a judgment. or as- sent of the mind, the motive whereof is not any intrinsic evidence, but the authority or testimony of some other who reveals or relates it. The Greek word n.a-Tis, translated faith, comes from the verb iisia»), to persuade; the nature of faith being a persuasion and assent of the mind, arising from testimony or evidence. 1. Divine faith, is that founded on the au- thority of God, or it is that assent which we give to what is revealed by God. The objects of this, therefore, are matters of revelation. 2. Human faith, is that whereby we believe what is told us by men. The objects hereof are matters of human testimony or evidence. 3. Historical faith, is that whereby we assent to the truths of revelation as a kind of certain and infallible record, James ii. 17, or to any fact re- corded in history. 4. The faith of miracles, is the persuasion a t«rson has of his being able, by divine power, to effect a miracle on another, Matt. xvii. 20; 1 Cor. xiii. 2 : or another on himself, Acts, xiv. 9. This obtained chiefly in the time of Christ and his apostles. G. A temporary faith, is an assent to evan- gelical truths, as both interesting and desirable, but not farther than they are accompanied with temporal advantages ; and which is lost when such advantages diminish or are removed, Matt, xi. 24; Luke viii. 13. G. Faith in respect to futurity, is a moral prin- ciple, implying such a conviction of the reality and importance of a future state, as is sufficient to regulate the temper and conduct. 7. Faith in Christ, or saving faith, is that principle wrought in the heart by the Divine Spirit, whereby we are persuaded that Christ is the Messiah ; and possess such a desire and ex- pectation of the blessings he has promised in his Gospel, as engages the mind to fix its dependence on him, and subject itself to him in all the ways of holy obedience, and relying solely on his grace for everlasting life. These are the ideas which are generally annexed to the definition of saving faith ; but, accurately speaking, faith is an act of the understanding, giving credit to the testimony of the Gospel ; and desire, expectation, confi- 141 dence, &c, are rather the effects of it, than faith itself, though inseparably connected with it. Much has been said as to the order or place in which faith stands in the Christian system, some placing it before, others after repentance. Per- haps the following remarks on the subject may be considered as consistent with truth and Scrip- ture : 1. Regeneration is the work of God en- lightening the mind, and changing the heart, and in order of time precedes faith. — 2. Faith is thw consequence of regeneration, and implies the per- ception of an object. It discerns the evil of sin, the holiness of God, gives credence to the testi- mony of God in his word, and seems to precede repentance, since we cannot repent of that of which we have no clear perception, or no concern about. — 3. Repentance is an after-thought, or sorrowing for sin, the evil nature of which faith perceives, and which immediately follows faith. — 4. Conversion is a turning from sin, which faith sees, and repentance sorrows for, and seems to follow, and to be the end of all the rest. As to the properties or adjuncts of faith, we may observe, 1. That it is the first and principal grace : it stands first in order, and takes the pre- cedence of other graces, Mark xvi. 1G ; Heb. xi. 6. — 2. It is every way precious and valuable, 1 Pet. ii. 1. — 3. It is called in Scripture, one faith ; for though there are several sorts of faith, there is but one special or saving faith, Eph. iv. 5. — 4. It is also denominated common faith ; common to all the regenerate, Tit. i. 4. — 5. It is true, real, and unfeigned. Acts viii. 37 ; Rom. x. 10. — G. It cannot be finally lost as to the grace of it, Phil. i. G; Luke xxii. 32. — 7. It is progressive, Luke xvii. 5; 2 Thess. i. 3. — 8. It appropriates and realizes, or, as the apostle says, is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, Heb. xi. 1. The evidences or effects of faith, are, 1. Love to Christ, 1 Pet. i. 8 ; Gal. v. 6. — 2. Confidence, Eph. iii. 12. — 3. Joy, Rom. v. 11 ; Phil. i. 25. — 4. Prayer, Heb. iv. 1G. — 5. Attention to his or- dinances, and profit by them, Heb. iv. 2. — 6. Zeal in the promotion of his glory, 1 Cor. xv. 58; Gal. vi. 9. — 7. Holiness of heart and life, Matt, vii. 20; 1 John ii. 3; Acts xv. 9; James ii. 18, 20, 22. See articles Assurance and Justifica- tion, in this work; and Polhill on Precious Faith; hamberVs Sermons, 13, 14, &c. ; Scott's Nature and Warrant of Faith ; Rom a in c's Life FALL Walk, and Triumph of Faith ; Rotherham's Essay on Faith; Dare's Letters on Fai/h; A. Hall on the Faith and Influence of the Gospel; Goodwin's Works, vol. iv. FAITH, ARTICLE OF. See Article. FAITH, CONFESSION OF. Sec Con- fession. FAITH, IMPLICIT. Sre Implicit Faith. FAITHFULNESS. See Fidelity. FAITHFULNESS, MINISTERIAL. See Pastor. FAITHFULNESS OF GOD, is that per- fection of his nature whereby he infallibly fulfils his designs, or performs his word. It appears, says Dr. Gill, in the performance of what he has s:iid with respect to the world in general, that it shall not be destroyed by a flood, as it once was, and for a token of it, has set his bow in the clouds; that the ordinances of heaven should keep their due course, which they have done for almost (J000 years, exactly and punctually; that all his creatures snouid oe supported and provided for, and the elements all made subservient to that end, which we find do so according to Ms so- vereign pleasure, Gen. ix ; Isa. liv. i); Ps. cxlv; Deut. xi. 14, 15; 2 Pet. iii. 8. It appears in the fulfilment of what he has said with respect to Christ. "Whoever will take the pains to compare the predictions of the birth, poverty, life, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, with the accomplishment of the samp, will find a striking demonstration of the faithfulness of God. 3. It appears in the performance of the pro- mises which he has made to his people. In re- spect to temporal blessings, 1 Tim. iv. 8; Psal. Ixxxiv. 11; Is. xxxiii. 16. — 2. To spiritual, 1 Cor. i. 9. In supporting them in temptation, 1 Cor. x. 13. Encouraging them under persecu- tion, 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13 ; Isa. xli. 10. Sanctifying a mictions, Heb. xii. 4 to 12. Directing them in difficulties, 1 Thess. v. 24. Enabling them to persevere, Jer. xxxi. 40. Bringing them to glory, 1 John ii. 25. 4. It appears in the fulfilling of his threaten- ings. The curse came upon Adam according as it was threatened. He fulfilled his threatening to the old world in destroying it. He declared that the Israelites should be subject to his awful displeasure, if they walked not in his ways; it was accordingly fulfilled, Deut. xxviii. See IM- MUTABILITY. FALL OF MAN, the loss of those perfec- tions and that happiness which his Maker be- stowed on him at his creation, through transgres- sion of a positive command, given for the trial of man's obedience, and as a token of his holding every thing of God, as Lord paramount of the creation, with the use of every thing in it, exclu- sive of the fruit of one tree. This positive law he broke by eating the forbidden fruit ; first the woman, then the man : and thus the condition or law of the covenant being broken, the covenant itself was broken. The woman was enticed by an evil genius, under the semblance of a serpent, as appears from its reasoning the woman into the transgression of the law, of which a brute beast is incapable. Hence the evil genius is called a mur- derer and a liar from the beginning, John viii. 1 1. Rom. v. 12; the old serpent, Rev. xii. 9. xx. 2. Moses relates this history, from what appeared citernally to sense ; both, therefore, are to be I 112 FALL conjoined, the serpent as the instrument, and the devd as the primary cause. Man suffered him- self to be seduced by perverse and confused no- tions of good and evil, prompted by a desire of a greater degree of perfection, and swayed by his sensual appetite, in contradiction to his reason, Gen. iii. 6. And thus it appears possible, how, notwithstanding the divine image with which man is adorned, he might fall ; for, though inclu- ding in it knowledge, it did not exclude from it confused notions, which are those arising from sense and imagination, especially when off our guard and inattentive, blindly following the pre- sent impression. Fronr this one sin arose an- other, and then another, from the connexion of causes and effects, till this repetition brought on a habit of sin, consequently, a state of moral sla- very ; called by divines a death in sin, a spiritual death, a defect of power to act according to the law, and from the motive of the divine perfections, as death in srcneral is such a defect of power of action ; and this defect or inability, with all its consequences, man entailed on his posterity, re- maining upon them, till one greater man remove this, and reinstate them in all they forfeited in Adam. In the fall of man we may observe, 1. The greatest infidelity. — 2. Prodigious pride. — 3. Hor- rid ingratitude. — 1. Visible contempt of God's majesty and justice. — 5. Unaccountable folly. — 6. A cruelty to himself and to all his posterity. Infidels, however, have treated the account of the fall and its effects, with contempt, and considered the whole as absurd ; but their objections to the manner have been ably answered by a variety of authors ; and as to the effects, one would hardly think any body could deny. For, that man is a fallen creature, is evident, if we consider his mi- sery as an inhabitant of the natural world ; the disorders of the globe we inhabit, and the dreadful scourges with which it is visited ; the deplorable and shocking circumstances of our birth ; the painful and dangerous travail of women ; our na- tural uncleanlincss, helplessness, ignorance, and nakedness ; the gross darkness in which we na- turally are, both with respect to God and a future state : the general rebellion of the brute creation against us ; the various poisons that lurk in the animal, vegetable and mineral world, ready to destroy us; the heavy curse of toil and sweat, to which we are liable ; the innumerable calamities of life, and the pangs of death. Again, it is evi- oent, if we consider him as a citizen of the moral world ; his commission of sin ; his omission of duty; the triumph of sensual appetites ever his intellectual faculties ; the corruption of the ]>owers that constitute a good head, the understanding, imagination, memory and reason ; the depravity of the powers which form a good heart, the will, conscience, and affections; his manilest aliena- tion from Gc<1; his amazing disregard even of his nearest relatives; his unaccountable unconcern about himself; his detestable tempers; the gene- ral out-breaking of human corruption in all indi- viduals ; the universal overflowing of it in all na- tions. Some striking proofs of this depravity may be seen in the general propensity of mankind to vain, irrational, or cruel diversions; in the uni- versality of the most ridiculous, impious, inhuman, and diabolical sins ; in the aggravating circum- stances attending the display of this corruption; in the rnary ineUcctuul endeavours to stem its FASTING torrent ; in the obstinate resistance it makes to divine grace in the unconverted ; the amazing struggles of good men with it ; the testimony of the heathens concerning it ; and the preposte- rous conceit which the unconverted have of their own goodness. Diet, of the Bible; Fletcher's Appeal to Matters of Fact ; Berry Street Lec- tures, vol. i. 180, 189; South' s Sermons, vol. i. 124, 150; Bates's Harmony of Div. Att. p. 98 ; Boston's Fourfold State, part i. FALSEHOOD, untruth, deceit. See Lying. FALSE CHR1STS. See Messiah. FAMILIARS OF THE INQ.UIS1TION, persons who assist in apprehending such as are accused, and carrying them to prison. They are assistants to the inquisitor, and called familiars, because they belong to his family. In some pro- vinces of Italy they arc called cross-bearers; and and in others the scholars of St. Peter the Mar- tyr; and wear a cross before them on the outside garment. They are properly bailiffs of the inqui- sition ; and the vile office is esteemed so honour- able, that noblemen in the kingdom of Portugal have been ambitious of belonging to it. Nor is this surprising, when it is considered that Inno- cent III. granted very large indigencies and pri- vileges to these familiars ; and that the same ple- nary indulgence is granted by the pope to every single exercise of this office, as was granted by the Lateran council to those who succoured the Holy Land. When several persons are to be taken up at the same time, these familiars are commanded to order matters that they may know nothing of one another's being apprehended ; and it is re- lated, that a father and his three sons and three daughters, who lived together in the same house, were carried prisoners to the inquisition without knowing any thing of one another's being there till seven years afterwards, when they that were alive were released by an act of faith. See art. Act of Faith. FAMILY PRAYER. See Prayer. FAMILY OF LOVE, or Familists. See Love. * FANATICS, wild enthusiasts, visionary per- sons, who pretend to revelation and inspiration. The ancients called those fanatici who passed their time in temples (fana) and being often seized with a kind of enthusiasm, as if inspired by the Divinity, showed wild and antic gestures, cut- ting and slashing their arms with knives, shaking the head, &c. Hence the word was applied among us to the Anabaptists, Quakers, &c. at their lirst rise, and is now an epithet given to mo- dern prophets, enthusiasts, &c; and we believe unjustly to those who possess a considerable de- gree of zeal and fervency of devotion. FARNOVIANS, a sect of Socinians, so call- ed from Stanislaus Farnovius, who separated from the other Unitarians in the year 1568. He asserted that Christ had been engendered or pro- duced out of nothing by the Supreme Being, be- fore the creation of this terrestrial globe, and warn- ed his disciples against paying religious worship to the Divine Spirit. This sect did not last long; for having lost their chief, who died in 1615, it was scattered and reduced to nothing. FASTING, abstinence from food, more par- ticularly that abstinence which is used on a reli- gious account. The Jews had every year a stated and solemn fast on the 10th day of the month Tisri, wliich 143 FASTING generally answered to the close of our September This solemnity was a day of strict rest and fasting to the Israelites. Many of them spent the day before in prayer, and such like penitential exer- cises. On the day itself, at least in later times, they made a tenfold confession of their sins, and were careful to end all their mutual broils. See Lev. xvi. Numb. xxix. 7, 12. Lev. xxiii. 23, 32. Individuals also fasted on any extraordinary distress. Thus David fasted during the sickness of his adulterous child, 2 Sam. xii. 21 ; Ahab, when he was threatened with ruin, 1 Kings xii 27 ; Daniel, when he understood that the Jewist captivity drew to an end ; 9th and 10th chapters of Nehemiah, Joshua, &c. However light some think of religious fasting, it seems it has been practised by most nations from the remotest antiquity. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Assyrians, had their fasts as well as the Jews. Porphyry affirms that the Egyptians, before their stated sacrifices, always fasted a great many days ; sometimes for six weeks. The Greeks observed their fasts much in the same manner. At Rome, kings and empe- rors fasted themselves. Numa Pompilius, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, and others, we are told, had their stated fest days ; and Julian the apostate was so exact in this observation, that ho outdid the priests themselves. The Pythago- reans frequently fasted rigidly for a long time; and Pythagoras, their master, continued his fast, it is said, for forty days together. The Brach- mans, and the Chinese, have also their stated fasts. Every one knows how much fasting has been considered as an important rite in the church of Rome, and the extremes they have run into in this respect. See article Abstinence. The church of England also has particular seasons for fasting, especially that of Lent, which is to be observed as a time of humiliation before Easter, the general festival of our Saviour's resurrection- Fast days are also appointed by the legislature upon any extraordinary occasions of calamity, war, &c. See art. Rogation, Lent. Religious fasting consists, 1. " In abstinence from every animal indulgence, and from food, as far as health and circumstances will admit. — 2. In the humble confession of our sins to God, with contrition or sorrow for them. — 3. An earn- est deprecation of God's displeasure, and humble supplication that he would avert his judgments. — 4. An intercession with God for such spiritual and temporal blessings upon ourselves and others which are needful." It does not appear that our Saviour instituted any particular fast, but left it optional. Any state of calamity and sorrow, however, naturally suggests this. The propriety of it may appear, 1. From many examples re- corded in Scripture. — 2. By plain and undenia- ble inferences from Scripture, Matt. vi. 16. — 3. From divine commands given on some occasions, though there are no commands which prescribe it as a constant duty. — 4. It may be argued from its utility. The end or uses of it are these : — 1. A natural expression of our sorrow. — 2. A help to devotional exercises. — 3. Keeping the body in subjection. — 4. May be rendered subservient tc charity. How far or how long a person should abstain from food, depends on circumstances. The great end to be kept in view is, humiliation for, and abstinence from sin. " If," says Mar- shall, "abstinence divert our nunds, by reason FATHERS of a gnawing appetite, then you had better eat sparing, as Daniel in his greatest fast." Dan. x. 2, 3. They, however, who in times of public distress, when the judgments of God are in the earth, and when his providence seems to call for humiliation, will not relinquish any of their scn- BUel enjoyments, nor deny themselves in the least, cannot be justified; since good men in all ages, more or less, have humbled themselves on such occasions ; and reason as well as Scripture evi- dently prove it to be our duty, Matt. ix. 15. 1 Cor. vii. 5. Bcnnet's Christ. Oral. vol. ii. p. 18, 25 ; Til/o/son's Ser. ser. 3D ; Simpsons Essay on Peasting; Marshall on Sane. p. 273, 274. FATE (fitum) denotes an inevitable necessi- ty depending upon a superior cause. The word is formed afindo, "from speaking,1' and prima- rily implies the same with effatum, viz. a word or decree pronounced by God, or a fixed sentence whereby the Deity has prescribed the order of things, and allotted to every person what shall befal him. The Greeks called it s.^p^.v,, as it were a chain or necessary series of things indis- solubly linked together. It is also used to ex- press a certain unavoidable designation of things, by which all agents, both necessary and volun- tary, are swayed and directed to their ends. Fate ts divided into physical and divine. 1. Physical fate is an order and series of natural causes ap- propriated to their effects: as, that fire warms; bodies communicate motion to each other, &c. ; and the effects of it are all the events and pheno- mena of nature. — 2. Divine fate is what is more usually called providence. See Providence, Necessity. FATHERS, a term applied to ancient authors who have preserved in their writings traditions of the church. Thus St. Chrysostoni, St. Basil, &c. are called Greek fathers, and St. Augustine, and St. Ambrose, Latin fathers. No author who wrote later than the twelfth century is dignified with the title of father. Some suppose that the study of the fathers is barren and unimproving ; that though there are some excellent things interspersed in their writ- ing1') yet the instruction to be derived from them will hardly repay the toil of breaking up the ground ; that a life-time would hardly suffice to read them with care, and digest them completely. Others have such a high opinion of the fathers, as to be almost afraid of interpreting Scripture against their decision. They suppose, that as some of them were companions, disciples, or suc- cessively followers of the apostles, it is highly probable that they must have been well informed ; that their sentiments must be strongly illustrative of the doctrines of the New Testament ; and that as controversies have increased, and dogmas re- ceived since their time, they must be much less entangled with decisions merely human than more recent commentators. Perhaps it is best to steer between these two opinions. If a person have ability, inclination, and opportunity to wade through them, let him ; but if not, referring to them occasionally may suffice. One caution, however, is necessary, which is this ; that though the judgment of antiquity in some disputable points certainly may be useful, yet we ought never to put them on the same footing as the Scriptures. In many cases they may be consi- dered as competent witnesses ; but we must not confide in their verdict os judges. Jot tin' a 144 FEAST Works, vol. vii. chap. 2 ; KetCs Ser. at Hampton Lecture, ser. 1; ll'a'burton's Julian ; Simpson* Strictures on Religious Opinions, latter end, Daillt's Use of the fathers, p. 167; Law's Theory; Dr. Clark's View of the Succession of Sacred Literature, p. 312. FAULT, a slight defect or crime, which sub- jects a person to blame, but not to punishment ; a deviation from, or transgression of a rule in some trifling circumstance. FAVOUR OF GOD. See Grace. FEAR, is that uneasiness of mind which arises from an apprehension of danger, attended with a desire of avoiding it. " Fear," says Dr. Watts, " shows itself by paleness of the cheek, sinking of the spirits, trembling of the limbs, hurry and confusion of the mind and thoughts, agonies of nature, and fainting. Many a person has died with fear. Sometimes it rouses all nature to exert itself in speedy flight, or other methods to avoid the approaching evil ; sudden terror has perform- ed some almost incredibles of this kind." Fear is of different kinds : 1. There is an ido- latrous and superstitious fear, which is called 5:m{»(io«ii, a fear of demons, which the city of Athens was greatly addicted to. "I perceive," says the Apostle Paul, " that in all things ye are too superstitious," or given to the fear and wor- ship of false deities. — 2. There is an external fear of God, an outward show and profession of it, which is taught by the precepts of men : as in the men of Samaria, who pretended to fear the Lord, as the priest instructed them, and yet served their own gods ; and such an external fear of God, Job's friends supposed was all that he had, and that even he had cast that off. — 3. There is an hypocritical fear, when men make a profession of religion; but only serve him for seme sinister end and selfish view, which Satan insinuated was Job's case. "Doth Job fear God for nought!" Job i. 9. — 4. There is a servile fear, which they possess who serve God from fear of punishment, and not from love to him. — 5. There is a filial /car^ueh as that of a son to his father. Fear is sinful when — 1. It proceeds from unbelief or distrust of God : 2. When it ascribes more to the creature than is due ; or when we fear our enemies without considering they are under God : 3. When we fear that in God that is not in him, or that he will break his promise, &c. : 4. When our fear is immoderate, so as to distract us in duty. See next article. FEAR OF GOD, is that holy disposition oi gracious habit formed in the soul by the Holy Spirit, whereby we are inclined to obey ail God's commands; and evidences itself, 1. By a dread of his displeasure. — 2. Desire of his favour. — 3. Regard for his excellencies. — 4. Submission to his will.— 5. Gratitude tor his benefits. — 6". Sin- cerity in his worship. — 7. Conscientious obedience to his commands, Prow viii. 13. Job. xxviii. 28. Bales' s Works, page 913; Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. iii. book i. FEAR OF DEATH. See Death. FEARS. See Doubts. FEAST, in a religious sense, is a ceremony of feasting and thanksgiving. The principal feasts of the Jews were the feasts of trumpets, of expiation, of tabernacles, of the dedication, of the passover, of Pentecost, and that of purification. — Feasts, and the ceremonies thereof, have made great part of the religion of PEELINGS tlmost all nations and sects ; hence the Greets, the Romans, Mahometans, and Christians, have- not been without them. Feasts, among us, are either immoveable or moveable. Immoveable feasts are those constantly celebrated on the same day of the year. The principal of these are Christmas-day, Circum- cision, Epiphany, Candlemas, or Purification ; Lady-day, or the Annunciation, called also the Incarnation and Conception ; All Saints and All Souls ; besides the days of the several apostles, as St. Thomas, St. Paul. Moveable feasts are those which are not confined to the same day of the year. Of these the principal is Easter, which gives law to all the rest, all of them following and keeping their proper distances from it Such are Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Sexagesima, Ascension-day, Pentecost, and Tri- nity Sunday. Besides these feasts, which are general, and enjoined |»y the church, there are others local and occasional, enjoined by the magistrate, or volun- tarily set on foot by the people; such are the days of thanksgiving for delivery from war, plagues, &c. ; such also are the vigils or wakes in commemoration of the dedication of particular churches. The prodigious increase of feasting days in the Christian church commenced towards the close of the fourteenth century, occasioned by the dis- covery that was made of the remains of martyrs, and other holy men, for the commemoration of whom they were established. These, instead of being set apart for pious exercises, were abused in indolence, voluptuousness, and criminal prac- tices. Many of them were instituted on a pagan model, and perverted to similar purposes. See Holy Day. FEAST OF ASSES. This was a festival in the Romish church, and was celebrated at Beauvais. They chose a young woman, the handsomest in the town ; made her ride on an ass richly harnessed, and placed in her arms a pretty infant. In this state, followed by the bishop and clergy, she marched in procession from the cathe- dral to the church of St. Stephen ; entered into the sanctuary, placed herself near the altar, and then celebrated mass ; not forgetting to explain the fine qualities of the animal, and exhorting him to make a devout genuflection, with a va- riety of other fooleries. FEELINGS, RELIGIOUS, are those sen- sations or emotions of the mind produced by the views we have of religion. While some enthu- siasts boast of, depend on, and talk much of their feelings, there are others who are led to discard the term, and almost to abandon the idea of re- ligious feeling ; but it is evident, that however many have been misguided and deceived by feelings, yet there is no such thing as religion without this. For instance ; religion consists in contrition, repentance, and devotion : now, what is contrition but a feeling of sorrow for sin? what is repentance but a. feeling of hatred to it, with a relinquishing of it? what is devotion but a feeling of love to God and his ways ? Who can separate the idea of feel ing from any of these acts? The fact is this; ndigious feelings, like every thing else, have been abused ; and men, to avoid the imputation of fanaticism, have run into the opposite evil of lukewarmness, and been content with a system without feeling its 145 * T FILTAL energy. See Affection, Enthusiasm, Ex- perience. FELLOWSHIP, joint interest, or the havi ag one common stock. The fellowship of the saints is twofold :— 1. With God, 1 John i. 3 ; 1 Cor. i. 9 ; xiii. 14. — 2. With one another, 1 John i. 7. Fellowship with God, consists in knowledge of his will, Job xxii. '21 ; John xviii. 3. Agreement, Amos iii. 2. Strength of affection, Rom. viii. 38, 39. Enjoyment of his presence, Ps. iv. 6. Con- formity to his image, 1 John ii. 6 ; i. 6. Fellowship of the saints, may be considered as a fellowship of duties, Rom. xii. 6 ; 1 Cor. xii. 1 ; 1 Thess. v. 17, 18; James v. 1G. Of ordinances, Heb. x. 24 ; Acts ii. 4G. Of graces, love, joy, &jc. Heb. x. 24; Mai. iii. 16; 2 Cor. viii. 4. Of in- terest spiritual, and sometimes temporal, Rom. xii. 4, 13 ; Heb. xiii. 1G. Of sufferings, Rom. xv. 1, 2; Gal. vi. 1,2; Rom. xii. 15. Of eternal glory, Rev.vii. 9. See Communion. FIDELITY, faithfulness, or the conscientious discharge of those duties of a religious, personal, and relative nature, which we are bound to per- form. See an excellent sermon on the subject in Dr. Erskinc's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 304. FIFTH MONARCHY MEN, were a set of enthusiasts, in the time of Cromwell, who ex- pected the sudden appearance of Christ, to esta- blish on earth a new monarchy or kingdom. In consequence of this illusion, some of them aimed at the subversion of all human government. In ancient history we read of four great monarchies, the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and the Roman; and these men, believing that this new spiritual kingdom of Christ was to be the fifth, came to bear the name by which they were called. Their leader was Thomas Venner, a wine-cooper who in his little conventicle in Coleman-street, warm- ed his admirers with passionate expectations of a fifth universal monarchy, under the personal reign of King Jesus, upon earth, and that the saints were to take the kingdom to themselves. To introduce this imaginary kingdom, they marched out of their meeting-house towards St. Paul's church-yard, on Sunday, Jan. 6th, 1660, to the number of about fifty men, well armed, and with a resolution to subvert the present go- vernment, or to die in the attempt. They pub- lished a declaration of the design of their rising, and placed sentinels at proper places. The lord mayor sent the trained bands to disperse them, whom they quickly routed, but in the evening retired to Caen Wood, between Highgate and Hampstead. On Wednesday morning they re- turned, and dispersed a party of the king's soldiers in Threadneedlc-street. In Wood- street they repelled the trained bands, and some of the horse guards ; but Venner himself was knocked down, and some of his company slain : from hence the remainder retreated to Cripple- gate, and took possession of a house, which they threatened to defend with a despefate resolu- tion ; but nobody appearing to countenance their frenzy, they surrendered after they had lost about half their number. Venner, and one of his offi- cers, were hanged before their meeting-house door in Coleman-street, Jan. 19th; and a few days after nine more were executed in divers parts of the city. FILIAL PIETY, is the affectionate attach- ment of children to their parents, including in it love, reverence, obedience, and relief. Justly has N FOOL it been observed, that these great duties arc prompted equally by nature, and by gratitude, in- dependent of the injunctions of religion ; for where shall we find the person who hath received from any one benefits so great, or so many, as children from their parents? And it may be truly said, that if persons are undutiful to their parents, they seldom prove good to any other re- lation. See article CHILDREN. FILIATION OF THE SON OF GOD. See Sox df God. FIRE PHILOSOPHERS. See Theoso- PHISTS. FIRST FRUITS, among the Hebrews, were oblations of part of the fruits of the harvest, offer- ed to God as an acknowledgment of his sove- reign dominion. There was another sort of first fruits which was paid to God. When bread was kneaded in a family, a portion of it was set apart, and given to the priest or Levite who dwelt in the place. If there were no priest or Levite (here, it was cast into the oven and consumed by the fire. These offerings made a considerable part of the revenues of the priesthood, Lev. xxiii.; Exodus xxii. 29 ; xxiii. 19 ; Numbers xv. 19, 20. The first fruits of the Spirit are such commu- nications of his grace on earth, as fully assure us of the full enjoyment of God in heaven, Rom. viii. 23. Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept ; for as the first fruits were earnests to the Jews of the succeeding harvest, so Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection, or the earnest of a future resurrection ; that as he rose, so shall believers also rise to happiness and life. 1 Cor. xv. 20. First fruits are mentioned in ancient writers as one part of the church revenue. First fruits, in the church of England, are the profits of every spiritual benefice for the first year, according to the valuation thereof in the king's book. FIVE POINTS, are the five doctrines con- troverted between the Arminians and Calvinists. See Calvinists. FLACIANS, the followers of Matthias Fla- Cius Illyricus, who flourished in the sixteenth century. Pie taught that original sin is the very substance of human nature; and that the fall of man was an event which extinguished in the human mind every virtuous tendency, every noble faculty, and left nothing behind it but uni- versal darkness and corruption. FLAGELLANTES. See Whippers. FLATTERY, a servile and fawning beha- viour, attended with servile compliances and ob- sequiousness, in order to gain a person's favour. FLEMINGIANS, or Flandrians, a sect of rigid Anabaptists, who acquired this name in the sixteenth century, because most of them were natives of Flanders, by way of distinction from tfte Waterlandians. See Waterlandians. FOLLY, according to Mr. Locke, consists in the drawing of false conclusions from just princi- ples, by which it is distinguished from madness, which draws just conclusions from false princi- ples. But this seems too confined a definition. Folly, in its most general acceptation, denotes a weakness of intellect or apprehension, or some partial absurdity in sentiment or conduct. See Evil, Sin. FOOL, one who has not the use of reason or 14C FOREKNOWLEDGE judgment. In Scripture, wicked peisons a. a often called fools or foolish, because such act con- trary to reason, trust to their own hearts, violate the laws of God, and prefer things vile, trifling, and temporal, to such as are important, divine, and eternal. FOOLISH SPEAKING, such kind of con- versation, as includes folly, and can no ways be profitable and interesting, Eph. v. 4. Facetious- ncss, indeed, is allowable, when it ministers to harmless divertisement, and delight to conversa- tion ; when it is used for the purpose of exposing things which are base and vile ; when it has for its aim the reformation of others ; when used by way of defence under unjust reproach. But all such kind of speaking as includes profane jest- ing, loose, wanton, scurrilous, injurious, unsea- sonable, vain-glorious talk, is strictly forbidden. See Barroic's excellent Sermon on this subject in his Works, vol. i. ser. 14. FORBEARANCE, is the act of patiently enduring provocation or offence. The following may be considered as the most powerful incen- tives to the exercise of this disposition : 1. The consideration that we ourselves often stand in need of it from others, Gal. vi. 1. — 2. The ex- press command of Scripture, Eph. iv. 2 ; Col. iii. 13. — 3. The felicity of this disposition. It is sure to bring happiness at last, while resentment only increases our own misery. — 4. That it is one of the strongest evidences we can give of the reality of our religion, John xiii. 35. — 5. The beautiful example of Christ, Heb. xii. 3 ; 1 Pet. ii. 21—23. FORBEARANCE OF GOD. See Pa- tience of God. FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD, is his foresight or knowledge of every thing that is to come to pass, Acts ii. 23. This foreknowledge, says Charnock, was from eternity. Seeing ne knows things possible in his power, and things future in his will, if his power and resolves were from eternity, his knowledge must be so too ; or else we must make him ignorant of his own power, and ignorant of his own will from eternity, and consequently not from eternity blessed and per> feet. His knowledge of possible things must run parallel with his will. If he willed from eternity, he knew from eternity what he willed ; but that he did will from eternity wo must grant, unless we would render him changeable, and conceive him to be made in time of not willing, willing. The knowledge God hath in time was always one and the same, because his understanding is his proper essence, as perfect as his essence, and of an immutable nature. " To deny this is (says Saurin) to degrade the Almighty ; for what, pray, is a God who created beings, and who could not foresee what would result from their existence 1 A God, who formed spirits united to bodies by certain laws, and who did not know how to combine these laws so as to foresee the effects they would produce ? A God forced to suspend his judgment] A God who every day learns something new, and who doth not know to-day what will happen to-morrow 1 A God who cannot tell whether peace will be concluded, or war continue to ravage the world \ whether religion will be received in a certain kingdom, or whether it will be banished ; whether the right heir will succeed to the crown, or whether the crown will be 6et on the head of an FORNICATION usurper 1 For according to the different determi- nations of the wills of men, of king, or people, the prince will make peace, or declare war ; religion will be banished or admitted ; the tyrant or the lawful king will occupy the throne: for if God cannot foresee how the volitions of men will be determined, he cannot foresee any of those events. What is this but to degrade God from his Deity, and to make the most perfect of all intelligences a being involved in darkness and uncertainty like ourselves?" See Omniscience. FORGIVENESS, the pardon of any offence committed against us. This is a virtue which our Lord expressly inculcates, not as extending to our friends only, but to our enemies. "Ye have heard," saith he, " Thou shall love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy ; but I say unto you, love your enemies," &c " This," says an ingenious writer, " was a lesson so new, and utterly unknown, till taught by his doctrine, and e nforced by his example, that the wisest moralists of the wisest nations and ages represented the desire of revenge as a mark of a noble mind ; but how much more magnani- mous, how much more beneficial to mankind, is for- giveness ! It is more magnanimous, because every generous and exalted disposition of the human mind is requisite to the practice of it ; and it is the most beneficial, because it puts an end to an eternal succession of injuries and retaliations." Let us, therefore, learn to cherish this noble dis- position; let the bitterest enemy we have be 6oftened by its effects ; let us consider also how friendly it is to our own happiness, and how much it prevents the unhappiness of others. "The feuds and animosities, in families, and be- tween neighbours, which disturb the intercourse of human life, and collectively compose half the misery of it, have their foundation in the want of a forgiving temper, and can never cease but by the exercise of this virtue on one side, or on both.' ' Palcy's Mor. Phil. vol. i. p. 271 ; Soame Jenyns's Int. Evid. p. 67, G8 ; Clarke's Ser. ser. 2. vol. x. ; Tillotson's Ser. vol. viii. p. 254. FORGIVENESS OF SINS. See Pardon, Mercy. FORMALIST, one who places too much dependence on outward ceremonies of religion, or who is more tenacious of the form of religion than the power of it. FORMS OF PRAYER. See Prayer. FORNICATION, whoredom, or the act of incontinency between single persons ; for if either of the parties be married, it is adultery. While the Scriptures give no sanction to those austeri- ties which have been imposed on men under the idea of religion, so, on the other hand, they give no liberty tor the indulgence of any propensity that would cither militate against our own inte- rest or that of others. It is in vain to argue the innoeency of fornication from the natural pas- sions implanted in us, since "marriage is honour- able in all," and wisely appointed for the preven- tion of those evils which would otherwise ensue ; and, besides, the existence of any natural pro- pensity in us, is no proof that it is to be gratified without any restriction. That fornication is both unlawful and unreasonable, may be easily in- ferred, if we consider, 1. That our Saviour ex- pressly declares this to be a crime, Mark vii. 21 — 23. 2. That the Scriptures declare that fornica- tors cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. tl 9 j Heb. xii. 1G; Gal. v. 19—22. 3. Fonii- 147 FORTUNE cation sinks, into a mere brutal commerce, a gratification which was designed to be the cement of a sacred, generous, and tender friendship. 4. It leaves the maintenance and education of chil- dren, as to the father at least, utterly unsecured. 5. It strongly tempts the guilty mother to guard herself from infamy by methods of procuring abortion, which not only destroy the child, but often the mother. 6. It disqualifies the deluded creatures to be either good wives, or mothers, in any future marriage, ruining that modesty which is the guardian of nuptial happiness. 7. It abso- lutely disqualifies a man for the best satisfactions ; those of truth, virtue, innocent gratifications, ten- der and generous friendship. 8. It often per- petuates a disease which may be accounted one of the sorest maladies of human nature, and the effects of which are said to visit the constitution of even distant generations. FORTITUDE is a virtue or quality of the mind generally considered the same with courage ; though, in a more accurate sense, they seem to be distinguishable. Courage resists danger, for- titude supports pain. Courage may be a virtue or vice, according to the circumstances ; fortitude is always a virtue : we speak of desperate courage, but not of desperate fortitude. A contempt or neglect of dangers may be called courage; but fortitude is the virtue of a rational and conside- rate mind, and is founded in a sense of honour, and a regard to duty. Christian fortitude may be defined, that state of mind which arises from truth and confidence in God ; enables us to stand collected and undis- turbed in the time of difficulty and danger ; and is at an equal distance from rashness on the one hand, and pusillanimity on the other. Fortitude takes different names, according as it acts in op- position to different evils: but some of those names are applied with considerable latitude. With respect to danger in general, fortitude has been called intrepidity ; with respect to the dan- gers of war, valour ; with respect to pain of body, or distress of mind, patience; with respect to la- bour, activity; with respect to injury, forbear- ance ; with respect to our condition in general, magnanimity. Christian fortitude is necessary to vigilance patience, self-denial, and perseverance; and is requisite under affliction, temptation, persecution, desertion, and death. The noble cause in which the Christian is engaged; the glorious Master whom he serves ; the provision that is made for his security ; the illustrious examples set before him ; the approbation of a good conscience ; and the crand prospect he has in view, are all powerful motives to the exercise of this grace. Watts' » Ser. ser. 31; Evans's Ser. ser. 19. vol. i. ; Steele's Christian Hero ; Mason's Ser. vol. i. ser. v. FORTUNE, a name which, among the an- cients, seemed to have denoted a principle of for- tuity, whereby things came to pass without being necessitated thereto ; but what and whence that principle is, they do not seem to have ever pre- cisely thought. It does not appear that the an- tiquity of the word is very high. It is acknow- ledged, on all hands, that Tuxn, from whence the Romans took their fortana, was a term invented long after the times of Hesiod and Homer, in whose writings it no where occurs. The philo- soplucal sense of the word coincides with what Ls FRANCISCANS vulgarly railed chance. It is difficult to ascertain what it denotes in the minds of those who now use the word. It has been justly observed, that they who would substitute the name of provi- dence in lieu of that of fortune, cannot give any tolerable sense to half the phrases wherein the word occurs. FRAME. This word is used to denote any state of mind a man may be in ; and, in a re- ligious sense, is often connected with the word feeling, or used synonymously with it. See Feel, t no. "If our frames are comfortable," says one, "we may make them the matter of our praise, but not of our pride ; we may make them our pleasure, but not our portion ; we may make them the matter of our encouragement, but not the ground of our security. Arc our frames dark and uncomfortable? they should humble us, but not discourage us; they should quicken us, but not obstruct us in our application for necessary and suitable grace ; they should make us see our own emptiness, but not make us suspect the fulness of Christ; they should make us see our own unworthiness, but not make us suspect the wil- lingness of Christ; they should make us see our own weakness, but not cause us to suspect the strength of Christ; they should make us suspect our own hearts, but not the firmness and freeness of the promises. FRANCISCANS, a religious order founded by St. Francis in the year 1209. Francis was the son of a merchant of Assisi, in the province of Umbria, who, having led a dissolute life, was re- claimed by a fit of sickness, and afterwards fell into an extravagant devotion that looked less like religion than alienation of mind. Soon after this, viz. in theyear 1208, hearing the passage repeated in which Christ addresses his apostles, Provide neither gold, nor silver, &c, Matt. x. 9, 10, he was led to consider a voluntary and absolute poverty as the essence of the Gospel, and to pre- scribe, this poverty as a sacred rule both to him- self and to the few that followed him. This new society, which appeared to Innocent III. extreme- ly adapted to the present state of the church, and proper to restore its declining credit, was solemnly approved and confirmed by Honorius III. in 1223, and had made a considerable progress be- fore the death of its founder in 1226. Francis, through an excessive humility, would not suffer the monks of his order to be called fralrcs, i. e. brethren or friars ; but fraterculi, i. e. little bre- thren, or friars minor, by which denomination they have been generally since distinguished. The Franciscans ami Dominicans were zealous and active friends to the papal hierarchy, and in return were distinguished by peculiar privileges and honourable employments. The Franciscans, in particular, were invested with the treasure of ample and extensive indigencies, the distribution of which was committed to them by the popes as a mean of subsistence, and a rich indemnification for their voluntary poveity. In consequence of this grant, the rule of the founder, which abso- lutely prohibited both personal and collective pro- perty, so that neither the individual nor the com- munity were to possess either fund, revenue, or any worldly goods, was considered as too strict and severe, and dispensed with soon after his death. In 1231, Gregory IX published an in- terpretation of this rule, nungating its rigour ; 148 FRATERNITY which was further confirmed by Innocent IV. Ai 1215, and by Alexander IV.in 1247. These milder operations were zealously opposed by a branch of the Franciscans, called the spiritual ; and their complaints were regarded by Nicholas III. who, in 1279, published a famous constitution, confirming the rule of St. Francis, and contain- ing an elaborate explication of the maxims he re- commended, and the duties he prescribed. In 1287, Matthew, of Aqua Sparta, being elected general of the order, discouraged the ancient dis- cipline of the Franciscans, and indulged his monks in abandoning even the appearance of poverty ; and this conduct inflamed the indigna- tion of the spiritual or austere Franciscans ; so that, from the year 1290, seditions and schisms arose in an order that had been so famous for its pretended disinterestedness and humility. Such was the enthusiastic frenzy of the Franciscans, that they impiously maintained that the founder of their order was a second Christ, in all respects similar to the first, and that their institution and discipline were the true Gospel of Jesus. Ac- cordingly Albizi, a Franciscan, of Pisa, published a book in 1383, with the applause of his order, entitled the Book of the Conformities of St. Fran- cis with Jesus Christ. In the beginning of this century the whole Franciscan order was divided into two parties ; the one, embracing the severe discipline and absolute poverty of St. Francis, were called spirituals; and the other, who in- sisted on mitigating the austere injunctions of their founder, were denominated brethren of the community. These wore long, loose, and good habits, with large hoods ; the former were clad in a strait, coarse, and short dress, pretending tha this dress was enjoined by St. Francis, and that no power on earth had a right to alter it. Neither the moderation of Clement V. nor the violence of John XXII. could appease the tumult occasioned by these two parties; however, their rage sub- sided from the. year 1329. In 13G8 these two parties were formed into two large bodies, com- prehending the whole Franciscan order, viz. the conventual brethren, and the brethren of the ob- servance, or observation, from whom sprang the Capuchins and Recollets. The general opinion is, that the Franciscans came into England in the year 1224, and had their first house at Canter- bury, and their second at London ; but there is no certain account of their being here, till king Henry VII. built two or three houses for them. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the con- ventual Franciscans had about fifty-five houses, which were under seven custodies or wardenships, viz. those of London, Worcester, York, Cam- bridge, Bristol, Newcastle, and Oxford. FRATERNITY, in the Roman Catholic countries, signifies a society for the improvement of devotion. Of these there are several sorts, as, 1. The Fraternity of the Rosary, founded by St. Dominic. It is divided into two branches, called the common rosary, and the perpetual rosary; the former of who.n are obliged to confess and com- municate every first Sunday in the month, and the latter to repeat the rosary continually.— 2. The Fraternity of the Scapulary, whom it is pre- tended, according to the Sabbatine bull of pope John XXII. the E.essed Virgin has promised to deliver out of hell the first Sunday after their death.— 3. The Fraternity of St. Francis's girulfl are clothed with a sack of grey colour, which they FRATRICELLI tie with a cord ; and in processions walk bare- footed, carrying in their hands a wooden cross. — i. That of St. Austin's leathern girdle, comprehends a great many devotees. Italy, Spain, and Portu- gal, are the countries where are seen the greatest number of these fraternities, some of which as- sume the name of arch-fraternity. Pope Cle- ment VII. instituted the arch-fraternity of charity, which distributes bread every Sunday among the • poor, and gives portions to forty poor girls on the feast of St. Jerome, their patron. The Fraternity of Death buries such dead as are abandoned by their relations, and causes masses to be celebrated for them. FRATRICELLI, an enthusiastic sect of Franciscans, which rose in Italy, and particularly in the marquisate of Ancona, about the year 1294. The word is an Italian diminutive, signifying fraterculi, or "little, brothers," and was here used as a term of derision, as they were most of them apostate monks, whom the Italians call fra- telli, or fratricelli. For this reason, the term fratricelli, as a nick-name, was given to many other sects, as the Catharists, the Waldenses, &c. however different in their opinions and their con- duct. But this denomination, applied to the austere part of the Franciscans, was considered as honourable. See Franciscans. The founders of this sect were P. Maurato and P. <\e Fossombroni, who having obtained of pope Celestin V. a permission to live in solitude after the manner of hermits, and to observe the rule of St. Francis in all its rigour, several idle vagabond monks joined them, who, living after their own fancies," and making all perfection to consist in poverty, were soon condemned by pope Boniface VIII. and his successor, and the inquisitors or- dered to proceed against them as heretics, which commission they executed with their usual bar- barity. Upon this, retiring into Sicily, Peter John Oliva de Serignan had no sooner published his comment on the Apocalypse, than they adopted his tenets. They held the Romish church to be Babylon, and proposed to establish another far more perfect one : they maintained that the rule of St. Francis was the evangelical rule observed by Jesus Christ and his apostles. They foretold the reformation of the church, and the restoration of the true Gospel of Christ by the genuine fol- lowers of St. Francis ; and declared their assent to almost all the doctrines which were published under the name of the abbot Joachim, in the " In- troduction to the Everlasting Gospel," a book pub- lished in 1250, and explained by one of the spi- ritual friars, whose name was Gerhard. Among other errors inculcated in this book, it is pretended that St. Francis was the angel mentioned in Rev. xiv. G, and had promulgated to the world the true and everlasting Gospel ; that the Gospel of Christ was to be abrogated in 1260, and to give place to this new and everlasting Gospel, which was to be substituted in its room ; and that the ministers of this great reformation were to be humble and barefooted friars, destitute of all worldly employ- ments. Some say, they even elected a pope of their church ; at least they appointed a general with superiors, and built monasteries, &c. Be- sides the opinions of Oliva, they held that the sa- craments of the church were invalid, because those who administered them had no longer any power or jurisdiction. They were condemned again by pope John XXII., in consequence of WJ FRENCH whose cruelty they regarded him as the true anti- christ ; but several of them, returning into Ger- many, were sheltered by Lewis, duke of Bavaria, the emperor. There are authentic records, from which it ap- pears that no less than 2000 persons were burnt by the Inquisition, from the year 1318 to the time of Innocent VI. for their inflexible attachment to the order of St. Francis. The severities against them were again revived, towards the close of the fif- teenth century, by pope Nicholas V. and his suc- cessors. However, all the persecutions which this sect endured were not sufficient to extinguish it ; for it subsisted until the times of the Reformation in Germany, when its remaining votaries adopted the cause and embraced the doctrine and discip- line of Luther. FRAUDS, PIOUS. See Pious Frauds. FREE AGENCY is the power of following one's inclination ; or whatever the soul does with full bent of preference and desire. Many and long have been the disputes on tliis subject ; not that man has been denied to be a free agent, but the dispute has been in what it consists. See ar- ticles Liberty and "Will. A distinction is made by writers between free agency, and what is called the Arminian notion of tree will. The one con- sists merely in the power of following our pre- vailing inclination; the other in a supposed power of acting contrary to it, or at least of changing it. The one predicates freedom of the man ; the other of a faculty in man ; which Mr. Locke, though an anti-necessarian, explodes as an absurdity. The one goes merely to render us accountable beings ; the other arrogantly claims a part, yea, the very turning point of salvation. According to the latter, we need only certain helps or assist- ances, granted to men in common, to enable us to choose the path of life ; but, according to the former, our hearts being by nature wholly de- praved, we need an almighty and invincible Power to renew them. See Necessity. FREE-THINKER, an appellation given to those persons who deny revelation or the Chris- tian religion. One of the most admirable and pointed addresses to free-thinkers any where to be met with, may be found in the dedication to Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses. See also an admirable paper in the Guardian, No. 70; and article Deists. FRENCH CHURCH. See Church Gal- LICAN. FRENCH PROPHETS. They first ap- peared in Dauphiny and Vivarais. In the yeai 1688, five or six hundred Protestants of both sexes gave themselves out to be prophets, and in- spired of the Holy Ghost. They soon became so numerous, that there were many thousands of them inspired. They were people of all ages and sexes without distinction, though the greatest part of them were boys and girls from six or seven to twenty-five years of age. They had strange fits, which came upon them with tremblings and faint- ings as in a swoon, which made them stretch out their arms and legs, and stagger several times be- fore they dropped down. They struck themselves with their hands, they fell on their backs, shut their eyes, and heaved with their breasts. They remained a while in trances, and, coming out of them with twitchings, uttered all which came in their mouths. They said they saw the heavens open, the angels, paradise, and hell. Those who N 2 FRIAR were just on the point of receiving the spirit of prophecy, dropped down not only in the assem- blies, crying out mercy, but in the fields, and in their own houses. The least of their assemblies made up four or five hundred, and some of them amounted to even three or four thousand persons. When the prophets had for a while been under agitations of body, they began to prophesy. The burben of their' prophecies was — Amend your lives ; repent ye : ihe end of all things draws nigh ! The bills resounded with their loud cries for mercv, and imprecations against the priests, the church, the pope, and against the anti-chris- tian dominion, with predictions of the approach- ing full of popery. All they said at these times was heard and received with reverence and awe. In the year 1706. three or four of these pro- phets came over into England, and brought their prophetic spirit along with them, which disco- vered itself in the same ways and manners, by ecstacies, and agitations, and inspirations under them, as it had done in France ; and they propa- gated the like spirit to others, so that before the year was out, there were two or three hundred of these prophets in and about London, of both sexes, of all ages, men, women, and children ; and they had delivered, under inspiration, four or live hundred prophetic warnings. The great things they pretended by their spirit was, to give warning of the near approach of the kingdom of God, the happy limes of the church, the millennium stale. Their message was, (and they were to proclaim it as heralds to the Jews, and every nation under heaven, beginning at England,") that the grand jubilee, tie acceptable year of the Lord, the. accomplishment of those numerous Scriptures concerning the new heaven, and the new earth, the kingdom of the Messiah, the marriage of the Lamb, the first resurrection, or the new Jerusalem descending from above, were now even at the door ; that this great opera- tion was to be wrought on the part of man by spirit ual arms only, proceeding from the mouths at' those who should, hy inspiration, or the mighty gift of the Spirit, be sent forth in great numbers to labour in the vineyard; that this mission of his servants should be witnessed to by sicms and wonders from heaven, by a deluge of judgments on the wicked universally throughout the world, as famine, pestilence, earthquakes, &c. ; that the exterminating angels shall root out the tares, and there shall remain upon the earth only good corn ; and the works of men heing thrown down, there shall be but one Lord, one faith, one heart, one voice among mankind. They declared that all the great things they spoke of would be manifest over the whole earth within the term of three years. These prophets also pretended to the gift of languages, of discerning the secrets of the heart, the gift <>f ministration of the same spirit to others by the laying on of the hands, and the gift of healing. To prove they were really inspired by t'ne Holy Ghost, they alleged the complete joy and satisfaction they experienced, the spirit of prayer, which was poured forth upon them, and the answer of their prayer to God. FRIAR (Brother,) a term common to the monks of all orders. In a more peculiar sense, it is restrained to such monks as are not priests; for those in orders arc usually dignified with the appella ion of father. 150 FUNERAL FRIENDSHIP, a mutual attachment sub- sisting between two persons, and arising not merely from the general principle of benevolence, from emotions of gratitude for favours received, from views of interest, nor from instinctive affec- tion or animal passion; but from an opinion en- tertained by each of them that the other is adorn- ed with some able or respectable qualities. Vari- ous have been the opinions respecting friendship. Some have asserted that there is no such thing in the world ; others have excluded it from the list of Christian virtues ; while others, believing the possibility of its existence, suppose that it is very rare. To the two former remarks we may reply, that there is every reason to believe that there has been, and is such a thing as friendship. The Scriptures present us both with examples of, and precepts concerning it. David and Jona- than, Paul and Timothy, our Lord and Lazarus, as well as John, are striking instances of friend- ship. Solomon exhorts us, in language so ener- getic, as at once shows it to be our duty to culti- vate it. " Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not;" "Make sure of thy friend, for faithful are the wounds of a friend," &c. The genius and injunctions of the Christian religion seem also to inculcate this virtue ; for it not only commands universal benevolence to men, but promotes the strongest love and friendship be- tween those whose minds are enlightened by divine grace, and who behold in each other the image of their Divine Master. As friendship, however, is not enjoyed by every one, and as the want of it arises often from ourselves, we shall here subjoin, from an eminent writer, a few re- marks by way of advice respecting it. — 1. We must not expect perfection in any with whom we contract fellowship. — 2. We must not be hurt by differences of opinion arising in intercourse with our friends. — 3. It is material to the preservation of friendship, that openness of temper and obliging manners on both hands be cultivated. — 4. We must not listen rashly to evil reports against our friends. — 5. We must not desert our friends in danger or distress. Blair's Serm. ser. 17, vol. iv. ; Bp. Porteus's Serm. vol. i. ser. 15.; W. Mclmoth's Translation of Cicero's Laclius, in a Note. FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF. Sec Quake r& FRUGALITY, is the keeping due bounds in expences ; it is the happy mean between parsi- mony on the one hand, and prodigality on the other. The example of Christ, John vi. 12 ; the injunctions of God's word, Luke xv. 1. Prov. xviii. 9; the evil effects of inattention to it, Luke xi. 1, 13 ; the peace and comfort which arise from it, together with the good which it enables us to do others, should operate as motives to excite us to the practice of it. Wood's Scrvi. on Fru- gality, 1795; Robinson's Mor. Ex. ex. 3 ; Ridg- ley's Body of Din. 546, 3d edition. FUNERAL RITES, ceremonies accompa- nying the interment or burial of any person. The first people who seemed to Gave paid any attention to their dead were the Egyptians. They took great care in embalming their bodies, and building proper repositories for them. This gave birth to those wonders of the world, the Egyptian pyramids. On the death of any person among them, the parents and friends put on mournful habits, and abstained from all banquets and en- tertainments. This mourning lasted from forty FUNERAL to seventy (lavs, during which time they em- balmed the body. Before the dead were allowed to be deposited in the tomb, they underwent a solemn judgment. If any one stepped forth, ac- cused them, and proved that the deceased had led an evil life, the judges pronounced sentence, and the body was precluded from burial. Even their sovereigns underwent this judicature; and Dio- dorus Siculus asserts, that many kings had been deprived of the honours of burial, and that the terrors of such a fate had a salutary influence on the virtue of their kings. The funeral rites among the Hebrews were solemn and magnificent. The relations and friends rent their clothes; and it was usual to bend the dead person's thumb into the hand, and to fasten it in that posture with a string, be- cause the thumb then having the figure of the name of God, they thought the devil would not approach it. They made a funeral oration at the grave, after which they prayed ; then, turning the face of the deceased towards heaven, they said, " Go in peace." The Greeks used to put a piece of money in the mouth of the deceased, which was thought to be the fare over the infernal river : they ab- stained from banquets ; tore, cut, or shaved their hair; sometimes throwing themselves on the ground, and rolling in the dust; beating their breasts, and even tearing their flesh with their nails. The funeral rites among the Romans were very numerous. — They kept the deceased seven days, and washed him every day with hot water, and sometimes with oil, if possibly he might be revived, in case he were only in a slumber; and every now and then his friends, meeting, made a horrible shout with the same view ; but if they found he did not revive, he was dressed and em- balmed, with a performance of a variety of sin- gular ceremonies, and at last brought to the fune- ral pile, and burnt; after which his ashes were gathered, inclosed in an urn, and deposited in the sepulchre or tomb. The ancient Christians testified their abhor- rence of the pagan custom of burning their dead, and always deposited the body entire in the ground ; and it was usual to bestow the honour of embalming upon the martyrs, at least, if not upon others. They prepared the body for burial by washing it with water, and dressing it in a funeral attire. This was performed by near re- lations, or persons of such dignity as the circum- stances of the deceased required. Psalmody, or singing of psalms, was the great ceremony used in all funeral processions among the ancient Christians. In the Romish church, when a person is dead, they wash the body, and put a crucifix in his nand. At the feet stands a vessel of holy water, and a sprinkler, that they who come in may sprinkle both themselves and the deceased. In the mean time some priest stands by the corpse, and prays for the deceased till it is laid in the earth. In the funeral procession the exorcist walks first, carry- ing the holy water: next the cross bearer; after- wards the rest of the clergy : and, last of all, the officiating priest. The)' all sing the miserere, and some other psalms; and at the end of each psalm a requiem. It is said, that the faces of de- ceased laymen must be turned towards, the altar ivhen thev are placed in the churcli, and those of J51 FUTURE the clergy towards the people. The corpse is placed in the church, surrounded with lighted tapers. After the office for the dead, mass is said ; then the officiating priest sprinkles the corpse thrice with holy water, and as often throws incense on it. The body being laid in the grave, the friends and the relations of the deceased sprinkle the grave with holy water. The funeral ceremonies of the Greek church are much the same with those of the Latin. It needs only to be observed, that, after the funeral service, they kiss the crucifix, and salute the mouth and forehead of the deceased ; after which, each of the company eats a bit of bread, and drinks a glass of wine in the church, wishing the soul a good repose, and the afflicted family all consolation. Bingham's Antiq. b. 2; Enc. Brit.; Bu.rtorf's Synag. p. 502. FUTURE STATE, a term made use of in relation to the existence of the soul after death. That there is such a state of existence, we have every reason to believe; "for if we suppose," says a good writer, "the events of this life to have no reference to another, the whole state of man becomes not only inexplicable, but contradictory and inconsistent. The powers of the inferior animals are perfectly suited to their station. They know nothing higher than their present condition. In gratifying their appetites, they fulfil their destiny, and pass away. — Man, alone, comes forth to act a part which carries no meaning, and tends to no end. Endowed with capacities which extend far beyond his present sphere, fitted by his rational nature for running the race of immo»- tality, he is stopped short in the very entrance of his course. He squanders his activity on pur- suits which he discerns to be vain. He languishes for knowledge which is placed beyond his reach. He thirsts after a happiness which he is doomed never to enjey. Ho sees and laments the disas- ters of his state, and yet. upon this supposition, can find nothing to remedy them. Has the eter- nal God any pleasure in sporting himself with such a scene of misery and folly, as this life (if it had no connexion with another,) must exhibit to his eye ? Did he call into existence this magnifi- cent universe, adorn it with so much beauty and splendour, and surround it with those glorious luminaries which we behold in the heavens, only that some generations of mortal men might arise to behold these wonders, and then disappear for ever? How unsuitable in this case were the habitation to the wretched inhabitant ! How in- consistent the commencement of his being, and. the mighty preparation of his powers and facul- ties, with his despicable end! How contradic- tory, in fine, were every thing which concerns the state, of man, to the wisdom and perfection of his Maker !" But that there is such a state is clear from many passages of the New Testament, John v. 24 ; Acts vii. 9; Rom. viii. 10, 11; 2 Cor. v. 1, 2; Phil. i. 21 ; 1 Thess. iv. 14. v. 10 ; Luke xvi. 22, &c. But though these texts prove the point, yet some have doubted whether there be any where in the Old Testament any reference to a future state at all. The case, it is said, appears to be this : the Mosaic covenant contained no promises directly rc.ating to a future state : pro- bably, as Dr. Warburton asserts, and argues at large, because Moses was secure of an equal jrrth ridence, and therefore needed not subsidiary sano GENERATION lions taken from a future state, without the belief of which the doctrine of an universal providence cannot ordinarily be vindicated, nor the general sanctions of religion secured. But, in opposition to this sentiment, as Doddridge observes, "it is evident that good men, even before Moses, were animated by views of a future state, Heb. xi. 13, 16; as he himself plainly was, 24 to 2Gth verse; and that the promises of heavenly felicity were contained even in the covenant made with Abra- ham, which the Mosaic could not disannul. Suc- ceeding providences also confirmed the natural arguments in its favour, as every remarkable in- terposition would do ; and when general promises were made to the obedient, and an equal provi- dence relating to the nation established on na- tional confonnity to the Mosaic institution, and not merely to the general precepts of virtue; as such an equal providence would necessarily in- volve many of the best men in national ruin, at a time when, by preserving their integrity in the midst of general apostacy, their virtue was most conspicuous : such good men, in such a state, would have vast additional reasons for expecting future rewards, beyond what could arise from principles common to the rest of mankind ; so GENERATION that we cannot wonder that we find in the writ- ings of the prophets many strong expressions of such an expectation, particularly Gen. xlix. 18 ; Ps. xvi. 9 to 11 ; xvii. last verse; lxxiii. 17, 27; Eccl. ii. 15, 1G, &c; vii. 12, 15; Is. iii. 10, 11; Ezek. xviii. 19, 21 ; Job xix. 23, 37; Dan. xii. 2; Is. xxxv. 8; xxvi. 19. The same thing may also be inferred from the particular promises made to Daniel, Dan. xii. 13 ; to Zcrubbabel, Hag. ii. 23 ; and to Joshua, the high priest, Zech. iii. 7 ; as well as from those historical facts recorded in the Old Testament of the murder of Abel, the trans- lation of Enoch and Elijah, the death of Moses, and the story of the Witch of Endor, and from what is said of the appearance of angels to, and their converse with good men." Sec articles In- termediate State, Resurrection, and Soi'L; also, Doddridge's Lectures, lee. 216; Warbur- ton's Divine Legation of Moses, vol. ii. p. 553- 568; Dr. Addington's Dissertations on the Re- ligious Knowledge of the Ancient Jews and Patriarchs, containing an Inquiry into the Evi- dences of their Belief and Expectation of a Future Stale; Blair's Sermons, ser. 15, vol. 1; Robinson's Claude, vol. i. p. 132; W. Jones's Works, vol. vi. ser. 12; Logan's Ser. vol. ii. p. 413. G. GAIANITiE, a denomination which derived its name from Gaian, a bishop of Alexandria, in the sixth century, who denied that Jesus Christ, after the hypostatieal union, was subject to any of the infirmities of human nature. GALILEANS, a sect of the Jews which arose in Judea some years alter the birth of our Saviour. They sprang from one Judas, a native of Gaul-am, in Upper Galilee, upon the occasion of Augustus appointing the people to be muster- ed, which they looked upon as an instance of ser- vitude which all true Israelites ought to oppose. They pretended that God alone should be owned 9S master and lord, and in other respects were of the opinion of the Pharisees ; but as they judged it unlawful to pray for infidel princes, they sepa- rated themselves from the rest of the Jews, and performed their sacrifices apart. As our Saviour and his apostles were of Galilee, they were sus- pected to be of the s?ct of the Galileans ; and it was on this principle, as St. Jerome observes, that the Pharisees laid a snare for him, asking, Whether it were lawful to give tribute to Caesar? that in case he denied it, they might have an oc- casion of accusing him. GAZARES, a denomination which appeared about 1 197, at Gazare, a town of Dalmatia. They held almost the same opinions with the Albi- genses; but their distinguishing tenet was, that no human power had a right to sentence men to death for anv crime whatever. GEMARA See Talmud. GENERAL CALL. See Calling. GENERATION, ETERNAL, is a term used as descriptive of the Father's communicating the Divine Nature to the Son. The Father is said by some divines to have produced the Word, or Son, from all eternity, by way of generation ; on which occasion, the word generation raises a peculiar idea; that procession which is really effected in the way of understanding, is called 152 generation, because, in virtue thereof, the Word becomes like to Plim from whom he takes the ori- ginal; or, as St. Paul expresses it, the figure or image of his substance ; i. e. of his being and nature. And hence it is, they say, that the second person is called the Son; and that in such a way and manner as never any other was, is, or can be, be- cause of his own divine nature, he being the true, proper, and natural Son of God, begotten by him before ail worlds. Thus he is called his own Son, Rom. viii. 3 ; his only begotten Son, John iii. 16. Many have attempted to explain the manner of this generation by different similitudes ; but as they throw little or no light upon the subject, we shall not trouble the reader with them. Some, however, suppose that the term Son of God refers to Christ as mediator ; and that his sonship does not lie in his divine or human nature separately considered, but in the union of both in one per- son. See Luke i. 35 ; Matt. iv. 3 ; John i. 49 ; Matt. xvi. 16 ; Acts ix. 20, 22 ; Rom. i. 4. It is observed, that it is impossible that a nature pro- perly divine should be begotten, since begetting, whatever idea is annexed to it, must signify some kind of production, derivation, and inferiority ; consequently, that whatever is produced must have a beginning, and whatever had a beginning was not from eternity, as Christ is said to be, Isa. ix. 6; Col. i. 16, 17. That the sonship of Christ respects him as mediator will be evident, if we compare John x. 30. with John xiv. 28. In the former it is said, " I and my Father are one ;" in the latUr, "My Father is greater than 1." These declarations, however opposite they seem, equally respect him as he is the Son; but if his sonship primarily and properly signify the gene- ration of his divine nature, it will be difficult, if not impossible, according to that scheme, to make them harmonize. Considered as a distinct per- son in the Godhead, without res(>ect to his office as mediator, it is impossible that, in the same GENTLENESS view, he should be both equal and inferior to his Father. Again ; he expressly tells us himself, that " the Son can do nothing of himself; that the Father showeth him a'A things that he doth ; and that he giveth him to have life in himself," John v. 19, 20, 26. Which expressions, if applied to him as God, not as mediator, will reduce us to the disagreeable necessity of subscribing either to the creed of Arius, and maintain him to be God of an inferior nature, and thus a plurality «f Gods, or to embrace the doctrine of Soeinus, who allows him only to be a God by office. But if this title belong to him as a mediator, every diffi- culty is removed. Anil, lastly, it is observed, that though Jesus be God, and the attributes of eter- nal existence ascribed to him, yet the two attri- butes, eternal and son, are not once expressed in the same text as referring to eternal generation. See article Son of God ; Oioen on the Person of Christ ; Pearson on the Creed ; Ridgley's Body of Divinity, p. 73, 76, 3d. edition ; Gill's ditto, p. 205, vol. i. 8vo. edition ; Lambert's Sennons, ser. 13, text, John xi. 35; Hodson's Essay on the Eternal Filiation of the Son of God; Watts' s Works, vol. v. p. 77. GENEROSITY, the disposition which prompts us to bestow favours which are not the purchase of any particular merit. It is different from humanity. Humanity is an exquisite feel- ing we possess in relation to others, so as to grieve for their sufferings, resent their injuries, or to rejoice at their prosperity ; and as it arises from sympathy, it requires no great self-denial or sell-command ; but generosity is that by which we are led to prefer some other person to our- selves, and to sacrifice any interest of our own to the interest of another. GENIUS, a good or evil spirit or daemon, who the ancients supposed was set over each person to direct his birth, accompany him in liis life, and to be his guard. Genius signifies that aptitude which a man na- turally possesses to perform well and easily that which others can do but indifferently, and with a great deal of pain. GENTILE, in matters of religion, a Pagan, or worshipper of false gods. The origin of this woru is deduced from the Jews, who called all those who were not of their name, DMJ gojini, i.e.. gentes, which in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is rendered r» t4v ; Doddridge's Lect. lee. 141. GlLBERTINES, a religious order ; thus called from St. Gilbert, of Sempringham, in the County of Lincoln, who founded the same about the year 1148; the monks of which observed the rule of St. Augustine, and were accounted canons, and the nuns that of St. Benedict. The founder of this order erected a double monastery, or rather two different ones, contiguous to each other ; the one for men, the other for women, but parted by a very high wall. St. Gilbert himself founded thir- teen monasteries of this order ; viz. four for men alone, and nine for men and women together, which had in them 700 brethren, and 1500 sis- ters. At the dissolution, there were about twenty-five houses of this order in England and Wales. GLASSITES. The Glassites are so denomi nated from Mr. John Glas, their founder, who .was a minister of the established kirk of Scot- land ; but his followers are more generally known, out of Scotland, by the appellation of Sandema- nians, from Mr. Robert Sandeman. See San- dkmanians. Mr. Glas, about the year 1727, having offend- ed some of his brethren by certain peculiar no- tions, both of justifying faith, and of the nature of Christ's kingdom, as being not of this world, was arraigned as an offender before the presby- tery of wliich he was a member, and afterwards prosecuted before the prowncial synod of Angus and Mearns ; and having been in the course of that prosecution, called in by the synod to answer certain queries, be gave such answers as were by his judges deemed inconsistent with the standard | 151 GLASSITES of the national religion ; e.g. being interrogated, " Is it your opinion that there is no warrant for a national church under the New Testament?" he answered, " It is my opinion ; for I can see no churches instituted by Christ in the New Testa- ment, beside the universal, but congregational churches. Neither do I see that a nation can be a church, unless it could be made a congregation, as was the nation of Israel &c." Interrogated, "Is it your opinion that a single congregation of believers, with their pastor, are not under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority of supe- rior church judicatures, nor censurable by them, either as to doctrine, worship, or practice?" He answered, " A congregation or church of Jesus Christ, with its presbytery, is, in its discipline, subject to no jurisdiction under heaven." And being interrogated, "Do you think yourself obliged in conscience to teach and publish these your opinions, differing from the received doc- trines of this church, unto the people?" he an- swered, " I think myself obliged in conscience to declare every truth of Christ, and keep nothing back ; but to speak ail the words of this life ; and to teach his people to observe all things whatsoever he commands, so far as I can understand : and that notwithstanding of others differing from me, and my being exposed to hazard in the declaring of them." For these, and other opinions of a simi- lar nature and tendency, the synod suspended Mr. Glas from the exercise of his office, in April 1728; and, in the same year, he published "an explication of that proposition," contained in the foregoing answer, " a congregation, or church of Jesus Christ with its presbytery is, in its disci- pline, subject to no jurisdiction under heaven." Mr. Glas having persisted, not only in the ex- ercise of his office as a minister of Christ, not- withstanding the sentence of suspension, but also in the opinions expressed in his answers above referred to, the synod of Angus and Mearns, after a great deal of previous procedure, by a plu- rality of votes, but not without protests entered *>y some of their brethren, in October 1728, "de- posed him from the office of the holy ministry; prohibiting and discharging him to exercise the same, or any part thereof, in all time coming, un- der the pain of the highest censures of the church. From this sentence Mr. Glas appealed to the ge- neral asser. ibly of the church of Scotland. In the mean time he continued the exercise of his minis- try; and from among his numerous followers, (for his popularity was then great, notwithstand- ing the peculiarity of some of his opinions} he formed a congregation on his own principles in a parish near Dundee, of which he had been ori- ginally ordained pastor. In the year 1729, Mr. Glas published a treatise entitled The Testimony of the King of Mar- tyrs, as expressed in the answer of Jesus Christ to Pilate, " My kingdom is not of this world." In that treatise he has pretty fully illustrated his sen- timents on the points of dispute between the sy nod and him. This appeal from the synod being referred to the commission of assembly, they, after hearing his speech in defence (published in his Works, vol. i.) affirmed the sentence of deposi- tion pronounced by the synod. Notwithstanding this deposition, Mr. Glas co?'t'mued the exercise of his ministry, though deprived of his stipend, and not only preached occasionally in most of the principal towns of Scotland, but erected churches, GNOSTICS wherever he found a competent number of per- sons who adopted and coincided with his opinions. In vindication of this course he alleged, that his conduct in this matter was the legitimate conse- quence of the principles he had embraced, and until those principles were refuted by fair reason- ing, it was not to be expected that the sentence of the synod could loose him from the obligation laid upon him by the law of Christ to preach the fospel. Soon after the erection of the church at )undee, smaller congregations were put into church order at different places ; such as Edin- burgh, Perth, Montrose, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Paisley, &c. Glas, as has been observed, pub- lished a variety of tracts and treatises at different periods, all of them discovering talents of the highest order ; and among others who were led by the force of his arguments to adopt his pecu- liar views, was a Mr. Robert Sandeman, ori- ginally educated and destined for the ministry of the established church, who having embraced Mr. Glas's principles, was soon after ordained an elder of the church at Perth, from whence he af- terwards moved to Edinburgh. He soon entered warmly into controversy with Mr. Hervey and others, and became more conspicuous than his master, and in some points has evidently pushed Mr. Glas's peculiar sentiments to a greater ex- treme than he ever carried them, if we may judge from his published works. For the distinguishing doctrinal tenets usually ascribed to the Glassites, see the article on Sandemanism. Adam's Re- ligious World Displayed, vol. iii. — B. GLORY, praise, or honour, attributed to God. in adoration or worship. The state of felicity prepared for the righteous. See Heaven. The glory of God is the manifestation of the divine perfections in creation, providence, and grace. We may be said to give glory to God when we confess our sins, when we love him su- premely, when we commit ourselves to him, are zealous in his service, improve our talents, walk humbly, thankfully, and cheerfully before him, and recommend, proclaim, or set forth his excel- lencies to others, Jos. vii. 10; Gal. ii. 20; John xv. 8; Ps. 1. 23; Matt. v. 16. GNOSIMACHI, a name which distinguished those in the seventh century who were professed enemies to the Gnosis ; i. e. the studied know- ledge or science of Christianity, which they rested wholly on good works ; calling it a useless labour to seek for knowledge in the Scripture. In short, they contended for the practice of morality in all simplicity, and blamed those who aimed at im- proving and perfecting it by a deeper knowledge and insight into the doctrines and mysteries of religion. The Gnosimachi were the very reverse of the Gnostics. GNOSTICS, (from rvo, visible objects is obtained by analogy ; that is, by the resemblance which they bear to visible objects ; but as there is in nature no exact resemblance of the nature of God, an attempt to explain the di- vine nature is absurd and impracticable. All si- militudes, therefore, which are used in attempting to explain it, must be rejected." Yet, though we cannot fully understand his nature, there is some- thing of him we may know. He hath been pleased to discover his perfections, in a measure, by the works of creation and the Scriptures of truth ; these, therefore, we ought to study, in order that we may obtain the most becoming thoughts of him. For an account of the various attributes or perfections of God, the reader is referred to those articles in this work. There are various names given to the Al- mighty in the Scriptures, though, properly speak- ing, he can have no name ; for as he is incom- prehensible, he is not nominable ; and being but one, he has no need of a name to distinguish nim ; nevertheless, as names are given him in the Scrip- ture, to assist our ideas of his greatness and per- fection, they are worthy of our consideration. These names are El, which denotes him the strong and powerful God, Gen. xvii. 1. Eloah, which represents him as the only proper object of worship, Psal. xlv. 6, 7. Shaddai, which de- notes him to be the all-sufficient and almighty, Exod. vi. 2. IJhelejon, which represents his in- comparable excellency, absolute supremacy over all, and his peculiar residence in the highest hea- vens, Psalm. 1. 11. Ador.i, which makes him the great connecter, supporter, lord, and judge, of all creatures, Psal ex. 1. Jah, which may denote his self-existence, and giving of being to his creatures, or his infinite comeliness, and answerableness to himself, and to the happiness of his creatures, Exod. xv. 2. Ehjeh, I am, or I will be, denotes his self-existence, absolute independency, immi> table eternity, and all-sufficiency to his people, Exod. iii. 14. Jehovah, which denotes his self- existence, absolute independence, unsuccessive eternity, and his effectual and marvellous giving of being to his creatures, and fulfilling his pro- mises, Gen. ii. 4, &c. In the New Testament, God is called Kurios, or Lord, which denotes his self-existence, and his establishment of, and authority over all things; and Theos, which represents him as the maker, pcrvader, and governing observer of the universe. GODFATHERS AND GODMOTHERS, persons, who, at the baptism of infants, answer for their future conduct, and solemnly promise that they will renounce the devil and all his works, and follow a life of piety and virtue; and by these mean* lay themselves under an indispensable obligation to instruct them, and watch over their conduct. GODLINESS, strictly taken, is right worship or devotion : but in general it imports the whole of practical religion, 1 Tim. iv. 8; 2 Pet. i. 6. It is difficult, as Saurin observes, to include an ade- quate idea of it in what is called a definition. " It supposes knowledge, veneration, affection, de- pendence, submission, gratitude, and obedience, or it may be reduced to these four ideas ; knoio- GOODNESS ledge in themind, by which it isdistinguished from the visionsof the superstitious ^rectitude in the con- science, that distinguishes it from hypocrisy ; sacri- ficem the life, or renunciation of the world, by which it is distinguished from the unmeaning obedience of him who goes as a happy constitution leads him ; and, lastly, zeal in the heart, which differs from the languishing emotions of the lukewarm." The advantages of this disposition are honour, peace, safety, usefulness, support in death, and prospect of glory ; or, as the apostle sums up all in a few words, " It is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 1 Tim. iv. 8. Saurin's Serm. vol. v. ser. 3. Eng. trans. ; Barrow's Works, vol. i. p. 9 ; Scott's Christian Life ; Scougal's Life of God in the Soul of Man. GOOD, in general, is whatever increases plea- sure, or diminishes pain in us ; or, which amounts to the same, whatever is able to procure or preserve to us the possession of agreeable sensations, and remove those of an opposite nature. Moral good denotes the right conduct of the several senses and passions, or their just proportion and accom- modation to their respective objects and rela- tions. Physical good is that which has either generally, nr for any particular end, such qualities as are ex- pected or desired. GOOD FRIDAY, a fast of the Christian church, in memory of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. It is observed on the Friday in Passion Week, and it is called, by way of emi- nence, good ; because of the good effects of our Saviour's sufferings. Among the Saxons it was called Long Friday ; but for what reason does not appear, except on account of the long fasting and long offices then used. See Holy Days. GOODNESS, the fitness of a thing to pro- duce any particular end. Perfection, kindness, benevolence. GOODNESS OF GOD, relates to the abso- lute perfection of his own nature, and his kindness manifested to his creatures. Goodness, says Dr. Gill, is essential to God, without which he would not be God, Exod. xxxiii. 19. xxxiv. 6, 7. Good- ness belongs only to God, he is solely good, Matt. xix. 17 ; and all the goodness found in creatures is only an emanation of the divine goodness. He is the chief good ; the sum and substance of all feli- city, Ps. cxliv. 12, 15 ; lxxiii. 25 ; iv. G, 7. There is nothing but goodness in God, and nothing but goodness comes from him, 1 John. i. 5 ; James i. 13, 14. He is infinitely good ; finite minds can- not comprehend his goodness, Rom. xi. 35, 36. He is immutably and unchangeably good, Zeph. iii. 17. The goodness of God is communicative and diffusive, Ps. cxix. 68; xxxiii. 5. With re- spect to the objects of it, it may be considered as general and special. His general goodness is seen in all his creatures : yea, in the inanimate creation, the sun, the earth, and all his works ; and in the government, support, and protection of the world at large, Ps. xxxvi. 6. cxlv. His special goodness relates to angels and saints. To angels, in creating, confirming, and making them what they are. To saints, in election, calling, justifi- cation, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and eternal glorification. Gill's Body of Div. vol. i. p. 133. 8vo. ed. ; Charnock's Works, vol. i. p. 574 ; Paley's Nat. Theol. ch. 26 ; South's admirable Sermon on this Subject, vol. viii. scr. 3 ; Tillot- 157 GOVERNMENT son's Serm,. scr. 143 — 146; Abernethy's Seirn. vol. i. No. 2. GOSPEL, the revelation of the grace of God to fallen man through a mediator. It is taken also for the history of the life, actions, death, re- surrection, ascension, and doctrine of Jesus Christ, The word is Saxon, and of the same import with the Latin crangelium, which signifies glad tidinss or good news. It is called the Gospel of his Grace, because it flows from his free lo\e, Acts xx. 24. The Gospel of the kingdovi, as it treats of the kingdoms of grace and glory. The Gospel of Christ, because he is the author and subject of it, Rom. i. 16. The Gospel of peace and salvation, as it promotes our present com- fort, and leads to eternal glory, Eph. i. 13 ; vi. 15 The glorious Gospel, as in it the glorious perfec- tions of Jehovah are displayed, 2 Cor. iv. 4. The everlasting Gospel, as it was designed from eter- nity, is permanent in time, and the effects of it eternal, Rev. xiv. 6. There are about thirty or forty apocryphal Gospels ; as the Gospel of St. Peter, of St. Andrew, of St. Barnabas, the eter- nal Gospel, &c. &c. &c: but they were never received by the Christian church, being evidently fabulous and trifling. See Christianity. GOSPEL CALL. See Calling. GOSPEL A LAW. It has been disputed whether the Gospel consists merely of promises, or whether it can in any sense be called a law. The answer plainly depends upon adjusting the meaning of the words Gospel and law : if the Gospel be taken for the declaration God has made to men by Christ, concerning the manner in which he will treat them, and the conduct he expects from them, it is plain that this includes commands, and even threatenings, as well as pro- mises ; but to define the Gospel so, as only to ex- press the favourable part of that declaration, is indeed taking the question for granted, and con- fining the woTd to a sense much less extensive than it often has in Scripture : compare Rom. ii. 16; 2 Thess. i. 8; 1 Tim. i. 10, 11 ; and it is certain, that, if the Gospel be put for all the parts of the dispensation taken in connection one with another, it may well be called, on the whole, a good message. In like manner the question, whether the Gospel be a law or not, is to be deter- mined by the definition of the law and of the Gospel, as above. If law signifies, as it gene- rally does, the discovery of the will of a superior, teaching what he requires of those under his go- vernment, with the intimation of his intention of dispensing rewards and punishments, as this rule of their conduct is observed or neglected ; in this latitude of expression, it is plain, from the proposition, that the Gospel, taken for the decla- ration made to men by Christ, is a law, as in Scripture it is sometimes called, James i. 25; Rom. iv. 15 ; viii. 2. But if lav/ be taken, in the greatest rigour of the expression, for such a dis- covery of the will of God, and our duty, as to contain in it no intimation of our obtaining the Divine favour otherwise than by a perfect and universal conformity to it, in that sense the Gos- pel is not a law. See Nf.onomians. Witsius on Cov. vol. iii. ch. I ; Doddridge' s Lectures, lect. 172 ; Watts's Orthodoxy and Chanty, essay 2. GOVERNMENT OF GOD, is the disposal of his creatures, and all events relative to them, according to his infinite justice, power, and wis- dom. His moral government is his rendering to a GRACE eery man according to his actions, considered as good or evil. See Dominion and Sovereignty. GRACE. There are various senses in which this word is used in Scripture; but the general idea of it, as it relates to God, is his free favour and love. As it respects men, it implies the happy state of reconciliation and favour with God wherein they stand, and the holy endow- ments, qualities, or habits of faith, hope, love, &c, which they possess. Divines have distinguished grace into cor. virion or general, special ox particu- lar. Commcn grace, if it may be so called, is what all men have ; as the light of nature and reason, convictions of conscience, &c, Rom. ii. 4 ; 1 Tim. iv. 10. Special grace, is that which is peculiar to some people only; such as electing, redeeming, justifying, pardoning, adopting, esta- blishing, and sanctifying grace, Rom. viii. 30. This special grace is by some distinguished into imputed and inherent : imputed grace consists in the holiness, obedience, and righteousness of Christ, imputed to us for our justification ; inhe- rent grace is what is wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God in regeneration. Grace is also said to be irresistible, efficacious, and victorious ; not but that there are in human nature, in the first moments of conviction, some struggles, opposi- tion, or conflict ; but by these terms we are to understand, that, in the end, victory declares for the grace of the Gospel. There have been many other distinctions of grace ; but as they are of too frivolous a nature, and are now obsolete, they need not a place here. Growth in grace is the progress we make in the divine life. It discovers itself by an increase of spiritual light and know- ledge ; by our renouncing self, and depending more upon Christ ; by growing more spiritual in duties; by being more humble, submissive, and thankful ; by rising superior to the corruptions of our nature, and rinding the power of sin more weakened in us ; by being less attached to the world, and possessing more of a heavenly disposi- tion. M'Laurin's Essays, essay 3 ; Gill's Body of Die. vol. i. p. 118, Doddridge's Led. part viii. prop. 139; Pike a-\d Hayicard's Cases of Conscience ; Saurin on Rom. ix. 2t>, 27. vol. iv.; Booth's Reign of Grace. GRACE AT MEALS, a short prayer, im- ploring the divine blessing on our food, and ex- pressive of gratitude to God for supplying our ne- cessities. The propriety of this act is evident from the divine command, 1 Thess. v. IS; 1 Cor. x. 31 ; 1 Tim. iv. 5. From the conduct of Christ, Mark viii. 6, 7. From reason itself; not to mention that it is a custom practised by most nations, and even not neglected by heathens themselves. The English, However, seem to be very deficient in this duty. As to the manner in which it ought to be per- formed, as Dr. Watts observes, we ought to have a due regard to the occasion, and the persons pre- sent ; the neglect of which hath been attended with indecencies and indiscretions. Some have used themselves to mutter a few words with so low a voice, as though by some secret charm they were to consecrate the food alone, and there was no need of the rest to join with them in the peti- tions. Others have broke out into so violent a sound, as though they were bound to make a thousand peop'e hear them. Some perform this part of worslj p with so slight and familiar an uir, as though they had no sense of the great 1W GREEK God to whom they speak; others have put on an unnatural solemnity, and changed their natu- ral voice into so different and awkward a tone, not without some distortions of countenance, that have tempted strangers to ridicule. It is the custom of some to hurry over a single sentence or two, and they have done, before half the company are prepared to lift up a thought to heaven. And some have been just heard to be- speak a blessing on the church and the king, but seem to have forgot they were asking God to bless their food, or giving thanks for the food they have received. Others, again, make a long prayer, and, among a multitude of other petitions, do not utter one that relates to the table before them. The general rules of prudence, together with a due observation of the custom of the place where we live, would correct all these disorders, and teach us that a few sentences suited to the occar sion, spoken with an audible and proper voice, are sufficient for this purpose, especially if any strangers are present. Walts' a Works, oct. edi- tion, vol. iv. p. 1G0 ; Law's Serious Call, p. 60 ; Seed's Post. Scr. p. 174. GRATITUDE, is that pleasant affection of the mind which arises from a sense of favours received, and by which the possessor is excited to make all the returns of love and service in his power. "Gratitude," says Mr. Cogan (in his Treatise on the Passions,) "is the powerful re- action of i well-disposed mind, upon whom bene- volence has conferred some important good. It is mostly connected with an impressive sense of the amiable disposition of the person by whoa the benefit is conferred, and it immediately pro- duces a personal affection towards him. Wo shall not wonder at the peculiar strength and energy of this affection, when we consider that it is compounded of love placed upon the good communicated, affection for the donor, and joy at the reception. Thus it has goodness for its ob- ject, and the most pleasing, perhaps unexpected, exertions of goodness for its immediate cause. Thankfulness refers to verbal expressions of gratitude." See Thankfulness. GRAVITY, is that seriousness of mind, united with dignity of behaviour, that commands veneration and respect. See Dr. Watts's admi- rable Sermon on Gravity, ser. 23, vol. i. GREATNESS OF GOD, is the infinite glory and excellency of all his perfections. His greatness appears by the attributes he possesses, Deut. xxxii. 3, 4 ; the works he hath made, Ps. xix. 1 ; by the awful and benign providences he displays, Ps. xcvii. 1, 2 ; the great effects he produces by his word, Gen. i. ; the constant en- ergy he manifests in the existence and support of all his creatures, Ps. cxlv. ; and the everlasting provision of glory made for his people, 1 Thess. iv. 17. This greatness is of himself, and not de- rived, Ps. xxi. 13 ; it is infinite, Ps. cxlv. 3 ; not diminished by exertion, but will always remain the same, Mai. iii. 0. The considerations of his greatness should excite veneration, Ps. lxxxix. 7; admiration, Jer. ix. G, 7; humility, Job xiil 5, G; dependence, Is. xxvi. 4; submission, Job i. 22; obedience, Deut. iv. 39, 40. Sec Attri- butes, and books under that article. GREEK CHURCH comprehends in its bo- som a considerable part of Greece, the Grecian Isles, Wallachia, Moldavia, Egypt, Abyssinia, GREEK Nubia, Libya, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Cili- cia, and Palestine; which arc all under the juris- diction of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alex- andria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. If to these we add the whole of the Russian empire in Europe, great part of Sineria in Asia, Astracan, Casan, and Georgia, it will be evident that the Greek church has a wider extent of territory than the Latin, with all the branches which have sprung from it ; and that it is with great impropriety that the church of Rome is called by her mem- bers the catholic or universal church. That in these widely distant countries the professors of Christianity are agreed in every minute article of belief, it would be rash to assert ; but there is certainly such an agreement among them, with respect both to faith and to discipline, that they mutually hold communion with each other, and are, in fact, but one church. It is called the Greek church, in contradistinction to the Latin or Roman church; as also the Eastern, in dis- tinction from the Western church. We shall here present the reader with a view of its rise, tenets, and discipline. 1. Greek church, rise and separation of. The Greek church is considered as a separation from the Latin. In the middle of the ninth century, the controversy relating to the procession of the Holy Ghost (which had been started in the sixth century) became a point of great importance, on account of the jealousy and ambition which at that time were blended with it. Photius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, having been advanced to that see in the room of Ignatius, whom he pro- cured to be deposed, was solemnly excommuni- cated by pope Nicholas, in a council held at Rome, and his ordination declared null and void. The Greek emperor resented this conduct of the jtope, who defended himself with great spirit and jesolution. Photius, in his turn, convened what he called an oecumenical council, in which he pronounced sentence of excommunication and • leposition against the pope, and got it subscribed <>y twenty-one bishops and others, amounting in lumber to a thousand. This occasioned a wide breach between the sees of Rome and Constan- tinople. However, the death of the emperor Michael, and the deposition of Photius, subse- quent thereupon, seemed to have restored peace ; for the emperor Basil held a council at Constan- tinople in the year 869, in which entire satisfac- tion was given to pope Adrian ; but the schism was only smothered and suppressed a while. The Greek church had several complaints against the Latin ; particularly it was thought a great hard- ship for the Greeks to subscribe to the definition of a council according to the Roman form, pre- scribed by the pope, since it made the church of Constantinople dependent on that of Rome, and set the pope above an oecumenical council ; but, above all, the pride and haughtiness of the Ro- man court gave the Greeks a great distaste ; and as their deportment seemed to insult his imperial majesty, it entirely alienated the affections of the Emperor Basil. Towards the middle of the eleventh century, Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, opposed the Latins with re- spect to their making use of unleavened bread in the eucharist, their observation of the sabbath, and fasting on Saturdays, charging them with living in communion with the Jews. To this pope Leo IX. replied; and, in his apology for the 159 GREEK Latins, declaimed very warmly against the falsa doctrine of the Greeks, and interposed, at the same time, the authority of his see. He likewise, by his legates, excommunicated the patriarch in the church of Santa Sophia, which gave the last shock to the reconciliation attempted a long time after, but to no purpose ; for from that time the hatred of the Greeks to the Latins, and of the Latins to the Greeks, became insuperable, inso- much that they have continued ever since sepa- rated from each other's communion. II. Greek church, tenets of. The following are some of the chief tenets held by the Greek church : — They disown the authority of the pope, and deny that the church of Rome is the true catholic church. They do not baptize their chil- dren till they are three, four, five, six, ten, nay sometimes eighteen years of age : baptism is per- formed by trine immersion. They insist that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ought to be ad- ministered in both kinds, and they give the sacra- ment to children immediately after baptism. They grant no indulgences, nor do they lay any claim to the character of infallibility, like the church of Rome. They deny that there is any such place as purgatory ; notwithstanding they pray for the dead, that God would have mercy on them at the general judgment. They practise the invocation of saints ; though, they say, they do not invoke them as deities, but as intercessors with God, They exclude confirmation, extreme unction, and matrimony, out of the seven sacraments. T hey de- ny auricular confession to be a divine precept, and say it is only a positive injunction of the church. They pay no religious homage to the eucharist. They administer the communion in both kinds to the laity, both in sickness and in health, though they have never applied themselves to their con- fessors ; because they are persuaded that a lively faith is all which is requisite for the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper. They maintain that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Fa- ther, and not from the Son. They believe in predestination. They admit of no images in re- lief or embossed work, but use paintings and sculptures in copper or silver. They approve of the marriage of priests, provided they enter into that state before their admission into holy orders. They condemn all fourth marriages. They ob- serve a number of holy days, and keep four fasts in the year more solemn than the rest, of which the fast in Lent, before Easter, is the chief. They believe the doctrine of consubstantiation, or the union of the body of Christ with the sa- cramental bread. III. Greek church, state and discipline of. Since the Greeks became subject to the Turkish yoke, they have sunk into the most deplorable ignorance, in consequence of the slavery and thraldom under which they groan ; and their re- ligion is now greatly corrupted. It is, indeed, little better than a heap of ridiculous ceremonies and absurdities. The head of the Greek church is the patriarch of Constantinople, who is chosen by the neighbouring archbishops and metropoli- tans, and confirmed by the emperor or grand vizier. He is a person of great dignity, being the head and director of the Eastern church. The other patriarchs are those of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Mr. Tournefort tells us, that tlie patriarchates are now generally set to sale and bestowed upon those who are the lughest bidders. H.£RETICQ The patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops, arc always chosen from among the calo- yers, or Greek monks. The next person to a bishop, among the clergy, is an archimandrite, who is the director of one or more convents, which are called mandren ; then come the abbot, the arch-priest, the priest, the deacon, the under- deacon, the chanter, and the lecturer. The secu- lar clergy are suhject to no rules, and never rise higher than high-priest. The Greeks have few nunneries, but a great many convents of monks, who are all priests, and (students excepted) obliged to follow some handicraft employment, and lead a very austere life. The Russians adhere to the doctrine and cere- monies of the Greek church, though they are now independent on the patriarch of Constantinople. The Russian church, indeed, may be reckoned the first, as to extent of empire ; yet there is very little of the power of vital religion among them. The Roskolniki, or, as they now call themselves, the Slarorertzi, were a sect that separated from the church of Russia about 1GGG : they affected extraordinary piety and devotion, a veneration for the letter of the Holy Scriptures, and would not allow a priest to administer baptism who had that day tasted brandy. They harboured many follies and superstitions, and have been greatly persecuted; but, perhaps, there will be found among them " some that shall be counted to the Lord for a generation." Several settlements of German Protestants have been established on the Wolga. The Moravians also have done good in Livonia, and the adjacent isles in the Baltic un- der the Russian government. See Mosheim, H^ERETICO Gregory, and HaweWs Church History ; King1* Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church ta Russia; The Russian Catechism; Secret Me- moirs of the Court of Pctcrsburgh; Tooke's History of Russia ; Ricaufs State of the Greek Church ; Enc. Brit. GROWTH IN GRACE. Sec Grace. GUARDIAN ANGEL. " Some," says Dr. Doddridge, "have thought, that not only every region but every man has some particular angel assigned him as a guardian, whose business it is generally to watch over that country or person ; for this opinion they urge Matt, xviii. 10 ; Acta xii. 15. But the argument from both these places is evidently precarious ; and it seems difficult to reconcile the supposition of such a continued at- tendance with what is said of the stated residence of these angels in heaven, and with Heb. i. 14, where all the angels are represented as minister- ing to the heirs of salvation : though, as there is great reason to believe the number of heavenly spirits is vastly superior to that of men upon earth, it is not improbable that they may, as it were, relieve each other, and in their turns per- form these condescending services to those whom the Lord of Angels has been pleased to redeem with his own blood ; but we must confess that our knowledge of the laws and orders of those celestial beings is very limited, and consequently that it is the part of humility to avoid dogmatical determinations on such heads as these." See Angel ; and Doddridge's Lectures, lee. 212. GUILT, the state of a person justly charged with a crime ; a consciousness of having done amiss. See Sin. H. HABIT, a power and ability of doing any thing, acquired by frequent repetition of the HEAVEN mem language of the heathen ; and a rumour of the Saviour's appearance in the flesh was spread far and wide among them. "When Christ came, he preached chiefly in Galilee, where there were multitudes of Gentiles. He assured the Greeks that vast numbers of the heathen should be brought into the church. Matt. iv. 23; John xii. 20. 24: For 1700 years past the Jews have been generally rejected, and the church of God has been composed of the Gentiles. Upwards of 480 millions, (nearly half the globe,) however, arc supposed to be yet in pagan darkness. Consider- able attempts have been made of late years for the enlightening of the heathen ; and there is every reason to believe good has been done. From the aspect of Scripture prophecy, we are led to ex- pect that the kingdoms of the heathen at large shall be brought to the light of the Gospel, Matt. xxiv. 14; Isa. lx.; Ps. xxii. 28, 29; ii. 7, 8. It has been much disputed whether it be possible that the heathen should be saved without the knowledge of the Gospel ; some have absolutely denied it, upon the authority of those texts which universally require faith in Christ ; but to this it is answered, that those texts regard only such to whom the Gospel comes, and are capable of un- derstanding the contents of it. The truth, says Dr. Doddndge, seems to be tins : that none of the heathens will be condemned for not believing the Gospel, but they are liable to condemnation for the breach of God's natural law : nevertheless, if there be any of them in whom there is a prevail- ing love to the Divine Being, there seems reason to believe that, for the sake of Christ, though to them unknown, they may be accepted by God ; and so much the rather, as the ancient Jews, and even the apostles, during the time of our Saviour's abode on earth, seem to have had but little notion of those doctrines which those who deny the sal- vability of the heathens are most apt to imagine, Rom. ii. 10—22; Acts x. 34, 35; Matt. viii. 11, 1 2. Mr. Grove, Dr. Watts, Saurin, and Mr. New- ton, favour the same opinion ; the latter of whom thus observes : if we suppose a heathen brought to a sense of his misery ; to a conviction that he cannot be happy without the favour of the great Lord of the world ; to a feeling of guilt, and de- sire of mercy ; and that, though he has no ex- plicit knowledge of a Saviour, he directs the cry of his heart to the unknown Supreme, to have mercy upon him; who will prove that such views and desires can arise in the heart of a sin- ner, without the energy of that spirit which Jesus is exalted to bestow? Who will take upon him to say, that his blood has not sufficient efficacy to redeem to God a sinner who is thus disposed, though he have never heard of his name ? Or who has a warrant to affirm, that the supposition I have made is, in the nature of things, impossi- ble to be realized? Newton's Messiah; Dr. Watts's Strength and Weakness of Human Reason, p. 10G; Saurin' s Scnnons, vol. ii. p. 314 ; Grove's Moral Philosophy, vol. i. 128; Turret hoc. vol. i. qurest. 4, § 1, 2. 17; Doddridge's Lectures, lee. 240, vol. ii. 8vo. edit. : Bellamy's Religion Delineated, p. 105; Ridgley's Body of Divinity, qu. (>0; Gale's Court of the Gen- tiles; Considerations on the Religious Worship nf the Heathen ; Rev. W. Jones's Works, vol. xii. HEAVEN is considered as a place in some remote part of infinite space, in which the omni- present Deity is said to afford a nearer and more 163 HEAVEN immediate view of himself, and a more sensible manifestation of his glory, than in the other parts of the universe. That t'uereis a state of future happiness, both reason and Scripture indicate ; a general notion of happiness after death has obtained among the wiser sort of heathens, who have only had the light of nature to guide them. If we examine the human mind, it is also evident that there is a natural desire after happiness in all men ; and, which is equally evident, is not attained in this life. It is no less observable, that in the present state there is an unequal distribution of things, which makes the providences of God very intri- cate, and which cannot be solved without sup- posing a future state. Revelation, however, puts it beyond all doubt. The Divine Being hath promised it, 1 John ii. 25; 1 John v. 11; James i. 12 : hath given us some intimation of its glory, 1 Pet. iii. 4. 22; Rev. hi. 4; declares Christ hath taken possession of it for us, John xiv. 2, 3 ; and informs us of some already there, both as to their bodies and souls, Gen. v. 24 ; 2 Kings ii. Heaven is to be considered as a place as well at a state; it is expressly so termed in Scripture, John xiv. 2, 3 ; and the existence of the body of Christ, and those of Enoch and Elijah, is a fur- ther proof of it. Yea, if it be not a place, where can these bodies be ? and where will the bodies of the saints exist after the resurrection? Where this place is, however, cannot be determined. Some have thought it to be beyond the starry fir- mament ; and some of the ancients imagined that their dwelling would be in the sun. Others suppose the air to be the seat of the blessed. Others think that the saints will dwell upen earth when it shall be restored to its paradisaical state; but these suppositions are more curious than edifying, and it becomes us to be silent where divine revelation is so. Heaven, however, we arc assured, is a place of inexpressible felicity. The names given to it are proofs of this : it is called paradise, Luke xxiii. 43; light, Rev. xxi. 23. A building and mansion of God, 2 Cor. v. 1 ; John xiv. 2. A city, Heb. xi. 10, 16. A better country, Heb. xL 16. An inheritance, Acts xx. 32. A kingdom, Matt. xxv. 34. A crown, 2 Tim. iv. 8. Glory, Ps. lxxxiv. 11 ; 2 Cor. iv. 17. Peace, rest, and joy of the Lord, Isa. lvii. 2; Heb. iv. 9; Matt. xxv. 21, 23. The felicity of heaven will consist in freedom from all evil, both of soul and body, Rev. vii. 17; in the enjoyment of God as the chief good ; in the company of angels and saints ; in perfect holiness, and extensive knowledge. It has been disputed whether there are degrees of glory in heaven. The arguments against de- grees are, that all the people of God are loved by him with the same love, all chosen together in Christ, equally interested in the same covenant of grace, equally redeemed with the same price, and all predestinated to the same adoption of children ; to suppose the contrary, it is said, is to eclipse the glory of divine grace, and carries with it the legal idea of being rewarded for our works. On the other side it is observed, that if the above reasoning would prove any thing, it would prove too much, viz. that we should all be upon an equality in the present world as well as that whicii is to come; for we are now as much the objects of the same love, purchased by the same blood, &c.j as we shall be hereafter. That re- HEAVEN wards contain nothing inconsistent with the, doc- trine of grace, because those very works which it pleaseth God to honour, arc the effects of his own operation. That all rewards to a guilty creature have respect to the mediation of Christ. That God's graciously connecting blessings with the obedience of his people, serves to show not only his love to Christ and to them, but his regard to righteousness. That the Scriptures expressly declare for degrees, Dan. xii. 3; Matt. x. 41, 42; Matt. xix. 28, 29 ; Luke xix. 1G. 19 ; Rom. ii. 6 ; 1 Cor. iii. 8; 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42; 2 Cor. v. 10; Gal. vi. !). Another question has sometimes been pro- posed, viz. Wtiether the saints shall know each other in heaven? " The arguments," says Dr. Ridgley, " which arc generally brought in defence of it, are taken from those instances recorded in Scripture, in which persons, who have never seen one another before, have immediately known each other in this world, by a special immediate divine revela- tion given to them, in like manner as Adam knew that Eve was taken out of him ; and there- fore says, This is now bone of my bone, andjlesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Gen. ii. 23. He was cast info a deep sleep, ichen God took out one of his ribs, and so formed the woman, as we read in the foregoing words ; yet the knowledge hereof was communicated to him by God. More- over, we read that Peter, James, and John, knew Moses and Elias, Matt. xvii. as appears from Peter's making a particular mention of them : Let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias, 4th ver., though he had never seen them before. Again ; our Sa- viour, in the parable, represents the rich man as seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, Luke xvi. 23, and speaks of him as ad- dressing his discourse to him. From such like arguments, some conclude that it maybe inferred that the saints shall know one another in heaven, when joined together in the same assembly. " Moreover, some think that this may be prov- ed from the apostle's words, in 1 Thess. ii. Ii), 2;t, JJ7ia/ is our hope or joy, or crown of rejoic- ing ? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? for ye arc our glory and joy; which seems to argue, that he apprehended their happiness in heaven should contribute, or be an addition to his, as he was made an instrument to bring them thither; even so, by a parity of reason, every one who has been instrumental in the conversion and building up others in their holy faith, as the apostle Paul was with respect to them, these shall tend to enhance their praise, and give them occasion to glorify < rod on their behalf. Therefore it follows that they shall know one another; and consequently they who have walked together in the ways of God, and have been useful to one another as re- lations and intimate friends, in what respects more especially their spiritual concerns, these shall bless God for the mutual advantages which they have received, and consequently shall know one another. Again; some prove this from that expression of our Saviour in Luke xvi. 0. Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of un- righteousness, that, when ye fail, they may re- ceive you into everlasting habitations; especially if by these everlasting habitations be meant l&t HEAVEN heaven, as many suppose it is ; and then th : meaning is, that they whom you have relieved and shown kindness to in this world, shall e* press a particular joy upon your being admitteu into heaven; and consequently they shall kno* you, and bless God for your having been so use- ful and beneficial to them. " To this it is objected, that if the saints shaft know one another in heaven, they shall know that several of those who were their intimate friends here on earth, whom they loved with very great affection, are not there ; and this will haw a tendency to give them some uneasiness, and a diminution of their joy and happiness. "To this it may be replied, that if it be allowed that the saints shall know that some whom they loved on earth are not in heaven, this will give them no uneasiness : since that affection which took its rise principally from the relation which we stood in to persons on earth, or the intimacy that we have contracted with them, will cease in another world, or rather run in another channel, and be excited by superior motives : namely, their relation to Christ; that perfect holiness which they are adorned with ; their being joined in the same blessed society, and engaged in the same employment : together with their former usefulness one to another in promoting their spiritual welfare, as made subservient to the hap- piness they enjoy there. And as for others, who are excluded from their society, they will think themselves obliged, out of a due regard to the jus- tice and holiness of God, to acquiesce in his righteous judgments. Thus, the inhabitants of heaven are represented as adoring the divine perfections, when the vials of God's wrath were poured out upon his enemies, and saying, Thou art righteous, O Lord, because thou hast judged- thus: true and righteous are thy judgments, Rev. xvi. 5, 7. " Another question has been sometimes asked, viz. Whether there shall be a diversity of lan- guages in heaven, as there is on earth? This we cannot pretend to determine. Some think that there shall; and that, as persons of all nations and tongues shall make up that blessed society, so they shall praise God in the same language which they before used when on earth ; and that this worship may be performed with the greatest har- mony, and to mutual edification, all the saints shall, by the immediate power and providence of God, be able to understand and make use of every one of those dif lerent languages, as well as their own. This they found on the. apostle's words, in which he says, That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ; which they suppose has a respect to the heavenly state, because it is said to be done both by those that are in heaven, and those that are on earth, Phil. ii. 10, 11. But though the apostle speaks, ' by a metonymy, of different tongues, that is, per- sons who speak different languages, being sub- ject to Christ, he probably means thereby persona of different nations, whether they shall praise him in their own language ii heaven, or no. Therefore some conjecture that the diveisity of languages shall then cea»e, inasmuch as it took its first rise from God's judicial hand, when lie confounded the speech of those who presumptu- ously attempted to build the city and tower of Babel; and this has been ever siucc attended. HELL with many inconveniences. And, indeed, the apostle seems expressly to intimate as much, when he says, speaking concerning the heavenly state, that tongu.es shall cease, 1 Cor. xiii. 8 ; that is, the present variety of languages. Moreover, since the gift of tongues was bestowed on the apostles for the gathering and building up the church in the first ages thereof, which end, when it was answered, this extraordinary dispensation ceased ; in like manner it is probable that here- after the diversity of languages shall cease." "I am sensible," says Dr. Ridgley, "there are some who object to this, that the saints' under- standing all languages will lie an addition to their honour, glory, and happiness. But to this it may lie answered, that though it is, indeed, an accom- plishment, in this world, for a person to under- stand several languages, that arises from the sub- serviency thereof to those valuable ends that are answered thereby ; but this would be entirely re- moved, if the diversity of languages be taken away in heaven, as some suppose it will." " There are some, who, it may be, give too much scope to a vain curiosity, when they pre- tend to inquire what this language shall be, or determine, as the Jews do, and with them some of the fathers, that it shall be Hebrew, since their arguments for it are not sufficiently conclusive, which are principally these, viz. That this was the language with which God inspired man at first in paradise, and that which the saints and pa- triarchs spake, and the church generally made use of in all ages till our Saviour's time ; and that it was this language which he himself spake while here on earth; and since his ascension into hea- ven, he spake to Paul in the Hebrew tongue, Acts xxvi. 14. And when the inhabitants of heaven are described in the Revelations as praising God, there is one word used by which their praise is expressed, namely, Hallelujah, which is He- brew ; the meaning whereof is, Praise ye the Lord. But all these arguments are not sufficiently convincing, and therefore we must reckon it no more than a conjecture." However undecided we may be as to this and some other circumstances, this we may be assured oi] that the happiness of heaven will be eternal. Whether it will be progressive or not, and that the saints shall always be increasing in their knowledge, joy, &c. is not so clear. Some sup- pose that this indicates an imperfection in the felicity of the saints, for any addition to be made; but others think it quite analogous to the dealings of God with us here ; and that, from the nature of the mind itself, it may be concluded. But however this be, it is certain that our happiness will be complete, 1 Pet. v. 4, 10. Heb. xi. 10. Watts' s Death and Heaven ; Gillie Body of Divinity, vol. ii. p. 495 ; Saurin's Ser. vol. iii. p. 3*31 ; Toplady's Works, vol. iii. p. 471 ; Bates's Works ; Ridgley' s Bodi/ of Divinity, question ',)0. HEBREWS. SeeJF.ws. HELL, the place of divine punishment after death. As all religions have supposed a future state of existence alter this life, so all have their hell, or place of torment, in which the wicked fire to be punished. Even the heuthens had their lartara - and the Mahometans, we find, believe the eternity of rewards and punishments ; it in not, therefore, a sentiment peculiar to Chris- tianity. There have been many curious and useless HELL conjectures respecting the place of the damned. the ancients generally supposed it was a region of fire near the centre of the earth. Mr. Swinden endeavoured to prove that it is seated in the sun. Mr. Whiston advanced a new and strange hypo- thesis ; according to him, the comets are so many hells, appointed in their orbits alternately to carry the damned to the confines of the sun, there to be scorched by its violent heat ; and then to returp with them beyond the orb of Saturn, there to starve them in those cold and dismal regions. But, as Dr. Doddridge observes, we must here confess our ignorance ; and shall be much better employed in studying how we may avoid this place of horror, than in labouring to discover where it is. Of the nature of this punishment we may form some idea from the expressions made use of in Scripture. It is called a place of torment, Luke xvi. 21 ; the bottomless pit, Rev. xx. 3 to 6; a prison, 1 Pet. iii. 19; darkness, Matt. viii. 12; Jude 13; fire, Matt. xiii. 42, 50; a worm that never dies, Mark ix. <±4, 48; the second death, Rev. xxi. 8; the wrath of God, Rom. ii. 5. It has been debated whether there will be a material fire in hell. On the affirmative side it is observed, that fire and brimstone are represented as the ingre- dients of the torment of the wicked, R.ev. xiv. 10, 1 1 ; xx. 10. That as the body is to be raised, and the whole man to be condemned, it is reasonable to believe there will be some corporeal punish- ment provided, and therefore probably material fire. On the negative side it is alleged, that the terms above mentioned arc metaphorical, and signify no more than raging desire or acute pain; and that the Divine Being can sufficiently punish the wicked, by immediately acting on their minds, or rather leaving them to the guilt and stings oi their own conscience. According to several pas sages, it seems there will be different degrees of punishment in hell, Luke xii. 47; Rom. ii. 12; Matt. x. 20, 21 ; xii. 25, 32 ; Heb. x. 28, 29. As to its duration, it has been observed that it cannot be eternal, because there is no proportion between temporary crimes and eternal punish- ments ; that the word everlasting is not to be taken in its utmost extent ; and that it signifies no more than a long time, or a time whose pre- cise boundary is unknown. But in answer to this it is alleged, that the same word is used, and that sometimes iii the very same place, to express ttie eternity of the happiness of the righteous, and the eternity of the misery of the wicked ; and that there is no reason to believe that the words express two such different ideas, as stand- ing in the same connexion. Besides, it is not true, it is observed, that temporary crimes do not deserve eternal punishments, because the infinite majesty of an offended God adds a kind of infinite evil to sin, and therefore exposes the sinner to in- finite punishment; and that hereby God vindi- cates his injured majesty, and glorifies his justice See articles Destucctiomsts and Universa- lists. Berry St. Lee. vol. ii. p. 559, 5G2 ; Dawes on Hell, ser. x; Whiston on ditto; Shcinden, Drexelius, and Edwards on ditto. A late popu- lar writer has observed, that in the 35th sermon of Tillotson, every thing is said upon the eternity of hell torments that can be known with any certaintv. HELL, Christ' s Descent into. That Christ locally descended into hell, is a doctrine believed HELLENISTS not only hy the papists, but by many among the reformed. 1. The text chiefly brought forward in support of thin doctrine is the 1 Peter iii. 19. " By which he went and preached to the spirits in prison ;" but it evidently appears, that the "spirit" there mentioned was not Christ's human soul, but a divine nature, or rather the Holy Spirit (by which he .was quickened, and raised from the dead ;) and by the inspiration of which, granted to Noah, he preached to those notorious sinners who are now in the prison of hell for their disobedience. 2. Christ, when on the cross, promised the penitent thief his presence that day in paradise ; and. accordingly, when he died, he committed his soul into his heavenly Father's hand : in heaven, therefore, and not in hell, we are to seek the se- parate spirit of our Redeemer in this period, Luke xxiii. 43, 46. 3. Had our Lord descended to preach to the damned, there is no supposable reason why the unbelievers in Noah's time only should be men- tioned rather than those of Sodom, and the un- happy multitudes that died in sin. But it may be said, do not both the Old and New Testa- ments intimate this? Ps. xvi. 10; Acts ii. 34. But it may be answered, that the words " thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," may be explained fas in the manner of the Hebrew poets) in the following words : " Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption." So the same words are used. Ps. lxxxix. 48. — "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he de- liver his soul from the hand of the grave?" In the Hebrew (^1X1?) the word commonly rendered hell properly signifies "the invisible state," as our word hell originally did : and the other word (t?DJ) signifies not always the immortal soul, but the animal frame in general, either living or dead. Bishop Pearson and Dr. Barrow on the Creed ; Edwards^ 's Hist, of Redemption, notes p. 331, 377; Ridfrlofs Body of Div. p. 308, 3d edit. ; Doddridge and Guise on 1 Pet. iii. 19. HELLENISTS, a term occurring in the Greek text of the New Testament, and which, in the English version, is rendered Grecians, Acts vi. I. The critics are divided as to the sig- nification of the word. Some observe, that it is not to bo understood as signifying those of the religion of the Greeks, but those who spoke Greek. The authors of the Vulgate version render it like our Grceci; but Messieurs Du Port Royal, more accurately, Juifs Grecs, Greek or Grecian Jews; it being the Jews who spoke Greek that are here treated of, and who are here- by distinguished from the Jews called Hebrews, that is, who spoke the Hebrew tongue of that time. The Hellenists, or Grecian Jews, were those who lived in Egypt, and other parts where the Greek tongue prevailed: it is to them we owe the Greek version of the Old Testament, commonly called the Stptuagint, or that of the Seventy. Sahnasius and Vossius are of a different sen- timent with respect to the Hellenists: the latter will only have them to be those who adhered to the Grecian interests. Scaliger, is represented in the Scaligerana as asserting the Hellenists to be the Jews who lived in Greece and other places, and who read the Greek Bible in their syna- gogues, .o\d used the Greek language in sacri-s : and thus they were opposed to the Hebrew Jews, 166 HENRICIANS who performed their public worship in the He- brew tongue; and in this sense St. Paul speaks of himself as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, PhiL iii. 5, t>. i. e. a Hebrew both by nation and lan- guage. The Hellenists are thus properly dis- tinguished from the Hellenes, or Greeks, men- tioned John xii. 20, who were Greeks by birth and nation, and yet proselytes to the Jewish religion. HEMEROBAPTISTS, a sect among the ancient Jews, thus called from their washing and bathing every day, in all seasons ; and performing this custom with the greatest solemnity, as a reli- gious rite necessary to salvation. Epiphanius, who mentions this as the fourth heresy among the Jews, observes, that in other points these heretics had much the same opinion as the Scribes and Pharisees ; only that they de- nied the resurrection of the dead, in common with the Sadducees, and retained a lew other of the improprieties of these last. The sect who pass in the East under the de- nomination of Sabians, calling themselves Men- dai Iiahi, or the disciples of St. John, and whom the Europeans entitle the Christians of St. John, because they yet retain some knowledge of the Gospel, is probably of Jewish origin, and seems to have been derived from the ancient Hemero- baptists ; at least it is certain that John, whom they consider as the founder of their sect, bears no sort of similitude to John the Baptist, but rather resembles the person of that name whom the ancient writers represent as the chief of the Jewish Hemerohaptists. These ambiguous Christians dwell in Persia and Arabia, and prin- cipally at Bassora; and their religion consists in bodily washings, performed frequently and with great solemnity, and attended with certain cere- monies which the priests mingle with this super- stitious service. HENOTICON, a famous edict of* the empe ror Zeno, published A. D. 482, and intended to reconcile and re-unite the Eutychians with the Catholics. It was procured of the emperor by means of Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, with the assistance of the friends of Peter Mon- gus and Peter Trullo. The sting of this edict lies here ; that it repeats and confirms all that has been enacted in the councils of Nice, Constanti- nople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, against the Ari- ans, Nestorians, and Eutychians, without making: any particular mention of the council of Chalce- don. It is in the form of a letter, addressed by Zeno to the bishops, priests, monks, and people of Egypt and Libya. It was opposed by the Cathoiics, and condemned in form by pope Felix 11. HENRICIANS, a sect so called from Henry, its founder, who, though a monk and hermit, un- dertook to reform the superstition and vices of the clergy. For this purpose he hit Lausanne, in Switzerland, and, removing from different places, at length settled at Thoulouse, in the year 1147, and there exercised his ministerial function; till, being overcome by the opposition of Bernard, aboot of Clairval, and condemned by pope Eugenius III. at a council assembled at Rheims, ne was committed to a close prison in 11 VB, where he soon ended his days. This refor- mer rejected the baptism of infants, severely cen- sured the corrupt manners of the clergy, treated the festivals and ceremonies of the church with HERESY f,he utmost contempt, and held private assemblies lbr inculcating his peculiar doctrines. HERACLEONITES, a sect of Christians, the followers of Heraclcon, who refined upon the Gnostic divinity, and maintained that the world was not the immediate production of the Son of God, but that he was only the occasional cause of its being created by the demiurgus. The Heracleonites denied the authority of the pro- phecies of the Old Testament; maintained that they were mere random sounds in the air ; and that St. John the Baptist was the only true voice that directed to the Messiah. HERESIARCH, an arch heretic, the founder or inventor of an heresy ; or a chief of a sect of heretics. HERESY. This word signi fies sect or choice ; it was not, in its earliest acceptation, conceived to convey any reproach, since it was indifferently used either of a party approved, or of one disap- proved by the writer. See Acts v. 17; xv. 3. Afterwards it was generally used to signify some fundamental error adhered to with obstinacy, 2 Pet. ii. 1 ; Gal. v. 20. According to the laws of this kingdom, heresy consists in a denial of some of the essential doc- trines of Christianity, publicly and obstinately avowed. It must be acknowledged, however, that particular modes of belief or unbelief, not tending to overturn Christianity, or to sap the foundations of morality, are by no means the object of coer- cion by the civil magistrate. What doctrines shall therefore be adjudged heresy, was left by our old constitution to the determination of the ecclesias- tical judge, who had herein a most arbitrary lati- tude allowed him ; for the general definition of an heretic, given by Lyndewode, extends to the small- est deviations from the doctrines of the holy church : " Htereticus est qui dubitat de fide ca- tholica, ct qui negligit servare ea qua Romana ecclesia staluit, seu servare decreverat :" or, as the statute, 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15, expresses it in English, "teachers of erroneous opinions, contra- ry to the faith and blessed determinations of the holy church." Very contrary this to the usage of the first general councils, which defined all he- retical doctrines with the utmost precision and exactness; and what ought to have alleviated the punishment, the uncertainty of the crime, seems to have enhanced it in those days of blind zeal and pious cruelty. The sanctimonious hypocrisy of the Canonists, indeed, went, at first, no farther than enjoining penance, excommunication, and ecclesiastical deprivation, for heresy ; but after- wards they proceeded boldly to imprisonment by the ordinary, and confiscation of goods in pios usus. But in the mean time they nad prevailed upon the weakness of bigoted princes to make the civil power subservient to their purposes, by mak- ing heresy not only a temporal but even a capital otfencc ; the Romish ecclesiastics determining, without appeal, whatever they pleased to be he- resy, and shifting off to the secular arm the odium and drudgery of executions, with which they pre- tended to be too tender and delicate to intermed- dle! Nay, they affected to intercede on behalf of the convicted heretic, well knowing at the same time they were delivering the unhappy victim to certain death. See Act of Faith. — Hence the capital punishments inflicted on the ancient Do- natistsand Manichamns by the emperors Theodo- *ius and Justinian ; hence, also, the constitution 167 HERESY of the emperor Frederic, mentioned by Lyndo- wode, adjudging all persons, without distinction, to be burnt with fire, who were convicted of he- resy by the ecclesiastical judge. The same em- peror, in another constitution, ordained, that if any temporal lord, when admonished by the church, should neglect to clear his territories of heretics within a year, it should be lawful for good Catholics to seize and occupy the lands, and ut- terly to exterminate the heretical possessors. And upon this foundation was built that arbitrary power, so long claimed, and so fatally exerted by the pope, of disposing even of the kingdoms of re- fractory princes to more dutiful sons of the church. The immediate event of this constitution serves to illustrate at once the gratitude of the holy see, and the just punishment of the royal bigot ; for. upon the authority of this very constitution, the pope afterwards expelled this very emperor Fre- deric from his kingdom of Sicily, and gave it to Charles of Anjou. Christianity being thus de- formed by the' daemon of persecution upon the continent, our own island could not escape its scourge. Accordingly we find a writ de hcere- tico comburendn, i. e. of burning the heretic. See that article. But the king might pardon the con- vict by issuing no process against him : the writ de haretico comburendo being not a writ of course, but issuing only by the special direction of the king in council. In the reign of Henry IV when the eyes of the Christian world began to open, and the seeds of the Protestant religion (un- der the opprobrious name of Lollardy) took root in this kingdom, the clergy, taking advantage from the king's dubious title to demand an in- crease of their own power, obtained an act of pay liament, which sharpened the edge of persecution to its utmost keenness. See H.eretico Com- burendo. By statute 2 Henry V. c. 7. Lol- lardy was also made a temporal offence, and indictable in the king's courts, which did not thereby gain an exclusive, but only a concurrent jurisdiction with the bishop's consistory. After- wards, when the Reformation began to advance, the power of the ecclesiastic-? was somewhat mo- derated ; for though what heresy is was not then precisely defined, yet we are told in some points what it is not; the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 14. declaring that offences against the see of Rome are not heresy ; and the ordinary being thereby re- strained from proceeding in any case upon mere suspicion ; i. e. unless the party be accused by two credible witnesses, or an indictment of heresy be first previously found in the king's courts of common law. And yet the spirit of persecution was not abated, but only diverted into a lay chan- nel; for in six years afterwards, by stat, 31 Hen. VIII. c. 14. the bloody law of the six articles was made, which were " determined and resolved by the most godly study, pain, and travail of his ma- jesty ; for which his most humble and obedient subjects, the lords spiritual and tempoaal, and the commons in parliament assembled, did render and give unto his highness their most high and hearty thanks !" The same statute established a mixed jurisdiction of clergy and laity for the trial and conviction of heretics ; Henry being equally intent on destroying the supremacy of the bishops of Rome, and establishing all their other corruptions of the Christian religion. Without re- capitulating the various repeals and revivals of these sanguinary laws in the two succeeding HERETIC reigns, wo proceed to the reign of Q,. Elizabeth, when the Reformation was finally established with temper and decency, unsullied with party rancour or personal resentment. — By stat. 1 Eliz. c. 1. all former statutes relating to heresy are repealed ; which leaves the jurisdiction of heresy as it stood at common law, viz. as to the infliction of com- mon censures in the ecclesiastical courts ; and in case of burning the heretic, in the provincial synod only. Sir Matthew Hale is, indeed, of a different opinion, and holds that such power resided in the diocesan also : though he agrees that in either case the writ de hairclico comburendo was not demandable of common right, but grantable or otherwise merely at the king's discretion. But the principal point now gained was, that by this statute a boundary was for the first time set to what should be accounted heresy ; nothing- for the future being to be so determined but only such tenets which have been heretofore so declared, — 1. By the words of the canonical Scriptures ; — 2. By the first four general councils, or such others as have only used the words of the Holy Scrip- tures; or, — 3. Which shall hereafter be so declared by the parliament, with the assent of the clergy in convocation. Thus was heresy reduced to a greater certainty than before, though it might not have been the worse to have defined it in terms still more precise and particular ; as a man con- tinued still liable to be burnt for what, perhaps, he did not understand to be heresy, till the eccle- siastical judge so interpreted the words of the ca- nonical Scriptures. For the writ dc hcure/ico comburendo remained still in force, till it was to- tally abolished, and heresy again subjected only to ecclesiastical correction, pro sah'.tc animce, by stat. 21) Car. II. c. 0. ; when, in one and the same reign, our lands were delivered from the slavery of military tenures ; our bodies from arbitrary imprisonment by the habeas corpus act ; and our minds from the tyranny of superstitious bigotry, by demolishing this last badge of persecution in the English law. Every thing is now less ex- ceptionable, with respect to the spiritual cogni- zance and spiritual punishment of heresy ; unless, perhaps, that the crime ought to be more strictly defined, and no prosecution permitted, even in the ecclesiastical courts, till the tenets in question are by proper authority previously declared to be heretical. Under these restrictions, some think it necessary, for the support of the national reli- gion, that the officers of the church should have power to censure heretics ; yet not to harass them with temporal penalties, much less to exterminate or destroy them. The legislature has, indeed, thought it proper that the civil magistrate should interpose with regard to one species of heresy, very prevalent in modern times; for by stat. II and 19 \V. III. c. 32. if any person, educated in the Christian religion, or professing the same, shall, by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, deny any one of the persons in the Holy Trinity to be God, or maintain that there are more GoJs than one, he shall undergo the name penalties and incapacities which were iri- flicted on apostacy by the same statute. Enc. Brit.; Dr. Foster and St ebbing on Heresy ; Ballet fs Discourses, vol. iii. No. 9. p. 358, 408; Dr. Campbell's Prel. Diss, to the Gos] HERETIC, a general nun.' for all suel% per- sons under any religion, but especially the< Ihris- tian, as profess or teach opinions contrary to the established faith, or to what is made the standard 1CS I1EXAPLA of orthodoxy. See last article, and Lardner's History of the Heretics of the first two Centuries. HERMIANI, a sect in the second century • so called from their leader iiermias. One of their distinguishing tenets was, that God is cor- poreal ; another, that Jesus Christ did not ascend into heaven with his body, but left it in the sun. HERMIT, a person who retires into solitude for the purpose of devotion. Who were the first hermits cannot easily be known ; though Paul, surnamed the hermit, is generally reckoned the first. The persecutions of Decius and Valerian were supposed to have occasioned their first rise. HERMOGENIANS, a sect of ancient here- tics : denominated from their leader Hermogcnes, who lived towards the close of the second cen- tury. Hermogcnes established matter as his first principle; and regarding matter as the fountain of all evil, he maintained, that the world, and every thing contained in it, as also the souls of men and other spirits, were formed by the Deity from an uncreated and eternal mass of corrupt matter. The opinions of Hermogenea with re- gard to the origin of the world, and the nature of the soul, were warmly opposed by Tcrtullian. HERNHUTTERS. See Moravians. HERODIANS. a sect among the Jews, at the time of our Saviour, Matt. xxii. 16; Mark iii. f>. The critics and commentators are very much divided with regard to the Herodians. St. Jerome, in his dialogue against the Luciferians, takes the name to have been given to such as owned Herod for the Messiah; and Tertullian and Epiphanius are of the same opinion. But the same Jerome, in his comment on St. Mat- thew, treats this opinion as ridiculous ; and maintains that the Pharisees gave this appella- tion, by way of ridicule, to Herod's soldiers, who paid tribute to the Romans; agreeable to which the Syrian interpreters render the word by the domestics of Herod, i. e. "his courtiers." M. Simon in his notes on the 22d chapter of Mat- thew, advances a more probable opinion : the name He-odian he imagines to have been given to such as adhered to Herod's party, and inte- rest, and were for preserving the government in his family, about which were great divisions among the Jews. F. Hardouin will have the He- rodians and Sadducces to have been the same. Dr. Prideaux is of opinion, that they derived their name from Herod the Great: and that thev were distinguished from the other Jews by their concurrence with Herod's scheme of subjecting himself and his dominions to the Romans, and likewise by complying with many of their fit a- then usages and customs. This symbolizing with idolatry upon views of interest and worldly policy was probably that leaven of Herod, against which our Saviour cautioned his disciples. It is further probable that they were chiefly of the sect of the Sadducees; because the leaven of Herod is also denominated the leaven of the Sadducees. HETERODOX, something that is contrary to the faith or doctrine established in the true church. See ORTHODOX. II EX A TLA, a Bible disposed in six columns, containing the text and divers versions thereof, compiled and published by Origen, with a view of securing the sacred text from future corrup. tions, am! to correct those that had been already introduced. Eusebius relates, that Origen, after his return from Rome under Caracalla, applied HEXAPLA himself to learn Hebrew, and began to collect the several versions that had been made of the sacred writings, and of these to compose his Tetrapla and Hexapla; others, however, will not alkw him to have begun till the time of Alexander, after he had retired into Palestine, about the year 231. To conceive what this Hexapla was, it must be observed, that, besides the translation ■>f the sacred writings, called the Septuagint, made under Ptolemy Philadelphia, above 280 years before Christ, the Scripture had been since translated into Greek by other interpreters. The first of those versions, or (reckoning the Septua- 5int) the second, was that of Aquila, a proselyte ew, the first edition of which he published in the 12th year of the emperor Adrian, or about the year of Christ 128 ; the third was that of Symmachus, published, as is commonly sup- posed, under Marcus Aurelius, but, as some say, under Septimius Severus, about the year 200; the fourth was that of Theodotion, prior to that of Symmachus, under Commodus, or about the year 175. These Greek versions, says Dr. Ken- nicott, were made by the Jews from their cor- rupted copies of the Hebrew, and were designed to stand in the place of the Seventy, against, which they were prejudiced, because it seemed to favour the Christians. The fifth was found at Jericho, in the reign of Caracalla, about the year 214; and the sixth was discovered at Nicopolis, in the reign of Alexander Severus, about the year 288 ; lastly, Origen himself recovered part of a seventh, containing only the Psalms. Now, Origen, who had held frequent disputations with the Jews in Egypt and Palestine, observing that they always objected to those passages of Scrip- ture quoted against, them, appealed to the He- brew text, the better to vindicate those passages, and confound the Jews, by showing that the Seventy had given the sense of the Hebrew; or rather to show, by a number of different versions, what the real sense of the Hebrew was, under- took to reduce all these several versions into a body, along with the Hebrew text, so as they might be easily confronted, and afford a mutual light to each other. He made the Hebrew text his standard; and allowing that corruptions might have happened, and that the old Hebrew copies might and did read differently, he content- ed himself with marking such words or sentences as were not in his Hebrew text, nor the latter Greek versions, and adding such words or sen- tences as were omitted in the Seventy, prefixing an asterisk to the auditions, and an obelisk to the others. In order to this, he made choice of eight columns ; in the first he made the Hebrew text, in Hebrew characters; in the second, the same text in Greek characters; the rest were filled with the several versions above mentioned : all the columns answering verse for verse, and phrase for phrase; and in the Psalms there was a ninth column for the seventh version. This work Origen called E;*:r\«i, Hexapla, q. d. sextu- ple, or work of six columns, as only regarding the first six Greek versions. St, Epiphanius, taking in likewise the two columns of the text, calls the work Octapla, as consisting of eight columns. This celebrated work, which Mont- faucon imagines consisted of sixty large volumes, perished long ago; probably with the library at Caesarca, where it was preserved in the year G53; though several of the ancient writers have prc- 169 W HOLINESS served us pieces thereof, particularly St. Chry- sostom on the Psalms, Phlleponus in his Hexa- meron, &c„ Some modem writers have earnestly endeavoured to collect fragments of the Hexa- pla, particularly Flaminius, Nobilius, Drusius, and F. Montfaucon, in two folio volumes, printed at Paris in 1713. H1ERAC1TES, heretics in the third century: so called from their leader Hie rax, a philosopher of Egypt, who taught that Melcbisedec was the Holy Ghost ; denied the resurrection, and con- demned marriage. HIERARCHY, an ecclesiastical establish- ment. The word is also used in reference to the subordination some suppose there is among the angels ; but whether they are to be considered as having a government or hierarchy among them- selves, so that one is superior in office and dignity to others ; or whether they have a kind of domi- nion over one another; or whether seme are made partakers of privileges others are deprived of, can- not be determined, since Scripture is silent as to this matter. HIGH CHURCHMEN, a term first given to the non-jurors, who refused to acknowledge William III. as their lawful king, and who had very proud notions of church power; but it is now commonly used in a more extensive signifi- cation, and is applied to all those who, though far from being non-jurors, yet form pompous and ambitious conceptions of the authority and juris- diction of the church. HISTORY, ECCLESIASTICAL. See Ecclesiastical History. HOFFMANISTS, those who espoused the sentiments of Daniel Hoffman, professor in the university of Helmstadt, who in the year 15U8 taught that the light of reason, even as it appears in the writings of Plato and Aristotle, is adverse to religion ; and that the more the human understanding is cultivated by philosophical study, the more perfectly is the enemy supplied with weapons of defence. HOLINESS, freedom from sin, or the con- formity of the heart to God. It does not consist in knowledge, talents, nor outward ceremonies of religion, but hath its scat in the heart, and is the eilect of a principle of grace implanted by the Holy Spirit, Eph. ii. 8, 10; John lii. 5; Rom. jv. 22. It is the essence of happiness and the basis of true dignity, Prov. iii. 17 ; iv. 8. It will ma- nifest itself by the propriety of our conversation, regularity of our temper, and uniformity of our lives. It is a principle progressive in its opera- tion, Prov. iv. 18; and absolutely essential to the enjoyment of God here and hereafter, Heb. xii. 14. See Sanctification; Works. HOLINESS OF GOD, is the purity and rectitude of his nature. It is an essential attri- bute of God, and what is the glory, lustre, and harmony of all his other perfection, Ps. xxvii. 4 ; Exod. xv. 11. He could not be God without it, Dcut. xxxii. 4. It is infinite and unbounded; it cannot be increased or diminished. Immutable and invariable, Mai. iii. 0. God is originally holy; he is so of and in himself, and the author am! prunotcr of all holiness among his creatures. The holiness of God is visible by his works ; he made all things holy, Gen. i. 31. By his provi- dences, all which are to promote holiness in the end, Heb. xii. 10. By his grace, which influences the subjects of it to be holy, Tit. ii. 10, 12. By P HOLY his word, which commands it, I Pet. i. 15. By his ordinam-es, wliich he hath appointed for that end, Jer. xliv. 4, 5. Bv the punishment of sin in the death of Christ, Isa. liii.; and by the eter- nal punishment of it in wicked men, Mutt. xxv. last verse. Bee Attributes. HOLOCAUST, formed from ox«, whole, and %xiji, I consume with fire: a kind of sacrilice wherein the whole burnt-offering is burnt or con- sumed by fire, as an acknowledgment that God, the Creator, Preserver, and Lord of all, was worthy of all honour and worship, and as a token of men's giving themselves entirely up to him. It is called in Scripture a burnt-offering. Sacri- fices of tliis sort are often mentioned by the Hea- thens as well as Jews. They appear to have been in use long before the institution of the other Jewish sacrifices by the law of Moses, Job i. 5 ; xiii. 8 ; Gen. xxii. 13 ; viii. 20. On this account, the Jews, who would not allow the Gentiles to offer on their altar any other sacrifices peculiarly enjoined by the law of Moses, admitted them by the Jewish priests to offer holocausts, because these were a sort of sacrifices prior to the law- »nd common to all nations. During their suby-^t.on to the Romans, it was no uncommon thing for those Gentiles to offer sacrifices to the God of Is- rael at Jerusalem. Holocausts were deemed by the Jews the most excellent of all their sacrifices. See Sacrifice. HOLY DAY, a day set apart by the church for the commemoration of some saint, or some re- markable particular in the life of Christ. It has been a question agitated by divines, whether it be proper to appoint or keep any holy days (the Sabbath excepted.) The advocates for holy days suppose that they have a tendency to impress the minds of the people with a greater sense of reli- gion ; that if the acquisitions and victories of men be celebrated with the highest joy, how much more those events which relate to the sal- vation of man, such as the birth, death, and resur- rection of Christ, &c. On the other side it is ob- served, that if holy days had been necessary under the present dispensation, Jesus Christ would have observed something respecting them, whereas he was silent about them; that it is Dringing us again into that bondage to ceremo- nial laws from which Christ freed us; that it is a tacit reflection on the Head of the Church in not appointing them; that such days, on the whole, are more pernicious than useful to society, as they open a door for indolence and profane- ness; yea, that Scripture speaks against such days, Gal. iv. 9 — 11. Cave's Prim. Christ.; Nelson's Fasts and Feasts ; Robinson's History and Mystery of Good Friday, and Lectures on Non-conformity; A Country Vicar's Sermon on Christmas Day, 1753; Brown's Nat. and Rev. Religion, p. 535 ; NeaJe's Hist, of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 1 16. qu. HOLY GHOST, the third person in the Trinitv. I. The Holy Ghost is a real and distinct per- son in. the Godhead. 1. Personal powers of ra- tional understanding and will are ascribed to him, 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11; xii. 11; Eph. iy. 3.-2. He is joined with the other two divine persons, as the object of worship and fountain of blessings, Matt, xxviii 19 j 2 Cor. xiii. 14; 1 John v. 7. — 3. In the urreek, a masculine article or cpitlu t is joined to his name, Pneuma, which is natu- 170 HOMILY rally of the neuter gender, Johnxiv. 26; xv. 2Sf xvi. 13; Eph. i. 13. — 4. He appeared under the emblem of a dove, and of cloven ton cues of lire, Matt. iii. ; Acta ii.— 5. Personal offices of an intercessor belong to him, Rom. viii. 26. — 6. He is represented as performing a multitude of personal acts ; as teaching, speaking, witnessing, &c, Mark xiii. 11 ; Acts xx. 23; Rom. viii. 15\ 16 ; 1 Cor. vi. 19 ; Acts xv. 28. xvi. 6, 7. (fee. &c. &c. II. It is no less evident that the Holy Ghost is a divine person, equal in power and glory with the Father and Son. 1. Names proper only to the Most High God are ascribed to him ; as Jehovah, Acts xxviii. 25, with Isa. vi. 9, and Heb. iii. 7, 9, with Exod. xxvii. 7; Jer. xxxi. 31, 34; Heb. x. 15, 16. God, Acts v. 3, 4. Lord, 2 Cor. iii 17, 19. " The Lord, the Spirit."— 2. Attributes proper only to the Most High God are ascribed to him; as Omniscience, 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11; Isa. xl. 13, 14. Omnipresence, Ps. exxxix. 7; Eph. ii. 17, 18; Rom. viii. 26, 27. Omnipotence, Luke i. 35. Eternity, Heb. ix. 14. — 3. Divine works are evidently ascribed to him, Gen. i. 2; Job xxvi. 13 ; Psa. xxxiii. 6 ; civ. 39. — 4. Worship, proper only to God, is required and ascribed to him, Isa. vi. 3 ; Acts xxviii. 25 ; Rom. ix. 1 ; Rev. i. 4 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 14 ; Matt, xxviii. 19. III. The agency or work of the Holy Ghost is divided by some into extraordinary and ordi- nary. The former by immediate inspiration, making men prophets, the latter by his regene- rating and sanctifying influences making men saints. It is only the latter which is now to be expected. This is more particularly displayed in, 1. Conviction of sin, John xvi. 8, 9. — 2. Con- version, 1 Cor. xii.; Eph. i. 17, 18; 1 Cor. ii. 10, 12 ; John hi. 5, 6. — 3. Sand ificat ion, 2 Thess. ii. 13; 1 Cor. vi. 11; Rom. xv. 16. — 4. Conso- lation, John xiv. 16, 25. — 5. Direction, John xiv. 17; Rom. viii. 14. — 6. Confirmation, Rom. viii. 16, 26 ; 1 John ii. 24 ; Eph. i. 13, 14. Aa to the gift of the Holy Spirit, says a good writer, it is not expected to be bestowed in answer to our prayers, to inform us immediately, as by a whisper, when either awake or asleep, that we are the children of God ; or in any other way than by enabling us to exercise repentance and faith and love to God and our neighbour. — 2. We are not to suppose that he reveals any thing contrary to the written word, or more than is contained in it, or through any other medium. — 3. We are not so led by, or operated upon by the Spirit as to neglect the means of grace.— -4. The Holy Spirit is not promised nor given to render us in. fallible. — 5. Nor is the Holy Spirit given in order that we may do any thing, which was not before our duty. See Trinity, and Scott's Four Ser- mons on Repentance, the Evil of Sin, Love to God, and the Promise of the Holy Spirit, p. 86 — 89. Hawker's Sermons on the Holy Ghost ; Pearson on the Creed, 8th article ; Dr. Owen on the Spirit; Hurrion's 16 Sermons on the Siririt. HOLY GHOST, PROCESSION OF. See Procession. HOMILY, a sermon or discourse upon scmo point of religion delivered in a plain manner, so as to be easily understood by the common people. The Greek homily, says M. Fleury, signifies a familiar discourse, like the Latin sermo, and dis- courses delivered in the church took these denomi HONOUR nations, to intimate that they were not harangues, or matters of ostentation anil flourish, like those of profane orators, but familiar and useful dis- courses, as of a master to his disciples, or a father to his children. All the homilies of the Greek and Latin fathers are composed by bishops. We have 'none of Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and many other learned persons, because in the iir.st ages none but bishops were admitted to preach. The privilege was not ordinarily allowed to priests till toward the fifth century. St. Chry- sostom was the first presbyter that preached statedly. Origen and St. Augustine also preached, but it was by a peculiar licence or privilege. Photius distinguishes homily from sermon, in that the homily was performed in a more familiar manner; the prelate interrogating and talking to the people, and they in their turn answering and interrogating him, so that it was properly a con- versation; whereas the sermon was delivered with more form, and in the pulpit, after the man- ner of the orators. The practice of compiling homilies which were to be committed to memory, and recited by ignorant or indolent priests, com- menced towards the close of the eighth century ; when Charlemagne ordered Paul, the Deacon, and Alcuin, to form homilies or discourses upon the Gospels and Epistles from the ancient doc- tors of the church. This gave rise to that famous collection entitled the Homiliarium of Charle- magne ; and which being followed as a model by many productions of the same kind, composed by private persons, from a principle of pious zeal, contributed much (says Mosheim) to nourish the indolence and to perpetuate the ignorance of a worthless clergy. There are still extant several fine homilies composed by the ancient fathers, particularly St. Chrysostom and St. Gregory. — The Clementine homilies are nineteen homilies in Greek, published by Cotelerius, with two let- ters prefixed ; one of them written in the name of Peter, the other in the name of Clement, to James, bishop of Jerusalem ; in which last letter they are entitled Clement's Epitome of the Preaching and Travels of Peter. According to Le Clerc, these homilies were composed by an Ebionite, in the second century; but Montfau- con supposes that they were forged long after the age of St. Athanasius. Dr. Lardner apprehends that the Clementine homilies were the original, or first edition of the Recognitions; and that they are the same with the work censured by Eusebius under the title of Dialogues of Peter and Appion. — Homilies of the Church of Eng- land are those which were composed at the Re- formation to be read in churches, in order to sup- ply the defect of sermons. See the quarto edi- tion of the Homilies, with notes, by a divine of the church of England. HONESTY is that principle which makes a person prefer his promise or duty to his passion or interest. See Justice. HONOUR, a testimony of esteem or submis- sion, expressed by words and an exterior beha- vi»ur, by which we make known the veneration and respect we entertain for any one, on account of his dignity or merit. The word is also used in general for the esteem due to virtue, glory, repu- tation, and probity; as also for an exactness in performing whatever we have promised; and in ihis last sense we use the term, a man of honour. It U also applied to two different kinds of virtue : 171 HOPE bravery in men', and chastity in women. In every situation of life, religion only forms the trua honour and happiness of man. " It cannot," as one observes, " arise from riches, dignity of rank, or office, nor from what are often called splendid actions of heroes, or civil accomplishments; these may be found among men of no real integrity, and may create considerable fame; but a dis- tinction must be made between fame and true honour. The former is a loud and noisy ap- plause ; the latter a more silent and internal homage. Fame floats on the breath of the mul- titude ; honour rests on the judgment of the thinking. In order, then, to discern where true honour lies, we must not look to any adventitious circumstance, not to any single sparkling quality, but to the whole of what forms a man ; in a word, we must look to the soul. It will discover itself by a mind superior to fear, to selfish interest, and corruption ; by an ardent love to the Supreme Being, and by a principle of uniform rectitude. It will make us neither afraid nor ashamed to discharge our duty, as it relates both to God and man. It will influence us to be magnanimous without being proud; humble without being mean; just without being harsh; simple in our manners, but manly in our feelings. This honour, thus formed by religion, or the love of God, is more independent, and more complete, than what can be acquired by any other means. It is productive of higher felicity, and will be commen- surate with eternity itself; while that honour, so called, which arises from any other principle, will resemble the feeble and twinkling flame of a taper, which is often clouded by the smoke it sends forth, but is always wasting, and soon dies totally away." Barrow's I Vor ks, vol. i. ser. 4; Blair's Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 1 ; JVatts's Ser- mons, ser. 30, vol. ii. ; Byland's Cont. vol. i. p. 313; Jort ill's Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 6. HOPE is the desire of some good, attended with the possibility, at least, of obtaining it ; and is enlivened with joy greater or less, according to the probability there is of possessing the object of our hope. Scarce any passion seems to be more natural to man than hope ; and, considering the many troubles he is encompassed with, none is more necessary ; for life, void of all hope, would be a heavy and spiritless thing, very little de- sirable, perhaps hardly to be borne ; whereas hope infuses strength into the mind, and by so doing, lessens the burdens of life. If our condition be not the best in the world, yet we hope it will be better, and this helps us to support it with pa- tience. The hope of the Christian is an expec- tation of all necessary good both in time and eter- nity, founded on the promises, relations, and perfections of God, and on the offices, righteous- nass, and intercession of Christ. It is a com- pound of desire, expectation, patience, and joy, Rom. viii. 24, 25. It may be considered, 1. As ■pure, 1 John iii. 2, 3 ; as it is resident in that heart which is cleansed from sin. — 2. As good, 2 Thess. ii. l(i ; (in distinction from the hope of the hypocrite) as deriving its origin from God, and centering in him. — 3. It is called lively, 1 Pet. i. 3 ; as it proceeds from spiritual life, and renders one active and lively in good works. — 4. It is courageous, Rom. v. 5 ; 1 Thess. v. 8 s because it excites fortitude in all the troubles of life, and yields supp>ort in the hour of death, Prov. xiv. 32.-5. Sure, Heb. vi. 19 ; because it HOPKINSIANS will pot disappoint us, ami is fixed on a sure foundation. — t>. Jugful, Rom. v. 2 ; as it produces the greatest felicity in the anticipation of com- plete deliverance from all. evil. Campbell's Plea- sures of Hope. ; Grove s Moral Phil. vol. i. p. 381 ; Gilts Body of lJh\ p. 82, vol. iii. ; No. 471, Spcct. ; -Itr/':: Sermons, vol. ii. ser. 2. HOPKINSIANS, so called from the. Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D., an American divine, who in his sermons and tracts has made several additions to the sentiments fust advanced by the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, late president of New Jersey < 'ollege. The following is a summary of the distinguish- ing tenets of the Hopkinsians, together with a few of the reasons they bring forward in support of their sentiments. I. That all true virtue, or real holiness, consists in disinterested benevolence. The object of bene- volence is universal being, including God and all intelligent creatures. It wishes and seeks the good of every individual, so far as is consistent with the greatest good of the whole, which is comprised m the glory of God and the perfection and happiness of ids kingdom. The law of God is the standard of all moral rectitude or holiness. This is reduced into love to God, and our neigh- bour as ourselves, and universal good-will com- prehends all the love to God, our neighbour and ourselves, required in the divine law, and there- fore must be the whole of holy obedience. Let any serious person think what are the particular branches of true piety ; w'hen he has viewed each one by itself, he will find that disinterested friendly affection is its distinguishing characteristic. For instance, all the holiness in pious fear, which dis- tinguishes it from the fear of the wicked, consists in love. Again — holy gratitude is nothing but good-will to God and our neighbour, in which we ourselves are included ; and correspondent affec- tion, excited by a view of the good-will and kind- ness of God. Universal good-will also implies the whole of the duty we owe to our neighbour, for justice, truth, and faithfulness, are comprised in universal benevolence ; so are temperance and chastity. For an undue indulgence of our appe- tites and passions is contrary to benevolence, as tending to hurt ourselves or others; and so op- j>osite to the general good, and the divine com- mand, in which all the crime of such indulgence consists. In short, all virtue is nothing but bene- volence acted out in its proper nature and perfec- tion; or love to God and our neighbour, made perfect in all its genuine exercises and ex- pressions. II. That all sin consists in selfishness. Bv this is meant an interested, selfish affection, by whLh n person sets himself up as supreme, and the only object of regard ; and nothing is good or lovely in his view, unless suited to promote his own private interest. This self-love is, in its whole nature, and every degree of it, enmity against God : it is not subject to the law of God, and is the only af- fection that can oppose it. It is the foundation of all spiritual blindness, and therefore the source of all the open idolatry in the heathen world, and .false religion under the light of the Gospel; all this [a agreeable to thai self-love whirl: opposes God's true character. Under the influence of this principle, men depart from truth ; it being itself the greatest practical lie in nature, as it sets up that which is comparatively notiiing above um- 172 HOPKINSIANS versal existence. Self-love is the source of all profaneness and impiety in the world, and of all pride and ambition among men, which is nothing but selfishness, acted out in this particular way. This is the foundation of all covetousness and sensuality, as it blinds people's eyes, contracts their hearts, and sinks them down, so that they look upon earthly enjoyments as the greatest good. This is the source of all falsehood, injus- tice, and oppression, as it excites mankind by undue methods to invade the property of others. Self-love produces all the violent passions; envy, wrath, clamour, and evil speaking : and every thing contrary to the divine law is briefly com- prehended in this fruitful source of all iniquity, self-love. III. That there are no promises of regene- rating grace made to the doings of the unregene- rate. For as far as men act from self-love, they act from a bad end : for those who have no true love to God, really do no duty when they attend on the externals of religion. And as the unre- generate act from a selfish principle, they tb nothing which is commanded: their impenitent doings are wholly opposed to repentance and con- version ; therefore not implied in the command to repent, ike; so far from this, they are alto- gether disobedient to the command. Hence it appears that there are no promises of salvation to the doings of the unregenerate. IV. That the impoteney of sinners, with re- spect to believing in Christ, is not natural, but moral ; for it is a plain dictate of common sense, that natural impossibility excludes all blame. But an unwilling mind is universally considered as a crime, and not as an excuse, and is the very thing wherein our wickedness consists. That the impotence of the sinner is owing to a disaf- fection of heart, is evident from the promises of the Gospel. When any object of good is pro- posed and promised to us upon asking, it clearly evinces that there can be no impotence in us with respect to obtaining it, beside the disapprobation of the will ; and that inability which consists in disinclination, never renders any thing impro- perly the subject of precept or command. V. That, in order to faith in Christ, a sinner must approve in his heart of the divine conduct, even though God should cast him off for ever; which, however, neither implies love of misery, nor hatred of happiness. For if the law is good, death is due to those who have broken it. The Judge of all the earth cannot hut do right. It would bring everlasting reproach upon Iris go- vernment to spare us, considered merely as in ourselves. When this is felt in our hearts, and not till then, we shall be prepared to look to the free grace of God, through the redemption which is in Christ, and to exercise faith in his blood, irho is set forth to be a propitiation to declare God's righteousness, that he might be just, and yet be the justijicr of him trho bcliereth in Jesus. VI. That the infinitely wise and holy God has exerted his omnipotent power in such a manner as he purposed should be followed with the ex- istence and entrance of moral evil into the sys- tem.— For it must be admitted on all hands, that God has a perfect knowledge, foresight, and view of all possible existences and events. If that sys- tem ae.d scene of operation, in which moral evil should never have existed, was actually preferred in the divine mind, certainly the Deity is in£- HOPKINSIANS HOSPITALITY nitely disappointed in the issue of his own opera- not transferred to them. For, 1. Persona! righ- tions. Nothing can he more dishonorable to God than to imagine that the system which is actually formed By the divine hand, and which was made for his pleasure and glory, is yet not the fruit of wise contrivance and design. VII. That the introduction of sin is, upon the whole, for the general good. For the wisdom and power of the Deity are displayed in carrying on designs of the greatest good; and the exist- ence of moral evil has undoubtedly occasioned a more full, perfect, and glorious discovery of the infinite perfections of the divine nature, than could otherwise have been made to the view ot creatures. If the extensive manifestations of the pare and holy nature of God, and his infinite aversion to sin, and all his inherent perfections, in their genuine fruits and effects, is either itself the greatest good, or necessarily contains it, it must necessarily follow that the introduction of sin is for the greatest good. VIII. That repentance is before faith in Christ. — P/ this is not intended, that repent- ance is before a speculative belief of the being and perfections of God, and of the person and charac- ter of Christ ; but only that true repentance is previous to a saving faith in Christ, in which the believer is united to Christ, and entitled to the benefits of bis mediation and atonement. That repentance is before faith, in this sense, appears from several considerations. 1. As repentance and faith respect different objects, so they are distinct exercises of the heart ; and therefore one not only may, but must be prior to the other. — 2. There may be genuine repentance of sin with- out faith in Christ, but there cannot he true faith in Christ without repentance of sin; and since re- pentance is necessary in order to faith in Christ, it must necessarily be prior to faith in Christ. — 3. John the Baptist, Christ and his apostles, taught that repentance is before faith. John cried, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; intimating, that true repentance was ne- cessary in order to embrace the Gospel of the kingdom. Christ commanded, Repent ye, and believe the Gospel. And Paul preached repent- ance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. IX. That though men became sinners by Adam, according to a divine constitution, yet they have and are accountable for no sins but personal; for, 1. Adam's act, in eating the for- bidden fruit, was not the act of his posterity ; therefore they did not sin at the same time he did. — 2. The sinfulness of that act could not be transferred to them afterwards, because the sin- fulness of an act can no more be transferred from one person to another than an act itself — 3. Therefore Adam's act, in eating the forbidden fruit, was not the cause, but only the occasion of his posterity's being sinners. God was pleased to make a constitution, that, if Adam remained holy through his state of trial, his posterity should in consequence be holy also ; but if he sinned, his posterity should in consequence be sinners likewise. Adam sinned, and now God brings his posterity into the world sinners. By Adam's sin we are become sinners, not for it ; his sin being only the occasion, not the cause of our committing sins. X. That though believers are justified through Christ's righteousness, yet his righteousness is 173 teousness can no more he transferred from one person to another, than personal sin. — -2. If Christ's personal righteousness were transferred to believers, they would be as perfectly holy a3 Christ ; and so stand in no need of forgiveness. — 3. But believers are not conscious of having Christ's personal righteousness, but feel and be- wail much in-dwelling sin and corruption. — 4. The Scripture represents believers as receiv- ing only the benefits of Christ's righteousness in justification, or their being pardoned and accept- ed for Christ's righteousness' sake, and this is the proper Scripture notion of imputation. Jona- than's righteousness was imputed to Mephiho- sheth, when David showed kindness to him for his father Jonathan's sake. The Hopkinsians warmly contend for the doctrine of the divine decrees, that of particular election, total depravity, the special infiuencesof the Spirit of Gcd in regeneration, justification by faith alone, the final perseverance of the saints, and the consistency between entire free- dom and absolute dependence ; and therefore claim it as their just due, since the world will make distinctions, to be called Hopkinsian Cal- vinists. Adams's View of Religions ; Hopkins on Holiness; Edwards on the Will, p. 234, 284; Edwards on Virtue; West's Essay on Moral Agency, p. 170, 181 ; Spring's Nature of Duty, 23 ; Moral Disquisitions, p. 40. HOB.ROR, a passion excited by an object which causes a high degree of fear and detesta- tion. It is a compound of wonder and fear. — Sometimes it has a mixture of pleasure, from which, if predominant, it is denominated a pleas- ing horror. Such a horror seizes us at the view of vast and hanging precipices, a tempestuous ocean, or wild and solitary places. This passion is the original of superstition, as a wise and well- tempered awe is of religion. Horror and terror seem almost to be synonymous ; but the former, I think, refers more to what disgusts; the latter to that which alarms us. HOSANNA, in the Hebrew ceremonies, a prayer which they rehearsed on the several days of the feast of tabernacles. It signifies "save us now ;" or ' save us, we pray." There are divers of these hosannas; the Jews call them hoschan- noth, i. e. hosannahs. — Some are rehearsed on the first day, others on the second, &c, which they call hosanna of the first day, hosanna of the second day, &c. Hosanna Rabba, or Grand Ho- sanna, is a name they give to their feast of taber- nacles, which lasts eight days ; because, during the course thereof, they are frequently callingfor the assistance of God. the forgiveness of their sins, and his blessing on the new year; and to that purpose they make great use of the prayers above mentioned. The Jews also apply the term ho- sanna rabba in a more peculiar manner to the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles, because they apply themselves more immediately on that day to invoke the divine blessing, &c. HOSPITALITY, kindness exercised in the entertainment of strangers. This virtue, we find, is explicitly commanded by, and makes a part of the morality of the New Testament. Indeed, that religion which breathes nothing but charity, and whose tendency is to expand the heart, and call forth the benevolent exeitions of mankind, must evidently embrace this practice. — If it 1m HOSPITALITY asked, of wh >m is this required'] it is answered. that the principle is required of all, though the duty itself can only he practised by those whose circumstances will admit of it. Dr. Stennot, in liis discourse on this subject [Domestic D ser. 10,) justly observes, "that hospitality is a species of chanty to which every one is not com- petent. But the temper from which it proceeds, 1 mean a humane, generous, benevolent temper, that ought to pvovii! in every breast. Some are miserably poor, and it is not to he expected that their doors should he thrown open to entertain strangers; yet the cottage of a peasant may exhibit, noble specimens of hospitality. Here distress has often met with pity, and the persecuted an asylum. Nor is there a man who has a house to Bleep in, but may be benevolent to strangers. — But there are persons of certain characters and stations, who are more especially obliged to it; as particularly magistrates and others in civil offices, who would forfeit the esteem of the public, and greatly injure their usefulness, were they not to observe the rites of hospitality. Ministers, also, and such Christians as are qualified by their particular offices in the church, and their affluent circumstances, may be eminent Iv useful in this way. The two grand virtues which ought to be studied by every one, in order that he may have it in his power to be hospitable, are industry and economy. But it may be asked again, to -whom is this duty to he practised ? The answer is, to strangers ; but here it is necessary to observe, that the term strangers hath two acceptations. It is to he understood of travellers, or persons who come from a distance, and with whom we have little or no acquaintance ; and more generally of all who are not of our house — strangers, as op- posed to domestics. Hospitality is especially to he practised to the poor: they who have no houses of their own, or possess few of the con- veniences of life, should occasionally be invited to our houses, and refreshed at our tables, Luke xiv. 13, 11. Hospitality also may be practised to those who are of the same character and of the same community with ourselves. As to the various offices of hospitality, and the manner in which they should he rendered, it must be ob- served, that the entertainments should be plenti- ful, frugal, and cordial, Gen. xviii. (i, 8; John xii. 3; Luke xv. 17. The obligations to this duty arise from the jitnecs and reasonableness of it; it brings its own reward, Acts xx. 35. It is expressly commanded by God, Lev. xxv. 35, 38; Luke xvi. 1!) ; xiv. 13, 1 1 ; Horn, xii ; Hob. xiii. 1, 2; 1 Pet. iv. 9. We have many striking ex- amples of hospitality on divine record : Abraham, Gen, xvui. 1, 8; Lot, Gen. xix. 1, 3; Job xxxi. 17, 22; Shunamite, 2 Kings iv. 8, 10; the hos- pitable man mentioned in Judges xix. 16, 21 ; David, 2 Sam. vi. Ill; Obadiah, 1 Kings xviii. 4; Nehemiah, Neh. v. 17, 18; Martha, Luke x. 38; Mary, Matt. xxvi. C, 13; the primitive Christians, Acts ii. 15, 46 j Priscilla and Aquila, Acts xviii. 26 ; Lydia, Acts xiv. 15, &c. &c. Lastly, what should have a powerful effect on our minds is, the consideration of divine hospitality. God is good to all, and his tender mercies are overall his works. His sun shines and his rain falls on the evil as well as the good. } lis very enemies share of his bounty. He gives liberally to all m*n, and upbraids not; but especially we should re- member the exceeding riches of Ids grace, in Ids 171 HUGUENOTS kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. Let us lay all these considerations together, arid then ask ourselves whether we can find it in our hearts to be selfish, parsimonious, and inhospitably?" HOST, in the church of Rome, a name given to the elements used in the eucharist, or rather to the consecrated wafer, which they pretend to offer up every day, as a new host or sacrifice for the sins of mankind. They pay adoration to the host upon a false presumption that the elements are no longer bread and wine, but transubstan- tiated into the real body and blood of Christ See Transobstantiation". Pope Gregory IX. first decreed a bell to be rung, as a signal for the people to betake themselves to the adoration of the host. The vessel wherein the hosts are kept is called the cibory, being a large kind of covered chalice. HUGUENOTS, an appellation given byway of contempt to the reformed or Protestant Calvin- ists of France. The name had its rise in 15G0, hut authors are not agreed as to the o-igin and occasion thereof. Some derive it from the fol- lowing circumstances: — One of the gates of the city of Tours is called the gate of Fourgon, by corruption from feu Hugon, i. e. the late Hugon. This Hugon was once count of Tours, accord- ing to Eginhardus, in his life of Charles the Great, and to some other historians. He was, it seems, a very wicked man, who by his fierce, cruel temper, made himself dreadful ; so that after his death he was supposed to walk about in the night time, beating all those he met with : this tradition the judicious Thuanus has not scrupled to men- tion in his history. Davila and other historians pretend that the nickname of Huguenots was first given to the French Protestants, because they used to meet in the night time in subterra- neous vaults near the gate of Hugon ; and what seems to countenance this opinion is, that they were first called by the name of Huguenots at this city of Tours. Others assign a more illus- trious origin to this name, and say that the leaguers gave it the reformed, because they were for keep- ing the crown upon the head of the present line descended from Hugh Capet ; whereas they were for giving it to the house of Guise, as descended from Charles the Great. Others again derive it from a French and faulty pronunciation of the German word edignossen, signifying confede- rates; and originally applied to that valiant part of the city of Geneva, which entered into an alli- ance with the Swiss cantons, in order to maintain their liberties against the tyrannical attempts of Charles HI. duke of Savoy. These confederates were called Eignols; whence Huguenots. The persecution which they have undergone has scarce its parallel in the history of religion. During the reign of Charles IX*., and on the 24th of August, 1572, happened the massacre of Bartlio- lomew, when seventy thousand of them through- out France were butchered with circumstances of aggravated cruelty. See Pkrskcutjok. In 1598, Henry IV. passed the famous edict of Nantz, which secured to the Protestants the free exercise of their religion. This edict was re- voked by Louis XIV. ; their churches were then razed to the ground, their persons insulted by the soldiery, and, after the loss of innumerable iives, fifty thousand valuable members of society were driven into exile. In Holland they built several places of worship, and had amongst them some HUMILIATION distinguished preachers. Among others were Superville, Dumotit, Dubosc, and the eloquent Saurin ; the latter of whom, in one of his sermons (ser. 9, vol. v.) makes the following fine apostrophe 10 that tyrant, Louis XIV., by whom they were driven into exile: "And thou, dreadful prince, whom I once honoured as my king, and whom vet I respect as a scourge in the hand of Al- mighty God, thou also shalt have a part in my good wishes! These provinces, which thou threatenest, hut which the arm of the Lord pro- tects; this country, which thou fiilest with refu- gees, but fugitives animated with love ; those walls, which contain a thousand martyrs of thy making, but whom religion renders victorious, — all these yet resound benedictions in thy favour. God grant the fatal bandage that hides the truth from thine eyes may fall off! — May God forget the rivers of blood with which thou hast deluged the earth, anil which thy reign hath caused to be shed !— May God blot out of his book the inju- ries which thou hast done us ; and while he re- wards the sufferers, may he pardon those who exposed us to suffer ! — O, may God who hath made thee to us, and to the whole church, a mi- nister of his judgments, make thee a dispenser of his favours — an administrator of his mercy." HUMANITARIANS, those who deny the proper divinity of the Son of God, and hold him to be possessed of no other than simple human nature, though far exceeding any of the race of men in everv moral excellence. — B. HUMANITY, the exercise of the social and benevolent virtues ; a fellow feeling for the dis- tresses of another. It is properly called humanity, because there is little ornothing of it in brutes. The social affections are conceived by all to be more refined than the selfish. Sympathy and humanity are universally esteemed the finest temper of mind ; and for that reason the prevalence of the social affections in the progress of society is held to be a refinement of our nature. Kaimes's El. of Crit. p. 104. vol.i.; Robinson's Sermon on ' Chris- tianity a System of Humanity ;' Pratt's Poem on Humanity. HUMANITY OF CHRIST, is his pos- sessing a true human body, and a true human soul, and which he assumed for the purpose of rendering his mediation effectual to our salvation. bee Jesus Christ. HUMILIATION OF CHRIST, is that state of meanness and distress to which he volun- tarily descended, for the purpose of executing his mediatorial work. This appears, 1. Inhis birth. He was born of a woman — a sinful woman ; though he was without sin, Gal. iv. 4. A poor woman, Luke ii. 7, 24. In a poor country village, John i. 46. In a stable, an abject place. Of" a nature subject to infirmities, Heb. ii. 9 ; hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, &c. — 2. In his circum- stances; laid in a manger when he was born ; lived in obscurity for a long time ; probably work- ed at the trade of a carpenter ; had not a place where to lay his head ; and was oppressed with poverty while he went about preaching the Gos- pel.— 3. It appeared in his reputation: he was loaded with the most abusive railing and ca- lumny, Is. liii.; the most false accusations, Matt. xxvi. 59, 67; and the most ignominious ridi- cule, Psal. xxii. 6; Matt. xxii. 68; John vii 35.-4. In his soul he was often tempted, Matt. :v. ], &c; Heb. ii. 17, 18; iv. 15; grieved with 175 HUMILITY the reproaches cast on himself, and with the sins and miseries of others, Heb. xii. 3 ; Matt. xi. 19; John xi. 35 ; was burdened with the hidings cf his Father's face, and the fears and impressions of his wrath, Psal. xxii. 1 ; Luke xxii. 43; Heb. v. 7. — 5. In his death, scourged, crowned with thorns, received gall and vinegar to drink, and was crucified between two thieves, Luke xxiii. ; John xix. ; Mark xv. 24, 25.-6. In his burial : not only was he born in another man's house, but he was buried in another man's tomb ; for he had no tomb of his own, or family vault to be interred in, Is. liii. 10, &c. ; Matt. xiii. 46. The humiliation of Christ was necessary r 1. To exe- cute the purpose of God, and covenant engage- ments of Christ, Acts ii. 23, 24 ; Psal. xl. 6, 7, 8. — 2. To fulfil the manifold types and predic- tions of the Old Testament.— 3. To satisfy the broken law of God and purchase eternal redemp- tion for us, Isa. liii.; Heb. is. 12, 15. — 4. Tt) leave us an unspotted pattern of holiness and pa- tience under suffering. GUPs Body of Dir. p. 66. vol. ii. ; Broion's Nat. avel Rev. Religion, p. 357; Ridgiey's Body of Dir. qu. 48. HUMILITY, a disposition of mind wherein a person has a low opinion of himself and his ad- vantages. It is a branch of internal worship, oi of experimental religion and godliness. It is the effect of divine grace operating on the soul, and always characterises tho true Christian. The heathen philosophers were so little acquainted with this virtue, that they had no name for it : what they meant by the word we use, was mean- ness and baseness of mind. To consider this grace a little more particularly, it may be observed, 1. That humility does not oblige a man to wrong the truth, or himself, by entertaining a meaner or worse opinion of himself than he deserves. — 2. Nor does it oblige a man, right or wrong, to give every body else the preference to himself. A wise man cannot believe himself inferior to the ignorant multitude ; nor the virtuous man that he is not so good as those whose lives are vicious. — 3. Nor does it oblige a man to treat himself with contempt in his words or actions : it looks more like affectation than humility, when a man says such things in his own dispraise as others know, or he himself believes, to be false ; and it is plain, also, that this is often done merely as a bait to catch the praises of others. Humility consists, 1. In not attributing to ourselves any excellence or good which we have not. — 2. In not over-rating any thing we do. — 3. In net taking an immode- rate delight in ourselves. — 4. In not assuming more of the praise of a quality or action than be- longs to us. — 5. In an inward sense of our many imperfections and sins. — 6. In ascribing all we have and are, to the grace of God. True humi- lity icili express itself, 1. By the modesty of our appearance. The humble man will consider his age, abilities, character, function, &c. and act ac- cordingly.—2. By the modesty of our pursuits. We shall not aim at any thing above our strength, but prefer a good to a great name. — 3. It will ex- press itself by the modesty of our conversation and behaviour : we shall not be loquacious, obstinate, forward, envious, discontented, or ambitious. The advantages of humility are numerous ; 1. It is well pleasing to God, 1 Pet. iii. 4. — 2. It has great influence on us in the performance of all other duties, praying, hearing, converse, &a. — 3. It indicates that more grace shall be given, HUSSITES James iv. G; Ps xxv. 9. 4. It preserves the soulin great tnmqullity and contentment, Ps.hdx. --S2, 33. — 5. It makes us patient and resigned un- der afflictions, Job i. 22. — (>. It enables us to ex- ercise moderation in every thing. TV) obtain, this exaellent spirit ice should remember, 1. The ex- ample of Christ, Phil. ii. 6, 7, 8. — 2. That hea- ven is a place of humility, Rev. v. 8. — 3. That our sins are numerous, ami deserve the greatest punishment, Lam. iii. 39. — 4. That humility is the way to honour, Prov. xvi. 18. — 5. That the greatest promises of good are made to the humble, Is. lvii. 15; hi. 2; 1 Pet. v. 5; Ps. cxlvii. 6; Matt. v. 5. Grove's Mar. Phil. vol. ii. p. 28(5 ; Evans's Christian Temper, vol. i. ser. 1; Watts on Humility; Baxter's Christian Directory, vol. i. p. 496; Hale's Cont. p. 110; Gill's Body of Div. (>. lfil. vol. iii. ; Walker's Ser. iv. ser. 3. HUSBAND, duties of: SeeMARRiACiE State. HUSSITES, a party of reformers, the fol- lowers of John Huss. — John Huss, from whom the Hussites take their name, was born in a little village in Bohemia, called Huss, and lived at Prague in the highest reputation, both on account of the sanctity of his manners and the purity of his doctrine. He was distinguished by his un- common erudition and eloquence ; and performed at the same time the functions of professor of di- vinity in the university, and of ordinary pastor in the church of that city. He adopted the senti- ments of Wiekliffe and the Waldenses; and, in the year 1407, began openly to oppose and preach against divers errors in doctrine, as well as cor- ruptions in point of discipline, then reigning in the church. Huss likewise endeavoured to the ut- most of his power to withdraw the university of Prague from the jurisdiction of Gregory XII., whom the king of Bohemia had hitherto acknow- lecred as the true and lawful head of the church. This occasioned a violent quarrel between the in- censed archbishop of Prague and the zealous re- former, which the latter inllamcdand augmented from day to day, by his pathetic exclamations against the court of Rome, and the corruption that prevailed among the sacerdotal order. There were other circumstances that contri- truted to inflame the resentment of the clergy against him. He adopted the philosophical opi- nions of the Realists, and vehemently opposed and even persecuted the Nominalists, whose number and influence were considerable in the university of Prague. He also multiplied the number of his enemies in the year 1108, by pro- curing, through his own credit, a sentence in fa- vour of the Bohemians, who disputed with the Germans concerning the number of suffrages which their respective nations were entitled to in all matters that were carried by election in this university. In consequence of a decree obtained in favour of the former, which restored them to their constitutional right of three suffrages, usurp- ed by the latter, the Germans withdrew from Prague, and in the year 140!) founded a new academy at Leipsic4 This event no sooner hap- ftened, than Huss l>egan to inveigh, with greater reedom than he had done before, against the vices and corruptions of the clergy ; and to re- commend in a public manner the writings and opinions of Wicklilfc, as far as thf y related to the papal hierarchy, the despotism oi the court of Rome, and the corruption of the clergy. Hence an accusation was brought against him in the 17G HUSSITES year 1410, before the tribunal of John XXUt. by whom he was solemnly expelled from the com- munion of the church. " Notwithstanding this sentence of excommunication, he proceeded to expose the Romish church with a fortitude and zeal that were almost universally applauded. This eminent man, whose piety was equally sincere and fervent, though his zeal was perhaps too violent, and his prudence not always circum- spect, was summoned to appear before the coun- cil of Constance. Secured, as he thought, from the rage of his enemies, by the safe-conduct granted him by the emperor Sigismund lor his journey to Constance, his residence in that place, and his return to his own country, John Huss obeyed the order of the council, and appeared be- fore it to demonstrate his innocence, and to prove that the charge of his having deserted the church of Rome was entirely groundless. However, his enemies so far prevailed, that by the most scan- dalous breach of public faith, he was cast into prison, declared a heretic, because he refused to plead guilty against, the dictates of his conscience, in obedience to the council, and burnt alive in 1-115; a punishment which he endured with un- paralleled magnanimity and resolution. When he came to the place of execution, he fell on his knees, sang portions of psalms, looked steadfastly towards heaven, and repeated these words: " Into thy hands, O Lord, do I commit my spirit ; thou hast redeemed me, O most good and faithful God. Lord Jesus Christ, assist and help me, that with a firm and present mind, by thy most powerful grace I may undergo this most cruel and ignominious death, to which 1 am condemned for preaching the truth of thy most holy Gospel." When the chain was put upon him at the stake, he said with a smiling countenance, " My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why should I be ashamed of this old rusty one ?" When the faggots were piled up to his very neck, the duke of Bavaria was officious enough to desire him to abjure. " No." says Huss, " I never preached any doc- trine of an evil tendency ; and what I taught with my lips, I seal with my blood." He said to the executioner, " Are you going to burn a goose 1 In one century you will have a swan you can neither roast nor bod." If he were prophetic, he must have meant Luther, who had a swan for his arms. The fire was then applied to the faggots ; when the martyr sang a hymn with so loud and cheerful a voice, that he was heard through all the cracklings of the combustibles and the noise of the multitude. At last his voice was cut short, after he had uttered, "Jesus Christ, thou son of the living God, have mercy upon me," and he was consumed in a most miserable man- ner. The duke of Bavaria ordered the execu- tioner to throw all the martyr's clothes into the flames : after which his ashes were carefully col- lected, and cast into the Rhine. But the cause in which this eminent man was engaged did not die with him. His disciples ad- hered to their master's doctrines after his death, which broke out into an open war. John Ziska, a Bohemian knight, in 1420, put himself at the head of the Hussites, who were now become a verv considerable party, and threw off the des- potic yoke of Sigismund, who had treated theif bicthren in the most barbarous manner. Ziska was succeeded by Procopiua in the year 1-124. HUTCHINSONIANS Acts of barbarity were committed on both sides ; for notwithstanding the irreconcilable opposition between the religious sentiments of the contend- ing parties, they both agreed in this one horrible principle, that it was innocent and lawful to per- secute and extirpate with fire and sword the ene- mies of the true religion; and such they recipro- cally appeared to each other. These commotions in a great measure subsided by the interference of the council of Basil, in the year 1433. The Hussites, who were divided into two par- ties, viz. the Calixtines and the Taborites, spread over all Bohemia and Hungary, and even Silesia and Poland; and there are, it is said, some re- mains of them still subsisting in those parts. Hroughton's Diet. ; Middleton's Evang. Biog. vol. i. ; Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. HUTCHINSONIANS, the followers of John Hutchinson, who was born in Yorkshire, in 1674. In the early part of his life he served the Duke of Somerset in the capacity of steward ; and in the course of his travels from place to place, employed himself in collecting fossils. We are told that the large and noble collection be- queathed by Dr. Woodward to the University of Cambridge was actually made by liim, and even unfairly obtained from him. In 1724, he pub- lished the first part of his curious book, called Moseses Principia, in which he ridiculed Dr. Woodward's Natural History of the Earth, and exploded the doctrine of gravitation established in Newton's Principia. In 1727, he published a second part of Moses's Principia, containing the principles of the Scripture philosophy. Prom this time to his death he published a volume every year or two, which, with the manuscripts he left behind, were published in 1748, in 12 volumes, 8vo. On the Monday before his death, Dr. Mead urged him to be bled ; saying, pleasantly, "I will soon send you to Moses," meaning his studies; but Mr. Hutchinson, taking it in the literal sense, answered in a muttering tone, " I believe, doctor, you will ;" and was so displeased, that he dismissed him for another physician ; but he died in a few days after, August 28, 1737. It appears to be a leading sentiment of this de- nomination, that all our ideas of divinity are formed from the ideas iu nature, — that nature is a standing picture, and Scripture an applica- tion of the several parts of the picture, to draw out to, as the great things of God, in order to re- form our mental conceptions. To prove this point, they allege, that the Scriptures declare the invisible tilings of God from the formation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made; even his eternal power and Godhead, Rom. i. 20. The heavens must declare God's righteousness and truth in the congregation of the saints, Ps. lxxxix. 5. And in short the whole system of nature, in one voice of analogy, declares and gives us ideas of his glory, and shows us his handy-work. We cannot have any ideas of invisible things till they are pointed out to us by revelation ; and as we cannot know them immediately, such as they are in themselves, after the manner in winch we know sensible, objects, they must be communi- cated to us by the mediation of such things as we already comprehend. For this reason the Scrip- ture is found to have a language of its own, which does not consist of words, but of signs or figures taken from visible things: in consequence of 177 A' HUTCII1NSON1ANS which, the world we now see becomes a sort of commentary on the mind of God, and explains the world in which we believe. The doctrines of the Christian faith are attested by the whole natural world ; they are recorded in a language which has never been confounded; they are written in a text which shall never be corrupted. The Hutchinsonians maintain that the great mystery of the Trinity is conveyed to our uader- standings by ideas of sense ; and that the created substance of the air, or heaven, in its threefold agency of fire, light, and spirit, is the enigma of the one essence or one Jehovah in three persons. The unity of essence is exhibited by its unity of substance ; the trinity of conditions, fire, light, and spirit. Thus the one substance of the air, or heaven in its three conditions, shows the unity in trinity ; and its three conditions in or of one substance, the trinity in unity. For (says this denomination) if we consult the writings of the Old and New Testament, we shall find the per- sons of the Deity represented under the names and characters of the three material agents, fire, light, and spirit, and their actions expressed by the actions of these their emblems. The Father is called ? consuming fire; and his .judicial pro- ceedings are spoken of in words which denote tke several actions of fire, Jehovah is a consuming fire — Our God is a consuming fire, Deut. iv. 24 Heb. xii. 29. The Son has the name of light, and his purifying actions and offices are described by words which denote the actions and offices of light. He is the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, John i. 9 ; Mai. iv. 2. The Comforter has the name of Spirit; and his animating and sustaining offices are de scribed by words, for the actions and offices of the material spirit. His actions in the spiritual eco- nomy are agreeable to his type in the natural economy; such as inspiring, impelling, driving, leading,' Matt. ii. 1. The philosophic system of the Hutchinsonians is derived from the Hebrew Scriptures. The truth of it rests on these sup- positions: 1. That the Hebrew language was formed under divine inspiration, either all at once, or at different times, as occasion required ; and that the Divine Being had a view in constructing it, to the various revelations which he in all suc- ceeding times should make in that language: consequently, that its words must be the most proper and determinate to convey such trutlis as the Deity, during the Old Testament dis- pensation, thought fit to make known to the sons of men. Further than this : that the inspired penmen of those ages at least were under the guidance of heaven in the choice of words for recording what was revealed to them : therefore, that the Old Testament, if the language !>e rightly understood, is the most determinate in its meaning of any other book under heaven. 2. That whatever is recorded in the Old Testament is strictly and literally true, allowing only for a few conunon figures of rhetoric; that nothing con- trary to truth is accommodated to vulgar appie- hensions. In proof of this the Hutchinsonians argue iu this manner. The primary and ultimate design of revelation is indeed to teach men divinity ; but in subserviency to that, geography, history, and chronology, are occasionally introduced ; dll which are allowed to be just and authentic. There are also innumerable references to things HYPOCRISY of nature, and descriptions of tru/in. If, then, the former are just, and to be depended on, for the sume reason the latter ought to be esteemed philosophically true. Further: they think it not unworthy of God, that he should make it a secondary end of his revelation to unfold the se- crets of his works; as the primary was to make known the mysteries of Ins nature, and the de- signs of his grace, that men might thereby be led to admire and adore the wisdom and goodness which the great Author of the universe has dis- played throughout all his works. And as our minds are otten referred to natural things for itleas of spiritual truths, it is of great importance, in order to conceive aright of divine matters, that our ideas of the natural things referred to be strictly just and true. Mr. Hutchinson found that the Hebrew Scrip- tures had some capital words, which he thought had not been duly considered and understood ; and which, he has endeavoured to prove, contain in their radical meaning the greatest and most comfortable truths. The cherubim he explains to be a hieroglyphic of divine construction, or a sacred image, to describe, as far as figures could go, the humanity united to Deity; and so he treats of several other words of similar import. From all which he concluded, that the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish dispensation were so many delineations of Christ, in what he was to be, to do, and to suffer ; that the early Jews knew them to be types of his actions and sufferings ; and, by performing them as such, were so far Christians both in faith and practice. The Hutchinsonians have, for the most part, een men of devout minds, zealous in the cause of Christianity, and untainted with heterodox opinions, which have so often divided the church of Christ The names of Romaine, Bishop Home, Parkhurst, and others of this denomina- tion, will be long esteemed, both for the piety they possessed, and the good they have been the instruments of promoting amongst mankind. Should the reader wish to know more of the philosophical and theological opinions of Mr. Hutchinson, he may consult a work, intituled, "An Abstract of the Works of John Hutcliin- son, Esq. Edinburgh, 1753." See also Jones's Life of Bishop Hume, 2d edit. ; Jones's Works ; Spearman's Inquiry, p. 201), 273. HYMN, a song or ode in honour of the Divine Being. St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, is said to have been the first who composed hymns to be be sung in churches, and was followed by St. Ambrose. Most of those in the Roman breviary were composed by Prudentius. The hymns or odes of the ancients generally consisted of three sorts of stanzas, one of which was sung by the band as they walked from east to west ; another was performed as they returned from west to east; the third part was sung before the altar. The Jewish hymns were accompanied with trumpets, drums, and cymbals, to assist the voices of the Levitcs and the people. We have had a con- siderable number of hymns composed in our own country. The most esteemed are those of Watts, Doddridge, Newton, and Hart. As to selections, few are superior to Dr. Rippon'a and Dr. Wil- hams's. See Psalmody". HYPOCRISY is a seeming or professing to be what in truth and reality we are not. It con- sists in assuming a character which we are con- scious does not belong to us, and by which wc in- 17b HYPSISTARII tentionally impose upon the judgment and opinion of mankind concerning us. The name is bor- rowed from the Greek tongue, in which it prima- rily signifies the profession of a stage-player, which is to express in speech, habit, and action, not his own person and manners, but his whom lie undertakes to represent. And so it is; for the very essence of hypocrisy lies in apt imitation and deceit ; in acting the part of a member of Christ without any saving grace. The hypocrite is a double person ; he has one person, which is natu- ral ; another, which is artificial ; the first he keeps to himself ; the other he puts on as he doth his clothes, to make his appearance in before men. It was ingeniously said by Basil, "that the hypo- crite has not put off the old man, but put on the new upon it." Hypocrites have been divided into four sorts. 1. The -worldly hypocrite, who makes a profession of religion, and pretends to be re- ligious, merely from worldly considerations, Matt, xxiii. 5. — 2. The legal hypocrite, who relin- quishes Iris vicious practices, in order thereby to merit heaven, while at the same tune he has no real love to God, Rom. x. 3. — The evangelical hypocrite, whose religion is nothing more than a bare conviction of sin ; who rejoices under the idea that Christ died for him, and yet has no desire to live a holy life, Matt. xiii. 20 ; 2 Pet. ii. 20. — 4. The enthusiastic hypocrite, who has an imaginary sight of his sin, and of Christ; talks of remarkable impulses and high feelings ; and thinks himself very wise and good while he lives in the most scandalous practices, Matt, xiii, 39; 2 Cor. xi. 14. Crook on Hypocrisy; Decoetlegon's Sermon on Ps. Ii. 6 ; Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. ii. p. 253; South' s Ser. on Job viii. 13. vol. x. ; Bellamy's Relig. Del. p. 166. HYTOSTASIS, a term literally signifying substance or subsistence, or that which is put and stands under another thing, and supports it, being its base, ground, or foundation. Thus faith is the substantial foundation of things hoped for, Heb, xi. 1. The word is Greek, u.-roo-rao-if, coin- pounded of « to, sub, "under;" and io-t^., sto, "I stand, I exist," q. d. "subsistentia." It likewise signifies confidence, stability, firmness, 2 Cor. ix. 4. It is also used for person, Heb. i. 3. Thus we hold that there is but one nature or essence in God, but three hypostases or persons. The word has occasioned great dissensions in the ancient church, first among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latins ; but an end was put to thein by a synod held at Alexandria about the year 362, at which St. Athanasius assisted; from which time the Latins made no great scruple of saying three hypostases, nor the Greeks of three persons. The hypostatical union is the union of the human nature of Christ with the divine; constituting two natures in one person, and not two persons in one nature, as the Nestorians be- lieve. See Jesus Christ. HYPSISTARII, (formed from u^.o-rot, "high- est,") a sect of heretics, in the fourth century ; thus called from the profession they made of wor- shipping the Most High God. The doctrine of the Hypsistarians was an as- semblage of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity. — They adored the Most High God with the Christians, but they also revered fire and lamps with the Heathens, and observed the sabbath, and the distinction of clean and unclean things, with the Jews. The Hypsistarii bore a near resemblance to the Euchites, or Messalians 1C0N0CLASTES I. IBERIANS, a denomination of eastern Chris- tians, which derive their name from Iberia, a pro- vince of Asia now called Georgia ; hence they are also called Georgians. Their tenets arc said to be the same with those of the Greek church ; which see. ICONOCL ASTES, or Iconoclast je, break- ers of images ; a name which the church of Rome gives to all who reject the use of images in reli- gious matters. The word is Greek, formed from eix-joi/, imago, and «xjj-th», rumpere, 'to break.' In this sense not only the reformed, but some of the eastern churches, are called iconoclastcs, and esteemed by them heretics, as opposing the wor- ship of the images of God and the saints, and breaking their figures and representations in churches. The opposition to images began in Greece, under the reign of Bardanes, who was created emperor of the Greeks a little after the com- mencement of the eighth century, when the wor- ship of them became common. See Image. But the tumults occasioned by it were quelled by a revolution, which, in 713, deprived Bardanes of the imperial throne. The dispute, however, broke out with redoubled fury under Leo the Isaurian, who issued out an edict in the year 726, abro- gating, as some say, the worship of images ; and ordering all the images, except that of Christ's crucifixion, to be removed out cf the churches; but, according to others, this edict only prohibited the paying to them any kind of adoration or wor- ship. This edict occasioned a civil war, which broke out in the islands of the Archipelago, and, by the suggestions of the priests and monks, ra- vaged a part of Asia, and afterwards reached Italy. The civil commotions and insurrections in Italy were chiefly promoted by the Roman pon- tiffs, Gregory Land II. Leo was excommuni- cated ; and his subjects in the Italian provinces violated their allegiance, and rising in arms, either massacred or banished all the emperor's deputies and officers. In consequence of these proceed- ings, Leo assembled a council at Constantinople in 730, which degraded Germanus, bishop of that city, who was a patron of images; and he or- dered all the images to be publicly burnt, and in- flicted a variety of punishments upon such as were attached to that idolatrous worship. Hence arose two factions, one of which adopted the ado- ration and worship of images, and on that account were called v:onoduli or iconolatrce ; and the other maintained that such worship was unlaw- ful, and that nothing was more worthy the 7.cal of Christians than to demolish and destroy those statues and pictures which were the occasion of this gross idolatry ; and hence they were distin- guished by the titles of icono-machi (from e. **>>•, image, and ,uxx,a, I contend*) and iconoclastic. The zeal of Gregory II. in favour of image wor- ship was not only imitated, but even surpassed, by his successor, Gregory III.; in consequence of which the Italian provinces were torn from the Grecian empire. Constantine, called Coprony- mus, in 764, convened a council at Constanti- nople, regarded by the Greeks as the seventh lECumenical council, which solemnly condemned the worship and usage of images. Those who, 179 notwithstanding the decree of the council, raised commotions in the state, were severely punished, and new laws were enacted to set bounds to the violence of monastic rage. Leo IV., who was declared emperor in 755, pursued the same mea- sures, and had recourse to the coercive influence of penal laws, in order to extirpate idolatry out of the Christian church. Irene, the wife of Leo, poisoned her husband in 780; assumed the reigns of the empire during the minority of her son Con- stantine; and in 786 summoned a council at Nice, in Bithynia, known by the name of the Second Nicene Council which abrogated the laws and decrees against the new idolatry, re- stored the worship of images and of the cross, and denounced severe punishments against those who maintained that God was the only object of reli- gious adoration. In this contest the Britons, Germans, and Gauls were of opinion that images might be lawfully continued in churches ; but they considered the worship of them as highly injurious and offensive to the Supreme Being. Charlemagne distinguished himself as a mediator in this controversy ; he ordered four books con- cerning images to be composed, refuting the rea- sons urged by the Nicene bishops to justify the worship of images, which he sent to Adrian, the Roman pontiff, in 700, in order to engage him to withdraw his approbation of the decrees of the last council of Nice. Adrian wrote an answer ; and in 1794, a council of 300 bishops, assembled by Charlemagne, at Frankfort on the Maine, con- firmed the opinion contained in the four books, and solemnly condemned the worship of images. In the Greek church, after the banishment of Irene, the controversy concerning images broke out anew, and was carried on by the contending parties, during the half of the ninth century, with various and uncertain success. The em- peror Nicephorus appears upon the whole to have been an enemy to this idolatrous worship. His successor, Michael Curopalates, sumamed Rhangabe, patronised and encouraged it. But the scene changed on the accession of Leo, the Armenian, to the empire, who assembled a coun- cil at Constantinople, in 812, that abolished the decrees of the Nicene council. His successor Michael, sumamed Balbus, disapproved of the worship of images, and his son Theophilus treat- ed them with great severity. However, the em- press Theodora, after his death, and during the minority of her son, assembled a council at Con- stantinople in 842, which reinstated the decrees of the second Nicene council, and encouraged image worship by a law. The txmncil held at the same place under Protius, in 879, and reckon- ed by the Greeks the eighth general council, con- firmed and renewed the Nicene decrees. In commemoration of this council, a festival was in- stituted by the superstitious Greeks, called the Feast of Orllwdoxy. The Latins were generally of opinion, that images might be suffered, as the means of aiding the memory of the faithful, and of calling to their remembrance the pious exploit* and virtuous actions of the persons whom they represented ; but they detested all thoughts of paying them the least marks of religious homage or adoration. The council of Paris, assembled u> ICONOLATR.E 821 by Loins the Meek, resolved to allow the use of images in the churches, but severely pro- hibited rendering them religions worship: never- theless, towards the conclusion of this century, the Galliean clergy began to pay a kind of reli- gious homage to the images of saints, and their example was followed l>v the Germans and other nations. However the Iconoclastes still had their adherents among the Latins ; the most eminent of whom was Claudius, bishop of Turin, who, in 823, ordered all images, and even the cross, to be cast out of the churches, and committed to the flames ; and he wrote a treatise, in which he de- clared both against the use and worship of them. He condemned relics, pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and all voyages to the tombs of saints ; and to his writings and labours it was owing, that the city of Turin, and the adjacent country, was, for a long time after his death, much less infected with superstition than the other parts of Europe. The controversy concerning the sanctity of images was again revived by Leo, bishop of Chalcedon, in the 11th century, on occcasion of the emperor Alexius's converting the figures of silver that adorned the portals of the churches into money, in order to supply the exigencies of the state. The bishop obstinately maintained that he had been guilty of sacrilege, and pub- lished a treatise, in which he a dinned, that in these images there resided an inherent sanctity, and that the adoration of Christians ought not to be confined to the persons represented by these images, but extend to the images themselves. The emperor assembled a council at Constanti- nople, which determined that the images of Christ and of the saints were to be honoured only with a relative worship ; and that the invocation and worship were to be addressed to the saints only, as the servants of Christ, and on account of their relation to him as their master. Leo, dissatisfied with these absurd and superstitious decisions, was sent into banishment. In the western church, the worship of images was dis- approved, and opposed by several considerable parties, as the Petrobussians, Albigenses, Wal- denses, &c.j till at length this idolatrous practice was abolished in many parts of the Christian world by the Reformation. See Image. ICONOLATRjE, or Icoxoi.aters, those who worship images ; a name which the Icono- clastes give to those of the Romish communion, on account of their adoring images, and of rendering to them the worship only due to God The word is formed from i,*»v, image, and Kmrfum, I wor- ship. See last article, and article*lMAGE. IDLENESS, a rcluetancy to be employed in any kind of work. Tin idle man is in every view both foolish and criminal. " He neither lives to God, to the world, nor to himself. He does not live to God, for he answers not the end for which he was brought into being. Existence is a sacred trust; hut he who misemploys and squanders it away, thus becomes treacherous to its Author. Those [>o wers which should be employed in his ser- vice, and lor the promotion of his glory, lie dormant. The time which should be sacred to Jehovah is lost ; and thus he enjoys no fellowship with God, nor any way devotes himself to his praise. He lives not to the world, nor for the benefit of his fellow- creatures around him. While all creation is full of life and activity, and nothing stands still in the omversc, he remains idle, forgetting that mankind 180 1DOLATRY arc connected by various relations and mutual de- pendencies, and that the order of the world cannot be maintained without perpetual circulation of active duties. He lives not to himself. Though he imagines that he leaves to others the drudgery of life, and betakes himself to enjoyment and ease, yet, in fact, he has no true pleasure. While he is a blank in society, he is no less a torment to himself; for he who knows not what it is to la- bour, knows not what, it is to enjoy. He shuts the door against improvement of ever)' kind, whether of mind, body, or fortune. Sloth en- feebles equally the bodily and the mental powers. His character falls into contempt. Disorder, con- fusion, and embarrassment mark his whole situation. Idleness is the inlet to a variety of other vices. It undermines every virtue in the soul. Violent passions, like rapid torrents, run their course ; but after having overflowed their banks their impetuosity subsides ; but sloth, espe- cially when it is habitual, is like the slowly-flow- ing putrid stream, which stagnates in the marsh, breeds venomous animals and poisonous plants, and infects with pestilential vapours the whole country round it. Having once tainted the soul, it leaves no part of it sound ; and at the same time gives not those alarms to conscience which the eruptions of bolder and fiercer emotions often oc- casion." Logan's Sermons, vol. i. ser. 4; Blaifa Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 4; Idler, vol. i. p. 5, 171, 172 ; Cmcper's Poems, 228, vol. i. duod. ; John, son's Rambler, vol. ii. p. 162, 163. IDOLATRY, the worship of idols, or the act of ascribing to things and persons, properties which are peculiar to God alone. The principal sources of idolatry seem to be the extravagant ve- neration for creatures and beings from which benefits accrue to men. Dr. Jortin says, that idolatry had four privileges to boast of. The first was a venerable antiquity, more ancient than the Jewish religion ; and idolaters might have said to the Israelites, Where was your religion before Moses and Abraham? Go, and inquire in Chal- dea, and there you will find that your fathers served other gods. — 2. It was wider spread than the Jewish religion. It was the religion of the greatest, the wisest, and the politest nations, of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Phoenicians, the pa- rents of civil government, and of arts and scien- ces.— 3. It was more adapted to the bent which men have towards visible and sensible objects. Men want gods who shall go before them, and be among them. God, who is every where in power, and no where in appearance, is hard to be con- ceived.— 4. It favoured human passions; it re- quired no morality ; its religious ritual consisted of splendid ceremonies, revelling, dancing, noc- turnal assemblies, impure and scandalous myste- ries, debauched priests, and gods, who were both slaves and patrons to all sorts of vices. " All the more remarkable false religions that have been or are in the world, recommend them- selves by one or other of these four privileges and characters." The first objects of idolatrous worship are thought to have been the sun, moon, and stars. Others think that angels were first worshipped. Soon after the flood, we find idolatry greatly pre- vailing in the world. Abraham's father's family served other gods beyond the river Euphrates ; and Labaii had idols which Rachel brought along with her. In process of time, noted patriot", or I IGNORANCE kings deceased, animals of various kinds, plants, stones, and, in fine, whatever people took a fancy to, they idolized. The Egyptians, though high pretenders to wisdom, worshipped pied bulls, snipes, leeks, onions, &e. The Greeks had about 30,000 gods. The Gomerians deified their an- cient kings ; nor were the Chaldeans, Romans, Chinese, &c., a whit, less absurd. Some violated the most natural affections by murdering multi- tudes of their neighbours and children, under pretence of sacrificing them to their god. Some nations of Germany, Scandinavia, and Tartary, imagined that violent death in war, or by self- murder, was the proper method of access to the future enjoyment of their gods. In far later times, about 64,030 persons were sacrificed at the dedication of one idolatrous temple in the space of four days in America. The Hebrews never had any idols of their own, but they adopted those of the nations around. The veneration which the Papists pay to the Virgin Mary, and other saints and angels, and to the bread in the sacrament, the cross, relics, and images, lays a foundation for the Protestants to charge them with idolatry, though they deny the charge. It is evident that they worship them, and that they justify the worship, but deny the idolatry of it, by distinguishing subordinate from "supreme wor- ship : the one they call latria, the other dulia ; but this distinction is thought by many of the Protestants to be vain, futile, and nugatory. Idolatry has been divided into metaphorical and proper. By metaphorical idolatry, is meant that inordinate love of riches, honours, and bodily pleasures, whereby the passions and appetites of men are made superior to the will of God ; man, by so doing, making a god of liimself and his 6ensual temper. Proper idolatry is giving the divine honour to another. The objects or idols of that honour which are given, are either per- sonal, i. e. the idolatrous themselves, who become their own statues ; or internal, as false ideas, which are set up in the fancy instead of God, such as fancying God to be a light, flame, matter, &c. ; only here, the scene being internal, the scandal of the sin is thereby abated ; or external, as worshipping angels, the sun, stars, animals, &.C. Tcnison on Idolatry ; A. Young on Idola- trous Corruptions ; Ridgley's Body of Div. qu. 10G; Fell's Idolatry of Greece and Home ; Slillingfiecl's Idolatry of the Church of Rome ; Jortin's Scrm. vol. vi. ser. 18. IGNORANCE, the want of knowledge or instruction. It is often used to denote illiteracy. Mr. Locke observes, that the causes of ignorance are chiefly three. — 1. Want, of ideas. — 2. Want of a discoverable connexion between the ideas we have. — 3. Want of tracing and examining our ideas. As it respects religion, ignorance has been distinguished into three sorts: 1. An invincible ignorance, in which the will has no part. It is an insult upon justice to suppose it will punish men because they were ignorant of things which they were physically incapable of knowing. — 8. There is a wilful and obstinate ignorance; such an ig- norance, far from exculpating, aggravates a man's crimes. — 3. A sort of ignorance which is neither entirely wilful, nor entirely invincible ; as when a man has the means of knowledge, and does not use them. See Knowledge ; and Locke on the Und. vol. ii. p. 178 ; Grove's Mot. Phil. vol. ii. p. 20, 29, 64 ; Watts on tits Mind. 181 ILLUMINATI ILLUMINATI, a term anciently applied to such as had received baptism. The name was occasioned by a ceremony in the baptism of adults, which consisted in putting a lighted taper in the hand of the person baptized, as a symbol of the faith and grace he had received in the sacrament. ILLUMINATI was also the name of a sect which appeared in Spain about the year 1575. They were charged with maintaining that mental prayer and contemplation had so intimately united them to God, that they were arrived to such a state of perfection, as to stand in no need of good works, or the sacraments of the. church, and that they might commit the grossest crimes without sin. After the suppression of the Illuminati in Spain, there appeared a denomination in France which took the same name. They maintained that one Anthony Buckuet had a system of be- lief and practice revealed to him which exceeded every thing Christianity had yet been acquainted with ; that by this method persons might in a short time arrive at the same degrees of perfection and glory to which the saints and the Blessed Virgin have attained ; and this improvement might be carried on till our actions became divine. and our minds wholly given up to the influence of the Almighty. They said further, that none oi the doctors of the church knew any thing of re- ligion ; that Paul and Peter were well-meaning men, but knew nothing of devotion ; that the whole church lay in darkness and unbelief; that every one was at liberty to follow the suggestions of his conscience ; that God regarded nothing buv himself; and that within ten years their doc- trine would be received all over the. world ; then there would be no more occasion for priests, monks, and such other religious distinctions. ILLUMINATI, a name assumed by a secret society, founded on the 1st of May, 1776, by Dr. Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law in the university of Ingolstadt. The avowed object of this order was, " to diffuse from secret societies, as from so many centres, the light of science over the world ; to propagate the purest principles of virtue; and to reinstate mankind in the happiness which they enjoyed during the golden age fabled by the poets." Such a philanthropic object was doubtless well-adapted to make a deep impression on the minds of ingenuous young men ; and to such alone did Dr. Weishaupt at first address himself. But " the real object," we are assured by Professor Robison and Abbe Barruel, " was. by clandestine arts, to overturn every government and every religion ; to bring the sciences of civil life into contempt ; and to reduce mankind to that imaginary state of nature, when they lived inde- pendent of each other on the spontaneous pro- ductions of the earth." Free-masonry being i:i high reputation all over Europe, when Weishaupt first formed the plan of his society, he availed himself of its secrecy, *.o introduce his new order ; of which he constituted himself general, alter initiating some of his pupils, whom he styled Areopagites, in its mysteries. And when report spread the news throughout Germany of the in- stitution of the Order of llluminees, it was ge- nerally considered as a mere college lodge, which could interest the students no longer than during the period of their studies. Weishaupt's charac- ter, too. which at this time was respectable 16i u ILLUMINATI morality as well as erudition, prevented all sus- picion of his harbouring any such dark designs as nave since come to right. But it would far exceed (he limits to which this work is restricted, to give even an outline of the nature and constitution of this extraordinary society; of its secrets and mysteries ; of the deep dissimulation, consum- mate hypocrisy, and shocking impiety of its found- er and his associates ; of their Jesuitical art in concealing their real objects, and their incredible industry and astonishing exertions in making converts; of the absolute despotism and com- plete system of espionnage established throughout the order; of its different degrees of Notices, Mi- nerrals, Minor and Major Illvminees ; Epopts, or Priests, Regents, Magi, and Man-kings ; of the Recruiters or Jnsinuators, with their various subtle methods of insinuating into all characters and companies ; of the blind obedience exacted of the Novices, and the absolute power of life and death assumed by the order, and conceded by the Novices; of the dictionary, geography, calendar, and cipher of the order ; of the new names as- sumed by the members, such as Spartacus by Weishaupt, because he pretended to wage war against oppressors ; Calo by Zwack ; Aju.r by Massenhausen, &c. ; of the Minerval Academy and Library ; of the questions proposed to the candidates for degrees, and the various ceremonies portant services he had done to the order and to savagism, must, within a century at the utmost, perish along with them. But if, in fact, the total annihilation of the arts and sciences, as well as of all religion and government, be really the object of Weishaupt and his llluminees, then we may agree with the> celebrated Mandeville, that "hu- man nature is the true Libyan desert, daily pro- ducing new monsters," and that of these mon- sters the doctor and his associates are beyond a doubt the most extraordinary. Professor Robison informs us, that the order of the llluminati was abolished 1786 by the elector of Bavaria, but re- vived immediately after, under another name, and in a different form, over all Germany. It was again detected and seemingly broken up ; but it had by this time taken so deep root, that it still subsists without being detected, and has spread, we are told, into all the countries of Europe. IMAGE, in a religious sense, is an artificial representation of some person or thing used as an object of adoration ; in which sense it is used synonymously with idol. The use and adoration of images have been long controverted. It i3 plain, from the practice of the primitive church, recorded by the earlier fathers, that Christians, during the first three centuries, and the greater part of the fourth, neither worshipped images, nor used them in their worship. However, the gene- rality of the popish divines maintain that the use and worship of images are as ancient as the Chris- tian religion itself: to prove this, they allege a decree, said to have been made in a council held by the apostles at Antioch, commanding the faithful, that they may not err about the object of their worship, to make images of Christ, and worship them. Baron, ad ann. 102. But no no- tice is taken of this decree till seven hundred years after the apostolic times, after the dispute about images had commenced. The first instance, that occurs, in any credible author, of images among Christians, is that recorded by Tertullian de Pudicit. c. 10, of certain cups or chalices, as Bcllarmine pretends, on which was represented the parable of the good shepherd carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders: but this instance only proves that the church, at that time, did not think emblematical figures unlawful ornaments of chalices. Another instance is taken from Euse- bius (Hist Eccl. lib. vii. cap. 18,) who savs, that in his time there were to be seen two brass sta- IMAGE tnes \n the city of Paneas, or Csesaroa Philippi ; the one of a woman on her knees, with her arms stretched out; the other of a man over against her, with his hand extended to receive her : these statues were said to be the images of our Saviour, and the woman whom he cured of an issue of blood. From the foot of the statue representing our Saviour, says the historian, sprung up an exotic plant, which as soon as it grew to touch the border of his garment, was said to cure all sorts of distempers. Eusebius, however, vouches none of these things ; nay, he supposes that the woman who erected this statue of our Saviour was a pagan, and ascribes it to a pagan custom. Philostorgius (Eccl. Hist. lib. vii. c. 3.) expressly says, that this statue was carefully preserved by the Christians, but that they paid no kind of worship to it, because it is not lawful for Chris- tians to worship brass or any other matter. The primitive Christians abstained from the worship -f images, not, as the Papists pretend, from ten- derness to heathen idolaters, but because they thought it unlawful in itself to make any images of the Deity. Tertullian, Clemens Aicxandri- nus, and Origen, were of opinion, that, by the second commandment, painting and engraving were unlawful to a Christian, styling them evil and wicked arts. Tert. de Idol. cap. 3; Clem. Alex. Admon. ad Gent. p. 41 ; Origen contra Celsum, lib. vi. p. 182. The use of images in churches, as ornaments, was first introduced by some Christians in Spain, in the beginning of the fourth century; but the practice was con- demned as a dangerous innovation, in a council held at Eliberis in 305. Epiphanius, in a letter preserved by Jerome, torn. ii. ep. 6, bears strong testimony against images ; and he may be con- sidered as one of the first iconoclasts. The cus- tom of admitting pictures of saints and martyrs into churches (for this was the first source of image-worship) was rare in the end of the fourth century, but became common in the fifth. But they were still considered only as ornaments, and even in this view, they met with very con- siderable opposition. In the following century, the custom of thus adorning churches became almost universal, both in the East and West. Petavius expressly says (de Incar. lib. xv. cap. 14,) that no statues were yet allowed in the churches, because they bore too near a resem- blance to the idols of the Gentiles. Towards the close of the fourth, or beginning of the fifth cen- tury, images, which were introduced by way of ornament, and then used as an aid to devotion, began to be actually worshipped. However, it continued to be the doctrine of the church in the 6ixth, and in the beginning of the seventh cen- tury, that images were to be used only as helps to devotion, and not as objects of worship. The worship of them was condemned in the strongest terms by Gregory the Great, as appears by two of his letters written in 601. From this time to the beginning of the eighth century, there occurs no instance of any worship given or allowed to be given to images, by any council or assembly of bishops whatever. But they were commonly worshipped by the monks and populace in the beginning of the eighth century; insomuch that, in 726, when Leo published his famous edict, it had already spread into all the provinces subject to the empire. The Lutherans condemn the Calvinists for breaking the images in the churches 183 IMMUTABILITY of the Catholics, looking on it as a kind of sacri- lege; and yet they condemn the Romans (who are professed image-worshippers) as idolaters; nor can these last keep pace with the Greeks, who go far beyond them in this point, which ha< occasioned abundance of disputes among them. See Iconoclastes. The Jews absolutely con- demn all images, and do not so much as suffer any statues or figures in their houses, much less in their synagogues, or places of worship. The Mahometans have an equal aversion to images ? which led them to destroy most of the beautiful monuments of antiquity, both sacred and profane, at Constantinople. Bingham's Orig. Eccl. b. viii. c. 8; Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 21; Burnet on the Art. p. 209, 219; Dod- dridge's Lect. lect. 193; Tcnnison on Idolatry, p. 269, 275 ; Ridgley's Body of Div. qu. 110. IMAGE OF GOD in the soul, is distin- guished into natural and moral. By natural is meant the understanding, reason, will, and other intellectual faculties. By the moral image, the right use of those faculties, or what we term holiness. IMAGINATION is a power or faculty of the mind, whereby it conceives and forms ideas of things communicated to it by the outward organs of sense ; or it is the power of recollecting and assembling images, and of painting forcibly those images on our minds, or on the minds of others. The cause of the pleasures of the imagination in whatever is great, uncommon, or beautiful, is this ; that God has annexed a secret pleasure to the idea i>f any thing that is new or rare, that he might c titv-urage and stimulate us in the eager and keen pursuits after knowledge, and inflame our best passions to search into the wonders of creation and revelation; for every new idea brings such a pleasure along with it, as rewards any pains we have taken in its acquisition, and consequently serves as a striking and powerful motive to put us upon fresh discoveries ki learning and science, as well as in the word and works of God. See Rev. W. Jones's Works, vol. vi. ser. 17; Ryland's Contemplations, vol. i. p. 64; Akcnside's Pleasures of Imagination; Addi- son's beautiful Papers on the Imagination, vol vi. Sped. p. 64, &c. ; Grove's Mot, Phil. p. 354, 355, 410, vol. i. IMMATERIALISM, the belief that the soul is a spiritual substance distinct from the body. See Materialism and Soul. IMMENSITY, unbounded or incomprehen- sible greatness ; and unlimited extension, which no finite and determinate space, repeated ever so often, can equal. See Infinity of God. IMMORALITY, an action inconsistent with our duty towards man, and consequently a sin against God, who hath commanded us to do jus- tice, and love mercy. See Morality. IMMORTALITY, a state which hasnoend ; the impossibility of dying. It is applied to God, who is absolutely immortal, 1 Tim. i. 17; and to the human soul, which is only hypothetically im- mortal ; as God, who at first gave it, can, if he pleases, deprive us of our existence. See Souu IMMUTABILITY OF GOD is his un- changeableness. He is immutable in his esseiiet, James i. 17. In his attributes, Ps. cii. 27. In his purposes, Isa. xxv. 1 ; Ps. xxxiii. 11. Ih his promises, Mai. iii. 6 ; 2 Tim. ii. 12. And in his thrcatcnings, Matt. xxv. 41. " This is a perfco- IMPLICIT lion," says Dr. Blair, "which, perhaps, more than any other, distinguishes the divine nature from the human, t^ives complete energy to all its attributes, and entitles it to the highest adoration. From hence are derived the regular order of na- ture and the steadfastness of the universe. Hence flows the unchanging tenor of those laws which, from age to age, regulate the conduct of mankind. Hence the uniformity of that government, and the certainty of those promises, which are the ground of our trust and security. An objection, how- ever, may be raised against this doctrine, from the commandments given us to prayer, and other religious exercises. To what purpose, it may be urged, is homage addressed to a Being whose Elan is unalterably fixed 1 This objection would ave weight, if our religious addresses were de- signed to work any alteration in God, either by giving him information of what he did not know, or by exciting affections which, he did not possess ; Or by inducing him to change, measures which he liad previously formed ; but they are only crude and imperfect notions of religion which can sug- gest such ideas. The change which our devo- tions are intended to make, are upon ourselves, not upon the Almighty. By pouring out our sentiments and desires before God ; by adoring his perfections, and confessing our unworthiness ; by expressing our dependance on his aid, our gratitude for liis past favours, our submission to Eis present will, and our trust, in his future mercy, we cultivate such affections as suit our place and station in the universe, and are to be exercised by us as men and as Christians. The contemplation of the divine perfection should raise in our minds admiration ; should teach us to imitate, as far as our frailty will permit, that constancy and steadfastness which we adore, 2 Cor. iii. 18; and, lastly, should excite trust and confidence in the Divine Being, amidst, all the revolutions of this uncertain world." — Blair's Sermons, ser. 4. vol. ii. ; Charnock's Works, vol. i. p. 203 ; Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 50 ; Lambert's Sermons, ser. on Mai. iii. 6. _ IMPANATION, a term used by divines to signify the opinion of the Lutherans with re- gard to the eucharist, who believe that the spe- cies of bread and wine remain together with the body of our Saviour after consecration, IMPECCABILES, a name given to those heretics who boasted that they were impeccable, and that there was no need of repentance ; such were the Gnostics, Priscillianists, &c. IMPECCABILITY, the state of a person who cannot sin ; or a grace, privilege, or princi- ple, which puts him out of a possibility of sin- ning. Divines have distinguished several kinds of impeccability : that of God belongs to him by nature; that of Jesus Christ, considered as man, belongs to him by the hypostatical union; that of the blessed, in consequence of their condition, IMPLICIT FAITH, is that by which we take up any system or opinion of another, with- out examination. This has been one of the chief sources of ignorance and error in the church of Rome. The divines of that community teach, " That we are to observe, not how the church proves any thing, but what she says: that the will of God is, that we should believe and confide in his ministers in the same ttiannei as himself." Cardinal Toletus, in his instructions for priests, 1&4 - IMPOSTORS asserts, "That if a rustic believes his bishop pro- posing an heretical tenet for an article of faith, such belief is meritorious." Cardinal Causanus tells us, " That irrational obedience is the most consummate and perfect obedience, when wo obey without attending to reason, as a beast obeys his driver." In an epistle to the Bohe- mians he has these words : " 1 assert that there are no precepts of Christ but those which are re- ceived as such by the church (meaning the church of Rome.) When the church changes her judg- ment, God changes his judgment likewise." What madness ! What blasphemy ! For a church to demand belief of what she teaches, and a sub- mission to what she enjoins, merely upon her assumed authority, must appear to unprejudiced minds the height of unreasonableness and spi- ritual despotism. We could wish this doctrine had been confined to this church ; but, alas ! it has been too prevalent in other communities. A theological system, says Dr. Jortin, is too often no more than a temple consecrated to implicit faith ; and he who enters in there to worship, in- stead of leaving his shoes, after the eastern man- ner, must leave his understanding at the door ; and it will be well if he find it when he comes out again. IMPOSITION OF HANDS, an ecclesias- tical action, by which a bishop lays his hand on the head of a person in ordination, confirmation, or in uttering a blessing. This practice is also frequently observed by the dissenters at the ordi- nation of their preachers; when the ministers present place their hands on the head of him whom they are ordaining, while one of them prays for a blessing on him and on his future labours. They are not agreed, however, as to •the propriety of this ceremony. Some suppose it to be confined to those, who received extraordi- nary gifts in the primitive times : others think it ought to be retained, as it was an ancient practice used where no extraordinary gifts were conveyed, Gen. xlviii. 11 ; Matt. xix. 15. They do not suppose it to be of such an important and essen- tial nature, that the validity and usefulness of a man's future ministry depend upon it in any de- gree. Imposition of hands was a Jewish cere- mony, introduced not by any divine authority, but by custom ; it being the practice among those people, whenever they prayed to God for any person, to lay their hands on his head. Our Saviour observed the same custom, both when he conferred his blessing on children, and when he healed the sick, adding prayer to the ceremony. The apostles, likewise, laid hands on those upon whom they bestowed the Holy Ghost. The priests observed the same custom when any one was received in their body. And the apostles themselves underwent the imposition of hands afresh every time they entered upon any new design. In" the ancient church, imposition of hands was even practised on persons when they married, which custom the Ahyssinians still ob- serve. Maurice's Dial, on Soc. liclig. p. ItA 108; Watts' s Rational Foundation of a Chris- tian Ch. p. 31 ; Turner on Church Gov. p. 70; Kin"'* Primitive. Christ. Ch. p. 40. IMPOSTORS, RELIGIOUS, are such a* pretend to an extraordinary commission from hea- ven, and who terrify the people with false denun- ciations of judgments. Too many of these have abounded in aiiuost ail ages. They are puuish IMPURITY able in the temporal courts with fine, imprison- ment, and corporeal punishment. See False Messiahs. 1MPOTENCY, or Impotence, is considered as natural and moral. Natural is the want of some physical principle necessary to an action, or where a being is absolutely detective, or not free and at liberty to act. Moral impotency imports a great difficulty ; as a strong habit to the con- trary; a violent passion ; or the like. IMPROPRIATION, a parsonage or eccle- siastical living, the profits of which arc in the hands of a layman ; in which case it stands dis- tinguished from appropriation, which is where the profits of a benefice are in the hands of a bishop, college, &c. though the terms are now used promiscuously. IMPULSE, an influence, idea, or motive act- ing upon the mind. We must be careful how we are guided by impulses in religion. " There are many," as one observes, "who frequently feel singular impressions upon their minds, and are inclined to pay a very strict regard unto them. Yea, some carry this point so far, as to make it almost the only rule of their judgment, and will not determine any thing, until they find it in their hearts to do it, as their phrase is. Others take it for granted, that the divine mind is notified to them by sweet or powerful impressions of some passages of sacred writ. There are others who are determined by visionary manifestations, or by the impressions made in dreams, and che in- terpretations they put upon them. All these tilings being of the same general nature, may very justly be considered together ; and it is a mat- ter of doubt with many how far these things are to be regarded, or attended to by us , and how we may distinguish any divine impressions of this kind from the delusions of the tempter, or of our own evil hearts. But, whoever makes any of these things his rule and standard, he forsakes the divine word; and nothing tends more to make persons unhappy in themselves, unsteady in their conduct, or more dangerously deluded in their practice, than paying a random regard to these impulses, as notifications of the divine will." See Enthusiasm; Providence. IMPURITY, want of that regard to decency, chastity, or holiness, which our duty requires. Impurity, in the law of Moses, is any legal de- filement. Of these there were several sorts : some were voluntary, as the toucliing a dead body, or any animal that died of itself, or any creature that was esteemed unclean ; or touching things holy by one who was not clean, or was not a priest ; the touching one who had a leprosy, one who had a gonorrhoea, or who was polluted by a dead carcase, &c. Sometimes these impurities were involuntary ; as when any one inadvertently touched bones, or a sepulchre, or any thing pol- luted ; or fell into such diseases as pollute, as the leprosy, &c. The. beds, clothes, and moveables, wliich had touched any thing unclean, contracted also a kind of impurity, and in some cases communicated it to others. These legal pollutions were generally removed by bathing, and lasted no longer than the even- ing. The person polluted plunged over head in the water; and either had his clothes on when be did so, or washed himself and his clothes sepa- rately. Other pollutions continued seven days; 165 Y INAblLlTY as that which was contracted by touching a dead body. Some impurities lasted forty or fifty days; as, that of women who were lately delivered, who were unclean forty days after the birth of a bov, and fifty after the birth of a girl. Others, again, lasted till the person was cured. Many of these pollutions were expiated by sa- crifices, and others by a certain water or lye made with the asnes of a red heifer, sacrificed on the great day of expiation. When the leper was cured, he went to the temple, and offered a sacri- fice of two birds, one of which was killed, and the other set at liberty. He who had touched a dead body, or had been present at a funeral, was to be purified with the water of expiation, and this upon pain of death. The woman who had been delivered, offered a turtle and a lamb for her ex- piation ; or if she was poor, two turtles, or two young pigeons. These impurities, which the law of Moses has expressed with the greatest accuracy and care, were only figures of other more important im- purities, such as the sins and iniquities committed against God, or faults committed against our neighbour. The saints and prophets of the Old Testament were sensible of this ; and our Saviouu, in the Gospel, has strongly inculcated — that they are not outward and corporeal pollutions which render us unacceptable to God, but such inward pollutions as infect the soul, and are violations of justice, truth and charity. IMPUTATION is the attributing any mat- ter, quality, or character, whether good or evil, ta any person as his own. It may refer to what was originally his, antecedently to such imputation; or to what was not antecedently his, but becomes so by virtue of such imputation only. 2 Sam. xix. 19 ; Ps. cvi. 31. The imputation that respecf.3 our justification before God is of the latter kind, and may be defined thus : it is God's gracious do- nation of the righteousness of Christ to believers, and his acceptance of their persons as righteous on the account thereof. Their sins being im- puted to him, and his obedience being imputed to them, they are, in virtue hereof, both acquitted from guilt, and accepted as righteous before God, Roin. iv. 6,7; v. 18, 19; 2 Cor. v. 21. See Righteousness. Sin; Dickinsons Letters, p. 156 ; Hervey's Thcron ar.d Aspasia, vol. ii. p. 43; Doddridge's Wmks, vol. iv. p. 562; Watts' s ]Vurks, vol. iii. p. 532. Edwards on Original Sin. INABILITY, want of power sufficient for the performance of any particular action or design. It has been divided into natural and moral. We are said to be naturally unable to do a thing when we cannot do it if we wish, because of some im- peding defect or obstacle that is extrinsic of the will, cither in the understanding, constitution of the body, or external objects. Moral inability consists not in any of these things, but either in the want of inclination, or the strength of a con- trary inclination ; or the want of sufficient mo- tives in vfew to induce and excite the act of tho will, or the strength of apparent motives to th» contrary. For the sake of illustration, we will here present the reader w-.th a few examples of both. Natural. Moral. Cain could vot have killed Cain could not have kill Abel, if Cain liad been the ed Abel, if Cain bad feared weakest, aud Abel atvare God, and loved Ids bro- of him. ther. &2 TNCEST ' tcob could not rejoice in Joseph s exaltation be- fore ho hoard of it. The woman mentioned in'2 pie manner, without the ostentation of form, and the vain pomp of ceremony. The congregations of the Independents are very numerous, both in England and America, and some of them very respectable. This de- nomination has produced many characters as eminent for learning and piety as any church in Christendom ; whose works, no doubt, will re- flect lasting honour on their characters and abili- ties. See Church,. Congregational; Non- conformists, and books under those articles. INDEPENDENTS, NEW, sometimes call- ed Haldanites, or Haldanite Indepevdenls, the appellation given to a tolerably large i lass of re- ligionists, who arose about thirty years since, and have spread to a considerable extent in Scotland and Ireland. Their origin as a sect, or society, is doubtless to be traced bark to the controversies which grew out of Mr. John Glas's secession from the established church, an event which gave rise to a great deal of controversy on the subject of church government, between the Presbyterians and liis adherents ; but it was not till about the commencement of the present century, that the latter body, which forms the subject of the present article, began to excite much attention. The institution of Missionary Societies had produced a strong sensation among the religious of all denominations, and other events ot a singular nature contributed to give rise to this spirit of religious discussion and innovation. But few men felt the missionary spirit with greater ardour than Robert Haldane, Esq. a gentleman of much respectability, and possessed of an ample fortune INDEPENDENTS in Scotland. Having lately been brought to think seriously of religion, ami now happy in the enjoyment of its comforts, he felt in no small degree the importance of the duty of spreading among the. heathen the knowledge of those truths which had given hope and consolation to his own mind. Under this impression, he sold his estates, and along with several associates, men of talent and exemplary piety, intended to employ his fortune in diffusing among the 'rihes (if Hindostan the arts of civilized lite, and the blessings of true religion. Such an example of disinterested zeal and of individual active benevo- lence has seldom occurred, and we may challenge all the modern philosophers and modern philan- thropists to produce the like. Upon application to government for liberty to adopt a system of measures for propagating the gospel extensively in the East Indies, his proposal was unsuccess- ful. But this disappointment, however great, j served only to direct his benevolence into another channel; for he then turned his attention to the state of his own country, and resolved to employ his fortune and his exertions in propagating the gospel at home. Accordingly, " The Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home," was formed in 1797, the professed object of which was to send forth men to preach the gospel in those parts of Scotland where they conceived that this blessing was not enjoyed in its purity, or where it was not regularly dispensed ; and hence the members of this sect were sometimes called Missionaries. The formation and exertions of this society, we are told, " had been considerably facilitated by the progress of opinion, — by the corruptions of the Scottish church, and by the religious discus- sions which had been excited by several publica- tions, and particularly by the Missionary Maga- zine." This miscellany, conducted by a minis- ter of the established church, who had agreed to accompany Mr. H. to India, contained some bold doctrines, which had seldom been heard without the threshold of some obscure conventicle; and among others, that it is the right, nay, the para- mount duty, of every Christian who knows the gospel, and is duly qualified, to preach it to his fellow sinners. The discussion of this contro- versy created a very great sensation in the reli- gious world; and the societies which had been formed, were, generally disposed to act upon the irrinciple. James Haldane, Esq. brother of the above, Mr. Aikman and others, men of ability, and actuated by fervent zeal, travelled at different times through the greater part of Scotland, preaching the gospel to their countrymen, and that on the maxim of "making the word of God without charge." In their labours they expe- rienced considerable opposition, particularly from the established clergy ; but " the common people heard them gladly," and not a tew of them em- braced the doctrines which they taught. They were soon succeeded by other labourers, employed by the society, who were no less successful in promoting the same cause. Neither the Messrs. Haldanes nor any of their friends, had yet separated from the com- munion of the church of Scotland, nor had any of the established ministers declared themselves attached to their party. But in a short time they both thought themselves bound in con- science and duty to forsake her fellowship; and soon after, Messrs. Ir.nes and Ewing, both min- 190 INDEX isters in the national church, resigned their charges, and united with them and their asso- ciates in the work in which they were engaged, in preaching the gospel throughout the kingdom. A distinct society was soon formed; and the Messrs. PI. by whose zeal and influence the sepa- ration was chiefly effected, being at its head, its members came to be called Haldanites, but this name of distinction was by no means agreeable to those gentlemen, who modestly desired it might be laid aside. Larue places of public worship, which were at first distinguished by the name of tabernacles, were erected at Mr, R. H.'s expense in the prir- cipat towns, where the word of God was declared to numerous assemblies, both by those ministers and others from various denominations in Eng- land. Mr. J. Haldane and Mr. Aikman were finally fixed at Edinburgh, Mr. Innes at Dun- dee, and Mr. Ewing at Glasgow, besides various other preachers who were established in different parts of the country. Academics also, supported chiefly, if not solely, at the expence of Mr. R. H. were formed at the three above-mentioned places, for the education of young men for the work of the ministry ; who, when qualified, were to be employed as itinerants under the inspection and countenance of the " Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home." The Established Presbyterian Church, it seems, have not followed the cautious policy of Gamaliel, " to let these men alone ;" for we are told that the ministers and leaders of this denomination have not been treated with " silent neglect," and that it was not owing to the moderation of her clergy, or the mildness of her principles, but to the superior indulgence of the civil government, that the Messrs. H. and their Iriends were not punished for their non-conformity, by the terrors of the law. Their present numbers, condition, or prospects, we have had no means of ascertaining. In doc- trine they are decidedly Calvinistic, and in church government maintain the purest princi- ples of Congregationalism. See that article, with the references. Also, Adams's Religious World Displayed, vol. iii. ; Haldanc's View of Social Worship. — B. INDEX, EXPURGATORY, a catalogue of prohibited books in the church of Rome. The first catalogues of this kind were made by the in- quisitors, and these were afterwards approved of by the council of Trent, after some alteration was made in them by way of retrenchment or addition. Thus an index of heretical books be- ing formed, it was confirmed by a bull of Cle- ment VIII. in 1595, and printed with several introductory rules ; by the fourth of which, the use of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue is fop- bidden to all persons without a particular licence : and by the tenth rule it is ordained, that no book shall be printed at Rome without the approba- tion of the pope's vicar, or some person delegated by the pope; nor in any other places, unless allowed by the bishop of the diocese, or some person deputed by him, or by the inquisitor of heretical pravity. The Trent index being thus published, Philip II. of Spain, ordered another to be printed at Antwerp in 1571, with considera- ble enlargements. Another index was published in Spain in 1581, a copy of which was snatch- ed out of the lire when" the English plundered INDULGENCES Cadiz. Afterwards there were several expurga- tory indexes printed at Rome and Naples, and particularly in Spain. INDIGNATION, a strong disapprobation of mind, excited by something flagitious in the con- duct of another. It does not, as Mr. Cogan ob- serves, always suppose that excess of depravity which alone is capable of committing deeds of horror. Indignation always refers to culpability of conduct, and cannot, like the passion of hor- ror, be extended to distress either of body or mind. It is produced by acts of treachery, abuse of confidence, base ingratitude, &c, which we cannot contemplate without being provoked to anger, and feeling a generous resentment. INDULGENCES, in the Romish church, are a remission of the punishments due to sin, granted by the church, and supposed to savp the sinner from purgatory. According to the doct rine of the Romish church, all the good works of the saints, over and above those which were necessary towards their own justification, are deposited, together with the in- finite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inexhausti- ble treasury. The keys of this were committed to St. Peter, and to his successors, the popes, who may open it at pleasure ; and, by trans- ferring a portion of this superabundant merit to any particular person for a sum of money, may convey to him either the pardon of his own sins, or a release for any one in whom he is interested from the pains of purgatory. Such indulgences were first invented in the eleventh century, by Urban II. as a recompense for those who went in person upon the glorious enterprise of con- quering the Holy Land. They were afterwards granted to those who hired a soldier for that pur- pose ; and in process of time were bestowed on such as gave money for accomplishing any pious work enjoined by the pope. The power of granting indulgences has been greatly abused in the church of Rome. Pope Leo X., in order to carry on the magnificent structure of St. Peter's, at Rome, published indulgences, and a plenary remission to all such as should contribute money towards it. Finding the project take, he granted to Albert, elector of Mentz, and archbishop of Magdeburg, the benefit of the indulgences of Saxony, and. the neighbouring parts, and farmed out those of other countries to the highest bid- ders: who, to make the best of their bargain, procured the ablest preachers to cry up the value of the ware. The form of these indulgences was as follows: — "May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by his authority, that of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and of the most holy pope, granted and committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee, first from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they have been incurred ; then from all thy sins, trans- gressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may be : even from such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy see, and as far as the keys of the holy church extend. I remit to you all punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account ; and I restore you to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism : so that when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened ; INDWELLING and if you shall not die at present, this gracs shall remain in full force when you are at the point of death. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." According to a book, called the Tax of the sacred Roman Chancery, in which are contained the exact sums to be levied for the pardon of each particular sin, we find some of the fees to be thus : s. d. For procuring abortion 7 6 For simony 10 6 For sacrilege 10 6 For taking a false oath in a criminal case 9 0 For robbing 12 0 For burning a neighbour's house ... 12 0 For defiling a virgin 9 0 For lying with a mother, sister, &c. . 7 6 For murdering a layman 7 6 For keeping a concubine 10 (5 For laying violent hands on a clergyman 10 6 And so on. The terms in which the retailers of indulgences described their benefits, and the necessity of pur- chasing them, were so extravagant, that they ap- pear almost incredible. If any man, said they, purchase letters of indulgence, his soul may rest secure with respect to its salvation. The souls confined in purgatory, for whose redemption in- dulgences are purchased, as soon as the money tinkles in the chest, instantly escape from that place of torment, and ascend into heaven. That the efficacy of indulgences was so great, that the most heinous sins, even if one should violate (which was impossible) the Mother of God, would be remitted and expiated by them, and the person be freed both from punishment and guilt. That this was the unspeakable gift of God, in order to reconcile man to himself. That the cross erected by the preachers of indulgences was equally effi- cacious with the cross of Christ itself. " Lo," said they, "the heavens are open : if you enter not now, when will you enter 7 For twelvepence you may redeem the soul of your father out of purgatory ; and are you so ungrateful that you will not rescue the soul of your parent from tor- ment % If you had but ono coat, you ought to strip yourself instantly and sell it, in order to purchase such benefit," &c. It was this great abuse of in- dulgences that contributed not a little to the Re» formation of religion in Germany, where Martin Luther began first to declaim against the preachers of indulgences, and afterwards against indulgences themselves. Since that time the popes have been more sparing in the exercise of this power ; al- though, it is said, they still carry on a great trade with them to the Indies, where they are purchased at two rials a piece, and sometimes more. We are told also that a gentleman not long since being at Naples, in order that he might be fully ascer- tained respecting indulgences, went to the office, and for two sequins purchased a plenary remis- sion of all sins for himself and any two other per- sons of his friends or relations, whose names he was empowered to insert. Haweis's Church Hist. vol. Hi. p. 147; Smith's Errors of the Church of Rome ; Watson's Theol. Tracts, vol. v. p. 274 ; Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 594, quarto. INDUSTRY, diligence, constant application of the mind, or exercise of the body. See Dili- gence and Idleness. INDWELLING SCHEME, a scheme which derives its name from that passage in Col. ii. 9. INFALLIBILITY " In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," which, according to some, asserts the doctrine of Cnnst's consisting of two hcings ; one the self-existent Creator, and the other a creature, made into one person by an ineffable union and indwelling, which renders the same attributes and honours equally applicable to both. See Prk-kxistkatk. Dr. Owen's Glory of Christ, p. 3G8, 3(59, London ed. Iu79 ; a Sermon entitled " The Iruc Christ of God above the false Christ of Men," Ipswich, 1799; Watts' s Glory of Christ, p. < i— 003 ; Adams's View of Religions, p. 2(37. INFALLIBILITY, the quality of not being irble to be deceived or mistaken. The infallibility of the Church of Rome has been one of the great controversies between the Protestants and Papists. By this infallibility it Ls understood, that she cannot at any time cease to be ortliodox in her doctrine, or fall into any pernicious errors ; hut that she is constituted, by divine authority, the judge of all controversies of religion, and that all Christians are obliged to ac- quiesce in her decisions. This is the chain which keeps its members fast bound to its com- munion ; the charm which retains them within its magic circle ; the opiate which lays asleep all their doubts and difficulties; it is likewise the magnet which attracts the desultory and unstable in other persuasions within the sphere of popery, the foundation of its whole superstructure, the cement of ail its parts, and its fence and fortress against all inroads and attacks. Under the idea of this infallibility, the church of Rome claims, 1. To determine what books are and what are not canonical, and to oblige all Christians to receive or reject them accordingly. — 2. To communicate authority to the Scripture ; or, in other words, that the Scripture (quoad nos,) as to us, receives its authority from her. — 3. To assign and fix the sense of Scripture, which all Christians are submissively to receive. — 4. To decree as necessary to salvation whatever she judges so, although not contained in Scripture. — 5. To decide all controversies respecting matters of faith. These are the claims to which the church of Rome pretends, but which we shall not here attempt to refute, because any man with the Bible in his hand, and a little common sense, will easily see that they are all founded upon igno- rance, superstition, and error. It is not a little remarkable, however, that the Roman Catholics themselves are much divided as to the seat of this infallibility, and which, indeed, may be consi- dered as a satisfactory proof that no such privi- lege exists in the church. For is it consistent with reason to think that God would have im- parted so extraordinary a gift to prevent errors and dissensions in the church, and yet have left an additional cause of error and dissension, viz. the uncertainty of the place of its abode 1 No, surely, —Some place this infallibility in the pope or bishop of Rome; some in a general council; otheTs in neither pope nor council separately, but. in both conjointly ; whilst others are said to place it in the church diffusive, or in all churches throughout the world. But that it could not be deposited in the pope is evident, for many popes have been heretics, and on that account censured and deposed, and therefore could not have been infallible. That it could not be placed in a gene- ral council is as evident ; for general councils have actually erred. Neither could it be placed in the 192 INFALLIBILITY pope and council conjointly ; for two fallinlcs could not make one infallible, any more than twe ciphers could make an integer. To say that it is lodged in the church universal or diffusive, is equally erroneous ; for this would be useless and insignificant, because it could never oe exercised. Thi w7hole church could not meet to make de- crees, or to choose representatives, or to delivei their sentiments on any question started ; and less than all would not be the whole church, and. so could not claim that privilege. The most general opinion, however, it is said, is that of its being seated in a pope and general council. The advocates for this opinion consider the pope as the vicar of Christ, head of the church, and centre of unity ; and therefore conclude that his concurrence with and approbation of the de- crees of a general council arc necessary, and suffi- cient to afford it an indispensable sanction and plenary authority. A general council they re- gard as the church representative, and suppose that nothing can be wanting to ascertain the truth of any controversial point, when the pre- tended head of the church and its members, as- sembled in their supposed representatives, mu- tually concur and coincide in judicial definitions and decrees, but that infallibility attends their coalition and conjunction in all their determina- tions. Every impartial person, who considers this subject with the least degree of attention, must clearby perceive that neither any individual nor body of Christians have any ground from reason or Scripture for pretending to infallibility. It is evidently the attribute of the Supreme Being alone, which we have all the foundation imagi nable to conclude he has not communicated to any mortal, or associations of mortals. The hu- man being who challenges infallibility seems to imitate the pride and presumption of Lucifer, when he said, — I will ascend, and will be like the Most High. A chum to it was unheard of in the primitive and purest ages of the church ; but became, after that period, the arrogant pre- tension of papal ambition. History plainly in- forms us, that the bishops of Rome, on the de- clension of the western Roman empire, began to put in their claim of being the supreme and in- fallible heads of the Christian church; which they at length established by their deep policy and unremitting efforts ; by the concurrence of fortunate circumstances; by the advantages which they reaped from the necessities of some princes, and the superstition of others ; and by the gene- ral and excessive credulity of the people. How- ever, when they had grossly abused this absurd pretension, and committed various acts of injus- tice, tyranny, and cruelty ; when the blind vene- ration for the papal dignity had been greatly di- minished by the long and scandalous schism occasioned by contending popes; when these had been for a considerable time roaming about Europe, fawning on princes, squeezing their ad- herents, and cursing their rivals ; and when the councils of Constance and Basil had challenged and exercised the right of deposing and electing the bishops of Rome, then their pretensions to infallibility were called in question, and the world discovered that councils were a jurisdiction su]>e- rior to that of the towering pontiffs. Then it was that this infallibility was transferred by many divines from popes to general councils, and the INFANT opinion of the superior authority of a council above that of a pope spread vastly, especially un- der the profligate pontificate of Alexander VI. and the martial one of Julius II. The popes were thought by numbers to be too unworthy possessors of so rich a jewel ; at the same time it appeared to be of too great a value, and of too ex- tensive consequence, to be parted with entirely. It was, therefore, by the major part of the Roman ehurch, deposited with, or made the property of general councils, either solely or conjointly with the pope. See Smith's Errors of the Church of Rome detected ; and a list of writers under article Popery. INFANT COMMUNION, the admission of infants to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. It has been debated by some, whether or no in- fants should be admitted to this ordinance. One of the greatest advocates for this practice was Mr. Pierce. He pleads the use of it even unto this day among the Greeks, and in the Bohemian churches, till near the time of the Reformation ; but especially from the custom of the ancient churches, as it appears from many passages in Photius, Augustin, and Cyprian. But Dr. Dod- dridge observes, that Mr. Pierce's proof from the more ancient fathers is very defective. His argu- ments from Scripture chiefly depend upon this general medium; that Christians succeeding to the Jews as God's people, and being grafted upon that stock, their infants have a right to all the privileges of which they are capable, till forfeited by some immoralities ; and consequently have a right to partake of this ordinance, as the Jewish children had to eat of the passover and other sa- crifices ; besides this, he pleads those texts which speak of the Lord's Supper as received by all Christians. The most obvious answer to all this, is that which is taken from the incapacity of infants to examine themselves, and discern the Lord's body ; but he answers that this precept is only given to persons capable of understanding and complying with it, as those which require faith in order to baptism are interpreted by the Psedobaptists. As for his argument from the Jewish children eating the sacrifice, it is to be considered that this was not required as circumcision was ; the males were not necessarily brought to the temple till they were twelve years old, Luke ii. 42 ; and the sacrifices they ate of were chiefly peace-offerings, which became the common food to all that were clean in the family, and were not looked upon as acts of devotion to such a degree as our eucharist is ; though, indeed, they were a token of their ac- knowledging the divinity of that God to whom they had been olfered, 1 Cor. x. 18; and even the passover was a commemoration of a temporal deliverance; nor is there any reason to believe that its reference to the Messiah was generally understood by the Jews. On the whole, it is certain there would be more danger of a contempt arising to the Lord's Supper from the admission of infants, and of confusion and trouble to other communicants; so that not being required in Scripture, it is much the best to omit it. When children arc grown up to a capacity of behaving decently, they may soon be instructed in the nature and design of the ordinance ; and if they appear to under- stand it, and behave for some competent time of trial in a manner suitable to that profession, it 1U3 Z INFIDELITY would probably be advisable to admit them is communion, though very young ; which, by the way, might be a good security against many of the snares to which youth are exposed. — Dod- dridge's Lectures, lect. 207 ; Pierce's Essay on the Eucharist, p. 76, &c; Witsius on Cov. b. 4- c. 17, § 30, 32; J. Frid. Mayer Diss, de Eucha- ristia Infantum ; Zornius Hist. Eucharist. In- fantum, p. 18; Theol. and Bib. Mag. January and April, 1806. INFA1NTS, SALVATION OF. "Vari- ous opinions," says an acute writer, "concerning the future state of infants have been adopted. Some think, all dying in infancy are annihilated ; for, say they, infants, being incapable of moral good or evil, are not proper objects of reward or punishment. Others think that they share a fate similar to adults ; a part saved, and a part perish. Others affirm all are saved because all are im- mortal and all are innocent. Others, perplexed with these diverse sentiments, think best to leave the subject untouched. Cold comfort to parents who bury their families in infancy ! The most probable opinion seems to be, that they are all saved, through the merits of the Mediator, with an everlasting salvation. This has nothing in it contrary to the perfections of God, or to any de- claration of the Holy Scriptures ; and it is highly agreeable to all those passages which affirm where sin hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded. On these principles, the death of Christ saves more than the fall of Adam lost." If the reader be desirous of examining the subject, we refer him to p. 415. vol. ii. Robinson's Claude; Gillard and Williams's Essays on Infant Salva- tion; An Attempt to elucidate Rom. v. 12, by an anonymous writer ; Watts' s Ruin and Recovery, p. 324, 327; Edwards on Original Sin, p. 431, 434; Doddridge's Lect. lea 168 j Ridglajs Body of Div. vol. i. p. 330 to 336. INFIDELITY, want of faith in God. or the disbelief of the truths of revelation, and the great principles of religion. If we inquire into the rise of infidelity, we shall find it does not take its ori- gin from the result of sober inquiry, close inves- tigation, or full conviction; but it is rather, as one observes, " The slow production of a care- less and irreligious life, operating together with prejudices and erroneous conceptions concerning the nature of the leading doctrines of Chris- tianity. It may, therefore, be laid down as an axioni, that infidelity is, in general, a disease of the heart more than of the understanding; for we always find that infidelity increases in propor- tion as the general morals decline. If we con- sider the nature and effect of this principle, we shall find that it subverts the whole foundation of morals ; it tends directly to the destruction of a. taste for moral excellence, and promotes the growth of those vices which are the most hostile to social happiness, especially vanity, ferocity, and unbridled sensuality. As to the progress of it, it is certain that, of late years, it has made rapid strides. Lord Herbert did not, indeed, so much impugn the doctrine or the morality of the Scrip- tures, as attempt to supersede their necessity, by endeavouring to show that the great principles of the unity of God, a moral government, and a future world, are taught with sufficient clearness by the light of nature. Bolingbroke, and others of his successors, advanced much further, and attempted to invalidate the proofs of the moral INFINITY character of the Deity, and consequently all ex- pectation of rewards and punishments, leaving; the Supreme Being no other perfections than those which belong to a first cause, or Almighty contriver. After him, at a considerable distance, followed Hume, the most subtle of all, who boldly aimed to introduce an universal scepticism, and to pour a more than Egyptian darkness into the whole rejion of morals. Since his time, sceptical writers have sprang up in abundance, and infidelity has allured multitudes to its stand- ard : the young and superficial, by its dexterous sophistry ; the vain, by the literary fame of its Champion ; and the profligate, by the licentious- ness of its principles." But let us ask, What will be its end ? Is there any thing in the genius of this principle that will lead us to suppose it will reign triumphant? So far from it, we have reason to believe that it will be banished from the earth. Its inconsistency with reason ; its incon- gruity with the nature of man ; its cloudy and obscure prospects; its unsatisfying nature; its opposition to the dictates of conscience ; its per- nicious tendency to eradicate every just principle from the breast of man, and to lead the way for every species, of vice and immorality, show us that it cannot flourish, but must finally fall. — And, as Mr. Hall justly observes, " We have nothing to fear ; for, to an attentive observer of the signs of the times, it will appear one of the most extraordinary phenomena of this eventful crisis, that, amidst the ravages of atheism and in- fidelity, real religion is on the increase ; for while infidelity is marking its progress by devastation and ruin, by the prostration of thrones and con- cussion of kingdoms, thus appalling the inhabit- ants of the world, and compelling them to take refuge in the church of God, the true sanctuary, — the stream of divine knowledge, unobserved, is flowing in new channels; winding its course among humble valleys, refreshing thirsty deserts, and enriching, with far other and higher bless- ings than those of commerce, the most distant climes and nations ; until, agreeably to the pre- diction of prophecy, the knowledge of the Lord shall fill and cover the whole earth." See Hall's admirable Ser. on Infidelity; Fuller's Gospel of Christ its own Witness ; Biihop Watson's Apology for the Bihlc ; Wilbcrforce's Practical View, § 3. ch. 7; Bp. Home's Le'ters on Infi- delity, and books under article Deism. INFINITY. Infinity is taken in two senses entirely different, i. e. in a positive and a negative one. Positive infinity is a quality of being per- fect in itself, or capable of receiving no addition. Negative is the quality of being boundless, unli- mited, or endless. That God is infinite is evi- dent; for, as Doddridge observes, 1. If he be limited, it must either be by himself or by an- other ; but no wise being would abridge himself; and there could be no other being to limit God. — 2. Infinity follows from self-existence ; for a ne- cessity that is not universal must depend on some external cause, which a self-existent Being does not. — 3. Creation is so great an act of power, that we can imagine nothing impossible to that Being who has performed it, but must therefore ascribe to him infinite power. — 4. It is more ho- nourable to the Divine Being to conceive of him as infinite than finite. — 5. The Scriptures repre- sent all his attributes as infinite. His under- standing is infinite, Ps. ctlvii. 5. His know- 194 INFLUENCES ledge and wisdom, Rom. xi. 33. His power, Rom. i. 20 ; Heb. xi. 3. His goodness, Ps. xvi. 2. His purity, holiness, and justice, Job iv. 17, 18 ; Isa. vi. 2, 3. — 6. His omnipotence and eter- nity prove his infinity : for were he not infi- nite, he would be bounded by space and by time, which he is not. Doddridge's Led. lect. 49 ; Watts' s Ontology, ch. 17 ; Locke on Underst. vol. i. chap. 17; Howe's Works, vol. i. p. 63, 61, 67. INFIRMITY, applied to the mind, denotes frailty, weakness. It has been a question what may properly be denominated sins of infirmity. 1. Nothing, it is said, can be excused under that name which at the time of its commission is known to be a sin. — 2. Nothing can be called a sin of infirmity which is contrary to the express letter of any of the commandments. — 3. Nothing will admit of a just and sufficient excuse upon the account of infirmity which a man beforehand considers and deliberates with himseltj whether it be a sin or no. A sin of infirmity is, 1. Such a failing as proceeds from excusable ignorance. — 2. Or unavoidable surprise. — 3. Or want of courage and strength. Rom. xv. 1. By infirmity also we understand the corrup- tions that are still left in the heart (notwithstand- ing a person may be sanctified in part,) and which sometimes break out. These may be per- mitted to humble us ; to animate our vigilance ; perhaps that newly convinced sinners might not be discouraged by a sight of such perfection they might despair of ever attaining to ; to keep us prayerful and dependent ; to prevent those hon- ours which some would be ready to give to human nature rather than to God ; and, lastly, to excite in us a continual desire for heaven. Let us be cautious and watchful, however, against sin in all its forms : for it argues a deplorable state of mind when men love to practise sin ; and then lay it upon constitution, the infirmity of nature, the decree of God, the influence of Satan ; and thus attempt to excuse themselves by saying they could not avoid it. Clarke's Serm. ser. 12. voL Lx. ; Massillon's Serm. vol. ii. p. 213, English translation. INFLUENCES, DIVINE, a term made use of to denote the operations of the Divine Being upon the mind. This doctrine of divine influ- ences has been much called in question of late ; but we may ask, 1. What doctrine can be more reasonable ? " The operations which the power of God carries on in the natural world are no less mysterious than those which the Spirit performs in the moral world. If men, by their counsels and suggestions, can influence the minds of one another, must not divine suggestion produce a much greater effect 1 Surely the Father ef spirits, by a thousand ways, has access to the spirits he has made, so as to give them what determination, or impart to them what assistance he thinks pro. per, without injuring their frame or disturbing their rational powers." We may observe, 2. Nothing can be more scriptural. Eminent men, from the patriarchal age down to St. John, the latest writer, believed in this doctrine, and ascribed their religious feel- ings to this source Our Lord strongly and re- peatedly inculcated this truth ; and that he did not mean miraculous, but moral influences of the Spirit, is evident, John iii. 3 J Matt. vii. 22, 23 ; John vi. 44, 46. See also, John xii. 32, 40: INJURY Rom. viri. 9 ; 1 Cor. ii. 14. — 3. And we may add, nothing can be more necessary, if we consider the natural depravity of the heart, and the in- sufficiency of all human means to render ourselves either holy or happy without a supernatural power. See Williams's Historic Defence of Experimental Religion; Williams's Answer to Belsham, let. 13; Hurrion's Sermons on the Spirit ; Owen on the Spirit. INGHAMITES, a denomination of Calvin- istic Dissenters, who arc the followers of B. Ing- ham, esq., who in the last century was a charac- ter of great note in the north of England. About the year 1735, Mr. Ingham was at dueen's col- lege, with Mr. Hervey and other friends, but soon afterwards adopted the religious opinions and zeal of Wesley and Whitfield. We do not know the cause of his separation from these eminent men ; but it seems in a few years afterwards he became the leader of numerous societies, distinct from the Methodists. They received their members by lot, and required them to declare before the church their experience, that the whole society might judge of the gracious change which had been wrought upon their hearts. It happened in a few years, that some individuals who were much respected, and who applied for admission, instead of speaking of their own attainments, or the com- fortable impression on their minds, which they only considered as productive of strife and vain- glory, declared their only hope was the finished work of Jesus Christ; as to themselves they were sensible of their own vileness. Such confessions as tins threw the congregation into some confu- sion, which was considerably increased when they found, that, on their having recourse as usual to the lot, that there were votes against their admission, which was considered as a rejec- tion from the Lord. On this they were led to examine more particularly both their church, or- der, and doctrines. After this time, Mr. ing- ham became much more orthodox in his senti- ments, and new-modelled his churches. The book which he published is in general well thought of by the Independents. He contends very strongly for salvation by the imputation of Christ's righteousness; and as to doctrine, the chief point wherein the Inghamites differ from the Independents is respecting the Trinity. The common manner of speaking of the Divine Three as distinct persons, they decisively condemn. They do not consider a plurality of elders as necessary in a church to administer the Lord's Supper. In other respects they much esteem the writings of Mr. R. Sandeman. Their numbers have not been so numerous since they became more strict in their public worship. INGRATITUDE, the vice of being insensi- ble to favours received, without any endeavour to acknowledge and repay them. It is sometimes applied to the act of returning evil for good. In- gratitude, it is said, is no passion ; for the Cod of nature has appointed no motion of the spirits whereby it might be excited ; it is, therefore, a mere vice, arising from pride, stupidity, or nar- rowness of soul. INIQ.UITY. See Sin. INJURY, a violation of the rights of another. Some, says Grove, distinguish between iiijustitia and injuria. Injustice is opposed to justice in general, whether negative or positive; an injury, to negative justice uione. Sre Justice. An in- iys INQUISITION jury Is, wilfully doing to another what ought not to be done. This is injustice, too, but not the whole idea of it ; for it is injustice, also, to refus* or neglect doing what ought to be done. An in- jury must be wilfully committed ; whereas it is enough to make a thing unjust, that it happena through a culpable negligence. 1. We may injure a person in his soul, by misleading his judgment; by corrupting the imagination ; perverting tho wiil ; and wounding the soul with grief. Perse- cutors who succeed in their compulsive measures, though they cannot alter the real sentiments by external violence, yet sometimes injure the soul by making the man a hypocrite. — 2. We may in- jure another in his body, by homicide, murder, preventing life, dismembering the body by wounds, blows, slavery, and imprisonment, or any unjust restraint upon its liberty: by robbing it of its chastity, or prejudicing its health. — 3. We may injure another in his name and character, by our own false and rash judgments of him ; by false witness ; by charging a man to his face with a crime which either we ourselves have forged, or which we know to have been forged by some other person ; by detraction or backbiting ; by re- proach, or exposing another for some natural im- becility either in body or mind ; or for some calami- ty into which he is fallen, or some miscarriage of which he has been guilty ; by inuendos, or indi- rect accusations that are not true. Now if we consider the value of character, the resentment which the injurious person has of such treatment when it comes to his own turn to suffer it, the consequence of a man's losing his good name, and finally, the difficulty of making reparation, we must at once see the injustice of lessening another's good character. There are these two considerations which should sometimes restrain us from speaking the wnole truth of our neigh- bour, when it is to his disadvantage. (1.) That he may possibly live to see his folly, and repent and grow better. — (2.) Admitting that we speak the truth, yet it is a thousand to one but when it is banded about for some time, it will contract a deal of falsehood. — 4. We may injure a person in his relations and dependencies. In his ser- vants, by corrupting them; in his children, by drawing them into evil courses ; in his wife, by sowing strife, attempting to alienate her affec- tions.— 5. We may be guilty of injuring another in his worldly goods or possessions. 1. By doing him a mischief, without any advantage to our- selves, through envy and malice. — 2. By taking what is another's, which is theft. Se% Grove's Mor. Phil. ch. 8. p. 2 ; Wattes Sermons, vol. ii. ser. 33 ; Tillotson's Sermons, sei . 42. INJURIES, FORGIVENESS OF. See Forgiveness. INJUSTICE. See Injury. INNOCENCE, acting in perfect consonance to the law, without incurring guilt or consequent punishment. See Man. INQ.UISITION, in the church of Rome, a tribunal in several Roman Catholic countries, erected by the popes for the examination and punishment of heretics. This court was founded in the twelfth century, under the patronage of pope Innocent, who issued out orders to excite the Catholic princes and people to extirpate heretics, to search into their number and quality, and to transmit a faithful account thereof to Rome Hence they were called inquisitors and gave INQ.U1S1TI0N birth to this formidable tribunal, called the In- quisition. That nothing might be wanting to render this spiritual court formidable and tre- mendous, the Roman pontiffs persuaded the Eu- ropean princes, and more especially the Emperor Frederick II. and Lewis IX. king of France, not only to enact the most barbarous laws against here- tics, and to commit to the flames, by the ministry of public justice, those who were pronounced such by the inquisitors, but also to maintain the in- quisitors in their office, and grant them their pro- tection in the most open and solemn manner. The edicts to this purpose issued out by Frede- rick II. are well known ; edicts sufficient to have excited the greatest horror, and which have ren- dered the most illustrious piety and virtue incapa- ble of saving from the cruellest death such as had the misfortune to be disagreeable to the inquisitors. These abominable laws were not, however, suf- ficient to restrain the just indignation of the peo- ple against those inhuman judges, whose barbarity- was accompanied with superstition and arrogance, with a spirit of suspicion and perfidy ; nay, even with temerity and imprudence. Accordingly, they were insulted by the multitude in many places, were driven in an ignominious manner out of some cities, and were put to death in others ; and Conrad, of Marpurg, the first German in- quisitor, who derived his commission from Gre- gory IX., was one of the many victims that were sacrificed on this occasion to the vengeance of the public, which his incredible barbarities had raised to a dreadful degree of vehemence and fury. This diabolical tribunal takes cognizance of heresy, Judaism, Mahometanism, sodomy, and polygamy ; and the people stand in so much fear of it, that parents deliver up their children, hus- bands their wives, and masters their servants, to its officers, without daring in the least to murmur. The prisoners are kept for a long time, till they themselves turn their own accusers, and declare the cause of their imprisonment, for which they are neither told their crime, nor confronted with witnesses. As soon as they are imprisoned, their friends go into mourning, and speak of them as dead, not daring to solicit their pardon, lest they should be brought in as accomplices. When there is no shadow of proof against the pretended crimi- nal, he is discharged, alter suffering the most cruel fortures, a tedious and dreadful imprisonment, and the loss of the greatest part of his effects. The sentence against prisoners is pronounced publicly, and with extraordinary solemnity. In Portugal they erect a theatre capable of holding three thou- sand persons, in which they place a rich altar, and raise seats on each side, in the form of an amphi- theatre. There the prisoners are placed, and over against them is a high chair, whither they are I'-aJled one by one. to hear their doom from one of the inquisitors. These unhappy persons know what they are to suffer by the clothes they wear that day : those who appear in their own clothes are discharged on paying a fine; those who have a santo benito, or strait yellow coat without sleeves, charged with St. Andrew's cross, have their lives, but forfeit all their effects ; those who have the resemblance of flames made of red serge sewed upon their santo benito, without any cross, are pardoned, but threatened to be burnt if ever they relapse ; but those who, besides those flames, have on their santo benito their own picture sur- -uunded with devils, are oondeinned to expire in 1% INSPIRATION the flames. The inquisitors, who are ecclesias- tics, do not pronounce the sentence of death, but form and read an act, in which they say, that the criminal, being convicted of such a crime, by his own confession, is with much reluctance delivered to the secular power, to be punished according to his demerits ; and this writing they give to the seven judges, who attend at the right side of the altar, and immediately pass sentence. For tlie conclusion of this horrid scene, see Act of Faith. We rejoice, however, to hear, that in many Ro- man Catholic countries the inquisition is now shut. May the God of mercy and love prevent its ever being employed again ! See Baker's History of the Inquisition; and Limborch's History of the Inquisition, translated by Chandler ; a View of the Inquisition in Portugal in Geddes'a Tracts ; Lavalle's History of the Inquisition. INSPIRATION, the conveying of certain extraordinary and supernatural notions or mo- tions into the soul ; or it denotes any supernatural influence of God upon the mind of a rational creature, whereby he is formed to any degree of intellectual improvement, to which he could not or would not, in fact, have attained in his present circumstances in a natural way. Thus the pro- phets are said to have spoken by divine inspira- tion. 1. An inspiration of super intendency, in which God does so influence and direct Lhe mind of any person as to keep him more secure from error in some various and complex discourse, than he would have been merely by the use of his natural faculties. — 2. Plenary superintendent in- spiration, which excludes any mixture of error at all from the performance so superintended. — 3. Inspiration of elevation, where the faculties act in a regular, and as it seems, in a common man- ner, yet are raised to an extraordinary degree, so that the composure shall, upon the whole, havu more of the true sublime or pathetic than natural genius could have given. — 4 Inspiration of sug- gestion, where the use of the faculties is super seded, and God does, as it were, speak directly to the mind, making such discoveries to it as it could not otherwise have obtained, and dictating the very words in which such discoveries are to be communicated, if they are designed as a message to others. It is generally allowed that the Scrip- tures were written by divine inspiration. The matter of them, the spirituality and elevation of their design, the majesty and simplicity of their style, the agreement of their various parts ; their wonderful efficacy on mankind; the candour, disinterestedness, and uprightness of the penmen ; their astonishing preservation ; the multitude of miracles wrought in confirmation of the doctrines they contain, and the exact fulfilment of their pre- dictions, prove this. It has been disputed, how- ever, whether this inspiration is, in the most ab- solute sense, plenary. As thus is a subject of importance, and ought to be carefully studied by every Christian, in order that he may render a reason of the hope that is in him, I shall here sub- join the remarks of an able writer, who though he may duTer from some others as to the terms made use of above, yet I am persuaded his arguments will be found weighty and powerful. " There are many things in the Scriptures," savs JMr. Dick, "which the writers might have known, and probably did know, by ordinary means. As persons possessed of memory, judgment, and other intellectual faculties which are common to men, INSPIRATION they were able to relate certain events in which they hud been personally concerned, and to make euch occasional reflections as were suggested by particular subjects and occurrences. In these cases no supernatural influence was necessary to invigorate their minds ; it was only necessary that they should be infallibly preserved from error. It Is with respect to such passages of Scripture alone, as did not exceed the natural ability of the writers to compose, that I would admit the notion at' superintendence, if it should be admitted at all. Perhaps this word, though of established use and almost undisputed authority, should be entirely laid aside, as insufficient to express even the low- est degree of inspiration. In the passages of Scripture which we are now considering, I con- ceive the writers to have been not merely super- intended, that they might commit no error, but likewise to have been moved or excited by the Holy Ghost to record particular events, and set down particular observations. The passages writ- ten in consequence of the direction and under the care of the Divine Spirit, may be said, in an in- ferior sense, to be inspired ; whereas, if the men had written them at the suggestion of their own spirit, they would not have possessed any more authority, though they had been free from error, than those parts of profane writings which are agreeable to truth. 2. " There are other parts of the Scriptures in which the faculties of the writers were superna- turally invigorated and elevated. It is impossible for us, and perhaps it was not possible for the in- spired person himself, to determine where nature ended, and inspiration began. It is enough to know, that there are many parts of Scripture in which, though the unassisted mind might have proceeded some steps, a divine impulse was ne- cessary to enable it to advance. I think, for example, that, the evangelists could not have written the history of Christ if they had not en- joyed miraculous aid. Two of them, Matthew and John, accompanied our Saviour during the space of three years and a half. At the close of this period, or rather several years after it, when they wrote their Gospels, we may be certain that they had forgotten many of his discourses and miracles ; that they recollected others indis- tinctly ; and that they would have been in dan- ger of producing an inaccurate and unfair ac- count, by confounding one thing with another. Besides, from so large a mass of particulars, men of uncultivated minds, who were not in the habit of distinguishing and classifying, could not have made a proper selection ; nor would persons un- skilled in the art of composition have been able to express themselves in such terms as should in- sure a faithful representation of doctrines and facts, and with such dignity as the nature of the subject required. A divine influence, therefore, must have been exerted on their minds, by which their memories and judgments were strength- ened, and they were enabled to relate the doc- trines and miracles of their Master in a manner the best fitted to impress the readers of their his- tories. The promise of the Holy Ghost to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever Christ had said to them, proves, that, in writing their histories, their mental powers were endow- ed by his agency, with more than usual vigour. " Further ; it must be allowed that in several passages of Scripture there is found such eleva- 197 INSPIRATION tion of thought and of style, as clearly shows that the powers of the writers were raised above their ordinary pitch. If a person of moderate talents should give as elevated a description of the ma- jesty and attributes of God, or reason as pro- foundly on the mysterious doctrines of religion, as a man of the most exalted genius and exten- sive learning, we could not fail to be convinced that he was supernaturally assisted ; and the conviction would be still stronger, if his compo- sition should far transcend the highest efforts of the human mind. Some of the sacred writers were taken from the lowest ranks of life ; and yet sentiments so dignified, and representations of divine things so grand and majestic, occur in their writings, that the noblest flights of human genius, when compared with them, appear cold and insipid. 3. " It is manifest, with respect to many pas- sages of Scripture, that the subjects of which they treat must have been directly revealed to the writers. They could not have been known by any natural means, nor was the knowledge of them attainable by a simple elevation of the faculties. With the faculties of an angel we could not discover the purposes of the divine mind. This degree of inspiration we attribute to those who were empowered to reveal heavenly mysteries, ' which eye had not seen, and ear had not heard,' to those who were sent with particular messages from God to his people, and to those who were employed to predict future events. The plan of redemption being an effect of the sove- reign councils of heaven, it could not have been known but by a communication from the Fa ther of Light. " This kind of inspiration has been called the inspiration of suggestion. It is needless to dis- pute about a word ; but suggestion seeming to express an operation on the mind, by which ideas are excited in it, is of too limited a signification to denote the various modes in which the prophets and apostles were made acquainted with super- natural truths. God revealed himself to them not only by suggestion, but by dreams, visions, voices, and the ministry of angels. This degree of inspiration, in strict propriety of speech, should be called revelation; a word preferable to sugges- tion, because it is expressive of all the ways in which God communicated new ideas to the minds of his servants. It is a word, too, chosen by thf> Holy Ghost himself, to signify the discovery of truths formerly unknown to the apostles. The last book of the New Testament, which is a col- lection of prophecies, is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul says, that he received the Gospel by revelation ; that ' by revelation the mystery was made known to him, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it was then revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit ;' and in another place, having observed that 'eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him,' he adds, ' But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirjjt.' Rev. i. 1 ; Gal. i. 12; Eph. ii. 5; 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. I have not names to designate the other two kinds of inspiration. The names used by Dod- dridge and others, Superintendence, Elevation, and Suggestion, do not convey the ideas stated in the three preceding particulars, and are liable to r 2 INSPIkAl ION other objections, besides those which have been mentioned. This account of the inspiration of the Scriptures has, I think, these two recom- mendations : that there is no part of the Scrip- ture which does not fall under one or other of the foregoing heads ; and that the different de- grees of the agency of the Divine Spirit on the rmiids of the different writers are carefully dis- criminated. " Some men have adopted very strange and dangerous notions respecting the inspiration of the Scriptures. Dr. Priestley denies that they were written by a particular divine inspiration ; and asserts that the writers, though men of the greatest probity, were fallible, and have actually committed mistakes in their narrations and then- reasonings. But this man and his followers find it their interest to weaken and set aside the au- thority of the Scriptures, as they have adopted a system of religion from which all the distinguish- ing doctrines of revelation are excluded. Others consider the Scriptures as inspired in those places where they profess to deliver the word of God '; but in other places, especially in the his- torical parts, they ascribe to them only the same authority which is due to the writings of well-in- formed and upright men. But as this distinction is perfectly arbitrary, having no foundation in any thing said by the sacred writers themselves, so it is liable to very material objections. It re- presents our Lord and his apostles, when they speak of the Old Testament, as having attested, without any exception or limitation, a number of books as divinely inspired, while some of them were partly, and some were almost entirely, human compositions : it supposes the writers of both Testaments to have profanely mixed their own productions with the dictates of the Spirit, and to have passed the unhallowed compound on the world as genuine. In fact, by denying that they were constantly under infallible guidance, it leaves us utterly at a loss to know when we should or should not believe them. If they could blend their own stories with the revelations made to them, how can I be certain that they have not, on some occasions, published, in the name of God, sentiments of their own, to which they were desirous to gain credit and authority 7 Who will assure me of their perfect fidelity in drawing a line of distinction between the divine and the human parts of their writings? The denial of the plenary inspiration of the Scripture tends to unsettle the foundations of our faith, involves us in doubt and perplexity, and leaves us no other method of ascertaining how much we should be- lieve, but by an appeal to reason. But when reason is invested with the authority of a judge, not only is revelation dishonoured, and its Au- thor insulted, but the end for which it was given is completely defeated. " A question of very great importance demands our attention, while we are endeavouring to set- tle, with precision, the notion of the inspiration of the Scriptures ; it relates to the words in which the sacred writers have expressed their ideas. Some think, that in the choice of words they were left to their own discretion, and that the language is human, though the matter be divine ; while others believe, that in their expressions, as well as in their sentiments, they were under the infallible direction of the Spirit. It is the last opinion which appears to be most conformable to 198 INSPIRATION truth, and it may be supported by the following reasoning. " Every man, who hath attended to the opera- tions of his own mind, knows that we think in words, or that, when we form a train or combi- nation of ideas, we clothe them with words ; and that the ideas which are not thus clothed are in- distinct and confused. Let a man try to think upon any subject, moral or religious, without the aid of language, and he will either experience a total ci>«;ation of thought, or, as this seems im- possible, at least while we are awake, he will feel himself constrained, notwithstanding his utmost endeavours, to have recourse to words as the in- strument of Ids mental operations. As a great part of the Scriptures was suggested or revealed to the writers ; as the thoughts or sentiments, which were perfectly new to them, were convey- ed into their minds by the Spirit, it is plain that they must have been accompanied with words proper to express them ; and, consequently, that the words were dictated by the same influences on the mind which communicated the ideas. The ideas could not have come without the words, because without them they could not have been conceived. A notion of the form and qualities of a material object may be produced by subject- ing it to our senses ; but there is no conceivable method of making us acquainted with new ab- stract truths, or with things which do not lie within the sphere of sensation, but by conveying to the mind, in some way or other, the words significant of them. In all those passages of Scripture, therefore, which were written by reve- lation, it is manifest that the words were inspir- ed ; and this is still more evident with respect to those passages which the writers themselves did not understand. No man could write an intelli- gible discourse on a subject which he does not understand, unless he were furnished with the words as well as the sentiments : and that the penmen of the Scriptures did not always under- stand what they wrote, might be safely inferred i from the comparative darkness of the dispensa- tion under which some of them lived ; and it is intimated by Peter, when he says, that the pro- phets ' inquired and searched diligently what, and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified before- hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.' 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. "In other passages of Scripture, those not ex- cepted in which the writers relate such things as had fallen within the compass of their own know- ledge, we shall be disposed to believe that the words are inspired, if we calmly and seriously weigh the following considerations. If Christ promised to his disciples, that, when they were brought before kings and governors for his sake, " It should be given them in that same hour what they should speak, and that the Spirit of their Father should speak in them,' Matt. x. 10, 20; Luke xii. 11, 12, — a promise which cannot be reasonably understood to signify less than that both words and sentiments should bo dictated to them, — it is fully as credible that they should be assisted in the same manner when they wrote, especially as the record was to last through all ages, and to be a rule of faith to all the nations of the earth. Paul affirms, that he and the other apostles spoke ' not in the words which man's wisdom teaeheth, but vbich the Holy Ghost INFLUENCES taught,' 1 Cor. ii. 13 ; and this general assertion may be applied to their writings as well as to their sermons. Besides, every person who hath reflected upon the subject, is aware of the impor- tance of a proper selection of words in expressing our sentiments ; and knows how easy it is for a heedless or unskilful person not only to injure the beauty and weaken the efficacy of a discourse by the impropriety of his language, but, by sub- stituting one word for another, to which it seems to be equivalent, to alter the meaning, and per- haps render it totally different. If, then, the sa- cred writers had not been directed in the choice of words, how could we have been assured that those which they have chosen were the most pro- per 1 Is it not possible, nay, is it not certain, that they would have sometimes expressed them- selves inaccurately, as many of them were illiter- ate ; and by consequence would have obscured and misrepresented the truth ? In this case, how could our faith have securely rested on their testi- mony 1 Would not the suspicion of error in their writings have /endered it necessary, before we received them, to try them by the standard of reason? and would not the authority and the de- sign of revelation have thus been overthrown ? We must conclude, therefore, that the words of Scripture are from God, as well as the matter; or we shall charge him with a want of wisdom in transmitting his truths through a channel by which they might have been, and most probably have been, polluted. " To the inspiration of the words, the differ- ence in the style of the sacred writers seems to be an objection ; because, if the Holy Ghost were the author of the words, the style might be ex- pected to be uniformly the same. But in answer to this objection it may be observed, that the Di- vine Spirit, whose operations are various, might act differently on different persons, according to the natural turn of their minds. He might enable one man, for instance, to write more sublimely £han another, because he was naturally of a more exalted genius than the other, and the subject assigned to him demanded more elevated lan- guage ; or he might produce a difference in the style of the same man, by raising, at one time, his faculties above their ordinary state; and by leaving them, at another, to act according to their native energy under his inspection and controul. We should not suppose that inspiration, even in its higher degrees, deprived those who were the subjects of it, of the use of their faculties. They were, indeed, the organs of the Spirit; but they were conscious, intelligent organs. They were dependent, but distinct agents, and the operation of their mental powers, though elevated and di- rected by superior influence, was analogous to their ordinary mode of procedure. It is easy, therefore, to conceive that the style of the writers of the Scriptures should differ, just as it would have differed if they had not been inspired. A perfect uniformity of style could not have taken place, unless they had all been inspired in the same degree, and by inspiration their faculties had been completely suspended, so that divine truths were conveyed by them in the same pas- sive manner in which a pipe affords a passage to water, or a trumpet to the breath." See Dick's Essay on the Inspiration of the Scriptures ; Hawker on Plenary Inspiration; Appendix to lid vol. of Doddridge's Expositor ; Calami/ and 129 INTERCESSION Bennett on Inspiration; Dr. Stennet on the Authority and Use of Scripture ; Parry's In- quiry into the Nature and Extent of the Inspi- ration of the Apostles ; Brown's Nat. and Rev. Religion, r>. 78; and article Christianity and Scripture, in this work. INSTINCT, that power which acts on and impels any creature to any particular manner of conduct, not by a view of the beneficial conse- quences, but merely from a strong impulse sup- posed necessary in its effects, and to be given them to supply the place of reason. INSTITUTE, INSTITUTION ; an esta- blished custom or law : a precept, maxim, or principle. Institutions may be considered as po- sitive, moral, and human. 1. Those are called positive institutions or precepts which are not founded upon any reasons known to those to whom they are given, or discoverable by them, but which are observed merely because some superior has commanded them. — 2. Moral are those, the reasons of which we see, and the duties of which arise out of the nature of the case itself, prior to external command. — 3. Human, are generally applied to those inventions of men, or means of honouring God, which are not ap- pointed by him, and which are numerous in the church of Rome, and too many of them in Pro- testant churches. Butler's Analogy, p. 214; Doddridge's Lcc. lect. 158 ; Robinson's Claude, 217, vol. i. and 258, vol. ii.; Burrough's two Disc, on Positive Institutions ; Bp. Hoadley's Plain Account, p. 3. INTEGRITY, purity of mind, free from any undue bias or principle, Prov. xi. 3. Many hold, that a certain artful sagacity, founded upon know- ledge of the world, is the best conductor of every one who would be a successful adventurer in life, and that a strict attention to integrity would lead them into danger and distress. But, in an- swer to this, it is justly observed, 1. That the guidance of integrity is the safest under which we can be placed ; that the road in which it leads us is, upon the whole, the freest from dan- gers, Prov. hi. 21, &c. — 2. It is unquestionably the most honourable ; lor integrity is the founda- tion of all that is high in character among man- kind, Prov. iv. 8. — 3. It is the most conducive to felicity, Phil. iv. 6, 7 ; Prov. iii. 17. — 4. Such a character can look forward to eternity without dismay, Rom. ii. 7. INTEMPERANCE, excess in eating or drinking. This is the general idea of it ; but we may observe, that whatever indulgence un- dermines the health, impairs the senses, inflames the passions, clouds and sullies the reason, per- verts the judgment, enslaves the will, or in any way disorders or debilitates the faculties, may be ranked under this vice. See article Temper- INTERCESSION OF CHRIST, his in- terposing for sinners by virtue of the satisfaction he made to divine justice. 1. As to the fact itself it is evident, from many places of Scripture, that Christ pleads with God in favour of his people, Rom. viii. 34; Heb. vii. 25 ; 1 John ii, 1.— 2. As to the manner of it : the appearance of the high- priest among the Jews, in the presence of God, on the day of atonement, when he offered before him the blood of the sin-offering, is at large re- ferred to by St. Paul, as illustrating the interces- sion oi Christ, Heb. ix. 1 1, 14, 22, 2U; x. Id, 21. INTERDICT Christ appears before God with his own body; but whether he intercedes vocally, or not, cannot be known, though it is most probable, I think, that he does not : however, it is certain that he does not intercede in like manner as when on earth, with prostration of body, cries and tears, which would be quite inconsistent with his state of exaltation and glory ; nor as supplicating an angry judge, for peace is made by the blood of the cross ; nor as litigating a point in a court of judicature; but Ins intercession is carried on by showing himself as having done, as their surety, all that law and justice could require, by repre- senting his blood and sacrifice as the ground of his people's acceptance with the Father, Rev. v. 6 ; John xvii. 24.-3. The end of Christ's In- tercession is not to remind the Divine Being of any thing which he would otherwise forget, nor to persuade him to any thing which he is not dis- posed to do ; but it may serve to illustrate the ho- liness and majesty of the Father, and the wisdom and grace of the Son ; not to say that it may have other unknown uses with respect to the in- habitants of the invisible world. He is repre- sented, also, as offering up the prayers and praises of his people, which become acceptable to God through him, Rev. viii. 3, 4 ; Heb xiii. 15 ; 1 Pet. ii. 5. lie there pleads for the conversion of his unconverted ones ; and for the consolation, preservation, and glorification of his people, John xvii.; 1 John ii. 1, 2. — 1. Of the properties of Christ's intercession we may observe, 1. That it is authoritative. He intercedes not without right, John xvii. 24 ; Ps. ii. 8. — 2. Wise : he un- derstands the nature of his work, and the wants of his people, John ii. 25. — 3. Righteous : for it is founded upon justice and truth, 1 John iii. 5 ; Heb. vii. 2l>. — 4. Compassionate, Heb. ii. 17; v. 8; Isa. lxiii. !). — 5. He is the sole advocate, 1 Tim. ii. 5. — fi. It is perpetual, Heb. vii. 25. — 7. Efficacious, 1 John ii. 1, 2. — 5. The use we should make of Christ's intercession is this: 1. We may learn the wonderful love of God to man, Rom. v. 10. — 2. The durability and safety of the church, Luke xxii. 31, 32; Isa. xvii. 24. — 3. The ground we have for comfort, Heb. ix. 24; Rom. viii. 34. — 4. It should excite us to offer up prayers to God, as they are acceptable through him, Rev. viii. 3, 4. See CJiarnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 1109; Flavel's Works, vol. i. p. 72; Doddridge's Led. vol. ii. p. 294. 8vo.; Gill's Body of Div. vol. ii. p. 120. 8vo. edit.; Brown's Nat. and Rev. Relig. p. 348 ; Berry Street Lee. No. 18 ; Ridgley's Body of Divi- nity, ques. 55. INTERDICT, an ecclesiastical censure, by which the church of Rome forbids the perform- ance of divine service in a kingdom, province, town, &c. This censure has been frequently executed in France, Italy, and Germany ; and in the year 1170, pope Alexander 111. put all England under an interdict, forbidding the clergy to perforin any part of divine service, except bap- tizing infants, taking confessions, and giving ab- solution to dying penitents; but this censure being liable to ill-consequences, of promoting libertinism and a neglect of religion, the succeed- ing popt's haw very seldom made use of it. There was also an interdict of persons, who were de- prived of the benefit of attending on divine ser- vice. Particular persons were ako anciently interdicted of fire ami water, winch signifies u 900 INTERMEDIATE banishment for some particular offence : by thi» censure no person was permitted to receive them, or allow them fire or water ; and being thu* wholly deprived of the two necessary elements of life, they were, doubtless, under a kind of civil death. INTEREST IN CHRIST, a term often made use of in the religious world ; and implies our having a righ; to claim him as our mediator, surety, advocate, and saviour, and with him all those spiritual blessings which are purchased and applied by him to those whom he has redeemed. The term, " having a right to claim him," per- haps, is preferable to that often used, " being enabled to claim him," as many have an interest in Christ who are destitute of that assurance which gives them a comfortable sense thereof. — Ridgley's Div. 228, 3d edit. ; Pike's Cases of Conscience, p. 130. INTERIM, the name of a formulary, or con- fession of faith, obtruded upon the Protestants, after the death of Luther, bvthe emperor Charles V., when he had defeated their forces. It was so called, because it was only to take place in the interim, till a general council should decide all the points in question between the Protestants and Catholics. The occasion of it was this : — The emperor had made choice of three divines, viz. Julius Phlug, bishop of Naumberg ; Michael Helding, titular bishop of Sidon ; and John Agri- cola, preacher to the elector of Brandenburgh ; who drew up a project, consisting of 26 articles, concerning the points of religion in dispute be- tween the Catholics and Protestants. The con- troverted points were, the state of Adam before and after his fall ; the redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ ; the justification of sinners ; charity and good works ; the confidence we ought to ha\ e in God that our sins are remitted; the church and its true marks, its power, its authority, and ministers ; the pope and bishops ; the sacraments ; the mass ; the commemoration of saints ; their intercession ; and prayers for the dead. The emperor sent this project to the pope foi his approbation, which he refused : whereupon Charles V. published the imperial constitution, called the Interim, wherein he declared, that "it was his will, that all his Catholic dominions should, lor the future, inviolably observe the cus- toms, statutes, and ordinances of the universal church ; and that those who had separated them- selves from it, should either reunite themselves to it, or at least, conform to this constitution; and that all should quietly expect the decisions of the general council." This ordinance was published in the diet of Augsburgh, May 15, 1548 ; but this device neither pleased the pope nor the Protest- ants; the Lutheran preachers openly declared they would not receive it, alleging that it re- established popery: some chose rather to quit their chairs and livings than to subscribe it ; nor would the duke of Saxony receive it. Calvin, and several others, wrote against it. On the other side, the emperor was so severe against those who refused to accept it, that he disfran- chised the cities of Magdeburg and Constance for their opposition. INTERMEDIATE STATE, a term made use of to denote the state of the soul between death and the resurrection. From the Scriptures speaking frequently of the dead as sleeping in their graves, many have supposed that the soul INTREPIDITY Sleeps till the resurrection, i. e. is in a state of entire insensibility. But against this opinion, and that the soul, after death, enters immediately into a state of reward or punishment, the follow- ing passages seem to be conclusive, Matt. xvii. 3 ; Luke xxiii. 42; 2 Cor. v. 6; Phil. i. 21 ; Luke xvi. 22, 23; Rev. vi. 9. See articles Resurrec- tion, Sour,, and Future State; Bishop Law's Appendix to his Theory of Religion ; Search's Light of Nature pursued ; Bennet's Olam. Haneshamhot, or View of the Intermediate Slate ; Archibald Campbell's View of the Mid- dle State; Archdeacon Blackburne's Historical View of the Controversy concerning an Inter- mediate State, and the separate Existence of the Soul between Death and the general Resurrec- tion ; in which last the reader will find a large account of the writings on this subject, from the beginning of the Reformation to almost the pre- sent time. See also, Doddridge's Lectures, lect. 219. INTERPRETING OF TONGUES, a gift bestowed on the apostles and primitive Chris- tians, so that in a mixed assembly, consisting of persons of different nations, if one spoke in a language understood by one part, another could repeat and translate what he said into different languages understood by others, 1 Cor. xii. 10; xiv. 5, G, 13. INTOLERANCE is a word chiefly used in reference to those persons, churches, or societies, who do not allow men to think for themselves, but impose on them articles, creeds, ceremonies, &c., of their own devising. See Toleration. Nothing is more abhorrent from the genius of the Christian religion than an intolerant spirit, or an intolerant church. "It has inspired its votaries with a savage ferocity; has plunged the fatal dag- ger into innocent blood; depopulated towns and kingdoms ; overthrown states and empires, and brought down the righteous vengeance of heaven upon a guilty world. The pretence of superior knowledge, sanctity, and authority for its sup- port, is the disgrace of reason, the grief of wis- dom, and the paroxysm of folly. To fetter the conscience, is injustice ; to ensnare it, is an act of sacrilege ; but to torture it, by an attempt to force it-, f 'clings, is horrible intolerance ; it is the most abandoned violation of all the maxims of religion and morality. Jesus Christ formed a kingdom purely spiritual : the apostles exercised only a spiritual authority under the direction of Jesus Christ ; particular churches were united only by faith and love ; in all civil affairs they submitted to civil magistracy ; and in religious concerns they were governed. by the reasoning, advice, and ex- hortations of their own officers : their censures were only honest reproofs ; and their excommu- nications were only declarations that such offend- ers, being incorrigible, were no longer accounted members of their communities." Let it ever be remembered, therefore, that no man or men have any authority whatever from Christ over the con- sciences of others, or to persecute the persons of any whose religious principles agree not with their own. See Lowell's Sermons, ser. G; Ro- binson's Claude, vol. ii. p. 227, 299; Saurin's Ser. 3rd vol. p. 30, preface ; Locke on Govern- ment and Toleration. INTREPIDITY, a disposition of mind unaf- fected with fear at the approach of danger. Re- solution either banishes tear or surmounts it, 201 2 A ITINERANT and is firm on all occasions. Courage is impa- tient to attack, undertakes boldly, and is not les- sened by difficulty. Valour acts with vigour, gives no way to resistance, but pursues an enter- prise in spite of opposition. Bravery knows no fear; it runs nobly into danger, and prefers ho- nour to life itself. Intrepidity encounters the greatest perils with the utmost coolness, and dares even present death. See Courage, Fortitude. INVESTITURE, in ecclesiastical policy, is the act of conferring any benefice on another. It was customary for princes to make investiture of ecclesiastical benefices, by delivering to the per- son they had chosen a pastoral staff and a ring. The account of this ceremony may be seen at large in Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, cent xi. part ii. chap. 2. INVISIBLES, a name of distinction given to the disciples of Osiander, Flacius, Illyricus, Swenkfeld, &c, because they denied the perpetual visibility of the church. INVOCATION, a calling upon God in prayer. It is generally considered as the first part of that necessary duty, and includes, 1. A making men- tion of one or more of the names or titles of God, indicative of the object to whom we pray. — 2. A declaration of our desire and design to worship him. And, 3, A desire of his assistance and ac- ceptance, under a sense of our own unworthiness. In the church of Rome, invocation also signifies adoration of, and prayers to the saints. The coun- cil of Trent expressly teaches, that the saints who reign with Jesus Christ ofier up their prayers to God for men, and condemn those who maintain the contrary doctrine. The Protestants censure and reject this opinion, as contrary to Scripture; deny the truth of the fact ; and think it highly unreasonable to suppose that a limited, finite be- ing, should be in a manner omnipresent, and, at one and the same time, hear and attend to the prayers that are offered up to him in England, China, and Peru ; and from hence infer, that if the saints cannot hear their request, it is inconsistent with common sense to address any kind of praver to them. 1'RRESISfiBLE GRACE. See Grace. ISBRANIKI, a denomination which appeared in Russia about the year 1GGG, and assumed this name, which signifies the multitude of the elect. But they were called by their adversaries Rol- skolsnika, or the seditious faction. They pro- fessed a religious zeal for the letter of the holy Scriptures. They maintained that there is no subordination of rank among the faithful, and that a Christian may kill himself for the love of Christ. ISRAELITES, the descendants of Israel, who were at first called Hebrews, by reason of Abraham, who came from the other side of the Euphrates; and afterwards Israelites, from Israel, the father of the twelve patriarchs; and, lastly, Jews, particularly after their return from the captivity of Babylon, because the tribe of Ju- dah was then much stronger and moio numerous than the other tribes, and foreigners had scarce any knowledge of this tribe. For tnc history of this people, see article Jews. ITINERANT PREACHERS, those who are not settled over any particular congregation, but go from place to place for the purpose of preaching to, and instructing the ignorant. A great deal has been said against persons of thia JANSENISTS description ; and, it must be» acknowledged, that there would not be so much necessity for them, were every minister of his parish to do his duty. But the sad declension of morals in many places ; the awful ignorance that prevails as to God and real religion ; the little or no exertion of those who are the guides of the people : " villages made up of a train of idle, profligate, and miserable poor, and where the barbarous rhymes in their church-yards inform us, that they are all either gone or going to heaven :" these things, with a variety of others, form a sufficient reason for every able and benevolent person to step forward, and to do all that he can to enlighten the minds, lessen the miseries, and promote the welfare of his fellow-creatures. A clergyman of the church of England, of respectable talents, very judiciously observes, that, "Notwithstanding the prejudices of mankind, and the indiscretions of some indi- viduals, an itinerant teacher is one of the most honourable and useful characters that can be found upon earth; and there needs no other proof than the experience of the church in all ages, that, when this work is done properly, and JANSENISTS with perseverance, it forms the grand method ol spreading wide, and rendering efficacious, reli- gious knowledge, for great reformations and revivals of religion have uniformly been thus effected ; and it is especially sanctioned by the example of Christ and his apostles, and recom- mended as the divine method of spreading the Gospel through the nations of the earth ; itine- rant preaching having almost always preceded and made way for the solid ministry of regular pastors. But it is a work which requires pecu- liar talents and dispositions, and a peculiar call in God's providence; and is not rashly and hastily to be ventured upon by every novice who has learned to speak about the Gospel, and has more zeal than knowledge, prudence, humility, or experience. An unblemished character, a disinterested spirit, an exemplary deadness to the world, unaffected humility, deep acquaintance with the human heart, and preparation for en- during the cross not only with boldness, but with meekness, patience, and sweetness of temper, are indispensably necessary for such a service." J. JACOBITES, a sect of Christians in Syria and Mesopotamia ; so called, either from Jacoh, a Syrian, who lived in the reign of the emperor Mauritius, or from one Jacob, a monk, who flou- rished in the year 550. The Jacobites are of two sects, some following the rites of the Latin church, and others continu- ing separated from the church of Rome. There is also a division among the latter, who have two rival patriarchs. As to their belief, they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ: with respect to pur- gatory, and prayers for the dead, they are of the same opinion with the Greeks and other eastern Christians. They consecrate unleavened bread at the eucharist, and are against confession, be- lieving that it is not of divine institution. JANSENISTS, a sect of the Roman Catho- lics in France, who followed the opinions of Jan- senius (bishop of Ypres, and doctor of divinity of the universities of Louvain and Douay,) in rela- tion to grace and predestination. In the year 1640, the two universities just mentioned, and particularly father Molina and father Leonard Celsus, thought fit to condemn the opinions of the Jesuits on grace and free-will. This having set the controversy on foot, Janse- nius opposed to the doctrine of the Jesuits the rentiments of St. Augustine, and wrote a trea- tise on grace, which he intituled August inus. This treatise was attacked by the Jesuits, who accused Jansenius of maintaining dangerous and heretical opinions; and afterwards, in 1642, ob- tained of pope Urban VIII. a formal condemna- tion of the treatise wrote by Jansenius ; when the partisans of Jansenius gave out that this bull was spurious, and composed by a person entirely devoted to the Jesuits. After the death of Urban VIII., the affair of Jansenism began to be more warmly controverted, and gave birth to a great number of polemical writings concerning grace ; and what occasioned some mirth, were the titles which each party gave to their writings: one writer published the Torch of St. Augustine; 202 another found Snuffers for St. Augustine's Torch ; and father Veron formed A Gag jot rAe Jansenists, &c. In the year 1650, sixty-eight bishops of France subscribed a letter to pope In- nocent X., to obtain an inquiry into and condem- nation of the five following propositions, extracted from Jansenius's Augustinus . 1. Some of God's commandments are impossible to be observed by the righteous, even though they "endeavour with all their power to accomplish them. — 2. In the state of corrupted nature, we are incapable of re- sisting inward grace. — 3. Merit and demerit, in a state of corrupted nature, do not depend on a liberty which excludes necessity, but on a liberty which excludes constraint. — i. The Seinipela- gians admitted the necessity of an inward pre- venting grace for the performance of each par- ticular act, even for the beginning of faith ; but tbey were heretics in maintaining that this grace was of such a nature that the will of man was able either to resist or obey it. — 5. It is Semipelagian- ism to say, that Jesus Christ died, or shed his blood, for all mankind in general. In the year 1652, the pope appointed a congre- gation for examining into the dispute relative to grace. In this congregation Jansenius was con- demned ; and the bull of condemnation published in May, 1653, filled all the pulpits in Paris with violent outcries and alarms against the Jansenists. In the year 1656, pope Alexander VII. issued out another bull, in which he condemned the five pro- positions of Jansenius. However, the Jansenists affirmed that these propositions were not to be found in this book ; but that some of his enemies having caused them to be printed on a sheet, in- serted them in the book, and thereby deceived the pope. At last Clement XI. put an end to the dispute by his Constitution of July 17, 1705, in which, after having recited the constitutions of his predecessors in relation to this affair, he de- clared, "That, in order to pay a proper obedience to the papal constitutions concerning the present question, it is necessary to receive them with a JEALOUSY respectful silence." The clergy of Paris, the same year, approved and accepted this bull, and none dared to oppose it. This is the famous bull Unigenitus, so called from its beginning with the words Unigenitus Dei Filius, &c, which has occasioned so much confusion in France. It was not only on account of their embracing the doctrines of Augustine, that the Jesuits were so embittered against them ; but that which of- fended the Jesuits, and the other creatures of the Roman pontiff was, their strict piety, and severe moral discipline. The Jansenists cried out against the corruptions of the church of Rome, and com- plained that neither its doctrines nor morals re- tained any traces of their former purity. They re- proached the clergy with an universal depravation of sentiments and manners, and an entire forget- fulness of the dignity of their character and the duties of their vocation ; they censured the licen- tiousness of the monastic orders, and insisted upon the necessity of reforming their discipline accord- ing to the rules of sanctity, abstinence, and self- denial, that were originally prescribed by their respective founders. They maintained, also, that the people ought to be carefully instructed in all the doctrines and precepts of Christianity; and that, for this purpose, the Holy Scriptures and public liturgies should be offered to their perusal in their mother tongue ; and, finally, they looked upon it as a matter of the highest moment to per- suade all Christians that true piety did not con- sist in the observance of pompous rites, or in the performance of external acts of devotion, but in inward holiness and divine love. Notwithstanding the above-mentioned senti- ments, the Jansenists have been accused of su- perstition and fanaticism; and, on account of their severe discipline and practice, have been denominated Rigorists. It is said, that they made repentance consist chiefly in those volun- tary sufferings which the transgressor inflicted upon himself, in proportion to the nature of his crimes and the degree of his guilt. They tor- tured and macerated their bodies by painful la- bour, excessive abstinence, continual prayer, and contemplation ; nay, they carried these austeri- ties, it is said, to so high a pitch, as to place merit in them, and to consider those as the sacred vic- tims of repentance who had gradually put an end to their days by their excessive abstinence and labour. Dr. Haweis, however, in his Church History, (vol. iii. p. 46.) seems to form a more favourable opinion of them. " I do not," says he, " readily receive the accusations that Papists or Protestants have objected to them, as over-rigor- ous and fanatic in their devotion ; but I will ad- mit many things might be blameable ; a tincture of popery might drive them to push monkish austerities too far, and secretly to place some merit in mortification, which they in general dis- claimed ; yet, with all that can be said, surely the root of the matter was in them. When 1 read Jansenius, or his disciples Pascal or duesnel, 1 bow before such distinguished excellencies, and confess them my brethren ; shall I say my fathers ? Their principles are pure and evangelical ; their mo-rals formed upon the apostles and prophets ; and their zeal to amend and convert, blessed with eminent success." JEALOUSY is that particular uneasiness which arises from the fear that some rival may rob us of the aflection of one whom we greatly 203 JESUITS love, or suspicion that he has already done it. The first sort of jealousy is inseparable from love before it is in possession of its object ; the latter is unjust, generally mischievous, and always trou blcsome. JEHOVAH, one of the Scripture names of God, and peculiar to him, signifying the Being who is self-existent, and gives existence to others. The name is also given to Christ, Is. xl. 3 ; and is a proof of his godhead, Matt. iii. 3 ; Is. vi. ; John xii. 41. The Jews had so great a veneration for this name, that they left off the custom of pro- nouncing it, whereby its true pronunciation was forgotten. They believe that whosoever knows the true pronunciation of it cannot fail to be heard of God. JESUITS, or the Society of Jesus ; a famous religious order of the Romish church, founded by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish knight, in the six- teenth century. The plan which this fanatic formed of its constitution and laws, was suggest- ed, as he gave out, by the immediate inspiration of Heaven. But, notwithstanding this high pre- tension, his design met at first with violent oppo- sition. The pope, to whom Loyola had applied for the sanction of his authority to confirm the institution, referred his petition to a committee of cardinals. They represented the establishment to be unnecessary as well as dangerous, and Paul refused to grant his approbation of it. At last, Loyola removed all his scruples, by an offer which it was impossible for any pope to resist. He pro- posed, that besides the three vows of poverty, of chastity, and of monastic obedience, which are common to all the orders of regulars, the members of his society should take a fourth vow of obe- dience to the pope, binding themselves to go whithersoever he should command for the service of religion, and without requiring any thing from the holy see for their support. At a time when the papal authority had received such a shock by the revolt of so many nations from the Romish church, at a time when every part of the popish system was attacked with so much violence and success, the acquisition of a body of men, thus peculiarly devoted to the see of Rome, and whom it might set in opposition to all its enemies, was an object of the highest consequence. Paul, in- stantly perceiving this, confirmed the institutior. of the Jesuits by his bull ; granted the most ample privileges to the members of the society, and ap- pointed Loyola to be the first general of the order, The event fully justified Paul's discernment in expecting such beneficial consequences to the see of Rome from this institution. In less than half a century the society obtained establishments in every country that adhered to the Roman Catholic church; its power and wealth increased ama- zingly ; the number of its members became great ; their character as well as accomplishments were still greater ; and the Jesuits were celebrated by the friends and dreaded by the enemies of the Romish faith, as the most able and enterprising order in the church. 2. Jesuits, object of the order of. — The primary object of almost all the monastic orders is to se-. paratemen from the world, and from any concern in its affairs. In the solitude and silence of the cloister, the monk is called to work out his salva- tion by extraordinary acts of mortification and piety. He is dead to the world, and ought not to mingle in its transactions. He can be of no JESUITS ocncfit to mankind but by his example and by his prayers. On the contrary, the Jesuits are taught to consider themselves as formed for action. They are chosen soldiers, bound to exert themselves continually in the service of God, and of the pope, his vicar on earth. Whatever tends to instruct the ignorant, whatever can be of use to reclaim or oppose the enemies of the holy see, is their proper object. That they may have full leisure for this active service, they are totally exempted from those functions, the performance of which is the chief business of other monks. They appeal in no processions ; they practise no rigorous aus- terities ; they do not consume one half of their time in the repetition of tedious offices ; but they are required to attend to all the transactions of the world, on account of the influence which these mjiy have upon religion : they are directed to study tfie disposition of persons in high rank, and to cultivate their friendship ; and, by the very con- stitution and genius of the order, a spirit of action and intrigue is infused into all its members. 3. Jesuits, peculiarities of their policy and government. — Other orders are to be considered as voluntary associations, in which, whatever af- fects the whole body, is regulated by the common suffrage of all its members. But Loyola, full of the ideas of implicit obedience, which he had de- rived from his military profession, appointed that the government of his order should be purely monarchical. A general chosen for life, by depu- ties from the several provinces, possessed power that was supreme and independent, extending to every person and to every case. To his commands they were required to yield not only outward obedience, but to resign up to him the inclinations of their own wills, and the sentiments of their own understandings. Such a singular form of policy could not fail to impress its character on all the members of the order, and to give a peculiar force to all its operations. There has not been, perhaps, in the annals of mankind, any example of such a perfect despotism exercised, not over monks shut up in the cells of a convent, but over men dispersed among all the nations of the earth. As the constitutions of the order vest in the gene- ral such absolute dominion over all its members, they carefully provide for his being perfectly in- formed with respect to the character and abilities of his subjects. Every novice who offers himself for a candidate for entering into the order, is obliged to manifest his conscience to the superior, or a person appointed by him; and is required to confess not only his sins and defects, but to dis- cover the inclinations, the passions, and the bent of the soul. This manifestation must be renewed every six months. Each member is directed to observe the words and actions of the novices, and are bound to disclose every thing of importance concerning them to the superior. In order that the scrutiny into their character may be as complete H possible, -i long noviciate must expire, during which they pass through the several gradations of rank in the society ; and they must have attained the full age of thirty-thiee years before they can be admitted to take the final vows by winch they become professed members. By these various methods, the superiors, under whose immediate inspection the novices are placed, acquire a thorough knowledge of their disposition and talents; and the general, by examining the registers kept for tliis purpose, is enabled to 2<>4 JESUITS choose the instruments which his absolute power can employ in any service for which he thinks meet to destine them. 4. Jesuits, progress of the power and influence of. — As it was the professed intention of this os- der to labour with unwearied zeal in promoting the salvation of men, this engaged them, of course, in many active functions. From their first insti- tution, they considered the education of youth as their peculiar province : they aimed at being spi- ritual guides and confessors ; they preached fre- quently, in order to instruct the people ; they set out as missionaries to convert unbelieving nations. Before the expiration of the sixteenth century, they had obtained the chief direction of the edu- cation of youth in every Catholic, country in Eu- rope. They had become the confessors of almost all its monarchs ; a function of no small impor- tance in any reign, but, under a weak prince, superior to that of minister. They were the spi- ritual guides of almost every person eminent for rank or power ; they possessed the highest degree of confidence and interest with the papal court, as the most zealous and able champions for its authority ; they possessed, at different periods, the direction of the most considerable courts in Europe; they mingled in all affairs, and took part in every intrigue and revolution. But while they thus advanced in power, they increased also in wealth : various expedients were devised for eluding the obligation of the vow of poverty. Be- sides the sources of wealth common to all the re- gular clergy, the Jesuits possessed one which was peculiar to themselves. Under the pretext of promoting the success of their missions, and of facilitating the support of their missionaries, they obtained a special licence from the court of .Rome, to trade with the nations which they laboured to convert ; in consequence of this, they engaged in an extensive and lucrative commerce, both in the East and West Indies ; they opened warehouses in different parts of Europe, in which they vend- ed their commodities. Not satisfied with trade alone, they imitated the example of other com- mercial societies, and aimed at obtaining settle ments. They acquired possession, accordingly, of the large and fertile province of Paraguay, which stretches across the southern continent of America, from the bottom of the mountains of Potosi to the confines of the Spanish and Por- tuguese settlements on the banks of the river De la Plata. Here, indeed, it must be confessed, they were of service : they found the inhabitants in a state little different from that which takes place among men when they first begin to unite to- gether ; strangers to the arts ; subsisting preca- riously by hunting or fishing; and hardly ac- quainted with the first principles of subordination and government, The Jesuits set themselves to instruct and civilize these savages : they taught them to cultivate the ground, build houses, and brought them to live together in villages, &c. They made them taste the sweets of society, and trained them to arts and manufactures. Such was their power over them, that a few Jesuits presided over some hundred thousand Indians. But even in this meritorious effort of the Jesuits for the good of mankind, the genius and spirit of their order was discernible : they plainly aimed at establishing in Paraguay an independent em- pire, subject to the society alone, and which, by the superior excellence of its constitution ana JESUITS police, could scarcely have failed to extend its dominion over all the southern continent of America. With thii view, in order to prevent the Spaniards or Portuguese in the adjacent set- tlements from acquiring any dangerous influence Over the people within the limits of the province subject to the society, the Jesuits endeavoured to inspire the Indians with hatred and contempt of these nations; they cut off all intercourse be- tween their subjects and the Spanish or Portu- guese settlements. When they were obliged to admit any person in a public character from the neighbouring governments, they did not permit him to have any conversation with their subjects ; and no Indian was allowed even to enter the house where these strangers resided, unless in the presence of a Jesuit. In order to render any communication between them as difficult as pos- sible, they industriously avoided giving the In- dians any knowledge of the Spanish or any other European language; but encouraged the diffe- rent tribes which they had civilized to acquire a rertain dialect of the Indian tongue, and laboured to make that the universal language throughout their dominions. As all these precautions, with- out military force, would have been insufficient to have rendered their empire secure and perma- nent, they instructed their subjects in the Euro- pean art of war, and formed them into bodies completely armed, and well disciplined. 5. Jesuits, pernicious effects of this order in livil society. — Though it must be confessed that the Jesuits cultivated the study of ancient litera- ture, and contributed much towards the progress of polite learning; though they have produced eminent masters in 'every branch of science, and can boast of a number of ingenious authors ; yet, unhappily for mankind, their vast influence has been often exerted with the most fatal effects. Such was the tendency of that discipline observed by the society in forming its members, and such the fundamental maxims in its constitution, that every Jesuit was taught to regard the interest of the order as the capital object to which every consideration was to be sacrificed. As the pros- perity of the order was intimately connected with the preservation of the papal authority, the Jesuits, influenced by the same principle of attachment to the interest of their society, have been the most zealous patrons of those doctrines which tend to exalt ecclesiastical power on the ruins of civil government. They have attributed to the court of Rome a jurisdiction as extensive and absolute as was claimed by the most presumptuous pon- tiffs in the dark ages. They have contended for the entire independence of ecclesiastics on the civil magistrates. They have published such tenets concerning the duty of opposing princes who were enemies of the Catholic faith, as coun- tenanced the most atrocious crimes, and tended to dissolve all the ties which connect subjects with their rulers. As the order derived both reputation and authority from the zeal with which it stood forth in defence of the Romish church against the attacks of the reformers, its members, proud of this distinction, have considered it as their peculiar function to combat the opinions, and to check the progress of the Protestants. They have made use of every art, and have em- ployed every weapon against them. They have set themselves in opposition to every gentle or tolerating measure in their favour. They have ?X)5 JESUITS incessantly stirred up against them all the rage of ecclesiastical and civil persecution. — Whoever recollects the events which have happened in Europe during two centuries will find that the Jesuits may justly be considered as responsible for most of the pernicious effects arising from that corrupt and dangerous casuistry, from those ex^ travagant tenets concerning ecclesiastical power, and from that intolerant spirit, which have been the disgrace of the church of Rome throughout that period, and which have brought so many calamities upon society. 6. Jesuits, downfall in Europe. — Such werfl the laws, the policy and the genius of this formi- dable order; of which, however, a perfect know- ledge has only been attainable of late. Europe had observed, for two centuries, the ambition and power of the order ; but while it felt many fatal effects of these, it could not fully discern the causes to which they were to be imputed. It was unacquainted with many of the singular regula- tions in the political constitution or government of the Jesuits, which formed the enterprising spirit of intrigue that, distinguished its members, and elevated the body itself to such a height of power. It was a fundamental maxim with the Jesuits, from their first institution, not to publish the rules of their order : these they kept conceal- ed as an impenetrable mystery. They never com municated them to strangers, nor even to the greater part of their own members : they refused to produce them when required by courts of jus- tice ; and, by a strange solecism in policy, the civil power in different countries authorised or con- nived at the establishment of an order of men, whose constitution and laws were concealed with a solicitude which alone was a good reason for having excluded them. During the prosecutions which have been carried on against them in Por- tugal and France, the Jesuits have been so in- considerate as to produce the mysterious volumes of their institute. By the aid of these, auther-lc records, the principles of their government ma; be delineated, and the sources of their power investigated, with a degree of certainty and pre- cision which, previous to that event, it was im possible to attain. The pernicious effects of the spirit and consti tution of this order rendered it early obnoxious to some of the principal powers in Europe, and gradually brought on its downfall. There is a remarkable passage in a sermon preached at Dub- lin by Archbishop Brown, so long ago as the year 1551, and which may be considered as almost prophetic. It is as follows: "But there are a new fraternity of late sprung up who call themselves Jesuits, which will deceive many, much after the Scribes and Pharisees' manner. Amongst the Jews they shall strive to abolish the truth, and shall come very near to do it. For these sorts will turn themselves into several forms ; with the heathen, a heathenist ; with the atheists, an atheist; with the Jews, a Jew; with the reformers, a relbrmade; purposely to know your intentions, your minds, your hearts, and your inclinations, and thereby bring you, at last, to be like the fool that said in Ins heart, there, was no God. These shall be spread over the whole world, shall be admitted into the coun- cils cf princes, and they never the wiser ; charm- ing of them, yea, making your princes reveal their hearts, and the secrets therein, and yet they JESUS not perceive it ; which will happer from falling from the law of God, by neglect of fulfilling the law of God, and by winking at their sins ; yet, in the end, God, to justify his law, shall suddenly cut off this society, even by the hand of those who have most succoured them, and made use of them ; so that at the end they shall become odious to all nations. They shall be worse than Jews, having no resting-] >lace upon earth; and then shall a Jew have more favour than a Jesuit." This singuhr passage seems to be accomplished. The emperor Charles V. saw it expedient to check their progress in his dominions : they were expell- ed England by proclamation, 2 James I., in H304 : Venice, in 1006; Portugal, in 1759; France, in 1764 ; Spain and Sicily, in 1767 ; and totally sup- pressed and abolished by pope Clement XIV. in 1773. Enc. Brit.; Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. ; Har- leian Misc. vol. v. p. 566 ; Broughton's Diet. JESUS CHRIST, the Lord and Saviour of mankind. He is called Christ (anointed,) be- cause he is anointed, furnished, and sent by God to execute his mediatorial office ; and Jesus (Sa- viour,) because he came to save his people from their sins. For an account of his nativity, offi- ces, death, resurrection, &c, the'Teader is referred to those articles in this work. We shall here more particularly consider his divinity, humanity, and character. The divinity of Jesus Christ seems evident, if we consider, 1. The language of the New Testament, and compare it with the state of the Pagan world at the time of its -pub- lication. 2. If Jesus Christ were not God, the writers of the New Testament discovered great injudiciousness in the choice of their words, and adopted a very incautious and dangerous style. The whole world, except the small kingdom of Judea, worshipped idols at the time of Jesus Christ's appearance. Jesus Christ; the evan- gelists who wrote his history ; and the apostles, who wrote epistles to various classes of men, pro- posed to destroy idolatry, and to establish the worship of one only living and true God. To effect this purpose, it was absolutely necessary for these founders of Christianity to avoid confu- sion and obscurity of language, and to express their ideas in a cool and cautious style. The least expression that would tend to deify a crea- ture, or countenance idolatry, would have been a source of the greatest error. Hence Paul and Barnabas rent their clothes at the very idea of the multitude's confounding the creature with the Creator, Acts xiv. The writers of the New Testament knew that, in speaking of Jesus Christ, extraordinary caution was necessary; yet, when we take up the New Testament, we find 6uch expressions as these : " The word was God, John i. 1. God was manifest in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. God with us, Matt. i. 23. The Jews crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. ii. 8. Jesus Christ is Lord of all, Acts x. 36. Christ is over all ; God blessed for ever, Rom. ix. 5." These arc a few of many propositions, which the New Testament writers lay down relative to Jesus Christ. If the writers intended to affirm the divinity of Jesus Christ, these are words at' truth and soberness; if not, the language is incautious and unwarrantable; and to address it to men prone to idolatry, for the purpose of de- stroying idolatry, is a strong presumption against '.heir inspiration. It is remarkable, also, that the richest words in the Greek language are made 206 JESUS use of to describe Jesus Christ. This language, which is very copious, would have afforded lower terms to express an inferior nature; but it could have afforded none higher to express the nature of the Supreme God. It is worthy of observa- tion, too, that these writers addressed their writ- ings, not to philosophers and scholars, but to the common people, and consequently used words in their plain, popular signification. — The common people, it seems, understood the words in our sense of them ; for in the Dioclesian persecution, when the Roman soldiers burnt a Phrygian city inhabited by Christians; men, women, and children submitted to their fate, call- ing upon Christ, the God over all. — 2. Com- pare the style of the New Testament with the state of the Jews at the time of its publication. In the time of Jesus Christ, the Jews were zeaU ous defenders of the unity of God, and of that idea of his perfections which the Scriptures ex- cited. Jesus Christ and his apostles professed the highest regard for the Jewish Scriptures ; yet the writers of the New Testament described Jesus Christ by the very names and titles by which the writers of the Old Testament had de- scribed the Supreme God. Compare Exod. iil 14, with John viii. 58 ; Is. xliv. 6, with Rev. L 11, 17; Deut. x. 17, with Rev. xvii. 14 ; Ps. xxiv. 10, with 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; Hos. i. 7, with Luke ii. 1 1 ; Dan. v. 23, with 1 Cor. xv. 4,7; 1 Chron. xxix. 11, with Col. ii. 10. If they who described Jesus Christ to the Jews by these sacred names and titles intended to convey an idea of his deity, the description is just and the application safe; but if they intended to describe a mere man, they were surely of all men the most preposterous. They chose a method of recommending Jesus to the Jews the most likely to alarm and enrage them. Whatever they meant, the Jews under- stood them in our sense, and took Jesus for a blasphemer, John x. 23. — 3. Compare the per- fections which are ascribed to Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, with those which are ascribed te God. Jesus Christ declares, " All things that the Father hath are mine ;" John xvi. 15 : a very dangerous proposition, if he were not God. The writers of revelation ascribe to him the same per- fections which they ascribe to God. Compare Jer. x. 10, with Is. ix. 6; Exod. xv. 13, with Heb. i. 8; Jer. xxxii. 19, with Is. ix. 6; Ps. cii. 24, 27, with Heb. xiii. 8 ; Jer. xxiii. 24, with Eph. i. 20, 23 ; 1 Sam. ii. 5, with John xiv. 30. If Jesus Christ be God the ascription of the perfections of God to him is proper ; if he be not, the apos* ties are chargeable with weakness or wickedness, and either would destroy their claim of inspira- tion.— 4. Consider the works that are ascribed to Jesus Christ, and compare them with the claims of Jehovah. Is creation a work of God ? " By Jesus Christ were all things created," Col. i. IS. Is preservation a work of God? "Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of his power," Heb. i. 3. Is the mission of the prophets a work of God? Jesus Christ is the Lord God of the holy prophets; and it was the spirit of Christ which testified to them beforehand the suffering? of Christ, and the glory that should follow, Nen. ix. 30; Rev. xxii. 6, 16; 1 Pet. i. 11. Is the sal- vation of sinners the work of God ? Christ is the Saviour of all that believe, John iv. 42; Heb. v. 9. Is the forgiveness of sin a work of God 7 'T'uc Son of Man hath power to forgive sins, JESUS Matt. ix. 6. The same might be said of the illu- mination of the mind ; the sanctification of the heart ; the resurrection of the dead ; the judging of the world ; the glorification of the righteous ; the eternal punishment of the wicked ; all which works, in one part of Scripture, are ascribed to God, and all which in another part of Scripture are ascribed to Jesus Christ. Now, if Jesus Christ be not God, into what contradictions these writers must fall ! They contradict one another : they contradict themselves. Either Jesus C hrist is God, or their conduct is unaccountable. — 5. Consider that divine worship which the Scriptures claim for Jesus Christ. It is a command of God, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," Matt. iv.'20. Yet the Scrip- tures command " all the angels of God to worship Christ," Heb. i. 6. Twenty times, in the New Testament, grace, mercy, and peace, are implored of Christ, together with the Father. Baptism is an act of worship performed in his name, Matt, xxviii. 19. Swearing is an act of worship ; a solemn appeal in important cases to the omni- scient God ; and this appeal is made to Christ, Rom. ix. 1. The committing of the soul to God at death is a sacred act of worship ; in the per- formance of this act Stephen died, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, Acts vii. 59. The whole host of heaven worship him that sitteth upon the throne, and the Lamb for ever and ever, Rev. v. 14, 15. — 6. Observe the application of Old Tes- tament passages which belong to Jehovah, to Jesus in the New Testament, and try whether you can acquit the writers of the New Testa- ment of misrepresentation, on supposition that Tesus is not God. St. Paul saySj " We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." That we shall all be judged, we allow; but how do you prove that Christ shall be our judge? Because, adds the apostle, it is written, " As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God," Rom. xiv. 10, 11, with Is. xlv. 20, &c. What sort of reasoning is this? How does this apply to Christ, if Christ be not God ? And how dare a man quote one of the most guarded passages in the Old Testa- ment for such a purpose ? John the Baptist is he who was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, Prepare ye the way, Matt. iii. 1, 3. Isaiah saith, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight a highway for our God, Is. xl. 3, &c. But what has John the Baptist to do with all tliis description, if Jesus Christ be only a messen- fer of Jehovah, and not Jehovah himself? for saiah saith, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah. Compare also Zech. xii. 10, with John xix. 34, 37 ; Is. vi. with John xii. 39 ; Is. viii. 13, 14, with 1 Pet. ii. 8. Allow Jesus Christ to be God, and all these applications aie proper. If we deny it, the New Testament, we must own, is one of the most unaccountable compositions in the world, calculated to make easy things hard to be under- stood.— 7. Examine whether events have justi- fied that notion of Christianity which the pro- phets gave their countrymen of it, if Jesus Christ be not God. The calling of the Gentiles from the worship of idols to the worship of the one living and true God, is one event, which, the prophets said, the coming of the Messiah should bring to pass. If Jesus Christ be God, the event answers the prophecy ; if not, the event is not come to pass, for Christiana in general worship 307 JESUS Jesus, which is dolatry, if he be not God, Is. ii. iii. and iv. ; Zeph. ii. 11; Zech. xiv. 9. The primitive Christians certainly worshipped Him as God. Plinv, who was appointed governor of the province of Bithynia by the emperor Trajan, in the year 103, examined and punished several Christians for their non-conformity to the esta- blished religion of the empire. In a letter to the empeior, giving an account of his conduct, he declares, " they affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they met on a certain stated day, before it was light, and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ as to some God." Thus Pliny meant to inform the emperor that Christians worshipped Christ. Justin Martyr, who lived about 150 years after Christ, asserts, that the Christians worshipped the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Besides his testimony, there are numberless passages in the fathers that attest the truth in question ; espe- cially in Tertullian, Hippolytus, Felix, &c. Mahomet, who lived in the sixth century, consi- ders Christians in the light of infidels and idola- ters throughout the Koran ; and, indeed, had not Christians worshipped Christ, he could have had no shadow of a pretence to reform their religion, and bring them back to the worship of one God. That the far greater part of Christians have con- tinued to worship Jesus will not be doubted ; now, if Christ be not God, then the Christians have been guilty of idolatry ; and if they have been guilty of idolatry, then it must appear remarka- ble that the apostles who foretold the corruptions of Christianity, 2 Tim. hi., should never have foreseen nor warned us against worshipping Christ. In no part of the Scripture is there the least intimation of Christians falling into idolatry in this respect. Surely if this had been an error which was so universally to prevail, those Scrip- tures which are able to make us wise unto salva- tion, would have left us a warning on so important a topic. Lastly, consider what numberless passages of Scripture have no sense, or a very absurd one, if Jesus Christ be a mere man. See Rom. i. 3 ; 1 Tim. iii. 16; John xiv. 9; xvii. 5; Phil. ii. 6; Ps. ex. 1, 4; 1 Tim. i. 2 ; Acts xxii.12, and ix. 17. But though Jesus Christ be God, yet for our sakes, and for our salvation, he took upon him human nature; this is therefore called his humanity. Marion, Apelles, Valentinus, and many other heretics, denied Christ's humanity, as some have done since. But that Christ had a true human body, and not a mere human shape, or a body that was not real flesh, is very evident from the sacred Scriptures, Is. vii. 12; Luke xxiv. 39 ; Heb. ii. 14 ; Luke i. 42 ; Phil. ii. 7, 8-; John i. 14. Besides he ate, drank, slept, walked, worked, and was weary. He groaned, bled, and died upon the cross. It was necessary that he should thus be human, in order to fulfil the divine designs and prophecies respecting the shedding of his blood for our salvation, which could not have been done, had he not possessed a real body. It is also as evident that he assumed our whofe nature, soul as well as body. If he had not, he could not have been capablo of that sore amaze- ment and sorrow unto death, and all those other acts of grieving, feeling, rejoicing, &c. ascribed to him. It was not, however, our sinful nature he assumed, but the likeness of it, Rom. viiL 2 ; for he was without sin, and did no iniquity. His human nature must not be confounded with his JESUS divine; for though there be an union of natures in Christ, yet there is not a mixture or confusion of them or their properties. His humanity is not changed into his deity, nor his deity into hu- manity , hut the two natures are distinct in one person. How this union exists is above our com- prehension ; and, indeed, if we cannot explain how our own bodies and souls are united, it is not to be supposed we can explain this astonishing mystery of God manifest in the flesh. See Mediator. We now proceed to the character of Jesus Christ, which, while it affords us the most pleas- ing subject for meditation, exhibits to us an ex- ample of the most perfect and delightful kind. " Here," as an elegant writer observes, " every grace that can recommend religion, and every virtue that can adorn humanity, are so blended, as to excite our admiration, and engage our love. In abstaining from licentious pleasures, he was equally free from ostentatious singularity and churlish sullenness. When he complied with the established ceremonies of his countrymen, that compliance was not accompanied by any marks of bigotry or superstition ; when he opposed their rooted prepossessions, his opposition was perfectly exempt from the captious petulance of a controversialist, and the undistinguishing zeal of an innovator. His courage was active in en- countering the dangers to wliich he was exposed, and passive under the aggravated calamities which the malice of his foes heaped upon him; his fortitude was remote from every appearance of rashness, and his patience was equally exempt from abject pusillanimity : he was firm without obstinacy, and humble without meanness. — Though possessed of the most unbounded power, we behold him living continually in a state of voluntary humiliation and poverty ; we see him daily exposed to almost every species of want and distress ; afflicted without a comforter, persecuted without a protector ; and wandering about, accord- ing to his own pathetic complaint, because he had not where, to lay his head. Though regardless of the pleasures, and sometimes destitute of the comforts of life, he never provokes our disgust by the sourness of the misanthrope, or our contempt by the inactivity of the recluse. His attention to the welfare of mankind was evinced not only by his salutary injunctions, but by his readiness to embrace every opportunity of relieving their dis- tress and administering to their wants. In every period and circumstance of his life, we behold dignity and elevation blended with love and pity ; something which, though it awakens our admira- tion, yet attracts our confidence. We see power ; but it is power which is rather our security than i our dread; a power softened with tenderness, and soothing while it awes. With all the gentleness of a meek and lowly mind, we behold an heroic firmness, which no terrors could restrain. In the private scenes of life, and in the public occupa- tions of his ministry ; whether the object of ad- miration or ridicule, of love or of persecution ; whether welcomed with hosannas, or insulted with anathemas, we still see him pursuing with unwearied constancy the same end, and preserv- ing the same integrity of life and manners." Wmite's Sermons, serm. 5. Considering him as a Moral Teacher, we must be struck with the greatest admiration. As Dr. Paley observes, " he preferred solid to popu- 208 JESUS lar virtues ; a character which is commonly iH» spised, to a character universally extolled : he placed, in our licentious vices, the check in the right, place, viz. upon the thoughts : he collected human duty into two well-devised rules ; he re peated these rules, and laid great stress upon them, and thereby fixed the sentiments of his followers : he excluded all regard to reputation in our devotion and alms, and, by parity of reason, in our other virtues : his instructions were deli- vered in a form calculated for impression ; they were illustrated by parables, the choice and struc- ture of which would have been admired in any composition whatever : he was free from the usual symptoms of enthusiasm, heat, and vehemence in devotion, austerity in institutions, and a wild particularity in the description of a future state : he was free also from the depravities of his age and country ; without superstition among the most superstitious of men, yet-not decrying posi- tive distinctions or external observances, but so- berly recalling them to the principle of their esta- blishment, and to their place in the scale of human duties : there was nothing of sophistry or trifling, though amidst teachers remarkable for nothing so much as frivolous subtilties and quibbling expo- sitions ; he was candid and liberal in his judg- ment of the rest of mankind, although belonging to a people who affected a separate claim to divine favour, and, in consequence of that opinion, prone to uncharitableness, partiality, and restric- tion : in his religion there was no scheme of build- ing up a hierarchy, or of ministering to the viewo of human governments : in a word, there was every thing so grand in doctrine, and so delight- ful in manner, that the people might well exclaim — ' Surely, never man spake like this man !' As to his example, bishop Newcome observes, "it was of the most perfect piety to God, and of the most extensive benevolence and the most ten- der compassion to men. He does not merely ex- hibit a life of strict justice, but of overflowing be- nignity. His temperance has not the dark shades of austerity; his meekness does not degenerate into apathy; his humility is signal, amidst a splendour of qualities more than human; his for- titude is eminent and exemplary in enduring the most formidable external evils, and the sharpest actual sufferings. His patience is invincible ; his resignation entire and absolute. Truth and sin- cerity shine throughout his whole conduct. Though of heavenly descent, he shows obedience and affection to his earthly parents ; he approves, loves, and attaches himself to amiable qualities in the human race ; he- respects authority, religious and civil ; and he evidences regard for his coun- try, by promoting its most essential good in a painful ministry dedicated to its service, by de- ploring its calamities, and by laying down his life for its benefit. Every one of his eminent vir- tues is regulated by consummate prudence ; and he both wins the love of his friends, and extorts the approbation and wonder of his enemies. Never was a character at the same time so com- manding and natural, so resplendent and pleas- ing, so amiable and venerable. There is a pecu- liar contrast in it between an awful greatness, dignity, and majesty, and the most conciliating loveliness, tenderness, and softness. He now converses with prophets, lawgivers, and angels; and the next instant he meekly endures the dulness of his disciples and the blasphemies and JEWS rage of the multitude. He now calls himself greater than Solomon ; one who can command legions of angels; and giver of life to whomso- ever he pleaseth ; the Son cf God, and who shall sit on his glorious throne to judge the world : at other times we find him embracing young chil- dren; not lifting up his voice in the streets, n< < quenching the smoking flax ; calling his disci- ples not servants, hut friends and brethren, and comforting them with an exuberant and parental affection. Let us pause an instant, and fill our minds with the idea of one who knew all things, heavenly and earthly; searched and laid open the inmost recesses of the heart ; rectified every pre- judice, and removed every mistake of a moral and religious kind ; by a word exercised a sovereignty over all nature, penetrated the hidden events of futurity, gave promises of admission into a happy immortality, had the keys of life and death, claimed an union with the Father ; and yet was pious, mild, gentle, humble, affable, social, bene- volent, friendly, and affectionate. Such a charac- ter is fairer than the morning star. Each sepa- rate virtue is made stronger by opposition and contrast ; and the union of so many virtues forms a brightness which fitly represents the glory of that God 'who inhabiteth light inaccessible.'" See Pobaison's Plea far the Divinity of Christ, from which many of the above remarks are taken ; Bp. BulUs Judgment of the Catholic Church; Abbadie, Walerland, Hawker, and Hey, on the Divinity of Christ ; Reader, Stackhouse, and Dby ley's Lives of Christ ; Dr. Jamieson's View of the Doctrine of Scripture, and the Primitive Faith concerning the Deity of Christ; Owen on the Glory of Christ's Person; Hurrion's Christ Crucified; Bishop Newcombe's Observa- tions on our Lord's Conduct; and Paley's Evi- dences of Christianity. JEWS, a name derived from the patriarch Ju- dah, and given to the descendants of Abraham by his eldest son Isaac. We shall here present the reader with as comprehensive a view of this •singular people, as we can. 1. Jews, History of the. — The Almighty pro- mised Abraliam that he would render his seed extremely numerous: this promise began to be fulfilled in Jacob's twelve sons. In about two hundred and fifteen years they increased in Egypt from seventeen to between two and three millions, men, women, and children. While Jo- seph lived, they were kindly used by the Egyp- tian monarchs ; but soon after, from a suspicion that they would become too strong for the natives, they were condemned to slavery ; but the more they were oppressed, the more they grew. The midwives, and others, were therefore ordered to murder every male infant at the time of its birth ; but they shifting the horrible task, every body was then ordered to destroy the male children wherever they found them. After they had been thus oppressed for about one hundred years, and on the very day that finished the four hundred and thirtieth year from God's first promise of a seed to Abraham, and about four hundred years after the birth of Isaac, God, by terrible plagues on the Egyptians, obliged them to liberate the Hebrews under the direction of Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh pursued them with a mighty army ; but the Lord opened a passage for them through the Red Sea ; and the Egyptians, in at- tempting to follow them, were drowned. After 309 3 B JEWS this, we find them in a dry and barren desert, without any provision for their journey, but God supplied them with water from a rock, and manna and quails from heaven. A little after they routed the Amalekites, who fell on their rear. In the wilderness God delivered them the law, and confirmed the authority of Moses. Three thou- sand of them were cut off for worshipping the golden calf; and for loathing the manna, they were punished with a month's eating of flesh, till a plague broke out among them ; and for their rash belief of the ten wicked spies, and the con- tempt cf the promised land, God had entirely de- stroyed them, had not Moses's prayers prevented. They were condemned, however, to wander in the desert till the end of forty years, till that whole generation, except Caleb and Joshua, should be cut off by death. Here they were often punished for their rebellion, idolatry, whore- dom, &c. God's marvellous favours, however, were still continued in conducting and supplying them with meat ; and the streams issuing from the rock of Meribah, followed their camp about thirty-nine years, and their clothes never waxed old. On their entrance into Canaan, God or- dered them to cut off every idolatrous Canaanite ; but they spared vast numbers of them, who en- ticed them to wickedness, and were sometimes God's rod to punish them. For many ages they had enjoyed little prosperity, and often relapsed into awful idolatry, worshipping Baalim and Ashtaroth. Micah and the Danites introduced it not long after Joshua's death. About this time the lewdness of the men of Gibeah occa- sioned a war of the eleven tribes against theii brethren of Benjamin : they were twice routed by the Benjamites, and forty thousand of them were slain. In the third, however, all the Ben jamites were slain, except six hundred. Vexed for the loss of a tribe, the other Hebrews pro- vided wives for these six hundred, at the expence of slaying most of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead. Their relapses into idolatry also brought on them repeated turns of slavery from the hea- then among or around them. See books of Judges and Samuel. Having been governed by judges for about three hundred and forty years, after the death of Joshua, they took a fancy to have a king. Saul was their first sovereign, under whose reign they had perpetual struggles with the Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines. After about seven years' struggling between the eleven tribes that clave to Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and the tribe of Judah, which erected themselves into a kingdom under David, David became sole monarch. Under him they subdued their neigh- bours, the Philistines, Edomites, and others ; and took possession • of the whole dominion which has been promised them, from the border of Egypt to tne banks of the Euphrates. Under Solomon they had little war : when he died, ten of the Hebrew tribes formed a kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim, for themselves, under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, in opposition to the kingdom of Ju- dah and Benjamin, ruled by the family of David. The kingdom of Israel, Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had never so much as one pious king : idolatrj was always their established religion. The king- dom of Judah had pious and wicked sovereigns by turns, though they often relapsed into idolatry, which brought great distress upon them. See books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Not JEWS only the kingdom of Israel, but that of Judah, was brought to the very brink of ruin after the death of Jehoshaphat. After various changes, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse, the kingdom of Israel was ruined, two hundred and fifty-four years after its erection, by So, king of Egypt, and Halmanaser, king of Assyria, who invaded it, and destroyed most of the people. Judah was invaded by Sennacherib ; but Hezekiah's piety, and Isaiah's prayer, were the means of their preservation : but under Ma- nasseh, the Jews abandoned themselves to horrid impiety: for which they were punished by Esar- haddon, king of Assyria, who invaded and re- duced the kingdom, and carried Manasseh pri- soner to Babylon. Manasseh repented and the Lord brought him back to his kingdom, wmere he promoted the reformation ; but his son Anion de- faced all. Josiah, however, again promoted it, and carried it to a higher pitch than in the reigns of David and Solomon. After Josiah was slain by Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, the people re- turned to idolatry, and God gave them up to ser- vitude to the Egyptians and Chaldeans. The fate of their kings Jehoas, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zcdekiah, was unhappy. Provoked by Zedckiah's treachery, Nebuchadnezzar invaded the kingdom, murdered vast numbers, and reduced them to captivity. Thus the kingdom of Judah was ruined, A. M. 3416, about three hundred and eighty-eight years after its division from that of the ten tribes. In the seventieth year from the begun captivity, the Jews, according to the edict of Cyrus, king of Persia, who had overturned the empire of Chaldea, returned to their own coun- try. See Nehemiah, Ezra. Vast numliers of them, wrho had agreeable settlements, remained in Babylon. After their return they rebuilt the temple and city of Jerusalem, put away their strange wives, and renewed their covenant with on him for his wickedness. And what JUDGMENTS js still more remarkable in his case is. he left a numerous family of children and grand-children, though he had put some to death, and yet in ybout the space of one hundred years the whole family was extinct. Herod Antipas, who beheaded John the Bap- tist, and treated Christ contemptuously when he was brought before him, was defeated by Aretas, an Arabian king, and afterwards had his domin- ions taken from him, and was sent into banish- ment along with his infamous wife Herodias, by the emperor Caius. Herod Agrippa killed James the brother of John, and put Peter in prison. The angel of the Lord soon after smote him, and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. Judas, that betrayed our Lord, died by his own hands, the most ignominious of all deaths. Pontius Pilate, who condemned our blessed Saviour to death, was not long afterwards de- posed from his office, banished lrom his country, and died by his own hands ; the divine vengeance overtaking him soon after his crime. The high priest, Gaiaphas, was deposed by Vitellius, three years after the death of Christ. Thus this wicked man, who condemned Christ for fear of disobliging the Romans, was igno- miniously turned out of his office by the Roman governor whom he had sought to oblige. Ananias, the high priest, persecuted St. Paul, and insolently ordered the by-standers to smite him on the mouth. Upon which the apostle said, God shall smile thee, thou whited wall. Whe- ther he spake this prophetically or not, may be difficult to say; but certain it is, that some time after he was slain, together with his brother, by his own son. •Ananus, the high priest, slew St. James the Less ; for which, and ether outrages, he was de- posed by king Agrippa the Younger, and proba- bly perished in the last destruction of Jerusalem. Nero, in the year sixty-four, turned his rage upon the Christians, and put to death Peter and Paul, with many others. Four years after, in his great distress, he attempted to kill himself; but being as mean-spirited and dastardly as he. was wicked and cruel, he had not the resolution to do that piece of justice to the world, and was forced to beg assistance. Domitian persecuted the Christians also. It is said he threw St. John into a caldron of boiling oil, and afterwards banished him into the isle of Patmos. In the following year this monster of wickedness was murdered by his own people. The Jewish nation persecuted, rejected, and crucified the Lord of glory. Within a few years after, their nation was destroyed, and the Lord made their plagues wonderful. Flaccus was governor of Egypt near the time of our Saviour's death, and a violent persecutor of the Jews. The wrath of God, however, ere long overtook him, and he died by the hands of violence. Catullus was governor of Libya about the year seventy-three. He was also a cruel perse- cutor of the Jews, and he died miserably. For though he was only turned out of his office by the Romans, yet he fell into a complicated and in- curable disease, being sorely tormented both in body and mind. He was dreadfully terrified, and continually crying out that he was haunted by the ghosts of those whom he had murdered j 217 2 O JUDGMENTS and, not being able to contain himself, he leaped out of his bed, as if he were tortured with fire and put to the rack. His distemper increased till his entrails were all corrupted, and came out of Iris body ; and thus he perished, as signal an exam- ple as ever was known of the divine justice ren- dering to the wicked according to their deeds. Caius, the Roman emperor, was a great perse- cutor of the Jews and Christians, and a blasphe- mer of the God of heaven. Soon after his atroci- ties, however, he was murdered by one of his own people. Severus, emperor of Rome, was a violent and cruel persecutor of the followers of Christ. He, also, and all his family, perished miserably, about the year two hundred after our Saviour. About the same time, Saturninus, governor of Africa, persecuted the Christians, and put seve- ral of them to death. Soon after, he went blind. Heliogabalus, the emperor, brought a new god to Rome, and would needs compel all his sub- jects to worship him. This was sure to have ended in a persecution of the Christians. But, soon after, this vile monster was slain by his own soldiers, about the year two hundred and twenty- two. Claudius Herminianus was a cruel persecutor of the Christians in the second century, and he was eaten of worms while he lived. Decius persecuted the church about the year two hundred and fifty : he was soon after killed in battle. Gallus succeeded, and continued the persecu- tion. He, too, was killed the year following. Valerian, the emperor, had many good quali- ties; but yet he was an implacable enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel. Some time alter he came to the throne, he was taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia, and used like a slave and a dog ; for the Persian monarch, from time to time, obliged this unhappy emperor to bow himself down, and offer him his back, on which to set his foot, in order to mount his chariot or his horse. He died in this miserable state of captivity. yEmilian, governor of Egvpt, about two huiv dred and sixty-three, was a virulent persecutor of the church of Christ. He was soon after stran- gled by order of the emperor. Aurelian, the emperor, just intending to begin a persecution against the followers of Christ, was killed in the year two hundred and seventy-four. Maximinus was a persecutor of the church. He reigned only three years, and then fell under the hands of violence. About the year three hundred was the greatest possible contest between Christ and the Roman emperors, which should have the dominion. These illustrious wretches seemed determined to Hot out the Christian race and name from under heaven. The persecution was far more fierce and brutal than it had ever been. It was time, therefore, for the Lord Jesus Christ, the great head of the church, to arise and plead his own cause; and so, indeed, he did. The examples we have mentioned are dreadful : these that fol- low are not less astonishing, and they are all de- livered upon the best authorities. Diocletian persecuted the church in three hun dred and three. After this nothing ever prospered with him. He underwent many troubles : his senses became impaired ; and he quitted the empire. T JUDGMENTS Se.verus, another persecuting emperor, was overthrown and put to death in the year three hundred and seven. About the same time, Urbanus, governor of Palestine, who had signalized himself by torment- ing and destroying the disciples of Jesus, met with his due reward ; for almost immediately af- ter the cruelties committed, the divine vengeance overtook him. He was unexpectedly degraded and deprived of all his honours ; and, dejected, disspirited, and meanly begging for mercy, was put to death by the same hand that raised him. Firmilianus, another persecuting governor, met with the same fate. Maximianus Herculius, another of the wretch- ed persecuting emperors, was compelled to hang himself, in the year three hundred and ten. Maximianus Galerins, of all tne tyrants of his time the most cruel, was seized with a grievous and horrible disease, and tormented with worms and ulcers to such a degree, that they who were ordered to attend him could not bear the stench. Worms proceeded from his body in a most fearful manner; and several of his physicians were put to death because they could not endure the smell, and others because they could not cure him. This happened in the year of our Lord three hundred and eleven. Maxentius, another of the inhuman monsters, was overthrown in battle by Constantine ; and in his flight he fell into the Tiber, and was drowned in the year three hundred and twelve. Maximinus put out the eyes of many thousands of Christians. Soon after the. commission of his cruelties, a disease arose among his own people, which greatly affected their eyes, and took, away their sight. He himself died miserably, and upon the rack, his eyes starting out of his head through the violence of his distemper, in the year three hundred and thirteen. All his family likewise, were destroyed, his wife and children put to death, together with most of his friends and dependents, who had been the instruments of his cruelty. A Roman officer, to oblige this Maximinus, greatly oppressed the church at Damascus : not long after, he destroyed himself. Licinius, the last of these persecuting empe- rors before Constantine, was conquered and put to death in the year three hundred and twenty- three. He was equally an enemy to religion, liberty, and learning. Cyril, the deacon, was murdered by some Pa- gans, at Heliopolis, for his opposition to their images. They ripped open his belly, and .ate his liver : the divine vengeance, however, pursued all those who had been guilty of this crime ; their teeth came out, their tongues rotted, and they lost their sight. Valens was made emperor in 364 ; and though a Christian himself, he is said to have caused fourscore presbyters, who differed from him in opinion, to be put to sea, and burnt alive in the ship. Afterwards, in a battle with the Goths, he was defeated and wounded, and fled to a cot- tage, where he was burnt alive, as most histori- ans relate : all agree that he perished. The last Pagan prince, who was a formidable enemy to Christianity, was Radagaisus, a kimr of the Coths. He invaded the Roman empire with an army of 400,01)0 men, about the year 405. and vowed to sacrifice all the Romans to his geds. The Romans, however, fought him. and 218 JUDGMENTS obtained a complete victory, taking him and his sons prisoners, whom they put to death. Hunneric, the Vandal, though a Christian, was a most cruel persecutor of those who differed from him in opinion, about the year of our Lord 484. He spared not even those of his own per- suasion, neither his friends nor his kindred. He reigned, however, not quite eight years, and died with all the marks of divine indignation upon him. Julian the apostate greatly oppressed the Chris- tians ; and he perished soon after, in his rash ex- pedition against the Persians. Several of those who were employed or per- mitted by Julian to persecute the Christians, are said to have perished miserably and remarkably. I will here relate the fate of a few of those un- happy wretches in the words of Tillemont, who faithfully collected the account from the ancienta. " We have observed," says that learned man, "that Count Julian, with Felix, superintendent of the finances, and Elpidius, treasurer to the emperor, apostates all three, had received orders to go and seize the effects of the church at An- tioch, and carry them to the treasury. They did it on the day of the martyrdom of St. Theodoret, and drew up an account of what they had seized. But Count Julian was not content with taking away the sacred vessels of the church, and pro- faning them by his impure hands: carrying to greater lengths the outrage he was doing to Jesus Christ, he overturned and flung them down on the ground, and sat upon them in a most criminal manner; adding to this all the banters and blas- phemies that he could devise against Christ, and against the Christians, who, he said, were aban- doned of God." Felix, the superintendent, signalized himself also by another impiety ; for as he was viewing the rich and magnificent vessels which the empe- rors Constantine and Constantius had given to the church, " Behold," said he, " with what plate the son of Mary is served !" it is said, too, that Count Julian and he made it the subject of ban- ter, that God should let them thus profane his temple, without interposing by visible miracles. But these impieties remained not long unpu- nished, and Julian had no sooner profaned the sacred utensils, than he felt the effects of divine vengeance. He fell into a grievous and unknown disease ; and his inward parts being corrupted, he cast out his liver and his excrements, not from the ordinary passages, but from his miserable mouth, which had uttered so many blasphemies* His secret parts, and all the flesh round about them, corrupted also, and bred worms ; and to show that it was a divine punishment, all the art of physicians could give him no relief. In this condition he continued forty days, without speech or sense, preyed on by worms. At length he came to himself again. The imposthumes, how- ever, all over his body, and the worms which gnawed him continually, reduced him to the ut- most extremity. He threw them up, without ceasing, the last three days of his lite, with a stench which he himself could not bear. The disease with which God visited Felix, was not so long. He burst suddenly in the mid- dle of his body, and died of an effusion of blood in the course of one day. Elpidius was stripped of his effects in 36(3, and shut up in prison, where after having continued for some time, he died without reputation and JUSTICE honour, cursed of all the world, and surnamed the Apostate. To these instances many more might be added nearer our own times, did our room permit. These, however, are sufficient to show us what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, and how fruitless and awful it is to oppose his designs, and to attempt to stop the progress of his Gospel. " Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing 1 He that, sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord 6hall have them in derision. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them to pieces as a potter's vessel. Be wise now, there- fore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." Ps. ii. Jortin's Remarks on Eccle- siastical History, vol. iii. p. 246, &c.; Simpsori's Key to the Prophecies, 29 ; Newton on the Pro- phecies, dis. 24 ; Bryant's Observations on the Plagues of Egypt; Tillemont, Histoire des Emp. JUDICIUM DEI, or Judgment of God, was a term anciently applied to all extraordinary trials of secret crimes ; as those by arms and single combat ; and the ordeals, or those by fire, or red hot ploughshares, by plunging the arm in boiling water, or the whole body in cold water, in hopes that God would work a miracle, rather than suf- fer truth and innocence to perish. These cus- toms were a longtime kept up even among Chris- tians, and they are still in use in some nations. Trials of this sort were usually held in churches, in the presence of the bishop, priest, and secular judges, after three days' fasting, confession, com- munion, and many adjurations and ceremonies, described at large by Du Cange. JUMPERS, persons so called from the prac- tice of jumping during the time allotted for reli- gious worship. This singular practice began, it is said, in the western part of Wales, about the year 1760. It was soon after defended by Mr. William Williams, (the Welsh poet, as he is sometimes called,) in a pamphlet, which was pa- tronized by the abettors of jumping in religious assemblies. Several of the more zealous itinerant preachers encouraged the people to cry out go- goniant (the Welsh word for glory,) amen, &c. &c; to put themselves in violent agitations ; and, finally, to jump until they were quite exhausted, so as often to be obliged to fall down on the floor or field, where this kind of worship was held. JUSTICE consists in an exact and scrupu- lous regard to the rights of others, with a deli- berate purpose to preserve them on all occasions sacred and inviolate. It is often divided into commutative and distributive justice. The for- mer consists in an equal exchange of benefits ; the latter in an equal distribution of rewards and punishments. Dr. Watts gives the following rules respecting justice. — " 1. It is just that we honour, reverence, and respect those who are su- periors in any kind, Eph. vi. 1, 3; 1 Pet. ii. 17; 1 Tim. v. 17. — 2. That we show particular kind- ness to near relations, Prov. xvii. 17. — 3. That we love those who love us, and show gratitude to those who have done us good, Gal. iv. 15. — 4. That we pay the full due to those whom we bargain or deal with, Rom. xiii.; Dcut. xxiv. J4. — 5. That we help our fellow-creatures in cases of great necessity, Ex. xxii. 4. — 6. Repa- lation to those whom we have wilfully in- 219 JUSTIFICATION jured." Watts' s Serm. ser. 24, 25, vol. ii.; Berry Street Lcct. ser. iv.; Grove's Mor. Phil. p. 332, vol. ii.; Wollaston's Rtlig. of Nature, p. 137, 141 ; Jay's Serm. vol. ii. p. 131. JUSTICE OF GOD is that perfection where- by he is infinitely righteous and just, both in himself and in all his proceedings with his crea- tures. Mr. Ryland defines it thus : " The ardent inclination of his vill to prescribe equal laws aa the supreme governor, and to dispense equal re- wards and punishments as the supreme judge." Rev. xvi. 5; Ps. cxlv. 7; xcvii. 1. — 2. It is dis- tinguished into remunerative and punitive jus- tice. Remunerative justice is a distribution of rewards, the rule of which is not the merit of the creature, but his own gracious promise, James i. 12 ; 2 Tim. iv. 8. Punitive or vindictive jus- tice, is the infliction of punishment for any sin committed by men, 2 Thess. i. 6. That God will not let sin go unpunished is evident, 1. From the word of God, Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7 ; Numb. xiv. 18 ; Neh. i. 3. — 2. From the nature of God, Isa. i. 13, 14; Psal. v. 5, 6 ; Heb. xii. 29.-3. From sin being punished in Christ, the surety of his people, 1 Pet. iii. 18. — 4. From all the various natural evils which men bear in the present state. The use we should make of this doctrine is this: 1. We should learn the dreadful nature of sin, and the inevitable ruin of impenitent sinners, Ps. ix. 17. — 2. We should highly appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom justice is satisfied, 1 Pet. iii. 18. — 3. We should imitate the justice of God, by cherishing an ardent regard to the rights of God, and to the rights of mankind. — 4. We should abhor all sin, as it strikes directly at the justice of God. — 5. We should derive com- fort from the consideration that the judge of all the earth will do right, as it regards ourselves, the church, and the world at large, Psal. xcvii. 1, 2. Ryland' 3 Contemp. vol. ii. p. 439; Witsius's (Economy, lib. xi. ch. 8. § 1 1 ; Dr. Owen on the Justice of God ; Gill's Body of Divinity, p. 155, vol. i. 8vo.; Elisha Cole on the Righteousness of God. JUSTIFICATION, a forensic term, and signifies the declaring or pronouncing a person righteous according to law. It stands opposed to condemnation ; and this is the idea of the word whenever it is used in an evangelical sense, Rom. v. 18; Deut. xxv. 1 ; Prov. xvii. 15 ; Matt. xii. 37. It does not signify to make men holy, but the holding and declaring them so. It is defined by the assembly thus : " An act of God's free grace, in which he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the right- eousness of Christ imputed to u ;, and received by faith alone.'' The doctrine of justification, says Mr. Booth, makes a very distinguished figure in that religion which is from above, and is a capital article of that faith which was once delivered to the saints. Far from being a merely speculative point, it spreads its influence through the whole body of divinity, runs through all Christian experience, and operates in every part of practical godliness. Such is its grand importance, that a mistake about it has a malignant efficacy, and is attended with a long train of dangerous consequences. Nor can this appear strange, when it is consider- ed, that the doctrine of justification is no othei than the way of a sinner's acceptance with God. Being of such peculiar moment, it is inseparably JUSTIFICATION connected with many other evangelical truths, the harmony and beauty of which we cannot he- hold while this is misunderstood. It is, if any thing may he so called, an essential article, and Certainly requires our most serious consideration. Justification, in a theological sense, is either legal or evangelical. If any person could be found that had never broken the divine law, he might be justified by it in a manner strictly legal. But in this way none of the human race can he justified, or stand acquitted before God. For all have sinned; there is none righteous; no, not one, Horn. iii. As sinners, they are under the sentence of death by his righteous law, and ex- cluded from all hope and mercy. That justifica- tion, therefore, about which the Scriptures prin- cipally treat, and which reaches the case of a sinner, is not by a personal, but an imputed righteousness ; a righteousness without the law, Rom. iii. 21 ; provided by grace, and revealed in the Gospel ; for which reason, that obedience by which a sinner is justified, and his justification itself, are called evangelical. In this affair there is the most wonderful display of divine justice and bound^ss grace. Of divine justice, if we re- gard the meritorious cause and ground on which the Justifier proceeds in absolving the condemned sinner, and in pronouncing him righteous. Of boundless grace, if we consider the state and character of those persons to whom the blessing is rrranted. Justification may be further distin- guished as being either at the bar of God, and in the court of conscience ; or in the sight of the world, and before our fellow creatures. The for- mer is by mere grace through faith ; and the latter is by works. To justify, is evidently a divine prerogative. It is God, that justijieth, Rom. viii. 33. That so- vereign Being, against whom we have so greatly offended, whose law we have broken by ten thou- sand acts of rebellion against him, has, in the way of his own appointment, the sole right of acquitting the guilty, and of pronouncing them righteous. He appoints the way, provides the means, and imputes the righteousness ; and all in perfect agreement with the demands of his of- fended law, and the rigkts of his violated justice. But although this act is in some places of the in- fallible word more particularly appropriated per- sonally to the Father, yet it is manifest that all the Three Persons are concerned in this grand affair, and each performs a distinct part in this particular, as also in the whole, economy of salva- tion. The eternal Father is represented as ap- pointing the way, and as giving his own Son to fierform the conditions of our acceptance before lim, Rom. vii. 32 ; the divine Son as engaged to sustain the curse, and make the atonement; to fulfil the terms, and provide the righteousness by which we are justified, Tit. ii. 14 ; and the Holy Spirit as revealing to sinners the perfection, suit- ableness, and frecness of the Saviour's work, enabling them to receive it as exhibited in the Gospel of sovereign grace ; and testifying to their consciences complete justification by it in the court of heaven, John xvi. 8, 14. As to the objects of justification, the Scripture says they are sinners and ungodly. For thus runs the divine declaration : To him that work- eth is the reward of justification, and of eternal life as connected with it ; not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to tiiin that woiketh not. but be- 220 JUSTIFICATION lievelh on htm that justijieth — whom! the righ- teous? the holy? the eminently pious? nay, ve- rily, but the ungodly ; his faith, or that in which he believes, is counted unto him for righteousness, Rom. iv. 4, 5 ; Gal. ii. 17. Here, then, we learn, that the subjects of justification, considered in themselves, are not only destitute of a perfect righteousness, but have performed no good works at all. They are denominated and consi- dered as the ungodly, when the blessing is be- stowed upon them. Not that we are to under- stand that such remain ungodly. " All," says Dr. Owen, " that are justified, were before un- godly ; but all that are justified, are, at the same instant, made godly." That the mere sinner, however, is the subject of justification, appears from hence. The Spirit of God, speaking in the Scripture, repeatedly declares that we are justified by grace. But grace stands in direct opposition to works. Whoever, therefore, is justified by grace, is considered as absolutely unworthy in that very instant when the blessing is vouchsafed to him, Rom. iii. 24. The person, therefore, that is justified, is accepted without any cause in him- self. Hence it appears that if we regard the per- sons who are justified, and their state prior to the enjoyment of the immensely glorious privilege, divine grace appears, and reigns in all its glory. As to the way and manner in which dinners are justified, it may be observed that the Divine Being can acquit none without a complete righ- teousness. Justification, as before observed, is evidently a forensic term, and the tiling intended by it a judicial act. So that, were a person to be justified without righteousness, the judgment would not be according to truth; it would be a false and unrighteous sentence. That righteousness by which we are justified mustbeequaltothedemands of that law according to which the Sovereign Judge proceeds in our justification. Many persons talk of condit ions of justification (see article Condi- tion';) but the only condition is Xhatot'perfect righ- teousness : this the law requires, nor does the Gos- pel substitute another. But where shall we find, or how shall we obtain a justifying righteousness1? Shall we flee to the law for relief? (Shall we ap- ply with diligence and zeal to the performance of duty, in order to attain the desired end? The apostle positively affirms, that there is no accept- ance with God by the works of the law ; and the reasons are evident. Our righteousness is im- perfect, and consequently cannot justify. If jus- tification were by the works of men, it could not be by grace : it would not be a righteousness without works. — There would be no need of the righteousness of Christ; and lastly, if justifica- tion were by the law, then boasting would be en couraged ; whereas God's design in the whole scheme of salvation is to exclude it, Rom. iii. 27 ; Eph. ii. 8, 0. Nor is faith itself our righteous- ness, or that for the sake of which we are justified : for, though believers are said to be justified by faith, yet not for faith • faith can only be consi dered as the instrument, and not the cause. That faith is not our righteousness, is evident from the following considerations : No man's faith is per- fect ; and, if it were, it would not be equal to the demands of the divine law. It could not, there- fore, without an error in judgment, lie accounted a complete righteousness. But the judgment of God, as before proved, is according to truth, and according to the rights of Ids law. That obe* JUSTIFICATION dience by which a sinner is justiiied is called the righteousness of faith, righteousness by faith, and is represented as revealed to faith ; conse- quently, cannot be faith itself. Faith, in the busi- ness of justification, stands opposed to all works ; to him that worketh not but believelh. Now, if it were our justifying righteousness, to consider it in such a light would be highly improper. For in such a connexion it falls under the considera- tion of a work ; a condition, on the performance of which our acceptance with God is manifestly suspended. If faith itself be that on account of wliich wc are accepted, then some believers are justified by a more, and some by a less perfect righteousness, in exact proportion to the strength or weakness of their faith. That which is the end of the law is our righteousness, which cer- tainly is not, faith, but the obedience of, our ex- alted substitute, Rom. x. 4. Were faith itself our justifying righteousness, we might depend upon it before God, and rejoice in it. So that, according to this hypothesis, not Christ, but faith, is the capital thing ; the object to which we must look, which is absurd. When the apostle says, " faith was imputed to him for righteous- ness," his main design was to prove that the eternal Sovereign justifies freely, without any cause in the creature. Nor is man's obedience to the Gospel as to a new and milder law the matter of his justification before God. It was a notion that some years ago obtained, that a relaxation of the law, and the severities of it, has been obtained by Christ; and a new law, a remedial law, a law 'of milder terms, has been introduced by him, which is the Gospel ; the terms of which are faith, repentance, and obedience ; and though these are imperfect, yet, being sincere, they are accepted of by God in the room of a perfect righteousness. But every part of this scheme is wrong, for the law is not relaxed, nor any of its severities abated ; there is no alteration made in it, either with re- spect to its precepts or penalty : besides, the scheme is absurd, for it supposes that the law which a man is now under requires only an im- perfect obedience; but an imperfect righteous- ness cannot answer its demands; for every law requires perfect obedience to its own precepts; and prohibitions. Nor is a profession of religion, nor sincerity, nor good works, at all the ground of our accept- ance with God, for all our righteousness is im- perfect, and must therefore be entirely excluded. By grace, saith the apostle, ye arc saved, not of works, lest any man should boast, Eph. ii. 8, 1*. Besides, the works of sanctification and justifica- tion are two distinct things : the one is a work of grace within men ; the other an act of grace for or towards men : the one is imperfect, the other complete: the one carried on giadually, the other done at once. See Sanctification. If, then, we cannot possibly be justified by any of our own performances, nor by faith itself, nor even by the graces of the Holy Spirit, where then shall we find a righteousness by which we can be justified 1 The Scripture furnishes us with an answer — " By Jesus Christ all that be- lieve are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." Acts xhi. 38, 39. "He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification," Rotn. iv. 25. "Being justified by his blood we 221 JUSTIFICATION shall be saved from wrath through him," Rom, v. 9. The spotless obedience, therefore, the bit- ter sufferings, and the accursed death of our hea- venly Surety, constitute that very righteousness by which sinners are justified before God. That this righteousness is imputed to us, and that we are not. justified by a personal righteousness, ap- pears from the Scripture with superior evidence, " By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous," Rom. v. 19. "He hath made, him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cot v. 21; "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which Is through the faith of Christ; the righ- teousness which is of God by faith," Phil. iii. 8. See also Jer. xxiii. 6 ; Dan. ix. 24 ; the whole of the 2d chap, of Galatians. See articles RfXOf*- ciuation, Righteousness. As to the -properties of justification : 1. It is an act of God's free grace, without any merit whatever in the creature, Rom. iii. 24. 2. It is an act of justice as well as grace ; the law being perfectly fulfilled in Christ, and divine justice satisfied, Rom. iii. 26 ; Ps. lxxxv. 10.— 3. It b an individual and instantaneous act, done at once, admitting of no degrees, John xix. 30. — 4. It is irreversible, and an unalterable act, Mai. iii. 6. As to the time of justification, divines are not agreed. Some have distinguished it into decre- tive, virtual, and actual. 1. Decretive, is God's eternal purpose to justify sinners in time by Jesus Christ. — 2. Virtual justification has a re- ference to the satisfaction made by Christ. — 3. Actual, is when we are enabled to believe in Christ, and by faith are united to him Others say it is eternal, because his purpose respecting it was from everlasting; and that, as the Almighty viewed his people in Christ, they were, of conse- quence, justified in his sight. But it appears to me, that the principle on which the advocates for this doctrine have proceeded is wrong. They have confounded the design with the execution ; for if this distinction be not kept up, the ctmost perplexity will follow the consideration of every subject which relates to the decrees of God ; nor shall we be able to form any clear ideas of his moral government whatever. To say, as one does, that the eternal will of God to justify men is the justification of them, is not to the purpose; for upon the same ground we might as well say that the eternal will of God to convert and glo- rify his people is the real conversion and glorifi- cation of them. That it was eternally deter- mined that there should be a people who should believe in Christ, and that his righteousness should be imputed to them, is not to be disputed ; but to say that these things were really done from eternity (winch we must say if we believe eternal justification,) this would be absurd. It is more consistent to believe, that God from eter- nity laid the plan of justification; that this plan was executed by the life and death of Christ ; and that the blessing is only manifested, received, and enjoyed, when we are regenerated ; so thai no man can say, or has any reason to conclude, he is justified, until he believes in Christ, Ro- mans v. i. The effects or blessings of justification, are, — 1. An entire freedom from all penal evils in tliis life, and that which is to come, 1 Cor. iii. 22. — 2. Peace with God, Rom. v. 1.— 3. Access to t 2 KNIPPERDOLINGS God through Christ, Ephesians iii. 12. — 1 Ac- ceptance with God, Ephesians v. 27. — 5. Holy confidence and security under all the difficulties and trouhles of the present state, 2 Timothy i. 12. — 6. Finally, eternal salvation, Romans viii. 30; v. 18. Thus we have given as comprehensive a view of the doctrine of justification as the nature of this work will admit; a doctrine which is found- ed upon the sacred Scriptures ; and which, so far from leading to licentiousness, as some sup- pose, is of all others the most replete with mo- lives to love, dependence, and obedience, Rom. w. I, 2. A doctrine which the primitive Chris- KNOWLEDGE tians held as constituting the very essence of their system ; which our reformers considered as the most important point ; which our venerable mar- tyrs gloried in, and sealed with their blood; and which, as the church of England observes, is a " very wholesome doctrine, and full of comfort." See Dr. Owen on Justification; Rawlins on Justification; Edwards's Sermons on ditto; Lime-Street Lcct. p. 350 ; Herrcy's Theron ana Aspasia, and Eleven Letters ; Wi'herspoon's Connexion between Justification and Holiness; GUI and Ridglci/s Div.; but especially Booth'* Reign of Grace, to which I am indebted for great part of the above article. K. KEITHIANS, a party which separated from the Quakers in Pennsylvania in the year 1G91. They were headed by the famous George Keith, from whom they derived their name. Those who persisted in their separation, after their leader deserted them, practised baptism, and re- ceived the Lord's Supjier. This party were also callel Quaker Baptists, because they retained the language, dress, and manner of the Quakers. KEYS, POWER OF THE, a term made use of in reference to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, denoting the power of excommunicating and ab- solving. The Romanists say that the pope has the power of the keys, and can open and shut paradise as he pleases ; grounding their opinion on that expression of Jesus Christ to Peter — " I will give thee the keys ofthe kingdom of heaven." Matt. xvi. 19. But every one must see that this is an absolute perversion of Scripture : for the keys of the kingdom of heaven most probably refer to the Gospel dispensation, and denote the power and authority of every faithful minister to preach the Gospel, administer the sacraments, and exercise government, that men may be ad- mitted to or excluded from the church, as is pro- per. See Absolution. In St. Gregory we read that it was the custom for the pope to send a golden key to princes, wherein they inclosed a little of the filings of St. Peter's chain, kept with such devotion at Rome ; and that these keys were worn in the bosom, as being supposed to contain some wonderful vir- tues! Such has been the superstition of past ages! KIRK SESSIONS, the name of a petty eccle- siastical judicatory in Scotland. Each parish, according to its extent, is divided into several parti- cular districts, every one of which has its own elder and deacons ts oversee it. A consistory of the ministers, elders and deacon of a parish form a kirk session. These meet once, a week, the mi- nister being their moderator, but without a nega- tive voice. It regulates matters relative to public worship, elections, catechising, visitations, &e. It judges in matters of less scandal ; but greater, as adiltery, are left to the presbytery, and in all cases an appeal lies from it to the presbytery. — Kirk sessions have likewise the care of the poor and roor's funds. See Presbyterians. KINDNESS, civil behaviour, favourable treat- ment, or a constant and habitual practice of friendly offices and benevolent actions. See Charity; Gbntlbnbbb. KNIPPERDOLINGS, a denomination in 222 the 16th century; so called from Bertrand Knipnerdoling, who taught that the righteous before the day of judgment shall have a monarchy on earth, and the wicked be destroyed; that men ure not justified by their faith in Christ Jesus; that there is no original sin ; that infants ought not be baptized, and that immersion is the only mode of baptism : that every one has authority to preach and administer the sacraments ; that men are not obliged to pay respect to magistrates ; that all things ought to be in common, and that it is lawful to marry many wives. KNOWLEDGE is defined by Mr. Locke to be the perception ofthe connexion and agreement or disagreement and repugnancy of our ideas. It also denotes learning, or the improvement of our faculties by reading; experience, or the ac- quiring new ideas or truths, by seeing a variety of objects, and making observations upon them in our own minds. No man, says the admirable Di. Watts, is obliged to learn and know every thing ; this can neither he sought nor required, for it is utterly impossible : yet all persons are under some obligation to improve their own under- standing, otherwise it will be a barren deseit, or a forest overgrown with weeds and brambles. Universal ignorance, or infinite error, will over- spread the mind which is utterly neglected, and lies without any cultivation. The following rules, therefore, should be attended to for the in> provement of knowledge. — 1. Deeply possess your mind with the vast importance of a good judgment, and the rich and inestimable advan- tages of right reasoning. — 2. Consider the weak- nesses, failings, and mistakes of human nature in general. — 3. Be not satisfied with a slight view of things, but take a wide survey now and then of the vast and unlimited regions of learning, the variety of questions and difficulties belonging to every science. — 4. Presume not too much upon a bright genius, a ready wit, and good parts ; for this, without study, will never make a man of knowledge. — 5. Do not imagine that large and laborious reading, and a strong memory, can de- nominate you truly wise, without meditation and studious thought. — 6. Be not so weak as to im- agine that a life of learning is a life of laziness. — 7. Let the hope of new discoveries, as well as the satisfaction and pleasure of known truths, ani- mate your daily industry. — 8. Do not hove? always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly with mere appearances. — 9. Once a day, especially in the early years of life and study, call yourselves to an account what new idea9 KNOWLEDGE you have gained. — 10. Maintain a constant watch, at all times, against a dogmatical spirit. — 11. Be humble and courageous enough to retract any mistake, and confess an error. — 12. Beware of a fanciful temper of mind, and a humorous conduct. —13. Have a care of trifling with things impor- tant and momentous, or of sporting with things awful and sacred. — 14. Ever maintain a virtuous and pious frame of spirit. — 15. Watch against tiie pride of your own reason, and a vain conceit of your own intellectual powers, with the neglect of divine aid and blessing. — 16. Offer up, there- fore, your daily requests to God, the Father of Lights, that he would bless all your attempts and labours in reading, study, and conversation. — Watts on the Mind, chap. i. ; Dr. John Ed- wards's Uncertainty, Deficiency, and Corrup- tion of Human Knowledge ; Rcid's Intellectual Powers of Man ; Slennet's Sermon on Acts xxvi. 24 25. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD is often taken for the fear of God and the whole of religion. There is, indeed, a speculative knowledge, which consists only in the belief of his existence, and the acknowledgment of his perfections, but has no influence on the heart and conduct. A spi- ritual saving knowledge consists in veneration for the Divine Being, Ps. lxxxix. 7 ; love to him as an object of beauty and goodness, Zech. ix. 17 ; humble confidence in his mercy and promise, Ps. ix. 10 ; and sincere, uniform, and persevering obedience to his word, 1 John ii. 3. It may fur- ther be considered as a knowledge of God the Father; of his love, faithfulness, power, &c. Of the Son, as it relates to the dignity of his nature, 1 John v. 20 ; the suitability of his offices, Heb. ix. ; the perfection cf his work, Ps. Ixviii. 18 ; the brightness of his example, Acts x. 38 ; and the prevalence or his intercession, Heb. vii. 25. Of the Holy Ghost, as equal with the Father and the Son ; of his agency as cnlightener and com- forter ; as also in his work of witnessing, sancti- fying, and directing his people, John xv. xvi. ; 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18; John hi. 5, 6; Rom. viii. 16. This knowledge may be considered as experi- mental, 2 Tim. i. 12; fiducial, Job xiii. 15, 16; affectionate, 1 John iii. 19 ; influential, Psal. ix. 10 ; Matt. v. 16 ; humiliating, Isa. vi. ; Job xlii. 5, 6; satisfying, Psal. xxxvi. 7; Prov. iii. 17; and superior to all other knowledge, Phil. iii. 8. The advantages of religious knowledge are every way great. It forms the basis of true honour and felicity. " Not all the lustre of a noble birth, not all the influence of wealth, not all the pomp af titles, not all the splendour of power, can give dignity to the soul that is destitute of inward im- provement. By this we are allied to angels, and are capable of rising for ever in the scale of being. Such is its inherent worth, that it hath always lreen represented under the most pleasing images. In particular, it hath been compared to light, the most valuable and reviving part of nature's works, and to that glorious luminary which is the most beautiful and transporting object our eyes behold. If we entertain any doubts concerning the intrin- sic value of religious knowledge, let us look around us, and we shall be convinced how desirable it is to be acquainted with God, with spiritual, with eternal things. Observe the difference between a cultivated and a barren country. While the former is a lovely, cheerful, and delightful sight, the other administers a swetaele of horror. There 223 KNOWLEDGE is an equal difference between the nations among whom the principles of piety prevail, and the na- tions that are overrun with idolatry, superstition, and error. Knowledge, also, is of great impor- tance to our personal ai.d private felicity : it fur- nishes a pleasure that cannot be met with in the possession of inferior enjoyments; a fine enter- tainment which adds a relish to prosperity, and alleviates the hour of distress. It throws a lustre upon greatness, and reflects an honour upon poverty. Knowledge will also instruct us how to apply our several talents for the benefit of man- kind. It will make us capable of advising and regulating others. Hence we may become the lights of the world, and diffuse those beneficent beams around us, which shall shine on benighted travellers, and discover the path of rectitude and bliss. This knowledge, also, tends to destroy bigotry and enthusiasm. To this we are indebted for the important change which hath been made since the beginning of the Reformation. To this we are indebted for the general cultivation and refinement of the understandings of men. It is owing to this that even arbitrary governments seem to have lost something of their original fero- city, and that there is a source of improvement in Europe which will, we hope, in future times, shed the most delightful influences on society, and unite its members in harmony, peace, and love. But the advantages of knowledge are still greater, for it points out to us an eternal felicity. The several branches of human science are in- tended only to bless and adorn our present exist- ence; but religious knowledge bids us provide for an immortal being, sets the path of salvation before us, and is our inseparable companion in the road to glory. As it instructs in the way to endless bliss, so it will survive that mighty day when all worldly literature and accomplishments shall for ever cease. At that solemn period, in which the records and registers of men shall be destroyed, the systems of human policy be dis- solved, and the grandest works of genius die, the wisdom which is spiritual and heavenly shall not only subsist, but be increased to an extent that human nature cannot in this life admit. Our views of things, at present, are obscure, imperfect, partial, and liable to error ; but when we arrive to the realms of everlasting light, the clouds that shadowed our understanding will be removed; we shall behold with amazing clearness the attri- butes, ways, and works of God; shall perceive more distinctly the design of his dispensations ; shall trace with rapture the wonders of nature and grace, and become acquainted with a thou- sand glorious objects, of which the imagination can as yet have no conception." In order to increase in the knowledge of God, there must be dependence on Him from whom all light proceeds, James i. 6; attention to his revealed will, John v. 39; a watchful spirit against corrupt affections, Luke xxi. 34 ; a hum- ble frame of mind, Ps. xxv. 9 ; frequent medita- tion, Ps. civ. 34 ; a persevering design for con- formity to the divine image, Hos. vi. 3. — Char- nock's Works, vol. ii. p. 381 ; Saurin's Sermons, vol. i. ser. 1 ; Gill's Body of Div. vol. iii. p. 12. oct. ; Tillotson's Ser in. ser. 113 ; Watts' s Works, vol. i. ser. 45 ; Hall's Sermon on the Advantagei of Knowledge to the Lower Classes. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. Sec Omnj3 CIEN'CE. KORAN KORAN, or ALCORAN, the Scripture or Bible of the Mahometans, containing the revela- tions and doctrines of their pretended prophet. 1. Koran, divisions of the. — The Koran is di- vided into one hundred and fourteen lamer por- tions of very unequal length, which we call chap- ters, but the Arabians Sowar, in the singular Sura ; a word rarely used on any other occasion, and properly signifying a row, or a regular scries ; as a course of bricks in building, or a rank of soldiers in an army, and is the same in Use and import with the Sura, or Tora, of the Jews ; who ffiso call the fifty-three sections of the Pentateuch Sedarhn, a word of the same signification. These chapters are not, in the manuscript copies, distin- guished by their numerical order, but by particu- lar titles, which are taken sometimes from a pe- culiar subject treated of, or person mentioned therein ; usually from the first word of note, ex- actly in the same manner as the Jews have named their Sedarim : though the. word from which some chapters are denominated be very distant towards the middle, or perhaps the end, of the chapter; which seems ridiculous. But the occasion of this appears to have been, that the verse or passage wherein such word occurs, was, in point of time, revealed and committed to writ- ing before the other verses of the same chapter which precede it in order ; and the title being given to the chapter before it was completed, or the pas- sages reduced to their present order, the verse from whence such title was taken did not always happen io begin the chapter. Some chapters have two or more titles, occasioned by the differ- ence of the copies. Some of them" being pre- tended to have been revealed at Mecca, and others at Medina, the noting this difference makes a part of the title. Every chapter is divided into smaller portions, of very unequal length also, which we customarily call verses ; but the Ara- bic word is Ayat, the same with the Hebrew Ototh, and signifies signs or uonders ; such as the secrets of God, his attributes, works, judg- ments, and ordinances delivered in those verses ; many of which have their particular titles, also, imposed in the same manner as those of the chap- ters. Besides these unequal divisions, the Ma- hometans have also divided their Koran into sixty equal portions, which they call Anzab, in the singular Hizb, each subdivided into four equal parts ; which is likewise an imitation of the Jews, who have an ancient division of their Mishna into sixty portions, called Massictolh. But the Koran is more usually divided into thirty sections only, named Ajaza, from the singula. Joz, each of twice the length of the former, and in like manner subdivided into four parts. These divi- sions are for the use of the readers of the Koran in the royal temples, or in the adjoining chapels where the emperors and great men are interred ; of whom there are thirty belonging to every chapel, and each reads his section every day ; so that the whole Koran is read over once a day. Next after the title, at the name of every chapter except only the ninth, is prefixed the following solemn form, by the Mahometans called the Bis- mallah — "In the name of the most merciful God ;" which form they constantly place at the beginning of all their books and writings in gene- ral, as a peculiar mark and distinguishing charac- teristic of their religion, it being counted a sort ef impiety to omit' it. The Jews, and eastern 224 KORAN Christians, for the same purpose, make use : ' similar forms. But Mahomet probably took this form from the Persian Magi, who began their books in these words, Benam Yezdam bahshaish- gher dadar ; that is, In the name of the most merciful just Gon. There are twenty-nine chapters of the Koran, which have this pecu- liarity, that they begin with certain letters ot the alphabet, some with single ones, others with more, These letters the Mahometans believe to be the peculiar marks of the Koran, and to conceal seve- ral profound mysteries; the certain understand- ing of which, the more intelligent confess, has not been communicated to any mortal, their prophet only excepted ; notwithstanding which, some take the liberty of guessing at their meaning by that species of cabala called by the Jews No- tarikon. 2. Koran, general design of the. — The gene- ral design of the Koran was to unite the profes- sors of the three different religions, then followed in the populous country of Arabia, (who, for the most part, wandered without guides, the far greater number being idolaters, the rest Jews and Christians, mostly of erroneous opinion,) in the knowledge and worship of one God, under the sanction of certain laws and ceremonies, partly of ancient and partly of novel institution, enforced by the consideration of rewards and punishments both temporal and eternal ; and to bring them all to the obedience of Mahomet, as the prophet and ambassador of God ; who, after the repeated ad- monitions, promises, and threats of former ages, was sent at last to establish and propagate God's religion en earth ; and to be acknowledged chief pontiff in spiritual matters, as well as supreme prince in temporal. The great doctrine, then, of the Koran is the unity of God; to restore which, Mahomet pretended, was the chief end of his mission ; it being laid down by him as a fundamental truth, That there never was, nor ever can be, more than one true orthodox religion : that, though the particular laws or ceremonies are only temporary, and subject to alteration, ac- cording to the divine direction ; yet the substance of it, being eternal truth, is not liable to change, but continues immutably the same ; and that, whenever this religion became neglected or cor- rupted in essentials, God had the goodness to re- inform and re-admonish mankind thereof by several prophets, of whom Moses and Jesus were the most distinguished, till the appearance of Mahomet, who is their seal, and no other to be expected after him. The more effectually to en- gage people to hearken to him, great part of the Koran is employed in relating examples of dread- ful punishments formerly inflicted by God on those who rejected and abused his messengers ; several of which stories, or some circumstances of them, are taken from the Old and New Testa- ments, but many more from the apocryphal books and traditions of the Jews and Christians of those ages, set up in the Koran as truths, in opposition to the Scriptures, which the Jews and Christians are charged with having altered ; and, indeed, few or none of the relations of circum- stances in the Koran were invented by Mahomet, as is generally supposed ; it being easy to trace the greatest part ol them much higher, as the rest might be, were more of these books extant, and were it worth while to make the inquiry. The rest of the Alcoran is taken up in prescribing KORAN necessary laws and directions, frequent admoni- tions to moral and divine virtues, (he worship and reverence of the Supreme Being, and resignation to his will. One of their most learned commen- tators distinguishes the contents of the Alcoran into allegorical and literal ; under the former are comprehended all the ohscure, parabolical, and enigmatical passages, with such laws as are re- pealed or abrogated ; the latter, such as are clear, and in full force. The most excellent moral in the whole Alcoran, interpreters say, is that in the chapter Al alraf, viz. " Show mercy, do good to all, and dispute not with the ignorant;" or, as Mr. Sale renders it, Use indulgence, command that which is just, and withdraw far from the igno- rant. Mahomet, according to the authors of the Keschaf, having begged of the angel Gabriel a more ample explication of this passage, received it in the following terms : " Seek, him who turns thee out, give to him who takes from thee, par- don him who injures thee; for God will have you plant in your souls the roots of his chief per- fections." It is easy to see that this commentary is borrowed from the Gospel. In reality, the necessity of forgiving enemies, though frequently inculcated in the Alcoran, is of a later date among the Mahometans than anjong the Christians; among those later than among the heathens ; and to be traced originally among the Jews. (See Exod. xxxiii. 4, 5.) But it matters not so much who had it first as who observes it best. The caliph Hassan, son of Hali, being at table, a slave let fall a dish of meat reeking hot, which scalded him severely. The slave fell on his knees re- hearsing these words of the Alcoran, " Paradise is for those who restrain their anger." " I am not angry with thee," answered the caliph. " And for those who forgive offences against them," continues the slave. " I forgive thee thine," re- plies the caliph. " But, above all, for those who return good for evil," adds the slave. "I set thee at liberty," rejoined the caliph ; "and I give thee ten dinars." There are also a great number of occasional passages in the Alcoran relating only to particular emergencies. For this advantage Mahomet had, by his piecemeal method of re- ceiving and delivering his revelations, that, when- ever he happened to be perplexed with any thing, he had a certain resource in some new morse] of revelation. It was an admirable contrivance to bring down the whole Alcoran orrly to the lowest heaven, not to earth : since, had the whole been published at once, innumerable objections would have been made, which it would have been im- possible for him to have solved ; but as he re- ceived it by parcels, as God saw fit they should be published for the conversion and instruction of the people, he had a sure way to answer all emergencies, and to extricate himself with honour from any difficulty which might occur. 3. Koran, history of the. — It is the common i tpinion, that Mahomet, assisted by one Sergius, a monk, composed this book : bu.t the Mussul- mans believe it as an article of their faith, that the prophet, who, they say, was an illiterate man, had ro concern in inditing it ; but that it was given him by God, who, to that end, made use of the mi- nistry of the angel Gabriel ; that, however, it was communicated to him by little and little, a verse at a time, and in different places, during the course of 23 years. — " And hence," say they, " proceed t'»it disorder and confusion visibly in the work;" 225 2 D KORAN which, in truth, are so great, that all their doc- tors have never been able to adjust them; for Mahomet, or rather his copyist, having put all the loose verses promiscuously in a book together, it was impossible ever to retrieve the order where in they were delivered. These 23 years which the angel employed in conveying the Alcoran to Mahomet, are of wonderful service to his fol- lowers; inasmuch as they furnish them with an answer to such as tax them with those glaring contradictions of which the book is full, and which they piously father upon God himself; alleging that, in the course of so long a time, he repealed and altered several doctrines and pre- cepts which the prophet had before received of him. M. D'Herbelot thinks it probable, that when the heresies of the Nestorians, Eutychians, &c. had been condemned by oecumenical coun- cils, many bishops, pr'ests, monks, &c. being driven into the deserts of Arabia and Egypt, fur- nished the impostor with passages, and crude, ill-conceived doctrines, out of the Scriptures ; and that it was hence that the Alcoran became so full of the wild and erroneous opinions of those here- tics. The Jews also, who were very numerous in Arabia, furnished materials for the Alcoran ; nor is it without some reason that they boast twelve of their chief doctors to have been the authors of this work. The Alcoran, while Ma- homet lived, was only kept in loose sheets : his successor, Abubeker, first collected them into a volume, and committed the keeping of it to Haphsa, the widow of Mahomet, in order to be consulted as an original ; and there being a good deal of diversity between the several copies al- ready dispersed throughout the provinces, Otto- man, successor of Abubeker, procured a great number of copies to be taken from that of Haph sa, at the same time suppressing all the others not conformable to the original. The chief dif- ferences in the present copies of this book consist in the points, which were not in use in the time of Mahomet and his immediate successors ; but were added since, to ascertain the reading, after the example of the Massoretes, who added the like points to the Hebrew texts of Scripture. There are seven principal editions of the Alcoran, two at Medina, one at Mecca, one at Cufa, one at Bassora, one in Syria, and the common, or vulgar edition. The first contains 6*000 verses, the others surpassing this number by 200 or 236 verses ; but the number of words and letters is the same in all ; viz. 77,639 words, and 323,015 letters. The number of commentaries on the Alcoran is so large, that the bare titles would make a huge volume. Ben Oschair has written the history of them, entitled Tarikh Ben Os- chair. The principal among them are, Reid- haori, Thaalebi, Zamalchschari, and Bacai. The Mahometans have a positive theology built en the Alcoran and tradition, as well as a scholasti- cal one built on reason. They have likewise their casuists, and a kind of canon law, wherein they distinguish between what is of divine and what of positive right. They have their bene- ficiaries, too, chaplains, almoners, and canons, who read a chapter every day out of the Alcoran in their mosques, and have prebends annexed to their office. The hatib of the mosque is whafc we call the parson of the parish ; and the scheiJcs are the preachers, who take their texts out of the Alcoran. KORAN 4. Koran, Mahometan, faith concerning. — It is • In- general belief among the Mahometans that the Koran is of divine original; nay, that it is eter- nal and uncreated ; remaining, as some express it. in the very essence of God ; and the very first transcript has been from everlasting', by God's throne, written on a table of vast bigness, called the preserved tabic, in which are also recorded the divine decrees, past and future; that a copy from this table, in one volume upon paper, was, by the ministry of the angel Gabriel, sent down to the lowest heaven, in the month of Ramadan), on the niixht. of power, from whence Gabriel re- vealed it to Mahomet in parcels, some at Mecca, and some at Medina, at different times, during the space of twenty-three years, ;:s the exigency af affairs required ; giving him, however, the con- solation to show him the whole (which they tell us was bound in silk, and adorned with gold and precious stones of paradise) once a year; but in the last year of his life lie had the favour to see it twice. They say, that only ten chapters were delivered entire, the rest being revealed piecemeal, and written down from time to time by the prophet's amanuensis, in such a part of such and such a chapter, till they were completed, according to the direction of the angel. The first parcel that was revealed is generally agreed to have been the first five verses of the ninety- sixth chapter. In fine, the book of the Alcoran is held in the highest esteem and reverence among the Mussulmans. They dare not so much as touch the Alcoran without being first washed, or legally purified : to prevent which an inscription is put on the cover or label, — Let none touch but they who arc cie.an. It is read with great care and respect, being never held below the girdle. They swear by it; take omens from it on all weighty occasions ; carry it with them to war; write sentences of it on their banners ; adorn it with gold and precious stones ; and knowingly will not suffer it to be in the possession of any of a different religion. Some say it is punishable even with death, in a Christian to touch it; others, that the veneration of the Mussulmans leads them to condemn the translating it into any other lan- guage, as a profanation ; but these seem to be exaggerations. The Mahometans have taken care to have *heir Scripture translated into the Persian, the Javan, the Malayan, and other lan- guages : though, out of respect to the original, these versions are generally, if not always, interlineated. 5. Koran, success of the, accounted for. — The author of the "View of Christianity and Ma- hometanism," observes, that, " by the advocates of Mahometanism, the Koran has always been hi'ld forth as the greatest of miracles, and equally stupendous with the act of raising the dead. The miracles of Moses ind Jesus, they say, were transient and temporary; but that of the Koran is permanent and perpetual, and therefore far surpasses all the miraculous events of preceding ages. We will not detract from the real merits of the Koran ; we allow it to be generally elegant and often sublime: but at the same time we re- ject with disdain its arrogant pretence to any thing supernatural, all the real excellence of the work being easily referrible to natural and visible causes, in the language 01 Arabia, a language extremely loved and diligently cultivated tiy the people to whom it was vernacular, Mahomet lound advantages which were never enjoyed 2dti KORAN by any former or succeeding impostor. It re- quires not the eye of a philosopher to discover in every soil arid country a principle of national pride : and if we look back tor many ages on the history of the Arabians, we shaii easily perceive that pride among them invariably to haveconsist- | ed in the knowledge and improvement of their native language. The Arabic, which lias Bet n justly esteemed thp most copious of the eastern tongues, which had existed from the most re- mote antiquity, which had been embellished hy numberless poets, and refined by the constant ex- ercise of the natives, was the most successful in- strument which Mahomet employed in planting his new religion among them. Admirably adapt- ed by its unrivalled harmony, and by its endless variety, to add painting to expression, and to pursue the imagination in its unbounded flight, it became in the hands of Mahomet an irresist i- ble charm to blind the judgment and to captivate the fancy of his followers. Of that description of men who first composed the adherents of Ma- homet, and to whom the Koran was addressed, few, probably, were able to pass a very accurate judgment on the propriety of the sentiments, or on the beauty of the diction : but ail could judge of the military ahiiities*of their leader; and in the midst of .their admiration, it is not difficult to conceive that they would ascribe to his composi- tions every imaginary beauty of inspired lan- guage. The shepherd and the soldier, though awake to the charms of those wild but beautiful compositions in which were celebrated their fa- vourite occupations of love or war, were yet little able tq criticise any other works than those which were addressed to their imagination or their heart. To abstract reasonings on the attributes and the dispensations of the Deity, to the comparative excellencies of rival religions, to the consistency of any one religious system in all its parts, and to the force of its various proofs, they were quite inattentive. In such a situation, the appearance of a work which possessed something like wis- dom and consistence ; which prescribed the rules and illustrated the duties of life; and which con- tained the principles of a new and comparatively sublime theology, independently of its real and per- manent merit, was likely to excite their astonish- ment, and to become the standard of future com- position. In the first periods of the literature of every country, something of this kind has hap- pened. The father of Grecian poetry very obvi- viously influenced the taste and imitation of his country. The modern nations of Europe all possess some original author, who, rising from the darkness of former ages, has begun the ca- reer of composition, and tinctured with the cha- racter of his own imagination the stream which has flowed through his posterity. But the pro- phet of Arabia had in this respect ''advantages peculiar to himself His compositions were not to his followers the works of man, but the genuine language of Heaven which had sent him. They were not confined, therefore, to that admiration which is so liberally bestowed on the earliest pro- ductions of genius, or to that fond attachment with which men every where regard the original compositions of their country; but with their admiration they blended their niety. To know and to feel the beauties of the Koran, was in some respect to share in the temper of heaven ; and he who wa* most affected with admiration ifl KORAN the perusal of its beauties, seemed fitly the object of that mercy which had given it to ignorant man. The Koran, therefore, became naturally and ne- cessarily the standard of taste. With a language thus hallowed in their imaginations, they were too well satisfied cither to dispute its elegance, or improve its structure. In succeeding ages, the additional sanction of antiquity or prescription, ■was given to these compositions which their fa- thers had admired ; and while the belief of its tlnine original continues, that admiration, which has thus become the test and the duly of the faithful, can neither be altered nor diminished. When, therefore, we consider these peculiar ad- vantages of the Koran, we have no reason to be surprised at the admiration in which it is held. But if, descending to a more minute investigation of it, we consider its perpetual inconsistence and absurdity, we shall indeed have cause for astonish- ment at that weakness of humanity, which could ever have received such compositions as the work of the Deity." 6. Koran, the style and merits of the, examin- ed.— "The first praise of all the productions of genius (continues this author) is invention ; that quality of the mind, which, by the extent and quickness of its views, is capable of the largest conceptions, and of forming new combinations of objects the most distant and unusual. But the Koran bears little impression of this transcendant character. Its materials are wholly borrowed from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, from the Talmudical legends and apocryphal gospels then current in the East, and from the traditions and fables which abounded in Arabia. The ma- terials collected from these several sources are here heaped together with perpetual and heedless repetitions, without any settled principle or visible connexion. When a great part of the life of Ma- - hornet had been spent in preparatory meditation on the system he was about to establish, its chap- ters were dealt out slowly and separately during the long period of twenty-three years. Yet, thus defective in its structure, and no less objectionable in its doctrines, was the work which Mahomet delivered to his followers as the oracles of God. The most prominent feature of the Koran, that point of excellence in which the partiality of its admirers has ever delighted to view it, is the sublime notion it generally impresses of the na- ture and attributes of God. If its author had really derived these just conceptions from the in- spiration of that Being whom they attempt to de- HCribe, they would not have been surrounded, as they now are, on every side, with error and ab- surdity. But it might be easily proved, that what- ever it justly defines of the divine attributes was boirowed from our Holy Scripture ; which, even from its fust promulgation, but especially from the completion of the New Testament, has extended the views and enlightened the understandings of mankind; and thus furnished them with arms which have too often been elfectually turned against itself by its ungenerous enemies. In this instance, particularly, the copy is far below the great original, both in the propriety of its images anii the force of its descriptions.'' 7. Koran, the sublimity of the, contrasted. — " Our Holy Scriptures are the only compositions that can enable the dim sight of mortality to pe- netrate into the invisible world, and to behold a glimpse of the divine perfections. Accordingly, 2^7 KORAN when they would represent to us the happiness of heaven, they describe it, not by any thing minute and particular, but by something general and great ; something that, without descending to any determinate object, may at once, by its beauty and immensity, excite our wishes, and elevate our af- fections. * Though in the prophetical and evan- gelical writings, the joys that shall attend us in a divine state, are often mentioned with ardent, ad- miration, they are expressed rather by allusion than by similitude , rather by indefinite and figu- rative terms, than by any thing fixed and deter- minate, ' Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nei- ther have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.' 1 Cor. ii. 9. What a reverence and astonishment does this passage excite in every hearer of taste and piety ! What energy, and at the same time, what simplicity in the expression ! How sublime, and at the same time how obscure, is the imagery ! Different was the conduct of Mahomet in his de- scriptions of heaven and paradise. Unassisted by the necessary influence of virtuous intentions and divine inspiration, he was neither desirous, nor indeed able, to exalt the minds of men to sublime conceptions, or to rational expectations. By attempting to explain*what is inconceivable, to describe what is ineffable, and to materialize, what in itself is spiritual, he absurdly and im- piously aimed to sensualize the purity of the di- vine essence. Thus he fabricated a system of incoherence, a religion of depravity, totally repug- nant to the nature of that Being, who, as he pretended, was its object; but therefore more likely to accord with the appetites and concep- tions of a corrupt and sensual age. That we may not appear to exalt our Scriptures thus far above the Koran by an unreasonable preference, we shall produce a part of the second chapter of the latter, which is deservedly admired by the Mahometans, who wear it engraved on their or- naments, and recite it in their prayers. 'God! there is no God but he; the living, the self-sub- sisting : neither slumber nor sleep seizeth him : to him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven, and on earth. Who is he that can intercede with him but through his good pleasure? He knoweth that which is past, and that which is to come. His throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both is to him no burden. He is the high, the mighty.' Sale's Koran, vol. ii. p. 30. To this description who can refuse the praise of magnificence ? Part of that magnificence, however, is to be referred to that verse of the psalmist whence it was borrowed : ' He that kee[>- eth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,' Psal. exxi. 1. But if we compare it with that other passage of the inspired psalmist (Psal. cii. 24 — 27.) all its boasted grandeur is at once obscured, and lost in the blaze of a greater light ! ' O, my God, take me not away in the midst cf my days ; thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the ea.''h ; arid the heavens are the work of 'Shy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.' The Koran, therefore upon a tkir ex- amination, far from supporting its arrogant claim to a supernatural work, sinks below the level of many compositions confessedly of human original LAMA . and still lower does it fall in our estimation, when compared with that pure and perfect pattern which we justly admire in the Scriptures of truth. It is, therefore, ahundantly apparent, that no mira- cle was either externally performed for the sup- port, oris internally involved in the composition of the Mahometan revelation." See Sale's Koran; LAMA Pridcaux's Life of Mahomet ; Wlule's Sermonj at Bampton Lectures ; Foster's ±Wahometanism Unveiled; Wkilaker's Origin of Arianism ; and article Mahomktaxism. KTISTOLATRyE, a branch of the Mono- physites, which maintained that the body of Christ before his resurrection was corruptible LABADTSTS were so called from their founder, John Labadie, a native of France. He was originally in the Romish communion ; but leaving that, he became a member of the reform- ed church, and performed with reputation the ministerial functions in France, Switzerland, and Holland. He at length erected a new commu- nity, which resided successively at. Middleburg, in Zealand, Amsterdam, Hervorden, and at Al- tona, where he died about 1674. After his death, his followers removed their wandering commu- nity to Wiewert, in the district of North Holland, where it soon fell into oblivion. If we are to judge of the Labadists by their own account, they did not differ from the reformed church so much in their tenets and doctrines as in their manners and rules of discipline ; yet it seems that Labadie had some strange notions. Among other things, he maintained that God might and did, on certain occasions, deceive men ; that the faithful ought to have all things in common : that there is no subordination or distinction of rank in the true church ; that in reading the Scriptures greater attention should be paid to the internal inspiration of the Holy Spirit than to the words of the text; that the observation of Sunday was a matter of indifference ; that the contemplative life is a state of grace and union with God, and the very height of perfection. LAITY, the people as distinguished from the clergy. See Clergy. LAMA, GR.AND, a name given to the so- vereign pontiff or high priest of the Thibetian Tartars, who resides at Patoli, a vast palace on a mountain near the banks of Barampooter, about seven miles from Lahassa. The foot of this mountain is inhabited by twenty thousand lamas, or priests, who have their separate apartments round about the mountain, and according to their respective qualitv are placed nearer or at a greater distance from the sovereign pontiff. He is not only worshipped by the Thibetians, but also is the great object of adoration for the various tribes of heathen Tartars who roam through the vast tract of continent which stretches from the banks of the Wolga to Corbea, on the sea of Japan. He is not only the sovereign pontiff, the vicege- rent of the Deity on earth, but the more remote Tartars are said to absolutely regard him as the Deity himself, anil call himGod7M.e everlasting Fallicr of heaven. They believe him to be im- mortal, and endowed with all knowledge and vir- tue. Every year they come up from different parts to worship and make rich offerings at his shrine : even the emperor of China, who is a Manchou Tartar, does not fail in acknowledg- ments to him in his religious capacity; and ac- tually entertains, at a great expense, in the palace of Pekin, an inferior lama, deputed as his nuncio from Thibet. The grand lama, it has been said. 228 is never to be seen but in a secret place of his palace, amidst a great number of lamps, sitting cross-legged on a cushion, and decked all over with gold and precious stones, where at a dis- tance the people prostrate themselves before him, it not being lawful for any so much as to kiss his feet. He returns not the least sign of respect, nor ever speaks even to the greatest princes ; but only lays his hand upon their heads, and they are fully persuaded they receive from thence a full forgiveness of all their sins. The Sunniasses, or Indian pilgrims, often visit Thibet as a holy place ; and the lama always en- tertains a body of two or three hundred in his pay. Besides his religious influence and autho- rity, the grand lama is possessed of unlimited power throughout his dominions, which are very extensive. The inferior lamas, who form the most numerous as well as the most powerful body in the state, have the priesthood entirely in their hands ; and besides fill up many monastic orders which are held ingreat veneration among them. The whole country, like Italy, abounds with priests ; and they entirely subsist on the great number of rich presents which are sent them from the utmost extent of Tartary, from the empire of the Great Mogul, and from almost all parts of the Indies. The opinion of those who are reputed the most orthodox among the Thibetians, is, that when the grand lama seems to die, either of old age or infirmity, his soul, in fact, only quits a crazy habitation to look for another younger or better ; and is discovered again in the body of some child by certain tokens, known only to the lamas or priests, in which order he always appears. Almost all nations of the east, except the Ma- hometans, believe the metempsychosis as the most important article of their faith; especially the in- habitants of Thibet and Ava, the Peguans, Sia- mese, the greatest part of the C hinese and Japanese, and the Moguls and Kalmucks, who changed the religion of Schamanism for the worship of the grand lama. According to the doctrine of thrs metempsychosis, the soul is always in action, and never at rest ; for no sooner does she leave her old habitation, than she enters a new one. The dalai lama, being a divine; person, can find no better lodg- ing than the body of his successor ; or Hie Foe, re- siding in the dalai lama, which passes to his suc- cessor ; and this being a god, to whom all things are known, the dalai lama is therefore acquainted with every thing which happened during his residence in his former body. This religion is said to have been of three thou- sand years' standing ; and neither time nor the in- fluence of men has had the power of shaking the authority of the grand lama. This theocracy ex tends as fully to temporal as to spiritual concerns Though, in the grand sovereignty of the lamas, the temporal power has been occasionally sepa LANGUAGE rated from the spiritual by slight revolutions, they have always been united again after a time ; so that in Thibet the whole constitution rests on the imperial pontificate in a manner elsewhere unknown. For as the Thibetians suppose that the grand lama is animated by the good Shaka, cir Foe, who at the decease of one lama transmi- grates into the next, and consecrates him an image of the divinity, the descending chain of lamas is continued down from him in fixed de- grees of sanctity ; so that a more firmly establish- ed sacerdotal government, in doctrine, customs, and institutions, than actually reigns over this country, cannot be conceived. The supreme manager of temporal affairs is no more than the viceroy of the sovereign priest, who, conformable to the dictates of his religion, dwells in divine tranquillity in a building that is both temple and Ealace. If some of his votaries in modern times ave dispensed with the adoration of his person, still certain real modifications of the Shaka reli- gion is the only faith they follow. The state of sanctity which that religion incidcates, consists in monastic continence, absence of thought, and the perfect repose of nonentity. It has been observed that the religion of Thi- bet is the counterpart of the Roman Catholic, since the inhabitants of that country use holy water and a singing service ; they also offer alms, prayers, and sacrifices for the dead. They have a vast number of convents filled with monks and friars, amounting to thirty thousand ; who, be- sides the three vows of poverty, obedience, and charity, make several others. They have their confessors, who are chosen by their superiors, and have licences from their lamas, without which they cannot hear confessions or impose penances. They make use of beads. They wear the mitre and cap like the bishops; and their dalai lama is nearly the same among them as the soverein pontiff is among the Romanists. LAMBETH ARTICLES. See Articles. LAMPETIANS, a denomination in the se- venteenth century, the followers of Lampetius, a Syrian monk. He pretended that as man is born free, a Christian, in order to please God, ought to do nothing by necessity ; and that it is, there- fore, unlawful to make vows, even those of obe- dience. To this system he added the doctrines oft he Arians, Carpocratians, and other denominations. LANGUAGE, in general, denotes those ar- ticulate sounds by which men express their thoughts. Much has been said respecting the invention of language. On the one side it is ob- served, that it is altogether a human invention, and that the progress of the mind, in the inven- tion and improvement of language, is, by certain natural gradations, plainly discernible in the com- position of words. But on the other side it is alleged, that we are indebted to divine revelation for the origin of it. Without supposing this, we see not how our first parents could so early hold converse with God, or the man with his wife. Admitting, however, that it is of divine original, we cannot suppose that a perfect system of it was all at once given to man. It is much more natural to think that God taught our first parents only such language as suited their present occasion, leaving them, as he did in other things, to en- large and improve it, as their future necessities should require. Without attempting, however, to decide this controversy, we may consider lan- 221) LAW guage as one of the greatest blessings belonging to mankind. Destitute of this we should make but small advancements in science, be lost to all social enjoyments, and religion itself would feel the want of such a power. Our wise Creator therefore, has conferred upon us this inestimable privilege; let us then be cautious that our tongues be not the vehicle of vain and useless matter, but used for the great end of glorifying him, and do- ing good to mankind. What was the first lan- guage taught man, is matter of dispute among the learned, but most think it was the Hebrew. But as this subject, and the article in general lie- longs more to philology than divinity, we refer the reader to Dr. Adam Smith's Dissertation on the Formation of Languages ; Harris's Hermes: Warburton' s Divine Legation of Moses, vol. iii. ; Traite de la Formation Mcchanique des Langues, par le President de Brosses ; Blair's Rhetoric, vol. i. lect. vi.; Gregory's Essays, ess. 6 : Monboddo's Origin and Progress of Language. LATITUD1NARIAN, a person not con- forming to any particular opinion or standard, but of such moderation as to suppose that people will be admitted into heaven, although of different persuasions. The term was more especially ap- plied to those pacific doctors in the seventeenth century, who offered themselves as mediators be- tween the more violent Episcopalians, and the rigid Presbyterians and Independents, respecting the forms of church government, public worship, and certain religious tenets, more especially those that were debated between the Arminians and Calvinists. The chief leaders of these Latitudi- narians were Hales and Chillingworth ; but More, Cudworth, Gale, Whitchcot, and Tillot- son, were also among the number. These men, although firmly attached to the church of England, did not go so far as to look upon it as of divine institution; and hence they maintained, that those who followed other forms of government and worship, were not, on that account, to be ex- cluded from their communion. As to the doctri- nal part of religion, they took the system of Epis- copius for their model, and like him, reduced the fundamental doctrines of Christianity to a few points ; and by this rhanner of proceeding they endeavoured to show the contending parties, that they had no reason to oppose each other with such animosity and bitterness, since the subjects of their debates were matters of an indifferent na- ture with respect to salvation. They met. how- ever, with opposition for their pains, and were branded as Atheists and Deists by some, and as Socinians by others ; but upon the restoration of Charles II. they were raised to the first dignities of the church, and were held in considerable esteem. See Burnet's Hist, ofhisown Times, vol. i. b. 1 1. p. 188 ; Mosh. Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 501. 4to. LAURA, in church history, a name given to a collection of little cells at some distance from each other, in which the hermits of ancient times lived together in a wilderness. These hermits did not live in community, but each monk pro- vided for himself in his distinct cell. The most celebrated lauras mentioned in ecclesiastical his- tory were in Palestine; as the laura of St. Eu- thymus, St. Saba, the laura of the towers, &c. LAW, a rule of action ; a precept or command coming from a superior authority, which an in- ferior is bound to obey. The manner in which God governs rational creatures is by a law, as the LAW rule of their obedience to him, and which is what we call God's moral government of the world. He gave a law to angels, which some of them kept, and have been confirmed in a .state of obc- dienee to it; but which Others broke, and thereby plunged themselves into destruction and misery. He gave, also, a law to Adam, and which was also in the form of a covenant, and in which Adam stood as a covenant head to all his poste- rity, Rom. v. ; Gen. ii. But our first parents soon violated that law, and fell from a state of inno- cence to a state of sin and misery. Hos. vi. 7 ; Gen. iii. See Fall. 1 'ositirc laws are precepts which are not found- ed upon any reasons known to those to whom they arc given. Thus in the state of innocence God gave the law of the sabbath; of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of knowledge, &c. Law of Nature is the will of God relating to human actions, grounded in the moral diiferences of things, and, because discoverable by natural light, obligatory upon all mankind, Rom. i. 20; ii. 14, 1.3. This law is coeval with the human race, binding all over the globe, and at all times ; yet, through the corruption of reason, it is insuffi- cient to lead us to happiness, and utterly unable to acquaint us how sin is to be forgiven, without the assistance of revelation. Ceremonial law is that which prescribed the rites of worship used under the Old Testament. These rites were typical of Christ, and were ob- ligatory only till Christ had finished his work, and began to erect his Gospel church, Heb. vii. 9, 1 1 ; x. 1 ; Ephesians ii. 16 ; Col. ri. 14 ; Gal. v. 2, 3. Judicial law was that which directed the po- licy of the Jewish nation, as under the peculiar dominion of God as their supreme magistrate, and never, except in things relative to moral equi- ty, was binding on any but the Hebrew nation. Moral law is that declaration of God's will which directs and binds all men, in every age and place, to their whole duty to him. It was most solemnly proclaimed by God himself at Sinai, to confirm the original law of nature, and correct men's mistakes concerning the demands of it. It is denominated perfect; Psal. xix. 7; per- petual, Matt. v. 17, 18; hohj, Rom. vii. 12; good, Rom. vii. 12; spiritual, Romans vii. 14; exceeding broad, Psal. cxix. 96. Some deny that it is a rule of conduct to believers under the Gospel dispensation; but it is easy to see the futility of such an idea ; for as a transcript ot the mind of God, it must be the criterion of moral good and evil. It is also given for that very purpose, that we may see our duty, and abstain from every thing derogatory to the divine glory. It affords us grand ideas of the holiness and purity of God: without attention to it, we can have no knowledge, of sin. Christ himself came not to destroy, but to fulfil it; and though we cannot do as he did, yet we are commanded to follow his example. Love to God is the end of thy moral law, as well as the end of the Gospel. By the law, also, we are led to see the nature of holiness, and our own depravity, and learn to l>e humbled under a sense ot our imperfection. We are not under it, however, as a covenant of works, Gal. iii. 13; or as a source of terror, Rom. viii. 1 ; although we must abide by it, to- gether with the whole preceptive word of God, as the rule of our conduct, Rom. iii. 31 ; vii. 230 LEARNING Laws, directive, are laws without any punish- ment annexed to them. Laws, penal, such as have some penalty to en- force them. All the laws of God are and cannot but be penal, because every breach of his law id sin, and meritorious of punishment. Law of honour is a system of rules construct- ed by people of fashion, and calculated to facili- tate their intercourse with one another, and for no other purpose. Consequently nothing is ad- verted to by the law of honour but what tends to incommode this intercourse. Hence this law only prescribes and regulates the duties betwixt equals, omitting such as relate to the Supreme Being, as well as those which we owe to our in- feriors. In fact, this law of honour, in most instances, is favourable to the licentious in- dulgence of the natural passions. Thus it allows of fornication, adultery, drunkenness, prodigality, duelling, and of revenge in the extreme, and lays no stress upon the virtues opposite to these. Laws, remedial, a fancied law which some believe in, who hold that God, in mercy to man- kind, has abolished that rigorous constitution or law that they were under originally, and instead of it has introduced a more mild constitution, and put us under a new law, which requires no more than imperfect sincere obedience, in compliance with our poor, infirm, impotent circumstances since the fall. I call this a fancied law, because it exists no where except in the imagination of those who hold it. See Neonomiaxs, and Jus- tification. Laws of nations are those rules which by a tacit consent are agreed upon among all commu- nities, at least among those who are reckoned the polite and humanized part of mankind. GUI's Body of Div. vol. i. p. 454, oct. 425 ; vol. iii. ditto ; Paley's Mor. Phil. vol. i. p. 2 ; Cumber- land's Law of Nature ; Grore's Mor. Phil. vol. ii. p. 117; Booth's Death of Legal Hope ; Ing- lish and Burder's Pieces on the Moral Law ; Watts's Works, vol. i. ser. 49, 8vo. edition, and vol. ii. p. '143, &c. ; Scott's Essays. LAY-BROTHERS, among the Romanists, illiterate persons, who devote themselves at some convent to the service of the religious. They wear a different habit from that of the religious, but never enter into the choir, nor are present at the chapters ; nor do they make any other vow than that of constancy and obedience. LAYMAN, one who follows a secular em- ployment, and is not in orders : opposed to a clergyman. LEARNING, skill in any science, or thai improvement of the mind which we gain by study, instruction, observation, &c. An atten- tive examination of ecclesiastical history will lead us to see how greatly learning is indebted to Christianity, and that Christianity, in its turn, has been much served by learning. "All the useful learning," says Dr. Jortin, "which is now to be found in the world, is in a great measure owing to the Gospel. The Christians, who had a great veneration for the Old Testament, have contributed more than the Jews themselves U> secure and explain those books. The Christians in ancient times collected and preserved the Greek versions of the Scriptures, particularly the Septuagint, and translated the originals into Latin. To Christians were due the Old Hexa- pla ; and in later tunes Christians have published LEARNING the Polyglots and the Samaritan Pentateuch. ft was the study of the Holy Scriptures which excited Christiana from early times to study chronology, sacred and secular; and here much knowledge of history, and some skill in astronomy, were needful. The New Testament, being writ- ten in Greek, caused Christians to apply them- selves also to the study of that language. As the Christians were opposed by the Pagans and the Jews, they were excited to the study of Pagan and Jewish literature, in order to expose the absurdi- ties of the Jewish traditions, the weakness of Paganism, and the. imperfections and insufficiency of philosophy. The first fathers, till the third century, were generally Greek writers. In the third century the Latin language was much upon the decline, but the Christians preserved it from sinking into absolute, barbarism. Monkery, in- deed, produced many sad effects ; but Providence here also brought good out, of evil ; for the monks were employed in the transcribing of books, and many valuable authors would have perished if it had not been for the monasteries. In the ninth century, the Saracens were very studious, and contributed much to the restoration of letters. But, whatever was good in the Mahometan re- ligion, it is in no small measure indebted to Chris- tianity for it, since Mahometanism is made up for the most part of Judaism and Christianity. If Christianity had been suppressed at its iirst appearance, it is extremely probable that the Latin and Greek tongues would have been lost in the revolutions of empires, and the irruptions of barbarians in the east and in the west ; for the old inhabitants would have had no conscientious and religious motives to keep up their language ; and then, together with the Latin and Greek tongues, the knowledge of antiquities and the undent writers would have been destroyed. To whom, then, are we indebted for the knowledge of antiquity, for every thing that is called philo- sophy, or the lilerce humaniores? — to Christians. To whom for grammars and dictionaries of the learned languages? — to Christians. To whom for chronology, and the continuation of history through many centuries'? — to Christians. To whom for rational systems of moralitj', and im- provements in natural philosophy, and for the applications of these discoveries to religious pur- poses?— to Christians. To. whom for metaphy- sical researches, carried as far as the subject will permit? — to Christians. To whom for the moral rules to be observed by nations in war and peace ? — to Christians To whom for jurisprudence, and for political knowledge, and for settling the rights of subjects, both civil and religious, upon a proper foundation? — to Christians. To whom for the Reformation ? — to Christians. "As religion hath been the chief preserver of erudition, so erudition hath not been ungrateful to her patroness, but hath contributed largely to the support of religion. The useful exposition of the Scriptures, the sober and sensible defences of revelation, the faithful representations of pure and undented Christianity ; these have been the works of learned, judicious, and industrious men." Nothing, however, is more common than to hear the ignorant decry all human learning as entirely useless in religion ; and what is still more re- markable, even some, who call themselves preach- ers, entertain the same sentiments. But to such we can only say what a judicious preacher ob- •231 LECTURE served upon a public occasion, that If all men had been as unlearned as themselves they never would have had a text on which to have, displayed their ignornnce. Dr. Jortin's Sermons, vol. vii. charge 1 ; Mrs. H. More's Hints to a. Young Princess, vol. i. p. 64*; Cook's Mis. Scr. on Matt. vi. 3 ; Dr. Stennett's Ser. on Acts xxvi. 24, 23. LECTURES, RELIGIOUS, are discourse? or sermons delivered by ministers on any subject in theology. Beside lectures on the Sabbath-day, many think proper to preach on week days; sometimes at five o'clock in the morning, before people go to work, and at seven in the evening, af'.er they have done. In London there is preach- ing almost every forenoon and evening in the week, at some place or other. It may be objected, however, against week-day preaching, that it has a tendency to take people from their business, and that the number of places open on a Sabbath- day supersedes the necessity of it. But in answer to this, may it not be observed, 1. That people stand in need at all times of religious instruction, exhortation, and comfort? — 2. That there is a probability of converting sinners then as well as at other times ? — 3. That ministers are command- ed to be instant in season and out of season? — And, 4. It gives ministers an opportunity of hear- ing one another, which is of great utility. After all, it must be remarked, that he who can hear the truth on a Sabbath-day does not act consistently to neglect his family or business to be always present at week-day lectures ; nor is he altogether wise who has an opportunity of receiving in- struction, vet altogether neglects it. _ LECTURES, BAMPTON, a course of eight sermons preached annually at the university of Oxford, set on foot by the Reverend John Bampton, canon of Salisbury. — According to tha directions in his will, they are to be preached upon either of the following subjects: — To confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics ; upon the divine au- thority of the holy Scriptures; upon the authority of the writings of the primitive fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive church ; upon the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesii3 Christ ; upon the divinity of the Holy Ghost ; upon the articles of the Christian faith, as com- prehended in the Apostles' and Nicene creeds. For the support of this lecture, he bequeathed his lands and estates to the chancellor, masters, and scholars of the university of Oxford for ever, upon trust that the vice-chancellor for the time being take and receive all the rents and profits thereof; and, after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions made, to pay all the remainder to the endowment of these divinity lecture sermons. He also directs in his will, that no pesson shall be qualified to preach these lectures unless he have taken the degree of master of arts, at least, in one of the two universities of Oxford or Cam- bridge, and that the same person shall never preach the same sermon twice. A number of ex- cellent sermons preached at this lecture are now before the public. A more enlarged a-ccount of this lecture may be seen in the Christian Ob- server for May, 1809. LECTURES, BOYLE'S. See Boyle's Lec- tures. LECTURE, MERCHANTS', a lecture set up in the year 1672 by the Presbyterians and In- dependents, to show their agreement among them- LECTURERS selves, as well as to support the doctrines of the Reformation against the prevailing errors of popery, Socimamsm, and infidelity. The principal mi- nisters for learning anil popularity were chosen as lecturers; such as Dr. Bates, Dr. Manton, Dr. Owen, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Collins, Jenkins, Mead, and afterwards Mr. Alsop, Howe, Cole, and others. It was encouraged and supported by some of the principal merchants and tradesmen of the city. Some misunderstanding taking place, the Presbyterians removed to Salter's-hall, and the Independents remained at Pinner's-hall, and each party filled up their numbers out of their respective denominations. This lecture is kept up to the present day, and is, we believe, now held at Broad-street Meeting every Tuesday morning. LECTURES, MORNING, certain casuisti- cal lectures, which were preached by some of the most able divines in London. The occasion of these lectures seems to be this : — During the troublesome times of Charles I. most of the citi- zens having some near relation or friend in the army of the earl of Essex, so many bills were sent up to the pulpit every Lord's Day for their preservation, that the minister had neither time to read them, nor to recommend their cases to God in prayer ; it was, therefore, agreed bv some London divines to separate an hour for this pur- pose every morning, one- half to be spent in prayer, and the other in a suitable exhortation to the people. When the heat of the war was over, it became a casuistical lecture, and was carried on till the restoration of Charles II. These sermons were afterwards published in several volumes quarto, under the title of the Morning Exercises. The authors were the most eminent preachers of the day : Mr. (afterwards archbishop) Tillotson was ope of them. It appears that these lectures were held every morning for one month onlv ; and from the preface to the volume, dated IC89, the time, was afterwards contracted to a fortnight. Alost of these were delivered at Cripplegate church, some at St. Giles's, and a volume against popery in Southwark. Mr. Neale observes, that this lecture was afterwards revived in a different form, and continued in his day. It was kept up long afterwards at several places in the summer, a week at each place ; but latterly the time was exchanged for the evening. LECTURES, MOVER'S. See Mover's Lectures. LECTURE, WARBURTONIAN, a lec- ture founded by bishop Warburton to prove the truth of revealed religion in general, and the Christian in particular, from the completion of the prophecies in the Old and New Testament which relate to the Christian church, especially to the apostacy of papal Rome. To this founda- tion we owe the admirable discourses of Hurd, Halifax, Bagot, Apthorpe, and many others. LECTURERS, in the church of England, are an order of preachers distinct from the rector, vicar, and curate. They are chosen by the vis- try, or chief inhabitants of the parish, supported by voluntary subscriptions and legacies, and are usually the afternoon preachers, and sometimes officiate on some staled day in the week. Where there are lectures founded by the donations of !)ious persons, the lecturers are appointed by the ounders, without any interposition or consent of rectors of churches; &e. though with the leave 833 LEGION and approbation of the bishop ; such as that of Lady Meyer's at St. Paul's. But the lecturer is not entitled to the pulpit without the consent, of the rector or vicar, who is possessed of the free hold of the church. LEGAL or MOSAIC DISPENSATION. See Dispensation. LEGALIST, strictly speaking, is one who acts according to or consistent with the law ; but in general the term is made use of to denote one who expects salvation by his own works. We may further consider a legalist as one who has no proper conviction of the evil of sin ; who, although he pretends to abide by the law, yet has not a just idea of its spirituality and demands. He is igno- rant of the grand scheme of salvation by free grace : proud of his own fancied righteousness, he submits not to the righteousness of God ; he derogates from the honour of Christ, by mixing his own works with his ; and in fact, denies the necessity of the wjjrk of the Spirit, by supposing that he has ability in himself to perform all those duties which God had required. Such is the cha- racter of the legalist ; a character diametrically opposite to that of the true Christian, whose sen- timent corresponds with that of the apostle, who justly observes, " By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast." Eph. ii. 8, 9. LEGATE, a cardinal or bishop whom the pope sends as his ambassador to sovereign princes. LEGEND, originally a book, in the Romish church, containing the lessons that were to be read in divine service ; from hence the word was applied to the, histories of the lives of the saints, because chapters were read out of them at matins but as the golden legend, compiled by James de Varase, about the year 1090, contained in it se- veral ridiculous and romantic stories, the word is now used by Protestants to signify any incredible or inauthentic narrative. Hence, as Dr. Jortin ob- serves, we have false legends concerning the mi- racles of Christ, of his apostles, and of ancient Christians; and the writers of these fables had, in all probability, as good natural abilities as the disciples of Christ, and some of them wanted neither learning nor craft; and yet they betray themselves by faults against chronology, against history, against manners and customs, against morality, and against probability. A liar of this kind can never pass undiscovered ; but an honest relater of truth and matter of fact is safe : he wants no artifice, and fears no examination. LEGION, THEBEAN, a name given, in the time of Dioclesian, to a whole legion of Christians, consisting of more than six thousand men, who were said to have suffered martyrdom by the order of Maximian. Though this story hath never wanted patrons, yet it is disbelieved by many. Dr. Jortin, in his usual facetious way, says, that it stands upon the authority of one Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, and a writ it of (he fifth century, who had it from Theodorus, an- other bishop, who had the honour and felicity to find the relics of these martyrs by revelation, and perhaps by the smell of the banes! LEGION, THTJNDERING, a name given to those Christians who served in the lloman army of Marcus Antoninus in the second cen- tury. Thi' occasion of it was this: — When that einoerox was at war with the Marcomanni, liia LESSONS army was incl >sed by the enemy, and reduced to the most, deplorable condition by the thirst under which they languished in a parched desert. Just at this time they were remarkably relieved by a sudden and unexpected rain. This event was attributed to the Christians, who were supposed to have effected this by their prayers ; and the name of the thundering legion was given to them, on account of the thunder and lightning that destroyed the enemy, while the shower re- vived the fainting Romans. Whether this was really miraculous or not, has been disputed among learned men. They who wish to see what has been said on both sides, may consult Witsius Dvs thus distinguished from generosity and boun- ty : — Liberality implies acts of mere giving or Spending; generosity, acts of greatness; bounty, acts of kindness. Liberality is a natural dispo- sition; generosity proceeds from elevation of sen- timent; bounty, from religious motives. Liberality denotes freedom of spirit ; generosity, greatness df soul; bounty, openness of heart. LIBERALITY of sentiment, a generous dis- position a man feels towards another who is of a different opinion from himself; or, as one defines it, " that generous expansion of mind which en- ables it to look beyond all petty distinctions of party and system, and, in the estimate cf inert and tilings, to rise superior to narrow prejudices." As liberality of sentiment is often a cover for error and scepticism on the one hand, and as it is too little attended to by the ignorant and bigoted an the other, we shall here lay before our readers a view of it by a masterly writer. " A man of liberal sentiments must be distinguished from him who hath no religious sentiments at all. He is otne who hath seriously and effectually investi- gated, both in his Bible and on his knees, in pub- lic assemblies and in private conversations, the important articles of religion. He hath laid down principles, he hath inferred consequences; in a word, he hath adopted sentiments of his own. " He must be distinguished also from that tame undiscerning domestic among good people, who, though he has sentiments of his own, yet has not judgment to estimate the worth and value of one sentiment beyond another. " Now a generous believer of the Christian re- ligion is one who will never allow himself to try to propagate hit) sentiments by the commission of sin. No collusion, no bitterness, no wrath, no undue influence of any kind, will he apply to make his sentiments receivable; and no living thing will be less happy for his being a Christian. He will exercise his liberality by allowing those who differ from him as much virtue and integrity as he possibly can. " There are, among ;t multitude of arguments to enforce such a disposition, the following worthy of our attention. " First, We should exercise liberality in union with sentiment, because of the different capaci- ties, advantages, and tasks of mankind. Religion employs the capacities of mankind, just as the air employs their lungs and their organs of speech. The fancy of one is lively, of another dull. The judgment of one is elastic ; of another feeble, a damaged spring. The memory of one is reten- tive; that of another is treacherous as the wind. The passions of this man are lofty, vigorous, ra- pid ; those of that man crawl, and hum. and buz, and, when on wing, sail only round the circum- ference of a tulip. Is it conceivable that capa- bility, so different in every thing else, should be all alike in religion'! The advantages of mankind differ. [low should he who hath no parents, no boolu, no tutor, no companions, equal him whom Providence hath gratified with them all ; who, when he looks over the treasures of his own knowledge, can say, this I had of a Greek, that I learned of a Roman; tlus information I acquit ad 234 LIBERALITY of my tutor, that was a present of my tattler: a friend gave me this branch of knowledge, an ac- quaintance bequeathed me that ? The tasks of mankind differ ; so I call the employments and exercise's of life. In my opinion, circumstances make great men : and if we have not Cffisars in the state, and Pauls in the church, it is becausB neither church nor state are in the circumstances in which they were in the days of those greai men. Push a dull man into a river, and endarv gcr his life, and suddenly he will discover inven- tion, and make efforts beyond himself. The world is a fine school of instruction. Poverty, sickness, pain, loss of children, treachery of friends, malice of enemies, and a thousand other things, drive the man of sentiment to his Bible, and, so to speak, bring him home to a repast with his benefactor, God. Is it conceivable, that he, whose young and tender heart is yet unpractised in trials of this kind, can have ascertained and tasted so many religious truths as the sufferer has? " We should believe the Christian religion with liberality, in the second place, because every part of the Christian religion inculcates gene rosily. Christianity gives us a character of God ; but, my God ! what a character 'does it give ! God is Love. Christianity teaches the doctrine of Providence ; but what a providence ! Upon whom doth not its light arise ? Is there an ani- malcule so little, or a wretch so forlorn, as to be forsaken and forgotten of his God ! Christianity teaches the doctrine of redemption ; but the re- demption of whom? — of all tongues, kindred, nations, and people ; of the infant of a span, and the sinner of a hundred years old ; a redemption generous in its principle, generous in its price, generous in its effects ; fixed sentiments of divine munificence, and revealed with a liberality for which we have no name. In a word, the illiberal Christian always acts contrary to the spirit of his religion : the liberal man alone thoroughly urn derstands it. " Thirdly, Wc should be liberal, because nc other spirit is exemplified in the infallible guides whom we profess to follow. I set one Paul against a whole army of uninspired men : 'Some preach Christ of good-will, and some of envy and strife. What then? Christ is preached ; and 1 therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. One eateth all things, another eateth herbs; but why dost thou judge thy brother ? We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.' We often inquire, What was the doctnne of Christ, and what was the practice of Christ; suppose we were to institute a third question, Of what tem- per was Christ? " Once more : We should be liberal as well as orthodox, because truth, especially the truths of Christianity, do not want any support from our illiberality. Let the little bee guard it? little ho- ney with its little sting; perhaps its little life may depend a little while on that little nourish- ment. Let the fierce bull shake his head, and nod his horn, and thre;ifen his enemy, whp geeks to eat his flesh, anil wear his coat, and live by his death : poor fellow ! his life is in danger ; I forgive his bellowing and his rage. But the Christian religion, — is that in danger? and what human efforts can render that true which is false, that odious which is lovely ? Christianity is in no danger, and therefore it gives its pro- LIBERTINES lessors life and breath, and all things, except a power of injuring others. " In fine, liberality in the profession of religion is a wise and innocent 'policy. The bigot lives at home ; a reptile he crawled into existence, and there in his hole he lurks a reptile still. A gene- rous Christian goes out of his own party, asso- ciates with others, and gains improvement by all. It is a Persian proverb, A liberal hand is better than a strong arm. The dignity of Christianity is better supported by acts of liberality than by accuracy of reasoning; but when both go together, when a man of sentiment can clearly state and ably defend his religious principles, and when Ms heart is as generous as his principles are inflexi- ble, he possesses strength and beauty in an emi- nent degree." See Theol. Misc. vol. i. p. 39. LIBERTINE, one who acts without restraint, and pays no regard to the precepts of religion. LIBERTINES, according to some, were such Jews as were free citizens of Rome ; they had a separate synagogue at Jerusalem, and sundry of them concurred in the persecution of Stephen, Acts vi. 9. Dr. Guyse supposes that those who had obtained this privilege by gift were called libcrti (free men,) and those who had obtained it by purchase, libertini (made free,) in distinction from original native free men. Dr. Doddridge thinks that they were called Libertines as having been the children of freed men, that is, of eman- cipated captives or slaves. See Doddridge and Guyse on Acts vi. 9. LIBERTINES, a religious sect, which arose in the year 1525, whose principal tenets were, that the Deity was the sole operating cause in the mind of man, and the immediate author of all human actions ; that, consequently, the distinc- tions of good and evil, which had been establish- ed with regard to those actions, were false and groundless, and that men could not, properly speaking, commit. sin; that religion consisted in the union of the spirit, or rational soul, with' the Supreme, Being ; that all those who had attained this happy union, by sublime contemplation and elevation of mind, were then allowed to indulge, without exception or restraint, their appetites or passions ; that all their actions and pursuits were then perfectly innocent ; and that, after the death of the body, they were to be united to the Deity. They likewise said that Jesus Christ was nothing but a mere je nc seal quoi, composed of the spirit of God and the opi nion of men. These max- ims occasioned their being called Libertines; and the word has been used in an ill sense ever since. This sect spread principally in Holland and Bra- bant. Their leaders were one duintin, a Pi- card, Pockesius, Ruffus, and another, called Cho- pin, who joined with Gluintin, and became his disciple. They obtained footing in France through the favour and protection of Margaret, queen of Navarre, and sister to Francis I., and found patrons in several of the reformed churches. Libertines of Geneva were a cabal of rakes rather than fanatics ; for they made no pretence to any religious system, but pleaded only for the liberty of leading voluptuous and immoral lives. This cabal was composed of a certain number of licentious citizens, who could not bear the severe discipline of Calvin. There were also among them several who were not only notorious for their dissolute and scandalous manner of living but also for then* atheistical impiety and contempt 235 LITANY of all religion. To this odious class belonged onn Gruet, who denied the divinity of the Christian religion, the immortality of the soul, the differ- ence between moral good and evil, and rejected with disdain the doctrines that are held most sacred among Christians far which impieties he. was at last brought before the civil tribunal in the year 1550, and condemned to death. LIBERTY denotes a state of freedom, in con- tradistinction to slavery or restraint. — 1. Nalurat liberty, or liberty of choice, is that in which our volitions are not determined by any foreign cause or consideration whatever offered to it, but by it- own pleasure. — 2. External liberty, or liberty of action, is opposed to a constraint laid on the ex- ecutive powers ; and consists in a power of ren- dering our volitions effectual. — 3. Philosophical liberty consists in a prevailing disposition to act according to the dictates of reason, i. e. in such a manner as shall, all things considered, most effec- tually promote our happiness. — 4. Moral liberty is said to be that in which there is no interposi- tion of the will of a superior being to prohibit or determine our actions in any particular under consideration. See Necessity, Will. — 5. Li- berty of conscience is freedom from restraint in our choice of, and judgment about matters of re- ligion.— G. Spiritual liberty consists in freedom from the curse of the moral law ; from the servi tude of the ritual ; from the love, power, and guilt of sin ; from the dominion -of Satan; from the corruptions of the world ; from the fear of death, and the wrath to come, Rom. vi. 14 ; viii. 1 ; Gal. iii. 13 ; John viii. 3G ; Rom. viii. 21 ; Gal. v. 1 ; Thess. i. 10. See articles Materialists, Pre- destination ; and Doddridge's Led. p. 50, vol. i. oct; Watls's Phil. sect. v. p. 288; Jon. Ed- wards on the Will; Locke on Und.; Grove's Mor. Phil. sect. 18, 19 ; J. Palmer on Liberty of Man; Martin's Queries and Remarks on Human Liberty; Charnocks Works, p. 175, &c. vol. ii.; Saurin's Serm. vol. iii. ser. 4. LIE. See Lying. LIFE, a state of active existence. — 1. Human life is the continuance or duration of our present state, and which the Scriptures, represent as short and vain, Job xiv. 1, 2 ; James iv. 14. — 2. Spi- ritual life consists in our being in the favour of God, influenced by a principle of grace, and liv- ing dependent on him. It is considered as of divine origin, Col. iii. 4 ; hidden, iii. 3 ; peaceful, Rom. viii. G secure, John x. 28. — 3. Eternal life is that never-ending state of existence which the saints shall enjoy in heaven, and is glorious, Col. iii. 4 ; holy, Rev. xxi. 27 ; and blissful, 1 Pet. i. 4 ; 2 Cor. iv. 17. See Heaven. LIGHT OF NATURE. See Nature. LIGHT, DIVINE. See Knowledge, Re> LIGION. LITANY, a general supplication used in pub' lie worship to appease the wrath of the Deity, and to request those blessings a person wants, The words comes from the Greek Kirxvua, "sup- plication," of mtxi'siu, " I beseech." At first, the use of litanies was not fixed to any stated time but were only employed as exigencies required. They were observed, in imitation of the INine- vites, with ardent supplications and fastings, to avert the threatened judgments of fire, earth- quakes, inundations, or hostile invasions. Ahout the year 400, litanies began to be used in proces- sions, the people walking barefoot, and relating LITURGY them with great devotion ; and it is pretended that ] by this means several eountries were delivered from great calamities. The days on which they were used were called Rogation days ; these were appointed by the cations of different councils till it was decreed by the council of Toledo, that they should he used every month throughout the year; and thus, by degrees, they came to be used weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient stationary days for fasting. To these days the rubrick of the church of England has added Sun- days, as being the greatest day for assembling at divine service. Before the last review of the common prayer, the litany was a distinct service by itself, and used sometimes after the morning prayer was over ; at present it is made one office with the morning service, being ordered to be read after the third collect for grace, instead of the intereessional prayers in the daily service. LITURGY denotes all the ceremonies in general belonging to divine service. The word comes from the Greek xsn-oupyia, "service, pub- lic ministry," formed of \£n-os, "public," and ifyov, " work." In a more restrained significa- tion, liturgy is used among the Romanists to sig- nify the mass, and among us the common prayer. All who have written on liturgies agree, that, in primitive days, divine service was exceedingly simple, clogged with a very few ceremonies, and eonsisted of but a small number of prayers; but, by degrees, they increased the number of cere- monies, and added new prayers, to make the office look more awful and venerable to the peo- ple. At length, things were carried to such a pitch, that a regulation became necessary ; $nd it was found necessary to put the service and the manner of performing it into writing, and this was what they called a liturgy. Liturgies have been different at different times and in different countries. We have the liturgy of St. Chrysos- tom, of St. Peter, the Armenian liturgy, Galli- can liturgy, &c. &c " The properties required in a public liturgy," says Paley, "are these: it must be compendious ; express just conceptions of the divine attributes — recite such wants as a congregation are likely to feel, and no other ; and contain as few controverted propositions as possi- ble." The liturgy of the church of England was composed in the year 1547, and established in the second year of king Edward VI. In the fifth year of this king it was reviewed, because some things were contained in that liturgy which showed a compliance with the superstition of those times, and some exceptions were taken against it by some learned men at home, and by Calvin abroad. Some alterations were made in it, which consisted in adding the general confes- sion, and absolution, and the communion to be- £in with the Ten Commandments. The use of eil in confirmation and extreme unction was left out, and also prayers for souls departed, and what related to a belief of Christ's real presence in the cueharist. This liturgy, so reformed, was esta- blished by the acts of the 5th and 6th Edward VI. c. 1. However, it was abolished by queen Mary, who enacted, that the service should stand as it was m >;i commonlyused in the last year of the reigp of kin;: Henry VIII. — That of Ed- ward VI. wan re-established, with some altera- tions, by Elizabeth. Sunn; further alterations were introduced, in consequence of the review of the common prayer bookj by order of king James, LOLLARDS in the first year of his reign, particularly in the office of private baptism, in several rubrics, an/1 other passages, with the addition of five or six new prayers and thanksgivings, and all that part of the catechism which contains the doctrine of the sacraments. The book of common prayer, so altered, remained in force from the first year of king James to the fourteenth of Charles II. — The last review of the liturgy was in the year 1661. Many supplications have been since made for a review, but without success. Bingham?* Orig. Keel. p. 13 ; Broughton's Did.; Bennett, Robinson, and Clarkson, on Liturg. passim; A Letter to a Dissenting Minister on the Expe- diency of Forms, and Erekcll's Answer; Ro- gers's Lectures on the Litwgy of the Church of England; Biddulph'i Essays on the Liturgy ; Orion's Letters, vol. i. p. 16. 24. LIVERPOOL LITURGY, a liturgy so call- ed from its first publication at Liverpool. It was composed by some of the Presbyterians, who, growing weary of extempore prayer, thought a form more desirable. It made its appearance in 1752. Mr. Orton says of it, " It is scarcely a Christian liturgy. In the collect, the name of Christ is hardly mentioned; and the Spirit is quite banished from it." It was little better than a deistical composition. Orton's Letters, vol. L. p. 80, 81 : Bogue and Bennett's Hist, of Diss vol. iii. p. 342. LOLLARDS, a religious sect, differing in many points from the church of Rome, which arose in Germany, about the beginning of the fourteenth century ; so called, as many writers have imagined, from Walter Lollard, who began to dogmatize in 1315, and was burnt at Cologne j though others think that Lollard was no surname, but merely a term of reproach applied to all here- tics who concealed the poison of error under the appearance of piety. The monk of Canterbury derives the origin of the word lollard among us from lolium, "a tare," as if the Lollards were the tares sown in Christ's vineyard. Abelly says, that the word signifies "praising God," from the German loben, "to praise," and herr, "lord;" because the Lollards employed themselves in travelling about from place to place, singing psalms and hymns. Others, much to the same purpose, derive lollhard, lul- hard. or lollert, htllert, as it was written by the ancient Germans, from the old German word, lullcn, lollcn, or lallcn, and the termination hard, with which many of the High Dutch words end. Lollcn signifies, "to sing with a low voice," and therefore* lollard is a singer, or one who frequently sings; and in the vulgar tongue of the Germans it denotes a person who is continually praising God with a song, or singing hymns to his honour. The Alexians or Cellites were called Lollards, because they were public singers, who made it their business to inter the bodies of those who died of the plague, and sang a dirge over them in a mournful and indistinct tone, as they carried them to the grave. The name was afterwards assumed by persona that dishonoured it ; for we find among those Lollards who made extraordi- nary pretences to religion, and spent the greatest part of their time in meditation, prayer, and such acts of piety, there were many al>ominable hypo- crites, who entertained the most ridiculous opi- nions, and concealed the most enormous vices under the specious mask of tfci* •mraordinarv LORD profession. Many injurious aspersions were therefore propagated against those who assumed this name by the priests and monks ; so that, by degrees, any person who covered heresies or crimes under the appearance of piety was called a Lollard. Thus the name was not used to de- note any one particular sect, but was formerly common to all persons or sects who were sup- posed to be guilty of impiety towards God or the church, under an external profession of great piety. However, many societies, consisting both of men and women, under the name of Lollards, were formed in most parts of Germany and Flan- ders, and were supported partly by their manual labours, and partly by the charitable donations of pious persons. The magistrates and inhabitants of the towns where these brethren and sisters resided, gave them particular marks of favour and protection, on account of their great usefulness to the sick and needy. They were thus supported against their malignant rivals, and obtained many papal constitutions, by which their institute was confirmed, their persons exempted from the cog- nizance of the inquisitor, and subjected entirely to the jurisdiction of the bishops ; but as these measures were insufficient to secure them from molestation, Charles duke of Burgundy, in the year 1472, obtained a solemn bull from pope Sextus IV. ordering that the Cellites, or Lollards, should be ranked among the religious orders, and delivered from the jurisdiction of the bishops. And pope Julius II. granted them still greater privileges, in the year 1506. Mosheim informs us, that many societies of this kind are still sub- sisting at Cologne, and in the cities of Flanders, though they have evidently departed from their ancient rules. Lollard and his followers rejected the sacrifice of the mass, extreme unction, and penances for sin ; arguing that Christ's sufferings were suf- ficient. He is likewise said to have set aside baptism, as a thing of no effect; and repentance as not absolutely necessary, &c. In England, the followers of Wicklifle were called, by way of "iproach, Lollards, from the supposition that there was some affinity between some of their tenets ; though others are of opinion that the English Lollards came from Germany. See WlCKI.IFFITF.S. LONG SUFFERING OF GOD. See Pa- tience of Gon. LORD, a term properly denoting one who has dominion. Applied to God, the supreme governor and disposer of all tilings. See God. LORD'S DAY. See Sabbath. LORD'S NAME TAKEN IN VAIN, con- sists, first, in using it lightly or rashly, in excla- mations, adjurations, and appeals in common conversation. — 2. Hypocritically in our prayers, thanksgivings, &c. — 3. Superstitiously, as when the Israelites carried the ark to the iield of battle, to render them successful against the Philistines, 1 Sam. iv. 3, 4. — 4. Wantonly, in swearing by him, or creatures in his stead, Matt, v 34, 37. — 5. Angrily, or sportfully cursing, and devoting ourselves or others to mischief and damnation. — 6. Perjuring ourselves, attesting that which is false, Mai. iii. 5. — 7. Blasphemously reviling God, or causing others to do so, Rom. ii. 24. Per- haps there is no sin more common, as to the prac- tice, and less thought of as to the guilt of it, than this. Nor is it thus common with the vulgar 237 LORD only, but with those who call, themselves wisp, humane, and moral. They tremble at the idea of murder, theft, adultery, &c, while they forget that the same law which prohibits the commission of these crimes, does, with equal force, forbid that of profaning his name. No man, therefore, what- ever his sense, abilities, or profession may be, can be held guiltless, or be exonerated from tha charge of being a wicked man, while he lives in Vne habitual violation of this part of God's sacred law. A very celebrated female writer justly ob- serves, that "It is utterly inexcusable; it has none of the palliatives of temptation whicn other vices plead, and in that respect stands distinguish- ed from all others both in i-ts nature and degree of guilt. Like many other sins, however, it is at once cause and effect ; it proceeds from want of love and reverence to the best of Beings, and causes the want of that love both in themselves and others. This species of profaneness is not only swearing, but, perhaps, in some respects, swearing of the worst soTt ; as it is a direct breach of an express command, and offends against the very letter of that law which says, in so many words : ' Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' It offends against polite- ness and good breeding, for those who commit it little think of the pain they are inflicting on the sober mind, which is deeply wounded when it hears the holy name it loves dishonoured ; and it is as contrary to good breeding to give pain, as it is to true piety to be profane. It is astonishing that the refined and elegant should not reprobate this practice for its coarseness and vulgarity, as much as the pious abhor it for its sinfulness. " I would endeavour to give some faint idea of the grossness of this offence by an analogy, (oh, how inadequate!) with which the feeling hear^ even though not seasoned with religion, may yet be touched. To such I would earnestly say*— Suppose you had some beloved friend — to put the case still more strongly, a departed friend — a re- verend parent, perhaps — whose image never oc- curs without awakening in your bosom senti- ments of tender love and lively gratitude ; how would you feel if you heard this honoured name bandied about with unfeeling familiarity and in- decent levity ; or, at best, thrust into every pause of speech as a vulgar expletive? — Does not your affectionate heart recoil at the thought 1 And yet the hallowed name of your truest Benefactor, your heavenly Father, your best Friend, to whom you are indebted for all you enjoy ; who gives you those very friends in whom you so much delight, those very talents with which you dishonour him, those very organs of speech with which you blas- pheme him, is treated with an irreverence, a con- tempt, a wantonness, with which you cannot bear the very thought or mention of treating a human friend. His name is impiously, is unfeelingly, is ungratefully singled out as the object of decided irreverence, of systematic contempt, of thoughtless levity. His sacred name is used indiscriminately to express anger, joy, grief, surprise, impatience ; and, what is almost still more unpardonable than all, it is wantonly used as a mere unmeaning ex- pletive, which being excited by no temptation, can have nothing to extenuate it; which, causing no emotion, can have nothing to recommend it, unless it be the pleasure of the sin." Mrs. More on Education, vol. ii. p. 87; Gill's Body cf IHo^ vol. iii. p. 427 ; Brown's System of Rel. p. 52G, LORD LORD'S PRAYER is that which our Lord gave to his disciples on the Mount. According to wh;it is said in tiu- sixth chapter of Matthew, it was given as ■ director}/ ; but fan Luke xi. 1, some argue that it was given as a form. Some have urged that the second and fourth petition of that prayer could lx> intended only for temporary use : but it is answered, that such a sense may be put upon those petitions as shall suit all Chris- tians in all aires ; for it is always our duty to pray that Christ's kingdom may be advanced in the world, and to profess our daily dependence on God's providential care. Nevertheless, there is no reason to believe that Christ meant that his people should always use this as a set form: for, if that had been the case, it would not have been varied as it is by the two evangelists, Matt, vi., Luke xi. It is true, indeed, that they both agree in the main, as to the sense, yet not in the ex- press words; and the doxology which Matthew gives at large is wholly left out in Luke. And, besides, we do not find that the disciples ever used it as a form. It is, however, a most excellent summary of prayer, for its brevity, order, and matter; and it is very lawful and laudable to make use of any single petition, or the whole of it, pro- vided a formal and superstitious use of it be avoid- ed. That great zeal, as one observes, which is to lie found in some Christians either for or against it, is to be lamented as a weakness; and it will become us to do all that we can to promote on each side more moderate sentiments concerning the use of it. See Doddridge's Lectures, lee. 191; Harrow's Works, vol. i. p. 48; Archbishop Leighton's Explanation of it; West on the Lord's Prayer ; Gill's Body of Dvo. vol. iii. p. 3d2, 8vo. ; Fordijcc on Edification by Public In- struction, p. 11, 12 ; Mcndam's Exposition of the Lord's Prayer. LORD'S SUPPER is an ordinance which our Saviour instituted as a commemoration of his death and sufferings. 1. It is called a sacrament, that is, a sign and an oath. An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ; an oath, by which we bind our soids with a bond unto the Lord. Some, however, reject this term as not being scriptural; as likewise the idea of swearing or vowing to the Lord. See Vow. — 2. It is called the Lord's Supper, because it was first instituted in the evening, and at the close of the Passover supper ; and because we therein feed upon Christ, the bread of life, Rom. iii. 20; 1 Cor. xi. — 3. It is called the communion with ( ihrist, and with his people, as herein we have communion, 1 Cor. xii. 13. x. 17. — 4. It is called the eucharist, a thanksgiving, because Christ, in the instituting of it, gave thanks, 1 Cor. xi. 24, aaid because we, in the participation of it, must give thanks likewise— 15. It is called a feast, and by some a feast, upon a sacrifice, (though not a sacrifice itself,) in allusion to the custom of the Jews feasting upon their sacrifices, 1 Cor. x. 18. As to the nature of this ordinance, we may observe, that, in participating of the bread and wine, we do not consider it as expiatory, but, 1. As a commemorating ordinance. We are here to remember the person, love, and death of Christ. 1 Cor. xi. 24. — 2. A confessing ordinance. We hereby profess our esteem for Christ, and depen- dence upon him. — ;S. A communicating ordi- nance : blessings of grace are hern communicated V> us. — 4. A covenanting ordinance. God, in 238 LORD and oy this ordinance, as it were, declares that he is ours, and we by it declare to be his. — 5. A standing ordinance, for it is to be observed to the end of time, 1 Cor. xi. 2ti. It seems to l>e quite an indifferent thing, what bread is used in this ordinance, or what coloured wine, for Christ took that which was readies*. The eating of the bread and drinking of the wine being always con- nected in Christ's example, they ought never to be separated ; wherever one is given the other should not be withheld. This bread and wine are not changed into the real body and blood of Christ, but are only emblems thereof. See Tran- substantiate on. The subjects rf this nrdinancc should be such as make a credible profession of the Gospel ; the ignorant, and those whose lives are immoral, have no right to it ; nor should it ever be admin* . isle-red as a test of civil obedience, for this is per- verting the design of it. None but true believers cm approach it with profit; yet we cannot ex- clude any who make a credible profession, for God only is the judge of the heart, while we can only act according to outward appearances. Much has been said respecting the time of ad- ministering it. Some plead for the morning, others the afternoon, and some for the evening; which latter, indeed, was the time of the first celebration of it, and is most suitable to a supper. How often it is to be observed, cannot he pre- cisely ascertained from Scripture. Some have been for keeping it every day in the week ; others, four times a week ; some every Lord's Da}', which many think is nearest the apostolic prac- tice, Acts xx. 7. — Others have kept it three times a year, and some once a year : but the most common is once a month. It evidently appears, however, both from Scripture, 1 Cor. xi. 2fi, and from the nature of the ordinance, that it ought to be frequent. As to the posture. Dr. Doddridge justly ob- serves, that it is greatly to be lamented that Christians have perverted an ordinance, intended as a pledge and means of their mutual union, into an occasion for discord and contention, by laying such a disproportionate stress on the man- ner iir which it is to be administered, and the posture in which it is to be received. As to the latter, a table posture seems most eligible, as having been used by Christ and his apostles, and being peculiarly suitable to the notion of a sacred k feast; and kneeling, which was never introduced into the church till transubstantiation was re- ceived, may prove an occasion of superstition. Nevertheless, provided it be not absolutely im- posed as a term of communion, it will be the part of Christian candour to acquiesce in the use of it in others by whom it is preferred, it appears that standing was at least frequently used in the Christian church, viz. always on the Lord's Day, and between Easter and Whitsuntide. The manner in which this ordinance is administered, both in the church of England, and among Pro- testant Dissenters, is so well known, that we need say nothing of it here. We will only subjoin a few directions in what frame of mind we should attend upon this ordi- nance. It should be with sorrow for our past sins, and easiness and calmness of affection, free from the disorders and ruffles of passion ; with a holy awe and reverence of the Divine Majesty, yet with a gracious confidence and earnest desires LOTS towards God ; with raised expectations ; prayer, joy, and thanksgiving, and love to all men. When coming from it, we should admire the condescensions of divine grace; watch against the snares of Satan, and the allurements of the world ; rejoice in the finished work of Christ, depend upon the gracious influence of the Spirit, that we may keep up a sense of the divine favour, and be longing for heaven, where we hope at last to join the general assembly of the first-born. The advantages arising from the participa- tion of the Lord's Supper are numerous. — 1. It is a mean of strengthening our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. — 2. It affords great consolation and joy. — 3. It increases love. — <1. It has a tendency to enlighten our minds in the mystery of godli- ness.— 5. It gives us an utter aversion to all kinds of sin, and occasions a hearty grief for it. — )i. It has a tendency to excife and strengthen all holy desires in us. — 7. It renews our obligations to our Lord and Master. — 8. It binds the souls of Christians one to another. See Case's Ser- ■rrwns, ser. 7; and Henry Earlc, Doolitlle, Grove, and Robertson, on the Lord's Supper ; Dr. Owen's. Charnock's, Dr. Cudivorth's, Mr. Wil- lel's, Dr. Worthington' s, Dr. Watts's, Bishop IVarburton's, Bishop Cleaner's, and Dr. Bell's Pieces on the Subject. A variety of other trea- tises, explanatory of the nature and design of the Lord's Supper, may be seen in almost any cata- logue. LOT is a mutual agreement to determine an uncertain event, no other ways determinable, by an appeal to the providence of God, on casting or throwing something. This is a decisory lot, Prov. xvi. 33; xviii. 18. The matter, therefore, to be determined, in order to avoid guilt, should be important, and no other possible way left to determine it; and the manner of making the ap- peal solemn and grave, if we would escape the guilt of taking the name of God in vain. Wan- tonly, without necessity, and in a ludicrous man- ner, to make this appeal, must he therefore highly blameable. And if thus the decisory lot, when wantonly and unnecessarily employed, be crimi- nal, equally, if not more so, must the divinalory lot be, which is employed for discovering the will of God : this, being no mean of God's appoint- ment, must he superstitious, and the height of presumption. LOTS, SACRED, or Sortes Sanctorum, Lots of the Sa,ints, a species of divination prac- tised in the earlier ages of Christianity, and which consisted in casually openino- the sacred Scrip- tures, and from the words which first presented themselves, deducing the future lot of the inquirer. They were evidently derived from the Sortes Vir- gilixma, or Sortes Homericce, of the Pagans. These were so called from the poems of Virgil or Homer being used as the means of divining the fate of the consulter; the first verse which struck the eye on opening the volume being con- sidered as oracular. This abuse among Chris- tians arose from the superstition of the people and the ignorance of the bishops, when the church had degenerated from its primitive purity, and the people of God, by being " mingled among the heathen," had learned their works. Some- times the persons who were desirous of prying into futurity, or ascertaining the will of God in particular circumstances, entered the churches, ifter solemn preparation, during the celebration '?22 LOVE of divine service, and regarded the first sentence they he^ftd as the decision of heaven. The fol- lowing circumstance illustrative of the methods sometimes resorted to for obtaining an oracular decision of a point of duty, is related by Gregory of Tours, of Consortia, daughter of Eucherius, bishop of Lyons. She having chosen a religioua life, determined to take the vril ; but being ad- dressed by a young man of rank and influence, who was desirous of marrying her, found herself placed in a critical situation, knowing that if she refused the ofler of marriage, she should incur the displeasure of his friends, and create a violent opposition to herself and family. In this dilemma she requested to be allowed seven days to consider of the proposal. These she spent in fasting and prayer. When the time had elapsed, the young man, accompanied by the most illustrious matrons of the country, came to receive her answer. " I cannot either accept or refuse you as my hus- band," said she to him, "all is in the hands of God ; but, if you are willing, we will go to the church and have mass said, and afterwards we will lay the Gospels on the altar, and after having offered a prayer together, we will open the book and learn the will of God from the passage which first presents itself to us." The proposition ap- pearing reasonable was accepted, and the pro* liminary ceremonies being performed, Consortia opened the volume and read, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me," Matt. x. 37. Penetrated with joy, she told, the young man she could not be his spouse, but must go and dedicate herself to God, according to her former resolution. See Bibliomancy. Townley's Essays on various Subjects of Eccle- siastical History and Antiquity. — B. LOVE consists in approbation of, and inclina tion towards an object that appears to us as good. It has been distinguished into, 1. Love of esteem, which arises from the mere consideration of some excellency in an object, and belongs either to persons or things. — 2. Love of benevolence, which is an inclination to seek the happiness or welfare of any thing. — 3. Lore of complacence, which arises from the consideration of any object agree- able to us, and calculated to afford us pleasure. LOVE TO GOD is a divine principle im- planted in the mind by the Holy Spirit, whereby we reverence, esteem, desire, and delight in Him as the chief good. It includes a knowledge of his natural excellencies, Psal. viii. 1, and a con- sideration of his goodness to us, 1 John iv. 19. Nor can these two ideas, I think, be well sepa- rated : for, however some may argue that genuine love to God should arise only from a sense of his amiableness, yet I think it will be difficult to con- ceive how it can exist, abstracted from the idea of his relative goodness. The passage last re- ferred to is to the point, and the representations given us of the praises of the saints in heaven accord with the same sentiment ; " Thou ait worthy, for thou hast redeemed us by thy blood," Rev. v. 9. See Sklk-Love. " Love to God is a subject," says bishop Porteus;, " which it con- cerns us to inquire carefully into the true nature of. And it concerns us the more, because it has been unhappily brought into disrepute by the extravagant conceits of a few devout enthusiasts concerning it. Of these, some have treated the love of God in so refined a way, and carrieil it to such heights of seraphic ecstacy and rapture, that com- LOVE mon minds must for over despair of cither fol^ lowing or understanding them ; whilst others have described it in such warm and indelicate terms as are much better suited to the grossness of earthly passion, than the purity of spiritual affection. " But the accidental excesses of this holy sen- timent can be no just argument against its gene- ral excellence and utility. " We know that even friendship itself has sometimes been abused to the most unworthy purposes, and led men to the commission of the most atrocious crimes. Shall we, therefore, utterly discard that generous passion, and consider it as nothing more than the unnatural fervour of a ro- mantic imagination 7 Every heart revolts against so wild a thought ! And why, then, must we suffer the love of God to be banished out of the world, because it has been sometimes improperly represented or indiscreetly exercised ? It is not either from the visionary mystic, the sensual fanatic, or the frantic zealot, but from the plain word of God, that we are to take our ideas of this divine sentiment. There we find it described in ail its native purity and simplicity. The marks by which it is there distinguished contain nothing enthusiastic or extravagant." It may be con- sidered, 1. As sincere, Matt. xxii. 36, 38. — 2. Constant, Rom. viii. — 3. Universal of all his attributes, commandments, ordinances, &c. — 4. Progressive, 1 Thess. v. 12; 2 Thess. i. 3; Eph. hi. If). — 5. Superlative, Lam. iii. 24. — 6. Eternal, Rom. viii. This love manifests itself, I. In a desire to be like God. — 2. In making his glory the supreme end of our actions, I Cor. xi. 31. — 3. In delighting in communion with him, 1 John i. 3. — 4. In grief under the hidings of his face, Job xxiii. 2. — 5. In relinquishing all that stands in opposition to his will, Phil. iii. 8. — 6. In regard to his house, worship, and ordi- nances, Ps. lxxxiv. — 7. In love for his truth and people, Ps. cxix ; John xiii. 35. — 8. By confi- dence in his promises, Ps. lxxi. 1. — And, lastly, by obedience to his word, John xiv. 15; 1 John li. 3. Gill's Body of Div. p. 94, vol. iii. octavo ; Walls's Discourses on Love to God ; Scott's Serm. ser. 14; Bellamy on Religion, p. 2, and Signs of Counterfeit Love, p. 82; Bishop Por- teus's Serm. vol. i. se-. 1. LOVE, BROTHERLY, is affection to our neighbours, and especially to the saints, prompt- ing us to every act of kindness toward them. It docs not, indeed, consist merely in pity to and re- lief of others, 1 Cor. xiii.; in love to our benefac- tors only, and those who are related to us, Matt. v. 46, 47. It must flow from love to God, and extend to all mankind ; yea, we are required by the highest authority to love even our enemies, Matt. v. 44, not so as to countenance them in their evil actions, but to forgive the injuries they have done to us. Love to good men, also, must be particularly cultivated, for it is the command of Christ, John xiii. 34 ; they belong to the same Father and family, Gal. vi. 10 ; we hereby give proof of our discipleship, John xiii. 35. The ex- ample of Christ should allure us to it, 1 John iii. 16. It is creative of a variety of pleasing sensa- tions, and prevents a thousand evils : it is the greatest of all graces, 1 Cor. xiii. 13. — It answers the end of the law, 1 Tim. i. 5 ; resembles the inhabitants of a better world, and without it every other attainment is of no avail. 1 Cor. xiii. Tliis 240 LUCIANISTS love should show itself by praying for our bre thren, Eph. vi. 18; bearing one another's bur • dens, by assisting and relieving each other, GaL vi. 2. By forbearing with one another, Col. iii 13. By reproving and admonishing in the spirit of meekness, Ptov. xxvii. 5, 6. By establishing each other in the truth ; by conversation, exhor- tation, and stirring up one another to the several duties of religion, both public and private, Jude, 20, 21 ; Heb. x. 24, 25. See Charity. LOVE OF GOD, is either his natural delight in that which is good, Isa. Ixi. 8, or that especial affection he bears to his people, 1 John iv. 19* Not that he possesses the passion of love as we do ; but it implies his absolute purpose and will to deliver, bless, and save his people. The love of God to his people appears in his all-wise designs and plans for their happiness, Eph. iii. 10. — 2. In the choice of them, and determination to sanctify and glorify them. 2 Thess. ii. 13. — 3. In the gift of his Son to die for them, and redeem them from sin, death, and hell, Rom. v. 9; John iii. 16. — 4. In the revelation of his will, and the declara- tion of his promises to them, 2 Peter i. 4. — 5. In the awful punishment of their enemies, Ex. xix. 4. — 6. In his actual conduct towards them ; in supporting them in life, blessing them in death, and bringing them to glory, Rom. viii. 30, &c; vi. 23. The properties of this love may be considered as, 1. Everlasting, Jer. xxxi. 3 ; Eph. i. 4. — 2. Immutable, Mai. iii. 6 ; Zeph. iii. 17.— 3. Free ; neither the sufferings of Christ nor the merits of men are the cause, but his own good pleasure, John iii. 16. — 4. Great and unspeakable, Eph. ii. 4, 6; iii. 19; Ps. xxxvi. 7. LOVE, FAMILY OF. A sect that arose in Holland, in the sixteenth century, founded by Henry Nicholas, a Westphalian. He main- tained that he had a commission from heaven to teach men that the essence of religion consisted in the feelings of divine love; that all other theo- logical tenets, whether they related to objects of faith or modes of worship, were of no sort of mo- ment; and, consequently, that it was a matter of the most perfect indifference what opinions Chris- tians entertained concerning the divine nature, provided their hearts burned with the pure and sacred flame of piety and love. LOVE OF THE WORLD. See World. LOVE FEASTS. SeeAGAP^:. LOW CHURCHMAN, those who disap- proved of the schism made in the church by the Nonjurors, and who distinguished themselves by their moderation towards dissenters, and were less ardent in extending the limits of ecclesiastical authority. See High Churchmen. LUCIANISTS, or Lucanists, a sectsocall- ed from Lucianus, or Lucanus, a heretic of the second century, being a disciple of Marcion, whose errors he followed, adding some new one* to them. Epiphanius says he abandoned Mar- cion, teaching that people ought not to marry, for fear of enriching the Creator : and yet other authors mention, that he held this error in com- mon with Marcion and other Gnostics. He de- nied the immortality of the soul, asserting it to be material. There was another s»-ct of Lucianists, who ap- peared some time after the Arians. They taught, that the Father had been a Father always, and that he had the name even before he begot tha Son, as having in him the power and faculty of LUTHERANS {feneration; and in this manner they accounted for the eternity of the Son. LUCIFERIANS, a sect who adhered to the schism of Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, in the fourth century, who was banished by the em- peror Constantius, for having defended the Ni- cene doctrine concerning the three persons in the Godhead. It is said, also, that they believed the soul to be corporeal, and to be transmitted from the father to the children. The Lucifeiians were numerous in Gaul, Spain, Egypt, &c. The oc- casion of this schism was, that i^ucifer would not allow any acts he had done to be abolished. There were but two Luciferian bishops, but a great number of priests and deacons. The Luci- ferians bore a great aversion to the Arians. LUKEWARMNESS, applied to the affec- tions, indifference, or want of ardour. In respect to re-'igion, hardly any thing can be more culpable than this spirit. — If there he a God possessed of unspeakable rectitude in his own nature, and un- bounded goodness towards his creatures, what can be more inconsistent and unbecoming than to be frigid and indifferent in our devotions to him ? Atheism, in some respects, cannot be worse than lukewarmness. The Atheist disbelieves the ex- istence of a God, and therefore cannot worship him at all; the lukewarm owns the existence, sovereignty, and goodness of the Supreme Being, but denies him that fervour of affection, that de- votedness of heart, and activity of service, which the excellency of his nature demands, and the authority of his word requires. Such a character, therefore, is represented as absolutely loathsome to God, and obnoxious to his v;rath, Rev. iii. 15, 16. The general signs of a lukeicarm spirit are such as these : Neglect of private prayer ; a pre- ference of worldly to religious company ; a lax attendance on public ordinances; omission or careless perusal of God's word ; a zeal for some appendages of religion, while languid about re- ligion itself; a backwardness to promote the cause of God in the world, and a rashness of spirit in censuring those who are desirous to be useful. If we inquire the causes of such a spirit, we shall find them to be — worldly prosperity ; the influence of carnal relatives and acquaintances ; indulgence of secret sins ; the fear of man ; and sitting under an unfaithful ministry. The inconsistency of it appears if we consider, that it is highly unreasonable ; dishonourable to God ; incompatible with the genius of the Gos- pel ; a barrier to improvement ; a death-blow to usefulness ; a direct opposition to the commands of Scripture ; and tends to the greatest misery. To overcome such a state of mind we, should consider how offensive it is to God ; how incon- gruous with the very idea and nature of true re- ligion ; how injurious to peace and felicity of mind ; how ungrateful to Jesus Christ, whose whole life was labour for us and our salvation ; how grievous to the Holy Spirit ; how dreadful an example to those who have no religion ; how unlike the saints of old, and even to our enemies in the worst of causes; how dangerous to our immortal souls, since it is indicative of our want of love to God, and exposes us to just condemna- tion, Amos vi. 1. LUTHERANS, those Christians who follow the opinions of Martin Luther, the celebrated ie- fortner of the church, in the sixteenth century. 5341 2F LUTHERANS In order that we may trace the rise and progress of Lutheranism, we must here refer to the life of Luther himself. Luther was a native of Eisleton, in Saxony, and born in 1483. Though his parents were poor, he received a learned education, during the progress of which he gave many indications of uncommon vigour and acuteness of genius. As his mind was naturally susceptible of serious impressions, and tinctured with somewhat of that religious melancholy which delights in the soli- tude and devotion of a monastic life, he retired into a convent of Augustinian friars; where hi acquired great reputation not only for piety, but for love of knowledge, and unwearied application to study. The cause of this retirement is said to have been, that he was once struck by lightning, and his companion killed by his side by the same flash. He had been taught the scholastic philo- sophy, which was in vogue in those days, and made considerable progress in it : but happening to find a copy of the Bible which lay neglected in the library of his monastery, he applied himself to the study of it with such eagerness and assiduity, as quite astonished the monks ; and increased his reputation for sanctity so much, that he was chosen professor, first of philosophy, and after- wards of theology, in Wittemhurg, on the Elbe, where Frederic, elector of Saxony, had founded an university. While Luther continued to enjoy the highest reputation for sanctity and learning, Tetzel, a Dominican friar, came to Wittemhurg in order to publish indulgences. Luther beheld his suc- cess with great concern : and having first in- veighedAgainst indulgences from the pulpit, he afterwards published ninety-five theses, contain- ing his sentiments on that subject. These he pro- posed not as points fully established, but as sub- jects of inquiry and disputation. He appointed a day on which the learned were invited to impugn them, either in person or by writing ; and to the whole he subjoined solemn protestations of his high respect for the apostolic see, and of his im- plicit submission to its authority. No opponent appeared at the time prefixed : the theses spread over Germany with astonishing rapidity, and were read with the greatest eagerness. Though Luther met with no opposition for some little time after he began to publish his new doctrines, it was not long before many zealous champions arose to defend those opinions with which the wealth and power of the clergy were so strictly connected. Their cause, however, was by no means promoted by these endeavours : the people began to call in question even the autho- rity of the canon law, and of the pope himself. The court of Rome at first despised these new doctrines and disputes ; but at last the attention of the pope being raised by the great success of the reformer, and the complaints of his adversa ■ ries, Luther was summoned, in the month of July, 1518, to appear at Rome, within sixty day ts, before the auditor of the chamber. One of Lu- ther's adversaries, named Prierius, who had writ- ten against him, was appointed to examine his doctrines, and to decide concerning them. The pope wrote at the same time to the elector of Saxony, beseeching him not to protect a man whose heretical and profane tenets were so shock- ing to pious ears ; and enjoined the provincial of the Augustinians to check, by his authority, the rashness of an arrogant monk, which brought LUTHERANS disgrace upon their order, and gave offence and disturbance to the whole church. From these letters, and the appointment of his open enemy Prierius to be Ins judge, Luther easily saw what sentence he might expect at Rome ; and therefore discovered the utmost soli- citude to have his cause tried in Germany, and before a less suspected tribunal. He wrote a submissive letter to the pope, in which he pro- mised an unreserved obedience to his will, for as yet he entertained no doubt of the divine original of the pope's authority; and, by the intercession af the other professors, Cajetan, the pope's legate in Germany, was appointed to hear and deter- mine the cause. Luther appeared before him without hesitation; but Cajetan thought it be- low his dignity to dispute the point with a person so much his inferior in rank; and therefore re- quired him, by virtue of the apostolic powers with which he was clothed, to retract the errors which he had uttered with regard to indulgences and the nature of faith, and to abstain for the future from the publication of new and dangerous opi- nions ; and, at the last, forbad him to appear in his presence, unless he promised to comply with what had been required of him. This haughty and violent manner Bf proceed- ing, together with some other circumstances, gave Luther's friends such strong reasons to sus- pect that even the imperial safe-conduct would not be able to protect him from the legate's power and resentment, that they prevailed on him se- cretly to withdraw from Augsburgh, where he had attended the legate, and to return to his own country. But before his departure, acHrding to a form of which there had been some examples, he prepared a solemn appeal from the legate, ill- informed at that time concerning his cause, to the pope, when he should receive more full intima- tion with respect to it. Cajetan, enraged at Lu- ther's abrupt retreat, and at the publication of his appeal, wrote to the elector of Saxony, complain- ing of both ; and requiring him, as he regarded the peace of the church, or the authority of its head, either to send that seditious monk a pri- soner to Rome, or to banish hiin out of his terri- tories. Frederic had hitherto, from political mo- tives, protected Luther, as thinking he might be of use in checking the enormous power of the see, of Rome ; and though all Germany resounded with his fame, the elector had never yet admitted him into his presence. But upon this demand made by the cardinal, it became necessary to throw off somewhat of liis former reserve. He had been at great expense, and bestowed much attention on founding a new university, an object of considerable importance to every German prince ; and foreseeing how fatal a blow the re- moval of Luther would be to his reputation, he not only declined complying with either of the pope's rcqbests, but openly discovered great con- cern for Luther's safety. The situation of our reformer, in the mean time, became daily more and more alarming. He knew very well what were the motives which in- duced the elector to aiford him protection, and that he could by no means depend on a continu- ance of his friendship. If he should he obliged to quit Saxony, he had no other asylum, and must stand exposed to whatever punishment the rage or bigotry of his enemies could inflict; and so ready were liis adversaries to condemn him, 212 LUTHERANS that he had been declared a heretic at Rome be- fore the expiration of the sixty days allowed him in the citation for making his appearance. Not- withstanding all this, however, he discovered no symptoms of timidity or remissness; but continu- ed to vindicate his own conduct and opinions, and to inveigh against those of his adversaries with more vehemence than ever. Being convinced, therefore, that the pope would soon proceed to the most violent measures against him, lie appealed to a general council, which he affirmed to lie the representative of the Catholic church, and supe- rior in power to the pope, who, being a fallible man, might err, as St Peter, the most perfect of his predecessors, had done. The Court of Rome was equally assiduous, in the mean time, to crush the author of these new doctrines, which gave them so much uneasiness. A bull was issued by the pope, of a date prior to Luther's appeal, in which he magnified the vir tues of indulgences, and subjected to the heaviest ecclesiastical censures all who presumed to teach a contrary doctrine. Such a clear decision of the sovereign pontiff against him might have been very fatal to Luther's cause, had not the death of the emperor Maximilian, which happened on January 17, 1519, contributed to give matters a different turn. Both the principles and interest of Maximilian had prompted him to support the authority of the see of Rome ; but, in consequence of his death, the vicariate of that part of Ger- many which is governed by the Saxon laws de- volved to the elector of Saxony; and, under the shelter of his friendly administration, Luther himself enjoyed tranquillity; and his opinions took such root in different places, that they could never afterwards be eradicated. At the same time, as the election of an emperor was a point more interesting to the pope (Leo X.) than a theological controversy which he did not under- stand, and of which he could not foresee the con- sequences, he was so extremely solicitous not to irritate a prince of such considerable influence*! the electoral college as Frederic, that he discover- ed a great unwillingness to pronounce the sen- tence of excommunication against Luther, which his adversaries continually demanded with the most clamorous importunity. From the reason just now given, and Leo's natural aversion to severe measures, a suspension of proceedings against Luther took place for eigh- teen months, though perpetual negociations were carried on during this interval, in order to bring the matter to an amicable issue. The mariner in which these were conducted having given our reformer many opportunities of observing the corruption of the court of Rome, its obstinacy in adhering to established errors, and its indifference about truth, however clearly proposed or strongly proved, he began, in 1520, to utter some doubts with regard to the divine original of the papal authority, which he publicly disputed with Eccius, one of his most learned and formidable antagon- ist. The dispute was indecisive, both parties claiming the victory ; but it must have been very mortifying to the partisans of the Romish church to hear such an essential point of their doctrine publicly attacked. The" papal authority being once suspected, Lu- ther proceeded to push on his inquiries and at- tacks from one doctrine to another, till at last he began to shake the firmest foundations on which LUTHERANS the wealth and power of the church were esta- blished. Leo then began to perceive that there were no hopes of reclaiming such an incorrigible neretic, and therefore prepared to pronounce the sentence of excommunication against him. The college of cardinals was often assembled, in order to prepare the sentence with due deliberation ; and the ablest canonists were consulted how it might be expressed with unexceptionable formal- ity. At last it was issued on the 15th of June, 1520. Forty-one propositions, extracted out of Luther's works, were therein condemned as he- retical, scandalous, and offensive to pious ears ; all persons were forbidden to read his writings, upon pain of excommunication ; such as had any of them in their custody were commanded to commit them to the flames; he himself, if he did not, within sixty days, publicly recant his errors, and burn his books, was pronounced an obstinate heretic, excommunicated, and delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh ; and all secular princes were required, under pain of incurring the same censure, to seize his person, that he might be punished as his crimes deserved. Luther was not in the least disconcerted by this sentence, which he had for some time expected. He renewed his appeal to this general council ; (ieclared the pope to be that Antichrist or man of sin whose appearance is foretold in the New Tes- tament ; declaimed against his tyranny with greater vehemence than ever ; and at last, by way of retaliation, having assembled all the professors and students in the university of Wittemberg, with great pomp, and in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators, he cast the volumes of the canon law, together with the bull of excom- munication, into the flames. The manner in which this action was justified, gave still more offence, than the action itself. Having collected from the canon law some of the most extravagant propositions with regard to the plenitude and om- nipotence of the pope's power, as well as the sub- ordination of a'l secular jurisdiction to his autho- rity, he published these with a commentary, pointing out the impiety of such tenets, and their evident tendency to subvert all civil government. On the accession of Charles V. to the empire, Luther found himself in a very dangerous situa- ation. Charles, in order to secure the pope's friendship, had determined to treat him with great severity. His eagerness to gain this point rendered him not averse to gratify the papal le- gates in Germany, who insisted, that, without any delay, or formal deliberations, the diet then sitting at Worms ought to condemn a man whom the pope had already excommunicated as an in- corrigible heretic. Such an abrupt manner of proceeding, however, being deemed unprecedent- ed and unjust by the members of the diet, they made a point of Luther's appearing in person, and declaring whether he adhered or not to those opinions which had drawn upon him the cen- sures of the church. Not only the emperor, but. all the princes through whose territories he had ! j pass, granted him a safe-conduct ; and Charles wrote to him at the same time, requiring his im- mediate attendance on the diet, and renewing his E>ro:nises of protection from any injury or vio- enee. Luther did not hesitate one moment about yielding obedience ; and set out for Worms, at- tended by the herald who had brought the empe- ror's letter and safe-conduct. While on his jour- 2-13 LUTHERANS ney, many of his friends, whom the fate of Huss under similar circumstances, and notwithstand- ing the same security of an imperial safe-conduct, filled with solicitude, advised and entreated him not to rush wantonly into the midst of danger. But Luther, superior to such terrors, silenced them with this reply : " I am lawfully called," said he, " to appear in that city ; and thither I will go in the name of the Lord, though as many devils as there are tiles on the houses were there combined against me." The reception which he met with at Worms, was such as might have been reckoned a full re- ward for all his labours, if vanity and the love of applause had been the principles by which he was influenced. Greater crowds assembled to behold him than had appeared at the emperor's public entry ; his apartments were daily filled with princes and personages of the highest rank ; and he was treated with a homage more sin- cere, as well as more flattering, than any which pre-eminence in birth or condition can command. At his appearance before the diet he behaved with great decency and with equal firmness. He readily acknowledged an excess of acrimony and vehemence in his controversial writings ; but re- fused to retract his opinions, unless lie were con- vinced of their falsehood, or to consent to their being tried by any other rule than the word of God. When neither threats nor entreaties could prevail on him to depart from this reso- lution, some of the ecclesiastics proposed to imi- tate the example of the council of Constance and, by punishing the author of this pestilenl $ heresy, who was now in their power, to deliver the church at once from such an evil. But the members of the diet refusing to expose the Ger- man integrity to fresh reproach by a second vio- lation of public faith, and Charles being no less unwilling to bring a stain upon the beginning of his administration by such an ignominious ac- tion, Lu her was permitted to depart in safety. A few days after he had left the city, a severe edict was published in the emperor's name, and by authority of the diet, depriving him, as an ob- stinate and excommunicated criminal, of all the privileges which he enjoyed as a subject of ths empire ; forbidding any prince to harbour or pro- tect him ; and requiring all to seize his person as soon as the term specified in his protection should be expired. But this rigorous decree had no considerable effect ; the execution of it being prevented partly by the multiplicity of occupations which the com- motions in Spain, together with the wars in Italy and the Low Countries, created to the emperor; and partly by a prudent precaution employed by the elector of Saxony, Luther's faithful patron. As Luther, on his return from Worms, was passing near Altenstrain, in Thuringia, a num- ber of horsemen, in masks, rushed suddenly ouft of a wood, where the elector had appointed them to lie in wait for him, and, surrounding his com* pany, carried him, after dismissing all his attend- ants, to Worthing, a strong castle, not far distant. There the elector ordered him to be supplied with every thing necessary or agreeable; but the place of his retreat was carefully concealed, until the fury of the present storm against him began to abate, upon a change in the political system of Europe. In this solitude wnere he remained nine months, and which he frequently called his LUTHERANS Palmos, after the name of that island to which the apostle John was banished, ho exerted his usual vigour and industry in defence of his doc- trines, or in confutation of his adversaries ; pub- lishing several treatises, which revived the spirit of his followers, astonished to a great degree, and disheartened at the sudden disappearance of their leader. Luther, weary at length of his retirement, ap- peared publicly again at Wittemberg, upon the 8th of March, 1522. He appeared, indeed, with- out the elector's leave ; hut immediately wrote him a letter to prevent him taking it ill. The edict of Charles V., severe as it was, had given little or no check to Luther's doctrine ; for the emperor was no sooner gone into Flanders, than his edict was neglected and despised, and the doc- trine seemed to spread even faster than before. Carolostadius, in Luther's absence, had pushed things on faster than his leader, and had attempt- ed to abolish the use of mass, to remove images out of the churches, to set aside auricular confes- sion, invocation of saints, the abstaining from meats ; had allowed the monks to leave the mo- nasteries, to neglect their vows, and to marry ; in short, had quite changed the doctrine and disci- pline of the church at Wittemberg : all which, though not against Luther's sentiments, was yet blamed by him, as being rashly and un- seasonably done. Lutheranism was still con- fined to Germany ; it was not to go to France ; and Henry VIII. of England made the most rigorous acts to hinder it from invading his realm. * Nay, he did something more : to show his zeal for religion and the holy see, and perhaps his skill in theological learning, he wrote a treatise Of the Seven Sticramenls, against Luther's book Of the Captivity of Babylon, which he present- ed to Leo X. in October, 1521. The pope re- ceived it very favourably, and was so well pleased with the king of England, that he complimented him with the title of Defender of the Faith. Lu- ther, however, paid no regard to his kingship, buj answered him with great sharpness, treating both his person and performance in the most con- temptuous manner. Henry complained of Lu- ther's rude usage of him to the princes of Saxony : and Fisher, bishop of Rochester, replied to his answer, in behalf of Henry's treatise ; but neither the king's complaint, nor the bishop's reply, were attended with any visible effects. Luther, though he had put a stop to the vio- lent proceedings of Carolostadius, now made open war on the pope and bishops ; and, that he might make the people despise their authority as much as possible, he wrote one book against the pope's bull,, and another against the order falsely called the Order of Bhhopa. The same year, 1522, he wrote a letter, dated July the 29th, to the as- sembly of the states of Bohemia ; in which he assured them that he was labouring to establish their doctrine in Germany, and exhorted them not to return to the communion of the church of Rome ; and he published also this year a trans- lation of the New Testament in the German tongue, which was aLerwards corrected by him- self and Melancthon. This translation having been printed several times, and being in every body's hands, Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, the emperor's brother, made a very severe edict, to hinder the farther publication of it ; and for- bade all the subjects of his Imperial Majesty to 244 LUTHERANS have any copies of it, or of Luther's other books. Some other princes followed his example ; and Luther was so angry at it, that he wrote a trea- tise Of the Secular Poorer, in which he accuses them of tyranny and impiety. The diet of the empire was held at Nuremberg, at the end of the year, to which Hadrian VI. sent his brietj dated November the 25th ; for Leo X. died upon the 2d of December, 1521, and Hadrian had been elected pope upon the 9th of January following. In his brief, among other things, he observes to the diet how he had heard, with grief, that Mar- tin Luther, after the sentence of Leo X., which was ordered to be executed by the edict of Worm*, continued to teach the same errors, and daily to publish books full of heresies; that it appeared strange to him that so large and so religious a nation could be seduced by a wretched apostate friar ; that nothing, however, could be more per- nicious to Christendom ; and that, therefore, he exhorts them to use their utmost endeavours to make Luther, and the authors of those tumults, return to their duty ; or, if they refuse, and con- tinue obstinate, to proceed against them accord- ing to the laws of the empire, and the severity of the last edict. The resolution of this diet was published in the form of an edict, upon the fith of March, 1523 ; but it had no effect in checking the Lu- therans, who still went on in the same triumphant manner. This year Luther wrote a great many pieces ; among the rest, one upon the dignity and office of the supreme magistrate ; which Frederic, elector of Saxony, is said to have been highly pleased with. He sent, about the same time, a writing in the German language to the Waldeiv- ses, or Pickards, in Bohemia and Moravia, who had applied to him "about worshipping the body of Christ in the eucharist." He wrote, also, another book, which he dedicated to the senate and people of Prague, " about the institution of ministers of the church." He drew up a form of saying mass. He wrote a piece, entitled, An Example of Popish Doctrine and Divinity; which Dupin calls a satire against nuns, and those who profess a monastic life. He wrote also against the vows of virginity, in his preface to his commentary on 1 Cor. viii. ; and his exhortations here were, it seems, followed with effect; for, soon after, nine nuns, among whom was Cathe- rine de Bore, eloped from the nunnery at Nimpfc- schen, and were brought, by the assistance of Leonard Coppen, a burgess of Torgau, to Wit- temberg. Whatever oil'ence this proceeding might give to the Papists, it was highly extolled by Luther ; who, in a book written in the Ger- man language, compares the deliverance of these nuns from the slavery of monastic life to that of the souls which Jesus Christ has delivered by his death. This year Luther had occasion to canonize two of his followers, who, as Melchior Adam re- lates, were burnt at Brussels, in the beginning of July, and were the first who suffered martyrdom for his doctrine. He wrote also a consolatory letter to three noble ladies at Misnia, who weni banished from the duke of Saxony's court at Fri burg, for reading his books. In the beginning of the year 1521, Clcir.ent Vll. sent a legate into Germany to the diet which was to he held at Nuremberg. Hadrian VI. died in October, 1523, and was succeeded by Clement upon the 19th of November. A little before his LUTHERANS death he canonized Benno, who was bishop of Meissen, in the time of Gregory VII. and one of the most zealous defenders of the holy see. Luther, imagining that this was done directly to oppose him, drew up a piece with this title, Against the new idol and old devil set up at Meissen, in which he treats the memory of Gre- gory with great freedom, and does not spare, even Hadrian. Clement VII. 's legate represented to the diet of Nuremberg the necessity of enforcing the execution of the edict of Worms, which had been strangely neglected by the princes of the empire ; but, notwithstanding the legate's solici- tations, which were very pressing, the decrees of that diet were thought so inelfectual, that they were condemned at Rome, and rejected by the emperor. In October, 1524, Luther flung off' the monas- tic habit ; which, though not premeditated and designed, was yet a very proper preparative to a step he took the year after : we mean his mar- riage with Catherine de Bore. His marriage, however, did not retard his ac- tivity and diligence in the work of reformation. He revised the Augsburg Confession of Faith, and apology for the Protestants when the Pro- testant religion was first established on a firm basis. See Protestants and Reformation. After this, Luther had little else to do than to eit down and contemplate the mighty work he had finished ; for that a single monk should be able to give the church so rude a shock, that there needed but such another entirely to overturn it, may very well seem a mighty work. He did, indeed, little else ; for the remainder of his life was* spent in exhorting princes, states, and uni- versities, to confirm the Reformation which had been brought about through him ; and publish- ing from time to time such writings as might encourage, direct, and aid them in doing it. The emperor threatened temporal punishment with armies, and the pope eternal with bulls and anathe- mas; but Luther cared for none of their threats. In the year 1533, Luther wrote a consolatory epistle to the citizens of Oschatz, who had suffer- ed some hardships for adhering to the Augsburg Confession of Faith ; in which, among other things, he says, " The ,devil is the host, and the world is his inn ; so that wherever you come, you will be sure to find this ugly host." He had also about this time a terrible controversy with George duke of Saxony, who had such an aversion to Luther's doctrine, that he obliged his subjects to take an oath that they would never embrace it. However, sixty or seventy citizens of Leipsic were found to have deviated a little from the Catholic way in some point or other, and they were known previously to have consulted Luther about it ; upon which George complained to the Elector John, that Luther had not only abused his person, but also preached up rebellion among his subjects. The elector ordered Luther to be acquainted with this ; and to be told, at the same time, that if he did not acquit himself of this charge, he could not possibly escape punishment. But Luther easily refuted the accusation, by E roving, that he had been so far from stirring up is subjects against him on the score of religion, that, on the contrary, he had exhorted them ra- ther to undergo the greatest hardships, and even ■suffer themselves' to be banished. In the year 1534, the Bible, translated by him 245 LUTHERANS into German, was first printed, as the old privi- lege, dated Bibliopolis, under the elector's hand, shows ; and it was published the same year. He also published this year a book against masses, and the consecration of priests, in which he re- lates a conference he had with the devil upon those points ; for it is remarkable in Luther's whole history, that he never had any conflicts of any kind within, but the devil was always his an- tagonist. In February, 1537, an assembly was held at Smalkald about matters of religion, to which Luther and Melancthon were called. At this meeting Luther was seized with so grievous an illness, that there were no hopes of his reco- very. He was afflicted with the stone, and had a stoppage of urine for eleven days. In this ter- rible condition he would needs undertake to travel, notwithstanding all that his friends could say or do to prevent him : his resolution, how- ever, was attended with a good effect ; for the night after his departure he began to be better. As he was carried along he made his will, in which he bequeathed his detestation of popery to his friends and brethren ; agreeably to what he used to say ; Pestis eram virus, morions ero mors tua, papa; i. e. "I was the plague of popery in my life, and shall continue to be so in my death." This year the pope and the court of Rome, finding it impossible to deal with the Protestants by force, began to have recourse to stratagem. They affected, therefore, to think, that though Luther had, indeed, carried things on with a high hand, and to a violent extreme, yet what he had pleaded in defence of these measures was not en- tirely -without foundation. They talked with a seeming show of moderation ; and Pius III., who succeeded Clement VII., proposed a reformation first among themselves, and even went so far as to fix a place for a council to meet at for that pur- pose. ' But Luther treated this farce as it de- served to be treated ; unmasked and detected it immediately; and, to ridicule it the more strongly, caused a picture to be drawn, in which was re- presented the pope seated on high upon a throne, some cardinals about him with foxes' tails on, and seeming to evacuate upwards and down- wards, (sursum dcorsnm repurgare, as Melchior Adam expresses it.) This was fixed over against the title-page, to let the reader see at once th\ scope and design of the book ; which was to ex- pose that cunning and artifice with which these subtle politicians affected to cleanse and purify themselves from their errors and superstitions. Luther published, about the same time, a confu- tation of the pretended grant of Constantine to Sylvester, bishop of Rome ; and also some letters of John Huss, written from his prison at Con- stance to the Bohemians. In this manner was Luther employed till his death, which happened in the year 1546. A thousand lies were invented by the Papists about Luther's death. Some said that he died suddenly; others, that he killed himself; others, that the devil strangled him; others, that his corpse stunk so abominably, that they were forwd to leave it in the way, as it was carried to be in- terred. Nay, lies were invented about his death, even while he was yet alive. Luther, however, to give the most effectual refutation of this ac- count of his death, put forth an advertisement of his being alive ; and, to be even with the Papists for the malice they hud shown in this he, wrote a v 2 LUTHERANS book at the same time, to prove that " the papacy was founded by the devil." Lutheranism has undergone some alterations since the time of its founder. Luther rejected the epistle of St. James as inconsistent with the doctrine of St. Paul in relation to justification ; he also set aside the Apocalypse : both of which are now received as canonical in the Lutheran church. Luther reduced the number of sacraments to two, v;z., baptism and the eucharist ; but he be- lieved the impanation or consubstantiation ; that is, that the matter of the bread and wine remain with the body and blood of Christ ; and it is in this article that the main difference between the Lutheran and the English churches consists. Luther maintained the mass to be no sacrifice ; exploded the adoration of the host, auricular con- fession, meritorious works, indulgences, purga- tory, the worship of images, &c, which had been introduced in the corrupt times of the Romish church. He also opposed the doctrine of free will, maintained predestination, and asserted our justification to be solely by the imputation of the merits and satisfaction of Christ. He also op- posed the fastings of the Romish church, monas- tical vows, the celibacy of the clergy, &c. The Lutherans, however, of all Protestants, are said to differ least from the Romish church ; as they affirm that the body and blood of Christ are materially present in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, though in an incomprehensible manner ; and likewise represent some religious rites and institutions, as the use of images in churches, the distinguishing vestments of the clergy, the private confession of sins, the use of wafers in the administration of the Lord's Sup- per, the form of exorcism in the celebration of baptism, and other ceremonies of the like nature, as tolerable, and some of them as useful. The Lutherans maintain, with regard to the divine decrees, that they respect the salvation or misery of men, in consequence of a previous knowledge of their sentiments and characters, and not as free and uncontinual, and as founded on the mere will of God. Towards the close of the se- venteenth century, the Lutherans began to enter- tain a greater liberality of sentiment than they had before adopted, though in many places they persevered longer in severe and despotic principle than other Protestant churches. Their public teachers now enjoy an unbounded liberty of dis- senting from the decisions of those symbols or creeds which were once deemed almost infallible rules of faith and practice, and of declaring their dissent in the manner they judge the most expe- dient. Mosheim attributes this change in their sentiments, to the maxim which they generally adopted, that Christians were accountable to God alone for their religious opinions; and that no individual could be justly punished by the ma- gistrate for his erroneous opinions, while he con- ducted himself like a virtuous and obedient sub- ject, and made no attempts to disturb the peace and order of chil society. In Sweden, the Lu- theran church is episcopal ; in Norway the same. In Denmark, under the name of superintendent, all episcopal authority is retained ; whilst through Germany the superior power is vested in a con- sistory, over which there is a president, with a distinction of rank and privileges, and a subordi- nation of inferior clergy to their superiors, dif- 246 LYING ferent from the parity of Presbyterianism. Mo» heim's Eccles. History; Life of Luther; Haueis't Ch. Hist. vol. ii. p. 454 ; Enc. Brit.; Robertson's Hist, of Charles V., vol. ii. p. 42 ; Luther on the Galatians. LUTHERAN (EVANGELICAL) CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. The name Lutheran is derived from the great reformer. It is said that the term evangelical was given to his followers by Luther. It is still preferred to that of Lutheran by some of the de- nomination. They settled in Pennsylvania and the adjoining states on their arrival in this coun- try. The churches were for a considerable time supplied with ministers from Germany, some of whom were eminent men. The Rev. H. M. Muhlenburg, the fiist Lutheran preacher in this country, was sent from London in 1743. They are now found in Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, and in other states. The Augsburgh Confession is the acknowledged standard of faith among the Lutherans. The Church government is in its essential features congregational. District Synods (whose power is simply advisory,) composed of clerical and lay members, meet annually. There is also a general Synod, convening biennially, formed by dele- gates from such of the annual Synods as re- cognise it. The Evangelical Lutherans have four Theological Seminaries. In 18-14, the num- ber of ministers was believed to be about 450, and of congregations about 1400 ; very con- siderable additions have since been made. [But for a very well written and copious history of the past and present state of this large body of Christians, (from the highest source,) see the APPENDIX of this work, No. VI.] LUXURY, a disposition of mind addicted to pleasure, riot, and superfluities. Luxury implies a giving one's self up to pleasure ; voluptuous- ness, an indulgence in the same to excess. Luxury may be further considered as consisting in, 1. Vain and useless expenses. — 2. In a parade beyond what people can afford. — 3. In affecting to be above our own rank. — 4. In living in a splendour that does not agree with the public good. In order to avoid if, we should consider that it is ridiculous, troublesome, sinful, and ruinous. Robinson's Claude, vol. i. p. 382; Ferguson on Society, part vi. sect. 2. LYING, speaking falsehoods wilfully, with an intent to deceive. Thus, by Grove, "A lie is an affirmation or denial by words, or any other signs, to which a certain determinate meaning is affixed, of something contrary to our real thoughts and intentions." Thus, by Paley, " A lie is a breach of promise ; for whoever seriously ad- dresses his discourse to another, tacitly promises to speak the truth, because he knows that the truth is expected." There are various kind of lies. 1. The peryncious lie, uttered for the hurt or disadvantage of our neighbour. — 2. The officious lie, uttered for our own or our neighbour's advan- tage.— 3. The ludicrous and jocose lie, uttered by way of jest, and only for mirth's sake in common converse.— 4. Pious frauds, as they are im- properly called; pretended inspirations, forged books, counterfeit miracles, are species 01 lies. — 5. Lies of the conduct, for a lie may be told in gestures as well as in words ; as when a trades- man shuts up his windows to induce, his creditors to believe that he is abroad. — 6. Lies oioniission, as MAGDALEN when an author wilfully omits what ought to he related ; and may we not add — 7. That all eq\i\r vocation and mental reservation come under the guilt of lying. The evil and injustice of lying appear, 1. From its being a breach of the natural and universal right of mankind to truth in the in- tercourse of speech. — 2. From its being a violation of God's sacred law, Phil. iv. 8 ; Lev. xix. 1 1 ; Col. iii. 9. — 3. The faculty of speech was be- stowed as an instrument of knowledge, not of deceit ; to communicate our thoughts, not to hide them.— -4. It is esteemed a reproach of so heinous and hateful a nature for a man to be called a liar, MAGI that sometimes the life and blood of the slanderer have paid for it. — 5. It has a tendency to dissolve all society, and to indispose the mind to religious impressions. — G. The punishment of it is con- siderable : the loss of credit, the hatred of those whom we have deceived, and an eternal separa- tion from God in the world to come, Rev. xxi. 8 ; xxii. 15; Psalm ci. 7. See Equivocation. — Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. i. ch. 11 ; Paleifs Mor. Phil. vol. i. ch. 15 ; Doddridge's Led. lect. 68 ; Wattes Ser. vol. i. ser. 22 ; Evans's Ser. vol. ii. ser. 13 ; South's Ser. vol. i. ser. 12 ; Dr. Liu mont's Serm. vol. i. ser. 11 and 12. M. MACARIANS, the followers of Macarius, an Egyptian monk, who was distinguished towards the close of the fourteenth century for his sanctity and virtue. In his writings there are some super- stitious tenets, and also certain opinions that seem tainted with Origenism. The name has been also applied to those who adopted the sentiments of Macarius, a native of Ireland, who, about the close of the ninth century, propagated in France the tenet afterwards maintained by Averrhoes, that one individual intelligence or soul performed the spiritual and rational functions in all the hu- man race. MACEDONIANS, the followers of Mace- donius, bishop of Constantinople, who, through the influence of the Eunomians, was deposed by the council of Constantinople in 360, and sent into exile. He considered the Holy Ghost as a divine energy diffused throughout the universe, and not as a person distinct from the Father and the Son. The sect of the Macedonians was crushed before it had arrived at its full maturity by the council assembled by Theodosius in 381, at Constantinople. See Skmtarians. MACHIAVELLIANISM, the doctrine or principles of Machiavel, as laid down in his trea- tise entitled The Prince, and which consist in doing any thing to compass a design, without any regard to the peace or welfare of subjects, the dictates of honesty and honour, or the precepts of eligion. This work has been translated into many languages, and written against by many authors, though the world is not agreed as to the motives of the writer ; some thinking he meant to recommend tyrannical maxims; others, that he only delineated them to excite abhorrence. MAGDALEN, RELIGIOUS OF ST. a name given to divers communities of nuns, con- sisting generally of penitent courtezans, sometimes also called Magdalanettes. They were establish- ed at Mentz in 1542 ; at Paris in 1492 ; at Na- fles in 132*1; at Rouen and Bourdeaux in 1618. n each of these monasteries there were three kinds of persons and congregations : the first consisted of those who were admitted to make vows, and those bear the name of St. Magdalen ; the congregation of St. Martha was the second, and was composed of those whom it was not thought proper to admit to vows finally ; the con- gregation of St. Lazarus was composed of such as were detained by force. The religious of St. Magdalen at Rome were established by Pope Leo X. Clement V1I1. settled a revenue on them ; and farther apitointed, that the effects of 247 all public prostitutes dying intestate should fall to them ; and that the testaments of the rest should be invalid, unless they bequeathed a portion of their effects, which was to be at least a fifth part of them. MAGI, or MAGIANS, an ancient religious sect of Persia, and other eastern countries, who, abominating the adoration of images, worshipped God only by fire, in which they were directly op- posite to the Sabians. SeeSABiANs. The Magi believed that there were two principles, one the cause of all good, and the other the cause of all evil ; in which opinion t^iey were followed by the sect of the Manichees. See Manichkes. They called the good principle Jazden, and Ormuzd, and the evil principle Ahraman, or Aherman. The former was by the Greeks called Oromasdes, and the latter Arimanius. The reason of their worshipping fire was, because they looked upon it as the truest symbol of Oromasdes, or the good god; as darkness was of Arimanius, or the evil god. In all their temples they had fire continually burning upon their altars, and in their own pri- vate houses. The religion of the Magi fell into disgrace o 1 the death of those ringleaders of that sect who had usurped the sovereignty after the death of Cambyses ; and the slaughter that was made of the chief men among them sunk it so low, that Sabianism every where prevailed against it ; Da- rius and most of his followers on that occasion crointf over to it. But the affection which the people had for the religion of their forefathers not being easily to be rooted out, the famous impostor Zoroaster, some ages after, undertook to revive and reform it. The chief reformation this pretended prophet made in the Magian religion was in the first principle of it ; for he introduced a god superior both to Oromasdes and Arimanius. Dr. Prideaux is of opinion that Zoroaster took the hint of this alteration in their theology from the prophet Isaiah, who brings in God, saying to Cyrus king of Persia, I am the Lord, and there is none else ; I form the light, and create darkness ; I make peace, and create evil, chap. xlv. 7. In short, Zoroaster held that there was one supreme inde- pendent Being, and under him two principles, or angels ; one the angel of light or good, and the other the angel of evil or darkness ; that there is a perpetual struggle between them, which shall last to the end of the world ; that then the angel of darkness and his disciples shall go into a world of their own, where they shall be punished in MAGIC eveilasting darkness; and the angel of light and Ilia disciples shall also go into a world of their own, where they shall be rewarded in everlasting light. Zoroaster was the first who built fire-temples ; the Magians before his time performing their de- votion on the tops of hills and in the open air, by which means they were exposed to the inconve- nience of rain and tempests, which often extin- guished their sacred fires. To procure the greater veneration for these sacred fires, he pretended to nave received fire from heaven, which he placed on the altar of the first fire-temple he erected, which was that of Xis, in Media, from whence they say it was propagated to all the rest. The Magian priests kept their sacred fire with the greatest diligence, watching it day and night, and never suffering it to be extinguished. They fed it only with wood stript of the bark, and they never blowed it, with their breath or with bellows, for fear of polluting it : to do either of these was death by their law. The Magian religion, as re- formed by Zoroaster, seems in many things to be built upon the plan of the Jewish. The Jews had their sacred fire which came down from heaven upon the altar of burnt-offerings, which they never suffered to go out, and with which all their sacrifices and cblations were made. Zoro- aster, in like manner, pretended to have brought his holy fire from heaven ; and as the Jews had a Shekinah of the divine presence among them, resting over the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies, Zoroaster likewise told his Magians to look upon the sacred fire in their temples as a Shc/dnah, in which God especially dwelt. — From these and some other instances of analogy between the Jewish and Magian religion, Prideaux infers that Zoroaster had been first educated and brought up in the Jewish religion. The priests of the Magi were the most skilful mathematicians and philosophers of the an-e in which they lived, insomuch that a learned man and a Magian became equivalent terms. This proceeded so far. that the vulgar, looking on their knowledge to he more than natural, imagined they were inspired by some supernatural power. And hence those who practised wicked and diabolical arts, taking upon themselves the name of Ma- gians, drew on it that ill signification which the word Magician now bears among us. The Magian priests were all of one tribe, as among the Jews, none but the son of a priest was capable of bearing that office among them. The royal family among the Persians, as long as this sect subsisted, was always of the sacerdotal tribe. They were divided into three orders : the inferior clergy ; the superintendants, or bishops, and the archirnagus, or arch-priest. Zoroaster had the address to bring over Darius to his new-reformed religion, notwithstanding the strongest opposition of the Sabians; and from that time it became the national religion of all that country, and so continued for many ages after, till it was supplanted by that of Mahomet. Zoroaster composed a book containing the prin- ciples of the Magian religion. It is called Zenda- vesta, and by contraction Zend. See Zend. MAGIC, a science which teaches to produce surprising and extraordinary effects; a corres- pondence with bad spirits, by means of which a person is able to perform surprising things. This was strictly lbrbidden by the law of God, on pain oi death, Lev. xix. 31. 248 MAHOMETANISM MAGISTER DISCIPLINE, or Masteb of Discipline, the appellation of a certaic ecclesiastical officer in the ancient Christian church. It was a custom in some places, parti- cularly in Spain, in the time of the Gothic kings, about the end of the fifth century, for parents to dedicate their children very young to the service of the church. For this purpose they were taken into the bishop's family, and educated under him by some grave and discreet person whom the bishop deputed for that purpose, and set over them, by the name of Presbyter, or Magister Disciplines, whose chief business it was to inspect their behaviour, and instruct them in the rules and discipline of the church. MAGNANIMITY, greatness of soul ; a dis- position of mind exerted in contemning dangers and difficulties, in scorning temptations, and des- pising earthly pomp and splendour. Cicero de Offic lee. i. chap. 20 ; Grove's Moral Phil. p. 2G8, vol. ii. See articles Courage, Fortitude, in this work; Steele's Christian Hero; Walts on Self-Murder. MAHOMETANISM, the system of religion formed and propagated by Mahomet, and still adhered to by his followers. It is professed by the Turks and Persians, by several nations among the Africans, and many among the East Indians. Mahomet was born in the reign of Anushir- wan the Just, emperor of Persia, about the end of the sixth century of the Christian era. He came into the world under some disadvantages* His father Abd'allah was a younger son of Abd'- almotalleb; and dying very young, and in his father's life-time, left his widow and infant son in very mean circumstances, his whole subsis- tence consisting but of five camels and one Ethi- opian she-slave. Abd'almotalleb was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild Maho- met; which he not only did during his life, but at his death enjoined his eldest son Abu Taleb, who was brother to Abd'allah by the same mo- ther, to provide for him for the future ; which he very affectionately did, and instructed him in the business of a merchant, which he followed : and to that end he took him into Syria, when he was but thirteen. He afterwards recommended him to Khadijah, a noble and rich widow, for her factor ; in whose service he behaved himself so well, that, by making him her husband, she soon raised him to an equality with the richest in Mecca. After he began by this advantageous match to live at his ease, it was, that he formed the scheme of establishing a new religion, or, as he expressed it, of replanting the only true and ancient one, professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroying the gn>ss idolatry into which the generality of his countrymen had fallen, and weeding out the cor- ruptions and superstitions which the latter Jews and Christians had, as he thought, introduced into their religion, and reducing it to its original purity, which consisted chiefly in the worship of one ( Jud. Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary for him to begin with the conversion of his own household. Hav- ing, therefore, retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to a cave in mount Hara, he there opened the secret of lus mission "MAHOMET ANISM to his Wife Khadijah ; and acquainted her, that the angel Gabriel had just before appeared to him, an i told him that he was appointed the apostle Of God : he also repeated to her a passage which te pretended had been revealed to him by the ministry of the angel, with those other cireum- 6tances of this first appearance which are related by the Mahometan, writers. Khadijah received the news with great joy, swearing by Him in whose hands her soul was, that she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation ; and imme-, diately communicated what she had heard to her cousin Warakah Ebn Nawfhl, who, being a Christian, could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed in the Scriptures ; and he readily came into her opinion, assuring her that the same angel who had formerly ap- peared unto Moses was now sent to Mahomet. The first overture the prophet made was in the month of Ramadan, in the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore usually called the year of his mission. Encouraged by so good a beginning, he re- solved to proceed, and try for some time what he could do by private persuasion, not daring to hazard the whole affair by exposing it too suddenly to the public. He soon made proselytes of those under his own roof, viz. his wife Khadijah, his servant Zeid Ebn Haretha, to whom he gave his freedom on that occasion, (which afterwards be- came a rule to his followers,) and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, though then very young : but this last, making no account of the other two, used to style himself the first of believers. The next person Mahomet applied to was Abd'allah Ebn Abi Kohafa, surnamed Abu Beer, a man of great authority among the Ko- reish, and one whose interest he well knew would be of great service to him, as it soon appeared ; for Abu Beer, being gained over, prevailed also on Othman Ebn Affan, Abd'alraham Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abbi Wakkus, At Zobeir al A warn, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men of Mecca, to follow his example. These men were six chief companions, who, with a few more, were converted in the space of three years : at the end of which, Mahomet having, as he hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a secret, but gave out that God had commanded him to admonish his near rela- tions ; and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of success, he directed Ali to prepare an entertainment, and invited the sons and de- scendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them. — This was done, and about forty of them came ; but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles, making the company break up be- fore Mahomet had an opportunity of speaking, obliged him to give them a second invitation the next day ; and when they were come, he made them the following speech : " I know no man in all Arabia who can offer his kindred a more ex- cellent thing than I now do to you ; I offer you happiness, both in this life, and in that which is to come : God Almighty hath commanded me to call you unto him. Who, therefore, among you, will be assistant to me herein, and become my brother and my vicegerent 1" All of them hesi- tating and declining the matter, Ali at length rose up, and declared that he would be his assist- ant, and vehemently threatened those who should oppose him. Mahome* upon this embraced Ah 2-19 2 Or MAHOMET AN1SM with great demonstrations of affection, and de- sired all who were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy ; at which the company broke out into' a great laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience to his son. This repulse, however, was so far from dis- couraging Mahomet, that he began to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, till he came to upbraid them with the idol- atry, obstinacy, and perverseness of themselves and their fathers; which so highly provoked them, that they declared themselves his enemies ; and would soon have procured his ruin, had he not been protected by Abu Taleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly solicited this person to de- sert his nephew, making frequent remonstrances against the innovations he was attempting ; which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him with an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mahomet to desist. At this Abu Taleb was so far moved, that he earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing the affair any further, representing the great danger that he and his friends must otherwise run. But Mahomet was not to be in- timidated ; telling his uncle plainly, that if they set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his left, he would not leave his en- terprise ; and Abu Taleb, seeing him so firmly resolved to proceed, used no further arguments, but promised to stand by him against all hia enemies. The Koreish, finding they could prevail neither by fair words nor menaces, tried what they could do by force and ill treatment; using Mahomet's followers so very injuriously, that it was not safe for them to continue at Mecca any longer ; where- upon Mahomet gave leave to such of them as had no friends to protect them to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly, in the fifth year of the prophet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were women, fled into Ethiopia; and among them Othman Ebn Affan, and his wife Rakiah, Mahomet's daughter. This was the first flight ; but afterwards several others followed them, retiring one after another, to the number of eighty -three men, and eighteen women, besides children. These refugees were kindly received by the Najashi, or king of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom the Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arab writers unanimously attest, even professed the Mahome- tan religion. In the sixth year of his mission, Mahomet had the pleasure of seeing Ms party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of great valour and merit; and of Omar Ebn al Kattab, a person highly esteemed, and once a violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution generally advances rather than obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so great a progress among the Arab tribes, that the Ko- reish, to suppress it effectually, if possible, in the seventh year of Mahomet's mission, made a so- lemn league or covenant against the Hashemites, and the family of Abd'almotalleb, engaging them- selves to contract no marriages with any of them, and to have no communication with them ; and to give it the greater sanction, reduced it into writing, and laid it up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions ; and the family of Hashcm all repaired to Abu Taleb, as their head; except only Abd'al Uzza, sumanied MAHOMETANISM Abu Lahcb, who, out of inveterate hatred to his nephew and his doctrine, went over to the oppo- site party, whose chief was Abu Sosian Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya. The families continued thus at variance for three years ; but in the tenth year of his mission, Mahomet told his uncle Abu Taleb, that God had manifestly showed his disapprobation of the league which the Korcish had made against them, by sending a worm to eat out every word of the instrument except the name of God. Of this accident" Mahomet had probably some private no- tice; for Abu Taleb went immediately to the Koreish, and acquainted them with it; offering, if it proved false, to deliver his nephew up to them ; but, in case it were true, he insisted that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul the league they had made against the Hashemites. To this they acquiesced ; and going to inspect the writing, to their great astonishment found it to be as Abu Taleb had said : and the league was thereupon declared void. In the same year Abu Taleb died at the age of above fourscore, and it is the general opinion that he died an infidel ; though others say, that when he was at the point of death he embraced Mahometanism, and produce some passages out of his poetical compositions to confirm their as- sertion. About a month, or, as some write, three days after the death of this great benefactor and patron, Mahomet had the additional mortification to lose his wife Khadijah, who had so generously made his fortune. For which reason this year is called the year of mourning. On the death of these two persons, the Koreish began to be more troublesome than ever to their prophet, and especially some who had formerly been his intimate friends; insomuch that he found himself obliged to seek for shelter elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tayef, about sixty miles east from Mecca, for the place of his retreat. Thither, therefore, he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and applied himself to two of the chief of the tribe of Thakif, who were the inhabitants of that place ; but they received him very coldly. However, he staid there a month ; and some of the more considerate and tetter sort of men treated him with little respect ; but the slaves and infe- rior people at length rose against him ; and bring- ing him to the wall of the city, obliged him to depart, and return to Mecca, while he put him- self under the protection of Al Motaam Ebn Adi. This repulse greatly discouraged his followers. However, Mahomet was not wanting to himself; but boldly continued to preach to the public as- semblies at the pilgrimage, and gained several proselytes ; and among them six of the inhabitants of Yathreb, of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj ; who, on their return home, failed not to speak much in recommendation of their new religion, and ex- horted their fellow citizens to embrace the same. In the twelfth year of his mission it was that Mahomet gave out that he had made his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to heaven, so much spoken of by all that write of him. Dr. Prideaux thinks he invented it cither to answer the expectations of those who demand- ed some miracle as a proof of his mission ; or else, by pretending to have conversed with God, to establish the authority of whatever he should think fit to leave behind by way of oral tradition, and make his sayings to serve the same purpose 250 MAHOMETANISM as the oral law of the Jews. But it does not ar> pear that Mahomet himself ever expected so great a regard should be paid to his sayings as his fol- lowers have since done ; and. seeing he all along disclaimed any power jf performing miracles, it seems rather to have been a fetch of policy to raise his reputation, by pretending to have actually conversed with God in heaven, as Moses had heretofore done in the mount, and to have re- ceived several institutions immediately from him, whereas, before, he contented himself with per- suading them that he had all by the ministry of Gabriel. However, this story seemed so absurd and in- credible, that several of his followers left him upon it ; and had probably ruined the whole design, had not Abu Beer vouched for his veracity, and declared that if Mahomet affirmed it to be true, he verily believed the whole. Which happy in- cident not only letrieved the prophet's credit, but increased it to such a degree, that he was secure of being able to make his disciples swallow what- ever he pleased to impose on them for the future. And this fiction, notwithstanding its extrava- gance, was one of the most artful contrivances Mahomet ever put in practice, and what chiefly contributed to the raising of his reputation to that great height to which it afterwards arrived. In this year, called by the Mahometans the ac- ccpted year, twelve men of Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Khazraj, and the other two of that of Aws, came to Mecca, and took an oath of fidelity to Mahomet at Al Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. This oath was called the icoman's oath ; not that any wo- men were present at this time, but because a man was not thereby obliged to take up arms in de- fence of Mahomet or his religion j it being the same oath that was afterwards exacted of the women, the form of which we have in the Koran, and is to this effect, viz. That they should renounce all idolatry ; and that they should not steal, nor commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the pagan Arabs used to do when they apprehended they should not be able to maintain them), nor forge calumnies ; and that they should obey the prophet in all things that were reasonable. When they had solemnly engaged to all this, Mahomet sent one of his disciples named Masab Ebn Omair home with them, to instruct them more fully in the grounds and ceremonies of his new religion. Masab, being arrived at Medina, by the assist- ance of those who had been formerly converted, gained several proselytes, particularly Osed Ebn Hodcira, a chief man of the city, and Saad Ebn Moadh, prince of the tribe of the Aws ; Maho- metanism spreading so fast, that there was scarce a house wherein there were not some who had embraced it. The next year, being the thirteenth of Ma- homet's mission, Masab returned to Mecca, ac- companied by seventy-three men and two women of Medina who had professed Islamism, besides some others who were as yet unbelievers. On their arrival they immediately sent to Mahomet, and offered him their assistance, of which he was now in great need; for his adversaries were by this time grown so powerful in Mecca, that he could not stay there much longer without immi- nent danger. Wherefore he accepted their pro- posal, and met them one night, by appointment, at Al Akaba above mentioned, attended by his MAHOMETANISM ancle Al Abbas ; who, though he was not then a believer, wished his nephew well, and made a speech to those of Medina; wherein he told them, that, as Mahomet was obliged to quit his native city and seek an asylum elsewhere, and they had offered him their protection, they would do well not to deceive hiin : that if they were not firmly resolved to defend, and not betray him, they had better declare their minds, and let him provide for his safety in some other manner. — Upon their protesting their sincerity, Mahomet swore to be faithful to them, on condition that they should protect him against all insults as heartily as they would their own wives and fami- lies. They then asked him, what recompence they were to expect, if they should happen to be killed in his quarrel? He answered, Paradise. Whereupon they pledged their faith to him, and so returned home after Mahomet had chosen twelve out of their number, who were to have the same authority among them as the twelve apos- tles of Christ had among his disciples. Hitherto Mahomet had propagated his religion oy fair means ; so that the whole success of his enterprise before his flight to Medina must be attributed to persuasion only, and not to compul- sion. For before this second oath of fealty or inauguration at Al Akaba, he had no permission to use any force at all ; and in several places of the Koran, which he pretended were revealed during his stay at Mecca, he declares his business was only to preach and admonish ; that he had no authority to compel any person to embrace his religion ; and that, whether people believe or not, was none of his concern, but belonged solely unto God. And he was so far from allowing his fol- lowers to use force, that he exhorted them to bear patiently those injuries which were offered them on account of their faith ; and, when per- secuted himself, chose rather to quit the place of his birth, and retire to Medina, than to make any resistance. But this great passiveness and mode- ration seem entirely owing to his want of power, and the great superiority of his opposers, for the first twelve years of his mission ; for no sooner was he enabled, by the assistance of those of Me- dina, to make head against his enemies, than he gave out, that God had allowed him and his fol- lowers to defend themselves against the infidels ; and at length, as his forces increased, he pretend- ed to have the divine leave even to attack them, and destroy idolatry, and set up the true faith by the sword ; finding by experience, that his designs would otherwise proceed very slowly, if they were not utterly overthrown ; and knowing, on the other hand, that innovators, when they de- pend solely on their own strength, and can com- pel, seldom run any risk ; from whence, says Maehiavel, it follows, that all the armed prophets have succeeded, and the unarmed ones have failed. Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus, would not have been able to establish the observ- ance of their institution for any length of time, had they not been armed. The first passage of the Koran which gave Mahomet the permission of defending himself by arms, is said to have been that in the twenty-second chapter ; after which, a great number to the same purpose were re- vealed. Mahomet, having provided for the security of his companions, as well as his own, by the league offensive and defensive which he had now con- 251 MAHOMETANISM eluded with those of Medina, directed them to repair thither, which they accordingly did; but himself, with Abu Beer and Ali, staid behind, having not yet received the divine permission, as he pretended, to leave Mecca. The Koreish, fear- ing the consequence of this new alliance, began to think it absolutely necessary to prevent Ma- homet's escape to Medina; and having held a council thereon, after several milder expedients had been rejected, they came to a resolution that he should be killed ; and agreed that a man should be chosen out of every tribe for the execu- tion of this design ; and that each man should have a blow at him with his sword, that the guilt of his blood might fall equally on all the tribes, to whose united power the Hashemites were much inferior, and therefore durst not attempt to re- venge their kinsman's death. This conspiracy was scarce formed, when, by some means or other, it came to Mahomet'b knowledge ; and he gave out that it was revealed to him by the angel Gabriel, who had now order- ed him to retire to Medina. Whereupon, to amuse his enemies, he directed Ali to lie down in his place, and wrap himself up in his green cloak, which he did ; and Mahomet escaped, miraculously, as they pretended, to Abu Beer's house, unperceived by the conspirators, who had already assembled at the prophet's door. They, in the mean time, looking through the crevice, and seeing Ali, whom they took to be Mahomet himself, asleep, continued watching there till morning, when Ah arose, and they iound them- selves deceived. From Abu Beer's house Mahomet and he went to a cave in mount Thur, to the south-east of Mecca, accompanied only by Amor Ebn Fohei- rah, Abu Beer's servant, and Abd'allah Ebn Oreitah, an idolator whom they had hired for a guide. In this cave they lay hid three days, to avoid the search of their enemies ; which they very nar- rowly escaped, and not without the assistance of more miracles than one ; for some say that the Koreish were struck with blindness, so that they could not find the cave ; others, that after Mar hornet and his companions were got in, two pigeons laid their eggs at the entrance, and a spider covered the mouth of the cave with her web, which made them look no further. Abu Beer, seeing the prophet in such imminent dan- ger, became very sorrowful ; whereupon Maho- met comforted him with these words, recorded in the Koran : Be not grieved, for God is with us. Their enemies being retired, they left the cave, and set out for Medina by a by-road ; and having fortunately, or, as the Mahometans tell us, mi- raculously, escaped some who were sent to pur sue them, arrived safely at that city ; whither Ali followed them in three days, after he had settled some affairs at Mecca. Mahomet being securely settled at Medina, and able not only to defend himself against the insults of his enemies, but to attack them, began to send out small parties to make reprisals on the Koreish ; the first party consisting of no more than nine men, who intercepted and plun dered a caravan belonging to that tribe, md in the action took two prisoners. But what esta- blished his affairs very much, and was the foua- dation on which he built all his succeeding greatness, was the gaining of the battle of Bedr, which was fought in the second year of the MAHOMETANISM Hegira, and is so famous in the Mahometan his- tory. Some reckon no less than twenty-seven expeditions, wherein Mahomet was personally present, in nine of which he gave battle, besides several other expeditions in which he was not present. His forces he maintained partly by the contributions of his followers for this purpose, which he called by the name of zacat, or alms, and the paying of which he very artfully made one main article of his religion : and partly by ordering a fifth part of the plunder to be brought into the public treasury for that purpose, in which matter he likewise pretended to act by the divine direction. In a few years, by the success of his arms, notwithstanding he sometimes came off with the worst, he considerably raised his credit and power. In the sixth year of the Hegira he set out with 1400 men to visit the temple of Mecca, not with any intent of committing hostilities, but in a peaceable manner. However, when he came to Al Hodeibiya, which is situated partly within and partly without the sacred territory, the Ko- reish sent to let him know that they would not permit him to enter Mecca, unless he forced 'his way : whereupon he called his troops about him, and they all took a solemn oath of fealty or ho- mage to him, and he resolved to attack the city ; hut those of Mecca sending Arwa Ebn Masu'n, prince of the tribe of Thakif, as their ambassador, to desire peace, a truce was concluded between them for ten years, by which any person was allowed to enter into a league either with Maho- met, or with the Koreish, as he thought fit. In the seventh year of the Hegira, Mahomet began to think of propagating his religion beyond the bounds of Arabia, and sent messengers to the neighbouring princes, with letters to invite them to Mahometanism. Nor was this project with- out some success : Khosru Parviz, then king of Persia, received Ms letter with great disdain, and tore it in a passion, sending away the messenger very abruptly; which, when Mahomet heard, he said, God shall tear his kingdom. And soon after a messenger came to Mahomet from Bad- han, king of Yaman, who was a dependent on the Persians, to acquaint him* that he had re- ceived orders to send him to Khosru. Mahomet put off his answer till the next morning, and then told the messenger it had been revealed to him that night that Khosru was slain by his son Shiruyeh : adding, that he was well assured his new religion and empire should rise to as great a height as that of Khosru ; and therefore bid him advise his master to embrace Mahometanism. The messenger being returned, Badhan in a few clays received a letter from Shiruyeh, informing him of his father's death, and ordering him to give the prophet no further disturbance. Where- upon Badhan, and the Persians with him, turned Mahometans. _ The emperor Heraclius, as the Arabian histo- rians assure us, received Mahomet's letter with great respect, laying it on his pillow, and dis- missed the bearer honourably. And some pre- tend that he would have professed this new faith, had he not been afraid of losing his crown. Mahomet wrote to the same effect to the king of Ethiopia, though he had been converted before, according to the Arab writers; and to Mokaw- kas, governor of Egypt, who gave the messenger a very favourable reception, and sent several 2b2 MAHOMETANISM valuable presents to Mahomet, and among the rest two girls, one of whom, named Mary, became a great favourite with him. He also sent letters of the like purport to several Arab princes ; par- ticularly one to Al Hareth.Ebn Abi Shamer, king of Ghassan, who, returning for answer that he would go to Mahomet himself, the prophet said, May his kingdom perish! Another to Hawdha Ebn Ali, king of Yamama, who was a Christian, and, having some time before professed Islamism, had lately returned to his former faith: this prince sent back a very rough answer, upon which Mahomet cursing him, he died soon after; and a third to Al Mondar Ebn Sawa, king of Bahrein, who embraced Mahometanism, and all the Arabs of that country followed his example. The eighth year of the Hegira was a very for- tunate year to Mahomet. In the beginning of it Khaled Ebn al Walid and Amru Ebn al As, both excellent sJdiers, the first of whom after- wards conquered Syria and other countries, and the latter Egypt, became proselytes to Mahomet- anism. And soon after the prophet sent 3000 men against the Grecian forces, to revenge the death of one of his ambassadors, who, being sent to the governor of Bosra on the same errand as those who went to the above-mentioned princes, was slain by an Arab of the tribe of Ghassan, at Muta, a town in the territory of Balka, in Syria, about three days' journey eastward from Jerusa- lem, near which town they encountered. The Grecians being vastly superior in number, (for, including the auxiliary Arabs, they had an army of 100,000 men,) the Mahometans were repulsed in the first attack, and lost successively three of their generals, viz. Zeid Ebn Harctha, Mahomet's frced-man j Jassar, the son of Abu Taleb ; and Abdalia Ebn Rawalia : but Khaled Ebn al Walid, succeeding to the command, overthrew the Greeks with great slaughter, and brought away abun- dance of rich spoil : on occasion of which action Mahomet gave him the title of Self min soyuf Allah, "one of the swords of God." In this year also Mahomet took the city of Mecca, the inhabitants whereof had broken the truce concluded on two years before; for the tribe of Beer, who were confederates with the Koreish, attacking those of Kozaali, who were allies of Mahomet, killed several of them, being supported in the action by a party of the Koreish themselves. The consequence of this violation was soon apprehended, and Abu Sosian himself made a journey to Medina on purpose to heal the breach and renew the truce, but in vain ; for Mahomet, glad of this opportunity, rpfused to see him ; whereupon he applied to Abu Beer and Ali ; but they giving him no answer, he was obliged to return to Mecca as he came. Mahomet immediately gave orders for prepara- tions to be made that he might surprise the Meccans while they were unprovided to receive him : in a little time he began his march thither; and by the time he came near the city, his forces were increased to ten thousand men. Those of Mecca not being in a condition to defend them- selves against so formidable an army, surrendered at discretion, and Abu Sosian saved his life by turning Mahometan. About twenty-eight of the idolaters were killed by a party under the command of Khaled ; but this happened con- trary to Mahomet's orders, who, when he entered the town, pardoned all the Koreish on their Mb- MAHOMETANISM mission, except only six men and four women, who were more obnoxious than ordinary, (some of them having apostatized,) and were solemnly proscribed by the prophet himself; but of these no more than one man and one woman were put to death, the rest oDtaining pardon on their em- bracing Mahometanism, and one of the women making her escape. The remainder of this year Mahomet em- ployed in destroying the idols in and round Mecca, sending several of the generals on expeditions for that purpose, and to invite the Arabs to Islainism ; wherein it is no wonder if they now met with success. The next year, being the ninth of the Hegira, the Mahometans call the year of embassies ; for the Arabs had been hitherto expecting the issue of the war between Mahomet and the Koreish ; but, as soon as that tribe, the principal of the whole nation, and the genuine descendants of Ishmael, whose prerogatives none offered to dis- pute, had submitted, they were satisfied that it was not in their power to oppose Mahomet ; and therefore began to come in to him in great num- bers, and to send embassies to make their submis- sions to him, both to Mecca, while he staid there, and also to Medina, whither he returned this year. Among the rest, five kings of the tribe of Hamyar professed Mahometanism, and sent ambassadors to notify the same. In the tenth year Ali was sent into Yaman to propagate the Mahometan faith there : and, as it is said, converted the whole tribe of Hamdan in one day. Their example was quickly followed by all the inhabitants of that province, except only those of Najran, who, being Christians, chose rather to pay tribute. Thus was Mahometanism established, and idolatry rooted out, even in Ma*homet's lifetime, (for he died the next year,) throughout all Arabia, except only Yamama, where Moseilama, who set up also as a prophet, as Mahomet's competitor, had a great party, and was not reduced till the kalifat of Abu Beer ; and the Arabs being then united in one faith, and under one prince, found themselves in a condition of making those con- quests which extended the Mahometan faith over so great a part of the world. 1. Mahometans, tenets of the. — The Mahome- tans divide their religion into two general parts, faith and practice ; of which the first is divided into six distinct branches : Belief in God, in his angels, in his Scriptures, in his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgment, and in God's ab- solute decrees. The points relating to practice are, prayer, with washings, &c. alms, fasting, pil- grimage to Mecca, and circumcision. Of the Mahometan faith. — 1. That both Ma- homet, and those among his followers who are reckoned orthodox, had and continue to have just and true notions of God and his attributes, ap- pears so plain from the Koran itself, and all the Mahometan divines, that it would be loss of time to refute those who suppose the God of Mahomet to be different from the true God, and only a fic- titious deity or idol of his own creation. 2. The existence of angels and their purity, are absolutely required to be believed in the Ko- ran ; and he is reckoned an infidel who denies there are such beings, or hates any of them, or asserts any distinction of sexes among them. They believe them to have pure and subtle 253 MAHOMETANISM bodies, created of fire ; that they neither eat nor drink, nor propagate their species ; that they have various forms and offices, some adoring God in different postures, others singing praises to him, or interceding for mankind. They hold, that some of them are employed in writing down the actions of men ; others in carrying the throne of God, and other services. 3. As to the Scriptures, the Mahometans are taught by the Koran, that God, in divers ages of the world, gave revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every one of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Moslem to believe. The number of these sacred books were, according to them, one hundred and four ; of which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Edris or Enoch, ten to Abraham ; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran, were suc- cessively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Mahoiriet : which last being the seal of the pro- phets, those revelations are now closed, and no more are to be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they agree to be now entirely lost, and their contents unknown; though the Sabians have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of those four, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, they say, have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that though there may possibly be some part of the true word of God therein, yet no credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians. 4. The number of the prophets which have been from time to time sent by God into the world, amounts to no less than 224,000, according to one Mahometan tradition : or to 124,000, ac- cording to another; among whom 313 were apos- tles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition ; and six of them brought new laws or dispensation^ which successively abrogated the preceding : these were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet. All the prophets in general, The Ma- hometans believe to have been free from great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of 'one and the same religion, that is, Islamism, not- withstanding the different laws and institutions which they observed. They allow of degrees among them, and hold some of them to be more excellent and honourable than others. The first place they give to the revealers and establish- es of new dispensations, and the next to the apostles. In this great number of prophets they not only reckon divers patriarchs and persons named in Scripture, but not recorded to have been prophets (wherein the Jewish and Christian writers have sometimes led the way,) as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ishmael, Nun, Joshua, &c. and introduce some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber and Jethro, who are called in the Koran, Edris, Hud, and Shoaib: but several others whose very names do not appear in Scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on,) as Saleh, Khedr, Dhu'lkefl, &c. 5. The belief of a general resurrection and a future judgment. The time of the resurrection the Mahometans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone ; the angel Gabriel himself acknowledging his ig- norance in this point, when Mahomet asked him W MAHOMETANISM about it. However, they say the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to precede it. After examination is past, (the account of which is too Iofjg and tedious for this place,) and every one's works weighed in a just balance, they say, that mutual retaliation will follow, according to which every creature will take vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made them for the injuries which they have suffered. And, since there will then be no other way of returning like for like, the manner of giving this satisfaction will be by taking away a proportional part of the good works of him who offered the injury, and adding :t to those of him who suffered it. Which being done, if the angels (by whose ministry this is to be performed) say, Lord, we hare given to every one his due, and there remaincth of this person1 a good trorks so much as equallelh the weight of an ant, God will, of his mercy, cause it to be doubled unto him, that he may be admitted into Paradise ; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and there be any who have not yet received satisfaction froiru'him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto bis, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to hell laden with both. This will be the method of God's dealing with mankind. As to brutes, after they shall have likewise taken vengeance of one another, he will command them to be changed into dust ; wicked men being re- served to more grievous punishment, so that they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence passed on the brutes, Would to God, that ice ivercdust also! As to the genii, many Mahometans are of opinion that such of them as are true believers, will un- dergo the same fate as the irrational animals, and have no other reward than the favour of being converted into dust : and for this they quote the authority of their prophet. The trials being over, and the assembly dis- solved, the Mahometans hold, that those who are to be admitted into Paradise will take the right hand way, and those who are destined into hell fire will tike the left : but both of them must first pass the bridge called in Arabic Al Sirat, which, they sa}', is laid over the midst of hell, and de- scribe to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword ; so that it seems very diffi- cult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason most of the sect of the Motazahtes reject it as a fable ; though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this article, that it was seriously affirmed by him who never asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet ; who, to add to the difficulty of the passage, has likewise declared, that this bridge is beset on each side with briers and hooked thorns, which will, however, be no impediment to the good ; for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or the wind, Mahomet and his Moslems leading the way; whereas the wicked, what with the slipperiness and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the thorns, and the extinction of the light which di- rected the former to Paradise, will soon miss their footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping beneath them. As to the punishment of the wicked, the Ma- hometans are taught, that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, 254 MAHOMETAN ISM deigned fbr the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned. The first, which they call Jehenan, they ssv, will be the receptacle of those who acknowledged one God, that is, the wicked, Mahometans; who, after having been punished arcording to their de- merits, will at length be released; the second, named Ladka, they assign to the Jews : the third, named al Hotama, to the Christians; the fourth, named al Sair, to the Sabians ; the fifth, named Sakar, to the Magians; the sixth, named al Ja- hin, to the idolaters; and the seventh, which is the lowest and worst of all, and is called al Haw- yat, to the hypocrites, or those who outwardly professed some religion, but in their hearts were of none. Over each of these apartments they believe there will be set a guard of angels, nine- teen in number ; to whom the damned will con- fess the just judgment of God, and beg them to intercede with him for some alleviation of their pain, or that they may be delivered by being an- nihilated. Mahomet has, in his Koran and traditions, been very exact in describing the various tor- ments of hell, which, according to him, the wick- ed will suffer both from intense heat and excessive cold. We shall, however, enter into no detail of them here ; but only observe, that the degrees of these pains will also vary in proportion to the crimes of the sufferer, and the apartment he is condemned to ; and that he who is punished the most lightly of all will be shod with shoes of fire, the fervour of which will cause his skull to boil like a cauldron. The condition of these unhappy wretches, as the same prophet teaches, cannot tie properly called either life or death; and their misery will be greatly increased by their despair of being ever delivered from that place, since, ac- cording to that frequent expression in the Koran, they must remain therein for ever. It must lie remarked, however, that the infidels alone will be liable to eternity of damnation ; for the Mos- lems, or those who have embraced the true reli- gion, and have been guilty of heinous sins, will be delivered thence after the}' shall have expiated their crimes by their sufferings. The time which these believers shall be detained there, according to a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not be less than nine hundred years, nor more than seven thousand. And, as to the man- ner of their delivery, they say that they shall he distinguished by the marks of prostration on those parts of their bodies with which they used to touch the ground in prayer, and over which the fire will therefore have no power; and that being known by this characteristic, they will be released by the mercy of God, at the intercession of Mahomet and the blessed : whereupon those who shall have been dead will be restored to lifh, as has been said ; and those whose bodies shall have contracted any sootiness or filth from the flames and smoke of hell, will be immersed hi one of the rivers of Paradise, called the River of Life, which will wash them whiter than pearls. The righteous, as the Mahometans are taught to believe, having surmounted the difricullieSj and passed the sharp bridge above-mentioneJ, before they enter Paradise, will be refreshed by drinking at the pond of their prophet, who de- scribes it to be an exact square, of a month's journey in compass; its water, which is supplied by two pipes from al Cawthay, one of the rivers MAHOMETANISM of Paradise, being whiter than milk or silver, an J more odoriferous than musk, with as many cups set around it as there are stars in the firmament ; of which water, whoever drinks, will thirst no more for ever. This is the first taste which the blessed will have of their future and now near approaching felicity. Though Paradise be so very frequently men- tioned in the Koran, yet it is a dispute among the Mahometans, whether it be already created, or to be created hereafter ; the Motazalites and some other sectaries asserting, that there is not at pre- sent any such place in nature, and that the Para- dise which the righteous will inhabit in the next life will be different from that from which Adam was expelled. However, the orthodox profess the contrary, maintaining that it was created even before the world, and describe it, from their prophet's traditions, in the following manner : They say it is situated above the seven hea- vens, (or in the seventh heaven,) and next under the throne of God ; and, to express the amenity of the place, tell us, that the earth of it is of the finest wheat-flower, or of the purest musk, or, as others will have it, of saffron ; that its stones are pearls and jacinths, the walls of its buildings en- riched with gold and silver, and that the trunks Of all its trees are of gold; among which the most remarkable is the tree called tuba, or the tree of happiness. Concerning this tree, they fable, that, it stands in the palace of Mahomet, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer; that it will be laden with pomegranates, grapes, dates, and other fruits, of surprising bigness, and of tastes unknown to mortals. So that, if a man desire to eat of any particular kind of fruit, it will immediately be presented him ; or, if he choose flesh, birds ready dressed will be set before him, according to his wish. They add, that the boughs of this tree will spontaneously bend down to the hand of the person who would gather of its fruits, and that it will sup- ply the blessed not only with food, but also with silken garments, and beasts to ride on ready saddled and bridled, and adorned with rich trappings, which will burst forth from its fruits ; and that this tree is so large, that a person mounted on the fleetest horse would not be able to gallop from one end of its shade to the other in one hundred years. As plenty of water is one of the greatest addi- tions to the pleasantness of any place, the Koran often speaks of the rivers of Paradise as a princi- pal ornament thereof; some of these rivers, they say, flow with water, some with milk, some with wine, and others with honey ; all taking their rise from the root of the tree tuba. But all these glories will be eclipsed by the re- splendent and ravishing girls of Paradise, called, from their large black eyes, Hur al oyun, the en- joyment of whose company will be a principal feli- city of the faithful. These, they say, are created not of clay, as mortal women are, but of pure musk : being, as their prophet often affirms in his Koran, free from all natural impurities, de- fects, and inconveniences incident to the sex ; of the strictest modesty, and secluded from public view in pavilions of hollow pearls, so large, that, as some traditions have it, one of them will be no less than four parasangs (or, as others say, sixty miles) long, and as many broad. The name which the Mahometans usually give to this happy mansion is al Jannat, or. 255 MAHOMETANISM " the Garden ;" and sometimes they call it, with an addition, Jannat al Ferdaws, "the Garden of Paradise ;" Jannat Adan, "the Garden of Eden," (though they generally interpret the word Eden not according to its acceptation in He- brew, but according to its meaning in their own tongue, wherein it signifies " a settled 01 perpetual habitation;") Jannat al Mawa, "the Garden of Abode;" Jannat al Maim, "the Garden of Pleasure :" and the like : by which several appellations some understand so many different gardens, or at least places of different degrees of felicity, (for they reckon no less than one hundred such in all,) the very meanest whereof will afford its inhabitants so many plea- sures and delights, that one would conclude they must even sink under them, had not Mahomet declared that, in order to qualify the blessed for a full enjoyment of them, God will give to every one the abilities of one hundred men. 6. God's absolute decree and predestination both of good and evil. The orthodox doctrine is, that whatever hath or shall come to pass in this world, whether it be good, or whether it be bad, proceedeth entirely from the divine will, and is irrevocably fixed and recorded from all eter- nity in the preserved table ; God having secretly predetermined not only the adverse and prosper- ous fortune of every person in this world, in the most minute particulars, but also his faith or infi- delity, his obedience or disobedience, and conse- quently his everlasting happiness or misery after death ; which fate or predestination it is not pos- sible by any foresight or wisdom to avoid. II. Religious •practice. 1. The first point is ■prayer, under which are also comprehended those legal washings or purifications which are neces- sary preparations thereto. For the regular performance of the duty of prayer among the Mahometans, it is requisite, while they pray, to turn their faces towards the temple of Mecca ; the quarter where the same is situated being, for that reason, pointed out within their mosques by a niche, which they call at Mehrab: and without, by the situation of the doors opening into the galleries of the steeples : there are also tables calculated for the ready find- ing out their Keblah, or part towards which they ought to pray, in places where they have no other direction. 2. Alms are of two sorts, legal and voluntary. The legal aims are of indispensable obligation, being commanded by the law, which directs and determines both the portion which is to be given, and of what things it ought to consist ; but the voluntary alms are left to every one's liberty, to give more or less as he shall see fit. The former kind of alms some think to be properly called zacat, and the latter sadakat, though this name be also frequently given to the legal alms. Thfy are called zacat, either because they increase i man's store by drawing down a blessing thereon, and produce in his soul the virtue of liberality ; or because they purify the remaining part of one's substance from pollution, and the soul from the filth of avarice ; and sadakat, because they are a proof of a man's sincerity in the worship of God- Some writers have called the legal alms tithes ; but improperly, since in some cases they fall short, and in others exceed that proportion. 3. Fasting is a duty of so gTeat moment, thtt Mahomet used to say it was the gate of religion; MAHOMETANISM anil that the odour of the month of him whofast- eth is more grateful to God than that of musk; and Al Ghazali reckons fasting one fourth part of the faith. According to the Mahometan divines, there are three degrees of fasting: 1. The restraining the belly and other parts of the body from satisfying their lusts. — 2. The restraining the ears, eyes, tongue, hands, feet, and other members from sin. — 3. The fasting of the heart from worldly cares, and restraining the thought from every thing besides God. 4. The pilgrimage to Mecca is so necessary a point of practice, that according to a tradition of Mahomet, he who dies without performinor it, may as well die a Jew or a Christian ; and the same is expressly commanded in the Koran. — See Pilgrimage. TIL Mahometanism, causes of the success of. The rapid success which attended the propaga- tion of this new religion was owing to causes that are plain and evident, and must remove, or rather prevent our surprise, when they are atten- tively considered. The terror of Mahomet's arms, and the repeated victories which were g lin- ed by him and his successors, were, no doubt, the irresistible arguments that persuaded such multi- tudes to embrace his religion, and submit to his dominion. Besides, his law was artfully and marvellously adapted to the corrupt nature of man ; and, in a most particular manner, to the manners and opinions of the Eastern nations, and the vices to which they were naturally ad- dicted : for the articles of faith which it proposed were few in number, and extremely simple; and the duties it required were neither many nor difficult, nor such as were incompatible with the empire of appetites and passions. It is to be ob- served farther, that the gross ignorance under which the Arabians, Syrians, Persians, and the greatest part of the Eastern nations, laboured at this time, rendered many an easy prey to the artifice and eloquence of this bold adventurer. To these causes of the progress of Mahomet- anism, we may add the bitter dissensions and cruel animosities that reigned among the Chris- Can sects, particularly the Greeks, ^Nestorians, Eutychians, and Monophysites ; dissensions that filled a great part of the East with carnage, as- sassinations, and such detestable enormities, as rendered the very name of Chiistianity odious to many. We might add here, that the Monophy- sites and Nestorians, full of resentment against the Greeks, from whom they had suffered the bitterest and most injurious treatment, assisted the Arabians in the conquest of several pro- vinces, into which, of consequence, the religion of Mahomet was afterwards introduced. Other causes of the sudden progress of that religion will naturally occur to such as consider attentively its spirit and genius, and the state of the world at this time. IV. Mahometanism, subversion of. — Of things yet to come it is difficult to say any thing with precision. We have, however, some reason to believe, from the aspect of Scripture prophecy, that, triumphant as this sect has been, it shall at last come to nought. As it arose as a scourge to Christendom about the time that Antichrist ob- tained a temporal dominion, so it is not improba- ble but they will have their downfall nearly at the ■ame period. The ninth chapter of Revelations 6eems to refer wholly to thia imposture: " tlie 256 MAN four angels were loosed," says the prediction, 15th verse, " which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men." This period, in the language of prophecy, makes 3!)1 years, which being added to the year when the four angels were loosed, will bring us down to 1S44, or thereabouts, for the final destruction of the Mahometan empire. It must be confessed, however, that though the event is certain, the exact time cannot be easily ascertained. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet ; Mo- shcim's Eccl. Hist. cent. vii. ch. 2 ; Sale's Pre- liminary Discourse, prefixed to his English Translation of the Koran ; Simpson's Key to Proph. sect. 19; Bishop Newton, Mede, and Gill, on Rev. ix. ; Miller's Propagation of Christianity, vol. i. ch. 1; Uln'le's Sermons at Bampton Lee. ; Enc.BriL; Foster' s Mahomet* anism Unveiled. MALEVOLENCE is that disposition of mind which inclines us to wish ill to any person. It discovers itself in frowns and a lowenng counte- nance ; in uncharitableness, in evil sentiments ; hard speeches to or of its object : in cursing and reviling; and doing mischief either with open violence or secret spite, as far as there is power. MALICE is a settled or deliberate determina- tion to revenge or do hurt to another. It more frequently denotes the disposition of inferior minds to execute every purpose of mischief within the more limited circle of their abilities. It is a most hateful temper in the sight of God, strictly forbidden in his holy word, Col. iii. 8 — 12, dis- graceful to rational creatures, and every way inimical to the spirit of Christianity, Matt. v. 44. See Charity, Love. MALIGNITY, a disposition obstinately bad or malicious. Malignancy and malignity a"re words nearly synonymous. In some connexions malignity seems rather more pertinently applied to a radical depravity of nature ; and malignancy to indications of this depravity in temper and conduct in particular instances. MAN, a being consisting of a rational soul and organical body. By some he is defined thus : " He is the head of the animal creation ; a being who feels, reflects, thinks, contrives, and acts; who has the power of changing his place upon the earth at pleasure ; who possesses the faculty of communicating his thoughts by means of speech, and who has dominion over all other creatures on the face of the earth." We shall here present the reader with a brief account of his formation, species, and different state. 1. His formation. Man was made last of all the crea- tures, being the chief and master-piece of the whole creation on earth. He is a compendium of the creation, and therefore is sometimes called a microcosm, a little world, the world in minia- ture : something of the vegetable, animal, and rational world meet in him; spirit and matter; yea, heaven and earth centre in him ; he is the bond that connects them both together. The constituent, and essential parts of man created by God are two; body and soul. The one was made out of the dust ; the other was breathed into him. The body is formed with the greatest precision and exactness ; every muscle, vein, artery, yea, the least fibre, in its proper place ; all in just proportion and symmetry, in subserviency to the use of each other, and for the good of the whole, Psal. exxix. 14. It is also made erect, to distinguish it fnm MAN the four-footed animals, who look downward to the earth. Man was made to look upward to the heavens, to contemplate them, and the glory of God displayed in them : to look up to God, to worship and adore him. In the Greek language, man has his name, «i/fip»5roS ; from turning and looking upwards. The soul is the other part of man. which is a substance or subsistence ; it is not an accident, or quality, inherent in a subject; but capable of subsisting without the body. It is a spi- ritual substance, immaterial, immortal. See Soul. 2. Man, (liferent species of. — According to Linnams and Buffon, there are six different spe- cies among mankind. The first are those under the Polar regions, and comprehend the Lapland- ers, the Esquimaux Indians, the Samoied Tar- tars, the inhabitants of Nova Zembla, Boran- dians, the Greenlanders, and the people of Kamt- schatka. The visage of men in these countries is large and broad ; the nose flat and short ; the eyes of a yellowish brown, inclining to blackness ; the cheek-bones extremely high ; the mouth large ; the lips thick, and turning outwards ; the voice thin, and squeaking; and the skin a dark grey colour. They are short in stature, the generality being about four feet high, and the tallest not more than five. They are ignorant, stupid, and superstitious. — 2. The second are the Tartar race, comprehending the Chinese and Japanese. Their countenances are broad and wrinkled, even in youth ; their noses short and flat; their eyes little, cheek-bones high, teeth large, complexions olive, and the hair black. — 3. The third are the southern Asiatics, or inhabi- tants of India. These are of a slender shape, long straight black hair, and generally Roman noses. They are slothful, submissive, cowardly, and effeminate. — 4. The negroes of Africa con- stitute the fourth striking variety in the human species. They are of a black colour, having downy soft hair, short and black; their beards often turn grey, and sometimes white : their noses are flat and short; their lips thick, and their teeth of an ivory whiteness. These have been till of late the unhappy wretches who have been torn from their families, friends, and native lands, and consigned for life to misery, toil, and bondage; and that by the wise, polished, and the Christian inhabitants of Europe, and, above all, by the monsters of England ! ! — 5. The na- tives of America are the fifth race of men : they are of a copper colour, with black thick straight hair, flat noses, high cheek-bones, and small eyes. — 6. The Europeans may be considered as the sixth and last variety of the human kind, whose features we need not describe. The Eng- lish are considered as the fairest. 3. Man, different states of. — The state of man has been divided into fourfold : his primitive state ; fallen state ; gracious state ; and future state. 1. His state of innocence. God, it is said, made man upright, Eccl. vii. 29 ; without a-ny imper- fection, corruption, or principle of corruption in his body or soul ; with light in his understanding, holiness in his will, and purity in his aflfections. This constituted his original righteousness, which was universal, both with respect to the subject of it, the whole man, and the object of it, the whole law. Being thus in a state of holiness, he was necessarily in a state of happiness. He was a very glorious creature, the favourite of heaven, the lord of the world, possessing perfect tranquillity 257 2 // MANICHEES in his own breast, and immortal. Yet he was not without law ; for to the law of nature, which was impressed on his heart, God superadded a positive law, not to eat of the forbidden fruit, Gen. ii. 17, under the penalty of death natural, spiritual, and eternal. Had he obeyed this law, he might have had reason to expect that he would not only have had the continuance of his natural and spiritual life, but have been transported to the upper para- dise. 2. His fall. — Man's righteousness, how- ever, though universal, was not immutable, as the event has proved. How long he lived in a state of innocence cannot easily be ascertained, yet most suppose it was but a very short time. The positive law which God gave him he broke, by eating the forbidden fruit. The consequence ot this evil act was, that man lost the chief good ; his nature was corrupted ; his powers depraved, his body subject to corruption, Ms soul exposed to misery, his posterity all involved in ruin, subject to eternal condemnation, and for ever incapable to restore themselves to the favour of God, to obey his commands perfectly, and to satisfy his justice, Gal. iii. ; Rom. v. ; " Gen. iii. ; Eph. ii. ; Rom. iii. passim. See Fall. — 3; His recovery. — Although man has fallen by his iniquity, yet he is not left finally to perish. The Divine being, foreseeing the fall, in infinite love and mercy made provision for his relief. Jesus Christ, according to the divine purpose, came in the fulness of time to be his Saviour, and, by virtue of his sufferings, all who believe are justified from the curse of the law. By the influences of the Holy Spirit he is regenerated, united to Christ by faith, and sanc- tified. True believers, therefore, live a fife of dependence on the promises ; of regularity and obedience to God's word ; of holy joy and peace ; and have a hope full of immortality. — 4. His fu- ture stale. — As it respects the impenitent, it is a state of separation from God, and eternal punish- ment, Matt. xxv. 46. But the righteous shall rise to glory, honour, and everlasting joy. To the former, death will be the introduction to misery ; to the latter, it will be the admission to felicity. All will be tried in the judgment-day, and sen- tence pronounced accordingly. The wicked will be driven away in his wickedness, and the righ- teous be saved with an everlasting salvation. But as these subjects are treated on elsewhere, we re- fer the reader to the articles Grace, Heaven, Hell, Sin. Hartley's Observations on Man ; Boston's Fourfold Slate ; Kaimes's Sketches of the History of Man ; Locke on Und. ; Reid on the Active and Intellectual Powers of Man; Wollaston' s Religion of Nature ; Harris's Phi- losophical Arrangements. MANICHEES, or Manicheans, (Man- chiai), a sect of ancient heretics, who asserted two principles ; so called from their author Manes, or Manichwus, a Persian by nation, and educated among the Magi, being himself one of that num- ber before he embraced Christianity. This heresy had its first rise about the year 277, and spread itself principally in Arabia, Egypt, and Africa. St. Epiphanius, who treats of it at large, observes that the true name of this heresiarch was C ubricus ; and that he changed it for Manes, which in the Persian or Babylonish language signifies vessel. A rich widow, whose servant he had been, dying without issue, left him stores of wealth ; after which he assumed the titla of the apostle, or envoy of Jesus Christ. w2 MANICHEES Manes was not contented with the quality of upostle of Jesus Christ, hut ho also assumed that of the Paraclete, whom Christ had promised to send; which Augustine explains, by saying, that Manes endeavoured to persuade men that the Holy Ghost did personally dwell in him with full authority He left several disciples ; and among others, Addas, Thomas, and Hernias. These he sent in his lifetime into several provinces to preach his doctrine. Manes, having undertaken to cure the king of Persia's son, and not succeeding, was put in prison upon the young prince's death, whence he made his escape; but he was apprehended soon after, and flayed alive. However, the oriental writers cited by D'Her- belot, and Hyde, tell us that Manes, after having been protected in a singular manner by Hormiz- das, who succeeded Sapor on the Persian throne, but who was not able to defend him, at length, against the united hatred of the Christians, the Magi, the Jews, and the Pagans, was shut up in a strong castle, to serve him as a refuge against those who persecuted him on account of his doc- trine. They add, that after the death of Hor- mizdas, Varanes I., his successor, first protected Manes, but afterwards gave him up tc the fury of the Magi, whose resentment against him was due to his having adopted the Sadducean principles, as some say ; while others attribute it to his hav- ing mingled the tenets of the Magi with the doc- trines ot Christianity. However, it is certain that the Manicheans celebrated the day of their master's death. It has been a subject of much controversy whether Manes was an impostor. The learned Dr. Lardner has examined the argu- ments on both sides ; and though he does not choose to deny that he was an impostor, he does not discern evident proofs of it. He acknow- ledges that he was an arrogant philosopher, and a great schemist ; luit whether he was an impos- tor he cannot certainly say. He was much too fond of philosophical notions, which he endea- voured to bring into religion, tor which he is to be blamed ; nevertheless, he observes that every bold dogmatizer is not an impostor. The doctrine of Manes was a motley mixture of the tenets of Christianity with the ancient philosophy of the Persians, in which he had been instructed during his youth. He combined these two systems, and applied and accommodated to Jesus Christ the characters and actions which the Persians attributed to the god Mithras. He established two principles, viz. a good and an evil one; the first, a most pure and subtle matter, which he called tight, did nothing but good ; and the second, a gross and corrupt sub- stance, which he called darkness, nothing but evil. This philosophy is very ancient; and Plutarch treats of it at large in his Isis and Osiris. Our souls, according to Manes, were made by the good principle, and our bodies by the evil one ; these two principles bei.ig, according to him, co- eternal and independent of each other. Each of these is subject to the dominion of a superintendent Being, whose existence is from all eternity. The Being who presides over the light is called God ; he that rules the land of darkness bears the title af hyle or demon. The ruler of the light is supremely happy, and in consequence thereof be- nevolent and good : the prince of darkness is un- aappy in himself, and desirous of rendering others 258 MANICHEES partakers of his misery ; and is evil and malignant These two beings have, produced an immense multitude of creatures resembling themselves, and distributed them through their respective pro- vinces. After a contest between the ruler of light and the prince of darkness, in which the latter was defeated, this prince of darkness produced the first parents of the human race. The beings engendered from this original stock consist of a body formed out of the corrupt matter of the kingdom of darkness, and of two souls, — one of which is sensitive and lustful, and owes its exist- ence to the evil principle ; the other rational and immortal, a particle of that divine light which had been carried away in the contest by the army of darkness, and immersed into the mass of malig- nant matter. The earth was created by God out of this corrupt mass of matter, in order to be a dwelling for the human race, that their captive souls might by degrees be delivered from their cor- poreal prisons, and the celestial elements extri- cated from the gross substance in which they were involved. With this view God produced two beings from his own substance, viz. Christ and the Holy Ghost ; for the Manicheans held a con- substantial trinity. Christ, or the glorious intel- ligence, called by the Persians Mithras, subsisting in and by himself, and residing in the sun, ap- peared in due time among the Jews, clothed with the shadowy form of a human body, to disengage the rational soul from the corrupt body, and to conquer the violence of malignant matter. The Jews, incited by the prince of darkness, put him to an ignominious death, which he suffered, not in reality, but only in appearance, and according to the opinion of men. When the purposes ot Christ were accomplished, he returned to his throne in the sun, appointing apostles to propa- gate his religion, and leaving his followers the promise of the Paraclete or Comforter, who is Manes the Persian. Those souls who believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, renounce the worship of the god of the Jews, who is the prince of darkness, and obey the laws delivered by Christ, and illustrated by Manes the Comforter, are gra- dually purified from the contagion of matter ; and their purification being completed, after having passed through two states of trial, by water and fire, first in the moon and then in trie sun, their bodies return to the original mass (for the Mani- cheans deride the resurrection of bodies), and their souls ascend to the regions of light. But the souls of those who have neglected the salu- tary work of purification, pass afier death into the bodies of other animals and natures, where they remain till they have accomplished their proba- tion. Some, however, more perverse and obsti- nate, are consigned to a severer course of trial, being delivered over for a time to the power of malignant aerial spirits, who torment them in va- rious ways. After this, a fire shall break forth and consume the frame of the world ; and the prince and powers of darkness shall return to their primitive seats of anguish and misery, in which they shall dwell for ever. These mansions shall be surrounded by an invincible guard to pre- vent their ever renewing a war in the regions of light. Manes borrowed many things from the an- cient Gnostics, on which account many authors consider the Manicheans as a branch of tho Gnostics. MAMCHEES In truth, the Manichean doctrine was a system of philosophy rather than of religion. They Diatle use of amulets, in imitation of the Basili- diiins; and are said to have made profession of astronomy and astrology. They denied that Je- sus Christ, who was only God, assumed a true human body, and maintained it was only imagi- nary ; and therefore they denied his incarnation, death, &c. They pretended that the law of Moses did not come from God, or the good prin- ciple, hut from the evil one ; and that for this reason it was abrogated. They rejected almost all the sacred books in which Christians look for the sublime truths of their holy religion. They allinned that the Old Testament was not the work of God, but of the prince of darkness, who was substituted by the Jews in the place of the true God. They abstained entirely from eating the flesh of any animal, following herein the doc- trine of the ancient Pythagoreans : they also condemned marriage. The rest of their errors may be seen in St. Epiphanius and St. Augus- tine ; which last, having been of their sect, may be presumed to have been thoroughly acquainted with them. Though the Manichees professed to receive the books of the New Testament, yet in effect they only took so much of them as suited with their own opinions. They first formed tothemselves a certain idea or schemeof Christianity ; and to this adjusted the writings of the apostles, pretending that whatever was inconsistent with this had been foisted into the New Testament by the later writers, who were half Jews. On the other hand, they made fables and apocryphal books pass for apostolical writings ; and even are suspected to have forged several others, the better to maintain their errors. St. Epiphanius gives a catalogue of several pieces published by Manes, and adds extracts out of some of them. These are the Mys- teries, Chapters, Gospel, and Treasury. The rule of life and manners which Manes prescribed to his followers was most extrava- gantly rigorous and severe. However, he di- vided his disciples into two classes ; one of which comprehended the perfect Christians, under the name of the elect; and the other the imperfect and feeble, under the title of auditors or hearers. The elect were obliged to rigorous and entire abstinence from flesh, eggs, milk, fish, wine, all intoxicating drink, wedlock, and all amorous gra- tifications ; and to live in a state of the severest penury, nourishing their emaciated bodies with bread, herbs, pulse, and melons, and depriving themselves of all the comforts that arise from the moderate indulgence of natural passions, and also from a variety of innocent and agreeable pur- suits. The auditors were allowed to possess houses, lands, and wealth ; to feed on flesh, to enter into the bonds of conjugal tenderness ; but this liberty was granted them with many limita- tions, and under the strictest conditions of mo- deration and temperance. The general assembly of Manicheans was headed by a president, who represented Jesus Christ. There were joined to him twelve riders or masters, who were designed to represent the twelve apostles ; and these were followed by seventy-two bishops, the images of the, seventy-two disciples of our Lord. These bishops had presbyters or deacons under them, and all the members of these religious orders were chosen out of the class of the elect. Their 259 MARCELL1ANS worship was simple and plain, and consisted of prayers, reading the Scriptures, and hearing pub- lic discourses, at which both the auditors and the elect were allowed to be present. They also olf- served the Christian appointment of baptism and the eucharist. They kept the Lord's day, ob- serving it as a fast; and they likewise kept Easter and the Pentecost. Towards the fourth century the Manicheans concealed themselves under various names, which they successively adopted, and changed in pro- portion as they were discovered by them. Thus they assumed the names of Eucratites, Aposta- tics, Saccophori, Hydroparastatcs, Solitaries, and several others, under which they lay concealed for a certain time, but could not, however, long escape the vigilance of their enemies. About the ciose of the sixth century, this sect gained a very consi- derable influence, particularly among the Persians. Towards the middle of the twelfth century, the sect of Manichees took a new face, on account of one Constantine, an Armenian, and an ad- herer to it ; who took upon him to suppress the reading of all other books besides the evangelists and the epistles of St. Paul, which he explained in such a manner as to make them contain a new system of Manicheism. He entirely discarded all the writings of his predecessors ; rejecting the chimeras of the Valentinians and their thirty seons; the fable of Manes, with regard to the origin of rain, arid other dreams ; but still retain- ed the impurities of Basilides. In this iflanner he reformed Manicheism, insomuch that his followers made no scruple of anathematizing Scythian Buddas, called also Addas and Tere- hintlt, the contemporaries and disciples, as some say, and, according to others, the predecessors and masters of Manes, and even Manes himself; Constantine being now their great apostle. After he had seduced an infinite number of people, he was at last stoned by order of the emperor. This sect prevailed in Bosnia and the adjacent provinces about the close of the fifteenth century ; propagated their doctrine with confidence, and held their religious assemblies with impunity. MANNERS : the plural noun has various significations ; as the general way of life, the morals or the habits of any person ; also ceremo- nial behaviour or studied civility. Good-manners, according to Swift, is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Pride, ill- nature, and want of sense, are the three great sources of ill-manners. Without some one of these defects no man will behave himself ill for want cf experience ; or of what, in the language of some, is calied knowing the world. For the effect that Christianity has on the manners of men, see article Christianity. MARCELLIANS, a sect of ancient heretics, towards the close of the second century ; so called from Marcelh.s of Ancyra, their leader, who was accused of reviving the errors of Sabcllius. Some, however, are of opinion that Marcellus was or- thodox, and that they were his enemies, the Arians, who fathered their errors upon him. St. Epiphanius observes, that there was a great deal of dispute with regard to the real tenets of Mar- cellus; but as to his followers, it is evident thai they did not own the three hypostases ; for Mar- cellus considered the. Son and Holy Ghost as two emanations from the divine nature, whicn, alter performing their respective offices, were to rctuxa MARCOSIANS sgain into the substance of the Father ; and this opinion is altogether incompatible with the belief of three distinct persons in the Godhead. MARCIONITES, or Marcionists, Mar- cionista:, a very ancient and popular sect of here- tics, who, in the time of Epiphanius, were spread over Italy, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Per- sia, and other countries; they were thus denomi- nated from their author Marcion. Marcion was of Pc ntus, the son of a bishop, and at first made profession of the monastic life ; but he was ex- communicated by his own father, who would never admit him again into communion with the church, not even on his repentance. On this he abandoned his own country, and retired to Rome, where he began to broach his doctrines. He laid down two principles, the one good, the other evil ; between these he imagined an inter- mediate kind of Deity, of a mixed nature, who was the creator of this inferior world, and the god and legislator of the Jewish nation ; the other nations, who worshipped a variety of gods, were supjwsed to be under the empire of the evil prin- ciple. These two conflicting powers exercised oppressions upon rational and immortal souls; and therefore the supreme God. to deliver them from bondage, sent to the Jews a Being more like unto himself, even his Son Jesus Christ, clothed with a certain shadowy resemblance of a body : this celestial messenger was attacked by the prince of darkness, and by the god of the Jews, but without effect. Those who follow the direc- tions of this celestial conductor, mortify the body by fastings and austerities, and renounce the pre- cepts of the god of the Jews and of the prince of darkness, shall after death ascend to the mansions of felicity and perfection. The rule of manners which Marcion prescribed to his followers was excessively austere, containing an express prohi- bition of wedlock, wine, flesh, and all the exter- nal comforts of life. Marcion denied the real birth, incarnation, and passion of Jesus Christ, and held them to be ap- parent only. He denied the resurrection of the brjdy, and allowed none to be baptized but those who preserved their continence ; but these he granted might bebaptizcd three times. In many things he followed the sentiments of the heretic Cerdon and rejected the law and the prophets. He pretended the Gospel had been corrupted by false prophets, and allowed none of the evange- lists but St. Luke, whom ?.!so he altered in many places, as well as the epistles of St. Paul, a great many things in which he threw out. In his own copy of St. Luke he threw out the first two chap- ters entire. MARCITES, Marcitje, a sect of heretics in the second century, who also called themselves the perjecti, and made profession of doing every thing with a great deal of liberty, and without fear. This doctrine they borrowed from Simon Magus, who however was not their chief; for they were called MarcUcs from one Marcus, who conferred the priesthood, and the administration of the sacraments, on women. MARCOSIANS, or Coi.obarsians, an an- cient sect in the church, making a branch of the Valentinians. St. Irenreus speaks at large of the leader of this sect, Marcus, who, it seems, was reputed a great magician. The Marcosians had a great number uf aaocrvphal books which they held for canonical, ' 260 MARONITES and of the same authority with ours. Out of these they flicked several idle fables touching th« infancy of Jesus Christ, which they put off for true histories. Many of these fables are still in use and credit among the Greek monks. MARONITES, in ecclesiastical history, a sect of eastern Christians who follow the Syrian rite, and are subject to the pope : their principal habitation is on Mount Libanus. Mosheim informs us, that the doctrine of the Monothelites, condemned and exploded by the council of Constantinople, found a place of refuge among the Mardaites, a people who inhabited the Mounts Libanus and Antilibanus, and who, about the conclusion of the seventh century, were called Maronites, after Maro, their first bishop ; a name which they still retain. None (he says) of the ancient writers give any account of the first person who instructed these mountaineers in the doctrine of the Monothelites ; it is proba- ble, however, from several circumstances, that it was John Maro, whose name they adopted ; and that this ecclesiastic received the name of Maro from his having lived in the character of a monk in the famous convent of St. Maro, upon the borders of the Orontes, before his settlement among the Mardaites of Mount Libanus. One thing is certain, from the testimony of Tyrius and other unexceptionable witnesses, as also from the most authentic records, viz. that the Maron- ites retained the opinions of the Monothelites until the twelfth century, when, abandoning and renouncing the doctrine of one will in Christ, they were re-admitted in the year 1182 to the communion of the Roman church. The most learned of the modern Maronites have left no method unemployed to defend their church against this accusation ; they have laboured to prove, by a variety of testimonies, that their ancestors al> ways persevered in the Catholic faith, in their attachment to the Roman pontiff, without eve* adopting the doctrine of the Monophysites, or Monothelites. But all their efforts are insufnV cient to prove the truth of these assertions to such as have an acquaintance with the history of true church, and the records of ancient times ; for, to all such, the testimonies they allege will appear absolutely fictitious, and destitute of authority. Faustus Nairon, a Maronite settled at Rome, has published an apology for Maro and the' rest of his nation. His tenet is, that they really took their name from the Maro who lived about the year 409, and of whom mention is made in Chry- sostom, Theodoret, and the Menologium of the Greeks. He adds, that the disciples of this Marc spread themselves throughout all Syria;, that they built several monasteries, and, among other?, one that bore the name of their leader; that all the Syrians who were not tainted with heresy took refuge among them ; and that for this reason the heretics of those times called them Maronites. Mosheim observes, that the subjection of the Maronites to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Ro- man pontiff was agreed to with this express con- dition, that neither the popes nor their emissaries should pretend to change or abolish any thing that related to the ancient rites, moral precepts, or re- ligious opinions of this people; so that in reality there is nothing to be found among the Maronites that savours of popery, if we except their attach- ment to the Roman pontiff, who is obliged to pay very dear for their friendship. For as the Ma MARRIAGE ronites live in the utmost distress of poverty, un- der the tyrannical yoke of the Mahometans, the bishop of Rome, is under the necessity of furnish- ing them with such subsidies as may appease their oppressors, procure a subsistence for their bishop and clergy, provide all things requisite for the support of their churches, and the uninter- rupted exercise of public worship, and contribute in general to lessen their miseries. It is certain that there are Maronites in Syria who still be- hold the church of Rome with the greatest aver- sion and abhorrence; nay, whatjs still more re- markable, great numbers of that nation residing in Italv, even under the eye of the pontiff, op- fiosed his authority during the last century, and hrew the court of Rome into great perplexity. One body of these non-conforming Maronites retired into the valleys of Piedmont, where they joined the Waldenses; another, above six hun- dred in number, with a bishop and several eccle- siastics at their head, fled into Corsica, and im- plored the protection of the Republic of Genoa against the violence of the inquisitors. The Maronites have a patriarch who resides in the monastery of Cannubin, on Mount Libanus, and assumes the title of patriarch of Antioch, and the name of Peter, as if he seemed desirous of being considered as the successor of that apostle. He is elected by the clergy and the people, ac- cording to the ancient custom; but, since their reunion with the church of Rome, he is obliged to have a bull of confirmation from the pope. He keeps a perpetual celibacy, as well as the rest of the bishops, his suffragans : as to the rest of the ecclesiastics, they are allowed to marry before or- dination ; and yet the monastic life is in great esteem among them. Their monks are of the order of St. Anthony, and live in the most ob- scure places in the mountains, far from the com- merce of the world. As to their faith, they agree in the rmin with the rest of Lie Eastern church. Their priests do not say mass singly, but all say it together, stand- ing round the altar. They communicate in un- leavened bread ; and the laity have hitherto par- taken in both kinds, though the practice of com- municating in one has of late been getting footing, having been introduced by little and little. In Lent they eat nothing, unless it be two or three hours before sun-rising : their other fastings are very numerous. MARRIAGE, a covenant between a man and a woman, in which they mutually promise co- habitation, and a continual care to promote the comfort and happiness of each other. By Grove thus : " A society formed between two persons of different sexes, chiefly for the procreation and education of children." This union is very near and strict, and indeed indissoluble but by death, excepting in one case ; unfaithfulness in the one to the other by adultery or fornication, Rom. vii. 2 ; Matt. v. 32. It is to be entered into with de- liberation, at a proper age, and with mutual con- sent, as well as with the consent of parents and guardians under whose care single persons may be. It is a very honourable state, Heb. xiii. 4 ; being an institution of God, and that in Paradise, Gen. ii. Christ honoured marriage, by his pre- sence, and at such a solemnity wrought his first miracle, John ii. Moreover, it is honourable, as families are formed and built up, the world peopled with inhabitants ; it prevents incontinence and 2G1 MARTYR fornication, and, where the various duties of it arc attended to, renders life a blessing. The laws of revelation, as well as most civilized countries, have made several exceptions of persons marrying who are nearly related by blood. The marriage of parents and children appears, at first view, contrary to nature, not merely on account of the disparity of age, but of the confusion which it introduces into natural relations, and its obliging to inconsistent duties ; such as reverence to a son, and the daughter to be equal with the father. Nor can the son or daughter acquit them- selves of such inconsistent duties as would arise from this unnatural union. The marriage of brothers and sisters, and of some other near re- lations, is likewise disapproved by reason on various accounts. It frustrates one design of marriage, which is to enlarge benevolence and friendship, by cementing various families in a close alliance. And, further, were it allowed, young persons, instead of entering into marriage upon mature consideration, with a settled esteem and friendship, and a proper concern and pro- vision for the support and education of children, would be in danger (through the intimacy and affection produced by their near relation, and be- ing bred together) of sliding, in their inconsiderate years, into those criminal familiarities which are most destructive of the great ends of marriage. Most nations have agreed to brand such marriages as highly criminal, who cannot be supposed to have derived their judgment from Moses and the Israelites. It is probable God expressly prohibited these marriages in the beginning of mankind, and from the first heads of families the prohibition might be transmitted as a most sacred law to their descendants. See Incest. Some have supposed from those passages, 1 Tim. iii. 2 ; Tit. i. 6, that bishops or pastors ought never to marry a second wife. But such a prohibition would be contrary to natural right and the design of the law itseif; neither of which was ever intended to be set aside by the Gospel dispensation. It is more probably designed to guard against polygamy, and against divorce on frivolous occasions^ both of which were frequent among the Jews, but condemned by our Lord, Matt. xix. 3—9. The duties of this state are, on the part of the husband, love, superior to any shown to any other person : a love of complacency and delight, Prov. v. 18, 19. Chaste and single. Provision for the temporal good of the wife and family, 1 Tim. v. 3. Protection from abuse and injuries, Ruth iii. 9; 1 Sam. xxx. 5, 18. Doing every thing that mav contribute to the pleasure, peace, and comfort of the wife, 1 Cor. vii. 33. Seeking her spiritual welfare, and every thing that shall promote her edification and felicity. The duties on the part of the wife are, reverence, subjection, obedience, assistance, sympathy, assuming no authority, and continuance with him, Eph. v. 32, 33; Tit. ii. 5; 1 Tim. v. 11, 12; Ruth i. lb'. Sec articles Divorce, Parent. Grove's Mot. Phil. vol. ii. p. 470; Paley's Mor. Phil. ch. viii. vol. i. p. 339; Bean's Christian Minister's Advice to a New-married Couple ; Guide to Domestic Happiness ; Advantages and Disadvantages of the Marriage Slate ; Stennctt on Domestic Du- ties ; Jay's Essay on Marriage ; Doddridge's Led. 225, 234, 2G5, vol. i. oct. ed. MARTYR, is one who lays down his life or MARTYR suffers death for the sake of his religion. The word is (jireek, pap-run, and properly signifies a '' witness." It is applied by way of eminence to those who suffer in witness of the truth of the Gospel. The Christian church has abounded with mar- tyrs, and history is filled with surprising accounts of their singular constancy and fortitude under the cruellest torments human nature was capable of Buffering. The primitive Christians were ac- cused by their enemies of paying a sort of divine worship to martyrs. Of this we have an instance in the answer of the church of Smyrna to the suggestion of the Jews, who, at the martyrdom of Polycarp, desired the heathen judge not to suffer the Christians to carry off his body, lest they should leave their crucified master, and wor- ship him in his stead. To which they answered, ,: We can neither forsake Christ nor worship any other ; for we worship him as the Son of God ; but love the martyrs as the disciples and followers of the Lord, for the great affection they have shown to their King and Master." A like an- swer was given at the martyrdom of Fructuosus in Spain; for when the judge asked Eulogius, his deacon, whether he would not worship Fruc- tuosus, as thinking, that, though he refused to worship the heathen idols, he might yet be in- clined to worship a Christian martyr, Eulogius replied, " I do not worship Fructuosus, but him whom Fructuosus worships." The primitive Christians believed that the martyrs enjoyed very singular privileges ; that upon their death they were immediately admitted to the beatific vision, while other souls waited for the completion of their happiness till the day of judgment; and that God would grant to their prayers the hasten- ing of his kingdom, and shortening the times of persecution. Perhaps this consideration might excite many to court martyrdom, as we believe many did. It must be recollected, however, that 'martyrdom in itself is no proof of the goodness of our cause, only that we ourselves are persuaded that it is so. "It is not the blood, but the cause that makes the "martyr." (Mead.) Yet we may consider the number and fortitude of those who have suffered for Christianity as a collateral proof at least of its excellency ; for the thing for which they suffered was not a point of speculation, but a plain matter of fact, in which (had it been false,) they could not have been mistaken. The martyrdom, therefore, of so many wise and good men, taken with a view of the whole system of Christianity, will certainly afford something considerable in its favour. The churches built over the graves of the mar- tyrs, and called by their names, in order to pre- serve .he memory of their sufferings, were distin- guished by the title martyrum. cor/cssio, or memoria. The festivals of the martyrs are of very ancient date in tin- Christian church, and may be carried back at least from the time of Polycarp, who suf- fered martyrdom about the year of Christ 1GS. On these days the Christians met at the graves of the martyrs, and offered prayers and thanks- givings to God for the example they had afforded them; they celebrated the eucharist, and gave alms to the poor ; which, together with a pane- gyrical oration or sermon, and reading the acts of the martyrs, were the spiritual exercises of these anniversaries. 2G2 MARTYROLOGY Of the sayings, sufferings, and deaths of the martyrs, though preserved .-iith great care for the above purpose, and to serve as models to future ages, we have but very little left, the greatest part of them having been destroyed during that dread- ful persecution which Dioelesian carried on for ten years with fresh fury against the Christians : for a most diligent search was then made after all their books and papers; and all of them that were found were committed to the flames. Euse- bius, indeed, composed a martyrology, but it never reached flown to us ; and those since com- piled are extremely suspected. From the eighth century downwards, several Greek. and Latin authors endeavoured to make up the loss, by compiling, with vast labour, accounts of the lives and actions of the ancient martyrs, but which consist of little else than a series of fables : nor are those records that pass under the name of martyrology worthy of superior credit, since they bear the most evident marks both of ignorance and falsehood. MARTYROLOGY, a catalogue or list of martyrs, including the history of their lives and sufferings for the sake of religion. The term comes from ^npi-up, " witness," and Ktyw, dico, or \l-yx, ColUgO. The martyrologies draw their materials from the calendars of particular churches, in which the several festivals dedicated to them are marked; and which seem to be derived from the practice of the ancient Romans, who inserted the names of heroes and great men in their fasti, or public registers. The martyrologies are very numerous, and contain many ridiculous and even contradictory narratives ; which is easily accounted for, if we consider how many forged and spurious accounts of the lives of saints and martyrs appeared in the first ages of the church, which the legendary writers afterwards adopted without examining into the truth of them. However, some good critics, of late years, have gone a great way to- wards clearing the lives of the saints and martyrs from the monstrous heap of fiction they laboured under. See article Legend. The martyrology of Eusebius of Caesarea was the most celebrated in the ancient church. It was translated into Latin by St. Jerome; but the learned agree that it is not now extant. That attributed to Beda, in the eighth century, is of very doubtful authority ; the names of several saints being there found who did not live till after the time of Beda. The ninth century was very fertile in martyrologies; then appeared, that of Florus, subdeacon of the church at Lyons, who, however, only filled up the chasms in Beda. This was published about the year 830, and was fol- lowed by that of Waldenburtus, monk of the dio- cese of Treves, written in verse about the year 848 ; and this by that of Usard, a French monk, and written by the command of Charles the. Bald, in 875, which last is the martyrology now ordinarily used in the Romish church. That of Rabanus Mauius is an improvement on Beda and Florus, written about the year 845 ; that of Noker, monk of St. Gal, was written about the year SIM. The martyrology of Ado, monk of Ferricrs, in the diocese of Treves, afterwards archbishop of Vienne, is a descendant of the Roman, if we may so call it; for Du Sollier gives its genealogy thus The martyrology of St. Jerome is the great Ro- MASORA man martyrology ; from this was made the little Roman one printed by Roswcyd ; of this little Roman martyrology was formed that of Bed a, augmented by Florus. Ado compiled his in the year 858. The martyrology of Nevelon, monk of Corbie, written about the year 1089, is little more than an abridgement of that of Ado : father Kircher also makes mention of a Coptic martyr- ology, preserved by the Maronites at Rome. We have also several Protestant martyrologies, Containing the sufferings of the reformed under the Papists, viz. an English martyrology, by J. Fox ; with others by Clark, Bray, &c. See Per- secution'. Martyrology is also used in the Romish church for a roll or register kept in the vestry of each church, containing the names of all the saints and martyrs, both of the universal church and of the particular ones of that city or monastery. Martyrology is also applied to tho painted or written catalogues in the Roman churches, con- taining the foundations, obits, prayers, and masses, to be said each day. MASORA, a term, in the Jewish theology, signifying a work on the Bible, performed by several learned rabbins, to secure it from any al- terations which might otherwise happen. Their work regards merely the letter of the Hebrew text, in which they have first fixed the true reading by vowels and accents : they have, secondly, numbered not only the chapters and sections, but the verses, words, and letters of the text; and they find in the Pentateuch 5245 verses, and in the whole Bible 23,20(5. The masora is called by the Jews, the hedge or fence of the law, because this enumeration of the verses, &c, is a means of preserving it from being cor- rupted and altered. They have, thirdly, marked whatever irregularities occur in any of the letters of the Hebrew text ; such as the different size of the letters, their various positions and inver- sions, &c. ; and they have been fruitful in find- ing out reasons for these mysteries and irregu- larities in them. They are, fourthly, supposed to be the authors of the Keri and Chetibh, or the mar- ginal corrections of the text in our Hebrew Bibles. The text of the sacred books, it is to be ob- served, was originally written without any breaks or divisions into chapters or verses, or even into words : so that a whole book, in the ancient manner, was but one continued word: of this kind we have still several arTcient manuscripts, both Greek and Latin. In this regard, there- fore, the sacred writings had undergone an in- finite number of alterations; whence various readings had arisen, and the original was become much mangled and disguised. The Jews had recourse to a canon, which they judged infallible, to fix and ascertain the reading of the Hebrew text; and this rule they call masora, "tradition;" from "DO, tradit, as if this critique were nothing but a tradition which they had received from their forefathers. Accordingly they say, that, when God gave the law to Moses at Mount Sinai, he 'aught him first the true reading of it: and, secondly, its true interpretation ; and that both these were handed down by oral tradition from generation to generation, till at length they were committed to writing. The former of these, viz. the true reading, is the subject of the ruasora; the latter, or true interorctation, that of the mish- na and gemara. 2(13 MASS According to Ehas Levita, they were the Jews of a famous school at Tiberias, about five hun- dred years after Christ, who composed, or at least began the masora ; whence they are called maso- ritcs and masoretic doctors. Aben Ezra makes them the authors of the points and accents in the Hebrew text, as we now find it, and which serve for vowels. The age of the masorites has been much dis- puted. Archbishop Usher places them before Jerome ; Capel, at the end of the fifth century ; father Morin, in the tenth century. Basnage says, that they were not a society, but a succes- sion of men ; and that the masora was the work of many grammarians, who, without associating and communicating their notions, composed this collection of criticisms on the Hebrew text, It is urged, that there were masorites from the time of Ezra and the men of the great synagogue, to about the year of Christ 1030; and that Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali, who were the best of the profession, and who, according to Basnage, were the inventors of the masora, flourished at this time. Each of these published a copy of the whole Hebrew text, as correct, says Dr. Prideaux, as they could make it. The eastern Jews have followed that of Ben Naphtali, and the western that of Ben Asher ; and all that has been done since is to copy after them, without making any more corrections, or masoretical criticisms. The Arabs have done the same thing by their Koran that the masorites have done by the Bible ; nor do the Jews deny having borrowed this ex- pedient from the Arabs, who first put it in prae- tice in the seventh century. There is a great and little masora printed at Venice and at Basil, with the Hebrew text in a different character. Buxtorf has written a ma- soretic commentary, which he calls Tiberias. MASS, Missa, in the church of Rome, the office or prayers used at the celebration of the eucharist; or, in other words, consecruting the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and offering them, so transubstantiated, as an expiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead. As the mass is in general believed to be a re- presentation of the passion of our blessed Saviour, so every action of the priest, and every particular part of the service, is supposed to allude to the particular circumstances of his passion and death. Nicod, after Baronius, observes, that the word comes from the Hebrew missach (oblatum;) or from the Latin missa, missorum; because in the former times the catechumens and excommuni cated were sent out of the church, when the dea- cons said, lte, missa est, after sermon and reading of the epistle and Gospel ; they not being allowed to assist at the consecration. Menage derives the word from missio, "dismissing;" others from 7nissa, "mission, sending ;" because in the mass the prayers of men on earth are sent up to heaven. The general division of masses consists in high and low. The first is that sung by the choris- ters, and celebrated with the assistance of a dea- con and sub-deacon : low masses are thjse in which the prayers are barely rehearsed wilaout singing. There are a great number of different or occa- sional masses in the Romish church, many of which have nothing peculiar but the name : such are the masses of the saints; that of St. Mary of MASTER the Snow, celebrated on the fifth of August ; that of St. Margaret, patroness of lying-in women ; that at the feast of St. John the Baptist, at which are said three masses ; that of the Innocents, at which the gloria in excelsLs anJ hallelujah are omitted, and, it being a day of mourning, the altar is of a violet colour. As to ordinary masses, some are said for the dead, and, as is supposed, contribute to fetch the soul out of purgatory. At these masses the altar is put in mourning, and the only decorations are a cross in the middle of six yellow wax lights; the dress of the celebrant, and the very mass-book are black; many parts of the office are omitted, and the people are dismiss- ed without the benediction. If the mass be said for a person distinguished by his rank or virtues, it is followed with a funeral oration : they erect a chapelle ardente, that is, a representation of the deceased, with branches and tapers of yellow wax, either in the middle of the church, or near the deceased's tomb, where the priest pronounces a solemn absolution of the deceased. There are likewise private masses said for stolen or strayed goods or cattle, for health, for travellers, &c, which go under the name of votive masses. — There is still a further distinction of masses, de- nominated from the countries in which they were used : thus the Gothic mass, or missa mosa- rabum, is that used among the Goths when they were masters of Spain, and which is still kept up at Toledo and Salamanca ; the Ambrosian mass is that composed by St. Ambrose, and used only at Milan, of which city he was bishop ; the Gal- lic mass, used by the ancient Gauls; and the Roman mass, used by almost all the churches in the Romish communion. Mass of the presanctified (missa pra;sanctifi- catorum,) is a mass peculiar to the Greek church, in which there is no consecration of the elements ; but, after singing some hymns, they receive the bread and wine which were before consecrated. This mass is performed all Lent, except on Saturdays, Sundays, and the Annunciation. The priest counts, upon his fingers, the days of the ensuing week on which it is to be celebrated, and cuts oft' as many pieces of bread at the altar as he is to say masses; and after having consecrated them, steeps them in wine, and puts them in a box ; out of which, upon every occasion, he takes some of it with a spoon, and, putting it on a dish, sets it on the altar. MASSACRE, aterm used to signify the sud- den and promiscuous butchery of a multitude. — See Persecution. MASSALIANS, or Messalians, a sect which sprung up about the year 3G1, in the reign of the emperor Constantius, who main- tained that men have two souls, a celestial and a diabolical ; and that the latter is driven out by prayer. From those words of our Lord, " La- bour not for the meat that perisheth," it is said, that they concluded they ought not to do any work to get their bread. We may suppose, says Dr. Jortin, that this sect did not last long : that these sluggards were soon starved out of the world; or, rather, that cold and hunger sharpen- td their wits, and taught them to be better inter- preters of Scripture. MASTER, a person who has servants under him; a ruler, or instructor. The duties of mas- ters relate to the civi ~o:iccrns of the family. To arrant the several businesses required of 261 MATERIALISTS servants ; to give particular instructions for what is to be done, and how it is to be done ; to tako care that no more is required of servants than they are equal to ; to be gentle in our deportment towards them ; to reprove them when they do wrong, to commend them when they do right ; to make them an adequate recompense for their services, as to protection, maintenance, wages, and character. — 2. As to the morals of servants. Masters must look well to their servants' charac- ters before they hire them ; instruct them in the principles and confirm them in the habits of vir- tue ; watch over their morals, and set them good examples. — 3. As to their religious interests. — They should instruct, them in the knowledge of divine things, Gen. xiv. II ; xviii. 19. Pray with them and for them, Joshua xxiv. 15. Al- low them time and leisure for religious services, &c. Eph. vi. 9. See Stennctt on Domestic Duties, ser. 8; Daley's Mor. Phil. vol. i. 233, 235; Beattie's Elements of Moral Science, vol. i. 150, 153 ; Doddridge's Lee. vol. ii. 2GG. MATERIALISTS, a sect in the ancient church, composed of persons, who, being prepos- sessed with that maxim in philosophy, l:ex ni- hilo nihil fit," out of nothing nothing can arise, had recourse to an eternal matter, on which thev supposed God wrought in the creation, instead of admitting Him alone as the sole cause of the existence of all things. Tertullian vigorously opposed them in his treatise against Hermo- genes, who was one of their number. Materialists are also those who maintain that the soul of man is material, or that the principle of perception and thought is not a substance dis- tinct from the body, but the result of corporeal organization. There are others called by this name, who have maintained that there is notliing but matter in the universe. The followers of the late Dr. Priestley are con- sidered as Materialists, or Philosophical Neces- sarians. According to the doctor's writing, he believed, — 1. That man is no more than what we now see of him : his being commences at the time of his conception, or perhaps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, inhering in the same substance, grow, ripen, and decay to- gether ; and whenever the system is dissolved, it continues in a state of dissolution, till it shall please that Almighty Being, who called it into existence, to restoiip it to life again. For if the mental principle were, in its own nature, imma- terial and immortal, all its peculiar faculties would be so too; whereas we see that every faculty of the mind, without exception, is liable to be impaired, and even to become wholly ex- tinct, before death. Since, therefore, all the faculties of the mind, separately taken, appear to be mortal, the substance, or principle, in which they exist, must be pronounced mortal too. Thus we might conclude that the body was mortal, from observing that all the separate senses and limbs were liable to decay and perish. Tliis system gives a real value to the doctrine of the resurrection from tne dead, which is pecu- liar to revelation ; on which alone the sacred writers build all our hope of future life : and it explains the uniform language of the Scriptures, which speak of one day of judgment for all man- kind; and represent all the rewards of virtue, and all the punishments of vice, aa taking piece at MATERIALISTS that awful day, and not before. In the Scrip- tures, the heathens are represented as without hope, and all mankind as perishing at death, if there be no resurrection of the dead. The apostle Paul asserts, in 1 Cor. xv. 1G, that £f the dead rise not, then is not Christ risen; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ve are yet in your sins : then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. And again, ver. 32, If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. In the whole dis- course, he does not even mention the doctrine of happiness or misery without the body. If we search the Scriptures for pasages expres- sive of the state of man at death, we find such de- clarations as expressly exclude any trace of sense, thought, or enjoyment. See Ps. vi. 5 ; Job. xiv. 7, &c. 2*. That there is some fixed law of nature in- specting the will, as well as the other powers of the mind, and every tiling else in the constitution of nature ; and consequently that it is never de- termined without some real or apparent cause foreign to itself; i. e. without some motive of choice ; or that motives influence us in some definite and invariable manner, so that every vo- lition, or choice, is constantly regulated and de- termined by what precedes it; and this constant determination of mind, according to the motives presented to it, is what is meant by its necessary determination. This being admitted to be the fact, there will be a necessary connexion between all things past, present, and to come, in the way of proper cause and effect, as much in the intel- lectual as in the natural world ; so that according to the established laws of nature, no event could have been otherwise than it has been or is to be, and therefore all things past, present, and to come, are precisely what the Author of Nature really intended them to be, and has made pro- vision for. To establish this conclusion, nothing is neces- sary but that, throughout all nature, the same consequences should invariably result from the same circumstances. For if this be admitted, it will necessarily follow, that at the commence- ment of any system, since the several parts of it nail their respective situations were appointed by the Deity, the first change would take place according to a certain rule established by himself, the result of which would be a new situation ; after which the same laws continuing, another change would succeed, according to the same rules, and so on for ever ; every new situation in- variably leading to another, and every event, from the commencement to the termination of the sys- tem, being strictly connected ; so that unless the fundamental laws of the system were changed, it would be impossible that any event should ha^e been otherwise than it was. In all these cases, the circumstances preceding any change are called the causes of that change : and since a determinate event or effect, constantly follows certain circum- stances, or causes, the connexion between cause and effect is concluded to be invariable, and there- fore necessary. It is universally acknowledged, that there can be no effect without an adequate cause. This is even the foundation on which the only proper argument for the being of a God rests. And the Necessarian asserts, that if, in any given state of mind, with respect both to dispositions and mo- 265 2 / MATERIALISTS tives, two different determinations, or volitions, be possible, it can be qn no other principle, than that one of them should come under the description of an effect without a cause ; just as if the beam of balance might incline either way, though loaded with equal weights. And if any thing whatever, even a thought in the mind of man, could arise without an adequate cause, any thing else, the mind itself, or the whole universe, might likewise exist without an adequate cause. This scheme of philosophical necessity implies a chain of causes and effects established by in- finite wisdom, and terminating in the greatest good of the whole universe ; evils of all kinds, natural and moral, being admitted, as far as they contribute to that end, or are in the nature of things inseparable from it. Vice is productive not of good, but of evil to us, both here and here- after, though good may result from it to the whole system; and according to the fixed laws of nature, our present and future happiness necessarily de- pend on our cultivating good dispositions. This scheme of philosophical necessity is dis- tinguished from the Calvinistic doctrine of pre- destination in the following particulars : 1. No Necessarian supposes that any of the human race will suffer eternally ; but that future punishments will answer the same purpose as temporal ones are found to do ; all of which tend- to good, and are evidently admitted for that pu» pose. Upon the doctrine of necessity, also, the most indifferent actions of men are equally ne- cessary with the most important; since every volition, like any other effect, must have an ade- quate cause depending upon the previous state of the mind, and the influence to which it is exposed. 2. The Necessarian believes that his own dis- positions and actirfhs are the necessary and sole means of his present, and future happiness ; so that, in the most proper sense of the words, _ it depends entirely on himself whether he be vir- tuous or vicious, happy or miserable. 3. The Calvinistic system entirely excludes the popular notion of free-will, viz. the liberty or power of doing what we please, virtuous or vicious, as belonging to every person, in every situation; which is perfectly consistent with the doctrine of philosophical necessity, and indeed results from it. 4. The Necessarian believes nothing of the posterity of Adam's sinning in him, and of their being liable to the wrath of God on that account; or the necessity of an infinite Being making atonement for them by suffering in their stead, and thus making the Deity propitious to them. He believes nothing of all the actions of any man being necessarily sinful ; but, on the contrary, thinks that the very worst of men are capable of benevolent intentions in many things that they do; and likewise that very good men are capable of falling from virtue, and consequently of sink- ing into final perdition. Upon the principles of the Necessarian, also, all late repentance, and especially after long and confirmed habits of vice, is altogether and necessarily ineffectual ; there not being sufficient time left to produce a change of disposition and character, which can only be done by a change of conduct of proportionably long continuance. In short, the three doctrines of Materialism, Philosophical Necessity, and Socinianism, are MEDIATOR considered as equally parts of one system. The scheme of Necessity is the immediate result of the materiality of man ; for mechanism is the un- doubted consequence of materialism, and that man is wholly material, is eminently subservient to the proper or mere humanity of Christ. For if no mfin have a soul distinct from his body, Christ, who in all other respects appeared as a man, could not have a soul which had existed before his body ; and the whole doctrine of the pre-ex- istence of souls, of wliich the opinion of the pre- existence of Christ, is a branch, will be effectually overturned. Sec Necessity, Pre-existence, Spinosism, Soul, Unitarian, and books under those articles. MEANS OF GRACE denote those duties we perform for the purpose of improving our minds, affecting our hearts, and of obtaining spi- ritual blessings; such as hearing the Gospel, reading the Scriptures, seif-examination, medita- tion, prayer, praise, Christian conversation, &c. The means are to he used without any reference to merit, but solely with a dependence on the Divine Being; nor can we ever expect happi- ness in ourselves, nor be good exemplars to others, while we live in the neglect of them. It is in vain to argue that the divine decree supersedes the necessity of them, since God has as certainly appointed the means as the end. Besides, he himself generally works by them ; and the more means lie thinks proper to use, the more he dis- plays his glorious perfections. Jesus Christ, when on earth, used means ; he prayed, he ex- horted, and did good, by going from place to place. Indeed, the systems of nature, providence, and grace, are all carried on by means. The Scrip- tures abound with exhortations to>them, Matt. v. ; Rom. xii. ; and none but enthusiasts or immoral characters ever refuse to use them. MEDIATOR, a person that intervenes be- tween two parties at variance, in order to recon- cile them. Thus Jesus Christ is the Mediator between an offended God and sinful man, 1 Tim. ii. 5. Both Jews arid Gentiles have a notion of a Mediator: the Jews call the Messiah NJWDN, the Mediator or Middle One. The Persians Call their God Mithras, ^tnrm, a Mediator; and the daemons, with the heathens, seem to be, ac- cording to them, mediators between the superior fods and men. Indeed, the whole religion of 'aganism was a system of mediation and inter- cession. The idea, therefore, of salvation by a Mediator, is not so novel or restricted as some imagine ; and the Scriptures of truth inform us, that it is only by this way human beings can arrive to eternal felicity, Actsiv. 12; Johnxiv. 6. Man, in his state of innocence, was in friendship with God ; but, by sinning against him, he ex- posed himself to his just displeasure; his powers l>ecame enfeebled, and his heart filled with en- mity against him, Rom. viii. 6; he was driven out of hi* paradisaical Eden, and totally incapable of returning to God, and making satisfaction to his justice. Jesus Christ, therefore, was the ap- pointed Mediator to bring about reconciliation, (Jen. iii. 12; Col. i. 21 ; and in the fulness of time, he came into this world, obeyed the law, satisfied justice, and brought his people into a state of grace and favour; yea, into a more ex- alted state of friendship with God than was lost by the fall, Eph. ii. 18. Now, in order to the accomplishing of tliis work, it was necessary that 2GG MEDITATION the Mediator should be God and man in one person. It was necessary that he should be man, 1. That he might be related to those he was a Mediator and Redeemer of. — 2. That sin might be satisfied for, and reconciliation be made for it, in the same nature which sinned. — 3. It was proper that the Mediator should be capable of obeying the law broken by the sin of man, as a divine person could not be subject to the law, and yield obedience to it, Gal. iv. 4 ; Rom. v. 19. — 4. It was meet that the Mediator should be man, that he might be capable of suffering death ; for, as God, he could not die, and without shedding of blood there was no remission, Heb. ii. 10, 15, viii. 3. — 5. It was fit he should be man, that lie might be a faithful high priest, to sympathise with his people under all their trials, tempta- tions, &c, Heb. ii. 17, 18; iv. 15.— 6. It was fit that he should be a holy and righteous man, free from all sin, original and actual, that he might offer himself without spot to God, take away tire sins of men, and be an advocate for them, Heb. vii. 20, ix. 14 ; 1 John iii. 5. But it was not enough to be truly man, and an innocent person; he must be more than man : it was requisite that he should be God also, for, 1. No mere man could have entered into a covenant with God to mediate between him and sinful men. — 2. He must be God to give virtue and value to his obedience and sufferings ; for the sufferings of men or angels would not have been sufficient. — 3. Being thus God-man, we are encouraged to hope in liim. Ie the person of Jesus Christ the object of trust is brought nearer to ourselves; and those wellr known tender affections which are only figura*- tively ascribed to the Deity, are, in our great Mediator, thoroughly realized. Further, were he God, and not man, we should approach him with fear and dread ; were he man and not God. we should be guilty of idolatry to worship and trust in him at all, Jer. xvii. 5. The plan of sal- vation, therefore, by such a Mediator, is the most suitable to human beings that possibly could be; for here '; Mercy and truth meet together, righ- teousness and peace kiss each other." Ps. lxxxvt 10. The properties of Christ as Mediator are these : 1. He is the only Mediator, 1 Tim. iL 4. Praying, therefore, to saints and angels is an error of the church of Rome, and has no countenance from the Scripture. — 2. Christ is a Mediator of men only, not of angels ; good angels need not any ; and as for evil angels, none is provided nor admitted. — 3. He is the Mediator both for Jews and Gentiles, Eph. ii. 18; 1 John ii. 2. — 4. He is Mediator both for Old and New Testament saints. — 5. He is a suitable, constant, willing, and prevailing Mediator; his mediation always suc- ceeds, and is infallible. Gill's Body of Div. voL i. oct. ed. p. 336 ; Witsii CEcon. Fad. lib. ii. ch. 4 ; Fuller's Gospel its own Witness, ch. 4, p. 2 ; Hurrion's Christ Crucified, p. 103, &c. ; Dr. Owen on the Person of Christ; Dr. Goodwin's Works, b. iii. MEDITATION is an act by which we con sider any thing closely, or wherein the soul is employed in the search or consideration of any truth. In religion it is used to signify the se- rious exercise of the understanding, whereby oui thoughts are fixed on the observation of spiritual tilings, in order to practice. Mystic divines make a great difference between meditation and con- templation : the former consists in discursive acts MEEKNESS of the soul, considering methodically and with attention the mysteries of faith and the precepts of morality ; and is performed by reflections and reasonings which leave behind them manifest im- pressions on the brain. The pure contemplative, they say, have no need of meditation, as seeing all things in God at a glance, and without any reflection. See Beguines and Q-uietists. 1. Meditation is a duty which ought to be at- tended to by all who wish well to their spiritual interests. It ought to be deliberate, close, and perpetual, Psal. cxix. 97; i. 2. — 2. The sub- jects which ought more especially to engage the Christian mind are the works of creation, Psal. xix. : the perfections of God, Deut. xxxii. 4; the excellencies, offices, characters, and works of Christ, Heb. xii. 2, 3 ; the offices and operations of the Holy Spirit, John xv. and xvi. ; the va- rious dispensations of Providence, Ps. xcvii. 1,2; the precepts, declarations, promises, &c., of God's word, Ps. cxix. ; the value, powers, and immor- tality of the soul, Mark viii. 36 ; the noble, beau- tiful, and benevolent plan of the Gospel, 1 Tim. i. 11 ; the necessity of our personal interest in and experience of its power, John iii. 3 ; the depravity of our nature, and the freedom of divine grace in choosing, adopting, justifying, and sanctifying us, 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; the shortness, worth, and swift- ness of time, James iv. 14 ; the certainty of death, Heb. ix. 27 ; the resurrection and judgment to come, 1 Cor. xv. 50, &c. ; and the future state of eternal rewards and punishments, Matt. xxv. These are some of the most important sub- jects on which we should meditate. — 3. To -per- form this duty aright, we should be much in Srayer, Luke xviii. 1 ; avoid a worldly spirit, 1 ohn ii. 15; beware of sloth, Heb. vi. 11; take heed of sensual pleasures, James iv. 4 ; watch against the devices of Satan, 1 Pet. v. 8 ; be often in retirement, Ps. iv. 4 ; embrace the most favour- able opportunities, the calmness of the morning, Ps. v. 1, 3; the solemnity of the evening, Gen. xxiv. 63; sabbath days, Psal. cxviii. 21; sacra- mental occasions, &c. 1 Cor. xi. 28. — 4. The advantages resulting from this are, improvement of the faculties of the soul, Prov. xvi. 22; the affections are raised to God, Ps. xxxix. 1,4; an enjoyment of divine peace and felicity, Phil. iv. 6, 7 ; holiness of life is promoted, Psal. cxix. 59. 60; and we thereby experience a foretaste of eternal glory, Ps. lxxiii. 25, 26 ; 2 Cor. v. 1, &c. MEEKNESS, a temper of mind not easily provoked to resentment. In the Greek language it is 7rpxc$, quasi pxof, facilis, easiness of spirit, and thus it may be justly called; for it accommo- dates the soul to every occurrence, and so makes a man easy to himself, and to all about him. The Latins call a meek man mansuetus, qu. mana assuetus, used to the hand ; which alludes to the taming and reclaiming of creatures wild by na- ture, and bringing them to be tractable and fa- miliar, James iii. 7, 8 : so, where the grace of meekness reigns, it subdues the impetuous dispo- sition, and learns it submission and forgiveness. It teaches us to govern our own anger whenever we are at any time provoked, and patiently to bear the anger of others, that it may not be a provocation to us. The former is its office, espe- cially in superiors ; the latter in inferiors, and both in equals, James iii. 13. The excellency of such a spirit appears, if we consider that it en- ables us to gain a victory over corrupt nature, 26" MELCHiTES Prov. xvi. 32 ; that it is a beauty and an orna- ment to human beings, 1 Pet. iii. 4 ; that it, is obedience- to God's word, and conformity to the best patterns, Eph. v. 1, 2; Phil. iv. 8. It is pro- ductive of the highest peace to the possessor, Luke xxi. 19; Matt. xi. 28, 29. It fits us. for any duly, instruction, relation, condition, or per- secution, Phil. iv. 11, 12. To obtain this spirit, consider that it is a divine injunction, Zeph. ii. 3; Col. iii. 12: 1 Tim. vi. 11. Observe the many examples of it. Jesus Christ, Matt. xi. 28 ; Abraham, Gen. xiii. xvi. 5, 6; Moses, Numb, xii. 3 ; David, Zech. xii. 8 ; 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 12 ; Psalm exxxi. 2 ; Paul, \f Cor. ix. 19. How lovely a spirit it is in itself, and how it secures us from a variety of evils. That peculiar promises are made to such, Matt. v. 5 ; Isa. Ixvi. 2. That such give evidence of their being under the in- fluence of divine grace, and shall enjoy the divine blessing, Isaiah lvii. 15. See Henry on Meek- ness; Dunlop's Scrm. vol. ii. p. 434; Evans's Sermons on the Chris. Temper, ser. 29 ; Tillot- son on 1 Pet. ii. 21 ; and on Matt. v. 44 ; Lo- gan's Sermons, vol. i. ser. 10 ; and Jortin's Ser- mons, ser. 11. vol. iii. MEETING-HOUSE, a place appropriated by Dissenters to the purpose of public worship. Since the Act of Uniformity, passed 1662, by which so many hundreds of ministers were eject- ed from their livings, meeting-houses have become very numerous. For a considerable time, indeed, they were prohibited by the Conventicle Act ; but, at last, toleration being granted to Dissenters, they enjoyed the privilege of meeting and wor- sliipping God according to the dictates of theii own consciences, and which they still possess to this day. The number of meeting-houses in London may, perhaps, amount to about 150, though some reckon upwards of 200. In all the respectable towns, and even in many villages of England, there are meeting-houses ; and, within a few years, they have greatly increased. MELANCHOLY, sadness, or gloom ; arising either from the habit of body, or the state of the mind. To remove it, the following remedies may be applied. 1. Early rising. 2. Plain, nourish- ing food. 3. Exercise in the open air. Or if it arises particularly from the mind, 1. Associate with the cheerful. 2. Study the Scriptures. 3. Consider the amiable character of God. 4. Avoid sin. 5. Be much in prayer. See Bur- ton, Baxter, and Rogers on Melancholy.. MELATONI, so called from one Mileto, who taught, that not the soul, but the body of man, was made after God's own image. MELCHIZEDIANS, a denomination which arose about the beginning of the third century. They affirmed that Melchizedek was not a man> but a heavenly power superior to Jesus Christ ; for Melchizedek, they said, was the intercessor and mediator of the angels ; and Jesus Christ was only so for man, and his priesthood only a copy of that of Melchizedek. MELCHITES, the name given to the Sy- riac, Egyptian, and other Christians of the Le- vant. The Melchites, excepting some few points of little or no importance, which relate only to ceremonies, and ecclesiastical discipline, are, in every respect, professed Greeks ; but they are go- verned by a particular patriarch, who assumes the title of Patriarch of Antioch. They celebrate mass in the Arabian language. The religious MENANDRIANS among the Melchites follow the rule of St. Basil, the common rule of all fhe Greek monk?. MELETIANS, the name of a considerable party who adhered to the cause of Mclctius, bishop of Lycopolis, in Upper Egypt, after he was de- posed, about the year 300, by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, under the charge of his having sacri- ficed to the gods, and having been guilty of other heinous crimes ; though Epiphanius makes his only failing to have been an excessive severity against the lapsed. This dispute, which was at first a personal difference between Meletius and Peter, became a religious controversy ; and the Meletian party subsisted in the fifth century, but was condemned by the first council of Nice. MEMORY, a faculty of the mind, which presents to us ideas or notions of things that are past, accompanied with a persuasion that the things themselves were formerly real and present. When we remember with little or no effect, it is called remembrance simply, or memory, and some- times passive memory. When we endeavour to remember what does not immediately and of itself occur, it is called active memory, or recol- lection. A good memory has these several quali- fications : 1. It is ready to receive and admit with great ease the various ideas, both of words and tilings, which are learned or taught. — '3. It is large and copious to treasure up these ideas in great number and variety. — 3. It is strong and durable to retain, for a considerable time, those words or thoughts which are committed to it. — £. It is faithful and active to suggest and recol- lect, upon every proper occasion, all those words or thoughts which it hath treasured up. As this faculty may be injured by neglect and slothiul- ness, we will here subjoin a few of the best rules which have been given for the improvement of it. 1. We should form a clear and distinct appre- hension of the things which we commit to me- mory.— 2. Beware of every sort of intemperance, for that greatly impairs the faculties. — 3. If it be weak, we must not overload it, but charge it only with the most useful and solid notions. — 4. We should take every opportunity of uttering our best thoughts in conversation, as this will deeply im- print them. — 5. We should join to the idea we wish to remember, some other idea that is more familiar to us, which bears some similitude to it, cither in its nature, or in the sound of the word. — 6. We should think of it before we go to sleep at night, and the first thing in the morning, when the faculties are fresh. — 7. Method and regu- larity in the things we commit to the memory are necessary. — 8. Often thinking, writing, or talk- ing, on the subjects we wish to remember. — 'J. Fervent and frequent prayer. Sec Watts on the Mind, ch. 17; Grey's Mcmoria Technica; Rogers's Pleasures of Memory ; Rcid's Intcll. Powers of Man, 303, 310, 338, 350. MEN AjN BRIANS, the most ancient branch of Gnostics; thus called from Menander their chief, said by some, without sufficient foundation, to have been a disciple of Simon Magus, and himself a reputed magician. He taught, that no person could be saved un- less he were baptized in his name ; and he con- ferred a peculiar sort of baptism, which would render those who received it iiamort.il in the next world ; exhibiting himself to the world with the frenzy of a lunatic, more than the founder of a sect as a promised saviour ; for it appears by the '203 MENDICANTS ] testimonies of Irenams, Justin, and Tertullian, that he pretended to be one of the aeons sent from the pleroma, or ecclesiastical regions, to succour the souls that lay groaning under bodily oppress sion and servitude; and to maintain them against the violence and stratagems of the daemons that hold the reins of empire in this sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon the same founda- tion with that of Simon Magus, the ancient writers looked upon him as the instructor of Me> nander. See Simonians. MENDICANTS, or Begging Friars, seve- ral orders of religious in popish countries, who, having no settled revenues, are supported by the charitable contributions they receive from others. This sort of society began in the thirteenth century, and the members of it, by the tenour of their institution, were to remain entirely destitute of all fixed revenues and possessions; though fn process of time their number became a heavy tax upon the people. -Innocent III. was the first of the popes who perceived the necessity of institut- ing such an order ; and accordingly he gave such monastic societies as made a profession of poverty, the most distinguishing marks of his protection and favour. They were also encouraged and patronized by the succeeding pontiffs ; when ex> perience had demonstrated their public and exten- sive usefulness. But when it became generally known that they had such a peculiar place in the esteem and protection of the rulers of the church, their number grew to such an enormous and un- wieldy multitude, and s wanned so prodigiously in all the European provinces, that they became a burden, not only to the people, but to the church itself. The great inconvenience that arose from the excessive multiplication of the Mendicant orders was remedied by Gregory X., in a general council, which he assembled at Lyons in 1272; for here all the religious orders that had sprung up after the council held at Rome in 1215, under the pontificate of Innocent III. were suppressed ; end the extravagant multitude of Mendicants, as Gregory called them, were reduced to a smaller number, and confined to the four following socie- ties or denominations, viz. Dominicans, the Fran- ciscans, the Carmelites, and the Augustins, or hermits $f St. Augustin. As the pontiffs allowed these four Mendicant orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thought proper, of conversing with persons of every rank, of instructing the youth and multi- tude wherever they went ; and as those monks exhibited, in their outward appearance and man- ner of life, more striking marks of gravity and holiness than were observable in the other mo- nastic societies, they arose all at once to the very summit of fame, and were regarded with the ut- most esteem and veneration through all the coun- tries of Europe. The enthusiastic attachment to these sanctimonious beggars went so far, that, as we learn from the most authentic records, se- veral cities were divided or cantoned out into lour parts, with a view to these four orders : the first) part being assigned to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the third to the Carmelites, and the fourth to the Augustins. The people were unwilling to receive the sacraments from any other hands than those of the Mendicants, to whose churches they crowded to perform their devotions while living, and were extremely de- sirous to deposit there their remains after death. MENDICANTS Nor did the influence and credit of the Mendi- cants end here ; for we find in the history of this and of the succeeding ages, that they were em- ployed not only in spiritual matters, but also in temporal and political affairs of the greatest con- sequence, in composing the differences of princes, concluding treaties of peace, concerting alliances, presiding in cabinet councils, governing courts, levying taxes, and other occupations, not only re- mote from, but absolutely inconsistent with the monastic character and profession. However, the power of the Dominicans and Franciscans greatly surpassed that of the other two orders, in- somuch that these two orders were, before the reformation, what the Jesuits have been since that happy and glorious period ; the very soul of the hierarchy, the engines of the state, the secret springs of all the motions of the one and the Other, and the authors and directors of every great and important event, both in the religious and political world. By very quick progression their pride and confidence arrived at such a pitch, that they had the presumption to declare publicly, that they had a divine impulse and commission to illustrate and maintain the religion of Jesus. They treated with the utmost insolence and con- tempt all the different orders of the priesthood ; they affirmed, without a blush, that the true method of obtaining salvation was revealed to them alone; proclaimed with ostentation the superior efficacy and virtue of their indulgences ; and vaunted be- yond measure their interest at the court of heaven, and their familiar connexions with the Supreme Being;, the Virgin Mary, and the saints in glory. By these impious wiles they so deluded and cap- tivated the miserable, and blinded the multitude, that they would not intrust any other but the Mendicants with the care of their souls. They retained their credit and influence to such a de- gree towards the close of the fourteenth century, that great numbers of both sexes, some in health, Others in a state of infirmity, others at the point of death, earnestly desired to be admitted into the Mendicant order, which they looked upon as a sure and infallible method of rendering heaven propitious. — Many made it an essential part of their last wills, that their bodies after death should be wrapped in old ragged Dominican or Francis- cam habits, and interred among the Mendicants. For such was the barbarous superstition and wretched ignorance of this age, that people uni- versally believed they should readily obtain mercy from Christ at the day of judgment, if they ap- peared before his tribunal associated with the Mendicant friars. About this time, however, they fell under an universal odium ; but, being resolutely protected against all opposition, whether open or secret, by the popes, who regarded them as their best friends and most effectual supports, they suffered little or nothing from the efforts of their numerous ad- versaries. In the fifteenth century, besides their arrogance, which was excessive, a quarrelsome and litigious spirit prevailed among them, and drew upon them justly the displeasure and indig- nation of many. By affording refuge at this time to the Beguins in their order, they became offensive to the bishops, and were hereby in- Tolved in difficulties and perplexities of various kinds. They lost their credit in the sixteenth century by their rustic impudence, their ridicu- lous superstitions, their ignorance, cruelty, and 269 MENNONITES brutish manners. They discovered the most baT- barous aversion to the arts arxi sciences, and ex- pressed a like abhorrence of certain eminent and learned men, who endeavoured to open the paths of science to the pursuits of the studious youth, recommended the culture of the mind, and attack- ed the barbarism of the age in their writings and discourses. Their general character, together with other circumstances, concurred to render a reformation desirable, and to accomplish this happy event. Among the number of Mendicants are also ranked the Capuchins, Recollets, Minims, and others, who are branches or derivations from tine former. Buchanan tells us, the Mendicants in Scotland, under an appearance of beggary, lived a very luxurious life ; whence one wittily called them not Mendicant, but Manducant friars. MENNONITES, a sect in the United Pro- vinces, in most respects the same with those in other places called Anabaptists. They had their rise in 1536, when Menno Simon, a native of Friesland, who had been a Romish priest, and a notorious profligate, resigned his rank and office in the Romish church, and publicly embraced the communion of the Anabaptists. Menno was born at Witmarsum, a village in the neighbourhood of Bolswert in Friesland, ir the year 1505, and died in 1561, in the duchy of Holstein, at the country-seat of a certain no- bleman not far from the city of Oldesloe, who, moved with compassion by the view of the perils to which Menno was exposed, and the snares that were daily laid for his ruin, took him, with certain of his associates, into his protection, and gave him an asylum. The writings of Menno which are almost all composed in the Dutch lan- guage, were published in folio at Amsterdam, in the year 1651. About the year 1537, Menno was earnestly solicited by many of the sect with which he connected himself, to assume among them the rank and functions of a public teacher ; and, as he looked upon the persons who mfde this proposal to be exempt from the fanatical phrenzy of their brethren at Munster (though according to other accounts they were originally of the same stamp, only rendered somewhat wiser by their sufferings) he yielded to their entreaties. From this period to the end of his life, he traveK led from one country to another with his wife and children, exercising his ministry, under pressures and calamities of various kinds, that succeeded each other without interruption, and constantly exposed to the danger of falling a victim to the severity of the laws. East and "West Friesland, together with the province of Groningen, were first visited by this zealous apostle of the Ana- baptists; from whence he directed his course into Holland, Guelderland, Brabant, and West- phalia ; continued it through the German pro- vinces that lie on the coast of the Baltic sea, and penetrated as far as Livonia. In all these places his ministerial labours were attended with re- markable success, and added to his sect a prodi- gious number of followers. Hence he is deserv- edly considered as the common chief of almost all the Anabaptists, and the parent of the sect that still subsists under that denomination. Men- no was a man of genius, though not of a very sound judgment : he possessed a natural and per- suasive eloquence, and such e degree of learning x2 MENNONITES as made him pass for an oracle in the estimation of the multitude. He appears, moreover, to have been a man of probity, of a meek and tractable spi- rit, gentle in his manners, pliable and obsequious in his commerce with persons of all ranks and cha- racters, and extremely zealous in promoting prac- tical religion and virtue, which he recommended by his example as well as by las precepts. The plan of doctrine and discipline drawn up by Menno was of a much more mild and moderate nature than that of the furious and fanatical Anabaptists (whose tumultuous proceedings have been recited under that article,) but somewhat more severe, though more clear and consistent than the doctrine of the wiser branches of that sect, who aimed at nothing more than the re- storation of the Christian church to its primitive purity. Accordingly, hS condemned the plan of ecclesiastical discipline that was founded on the prospect of a new kingdom, to be miraculously established by Jesus Christ on the ruins of civil government, and the destruction of human rulers, and which had been the fetal and pestilential source of such dreadful commotions, such exe- crable rebellions, and such enormous crimes. He declared publicly his dislike of that doctrine which pointed out the approach of a marvellous reform- ation in the church by the means of a new and extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit. He expressed his abhorrence of the licentious tenets which several of the Anabaptists had maintained with respect to the lawfulness of polygamy and divorce ; and, finally, considered as unworthy of toleration those fanatics who were of opinion, that the Holy Ghost continued to descend into \he minds of many chosen believers, in as extra- ordinary a manner as he did at the first establish- ment of the Cnristian church, and that he testi- fied his peculiar presence to several of the faith- ful by miracles, predictions, dreams, and visions of various kinds. He retained, indeed, the doc- trines commonly received among the Anabap- tists, in relation to the baptism of infants; the millennium, or one thousand years' reign of Christ upon earth : the exclusion of magistrates from the Christian church; the abolition of war; and the prohibition of oaths enjoined by our Saviour ; and the vanity, as well as the perni- cious effects of human science. But while Men- no retained these doctrines in a general sense, he explained and modified them in such a manner as made them resemble the religious tenets that were universally received in the Protestant churches; and this rendered them agreeable to many, and made them appear inoffensive even to numbers who had no inclination to embrace them. It, however, so happened, that the nature of the doctrines considered in themselves, the eloquence of Menno, which set them off to such advantage, and the circumstances of the times, gave a high degree of credit to the religious system of this famous teacher among the Anabaptists, so that it made a rapid progress in that sect. And thus it was in' consequence of the ministry of Menno, that the different sorts of Anabaptists agreed together in excluding from their communion the fanatics that dishonoured it, and in renouncing all tenets that were detrimental to the authority of civil government, and by an unexpected coali- tion formed themselves into one community. Though the Mennonites usually pass for a «ect of Anabaptists, vet Mr. Herman Schyn, a 270 MENNONITES Mcnnonite minister, who has published their his- tory and apology, maintains, that they are not Anabaptists either by principle or by origin. However, nothing can be more certain than this fact, viz. that the first Mennonite congregations were composed of the different sorts of Anabap- tists; of those who had been always inoffensive and upright, and of those who before their conv version by the ministry of Menno, had been se» ditious fanatics : besides, it is alleged, that the Mennonites do actually retain at this day some of those opinions and doctrines which led the se- ditious and turbulent Anabaptists of old to the commission of so many and such enormous crimes,; such particularly is the doctrine concerning the nature of Christ's kingdom, or of the church of the New Testament, though modified in such a manner as to have lost its noxious qualities, and to be no longer pernicious in its influence. The Mennonites are subdivided into several sects, whereof the two principal are the Flandrians, or Flamingians, and the Watcrlandians. The opinions, says Mosheim, that are held in common by the Mennonites, seem to be all derived from this fundamental principle, — that the kingdom which Christ established upon earth is a visible church, or community, isto which the holy and just alone are to be admitted ; and which is con- sequently exempt from all those institutions and rules of discipline that have been invented by hu- man wisdom for the correction and reformation of the wicked. This principle, indeed, was avowed by the ancient Mennonites, but it is now almost wholly renounced : nevertheless, from this ancient doctrine many of the religious opinions that dis- tinguish the Mennonites from all other Christian communities seem to be derived. In consequence of this doctrine, they admit none to the sacrament of baptism but persons that are come to the full use of their reason; they neither admit civil rulers into their communion, nor allow any of their members to perform the functions of magisv tracy ; they deny the lawfulness of repelling force by force ; and consider war, in all its shapes, as unchristian and unjust : they entertain the ut- most aversion to the execution of justice, anil more especially to capital punishments ; and they also refuse to confirm their testimony by an oatli The particular sentiments that divided the mora considerable societies of the Mennonites are tha following : The rigid Mennonites, called the Flamingians, maintain with various degrees of rigour the opinions of their founder Menno, as to the human nature of Christ, alleging that it was produced in the womb of the Virgin by the creating power of the Holy Ghost; the obliga> tion that binds us to wash the feet of strangers, in consequence of our Saviour's command ; the necessity of excommunicating and avoiding, as one would do the plague, not only avowed sinners, but also all those who depart, even in some light instances pertaining to dress, &c. from the sin> plicity of their ancestors; the contempt due to human learning ; and other matters of less mo- ment. However, this austere system declines, and the rigid Mennonites are gradually approaching towards the opinions and discipline of the moro moderate, or Waterlandians. The first settlement of the Mennonites in the United Provinces was granted them by William, prince of Orange, towards the close of the sixteenth century ; but it was not before the following ccn- MERCY tury that their liberty and tranquillity were fixed upon solid foundations, when, by a confession of faith published in the year 1626, they cleared themselves from the imputations of those per- nicious and detestable errors that had been laid to their charge. In order to appease their intestine discords, a considerable part cf the Anabaptists of Flanders, Germany, and Fricsland, concluded their debates in a conference held at Amsterdam in the year 1630, and entered into the bonds of fraternal communion, each reserving to them- selves a liberty of retaining certain opinions. This association was renewed and confirmed by new resolutions in the year 1649 ; in consequence of which the rigorous laws of Menno and his suc- cessors were in various respects mitigated and corrected. According to Benedict, there were, in 1824, 200 Mennonite churches in America. They are a simple, harmless people, and make it ffn article of their faith never to bear arms. See Anabaptists. MEN OF UNDERSTANDING. This title distinguished a denomination which appear- ed in Flanders and Brussels in the year 1511. They owed their origin to an illiterate man, whose name was Egidius Cantor, and to William of Hildenison, a Carmelite monk. They pretended to be honoured with celestial visions, denied that any could arrive at perfect knowledge of the Holy Scriptures without the extraordinary suc- cours of a divine illumination, and declared the approach of a new revelation from heaven, more perfect than the Gospel of Christ. They said that the resurrection was accomplished in the person of Jesus, and no other was to be expected ; that the inward man was not defiled by the out- ward actions, whatever they were ; that the pains of hell were to have an end ; and not only all mankind, but even the devils themselves, were to return to God, and be made partakers of eter- nal felicity. They also taught, among other things, that Christ alone had merited eternal life and felicity for the human race ; and that there- fore men could not acquire this inestimable privi- lege by their own actions alone — that the priests, to whom the people confessed their transgressions, had not the power of absolving them, but this authority was vested in Christ alone — that volun- tary penance and mortification was not necessary *o salvation. This denomination appears to have been a branch of the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit. MERCY is that disposition of mind which excites us to pity and relieve those who are in trouble, or to pass by their crimes without punish- ing them. It is distinguished from love, thus: The object of love is the creature simply; the object of mercy is the creature fallen into misery. Parents love their children simply as they are their children : but if they fall into misery, love works in a way of pity and compassion ; love is turned into mercy. "As we all are the objects of mercy in one degree or another, the mutual exercise of it towards each Other is necessary to preserve the harmony and happiness of society. But there arc those who may be more particularly considered as the ob- jects of it ; such as the guilty, the indigent, and the miserable. As it respects ihe guilty, the greatest mercy we can show to them is to endea- vour to reclaim them, and prevent the bad conse- ♦ 271 MERCY quences of their misconduct, James v. 20. Mercy may also be shown to them by a proper mitiga- tion of justice, and not extending the punish- ment beyond the nature o'r desert of the crime With regard to those who are in necessity and ■want, mercy calls upon us to afford the most suit- able and seasonable supplies ; and here our bene- factions must be dispensed in proportion to our circumstances, and the real distress of the object, 1 John iii. 17. As to those who are in misery and distress, mercy prompts us to relieve and comfort them by doing what we can to remove or alleviate their burdens. Our Lord strongly recommended this act of mercy in the parable of the man who fell among thieves, and was re- lieved by the poor Samaritan ; and in the con- clusion he adds, ' Go and do thou likewise,' Luke x. 30—37. "This merciful temper will show and exert itself not only towards those of our own party and acquaintance, but to the whole human spe- cies ; and not only to the whole human specie* but to the animal creation. It is a degree of in- humanity to take pleasure in giving any thing pain, and more in putting useful animals to ex- treme torture for our own sport. This is not that dominion which God originally gave to man over the beasts of the field. It is, therefore, an usurp- ed authority, which man has no right to exercise over brute creatures, which were made for his service, convenience, support, and ease ; but not for the gratification of unlawful passions, or cfuel dispositions. " Mercy must be distinguished from .those weaknesses of a natural temper which often put on the appearance of it. With regard to crimi- nals or delinquents, it is false compassion to sup- press the salutary admonition, and refuse to set their guilt before them, merely because the sight of it will give their conscience pain ; such unsear sonable tenderness in a surgeon may prove the death of his patient : this, however, it may appear, is not mercy, but cruelty. So is that fondness of a parent that withholds the hand of discipline from a beloved child, when its frowardness and faults render seasonable and prudent correction necessary to save it from ruin. In like manner, when a magistrate, through excessive clemency, suffers a criminal who is a pest to society to escape unpunished, or so mitigates the sentence of the law as to put it into his power to do still greater hurt to others, he violates not only the laws of justice, but of mercy too. "Mercy to the indigent and necessitous has been no less abused and perverted by acts of mis- taken beneficence, when impudence and clamour are permitted to extort from the hand of charity that relief which is due to silent distress and mo- dest merit; or when one object is lavishly re- lieved to the detriment of another who is more deserving. As it respects those who are in trir- bulation or misery, to be sure, every such person is an object of our compassion ; but that conv passion may be, and often is, exercised in a wrong manner. Some are of so tender a make, that they cannot bear the sight of distress, and stand aloof from a friend in pain and affliction, because it affects them too sensibly, when their presence would at least give them some little comfort, and might possibly administer lasting relief. This weakness should be opposed, because it not only looks like unkindness to our friends, but is really MERIT showing more tenderness to ourselves than to them ; nor is it doing as we would be done by. Again; it is false pity, when, out of mere ten- derness of nature, we either advise or permit our afflicted friend to tike or do any thing which will give him a little transient ease, but which we know at the same time will increase his future pain, and aggravate the symptoms of his disease." Seeing, therefore, the extremes to which we are liable, let us learn to cultivate that wisdom and prudence which are necessary to regulate this virtue. To be just without being cruel, and merciful without being weak, should be our con- stant aim, under all the circumstances of guilt, in- digence, and misery, which present themselves to our view. See Beneficence, Charity, Love. MERCY OF GOD is his readiness to relieve the miserable, and to pardon the guilty. 1. It is essential to his nature, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7; not, indeed, as a passion or affection, as it is in men, but the result of his sovereign will, and guided by his infinite wisdom. — 2. It is free, as nothing out of himself can be the cause of it; for then there would be a cause prior to him, the cause of him- self. The misery of the creature is not the cause of mercy, for lie is not wrought upon as creatures are ; nor are the merits of the creature the cause, Tit. iii. 5 : nor are even the sufferings of Christ the cause, but the effects of it; but it arises from tlie goodness of his nature, and from his sovereign wil|pmd pleasure, Exod.xxxiii. 19; Rom.ix. 18. — 3. His mercy is infinite ; it pardons offences committed against an infinitely holy Being, and bestows an infinite good on all who believe, even Jesus Christ, Luke i. 78. — 4. It is immutable; nothing can change it ; it is invariably the same, Mai. iii. 6 ; Luke i. 50. — 5. Shall be forever cele- brated in a future state, Psal. lxxxix. 2; eiii. 17. — 6. It is only displayed in and through Christ, Eph. ii. It has been further distinguished into, 1. Preventing mercy, Psal. lix. 10. — 2. Forbear- ing mercy, Rom. ii. 4. — 3. Comforting mercy, 2 Cor. i. 4. — 4. Relieving mercy, Psal. cxlv. 8, 9. — 5. Pardoning mercy, Isa. lv. 6. — 6. Univer- sal or extensive mercy. It extends to all kinds of beings and fallen creatures. The brute crea- tion share in it, Psal. cxlv. 9; xxxvi. 5, 6. The ungodly are the objects of it in a general wav, Matt. v. 45 j 1 Tim. iv. 10. The saints on earih are continual monuments of it, Rom. ix. 23; and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory are always praising God for it. Finally, it is enjoyed in an especial manner by all who are true be- lievers, of every nation, in every age, in every circumstance, in all places, and at all times. See Grace, Pardon : GUI's Body of Div. vol. i. p. 124, oct. ed.; Saurin's Ser. vol. i. ser. 8; Dr. Goodwin's Works, vol. v. part 2; Tillotson's &r. ser. 147 ; Hill's Ser. ser. 10. MERIT signifies desert, or to earn: origi- nally the word was applied to soldiers and other military persons, who, by their labours in the field, and by the various hardships they under- went during the course of a campaign, as also by other services they might occasionally render to thecommonwealth, were said, mercre stipendia, to merit or earn their pay ; which they might pro- perly be said to do, because they yielded in real service an equivalent to the state for the stipend they received, which was therefore due to them in justice. Here, then, we come at the true meaning of the word merit ; from wliich it is 272 MESSIAH very clearly to be seen that there can be no surf, thing as merit in our best obedience. One man may merit of another, but all mankind together cannot merit from the hand of God. This c\> dently appears, if we consider the imperfections of all our services, and the express declaration of the divine word, Eph. ii. 8, 9; Rom. xi. 5, 6; Tit. iii. 5; Rom. x. 1, 4. The Doctrine oj* Merit stated, ser. i. vol. iii.; SoutJi's Serm.; Top- lady's Works, p. 471, vol. iii.; Hcrvey's Eleven. Letters to Wesley ; Robinson's Claude, vol. ii. p. 218. MERITS OF CHRIST, a term used to denote the active and passive obedience of Christ ; all that he wrought and all that he suffered for the salvation of mankind. See articles Atone- ment, Imputation, Righteodsness of Christ. MESSIAH signifies anointed, the title given by way of eminence to our Saviour; meaning the same in Hebrew as Christ in Greek, and alludes to the authority he had to assume the characters of prophet, priest, and king, and that of Saviour of the world. The ancient Jews had just notions of the Messiah, which came gra- dually to be corrupted, by expecting a temporal monarch and conqueror ; and finding Jesus Christ to be poor, humble, and of an unpromising ap- pearance, they rejected him. Most of the modern rabbins, according to Buxtorf, believe that the Messiah is come, but that he lies concealed be- cause of the sins of the Jews. Others believe he is not yet come, fixing different times for his ap- pearance, many of which are elapsed ; and, being thus baffled, have pronounced an anathema against those who shall pretend to calculate the time of his coming. To reconcile the prophecies concerning the Messiah that seemed to be con- tradictory, some have had recourse to a twofold Messiah ; one in a state of poverty and suffering, the other of splendour and glory. The first, they say, is to proceed from the tribe of Ephraim, who is to fight against Gog, and to be slain by Annillus, Zech. xii. 10 ; the second is to be of the tribe of Judah and lineage of David, who is to conquer and kill Annillus ; to bring the first Messiah to life again, to assemble all Israel, and rule over the whole world. That Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, and actually come in the flesh, is evident, if we con- sider (as Mr. Fuller observes) that it is intimated that whenever he should come, the sacrifices and ceremonies of the Mosaic law were to be super- seded by him, Ps. xl. 6 — 8 : 1 Sam. xv. 22 ; Dan. ix. 27;"Jer. xxxi. 31, 34; Heb. viii. 13. Now sacrifice and oblation have ceased. They vir- tually ceased when Jesus offered himself a sacri- fice, and in a few years after, they actually ceased A few of the ancient ceremonies are indeed adhered to, but as one of the Jewish writers acknowledges, " The sacrifices of the Holy Tem- ple have ceased." Let every Jew therefore ask himself this question : Should Messiah the Prince come at some future period, how are the sacrifice and oblation to cease on his appearance, when they have already ceased near 1800 years 1 Again, it is suggested in the Scripture, that the ' great body of sacred prophecy should be accomplished in him; Gen. iii. 16; xxii. 18; Ik. xlix. 10; liii. 1. The time when he was to come is clearly marked out in prophecy ; Is. xlir. 10; Hag. ii. "(J — 9; Dan. ix. 24. He actually cume according to that time. — 2 Th# place MESSIAH whore Messiah should be born, ar.d where he should principally impart his doctrine, is deter- mined; Mic. v. 2; Isa. ix. 2; and was literally fulfilled in Jesus.— 3. The house or family from whom he should descend, is clearly ascertained. So much is said of his descending from David, that we need not refer to particular proofs ; and the rather as no Jew will deny it. The genealo- gies of Matthew and Luke, whatever varieties there are between them, agree in tracing his pedi- gree to David. And though, in both, it is traced in the name of Joseph, yet this appears to be only in conformity to the Jewish custom of tracing no pedigree in the name of a female. The father of Joseph, as mentioned by Luke, seems to have been his father by marriage only ; so that it was, in reality, Mary's pedigree that is traced by Luke, though under her husband's name; and this being the natural line of descent, and that of Matthew the legal one, by which, as a king, he would have inherited the crown, there is no inconsistency between them. — 41 The kind of miracles that Messiah should perform is specified ; Is. xxxv. 5, 6. He actually performed the mira- cles there predicted, his enemies themselves being judges. — 5. It was prophesied that he should, as a King, be distinguished by his lowliness; enter- ing into Jerusalem, not in a chariot of state, but in a much humbler style; Zech. ix. 9; this was really the case, Matt. xxi. — 6. It was predicted that he should suffer and die by the hands of wicked men; Isa. xlix. 7; liii. 9; Dan. ix. 26. Nothing could be a more striking fulfilment of prophecy than the treatment the Messiah met with in almost every particular circumstance. — 7. It was foretold that he should rise from the dead; Isa. liii. 11; Psal. Ixviii. 18; xvi. 10; his resurrection is proved by indubitable evidence. — 8. It was foretold that the great body of the Jew- ish nation would not believe in him, and that he would set up his kingdom among the Gentiles ; Is. liii. I; xlix. '1 — G; vi 9 — 12. Never was a prophecy more completely fulfilled than this, as facts evidently prove. Lastly, It is declared that when the Messiah should come, the will of God would be perfectly fulfilled by him, Is. xlii. I ; xlix. 3 — 5. And what was his whole life but perfect conformity to him? He finished the work the Father gave him to do ; never was there such a character seen among men. Well therefore may we say, Truly this was the Son of God. See article Christianity, Jesus Christ. There have been numerous false Messiahs which have arisen at different times. Of these the Saviour predicted, Matt, x\iv. 14. Some have reckoned as many as twenty four, of whom we shall here give an account. 1. Caziba was the first of any note who made a noise in the world. Being dissatisfied with the state of things under Adrian, he set himself up at the head of the Jewish nation, and proclaimed himself their long-expected Messiah. He was one of those banditti that infested Judea, and committed all kinds of violence against the Ro- mans; and had become so powerful, that he was chosen king of the Jews, and by them acknow- ledged their Messiah. However, to facilitate the success of thii bold enterprise, he changed his name from Caziba, which it was at first, to that of Barehoeheba, alluding to the star foretold by Balaam; for he pretended to be the star sent 273 2 K MESSIAH from heaven to restore his nation to its ancient liberty and glory. He chose a forerunner, raised an army, was anointed king, coined money in- scribed with his own name, and proclaimed him- self Messiah and prince of the Jewish nation. Adrian raised an army, and sent it against him. He retired into a town called Bither, where he was besieged. Barehoeheba was killed in the siege, the city was taken, and a dreadful havock succeeded. The Jews themselves allow, that, during this short war against the Romans in de- fence of this false Messiah, they lost five or six hundred thousand souls. This was in the for- mer part of the second century. 2. In the reign of Thcodosius the younger, in the year of our Lord 434, another impostor arose, called Moses Cretensis. He pretended to be a second Moses, sent to deliver the Jews who dwelt in Crete, and promised to divide the sea, and give them a safe passage through' it. Theii delusion proved so strong and universal, that they neglected their lands, houses, and all other con- cerns, and took only so much with them as they could conveniently carry. And on the day ap- pointed, this false Moses, having led them to the top of a rock, men, women, and children, threw themselves headlong down into the sea, without the least hesitation or reluctance, till so great a number of them were drowned, as opened the eyes of the rest, and made them sensible of the cheat. They then began to look out for their pretended leader, but he disappeared, and escaped out of their hands. 3. In the reign of Justin, about 520, another impostor appeared, who called himself the son of Moses. His name was Dunaan. He entered into a city of Arabia Felix, and there he greatly oppressed the Christians ; but he was taken pri- soner, and put to death by Elesban, an iEthio- pian general. 4. in the year 529 the Jews and Samaritans rebelled against the emperor Justinian, and set up one Julian for their king ; and accounted him the Messiah. The emperor sent an army against them, killed great numbers of them, took their pretended Messiah prisoner, and immediately put him to death. 5. In the year 571 was born Mahomet, in Ara- bia. At first he professed himself the Messiah, who was promised to the Jews. By this means he drew many of that unhappy people after him. In some sense, therefore, he may be considered in the number of false Messiahs. See Maho- met anism. 6. About the year 721, in the time of Leo Isaurus, arose another false Messiah in Spain; his name was Serenus. He drew great numbers after him, to their no small loss and disappoint- ment, but all his pretensions came to nothing. 7. The twelt'th century was fruitful in false Messiahs ; for about the year 1137, there appear- ed one in France, who was put to death, and many of those who followed him. 8. In the year 1138 the Persians were dis- turbed with a Jew, who called himself the Mes- siah. He collected together a vast army. But he, too, was put to deatii, and his followers treated with great inhumanity. 9. In the year 1157, a false Messiah stirred up the Jews at Corduba, in Spain. The wiser and better sort, looked upon him as a madman, but the great body of the Jews in that nation believed MESSIAH in him. On this occasion almost all the Jews in Spain were destroyed 10. In the year 1107, another false Messiah arose in the kingdom of Fez, which brought great troubles and persecution upon the Jews that were scattered through that country. 11. In the same year an Arabian set up there for the Messiah, and pretended to work miracles. When searcn was made tor him, his followers fled, and he was brought before the Arabian king. Being questioned by him, he replied that he was a prophet sent from God. The king then asked him what sign he could show to confirm his mission. Cut off my head, said he, and I will return to life again. The king took him at his word, promising to believe him if his predic- tion came to pass. The poor wretch, however, never returned to life again, and the cheat was sufficiently discovered. Those who had heen deluded by him were grievously punished, and the nation condemned to a very heavy fine. 12. Not long after this, a Jew who dwelt be- yond Euphrates, called himself the Messiah, and drew vast multitudes of people after him. He gave this for a sign of it, that he had been leprous, and was cured in the course of one night. He, like the rest, perished in the attempt, and brought great persecution on his countrymen. 13. In the year 1174, a magician and false Christ arose in Persia, who was called David Almusser. He pretended that he could make himself invisible; but he was soon taken and put to death, and a heavy fine laid upon his brethren the Jews. 14. In the year 1170, another of these impos- tors arose in Moravia. But the reign of delu- sion is short, and his fate appears to have been similar to that of his predecessor. 15. In the year 1199, a famous cheat and rebel exerted himself in Persia, called David el David. He was a man of learning, a great magician, and pretended to be the Messiah. He raised an army against the king, hut was taken and imprisoned; and, having made his escape, was afterwards seized again, and beheaded. Vast numbers of the Jews were butchered for taking part with this impostor. 16. We are told of another false Christ in this same century by Maimonides and Solomon ; but they take no notice either of his name, country, or good or ill success. Here we may observe, that no less than Urn false Christs arose in the twelfth century, and brought prodigious calamities and destruc- tion upon the Jews in various quarters of the wcrld. 17. In the year 1497, we find another false Christ, whose name was Ismael Sophus, who deluded the Jews in Spain. He also perished, and as many as believed in him were dispersed. IS. In the year 1500, Rabbi Lemlem, a Ger- man Jew of Austria, declared himself a fore- runner of the Messiah, and pulled down his own oven, promising his brethren that they should bake their bread in the Holy Land next year. lit. In the year 1501), one whose name was Plefierkorn, a Jew of Cologne, pretended to be the Messiah. He afterwards aifected, however, to turn Christian. 'JO. in the year 1531, Rabbi Salomo Malcho, giving out that he was the Messiah, was burnt to death by Charles the Filth of Spain. 274 MESSIAH 21. In the year 1615, a false Christ arose in the East Indies, and was greatly followed by the Portuguese Jews, who were scattered over that country. 29. In the year 1624, another in the Low Countries pretended to be the Messiah of the family of David, and of the line of Nathan. He promised to destroy Rome, and to overthrow the kingdom of Antichrist, and the Turkish empire. _ 23. In the year 1666 appeared the false Mes- siah Sabatai Sevi, who made so great a noise, and gained such a number of proselytes. He was born at Aleppo, imposed on the Jews for a con- siderable time; but afterwards, with a view of saving his life, turned Mahometan, and was at last beheaded. As the history of this impostor is more entertaining than that of those we have already mentioned, 1 will give it at some length. The year 1666 was a year of great expecta- tion, and some wonderful thing was looked for by many. This was a lit time for an impostor to set up; and, accordingly, lying reports were carried about. It was said, that great multitudes marched from unknown parts to the remote de- serts of Arabia, and they were supposed to lie the ten tribes of Israel, who had been dispersed for many ages; that a ship was arrived in the north part of Scotland with sails and cordage of silk ; that the mariners spake nothing but He- brew; that on the sails was this motto, The Twelve Tribes of Israel. Thus were credulous men possessed at that time. Then it was that Sabatai Sevi appeared at Smyrna, and professed himself to be the Messias. He promised the Jews deliverance and a pros- perous kingdom. This which he promised they iirmly believed. The Jews now attended to no business, discoursed of nothing but their return, and believed Sabatai to be the Messias as iirmly as we Christians believe any article of faith. A right reverend person, then in Turkey, meeting with a Jew of his acquaintance at Aleppo, he asked him what he thought of Sabatai. The Jew replied, that he believed him to be the Mes- sias ; and that he was so far of that belief, that if he should prove an impostor, he would then turn Christian. It is lit we should be particular in this relation, because the history is so very sur- prising and remarkable ; and we have the account of it from those who were in Turkey. Sabatai Sevi was the son of Mordecai Sevi, a mean Jew of Smyrna. Sabatai was very bookisli, and arrived to great skill in the Hebrew learning Fie was the author of a new doctrine, and for it was expelled the city. He went thence to Sa- lonichi, of old called Thessalonica, where he mar- ried a very handsome woman, and was divorced from her." Then he travelled into the Morea, then to Tripoli, Gaza, and Jerusalem. By the way he picked up a third wife. At Jerusalem he began to reform the Jews' constitutions, and abolish one of their solemn fasts, and communi- cated his designs of professing himself to be the Messias to one Nathan. He was pleased with it, and set up for his Elias, or forerunner, and took upon him to abolish all the Jewish fasts, as not beseeming when the bridegroom was now come. Nathan prophesied that the Messias should ap- pear before the Grand Seignior in less than two years, and take from him his crown, and lead him in chains. At Gaza, Sabatai preached repentance, to- MESSIAH pether with a faith in himself, so effectually, that the people gave themselves up to their devciions and alms. The noise of this Messias began to till all places. Sabatai now resolves for Smyrna, anil then for Constantinople. Nathan writes to him from Damascus, and thus he begins his let- ter : "To the king, our kin?, lonl of lords, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, who redeems our captivity, the man elevated to the height of all su- blimity, the Messias of the God of Jacob, the true Messias, the celestial Lion, Sabatai Sevi." And now, throughout Turkey, the Jews were in great expectation of glorious times. They now were devout and penitent, that they might not obstruct the good which they hoped for. Some fasted so long, that they Wre famished to death; others buried themselves in the earth till their limbs grew stiff; some would endure melting wax dropped on their flesh ; some rolled in snow ; others, in a cold season, would put themselves into cold water; and many buried themselves. Business was laid aside ; superflui- ties of household utensils were sold ; the poor wore provided for by immense contributions. Sabatai comes to Smyrna, where he was adored by the people, though the Chacham contradicted him, for which he was removed from his office. There he in writing styles himself the only and first-born Son of God, the Messias, the Saviour of Israel. And though he met with some oppo- sition, yet he prevailed there at last to that de- gree, that some of his followers prophesied, and fell into strange ecstacies: four hundred men and women prophesied of his growing kingdom ; and young infants, who could hardly speak, would plainly pronounce Sabatai, Messias, and Son of God. The people were for a long time possessed, and voices heard from their bowels : some fell into trances, foamed at the mouth, recounted their fu- ture prosperity, their visions of the Lion of Judah, and the triumphs of Sabatai. All which, says the relater, were certainly true, being effects of dia- bolical delusions, as the Jews themselves have since confessed. Now the impostor swells and assumes. Whereas the Jews, in their synagogues, were wont to pray for the Grand Seignior, he orders those prayers to be forborne for the future, think- ing it an indecent thing to pray for him who was shortly to be his captive ; and instead of praying for the Turkish emperor, he appoints prayers for • himself. He also elected princes to govern the Jews in their march towards the Holy Land, and to mi:iister justice to them when they should be possessed of it. These princes were men well known in the city of Smyrna at that time. The people were now pressing to see some miracle to confirm their faith, and to convince the Gen- tiles. Here the impostor was puzzled, though any juggling trick would have served their turn. But the credulous people supplied this defect. When Sabatai was before the Cadi (or justice of peace,) some affirmed they saw a pillar of fire between him and the Cadi ; and after some had affirmed it, others were ready to swear to it and did swear it also ; and this was presently believed by the Jews of that city. He that did not now believe him to be the Messias was to bo shunned ns an excommunicated person. The impostor now declares that he was called of God to see Constantinople, where he had much to do. He ehips liimself to that end, in a Turkish saick. in 275 MESSIAH January, lf>(>f>. He had a long and troublesome voyage ; he had not power over the sea and winds. The Vizier, upon the news, sends for him, and confines him in a loathsome prison. The Jews pay him their visits; and they of this city are as infatuated ^s those in Smyrna. They forbid traffic, and refuse to pay their debts. Some of our English merchants, not knowing how to recover their debts from the Jews, took this oc- casion to visit Sabatai, and make their complaints to him against his subjects ; whereupon he wrote the following letter to the Jews. " To you'of the nation of the Jews, who ex- pect the appearance of the Messias, and the sal- vation of Israel, peace without end. Whereas we are informed that you are indebted to several of the English nation, it seemeth right unto us to order you to make satisfaction to these your just debts, which, if you refuse to do, and not obey us herein, know you that then you arc not to enter with us into our joys and dominions." Sabatai remained a prisoner in Constantinople, for the space of two months. The Grand Vi- zier, designing for Candia, thought it not safe to leave him in the city during the Grand Seignior's absence and his own. He, therefore, removed him to the Dardanelli, a better air, indeed, but yet out of the way, and consequently importing less danger to the city; which occasioned the Jews to conclude that the Turks could not, or durst not, take away his life ; which had, they concluded, been the surest way to have removed all jealousy. The Jews flocked in great numbers to the castle where he was a prisoner; not only those that were near, but from Poland, Germany, Leghorn, Venice, and other places; they received Sabatai's blessing, and promises of advancement. The Turks made use of this confluence; they raised the price of their lodgings and provisions, and put 'heir price upon those who desired to see Sabatai, for their admittance. This profit stopped their mouths, and no complaints were for this cause sent to Adrianople. Sabatai, in his confinement, appoints the man- ner of his own nativity. He commands the Jews to keep it on the ninth day of the month Ab, and to make it a day of great joy, to celebrate it with pleasing meats and drinks, with illuminations and music. He obligeth them to acknowledge the love of God, in giving them that day of con- solation for the birth of their king Messias, Sa- batai Sevi, his servant and first-born Son in love. We may observe, by the way, the insolence of this impostor. This day was a solemn day of fasting among the Jews formerly, in memory of the burning of the temple by the Chaldeos : several other sad things happened in this month, as the Jews observe ; that then, and upon the same day, the second temple was destroyed ; and that in this month it was decreed in the wilder- ness that the Israelites should not enter into Ca- naan, &c. Sabatai was born on this day; and, therefore, the fast must be turned to a feast; whereas, in truth, it had been well lor the Jews had he not been born at all ; and much better for himself, as will appear from what follows. The Jews of that city paid Sabatai Sevi great res|>ect They decked their synagogues with S. S. in letters of gold, and made for him in the wall a crown : they attributed the same titles and. prophecies to him which we apply to our Saviour. He was also, during this imprisonment, visited by. MESSIAH pilgrims from all parts, that had heard his story. Among whom Nchemiah Cohen, from Poland, was one, — a man of great learning in the Cabala and eastern tongues, who desired a conference with Sahatai, and at the conference maintained that, according to the Scripture, there ought to De a twofold Messias; one the son of Ephraim, a poor and despised teacher of the law ; the other the son of David, to be a conqueror. Nehemiah was content to be the former, the son of Ephraim, and to leave the glory and dignity of the latter to Sabatai. Sabaf.ai, from what appears, did not dis- like this. But here lav the ground of the quarrel : Nehemiah taught that the son of Ephraim ought to be the forerunner of the son of David, and to usher him in ; and Nehemiah accused Sabatai of too great forwardness in appearing as the son of David, before the son of Ephraim had led him the way. Sabatai could not brook this doctrine; for he might fear that the son of Ephraim, who was to lead the way, might pretend to be the son of David, and so leave him in the lurch ; and, there- fore, he excluded him from any part or share in this matter, which was the occasion of the ruin of Sabatai, and all his glorious designs. Nehe- miah, being disappointed, goes to Adrianople, and informs the great ministers of state against Sabatai, as a lewd and dangerous person to the government, and that it was necessary to take him out of the way. The Grand Seignior, being informed of this, sends for Sabatai, who, much dejected, appears before him. The Grand Seig- nior requires a miracle, and chooses one him- self; and it was this : that Sabatai should be stripped naked, and set as a mark for his archers to shoot at ; and if the arrows did not pierce his flesh, he would own him to be the Messias. Sa- batai had not faith enough to bear up under so great a trial. The Grand Seignior let him know that he would forthwith impale him, and that the stake was prepared for him, unless he would turn Turk. Upon which he consented to turn Ma- hometan, to the great confusion of the Jews. And yet some of the Jews were so vain as to affirm that it was not Sabatai himself, but his shadow, that professed the religion, and was seen in the habit of a Turk; so great was their obsti- nacy and infidelity, as if it were a thing impossi- ble to convince these deluded and infatuated wretches. After all this, several of the Jews continued to use the forms in their public worship, prescribed by this Mahometan Messias, which obliged the principal Jews of Constantinople to send to the synagogue of Smyrna to forbid this practice. During these things, the Jews, instead of mind- ing their trade and traffic, filled their letters with news of Sabatai their Messias, and his won- derful works. They reported, that, when the Grand Seignior sent to take him, he caused all the messengers that were sent to die; and when other Janizaries were sent, they fell dead by a word from his mouth ; and being requested to do it, he caused them to revive again. They added, that, though the prison where Sabatai lay was barred and fastened with strong iron locks, yet he was seen to walk through the streets with a numerous train ; that the shackles which were Upon his neck and feet did not fall off, but wore turned into gold, with which Sabatai gratified his followers. Upon the fame of these things, the Jews of Italy sent iegates to Smyrna, to in- •27<; METHODIST quire into the truth of these matters. When the legates arrived at Smyrna, they heard of the news that Sabatai was turned Turk, to their very great confusion ; but going to visit the brother of Sabatai, he endeavoured to persuade them that Sabatai was still the true Messias ; that it was not Sabatai that went about in the habit of a Turk, but his angel or spirit ; thai his body was taken into heaven, and should be sent down again when God should think it a fit season. He added, that Nathan, his forerunner, who had wrought many miracles, would soon be at Smyrna ; that he would reveal hidden things to them, and confirm them. But this Elias was not suffered to come into Smyrna ; and though the legates saHv him elsewhere, they received no satisfaction at all. 24. The last false Christ that had made any considerable number of converts was one Rabbi Mordccai, a Jew of Germany ; he appeared in the year 1G32. It was not long before he was found out to be an impostor, and was obliged to fly from Italy to Poland, to save his life. What became of him afterwards, does not seem to be recorded. This may be considered as true and exact an account of the false Christs that have arisen since the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour, as can well be given. See Johannes d Lent's Hist. of False Messiahs ; Jortin's Rem. on Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 330; Kidder's Demonstration of the Messias ; Harris's Sermon on the Mes- siah; The Eleventh Volume of the Modern Part of the Universal History ; Simpson's Key to the Prophecies, sec. 9 ; Maclaurin on the Prophecies relating to the Messiah; Puller's Jesus the true Messiah. METHODIST, a name applied to different sects, both Papists and Protestants. — 1. The Popish Methodists were those polemical doctors who arose in France about the middle of the seventeenth century, in opposition to the Hugue- nots, or Protestants. These Methodists, Irorn their different manner of treating the controversy with their opponents, may be divided into two classes. The one comprehends those doctors whose method of disputing with the Protestants was disingenuous and unreasonable; and who followed the example of those military chiefs, who shut up their troops in entrenchments and strong-holds, in order to cover them from the attacks of the enemy. Of this number were the Jesuit Veron, who required the Protestants to prove the tenets of their church by plain passages of Scripture, without being allowed the liberty of illustrating those passages, reasoning upon them, or drawing any conclusions from them; Nihusius, an apostate from the Protestant reli gion ; the two Wallenburgs, and others, who confined themselves to the business of answering objections ; and cardinal Richelieu, who confined the whole controversy to the single article of the divine institution and authority of the church. — ■2. The Methodists of the second class were of opinion, that the most expedient manner of re- ducing the Protestants to silence, was not to attack° them by piecemeal, but to overwhelm them at once by the weight of some general prin- ciple, or presumption, or some universal argu- ment, which comprehended or might be applied to all the points contested between the two churches; thus imitating the conduct of those METHODISTS military leaders, who, instead of spending their time and strength in sieges and skirmishes, en- deavoured to put an end to the war by a general and decisive action. Some of these polemics rested the defence of popery upon prescription ; others upon the wicked lives of Protestant princes who had left the church of Rome ; others, the crime of religious schism ; the variety of opinions among Protestants with regard to doctrine and dicipline, and the uniformity of the tenets and worship of the church of Rome; and thus, by urging their respective arguments, they thought they should stop the mouths of their adversaries at once. METHODISTS, PROTESTANT, origin of. — It is not generally known that the name of Methodist had been given long before to a reli- gious sect in England, or, at least, to a party in religion which was distinguished by some of the same marks as are now supposed to apply to the Methodists. John Spence, who was librarian of Sion College in 1657, in a book which he pub- lished, says, " Where are now cur Anabaptists and plain pikestaff Methodists, who esteem all flowers of rhetoric in sermons no better than stinking weeds?" — But the denomination to which we here refer, was founded in the year 1729, by one Mr. Morgan and Mr. John Wes- ley. In the month of November that year, the latter, being then fellow of Lincoln College, be- gan to spend some evenings in reading the Greek Testament, with Charles Wesley, student, Mr. Morgan, commoner of Christ Church, and Mr. Kirkham, of Merton College. Not long after- wards, two or three of the pupils of Mr. John Wesley obtained leave to attend these meetings. They then began to visit the sick in different parts of the town, and the prisoners also, who were confined in the castle. Two years after they were joined by Mr. Ingham, of Glueen's College, Mr. Broughton, and Mr. Hervey ; and in 1735, by the celebrated Mr. Whitfield, then in his eighteenth year. At this time their number in Oxford amounted to about fourteen. They obtained their name from the exact regularity of their lives, which gave occasion to a young gen- tleman of Christ Church to say, "Here is a new sect of Methodists sprung up!" alluding to a sect of ancient physicians who were called Metho- dists, because they reduced the whole healing art to a few common principles, and brought it into some method and order. At the time that this society was formed, it is said that the whole kingdom of England was tending fast to infidelity. "It is come," says bishop Butler, " I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry ; but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious ; and accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreement among all people of dis- cernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." There is every reason to believe that the Methodists were the instruments of stemming this torrent. The sick and the poor also tasted the fruits of their labours and benevolence : Mr. Wesley abridged himself of all his superfluities, and pro- posed a fund for the relief oi the indigent ; and so prosperous was the scheme, that they quickly 277 METHODISTS increased their fund to eighty pounds per annum. This, which one should have thought would have been attended with praise instead of censure, quickly drew upon them a kind of persecution ; some of the seniors of the university began to in- terfere, and it was reported " that the college cen- sors were going to blow up the godly club.'' They found themselves, however, patronized and encouraged by some men eminent for their learn- ing and virtue ; so that the society still continued, though they had suffered a severe loss, in 1730, by the death of Mr. Morgan, who, it is said, was the founder of it. In October, 1735, John and Charles Wesley, Mr. Ingham, and Mr. Dela- motte, son of a merchant in London, embarked for Georgia, in order to preach the Gospel to the Indians. After their arrival they were at first fa- vourably received, but in a short time lost the affection of the people ; and, on account of some differences with the storekeeper, Mr. Wesley was obliged to return to England. Mr. Wesley, however, was soon succeeded by Mr. Whitfield, whose repeated labours in that part of the world are well known. II. Methodists, tenets of.— After Mr. Whit- field returned from America in 1741, he declared his full assent to the doctrines of Calvin. Mr Wesley, on the contrary, professed the Arminian doctrine, and had printed in favour of perfection and universal redemption, and very strongly against election ; a doctrine which Mr. Whitfield believed to be scriptural. The difference, there- fore, of sentiments between these two great men caused a separation. Mr. Wesley preached in a place called the Foundry, where Mr. Whitfield preached but once, and no more. Mr. Whitfield then preached to very large congregations out of doors, and soon after, in connexion with Mr. Cennick, and one or two mere, began a new house in Kingswood, Gloucestershire, and esta- blished a school that favoured Calvinistic preachers. The Methodists, therefore, were now divided; one part following Mr. Wesley, and the other Mr. Whitfield. The doctrines of the Wesleyan Methodists, according to their own account, are the same as the church of England, as set forth in her liturgy, articles, and homilies. This, however, has been dis- puted. Mr. Wesley, in his appeal to men of reason and religion, thus declares his sentiments: "All I teach," he observes, " respects either the nature and condition of justification, the nature and con- dition of salvation, the nature of justifying and saving faith, or the Author of faith and salvation. That justification whereof our articles and ho- milies speak signifies present forgiveness, and con- sequently acceptance with God : I believe the condition of this is faith : I mean not only that without faith we cannot be justified, but also that, as soon as any one lias true faith, in that mo- ment he is justified. Good works follow this faith, but cannot go before it; much less can sanctification, which implies a continued course of good works, springing from holiness of heart. But it is allowed that sanctification goes before our justification at the last day, Heb. xii. 14. Re- pentance, and fruits meet for repentance, go be- fore faith. Repentance absolutely must go before faith ; fruits meet for it, if there be opportunity. By repentance I mean conviction of sin, pro- ducing real desires and sincere resolutions of amendment ; by salvation, I mean not barely da- METHODISTS liveranec from hell, but a present deliverance from sin. Faith, in general, is a divine superna- tural evidence, or conviction of things not seen, not discoverable by our bodily senses : justifying faith implies not only a divine evidence or con- viction that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, but a sure trust and confi- dence that Christ died for my sins, that he loved me, and gave himself for me. A nd the moment a penitent sinner believes this, God pardons and absolves him : and as soon as his pardon or justi- fication is witnessed to him by the Holy Ghost, he is saved. From that time (unless he make shipwreck of the faith) salvation gradually in- creases in his soul. " The Author of faitli and salvation is God alone. There is no more of power than of merit in man ; but as all merit is in the Son of God: in what lie has done and suffered for us, so all power is in the Spirit of God. And, therefore, every man, in order to believe unto salvation, must re- ceive the Holy Ghost." So far Mr. Wesley. Respecting original sin, free will, the justification of men, good works, and works done before jus- tification, he refers us to what is said on these subjects in the former part of the ninth, the tenth, the eleventh, the twelfth, and thirteenth articles of the church of England. One of Mr. Wesley's preachers bears this testimony of him and his sentiments : " The Gospel, considered as a general plan of salvation, he viewed as a dis- play of the divine perfections, in a way agreeable to the nature of God; in which all the divine attributes harmonize, and shine forth with pecu- liar lustre. — The Gospel, considered as a means to attain an end, appeared to him to discover as great fitness in the means to the end as can pos- sibly be discovered in the structure of natural bodies, or in the various operations of nature, from a view of which we draw qur arguments for the existence of God. — Man he viewed as blind, ig- norant, wandering out of the way, with his mind estranged from God. — He considered the Gospel as a dispensation of mercy to men, holding forth pardon, a free pardon of sin to all who repent and believe in Christ Jesus. The Gospel, he believed, inculcates universal holiness both in heart and in the conduct of life. — He showed a mind well instructed in the oracles of God, and well ac- quainted with human nature. He contended, that the first step to be a Christian is to repent; and that, till a man is convinced of the evil of sin, and is determined to depart~Trom it ; till he is convinced that there is a beauty in holiness, and something truly desirable in being reconciled to God, he is not prepared to receive Christ. The second important and necessary step, he. believed to be faith, agreeable to the order of the apostle, 'Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,' Acts xx. '20, '21. In explain- ing sanctification, he accurately distinguished it from j'l ' ification, or the pardon of sin. Justifica- tion admits us into a state of grace and favour with God, and lays the foundation of sanctifi- cation, or < Christian holiness, in all its extent. There has been a great clamour raised against him because lie called his view of sanctification by the word perfection ; but he often explained what he meant by this term. He meant by the word perfi eti >n, such a degree of the love of God, ind the love of man ; such a degree of the love of ;usiiec, truth, holiness, and purity, as, will remove i;78 METHODISTS from the heart everv contrary disposition towards God or man ; and that this should be our state of mind in every situation and in every circum- stance of life. — He maintained that God is a God of love, not to a part of bis creatures only, but to all ; that He who is the Father of all, who made ail, who stands in the same relation to all his creatures, loves them all ; that he loved the world, and cave his Son a ransom for all without dis- tinction of persons. It appeared to him, that to represent God as partial, as confining his love to a few, was unworthy our notions of the Deity. He maintained that Christ died for all men ; that he is to be offered to all ; that all are to be invited to come to him; and that whosoever comes in the way which God has appointed, may partake of i his blessings. He supposed that sufficient grace is given to all, in that way and manner which is best adapted to influence the mind. He did not believe salvation was by works. So far was ho from putting works in the place of the blood of Christ, that he only gave them their just value: he considered them as the fruits of a living, ope- rative faith, and as the measure of our future reward ; for every man will be rewarded not for bis works, but according to the measure of them. He gave the whole glory of salvation to God- from first to last. He believed that man would never turn to God, if God did not begin the work : he often said that the first approaches of grace to the mind are irresistible ; that is, that a man can- not avoid being convinced that he is a sinner; that God, by various means, awakens his eon- science ; and, whether the man will or no, these convictions approach him." In order that we may form still clearer ideas respecting Mr. Wes- ley's opinions, we shall here quote a few ques- tions and answers as laid down in the Minutes of Conference. GL "In what sense is Adam's sin imputed to all mankind?" A. "In Adam all die, i. e. 1. Our bodies then became mortal. — 2. Our souls died, i. e. were disunited from God. And hence, — 3. We are all born with a sinful, devilish nature ; by reason whereof, — 4. We are children of wrath, liable to death eternal," Rom. v. 18; Eph. ii. 3. GL. "In what sense is the righteousness of Christ imputed to all mankind, or to believers?" A. "We do not find it ex- pressly affirmed in Scripture that God impute* the righteousness of Christ to any, although we do find that faith is imputed for righteousness. That text, 'As by one man's disobedience ail men were made sinners, so by the obedience oi one all were made righteous,' we conceive, means by the merits of Christ all men are cleared from the guilt of Adam's actual sin." GL. "Can faith be lost but through disobedience'?" A. " It can- not. A believer first inwardly disobeys ; inclines to sin with his heart ; then his intercourse with God is cut off, i. c. his faith is lost ; and alter this he may fall into outward sin, being now weak, and like another man." GL "What is implied in being a perfect Christian ?" A. " The loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and villi all our mind, and soul, and strength." U. Does this imply *hat all inward sin is taken awaj 7 A. "Witv.out doubt; or how could we be said to be Baved from all our undeannessT* Eoek. xxxvi. 29. U. "How much is allowed by our brethren who differ from us with regard to entire sanctification?" A. "They grant, 1. That every one must be entirely sanctified in the article of METHODISTS death. — 2. That till then a believer daily grows in grace, comes nearer and nearer to perfection. — 3. That we ought to be continually pressing after this, and to exhort all others to do so." d. "What do we allow them?" A. "We grant, 1. That many of those who have died in the faith, yea, the greater part of those we have known, were not sanctified throughout, not made perfect in love, till a little before death.— 2. That the term sanctified is continually applied by St. Paul to all that were justified, that were true be- lievers.— 3. That by this term alone he rarely (if ever) means saved from all sin. — i. That conse- quently it is not proper to use it in this sense, without adding the word 'wholly, entirely,' or the like. — 5. That the inspired writers almost continually speak of or to those who were justified, lrt.it very rarely either of or to those who were sanc- tifiel. — G. That it consequently behoves us to speik in public almost continually of the state of justification; but more rarely in full and explicit terns concerning entire sanctification." Q.. "What, then, is the point wherein we divide?" A. "It is this : Whether we should expect to be saved from all sin before the article of death." GL. " Is there any clear Scripture promise of this, that God will save us from all sin ']" A. " There is. Ps. exxx. 8 : ' He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.' This is more largely expressed in E^ek. xxxvi. 25, 29; 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; Dcut. xxx. 6 ; 1 John iii. 8 ; Eph. v. 25, 27 ; John xvii. 20, 23 ; 1 John iv. 17." Thus I have endeavoured to give a view of the tenets of the Wesleyan Methodists ; and this 1 have chosen to do in their own words, in order to prevent misrepresentation. As to the doctrines of the Calvinistic Metho- dists, they need not be inserted here, as the reader will find the substance of them under the article Calvimsts. III. Methodists, government and discipline of. — A considerable number both of the Calvin- ist and Arminian Methodists approve of the dis- cipline of the church of England, while many, it is said, are dissenters in principle. Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitfield were both brought up in, and paid peculiar respect to that church. They did not, however, as it is well known, confine them- selves to her laws in all respects as it related to discipline. Mr. Wesley having formed numerous socie- ties in different parts, he, with his brother Charles, drew up certain rules, by which they were, and it seems in many respects still are governed. They state the nature and design of a Methodist society in the following words : " Such a society is no other than a company of men having the form and seeking the power of godliness ; united, in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation." " That it may the more easily be discerned whether they are indeed working out their own salvation, each society is divided into smaller companies, called classes, according to their re- spective places of abode. There are a' "nit twelve persons (sometimes fifteen, twenty, or even more) in each class; one of whom is styled their 'leader. It is his business. 1. To see each person in his class once a week, at least, in order to inquire how their souls prosper ; to advise, reprove, com- 279 METHODISTS fort, or exhort, as occasion may require; to re- ceive what they are willing to give to the poor, or toward the Gospel. — 2. To meet the minister and the stewards of the society once a week, in order to inform the minister of any that are sick, or of any that walk disorderly, and will not be reproved : to pay to the stewards what they have received of their several classes in the week pre- ceding ; and to show their account of what each person has contributed. "There is only one condition previously re- quired of those who desire admission into these societies, namely, A desire to fice from the wrath to come ; to be saved from their sins: but wher- ever this is really fixed in the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is, therefore, expected of all who continue therein, that they should con- tinue to evidence their desire of salvation, "First, By doing no harm; by avoiding evil in every kind ; especially that which is most generally practised, such as the taking the name of God in vain; the profaning the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work thereon, or by buying or selling ; drunkenness ; buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, un- less in cases of extreme necessity ; fighting, quarrelling, brawling ; brother going to laic with brother ; returning evil for evil, or railing for rail- ing ; the using many words in buying or selling; the buying or selling uncustomed goods; the giving or taking things on usury, i. e. unlawful interest. " Uncharitable or unprofitable conversation / particularly, speaking evil of magistrates, or of ministers. " Doing to others as we would not they should do unto us. "Doing what we know is not for the glory of God ; as the putting on gold or costly apparel ; the taking such diversions as cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus. " The singing those songs, or reading those books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God ; softness, and needless self-indulgence ; laying up treasure upon earth ; borrowing with- out a probability of paying ; or taking up goods without a probability of paying for them. " It is expected of all who continue in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation, " Secondly, By doing good ; by being in every kind merciful after their power, as they have op- portunity; doing good of every possible sort, and as far as possible to all men : to their bodies, of the ability which God giveth ; by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick, or in prison : to their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine of devils, that ' We are not to do good, unless our hearts be free to it.' " By doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith, or groaning so to be ; em- ploying them preferably to others ; buying one of another; helping each other in business ; and so much the more, because the world will love its own, and them only ; by all possible diligence and frugality that the Gospe,1 be not blamed ; by running with patience the race set before them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross daily ; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ ; U> be as the filth and ofTscouring of the world, METHODISTS and looking that men should say au manner of evil of tliem falsely for the Lord's sake. " It is expected of all who desire to continue in these societies, that they should continue to evi- dence their desire of salvation, " Thirdly, By attending on all the ordinances of God : such are, — The public worship of God ; the ministry of the word, either read or expound- ed; the supper of the Lord; family and private prayer; searching the Scriptures; and fasting and abstinence. " These are the general rules of our societies, all which we are taught of God to observe, even in his written word : the only true rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice ; and all these we know his Spirit writes on every truly awakened heart. If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be made known unto them who watch over that soul, aS they who must give an account, We will admonish him of the error of his ways : we will bear with him for a season ; but then, if he repent not, he hath no more place among us : we have delivered our own souls. "May 1, 1743. John Wesley. Charles Wesley." In Mr. "Wesley's connexion, they have cir- cuits and conferences, which we find were thus formed : — When the preachers at first went out to exhort and preach, it was by Air. Wesley's permission and direction ; some from one part of the kingdom, and some from another; and though frequently strangers to each other, and those to whom they were sent, yet on his credit and sanction alone they were received and pro- vided for as friends by the societies wherever they came. But having little or no communication or intercourse with one another, nor any subordina- tion among themselves, they must have been under the necessity of recurring to Mr. Wesley for directions how and where they were to labour. To remedy this inconvenience, he conceived the design of calling them together to an annual con- ference; by this means he brought them into closer union with each other, and made them sensible of the utility of acting in concert and harmony. He soon found it necessary, also, to bring their itinerancy under certain regulations, and reduce it to some fixed order, both to prevent confusion, and for his own ease ; he therefore took fifteen or twenty societies, more or less, which lay round some principal society in those parts, anil which were so situated, that the great- est distance from one to another was not much more than twenty miles, and united them into what was called a circuit. At the yearly confer- ence he appointed two, three, or four preachers to one of these circuits, according to its extent, which at first was very often considerable, some- times taking in a part of three or four counties. Here, anil here only, were they to labour for one year, that is, until the next conference. One of the preachers on every circuit was called the as- sistant, l>ccausc he assisted Mr. Wesley in super- intending the societies and other preachers ; he took charge of the societies within the limits assigned him ; lie enforced the rules every where, anil directed the labours ol the preachers asso- ciated with him. Bavins received a list of the societies forming his circuit, he took his own sta- tion in it, givf to the other preachers a plan of it, and pointed out the day when each should be 2S0 METHODISTS at the place fixed for him, to begin a profrressive motion round it, in such order as the plan directed. They now followed one another through all the societies belonging to that circuit, at stated dis- tances of time, all being governed by the same rules, and undergoing the same labour. By this plan, every preacher's daily work was appointed beforehand ; each knew, every day, where the others were, and each society when to expect the preacher, and how long he would stay with them. — It may be observed, however, that Mr. Weslev's design in calling the preachers together annually, was not merely for the regulation of the circuits, but also for the review of their doc- trines and discipline, and for the examination of their unral conduct ; that those who were to administer with him in holy things might be thoroughly furnished for every good work. The first conference was held in June, 1744, at which Mr. Wesley met his brother, two or three other clergymen, and a few of the preach- ers whom he had appointed to come from various parts, to confer with them on the affairs of the societies. " Monday, June 25," observes Mr. Wesley, "and the five following days, we spent in confer- ence with our preachers, seriously considering by what means we might the most effectually save our own souls, and them that heard us ; and the result ol our consu'»ations we set down to be the rule of our future practice." Since that time a conference has been held annually, Mr. Wesley himself having presided at forty-seven. The subjects of their delibera- tions were proposed in the form of questions, which were amply discussed, and the questions with the answers, agreed upon, were afterwards printed, under the title of " Minutes of several Conversations between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and others," commonly called Minutes of Conference. As to their preachers, the following extract from the above-mentioned Minutes of Confer- ence will show us in what manner they are chosen and designated : Q.. " How shall we try those who think they are moved by the Holy Ghost to preach?" A. "Inquire, 1. Do they know God as a pardoning God ? Have they the love of God abiding in them? Do they desire and seek nothing but God ? And are they holy in all manner of conversation? '2. Have they gifts as well as grace for the work ? Have they, in some tolerable degree, a clear, sound under- standing? Have they a fight judgment in the things of God ? Have they a just conception of salvation by faith? And has God given them any degree of utterance ? Do they speak justly, readily, clearly ? — 3. Have they fruit? Are any triilv convinced of sin, and converted to God, by their preaching? "As long as these three marks concur in any one, we believe he is called of God to preach. These we receive as sufficient proof that he is moved thereto by the Holy Ghost. GL " What method may we use in receiving a new helper?" A. " A proper time for doing this is at a conference, after solemn fasting and pray- er ; every person proposed is then to be present, and each of them may be asked, — " Have you faith '.n Christ? Are yon going on to perfection .' Do ywu expect to he perfected in lave in this life? Are you groaning alter it ! Arc you resolved to devote yourself wholly to METHODISTS God and to his work ? Have you considered the rules of a helper ? Will you keep them for con- science' sake ? Are you determined to employ all your time in the work of God ? Will you preach every morning and evening ? Will you diligently instruct the children in every place? Will you visit from house to house ? Will you recommend fasting both by precept and example? " We then may receive him as a probationer, by giving him the Minutes of the Conference, in- scribed thus: — 'To A. B. You think it your duty to call sinners to repentance. Make full proof hereof, and we shall rejoice to receive you as a fellow-labourer.' Let him then read and carefully weigh what is contained therein, that if he has any doubt it may be removed." " To the above it may be useful to add," says Mr. Benson, "a few remarks on the method pur- sued in the choice of the itinerant -preachers, as many have formed the most erroneous ideas on the subject, imagining they are employed with hardly any prior preparation. — 1. They are re- ceived as private members of the society on trial. 2. After a quarter of a year, if they are found deserving, they are admitted as proper members. 3. When their grace and abilities are sufficiently manifest, they are appointed leaders of classes 4. If they then discover talents for more impor- tant services, they are employed to exhort ocea sionally in the smaller congregations, when the preachers cannot attend. — 5. If approved in this line of duty, they are allowed to preach. — 6. Out of these men who are called local preachers, are selected the itinerant preachers, who are first proposed at a quarterly meeting of the stewards and local preachers of the circuit; then at a meeting of the travelling preachers of the district ; and lastly, in the conference; and if accepted, are nominated for a circuit. — 7. Their characters and conduct are examined annually in the confer- ence ; and, if they continue faithful for four years of trial, they are received into full connexion. At these conferences, also, strict inquiry is made into the conduct and success of every preacher, and those who are found deficient in abilities are no longer employed as itinerants ; while those whose conduct has not been agreeable to the Gospel, are expelled, and thereby deprived of all the privi- leges even of private members of the society." IV. Methodists, new connexion of. — Since Mr. Wesley's death, his people have been di- vided ; but this division, it seems, respects dis- cipline more than sentiment. Mr. Wesley pro- fessed a strong attachment to the established church of England, and exhorted the societies under his care to attend her service, and receive the Lord's Supper from the regular clergy. But in the lacter part of his time he thought proper to ordain some bishops and priests for America and Scotland ; but as one or two of the bishops have never been out of England since their appoint- ment to the office, it is probable that he intended a regular ordination should take place when the state of the connexion might render it necessary. During his life, some of the societies petitioned to have preaching 'n their own chapels in church hours, and the Lord's Supper administered by the travelling preachers. This request he generally refused, and where it could be conveniently done, sent some of the clergymen who officiated at the Wl.v Chapel in London, to perforin these solemn services. At the iirot conference after lus death, 281 2 L METHODISTS which was held at Manchester, the preachers published a declaration, in which they said that they would " take up the Plan as Mr. Wesley had left it." This was by no means satisfactory to manv of the preachers and people, who thought that religious liberty ought to be extended to all the societies which desired it. In order to favour this cause, so agreeable to the spirit of Chris- tianity, and the rights of Englishmen, several re- spectable preachers came forward; and by the writings which they circulated through the con- nexion, paved the way for a plan of pacification ; by which it was stipulated, that in every society where a three-fold majority of class-leaders, stew- ards, and trustees desired it, the people should have preaching in church hours, and the sacra- ments of baptism and the Lord's Supper admin- istered to them. The spirit of inquiry being roused did not stop here ; for it appeared agree- able both to reason and the customs of the primi- tive church, that the people should have a voice in the temporal concerns of the societies, vote in the election of church-officers, and give their suffrages in spiritual concerns. This subject produced a variety of arguments on both sides of the question : many of the preachers and people thought that an annual delegation of the general stewards of the circuits, to sit either in the conference or the dis- trict meetings, in order to assist in the disburse- ment of the yearly collection, the Kingswood School collection, and the preachers' fund, and in making new or revising old laws, would be a bond of union between the conference and con- nexion at large, and do away the very idea of ar- bitrary power among the travelling preachers. In order to facilitate this good work, many societies in various parts of the kingdom sent delegates to the conference held at Leeds in 1797 ; they were instructed to request, that the people might have a voice in the formation of their own laws, the choice of their own officers, and the distribu- tion of their own properly. The preachers pro- ceeded to discuss two motions : Shall delegates from the societies be admitted into the confer- ence? Shall circuit stewards be admitted into the district meetings ? Both motions were negatived, and consequently all hopes of accommodation between the parties were given up. Several friends of religious liberty proposed a plan for a new itinerancy. In order that it might be carried into immediate effect, they formed ♦hemselves into a regular meeting, in Ebenezer Chapel. Mr. William Thom being chosen president, and Mr. Alexander Kilham, secretary. The meeting proceeded to arrange the plan for supplying the circuits of the new connexion with preachers; and desired the president and secretary to draw up the rules of the church government, in order that they might be circulated through the societies for their approbation. Accordingly, a lorm of church government, suited to an itinerant minis- try, was printed by these two brethren, under the title of " Outlines of a Constitution proposed for the Examination, Amendment, and Accept- ance of the Members of the Methodist New Itinerancy." The plan was examined by select committees in the diflerent circuits of the con- nexion, and, with a few alterations, was accepted by the conference of preachers and delegates. The preachers and people are incorporated in ail meetings for business, not by temporary concus- sion, but by the essential principles of their coa- METHODISTS etitution ; for tho private members choose (he class-leaders ; the leaders' meeting nominates the stewards; and the society confirms or rejects the nomination. The quarterly meetings arc composed of the general stewards and representa- tives chosen by the different societies of the cir- cuits, and the fourth quarterly meeting of the year appoints the preacher and delegate of every circuit that shall attend the general conference. For a further account of their principles and discipline, we must refer the reader to a pamphlet, entitled General Utiles of the United Societies of Me- thodists in the New Connexion. The Calvinistic Methodists are not incor- porated into a body as the Arminians are, but are chiefly under the direction or influence of their ministers or patrons. It is necessary to observe here that there are many congregations in London, and elsewhere, who, although they are called Methodists, yet are neither in Mr. Wesley's, Mr. Whitfield's, nor the new connexion. Some of these are supplied by a variety of ministers ; and others, bordering more upon the congregational plan, have a re- sident minister. The clergy of the church of England who strenuously preach up her doctrines and articles, are called Methodists. A distinct connexion upon Mr. Whitfield's plan, was formed and patronised by the late Lady Huntingdon, and which still subsists. The term Methodist, also, is applied by way of reproach to almost every one who manifests more than common concern for the interests of religion, and the spiritual good of mankind. V. Methodists, numbers, and success of. — Not- withstanding the general contempt once thrown upon them, and the opposition they met with, their numbers are now very considerable. From the minutes of the Eighty-eighth Con- ference of the, Wesleyan Methodists, held in Liverpool, July 26, 1826, it appears that the number of persons in their societies, arc as fol- lows. In Great Britain, 231,045 ; Ireland, 22,514; in loreign stations, 32,960; and the supposed grand total throughout the world, 630,081; of whom 2,418 are preachers in the connexion. The Methodists in America are not in immediate connexion with the Wesleyans here. Their church is Episcopal. Among the Calvinistic Methodists, there are also a considerable number of preachers, whose congregations and societies are very extensive : some of their chapels in Lon- don are the largest and best attended in the world : it is almost incredible to see the numbers of people who flock to these places. As to their success in doing good, it is evident, that though many ignorant enthusiasts have been found among them, yet no people have done more to moralize mankind than they : nor have they rested there; they have not only contributed to render thousands better members of society, but been the instruments of promoting their spiritual and eternal interests. Their simplicity of language, fervour of address, patience in opposition, unwea- riednessin labour, piety ol conduct, and dependence on Almighty Cod, are certainly worthy of the greatest praise, and call for the imitation of many who unjustly condemn them. See History of Me- thodism ; (iillies's Life of \\ldtjicld,and Works; Coke's Life of Wesley} Macgovan's Shaver; Wesley's Works; Benson's Vindication and Apology for the Methodists; Fletcher's Works; 282 -- MILLENNIUM Bogue and Bennett' s History of the Dissenters- vol. iii. ; Walker's Address to the Methodists. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. The first Methodist Society in the United States was formed in the city of New York, in 1766, by some emigrants from Ireland. In 1768, a meet* ing-house was erected in John-street. During the war of the Revolution all the preachers, ex- cept Mr. Asbury, returned to their native land. In 1784, Dr. Thomas Coke came to America with powers to constitute the Methodist Societies into an independent church. Before, the preachers were considered only as laymen, and did not administer the ordinances. Mr. Asbury was ordained bishop by Dr. Coke in 1784. The number of members at this time was 14,988, and of preachers 83. The clergy of the Methodist Episcopal Church consists of bishops, presiding elders, elders, deacons, and an unordained order of licensed preachers. The ministry is divided into itinerant and local. The former are con- stantly engaged in preaching and pastoral labour, under the direction of the bishops and conferences; the latter perform these offices only as opportu- nity offers. The highest authority of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church is the general conference, which meets once in four years, and consists of delegates from the annual conferences, in the ratio of one delegate for every seven itinerant preachers. The annual conferences are 22 in number, dividing the whole territory of the United States. These conferences consist of all the tra- velling preachers in the connexion. The body has increased with unexampled rapidity in our country, since from their last reports (1844) it ap- pears, that the sum total of members in connexion with the 40 conferences, amounts to 1,056,912, and of travelling preachers 39S3 ; making them by many thousands the most numerous religious denomination in the United States.* — B. METROPOLITAN, a bishop of a mother church, or of the chief church in the chief city. An archbishop. See articles Bishop Episcopacy. MILITANT, from viilitans, fighting; a term applied to the church on earth, as engaged in a warfare with the world, sin, and the devil ; in dis- tinction from the church triumphant in heaven. MILLENARIANS, orCHiLiAMSTs, a name given to those who believe the saints willreigr. on earth with Christ 1,000 years. See next article. MILLENNIUM, " a thousand years ;" gene- rally employed to denote the thousand years, du- ring which, according to an ancient tradition in the church, grounded on some doubtful texts in the Apocalypse and other Scriptures, our blessed Saviour shall reign with the faithful upon earth after the first resurrection, before the final com- pletion of beatitude. — Though there has been no age of the church in which the millennium was not admitted by individual divines of the first eminence, it is yet evident from the writings of Eusebius, Irenaeus, Origen, and others among the ancients, as well as from the histories of Du- pin, Mosheim, and all the moderns, that it was never adopted by the whole church, or made an article of the established creed in any nation. About the middle of the fourth century the Millenarians held the following tenets: * For an account of the Methodist Protestant Church and a more detailed account of lite Methodist Episcopal Church, see JlppaiJii. Nos, 1 and 2 MILLENNIUM 1st, That the city of Jerusalem should be re- built, and that the land of Judea should be the habitation of those who were to reign on the earth a thousand years. 2ndly, That the first resurrection was not to be confined to the martyrs, but that, after the fall of Antichrist, all the just were to rise, and all that were on the earth were to continue for that space of time. 3rdly, That Christ shall then come down from heaven, and be seen on earth, and reign there with his servants. 4thly, That the saints, during this period, shall enjoy all the delights of a terrestrial paradise. These opinions were founded upon several passages in Scripture, which the Millenarians, among the fathers, understood in no other than a literal sense ; but which the moderns, who hold that opinion, consider as partly literal and partly metaphorical. Of these passages, that upon which the greatest stress has been laid we believe to be the following : — " And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottom- less pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he aid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which ccted. " Wc know from history, that almost all man- 280 MIRACLE kind were once sunk into the grossest ignorance of the most important truths ; that they knew not the Being by whom they were created and sup- ported ; that they paid divine adoration to stocks, stones, and the vilest reptiles; and that they were slaves to the most impious, cruel, and degrading superstitions. "From this depraved state it was surely not unworthy of the Divine Being to rescue his help- less creatures, to enlighten their understandings that they might perceive what is right, and to present to them motives of sufficient force to en- gage them in the practice of it. But the under- standings of ignorant barbarians cannot be en- lightened by arguments ; because of the force of such arguments as regard moral science they are not qualified to judge. The philosophers of Athens and Rome inculcated, indeed, many ex- cellent moral precepts, and they sometimes ven- tured to expose the absurdities of the reigning superstition ; but their lectures had no influence upon the multitude; and they had themselves im- bibed such erroneous notions respecting the attri- butes of the Supreme Being, and the nature of the human soul, and converted those notions into first principles, of which they would not permit an examination, that even among them a tho- rough reformation was not to be expected from the powers of reasoning. It is likewise to be ob- served, that there are many truths of the utmost importance to mankind, which unassisted reason could never have discovered. Amongst these, we may confidently reckon the immortality of the soul, the terms upon which God will save sinners, and the manner in which that all-perfect Being may be acceptably worshipped : about all of which philosophers were in such uncertainty, that, ac- cording to Plato, ' Whatever is set right, and as it should be, in the present e\il state of the world, can be so only by the particular interposition of God.' " An immediate revelation from heaven, there- fore, was the only method by which infinite wisdom and perfect goodness could reform a bewildered and vicious race. But this revelation, at whatever time we suppose it given, must have been made directly either to some chosen individuals com- missioned to instruct others, or to every man and woman for whose benefit it was ultimately in- tended. Were every person instructed in the knowledge of his duty By immediate inspiration, and were the motives to practise it brought home to his mind by God himself, human nature would be wholly changed ; men would not be moral agents, nor by consequence be capable either of reward or of punishment. It remains, therefore, that, if God has been graciously pleased to en- lighten and reform mankind, without destroying that moral nature which man possesses, he can have done it only by revealing his truth to cer- tain chosen instruments, who were the imme- diate instructors of their contemporaries, and through them have been the instructors of suc- ceeding ages. " Let us suppose this to have been actually the case, and consider how those inspired teachers could communicate to others every truth which had lieen revealed to themselves. They might easily, if it were part of their duty, deliver a sublime system of natural and moral science, and establish it upon the common basis of experiment and demonstration ; but what foundation could MIRACLE tlicy lay for those truths which unassisted reason cannot discover, and which, when they are re- vealed, appear to have no necessary relation to any thing previously known ? To a hare affirma- tion that they hud been immediately received from God, no rational being could be expected to assent. The teachers might be men of known veracity, whose simple assertion would be ad- mitted as sufficient evidence for any fact, in con- formity with the laws of nature ; but as every man has the evidence of his own consciousness and experience that revelations from heaven are deviations from these laws, an assertion so ap- parently extravagant would be rejected as false, unless supported by some better proof than the mere affirmation of the teacher. In this state of things we can conceive no evidence sufficient to make such doctrines be received as the truths of God, but the power of working miracles com- mitted to him who taught them. This would, in- deed, be fully adequate to the purpose; for, if there were nothing in the doctrines themselves impious, immoral, or contrary to truths already known, the only thing which could render the teacher's assertion incredible would be its im- plying such an intimate communion with God as is contrary to the established course of things, by which men are left to acquire all their knowledge by the exercise of their own faculties. Let us now suppose one of those inspired teachers to tell his countrymen, that he did not desire them, on his ipse dixit, to believe that he had any preter- natural communion with the Deity, but that, for the truth of his assertion, he would give them the evidence of their own senses ; and after this de- claration, let us suppose him immediately to raise a person from the dead in their presence, merely by calling upon him to come out of his grave. Would not the only possible objection to the man's veracity be removed by this miracle ? and his assertion that he had received such and such doctrines from God be as fully credited as if it re- lated to the most common occurrence ? Undoubt- edly it would ; for when so much preternatural power was visibly communicated to this person, no one could have reason to question his having received an equal portion of preternatural know- ledge. A palpable deviation from the known laws of nature in one instance is a sensible proof that such a deviation is possible in another ; and in such a case as this, it is the witness of God to the truth of a man. " Miracles, then, under which we include pro- phecy, are the only direct evidence which can be given of divine inspiration. When a religion, or any religious truth, is to be revealed from heaven, they appear to be absolutely necessary to enforce its reception among men ; and this is the only case in which we can suppose them necessary, or believe for a moment that they ever have been or will be performed. " The history of almost every religion abounds with relations of prodigies and wonders, and of the intercourse of men with the gods : but we know of no religious system, those cf the Jews and Christians excepted, which appealed to miracles as the sole evidence of its truth and divinity. The pretended miracles mentioned by Pagan historians and poets, are not said to have been publicly wrought to enforce the truth of a new religion, contrary to the reigning idolatry. Many ol them may be clearly shown to have been mere •287 MIRACLE natural events ; others of them are represented as having been performed in secret, on the most trivial occasions, and in obscure and fabulous ages long prior to the sera of the writers by whom they are recorded ; and such of them as at first view appear to be best attested, are evidently tricks contrived for interested purposes, to flatter power, or to promote the prevailing superstitions. For these reasons, as well as on account of the immoral character of the divinities by whom they are said to have been wrought, they are altogether unworthy of examination, and carry in the very nature of them the completest proofs of false hood and imposture. " But the miracles recorded of Moses and of Christ bear a very different character. None of them are represented as wrought on trivial oc- casions. The writers who mention them were eye-witnesses of the facts ; which they affirm to have been performed publicly, in attestation of the truth of their respective systems. They are, indeed, so incorporated with these systems, that the miracles cannot be separated from the doc- trines; and if the miracles be not really per- formed, the doctrines cannot possibly be true. Besides all this, they were wrought in support of revelations which opposed all trie religious sys- tems, superstitions, and prejudices, of the age in which they were given ; a circumstance which of itself sets them, in point of authority, infinitely above the Pagan prodigies, as well as the lying wonders of the Romish church. " It is indeed, we believe, universally admitted, that the miracles mentioned in the book of Exo- dus, and in the four Gospels, might, to those who saw them performed, be sufficient evidence of the divine inspiration of Moses and ot Christ : but to us it may be thought that they are no evidence whatever, as we must believe in the mi- racles themselves, if we believe in them at all, upon the bare authority of human testimony. Why, it has been sometimes asked, are not mi- racles wrought in all ages and countries? If the religion of Christ was to be of perpetual duration, every generation of men ought to have complete evidence of its truth and divinity. "To the performance of miracles in every age and in every country, perhaps the same objections lie, as to the immediate inspiration of every in- dividual. Were those miracles universally re- ceived as such, men would be so overwhelmed with the number rather than with the force of their authority, as hardly to remain masters of their own conduct ; and in that case the very end of all miracles would be defeated by their frequency. The truth, however, seems to be, that miracles so frequently repeated would not be received as such, and of course would have no authority; because it would be difficult, and in many cases impossible, to distinguish them from natural events. If they recurred regularly at certain in- tervals, we could not prove them to be deviations from the known laws of nature, because we should have the same experience for one series of events as for the other; for the regular succession of preternatural effects, as for the established constitution and course of things. " Be this, however, as it may, we shall take the liberty to affirm, that for the reality of the Gos- pel miracles we have evidence as convincing to the reflecting mind, though not so striking to vulgar apprehension, as those had who were con- MIRACLE temporary with Christ and his apostles, and ac- tually saw the mighty works which he performed. Mr. Hume, indeed, endeavoured to prove, that 'no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle,' and the reasoning employed for this purpose is, that ' a miracle being a violation of the laws of nature, which a firm and unalterable experience has established, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can be : whereas our experience of human veracity, which (according to him) is the sole foundation of the evidence of testimony, is far from being uniform, and can therefore never preponderate against that expe- rience which admits of no exception." This boasted and plausible argument has, with equal candour and acuteness, been examined by Dr. Campbell, in his Dissertation on Miracles, who justly observes, that so far is experience from being the sole foundation of the evidence of testi- mony, that, on the contrary, testimony is the sole foundation of by far the greater part of what Mr. Hume calls firm and unalterable experience ; and that if, in certain circumstances, we did not give an implicit faith to testimony, our know- ledge of events would be confined to those which had fallen under the immediate observation of our own senses. " We need not waste time here in proving that the miracles, as they are presented in the wri- tings of the New Testament, were of such a nature, and performed before so many witnesses, that no imposition could possibly be practised on the senses of those who affirm that they were present. From every page of the Gospels this is so evident, that the philosophical adversaries of the Christian faith never suppose the apostles to have been themselves deceived, but boldly accuse them of bearing false witness. But if this accu- sation be well founded, their testimony itself is as great a miracle as any which they record of themselves, or of their Master. For if they sat down to fabricate their pretended revelation, and to contrive a series of miracles to which they were unanimously to appeal for its truth, it is plain, since they proved successful in their daring enterprise, that they must have clearly foreseen every possible circumstance in which they could be. placed, and have prepared consistent answers to every question that could be put to them by their most inveterate and most enlightened enemies ; by the statesman, the lawyer, the philosopher, and the priest. That such foreknowledge as this would have been miraculous, will not surely be denied ; since it forms the very attribute which we find it most difficult to allow even to God himself. It is not, however, the only miracle which this supposition would compel us to swal- low. The very resolution of the apostles to pro- pagate the belief of false miracles in support of such a religion as that which is taught in the New Testament, is as great a miracle as human imagination can easily conceive. " When they formed this design, either they must have hoped to succeed, or they must have foreseen that they should fail in their undertak- ing ; and, in either case, they chose evil for its (nori sake. They could not, if they foresaw that they should fail, look for any thing but that con- tempt, disgrace, and persecution, which were then the inevitable consequences of an unsuc- cessful endeavour to overthrow the established MIRACLE religion. Nor could their prospects be brighter upon the supposition of their success. As they knew themselves to be false witnesses, and im- pious deceivers, they could have no hopes beyond the grave ; and by determining to oppose all the religious systems, superstitions, and prejudices of the age in which they lived, they wilfully ex- posed themselves to inevitable misery in the pre- sent life, to insult and imprisonment, to stripes and death. Nor can it be said that they might look forward to power and affluence, when they should, through sufferings, have converted their countrymen • for so desirous were they of obtain* ing Doming but misery, as the end of their mis- sion, that they made their own persecution a test of the truth of their doctrines. They introduced the Master from whom they pretended to have received these doctrines as telling them, that ' they were sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves ; that they should be delivered up to councils and scourged in synagogues ; that they should be hated of all men for his name's sake ; that the brother should deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child ; and that he who took not up his cross, and followed after him, was not worthy of him.' The very system of reli- gion, therefore, which they invented and resolved to impose upon mankind, was so contrived, that the worldly prosperity of its preachers, and even their exemption from persecution, was incom- patible with its success. Had these clear predic- tions of the Author of that religion, under whom the apostles acted only as ministers, not been verified, all mankind must have instantly per- ceived that their pretence to inspiration was false, and that Christianity was a scandalous and impudent imposture. All this the apostles could not but foresee when they formed their plan for deluding the world. Whence it follows, that when they resolved to support their pretended revelation by an appeal to forged miracles, they wilfully, and with their eyes open, exposed them- selves to inevitable misery, whether they should succeed or fail in their enterprise ; and that they concerted their measures so as not to admit of a possibility of recompence to themselves, either in this life or in that which is to come. But if there be a law of nature, for the reality of which we have better evidence than we have for others, it is, that ' no man can choose misery for its awn sake,' or make the acquisition of it the ultimate end of his pursuit. The existence of other laws of nature we know by testimony, and our own observation of the regularity of their effects. The existence of this law is made known to us not only by these means, but also by the still cleaver and more conclusive evidence of our own con- sciousness. " Thus, then, do miracles force themselves upon our assent in every possible view which we can take of this interesting subject. If the testi- mony of the first preachers of Christianity were true, the miracles recorded in the Gospel were certainly performed, and the doctrines of our reli- gion are derived from heaven. On the other hand, if that testimony were false, either God must have miraculously efiaced from the minds of those by whom it was given all the associa- tions formed between their sensible ideas and the words of language! or he must have endowed tliose men with the gifts of prescience, and have impelled them to fabricate 9 pretended revelation MIRACLE for the purpose of deceiving the world, and in- volving themselves in certain and foreseen de- struction. The power necessary to perform the one series of those miracles may, for any thing known to us, be as great as that which would be requisite for the performance of the other ; and, considered merely as exertions of preternatural power, they may seem to balance each other, and to hold the mind in a state of suspense ; but when we take into consideration the different purposes for which these opposite and contending miracles were wrought, the balance is instantly destroyed. The miracles recorded in the Gospels, if real, were wrought in support of a revelation which, in the opinion of all by whom it is received, has brought to light many important truths, which could not otherwise have been made known to men ; and which, by the confession of its adversaries, con- tains the purest moral precepts by which the con- duct of mankind was ever directed. The op- posite series of miracles, if real, was performed to enable, and even to compel, a company of Jews, of the lowest rank and of the narrowest education, to fabricate, with the view of inevitable destruc- tion to themselves, a consistent scheme of false- hood, and by an appeal to forged miracles to impose it upon the world as a revelation from heaven. The object of the former miracles is worthy of a God of infinite wisdom, goodness, and power ; the object of the latter is absolutely inconsistent with wisdom and goodness, which are demonstrably attributes of that Being by wham alone miracles can be performed. Whence it follows, that the supposition of the apostles bearing false testimony to the miracles of their Master, implies a series of deviations from the Jaws of nature infinitely less probable in them- selves than those miracles : and therefore, by Mr. Hume's maxim, we must necessarily reject the supposition of falsehood in the testimony, and admit the reality of the miracles. So true it is, that for the reality of the Gospel miracles we have evidence as convincing to the reflecting mind as those had who were contemporary with Christ and his apostles, and were actual witnesses to their mighty works." The power of working miracles is supposed by some to have been continued no longer than the apostles' days. Others think that it was con- tinued long after. It seems pretty clear, how- ever, that miracles universally ceased before Chrysostom's time. As for what Augustine says of those wrought at the tombs of the martyrs, and some other places, in his time, the evidence is not always so convincing as might be desired in facts of importance. The controversy concerning the time when miraculous power ceased was car- ried on by Dr. Middleton, in his Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers, &c. ; by Mr. Yate, Mr. Toll, and others, who suppose that miracles ceased with the apostles. On the contrary side appeared Dr. Stebbing, Dr. Chapman, Mr. Parker, Mr. Brooke, and others. As to the miracles of the Romish church, it is evident, as Doddridge observes, that many of them were ridiculous tales, according to their own historians ; others were performed without any credible witnesses, or in circumstances where the performer had the greatest opportunity fot jug- gling : and it is particularly remarkable, that they were hardly ever wrought where thev wem most 269 2 M MISER necessary, i. e. in countries where those doctrinen are renounced which that church esteems of thfi highest importance. See Fleetwood, Clarapede, Conybeare, Campbell, Lardncr, Farmer, Adams, and Weston, on Miracles ; article Miracle, En- cyclop. Brit. ; Doddridge's Lett. lee. 101, and 135 ; Lcland's View of Deistical Writers, letter 3, 4, 7 ; Hurrion on the Spirit, p. 299, &c. MIRTH, joy, gaiety, merriment. It is dis- tinguished from cheerfulness thus : Mirth, is considered as an act; cheerfulness an habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient ; cheerfulness fixed and permanent. " Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are sub- ject to the greatest depressions of melancholy : on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment : cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity." Mirth is sinful, 1. When men rejoice in that which is evil. 2 When unreasonable. 3. When tending to commit sin. 4. When a hindrance to dutv. 5. When it is blasphemous and profane. MISANTHROPIST, ^.m;, a hater of mankind ; one that abandons society from a prin- ciple of discontent. The consideration of the depravity of human nature is certainly enough to raise emotions of sorrow in the breast of every man of the least sensibility : yet it is our duty to bear with the follies of mankind ; to exercise a degree of candour consistent with truth ; to lessen, if possible, by our exertions, the sum of moral and natural evil; and by connecting ourselves with society, to add at least something to the general interests of mankind. The misanthro- pist, therefore, is an ungenerous and dishonour- able character. Disgusted with life, he seeks a retreat from it: like a coward, he flees from the scene of action, while he increases his own misery by his natural discontent, and leaves others to do what they can for themselves. The following is his character more at large. " He is a man," says Saurin, " who avoids so- ciety only to free himself from the trouble of being useful to it. He is a man, who considers his neighbours only on the side of their defects, not knowing the art of combining their virtues with their vices, and of rendering the imperfec- tions of other people tolerable by reflecting on his own. He is a man more employed in finding out and inflicting punishments on the guilty, than in devising means to reform them. He is a man who talks of nothing but banishing and executing, and who, because he thinks his talents are not sufficiently valued and employed by his fellow-citizens, or rather because they know his foibles, and do not choose to be subject to his caprice, talks of quitting cities, towns and socie- ties, and of living in dens or deserts." MISER, a term formerly used in reference to a person in wretchedness or calamity ; but it now denotes a parsimonious person, or one who is co- vetous to extremity ; who denies himself even the comforts of life to accumulate wealth. Avarice, says Saurin, may be considered in two different points of light. It may be considered in thos* men, or rather those public blood-suckers, or, as the officers of the Roman emperor Vespasian were called, those sponges of society, who, in- MISCHNA (h tun tod with this passion, seek after riches as the supreme good, determine to acquire it by any methods, and consider the ways that lead to wealth, legal or illegal, as the only road for them to travel. Avarice, however, must be considered in a second point of light. It not only consists in committing hold crimes, but in entertaining mean ideas and practising low methods, incompatible with such magnanimity as our condition ought to inspire. It consists not only in omitting to serve God, but in trying to associate the service of God with that of mammon. How many forms doth avarice take to disguise itself from the man who is guilty of it, and who will be drenched in the guilt of it till the day he dies ! Sometimes it is -prudence which requires him to provide not only for his present wants, but for such as he may have iri future. Sometimes it is charity, which requires him not to give so- ciety examples of prodigality and parade. Some- times it is ■parental love, obliging him to save something for his children. Sometimes it is cir- cumspection, which requires him not to supply people who make an ill use of what they get. Sometimes it is necessity, which obliges him to repel artifice by artifice. Sometimes it is con- sciew e, which convinces him, good man, that he hatn already exceeded in compassion and alms- giving, and done too much. Sometimes it is equity, for justice requires that every one should enjoy the fruit of his own labours, and those of his ancestors. — Such, alas ! are the awful pre- texts and subterfuges of the miser. Saurin's Ser. vol. v. ser. 12. See Avarice, Covetous- ness. MISERY, such a state of wretchedness, un- nappiness, or calamity, as renders a person an •bject of compassion. MISCHNA, or Miska, (from mj?, iteravit,) a part of the Jewish Talmud. The Mischna contains the text ; and the Ge- mara, which is tiie second part of the Talmud, contains the commentaries : so that the Gemara is, as it were, a glossary on the Mischna. The Mischna consists of various traditions of the Jews, and of explanations of several passages of Scripture : these traditions serving as an ex- plication of the written law, and supplement to it, are said to have been delivered to Moses during the time of his abode on the Mount ; which he afterwards communicated to Aaron, Eleazar, and his servant Joshua. By these they were trans- mitted to the seventy elders; by them to the prophets, who communicated them to the men of the great sanhedrim, from whom the wise men of Jerusalem and Babylon received them. Ac- cording to Prideaux's account, they passed from Jeremiah to Baruch, from him to Ezra, and from Ezra to the men of the great synagogue, the last of whom was Simon the Just, who delivered them to Antigonus of Socho ; and from him they came down in regular succession to Simeon, who took our Saviour in his arms ; to Gamaliel, at whose feet Paul was educated; and last of all, to Rabbi Judah the Holy, who committed them to writing in the Mischna. But Dr. Prideaux, rejecting the Jewish fiction, observes, that after the death of Simon the Just, about 299 years before Christ, the Mischnical doctors arose, who by their com- ments and conclusions added to the number of those traditions which had been received and al- 290 MISREPRESENTATION lowed by Ezra and the men of the great svra- gogue : so that towards the middle of the secrnd century after Christ, under the empire of Anto- ninus Pius, it was found necessary to commit these traditions to writing ; more especially as their country had considerably suffered under Adrian, and many of their schools had been dis- solved, and their learned men cut off; and there- fore the usual method of preserving their traditions had failed. Rabbi Judah on this occasion being rector of the school at Tiberias, and president ot the sanhedrim in that place, undertook the work, and compiled it in six books, each consisting of several tracts, which altogether make up the number of sixty-three. Prid. Connex. vol. ii. p. 468, &c. ed. 9. This learned author computes, that the Mischna was composed about the 150th year of our Lord ; but Dr. Lightfoot says, that Rabbi Judah compiled the Mischna about the year of Christ 190, in the latter end of the reign of Commodus ; or, as some compute, in the year of Christ 220. Dr. Lardner is of opinion that this work could not have been finished before the year 190, or later. Collection of Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 178. Thus the book called the Mischna was formed ; a book which the Jews have generally received with the greatest veneration. The original has been pub- lished with a Latin translation by Surenhusius, with notes of his own and others from the learned Maimonides, &c. in six vols. fol. Amster. A. D- 1698 — 1703. See Talmud. It is written in a much purer style, and is not near so full of dreams and visions as the Gemara. MISREPRESENTATION, the act of wil- fully representing a thing otherwise than it is. "This," as an elegant writer observes, "is one of the greatest mischiefs of conversation. Self- love is continually at work to give to all we say a bias in our own favour. How often in society, otherwise respectable, are we pained with narra- tions in which prejudice warps, and self-love blinds ! How often do we see that withholding part of a truth answers the worst ends of a false- hood " How often regret the unfair turn given to a cause by placing a sentiment in one point of view, which the speaker had used in another! the letter of truth preserved, where its spirit is violated : a superstitious exactness scrupulously maintained in the underparts of a detail, in order to impress such an idea of integrity as shall gain credit for the misrepresenter, while he is design- edly mistaking the leading principle ! How may we observe a new character given to a fact by a different look, tone, or emphasis, which alters it as much as words could have done ! the false im- pression of a sermon conveyed, when we do not like the preacher, or when through him we wish to make religion itself ridiculous ; the care to avoid literal untruths, while the mischief is better effected by the unfair quotation of a pas- sage divested of its context : the bringing together detached portions of a subject, and making those parts ludicrous, when connected, which were serious in their distinct position ! the insidious use made of a sentiment, by representing it as the opinion of him who had only brought it forward in order to expose it ! the relating opinions which had merely been put hypothetically, as if they were the avowed principles of him we would dis- credit ! that subtle falsehood which is so made to incorporate with a certain quantity of truth, that MISSION the most skilful moral chemist cannot analyze or separate them ! for a good misreprcscnter knows that a successful lie must have a certain infusion of truth, or it will not go down. And this amalgamation is the test of his skill ; as too much truth would defeat the end of his mischief, and too little would destroy the belief of the hearer. All that indefinable ambiguity and equivocation ; all that prudent deceit, which is rather implied than expressed ; those more delicate artifices of the school of Loyola and of Chesterfield, which allow us, when we dare not deny a truth, yet so to disguise and discolour it, that the truth we re- nte shall not resemble the truth we heard : these, and all the thousand shades of simulation and dissimulation, will be carefully guarded against in the conversation of vigilant Christians." — Miss Hannah More on Education, vol. ii. p. 91. MISSAL, the Romish mass-book, containing the several masses to be said on particular days. It is derived from the Latin word missa, which in the ancient Christian Church signified every part of divine service. MISSION, a power or commission to preach the Gospel. Thus Jesus Christ gave his disciples their mission, when he said, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," See next article. MISSION, an establishment of people zealous for the glory of God and tr e salvation of souls, who go and preach the Gospel in remote coun- tries, and among infidels. No man possessed of the least degree of feeling or compassion for the human race can deny the necessity and utility of Christian missions. Whoever considers that the major part of the world is enveloped in the gross- est darkness, bound with the chains of savage barbarity, and immersed in the awful chaos of brutal ignorance, must, if he be not destitute of every principle of religion and humanity, concur with the design and applaud the principles of those who engage in so benevolent a work. We shall not, however, in this place, enter into a de- fence of missions, but shall present the reader with a short view of those that have been esta- blished. In the sixteenth century, the Romish church particularly exerted herself for the propagation of their religion. The Portuguese and Spaniards pretend to have done mighty exploits in the spread of the Christian faith in Asia, Africa, and Ame- rica : but when we consider the superstitions they imposed on some, and the dreadful cruelties they inflicted on others, it more than counterbalances any good that was done. For a time, the Domi- nicans, Franciscans, and other religious orders, were very zealous in the conversion of the hea- then ; but the Jesuits outdid them in all their at- tempts in the conversion of African, Asian, and American infidels. Xavier spread some hints of the Romish religion through the Portuguese set- tlements in the East Indies, through most of the Indian continent, and of Ceylon. In 1519 he sailed to Japan, and laid the foundation of a church there, which at one time was said to have consisted of about 600,000. After him, others penetrated into China, and founded a church, which continued about 170 years. About 15S0, "rthers penetrated into Chili and Peru, in South America, and converted the natives. Others be- stirred themselves to convert the Greeks, Nesto- rians, Mo- iophy sites, Abyssinians, the Egyptian 291 MISSION Copts. "It is, however," as one observes, "a matter of doubt whether the disciples of a Xavier, or the converts of a Loyola and Dominic, with their partisans of the Romish church, should be admitted among the number of Christians, or their labours be thought to have contributed to the promotion or to the hindrance of the religion of Christ. Certain it is, that the methods these men pursued tended much more to make disciples to themselves and the pontiffs of Rome, than to form the mind to the reception of evangelical truth. With ardent zeal, however, and unwearied industry, these apostles laboured in this work. In 1662 we find the pope established a congrega- tion of cardinals, de propaganda fide, and en- dowed it with ample revenues, and every thing which could forward the missions was liberally supplied. In 1627, also, Urban added the college for the propagation of the faith; in which missionaries were taught the languages of the countries to which they were to be sent. France copied the example of Rome, and formed an esta- blishment for the same purposes. The Jesuits claimed the first rank, as due to their zeal, learn- ing, and devotedness to the holy see. The Do- minicans, Franciscans, and others, disputed the palm with them. The new world and the Asiatic regions were the chief field of their labours. They penetrated into the uncultivated recesses of America. They visited the untried regions of Siam, Tonquin, and Cochin-China. They en- tered the vast empire of China itself, and num- bered millions among their converts. They dared affront the dangers of the tyrannical government of Japan. In India they assumed the garb and austerities of the Brahmins, and boasted on the coasts of Malabar of a thousand converts bap- tized in one year by a single missionary. Their sufferings, however, were very great, and in China and Japan they were exposed to the most dreadful persecutions, and many thousands were cut off, with, at last, a final expulsion from the empires. In Africa the Capuchins were chiefly employed, though it does not appear that they had any considerable success. And in America their laborious exertions have had but little influ- ence, we fear, to promote the real conversion of the natives to the truth. In the year 16*21, the Dutch opened a church in the city of Batavia, and from hence ministers were sent to Amboyna. At Leyden, ministers and assistants were educated for the purpose of missions under the famous Walams, and sent into the East, where thousands embraced the Christian religion at Formosa, Columba, Java, Malabar, &c; and though the work declined in some places, yet there are still churches in Cey- lon, Sumatra, Ambiyna, &c. About 1705, Frederic IV., of Denmark, ap- plied to the university of Halle, in Germany, for missionaries to preach the Gospel on the coast of Malabar, in the East Indies; and Messrs. Zie genbalg and Plutsche were the first employed on this important mission ; to them others were si on added, who laboured with considerable success. It is said that upwards of 18,000 Gentoos havo been brought to the profession of Christianity. A yeat work has been carried on among *.he Indian nations in North America. One of the first and most eminent instruments in this work was the excellent Mr. Elliott, commonly called the Indian apostle, v/hof from the time of hi* MISSION fmng to New England, in 1631, to his death, In 690, devoted himself to this great work by his lips and pen ; translating the Bible and other books into the nalic dialect. Some years after this, Thomas Mahew, Esq., governor and patentee of the islands of Martha's Vineyard, and some neighbouring islands, greatly exerted himself in the attempt to convert the Indians in that part of America. His son John gathered and founded an Indian church, which, after his death, not being able to pay a minister, the old gentleman himself, at seventy years of age, became their in- structor for more than twenty years, and his grandson, and great-grandson, both succeeded him in the same work. Mr. D. Brainerd was also a truly pious and successful missionary among the Susquehanna and Delaware Indians. HLs journal contains instances of very extra- ordinary conversions. But the Moravians have exceeded all in their missionary exertions. They have various mis- sions: and, by their persevering zeal, it is said upwards of 23,000, of the most destitute of man- kind, in different regions of the earth, have been brought to the knowledge of the truth. Vast numbers in the Danish islands of St. Thomas, St. Jau and St. Croix, and the English islands of Jamaica, Antigua, Nevis, Barbadoes, St. Kitts, and Tobago, have, by their ministry, been called to worship God in spirit and in truth. In the inhospitable climes, of Greenland and Labra- dore they have met with wonderful success, after undergoing the most astonishing dangers and difficulties. The Arrowack Indians, and the negroes of Surinam and Berhice, have been col- lected into bodies of faithful people by them. Canada and the United States of North America, have, by their instrumentality, afforded happy evidences of the power of the Gospel. Even those esteemed the last of human beings, for brutishness and ignorance, the Hottentots, have been formed into their societies ; and upwards of seven hundred are said to be worshipping God at Bavians Cloof, near the Cape of Good Hope. We might, also mention their efforts to illumine the distant East, the coast of Coromandel, and the Nieobar islands; their attempts to penetrate into Abyssinia, to carry the Gospel to Persia and Egypt, -ind to ascend the mountains of Caucasus. In fact, where shall we find the men who have laboured as these have? Their invincible pa- tience, their well-regulated zeal, their self-denial, their constant prudence, deserve the meed of highest approbation. Nor are they wearied in so honourable a service ; for they have numerous missionaries still employed in different parts of the world. See Moravians. Good has been also done by the Wesleyan Methodists, who are certainly not the least in missionary work. They have several missiona- ries in the British dominions in America and in the West Indies. They have some thousands of members in their societies in those parts. See MKTIinniSTS. In 1791, a society was instituted among the Baptists, called, 'The Particular Baptisr So- ciety for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen ;" under the auspices of which mission- aries were sent to India, and favourable accounts of their success have been received. We learn, with pleasure, that through their indefatigable industry, the New Testament, and part of the 292 MODERATION Bible, have been translated and printed in the Bengalee; and that parts of the Scriptures have been translated into ten of the languages spoken in the East. See Periodical Accounts of this society. In the year 1795, The London Missionary Society was formed. This is not confined to one body of people, but consists of Episcopalians, Presbyterians. Seceders, Methodists, and Inde- pendents, who hold an annual meeting in Lon- don in May. As the state of this society is before the public, it would be unnecessary here to enlarge ; suffice it to say, that it is now on the most permanent and respectable footing. " It has assumed consistency and order ; it combines in- tegrity of character, fortitude of mind, and fixed- ness of resolution, with a continued progression of effort for the exalted purpose of presenting the doctrines of the blessed Gospel to the accept- ance of the perishing heathen, and of exhibiting an uncorrupt example of their tendencies and effects in their own characters and conduct." Besides the above-mentioned societies, others have been formed of less note. In 1699, a so- ciety was instituted in England for ■promoting Christian Knmcledge. In 1701, another was formed for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. In Scotland, about the year 1700, a society was instituted for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Recently, some clergy- men of the established church have formed one among themselves. Societies for spreading the Gospel also have been instituted in various other places. From the whole, it seems evident that the light and knowledge of the glorious Gospel will be more diffused than ever throughout the earth. And who is there that has any concern for the souls of men, any love for truth and reli- gion, but what must rejoice at the formation, number, and success of those institutions, which have not the mere temporal concerns of men, but their everlasting welfare, as their object? My heart overflows with joy, and mine eyes with tears, when I consider the h-appy and extensive effects which are likely to take place. The un- tutored mind will receive the peaceful principles of religion and virtue ; the savage barbarian will rejoice in the copious blessings, and feel the be- nign effects of civilization ; the ignorant idolator will be directed to offer up his prayers and praises to the true God, and learn the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. The habitations of cru- elty will become the abodes of peace and security, while ignorance and superstition shall give wat to the celestial blessings of intelligence, purity, and joy. Happy men, who are employed as in- struments in this cause! who forego your per- sonal comforts, relinquish your native country, and voluntarily devote yourstives to the most noble and honourable of services ! Peace and prosperity be with you ! Miller's History of the Propagation of Christ.; Kennett's ditto ; Gil- lies's Historical Collection ; Carey's Enquiry respecting Missions; Loskicll's History of the Moravian Missions; Crantz's History of Green' land ; Home's Letters on Mitsioiis ; Sermons and Reports of the London MLtsionary Society. MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. Sec So- cieties. MODERATION, the state of keeping a due mean between extremes : calmness, temperance or equaninu'y. It is sometimes used with refer- MONASTERY ence to our opinions, Rom. xii. 3; but in general it respects our conduct in that state which comes under the description of ease or prosperity ; and ought to take place in our wishes, pursuits, ex- pectations, pleasures, and passions. See Bishop Hall on Moderation, ser. 16 ; Blair's Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 12 ; Toplady's Works, vol. iii. ser. 10. MODESTY is sometimes used to denote humility, and sometimes to express chastity. — The Greek word xoo>ios, modestus, signifies neat or clean. Modesty, therefore, consists in purity of sentiment and manners, inclining us to abhor the least appearance of vice and indecency, and to fear doing any thing which will incur censure. An excess of modesty may be called bashfulness, and the want of it impertinence. There is a false or vicious modesty, which influ- ences a man to do any thing that is ill or indis- creet; such as, through fear of offending his companions he runs into their follies or excesses ; or it is a false modesty which restrains a man from doing what is good or laudable; such as being ashamed to speak of religion, and to be seen in the exercises of piety and devotion. MOLINISTS, a sect in the Romish chuTch who follow the doctrine and sentiments of the Jesuit Molina, relating to sufficient and efficacious grace. He taught that the operations of divine grace were entirely consistent with the freedom of the human will ; and introduced a new kind of hypothesis to remove the difficulties attending the doctrines of predestination and liberty, and to reconcile the jarring opinions of Augustines, Thomists, Semi-Pelagians, and other conten- tious divines. He affirmed that the decree of predestination to eternal glory was founded upon a previous knowledge and consideration of the merits of the elect ; that the grace, from whose operation these merits are derived, is not effica- cious by its own intrinsic power only, but also by the consent of our own will, and because it is administered in those circumstances in which the Deity, by that branch of his knowledge which is called scientia media, foresees that it will be effi- cacious. The kind of prescience, denominated in the schools scientia media, is that foreknow- ledge of future contingents that arises from an acquaintance with the nature and faculties of ra- tional beings, of the circumstances in which they shall be placed, of the objects that shall be pre- sented to them, and of the influence which their circumstances and objects must have on their actions. MONACHISM, the state of a monk, the monastic life. See Monk. MONARCHIANS, the same as the Patri- passians : which see. MONASTERY, a convent or house built for the reception of religious ; whether it be abbey, priory, nunnery, or the like. Monastery is only properly applied to the houses of monks, mendicant friars, and nuns : the rest are more properly called religious houses. For the origin of monasteries, see Monastic and Monk. The houses belonging to the several religious orders which obtained in England and Wales, were cathedrals, colleges, abbeys, priories, precep- tories, commandries, hospitals, friaries, hermit- ages, chantries, and free chapels. These were under the direction and management of various 293 MONASTERY officers. The dissolution of houses of this kind began so early as the year 1312, when the Tem- plars were suppressed ; and in 1323, their lands, churches, advowsons, and liberties, here in Eng- land, were given, by 17 Edw. II., stat. 3, to the prior and brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. In the yeaTs 1390, 1437, 1441, 1459, 1497, 1505, 1508, and 1515, several other houses were dissolved, and their revenues settled on dif- ferent colleges in Oxford and Cambridge. Soon after the last period, cardinal Wolsey, by licence of the king and pope, obtained a dissolution of above thirty religious houses for the founding and endowing his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. About the same time a bull was granted by the same pope to cardinal Wolsey to suppress monas- teries, where there were not above six monks, to the value of eight thousand ducats a year, for en- dowing Windsor and King's College in Cam- bridge; and two other bulls were granted to cardinals Wolsey and Campeius, where there were less than twelve monks, and to annex them to the greater monasteries ; and another bull to the same cardinals to inquire about abbeys to be suppressed in order to be made cathedrals. Al- though nothing appears to have been done in consequence of these bulls, the motive which in- duced Wolsey and many others to suppress these houses, was the desire of promoting learning; and archbishop Cranmer engaged in it with a new of carrying on the Reformation. There were other causes that concurred to bring on their ruin : many of the religious were loose and vicious ; the monks were generally thought to be in their hearts attached to"the pope's supremacy : their revenues were not employed according to the intent of the donors ; many cheats in images, feigned miracles, and counterfeit relics, had been discovered, which brought the monks into dis- grace ; the observant friars had opposed the king's divorce from queen Catharine ; and these circum- stances operated, in concurrence with the king's want of a supply, and the people's desire to save their money, to forward a motion in parliament, that, in order to support the king's state, and supply his wants, all the religious houses might be conferred upon the crown, which were not able to spend above 200/. a year; and an act was passed for that purpose, 27 Hen. VIII. c. 28. By this act about three hundred and eighty houses were dissolved, and a revenue of 30,000/. or 32,000/. a year came to the crown ; besides about 100,000/. in plate and jewels. The sup- pression of these houses occasioned discontent, and at length an open rebellion ; when this was appeased, the king resolved to suppress the rest of the monasteries, and appointed a new visita- tion, which caused the greater abbeys to be sur- rendered apace : and it was enacted by 31 Henry VIII. c. 13, that all monasteries which have been surrendered since the 4th of February, in the 27th year of his majesty's rpign, and which here after shall be surrendered, shall be vested m *he king. The knights of St. John of Jerusalem were also suppressed by the 32 Hen. VIII. c. 24. The suppression of these greater houses by these two acts produced a revenue to the king of above 100,000/. a year, besides a large sum in plate and jewels. The last act of dissolution in this king's reign was the act of 37 Hen. VIII. c. 4, for dis- solving colleges, free chapels, chantries, &c. which act was further enforced by 1 Edw. VI. c. 14> z 2 MONASTERY By this act were suppressed 00 colleges, 1 10 hos- pitals, and 3,374 chantries and tree chapels. The number of houses and places suppressed from first", to last, so far as any calculations appear to have been made, seems to be as follows : Of lesser monasteries, of which we have the valuation ..... 374 Of greater monasteries .... 186 Belonging to the hospitallers - 48 Colleges 90 Hospitals 110 Chantries and Free Chapels - • 2374 Total, 3182 Besides the friars' houses, and those suppressed by Wolsey, and many small houses of which we have no particular account. The sum total of the clear yearly revenue of the several houses at the time of their dissolution, of which we have any account, seems to be as follows : Of the greater monasteries, .£104,919 13 3i Of all those of the lesser monas- teries of which we have the valuation - - - 29,702 1 lOi Knights hospitallers, head house in London - - - 2,385 12 8 We have the valuation of only 28 of their houses in the country .... 3,026 9 5 Friars' houses of which we have the valuation . - - 751 2 01 Total, £140,784 19 31 I f proper allowances are made for the lesser mo- nasteries and houses not included in this estimate, and for the plate, &c. which came into the hands of the king by the dissolution, and for the value of money at that time, which was at least six times as much as at present, and also consider that the estimate of the lands was generally sup- posed to be much under the real worth, we must conclude their whole revenues to have been im- mense. It does not appear that any computation hath been made of the number of persons contained in the religious houses. Those of the lesser monasteries dissolved by 27 Hen. VIII. were reckoned at about 10,000 If we suppose the colleges and hospitals to have contained a proportionable number, these will make about - 5,347 If we reckon the number in the greater monasteries according to the propor- tion of their revenues, they will be about 35,000; but as probably they had larger allowances in proportion to their number than those of the Josser monasteries, if we abate upon that account 5,000, they will then be 30.000 On j for each chantry and free chapel 2,374 Total 47,721 But as the e were probably more than one person a> officiate in several of the free chapels, and there 294 MONASTERY were other houses which are not included within this calculation, perhaps they may be computed in one general estimate at about 50,000. As there were pensions paid to almost all those of the greater monasteries, the king did not. imme- diately come into the full enjoyment of their whole revenues ; however, by means of what he did receive, he founded six new bishoprics, viz. those of Westminster, (which was changed by queen Elizabeth into a deanery, with twelve pre- bends and a school,) Peterborough, Chester, Gloucester, Bristol, and Oxford. And in eight other sees he founded deaneries and chapters, by converting the priors and monks into deans and prebendaries, viz. Canterbury, Winchester, Dur- ham, Worcester, Rochester, Norwich, Ely, and Carlisle. He founded also the colleges of Christ Church in Oxford, and Trinity in Cambridge, and finished King's College there. He likewise founded professorships of divinity, law, physic, and of the Hebrew and Greek tongues, in both the said Universities. He gave the house of Grey Friars and St. Bartholomew's Hospital to the city of London, and a perpetual pension to the poor knights of Windsor, and laid out great sums in building and fortifying many ports in the channel. It is observable, upon the whole, that the dissolution of these houses was an act, not of the church, but of the state, in the period preced- ing the Reformation, by a king and parliament of the Roman Catholic communion in all points, except the king's supremacy ; to which the pope himself, by his bulls and licences, had led the way. As to the merits of these institutions, authors are much divided. While some have considered them as beneficial to learning, piety, and benevo- lence, others have thought them very injurious. We may form some idea of them from the fol- lowing remarks of Mr. Gilpin. He is speaking of Glastonbury Abbey, which possessed the amplest revenues of any religious house in England. "Its fraternity," says he, "is said to have consisted of five hundred estab- lished monks, besides nearly as many retainers on the abbey. Above four hundred children weTe not only educated in it, but entirely maintained. — Strangers from all parts of Europe were libe- rally received, classed according to their sex and nation, and might consider the hospitable roof under which they lodged as their own. Five hundred travellers, with their horses, have been lodged at once within its walls ; while the poor from every side of the country, waited the ringing of the alms-bell ; when they flocked in crowds, young and old, to the gate of the monastery, where they received, every morning, a plentiful provision for themselves and their families : — all this appears great and noble. " On the other hand, when we consider five hundred persons bred up in indolence and lost to the commonwealth ; when we consider that these houses were the great nurseries of superstition, bigotry, and ignorance; the stews of sloth, stu- pidity, and perhaps intemperance ; when we con- sider that the education received in them had not the least tincture of useful learning, good man- ners, or true religion, but tended rather to vilify and disgrace the human mind ; when we consider that the pilgrims and strangers who resorted thither were idle vagabonds, who got nothing abroad that was equivalent to the occupations they left at home ; and when we consider, lastly, that MONK indiscriminate alrns-giving is not real charity, but en avocation from labour and industry, checking rvery idea of exertion, and filling the mind with abject notions, we are led to acquiesce in (he fate of these foundations, and view their ruins, not only with a picturesque eye, but with moral and religious satisfaction." Gilpin's Observations on the Western Parts of England, p. 138, 139; Bigland's Letters on Hist. p. 313. MONASTIC, something belonging to monks, or the monkish life. — The monastic profession i« a kind of civil death, which in all worldly mat- ters has the same effect with the natural death. The council of Trent, &c. fix sixteen years as the age at which a person may be admitted into the monastical state. St, Anthony is the person who, in the fourth century, first instituted the monastic life ; as St. Pachomius, in the same century, is said to have first set on foot the coenobitic life, i. e. regular communities of religious. In a short time the deserts of Egypt became inhabited by a set of solitaries, who took upon them the monastic pro- fession. St. Basil carried the monkish humour into the east, where he composed a rule which afterwards obtained through a great part of the west. In the eleventh century, the monastic discipline was grown very remiss. St. Oddo first began to retrieve it in the monastery of Cluny : that mo- nastery, by the conditions of its erection, was put under the immediate protection of the holy see ; with a prohibition to all powers, both secular and ecclesiastical, to disturb the monks in the pos- session of their effects or the election of their abbot. In virtue hereof they pleaded an exemp- tion from the jurisdiction of the bishop, and ex- tended this privilege to all the houses dependent on Cluny. This made the first congregation of several houses under one chief immediately sub- ject to the pope, so as to constitute one body, or as they now call it, one religious order. Till then, each monastery was independent, and sub- ject to the bishop. See Monk. MONK, anciently denoted "a person who retired from the world to give himself wholly to God, and to live in solitude at. J abstinence." The word is derived from the Latin monachus, and that from the Greek /.in^ot, "solitary;" of pcvoS, solus, "alone." The original of monks seems to have been this : — The persecutions which attended the first ages of the Gospel, forced some Christians to retire from the world, and live in deserts and places most private and unfrequented, in hopes of find- ing that peace and comfort among beasts, which were denied them among men ; and this being the case of some very extraordinary persons, their example gave such reputation to retirement, that the practice continued when the reason of its commencement ceased. After the empire became Christian, instances of this kind were numerous ; and those whose security had obliged them to live separately and apart, became afterwards united into societies. We may also add, that the mystic theology, which gained ground towards the close of the third century, contributed to produce the same effect, and to drive men into solitude for the purposes of devotion. The monks, at least the ancient ones, were distinguished into solitaries, cwnobites, and sura- bites. 295 MONK The solitaries are those who live alone, in places remote from all towns and habitations of men, as do still some of the hermits. The coeno- bites are those who live in community with several others in the same house, and under the same superiors. The sarabites were strolling monks, having no fixed rule or residence. The houses of monks, again, were of two kinds, viz., monasteries and lauree. Those who are now called monks are coeno- bites, who live together in a convent or monastery, who make vows of living according to a certain rule established by the founder, and wear a habit which distinguishes their order. Those that are endowed, or have a fixed re- venue, are most properly called monks, monachi ; as the Chartreux, Benedictines, Bernardines, &a The Mendicants, or those that beg, as the Capu- chins and Franciscans, are more properly called religious and friars, though the names are fre- quently confounded. The first monks were those of St. Anthony, who, towards the close of the fourth century, formed them into a regular body, engaged them to live in society with each other, and prescribed to them fixed rules for the direction of their conduct. These regulations, which Anthony had made in Egypt, were soon introduced into Palestine and Syria by his disciple Hilarion. Almost about the same time, Aoncs, or Euge- nius, with their companions Gaddanas and Azyzas, instituted the monastic order in Meso- potamia, and the adjacent countries; and their example was followed with such rapid success, that in a short time the whole East was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who abandoning all human connexions, advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a languishing and miserable existence, amidst the hardships of want and various kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous communication with God and angels. From the East this gloomy disposition passed into the West, and first into Italy and its neigh- bouring islands ; though it is uncertain wh» transplanted it thither. St. Martin, the cele- brated bishop of Tours, erected the first monas- teries in Gaul, and recommended this religious solitude with such power and efficacy, both by his instructions and his example, that his funeral is said to have been attended by no less than two thousand monks. From hence the monastic discipline extended gradually its progress through the other provinces and countries of Europe There were, besides the monks of St. Basil (called in the East Calogeri, from x*xoj yi(*v, " a good old man",) and those of St. Jerome, the hermits of St. Augustine, and afterwards those of St. Benedict and St. Bernard : at length came those of St. Francis and St. Dominic, with a legion of others, all which see under their proper heads. Towards the cl ise of the fifth century, the monks, who had formerly lived only for them- selves in solitary retreats, and had never thought of assuming any rank among the sacerdotal or- der, were now gradually distinguished from the populace, and endowed with such opulence and honourable privileges, that they found them- selves in a condition to claim an eminent station among the pillars and supporters of the Christian community. The fame of their piety and sane- MONK (Sty was so great, that bishops and presbyters were often chosen out of their order; and the passion of erecting edifices and convents, in which the monks and holv virgins might serve God in the most commodious manner, was at that time carried beyond all bounds. However, their licentiousness, even in this century, was become a proverb ; and they are said to have ex- cited the most dreadful tumults and seditions in various places. The monastic orders were at first under the immediate jurisdiction of the bishops, from which they were exempted by the Roman pontiff about the end of the seventh century ; and the monks, in return, devoted themselves wholly to advance the interest and to maintain the dig- nity of the bishop of Rome. This immunity which they obtained was a fruitful source of li- centiousness and disorder, and occasioned the greatest part of the vices with which they were afterwards so justly charged. In the eighth cen- tury the monastic discipline was extremely re- laxed, both in the eastern and western provinces, and all efforts to restore it were ineffectual. Ne- vertheless, this kind of institution was in the highest esteem ; and nothing could equal the vene- ration that was paid about the close, of the ninth century to such as devoted themselves to the sa- cred gloom and indolence of a convent. This veneration caused several kings and emperors to call them to their courts, and to employ them in civil affairs of the greatest moment. Their re- formation was attempted by Louis the Meek, but the effect was of short duration. In the eleventh century they were exempted by the popes from the authority established ; insomuch, that in the council of Lateran, which was held in the year 1215, a decree was passed, by the advice of In- nocent III. to prevent any new monastic institu- tions ; and several were entirely suppressed. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it appears, from the testimony of the best writers, that the monks were generally lazy, illiterate, profligate, and licentious epicures, whose views in life were confined to opulence, idleness, and pleasure. However, the Reformation had a manifest in- fluence in restraining their excesses, and render- ing them more circumspect and cautious in their external conduct. Monks are distinguished by the colour of their habits into black, ichite, grey, &c. Among the monks, some are called monks of the choir, others ■professed monks, and others lay monks ; which last are destined for the service of the convent, and have neither eleri.-ate nor literature. Cloistered monks are those who actually reside in the house: in opposition to ex^ra-monks, who have benefices depending on the monastery. Monks are also distinguished into reformed, whom the civil and ecclesiastical authority have made masters of ancient convents, and put in their power to retrieve the ancient discipline, which had been relaxed; and ancient, who re- ■lain in the convent, to live in it according to its establishment at the time when they made their vows, without obliging themselves to any new reform. Anciently the monks were all lavmen, and were only distinguished from the rest of the peo- ple by a peculiar habit, and an extraordinary de- votion. Not only the monks were prohibited the priesthood, but even priests were expressly pro- hibited from becoming monks, as appears from 29U MONOTHELITES the letters of St. Gregory. Pope Siricius was the first who called them to the clericate, on oc- casion of some great scarcity of priests that the church was then supposed to labour under; and since that time the priesthood has been usually united to the monastical profession. Eric. Brit. ; British Monachism, or Manners and Customs of Monks and Nuns of England ; Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. ; Gibbon's Decline and Fall. MONOPHYSITES (from ^ solus, and 9U0-15, nulura,) a general name given to all those sectaries in the Levant who only own one nature in Jesus Christ ; and who maintain that the di- vine and human nature of Jesus Christ were so united as to form only one nature, yet without any change, confusion, or mixture of the two natures. The Monophysites, however, properly so called, are the followers of Severus, a learned monk of Palestine, who was created patriarch of Antioch, in 513, and Petrus Fullensis. The Monophysites were encouraged by the emperor Anastasius, but suppressed by Justin and succeeding emperors. However, this sect was restored by Jacob Baradseus, an obscure monk, insomuch that when he died bishop of Edessa, A. D. 588, he left it in a most flourishing state in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other countries. The laborious efforts of Jacob were seconded in Egypt and the adjacent countries by Theodosius, bishop of Alexandria; and he became so famous, that all the Monophysites of the East considered him as their second parent and founder, and are to this day called Jacobites, in honour of their new chief. The Monophysites are divided into two sects or parties, the one African and the other Asiatic ; at the head of the latter is the pa- triarch of Antioch, who resides for the most part in the monastery of St. Athanias, near the city of Merdin : the former are under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Alexandria, who generally re- sides at Grand Cairo, and are subdivided into Cophts and Abyssinians. From the fifteenth century downwards, all the patriarchs of the Monophysites have taken the name of Ignatius, in order to show that they are the lineal succes- sors of Ignatius, who was bishop of Antioch in the first century, and consequently the lawful patriarch of Antioch. In the seventeenth cen- tury, a small body of Monophysites, in Asia, abandoned for some time the doctrine and insti- tution of their ancestors, and embraced the com- munion of Rome; but the African Monophysites, notwithstanding that poverty and ignorance which exposed them to the seductions of sophistry and gain, stood firm in their principles, and made an obstinate resistance to the promises, presents, and attempts employed by the papal missionaries to bring them under the Roman yoke : and in the eighteenth century, those of Asia and Africa have persisted in their refusal to enter into the com- munion of the Romish church, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties and alluring offers that have been made from time to time by the pope's legates, to conquer their inflexible constancy. Mi >N0THEL1TES, (compounded of „„,*, ': single," and a^xpx, &i\»> volo, "I will,") an an- cient sect which sprung out of the Eutychiana ; thus culled, as only allowing of one will in Jesus Christ. The opinion of the Monothehtes had its riss MORAL in 630, and had the emperor Heraelius for an ad- herent : it was the same with that of the acepha- lous Severians. — They allowed of two wills in Christ, considered with regard to the two na- tures ; but reduced them to one by reason of the union of the two natures, thinking it absurd that there should be two free wills in one and the same person. They were condemned by the sixth general council in 680, as being supposed to destroy the perfection of the humanity of Jesus Christ, depriving it of will and operation. Their sentiments were afterwards embraced by the Maronites. MONTANISTS, a sect which sprung up about the year 171, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. They were so called from their leader Montanus, a Phrygian by birth; whence they are sometimes called Phrygians amd Cataphrygians. Montanus, it is said, embraced Christianity in hopes of rising to the dignities of the church. He pretended to inspiration ; and gave out that the Holy Ghost had instructed him in several points which had not been revealed to the apos- tles. Priscilla and Maximilla, two enthusiastic women of Phryuia, presently became his disci- ples, and in a short time he had a great number of followers. The bishops of Asia being assem- bled together, condemned his prophecies, and ex- communicated those that dispersed them. After- wards they wrote an account of what had passed to the western churches, where the pretended prophecies of Montanus and • his followers were likewise condemned. The Montanists, finding themselves exposed to the censure of the whole church, formed a schism, and set up a distinct society under the direction of those who called themselves prophets. Montanus, in conjunction with Priscilla and Maximilla, were at the head of the sect. These sectaries made no alteration in the creed. They only held that the Holy Spirit made Mon- tanus his organ for delivering a more perfect form of discipline than what was delivered by his apos- tles. They refused communion for ever to those who were guilty of notorious crimes, and be- lieved that the bishops had no authority to recon- cile them. They held it unlawful to fly in time of persecution. They condemned second mar- riages, allowed the dissolution of marriage, and observed three lents. MORAL, relating to the actions or conduct of life, or that which determines an action to be good or virtuous. — 2. A moral agent is a being that is capable of those actions that have a moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense. — 3. A moral cer- tainty is a very strong probability, and is used in contradistinction to mathematical probability. — 4. Moral fitness is the agreement of the actions »f any intelligent being with the nature, circum- stances, and relation of things. — 5. A 'moral im- possibility is a very great or insuperable difficulty; opposed to a natural impossibility. See Inabi- lity.— 6. Moral obligation is the necessity of doing or omitting any action in order to be happy and good. See Obligation. — 7. Moral philo- sophy is the science of manners, the knowledge of our duty and felicity. Sec Philosophy. — 8. Moral sense, that whereby we perceive what is good, virtuous, and beautiful in actions, man- ners, and characters • or it is a kind of satisfac- 2'J7 2 y MORAVIANS tion in the mind arising from tht contemplation of those actions of iational agents which we call good or virtuous : some call this natural con- science, others intuitive perception of right and wrong, &c. See article Sense. — 0. Moral law. See Law, Evidence. MORALITY is that relation or proportion, which actions bear to a given rule. It is generally used in reference to a good life. Morality is dis- tinguished from religion thus: "Religion is a studious conformity of our actions to the relations in which we stand to each other in civil society. Morality comprehends only a part of religion ; but religion comprehends the whole of morality. Morality finds all her motives here below ; reli- gion fetches all her motives from above. The highest principle in morals is a just regard to the rights of men ; the first principle in religion is the love of God." The various duties of morality are considered in their respective places in this work. See Bishop Horslei/s Charge, 17!)0 ; Palcy's and Grove's Moral Philosophy ; Bcattie's Ele- ments of Moral Science ; Evans's Sermons on Christian Temper ; Watts' s Scrm. on Christian Morals; Mason's Christian Morals ; H. Move's Hints, vol. ii. p. 245; Gisbornc's Sermons, design- ed to illustrate and enforce Christian Morality. MORAVIANS, a sect generally said to have arisen under Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzen- dorf, a German nobleman of the last century, and thus called, because the first converts to their system were some Moravian families. Accord- ing to the society's own account, however, they derive their origin from the Greek church in the ninth century, when, by the instrumentality of Methodius and Cyrillus, two Greek monks, the kings of Bulgaria and Moravia being converted to the faith, were, together with their subjects, united in communion with the Greek church. Methodius was their first bishop, and for their use Cyrillus translated the Scriptures into the Sclavonian language The antipathy of the Greek and Roman churches is well known, and by much the greater part of the Brethren were in process of time compelled, after many struggles, to submit to the see of Rome. A few, however, adhering to the rites of their mother church, united themselves in 1170 to the Waldenses, and sent missionaries into many countries. In 1517 they were called Fratrcs legis Christi, or Brethren of the law of Christ ; because, about that period, they had thrown off all reverence for human compilations of the faith, professing simply to follow the doc- trines and precepts contained in the word of God. There being at this time no bishops in the Bohemian church who had not submitted to the papal jurisdiction, three priests of the society of United Brethren were, about the year 1467. con- secrated by Stephen, bishop of the Waldenses, in Austria [see Waldenses;] and these pre- lates, on their return to their own county con- secrated ten co-bishops, or co-seniors, from aniong the rest of the presbyters. In 1523, the United Brethren commenced a friendly correspondence, first with Luther, and afterwards with Calvin and other leaders among the reformers. A per- secution, which was brought upon them on this account, and some religious disputes which took place among themselves, threatened for a while the society with ruin ; but the disputes were, in MORAVIANS 1570, put an end to by a synod, which decreed that differences about non-essentials should not destroy their union ; and the persecution ceased in 1575, when the United Brethren obtained an edict for the public exercise of their religion. — This toleration was renewed in 1609, and liberty granted them to erect new churches. But a civil war, which, in 1(512, broke out in Bohemia, and a violent persecution which followed it in 1621, occasioned the dispersion of their ministers, and brought great distress upon the Brethren in general. Some of them fled to England, others to Saxony and Brandenburgh ; whilst many, overcome by the severity of the persecution, con- formed to the rites of the church of Rome. One colony of these, who retained in purity their ori- ginal principles and practice, was in 1722, con- ducted by a brother, named Christian David, from Fulneck, in Moravia, to Upper Lusatia, where they put themselves under the protection of Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, and built a village on his estate at the foot of a hill, called Hutberg, or Watch Hill. The count, who, soon after their arrival, removed from Dres- den to his estate in the country, showed every mark of kindness to the poor emigrants; but being a zealous member of the church established by law, he endeavoured for some time to prevail upon them to unite themselves with it, by adopt- ing the Lutheran faith and discipline. This they declined; and the count, on a more minute inquiry into their ancient history and distinguish- ing tenets, not only desisted from his first pur- pose, but became himself a convert to the faith and discipline of the United Brethren. The synod which, in 1570, put an end to the disputes which then tore the church of the Bre- thren into factions, had considered as non-essen- tials the distinguishing tenets of their own so- ciety, of the Lutherans, and of the Calvinists. In consequence of this, many of the reformers of both these sects had followed the Brethren to Hermhut, and been received by them into com- munion ; but not being endued with the peace- able spirit of the church which they had joined, they started disputes among themselves, which threatened the destruction of the whole esta- blishment. By the indefatigable exertions of count Zinzendorf these disputes were allayed ; and statutes being, in 1727, drawn up and agreed to for the regulation both of the internal and of the external concerns of the congregation, bro- therly love and union was again established ; and no schism whatever, in point of doctrine, has since that period disturbed the church of the United Brethren. In 1735, the count, who, under God, had been the instrument of renewing the Brethren's church, was consecrated one of their bishops, having the year before been examined and re- ceived into the clerical order by the Theological Faculty of Tubingen. Dr. Potter, then arch- bishop of Canterbury, congratulated him upon this event, and promised his assistance to a church of confessors, of whom he wrote in terms of the highest respect, for their having maintained the pure and primitive faith and discipline in the midst of the most tedious and cruel persecutions. That his Grace, who had studied the various controversies about church-governmerout every mosque there are six high towers, called minarets, each of which has three little open gal- leries, one above another : these towers, as well as the mosques, are covered with lead, and adorn- ed with gilding and other ornaments : and fror.i thence, instead of a bell, the people are called to prayers by certain officers appointed for that pur- jx>se. Most of the mosques have a kind of hos- pital, in which travellers, of what religion soever are entertained three days. Each mosque ha» MUFTI olso a place called tarbe, which is the burymg- place of its founders ; within which is a tomb six or seven feet long, covered with green velvet or satin; ;£ the ends of which are two tapers, and round it several seats for those who read the Koran, and pray for the souls of the deceased. MOTIVE, that which moves, excites, or in- vites the mind to volition. It may be one thing singly, or many things conjunctly. Some call it a faculty of the mind, by which we pursue good and avoid evil. See Will : Edwards on the Will p. 7, 8, 124, 259, 384 ; Toplady's Works, *al. ii. p. 41, 42. MOURNING, sorrow, grief. See Sorrow. MOURNING, a particular dress or habit worn to signify grief on some melancholy occa- sion, particularly the death of friends, or of great public characters. The modes of mourning are various in various countries ; as also are the co- lours that obtain for that end. In Europe the ordinary colour for mourning is black; in China, it is white; in Turkey, blue or violet; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown. Each people pretend to have their reasons for the particular colour of their mourning. White is supposed to denote purity; yellow, that death is the end of all human hopes, as leaves when they fall, and flowers when they fade, become yellow; brown denotes the earth, whither the dead return; black, the priva- tion of life, as being the privation of light ; blue expresses the happiness which it is hoped the de- ceased enjoys; and purple or violet, sorrow on the one side, and hope on the other, as being a mixture of black and blue. For an account of the mourning of the Hebrews, see Lev. xix. and xxi. ; Jer. xvi. 6 ; Num. xx. ; Deut. xxxiv. 8. MOVER'S LECTURES, a course of eight *ermons preached annually, set on foot by the beneficence of Lady Moyer, about 1720, who left by will a rich legacy, as a foundation for the same. A great number of English writers having en- deavoured, in a variety of ways, to invalidate the doctrine of the Trinity, this opulent and orthodox lady was influenced to think of an institution which should produce to posterity an ample col- lection ot productions in defence of this branch of the Christian faith. — The first course of these lectures was preached by Dr. Waterland, on the Divinity of Christ, and are well worthy of perusal. MUFTI, the chief of the ecclesiastical order, or primate of the Mussulman religion. The authority of the Mufti is very great in the Otto- man empire ; for even the sultan himself, if he will preserve any appearance of religion, cannot, without first hearing his opinion, put any person to death, or so much as inflict any corporeal punishment. In all actions, especially criminal ones, his opinion is required by giving him a writing, in which the case is stated under feigned names, which he subscribes with the words Olur or Olmuz, l. e. he shall or shall not be punished. Such outward honour is paid to the Mufti, that the grand seignior himself rises up to him, and advances seven steps towards him when he comes into his presence. He alone has the ho- nour of kissing the sultan's left shoulder, whilst the prime vizier kisses only the hem of his garment. When the grand seignior addresses any writ- ing to the Mufti, he gives him the following titles — " To the esad, the wisest of the wise ; in- structed in all knowledge ; the most excellent of 303 MUSSULMAN excellents ; abstaining from things unlawful ; the spring of virtue and true science ; heir of the pro- phetic doctrines ; resoher of the problems of faith ; revealer of the orthodox articles ; key of the trea- sures of truth ; the light to doubtful allegories ; strengthened with the grace of the Supreme Legis- lator of Mankind. May the Most High God perpetuate thy favours." The election of the Mufti is solely in the grand seignior, who presents him with a vest of rich sables, and allows him a salary of a thousand aspers a day, which is about five pounds sterling. Besides this, he has the disposal of certain bene- fices belonging to the royal mosques, which he makes no scruple of selling to the best advantage ; and, on his admission to his office, he is compli- mented by the agents of the bashas, who make him the usual presents, which generally amount to a very considerable sum. Whatever regard was formerly paid to the Mufti, it is now become very little more than form. If he interprets the law, or gives sentence contrary to the sultan's pleasure, he is immft' diately displaced, and a more pliant person put in his room. If he is convicted of treason, or any very great crime, he is put into a mortar kept for that purpose in the seven towers of Constantino- ple, and pounded to death. MUGGLETONIANS, the followers of Lu- dovic Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, who, with his companion Reeves, (a person of equal ob- scurity,) set up for great prophets in the time of Cromwell. They pretended' to absolve or con- demn whom they pleased; and gave out that they were the two last witnesses spoken of in the Revelation, who were to appear previous to the final destruction of the world. They affirmed that there was no devil at all without the body of man or woman ; that the devil is man's spirit of unclean reason and cursed imagination ; that the ministry in this world, whether prophetical or ministerial, is all a lie and abomination to the Lord ; with a variety of other vain and inconsis- tent tenets. MURDER, the act of wilfully and feloniously killing a person upon malice or forethought. Heart murder is the secret wishing or designing the death of any man ; yea, the Scripture saith, " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer," 1 John iii. 15. We have instances of this kind of murder in Ahab, 1 Kings xxii. 9 ; Jezebel, 2 King? xix. 2; the Jews, Mark xi. 18; David, 1 Samuel xxv. 21, 22; Jonah ch. iv. 1, 4. Mur- der is contrary to the authority of God, the sove- reign disposer of life, Deut. xxxii. 39; to the goodness of God, who gives it, Job x. 12 ; to the law of nature, Acts xvi. 28; to the love man owes to himself, his neighbour, and society at large. Not but that life may be taken away, as in lawful war, 1 Chron. v. 22; by the hands of the civil magistrate for capital crimes, Deut. xvii. 8, 10 ; and in self-defence. See Self-defence. According to the divine law, murder is to be punished with I'eath, Deut. xix. 11, 12; 1 Kings ii. 28, 29. It is remarkable that God often givea up murderers to the terrors of a guilty conscience, Gen iv. 13, 15, 23, 24. Such are followed with many instances of divine vengeance, 2 Sam. xii. 9, 10 ; their lives arc often shortened, Ps. Iv. 23 ; and judgments for their sin are oftentimes trans- mitted to posterity, Gen. xlix. 7; 2 Sam. xxi. 1. MUSSULMAN, or Musylmax, a title by MYSTERIES which the Mahometans distinguish themselves; signifying in the Turkish language "true be- liever, or orthodox." There are two kinds of Mussulmen very averse to each other; the one tailed Sonnites, and the other Shiites. The Sonnites follow the interpretation of the Alcoran riven by Omar; the Shiites are the followers of All. The subjects of the king of Persia are Shiites, and those of the grand seignior Sonnites. See Mahometans. MYSTERY, pormpior, secret, (from ^.v to rrn/zx, to shut the mouth.) It is taken, 1. For a truth revealed by God which is above the power of our natural reason, or which we could not have discovered without revelation ; such as the call of the Gentiles, Eph. i. 9; the transforming of some without dying, &c. 1 Cor. xv. 51. — 2. The word is also used in reference to things which remain in part incomprehensible after they are revealed ; such as the incarnation. of Christ, the resurrec- tion of the dead, &c. Some critics, however, observe that the word in the Scripture does not import what is incapable, in its own nature, of being understood, but barely a secret, any thing not disclosed or published to the world. In respect to the mysteries of religion, divines have run into two extremes. "Some," as one observes, " have given up all that was mysterious, thinking that they were not called to believe any thing but what they could comprehend. But, if it can be proved that mysteries make a part of a religion coming from God, it can be no part of piety to discard them, as if we were wiser than he." And besides, upon this principle, a man must believe nothing : the various works of na- ture, the growth of plants, instincts of brutes, union of body and soul, properties of matter, the nature of spirit, and a thousand other things, are all replete with mysteries. If so in the common works of nature, we can hardly suppose that those things which more immediately relate to the Divine Being himself, can be without mys- tery. " The other extreme lies in an attempt to explain the mysteries of revelation, so as to free them from all obscurity. — To defend religion in this manner is to expose it to contempt. The following maxim points out the proper way of defence, by which both extremes are avoided. Where the truth of a doctrine depends not on the evidence of the things themselves, but on the authority of him who reveals it, there the only way to prove the doctrine to be true is to prove the testimony of him that revealed it to be infal- lible." Dr. South observes, that the mysterious- ness of those parts of the Gospel called the credenda, or matters of our faith, is most subser- vient to the great and important ends of religion, aril that upon these accounts : First, because religion in the prime institution of it was de- signed to make impressions of awe and reverential fear upon men's minds. — 2. To humble the pride and haughtiness of man's reason. — 3. To engage us in a closer and more diligent search into them. — 4. That the full and entire knowledge of divine things may be one principal part of our felicity hereafter. Robinson's Claude, vol. i. p. 118, 1 lfl, 304, 303; Campbell's Preliminary Dissertation to the Gospels, vol. i. p. 383 ; StillingficcVs Ori- gincs Sacrce, vol. ii. c. 8 ; Ridgley's Div. qu. 1 1 ; Calmct's Diet. ; Cruden's Concordance ; Soulh's "Scrm. ser. G voL iii. MYSTERIES, a term used to denote the ae- 304 MYSTICS cret rites of the Pagan superstition, which weiv, carefully concealed from the knowledge of the vulgar. The learned bishop Warburton supposed that the mysteries of the Pagan religion werPthe in- vention of legislators and other great personages, whom fortune or their own merit had placed at the head of those chil societies which were formed in the earliest ages in different parts of the world. Mosheim was of opinion that the mysteries were entirely commemorative ; that they were in- stituted with a view to preserve the remembrance of heroes and great men who had been deified in consideration of their martial exploits, useful in- ventions, public virtues, and especially in conse- quence of the benefits by them conferred on their contemporaries. Others, however, suppose, that the mysteries were the offspring of bigotry and priestcraft, and that they originated in Egypt, the native land of idolatry. In that country the priesthood ruled predominant. The kings were engrafted into their body before they could ascend the throne. They were possessed of a third part of all the land of Egypt. The sacerdotal function was con- fined to one tribe, and was transmitted unalien- able from father to son. All the Orientals, but more especially the Egyptians, delighted in mys- terious and allegorical doctrines. Every maxim of morality, every tenet of theology, every dogma of philosophy, was wrapt up in a veil of allegory and mysticism. This propensity, no doubt, con- spired with avarice and ambition to dispose them to a dark and mysterious system of religion. Be- sides, the Egyptians were a gloomy race of men ; they delighted in darkness and solitude. The sa- cred rites were generally celebrated with melan- choly airs, weeping, and lamentation. This gloomy and unsocial bias of mind must have sti- mulated them to a congenial mode cf worship. MYSTICS, a sect distinguished by their pro- fessing pure, sublime, and perfect devotion, with an entire disinterested love of God, free from all selfish considerations. The authors of this mys- tic science, which sprung up towards the close of the third century, are not known ; but the prin- ciples from which it was formed are manifest. Its first promoters proceeded from the known doctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused through all human souls ; or that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from God into the. human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied that men could, by la- bour or study, excite this celestial flame in their breasts ; and therefore they disapproved highly of the attempts of those who, by definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. On the contrary, they main- tained that silence, tranquillity, repose, and soli- tude, accompanied with such acts as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means by which the hidden and internal word was ex- cited to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct men in the knowledge of divine things. For thus they reasoned : — Those who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs ; who turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the avenues of the outward senses against the conta NAME ghws influences of a material world, must neces- sarily return to God when the spirit is thus disen- gaged from the impediments that prevented that nappy union ; and in this blessed frame they not only enjoy inexpressible raptures from their com- munion with the Supreme Being, but are also in- vested with the inestimable privilege of contem- plating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native, purity, while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form. The number of the Mystics increased in the fourth century, under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite disciple of St. Paul, and probably lived about this period ; and by pretending to higher degrees of perfection than other Chris- tians, and practising greater austerity, their cause gained ground, especially in the eastern provinces, in the fifth century. A copy of the pretended works of Dionysius was sent by Balbus to Lewis the Meek, in the year 824, which kindled the only flame of mysticism in the western provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admi- ration of this new religion. In the twelfth cen- tury these Mystics took the lead in their method of expounding the Scriptures. In the thirteenth century they were the most formidable antagonists of the schoolmen ; and, towards the close of the fourteenth, many of them resided and propagated their tenets almost in every part of Europe. — They had, in the fifteenth century, many persons of distinguished merit in their number ; and in the sixteenth century, previous to the Reforma- tion, if any sparks of real piety subsisted under the despotic empire of superstition, they were only to be, found among the Mystics. The cele- brated Madame Bourignon, and the amiable. Fe- nelon, archbishop of Cambray, were of this sect. Dr. Haweis, in speaking of the Mystics, Church History, vol. iii. p. 47, thus observes : " Among those called Mystics, I am persuaded some were found who loved God out of a pure heart fer- vently ; and though they were ridiculed and re- viled for proposing a disinterestedness of love without other motives, and as professing to feel in the enjoyment of the temper itself an abundant reward, their holy and heavenly con- versation will carry a stamp of real religion upon it." As the late Rev. William Law. who was born in 16S7, makes a distinguished figure among the modern Mystics, a brief account of the outlines of his system may, perhaps, be entertaining to some readers. He supposed that the material world was the very region which originally be- longed to the fallen angels. At length the light and spirit of God entered into the chaos, and NATIVITY turned the angels' ruined kingdom into a paradise on earth. God then created man, and placed him there. He was made in the image of the triune God, a living mirror of the divine nature, formed to enjoy communion with Father, Sun, and Holy Ghost, and live on earth as the angels do in Hea- ven. He was endowed with immortality, so that the elements of this outward world could not have any power of acting on his body ; but by his fall he changed the light, life, and Spirit of God for the light, life, and spirit of the world. He died the verv day of his transgression to all the influ- ences and operations of the Spirit of God upon him, as we die to the influences of this world when the soul leaves the body ; and all the influ- ences and operations of the elements of this life were open in him, as they were in any animal, at his birth into this world : ne became an earthly creature, subject to the dominion of this outward world, and stood only in the highest rank of ani- mals. But the goodness of God would not leave man in this condition ; redemption from it was immediately granted, and the bruiser of the ser- pent brought the light, life, and spirit of heaven, once more into the human nature. All men, in consequence of the redemption of Christ, have in them the first spark, or seed, of the divine life, as a treasure hid in the centre of our souls, to bring forth, by degrees, a new birth of that life which was lost in paradise. No son of Adam can be lost, only by turning away from the Saviour within him. The only religion which can save us, must be that which can raise the light, life, and Spirit of God in our souls. Nothing can enter into the vegetable kingdom till it have the vegetable life in it, or be a member of the animal kingdom till it have the animal life. Thus all nature joins with the Gospel in affirming that no man can enter into the kingdom of heaven till the heavenly life is born in him. Nothing can be our righteous- ness or recovery brt the divine nature of Jesus Christ derived to our souls. Law's Life ; Laic's Spirit of Prayer and Appeal ; Law's Spirit of Love, and on Regeneration. MYTHOLOGY, in its original import, signi- fies any kind of fabulous doctrine. In its more appropriated sense, it means those fabulous de- tails concerning the objects of worship, which were invented and propagated by men who lived in the early ages of the world, and by them trans- milted to succeeding generations, either by writ- ten records or by oral tradition. Sec articles Heathen, Paganism, and Gale's Court of the Gentiles, a work calculated to show that the pagan philosophers derived their most sublime sentiments from the Scriptures. Bryant's Sys- tem of Ancient Mythology. N. NAME OF GOD. By this term we are to understand, — 1. God himself, Psal. xx. 1. — 2. His titles peculiar to himself, Exod. iii. 13, 14.— 3. His word, Psal. v. 11; Acts ix. 15.— 4. His works, Psal. viii. 1. — 5. His worship, Exod. xx. 24. — 6. His perfections and excel- lences, Exod. xxxiv. G : John xvii. 20. — The properties or qualities %of this name are these: 1. A glorious name, Psal. lxxii. 17. — 2. Tran- scendent and incomparable, Rev. xix. '6. — 305 3 O 3. Powerful, Phil. ii. 10. — 4. Holy and reve- rend, Psal. cxi. 9. — 5. Awful to the wicked. — 6. Perpetual, Isa. lv. 13. Cruden's Concord- ance; Hannam's Anal. Comp. p. 20. NATIVITY OF CHRIST. The birth of our Saviour was exactly as predicted by the pro- phecies of the Old Testament, Isa. vii. 14 ; Jer. xxxi. 22. He was born of a virgin of the house of David, and of the tribe of Judah, Matthew i. ; Luke i. 27. His coming into the world wa» 2 a 2 NATIVITY afW (he manner of other men, though his gene- ration and conception were extraordinary. The place of his birth was Bethlehem, Mic, v. 2; Matt. ii. 4. 6; where his parents were wonder- fully conducted by Providence, Luke ii. 1, 7.-- The time of his birth was foretold by the pro- phets to In- before the sceptre or civil govern- ment departed from Judah, Gen. xlix. 10; Mai. iii. 1; lla^r. ii. fi. 7, <)■ Dan. ix. 21; but the exact year of his birth is not agreed on by chro- nologors, but it was about the tour thousandth year of the world ; nor can the season of the year, the month, and day in which he was born, be ascertained. The Egyptians placed it in January; Wagenseil in February; Bochart, in March; some, mentioned by Clement of Alex- andria, in April; others, in May; Epiphanius speaks of some who placed it in June, and of others who supposed it to have been in July ; Wagenseil, who was not sure of February, fixed it probably in August ; Lightfoot, on the fifteenth of September ; Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvi- sius, in October; others in November; and the Latin Church in December. It does not, how- ever, appear probable that the vulgar account is tight ; the circumstance of the shepherds watch- ing their flocks by night, agrees not witn the win- ter season. Dr. Gill thinks it was more likely in autumn, in the month of September, at the feast of tabernacles, to which there seems some reference in John i. 11. The Scripture, however, assures us that it was in the "fulness of time" Gal. iv. 4 ; and, indeed, the wisdom of God is. evidently displayed as to the time when, as well as the end for which, Christ came. It was in a time when the world stood in need of such a Saviour, and was best prepared for re- ceiving him. " About the time of Christ's ap- pearance," says Dr. Robertson, "there prevailed a general opinion that the Almighty would send forth some eminent messenger to communicate a more perfect discovery of his will to mankind. The dignity of Christ, the virtues of his charac- ter, the glory of his kingdom, and the signs of his coming, were described by the ancient pro- phets with the utmost perspicuity. Guided by the sure word of prophecy, the. Jews of that age concluded the period predetermined by God to be then completed, and that the promised Messiah would suddenly appear, Luke ii. 25 to 38. Nor were these expectations peculiar to the Jews. By their dispersions among so many nations, by their conversation with the learned men among the heathens, and the translation of their inspired writings into a language almost universal, the principles of their religion were spread all over the East ; and it became the common belief that a Prince would arise at that time in Judea, who should change the face of the world, and extend his empire from one end of the earth to the other. Now had Christ been manifested at a ftiore early period, the world would not have been prepared to meet him with the same fondness and zeal : had his appearance been put off for any considerable time, men's expectations would have begun to languish, and the warmth of desire, from a delay of gratification, might have cooled and died away. The birth of Christ was also in the fulness of time, if we consider the then political state of the world. The world, in the Most early ages, was divided into small independent states, differiti" 300 NATIVITY from each other in language, manners, lawe and religion. The shock of so many opposite inte- rests, the interfering of so many contrary viewS) occasioned the most violent convulsions and dis- orders ; perpetual discord subsisted between these rival states, and hostility and bloodshed never ceased. Commerce had not hitherto united man kind, and opened the communication of one na- tion with another : voyages into remote countries were very rare ; men moved in a narrow circle, little acquainted with any thing beyond the limits of their own small territory. At last the Roman ambition undertook the arduous enterprise of conquering the world : They trod down the kingdoms, according to Daniel's prophetic de- scription, by their exceeding strength : they devoured the whole earth, Dan. vii. 7, 23. How- ever, by enslaving the world, they civilized it, and while they oppressed mankind, they united them together; the same laws were every where esta- blished, and the same languages understood ; men approached nearer to one another in senti- ments and manners, and the intercourse between the most distant corners of the earth was rendered secure and agreeable. Satiated with victory, the first emperors abandoned all thoughts of new conquests : peace, an unknown blessing, was enjoyed through all that vast empire ; or, if a slight war was waged on an outlying and barba- rous frontier, far from disturbing the tranquillity, it scarcely drew the attention of mankind. The disciples of Christ, thus favoured by the union and peace of the Roman empire, executed their commission with great advantage. The success and rapidity with which they diffused the know- ledge of his name over the world are astonishing. Nations were now accessible which formerly had been unknown. Under this situation, into which the providence of God had brought the world, the joyful sound in a few years reached those remote corners of the earth into which it could not other- wise have penetrated for many ages. Thus the Roman ambition and bravery paved the way, and prepared the world for the reception of the Chris- tian doctrine." If we consider the state of the world with re- gard to morals, it evidently appears that tha coming of Christ was at the most appropriate time. "The Romans," continues our author, " by subduing the world, lost their own liberty. Many vices, engendered or nourished by pros- perity, delivered them over to the vilest race of tyrants that ever afflicted or disgracod human nature. The colours are not too strong which the apostle employs in drawing the character of that age. See Eph. iv. 17, 19. In this time of universal corruption did the wisdom of God mani- fest the Christian revelation to the world. What the wisdom of men could do for the encourage- ment of virtue in a corrupt world had been tried during several ages, and all human devices were found by experience to be of very small avail ; so that no juncture could be more proper for pub- lishing a religion, which, independent of human laws and institut: ins, explains the principles of morals with admirable perspicuity, and enforces the practice of them by most persuasive argu ments." The wisdom of God will still further appear in the time of Christ's comyig, if we consider the world with regard to its religious state. " The Jews seem to have been deeply tinctured with NATURE superstition. Delighted with the ceremonial pre- scriptions of the law, they utterly neglected the moral. While the Pharisees undermined reli- gion, on the one hand, by their vain traditions and wretched interpretations of the law, the Sad- ducees denied the immortality of the soul, and overturned the doctrine of future rewards and f vanishments ; so that between them the know- edge and power of true religion were entirely lestroyed. But the deplorable situation of the heathen world called still more loudly for an im- mediate interposal of the divine hand. The characters of their heathen deities were infamous, and their religious worship consisted frequently in the vilest and most shameful rites. According to the apostle's observation, they were in all things too superstitious. Stately temples, ex- pensive sacrifices, pompous ceremonies, magnifi- cent festivals, with all the other circumstances of show and splendour, were the objects which false religion presented to its votaries; but just notions of God, obedience to his moral laws, purity of heart, and sanctity of life, were not once men- tioned as ingredients in religious service. Rome adopted the gods of almost every nation whom she had conquered, and opened her temples to the grossest superstitions of the most barbarous people. Her foolish heart being darkened, she changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, Rom. i. 21, 23. No period, therefore, can be mentioned when instructions would have been more seasonable and necessary ;" and no wonder that those who were looking for salvation should joyfully exclaim, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people." The nativity of Christ is celebrated among us on the twenty-fifth day of December, and divine service is performed in the church, and in many places of worship among Dissenters; but, alas! the day, we fear, is more generally profaned than improved. Instead of being a season of real de- potion, it is a season of great diversion. The luxury, extravagance, intemperance, obscene plea- sures, and drunkenness that abound, are striking proofs of the immoralities of the age. " It is matter of just complaint," says a divine, "that such irregular and extravagant things are at this time commonly done by many who call them- selves Christians ; as if, because the Son of God was at this time made man, it were tit for men to make themselves beasts." Man ne's Dissertation on the Birth of Christ ; Lardner's Crcd. part i. vol. ii. p. 7%, %3 ; Gill's Body of Divinity, on Incarnation ; Bishop Law's Theory of Reli- gion. ; Dr. Robertson's admirable Sermon on the Situation of the World at Christ's Appearance ; Edwards's Redemption, p. 313, 31G; Robinson's Claude, vol. i. p. 270, 317 ; John Edwards's Sur- vey of all the Dispensations and Methods of Re- ligion, chap. 13, vol. i. NATURE, the essential properties of a thing, or that by which it is distinguished from all others. It is used also, for the system of the world, and the Creator of it; the aggregate powers of the human body, and common sense, Rom. i. 2G, 27 ; 1 Cor. xi. 14. The word is also used in reference to a variety of other objects, which we shall here enumerate. 1. The Divine nature is nut any external form or shape hut his glory, 307 NAZARITES excellency, and perfections, peculiar to himself. — 2. Human nature signifies the state, properties, and peculiarities of man. — 3. Good nature is a disposition to please, and is compounded of kind- ness, forbearance, forgiveness, and self-denial. — 4. The law of nature is the will of God relating to human actions grounded in the moral differ- ences of things. Some understand it in a more comprehensive sense, as signifying those stated orders by which all the parts of the material world are governed in their several motions and opera- tions.— 5. The light of nature does not consist merely in those ideas which heathens have ac- tually attained, but those which are presented to men by the works of creation, and which, by the exertion of reason, they may obtain, if they be desirous of retaining God in their mind. See Religion. — 6. By the dictates of nature, with re- gard to right and wrong, we understand those things which appear to the mind to be natural, fit, or reasonable. — 7. The state of nature is that in which men have not by mutual engagements, implicit or express, entered into communities. — 8. Depraved nature is that corrupt state in which all mankind are born, and which inclines them to evil. NAZARENES, Christians converted from Judaism, whose chief error consisted in defending the necessity or expediency of the works of the law, and who obstinately adhered to the practice of the Jewish ceremonies. The name of Naza- renes, at first, had nothing odious in it, and it was often given to the first Christians. The fathers frequently mention the Gospel of the Nazarenes which differs nothing from that of St. Matthew which was either in Hebrew or Syriac, for tha use of the first converts, but was afterwards cor- rupted by the Ebionites. These Nazarenes pre- served their first Gospel in its primitive purity. Some of them were still in being in the time of St. Jerome, who does not reproach them with any errors. They were very zealous observers of the law of Moses, but held the traditions of the Pharisees in very great contempt. The word Na2arene was given to Jesus Christ and his disciples ; and is commonly taken in a sense of derision and contempt in such authors as have written against Christianity. NAZARITES, those under the ancient law who made a vow of observing a more than ordi- nary degree of purity, as Samson and John the Baptist. The Nazarites engaged by a vow tc abstain from wine and all intoxicating liquors ; to let their hair grow without cutting or shaving not to enter into any house that was polluted by having a dead corpse in * ; nor to be present at any funeral. And if by chance any one should have died in their presence, they began again the whole ceremony of their consecration and Naza- riteslup. — This ceremony generally lasted eight days, sometimes a month, and sometimes their whole lives. When the time of their N?zarite- ship was accomplished, the priest brought the person to the door of the temple, who there offered to the Lord a he-lamb for a burnt-offering, a she- lamb for an expiatory sacrifice, and a ram for a peace-offering. They offered likewise loaves and cakes, with wine necessary for the libations. After all this was sacrificed and offered to the Lord, the priest or some other person, shaved the head of the Nazarite at thedoor of the tabernacle, and burnt his hair, throwing it upon the lire of NECESSITY the altar. Then the priest put into the hand of the Nazarite tin; shoulder of the ram roasted, with a loaf and a cake, which the Nazarite, returning into the hands of the priest, he offered them to the Lord, lifting them up in the presence of the Na- zarite. And from this time he might again drink wine, his Nazaritcship being now accomplished. Numb. vi. ; Amos, ii. 11, 1*2. Those that made a vow of Nazaritcship out of Palestine, and could not come to the temple when their vow was expired, contented themselves with observing the abstinence required by the law, and after that, cutting their hair in the place where they were : as to the offerings and sacrifices pre- scribed by Moses, which were to be offered at the temple by themselves, or by others for them, they deferred this till they could have a convenient op- portunity. Hence it was that St. Paul, being at Corinth, and having made a vow of a Nazarite, had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, and put off ful- filling the rest of his vow till he should arrive at Jerusalem, Acts xviii. 18. When a person found that he was not in a condition to make a vow of Nazaritcship, or had not leisure to perform the ceremonies belonging to it, he contented himself by contributing to the expense of the sacrifice and oflerings ot those that had made and fulfilled this vow ; and by this means he became a par- taker in the merit of such Nazaritcship. When St. Paul came to Jerusalem, in the year of Christ 53, the apostle St. James the Less, with the other brethren, said to him (Acts xxi. 23, 24,) that, to quiet the minds of the converted Jews, who had been informed that he every where preached up the entire abolition of the law of Moses, he ought to join himself to four of the faithful who had a vow of Nazaritcship upon them, and contribute to the charge of the cere- mony at the shaving of their heads ; by which the new converts would perceive that he con- tinued to keep the law, and that what they had heard of him was not true. NECESSARIANS, an appellation which may be given to all who maintain that moral agents act from necessity. See next article, and Materialists. NECESSITY, whatever is done by a cause or power that is irresistible, in which sense it is opposed to freedom. Man is a necessary agent, it all liis actions be so determined by the causes preceding each action, that not one past action could possibly not have come to pass, or have been otherwise than it hath l>een, nor one future action can possibly not come to pass, or be other- wise th-in it shall be. On the other hand, it is asserted, that he is a free agent, if he be able at any time, under the causes and circumstances he then is, to do different things ; or, in other words, it he lw not unavoidably determined in every point of time by the circumstances he is ir., and the causes he is under, to do any one thing he does, and not possibly to do any other thing. Whether man is a necessary or a free agent, is a question which has been debated by writers of the first eminence. Bobbes, Collins, Hume, Leib- nitz, Kaims, Hartley, Priestley, Edwards, Crom- bie, Toplady, and Bclsham, have written on the side of necessity; while Clarke, King, Law, Reid, Butler, Price, Piryant, Wollaston, llorsley, Beattie, Gregory, and Butterworth, have written against it. To state all their arguments in this •place, would take up too much room ; sullice it to 308 NECROMANCY say, that the Anti-necessarians suppose that the doctrine of necessity charges God as the author of sin ; that it takes away the freedom of the will, renders man unaccountable, makes sin to be no evil, and morality or virtue to be no good ; pre- cludes the use of means, and is of the most gloomy tendency. The Necessarians deny these to be legitimate consequences, and observe thai the Defty acts no more immorally in decreeing vicious actions, than in permitting all those ir- regularities which he could so easily have pre- vented. The difficulty is tne same on each hy- pothesis. All necessity, say they, doth not take away freedom. The actions of a man may be at one and the same time free and necessary too. It was infallibly certain that Judas would betray Christ, yet he did it voluntarily. Jesus Christ necessarily became man, and died, yet he acted freely. A good man doth naturally and neces- sarily love his children, yet voluntarily. It is part of the happiness of the blessed to love God un- changeably, yet freely, for it would not be their happiness if done by compulsion. Nor does it, says the Necessarian, render man unaccountable, since the Divine Being does no injury to his ra- tional faculties ; and man, as his creature, is an- swerable to Mm ; besides, he has a right to do what he will with his own. That necessity doth not render actions less morally good, is evident ; for if necessary virtue be neither moral nor praise- worthy, it will follow that God himself is not a moral being, because he is a necessary one : and the obedience of Christ cannot be good, because it was necessary. Further, say they, necessity docs not preclude the use of means ; for means are no less appointed than the end. It was or- dained that Christ should be delivered up to death ; but he could not have been betrayed with- out a betrayer, nor crucified without crucifiers. That it is not a gloomy doctrine, they allege, be- cause nothing can be more consolatory than to believe that all things are under the direction of an all-wise Being ; that his kingdom ruleth over all, and that he doth all things well. So far from its being inimical to happiness, they suppose there can be no solid true happiness without the belief of it ; that it inspires gratitude, excites confidence, teaches resignation, produces hu- mility, and draws the soul to God. It is also ob- served, that to deny necessity is to deny the fore- knowledge of God, and to wrest the sceptre from the hand of the Creator, and to place that ca- pricious and undefinable principle — the self-de- termining power of man, upon the throne of the universe. Beside, say they, the Scripture places the doctrine beyond all doubt, Job xxiii. 13, 14 ; xxxiv. 29; Prov. xvi. 4; Is. xlv. 7; Acts xiii.48; Eph. i. 11 ; 1 Thess. iii. 3 ; Matt. x. 29, 30. xviiL 7; Lukexxiv. 26; John vi. 37. See the works of the above-mentioned writers on the subject ; and articles Materialists, and Predestination. NECROLOGY, formed of v.*Pof, dead, and xoyoj, discourse, or enumeration ; a book anciently kept in churches and monasteries, wherein were registered the benefactors of the same, the time of their deaths, and the days of their commemo- ration; as also the deaths of the priors, abbots, religious canons, &c. This was otherwise called calendar and obituary. NECROMANCY, the art of reveal:iig future events, by conversing with the dead. See Divi- nation. NEOLOGY NEOLOGY or NEOLOGISM, the name given to a system of spurious theology, which, within the last fifty years has sprung up in Pro- testant Germany, and been extensively spread by means of the writings of many of the most dis- tinguished professors, biblical critics, and pro- found scholars of that country in the present age. They frequently go under the denomination of Rationalists, from their professing a great reve- rence for the principles of human reason in all theological speculations, and making revelation en- tirely subordinate to the decisions of this oracle within us. The outline of their scheme is this : — That the moral contents of the Bible are a reve- lation from God, in the same sense in which all intellectual proficiency and practical improve- ments are gifts of Divine Providence : That the book of Genesis is a collection of the earliest tra- ditions concerning the origin and primeval history of the human race, containing some facts, but mingled with much allegory, mythology, and fable : That the institutions of the Israelitish na- tion were the ingenious inventions of Moses and his coadjutors, the claim of a divine original hav- ing been assumed to obtain the credit and obe- dience of a barbarous people : That the prophets were the bards and patriotic leaders of their coun- try, warmed with the love of virtue, roused by the inspiration of genius, using the name of the Lord to arouse the torpid, and having no other insight into futurity than the conjectures sug- gested by deep political views and access to the secrets of camps and cabinets : That Jesus was one of the best and wisest of men, possessing a peculiar genius, and an elevation of soul far above his age and nation : That seeing his countrymen sunk in ignorance and superstition, and apprized of the depravity of the idolatrous nations, he formed the conception of a pure, simple, and ra- tional religion, founded on the Unity of the God- head, enjoining universal virtue, having as few positive doctrines and outward institutions as pos- sible,, and therefore adapted to all times and all countries : That in order to accomplish his pur- pose the more readily and safely, he entered into a temporary compromise with the popular opinions and phraseology, assuming to be the Messiah whom the nation expected, and applying to him- self various passages of the prophets, such as were calculated to excite the highest veneration : That by superior natural science, and by dexter- ously availing himself of fortunate coincidences, he impressed the bulk of the people with the be- lief of his possessing supernatural powers; an artifice very excusable on account of its benevo- lent and virtuous motive : That by the envy, re- venge, and selfish policy of the Jewish ecclesias- tical leaders, he was condemned to die ; that he was fastened to a cross, but (in consequence, per- haps, of previous management by some friends in power,) was not mortally hurt ; that he was taken down in a swoon, and laid in a cool and secluded recess within a rock, where, by the skill and care of liis friends, animation was restored: That when recovered, he concerted measures with liis confidential adherents for carrying on his noble and generous views ; that from a secure retire- ment, known only to a few of his disciples, he directed their operations; and that in a personal interview near Damascus, he had the admirable address to conciliate Saul of Tarsus, and persuade him to join the cause with all the weight of liis 30J NEONOMIANS talents : That he probably lived many years in thi:5 happy retirement, and, before his death, had the pleasure of knowing that his moral system was extensively received, both by Jews and by men of other nations* That this religion, though a human contrivance, is the best and most usefui for the general happiness of mankind, and there- fore ought to be supported and^taught, at least till the prevalence of philosophical morality shall ren- der it no longer needful. Such, in the main, is the system of the German Neologists, although doubtless, there are shades of difference, and modifications of belief, which it would be endless to specify ; as every new can- didate for notice in the theological world usually begins by broaching some new hypothesis of error, equally extravagant with any thing that had preceded it. The most celebrated supporters of this system, in some or other of its forms, are believed to be, or to have been, Paulus, Eichorn, Eckerman, Gesenius, author of the Hebrew Lexi- con, Gabler, Wegscheider, Bretschneider, Van Hemert, of Amsterdam, Schilling, the late dra- matist, and probably Heinrichs, Niemeyer, and Schleiermacher. These writers have certainly rendered useful services to the cause of biblical learning. In numerous dissertations, essays, treatises, and commentaries, they have contri- buted materially to the illustration of many parts of the Scriptures. Yet it is plain that men of such principles are utterly unfit to be our guides in the interpretation of the sacred volume. And no greater scourge to the cause of truth could befal our country than to have their Lexicons, Scho- lia, and Hermeneuties generally adopted by the younger class of theologians at the present day. See Eclectic Review for July, 1827. — B. NEONOMIANS, so called from the Greek veo{, new, and vo^o;, law, signifying a new laic, the condition whereof is imperfect, though sin- cere and persevering obedience. Neonomianism seems to be an essential part of the Arminian system. " The new covenant of grace which, through the medium of Christ's death, the Father made with men, consists, ac- cording to this system, not in our Ireing justified by faith, as it apprehends the righteousness of Christ; but in this, that God, abrogating the ex- action of perfect legal obedience, reputes or ac- cepts of faith itself, and the imperfect obedience of faith, instead of the perfect obedience of the law, and graciously accounts them worthy of the reward of eternal life." — This opinion was exa- mined at the synod of Dort, and has been can- vassed between the Calvinists and Armhuans on various occasions. • Towards the close of the seventeenth century a controversy was agitated amongst the English Dissenters, in wliich the one side, who were par- tial to the writings of Dr. Crisp, were charged with Antivomianism, and the other, who favour- ed Mr. Baxter, were accused of Neonomianism. Dr. Daniel Williams, who was a principal writer on what was called the Nconomian side, after many things had been said, gives the following as a summary of his faith in reference to those sub- jects.— 1. God has eternally elected a certain de- finite number of men whom he will infallibly save by Christ in that way prescribed by the Gospel. — 2. These very elect are not personally justified until they receive Christ, and yield up themselves to him, but they remain condemned wliilst un- NEONOMIANS converted to Christ. — 3. By the ministry of the Gospelthrre is a serious offer of pardon ami glory, upon the terms of the Gospel, to all that hear it ; and God thereby requires them to comply vvith the said terms. — 1. Ministers ought to use these and other Gospel benefits as motives, assuring men that if they believe they shall be justified ; if they turn to God, they shall live; if they re- pent, their sins shall be blotted out; and whilst they neglect these duties, they cannot have a per- sonal interest in these respective benefits. — 5. It is by the power of the Spirit of Christ freely ex- erted, and not by the power of free-will, that the Gospel becomes effectual for the conversion of any soul to the obedience of faith. — G. When a man believe*, yet it is not that very faith, and much less any other work, the matter of that righteousness for which a sinner is justified, i. e. entitled to pardon, acceptance and eternal glory. as righteous before God ; and it is the imputed righteousness of Christ alone, for which the Gos- pel gives the believer a right to these and all saving blessings, who in this respect is justified by Christ's righteousness alone. By both this and the fifth head it appears that all boasting is excluded, and we are saved by free grace. — 7. Faith alone receives the Lord Jesus and his righteousness, and the subject of this faith is a convinced, penitent soul; hence we are justified by faith alone, and yet the impenitent are not forgiven. — 8. God has freely promised that all whom he predestinated to salvation shall not only savingly believe, but that he by his power shall preserve them from a total or a final apostasy. — 9. Yet the believer, whilst he lives in this world, is to pass the time of his sojourning here with fear, because his warfare is not accomplished, and that it is true that, if he draw back, God will have no pleasure in him. Which with the like cautions God blesscth as means to the saints' perseverance, and these by ministers should be so urged. — 10. The law of innocence, or moral law, is so in force still, as that every precept there- of constitutes duty, even to the believer : every breach thereof is a sin deserving of death : this law binds death by its curse on every unbeliever, and the righteousness for or by which we are justified before God, is a righteousness (at least) adequate to that law which is Christ's alone righteousness; and this so imputed to the be- liever as that God deals judicially with him ac- cording thereto. — 11. Yet such is the grace of the Gospel, that it promiseth in and by Christ a freedom from the curse, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life, to every sincere believer; which pro- mis e Cud will certainly perform, notwithstanding the threatening of the law."' Dr. Williams maintains the conditionally of the covenant of grace ; but admits with D*. Owen, who also uses the term condition, that "Christ un- dert >ok that those who were to be taken into this covenant should receive grace enabling them to comply with t he terms oi' it, fulfil its conditions, and yield the obedience which God required therein." On tins subject Dr. Williams further says, "The question is not whether the first (viz. re- ating) grace, by which we are enabled to pei form the condition, be absolutely given. This I allirm, though tint lie dispensed ordinarily in a due use of means, and in a way discountenancing i Heness, and fit encouragement given to the use ol means." 310 NEONOMIANS The following ebjection, among others, was made by several ministers in 1692, against Dr. Williams's Gospel Truth Slated, fortunately happened, that the symbolsand fictions under wlfich, according to the ancient manner, the ancients delivered their precepts and doc- NOETIANS tnnes, were in process of time erroneously under- stood, both by priests and people, in a literal sense; that in consequence of this the invisible beings and daemons whom the Supreme Deity had placed in the different parts of the universe as the ministers of his providence, were by the suggestions of superstition converted into gods, and worshipped with a multiplicity of vain cere- monies. He therefore insisted that all the reli- gions of all nations should be restored to their primitive standard : viz. The ancient philosophy of the east ; and he asserted that his project was agreeable to the intentions of Jesus Christ, whom he acknowledged to be a most excellent man, the friend of God ; and affirmed that his soic view in descending on earth was to set bounds to the reigning superstition, to remove the errors which had crept into the religion of all nations, but not to abolish the ancient theology from which they were derived. Taking these principles for granted, Ammo- nius associated the sentiments of the Egyptians with the doctrines of Plato; and to finish this conciliatory scheme, he so interpreted the doc- trines of the other philosophical and religious sects, by art, invention, and allegory, that they seemed to bear some semblance to the Egyptian and Platonic systems. With regard to moral discipline, Ammonius permitted the people to live according to the law of their country, and the dictates of nature ; but a more sublime rule was laid down for the wise. They were to raise above all terrestrial things, by the towering efforts of holy contemplation, those souls whose origin was celestial and divine. They were ordered to extenuate by hunger, thirst, and other mortifications, the sluggish body, which restrains the liberty of the immortal spirit, that in this life they might enjoy communion with the Supreme Being, and ascend after death, active and unincumbered, to the universal Parent, to live in his presence for ever. NEW TESTAMENT. See Inspiration, and Scripture. NICENE CREED. See Creed. NICOLAIT ANS, heretics who assumed this name from Nicholas of Antioch ; who, bein5, an act was brought into the House to banish them from their friends, com- monly called the Oxford Five Mile Act, by which all dissenting ministers, on the penalty of forty pounds, who would not take an oath (that it was not lawful, upm any pretence whatever, to take arms against the king, &C.) were prohi- bited from coming within i'wc miles of any city, town corporate, or borough, or any place where they had exercised their ministry, and from teaching any school. Some few took the oath; NONCONFORMIST others could not, and consequently suffered the penalty. In lf>73, " the mouths of the high church pul- piteers were encouraged to open as loud as pos- sible. One, in his sermon before the House of Commons told them, that the Nonconformists ought not to be. tolerated, but to be cured by ven- geance. He urged them to set lire to the faggot, and to teach them by scourges or scorpions, and open their eyes with gall." Such were the dreadful consequences of this intolerant spirit, that it is supposed near eight thousand died in prison in the reign of Charles II. It is said, that Mr. Jeremiah White had carefully collected a list of those who had suffered between Charles II. and the revolution, which amounted to sixty thousand. The same perse- cutions were carried on in Scotland ; and there, as well as in England, many, to avoid persecu- tion, fled from their country. But, notwithstanding all these dreadful and furious attacks upon the Dissenters, they were not extirpated. Their very persecution was in their favour. The infamous characters of their informers and persecutors ; their piety, zeal, and fortitude, no doubt, had influence on considerate minds ; and, indeed, they had additions from the established church, which " several clergymen in tins reign deserted as a persecuting church, and took their lot among them." In addition to this, king James suddenly altered his measures, grant- ed a universal toleration, and preferred Dissenters to places of trust and profit, though it was evi- dently with a view to restore Popery. King William coming to the throne, the famous Toleration Act passed, by which they were ex- empted from suffering the penalties abovemen- tioned, and permission given them to worship God according to the dictates of their own con- sciences. In the latter end of Queen Anne's reign they began to be a little alarmed. An act of parliament passed, called the Occasional Con- formity Bill, which prevented any person in office under the government entering into a meeting-house. Another, called the Schism Bill, had actually obtained the royal assent, which suffered no Dissenters to educate their own chil- dren, but required them to be put into the hands of Conformists ; and which forbade all tutors and schoolmasters being present at any conventicle, or dissenting place of worship ; but the very day this iniquitous act was to have taken place, the Queen died (August 1, 1714.) But his majesty king George I., being fully satisfied that these hardships were brought upon the Dissenters for their steady adherence to the Protestant succession in his illustrious house, against a tory and jacobite ministry, who were paving the way for a popish pretender, procured the repeal of them in the fifth year of his reign ; though a clause was left that forbade the mayor or other magistrate to go into any meeting for re- ligious worship with the ensigns of his office. — See Boguc's Charge at Mr. Knight's Ordina- tion; Neale's History of the Puritans; De Laune's Plea for the Nonconformists; Palmer's Nonconformists' Mem. ; Martin's Letteis on Nonconform ill/ ; Iiobi7ison's Lectures; Cornisk's History of Nonconformity ; Dr. Cat amy's Life of Baxter ; Pierce's Vindication of the Dissen- ters ; Bogue and Bennct's History of the Dis- ecnlers. 313 2 P NUN NONJURORS, those who refused to take the oaths to government, and who were in conse- quence under certain incapacities, and liable to certain severe penalties. ] t can scarcely be said that there are any Nonjurors now in the king- dom; and it is well known that all penalties havo been removed both from Papists and Protestants, formerly of that denomination, as well in Scot- land as in England. — The members of the epis- copal church of Scotland have long been denomi- nated Nonjurors; but perhaps they are now called so improperly, as the ground of their differ- ence from the establishment is more on account of ecclesiastical than political principles. NONRESIDENCE, the act of not residing on an ecclesiastical benefice. Nothing can reflect greater disgrace on a clergyman of a parish, than to receive the emolument without ever visiting his parishioners, and being unconcerned for the welfare of their souls ; yet this has been a reign- ing evil in our land, and proves that there are too many who care little about the flock, so that they may but live at ease. Let such remember what an awful account they will have to give of talents misapplied, time wasted, souls neglected, and a sacred office abused. NOVATIANS, Novatiani, a sect of ancient heretics that arose towards the close of the third century ; so called from Novatian, a priest of Rome. They were called also Cathari, from x«5*pof, pure, q. d. Puritans. Novatian first separated trom the communion of pope Cornelius, on pretence of his being too easy in admitting to repentance those who had fallen off in times of persecution. He indulged his inclination to severity so far, as to deny that such as had fallen into gross sins, especially those who had apostatized from the faith under the persecution set on foot by Decius, were to be again received into the bosom ol the cnurch ; grounding his opinion on that of St. Paul: "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, &c. if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repen- tance." Heb. vi. 4 to G. The Novatians did not deny but a person fall- ing into any sin, how grievous soever, might obtain pardon by repentance; for they them- selves recommended repentance in the strongest terms ; but their doctrine was, that the church had it not in its power to receive sinners into its communion, as having no way of remitting sins but by baptism; which once received, could not be repeated. In process of time the Novatians softened and moderated the rigour of their master's doctrine, and only refused absolution to very great sinners. The two leaders, Novatian and Novatus, were proscribed, and declared heretics, not for exclud- ing penitents from communion, but for denying that the church had the power of remitting sins. NOVITIATE, a year of probation appointed for the trial of religious, whether or no they have a vocation, and the necessary qualities for living up to the rule, the observation whereof they are to bind themselves to by vow. The novitiate lasts a year at least ; in some houses more. It is esteemed the bed of the civil death of a novice, who expires to the world by profession. NUN, a woman, in several Christian coun- tries, who devotes herself, in a cloister or nun- nery, to a religious life. . See article Monk. OATH There were women in the ancient Christian church, who made public profession of virginity cefore the monastic life was known in the world, as appears from the writings of Cyprian and Ter- tullian. These, for distinction's sake, are some- times called ecclesiastical virgins, and were commonly enrolled in the canon or matricula of the church. They differed from the monastic virgins chiefly in this, that they lived privately in their fathers' houses, whereas the others lived in communities; but their profession of virginity was not so strict as to make it criminal for them to marry afterwards, if they thought fit. As to the consecration of virgins, it had some things peculiar in it : it was usually performed publicly in the church by the bishop. The virgin made a public profession of her resolution, and then the bishop put upon her the accustomed habit of sa- cred virgins. One part of this habit was a veil, called the sacrum velamen ; another was a kind of mitre or coronet worn upon the head. At pre- sent, when a woman is to be made a nun, the habit, veil, and ring of the candidate are carried to the altar ; and she herself, accompanied by her nearest relations, is conducted to the bishop, who, OATH after mass and an anthem (the subject of which ig, " that she ought to have her lamp lighted, because the bridegroom is coming to meet her,") pro- nounces the benediction : then she rises up, and the bishop consecrates the new habit, sprinkling it with holy water. When the candidate has put on her religious habit, she presents herself before the bishop, and sings on her knees, An- cilia Christi sum, &c; then she receives the veil, and afterwards the ring, by which she is married to Christ; and, lastly, the crown of virginity. When she is crowned, an anathema is denounced against all who shall attempt to make her break her vows. In some few instances, perhaps, it may have happened that nunneries, monasteries, &c. may have been useful as well to morality and religion as to literature; in the gross, how- ever, they have been highly prejudicial; and however well they might be supposed to do when viewed in theory, in fact they are un- natural and impious. It was surely far from the. intention of Providence to seclude youth and beauty in a cloister, or to deny them the innocent enjoyment of their years and sex. See Monastery. o. OATH, a solemn affirmation, wherein we appeal to God as a witness of the truth of what we say, and with an imprecation of his vengeance, or a renunciation of his favour, if what we affirm be false, or what we promise be not performed. " The forms of oaths," says Dr. Paley, "like other religious ceremonies, have in all ages been various ; consisting, however, for the most part, of some bodily action, and of a prescribed form of words. Amongst the Jews, the juror held up his right hand towards heaven, Psal. cxliv. 8 ; Rev. x. 5. (The same form is retained in Scot- land still.) Amongst the Jews, also, an oath of fidelity was taken by the servant's putting his hand under the thigh of his lord, Gen. xxiv. 2. Amongst the Greeks and Romans, the form va- ried with the subject and occasion of the oath ; in private contracts, the parties took hold of each other's hand, whilst they swore to the perform- ance ; or they touched the altar of the god by whose divinity they swore. Upon more solemn occasions it was the custom to slay a victim, and the beast being struck down, with certain ceremo- nies and invocations, gave birth to the expressions, tjjuviii/ tfKov, ferire pactum; and to our English phrase, translated from these, of ' striking a bar- gain.' The forms of oaths in Christian countries are also very different ; but in no country in the world worse contrived, either to convey the mean- ing, or impress the obligation of an oath, than in our own. The juror with us, after repeating the promise or affirmation which the oath is intended to confirm, adds, ' So help me God ;' or more frequently the substance of the oath is repeated to the juror by the magistrate, who adds in the conclusion, ' So help you God.' The energy of the sentence resides in the particle so ; so, that is, hac lege, upon condition of my speaking the truth, or performing this promise, and not other- wise, may God help ma The juror, whilst he hears or repeats the words of the oath, holds his right hand upon the Bible or other book con- 314 taining the four Gospels, and at the conclu- sion kisses the book. This obscure and ellip- tical form, together with the levity and fre- quency with which it is administered, has brought about a general inadvertency to the obligation of oaths, which both in a religious and political view is much to be lamented ; and it merits public con- sideration," continues Dr. Paley, "whether the requiring of oaths on so many frivolous occasions, especially in the customs, and in the qualification for petty offices, has any other effect than to make them cheap in the minds of the people. A pound of tea cannot travel regularly from the ship to the consumer without costing half a dozen oaths at least; and the same security for the due dis- charge of their office, namely, that of an oath, is required from a churchwarden and an archbishop, from a petty constable and the chief justice of England. Oaths, however, are lawful; and, whatever be the form, the signification is the same." It is evident that, so far as atheism pre- vails, oaths can be of no use. " Remove God once out of heaven, and there will never be any gods upon earth. If man's nature had not something of subjection in it to a Supreme Being, and inhe- rent principles, obliging him how to behave him- self toward God and toward the rest of the world, government could never have been intro- duced, nor thought of. Nor can there be the least mutual security between governors and go- verned, where no God is admitted. For it is acknowledging of God in his supreme judgment over the world, that is the ground of an oath, and upon which the validity of all human engage- ments depends." Historians have justly re- marked, that when the reverence for an oath began to be diminished among the Romans, and the loose Epicurean system, which discarded the belief of Providence, was introduced, the Roman honour and prosperity from that period began to decline. "The Quakers refuse to swear upon any occasion, founding their scruples concerning OBEDIENCE the lawfulness of oaths upon our Saviour's pro- hibition, ' Swear not at all," Matt. v. 34. But it seems our Lord there referred to the vicious, wan- ton, and unauthorized swearing in common dis- course, and not to judicial oaths : for he himself answered when interrogated upon oath, Matt. xxvi. 63, 64 ; Mark xiv. 61. The apostle Paul also makes use of expressions which contain the nature of oaths, Rom. i. 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 31 ; 2 Cor. i. 18 ; Gal. i. 20 ; Heb. vi. 13, 17. Oaths are nugatory, that is, carry with them no proper force or obligation, unless we believe that God will punish false swearing with more severity than a simple lie or breach of promise ; for which belief there aie the following reasons' : 1. Perjury is a sin of greater deliberation. — 2. It violates a superior confidence. — 3. God directed the Israel- ites to swear by his name, Deut. vi. 13 ; x. 20, and was pleased to confirm his covenant with that people by an oath ; neither of which it is probable he would have done, had he not in- tended to represent oaths as having some mean- ing and effect beyond the obligation of a bare promise. " Promissory oaths are not binding where the promise itself would not be so. See Promises. As oaths are designed for the security of the im- poser, it is manifest that they must be interpreted and performed in the sense in which the imposer intends them " Oaths, also, must never be taken but in matters of importance, nor irreverently, and without godly fear. Paleifs Mor. Phil. ch. 16. vol. i. ; Grot, de Jure, 1. 11. c. 13, § 21 ; Bar- row's Works, vol. i. ser. 15 ; Burnet's Exposition of the 39th Article of the Church of England; Herport's Essay on Truths of Importance, and Doctrine of Oaths ; Doddridge's Lectures, lect. 189 ; Tillotsoris 22d Sermon ; Wolscly's Un- reasonableness of Atheism, p. 152. Oath of allegiance is as follows: " I, A. B. do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be faithful, and bear true allegiance to his Majesty, King George. So help me God." This is taken by Protestant dissenting ministers, when licensed by the civil magistrates; as is also the following: Oath of supremacy : " I, A. B. do swear, that I do from my heart abhor, detest, and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and !>osition, that princes excommunicated or deprived >y the Pope, or any authority of the see of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm. So help me God." OBEDIENCE, the performance of the com- mands of a superior. Obedience to God may be considered, 1. As virtual, which consists in a be- lief of the Gospel, of the holiness and equity of its precepts, ot the truth of its promises, and a true repentance of all our sins. — 2. Actual obe- dience, which is the practice and exercise of the several graces and duties of Christianity. — 3. Per- fect obedience, which is the exact conformity of our hearts and lives to the law of God, without the least imperfection. This last is only peculiar to a glorified state. The obligation we arc under to obedience arises, 1. From the relation we stand in to God as creatures, Psalm xcv. 6. — 2. From OBLIGATION he law he hath revealed to us in his word, Psalm cxix. 3 ; 2 Pet. i. 5, 7. — 3. From the blessings of his providence we are constantly receiving, Acts xiv. 17 ; Psalm cxlv. — 4. From the love and good- ness of God in the grand work of redemption, 1 Cor. vi. 20. As to the nature of this obedience, it must be, 1. Active, not only avoiding what is prohibited, but performing what is commanded, Col. hi. 8, 10. — 2. Personal ; for though Christ has obeyed the law for us as a covenant of works, yet he hath not abrogated it as a rule of life, Rom. vii. 22; iii. 31. — 3. Sincere, Psalm li. 6; 1 Tim. 5. — 4. Affectionate, springing from love, and not from terror, 1 John v. 19 ; ii. 5 j 2 Cor. v. 14. — 5. Diligent, not slothfully, Gal. i. 16; Psalm xviii. 44 ; Rom. xii. 11. — 6. Conspicuous and open, Phil. ii. 15; Matt. v. 16. — 7. Univer- sal; not one duty, but all must be performed, 2 Pet. i. 5, 10. — 8. Perpetual, at all times, places, and occasions, Rom. ii. 7 ; Gal. vi. 9. The ad- vantages of obedience are these, 1. It adorns the Gospel, Tit. ii. 10. — 2. It is evidential of grace, 2 Cor. v. 17. — 3. It rejoices the hearts of the mi- nisters and people of God, 1 John 2; 2 Thess. i. 19, 20. — 4. It silences gainsayers. 2 Pet. i. 11, 12. — 5. Encourages the saints, wh> 't from bad company; prayed with anil for; and, above all, a good example set them. Prov. xxii. G ; Eph. vi. 1, 2. Nothing can be more criminal than the conduct of some parents in the inferior classes of the community, who never restrain the de- sires and passions of their children, suffer them to live in idleness, dishonesty, and profanation of the Lord's day ; the consequence of which is often an ignominious end. So, among the great, per- mitting their children to spend their time and their money as they please, indulging them in perpetual public diversions, and setting before them awful examples of gambling, indolence, blasphemy, drinking, and almost every other vice; what is this but ruining their children, and "bequeathing to posterity a nuisance?3' But, while we would call upon parents to exercise their authority, it must not be understood that children are to lie entirely at their disposal under all circumstances, especially when they begin to think for themselves. Though a parent has a right over his children, yet he is not to be a do- mestic tyrant, consulting his own will and pas- sions in preference to their interest. In fact, his right over them is at an end when he goes be- yond his duty to them. " For parents," as Mr. Paley observes, " have, no natural right over the lives of their children, as was absurdly allowed to Roman lathers; nor any to exercise unprofit- able severities ; nor to command the commission of crimes : for these rights can never be wanted for the purposes of a parent's duty. Nor have parents any right to sell their children into sla- very ; to shut up daughters and younger sons in nunneries and monasteries, in order to preserve entire the estate and dignity of the family; or to use any arts cither of kindness or unkindness, to induce them to make choice of this way of life themselves ; or in countries where the clergy are prohibited from mamage, to put sons into the church for the same end, who are never likely to do or receive any good in it sufficient to compen- sate for this sacrifice; nor to urge children to marriages from which they are averse, with the view at exalting or enriching the family, or for the sake of connecting estates, parties, or inte- rests ; nor to oppose a marriage in which the child would probably find his happiness, from a motive of pride or avarice, of family hostility or personal pique." Palei/s Moral Philosophy, vol. i. p. 345 to 370; Stennet's Discourses on Domestic Duties, dis. 5; Bcattic's Elements of Moral Science, vol. ii. p. 139, 148; Doddridge's Lectures, lect. 74; SauriPl's Sermons, Robinson's Translation, vol. v. ser. 1 ; Searlc's Christian Parent. PARSIMONY, covetousness. See Covet- OUSNESS. PARSON, (■persona ecclesite) one that hath full possession of ail the rights of a parochial churcli. He is called parson (persona) because 'jy his person the church, which is an invisible body, is represented, and he is in himself a body 325 PASSION corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the church which he personates. There are three ranks of clergymen below that of a dig- nitary, viz. parson, vicar, and curate. Parson is the first, meaning a rector, or he who receives the great tithes of a benefice. Clergyman may imply any person ordained to serve at the altar. Parsons are always priests, whereas clergymen are only deacons. See Clergy, Curate. PASAGIN1ANS, a denomination which arose in the twelfth century, known also by the name of the Circumcised. Their distinguishing tenets were these : 1. That the observation of the law of Moses in every thing except the offer- ing of sacrifices was obligatory upon Christians. In consequence of which, they circumcised their followers, abstained from those meats, the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic econo- my, and celebrated the Jewish sabbath. — 2. That Christ was no more than the first and purest creature of God. This denomination had the utmost aversion to the doctrine and discipline of the church of Rome. PASSALORYNCH1TES, a branch of the Montanists. They held, that in order to l« saved, it was necessary to observe a perpetual silence; wherefore they kept their finger con- stantly on their mouth, and dared not open it, even to say their prayers. Their name is derived from the Greek ^ao-o-ce^o?, a nail, and piv, a nostril, be- cause, when they put their finger to their mouth thev touched their nose. PASSIVE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST. See Odkdirnxe, and Sufferings of Christ. PASSIVE PRAYER, among the mystic di- vines, is a total suspension or ligature of the in- tellectual faculties, in virtue whereof the soul remains of itself, and, as to its own power, im- potent with regard to the producing of any effects. The passive stale, according to Fenelon, is only passive in the same sense as contemplation ; i. e, it does not exclude peaceable disinterested acts, but only unquiet ones, er such as tend to our own interests. In the passive state the soul has not properly any activity, any sensation of its own. It is a mere inflexibility of the soul, to which the feeblest impulse of grace gives motion. See Mystic. PASSION, in its general import, signifies every feeling of the mind occasioned by an ex- trinsic cause. It is used to describe a violent commotion or agitation of the mind ; emotion, zeal, ardour, or of ease wherein a man can con- quer his desires, or hold them in subjection. 1. As to the number of the passions, Le Brun makes them about twenty: — 1. Attention; 2. admira- tion ; 3. astonishment ; 4. veneration ; 5. rapture ; 6. joy, with tranquillity; 7. desire; 8. laughter; 9. acute pain ; 10. pains, simply bodily ; 11. sad- ness; 12. weeping; 13. compassion ; 14. scorn; 15. horror; 1G. terror or fright ; 17. anger; 18. ha- tred ; 19. jealousy ; 20. despair. All these may be represented on canvas by the pencil. Some make their number greater, adding aversion, love, emulation, &c. &c. ; these, however, may be con- sidered as included in the above list. They are divided by some into public and private; proper and improper ; social and selfish passions. — 2. The original of the passions are from impres- sions on the senses ; from the operations of rea- son, by which good or evil is foreseen ; and from the recollections of memory. — 3. The objects of 2 C PASSION I'ue passions arc mostly things sensible, on account (if their near alliance lo the body ; but objects of a spiritual nature also, though invisible, have a tendency to excite the passions: such as the love of God, heaven, hell, eternity, &C — 1. As to the innocenry of the passions: in themselves they are neither good nor evil, but according to the good or ill use that is made of them, and the de- grees to which they rise. — 5. The usefulness of the passions is considerable, and were given us for a kinc' of spring or elasticity, to correct the natural sluggishness of the corporeal part. They gave birth to poetry, science, painting, music, and all the polite arts which minister to pleasure; nor are they less serviceable in the cause of religion and truth. " They," says Dr. Watts, " when sanctified, set the powers of the understanding at work in the search of divine truth and religious duty; they keep the soul fixed to divine things; render the duties of holiness much easier, and temptations to sin much weaker; and render us more like Christ, and litter for his presence and enjoyment in heaven." — 6. As to the regulation of the passions : to know whether they are under due restraints, and directed to proper objects, we must inquire whether they influence our opinions; run before our understanding; engaged in tri- fling, and neglectful of important objects ; express themselves in an indecent manner; and whether they disorder our conduct. If this be the case, they are out of their due bounds, and will become sources of trial rather than instruments of good. To have them properly regulated, we should pos- sess knowledge of our duty, take God's word for our rule, be much in prayer and dependence on the Divine Being. — 7. Lastly, we should study the passions. To examine them accurately, in- deed, requires much skill, patience, observation, and judgment; hut to form any proper idea of the human mind, and its various operations ; to detect the errors that arise from heated tempera- ment and intellectual excess ; to know how to toi'. "h their various strings, and to direct and em- ploy them in the best of all services ; I say, to accomplish these ends, the study of the passions is of the greatest consequence. "Amidst the numerous branches of know- ledge," says Mr. Cogan, " which claim the atten- tion of the human mind, no one can be more im- portant than this. Whatever most intimately concerns ourselves must be of the first moment. An attention, therefore, to the workings of our own minds ; tracing the power which external objects have over us ; discovering the nature of our emotions and affections; ami comprehending the reason of our being affected in a particular manner, must have a direct influence upon our pursuits, our characters, and our happiness. It may with justice be advanced, that the happiness of ourselves in this department is of much greater utility than abstruser speculations concerning the nature ol the human soul, or even the most accu- rate knowledge of its intellectual powers; for it is according as the passions and affections are ex- cited and directed towards the objects investigated by our intellectual natures that we become useful to ourselves or others; that we rise into respecta- bility, or sink into contempt; that we diffuse or enjoy happiness, diffuse or sutler misery. An accurate analysis of these passions and affections, therefore, is to the moralist what the science of anatomy is to the surgeon. It constitutes the first 336 TATIENCE principles of rational practice; it is, in a moral view, the anatomy of the heart ; it discovers why it beats, and hozo it beats ; indicates appearances in a sound and healthy state; detects diseases with their causes, and it is infinitely more fortu- nate in the power it communicates of applying suitable remedies. See Hutcheson, Watts, Lc Brun, Cogan, and Davan on the Passions ; Grore's Mor. Phil. vol. i. ch. 7. ; Rcid's Active Pmcers of Man ; Fordycc's El. of Mor, Phil. ; Burke on the Sublime, p. 50. PASSOVER, a solemn festival of the Jews, instituted in commemoration of their coming out of Egypt ; because, the night before their de- parture, the destroying angel, who put to death the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Hebrews, without entering therein ; because they were marked with the blood of the lamb, which was killed the evening before, and which for this reason was called the paschal lamb. See Exod. xii. ; Brown's Diet, article Feast, and M'Eteen on the Types, p. 172. PASTOR, literally a shepherd ; figuratively a stated minister appointed to watch over and in- struct a congregation. Of the qualifications of ministers we have already made some remarks under that article; but the following, taken from the works of a spiritual and useful writer, we hope, will not be found superfluous. Jesus Christ's description of an evangelical pastor, Matt. xxiv. 45, includes two things, faithfulness and -pru- dence. "If a minister be faithful, he deceives not others ; and if he be prudent, he is not apt to be deceived himself. His prudence suffers not deceivers easily to impose upon him; and his faithfulness will not suffer him knowingly to im- pose upon his people. His prudence will enable him to discern, and his faithfulness oblige him to distribute wholesome food to his flock. But more particularly, " 1. Prudence wSl direct us to lay a good foundation of knowledge in our people's souls by catechising and instructing them in the princi- ples of Christianity, without which we labour in vain. — 2. Ministerial prudence discovers itself in the choice of such subjects as the needs of our people's souls do most require and call for. — 3. It will not only direct us in the choice of our sub- jects, but of the language, too, in which we dress and deliver them to our people. — 4. It will show us of what great use our own affections are lor the moving of others ; and will therefore advise us, that, if ever we expect the truths we preach should operate upon the hearts of others, we must first have them impressed on our own hearts, Phil. iii. 18.— 5. It will direct us to be careful by the strictness and gravity of our deportment, to maintain our esteem in the consciences of our people. — 0". It will excite us to seek a blessing from God upon our studies and labours, as know- ing all our ministerial success entirely depends thereupon." 1 Cor. iii. 7. See Flavel's Charac- ter of an Evangelical Pastor, in the second volume of Aw Works, p. 703, fol. ed.; and books under article Ministry. PATIENCE, that calm and unruffled tem- per with which a good man bears the evils ot life. "Patience," says an eminent writer, "is apt to be ranked by many among the more humble and obscure virtues, belonging chiefly to those who groan on a sick bed, or who languish in a prison ; but in every circumstance of life no virtue is more PATIENCE important both to duty and to happiness. It is not confined to a situation of continued adversity : it principally, indeed, regards the disagreeable circumstances which are apt to occur : but pros- perity cannot be enjoyed, any more than adver- sity supported, without it. It must enter into the temper, and form the habit of the soul, if we would pass through the world with tranquillity and honour." "Christian patience," says Ma- son, "is essentially different from insensibility, whether natural, artificial, or acquired. This, indeed, sometimes passes for patience, though it be in reality quite another thing; for •patience signifies suffering. Now if you inflict ever so much pain on the body of another, if he is not sensible of it, it is no pain to him ; he sutlers no- thing; consequently calmness under it is no patience. This insensibility is sometimes natu- ral. Some, in the native temperament of their mind and body, are much less susceptible of pain than others are. — There are different degrees of insensibility in men, both in their animal and mental frame ; so that the same event may be a great exercise of patience to one man, which is none at all to another, as the latter feels little or no pain from that wound inflicted on the body or mind which gives the most exquisite anguish to the former. Again ; there is an artificial insen- sibility, such as is procured by opiates, which blunt the edge of pain; and there is an acquired insensibility, or that which is attained by the force of principles strongly inculcated or by long custom. Such was the apathy of the Stoics, who obstinately maintained that pain was no evil, and therefore bore it with amazing firmness, which, however, was very different from the virtue of Christian patience, as appears from the principles from which they respectively proceeded ; the one springing from pride, the other from humility." Christian patience, then, is something different from all these. " It is not a careless indolence, a stupid insensibility, mechanical bravery, consti- tutional fortitude, a daring stoutness of spirit, re- sulting from fatalism, philosophy, or pride : — it is derived from a divine agency, nourished by hea- venly truth, and guided by Scriptural rules." We have the most powerful motives to excite us to the attainment of this grace. 1. God is a God of patience. Rom. xv. 5. — 2. It is enjoined by the Gospel, Rom. xii. 12 ; Luke xxi. 11). — 3. The present state of man renders the practice of it absolutely necessary, Heb. x. 3ti. — 4. The manifold inconvenience oi' impatience is a strong motive, John iv. ; Ps. cvi. — 5. Eminent exam- ples of it, Heb. xii. 2; vi. 12; Job i. 22.— G. Re- flect that all our trials will terminate in triumph, James v. 7, 8 ; Rom. ii. 7. Barrow's Works, vol. iii. ser. 10 ; Jay's Sermons, ser. 2, vol. i. ; Ma- son's Christian Morals, vol. i. ser. 3; Blair's Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 11: Bishop Home's Dis- courses, vol. ii. ser. 10 ; Bishop Hopkins's Death disarmed, p. 1, 120. PATIENCE OF GOD is his long-suffering or forbearance. He is called the God of patience, not only because he is the author and object of the grace of patience, but because he is patient or long suffering in himself, and towards his crea- tures. It is not, indeed, to be considered as a quality, accident, passion, or affection in God us in creatures, but belongs to the very nature and essence of God, and springs from his goodi>ess and mercv, Rom. ii. 4. It is said to be exercised 327 PATRIARCHS towards his chosen people, 2 Pet, iii. 9 ; Rom. iii. 25 ; Isa. xxx. 18 ; 1 Tim. i. 16 ; and towards the ungodly, Rom. ii. 4; Eccl. viii. 11. The end of his forbearance to the wicked, is, that they may be without excuse ; to make his power and good- ness visible ; and partly for the sake of his own people, Gen. xviii. 32 ; Rev. vi. 1 1 ; 2 Pet. iii. 9. His patience is manifested by giving warnings of judgments before he executes them, Hos. vi. 5 ; Amos i. 1 ; 2 Pet. ii. 5. In long delaying his judgments, Eccl. viii. 11. In often mixing mercy with them. There are many instances of his patience recorded in the Scriptures ; with the old world, Gen. vi. 3 ; the inhabitants of Sodom, Gen. xviii. ; in Pharaoh, Exod. v. ; in the people of Israel in the wilderness, Acts xiii. 18; in the Amorites and Canaanites, Gen. xv. 15; Lev. xviii. 28 : in the Gentile world, Acts xvii. 30 ; in fruitless professors, Luke xiii. G, 9 ; in Antichrist, Rev. ii. 21 ; xiii. 6; xviii. 8. See Charnock's Works, vol. i. p. 780 ; Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 130; Saurin's SeTmovs, vol. i. ser. 10 and 11, 148, 149; Tillotson's Sermons. PATRIARCHS, heads of families; a name applied chiefly to those who lived before Moses, who were both priests and princes, without pe- culiar places fitted for worship, Acts ii. 29 ; vii. 8, 9; Heb. vii. 4. Patriarchs, among Christians, are ecclesiasti- cal dignitaries, or bishops, so called from their paternal authority in the church. The power of patriarchs was not the same in all, but differed according to the different customs of countries, or the pleasures of kings and councils. Thus the patriarch of Constantinople grew to be a patriarch over the patriarchs of Ephesus and Casarea, and was called the CEcumenical and Universal Pa- triarch ; and the patriarch of Alexandria had some prerogatives which no other patriarch but himself enjoyed ; such as the right of consecrat- ing and approving of every single bishop under his jurisdiction. The patriarchate has ever been esteemed the supreme dignity in the church: the bishop had only under him the territory of the city of which he was bishop; the metropolitan superintended a province, and had for suffragans the bishops of his province ; the primate was the chief of what was then called a diocese, and had several metropolitans under him ; and the pa- triarch had under him several dioceses, composing one exarchate, and the primates thc«iselves were under him. Usher, Pagi, De Marca, and Mori- nus, attribute the establishment of the grand patriarchate to the apostles themselves, who, in their opinion, according to the description of the world then given by geographers, pitched on three principal cities in the three parts of the known world, viz. Rome in Europe, Antioch in Asia, and Alexandria in Africa ; and thus formed a trinity of patriarchs. Others maintain, that the name patriarch was unknown at the time of the council of Nice ; and that for a long time after- wards patriarchs and primates were confounded together, as being all equally chiefs of dioceses, and equally superior to metropolitans, who were only chiefs of provinces. Hence Socrates gives the title patriarch to all the chiefs of dioceses, and reckons ten of them. Indeed, it does not appear that the dignity of patriarch was appropiiated to the five grand sees of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, till alter the council of Chalcedon, in 451 ; for when the PATRIPASSTANS council of Nice regulated the limits and preroga- tives of the three patriarchs of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, it did not give them the title of patriarchs, though it allowed them the pre-emi- nence and privileges thereof: thus when the courcil of Constantinople adjudged the second place to the bishop of Constantinople, who, till then, was only a sutTragan of Heraclea, it said nothing of the patriarchate. Nor is the term patriarch found in the decree of the council of Chalcedon, whereby the fifth place is assigned to the bishop of Jerusalem ; nor did these live pa- triarchs govern all the churches. There were besides many independent chiefs of dioceses, who, far from owning the jurisdiction of the grand patriarchs, called themselves pa- triarclis, such as that of Aquileia; nor was Car- thage ever subject to the patriarch of Alexandria. Mosheim (Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 281.) imagines that the bishops who enjoyed a certain degree of pre-eminence over the rest of their order, were distinguished by the Jewish title of patriarchs, in the fourth century. The authority of the pa- triarchs gradually increased till about the close of the fifth century : all affairs of moment within the compass of their patriarchates came before them, cither at first hand, or by appeals from the metropolitans. They consecrated bishops ; as- sembled yearly in council the clergv of their respective districts ; pronounced a decisive judg- ment in those cases where accusations were brought against bishops ; and appointed vicars or deputies clothed with their authority, for the pre- servation of order and tranquillity in the remoter provinces. In short, nothing was done without consulting them, and their decrees were executed with the same regularity and respect as those of the. princes. It deserves to he remarked, however, that the authority of the patriarchs was not acknowledged through all the provinces without exception. Several districts, both in the eastern and western empires, were exempted from their jurisdiction. The Latin church had no patriarchs till the sixth century; and the churches of Gaul, Britain, &c were never subject to the authority of the pa- triarch of Rome, whose authority only extended to the suburbicary provinces. There was no primacy, no exarchate, nor patriarchate, owned here ; but the bishops, with the metropolitans, governed the church in common. Indeed, after the name patriarch became frequent in the West, it was attributed to the bishop of Bourges and Lyons; but it was only in the first signification, viz. as heads of dioceses. Du Cange says, that there have been some abbots who have borne the title of patriarchs. PATRICIANS, ancient sectaries, who dis- turbed the peace of the church in the beginning of the third century ; thus called from their founder, Patricias, preceptor of a Mareionite coiled Symmaohus. His distinguishing tenet was, that the substance of the fleslfis not the work of God, but that of the devil ; on which account his adherents bore an implacable hatred to their own flesh, which sometimes carried them so far as to kill themselves. PATRIl'ASSIANS, a sect that appeared about the latter end of the second century; so tailed from their ascribing the passion or suli'er- i.igs of Christ to the Father; for they asserted (he unity of God in such a manner iis to destroy 328 PAULICIANS all distinctions of persons, and to make the Fa- ther and Son precisely the same; in which they were followed by the Sabellians and others. The author and head of the Patripassians was Praxeas, a philosopher of Phrygia in Asia. PATRONAGE, or Advowson-. a sort of in- corporeal hereditament, consisting in the right of presentation to a church, or ecclesiastical benefice. Advowson signifies the taking into protection, and therefore is synonymous with patronage ; and he who has the right of advowson is called the patron of the church. PAULIANISTS, a sect so called from their founder, Paulus Samosatenus, a native of Sa- mosata, elected bishop of Antioch in 26'2. His doctrine seems to have amounted to this : that the Son and the Holy Ghost exist in God in the same manner as the faculties of reason and acti- vity do in man; that Christ was born a mere man ; but that the reason or wisdom of the Fa- ther descended into him, and by him wrought miracles upon earth, and instructed the nations; and, finally, that on account of this union of the divine Word with the man Jesus. Christ might, though improperly, be called God. It is also said that he did not baptise in the name of the Father and the Son, &c; for which reason the council of Nice ordered those baptised by him to be re-haptised. Being condemned by Dionysius Alexandrinus in a council, he abjured his errors to avoid deposition ; but soon after he resumed them, and was actually deposed by another coun- cil in 269. He may be considered as the father of the modern Socinians ; and his errors are se- verely condemned by the council of Nice, whose creed differs a little from that now used under the same name in the church of England. The creed agreed upon by the Nicene fathers with a view to the errors of Paulus Samosatenus con- cludes thus : " But those who say there was a time when he was not, and that he was not he- fore he was born, the catholic and apostolic church anathematize.'' PAULICIANS, a branch of the ancient Manichees, so called from their founder, one Pau- lus, an Armenian, in the seventh century, who, with his brother John, both of Samosata, formed this sect : though otherstire of opinion that they were thus called from another Paul, an Armenian by birth, who lived under the reign of Justinian II. In the seventh century, a zealot, called Con- stantine, revived this drooping sect, which had suffered much from the violence of its adversa- ries, and was ready to expire under the severity of the imperial edicts, and that zeal with which they were carried into execution. The Pauli- cians, however, by their number, and the counte- nance of the emperor Nicephorus, became for- midable to all the East. But the cruel rage of persecution, which had for some years been sus- pended, broke forth with redoubled violence under the reigns of Michael Curopnlatcs, and Leo the Armenian, who inflicted capital punishment on such of the Paulicians as refused to return into the bosom of the church. The empress Theo- dora, tutoress of the emjtfror Michael, in 815, would oblige them cither to he converted, or to quit the empire; upon which several of them were put to death, and more retired among the Saracens; but they were neither all externa nuted nor banished. Upon tiiis they entered into a league with the PEACE Saracens, and choosing for their chief an officer of the greatest resolution and valour, whose name was Carbeus. they declared against the Greeks a war, which was carried on for fifty years with the greatest vehemence, and fury. During these commotions, some Paulicians, towards the con- clusion of this century, spread abroad their doc- trines among the Bulgarians : many of them, either from a principle of zea! for the propagation of their opinions, or from a natural desire of Hy- ing from the persecution which they suffered under the Grecian yoke, retired about the close of the eleventh century from Bulgaria and Thrace, and formed settlements in other coun- tries. Their first migration was into Italy ; whence, in process of time, they sent colonies into almost all the other provinces of Europe, and formed gradually a considerable number of reli- gious assemblies, who ad tiered to their doctrine, and who were afterwards persecuted with the utmost vehemence by the Roman pontiffs. In Italy they were called Patarini, from a certain place called Pataria, being a part of the city of Milan, where they held their assemblies; and Galliari, or Gazari, from Gazaria, or the Lesser Tartary. In France they were called Albigcnscs, though their faith differed widely from that of the Albigenses whom Protestant writers generally vindicate. (See Albigenses.) The first reli- gious assembly the Paulicians had formed in Europe, is said to have been discovered at Orleans in 1017, under the reign of Robert, when many of them were condemned to be burnt alive. The ancient Paulicians, according to Phot ius, expressed the utmost abhorrence of Manes and his doctrine. The Greek writers comprise their errors under the six following particulars: 1. They denied that this inferior arid visible world is the produc- tion of the Supreme Being ;■ and they distinguish the Creator of the world and of human bodies from the Most High God who dwells in the hea- vens; and hence some have been led to conceive that they were a branch of the Gnostics rather than of the Manicheans. — 2. They treated con- temptuously the Virgin Mary, or, according to the. usual manner of speaking among the Greeks, they refused to adore and worship her. -3. They refused to celebrate the institution of the Lord's Supper. — 4. They loaded the cross of Christ with contempt and reproach, by which we are only to understand that they refused to follow the absurd and superstitious practice of the Greeks, who paid to the pretended wood of the cross a certain sort of religious homage. — 5. They rejected, after the example of the greatest part of the Gnostics, the books of the Old Testament, and looked upon the writers of that sacred history as inspired by the Creator of this world, and not by- the. Su- preme God. — 1'>. They excluded presbyters and elders from all part in the administration of the church. PEACE, that state of mind in which per- sons are exposed to no open violence to interrupt their tranquillity. 1. Social peace is mutual agreement one with another, whereby we forbear injuring one, .mother, Psal xxxiv. 14; exxxii. — 2. Ecclesiastical -peace is freedom from conten- tions, and rest from persecutions, Isa. xi. t.3 ; xxxii. 17; Rev. xii. 14. — 3. Spiritual peace is deliverance from sin, by which we were at en- mity with God, Rom. v. 1 ; the result of which is peace in the conscience, Heb. x. 22. This 329 2 R PELAGIANS peace is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, 2 Thess. iii. 1G. It is a blessing of great impor- tance, Psal. cxix. 1G5. It is denominated perfect, Isa. xxvi. 3; inexpressible, Phil. iv. 7; perma- nent, Job xxxiv. 2!*; John xvi. 22; eternal, Isa. lvii. 2; Heb. iv. 9. See Happiness. PELAGIANS, a sect who appeared about the end of the fourth century. They maintained the following doctrines : 1. That Adam was by nature mortal, and, whether he had sinned or not, would certainly have died. 2. That the consequences of Adam's sin were confined to his own person. — 3. That new-born infants are in the same situation with Adam before the fall. — 4. That the law qualified men for the kingdom of heaven, and was founded upon equal pro- mises with the Gospel. — 5. That the general resurrection of the dead does not follow in vir- tue of our Saviour's resurrection. — 6. That the grace of God is given according to our merits. — 7. That this grace is not granted for the per- formance of every moral act ; the liberty of the will and information in points of duty being sufficient. The founder of this sect was Pelagius, a na- ti-e of Great Britain. He was educated in th«5 monastery of Banchor, in Wales, of which ne became a monk, and afterwards an abbot. In the early part of his life he went over to France, and thence to Rome, where he and his friend Celestius propagated their opinions, though in a private manner. Upon the approach of the Goths, A. D. 410, they retired from Rome, and went first into Sicily, and afterwards into Africa, where they published their doctrines with more freedom. From Africa, Pelagius passed into Palestine, while Celestius remained at Carthage, with a view to preferment, desiring to be admit- ted among the presbyters of that city. But the discovery of his opinions having blasted all his hopes, and his errors being condemned in a coun- cil held at Carthage, A. D. 412, he departed from that city, and went into the East. It was from this time that Augustin, the famous bishop of Hippo, began to attack the tenets of Pelagius and Celestius in his learned and elegant writings; and to him, indeed, is principally due the glory of having suppressed this sect in its very birth. Things went on more smoothly with Pelagius in the East, where he enjoyed the protection and favour of John, bishop of Jerusalem, whose at- tachment to the sentiments of Origen led him naturally to countenance those of Pelagius, on account of the conformity that there seemed to be between these two systems. Under the sha- dow of this powerful protection, Pelagius made a public profession of his opinions, and formed disciples in several places. And though, in the year 415, he was accused by Orosius, a Spanish presbyter, whom Augustin had sent into Pales- tine for that purpose, before an assembly of bishops met at Jerusalem, yet he was dismissed without the least censure ; and not only so, but was sooii after fully acquitted of all errors by the council of Piospolis. This controversy was brought to Rome, and referred by Celestius and Pelagius to the decision of Zosimus, who was raised to the pontificate A. D. 417. The new pontiff, gained over by the ambiguous and seemingly orthodox confes- sion of laith that Celestius, who was now at Rome, had artfully drawn up, and also by the 2 c 2 PENITENCE letters and protestations of Pelagius, pronounced in favour of these monks, declared them sound in the faith, and unjustly persecuted by their ad- versaries. The African bishops, with Augustin at their head, little affected with this declaration, continued obstinately to maintain the judgment they had pronounced in this matter, and to strengthen it by their exhortations, their letters, and their writings. Sosimus yielded to the per- severance of the Africans, changed his mind, and condemned, with the utmost severity, Pelagius and Celestius whom he had honoured with his approbation, and covered with his protection. — This was followed by a train of evils, which pur- sued these two monks without interruption. They were condemned, says Mosheim, by that same Ephesian council which had launched its thunder at the head of Nestorius. In short, the Gauls, Britons, and Africans, by their councils and emperors, by their edicts and penal laws, de- molished this sect in its infancy, and suppressed it entirely before it had acquired any tolerable degree of vigour or consistence. PENANCE, a punishment either voluntary, or imposed by authority, for the faults a person has committed. Penance is one of the seven sacraments of the Romish church. Besides fast- ing, alms, abstinence, and the like, which are the general conditions of penance, there are others of more particular kind ; as the repeating a certain number of avemarys, paternosters, and credos : wearing a hair shift, and giving oneself a certain number of stripes. In Italy and Spain it is usual to see Christians, almost naked, loaded with chains, and lashing themselves at every step. — See Popery. PENITENCE is sometimes used for a state of repentance, and sometimes for the act of re- penting. It is also used for a discipline or punish- ment attending repentance, more usually called penance. It also gives title to several religious orders, consisting either of converted debauchees and reformed prostitutes, or of persons who de- vote themselves to the office of reclaiming them. Sec next article. Order of Penitents of St. Magdalen was es- tablished about the year 1273, by one Bernard, a citizen of Marseilles, who devoted himself to the work of converting the courtezans of that city. Bernard was seconded by several others, who, forming a kind of society, were at length erected into a religious order by pope Nicholas III. under the rule of St. Augustin. F. Gesney says, they also made a religious order of the penitents, or women they converted, giving them the same rules and observances which they themselves kept. Congregation of Penitents of St. Magdalen, ot Paris, owed its rise to the preaching of F. Tisseran, a Franciscan, who converted a vast Dumber of courtezans, about the year 1492. Louis, Duke of Orleans, gave them his house for a monastery; or rather, as appears ay their constitution, Charles VIII. gave them the hotel called liochaigne, whence they were removed to St. George's Chapel, in 1572. By virtue of a brief of pope Alexander, Simon bishop of Paris, in 14!>7, drew them up a body of statutes, and gave them the rule of St. Augustin. It was ne- crss.nv before a woman could be admitted, that she had iirst committed the sin of the flesh. None were admitted who were above thirty-live years 330 3 PENITENTIARY of age. Since its reformation by Mary Alvequin, in 1616, none have been admitted but maids, who, however, still retain the ancient name, penitents. PENITENTS, an appellation given to certain fraternities of penitents, distinguished by the dif- ferent shape and colour of their habits. These are secular societies, who have their rules, sta- tutes, and churches, and make public processions under their particular crosses or banners. Of these, it is said, there are more than a hundred, the most considerable of which are as follow : The White Penitents, of which there are several different sorts at Rome, the most ancient of which was constituted in 1264 : the brethren of this fra- ternity every year give portions to a certain num- ber of young girls, in order to their being mar- ried : their habit is a kind of white sackcloth, and on the shoulder is a circle, in the middle of which is a red and white cross. Black Penitents, the most considerable of which are the Brethren of Mercy, instituted in 1488 by some Florentines, in order to assist criminals during {heir imprison- ment, and at the time of their death. On the day of execution they walk in procession before them, singing the seven penitential psalms, and the litanies ; and after they are dead, they take them down from the gibbet, and bury them : their habit is black sackcloth. There are others whose business it is to bury such persons as are found dead in the streets : these wear a death's head on one side of their habit. There are also blue, gray, red, green, and violet penitents, all which are re- markable tor little else besides the diilerent colours of their habits. Penitents, or Converts of the Name of Jcsia, a congregation of religious at Seville, in Spain, consisting of women who have led a licentious life, founded in 1550. This monastery is divided into three quarters : one for professed religious ; another for novices ; a third for those who are under correction. When these last give signs of a real repentance, they are removed into the quar- ter of the novices, where, if they do not behave themselves well, they are remanded to their cor- rection. They observe the rule of St. Augustin, Penitents of Orvieto are an order of nuns in- stituted by Antony Simoncelli, a gentleman of Orvieto, in Italy. The monastery he built was at first designed for the reception of poor girls abandoned by their parents, and in danger of losing their virtue. In 1662 it was erected into a monastery, for the reception of such as, having abandoned themselves to impurity, were willing to take up, and consecrate, themselves to God by solemn vows. Their rule is that of the Car- melites. PENITENTIAL, an ecclesiastical book re- tained among the Romanists, in which is pre- scribed what relates to the imposition of penance, and the reconciliation of penitents. There are various penitentials, as the Roman penitential ; that of the venerable Bede ; that of pope Gre- gory the Third, &c. PENITENTIARY, in the ancient Christian church, a name given to certain presbyters or priests, appointed in every church to receive the private confessions of the people, in order to fa- cilitate public discipline, by acquainting them what sins were to be expiated by public penance, and to appoint private penance for such private crimes as were not proper to be publicly censured. Penitentiary, also, ia the court of Rome, is an PENTATEUCH office in which are examined and delivered out the secret bulls, dispensations, &c. Penitentiary is also an officer in some cathedrals vested with power from the bishop to absolve in cases re- ferred to him. PENTATEUCH, from ^v™, five, and rSvx°s, an instrument or volume, signifies the collection of the five instruments or books of Moses, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Some modern writers, it seems, have asserted that Moses did not compose the Pentateuch, because the author always speaks in the third person; abridges his narration like a writer who collected Irom ancient memoirs ; sometimes interrupts the thread of his discourse, for example, Gen. iv. 23 ; and because of the ac- count of the death of Moses at the end, &c. It is observed, also, in the text of the Pentateuch, that there are some places that are defective : for example, in Exod. xii. 8, we see Moses speaking to Pharaoh, where the author omits the beginning of his discourse. The Samaritan inserts in the same place what is wanting in the Hebrew. In other places the same Samaritan copy adds what is deficient in the Hebrew; and what is contained more than the Hebrew seems so well connected with the rest of the discourse, that it would be difficult to separate them. Lastly, they think they observe certain strokes in the Pentateuch which can hardly agree with Moses, who was born and bred in Egypt ; as what he says of the earthly paradise, of the rivers that watered it and ran through it ; of the cities of Babylon, Erech, Resen, and Calneh ; of the gold of Pison ; of the bdellium, of the stone of Sohem, or onyx stone, which was to be found in that country. These particulars, observed with such curiosity, seem to prove that the author of the Pentateuch lived beyond the Euphrates. Add what he says concerning the ark of Noah, of its construction, of the place where it rested, of the wood where- with it was built, of the bitumen of Babylon, &c. But in answer to all these objections it is justly observed, that these books are, by the most an- cient writers, ascribed to Moses, and it is con- firmed by the authority of heathen writers them- selves, that they are his writing : besides this, we have the unanimous testimony of the whole Jewish nation ever since Moses's time. Divers texts of the Pentateuch imply that it was written by him ; and the book of Joshua and other parts of Scripture import as much ; and though some passages have been thought to imply the contrary, yet this is but a late opinion, and has been sufficiently confuted by several learned men. It is probable, however, that Ezra published a new edition of the books of Moses, in which he might add those passages that many suppose Moses did not write. The Abbe Torne, in a sermon preached before the French King in Lent, 1764, makes the following remarks : "The legislator of the Jews was the author of the Pen- tateuch ; an immortal work, wherein he paints the marvels of his reign, with the majestic pic- ture of the government and religion which he es- tablished ! Who before our modern infidels ever ventured to obscure this incontestable fact '? Who ever sprang a doubt about this among the He- brews ? — What greater reasons have there ever been to attribute to Mahomet his Alcoran, to Plato his Republic, or to Homer his sublime poems '] Rather let us say, What work in any age 331 PERFECTION ever appeared more truly to bear the name of its real author 1 It is not an ordinary book, which, like many others, may be easily hazarded under a fictitious name. It is a sacred boook, which the Jews have always read with a veneration, that remains after seventeen hundred years exile, calamities, and reproach. In this book the He- brews included all their science ; it was their civil, political, and sacred code, their only trea- sure, their calendar, their annals, the only title of their sovereigns and pontiffs, the alone rule of polity and worship : by consequence it must be formed with their monarchy, and necessarily have the same epoch as their government and religion, &c. — Moses speaks only truth, though infidels charge him with imposture. But, great God ! what an impostor must he be, who first spoke of the Divinity in a manner so sublime, that no one since, during almost four thousand years, has been able to surpass him! What an impostor must he be whose writings breathe only virtue ; whose style, equally simple, affecting, and su- blime, in spite of the rudeness of those first ages, openly displays an inspiration altogether divine !'' See Ainsworth and Kidder on the Pentateuch ; Prideaux's Con. vol. i. p. 342, 345, 573, 575; Marsh's Authenticity of the Five Books of Moses considered ; Warburton's Divine Lega- tion ; Dr. Graves's Lectures on the last four books in the Old Test. ; Jenkins's Reasonable- ness of Christianity ; Watson's Apology, let. 2 and 3 ; Faber's Horaz Mosaicee, or a View of the Mosaical Records. PENTECOST, a solemn festival of the Jews, so called, because it was celebrated fifty days after the feast of the passover, Lev. xxiii. 15. It cor- responds with the Christians' Whitsuntide, for which it is sometimes used. PERFECTION, that state or quality of a thing, in which it is free from defect or redun- dancy. According to some, it is divided into phy- sical or natural, whereby a thing has all its powers and faculties; moral, or an eminent degree of goodness and piety ; and metaphysical or tran- scendant is the possession of all the essential at- tributes or parts necessary to the integrity of a substance ; or it is that whereby a thing has or is provided of every thing belonging to its nature ; such is the perfection of God. — The term perfec- tion, says the great Witsius, is not always used in the same sense in the Scriptures. 1. There is a perfection of sincerity^ whereby a man serves God without hypocrisy, Job i. 1 ; Is. xxxviii. 3. — 2. There is a perfection of parts, subjective with respect to the whole man, 1 Thess. v. 23 ; and objective with respect to the whole law, when all the duties prescribed by God are observed, Ps. cxix. 128; Luke i. 6. — 3. There is a comparative perfection ascribed to those who are advanced in knowledge, faith, and sanctification, in compari- son of those who are still infants and untaught, 1 John ii. 13 ; 1 Cor. ii. 6 ; Phil. iii. 15.— A. There is an evangelical perfection. The righteousness of Christ being imputed to the believer, he is com- plete in him, and accepted of God as perfect through Christ, Col. ii. 10; Eph. v. 27; 2 Cor. v. 21. — 5. There is also a perfection of degrees, by which a person performs all the commands of God with the full exertion of all his powers, with- out the least defect. This is what the law of God requires, but what the saints cannot attain to in this life, though we willingly allow them all PERSECUTION the other kinds above-mentioned, Rom. vii. 24; Ihil. iii. 13; 1 John i. 8; Witsii GZconomia Fwdcriun Pri, lib. iii. cap. 12. § 124 ; Bates's Works, p. 557, &c. ; Law and Wesley on Per- fection ; Doddridge's Lectures, lecture 181. PERFECTIONS OF GOD. See Attri- butes. PERJURY is the taking of an oath, in order to tell or confirm a falsehood. This is a very heinous crime, as it is treating the Almighty with irreverence ; denying, or at least discarding his omniscience ; profaning his name, and violating truth. It has always been esteemed a very detect- able thing, and those who have been proved guilty of it, have been looked upon as the {tsU of so- ciety. See Oath. PERMISSION OF SIN. See Sin. PERSECUTION is any pain or affliction which a person designedly inflicts upon another: and in a more restrained sense, the sufferings of Christians on account of their religion. Perse- cution is threefold. — 1. Mental, when the spirit of a man rises up and opposes another. — 2. Ver- bal, when men give hard words, and deal in un- charitable censures. — 3. Actual or open, by the hand, such as the dragging of innocent persons before the tribunal of justice, Matt. x. 18. The unlawfulness of persecution for conscience' sake must appear plain to every one that possesses the least degree of thought or of feeling. " To ba- nish, imprison, plunder, starve, hang, and burn men for religion," says the shrewd Jortin, " is not the Gospel of Christ; it is the Gospel of the De- vil. Where persecution begins, Christianity ends. Christ never used any thing that looked like force or violence, except once; and that, was to drive bad men out of the temple, and not to drive them in." We know the origin of it to be from the prince of darkness, who began the dreadful practice in the first family on earth, and who, more or less, has been carrying on the same work ever since, stnd that almost among all parties. " Persecution for conscience' sake," says Dr. Doddridge, "is every way inconsistent, because, 1. It is founded on an absurd supposition, thatone man has a right to judge for another in matters of religion. — 2. It is evidently opposite to that fundamental principle of morality, that we should do to others as we could reasonably desire they should do to us. — 3. It is by no means calculated to answer the end which its patrons profess to intend by it. — 4. It evidently tends to produce a great deal of mischief and confusion in the world. — 5. The Christian religion must, humanly speaking, be not only obstructed, but destroyed, should perse- cuting principles universally prevail. — G. Perse- cution is so far from being required or encouraged by the Gospel, that it is most directly contrary to many of its precepts, and indeed to the whole of it." The chief objects who have fell a prey to this diabolical spirit have been Christians; a short ac- count of whose sufferings we shall here give, as persecuted by the Jews, Heathens, and those of the same name. Persecution of Christians by the Jews. — Here vvc need not be copious, as the New Testament will inform the reader more particularly how the first Christians Buffered for the cause of truth. Jesus Christ himself was exposed to it in the greatest degree. The four evangelists record the 332 PERSECUTION dreadfnl scenes, which need not here be enlarged on. After his death, the apostles suffered every evil which the malice of the Jews could invent, and their mad zeal execute. They who read the Acts of the Apostles, will find that, like their Master, they were despised and rejected of men, and treated with the utmost indignity and con tempt. II. Persecution of Christians by the Hea- then.— Historians usually reckon ten general persecutions, the first of which was under the emperor Nero, thirty-one years after our Lord's ascension, when that emperor, having set fire to the city of Rome, threw the odium of that exe- crable action on the Christians. First, Those were apprehended who openly avowed themselves to be of that sect ; then hy them were discovered an immense multitude, all of whom were convict- ed. Their death and tortures were aggravated by cruel derision and sport ; for they were either covered with the skins of wild beasts and torn in pieces by devouring dogs, or fastened to crosses, and wrapped up in combustible garments, that, when the day-light failed, they might, like torches, serve to dispel the darkness of the night. For this tragical spectacle Nero lent his own gardens; and exhibited at the same time the public diver- sions of the circus ; sometimes driving a chariot in person, and sometimes standing as a spectator, while the shrieks of women burning to ashes sup- plied music for his ears. — 2. The second general persecution was under Domitian, in the year 95, when 40,000 were supposed to have suffered martyrdom. — 3. The third began in the thin! year of Trajan, in the year 100, and was carried on with great violence for several years.— 4. The fourth was under Antoninus, when the Christians were banished from their houses, forbidden to show their heads, reproached, beaten, hurried from place to place, plundered, imprisoned, and stoned. — 5. The fifth began in the year 127, un- der Severus, when great cruelties were committed. In this reign happened the martyrdom of Perpe- tua and Felicitas, and their companions. Per- petua had an infant at the breast, and Felicitas was just delivered, at the time of their being put to death. These two beautiful and amiable young women, mothers of infant children, after suffer- ing much in prison, were exposed, before an in- sulting multitude, to a wild cow, who mangled their bodies in a most horrid manner; after which they were carried to a conspicuous place, and put to death by the sword. — 6. The sixth began with the reign of Maximinus, in 235. — 7. The se- venth, which was the most dreadful ever known, began in 250, under the emperor Decius, when the Christians were in all places driven from their habitations, stripped of their estates, tormented with racks, &c. — 8. The eighth began in 257, under Valerian. Both men and women suffered death, some by scourging, some by the sword, and some by fire. — 9. The ninth was under Au- relian, in 274; but this was inconsiderable, com- pared with the others before mentioned. —10. The tenth began in the ninteenth year of Diocletian, 303. In this dreadful persecution, which lasted ten years, houses filled with Christians were set on fire, and whole droves were tied together witc ropes and thrown into the sea. It is related that 17,000 were slain in one month's time ; and that during the continuance of this persecution, in the province of Egypt alone, no less than 144,000 PERSECUTION Christians died by the violence of their persecu- tors; besides 700.000 that died through the fa- tigues of banishment, or the public works to which they were condemned. III. Persecution of Christians by those of the same name. — Numerous were the persecutions of different sects from Constantine's time to the Reformation ; but when the famous Martin Lu- ther arose, and opposed the errors and ambition of the church of Rome, and the sentiments of this good man began to spread, the pope and his clergy joined all their forces to hinder their pro- gress. A general council of the clergy was called ; this was the famous council of Trent, which was held for near eighteen successive years, for the purpose of establishing poperv in greater splen- dour, and preventing the Reformation. The friends to the Reformation were anathematized and excommunicated, and the life of Luther was often in danger, though at last he died on the bed of peace. From time to time innumerable schemes were suggested to overthrow the reformed church, and wars were set on foot for the same purpose. The invincible armada, as it was vainly called, had the same end in view. The inquisition, which was established in the twelfth century against the Waldenses (see Inciuisition) was now more effectually set to work. Terrible per- secutions were carried on in various parts of Ger- many, and even in Bohemia, which continued about thirty years, and the blood of the saints was said to flow like rivers of water. The coun- tries of Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary, were in a similar manner deluged with Protestant blood. In HOLLAND, and in the other Low Countries, for many years the most amazing cruellies were exercised under the merciless and unrelenting hands of the Spa- niards, to whom the inhabitants in that part of the world were then in subjection. Father Paul observes, that these Belgic martyrs were 50,000 ; but, Grotius and others observe, that there were 100,000 who suffered by the hand of the execution- er. Herein, however, Satan and his agents failed oft heir purpose; for in the issue great part of the Ne- therlands sliook off the Spanish yoke, and erected themselves into a separate and in Jependent state, which has ever since been considered as one of the principal Protestant countries of the universe. FRANCE. No country, perhaps, has ever produced more martyrs than this. After many cruelties had been exercised against the Protestants, there was a most violent persecution of them in the year 1572, in the reign of Charles IX. Many of the principal Protestants were invited to Paris under a solemn oath of safety, upon occasion of the marriage of the king of Navarre with the French king's sister. The queen dowager of Navarre, a zealous Protestant, however, was poisoned by a pair of gloves before the marriage was solemnized. Coligni, admiral of France, was basely murdered in his own house, and then thrown out of the window to gratify the malice of the duke of Guise ; his head was afterwards cut off, and sent to the king and queen mother ; and his body, after a thousand indignities offered to it, hung by the feet on a gibbet. After this, the murderers ra- vaged the whole city of Paris, and butchered, in three days, above ten thousand lords, gentlemen, presidents, and people of all ranks. A horrible 333 PERSECUTION scene of things, says Thuanus, when the verj streets and passages resounded with the noise of those that met together for murder and plunder the groans of those who were dying, and tha shrieks of those who were just going to l* butchered, were every where heard ; the bodif ? of the slain thrown out of the windows; the courts and chambers of the houses filled with them; the dead bodies of others dragged through the streets ; their blood running through the channels in such plenty, that torrents seemed to empty themselves m the neighbouring river ; in a word, an innumerable multitude of men, women with child, maidens, and children, were all in- volved in one common destruction ; and the gates and entrances of the king's palace all besmeared with their blood. From the city of Paris the massacre spread throughout the whole kingdom. In the city of Meaux they threw above two hundred into gaol; and after they had ravished and killed a great number of women, and plundered the houses of the Protestants, they executed their fury on those they had imprisoned ; and calling them one by one, they were killed, as Thuanus expresses, like sheep in a market. In Orleans they murdered above live hundred men, women, and children, and enriched themselves with the spoil. The same cruelties were practised at An gers, Troyes, Bourges, la Charite, and especially at Lyons, where they inhumanly destroyed above eight hundred Protestants; children hanging on their parents' necks ; parents embracing their children ; putting ropes about the necks of some, dragging them through the streets, and throwing them, mangled, torn, and half dead, into the river. According to Thuanus, above 30,000 Protestants were destroyed in this massacre ; or, as others af- firm, above 100,000. But what aggravates these scenes with still greater wantonness and cruelty, was, the manner in which the news was received at Rome. When the letters of the pope's legate were read in the assembly of the cardinals, by which he assured the pope that all was transacted by the express will and command of the king, it was immediately decreed that the pope should march with his cardinals to the church of St. Mark, and in the most solemn manner give thanks to God for so great a blessing conferred on the see of Rome and the Christian world j and that, on the Monday after, solemn mass should be celebrated in the church of Minerva, at which the pope, Gregory XIII. and cardinals were pre- sent; and that a jubilee should be published throughout the whole Christian world, and the cause of it declared to be, to return thanks to God for the extirpation of the enemies of the truth and church in France. In the evening the cannon of St. Angelo were, fired to testify the public joy ; the whole city illuminated with bon- fires; and no one sign of rejoicing omitted that was usually made for the greatest victories ob- tained in favour of the Roman church. But all these persecutions were, however, far exceeded in cruelty by those which took place in the time of Louis XIV. It cannot be pleasant to any man's fcelijgs, who has the least hu- manity, to recite these dreadful scenes of horror, cruelty, and devastation ; but to show what su- perstition, bigotry and fanaticism are capable of producing, and lor the purpose of holding up tin" spirit of persecution to contempt, we shall here give as concise a detail as possible. The troopers, PERSECUTION BoWicrs, and dragoons, went into the Protestants' houses, where they marred and defaced their household stufl"; broke their looking-glasses and other utensils; threw about their corn and wine; sold what they could not destroy; and thus, in four or five days, the Protestants were stripped of above a million of money. But this was not the worst: they turned the dining-rooms of gen- tlemen into stables for horses, and treated the owners of the houses where they quartered with the greatest cruelty, lashing them about, not suf- fering them to eat or drink. When they saw the blood and sweat run down their faces, they sluiced them with water, and, potting over their heads kettle-drums turned upside down, they made a continual din upon them till these un- happy creatures lost their senses. At Negre- plisse, a town near Montauban, they hung up Isaac Favin, a Protestant citizen of that place, by his arm-pits, and tormented him a whole night by pinching and tearing off his flesh with pincers. They made a great tire round about a boy, twelve years old, who, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, cried out, "My God, help me!" and when they found the youth resolved to die rather than renounce his religion, they snatched him from the lire just as he was on the point of being burnt. In several places the soldiers applied red hot irons to the hands and feet of men, and the breasts of women. At Nantes, they hung up several women and maids by their feet, and others by their arm-pits, and thus exposed them to public view stark-naked. — They bound mothers, that gave suck, to posts, and let their sucking infants lie languishing in their sight for several days and nights, crying and gasping for life. Some they bound before a great fire, and, being half-roasted, let them go ; a punishment worse than death. Amidst a thou- sand hideous cries, they hung up men and wo- men by the hair, and some by their feet, on hooks in chimneys, and smoked them with wisps of wet hay till they were suffocated. They tied some under the arms with ropes and plunged them again and again into wells; they bound others, put them to the torture, and with a fun- nel filled them with wine till the fumes of it took away their reason, when they made them say they consented to be Catholics. They stripped them naked, and, after a thousand indignities, stuck them with pins and needles from head to foot. In some places they tied fathers and hus- bands to their bed-posts, and, before their eyes, ravished their wives and daughters with impu- nity. They blew up men and women with bel- lows till they burst them. If any, to escape these barbarities, endeavoured to save themselves by flight, they pursued them into the fields and woods, where they shot at them like wild beasts, and prohibited them from departing the kingdom (a cruelty never practised by Nero or Diocle- tian,) upon pain of confiscation of effects, the gal- leys, the lash, and perpetual imprisonment. — With these scenes ot desolation and horror the popish clergy feasted their eyes, and made only matter of laughter and sport of them ! ENGLAND has also been the seat of much persecution. — Though Wiclilfe, the first reformer, died peace- ably in his bed, yet such was the malice and spirit of persecuting Rome, that his bones were ordered to be dug dp, and cast upon a dunghill. 331 ° PERSECUTION The remains of this excellent man were accord- ingly dug out of the grave, where they had lain undisturbed four-and-forty years. His bones were burnt, and the ashes cast into an adjoining brook. In the reign of Henry VIII., Bilney, Bayman, and many other reformers, were burnt ; but when queen Alary came to the throne, the most severe persecutions took place. Hooper and Rogers were burnt in a slow fire. Saunders was cruelly tor- mented a long time at the stake before he ex- pired. Taylor was put into a barrel of pitch, and set fire to it. Eight illustrious persons, among whom was Ferrar, bishop of St. David's, were sought out, and burnt by the infamous Bon- ner in a few days. Sixty-seven persons were this year, A. D. 1555, burnt, amongst whom were the famous Protestants, Bradford, Ridley, Latimer, and Philpot. In the following year, 1550, eighty-five persons were burnt. Women suffered ; and one, in the flames, which burst her womb, being near her time of delivery, a child fell from her into the fire, which being snatch- ed out by some of the observers more humane than the rest, the magistrate ordered the babe to be again thrown into the fire, and burnt. Thus even the unborn child was burnt for heresy ! O God, what is human nature when left to itself! Alas! dispositions ferocious as infernal then reign and usurp the heart! The queen erected a commission court, which was followed by the de- struction of near eighty more. Upon the whole, the number of those who suffered death for the reformed religion in this reign, were no less than two hundred and seventy-seven persons; of whom were five bishops, twenty-one clergymen, eight gentlemen, eighty-four tradesmen, one hun- dred husbandmen, labourers, and servants, fifty- five women, and four children. Besides these, there were fifty-four more under prosecution, seven of whom were whipped, and sixteen perished in prison. Nor was the reign of Elizabeth free from this persecuting spirit. If any one refused to consent to the least cere- mony in worship, he was cast into prison, where many of the most excellent men in the land perished. Two Protestant Anabaptists were burnt, and many perished. She also, it is said, put two Brownists to death; and though her whole reign was distinguished for its political prosperity, yet it is evident that she did not un- derstand the rights of conscience ; for it is said that more sanguinary laws were made in her reign than in any of her predecessors, and her hands were stained with the blood both of Papists and Puritans. James 1. succeeded Elizabeth: he published a proclamation, commanding all Protestants to conform strictly, and without any exception, to all the rites and ceremonies of the church of England. Above five hundred clergy were immediately silenced, or degraded, for not complying. Some were excommunicated, and some " banished the country. The Dissenters were distressed, censured, and fined, in the Star- chamber. Two persons were burnt for heresy, one at Smithfield, and the other at Litchfield. Worn out with endless vexations, and unceasing persecutions, many retired into Holland, and from thence to America. It is witnessed by a judicious historian, that, in this and in some fol- lowing reigns, 22,000 persons were banished from England by persecution to America. In Charles the First's time ar;*e the persecuting PERSECUTION I.aud, who was the occasion of distress to num- bers. Dr. Leighton, for writing a book against the hierarchy, was fined ten thousand pounds, perpetual imprisonment, and whipping. He was whipped, and then placed in the pillory ; one of his ears cut off; one side of his nose slit; brand- ed on the cheek with a red hot iron, with the let- ters S. S. ; whipped a second time, and placed in the pillory. A fortnight afterwards, his sores being yet uncured, he had the other ear cut oil", the other side of his nose slit, and the other cheek branded. He continued in prison till the long parliament set him at liberty. About four years afterwards, William Prynn, a barrister, for a book he wrote against the sports on the Lord's day, was deprived from practising at Lincoln's Inn, degraded from his degree at Oxford, set in the pillory, had his ears cut off, imprisoned for life, and fined five thousand pounds. Nor were the Presbyterians, when their government came to be established in England, free from the charge of persecution. In 1615 an ordinance was pub- lished, subjecting all who preached or wrote against the Presbyterian directory for public worship to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds; and imprisonment for a year, for the third offence, in using the episcopal book ot common prayer, even in a private family. In the following year the Presbyterians applied to Parliament, pressing them to enforce uniformity m religion, and to extirpate popery, prelacy, heresy, schism, &c., but their petition was rejected ; but in 1G48 the parliament, ruled by them, published an ordi- nance against heresy, and determined that any person who maintained, published, or defended the following errors should suffer death. These errors were, 1. Denying the being of a God. — 2. Denying his omnipresence, omniscience, &c. 3. Denying the Trinity in any way. — 4. Deny- ing that Christ had two natures. — 5. Denying the resurrection, the atonement, the Scriptures. In Charles the Second's reign the Act of Uni- formity passed, by which two thousand clergy- men were deprived of their benefices. Then fol- lowed the Conventicle Act, and the Oxford Act, under which, it is said, eight thousand persons were imprisoned and reduced to want, and many to the grave. In this reign also, the Quakers were much persecuted, and numbers of them im- prisoned. Thus we see how England has bled under the hands of bigotry and persecution ; nor was toleration enjoyed until William III. came to the throne, who showed himself a warm friend to the rights of conscience. The accession of the present royal family was auspicious to religious liberty ; and as these monarchs have always be- friended toleration, the spirit of persecution has been long curbed. IRELAND has likewise been drenched with the blood of the Protestants, forty or fifty thousand of whom were cruelly murdered in a few days, in different parts of the kingdom, in the reign of Charles I. It began on the 23d of October, 1641. Having secured the principal gentlemen, and seized their effects, they murdered the common people in cold blood, forcing many thousands to fly from their houses and settlements naked into the bogs and woods, where they perished with hunger and cold. Some they whipped to death, others they stripped naked, and exposed to shame, and then drove them like herds of swine to perish in the 335 PERSECUTION mountains: many hundreds were drowned in rivers, some had their throats cut, others were dismembered. With some the execrable villains made themselves sport, trying who could hack the deepest into an Englishman's flesh; wives and young virgins abused in the presence of their nearest relations ; nay, they taught their children to strip and kill the children of the English, and dash out their brains against the stones. Thus many thousands were massacred in a few days, without distinction of age, sex, or quality, before they suspected their danger, or had time to pro- vide for their defence. SCOTLAND, SPAIN, &c. Besides the above-mentioned persecutions, there have been several others carried on in different parts of the world. Scotland for many years together was the scene of cruelty and bloodshed, till it was delivered by the monarch at the revolution. Spain, Italy, and the valley of Piedmont, and other places, have been the seate of much persecution. Popery, we see, has had the greatest hand in this mischievous work. It has to answer, also, for the lives of millions of Jews, Mahometans, and barbarians. When the Moors conquered Spain, in the eighth century, they allowed the Christians the free exercise of their religion ; but in the fifteenth century, when the Moors were overcome, and Ferdinand sub- dued the Moriscoes, the descendants of the above Moors, many thousands were forced to be bap- tized, or burnt, massacred, or banished, and their children sold for slaves; besides innumerable Jews, who shared the same cruelties, chiefly by means of the infernal courts of inquisition. A worse slaughter, if possible, was made among the natives of Spanish America, where fifteen millions are said to have been sacrificed to the genius of popery in about forty years. It has been computed that fifty millions of Protestants have at different times been the victims of the persecutions of the Papists, and put to death for their religious opinions. Well, therefore, might the inspired penman say, that at mystic Baby- lon's destruction, ' was found in her the blood of prophets, of saints, and of all that was slain upon the earth,' Rev. xviii. 24. To conclude this article, who can peruse the account here given without feeling the most pain- ful emotions, and dropping a tear over the mad- ness and depravity of mankind? Does it not show us what human beings are capable of when influenced by superstition, bigotry, and prejudice 1 Have not these baneful principles metamorphosed men into internals ; and entirely extinguished all the feelings of humanity, the dictates of con- science, and the voice of reason '? Alas ! what has sin done to make mankind such curses to one another? Merciful God! by thy great power suppress this worst of all evils, and let truth and love, meekness and forbearance, universally pre- vail. Limborch's Introduction to his History of the Inquisition ; Memoirs of the Persecutions of the Protestants in France, by Lewis De Ena- rolles ; Comber's History of the Parisian Mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew ; A. Robinson's History of Persecution ; Lockman's History of Popish Persecution ; Clark's Looking-glass for Perse- cutors ; Doddridge's Sermon on Persecution ; Jortin's ditto, ser. 0. vol. iv. ; Bower's Lives of the Popes ; Fox's Martyrs ; Woodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland PERSEVERANCE Scale's History of the Puritans, arid of New England ; History of the Bohemian Persecu- tions. ^PERSEVERANCE is the continuance in any design, state, opinion, or course of action. The perseverance of the saints is their continu- ance in a state of grace to a state of glory. This doctrine has afforded considerable matter for con- troversy between Calvinists and Arminians. We shall briefly here state the arguments and objec- tions. And, first, the perfections of Cod are con- sidered as strong arguments to prove this doctrine. God, as a Being possessed of infinite love, faithful- ness, wisdom and power, can hardly be supposed to suffer any of his people finally to fall into perdi- tion. This would be a reflection on his attributes, and argue him to be worse than a common father of his family. His lore to his people is unchange- able, and therefore they cannot be the objects of it at one time and not at another, John xiii. 1 ; Zeph. iii. 17; Jer. xxxi. 3. His faithfulness to them and to his promise is not founded upon their merit, but his own will and goodness ; this, therefore, cannot be violated, Mai. iii. 6; Num. xxiii. 19. His wisdom foresees every obstacle in the way, and is capable of removing it, and directing them into the right path. It would be a reflection on his wisdom, after choosing a right end, not to choose right means in accomplishing the same, Jer. x. G, 7. His power is insuperable, and is absolutely and perpetually displayed in their preservation and protection, 1 Pet. i. 5. — 2. Another argument to prove this doctrine, is their union to Christ, and what he has done for them. They are said to be chosen in him, Eph. i. 4 ; united "to him, Eph. i. 23 ; the purchase of his death, Rom. viii. 34; Tit. ii. 14; the objects of his intercession, Rom. v. 10; viii. 34; 1 John ii. 1, 2. Now if there be a possibility of their finally falling, then this choice, this union, his death and intercession, may all be in vain, and rendered abortive ; an idea as derogatory to the divine glory, and as dishonourable to Jesus Christ, as possibly can be. — 3. It is argued from the work of the Spirit, which is to communicate grace and strength equal to the da}', Ihil. i. 6; 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. If, indeed, divine grace were dependent on the will of man, if by his own power he has brought himself into a state of grace, then it might follow that he might relapse into an opposite state when that power any time was weakened : but as the perseverance of the saints is not pro- duced by any native principles in themselves, but by the agency of the Holy Spirit, enlightening, confirming, and establishing them of course, they must persevere, or otherwise it would be a reflec- tion on this Divine Agent, Rom. viii. 9 ; 1 Cor. vi. 11; John iv. 14; xvi. 14. — 4. Lastly, the declarations and promises of Scripture are very numerous in favour of this doctrine, Job xvii. !); Ps. xciv. 14 j exxv. ; Jer. xxxii. 40; John x. 28; xvii. 12 ; 1 Cor. i. 8, 9; 1 Pet. i. 5; Prov. iv. 18, all which could not be true, if this doctrine were false. There are objections, however, to this doctrine, which we must state.— 1. There are va- rious threatenings denounced against those who apostatise, Ezek. iii. 20 ; Heb. vl 3, G ; Ps. exxxv. 3—5; Ezek. xviii. 24. To this it is answered, that some of these texts do not so much as sup- pose the falling away of a truly good man ; and to all of them, it is said, that they only show what would be the consequence if such skould fall 336 PERSON away; but cannot prove that it erer in fact hap- pens.— 2. it is foretold as a future event that some should fall awav, Matt. xxiv. 12, 13; John xv. G; Matt. xiii. 20, 21. To the first of thesq passages it is answered, that their love might bo said to wax cold without totally ceasing ; or there might have been an outward zeal and show of love where there never was a true faith. To the second it is answered, that persons may be said to be is Christ only by an external profession, or mere members of the visible church, John xv. 2 ; Matt. xiii. 47, 48. As to Matthew, xiii. 20, 21, it is replied, that this may refer to the joy with which some may entertain the oilers of par- don, who never, after all, attentively considered them. — 3. It is objected that many have in fact fallen away, as David, Solomon, Peter, Alexan- der, Hymeneus, &C. To which it is answered, that David, Solomon, and Peter's fall, were not total ; and as to the others, there is no proof of their ever being true Christians. — 4. It is urged, that this doctrine supersedes the use of means, and renders exhortation unnecessary. To which it may be answered, that perseverance itself im- plies the use of means, and that the means are equally appointed as well as the end ; nor has it ever been found that true Christians have re- jected them. They consider exhortations and admonitions to be some of the means they are to attend to in order to promote their holiness; Christ and his apostles, though they often asserted this doctrine, yet proved, exhorted, and made use of means. See Exhortation', Means. — 5. Lastly, it is objected that this doctrine gives great encouragement to carna-1 security and pre- sumptuous sin. To which it is answered, that this doctrine, like many others, may be abused by hyjwcrites, hut cannot be so by those who are truly serious, it being the very nature of grace to lead to righteousness, Tit. ii. 10, 12. Their knowledge leads to veneration ; their love ani- mates to duty; their faith purifies the heart; their gratitude excites to obedience ; yea, all their principles have a tendency to set before them the evil of sin, and the beauty of holiness. See Whit- by and Gill on the Fire Points; Cole on the Sovereignty of God ; Doddridge's Lectures, lee. 179; Turretini Comp. T'heologicet loc. 14, p. 15G; (Economia Witsii, lib. iii. cap. 13; Top- lady's Works, p. 47b', vol. v. ; Ridgley's Body of Div. qu. 79. PERSON, an individual substance of a ra- tional intelligent nature. Some have been of- fended at the term persons, as applied to the Trinity, as unwarrantable. The term person, when applied to the Deity, is certainly used in a sense somewhat different from that in which we apply it to one another; but when it is considered that the Greek words TOoo-rao-i? and npoo-a-irov, to which it answers, are, in the New 1 estament, applied to the Father and Son, Heb. i. 3 ; 2 Cor. iv. 6 ; and that no single term, at least, can be found more suitable ; it can hardly be condemned as unseriptural and improper. There have been warm debates between the Greek and Latin churches aoout the words hypostasis and per- sona ; the Latin, concluding that the word hypos- tasis signified substance or essence, thought that to assert that there were three divine hypostases was to say that there were three gods. On the other hand, the Greek church thought the word person did not sufficiently guard against the Sa- PETROBRUSSIANS Lilian notion of the same individual Being sus fcaining three relations; whereupon each part of' the church was ready to brand the other with heresy, till by a free and mutual conference in a synod at Alexandria, A. U. 3(J2, they made it ap- pear that it was but a mere contention about the grammatical sense of a word ; and then it was allowed by men of temper on both sides, that either of the two words might be indifferently used. Sec Marci Medulla, 1. 5. § 3; Ridgley's Divinity, qu. 11 ; Hurrion on the. Spirit, p. 140 ; Doddridge's Lectures, lee. 15i) ; Gill on the Trinity, p. 93 ; Watts's Works, vol. v. p. 48, 208 ; Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 205, 8vo. ; Edwards's History of Redemption, p. 51, note ; flora', Sol. vol. ii. p. 20. PERSUASION, the act of influencing the i'udgment and passions by arguments or ruotiws. t is different from conviction. Conviction affects the understanding only; persuasion, the will and the practice. It may be considered as an assent to a proposition not sufficiently proved. It is more extensively used than conviction, which last is founded on demonstration, natural or super- natural. But a-U things of which we may be persuaded, arc not capable of demonstration. See Blair's Rhetoric, vol. ii. p. 174. PETER-PENCE was an annual tribute of one penny paid at Rome out of every family, at the least of St. Peter; this, Ina, the Saxon king, when he went in pilgrimage to Rome, about the year 740, gave to the pope, partly as alms, and partly in recompense of a house erected in Rome for English pilgrims. It continued to be paid generally until the time of Henry VIII., when it was enacted, that henceforth no persons shall pay any pensions, peter-pence, or other impositions, to the use of the bishop and see of Rome. PETITION, according to Dr. Watts, is the fourth part of prayer, and includes a desire of deliverance from evil, and a request of good things to be bestowed. On both these accounts petitions ate to be offered up to God, not only for our- selves, but for our fellow-creatures also. This part of prayer is frequently called intercession. See Prayer. PETROBRUSSIANS, a sect founded about the year 1110 in Languedoc and Provence, by Peter de Bruys, who made the most laudable at- tempts to reform the abuses and to remove the superstitions that disfigured the beautiful sim- plicity of the Gospel ; though not without a mixture of fanaticism. The following tenets were held by him and his disciples : 1. That no persons whatever were to be baptized before they were come to the full use of their reason. — 2. That it was an idle superstition to build churches for tlie service of God, who will accept of a sin- cere worship wherever it is offered; and that, therefore, such churches as had already been erected, were to be pulled down and destroyed. — 3. That the crucifixes, as instruments of super- stition, deserved the same fate. — 4. That the real body and blood of Christ were not exhibited in the cucharist, but were merely represented in that or- dinance.— 5. That the oblations, prayers, and good works of the living, could be in no respect advan- tageous to the dead. The founder of this sect, after a laborious ministry of twenty years, was burnt in the year 1130, by an enraged populace set on by the clergy, whose traffic was in danger from the enterprising spirit of this new reformer. 337 3S PHARISEES PETROJOANNITES were followers of Peter John or Peter Joannis, that is, Peter the son of John, who nourished in the twelfth cen- turv. His doctrine was not known till after hi* death, when his body was taken out of his grave and burnt. His opinions were, that he alone had the knowledge of the true sense wherein the apostles preached the Gospel; that the reasonable soul is not the form of man ; that there is no grace infused by baptism ; and that Jesus Christ was pierced with a lance on the cross, before he expired. PPIARISEES, a famous sect of the Jews who distinguished themselves by their zeal for the traditions of the elders, which "they derived from the same fountain with the written word itself; pretending that both were delivered to Moses from mount Sinai, and were therefore both of equal authority. From their rigorous observance of these traditions, they looked upon themselves as more holy than other men, and therefore se- parated themselves from those whom they thought sinners or profane, so as not to eat or drink with them ; and hence, from the Hebrew word pilaris, which signifies "to separate," they had the name of Pharisees, or Separatists. This sect was one of the most ancient and most considerable among the Jews, but its origi- nal is not very well known ; however, it was in great repute in the time of our Saviour, and most probably had its original at the same time with the traditions. The extraordinary pretences of the Pharisees to righteousness, drew after them the common people, who held them in the highest esteem and veneration. Our Saviour frequently, however, charges them with hypocrisy, and making the law of God of no eficct. through their traditions, Matt. ix. 12; xvi. 6; xxiii. 13, 33; Luke xi. 3;), 52. Several of these traditions are particularly mentioned in the Gospel ; but they had a vast number more, which may be seen in the Talmud, the whole subject whereof is to dictate and ex- plain those traditions which this sect imposed to be believed and observed. The Pharisees, contrary to the opinion of the Sadducc-s, held a resurrection from the dead, and the existence of angels and spirits, Aets xxiii. 8. But, according to Josephus, this resur- rection of theirs was no more than a Pythagorean resurrection, that is, of the soul only, by its trans- migration into another body, and being born anew with it. From this resurrection they excluded all who were notoriously wicked ; being of opinion that the souls of such persons were transmitted into a state of everlasting woe. As to lesser crimes, they held they were punished in the bodies which the souls of those who committed them were next sent into. Josephus, however, either mitfook the faith of his countrymen, or which is more probable, wil- fully misrepresented it, to render their opinions more respected by the Roman philosophers, whom he appears to have, on every occasion, been desirous to please. The Pharisees had manv pagan notions respecting the soul ; but Bishop Bull, in his Ilarmonia Apostolica, has clearly proved that they held a resurrection of the body, and that they supposed a certain bone to remain uncorrupted, to furnish the matter of which the resurrection body was to be formed. They did not, however, believe that all mankind wert to be 2D PHILANTHROPY raised from the dead. A resurrection was the privilege of the children <>f Abraham alone, who were all to rise on Mount Zion; their uncor- ruptible bono-;, wherever they might he buried, being carried to that mountain below tin1 surface of the earth. The state of future felicity in which the Pharisees believed was very gross: they imagined that men in the next world, as well as in the present, were to eat and drink, and enjoy the pleasures of love, each being re-united to his former wife. Hence the Sadducees, who be- lieved in no resurrection, and supposed our Sa- viour to teach it as a Pharisee, very shrewdly urged the difficulty of disposing of the woman who had in this world been the wife of seven husbands. Had the resurrection of Christianity been the Pharisaical resurrection, this difficulty would have been insurmountable; and accord- ingly we find the people, and even some of the Pharisees themselves, struck with the manner in which our Saviour removed it. This sect seems to have had some confused notions, probably derived from the Chaldeans and Persians, respecting the pre-existence of souls ; and hence it was that Christ's disciples asked him concerning the blind man, John ix. 2. " Who did, sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" — And when the disciples told Christ that some said he was Elias, Jeremias, or one of the prophets, Matt. xvi. 14, the meaning can only be, that they thought he was come into the world with the soul of Elias, Jeremias, or some other of the old prophets, transmigrated into him. With the Essenes they held absolute predestina- tion, and with the Sadducees free will ; but how they reconciled these seemingly incompatible doc- trines, is no where sufficiently explained. The sect of the Pharisees was not extinguished Ly the ruin of the Jewish commonwealth. The greatest part of the modern Jews are still of this sect, be- ing as much devoted to traditions, or the oral law, as their ancestors were. PHILADELPHIA?* SOCIETY, a sect or society of the seventeenth century ; so called from an English female whose name was Jane Leadly. She embraced, it is said, the same views and the same kind of religion as Madame Bourignon. (See Bourignonists.) She was of opinion that all dissensions among Christians would cease, and the kingdom of the Redeemer become, even here below, a glorious scene of charity, concord, and felicity, if those who bear the name of Jesus, without regarding the forms of doctrine or disci- pline that distinguished particular communions, would all join in committing their souls to the care of the internal guide, to be instructed, governed, and formed by his divine impulse and suggestions. Nay, she went still further, and declared, in the name of the Lord, that this de- sirable event would actually come to pass, and that she had a divine commission to proclaim the approach of this glorious communion of saints, who were to be gathered in one visible universal church or kingdom before the dissolution of this earthly globe. This prediction she delivered with a peculiar degree of confidence, from a notion that her Philadelphia!) society was the true king- dom t/ Christ, \n which alone the Divine Spirit resided and reigned. She believed, it is said, the doctrine of the final restoration of all intelligent brio ja to perfection and happiness. PHILANTHROPY, compounded of ?.xc« 338 nilLOSOPHISTS and j,.?p„i;?) which signify the love of mankind. P differs from benevolence only in this: that hette* volenee extends to every being that has life and sense, and is of course susceptible of pain and pleasure; whereas philanthropy cannot compre- hend more than the human race. It differs from friendship, ps this affection subsists only between a few individuals, whilst philanthropy compre- hends the whole human species. It is a calm sentiment, which perhaps hardly ever rises to the warmth of affection, and certainly not to the heat of passion. PH1L1PISTS, a sect or party among the Lutherans, the followers of Philip Melancthcn. He had strenuously opposed the Ubiquists, who arose in his time ; and, the dispute growing still hotter after his death, the University of Witten- berg, who espoused Melancthon's opinion, were called by the Flaccians, who attacked it, Phi- lipi.tts. PHILOSOPHISTS, a name given to several persons in France who entered into a combina- tion to overturn the religion of Jesus, and eradi- cate from the numan heart every religious senti- ment. The man more particularly to whom this idea first occurred was Voltaire, who being weary (as he said himself) of hearing people repeat thai twelve men were sufficient to establish Chris- tianity, resolved to prove that one might be suf- ficient to overturn it. Full of this project, he swore, before the year 1730, to dedicate his life to its accomplishment; and, for sometime, he flat- tered himself that he should enjoy alone the glory of destroying the Christian religion. He found, however, that associates would be necessary ; and from the numerous tribe of his admirers and dis- ciples he chose D'Alembert and Diderot as the most proper persons to co-operate with him in his designs. But Voltaire was not satisfied with their aid alone. He contrived to embark in the same cause Frederick II. king of Prussia, who wished to be thought a philosopher, and who, of course, deemed it expedient to talk and write against a religion which he had never studied, and into the evidence of which he had probably never deigned to inquire. This royal adept was one of the most zealous of Voltaire's coadjutors, till he discovered that the philosophists were waging war with the throne as well as with the altar. This, indeed, was not originally Voltaire's intention. He was vain ; he loved to be caressed by the great ; and, in one word, he was. from natural disposition, an aristocrat, and an admirer of royalty. But when he found that almost every sovereign but Frederic disapproved of his impious projects, as soon as he perceived their issue, he determined to oppose all the governments on earth rather than forfeit the glory with which he had flattered himself of vanquishing Christ and his apostles in the field of controversy. He now set himself, with D'Alembert and Diderot, to excite universal discontent with the established order of things. For this purpose they formed secret societies, assumed new names, and employed an enigmatical language. Thus Frederic was called Luc; D'AIeniln'rt, Prota- goras, and sometimes Bertrand ; Voltaire, Ra- ton ; and Diderot, Platon, or its anagram Ton pi a ; while the general term for the conspirators was Cacouec. In their secret meetings they professed U) celebrate the mysteries of Mylhra ; and their great object, as they professed to one ai other PHILOSOPHISTS was to confound the wretch, meaning Jesus Christ. Hence their secret watchword was Ecrasez rinflme, "Crush Christ." If we look into some of the books expressly written for general circulation, we shall there find the fol- h>wing doctrines ; some of them standing aione in all their naked horrors, others surrounded by sophistry and meretricious ornaments, to entice the mind into their net before it perceives their nature. "The Universal Cause, that god of the philosophers, of the Jews, and of the Christians, is hut a chimera and a phantom. The phenome- na of nature only prove the existence of God to A few prepossessed men: so far from bespeaking a Coil, they are but the necessary effects of mat- ter prodigiously diversified. It is more reasona- ble to admit, with Manes, of a twofold God, than Of the God of Christianity. We cannot know whether a God really exists, or whether there is :he smallest difference between good and evil, or vice and virtue. Nothing can be. move absurd ;han to believe the soul a spiritual beinr/. The immortality of the soul, so far from stimulating man to the practice of virtue, is nothing but a barbarous, desperate, fatal tenet, and contrary to all legislation. All ideas of justice and injustice, of virtue and vice, of glory and infamy, are purely arbitrary and dependent on custom. Conscience and remorse are nothing but the foresight of t hose physical penalties to which crimes expose us. The man who is above the law can commit, without remorse, the dishonest act that may serve his purpose. The fear of God, so far from being the beginning of wisdom, should be the begin- ning of folly. The command to love one's pa- rents is more the work of education than of nature. Modesty is only an invention of refined voluptuousness. The law which condemns mar- ried people to live together, becomes barbarous and cruel on the day thev cease to love one ano- ther. ' — These extracts from the secret corres- pondence and the public writings of these men, will suffice to show us the nature and tendency of the dreadful system they had formed. The philosophists were diligently employed in attempting to propagate their sentiments. Their grand Encyclopaedia was converted into an en- gine to serve this purpose. Voltaire proposed to establish a colony of philosophists at Clevcs, who, protected by the king of Prussia, might publish their opinions without dread or danger; and Frederic was disposed to take them under bis ] protection, till he discovered that their opinions were anarchical as well as impious, when he threw them off, and even wrote against them. They contrived, however, to engage the ministers of the court of France in their favour, by pre- tending to have nothing in view but the enlarge- ment of science, in works which spoke indeed respectfully of revelation, while every discovery which they brought forward was meant to under- mine its very ft undation. When the throne was to he attacked, and even when barefaced atheism was to be promulgated, a number of impious and licentious pamphlets were dispersed (Sat some time none knew how.) from a secret society formed at the Hotel d'Holbach, at Paris, of which Voltaire was elected honorary and perpetual pre- sident. To conceal their real design, which was I he diffusion of their infidel sentiments, they railed themselves (Economists. (See (Econo- mists.) The books, however, that were issued 339 PHRYGIANS from this club were calculated to impair and overturn religion, morals, and government; and which indeed, spreading over all Europe, imper- ceptibly took possession of public opinion. As soon as the sale was sufficient to pay the ex- penses, inferior editions were printed, and given away or sold at a very low price : circulating libraries of them formed, and reading societies in- stituted. While they constantly denied these productions to the world, they contrived to give them a false celebrity through their confidential agents and correspondents, who were not them- selves always trusted with the entire seciet. By degrees they got possession nearly of all the re- views and periodical publications, established a general intercourse by means of hawkers and pedlars with the distant provinces, and instituted an office to supply all schools with teachers ; and thus did they acquire unprecedented dominion over every species of literature, over the minds of all ranks of people, and over the education ot youth, without giving any alarm to the world. The lovers of wit and polite literature were caught by Voltaire ; the men of science were per- verted, and children corrupted in the first rudi- ments of learning, by D' Alembert and Uiderot ; stronger appetites were fed by the secret club of Baron Holbach ; the imaginations of the higher orders were set dangerously afloat by Montes- quieu ; and the multitude of all ranks was sur- prised, confounded, and hurried away by Rousseau. Thus was the public mind in France completely corrupted, and which no doubt greatly accelerated those dreadful events which disgraced the course of the French revolution. PHILOSOPHY properly denotes love, or de- sire of wisdom (from p«7ue and egan to con- sider with attention the defects that prevailed in the ordinary method of instructing the candi- dates for the ministry ; and this review persuaded; them of the necessity of using their best endea- vours to supply what was wanting, and correct PIETISTS what was amiss. For this purpose they under- took to explain in their colleges certain books of holy Scripture, in order to render these genuine sources of religious knowledge better understood, and to promote a spirit of practical piety and vital religion in the minds of their hearers. The no- velty of this method drew attention, and rendered it singularly pleasing to many ; accordingly, these lectures were much frequented, and their effects were visible in the lives and conversations of se- veral persons, whom they seemed to inspire with a deep sense of the importance of religion and virtue. Many things, however, it is said, were clone in these Biblical Colleges (as they were called,) which, though they might be looked upon by equitable and candid judges as worthy of tole- ration and indulgence, were, nevertheless, con- trary to custom, and far from being consistent with prudence. Hence rumours were spread, tumults excited, animosities kindled, and the matter at length brought to a public trial, in which the pious and learned men above mention- ed were, indeed, declared free from the errors and heresies that had been laid to their charge, but were, at the same time, prohibited from carrying on the plan of religious instruction they had un- dertaken with such zeal. It was during these troubles and divisions that the invidious denomi- nation of Pietists was first invented ; it may, at least, be affirmed, that it was not commonly tnown before this period. It was at first applied By some giddy and inconsiderate persons to those who frequented the Biblical Colleges, and lived in a manner suitable to the instructions and ex- hortations that were addressed to them in these seminaries of piety. It was afterwards made use of to characterize all those who were either dis- tinguished by the excessive austerity of their manners, or who, regardless of truth and opinion, were only intent upon practice, and turned the whole vigour of their efforts towards the attain- ment of religious feelings and habits. But, as it is the fate of all those denominations by which peculiar sects are distinguished, to be variously and often very improperly applied, so the title of Pietists was frequently given, in common con- versation, to persons of eminent wisdom and sanctity, who were equally remarkable for their adherence to truth, and their love of piety ; and, not seldom, to persons whose motley characters exhibited an enormous mixture of profligacy and enthusiasm, and who deserved the title of deliri- ous fanatics better than any other denomination. This contest was by no means confined to Leip- sic, but spread with incredible celerity through all the Lutheran churches in the different states and kingdoms of Europe. For, from this time, in all the cities, towns, and villages where Lutheranism was professed, there started up, all of a sudden, persons of various ranks and professions, of both sexes, who declared that they were called by a divine impulse, to pull up iniquity by the root; to restore to its primitive lustre, and propagate through the world, the declining cause of piety and virtue; to govern the church of Christ by wiser rules than those by which it was at present directed ; and who, partly in their writings, and partly in their private and public discourses, jtointed out the means and measures that were necessary to bring about this important revolu- tion. Several religious societies were (firmed in various places, which, though they differed in 341 PIETISTS some circumstances, and were not all conducteJ and composed with equal wisdom, piety, and pru- dence, were, however, designed to promote the same general purpose. In the mean time, these unusual proceedings filled with uneasy and alarming apprehensions both those who were en- trusted with the government of the church, and those who sat at the helm of the state. These apprehensions were justified by this important consideration, that the pious and well-meaning persons who composed these assemblies, had in- discreetly admitted into their community a parcel of extravagant and hot-headed fanatics, who fore- told the approaching destruction of Babel, (by which they meant the Lutheran church,) terri- fied the populace with fictitious visions, assumed the authority of prophets honoured with a divine cominission,"obscured thesublime truths of religion by a gloomy kind of jargon of their own invention, and revived doctrines that had long before been condemned by the church. The most violent debates arose in all the Lutheran churches; and persons whose differences were occasioned rather by mere words and questions of little consequence, than by any doctrines or institutions of consi- derable importance, attacked one another with the bitterest animosity ; and, in many countries, severe laws were at length enacted against the Pietists. These revivers of piety were of two kinds, who, by their different manner of proceeding, de- serve to be placed in two distinct classes. One sect of these practical reformers proposed to carry on their plan without introducing any change into the doctrine, discipline, or form of govern- ment that were established in the Lutheran church. The other maintained, on the contrary, that it was impossible to promote the progress of real piety among the Lutherans without making considerable, alterations in their doctrine, and changing the whole form of their ecclesiastical discipline and polity. The former had at their head the learned and pious Spener, who, in the year 1691, removed from Dresden to Berlin, and whose sentiments were adopted by the professors of the new academy of Hall ; and particularly by Franckius and Paulus Antonius, who had been invited thither from Leipsic, where they began to be suspected of Pietism. Though few pretended to treat either with indignation or contempt, the intentions and purposes of these good men (which, indeed, none could despise, without affecting to appear the enemy of practical religion and vir- tue,) yet many eminent divines, and more espe- cially the professors and pastors of Wittenberg, were of opinion, that, in the execution of this laudable purpose, several maxims were adopted, and certain measures employed, that were preju- dicial to the trutli, and also detrimental to the interests of the church. Hence they looked on themselves as obliged to proceed publicly against Spener, in the year 1695, and afterwards against his disciples and adherents, as the inventors and promoters of erroneous and dangerous opinions. These debates are of a recent date ; so that those who are desirous of knowing more particularly how far the principles of equity, moderation, and candour, influenced the minds and directed the conduct of the contending parties, may easily re- ceive a satisfactory information. These debates turned upon a variety of points, and therefore the matter of them cannot be com- •2d2 PIETISTS preheniled under any one general head. If we consider them, indeed, in relation to their origin, and the circumstances that gave rise to them, we shall then be able to reduce them to some fixed principles. It is well known, that those who had the advancement of piety most zealously at heart, were possessed of a notion that no order of men contributed mure to retard its progress than the el-ergy, whose peculiar vocation it was to incul- cate and promote it. Looking upon this as the root of the evil, it was but natural that their plans of reformation should begin here ; and accord- ingly, they laid it down as an essential principle, that none should be admitted into, the ministry but such as had received a proper education, were distinguished by their wisdom and sanctity of manners, and had hearts filled with divine love. Hence they proposed, in the first place, a tho- rough reformation of the schools of divinity ; and they explained dearly enough what they meant by this reformation, which consisted in the follow- ing points: That the systematic theology which reigned in the academies, and was composed of intricate and disputable doctrines, and obscure and unusual forms of expression, should be to- tally abolished : that polemical divinitv, which comprehended the controversies subsisting be- tween Christians of different communions, should lie less eagerly studied, and less frequently treat- ed, though not entirely neglected; that all mix- ture of philosophy and human learning with divine wisdom, was to be most carefully avoided ; that, on the contrary, all those who were designed for the ministry should be accustomed from their earlv youth to the perusal and study of the holy Scriptures ; that they should he taught a plain system of theology drawn from these unerring sou/ces of truth ; and that the whole course of their education was to be so directed as to render them useful in life, by the practical power of their doctrine, and the commanding influence of their example. As these maxims were propagated with the greatest industry and zeal, and were ex- plained inadvertently, by some, without those restrictions which prudence seemed to require, these professed patrons and revivers of piety were suspected of designs that could not but ren- der them obnoxious to censure. They were supposed to despise philosophy and learning; to treat with indifference, and even to renounce, all inquiries into the nature and foundations of reli- gious truth ; to disapprove of the zeal and labours of those who defended it against such as either corrupted or opposed it; and to place the whole ol their theology in certain vague and incoherent declamations concerning the duties of morality. Hence arose those famous disputes concerning the use of philosophy, and the value of human learning, considered in connexion with the in- terests of religion, the dignity and usefulness of systematic theology, the necessity of polemic divinity, the excellence of the mystic system, and also concerning the true method of instructing the people. The second great object that employed the zeal and attention of the persons now under consi- deration, was, that the candidates for the minis- try should not only for the future receive such an academical education as would tend rather to solid utility than to mere speculation ; but also that they should dedicate themselves to God in a peculiar manner, and exlubit the most striking 342 PIETISTS examples of piety and virtue. This maxim, which, when considered in it-self, must be con siilered to be highly laudable, not only gave o<-- casioo to several new regulations, designed to restrain the passions of the studious youth, to inspire them with pious sentiments, and to excite in them holy resolutions, but also produced ano- ther maxim, which was a lasting source of con- troversy and debate, viz. " That no person that was not himself a model of piety and divine love, was qualified to be a public teacher of piety, or ■) guide to others in the way of salvation." This opinion was considered by many as derogatory from the power and efficacy of the word of God, which cannot be deprived of its divine influence by the vices of its ministers; and as a sort of re- vival of the long-exploded errors of the Dona- tists ; and what rendered it peculiarly liable to an interpretation of this nature was, the imprudence of some Pietists, who inculcated and explained it without those restrictions that were necessary to render it unexceptionable. Hence arose end- less and intricate debates concerning the follow- ing questions: "Whether the religious know- ledge acquired by a wicked man can be termed theology?" " Whether a vicious person can, in effect, attain a true knowledge of religion?" " How far the office and ministry of an impious ecclesiastic can be pronounced salutary and effi- cacious?" " Whether a licentious and ungodly man cannot be susceptible of illumination?" and other questions of a like nature. These revivers of declining piety went still further. In order to render the ministry of their pastors as successful as possible in rousing men from their indolence, and in stemming the tor- rent of corruption and immorality, they judged two things indispensably necessary. The first was, to suppress entirely, in the course of pub- lic instruction, and more especially in that de- livered from the pulpit, certain maxims and phrases which the corruption of men leads them frequently to interpret in a manner favourable to the indulgence of their passions. Such, in the judgment of the Pietists, were the following pro- positions : No man is able to attain to that per- fection which the divine law requires: Good works are not necessary to salvation: In the art of justification on the part of man, faith alone is concerned, %cithout good works. The second step they *ook in order to give efficacy to their plans of reformation, was to form new rules of life and manners, much more rigorous and aus- tere than those that had been formerly practised ; and to place in the class of sinful and unlaw- ful gratifications, several kinds of pleasure and amusement which had hitherto been looked upon as innocent in themselves, and which could only become good or evil in consequence of the re- spective characters of those who used them with prudence, or abused them with intemperance. Thus, dancing, pantomimes, public sports, the- atrical diversions, the reading of humorous and comical books, with several other kinds of plea* sure and entertainment, were prohibited by the Pietists as unlawful and unseemly, and therefore by no means of an indifferent nature. The third thing on which the Pietists insisted, was, that, besides the stated meetings for public worship, private assemblies should tie held tor prayer anj other religious exercises. The other class of Pietists already mentioned, PIETY whose reforming views extended so far as to change the system of doctrine and the form of ecclesiastical government that were estahlished in the Lutheran church, comprehended persons of various characters, and different ways of think- ing. Some of them were totally destitute of judg- ment ; their errors were the reveries of a dis- ordered hrain ; and they were rather considered as lunatics than as heretics. Others were less extravagant, and tempered the singular notions they had derived from reading or meditation, with a certain mixture of the important truths and doctrines of religion. So far Mosheim, whose account of the Pietists seems to have been drawn up with a degree of severity. Indeed, he represents the real charac- ter of Franck and his colleagues as regardless of truth and opinion. A more recent historian, how- ever, (Dr. Haweis) observes, "that no men more rigidly contended for, or taught more explicitly the fundamental doctrines of Christianity: from all 1 have read or known, I am disposed to be- lieve thev were remarkably amiable in their beha- viour, kind in their spirit, and compassionate to the feeble-minded." PIE VY consists in a firm belief, and in right conceptions of the being, perfections, and provi- dence of God ; with suitable affections to him, resemblance of his moral perfections, and a con- stant obedience to his will. The different articles included in this definition, such as knowledge, veneration, love, resignation, &c. are explained in their proper places in this work. We shall, however, present the reader with a few ideas on the subject of early piety ; a sub- ject of infinite importance, and which we beg our young readers especially to regard. " Youth," savs Mr. Jay, "is a period which presents the fewest obstacles to the practice of godliness, whether we consider our external circumstances. our nature, pov/ers, or our moral habits. In that season we are most free from those troubles which imbitter, those schemes which engross, those en- gagements which hinder us in more advanced and connected life. Then the body possesses health and strength ; the memory is receptive and tenacious; the fancy glows; the mind is lively and vigorous; the understanding is more docile; the affections are more easily touched and moved : we are more accessilile to the influence of joy and sorrow, hope and fear; we engage in an en- terprise with more expectation, and ardour, and zeal. Under the legal oeconomy, the first was to be chosen for God ; the first-born of man ; the first-born of beasts, the first-fruits of the field. It was an honour becoming the God they wor- shipped, to serve him first. This duty the young alone can spiritualize and fulfil, by giving Him who deserves all their lives the first-born of their days, and the first-fruits of their reason and their affection: and never have they such an oppor- tunity to prove the goodness of their motives as they then possess. See an old man : what does he offer 1 His riches? but he can use them no longer. His pleasures? but he can enjoy them no longer. His honour? but it is withered on his brow. His authority ? but it has dropped from his feeble hand. He leaves his sins ; but it is because they will no longer bear him company. He ties from the world ; but it is because he is burnt out. He enters the temple ; but it is as a sanctuary ; it is only to take hold of the honw of 343 FIETY the altar ; it is a refuge, not a place of devotion, he seeks. But they who consecrate to him their youth, they do not profanely tell him to suspend his claims till the rest are served ; till they have satisfied the world and the flesh, bis degrading rivals. They do not send him forth to gather among the stubble the gleanings of life, after the enemy has secured the harvest. They are not like those, who, if they reach Immanuel's land, are forced thither by shipwreck : they sail thither by_ intention. "Consider the beneficial influence of early piety over the remainder of our days. Youth is the spring of life, and by this will be determined the glory of summer, the abundance of autumn, the provision of winter. It is the morning of life ; and if the sun of righteousness does not dis- pel the moral mists and fogs before noon, the whole day generally remains overspread and gloomy. Piety and youth will have a good influ- ence over our bodies ; it will preserve them from disease and deformity. Sin variously tends to the injury of health; and often by intemperance the constitution is so impaired, that late religion is unable to restore what early religion would have, prevented. Early piety will have a good influence to secure us from all those dangers to which we are exposed in a season of life the most perilous. Conceive of a youth entering a world like this, destitute of the presiding, governing care of re- ligion; his passions high, his prudence weak, im- patient, rash, confident without experience ; a thousand avenues of seduction opening around him, and a siren voice singing at the entrance of each ; pleased with appearances, and embracing theni for realities, joined by evil company, and ensnared by erroneous publications : these hazards exceed all the alarm I can give. How necessary, therefore, that we should trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not to our own under- standing ; but in all our ways acknowledge him, that he may direct our paths! " Early piety will have a beneficial influence in forming our connexions, and establishing our plans for life. It will teach us to ask counsel of the Lord, and arrange all under the supcrintend- ency of Scripture. Those changes which a per- son who becomes religious in manhood is obliged to make, are always very embarrassing. With what difficulty do some good men establish family worship, after living, in the view of children and servants, so long in the neglect of it ! — but this would have been avoided, had they early followed the example of Joshua : ' As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' How hard is it to dis- entangle ourselves from associates with whom we have been lonff familiar, and who have proved a snare to our souls ! Some evils, indeed, are reme- diless ; persons have formed alliances which they cannot dissolve: but they did not walk by the rule, ' Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:' they are now wedded to misery all their days; and repentance, instead of visiting them like a faithful friend, to elude them when they do wrong, and withdraw, is quartered upon them for lite. An early dedication to God, there- fore, renders a religious life more easy, pleasant, and safe. It is of unspeakable advantage also un- der the calamities of life. It turns the curse into a blessing ; it enters the house of mourning, and soothes the troubled nui,d ; it prepares us for all, sustains us in all, sanctifies us by all, and delivers PILGRIMAGE 09 fiom all. Finally, it will bless old age : we shall ■ook back with pleasure on some instances of use- fulness ; to some poor traveller, to whom we have lieen a refreshing stream; some deluded wanderer we guided into the path of peace. We shall look forward, and see the God who has guided us with his counsel, and be enabled to say, 'Henceforth ihere is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing.' " jay's Ser. vol. i.ser. 5 ; Jennings's, Evans's, Doddridge's, Jer- ment's, and Thornton's Sermons to Young Peo- ple ; Brysan's Address to Youth. PILGRIM, one who travels through foreign countries to visit holy places, and to pay his devo- tion to the relics of dead saints. The word is form- ed from the Flemish pelgrim, or Italian pelegrino, which signifies the same; and those originally from the Latin peregrinus, a stranger or traveller. PILGRIMAGE, a kind of religious discipline, which consists in faking a journey to some holy place, in order to adore the relics of some; deceas- ed saint. Pilgrimages began to he made about the middle ages of the church, but they were most in vogue after the end of the eleventh century, when every one was for visiting places of devo- tion, not excepting kings and princes; and even bishops made no difficulty of being absent from their churches on the same account. The places most visited were Jerusalem, Rome, Tours, and Compostella. As to the latter place, we find that in the year 1428, under the reign of Henry VI. abundance of licenses were granted by the crown of England to captains of English ships, for car- rying numbers of devout persons thither, to the shrine of St. James; provided, however, that those pilgrims should first take an oath not to convey any thing prejudicial to England, nor to reveal any of its secrets, nor to carry out with them any more gold or silver than what would be sufficient for their reasonable expenses. In this yea; there went thither from England on the said pilgrimage the following number of persons : from London 280, Bristol '200, Weymouth 12*2, Dart- mouth DO, Yarmouth GO, Jersev 60, Plymouth 40, Exeter 30, Poole 24, Ipswich 20; in all, 926 persons. Of late years the greatest numbers nave resorted to Loretto, in order to visit the chamber of the blessed Virgin, in which she was bom, and brought up her son Jesus till he was twelve years of age. In almost every country where popery has been established, pilgrimages have been common. In England, the shrine of St. Thomas-a-Becket was the chief resort of the pious; and in Scotland, St. Andrews, where, as tradition informs us, was deposited a leg of the holy apostle. In Ireland they have been continued even down to modern tunes; lor from the beginning of May till the middle of August every year, crowds of popish penitents from all parts of that country resoit to tm island near the centre, of Lough Pin, or White Lake, in the county of Donegal, to the amount of 3000 or 4000. These are mostly of the poorer sort, and many of them are proxies for (hose who are richer; some of whom, however, together with some of the priests and bishops on occasion, make their appearance there, when the pilgrim comes within sight of the holy lake, In- must uncover his hands ami feet, and thus walk to the water side, and is taken to the island fci 344 PILGRIMAGE six-pence. Here there are two chapels, and fifteen other houses; to which are added confessionals so contrived, that the priest cannot see the person confessing. The penance varies according to the circumstances of the penitent; during the con tinuance of which (which is sometimes three, six, or nine days) he subsists on oatmeal, sometimes made into bread. He traverses sharp stones op his bare knees or feet, and goes through a variety of other forms, paving six-pence at every ditler- cnt confession. When all is over, the priest bores a gimlet-hole through the top of the pilgrim's staff, in which he fastens a cross peg; gives him as many holy pebbles out of the lake a.< he cares to carry away, for amulets to be presented to his friends, and so dismisses him, an object of vene- ration to all other Papists not thus initiated ; who no sooner see the pilgrim's cross in his hands, than they kneel down to get his blessing. There arc, however, it is said, other parts of Ireland sacred to extraordinary worship and pil- grimage; and the number of holy wells, and miraculous cures, &c. produced by them, are very great. That such things should exist in this enlightened age, and in a Protestant country, is indeed strange ; but our wonder ceases when we reflect that it is among the lowest, and perhaps the worst of the people. Pilgrimage, however, is not peculiar to Roman Catholic countries. The Mahometans place a great part of their religion in it. Mecca is the grand place to which they go; and this pilgrim- age is so necessary a point of practice, that, ac- cording to a tradition of Mahomet, he who dies without performing it, may as well die a Jew or a Christian ; and the same is expressly commanded in the Koran. What is principally reverenced in this place, and gives sanctity to the whole, is a square stone building, called the Caaba. Before the time of Mahomet this temple was a place of worship for the idolatrous Arabs, and is said to have con- tained no less than three hundred and sixty dif- ferent images, equalling in number the days of the Arabian year. They were all destroyed by Mahomet, who sanctified the Caaba, and ap- pointed it to be the. chief place of worship for all true believers. The Mussulmen pay so great a veneration to it, that they believe a single sight of its sacred walls, without any particular act of devotion, is as meritorious in the sight of God as the most careful discharge of one's duty for the space of a whole year, in any other temple. To this temple every Mahometan who has health and means sufficient, ought once, at least, in his life, to go on pilgrimage ; nor are women excused from the performance of this duty. The pilgrims meet at dillorent places near Mecca, ac- cording to the different parts from whence they come, during the months of Shawal ana Dhu'l- kaada, being obliged to be there by the beginning of Dhu'lhajja ; which month, as its name imports, is peculiarly set apart lor the celebration of this solemnity. The men put on the Ihram, or sacred habit, which consists only of two woollen wrappers, one wrapped about the middle, and the other thrown over the shoulders, having their heads bare, and a kind of slippers which cover neither the heel nor the instep, and so enter the sacred territory in their way to Mecca. While they have this habit on, they must neither hunt nor fowl, PILGRIMAGE (though they are allowed to fish ;) which precept is so punctually observed, that they will not kill vermin it' they find them on their bodies : there are sonic noxious animals, however, which they have permission to kill during the pilgrimage; as kites, ravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs given to bite. During the pilgrimage, it behoves a man to have a constant guard over his words and ac- tions ; to avoid all quarrelling or ill language, all converse with women, and all obscene discourse ; and to apply his whole attention to the good work he is engaged in. The pilgrims being arrived at Mecca, imme- diately visit the temple, and then enter on the performance of the prescribed ceremonies, which consist chiefly in going in procession round the Caaba, in running between the mounts Safa and Meriva, in making the station on mount Arafat, and slaying the victims, and shaving their heads in the valley of Mina. In compassing the Caaba, which they do seven times, beginning at the corner where the black stone is. fixed, they use a short quick pace the first three times thev go round it, and a grave ordinary pace the four last ; which, it is said, is ordered by Mahomet, that his followers might show themselves strong and active, to cut off the hopes of the infidels, who gave out that the im- moderate heats of Medina had rendered them weak. But the aforesaid quick pace they are not obliged to use every time they perform this piece of devotion, but only at some particular times. So often as they yjass by the black stone, they either kiss it, or touch it with their hand, and kiss that. The running hetween Safa and Meriva is also performed seven times, partly with a slow pace, and partly running: for they walk gravely till they come to a place between two pillars; and there they run, and afterwards walk again, some- times looking buck, and sometimes stopping, like one who had lost something, to represent Hagar seeking water for her son ; for the ceremony is said to be as ancient as her time. On the ninth of Dhu'lhajja, after morning pravor, the pilgrims leave the valley of Mina, whither they come the day before, and pro- ceed in a tumultuous and rushing manner to mount Arafat, where they stay to perform their devotions till sunset ; then they go to Mozdalifa, an oratory between Arafat and Mina, and there spend the night in prayer and reading the Koran. The next morning by day-break the}' visit Al Masher al Karam, or the sacred monument ; and, departing thence before sun-rise, haste by Batn Mohasser to the valley of Mina, where they throw seven stones at three marks or pillars, in imi- tation of Abraham, who, meeting the devil in that place, and being by him disturbed in his devo- tions, or tempted to disobedience when he was going to sacrifice ins son, was commanded by God to drive him away by throwing stones at him ; though others pretend this rite to be as old as Adam, who also put the devil to flight in the same place, and by the same means. The ceremony being over, on the same day, the tenth of Dhu'lhajja, the pilgrims slay their victims in the said valley of Mina, of which they and their friends eat part, and the rest is given to the poor. These victims must be either sheep, goats, kine, or camels ; males, if of either of the two former kinds, and females if of either of the 315 S T PLASTIC latter, and of & lit age. The sacrifices being over, fltey shave their heads and cut their nails, bury- ing them in the same place; after which the pil- grimage is looked on as completed, though they again visit the Caaba, to take their leave of that sacred building. Dr. Johnson gives us some observations en pilgrimage, which are so much to the purpose, that we shall here present them to the reader. " Pilgrimage, like man)' other acts of piety, may be reasonable or superstitious according to the principles upon which it is performed. Long journeys in search of truth arc not commanded : truth, such as is necessary to the regulation of life, is always found where it is honestly sought : change of place is no natural cause of the in- crease of piety, for it inevitably produces dissipa- tion of mind. Yet, since men go every day to view the fields where great actions have been per- formed, and return with stronger impressions of the event, curiosity of the same kind may na- turally dispose us to view that country whence our religion had its beginning. That the Su- preme Being may be more easily propitiated in one place than in another, is the dream of idle superstition ; but that some places may operate upon our own minds in an uncommon manner, is an opinion which hourly experience w ill justify. He who supposes that his vices may be more suc- cessfully combated in Palestine, will, perhaps, find himself mistaken ; yet he may go thither without folly : he who thinks they will be more freely par- doned, dishonours at once his reason and his re- ligion." Johnson's Rasselas; Enc. Brit.; Hume's History of England. See Chisade. Poor Pilgrims, an order that started up in the year 1500. They came out of Italy into Ger- many bare-footed and bare-headed, feeding all the week, except on Sundays, upon herbs and roots sprinkled with salt. They stayed not above twenty-four hours in a pl&ce. They went by couples begging from dcor to door. This penance they undertook voluntarily, some for three, others lor five or seven years, as they pleased, and then returned home to their callings. PIOUS FRAUDS are those artifices and falsehoods made use of in propagating the truth, and endeavouring to promote the spiritual inte- rests of mankind. These have been more par- ticularly practised in the church of Rome, and considered not only as innocent, but commend- able. Neither the term nor the thing signified, however, can he justified. The terms piovs and fraud form a solecism; and the practice of doing evil that good may come, is directly opposite to the injunction of the sacred Scriptures, Rum. iii. 8. PITY is generally defined to be the uneasi- ness we feel at the unhappiness of another, prompting us to compassionate them, with a de- sire of their relief. Gcd is said to pihj them that fear him, as a fa- ther pitieth his children. The father, says Mr. Henry, pities his children that are weak in know- ledge, and instructs tin in ; pities them when they are froward, and bears with them ; pities them when they are sick, and comforts them, Is. lxvi. \\\; when they arc fallen, and helps them up again; when they have offended, and forgives them; when they are wronged, and rights them. Thus the Lord pitieth them that fear him, Pa. ciii. lii. See Compassion up God. PLASTIC NATURE, an absurd doctrine, POLYGAMY whirl) some have thus described:— *' It is an in- corporeal created substance endued with a vege- tative life, but not wilh sensation or thought; penetrating the whole created universe, being co-extended with it; ami, under God, moving mat- ter, so as to produce the phenomena which can- net be solved by mechanical laws : active for ends unknown to itself, not being expressly conscious of its actions, and yet having an obscure idea of the action to be entered upon." To this it has been answered, that, as the idea itself is most ob- scure, and indeed, inconsistent, so the foundation of it is evidently weak. It is intended by this to avoid the inconveniency of subjecting God to the trouble of some changes in the created world, and the meanness of others. But it appears, that, even upon this hypothesis, he would still be the author of them ; besides, that to Omnipoten.ee nothing is troublesome, nor those things mean, when considered as part of a system, which alone might appear to be so. Doddridge's Led. lect. 37; CudwortlVs Intellectual System, p. 149, 172; Mare's Immor. of the Soul, 1. iii. c. 12; Ray's Wisdom of God, p. 51, 52; Lord Monboddo's Ancient .Metaphysics ; Young's Essay on the Powers and .Mechanism of Nature. PLATONICS, NEW. Sec New Platonics. PLEASURE, the delight which arises in the mind from contemplation or enjoyment of some- thing agreeable. See Happiness. PLENARY INSPIRATION. See Inspi- ration'. PLURALIST, one that holds more than one ecclesiastical benefice with sure of souls. Epis- copalians contend there is no impropriety in a presbyter holding more than one ecclesiastical benefice. Others, on the contrary, affirm that t!iis practice is exactly the reverse of the primi- tive churches, as well as the instructions of the. apostle, Tit. i. 5. Instead of a plurality of churches to one paster, they say we ought to have a plurality of pastors to one church, Acts xiv. 23. PNEUMATOLOGY, the doctrine of spi- ritual existence. See Soin.. POLONES FRATRES. See Socinuss. POLYGAMY, the state of having more wives than one at once. Though this article (like some others we have inserted) cannot be considered as strictly theological, yet, as it is a subject of im- portance to society, we shall here introduce it. The circumstances of the patriarchs living in polygamy, and their not being reproved for it, ins given occasion for some modern writers to suppose that it is not unlawful; but it is answer- ed that the equality in the number of males and females born into the world intimates the inten- tion ol God that one woman should be assigned to one man: "for," (says Dr. Paley,) "if to one man be allowed an exclusive right to five or more women, four or more men must be deprived of the exclusive possession of any; which would never be the order intended. This equality, in- deed, is not quite exact. The number of mate infants exceeds that of females in the proportion Of 19 to 18, or thereabouts ; but this excess pro- vides fur the greater consumption of males by war, seafaring, and other dangerous or unhealthy occupations. It seems also a significant indica- tion of the divine will, that he at first created only one woman to one man. Had God intended polygamy for the species it is probable he would 34G POLYGAMY have begun with it; especially as by giving to Adam more wives than one, the multiplication of the human race would have proceeded with a quicker progress. Polygamy not only violates the constitution of nature, and the apparent de- sign of the Deity, but produces to the parties themselves, and to the public, the following bad effects : contests and jealousies amongst the wives of the same husband; distracted affections, or the loss of all affection in the husband himself; a voluptuousness in the rich which dissolves the vigour of their intellectual as well as active fa- culties, producing that indoience and imbecility, both of mind and body, which have long charac- terized the nations of the East ; the abatement of one-half of the human species, who, in countries where polygamy obtains, are degraded into in- struments of physical pleasure to the other half; neglect of children ; and the manifold and some- times unnatural mischiefs which arise from a scarcity of women. To compensate for these evils, polygamy does not offer a single advantage. In the article of population, which it has been thought to promote, the community gain nothing (nothing, I mean, compared with a state in which marriage is nearly universal;) for the question is not, whether one man will have more children by five or more wives than by one ; but whether these five wives would not bear the same or a greater number of children to five separate husbands. And as to the care of children when produced, and the sending of them into the world in situ- ations in which they may be likely to form and bring up families of their own, upon which tho increase and succession of the human species in a great degree depend, this is less provided for and less practicable, where twenty or thirty chil- dren are to be supported by the attention and fortunes of one father, than if they were divided into five or six families, to each of which were assigned the industry and inheritance of two pa- rents. Whether simultaneous polygamy was permitted by the law of Moses, seems doubtful, Deut. xvii. 16 ; xxi. 15 ; but whether permitted or not, it was certainly practised by the Jewish patriarchs both before that law and under it, The permission, if there were any, might be like that of divorce, " for the hardness of their heart," in condescension to their established indulgences, rather than from the general rectitude or pro- priety of the thing itselE " The state of manners in Judea had probably undergone a reformation in this respect before the time of Christ ; for in the New Testament we meet with no trace or mention of any such practice being tolerated. For which reason, and because it was likewise forbidden amongst the Greeks and Romans, we cannot expect to find any express law upon the subject in the Chris- tian code. The words of Christ, Matt, xix. 9, may be construed by an easy application to pro- hibit polygamy : for, if " whoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adul tery," he who marrieth another without putting away the first is no less guilty of adultery; be- cause the adultery does not consist in the repu- diation of the first wife (for however unjust or cruel that may be, it is not adultery,) but enter- ing into a second marriage during tin- legal exist- ence and obligation of the first. The several passages in St. Paul's writings which speak of marriage, always suppose it to signify the uniou POLYGAMY of one man with one woman, Rom. vii. 2, 3 ; I Cor. vii. 12, 14, 16. The manners of different countries have varied in nothing more than in their domestic constitutions. Less polished and more luxurious nations have either not perceived the bad effects of polygamy, or, if they did per- ceive them, they who in such countries possessed the power of reforming the laws, have been un- willing to resign their own gratifications. Poly- gamy is retained at this day among the Turks, and throughout every part of Asia in which Christianity is not professed. In Christian coun- tries it is universally prohibited. In Sweden it is punished with death. In England, besides the nullity of the second marriage, it subjects the of- fender to transportation or imprisonment and branding for the first offence, and to capital punishment for the second. And whatever may be said in behalf of polygamy, when it is autho- rized by the law of the land, the marriage of a second wife, during the lifetime of the first, in coun- tries where such a second marriage is void, must be ranked witli the most dangerous and cruel of those frauds, by which a woman is cheated out of her fortune, her person, and her happiness." Thus far Dr. Paley. We shall close this article with the words of an excellent writer on the same side of the subject : — "When we reflect," says he, "that the primi- tive institution of marriage limited it to one man ami one woman ; that this institution was ad- hered to by Noah and his sons, amidst the de- generacy of the age in which they lived, and in spite of the examples of polygamy which the ac- cursed r.ice of Cain had introduced : when we consider how very few (comparatively speaking) the examples of this practice were among the faithful; how much it brought its own punish- ment with it ; and how dubious and equivocal those passages are in which it appears to have the sanction of the divine approbation : when to these reflections we add another, respecling the limited views and temporary nature of the more ancient dispensations and institutions of religion — how often the imperfections and even vices of the pa- triarchs and people of God in old time are re- corded, without any express notification of their criminality — how much is said to be command- ed, which our reverence for the holiness of God and his law will only suffer us to suppose were for wise ends permitted; how frequently the messengers of God adapted themselves to the genius of the people to whom they were sent, and the circumstances of the times in which they lived ; above all, when we consider the purity, equity, and benevolence of the Christian law, the explicit declarations of our Lord and his apostle Paul respecting the institution of marriage, its design and limitation; when we reflect, too, on the testimony of the most ancient fathers, who could not possibly be ignorant of the general and common practice of the apostolic church ; and, finally, when to these considerations we add those which are founded on justice to the female sex, and all the regulations of domestic economy and national policy, we must wholly condemn the revival of polygamy." Paley's Alor. Phil. vol. i. p. 31!) to 325; MadarCs Thelyphthoia; Tow- crs'n, Wills's, Penn's, R. Hill's, Palmer's, and Haweis's Answers to Madan; Mon. Rev. vol. lxiii p. 338, and also vol. Ixix. Seattle's El. of Mar. Science, vol. ii. p. 127 — 12!). 317 POLYTHEISM POLYGLOT O^ywro;,) having many languages. For the more commodious compari- son of different versions of the Scriptures, they have been sometimes joined together, and called Polyglot Bibles. Origen arranged in different columns a Hebrew copy, both m Hebrew and Greek characters, with six different Greek ver- sions. Elias Hutter, a German, about the end of the sixteenth century, published the New Testa- ment in twelve languages, viz. Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Bohemian, English, Danish, Polish; and the whole Bible in Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek, Latin German, and a varied version. But the most esteemed collections are those in which the ori ginals and ancient translations are conjoined such as the Complutcnsian Bible, by cardinal Ximenes, a Spaniard ; the king of Spain's Bible, directed by Montanus, &c. ; the Paris Bible of Michael Jay, a French gentleman, in ten huge volumes, folio, copies of which were published in Holland under the name of pope Alexander the Seventh ; and that of Brian Walton, afterwards bishop of Chester. The last is the most regular and valuable. It contains the Hebrew and Greek originals, with Montanus's interlineary version ; the Chaldee paraphrases, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syrian and Arabic Bibles, the Persian Pentateuch, and Gospels, the Ethiopian Psalms, Song of Solomon, and New Testament, with their respective Latin transla- tions; together with the Latin Vulgate, and a large volume of various readings, to which is or- dinarily joined Castel's Heptaglot Lexicon. See Bible No. 29 30. POLYTHEISM, the doctrine of a plurality of gods, or invisible powers superior to man. "That there exist beings, one or many, power- ful above the human race, is a proposition," says lord Kaimes, " universally admitted as true in all ages and among all nations. I boldly call it universal, notwithstanding what is reported of some gross savages; for reports that contradict what i3 acknowledged to be general among men, require more able vouchers than a few illiterate voyagers. Among many savage tribes there are no words but for objects of external sense : is it surprising that such people are incapable of ex- pressing their religious perceptions, or any per- ception of internal sense'? The conviction that men have of superior powers, in every country where there are words to express it, is so well vouched, that, in fair reasoning, it ought to !>e taken for granted, among the few tribes where language is deficient." The same ingenious author shows, with great strength of reasoning, that the operations of nature, and the government of this world, which to us loudly proclaim the existence of a Deity, are not sufficient to account for the universal belief of superior beings among savage tribes. He is therefore of opinion that this universality of conviction can spring only from the image of Deity stamped upon the mind of every human being, the ignorant equal with the learned. This, he thinks, may be termed the sense of Deity. This sense of Deity, however, is objected to by others, who thus reason : all nations, except the Jews, were once polytheists and idolaters. If, therefore, his lordship's hypothesis be admitted, either the doctrine of polytheism must be true theology, or this instinct or sense is of such ti POLYTHEISM nature as to have, at different periods of the World) misled all mankind. All savage tribes are at present poly t heists and idolaters; but among savages everv instinct appears in greater purity arid vigour than among people polished by arts and sciences ; and instinct never mistakes its objects. The instinct, or primary impression of nature which gives rise to self-love, affection be- tween the saxes, &c. has, in all nations and in every period of time, a precise and determinate object which it inflexibly pursues. How, then, comes it to pass that this particular instinct, which, if real, is surely of as much importance as any other, should have uniformly led those who hail no other guide, to pursue improper objects, to fall into the grossest errors, and the most per- nicious practices '? For these and other reasons, which might easily be assigned, they suppose that the first re- ligious principles must have been derived from a source different as well from internal s?nse as from the deductions of reason ; from a source which the majority of mankind had early forgot- ten ; and which, when it was banished from their minds, left nothing behind it to prevent the very first principle of religion from being perverted by various accidents or causes ; or, in some extraordi- nary concurrence of circumstances, from being, perhaps, entirely obliterated. This source of religion every consistent theist must believe to be revelation. Reason could not have introduced savages to the knowledge of God, and we have i-'sl seen that a sense of Deify is clogged with insuperable difliculties. Yet it is undeniable that all mankind have believed in superior invisible powers; and, if reason and instinct be set aside, there remains no other origin of this universal belief than primeval revelation, corrupted, indeed, as it passed from father to son in the course of many generations. It is no slight support to this doctrine, that, if there really be a Deity, it is highly presumable that he would reveal himself to the first men ; creatures whom he had formed with faculties to adore and to worship him. To other animals the knowledge of the Deity is of no importance ; to man it is of the first impor- tance. Were we totally ignorant of a Deity, this world would appear to us a mere chaos. Under the government of a wise and benevolent Deity, chance is excluded, and every event ap- pears to be the result of established laws. Good men submit to whatever happens without re- fining, knowing that every event is ordered by >ivine Providence : they submit with entire re- signation ; and such resignation is a sovereign balsam for every misfortune or evil in life. As to the circumstances which led to poly- theism, it has been observed, that, taking it for granted that our original progenitors were in- structed by their Creator in the^truths of genuine theism, there is no room to doubt but that those truths would be conveyed pure from father to son as long as the race lived in one family, and were lift spread over a large extent of country. If any credit be due to the records of antiquity, the primeval inhabitants of this globe lived to so-great an age, that they must have increased to a very large number long before the death of the com- mon parent, who would, of course, be the bond of union to the whole society ; anil whose dictates, especially in what related to the origin of his being, and the existence of his Creator, would be 318 POLYTHEISM listened to with the utmost respect by every indi- vidual of his numerous progeny. Many causes, however, would conspire to dissolve this family, after the death of its ancestor, into separate and independent tribes, of which some would be driven by violence, or would voluntarily wander to a distance from the rest. From this disper- sion great changes would take place in the opinions of some of the tribes respecting the object of their religious worship. A single family, or a small tribe, banished into a desert wilderness, (such as the whole earth must then have been,) would find employment for all their time in pro- viding the means of subsistence, and in defending themselves from beasts of prey. In such circum- stances they would have little leisure for medi- tation ; and, being constantly conversant with objects of sense, they would gradually lose the piower of meditating upon the spiritual nature of that Being by whom their ancestors had taught them that all things were created. The first wanderers would, no doubt, retain in tolerable purity their original notions of Deity, and they would certainly endeavour to impress those no- tions upon their children ; but in circumstances infinitely more favourable to speculation than theirs could have been, the human mind dwells not long upon notions purely intellectual. We are so accustomed to sensible objects, and to the ideas of space, extension, and figure, which they are perpetually impressing upon the imagina- tion, that we find it extremely difficult to con- ceive any being without assigning to him a form and a place. Hence bishop Law supposes that the earliest generations of men (even those to whom he contends that frequent revelations were vouchsafed) may have been no better than Anthropomorphites, in their conceptions of the Divine Being. Be this as it may, it is easy to conceive that the members of the first colonies would quickly lose many of the arts, and much of the science whkh perhaps prevailed in the parent state ; and that, fatigued with the contemplation of intellectual objects, they would relieve their over- strained faculties by attributing to the Deity a place of abode, if not a human form. To men totally illiterate, the place fittest for the habitation of the Deity would undoubtedly appear to be the sun, the most beautiful and glorious object of which they could form any idea; an object from which they could not but be sensible that they received the benefits of light and heat, and which experience must soon have taught them to be in a great measure the source of vegetation. From looking upon the sun as the habitation of their God, they would soon proceed to consider it as his body. Experiencing the effects of power in the sun, they would naturally conceive that lu- minary to be animated as their bodies were ani- mated ; they would feel his influence when above the horizon ; they would see him moving from east to west ; they would consider him, when set, as gone to take his repose; and those exertions and intermissions of power being analogous to what they experienced in themselves, they would look upon the sun as a real animal. Thus would the Divinity appear to their untutored minds to be a compound being like a man, partly corporeal and partly spiritual ; and as soon as they imbibed such notions, though perhaps not before, they may be pronounced to have been absolute idola- ters. When men had once got into this train POPE their gods would multiply upon them with won- derful rapidity. The moon, the planets, the fixed stars, &c. would become objects of veneration. Hence we find Moses cautioning the people of Israel against worshipping the hosts of heaven, Deut. iv. 19. Other objects, however, from which benefits were received or dangers feared, would likewise be deified : such as demons, de- parted heroes, &c. See Idolatry. From the accounts given us by the best writers of antiquity, it seems that though the polytheists believed heaven, earth, and hell, were all filled with divinities, yet there was One who was con- sidered as supreme over all the rest, or, at most, that there were but two self-existent gods, from whom they conceived all the other divinities to have descended in a manner analogous to human generation. It appears, however, that the vul- gar Pagans considered each divinity as supreme, and unaccountable within his own province, and therefore entitled to worship, which rested ulti- mately in himself. The philosophers, on the other hand, seem to have viewed the inferior gods as accountable for every part of their conduct to him who was their sire and sovereign, and to have paid to them only that inferior kind of de- votion which the church of Rome pays to de- parted saints. The vulgar Pagans were sunk in the grossest ignorance, from which statesmen, priests, and poets, exerted their utmost influence to keep them from emerging ; for it was a maxim, which, however absurd, wa3 universally received, ''that there were many things true in religion which it was not convenient for the vulgar to know; and some things, which, though false, it was expedient that they should believe." It was no wonder, therefore, that the vulgar should be idolaters and polytheists. The philosophers, how- ever, were still worse; they were wholly "without excuse, because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God ; neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing them- selves wise, they became fools, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is God, blessed for ever." Rom. i. 20, 21, 22, 25. See list of books under article Idolatry ; Prideaux's Con. vol. i. p. 177, 179 ; Kaimes's Sketches of the History of Afan; Bishop Law's Theory of Religion, p. 58, 65, to 68, 91, 296 ; article Polytheism in Enc. Brit.; Parmer on the Worship nf Human Spirits. PONTIFF, or High Priest, a person who has the supcrintendance and direction of divine Worship, as the offering of sacrifices and other religious solemnities. The Romans had a col- lege of pontiffs, and over these a sovereign pon- tiff, instituted by Numa, whose function it was to prescribe the ceremonies each god was to be worshipped withal, compose the rituals, direct the vestals, and for a good while to perform the busi- ness of augury, till, on some superstitious occasion, he was prohibited intermeddling therewith. The Jews, too, had their pontiffs ; and among the Romanists the pope is styled the sovereign pontif. PONTIFICATE is used for the state or dig- nity of a pontiff, or high priest ; but more par- ticularly, in modern writers, for the reign of a pope. POPE, a name which comes from the Greek word n**-*, and signifies Father. In the East, 349 POPE this appellation is given to all Christian priest!*; and in the West, bishops were called by it in ancient times ; but now for many centuries it has been appropriated to the bishop of Rome, whom the Roman Catholics look upon as the common father of all Christians. All in communion with the see of Rome unanimously hold that our Sa- viour Jesus Christ constituted St. Peter the apostle chief pastor under himself, to watch ovei his whole flock here on earth, and to preserve the unity of it, giving him the power requisite for these ends. They also believe that our Saviour ordained that St. Peter should have successors, with the like charge and power to the end of time. Now, as St. Peter resided at Rome for manv years, and suffered martyrdom there, they consider the bishops of Rome as his successors in the dignity and office of the universal pastor of the whole Catholic church. The cardinals have for several ages been the sole electors of the pope. These are seventy in number, when the sacred college, as it is called, is complete. Of these, six are cardinal bishops of the six suburbicarian churches ; fifty are car- dinal priests, who have all titles from parish churches in Rome; and fourteen are cardinal deacons, who have their titles from churches in Rome of less note, called diaconias or deaconries. These cardinals are created by the pope when there happen to be vacancies, and sometimes he names one or two only at a time ; but commonly he defers the promotion until there be ten or twelve vacancies, or more; and then at every second such promotion, the emperor, the kings of Spain and France, and of Britain, when Catholic, are allowed to present one each, to be made car- dinal, whom the pope always admits, if there be not some very great objection. These cardinals are commonly promoted from among such cler- gymen as have borne offices in the Roman court ; some are assumed from religious orders; eminent ecclesiastics of other countries are likewise often honoured with this dignity. Sons of sovereign princes have frequently been members of the sacred college. Their distinctive dress is scarlet, to signify that they ought to be ready to shed their blood for the faith and church, when the de- fence and honour of either require it. They wear a scarlet cap and hat : the cap is given to them by the pope if they are at Rome, and is sent to them if they are absent ; but the hat is never given but by the pope's own hand. These cardinals form the pope's standing council, or consistory, for the management of the public affairs of church and state. They are divided into different congregations for the more easy dis- patch of business ; and some of them have the prin- cipal offices in the pontifical court; as that of car- dinal, vicar, penitentiary, chancellor, chamberlain, prefect of the signature of justice, prefect of memo- rials, and secretary of state. They have the title given them of eminence and most eminent. On the demise of a pope his pontifical seal is immediately broken by the chamberlain, and all public business is interrupted that can be delayed ; messengers are dispatched to all the Catholic so- vereigns to acquaint them of the event, that they may take what measures they think proper; and that the cardinals in their. dominions, if any thera be, may hasten to the future election, if they choose to attend; whilst the whole attention of the sacred college is turnnt to the preservation of 2E POPE tranquillity in the city ami state, and to the neces- sary preparations for the future election. The cardinal-chamberlain has, daring the vacancy of the holy see, great authority; he coins money with his own arms on it. lodges in the pope's apartments, and is attended by the body guards. lie, and the first cardinal-priest, and the first car- dinal-deacon, have, during that lime, the govern- ment almost entirely in tfieir hands. The body of the deceased pope is carried to St. Peter's, where funeral service is performed for him with great pomp for nine days, and the cardinals attend there every morning. In the mean time, all ne- cessary preparations [\k the election are made; and the place where they assemble for that pur- pose, which is called the Conclave, is fitted up in that part of the Vatican palace which is nearest to St. Peter's church, as this has long been thought the most convenient situation. Here are formed, by partitions of wood, a number of cells, or chambers, equal to the number of cardinals, with a small distance between every two, and a broad gallery before them. A number is put on every cell, and small papers, with corresponding numbers, are put in a box; every cardinal, or some one for him, draws out one of these papers, which determines in what cell he is to lodge. The cells are lined with cloth ; and there is a part of each one separated for the conclavists, or attend- ants, of whom two are allowed to each cardinal, and three to cardinal-princes. They are persons of some rank, and generally of great confidence; but they must carry in their master's meals, serve him at table, and perform all the offices of a me- nial servant. Two physicians, two surgeons, an apothecary, and some other necessary officers, are chosen for the conclave by the cardinals. On the tenth day after the pope's death, the cardinals who are then at Rome, and in a com- petent state of health, meet in the chapel of St. Peter's, which is called the Gregorian chapel, where a sermon on the choice of a pope is preach- ed to them, and m ass is said for invoking the grace of the Holy Ghost. Then the cardinals proceed to the conclave in procession, two by two, and take up their abode. When all is properly set- tled, the conclave is shut up, having boxed wheels, or places of cr mmiinication, in convenient quar- ters; there are, also, strong guards placed all around. When any foreign cardinal arrives after the inelosure, the conclave is opened for his ad- mission. In the beginning every cardinal signs a paper, containing an obligation, that, if he shall be raised to the papal chair, he will not alienate any part of the pontLfieal dominion; that he will not be prodigal to his relations; and any other such stipulations as may have been settled in for* mi r times, or framed fir that occasion. We now come to the election itself; and that this may be effectual, two thirds of the cardinals present must vote for the same person. As tbis is often not easily obtained, they sometimes re- main whole months in the conclave. They meet in the chapel twice everyday for giving their votes; und the election may be effectuated by scrutiny, aaaeaaiaa or acclamation. Scrutiny is the ordi- nary Method, and consists in this: every cardinal ivrites his own name on the inner part of a piece ■>[' paper, and this is .folded up and settled; on a jecond told of the same paper, a conciavist writes the name of the person for whom his master votes. Phis according to agreements observed for some 350 POPE centuries, must be one of the sacred college. On the outer side of the paper is Written a sentence at random, which the voter must well remember. Every cardinal, on entering into the chapel, goes to the altar, and puts his paper into a large chalice. When all are convened, two cardinals numl>cr the votes ; and if there be more or less than t he Dumber of cardinals present, the voting must be related. "When this is not the case, the cardi- nal appointed for the purpose reads the outer sen- tence, and the name of the cardinal under it; so that each voter, hearing his own sentence, and the name joined with it, knows that there is no mistake. The names of all the cardinals that are voted for are taken down in writing, with the number of votes for each ; and when it appears that anv one has two-thirds of the number pre- sent in his favour, the election is over; but when this does not happen, the voting papers are all im- mediately burnt, without opening up the inner part. When several trials of coming to a con- clusion by this method of scrutiny have been made in vain, recourse is sometimes had to what is call- ed accession. By it, when a cardinal perceives that when one or very few votes are wanting to any one for whom he has not voted at that time, he must say that he accedes to the one who has near the number of votes requisite; and if his one vote suffices to make up the two-thirds, or if he is followed by a sufficient number of acceders, or new voters, for the said cardinal, the election is accomplished. — Lastly, a pope is sometimes elected ^ by acclamation ; and that is, when a cardinal being pretty sure that he will be joined by a number suf- ficient cries out in the open chapel that such an one shall be pope. If he is properly supported, the election becomes unanimous ; those who would, perhaps, oppose it, foreseeing that their opposition would be fruitless, and rather hurtful to them- selves. When a pope is chosen in any of the three above-mentioned ways, the election is im- mediately announced from the balcony in the front of St. Peter's, homage is paid to the new pontiff, and couriers are sent off with the news to all parts of Christendom. The pope appoints a day for his coronation at St. Peter's, and for his taking possession of the patriarchal church of St. John Lateran ; all which is perforn ed with great solemnity. He is addressed by the expression of holiness, and most holy father. The Roman Catholics believe that the bishop of Rome is, under Christ, supreme pastor of the whole church, and as such is not only the first bishop in order and dignity, but has also a power and jurisdiction over all Christians, in order to preserve unity and purity of faith and moral doc- trine, and to maintain order and regularity in all churches. See StJPRF.KUC7. Some Catholic di- vines are of opinion that the pope cannot err when he addresses himself to all the faithful on mat- ters of doctrine. They well know that, as pri- vate doctor, he may fall into mistakes as well as any other man; but they think that, when be teaches the whole church, Providence must pre- serve him from error. We have, however, already examined this sentiment under the article Inka:.- uim.rrv, to which the reader may refer. The see of Rome, aceordinir to Roman Catho- lics, is the centre of catholic" unity. All their bishops communicate with the pope, and by his means with one another, OIK! m> form one body POPERY However distant their churches may be, they all meet at Rome either in person or by their dele- gates, or at least by their letters. And according lo the discipline of the later ages, though they are presented to the pope for their office from their respective countries, yet from him they must receive their bulls of consecration before they can take possession of their sees. See Popkry. POPERY comprehends the religious doctrines and practices adopted arid maintained by the church of Rome. The following summary, ex- tracted chiefly trom the decrees of the council of Trent, continued under Paul III., Julius III., and Pius IV., from the year 1515 to 15'j3, by successive sessions, and the creed of Pope Pius IV. subjoined to it, and bearing date No- vember 1564, may not be unacceptable to the reader. One of the fundamental tenets strenu- ously maintained by popish writers, is, the infal- libility of the church of Rome ; though they are not agreed whether this privilege belongs to the pope or a general council, or to both united ; but they pretend that an infallible living judge is absolutely necessary to determine controver- sies, and to secure peace in the Christian church. However, Protestants allege, that the claim of in- fallibility in any church is not justified by the authority of Scripture, much less does it pertain to the church of Rome ; and that it is incon- sistent with the nature of religion, and the per- sonal obligations of its professors; and that it has proved ineffectual to the end for which it is sup- posed to be granted, since popes and councils have disagreed in matters of importance, and they have been incapable, with the advantage of this pretended infallibility, of maintaining union and peace. Another essential article of the popish creed is the supremacy of the pope, or his sovereign power over the universal church. See Su- premacy. Further; the doctrine of the seven sacraments is a peculiar and distinguishing doctrine of the church of Rome ; these are baptism, confirma- tion, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony. The council of Trent (sess. 7, can. 1,) pro- nounces an anathema on those who say that the sacraments are more or fewer than seven, or that any one of the above number is not truly and properly a sacrament. And yet it does not ap- pear that they amounted to this number before the twelfth century, when Hugo de St. Victoire and Peter Lombard, about the year 1144, taught that there were seven sacraments. The council of Florence, held in 1438, was the first council that determined this number. These sacraments confer grace, according to the decree of the coun- cil of Trent, (sess. 7, can. 8,) ex opere operato, by the mere administration of them ; three of them, viz. baptism, confirmation, and orders, are said (c. 1),) to impress an indelible character, so that they cannot be repeated without sacrilege; and the efficacy of every sacrament depends on the intention of the priest by whom it is adminis- tered, (can. 11.) Pope Pius expressly enjoins that all these sacraments should be administered according to the received and approved rites of the Cathclic church. With regard to the eucharist, in particular, we may here observe, that the church of Rome holds the doctrine of transubstantiation ; the necessity of paying di- 351 POPERY vine worship to Christ under the form ot the consecrated bread or host ; the propitiatory sacri- fice of the mass, according to their ideas of which, Christ is truly and properly offered as a sacrifice as often as the priest says mass; it practises, likewise, solitary mass, in which the priest alonp, who consecrates, communicates, and allows com- munion only in one kind, viz. the bread, to the laity. (Sess. 14.) The doctrine of merits is another distinguish- ing tenet of popery ; with regard to which the council of Trent has expressly decreed (sess. 0, can. 32,) that the good works of justified persons are truly meritorious ; deserving not only an in- crease of grace, but eternal life, and an increase of glory ; and it has anathematized all who deny this doctrine. Of the same kind is the doctrine of satisfactions ; which supposes that penitents may truly satisfy, by the afflictions they endure under the dispensations of Providence, or by voluntary7 penances to which they submit, for the temporal penalties of sin to which they are sub- ject, even after the remission of their eternal punishment. (Sess. 6, can. 30; and sess. 14, can. 3 and 9.) In this connexion we may mention the popish distinction of venial and mortal sins : the greatest evils arising from the former are the temporary pains of purgatory ; but no man, it is said, can obtain the pardon of the latter, with- out confessing to a priest, and performing the penances which he imposes. The council of Trent (sess. 14, can. 1,) has expressly decreed, that every one is accursed who shall affirm that penance is not truly and pro- perly a sacrament instituted by Christ in the universal church, for reconciling those Christians to the Divine Majesty, who have fallen into sin after baptism ; and this sacrament, it is declared, consists of two parts, the matter and the form . the matter is the act of the penitent, including contrition, confession, and satisfaction ; the form of it is the act of absolution on the part of the priest. Accordingly, it is enjoined, that it is the duty of every man who hath fallen after bap- tism, to confess his sins once a year, at least, to a priest ; that this confession is to be secret ; for public confession is neither commanded nor ex- pedient ; and that it must be exact and particu- lar, including every kind and act of sin, with all the circumstances attending it. When the peni- tent has so done, the priest pronounces an abso- lution, which is not conditional or declarative only, but absolute and judicial. This secret or auricular confession was first decreed and esta- blished in the fourth council of Lateran, under Innocent III. in 1215. (Cap. 21.) And the de- cree of this council was afterwards confirmed and enlarged in the council of Florence and in that of Trent, which ordains, that confession was in- stituted by Christ; that by the law of God it is necessary to salvation, and that it has alwaya been practised in the Christian church. As foi the penances imposed on the penitent by way of satisfaction, they have been commonly the repe- tition of certain forms of devotion, as paternos- ters, or ave-marias, the payment of stipulated sums, pilgrimages, fasts, or various species of corporeal discipline. But the most formidable penance, in the estimation of many who have belonged to the Roman communion, has been the temporary pains of purgatory. But under all the penalties which are inflicted or threatened in POPERY the Romish church, it has provided relief by its indulgences, and by its prayers or masses for the dead, performed professedly for relieving and res- cuing the souls that are detained in purgatory. Another article that has been long authorita- tively enjoined and observed in the church of Rome, is the celibacy of her clergy. This was first enjoined at Rome by Gregory VII. about the year 107!, and established in England by Ansclm, archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 1175; though his predecessor Lanfranc had imposed it upon the prebendaries and clergy that lived in towns. And though the council of Trent was repeatedly petitioned by several princes and states to abolish this restraint, the obligation of celibacy was rather established than relaxed by this council ; for they decreed, that marriage contracted alter a vow of continence is neither lawful nor valid; and thus deprived the church of the possibility of ever restoring mar- riage to the clergy. For if marriage, after a vow, be in itself unlawful, the greatest authority upon earth cannot dispense with it, nor permit mar- riage to the clergy who have already vowed con- tinence. See Celibacy. To the doctrines and practices above recited, may be further added, the worship of images, of which Protestants accuse the Papists. But to this accusation the Papist replies, that he keeps images by him to preserve in his mind the me- mory of the persons represented by them; as people are wont to preserve the memory of their deceased friends by keeping their pictures. He is taught (he says) to use them so as to cast his eyes upon the pictures or images, and thence to raise his heart to the things represented ; and there to employ it in meditation, love, and thanks- giving, desire of imitation, &c. as the object re- quires. These pictures or images have this advantage, that they inform the mind by one glance of what in reading might require a whole chapter ; there being no other difference between them than that reading represents leisurely and by degrees, and a picture all at once. Hence he finds a conve- nience in saying his prayers with some devout pictures before him, he being no sooner distracted, but the sight of these recals his wandering thoughts to the right object; and as certainly brings something good into his mind, as an im- modest picture disturbs his heart with filthy thoughts. And because he is sensible that these holy pictures and images represent and bring to Ids mind such objects as in his heart he loves, honours, and venerates, he cannot but upon that account love, honour, and respect the images themselves. The council of Trent likewise decreed, that all bishops and pastors who have the care of souls do diligently instruct their (locks that it isgood and profitable to desire the intercession of saints reigning unth Christ in heaven. And this de- cree the Papists endeavour to defend by the fol- lowing observations. They confess that we have but one Mediator of redemption ; but affirm that it is acceptable to God that we should have many mediators of intercession. Moses (say they) was puch a mediator for the Israelites ; Job for his three friends; Stephen for his persecutors. The Romans were thus desired by St. Paul to be his mediators; so were the Corinthians; so the Ephesians. (Ep. ad Rom. Cor. Eph. ;) so al- 352 POSITIVE most every sick man desires the congregation to !>e his mediators by remembering him in their prayers. And so the Papist desires the Messed in heaven to be his mediators ; that is, that they would pray to God for him. But between these living and dead mediators there is no similarity : the living mediator is present, and certainly hears the request of those who desire him to intercede for them; the dead mediator is as certainly ab- sent, and cannot possibly hear the requestsof all those who at the same instant may be begoin j Luke xviii. 1, &e. ; Phil. iv. 6, 7; James v. 16. WUkins, Henry, Waits on Prayer ; Townsend's Nine Sermons on Prayer; Palsy's Moral Phil. vol. ii. p. 31 ; Mason's Student and Pastor, p. 87; Wollaston's Bel. of Sat. p. 122, 124 ; //. More on Education, ch. i. vol. ii.; Barrow^s Works, vol. i. ser. (J; Smith's System of Prayer; Scamp's Sermon on Family Religion. PREACHER, one who discourses publicly on religious subjects. See articles Declamation, Eloquence, Minister, and Sermon*. PREACHING is the discoursing publicly on any religious subject. It is impossible, in the compass of this work, to give a complete history of this article from the beginning down to the present day. This must be considered as a desideratum in theological learning. Mr. Robin- son, in his second volume of Claude's Essay, has prefixed a brief dissertation on this subject, an abridgement of which we shall here insert with a few occasional alterations. From the sacred records we learn, that, when men began to associate for the purpose of wor- shipping the Deity, Enoch prophesied, Jude 14, 15. We have a very short account of this pro- phet and his doctrine ; enough, however, to con- vince ns that he. taught the principal truths of natural and repealed religion. Conviction of sin was in his doctrine, and communion with God was exemplified in his conduct, Gen. v. 24; Hcb. xi. 5, 6. From the days of Enoch to the time of Moses, each patriarch worshipped God with his family ; probably several assembled at new moons, and alternately instructed the whole company. — Noah, it is said, was a preacher of righteousness, 2 Pet. ii. 5; 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. Abraham commanded his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment, Gen. xviii. 19 ; and Jacob, when bis bouse lapsed to idolatry, remonstrated against it, and exhorted them and all that were with him to put away strange gods, and to go up with him to Bethel, Gen. x. ; xxv. 2, 3. Melchizedee also, we may consider as the father, the prince, and the priest of his people, publishing the glad tidings of peace and salvation, Gen. xviii.; Heb. vii. Moses was a most eminent prophet and preacher, raised up by the authority of God, and by whom, it is said, came the law, John i. 17. — This great man had much at heart the promul- gation of his doctrine; he directed it to be in- scribed on pillars, to be transcribed in books, and to be taught both in public and private by word of mouth, Deut. xxviii. 8 ; vi. 9 ; xxxi. 19 ; xvii. 18 j Numb. v. 23; Deut. iv. 9. Himself set the example of each ; and how he and Aaron sermonized, we may see by several parts of his writings. The first discourse was heard with profound reverence and attention ; the last was both uttered and received in raptures, Exod. iv. 31; Deut. xxxiii. 7, 8. Public preaching does not appeal under his economy to have been attached to the priesthood : priests were not officially preachers ; and we have innumerable instances of discourses delivered in religious assemblies by men of other tribes besides that of Levi; Psal. I wiii. 11. Joshua was an Ephrahnite; but being full of the spirit of wisdom, he gathered the tribes to Shechem, and harangued the people of 356 PREACHING God, Deut. xxxiv. 9; Josh, xxxiv. Solomotl was a prince of the house of Judah, Amos, a herdsman of Tekoa ; yet both were preachers, and one at least was a prophet, 1 Kings ii. ; Amos vii. 14, 15. When the ignorant notions of Pagans, the vices of their practice, and the idolatry of their pretended worship, were in some sad periods incorporated into the Jewish religion by the princes of that nation, the prophets and all the seers protested against this apostacy, and they were persecuted for so doing. Shemaiali preached to Rehoboam, the princes, and all the j people, at Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xii. 5. Azariah I and Hanani preached to Asa and his army, 2 Chron. xv. 1, &c; xvi. 7. Micaiah to Ahab. Some of them opened schools, or houses of in- struction, and there to their disciples they taught the pure religion of Moses. At Naioth, in the suburlis of Ramah, there was one, where Samuel dwelt ; there was another at Jericho, and a third at Bethel, to which Elijah and Elisha often re- sorted. Thither the people went on sabbath days and at new moons, and received public les- sons of piety and morality, 1 Sam. xix. 18 ; 2 Kings ii. 3, 5 ; iv. 2, 3. Through all this period there was a dismal confusion of the useful ordinance of public preaching. Sometimes they had no open vision, and the word of the Lord was precious or scarce : the people heard it only now and then. At other times they were left without a teaching priest; and without law. — And, at other seasons again, itinerants, both princes, priests, and Levites, were sent through all the country to carry the book of the law, and to teach in the cities. In a word, preaching flourished when pure religion grew ; and when the last decayed, the first was suppressed. Moses had not appropriated preaching to any order of men : persons, places, times, and manners, were all left open and discretional. Many of the dis- courses were preached in camps and courts, in streets, schools, cities, and villages, sometimes with great composure and coolness, at other times with vehement action and rapturous energy ; sometimes in a plain blunt style, at other times in all the magnificent pomp of Eastern allegory. On some occasions, the preachers appeared in public with visible signs, with implements of war, yokes of slavery, or something adapted to their subject. They gave lectures on these, held them up to view, girded them on, broke them in pieces, rent their garments, rolled in the dust, and endeavoured, by all the methods they could devise agreeably to the customs of their country, to impress the minds of their auditors with the nature and importance of their doctrines. These men were highly esteemed by the pious part of the nation ; and princes thought proper to keep seers and others, who were scribes, who read and expounded the law, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 29, 30; xxxv. 15. Hence false prophets, bad men who found it worth while to affect to be good, crowd- ed the courts of princes. Jezebel, an idolatress, had four hundred prophets of Baal; and Ahab, a pretended worshipper of Jehovah, had as many pretended prophets of his own profession, 2 Chr xviii. 5. When the Jews were carried captive inU Babylon, the prophets who were with them incul- cated the principles of religion, and endeavoured to possess their minds with an aversion to idola- try : and to the success of preaching we may PREACHING attribute the re-conversion of the Jews to the be- lief and worship of one God : a conversion that remains to this day. The Jews have since fallen into horrid crimes ; but they have never since this period lapsed into idolatry. Hosea, 2d and 3d chapter, Ezekiel, "2d, 3d, and 4th chapter. There were not wanting, however, multitudes of false prophets among them, whose characters are strik- ingly delineated by the true prophets, and which the reader may see in the 13th chapter of Eze- kiel, 5Gth Isaiah, 23d Jeremiah. When the seventy years of the captivity were expired, the good prophets and preachers, Zerubbal>el, Joshua, Haggai, and others, having confidence in the word of God, and aspiring after their natural, civil, and religious rights, endeavoured by all means to extricate themselves and their country- men from that mortifying state into which the crimes of their ancestors had brought them. They wept, fasted, prayed, preached, prophesied, and at length prevailed. The chief instruments were Nehemiah an. 1 Ezra : the first was governor, and reformed their civil state ; the last was a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, and ad- dressed himself to ecclesiastical matters, in which he rendered the noblest service to his country, and to all posterity. He collected and collated manu- scripts of the sacred writings, and arranged and published the holy canon in its present form. To this he added a second work as necessary as the former : he revived and new modelled public preaching, and exemplified his plan in his own person. The Jews had almost lost in the seventy years' captivity their original language: that was now become dead ; and they spoke a jargon made up of their own language and that of the Chal- deans and other nations with whom they had been confounded. Formerly preachers had only explained subjects ; now they were obliged to explain words ; words which, in the sacred code, were become obsolete, equivocal, or dead. Houses were now opened, not for ocremonial worship, as sacrificing, for this was confined to the temple ; but for moral obedience, as praying, preaching, reading the law, divine worship, and social duties. These houses were called synagogues : the people repaired thither morning and evening for prayer; and on sabbaths and festivals the law was read and expounded to them. We have a short but beautiful description of the manner of Ezra's first preaching, Nehem. viii. Upwards of fifty thou- sand people assembled in a street, or large square, near the Watergate. It was early in the morn- ing of a sabbath day. A pulpit of wood, in the fashion of a small tower, was placed there on purpose for the preacher; and this turret was supported by a scaffold, or temporary gallery, where, in a wing on the right hand of the pulpit, sat six of the principal preachers ; and in another, on the left, seven. Thirteen other principal teachers, and many Levites, were present also on scaffolds erected for the purpose, alternately to officiate. When Ezra ascended the pulpit, he produced and opened the book of the law, and the whole congregation instantly rose up from their seats, and stood. Then he offered up prayer and praise to God, the people bowing their heads, and worshipping the Lord with their faces to the ground ; and, at the close of the prayer, with uplifted hands, they solemnly pro- nounced, Amen, Amen. Then, all standing, Ezra, assisted at times by the Levites, read the 3j9 PREACHING law distinctly, gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. The sermons deli- vered so affected the hearers, that they wept ex- cessively ; and about noon the sorrow became so exuberant and immeasurable, that it was thought necessary by the governor, the preacher, and the Levites, to restrain it. Go your way, said they ; eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. The wise and benevolent sentiments of these noble souls were imbibed by the whole congregation, and fifty thousand troubled hearts were calmed in a moment. Home they returned, to eat, to drink, to send portions and to make mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. Plato was alive at this time, teach- ing dull philosophy to cold academics • but whai was he, and what was Xenophon or Demos thenes, or any of the Pagan orators, in comparisor with these men ? From this period to that ol the appearance of Jesus Christ, public preach ing was universal ; synagogues were multiplied, vast numbers attended, and elders and rulers were appointed for the purpose of order and in strustion. The most celebrated preacher that arose before the appearance of Jesus Christ, was John the Baptist. He was commissioned from heaven to be the harbinger of the Messiah. He took Eli- jah for his model ; and as the times were very much like those in which that prophet lived, he chose a doctrine and a method very much resem- bling those of that venerable man. His subjects were few, plain, and important. His style was vehement, images bold, his deportment solemn, his actions eager, and his morals strict ; but this bright morning star gave way to the illustrious Sun of Righteousness, who now arose on a be- nighted world. Jesus Christ certamly was the prince of preachers. Who but can admire the simplicity and majesty of his style, the beavty of his images, the alternate softness and severity of his addresses, the choice of his subjects, the grace- fulness of his deportment, and the indefatigable- ness of his zeal 1 Let the reader charm and solace himself in the study and contemplation, of the character, excellency and dignity of this best of preachers, as he will find them delineated by the evangelists. The apostles exactly copied their divine Mas- ter. They formed multitudes of religious socie- ties, and were abundantly successful in their labours. They confined their attention to reli- gion, and left the schools to dispute, and politi- cians to intrigue. The doctrines they preached, they supported entirely by evidence ; and neither had nor required such assistance as human laws or worldly policy, the eloquence of the schools, or the terror of arms, the charms of money, or the tricks of tradesmen, could afford them. The apostles being dead, every tiling came to pass as they had foretold. The whole Christian system underwent a miserable change ; preaching shared the fate of other institutions, and this glory of the primitive church was now generally degenerated. Those writers whom we call tls Fathers, however held up to view by some as models of imitation, do not deserve that indis- criminate praise ascribed to them. Christianity, it is true, is found in their writings; but how sadly incorporated with Pagan philosophy, and Jewish allegory ! It must, indeed, be allowed, that. PREACHING in geueral, the simplicity of Christianity was maintained, though under gradual decay, during the first three centuries. The next five centuries produced many pious and excellent preachers both in the Latin and Greek churches, though the doctrine continued to degenerate. The Greek Jiulpit was adorned with some eloquent orators. iasil, bishop of Crcsarea, John Chrysostom, preacher at Antioch, and afterwards patriarch (as he was called) of Constantinople, and Gre- gory Nazianzen, whs all flourished in the fourth century, seem to have led the fashion of preach- ing in the Greek church : Jerom and Augustin did the same in the Latin church. For some time, preaching was common to bishops, elders, deacons, and private brethren, in the primitive church ; in process, it was restrained to the bishop, and to such as he should appoint. They called the appointment ordination : and at last attached 1 know not what ideas of mystery and influence to the word, and of dominion to the bishop who pronounced it. When a bishop or preacher tra- velled, he claimed no authority to exercise the duties of his function, unless he were invited by the churches where he attended public worship. The first preachers differed much in pulpit action : the greater part used very moderate and sober gesture. They delivered their sermons all ex- tempore, while there were notaries who took down what they said. Sermons in those days were all in the vulgar tongue. The Greeks preached in Greek, the Latins in Latin. They did not preach by the clock, (so to speak) but were short or long as they saw occasion, though an hour was about the usual time. Sermons were generally both preached and heard standing ; but sometimes both speaker and auditors sat, es- pecially the aged and the infirm. The fathers were fond of allegory ; for Origen, that everlast- ing allegorizer, had set them the example. Be- fore preaching the preacher usually went into a vestry to pray, and afterwards to speak to such as came to salute him. He prayed with his eyes shut in the pulpit. The first word the preacher uttered to the people, when he ascended the pul- pit, was, "Peace be with you," or "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of Cod, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all ;" to which the assembly at first added, " Amen :" and, in after times they answered, "And with thy spirit." Degenerate, however, as these days were in comparison with those of the apostles, yet they were golden ages in comparison with the times that followed, when metaphysical reasonings, mystical divinity, yea, Aristotelian categories, and reading the' lives of the saints, were substituted in the place of sermons. The pulpit became a stage, where ludicrous priests ob- tained the vulgar laugh by the lowest kind of wit, especially at the festivals of Christmas and Easter. But the glorious Reformation was the offspring of preaching, by which mankind were informed : there was a standard, and the religion of the limes was put to trial by it. The avidity of the jommon people to read Scripture, and to hear it expounded, was wonderful; and the Papists were so folly convinced of the benefit of frequent pub- lic instruction, th.it they who were justly called unpreaching prelates, and whose pulpits, to use an expression of Latimer, had been bells without, clappers for many a long year, were obliged for phonic to set Uj> regular preaching again. %0 PREACHING The church of Rome has produced some great preachers since the Reformation, but not equal to the reformed preachers: and a question natu- rally arises here, which it would be unpardonable to pass over in silence, concerning the singular effect of the preaching of the reformed, which was general, national, universal reformation. In the darkest* times of popery there had arisen now and then some famous popular preachers, who had zealously inveighed against the vices of their times, and "whose sermons had produced sudden and amazing effects on their auditors: but all these effects had died away with the preachers who produced them, and all things had gone back into the old state. Law, learning, commerce, society at large, had not been im- proved.— Here a new scene opens ; preachers arise less popular, perhaps less indefatigable and exemplary; their sermons produce less striking immediate effects; and yet their auditors go away, and agree by whole nations to reform. Jerome Savonarola, Jerome Narni, Capistran, Connecte, and many others, had produced by their sermons great immediate effects. W hen Connecte preached, the ladies lowered their head- dresses, and committed quilled caps by hundreds to the flames. "When Narni taught the populace in Lent, from the purpits of Rome, half the city went from his sermons, crying along the streets, Lord hare mercy upon us ; Christ hare mercy upon us ; so that in only one passion week, two thousand crowns' worth of ropes were sold to make scourges with ; and when he preached be- fore the pope to cardinals and bishops, and paint- ed the crime of non-residence in its own colours, he frightened thirty or forty bishops who heard him, instantly home to their dioceses. ' In the pulpit of the university of Salamanca he induced eight hundred students to quit all worldly pros- pects of honour, riches, and pleasures, and to become penitents in divers monasteries. Some of this class were martyrs too. We know the fate of Savonarola, and more might be added : but all lamented the momentary duration of the effects produced by their labours. Narni himself was so disgusted with his office, that he renounced preaching, and shut himself up in his cell to mourn over his irreclaimable contemporaries; for bishops went back to court, and rope-makers lay idle again. Our reformers taught all the good doctrines which had been taught by these men, and they added two or three more, by which they laid the axe to the root of apostaey, and produced general information. Instead of appealing to popes, and canons, and founders, and fathers, they only quoted them, and referred their auditors to the Holy Scriptures for law. Pope Leo X. did not know this when he told Prierio, who complained of Luther's heresy, Friar Martin had a Jine ge- nius! They also taught the people what little they knew of Christian liberty ; and so led them into a belief that they might follow their own ideas in religion, without the consent of a con- fessor, a diocesan, a pope, or a council. They went further, and laid the stress of all religion on justifying faith. This obliged the people to get acquainted with Christ, the object of their faith ; and thus they were led into the knowledge of a character altogether different from what they saw in their old guides; a character which it is im- possible to know, and not to admire and imitate PREACHING The old papal popular sermons had gone offlikc a charge of gunpowder, producing only a fright, a bustle, and a black face ; but those of the neipe learninge, as the monks called them, were small hearty seeds, which, being sown in the honest hearts of the multitude, and watered with the dew of heaven, softly vegetated, and imperceptibly unfolded blossoms and fruits of inestimable value. These eminent servants of Christ excelled in various talents, both in the pulpit and in private. Knox came down like a thunder-storm ; Calvin resembled a whole day's set rain; Beza was a shower of the softest dew. Old Latimer, in a coarse frieze gown, trudged afoot, his Testament hanging at one end of his leathern girdle, and his spectacles at the other, and without ceremony instructed the people in rustic style from a hollow tree; while the courtly Ridley in satin and fur taught the same principles in the cathedral of the metropolis. Cranmer, though a timorous man, ventured to give King Henry the Eighth a New Testament, with the label, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge ; while Knox, who said, there was notliing in the pleasant face of a lady to affray him, assured the queen of Scots, that, " If there were any spark of the Spirit of God, yea, of honesty and wisdom in her, she would not be offended with his affirming in his sermons, that the diversions of her court were diabolical crimes, — evidences of impiety or in- sanity." These men were not all accomplished scholars; but they all gave proof enough that they were honest, hearty, and disinterested in the cause of religion. All Europe produced great and excellent preachers, and some of the more studious and sedate reduced their art of public preaching to a system, and taught rules of a good sermon. Bishop Wilkins enumerated, in 1646, upwards of sixty who had written on the subject. Several of these are valuable treatises, full of edifying in- structions; but all are on a scale too large, and, by affecting to treat of the whole office of a minis- ter, leave that capital branch, public preaching, unfinished and vague. One of the most important articles of pulpit science, that which gives life and energy to all the rest, and without which all the rest are no- thing but a vain parade, is either neglected or ex- ploded in all these treatises. It is essential to the ministration of the divine word by public preach- ing, that preachers be allowed to form principles of their own, and that their sermons contain their real sentiments, the fruits of their own intense thought and meditation. Preaching cannot be in a good state in those communities, where the shameful practice of buying and selling manu- script sermons is carried on. Moreover, all the animating encouragements that arise from a free, unbiassed choice of the people, and from their un- contaminated, disinterested applause, should be left open to stimulate a generous youth to excel. Command a man to utter what he has no incli- nation to propagate, and what he does not even believe; threaten him, at the same time, with all the miseries of life, if he dare to follow his own ideas, and to promulge his own sentiments, and you pass a sentence of death on all he says. He does declaim; but all is languid and cold, and he lays his system out as an undertaker does the dead. Since the reformers, we have had multitudes 361 2 V PREDESTINATION who have entered into their views with disinter- estedness and success: and, in the present times, both in the church and among dissenters, names could be mentioned which Would do honour to any nation ; for though there are too many who do not fill up that important station with propor- tionate piety and talents, yet we have men who are conspicuous for their extent of knowledge, depth of experience, originality of thought, fer- vency of zeal, consistency of deportment, and great usefulness in the Christian church. May their numbers-still be increased, and their exer- tions in the cause of truth be eminently crowned with the divine blessing ! See Robinson's Claude, vol. ii. preface; and books recommended under article Minister. PREADAMITE, a denomination given to the inhabitants of the earth, conceived by some people to have lived before Adam. Isaac de la Pcreyra, in 1655, published a book to evince the reality of Preadamites, by which he gained a considerable number of proselytes to the opinion; but the answer of Demarets, professor of theology at Groningen, published the year fol- lowing put a stop to its progress, though Pe- reyra made a reply, His system was this. The Jews he calls Adamites, and supposes them to have issued from Adam ; and gives the title Preadamites to the Gentiles, whom he supposes to have been a long time before Adam. But this being expressly contrary to the first words of Genesis, Pereyra had recourse to the fabulous antiquities of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and to some idle rab- bins, who imagined that there had been another world before that described by Moses. He was apprehended by the inquisition in Flanders, and very roughly used, though in the service of the dauphin. But he appealed from their sen- tence to Rome, whither he went in the time of Alexander VII. and where he printed a retrac- tion of his book of Preadamites. The arguments against the Preadamites are these. The sacred history of Moses assures us that Adam and Eve were the first persons that were created on the earth, Gen. i. 2b' ; ii. 7. Our Saviour confirmed this when he said, "From the beginning of the creation God made them, male and female." Mark x. 6. It is undeniable that he speaks this of Adam and Eve, becaust. in the next verse he uses the same words as those in Gen ii. 4. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife." It is also clear from Gen. hi. "20, where it is said, that " Adam called his wile's name Eve. because she was the mother of all living;" that is, she was the source and root of all men and women in the world : which plainly intimates that there was no other woman that was such a mother Finally, Adam is expressly called twice, by the apostle Paul, ihejirst man, 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47. PRECEPT, a rule given by a superior: a di- rection or command. The precepts of religion, says Saurin, are as essential as the doctrines; and religion will as certainly, sink, if the morality be subverted, as if the theology be undermined. The doctrines are only proposed to us as th6 ground of our duty. See Doctrine. PREDEST1NAR1ANS, those who believe in predestination. See Predestination. PREDESTINATION is the decree of God, whereby he hath for his own glory fore-ordained 2F PREDESTINATION whatever comes to pass. The verb predestinate is of Latin original (prccdcstiuo,) and signifies in that tongue to deliberate beforehand with one's self how one shall act, and, in consequence of such deliberation, to constitute, fore-ordain, and predetermine, where, when, how, and by whom any thing shall be done, and to what end it shall be done. So the Greek word 7rpoopi£«>, which exactly answers to the English word predestinate, and is rendered bv it, signifies to resolve before- hand with one's-self what shall be done, and be- fore the thing resolved on is actually effected ; to appoint it to some certain use, and direct it to eonie determinate end. This doctrine has been the occasion of considerable disputes and contro- versies among divines. On the one side it has been observed, that it is impossible to reconcile it with our ideas of the justice and goodness of God, that it makes God to be the author of sin, destroys moral distinction, and renders all our efforts useless. Predestinarians deny these con- sequences, and endeavour to prove this doctrine from the consideration of the perfections of the divine nature, and from Scripture testimony. If his knowledge, say they, be infinite and un- changeable, he must have known every thing from eternity. If we allow the attribute of pre- science, the idea of a decree must certainly be be- lieved also ; for how can an action that is really to come to pass be foreseen, if it be not deter- mined? God knew every thing from the begin- ning ; but this he could not have known if he had not so determined it. If, also, God be infinitely wise, it cannot be conceived that he would leave things at random, and have no plan. He is a God of order, and this order he observes as strictly in the moral as in the natural world, however contused things may appear to us. To conceive otherwise of God, is to degrade him, and is an insult to his perfections. If he, then, be wise and unchangeable, no new idea or purpose can arise in his mind ; no alteration of his plan can take place, upon condition of his creatures acting in this or that way. To say that this doctrine makes him the author of sin is not justifiable. We all allow omnipotence to be an attribute of Deity, and that by this attribute he could have prevented sin from entering into the world, had he chosen it ; yet we see he did not. Now he is no more the author of sin in one case than the other. May wc not ask, Why does he suffer those in- equalities of Providence? Why permit whole nations to lie in idolatry for ages ? Why leave men to the most cruel barbarities ? Why punish the sins of the fathers in the children ? In a word, Why permit the world at large to be sub- ject to pains, crosses, losses, evils of every kind, and that for so many thousands of years'? And yet, will any dare call the Deity unjust ? The fact is, our finite minds know but little of the na- ture of divine justice, or any other of its attri- butes. But, supposing there are difficulties in this subject, (and what subject is without?) the Scripture abounds with passages which at once move the doctrine, Matt. xxv. 34; Rom. viii. 29, .ill; Eph. i. 3, 6, 11 ; 9 Tim. i. . Prom tins passage it is evident that the presbyters not only fed the flock of God, but also governed that flock with episcopal powers, and that the apostle himself, as a church olucer, was nothing more than a presbyter or 36-1 PRESBYTERIANS elder. The identity of the office of bishop or presbyter is still more apparent from Heb. xiii. 7, 17; and 1 Thess. v. 12; for the bishops are there represented as governing the flock, speaking to them the word of God, watching for their souls_ and discharging various offices, which it is im- possible for any man to perform to more than one congregation. "From the last cited text it is evident that the bishops (VfoilrT«/«£i'ou;) of the Thessalonian churches had the pastoral care of no more souls than they could hold personal communion with in God's worship ; for they were such as all the people were to know, esteem,, and love, as those that not only were over them, but also 'closely laboured among them, and admonished them.' But diocesan bishops, whom ordinarily the hun- dredth part of their flock never hear nor see, can- not be those bishops by whom that flock is admonished ; nor can they be what Peter requires the bishops of the Jewish converts to be, ensam- ples to thejlock. It is the opinion of Dr. Ham- mond, who was a very learned divine, and a zealot for episcopacy, that the ciders whom the apostle James desires (Jas. v. 14) the sick to call for, were of the highest permanent order of ec- clesiastical officers; but it is self-evident that those elders cannot have been diocesan bishops, otherwise the sick must have been often without the reach of the remedy proposed to them. " There is nothing in Scripture upon which the Episcopalian is more ready to rest his cause than the alleged episcopacy of Timothy and Titus, of whom the former is said to have been bishop of Ephesus, and the latter bishop of Crete , yet the Presbyterian thinks it is clear as the noon- day sun, that the presbyters of Ephesus were supreme governors, under Christ, of the Ephe- sian churches, at the very time that Timothy is pretended to have been their proper diocesan. "In Acts xx. 17, &c. we read, that 'from Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus, and called the elders (presbyters) of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. And now, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom ot God, shall sec my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers (•:*•. o-x:™-./;, bishopsA to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For 1 know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of yourown selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember that, by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace,' &c. " From this passage it is evident that there was in the city of Ephesus a plurality of pastors of equal authority, without any superior pastor or bishop over them ; for the apostle directs his dis- course to them all in common, and gives them equal power over the whole flock. Dr. Ham- mond, indeed, imagines, that the elders whom PRESBYTERIANS Paul called to Miletus, were the bishops of Asiaf and that he sent for them to Ephesus, because that city was the metropolis of this province. But, were this opinion well founded, it is not conceivable that the sacred writer would have called them the elders of the church of Ephesus, but the elders of the church in general, or the elders of the churches in Asia. Besides, it is to be remembered, that the apostle was in such haste to be at Jerusalem, that the sacred histo- rian measures his time by days; whereas it must have required several months to call together the bishops or elders of all the cities of Asia ; and he might certainly have gone to meet them at Ephe- sus in less time than would be requisite for their meeting in that city, and proceeding thence ta him at Miletus. They must therefore have been either the joint pastors of one congregation, or the pastors of different congregations in one city ; and as it was thus in Ephesus, so it was in Phi- lippi; for we find the apostle addressing his epis- tle 'to all the saints in Jesus Christ which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.' From the passage before us it is likewise plain, that the presbyters of Ephesus had not only the name, but the whole power of bishops given to them by the Holy Ghost ; for they are enjoined to do the whole work Of bishops jroijuaivsiv t>|V «x).i|iru» tou 6fou — which signifies to ride as well as feed the church of God. Whence we see that the apostle makes the power of governing' inseparable from that of preaching and thatching; and that, ac- cording to him, all who are preachers of God's word, and watchmen of souls, are necessarily rulers or governors of the church, without being accountable for their management to any prelate, but only to their Lord Christ, from whom their power is derived. " It appears, therefore, that the apostle Paul left in the church of Ephesus, which he had planted, no other successors to himself than pres- byter-bishops, or Presbyterian ministers, and that he, did not devolve his powp" upon any prelate. Timothy, whom the Episcopalians allege to have been the first bishop of EpheSus, was present when this settlement was made, Acts xx. 5; and it is surely not to be supposed that, had he been their bishop, the apostle would have devolved the whole episcopal power upon the presbyters before his face. If ever there were a season fitter than another for pointing out the duty of this supposed bishop to his diocese, and his presbyters' duty to him, it was surely when Paul was taking his final leave of them, and discoursing so pathetically con- cerning the duty of overseers, the coming of ra- venous wolves, and the consequent hazard of the flock. In this farewell discourse he tells them, that 'he had not shunned to declare unto them til the counsel of God.' But with what truth Cv.uld this have been said, if obedience to a dio- r".an bishop had been any part of their duty, either at the time cf the apostle's speaking, or at any future period '? He foresaw that ravenous wolves would enter in among them, and that even some of themselves should arise speaking perverse things; and if, as the Episcopalians allege, dioce- san episcopacy was the remedy provided for these evils, is it not strange, passing strange, that the inspired preacher did not foresee that Timothy, who was then standing beside him, was destined to fill that important office; or, if he did foresee it, that he- omitted to recommend him to his fu- 365 PRESBYTERIANS ture charge, and to give him proper instructions for the discharge of his duty 1 " But if Timothy was not bishop of Ephesus, what, it may be asked, was his office in that city 1 for that he resided there for some time, and was by the apostle invested with authority to or- dain and rebuke presbyters, are facts about which all parties arc agreed, and which, indeed, cannot be controverted by any reader of Paul's epistles. To this the Presbyterian replies, with confidence, that the power which Timothy exercised in the church of Ephesus was that of an evangelist, Tim. ii. 4, 5, and not a fixed prelate. But, ac- cording to Eusebius, the work of an evangelist was, ' to lay the foundations of the faith in bar- barous nations, and to constitute among them pas- tors, after which he passed on to other countries.' Accordingly, we find that Timothy was resident for a time at Philippi and Corinth (Phil. ii. 19 ; 1 Cor. iv. 17; xvi. 10, 11), as well as Ephesus, and that he had as much authority over those churches as over that of which he is said to have been the fixed bishop. 'Now, if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do. Let no man, therefore, despise him.' This text might lead us to suppose that Timothy wad bishop of Corinth as well as of Ephesus; for it is stronger than that upon which his episcopacy of the latter church is chiefly built. The apostle says, 1 Tim. i. 3, 'I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.' But, had Timothy been the fixed bishop of that city, there would surely have been no necessity for beseeching him to abide with his flock. It is to be observed, too, that the first epis- tle to Timothy, which alone was written to him during his residence at Ephesus, was of a date prior to Paul's meeting with the elders of that church at Mile »js ; for in the epistle he hopes to come to him shortly ; whereas he tells the elders at Miletus that they should see his face no more. This being the case, it is evident that Timothy was left by the apostle at Ephesus only to supply his place during his temporary absence in Mace- donia ; and that he could not possibly have been constituted fixed bishop of that church ; since the episcopal powers were afterwards committed to the presbyters by the Holy Ghost in his presence. " The identity of the office of bishop and pres- byter being thus clearly established, it follows, that the presbyterate is the highest permanent office in the church, and that every faithful pas- tor of a flock is successor to the apostles in every thing in which they were to have any successors. In the apostolic office there were indeed some things peculiar and extraordinary, such as their immediate call by Christ, their infallibility, their being witnesses of our Lord's resurrection, and their unlimited jurisdiction over the whole world. These powers and privileges could not be con- veyed by imposition of hands to any successors, whether called presbyters or bishops ; but as rulers or office-bearers in particular churches, we have the confession of 'the very chiefest apostles,' Peter and John, that they were nothing more than presbyters, or parish ministers. This being the case, the dispute which has been so warmly agitated concerning the validity of Presbyterian ordination may be soon decided ; for if the cere- mony of ordination be at all essential, it is obvio'js 2p2 PRESBYTERIANS that such a ceremony performed by presbyters must be valid, as there is no higher order of eccle- siastics in the church by whom it can be perform- ed. Accordingly we find, that Timothy himself, though said to be a bishop, was ordained by the laying on of the hands of a presbytery. At that ordination, indeed, St. Paul presided, but he could preside only as primus in paribus; for we have seen that, as permanent officers in the church of Christ, the apostles themselves were no more than presbyters. If the apostles' hands were imposed for any other purpose, it must have been to com- municate those charismata, or miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, which were then so frequent ; but which no modern presbyter or bishop will pretend to give, unless his understanding he clouded by the grossest ignorance, or perverted by the most frantic enthusiasm." The members of the church of Scotland are strict Presbyterians. Their mode of ecclesiasti- cal government was brought thither from Geneva by John Knox, the famous Scotch reformer, and who has been styled the apostle of Scotland. Their doctrines are Calvinistic, as may be seen in the confession of faith, and the larger and shorter catechisms ; though it is supposed that the clergy, when composing instructions, either for their respective parishes, or the public at large, are no more fettered by the confession, than the clergy of the church of England are by the thirty-nine articles. Many in both communities, it seems, take a more extensive latitude than then- formulas allow them. As to the church government among the Scotch Presbyterians, no one is ignorant, that, from the first dawn of the Reformation among us till the ffira of the revolution, there was a perpetual struggle between the court and the people, for the establishment of an episcopal or a presbyte- rian form : the former model of ecclesiastical polity was patronized by* the house of Stuart on account of the support which it gave to the pre- rogatives of the crown ; the latter was the favourite of the majority of the people, perhaps not so much on account of its superior claim to apostolical in- stitution, as because the laity are mixed with the clergy in church judicatories, and the two orders, which under episcopacy are kept so distinct, in- corporated, as it were, into one body. In the Scottish church, every regulation of public wor- ship, every act of discipline, and every ecclesias- tical censure, which, in other churches, flows from the authority of a diocesan bishop, or from a convocation of the clergy, is the joint work of a certain number of clergymen and laymen acting together with equal authority, and deciding every question by a plurality of voices. The laymen who thus form an essential part of the ecclesias- tical courts of Scotland are called ruling elders, and hold the same office, as well as the same name, with those brethren (Acts xv.) who joined with the apostles and elders at Jerusalem in de- termining the important question concerning the necessity of imposing upon the Gentile converts the ritual observances of the law of Moses. These lay-elders Paul enjoined Timothy (1 Tim. v. 17) to account worthy of double honour, if they should rule well, and discharge the duties for which they were separated from the multitude of their brethren. In the church of Scotland every parish has two or three of those lay-elders, who arc grave and serious persons, chosen from 3G6 PRESBYTERIANS among the heads of families, of known orthodoxy, and steady adherence to the worship, discipline, and government of the church. Being solemnly engaged to use their utmost endeavours for the suppression of vice and the cherishing of piety and virtue, and to exercise discipline faithfully and diligently, the minister, in the presence of the congregation, sets them apart to their office by solemn prayer ; and concludes the ceremony, which is sometimes called ordination, with ex- horting both elders and people to their resjiective duties. The kirk session, which is the lowest ecclesi- astical judicatory, consists of the minister and those elders of the congregation. The minister is ex officio moderator, but has no negative voice over the decision of the session ; nor, indeed, has he a right to vote at all, unless when the voice of the ciders arc equal and opposite. He mav, in- deed, enter his protest against their sentence, if he think it improper, and appeal to the judgment of the presbytery ; but this privilege belongs equally to every elder, as well as to every person who may believe himself aggrieved by the pro- ceedings of the session. The deacons, whose proper office is to take care of the poor, may be present in every session, and offer their counsel on all questions that come before it ; but, except in what relates to the distribution of alms, they have no decisive vote with the minister and elders. The next judicatory is the ■presbytery, which consists of all the pastors within a certain district and one ruling elder from each parish, commis- sioned by his brethren to represent, in conjuno tion with the minister, the session of that parish. The presbytery treats of such matters as concern the particular churches within its limits ; as the examination, admission, ordination, and censuring of ministers ; the licensing of probationers, re- buking the gross or contumacious sinners, the directing the sentence of excommunication, the deciding upon references and appeals from kirk sessions, resolving cases of conscience, explain- ing difficulties in coctrine or discipline ; and cen- suring, according to the word of God, any heresy or erroneous doctrine which hath either been publicly or privately maintained within the bounds of its jurisdiction. Some of them have frankly acKnowledged that they cannot altogether ap- prove of that part of her constitution wfiich gives an equal vote, in questions of heresy, to an illiter- ate mechanic and his enlightened pastor. We are persuaded (say they) that it has been the source of much trouble to many a pious clergy- man, who from the laudable desire of explaining the Scriptures, and declaring to his flock all the counsel of God, has employed a variety of expres- sions of the same import to illustrate those articles of faith, which may be obscurely expressed in the established standards. The fact, however, is that in presbyteries the only prerogatives which the pastors have over the ruling elders are, the power of ordination by imposition of hands, and the privilege of having the moderator chosen from their body. From the judgment of the presbytery there lies an appeal to the provincial synod, which ordina- rily meets twice in the year, and exercises over the presbyteries within the province a jurisdiction similar to* that which is vested in each presbytery over the several kirk sessions within its bounds Of these synods there arc in the church of Scot- PRESBYTERIANS {and fifteen, which are composed of the members of the several presbyteries within the respective provinces which give names to the synods. The highest authority in the church of Scot- land is the general assembly, which consists of a certain number of ministers and ruling elders delegated from each presbytery, and of commis- sioners from the universities and royal boroughs. A presbytery in which there are fewer than twelve parishes sends to the general assembly two ministers and one ruling elder: if it contain between twelve and eighteen ministers, it sends 'hree of these, and one ruling elder: if it contain between eighteen and twenty-four ministers, it sends four ministers, and two ruling elders ; and of twenty-four ministers, when it contains so many, it sends five, with two ruling elders. Every royal borough sends one ruling elder, and Edinburgh two, whose election must be attested by the kirk sessions of their respective boroughs. Every university sends one commissioner from its Dwn body. The commissioners are chosen an- nually six weeks before the meeting of the as- sembly ; and the ruling ciders are often men of the first eminence in the kingdom for rank and talents. In this assembly, which meets once a year, the king presides by his commissioner, who is always a nobleman, but he has no voice in their deliberations. The order of their proceed- ings is regular, though sometimes the number of members creates a confusion ; which the mode- rator, who is chosen from among the ministers to be, as it were, the speaker of the house, has not sufficient authority to prevent. Appeals are brought from all the other ecclesiastical courts in Scotland to the general assembly ; and in ques- tions purely religious, no appeal lies from its de- termination. See Hall's View of a Gospel Church; Encyd. Brit. art. Presbyterians ; Brown's Vin- dication of the Presbyterian Form of Church Government ; Scotch Confession and Directory. For the other side of the question, and against Presbyterian church government, see articles Brownists, Church, Congregationalists, Episcopacy, and Independents. PRESBYTERIANS, ENGLISH. The appellation Presbyterian is in England appropri- ated to a body of dissenters, who have not any attachment to the Scotch mode of church go- vernment any more than to episcopacy among us ; and therefore the term Presbyterian is here improperly applied. How this misapplication came to pass cannot be easily determined ; but it has occasioned many wrong notions, and should therefore be rectified. English Presbyterians, as they are called, adopt nearly the same mode of church government with the Independents. Their chief difference from the Independents is, that they are less attached to Calvinism. PRESBYTERIANS IN THE UNITED STATES. The first Presbyterians in America came from England, Scotland, and Ireland, about the year 1700. They settled in what is now a part of New Jersey and Delaware. The first Presbyterian church formed in the United States was in Philadelphia, now known as the " First Presbyterian church" in that city, and recently under the care of Ihe Rev. James P. Wilson, D. D. Its first pastor was the Rev. Jedediah Andrews, a graduate of the University of Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. The first Presbyterian :hurch in the city or state of New York was that 367 PRESBYTERIANS in Wall street, founded in 171G. The churches of Newark, New Jersey, and of Jamaica, New- ton, South Hampton, East Hampton, &c. which are now Presbyterian, were founded several years prior to the above-mentioned, but were originally Congregational, and so remained till about the year 1716. The first presbytery was organized in 1704 ; the first synod in 171G. This was then composed of four presbyteries, viz. those of Philadelphia, Long Island, New Castle, and Snowhill, and was called the synod of Philadel- phia. A division took place in this synod in 1741, which gave rise to the synod of New York. These two were again united in 1758, under the title of the synod of New York and Philadelphia. This synod, socn after its formation, founded the college of New Jersey, now located at Princeton, and originally denominated Nassau Hall. The general assembly was formed in 1788, at which time the body had so far increased as to admit of a farther multiplication of synods, and accordingly the whole church was arranged into the four sy- nods of Philadelphia, Virginia, the Carolinas, and that already existing, the synod of New York and Philadelphia. The first meeting of the gene- ral assembly was held in 1789. Subsequent to that period the Presbyterian church has continued to increase by a steady accession of numbers, influence, and respectability, till it ranks among the most prominent ecclesiastical bodies in our country. Its ministers and members are distin- guished for their active zeal and their munificent liberality in the promotion of the great objects of Christian benevolence of the present day. The general assembly, the highest judicature of the church, has under its special care and supervision two flourishing theological seminaries: one located at Princeton, N. J., the other at Alleghany-town, Penn. There are also several others under the care of particular synods and presbyteries, as Auburn, N. Y. ; Hampden Sydney, Vir. ; Lane Seminary, Ohio ; and Hanover in Indiana. In connexion with the general assembly, there were, by the last statistical reports, 28 synods, 118 pres- byteries, 2648 congregations, 1914 bishops, 236 licentiates, and 247,964 communicants.* PRESBYTERIANS, CUMBERLAND, the name given to a body of Presbyterians who seceded from the general Presbyterian church in the United States in February, 1810. They re- side principally in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, but have a number of churches in some of the states north of the Ohio river. Their secession was owing to a difference of opinion with the synod of Kentucky, on the subject of licensing ministers to preach the gospel who had not enjoyed the benefit of a classical education. At a period of considerable religious excitement, when the labours of clergymen were in great demand, it was proposed by some of the ministers who then belonged to that synod, to choose froir. among the laity certain persons whose talents gifts, piety, &c. would justify the step, and en- courage them to prepare for the work of the mi- nistry, even though they had not gone through the ordinary routine of classical studies required by the standards of the church. Several indi- viduals accordingly complied with these sugges- tions, and after due preparation were examined and licensed to preach by a presbytery, the ma- ♦For a more detailed history of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, see Appendix, No. 3 PRESCRIPTION tnrity of wIwjsp members were favourable to the measure. The synod, however, were unfriendly In the innovation. The general assembly re- fused to sanction it. The result was, that a new presbytery, called the Cumberland Presbytery, was tunned, disclaiming all connexion with the general assembly's body, except that they still retained the bulk of the Presbyterian confession as the confession of their faith, and still deter- mined to adhere to the presbyterian form of church government. The part of the confession to which they principally object is, "the idea of fatality that seems to be taught under the myste- rious doctrine of predestination." Their points of dissent from the doctrines supposed to he in- culcated in the confession are the following: — 1. That there are no eternal reprobates. 2. That Christ died not for a pari only, hut fore/// mankind. 3. That all infants, dying in infancy, are saved through Christ and sanctification of the Spirit. 4. That the Spirit of God operates on the world, or as co-extcnsively as Christ has made the atone- ment, in such a manner as to leave all men inex- cusable. At first there were but nine preachers in the connexion, only four of whom were ordained. They have now a synod consisting of several presbyteries. The ministers in their connexion are not far from 700. The additions to the churches during the year 1829, were nearly 3,500. For a well written article, (to 1844,) by a lead- ing member of this church.— See APPENDIX, No. IV. PRESBYTERY, REFORMED. The Re- formed Presbytery in Scotland trace their origin as far back as the Reformation, and consider themselves as the only pure Presbyterians since the revolution. They profess to adhere to the solemn league and covenant agreed to by the na- tion before the restoration, in which they abjure popery and prelacy, and resolve to maintain and defend the doctrines, worship, discipline, and go- vernment of the church, as approved by the par- liament and assembly at Westminster, and by the general assembly of the church and parlia- ment of Scotland, 1645-9. It seems, they ob- ject not so much to a religious establishment, but to the religious establishment as it exists : they object not to an alliance of the church with the state, but to the alliance of the church with an uncovenanted king and government. Their num- ber, it is said, amounts to about four thousand persons. PRESCIENCE OF GOD is foreknowledge, or that knowledge which God has of things°to come. The doctrine of predestination is founded on the prescience of God, and on the supposition of all futurity being present to him. Properly speaking, indeed, prescience supposes that of pre- destination; for if we allow that God from all eternity foresaw all things, he must thus have foreseen them in consequence of his permitting or fore-appointing them. Hence, events are not certain merely because foreknown; but fore- known because antecedently certain on account of predetermining reasons. See Foreknow- ledge. Predestination. PR ESC R 1 FT 1 ON, in theology, was a kind of argument pleaded by Tertullian and others in the third century against erroneous doctors. This mode of arguing has been despised by some, both because it has been used by Papists, and because 368 PRESUMPTION they think that truth has no need of such a sup- port. Others, however, think that if it can he shown that any particular doctrine of Christianity was held in the earliest ages, even approaching the apostolic, it must have very considerable weight ; and, indeed, that it has so, appears from the uni- versal appeals of all parties to those early times in support of their particular opinions. Besides, the thing is in itself natural ; for if a man finds a variety of opinions in the world upon important passages in Scripture, where shall he be so apt to get the true sense as from contemporary wri- ters or others who lived very near the apostolic age? And if such a man shall find any doctrine or interpretation to have been universally believed in the first ages, or, as Vicentius Lirinensis words it, semper ubique et ab omnibus, he will unques- tionably be disposed to think such early and uni- versal consent, or such prescription, of very con- siderable weight in determining his opinion. PRESUMPTION, as it relates to the mind, is a supposition formed before examination. As it relates to the conduct or moral action, it implies arrogance and irreverence. As it relates to reli- gion in general, it is a bold and daring confidence in the goodness of God, without obedience to his will. Presumptuous sins must be distinguished from sins of infirmity, or those, failings peculiar to human nature, Ecc. vii. 20; lJohn i. 8, 9 from sins done through ignorance, Luke xii. 48, and from sins into which men are hurried by sudden and violent temptation, Gal. vi. 1. The ingredients which render sin presumptuous are, knowledge, John xv. 22; deliberation and con- trivance, Prov. vi. 14 ; Ps. xxxvi. 4 ; obstinacy, Jer. xliv. 16; Deut. i. 13; inattention to the re- monstrances of conscience, Acts vii. 51 ; oppo- sition to the dispensations of Providence, 2 Chr. xxviii. 22 ; and repeated commission of the same sin, Ps. lxxviii. 17. Presumptuous sins are nu- merous ; such as profane swearing, perjury, theft, adultery, drunkenness, sabbath-breaking, &c. — These may be more particularly considered as presumptuous sins, because they are generally committed against a known law, and so often re- peated. Such sins are most heinous in their na- ture, and most pernicious in their effects. They are said to be a reproach to the Lord, Num. xv. 3; they harden the heart, 1 Tim. iv. 2; draw down judgments from heaven, Num. xv. 31 ; even wnen repented of are seldom pardoned with- out some visible testimony of God's displeasure, 2 Sam. xii. 10. — As it respects professors of re- ligion, as one observes, they sin presumptuously, 1. When they take up a profession of religion without principle : 2. When they profess to ask the blessing of God, and yet go on in forbidden courses : 3. When thev do not take religion as they find it in the Scriptures: 4. When they make their feelings the test of their religion, with- out considering the difference between animal passion and the operations of the Spirit of God : 5. When they run into temptation: 6. When they indulge in self-confidence and self-compla- cency : 7. When they bring the spirit of the world into the church : 8. When they form apo- logies for that in some which they condemn in others: 9. When, professing to believe in the doctrines of the Gospel, they live licentiously: 10. When they create, magnify, and pervert their troubles: 11. When they arraign the con- duct of God as unkind and unjust. See It. PRIEST Walkers Ser. vol. i. srr. 3; SovtlVs Ser. vol. vii. ser. 10, 11. and 1-2; Tillotsoris Ser. ser. 147; Sauna's Ser. ser. 11. vol. i. Robinson's transla- tion ; Bp. Hopkins on the Nature, Danger, and Cure of Presumptuous Sins. Sec his works. Pride is inordinate and unreasonable self- esteem, attended with insolence, and rude treat- ment of others. " It is sometimes," says a good writer, " confounded with vanity, and sometimes with dignity ; but to the former passion it has no resemblance, and in many circumstances it differs from the latter. Vanity is the parent of loqua- cious boasting ; and the person subject to it, if his pretences be admitted, has no inclination to insult the company. The proud man, on the pthcr hand, is naturally silent, and, wrapt up in his own importance, seldom speaks but to make his audience feel their inferiority." Pride is the high opinion that a poor little contracted soul en- tertains of itself. Dignity consists in just, great, and uniform actions, and is the opposite to mean- ness.— 2. Pride manifests itself by praising our- selves, adorning our persons, attempting to ap- pear before others in a superior light to what we are: contempt and slander of others; envy at the excellencies others possess ; anxiety to gain applause ; distress and rage when slighted ; im- patience of contradiction, and opposition to God himself. — 3. The evil effects of pride are beyond computation. It has spread itself universally in all nations, among all characters ; and as it was the first sin, as some suppose, that entered into the world, so it seems the last to be conquered. It may be considered as the parent of discontent, ingratitude, covetousness, poverty, presumption, passion, extravagance, bigotry, war, and persecu- tion. In fact, there is hardly an evil perpetrated but what pride is connected with it in a proximate or remote sense. — 4. To suppress this evil, we should consider what we are. " If we could trace our descents," says Seneca, " we should find all slaves to come from princes, and all princes from slaves. To be proud of knowledge, is to be blind in the light ; to be proud of virtue, is to poi- son ourselves with the antidote ; to be proud of authority is to make our rise our downfall." The imperfection of our nature, our scanty knowledge, contracted powers, narrow conceptions, and mo- ral inability, are strong motives to excite us to humility. We should consider, also, what punish- ments this sin has brought on mankind. See the cases of Pharaoh, Hainan, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and others. How particularly it is pro- hibited, Prov. xvi. 18; 1 Pet. v. 5; James iv. G; Prov. xxix. 23 ; what a torment it is to its pos- sessor, Esther v. 13 ; how soon all things of a sublunary nature will end ; how disgraceful it renders us in the sight of God, angels, and men ; what a barrier it is to our felicity and com- ir»union with God; how fruitful it is of discord ; now it precludes our usefulness, and renders us really contemptible. See Humility. PRIEST, a person set apart for the perform- ance of sacrifice, and other offices and ceremonies *of religion. Before the promulgation of the law of Moses, the first-born of every family, the fathers, the princes, and the kings, were priests. Thus Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Mel- chizedec, Job, Isaac, and Jacob, offered them- selves their own sacrifices. Among the Israel- ii es after their departure from Egypt, the priesthood was confined to one tribe, and it con- 36") 2 W PRIEST sisted of three orders, the high priests, priests, and hevit.es. The priesthood was made heredi- tary in the family of Aaron ; and the first-born of the oldest branch of that family, if he had no legal blemish, was always the high-priest. This divine appointment was observed with considerable ac- curacy till the Jews fell under the dominion of the Romans, and had their faith corrupted by a false philosophy. Then, indeed, the high-priest- hood was sometimes set up to sale, and, instead of continuing for life, as it ought to have done, it seems from some passages in the New Testa- ment, to have been nothing more than an annual office. There is sufficient reason, however, to believe, that it was never disposed of but to some descendant of Aaron capable of filling it, had the older branches been extinct. [For the consecra- tion and offices of the Jewish priesthood, we refer our readers to the book of Moses.] In the time of David, the inferior priests were divided into twenty-four companies, who were to serve in rotation, each company by itself for a week. — The order in which the several courses were to serve was determined by lot ; and each course was, in all succeeding ages, called by the name of its original chief. It has been much disputed, whether in the Christian church, there be any such officer as a priest, in the proper sense of the word. If the word priest be taken to denote a person com- missioned by divine authority to offer up a real sacrifice to God, we may justly deny that there is a priest upon earth. Under the Gospel, there is but one priest, which is Christ : and but one sacrifice, that of the cross. The church of Rome, however, erroneously believe their priests to be empowered to offer up to the Divine Majesty real proper sacrifice, as were the priests under the Old Testament. Ecclesiastical history in- forms us that, in the second century, some time after the reign of the emperor Adrian, when the Jews, by the second destruction of Jerusalem, were bereaved of all hopes of the restoration of their government to its former lustre, the notion that the ministers of the Christian church suc- ceeded to the character and prerogatives of the Jewish priesthood was industriously propagated by the Christian doctors ; and that, in conse- quence, the bishops claimed a rank and charac- ter similar to that of the Jewish high-priest ; the presbyters to that of the priests; and the dea- cons to that of the Levites. One of the perni- cious effects of this groundless comparison and pretension seems to have been, the inlroduetion of the idea of a real sacrifice in the Christian church, and of sacrificing priests. In the church of England, the word priest is retained to denote the second order in her hierar- chy, but we believe with very different significa- tions, according to the different opinions enter- tained of the Lord's Supper. Some few of her divines, of great learning, and of undoubted Pro- testantism, maintain that the Lord's Supper ia a commemorative and eiicharistical sacrifice. — These consider all who are authorized to admi- nister that sacrament as in the strictest sense priests. Others hold the Lord's Supper to be a feast upon the one sacrifice, once offered on the cross; and these, too, must consider themselves as clothed with some kind of priesthood. Great numbers, however, of the English clergy, per- haps the majority, agree with the church of Scot- PRIMACY land, in maintaining thai the Lord's Supper is a rite of no other moral import than the mere com- memoration of the death of Christ. These can- not consider themselves as priests in the rigid sense of the word, hut only as presbyters, of which the word priest is a contraction, of the same import with elder. See Lord's Supper. PRIMACY, the highest post in the church. The Romanists contend that St. Peter, hy our Lord's appointment, had a primacy or sovereign authority and jurisdiction over thy apostles. — This, however, is denied by the Protestants, and that upon just grounds. Dr. Barrow observes (Works, vol. i. p. 557,) that there are several sorts of primacy which may belong to a person in respect of others. 1. A primacy of worth or personal excellence. — 2. A primacy of reputa- tion and esteem. — 3. A primacy of osder or bare dignity and precedence. — 4. A primacy of power and jurisdiction. As for the first of these, a pri- macy of worth, we may well grant it to Peter, admitting that probably he did exceed the rest of his brethren in personal endowments and capacities; particularly in quickness of appre- hension, boldness of spirit, readiness of speech, charity to our Lord, and zeal for his service. — 2. As to a primacy of repute, which St. Paul means when he speaks of those who had a spe- cial reputation, of those who seemed to be pil- lars, of the super-eminent apostles, Gal. ii. G, !) ; 2 Cor. xi. 5; xii. 11, this advantage cannot be refused him, being a necessary consequence of those eminent qualities resplendent in him, and of the illustrious performances achieved by him beyond the rest. This may be inferred from that renown which he hath had from the beginning; and likewise from his being so constantly ranked in the first place before the rest of his brethren. — 3. As to a primacy of order or bare dignity, im- porting that commonly, in all meetings and pro- ceedings, the other apostles did yield him the precedence, there may be some question ; for this does not seem suitable to the gravity of such per- sons, or their condition and circumstances, to stand upon ceremonies of respect ; for our Lord's rules seem to exclude all semblance of ambition, all kind of inequality and distance between his apostles. But yet this primacy may be granted as probable upon divers accounts of use and con- venience ; it might be useful to preserve order, and to promote expedition, or to prevent con- fusion, distraction, and dilatory obstruction in the management of things. — 4. As to a primacy importing a superiority in command, power, or jurisdiction, this we have great Teason to deny upon the following considerations. 1. For such a power it was needful that a commission from God, its founder, should be granted in abso- lute and perspicuous terms ; but no such com- mission is extant in Scripture.— 2. If so illustri- ous an office was instituted by our Saviour, it is strange, that no where in the evangelical or apos- tolical history there should be any express men- tion of that institution.— 3. If St. Peter had been instituted Boverejgn of the apostolical senate, his office and state had been in nature and kind very distinct from the common office of the other apostles, as the oilier of a king from the office of any subject; and probably would have been sig- nified by some distinct name, as that of arcri- apostle, arch-pastor, the vicar of Christ, or the hke; but no such name or title was assumed 370 PRIOR by him, or was by the rest attributed to him.- 4. There was no office above that of an apostle, known to the apostles or primitive church, Eph. iv. 11 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28. — 5. Our Lord himself de- clared against this kind of primacy, prohibiting his apostles to affect, to seek, to assume, or admit a superiority of power, one above another, Luke xxii. 11, 24 ; Mark ix. 35. — 6. We do not find any peculiar administration committed to St. Peter, nor any privilege conferred on him which was not also granted to the other aportles, John xx. 23 ; Mark xvi. 15. — 7. In neither of Peter's two catholic epistles, does there appear any inti- mation or any pretence to this arch-apostolical power. — 8. In all relations which occur in Scrip- ture about controversies of doctrine or practice, there is no appeal made to St. Peter's judgment, or allegation of it as decisive, and no argument is built on his authority. — 9. St. Peter no where appears intermeddling as a judge or governor paramount in such cases ; yet where he does himself deal with heretics and disorderly persons, he proceeds not as a pope decreeing ; but as an apostle, warning, arguing, and persuading againsi them. — 10. The consideration of the apostles proceeding in the conversion of people, in the foundation of churches, and in administration of their spiritual affairs, will exclude any proba- bility of St. Peter's jurisdiction over them. They went about their business, not by order or license from St. Peter, but, according to special direction of God's spirit. — 11. The nature of the apos- tolical ministry, the apostles not being fixed in one place of residence, but continually moving about the world ; the slate of things at that time, and the manner of St. Peter's life, render it un- likely that he had such a jurisdiction over the apostles as some assign him. — 12. It was indeed most requisite that every apostle should have a complete, absolute, independent authority in managing the duties and concerns of the office, that he might not any wise be obstructed in the discharge of them, not clogged with a need to consult others, not hampered with orders from those who were at a distance. — 13. The dis- course and behaviour of St. Paul towards St Peter, doth evidence that he did not acknow- ledge any dependence on him, or anv subjection to him, Gal. ii. 11—14. If St. Peter had been appointed sovereign of the church, it seems that it should have been requisite that he should have outlived all the apostles ; for otherwise, the church would have wanted a head, or there must have been an inextricable controversy who that head was. But St. Peter died long before St. John, as all agree, and perhaps before divers others of the apostles. From these arguments we must evidently see what little ground the church of Rome hath to derive the supremacy of the pope from the sup- posed primacy of St. Peter. PRIMATE, an archbishop who is invested with a jurisdiction over other bishops. See Arch- bishop. PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS, those who lived in the first ages of Christianity, especially the apostles and immediate followers of our Lord. PRINCIPLE, an essential truth from which others are derived ; the ground or motive of ac- tion. See Disposition and Doctrine. PRIOR, the head of a convent ; next in dig- nity to an abbot. PROCESSION PRISCILL1ANISTS, the followers of Tris- rillian, in the fourth century. It appears from authentic records, that the difference between their doctrine and that of the Manieheans was not very considerable ; for they denied the reality of Christ's birth and incarnation; maintained that the visible universe was not the production of the Supreme Deity, but of some daemon or ma- lignant principle; adopted the doctrine of seons, or emanations from the divine nature ; consider- ed human bodies as prisons formed by the author of evil to enslave celestial minds ; condemned marriage, and disbelieved the resurrection of the body. Their rule of life and manners was rigid and severe ; the accounts, therefore, which many have given of their lasciviousness and intemper- ance deserve not the least credit, as they are totally destitute of evidence and authority. That the Priscillianists were guilty of dissimulation upon some occasions, and deceived their adversaries by cunning stratagems, is true ; but that they held it as a maxim, that lying and perjury were law- ful, is a most notorious falsehood, without even the least shadow of probability. PROBITY, honesty, sincerity, or veracity. — " It consists in the habit of actions useful to so- ciety, and in the constant observance cf the laws which justice and conscience impose upon us. The man who obeys all the laws of society with an exact punctuality is not, therefore, a man of pro- bity; laws can only respect the external and defi- nite parts of human conduct : but probity re- spects our more private actions, and such as it is impossible in all cases to define ; and it appears to be in morals what charity is in religion. Pro- bity teaches us to perform in society those actions which no external power can oblige us to per- form, and is that quality in the human mind from which we claim the performance of the rights commonly called imperfect." PROCESSION, a ceremony in the Romish church, consisting of a formal march of the clergy and people, putting up prayers, &c., and in this manner visiting some church, &c. They have processions of the host or sacrament ; of oar Sa- viour to mount Calvary ; of the Rosary, &c. Processions are said to be of pagan original. The R.omans, when the empire was distressed, or after some victory, used constantly to order processions, for several days together, to fie made to the temples, to beg the assistance of the gods, or to return them thanks. The first processions mentioned in ecclesiastical history are those set on foot at Constantinople, by St. Chrysostom. The Arians of that city, being forced to hold their meetings without the town, went thither night and morning, singing anthems. Chrysostom, to prevent their perverting the Ca- tholics, set up counter-processions, in which the clergy and people marched by night, singing prayers and hymns, and carrying crosses and flambeaux. From this period the custom of pro- cessions was introduced among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latins; but they have sub- sisted longer, and been more frequently used in the Western than in the Eastern church. PROCESSION of THE HOLY GHOST a term made use of in reference, to the Holy Ghost, as proceeding from the Father, or from the Father and the Son. It seems to be founded on that passage in John xv. 26" : " When the. Com- forter is come, whom I will send unto you from 371 PROFESSOR the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which pro- ccedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me." The procession of the Holy Ghost, it is said, is expressly taught by Christ, in very strong terms, in this text. This procession, it is alleged, is here evidently distinguished from his mission ; for it is said, " Whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father." If his mission and proceeding were the same thing, there would be a tautology in the words, his mission, according to that interpreta- tion, being mentioned twice in the same verse. Dr. Watts, however, observes, that the proces- sion of the Holy Ghost from the Father, respects not his nature or substance, but his mission only ; and that no distinct and clear ideas can be formed of this procession ; consequently it must be given up as popish, scholastic, inconceivable, and inde- fensible. But, it is answered, what clear idea can be given us of the originate, self-existent, eternal being of the Father? Shall we, therefore, deny him to be without beginning or end, and to be self-existent, because we know not how he is so? If not, why must we give up the procession of the Spirit, because we know not the mode of it? We can no more explain the manner how the Spirit, proceeds from the Father, than we can explain the eternal generation and hypostatics! union of the two natures of the Son. We may say to the objector, as Gregory Nazianzen formerly did to his adversary, " Do you tell me how the Father is unbegotten, and I will attempt to tell you how the Son is begotten, and the Spirit proceeds." The clearest and fullest account ot this pro- cession, next to that in the above-mentioned text, is that in 1 Cor. ii. 12. " The Spirit which is of God ;" that is (say the advocates for this doctrine, ) the Spirit which is the same in nature and es- sence with the Father, and so is said to be of him, or out of him, not as to local separation, but with respect to identity of nature. About the eighth and ninth centuries there was a very warm dispute between the Greek and Latin churches, whether the Spirit proceeded from the Father only, or from the Father and the Son ; and the controversy arose to such a height, that they charged one another with heresy and schism, when neither side well understood what they contended for. The Latin church, however, has not scrupled to say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; but the Greek church chooses to express it thus : the Spirit proceeds from the Father by or through the Son, or he receives of the Son, Gal. iv. (5. See Holy Ghost ; Bishop Pearson on the Creed, p. 321 ; Watts's Work's^ 8vo. ed.vol. v. p. 191); Hurrion on the Holy Spirit, p. 204 ; Ridgley's Div. qu. 11 ; Dr. Lightfoot's Works, vol. i. p. 482. PROFANE, a term used in opposition to holy ; and in general is applied to all persons who have not the sacred character, and to things which do not belong to the service of religion. PROFESSION, among the Romanists, de- notes the entering into a religious order, whereby a person oilers himself to God by a vow of invio- lably observing obedience, chastity, and poverty. Christians are required to make a profession of their faith, 1. Boldlv, Rom. i. 10.— 2. Expli- citly, Matt. v. 16.— 3. Constantly, Heb. x. 23.— 4. Yet not ostentatiously, but with humility ami meekness. PROFESSOR, a term commonly used in tlw prophecy" religious world, to denote any person who makes zn open acknowledgment of the religion of Christ, or who outwardly manifests his attachment to Christianity. All real ( 'hristians are professors, Dut all professors are not real Christians. In this, as in all other things of worth ami importance, we find counterfeits. There are many who he- come professors, not from principle, from investi- gation, from love to the truth ; but from interested motives, prejudice of education, custom, influence of connexions, novelty, &c. as Saul, Jehu, Judas, Demas, the foolish virgins, &c. See article Christian. Jay's Sermons, ser. 9; Mead's Almost Christian ; Bellamy's True Religion delineated; Shepherd's Sincere Convert, and on the Parable of the Ten Virgins ; Seeker's Nonsuch Professor. PROMISE is a solemn asseveration, by which one pledges his veracity that he shall perform, or cause to he performed, the thing which he men- tions. The obligation of promises arises from the ne- cessity of the well-being and existence of society. "Virtue requires," as Dr. Doddridge observes, "that promises be fulfilled. The promisee, i. e. the person to whom the promise is made, ac- quires a property in virtue of the promise. The uncertainty of property would evidently be at- tended with great inconvenience. By failing to fulfil my promise, I either show that I was not sincere in making it, or that I have little con- stancy or resolution, and either way injure my character, and consequently my usefulness in life. Promises, hoicever, are not binding, 1. If they were made by us before we came to such exercise of reason as to be fit to transact affairs of moment ; or if, by any distemper or sudden surprise, we are deprived of the exercise of our reason at the time when the promise is made. — 2. If the promise was made on a false presump- tion, in which the promiser, after the most dili- Sent inquiry, was imposed upon, especially if e wer • deceived by the fraud of the promisee — 3. If the thing itself be vicious ; for \irtue can- not require that vice should be committed. — 4. If the accomplishment of the promise be so hard and intolerable, that there is reason to believe that, had it been foreseen, it would have been an ex- cepted ease. — ."). If the promise be not accepted, or if it depend on conditions not performed." See Doddridge's heel. lee. 69; Grot, ac Jure, lib. ii. cap. 1 1 ; Paley's Mor. Phil. ch. 5, vol. i. ; Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. ii. p. 2, c. 12; Walts's Scrm. ser. 20. PROMISES OP GOD are the kind decla- rations of his word, in which he hath assured us he will bestow blessings upon his people. The promises contained in the sacred Scriptures may be considered, 1. Divine as to their origin. — 2. Suitable as t., their nature. — 3. Abundant as to their number. — I. Clear as to their expression. — 5. Certain as to their accomplishment. The con- sider ition of them should, 1. Prove an antidote to despair.— 2. A motive to patience.— 3. A call for prayer. — 1. A spur to perseverance. See Clark on the Promises, a hook that Dr. Watts says, " he could dare put into the hands of every Christian, among all their divided seels and par- ties in the world." Buck's Serm,. ser. xi. I'll: >PHECY. a word derived from r*o?»r.i«, \w\ in its original import signifies the prediction of future events. It is thus defined by Wi'.sius : 372 PROPHECY " A knowledge and manifestation of secret things, which a man knows not from his own sagacity, nor from the relation of others, but by an extra- ordinary revelation of God from heaven." In the Old and New Testaments the word is not always confined to the foretelling of future events. In several instances it is of the same import with preaching, and denotes the faculty of illustrating and applying to present practical purposes the doctrines of prior revelation. Thus, in N'ehemiah it is said, " Thou hast appointed prophets to preach," ch. vi. ver. 7; and whoever speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort, is by St. Paul called a prophet, 1 Cor. xiv. 3. Hence it was that there were schools of prophets in Israel, where young men were in- structed in the truths of religion, and fitted to ex- hort and comfort the people. It is prophecy, however, according to the first definition given above, we shall here consider. Prophecy (with the power of working mira- cles) may be considered as the highest evidence that can be given of a supernatural communion with the Deity. Hence, among the professors of almost every religious system, there have been numberless pretenders to the gift of prophecy. — Pagans had their oracles, augurs, and soothsayers; modern idolaters their necromancers and diviners; and the Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, their prophets. The pretensions of Pagans and impos- tors, have, however, been justly exposed ; while the Jewish and Christian prophecies carry with them evident marks of their validity. Hence St. Peter observes, "We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place ; for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as thev were moved by the Holy Ghost," 2 Pet. ii. 19, 21. Scripture prophecy, therefore, hath God for its origin. It did not arise from the genius of the mind, the temperament of the body, the influence of the stars, &c. but from the sovereign will of God. The ways by which the Deity made known his mind were various ; such as by dreams, visions, angels, symbolic representations, impulses on the mind, Numb. xii. 6 ; Jer. xxxi. 20 ; Dan. viii. 16, 17. As to the language of prophecy ; " It is," says Mr. Gray, " remarkable for its magnificence. — Each prophetic writer is distinguished for pecu- liar beauties ; but their style in general may be characterized as strong, animated, and impressive. Its ornaments are derived not from accumulation of epithet, or laboured harmony; but from the real grandeur of its images, and the majestic force of its expressions. It is varied with striking pro- priety, and enlivened with quick but easy transi- tions. Its sudden bursts of eloquence, its earnest warmth, its affecting exhortations and appeals, afford very interesting proofs of that lively im- pression, and of that inspired conviction, under which the prophets wrote; and which enabled them, among a people not distinguished for ge- nius, to surpass, in every variety of composition, the most admired productions of Pagan antiquity. If the imagery employed by the sacred writers appear sometimes to partake of a coarse and inde- licate cast, it must be recollected that the Eastern manners and languages required the most forcible representations; and that the masculine and in- dignant spirit of the prophets led them to adop- PROPHECY ihe most energetic and descriptive expressions. No style is, perhaps, so highly figurative as that of the prophets. Every object of nature and of art which could furnish allusions is explored with industry ; every scene of creation, and every page of science, seems to have unfolded its rich varie- ties to the sacred writers, who, in the spirit of Eastern poetry, delight in every kind of metapho- rical embellishment. Thus, by way of illustra- tion, it is obvious to remark, that earthly dignities and powers are symbolized by the celestial bodies ; the effects of moral evil are shown under the storms and convulsions of nature ; the pollutions of sin are represented by external impurities ; and the beneficial influence of righteousness is depicted by the serenity and confidence of peace- ful life. This allegorical language, being founded in ideas universally prevalent, and adhered to with invariable relation and regular analogy, has furnished great ornament and elegance to the sa- cred writings. Sometimes, however, the inspired penmen drew their allusions from local and tem- porary sources of metaphor ; from the peculiar scenery of their country ; from the idolatries of heathen nations ; from their own history and cir-r cumstances; from the service of their temple, and the ceremonies of their religion ; from man- ners that have faded, and customs that have elapsed. Hence many appropriate beauties have vanished. Many descriptions and many represen- tations, that must have had a solemn importance among the Jews, are now considered, from a change of circumstances, in a degraded point of view. Hence, likewise, here and there a shade of obscurity. In general, however, the language of Scripture, though highly sublime and beauti- ful, is easy and intelligible to all capacities." 2. Of the use and intent of prophecy. As prophecy is so striking a proof of a super- natural communion with the Deity, and is or so early a date, we may rest assured it was given for wise and important ends. " It cannot be sup- posed," says bishop Sherlock, " that God deliver- ed prophecies only to satisfy or employ the curi- osity of" the inquisitive, or that he gave his Spirit to men merely to enable them to give forth pre- dictions for the amusement and entertainment of the world : there must be some end worthy of the author." Now, what end could this be, but to keep alive in the minds of those to whom it was given, a sense of religion, and a hope of fu- ture deliverance from the curse of the fall through Jesus Christ? " The uses of prophecy," says Dr. Jortin, "besides gradually opening and un- folding the things relating to the Messiah, and the blessings which by him should be conferred upon mankind, are many, great, and manifest. " 1. It served to secure the belief of a God, and of a providence. " As God is invisible and spiritual, there was cause to fear, that, in the first and ruder ages of the world, when men were busier in cultivating the earth than in cultivating arts and sciences, and in seeking the necessaries of life than in the study of morality, they might forget their Creator, and Governor ; and, therefore, God maintained amongst them the great article of faith in hiin, by manifestations of himself; by sending angels to declare his will ; by miracles, and by prophecies. "2. It was intended to give men the profound- est veneration for that amazing knowledge from wluch nothinrr was concealed, not even the future PROPHECY actions of creatures, and the things which as yet were not. How could a man hope to hide any counsel, any design or thought from such a Being? " 3. It contributed to keep up devotion and true religion, the religion of the heart, which con sists partly in entertaining just and honourable notions of God, and of his perfections, and which is a more rational and a more acceptable service than rites and ceremonies. " 4. It excited men to rely upon God, and to love him who condescended to hold this mutual intercourse with his creatures, and to permit them to consult him, as one friend asks advice of an- other. "It was intended to keep the people, to whom God revealed himself, from idolatry;^ sin to which the Jews would be inclined, both trom the disposition to it which they had acquired in Egypt, and from the contagion of bad example. " The people of Israel were strictly forbidden to consult the diviners and the gods of other na- tions, and to use any enchantments and wicked arts ; and that they might have no temptation to it, God permitted them to apply to him and to his prophets, even upon small occasions ; and he raised up amongst them a succession of prophets, to whom they might have recourse for advice and direction. These prophets were reverenced abroad as well as at home, and consulted by foreign princes ; and, in times of the captivity, they were honoured by great kings, and advanced to high stations." As it respects us, prophecy connected with miracles affords a considerable evidence of the truth of revelation, as well as of a superintend- ing Providence. This evidence, too, is a grow- ing evidence. "The divine design, uniformly- pursued through a series of successive genera- tions, opens with a greater degree of clearness, in proportion to the lapse of time and the number of events. An increase of age is addition to its strength ; and the nearer we approach the point towards which the dispensations of God unvary- ingly tend, the more clearly shall we discern the wonderful regularity, consistency, and beauty o this stupendous plan for universal good. Of the great use of prophecies which have been fulfilled, as a direct and strong argument to convert unbe- lievers to Christianity, and to establish Christians in the faith, we have' the most ample proofs. Our Lord himself made very frequent appeals to pro- phecy, as evidence of his divine mission : he re- ferred the Jews to their own Scriptures, as most fully and clearly bearing witness of himself. Upon them he grounded the necessity of his suf- ferings; upon them he settled the faith of the disciples at Emmaus, and of the apostles at Jeru- salem. The same source supplied the eloquence of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the means with which Apollos 'mightily convinced the Jews.' This was a powerful instrument of persuasion in the succeeding ages of the church, when used by the primitive apologists. Upon this topic were employed the zeal and diligence, not only of Jus- tin Martyr, but Tertullian, Cyprian, and Au- gustus It would never have been so frequently employed, if it had not been well adapted to the desired end; and that it did most completely an- swer this end, by the conversion of unbelievers, is evident from the accounts of Scripture, and the I records of the primitive church. 2G PROPHECY "Prophecy keeps the attention of Christians alive to the truth, and importance of their holy religion : to its truth because prophecy and Christianity had one and the same origin, both being derived from the same fountain of perfec- tion ; it keeps them alive to its importance, he- cause prophecy shows that the Supreme Being lias vouchsafed, through a long succession of ages, to prepare mankind, by gradual revelations of hi.s will, for future blessings ; and has proved, by sending chosen messengers to usher in this final dispensation, that ' the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,' It confirms the general belief of a God, and points out to a careless world the plain traces of his watchful providence. It displays the counsels of inspiration incessantly directing the course of events, without violating the order of reason and of human action. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us : such power is above our comprehension! But the fact is placed before our eyes. We see, or may see, a regular train of prophecies tending towards one declared end, accurately fulfilled and fulfilling amidst all the confusion and opposition of this tumultuous world ; and we see that these pro- phecies are clear, both in prediction and accom- plishment, in proportion to their importance, in fixing our belief in the providence of God, and in the great truths of divine revelation. Thus it appears that the chief design of prophecy is to bear constant witness to religious truth; but though to convince gainsayers of this truth is justly considered as its principal use, it has another very important object, to which it well be- comes us to pay attention, from motives of grati- tude, as well as from fear of incurring the blame which Scripture invariably imputes to those who neglect to take advantage of the. light afforded them. It is designed to protect believers in the word of God from the dangers arising from the prevalent corruptions, errors, and vices of tbe age in which they live. The due consideration of prophecy will administer consolation amidst pre- sent distress, and enliven faith and elevate hope, whilst passing through those dark, depressing scenes, which, without this gracious aid, might lead through the intricacies of doubt to the gloom of despair." Objections, however, have been raised against the prophecies from their obscurity. But to this it is answered, that they have often a first or par- tial, and an ultimate completion, of which the former may be generally considered as an earnest of the latter. It is principally this double sense of prophecy which renders it obscure : for though the predictions of the prophets were sometimes positive and exactly descriptive, and delivered with an accurate and definite designation of names and times, prophecy was not generally designed to be clear before its accomphshment It is, how- ever, always sufficiently exact in its descriptions to authenticate its pretensions to a divine autho- rity; to produce, when it comes to pass, an acknowledgment of its unerring certainty ; and to demonstrate the wisdom and power of God. As Biah >,i Newton observes, prophecies are the only species of writing which are designed more for the instruction of future ages than of the times win rein they are written. In Ibis respect, as the world groweth older, it groweth wiser. Trine, that detracts something from the evidence of other writers, is still adding something to the 374 PROPHECY credit and authority of the prophets. Future aires will comprehend more than the present, as the present understands more than the past; and the perfect accomplishment will produce a perfect knowledge of all the prophecies. 3. Of the fulfilment of prophecy. Our limits will not permit us to give a copious account of the various prophecies which have been remarkably fulfilled ; but whoever has ex- amined profane history with any degree of atten- tion, and compared it v.ith the predictions of Scripture, must, if he l>e not blinded by preju- dice, and hardened by infidelity, be convinced of the truth of prophecy by its exact accomplish- ment. It is in vain to say that these prophecies were delivered since the events have taken place ; for we see the prophecies, the latest whereof was delivered about 1700 years ago, and some of them about 3000 years ago. fulfilling at this very time; and cities, and countries, and kingdoms, in the very same condition, and all brought about in the very same manner, and with the very same cir- cumstances, as the prophets had foretold. " Wo see," says Bishop Newton, " the descendants of Shem and Japheth, ruling and enlarged in Asia and Europe, and perhaps in America, and 'the curse of servitude,' still attending the wretched descendants of Ham in Africa. We see the posterity of Ishmael, 'multiplied exceedingly,' and become ' a great nation' in the Arabians ; yet living like ' wild men,' and shifting from place to place in the wilderness ; their hand against every man, and every man's hand against them; and still dwelling an independent and free people, 'in the presence of all their brethren,' and in the pre- sence of all their enemies. We see the family of Esau totally extinct, and that of Jacob subsisting at this day ; ' the sceptre departed from Judah,' and the people living no where in authority, every where in subjection; the Jews still dwelling alone among the nations, while 'the remembrance of Amalek is utterly put out from under heaven.' We see the Jews severely punished for their infi- delity and disobedience to theirgrcat prophet like unto Moses; ' plucked from off their own land, and removed into all the kingdoms of the earth ; oppressed and spoiled evermore;' and made a ' proverb and a bve-word among all nations.' We see ' Ephraim so broken as to be no more a peo- ple,' while the whole nation is comprehended under the name of Judah ; the Jews wonderfully preserved as a distinct people, while their great conquerors are every where destroyed ; their land lying desolate, and themselves cut off from being the people of God, while, the Gentiles are ad- vanced in their room. We see Nineveh so com- pletely destroyed, that the place thereof is not and cannot be known; Babylon made 'desolation for ever a possession for the bittern, and pools of water ;' Tyre become ' like the top of a rock, a place for fishers to spread their nets upon;' and Egypt, ' a base kingdom, the basest of the king- doms,' and still tributary and subject to strangers. We see, of the four great empires of the world, the fourth and last, which was greater and more powerful than any of the former, divided in the western part thereof into ten lesser kingdoms; and among them a power 'with a triple crown differs from the first,' with 'a mouth speaking very great things,' and with 'a look more stout than his fellows, speaking great words against the Most High, wearing out the saints of the Most PROPHECY High, and changing times and laws.' We see a power 'cast down the truth to the ground, and piosper, and practise, and destroy the holy peo- ple, not regarding the God of his fathers, nor the clesire of wives, but honouring Mahuzzim,' gods- protectors, or saints-protectors, ' and causing' the priests of Mahuzzim 'to rule over many, and to di- vide the land for gain.' We see the Turks ' stretch- ing forth their hand over the countries,' and par- ticularly ' over the land of Egypt, the Libyans at their steps,' and the Arabians still ' escaping out of their hand.' We see the Jews ' led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles,' and likely to continue so ' until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,' as the Jews are by a constant miracle preserved a distinct people for the completion of other pro- phecies relating to them. We see one ' who op- poseth and cxalteth himself above all laws, divine and human, 'sitting as God in the church of God, and showing himself that he is God, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.' We see a great apostacy in the Christian church, which consists chiefly in the worship of demons, angels, or departed saints, and is promoted 'through the hypocrisy of liars, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats.' We see the seven churches of Asia lying in the same forlorn and desolate condition that the angel had signified to St. John, their 'candlestick re- moved out of its place,' their churches turned into mosques, their worship into superstition. In short, we see the characters of ' the beast and the false prophet,' and 'the whore of Babylon,' now exemplified in every particular, and in a city that is seated 'upon seven mountains ;' so that, if the bishop of Rome had sat for his picture, a greater resemblance and likeness could not have been drawn. " For these things we have the attestation of past, and the experience of present times; and we cannot well be deceived, if we will only be- lieve our own eyes and observation. We actu- ally see the completion of many of the prophecies in the state of men and things around us; and we have the prophecies themselves recorded in books, which books have been read in public, as- semblies these 170 or 2000 years, have been dis- persed into several countries, have been translated into several languages, and quoted and comment- ed upon by different nations ; so that there is no room to suspect so much as a possibility of for- gery or illusion." 4. Rules for understanding the prophecies. In order to understand the prophecies, and to form a right judgment of the arguments for the truth of Christianity, wc must not consider them singly and apart, but as a grand whole, or a chain reaching through several thousand years, yet manifestly subservient to one and the same end. This end is no other than the establishment of the universal empire of truth and righteousness under the dominion of Jesus Christ. We are not, indeed, to suppose that each of the prophe- cies recorded in the Old Testament expressly points out, and clearly characterizes Jesus Christ; yet, taken as a whole, this grand system refers to liim ; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. " All the revolutions of divine provi- dence have him for their scope and end. Is an 375 PROPHESYINGS empire, or kingdom, erected'? that empire oi kingdom is erected with a view, directly or indi- rectly, to the kingdom of Messiah. Is an em- pire, or kingdom, subverted or overthrown 1 that empire, or kingdom, is overthrown in subservi- ency to the glory of his kingdom and empire, which shall know neither bounds nor end, but whose limits shall be no other than the limits of the universe, and whose end no other than the days of eternity. Jesus Christ, then, is the only person that ever existed in whom jdl the prophe- cies meet as in a centre." In order, therefore, to oppose error, and confront the infidel, we must study the prophecies, not as independent of each other, but as connected ; for " the argument from prophecy," says Bishop Hurd, "is not to be formed from the consideration of single prophe- cies, but from all the prophecies taken together, and considered as making one system ; in which, from the mutual dependence and connexion of its parts, preceding prophecies prepare and .llustrate those which follow ; and these, again, reflect light on the foregoing : just as in any philosophical system, that which shows the solidity of it is the harmony and correspondence of the whole, not the application of it in particular instances. "Hence, though the evidence be but small from the completion of any one prophecy taken separately, yet that evidence, being always some- thing, the amount of the whole evidence resulting from a great number of prophecies, all relative to the same design, may be considerable; like many scattered rays, which, though each be weak in itself, yet, concentrated into one point, shall form a strong light, and strike the sense very power- fully. Still more; this evidence is not merely a growing evidence, but is indeed multiplied upon us, from the number of reflected lights which the several component parts of such a system reci- procally throw upon each; till, at length, the conviction rise unto a high degree of moral cer- tainty." Farther, in order to understand the prophecies, we must endeavour to find out the true subject of prophecy ; that is, precisely what the prophets speak of, and the characters that are applied to that subject. The literal sense should be always kept in view, and a knowledge of oriental cus- toms attained. The beginning and end of the prophetic sermons must be carefully observed. The time, as near as possible, of the predictions should be ascertained. An acquaintance with the method of salvation by Christ will greatly assist us in this work. The mind must be un- prejudiced, and we should be well acquainted with the Scriptures at large. These rules, with dependence on the divine teaching, will assist us in understanding the prophecies. See Bishop Neic- ton's Dissertations on the Prophecies; Bishop Sherlock's Use and Intent of Prophecy; Bishop Hurd's Sermons on the Prophecies; Sir Isaac Newton's Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and on the Apocalypse; Gray's Key to the Old Testament; Simpson's Key to the Pro- phecies; Illustrations of Prophecy; Vitringa's Typus Doclrince Prophetical; GUI on the Pro- phets; Eltrick's Seco7id Exodus or Remarks on the Prophecies of the Last Times; Kett's His- tory the Interpreter of Prophecy. See also the1 works of Mede, Smith, Halifax, Apthorp, and Faber, on the subject. PROPHESYINGS, religious exercises of the PROPITIATION clergy in the reisrn of Queen Elizabeth, instituted for the purpose of promoting knowledge and piety. The ministers of a particular division at a set time met together in some church of a market or other large town, and there each in their order explained, according to their abilities, some por- tion of Scripture allotted to them before. This done, a moderator made his observations on what had been said, and determined the true sense of the place, a certain space of time being fixed for despatching the whole. These institutions, like all others, however, it seems, were abused, by irregularity, disputations, and divisions. Arch- bishop Grindal endeavoured to regulate the pro- phesyings, and cover them from the objections that the court made against them, by enjoining the ministers to observe decency and order, by forbidding them to meddle with politics and church government, and by prohibiting all non- conformist ministers and laymen from being speakers. The queen, however, was resolved to suppress them; and having sent for the archbishop, told him she was informed that the rites and ceremonies of the church were not duly observed in these prophesyings; that persons not lawfully called to be ministers exercised in them ; that the assemblies themselves were illegal, not being al- lowed by public authority; that the laity neglected their secular affairs by repairing to these meet- ings, which filled their heads with notions, and might occasion disputes and sedition in the state; that it was good for tho church to have but few preachers, three or four in a county being suffi- cient. She further declared her dislike of the number of these exercises, and therefore com- manded him peremptorily to put them down. The archbishop, however, instead of obeying the commands of his roval mistress, thought that she hud made some infringement upon his office, and wrote the queen a long and earnest letter, de- claring that his conscience would not sutler him to comply wiili her commands. The queen was so inllamed with this letter, that the archbishop was sequestered from his offivc, and he never af- terwards recovered the queen's favour. Thus ended the prophesyings; "an useful institution," says Neale, for promoting Christian knowledge and piety, at a time when both were at a very low ebb in the nation. The queen put them down for no other reason, but because they enlightened the people's minds in the Scriptures, and encou- raged their inquiries after truth; her majesty be- ing always of opinion that knowledge and learn- ing in the laity would only endanger their peaceable submission to her absolute will and pleasure.'' PROPHET, a person who foretels future events. It is particularly applied to such inspired persons among the Jews as were commissioned by God to declare his will and purpose to that people. See Propb False Prophets. See Impostors; and Jose- ph u <'s History of the Jews. Sons of the Prophets, an appellation given to younjt men who were educated in the schools or colleges under a proper master, who was com- monly, if not always, an inspired prophet, in the knowledge of religion, and in Bacred music, anil thus were qualified to be public preachers, 1 Sam. X. ; xi. ; 2 Sun. \i\\ ; '2 Kings ii. PROPITIATION, a sacrifice offered toGod to assuage his wrath, and render him propitious, 376 PROSPERITY Among the Jews, there were both ordinary and public sacrifices, as holocausts, &c. offered by way of thanksgiving; and extraordinary ones, offered by persons guilty of any crime, by way of propitiation. The Romish church believe the mass to be a sacrifice of propitiation for the. liv- ing and the dead. The Reformed churches allow cf no propitiation, but that one offered by Jesus on the cross, whereby divine justice is appeased, and our sins forgiven, Rom. iii. 25 ; 1 John ii. 2. As it respects the unbloody propitiatory sacri- fice of the mass above mentioned, little need be said to confute such a doctrine. Indeed, it is owned in the church of Rome, that there is no other foundation for the belief of it than an un- written tradition. There is no hint in the Scrip- ture of Christ's offering his body and blood to his Father at his institution of the eucharist. It is also a manifest contradiction to St. Paul's doc- trine, who teaches, that, without shedding of blood, there is no remission ; therefore there can be no remission of sins in the mass. The sacri- fice of Christ, according to the same apostle, is net to be repeated. A second oblation would be superfluous ; consequently the pretended true and proper sacrifice of the mass must be superfluous and useless. The propitiation made by Jesus Christ is that which atones for and covers our guilt, as the mercy-seat did the tables of the law ; or it may be defined thus: "It is the averting the punish- ment due to any one, by undergoing the penalty in the room of the guilty." Thus Jesus Christ is called the propitiation or atonement, as his complete righteousness appeases his Father, and satisfies his law and justice for all our trangres- sions. See Atonement, and books under that article. PROPORTION OF FAITH. See Ana- logy op Faith. PROSELYTE, a new convert to some reli- gion or religious sect. Among the Hebrews, proselytes were distinguished into two sorts: the first called proselytes of the gate, because suffer- ed to live among them, and were those who ob- served the moral law only, and the rules imposed on the children of Noah; the second were called proselytes of justice, who engaged to receive cir- cumcision, and the whole law of Moses, and en- joyed all the privileges of a native Hebrew. PROSEUCHE, from ^ao-suxn, signifies pray- er : but it is taken for the places of prayer of the Jews, and was pretty near the same as their sy- nagogues. But the synagogues were originally in the cities, and were covered places ; whereas, for the most part, the proseuches were out of the cities, and on the banks of the rivers, having no covering, except, perhaps, the shade of some trees or covered galleries, Acts x\i. 13. PROSPERITY, a state wherein things suc- ceed according to our wishes, and are productive of affluence and ease. However desirable pros- perity be, it has its manifest disadvantages. _ It too often alienates the soul from God; excites pride ; exposes to temptation ; hardens the heart ; ions idleness; promotes effeminacy; damps zeal and energy ; and, too often, has a baneful re- lative influence. It is no wonder, therefore, that i lie Almighty in general withholds it from his children; and that adversity should be their lot rather Chan prosperity. Indeed adversity seems more beneficial on the whole, although it be so PROVIDENCE unpleasant to our feelings. " The advantages of prosperity," says Bacon, " are to be wished ; but the advantages of adversity are to be admired. The principal virtue of prosperity is temperance; the principal virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morality is allowed to be the most heroical vir- tue ; prosperity best discovers vice ; adversity best discovers virtue, which is like those perfumes that are most fragrant when burnt or bruised." It is not, however, to be understood, that prosperity in itself is unlawful. The world with all its various productions was formed by the Almighty for the happiness of man, and designed to endear him- self to us, and to lead our minds up to him. — What however God often gives us as a blessing, by our own folly we pervert and turn into a curse. Where prosperity is given, there religion is abso- lutely necessary to enable us to act under it as we ought. Where this divine principle influ- ences the mind, prosperity may be enjoyed and become a blessing ; for "while bad men snatch the pleasures of the world as by stealth, without countenance from God, the proprietor of the world ; the righteous sit openly down to the feast of life, under the smile of heaven. No guilty fears damp their joys. The blessing of God rests upon all they possess. Their piety reflects sun- shine from heaven upon the prosperity of the world ; unites in one point of view the smiling aspect, both of the powers above, and of the ob- jects below. Not only have they as full a relish as others of the innocent pleasures of life, but moreover, in them they hold communion with God. In all that is good or fair, they trace his hand. From the beauties of nature, from the im- provements of art, from the enjoyments of social life, they raise their affections to the source of all the happiness which surrounds them, and thus wi fen the sphere of their pleasures, by adding in- tellectual and spiritual to earthly joys." Blair's Sermons, vol. i. scr. 3; Bates' a Works, p. 21 '7. Spiritual prosperity consists in the continual progress of the mind in knowledge, purity, and joy. It arises from the participation of the di- vine, blessing ; and evidences itself by frequency in prayer ; love to God's word ; delight in his peo- ple ; attendance on his ordinances ; zeal in his cause ; submission to his will ; usefulness in his church ; and increasing abhorrence of every thing that is derogatory to his - scription to any articles, either as a condition of membership, or a qualification for the service of the church. We prefer the judging of men by their fruits, and depending on the aid of Him, who, by his prophet, hath promised to be ' a spirit QUAKERS of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,' Is. xxviii. 6. Without this, there is a danger of receiving numbers into outward communion, without any addition to that spiritual sheep-fold, whereof our Messed Lord declared himself to be both the door and the shepherd, John x. 7, 11 ; that is, such as know his voice and follow him in the paths of obedience. " In the practice of discipline, we think it in- dispensable that the order recommended by Christ himself be invariably observed, Matt, xviii. 15, 17. " To effect the salutary purposes of discipline, meetings were appointed at an early period of the society, which, from the times of their being held, we e called quarterly meetings. It was afterwards found expedient to divide the districts of those meetings, and to meet more frequently : from whence arose monthly meetings, subordinate to those held quarterly. At length, in 1669, a yearly meeting was established, to superintend, assist, and provide rules for the whole, previously to which general meetings had been occasionally held. " A monthly meeting is usually composed of several particular congregations, situated within a convenient distance from each other. Its busi- ness is to provide for the subsistence of the poor, and for the education of their offspring ; to judge of the sincerity and fitness of persons appearing to be convinced of the religious principles of the society, and desiring to be admitted into member- ship ; to excite due attention to the discharge of religious and moral duty ; and to deal with disor- derly members. Monthly meetings also grant to such of their members as remove into other monthly meetings certificates of their member- ship and conduct; without which they cannot gain membership in such meetings. Each month- ly meeting is required to appoint certain persons, under the name of overseers, who are to take care that the rules of our discipline be put in practice ; and when any case of complaint, or disorderly conduct comes to their knowledge, to see that private admonition, agreeably to the Gospel rule before mentioned, be given, previously to its being laid before the monthly meeting. " When a case is introduced, it is usual for a small committee to be appointed to visit the of- fender, to endeavour to convince him of his error, and to induce him to forsake and condemn it. If they succeed, the person is by minute declared to have made satisfaction for the offence ; if not, he is disowned as a member of the society. " In disputes between individuals, it has long been the decided judgment of the society, that its members should not sue each other at law. It therefore enjoins all to end their differences by speedy and impartial arbitration, agreeably to rules laid down. If any refuse to adopt this mode, or, having adopted it, to submit to the award, it is the direction of the yearly meeting that such be disowned. " To monthly meetings also belongs the allow- ing of marriages ; for our society hath always scrupled to acknowledge the exclusive authority of the priests in the solemnization of marriage. Those who intend to marry appear together, and propose their intention to the monthly meeting ; and if not attended by their parents and guardians, produce a written certificate of their consent, signed in the presence of witnesses. The meet- ing then appoints a committee to inquire whether 383 QUAKERS they be clear of other engagements respecting marriage; and if at a subsequent meeting, towhicn the parties also come and declare the continuanco of their intention, no objections be reported, they have the meeting's consent to solemnize their in tended marriage. This is done in a public meet- ing for worship, towards the close whereof the parties stand up, and solemnly take each other for husband and wife. A certificate of the proceed- ings is then publicly read, and signed by the par- ties, and afterwards by the relations and others as witnesses. Of such marriage the monthly meet- ing keeps a record ; as also of the births and bu- rials of its members. A certificate of the date, of the name of the infant, and of its parents, signed by those present at the birth, is the subject of one of these last-mentioned records ; and an order for the interment, countersigned by the grave-maker, of the other. The naming of chil- dren is without ceremony. Burials are also con- ducted in a simple manner. The body, followed by the relations and friends, is sometimes, pre- viously to interment, carried to a meeting ; and at the grave a pause is generally made ; on both which occasions it frequently falls out that one or more friends present have somewhat to express for the edification of those who attend ; but no re- ligious rite is considered as an essential part of burial. " Several monthly meetings compose a quarterly meeting. At the quarterly meeting are produced written answers from the monthly meetings to certain queries respecting the conduct of their members, and the meeting's care over them. The accounts thus received are digested into one, which is sent, also in the form of answers to queries, by representatives to the yearly meeting. Appeals from the judgment of monthly meetings are brought to the quarterly meetings, whose business also ft is to assist in any difficult case, or where remissness appears in the care of the monthly meetings over the individuals who compose them. There are seven yearly meetings, viz. — 1. Lon- don, to which come representatives from Ireland ; 2. New England ; 3. New York ; 4. Pennsylva- nia and New Jersey ; 5. Maryland; 6. Virginia; 7. The Carolinas and Georgia. " The yearly meeting has the general superin- tendence of the society in the country in which it is established jRmd, therefore, as the accounts which it receives discover the state of inferior meetings, as particular exigencies require, or as the meeting is impressed with a sense of duty, it gives forth its advice, making such regulations as appear to be requisite, or excites to the observance of those already made ; and sometimes appoints committees to visit those quarterly meetings which appear to be in need of immediate advice. Ap- peals from the judgment of quarterly meetings are here finally determined ; and a brotherly cor- respondence, by epistles, is maintained with other yearly meetings. " In this place it is proper to add, that, as we believe women may be rightly called to the work of the ministry, we also think that to them belongs a share in the support of our Christian discipline ; and that some parts of it wherein their own sex is concerned, devolve on them with peculiar pro- priety ; accordingly they have monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings of their own sex, held at the same time, and in the same place with those of the men; but separately, and without the power QUAKERS of making rules : and it may be remarked, that diirinir the persecutions which in the last century occasioned the imprisonment of so many of the men, the care of the poor often fell on the women, and was by them satisfactorily administered. " In order that those who are in the situation of ministers may have the tender sympathy and counsel of those of either sex. who by their ex- perience in the work of religion are qualified for that service, the monthly meetings are advised to select such, under the denomination of elders. — These and ministers approved by their monthly meetings, have meetings peculiar to themselves, called meetings of ministers and elders ; in which they have an opportunity of exciting each otter to a discharge of their several duties, and of ex- tending advice to those who may appear to be %veak, without any needless exposure. Such meetings are generally held in the compass of each monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting. — They are conducted by rules prescribed by the yearly meeting, and have no authority to make any alteration or addition to them. The mem- bers of them unite with their brethren in the meetings for discipline, and are equally account- able to the latter for their conduct. "It is to a meeting of this kind in London, called the second day's morning meeting, that the revisal of manuscripts concerning our principles, previously to publication, is intrusted by the yearly meeting held in London ; and also the granting, in the intervals of the yearly meeting, of certifi- cates of approbation to such ministers as are con- cerned to travel in the work of the ministry in fo- reign parts, in addition to those granted by their monthly or quarterly meetings. When a visit of this kind doth not extend beyond Great Britain, a certificate from the monthly meeting of which the minister is a member, is sufficient; if to Ire- land, the concurrence of the quarterly meeting is also required. Regulations of similar tendency obtain in other yearly meetings. " The yearly meeting of London, in the year 1675, appointed a meeting to be held in that city, for the purpose of advising and assisting incases of suffering for conscience' sake, which hath con- tinued with great use to the society to this day. It is composed of friends, under the name of cor- respondents, chosen by the se^ral quarterly meet- ings, and who reside in or near the society. The same meetings also appoint members of their own in the country as correspondents, who are to join their brethren in London on emergency. The names of all these correspondents, previously to their being recorded as such, are submitted to the approbation of the yearly meeting. Those of the men who are approved ministers are also mem- f this meeting, which is called the meeting for sufferings; a name arising from its original purpose, which is not yet become entirely obso- lete. " The yearly meeting has intrusted the meet- ing for sufferings with the care of printing and distributing books, and with the management of its stock ; and, considered as a standing commit- tee of the yearly meeting, it hath a general care of whatever may arise, oaring the intervals of that meeting, affecting the society, and requiring immediate attention, particularly of those circum- stances which may occasion an application to government. " There is not, in any of the meetings which 384 QUIETISTS have been mentioned, any president, as we be- lieve that divine wisdom alone ought to preside, nor hath any member a right to claim pre-emi« nence over the rest. The office of clerk, with a few exceptions, is undertaken voluntarily by some member ; as is also the keeping of the records. When these are very voluminous, and require a house for their deposit, (as is the case in London, where the general records of the society in Great Britain are kept,) a clerk is hired to have the care of them ; but except a few clerks of this kind, and persons who have the care of meeting-houses, none receive any stipend or gratuity for their services in our reli- gious society." See a pamphlet entitled A Sum- mary of the History, Doctrine, and Discipline of the Quakers ; ScurclTs and Rutty's Hist, of the Quakers; Besse's Sufferings of 'the Qua- kers; Pcnn's Works; Barclay's Apology for the Quakers; Ncale's Hist, of the Puritans ; Cla- ridge's Life and Posthumous Works; Eeran's Defence of the Doctrines of the Quakers ; Adam's View of Religions ; Tuke's Principles of Reli- gion asprofessed by the Quakers; (Hough's His- tory of Quakers; Clarkson's Portraiture of Qua- kerism. QUAKERS in the United States. — George Fox, the founder of this sect, was brought before two justices in Derbyshire, one of whom reviled him and bade him tremble at the word of the Lord. From this circumstance arose the ap- pellation Quakers, usually given to his followers; they call themselves Friends, from the Scriptural salutation, " Our friends salute thee." In 1656, they came to America, and settled principally in Pennsylvania. They arc opposed to the prac- tice of ".aking oaths, and to war, in all its forms. They r^ree with the. Baptists in denying the validity of infant baptism. They extend the pri- vilege of preaching the gospel to females as well as to males. They have also peculiar notions in regard to dress, plainness and sroplicity in lan- guage, &c. See above. Within a few years past, in this country, there has been a serious schism among the Quakers ; a part professing the doctrines of Unitarianism, and called Hicksites, from their leader, the late Elias Hicks ; the other portion adhering to the orthodox doctrines. It having been made a ques- tion which of them ought to be considered as se- ceding from the doctrines of the original sect, the yearly meeting of the Friends in London, May 20, 1820, sent forth an epistle containing a state- ment of their belief; from which it appears that they fully believe in the inspiration of the Scrip- tures, the supreme divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the atonement bv his sufferings and death. By a table puri..siied m a paper at Wheeling, Virginia, in 1829, it appears that there are in the United States, 150,000 members of this Society; of whom 56,026 are Hicksites; 28,904 are orthodox ; the ethers not known. — B. QUIETJSTS, a sect famous towards the close of the seventeenth century. They were so called from a kind of absolute rest and inaction, which they supposed the soul to be in when arrived at that state of perfection which they called the motive life ; in which state they ima- gined the soul wholly employed in contemplating its God, to whose influence it was entirely sul>- missive, so that he could turn and drive it where and how he would. REASON Molinos. a Spanish priest, is the reputed au- thor of Quietism; though the Illuminati, in Spain, hail certainly taught something like it before. Molinos hail numerous disciple* in Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. One of the principal patrons and propagators of Qui- etism in France was Marie Bouveres de la Motte Guvon, a woman of fashion, and remarkable for her piety. Her religious sentiments made a great noise in the year 1687, and were declared unsound by several learned men, especially Bos- suet, who opposed them in the year 1097. Hence arose a controversy between the prelate last men- tioned and Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray. who seemed disposed to favour the system of Guvon, and who, in 1097, published a book con- taining several of her tenets. Fenelon's book, by means of Bossuet, was condemned in the year 1099, by Innocent XII.; and the sentence of condemnation was read by Fenelon himself at Cambray, who exhorted the people to respect and obey the papal decree. Notwithstanding this seeming acquiescence, the archbishop per- sisted to the end of his days in the senti- ments, which, in obedience to the order of the pope, he retracted and condemned in a public manner. A sect similar to this appeared at Mount Athos, in Thessaly, near the end of the four- teenth century, called Hesychasts, meaning the same with Gluietists. They were a branch of the Mystics, or those more perfect monks, who by long and intense contemplation endeavoured to arrive at a tranquillity of mind free from every degree of tumult and perturbation. Q.UIETNESS, in a moral sense, is opposed to disorderly motion, to turbulency, to contention, to pragmatical curiosity, to all such exorbitant behaviour whereby the right of others is in- fringed, their peace, disturbed, their just interest or welfare any ways prejudiced. It is a calm, steady, regular way of proceeding within the REASON bounds and measures prescribed by reason, jus- tice, and charity, modesty and soLTiety. It is of such importance, that we find it enjomeci in the sacred Scripture ; and we are commanded to study and pursue it with the greatest diligence and care, 1 Thess. iv. 11. The great Dr. Bar- row has two admirable sermons on this subject in the first, volume of his Works. He justly ob- serves,— 1. That quietness is just and equal. — 2. It indicates humility, modesty, and sobriety oi mind. — 3. It is beneficial to the world, preserving the general order of things. — 4. It preserves con- cord and amity. — 5. It begets tranquillity and peace. — 6. It is a decent and lovely thing, indi- cating a good disposition, and producing good effects. — 7. It adorncth any profession, bringing credit and respect thereto. — 8. It. is a safe prac- tice, keeping us from needless encumbrances and hazards; whereas, pragmaticalness, interfering with the business and concern of others, often raises dissensions, involves in guilt, injures others, shows our vanity and pride, and exposes to continual trouble and danger. Q.UINQ.UAGESIMA, a Sunday so called because it is the fiftieth day before Easter, reckon- ed in whole numbers. Shrove Sunday. Q.UINTILIANS, a sect that appeared in Phrygia, about 189 ; thus called from their pro- phetess GLuintilia. In this sect the women were admitted to perform the sacerdotal and episcopal functions. They attributed extraordinary gifts to Eve for having first eaten of the tree of know- ledge ; told great things of Mary, the sister of Moses, as having been a prophetess, &c. They added that Philip the deacon had four daugh- ters, who were all prophetesses, and were of their sect. In these ■assemblies it was usual to see the virgins entering in white robes, personating prophetesses. The errors of the Cluintilians were at first looked upon as folly and madness ; but, as they appeared to gain ground, the council of Laodicea, in 320, condemned it. R. RANTERS, a denomination which arose in the year 1615. They set up the light of nature under the name of Christ in men. With regard to the church, Scripture ministry, &c, their sentiments were the same as the seekers. See Seekers. RASHNESS consists in undertaking an ac- tion, or pronouncing an opinion, without a due examination of the grounds, motives, or argu- ments, that oucht first to be weighed. RASH JUDGING. See Judging, Rash. READING (Public) OF THE SCRIP- TURES. See Scriptures. REALISTS, a term made use of to denote those Trinitarians who are the most orthodox, in opposition to the Socinian and Sabellian schemes. It was also the name of a sect of school philoso- phers, formed in opposition to the Nominalists. The former believed that universals are realities, and have an actual existence out of the mind ; while the latter contended that they exist only in the mind, and are only ideas. REASON, a faculty or power of the mind, whereby it draws just conclusions from true and cltsar principles. Many attempts have been made 383 2 Y to prove reason inimical to revelation ; hut nothing can be more evident than that it is of considerable use in knowing, distinguishing, proving, and de- fending the mysteries of revelation ; although it must not be considered as a perfect standard by which all the mysteries of religion must be mea- sured before they are received by faith. " In things," says Dr. Watts. " which are plainly and expressly asserted in Scripture, and that in a sense which contradicts not other parte of Scrip- ture, or natural light, our reason must submit and believe the thing, though it cannot find the modus or manner of its being : so in the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, which are above the reach of our reason in this present state. But we cannot, nor must we, be led to take the words of Scripture in such a sense as expressly and-evi- dently contradicts all sense and reason, as tran- substantiation ; for the two great lights of God, reason anil revelation, never contradict each other, though one be superior to the other. " Therefore reason has a great deal to do in religion, viz. to find out the rule (of faith,) to com- pare the parts of this rule with one another, W explain the cue by the other, to give the gram- 54 H RECONCILIATION matical and logical sense of the expressions) and to exclude self-contradictory interpretations, as wi II as interpretations contrary to reason. But it is not to set itself up as a judge ofthi se (ruths expressed therein, which are asserted by a supe- rior and infallible dictator, God himself; but reason requires and commands even the subjec- tion of all its own powers to a truth thus divinely attested; fur it is as possible and as proper that God should propose doctrines to our understand- ing which it cannot comprehend, as duties to our practice which we cannot see the reason of; for he is equally superior to our understanding and will, and he puts the obedience of both to a trial." Sec Religion and Revelation, and books there recommended ; also, Portens's Ser- mons, ser. :'), vol. i.; Jcnyrts Internal Evidence, p. 122; Ryland's Contemplations, vol. i. p. 83; Theological Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 533; An Es- say on I'ic Use and Abuse of, Reason in Mat- ters of Religion, by Wilsius, and translated by Carter; Dr. Jl'atts's Strength and Weakness of Human Reason. RECLUSE, among the Papists, a person shut up in a small cell of an hermitage, or monastery, and cut off not only from all conversation with the world, but even with the house. This is a kind of voluntary imprisonment from a motive either of devotion or penance. RECONCILIATION, the restoring to fa- vour or friendship those who were at variance. It is more particularly used in reference to the doctrine of the atonement. Thus God is said to reconcile us to himself by Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. v. 18. Our state by nature is that of enmity, dis- satisfaction, and disobedience. But by the suf- ferings and merit of Christ, we are reconciled and brought near to God. The blessings of recon- ciliation are pardon, peace, friendship, confidence, holiness, and eternal life. The judicious Guyse gives us an admirable note on this doctrine, which I shall here transcribe. " When the Scrip- ture speaks of reconciliation by Christ, or by his cross, blood, or death, it is commonly expressed by God's reconciling us to himself, and not by his being reconciled unto us; the reason of which seems to be, because God is the offended party, and we are the offenders, who, as such, have need to be reconciled to him; and the price of reconciliation, by the blood of Christ, is paid to him, and not to us. Grotius observes, that, in heat lien authors, men's being reconciled to their gods is always understood to signify appeasing the anger of their gods. Condemned rebels may be said to be reconciled to their sovereign, when he, on one consideration or another, pardons them ; though, perhaps, they still remain rebels in their hearts against him. And when our Lord ordered the offending to go and be reconciled to his offended brother, Matt. v. 23, 24, the plain meaning is, that he should go and try to appease his anger, obtain his forgiveness, and regain his favour and friendship, by humbling himself to him, asking his pardon, or satisfying him for any injury that he might have done him. In like manner, God's reconciling us to himself by the cross of Christ does not signify, as the Socinians contend, our being reconciled by conversion to a religious turn in our hearts to God, but is a re- conciliation that results from God's graciously providing and accepting an atonement for us, that Iv. might not inflict the punishment ui>on 3dij REDEMPTION us which we deserved, and the law condemned us to: but might be at peace with us, and re- ceive us into favour on Christ's account. For this reconciliation, by the cross of Christ, is in a way of atonement or satisfaction to divine justice for sin; and with respect hereunto, we are said to lie reconciled to God by the death of his Son while we arc enemies, which is of much the same import with Christ's dying for the ungodly, and while we were yet sinners, Rom. v. (5, 8, 10. And our being reconciled to God, by approving and accepting of his method of reconciliation by Jesus Christ, and, on that encouragement, turning to him, is distinguished from his reconciling us to himself and not imputing our trespasses to i's, on account of Christ's having been made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v. IS, 21. This is called Christ's making reconciliation for iniquity, and making reconciliation for the sins of the people, Dan. ix. 24; Heb. ii. 17, and answers to the ceremonial and typical reconciliation which was made by the blood of the sacrifices under the law, to make atonement and reconciliation for Israel, 2 Chron. xxix. 21 ; Ezek. xlv. 15, 17, and which was frequently styled making atonement for sin. and an atonement for their souls. Now,' as all the legal sacrifices of atonement, and the truly expiatory sacrifice oi" Christ, were offered not tc the offenders, but to God, to reconcile him tc them, what can reconciliation by the death, blood, or cross of Christ mean, but that the law and justice of God were thereby satisfied, and all ob- structions, on his part, to peace and friendship toward sinners are removed, that he might not pursue his righteous demands upon them, ac- cording to the holy resentments of his nature and will, and the threatenings of his law for their sins ; but might mercifully forgive them, and take them into a state of favour with himself, upon their receiving the atonement, or (xarxxxayvv) reconciliation, (Rom. v. 11.) by faith, after the offence that sin had given him, and the breach it had made upon theoriginal friendship between him and them?' See articles Atonement, Media- tor, and Propitiation; Grot, de Saluff. cap. 7; Dr. Owen's Ansxccr to Biddle's Catechism; Guyse' s Note on Coloss.i.~'2Q; Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 241 ; John Reynolds on Reconciliation. RECTITUDE, or Uprightness, is the choos- ing and pursuing those things which the mind, upon due inquiry and attention, clearly perceives to he good, and avoiding those that are evil. RECTOR, a term applied to several persons whose offices are very different, as, 1. The rec- tor of a parish is a clergyman that has the charge and care of a parish, and possesses all the tithes, &C. — 2. The same name is also given to the chief elective officer in several foreign universi- ties, and also to the head master of large schools. 3. Rector is also used in several convents for the superior officer who governs the house. The Jesuits gave this name to the superiors of such of their houses as were cither seminaries or col- leges. RECUSANTS, such persons as acknow- ledge the pope to be the supreme head of the church, and refuse to acknowledge the king's su- premacy; who are hence called popish recusants. REDEMPTION, in theology, denotes our recovery from sin and death by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ, who, on this account is called REFORMATION The Redeemer, Ts. lix. 20; Job xix. 25. Our English word redemption, says Dr. Gill, is from the Latin tongue, and signifies buying again; and several words, in the Greek language of the New Testament, are used in the affair of our re- demption, which signify the obtaining of some- thing hy paying a proper price for it : sometimes the simple verb *yipx'Cu>, to buy, is used : so the redeemed are said to be bought unto God by the blood of Christ, and to be bought from the earth, and to be bought from among men, and to be bought with a price; that is, with the price of Christ's blood, 1 Cor. vi. 20. Hence the church of God is said to be purchased with it, Acts xx. 28. Sometimes the compound word £:*> -op*?* is used; which signifies to buy again, or out of the hands 9f another, as the redeemed are bought out of the hands of justice, as in Gal. iii. 13; and iv. 5. In other places, /.ut^* is used, or others derived from it, which signifies the deliverance of a slave or captive from thraldom, by paying a ransom price for him : so the saints are said to be redeemed, not with silver or gold, the usual price paid for a ransom, but with a far greater one, the blood and life of Christ, which he came into this world to give as a ransom price for many, and even him- self, which is avnKuTfov, an answerable, ade- quate, and full price for them, 1 Pet. i. 18. The ei-ils from which we are redeemed or delivered are the curse of the law, sin, Satan, the world, death, and hell. The moving cause of redemp- tion is the love of God, John iii. 16. The pro- curing cause, Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. i. 18, If). The ends of redemption are, that the justice of God might be satisfied; his people reconciled, adopted, sanctified, and brought to glory. The properties of it are these : 1. It is agreeable to all the perfections of God.— '2. What a creature never could obtain, and therefore entirely of free grace. — 3. It is special and particular.— 4. Full and complete. — And, 5. lastly, It is eternal as to its blessings. See articles Atonement, Propi- tiation", Reconciliation, Satisfaction; and Edwards's History of Redemption ; Cole on the Sovereignty of God; Lime Street Led. lect. 5; Waits' s Ruin and Recovery; Dr. Owen on the Death and Satisfaction of Christ; Gill's Body of Divinity. REFORMATION, in general, an act of re- forming or correcting an error or abuse in reli- gion, discipline, or the like. By way of eminence, the word is used for that great alteration and re- formation in the corrupted system of Christianity, begun by Luther in the year 1517. Before the period of the Reformation, the pope had in the most audacious manner declared him- self the sovereign of the whole world. All the parts of it which were inhabited by those who were not Christians, he accounted to be inhabited by nobody; and if Christians took it into their heads to possess any of those countries, he gave ! i 'i.i full liberty to make; war upon the inhabit- ants without any provocation, and to treat them with no mere humanity than they would have treated wild beasts. The countries, if conquered, were to be parcelled out according to the pope's pleasure; and dreadful was the situation of that prince who refused to obey the will of the holy pontiff. In consequence of this extraordinary authority which the pope had assumed, he at lust granted to the king of Portugal, all the countries to the eastward if Cape Noa in Africa, and to '361 REFORMATION the king of Spain all the countries to the west ward of it. In this was completed in his person the character of Antichrist sitting in the temple of God, and skovnng himself as God. He had long before assumed the supremacy belonging to the Deity himself in spiritual matters ; and now he assumed the same supremacy in worldly mat- ters also, giving the extreme regions of the earth to whom he pleased. Every thing was quiet, every heretic extermi- nated, and the whole Christian world supinely acquiesced in the enormous absurdities which were inculcated upon them ; when, in 1517, the empire of superstition began to decline, and has continued to do so ever since. The person who made the first attack on the extravagant super- stitions then prevailing was Martin Luther, the occasion of which is fully related under the arti- cle Lutherans. The Reformation began in the city of Wittem- berg, in Saxony, but was not long confined either to that city or province. In 1520, the Franciscan friars, who had the care of promulgating indul- gences in Switzerland, were opposed by Zuing- lius, a man not inferior in understanding and knowledge to Luther himself. He proceeded with the greatest vigour, even at the very begin- ning, to overturn the whole fabric of popery; but his opinions were declared erroneous by the universities of Cologne and Louvain. Notwith- standing this, the magistrates of Zurich approved of his proceedings; and that whole canton, to- gether with those of Bern, Basil and Chaffau- sen, embraced his opinions. In Germany, Luther continued to make great advances, without being in the least intimidated by the ecclesiastical censures which were thun- dered against him from all quarters, he being continually protected by the German princes, either from religious or political motives, so that his adversaries could not accomplish his destruc- tion, as they had done that of others. Mclanc- thon, Carlostadius, and other men of eminence, also greatly forwarded the work of Luther; and in all probability the popish hierarchy would have soon come to an end, in the northern parts of Europe at least, had not the emperor Charles V. given a severe check to the progress of reforma- tion in Germany. During the confinement of Luther in a castle near Warburg, the Reformation advanced rapid- ly ; almost every city in Saxony embracing the Lutheran opinions. At this time an alteration in the established forms of worship was first ven- tured upon at Wittemberg, by abolishing the celebration of private masses, and by giving the cup, as well as the bread, to the laity in the Lord's Supper. In a short time, however, the new opi- nions were condemned by the university of Paris, and a refutation of them was attempted by Henry VIII. of England. But Luther was not to be thus intimidated. He published his animad- versions on both with as much acrimony as if he had been refuting the meanest adversary; and a controversy managed by such illustrious antago- nists drew a general attention, and the reformers daily gained new converts both in France and England. 1 'ut while the efforts of Luther were thus every where crowned with success, the divisions began to prevail which have since so inneh agitated the- reformed churches. The liwt dispute was \ny REFORMATION tween Luther and Zuioglhis concerning the man- ner in winch the bodv and blood of I Jurist wore present in the euchanst. Both parties maintain- ed their tenets with the utmost obstinacy; and, by their divisions, first gave their adversaries an argument against them, which to this day the Catholics urge with great force; namely, that the Protestants arc so divided, that it is impossible to know who arc ri_rht or wrong ; and that there can- not be a stronger proof than these divisions that the whole doctrine is false. To these intestine divisions were added the horrors of a civil war, occasioned by oppression on the one hand, and enthusiasm on the other. See Anabaptists. These proceedings) however, were checked. — Luther and Melancthon were ordered by the elec- tor of Saxony to draw up a body of laws relating to the form of ecclesiastical government, the me- thod of public worship, &c. which was to be pro- claimed by heralds throughout his dominions. — He, with Melancthon, had translated part of the New Testament in 1532 ; on the reading of which the people were astonished to find how different the laws of Christ were to those which had been imposed by the pope, and to which they had been subject. The princes arid the people saw that Luther's opinions were founded on truth. They openly renounced the papal supremacy, and the happy morn of the Reformation was welcomed by those who had long sat in superstitious dark- ness. This open resolution so exasperated the patrons of popery, that they intended to make war on the Lutherans, who prepared for defence. In 1536, a diet was assembled at Spire, when the empe- ror's ambassadors were desired to use their utmost endeavours to suppress all disputes about religion, and to insist upon the rigorous execution of the sentence which had been pronounced against Luther at Worms. Rut this opinion was oppos- ed, and the diet proved favourable to the Reforma- tion. But this tranquillity, which they in conse- quence enjoyed, did not last long. In 1529, a new diet was formed, and the power which had been granted to princes of managing ecclesiastical af- fairs till the meeting of a general council, was now revoked, and every change declared unlawful that should bo introduced into the doctrine, discipline, or worship of the established religion, before the determination of the approaching council was known. This decree was considered as iniqui- tous and intolerable by several members of the diet; and when they found that all their argu- ments and remonstrances were in vain, they en- tered a solemn protest against the decree on the lftth of April, and appealed to the emperor and a future council. Hence arose the denomination of Protestant.*, which from that time has been given to those who separate from the church of Rome. Charles V. was in Italy, to whom the dissent- ing princes sent ambassadors to lay their griev- ances before him; but they met. with no encou- raging reception from him. The pope and the emperor were in close union at this time, and they had interviews upon the business. The pope thought the emperor to be Uh> element, and al- leged that it was his duty to execute vengeance upon the heretical faction. To this, however, the emperor paid no regard, looking upon it as unjust to condemn, unheard, a set of men who had always approved themselves good citizens. 388 REFORMATION The emperor, therefore, set out for Germany having already appointed a diet of the empire to be held at Augsburg, where he arrived and fount! there a full assembly of the members of the diet. Flere the gentle and pacific Melancthon had been ordered to draw up a confession of their faith, which he did, and expressed his sentiments and doctrine with the greatest elegance and perspi- cuity ; and thus came forth to view the famous Confession of Augsburg. This was attempted to be refuted by the divines of the church of Rome, and a controversy took place, which the emperor endeavoured to recon- cile, but without success: all hopes of bringing about a coalition seemed utterly desperate. The votaries of the church of Rome, therefore, had recourse to the powerful arguments of imperial edicts and the force of the secular arm ; and, on the l'Jth of November, a decree was issued by the emperor's orders every way injurious to the re- formers. Upon which they assembled at Smal- cald, where they concluded a league of mutual defence against all aggressors, by which they formed the Protestant states into one body, and resolved to apply to the kings of France and Eng- land, to implore them to patronize their new con- federacy. The king of France, being the avowed rival of the emperor, determined secretly to cherish those sparks of political discord; and the king of England, highly incensed against Charles, in com plaisance to whom the pope had long retarded, and now openly opposed, his lon^-solicited di- vorce, was equally disposed to strengthen a league which might be rendered formidable to the empe- ror. Being, however, so taken up with the scheme of divorce, and of abolishing the papal jurisdic- tion in England, he had but little leisure to attend to them. Meanwhile Charles was convinced that it was not a time to extirpate heresy by vio- lence ; and at last terms of pacification were agreed upon at Nuremberg, and ratified solemnly in the diet at Ratisbon ; and affairs so ordered by Divine Providence, that the Protestants obtained terms which amounted almost to a toleration of their religion. Soon after the conclusion of the peace at Nu- remberg, died John, elector of Saxony, who was succeeded by his son John Frederic, a prince of invincible fortitude and magnanimity, but whoso reign was little better than one continued train of disappointment!; and calamities. The religious truce, however, gave new vigour to 'he Reforms tion. Those who had hitherto been only secret enemies to the Roman pontiff now publicly threw off his yoke ; and various cities and provinces of Germany enlisted themselves under the religious standards of Luther. On the other hand, as the emperor had now no other hope of terminating the religions disputes but by the meeting of a ge- neral council, he repeated his requests to the pope for that purpose. The pontiff (Clement Vll.), whom the history of past councils filled with the greatest uneasiness, endeavoured to retard what lie could not with decency refuse. At last, i:i 1533, he made a proposal, by his legate, toasscm hie a council at Mantua, Placentia, or Bologna; but the Protestants refused their consent to the nomination of an Italian council, and insisted tha" a controversy which bad its rise in the heart of Germany should be determined within the limits of the empire. The pope, by his usual artifices, eluded the performance of his own promise ; and, REFORMATION, in 1534, was cut off by death, in the midst of his stratagem. His successor Paul III. seemed to show less reluctance to the assembling a general council, and, in the year 1535, expressed his in- clination to convoke one at Mantua; and, in the 3rear following, actually sent circular letters for that purpose through all the states and kingdoms under his jurisdiction. This council was sum- moned by a bull issued out on the second of June, 1536, to meet at Mantua the following year ; but several obstacles prevented its meeting; one of the most material of which was, that Frederick, duke of Mantua, had no inclination to receive at once so many guests, some of them very turbu- lent, into the place of his residence. On the other hand, theProteslants were firmly persuaded, that, as the council was assembled in Italy, and by the authority of the pope alone, the latter must have had an undue influence in that assembly ; of con- sequence, that all things must have been carried by the votaries of Rome. For this reason they assembled at Smalcald in the year 1537, where they solemnly protested against this partial and corrupt council ; and, at the same time, had a new summary of their doctrine drawn up by Luther, in order to present it to the assembled bishops, if it should be required of them. This summary, Which had the title of The Articles of Smalcald ', is commonly joined with the creeds and confes- sions of the Lutheran church. After the meeting of the general council in Mantua was thus prevented, many schemes of accommodation were proposed both by the em- peror and the Protestants ; but, by the artifices of the church of Rome, all of them came to nothing. In 1541, the emperor appointed a meet- ing at Worms on the subject of religion, between persons of piety and learning, chosen from the contending parties. This conference, however, was, for certain reasons, removed to the diet that was to be held at Ratisl.on the same year, and in which the principal subject of deliberation was a memorial presented by a person unknown, con- taining a project of peace. But the conference produced no other effect than a mutual agree- ment of the contending parties to refer their mat- ters to a general council, or, if the meeting of such a council should be prevented, to the next German diet. The resolution was rendered ineffectual by a variety of incidents, which widened the breach, and put off to a farther day the deliberations which were designed to heal it. The pope order- ed his legate te declare to the diet of Spire, as- sembled in 1543, that he would, according to the promise he had already made, assemble a general council, and that Trent should be the place of its meeting, if the diet had no objection to that city. Ferdinand, and the princes who adhered to the cause of the pope, gave their consent to this proposal; but it was vehemently objected to by the Protestants, both because the council was summoned by the authority of the pope only, and also because the place was within the jurisdiction of the pope; whereas they desired a free coun- cil, which should not be biassed by the dictates nor awed by the proximity of the pontiff. Bui this protestation produced no effect. Paul 111. persisted in his purpose, and issued out his circu- lar letters for the convocation of the council, with the approbation of the emperor. In justice to this pontiff, however, it must be observed, that 2&J REFORMATION. he showed himself not to be averse to every re- formation. He appointed four cardinals," and three other persons eminent lor their learning, to draw up a plan for the reformation of the church in general, and of the church of Rome in par- ticular. The reformation proposed in this plan was, indeed, extremely superficial and partial ; yet it contained some particulars which could scarcely have been expected from those who composed it. All this time the emperor had been labouring to persuade the Protestants to consent to the meeting of the council at Trent ; but, when he found them fixed in their opposition to this measure, he began to listen to the sanguinary measures of the pope, and resolyed to terminate the dispute by force of arms. The elector of Saxony, and landgrave of Hesse, who were the chief supporters of the Protestant cause, upon this took proper measures to prevent their being surprised and overwhelmed by a superior force ; but, before the horrors of war commenced, the great reformer Luther died in peace at Ayselben, the place, of his nativity, in 1546. The emperor and the pope had mutually re- solved en the destruction of all who should dare to oppose the council of Trent. The meeting of it was to serve as a signal for taking up arms ; and accordingly its deliberations were scarcely begun, in 1546, when the Protestants perceived undoubted signs of the approaching storm, and a formidable union betwixt the emperor and pope, which threatened to crush and overwhelm them at once. This year, indeed, there had been a new conference at Ratisbon upon the old subject of accommodating differences in religion ; but, from the manner in which the debates were carried on, it plainly appeared that these differences could only be decided in the field of battle. The council of Trent, in the mean time, promulgated their decrees; while the reformed princes, in tho diet of Ratisbon, protested against their autho- rity, and were on that account proscribed by the emperor, who raised an army to reduce them to obedience. The elector of Saxony, and the landgrave of Hesse led their forces into Bavaria against the emperor, and cannonaded his camp at. Ingold- stadt. It was supposed that this would bring on an engagement, which would probably have been advantageous to the cause of the reformed; but this was prevented chiefly by (he perfidy of Mau- rice, duke of Saxony, who invaded the domi- nions of his uncle. Divisions were also fomented among the confederate princes by the dissimula- tion of the emperor ; and France failed in lay- ing the subsidy which had been promised by its monarch : all which so discouraged the heads of the Protestant party, that their army soon dis- persed, and the elector of Saxony was obliged to direct his march homewards. But he was pursued by the emperor, who made several forced marches with a view to destroy his enemy before hi; should have time to recover his vigour. The two armies nut near Muhlberg, on the Elbe, on the 24th of April, 1517; and after a bloody ac- tion, the elector was entirely defeated, and him- self taken prisoner. Maurice, who had so basely betrayed him, was now declared elector of Saxo- ny ; and, by his entreaties, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, the other chief of the Protestants, was persuaded to throw himself on the mercy of tlie 2 n 2 REFORMATION emperor, and to implore his pardon. To this he consented, relying on the promise of Charles for obtaining forgiveness, and being restored to liberty; but, notwithstanding these expectations, he was unjustly detained prisoner, by a scandal- ous violation of the. most solemn convention. The affairs of the Protestants now seemed to be desperate. In the diet of Augsburg, which was soon after called, the emperor required the Protestants to leave the decision of these religious disputes to the wisdom of the council which was to meet at Trent. The greatest part of the mem- bers consented to this proposal, being convinced by the powerful argument of an imperial army, which was at hand to dispel the darkness from the eyes of such at might otherwise have been blind to the force of Charles's reasoning. How- ever, this general submission did not produce the effect which was expected from it. A plague which broke out, or was said to do so, in the city, caused the greatest part of the bishops to retire to Bologna, by which means the council was in effect dissolved ; nor could all the entreaties and remonstrances of the emperor prevail upon the pope to re-assemble It without delay. During this interval, therefore, the emperor judged it necessary to fall upon some method of accommo- dating the religious differences, and maintaining peace until the council so long expected should he finally obtained." With this view he ordered Julius Pelugius, bishop of Naumberg, Michael Sidonius, a creature of the pope, and John Agri- cola, a native of Ayselben, to draw up a formu- lary which might serve as a rule of faith and worship till the council should be assembled ; but as this was only a temporary expedient, and had not the force of a permanent or perpetual in- stitution, it thence obtained the name of the Interim. This project of Charles was formed partly with a design to vent his resentment against the pope, and [tartly to answer other political purposes. It contained all the essential doctrines of the church of Rome, though considerably softened by the artful terms which were employed, and which were quite different from those employed before and after this period by the council of Trent. There was even an affected ambiguity in many of the expressions, which made them susceptible of different senses, and applicable to the senti- ments of both communions. The consequence ot all this was, that the imperial creed was repro- bated by both parties. [See Interim.] In the year 1542, the pope (Paul III.) died; and was ded by Julius III., who, at the repeated soli- citations of the emperor, consented to the re-as- sembiing of a council of Trent. A diet was B Id .it Augsburg, under the cannon of an J army, and Charles laud the matter before the princes of the empire. Most of those present gave their consent to it, and, amongst the rest, Maurice, elector of Saxony; who consented on tlie following conditions: 1. That the points of doctrine which had already been decided there should be re-ex, i mined.— 2". That this examina- tion should be made in the presence of the Pro- testant divines.— ::. That the Saxon Protestants should have a liberty of voting as well as of deli- berating in the council. — 1. That the pope should not pretend to preside in the assembly, either in KTs.ei or by his legates. This declaration of _ laurice was read in the diet, and his deputies 3!)0 REFORMATION insisted upon its being entered into iBe registers, which the archbishop of Mentz obstinately re- fused. The diet was concluded in 1551 : and, at its breaking up, the emperor desired the assem- bled princes and states to prepare all things for the approaching council, and promised to use his utmost endeavours to procure moderation and har- mony, impartiality and charity, in the transac- tions of that assembly. On the breaking up of the diet, the Protestants took such steps as they thought most proper for their own safety. The Saxons employee! Me- lancthon, and the Wirtembergers, Brengius, to draw up confessions of faith to be laid before the new council. The Saxon divines, however, pro- ceeded no fartherthan Nuremberg, having received secret orders from Maurice to stop there; for the elector perceiving that Charles had formed designs against the liberties of the German princes, resolv- ed t^> take the most effectual measures for crushing his ambition at once. Hethercforeentered w7ith the utmost secrecy and expedition into an alliance with the king of France and several of the Ger- man princes, for the security of the rights and liberties of the empire ; after which, assembling a powerful army in 155*2, he marched against the emperor, who lay with a handful of troops at Inspruek, and expected no such thing. By this sudden and unforeseen accident, Charles was so much dispirited, that he was willing to make peace almost on any terms. The consequence of this was, that he concluded a treaty at Passau, which by the Protestants is considered as the basis of their religious liberty. By the first three articles of this treaty it was agreed that Maurice and the confederates should lay down their arms, and lend their troops to Ferdinand to assist him against the Turks; and that the landgrave of Hesse should be set at liberty. By the fourth it was agreed that the rule of faith called the Inte- rim should be considered as null and void ; that the contending parties should eryoy the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion until a diet should be assembled to determine arnica lily the present, disputes (which diet was to meet in the space of six months;) and that this religious liberty should continue always, in case it should be found impossible to come to an uniformity in doctrine and worship. It was also determined, that all those who had suffered banishment or any oiher calamity, on account of their having been concerned in the league or war of Smalcald, should be reinstated in their privileges, posses- sions, and employments; that the imperial cham- ber at Spire should be open to the Protestants as well as to the Catholics; anil that there should always be a certain number of Lutherans in that high court. To this peac*>, Albert, marquis of Brandenburgh, refused to subscribe; and con- tinued the war against the Roman Catholics, committing such ravages in the empire, that, a confederacy was at last formed against him. At the head of this confederacy was .Maurice, elector of Saxony, who died of a wound he received in a battle fought on the occasion in 1553. The assembly of the. diet promised by Charles was prevented by various accidents ; however, it met at Augsburg, in 1555, where it was opened by Ferdinand in the name of the emperor, an. I terminated those deplorable calamities which had so long desolated the empire. After varii | bates, the following acts were passed, on the .. li REFORMATION of September : — That the Protestants who fol- lowed the confession of Augsburg should be for the future considered as entirely free from the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, and from the authority and superintendence of the bishops; that they were left at perfect liberty to enact laws for themselves relating to their religious senti- ments, discipline, and worship ; that all the in- habitants of the German empire should be allowed to judge for themselves in religious matters, and to join themselves to that church whose doctrine and worship they thought the most pure and con- sonant to the spirit of true Christianity ; and that all those who should injure or prosecute any person under religious pretences, and on account of their opinions, should be declared and pro- ceeded against as public enemies of the empire, invaders of its liberty, and disturbers of its peace. Thus was the Reformation established in many parts of the German empire, where it continues to this day : nor have the efforts of the popish powrers at any time been able to suppress it, or even to prevent its gaining ground. It was not, however, in Germany alone that a reformation of religion took place. Almost all the kingdoms of Europe began to open their eyes to the truth about the same time. The reformed religion was propagated in Swedet., soon after Luther's rup- *,ure with the church of Rome, by one of his dis- ciples, named Olaus Patri. The zealous efforts of this missionary were seconded by Gustavus Vasa, whom the Swedes had raised to the throne in the place of Christiern, king of Denmark, whose horrid barbarity lost him the crown. This prince, howeVer, was as prudent as he was zeal- ous; and, as the minds of the Swedes were in a fluctuating state, he wisely avoided all kind of vehemence and precipitation in spreading the new doctrine. Accordingly the first object of his at- tention was the instruction of his people in the sacred doctrines of the holy Scriptures ; for which purpose he invited into his dominions several learned Germans, and spread abroad through the kingdom the Swedish translation of the Bible that had been made by Olaus Patri. Some time after this, in 152G, he appointed a conference at Upsal, between the reformer and Peter Gallius, a zealous defender of the ancient superstition, in which each of the champions was to bring forth his arguments, that it might be seen on which side the truth lay. In this dispute Olaus obtained a signal victory, which contributed much to con- firm Gustavus in his persuasion of the truth of Luther's doctrine, and to promote its progress in Sweden. The following year another event gave the finishing stroke to its propagation and suc- cess. This was the assembly of the states at Westeraas, where Gustavus recommended the doctrine of the reformers with such zeal, that, after warm debates, fomented by the clergy in general, it was unanimously resolved that the reformation introduced by Luther should have place in Sweden. This resolution was princi- pally owing to the firmness and magnanimity of Gustavus, who declared publicly, that he would lay down the sceptre, and retire from the king- dom, rather than rule a people enslaved by the orders and authority of the pop0) an<' more con- trolled by the tyranny of their bishop than by the laws of their monarch. From this time the papal empire in Sweden was entirely overthrown, and Gustavus declared head of the church. 3J1 REFORMATION In Denmark, the reformation was introduced as early as the year 15*21, in consequence of the ardent desire discovered by Christiern II. of hav- ing his subjects instructed in the doctrines of Lu- ther. This monarch, notwithstanding his cruelty, for which his name has been rendered odious, was nevertheless desirous of delivering his dominions from the tyranny of the church of Rome. For this purpose, in the year 1520, he sent for Martin Reinard, one of the disciples of Carlostadt, out of Saxony, and appointed him professor of divi- nity at Hasnia; and after his death, which hap- pened in 1521, he invited Carlostadt himself to fill that important place. Carlostadt accepted of this office, indeed, but in a short time returned to Germany; upon which Christiern used his ut- most endeavours to engage Luther to visit his do- minions, but in vain. However, the progress of Christiern in reforming the religion of his sub- jects, or rather of advancing his own power above that of the church, was checked, in the year 1523, by a conspiracy, by which he was deposed and banished ; his uncle Frederick, duke of Holstein and Sleswic, being appointed his successor. Frederic conducted the reformation with much greater prudence than his predecessor. He per- mitted the Protestant doctors to preach publicly the sentiments of Luther, but did not venture to change the established government and discipline of the church. However, he contributed greatly to the progress of the reformation by his success- ful attempts in favour of religious liberty in an assembly of the states held at Odensee in 1527. Here he procured the publication of a famous edict, by which every subject of Denmark was declared free either to adhere to the tenets of the church of Rome, or to the doctrine of Luther. The papal tyranny was totally destroyed by his successor Christiern III. He began by suppress- ing the despotic authority of the bishops, and re- storing to their lawful owners a great part of the wealth and possessions which the church, had ac- quired by various stratagems. This was followed by a plan of religious doctrine, worship, and dis- cipline, laid down by Bugenhagius, whom the king had" sent for from Wittemburg for that pur- pose; and in 1539 an assembly of the states at Odensf e gave a solemn sanction to all these trans- actions. In France, also, the reformation began to make some progress very early. Margaret, queen of Navarre, sister to Francis I., the perpetual rival of Charles V., was a great friend to the new doc- trine ; and it appears that, as early as the year 1523, there were in several of the provinces of France great numbers of people who had con- ceived the greatest aversion both to the doctrine and tyranny of the church of Rome ; among whom were many of the first rank and dignity, and even some of the episcopal order. But as their number increased daily, and troubles and commotions were excited in several places on ac- count of the religious differences, the authority of the king intervened, and many persons eminent for their virtue and piety were put to death in the most barbarous manner. Indeed, Francis, who had either no religion at all, or, at best, no fixed and consistent system of religious principles, con- t» ducted himself towards the Protestants in such a manner as best answered his private views. — Sometimes he resolved to invite Melancthon into France, probably with a view to please his sister, REFORMATION the queen of Navarre, whom he loved tenderly, and who had strongly imbibed the Protestant principles. At other times lie exercised the most infernal cruelty towards the reformed ; and once made the following mad declaration : That, if he thought the blood of his arm was tainted by the Lutheran heresy, he would have it cut off; and that he would not even spare his own children, if they entertained sentiments contrary to those of the Catholic church. About this time the famous Calvin began to draw the attention of the public, but more espe- cially of the queen of Navarre. His zeal exposed him oj danger ; and the friends of the reforma- tion, whom Francis was daily committing to the flames, placed him more than once in the most perilous situation, from which he was delivered by the interposition of the queen of Navarre. — He therefore retired out of France to Basil in Switzerland, where he published his Christian Institutions, and became afterwards so famous. Those among the French who first renounced the jurisdiction of the Homish church are com- monly called Lutherans by the writers of those early times ; hence it has been supposed that they had all imbibed the peculiar sentiments of Luther. But this appears by no means to have been the case; for the vicinity of the cities of Geneva, Lausanne, &c, which had adopted the doctrines of Calvin, produced a remarkable effect upon the French Protestant churches; insomuch that, about the middle of this century, they all entered into communion with the church of Geneva. — The French Protestants were called Huguenots [see Huguknots] by their adversaries, by way of contempt. Their fate was very severe, being per- secuted with unparalleled fury ; and though many princes of the blood, and of the first nobility, had embraced their sentiments, vet in no part of the world did the reformers suffer so much. At last, all commotions were quelled by the fortitude and magnanimity of Henry IV., who, in the year 1598, granted all his subjects full liberty of con- science by the famous edict of Nantes, and seem- ed to have thoroughly established the reformation throughout his dominions. During the minority of Louis XIV., however, this edict was revoked by cardinal Mazarine, since which time the Pro- testants have often been cruelly persecuted ; nor was the profession of the reformed religion in France at any time so safe as in most other coun- tries of Europe. In the other parts of Europe the opposition to the church of Rome was but faint and ambi- guous before the diet of Augsburg. Before that period, however, it appears, from undoubted testimony, that the doctrine of Luther had made a considerable, though probably secret, progress through Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, Britain, Po- land, and the Netherlands; and had in all these countries many friends, of whom several repaired to Wittemburg, in order to enlarge their know- ledge by means of Luther's conversation. Some of these countries threw off the Romish Yoke entirely, and in others a prodigious number of fimilies embraced the principles of the reformed religion. It is certain, indeed, and the Roman Catholics themselves acknowledge it without hesitation, that the papal doctrines and authority would have fallen into ruin in all parts of the world at once, had not the force of the secular arm been employed to support the tottering edi- REFORMATION ficc. In the Netherlands, particularly, the most grievous persecutions took place, so "that by the emperor Charles V. upwards of 100,000 were destroyed, while still greater cruelties verc ex- ercised upon the people by his son Philip II. — The revolt of the United Provinces, however, and motives of real policy, at last put a stop to these furious proceedings; and though, in many provinces of the Netherlands, the establishment of the Popish religion was still continued, the Protestants have been long free from the danger of persecution on account of their principles. The reformation made a considerable progress in Spain and Italy soon after the rupture between Luther and the Roman pontiff. In all the pro- vinces of Italy, but more especially in the territo- ries of Venice, Tuscany, and Naples, the super- stition of Rome lost ground, and great numbers of people of all ranks expressed an aversion to the papal yoke. This occasioned violent and dangerous commotions in the kingdom of Naples in the year 151G ; which, however,- were at last quelled by the united efforts of Charles V. and his viceroy Don Pedro di Toledo. In several places the pope put a stop to the progress of the reformation by letting loose the inquisitors, who spread dreadful marks of their barbarity through the greatest part of Italy. These formidable ministers of superstition put so many to death, and perpetrated such horrid acts of cruelty and oppression, that most of the reformed consulted their safety by a voluntary exile, while others returned to the religion of Rome, at least in ex- ternal appearance. But the inquisition, which frightened into the profession of popery several Protestants in other parts of Italy, could never make its way into the kingdom of Naples ; nor could either the authority or entreaties of the pope engage the Neapolitans to admit even visit- ing inquisitors. In Spain, several people embraced the Protes- tant religion, not only from the controversies of Luther, but even from those divines whom Charles V. had brought with him into Germany in order to refute the doctrines of Luther ; for these doctors imbibed the pretended heresy, in- stead of refuting it, and propagated it more or less on their return home. But the inquisition, which could obtain no footing in Naples, reigned triumphant in Spain; and by the most dreadful methods frightened the people back into popery, and suppressed the desire of exchanging their superstition for a more national plan of religion. It was, indeed, presumed, that Charles himself died a Protestant; and it seems to be certain that, when the approach of death had dissi- pated those schemes of ambition and grandeur which had so long blinded him, his sentiments became much more rational and agreeable to Christianity than they had ever been. All the ecclesiastics who had attended him, as scon as he expired, were sent to the inquisition, and committed to the (lames, or put to death by some other method equally terrible. Such was the fate of Augustine Casal, the emperor's preacher; of Constantine Pontius, his confessor; of Fgidius, who mhe had named to the bishopric of Tortosaj oi Bartholomew do Caranza, a Dominican, who had been confessor to king Philip and quetn Mary ; with twenty others of less note. In England, the principles of the reformation began to be adopted as soon as an account of REFORMATION Luther's doctrines could be conveyed thither. In that kingdom there were still great remains of llie sect called Lollards, whose doctrines resem- bled that of Luther ; and among whom, of con- sequence, the sentiments of our reformer gained great credit. Henry VIII., king of England, at that time was a violent partisan of the church of Rome, and had a particular veneration for the writings of Thomas Aquinas. Being informed that Luther spoke of his favourite author with contempt, he conceived a violent prejudice against the reformer, and even wrote against him, as we nave already observed. Luther did not hesitate at writing against his Majesty, overcame him in argument, and treated him with very little cere- mony. The first step towards public reforma- tion, however, was not taken till the year 1529. Great complaints had been made in England, and of a very ancient date, of the usurpations of the clergy; and, by the prevalence of the Luthe- ran opinions, these complaints were now become more general than before. The House of Com- mons, finding the occasion favourable, passed several bills, restraining the impositions of the clergy : but what threatened the ecclesiastical order with the greatest danger, were the severe reproaches thrown out almost without opposition in the House against the dissolute lives, ambition. and avarice of the priests, and their continual en- croachments on the privileges of the laity. The bills for regulating the clergy met with opposi- tion in the House of Lords; and bishop Fisher imputed them to want of faith in the Commons, and to a formed design, proceeding from here- tical and Lutheran principles, of robbing the church of her patrimony, and overturning the national religion. The Commons, however, com- plained to the king by their speaker Sir Thomas Audley, of these reflections thrown out against them ; and the bishop was obliged to. retract his words. Though Henry had not the least idea of re- jecting any, even of the most absurd Romish superstitions, yet, as the oppressions of the clergy suited very ill with the violence of his own temper, he was pleased with every opportunity of lessening their power. In the parliament of 1531 lie showed his design of humbling the clergy in the most effectual manner. An obso- lete statute was revived, from which it was pre- tended that it was criminal to submit to the legatine power which had been exercised by car- dinal Wolsey. By this stroke the whole body of clergy was declared guilty at once. They were too well acquainted with Henry's disposi- tion, however, to reply, that their ruin would have been the certain consequence of their not submitting to Wolsey's commission, which had been given by royal authority. Instead of making any defence of this kind, they chose to throw themselves on the mercy of their sovereign; which, however, it cost them 118,810/. to pro- cure. A confession was likewise extorted from them, that the king was protector and supreme head of the church of England ; though some of them had the dexterity to get a clause inserted which invalidated the whole submission, viz., in no far as permitted by the law of Christ. The king, having thus begun to reduce the power of the clergy, kept no bounds with them afterwards. He did not, indeed, attempt any reformation in religious mutters; nay, he perse- 3D3 1i Z REFORMATION cuted most violently such as did attempt this in the least. Indeed, the most essential article of his creed seems to have been his own supremacy ; for whoever denied this was sure to suffer the most severe penalties, whether Protestant or Papist. He died in 1547, and was succeeded by his only son Edward VI. This amiable prince, whose early youth was crowned with that wisdom, sa- gacity, and virtue that would have done honour to advanced years, gave new spirit and vigour to the Protestant ce.use, and was its brightest orna- ment, as well as its most effectual support. He encouraged learned and pious men of foreign countries to settle in England, and addressed a particular invitation to Martin Bucer, and Paul Fagius, whose moderation added a lustre to their other virtues, that by the ministry and labours of these eminent men in concert with those of the friends of the reformation in England, he might purge his dominions from the sordid fictions of popery, and establish the pure doctrines of Chris- tianity in their place. For this puipose he issued out the wisest orders for the restoration of true religion ; but his reign was too short to accom- plish fully such a glorious purpose. In the year 1553 he was taken from his loving and afflicted subjects, whose sorrow was inexpressible, and suited to their loss. His sister Mary, (the daugh- ter of Catherine of Arragon, from whom Henry had been separated by the famous divorce,) a furious bigot to the church of Rome, and a prin- cess whose natural character, like the spirit, of her religion, was despotic and cruel, succeeded him on the British throne, and imposed anew the arbitrary laws and the tyrannical yoke of Rome upon the people of England. Nor were the me- thods which she employed in the cause of super- stition better than the cause itself, or tempered by any sentiments of equity or compassion. Bar- barous tortures, and death in the most shocking forms, awaited those who opposed her will, or made the least stand against the restoration of popery ; and, among many other victims, the learned and pious Cranmer, archbishop of Can- terbury, who had been one of the most illustrious instruments of the reformation in England, fell a sacrifice to her fury. This odious scene of per- secution was happily concluded in the year 1558, by the death of the queen, who left no issue ; and as soon as her successor the lady Elizabeth as- cended the throne, all things assumed a new and pleasing aspect. This illustrious princess, whose sentiments, counsels, and projects, breathed a spirit superior to the natural softness and deli- cacy of her sex, exerted this vigorous and manly spirit in the defence of oppressed conscience and expiring liberty, broke anew the despotic yoke of papal authority and superstition; and, delivering her people from the bondage of Rome, established that form of religious doctrine and ecclesiastical government which still subsists in England. This religious establishment differs in some re- spects from the plan that had been formed by those whom Edward VI. had employed for pro- moting the cause of the Reformation, and ap- proaches nearer to the rites and discipline of former times; though it is widely different, and in the most important points entirely opposite to the principles of the Roman hierarchy. The cause of the Reformation underwent in Ireland the same vicissitudes and revolutions REFORMATION that had attended it in England. When Henry VIII. after the abolition of the papal authority, was declared supreme head upon earth of the church of England, George Brown, a native of England, and a monk of the Augustine order, whom that monarch had created, in the year 1535, archbishop of Dublin, began to act with the utmost vigour in consequence of this change in the hierarchy. He purged the churches of iiis diocese from superstition in all its various forms, pulled down images, destroyed relics, abolished absurd and idolatrous rites ; and, by the influence as well as authority he had in Ireland, caused the king's supremacy to be acknowledged in that nation. Henry showed, soon after, t'hat this supremacy was not a vain title; for he ban- ished the monks out of that kingdom, confiscated their revenues, and destroyed their convents. In the reign of Edward VI. still further progress was made in the removal of popish superstitions by the zealous labours of bishop Brown, and the auspicious encouragement he granted to all who exerted themselves in the Reformation. But the death of this excellent prince, and the accession of e/uecn Mary, had like to have changed the face of affairs in Ireland as much as in England ; but lier designs were disappointed by a very curious adventure, of which the following account has been copied from the papers of Richard, earl of Cork: — " Q.ueen Mary having dealt severely with the Protestants in England, about the latter end of her reign, signed a commission for to take the same course with them in Ireland; and, to exe- cute the same with greater force, she nominates Dr. Cole one of the commissioners. This doctor coming with the commission to Chester on his ■journey, the mayor of that city hearing that her Majesty was sending a messenger into Ireland, and he being a churchman, waited on the doctor, who in a discourse with the mayor taketh out of a cloke-bag a leather box, saying unto him, Here is a commission that shall lash the heretics of Ireland, calling the Protestants by that title. The good woman of the house being well affected to the Protestant religion, and also having a brother named John Edmonds, of the same, then a citizen in Dublin, was much troubled at the doctor's words; but watching her convenient time while the mayor took his leave, and the doctor compli- mented him down the stairs, she opens the box, takes the commission out, and places in lieu there- of a sheet of paper with a pack of cards wrapt up therein, the knave pf clubs being faced uppermost. The doctor coining up to his chamber, suspected nothing of what had been done, and put up the box as formerly. The next day, going to the water- side, wind and weather serving him, he sails to- wards Ireland, and landed on the 7th of October, 1558, at Dublin. Then coming to the castle, the lord Fiter Walter, being lord-deputy, sent for him to come before him and the privy' council; who coming in, after he had made a speech relating upon what account he came over, he presents the box unto the lord-deputy; who caused it to be opened, that the secretary might read the com- mission,—there was nothing save a pack of cards with (he knave of clubs uppermost: which not only startled the lord-deputy and council, but the doctor, who assured them he had a commission, hut knew not how it was gone. Then the lord- deputy made ans.ver, Let us have another com- mission, and we will shuffle the curds in the mean 394 REFUGEES while. The doctor being troubled in his mind, went away, and returned into England, and coming to the court, obtained another commission ; but, staying for a wind on the water-side, news came to him that the queen was dead ; and thus God preserved the Protestants of Ireland."— Queen Elizabeth was so delighted with this story, which was related to her by lord Fitz-Walter on his return to England, that she sent for Elizabeth Edmonds, whose husband's name was Malter- shad, and gave her a pension of 40/. during her life. In Scotland, the seeds of reformation were very early sown by several noblemen who had resided in Germany during the religious disputes there ; but for many years it was suppressed by the power of the pope, seconded by inhuman laws and barbarous executions. The most eminent opposer of the papal jurisdiction was John Knox, a disciple of Calvin, a man of great zeal and in- vincible fortitude. On all occasions he raised the drooping spirits of the reformers, and encouraged them to go on with their work, notwithstanding the opposition and treachery of the queen-regent; till at last, in 1561, by the assistance of an En- glish army sent by Elizabeth, popery was, in a manner, totally extirpated throughout the king- dom. Erom this period the form of doctrine, worship, and discipline, established by Calvin at Geneva, has had the ascendency in Scotland. On the review of this article, what reason have we to admire Infinite Wisdom, in making human events, apparently fortuitous, subservient to the spread of the Gospel! What reason to adore that Divine Power which was here evidently manifested in opposition to all the powers of the world ! What reason to praise that Goodness, which thus caused light and truth to break forth for the happiness and salvation of millions of the human race ! For further information on this interesting sub- ject, we refer our readers to the works of Burnet and Brandt; to Beausobrc's Histoirc dc la Re- formation dans V Empire, et les Etals de la Confession d'Augsbvrgh depuis 1517-1530, in 4 vols. 8vo. Berlin, 1785; Mosheim's Ecclesias- tical History ; and particularly the Appendix to vol. iv. p. 13G, on the Spirit of the Reformers, by Dr. Maclaine. See also Sleidan De Statu Reli- gionis et Reipublicce Carolo V. ; Father Paul's Hist, of the Council of Trent ; Robertson's Hist, of Charles V. ; Knox's and Dr. Gilbert Stew- ard's Hist, of the Reformation in Scotland Enclijc. Brit. ; Claude's Defence of the Refor- mation ; An Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation by Luther, by B. C. Villiers, which work obtained the prize on this question (proposed by the National Institute of France in the public sitting of the 15th Germinal, in the year 10,) "What has been the Influence of the Reformation by Luther on the political situation of the different states of Europe, and on the pro- gress of knowledge?' H. Move's Hints to a Young Princess, vol. ii. eh. 35. REFORMED CHURCH. See Church Reformed. REFUGEES, a term first applied to the French Protestants, who, by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, were constrained to fly from persecution, and take refuge in foreign countries. Since that time, howcve«, it has been extended to all such as leave their country in times of dis- tress. Sec HoGUEKOTS. RELICS REGIUM DONUM MONEY, money al- lowed by government to the Dissenters. The origin of it was in the year 1723. As the Dis- senters approved themselves strong friends to the house of Brunswick, they enjoyed favour ; and, being excluded all lucrative preferment in the church, the prime minister wished to reward them for their loyalty, and, by a retaining fee, preserve them steadfast. A considerable sum, therefore, was annually lodged with the heads of the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, to be distributed among the necessitous ministers of their "congregations. REGENERATION, a new birth; that work of the Holy Spirit by which we experience a change of heart. It is to be distinguished from baptism, which is an external rite, though some have confounded them together. Nor does it signify a mere reformation of the outward con- duct. Nor is it a conversion from one sect or creed to another; or even from atheism. Nor are new faculties given in this change. Nor does it consist in new revelations, succession of terrors or consolations ; or any whisper as it were from God to the heart, concerning his secret love, choice, or purpose to save us. It is expressed in Scripture by being born again, John iii. 7; born from above, so it may be rendered, John iii. 2, 7, 27 ; being quickened, Ephes. ii. 1 ; Christ formed in the heart, Gal. iv. 12 ; a partaking of the di- vine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. The efficient cause of regeneration is the Divine Spirit. That man is not the author of it is evident, if we consider, 1. The case in which men are before it takes place; a state of ignorance and inability, John iii. 4. — 2. The nature of the work shows plainly that it is not in the power of men to do it : it is called a creation, a production of a new principle which was not before, and which man could not himself produce, Eph. ii. 8, 10. — 3. It is expressly denied to be of men, but declared to be of God, John i. 12, 13; 1 John iii. 9. The instrumental cause, if it may be so called, is the word of God, James i. 18 ; 1 Cor. iv. 15. The evidences of it are, conviction of sin, holy sorrow, deep humility, knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and devotcd- ncss to God's glory. The properties of it are these : 1. It is a passive work, and herein it dif- fers from conversion. In regeneration we are passive, and receive from God ; in conversion we are active, and turn to him. — 2. It is an irre- sistible, or rather an invincible work of God's grace, Eph. iii. 8. — 3. It is an instantaneous act, for there can be no medium between 'life and death ; and here it differs from sanctilication, which is progressive. — 1. It is a complete act, and perfect in its kind ; a change of the whole man, 2 Cor. v. 17. — 5. It is a great and important act, both as to its author and effects, Eph. ii. 4, 5. — 6. It is an internal act, not consisting in bare outward forms, Ezek. xxxvi. 2G, 27. — 7. Visible as to its effects, 1 John iii. 14 — 8. Delightful, 1 Pet. i. 8.— <). Necessary, John iii. 3.— 10. Jt is an act, the blessings of which we can never finally lose, John xiii. I. — See Calling, Conversion ; and Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 1 to 230; Cole and Wright, but especially IVitkerspoon on Re- generation ; Do Idridge's Ten Sen/urns on the Subject; Dr. Gilts Body of Divinity, article Regeneration; Dr. Owen on the Spirit; Lime Street Lectures, ser. 8. RELICS, in the Roman church, the remains 3U5 RELICS of the bodies or clothes of saints or martyrs, and the instruments by which they were put to death, devoutly preserved, in honour of their memory; kissed, revered, and carried in pre- cession. The respect which was justly due to the mar- tyrs and teachers of the Christian faith, in a few ages, increased almost to adoration ; and at length adoration was really paid both to departed saints, and to relics of holy men or holy things. The abuses of the church of Rome with respect to relics, are very flagrant and notorious ; for such was the rage for them at one time, that, as F. Ma- billon, a Benedictine, justly complains, the altars were loaded with suspected relics : numerous spu- rious ones being every where offered to the piety and devotion of the faithful. He adds, too, that bones are often consecrated, which so far from belonging to saints, probably do not belong to Christians. From the catacombs numerous re- lics have been taken, and yet it is not known who were the persons interred therein. In the eleventh century, relics were tried by fire, and those which did not consume were reckoned genuine, and the rest not. Relics were, and still are, preserved on the altars whereon mass is celebrated ; a square hole being made in the middle of the altar big enough to receive the hand ; and herein is the relic deposited, being first wrapped in red silk, and inclosed in a leaden box. The Romanists plead antiquity in behalf of relics : for the Manichees, out of hatred to the flesh, which they considered as an evil principle, refused to honour the relics of saints ; which is reckoned a kind of proof that the Catholics did it in the first age. We know, indeed, that the touching of linen clothes, or relics, from an opinion of some extra- ordinary virtue derived therefrom, was as ancient as the first ages, there being a hole made in the coffins of the forty martyrs at Constantinople expressly for that purpose. The honouring the relics of saints, on which the church of Rome afterwards founded her superstitions and lucra- tive use of them, as objects of devotion, as a kind of charms, or amulets, and as instruments of pretended miracles, appears to have originated in a very ancient custom that prevailed among Christians, of assembling at the cemeteries or burying-pkees of the martyrs, fpr the purpose of commemorating them, and of performing divine worship. When the profession of Christianity obtained the protection of civil government, under Constantine the Great, stately churches were erected over sepulchres, and their names and memories were treated with every possible token of affection and respect. This reverence, how- ever, gradually exceeded all reasonable bounds ; and those prayers and religious services were thought to have a peculiar sanciity and virtue which were performed over their tombs : hence the practice which afterwards obtained of depo- siting relics of saints and martyrs under the altars in all churches. This practice was then thought of such importance, that St. Ambrose would nut consecrate a church because it had no relics; and the council of Constantinople in Trullo ordained, that those altars should be demolished under which there were found no relics. The rage of procuring relics for this and other purposes of a similar nature became so excessive, that iu 330, RELICS Ihe emperor Theodosius the Great was obliged to pass a law, forbidding the people to dig up the bodies of the martyrs, and to tratfie in their relies. Such was the origin of that respect for saered relics, which afterwards was perverted into a formal worship of them, and became the occasion of innumerable processions, pilgrimages, and mi- racles, from which the church of Rome hath derived incredible advantage. In the end of the ninth century it was not sufficient to reverence departed saints, and to confide in their interces- sions and succours; to clothe them with an imaginary power of healing diseases, working miracles, and delivering from all sorts of calami- ties and dangers; their bones, their clothes, the apparel and furniture they had possessed dur- ing their lives, the very ground which they had touched, or in which their putrified carcases were laid, were treated with a stupid veneration, and supposed to retain the marvellous virtue of heal- ing all disorders, both of body and mind, and of defending such as possessed them against all the assaults and devices of the devil. The conse- quence of all this was, that every one was eager to provide himself with these salutary remedies: consequently great numbers undertook fatiguing and perilous voyages, and subjected themselves to all sorts of hardships ; while others made use of this delusion to accumulate their riches, and to impose upon the miserable multitude by the most impious and shocking inventions. As the demand for relies was prodigious and universal, the clergy employed the utmost dexterity to satisfy all demands, and were far from being nice in the methods they used for that end. The bodies of the saints were sought by fasting and prayer, instituted bv the priest, in order to obtain a divine answer, and an infallible direction; and this pretended direction never failed to accom- plish their desires : the holy carcass was always found, and that always in consequence, as they impiously gave out, of the suggestion and inspi- ration of God himself. Each discovery of this kind was attended with excessive demonstrations of joy, and animated the zeal of these devout seek- ers to enrich the church still more and more with this new kind of treasure. Many travelled with this view into the eastern provinces, and frequent- ed the places which Christ and his disciples had honoured with their presence ; that with the bones and other sacred remains of the first heralds of the Gospel, they might comfort dejected minds, calm trembling consciences, save sinking states,; and defend their inhabitants from all sorts of calamities. Nor did these pious travellers return home empty : the craft, dexterity, and knavery of the Greeks, found a rich prey in the stupid credulity of the Latin relic-hunters, and made a Iirofitable commerce of this new devotion. The atter paid considerable sums for legs and arms, skulls, and jaw-bones, (several of which were Pagan, and some not human,) and other things that were supposed to have belonged to the pri- mitive worthies of the Christian church; and thus the Latin churches came to the possession of those celebrated relics of St. Mark, St. James, St. Bartholomew, Cyprian, Pantaleon, ami others, which they show at this day with so much osten- tation. Hut there were many who, unable to procure for themselves these spiritual treasures by voyages and prayers, had recourse to violence 3DG RELIGION and theft ; for all sorts of means, and all sorts cf attempts, in a cause of this nature, were con- sidered, when successful, as pious and acceptable to the Supreme Being. Besides the arguments from antiquity, to which the Papists refer in vin- dication of their worship of relics, of which the reader may form some judgment from this arti- cle, Dellarmine appeals to Scripture in support of it ; and cites the following passages, viz. Exod. xiii. 10 ; Deut. xxxiv. 0 ; 2 ivings xiii. '21 ; xxiii 16, 17. 18; lsa. xi. 10; Matt. xi. 20, 21, 22; Acts v. 12, 15; xix. 11, 12. The Roman Catholics in Great Britain do not acknowledge any worship to lie due to relics, but merely a high veneration and respect, by which means they think they honour God, who, they say, has often wrought very extraordinary mira- cles by them. But, however proper this venera- tion and respect may he, its abuse has been so great and so general, as fully to warrant the re- jection of them altogether. Relics are forbidden to he used or brought into England by several statutes ; and justices of peace are empowered to search houses lor popish books and relics, which when found are to be defaced and burnt, &c 3 Jac I. cap. 2(5. RELIEF, a species of Dissenters in Scotland whose only dilference from the Scotch established church is the choosing their own pastors. They were separated from the church in the year 1752, occasioned by Mr. Thomas Gillespie being de- posed for refusing to assist at the admission of a minister to a parish who were unwilling to re- ceive him. When Mr. Gillespie was deprived of his parish, he removed to Dunfermline, and ] 'reached there to a congregation who were at- tached to him, and vehemently opposed the law of patronage. Being excluded from the commu- nion of the church, he, with two or three other ministers, constituted themselves into a presby- tery, called the Presbytery of Relief; willing to allbrd relief to all " who adhered to the constitu- tion of the church of Scotland, as exhibited in her creeds, canons, confessions, and forms of worship." They are unwilling, it is said, to be reckoned se- ceders. Their licentiates are educated under the established church professors, whose certificates they acknowledge. Many of their people receive the Lord's Supper with equal readiness in the established church as in their own. The relief synod consists of about sixty congregations, and about 36,000 persons. RELIGION is a Latin word, derived, accord- ing to Cicero, from relcgcrc, "to re-consider;" but aceoiding Co Servius and most modern gram- marians, from religaie, "to hind fast." If the ( ii « Ionian etymology be the true one, the word religion will denote the diligent study of whatever pertains to the worship of God ; but, according to the other derivation, it denotes that obligation which we feel on our minds from the relation in which we stand to some superior power. The word is sometimes used as synonimous with sect ; but, in a practical sense, it is generally considered as the same with godliness, or a life devoted to the worship and fear of God. Dr. Doddridge thus defines it : "Religion consists in the resolu- tion of the will for God, and in a constant care to avoid whatever we are persuaded he would dis- approve, to despatch the work he has assigned us in life, ami to promote his glory in the happiness of mankind." [See Godliness.] The founda- RELIGION Hon of all religion rests on the belief of the exist- ence of God. As we have, however, already considered the evidences of the divine existence, they need not be enumerated again in this place ; the reader will find them under the article Ex- istence of Gon. Religion has been divided into natural and re- vealed. By natural religion is meant that know- ledge, veneration, and love of God, and the prac- tice of those duties to him, our fellow-creatures, and ourselves, which are discoverable by the riirht exercise of our rational faculties, from considering the nature and perfections of God, and our rela- tion to him and to one another. By revealed religion is understood that discovery which he has made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Scriptures. As it respects natural religion, some doubt whether, properly speaking, there can be any such thing ; since, through the fall, reason is so depraved, that man without revelation is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may be easily seen by considering the history of those nations who are destitute of it, and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So far as this, however, may be ob- served, that the light of nature can give us no proper ideas of God, nor inform us what worship will be acceptable to him. It does not tell us how man became a fallen, sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recovered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery. The apostle, indeed, observes, that the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts, and are a law unto themselves ; vet the greatest moralists among them were so blinded as to be guilty of, and actually to counte- nance the greatest vices. Such a system, there- fore, it is supposed, can hardly be said to be reli- gious, which leaves man in such uncertainty, ignorance, and impiety. [See Revelation.] (.in the other side it is observed, "that, though it is in the highest degree probable that the parents of mankind received all their theological knowledge by supernatural means, it is yet obvious that some parts of that knowledge must have been capable of a proof purely rational, otherwise not a single religious truth could have been conveyed through the succeeding generations of the human race but by the immediate inspiration of each in- dividual. We, indeed, admit many propositions as certainly true, upon the sole authority of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and we receive these Scriptures with gratitude asthe lively oracles cf God ; but it is self-evident that we could not do cither the one or the other, were we not con- vinced by natural means that God exists; that he is a being of goodness, justice, and power; and that he inspired with divine wisdom the pen- men of the sacred volumes. Now, though it is very possible that no man, or body of men, left to themselves from infancy in a desert world, would ever have made a theological discovery, yet what- ever propositions relating to the being and attri- butes of the First Cause, and duty of man, can be demonstrated by human reason, independent of written revelation, may be called natural the- ology, and are of the utmost importance, as being to us the first principles of all religion. Natural theology, in this sense of the word, is the founda- tion of the Christian revelation ; for, without a pre- vious knowledge of it, we could have no evidence 307 RELLYANISTS that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa incuts are indeed the word of God." The religions which exist in the world h^vo been generally divided into four, the Pasxar,, the Jewish, the Mahometan, and the Christian; to which articles the reader is referred. The va- rious duties of the Christian religion also aro stated in their different places. See also, as con- nected with this article, the articles Inspiration, Revelation, and Theology, and books there recommended. RELIGIOUS, in a general sense, something that relates to religion. It is also used for a per- son engaged by solemn vows to the monastic life; or a person shut up in a monastery, to lead a life of devotion and austerity under some rule or in- stitution. The male religious are called monks and friars ; the females, nuns and canon esses. RELLYANISTS, or Relltan Uni ver- sa lists, the followers of Mr. James Relly. He first commenced his ministerial character in con- nexion with Mr. Whitefield, and was received with great popularity. Upon a change of his views, he encountered reproach, and was pro- nounced by many as an enemy to godliness. He believed that Christ as a Mediator was so united to mankind, that his actions were theirs, his obe- dience and sufferings theirs; and, consequently that he has as fully restored the whole human race to the divine favour, as if all had obeyed and suffered in their own persons ; and upon this per- suasion he preached a finished salvation, called by the apostle Jude, " The common salvation." Many of his followers are removed to the world of spirits, but a branch still survives, and meets at the chapel in Windmill-street, Moorfields, London ; where there are different brethren who speak. They are not observers of ordinances, such as water-baptism and the sacrament : pro- fessing to believe only in one baptism, which they call an immersion of the mind or conscience into truth by the teaching of the Spirit of God ; and by the same Spirit they are enabled to feed on Christ as the bread of life, professing that in and with Jesus they possess all things. They incul- cate and maintain good works for necessary pur> poses ; but contend that the principal and only work which ought to be attended to, is the doing of real good without religious ostentation ; that to relieve the miseries and distresses of mankind, according to our ability, is doing more real good than the superstitious observance of religious cere- monies. In general they appear to believe that there will be a resurrection to life, and a resur- rection to condemnation ; that believers only will be among the former, who as first fruits, and kings and priests, will have part in the first re- surrection, and shall reign with Christ in his kingdom of the millennium ; that unbelievers who are after raised, must wait the manifestation of the Saviour of the world, under that condemna- tion of conscience which a mind in darkness and wrath must necessarily feel ; that believers, called kings and priests, will be made the medium of communication to their condemned brethren; and like Joseph to his brethren, though he spoke roughly to them, in reality overflowed with allec- tion and tenderness; that ultimately every knee shall how, and every tongue confess that in the Lord they have righteousness and strength ; and thus every enemy shall be subdued to the king- dom and glory of the Great Mediator. A Ml a I 0 REPENTANCE Murray belonging to this society emigrated to America, and preached these sentiments at Bos- ton and elsewhere. Mr. Relly published several works, the principal of which were, "Union." " The Trial of Spirits." "Christian Lihertv." "One Baptism.'' "The Salt of Sacrifice." "An- tichrist resisted.'' " Letters on Universal Salva- tion." " The Oherubimical Mystery." REMEDIAL LAW. See Law, and article Jl'STIKICATIOV. REMONSTRANTS, a title given to the Arminians, by reason of the remonstrance which, in 1610, they made to the states of Holland against the sentence of the synod of Dort, which condemned them as heretics. Episcopius and Grotius were at the. head of the Remonstrants, whose principles were first openly patronized in England by archbishop Laud. In Holland, the Galvinists presented an address in opposition to the remonstrance of the Arminians, and called it a counter-remonstrance. See Arminians and Dokt. REMORSE, uneasiness occasioned by a con- sciousness of guilt. When it is blended with the fear o( punishment, and rises to despair, it con- stitutes the supreme wretchedness of the mind. REPENTANCE in general, is sorrow for any thing past. In theology it signifies that sor- row for sin which produces newness of life. The Greek word most frequently used in the New Testament for repentance is pn-airot*, which pro- perly denotes an after-thought, or the sou! recol- lecting its own actings; and that in such a man- ner as to produce sorrow in the review, and a desire of amendment. Another word also is used («sT*,ua>.0)Kx>,) which signifies anxiety or uneasiness upon the consideration of wh;it is done. There are, however, various kinds of re- pentance: as, 1. A natural repentance, or what is merely the effect of natural conscience. — %. A national repentance, such as the Jews in Baby- lon were called unto ; to which temporal blessings were promised, Ezek. xviii. 30. — 3. An external repentance, or an outward humiliation for sin, as in the ease of Ahab. — 1. A hypocritical repent- ance, as represented in Ephraim, Hos. vii. 1G.— 5. A legal repentance, which is a mere work of the law, and the effect of convictions of sin by it, which in time wear off, and come to nothing. — C. An ' repentance, which consists in conviction of sin; sorrow for it; confession of it; hatred to it; and renunciation of it. A legal and evangelical repentance are distinguished"' thus: 1. A legal repentance flows only from a sense of danger and tear of wrath; but an evangelical re- pentance is a true mourning for sin, and an earn- est desire of deliverance from it, — -2. A legal re- pentance flows from unbelief, but evangelical is always js the fruit and consequence of a saving faith. — 3. A legal repentance Hows from an aver- si m to God and to his holy law, but an evange- lical from love to both.— i. A legal repentance ordinarily flows from discouragement and despon- dency, but evangelical from encouraging hope.— 5. A legal repentance is temporary, but evangeli- cal is the daily exercise of the true Christian.— G. A legal repentance dors at most produce only a partial and external reformation, but an evan- gelical is a total change of heart and life. The aut!i?>r of true repentance is God, Acts v. 31. The subject.'; of it are sinners, since none but those, that have sinned can repent. The MS REPROOF means of repentance is the word, and the minis- ters of it; yet sometimes consideration, sanctified afflictions, conversation, &c. have been the instru- ments of repentance. The blessings connected with repr itance are, pardon, peace, and everlast ing life, Acts xi. 18. The time of repentance is the present life, Is. Iv. 6; Eccl. ix. 50. The evi- dences of repentance are, faith, humility, prayer, and obedience, Zech. xii. 10. The necessity of repentance appears evident from the evil of sin ; the mis ry it involves us in here; the commands given us to repent in God's word ; the promises made to the penitent: and the absolute incapabil- ity of enjoying God here or hereafter without it. See Dickinson's Letters, let. 9; Dr. Oicen on the 130th Psalm; Gill's Body of Divinity, article Repentance ; Ridgley's Body of Divinity, ques- tion 70; Davits' s Sermons, ser. 44. vol. iii. ; Case's Sermons, ser. 4; Whitefield's Sermons, S in rin's Sermons, ser. 9. vol. iii.; Robinso7i'a Translation; Scott's Treatise on Repentance. REPROACH, the act of finding fault in op- probrious terms, or attempting to expose to infa- my and disgrace. In whatever cause we engage, however disinterested our motives, however laud- able our designs, reproach is what we must ex- pect. But it becomes us not to retaliate, but to hear it patiently ; and so to live, that every charge brought against us be groundless. If we be re- proached for righteousness' sake, we have no reason to be ashamed nor to be afraid. All good men have thus suffered, Jesus Christ himself especially. We have the greatest promises of support. Besides, it has a tendency to humble us, detach us from the world, and excite in us a desire for that state of blessedness where all re- proach shall be done away. REPROBATION, the act of abandoning, or state of being abandoned to eternal destruction, and is applied to that decree or resolve which God has taken from all eternity to punish sinners who shall die in impenitence; in which sense it is opposed to.election. See Election and PRE- DESTINATION:'. REPROOF, blame ot reprehension spoken to a person's face. It is distinguished from a repri- mand thus. He who reproves another, point3 out his fault, and blames him. He who repri- mands, affects to punish, and mortifies the of- fender. In giving reproof, the following rules may be observed : 1. We should not be forward in reproving our elders or superiors, but rather to remonstrate and supplicate for redress. What the ministers of God do in this kind, they do by special commission, as those that must give an account, 1 Tim. v. 1 ; Heb. xiii. 17. — '2. We must not reprove rashly; there should be proof before reproof. — 3. We should not reprove tor slight matters, for such faults or defects as proceed from natural frailty, from inadvertency, or mistake in matters of small consequence. — 4. We should never reprove unseasonably, as to the time, the place, or the circumstances. — 5. We should re- prove mildly and sweetly, in the calmest manner, in the gentlest terms. — 6. We should not affect to be reprchensive : perhaps there is no one con- sidered more troublesome than he who delights in finding fault with others. In receiving reproof. it may be observed, 1. That We should not reject it merely because it may come from those who are not exactly on a level with ourselves. — '2. We should consider whether the reproof given be no RESURRECTION actually deserved ; and that, if the reprover knew all, whether the reproof would not be sharper than what it is. — 3. Whether, if taken humbly and patiently, it will not be of great advantage to us. — 4. That it is nothing but pride to suppose that we are never to be the subjects of reproof, since it is human to err. RESENTMENT, generally used in an ill sense, implying a determination to return an in- jury. Dr. Johnson observes, that resentment is a union of sorrow with malignity; a combination of a passion which all endeavour to avoid, with a passion which all concur to detest. The man who retires to meditate mischief, and to exasperate his own rage, whose thoughts are employed only on means of distress and contrivances of ruin, whose mind never pauses from the remembrance of his own sufferings, but to indulge some hope of en- joying the calamities of another, may justly be numbered among the most miserable of human beings ; among those who are guilty ; who have neither the gladness of prosperity, nor the calm of innocence. RESIGNATION, a submission without dis- content to the will of God. The obligations to this duty arise from, 1. The perfections of God, Deut. xxxii. 4. — 2. The purposes of God, Eph. i. 11. — 3. The commands of God, Heb. xii. !). — 4. The promises of God, 1 Pet. v. 7. — 5. Our own in- terest, Hos. ii. 14, 15. — 6. The prospect of eternal felicity, Heb. iv. 9. See articles Affliction-, Despair, and Patience; Worthington on Re- signation; Grosrenor's Mourner; Brookes Mute Christian; and books under Affliction. RESTITUTION, that act of justice by which we restore to our neighbour whatever we have unjustly deprived him of, Exod. xxii. 1; Luke xix. 8. Moralists observe respecting restitution, 1. That where it can be made in kind, or the injury can be certainly valued, we are to restore the thing or the value. — 2. We are bound to restore the thing with the natural increase of it, that is, to satisfy for the loss sustained in the mean time, and the gain hindered. — 3. Where the thing cannot be restored, and the value of it is not certain, we are to give reasonable satisfaction, according to a middle estimation. — 4. We are at least to give by way of restitution what the law would give, for that is generally equal, and in most cases rather favourable than rigorous. — 5. A man is not only bound to restitution for the injury he did, but for all that directly follows upon the injurious act. For the first injury being wilful, we are supposed to will all that which follows upon it. Tillotson's Sermons, ser. 170, 171 j Chillingworth's Works, ser. 7. RESURRECTION, a rising again from the state of the dead : generally applied to the resur- rection of the last day. This doctrine is argued, 1. Frtim the resurrection of Christ, 1 Cor. xv. — 2. From the doctrines of grace, as union, election, redemption, &c. — 3. From Scripture testimonies. Matt. xxii. 23, &c. ; Job xix. 25, 27 ; Is. xxvi. 19 ; Phil. ii. 20 ; 1 Cor. xv. ; Dan. xii. 2 ; 1 Thess. iv; 14; R.ev. xx. 13. — 4. From the general judgment, which of course requires it. As to the nature of this resurrection, it will be, 1. General, Rev. xx. 12, 15 ; 2 Cor. v. 10.— 2. Of the same body. It is true, indeed, that the body has not always the same particles, which are continually changing, out it has always the same constituent parts, 399 RESURRECTION which proves its identity ; it is the same body that is born that dies, and the same that dies that shall rise again ; so that Mr. Locke's objection to the idea of the same body is a mere quibble. — 3. The resurrection will be at the command of Christ, and by his power, John v. 28, 29. — 4. Perhaps, as to the manner, it will be successive ; the dead in Christ rising first, 1 Cor. xv. 23; 1 Thess. iv. lb". This doctrine is of great use and importance. It is one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ; the whole Gospel stands or falls with it. It serves to enlarge our views of the divine per- fections. It encourages our faith and trust in God under all the difficulties of life. It has a tendency to regulate our affections and moderate our desires after earthly things. It supports the saints under the loss of near relations, and en- ables them to rejoice in the glorious prospect set before them. See Hody on the Resurrection; Pearson on the Creed ; Lime Street Led. ser. 10; Watt's Ontology; Young'' s Last Day; Locke on the Understanding, 1. ii. c. 27; Warburton's Legation of Moses, vol. ii. p. 553, &c. ; Bishop Newton's Works, vol. iii. p. G7G, 083. RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. Few articles are more important than this. It deserves our particular attention, because it is the grand hinge on which Christianity turns. Hence, says the apostle, he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. Infidels, how- ever, have disbelieved it, but with what little rea- son we may easily see on considering the subject "If the body of Jesus Christ," %ays Saurin, '■'were not raised from the dead, it must have been stolen away. But this theft is incredible. Who committed it ? The enemies of Jesus C hrist Would they have contributed to his glory by coun- tenancing a report of his resurrection ? Would his disciples ? It is probable they would not, and it is next to certain they could not. How could they have undertaken to remove the body ? Frail and timorous creatures, people who fled as soon as they saw him taken into custody ; even Peter, the most courageous, trembled at the voice of a ser- vant girl, and three times denied that he knew him. People of this character, would they have dared to resist the authority of the governor 1 Would they have undertaken to oppose the de- termination of the Sanhedrim, to force a guard, and to elude or overcome soldiers armed and aware of danger? If Jesus Christ were not risen again (I speak the language of unbelievers,) he had deceived his disciples with vain hopes of \\u resurrection. How came the disciples not to dis- cover the imposture ? Would they have hazarded themselves by undertaking an enterprise so peril- ous in favour of a man who had . so cruelly im- posed on their credulity? But were we to grant that they formed the design of removing the body, how could they have executed it ? How could sol- diers armed, and on guard, sutler themselves to be over-reached by a few timorous people? Either, says St. Augustine, they were asleep or awake ; if they were awake, why should they svjfer tlie body to be taken away ? If asleep, how coidd th;y know that the disciples took it away? How dare they, then, depose that it was stolen?" The testimony of the apostles furnishes us with arguments, and there are eight considerations which give the evidence sufficient weight. 1. The nature of these witnesses. They were not men of power, riches, eloquence, or credit, to impose RESURRECTION upon the world; they wore poor and moan. — 2. The number of these witnesses. See 1 < !or. xv.; Luke x\iv. 34 ; Mark x\i. 14; Matt, xxviii. 10. It is not likely that a collusion should have been held among so many to support a lie, which would be of no Utility to them. — 3. The facts themselves which they avow; not suppositions, distant events, or events related by others, but real facts which they saw with their own eyes, 1 John i. — I. The agreement of their evidence: they all deposed the same thing. — 5. Observe the tribunals before which they gave evidence: Jews and heathens, philosophers anil rabbins, courtiers and lawyers. If they had been impostors, the fraud certainly would have been discovered. — (!. The place in which they bore their testimony. Not at a distance, where they might not easily have been detected, if f dse, but at Jerusalem, in the synagogues, in the pretorium. — 7. The time or this testimony; not years after, but three days after, they declared he was risen ; yea, before their rafje was quelled, while Calvary was yet dyed with, the blood they had spilt. If it had been a fraud, it is not likely they would have come for- ward in such broad day-light, amidst so much opposition. — S. Lastly, the motives which induced them to publish the resurrection : not to gain fame, riches, glory, profit ; no, they exposed them- selves to suffering and death, and proclaimed the truth from conviction of its importance and cer- tainty. "Collect," says Saurin, "all these proofs to- gether ; consider them in one point of view, and see how many extravagant suppositions must he advanced, if the resurrection of our Saviour be denied. It must be supposed that guards, who had been particularly cautioned by their officers, sat down to sleep; and that, however, they de- served credit when they said the body of Jesus Christ was stolen. It must be supposed that men, who have been imposed on in the most odious and cruel manner in the world, hazarded their dearest enjoyments for the glory of an impostor. It must be supposed that ignorant and illiterate men, who had neither reputation, fortune, nor eloquence, possessed the art of fascinating the nyes of all the church. It must be supposed either that live hundred persons wereal! deprived of their senses at a time, or that they were all de- ceived in the plainest matters of fact; or that this multitude of false witnesses had found out the secret of never contradicting themselves or one another, and of being always uniform in their tes- mony. It must be supposed that the most expert courts of judicature could not find out a shadow of contradiction in a palpable imposture. It must be supposed that the apostles, sensible men in other cases, chose precisely those places and those times which were most unfavourable to their view* It must be supposed that millions madly Buffered imprisonments, tortures, and crucifix'™"^ to spread an illusion. It must be suppose mat ten thousand miracles were wrought in favour of falsehood, or all these facts must lie denied ; anil then it must be supposed that the apostles were idiots; that the enemies of Christianity were idiots; and that all the primitive Christians were idiots. The doctrine of the resurrection of Christ affords us a variety of useful instructions. 1 lire we see evidence of divine power; prophecv ac- complished ; the character of Jesus established ; 400 REVELATION his work finished ; and a future state proved. It is a ground of faith, the basis of hope, a source of consolation, and a stimulus to obedience. See Saurin's Sermons, ser. 8. vol ii. ; Robinson's Translation ; Ditto, and West on the Resur- rection ; Cook's Illustration of the general Evi- dence establishing the Reality of Christ's Rcsur rection, p. 30,1, Ecc. Rev. vol. iv. but especially a small but admirable Essay on the Resurrection of Christ, by Mr. Dore. RETIREMENT, the state of a person who quits a public station in order to be alone. Re- tirement is of great advantage to a wise man. To him " the hour of solitude is the hour of medi- tation. He communes with his own heart. He reviews the actions of his past life. He corrects what is amiss. He rejoices in what is right ; and, wiser by experience, lays the plan of his fu- ture life. The great and the noble, the wise and the learned, the pious and the good, have been lovers of serious retirement. On this field the patriot forms his schemes, the philosopher pursues his discoveries, the saint improves himself in wisdom and goodness. Solitude is the hallowed ground which religion in every age has adopted as its own. There her sacred inspiration is felt, and her holy mysteries elevate the soul ; there devo- tion lifts up the voice; there falls the tear of con- trition ; there the heart pours itself forth before him who made, and him who redeemed it. Apart from men, we live with nature, and converse with God." Logan's Sermons, vol. ii. ser. 2; Blair's Sermons, ser. 9, vol. i. ; Bates's Rural Philosophy; Brewster's Recluse ; Zimmerman on Solitude. REVELATION, the act of revealing or mak- ing a thing public that was before unknown ; it is also used for the discoveries made by God to his prophets, and by them to the world; and more particularly for the books of the Old and New Testaments. A revelation is, in the first place, possible. God may, for any thing we can certainly tell, think proper to make some disco- very to his creatures which they knew not before. As he is a Being of infinite power, we may be assured he cannot be at a loss for means to commu- nicate his will, and that in such a manner as will sufficiently mark it his own. — 2. It is desirable. For, whatever the light of nature could do for man before reason was depraved, it is evident that it has done little for man since. Though reason be necessary to examine the authority of divine revelation, yet, in the present state, it is incapable of giving us proper discoveries of God, the way of salvation, or of. bringing us into a state of communion with God. It therefore follows. — 3. That it is necessary. With- out, it we can attain to no certain knowledge of God, of Christ, of the Holy Ghost, of pardon, of justification, of sanctification, of happiness, of a future state of rewards and punishments. — 4. No revelation, as Mr. Brown observes, relative to the redemption of mankind, could answer its re- spective ends, unless it were sufficiently marked with internal and external evidences. That the Bible hath internal evidence, is evident from the ideas it gives us of God's perfections, of the law of nature, of redemption, of the state of man, &c. As to its external evidence, it is easily seen by the characters of the men who composed it, the miracles wrought, its success, the fulfilment of its predictions, &c. — fSee Sc'RiPTUKE.] — 5. Thccwi* REVELATION tents of revelation are agreeable to reason. It is true, there are some things above the reach of reason; but a revelation containing such tilings is no contradiction, as long as it is not against reason : for if every thing be rejected which can- not be exactly comprehended, we must become unbelievers at once of almost every thing around us. The doctrines, the institutions, the threaten- in;h cd.; Godwyn'S Moses and Aaron; Ed- wards' 8 Surrey qf all Religions, vol. i. ch. !(; Jennings's Jewish Antiquities. RITUAL, a hook directing the order anil manner to he observed in performing divine ser- vice in a particular church, diocese, or the like. ROGERENES, so called from John Rogers, their chief leader. They appeared in New Eng- land abbot ltJ77. The principal distinguishing tenet of this denomination was, that worship performed the first day of the week was a species of idolatry which they ought to oppose. In con- sequence of this, they used a variety of measures to disturb those wh.> were assembled for public worship on the Lord's day. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. The earliest settlement of Roman Catholics in this country. appears to have been made in Maryland. In 1632, a Jesuit accompanied the emigrants to this state; and from that date till the period of the revolution, the American •Catholics in Maryland and Virginia were constantly served by Jesuit missionaries, successively scut from England. — The Rev. Dr. John Carroll having been elected the first bishop, by the clergy, through a special indulgence granted them by the pope, Pius VI., a see was constituted, and the bishop elect con- secrated in England, August 15, 17D0. He. had been chosen by twenty-four out of twenty-six priests assembled for the purpose. At length, in 1810, the increase of the Romish communion had become so great in the United States, it was judged best at Rome to erert the Episcopate of Baltimore into a Metropolitan or Archi-episcopal see, and to establish four new suffragan .dioceses, viz. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bards- town, Kentucky. This was, accordingly, carried into effect with great pomp and solemnity. Pre- vious to this period, New Orleans had been erect- ed into a bishopric ; and in 18:20, those of Rich- mond and Charleston were added. All these receive their titles from the places where they are constituted, as in countries connected with the Romish government, or as is done in episcopal England. Singular, therefore, as is the sound, Boston, the capital of the Puritans is designated as an episcopate subject to Rome, an event doubt- less regarded with triumph at her court. To the above Episcopal sees, that of Ohio has been sub- sequently added, and is denominated from Cin- cinnati, the principal town, where the bishop's cathedral was consecrated December 17, 182b'. — Mobile has also been created an episcopate by Pius VIII. the present pope. The diocese of Bardstown possesses a Do- minican convent, two nunneries, and thirty hurches. Nunneries are also connected with most of the other dioceses. The population be- longing to the Roman Catholic church in this SABBATARIANS country is estimated at ha,f a million. They have in the United States an archbishop, who resides at Baltimore, and nine bishops. The sum of $24,000, raised in Europe by the " Asso- ciation for the Propagation of the Faith.11 was assigned in 1828, to the missions of America, to be appropriated more especially to the benefit bf the great Valley of the West. They have ]>e- riodical publications at Charleston. (South Caro- lina,) Hartford, and Boston. A convention of thr. prelates met at Baltimore in October, 1829, and addressed a pastoral letter to the laity in th s United States. The principal matters of exhorta- tion are, the necessity of greatly increasing the number of the priests ; the importance of the education of children ; infiuence through means of the press ; interpreting the Scriptures " ac- cording to the unanimous consent of the church ;" adherence to the principles and government of the church; urgency of etlbrts to disseminate the true faith, &c. On the whole, the state and prospects of the Papal church in the United States are such, that protestants are beginning to regard them in a very serious light. See Quar- terly Register and Journal of the American Education Society for February, 1830. — B. •ROSARY, a bunch or string of beads on which the Roman Catholics count their prayers. ROSICRUCIANS, a name assumed by a sect or cabal of hcrmetical philosophers, who arose, as it has been said, or at least became first taken notice of, in Germany, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. They bound them- selves together by a solemn secret, which they all swore inviolably to preserve ; and obliged them- selves, at their admission into the order, to a strict observance of certain established rules. — ■ They pretended to know all sciences, and chiefly medicine; whereof they published themselves the restorers. They pretended to be masters of abundance of important secrets, and among others, that of the philosopher's stone; all winch they affirmed to have received by tradition from the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, the Magi, and Gymnosophists. They have been distinguished by several names, accommodated to the several branches of their doctrine. Because they pre- tend to protract the period of human life by means of certain nostrums, and even to restore youth, they were called Immortales; as they pre- tended to know all things, they have been called liluminati; and, because they have made no ap- pearance for several years, unless the sect of Illu- minated on the continent derives its origin from them, they have been called the Invisible Bro- thers. Their society is frequently signed by the letters F. R. C. which some among them inter- pret Fratres Roris Cocti; it being pretended that the matter of the philosopher's stone is dew con- cocted, exalted, &c. RUSSIAN CHURCH. SeeGitEEKCiiCRcn S. SABBATARIANS, those who keep the seventh day as the sabbath. They are to be found principally, if not wholly, among the Bap- tists. They object to the reasons which are gene- rally alleged for keeping the first day ; and assert, that the change from the seventh to the first 408 was effected by Consfantine on his conversion to Christianity. The three following propositions contain a summary of their principles as to this article of the sabbath by which they stand dis- tinguished. 1. That God hath required the ob- servation of the seventh, or last day of every SABBATH week, to he observed by mankind universally for the weekly sabbath. — 2. That this command of God is perpetually binding on man till time shall be no more. — And, 3. That this sacred rest of the seventh-day sabbath is not (by divine au- thority) changed from the seventh and last to the lirst day of the week, or that the Scripture doth no where require the observation of any other 'day of the week for the weekly sabbath, but the seventh day only. They hold, in common with other Christians, the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity. There are two congregations of the Sabbatarians in London; one among the general Baptists, meeting in Mill Yard; the (Jther among the particular Baptists, in Cripple- gat& There are, also, a few to be found in dif- ferent parts of the kingdom, and some, it is said, in America. A tract, in support of this doctrine, was published by Mr. Comthwaite, in 1740. — See Evans's Sketch of the Denominations of Ike Christian World; and books under next article. SABBATARIANS IN THE UNITED STATES. The Sabbatarians in this country nre more generally known by the name of Se- venth-day Baptists, and differ from the Baptists generally in no respect, but in regard to the sab- bath, believing that the seventh, and not the first day of the week, is the day which ought to be religiously observed. In 1668, there were a few churches of this connexion in England. The first Sabbatarian church in America, was formed in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1671. They are confined principally to that state. A few years since they numbered about 1000 communicants. In the United States there arc about 2000 mem- bers united together in an annual conference. Population 10,000.— B. SABBATH, in the Hebrew language, signi- fies rest, and is the seventh day of the week ; a day appointed for religious duties, and a total cessation from work, in commemoration of God's resting on the seventh day ; and likewise in me- morial of the redemption of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Concerning" the time when the Sabbath was first instituted, there have been different opinions. Some have maintained that the salification of the seventh day mentioned in Gen. ii. is only there spoken of Six jrpoM^sw?, or by anticipation ; nnd is to be understood of the sabbath afterwards enjoined in the wilderness; and that the histo- rian, writing after it was instituted, there gives the reason of its institution ; and this is supposed to be the case, as it is never mentioned during the patriarchal age. But against this sentiment it is urged, 1. That it cannot be easily supposed that the inspired penman would have mentioned the sancttlication of the seventh day among the primeval transactions, if such sanctification had not taken place until 2500 years afterwards. — 9. That considering Adam was restored to favour through a Mediator, and a religious service in- stituted, which man was required to observe, in testimony not only of his dependence on the Creator, but also of his faith and hope in the promise, it seems reasonable that an institution so grand and solemn, and so necessary to the observance of this service, should be then exist- ent.— 3. That it is no proof against its existence hecause it is not mentioned in the patriarchal age, no more than it is against its existence from 403 SABBATH Moses to the end of David's reign, which was near 440 years. — 4. That the Sabbath was men- tioned as a well-known solemnity before the pro- mulgation of the law, Exod. xvi. 23. For the manner in which the Jews kept it, and the awful consequences of neglecting it, we refer the reader to the Old Testament, Lev. xxvi. 34, 35; Neh. xiii. 16, 18; Jer. xvii. 21; Ezek. xx. 16, 17; Num. xv. 23, 36. Under the Christian dispensation, the Sabbath is altered from the seventh to the first day of the week. The arguments for the change are these : 1. As the seventh day was observed by the Jew ish church in memory of the rest of God after the works of the creation, and their deliverance from Pharaoh's tyranny, so the first day of the week has always been observed by the Christian church in memory of Christ's resurrection. — 2. Christ made repeated visits to his disciples on that day. — 3. It is called the Lord's day, Rev. i. 10. — 4. On this day the apostles were assem- bled, when the Holy Ghost came down so visibly upon them, to qualify them for the conversion of the world. — 5. On this day we find St. Paul preaching at Troas, when the disciples came to break bread. — The directions the apostles give to the Christians plainly allude to their religious assemblies on the first day. — 7. Pliny bears wit- ness of the first day of the week being- kept as a festival, in honour of the resurrection of Christ ; and the primitive Christians kept it in the most solemn manner. These arguments, however, are not satisfactory to some ; and it must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day. However, it may be observed, that it is not so much the precise time that is universally bind- ing, as that one day out of seven is to be regarded. " As it is impossible," says Dr. Doddridge, " cer- tainly to determine which is the seventh day from the creation : and as, in consequence of the spherical form of the earth, and the absurdity of the scheme which supposes it one great plain, the change of place will necessarily occasion some alteration in the time of the beginning and end- ing of any day in question, it being always at the same time, somewhere or other, sun-rising and sun-setting, noon and midnight, it seems very unreasonable to lay such a stress upon the parti- cular day as soma do. It seems abundantly suffi- cient that there be six days of labour and one of religious rest, which there will be upon the Christian and the Jewish scheme." As the sabbath is of divine institution, so it is to be kept holy unto the Lord. Numerous have been the days appointed by men for religious ser- vices ; but these are not binding because of hu- man institution. Not so the sabbath. Hones the. fourth commandment is ushered in with a peculiar emphasis — "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day." This institution is wise as to its ends: That God may be worshipped ; man instructed; nations benefited ; and families devoted to the service of God. It is lasting as to its duration. The abolition of it would be unreasonable; unscriptural, Exod. xxxi. 13; and every way disadvantageous to the body, to society, to the soul, and even to the brute creation. It is, however, awfully violated by visiting, feasting, indolence, buying and selling, working, worldly amusements, and travelling. "Look into ttifl streets," says bishop Porteus, "on the Lord's / SACRAMENT day, and sec whether they convoy the idea of a day of rest Do not our servants and our cattle seem to he almost as fully occupied on that day as on any other? And, as it' this was not a suffi- cient infringement of their rights, we contrive by needless entertainments at home, and needless. journeys abroad, which are often by choice arid inclination reserved tor this very day, to take up all the little remaining part of their leisure time. A sabbath day's journey was among the Jews a proverbial expression for a very short one; among us it can have no such meaning affixed to it. That day scons to he considered by too many as set apart, by divine and human authority, for the purpose not of rest, but. of its direct opposite, the labour o( travelling, thus adding one day more of torment to those generous but wretched ani- mals whose services they hire ; and who, being generally strained beyond their strength the other six days of the week, have, of all creatures under heaven, the best and most equitable claim to sus- pension of labour on the seventh." These are evils greatly to be lamented; they are an insult to God, an injury to ourselves, and an awful example to our servants, our children, and our friends. To sanctify this day, we should consider it, 1. A day of rent; not, indeed, to ex- clude works of mercy and charity, but. a cessation from ail ia!>cur and care. — -2. As a day of remem- brance} of creation, preservation, redemption. — 3. As a day of meditation and prayer, in which we should cultivate c«mmunion with God, Rev. i. 10. — 1. As a day of public worship, Acts xx. 7 ; John xx. II). — 5. As a day of joy, Is. lvi. 2; l's. cxviii. 24. — 6. As a day of praise, Ps. cxvi. 1*3, 1 1.— 7. As a day of antidilution; looking forward to that, holy, happy, and eternal sabbath, that remains for the people of God. See Chand- ler's two Sermons on the Sabbath; Wright mi the Sabbath; Watts' s Holiness of THmes and Places; Orion's six Disc, on the Lord's Day; KcnnicotVs Sermon and Dial, on the Sabbath; lip. Portcus's Ser. ser. '.). vol. i.; Watts's Ser. ser. 57. vol. i. ; S. Palmer's Apology for the Christian Sabbath; Kennicott on the Oblations of Cain and Abel, p. 184, 185. SABELL1ANS, a sect in the third century tint embraced the opinions of Sabcllius, a philo- sopher of Egypt, who openly taught that there is but one person in the GodheaJ. The Sabellians maintained that the Word and the lioly Spirit are only virtues, emanations, or functions of the Deity; and held that he who is in heaven is the father of all things; that he de- scended into the Virgin, became a child, and was born of her as a sou; and that, having accom- plished the mystery of our salvation, he diffused himself on the apostles ill tongues of fire, and was then denominated the Holy Ghost. This they explained by resembling God to the sun; the illuminated virtue or quality of which was the Word, anil its warming virtue the Holy Spirit. The Word, they taught, was darted, like a di- vine ray, to accomplish the work of redemption; end that, being re-ascended to heaven, the influ- ences of the Father were communicated after a like manner to the apostles. S \< !l )PH( Mil. a denomination in the fourth century, so called, because they always went, clothed in sackcloth, and affected a great deal of austerity and penance. SACRAMENT is derived from the Latin 401 SACRIFICE word sacramentvm, which signifies an oath, par- ticularly the oath taken by soldiers to be true. to their country and rreneral. — The word was adopted by the writers of the Latin church, to denote those ordinances of religion by which Christians came under an obligation of obedience to God, and which obligation, they supposed, was equally sacred with that of an oath. [See Vow. J Of sacraments, in this sense of the word, Pro- testant churches admit of but two ; and it is not easy to conceive how a greater number can be made out from Scripture, if the definition of a sacrament be just wdiich is given by the church of England. By that church, the meaning of the word sacrament w declared to be "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual srace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof." — According to this defini- tion, baptism and the Lord's Supper are certainly sacraments, for each consists of an outward and visible sign of what is believed to be an inward and spiritual grace ; both were ordained by Christ himself, and in the reception of each does the Christian solemnly devote himself to the service of his Divine Master. [See Baptism, and Lord's Supper.] The Romanists, however, add to this number confirmation, penance, extreme unction, ordination, and marriage, holding in all seven sacraments. [See Popkry.] Numerous, how- ever, as the sacraments of the Romish church are, a sect of Christians sprung up in England, early in the last century, who increased their number. The founder of this sect was a Dr. Deacon. According to these men, every rite, and every phrase, in the book called the Apostolical Consti- tutions, were certainly in use among the apostles themselves. Still, however, they make a distinc- tion between the greater and the lesser sacra- ments. The greater sacraments are only two, baptism and the Lord's Supper. The lesser are no fewer than ten, viz. five belonging to baptism, exorcism, anointing with oil, the while garment, a taste of milk and honey, and anointing with chrism or ointment. The other five are, the sign of the cross, imposition of hands, unction of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. This sect, however, if not extinguished, is supposed to be in its last wane. Its founder published, in 1748, his full, true, and comprehensive view of Chris- tianity, in two catechisms, octavo. SACRAMENTARIANS, a general name given for all such as have held erroneous opinions respecting the Lord's Supper. The term is chiefly applied among Catholics, by way of reproach to the Lutherans, Calvinists, and other Protestants. SACRIFICE, an offering made to God on an altar, by means of a regular minister; as an ac- knowledgment of his power, and a payment of homage. Sacrifices (though the term is some- times used to comprehend all the offerings made to God, or in any way devoted to his service and honour) differ from mere oblations in this, that in a sacrifice there is a real destruction or change of the thing offered ; whereas an oblation is only a simple offering or gift, without any such change at all: thus, all sorts of tithes, and first fruits, and whatever of men's worldly substance is con- secrated to God for the support of his worship and the maintenance of his ministers, are offer- ings, or oblations; and these, under the Jewish law, were cither of living creatures, or other SACRIFICE tilings : but sacrifices, in the more peculiar sense of the term, were either wholly or in part con- sumed by fire. They have, by divines, been divided into bloody and unbloody. Bloody sacri- fices were made of living creatures ; unbloody, of the fruits of the earth. They have also been divided into expiatory, impelratory, and eucha- ristical. The first kind were offered to obtain if God the forgiveness of sins; the second, to irocure some favour; and the third, to express thankfulness for favours already received. Un- der one or other of these heads may all sacrifices be arranged, though we are told that the Egyp- tians had six hundred and sixty-six different kinds; a number surpassing all credibility. Va- rious have been the opinions of the learned con- rerning the origin of sacrifices. Some suppose that they had their origin in superstition, and were merely the inventions of men ; others, that they originated in the natural sentiments of the human heart; others imagine that God, in order to prevent their being offered to idols, introduced diem into his service, though he did not approve of them as good in themselves, or as proper rites of worship. " But that animal sacrifices," says a learned author, " were not instituted by man, seems extremely evident from the acknowledged universality of the practice ; from the wonderful sameness of the manner in which the whole world offered these sacrifices ; and from the expiation which was constantly supposed to be effected by them: " Now human reason, even among the most strenuous opponents of the divine institutions, is allowed to be incapable of pointing out the least natural fitness or congruity between blood and atonement; between killing of God's creatures and the receiving a pardon for the violation of God's laws. This consequence of sacrifices, when properly offered, was the invariable opinion of the heathens, but not the whole of their opinion in this matter ; for they had also a traditionary belief among them, that these animal sacrifices were not only expiations, but vicarious commuta- tions, and substituted satisfactions; and they called the animals so offered [their Mn^^ii] the ransom of their souls. "But if these notions are so remote from, nay, so contrary to, any lesson that nature teaches, as they confessedly are, how came the whole world to practise the rites founded upon them? It is certain that the wisest Heathens, Pythagoras, Plato, Porphyry, and others, slighted the religion of such sacrifices, and wondered how an institu- tion so dismal (as it appeared to them,) and so big with absurdity, could diffuse itself through the world. — An advocate for the sufficiency of reason [Tindall] supposes the absurdity prevailed by de- grees; and the priests who shared with their gods, and reserved their best bits for themselves, had the chief hand in this gainful superstition. But it may well be asked who were the priests in the days of Cain and Abel? Or, what gain could this superstition be U> them, when the one gave away his fruits, and the other his animal sacri- fice, without being at liberty to taste the least part of it? And it is worth remarking, that what this author wittily falls the best bits, and appropriates to the priests, appears to have been the skin of the burnt-offering among the jews, and the skin and feet among the Heathens." Dr. Spencer observes [De Leg. Hob. lib. iii. 405 SACRIFICE § 0,] that "sacrifices were looked upon as gifts. and that the general opinion was, that gifts would have the same effect with God as with man ; would appease wrath, conciliate favour with the Deity, and testify the gratitude and affection of the sacrificer ; and that from this principle pro- ceeded expiatory, precatory, and eucharistical offerings. This is all that is pretended from na- tural light to countenance this practice. But, how well soever the comparison may be thought to hold between sacrifices and gifts, yet the opi- nion that sacrifices would prevail with God must j proceed from an oljservation that gifts had pre- vailed with men ; an observation this which Cain and Abel bad little opportunity of making. And if the coats of skin which God directed Adam to make were the remains of sacrifices, sure Adam could not sacrifice from this observation, when there were no subjects in the world upon which he could make these observations." [Kennicott's second Dissert, on the Oflerings of Cain and AbeL p. 201, &c] But the grand objection to the divine origin of sacrifices is drawn from the Scriptures them- selves, particularly the following, [Jer. vii. 22, 23 :] "1 spake not to your fathers, nor command- ed them, at the time that I brought them out of Egypt, concerning the matters of burnt-offerings or sacrifices ; but only this very thing commanded 1 them, saying, Obey my voice, and I icill be your God, and ye shall be my people." The ingenious writer above referred to, accounts for this passage [p. 153 and '209] by referring to the. transaction at Marah, [Exod. xv. 23, 2(3,] at which time God spake nothing concerning sacrifices; it certainly cannot be intended to contradict the whole book of Leviticus, which is full of such appointments Another learned author, to account for the above, and other similar passages, observes, " Tire Jews werediligent in performlngthc external serviccsof religion ; in offering prayers, incense, sacrifices, ob- lations : but these prayers were not offered with faith; and their oblations were mademore frequent- ly to their idols than to the God of their fathers. The Hebrew idiom excludes with a general nega- tive, in a comparative sei*e, one of two objects opposed to one another, thus : ' I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.' [Hosea vi. 6.] ' For I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them, con- cerning burnt-ofierings or sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice.'1 " [Lowth in Isaiah Ixiii. 22, 24.] The ingenious Dr. Doddridge remarks, that, accord- ing to the genius of the Hebrew language, one thing seems to be forbidden, and another com- manued, when the meaning only is, that the latter is generally to lie preferred to the former* The text before us is a remarkable instance of this; as likewise Joel ii. 13; Matt. vi. 19, 20; John vi. 27; Luke xii. 4, 5; and Col. iii. 2. And it is evident that Gen. xlv. 8; Exod. xvi. 8; John v. 30 ; vii. 19, and many other passages, are to lie expounded in the same comparative sense. [Pa- raph, on the New Test., sect. 59.] So that the whole may be resolved into the apopthegm of the wise man, [Prov. xxi. 3:] "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." See Kcnnicott, above referred to; Edwards's History of Redemption, p. 7(5, note ; Outran de SacrUiciis; Warburton's Div, Leg. b. 9. C. 2 ; Bishop Laic's Tlwory of llel. p. 50 u 51 ; Jennings's Jewish \ntiq. vol. i. p. 2G 28 SAMARITANS Flcury's Manner? of the Israelites, part iv. ch. 4 ; AfJEwen on the Types. SACRILhlGE, the crime of profaning sacred tilings, or things devoted to God. Tin- ancient church distinguished several sorts of sacrilege. The tirst was the diverting things appropriated to sacred purposes to other uses. — 2. Robbing the graves, or defacing and spoiling the monuments of the dead. — 3. Those were considered as sacri- legious persons who delivered up their Bibles and the sacred utensils of the church to the Pagans, in the time of the Dioclesian persecution. — 4. Profaning the sacraments, churches, altars, &c. — 5. Molesting or hindering a clergyman in the performance of his office. — (i. Depriving men of the use of the Scriptures or the sacraments, particularly the cup in the eucharist. The Romish casuists acknowledge all these but the last. SADDUCEES, a famous sect among the Jews ; so called, it is said, from their founder Sa- doc It began in the time of Antigonus, of Socho, president of the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and teacher of the law in the principal divinity school of that city. Antigonus having often, in his lec- tures, inculcated to his scholars that they ought not to serve God in a servile manner, hut only out of filial love and fear, two of his scholars, Sa- doc and Baithus, thence inferred that there were no rewards at all after this life ; and, therefore, separating from the school of their master, they thought there was no resurrection nor future state, neither angel nor spirit, Matt. xii. 23 ; Acts j:\iii. S. They seem to agree greatly with the Epicureans ; differing however in this, that though they denied a future state, yet they allowed the power of God to create the world ; whereas the followers of Epicurus denied it. It is said also, they rejected the Bible, except the Pentateuch; denied predestination; and taught, that God had made man absolute master of all his actions, with- out assistance to good, or restraint from evil. SAINT, a person eminent for godliness. The word is generally applied by us to the apostles and other holy persons mentioned in the Scrip- tures: but the Romanists make its application much more extensive; as, according to them, all who are canonized arc made saints of a high de- gree. See Canonization. SALVATION means the safety oi preserva- tion of any thing that has been or is in danger; but it is more particularly used by us to denote our de- liverance from sinand hell, and the final enjoyment of God in a future state, through the mediation of Jesus Christ See articles Atonement, Propi- tiation', Reconciliation, Redemption, and SaNI riPICATION. SAMARITANS, an ancient sect among the Jews, whose origin was in the time of king Reho- boam, under whose reign the people of Israel were divided into two distinct kingdoms, that of Judah and that of Israel. The capital of the kingdom of Israel was Samaria, whence the I , . lites took the name of Samaritans. Shal- oiancser, king of Assyria, having besieged and taken Samaria, carried away all the people cap- tives into the remotest parts of his dominions, and filled their place with Babylonians, Cutheans, and Other idolaters. These, finding that they were exposed to wild beasts, desired that an Israelii i.-di priest might be senf among them to instruct them Ui the ancient religion and customs of the land they inhabited. This being granted then:, they 406 SAMARITAN were delivered from the plague of wild beast?, and embraced the law of Moses, with which they mixed a great part of their ancient idolatry. Upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, it appears that they had entirely quitted the worship of their idols. But though they were united in religion, they were not so in affection with the Jews; for they employed va- rious calumnies and stratagems to hinder then rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem ; and when they could not prevail, they erected a temple on Mount Gerizim, in opposition to that of Jerusa- lem. [See 2 Kings xvii.; Ezra iv. v. vi.] The Samaritans at present are few in number, but pretend to great strictness in their observation of the law of Moses. They are said to be scattered ; some at Damascus, some at Gaza, and some at Grand Cairo, in Egypt. SAMARITAN'PENTATEUCH, the col- lection of the five books of Moses, written in Sa- maritan or Phoenician characters; and, according to some, the ancient Hebrew characters which were in Use before the captivity of Babylon. This Pentateuch was unknown in Europe til! the seventeenth century, though quoted by Eu- sebius, Jerome, &c. Archbishop Usher was the first, or at least among the first, who procured it out of the East, to the number of five or six co- pies. Pietro della Valle purchased a very neat copy at Damascus, in 1G1G, for M. de Sansi. then ambassador of France at Constantinople, and afterwards bishop of St. Malo. This book was presented to the Fathers of the Oratory of St, Honore, where perhaps it is still preserved ; and from which father Morinus, in 1G32, printed the first Samaritan Pentateuch, which stands in Le Jay's Polyglot, but more correctly in Walton's, from three Samaritan manuscripts, which be- longed to Usher. The generality of divines hold, that the Samaritan Pentateuch, and that of the Jews, are one and the same work, written in the same language, only in different characters ; and that the difference between the two texts is ow ing to the inadvertency and inaccuracy of transcribers, or to the affectation of the Samaritans, by inter- polating what might promote their interests and pretensions; that the two copies were originally the very same, and that the additions were after- wards inserted. And in this respect the Penta- teuch of the Jews must be allowed the preference to that of the Samaritans; whereas others prefer the Samaritan, as an original, preserved inthesanifl character and the same condition in which Moses left it. The variations, additions, and transposi- tions which are found in the Samaritan Penta- teuch, are carefully collected by Hettinger, and may be seen on confronting the two texts in the last volume of the English Polyglot, or by inspect- in^ Kennicott's edition of the Hebrew Bible, where the various readings are inserted. Some of thfse interpolations serve to illustrate the text : others are a kind of paraphrase, expressing at length what was only hinted at in the original ; and others, again, such as favour their preten- sions against the Jews : namely, tin' potting Ge- rizim for Ebal. Besides the Pentateuch in Phor-- nieian characters, there is another in the language which was spoken at the time that Mans first high priest of the temple of Gerizim, and son-in-law of Sanballat, governor of Samaria, under the king of Persia, took shelter among the Samaritans. "The language of this last is a mii- SANDEMANIANS tire of Chaldee, Syrian, and Phoenician. It is called the Samaritan version, executed in favour of those who did not understand pure Hebrew ; and is a literal translation, expressing the text word for word. SANCTIFICATION, that work of God's grace by which we are renewed after the image of God, set apart for his service, and enabled to die unto sin and iive unto righteousness. It must be carefully considered in a twofold light. 1. As an inestimable privilege granted us from God, 1 Thess. v. 23. — And, 2. As an all-comprehensive duty required of us by his holy word, 1 Thess. iv. 3. It is distinguished from justification thus ': Justification changeth our state in law before God as Judge. ; sanctification changeth our heart and life before him as our Father. Justification pre- cedes, and sanctification follows, as the fruit and evidence of it. The surety-righteousness cf Christ imputed is our justifying righteousness; but the grace of God implanted is the matter of our sanc- tification. Justification is an act done at once ; sanctification is a work which is gradual. Justi- fication removes the guilt of sin ; sanctification the power of it. Justification delivers us from the avenging wrath of God; sanctification conforms us to his image. Yet justification and sanctifica- tion are inseparably connected in the promise of God, Rom. viii. 28 to 30; in the covenant of grace. Heb. viii. 10 ; in the doctrines and pro- mises of the Gospel, Acts v. 31 ; and in the ex- perience of all true believers, 1 Cor. vi. 11. Sanc- tification is, 1. A divine work, and not to be begun or carried on by the power of man, Tit. iii. 5. — 2. A Progressive work, and not perfected at once, Prov. iv. 18. — 3. An internal work, not consisting in external profession or bare morality, Psal. li. 6. — 4. A necessary work; necessary as to the evidence of our state, the honour of our characters, the usefulness of our lives, the happi- ness of our minds, and the internal enjoyment of God's presence in a future world, John iii. 3; Heb. xii. 14. Sanctification evidences itself by, I. A holy reverence, Neh. v. 15. — 2. Earnest re- gard, Lam. iii. 24. — 3. Patient submission, Psal. xxxix. 9. Hence Abp. Usher said of it, "Sanc- tification is nothing less than for a man to be brought to an entire resignation of his will to the will of God, and to live in the offering up of his eoul continually in the flames of love, and as a whole burnt-oilering to Christ." — 4. Increasing hatred to sin, Psal. cxix. 133. — 5. Communion with God, Isa. xxvi. 8. — 6. Delight in his word and ordinances, Psal. xxvii. 4. — 7. Humility, Job xlii. 5, 6. — 8. Prayer, Psal. cix. 4. — 9. Holy con- fidence, Ps. xxvii. 1. — 10. Praise, Psal. ciii. 1. — II. Uniform obedience, John xv. 8. See Marshall on Sanctification ; Dr. Given on the Holy Spirit. ; Witsii CEconomia, lib. iii. c. 12; Broicn's Nat. and Rev. Theology, p. 417; Haiveis's Sermons, eer. 11, 12, 13; Scougal's Works. See articles Holiness, Wop.ks. SANCTIONS, Divin'f., are those acts or laws of the Supreme Being which render any thing obligatory. See Law. SANDEMANIANS, a sect that originated in Scotland about, the year 172^; where it is, at this time, distinguished by the name of Glassites, after its founder, Mr. John Glass, who was a minister of the established church in that king- dom ; but being charged with a design of subvert- sif the national covenant, and sapping the 407 SANDEMANIANS foundation of all national establishments, by main- taining that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world? was expelled from the synod by the church of Scotland. His sentiments are fully explained in a tract, published at that time, entitled, "The Testimony of the King of Martyrs," and pre- served in the first volume of bis works. In con- sequence of Mr. Glass's expulsion, his adherents formed themselves into churches, conformable, in their institution and discipline, to what they ap- prehended to be the plan of the first churches recorded in the New Testament. Soon after the year 1755, Mr. Robert Sandeman, an elder in one of these churches in Scotland, published a series of letters addressed to Mr. Hervey, occa- sioned by his Theron and Aspasio, in which he endeavours to show that Ids notion of faith is contradictory to the Scripture account of it, and could only serve to lead men, professedly holding the doctrines called Calvinistic, to establish their own righteousness upon their frames, feelings, and acts of faith. In these letters Mr. Sandeman attempts to prove that justifying faith is no more than a simple belief of the truth, or the divine testimony passively received by the understand- ing ; and that this divine testimony carries in itself sufficient ground of hope to every one who be- lieves it, without any thing wrought in us, or done by us, to give it a particular direction to ourselves. Some of the popular preachers, as they were called, had taught that it was of the essence of faitti to believe "that Christ is ours; but Mr. San- deman contended, that that which is believed in true faith is the truth, and what would have been the truth, though we had never believed it. They dealt largely in calls and invitations to repent and believe in Christ in order to forgiveness ; but he rejects the whole of them, maintaining that the Gospel contained no offer but that of evidence, and that it was merely a record or testimony to be credited. They had taught that though ac- ceptance with God, which included the forgive- ness of sins, was merely on account of the imputed righteousness of Christ, yet that none was ac- cepted of God, nor forgiven, till he repented of his sin, and received Christ as the only Saviour; but he insists that there is acceptance with God through Christ for sinners, while such or before "any act, exercise, or exertion of their minds whatsoever;" consequently before repentance; and that " a passive belief of this quiets the guilty conscience, begets hope, and so lays the founda- tion for love." If is by this passive belief of the truth that we, according to Mr. Sandeman, arc justified, and that boasting is excluded. If any act, exercise, or exertion of the mind, were neces- sary to our being accepted of God, he conceives there would be whereof to glory ; and justification by faith could not be opposed, as it is in Rom. iv. 4, G, to justification by works. The authors to whom Mr. Sandeman refers, under the title of " popular preachers," are Flavel, Boston, Guthrie, the Erskines, &c. whom he has treated with acrimony and contempt. " I would be far," says he, "from refusing even to the popular preachers themselves what they so much grudge to others, — the benefit of the one instance of a hardened sinner finding mercy at last ; for I know of no sinners more hardened, none greater destroyers of mankind, than they." There have not been wanting writers, however, who have vindicated these ministers from his invectives and SANDEMAN1ANS have endeavoured to show that Mr. Sandcman's notion of faith, by excluding all exercise or con- currence of the will with the Gospel way of sal- vation, confounds the faith of devils with that of Christians, and so is calculated to deceive the souls of men. It has also been observed, that though Mr. Sandeman admits of the acts ol' faith and love as fruits of believing the truth, yet, "all his godliness consisting (as he acknowledges to Mr. Pike) in lore to that which first relieved him," it amounts to nothing but self-love. And as self-love is a stranger to all those strong affec- tions expressed in the cxixth Psalm towards the law of Coil, he cannot admit of them as the lan- guage oi' a good man, hut applies the whole psalm to Christ, though the person speaking acknow- ledges, that "hefore he was afflicted, he went astray." Others have theught, that from the same principle it were easy to account for the bitterness, pride, and contempt, which distinguish the system ; for self-love, say they, is consistent with the greatest aversion to all beings divine or human, excepting so far as they become subser- vient to us. The chief opinion and practices in which this sect differs from other Christians, are, their weekly administration o£ the Lord's Supper; their bve feasts, of which every member is not only allowed hut required to partake, and which consist of their dining together at each other's houses in the interval between the morning and afternoon ser- vice. Their kiss of charity used on this occasion at the admission of a new member, and at other times when they deem it necessary and proper ; their weekly collection before the Lord's Supper, for the support of the poor, and defraying other expenses; mutual exhortation; abstinence from nlood and things strangled ; washing each other's feet, when, as a deed of mercy, it might be an ex- pression of love, the precept concerning which, as well as other precepts, they understand liter- ally; community of goods, so far as that every one is to consider all that he has in his possession and power liable to the calls of the poor and the church ; and the unlawfulness of laying up trea- sures upon earth, by setting them apart for any distant, future, and uncertain use. They allow of public and private diversions, so far as they are unconnected with circumstances really sinful; but apprehending a lot to be sacred, disapprove of lotteries, playing at cards, dice, &C They maintain a plurality of elders, pastors, or bishops, in each church ; and the necessity of the presence of two ciders in every act of dis- cipline, and at the administration of the Lord's Supper. In the choice of these elders, want of learning, and engagement in trad,-, are no sufficient objec- tion, if qualified according to the instructions given to Timothy ami Titus; but second mar- riages disqualify for the office; and they are or- dained by prayer and fasting, imposition of hands, ami giving the right hand of fellowship. In their discipline they are strict and severe, end think themselves obliged to separate from the communion and worship of all such religious so- cieties as appear to them not to profess the simple truth for their only ground of hope, and who do not waik in obedience to it. We shall only add, that in every transaction they esteem unanimity to be absolutely necessary. See Gl iSstTES. Gloat/a Testimony of ike Kins of Martyrs: 40d SATISFACTION Sandemaii's Letters on Thcron and Aspasio, letter 11; Backus' s Discourse on Faith audits Influence, p. 7 — 20; Adams's View of Religions ; Bellamy's Nature and Glory of the Gospel Lond. edit, notes, p. (>.j — 125; History of bis. Church, p. •Jt;.), vol. i.; Fuller's Letters on San- demon inn ism. SANrl EDREVf, a council or assembly of per- sons sitting together; the name whereby the Jews called the great council of the nation, as- sembled in an apartment of the temple of Jerusa- lem, to determine the most important affairs both of church and state. SARABAITES, wandering fanatics, or ra- ther imposlors, of the fourth century, who, in- stead of procuring a subsistence by honest indus- try, travelled through various cities and provinces, and gained a maintenance by fictitious miracles, by selling relics to the multitude, and other frauds of a like nature. SATAN is a He' *ew word, and signifies an adversary, or enemy, and is commonly applied in Scripture to the devil, or the chief of the fallen angels. " By collecting the passages," says Cru- den, " where Satan, or the devil, is mentioned, it may be observed, that he fell from heaven with all his company; that God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride ; that, by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils, came into the world ; that, by the permis- sion of God, he exercises a sort of government in the world over his subordinates, over apostate angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good men ami chastise had ones ; that he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets, seducers, and heretics ; that it is he, or some of his, that torment or possess men ; that inspire them with evil designs, as he did David, when he suggested to him to number his people; to Judas, to betray his Lord and Master; and to Ananias and Sapphira, to conceal the price of their field. That he roves full of rage like a roaring lion, to tempt, to betray, to destroy, and to involve us in guilt and wickedness; that his power and malico are restrained within certain limits, and controlled by the will of God. In a word, that he is an enemy to God and man, and uses his utmost en- deavours to rob God of his glory, and men ol their souls." See articles Angel, Devil, Temp- tation.— More particularly as to the temptations of Satan. 1. He adapts them to our temper and circumstances. — '2. fie chooses the fittest season to tempt ; as youth, age, poverty, prosperity, public devotion, after happy manifestations ; or when in a bad frame; after some signal source; when alone, or in the presence of the object ; when un- employed and oil' our guard ; in death. — ?>. He puts on the mask of religious friendship, "2 Cor. \i. 11; Matt. iv. (1; Luke ix. 50; Gen. hi. — 4. Manages temptation with the greatest suhtilty. lie asks but little at first; leaves t'or a season in order to renew his attack. — 5. He leads men to sin with a hope of speedy repentance. — (i. He raises suitable instruments, bad habits, relations. Gen. hi.; Job ii. !>, 10. Gilpin on Temptations ; Brooks on Satan's Devices; Bishop Porteus'a ns, vol. ii. p. 63 ; Burgh's C'rHu, vol. i. c?s. 3; vol. ii. ess. 1 ; Boire's Works, vol. ii. p. 360 ; lull's < 'hristian Armour. SATANIANS, a branch of the Messalians, who a,. [.eared about the year 390. It is sai-L among other things, that they believed the devil SCEPTIC lr> be extremely powerful, and that it was much wiser to respect and adore than to curse him. SATISFACTION, in general, signifies the act of giving complete or perfect pleasure. In the Christian system it denotes that which Christ did and suffered in order to satisfy divine justice, to secure the honours of the divine government, and thereby make an atonement for the sins of his people. Satisfaction is distinguished from merit thus : The satisfaction of Christ consists in his answering the demands of the law on man which were consequent on the breach of it. These were answered by suffering its penalty. The merit of Christ consists in what he did to fulfil what the law demanded, before man sinned, which was perfect obedience. The satisfaction of Christ is to free us from misery, and the merit of Christ is to purchase happiness for us. See Atonement and Propitiation. Also Dr. Owen on the Satisfaction of Chritt ; Gill's Body of Div. article Satisfaction; Stilling fleet on Sa- tisfaction ; Walls's Redeemer and Sanclijier, p. 28, 3*2 ; Henry's Thcron and Aspasio. SATURNI ANS, a denomination which arose about the year 115. They derived their name from Saturnius of Antioch, one of the principal Gnostic chiefs. He held the doctrine of two prin- ciples, whence proceeded all things ; the one, a wise anJ benevolent Deity; and the other, matter, a princi; le essentially evil, and which he sup- posed acted under the superintendance of a cer- tain intelligence of a malignant nature. See Gnostics. SAVIOUR, a person who delivers from dan- ger and misery. Thus Jesus Christ is called the Saviour, as he delivers us from the greatest evils, and brings us into the possession of the greatest good. See Jesus Christ, Liberty, Propitia- tion, Redemption'. Order of St. Saviour, a religious order of the Romish church, founded by St. Bridget, about the year 1315 ; and so called from its being pre- tended that our Saviour himself declared its con- stitution and rules to the foundress. SAVOY CONFERENCE, a conference held at the Savoy, in 1661, between the Episco- pal divines and the Presbyterians, in order to re- view the Book of Common Prayer ; but which was carried on the side of the Episcopalians. See Necdc's Hist, of the Puritan*, vol. ii. p. 001, quarto edit, or Introduction to Palmer's Non- conformists? Memori d. SAVOY CONFESSION OF FAITH, a declaration of the faith and order of the Indepen- dents, agreed upon by their elders and messen- gers in their meeting at the Savoy in the year 1658. This was reprinted in the year 17—.'. See Neale's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 507, quarto edit. SCEPTIC, txe^tixo;, from txstto.uxi, "I con- sider, look about, or deliberate," properly signifies considerative and inquisitive; or one who is al- ways weighing reasons on one side and the other, without ever deciding b; tweeu them. The word is applied to an ancient sect u( philosophers founded by Pyrrho, who denied the real existence of all qualities in bodies, except those which are essential to primary atoms; and referred every thing else to the perceptions of the mind produced by external objects; in other words, to appear- ance and opinion. In modern tftnes the word has been applied to Deists, or those who doubt of 40.) 3 B SCHISM the truth and authenticity of the sacred Scrip- tures. One of the greatest sceptics in iater times was Hume: he endeavoured to introduce doubts into every branch of physics, metaphysics, his- tory, ethics, and theology. He has been confuted, however, by the doctors Reid, Campbell, Gregory and Beattie. See Infidelity. SCHLWENKFELDI ANS, a denomination in the sixteenth century ; so called from one Gas- per Schewenkfeldt, a Silcsian knight. He dif- fered from Luther in the three following points. The first of these points related to the doctrine concerning the eucharist. Schewenkfeldt invert- ed the following words of Christ, — This is viy body; and insisted on their being thus under- stood,— My body is this:, i. e. such as this bread which is broken and consumed ; a true and real food, which nourisheth, satisficth, and delight eth the soul. My blood ii this, that is, such its ellects, as the wine which strengthens and refresheth the heart. Secondly, He denied that the eternal word which is committed to writing in the Holy Scriptures was endowed with the power of heal- ing, illuminating, and renewing the mind ; and he ascribed this power to the internal word, which, according to his notion, was Christ him- self. Thirdly, He would not allow Christ's human nature, in its exalted state, to be called a creature, or a created substance, as such a de- nomination appeared to him infinitely below its majestic dignity ; united as it is in that glorious state with the divine essence. SCHISM, from r%is/i*, a rent, cleft, fissure; in its general acceptation it signifies division or separation; but is chiefly used in speaking of separations happening from diversity of opinions among people of the same religion and faith. All separations, however, must not, properly speak- ing, be considered as schisms. Schism, says Mr. Arch. Hall, is, properly, a division among those who stand in one connexion of fellowship ; but where the difference is carried so far. that the parties concerned entirely break up all communion one with another, and go into distinct connexions for obtaining the general ends ill' that religious fellowship which they once did, but now do not carry on and pursue with united# endeavours, as one church joined in the bonds of individual society ; where this is the ease, it is undeniable there is something very different from schism: it is no longer schism in, but a separa- tion from, the body. — Dr. Campbell supposes that the word schism in Scripture does not always signify open separation, but that men may be guilty of schism by such an alienation of affec- tion from their brethren as violates the internal union subsisting in the hearts of Christians, though there be no error in doctrine, nor separa- tion from communion. See 1 Cor. iii. 3, 4 ; xii. •it— 2G. The great schism of the West is that which happened in the times of Clement VII. and Ur- ban VI. which divided the church for forty or fifty years, and was at length ended by the elec- tion of Martin V. at the council of Constance. The Romanists number thirty-four schisms in tiieir church ; they bestow the name of English schism on the Reformation of religion in this kingdom. Those of the church of England apply the term schism to the separation of the Presby- terians, Independents, Anabaptists, and Metho- dists. 2K SCHOOLMEN "The sin of schism," says the learned Black - stone, ' ns such, is by no means the object of temporal coercion and punishment — If, through weakness of intellect, through misdirected piety, through perverseness and acerbity of temper, or through a prospect of secular advantage in herd- ing with a party, men quarrel with the eccle- siastical establishment, the civil magistrate has nothing to do with it; unless their tenets and practice are such a» threaten ruin or disturbance to the state. All persecution for diversity of opinions, however ridiculous and absurd they may be, is contrary to every principle of sound policy and civil freedom. The names and subordina- tion of the clergy, the posture of devotion, the materials and colour of a minister's garment, the joining in a known or unknown form of prayer, and other matters of the same kind, must be left to the option of every man's private judgment." The following have been proposed as remedies for schism : " 1. Be disposed to support your brethren by all the friendly attentions in your power, speaking justly of their preaching and character. Never withhold these proofs of your brotherly love, unless they depart from the "doc- trines or spirit of the Gospel. — 2. Discountenance the silly reports you may hear, to the injury of any of your brethren. Oppose backbiting and slander to the utmost. — 5. Whenever any brother is sinking in the esteem of his flock through their caprice, perverseness, or antinomianism, endea- vour to hold up his hands and his heart in his work. — 4. Never espouse the part of the factious schismatics, till you have heard your brother's account of their conduct. — 5. In cases of open separation, do not preach for separatists till it is evident that God is with them. Detest the thought of wounding a brother's feelings through the con- temptible influence of a party spirit ; for through this abominable principle schisms are sure to be multiplied. — G. Let the symptoms of disease in the patients arouse the benevolent attention of the physicians. Let them check the forward, humble the proud, and warn the unruly ; and many a schismatic distemper will receive timely cure. — 7. Let elderly ministers and tutors of academies pay more attention to these things, in proportion as the disease may prevail: for much good may be accomplished by their influence." See King on the Primitive Church, p. 152; Hales and Henry on Schism; Polhill on Schism; Dr. Campbell's Prel. Disc, to the Gospels, part 3; F.Iaweis's Appcn. to the first volume of his Church History; Archibald Hall's View of a Gospel Church; }>r. Owen's View of the Nature of Schism ; Duck's Sermons, ser. 6, on Division*. SCHISM BILL. See conclusion of the ar- ticle Nonconformists. SCHOLASTIC DIVINITY, is that part or species of divinity which clears and discussos questions by reason and argument; in which sense it stands, in some measure, opposed to positive divinity ; which is founded on the autho- riiv of fathers, councils, &C. The school divinity is now fallen into contempt, and is scarcely re- garded anywhere let. in boom of the universities, where they are still by then charters obliged to teach it. SCHOOLMEN, a sect of men in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, who framed a new sort of divinity, called Scholastic Theology. [See last article.] Their divinity was founded 410 SCRIPTURE upon and confirmed by the philosophy of Aris- totle, and lay, says Dr. Gill, in contentions and litigious disputations, in thorny questions and subtle distinctions. Their whole scheme was chiefly directed to support Antichristianism : so that by their means Popish darkness was the more increased, and Christian divinity almost banished out of the world. " Considering them as to their metaphysical re- searches," says an anonymous but excellent writer, " they fatigued their readers in the pursuit of end- less abstractions and distinctions ; and their design seems rather to have been accurately to arrange and define the objects of thought than to explore the mental faculties themselves. The nature of particular ami universal ideas, time, space, infinity, together with the mode of existence to be ascribed to tin1 Supreme Being, chiefly engaged the atten- tion of the mightiest minds in the middle ages. Acute in the highest degree, and endowed with a wonderful patience of thinking, they yet, by a mistaken direction of their powers, wasted them- selves in endless logomachies, and displayed more of a teazing subtlety than of philosophical depth. They chose rather to strike into the dark and in- tricate by-paths of metaphysical science, than to pursue a career of useful discovery; and as their disquisitions were neither adorned by taste, nor reared on a basis of extensive knowledge, they gradually fell into neglect, when juster views in philosophy made their appearance. Still they will remain a mighty monument of the utmost which the mind of man can accomplish in tlie field of abstraction. If the metaphysician does not find in the schoolmen the materials of his work, he will perceive the study of their writings to be of excellent benefit in sharpening his tools. They will aid his acuteness, though they may fail to enlarge his knowledge." Some of the most famous were, Damascene, Lanfrane, P. Lombard, Alex. Hales, Bonaven- ture, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Du- randus. Gill's Body of Div., Preface; Eclectic Rev. for Dec. 1805 ; Hannah More's Hints to a You rig Princess, vol. ii. p. 2G7, 268. SCORNER, one who treats any person orthing with contempt "He deems," says Mr. Scott, " his own understanding equal to the discovery, investigation, and even comprehension, of every subject ; he therefore rejects as false whatever he cannot account for, what he finds contrary to his preconceived sentiments, and what is out of the reach of his reason : and, indeed, all that tends to condemn his conduct, or expose his folly." SCOTISTS, a set of school divines and phi- losophers; thus called from their founder, J. Duns Scotus, a Scottish cordelier, who maintain- ed the immaculate conception of the Virgin, or that she was born without original sin, in oppo- sition to Thomas Aquinas and the Thomists. SCRIBE. This word has different significa- tions in Scripture. 1. A clerk, or writer, or secre- tary, 2 Sam. viii. 17. — 2. A commissary, or muster-master of the army, 2 Chron. xxvi. 11; •J Kings xxv. 1!).— 3. A man of learning, a doc- tor of the law, 1 Chron. xxvii. 32. SCRIPTURE, is a word derived from the Lai in scriptura, and in its original sense is of the same import with writing, signifying "anything written." It is, however, commonly used to de- note the writings of the Old and New Testa- ments, which are called sometimes the Scripturet, SCRIPTURE sometimes the sacred or Holy Scriptures, and sometimes canonical Scriptures. These books are called the Scriptures by way of eminence, as they are the most important of all writings. They arc said to be holy or sacred on account of the •sacred doctrines which they teach ; and they are termed canonical, because when their number and authenticity were ascertained, their names were inserted in ecclesiastical canons, to distin- guish them from other books, which, being of no authority, were kept out of sight, and therefore styled apocryphal. See Apocrypha. Among other arguments for the divine autho- rity of the Scriptures, the following may be con- sidered as worthy of our attention : " 1. The sacred penmen, the prophets and apostles, were holy, excellent men, and would not — artless, illiterate men, and therefore could not — lay the horrible scheme of deluding man- kind. The hope of gain did not influence them, for they were self-denying men, that left all to fol- low a Master who had no where to lay his head; and whose grand initiating maxim was, Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. — They were so disinterested, that they secured nothing on earth but hunger and naked- ness, stocks, prisons, racks and tortures, which, indeed, was all that they could or did expect, in consequence of Christ's express declaration. Neither was a desire of honoui the motives of their actions : for their Lord himself was treated with the utmost contempt, and had more than once assured them that they should certainly share the same fate: besides, they were humble men, not above working as mechanics, for a coarse maintenance ; and so little desirous of hu- man regard, that they exposed to the world the meanness of their birth and occupations, their great ignorance and scandalous falls. Add to this, that they were so many, and lived at such listance of time and place from each other, that, had they been impostors, it would have been im- practicable for them to contrive and carry on a forgery without being detected. And, as they nei- ther would nor could deceive the world, so they neither could nor would be deceived themselves ; for they were days, months, and years, eye and ear witnesses of the things which they relate ; and, when they had not the fullest evidence of im- portant facts, they insisted upon new proofs, and even upon sensible demonstrations; as, for in- stance, Thomas, in the matter of our Lord's re- surrection, John xx. 25 ; and, to leave us no room to question their sincerity, most of them joyfully sealed the truth of their doctrines with their own blood. Did so many and such marks of veracity ever meet in any other authors ? " 2. But even while they lived, they confirmed their testimony by a variety of miracles wrought in divers places, and for a number of years; sometimes before thousands of their enemies, as the miracles of Christ and his disciples; some- times before hundreds of thousands, as those of Moses. (See Miracle.) " 3. R-eason itself dictates, that nothing but the plainest matter of fact could induce so many thousands of prejudiced and persecuting Jews to embrace the humbling, self-denying doctrine ' the cross, which they so much despised and •rred. Nothing but the clearest evidence, .sine from undoubted truth, could make multi- tudes of lawless, luxurious heathens receive, fol- 411 SCRIPTURE low, and transmit to posterity, the doctrine avA writings of the apostles ; especially at a time when the vanity of their pretensions to miracles, and the gift of tongues, could be so easily disco- vered, had they been impostors; and when the profession of Christianity exposed persons of all ranks to tne greatest contempt and most inin.i nent danger. " 4. When the authenticity of the miracles was attested by thousands of living witnesses, religious rites were instituted and performed by hundreds of thousands, agreeable to Scripture injunctions, in order to perpetuate that authenticity: and these solemn ceremonies have ever since been kept up in all parts of the world ; the Passorer by the Jews, in remembrance of Moses's miracles in Egypt ; and the Eucharist by Christians, as a memorial of Christ's death, and the miracles that accom- panied it, some of which are recorded by Phlegon tne Trallian, a heathen historian. " 5. The Scriptures have not only the external sanction of miracles, but the eternal stamp of the omniscient God by a variety of prophecies, some of which have already been most exactly confirmed by the event predicted. (See Pro- phecy.) " (i. The scattered, despised people, the Jews, the irreconcilable enemies of the Christians, keep with amazing care the Old Testament, full of the prophetic history of Jesus Christ, and by that means afford the world a striking proof that the New Testament is true ; and Christians, in their turn, show that the Old Testament is abundantly confirmed and explained by the New (See Jews, § 4.) " 7. To say nothing of the harmony, venera- ble antiquity, and wonderful preservation of those books, some of which are by far the most an- cient in the world ; to pass over the inimitable simplicity and true sublimity of their style ; the testimony of the fathers and the primitive Chris- tians ; they carry with them such characters of truth, as command the respect of every unpreju- diced reader. " They open to us the mystery of the creation ; the nature of God, angels, and man ; the immor- tality of the soul ; the end for which we were made ; the origin and connexion of moral and natural evil ; the vanity of this world, and the glory of the next. There we see inspired shep- herds, tradesmen, and fishermen, surpassing as much the greatest philosophers as these did the herd of mankind, both in meekness of wisdom, and sublimity of doctrine. — There we admire the purest morality in the world, agreeable to the dictates of sound reason, confirmed by the wit- ness which God has placed for himself in our breast, and exemplified in the lives of men of like passions with ourselves. — There we discover a vein of ecclesiastical history and theological truth consistently running through a collection of sixty-six different books, written by various authors, in different languages, during the space of above 1500 years. — There we find, as in a deep and pure spring, all the genuine drops and streams of spiritual knowledge which can possi- bly be met with in the largest libraries. — There the workings of the human heart are described in a manner that demonstrates the inspiration of the Searcher of Hearts. — There we have a par- ticular account of all our spiritual maladies, with their various symptoms, and the method of a cer- SCRIPTURE lain cure; a cure that has been witnessed by multitudes of" martyrs and departed saints, and is now enjoyed by thousands of good men, who would account it an honour to seal the truth of the Scriptures with their own Wood. — There you meet with the noblest strains of penitential and joyous devotion, adapted to the dispositions and states of all travellers to Sion. — And there you read those awful threat) rungs and cheering pro- mises which are daily fulfilled in the consciences of men, to the admiration of believers, and the astonishment of attentive infidels. "8. The wonderful efficacy of the Scriptures is another proof that they are of God. When they are faithfully opened by his ministers, and powerfully applied by his Spirit, they wound and heal; they kill and make alicc ; they alarm the careless, direct the lost, support the tempted, Strengthen the weak, comfort mourners, and nourish pious souls. "To conclude: It is exceedingly remarkable, that the more humble and holy people are, the more they read, admire, and value the Scriptures ; and, on the contrary, the more self-conceited, worldly-minded, and wicked, the more they ne- glect, despise, and asperse them. ".As for the objections which are raised against their perspicuity and consistency, tiiose who are both pious and learned, know that they are gene- rally founded on prepossession, and the want of understanding in spiritual tilings; or on our ignorance of several customs, idioms, and circum- stances, which were perfectly known when those books were written. Frequently also, the imma- terial error arises merely from a wrong punctua- tion, or a mistake of copiers, printers, or transla- tors; as the daily discoveries of pious critics, and ingenuous confessions of unprejudiced inquirers, abundantly prove." To understand the Scriptures, says Dr. Camp- bell, we should, 1. Get acquainted with each writer's style. — -2. Inquire carefully into the cha- racter, the situation, and the oflice of the writer; the time, the place, the occasion of his writing ; and the people for whose immediate use he ori- ginally intended his work. — 3. Consider the prin- cipal scope of the book, and the particulars chiefly observable in the method by which the writer has purposed to execute his design. — 4. Where the phrase is obscure, the context must be consulted. This, however, will not always answer. — 5. If it do not, consider whe- ther the phrase be any of the writer's peculiari- ties ; if so, it must be inquired what is the ac- ceptation in which he employs it in other places. 6. If this be not sufficient, recourse should be had to the parallel passages, if there be any such, in the other sacred writers. — 7. If thid throws no light, consult the New Testament and the Septuagint, where the word may be used. — 8. If the term be only once us<\l in Scripture, then recur to the ordinary acceptation of the term in classical authors. — ;i. Sometimes reference may be hid to the fathers. — 10. The ancient, versions, as well as modern scholiasts, annotators, and translators, may be consulted. — 11. The analogy of faith, and the etymology of the word, must be used with caution. Above all, let the reader unite prayer with his endeavours, that his understanding may be illu- minated, and his heart impressed with the great truths which the sacred Scriptures contain. 412 SCRIPTURE As to the public reading of the Scriptures h may be remarked, that this is a very laudable aiTerent parts of the country.- They also published what they called an Act, Declaration, and Testimony, to the doctrine, worship, government, and discipline of the church of Scotland ; and against several instances, as they said, of defection from these, both in former and in the present times. Some time after this, several ministers of the established church joined them, and the Associated Presby- tery now consisted of eight ministers. But the general assembly which met in 1738, finding that the number of Seceders was much increased, or- dered the eight ministers to be served with a libel, and to be cited to the next meeting of the assembly, in 1739. They now appeared at the bar as a constituted presbytery, and having for- mally declined the assembly's authority, they immediately withdrew. The assembly which met next year deposed them from the office of the ministry : which, however, they continued to exercise in their respective congregations, who still adhered to them, and erected meeting-houses, where they preached till their death. Mr. James Fisher, the last survivor of them, was, by an unanimous call, in 1711, translated from Kinela- ven to Glasgow, where he continued in the exercise of his ministry among a numerous con- gregation, respected by all ranks in that large city, and died in 1775, much regretted by his people and friends. In 1745, the seceding ministers were become so numerous, that they were erected into three different presbyteries under one synod, when a very unprofitable dispute divided them into two parties. The burgess oath, in some of the royal bo- roughs of Scotland, contains the following clause : " I profess and allow with my heart the true reli- gion presently professed within this realm, and authorized by the laws thereof. I will abide at arid defend the same to my life's end, renouncing the Romish religion called Papistry." Messrs. Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, James Fisher, and others, affirmed that this clause was no way contrary to the principles upon which the seces- sion was formed, and that therefore every seceder might lawfully swear it. Messrs. Alexander Moncrief, Thomas Mair, Adam Gib, and others, contended, on the other hand, that the swearing of the above clause was a virtual renunciation of their testimony ; and this controversy was so keenly agitated, that they split into two different parties, and now met in different synods. Those of them who assert the lawfulness of swearing the Burgess oath are called Burgher's; and the other party, who condemn it, are called Anti- burglicr Seceders. Each party claiming to itself the lawful constitution of the Associate Synod, the Antiburghers, after several previous steps, excommunicated the Burghers, on the ground of their sin, and of their contumacy in it. This rupture took place in 1747, since which period no attempts to effect a re- union have been suc- cessful. They remain under the jurisdiction of SECEDERS different synods, and holds separate communion, although much of their former hostility has been laid aside. The Antiburghers consider the Burghers as too lax, and not sufficiently stead- fast to their testimony. The Burghers, on the other hand, contend that the Antiburghers are too rigid, in that they have introduced new terms of communion into the society. What follows in this article is a further ac- count of those who are commonly called the Burgher Scccders. As there were among them, from the commencement of their secession, seve- ral students who had been educated at one or other of the universities, they appointed one of their ministers to give lectures in theology, and train up candidates for the ministry. Where a congregation is very numerous, as in Stirling, Dunfermline, and Perth, it is formed into a collegiate charge, and provided with two ministers. They are erected into six different presbyteries, united in one general synod, which commonly meets at Edinburgh in May and Sep- tember. They have also a synod in Ireland, composed of three or four different presbyteries. They are legally tolerated in Ireland; and go- vernment, some years ago, granted 500/. per annum, and of late an additional 500Z. ; which, when divided among them, affords to each mi- nister about 20/. over and above the stipend which he receives from his hearers. These have, besides, a presbytery in Nova Scctia ; and, some years ago, it is said, that the Burgher and the Antiburgher ministers residing in the United States formed a coalition, and joined in a general synod, which they call the Synod of New York and Pennsylvania. They all preach the doc- trines contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, as they believe these io be founded on the sacred Scriptures. They ratechise their hearers publicly, and visit thein from house to house once every year. They will not give the Lord's supper to those who are igno- rant of the principles of the Gospel, nor to such as are scandalous and immoral in their lives. — They condemn private baptism ; nor will they admit those who are grossly ignorant and pro- fane to be sponsors for their chddren. Believing that the people have a natural right to choose their own pastors, the settlement of their minis- ters always proceeds upon a popular election ; nnd the candidate who is elected by the majority, is ordained among them. Convinced that the charge of souls is a trust of the greatest import- ance, they carefully watch over the morals of their students, and direct them to such a course of reading and study as they judge most proper to qualify them for the profitable discharge of the pastoral duties. At the ordination of their mi- nisters, they use a formula of the same kind with that of the established church, which their ministers are bound to subscribe when called to it ; and if any of them teach doctrines contrary to the Scriptures, or the Westminster Confession of Faith, they are sure of being thrown out of their communion. By this means, uniformity of sentiment is preserved among them ; nor has any of their ministers, excepting one, been prose- cuted for error in doctrine since the commence- ment of their secession. They believe that the holy Scriptures are the sole criterion of truth, and the only rule to direct mankind to glorify and enjoy God, the chief and 415 SECEDERS eternal good ; and that " the Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be de- termined, and all the decrees of councils, opi- nions of ancient writers, doctrines of men and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures." They are fully persuaded, however, that the standards of public authority in the church of Scotland exhibit a just and consistent view of the mean- ing and design of the holy Scriptures with re- gard to doctrine, worship, government, and disci- pline ; and they so far differ from the dissenters in England, in that they hold these standards to be not only articles of peace and a test of ortho- doxy, but as a bond of union and fellowship. — They consider a simple declaration of adherence to the Scriptures as too equivocal a proof of unity in sentiment, because Arians, Socinians, and Arminians, make such a confession of their faith, while they retain sentiments which they (the Seceders) apprehend are subversive of the great doctrines of the Gospel. They believe that Jesus Christ is the only King and Head of the church, which is his body ; that it is his sole prerogative to enact laws for the government of this king- dom, which is not of this world ; and that the church is not possessed of a legislative, but only of an executive power, to be exercised in ex- plaining and applying to their proper objects and end those laws which Christ hath published in the Scriptures. Those doctrines which they teach, relative to faith and practice, are exhibiteu at great length in an Explanation of the West- minster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, by way of question and answer, in two volumes, com- posed chiefly by Mr. James Fisher, late of Glas- gow, and published by desire of their synod. For these fifty years past, the grounds of their secession, they allege, have been greatly enlarged by the public administrations of the established churcn ; and particularly by the uniform execu- tion of the law respecting patronage, which, they say, has obliged many thousands of private Chris- tians to withdraw from the parish churches, and join their society. In most of their congregations, they celebrate the Lord's Supper twice in the year ; and they catechise their young people concerning their knowledge of the principles of religion previously to their admission to that sacrament. — When any of them fall into the sin of fornication or adultery, the scandal is regularly purged accord- ing to the form of process in the established church ; and those ol the delinquents who do not submit to adequate censure, are publicly declared to be fugitives from discipline, and are expelled the society. They never accept a sum of money as a commutation for the offence. They condemn all clandestine and irregular marriages ; nor will they marry any persons unless they have been proclaimed in the parish church on two different Lord's days at least. The constitution of the Antiburgher church differs very little from that of the Burghers. The supreme court among them is denominated The General Associate Synod, having under its juris- diction three provincial synods in Scotland and one in Ireland. They, as well as the Burgher Seceders, have a professor of theology, whose lectures every candidate for the office of a preacher is obliged to attend. SELF-DECEPTION SECT, a collective term, comprehending all such ;is follow the doctrines and opinions of some divine, philosopher, &C. The word sect, says Dr. Campbell, (Prelim Diss.) among the Jews, was not in its application entirely coincident with the same term as applied by Christians to the subdivisions subsisting among themselves. We, if I mistake not, invariably use it of those who form separate communions, and do not associate with one another in religious worship and cere- monies. Thus, v.c call Papists, Lutherans, Cal- \inisis, different sects, not so much on account of their differences in opinion, as because they have established to themselves different fraterni- ties, to which, in what regards public, worship, they confine themselves; the several denomina- tions abovementioned having no intercommunity with one another in sacred matters. High church and low church we call only parties, be- cause they have not formed separate communions. Great and known dilferences in opinion, when followed by no external breach in the society, are not considered with us as constituting distinct sects, though their differences in opinion may give rise to mutual aversion. Now, in the Jew- ish sects, (if we except the Samaritans,) there were no separate communities erected. The same temple, and the same synagogues, were at- tended alike by Pharisees and by Sadducees: nay, there were often of both denominations in the sanhedrim, and even in the priesthood. — An- other difference was also, that the name of the sect was not applied to all the people who adopted the same opinions; but solely to the men of emi- nence among them who were considered as the leaders of the. party. SECULAR CLERGY. See CkerGy. SECUNDIANS, a denomination in the se- cond century, which derived their name from Secundus, a disciple of Valentine. He main- tained the doctrine of two eternal principles, light and darkness; whence arose the good and evil that are observable in the universe. See Valen- T I NUNS. SEDUCER, one who decoys or draws away another from that which is right. SEEKERS, a denomination which arose in the year 1645. They derived their name from their maintaining that the true church ministry, Scripture, and ordinances, were lost, for which they were seeking. They taught that the Scrip- tures were uncertain ; that present miracles were necessary to faith; that our ministry is without authority ; and that our worship and ordinances are unnecessary or vain. SELEUCIANS, disciples of Seleucus, a phi- losopher of Galatia, who, about the year 380, adopted the sentiments of Hermngenes'and 'hose of Audaeus. He taught, with the Valentinians, that Jesus Christ assumed a body only in ap- pearance. He also maintained that the world was not made by God, but was co-etcrnal with him; and that the soul was only an animated fire created by the angels; that Christ does not sit at the right hand of the h'ather in a human body, but that he lodged his body in the sun, ac- cording to Ps. xix. 4; and tint the pleasures of lieatitudc consisted in corporeal delight. SELF-DECEPTION, includes all those va- rious frauds which We practise on ourselves in forming a judgment, or receiving an impression of our own sLUe, character, and conduct; or 416 SELF-DECEPTION those deceits which make our hearts impose on us in making us promises, if they may be so termed, which are not kept, and contracting en- gagements which are never performed. Self- deception, as one observes, appears in the follow- ing cases : " 1. In judging of our own character, on which we too easily confer the name of self- examination, how often may we detect ourselves in enhancing the merit of the good qualities we possess, and in giving ourselves credit for others, which we really have not. — 2. When several motives or passions concur in prompting us to any action, we too easily assign the chief place and effect to the best. — 3. We are too prone to flatter ourselves by indulging the notion that our habits of vice are but individual acts, into which we have been seduced by occasional temptations, while we are easily led to assign the name of habits to our occasional acts and individual in- stances of virtue. — i. We confound the mere assent of the understanding naturally, attended by some correspondent but transient sensibilities, with the impulses of the affections and determi- nation of the will. — 5. We are apt to ascribe to settled principles the good actions which are the mere effect of natural temper. — 6. As sometimes, in estimating the character of others, we too hastily infer the right motive from the outward act ; so in judging of ourselves we overrate the worth, by overvaluing the motives of our actions. 7. We often confound the non-appearance of a vicious affection with its actual extinction. — 8. We often deceive ourselves by comparing our actual with our former character and cewttect, and perhaps too easily ascribing to the extirpa- tion of vicious, or the implantation of virtuous habits, that improvement which is owing merely to the lapse of time, advancing age, altered cir- cumstances, &c. — !). Another general and fertile source of self-deception is our readiness to excuse or at least to extenuate, the vices of our particu- lar station : while we congratulate ourseives on the absence of other vices which we are under no temptation to commit. — 10. We deceive our- selves by supposing our remorse for sin is genuine, when, alas, it does not lead to repentance. — 11. By forming improper judgments of others, and forming our own conduct upon theirs." From this view we may learn, 1. That the ob- jects as to which men deceive themselves are very numerous, God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible and Gospel doctrines, religious expe- rience, sin, heaven, hell, &c. — 2. The causes art great and powerful ; sin, Satan, the heart, the world, interest, prejudice. — 3. The numbers who deceive themselves are great, the young, the aged, the rich, the poor, self-righteous, hypocrites, apostates, the ungodly. — 4. The evils are many and awful. It renders us the slaves of procrasti- nation, leads us to overrate ourselves, flatters us with an idea of easy victory, confirms our evil habits, and exposes us to the greatest danger. — 5. We should endeavour to understand ana practise the means not to be deceived ; such as strict self-inquiry, prayer, watchfulness, and ever taking the Scriptures for our guide.— 6", and lastly, We should learn to ascertain the evidences of not being deceived, which are such as these : when sin is the object of our increasing fear, a tenderness of conscience, when we can appeal to God as to I he sincerity of our motives and aims, when dependent on Cod's promise,. providence, SELF-DENIAL and grace, and when a nformed to him in all righteousness and true holiness. Christ. Obs. 380-3, p. 632, f>33. SELF-DEDICATION, the giving up of ourselves unreservedly to God, that we may serve him in righteousness and true holiness. See Howe?s Works, vol. i. oct. edit. SELF-DEFENl !E implies not only the pre- servation of one's life, but also the protection of our property, because without property life cannot be preserved in a civilized nation. Some condemn all resistance, whatsoever be the evil offered, or whosoever be the person that offers it ; others will not admit that it should pass Hiiy further than bare resistance ; others say, that it must never be carried so far as hazarding the life of the assailant ; and others again, who deny it not to be lawful in some cases to kill the ag- gressor, at the same time affirm it to be a thing ■more laudable and consonant to the Gospel, to choose rather to lose one's life, in imitation of Christ, than to secure it at the expense of Another's, in pursuance of the permission of rature. But, "Notwithstanding," says Grove, "the great names which may appear on the side of any of "hese opinions, I cannot but think self-defence, though it proceeds to the killing of another to save one's self, is in common cases not barely permitted, but enjoined by nature ; and that a man would be wanting to the Author of his being, to society, and to himself, to abandon that life with which he is put in trust. That a person for- feits his own life to the sword of justice, by taking away another's unprovoked, is a principle not to be disputed. This being so, I ask, whence should arise the obligation to let another kill me, rather than venture to save myself by destroying my enemy'? It cannot arise from a regard to society, which by my suffering another to kill me, loses two lives; that of an honest man by unjust vio- lence, and that of his murderer, if it can be called a loss, by the hand of justice. Whereas, by killing the invader of my life, I only lake a life, which must otherwise have been forfeited, and preserve the life of an innocent person. Nor, for the same reason, can there be any such obligation arising from the love of our neighbour ; since I do not really sare his lire by parting with my own, but only leave him to be put to death after a more ignominious manner by the public executioner. And if it be said that I despatch him with his sins upon him into the other world, which he might have lived long enough to repent of, if legally condemned ; as he must answer for that, who brought me under a necessity of using this method for my own preservation; so I myself may not be prepared, or may not think myself so, or so well assured of it as to venture into the pre- sence of my great Judge ; and no charity obliges me to prefer the safety of another's soul to my own. Self-defence, therefore, may be with justice practised, 1. In case, of an attempt made upon the life of a person, against which he has no other way of seen ring himself but repelling force by tbrce. — 2. It is generally esteemed lawful to kill in the defence of chastity, supposing there be no other way of preserving it." See Grore's Aforal Philosophy. Also Hints on llic Laxrfulncss of Self-defence, by a Scotch Dissenter. SELF-DENIAL, a term that denotes our re- linquishing every thing that stands in opposition 417 3 C SELF-LOVE to the divine command, and our own spiritual welfare, Matt. xvi. 24. It does not consist in denying what a man is, or what he has; in re- fusing favours conferred on us in the course of providence ; in rejecting the use of God's crea- tures; in being careless of life, health, and family; in macerating 4he body, or abusing it in any re- spect; but in renouncing all those pleasures, profits, views, connexions, or practices, that aro prejudicial to the true interests of the soul. The understanding must be so far denied as not to lean upon it, independent of divine instruction, Prov. iii. 5, 6. The will must be denied, so far as it opposes the will of God, Eph. v. 17. The affec- tions, when they become inordinate, Col. iii. v. The gratification of the members of the body must be denied when out of their due course, Rom. vi. 12, 13. The honours of the world, and praise of men, when they become a snare, Jieb. xi. 24, 26. Worldly emoluments, when to be obtained in an unlawful way, or when standing in opposition to religion and usefulness, Matt. iv. 20, 22. Friends and relatives, so far as they oppose the truth, and would influence us to oppose it too, Gen. xii. L Our own righteousness, so as to depend upon it, Phil. iii. 8, 9. Life itself must be laid down, if called for, in the cause of Christ, Matt. xvi. 24, 25. In fine, every thing that is sinful must be denied, however pleasant, and apparently advan- tageous, since, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14. To enable us to practise this duty, let us consider the injunction of Christ, Matt. xvi. 21; his eminent example, Phil. ii. 5, 8; the encouragement he gives, Matt. xvi. 25 ; the example of his saints in all ages, Heb. xi. ; the advantages that attend it ; and, above all, learn to implore the agency of that Divine Spirit, without whom we can do nothing. SELF-EXAMINATION, is the calling our- selves to a strict, account for all the actions of our lives, comparing them with the word of God, the rule of duty ; considering how much evil we have committed, and good we have omitted. It is a duty founded on a divine command, 2 Cor. xiii. 5, and ought to be, 1. Deliberately. — 2. Frequently. — 3. Impartially. — 4. Diligently. — 5. Wisely. — And, 6. With a desire of amendment. This, though a legal duty, as some modern Christians would call it, is essential to our improvement, our felicity, and interest. "They," says Mr. Wilber- force (Pract. View,) "who, in a crazy vessel, navigate a sea wherein are shoals and currents innumerable, if they would keep their course, or reach their port in safety, must carefully repair the smallest injuries, and often throw out their line, and take their observations. In the voyage of life, also, the Christian who would not make shipwreck of his faith, while he is habitually watchful and provident, must make it his express business to look into his state, and ascertain his progress." SELF-EXISTENCE OF GOD, is his entire existence of himself, not owing it to any other being whatsoever ; and thus God would exist, if there were no other being in the whole compass of nature but himself. See Existence and Eternity of Gon. SELF-GOVERNMENT. See Heart. SELFISHNESS. See Set.f-seeking. SELF-LOVE is that instinctive principle which impels every animal, rational and irrational, to preserve its life and promote its own happiness. SELF-SEEKING 1 It is very generally confounded with selfishness; but, perhaps, the one propensity is distinct from the other. Every man loves himself, but every man is not selfish. The scliish man grasps at all immediate advantages, regardless of the conse- quences which his conduct may have upon his neighbour. Self-love only prompts him who is actuated by it to procure to himself the greatest possible sum of happiness during the whole of his existence. In this pursuit, the rational self-lover will often forego a present enjoyment to obtain a greater and more permanent one in reversion ; and he will as often submit to a present pain to avoid a greater hereafter. Self-love, as distin- guished from selfishness, always comprehends the whole of a man's existence ; and, in that extended sense of the phrase, every man is a self-lover; for, with eternity in his view, it is surely not possible for the most disinterested of the human race not to prefer himself to all other men, if their future and everlasting interests could come into competi- tion. This, indeed, they never can do ; for though the introduction of evil into the world, and the different ranks which it makes necessary in so- ciety, put it in the power of a man to raise him- self in the present state by the depression of his neighbour, or by the practice of injustice ; yet, in the pursuit of the glorious prize which is set be- fore us, there can be no rivalship among the com- petitors. The success of one is no injury to an- other; and therefore, in this sense of the phrase, self-love is not only lawful, but absolutely un- avoidable." Self-love, however, says Jortin, (ser. 13. vol. iv.) is vicious, 1. "When it leads us to judge too favourably of our faults. — 2. When we think too well of our righteousness, and over-value our good actions, and are pure in our own eyes. — 3. When we over-value our abilities, and en- tertain too good an opinion of our knowledge and capacity.— 4. "When we are proud and vain of inferior things, and value ourselves upon the sta- tion and circumstances in which, not our own deserts, but some other cause, has placed us. — 5. When we make our worldly interest, conve- nience, ease, or pleasure, the great end of our actions. Much has been said about the doctrine of dis- interested love to God. It must be confessed, that we ought _ to love him for his own excellencies ; yet it is difficult to form an idea how we can love God unconnected with any interest to ourselves. What, indeed, we ought to do, and what we really do, or can do, is very different. There is an ever- lasting obligation on men to love God for what he is, however incapable of doing it; but, at the same time, our love to him is our interest ; nor can we in the present state, I think, while possessed of such bodies and such minds, love God without including a sense of his relative goodness. " We love him," says John, " because he first loved us." See Love. SELF-SEEKING, the aiming at our own interest only in every thing we do. It must be distinguished from that regard which we ou«rht to pay to 'the preservation of our health, the cul- tivation of our minds, the lawful concerns of busi- ness, and the salvation of our souls. Self-seekinc evidences itself by parsimoniousness, oppression" neglect, and contempt of others, rebellion, sedi- tion, egotism, immoderate attempts to gain fame, power, pleasure, money, and frequently by trross acta of lying and injustice. Its evils are numcr- 1 41« SEMI-PELAGIANS ous. It is highly dishonourable and aharin,*, transforming a man into any thing or every thins for his own interest. It is sinful, and the source of innumerable sins; as perjury, hvpocrisv, false- hood, idolatry, persecution, and murder itself. It is dangerous. It excites contempt, is the source of tyranny, discord, war, and makes a man a slave, and exposes him to the just indignation of God. The remedies to "prevent or svppress this evil, are these : Consider that it is absolutely* pro- hibited, Jer. xlv. 5; Luke iv. 23; Heb. xiii. 5; Col. iii. 5. A mark of a wicked degenerate mind : that the most awful curses are pronounced against it. Is.v. 18; Hab. vi. 9— 12; Is. xv. 1, 2; Amos vi. 1 ; Mic. ii. 1, 2 ; that it is contrary to the ex- ample of all wise and good men : that the most awful examples of the punishment of this sin are recorded in Scripture; as Pharoah, Achan, Ha- man, Gehazi, Absalom, Ananias and Sapphira, Judas, and many others. SEMBIANI, so called from Sembianus their leader, who condemned all use of wine as evil of itself. He persuaded his followers that wine was a production of Satan and the earth, denied the resurrection of the body, and rejected most of the books of the Old Testament. SEMI-ARIANS were thus denominated, be- cause, in profession, they condemned the errors of the Arians, but in reality maintained their principles, only palliating and concealing them under softer and more moderate terms. They would not allow, with the orthodox, that the Son was o/tocuo-io;, of the same substance, but only o/ioiouu-io;, of a like substance with the Father; and thus, though in expression they differed from the orthodox in a single letter only, yet in effect they denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Semi-arianism of the moderns consists in their maintaining that the Son was, from all eternity, begotten by the will of the Father ; contrary to the doctrine of those who teach that the eternal generation is necessary. Such, at least, are the respective opinions of Dr. Clarke and Bishop Bull. SEMI-PELAGIANS, a name anciently, and even at this day, given to such as retain some tincture of Pelagianism. Cassian, who had been a deacon of Constanti- nople, and was afterwards a priest at Marseilles, was the chief of these Semi-Pelagians, whose leading principles were, 1. That God did not dispense his grace to one more than another, in consequence of predestination, i. e. an eternal and absolute decree, but was willing to save all men, if they complied with the terms of his Gospel. — 2. That Christ died for all men.— 3. That the grace purchased by Christ, and necessary to sal- vation, was offered to all men — 4. That man, before he received grace, was capable of faith and holy desires. — 5. That man was born free, and was consequently capable of resisting the influ- ences of grace, or of complying with its sugges- tion.— The Semi-Pelagians were very numerous ; and the doctrine of Cassian, though variously ex- plained, was received in the greatest part of the monastic schools in Gaul, from whence it spread itself far and wide through the European pro- vinces. As to the Greeks, and other Eastern Christians, they had embraced the Semi-Pelagian doctrines liefore Cassian. In the sixth century the controversy between the Semi-Pelagians and the disciples of Augustin prevailed much, and continued to divide the Western churches. SEPTUAGINT SENSATION properly signifies that internal act by which we ari; made conscious of pleasure or pain felt at the trgan of sense. As to sensa- tions and feelings, says Dr. Reid, some belong to the animal part of our nature, and are common to us with the brutes; others belong to the rational and moral part. The first are more properly called sensations ; the last, feelings. The French word ftentiment is common to both. The design of the Almighty in giving us both the painful and agreeable feelings is, for the most part, obvious, and well deserving our notice. 1. The painful sensations are admonitions to avoid what would hurt us ; and the agreeable sensations to invite us to those actions that are necessary to the preserva- tion of the individual or the kind. — 2. By the same means, nature invites us to moderate bodily exercise, and admonishes us to avoid idleness and inactivity on the one hand, and excessive labour on the other. — 3. The moderate exercise of all our rational powers gives pleasure. — 4. Every species of beauty is beheld with pleasure, and every species of deformity with disgust. — 5. The benevolent affections are all accompanied with an agreeable feeling ; the malevolent on the contrary : — and, 6. The highest, the noblest, and the most durable pleasure, is that of doing well ; and the most bitter and painful sentiment, the anguish and remorse of a guilty conscience. See Thcorie des Sentimens Agreables ; Reid on the Intel- lectual Powers, p. 332 ; Kaimcs's Elements of Criticism, vol. ii. p. 501. SENSE, a faculty of the soul, whereby it per- ceives external objects by means of impressions made on the organs of the body. Moral sense is said to be an apprehension of that beauty or deformity which arises in the mind by a kind of natural instinct, previously to any reasoning upon the remoter consequences of ac- tions. Whether this really exists or not is dis- puted. On the affirmative side it is said, that, 1. We approve or disapprove certain actions with- out deliberation. — 2. This approbation or disap- probation is uniform and universal. But against this opinion it is answered, that, 1. This uni- formity of sentiment does not pervade all nations. — 2. Approbation of particular conduct arises from a sense of its advantages. The idea con- tinues when the motive no longer exists ; receives strength from authority, imitation, &c. The effi- cacy of imitation is most observable in children. — 3. There are no maxims universally true, but bend to circumstances. — 4. There can be no idea without an object, and instinct is inseparable from the idea of the object. See Paley's Moral Philo- sophy, vol. i. chap. v. ; Hutcheson on the Pas- sions, p. 2-15, &c; Mason's Sermons, vol. i. p. 253. SEPTUAGESIMA, the third Sunday be- fore the first Sunday in Lent ; so called because it was about 70 days before Easter. SEPTUAGINT, the name given to a Greek version of the books of the Old Testament, from its being supposed to be the work of seventy-two Jews, who are usually called the seven _, inter- preters, because seventy is a round number. Aristobulus, who was tutor to Ptolemy Phys- con; Philo, who lived in our Saviour's time, and was contemporary with the apostles; and Jose- phus, speak of this translation as made by seventy- two interpreters, by the care of Demetrius Pha- lercus, in the reign of Ptulemy Philadelphus. All the Christian writers, during the first fifteen cen- 419 SEPTUAGINT turies of the Christian a>ra, have admitted this account of the Septuagint as an undoubted fact ; but, since the Reformation, critics have boldly called it in question. But whatever differences of opinion there have been as to the mode of trans- lation, it is universally acknowledged that such a version, whole or in part, existed ; and it is pretty evident that most of the books must have been translated before our Saviour's time, as they are quoted by him. It must also be considered as a wonderful providence in favour of the religion of Jesus. It prepared the way for his coming, and afterwards greatly promoted the setting up of his kingdom in the world ; lor hitherto the Scriptures had remained lecked up from all other nations but the Jews, in the Hebrew tongue, which was un- derstood by no other nation; but now it was translated into the Greek language, which was a language commonly understood by the nations of the world. It has also been with great propriety observed, "that there are many words and forms of speech in the New Testament, the true import of which cannot be known but by their use in the Septuagint. This version also preserves many important words, some sentences, and several whole verses which originally made a part of the Hebrew text, but have long ago entirely disap- peared. This is the version, and this only, which is constantly used and quoted in the Gospels and by the apostles, and which has thereby received the highest sanction which any writings can pos- sibly receive." There have been various editions of the Sep- tuagint; such as Breitenger's edition, 1730; Boss's edition, 1709; Daniel's edition, 1653; Mills's edition, 12mo. 1725; Bishop Pearson's, printed by Field, 12mo. 1665; but Grabe's edi- tion, published in 1707, is in great repute. Dr. Holmes, canon of Christ Church, was employed for some years on a correct edition of the Septuagint. He had been collating from more than three hundred Greek manuscripts; from twenty or more Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Sclavo- nian, and Armenian manuscripts; from eleven editions of the Greek text and versions ; and from near thirty Greek fathers, when death prevented him from finishing this valuable work. He printed the whole of the Pentateuch in five parts, folio ; and lately edited the prophecy of Daniel according to Thcodotian and the LXX. departing from his proposed order, as if by a presentiment of his end. This valuable work is now continued by Mr. Parsons, of Cambridge. Those who desire a larger account of this translation, may consult Hudy dc Bib. Te.rtibus; Prideaux's Connexion ; Owen's Inquiry into the Septuagint Version ; Blair's Lectures on the Canon ; and Michaelis' s Introduction to the New Testament; Clarke's Bibliothcca. SEPTUAGINT CHRONOLOGY, the chronology which is formed from the dates and periods of time mentioned in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. It reckons 1500 years more from the creation to Abraham than the Hebrew Bible. Dr. Kennicott, in the dissertation prefixed to his Hebrew Bible, has shown it to be very probable that the chronology of the Hebrew Scriptures, since the period just mentioned, was corrupted by the Jews between the years 175 and 200 ; and that the chronology of the Septuagint is more agreeable to truth, it is a fact, that, during the second and third centu- SERMON Ties, the Hebrew Scriptures were almost entirely in the hands of the Jews, while the Septuagint was confined to the Christians. The Jews had, therefore, a very favourable opportunity for this corruption. The following is the reason which is given by Oriental writers : it being a very an- cient tradition that Messiah was to come in the sixth chiliad, Itecause he was to come in the last days (founded on a mystical application of the six davs' creation,) the contrivance was to shorten the age of the world from about 5500 to o7(>0; and thence to prove that Jesus could not be the Messiah. Dr. Kennieott adds, that some He- brew copies, having the larger chronology, were extant till the time of Eusebius, and some till the year 700. SERIOUSNESS, a term often used as sy- nonymous with religion. SERMON, a discourse delivered in public for the purpose of religious instruction and improve- ment. In order to make a good sermon, the follow- ing things may be attended to. The exordium should correspond with the subject on which we are about to treat. For this purpose the context often forms a source of appropriate remark ; and this, though called a hackneyed way, is one of the best for opening gradually to the subject; though, I confess, always to use it is not so well, as it looks formal. There are some subjects in which the context cannot, be consulted : then, perhaps, it is best to begin with some passage of Scripture apposite to the subject, or some striking observation. It has been debated, indeed, whe- ther we should begin with any thing particu- larly calculated to gain the attention, or whether we should rise gradually in the. strength of re- mark and aptness of sentiment. As to this, we may observe, that although it is acknowledged that a minister should flame most towards the end, perhaps it would he well to guard against a tr. Jortin observes, that they were composed at dif- ferent times by different persons; first by Pagans, 422 SIN and then, perhaps, bv Jews, and certainly by Christians. They abound with phrases, words, facts, and passages, taken from the LXX., and the New Testament. They are, saws the Doc- tor, a remarkable specimen of astonishing impu- dence and miserable poetry, and seem to have been, from first to last, and without any one ex- ception, mere impostures. SIMONY is the corrupt presentation of any one to an ecclesiastical benefice, for money, gift, or reward. It is so called from the resemblance it is said to bear to the sin of Simon Magus, though the purchasing of tholy orders seems to approach nearer to this offence. It was by the canon law a very grievous crime ; and is so much the more odious, because, as Sir Edward Coke observes, it is ever accompanied with perjury : for the presentee is sworn to have committed no simony. However, it was not an offence punish- able in a criminal way at the common law, it be- ing thought sufficient to leave the clerk to ec- clesiastical censures. But as these did not affect the sii noniacal patron, nor were efficacious enough to repel the notorious practice of the tiling, divers acts of parliament have been made to restrain it, by means of civil forfeitures, which the modern prevailing usage with regard to spiritual prefer- ments calls aloud to be put in execution. SIN, the transgression of the law, or want of conformity to the will of God, 1 John iii. 4. — 1. Original sin is that whereby our whole nature is corrupted, and rendered contrary to the law of God ; or, according to the 9th article of the church of England, " It is that whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is, of his own nature, inclined to evil." Tins is sometimes called indicelling sin, Rom. vii. The imputation of the sin of Adam to his posterity is also what divines generally call, with some lati- tude of expression, original sin. — 2. Actual sin ■ is a direct violation of God's law, and generally applied to those who are capable of committing moral evil ; as opposed to idiots, or children, who have not the right use of their powers. — 3. Sins of omission consist in the leaving those things undone which ought to be done. — 4. Sins of commission are those which are committed against affirmative precepts, or doing what should not be done. — 5. Sins of infirmity are those which arist from the infirmity of the flesh, ignorance, sur- prise, snares of the world, fee. See Intiismity.- 6. Secret sins are those committed in secret, or those which we, through blindness or prejudice, do not see the evil of, Psal. xix. 12. — 7. Pre- sumptuous sins are those which are done boldly, and against light and conviction. [See Pre- sumption.]— 8. Unpardonable sin is the denial of the truths of the Gospel, with an open and malicious rejection of it. The reason why this sin is never forgiven, is not because of any want of sufficiency in the blood of Christ, nor in the pardoning mercy of God, but because such as commit it never repent of it, but continue obsti- nate and malignant until death. The corruption of human nature is, 1. Uni- versal as to the subjects of it, Rom. iii. 83 ; Isa. liii. (!. — 2. General, as to all the powers of man, Isa. i. (>. — 3. Auful, filling the mind with con- stant rebellion against God and his law. — 1. Hate ful to ( iod, Job xv. lti; and, — 5. Punishable by him, 1 Sam: ii. 9, 10; Rom. ii. 9. Why the Al- mighty permitted it, when his power could have SINGING prevented it, and how it is conveyed from parents to their children, form some of those deep things *>f God, of which we can know but little in the present state; only this we are assured of, that he is a God of truth, and that whatever he does, «r permits, will ultimately tend to promote his glory. While we contemplate, therefore, the nature, the evil, the guilt, the consequence of sin, it is our happiness to reflect, that he who permit- ted it hath provided a remedy for it ; and that he "so loved the world, that he gave his only begot- ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." See Atonement, Redemption, and Edwards, Wes- ley, and Taylor, on Original Sin; Gill's Body of Div. article Sin; King's and Jenyns's Origin of Evil; Burrough's Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin; Dr. Owen on Indwelling Sin; Dr. Wright's Deceitful ness of Sin; Fletcher's Appeal to Mat- ter of Fact; Williams's Answer to Bel sham; Watts's Ruin and Recovery; Howe's Living Temple, p. 2, c. 4; Dr. Smith's Sermon on the Permission of Evil. SINCERITY, freedom from hypocrisy or dis- simulation. The Latin word sincerus, from whence our English word sincere is derived, is composed of sine and cera, and signifies without wax, as pure honey, which is not mixed with any wax ; thus denoting that sincerity is a pure and upright principle. The Greek word ci\i*fivna, translated sincerity, (2 Cor. i. 12,) signifies pro- perly a judgment made of things by the light and splendour of the sun; as, in traffic, men hold up goods they are buying to the light of the sun, to see if they can discover any defect in them. Thus, those who are truly sincere can bear the test of light, and are not afraid of having their principles and practices examined by it. This word, how- ever, like many others, is abused, and often be- comes a subterfuge for the ungodly and the indo- lent, who think that their practice is nothing; but that sincerity, or a good heart, as they call it, is all in all. But such deceive themselves, for a tree is known by its fruits ; and true godly sin- cerity will evidence itself by serious inquiry, impartial examination, desire of instruction, un- prejudiced judgment, devotedness of spirit, and uniformity of conduct. The reader will find this subject ably handled in Gurnall's Christian Ar- mour, vol. ii. p. 121 to 148. See Hypocrisy. SINGING, an ordinance of divine worship, in which we express our joy in God, and gratitude for his mercies. It has always been a branch both of natural and revealed religion, in all ages and periods of time. It was a part of the wor- ship of the Heathen. It was practised by the people of God before the giving of the law of Moses, Exod. xv. ; also under the ceremonial law. Under the Gospel dispensation it is par- ticularly enjoined, Colossians hi. 16; Ephesians v. 10. It was practised by Christ arid his apos- tles, Matt. xxvi. 30, and in the earliest tunes of Christianity. The praises of God may be sung privately in the family, but chiefly in the house of God ; and should be attended to with reve- rence, sincerity, joy, gratitude, and with the un- derstanding, 1 Cor. xiv. 15. Among the Bap- tists, during the early part of their existence, psalmody was generally excluded, as a human ordinance ; but some congregations having adopt- ed it about the beginning of the 18th century, a violent controversy was excited. About the mid- 423 SLANDER die of the century, however, the praises of Goa were sung in every Baptist church. It is to be lamented, however, that this ordinance has not that attention paid to it which it deserves. That great divine, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, observes, that " as it is the command of God that all should sing, so all should make conscience of learning to sing, as it is a thing that cannot be decently performed at all without learning. Those, there- fore, (where there is no natural inability,) who neglect to learn to sing, live in sin, as they ne- glect what is necessary in order to their attending one of the ordinances of God's worship." We leave those who are wilfully dumb in God's house, to consider this pointed remark ! Much has been said as to the use of instru- mental music in the house of God. On the one side it is observed that we ought not to object to it, because it assists devotion ; that it was used in the worship of God under the Old Testament ; and that the worship of heaven is represented by a delightful union of vocal and instrumental music. But on the other side, it is remarked, that nothing should be done in or alx>ut God's worship without example or precept from the New Testament ; that, instead of aiding devo- tion, it often tends to draw off the mind from the right object; that it does not accord with the simplicity of Christian worship ; that the prac- tice of those who lived under the ceremonial dis- pensation can be no rule for us ; that not one text in the New Testament requires or authorizes it by precept or example, by express words or fair inference; and that the representation of the musical harmony in heaven is merely figurative language, denoting the happiness of the saints. We have not room here to prosecute the argu- ments on either side; but the reader may refer to p. 211, of the fourth volume of Bishop Beve- ridge's Thesaurus ; Stillingfleet's and Bishop Home's Sermons on Church Music ; No. 630 of the eighth vol. of the Spectator : Bp. Home on the 150th Psalm; Theol. Mag. vol. ii. p. 427, and vol. iv. p. 333, 458 ; Biblical Mag. vol. ii. p. 35; Ridgley's Body of Divinity, ques. 155; Haweis's Church History, vol. i. p. 403 ; Wil- liams's Historical Essay on Church Music, pre- fixed to Psalmodia Evangelica, vol. ii. p. 56 ; Bedford's Temple Music; Lyra Evangelica ; Practical Discourses on Singing in the Worship of God, preached at thb Friday Evening Leo ture in Eastchcap, 1708 ; Dodwell's Treatise on the Lawfulness of Instrumental Music in Holy Duties. SIX ARTICLES, Law of. See Statutes. SLANDER, according to Dr. Barrow, is ut- tering false speeches against our neighbour, to the prejudice of his fame, safety, welfare ; and that out of malignity, vanity, rashness, ill nature or bad design. The principal kinds of slander are these : — 1. Charging others with facts they arc not guilty of. — 2. Atfixing scandalous names and odious characters which they deserve not. — 3. Aspersing a man's actions with foul names, importing that they proceed from evil principles, or tend to bad ends, when it doth not or cannot appear. — 1. Perverting a man's words or acts dis- advantageously by affected misconstruction. — 5. Partial or lame representation of men's discourse or practice, suppressing some part of the truth, or concealing some circumstances which ought to be explained. — 6. Instilling sly suggestions SOBRIETY which create prejudice in the hearers. — 7. Mag- nifying and aggravating the faults of others. — 8. Imputing to our neighbour's practice, judg- ment, or profession, evil consequences which have no foundation in truth. Of all characters in society, a slanderer is the most odious, and the most likely to produce mis- chief. " His tongue," says the great Massillon, " is a devouring lire, which tarnishes whatever it touches ; which exercises its fury on the good grain equally as on the chaff; on the profane as on the sacred ; which, wherever it passes, leaves only desolation and ruin ; digs even into the bowels of the earth ; turns into vile ashes what only a moment before had appeared to us so precious and brilliant ; acts with more violence and dan- ger than ever, in the time when it was apparently smothered up and almost extinct : which blackens what it cannot consume, and sometimes sparkles and delights before it destroys. It' is an assem- blage of iniquity, a secret, pride, which discovers to us the mote in our brother's eye, but hides the beam which is in our own ; a mean envy, which, hurt at the talents or prosperity of others, makes them the subject of its censures, and studies to dim the splendour of whatever outshines itself; a disguised hatred, which sheds in its speeches the hidden venom of the heart ; an unworthy dupli- city, which praises to the face, and tears in pieces behind the back ; a shameful levity which has no command over itself or words, and often sacrifices both fortune and comfort to the imprudence of an amusing conversation; a deliberate barbarity, which goes to pierce an absent brother; a scan- dal, where we become a subject of shame and sin to those who listen to us; an injustice, where we ravish from our brother what is dearest to him. It is a restless evil, which disturbs society ; spreads dissension through cities and countries; dis- unites the strictest friendships ; is the source of hatred and revenge ; fills wherever it enters with disturbances and confusion ; and every where is an enemy to peace, comfort, and Christian good breeding. Lastly, it is an evil full of deadly poi- son : whatever (lows from it is infected, and poisons whatever it approaches ; even its praises are empoisoned ; its applauses malicious ; its si- lence criminal ; its gestures, motions, and looks, have all their venom, and spread it each in their way. Still more dreadful is this evil when it is found amongst those who are the professed disci- ples of Jesus' Christ. Ah ! the church formerly held in horror the exhibitions of gladiators, and denied that believers, brought up in the tender- ness and benignity of Jesus Christ, could inno- cently feast their eyes with the blood and death of these unfortunate slaves, or form a harmless ■ecreation of so inhuman a pleasure ; but these renew more detestable shows; for they bring upon the stage, not infamous wretches devoted to death, but members of Jesus Christ, their bre- thren; and there they entertain the spectators with wounds which" they inflict on persons who havedevcted themselves to God." Barrow's Marks, vol. i. ser. 17, 18; MansUlon's Sermons, vol. i. ser. 5; English trans.; and article Evil Speaking. SOBR1F.TY, freedom from any inordinate passion. "Sobriety," as one observes, "is both the ornament and tin- defence of a I Ihristian, It is requisite in every situation, and in every en- terprise ; indeed, nothing can be done well with- 4-J1 SOCIN1ANS out it'. The want, of sobriety is seen and felt by multitudes every day. Without sobriety a man is exposed to the tossing of the merciless waves, destitute of an anchor. Sobriety is a security against, the baneful influence of turbulent pas- sions : it is self-possession : it is self-defence. It is necessary on all occasions : when we read, when we hear, when we pray, when we con- verse, when we form schemes, when we pursue them, when we prosper, when we fail. Sobriety is necessary for all descriptions of character; it is necessary for the young and for the old ; for the rich and the poor, for the wise and for the illite- rate ; all need to ' be sober.' The necessity of sobriety is obvious, 1. In our inquiries after truth, as opposed to presumption. — '2. In our pursuit of this world, as opposed to covetousness. — 3. In the use and estimate of the things of this world, as opposed to excess. — 4. In trials and afflictions, as opposed to impatience. — 5. In forming our judg- ment of others, as opposed to censoriousness. — 6. In speaking of one's self, as opposed to egotism. Many motives might be urged to this exercise, as, 1. The general language of Scripture, 1 Pet. v. 8; Phil. iv. 5; Tit. ii. 12; 1 Pet. iv. 7.— 2. Our profession as Christians. — 3. The example of Jesus Christ; and, 4. The near approach of death and judgment." See Drunkenness, Mo- deration1. SOCINIANS, a sect so called from Faustus Socinus, who died in Poland in 1604. There were two who bore the name Socinus, uncle and nephew, and both disseminated the same doc- trine ; but it is the nephew who is generally con- sidered as the founder of this sect. They main- tain " that Jesus Christ was a mere man, who had no existence before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary ; that the Holy Ghost is no dis- tinct person ; but that the Father is truly and properly God. They own that the name of God is given in the holy Scriptures to Jesus Christ, but contend that it is only a deputed title, which, however, invests him with a great authority over all created beings. They deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteousness, and say, that Christ only preached the truth to man- kind, set before them in himself an example of heroic virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his blood. Original sin, and absolute predestination, they esteem scholastic chimeras. Some of them likewise maintain the sleep of the soul, winch, they say, becomes insensible at death, and is raised again with the body at the resurrection, when the good shall be established in the pos- session of eternal felicity, while the wicked shall be consigned to a fire that will not torment them eternally, but fir a certain duration proportioned to their demerits." There is some difference, however, between ancient and modern Socinians. The latter, in- dignant at the name Socinian, have appropriated to themselves that of Unitarians, and reject the notions of a miraculous conception and the wor ship of Christ ; both which were held by Socinus. Dr. Priestley has laboured hard in attempting to defend this doctrine of the Unitarians; but Dr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester, has ably refuted the doctor in his Theological Tracts, which are worthy the perusal of every Christian, and espe- cially every candidate for the ministry. Dr. Price agreed with the Socinians in the main, yet his system was somewhat dillereut. SORROW He believed in the pre-existence of Christ, and likewise that he was more than a human being; and took upon him human nature for a higher purpose than merely revealing to mankind the will of God, and instructing them in their duty and in the doctrines of religion. The Socinians flourished greatly in Poland about the year 1551 ; and J. Siemienius, palatine of Podoliu, built purposely for their use the city of Racow. A famous catechism was published, called the Raeovian catechism; and their most able writers are known by the title of the Polones Fratres, or Polonian Brethren. Their writings were republished together, in the year 165(5, in one great collection, consisting of six volumes in folio, under the title of BibRotheca Fratrum. An account of these authors may be seen in Dr. Toxdmin's Life of Socinus. Some of the writers on the Socinian doctrine, besides the above-men- tioned, have been IIayn.es, in his Scripture Ac- count of the Attributes and Worship of God, and of the Character and Offices of Jesus Ch rist. ; Dr. Lardner on the Logos ; Priestley's Hist, of early Opinions, and Disquisitions; Lindsay in his Historical Vine of Unitarianism ; Carpen- ter's Unitarianism ; and Belsham's Ansicer to Wilberforce. Against the Socinian doctrine may be consulted, Dr. Home's Sermon on the Duty of contending for the faith; Dr. Owen against Biddlc ; Dr. Hornbeck's Confutation of Socinianism ; Calovius's Ditto; Macgowan's Socinianism brought to the Test ; and books un- der articles Arians and Jesus Christ. SOLDINS, so called from their leader, one Soldin, a Greek priest. They appeared about the middle of the fifth century in the kingdoms of Saba and Godolia. They altered the manner of the sacrifice of the mass; their priests offered gold, their deacons incense, and their sub-deacons myrrh ; and this in memory of the like offerings made to the infant Jesus by the wise men. Very few authors mention the Soldins, neither do we know whether thev still subsist. SOLFIDIANS, those who rest on faith alone for salvation, without any connexion with works ; or who judge themselves to be Christ's, because thev believe thev are. SON OF GOD, a term applied in the Scrip- tures not onlv to magistrates and saints, but more particularly to Jesus Christ. Christ, says Bishop Pearson, has a fourfold right to this title. 1. By generation, as begotten of God, Luke i. 35. — 2. By commission, as sent by him, John x. 34, 36. — 3. By resurrection, as the first born, Acts xiii. 32, 33. — 4. By actual possession, as heir of all, Heb. i. 2, 5. But, besides these four, many think that he is called the Son of God in such a way and manner as never any other was, is, or can be, because of his own divine nature, he be- ing the true, proper, and natural Son of God, begotten by him before all worlds, John iii. Hi; Rom, viii. 3; 1 John iv. 9. See article Generation, Eternal, and books there refer- red to. SORCERY, magic, conjuration. See Charms and Witchcraft. SORROW, uneasiness or grief, arising from the privation of some good we actually possessed. It is the opposite to joy. Though sorrow may be allowable under a sense of sin, and when involved iu troubles, yet we must beware of an extreme. Sorrow, i;idi>ed, becomes sinful and excessive j 425 3 D SOUL when it leads us to slight our mercies; causes U9 to be insensible to public evils ; when it diverts us from duty ; so oppresses our bodies as to endanger our lives; sours the spirit with discontent, and makes us inattentive to the precepts of God's word, and advice of our friends. In order to moderate our sorrows, we should consider that we are under the direction of a wise and merciful Being ; that he permits no evil to come upon us without a gracious design ; that he can make our troubles sources of spiritual advantage; that he might have, afflicted us in a far greater degree ; that, though he has taken some, yet he has left many other comforts; that he has given many promises of relief; that he has supported thou- sands in as great troubles as ours ; and, finally, that the time is coming wdien he will wipe away all tears, and give to them that love him a crown of glory that fadeth not away. See Resignation. teOUL, that vital, immaterial, active substance, or principle in man, whereby he perceives, re- members, reasons, and wills. It is rather to be described as to its operations, than to be dpfined as to its essence. Various, indeed, have been the opinions of philosophers concerning its substance. The Epicureans thought it a subtle air, composed of atoms, or primitive corpuscles. The Stoics maintained it was a flame, or portion of heavenly light. The Cartesians make thinking the essence of the soul. Some hold that man is endowed with three kinds of soul, viz. the rational, which is purely spiritual, and infused by the immediate inspiration of God ; the irrational or sensitive, which being common to man and brutes, is sup- posed to be formed of the elements; and, lastly, the vegetative soul, or principle of growth and nutrition, as the first is of understanding, and the second of animal life. The rational soul is simple, uncompounded. and immaterial, not composed of matter and form; for matter can never think and move of itself as the soul does. In the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, the reader will find a very valuable paper, by Dr. Ferrier, proving, by evi- dence apparently complete, that every part of the brain has been injured without affecting the act of thought. It will be difficult for any man to peruse this without being convinced that the modern theory of the Materialists is snaken from its very foundation. The immortality of the soul may he argued from its vast capacities, boundless desires, great improvements, dissatisfaction with the present state, and desire of some kind of religion. It is also argued from the consent of all nations; the consciousness that men have of sinning; the sting of conscience; the justice and providence of God. How far these arguments are conclusive, 1 wii! not say ; but the safest, and, in fact, the only sure ground to go upon to prove this doctrine is the. word of God, where we at once see it clearly established, Matt. x. 28 ; xxv.46; Dan. xii. 2; 2 Tim. i. 10; 1 Thess. iv. 17, 18; John x. 2». But as this article belongs rather to metaphysics than to theology, we rcfi r the reader to A. Baxter on the Soul; Locke on the Understanding ; Walls's Ontology; Jackson on Mailer and Spirit; floret on the Soul; Move's Immortality of the Soul; Hartley on Man; Up. Porte us i Sermons, scr. 5, 6. 7, vol. i. ; Doddridge's Lec- tures, led. 92, i'3, 1)4. 95, !!(i \}~- Drtu's Essay 2 i. i SOUTHCOTTERS sn the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul. Care of the Soul. See Carr. SOUTHCOTTERS; the followers of Jo- anna Southcot, well known at this time in the south of England as a prophetess. The book in which Joanna published her pro- phecies is dated London, April 25, 1804 ; and she begins by declaring she herself did not understand the communications given her by the Spirit, till they were afterward explained to her. In Novem- ber, 1803, she was told to mark the weather during the twenty-four first days of the succeeding year and then the Spirit informs her that the weather each day was typical of the events of each suc- ceeding month : New-year's day to correspond with January; January 2, with February, &c After this she relates a dream she had in 1792, and declares she foretold the death of Bishop Duller, and appeals to a letter put into the hands of a clergyman whom she names. One night she heard a noise as if a ball of iron tvas rolling down the stairs three steps, and the Spirit afterwards, she says, told her this was a sign of three great evils, which were to fall upon this land, the sword, the plague, and the famine. She affirms that the late war, and that the ex- traordinary harvest of 1797 and 1800, happened agreeably to the predictions which she had pre- viously made known ; and particularly appeals to the people of Exeter, where it seems she was brought up from her infancy. In November, 1803, she says she was ordered to open her Bible, which she did at Eccles. ch. i. 9 ; and then follows a long explanation of that chapter. When she was at Stockton-upon-Tces in the next month, she informs us three methodist preachers had the confidence to tell her she ut- tered lies, and she then refers them to four clergy- men who could prove she and her friends were not liars. After this she gives us a long communication on Gen. xlix. wherein Jacob warns his sons of what should befall them in the last days, and which she applies to our present tiroes. She then avours her readers with a long essay on the marriage of the Lamb, and, as variety is always pleasing, it commences in sober prose, but ends in jingling rhyme. The following is the conclusion of a communi- cation which she had at Stockport : " As wrong as they are, saying thou hast children brought up by the parish, and that thou art Buonaparte's brother, and that thou hast been in prison; so false is their sayings, thy writings came from the devil or any spirit but the spirit of the living God; and that every soul in this nation shall know before the FIVE years 1 mentioned to thee in 1802 are expired ; and then I will turn as a dia- dem of beauty to the residence of my people, and they slnll praise the God of their salvation." In March 1805, we find Joanna published a pamphlet in London, endeavouring to confute " Five Charges" against her, which had ap- peared in the Leeds Mercury, -dm] four of which Mic says were absolutely false. The first charge was respecting the sealing of her disciples. The second on the invasion. 1 he third on the famine. The fourth on her mission. The fifth on her death. Scaling is the grand peculiarity and ordi- nance of these people. Joanna gives those who 426 SPIRITUAL profess belief in her mission, and will subscribe to the things revealed in her " Warning," a. sealed written paper, with her signature, and by which they are led to think they are sealed against the day of redemption ; and that all those who are possessed of these seals will be signally honoured by the Messiah when he comes this spring. It is said they look upon Joanna to be the bride, the Lamb's wife ; and that as man fell by a woman, he will be restored by a woman. Some of her fol- lowers pretend also to have visions and revelations. At present, it seems, both warning and sealing have subsided; they are waiting, probably, in awful suspense, for the commencement of the thousand years' reign on the earth, when peace will universally prevail. Yet it is said they do not mean that Christ will come in person, but in spirit; and that the sealed who are dead before this time, will be raised from their graves to par- take in this happy state. SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, is his power and right of dominion over his creatures, to dis- pose and determine them as seemeth him good. This attribute is evidently demonstrated in the systems of creation, providence, and grace ; and may be considered as absolute, universal, and everlasting, Dan. iv. 35; Eph. i. 11. See Do- minion, Government, Power, and Will of God; Coles on the Sovereignty of God; and Charnock on the Dominion of God, in his Works, vol. i. p. 690 ; Edieards's Sermons, ser. 4. SPINOSISM, the doctrines of Spinosa, who was born a Jew at Amsterdam in 1632. The chief articles in his system are such as these : that there is but one substance in nature, and that this only substance is endued with an infinite variety of attributes, among which are extension and cogitation ; that all the bodies in the universe are modifications of this substance, considered as extended, and that all the souls of men are modi- fications, of the same substance considered as co- gitative ; that God is a necessary and infinitely perfect Being, and is the cause of all tilings that exist, but not a different Being from them : that there is but one Being, and one nature ; and that this nature produces within itself, by an imma- nent act, all those which we call creatures ; and that this Being is, at the same time, both agent and patient, efficient cause and subject, but that he produces nothing but modifications of himself. Thus is the Deity made the sole agent as well as patient, in all evil, both physical and moral. If this impious doctrine be not Atheism, (or, as it is sometimes called, Pantheism,) I know not what is. See Pantheism. SPIRIT, an incorporeal being or intelligence ; in which sense God is said to be a Spirit, as are angels and the human soul. SPIRIT, HOLY. See Holy Ghost. SPIRITUALITY OF GOD, is his immate- riality, or being without body. It expresses an idea (says Dr. Paley) made up of a negative part and of a positive part. The negative part con- sists in the exclusion of some of the known pro- perties of matter, especially of solidity, of the vis inertias, and of gravitation. The positive part comprises perception, thought, will, power, action, by which last term is meant the origination of motion. Nat. Theol. p. 481. See Incorpore- ALITY OP Goi). SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS, that dispo- sition implanted in the mind ot the Holy Spirit, STATUTE by which it is inclined to love, delight in, and attend to spiritual things. The spiritual-minded nig lily appreciate spiritual blessings — are en- gaged in spiritual exercises — pursue spiritual ob- jects— are influenced by spiritual motives — and experience spiritual joys. To be spiritually- minded, says St. Paul, is life and peace, Rom. viii. 6. See Dr. Owen's excellent treatise on this subject. SPONSORS, are those persons who in the office of baptism, answer, or are sureties, for the persons baptized. See Godfathers. SPORTS, BOOK OF, a book or declaration drawn up by Bishop Morton in the reign of king James I. to encourage recreations and sports on the Lord's day. It was to this effect : " That for his good people's recreation his Majesty's plea- sure was. that after the end of divine service, the}' should not be disturbed, letted or discouraged, from any lawful recreations ; such as dancing, either of men or women ; archery for men ; leaping, vaulting, or any such harmless recrea- tions ; nor having of mar/games, whitsonales or morrice dances ; or setting up of maypoles, or other sports therewith used, so as the same may be had in due and convenient time, without im- pediment or let of divine service ; and that women should have leave to carry rushes to the church for the decoring of it, according to their old cus- toms; withal prohibiting all unlawful games to be used on Sundays only; as bear-baiting, bull- bailing, interludes, and at all times (in the meaner sort of people prohibited) bowling." Two or three restraints were annexed to the declaration, which deserve the reader's notice : 1st. No re- cusant (i. e. Papist) was to have the benefit of this declaration. — Silly. Nor such as were not present at the whole of divine service. — Nor, 3dly. Such as did not keep to their own parish churches, that is, Puritans." This declaration was ordered to be read in all the parish churches of Lancashire, which abound- ed with Papists ; and Wilson adds, that it was to have been read in all the churches of England, but that Archbishop Abbott, being at Croydon, flatly forbade its being read there. In the reign of King Charles I., Archbishop Laud put the king upon republishing this declaration, which was accordingly done. The court had their balls, masquerades, and plays, on the Sunday evenings ; while the youth of the country were at their mor- rice dances, may-games, church and clerk ales, and all such kind of revelling. The severe press- ing of this declaration made sad havoc among the Puritans, as it was to be read in the churches. Many poor clergymen strained their consciences in submission to their superiors. Some, after publishing it, immediately read the fourth com- mandment to the people : — " Remember the Sab- bath-day, to keep it holy:" adding, "This is the law of God :" the other, " The injunction of man." Some put it upon their curates, whilst great numbers absolutely refused to comply : the consequence of which was, that several clergy- men were actually suspended for not reading it. — Such, alas, was the awful state of the times ! STATUTE, BLOODY, or the law of the six articles ; a law enacted in the reign of Henry VIII. which denounced death against all those who should deny the doctrine of transubstantia- tion ; or maintain the necessity of receiving the sacrament in both kinds, or affirm that it was 427 SUB-DEACON lawful for priests to marry, that vows of celibacy might be broken, that private masses were of no avail, and that auricular confession to a priest was not necessary to salvation. STEADFASTNESS. See Constancy. STOICS, heathen philosophers, who took their names from the Greek word sloa, signifying a porch or portico, because Zeno, the head of the Stoics, kept his school in a porch of the city of Athens. It is supposed that Zeno borrowed many of his opinions from the Jewish Scriptures; but it is certain that Socrates and Plato had taught much of them before. The Stoics gene- rally maintained that nature impels every man to pursue whatever appears to him to be good. Ac- cording to them, self-preservation and defence is the first law of animated nature. All animals neces- sarily derive pleasure from those things which are suited to them ; but the first object of pursuit is not pleasure, but conformity to nature. Every one, therefore, who has a right discernment of what is good, will be chiefly concerned to conform to nature in all his actions and pursuits. This is the origin of moral obligation. With respect to happiness or good, the stoical doctrine was alto- gether extravagant : they taught that all external things are indifferent, and cannot affect the hap- piness of man ; that pain, which docs not belong to the mind, is not evil ; and that a wise man will be happy in the midst of torture, because virtue itself is happiness. Of all the sects, however, of the ancient philo- sophers, it is said that the Stoics came nearest to the Christians: and that not only with respect to their regard to moral virtue, but also on ac- count of their moral principles ; insomuch that Jerome affirms that in many things they agree with us. They asserted the unity of the Divine being — the creation of the world by the Ao?t>;, or Word — the doctrine of Providence — and the con- flagration of the universe. They believed in the doctrine of fate, which they represented as no other than the will and purpose of God, and held that it had no tendency to looseness of life. STYLITES, pillar saints: an appellation given to a kind of solitaries, who stood motionless upon the tops of pillars, raised for this exercise of their patience, and remained there for several years, amidst the admiration and applause of the stupid populace. Of these, we find several men- tioned in ancient writers, and even as lo\~ as the twelfth century, when they were, totally sup- pressed. The founder of the order was St. Simeon Sty- lites, a famous anchoret in the fifth century, who first took up his abode on a column six cubits high ; then on a second of twelve cubits ; a third of twenty-two; a fourth of thirty-six; and on another of forty cubits, where he thus passed thirty -seven years of- his life. The tops of these columns were only three feet in diameter, and were defended by a rail that reached almost to the girdle, somewhat resembling a pulpit. There was no lying down in it. The Faquirs, or de- vout people of the East, imitate this ex' inordinary kind of life to this day. SUB-DEACON, an inferior minister, who anciently attended at the altar, prepared the sa- cred vessels, delivered them to the deacons in time of divine service, attended the doors of the church during communion service, went on the bishop's embassies with his letters or messages to ioreign SUBSCRIPTION churches, and was invested with the first of the holy orders. They were so subordinate to the superior rulers of the church, that, by a canon of the council of Laodicea, they were forbidden to sit in the council in the presence of a deacon without his leave. SUBLAPSARIANS; those who hold that God permitted the first man to fall into trans- gression without absolutely predetermining his fall; or that the decree of predestination regards man as fallen, by an abuse of that freedom which Adam had, into a state in which all were to be left to necessary and unavoidable ruin, who were not exempted from it by predestination. See SUPRALAPSARIANS. SUBMISSION TO GOD implies an entire giving up of our understanding, will, and affec- tions to him ; or, bs Dr. Owen observes, it con- sists in, 1. An acquiescency in his right and sovereignty. — 2. An acknowledgment of his righteousness and wisdom. — 3. A sense of his love and care. — i. A diligent application of our- selves to his mind and will. — 5. Keeping our souls by faith and patience from weariness and despondency. — U. A full resignation to his will. See Resignation, Sorrow. SUBSCRIPTION, CLERICAL. Subscrip- tion to articles of religion is required of the clergy of every established church, and of some churches not established. But it has been a matter of dis- pute whether it answers any valuable purpose as to religion, however necessary as a test to loyalty. All language is more or less ambiguous, so that it is difficult always to understand the exact sense, or the aniinus imponentis, especially when creeds have been long established. It is said that the clergy of the churches of England and Scot- land seldom consider themselves as fettered with the Thirty-nine Articles, or the Confession of Faith, when composing instructions for their parishes, or the public at large. It is to be feared, indeed, that many subscribe merely for the sake of emolument ; and though it be professedly ex animo, it is well known that it is not so in reality. How such will answer to the Gnat Head of the church, we must leave them to judge. They who think subscription to be proper should remember that it approaches very near the solemnity of an oath, and is not to be trifled with. "Great care," says Doddridge, "ought to be taken that we subscribe nothing that we do not firmly believe. If the signification of the words be dubious, and we believe either sense, and that sense in which we do believe them is as natural as the other, we may consis- tently with integrity subscribe them ; or if the sense, in which we t\o believe them, be less natu- ral, and we explain that sense, and that explica- tion be admitted by the person requiring the subscription in his own right, there can be no just foundation for a scruple. Some have added, that, if we have reason to believe (though it is not expressly declared) that he who imposes the subscription <\ot^ not intend that we should hereby declare our assent to those articles, but only that we should pay a compliment to his authority, and engage ourselves not openly to contradict them, we may, in this case, subscribe what is most directly contrary to our belief: or that, if we declare our belief in any book, as, for instance, the Bible, it is to be supposed that we subscribe other articles onlv so far as they arc i-2S SUFFERINGS consistent with that; because we cannot imagine that the law would require us to profess our be- lief of contrary propositions at the same time. But subscription upon these principles seems a very dangerous attack upon sincerity and public virtue, especially in those designed for publio offices." If the reader be desirous of investigat- ing the subject, he may consult Paley's Moral Phil. vol. i. p. 218; Dyer on Subscription; Dod- dridge's Led. led. 70; Conybemre'8 Sermon on Subscription- Free and Candid Disquisitions relating to the Church of England; and The Confessional. SUCCESSION, UNINTERRUPTED, a term made use of by the Romanists, and others, in reference to those bishops who are supposed to have derived their authority from the apostles, and so communicated that authority to others in a line, or succession. It is a very precarious and uncomfortable foundation for Christian hope (says Dr. Doddridge,) which is laid in the doctrine of an uninterrupted succession of bishops, and which makes the validity of the administration of Christian ministers depend upon such a suc- cession, since there is so great a darkness upon many periods of ecclesiastical history, insomuch that it is not agreed who were the seven first bishops of the church of Borne, though that church was so celebrated ; and Eusebius himself, from whom the, greatest patrons of this doctrine have made their catalogues, expressly owns that it is no easy matter to tell who succeeded the apostles in the government of the churches, ex- cepting such as may be collected from St. Paul's own words. [See Episcopacy.] Contested elections, in almost all considerable cities, make it very dubious which were the true bishops; and decrees of councils, rendering all those ordi- nations null where any simoniacal contract was the foundation of them, makes it impossible to prove that there is now upon earth any one per- son who is a legal successor of the apostles; at least, according to the principles of the Romish church. Consequently, whatever system is built on this doctrine must be very precarious. Howe's Episcopacy, p. 170, 183; Doddridge's Lcct.lec- tun^ 197; Chandler's Sermons against Popery, p. 31, 37; Pierce's Sermons, pref. ; and article OnPINATION. SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. To form an idea of Christ's sufferinirs, we should consider the poverty of his birth ; the reproach of his cha- racter ; the pains of his body ; the power of his enemies ; the desertion of his friends ; the weight of his people's sins ; the slow, ignominious, and painful nature of his death ; and the hidings of his Father's face. All these rendered his suffer- ings extremely severe ; yet some heretics said, that the sufferings of Christ were only in appear- ance, and not real : but, as Bishop Pearson ob- serves, " If hunger and thirst ; if revilings and contempt; if sorrows and agonies; if stripes and buffeting; if condemnation and crucifixion, be sufferings, Jesus saj'ered. If the infirmities of our nature; if the weight of our sins; if the ma- lice of men; if the machinations of Satan ; if the hand of God could make him suffer, our Saviour suffered. If the annals of time ; if the writing, of the apostles ; if the death of his martyrs; if the confession of pentiles ; if the scoffs of the .lews, be testimonies, Jesus suffered." — Pearson on the Creed; Dr. RambaclCs Meditations on SUPERSTITION tfie Sufferings of Christ. For the end of Christ's sufferings, see Death of Christ. SUNDAY, or the Lord's Day, a solemn fes- tival observed by Christians on the first day of every week, in memory of our Saviour's resur- rection. See Sabbath. It has been contended whether Sunday is a name that ought to be used by Christians. The words Sabbath and lord's Day, say some, are the only names mentioned in Scripture respecting this day. To call it Sunday, is to set our wis- dom before the wisdom of God, and to give that glory to a Pagan idol which is due to him alone. The ancient Saxons called it by this name, be- cause upon it they worshipped the Sun ; and shall Christians keep up the memory of that which was highly displeasing to God, by calling the Sabbath by that name, rather than by either of those he hath appointed? It is, indeed, called Sunday only because it is customary ; but this, Bay they, will not justify men in doing that which is contrary to the example and command of God in his word. Others observe, that although it was originally called Sunday by the Heathens, yet it may very properly retain that name among Christians, be- cause it is dedicated to the honour of the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, of Him who is styled by the prophet "the Sun of Righteousness," and who on this day arose from the dead. But although it was in the primitive times indifferently called the Lord's Day, or Sunday, yet it was never denominated the Sabbath ; a name constantly appropriated to Saturday, or the seventh day, both by sacred and ecclesiastical writers. See Sabbath. SUPEREROGATION, what a man does beyond his duty, or more than he is commanded to do. The Romanists stand up strenuously for works of supererogation, and maintain that the observance of evangelical councils is such. By means hereof a stock of merit is laid up, which the church has the disposal of, and which she dis- tributes in indulgences tc such as need. This absurd doctrine was first invented to- wards the close of the twelfth century, and modi- fied and embellished by St. Thomas in the thirteenth : according to which, it was pretended that there actually existed an immense treasure of merit, composed of the pious deeds and vir- tuous actions which the saints had performed be- yond what was necessary for their own salvation, and which were, therefore, applicable to the benefit of others ; that the guardian and dispenser of this precious treasure was the Roman pontiff; and that, of consequence, he was empowered to assign to such as he thought proper a portion of this inexhaustible source of merit, suitable to their respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver thein from the punishment due to their crimes. SUPERINTENDANT, an ecclesiastical su- perior in several reformed churches where episco- pacy is not admitted, particularly among the Lutherans in Germany, and the Calvinists in some other places. The superintendent is simi- lar to a bishop, only his power is somewhat more restrained than that of our diocesan bishops. He is the chief pastor, and has the direction of all the inferior pastors within his district or diocese. SUPERSTITION is a word that has been used so indefinitely, that it is difficult to deter- mine its precise meaning. From its resemblance 4-29 SUPRALAPSARIANS in sound to the Latin word superstes, a survivrrr, it. is evidently derived from it ; and diflerenj attempts have been made to trace their connexion in signification, but without any degree of cer- tainty. It is generally defined to be, the observ- ance of unnecessary and uncommanded rites and practices in religion ; reverence of objects not fit for worship ; too great nicety, fears, or scrupu- lousness ; or extravagant devotions ; or religion wrong directed or conducted. The word may be applied to the idolatry of the Heathens, the tra- ditions of the Jews, the unscriptural rites of tho Catholics ; to the dependence placed by many on baptism, the Lord's supper, and other ceremonies. It may be extended to those who, without any evidence, believe that prophecies are still uttered, or miracles are performed. It is also applied to those who believe in witchcraft, magic, omens, &c. Superstition, says Claude, usually springs either, 1. From servile fear, which makes people believe that God is always wrathful, and invents means to appease him. — 2. Or from a natural in- clination we all have to idolatry, which makes men think they see some ray of the Divinity in extraordinary creatures, and on this account wor- ship them. — Or, 3. From hypocrisy, which makes men willing to discharge their obligations to God by grimace, and by zeal for external services. — Or, 4. From presumption, which makes men serve God after their own fancies. Claude's Essay on the Composition of a Seirnon, vol. ii. p. 49 and 299; SaurMs Sermons, vol. v. p. 49, Eng. edit.; Gregory Essays, essay iii. SUPRALAPSARIANS, persons who hold that God, without any regard to the good or evil works of men, has resolved, by an eternal decree, supra lapsum, antecedently to any knowledge of the fall of Adam, and independently of it, to save some and reject others : or. in other words, that God intended to glorify his justice in the con- demnation of some, as well as his mercy in the salvation of others ; and for that purpose, decreed that Adam should necessarily fall. Dr. Gill gives us the following account of Supralapsarianism. — The question which he pro- poses to discuss, is, " Whether men were consi- dered in the mind of God in the decree of election as fallen or unfallen, as in the corrupt mass through the fall, or in the pure mass of creature- ship, previous to it, and as to be created 1" There are some who think that the latter, so considered, were the objects of election in the divine mind. These are called Supralapsarians, though, of these, some are of opinion that man was consi- dered as to be created or creatable, and others as created but not fallen. The former seems best, that, of the vast number of individuals which came up in the divine mind whom his power could create, those whom he meant to bring into being he designed to glorify himself by them in some way or other. The decree of election re- specting any part of them may be distinguished into the decree of the end and the decree of the means. The decree of the end respecting some is either subordinate to their eternal happiness, or ultimate, which is more properly the end, the glory of God; and if both are put together, it isva state of everlasting communion with God, for the glorifying of the riches of his grace. The decree of the means includes the decree to create men to permit, them to fall, to recover them out of it I through redemption by Christ, to sanctity then SUPRALAPSARIANS by the grace of the Spirit, ami completely save them ; and which are not to he reckoned as ma- terially many decrees, but as making one formal decree ; or they are not to be considered as subor- dinate, but as co-ordinate means, and as making up one entire complete medium : for it is not to be supposed that God decreed to create man, that he might permit him to fall, in order to redeem, sanctify, and save him; but he decreed all this that he might glorify his grace, mercy, and jus- tice. And in this way of considering tne decrees of God, they think that they sufficiently obviate ind remove the slanderous calumny cast upon them with respect to the other branch of predes- tination, which leaves men in the same state when others are chosen, and that for the glory of God. Which calumny is, that, according to them, God made man to damn him ; whereas, according to their real sentiments, God decreed to make man, and made man neither to damn him nor save him, but for his own glory, which end is answered in them some way or other. — Again; they argue that the end is first in view before the means, and the decree of the end is, in order of nature, before the decree of the means ; and what is first in intention, is last in execution. Now, as the glory of God is last in execution, it must be first in intention, wherefore men must be considered in the decree of the end as not yet created and fallen; since the creation and per- mission of sin belong to the decree of the means, which in order of nature is after the decree of the end. And they add to this, that if God first de- creed to create man, and sufl'ered him to fall, and then out of the fall chose some to grace and glory, he must decree to create man without an end, which is to make God to do what no wise man w.ould; for when a man is about to do any thing, he proposes an end, and then contrives and fixes on ways and means to bring about that end. They think also that this way of conceiving and speaking of these things best expresses the so- vereignty of God in them, as declared in the 9th of Romans, where he is said to will such and such things, for no other reason but because he wills them. The opponents of this doctrine consider, how- ever, that it is attended with insuperable diffi- culties. We demand, say they, an explanation of what they mean by this principle, " God hath made all things for his own glory." If they mean that justice requires a creature to devote himself to the worship and glorifying of his Creator, we grant it ; if they mean that the attributes of God are displayed in all his works, we grant this too ; but if the proposition be intended to affirm that God had no other view in creating men, so to speak, than his own interest, we deny the pro- position, and affirm that God created men for their own happiness, and in order to have subjects Upon whom he might bestow favours. We desire to be informed, in the next place, say they, how it can be conceived that a deter- mination to damn millions of men can contribute to the. glory of God .' We easily conceive, that it is for the glory of divine justice to punish guilty men: hut to resolve to damn men without the consideration of sin, to create them that they might sin, to determine that they should sin in order to their destruction, is what seems to us more likely to tarnish the glory of God than to display it. 430 SWEARING Again ; we demand how, according to this hypothesis, it can be conceived that God is not the author of sin? In the general scheme of our churches, God only permits men to sin, and it is the abuse of liberty that plunges man into misery : even this principle, all Ienified as it seems, is yet subject to a great number of difficulties; but in this scheme God wills sin to produce the end lie proposed in creating the world, and it was neces sary that men should sin : God created them foi that, if this be not to make God the author of sin, we must renounce the most distinct and clear ideas. Again ; we require them to reconcile this sys- tem with many express declarations of Scripture, which inform us that God icould have all men tc be saved. How doth it agree with such pressing entreaties, such cutting reproofs, such tender expostulations, as God discovers in regard to the unconverted ? Matt, xxiii. 37. Lastly, we desire to know, how is it possible to conceive a God, who being in the actual enjoy- ment of perfect happiness, incomprehensible, and supreme, could determine to add this decree, though useless to his felicity, to create men with- out number for the purpose of confining them for ever in the chains of darkness, and burning them for ever in unquenchable flames. GUI's Body oj Div. vol. i. p. 299; Brine's Works; Sauririi Sermons, vol. v. p. 33o, Eng. trans. SUPREMACY OP THE POPE, a doc- trine held by the Roman Catholics, who believe that the bishop of Rome is, under Christ, supreme pastor of the whole church ; and, as such, is not only the first bishop in order and dignity, but has also a power and jurisdiction over all Christians. This doctrine is chiefly built upon the supposed primacy of Saint Peter, of whom the bishop of Rome is the pretended successor, a primacy we no where find commanded or countenanced, but absolutely prohibited, in the word of God, Luke xxii. 14,24; Mark ix. 35. See Infallibility, Primacy, Pope, and Popery. Dr. Barrow's Treatise on the Pope's Supremacy; Chilling- icorth's Religion of the Protestants ; and Smith's Errors of the Church of Rome. SUPREMACY, Oath of. See Oath. SUSPICION consists in imagining evil of others without proof. It is sometimes opposed to charity, which tliinketh no evil. "A suspicious temper checks in the bud every kind affection : it hardens the heart, and estranges man from man. What friendship can we expect from him who views all our conduct with distrustful eyes, and ascribes every benefit we confer to artifice and stratagem ? A candid man is accustomed to view the characters of his neighbours in the most favourable light, and is like one who dwells amidst those beautiful scenes of nature on which the eye rests with pleasure. Whereas the suspi- cious man, having his imagination filled with all the shocking forms of human falsehood, deceit, and treachery, resembles the traveller in the wil- derness, who discerns no objects around him but what are either dreary or terrible; caverns that open, serpents that hiss, and beasts of prey tliat howl." SWEARING. See Oath. Cursing and Sicearing is an offence against God and religion, and a sin of all others the most extravagant and unaccountable, as having no benefit or advantage attending it. It is a es, with a bar- barous zeal, and a timidity of spirit for the success of the Christian religion, which the belief of its divinity can never excuse, ordered great numbers of the Talmud to be burned. Gregory IX. burned about twenty cart-loads; and Paul IV. ordered 12,000 copies of the Talmud to be destroyed. See Mischn'a ; the last edition of the Talmud of Babylon, printed at Amsterdam, in 12 vols, folio : the Talmud of Jerusalem is in one large volume folio. TANQ.UELINIANS, so called from Tan- quelinus, who formed a numerous denomination in Brabant and Antwerp in the twelfth century. 433 3 E TARGUM He treated with contempt the external worship of God, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and the rite of baptism, and held clandestine assem- blies to propagate his opinions. He declaimed against the vices of the clergy with vehemence and intrepidity. TARGUM, a name given to the Chaldee paraphrases of the books of the Old Testament They are called paraphrases or expositions, be- cause they are rather comments and explications, than literal translations of the text, They are written in the Chaldee tongue, which became familiar to the Jews after the time of their cap- tivity in Babvlon, and was more known to them than the Hebrew itself; so that when the Hebrew text was read in the synagogue, or in the temple, they generally added to it an explication in the Chaldee tongue, for the service of the people, who had but a very imperfect knowledge of the He- brew tongue. It is probable, that even from the time of Ezra tins custom began : since this learned scribe, reading the law to the people in the tem- ple, explained it, with the other priests that were with him, to make it understood by the people, Neh. viii. 7, 9. But though the custom of making these sorts of expositions in the Chaldee language be very ancient among the Hebrews, yet they have no written paraphrases or Targums before the aera of Onkelos and Jonathan, who lived about the time of our Saviour. Jonathan is placed about thirty years before Christ, under the reign of Herod the Great. Onkelos is something more modern. The Targum of Onkelos is the most of all esteemed, and copies are to be found in which it is inserted verse for verse with the Hebrew. It is so short, and so simple, that it cannot be sus- pected of being corrupted. This paraphrast wrote only upon the books of Moses ; and his style ap- proaches nearly to the purity of the Chaldee, as it is found in Daniel and Ezra, This Targum is quoted in the Mishna, but was not known either to Eusebius, St, Jerome, or Origen. The Targum of Jonathan, son of Uziel, is upon the greater and lesser prophets. He is much more diffuse than Onkelos, and especially upon the lesser prophets, where he takes greater liber- ties, and runs on in allegories. His style is pure enough, and approaches pretty near to the Chal- dee of Onkelos. It is thought that the Jewish doctors, who lived above seven hundred years after him, made some additions to him. The Targum of Joseph the Blind is upon the Hagiographia. This author is much more modern, and less esteemed, than those we have now men- tioned. He has written upon the Psalms, Jol\ the Proverbs, the Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Ruth, and Esther. His style is a very corrupt Chaldee, with a great mixture of words from foreign lan- guages. The Targum of Jerusalem is only upon the Pentateuch ; nor is that entire or perfect. There are whole verses wanting, others transposed, others mutilated ; which has made many of opi- nion that this is only a fragment of some ancient paraphrase that is now lost. There is no Targum upon Daniel, or upon the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These Targums are of great use for the better understanding not only of the Old Testament, on which they are written, but also of the New. As to the Old Testament, they serve to viudicate 2 M TEMPLARS the genuineness of the present Hebrew text, by proving it to be the same that was in use when these Targums were made : contrary to the opi- nion of those who think the Jews corrupted it after our Saviours time. They help to explain many words and phrases in the Hebrew original, and they hand clown to us many of the ancient customs of the Jews. And some of them, with the phraseologies, idioms, and peculiar forms of speech, which we find in them, do, in many in- stances, help as much for the better illustration and better understanding of the New Testament as of the Old ; the Jerusalem Chaldee dialect, in which they are written, being the vulgar language of the Jews in our Saviour's time. They also very much serve the Christian cause against the Jews, by interpreting many of the prop-hecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament in the same manner as the Christians do. Many instances arc produced to this purpose by Dr. Prideaux in his Connections of the History of the Old and New Testament. These Targums are published to the best advantage in the second edition of the great Hebrew Bible set forth at Basil by Buxtorf the father, anno 1G10. TEMPER, the disposition of the mind, whe- ther natural or acquired. The word is seldom used by good writers without an epithet, as a good or bad temper. Temper must be distin- guished (roni passion. The passions are quick and strong emotions which by degrees subside. Temper is the disposition which remains after these emotions are past, and which forms the habitual propensity of the soul. See Dr. Evans's Practical Discourses on the Christian Temper ; and the various articles Love, Patience, Hu- mility, Fortitude, &c. in this work. TEMPERANCE, that virtue which a man is said to possess who moderates and restrains his sensual appetites. It is often, however, used in a much more general sense, as synonymous with moderation, and is then applied indiscriminately to all the passions. " Temperance," says Addison, " has those par- ticular advantages above all other means of health, that it may be practised by all ranks and condi- tions at any season or in any place. It is a kind of regimen into which every man may put him- self without interruption to business, expense of money, or loss of time. Physic, for the most part, is nothing else but the substitute of exercise or temperance." In order to obtain and practise this virtue, we should consider it, 1. As a divine com- mand, Phil. iv. 5; Luke xxi. 34; Prov. xxiii. 1 — 3. — 2. As conducive to health. — 3. As advan- tageous to the powers of the mind. — 4. As a de- fence against injustice, lust, imprudence, detrac- tion, poverty, &e. — And, lastly, the example of Christ should be a most powerful stimulus to it. See Intemperance, Sobriety. TEMPLARS, Templers, or Knights of the Temple, a religious order instituted at Jeru- salem, in the beginning of the 13th century, for the defence of the holy sepulchre, acd the pro- tection of Christian pilgrims. They were first called The Poor of the Holy City, and afterwards assumed the appellation of Templars, because their house was near the temple. The order was founded by Baldwin II, then king of Jerusalem, with the concurrence of the pope : and the prin- cipal articles of ttvir rule were, that they should hear the holy office throughout every day ; or that, 434 TEMPTATION when their military duties should prevent this, they should supply it by a certain number of pa- ternosters; that they should abstain from flesh lour days in the week, and on Fridays from eggs and milk meats; that each knight might have three horses and one squire, and that they should neither hunt nor fowl. After the ruin of Jerusa lem, about 1186, they spread themselves through Germany and other countries of Europe, to which they were invited by the liberality of the Chris tians. In the year 1338 this order acquired sta- bility by being confirmed in the council of Troves, and subjected to a rule of discipline drawn up by St. Bernard. In every nation they had a particu- lar governor, called Master of the Temple, or of the militia of the temple. Their grand master had his residence at Paris. The order of Tem- plars flourished for some time, and acquired, by the valour of its knights, immense riches, and an eminent degree of military renown; but, as their prosperity increased, their vices were multiplied, and their arrogance, luxury, and cruelty, rose at last to such a great height, that their privileges were revoked, and their order suppressed with the most terrible circumstances of infamy and severity. TEMPLE, a public building erected for the purpose of religious worship. TEMPORAL, a term often used for secular, as a distinction from spiritual or ecclesiastical ; likewise for any thing belonging to time in con- trast with eternity. TEMPORALITIES OF BISHOPS are the revenues, lands, tenements, and lay fees, be- longing to bishops, as they are barons and lords of parliament.. TEMPTATION, the enticement of a person to commit sin by offering some seeming advan- tage. There are four things, says one, m temp- tation : 1. Deception. — 3. Infection. — 3. Seduc- tion.— 4. Perdition. The sources of temptation are Satan, the world, and the flesh. We are ex- posed to them in every state, in every place, and in every time of life. They may be wisely per- mitted to show us our weakness, to try our faith, to promote our humility, and to learn us to place our dependence on a superior Power: yet we must not run into them, but watch and pray ; avoid sinful company ; consider the love, suffer- ings, and constancy of Christ, and the awful consequences of falling a victim to them. The following rules have been laid down, by which we may in some measure know when a temptation comes from Satan. — 1. When the temptation is unnatural, or contrary to the general bias or tem- per of our minds. — 3. When it is opposite to the present frame of the mind. — 3. When the temp- tation itself is irrational ; being contrary to wnat- ever we could imagine our own minds would suggest to us. — 1. When a temptation is detested in its first rising and appearance. — 5. Lastly, when it is violent. See Satan. Brooks, Owen, Gilpin, Capel, and Gillespie on Temptation ; South's Seven Ser?nons on Temptation, in the 6th vol. of his Sermons ; Pike and Hayward'a Cases of Conscience ; and Bishop Portcus's Ser- mons, ser. 3 and 4, vol. i. TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. The temp- tation of Cnnst, of which we read in the 4th chap, of Matthew, has been much the subject of infidel ridicule, and some ingenious writers, to avoid the difficulties of a literal interpretation, TESTAMENT have reduced the whole to vision and allegory. But perhaps this has increased rather than re- moved those difficulties. Is it not best always to adhere as close as possible to the language of in- spiration, without glossing it with fancies of our own'] And after all, what is there so inconsist- ent with reason in this account? That, when our Lord retired to the interior part of the. wil- derness, the enemy of mankind should assume a disguise (whether human or angelic is not im- portant,) and present the most plausible temp- tation to our Redeemer, under these trying cir- cumstances, is perfectly consistent with the malevolence of his character; but how far he was permitted to exert his power in forming them, is not necessary to be inquired. The grand objection is, why was Satan suffered thus to in- sult the Son of God ? "Wherefore did the Re- deemer suffer his state of retirement to be thus disturbed with the malicious suggestions of the fiend? May it not be answered that herein, 1. He gave an instance of his own condescension and humiliation. — 2. He hereby proved his power over the tempter. — 3. He set an example of firm- ness and virtue to his followers. — And, 4. He here affords consolation to his suffering people, by showing not only that he himself was tempted, but is able to succour those who are tempted, Heb.#i. 13; iv. 15. Farmer on Christ's Temp- tations; Edwards's History of Redemption, note 334 ; Henry, Gill, and Macknigkt, in loc. TERAPHIM, a word in the Hebrew lan- guage which has much exercised the ingenuity of the critics. It is commonly interpreted idols. It would be useless here to trouble the reader with the numerous conjectures which have been formed respecting its meaning. Perhaps the best way to determine it would be to examine and compare all the passages in which it occurs, and to consult the ancient translations. TESTAMENT, OLD. See Bible, Scrip- TESTAMENT, NEW. The religious in- stitution of Jesus Christ, says Mr. Campbell, is frequently denominated >| x«ir>i JibSmkh, which is almost always rendered the New Testament; yet the word SiaSnx*, by itself, is generally translated covenant. It is the Greek word, whereby the Seventy have uniformly translated the Hebrew word Bcrith, which our translators have invari- ably translated covenant. That the Hebrew term corresponds much better to the English word covenant than to testament, there can be no question; yet the word £iaSnx>, in classical use is more frequently rendered Testament* The pro- per Greek word for covenant is o-ui-fl^x^, which is not found in the New Testament, and occurs only thrice in the Septuagint, where it is never employed for rendering the word Berith. The term New is added, to distinguish it from the Old Covenant, that is, the dispensation of Moses. The two covenants are always in Scripture the two dispensations : that under Moses is the old, that under the Messiah is the new. In the latitude wherein the term is used in holy writ, the command under the sanction of death, which God gave to Adam, may, with sufficient propriety, be termed a Covenant ; but it is never so called in Scripture; and when mention is made of the two covenants,' the old and the new, or the first and the second, there appears to be no reference to any tlung that ire- 433 THANKSGIVING lated to Adam. In all such places, Moses and Jesus are contrasted, — the Jewish economy and the Christian: mount Sinai, in Arabia, where the law was promulgated ; and mount Sion in Jerusalem, where the Gospel was first published. These terms, from signifying the two dispensa- tions, came soon to denote the books wherein they were written, the sacred writings of the Jews being called the Old Testament ; and the writings superadded by the apostles and evange- lists, the New Testament. An example of the use of the former application we have in 2 Cor. iii. 14. " Until this day remaineth the veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament." See Dr. Campbell's Pract. Dissert, part 3. TEST ACT, is the statute 25 Car. II. cap. 2, which directs all officers, civil and military, to take the oaths, and make the declaration against transubstantiation, in the Court of King's Bench or Chancery, the next term, or at the next quar- ter-sessions, or (by subsequent statutes) within six months after their admission ; and also within % the same time to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of the church of England, in some public church, imme- diately after divine service or sermon, and to de- liver into court a certificate thereof, signed by the minister and churchwarden : and also to prove the same by two credible witnesses, upon forfei- ture of five hundred pounds, and disability to hold the said office. The avowed object of this act was, to exclude from places of trust all members of the church of Rome ; and hence the Dissen- ters of that age, if they did not support the bill when passing through the two houses of parlia- ment, gave it no opposition. For this part of their conduct they have been often censured with severity, as having betrayed their rights from re sentment to their enemies. To make the ordinance of the Lord's Supper a qualification of admittance to any office in or under the civil government, is evidently a profa- nation of the ordinance itself; not to insist upon the impropriety of excluding peaceable and loyal subjects from places of trust and profit, merely on account of their religious opinions. Various tracts have been written on the subject of a re- peal of this act by Priestley, Englelieid, Walker, Wakefield, Bristow, Palmer, and others. On the contrary side, by a great number of anonymous writers. THANKFULNESS. See Gratitude, and the next article. THANKSGIVING, that part of divine wor- ship wherein we acknowledge benefits received. " It implies," says Dr. Barrow (vol. i. ser. 8 and !>,) " 1. A right apprehension of the benefits conferred. — 2. A faithful retention of benefits in the memory, and frequent reflections upon them. 3. A due esteem and valuation of benefits. — 4. A reception of those benefits with a willing mind, a vehement affection. — 5. Due acknowledgment of our obligations. — (>. Endeavours of real compen- sation ; or, as it respects the Divine Being, a willingness to serve and exalt him. — 7. Esteem, veneration, and love of the benefactor." The blessings for which we should be thankful are, 1. Temporal; such as health, food, raiment, rest, &c. — 2. Spiritual; such as the Bible, ordinances, the Gospel and its blessings ; as free grace, adop- tion, pardon, justification, calling, &c. — 3. JSier. >iul} or the enjoyment of God in a future state.- THEOLOGY Also for all that is past, which we now enjoy, anil what is promised , for private and public, for ordinary and extraordinary blessings; for pros- perity, and even adversity, so far as rendered sub- servient to our good. The excellency of this duty appears, if we consider, 1. Its antiquity; it. ex- isted in Paradise before Adam fell, and therefore prior to the graces of faith, repentance, &c. — 2. Its sphere of operation ; being far beyond many other graces which are confined to time and place. — 3. Its felicity; some duties are painful: as repentance, conflict with sin, &c. ; but this is a source of sublime pleasure. — 4. Its reasonable- ness.— And, 5. Its perpetuity. This will be in exercise for ever, when other graces will not be necessary, as faith, repentance, &c. The obli- gation to this duty arises, I. From the relation we stand in to God. — 2. The divine command. — 3. The promises God hath made. — 4. The ex- ample of all good men. — 5. Our unworthiness of the blessings we receive. — And, 6. The prospect of eternal glory. THEFT, the taking away the property of an- other without his knowledge or consent. This is not only a sin against our neighbour, but a direct violation of that part of tne decalogue which says, "Thou shalt not steal." This law requires justice, truth, and faithfulness in all our dealings with men ; to owe no man any thing, but to give to all their dues ; to be true to all en- gagements, promises, and contracts; and to be faithful in whatever is committed to our care and trust. It forbids all unjust ways of increasing our own and hurting our neighbour's substance by using false balances and measures ; by over- reaching and circumventing in trade and com- merce ; by taking away by force or fraud the goods, persons, or properties of men ; by borrow- ing and not paying again; by oppression, extor- tion, and unlawful usury, it may include in it also, what is very seldom called by this name, i. e. the robbing of ourselves and families, by neglect- ing our callings, or imprudent management thereof; lending iarger sums of money than our circumstances will bear, when there is no pros- pect of payment; by being profuse and excessive in our expenses; indulging unlawful pleasures, and thereby reducing our families to poverty; or even, on the other hand, by laying up a great ileal for the time to' come, while our families are left to starve, or reduced to the greatest inconve- nience and distress. THEODOSIANS. _ See Angei.ites. THEOLOGY, signifies that science which treats of the being and attributes of God, his rela- tions to us, the dispensations of his providence, his will with respect 10 our actions, and his purposes with respect to our end. The word was first used to denote the systems, or rather the heterogeneous fables of those poets and philosophers who wrote of the genealogy and exploits of the gods of Greece. Hence Orpheus, Musauis, Hesiod, &c. were called theologians ; and the same epithet was given to Plato, on account of his sublime specu- lations on the Baffle subject. It was afterwards adopted by the earliest writers of the Christian church, who styled the author of the Apocalypse, by way of eminence, 0 SttKayag, 'lie divine. As he various branches of theology are considered in their places in this work, they need not be insist- ed on here. The theological student will find • he following books on the sunject of utility ; 43G THEOPHILANTHROPTSTS Grotius de Vevitate Religionis Christiana , StiltingfteeVs Origines Sacra; Turretxne's In- stitutio Theologies Elencti-ce; Butler's Analogy; Picteti Thcologia Christiana; Stapferi lnstitu- tiones Theologies ; Witsius on the Covenants; Usher, Boston, Watson, Gill, and Rixlgley's Di- vinity; Doddridge's Lectures; Broun 's Com- pendium of Natural and Revealed Religion; and Ryan's Effects of Religion on Mankind. See also articles Christianity, Religion, Re- velation, Scriptures. THEOPASCH1TES, a denomination in the fifth century, who held that Christ had but one nature, which was the divine, and consequently that this divine nature suffered. THEOPHILANTHROPISTS, a sect of deists, who, in September 17%, published at Paris a sort of catechism or directory for social worship, under the title of Manuel des Thean- throphU.es. This religious breviary found favour; the congregation became numerous; and in the second edition of their Manuel they assumed the less harsh denomination of Thcophilanthropists, i. e. lovers of God and man. — According to them, the temple the most worthy of the Divinity is the universe. Abandoned sometimes under the vault of heaven to the contemplation of the beauties of nature, they render its Author the homage of adoration and of gratitude. They neveithelcss have temples erected by the hands of men, in which it is more commodious for them to assem- ble, to hear lessons concerning his wisdom. Cer- tain moral inscriptions; a simple altar, on which they deposit a sign of gratitude for the benefits of the Creator, such flowers or fruits as the seasons afford ; a tribune for the lectures anil discourses, form the whole of the ornaments of their temples. The first inscription, placed above the altar, recals to remembrance the two religious dogmas which are the foundation of their moral. First inscription. — We believe in the exist- ence of God, in the immortality of the soul. — Second inscription. Worship God, cherish your kind, render yourselves useful to your country. — Third inscription. Good is every thing which tends to the preservation or the perfection of man. Evil is every thing which tends to destroy or de- teriorate him. — fourth inscription. Children, honour your fathers and mothers; obey them with affection, comfort their old age. Fathers and mothers, instruct your children. — Fifth inscrip- tion. Wives, regard your husbands, the chiefs^if your houses. Husbands, love your wives, and render yourselves reciprocally happy. From the concluding part of the Slanucl of the Thcophilanthropists, we may learn something more of their sentiments. " If any one ask you,' say they, " what is the origin of your religion and of your worship, you can answer him thus : Open the most ancient books which are known, seek there what was the religion, what the worship of the first human beings of which history has pre- served the remembrance. There you will see that their religion was what we now call natural re- ligion, because it has for its principle even the Author of nature. It is he that has engraven it in the heart of the first human beings, in ours, in that of all the inhabitants of the earth; this reli- gion, which consists in worshipping God and cherishing our kind, is what we express by one single word, that of Theophilanthropy. Thus our religion is that of our first parents ; it is yours ; THERAPEUTiE It is ours ; it is the universal religion. As to our worship, it is also that of our first fathers. See even in the most ancient writings, that the exterior signs by which they rendered their homage to the Creator were of great simplicity. They dressed for him an altar of earth ; they offered him, in sign of their gratitude and of their submission, some of the productions which they held of his liberal hand. The fathers exhorted their children to virtue ; they all encouraged one another, under the auspices of the Divinity, to the accomplish- ment of their duties. This simple worship the sages of all nations have not ceased to profess, and they have transmitted it down to us without interruption. " If they yet ask you of whom you hold your mission, answer, we hold it of God himself, who, in giving us two arms to aid our kind, has also given us intelligence to mutually enlighten us, and the love of good to bring us together to virtue ; of God, who has given experience and wisdom to the aged to guide the young, and authority to fathers to conduct their children. " If they are not struck with the force of those reasons, do not farther discuss the subject, and do not engage yourself in controversies, which tend to diminish the love of our neighbours. Our prin- ciples are the Eternal Truth ; they will subsist, whatever individuals may support or attack them, and the efforts of the wicked will not even prevail against them. Rest firmly attached to them, with- out attacking or defending any religious system; and remember, that similar discussions have never produced good, and that they have often tinged the earth with the blood of men. Let us lay aside systems, and apply ourselves to doing good ; it is the only road to happiness." So much for the divinity of the Theophilanthropists ; a system en- tirely defective, because it wants the true founda- tion,— the word of God ; the grand rule of all our actions, and the only basis on which our hopes and prospects of success can he built. THEOSOPHISTS, a sect who pretend to derive all their knowledge from divine illumina- tion. They boast that by means of this celestial light, they are not only admitted to the intimate knowledge of God, and of all divine truth, but have access to the most sublime secrets of nature. They ascribe it to the singular manifestation of divine benevolence, that they are able to make such a use of the element of fire in the chemical art, as enables them to discover the essential prin- ciples of bodies, and to disclose stupendous myste- ries in the physical world. To this class, it is said, belonged Paracelsus, R. Fludd, Van Helmont, Peter Poirct, and the Rosicrusians. THERAPEUTiE, so called from the extra- ordinary purity of their religious worship, were a Jewish sect, who, with a kind of religious frenzy, placed their whole felicity in the contemplation of the divine nature. Detaching themselves wholly from secular affairs, they transferred their pro- perty to their relations or friends, and withdrew into solitary places, where they devoted them- selves to a holy life. The principal society of this kind was formed near Alexandria, where they lived, not far from each other, in separate cot- tages, each of which had its own sacred apart- ment; to which the inhabitant retired for the purposes of devotion. After their morning prayers, they spent the day in studying the law and the prophets, endeavouring, by the help of the com- 4o7 THOUGHT mentaries of their ancestors, to discover soma allegorical meaning in every part. Besides this, they entertained themselves with composing sa- cred hymns in various kinds of metre. Six day* of the week were, in this manner, passed in soli- tude. On the seventh day they met, clothed in a decent habit, in a public assembly, where, taking their places according to their age, they sat witn the right hand between the breast and the chin, and the left at the side. Then some one of the elders, stepping forth into the middle of the as- sembly, discoursed with a grave countenance and a calm tone of voice, on the doctrines of the sect; the audience, in the mean time, remaining in perfect silence, and occasionally expressing their attention and approbation by a nod. The chapel where they met was divided into two apartments, one for the men, and the other for the women. So strict a regard was paid to silence in these assemblies, that no one was permitted to whisper, nor even to breathe aloud ; but when the discourse was finished, if the question which had been pro- posed for solution had been treated to the satis- faction of the audience, they expressed their approbation by a murmur of applause. Then the speaker, rising, sung a hymn of praise to God ; in the last verse of which the whole assembly joined. On great festivals, the meeting was closed with a vigil, in which sacred music was performed, accompanied with solemn dancing; and these vigils were continued till morning, when the as- sembly, after a morning prayer, in which their faces were directed towards the rising sun, was broken up. So abstemious were these ascetics that they commonly ate nothing before the setting sun, and often fasted two or three days. They abstained from wine, and (.heir ordinary food was bread and herbs. Much dispute has arisen among the learned concerning this sect. Some have imagined them to have been Judaizing Gentiles ; but Philo sup- poses them to be Jews, by speaking of them as a branch of the sect of Essenes, and expressly classes them among the followers of Moses. Others have maintained, that the Therapeuts? were an Alexandrian sect of Jewish converts to the Christian faith, who devoted themselves to a monastic life. But this is impossible; for Philo, who wrote before Christianity appeared in Egypt, speaks of this as an established sect. From com- paring Philo's account of this sect with the state of philosophy in the country where it flourished, it seems likely that the Therapeutaj were a body of Jewish fanatics, who suflered themselves to be drawn aside from the simplicity of their an- cient religion by the example of the Egyptians and Pythagoreans. How long this sect con- tinued is uncertain; but it is not improbable that, after the appearance of Christianity in Egypt, it soon became extinct. THOUGHT, an image of any thing formed in the mind ; sentiment, reflection, opinion, de- sign. As the thoughts are the prime movers of the conduct ; as in the sight of the Divine Being they bear the character of good or evil ; and as they are therefore cognizable at his tribunal ; the moral regulation of them is of the greatest impor- tance. It is of consequence to inquire what thoughts ought to he rejected, and what to be in- dulged. Those of an evil nature, which ought to be banished, are, 1. Fretful and discontented thoughts. — 2. Anxious and apprehensive thoughts. '2w 2 TOLERATION — 3. Angry and wrathful thoughts. — 4. Malig- nant and revengeful thoughts. — 5. Such as are foolish, trifling, and unreasonable. — 6. Wild and extravagant, vain and fantastical. — 7. Romantic and chimerical. — 8. Impure and lascivious. — 9. Gloomy and melancholy. — 10. Hasty and vola- tile.— 11. Profane and blasphemous. The thoughts tec ought to indulge, are those which give the mind a rational or religious pleasure ; tend to im- prove the understanding: raise the affections to divine objects ; to promote the welfare of our fellow-creatures, and withal the divine glory. To bring the mind into a habit of thinking as we ought to think, there should be a constant de- pendence on and imploring of divine grace ; an increasing acquaintance with the sacred Scrip- tures ; an improvement of every opportunity of serious conversation ; a constant observance of the works of God in creation, providence, and grace; and, lastly, a deep sense of the realities of an eternal world as revealed in the word of God. Mason on Self-knowledge ; Watts on the Mind ; Goodwin's Vanity of Thoughts. See his Works, vol. iii. p. 232. TIARA, the name of the pope's triple crown. The tiara and keys are the badges of the papal dignity, the tiara of his civil rank, and the keys of his jurisdiction ; for as soon as the pope is dead, his arms are represented with the tiara alone, without the keys. The ancient tiara was a round high cap. John XIII. first encompassed it with a crown. Boniface VIII. added a second crown ; and Benedict XII. a third. TIME, mode of duration marked by certain periods, chiefly by the motion and revolution of the sun. The general idea which time gives in every thing to which it is applied, is that of limit- ed duration. Thus we cannot say of the Deity that he exists in time, because eternity, which he inhabits, is absolutely uniform, neither admitting limitation nor succession. Time is said to be redeemed or improved when it is properly filled up, or employed in the con- scientious discharge of all the duties which de- volve upon us, as it respects the Divine Being, ourselves, and our fellow-creatures. Time may be said to be lost when it is not devoted to some good, useful, or at least some innocent purpose ; or when opportunities of improvement, business, or devotion, arc neglected. Time is wasted by excessive sleep, unnecessary recreations, indolent habits, useless visits, idle reading, vain conversa- tion, and all those actions which have no good end in them. We ought to improve the time, When we consider, 1. That it is short. — 2. Swift. — 3. Irrecoverable. — i. Uncertain. — 5. That it is a talent committed to our trust. — And, G. That the improvement of it is advantageous and inter- esting in every respect. See Shower on Time and Eternity ; Fox on Time ; J. Edwards's Posthumous Sermons, ser. 24, 25, 26; Hale's Contemplations, p. 211 ; Hcrrcy's Meditations ; Young's Might Thoughts; Blair's Grave. TOLERATION, in matters of religion, is either civil or ecclesiastical. Civil toleration is an impunity, and safely granted by the state to every sect that does not maintain doctrines inconsistent with the public peace. Ecclesiastical toleration is the allowance which the church grants to its members to differ in certain opinions not reputed essential. Sec Dr. Owen, Locke, and Dr. Furneaux, on Toleration ; Milton's Civil Power in Ecclesias- 438 TOLERATION Heal Cause : Hints on Toleration, by Phila* gatharch.es: Refections Philosophiqv.es et Po- litiipirs sur la Tolerance Religieusc, par J. P. De N***. TOLERATION ACT, an act for exempt- ing their Majesties' Protestant subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the Penalties of certain Laws. The preamble states, " That forasmuch as some ease to scrupulous consciences, in the exer- cise of religion, may be an effectual means to unite their Majesties' Protestant Subjects in in- tsrest and affection," it enacts as follows : viz. Sect. II. That neither the statute made in the 23d of Elizabeth, intituled " An Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due obe- dience ;" nor the statute made in the 20th year of the said CLueen, " for the more speedy and due execution of certain branches of the former act;" nor that clause of a statute made in the first year of the said CLueen, intituled "An Act for the Uni- formity of Common Prayer," &c; whereby all persons are required to resort to their parish church or chapel, upon pain of punishment by , the censures of the church; and also upon pain that every person so offending, shall forfeit for every such offence twelve pence ; nor the statute made in the 3d year of the late King James, inti tuled " An act for the better discovering and repressing Popish Recusants ;" nor that other statute, intituled " An act to prevent and avoid dangers which may grow by Popish Recusants ;" nor any other law or statute of this realm made against Papists or Popish Recusants, shall be construed to extend to any person or persons dis- senting from the Church of England, that shall take the oaths (of allegiance and supremacy) and shall make and subscribe the declaration (against Popery;) which oaths and declaration the jus- tices of the peace at the general sessions of the peace for the county or place where such per- sons shall live, are hereby required to administer to such persons as shall offer themselves to make and subscribe the same, and thereof to keep a register; and, likewise, none of the persons afore- said shall give or pay, as any fee or reward, to any officer belonging to the court, above the sum of six-pence for his entry of his taking the said oaths, &c. nor above the further sum of six-pence for any certificate of the same. Sect. IV. That every person that shall take the said oaths, and make and subscribe the de- claration aforesaid, shall not be liable to any pains, penalties, or forfeitures, mentioned in an act made in the 35th of the late Glueen Eliza- beth, nor in an act made in the 22d of Charles the Second, intituled "An act to prevent and suppress Seditious Conventicles;" nor shall any of the said persons be prosecuted in any eccle- siastical court for their nonconforming to the Church of England. Sect. V. Provided that, if any assembly of persons, dissenting from the Church of England, shall be held in any place for religious worship with the doors locked, barred or bolted, during any time of such meeting together, such persons shall not receive any benefit from this law, but be liable to all the pains and penalties of the aforesaid laws. Sect. VI. Provided that nothing herein con- tained shall be construed to exempt any of the persons aforesaid from paying of tythes, or Otnej TOLERATION parochial duties ; nor from any prosecution in any ecclesiastical court or elsewhere, for the same. Sect. VI 1. That if any person dissenting, &c., as aforesaid, shall hereafter he chosen high con- stable, cr petit constable, church-warden, over- seer of the poor, or any other parochial or ward officer, and such person shall scruple to take upon him any of the said offices, in regard of the oaths, or any other matter or thing required by the law to be taken or done in respect of such office, every such person shall and may execute euch office by a sufficient deputy, that shall com- ply with the laws on this behalf. Sect. VIII. That no person dissenting from the Church of England, in holy orders, or pre- tended holy orders, or pretending to holy orders, nor any preacher or teacher of any congregation of Dissenting Protestants, that, shall make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, and take the said oaths at the General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace, to be held for the county, town, parts, or division where such person lives, which court is hereby impowered to administer the same, and shall also declare his approbation of and subscribe the Articles of Religion mentioned in the statute made in the 13th of Q. Elizabeth, except the 34th, 35th, and 36th, and these words in the 20th article; viz. "The church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith," — shall be liable to any of the pains or penalties mentioned in former acts. Sect. X. recites, That some Dissenting Pro- testants scruple the baptizing of infants; and then proceeds to enact, That every person in pretended holy orders, &e. &c, that shall sub- scribe the aforesaid Articles of Religion, except before excepted, and also except part of the 27th article, touching infant baptism, and shall take the said oaths, &c. &c. shall enjoy all the privi- leges, benefits, and advantages which any other Dissenting Minister might enjoy. Sect. XI. That every teacher or preacher in holy orders, or pretended holy orders, that is, a minister, preacher, or teacher of a congregation, that shall take the oaths herein required, and make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, &c. &c. shall be exempted from serving upon any jury, or from being appointed to bear the office of church-warden, overseer of the poor, or any other parochial or ward office, or other office in any hundred of any shire, city, town, parish, division, or wapentake. Sect. XII. That every justice of the peace may, at any time, require any person that goes to any meeting for exercise of religion, to make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid, and also to take the said oaths or declaration of fidelity hereinafter mentioned ; in case such person scru- ples the taking of an oath, and upon refusal, such justice of the peace is required to commit such person to prison, and to certify the name of such person to the next General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace, &c. Sect. XIII. recites, That there are certain other Dissenters who scruple the taking of any oath; and then proceeds to enact, That every such person shall make and subscribe the afore- said declaration, and also this declaration of fide- lity following ; viz. " 1, A. B., do sincerely pro- mise and solemnly declare, before God and the world, that I will be true and faithful to King William and Queen Mary ; and I do solemnly 439 TOLERATION profess and declare, that I do from my heart ab- hor, detest, and renounce, as impious and here- tical, that damnable doctrine and position, That princes excommunicated or deprived by the pope, or any authority of the see of Rome, may be de- posed or murthered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever; and I do declare, That no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have any power, jurisdiction, supe- riority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm ;" and shall sub- scribe a profession of their Christian belief in these words : " I, A. B., profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, his eternal Son, the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, one God, bless- ed for evermore ; and do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given bv divine inspiration :" — which declara- tions and subscriptions shall be entered of record at the General Quarter Sessions, &c. ; and every such person shall be exempted from all the pains and penalties of all and every the aforementioned statutes. &c. Sect. XVI. Provided, That all the laws made and provided for the frequenting of divine ser- vice on the Lord's Day, commonly called Sun- day, shall be still in force, and executed against all persons that offend against the said laws, ex- cept such persons come to some congregation or assembly of religious worship, allowed or per- mitted by this act. Sect. XVII. Provided, That neither this act, nor any clause, article, or thing herein contained, shall extend, or be construed to extend, to give any ease, benefit, or advantage to any Papist or Popish Recusant whatsoever, or any person that shall deny in his preaching or writing the doc- trine of the blessed Trinity, as it is declared in the aforesaid Articles of Religion. Sect. XVIII. Provided, That if any person or persons do and shall willingly, maliciously, or contemptuously, come into any cathedral or pa- rish-church, chapel, or other congregation per- mitted by this act, and disquiet and disturb the same, or misuse any preacher or teacher, such person or persons, upon proof thereof before any justice of the peace, by two or more sufficient witnesses, shall find two sureties, to be bound by recognizance in the penal sum of 50/., and, in de- fault of such sureties, shall be committed to prison, there to remain till the next General or Quarter Session; and, upon conviction of the said offence at the said General or Quarter Sessions, shall suffer the pain and penalty of 20/., to the use of the King's and Queen's Majesties, their heirs and successors. Sect. XIX. That no congregation or assembly for religious worship shall be permitted or allowed by this act until the place of such meeting shall be certified to the bishop of the diocese, or to the archdeacon of that archdeaconry, or to the jus- tices of the peace at the General or Quarter Ses- sions of the peace for the county, city, or place in which such meeting shall be held, and regis- tered in the said bishop's or archdeacon's court respectively, or recorded at the said General or Quarter Sessions ; the register or clerk of the peace whereof respectively is hereby required to register the same, and to give certificate thereof to such person as shall demand the same; for which there shall be no greater fee or reward taken than the sum of six-pence." TRANSLATION Lord Skimouth has lately attempted to ntro- duce a bill in the House of Lords, proposing some amendment or explanation of this famous act, in order to prevent abuses : but the fact appeared to be the prevention of Sectarianism by means of itine- rant preachers ; and to clog the exertions of those who wish to instruct their neighbours. Mast numbers of petitions from all parts of the country were presented against the bill ; so that when it was brought forward on May 21, 1811, (after a considerable discussion) the question for a second reading was put and negatived without a division. The bill was, therefore, thrown out. It is to be hoped that this will be the last effort ever made to infringe the Act of Toleration. TONGUE, Duties op the.— 1. To glorify God by magnifying his name. — 2. To sing his praises. — 3. To declare to others God's good- ness.— 4. To pray to him for what we want. — 5. To make open profession of our subjection to him. — 6. To preach his word. — 7. To defend the truth. — 8. To exhort men to particular du- ties.—9. To confess our sins to God. — 10. To crave the advice of others. — 11. To praise that which is good in others. — 12. To bear witness to the truth. — 13. To defend the cause of the inno- cent and just. — 14. To communicate to others the same good impressions we have received. TONGUES, GIFT OF. See Gift of Tongues. TRADITION, something handed down from one generation to another. Thus the Jews pre- tended, that, besides their written law contained in the Old Testament, Moses had delivered an oral law, which had been conveyed down from father to son ; and thus the Roman Catholics are said to value particular doctrines, supposed to have descended from the apostolic times by tradition. TRANSLATION, in the ecclesiastical sense of the word, is the removing of a bishop from one see to another. It is also used for the version of a book or writing into a different language from that in which it was written. In translating the Scriptures, great know- ledge and caution are necessary. Dr. Campbell lays down three fundamental rules for translat- ing: ]. The translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original. — 2. The style and manner of the original should be pre- served.— 3. The translation should have all the ease of original composition. He observes, that the difficulties found in translating the Scriptures arise, 1. From the singularity of the Jewish cus- toms.— 2. From the poverty (as appears) of their native language. — 3. From the fewness of the books extant in it. — 1. From the symbolical style of the prophets. — 5. From the excessive influ- ence which a previous acquaintance with trans- lations have occasioned. — And, G. From prepos- sessions, in what way soever acquired, in regard to religious tenets. Notwithstanding these difficulties, however, the divines employed by king James to translate the ( )ld and New Testaments have given us a translation which, with a very few exceptions, can scarcely be improved. These divines were pro- foundly skilled in the learning as well as in the languages of the e;ist; whilst some of those who have presumed to improve their version, seem not to have possessed a critical knowledge of the Greek tongue, to have known still less of the 1 le- orew, and to have been absolute strangers to the 440 TRINITARIANS dialect spoken in Judca in the days of our Sa- viour, as well as to the manners, customs, and peculiar opinions of the Jewish sects. " Neither," as one observes, " metaphysical acuteness, nor the most perfect knowledge of the principles of trans- lation in general, will enable a man who is igno- rant of these things to improve the authorized version either of the Gospels or Epistles ; for such a man knows not accurately, and therefore cannot give a complete transcript of the ideas of the ori- ginal work." See Bible; Air. Tytler's Essay on the Principles of Translation ; and Dr. Camp- bell's Preliminary Dissertations to his Transla- tion of the Gospels. TRANSUBSTANTIATION, the conver- sion or change of the substance of the bread and wine in the eucharist into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which the Romish church suppose to be wrought by the consecration of the priest. Nothing can be more contradictory to Scripture, or to common sense, than this doctrine. It must be evident to every one who is not blinded by ignorance and prejudice, that our Lord's words, <; This is my body," are mere figuratixe expres- sions : besides, such a transubstanliation is so opposite to the testimony of our senses, as com- pletely to undermine the whole proof of all the miracles by which God hath confirmed revelation. According to such a transubstantiation, the same body is alive and dead at once, and may be in a million of different places whole and entire at the same instant of time ; accidents remain without a substance, and substance without accidents ; and that a part of Christ's body is equal to the whole. It is also contrary to the end of the sa- crament, which is to represent and commemorate Christ, not to believe that he is corporeally pre- sent, 1 Cor. xi. 24 — 26. But we need not waste time in attempting to refute a doctrine which, by its impious consequences, refutes itself. See Smith's Errors of the Church of Rome, dial. (J; A Dialogue between Philalethcs and Benevolus; Kidder's Alcssiah, part iii. p. 80; and Brown's Compendium, p. 013. TRENT, Council of denotes the council as- sembled by Paul III. in 1545, and continued by twenty-five sessions till the year 15G3, under Ju- lius III. and Pius IV., in order to correct, illus- trate, and fix with perspicuity the doctrine of the church, to restore the vigour of its discipline, and to reform the lives of its ministers. The decrees of this council, together with the creed of pope Pius IV., contain a summary of the doctrines of the Roman Catholics. See JMosheim's Cliurch History; The Alodcrn Universal History, vol. xxiii; Era. Paolo Sarpi's and Father Paul's His- tory of the Council of Trent. TRIERS, a society of ministers, with some others, chosen by Cromwell to sit at Whitehall. They were mostly Independents, though some Presbyterians were joined with them. They had power to try all that came for institution and in- duction ; and without their approbation none were admitted. They examined all who were able to come up to London, but if any were un- able, or of doubtful qualifications, they referred then) to some ministers in the county where they lived. They rejected all those who did not live according to their profession, and placed in their room able serious preachers who lived godly lives though of different opinions. TRINITARIANS, those who believe in the TRITHEISTS trinity. See next article, and the 162nd Lecture of Doddridge, where the reader will find a state- ment of the opinions of the ancients on this doc- trine, as likewise many of the moderns; such as Baxter, Dr. Clarke, Burnet, Howe, Waterland, Taylor, Pearson, Bull, Wallis, Watts, and Jere- my Taylor. TRINITY, the union of three in one ; gene- rally applied to the ineffahle mystery of three persons in one God, — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This doctrine is rejected hy many he- cause it is incomprehensible ; but, as Mr. Scott observes, if distinct personality, agency, and di- vine perfections, be in Scripture ascribed to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, no words can more exactly express the doctrine, which must unavoidably be hence inferred, than those commonly used on this subject, viz. that there are three distinct Persons in the Unity of the Godhead. The sacred oracles most assuredly teach us that the One living and true God is, in some inexplicable manner, Triune, for he is spoken of as One in some respects, and as Three in others, Gen. i. 26; xi. G, 7; Isa. xlviii. 16; xxxiv. 16; 2 Cor. xiii. 14; John xiv. 23; Matt, xxviii. 19; 2 Thess. iii. 3; 1 John v. 7; Acts v. 3, 4. The Trinity of Persons in the Deity con- sists with the Unity of the Divine Essence; though we pretend not to explain the modus of it, and deem those reprehensible who have at- tempted it ; as the modus in which any being subsists, according to its distinct nature and known properties, is a secret to the most learned naturalists to this present day, and probably will always continue so. But if the most common of God's works, with which we are the most con- versant, be in this respect incomprehensible, how can men think that the modus cxistendi (or manner of existence) of the infinite Creator can be level to their capacities'? — The doctrine of the Trinity is indeed a mystery, but no man hath yet shown that it involves in it a real contradic- tion. Many have ventured to say, that it ought to be ranked with transubstantiation, as equally absurd. But Archbishop Tillotson has shown by the most convincing arguments imaginable, that transubstantiation includes the most palpa- ble contradictions ; and that we have the evidence of our eyes, feeling, and taste, that what we re- ceive in the Lord's Supper is bread, and not the body of a man : whereas we have the testimony of our eyes alone that the words, "This is my body," are at all in the Scriptures. Now this is intelligible to the meanest capacity : it is fairly made out, and perfectly unanswerable: but who- ever attempted thus to prove the doctrine of the Trinity to be self-contradictory 1 What testimony of our senses, or what demonstrated truth does it contradict 1 Yet till this be shown, it is neither fair nor convincing, to exclaim against it as con- tradictorv, absurd, and irrational." See articles Jesus Christ and Hoi.y Ghost; also, Owen, Watts, Jones, S. Browne, Fawcelt, A. Taylor, J. Scott, Simpson, and Wesley's Pieces on the Subject; Bull's Dcfensio Fulei Nicance ; Dr. Alix's Testimonies of the Jewish Church; Dis- play of the Trinity by a Layman; Scott's Essays. TRITHEISTS, a sect of the sixth century, whose chief was John Ascunage, a Syrian phi- losopher, and at the same time a Monophysite. This man imagined in the Deity three natures or substances absolutely equal in all respects, and 441 iF TRUST joined together by no common essence ; to which opinion his adversaries gave the name of Tnthe- ism. One of the warmest defenders of this doc- trine was John Philoponus, an Alexandrian philosopher and grammarian of the highest repu- tation ; and hence he has been considered by many as the author of this sect, whose members have consequently derived from him the title of Philo- ponists. This sect was divided into two parties, the Philoponists and the Cononites; the latter of whom were so called from Conon, bishop of Tar- sus, their chief. They agreed in the doctrine of three persons in the Godhead, and differed only in their manner of explaining what the Scriptures taught concerning the resurrection of the body. Philoponus maintained, that the form as well as the matter of all bodies was generated and cor- rupted, and that both, therefore, were to be re- stored in the resurrection. Conon held, on the contrary, that the body never lost its form; that its matter alone was subject to corruption and decay, and was consequently to be restored when this mortal shall put on immortality. TRUCE OF GOD, a scheme set on foot for the purpose of quelling the violence and prevent- ing the frequency of private wars, occasioned by the fierce spirit of the barbarians in the middle ages. In France, a general peace and cessation from hostilities took place A. D. 1032, and con- tinued for seven years, in consequence of the methods which the bishop of Aquitaine success- fully employed to work upon the superstition of the times. A. resolution was formed, that no man should, in time to come, attack or molest his adversaries during the seasons set apart for cele- brating the great festivals of the church, or from the evening of Thursday in each week to the morning of Monday in the week ensuing, the intervening days being consecrated as particu- larly holy ; our Lord's passion having happened on one of these days and his resurrection on an- other. A change in the disposition of men so sudden, and which proposed a resolution so un- expected, was considered as miraculous; and the respite from hostilities which followed upon it was called the Truce of God. This cessation from hostilities during three complete days every week, allowed a considerable space for the pas- sions of the antagonists to cool, and for the people to enjoy a respite from the calamities of war, and to take measures for their own security. TRUST IN GOD, signifies that confidence in, or dependence we place on him. This trust ought to be, 1. Sincere and unreserved, not in idols, in men, in talents, riches, power, in our- selves part, and him part, Prov. iii. 5, 6. — 2. Uni- versal ; body, soul, circumstances, 1 Pet. v. 7. — 3. Perpetual, Isa. xxvi. 4. — 4. With a lively ex- pectation of his blessing, Mic. vii. 7. The encou- ragement we have to trust inhim arises, 1. From his liberality, Rom. viii. 32; Psal. lxxxiv. 11. — ■ 2. His ability, James i. 17. — 3. His relationship, Psal. ciii. 13. — 4. His promise, Isa. xxxiii. 16. — 5. His conduct in all ages to those who have trusted him, Gen. xlviii. 15, 16; Psal. xxxvii. 23. The happiness of those who trust, in him is great, if we consider, 1. Tbeirsafety, Psal.cxxv. 1. — 2. Their courage, Psal. xxvii. 1.— 3. Their peace, Isa. xxvi. 3.— -4. Their character and fruit- fulness, Psal. i. 3.-5. Their end, Psal. xxxvii. 37; Job v. 26. UCKEWALLISTS TRUTH, a term used in opposition to false- hood, and applied to propositions which answer or accord to the nature and reality of the thing whereof something is affirmed or denied. Natural or physical truth is said to be the agreement of our sentiments witli the nature of things. Moral truth is the conformity of our words and actions to our sentiments. Evangelical or Gospel truth is taken for Christ ; the doctrines of the Gospel ; substance or reality, in opposition to the shadows and ceremonies of the 'aw, John i. 17. For this truth we ought to be sincere in seeking, zealous in defending, and active in propagating ; highly to prize it, constantly to rejoice in it, and uniformly to be obedient to it. See Lying, Sincerity; Tat ham's Scale of Truth ; Locke on the Under- standing; Beattie on Truth; Dr. Stennet's Sermon on propagating the Truth ; Saurin's Sermons, Eng. trans, vol. ii. ser. 1 and 14. TUNKERS. See Dunkers. TURLUPINS, a denomination which ap- peared about the year 1372, principally in Savoy and Dauphiny. They taught that when a man is arrived at a certain state of perfection, he is freed from all subjection to the divine law. It is said, they often went naked, and they allowed of no prayer to God but mental. They called them- selves the fraternity of the poor. TYPE, an impression, image, or representation of some model, which is termed the antitype. In this sense we often use the word to denote the prefiguration of the great events of man's re- demption by persons or things in the Old Testa- ment. Types are distinguished into, 1. Such as were directly appointed for that end ; as the sacri- UNBELIEF fices. — 2. Such as had only a providential ordina- tion to that end ; as the story of Jacob and Esau. — And, 3. Things that fell out of old, so as to illustrate present things from a similitude between thern ; as the allegory of Hagar and Sarah. Some distinguish them into real and personal; by the former intending the tabernacles, temples, and religious institutions; and under the latter, in- cluding what are called providential and personal types. While we may justly consider the death of Christ, and his resurrection from the dead, as events that are typified in the Old Testament, we should be careful not to consider every thing mentioned in the Hebrew Scripture as a type, for this will expose the whole doctrine of types to ridicule : for instance, what can be a greater bur- lesque on the Scriptures than to suppose, as some have done, that the extraction of Eve from the side of Adam, while he was in a deep sleep, was intended as a type of the Roman soldiers' piercing our Saviour's side while he slept the sleep of death ? Such ideas as these, vented sometimes by novices, and sometimes by more aged divines, give a greater proof of the wildness of their fan- cies than the correctness of their judgments. See Mather and M'Ewen on the Types: Ridgley't Div. ques. 35. ' TYTHE, the tenth part of all fruits, &c. a revenue payable to the clergy. The tythes among the Jews were of three sorts. The first to the Levites, for their maintenance, Num. xviii. 21 — 24. The second for the feasts and sacrifices, Deut. xiv. 22 ; and the third for the poor every third year. Deut. xiv. 28, ,29. See Supp. Pa- pers. u. UBIQ.U1TARIANS, formed from ubique, 'every where," in ecclesiastical history, a sect of Lutherans which rose and spread itself in Ger- many; and whose distinguishing doctrine was, that the body of Jesus Christ is every where, or in every place. Brentius, one of the earliest reformers, is said to have first broached this error in 15(i0. Luther himself, in his controversy with Zuinglius, had tlirown out some unguarded expressions that seemed to imply a belief of the omnipresence of the body of Christ; but he became sensible after- wards that this opinion was attended with great difficulties, and particularly that it ought not to be made use of as a proof of Christ's corporeal presence in the Eucharist. However, after the death of Luther, this absurd hypothesis was re- newed, and dressed up in a specious and plausible form by Brentius, Chemnitius, and Andraas, who maintained the communication of the pro- perties of Christ's divinity to his human nature. It is, indeed, obvious that every Lutheran who believes the doctrine of consubstantiation, what- ever he may pretend, must be an Ubiquitarian. UBIQ.U1TY, omnipresence ; an attribute of the Deity, whereby be is always intimately pre- sent to all things. See Omniscience. UCKEWALLISTS, a sect which derived its denomination from Uke Walles, a native of Friesland, who published his sentiments in 1037. He entertained a favourable opinion of the eter- nal state of Judas and the rest of Christ's uiur- 4-12 derers. His argument was this, that the period of time which extended from the birth of Christ to t he descent of the Holy Ghost was a time of deep ignorance, during which the Jews were destitute of divine light ; and that of consequence, the sins and enormities which were committed during this interval were in a great measure ex- cusable, and could not merit the severest displays of the divine justice. This denomination strictly adhered to the doctrine of the Mennonites. UNBELIEF, the refining assent to testimo- ny. It is often taken for distrust of God's faith- fulness, but more particularly for the discrediting the testimony of God's word concerning his Son, John iii. 18, 19 ; John xvi. 9. " It includes,'' savs Dr. Guise, " disaffection to God, disregard to his word, prejudices against the Redeemer, readiness to give credit to any other than him, inordinate love to the world, and preferring of the applause of men to the approbation of God." — "Unbelief," says the gnat Charnoek, "is the greatest sin, as it is the fountain of all sin : it was Adam's first sin : it is a sin against the Gos- pel, against the highest testimony; a refusal to accept of Christ upon the terms of the Gospel. It strikes peculiarly at God ; is the greatest reproach of him, robs him of his glory, a contra- diction to his will, and a contempt or his autho- rity." The causes of unbelief arc Satan, igno- rance, pride, and sensuality. The danger of it is great : it hardens the heart, fills with presump- tion, creates impatience, deceives with error, and UNCTION finally exposes to condemnation, John iii. 11. — Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 601 ; Case's Ser- mons, ser. 2 ; Bishop Portcus's Sermons, vol. i. Ber. 2; Dr. Owen's Reasons of Faith; Han- nam's Compendium, vol. ii. p. 20; Churchill's Essay on Unbelief. UNBEL1 E V E R S are of three sorts.— 1. Those who, having heard the Gospel, reject it. — 2. Those who verbally assent to it, yet know not to what they assent, or why they believe. — 3. They who, whatever knowledge they may have of certain speculative points of divinity, yet obey not the truth, but live in sin. The following is a striking description given by Massillon of an unbeliever (Ser. i. vol. iii. Eng. trans.) " He is a man without morals, probity, faith, or character; who owns no rule but his passions, no law but his iniquitous thoughts, no master but his desires, no check but the dread of authority, no God but himself; an unnatural child, since he believes that chance alone hath given him fathers; a faithless friend, seeing he looks upon men merely as the wretch- ed fruits of a wild and fortuitous concurrence, to whom he is connected only by transitory ties ; a cruel master, seeing he is convinced that the strongest and the most fortunate have always reason on their side. Who could henceforth place any dependence on such? They no longer fear a God ; they no longer respect men ; they look forward to nothing after this life ; virtue and vice are merely prejudices of education in their eyes, and the consecpjences of popular credulity. Adulteries, revenge, blasphemies, the blackest treacheries, abominations which we dare not even name, are no longer in their opinion but human prohibitions established through the policy of legislators. According to them the most horrible crimes or the purest virtues are all equally the same, since an eternal annihilation shall soon 2qualize the just and the impious, and for ever confound them both in the dreary mansion of the tomb. What monsters, then, must such be upon the ea rth !" UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD.— See Faithfulness and Immutability of God. UNCTION, in matters of religion, is used for the character conferred on sacred things by anointing them with oil. Unctions were very frequent among the Hebrews. They anointed both their kings and high priests at the ceremony of their inauguration. Thdy also anointed the sacred vessels of the tabernacle and temple, to sanctify and consecrate them to the service of God. In the ancient Christian church, unction accompanied the ceremonies of baptism and con- firmation. Extreme unction, or the anointing persons in the article of death, was also practised by the ancient Christians, in compliance with the precept of St. James, chap. v. 14, 15; and this extreme unction the Romish church has ad- vanced to the dignity of a sacrament. It is administered to none but such as are affected with some mortal disease, or in a decrepit age. It is refused to impenitent persons, as also to criminals. The parts to be anointed are, the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, the hands, the feet, and the reins. The laity are anointed in the palms of the hands, but priests on the back of it, because the palms of their hands have been already consecrated by ordination. The oil with which the sick person is anointed, 443 UNION represents, it is said, the grace of God, which is poured down into the soul ; and the prayer used at the time of anointing expresses the remission of sins thereby granted to the sick person ; for the prayer is this — " By this holy unction, and his own most pious mercy, may the Almighty God forgive thee whatever sins thou hast com- mitted by the sight," when the eyes are anoint- ed ; by the hearing, when the ears are anointed ; and so of the other senses. The passage before-mentioned from St. James, respecting the anointing with oil, has been a source of difficulty to some pious minds ; but in order to understand it, it is necessary to observe that anointing with oil was an ordinance for the miraculous cure of sick persons (Mark vi. 13.) But since those extraordinary gifts are ceased, as being no longer necessary for the confirmation of the Gospel, of course there is no warrant now for using that ceremony. UNDERSTANDING, the faculty of per- ceiving things distinctly ; or that power of the mind by which we arrive at a proper idea or judgment of things. See Judcment, Mind, Soul. UNIFORMITY, regularity ; a similitude or resemblance between the parts of a whole. The word is particularly used for one and the same form of public prayers, administration of sacra- ments, and other rites, &c. of the church of Eng- land, prescribed by the famous stat. 1 Eliz. and 13, 14 Carol. II. cap. 4. called the Act of Uni- formity. UNION TO CHRIST, that act of divine grace by which we are joined to Christ ; and is considered, — 1. As virtual, or that which was formed from all eternity, Eph. i. 4. — 2. Vital, or spiritual, formed in the moment of our regene- ration, John xvii. 26; 1 John iv. 13. It is re- presented hi the Scripture by the strongest expressions language can admit of, and even compared to the union between the Father and the Son, John xvii. 11, 21, &c. It is also com- pared to the union of a vine and its branches, John xv. 4, 5. To the union of our food with our bodies, John vi. 56, 57. To the union of the body with the head, Eph. iv. 15, 16. To the conjugal union, Eph. v. 23, 30. To the union of a king and his subjects, Matt. xxv. 34, 40. To a building, 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5 ; Eph. ii. 21, 22. It is also represented by an identity or sameness of spirit, 1 Cor. vi. 17. By an identity of body, 1 Cor. xii. 12, 27. By an identity of interest, Matt. xxv. 40; John xx. 17. This union must be considered not as a mere mental union only in comfort or notion : nor a physical union as be- tween the head and the members ; nor as an essential union, or union with the divine nature ; but as a mystical union, Eph. v. 32. Honour- able union, 1 John iii. 1, 2. Supernatural union, 1 Cor. i. 30. Holy, 1 John iii. 24. Necessary, Join: xv. 4. Inviolable, Rom. viii. 38, 39. Some state it thus : — 1. A union of natures, Heb. ii. 11. — 2. Of actions, his obedience being imputed to us, and our sins reckoned to him, 2 Cor. v. 21. —3. Of life, Col. iii. 4.-4. Of sentiment, 2 Cor. v. 17— 5. Of interest, Matt. xxv. 34, &c. — 6. Of affection, 2 Cor. v. 14. — 7. Of residence, John xvii. 24. The advantages of it are know- ledge, Ephesians i. 18. Fellowship, 1 Cor. i. 9. Security, John xv. Felicity, 1 Pet. i. 8. Spiri- tuality, John xv. 8 ; and indeed all the rich com- munications of spiritual blessings here and here- UNITARIANS after, Colossians i. 22. The evidences of union to Christ are, light in the understanding, 1 Pet. ii. 9- Affection to him, John xiv. 21. Frequent communion with him, 1 John i. 3. Delight in his word, ordinances, and people, Fsal. x.wii. 4; cxix. Submission to his will, and conformity to his image, 1 John ii. 5. Dickinson's Letters, let 17; FlaveC 8 Method of Grace, ser. 2; Po- thill on Union ; Brown's Compcnd. p. 5, ch. 1. UNION, HYPOSTATICAL, is the union of the human nature of Christ with the divine, constituting two natures in one person. Not con- substantinlly, as the three persons in the God- head ; nor ■physically, as soul and body united in one person ; nor mystically, as is between Christ and believers ; but so as that the manhood sub- sists in the second person, yet without making confusion, both making but one person. It was miraculous, Luke i. 34, 35. Complete and real : Christ took a real human body and soul, and not in appearance. Inseparable, Heb. vii. 25. For the reasons of this union, see article Mediator. UNITARIANS, those who confine the glory and attributes of divinity to the Father, and not allowing it to the Son or Holy Spirit. They are the same as the Socinians. See Socinians. UNITARIANS. The sect distinjruisiied by this appellation differ but little in sentiment from the Socinians. (See Socinians.) They choose, however, to he denominated Unitarians, a title which they consider as more descrip- tive of their tenets, particularly the leading one of the divine unity. Thus Mr. Belsham speaks of the term Socinians: — "We do not answer to that name, nor do we approve of being distinguished by it. In the first place, because the doctrine we hold is not borrowed from So- cinus, but is known, and universally allowed, to have been coeval with the apostles. And fur- ther, we differ very materially from the opinions of that very great and good man, and his im- mediate followers, who strangely imagined that Christ, though a human being, was advanced by God to the government of the whole created uni- verse, and was the proper object of religious wor- ship. We call ourselves Unitarians, or, to dis- tinguish ourselves from other classes of Christians who assume that name, proper, or original Unitarians; and we regard ourselves as entitled to this distinction from the reason of the thing, and now from the custom of the language." But this designation, although claimed and appro- priated to themselves by this class of people, is not generally admitted by others, because it is assumed in contradistinction from Trinitarians, who contend as strenuously for the doctrine of the divine unity as any other denomination. The name is also objected to because it confounds them with the Arians, who are also zealous ad- vocates for the doctrine, "that there is none other God but one." The Unitarians, as a community, never attracted much notice in England, until towards the end of the last century, when they began to increase and to acquire some distinction from the writings and influence of Dr. Priestley and his associates. " I have no hesitation," savs Mr. Belsham, " in stating it as my firm convic- tion, that in consequence of his (Dr. Priestley's) personal exertions, and his admirable writings, in connexion with those of Ins able and learned associate in the same cause, the venerable Theo- pliilus Lindsey, the number of converts to a 444 UNITARIANS pure and rational Christianity have been multi- plied a hundred fold, and are daily increasing among all ranks of society." Dr. Priestley having met with much opposition, and perhaps with some ill treatment in England, retired to America in 1704, where in conjunction with his fellow labourer, Mr. William Christie, formerly of Montrose, Pennsylvania, he succeeded in form- ing some few Unitarian congregations. But, however Dr. Priestley may have been respected by many individuals in this country, it does not appear that he met with much success in his fa- vourite object, the propagation of Unitarianism for on his arrival he was excluded from almost every pulpit ; and his congregation at Northum- berland, in Pennsylvania, where he resided till his death, is said at no time to have exceeded thirty or forty persons. In another portion of the United States, and that, too, one where it would have been least expected, the success of the Uni- tarian cause has been more decided. New Eng- land, particularly the region round Boston, Mass. had been long famed for orthodoxy. But from about the middle of the last century, causes had been secretly operating to prepare the way for the. introduction of what is cailed a rational or liberal system of Christianity. The result was hastened by the importation and dispersion of books leavened with Arminian, Pelagian, and Socinian opinions. The writings of Whitby, Taylor, Clarke, Ernlyn, and others of the same character, were brought over from England, and by many were received and circulated with much pleasure. It was in opposition to Whitby that President Edwards published his treatise on " The Freedom of the Will," and in opposition to Taylor that he wrote his work " On Original Sin." In more recent times, the works of Priest- ley, Lindsey, Belsham, and others, inculcating similar views, tended to confirm many in Unita- rian speculations. In a letter from the late Pre- sident Adams to Dr. Morse, dated May 15, 1815, the writer observes: "Sixty-five years ago, my own minister, Rev. Lemuel Bryant; Dr. Jona- than Mayhew, of the West Church in Boston ; Rev. Mr. Shute, of Hingham; Rev, John Brown, of Cohasset ; and perhaps equal to all, if not above all, Rev. Mr. Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians. Among the laity, how many could I name, lawyers, physicians, tradesmen, and farmers. I could fill a sheet, but at present will name only one, Richard Cranch, a man who has studied divinity, and Jewish, and Christian anti- quities, more than any clergyman now existing in New England. More than fifty-six years ago, I read Dr. Samuel Clarke, Ernlyn, &c." But however many there v/ere in New Eng- land who had privately embr;rc-ed Unitarian sen- timents, there was a studied reserve as to the open expression of them till about the year 1785, when a Dr. Freeman, preacher of King's Chapel, Poston, became somewhat conspicuous as an abettor of anti-trinitarian views. He was instru- mental in promoting the cause, not so much by his own preaching or publications, as by circu- lating Ihe writings of English authors. The interests of Unitarianism were considerably pro- moted in this country by the visit of a Mr. Haz- litt, an English Unitarian minister, in 1785. "I bless the day," says Dr Freeman, " when that honest man "first landed in this country." — "Be- fore Mr. Hazlitt came to Boston, the Trinitarian UNITARIANS doxology was almost universally used. He pre- vailed upon several respectable ministers to omit it. Since his departure, the number of those who repeat only scriptural doxologies has greatly increased, so that there are now many churches in which the worship is strictly Unitarian." By personal efforts and the circulation of books, two or three small Unitarian societies were established in different parts of the country, previous to the year 1800 ; but they died almost as soon as they be- gan to live. The doctrine, though secretly spreading, was unpopular ; very few chose to preach it openly ; and for many years, indeed until comparatively a recent dale, the society at King's Chapel, Boston, was the only avowed Unitarian congregation of note in New England. In 1810, Messrs. Noah and Thomas Worcester, brothers, and both settled ministers at that time in New Hampshire, commenced their publica- tions against the doctrine of the Trinity. The principal of these publications was entitled " Bible News." The author supposes that Christ is the Son of God "in the most strict and proper sense of the terms," " as truly as Isaac was the son of Abraham ;" " that he is not a created but a de- rived being ;" " that he is a person of Divine dig- nity;" and was "constituted the Creator of the world ;" that he " is the object of divine honours ;" " that he became the Son of Man, by becom- ing the soul of a human body," &c. &c. The holder of this strange theory, it would seem, ought not to complain of mysteries in the reli- gious systems of others. Many, however, were led, in consequence of the discussion which grew out of this publication, to review their grounds of belief in the doctrine of the Trinity ; and the faith of several was shaken. About this time also the university of Cambridge, Mass., fell under the decided influence of Unitarian sentiments, and has since continued to send out annually large numbers of young men, from whom the ranks of the society are hereafter to be supplied. Up to the year 1810, no party espousing Unita- rianism had been publicly and openly formed, but tlie time had now come when the existence and prevalence of this opinion in Boston could not be much longer concealed. The truth had been discovering itself in conversation, in letters, in periodical works, for several years, and the traces of it were becoming continually more evident and palpable. The pulpit indeed was silent. The opposition to the' prevailing system was canned on, for the most part, in secret. But, in the spring of 1815, a full and unequivocal develope- ment was made. The temporizing policy of Unitarians in this country had long been disap- proved of by their brethren in England, who took effectual means at last to expose and correct it. Mr. Belsham, in his memoirs of Lindsey, printed in London in 1812, devoted a whole chap- ter to publishing extracts of letters from this country, and giving an account of American Unitarianism. His work soon found its way across the water, and though studiously kept out of circulation for about two years, it fell at length into the hands of those who were disposed to make use of it. The chapter on American Unita- rianism was published in a pamphlet by itself, and a spirited review of it was given in the Pa- noplistTor June, 1815. These measures intro- duced an animated controversy between Dr. Wor- cester and Dr. Channing, and constrained the 445 UNIVERSALISTS Unitarians to take a stand prominently before the public, a thing which they were not very willing to do, but which had now become unavoidable. When the disclosure and the discussions now re- ferred to had passed over, and time had been given for those ministers and people who had already exchanged the religion of their fathers for Unitarianism, to avow their faith and take sides for themselves, it was found, as was ex- pected, that a very considerable impression had been made. At the present time the number of churches belonging to the Unitarians is not defi- nitely known. Six or eight are formed in Maine, four or five in New Hampshire, one in Vermont, one hundred and thirty or forty in Massachusetts, two in New York city, one in Philadelphia, and a few in other places south and west. Many of the churches are connected in an Association, which meets annually in Boston, during the week of General Election in May. As to the distinguishing doctrines of Unita- rians, particularly the modern class, it is not easy to give an adequate or methodical view of them, from the fact that they do not seem themselves to have clearly fixed and determined their whole system of belief. The process of controversial discussion is constantly developing new features of the Unitarian creed, and leading them to oc- cupy new ground. The result of the more recent discussions, as gathered from their periodical pub- lications, exhibits the following as the prevailing tenets of the New England Unitarians. 1. That Christ is not truly a Divine Being, but an ex- alted and pre-eminent pattern of human perfec- tion.— 2. That the Scriptures are " not a revelation, but the record of a revelation." — 3. That the Sabbath or Lord's Day of Christians under the New Testament has no connection whatever with the ancient Jewish Sabbath — that although it is to be honoured by resting from secular business, yet it is not to be considered as " set apart from our common lives to religion," nor is to be re- garded as more " holy" than any other day of the week. — 1. That it is doubtful whether the soul is a substance or principle separate from the body. — 5. That there are no such spiritual beings as the devil, or evil angels. — 6. That the Scriptures do not teach the doctrine of eternal punishments to be inflicted upon the wicked. See Spirit of the Pilgrims, 1829; Christ. Examiner, passim. — B. UNITED BRETHREN. See Moravians. UNITY OF GOD, a term made use of to denote that there is but one God or self-existent Being. The unity of God is argued from his necessary existence, self-sufficiency, perfection, independance, and omnipotence ; from the unity of design in the works of nature ; and from there being no necessity of having more gods than one : but the Scriptures set it beyond all doubt, Deut. vi. 4 ; Psal. lxxxvi. 10 ; Isa. xliii. 10 ; Mark xii. 29 ; John xvii. 3 ; Romans iii. 30 ; 1 Cor. viii. 4, 6 ; 1 Tim. ii. 5. See Polytheism ; Abcrncthy on the Attributes of God, vol. i. ser. 5 ; Wilkins's Natural Religion, p. 113, 114; Howe's Works, vol. i. p. 72, 73; Gill's Divinity, vol. i. 8vo. edit p. 183 ; Ridglcy's Divinity, question 8. UNIVERSALISTS, those whosuppose that, as Christ died for all, so, before he shall have de- livered up his mediatorial kingdom to the Father, all shall be brought to a participation of the bene- fits of his death, in their restoration to holiness and happiness. The}' teach, that the wicked 2N UNIVERSALISTS will recrive a punishment apportioned to their crimes; that, punishment itself is a mediatorial work, and founded upon mercy ; that it is a mean of humbling, subduing, and finally reconciling the sinner to God. They suppose that the words eternal, everlasting, &c. as they sometimes apply to the things Which have ended, so they cannot apply to endless misery. They say, this doctrine is the most consonant to the perfections of the Deity, most worthy the character of Christ, and that the Scriptures cannot be reconciled upon any other plan. They teach their followers ardent love to God ; and peace, meekness, candour, and universal love to men, they observe, are the natu- ral result of these views. The sentiments of the Universalists were em- braced by Origen in the 3rd century, and in more modern limes by Chevalier Ramsay, Dr. Cheyne, Mr Hartley, and others. But one of the great- est advocates for this doctrine was Dr. Chauncey. His arguments are these : 1. Christ died not for a select number of men only, but for mankind universally, and without exception or limitation, for the sacred Scriptures are singularly emphati- cal in expressing this truth, 1 Thess. v. 10; 1 Cor. xv. 3 ; Rom. v. 6 ; 1 Pet. iii. 18 ; John i. 29 ; iii. 16, 17; 1 John ii. 3; Hch. ii. 9.-2. It is (he purpose of God according to his good pleasure that mankind universally, in consequence of the death of his Son Jesus Christ, shall certainly and finally be saved, Rom. v. 12, &c. ; viii. 19 — 24 ; Col. i. 19, 20 ; Eph. iv. 10 ; i. 9, 10 ; 2 Tim. i. 4.— 3. As a mean, in order to men's being made meet for salvation, God will sooner or later, in this state or another, reduce them all under a willing and obedient subjection to his moral go- vernment, 1 John iii. 8 ; John i. 29 ; Matt. i. 21 ; Psalm viii. 5, 0; Heb. ii. 6, 9; Phil. ii. 9—11; 1 Cor. xv. 21 — 29. — 4. The Scripture language concerning the reduced or restored, in consequence of the mediatory interposition of Jesus Christ, is such as leads us into the thought, that it is comprehensive of mankind universally, Rev. v. 13. The opponents, however, of Dr. Chauncey, and this doctrine, observe, on the contrary side, that the sacred Scriptures expressly declare that the punishment of the finally impenitent shall he eternal, Matt, xviii. 8 ; xxv. 41, 46 ; Mark ix. 43 ; Rev. xiv. 11 ; 2 Thess. i. 9; Ephes.ii. 17; Jude xiii. ; Rev. ix. 3; xx. 10; Matt. xii. 31, 32; Lukexii. 10; Mark iii. 29; 1 John v. 16; Heb. i. 4, 6; x. 26, 27; Matt. xxvi. 24. See articles Dkstructionists, Hki.i,. The title of Universalists distinguishes those who embrace the sentiment of Mr. Relly. See Reixyanists. Dr. Joseph Huntingdon was a great advocate also lor universal salvation, as may l>e seen from a posthumous work of his, entitled, "Calvinism improved ; or t lie Gospel illustrated in a System of real Grace issuing in the Salva- tion of all men." This work was answered by Mr. Nathan Strong, a minister of Hartford, in Connecticut ; in which he endeavours to recon- cile the doctrine of eternal misery with the infinite benevolence of God. This doctrine of universal salvation, or resto- ration, besides being generally acknowledged by the Socinians, has been defended in England by Mr. Winchester, and after him by Mr. Vidler and others. The latter has been opposed by Mr. A. Fuller and Mr. C. Jerram. Dr. Chauncey's Salvation of all Mc it; I 111 ilr' i Restoration of all 446 USURY Things; Hartley on Man; Universalists' Mis- cellany; Fuller's Letter to Vidler; and Letters to an Universalis!, containing a Review of that Controversy, by Scrutator; Mr. Spaulding's Treatise on Universalism, published in America. UNIVERSALISTS IN THE UNITED STATES. Of the Universalists in the United States there are probably about 300 societies, and 150 preachers. A general convention is annually holden, in which the several societies in New England, and some from the other states, are represented. There are ten or twelve associa- tions under its jurisdiction. They publisn a very considerable number of magazines and news- papers. A part believe in a limited punishment after this life ; others believe that the future state of all will be alike happy after death. — B. UNPARDONABLE SIN. See Six, § 8. UR1M AND THUMMIM (light and per- fection,) among the ancient Hebrews, a certain oracular manner of consulting God, which was done by the high priest, dressed in his robes, and having on his pectoral, or breast-plate. There have been a variety of opinions respecting the Urim and Thummim, and after all we cannot determine what they were. The use made of them was, to consult God in difficult cases relating to the whole state of Israel, and sometimes in cases relating to the king, the. sanhedrim, the general of the army, or some other great personage. URSULINES, an order of nuns, founded originally by St. Angela, of Brescia, in the year 1537, and so called from St. Ursula, to whom they were dedicated. At first, these religious did not live in commu- nity, but abode separately in their fathers' houses ; and their employment was to search for the af- flicted, to comfort them ; for the ignorant, to in- struct them ; and for the poor, to relieve them : to visit the hospitals, and to attend upon the sick ; in short, to be always ready to do acts of charity and compassion. In 1544, pope Paul III. con- firmed the institution of the Ursulines. Sir Charles Borromeo brought some of them from Brescia to Milan, where they multiplied to the number of four hundred. Pope Gregory XIII. and his successors Sixtus V. and Paul V. grant- ed new privileges to this congregation. In pro- cess of time, the Ursulines, who before lived sepa- rately, began to live in community, and embrace the regular life. The first who did so were the Ursulines of Paris, established there in 1604, who entered into the cloister in the year 1614, by virtue of a bull of pope Paul V. The foundress of the Ursulines of franco was Madame Frances de Bermond, who, in 157 1, engaged about twenty- five young women of Avignon to embrace the institute of St. Angela of Brescia. The princi- pal employ of the Ursulines, since their establish- ment into a regular order, were to instruct young women ; and their monasteries were a kind of schools, wbei-e young ladies of the best families received their education. USURY, the gain taken for the loan of money or wares. The Jews were allowed to lend mo- ney upon usury to strangers, Deut. xxii:. 20; but were prohibited to take usury from their brethren of Israel ; at least, if they were poor, Ex. xxii. 25 ; Lev. xxv. 35, 37. From the Scriptures speaking against the practice of usury, some have thought it unlawful, Psal. xv. 5; 1'rov. xxviii. 8 ; Ezek. xviii. 8. But it is replied, that usury there only VEDAS means immoderate interest, or oppression, by taking advantage of the indigent circumstances of our neighbour ; and that it seems as lawful for a man to receive interest for monev, which ano- VISION ther takes pain with, improves, hut runs the hazard of in trade, as it is to receive rent for our land, which another takes pain with, improves, but runs the hazard of in husbandry. -V. VALENTINIANS, a sect who sprung up in the second century, and were so called from their leader Valentinus. The Valentinians were only a branch of the Gnostics, who realized or per- sonified the Platonic ideas concerning the Deity, whom they called Pleroma, or Plenitude. Their system was this : the first principle is Bythos, i. e. Depth, which remained many ages unknown, having with it Ennoe or Thought, and Sige or Silence: from these sprung the Nous or Intelli- gence, which is the only Son, equal to and alone capable of comprehending the Bythos. The sister of Nous they called Aletheia or Truth ; and these constituted the first quaternity of iEons, which were the source and original of all the rest ; for Nous and Aletheia produced the world and fife, and from these two proceeded man and the church. But, besides these eight principal iEons there were twenty-two more ; the last of which, called Sophia being desirous to arrive at the knowledge of Bythos, gave herself a great deal of uneasiness, which created in her Anger and Fear, of which was born Matter. But the Horos or Bounder stopped her, preserved her in the Ple- roma, and restored her to Perfection. Sophia then produced the Christ and the Holy Spirit, which brought the ^Eons to their last perfection, and made every one of them contribute their utmost to form a Saviour. Her Enthymese or Thought, dwelling near the Pleroma perfected by the Christ, produced every thing tnat is in this world by its divers passions. The Christ sent into it the Saviour, accompanied with angels, who delivered it from its passions without annihilating it : from thence was formed corporeal matter. And in this manner did they romance concerning God, na- ture, and the mysteries of the Christian religion. VATICAN MANUSCRIPT, one of the principal Greek manuscripts now extant. It con- tained originally the whole Greek Bible. The age of this manuscript is supposed to be no higher than the fifth century. See No. 29, article Bible. VANITY, emptiness. It is often applied to the man who wishes you to think more highly of him than what he really deserves : hence the vain man flatters in order to be flattered ; is always fond of praise, endeavours to bribe others into a good opinion of himself by his complaisance, and sometimes even by good offices, though often dis- played with unnecessary ostentation. The term is likewise applied to this world, as unsatisfactory, Ecc. i. 2; to lying, Psal. iv. 2; to idols, Deut. xxxii. 21 ; to whatever disappoints our hopes, Psal. lx. 11. See Pride. VEDAS, the sacred books of the Hindoos, believed to be revealed by God, and called im- mortal. They are considered as the fountain of all knowledge, human and divine, and are four in number. The principal part of them is that which explains the duties of man in methodical arrangement. The fourth book contains a system of divine ordinances. See the first volume of the Asiatic Researches. 417 VENERATION, an affection compounded of awe and love, and which of all others becomes creatures to bear toward their infinitely perfect Creator. See Devotion. VERACITY OF GOD is his truth, or an exact correspondence and conformity between his word and his mind. Moses says, " Pie is a God of truth." He is true in and of himself; he truly and really exists ; he is the true and living God : all his perfections are true and real ; truth is es- sential to him ; it is pure and perfect in hirn ; it is the first and original in him ; he is the fountain of truth : all his works in creation, providence, and grace, are according to truth. See Faith- fulness of God. VERSCHORISTS, a sect that derived its denomination from Jacob Verschoor, a native of Flushing, who in the year 1680, out of a perverse and heterogeneous mixture of the tenets of Coc- ceius and Spinosa, produced a new form of reli- gion, equally remarkable for its extravagance and impiety. His disciples and followers were called Hebrews, on account of the zeal and assiduity with which they all, without distinction of age or sex, applied themselves to the study of the He- brew language. Their sentiments were nearly the same as the Hattemists. See Hattemists. VICAR, a priest of a parish, the predial tythes whereof are impropriate or appropriated ; that is, belong either to a chapter, religious house, &c. or to a layman, who receives them, and only allows the vicar the small tythes, or a convenient salar". VICE, a fault; the opposite to virtue. VIGIL, the eve or day before any solemn feast, because then Christians were wont to watch, fast, and pray in their churches. VIRTUE, a term used in various significa- tions. Some define it to be " living according to nature;" others, "universal benevolence." Some, again, place it "in regard to truth;" others in " the moral sense." Some place it in " the imita- tion of God;" others, "in the love of God and our fellow-creatures." Some, again, think it con- sists "in mediocrity," supposing vice to consist in extremes ; others have placed it in " a wise regard to our own interest." Dr. Smith refers it to the principle of sympathy ; and Paley defines it to be the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting hap- piness. Some of these definitions are certainly objectionable. Perhaps those who place it in the love of God and our fellow-creatures may come as near to the truth as any. See Edwards and Jameson on Virtue: Grove's and Paley' s Moral Phil. : Cumberland's Law of Nature, cap. 1. § 4; Bcattic's Elements of Moral Science, vol. ii. p. 8, 77; Dn. Watts' s Self -Love and Virtue Recon- ciled, 2d vol. of his work, last edition. VISION, the supernatural representation of an object to a man when waking, as in a glass which places the visage before him. It was one of the ways in which the Almighty was pleased to reveal himself to the prophets, lsa. i. 1 : XX\ 2. WALDENSES VISITATION, the survey or inspection per- formed by a bishop in his diocese, to examine into the state of the church. In a divine or spi- ritual sense, it is taken either for a communica- tion of divine love, or for any calamity affecting a nation. VOW, a solemn and religious promise or oath. [See Oath.] It is more particularly taken for a solemn promise made to God, in which we bind ourselves to do or forbear somewhat for the pro- moting of his glory. Under the Old Testament dispensation, vows were very common, Judg. xi. ; Num. xxx. But in the New Testament there is WALDENSES no command whatever for the observation o* them. Hence it is supposed that vows bclonff more to the ceremonial law than to the Gospel; and that we are to be more dependent on divine grace to keep us, than to make resolutions, and vows which we do not know that we shall be able to perform ; and we certainly ought not to vow any thing but what we are able to per- form. VULGATE, a very ancient translation of the Bible, and the only one acknowledged by the church of Rome to be authentic. See Bible, No. 32. w. WALDENSES, or Valorises, a sect of re- formers, who made their first appearance about the year 11G0. They were most numerous about the vallies of Piedmont ; and hence, some say, they were called Valdenses, or Vaudois, and not from Peter Valdo, as others suppose. Mosheim, however, gives this account of them: he says, that Peter, an opulent merchant of Lyins, sur- named Valdensi?, or Validisiu.% from Vaux, or Waldum, a town in the marquisate of Lyons, being extremely zealous for the advancement of true piety and Christian knowledge, employed a certain priest, called Stephanus de Ecisa, about the year 1160, in translating, from Latin into French, the four Gospels, with other books of holy Scripture, and the most remarkable senten- ces of the ancient doctors, which were so highly esteemed in this century. But no sooner had he perused these sacred books with a proper degree of attention, than he perceived that the rel'gion which was now taught in the Roman church dif- fered totally from that which was originally in- culcated by Christ and his apostles. Struck with this glaring contradiction between the doctrines of the pontiffs and the truths of the Gospel, and animated with zeal, he abandoned his mercantile vocation, distributed his riches among the poor (whence the Waldenses were called poor men of Lyons,) anil, forming an association with other [)ious men, who had adopted his sentiments and lis turn of devotion, he began, in the year 1180, to assume the quality of a public teacher, and to instruct the multitude in the doctrines and pre- cepts of Christianity. Soon after Peter had assumed the exercise of his ministry, the archbishop of Lyons, and the other rulers of the church in that province, vigo- rously opposed him. However, their opposition was unsuccessful ; for the purity and simplicity of that religion which these good men taught, the spotless innocence that shone forth in their lives and actions, and the noble contempt of riches and honours which was conspicuous in the whole ot their conduct and conversation, appeared so engaging to all such as had any sense of true piety, that the number of their followers daily increased They accordingly formed religious assemblies, first in France, and afterwards in Lombardy; from whence they propagated their sect throughout the other provinces of Europe with incredible rapidity, and with such invincible fortitude, that neither fire nor sword, nor the most cruel inventions of merciless persecution, could damp their zeal, or entirely ruin their cause. 448 | The attempts of Peter Waldus and his fol- I lowers were neither employed nor designed to introduce new doctrines into the church, nor to propose new articles of faith to Christians. All they aimed at was, to reduce the form of eccle- siastical government, and the manners both of the clergy and people, to that amiable simplicity and primitive sanctity that characterised the apos- tolic ages, and which appear so strongly recom- mended in the precepts and injunctions of the Divine Author of our holy religion. In conse- quence of this design, they complained that the Roman church had degenerated, under Constan- tine the Great, from its primitive purity and sanc- tity. They denied the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, and maintained that the rulers and minis- ters of the church were obliged, by their vocation, to imitate the poverty of "the apostles, and to pro- cure for themselves a subsistence by the work of their hands. They considered every Christian as, in a certain measure, qualified and authorized to instruct, exhort, and confirm the brethren in their Christian course; and demanded the resto- ration of the ancient penitential discipline of the church, i. e. the expiation of transgressions by prayer, fasting, and alms, which the new-invented doctrine of indulgences had almost totally abo- lished. They at the same time affirmed, that every pious Christian was qualified and entitled to prescribe to the penitent the kind or degree of satisfaction or expiation that their transgressions required ; lhat confession made to priests was by no means necessary, since the humble offender might acknowledge his sins and testify his repent- ance to any true believer, and might expect from such the counsel and admonition which his case demanded. They maintained, that the power of delivering sinners from the guilt and punishment of their offences belonged to God alone ; and that indulgences, of consequence, were the criminal inventions of sordid avarice. They looked upon the prayers and other ceremonies that were insti- tuted in behalf of the dead, as vain, useless, and absurd, and denied the existence of departed souls in an intermediate state of purification ; affirming, that they were immediately, upon their separation from the Iwdy, received into heaven, or thrust down to hell. These and other tenets of a like nature, composed the system of doctrine propaga- ted by the Waldenses. It is also said, that several of the Waldenses denied the obligation of infant baptism, and that others rejected water baptism entirely ; but Wall has laboured to prove that in- fant baptism was generally practised among them. WATERLANDIANS Their rules of practice were extremely austere; for they adopted as the model of their moral dis- cipline the sermon of Christ on the mount, which they interpreted and explained in the most rigor- ous and literal manner; and consequently pro- hibited and condemned in their society all wars, and suits of law, and all attempts towards the acquisition of wealth ; the inflicting of capital punishments, self-defence against unjust violence, and oaths of all kinds. During the greatest part of the seventeenth century, those of them who lived in the valleys of Piedmont, and who had embraced the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the church of Geneva, were oppressed and persecuted in the most bar- barous and inhuman manner by the ministers of Rome. This persecution was carried on with peculiar marks of rage and enormity in the years 1655, 1656, and 16D6, and seemed to portend nothing less than the total extinction of that un- happy nation. The most horrid scenes of violence and bloodshed were exhibited in this theatre of papal tyranny ; and the few Waldenses that sur- vived were indebted for their existence and sup- port to the intercession made for them by the English and Dutch governments, and also by the Swiss cantons, who solicited the clemency of the duke of Savoy on their behalf. WATCHERS. See Acoemetje. WATCHFULNESS, vigilance, or care to avoid surrounding enemies and dangers. We are to watch against the insinuations of Satan; the allurements of the world ; the deceitfulness of our hearts ; the doctrines of the erroneous ; and, in- deed, against every thing that would prove inimi- cal to our best interests. We are to exercise this duty at all times, in all places, and under all cir- cumstances I Cor. xvi. 13 ; Luke xii. 37. To wata\ is also to wait for and expect : thus we are, 1. To watch the providence of God. — '2. The fulfilment of the prophecies. — 3. God's time for our deliverance from troubles. Ps. exxx. — 4. We are to watch unto prayer, Eph. vi. 18. — 5. For death and judgment, Mark xiii. 37. WATERLAND1ANS, a sect of Anabap- tists in Holland. They are thus called in distinc- tion from the Flemingians, or Flandrians, and likewise because they consisted at first of the in- habitants of a district in North Holland, called Waterland. The Flemingians were called the fine or rigid, and the Waterlandians the gross or moderate Anabaptists. The former observe, with the most religious accuracy and veneration, the ancient doctrine and discipline of the purer sort of Anabaptists ; the latter depart much more from the primitive sentiments and manners of their sect, and approach nearer to the Protestant churches. These latter, however, are divided into two distinct sects, the Waterlanders and the Frieslanders : but this difference, it is said, mere- ly respects their place of abode. Neither party have any bishops, but only presbyters and dea- cons. Each congregation is independent of all foreign jurisdiction, having its own court of go- vernment, composed of the presbyters and dea- cons. But the supreme power being in the hands of the people, nothing of importance can be trans- acted without their consent. The presbyters are generally men of learning ; and they have u pub- lic professor at Amsterdam for instructing their youth in the different branches of erudition, sa- cred and profane. About 1661, the Waterland- 44S) 3 G WHIPPERS ers were split into the factions of the Galenists and the Apostoolians. Galen Abraham Haan, doctor of physic, and pastor of the Mennonites at Amsterdam, a man of uncommon penetration and eloquence, inclined towards the Arian and Socinian tenets, and insisted for the reception of all such into their church fellowship as acknow- ledged the divine authority of the Scriptures, and led virtuous lives. He and his followers re- nounced the designation of the Mennonites. They were with great zeal opposed by Samuel Apostool, another physician and eminent pastor at Amsterdam, who, with his followers, admitted none to their communion but such fts professed to believe all the points of doctrine contained in their public Confession of Faith. WEDNESDAY, ASH. The first day of Lent, when, in the primitive church, notorious sinners were put to open penance thus : They appeared at the church door barefooted, and clothed in sackcloth, where, being examined, their discipline was proportioned according to their offences ; after which, being brought into the church, the bishop singing the seven peni- tential psalms, they prostrated themselves, and with tears begged absolution ; the whole congre- gation having ashes on their heads, to signify, that they were both mortal and deserved to be burnt to ashes for their sins. WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, a name given to the synod of divines called by parliament in the reign of Charles I., for the purpose of set- tling the government, liturgy, and doctrine of the church of England. They were confined in their debates to such things as the parliament proposed. Some counties had two members, and some but one. And because they would seem impartial, and give each party the liberty to speak, they chose many of the most learned episcopal divines ; but few of them came, because it was not a legal convocation, the king having declared against it. The divines were men of eminent learning and godliness, ministerial abilities, and fidelity. Many lords and commons were joined with them, to see that they did not go beyond their commission. Six or seven Independents were also added to them, that all sides might be heard. This assem- bly first met July 1, 1643, in Henry the Seventh's chapel. The most remarkable hints concern- ing their debates are to be found in the Life of Dr. Lightfoot, before his works, in folio, and in the Preface to his remains, in octavo. See also the Assembh/s Confession of Faith; Neale's History of the Puritans; and article Directory, in this work. There is a publication which is commonly, but unjustly ascribed tc this assembly, viz. The Annotations on the Bible. The truth is, the, same parliament that called the assembly, employed the authors of that work, and several of them were members of the assembly. WHIPPERS, or Flagellantes, a sect of wild fanatics who chastised and disciplined them- selves with whips in public. It had its rise in Italy in the year 1'260 : its author was one Rai- ncr, a hermit ; and it was propagated from hence through almost all the countries of Europe. A great number of persons, of all ages and sexes, made processions, walking two by two, with their shoulders bare, which they whipped till the blood ran down, in order to obtain mercy from God, and appease his indignation against the wicked- ness of the ace. They were then called the '2 x 2 W1CKLIFFITES Devout; and having established a superior, he Was called General of the Devotion. Though the primitive Whippers were exemplary in point of morals, yet they were joined by a turbulent rab- ble, who were infected with the most ridiculous and impious opinions : so that the emperors and pontilfs thought proper to put an end to this reli- gious frenzy, by declaring all devout whipping contrary to the divine law, and prejudicial to the soul's eternal interest. However, this sect revived in Germany towards the middle of the next century, and rambling through many provinces, occasioned great dis- turbances. > They held, among other things, that whipping was of equal virtue with baptism and the other sacraments; that the forgiveness of all sins was to be obtained by it from God without the merits of Jesus Christ ; that the old law of Christ was soon to be abolished, and that a new law, enjoining the baptism of blood to be ad- ministered by whipping, was to be substituted in its place : upon which Clement VII., by an inju- dicious as well as unrighteous policy, thundered out anathemas against the Whippers, who were burnt by the inquisitors in several places: but they were not easily extirpated. They appeared again in Thuringia and Lower Saxony in the fifteenth century, and rejected not only the sacra- ments, but every branch of external worship ; and placed their only hopes of salvation in faith and whipping, to which they added other strange doctrines concerning evil spirits. Their leader, Conrad Schmidt, and many others, were commit- ted to the flames by German inquisitors in and after the vear 1414. WHITE BRETHREN. See Brethren, White. WHITSUNDAY, a solemn festival of the Christian church, observed on the fiftieth day after Easter, in memory of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles in the visible ap- pearance of fiery cloven tongues, and of those miraculous powers which were then conferred upon them. It is called Whitsunday, or White-Sunday, because this being one of the stated times for bap- tism in the ancient church, those who were baptized put on white garments, as types of that spiritual purity they received in baptism. As the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles hap- pened on that day which the Jews called Pente- cost, this festival retained the name of Pentecost among the Christians. WICKEDNESS. See Sin. WICKLIPFITES,thefollowersof the famous John Wickliffe, called "the first reformer," who was born in Yorkshire in the year 1324. He attacked the jurisdiction of the pope and the bishops. He was for this summoned to a coun- cil at Lambeth, to give an account of his doctrines ; but being countenanced by the duke of Lancas- ter, was both times dismissed without condemna- tion. Wickliffe, therefore, continued to spread Ids new principles as usual, adding to them doc- trines still more alarming ; by which he drew after him a great Dumber of disciples. Upon this, William Courtnay, archbishop of Canter- bury, called another council in 1382, which con- demned 2-1 propositions of Wickliffe and his disciples, and obtained a declaration of Richard JL against all who should preach them ; but •bile these proceedings were agitating, Wick- 450 WILL liffe died at Lutterworth, leaving many work* behind him for the establishment of his doctrines. He was buried in Ims own church at Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, where his bones were suffered to rest in peace till the year 1428, when by an order from the pope, they were taken np and burnt. Wickliffe was doubtless a very extraor- dinary man, considering the times in which he lived. He discovered the absurdities and impo- sitions of the church of Rome, and had the honesty and resolution to promulgate his opinions, which a little more support would probably have enabled him to establish ; they were evidently the foundation of the subsequent Reformation. WILHELMINI ANS, a denomination of the 13th century, so called from Wilhelmina, a Bo- hemian woman, who resided in the territory of Milan. She persuaded a large number that the Holy Ghost was become incarnate in her person for the salvation of a great part of mankind. Ac- cording to her doctrines none were saved by the blood of Jesus but true and pious Christians ; while the Jews, Saracens, and unworthy Chris- tians, were to obtain salvation through the Holy Spirit which dwelt in her, and that, in conse- quence thereof, all which happened in Christ during his appearance upon earth in the human nature was to be exactly renewed in her person, or rather in that of the Holy Ghost, which was united to her. WILKINSONIANS, the followers of Je- mima Wilkinson, who was born in Cumberland, in America. In October, 1776, she asserted that she was taken sick, and actually died, and that her soul went to heaven, where it still continues. Soon after her body was re-animated with the spirit and power of Christ, upon which she set up as a public teacher ; and declared she had an immediate revelation for all she delivered, and was arrived to a state of absolute perfection. It is also said she pretended to foretel future events, to discern the secrets of the heart, a?»l to have the power of healing diseases ; and \i any person who had made application to her was not healed, she attributed it to his want of faith. She asserted, that those who refused to believe these exalted things concerning her, will be in the state of the unbelieving Jews, who rejected the counsel of God against themselves ; and she told her hearers that was the eleventh hour, and the last call of mercy that, ever should be granted them : for she heard an inquiry in heaven, saying, " Who will go and preach to a dying world ?' or words t( that import; and she said she answered, "Here am I — send me ;" and that she left the realms of light and glory, and the company of the heavenly host, who are continually praising and worship- ping God, in order to descend upon earth, and pass through many sufferings and trials for the happiness of mankind. She assumed the. title of the universal friend of mankind ; hence her fol- lowers distinguish themselves by the name of Friends. WILL, that faculty of the soul by which it chooses or refuses any thing offered to it. When man was created, he had liberty and power to do what was pleasing in the sight of God ; but, by the fall, he lost all ability of will to any spi- ritual good ; nor has he any will to that which is good until divine gTace enlightens the under- standing and changes the heart. " The natuve of the will, indeed, is in itself indisputably free. WILL Will, as will, must be so, or there is no such fa- cult}' ; but the human will, being finite, hath a necessary bound, which indeed so far may be said to confine it, because it cannot act beyond it ; yet within the extent of its capacity it neces- sarily is and ever will be spontaneous. " The limits of the will, therefore, do not take away its inherent liberty. The exercise of its powers may be confined, as it necessarily must, in a finite being; but where it is not confined, that exercise will correspond with its nature and situation. " This being understood, it is easy to perceive that man in his fallen state can only will accord- ing to his fallen capacities; and that however freely his volitions may flow within their extent, he cannot possibly overpass them. He, there- fore, as a sinful, carnal, and perverse apostate, can will only according to the nature of his apostacy, which is continually and invariably evil, without capacity to exceed its bounds into goodness, purity, and truth ; or otherwise he would will contrary to or beyond his nature and situation, which is equally impossible in itself, and contradictory to the revelation of God." See Edwards on the Will; Theol. Misc. vol. iv. p. 391 ; Gill's Cause of God and Truth ; Toplady's Historic Proof; Watts's Essay on the Freedom of the Will; Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 175 and 187 ; Locke on the Understanding ; Reid on the Active Powers, p. 207, 291, and articles Liberty and Necessity in this work. WILL-WORSHIP, the invention and prac- tice of such expedients of appeasing or of pleasing God as neither reason nor revelation suggest WILL OF GOD is taken, 1. For that which he has from all eternity determined, which is un- changeable, and must certainly come to pass : this is called his secret will. — 2. It is taken for what he has prescribed to us in his word as a rule of duty ; this is called his revealed will. A question of very great importance respecting our duty deserves here to be considered. The ques- tion is this : " How may a person who is desirous of following the dictates of Providence in every respect, know the mind and will of God in any particular circumstance, whether temporal or spiritual 1" Now in order to come at the know- ledge of that which is proper and needful for us to be acquainted with, we are taught by prudence and conscience to make use of, 1. Deliberation. — 2. Consultation. — 3. Supplication; but, 1. We should not make our inclination the rule of our conduct. — 2. We should not make our particular frames the rule of our judgment and determina- tion.— 3. We are not to be guided by any un- accountable impulses and impressions. — 4. We must not make the event our rule of judgment. — 1. Unless something different from our present situation offer itself to our serious consideration, we are not to be desirous of changing our state, except it is unprofitable or unlawful. — 2. When an alteration of circumstance is proposed to us, or Providence lays two or more things before our eyes, we should endeavour to take a distinct view of each case, compare them with one another, and then determine by such maxims as these* — Of two natural evils choose neither; of two moral or spiritual good things choose the greatest. — & When upon due consideration nothing appears in the necessity of the case or the leadings of Pro- vidence to make the way clear, we must not 451 WITCHCRAFT hurry Providence, but remain in a state of sus. pense ; or abide where we are, waiting upon the Lord by prayer, and waiting for the Lord in the way of his providence. In all cases, it should be our perpetual concern to keep as much as possible out of the way of temptation to omit any duty or commit any sin. We should endeavour to keep up a reverence for the word and providence of God upon our hearts, and to have a steady eye to his glory, and to behold God in covenant as ma- naging every providential circumstance in sub- serviency to his gracious purpose in Christ Je- sus." Pike and Hayward's Cases of Conscience, p. 156. WISDOM denotes a high and refined notion of things, immediately presented to the mind, as it were, by intuition, without the assistance of reasoning. In a moral sense, it signifies the same as prudence, or that knowledge by which we connect the best means with the best ends. Some, however, distinguish wisdom from prudence thus : wisdom leads us to speak and act what is most proper ; prudence prevents our speaking or act- ing improperly. A wise man employs the most proper means for success; a prudent man the safest means for not being brought into danger. Spiritual wisdom consists in the knowledge and fear of God. It is beautifully described by St. James, "as pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." James iii. 17. See Devotion, Religion. WISDOM OF GOD is that grand attribute of his nature by which he knows and orders all things for the promotion of his glory, and the good of his creatures. This appears in all the works of his hands, Psal. civ. 24; in the dispen- sations of his providence, Psal. xcvii. 1, 2 ; in the work of redemption, Eph. iii. 10; in the govern- ment and preservation of his church in all ages, Psal. cvii. 7. This doctrine should teach us admiration, Rev. xv. 3, 4 ; trust and confidence, Psal. ix. 10; prayer, Prov. iii. 5, 6; submission, Heb. xii. 9 ; praise, Psal. ciii. 1 — 4. See Char- nock's Works, vol. i. ; Saurin's Sermons, vol. i. p. 157, Eng. trans. ; Gill's Divinity, vol. i. p. 93; Abcrnethy's Sermons, vol. i. ser. 10; Ray's Wisdom of God in Creation ; Paley's Natural Theology. WITCHCRAFT, a supernatural power which persons were formerly supposed to obtain the possession of, by entering into a compact with the Devil. Witchcraft was universally believed in Europe till the 10th century, and even main- tained its ground with tolerable firmness till the middle of the 17th. The latest witchcraft frenzy was in New England in 1G92, when the execu- tion of witches became a calamity more dreadful than the sword or the pestilence. Some have de- nied the existence of witchcraft altogether. That such persons have been found among men seems, however, evident from the Scriptures, Deut. xviii. 10; Exod. xxii. 18; Gal. v. 20; Lev. xix. 13; xx. 6. The inconsistency of holding such poi- sons in estimation, or having recourse to fortune- tellers, diviners, charmers, and such like, appears in this, 1. It is imitating the heathens, and giving countenance to the foolish superstition and ab- surd practice of pagans. — 2. Such characters are held in abhorrence by the Lord, and their very existence forbidden, Lev. xx.6; Exod. xx. 18. — 3. He threatens to punish those who consult WORLD them, Lev. xx. 6. — 4. It is wrong to have any thing to do with them, as it is setting an awful example to others. — 5. It is often productive of the greatest evils, deception, diseord, disappointment, and incredible mischief. Hawkins's Two Sermons on Witchcraft. ; Ency. Brit. ; Moore's Theologi- cal Works, p. '310,231 ; Hutchinsonon Witchcraft. WONDER, any thing which causes surprise by its strangeness. "It expresses," says Mr. Cofan, "an embarrassment of the mind after it is somewhat recovered from the first percussion of surprise. It is the effect produced by an inte- resting subject which has been suddenly present- ed to the mind, but concerning which there are many intricacies, either respecting the cause or manner in which the event has taken place, mo- tives of extraordinary conduct, &c." How it differs from admiration, see Admiration. WORKS OF GOD. See Bible, Revela- tion, Scripture. WORKS, GOOD, are those actions which are conformable to truth, justice, or propriety; whether natural, civil, relative, moral, orreligious. The circumstances requisite to a good work, are, 1. That it be according to the will of God. — 2. That it spring from love to God, I Tim. i. 5. — 3. It must be done in faith, Rom. xiv. 23. — 4. It must be done to the glory of God, 1 Cor. x. 31 ; Phil. i. 11. The causes of good works are, 1. God himself, Hob. xiii. 21. — 2. By union to" Christ, Eph. ii. 10.— 3. Through faith, Heb. xi. 4. 6. — 4. By the word and Spirit, Luke viii. 15; Isa. iii. 3; 2 Tim. iii. 16. As to the nature and •properties of good works, 1. They are imperfect, Eccl. vii. 20; Rev. iii. 2. — 2. Not meritorious, Tit. iii. 5 ; Luke xyii. 10. — 3. Yet found only in the regenerate, Matt. vii. 17. The necessary uses of good works, 1. They show our gratitude, Psal. cxvi. 12, 13. — 2. Are an ornament to our profession, Tit. ii. 10. — 3. Evidence our regene- ration, Job xv. 5. — 4. Profitable to others, Tit. iii. 8. See Holiness, Obedience, Sanctifi- cation. Gill's Body of Div. book iv. vol. iii.; Ridgleifs Body of Die. qu. 92; Marshall on Sanctificution. WORLD, the whole system of created things. [See Creation.] It is taken also for a secular life, the present state of existence, and the plea- sures and interests which steal away the soul from God. The love of the world does not con- sist in the use and enjoyment of the comforts God gives us, but in an inordinate attachment to the tilings of time and sense. " 1. We love the world too much," says Dr. Jortin, " when, for the sake of any profit or pleasure, we wilfully, knowingly, and deliberately transgress the commands of God. 2. When we take more pains about the present life than the next.— 3. When we cannot be con- tented, patient, and resigned, under low and inconvenient circumstances. — 4. We love the world too much when we cannot put with any thing we possess to those who want, deserve, anil have a right to it.— 5. When we envy those who are more fortunate and more favoured by the world than we are. — 6. When we honour, and esteem, and favour persons purely according to their birth, fortunes, and success, measuring out judgment ami approbation by their outward ap- pearance and situation in life.— 7. When worldly prosperity makes us proud, and vain, and arro- gant.— 8. When we omit no opportunity of en- joying the good tilings of this life ■ when our 452 WORSHIP great and chief business is to divert ourselves tilj we contract an indifference for rational and manly occupations, deceiving ourselves, and fancying that we are not in a bad condition because others are worse than we. Jortin's Sermons, vol. iii. scr. 9 ; Bishop Hopkins on the Vanity of the World; Dr. StcnneVs Sermon on Conformity to the World; H. More on Education, chap. 9, vol. ii. ; R. Walker's Sermons, vol. iv. ser. 20. WORLD, AGES OF. The time preceding the birth of Christ has generally been divided into six ages. The first extends from the beginning of the world to the deluge, and comprehends one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. The second, from the deluge to Abraham's entering the Land of Promise in 20S2, comprehends four hundred and twenty-six years. The third, from Abraham's entrance into the promised land to the Exodus in 2523, four hundred and tliirty years. The fourth, from the going out of Egypt to the foundation of the temple by Solomon, in 2992, four hundred and seventy-nine years. The fifth, from Solomon's foundation of the temple to the Babylonish captivity in 3416, four hundred and twenty-one years. The sixth, from the Baby- lonish captivity to the birth of Christ, A. M. 4000, the fourth year before the vulgar ara, in- cludes five hundred and eighty-four years. WORLD, DISSOLUTION OF. See Con- flagration', Dissolution. WORLD, ETERNITY OF. See Eter- nity of the World. WORSHIP, DAEMON, the worship of a class of spirits which were thought to be superior to the soul of man ; but inferior to those intelli- gences which animated the sun, the moon, and the planets, and to whom were committed the government of the world, particular nations, &c. Though they were generally invisible, they were not supposed to be pure disembodied spirits, but to have some kind of ethereal vehicle. They were of various orders, and, according to the situation over which they presided, had different names. Hence the Greek and Roman poets talk of satyrs, dryads, nymphs, fauns, &c. &c. These different orders of intelligences which, though worshipped as gods, or demigods, were yet believed to partake of human passions and appetites, led the way to the deification of departed heroes, and other emi- nent benefactors of the human race ; and from this latter probably arose the belief of natural and tutelar gods, as well as the practice of worship- ping these gods through the medium of statues cut into a human figure. See Idolatry and Polytheism. Warburton's Divine Legation; Farmer on the Worship of Daemons; Gale's Court of the Gentiles. WORSHIP OF GOD (cultus Dei) amounts to the same with what we otherwise call religion. This worship consists in paying a due respect, veneration, and homage to the Deity, under a sense of an obligation to him. And this internal respect, &e. is to be shown and testified by ex- ternal acts ; as prayers, thanksgivings, &c. Private worship should be conducted with, — 1. Reverence and veneration. — 2. Self-abasement and confession. — 3. Contemplation of the ]>cr- fections and promises of God. — 1. Supplication for ourselves and others. — 5. Earnest desire of the enjoyment of God. — 6. Frequent and regu- lar. Some who have acknowledged the pro- priety of private worship have objected to that ZEND of a public nature, but without any sufficient ground. For Christ attended public worship himself, Luke iv. ; he prayed with his disciples, Luke ix. 28, 29 ; xi. 1 ; he promises his pre- sence to social worshippers, Matt, xviii. 20. It may be argued also from the conduct of the apostles, Acts i. 24 ; ii. ; iv. 21 ; vi. 4 ; Rom. xv ; 30; 1 Cor. xiv. ; Acts xxi.; 2 Thess. hi. 1, 2; 1 Cor. xi. ; and from general precepts, 1 Tim. ii. 2, 8; Hcb. x. 23 ; Deut. xxxi. 12; Psal. c. 4. Public worship is of great utility, as, — 1. It gives Christians an opportunity of openly pro- fessing their faith in, and love to, Christ. — 2. It preserves a sense of religion in the mind, without which society could not well exist. — 3. It en- livens devotion and promotes zeal. — 4. It is the mean of receiving instruction and consolation. — 5. It affords an excellent example to others, and excites them to fear God, &c. Public worship should be, 1. Solemn, not light and trifling, Psal. Ixxxix. 7. — 2. Simple, not pompous and ceremonial, Isa. lxii. 2. — 3. Cheer- ful, and not with forbidding aspect, Psalm c. — 4. Sincere, and not hypocritical, Isaiah i. 12 ; Matt, xxiii. 13 ; John iv. 24. — 5. Pure, and not superstitious, Isa. Ivii. 15. We cannot conclude this article without taking notice of the shameful and exceedingly improper practice of coming in late to public worship. It evidently manifests a state of lukewarmness ; it ZUINGLIANS is a. breach of order and decency ; it is a disturb- ance to boih ministers and people; it is slighting the ordinances which God has appointed for our good ; and an affront to God himself! How such can be in a devotional frame themselves, when they so often spoil the devotions of others, I know not. Waits' s Holiness of Time and Places ; Kinghorn and Loader o?i Public Wor- ship ; Parry's, Barbauld's, Simpson's, and Wil- son's Answer to Wakefield's Inquiry on the Authority, Propriety, and Utility of Public Worship ; Newman en. Early Attendance. WRATH, violent and permanent anger. — See Anger. WRATH OF GOD is his indignation at sin, and punishment of it, Rom. i. 18. The ob- jects of God's anger or wrath are the ungodty, whom he has declared he will punish. His wrath is sometimes manifested in this life, and that in an awful degree, as we see in the case of the old world. Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the punishment and captivity of the Jews, and the many striking judgments on na- tions and individuals. But a still more awful punishment awaits the impenitent in the world to come ; for the wicked, it is said, shall go away into everlasting punishment, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Matt, xxv. 46; Romans ii. 8, 9; i. 18. See Hell, Sin. z. ZACHEANS, the disciples of Zacheus, a native of Palestine, who, about the year 350, re- tired to a mountain near the city of Jerusalem, and there performed his devotions in secret ; pretend- ing that prayer was only agreeable to God when it was performed secretly, and in silence. ZEAL, a passionate ardour for any person or cause. There are various kinds of zeal ; as, 1. An ignorant zeal, Rom. x. 2, 3. — 2. A per- secuting zeal, Phil. iii. 6. — 3. A superstitious zeal, 1 Kings xviii. ; Gal. i. 14. — 4. An hypo- critical zeal, 2 Kings x. 16. — 5. A contentious zeal. 1 Cor. xi. 16. — 6. A psrtial ieal, Hos. vii. 8. — 7. A temporary zeal, 2 Kings xii. and xiii. ; Gal. iv. 15, 16. — 8. A genuine zeal, which is a sincere and warm concern for the glorv of God, and the spiritual welfare of mankind. 1 his is ge- nerally compounded of sound knowledge, strong faith, and disinterested regard ; and will manifest itselfbv self-denial, patient endurance, and constant exertion. The motives to true zeal are, 1. The di- vine command, Rev. iii. 1!). — 2. The example of Christ, Actsx. 38. — 3. The importance of the ser- vice of Christ. — 4. The advantage anil pleasure it brings to the possessor. — 5. The instances and honourable commendation of it in the Scriptures : Moses, Phineas, Caleb, David, Paul, &c. Gal. iv. 18; Rev. iii. 15, &c. ; Tit. h. 14.-6. The incal- culable good effects it produces on others, James v. 20. See Reynolds and Orton on Sacred Zeal ; Evans's Christian Temper, ser. 37; Hughes's Ser. on Zeal ; Mason's Christian Mor. ser. 28. ZEALOT, an ancient sect of the Jews, so caSed from their pretended zeal for God's law, and the honour of religion. ZEND, or Zendavesta, a took ascribed to 453 Zoroaster, and containing his pretended revela- tions, which the ancient Magicians and modern Persees observe and reverence in the same man- ner as the Christians do the Bible, making it the sole rule of their faith and manners. The Zend contains a reformed system of Magianism, teach- ing that there is a Supreme Being, eternal, self- existent, and independent, who created both light and darkness, out of which he made all other things; that these are in a state of conflict, which will continue to the end of the world ; that then there shall be a general resurrection and judg- ment, and that just retribution shall be rendered unto men according to their works; that the an- gel of darkness, with his followers, shall be con- signed to a place of everlasting darkness and punishment; and the angel of light, with his disciples, introduced into a str.te of everlasting light and happiness; after which, light and dark- ness shall no more interfere with each other. It is evident, from these, and various other senti- ments contained in the Zend, that many parts of it are taken out of the Old Testament. Dr. Baumgarten asserts that this work contains doc- trines, opinions, and tacts, actually borrowed from the Jews, Christians, and Mahometans; whence, and from other circumstances, he concludes, that both the history and writings of this prophet were probably invented in the later ages. ZUINGLIANS, a branch of the Reformers, so called from Zuinglius, a noted divine of Switzer- land. His chief difference from Luther was con- cerning the cueharist. He maintained that the bread and wine were only significations of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, whereas Luther believed in consubstantiation. APPENDIX. (Corrected to 1844.) METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA. [Thc following account of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of Ame- rica, is from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Bangs, of New York ; with the exception of such altera- tions as are necessary to render it an accurate narrative of the present state of the Methodist Church.] The first Methodist Society in the United States of America, was formed in the city of New York, in the year 1700, by a few Methodist emigrants from Ireland. Among these was a local preacher, by the name of Philip Embury. He preached the first Methodist sermon in a pri- vate room, to those only who had accompanied him to this country. The name of Methodist and his manner of preaching, being a novelty in this country, soon attracted attention, and many came to hear the stranger for themselves ; and the number of hearers so increased, that thc house in which they assembled very soon became too small to contain all who wished to hear. They accordingly procured a larger place. About this time considerable attention was excited by the preaching of Capt. Webb, who came from Al- bany, where he was stationed, to the help of Mr. Embury. This gentleman had been converted to God under the preaching of Mr. Wesley in Bristol, England, and being moved with com- passion towards his fellow men, although a sol- dier, he now employed his talent in calling sinners to repentance. Through his and the labours of Mr. Embury, the work of God prospered, and the society increased in number and stability. From the place they now occupied, which soon became too small to accommodate all who wished to attend their meetings, they removed to a rig- ging-loft, in William-street, which they hired, ;ni'l fitted up for a preaching room. Such was their continual increase, that, after contending with a variety of difficulties for want of a convenient place of worship, they succeeded in erecting a meeting-house in John-street, in the year 1768. About the same time that this society was establishing in New York, Mr. Strawbridge, a local preacher from Ireland, commenced preach- iaa, and formed a small class in Frederick County, Maryland In October, 1769, two preachers, Messrs. Richard Boardman and Joseph Pihnore, being sent under the direction of Mr. Wesley, landed in America ■ and in 1771, Messrs. Francis As- bury and Richard Wright came over. The lirst regular conference was held in Philadel- phia, in the year 1773, under the superinten- dence of Mr. Thomas Rankin, who had been «ent by Mr. Wesley to take the general over- 454 sight of the societies in this country. These zealous missionaries, spreading themselves in dif- ferent directions through the country, cities, and villages, were instrumental in extending the in fluence of evangelical principles and holiness among the people. During the revolutionary war, all thc preachers from Europe, except Mr. Asbury, returned to their native land. But prior to this event, the Head of the church had, under the energetic la hours of Mr. Asbury and his colleagues, called forth some zealous young men into the ministry, whose labours were owned of God in the awaken- ing and conversion of souls. These men of God, under the superintendence of Mr. Asbury, who laboured hard and suffered much during the san- guinary conflict, continued in the field of Gospel labour; and, notwithstanding the evils insepa- rable from war, they witnessed the spread of pure religion in many places. At the conclusion of the revolution, in the year 1784, Dr. Thomas Coke came to America with powers to constitute the Methodist societies in this country into an independent church. Hither- to the societies had been dependent on other churches for the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, as the Methodist preachers were considered only lay-preachers, and according to the uniform advice of Mr. Wesley, had declined administering the ordinances. This had occa- sioned much uneasiness, among both preachers and people, in this country. They therefore earnestly requested Mr. Wesley to interpose his authority, and furnish them with the ordinances independently of other denominations. After maturely weighing the subject in his own mind, he finally resolved, as the United States had be- come independent of both the civil and ecclesias- tical polity of Great Britian, to send them the help they so much needed. Accordingly, being assisted by other presbyters of the church of England, by prayer and imposition of hands, he set apart Thomas Coke, L.L.D. and a presbyter of said church, as a superintendent of the Metho- dist societies in America ; and directed him to consecrate Mr. Francis Asbury for the same office. In conformity to these instructions, after his arrival in the United States, a conference of preachers was assembled in Baltimore, December 25, 1784, amounting in all to 61. Having com- municated his instructions, and the contemplated plans for the future government of the societies, which were generally approved, Mr. Asbury, be- ing first elected by the unanimous voice of the preachers, was ordained by Dr. Coke first to the office of deacon, then elder, and then superin- tendent or bishop. Twelve of the preachers wcie METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. elected and ordained elders at the same con- ference. These proceedings gave very general satisfac- tion to preachers and people. The number of members in society at this time was 11,988, and of preachers 83. And, as an evidence of the benefits resulting from the recent organization of the church, the work of God grew and multiplied more than ever, and many were added to the church. Mr. Asbury being thus commended to the grace of God and the affections of his people, took a more general oversight of the whole church, travelling from one ptfrt of the continent to an- other, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and assembling the preachers at different times and places, and appointing them to their several sta- tions. In consequence of extending over so large a territory, for they soon spread over all the settlements in the United States, it became in- convenient for ail the preachers to convene at one time and place ; they were therefore divided into several annual conferences, at a suitable time and distance from each other, for the superintending bishop to meet with them, direct their councils, and assign each man to his work. But these separate assemblies, unless they all agreed in eacli other's regulations, could ordain nothing that should be binding upon the whole; and therefore, to supply this deficiency of the govern- ment, a general conference, composed of all the travelling elders, was found expedient and neces- sary. But from the continual increase of preachers and extension of their work, it became quite bur- densome for so many elders to convene together, from so great a distance, and at such an expense of both time and money : hence, to exonerate the church from this unnecessary burden, in the year 1808, notice being previously given to the annual conferences of the intention, the general conference resolved on a delegated general con- ference, whose powers and privileges were de- fined and restricted in the following words : " 1. The general conference shall be composed of one member for every seven members of each annual conference, to be appointed either by seniority or choice, at the discretion of such an- nual conference : yet so that such representatives shall have travelled at least four full calendar years from the time that they were received on trial by an annual conference, and are in full connexion at the time of holding the con- ference. "2. The general conference shall meet on the first day of May, in the year of our Lord 1812, in the city of New York, and thenceforward on the first day of May, once in four years perpetually, in such place or places as shall be fixed on by the general conference from time to time ; but the general superintendents, with or by the advice of all the annual conferences, or if there be no general superintendent, all the annual confer- ences respectively, shall have power to call a general conference, if they judge it necessary at any time. " 3. At all times when the general conference is met, it shall take two thirds of the representatives of all the annual conferences to make a quorum for transacting business. "4. One of the general superintendents shall preside in. the general conference; but in case no general superintendent be present, the general conference shall choose a president pro tempore. 455 "5. The general conference shall have full powers to make rules and regulations for our church, under the following limitations and re- strictions, viz. "1. The general conference shall not revoke, alter, or change our articles of religion, nor esta- blish any new standards or rules of doctrine con- trary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine. " 2. They shall not allow of more than one re- presentative for every five members of the annual conference, nor allow of a less number than one for every seven. " 3. They shall not change or alter any part or rule of our government, so as to do away episco- pacy, or destroy the plan of our itinerant general superintendency. " 4. They shall not revoke or change the gene- ral rules of the united societies. " 5. They shall not do away the privileges of our ministers or preachers of trial by a committee, and of an appeal : Neither shall they do away the privileges of our members of trial before the society, or by a committee, and of an appeal. " 6. They shall not appropriate the produce of the book concern, or of the charter fund, to any purpose, other than for the benefit of the travel- ling, supernumerary, superannuated and worn- out preachers, their wives, widows and children. "Provided nevertheless, that upon the joint re- commendation of all the annual conferences, then a majority of two thirds of the general conference succeeding, shall suffice to alter any of the above restrictions." This conference was composed of about 120 members from the several annual conferences; of which there were then but seven. (For a View of the number of Annual Con- ferences now belonging to this Church, with the number of its Travelling Preachers, and of it* Members, White, Coloured, and Indian, see the Tabular View to be found at the end of this ar- ticle.) In 1819 the Missionary Society of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church was formed; and it re- ceived the sanction of the general conference in 1820, according to the following constitution : " 1. This association shall be denominated ' The Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis- copal Church ;' the object of which is, to enable the several annual conferences more effectually to extend their missionary labours throughout the United States, and elsewhere. "2. The business of this society shall be con- ducted by a president, thirteen vice-presidents, clerk, recording and corresponding secretary, treasurer, and thirty-two managers, all of whom shall be members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The president, first two vice-presidents, clerk, secretaries, treasurer, and the thirty-two managers, shall be elected by the society annu- ally, and each annual conference shall have the privilege of appointing one vice-president from its own body. "3. Thirteen members at all meetings of the board of managers, and twenty-five at all meet- ings of the society, shall be a quorum. " 4. The board shall have authority to make by- laws for regulating its own proceedings, fill up vacancies that may occur during the year, and shall present a statement of its transactions and funds to the society at its annual meeting"; and METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. also lay before the general conference, a report of its transactions, for the four preceding years, and the state of its funds. " 5. Ordained ministers of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, whether travelling or local, being members of the society, shall be ex officio mem- bers of the board of managers, and be entitled to vote in all meetings of the board. " 6. The board ofmanagers shall have authority, whenever they may deem it expedient and requi- site, to procure Bibles and Testaments for distri- bution, on such terms as they may judge most advisable, provided they shall not at any time apply to this object more than one third of the amount of the funds received for the current year. " 7. Each subscriber paying two dollars annu- ally, shall be a member; and the payment of twenty dollars at one time, shall constitute a member for life. "8. Auxiliary societies, embracing the same objects with this, shall, if they request it, be sup- plied with Bibles and Testaments at cost : pro- vided the same shall not amount to more than one third of the moneys received from such Auxi- liary societies, and that after supplying their own districts with Bibles and Testaments, they shall agree to place their surplus funds at the disposal of this society. " 9. The annual meeting of the society shall he held on the third Monday in April. " 10. The president, vice-presidents, clerk, se- cretaries, and treasurer for the time being, shall be ex officio members of the board of managers. "11. At all meetings of the society, and of the board, the president, or in his absence the vice- president first on the list then present, and in the absence, of all the vice-presidents, such member as shall be appointed by the meeting for that purpose, shall preside. " 12. The minutes of each meeting shall be signed by the chairman. °" 13. The treasurer of this society, under the direction of the board of managers, shall give in- formation to the superintendents annually, or oftener if the managers judge it expedient, of the state of the funds and of the amount for which drafts may he made thereon, for the missionary purposes contemplated by this constitution ; agreeably to which information, the superintend- ents shall have authority to draw on the treasurer for the same, and to pay over the amount to the missionary or missionaries appointed by them, either wholly at once, or by instalments, at the discretion of the superintendents; provided the drafts of all the superintendents together shall not amount to more than the sum thus authorised to be drawn for, and that the appropriation for the support of any missionary or missionaries shall always be regulated by the rules which now are or hereafter may be established for the support of other itinerant ministers and preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and provided also, that the appropriations and payments which may be made by the superintendents under this arti- cle, shall be communicated as soon as practicable thereafter to the board of managers for insertion in their annual report. " It. This constitution shall not be altered but by the general conference, on the recommenda- tion of the board of managers." A number of auxiliary and branch societies have oeen formed, V0)1 their number is constantly 43b" increasing. Several missionaries are also em- ployed in destitute parts of the country under the patronage of the Society. DOCTRINES. At the time of the organization of the church, the following articles of religion were adopted as the doctrines of the church : — " 1. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. There is but one living and true God, everlasting, with- out body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible. — And in unity of this God- head, there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity ; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. "2. Of the Word, or Son of God, who was made very Man. — The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one sub- stance with the Father, took man's-nature in the womb of the blessed virgin ; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and manhood, were joined together in one per- son, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his Fathei to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men. " 3. Of the Resurrection of Christ. — Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body, with all things appertaining to the perfec- tion of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judgo all men at the last dav. "4. Of the Holy Ghost— The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. " 5. The sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salration. — The Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture, we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the church. " The names of the canonical Books. Gene- sis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the First Book of Samuel, the Second Book of Samuel, the First Book of Kings, the Second Book of Kings, the First Book of Chronicles, the Second Book of Chro- nicles, the Book of Ezra, the Book of Nehcmiah, the Book of Esther, the Book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes or the Preacher, Can- tica or Songs of Solomon, Four Prophets the greater, Twelve Prophets the less: all the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical. "6. Of the Old Testament.— The Oid Testa- ment is not contrary to the New ; for both in the Old and New Testament, everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore, they are not to be heard, who feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, doth not bind Christians, nor omrht the civil precepts there- METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. «f of necessity he received in any commonwealth : yet, notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments, which are called moral. " 7. Of Original or Birth Sin. — Original sin slandcth not in the folio wing of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) hut it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is en- gendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that con- tinually. " S. Of Free- Will.— The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will. " 0. Of the Justification of Man. — We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings ; where- fore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort. " 10. Of Good Works. — Although good works which are the fruits of faith, and follow after jus- tification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgments: yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree is discerned by its fruits. " 11. Of Works of Supererogation. — Voluntary works, besides, over and above God's command- ments, which are called works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. For by them men do declare, that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than of bounden duty is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that is command- ed you, sav, We are unprofitable servants. " 12. Of Shi after Justification. — Not every sin willingly committed after justification, is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. "Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be dVeied to such as fall into sin after justification : after we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the y;race of God, rise again and amend our lives. And therefore, they are to be condemned, who say they can no more sin as long as they live here ; or deny the place of forgiveness to such as trulv repent. "13. Of the Church. — The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithfui men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacra- ments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. "14. Of Purgatory. — The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshipping, ami adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly in- vented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scrip- ture, but repugnant to the word of God. " 15. Of speaking in tlie congregation in such a tongue a-s the people understand. — It is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public 457 3 // prayer in the church, or to minister the sacra ments, in a tongue not understood by the people "16. Of the Sacraments. — Sacraments ordain- ed of Christ, are not only badges or tokens of Chris- tian men's profession : but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good will "towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, hut also strengthen and confirm our faith in him. " There are two sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel ; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. "Those l\\e commonly called sacraments; that is to say, confirmation, penance, orders, matrimo- ny, and extreme unction, are not to be counted for as sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have partly grown out of the corrupt following of the apostles : and partly are states of life al- lowed in the Scriptures, but yet have not the like nature of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, be- cause they have not any visible sign, or ceremony ordained of God. "The sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about ; but that we should duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same, they have a whole- some effect or operation : but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to themselves con- demnation, as St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. si. 29. " 17. Of Baptism. — Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christians ^re distinguished from others that are not baptized : but it is also a sign of regeneration, or the new birth. The baptism of young children is to be retained in the church. " 18. Of the Lord's Supper. — The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death: insomuch, that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. " Tra ^substantiation, or the change of the sub stance of bread and wine in the supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by holv writ, but is re pugnaut to the plain words of Scripture, ove throweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. " The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the supper, only after a heavenly and scrip- tural manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the sup- per, is faith. '• The sacrament of the Lord's Supper, was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up. or worshipped. " V.). Of both Kinds. — The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay-people : for both the parts of the Lord's Supper by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be administered to aJl Christians alike. "90. Of the one Oblation of Christ, finished upon the Cross. — The offering of Christ once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for ail the sins of the whole world, both original and actual : and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in the which it is com- monly said, that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain 20 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH or guilt, is a blasphemous fable, and dangerous deceit. » "21. Of the Marriage of Ministers. — The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of a single life, or to abstain from marriage ; therefore i*. is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness. "22. Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches. — It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies sliculd in all places be the same, or exactly alike: for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of coun- tries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's word. — Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and pur- posely doth openly break the rites and ceremo- nies of the church to which he belongs, which are not repugnant to the word of God, and are ordained and approved 'by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, that others may fear to do the like, as one that offendeth against the common order of the church, and woundeth the consciences of weak brethren. " Every particular church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done to edification. "23. Of the Rulers of the United States of America. — The president, the congress, the gene- ral assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by the con- stitution of the United States, and by the consti- tutions of their respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign juris- diction.* "24. Of Christian Metis Goods. — The riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right, title, and possession of the same, as some do falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possess- cth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability. "25. Of 3 Christian Man's Oath. — As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his apostle ; so we judge that the Christian religion doth not prohibit but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth." GOVERNMENT. The general rules for the government of the societies, are the same as those in England, termed, " The nature, design, and general rules of our United Societies." (See Methodists, go- vernment and discipline of, ante.) As to the government, the title sufficiently ascertains its distinctive character, it being, in fact and name, * As far as it respects civil affairs, we believe it the luty of Christians, and especially ail Christian minis- ters, to benibjecl to the supreme authority of the coun- try where they may reside, and to use all laudable tu'aris to enjoin obedience to the powers that he : and therefore it is expected that all our preachers and peo- ple, who may be under the British or any other govern- ment, will behave themselves as oeaceableand orderly subjects. 453 Episcopal. T hree orders of ministers are recog nized, and the duties peculiar to each are clearly defined. But to give a correct view of the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it is necessary to show the manner in which it is formed. A man thinking himself moved by the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel, first makes known his views and exercises to the preacher having charge of the circuit or station, wlio, if he judge the ap- plicant a fit person, grants him license to exhort. After improving his talent as an exhorter, a suf- ficient length of time for his brethren to judge of his competency to so important a work, he makes application to the quarterly meeting conference, which is composed of all the preachers, travelling and local, stewards, leaders and exhorters of the circuit, and if considered fit for the work, he is recommended by this body to the local preachers' conference, where he is examined on his belief in the doctrines and discipline of the church ; and they, if they think proper, grant him license as a local preacher ; and if such licentiate desire to enter the travelling ministry, he must be recom- mended to an annual conference, cither by a quar- terly meeting or a local preacher's conference. When presented to an annual conference, his reception on trial depends on a majority of votes. After travelling as a preacher on probation two years, if no objection be made against him, he is admitted as a member of conference, and ordained a deacon. The approved exercise of the deacon's office for two years, entitles him to the office of an elder. The following quotations from the Methodist Discipline, will show the duties peculiar to each order of ministers in their church : — " Of the Election and Consecration of Bishops and of their duty. " Quest. I. How is a bishop to be constituted! "Answ. By the election of the general confer- ence, and the laying on of the hands of three bishops, or at least of one bishop and two elders. " Quest. 2. If by death, expulsion, or other ■ wise, there be no bishop remaining in our church, what shall we do? "Answ. The general conference shall elect a bishop ; and the elders, or any three of them, who shall be appointed by the general conference for that purpose, shall ordain him according to our form of ordination. " Quest. 3. What are the duties of a bishop? " Ansic. 1. To preside in our conferences. "2. To/ix the appointments of the preachers for the several circuits, provided he shall not al- low any preacher to remain in the same station more than two years successively; except the presiding elders, the editor and general book steward, the assistant editor and general book steward, the editor of the Christian Advocate Journal, the supernumerary, superannuated and worn-out preachers, missionaries among the In- dians, those preachers that may be appointed to labour for the special benefit of seamen, also the preacher or preachers that may be stationed in the city of New Orleans, and the presidents, principals, or teachers of seminaries of learning which are or may be under our superintendence. " 3. In the intervals of the conferences to change, receive, and suspend preachers, as neces- sity may require, and as the discipline directs. "4 To travel through the connexion at large, METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. " 5. To oversee the spiritual and temporal busi- ness of our church. " G. To ordain bishops, elders, and deacons. " Of the Election and Ordination of travelling Elders, and of their duty. " Quest. 1. How is an elder constituted. " Answ. By the election of a majority of the yeaily conference, and by the laying on of the hands of a bishop, and some of the elders that are present. " Quest. 2. What is the duty of a travelling elder 1 " Answ. 1. To administer baptism and the Lord's supper, and to perform the office of matri- mony, and all parts of divine worship. " 2. To do all the duties of a travelling preacher. " No elder that ceases to travel, without the consent of the yearly conference, certified under the hand of the president of the conference, ex- cept in case of sickness, debility, or other una- voidable circumstance, shall, on any account, exercise the peculiar functions of his office, or even be allowed to preach among us ; neverthe- less the. final determination in all such cases is with the yearly conference. " Of the Election and Ordination of travelling Deacons, and of their duty. " Quest. 1. How is a travelling deacon con- stituted 1 " Answ. By the election of the majority of the yearly conference, and the laying on of the hands of a bishop. " Quest. 2. What is the duty of a travelling deacon ? " Ansio. 1. To baptize, and perform the office of matrimony, in the absence of the elder. " 2. To assist the elder in administering the Lord's supper. " 3. To do all the duties of a travelling preacher. " Quest. 3. What shall be the time of proba- tion of a travelling deacon for the office of an elder. "Answ. Every travelling deacon shall exercise that office for two years, before he be eligible to the office of elder ; except in the case of missions, when the annual conference shall have authority to elect for the elder's office sooner, if they judge it expedient. " No deacon who ceases to travel without the consent of the annual conference, certified under the hand of the president of the conference, ex- cept in case of sickness, debility, or other unavoid- able circumstances, shall on any account exercise the peculiar functions of his office, or even be allowed to preach among us: nevertheless, the final determination in all such cases is with the annual conference." In addition to the above, the Methodist church recognizes an officer denominated a presiding elder, who is appointed to that office by a bishop. " Of the presiding Elders, and of their duly. " Quest. 1. By whom are the presiding elders to be chosen '.' " Ansio. By the bishops. " Quest. 2. What are the duties of a presiding elder. "Answ. 1. To travel through his appointed district " 2. In the absence of the bishop, to take charge of all the elders, and deacons, travelling and local preachers, and exhorters in his district. "3. To change, receive, and suspend preachers 4VJ in his district during the intervals of the confer- ences, and in the absence of the bishop, as the discipline directs. " 4. In the absence of a bishop, to preside in the conference ; but in case there are two or more presiding elders belonging to one conference, the bishop or bishops may by letter or otherwise ap- point the president ; but if no appointment be made, or if the presiding elder appointed do not attend, the conference shall in either of these cases elect the president by ballot, without a de- bate, from among the presiding elders. " 5. To be present, as far as practicable, at all the quarterly meetings ; and to call together at each quarterly meeting, a quarterly meeting con- ference, consisting of all the travelling and local preachers, exhorters, stewards, and leaders of the circuit, and none else, to hear complaints, and to receive and try appeals. The quarterly meeting conference shall appoint a secretary to take down the proceedings thereof, in a book kept by one of the stewards of the circuit for that purpose. " 6. To oversee the spiritual and temporal bu- siness of the church in his district. " 7. To take care that every part of our dis- cipline be enforced in his district. "8. To attend the bishops when present in his district ; and to give them, when absent, all ne- cessary information, by letter, of the state of his district." For the particular duties of preachers to God, to themselves and each other, as well as to the people of their charge, see Discipline, sections 8, 0, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17. Besides the travelling ministry, the Methodists have a large and useful body of ministers, whom they distinguish by the name of local preachers. These attend to secular business for a livelihood ; and preach generally on Sabbath days, and oc- casionally, as time and opportunity will permit, on other days. The following section from the discipline will clearly show their duties, powers, and privileges : " Of the Local Preachers. " Quest. 1. What directions shall be given concerning local preachers 1 "Answ. 1. There shall be held annually in each presiding elder's district, a district conference, of which all the local preachers in the district, who shall have been licensed two years, shall be mem- bers ; and of which the presiding elder of the district for the time being shall be president ; or in case of his absence, the conference shall have authority to elect a president pro tem. It shall be the duty of the presiding elder of each district to appoint the time and place of the first con- ference, after which the presiding elder shall appoint the time, and the conference the place of its own sitting. " 2. The said district conference shall have au- thority to license proper persons to preach, and renew their license ; to recommend suitable can- didates to the annual conference for deacons or elders' orders, in the local connexion, for admis- sion on trial in the travelling connexion, and to try. suspend, expel, or acquit aviy local preacher in the district against whom charges may be brought. Provided, that no person shall be li- censed without being first recommended by the quarterly conference of the circuit or station to which he belongs ; nor shall any one be licensed to preach, or recommended tc the annual con- METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. ference for ordination, without first being ex- amined in the district conference on the subjects of doctrine and discipline. "3. The district conference shall take cogni- zance of all the oral preachers in the district, and shall inquire into the gifts, labours, and usefulness of each preacher by name. "4. When charges are preferred against any focal preacher, it shall be the duty of the preacher in charge to call a committee consisting of three or more local preachers within the station, circuit, or district, before whom it shall be the duty of the accused to appear, and by whom he shall be acquitted, or, if found guilty, be suspended until the meeting of the next district conference. And the president of the said district conference shall, at the commencement of the trial, appoint a secre- tary, who shall take down regular minutes of the evidence, and proceedings of the trial; which minutes, when read and approved, shall be signed by the said president, and also by the members of the said district conference, or by a majority of them. " And in case of condemnation, the local preacher, deacon, or elder, condemned, shall be allowed an appeal to the next annual conference, provided that he signify to the said district con- ference, his determination to appeal; in which case the s aid president shall lay the minutes of the trial above-mentioned before the said annual conference, at which the local preacher, deacon, or elder, so appealing may appear : and the said annual conference shall judge and finally deter- mine from the minutes of the said trial, so laid before them. " 5. A licensed local preacher shall be eligible to the office of a deacon, after he has preached for four years from the time he received a regular license, and has obtained a testimonial from the district conference to which he belongs, after proper examination, signed by the president, and countersigned by the secretary, and his character has passed in examination before, and he has ob- tained the approbation of the annual conference. "u\ A local deacon shall be eligible to the office of an elder, after he has preached four years from the time he was ordained a deacon, and has obtained a recommendation from the district conference of which he is a member, certifying his qualifications in doctrine, discipline, talents and usefulness, and the necessity of his official services as an elder in the circuit where he resides; signed by the president, and coun- tersigned by the secretary. He shall, if he can- not attend, send to the annual conference such recommendation, and a noto certifying his be- lief in the doctrine and discipline of our church : the whole being examined by the annual con- ference, and if approved he may be ordained ; provided, nevertheless, no slave-holder shall be eligible to the office of an elder or deacon, where' the laws will admit of emancipation, and permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom. "7. E-ery local elder, deacon, and preacher shall ha» . his name recorded on the journal of the quarterly meeting conference of which he is a member. And every local preacher shall have his name enrolled on a class paper, and meet in class, if the distance of bis place of residence from any class be not too great ; or, in neglect thereof, the district conference, if they judge it proper, may deprive him of his ministerial office. 4G0 " Whenever a local preacher shall remove froia one circuit to another, he shall procure from the presiding elder of the district, or the preacher having the charge of the circuit, a certificate of his official standing in the church at the time of his removal, without which he shall not be re- ceived as a local preacher in other places. "No preacher among us shall distil or retail spirituous liquors, without forfeiting his official standing." The supreme legislative power of the church is concentrated in a general conference, which is composed of delegates from each annual con- ference, who meet together on the first day of May of every fourth year. For its powers see this article, ante. In addition to the powers there enumerated, the general conference pos- sesses an appellate jurisdiction over all ministers who may have appealed from the decisions of an annual conference, and the final determination of all disputes that may arise on any question of rights, which relates either to the people or preachers ; elects and fixes the salary of the book agents ; elects the bishops, and may create any new, or divide any of the old annual conferences. To the annual conferences is committed the oversight, in subordination to the episcopal au- thority, of all the preachers and people within their respective bounds, the standing of their own numbers, the hearing of appeals of local preachers, and the original jurisdiction of the members of their own bodies, and the adoption of such mea- sures as they may think expedient, for raisincr moneys to carry on the work of God. The fol- lowing questions will show the powers and pri- vileges, as well as the particular business of an annual conference : — " Of the Annual Conferences. " Quest. 3. Who shall attend the yearly con- ferences? " Answ. All the travelling preachers, who are in full connexion, and those who are to be received into full connexion. " Quest. 4. Who shall appoint the times of holding the yearly conferences'? " Answ. The bishops; but they shall allow the annual conferences to sit a week at least. " Quest. 5. Who shall appoint the places of holding the annual conferences? "Answ. Each annual conference shall appoint the place of its own sitting. " Quest. f>. What is the method wherein we usually proceed in the yearly conference? ''•Answ. We inquire, " 1. What preachers are admitted on trial? " 2. Who remain on trial ? "3. Who are admitted into full connexion? " 4. Who are the deacons ? 11 5. Who have been elected and ordained el- ders this year ? " 6. Who have been elected, by the suffrages of the general conference, to exercise the episco- pal office, and superintend the Methodist Epis- copal Church in America? "7. Who have located this year? "8. Who are the supernumeraries? " 9. Who are the superannuated or worn-out preachers ? "10. Who have been expelled from the con- nexion this year ? "11. Who have withdrawn from the con- nexion this year ? METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. "12. Are all the preachers blameless in life and conversation 1 " 13. Who have died this year ? " 14. What numbers are in society? " 15. What has been collected for the contin- gent expenses, for the making up the allowances of the preachers, &c. ? " 16. How has this been expended ? " 17. Where are the preachers stationed this year? " 18. Where and when shall our next con- ferences be held ? " Quest. 7. Is there any other business to be done in the yearly conferences ? " Answ. The electing and ordaining of dea- cons and elders. " Quest. 8. Are there any other directions to be given concerning the yearly conferences ? " Ansic. There shall be twelve conferences in the year. A record of the proceedings of each annual conference shall be kept by a secretary, chosen for that purpose, and shall be signed by the president and secretary : and let a copy of the said record be sent to the general conference." Support of the Ministry. — The ministry is supported by the voluntary contributions of the people. For this purpose, a collection is made in all the classes and large congregations in the country circuits once a quarter; in the cities, in addition to the quarterly collections, a monthly, and in some cities a weekly collection is made, which is delivered into the hands of the stewards at each leaders' meeting, or at the quarterly meet- ing of the circuit : the stewards keep a record of all moneys collected, and the manner in which they are appropriated. CHARACTER. Each denomination of Christians have, some peculiarity of character, by whhh it is distin- guished from others. And the preceding out- line of the Methodist Episcopa. Church will, it I kingdom of Christ among men. is presumed, enable the reader to form a tolerably correct idea cf its characteristic distinction. And those who ha've witnessed the rise and progress of the church, in the midst of a variety of re- proaches and oppositions, will be ready to admit, that a remarkable zeal for the salvation of souls has distinguished the Methodist ministry from the beginning; and that this zeal, tempered with love to God and man, has evinced itself by an ex tended and persevering plan of diffusing the Gospel, by an itinerating ministry ; and also by a success in the awakening and conversion of souls, scarcely to be paralleled in ecclesiastical his- tory, since the apostolic age. These arc facts known and read of all men. And no less evi- dent has been their own personal devotion to the cause of God and to the interests of Jesus Christ. That particular doctrine which has charac- terized all their preaching is, salvation by grace through faith in the atoning merits of Christ , and no less strenuously have they enforced the necessity of holiness of heart and life, or the en- tire sanctification of the soul and body to God. And bating somewhat for the enthusiasm of some, the ignorance and irregularity of others, perhaps it is not too much to say, that no sect of Christians have maintained a more unexceptionable charac- ter for strict adherence to the precepts of Christ. To undertake to estimate the comparative me- rits of the several sects of Christians might seem invidious ; and it would be equally so, to draw a general conclusion, either for or against any body of people from the conduct of a tew individuals. All, however bright they may have shone, have had their spots ; and it is granted without any dis- paragement to the character of the main body, that there have been individuals among the Metho- dists who have disgraced themselves and their brethren ; while the great majority of both preachers and people, have evinced deep devotion to God, and an ardent attachment to truth and holiness, and have done much to advance tho HOIftpMh-'OOS' — -O <-c .'Cir-MinoicoM! ■~z to ?t co o i- ic on fc — < cc co o ^cmronccc-'' ; — . o i 6* - (C C )' C O C< r; - Tv o ijj c '- l- h O) co o c o> ?i c t -, * io --or 3 S cc co o u^' . . . E*, CO C* « C* <- ITPC*— > C^ C^ © > i i i c 2 .3 £:■« >-* IS £g z2 > S 3 *"3 3'i; «-° iujd flfcZj H £ APPENDIX, No. II. (Corrected to 1844.) THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH; COMPRISING THE ASSOCIATED METHODIST CHURCHES. By a distinguished Member of the Church. Thf. polity of the original Wesleyan Methodist Societies rested upon the principle, that their illustrious Founder had the right. to ordain every thing, and to control every preacher and member of his societies, in all matters of a prudential character. As he himself states, he had the exclusive power " to appoint when, and where, and how, his socie- ties should meet; and to remove those whose lives Bhowed that they had no desire ' to llee from the wrath to come.' And this power remained the same, whether the people meeting together, were twelve hundred, or twelve thousand/' He exercised a similar power over the preachers, " To appoint each of these, when, where, and how, to labour; and to tell any if I saw cause, ' I do not desire your help any longer.' " Most of the members of these Societies were members of the Church of England; some were members of the dissenting churches. Mr. Wesley was a minister of the Church of England, and as such he died. With very few exceptions, his preachers were laymen. He was their tutor and governor. He was the patron of all the Metho- dist pulpits in England and Ireland for life, the sole right of nomination being vested in him by the deeds of settlement. He was the patron of the Methodist societies in America ; and is ac- knowledged by the Methodist Episcopal Church as its founder. That he is the author of the Episcopacy of that church, is questioned by some, for the following reasons, as well as many others: 1. It was not until some years after the institution of Episcopacy, (1784,) that Mr. Wesley's authority was alleged as its basis ; but, without any men- tion of Mr. Wesley, the itinerant preachers de- clared in their first " Minutes" — " We will form ourselves into an Episcopal Church, &c." 2. Mr. Wesley alleged no other authority in himself to ordain ministers, but his right as a presbyter. 3. He solemnly forbade Mr. Asbury to assume the title of bishop. The Conference by whom the Methodist Epis- copal Church was founded, was composed of itinerant preachers only, who assumed to them- selves the same powers which Mr. Wesley had exercised over the societies; making their will the only rule of the church. Some of the first symptoms indicative of dis- satisfaction wit lit he new economy, were evinced by these preachers themselves, who were soon made to know the poicers of the episcopacy. On no 463 i question have they been so equally divided. No changes, however, have been effected. The epis» copacy still maintains its prerogatives in their ori- ginal integrity. In 1824, memorials and petitions, from many sections of the church, were presented to the General Conference, complaining of the govern- ment being so constituted and administered, as to exclude the local preachers, and the lay-members from every sort of participation in their own government, as Methodists. Some of these peti- tioners were satisfied with the plea of expediency ; but the most of them took the ground of right. All of them craved a representative form of govern- ment. The conference replied, that they " knew no such rights," nor did they " comprehend any such privileges." From that time the controversy assumed a new character. It was viewed as itinerant power against church rights. Therefore, as soon as the general conference had risen, a meeting of pro- fessed reformers was held ; some of the members of which had been distinguished members of the recent conference. The continuance of the periodi- cal was resolved upon, "for the purpose of giving the Methodist community a suitable opportunity to enter upon a calm and dispassionate examina- tion of the subjects in dispute." In order to ascer- tain and increase the number of reformers, union societies were formed. These measures were the causes of considerable persecution, and in some places of excommunications. Secessions imme- diately followed. The expelled and the secedents united, temporarily, under the " General Rules" of John and Charles Wesley. In November, 18*27, a General Convention of ministers and lay-delegates was held in the city of Baltimore ; a memorial to the general conference to be held in 1828 was prepared, and a committee appointed to present it. This memorial asserted the right of the church to representation. But, instead of any concession, the conference denied the right altogether; and, on the high pretension of divine right, claimed for the itineracy the same exclusive and unamenable powers of making and administering moral discipline, which they had from the beginning exercised. This was a death- blow to all hope on the part of the reformers; and, therefore, at a convention held in Baltimore, No- vember, 1828, a provisional government, under the form of Articles of Association, was adopted, to continue for two years. THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. The third convention was also held in Balti- more, and continued its sessions from the 2d to the 23d of November, 1830. One hundred and twelve persons were elected as members, eighty- i»ne of whom attended. A Constitution and Form of Discipline were adopted. " PREAMBLE. "We, the Representatives of the Associated Methodist Churches, in general convention as- sembled, acknowledging the Loud Jesus Christ as the only Hkad of the Church, and the word of God as the sufficient rule of faith and practice in all things pertaining to godliness ; and being fully persuaded, that the representative form of church government is the most scriptural, best suited to our condition, and most congenial with our views and feelings as fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God ; And, Whereas, a written constitution, establishing the form of government, and securing to the ministers and members of the church their rights and privi- leges, is the best safeguard of christian liberty ; We, therefore, trusting in the protection of Al- mighty God, and acting in the name and by the authority of our constituents, do ordain and esta- blish, and agree to be governed by the following elementary principles and constitution. " ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES. "I. A Christian Church is a society of believers in Jesus Christ, and is of divine institution. "II. Christ is the only Hkad of the Church ; and the word of God the only rule of faith and conduct. " III. No person who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, and obeysthe gospel of God our Saviour, ought to be deprived of church membership. " IV. Ev°ry man has an inalienable right to pri- vate judgment in n_siters of religion ; and an equal right to exprcts his opinion in any way which will not violate the laws of God, or the rights of his fellow men. " V. Church trials should be conducted on gospel principles only; and no minister or member should be excommunicated, except for immorality, the propagation of unchristian doctrines, or for the neglect of duties enjoined by the word of God. " VI. The pastoral or ministerial office and d uties are of divine appointment ; and all elders in the church of God are equal ; but ministers are for- bidden to be lords over God's heritage, or to have dominion over the faith of the saints. " VII. The church has aright to form and en- force such rules and regulations only as are in accordance with the holy Scriptures, and may be necessary, or have a tendency, to carry into effect the great system of practical Christianity. "VIII. Whatever power may be necessary to the formation of rules and regulations, is inherent in the ministers and members of the church ; but so much of that power may be delegated, from time to time, upon a plan of representation, as they may judge necessary and proper. " IX. It is theduty of all ministers and members of the church to maintain godliness, and to eppose all moral evil. " X. It is obligatory on ministers of the gospel to be faithful in the discharge of their pastoral and ministerial duties ; and it is also obligatory on the members to esteem ministers highly for their works' sake, and to render them a righteous com- pensation for their labours. 4G3 "XI. The church ought to secure to all her of- ficial bodies the necessary authority for the pur- poses of good government ; but she has no right to create any distinct or independent sovereignties." On these principles, the Constitution and Form of Discipline are founded. Article I. declares the title — " The Methodist Protkstant Church, comprising the Associated Methodist Churches." This title, is deemed suit- able, because this church repudiates ministerial supremacy, as did the Protestants of the sixteenth century. Article II. Fixes probationary privileges and terms of membership, which do not differ from those in the Methodist Episcopal Church, except as regarding "the children of our members, and those under their guardianship [who] shall be re- cognized as enjoying probationary privileges, and held as candidates for membership ; and may be put into classes, as such, with the consent of their parents and guardians." Art. III. Provides for divisions of districts, cir- cuits, and stations, by the representatives of the churches, in general and annual conferences as- sembled. Art. IV. "On receiving churches, &c." pro- vides the mode of receiving churches into the general association ; declares what constitutes an individual Associated Methodist church, to wit^ "Any number of members residing sufficiently near each other to assemble statedly for public worship, and to transact its temporal business" — and provides for the division of churches "into smaller companies or classes, for the purposes of religious instruction and edification." No church can be continued in connexion with the general body, but by conforming to the constitution and book of discipline. Art. V. Of " Leaders' Meetings." Art. VI. Constitutes quarterly conferences, to be composed of all the ministers, preachers, ex- horters, stewards, leaders, and trustees, provided the latter have also the qualification of full church membership. This article also forbids the licensing of any one " to preach until he shall have been first examined, and recommended by a committee of five, composed of ministers and laymen, chosen by the quarterly conference." Art. VII. Constitutes annual conferences, and declares their*powers and duties. They are com- posed of equal numbers of ministers and delegates. The powers and duties of these bodies are of the utmost importance to the churches and the general connexion. They are vested with powers to elect a president annually ; to examine into the official conduct of all their members; to receive ministers and preachers; to elect to orders; to hear and decide on appeals ; to define and regulate bounda- ries of circuits and stations ; to station ministers, &c. To make such special rules and regulations as the peculiarities of their conference districts may require, not inconsistent with the constitution. Art. VIII. Provides for a general conference, to consist of an equal number of ministers and laymen, to be chosen by the churches. No minis- ter is permitted to have a seat in this body but by election of the ministers and laymen. So that the members of this body will be, indeed, the repre- sentatives of those for whom they legislate. No one will have a seat in virtue of his own ri'ent is owing the estab- lishment of the College of New Jersey, which was chartered through the exertions of the New Synod, in 17 16. was opened at once in Newark, and removed to the present buildings in Princeton in 1757. That was. however, the last year of the separation, and the edifice may in charity be compared to the altar of Ed on the borders of Jordan, — to be re- garded, not as a monument of dissension, but a pledge of union in a common faith — ' That your children may not say to our children in time tu come, Ye have no part in the Lord.' In May, 17oS. the rival powers met at Phila- delphia, and re- united under the title of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. At that date there were seventy-eight ministers, and seven pres- byteries; the latter being those of Philadelphia, New York, New Brunswick, Suffolk, lir^t and second Newcastle, and Donnegal, to which were soon added those of Lewistown and Hanover: and in the next year the two presbyteries of Newcastle wen' amalgamated. In 1788, the Synod comprised sjxteen presby- 463 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH teries, and on account of the number of congre- gations, and the great extent of country over which they were scattered, it resolved in that year to di- vide itself into four Synods: that of New York and New Jersey, embracing the presbyteries of Duchess county, Suffolk, New York, and New Brunswick: the Synod of Philadelphia, including the Presbyteries of Philadelphia, Lewistown, New- castle, Baltimore, and Carlisle; the Synod of Vir- ginia,composed of Redstone, Hanover, Lexington, and Transylvania ; and the Synod of the Carolinas, comprehending the presbyteries of Abingdon, Orange, and South Carolina. These Synods were to send delegates to a General Assembly, to be convened annually in Philadelphia. The first Assembly met in Philadelphia, on the 21st of May, 1789, at which time there were under its jurisdiction one hundred and eighty-eight minis- ters, and four hundred and nineteen churches. The Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, of New Jersey, whose signature is to the Declaration of Independence, ! (reached the opening sermon, and the Rev. Dr. lodgers, of New York, was elected to the office of Moderator, or President. Among the earliest measures of the assembly was a resolution to pro- secute the plana which had originated in the pri- mary Synod, of sending preachers to the destitute parts of the States, especially to the frontiers, and to provide for the proper education of poor young men designed for the ministry. The correspon- dence with other churches, substantially presbyte- rian, was extended; and at this time it is main- tained not only witli various bodies of that descrip- tion in this country, but with some of the Protest- ant churches of Europe. In 1S10 occurred the secession of the Cumber- land Presbytery, which now constitutes an inde- pendent body, as is detailed under the proper head in the body of this dictionary. It was mutually resolved by the General Synod of the Associate reformed Church, and the Gene- ral Assembly, in the year 1821, to effect a union of the two churches; as they were undistinguished except by name and polity. The funds of the Synod were transferred to the treasury of the As- sembly, and the theological seminaries of the two churches were consolidated. The Synod com- prehended live presbyteries and thirty-two minis- ters, nineteen of whom were in favour of, and thir- teen opposed to the union: but several of the latter afterwards acceded, though some of the churches still exist under their old name and government. In the article Presbyterians, an outline is given of the arguments upon which the principles of this form of ecclesiastical government is founded, with some account of the judicatories of the na- tional church of Scotland. The particulars of the system are detailed, in the ' Form of Government and Directory for the worship of God,' which are appended to the Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms, framed by the Westminster Assembly, in 1G13-9, ratified by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1(345, and formally adopted by the Synod of Philadelphia, in 1729. In May, 1785, after the revolution, these standards were revised, a portion of the rules lietter adapted to the condition of the American church, and some inconsiderable alterations made in the confession and catechisms. With these modifications, the book was adopted as the con- stitution ofthechurch, subject to farther alteration by the Assemblv, upon the suggestion of not less 4G7 IN THE UNITED STATES. | than two thirds of the presbyteries. The doctrines set forth in the constitution are those related in the dictionary under the title Calvinists, which are, however, embraced with various shades of distinction and explanation by the ministers and other members of the Presbyterian church. The controversies that have arisen on some points have resulted, it is believed, mainly from a misunder- standing of the phrases employed by polemics on both sides, and do not imply any essential depar- ture from the great principles of the system, which happens to be called by the name of an illustrious j theologist. This confession is held to be of no au- i thority in itself, and is considered only asa complete j digest of evangelical doctrine, as delivered in the Holy Scriptures, which it pronounces to be ' the only rule of faith and obedience,' asserting, that 'the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself,' and that ' no church judicato- ry ought to pretend to make laws to bind the con- science in virtue of their own authority.' Tim fundamental principle of the government is, that all the congregations of members of the church constitute, collectively, one church ; that a majority should always govern, and that, to attain this as nearly as possible, there should be the successive representation of the people in the sessions, pres- byteries, synods, and assembly. The officers of the church consist first of the clergy, who are on an entire parity of rank, and are named indiscri- minately Bishops, Pastors, Ministers, Presbyters, and Elders, which titles are supposed to be syno- nymous in the New Testament. The second class of officers are Ruling Elders, composed of laymen, elected by the members of a church from their own number, as their representatives to serve conjointly with the Minister in such parts of hi* spiritual duties, other than preaching, as they may l>e qualified to perform; and to be connected with him in the spiritual government of the churches as in admitting, trying, and disciplining members When elected, they are publicly ordained by the minister, and with him compose the session. Deacons are the third grade, and are entrusted with the. care of the members who stand in need of temporal assistance, or are entirely dependent, on account of age and infirmity, on the church for maintenance: these are chosen in the same manner as ruling elders, and in most churches are the same individuals. It would seem, however, that this practice is a departure from the strict definition of the duties of Elders and Deacons, which are in the standards treated as distinct of- fices, the former being designated as rulers in spi- ritual affairs, whilst to the latter is specially coin- mended the care of the poor, with a suggestion that they should manage all the temporal concerns of the church. Those Presbyterian congregations therefore which have no deacons, can scarcely be said to adhere to the primitive model of their church. The secular business of churches is now, generally, in the hands of Trustees, who are not required to be communicating mcubers of the church. The number of elders is to be determined by the wants of each church ; their office is per- petual, but the exercise of its functions mr»y cease when the officer becomes disabled from acting ; and lie is liable to deposition for misconduct or heresy. Officially they are equal in rank to ministers, all being alike presbyters ; the only distinction being, that some are considered more fitted lor the duties of preaching and administering the ordinances. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH A Presbytery is a body composed of several presbyters, viz. of all the ministers, and one ruling elder from Bach church in a certain limit, over whom it beeps a genera] oversight. lis jurisdic- tion is that of an appellate judicatory to the ses- sions, and has original authority over them, as lliey have over the churches. It has also the ex- clusive power of examining and licensing candi- dates for the ministry, ordaining ministers, au- thorizing their transition from one church to another, and resolving questions of doctrine or discipline submitted to them. They are respon- sible to the Synod, a convention of ministers and elders, delegated from the presbyteries of a cer- tain district ; it receives appeals from their deci- sions, reviews their records, erects new presby- teries when necessary, and suggests to the Gene- ral Assembly such measures as are supposed to require legislation. In the General Assembly, all the churches are represented by delegates, both ministers and elders, called commissioners, appointed annually by the presbyteries. It is the firml court of appeal and reference, reviews the proceedings of the Synods, and has a general superintendence of the concerns of the church of which it is the organ. This body meets annually at such place as it may have adjourned to. In 1834 there were in connexion with the Assembly 2648 congregations, 1914 bishops, with 236 licentiates, making 2150 preach- ers, and 247,964 communicants. In that year, 5738 adults and 13,004 infants were baptized. This church has always considered missionary labours an object of importance. Before the General Assembly was formed, the Synods of New York and Philadelphia enjoined on all their churches to make collections for sending the gospel to the destitute. When the Assembly ■was formed in 1789, the missionary cause claimed IN THE UNITED STATES. their first and especial attention. The General Assembly is thus among the oldest missionary bodies in our land. The Presbyterian church has had her missionaries among the pagans, and among the destitute of our own citizens, before many of the valuable institutions of our day had existence. In 1834, about $114,687 were reported as collected for the cause of missions, and about 230 missionaries ministered to upwards of 500 congregations. The education of young men for the gospel ministry also claimed the early attention of the Assembly. In 1817, this business was committed to a board of education, which at this time has more than 64 candidates for the gospel ministry. Nearly $50,000 were collected for this board in the year ending 1835. In 1810, the Assembly resolved to establish a Theological Seminary. At that time there were four hundred congregations without a minister. The location was subsequently fixed at Princeton, in New Jersey, and the institution was opened there in August, 1812. The average number of students is about one hundred and thirty. Twenty-three scholarships have been endowed, in the principal sum of $2500 each, for the sup- port of that number of students, who are unable to pay for their education; and funds for three professorships, of $25,000 each, are accumulating. Another seminary was founded by the Assembly in 1825, at Alleghenytown, near Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. There are several others which are supported and governed independently, by various Synods. It should be mentioned that all the institutions connected with the Assembly, are supported by voluntary contributions ; and that, consequently, their efficiency and permanence are dependent, wholly, upon the annual continu- ance of individual support. Since the above article was written this denomination has greatly increased, and now. 1844, numbers as fallows : Ministers. Churches. Communicants. Geieral Assembly, (Old School,) 1730 2156 160,000 (New School,) 1414 1496 140,000 468 APPENDIX, No. IV. THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. In the following brief account of the origin, doctrines, and extent of the Cumberland Pres- byterian Church, it will be the object, to make an impartial statement of such general facts as may be deemed important to the reader. It is the wish of the writer to divest himself of every thing like prejudice, and to present these facts in such a manner as to wrong no one, and to do entire justice to all concerned. The following was the occasion of the origin of this denomina- tion. In the beginning of the present century a very great and glorious revival of religion origi- nated in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, under the pious labours of Rev. James McGready, and other Presbyterian ministers. It is known to all familiar with the history of that portion of the United States at that time, that wickedness and immorality abounded to an alarming extent. The country was scantily supplied with the means of grace. The few ministers and Christians who were there, were much grieved, as all Christians would be, at the abounding of wickedness. They betook them- selves to fasting and prayer, in view of the ex- isting state of things. The great Head of the Church blessed their labours to a remarkable extent. This work of grace extended in every direction. " Come over and help us," was the cry from all quarters. What was to be done ? Thousands called for the bread of life, but there were none to break it to them. After much deliberation, and even hesitation, it was agreed, that, in view of the great ministerial destitution, it would be right and proper, to set young men apart to the ministry, who did not enjoy a classi- cal education. Some three or four, whose piety and talents seemed to justify the step, were encouraged to prepare written discourses, and present them to Transylvania Presbytery, in which the revival occurred. These indivi- duals were licensed, in October, 1802, after warm opposition from some members of the Presbytery. Previous to licensing them, they were ex- amined on literature and theology, and adopted the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church, with the exception of what they be- lieved to be fatality, taught under the name of predestination and election. Here we see a departure from the book of discipline in two things. First. Individuals inducted into the ministry without a classical education. This lias been a matter of frequent recurrence in the Presbyterian Church, both before and since that period. Second. The Confession of Faith adopted, except one of its leading doctrines. Mental reservations in the adoption of the Con- fession, have long been practised in the Presby- terian Church. It, is known, that the New and Old School divisions of the Presbyterian Church, assert that they hold to widely different doc- trines; yet they both adopt the same Confession of Faith. Here then, if the Confession be un- derstood, are mental reservations, on the part of one, or perhaps of both, of these divisions. The individuals in question, after due examination, were regularly ordained. It was in October, 1802, that Kentucky Synod divided Transyl- vania Presbytery, and created a new one called Cumberland Presbytery. As must be obvious to the reader, the body of Christians, afterwards driven to secession, and now known as Cum- berland Presbyterians, took their name from this new Presbytery. At the fourth meeting of said Presbytery, in 1804, a small minority, consisting of three, transmitted a remonstrance to Kentucky Synod, complaining of what they termed irregularities in licensing and ordaining the individuals above referred to, which solemn acts, it will be borne in mind, had been officially done by the Pres- byterian Church. Two of the three remon- strants afterward left the Presbyterian Church. The one became a New-light, the other was suspended and deposed for becoming a Pelagian, But little was said about the matter until the succeeding meeting of Synod, when a commis- sion was appointed to examine into it. Cum- berland Presbytery, with all its candidates and licentiates, was cited to appear before the com- mission. The Presbytery was called on to sur- render all the men whom it had licensed and ordained for re-examination before the commis- sion. Both the Presbytery, and the persons de- manded, refused compliance, upon the solemn conviction that it was wrong. The commission formally prohibited all the men, whom Cum- berland Presbytery had licensed and ordained, from preaching, and cited the other part of the Presbytery to appear before the Synod at its next meeting. This whole proceeding is un- precedented. Men who had been regularly ordained, against whom no allegation, either of immorality or heresy was made, were silenced, and that by a commission from a Synod. A few months after this, a council was held by the members of Cumberland Presbytery. It was agreed to petition the General Assembly for a redress of grievances ; and also to act as a council, and not as a Presbytery, until an answer could be obtained from the General As- sembly. The Assembly alleged that it could not act in the case,' because it had not been regularly appealed to. The Synod was advised by the Assembly to review its proceedings. The Synod in 1807, reviewed and confirmed its former proceedings. Cumberland Presbytery was dissolved by Synod. Transylvania Pres- bytery was now ordered to settle the matter with the council. In 1808 the members of the council sent another petition to the General As- sembly ; but were again informed that that body could take no action on the case because an appeal had not been brought up to them from Kentucky Synod. It may be remarked, that a number of the most distinguished clergy- man of the Presbyterian Church, both sympa- 469 THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. thized with the council, and believed that their conduct was altogether justifiable under the circumstances. In 1809, a letter from Kentucky Synod was laid before the General Assembly, in reference to the action the Synod had taken against Cumberland Presbytery. The As- sembly took judicial action on the contents of this letter, and justified the proceedings of the Synod in the case. Though the Assemblies of 1807 and 1808 had decided that they could not act on the case, because it had come up by letter and not by appeal from Synod ; yet, in 1809, when the matter came before the As- sembly by letter, and not by appeal, the exci- sion of Cumberland Presbytery from the Pres- byterian Church took place. The news of the Assembly's action was received with astonishment by the members of Cumberland Presbytery. They met as before, not in the capacity of a Presbytery, but of a council, and tried to effect a reconciliation with the Synod and Transylvania Presbytery, but the effort proved abortive. It was in 1810, that the Rev. Samuel M'Dow, Finis Ewing, and Samuel King, constituted themselves into a Presbytery, under the name of Cumberland Presbytery. It was not the original design of these men to form a new denomination, but they were forced to it, after waiting and peti- tioning for a redress of grievances in vain for many years. The hand of providence was evidently manifest in the formation of this infant denomination. Reconciliation could be effected only by adopting the Westminster Confession, to do which the seceding party must have abandoned principles dearer to them than life. The subsequent progress of this Presbytery evinced that Heaven approved the steps taken in its organization. In 1813, a Synod, com- prising three Presbyteries, was formed out of Cumberland Presbytery. At this time, the Westminster Confession of Faith, being modi- fied, and such parts as were deemed unscrip- tural, expunged, was adopted as the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. From this time until 1829, the labours of this Synod were much blessed. There were then eighteen Presbyteries. The bounds of the Synod had become so extensive, that it was thought advisable to form a General Assembly. The new Assembly met the first time in Prince- ton, Kentucky, in the year 1829. At this period there were churches of this denomination in Kentucky, Tennessee. Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri. The first Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in Western Pennsylvania, was formed in 1831. The occasion of this movement was the following, viz. : — The name and doctrines of this denomination had been heard of in this part of Pennsylvania. A num- ber of gentlemen addressed a letter to the President of Cumberland College, at Princeton, Kentucky, requesting ministers of the new de- nomination to be sent there. The request was laid before the General Assembly, and granted. The first Presbytery in this state met at Wash- ington. This Presbytery has since so enlarged, that a Synod, known by the name of Pennsylvania Synod, has been made out of it, consisting of 4 Presbyteries, 65 congregations, and about 7,000 communicants. At the General Assembly of 1834, on the authority of the Synods, 10,f>80 conversions were reported, during the then past 470 year. The number of Synods, from the report of that Assembly, was 9 ; of Presbyteries, 35 ; of ordained preachers, 300 , of licensed preach- ers, 100; of candidates for the ministry, 75; and of communicants. 50,000. This branch of the Redeemer's kingdom is mainly confined to the southern and western portions of the United States. From the lakes on the North, to the Gulph of Mexico on the South, they are nu- merous. There is a Presbytery, and a number of flourishing churches in Texas. A few churches and ministers are east of the Alleghany mountains. A church has lately been organized in the city of Philadelphia. There is a minister and congregation in New England. From the reports of the Presbyteries and Synods of 1843, the following statistical information may be re- garded as true. It is rather an under, than an over estimate. Synods, 13; Presbyteries, 60 or more than that number ; Congregations, 600 ; there are more than 100,000 communicants. Estimating 4 children and other adherents to each communicant, which all will see is a very low estimate, it will appear that there are 500,000 persons connected with this branch of the church. Allowing 3 persons to each com- municant, which is a still lower estimate, we have 400,000 persons connected with this church. The number of ordained ministers amounts to 500 ; the number of licentiates to 175 ; the num- ber of candidates to 125. It has been urged by some, that, from the very nature of its origin, this is no church, and that its ministers have no right to administer the ordinances. This re- mark cannot be true. If it is, it at once un- churches every Protestant denomination, not even the Episcopalians excepted. How one or two hundred years of age can legalize a denomi- nation, is hard to be understood. Surely, the infancy of a denomination, is not a sufficient reason for its being unchurched. Under the patronage of this denomination two religious periodicals are published : — one in Pittsburgh, Pa., the other at Lebanon, Tenn. It has two colleges in active operation : — one at Princeton, Ky., which has been in a flourishing condition for 16 or 18 years last past: the other at Lebanon, Tenn., which was chartered lately by the legislature of that state. Besides these, there are about 10 seminaries of some notoriety, some of which, no doubt, will become large and permanent seats of learning. In all of these, it may safely b'e asserted, that there are 1,000 stu- dents, receiving a course of literary education. Private schools abound throughout the extent of this denomination ; education being regardeu as a powerful auxiliary to the existence and promotion of true religion. The General As- sembly has recommended the churches under its care, to co-operate with the American Bible, Tract, Missionary, Sunday-school, and Tem- perance Societies. A few missionaries of this denomination are actively engaged among some of the Indian tribes. The church government is Presbyterian, comprising Church Session, Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly. It tuny be proper to make a brief statement of some of the leading doctrines of the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church. 1. They believe in what is called the doctrine of the Trinity; that there are three persons in one God coequal and eternal, the Father, Son, andHolyGhost. 2. That Christ is very God and very man, possessing two distinct natures in one. 3. That man was THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. made upright, pure, and free, sufficient to have stood, yet free to fall, his will not being deter- mined by any absolute necessity either to evil or to good. 4. That all Adam's family are totally depraved, and that all come into the world under the curse of the law. 5. That Jesus Christ, by the atonement, has elected all the human family, not one excepted, to a day of trial, a state of probation ; that as Adam, in the first state of probation, represented all the human family, so Christ, the second Adam, represents all, in the second state of probation. 6. That divine influence is necessary — that no man can obey the Gospel without the aid of the Holy Spirit. 7. That justification is by faith as the instrumental, by Christ as the meritorious, and by the operation of the Spirit as the efficient cause. 8. That those who are elected, or cho- sen, heirs of glory in consequence of their volun- tary obedience and faith in Christ, will persevere to eternal life — those who believe are ordained to eternal life, in consequence of that belief. As they dissent from the Westminster Confession, it will be necessary, in order to understand fully some of their doctrines, to contrast them with that Confession. 1. They understand the Westminster Confession as teaching absolute election, and, consequently, eternal reproba- tion— that a part only of mankind are embraced in the atonement, and the other part passed by unprovided for. 2. That Christ died only for those whom God intended to glorify. 3. As not teaching the salvation of those dying in in- fancy. 4. That the Holy Spirit operates in a sufficient degree to salvation, only on the elect, on those whom God designed from all eternity to save. On these points Cumberland Presby- terians believe, 1. That neither election nor reprobation is absolute, irrespective of faith and unbelief, but that Christians are elected and chosen in consideration of their voluntary obedi- ence, and that the wicked are reprobated in consideration of their rejection of Christ. 2. That Christ tasted death for every man. 3. That all infants, dying in infancy, ar6 saved through Christ, and the sanctification of the Spirit. 4. That the Holy Spirit operates on all men in such a manner that they might be saved — that the reason why the influence of the Spirit is effectual in one case and not in another, depends not on the mode or extent of operation, but on the disposition and conduct of the individual moved upon. They are not satisfied with the applications that are made of the doctrines of election, either by rigid Calvinists or Arminians ; but believe that the Bible views of this doc- trine lie between these two extremes. The motto adopted by this denomination from one of the Christian fathers is, " in essen- tials, unity ; in non-essentials, liberty ; in all things, charity." The Cumberland Presbyterian Confession differs from the Westminster Con- fession, on the subject of ministerial qualification. It will be borne in mind that this was one cause of the original difficulty between Cumberland Presbytery and Kentucky Synod. The Cum- berland Presbyterian Confession prefers, in all possible cases, a classical education. No can- didate is ordained without a thorough English education. Every one is examined on experi- mental religion — on his internal call to the mi- nistry— on natural and revealed theology — on astronomy — geography — English grammar — ecclesiastical history, &c. &c. The remarks here submitted to the reader are intended as a concise view of the origin, extent, and doctrines of the Cumberland Pres- byterian Church. If allusion has been made to the doctrines and practices of other denomina- tions, it has been done out of no ill design. Every denomination has aright to present to the world its own doctrines and practices, and show wherein they differ irom the doctrines and prac- tices of others. 471 APPENDIX, No. V. BAPTISTS OF THE UNITED STATES. By J. M. Pech. Baptists, like Fasdobaptists, are divided into several sects. These are distinguished by the terms, Regular or United, Separate, Free-Will, Seventh Day, Six Principle, Reformers or Cam- bellites, Church of God or VVinebrennarians, Christian Connection or Arians, Dunkards, and several minor sects. This sketch is confined to the Regular or United Baptists. The broad line of distinction between Baptists and Peedobaptists, is found in the following par- ticulars. Baptists of every sect hold to the entire suffi- ciency and supremacy of the Holy Scriptures over all formulas, or standards of human com- position as their guide in matters of religion — the sole rule of faith and practice ; that religion under the Christian dispensation is a personal concern; that its duties and obligations cannot be assumed and performed by proxy, either parental or sponsorial; that none but persons who have been sufficiently taught of God, have become the disciples of Christ by faith, and are capable of knowing and obeying the divine law in their own persons, are the proper subjects of gospel ordinances. They furthermore believe and teach that no persons are suitable candidates for the ordinance of baptism, except believers in the Lord Jesus Christ ; and that immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the only Scriptural baptism, the act in all cases per- formed by the Forerunner of Christ, and by the apostles. They hold that the application of water in the mode of affusion or pouring does not comport with the legitimate meaning of the Greek word baptize, nor does it symbolize the facts set forth by this ordinance, as being dead unto sin and alive unto God, (Rom. vi. chap. Col. ii. 12; iii. 1 — 3,) and as representing the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They deny that baptism in the new dispensation came in the place of circumcision in the Jewish eco- nomy, but is a new and positive rite, specific in its import, and enjoined on individuals as quali- fied subjects of the kingdom of the Messiah. They hold that infant baptism, which involves infant membership and covenant relationship in the church, lies at the foundation of all corrupt religious establishments in Christendom, and when carried out to its legitimate results pro- duces a national and worldly Christianity, by bringing into the pale of the church the whole population in unconscious infancy ; and that the great contest between a religion of forms and the mystical efficacy of ordinances, and the Christianity of the Bible — a religion that is per- sonal, spiritual, and founded on an intelligent belief in the truth, cannot be successfully main- tained by the advocates and supporters of infant baptism. Regular Baptists in Hie ZT/iii>cJ States. — This bodv includes much the larger number of those professors of religion which we have designated as Baptists. Though they symbolize in doc- 472 trine, interchange communion at the Lord's table, correspond through their associations, and co-operate in benevolent institutions, each single church, as Baptists understand the New Testa- ment organization of churches, is strictly inde- pendent in its internal government and discipline of all other ecclesiastical bodies, exercising only judicial and executive power over its own mem- bers, but has no legislative power. " The Lord is our Lawgiver; the Lord is our King." In doctrine, Regular Baptists accord with the Presbyterians. They do not admit that a know- ledge of the ancient languages, of mathematics, and philosophy, is indispensably requisite to the exercise of the ministerial function. They allow, however, the great utility of learning as a qualification for usefulness in preaching ; and encourage learned men with a liberality equal to that of any other denomination. The officers which usually belong to a church consist of a pastor, and from two to seven or nine deacons, according to the magnitude of the church, and its exigencies. Their ministers and pastors are ordained with the imposition of hands, by a presbytery consisting of any number more than two. Every candidate for ordination, however, must be presented, previously approved, by the church of which he is a member. A large proportion of their ministers, espe- cially in the Southern and Western States, are not employed as pastors of single churches. Many are laborious, self-denying and successful itinerants; and while they carry on some secu- lar business for a support, appropriate from 50 to 150 week days in a year, besides Sabbaths, in ministerial labours to the destitute. Many hold the official relation of pastor to three and four churches, which they visit alternately once in a month. Much of this labour is performed gra- tuitous, especially in new and frontier settle- ments. In the reception of persons into the church, all candidates for baptism are required to make a public declaration of their faith and religious experience, either before the church, or else in the presence of such members of the church as may have been especially appointed for such a purpose. In the transaction of business, both secular and spiritual, it is customary for all the members, male and female, to assemble, ap- point a chairman, have a clerk to keep a regular record of the proceedings, and to allow a free discussion and vote to every member present on every subject. Baptism upon a profession of faith is regarded as an indispensable prerequisite to church mem- bership, hence Regular Baptists in the United States admit none to the Lord's supper without evidence of this qualification. They do not re- gard the Lord's supper as having been instituted as a test or a pledge of Christian fellowship one with another, but as showing forth the death of Christ, symbolizing communion with Him, and BAPTISTS OF THE UNITED STATES. to be observed by each single church as a body politic, in its Scripturally organized capacity. The Baptists of the United States had their commencement with the earliest settlement of {lie country. Respectable portions of the colonial emigration from England and Wales were of this persuasion. They obtained a location in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, and the Carolinas, whilst the colonies were yet in their infantine state. Rhode Island was founded by Baptists. The first church in Providence, and the oldest Bap- tist church in America, originated with the baptism of Roger Williams and his congrega- tion in 1639. The first church in Newport was constituted in 1644 ; — the second church in that town, in 1656 ; — the church in Swansea, in 1663 ; — the first church in Boston was founded in Charlestown, in 1665. In the next forty years, eleven more churches were constituted in Mas- sachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South Carolina, in the following order. Seventh-Day church at Newport, R. I., 1671 ; Tiverton, R. I., 1685 ; Middletown, N. J., 1688 ; Pennepeck, now called Lower Dublin, Pa., 1689; Piscataway, N. J., 1689 ; Charleston, S. C. 1690 ; Cohanzy, N. J., 1691; Second church, Swansea, Mass., 1693; Welch Tract, Del., 1701 ; Groton, Con., 1705; Seventh-Day, Piscataway, N. J., 1707; First church Philadelphia, in 1698, although it was reorganized in 1746. In 1792, there were in the United States, 891 churches, 1,156 minis- ters and licentiates, and about 70,000 communi- cants. In 1812, there were 2,164 churches, 1,605 ministers, and 172,972 members. In 1825, there were 3,743 churches, 2,577 minis- ters, and 238,100 members. In 1832, there were 5,320 churches, 3,618 ministers, and 385,000 members. The returns for 1842, which were somewhat deficient, were 8,546 churches, 5,600 ministers, and 650,000 members. Baptisms reported for one year, 78,830. The returns for 1843, not yet completed, will show about 100,000 bap- tisms the preceding year, and an aggregate of more than 9,000 churches, 6,000 ministers, and 750,000 communicants. A small portion of this body, of late years, have ceased correspondence and co-operation, on account of missionary and other benevolent societies, with the rest, though they retain the same name, and same principles of faith and practice. They allege no objection to the gos- pel being preached in all the earth, but deny the right of any other organization, than the churches, acting in this business. This class number 1,623 churches, 829 ministers, and 61,162 members. Associalional Connection. — The Philadelphia association was one of the very first instances of union among the churches by means of a regu- lar delegation ; and this body adopted, as the basis of its union, the Confession of Faith and Plan of Church Discipline set forth by a con- vention of Baptist ministers in and about Lon- don, in the year 1643, and revised by messen- fers from more than 100 congregations of Ingland and Wales in 1689. In the struggle for American independence the Baptists were distinguished for their firm, consistent, and persevering patriotism. Many of their ministers took an active part in sustain- 3 K ing the revolutionary cause, both by actual ser- vices in the camp, and by the influence of their animated and patriotic exhortations. Liberty had no friends more genuine and decided. It is said that the late Mr. Jefferson avowed, that he took his first impressions of a pure republic from the simple organization and government of a small Baptist church which was in the habit of meeting for the transaction of business in the neighbourhood of his early residence in the state of Virginia. It is certain that no people were ever more impatient of domination, whether civil or ecclesiastical. They disclaim the rights and pretensions of all judicatories and church tribunals ; and admit no other authority in deter- mining matters of controversy, whether in doc- trine or discipline, than the simple Bible, without note or comment. The great mass of them are agreed in the views which they form of the word of God. Their preachers are generally accus- tomed to deliver their sentiments extemporane- ously, but not without much study of the word of God, with the help of uninspired authors. Baptist churches have learning and talent in their ministry now equal to any other religious sect. They are making strenuous efforts for the systematic education of the ministry, by the establishment of Colleges, Theological Institu- tions, and minor seminaries in the different states. There has always existed among the Baptists of the United States a desire to provide suitable schools for the culture of the mind. Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island, was founded by them as early as 1765, and is one of the best seats of learning in the country. Waterville College in Maine, New Hampton Institution in New Hampshire, Newton Theo- logical Institution in Massachusetts, Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution in New York, Columbian College in the District of Columbia, Richmond and Rector Colleges in eastern and western Virginia, Wake Forest College in North Carolina, Furman Theological Institute in South Carolina, Mercer University in Georgia, Georgetown College, in Kentucky, Granville College in Ohio, and Shurtleff College in Illinois, evince the determination of the churches to avail themselves of all the facilities and moral power that learning and a theological education can afford. And although most of these Institutions are in comparative infancy, their projectors have laid broad and deep foun- dations, and have planned with a far-reaching eye to the future interests of the churches, and the cause of truth and righteousness. In literary character, some of these Institutions are far in advance of most of the older Colleges at the commencement of the present century. Besides those named, we may add the projected Theo- logical Institute at Covington, Kentucky, oppo- site Cincinnati, for which a valuable property has been secured and buildings erected. Judson College in Carroll County, Mississippi, Marion College in Alabama, and the Franklin Manual Labour Institute in Indiana have been projected and commenced, and a wealthy Baptist in Mis- souri has given $10,000 towards founding a Col- lege in that state. Minor Institutions for gene- ral education have been established by the denomination in several states. Baptists commenced domestic missions in the colonies as early as the middle of the last cen- tury. In 1802, the Massachusetts Domestic 2 P 473 BAPTISTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Missionary Society was formed, which in 25 years sent itinerant missionaries to the British Provinces, Maine, Vermont, New York, Ohio, and the states along the Mississippi. It has since been merged in the Convention of that state. From an early period most of the regu- lar Baptist churches in the United States have been connected in associations for objects of common interest, and within the last 25 years, they have formed Conventions or General As- sociations, for mutual co-operation, in missions and other benevolent objects, in most of the states. These are usually formed of ministers and other delegates from churches and associa- tions, and, in some instances, of life and annual subscribers. Foreign missions claimed their attention and co-operation from the change of sentiment in the Rev. Messrs. Judson and Rice, about 1813, and the Triennial Convention for Foreign Mis- sions was formed in 1814. Its Board has now missions established amongst the American In- dians, in France, Germany, Denmark, Greece, West Africa, Burmah, Siam, China, Assam, and amongst the Teloogoos. The number of missionaries and assistants now in the field, are 110; native preachers and assistants, 100 ; churches, 75 ; baptisms reported 474 in one year, 829; members of mission churches, 4,800. Baptist missionaries from England and the United States have translated and printed the Scriptures, in whole, or in part, into more than fifty different heathen languages. The American Baptist Home Mission So- ciety was formed in 1832. In ten years this Society employed 756 missionaries and agents, supplied in part 732 destitute churches. The missionaries formed 401 churches, assisted in the ordination of 142 ministers, and baptized 10,990 converts. The State Conventions and General Associations perform a much larger amount of labour. The American and Foreign Bible Society was instituted in 1837, and has aided largely in publishing the Scriptures in heathen lands, and issued 96,705 Bibles and Testaments for home distribution. _ • The American Baptist Publication Society, which commenced in 1824, under the name of the Baptist General Tract Society, has entered on the publication and circulation of religious books throughout the churches. Many minor institutions and local societies for benevolent purposes are necessarily omitted in this brief sketch. APPENDIX, No. VI. LUTHERAN (EVANGELICAL) CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. The term Lutheran is derived from the great Saxon Reformer. It was applied to his followers by the Romanists as a mark of contempt. Both Luther and his friends were opposed to this de- signation. In an address of the elector of Saxony and others to Charles the V., the following de- claration occurs : — " The doctrines of Luther we receive, only so far as they agree with the word of God. On this word we ground our- selves, and not on the person or doctrines of a man, let him be Luther or any other person ; because all men may err. We will therefore be judged only by the word of God." The denomination of the church in this country, is that of " The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States." The permanent introduction of the Evangeli- cal Lutheran church into the United States, dates, properly, from the year 1743, when the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg arrived from Europe, and unfurled the standard of Luther- anism on the shores of America. Congrega- tions of the Lutheran faith had, indeed, existed in different portions of the country, many years antecedent to the above date : but, from this period commenced perhaps the earliest system- atic, ecclesiastical organization of the American Lutheran Church. Through a series of years, the church was supplied exclusively with mi- nisters from Germany ; and, at every stage of its progress up to the present time, many of its most intellectually endowed, pious and efficient clergymen, have been furnished by the parent church in Europe. The church in this country is composed chiefly, though not exclusively, of Germans and their descendants. For some years past, its membership has enrolled many who are not of German lineage, and the number augments from year to year. Its congregations are lo- cated, in various degrees of numerical strength, in nearly all the states. They are most nu- merous in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Caro- lina. The number of its congregations has been computed at about 1,400, and that of its ordain- ed clergymen and licentiates at about 450. There are about 150,000 communicants. Associated with the American Lutheran Church, is Pennsylvania College, chartered by the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1832, and located in Gettysburg, Adams co., Pennsyl- vania. This College affords every desirable facility for the acquisition of the requisite classi- cal attainments, to those young men who de- sign to qualify themselves For the service of the altar. There are likewise four Theological Seminaries in connection with the church : — one in Gettysburg, Pa. ; another at Hartwick, New York; one at Columbus, Ohio; and another in Lexington, S. C. These Divinity schools, though not independent of the fostering care of the Synods, under whose auspices they severally exist, are all in a prosperous condition ; and have contributed, each its quota, in the prepara- tion of suitable candidates for the gospel minis- try, in their particular sections of the church. There is also an institution for the education of poor orphan children, called the " Emmaus Institute," located at Middletovvn, Dauphin county, Pa., and liberally endowed by Mr. George Fry. Though there exists no direct and positive union between the Lutheran Church in the United States and the Lutheran Church in Germany, yet a fraternal and somewhat active correspondence is maintained between the pa- rent church in Europe and some of the Synods in this country. Contemporaneous with the foundation of the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, a very lively interest was evinced by the brethren in Germany for the church in the United States. This interest was created, chiefly, by the mis- sion of an American Lutheran clergyman, who made a successful tour through Germany to collect funds and a library for that institution. Evidences are still furnished at intervals, in the generous contributions of the brethren in Ger- many, that their solicitude for the welfare of the American church has experienced no abate- ment. It is much to be regretted that this in- terest is not reciprocal, in some sections at least of the church in this country. There is connected with the Evangelical Lu- theran Church in the United States a Foreign Missionary Society, which has already two labourers among the heathen. The Rev. Mr. Heyer, the pioneer in this great work, was sent out by the Missionary Society of the Synod of Pennsylvania, and has succeeded in establishing a Lutheran mission under the care of this Synod, at Guntoor, in the Presidency of Madras. In a letter, dated Guntoor, September 19th, 1842, Mr. Heyer writes : — " The Lord has granted to our mission not only a good beginning, but likewise a blessed progress. I have three schools for boys, four teachers, and about seventy pupils und*r my supervision." Subsequently, his plan of operations became more extended, and his success has been proportionably encou- raging. More recently, the Foreign Missionary Society of the General Synod appointed the Rev. Mr. Gunn to proceed to Southern India, to labour among the Telegoo population, in conjunction with Mr. Heyer. Mr. Gunn, it is thought, has ere this reached his allotted sphere of labour. Articles of agreement have been entered into between the missionary societies of the Synod of Pennsylvania and of the Gene- ral Synod, by which these missionaries may fraternally co-operate. Most of the Synods have also instituted home missions, which are in active operation within their respective terri- torial limits; and the church at large is be- coming increasingly alive to the promotion of the great objects of Christian benevolence of the present age. At no period, since the organi- 475 LUTHERAN (EVANGELICAL) CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. zation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in this country, have there been more zealous and well-sustained efforts in the cause of the Re- deemer, than at the present time. Among several of the Synods of the Lutheran Church, societies have been created for the relief of disabled ministers, and their widows and orphans. " The doctrines of the Reformation are gene- rally held and promulgated by the clergy. " The doctrines of the Evangelical Lutheran Church are, substantially, those of the Confes- sion of Augsburg. " The doctrine of the Trinity as held by those who differ from Arians and Socinians ; a vica- rious atonement made by the passion and death of Jesus Christ ; the depravity of human na- ture ; the necessity of conversion produced by the Holy Spirit ; the resurrection of the body ; and a future state of rewards and punishments, eternal in their duration, may be specified as the cardinal articles of its creed. "It differs from the disciples of Calvin, who teach that the atonement is limited to a part of the human family ; and from those who, whilst they maintain the universality of the atonement, represent the Deity as applying it only to a cer- tain elect number ; and professes most firmly to believe, that Christ's propitiation is for all men, and that there is no arbitrary sovereignty dis- played in the application of it. " Unconditional decrees of God in regard to the salvation of men are rejected, and the salva- tion of man is regarded as depending on his voluntary and unforced reception of the gospel — his damnation, on its free and unconstrained rejection. " The perseverance of the saints, as it is or- dinarily called, is not received as a doctrine of this church." The Evangelical Lutheran Church receives but two Sacraments as ordained by Christ, and designed to preserve and perpetuate his religion to all future generations, viz., Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Infant baptism obtains as a general usage in the Lutheran Church. The children thus bap- tized are regarded as the property of the church ; and, it is enjoined as a duty upon all pastors, to teach the youth of their congrega- tions on all fitting occasions, the principles of the Christian religion. When they have at- tained a suitable age, they are more thoroughly and carefully instructed in the doctrines and duties of Christianity; and, upon the ratifica- tion of their baptismal vows, they are admitted into full membership with the church, by the rite of Confirmation, and are entitled to partake of the Lord's Supper. The Lutheran Church administers the sacrament of baptism by pour- ing or sprinkling of water, but it does not re- ject immersion. The mere mode of administra- tion is regarded as non-fundamental. Regeneration is not insisted upon as an indis- pensable pre-requisite to full membership in the church. If upon examination by the pastor, applicants are found to have a competent know- ledge of the essential doctrines of the gospel, ana give proof of a pious walk and conversation, and of a desire to devote themselves to the ser- vice of God, they are invited and encouraged to approach the holy communion. In most of the long established German con- gregations, there are schools connected with the 476 congregations, and under the supervision of the pastor and church council, in which the children of the church are not only taught the ordinary branches of a useful education, but likewise the fundamental articles of the Christian faith. It were devoutly to be wished that, as far as prac- ticable, every congregation within the enclosure of the church had such a school connected with it. Were this universally the case, the happiest results might well be anticipated, both to the children and the church. It was formerly a very general practice in the Lutheran Church, to catechise the children of the church publicly on Sunday, at the close of the customary religious services. In many con- gregations it is to be lamented that this whole- some practice has fallen into disuse, while in others of more recent formation it has not been introduced. In those congregations in which the practice has not been intermitted, long ex- perience has taught that the principles of piety thus instilled into the youthful heart, have been productive of incalculable benefit to the church. It is likewise a venerable usage of the Lu- theran Church, coeval with its ecclesiastical ex- istence, and is made the duty of the pastor, annually, if practicable, to collect the youth of his charge in attendance on a course of conver- sational lectures on the essential doctrines of religion. These lectures ordinarily occupy about two months. Such young persons as have in this way obtained a competent knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel, and evince an earnest disposition to secure the salvation of their souls, are then encouraged to make a public profession of their faith. Every deviation from this usage, except in the case of admission of members from other churches, or of adults to whom it would be inconvenient to attend these lectures, is regarded as a departure from a wise and healthful regulation of the church. By the rite of Confirmation, the Lutheran Church understands simply a renewal and rati- fication of baptismal vows, accompanied by prayer and the imposition of the hands of the pastor. It is indispensable that this renewal and ratification of baptismal vows should be publicly made known by some external act, and confirmation is the mode preferred by this church. It is esteemed a useful and edifying custom, and it is believed that many can trace, to the prayerful reception of this rite, the com- mencement of their conversion to God. The gospel of Jesus Christ has appointed no other day to be kept holy, than the Lord's day or Christian Sabbath. The Lutheran 'Church, however, regards it as both right and proper to observe religious services on such days, the annual recurrence of which is associated with memorable events in the history of our Saviour's mission into our world. The following days are. therefore, observed as religious festivals: — 1. Christmas, in commemoration of the birth of the Redeemer ; 2. Good Friday, in commemo- ration of his crucifixion and death ; 3. Easter, in commemoration of his glorious resurrection ; 4. Ascension Day, in commemoration of his ascent into heaven ; and 5. Whitsuntide or Pen- tecost, in commemoration of the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. Though there are various points of resem- blance between the government of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church in the United States LUTHERAN (EVANGELICAL) CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. and that of the Congregational churches, yet the analogy is not entire. Each congregation is an independent polity within itself, but a recognised bond of union exists between all the congregations, and every pastor owes obedience to the constitution of the Synod with which he is connected. Each con- gregation has its own church council, composed of elders and wardens, or deacons. In many of the incorporated congregations, this church council is identical with the board of trustees created by the act of incorporation ; and, in others it is known as the vestry of the church. These officers are chosen by the suffrages of the people, and are consequently the agents of the people. Their term of office varies, according to the constitutional requirements of the different churches. It is their province to manage the fiscal department of the congregation, and to exercise a general direction over the affairs of the church. In some congregations, the pastor is ex officio the president of the church council : but in others, he has no official connection with it. Every pastor is emphatically the bishop of his own church ; and claims and exercises, undis- puted, the right to perform all the duties apper- taining to the pastoral office. The parity of the clergy is strenuously maintained. The Presi- dent of a Synod is regarded merely as primus inter pares, and holds his office only for a limit- ed period, and by the consent of his ministerial brethren. There are in the Lutheran Church local Synods, composed of the clergymen of a parti- cular district, associated with whom is a lay representative from each pastoral charge, who is chosen by the people. These Synods meet annually, and restrict their acts to the business of the congregations within their territorial bounds. Their power is simply advisory. There is connected with each Synod a ministerium, composed exclusively of its clerical members, who, after the transaction of the Synodical pro- ceedings,, flieet in a separate convention for the licensure of candidates, their ordination, and the suspension or excommunication of ministers. The connection between a minister and his congregation is reciprocally voluntary, over which the Synods and ministeriums can exercise no control. There are in the United States, nineteen Synods. Four of these are located in Pennsyl- vania, and contain a large proportion of the aggregate number of ministers and congrega- tions in America. The local Synods have within their respective organizations certain sub-divisions, which are composed of a smaller number of ministers, residing at a convenient distance from each other for mutual intercourse. These sub-divi- sions are termed special conferences, which are required to meet during the recess of the Synod, at times previously designated, for the pur- pose of preaching and of mutual clerical edifica- tion. In addition to the local Synods, the Lutheran Church has a General Synod, the constituency of which is furnished by ministerial and lay representatives from those Synods which have united with it. Its meetings are biennial, and it is merely an advisory body. The General Synod was -organized, as stated in the preamble to its constitution, "for the promotion of the practice of qrotherly love, to the furtherance of Christian concord, and to the firm establish- ment and continuance of the unity of the spirit in the bond peace." It was originated in the year 1820, by a convention of clerical and lay delegates from the Synods of Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, and Maryland. The Synod of Pennsylvania subsequently with- drew from it; and, together with the Synod of Ohio and some other independent Synods, refuses to sanction its proceedings as the Gene- ral Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States. It is at the present time composed of the Synods of New York, Hartwick, East Pennsylvania, West Pennsylvania, Alleghany, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, English Synod of Ohio, Synod of the West, and Synod of South Western Virginia. Several of these affiliated Synods are, compara- tively, of recent creation, and still feeble in point of numerical strength. When a General Synod shall have embosomed within the circle of its operations all the local Synods, and shall have secured the confidence and co-operation of the entire Lutheran Church in the United States — we should hail with joy the advent of such a period ! — from this fraternal bond and the undi- vided energies of the church, advantages of a high order would necessarily accrue to our American Lutheran Zion. " In some of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in the United States, the religious services are performed in the German language exclusively. In others the services are both in German and English. In many churches the English language is alone used. Many of the ministers officiate in both these languages." 4 The religious periodicals of the Lutheran Church, are The Lutheran Observer, issued weekly at Baltimore, B. Kurtz, D. D., Editor. Lutherische Kirchenzeitung und Allgemeines Schulblatt, issued semi-monthly at Pittsburg, Pa., Rev. F. Schmidt, Editor. The Lutheran Standard, issued weekly in New Philadelphia, Ohio, Rev. E. Greenwald, Editor. Lutherische Hirtenstimme, issued semi- monthly at Baltimore, Rev. Charles Weyl, Editor. The Lutheran Herald, issued semi-monthly at Minden, New York, Rev. J. D. Lawyer, Editor. In view of the past history, the present indica- tions, and the future prospects, of the Evangeli- cal Lutheran Church in the United States, its members and friends have abundant cause for gratitude to that God, who has "graven his Zion upon the palms of his hands, and whoso walls are continually before him." 2 r 2 477 APPENDIX, No. VII. ADVENT BELIEVERS, OR ADVENTISTS, Are a class of Christians connected with nearly all the evangelical denominations in the United States, who derive their name from their peculiar faith in the speedy coming of Jesus Christ, the second time, without sin unto salva- tion, to them that look for him. Their general views on religious subjects are those of the various sects with which they stand connected. The peculiarity of sentiment which has given them a common sympathy, was originally pro- pagated by Mr. William Miller, a respectable and influential lay member of the Regular Bap- tist Church in Low Hampton, Washington co., N. Y. Although religiously educated, he was driven into Deism, by the manner in which ministers of the gospel treated the Bible, calling its holy and revealed truths mysteries which we could not understand. He continued in this state of mind until 1816, when, by the grace of God, he was awakened to a sense of his lost condition as a sinner, and was led to Christ for salvation ; where he found not only pardon of sin, peace in believing, but an ardent love for the Bible. He commenced studying it without note or com- ment, with only his knowledge of history and Cruden's Concordance to aid him; and to his surprise, he found before he had gone through the Bible, that none of the prophetic periods extended, according to his understand- ing of them, or any data he could find, beyond 1843. He came to the above results respecting the time of the termination of the prophetic periods in 1818. But it was not until 1831 , that he gave his sentiments to the world. This he did first, in a series of articles published in the Vermont Telegraph, a Baptist paper, published in Bran- don, Vt. Soon after this, he commenced at the earnest solicitation of friends, giving his views in neighbouring towns, in the form ot lectures. In 1836, he wrote out a course of sixteen lec- tures, which were published and widely circu- lated through the country, and resulted in awakening a great interest on the question. The peculiar sentiments of Mr. Miller are, 1. That the second advent of Christ will be prc-millcnnial. 2. That all the saints who have died since Adam, with all who will be alive on earth at Christ's coming will be raised, changed, and glorified, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, and be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. 3. That nil the wicked of the earth, both Jews and gentiles, will be destroyed from off the earth, and that the aerial heavens and the earth will be dissolved by fire, and the new heavens and earth be reared from their ruins. That this new earth will be the eternal heaven of the saints, after the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, as the metropolis of God's eternal kingdom. 4. That Satan will be shut up in the bottomless pit for a 1000 years, while the wicked are all dead. That when the 1000 years are expired, Satan will be loosed for a 478 little season, and at the same time the wicked will be raised from the dead, in every part of the (new) earth, and will constitute the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog. The devil, whose servants they are, will deceive them witli the pretence of a battle, which they will never fight. They will be devoured or swallowed up whole, in fire which will come from God out of heaven. And the devil, death, hell, and all who are not found written in the book of life, shall be cast into the lake of fire. " This is the second death." See Rev. xx. chapter. 5. There will be no national conversion, nor national return of the Jews, in the flesh, to Palestine. All the promises of restoration to Israel, which were not fulfilled in their return from the Babylonish captivity, are to be fulfilled in the resurrection of the dead, when " all Is- rael shall be saved," or brought back from their graves, in their resurrection bodies, with Abra- ham, Isaac, and Jacob, to have an eternal posses- sion of the land promised them, in the new earth or "heavenly country," and the "city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God." There Christ, the sonof David and heir to David's throne, will reign over them forever. Thus " God will in very deed dwell with men on the earth," Ezek. xxxvii. 6. That no such thing is promised in the Bible as a conversion of the world, or even a majority of it ; but the tares and wheat will grow together until the end of the world. That the wicked will only be de- stroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. 7. Respecting the time of the advent of our Saviour, to begin this work of destruction and renovation, the evidence is deduced, 1. From the grand prophetic periods of the Bible. 2. From the fulfilment of the historical visions of Daniel and John: — and, 3. From the signs foretold by the Saviour and other inspired persons, which were immediately to precede the second advent. The prophetic periods. The seven titnes of Israel's bondage, during which the pride of their power was to be broken, as foretold by Moses, Lev. xxvi. 18, 19, is understood as being sym- bolical time ; and each time as including 360 symbolical days, as in Rev. xii. 6, 14. The seven times amounting to 2520 days. Each day the representative of a year as in Ezek. iv. 6, 2520 years. Commencing this with the first captivity of the house of David in Babylon, B. C. 677, (see 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11,) will bring us to 1843. Again, Dan. viii. 14, gives a period of 2300 days. These also are understood as being sym- bolical, because they cover a vision which in- cludes Media and Persia, Grecia, and another terrible power to succeed them, who should "destroy the mighty and holy people," which Rome did. The date of these days is not given in the 8th chapter ; but in the 9th, Gabriel ap- peared to Daniel to make him understand the vision. Then he gave the famous 70 weeks, to bou'in with the going forth of the command ADVENT BELIEVERS, OR ADVENTISTS. ment to restore and build Jerusalem, and end- ing with the death or ascension of our Saviour. Beginning those weeks 70X7=490 days or years, B. C. 457, when Ezra received the letter from Artaxerxes to go up and restore the Jew- ish government. (See Ezra vii.) We end in A. D. 33, the year of the crucifixion. Then take the 490 from 2300, 1810 years remain to be filled up after the death of Christ in 33. A. D. 33+1810=1843 A. D. Thus, the 70 weeks are understood to be the key to the vision of 2300 days. Several other periods given in the Bible bring us to the same result. The Historical Visions. The dream of Nebuchadnezzar, as related and interpreted by Daniel, (see Dan. ii.,) representing the four great and universal governments of earth, viz., Baby- lon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, has been filled up in the most literal manner ac- cording to the terms of the vision and its inter- pretation, except the setting up of God's ever- lasting kingdom, which is to break in pieces all earthly kingdoms, and take their place. Hence, it is argued, we must look for God's kingdom as the next event. Whatever may be the re- sult of the calculation of the prophetic.periods, we have a sure foothold here. The vision of Dan. vii. chapter, is similar in its character to the above, and brings us to the same result. It also closes with a description of the judgment scene and the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. The foretold signs are given, Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, "The sun shall be darkened." This it is alleged was fulfilled in 1780, on the 19th of May ; and that in a supernatural manner. "The moon shall not give her light." The night of that dark day, although it was at the time of a full moon, was so dark that a sheet of white paper, and the blackest velvet held near the eyes were alike invisible. " The stars shall fall from heaven." This, it is alleged, took place on the night of Nov. 13, 1833, in the most literal manner, by the falling stars or meteors, which then fell in such profusion. The next thing in the order of events is the shaking of the powers of heaven ; the appearing of the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This last event, it is believed, will take place within one generation of threescore years and ten, (man's age) of the first sign, in 1780. Matt, xxiv, 38. The time, times and a half of Dan. vii. 25, and forty-two months of Rev. xiii. 5 are regarded as referring to the triumph and reign of Popery in Rome, beginning in 538, on the fall of the Ostrogothic kingdom, by Bellisarius the Greek general. Then the edicts and letters of Jus- tinian the eastern emperor, issued in 533, con- stituting the pope the head of all the churches, took effect. The 1260 years ended in 1798, when Berthier the French general took Rome, abrogated the papal government, and erected the Roman republic. From that point to the present time is considered "the time of the end" or missionary age. The two witnesses of Rev. xi. are considered as the Old and New Testament, and their being clothed in sackcloth, as their suppression under the papacy. Their death, the war against the Bible in the French Revolution ; their resurrec- tion and ascension, the present exalted position which the Bible occupies among the nations. The five months, and hour, day, month, and year, or 541 years and 15 days of Rev. ix., are believed to have commenced with the first entrance of Othman, the founder of the Ottoman empire, into Nicomedia, a Greek .province, to commence his war, July 27th, 1299. And then the period ended Aug. 11th, 1840, the day the ultimatum of the allied powers of Europe was submitted to Mehemet Ali, and the fate of the empire was sealed. The Adventists have no church organiza- tion, nor have they considered it any part of their work to attempt such an organization. Believing as they do in the immediate coming of the Lord, they have only aimed at reaching the greatest possible number of persons of all sects and parties, and sound the alarm, to in- duce them, if possible, to prepare for the event. The means used for the propagation of these sentiments have been written and oral exhibi- tions of the prophecies and their import. The number of public speakers engaged in this work since 1840, lay and clerical, have not been less than from 1500 to 2000. There is no means of knowing the exact number thus engaged. The doctrine has been published in all the states of the Union, and has its friends in nearly every town and city. There has been four or five millions of books and papers circulated during the last three years in the United States, British provinces, and foreign countries, wherever the English language is read. There have also been some of the writings translated into the French and German languages, and widely circulated. There are five weekly papers now published in the United States, devoted to the dissemination of this doctrine ; and two in Canada. There are large congregations of Adventists in nearly all the Eastern, Northern, and Middle States. The time specified by Mr. Miller, and ad- hered to by most of the advocates of the theory, for the termination of all the prophetic periods, was between March 21st, 1843, and March 21st, 1844. That time having now gone by, (April, 1844,) the believers, in general, are steadfast in their faith as to the correctness of their principles and mode of computing time, and their general dates for commencing the periods, but conclude there is some slight discrepancy in chronology. But are still in constant expectation of seeing their coming Lord. They no longer calculate upon the prophetic times, but watch the signs of the age, and trust in God's word of promise, that "yet a little while and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." Milleimists are those who believe in the spiritual reign of Christ for a 1000 years. Millen- arians believe in a personal reign of Christ a 1000 years before the consummation. Advent- ists believe in the personal reign of Christ a 1000 years after the consummation and restitu- tion, between the two resurrections. Fora more full account, see Miller1 sLeclure1 s ; Prophetic Expositions by J. Lilch ; Hale's Second Advent Manual, together with the writings of Storrs, Fitch, Whiting, Brown, Cook, Bliss, Hervey, &c. &c, published by /. V. Himcs, Boston. See Millennium. 47