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 IL

 
 
 
 
 
 i*j?f
 
 Ex Ltbris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 A 
 
 SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DENOMINATIONS 
 
 or THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN WORLD; 
 
 ACCOMPANIED WITH 
 
 . A PERSUASIVE TO RELIGIOUS MODERATION 
 
 To which is prefixed an Account of 
 
 ATHEISM, DEISM, THF.OPH1IANTHROPISM, JUDAISM, AIAHO* 
 MET AN ISM, AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN EVANS, A.M. 
 
 Matter of a Seminary for a limited Ni+mbtr of Pupils t 
 PCI LIN'S ROW, ISLINGTON. 
 
 TENTH EDITION, 
 
 CORRECTED AtfD IMPROVED, 
 
 KITH 
 
 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 OF THE LEADING EVENTS OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, FROM THE 
 BIRTH OF CHRIST DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 Endeavouring to keep the tmity of the Spirit ia the bond of peace. 
 
 PAUU 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 MUNTEO FOR B. CROSBY AND CO STATIONERs'-COURT, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 1807. . 
 
 J. G. Barnard, I ; inter, SnowJull.
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 TENTH EDITION. 
 
 THE present impression, consisting 
 of Five Thousand Copies, has undergone 
 various alterations and improvements. 
 The author has availed himself of the 
 remarks both of friends and foes ; and 
 it is presumed, that the work now pos- 
 sesses greater correctness and impar- 
 tiality. Nothing, indeed, lias been 
 omitted which might render it less un- 
 worthy of the very extensive and al- 
 most unparalleled patronage it has re- 
 ceived from the religious public Six 
 Thousand copies having been sold 
 within these last three years. The 
 Chronological Table is now added with
 
 IV 
 
 the view of interesting young people, 
 and of inducing them to form a just 
 idea of the leading and important 
 facts of Ecclesiastical History. The 
 well-informed Christian seldom falls a 
 prey to enthusiasm, superstition, or 
 bigotry. The author's only object in 
 drawing up the Sketch was to inform 
 fche understanding, and by informing 
 the understanding, to promote the 
 mild and quiet, the generous and 
 unassuming spirit of SCRIPTURAL 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ISLINGTON, April 6th, 1807.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 NINTH EDITION. 
 
 1 HAT the AUTHOR is gratified by the 
 repeated editions of this little work, on 
 which he has bestowed many a laborious 
 hour, it would be affectation in him to 
 deny and he flatters himself that the cir- 
 culation of upwards of Thirty Thousand 
 Copies, (the number which has issued from 
 the press) must contribute in some degree 
 to extend the empire of religious know- 
 ledge and Christian charity. In the present 
 impression he has attended carefully to 
 recent communications, and where indivi- 
 duals had sent confused and contradictory 
 accounts of their own party, he has endea- 
 voured to adjust their claims with impar- 
 tiality. To obtain in all instances accurate 
 information, is a task of almost insuperable 
 A 3
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 difficulty. In many cases prejudice, pas- 
 sion,, and interest, have multiplied religious 
 differences to a degree, which excites hoth 
 his grief and astonishment. But he is per- 
 suaded that could the professors of Chris- 
 tianity be once brought to listen candidly 
 to each other's opinions, they would not 
 only be the less likely to be led away by 
 the clamours of bigotry, but they would 
 become more thoroughly disposed to keep 
 the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace 
 
 " Fountain of Being ! teach them to devote 
 ** To thee each purpose, action, word, and thought j 
 "Thy grace their hope thy love their only boast, 
 " Be all distinctions in the CHRISTIAN lost." 
 
 HAXXAH MORK; 
 
 The Author is pleased to find, that the 
 Biographical Illustrations of the Frontis- 
 piece prove acceptable to young readers, 
 who cannot be supposed to be better ac- 
 quainted with the principal characters, than 
 with the leading opinions of the religious 
 community. And some information, how- 
 ever short, was thought to be interesting 
 of persons, who, on account of their talents, 
 learning, and piety, have in a manner given
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 laws to the several districts of Christendom* 
 Nor will it be improper just to mention, 
 that the Recapitulatory Table at the end of 
 the work, by being familiarized to the 
 young mind, has been found conducive to 
 improvement. 
 
 From a friend who has some time ago 
 left Paris, the Author learns that the 
 Sketch is translated into the French and 
 German languages, under the superintend- 
 ence of Messrs. Vos and Co. celebrated 
 booksellers at Leipsic. May its increasing 
 circulation prove the means of diffusing a 
 spirit of free enquiry and of promoting 
 the exercise of true liberality. " There is 
 a somewhat? says that able defender of 
 Revealed Religion, the present Bishop of 
 Landaff, " in our COMMON faith, in which 
 ALL are agreed, and that somewhat is in my 
 opinion a circumstance of such ineffable 
 importance, that I will never refuse the 
 right hand of fellowship to him who ac- 
 knowledges its truth never think or speak 
 of him with disrespect, nor with true pha- 
 risaical pride, esteem myself to be more 
 A 4
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 orthodox, more accep table to tny Redeemer, 
 than he is, and that somewhat is Eternal 
 Life, the gift of God through JESUS 
 CHRIST !'' 
 
 And Mr. Jay of Bath, in his excellent 
 Sermons, remarks that " the readiest way 
 in the world to thin heaven, and replenish 
 the regions of hell, is to call in the spirit 
 ' of bigotry. This will immediately arraign 
 and condemn, and execute ail that do not 
 bow down and worship the image of our 
 idolatry. Possessing exclusive preroga- 
 tives, it rejects every other claim " Stand 
 by, I am sounder than thou. The temple 
 of the .Lord, the temple of the Lord, the 
 temple of the Lord are we!" How many 
 of the dead has this intolerance sentenced 
 to eternal misery, who will shine like stars 
 in the kingdom of our Father ! how many 
 living characters does it not reprobate as 
 enemies to the cross of Christ, who are 
 placing in it all their glory ! No wonder, 
 if under the influence of this consuming 
 zeal, we form lessening views of the num- 
 ber of the saved. / only am left yes, they 
 are few indeed if none belong to them,
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 who do not belong to your party that do 
 not see with your eyes that do not believe 
 election with you, or universal redemption 
 with you that do not worship under a> 
 steeple with you, or in a meeting with you 
 that are not dipped with you, or sprink- 
 led with you I But hereafter we shall find 
 that the RIGHTEOUS were not so circum- 
 scribed; when we shall see many coming 
 from the east, and from the west, from the 
 north, and from the south, to sit down with 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom 
 of heaven f Were these truly evangelical 
 sentiments more prevalent among professors 
 of every description, the ravages of infi- 
 delity would cease Christians themselves 
 become more united, and rapid advances 
 would be thus making towards their moral 
 and religious improvement. 
 
 In this imperfect state to see just alike, 
 with respect to the doctrines of revelation, 
 is impossible ; though surely it is in the 
 power of every. individual, acknowledging; 
 the divinity of the SAVIOUR'S MISSION, to 
 cherish the kind and charitable disposition,, 
 a 5
 
 |C PREFACE. 
 
 for which HE was eminently distinguished. 
 Indeed, by the cultivation of this temper 
 alone, we shall most effectually diffuse the 
 triumphs of GENUINE Christianity. 
 
 But the author having already fully 
 stated the origin, nature, and design of 
 this little publication in his Explanatory 
 Dedication, will only add this animating 
 consideration that notwithstanding the 
 jarrings and contentions of parties, for 
 their several opinions and modes of wor- 
 ship, which the subsequent pages attempt 
 to pourtray, the. Gospel of Jesus Christ un- 
 debased by'the prejudices, and uncontrolled 
 by the passions of frail humanity, con- 
 tinues to operate like the great powers of 
 nature, with a silent but irresistible energy 
 for the renovation of mankind. 
 
 PULLIN'S Row, 
 
 March 12, 1804.
 
 THE 
 
 BIOGJRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 JOHN WICKLTFFE was born in the North 
 of England about the year 1324, and educated at 
 Oxford. He was the first person in this country 
 who openly condemned the errors and corrup- 
 tions oif Popery. The Monks at the University 
 excited his indignation : but the Pope taking 
 their part against him, he was obliged to with- 
 draw into the country. His place of retirement 
 was Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, of which 
 living he had for some time been in possession,, 
 and where part of hl^ pulpit may be seen stand- 
 ing at this day. Here he continued his opposi- 
 tion to the Romish Church with equal steadi~ 
 ness ; but had he not been patronized by the 
 Duke of Lancaster, he must hare fallen a victim 
 to his fidelity. He died peaceably in his bed at 
 Lutterworth, in 1384, leaving behind him many 
 followers. The chief of his works is entitled 
 a 3
 
 XII 
 
 Trialogus, being a dialogue with three speakers 
 Truth, a Lie, and Wisdom I He wrote several 
 things both in Latin and English, but this is 
 almost the only work which was printed. 
 Agreeable to a decree of the Council of Con- 
 stance, held in 1416, his bones were dug up 
 and burnt, his books forbidden, and his memory 
 branded with opprobrious heresy. But these 
 fulminations served only to promote the glorious 
 cause which Wicklifie espoused ; and hence he 
 has obtained the honourable title, the Morning 
 Star of the Reformation! On this account it is, 
 that his head stands first among the portraits 
 prefixed to this publication. 
 
 MARTIN LUTHER, born 1483, at Isleben, a 
 town of Saxony, in Germany. After passing 
 through the usual stages of education at one of 
 their Universities, he entered the order of the 
 Angustinian Monks. His learning was consi- 
 derable, and his spirit unconquerable. Indul- 
 gencies being sold by Leo X. in order to ob- 
 tain money for the building of St. Peter's at 
 Rome, Luther set his face against a measure so 
 inimical to the interests of virtue and piety. An 
 alarm therefore being sounded the Romish 
 Church was shaken to its foundation, and these 
 convulsive throes terminated in the REFORMA- 
 TION. But, like Wickliffe, the Reformer would 
 .haye failed in his attempt, had not some of the
 
 Kill 
 
 German princes (particularly Frederick of Sax- 
 ony) taken him under their protection. After 
 having written many books, and exerted himself 
 on various occasions with a wonderful intrepidity, 
 Luther died in the year 1546, lamented by his 
 followers, and revered by the Protestant world. 
 His temper, it must be confessed, was violent^ 
 but the times seem to have required such a dis- 
 position. He, indeed, appears to have been 
 raised up by Providence for that stupendous work 
 which he accomplished. 
 
 JOHN CALVIN was born at Noyon, inPicardy, 
 1509 he received his education at Paris and 
 other places where different branches of literature 
 were taught with celebrity. Discovering early 
 marks of piety, his father designed him for the 
 church, and accordingly he was soon presented 
 to a living near Noyon, the place of his nativity. 
 He, however, conceiving a dislike to the corrup- 
 tions of Popery, quitted the Church, and turned 
 his attention to the law. Visiting Paris, he made 
 himself known to those who had privately em- 
 braced the Reformation. But a persecution 
 arising against the Reformers, he went to Basil, 
 where he published his famous work, Institu- 
 tions of the Christian Religion, which spread 
 abroad his fame, though, it is said, he was then 
 desirous of living in obscurity. Not long after
 
 XIV 
 
 this he became Minister and Professor of Divi- 
 nity at Geneva. In this department he acquitted 
 himself with ability, and was indefatigable in 
 promoting the Reformation. He died in the 
 year 1564, continuing to discharge the duties of 
 his station to the last, with his usual fidelity. 
 However great and eves good he may be pro- 
 nounced by his followers, who are numerous, 
 his burning Servetus, a Spanish physician, for 
 writing against the doctrine of the Trinity, leaves 
 an indelible stain on his memory. 
 
 RICHARD BAXTER was born at Rowton, in 
 Shropshire, 1615, and falling into the hands of 
 ignorant schoolmasters, he enjoyed not the ad- 
 vantage of a regular education. Taking orders 
 of the Bishop of Winchester, he became Minister 
 of Kidderminster, where an uncommon degree 
 of success attended his ministry; but the civil 
 wars which broke out soon after his settlement 
 at this place, interrupted his labours. Upon 
 the restoration of Charles the Second, he refused 
 the Bishopric of Worcester, asking, indeed, for 
 no favour but that of remaining at his beloved 
 Kidderminster, which was denied him ! Upon 
 the fatal Bartholomew act, he was silenced., with 
 a large number of clergy, for refusing to conform, 
 to the Church of England. From this period, 
 to the time of his decease, he suffered vexatious
 
 persecutions, on account of his religious opi- 
 nions, with a firmness which did honour to his 
 piety. He was even tried before that barbarian 
 Jejfcries, who condemned him to a long and 
 tedious imprisonment. His publications were 
 astonishingly numerous,, for his Practical Works 
 make four volumes in folio. Bishop Burnet says, 
 that " he was his whole life long, a man of 
 great zeal and much simplicity." 
 
 WILLIAM PENN was born in London, 1644; 
 he was the son of Admiral Penn, who was great- 
 ly offended with him for joining the Quakers; 
 but, previous to his death, he became recon- 
 ciled to him. He suffered much on account 
 of his religious sentiments, but adhered to 
 them with stedfastness. His famous book, No 
 Cross, No Cronn, was written by him during 
 his confinement in the Tower of London. He 
 Jived much of his time in Sussex, and accom- 
 panied George Fox and Robert Barclay, on 
 a mission to Holland and Germany. In 1681, 
 Charles the Second, in lieu of arrears due to his 
 father, granted him a province in North Ame- 
 rica, since called after him Pennsylvania. Thi- 
 ther he went, and having made the necessary 
 improvements, gave just and wise laws to his 
 new settlement. To his honour be it noticed, 
 that in his legislative code, the sacred rights of
 
 XVI 
 
 conscience were left free and unfettered. lit 
 1718, he died near Beaconsfield of a gradual 
 decay, occasioned by apoplectic fits. His works 
 are comprised in six volumes octavo, and are in 
 high esteem with the society to which he be- 
 longed ; the first volume contains the particulars 
 of his Biography. 
 
 GEORGE WHITFI ELD (founder of the Calvisist 
 Methodists) was born, 1714, at Gloucester, where 
 he received the usual school education, a*d then 
 became Servitor of Pembroke College, Oxford. 
 Having been ordained at the age of 11, he ap- 
 plied indefatigably to the duties of the ministry. 
 The churches being shut against him, he preach- 
 ed to immense multitudes in the open field's; for 
 which he was fitted by his powerful elocution. 
 He however built two large places of worship^ 
 in the metropolis for himself and followers, the 
 Tabernacle, Moorfields, and the Chapel, Tot- 
 tenham-Court Road. Such was- his zeal and 
 activity, that he several times visited the conti- 
 nent of America, where he closed his eyes in 
 the year 1770, not far from Boston, in New 
 England. The complaint of which he died was 
 an asthma, brought on by excessive preaching. 
 His works, in several octavo volumes, are made 
 up of sermons and letters, but it was not from 
 the press, tnit from the pulpit, that he shone ;
 
 XVII 
 
 thence he made on his numerous followers ex- 
 traordinary impressions. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY (founder of the Arminiati 
 Methodists) was born at Epworth, 1703, educat- 
 ed at the Charter-house, and in 17 \6 elected to 
 Christ Church, Oxford. He however, in 172(3, 
 was chosen fellow of Lincoln College, where th 
 first Methodist society was instituted. Like hi* 
 associate, Mr. Whitfield, being excluded the 
 churches, he preached in the open air, and visited 
 America, as well as the West India Islands, 
 where also he has many followers. He built a 
 handsome chapel in the City lioad, opposite to 
 Bunhill Fields: and in the ground adjoining to 
 the chapel he lies interred under a neat tomb, 
 with an inscription of some length, to his me- 
 mory. He died at a very advanced age, in 1791, 
 after a short illness, regretted by his extensive 
 connections. His works are said to amount to> 
 thirty-two octavo \olumes, but it may be just 
 mentioned that many of these are compilations, 
 which he thought were favourable to the diffusion 
 of knowledge among mankind. 
 
 ELHANAN WINCHESTER (a popular preacher 
 of the doctrine of the universal restoration) was 
 born at Brooklyn, Massachusets, North Ame- 
 rica, 1751, but did not enjoy the advantages of 
 an academical education. He was first of all a 
 minister among the Calviuistic Baptists, by whom
 
 XTlll 
 
 he was caressed, till he embraced the universal 
 doctrine, when he stood as it were alone, and 
 preached it with astonishing success. He came 
 over to England about the year 1787* w r here he 
 delivered a Series of Lectures on the Prophecies 
 remaining to be fulfilled, which he afterwards 
 published. This indeed, and his Dialogues on 
 Restoration, are his principal publications. In 
 the year 1794 he quitted England, where he had 
 laboured with assiduity, and left behind him a 
 numerous congregation meeting in Parliament* 
 court, Bishopsgate-street, which is still in a flou- 
 rishing condition. He died at Hartford, in New 
 England, 1797, where tokens of respect were 
 paid to his memory,
 
 PREFATORY DEDICATION 
 
 TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 TO 
 
 JOHN BRENT t Etg. BUcMeatk. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 A.S a memorial of your friendship and patron* 
 age, I take the liberty of dedicating to you, 
 this Sketch of the Denominations of the Chris- 
 tian World. When its first outlines ytere laid 
 before yon, you were pleased not on;ly to sanc- 
 tion them with your approbation, li^ut also to 
 suggest many improvements. To othe* respect- 
 able friends, both among the clergy and laity, 
 I profess myself under similar obligations; and 
 am here proud of thus publicly rendering them, 
 my grateful acknowledgments. 
 
 With respect to the present edition, now 
 called for by an indulgent public, it has (in com-
 
 xxii 
 
 of the excellence of the Christian religion, I 
 ^wouid fain remove any one obstacle which im 
 -pedes its progress, or diminishes its efficacy, 
 where it is already known. Should, therefore, 
 this manual bring only two Christians of differ- 
 ent denominations to a more just knowledge of 
 ach other's tenets, and prove the means of in- 
 clining them the more cheerfully to exercise to- 
 wards one another that charity which thinketk 
 no evil, it will afford me more real satisfaction 
 than the publication of a work of the -most 
 pompous nature. It is observed by the late cele- 
 brated Edmund Burke, who possessed no incon- 
 siderable knowledge of human nature, that " In 
 all persuasions, the bigots are persecutors ; the 
 men of a cool and reasonable piety, are favourers 
 of toleration ; because BIGOTS not taking the 
 pains to be acquainted with the grounds of their 
 adversaries 1 tenets, conceive them to be so ab- 
 swrd and monstrous, that no man of sense can 
 give into them in good earnest. For which 
 reason, they are convinced that some oblique 
 bad motive induces them to pretend to the belief 
 of such doctrines, and to the maintaining them
 
 xxiii 
 
 xvith obstinacy. This is a very general prin- 
 ciple, in all religious differences, and it is the 
 corner-stone of all PERSECUTION." The Em- 
 peror Charles the 5th, also, we are told, retired 
 at the close of life to a monastery, and there, 
 says Dr. Robertson, <f he was particularly cu- 
 rious with regard to the construction of clocks 
 nnd watches; and having found, after repeated 
 trials, that he could not bring any ttio of them 
 to go exactly alike, he reflected, it is said, with 
 a mixture of surprise as well as regret, ou his 
 own folly, in having bestowed so much time and 
 labour, in the more vain attemjDt of bringing 
 mankind to a precise uniformity of sentiment 
 concerning the intricate and mysterious doctrines 
 of religion!" 
 
 The infamous falsehoods, Sir, which have been 
 propagated by sects concerning one another's 
 tenets, in almost every age of the church, are 
 incompatible with Glory to God in the highest 
 on earth peace good zcill towards men. No- 
 thing tends more to arrest the progress of true 
 religion, than the implacable spirit of bigotry. 
 Its ignorance and its folly are written in cha-
 
 xxii 
 
 of the excellence of the Christian religion, I 
 ^wouid fain remove any one obstacle which im 
 -pedes its progress, or diminishes its efficacy, 
 where it is already known. Should, therefore, 
 this manual bring only two Christians of differ- 
 ent denominations to a more just knowledge of 
 each other's tenets, and prove the means of in 
 dining them the more cheerfully to exercise to- 
 wards one another that charity which thinketh 
 no evil, it will afford me more real satisfaction 
 than the publication of a work of the -most 
 pompous nature. It is observed by the late cele- 
 brated Edmund Burke, who possessed no incon- 
 siderable knowledge of human nature, that " In 
 all persuasions, the bigots are persecutors; the 
 men of a cool and reasonable piety, are favourers 
 of toleration ; because BIGOTS not taking the 
 pains to be acquainted with the grounds of their 
 ndversarie^ tenets, conceive them to be so ab- 
 surd and monstrous, that no man of sense can 
 give into them in good earnest. For which 
 reason, they are convinced that some oblique 
 bad motive induces them to pretend to the belief 
 f such doctrines, and to the maintaining them
 
 xxiii 
 
 with obstinacy. This is a very general prin- 
 ciple, in // religious differences, and it is the 
 corner-stone of all PERSECUTION." The Em- 
 peror Charles the 5th, also, we are told, retired 
 at the close of life to a monastery, and there, 
 says Dr. Robertson, <( he was particularly cu- 
 rious with regard to the construction of clocks 
 nnd watches; and having found, after repeated 
 trials, that he could not bring any ttio of them 
 to go exactly alike, he reflected, it is said, with 
 a mixture of surprise as well as regret, on his 
 own folly, in having bestowed so much time and 
 labour, in the more vain attempt of bringing 
 mankind to a precise uniformity of sentiment 
 concerning the intricate and mysterious doctrines 
 of religion!" 
 
 The infamous falsehoods, Sir, which have been 
 propagated by sects concerning one another's 
 tenets, in almost every age of the church, are 
 incompatible with Glory to God in the highest 
 on earth peace good zcill towards men. No- 
 thing tends more to arrest the progress of true 
 religion, than the implacable spirit of bigotry. 
 Its ignorance and its folly are written in cha-
 
 xx iv 
 
 racters of blood. Wollaston, the learned au- 
 thor of the Religion of Nature Delineated, 
 once asked a bigot " how many sects he thought 
 there might be in the world?" "Why," says 
 he, " I can make no judgment I never con- 
 sidered the question." " Do you think," said 
 WoHaston, " there may be a hundred ?" " O, 
 yes, at least," cried the bigot. " Why then/ 
 replied the philosopher, " it is ninety-nine to 
 owe that you are in the wrong /" This anecdote 
 is introduced for the purpose of generating that 
 modesty of temper, which forms one of the love- 
 liest ornaments of Christianity. William Penn 
 has, in a letter to Archbishop Tillotson, these 
 memorable words " I abhor two principles 
 in religion, and pity them that own them. The 
 first is obedience upon authority, without con- 
 viction ; and the other, destroying them that 
 differ from me, for God's sake. Such a religion 
 is without judgment, though not without teeth 
 union is best if right else charity." And as 
 Hooker said " The thne will come, when a 
 few words spoken with meekness, and humility, 
 and love, shall be more acceptable than volumei
 
 XXV 
 
 of controversy, which commonly destroy CHA- 
 BITY, the very best part of TRUE RELIGION." 
 Of the terms Prejudice, Bigotry, Candour, and 
 Liberality, Dr. Aikin, in his Letters to his Son, 
 gives this happy exemplification : " When Jesus 
 preached, PREJUDICE cried, Can any good thing 
 com* out of Nazareth? Crucify, crucify him! 
 exclaimed BIGOTRY. Why, what evil hath he 
 done? remonstrated CANDOUR. And LIBERALI- 
 TY drew from his words this inference In every 
 nation, he that feareth God, and worketh righ- 
 teousness, is accepted with him" 
 
 Upon my first sitting down, Sir, to this work, 
 
 
 
 a closer inspection of the discordant materials 
 of which the Christian world stands composed, 
 almost deterred me from proceeding to its exe- 
 cution. I, however, relied on the candour of 
 the public, and was not disappointed. The most 
 respectable literary journals of the day were 
 pleased to sanction my attempt with their appro- 
 bation. Socrates used to say, tkat the statuary 
 found his figure in the block of marble, and 
 striking off with his chisel the superfluous parts, 
 the form presented itself gradually to ?iew! In 
 b
 
 imitation of the sculptor, have I here endeavured 
 to divest the several denominations of the extra* 
 neous matter which had been attached to them, 
 either through ignorance or malignity; thus 
 holding them up lo the eye of my reader in their 
 just and regular proportions ! Mine, therefore, 
 has been an humble, though laborious province; 
 Irat the concurrence expressed by the wise and 
 good, even from among the most opposite sects, 
 has proved an abundant reward. To use the 
 words of Gilbert West, a most worthy mem- 
 ber of the church of England, " Blessed are 
 the peace-makers, for they shall be called the 
 children of God an appellation infinitely 
 more honourable than that of pastor, bishop, 
 archbishop, patriarch, cardinal, or pope; and 
 attended with a recompence infinitely surpassing 
 the richest revenues of the highest ecclesiastical 
 dignity." Cyprian, likewise a pious father of 
 the church, ranks a contentious Christian among 
 the twelve absurdities to which the life of man 
 is exposed. 
 
 Indeed, Sir, the flattering reception of this 
 little work, by DENOMINATIONS cf every de-
 
 xxvii 
 
 scription, cannot fail of affording me satisfac- 
 tion. This circumstance, in conjunction with 
 the extent of its circulation (many thousand 
 copies having been sold), has raised pleasing sen- 
 sations in my breast. For it inclines me to hope, 
 that the execrable spirit of bigotry is abating 
 among all parties, and that the professors of 
 Jesus are becoming more intent on the great 
 essentials of Christianity. The probationary con- 
 dition in which we are placed, powerfully incul- 
 cates such a conduct. Tt was a saying of the 
 pious Richard Baxter, recorded by himself in 
 the History of his Own Times " While we wran- 
 gle here in the dark, we are dying and passing 
 to that world which will decide all our contro- 
 versies ; and the safest passage thither is by 
 peaceable holiness" 
 
 " Hence jarring sectaries may learn 
 
 " Their real interest to discern, 
 
 " That brother should not war with brother, 
 
 " And worry and devour each other; 
 
 " Shunning division here below, 
 
 " That each in charity may grow, 
 
 " Till join'd in Christian fellowship and love, 
 
 " The church on earth shall meet the church above /" 
 
 COWTJSIU
 
 xxviii 
 
 Since the first appearance of the Sketch, ler- 
 sure, Sir, has been found, to lay before the pub- 
 lic the SEQUEL, being the second and concluding 
 part of this work*. There it is largely shewn, 
 both in a preliminary Essay, and in the numerous 
 Extracts, thai MODERATION is the genuine off- 
 spring of Christianity. To avoid the imputation 
 of partiality, the authoritiu, amounting in num- 
 ber to near one hundred, are taken from divines 
 of the Church of England, of the Kirk of 
 Scoland, and from among the Protestant Dis- 
 senters. The drawing tip of this latter \vork, 
 (a second edition of which is just published) was 
 with m.e a favourite object, and no small pains 
 were bestowed upon it. The Sketch and Sequel 
 complete my design on the subject. May the 
 effort be attended with a divine blessing! 
 
 * A new edition of the Sequfl has just appeared, with consider- 
 able augmentations and improvements. The number of testimo- 
 nies are now one hundred. It is also embellished with the heads 
 of Tillotson, Clarke, Jortin, Watis, fioddridge, Chandler, Robert- 
 \ son, and Blair; and enriched, at the conclusion, by certain }>o- 
 elical pieces, illustrative of the spirit and genius of Christianity. 
 MARCH 30, 1807.
 
 XXIX 
 
 I am, however, aware, Sir, that for the same 
 reason that the passionate charge the mild and 
 unassuming with a want of spirit, zealots are 
 reproaching the advocates of moderation with a 
 propensity u> indifference. But this is an ini- 
 quitous charge, since it is known, that liberal 
 characters have been distinguished for their zeal, 
 in support of what appeared to them to be the 
 interests of truth. That the candid have fallen 
 into lukewarmness, and that the zealous have 
 been betrayed into persecution, cannot be de- 
 iried ' t but surely no man in his senses will, on 
 that account, seriously maintain, that candour and 
 indifference, zeal and persecution, are insepa- 
 rably connected. Against a spirit of Indifference, 
 I here solemnly protest; nor indeed will any 
 person accuse me af such an intention, who 
 has attentively read my Address to the General 
 Baptists on the Revival of Re/igion amongst 
 them. While with our blessed Saviour, Chris- 
 tians are exhorted to love one another; so on the 
 ether hand with the apostle Paul, are they loudly 
 called upon to contend earnestly (but not in- 
 
 ba
 
 XXX 
 
 (emperately)ybr the faith once delivered to the 
 saints. 
 
 Dr. Pricleaux (a learned clergyman of the 
 church of England), in his Life of Mahomet, 
 speaking of the dissensions of the sixth century, 
 remarks " Christians having drawn the ub- 
 strusest nicilies into controversy, did thereby so 
 destroy peace, love, and chanty among them- 
 selves, that 'they lost the whole substance of re- 
 ligion, and in a manner drove Christianity quite 
 out of the world ; so that the Saracens, taking 
 advantage of the weakness of power and distrac- 
 tions of councils, Avhich those divisions had 
 caused, soon over-ran, with terrible devastation, 
 all the eastern provinces of the Roman empire ; 
 turned every where tlteir churches into mosques, 
 and forced on them the abominable imposture of 
 Mahometanism." From this lamentable fact, 
 Sir, Christians ought to learn an instructive les- 
 son. In an age like the present, when Atheists 
 and Der-ts are, both in this country and upon the 
 Continent, assailing on every side the venerable 
 iabric of our religion, its professors ceasing to
 
 XXXI 
 
 lay an undue stress on their private differences 
 of opinion, should concentrate their scattered 
 forces, and inspired with kindness towards each 
 other, oppose, with one, heart and with one soul, 
 
 the COMMON ENEMY ! 
 
 The biographer of Bishop Burnet tells us, that 
 when making his Tour on the, Continent, this 
 great and good prelate " there became acquaint- 
 ed with the leading men of the different persua- 
 sions tolerated in that country, particularly Calvin- 
 ists, Arminians, Lutherans, Baptists, Brownists, 
 Papists, and Unitarians; amongst each of which, 
 he used frequently to declare, he met with men 
 of such unfeigned piety cjid virtue, that he became 
 fixed in a strong principle of universal charity" 
 Would to God, that an example in every respect 
 so illustrious, were devoutly imitated by the pro- 
 fessors of Christianity ! The good effects of 
 such a conduct would be instantaneously dis- 
 cerned. The sincere and hearty co-operation of 
 Christians of every denomination, in the great 
 cause of virtue and piety, would essentially pro- 
 mote the best interests of mankind. 
 
 Ner will you, my dear Sir, blatne ine for thus
 
 XXXll 
 
 venturing publicly to express the gratification I 
 feel in the publication of both Sketch and Se- 
 quel at Philadelphia in America. This exten- 
 sion of their sphere of usefulness will, I trust, 
 prove the humble means of aiding in some small 
 degree the cause of Christian liberality amongst 
 our Transatlantic brethren. The period is ap- 
 proaching, when the jealousies and distinctions 
 of party, in every quarter of the globe, shall be 
 lost in the diffusion of pure and unadulterated 
 Christianity I In the present awful crisis of irt- 
 fidelity and lukewarmness, Christians are apt to 
 be borne down by a spirit of despondency. But 
 the energies of their faith ought by no means to 
 be exhausted. Over the attacks of its enemies, 
 and over the infirmities of its friends, the religion 
 of Jesus shall obtain a complete triumph. Tfte 
 day of snuill things- must not be despised. Dis- 
 pensations the most dark, and events the most 
 unpromising, are rendered subservient to the pur- 
 poses of the divine government. The rays of 
 revealed truth which have hitherto only beamed 
 upon us through the clouds of our ignorance anti 
 |>pejudiees, are nevertheless destined to light up.
 
 the radiance of a more perfect day. THEN, to 
 adopt the energetic language of ancient propliecy 
 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the 
 leopard lie down with the kid and the calf, and 
 the young lion and the fatting together, and a 
 little child shall lead them. The lion shall eat 
 strau) like the ox, and the suckling child shall 
 phi/ on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child 
 shall put his hand on the cockatme den. THEY 
 
 SHALL NOT HURT NOR DESTROY (taith the 
 Lord) IN ALL MY HOLY MOUNTAIN*. 
 
 In the mean time, may the GOD of PEACE 
 allay the animosities and meliorate the temper of 
 the Christian world! Thus will the wretched 
 remains of bigotry, which are still to be found 
 in some unhappy individuals of every party, be 
 gradually lessened, and finally destroyed. The 
 glorious Gospel of the blestcd God wants not any 
 adventitious aid to extend its empire over the 
 human heart. It is of itself sufficient (under 
 the blessings of Heaven) to purify our affections, 
 and to prepare us for our certain and speedy re- 
 moval into ETERNITY. 
 
 That you, my dear Sir, and your worthy fa-
 
 xxxiv 
 
 tnily, to whom I am indebted for the first pu- 
 pils with which I was entrusted*, may enjoy every 
 possible blessing ; and that all my readers (to 
 use the words of my excellent friend, the Rev. 
 II. Worthington, on a public occasion) may be 
 "candid, yet firm enquirers, yet believers 
 pious, yet liberal" is the wish nnd prayer of 
 
 Your's, with great esteem, 
 
 Pullin's Row, Islington, 
 April 8, 1801, 
 
 * The (no sons of Samuel Brent, EJJ. of Greenland Dock.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory Description of 
 
 PASE 
 
 Atheists 2 
 
 Deists 8 
 
 Thegphilanthropixts . 16 
 
 Jews 21 
 
 Chinese 28 
 
 Christians . 29 
 
 Mahometans 42 
 
 CHRISTIAN SECTS, 
 According to the Person of Chritt", 
 
 Trinitarians .46 
 
 Athanasians . 47 
 
 Sabellians . . 53 
 
 Arians . 55 
 
 Soeinians 02 
 
 .4icoidiug to the Mkans and Measure f God's Favour; 
 
 Calvinists . . 69 
 
 Sublapsarians and Supralapsarians ... 72 
 
 Arminians .74 
 
 Baxterians 78 
 
 Antinomians 80 
 
 Recording to the Mode of Church Gc/vtrnTnent ; 
 
 Papists 84 
 
 Greek, or Russian Church 90 
 
 Protestants ....97 
 
 Lutherans 110 
 
 Hugonots . . . . 113
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 TACK 
 
 Episcopalians, or Church of England . . . 116 
 
 Dissenters 127 
 
 Kirk of Scotland . 13 
 
 Sewders . 134 
 
 English Presbyterians ... % .... 138 
 
 Independents 139 
 
 Brownists 140 
 
 P.edobaptists r ib. 
 
 Baptists General and Particular .... 142 
 
 Miscellaneous Sects not reduceable to the above three- 
 fold Division ; 
 
 Quakers 154 
 
 Methodists , . 168 
 
 New Methodists 1 76 
 
 Junipers ...... ^ 179 
 
 TJniversalists 184 
 
 Rellyan Universalists 192 
 
 Destructionists 196 
 
 Sabbatarians 197 
 
 Moravians . 200 
 
 Sandemanians 203 
 
 Hwtchinsonians 207 
 
 Dunkers 208 
 
 Shakers 209 
 
 Jfew American Sect 210 
 
 'Mystics . 211 
 
 Swedcnborgians 213 
 
 Joanna Sonthcott 218 
 
 Millenarians . ,,... 223 
 
 REFIECTIONS 232 
 
 RECAPITULATORY TABLE . 268 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABJIE 270
 
 A 
 
 SKETCH 
 
 The preat lesson which every sect, and every individual of every sect, 
 ought to learn from the history of the church, is Moderation. Want 
 of genuine Moderation towards those who differ from us in religion* 
 opinions, seems to be the most unaccountable thing in the world. 
 
 Walton, Bishop of Landiiff. 
 
 rp 
 
 JL HE CHRISTIAN WORLD is divided into deno- 
 minations, each of which is discriminated by 
 sentiments peculiar to itself. To delineate the 
 nature, point out the foundation, and appreciate 
 the tendency of every individual opinion, would 
 be an endless task. My only design is briefly to 
 enumerate the leading tenets of the several par- 
 ties which attract our notice, and to make this va- 
 riety of religious opinions a ground for the exer- 
 cise of moderation, together with the improve- 
 ment of other Christian graces. The moderation 
 here recommended lies at an equal distance be- 
 tween an indifference to truth and the merciless 
 spirit of uncharitableness. It is a virtue, alas ! 
 much talked of, little understood, and less prac- 
 tised. 
 
 B
 
 $ ATHEISTS. 
 
 But before we delineate the tenets of the seve- 
 ral parties, the Atheists and Deists shall be just 
 mentioned, two descriptions of persons frequently 
 confounded together; and also a general outline 
 given of Theophilanthropism and Mahometan- 
 ism, of Judaism rind Christianity. These topics 
 will form a proper introduction to an account of 
 the Sects and Denominations of the RELIGIOUS 
 WORLD. 
 
 ATHEISTS. 
 
 THE Atheist does not believe in the existence 
 of a God. He attributes surrounding nature and 
 all its astonishing phicnornena to chance, or a 
 fortuitous concourse of atoms. Pluto distin- 
 guishes three sorts of Atheists ; such as deny ab- 
 solutely that there are any Gods ; others who 
 allow the existence of the Gods, but deny that 
 they concern themselves with human affairs, and 
 so disbelieve a Providence; and lastly, such as 
 Relieve in the Gods and a Providence, but think 
 that they are easily appeased, and remit the 
 greatest crimes for the smallest supplication. 
 The first of these, however, are the only Athe- 
 ists, in the strict and proper sense of the word. 
 The name of Atheist is composed of two Greek 
 terms, and 0eo f , signifying without God, and 
 in this sense the appellation occurs in the New
 
 ATHEISTS. 3 
 
 Testament, Ephes. ii. 12, Without God (or Athe~ 
 ists) in the world. It is to be hoped that direct 
 Atheists are few. Some persons indeed question 
 the reality of such a character, and others insist, 
 that pretensions to Atheism have their origin in 
 pride, or are adopted as a cloak for licentious- 
 ness. In the seventeenth century, Spinosa, a 
 foreigner, was its noted defender; and Lucilie 
 Vanini, an Italian, of eccentric character, was 
 burnt, 1619, at Toulouse, for his Atheistical 
 tenets. Being pressed to make public acknow- 
 ledgment of his crime, and to ask pardon of God, 
 the king, and justice, he boldly replied, that he 
 did not believe there was a God ; that he never 
 offended the king; and as for justice, he wished 
 it to the devil. He confessed that he was one 
 of the twelve who parted in company from Na- 
 ples, to spread their doctrines in all parts of 
 Europe. The poor man, however, ought not 
 to have been put to death ; confinement is the 
 best remedy for insanity. Lord Bacon, in liis 
 Essays, justly remarks, that" A little philosophy 
 inclinelh a man's mind to Atheism, but depth in 
 philosophy bringeth men's minds about to reli- 
 gion ; for while the mind of man looketh upon 
 second causes scattered, it may rest in them an^ 
 go no farther: but when it beholdeth the chain 
 of them confederated and linked together, it must 
 needs fly to Providence and Deity." 
 B 2
 
 4 ATHEISTS. 
 
 Archbishop Tillotson, speaking .of Atheism, 
 says, " For some ages before the reformation, 
 Atheism was confined lo-Italy, and had its chief 
 residence at Rome. All the mention that is of 
 it in the history of those times, the Papists them- 
 selves give us, in the Jives of their own popes 
 and cardinals, excepting two or three small phi- 
 losophers, that were retainers to that court. So 
 that this Atheistical humour amongst Christians 
 was the spawn of the gross superstition and cor- 
 rupt manners of the Romish church and court. 
 And, indeed, nothing is more natural than for 
 extremes in religion to beget one another, like 
 the vibrations of a pendulum, which the more 
 violently you swing in one way, the farther it 
 will return the other. But in this last age 
 Atheism has travelled over the Alps and infected 
 France; and now of late it hath crossed the seas 
 and invaded our nation, and hath prevailed to 
 amazement !" 
 
 The sermons preached at Boyle's Lecture the 
 discourses of Abernethyon theDivine Attributes 
 and the treatises of Dr. Balguy, are an excellent 
 antidote against Atheistical tenets. This last 
 writer thus forcibly expresses himself on the 
 subject : 
 
 " Of all the false doctrines and foolish opi- 
 nions which ever infested the mind 6~f man, no- 
 thing can possibly equal that of Atheism, which
 
 ATHEISTS. 5 
 
 is such a monstrous contradiction to all evi- 
 dence, to all the powers of understanding, and 
 the dictates of common, sense, that it may be 
 well questioned whether any man can really far! 
 into it by a deliberate use of his judgment. All 
 nature so clearly points out, and so loudly pro- 
 claims a Creator of infinite power, wisdom, and 
 goodness, that whoever hears not its voice, and 
 sees not its proofs, may well be thought wilfully 
 deaf and obstinately blind. If it be evident, 
 self-evident, to every man of thought, that there 
 can be no effect without a cause, what shall we 
 say of that manifold combination of effects, that 
 series of operations, that system of wonders, 
 which fill the universe; which present themselves 
 to all our perceptions, and strike our minds and 
 our senses on every side? Every faculty, every 
 object of every faculty, demonstrates a Deity. 
 The meanest insect we can see, the minutest and 
 most contemptible weed we can tread upon, is 
 really sufficient to confound Atheism, and baffle 
 all its pretensions. How much more that astonish- 
 ing variety and multiplicity of God's works with 
 which we are continually surrounded! Let any 
 man survey the face of the earth, or lift up his 
 eyes to the firmament; let him consider the na- 
 ture and instinct of brute animals, and afterwards 
 look into the operations of his own mind : will 
 he presume to say or suppose that all the object 
 c 3
 
 6 ATHEISTS. 
 
 he meets with are nothing more than the result 
 of unaccountable accident and blind chance ? 
 Can he possibly conceive that such wonderful 
 order should spring out of confusion ; or that 
 such perfect beauty should be ever formed by 
 the fortuitous operations of unconscious, inactive 
 particles of matter ? As well, nay better, and 
 more easily* might he suppose, that an earthquake 
 might happen to build towns and cities ; or the 
 materials carried down by a flood fit themselves 
 up without hands into a regular fleet. For what 
 are towns, cities, or fleets, in comparison of the 
 vast and amazing fabric of the universe! la 
 short, Ditheism offers such violence to all our 
 faculties, that it seems scarce credible it should 
 ever really find any footing in human under- 
 standing." 
 
 The arguments for the being of a God are dis- 
 tributed by the learned into two kinds: 1st. Ar- 
 guments a priori, or those taken from the neces- 
 sity of the divine existence ; 2d. Arguments a 
 posteriori, or those taken from the works of na- 
 ture. Of the latter species of proof the above 
 quotation from Dr. Balguy is a fine illustration. 
 On the former see Dr. Clarke's Essay on the Be- 
 ing of a God, which has been deemed a master- 
 piece on the subject. The reader is also referred 
 to Dr. Paley's incomparable work on Natural 
 Theology, which, though it bears a resemblance
 
 ATHEISTS. 7 
 
 to Derham's Physico-theology, is by far more 
 compact and impressive. 
 
 Newton, Boyle, Maclaurin, Ray, Derham, 
 Locke, and other philosophers, distinguished for 
 the profundity of their researches, and Uie extent 
 of their erudition, are to be enrolled amongst the 
 principal advocates for the existence and superin- 
 tendence of a Deity. On this subject the cele- 
 brated Lord Chesterfield made the following de- 
 claration ; and no man can suppose his under- 
 standing to have been clouded with religious 
 prejudices : " I have read some of Seed's ser- 
 mons, and like them very well. But I have 
 neither read, nor intend to read, those which are 
 meant to prove the existence of God ; because it 
 eerns to me too great a disparagement of that 
 reasoH~which he has given us,,to require any other 
 proofs of his existence than those which the 
 whole and every part of the creation afford us. 
 If I believe my own existence, I must believe 
 his: it cannot be proved a priori, as some have 
 idly attempted to do, and cannot be doubted of 
 a posteriori. Cato says very justly 'And that 
 he is, all nature cries aloud I' 9
 
 8 DEISTS. 
 
 DEISTS. 
 
 THE Deists believe in a God, but reject a 
 written revelation from him. They are extrava- 
 gant in their encomiums on natural religion, 
 though they differ much respecting its nature, 
 extent, obligation, and importance. Dr. Clarke, 
 in his treatise against Deism, divides them into 
 four classes, according to the less or greater 
 Dumber of articles comprised in their creed. 
 *' The first are such as pretend to believe the 
 existence of an eternal, infinite, independent, in- 
 telligent Being ; and who, to avoid the name of 
 Epicurean Atheists, teach also that this Supreme 
 Being made the world ; though at the same time 
 they agree with the Epicureans in this, that they 
 fancy God does not at all concern himself in the 
 government of the world, nor has any regard to., 
 or care of, what is done therein, agreeably to the 
 reasoning of Lucretius, the Epicurean poet 
 
 4 For whatsoe'er's divine must live at peace, 
 
 ' In undisturk'd and everlasting easej 
 
 ' Nor care for us, from fears and dangers free, 
 
 ' Sufficient to his own felicity. 
 
 4 Nought here below, nought in our pow'r it needs, 
 
 ' Ne'er smiles at good, nor frowns at wicked deeds.* 
 
 "The second sort of Deists are those who be- 
 lieve not only the being, but also the providence
 
 UEIST?. 
 
 of God with respect to the natural world, but 
 who, not allowing any difference between moral 
 good and evil, deny that God takes any notice 
 of the morally good or evil actions of men, these 
 things depending, as they imagine, on the arbi- 
 trary constitution of human laws. 
 
 " A third sort of Deists there are, who having- 
 right apprehensions concerning the natural attri- 
 butes of Got! and his all-governing providence^ 
 and some notion of his moral perfections also, yet 
 being prejudiced against the notion of the im- 
 mortality of the soul, believe that men perish 
 entirely at death, and that one generation shall 
 perpetually succeed another, without any further; 
 restoration or renovation of things. 
 
 " Afourth and the last sort of Deists are- such- 
 as believe the existence of a Supreme Being, to- 
 gether with his providence in the government of 
 the world, also all the obligations of natural re- 
 ligion, but so far only as these things are disco- 
 verable by the light of nature alone, without 
 believing any divine revelation." These, the 
 learned author observes, are the only true Deists j 
 but as their principles would naturally lead them 
 to embrace the Christian revelation, he concludes 
 there is now no consistent scheme of Deism in 
 the world. Dr. Clarke then adds these obscrva- 
 B 5
 
 10 DEISTS. 
 
 tions, mingled with a just severity : " The Hea- 
 then philosophers, those few of them who taught 
 and lived up to the obligations of natural reli- 
 gion, had indeed a consistent scheme of Deism, 
 as far as it went. But the case is not so now; 
 the same scheme is not any longer consistent with 
 its own principles, it does not now lead men to 
 believe and embrace revelation, as it then taught 
 them to hope for it. Deists in our days, who re- 
 ject revelation when offered to them, are not 
 such men as Socrates and Cicero were; but, under 
 pretence of Deism, it is plain they are generally 
 ridiculers of all that is truly excellent in natural 
 religion itself. Their trivial and vain cavils; their 
 mocking and ridiculing without and before exa- 
 mination; their directing the whole stress of ob- 
 jections against particular customs, or particular 
 and perhaps uncertain opinions or explications of 
 opinions, without at all considering the main 
 body of religion; their loose, vain, and frothy 
 discourses ; and, above all, their vicious and im- 
 moral lives shew, plainly and undeniably that they 
 are not real Deisti, but mere Atheists, and con- 
 sequently not capable to judge of the truth of 
 Christianity. The present Deists are of two 
 sorts only, those who believe, and those who 
 4'sbelieve in a future state. If a Theist (from 
 the Greek 9^ God^) be different from a Deist, it
 
 DEISTS. 1J 
 
 is that he has not had revelation proposed to him, 
 and follows therefore the pure light of nalure*. 
 
 The term Deist comes from the Latin word 
 Deus, a God; and is applied to the rejectors of 
 revelation, because the existence of a God is the 
 principal article of their belief. The name was 
 first assumed by a number of gentlemen in France 
 and Italy, who were willing to cover their oppo- 
 sition to the Christian revelation by a more ho- 
 nourable name than that of Atheists. Viret, a 
 divine of eminence among the first reformers, ap- 
 pears to have been the first author who expressly 
 mentions them ; for in the Epistle Dedicatory 
 prefixed to the second volume of his Instruction 
 Chretienne, published in 1563, he speaks of some 
 persons at that time who called themselves by a 
 new name, that of Deists. Deists are also often 
 
 * Paganism is the corruption of natural religion, and is little 
 else than the worship of idols and false gods. These were either 
 men, as Jupiter, Hercules, Bacchus, &c.; or fictitious persons, as 
 Victory, Fame, Fever, &c. ; or beasts, as in Egypt, crocodiles, 
 cats, &c. ; or, finally, inanimate things, as onions, fire, water, &c. 
 Upon the propagation of Christianity, Paganism gradually de- 
 clined. Julian the apostate made an ineffectual attempt to 
 revive it, and it is now degenerated into gross and disgustful 
 idolatry. Such especially was it found to be In the South Sea 
 Islands, lately discovered by that unfortunate navigator, Capt. 
 Cook. Curious specimens of the Pagan idols may be seen in the 
 British Msmm. When I saw them there, the worshippers f 
 such hideous deformity excited my commiseration.
 
 12 DEISTS. 
 
 called Infidels (from the Latin word itifidelis), 
 on account of their want of faith or belief in 
 the Christian religion. Some indeed have cen- 
 sured the application of the term infidelity to 
 unbelievers, contending that in our language it 
 is used solely in a particular sense, implying the 
 want of conjugal fidelity, u..? 
 
 Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, was the first Deist 
 who excited public notice in this country. Dr. 
 Brown's recent edition of Iceland's View of the 
 Deistical writers, (Tindal, Morgan, Chubb, Bo- 
 lingbroke, &c. &c.) together with many other 
 valuable treatises, afford information concerning 
 their principles, and contain a complete refuta- 
 tion of their objections against revealed religion. 
 Mr. Belsham has thus assigned the principal 
 causes of modern infidelity in his reply to Mr. 
 Wilberforce : " 1. The first and chief is an un- 
 willingness to submit to the restraints of religion, 
 and the dread of a future life, which leads men 
 to overlook evidence, and to magnify abjections. 
 2. The palpable absurdities of creeds generally 
 professed by Christians, which men of sense 
 having confounded with the genuine doctrines of 
 revelation, they have rejected the whole at once, 
 and without enquiry. 3. Impatience and un- 
 willingness to persevere in the laborious task of 
 weighing arguments and examining objections, 
 4. Fashion has biassed the minds of some young'
 
 IlETSTS. 13 
 
 persons of virtuous characters and competent 
 knowledge, to resist revelation, in order to avoid 
 the imputation of singularity, and to escape the 
 ridicule of those with whom they desire to asso- 
 ciate. 5. Pride, that they might at an easy rate 
 attain the character of philosophers and superior 
 rity to vulgar prejudice. 6. Dwelling upon dif- 
 ficulties only, from which the most rational sys- 
 tem is not exempt, and by which the most candid, 
 inquisitive, and virtuous minds are sometimes en- 
 tangled. The mass of mankind, who never think 
 at all, but who admit, without hesitation, * all 
 that the nurse and that the priest have taught/ 
 can never become sceptics. Of course the whole 
 class of unbelievers consists of persons who have 
 thought more or less upon the subject; and as 
 persons of sense seldom discard at onceiall the 
 principles in which they have been educated, it 
 is not wonderful that mlany who begin with the 
 highest orthodoxy, pass through different stages 
 of their creed, dropping an article or two every 
 step of their progress, till at last, weary of their 
 labour, and not knowing where to fix, they reject 
 it altogether. This, to a superficial and timid ob- 
 server, appears to be an objection to freedom of 
 enquiry; for no person beginning to.enquire, can 
 or ought to say where he will stop. But the sin- 
 cere friend to truth will not be discouraged. For 
 without enquiry truth cannot be ascertained, and
 
 14 DEISTS. 
 
 if the Christian religion shrinks from close exa- 
 mination in this bold and inquisitive age, it must 
 and it ought to fall. But of this issue I have not 
 the smallest apprehension. Genuine Christianity 
 can well bear the fiery trial through which it is 
 HOW passing, and while the dross and the rubbish 
 are consumed, the pure gold will remain unin- 
 jured, and will come forth from the furnace with 
 increased lustre." 
 
 Indeed the objections which some Deists have 
 made to revelation, affect not so much the reli- 
 gion of Jesus Christ, laid down in the New Tes- 
 tament, as certain absurd doctrines and ridiculous 
 practices which have been added to it by the 
 weakness and wickedness of mankind. Reiterat- 
 ed accusations therefore of unfairness have been 
 brought against the generality of Deistical writers; 
 and with this palpable injustice Bolingbroke, 
 Voltaire, and Thomas Paine stand particularly 
 charged. Paine's Age, of Reason has been ably 
 answered by many writers, especially by the 
 present Bishop of Landaff, in his Apology for the 
 Bible. 
 
 The rejectors of REVELATION (before they 
 thoughtlessly calumniate it) would do well to 
 consider what they are able to give us in its stead, 
 better calculated to alleviate the distresses, and 
 bind up the bleeding heart of humanity. 
 
 The late Dr. Beattie, in the eloquent conclu-
 
 DEISTS. 15 
 
 sion of his Essay on the Immutability of Truth, 
 speaking of Sceptics and Deists, very justly re- 
 marks: " Caressed by those who call themselves 
 the great, engrossed by the formalities and foppe- 
 ries of life, intoxicated with vanity, pampered 
 with adulation, dissipated in the tumult of busi- 
 ness, or amidst the vicissitudes of folly, they per- 
 haps have little need and little relish for the con- 
 solations of religion. But let them know, that in 
 the solitary scenes of life there is many an honest 
 and tender heart pining with incurable anguish, 
 pierced with the sharpest sting of disappointment, 
 bereft of friends, chilled with poverty, racked 
 with* disease, scourged by the oppressor, whom 
 nothing but trust in Providence, and the hope of 
 a future retribution, could preserve from the ago- 
 nies of despair. And do they with sacrilegious 
 hands attempt to violate this last refuge of the 
 miserable, and to rob them of the only comfort 
 that had survived the ravages of misfortune, ma- 
 lice, and tyranny ! Did it ever happen that the 
 influence of their tenets disturbed the tranquillity 
 of virtuous retirement, deepened the gloom of 
 human distress, or aggravated the honors of the 
 grave? Ye traitors to human kind ! ye murderers 
 of the human soul ! how can ye answer for it to 
 your own hearts ? Surely every spark of your 
 generosity is extinguished for ever, if this consi- 
 deration do not awaken in you the keenest re-
 
 THKOPHILANTflttOPlSTS. 
 
 morse." Some strictures on the nature and 
 prevalence of modern Deism, are contained in 
 the present Bishop of London's Charge to the 
 Clergy for the year 1794. Indeed all the writ- 
 ings of this prelate have a pious, liberal, and 
 useful tendency. 
 
 TIIEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 
 
 THE Theophilanthropists are a kind of Deists 
 arisen in France during the revolution. Mr. Tho- 
 mas Paine figured amongst them for some time, 
 and eveu delivered a discourse b.efore them on the 
 principles, &c. of this system, which was after- 
 wards established. Since the return of Popery 
 under Bonaparte, they are said to be nearly an- 
 nihilated ; at least they by no means attract so 
 much of the public attention. The name by 
 which they stand distinguished, is a compound 
 term derived from the Greek, and intimates that 
 they profess to adore God and love their fellow-- 
 creatures. Their common principle is a belief 
 in the existence, perfections, and pro.vidence of 
 God, and in the doctrine of a future life; and 
 their rule of morals is, love to God and good-will 
 to men. Dr. John Walker, a medical gentleman, 
 author of the Universal Gazetteer, published 
 the manual of the sect, from which a few parti- 
 culars shall be extracted.
 
 THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 17 
 
 " The temple, the most worthy of the divinity, 
 in the eyes of the Theophilanthropists, is the 
 universe. Abandoned sometimes under the vault 
 of hf-aven to the contemplation of the beauties 
 of nature, they render its author the homage of 
 adoration and gratitude. They nevertheless 
 have temples erected by the hands of men, in 
 which it is more commodious for them to assem- 
 ble to listen to lessons concerning his wisdom. 
 Certain moral inscriptions, a simple altar on 
 which they deposit, as a sign of gratitude for the 
 benefits of the Creator, such flowers or fruits as 
 the seasons afford, and a tribune of the lectures 
 and discourses, form the whole of the ornaments 
 of their temples. 
 
 " The first inscription placed above the altar, 
 recalls to remembrance the two religious dogmas, 
 which are the foundation of their moral. - r * 
 " First Inscription. 
 
 " We believe iu the existence of a God, in the 
 immortality of the soul. 
 
 <( Second Inscription. 
 
 ft Worship God, cherish your kind, render 
 yourselves useful to your country. 
 
 " Third Inscription. ; j<i 
 
 (t Good is every thing which tends to .the pre- 
 servation or the perfection of man. 
 
 " Evil is every thing which tends to destroy 
 or deteriorate him,
 
 18 THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 
 
 " Fourth Inscription. 
 
 " Children, honour your fathers and mothers. 
 Obey them with affection. Comfort their old 
 age. 
 
 "Fathers and mothers, instruct your children. 
 " Fifth Inscription. 
 
 " Wives, regard in your husbands the chiefs of 
 your houses. 
 
 " Husbands, love your wives, and render your- 
 selves reciprocally happy. 
 
 " The assembly sits to hear lessons or dis- 
 courses on morality, principles of religion, of be- 
 nevolence, and of universal salvation, principles 
 equally remote from the severity of Stoicism 
 and Epicurean indolence. These lectures and 
 discourses are diversified by hymns. Their 
 assemblies are holden on the first day of the 
 week, and on the decades." Mr. Belsham, in his 
 answer to Mr. Wilberforce, speaking of this new 
 French sect of Deists, remarks " Its professed 
 principles comprehend the essence of the Chris- 
 tian religion ; but not admitting the resurrection 
 of Christ, the Theophilanthropists deprive them- 
 selves of the only solid ground on which to build 
 the hope of a future existence," 
 
 The concluding part of the manual of the 
 Theophilanthropists being still further explana- 
 tory of their tenets and conduct, shall be here 
 introduced : " If any one ask you what is the
 
 .THEOPHJLANTHROPISTS. 
 
 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 preserved the re- 
 membrance. There you will see that their reli- 
 gion was what we now call natural religion, be- 
 cause 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 religion, 
 which consists in worshipping God and cherish- 
 ing our kind, is what we express by one single 
 word, that of Theophilanthropy. Thus our re- 
 ligion is that of our first parents ; it is yours ; 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 exte- 
 rior 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 sub- 
 mission, some of the productions which they held 
 of his liberal hand. The fathers exhorted their 
 children to virtue; they all encouraged one ano- 
 ther under the auspices of the Divinity to the 
 accomplishment of their duties. This simple 
 worship, the sages of all nations have not ceased
 
 CO THEOPH1LANTHROP1STS. 
 
 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 vir- 
 tue ; of God, who has given experience and wis- 
 dom to the aged to guide the young, and autho- 
 rity to fathers to conduct their children. 
 
 " If they are not struck with the force of these 
 reasons, do not farther discuss the subject, and da 
 not engage yourself in controversies, which tend 
 to diminish the love of our neighbours. Onr 
 principles are the eternal truth ; they will subsist, 
 whatever individuals may supporter attac!; them-, 
 and the efforts of the wicked will not even pre- 
 vail against them. Rest firmly attached to them, 
 without attacking or defending any religious sys- 
 tem ; and remember, that similar discussions hare 
 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." 
 
 The Christian reader will admire the practical 
 tendency of this new species of Deism, but 
 lament the defects by which it stands charac- 
 terized. It wants the broad basis of revelation, 
 which would give permanency to its. doctrine^
 
 JUDAISM. 21 
 
 and energy to its precepts, beside the glorious 
 discoveries of immortality ! It was hoped at one 
 time that the profession of this system in France 
 uould have prepared the way for the reception 
 of pure Christianity. 
 
 As to the present state of religion in France, 
 the reader is referred to the French Catechism 
 translated by the Rev. D. Bogue. This Cate- 
 chism is drawn up by the order, some say by the 
 pen of Bonaparte, and is taught throughout the 
 French empire. The section entitled a conti- 
 nuation of the Fourth Commandment, is particu- 
 larly worthy of attention. It shews that the pre- 
 sent emperor has not only the art of reigning, 
 but of perpetuating that reign amongst his sub- 
 jects. Superstition is the ally of tyranny. 
 
 JUDAISM. 
 
 JUDAISM is the religious doctrines and rites 
 of the Jeics, wlio are the descendants of Abraham, 
 a person of eminence, chosen by God, soon alter 
 the flood, to preserve the doctrine of the Divine 
 Unity among the idolatrous nations of the earth. 
 A complete system of Judaism is contained in the 
 five books of MOSES, their great lawgiver, who 
 was raised up to deliver them from their bondage 
 in Egypt, and to conduct them to the possession
 
 22 JUDAISM. 
 
 of Canaan, the promised land. The Jewish 
 economy is so much directed to temporal re- 
 wards and punishments, that it has been ques- 
 tioned whether the Jews had any knowledge of a 
 future state. This opinion has been defended 
 with vast erudition by Warburton, in his Dhine 
 Legation of Moses ,- but it has been controverted 
 by Dr. Sykes, and other authors of respectability. 
 The principal sects among the Jews, in the time 
 of our Saviour, were the Pharisees, who placed 
 religion in external ceremony the Sadducees, 
 who were remarkable for their incredulity ; and 
 the Essenes, who were distinguished by an 
 austere sanctity. Some accounts of these sects 
 will be found irr the last volume of Prideaux's 
 Connection, in Harwood's Introduction to the 
 Study of the New Testament, and in Marsh's 
 improved edition of Michaelis, recently pub- 
 lished. 
 
 The Pharisees and Sadducees are frequently 
 mentioned in the New Testament ; and an ac- 
 quaintance with their principles and practices 
 serves to illustrate many passages in the sacred 
 history. At present the Jews have two sects, 
 the Caraites, who admit no rule of religion but 
 the law of Moses, and the Rabbinists, who 
 add to the laws the traditions of the Talmud. 
 The dispersion of the Jews took place upon the 
 destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Roman
 
 JUDAISM. 23 
 
 emperor, A. D. 70. The expectation of a Mes- 
 siah is the distinguished feature of their religious 
 system. The word MESSIAH signifies one 
 anointed, or installed into an office by unction. 
 The Jews used to anoint their kings, high-priests, 
 and sometimes prophets, at their entering upon 
 office. Thus Saul, David, Solomon, and Joash, 
 kings of Judah, received the royal unction. Thus 
 also Aaron and his sons received the sacerdotal, 
 and Elisha, the disciple of Elijah, the prophetic 
 unction. 
 
 Christians believe that JESUS CHRIST is the 
 Messiah, in whom all the Jewish prophecies are 
 accomplished. The Jews, infatuated with the 
 idea of a temporal Messiah, who is to sub- 
 due the world, still wait for his appearance. 
 According to Buxtorf, (a professor of Hebrew, 
 and celebrated for rabbinical learning) some of 
 the modern rabbins believe that the Messiah is 
 already come, but that he will not manifest him- 
 self on account of the sins of the Jews. Others, 
 however, have had recourse to the hypothesis of 
 two Messiahs, who are to succeed each other 
 one in a state of humiliation and suffering the 
 other in a state of glory, magnificence, and 
 power. Be it however remembered, that in the 
 New Testament Jesus Christ assures us, in the 
 most explicit terms, that he is the Messiah. In 
 John iv. 25, the Samaritan, womau says to Jesus, 
 
 2
 
 1\ JUDAISM. 
 
 / know that Messias cometh which is called 
 Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all 
 things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak to 
 thee am HE. According to the prediction of 
 Jesus Christ, several impostors would assume 
 the title of Messiah : and accordingly such 
 persons have appeared. An history of " False 
 Messiahs" has been written by a Dutchman. 
 Barcochab was the first, who appeared in the 
 time of Adrian ; the second, in UJ66, was Sab- 
 bethai Levi, who turned Mahometan; and the 
 last was Rabbi Mordecai, who was talked of in 
 1682. 
 
 The Talmud is a collection of the doctrines 
 and morality of the Jews. They have two works 
 that bear this name; the first is called the Tal- 
 mud of Jerusalem ; and the other the Talmud of 
 Babylon. The former is shorter and more ob- 
 scure than that of Babylon, but is of an older 
 tlate. The Talmud compiled at Babylon the 
 Jews prefer to that of Jerusalem, as it is clearer 
 and more extensive. 
 
 The Jewish economy was certainly typical 
 of the Christian dispensation in many important 
 respects, but these types and antitypes have 
 been wretchedly abused. A curious instance 
 of this kind occurred about the time of the 
 reformation. Le Clerc has recorded it; and the 
 perusal of it must create a smile. The story is
 
 JUDAISM. 25 
 
 this : Two eminent Protestants, a Lutheran and 
 a Calvin 1st, had been wrangling a considerable 
 time about the precedency of their patriarchs, 
 without any seeming advantage; when the one 
 took it into his head to make Luther the antitype 
 of Aaron, seeing he was the first who had set 
 up and lighted the grand candlestick of the re- 
 formation in the tabernacle. The other not 
 being able to disprove the fact, had recourse to 
 the same typical reasoning, and affirmed that if 
 Luther was Aaron's antitype, upon that score, 
 Calvin was much more so, since it is manifest 
 that if he had not taken the snuffers in his hand 
 and snuffed the lamps, the candlestick would 
 have given so dim a light, that few people would 
 have been the better for it ! 
 
 The most remarkable periods in the history of 
 the Jews are, the call of Abraham, the giving of 
 the law by Moses, their establishment in Canaan 
 under Joshua, the building of the Temple by 
 Solomon, the division of the tribes, their cap- 
 tivity in Babylon, their return under Zerubbabel, 
 and the destruction of their city and temple by 
 the Emperor Titus. Their books of the Old 
 Testament are the most ancient and authentic 
 records extant. For further information respect- 
 ing Judaism, many publications may be con- 
 sulted, See the writings of Josephus, their 
 famous .historian, of which there are several 
 c
 
 4,6 JUDAISM. 
 
 translations in our language Dr. Jenning's two 
 volumes of Jewish Antiquities, Dr. Shaw's Phi- 
 losophy of Judaism, and the late Mr. David 
 Levi's Ceremonies of the Jewish Religion. 
 
 I shall conclude this article of the Jews, with 
 remarking that the late indefatigable Dr. Priestley 
 addressed them some years ago with spirit, and 
 the above Mr. Levi, a learned Jew, has replied. 
 An excellent , Address, however, to the Jens, 
 has since come from the same pen, dated North- 
 umberland, America, October I, 1799- It con- 
 cludes in the following pointed manner : " I for- 
 merly took the liberty to address you, and had 
 the happiness to find you were satisfied that I 
 wrote from the purest motives, and a sincere 
 respect and good-will to your nation. Having 
 then advanced all that I thought necessary for 
 the purpose, I shall not repeat it here. But I 
 cannot help observing, that though one of your 
 nation, a person whom I well know and respect, 
 replied to me, he did not undertake to refute my 
 principal argument, viz. that from Historical 
 Evidence. He did not pretend to point out any 
 defect in the arguments that I advanced, for 
 JESUS having wrought real miracles, for his hav- 
 ing died, and having risen from the dead. And 
 if the gospel history of those facts be true, what- 
 ever may be objected to Christianity on other 
 accounts, the divine mission will be unquestion-
 
 JUDAISM. $7 
 
 able. God would never have suffered any per- 
 son pretending to have come from him, to impose 
 upon your nation and the whole world in so egre- 
 gious a manner as Jesus must have done, if he 
 had been an impostor. Would God have raised 
 an impostorto life, after a public execution ? And 
 yet in my discourse on that subject, I have shewn 
 that this one fact has the most convincing evi- 
 dence that any fact of the kind could possibly 
 have. If you attentively consider the character 
 of Jesus, his great simplicity, his piety, his bene- 
 volence, and every other virtue, you must be 
 satisfied that he was incapable of imposture. 
 Compare his character and conduct with that of 
 Mahomet, or any other known impostor, and 
 this argument of the internal kind must strike 
 you in a forcible manner. Besides, how was it 
 possible for such a religion as the Christian, 
 preached by persons in low stations, without the 
 advantage of a leained. education, to have esta- 
 blished itself in the world, opposed as it was by 
 every obstacle that could be thrown in its way, 
 if it had not been supported by truth and the 
 God of truth ? The belief of your nation in. 
 general, has answered an important purpose in, 
 the plan of Divine Providence, as nothing else 
 could have given so much satisfaction, that Chris- 
 tianity received no aid from civil government, 
 and that the books of your scriptures are genuine.
 
 28' CHINESE RELIGION. 
 
 writings, not imposed on the world by Chris- 
 tians. But this great end being now completely 
 answered by the continuance of your incredulity 
 for such a length of time, I hope the time is ap- 
 proaching, when, as the apostle says, Rom. xi. 26, 
 All Israel will be saved, an event which will be 
 followed by the conversion of the Gentiles in 
 general. Your restoration cannot fail to con- 
 vince the world of the truth of your religion ; 
 and in those circumstances, your conversion to 
 Christianity cannot fail to draw after it that of 
 the whole world I" In the Spectator, No. 495, 
 Addison has given a' paper on the history of the 
 Jews, written with his accustomed ingenuity and 
 piety. See also a Discourse lately preached on 
 the Conversion of the Jews, by the Rev. D. 
 Bogue, before the Missionary Society, 
 
 CHINESE RELIGION. 
 
 THE Chinese religion is involved in great mys- 
 tery. Father Amiot, after the most assiduous re- 
 searches on the subject, comes to this conclusion : 
 *' The Chmese (says he) are a distinct people, who 
 have still preserved the characteristic marks of 
 their first origin ; a people whose primitive doc- 
 trine will be found, by those who take the trou*
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ble of investigating it thoroughly, to agree in its 
 essential part with the doctrine of the chosen 
 people, before Moses, by the command of God 
 himself, had consigned the explanation of it to 
 the sacred records ; a people, in a word, whose 
 traditional knowledge, when freed from whatever 
 the ignorance or the superstition of later ages has 
 added to it, may be traced back from age to age, 
 and from epocha to epocha, without interruption, 
 for the space of four thousand years, even to the 
 renewal of the human race by the grandson of 
 Noah." The King, or canonical book of the 
 Chinese, every where inculcates the belief of a 
 Supreme Being, the author and preserver of all 
 things. Their great philosopher Confucius lived 
 about five hundred years before our Saviour's 
 birth, and to this day each town has a place con- 
 secrated to his memory. See the late Sir George 
 Stauntun's Embassy, where much information is 
 given respecting their religion. Amongst other 
 particulars, it is mentioned, that the Chinese have 
 no religious establishment. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY (to which Judaism was in- 
 troductory) is the last and most perfect dispen- 
 sation of revealed religion with which God hath 
 favoured the human race. It was instituted by 
 c 3
 
 .'>() CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, who made his 
 appearance in Judea near two thousand years 
 ago. He was born at Bethlehem, brought up at 
 Nazareth, and crucified at Jerusalem. His lineage, 
 birth, life, death, and sufferings, were minutely 
 predicted by a succession of the Jewish prophets, 
 and his religion is now spread over a considerable 
 portion of the globe. The evixlences of the Chris- 
 tian religion are comprised under historical testi- 
 mony, prophecies, miracles, the internal evidence 
 of its doctrines and precepts, and the rapidity of 
 its first propagation among the Jews and the Gen- 
 tiles. Though thinking Christians have in every 
 age differed widely respecting some of the doc- 
 trines of this religion, yet they are fully agreed 
 in the divinity of its origin, and in the benevo- 
 lence of its tendency. 
 
 Brief representations of the Christian religion, 
 shall be transcribed both from the writings of 
 churchmen and Dissenters, well deserving of at- 
 tention. 
 
 Bishop Gibson-, in his second Pastoral Letter, 
 observes " It will appear that the several deno- 
 minationsof Christians agree both in the substance 
 of religion and in the necessary enforcements of 
 the practice of it : that the world and all things 
 in it were created by God, and are under the di- 
 rection and government of his all-powerful hand 
 and all-seeing eye ; that there is an essential dif-
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ference between good and evil, virtue and vice; 
 that there will be a state of future rewards and 
 punishments, according to our behaviour in this 
 life; that Christ was a teacher sent from God, 
 and that his apostles were divinely inspired ; that 
 all Christians are bound to declare and profess 
 themselves to be his disciples ; that not only the 
 exercise of the several virtues, but also a belief 
 in Christ is necessary, in order to their obtaining 
 the pardon of sin, the favour of God, and eternal 
 life; that Ihe worship of God is to be performed 
 chiefly by the heart in prayers, praisis, and 
 thanksgivings; and as to all other poiots, that 
 they are bound to live by the rules which Christ 
 and his apostles have left them in the holy scrip- 
 tures. Here then is a fixed, certain, and uniform 
 rule of faith and practice, containing all the most 
 necessary points of religion, established by a di- 
 vine sanction, embraced as such by ALL denomi- 
 nations of Christians, and in it&etf abundantly 
 sufficient to preserve the knowledge and practice of 
 religion in the world* " 
 
 * Some curious particulars respecting the religion of the Ilin- 
 doot in the Fast Indies, communicated in the Asiatic Researches 
 seems to indicate that it is a corruption of the Christian religion. 
 How far the resemblance holds, the reader of the Asiatic Re- 
 searches must form Ins own judgment. That celebrated work 
 was published under the ins, ection of the Jate Sir W. Jones. Tbe 
 reader should also consult Maurice's Im!i,in Antiquities, in whicb 
 
 c 4
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Dr. Sherlock (who succeeded Dr. Gibson as 
 Bishop of London) expresses himself much to the 
 same purpose in the first volume of his Sermons. 
 Observing that the books of the New Testament 
 may be considered as either historical, as doctri- 
 nal, or as controversial, and some as a mixture 
 of the two last, he thus proceeds : " by the 
 doctrinal we understand those matters of faith and 
 rules of duty which do not regard this or that par- 
 ticular faith, but were intended for the use of the 
 world, and are to continue to the end of it, Aud 
 if there be a clear law, and clearly expressed in 
 the world, this is the law. Can word* more 
 clearly express the honour and worship- we are to 
 pay to God, or can more familiar expressions be 
 given in this case than are to be found in the gos- 
 pel? Is not idolatry clearly condemned in the 
 gospel ? Is there any thing relating to divine wor- 
 ship that we yet want instructing in ? Are not the 
 duties likewise which we owe to each other made 
 evident and plain ; and can there be any dispute 
 about them, except what arises from lust, or ava- 
 rice, or other self-interest? As to the peculiar 
 
 perfoiinance the author discovers a profound acquaintance with 
 Oriental literature. See, likewise, Tennaxfs Recreations, a work 
 full of curious information on the subject of India, both as to its 
 morals and its religion. Some singular specimens of Egyptian 
 antiquities are deposited in the British Museum, which may still 
 further illustrate the religion of the Eastern nations of the world.
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 33 
 
 benefits of the gospel, are they not declared with- 
 out obscurity ? Can you read the gospel, and 
 doubt whether Christ died for you ? Whether 
 God will grant pardon to the penitent, or his as- 
 sistance to those who ask it? whether he will re- 
 ward all such in glory who continue the faithful 
 disciples of his Son ? What other revelation do 
 we want or can we desire, in these great and 
 weighty concerns ? or what is there zcartting to 
 make up a complete system of religion ?" 
 
 The immortal Locke also observes " Who- 
 ever would attain to a true knowledge of the 
 Christian religion, in the full and just extent of 
 it, let him study the holy scriptures, especially 
 the New Testament, wherein are contained the 
 words of eternal life. It has God for its author, 
 salvation for its end, and truth, without any 
 mixture of error, for its matter." Even Rous- 
 seau confessed himself struck with the majesty 
 of the scriptures, the purity of the gospel, and 
 the character of Jesus Christ. See the late JDr, 
 Gerard's Dissertations on the Internal Evidence of 
 Christianity, and also Dr. Craig's Life of Christ., 
 written with great good sense and simplicity. : 
 
 Many of the serious friends-of Christianity are 
 alarmed at the progress of Atheism and Deism, 
 both at home and abroad. But let not the friends 
 of truth be discouraged: That revealed (as well 
 as natural) religion is encumbered with. difficul- 
 e 5
 
 34 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ties, has never been denied; and this trait will, 
 with a considerate mind, he construed into a 
 presumptive proof of its authenticity. " It 
 would be a miracle (says Dr. Watson, the pre- 
 sent Bishop of Landaff) greater than any we are 
 instructed to believe, if there remained no diffi- 
 culties; if a being with but five scanty inlets of 
 knowledge, separated but yesterday from his 
 mother earth, and to-day sinking again into her 
 bosom, could fathom the depths of the wisdom 
 and knowledge of Him, which is, which was, and 
 which is to come the Lord God Almighty, to 
 whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever ! 
 We live in a dissolute but enlightened age : tbe 
 restraints of our religion are ill suited to the pro- 
 fligacy of our manners ; and men are soon in- 
 duced to believe that system to be false which 
 they wish to find so : that knowledge, moreover, 
 which spurns with contempt the illusions of fa- 
 naticism, and the tyranny of superstition, is often 
 unhappily misemployed in magnifying every lit- 
 tle difficulty attending the proof of the truth of 
 Christianity, into an irrefragable argument of its 
 falsehood. The CHRISTIAN RELIGION has no- 
 thing to apprehend from the strictest investiga- 
 .tlon of the most learned of its adversaries ; it 
 suffers oal} from- tbe misconceptions of sciolists 
 and silly pretenders to superior wisdom : a little 
 learning is far more dangerous to the faith of
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 33 
 
 those who possess it than ignorance itself. Some 
 I know affect to believe, that as the restoration 
 of letters was ruinous to the Romish religion, so 
 the further cultivation of them will be subversive 
 of Christianity itself: of this there is no danger. 
 It may be subversive of the reliques of the church 
 of Rome, by which other churches are still pol- 
 luted ; of persecutions, of anathemas, of ecclesi- 
 astical domination over God's heritage, of all the 
 silly out-works which the pride, the superstition, 
 and the knavery of mankind have erected around 
 the citadel of our faith; but the CITADEL itself 
 is founded on a rock, the gates of hell cannot 
 prevail against it its master-builder is God ; its 
 beauty will be found ineffable, and its strength 
 impregnable, when it shall be freed from the 
 frippery of human ornaments, and cleared from 
 the rubbish of human bulwarks*." 
 
 The excellent Dr. Doddridge also thus happily 
 expresses himself on the subject : " The came 
 of Christianity has greatly gained by debate, and 
 the gospel comes like Jin e gold out of the fur- 
 nace, which the more it is tried the more it is 
 approved. I own the defenders of the gospel 
 
 * This prelate has published two Sermons in defence of Repealed 
 Religion, together with some Charge.*, well worthy of perusal. 
 -Jlis discourse before the London Hospital, May, 1800, couta'ms 
 popular illustration of tie evidencts of Christlauity* 
 
 cO
 
 36 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 have appeared with very different degrees of 
 ability for the work, nor could it be otherwise 
 amongst such numbers of them ; but on the 
 whole, though the patrons of infidelity have 
 been masters of some wit, humour, and address, 
 as well as of a moderate share of learning, and 
 generally of much more than a moderate share 
 of assurance, yet so great is the force of truth, 
 that (unless we may except those writers, who 
 have unhappily called for the aid of the civil 
 magistrate in the controversy) I cannot recollect 
 that I have seen any defence of the gospel, which 
 has not on the whole been sufficient to establish 
 it, notwithstanding all the sophistical arguments 
 of its most subtle antagonists. This is an obser- 
 vation which is continually gaining new strength, 
 as new. assaults are made upon the gospel. And 
 I cannot forbear saying, that as if it were by a 
 }i\nd of judicial infatuation, some who have dis- 
 tinguished themselves in the wretched cause of 
 infidelity, have been permitted to fall into such 
 gross misrepresentations, such senseless incon- 
 sistencies, and such palpable falsehoods, and in 
 a word, into such various and malignant super- 
 fluity of naughtiness, that to a wise and pious 
 mind, they must appear like those venomous 
 creatures, which are said to carry an antidote in 
 their bowels against their own poison. A virtu- 
 ous and well-bred Deist must turn away from
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 37 
 
 some pieces of this kind with scorn and abhor- 
 rence ; and a Christian might almost be tempted 
 to wish that the books, with all their scandals 
 about them, might be transmitted to posterity, 
 lest when they come to live, like the writings of 
 some of the ancient heathens, only in those of 
 their learned and pious answerers, it should hard- 
 ly be credited that ever the enemies of the gospel, 
 in such an enlightened age, should be capable of 
 so much impiety and folly." 
 
 Finally, to use the words of the late ingenious 
 Mr. Clarke, in his answer to the question, Why 
 are you .a Christian? " Not because I was born 
 in a Christian country, and educated in Christian 
 principles ; not because I find the illustrious Ba- 
 con, Boyle, Locke, Clarke, and Newton, among 
 the professors and defenders of Christianity ; nor 
 merely because the system itself is so admirably 
 calculated to mend and exalt human nalure, but 
 because the evidence accompanying the gospel 
 has convinced me of its truth. The secondary 
 causes assigned by unbelievers do not, in my judg- 
 ment, account for the rise, progress, and early 
 triumphs of the Christian religion. Upon the 
 principles of scepticism, I perceive an effect 
 without an adequate cause. I therefore stand 
 acquitted to my own reason, though I continue 
 to believe and profess the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 Arguing from effects to causes, 1 think I have 
 
 a
 
 38 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 philosophy on my side. And reduced to a choice 
 of difficulties, I encounter not so many in admit- 
 ting the miracles ascribed to the Saviour, as in 
 the arbitrary suppositions and conjectures of his 
 enemies. 
 
 " That there once existed such a person as 
 JESUS CHRIST ; that he appeared in Judea in the 
 reign of Tiberius ; that he taught a system of 
 morals superior to any inculcated in the Jewish 
 .schools ; that he was crucified at Jerusalem ; and 
 that Pontius Pilate >vas the Roman governor, by 
 whose sentence he was condemned and executed, 
 are facts which no one can reasonably call in 
 question. The most inveterate Deists admit 
 them without difficulty. And, indeed, to dispute 
 these facts, would be giving the lie to all history. 
 As well might we deny the existence of Cicero 
 as of a person by the name of Jesus Christ. And 
 with equal propriety might we call in question 
 the orations of the former as the discourses of the 
 latter. \Ve are morally certain that the one en- 
 tertained the Romans with his eloquence, and 
 that the other enlightened the Jews with his wis- 
 dom. But it is unnecessary to labour these points, 
 because they are generally conceded. They who 
 affect to despise the Evangelists aixl Apostles, 
 profess to reverence Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny. 
 And these eminent Romans bear testimony to 
 several particulars which relate to the person of
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 39 
 
 Jesus Christ, his influence as the founder of a 
 sect, and his crucifixion. From a deference to 
 human authority, all therefore acknowledge that 
 theChristian religion derived its name from Jesus 
 Christ. And many are so just to its merits, as to 
 admit that he taught better than Confucius, and 
 practised better than Socrates or Plato. But I 
 confess my creed embraces many more articles. I 
 believe that Jesus Christ was not only a teacher 
 of virtue, but that he had n special commission to 
 
 teach. I believe that his doctrines are not the 
 works of human reason, but of divine communi- 
 cation to mankind. I believe that he was au- 
 thorized by God to proclaim forgiveness to the 
 penitent, and to reveal a slate of immortal glory 
 and blessedness to those who fear God and work 
 righteousness. I believe, in short, the whole 
 
 .Evangelical history, and of consequence the di- 
 vine original of Christianity, and the sacred au- 
 thority of the gospel. Others may reject these 
 things as the fictions of humour, art, or policy; 
 but I assent to them from a full conviction of 
 their truth. The objections of infidelity have 
 sften. shocked my feelings, but have never yet 
 shaken my faith. 
 
 " To come then to the question WHY ARE 
 YOU A CHRISTIAN ? I answer, because the 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION carries with it intern;! 
 marks of its truth ; because, not only without the
 
 40 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 aid, but in opposition to the civil authority, in 
 opposition to the wit, the argument, and insolence 
 of its enemies, it made its way, and gained an 
 establishment in the world ; because it exhibited 
 the accomplishment of some prophecies, and pre- 
 sents others, which have been since fulfilled ; 
 and because its author displayed an example, 
 and performed works, which bespeak not merely 
 a superior, but a divine character. Upon these 
 several facts I ground my belief as a CHRISTIAN. 
 And till the evidence on which they rest can be 
 invalidated by counter-evidence, I must retain 
 my principles and my profession." 
 
 These extracts from Sherlock, Gibson, Locke, 
 Watson, Doddridge, and Clarke have been here 
 selected, because they serve to illustrate in a few 
 words both the nature and evidences of Christi- 
 anity. Thus says an ingenious writer, the Rev. 
 Robert Hall, late of Cambridge : " When at the 
 distance of more than half a century Christianity 
 was assaulted by a Woolston, a Tindal, and a 
 Morgan, it was ably supported both by clergymen 
 of the established church and writers amongst 
 Protestant Dissenters ; the labours of a Clarke 
 and a Butler were associated with those of a 
 Doddridge, a Leland, and a Lardner, with such 
 equal reputation and success, as to make it evi- 
 dent that the intrinsic excellence of religion needs 
 not the aid of external appendages ; that with or
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 41 
 
 without a dowry, her charms are of equal force to 
 fix and eng*ige the heart." 
 
 It would, however, be as useless as it is im- 
 possible, to refer the reader to all the principal 
 treatises which have been written at different 
 periods for the defence and illustration of the 
 Christian religion. But a few ought to be men- 
 tioned in justice to the subject ; and those alone 
 shall be specified which are the easiest of access. 
 The student may therefore consult Lardner's Cre- 
 dibility, Watson's Theological Tracts, Priestley*! 
 Institute* of Natural and Revealed Religion, 
 flutter's Analogy, and both Maitby's Illustra- 
 tions and Paley's View of the Evidence* of Chris- 
 tianity. For the use of private Christians, take 
 Doddridge'i Three Sermons on the Evidences 
 of the Christian Religion, Plain Reasons for 
 being a Christian, and an answer to the ques- 
 tion, Why are you a Christian, by an American 
 divine, but reprinted in this country. Nor can 
 it be improper here to mention a small piece pub- 
 lished by Mr. Richard Allchin, of Maidstone, 
 entitled A Familiar Address to young Persons 
 on the Tridh and Importance of Christianity. 
 The substance of volumes is comprised within 
 about thirty pages, drawn up with neatness and 
 simplicity. And solemnly doth it concern both 
 ministers and parents, as they are accountable at 
 the tribunal of Heaven, to furnish the
 
 MAHOMETAN1SM. 
 
 GENERATION with religions principles, which, 
 by operating on the springs of human conduct, 
 will insure their temporal and eternal felicity. 
 
 MAHOMETANISM. 
 
 MAHOMETANISM is the religion of Maho- 
 met, who was born in 571, at Mecca, a city of 
 Arabia, and died at Medina 631. His system is a 
 compound of Paganism, Judaism, and Christian- 
 ity ; and the Koran, which is their Bible, is held 
 in great reverence. It is replete with absurd repre- 
 sentations, and is supposed to have been written 
 by a Jew. The most eloquent passage is allowed to 
 be the following, where God is introduced, bid- 
 ding the waters of the deluge to cease : " Earth, 
 swallow up the waters ; heaven, draw up those 
 thou hast poured out : immediately the waters 
 retreated, the command of God was obeyed, the 
 ark rested on the mountains, and these words 
 iwfie heard Woe to the tricked !" Lust, ambi- 
 tion, and cruelty, are the most prominent traits 
 in Mahomet's conduct; and Voltaire has written 
 a fine tragedy on this subject. The great doctrine 
 of the Koran is the unity of God, which, together 
 with the mission of Christ, is strongly insisted 
 upon by the prophet. Indeed he persuaded his 
 followers that he was the Farac/ete, or comforter
 
 M AHOMETANISM. 43 
 
 which Christ had promised his disciples. In this 
 respect the Mahometan religion constitutes a, 
 powerful collateral proof of the truth of Chris- 
 tianity. Nor has this circumstance, suggested 
 to me by a worthy friend, been sufficiently con- 
 sidered by Christians. Thus we may extract 
 good from evil, and it is our duty to avail our- 
 selves of every thing which tends to augment 
 the evidences of our holy religion. Dean Pri- 
 deaux hath largely proved, in his letter to Deists, 
 that there are seven marks of an imposture; that 
 these all belong to Mahometan ism, and that not 
 one of them can be charged on Christianity. 
 See Sale's Koran, Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, 
 Dr. White's Sermons at the Bampton Lecture, 
 and Dr. Toulmin's Dissertations on the Internal 
 Evidence of Christianity, and on the Character 
 of Christ compared with that of other Founders 
 of Religion or Philosophy. Mr. Gibbon, in his 
 Roman History, gives the following curious spe- 
 cimen of Mahometan divinity ; for the prophet 
 propagated his religion by force of arms : " The 
 sword (saith Mahomet; is the key of heaven and 
 of hell ; a drop of blood shed in the cause of 
 God, or a night spent in arms, is of more avail 
 tbau two months of fasting or prayer. Whoso- 
 ever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven at the 
 clay of judgment ; his wounds shall be resplend- 
 ent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk, the
 
 44 MAHOMETAN ISM. 
 
 loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings 
 of angels and cherubims." 
 
 Mr. Clarke, in his answer to the question, Why 
 are you a Christian'? already mentioned, has these 
 just observations on Mahometanism : " I never 
 wondered that the attempts of Mahomet to esta- 
 blish his religion were crowned with success. 
 When I peruse the Koran, and examine the ma- 
 terials of which it is composed ; when I observe 
 liow much the work is indebted to the Jewish 
 and Christian revelations ; when I survey the 
 particular purt which Mahomet or his agents sup* 
 plied ; when I see with how much art the whole 
 is accommodated to the opinions and habits of 
 the Jews, Christians and Pagans; when I consi- 
 der what indulgeneies it grants, and what future 
 scenes it unfolds; when I advert to the peculiar 
 circumstances of the times, when its author 
 formed the vast design of assuming the royal 
 and prophetic character; and more than all, 
 when I contemplate the reformer at the head of 
 a conquering army, the Koran in one hand, and 
 in the other a sword, I cannot be surprised at 
 the civil and religious revolution which has im- 
 mortalized his name. With his advantages, hovr 
 could he fail of success ? Every thing favoured 
 the enterprise. The nations beheld a military 
 apostle. And they who were unconvinced by his 
 arguments, trembled at his sword!"
 
 MAHOMETANISM. 45 
 
 Mahomelanism distributes itself into two ge- 
 neral parts, Faith and Practice ; the former 
 containing six branches belief in God; in his 
 angels j in his scriptures; in his prophets; in 
 ther esurrection and final judgment; in the di- 
 vine decrees: the latter relating to prayer with 
 washing; alms; fasting; pilgrimage to Mecca, 
 and circumcision. Indeed the system of Ma- 
 homet has no symmetry or beauty of parts ; it 
 is an heterogenous compound of the various re- 
 ligions then existing, and artfully accommodated 
 to the prejudices and passions of the Eastern re- 
 gions of the world. 
 
 HAVING given this preliminary account of 
 Atheism, Deism, Theophilanthropism, Judaism, the 
 Chinese religion, Christianity, and Mahomet anism, 
 we now proceed to the DENOMINATIONS of the 
 Christian world. In the first ages of Christianity 
 there were various sects, which have long ago 
 sunk into oblivion, and whose names therefore 
 exist only in the pages of ecclesiastical history. 
 It is not our purpose even to glance at these an- 
 cient sects, but only briefly to notice those which 
 in the present day attract our attention. The most 
 distinguished may be included under the follow- 
 ing threefold arrangement ; Opinions respecting
 
 46 TRINITARIANS. 
 
 the person of Christ; respecting the means and 
 measure of God's favour ; and respecting Church 
 government, and the administration of ceremo- 
 nies. ' 
 
 I. 
 
 OPINIONS RESPECTING THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 
 
 JESUS Christ being the medium by \vhich 
 the .Deity hath imparted a knowledge of his will 
 to mankind, the person of Christ has been eagerly 
 investigated, and the nature of God rendered the 
 subject of rude and unhallowed controversy. 
 This has filled the religious world with violent 
 contentions, nor are they likely to be brought 
 speedily to a termination. In the mean time, it 
 would become us to discuss this topic with mo- 
 desty and humility. It is, however, my present 
 province to state the existing opinions respecting 
 this abstruse subject; it shall be done in a few 
 words, and I hope with accuracy. 
 
 TRINITARIANS. 
 
 THE Trinitarians believe the doctrine of a 
 Trinity, by which is generally understood, that 
 there are three distinct persons in one undivided 
 Godhead the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 
 4
 
 ATH AN ASIANS. 4? 
 
 Ghost. The word Trinity is not to be found in 
 the Bible, but is a scholastic term, derived from 
 the Latin word Trinitas, denoting a threefold 
 unity. Calvin himself reprobates the term, a5 
 being barbarous, and of human invention. The 
 most learned writers entertain such various and 
 contradictory sentiments respecting this mystery, 
 that it is difficult to know to whom the term Tri- 
 nitarians is justly applicable. Waterland, Howe, 
 Sherlock, Pearson, Burnet, Beveridge, \Vallis, 
 and Watts, have each of them separate opinions 
 on this subject. Some think Trinitarians reduci- 
 ble to two classes ; those who believe that there 
 is no proper divinity in Christ, beside that of the 
 Father; and the class of Tritheists, who main- 
 tain that there are three equal and distinct Gods. 
 This representation, however, has been called in 
 question by the opposite party ; but, the truth is, 
 that being professedly a mystery, there appear to 
 be no definite ideas on the subject. 
 
 ATIIANASIANS. 
 
 NEARLY allied to this latter class are the 
 Athanasiam, a name derived from Athanasius, 
 a father of the Christian church, who lived in 
 the fourth century. The creed which bears his 
 name in- the Common Prayer-Book, is not of
 
 48 ATHANASIANS. 
 
 his composition ; and so little attached was Arch- 
 bishop Tillotson to it, that in writing to Dr. Bur- 
 net, the historian, he says, " I wish we were 
 well rid of it." The episcopal church in Ame- 
 rica has rejected it. Were the account of the 
 doctrine of the Trinity contained in this creed 
 ever so just and satisfactory, yet its damnatory 
 clauses are highly exceptionable, and have given 
 just offence to some of the more sensible and 
 worthy members of the established church. On 
 this subject, Dr. Prettyman, in his Elements, 
 speaks with candour and moderation : " Great 
 objection has been made to the clauses of this 
 creed, which denounce eternal damnation against 
 those who do not believe the Catholic faith, as 
 here stated ; and it certainly is to be lamented, 
 that assertions of so peremptory a nature, unex- 
 plained and unqualified, should have been used 
 in any human composition." The prelate then 
 endeavours to account for the introduction of 
 such clauses into the creed ; and then adds, 
 " We know that different persons have deduced 
 different and even opposite doctrines from the 
 words of scripture, and consequently there must 
 be many errors among Christians ; but since the 
 gospel no where informs us, what degree of error 
 will exclude from eternal bappiness, I am ready 
 to acknowledge that, in my judgment, notwith- 
 standing the authority of former times, our church
 
 ATHANASIANS. 4$ 
 
 would have acted more wisely and more consist- 
 ently with the general principles of mildness and 
 toleration, if' it had not adopted the damnatory 
 clauses of the Athanasian creed ! Though I 
 firmly believe, that the doctrines of this creed 
 are all founded in Scripture, I cannot but conceive 
 it to be both unnecessary and presumptuous to 
 say, that "except every one do keep them whole 
 and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish 
 everlastingly." 
 
 Mr. Broughton, in his Dictionary of all Re- 
 ligions, under the article Trinity, has the fol- 
 lowing paragraph, which may assist the reader 
 on this most abstruse subject: " The doctrine 
 of the TRINITY, as professed in the Christian, 
 church, is briefly this: that there is ONE GOD in 
 THUEE distinct PERSONS, FATHER, SoN,and HO- 
 LY GHOST; person signifying here the same as 
 essence, with a particular manner of subsistence, 
 which the Greek lathers called hypostasis, taking 
 it for the incommunicable property that makes a 
 person. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are 
 believed to be three distinct persons in the di- 
 vine nature; because the Holy Scriptures, in 
 speaking of these three, so distinguish them from 
 one another, as we use in common speech to 
 distinguish three severa/ persons. There are many 
 instances to this purpose, particularly the form 
 of administenng.the sacrament of baptism, which 
 
 D
 
 50 ATHANASIANS. 
 
 runs, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost; and that solemn benediction with 
 which St. Paul concludes his second epistle to 
 the Corinthians : The Grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, Sac. And the three Witnesses in heaven, 
 mentioned by St. John*. 
 
 " Each of these three persons is affirmed to be 
 GOD, because the names, properties, and ope- 
 rations of God, are in the Holy Scriptures attri- 
 buted to each of them. The divinity of the 
 Father is out of the question. That of the Son 
 is proved from the following texts, among many 
 others: St. John says, The word was God: St. 
 Paul, that God was manifested in the^Jiesh ; that 
 Christ is over all, God blessed for ever. Eternity 
 is attributed to the Son : The Son hath life in 
 himself. Perfection of knowledge As the Father 
 knoweth me, so know I the Father. The Creation 
 of all things All things were made by him, and 
 without him was not any thing made that was made. 
 And we are commanded to honour the Son as we 
 honour the Father. The divinity of the Holy 
 Ghost rests upon the following proofs, among 
 others '.Lying to the Holy t Ghost is called lying to 
 
 * This passage has for some time been deemed an interpolation, 
 snd Dr. Prettyman gives it up in his Elements of Theology. Mr. 
 Person, a profound Greek scholar (now librarian to the London 
 Institution) has, it is thought, in his controversy with Archdeacon 
 l>a?is, settled the subject.
 
 ATHANASIANS. 51 
 
 God. Because Christians are the temples of the 
 Holy Ghost, they are said to be the temples of 
 God. His teaching all things, his guiding into 
 all truth, his telling things to come, his searching 
 all things, even the deep things of God, 8cc. are 
 alledged as plain characters of his divinity. Be- 
 sides, he is joined with God the Father, as an 
 object of faith and worship, in baptism and the 
 apostolical benediction. This doctrine is called 
 a mystery, because we are not able to compre- 
 hend the particular manner of existence of the 
 three persons in the Divine Nature." Dr. Jere- 
 miah Taylor remarks with great piety, that " He 
 who goes ^bout to speak of the mystery of the 
 Trinity, and does it by words and names of man's 
 invention, talking of essences and existences, hy- 
 postases and personalities, priorities in co-equali- 
 ties, and unity in pluralities, may amuse himself 
 and build a tabernacle in his head, and talk some- 
 thing he knows not what ; but the good man, 
 who feels the power of the Father, and to whom 
 the Son is become wisdom, sanctification, and 
 redemption, in whose heart the love of the Spi- 
 rit of God is shed abroad this man, though he 
 understands nothing of what is unintelligible, yet 
 he alone truly understands the Christian doctrine 
 of the Trinity." 
 
 It were well, if before we made up our minds 
 on this intricate article of faith, WG were care-
 
 ATHANASIANS. 
 
 fully to read Dr. Watts's tissay on the Impotence 
 of any Human Schemes to explain the Doctrine, of 
 the Trinity. This essay shews, first, that no such, 
 Scheme of explication is necessary to salvation ; 
 secondly, that it may yet be of great use to the 
 Christian church ; and, thirdly, that all such 
 explications ought to be proposed with modesty 
 to the world, and never imposed on the con- 
 science. 
 
 Bishop Burnet tells us, that before the Refor- 
 mation it was usual in England to have pictures 
 of the Trinity. God the Father was represented 
 in the shape of an old man with a triple crown, 
 and rays about his head! The Son, t in another 
 part of the picture, looked like a young man, 
 with a single crown on his head, and a r;idiajit 
 countenance. The blessed Virgin was between 
 them, in a sitting posture ; and the Holy Ghost, 
 under the appearance of a dove, spread his wings 
 over her ! This picture, he tells us, is still to he 
 seen in a prayer-book printed in the year J526, 
 according to the ceremonial of Salisbury. Skip- 
 pon also tells us, there is at Padua a representa- 
 tion of the Trinity, being the figure of an old 
 man with three faces and three beards! How 
 contrary are these absurd representations of the 
 .Deity to the sublime declaration of our Saviour! 
 John iv. 24. " God is a spirit, and they that wor- 
 ff shiji him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
 
 SABELLIANS. 53 
 
 SABELLIANS. 
 
 THE Sabellian reduces the three persons in 
 the Trinity to three characters or relations. This 
 has heen called by some a tiwdal Trinity, and 
 the persons who hold it Medalists. Sabellius, 
 the founder or the sect, espoused the doctrine in 
 the third century. Of his tenets, the accounts 
 are various. Some say, he taught, that the Fa- 
 ther, Son, and Holy Spirit, were one subsist- 
 ence, and one person, with three names ; and 
 that in the Old Testament the Deity delivered 
 the law as Father, in the New Testament dwelt 
 among men as the Son, and descended on the 
 apostles as the Holy Spirit. This opinion gains 
 ground in the principality of Wales. " The Sa- 
 bt-llians (says Mr. Broughton) made the Word 
 and the Holy Spirit to be only virtues, emana- 
 tions, or functions of the Deity. They held, 
 that he who in heaven is the Father of all things, 
 descended into the Virgin, became a child, and 
 
 was bora .of her as a Son ; and that having ac- 
 
 o 
 
 complished the mystery of our salvation, he 
 diffused himself on the apostles in tongues of 
 fire, and was then denominated the Holy Ghost. 
 They resembled God to the sun, the illuminative 
 virtue or quality whereof was the Word, and its 
 warming virtue the Holy Spirit. The word they 
 taught was darted like a divine ray, to accom- 
 D 3
 
 54 SABELLIANS. 
 
 plish the work of redemption ; and that being 
 re-ascended to heaven, as the ray returns to its 
 source, the warmth of the Father was commu- 
 nicated after a like manner to the apostles. Such 
 was the language of Sabellians." 
 
 Between the system of Sabellianism, and what 
 is termed the Indwelling scheme, there appears 
 to be a considerable resemblance, if it be not pre- 
 cisely the same, differently explained. The In- 
 dwelling scheme is chiefly founded on that pas- 
 sage of the New Testament, where the apostle, 
 speaking of Christ, says " In him dwelleth all 
 the fulness of the Godhead- bodily." Dr. Watts, 
 towards the close of his life, became a Sabellian, 
 and wrote several pieces in defence of it*. His 
 sentiments on the Trinity appear to have been, 
 that " the Godhead, the Deity itself, personally 
 distinguished as the Father, was united to the 
 man Christ Jesus, in consequence of which union 
 or indwelling of the Godhead, he became pro- 
 perly God." Mr. Palmer, in his useful edition 
 of Johnson's Life of Watts, observes that Dr. 
 
 * See Dr. Watts's Last Thoughts on the Trinity, in a pamphlet 
 republished by the Reverend Gabriel Watts, now of Chichester. 
 It was printed by the doctor in the year 1745, three years only 
 before his death. It is on this account highly valuable, and ought^ 
 in justice to that great and good man, to have been inserted in 
 the recent edition of his works. From this piece it appears that 
 Dr. Watts had discarded the common notion ef the Triuity
 
 ARIAN8. .55 
 
 Watts conceived this union to have subsisted be- 
 fore the Saviour's appearance in the flesh, and 
 that the human soul of Christ existed with the 
 Father from before the foundation of the world : 
 on which ground he maintains the real descent 
 of Christ from heaven to earth, and the whole 
 scene of his humiliation, which he thought in- 
 compatible with the common opinion concerning 
 him. Dr. Dodd ridge is supposed to have been 
 of these sentiments, and also Mr. Benjamin 
 Fawcet, of Kidderminster, who published a va- 
 luable piece, entitled Candid Reflections concern- 
 ing the Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 ARIANS. 
 
 THE Arian derives his name from Anus, a 
 presbyter of Alexandria, who flourished about 
 the year 315, and the propagation of whose doc- 
 trine occasioned the famous council of Nice, as- 
 sembled by Constantine, in the year 335. Arius 
 owned Christ to be God in a subordinate sense, 
 and considered his death to be a propitiation for 
 sin. The Arians acknowledge that the Son was 
 the word, though they deny its being eternal ; 
 contending, that it had only been created prior 
 to all other beings. Christ, say they, had no- 
 D4
 
 56 BRIANS. 
 
 thing of man in him, except the flesh, with 
 which the Logos, or word, spoken of hy the 
 apostle John, was united, which supplied the 
 rest* The Arians, though they deny that Christ 
 is the eternal God, yet they contend against the 
 Socinians for his pre-existence. His pre-exist- 
 ence they found on the two following passages, 
 among many others : BEFORE Abraham zvas 
 I am. And the prayer of Jesus " Glorify me 
 with that glory which I had with thee BLFORE 
 the world began. These and other texts of a 
 similar kind, are, in their opinion, irrefragable 
 proofs that Christ did actually exist in another 
 state before he was born of the Virgin Mary iri 
 the land of Judea. This matter has been argued 
 by various writers; and names of the first cha- 
 racter have distinguished themselves in the Arian 
 controversy. It has also been urged by the ad- 
 vocates of Arianism, that the pre-existent dignity 
 of Christ, accounts for that splendid apparatus 
 of prophecies and miracles, with which the mis- 
 sion of the Messiah was attended. In modern 
 times, the term Ariun is indiscriminately applied 
 to those who consider Jesus simply subordinate 
 to the Father. Some of them believe Christ to 
 have been the creator of the world ; but they 
 ALL maintain that he existed previous to his in- 
 carnation, though in his pre-existent state they
 
 ARIANS. 57 
 
 assign him different degrees of dignity. Hence 
 the appellation High and Low Arian. 
 
 That valuable practical writer, Mr. Job Orton, 
 though he never published any thing explicitly 
 on the Trinity, is supposed, during the latter 
 period of his life, to have entertained these sen- 
 timents of the person of Christ. He used to re- 
 commend the two following tracts, as having 1 
 given him the most satisfaction on that subject 
 A Sober and Charitable Disquisition on the Im- 
 portance of the Doctrine of the Trinity, by Simon 
 Brown; and An Essay towards a Demonstration 
 of the Scripture Trinity, by Dr. Scott : a new 
 edition of which has been just published by the 
 venerable Mr. Samuel Goadby. Of the system 
 of Arianism, Dr. Clarke, in his Scripture Doctrine 
 of the Trinity, Mr. Henry Taylor (for many 
 years vicar of Portsmouth) in his learned work 
 entitled Ben Mordecai's Apology, Mr. Tom kins, 
 in his Mediator, and Mr. Hopkins, in his Ap- 
 peal to the Common Sense of all Christian People, 
 have been deemed able advocates. Mr. Whis- 
 ton, the astronomer and translator of Josephus, 
 revived this controversy in the beginning of the 
 last century. Soon after, Dr. Clarke published 
 his celebrated treatise, entitled the Scripture 
 Doctrine of the Trinity, which was disapproved 
 of by the convocation, and .answered by Dr. 
 Waterlandj who had been charged with verging.
 
 58 AR1ANS. 
 
 towards Tritheism. " Erasmus (says the Ency- 
 clopredia Britannica) seemed to have aimed ia 
 some measure to restore Arianism at the begin- 
 ning of the 16th century, in his Commentaries 
 on the New Testament. Accordingly he was 
 reproached by his adversaries with Arian inter- 
 pretations and glosses, Arian tenets, &c. To 
 which he made little answer, save that there was 
 no heresy more thoroughly extinct than that of 
 the Arians." But Erasmus is known to have 
 been exceedingly timid in his disposition, and 
 confessed in one of his letters to a friend, that 
 he possessed not the spirit of a martyr. Of the 
 truth of this declaration, there were . many 
 proofs. 
 
 The history of the Arian controversy, in mo- 
 dern times, may be found in a pamphlet, entitled 
 " An account of all the considerable Books and 
 Pamphlets that have been wrote on either side,, 
 in the controversy concerning the Trinity,, from 
 the year 1712; in which is also contained an 
 Account of the Pamphlets written this last year 
 on each side by the Dissenters, to the end of the 
 year 1719:" published at London, 1720. 
 
 Thomas Emlyn, a pious and learned divine, 
 should be mentioned here, since he has been ren- 
 dered memorable for his sufferings in the cause 
 of Arianism. He was a. Dissenting minister in 
 Dublin, and there shamefully persecuted on ao
 
 ARIANS. 5<9 
 
 count of his religious sentiments. He rejected 
 the common notion of the Trinity, but firmly 
 maintained the pre-existence of Christ. He died 
 in London, 1741 ; and his works were published 
 by his son, an eminent counsellor, in three vo- 
 lumes ; to which are prefixed memoirs of the 
 author. 
 
 Dr. Price, in his sermons on the Christian 
 doctrine, has taken great pains in explaining and 
 defending the principles of Arianism. He states 
 at large the nature of the doctrine, and enume- 
 rates the advantages arising from it in the expli- 
 cation of the Scriptures. To these discourses, 
 the reader is referred, and whatever he may think 
 of the arguments urged in favour of that system, 
 he must admire the truly Christian spirit with 
 which they are written. The reader is also re- 
 ferred to a more recent work, entitled Lectures 
 on the Works of Creation and the Doctrines of 
 Revelation, by the Rev. B. Carpenter ; particu- 
 larly the second volume. 
 
 Some few Arians, and most of the present So- 
 cinians, add to their creed the doctrines of Ne- 
 cessity, Materialism, and Universal Restoration, 
 though these tenets are by no means peculiar to 
 themi Towards the close of this Sketch* will be 
 found ah explanation of Universal Restoration : 
 and some little account shall be here given ef 
 Necessity and Materialism.
 
 6o 
 
 NECESSARIANS. 
 
 NECESSARIANS. 
 
 THE doctrine of Necessity regards the origin 
 of human actions, and the specific mode of the 
 divine government. It teaches that all actions, 
 both good and bad, are strictly necessary thus 
 every circumstance cannot he otherwise than it 
 is throughout the creation of God. Much con- 
 troversy has there been on this abstruse sub- 
 ject. Collins, Priestley, and Crombie ; Palmer, 
 Price,, and Gregory, are authors who hare dis- 
 tinguished themselves in the controversy ; the 
 three former being for, and the three latter 
 against Necessity. The opponents of Necessity 
 strenuously maintain that it destroys all virtue 
 and vice ; whilst its advocates declare it to be 
 the most consistent mode of explaining the divine 
 government. It is not for us to determine, on 
 so profound a subject, where the truth Ires; and 
 it is remarkable, that the perplexity of the theme 
 harassed angelic minds, according to the repre- 
 sentation of Milton : 
 
 " Others apart, sat on a hill retirM, 
 " In thoughts more elevate, and reason 'd high, 
 " Of providence, fore-knowledge, will, and fate; 
 " Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute, 
 " And found no end in wandering mazes lost !" 
 
 To short- sigh ted mortals, with all their boasted 
 wisdom, the subject must appear dark, and in
 
 MATERIALISTS. 6l 
 
 many respects unfathomable. The solution of 
 such difficulties ought to be referred to a more 
 enlightened sphere of being ! Dr. Watts, indeed, 
 thinks it probable that it will constitute one of 
 the sublime employments of the blessed in the 
 heavenly world. 
 
 MATERIALISTS. 
 
 THE doctrine of Materialism respects ihe na- 
 ture of the human soul, and the peculiar mode 
 of its existence. It teaches that the soul is not 
 a principle independent of the body, but that it 
 results from the organization of the brain, though 
 in a manner which will not admit of explication. 
 This doctrine is thought by its advocates to be 
 not only more philosophical, but lo point out 
 more fully the necessity and value of a resur- 
 rection from the dead which is a leading doc- 
 trine of Christianity. Materialists deny any in- 
 termediate state of consciousness between death 
 and the resurrection. Drs. Price and Prjestley 
 had a friendly correspondence on this article; 
 and though Dr. Price was no materialist, yet he 
 did not hold with an intermediate state. Those 
 who deny the existence of an intermediate state, 
 are sometimes called Soul-sleepers. See Arch- 
 deacon Blackburn's Historical View of this Con-
 
 62 SOCINIANS. 
 
 troversy, and Dr. Law's Appendix to his Theory 
 of Natural and Revealed Ite/igion. The Light of 
 Nature Pursued, by Edward Search, Esq. is a 
 curious work relating to this subject, and has 
 been lately~republished, as well as an abridgment 
 of it. It contains ingenious illustrations : the 
 aulhor's real name was Tucker; he died in 1775. 
 Had not Necessity and Materialism been more 
 of a philosophical than of a theological nature, 
 they should have received a minuter explication. 
 Sufficient, it is hoped, has been said on these 
 subjects to give the reader some idea of the na- 
 ture and tendency of the controversy which has 
 been agitated respecting them. Those persons 
 who sit down to read treatises on such abstruse 
 topics will wretchedly waste their time, provided 
 they do not possess habits of close thought and) 
 attention. 
 
 SOCINIANS. 
 
 THE Sociuian takes his name from Faustus 
 Socinus, who died in Poland, 1604. There were 
 two who bore the name Socinus, uncle and ne- 
 phew, and both disseminated the same doctrine. 
 The Socinian asserts, that Christ had no exist- 
 ence until born of the Virgin Mary ; and that, 
 being a man like ourselves, though endowed with 
 a large portion of the divine wisdom, the 
 4
 
 SOCINIAN3. 
 
 objects of his mission were to teach the efficacy 
 of repentance without an atonement, as a me- 
 dium of the divine favour to exhibit an example 
 for our imitation to seal his doctrine with his 
 blood and, in his resurrection from the dead, to 
 indicate the certainty of our resurrection at the 
 last day. The simple humanity of Christ, which 
 forms a principal article of their creed, is founded 
 on passages of Scripture, where the Messiah is 
 spoken of as a MAN, particularly the following: 
 2 ACTS xxii. Ye men of Israel, hear these words, 
 Jesus of Nazareth, a MAN, approved of God 
 among you, &c.- 17 ACTS xxxi. Because he 
 hath appointed a day in the zvhich he will judge 
 the world in righteousness by that MAN, whom 
 he hath ordained, 8tc. 1 Tim. ii. v. There is 
 one God and one Mediator between God and men f 
 the MAN Christ Jesus. At the same time it must 
 be acknowledged that neither the Trinitarian, 
 nor Sabellian, nor Arian denies his humanity; 
 though they do not hold it in that exclusive and 
 simple sense of the word, for which the Socinian 
 contends. On this account it is, that the Soci- 
 nians have received, on some occasions, the ap- 
 pellation of Humanitarians. 
 
 Between. ancient and modern Socinians, how- 
 ever, a considerable difference obtains. The mi- 
 raculous conception, and the worship of Christ, 
 both allowed by Socinus, are rejected by most of
 
 64 5OGTN1ANS. 
 
 the modern Socinians. Dr. Priestley distinguished 
 himself in a controversy on this subject with Dr. 
 Horsley, the late bishop of St. Asaph. Dr. 
 Priestley had published his two principal theo- 
 logical works ; the one to prove that the first 
 Christians were Unitarians, entitled The History 
 of Early Opinions; the other to account for the 
 origin and spread of what is commonly called the 
 orthodox doctrine, entitled A History of the 
 Corruptions of Chris tit ianitij. On one or both 
 of these publications, the Bishop animadverted ; 
 and to these animadversions Dr. Priestley made 
 several replies. It is difficult to trace the origin 
 of the Socinian controversy. John Campanusis 
 said to be the first of the Reformers who distin- 
 guished himself on this side of the question. 
 Next Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician, 
 whom Calvin persecuted even to death ; for in 
 the year 1553 he was committed to the flames, 
 by persons who had themselves just escaped the 
 fangs of the Romish church, and who at least 
 had nominally erected the standard of religious 
 liberty. " It is impossible (says Dr. Maclaine/ 
 to justify the conduct of Calvin in the case of 
 Servetus, whose death will be an indelible re- 
 proach upon the character of that eminent Re- 
 former. The only thing that can be alledged, 
 not to deface, but to diminish his crime, is, that 
 it wa* no easy matter for him to divest himself at
 
 SOCINIANS. 65 
 
 once of that persecuting spirit which had been 
 so long nourished and strengthened by the Popish 
 religion, in which he was educated. It was a 
 remaining portion of the spirit of Popery in the 
 breast or' Calvin, that kindled this unchristian 
 zeal against the wretched Servetus." See the 
 Life of Servetus, just published by Mr. Richard 
 Wright of Wisbeach, where the tragedy is de- 
 tailed with all its circumstances of brutality. 
 Having -mentioned the persecution of Servetus 
 by Calvin, truth, on the other hand, requires it to 
 be mentioned, that Socinus has been accused of 
 persecuting Francis David, who, on account of 
 his rejecting the worship of Christ, was cast into 
 prison, where he died. The persecuting spirit, 
 discoverable in some of the Reformers, diminishes 
 the respectability of their characters; and the 
 only apology that can be made for them is, what 
 has been already mentioned, that the nature 
 and foundation of religious liberty were not then 
 fully understood. 
 
 The Socinians flourished greatly in Poland 
 about the year 13.51 ; and J. Siernienius, Palatine 
 of Podolia, built purposely for their use the city 
 ok Racow. A famous catechism was published 
 by them, called the Racovian Catechism ; and 
 their most able writers are known among the 
 learned by the title of the Poloncs Fratres, or 
 Polonian Brethren. " Their writings were (say*
 
 66 SOCIN1ANS. 
 
 Dr. Maclaine) rcpublished together in the year 
 1656, in one great collection, consisting of six 
 volumes in folio, under the title of Bibliotheca 
 Fratrum. There are, indeed, in this collection, 
 many pieces wanting, which were composed by 
 the most eminent, leaders of the sect; but what 
 is there brought together is nevertheless sufficient 
 to give the attentive reader a clear idea of the 
 doctrine of the Sociiiians, and of the nature of 
 their institution, as a religious community." An 
 account of these several authors, as well as of 
 the persecution of Francis David, will be found 
 in Dr. Toulmin's Life of Socinus. 
 
 But the Socinians have appropriated to them- 
 selves the appellation of Unitarians ; and by 
 this name they are now more generally distin- 
 guished. Though to this appellation they have 
 no exclusive claim, yet it is somewhat more cor- 
 rectly descriptive of their religious tenets than 
 that of Socinians, since they renounce many of 
 the opinions of Socinus. The Arians, if not 
 the Trinitarians, it must be remembered, are 
 equally strenuous for the divine unity, and to 
 deny this fact is an indication of bigotry. See 
 Lindsey's Historical f iew of Unit a nanism, Dr. 
 Toulmin's Life of Socinus, Hopton Hayne's 
 Scripture Account of the Attributes and Worship 
 of God, and of the Character and Oj/ices of Jesus 
 Christ, and Mr. Belsham's Answer to Mr. Wil-
 
 SOCINIANS. 67 
 
 berforce, where the modern Socinian tenets are 
 stated and defended. 
 
 The Trinitarians, Arians, and Socinians, have 
 also differed greatly respecting the personality of 
 the Holy Spirit. Much has been said on both 
 sides of this intricate question. Dr. Lardner's 
 Letter on the Logos may be consulted ; and also 
 Mr. Marsom's little piece, entitled the Imper- 
 sona/ity of the liolij Ghost, published in 1787, 
 and now about to be republished. In Dod- 
 dridge's Lectures much information is given 
 respecting this and almost every other article of 
 the Christian faith. Dr. Kippis, not long before 
 his death, published an edition of this valuable 
 work, with additions and improvements. The 
 private Christian, as well as the theological stu- 
 dent, will derive much knowledge from the at- 
 tentive perusal of it. 
 
 A note added to this publication by Dr. Kip- 
 pis, and applicable to this first division of reli- 
 gious opinions, is of so excellent a nature, that 
 I am tempted to transcribe it : " When it is 
 considered, how extremely difficult many ques- 
 tions in themselves are, and what different con- 
 clusions have been drawn concerning them by 
 men of the profoundest knowledge and deepest 
 reflection, there is a modest scepticism which it 
 will become young students to preserve, till time 
 shall have given them the opportunity of wider
 
 68 SOCJNIANS. 
 
 enquiry and larger observation. This remark 
 would not have been made, if instances had not 
 occurred, of youth who have eagerly, and even 
 arrogantly, adopted an hypothesis on one side or 
 the other, without sufficiently exercising that 
 patience of thinking, and that slow progress of 
 examination, which are likely to be the most 
 favourable to the acquisition of TRUTH.'* 
 
 II. 
 
 OPINIONS RESPECTING THE MEANS AND MEASURE OF GOD** 
 FAVOUR. 
 
 CHRISTIANS having ascertained the persoa 
 of Christ whether he be the eternal God or an 
 Angel possessing an existence previous to his 
 being born of the Virgin Mary or a mere Man? 
 under the guidance of inspiration next proceed 
 to consider the extent of the blessings of the Gos- 
 pel, and the manner in which they have been 
 conveyed to us. This circumstance, also, has 
 been the source of endless contentions. Peace 
 and charity have been not unfrequently lost in 
 the discussion of the subject, liven the Metho- 
 dists thraselves split into two great parties con- 
 cerning it, and the controversy between their re- 
 spective leaders, conducted with great acrimony, 
 has scarcely subsided. We shall attempt tl;t de- 
 lineation of this class of opinions with brevity*
 
 
 CALVINISTS. 69 
 
 CALVINISTS. 
 
 THE Calvinist adheres to t!*e doctrines which 
 Calvin taught at Geneva, about 1540, where he 
 was professor of divinity. The tenets of Cal- 
 vinism are, predestination, original sin, particular 
 redemption, irresistible grace, and the persever- 
 ance of the saints. These, in the theological 
 world, are termed \\iejivepoint9; and frequent 
 have been the controversies agitated respecting 
 them. As the Calvinists differ among them- 
 selves in the explication of these tenets, it would 
 be difficult to give a specific account of them. 
 Generally speaking, however, they comprehend 
 the following propositions: 1st. That God has 
 chosen a certain number in Christ to everlasting 
 glory, before the foundation of the world, accord- 
 ing to his immutable purpose, and of his free 
 grace and love, without the least foresight of 
 faith, good works, or any conditions performed 
 by the creature ; and that the rest of mankind he 
 was pleased to pass by, and ordain them to dis- 
 honour and wrath for their sins, to the praise of 
 his vindictive justice. 2dly. That Jesus Christ, by 
 his death and sufferings, made an atonement only 
 for the sins of the elect. Sdly. That mankind are 
 totally depraved in consequence of the fall; and, 
 by virtue of Adam's being their public head, the 
 guilt of his sin was imputed, and a corrupt nature
 
 70 CALV1NISTS. 
 
 conveyed to all his posterity, from which proceed 
 all actual transgressions ; and that by sin we are 
 made subject to death, and all miseries temporal, 
 spiritual, and eternal. 4thl} 7 . That all whom God 
 has predestinated to life, he is pleased, in his ap- 
 pointed time, effectually to call by his word and 
 spirit out of that state of sin and death, in which 
 they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Je- 
 sus Christ. And othly. That those whom God 
 has effectually called and sanctified by his spirit 
 shall never finally fall from a state of grace. 
 Some have supposed that the Trinity was one of 
 the five points ; but this is a mistake, since both 
 the Calvinists and Arminians, who formed the 
 synod of Dort (where this phrase, Jive points, 
 originated) were on the article of the Trinity 
 generally agreed. The most prominent feature 
 of this system is, the election of some, and repro- 
 bation of others, from all eternity. 
 
 The Calvinists found their sentiments of elec- 
 tion on the expression of the Saviour, respecting 
 his having chosen his disciples out of the world ; 
 and more particularly on certain terms used by 
 the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. 
 To the epistolary writers, indeed, they more 
 frequently refer than to any other part of the 
 New Testament. The chief advantage of this 
 system, in the opinion of its advocates, is, to 
 produce iu us a most reverential awe when we
 
 CALVINISTS. 71 
 
 look up to God, and the profoundest humility 
 when we look down upon ourselves. 
 
 To the Calvinists also belongs more particularly 
 the doctrine of atonement, or that Christ, by his 
 death, made satisfaction to the divine justice for 
 the elect, appeasing the anger of the Divine 
 Being, and affecting on his part a reconciliation. 
 Thus Jesus Christ had the sin of the elect laid 
 upon him; and in this sense, Luther said that 
 JESUS CHRIST was the greatest sinner in the 
 world ! ! ! The sentiment is fully expressed by 
 Dr* Watts in these lines : 
 
 " Rich were the drops of Jesu's blood, 
 
 " That calm'd his frowning face, 
 * That sprinkled o'er the burning throne, 
 
 " And turn'd the mratk to grace !" 
 
 The manner also in which other Calvinistic 
 writers have expressed themselves on the death 
 ot Christ, may be seen by consulting the Univer- 
 sal Theological Magazine, for November 1802, 
 where Mr. R. Wright, of Wisbeach, has col- 
 lected together passages illustrative of the sub- 
 ject. This doctrine, however, is reprobated by 
 some of their divines, who consider the death of 
 Christ (with the Arians and Sabellians) as simply 
 a medium through which God has been pleased 
 to exercise mercy towards the penitent. Hence 
 it has been remarked, that God is represented as 
 reconciling by the death of Christ, not himself to
 
 72 SUBLAFSAR1ANS AND SUPRALAFSARIAXS, 
 
 man, but man to himself. God was in Christ re- 
 conciling the world to himself, not imputing their 
 trespasses unto them, ( 2 Cor. v. 19- See Mr. Ful- 
 ler's publication, entitled The. Cahinislic and 
 Socinian Systems compared ; which is admired bjr 
 some of the Calvinists, but condemned by others 
 of them, as not coming up to the full standard 
 of orthodoxy*. 
 
 But to ascertain the real sentiments of this 
 body of Christians, recourse should be had to 
 the Assembles Catechism, which is taught their 
 children, and may therefore be supposed to con- 
 tain a just account of their religious opinions. 
 The reader is here referred to two small volumes 
 on the subject; the one by Mr. Pye Smith in 
 favour of Calvinism; the other by Mr. T. Bel- 
 sham, as a reply to it. 
 
 SUBLAPSARIANS 
 
 AND 
 
 SUPR'ALAPSARIANS. 
 
 AMONG the refinements of Calvinism are to 
 be ranked the distinctions of the Sublapsarians 
 and Sitpralapsarians. The Sublapsarians assert, 
 that God had only permitted the first man to fall 
 
 * Dr. Toulmin and Mr. Kentish replied to this work, whilst Dr. 
 Priestley and Mr. Belsham, against whom it was written, did not 
 think proper to answer it. 
 
 3
 
 SUBLAPSARIANS AND SUPRALAPSARIANS. 73 
 
 into transgression, without absolutely pre-deter- 
 mining his fall : whereas the Supralapsarians 
 maintain that God had from all eternity decreed 
 the transgression of Adam, in such a manner 
 that our first parents could not possibly avoid 
 this fatal event. Dr. Doddridge, in his Lectures, 
 has thus stated these abstruse distinctions: "The 
 Supralapsarian and Sublapsarian schemes agree 
 in asserting the doctrine of predestination, but 
 with this difference, that the former supposes 
 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 Addm should necessarily fall, and by that 
 fall bring himself and all his offspring into a state 
 of everlasting condemnation : the latter scheme 
 supposes 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." Re- 
 cent divines, who have gone to the height of 
 Supralapsarians, are Mr. Brine and Dr. Gill. 
 Were any thing more necessary to elucidate this 
 subject, it might be added that the term Supra- 
 lapsarian is derived from two Latin words, Sitpra, 
 above, and lapsus, the fall ; and the term Sub- 
 lapsarian, from Sub, below or after, and lapsus, 
 the fall.
 
 ARM1NIANS.- 
 
 Calvin, in his Institutes, states and defends at 
 large the principles of the system. It is written 
 in elegant Latin, is dedicated to Francis the First, 
 King of France, and the dedication has heen, 
 admired for its boldness and magnanimity. 
 
 For a defence of Calvinism, see Edwards on 
 the Will, Brine's Tracts, Dr. Gill's Cause of God 
 and Truth, and Toplady's Historic Proof of the 
 Calvinism of the Church of England. 
 
 ARMINIANS. 
 
 THE Armiman favours the tenets of Arminius, 
 the disciple of Beza, and latterly an eminent 
 professor of divinity at Leyden, who flourished 
 about the year iGOO. Thinking the doctrine of 
 Calvin with regard to free-will, predestination, 
 and grace, directly contrary to the mild and 
 amiable perfections of the Deity, he began to 
 express his doubts concerning them in the year 
 1591 ; and upon further enquiry, adopted senti- 
 ments more nearly resembling those of the Lu- 
 therans than of the Calvinists. After his ap- 
 pointment to the theological chair at Leyden, he 
 thought it his duty to avow and vindicate the 
 principles which he had embraced ; and the free- 
 dom with which he published and defended them, 
 exposed him to the resentment of those that 
 adhered to the theological system of Geneva.
 
 ARMINIAKS. 75 
 
 The controversy thus begun in the lifetime of 
 .Arminius, ended not with his death, and for a 
 long time roused the violence of contending pas- 
 sions*. His tenets include the five following 
 propositions : 1st. That "God has not fixed the 
 future state of mankind by an absolute uncondi- 
 tional decree ; but determined from all eternity, 
 to bestow salvation on those whom he foresaw 
 would persevere to the end in their faith in Jesus 
 Christ, and to inflict punishment on those who 
 should continue in their unbelief, and resist to 
 the end his divine assistance. 2dly. That Jesus 
 Christ, by his death and sufferings, made an atone- 
 ment for the sins of all mankind in general, and 
 of every individual in particular: that, however, 
 none but those who believe in him can be par- 
 takers of this divine benefit. Sdly. That man- 
 kind are not totally depraved, and that depravity 
 does not come upon them by virtue of Adam's 
 being their public head, but that mortality nnd 
 natural evil only are the direct consequences of 
 bis sin to posterity. 4thly. That there is no such 
 thing as irresistible grace in the conversion of 
 sinners. And, 5thly. That those who are united 
 to Christ by faith, may fall from their faith, and 
 forfeit finally their state of grace. Thus the fol- 
 
 * Arminius's motto was a remarkable one." A good coiacicnct 
 it a paradise." 
 
 E2
 
 76 ARMIN1ANS. 
 
 lowers of Arminius believe that God, having an 
 equal regard for all his creatures, sent his Son to 
 die for the sins of the whole world; that men 
 have the power of doing the will of God, other* 
 wise they are not -the proper subjects of approba- 
 tion and condemnation ; and that, in the present 
 imperfect state, believers, if not particularly 
 vigilant, may, through the force of temptation, 
 fall from grace, and sink into final perdition. 
 The Arminians found their sentiments on the ex- 
 pressions of our SAVIOUR respecting his willing- 
 .ness to save ail that come unto him ; especially 
 on his prayer over Jerusalem, his Sermon on the 
 Mount, a Ltd aLuvre all, on his delineation of the 
 process of the last day, where the salvation of 
 jnen is not said to have been procured by any de- 
 cree, but because they had done tJte will of their 
 Father, who is in heaven. This last argument 
 they deem decisive ; because it cannot be sup- 
 posed that Jesus, in the account of the judgment 
 day, would have deceived them. They also say, 
 the terms in the Romans respecting election, are 
 applicable only to the state of the Jews as a body, 
 without a reference to the religious condition of 
 individuals, either in the present or future world. 
 Dr. Whitby, the commentator, who was ori- 
 ginally a Calvinist, has written a large and ela- 
 borate defence of Arminianism ; and the reader 
 should consult Dr. Taylor's Key to the Epistles 
 to the Romans, which has been much admired,,
 
 ARMIN'IANS. 77 
 
 on the subject. Since the days of Laud (who was 
 archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Charles 
 the First) by far the majority of the English cler- 
 gy have taken this side of the question. Bishop 
 .Burnet has given a full account of the opinions 
 of this sect, in his Exposition of the Seventeenth 
 Article. 
 
 In the last century disputes ran very high in 
 Holland between the Calvinists and the Armi- 
 nians. On each side considerable talents and 
 learning were displayed; but some shamefully 
 called in the interference of the civil power, and 
 thus terminated a controversy, which for some 
 years had agitated the religious world. For this 
 purpose the famous synod of Dort was held, 
 l6l8, and a curious account of its proceedings 
 may be seen in the series of letters written by the 
 ever-memorable John Hales, who was present 
 en the occasion. This synod was succeeded by 
 a severe and scandalous persecution of the Armi- 
 nians. The respectable Barnevelt lost his head on- 
 a scaffold, and the learned Grotius, condemned 
 to perpetual imprisonment, escaped from the cell 
 and took refuge in France. The storm, how- 
 ever, some time after abated ; and Episcopius, act 
 Arminian minister, opened a seminary in Am- 
 sterdam, which produced some able divines and 
 excellent scholars. 
 
 The principal Arminian writers are, Episcopitis>> 
 E 3
 
 78 BAXTERIANS. 
 
 Vorstius, Grotius, Limborch, Le Clerc, Wet- 
 stein ; not to mention many others of nfodern 
 times, particulary Mr. John Wesley, in his Ar- 
 minian Magazine, and Mr. Fellowes, in his Reli- 
 gion zcithout Cant, and in his elegant work, en- 
 titled Christian Philosophy. 
 
 The Arminians are sometimes called the Re- 
 monstrants, because they, in If3ll, presented a 
 REMONSTRANCE to the States General, wherein 
 they pathetically state their grievances, and pray 
 for relief. See an interesting work, entitled An 
 Abridgment of Gerrard Brandt's History of the 
 Keformation in the Low Countries, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 BAXTERIANS. 
 
 THE Baxterian strikes into a middle path, 
 between Arminianism and Calvinism, and thus 
 endeavours to unite both schemes. With the 
 Calvinist, he professes to believe that a certain 
 number, determined upon in the divine councils, 
 will be infallibly saved ; and with the Arminiau 
 he joips in rejecting the doctrine of reprobation 
 as absurd and irn,pious ; admits that Christ, in a 
 certain sense, died for all, and supposes that sucli 
 a portion of grace is allotted to every man, as 
 renders it his own fault if he does not attain to 
 eternal life. This conciliatory system was espous- 
 ed by the famous non-conformist Richard Bax-
 
 BAXTKRIANS. 
 
 ter, who died in the year 1691, and who was 
 equally celebrated for the acuteness of his con- 
 troversial talents, and the utility of his practical 
 writings. Hence came the term Baxterians, 
 among whom are generally ranked both Watts 
 and Doddridgc. In the scale of religious senti- 
 ment, Baxterianism seems to be with respect to 
 the subject of the divine favour, what Arianism is 
 with respect to the person of Christ. It appear* 
 to have been considered by some pious persons 
 a a safe middle way between two extremes; 
 Baxter was an extraordinary character in the re- 
 ligious world. He wrote about 120 books, and 
 had above 60 written against him ! Though he 
 possessed a very metaphysical genius, and conse- 
 quently sometimes made a distinction without a 
 difference, yet the great object of most of his 
 productions was^peace and amity. Accordingly 
 his religious system was formed, not to inflame 
 the passions and widen the breaches, but to heal 
 those wounds of the Christian church, under- 
 which she had long languished*. 
 
 * For the particular detail given of the Calvinistic and Anoi- 
 nian sentiments, see a brief but useful history of the Christian 
 Church, in 2 vols. by Dr. Gregory. The best and amplest eccle- 
 siastical history is Mosheim's, in 6 vols. translated from the 
 Latin into English by the late Dr. Maclaine, who has enriched 
 it with many valuable notes. Dr. Priestley also published, ira 
 six octavo volumes, a History of the Christian Church, from the 
 birth of the Messiah down to the present times. 
 E4
 
 80 ANT1NOMIANS. 
 
 ANTINOMIANS. 
 
 THE Antinomian derives his name from two 
 Greek words, Am, against, and No^, a law; his 
 favourite tenet being, that the law is not a rule 
 of life to believers. It is not easy to ascertain 
 what he means by this position. But he seems 
 to carry the doctrine of the imputed righteous- 
 ness of Christ, and of salvation by faith without 
 works, to such lengths as to injure, if not wholly 
 destroy, the obligation to moral obedience. An- 
 tinomianism may be traced to the period of tht 
 Reformation, and its promulgator was John Agri- 
 cola, origmally a disciple of Luther. The Pa- 
 pists, in their disputes with the Protestants of 
 that day, carried the merit of good works to an 
 extravagant length ; and this induced some of 
 their opponents to run into the opposite extreme. 
 "This sect (says the Encyclopaedia) sprung up in 
 England during the protectorate of Oliver Croin- 
 Vell, and extended their system of libertinism 
 much farther than Agricola, the disciple of Lu- 
 ther. Some of their teachers expressly main- 
 tained, that as the elect cannot fall from grace, 
 nor forfeit the divine favour, the wicked actions 
 they commit are not really sinful, nor are thej 
 to be considered as instances of their violation of 
 the divine law ; consequently they have no occa- 
 sion either to confess their sins, or to break them
 
 ANTINOMIANS. 81 
 
 off by repentance. According lo them, it is one 
 of the essential and distinctive characters of the 
 elect, that they cannot do any thing displeasing 
 to God, or prohibited by the law." Luther, Ru- 
 therford, Sedgwick, Gataker, Witsius, Bull, 
 Williams, (founder of the Dissenting Library in 
 Red-Cross Street) &c. have written refutations; 
 whilst Crisp, Richardson, and SaHmarsh, putfortli 
 defences of the Antinomians. Wisgandus wrote 
 "A Comparison between Ancient and Modem 
 Antinomians." The late Rev. Mr. Fletcher, 
 vicar of Madly, in Shropshire, published Four 
 Checks to dntiuomianism, which have been read 
 and admired. 
 
 The term Aittinomian has been frequently 
 fixed on persons by way of reproach ; and there- 
 fore many who have been branded with this 
 name have repelled the charge. There are many 
 Antinomians, indeed, of a singular cast in Ger- 
 many, and other parts of the coi uiient ; they 
 condemn the moral law as a rule of life, and yet 
 profess a strict regard for the interests of practical 
 religion. Many persons, however, who repro- 
 bate the system of John Calvin, , pronounce An- 
 tinomianism to be nothing more than Calvinistn, 
 run to seed* Speculative sentiments of any kind 1 
 ought not to be carried to u degree which might 
 endanger even in appearauce the sacred cause of \ 
 morality* ,
 
 83 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 III. 
 
 ti* - 
 OPINIONS RESPECTING CHURCH GOVERNMENT, AND THE 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF CEREMONIES. 
 
 * THE extent of Christianity in the world, or 
 all those several kingdoms and countries where 
 the Christian religion is professed and embraced 
 (says Mr. Martin in his Philological Library) are, 
 taken together, called Christendom; and this con- 
 sists of many (some more general, some more 
 particular, &c.) different religious societies, 
 which are called churches. A Christian church 
 is a society or congregation of men and women, 
 who are called out from the vicious world by the 
 preaching of the gospel, ami are regulated in all 
 the parts of their ritual discipline and articles of 
 iaith by the plain rules and prescriptions of the 
 New Testament, and whose lives are correspond- 
 ent to their holy professions. The ministers of 
 the Christian Church, in its primitive state, were 
 extraordinary or ordinary. The Extraordinary 
 were chiefly three : 1 . Apostles, who were dele- 
 gated by Christ with power and commission t 
 preach the gospel, and work miracles in con- 
 firmation thereof, among all nations. 2. Pro- 
 phetSy who were not such as simply foretold 
 things, but those to whom God was pleased to 
 reveal his more secret counsels and designs, and 
 who related and preached the same to men.
 
 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 83 
 
 3* Evangelists, such as were assistants to the 
 apostles in preaching the gospel, and were en- 
 dued with many extraordinary gifts of the Holy 
 Spirit, as of languages and interpretations, Sec. 
 But since the establishment of Christianity in the 
 world, these extraordinary offices have ceased. 
 The ordinary ministers of the Christian church 
 are principally three : 1 . A Bishop, who had 
 the oversight of the flock or -church of Christ ; 
 to him pertained the preaching of the word, and 
 due regulation of the church in faith and man- 
 ners. And this rule and precedence of the bishop 
 is called Episcopacy. 2. Presbyters or Elders, 
 or Priests; these were such as preached the 
 word, and administered the sacraments, and per- 
 formed all the other sacred functions of the mi- 
 nistry, under the inspection of the bishop. But 
 it is a controversy, whether the scripture -doth 
 not intend the same person or officer by the a i * 
 pellations Bishop and Presbyter. '*J power of 
 the Presbyter is called Pr^bytery. 3. Deacons; 
 these were sucli us officiate in that parr of the 
 Christian ministry which related to the poor; 
 and their business was to take the collections of 
 money made in the church, and to distribute it 
 to the necessities of the poor, and other sacred 
 Hses : and their office, properly speaking, is- 
 called the Ministry or Deaconship, These ofti- 
 cers are'perpetual in the Christian church/'- Af* 
 
 E6
 
 84 PAPISTS, 
 
 ter this introductory explanation of the Christian 
 church, I proceed to the Opinions respecting 
 Church government and the administration of Ce- 
 remonies. 
 
 PAPISTS. 
 
 THE Papists are so denominated from their 
 leading tenet the infallibility and supremacy of 
 the Pope (in the Latin, Papa, signifying father,) 
 which they strenuously maintain. By the infal- 
 libility of the Pope, is understood, that the Pope 
 cannot err in ecclesiastical matters; and by hit 
 supremacy is meant his authority over all the 
 churches, and sometimes over all the princes of 
 the earth. This enormous power has been for 
 some time diminishing, and the Roman Catho-. 
 lies at present are divided on the subject. Some 
 allow the Pope's infallibility and supremacy in 
 then rll ytent; others acknowledge them in 
 part; and a third winlly reject them. The late 
 Father O'Leary's Tracts also may be consulted, 
 who had a dispute on Popery with John Wesley. 
 They also profess to beliare, 1. In seven sacra- 
 ments baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, pe- 
 nance, extreme unction, or the anointing the 
 sick in the prospect of death, orders, and ma- 
 trimony. With respect to the Eucharist, or 
 Lord's Supper, they hold the ductrine of transuB*
 
 PAPISTS. 8.5 
 
 stantiation, or that the bread and wine are chang- 
 ed into the body and blood of Christ ; the paying 
 divine worship to the host, or consecrated wafer, 
 and the allowing communion only in one kind, 
 viz. bread to the laity. 2. In works of superero- 
 gation, as that the good works of saints are 
 meritorious enough to supply the deficiency of 
 others. 3. In the celibacy, or single life of the 
 clergy. 4. In the use of images and sacred 
 relics. The charge of worshipping Images has 
 been brought against them, and though it may 
 prevail among the lower classes, yet the more 
 intelligent disown every thing of the kind. And, 
 5. In the celebration of divine service in an 
 unknown tongue. Many, however, of the ad- 
 herents to Popery, in the present day, reject 
 some of the above tenets : and more especially 
 renouncing the supremacy of the Pope, distin- 
 guish themselves by the name of Catholics, and 
 sometimes of Catholic Dissenters. The publi- 
 cations of the late Dr. Geddes, on this subject, 
 are worthy of attention. He was a liberal and 
 learned priest among this class of the Roman Ca- 
 tholics, and was for several years engaged in a 
 translation of the Bible under the patronage of 
 Lord Petre. Among the Roman Catholics there 
 are to be found several monastic orders, such as 
 the Augustines, the Benedictines, the Carmelites, 
 lUe Dominicans, the Franciscans, &c. and also a 
 4
 
 86 PAPISTS. 
 
 variety of sects, such as the Jesuits, the Janse- 
 nits, the Molinists, and others, some of whom 
 were sects of celebrity. The ingenious Pascal, 
 in his Provincial Letters, aimed an effective 
 blow at the order of the Jesuits, and it was abo- 
 lished in France in 1762, on the sapposition that 
 they adopted practices inimical to the welfare of 
 their country. 
 
 In the council of Trent, held 1549, the tenets 
 of the Papists were reduced into one compact 
 standard, and the summary of Popery, exhibited 
 in Pope Pius's creed, contains the substance of 
 the decrees and canons of this council. The 
 creed is divided into twenty-four articles. The 
 first twelve are expressed in the words of the 
 creed called the Nicene; and the remaining twelve 
 are new articles, truly Romish. See Burrough's 
 View of Popery, taken from the Creed of 
 Pope Pius VI. 1735. Father Paul, of Venice, 
 has immortalized himself by a history of th* 
 council of Trent ; and, though himself a Papist,, 
 yet he has exposed with freedom the intrigues by 
 which this council was conducted. Bellarmine, 
 an. acute Jesuit, and Bossuet, the bishop of 
 Meaux, are the two most celebrated defenders of 
 Popery. They had also amongst them several 
 eloquent preachers ; and the sermons of Massi-. 
 Ion, Bottrdaloue, and Flechier, are esteemed, 
 models of pulpit eloquence. In this country
 
 PAPISTS. 87 
 
 several penal Jaws were in force against the Ro- 
 man Catholics ; bat most of them were repealed 
 in the course of the present reign. It was an 
 opposition to the repeal of these laws that oc- 
 casioned the disgraceful riots, which broke out 
 during the month of June, 1780, and threatened 
 the destruction of the metropolis ! 
 
 It is remarkable that the Papists have had 
 amongst them a Pope, who used to be denomi- 
 nated a Protestant Pope. His name was Ganga- 
 nelli, and he is known to the world under the 
 title of Clement the 14th. His liberality ap- 
 peared in his actions, and it was his common 
 saying, " We too often lay aside charity ta 
 maintain faith, without reflecting, that if it is not 
 allowed to tolerate men, it is forbidden to hate 
 and persecute those who have unfortunately em- 
 braced heresy." He died in 1775, not without sus- 
 picion of being poisoned. Such a character must 
 be pronounced an honour to the Romish church, 
 and it is to be hoped that there are many indivi- 
 duals of this description to be found in her com- 
 munion. As to his Letters, which for the libe- 
 rality of their sentiments and the elegance of 
 their diction have been much admired, many en- 
 tertain doubts of their authenticity. Archbishop 
 Fenelon also was distinguished for his benevo- 
 lence and piety. 
 
 Here the account of Popery should hav*
 
 88 PAPISTS. 
 
 ended, had not the doctrine of Indulgences de- 
 served explanation. The history and form of 
 these indulgences are thus given us by that emi- 
 ment historian Dr. Robertson, in his History of 
 Charles the Fifth. " According to the doctrine 
 of the Romish church, all the good works of the 
 saints, over and above those which were neces- 
 sary towards their own justification, are depo- 
 sited together, with the infinite merits of Jesus 
 Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury. The keys 
 of this were committed to St. Peter, and to his 
 successors the Popes, who may open it at plea-* 
 sure, and by transferring a portion of this super- 
 abundant merit to any particular person fora sum 
 of money, may convey to him either the pardon, 
 of his own sins, or a release for any one in whom 
 lie is interested, from the pains of purgatory ; 
 which indulgences were first invented in the 
 eleventh century, by Urban the Second, as a re- 
 compence for those who went in person upon the 
 meritorious enterprize (commonly called the Cru- 
 sades) of conquering the Holy Land. They were 
 afterwards granted to those who hired a soldier 
 for that purpose ; and in process of time were 
 bestowed on such as gave money for accom- 
 plishing any pious work enjoined by the Pope. 
 Julius the Second had bestowed indulgences on 
 all who contributed towards building the churcli 
 of St. Peter at Rome: and as Leo the Tenth
 
 PAPISTS. 8<) 
 
 was carrying on that magnificent and extensive 
 fabric, his grant was founded on the same pre- 
 tence." 
 
 The following is the form of these indulgences: 
 <( ]\lay our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon 
 thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most 
 holy passion! And I, by the authority, 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 ecclesiasti- 
 cal censures, in whatever manner they have been 
 incurred, and then from all thy sins, transgres- 
 sions, and excesses, how enormous soever they 
 be, even from such as are reserved for the CGg 
 nizance of the holy see, and, as far as the keys 
 of the holy church extend, I remit to thee all- 
 punishment which thou dost deserve in purgatory 
 on their account ; and I restore thee to the holy 
 sacraments of the church, to the unity of the 
 faithful, and to that innocence and purity which 
 thou didst possess at baptism ; so that when thou 
 dost die the gates of punishment shall be shut, 
 and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be 
 opened ; and if thou shall not die at present, this 
 grace shall remain in full force when thou art at 
 the point of death ! In the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 This was the form of absolution used by Tet- 
 zel, a Dominican friar, who in the sixteenth
 
 GREEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH. 
 
 century, was appointed to sell these indulgences 
 in Germany, which eventually brought about the 
 Reformation. 
 
 We must not omit the mention of a tract on 
 Popery, entitled "'A Modest Apology for the 
 Roman Catholics of Great Britian, addressed to 
 nil moderate Protestants, particularly to the 
 Members of both Houses of Parliament." Thin 
 piece came from the pen of the late Dr. Geddes, 
 who has been already mentioned, and is written 
 with learning and ingenuity. It is, indeed, a 
 singular performance, and worthy attention. W 
 shall just add, that the reader may form some 
 idea of the present state of Popery, from a re- 
 cent pamphlet published by Milner, the historian, 
 of .Wi nc hester. and a Catholic priest ; it is aa 
 account of a miracle wrought on a poor maid- 
 servant of Wolverhampton, at the well of St. 
 Winfrid, Holywell, Flintshire, June 28, 1805! 
 Those persons who read that pamphlet, want no 
 comment on the nature and complexion of 
 l*opery ______ 
 
 GREEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH. 
 
 THE Greek, or Russian Church, which now 
 spreads itself over the eastern part of Europe, is 
 ancient, and bears a resemblance to the Church 
 of Rome. .Denying, however, the infallibility 
 and supremacy of the Pope fc they are in coin*
 
 i GREEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH. Qt 
 
 in union with the Patriarch of Constantinople. 
 Amongst pther articles of belief, they are dis- 
 tinguished for these three : 1. The rejection of 
 images in the worship of the Deity. 2. The 
 doctrine of consubstantiation, or the union of the 
 body of Christ with the sacramental element. 
 5. The administration of baptism, by immersing 
 the whole body in water. 
 
 The Russian, or Greek church equals the 
 Latin or Romish church in the number of cere- 
 monies and superstitious customs ; gome of which 
 are thus described in Chantieau's Travels into 
 Russia : f( At the beginning of the year, the 
 king's day is a singular festival, which the Rus- 
 sians call the benediction of waters. On the 
 Neva, then frozen, there is raised for the cere- 
 mony a kind of temple, of an octagonal figure, 
 on the top of which is a St. John the Baptist, and 
 the inside is decorated with pictures, representing 
 the baptism of Jesus, his transfiguration, and 
 some other parts of his life. There your attend 
 tion is drawn to an enormous Holy Ghost, ap- 
 pearing to descend from heaven ; a decoration 
 common to all the Greek churches, which intro- 
 duces the Holy Ghost every where ! In the mid- 
 dle of the sanctuary is a square place, where the 
 broken ice leaves a communication with the water* 
 running below, and the rest is ornamented with 
 rich tapestry. Around this temple there is erected
 
 02 CREEK, OR RUSSIAN CHDRCH. 
 
 a kind of gallery, which communicates with one 
 of the windows of the imperial palace, at which 
 the empress and her family come out to attend the 
 ceremony, which begins as soon as the regiment 
 of guards have taken post on the river. Then, the 
 archbishop, at the sound of the bells, and of the 
 artillery of the fortress, comes out of the palace, 
 and walks in procession, with all his clergy, to 
 the little temple we have just mentioned. When 
 arrived at the place where the ice is broken, h 
 descends, by means of a ladder, to the side of the 
 water. There he dips his cross three or four 
 times, afterwards says some prayers, an orison to 
 the great St. Nicholas, and the waters are thea 
 thought blessed. The prelate sprinkles the water 
 on the company around him, and on the colours 
 of all the regiments that happen to be at St. Pe- 
 tersburg. After this benediction, the archbi- 
 shop retires. Then the people crowd towards the 
 hole, by which this prelate has blessed the waters. 
 They drink of them with a holy avidity. Not- 
 withstanding the cold, the mothers plunge their 
 infants, and the old men their heads,, into them. 
 Every body makes it a- duty to carry away some 
 for the purification of their houses, and curing 
 certain distempers, against which the good Rus- 
 sians pretend this holy water is a powerful spe- 
 cific. While every one proceeds to this useful 
 provision, four popes, who are at the four corners
 
 <JBEEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH. 93 
 
 of the sanctuary, sing a kind of litany, in which, 
 they rehearse all the titles of the empress, and 
 to which the people answer by these words, 
 Pameloi-Bog ! May God take pity on her ! 
 
 " The Russians have a great number of absti- 
 nences, or fasts, and among the rest four Lents. 
 The Greek priests have much more reverence 
 and meditation in their way of going through 
 divine service, than the Latin or Romish priests; 
 and the discipline of their church directs, that 
 when once a priest is at the altar, he must not 
 remove from it during the time he ought to stand 
 there, whatever may happen to him. For in- 
 stance: we are told, that the prelate Gabriel, at 
 present metropolitan of Novogorod, and Archi- 
 mandrite to St. Alexander Neuski, being one day 
 engaged in saying mass at St. Petersburg, the 
 house contiguous to the church took fire, and the 
 flames reaching the steeple, Gabriel was warned 
 of the danger he was in, and yet he stirred not, 
 even although he was told a second time, that the 
 bells would not be long in bruising him to atoms. 
 As the cries of the multitude, conjuring him to 
 remove from certain death, made no impression 
 on him, one of his relations leaped towards the 
 altar, and tore him from it. Scarcely was he 
 twenty paces from it, when the steeple fell in 
 with a great crash upon the sanctuary !"
 
 GREEK, OR RUSSIAN CUUKCII. 
 
 Efforts have been made to join the Greek to 
 the Reformed church ; but hitherto they have 
 failed of success. The Rev. Dr. John King pub- 
 lished an account of the doctrine, worship, and 
 discipline of the Greek church in Russia. There 
 are several particulars to be found in the Russian 
 Catechism, composed by the Czar, and which was 
 published in London, l?2o; in Robinson's Ec- 
 clesiastical Researches, 'and in a work, entitled 
 Secret Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg. 
 
 That the reader may form some judgment of 
 the present state of the Greek church, the last- 
 mentioned work presents us with the following 
 fact, translated from the Imperial Gazette of 
 Petersburg : 
 
 " Petersburg, 17 Dec. 1798. 
 
 " In 1796, a coffin was found at the convent 
 of Sumovin, in the city of Trotma, in the epar- 
 chy of Volgoda, containing a corpse, in the habit 
 of a monk. It had been interred in 1568, yet 
 was in a state of perfect preservation, as were 
 also the garments. From the letters embroidered 
 on them, it was found to be the body of the most 
 memorable Feodose Sumorin, founder and su- 
 perior of the convent, and who had been ac- 
 knowledged as a saint during his life, for ihe 
 miracles he had performed." It is then stated, 
 that the directing synod had rrtade a very humble
 
 CREEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH. 95 
 
 report on this cession to his Imperial Majesty. 
 After which follows the Emperor's Ukase or pro- 
 clamation. 
 
 <e We PAUL, &c. having been certified by a 
 special report of the most holy synod, of the 
 discovery that has been made in the convent of 
 Spasso-Sumovin, of the miraculous remains of 
 the most venerable Feodose, which miraculous 
 remains distinguish themselves by the happy cure 
 of all those who have recourse to them with 
 entire confidence : we take the discovery of 
 these holy remains as a visible sign, that the 
 Lord has cast his most gracious eye in the most 
 distinguished manner on our reign. For this rea- 
 son, we offer our fervent prayers and our grati- 
 tude to the Supreme Dispenser of all things, and 
 charge our most holy synod to announce this 
 memorable discovery throughout all our empire, 
 according to the forms prescribed by the holy 
 church, and by the holy fathers, &,c. The 28tU 
 September, 1798." 
 
 The following anecdote, however, from the 
 same work, and on the same subject, almost ex- 
 ceeds credibility : "I knew a Russian princess, 
 who had always a large siher crucifix following 
 her, in a separate carriage, and which she usually 
 placed in her bed-chamber. When any thing 
 fortunate had happened to her in the course of 
 the day, and she was satisfied with her admirers,
 
 0REEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH. 
 
 she had lighted candles placed about the crucifix, 
 and said to it, in a familiar style, ' See, now, 
 as you have been very good to-day, you shall 
 be treated well you shall have candles all night 
 I will love you I will pray to you.' If on 
 the contrary, any thing occurred to vex this lady, 
 she had the candles put out, forbid the servants 
 to pay any homage to the poor image, and loaded 
 it with reproaches and revilings ! ! !" The au- 
 thor closes the chapter with this sensible para- 
 graph: " I shall not particularize all the super- 
 stitions with which such a religion, if it deserves 
 that name, must necessarily inspire an ignorant 
 and enslaved people. It seems the present policy 
 to thicken the clouds of error, which the.geniu 
 of Peter, the humanity of Elizabeth, and the 
 philosophy of Catharine, sought in some degree 
 to attenuate. While we pity the state of degra- 
 dation under which a great people crouches, we 
 should do justice to the enlightened Russians, by 
 whom it is lamented; but they are chained by pre- 
 judices, as the giant Gulliver by the Lilliputians; 
 his bonds were weak and imperceptible as his 
 enemies were minute, but every one ef his hairs 
 was separately fastened to the ground, and he 
 was unable to raise his head." 
 
 In addition to the books already mentioned, I 
 shall close this article of the Greek Church, with 
 recommending the" RE?. WILLIAM TOOKES'S His-
 
 PROTESTANTS. $7 
 
 tory of Russia, which may be satisfactorily con- 
 sulted on this as well as on other subjects; it is 
 replete with information*. 
 
 PROTESTANTS. 
 
 UNDER the appellation of Protestants, we 
 include all who dissent from Popery, in whatever 
 country they reside, or into whatever sects they 
 have been since distributed. Abroad they are 
 divided into two sorts the Lutherans, who ad- 
 here to Luther's tenets; and the Reformed, who 
 follow the discipline of Geneva. They were 
 called Protestants, because, in 1592, they pro- 
 tested against a decree of the Emperor Charles 
 the Fifth, and declared, that they appealed to a 
 general council. At present this vast class com- 
 prehends those whom Papists used contemptu- 
 ously to style Hugonots in France; the Refugees^ 
 in Holland, who tied thither upon the revocation 
 of the edict of Nantz, 1685; the Presbyterians 
 in Scotland ; the Episcopalians and Nonconformists 
 in England ; together with a numerous body of 
 Christians in America. 
 
 * Mr. Toclc is well known as the able translator of Zolikofre'i 
 Sermons, which are well worthy the attention gf the religious 
 world. 
 
 F
 
 9S PROTESTANTS. 
 
 As the Protestants originated at the REFORMA- 
 TION, it will be proper to give a brief account 
 of this illustrious period of Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 
 
 FOR the three first centuries the religion of 
 Jesus Christ stood on its own basis, was rapidly 
 propagated among Jews and Gentiles, and suffer- 
 ed severe persecutions from the Roman emperors. 
 At the commencement of the fourth century, 
 Constantine became a convert to Christianity, and 
 incorporated it with the state. " It was not till 
 the fifth, or near the sixth century, that the Bishop 
 of Rome arrogantly assumed an illegal supremacy 
 over his fellow pastors, and in process of time 
 aimed at a secular government of princes as well 
 as subjects. Though several emperors embraced 
 and defended Christianity, yet the gradual decsiy 
 of the Roman empire was a serious impediment 
 to the rising preachers of the newly established 
 religion. Those accomplishments which adorn- 
 ed the conquests of the Romans, and the perfec- 
 tion of science, which had dignified their state, 
 in such an extent, were gradually swept away by 
 the barbarous nations which defeated them, and 
 the close of the sixth century could not trace a 
 vestige of that exalted nation's government, or its 
 laws. Between four and five hundred years was
 
 PROTESTANTS. 99 
 
 the glorious luminary of the gospel eclipsed by 
 the dismal return oi'ignorace and of superstition*. 
 To these dark ages (as they are by some justly 
 termed, and by others, called the night of time) 
 are to be attributed the doctrine of indulgences, 
 partial absolution, transubstantiation, the creation 
 and worship of saints, purgatory, monastic seclu- 
 
 * The Crutadcs, commonly called the holy wars, were expe- 
 ditions undertaken by the Papists to drive the Turks from Pa- 
 lestine, or the land of Judea, and thus to rescue the holy sepul- 
 chre out of the hands of infidels. There were eight of these 
 crusades, the first in the year 1096, the last in 1270, assisted 
 by Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I. King of England. 7 he 
 number of lives lost in these Quixotic expeditions, is incredible; 
 and it will remain to future ages a matter of astonishment, how 
 enthusiasm and superstition could so completely infatuate the 
 human mind. An account of the crusades is given in Robertson's; 
 Charles the Fifth, and in Hume's History of England. Tasso's 
 Jerusalem Delivered, elegantly translated by Koole, is founded on 
 the crusades, and affords considerable amusement. 
 
 The Inquisition was a tribunal erected by the popes for the 
 examination and punishment of heretics. It was founded in the 
 twelfth century, by Father Domuiie and his followers, who were 
 sent by Pope Innocent the Third to inquire into the number and 
 quality of heretics, and then to send an account to Rome. Hence 
 they were termed Inquisitor* t and their court the Inqui. ition. This 
 infernal court was established in all Italy and the dominions of 
 Spain, except Naples and the Low Countries. Its cruelties were 
 shocking beyond description; and were only one half of the 
 bloody tale true, yet even then there is sufficient to freeze you 
 with horror ! See Dr Chandler's History of the Inquisition, 
 which is full of interesting information on the subject. 
 
 n f* 
 
 V J
 
 100 PROTESTANTS. 
 
 sion, &c. So swift was the extinction of know- 
 ledge, and its revival so impeded, that persons of 
 the greatest eminence in point of station could 
 scarcely read or write. The clergy themselves, 
 who engrossed what little science was remaining, 
 could scarcely translate the liturgy ; and, when 
 ordained, were expressly obliged to affirm, that 
 they could read the Gospels and Epistles, and 
 explain them. 
 
 " The REFORMATION was effected in the six- 
 teenth century, by the pious labours and unwea- 
 ried studies of those bright characters, Erasmus, 
 Luther, Huss, Jerome of Prague, Sec. and as it 
 should seem the particular act of Providence to 
 faciliate their labours, and extend their influence, 
 we find but half a century before the days of 
 LUTHER, the art of printing was discovered, and 
 not long before, that of the making of paper. 
 
 " This indefatigable Reformer, having the way 
 somewhat cleared for him by Erasmus, had the 
 happiness to discover a copy of the Bible in the 
 neglected library of his monastery. From so 
 valuable a discovery the talents and application 
 of this great man were called forth into more 
 than ordinary exercise ; and he quickly drew 
 aside the veil which had concealed the rooted 
 errors and abominations of the priesthood, and 
 exposed the craft and artifice which had deluded 
 the disciples, and disgraced the doctrine ef the
 
 PROTESTANTS. 101 
 
 cross. Unawed by persecution, he proceeded 
 coolly to examine into the several pretensions 
 and inventions of the church of Rome, and 
 overthrew them. He asserted and proved, that 
 monastic retirement, if not contrary to, was no 
 where required by the laws of God ; and pro- 
 posed to the Elector of Saxony, by whose per- 
 mission he reformed the several churches within 
 his dominions, to expel all abbots and monks, 
 and to convert the convents of mendicant friars 
 into public schools and hospitals. He proceeded 
 to expose all the absurdities and superstitions of 
 the Romish church, and had the satisfaction ta 
 see his cause prevail."- Birch's Consilia. 
 
 Dr. Robertson also observes : " It was from 
 causes seemingly fortuitous, and from a source 
 very inconsiderable, that all the mighty effects of 
 the REFORMATION flowed. Leo the Tenlli, when 
 raised to the Papal throne, found the revenues- 
 of the church exhausted by the vast projects of 
 his two ambitious predecessors, Alexander the 
 Sixth, and Julius the Second. His own temper,, 
 naturally liberal and enterprising, rendered him 
 incapable of that severe and patient economy 
 which the situation of his finances required. 
 On the contrary, his schemes for aggrandizing 
 the family of the Medici, his love of splendour,. 
 his taste for pleasure, and his magnificence in- 
 rewarding men of genius, involved him daily 
 
 * 3 iiBHAirr 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORK
 
 IOC PROTESTANTS. 
 
 in new expences; in order to provide a fund for 
 which, he tried every device that the fertile in- 
 vention of priests had fallen upon to drain the 
 credulous multitude. Among others, he had 
 recourse to a sale of indulgences. The right of 
 promulgating these indulgences in Germany, 
 together with a share in the profits arising from 
 the sale of them, was granted to Albert, Elector 
 of Mentz, and Archbishop of Magdeburg, who, 
 as his chief agent for retailing them in Saxony, 
 employed Tetzel, a Dominican friar, of licentious 
 morals, but of an active spirit, and remarkable 
 for his noisy and popular eloquence. He, as- 
 sisted by the monks of his order, executed the 
 commission with great zeal and success, but 
 with little discretion or decency ; and though, by 
 magnifying excessively the benefit of their in- 
 dulgences, and disposing of them at a very low 
 price, *hey carried on for some time an extensive 
 and lucrative traffic among the credulous multi- 
 tude; the extravagance of their assertions, as well 
 as the irregularities in their conduct, came at last 
 to give general offence. The princes and nobles 
 were irritated at seeing their vassals drained of so 
 much wealth, in order to replenish the treasury 
 of a profuse pontiff. Men of piety regretted the 
 delusion of the people, who, being taught to rely 
 for the pardon of their sins on the indulgences 
 which they purchased, did not think it incum-
 
 PROTESTANTS. 103 
 
 bent on them either to abound in faith or to prac- 
 tise holiness. Even the most unthinking were 
 shocked at the scandalous behaviour of Tetzel 
 and his associates, who often squandered in 
 drunkenness, gaming, and low debauchery, those 
 sums which were piously bestowed, in hopes of 
 obtaining eternal happiness; and all began to 
 wish that some check were given to this com- 
 merce, no less detrimental to society, than de- 
 structive to religion." 
 
 The corrupt state of the church prior to tlrt! 
 Reformation, is acknowledged by an author who 
 was both abundantly able to jud^e concerning 
 this matter, and who was not over forward t 
 confess it. " For some years (says Bellarmine) 
 before the Lutheran and Calvinistic heresies were 
 published, there was not, as contemporary au- 
 thors testify, any severity in ecclesiastical judica- 
 tories, any discipline with regard to morals, any 
 knowledge of sacred Jiterat.<.w> anrfreveiefrce for 
 ^r'v.u things ; there was not almost any religion 
 remaining." Such a remarkable confession, 
 made by the avowed champion of popery, should 
 not pass unnoticed by Protestants; and before 
 the enemies of Protestanism inveigh against the 
 Reformation, let them consider its absolute neces- 
 sity, 'and contemplate the innumerable advantages 
 with which it was attended. 
 
 A very curious symbolical representation of the 
 F 4
 
 304 PROTESTANTS. 
 
 REFORMATION was exhibited before Charles the 
 
 V. and his brother Ferdinand, at Augsburgh, 
 
 in 1530, at the time when the Lutherans presented 
 
 their confession of faith to that assembly. As 
 
 the princes were at table, a company of persons 
 
 offered to act a small comedy for theentertainment 
 
 of the company. They were ordered to begin : 
 
 and first entered a man in the dress of a doctor, 
 
 who brought a large quantity of small wood, of 
 
 straight and crooked billets, and laid it on the 
 
 iiddle of the hearth, and retired. On his back 
 
 was written Reuchlin. When this actor went off, 
 
 another entered apparelled also like a doctor, 
 
 who attempted to make faggots of the wood, 
 
 and to fit the crooked to the straight ; but having 
 
 laboured long to no purpose, he went away out 
 
 of humour, and shaking his head. On his back 
 
 appeared the name of Erasmus. A third, dressed 
 
 like an Augustinian monk, came in with a chaf- 
 
 jrig-cTis*n luTi ufr <ft v gathered up the crooked 
 
 wood, clapped it on the fire, and 'blew 'it tAlW 
 
 made it burn, and went away ; having upon his 
 
 frock the name of Luther. A fourth entered, 
 
 dressed like an emperor, who seeing the crooked 
 
 wood all on fire, seemed much concerned, and 
 
 to put it out, drew his sword, and poked the fire 
 
 with it, which only made it burn the brisker. On 
 
 his back was written Charles V . Lastly, a fifth 
 
 entered in his pontifical habit and triple crown,
 
 PROTESTANTS. 105 
 
 who seemed extremely surprised to see the crook- 
 ed billets all on fire, and by his countenance and 
 attitude betrayed excessive grief. Then looking 
 about on every side to see if he could find any 
 water to extinguish the flame, he cast his eyes 
 on two bottles in a corner of the room, one of 
 which was full of oil, and the other of water, and 
 in his hurry he unfortunately seized the oil, and 
 poured it on the fire, which unfortunately made 
 it blaze so violently, that he was forced to walk 
 off. On his back was written Leo X. /" 
 
 The reader, who is acquainted with the history 
 of the REFORMATION, will perceive the propriety 
 of the representations here given of those several 
 characters, who were instrumental in bringing 
 about that memorable event. 
 
 CHILLINGWORTH, addressing himself to a 
 Romish writer, speaks of the religion of Protest' 
 ants in the following term*, worthy to be in- 
 scribed in letters of gold. " Know then, Sir, 
 that when I say the rc/igion of Protestants is in 
 prudence to be preferred before your's; as, on 
 the one side, I do not understand by your religion 
 the doctrine of Belliirmine or Bat'onius? or any 
 other private man amongst you, nor -the doctrine 
 of the Sorbonne, or of the Jesuits, or of the Do- 
 minicans, or of any other particular company 
 among you, but that wherein you all agree, or 
 profess to agree, The Doctrine of the Council of
 
 J06 PROTESTANTS. 
 
 Trent: so accordingly on the other side, by the 
 religion of Protestants I do not understand the 
 doctrine of Luther, or Cahin, or Melancthon, 
 nor the confession of dugsberg or Geneva, nor 
 the catechism of Heidelberg, nor the articles of 
 the Church of England no, nor the harmony of 
 Protestant confessions; but that wherein they 
 all agree, and which they all subscribe with a 
 greater harmony, as a perfect rule of faith and 
 action, that is, THE BIBLE! The Bible, I 
 say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants." 
 Whatsoever else they believe besides it, and the 
 plain, irrefragable, indubitable consequences of 
 it, well may they hold it as a matter of opinion ; 
 but as a matter of faith and religion, neither can 
 they with coherence to their own grounds believe 
 it themselves, nor require belief of it of others, 
 without most high and most schismatical 'pre- 
 sumption. I, for my part, after a long (and as 
 I verily believe and hope) impartial search of the 
 true way to eternal happiness, do profess plainly, 
 that I cannot find any rest for the sole of my foot, 
 but upon this HOCK only. I see plainly, and with 
 my own eyes, that there are popes against popes, 
 and councils against councils; some fathers 
 against other fathers, the same fathers against 
 themselves ; a consent of fathers of one age 
 against a consent of fathers of another age ; tra- 
 ditive interpretations of scripture are pretended, 
 
 5
 
 PROTESTANTS. 107 
 
 but there are few or none to be found : no tradi- 
 tion but that of scripture can derive itself from 
 the fountain, but may be plainly proved either to 
 have been brought in, in such an age after Christ, 
 or that in such an age it was not in. In a word, 
 there is no sufficient certainty but of scripture 
 only for any considering man to build upon. 
 This, therefore, and this only, I have reason to 
 believe. This I will profess: according to this, 
 I will live ; and for this, if there be occasion, I 
 will not only willingly, but even gladly lose my 
 Jife, though 1 should be sorry that Christians 
 should take it from me. 
 
 " Propose me any thing out of the book, and 
 require whether I believe or no, and seem it 
 never so incomprehensible to human reason, I 
 will subscribe it with hand and heart, as know- 
 ing no demonstration can be stronger than this, 
 God hath said so, therefore it is true. In other 
 things I will take no man's liberty of judging 
 from him; neither shall any one take mine from 
 me. I will think no man the worse man, nor 
 the worse Christian ; I will love no man the 
 less for differing in opinion from me. And 
 what measure I mete to others, I expect from 
 them again. I am fully assured that God does 
 not, and therefore men ought not, to require 
 any more of any man than this : " To believe 
 the scripture to be God's word ; to endeavour to 
 
 F6
 
 108 PROTESTANTS. 
 
 jind the true sense of it, and to live according 
 t<> it*." Chillingworth's Works, fol. edit. 1742. 
 It may be proper to add, that Chillingworth was 
 a learned divine of the church of England, 
 
 * Our English translation of the Bible was made in the time 
 and by the appointment of James the First. According to Fuller, 
 the list of the translators amounted to forty-seven. This number 
 was arranged under six divisions, and several parcels of the Bible 
 assigned them. Every one of the company was to translate the 
 whole parcel; then they were to compare these together, and 
 when any company had finished their part they were to commu- 
 nicate it to the other companies, so that nothing should pass 
 without general consent. The names of the persons and places 
 where they met together, with the portions of scripture assigned 
 each company, are to be found in Johnson's Historical Account o 
 the several Translations of the Bible. These good and learned men 
 entered on their work in the spring 1607, and three years 
 elapsed before the translation was finished. 
 
 from the mutability of language, the variation of customs, 
 and the progress of knowledge, several passages in the Bible 
 require to be newly translated, or to be materially corrected. 
 Hence, in the present age, when biblical literature has been 
 assiduously cultivated, different parts of the sacred volume have 
 been translated by able hands. The substituting a new transla- 
 tion of the Bible in the room of the one now in common use, has 
 been much debated. Dr. Knox, in his ingenious essays, together 
 with others, argues against it ; whilst Dr. Neweome, the late 
 Lord Primate of Ireland, the late Dr Geddes, of the Catholic 
 persuasion, and the late Rev. Gilbert Wakefield, contended 
 strenuously for it. The correction of several passages, however, 
 would deprive Deists of many of their objections, prevent Chris- 
 tians from being misled inte some absurd opinions, and be the 
 means of making the scriptures more intelligible, and conse-. 
 queutly more beneficial to the world.
 
 PROTESTANTS.. 109 
 
 and lived in the reign of Charles the First. . In 
 the earlier part of lire he embraced the Romish 
 religion ; but having found, after the most im- 
 partial investigation, that it was false and incon- 
 clusive, he returned to the communion of the 
 church of England, and vindicated the Protestant 
 religion, in a work, entitled The Religion of 
 Protestants a Safe Way to Heaven. This work, 
 though a folio volume, has gone through many 
 editions, and continues to be held in estimation 
 even to the present day. He died at Chichester, 
 and was buried in the cathedral. I saw his mo- 
 nument there in the cloisters during the last 
 summer, and beheld it with veneration. 
 
 Before we quit the subject of the REFORMA- 
 TION, it may not be improper to add a short 
 account of the Lutherans, It has been already 
 said, that the Protestants were at first divided 
 into the Lutherans, who adhere to Luther's te- 
 nets, and the Reformed, who follow the doctrine 
 and discipline of Geneva. In other words, Lu- 
 
 Dr. Alexander Geddes, at his decease, had got as far as the 
 Psulitis in the translation of the Old Testament. Dr. Newcoino 
 and Mr. Wakefield published entire translations of the New 
 Testament. The Rev. Edmund Butcher, also, of Sidmouth, has 
 laid before the public a Family Bible, in which many of the 
 errors cf the common translation arc corrected, and notes added 
 by way of illustration, whilst the text, broken down into </u% 
 ktsanf, is happily adapted to the purposes of family dcvotioa>
 
 110 LUTHERANS. 
 
 ther was at the head of one party ; Calvin, the 
 chief of the other. The tenets of the latter have 
 been specified ; those of the former, therefore, 
 are the present subject of enquiry. 
 
 LUTHERANS. 
 
 THE Lutherans, of all Protestants, are those 
 who differ least from the Romish church, as they 
 affirm that the body and blood of Christ are ma- 
 terially present in the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, though in an incomprehensible manner 
 they likevyise represent some religious rites and 
 institutions, as the use of images in churches, the 
 distinguishing vestments of the clergy, the pri- 
 vate confession of sins, the use of wafers in the 
 administration of the Lord's Supper, the form of 
 exorcism in the celebration of baptism, and other 
 ceremonies of the like nature, as tolerable, and 
 some of them useful. The Lutherans maintafn 
 with regard to the divine decrees, that they re- 
 spect the salvation or misery of men in conse- 
 quence of a previous knowledge of their senti- 
 ments and characters, and not as founded on the 
 mere will of God, which is the tenet of the Gal- 
 vinists. Towards the close of the last century, 
 the Lutherans began to entertain a greater libe- 
 rality of sentiment than they had before adopted, 
 though in many places they persevered longer
 
 LUTHERANS. Ill 
 
 in severe and despotic principles than other Pro- 
 testant churches. Their public teachers now 
 enjoy an unbounded liberty of dissenting from 
 the decisions of those symbols of creeds, which 
 were once deemed almost infallible rules of faith 
 and practice, and of declaring their dissent in the 
 manner the*y judge most expedient. Mosheim 
 attributes this change in their sentiments to the 
 maxim which they generally adopted, that Chris- 
 tians were accountable to God alone for their 
 religious opinions ; and that no individual could 
 be justly punished by the magistrate for his erro- 
 neous opinions, while he conducted himself 
 like a virtuous and obedient subject, and made no 
 attempts to disturb the peace and order of civil 
 society. 
 
 It may be added, that Luther's opinion respect- 
 ing the sacrament, is termed Consubstantiation ; 
 and he supposed that the partakers of the Lord's 
 Supper received, along Kith the bread and wine, 
 the real body and blood ,of Christ. This, says 
 . Dr. Mosheim, in their judgment was a mystery, 
 which they did not pretend to explain. But his 
 translator, Dr. Maclaine, justly remarks, "That 
 Luther was not so modest as Dr. Mosheim here 
 represents him. He pretended to explain this 
 doctrine of the real presence, absurd and contra- 
 dictory as it is, and uttered much senseless jargon 
 on the subject. As in a red-hot iron, said he,
 
 LUTHERANS. 
 
 two distinct substances, viz. iron a/id fire , are 
 united, so is the body of Christ joined with the 
 bread in the eucharist. I mention this miserable 
 comparison, to shew into what absurdities the 
 towering pride of system will often betray men 
 of deep sense and true genius." 
 
 Such is the account given of the LUTHERANS 
 in a respectable work, and it appears to be found- 
 ed in truth. I shall only remark, that, according 
 to the above sketch, Luther differed considerably 
 from Calvin respecting election and reprobation ; 
 and as to the principle, that Christians are ac- 
 countable to God alone for their religious opi- 
 nions, it is a sentiment worthy of a great and ele^ 
 vuted mind. It is the comer-stone on which the 
 Reformation has been raised. It is the only true 
 foundation of religious improvement, and wher- 
 ever it is sincerely embraced, will check every 
 degree of unchar itableness and persecution, and 
 forward the blessed reign of love and charity 
 amongst the professors of Christianity*. 
 
 * In SieifPs well known Title of u Tub, he satirises three dis- 
 tinct classes of religious professors the Church of Rome, under 
 the appellation of Peter, whose keys for an admission into hea- 
 ven are supposed to be in their possession the Church of Eng- 
 land, under the name of Martin, because its reformation origin- 
 ated with Martin Luther and the Dissenters, under the name of 
 Jack, on account of the principles of John Calvin being so pre- 
 valent amongst them. It is fraught with that dry sarcastic wit 
 for which the writings of the dean of St. Patrick are distin- 
 guished.
 
 HUGONOTS. 113 
 
 HUGONOTS. 
 
 THE appellation Hugonots was given to the 
 French Protestants in 15(Jl. The term is (by 
 some) supposed to be derived from a gate iu 
 Tours, called Jlugon, where they first assem- 
 bled. According to others, the name is taken 
 from the first words of their original protest, or 
 confession of faith Hue nos venimus, &c. Dur- 
 ing the reign of Charles the Ninth, and on the 
 24th of August, 1572, happened the massacre 
 of Bartholomew, when 70,000 Protestants 
 throughout France were butchered, with circum- 
 stances of aggravated cruelty. It began at Paris 
 in the night of the festival of Bartholomew, by 
 secret orders from Charles the Ninth, at the 
 instigation of his mother, the Queen Dowager 
 Catherine de Medicis. See Sully's Memoirs, 
 and also a fine description of it in the second 
 canto of Voltaire's Henriade. 
 
 In 15Q8, Henry the Fourth passed the famous 
 Edict of Nantz, which secured to his old friends 
 the Protestants the free exercise of their religion. 
 This edict was cruelly revoked by Lewis the Four- 
 teenth. Their churches wore then razed to the 
 ground ; their persons insulted by the soldiery, 
 and, after the loss of innumerable lives, 500,000 
 valuable members of society were driven into 
 exile! In Holland they built several places of
 
 114 ' HUGONOTS. 
 
 worship, and had amongst them souse distin- 
 guished preachers. Among others were Super- 
 ville, Dumont, Dubosc, and the eloquent Saurin, 
 five volumes of whose select sermons were trans- 
 lated into our language by the late Mr. Robinson 
 of Cambridge, and the sixth by the late Dr. 
 Hunter. In one of these sermons Saurin makes 
 the following fine apostrophe to the tyrant, Lewis 
 the Fourteenth, by whom they were driven into 
 exile ; it breathes the noble spirit of Christianity : 
 " And thou, dreadful Prince, whom I once 
 honoured as my king, and whom I yet respect 
 as a scourge in the hand of Almighty God, thou 
 also shalt have a part in my good wishes ! These 
 provinces, which thou threatenest, but which the 
 arm of the Lord protects; this country, which 
 thou fillest with refugees, but fugitives animated 
 with love ; these walls, which contain a thousand 
 martyrs of thy making-, but whom religion ren- 
 ders victorious, all these yet resound benedic- 
 tions in thy favour. God grant the fatal ban- 
 dage that hides the truth from thy eyes may fall 
 off! May God forget the rivers of blood with 
 which thou hast deluged the earth, and which 
 thy reign hath caused to be shed ! May God blot 
 out of his book the injuries which thou hast done 
 us, and while he rewards the sufferers, may he 
 pardon those who exposed us to suffer! O may 
 God, who hath made thee to us, and to the
 
 HUGONOTS. 115 
 
 whole church, a minister of his judgments, make 
 thee a dispenser of his favours, and a^drninis- 
 irator of his mercy !" 
 
 About the time of the Revolution, 1688, there 
 were many controversies between the Protestant 
 and the Popish divines. Tillotson and Burner,, 
 two clergymen of the church of England, ren- 
 dered Protestantism great service by their writ- 
 ings ; and were, on that account, elevated to the 
 bench by King William of immortal memory. 
 There are also two excellent volumes of Sermons 
 against Popery, preached in the early part of 
 last century, by various Dissenting ministers, at 
 Sa/ter's Hall. Burnet's History of the Reformation, 
 and The History of his Own Times, published 
 after his death by his son, are two works which 
 throw light on the state of religion in the last and 
 preceding centuries among Papists, Churchmen, 
 and Dissenters. The merit of these publications, 
 particularly the latter, is appreciated by Dr. Kip- 
 pis, under the article Burnet, in the Biographia 
 Britannica. To these may now be added a De- 
 fence of Protestantism, by Dr. Sturges, in his an- 
 swer to Mr. Milner, (a Catholic priest) who, in 
 his History of Winchester, takes every opportu- 
 nity of reprobating the Protestant religion, and 
 of erecting on its ruins his beloved edifice of Po- 
 pery : Dr. S. shews the rise, progress, and ten- 
 dency of the Romish religion; animadverts with
 
 116 EPISCOPALIANS. 
 
 spirit on the calumnies by which his antagonist 
 bad endeavoured to blacken the characters of the 
 Reformers; and, finally, he proves the Protestant 
 religion, by its views of the Divine Being, and by 
 its regard for the rights of mankind, to be the 
 only true and primitive Christianity. 
 
 EPISCOPALIANS ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE Episcopalians, in the modern accepta- 
 tion of the term, belong more especially to the 
 Church of England, and derive this title from 
 Episcopus, the Latin word for bishop ; or, if it 
 be referred to its Greek origin, from Eirt over, 
 and Zxoweu to look, implying the care and dilgence 
 with which bishops are expected to preside over 
 those committed to their guidance and direction. 
 They insist on the divine origin of their bishops, 
 and other church officers, and on the alliance be- 
 tween church and state. Respecting these sub- 
 jects, however, Warburton and Hoad ley, together 
 with others of the learned amongst them, have 
 different opinions, as they have also on their 
 thirty-nine articles, which were established in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They are to be
 
 EPISCOPALIANS. 117 
 
 
 
 found in most Common Prayer- Books; and the 
 Episcopal church in America has reduced their 
 number to twenty. By some, these articles are 
 made to speak the language of Calvinism, and by 
 others have been interpreted in favour of Armi- 
 nianism. Even lately the controversy was agitated 
 and the publications of Overtoil, Kipling, and 
 Daubeny, together with the recent Charge of the 
 bishop of Lincoln, may be consulted on the sub- 
 ject. The doctrines and discipline of the Church 
 of England are nearly connected with the refor- 
 mation of Luther in Germany, and also with the 
 state of ecclesiastical affairs for a considerable 
 time before that reformation commenced. 
 
 Eusebius positively asserts, that Christianity 
 was first introduced into South Britain by the 
 apostles and their disciples ; and it is supposed 
 that the apostle Paul visited this country, whose 
 zeal, diligence, and fortitude, were abundant. It 
 is also said, that numbers of persons professed the 
 Christian faith here about the year 150; and ac- 
 cording to Usher, there was, in the year 182, a 
 school of learning, to provide the British churches 
 with proper teachers. On the subject of the first 
 introduction of Christianity into this Island, the 
 reader is referred to the first volume of Hemi/s 
 History of Great Britain, where his curiosity will 
 be gratified. Something on this interesting sub- 
 ject is expected soon to appear from the pen of
 
 118 WICKLIFF1TES AND LOLLARDS. 
 
 the Rev. William, Richards, of Lynn, wko is 
 known to possess an extensive and accurate 
 knowledge of the history of his own country. 
 It will be contained in a work which he is now 
 preparing for the press, entitled the Welsh Non- 
 conformist Memorial, or Cambrian Biography. 
 
 JOHN WICKLIFFE, educated at Oxford, in the 
 reign of Edward the Third, was the first person 
 in this country who publicly questioned, and 
 boldly refuted the doctrines of Popery. He left 
 behind him many followers, who were called 
 Wickliffites and Lollards; the latter being a term 
 of reproach taken from the Flemish tongue. In 
 the council of Constance, 1415, the memory and 
 opinions of Wickliffe (who died peaceably at 
 Lutterworth, 1384,) were condemned, and soon 
 after his bones were dug up and burnt. This im- 
 potent rage of his enemies served only to pro- 
 jnote the cause of reform which Wickliffe had 
 espoused. It is with a view to the subsequent 
 extension of his doctrine that the judicious Rapin 
 observes, " His ashes were thrown into the 
 brook which runs through the town of Lutter- 
 worth, the brook conveyed the ashes to the Se- 
 vern, and the Severn to the sea!" Some remains 
 of his old pulpit, in which he first broached his 
 doctrines, are said to be still seen at Lutterworth, 
 and are beheld by strangers with veneration. 
 
 The Church of England broke off from the
 
 WICKLIFFITES AND LOLLARDS. 
 
 Romish church in the time of Henry the Eighth, 
 when (as has been already related) Luther had 
 begun the reformation in Germany. During the 
 earlier part of his reign, Henry was a bigotted 
 Papist, burnt William Tyndal, who made one 
 of the first and best English translations of the 
 New Testament, and wrote fiercely in defence of 
 the seven sacraments against Luther, for which 
 the pope honoured him with the title of Defender 
 of the Faith! This title is retained by the kings 
 of England even to the present day, though they 
 are the avowed enemies of that Faith, by con- 
 tending for which he acquired that honourable 
 distinction. Henry, falling out with the pope, 
 took the government of ecclesiastical affairs into 
 his own /hands; and, having reformed many 
 enormous abuses, entitled himself Supreme Head 
 of the Church. 
 
 When the Reformation in England first took 
 place, efforts were made to promote the reading 
 of the Scriptures among the common people. 
 Among other devices for the purpose, the follow- 
 ing curious one was adopted : Bonner, Bishop 
 of London, caused six Bibles to be chained to 
 certain convenient places in St. Paul's church, 
 for all that were so well inclined to resort there; 
 
 s 
 
 together with, a certain admonition to the readers, 
 fastened upon the pillars to which the Bibles were 
 chained, to this tenor : " That whosoever caine
 
 1GO WICKLIFFITES AND LOLLARDS. 
 
 there to read, should prepare himself to be edi- 
 fied, and made the better thereby ; that he bring 
 with hitn discretion, honest intent, charity, re- 
 verence, and quiet behaviour ; that there should 
 no such number meet together there as to make 
 a multitude ; that no such exposition be made 
 thereupon but what is declared in the book itself; 
 that it be not read with noise in time of divine 
 service, or that any disputation or contention be 
 used about it; that in case they continued their 
 former misbehaviour, and refused to comply with 
 these directions, the king would be forced against 
 his will to remove the occasion, and take the 
 Bible out of the church." See Johnson's His- 
 torical account of the several English Translations 
 of the Bible, and the opposition they met with 
 from the Church of Rome. 
 
 The Church of England is governed by the 
 KINO, who is the supreme head ; by two arch- 
 bishops, and by twenty-four bishops. The bene- 
 fices of the bishops were converted by William 
 the Conqueror into temporal baronies; so that 
 every prelate has a seat and vote in the House of 
 Peers. Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, however, in a 
 sermon preached from this text, My kingdom is 
 not of this world, insisted that the clergy had no 
 pretensions to temporal jurisdictions ; which gave 
 rise to various publications, termed by way of 
 eminence the Hungarian Controversy, for Hoad-
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ley was then bishop of Bangor*. There is a 
 bishop of Sodor and Man, who has no seat in the 
 House of Peers ; and a late prelate of this see 
 was the amiahle and learned Dr. Wilson. Since 
 the deaih of the intolerant Archbishop Laud, men 
 of moderate principles have beesn raised to the see 
 of Canterbury, and this hath tended not a little to 
 the tranquillity of church and state. The esta- 
 blished church of Ireland is the same as the 
 church of England, and is governed by four arch* 
 bishops and eighteen bishops. Since the union 
 of Ireland with Great Britain, four only of these 
 spiritual lords sit in the House of Lords, assem- 
 bled at Westminster. 
 
 In the course of the last century disputes arof 
 among the English clergy respecting the propriety 
 of subscribing to any human formulary of reli- 
 gious sentiments. An application for its removal 
 was made to Parliament in 1772, by the petition- 
 ing clergy, and received, as it deserved, the most 
 public discussion in the House of Commons. The 
 third edition of Archdeacon Blackburn's excellent 
 Confessional, was published 1770, two years pre- 
 vious to the presentation of this clerical petition, 
 when the long controversy, inconsequence of the 
 
 * The memory of this eminent prelate has been inu'tt'd 
 >Ir. Milner in his History of Jf'iicVster, but Mr. Hudi.j A 
 and Dr. Sturgei have amply vindicated it.
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 work, was closed, and indeed introductory to the 
 application to Parliament pending, by which the 
 .controversy was renewed. Mr. Dyea's Treatise 
 against Subscription appeared many years after- 
 wards. Some respectable clergymen were so im- 
 pressed with the impropriety of subscription, that 
 they resigned their livings, and published reasons 
 for their conduct. Among these, the names of 
 Robertson, Jebb, Matty, Lindsey, and Disney, 
 will be long remembered. Several others, indeed, 
 resigned preferments held by the same tenure 
 for similar reasons, without giving such reasons 
 to the public, as Mr. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Wakefield, 
 &c. and it has been said that many more reluc- 
 tantly continue in their conformity, under the 
 contest between their convictions and their ina- 
 bility from various causes to extricate themselves, 
 but who will never repeat their subscriptions. 
 The Rev. T. Lindsey, however, withdrew from 
 the church, because he objected to the Trinity; 
 professing to worship the Father only as one true 
 God, to the exclusion of Jesus Christ and of the 
 Holy Spirit, as objects of worship. See " The 
 Book of Common Prayer Reformed," used at 
 Essex Street chapel,; a new edition of which has 
 been lately published. 
 
 Attempts have been made to amend tlae articles, 
 ithe liturgy, and some things which related to the 
 internal government of the church of England. 
 Dr . Watson, the present bishop of Landaff, wrote
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 123 
 
 a Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 
 year 1781, in which he argues for the propriety 
 of a more equal distribution of salary among 
 the different orders of the clergy. But this plan, 
 projected by the worthy prelate, together with 
 the preceding proposals for reform by the authors 
 of the Free and Candid Disquisitions, and of the 
 Appeal to Reason and Candour, have been suf- 
 fered to sink into oblivion. The church of Eng- 
 land has produced a succession of eminent men. 
 Among its ornaments are to be reckoned Usher? 
 Hall, Taj/lor, Stilling feet, Cudicorth, Wilkins, 
 Til lot son, Cumberland, Barrow, Burnet, Pearson, 
 Hammond, IVhitby, Clarke, Hoadley, Jortin, 
 Seeker, Home, Lowth, and Waruwton. In the 
 Appendix to Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History r 
 will be found a circumstantial account of the 
 correspondence carried on in the year 1718, be- 
 tween Dr. William Wake, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, and certain doctors of the Sorbonne of 
 Paris, relative to a project of union between the 
 English and Gallican churches. Hookers Eccle- 
 siastical Polity, Pearson on the Creed, Burnet on 
 the Thirty-nine Articles, and Bishop Prettyman's 
 Elements of Theology*, are deemed the best de- 
 fences of Episcopacy. 
 
 * Mr. William Fiiend, the celebrated mathematician, late ol' 
 Cambridge, published a series of Letters to this prelate, by way of 
 reply to certain passages in his Elements of Theology. 
 <5 2
 
 l-<24' CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 In Scotland, and other parts, since the revolu- 
 tion, there existed a species of Episcopalians called 
 Non-jursrs, because being inflexibly attached to 
 the Stuarts, who were then driven from the 
 throne, they refused to take the oath of allegiance 
 to the Brunswick family. On the decease, how- 
 ever, of the Pretender, whom the Non-jurors 
 styled Prince Charles, and who died at Rome, 
 1788, they complied with the requisition of go- 
 vernment, and now the distinction is abolished. 
 An account of them will be found in Bishop 
 Skinner's Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 The Reformation in England, began under 
 the auspices of Henry the Eighth, was greatly 
 checked by Mary, who proceeded like a fury 
 lo re-establish Popery. In he r sanguinary reign 
 were burnt one archbishop, four bishops, twenty- 
 one divines, eight gentlemen, one hundred and 
 eighty-four artificers, and one hundred husband- 
 men, servants, and labourers ; twenty-six wives, 
 twenty widows, and nine virgins, two boys, and 
 two infants!!! On the death of Mary, 1558, 
 Elizabeth ascended the throne, repealed the laws 
 which had been established in favour of Popery, 
 and restored her supremacy. In these matters 
 she wonderfully succeeded, since of 9,400 bene- 
 ficed clergymen, about 120 only refused to com- 
 ply with the Reformation. The establishment of 
 Protestantism in England underwent various flue-
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 12*5 
 
 tuations, till the glorious revolution under Wil- 
 liam, in \6$8, placed it on a firm and permanent 
 foundation. The family of the Stuarts were bit- 
 ter enemies to the civil and religious liberties of' 
 their subjects, and violently attached to Popery. 
 Dr. Goldsmith tells us, in his History of England 1 , 
 that James the Second, in endeavouring to convert 
 his subjects to the Popish religion, descended 
 so low as Colonel Kirke. But that daring and 
 unprincipled soldier assured his majesty that he 
 was pre-engaged, for that if ever he did change 
 his religion, he had promised the E;uperor of 
 Morocco, when quartered at Tangier, to turn 
 Mahometan f 
 
 Mr. Gisborne, in his excellent Familiar Sur- 
 vey of the Christian Religion) has the following 
 remarks on Church government : " In every 
 community or body of men, civil or ecclesiasti- 
 cal, some species of government is requisite for 
 the good of the whole. Otherwise all is irregu- 
 larity, and interminable confusion. How then 
 in any particular country is the Christian church 
 to be governed ? ' Every separate congreg.a*- 
 tion/ answers the Independent, * is a sovereign 
 church, amenable to no extrinsic jurisdiction, and 
 entitled to no jurisdiction over other churches." 
 'That mode of government,' replies the Prts- 
 fyyterian, ' is calculated to destroy union, co- 
 operation, and concord among Christians. Ali 
 G 3
 
 126 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 congregations within the same, which agree in 
 doctrine, ought to be under the general superin- 
 tendence of a representative assembly, composed 
 of their ministers and delegates.' ' Such a re- 
 presentative assembly,' returns the Episcopalian, 
 ' wants vigour and dispatch, and is perpetually 
 open to tumult, and partiality, and faction. Di- 
 vide the country into dioceses, and station a 
 bishop in each, armed with sufficient authority, 
 and restrained by adequate laws from abusing it. 
 Such was the apostolic government of the church 
 such, perhaps,' he adds, ' was the govern- 
 ment enjoined on succeeding ages.' ' Away/ 
 cries the Papist, ' with these treasonable discus- 
 sions. The pope, the successor of St. Peter, is 
 by divine right the only source of ecclesiastical 
 power, the universal monarch of the universal 
 church !' 
 
 " Writing as I am to Protestants, I may pass 
 by the claim of the successor of St. Peter. But 
 the concluding words of the Episcopalian are of 
 prime importance. If Christ or his apostles en- 
 joined the uniform adoption of Episcopacy, the 
 question is decided. Did Christ then or his apos- 
 tles deliver or indirectly convey such an injunc- 
 tion ? This topic has been greatly controverted. 
 The fact appears to be this that our Saviour did 
 not pronounce upon the subject ; that the apos- 
 tles uniformly established a bishop in every dis-
 
 DISSENTERS. 127 
 
 trict, as soon as the church in that district became 
 numerous; and thus clearly evinced their judg- 
 ment as to the form of ecclesiastical government, 
 most advantageous at least in those days to 
 Christianity: but they left no command, which 
 rendered Episcopacy universally indispensible in 
 future times, if other forms should evidently pro- 
 mise, through local opinions and circumstances, 
 greater benefit to religion. Such is the general 
 sentiment of the present church of England on 
 the subject." Bishop Pretty man has expressed 
 himself much after the same manner in his Ele- 
 ments of Theology*. 
 
 DISSENTERS. 
 
 Dissenters from the church of England made 
 their first appearance in Queen Elizabeth's time, 
 when, on account of the extraordinary purity 
 which they proposed in religious worship and 
 conduct, they were reproached with the name of 
 Puritans. They were greatly increased by the 
 
 * As the established church in Ireland is the same with that 
 of England so are also the Dissenters of much the same com- 
 plexion. The Papists, indeed, are very numerous there, as are 
 likew ise the Presbyterians in the North of Ireland. Aberuethy, 
 who wrote on the Attributes of God, and Duchal, who wrote on 
 the Internal Evidences of Christianity, were ministers of eminence 
 amongst them. 
 
 G 4
 
 128 BISSENTEBS* 
 
 act of uniformity, which took place on Bartho- 
 lomew-day, 1662, in the reign of Charles the 
 Second. By this act 2,000 ministers were 
 obliged to quit the established church, refusing 
 to conform to certain conditions, whence they 
 were called 'Nonconformists. An instructive 
 and entertaining account of the lives, literature, 
 and piety of these good men, is to be found in 
 Palmer's Nonconfort..lit's Memorial, of which 
 work there is a new and improved edition, lately 
 published, in three volumes. Their descendants 
 are known by the name of Protestant Dissenters, 
 and rank under the three denominations of Pres- 
 byterians, Independents, and Baptists. 
 
 Of the origin and progress of the Dissenter?, 
 a full account is contained in deal's History of 
 the Puritans*, an improved edition of which 
 work has been published by Dr. Toulmin of Bir- 
 mingham, who has accompanied it with notes, 
 jn which are obviated the objections which have 
 been made to it by Grey, Macldox, Warburton, 
 and others. Here the historian traces, step by 
 
 * It is remarkable, that little notice is taken in this work of 
 John Bunyan, the celebrated author of the Pilgrim's Progress j 
 he was twelve years in Bedford goal, and therefore deserves tQ 
 have been particularly mentioned, were it only for his sufferings 
 as a Protestant Dissenter. But Crosby, iu his History of the Pa~ 
 l<isls, accuses Noal of not having treated the BaptisU in that work 
 with impartiality.
 
 DISSENTERS. 
 
 step, the differences which originally occasioned 
 the separation, and an affecting narrative is given 
 of the sufferings which our forefathers underwent 
 in the cause of religious liberty. A brief history 
 of the Puritans also was published in 1772, of 
 which the author, the Rev. J. Cornish, of Cul- 
 liton, has given an enlarged and pleasing edition. 
 The principles on which the Dissenters separate 
 from the church of England are much the same 
 with those on which she separates herself from 
 the church of Rome. They may be summarily 
 comprehended in these three: 1. The right of 
 private judgment. 2. Liberty of Conscience. 
 And 3. The perfection of scripture as a Chris- 
 turn's only rule of faith and practice. 
 
 The late Dr. John Taylor, of Norwich, thus- 
 expressed himself concerning the principles and 
 worship of the Dissenters: " The principles 
 and worship of Dissenters are not formed upon 
 such slight foundation as the, unlearned and 
 thoughtless may imagine. They were thorough- 
 ly considered and judiciously, reduced to the- 
 standard of scripture and the writings of anti- 
 quity, by a great number of men of learning 
 and integrity. I mean the Bartholomew divines,, 
 or the ministers- ejected in the year l66, men 
 prepared to lose all, and to suffer martyrdom* 
 itself, and who actually reigned their livings^ 
 (which with most of them \v<*re> under God, alii 
 G o
 
 130 DISSENTERS. 
 
 that they and their families had to subsist upon,), 
 rather than sin against God and desert the cause 
 of civil and religious liberty, which, together 
 with serious religion, would, I am persuaded, 
 have sunk to a very low ebb in the nation, had 
 it not been for the bold and noble stand these 
 worthies made against imposition upon con- 
 science, prophaneness, and arbitrary power. 
 They had the best education England could af- 
 ford, most of them were excellent scholars, judi- 
 cious divines, pious, faithful, and laborious mi- 
 nisters, of great zeal for God and religion, un- 
 daunted and courageous in their Master's work, 
 standing close to their people in the worst of 
 times, diligent in their studies,' solid, affectionate, 
 powerful, awakening preachers, aiming at the 
 advancement of real vital religion in the hearts 
 and lives of men, which it cannot be denied, 
 flourished greatly wherever they could influence. 
 Particularly they were men of great devotion and 
 eminent abilities in prayer, uttering as God 
 enabled them from the abundance of their hearts 
 and affections ; men of divine eloquence in 
 pleading at the throne of grace, raising and 
 melting the affections of their hearers, and being 
 happily instrumental in transfusing into their 
 souls the same spirit and heavenly gift. And this 
 was the ground of ail their other qualifications; 
 they were excellent men^ because excellent,
 
 DISSENTERS. 131 
 
 instant, and fervent in prayer. Such were the 
 fathers and Jirst formers of the Dissenting in- 
 terest. Let my soul be for ever with the, souls of 
 these men." 
 
 The Test Act excludes Dissenters from filling 
 public offices, except they take the sacrament at 
 the established church, which some think cannot 
 be consistently done by any conscientious Dis- 
 senter. Hence loud complaints have been raised 
 respecting this exclusion, since, as members of 
 the civil community, they are entitled to all the 
 common privileges of that community. The 
 Test Act was originally levelled against the Ro- 
 man Catholics. The Dissenters have made 
 several unsuccessful applications for its repeal. 
 The question was warmly agitated in the House 
 of Commons, 1787, and on each side numerous 
 publications issued from the press. The chief 
 argument urged for the continuance of ihe Test 
 Act is, the safety of the established church. The 
 principal arguments alledged for its repeal are, 
 that it is a prostitution*^' the Lord's Supper, and 
 that to withhold civil rights on account of religious 
 opinions, is a species of persecution. 
 
 The Dissenters, as a body, have not been un- 
 fruitful of great and learned men* Among their 
 ornaments are to be ranked Baxter, Bates, Howe, 
 Owen, Williams, Neal, Henry, Stennet, Evans, 
 Gale, Foster, Leland, Grosvenor, Watts, Lard- 
 c 6
 
 132 KIUK OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 ner, Abernethy, Doddridge, Grove, Chandler, 
 Gill, Orton, Furneaux, Farmer, Towgood, Ro- 
 binson, Price, Kippis, and Priestley. Though 
 it may happen that among Dissenters sufficient 
 encouragement is not given in certain cases to 
 men of talents and integrity, yet among their 
 more liberal denominations, it must be confessed, 
 that a Dissenting minister may, unawed by a 
 conclave of cardinals a bench of bishops or a 
 board of ministers exercise in its fullest extent 
 the right of private judgment, which is the pride 
 and pleasure of the human mind. In Pierce's 
 Vindication of the Dissenters, Towgood's Letters 
 to White, and Palmer's Protestant Dissenters Ca- 
 techism, are stated the grounds upon which their 
 dissent from ike established church is founded. 
 
 KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 THE members of the Kirk of Scotland are, 
 strictly speaking, the only Presbyterians in 
 Great Britain. Their mode of ecclesiastical go- 
 \ernment was brought thither from Geneva by 
 John Knox, the celebrated Scotch Reformer, 
 who has been styled the apostle of Scotland, for 
 the same reason that Luther was called the apostk 
 of Germany. 
 
 Contrary to the Episcopalians, the Presbyle-
 
 KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 riatis maintain that the church should be govern- 
 ed by Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assem- 
 blies. The title Presbyterian comes from the 
 Greek word U^ta^vri^, which signifies senior or 
 elder. In the Kirk of Scotland there are fifteen 
 synods and sixty-nine presbyteries. Their arti- 
 cles are Culvinistic, and their General Assembly 
 is held annually in the month of May at Edin- 
 burgh. Dreadful scenes took place in Scotland 
 previous to the establishment of Presbytcrianism 
 in its present form at the revolution, and its con- 
 firmation in 1700, by the act of union between 
 the two kingdoms. During the commonwealth, 
 Presbyterianism was the established religion, but 
 on the restoration Episcopacy was introduced in 
 its room. So averse, however, were the Scotch 
 to the Episcopalians, and so harsh were the mea- 
 sures of the Episcopalian party, that the whole 
 country was thrown into confusion. Leighton, 
 the most pious and modern prelate amongst 
 them, disgusted with the proceedings of his bre- 
 thren, resigned his bishopric, and told the king, 
 " He would not have a hand in such oppressive 
 measures, were he sure to plant the Christian re- 
 ligion in an infidel country by them ; much less 
 when they tended only to alter the form of church 
 government." On the other hand, Sharp, Arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrew's, adopted violent measures, 
 which terminated in his death. For in 1()7S>, nice
 
 134 SECEDliRS. 
 
 ruffians stopped his coach near St. Andrew's, 
 assassinated him, and left his body covered with 
 thirty-two wounds. On the monument of this 
 unfortunate prelate, in one of the churches of 
 St. Andrew's, I have seen an exact representa- 
 tion in elegant sculpture of this tragical event. 
 
 It was in these troubled times that the Presby- 
 terians drew up their famous solemn league and 
 covenant, whereby they bound themselves to ef- 
 fect the extirpation of episcopacy ; and however 
 useful they may have found it, } T et, assuredly, 
 it was not dictated by the spirit of true religion. 
 The Scotch church, however, is now consider- 
 ably improved in sentiment and liberality, and 
 some of their clergy stand foremost in the several 
 departments of literature. Robertson, Henry, 
 Leechman, Blacklock, Gerard, Campbell, Blair, 
 and Hunter, all deceased within these few years, 
 are among its principal ornaments. In a selection 
 of sermons, entitled the Scotch Preacher, will be 
 found a pleasing specimen of the pulpit compo- 
 sitions of the Scotch clergy, delivered on parti- 
 cular occasions. 
 
 SECEDERS. 
 
 DISSEiNTERS from the Kirk or Church of 
 Scotland, call themselves Seceders ; for as the term 
 Dissenters comes from the Latin word dissentio f
 
 SECEDERS. 135 
 
 to differ, so the appellation Seceder is derived 
 from another Latin word, secedo, to separate or 
 to withdraw from any body of men with which 
 we may have been united. The Seceders are 
 rigid Calvinists, rather austere in their manners, 
 and severe in their discipline. Through a differ- 
 ence as to civil matters they are broken down 
 into Burghers and Anti-burghers. Of these two 
 classes the latter are the most confined in their 
 sentiments, and associate therefore the least with 
 any other body of Christians. The Seceders ori- 
 ginated under two brothers, Ralph and Ebenezer 
 Erskine, about the year 1730. It is worthy of 
 observation, that the Rev. George Whitfield, 
 in one of his visits to Scotland, was solemnly 
 reprobated by the Seceders, because he refused 
 to confine his itinerant labours wholly to them. 
 The reason assigned for this monopolization was, 
 that they were EXCLUSIVELY God's people! Mr. 
 Whitfield smartly replied, that they had there- 
 fore the less need of his services, for his aim was 
 to turn sinners from the error and wickedness of 
 their ways by preaching among them glad tidings 
 of great joy. 
 
 There is also a species of Dissenters from the 
 church of Scotland called Relief, whose only 
 difference from the Kirk is, the choosing of their 
 own pastors. They are respectable as to numbers 
 aad ability.
 
 SECEDERS. 
 
 The Reformation in Scotland, like that in Eng- 
 land and Germany, struggled with a long series 
 of opposition, and was at length gloriously tri- 
 umphant. Dr. Gilbert Stewart closes his History 
 of the Reformatinn in North Britain with the 
 following animated reflections : 
 
 " From the order and the laws of our nature, 
 it perpetually happens that advantages are mixed 
 with misfortune. The conflicts which led to a 
 purer religion, while they excite under one aspect 
 the liveliest transports of joy, create in another a 
 mournful sentiment of sympathy and compassion. 
 Amidst the felicities which were obtained, and 
 the trophies which were won, we deplore the me- 
 lancholy ravages of the passions, and weep over 
 the ruins of ancient magnificence. But while the 
 contentions and the ferments of men, even in 
 the road to improvements and excellence, are 
 -ever destined to be polluted with mischief and 
 blood; a tribute of the highest panegyric and 
 praise is yet justly to be paid to the actors in the 
 reformation. They gave way to the movements- 
 of a liberal and a resolute spirit. They taught 
 the rulers of nations that the obedience of the 
 subject is the child of justice,. and that men must 
 be governed by their opinions and their reason. 
 This magnanimity is illustrated by great and con- 
 spicuous exploits, which at the same time that 
 they awaken admiration, are an example to sup-
 
 SECEDERS. 137 
 
 port and animate virtue in the hour of trial and 
 peril. The existence of civil liberty was deeply 
 connected with the doctrines for which they con* 
 tended and fought. While they treated witti. 
 scorn an abject and cruel superstition, and lifted 
 ami sublimed the dignity of man, by calling his 
 attention to a simpler and wiser theology, they 
 were strenuous to give a permanent security to 
 the political constitutioa of their state. The 
 happiest and the best interests of society were the 
 objects for which they buckled on their armour, 
 and to wish and to act for their duration and sta- 
 bility, ure perhaps the most important employ- 
 ments of patriotism and public affection. The 
 Reformation may suffer fluctuation in its forms, 
 but, for the good and the prosperity of mankind, 
 it is to be hoped that it is never to yield and to 
 submit to the errors and the superstitions it over- 
 whelmed." 
 
 Having mentioned that the church of Scotland 
 is composed of a General .Assembly, Synods, and 
 Presbyteries, to these must be added the Kirk 
 Sessions, made up of the Pastor, Ruling Elders, 
 and Deacons; though the business of the last is 
 to attend to the temporalities of the church. Nor 
 ought it to be forgotten that both classes of the 
 Seccders and the Relief body, including about 
 three hundred ministers, are strict Presbyterians, 
 notwithstanding their secession, or dissent froiu 
 the Scotch Establishment.
 
 138 ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 BUT the appellation Presbyterian is in Eng- 
 land appropriated to a large denomination of Dis- 
 senters> who have no attachment to the Scotch 
 mode of church government, any more than to 
 Episcopacy amongst us, and therefore to this 
 body of Christians the term Presbyterian in its 
 original sense is improperly applied.- How this 
 misapplication came to pass cannot be easily 
 determined, but it has occasioned many wrong 
 notions, and should be rectified. English Pres- 
 byterians, as they are called, adopt the same 
 mode of church government with the Independ- 
 ents, which is the next sect to be mentioned. 
 Their chief difference from the Independents is, 
 that they are less attached to Calvinism, and con- 
 sequently admit a greater latitude of religious 
 sentiment. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge in his Lectures has this para- 
 graph on the subject, which may serve still fur- 
 ther for its illustration : " Those who hold every 
 pastor to be as a bishop or overseer of his own 
 congregation, so that no other person or body of 
 men have by divine institution a power to exercise 
 any superior or pastoral office in it, may, pro- 
 perly speaking, be called (so far at least) congre- 
 gational ; and it is by a vulgar mistake that any 
 such are called Presbyterians, for the Presbytc-
 
 INDEPENDENTS. 
 
 rian discipline is exercised by synods and assem- 
 blies, subordinate to each other, and all of them 
 subject to the authority of what is commonly 
 called a General Assembly." This mode of church 
 government is to be found in Scotland, and has 
 been already detailed under a former article in 
 this work. 
 
 INDEPENDENTS. 
 
 THE Independents, or Congregaiioftalists, deny 
 not only the subordination of the clergy, but also 
 all dependency on other assemblies. Every con- 
 gregation (say they) has in itself what is neces- 
 sary for its own government, and is not subject 
 to other churches, or to their deputies. Thus this 
 independency of one church with respect to ano- 
 ther has given rise to the appellation Independ- 
 ents; though this mode of church government 
 is adopted by the Dissenters in general. The 
 Independents have been improperly confounded 
 with the Brozcnists, for notwithstanding they 
 may have originally sprung from them, they ex- 
 cel them in the moderation of their sentiments, 
 and in the order of their discipline. The first 
 Independent or Congregational Church in Eng- 
 land was established by a Mr. Jacob, in the year
 
 J40 BKOV'MSTS PJEDOBAPTISTS. 
 
 I6l6; though a Mr. Robinson appears to have 
 been the founder of this sect. 
 
 BROWXISTS. 
 
 THE Brownisls, which have been just men- 
 tioned, were the followers of Robert Broun, a 
 clergyman of the church of England, who lived 
 about 1000. He inveighed against the ceremo- 
 nies and discipline of the church, separated him- 
 self from her communion, and afterwards re- 
 turned into her bosom. He appears to have been 
 a persecuted man, of violent passions. He died 
 in Northampton gaol, 1630, after boasting that 
 he had been committed to thirty-two prisons, in 
 some of which he could not see his hand at nooa 
 day! 
 
 PJEDOBAPTISTS. 
 
 BEFORE we proceed to the Baptists, it will 
 be necessary just to remark, that all persons who 
 baptize wfanls, are denominated P&dobuptists, 
 from the Greek word nK, which signifies child 
 or infant, and Banrru, to baptize. Of course the 
 Established Church, the Presbyterians both in 
 Scotland and England, together with the Inde- 
 pendents, are all Padobaptists; that is, baptizers 
 of infants or children. Their reasons for thi*
 
 141 
 
 practice are to be found in Wall, Towgood, Ad- 
 dington, Williams, Horsey, Edwards, and others, 
 who have expressly written on the subject with 
 learning and ingenuity. They rest their argu- 
 ments principally on the following circumstan- 
 ces: That baptism has succeeded instead of the 
 rite of circumcision ; that households, probably 
 (say they) including children, were baptized ; 
 that Jesus shewed an affectionate regard for 
 children ; and finally, that it is the means of im- 
 pressing the minds of parents with a sense of the 
 duties which they owe their offspring, upon the 
 right discharge of which depend the welfare and 
 happiness of the rising generation.- Persons, 
 therefore, engage themselves as sponsors in the 
 Established Church, who promise that they will 
 take care of the morals of the children ; among 
 other sects the parents are made answerable, who 
 indeed are the most proper persons to undertake 
 the arduous task, and to see it duly accomplished. 
 Dr. Priestley published a Letter to an Jnti-pcedo- 
 bapiist, in which he endeavours to prove the 
 Baptism of Infants, from the testimony of the 
 Fathers, to which the Rev. Job David, of Taun- 
 ton, has, in a small pamphlet, made a reply. 
 These preliminary remarks were necessary to 
 lender a sketch of the Baptists the more intelli- 
 gible. We shall therefore proceed to that deno- 
 mination.
 
 142 BAPTISTS. 
 
 GENERAL AND PARTICULAR. 
 
 THE Baptists are distinguished from other de- 
 nominations respecting the mode and subject of 
 baptism. They contend that this ordinance 
 should be administered by immersion only, which 
 indeed is enjoined, though not practised, by the 
 church of England. They also assert, that it 
 should be administered to those alone who pro- 
 fess their belief in the Christian religion, and 
 avow their determination of regulating their lives 
 by its precepts. .Some of the learned, however, 
 suppose that the controversy is not so properly 
 whether infants or adults should be baptized, as 
 whether the rite should be administered on the 
 profession of our own faith, or on that of ano- 
 ther's faith. See Letters addressed to Bishop 
 Hoadley, by the late Mr. Foot, a General Bap- 
 tist at Bristol. 
 
 The Baptists are divided into the General, who 
 are Arminians, and into the Particular, who are 
 Calvinists. Some of both classes allow mixed 
 communion, by which is understood, that those 
 who have not been baptized by immersion on the 
 profession of their faith (but in their infancy, 
 which they themselves deem valid) may sit down 
 at the Lord's table along with those who have 
 been thus baptized. This has given rise to some 
 2
 
 BAPTISTS. 143 
 
 little controversy on tl>e subject. Mr. Killing- 
 worth and Mr. Abraham Booth have written 
 against free communion ; but John Bunyan, Dr. 
 James Foster, Mr. Charles Bulkely, Mr. John 
 Wiche, (or many years a respectable General 
 Baptist minister at Maidstone, and Mr. Robin- 
 son, of Cambridge, have contended for it. It is 
 to be regretted that such -disputes should ever have 
 arisen, since they have contributed in no small 
 xlegree to injure the repose, and retard the pros- 
 perity of the Christian Church. An Address to 
 the Opposers of Free Communion, written by the 
 late venerable Micaijah Towgood, will be found 
 at the end of his Life, by Mr. James Manning, 
 well worth attention*. 
 
 The General Baptists have, in some. of their 
 churches, three distinct orders separately ordain- 
 ed Messengers, Elders, and Deacons ; and their 
 General Assembly (when a minister preaches, and 
 the affairs of the churches are taken into consi- 
 
 * It is a circumstance worthy of being recorded, and the truth 
 of which was lately confirmed to me by the Rev. Thomas Duns- 
 combe, latf of Coates, near Oxford, that a gentleman of Clapham 
 left a sum to be distributed among several Baptist churches, who 
 should not forbid a Pa;dobaptist from sitting down with them at 
 the Lord's table. This singular legacy displays, in a striking point 
 of view, the liberality of the deceased, and reflects an honour 
 on his memory. The circumstance has but recently come to my 
 knowledge, otherwise it should have been recorded iu former edi- 
 tions.
 
 144 ADULT BAPTISM. 
 
 deration) is held annually in Worship-street, Lon- 
 don, on the Tuesday in the ll'lritmn rceek ; it 
 used to be on the Wednesday, but is changed for 
 the convenience of ministers who attend it from 
 the country. They have thus met together for 
 upwards of a century. Dr. John Gale, a learned 
 General Baptist, had a famous controversy, in the 
 beginning of the last century, with Dr. Wall, 
 v. ho defended the practice of baptizing infants. 
 But there has been a more recent controversy on 
 the subject, between Mr. Abraham Booth and 
 Dr. Williams. The appellation Anabaptist, which 
 comes from two Greek words, and signifies to 
 re-baptize, is sometimes applied to this denomina- 
 tion of Christians. But this is an unjust accusa- 
 tion brought against them by their adversaries, 
 and being deemed a term of reproach, ought to 
 be wholly laid aside. The late Mr. Robinson 
 published a valuable work, entitled The History 
 of Baptism. 
 
 ADULT BAPTISM. 
 
 THE administration of baptism to adults by 
 immersion, has been the subject of so much ridi- 
 cule and misrepresentation, that an account of it, 
 taken from Mr. Robinson's History of Baptism, 
 shall be inserted for the information of the serious 
 reader. And as it is for this reason alone that 
 4
 
 ADULT BAPTISM. 145 
 
 the account is introduced, the author cannot 
 with truth be suspected of partiality. " The 
 English, and most foreign Baptists, consider a 
 personal profession of faith, and an immersion in 
 water, essential to baptism. The profession of 
 faith is generally made before the church at a 
 church meeting. Some have a creed, and expect 
 the candidate to assent to it, and to give a cir- 
 cumstantial account of his conversion. Others 
 only require a person to profess himssif a Chris- 
 tian. The former generally consider baptism 
 as an ordinance, which initiates persons into a 
 particular church ; and they say, without breach 
 of Christian liberty, they have a right to expect 
 an agreement in articles of faith in their own so- 
 cieties. The latter only think baptism initiates 
 into a profession of the Christian religion in 
 general, and therefore say they have no right to 
 require an assent to our creed of such as do not 
 purpose to join our churches. They quote the 
 baptism of the eunuch, in the 8th of Acts, iu 
 proof. There are some who have no public faith, 
 and who both administer baptism and admit to 
 church membership any who profess themselves 
 Christians. They administer baptism in their 
 own baptisteries, and in public waters. 
 
 " Not many years ago, at Whittlesford, seven 
 miles from Cambridge, forty-eight persons were 
 baptized in that ford of the river from which the
 
 146 ADULT BAPTISM. 
 
 village takes its name. At ten o'clock of a very 
 fine morning in May, about 1500 people of dif- 
 ferent ranks assembled together. At half past ten 
 in the forenoon, the late Dr. Andrew Giftord, 
 fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, sub-libra- 
 rian of the British Museum, and teacher of a 
 Baptist congregation in Eagle-street, London, 
 ascended a movable pulpit in a large open court- 
 yard, near the river, and adjoining to the house 
 of the lord of the manor. Round him stood the 
 congregation; people on horseback, in couches, 
 and in carts, formed the outside semicircle ; many 
 other persons sitting in the rooms of the house, 
 the sashes being open : all were uncovered, and 
 there was n profound silence. The doctor first 
 gave out a hymn, which the congregation sung. 
 Then he prayed. Prayer ended, he took out a 
 New Testament, and read his text I indeed bap- 
 tize you zcith water unto repentance. He ob- 
 served, that the force of the preposition had 
 escaped the notice of the translators, and that the 
 true reading was I indeed baptize or dip you in 
 water at or upon repentance ; which sense he 
 confirmed by the 41st verse of the l'2th of 
 Matthew, and other passages. Then he spoke, 
 as most Baptists do on these occasions, concern- 
 ing the nature, subject^ mode, and end of this 
 ordinance. He closed, by contrasting the doc- 
 trine of infant sprinkling with that of believers
 
 ADULT BAPTISM. 147 
 
 baptism, which being a part of Christian obedi- 
 ence, was supported by divine promises, on the 
 accomplishment of which all good men might 
 depend. After sermon, he read another hymn 
 and prayed, and then came down. Then the 
 candidates for baptism retired, to prepare them- 
 selves. 
 
 " About half an hour after, the administrator, 
 who that day was a nephew of the doctor's, and 
 admirably qualified for the work, in a long black 
 gown of fine baize, without a hat, with a small 
 New Testament in his hand, came down to the 
 river side, accompanied hy several Baptist mi- 
 nisters and deacons of their churches, and the 
 persons to be baptized. The men came first, two 
 and two, without hats, and dressed as usual, ex- 
 cept that instead of coats, each had on a long 
 white baize gown, tied round the waist with a 
 sash. Such as had no hair, wore white cotton 
 or linen caps. The women followed the men, 
 two and two, all dressed neat, clean, and plain, 
 and their gowns white linen or dimity. It was 
 said, the garments had knobs of lead at bottom, 
 to make them sink. Each had a long light silk 
 cloak hanging loosely over her shoulders, a broad 
 riband tied over her gown beneath the breast, 
 and a hat on her head. They all ranged them- 
 selves around the administrator at the water-side. 
 A great number of spectators stood on the banks 
 H 2
 
 148 ADULT BAPTISM. 
 
 of the river on both sides ; some had climbed and 
 sat on tlie trees, many sat on horseback and in 
 carriages, and all behaved with a decent serious- 
 ness, which did honour to the good sense and the 
 good manners of the assembly, as well as to the 
 free constitution of this country. First, the ad- 
 ministrator read an hymn, which the people 
 sung. Then he read that portion of scripture 
 which is read in the Greek church on the same 
 occasion, the history of the baptism of the eu- 
 nuch, beginning at the 23d verse, and ending 
 with the 39th. About ten minutes he stood 
 expounding the verses, and then taking one of 
 the men by the hand, he led him into the water, 
 saying as he went, See here is zeater, zcliat doth 
 hinder 'I If thou believest with all thine heart, 
 thou mayest be baptized. When he came to a 
 sufficient depth, he stopped, and with the utmost 
 composure placing himself on the left hand of 
 the man, his face being towards the man's 
 shoulder, he put his right hand between his 
 shoulders behind, gathering into it a little of the 
 gown for hold : the fingers of the left hand he 
 thrusted under the sash before, and the man put- 
 ting his two thumbs into that hand, he locked 
 all together, by closing his hand. Then he deli- 
 berately said, / baptize thee in the, name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Huty Ghost : 
 and while he uttered these words, standing wide,
 
 ADULT BAPTISM. 14J) 
 
 he gently leaned him backward, and dipped him 
 once. As soon as he had raised him, a person in 
 a, boat fastened there for the purpose, took hold 
 of the man's hand, wiped his face with a nap- 
 kin, and led him a few steps to another attend- 
 ant, who then gave his arm, walked with him to 
 the house, and assisted him to dress. There 
 were many such in waiting, who, like the primi- 
 tive susceptors, assisted during the whole service. 
 The rest of the men followed the first, and were 
 baptized in like manner. After them the women, 
 were baptized. A female friend took olf at the 
 water-side the hat and cloak. A deacon of the 
 church led one to the administrator, and another 
 from him ; and a woman at the water-side took 
 each as she came out of the river, and conducted 
 her to the apartment in the house, where they 
 dressed themselves. When all were baptized, 
 the administrator coming up out of the river, 
 and standing at the side, gave a short exhorta- 
 tion on the honour and the pleasure of obedience 
 to divine commands, and then with the usual be- 
 nediction dismissed the assembly. About half 
 an hour after, the men newly baptized, having 
 dressed themselves, went from their room into a 
 large hall in the house, where they were pre- 
 sently joined by the women, who came from 
 their apartments to the same phice. The:i they 
 sent a messenger to the administrator, wiio was 
 n 3
 
 150 ADULT BAPTISM. 
 
 dressing in his apartment, to inform him they 
 waited for him. He presently came, and first 
 prayed for a few minutes, and then closed the 
 whole by a short discourse on the blessings of 
 civil and religious liberty, the sufficiency of Scrip- 
 ture, the pleasures of a good conscience, the im- 
 portance of a holy life, and the prospect of a 
 blessed immortality. This they call a public 
 baptism. 5 * 
 
 A more private baptism takes place after a si- 
 milar manner in baptisteries, which are in or 
 near the places of worship : thus every conve- 
 vience is afforded for the purpose. This, indeed, 
 is now the most common way of administering 
 the ordinance among the Baptists, either with 
 the attendance of friends, or in the presence of the 
 congregation. Such is baptism by immersion, and 
 thus conducted, it must be pronounced signifi- 
 cant in its nature, and impressive in its tendency. 
 It is, however, to be wished, that the rite was 
 on every occasion administered with equal so- 
 lemnity. See a letter to the -General Baptist 
 Churches, for the year 1806, on the subject of 
 Adult Baptism, by the Rev. William Richards, of 
 Lynn, where the practice both as to Subjects aad 
 Mode is stated with ability and brevity. 
 
 The propriety of the exclusive appellation of 
 the term Baptists to those who baptize adults by 
 immersion, has been questioned. Hence they are
 
 DISSENTING ACADEMIES. 151 
 
 by many styled Anti-padobaptisls, merely as op- 
 posing the validity of infant baptism. An account 
 of the manner in which infant baptism is admi- 
 nistered, should have been added, were it not so 
 well known by its general practice, both in, the 
 established Church and among Dissenters, 
 
 THE three denominations of Protestant Dis- 
 senters have their own seminaries, where young 
 men designed for the Christian ministry are edu- 
 cated. Among the Presbyterians are to be reck- 
 oned the academies at Manchester, and Caer- 
 marthen, in South Wales; besides six exhibitions 
 granted by Dr. Daniel Williams, to English 
 Presbyterian students to be educated at Glasgow. 
 Among the Independents are to be mentioned 
 the academies at Wymondley house nearHitchin, 
 Homerton, Wrexharn, and Hoxton. The aca- 
 demy at Wymondley house was originally under 
 the care of Dr. Philip Doddridge, of Northamp- 
 ton ; upon his decease it was consigned over to 
 Dr. Ashworth, of Daventry ; but was afterwards 
 removed to Northampton, where the Rev. John 
 Horsey superintended it for many years in a man- 
 ner which did credit to his talents and piety. 
 There is also an academy of Lady Huntingdon's, 
 formerly at Trevecka, now at Cheshunt. The 
 Baptists have two exhibitions for students to bo* 
 ii 4
 
 15-2 DISSENTING ACADEMIES. 
 
 educated for four years at one of the universities 
 in Scotland, given them by Dr. Ward, of Gresham 
 College, the author of The Si/stem of Oratory*. 
 There is likewise an academy at Bristol, gene- 
 rally known by the name of The Bristol Educa- 
 tion Society, over which the late Dr. Caleb Evans, 
 and his venerable father, the Rev. Hugh Evans, 
 A. M. presided for many years with respectabi- 
 lity, si similar institution, though upon a smaller 
 scale, has been formed among the General Bap? 
 tists, which has met with considerable encourage,- 
 ment. They could formerly boast of a Gafe t 
 a Foster, a Burroughs, a. Foot, a Noble, and a 
 Bulkeleu. A learned education lays the founda- 
 tion for a respectable Christian ministry. In 
 Dr. Kippis's Life of Dr. Doddridge, prefixed to 
 the seventh edition of his Family Expositor, will 
 
 * As the author of this little work stands indebted to the Ex- 
 hibition of Dr. John Ward, he wishes to pay a grateful tribute 
 .of respect to his memory. He was the son of a Dissenting mi- 
 nister, and born about 1679, in London. He kept an academy 
 for many years in Tenter-alley, Moorfields. In 1720, he was 
 chosen professor for rhetoric in Gresham College, where his 
 System cf Oialory was delivered. In 1723, during the presidency 
 of Sir Isaac Newton, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society; 
 and in 1752, cho>en one of its vice-presidents, in which office 
 he continued till his death, which happened at Gresliam College, 
 October 17, 175S, in the eightieth year of his age. He pub- 
 lished many learned works; and is allowed by all who knew him. 
 to have been a character in which were united a diffusive benevo- 
 lence and a rational piety.
 
 DISSENTIN'G ACADEMIES. 153 
 
 be found an account of the general mode of 
 education for ministers among the Dissenters. 
 
 Mr. Palmer, in his Nonconformist's Memorial, 
 speaking of Dr. Daniel Williams, says " He 
 gave the bulk of his estate to charitable uses, as 
 excellent in their nature as they were various in 
 their kinds, and as much calculated for the glory 
 of God, and the good of mankind, as any that 
 have ever been known. He left his library for 
 public use, and ordered a convenient place to be 
 purchased OK erected, in which the books might 
 be properly disposed of, and left an annuity foy 
 a librarian. A commodious house was accord- 
 ingly erected in Redcross-slreet, Crippiegate, where 
 his collection of books is not only properly pre- 
 served, but has heen gradually receiving large 
 additions. This is also the place in which the 
 body of the Dissenting ministers meet to transact 
 their business, and is a kind of repository for 
 paintings of Nonconformist ministers, for MSS. 
 and other matters of curiosity and utility." The 
 building itself belongs to the Presbyterians, but 
 it is by the trustees handsomely devoted to the 
 use of the Dissenters in general. The library, 
 since its original endowment, has been augment- 
 ed by the donations of liberal-minded persons, 
 and, lately, part of the founder's estate is appro- 
 priated for the purpose. Were every Dissenting 
 author, however, to send thither a copy of his 
 H 5
 
 154 QUAKERS. 
 
 publications (a measure that has been recom- 
 mended and ought to be adopted), the collection 
 would soon receive a considerable augmentation. 
 A second edition of the Citfalogue, in one volume 
 octavo, has been lately published, with the rules 
 respecting the use of it, prefixed. The Rev. 
 Thomas Morgan is the present librarian, and the 
 library is open till three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 Saturday, Sunday, and Monday excepted. 
 
 Near to this spot also stands Sion College, 
 founded by Dr. Thomas White, and of which a 
 particular account is given in Northouck's His- 
 tory of London. Here the London clergy meet 
 to transact their affairs, and it is enriched with an 
 extensive library, and ample endowments. The 
 building having been lately repaired, has the ap- 
 pearance of great respectability. 
 
 TO the foregoing systematical distribution of 
 the several denominations, shall be added a FEW 
 sects, which cannot be classed with propriety 
 under any of the three general divisions which 
 have been adopted. 
 
 QUAKERS. 
 
 THE Quakers appeared in England about 
 the year 1650. Their origin will be best given 
 in their own words : " The beginning of the
 
 QUAKEBS. 155 
 
 seventeenth century is known to have been a 
 time of great dissension in England respecting re~ 
 ligion. Many pious persons had been dissatisfied 
 with the settlement of the Church of England 
 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Various so- 
 cieties of Dissenters had accordingly arisen ; some 
 of whom evinced their sincerity by grievous suf- 
 ferings under the intolerance of those who go- 
 verned church affairs*. But these societies, not- 
 withstanding their honest zeal, seemed to have 
 stopped short in their progress towards a com>- 
 plete reformation f; and, degenerating into for- 
 mality, to have left their most enlightened menr- 
 bers still to lament the want of something more 
 instructive and consolatory to the soul, than the 
 most rigorous observance of their ordinances had 
 ever produced. Thus dissatisfied arid disconsor- 
 late, they were ready to follow any teacher who 
 seemed able to direct them to that light and peace 
 of which they felt the need. Many such in suc- 
 cession engaged their attention , until finding the 
 insufficiency of them all, they withdrew fronx 
 the communion of every visible church, and dwelt 
 retired, and attentive to the inward state of theic 
 own minds : often deeply distressed for the want 
 of that true knowledge of God, which they saw 
 
 * Sewell, p. 5, 6. ed. 1722. f Penn, vol. 5. p. 211, 212, 
 ed. 173-2. 
 
 nG
 
 156 QUAKERS. 
 
 to be necessary for salvation, and for which, ac- 
 cording to their ability, they fervently prayed. 
 These sincere breathings of spirit being answered 
 by the extension of some degree of heavenly 
 consolation, they became convinced, that as the 
 Tieart of man is the scene of the tempter's at- 
 tacks, it must also be that of the Redeemer's vic- 
 tory. With renewed fervency, therefore, they 
 sought his appearance in their minds; and thus 
 being renewed Jy furnished nith his saving light 
 and help, they not only became instructed in the 
 things pertaining to their own salvation, but they 
 discovered many practices in the world, which 
 have a shew of religion, to be nevertheless the 
 effect of the unsubjected will of man, and in- 
 consistent with the genuine simplicity of the 
 truth. 
 
 "George Fox* was one of the first of our 
 Friends who were imprisoned, lie was confined 
 at Nottingham in the year 1649 } for having pub- 
 licly opposed a preacher, who had asserted that 
 the more sure word of prophecy, mentioned 
 Q, Pet. i. IQ. was. the Scripture; George Fox 
 declaring that it was the Holy Spirit : and in the 
 following year, being brought before two jus- 
 tices in Derbyshire, one of them, scoffing at G. 
 
 * Pesse's Sufferings of the People Called Quakers, ch. 6, and 
 29, et passim.
 
 QUAKERS. 157 
 
 Fox, for having bidden him, and those about 
 him, tremble at the word of the Lord, gave to our 
 predecessors the name of Quakers*, an appella- 
 tion which soon became and hath remained our 
 most usual denomination; but they themselves 
 adopted, and have transmitted to us, the endear- 
 ing appellation of Friends." See A Summary of 
 the History, Doctrines, and Discipline of Friends, 
 written at the desire of the Meeting for Sufferings 
 in London. This pamphlet was published at the 
 end of a work, entitled A Refutation of some 
 of the most Modern Misrepresentations of the So- 
 ciety of Friends, commonly called Quakers, tvith a 
 Life of James Naulor, by Joseph Gurney Bevan. 
 Dr. Tool rain, in his new edition of Neat's History 
 of the Puritans, has taken pains to give the public 
 just ideas of the Quakers,- it does honour to his 
 impartiality. See also Dr. A. llees's valuable 
 and improved edition of Chambers's Encyclo- 
 paedia, on the subject. 
 
 It is difficult to give a specific statement of 
 their tenets ; but they may be found in a well- 
 written Apology by Robert Barclay, a learned 
 Quaker, who died in Scotland, 1690. George 
 Fox, the founder of this sect, was born 1624. 
 He exhibited few articles of faith, and insisted 
 mostly on morality, mutual charity, and the love 
 
 * Bees. Suff. 29. Sewell, 35.
 
 1.58 QUAKERS. 
 
 of God. The religion and worship he recom- 
 mended was simple and without ceremonies. To 
 wait in profound silence for the influence of the 
 Spirit, was one of the chief points he inculcated. 
 " The tenor of his doctrine," says John Gough, 
 " when he found himself concerned to instruct 
 others, was to wean men from systems, ceremo- 
 nies, and the outside of religion, in every form, 
 and to lead them to an acquaintance with them- 
 selves, by a solicitous attention to what passed 
 in their own mind^; to direct them to a prin- 
 ciple in their own hearts, which, if duly attended 
 to, would introduce rectitude of mind, simplicity 
 of manners, a life and conversation adorned with 
 every Christian virtue. Drawing his doctrine 
 from the pure source of religious truth, the New 
 Testament, and the conviction of his own mind, 
 abstracted from the comments of men he as- 
 serted the freedom of man in the liberty of the 
 gospel, against the tyranny of custum, and against 
 the combined powers of severe persecution, the 
 greatest contempt and keenest ridicule. Un- 
 shaken and undismayed, he persevered in disse- 
 minating principles and practices conducive to 
 the present and everlasting well-being of man- 
 kind, with great honesty, simplicity, and success*. 
 The Quakers have places of worship, where 
 
 * Cough's History of the Quakers, vol. I. p. 56 t
 
 QUAKERS;. 159 
 
 they regularly assemble on the first day of the 
 week, though sometimes without vocal prayer, or 
 any religious exhortation. They reject the cele- 
 bration of water baptism and the Lord's Supper 
 as outward ordinances, have no distinct order of 
 ministers, though their speakers are under cer- 
 tain regulations ; and being firm opposers of the 
 Calvinistic doctrines of Election and Reprobation, 
 are advocates of the Anninian system of doctrine, 
 so far at least as respects the universal love of 
 God to man, in order to his salvation. 
 
 Their internal government is much admired; 
 their own poor are supported without parochial 
 aid, and their industry and sobriety are deserving 
 of imitation. They also reprobate the destruc- 
 tive practice of war, the infamous traffic of slaves, 
 and profess their abhorrence of religious persecu- 
 tion. Refusing to pay tithes, as an untichristian 
 imposition, they suffer the loss of their goods and 
 of their liberty, rather than comply with the 
 demand, and their losses are emphatically termed 
 by them sufferings. Many have endured long 
 imprisonments on that account. The Quakers 
 object to all oaths, as having been prohibited by 
 Christ, when he said, swear not at all: and their 
 affirmation is permitted in all civil, but not in 
 criminal cases. In the tyrannical reign of the 
 Stuarts, the Friends suffered, in common with the 
 Puritans, the severest persecution. Even the
 
 160 QUAKERS. 
 
 famous William Penn was tried at the Old Bailey; 
 and his defence on the trial, an account of which 
 is to be found in his works, is honourable to his 
 'legal knowledge, fortitude, and integrity. A 
 cheap edition of this trial ought to be produced 
 for general circulation. It presents a sad picture 
 of the times, and is an eloquent comment on the 
 wretched consequences of religious bigotry. 
 
 With regard to the resurrection of the body, 
 they have deemed it more safe not to determine 
 how or when we shall be raised, yet they have a 
 firm belief in a resurrection of the dead, and in 
 a future state of retribution. 
 
 Sewell, in his History of the Society, expresses 
 himself decidedly in behalf of a resurrection, but 
 without determining the mode in which infinite 
 wisdom may preserve a consciousness of iden- 
 tity in another stage of our existence; and Barc- 
 lay, in his confession and catechism, used only 
 the words of Scripture on the subject, without 
 expressing the manner in which he understood 
 them. The same remark applies to his account 
 of the divinity of Christ, though it appears 
 by the whole tenor of the 10th chapter of his 
 Catechism, and the 1 7th article of his Confession 
 of Faith, concerning worship*, that he held 
 worship, strictly speaking, to be due to the Father 
 
 * Barclay's Works, vol. I. p. 258 to 261, and 300, 8vo.
 
 QUAKERS. 1(31- 
 
 only ; nor does he quote in either of the selec- 
 tions any of the texts which are supposed, also, 
 to authorize offering up prayers to Christ; and he 
 is wholJy silent respecting the doctrine of the 
 Trinity in his Apology. But it seems that Wil- 
 liam Penn was more explicit on the subject ; and 
 no writer of acknowledged reputation among 
 them, has admitted any distinction of persons in 
 the Deity, or in the mode of his existence, 
 which in some form or other is maintained by all 
 who can be properly termed Trinitarians. In 
 Penn's Sandy Foundation Shaken, he speaks 
 with freedom against many doctrines which are 
 held in general estimation. The title of the book 
 speaks for itself, and shall be transcribed : 
 tc The Sandy Foundation Shaken, or those so 
 generally believed and applauded doctrines, of 
 one God subsisting in three distinct and separate 
 persons; the impossibility of God's pardoning 
 sin without a plenary satisfaction ; the qualifica- 
 tion of impure persons by an imputative right- 
 eousness, refuted from the authority of scripture 
 testimonies and right reason." See a learned 
 defence of this work by Richard Clarridge, pub- 
 iished in his posthumous works, in 172G. 
 
 It appears that Mr. Penn having in this work 
 reprobated the leading doctrines of Calvinism, a 
 violent outcry was raised against him. He there- 
 fore vindicated himself in a pamphlet, called
 
 162 QUAKERS. 
 
 Innocency with her Open Face, in which he says: 
 " As for my being a Socinian, I must confess I 
 have read of one Socinus, of (what they call) a 
 noble family in Sene, Italy, who about the year 
 1574, being a young man, voluntarily did abandon 
 the glories, pleasures, and honours of the Great 
 Duke of Tuscany's court at Florence, that noted 
 place for all worldly delicacies, and became a 
 perpetual exile for his conscience, whose parts, 
 wisdom, gravity, and just behaviour, made him 
 the most famous with the Polonian and Transyl- 
 vanian churches; but I was never baptized into 
 his name, and therefore deny that reproachful 
 epithet; and if in any thing I acknowledge th 
 verity of his doctrine, it is for the truth's sake, of 
 which, in many things, he had a clearer prospect 
 than most of his contemporaries : but not there- 
 fore a Socinian any more than a son of the Eng- 
 lish church, whilst esteemed a Quaker, because 
 J justify many of her principles since the Refor- 
 mation against the Roman church." But we 
 will add another paragraph, where Mr. Perm's 
 principles are epitomised. " And to shut up my 
 apology for religious matters, that all may see 
 the simplicity, scripture doctrine, and phrase of 
 my faith, in the most important matters of eternal 
 lif?, I shall here subjoin a short confession: 
 
 " I sincerely own and unfeignedly believe (by 
 virtue of the sound knowledge and experience
 
 QUAKERS. H>3 
 
 received from the gift of that holy unction and 
 divine grace inspired from on high) in one holy, 
 just, merciful, almighty, and eternal God, who is 
 the Father of all things; that appeared to the 
 holy patriarchs and prophets of old, at sundry 
 times and in divers manners ; and in one Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the everlasting Wisdom, divine 
 Power, true Light, only Saviour, and Preserver 
 of all; the same one holy, just, merciful, al- 
 mighty, and eternal God, who in the fullness of 
 time took and was manifest in the flesh, at which 
 time he preached (and his disciples after him) 
 the everlasting gospel of repentance, and promise 
 of remission of sins, and eternal life to all that 
 beard and obeyed; who said, he that is with you 
 (in the flesh) shall he in you (by the spirit); and 
 though he left them (as to the flesh), yet not com- 
 fortless, for he would come to them again (in the 
 spirit); for a little while, and they should not see 
 him (as to the flesh) ; again, a little while, and 
 they should see him (in the spirit) ; for the Lord 
 (Jesus Christ) is that spirit, a manifestation 
 whereof is given to every one, to profit with all ; 
 in which Holy Spirit 1 believe, as the same al- 
 mighty and eternal God, who, as in those times, 
 he ended all shadows, and became the infallible 
 guide to them that walked therein, by which 
 they were adopted heirs and co-heirs of glory ; 
 so am I a living witness, that the same holy, just,
 
 lG4 QUAKERS. 
 
 merciful, almighty, and eternal God, is now, as 
 then (after this tedious night of idolatry, supersti- 
 tion, and human inventions, that hath overspread 
 the world) gloriously manifested, to discover and 
 save from all iniquity, and to conduct unto the 
 holy land of pure and endless peace; in a word, 
 to tabernacle in men. And I also firmly believe, 
 that without repenting and forsaking of past sins, 
 and walking in obedience to the heavenly voice, 
 which would guide into all truth, and establish 
 there, remission and eternal life can never be 
 obtained ; but unto them that fear his name and 
 keep his commandments, they, and they only, 
 shall have a right to the tree of life; for whose 
 name's sake, T have been made willing to relin- 
 quish and forsake all the vain fashions, enticing 
 pleasures, alluring honours, and glittering glories 
 of this transitory world, and readily to accept the 
 portion of a fool from this deriding generation, 
 and become a man of sorrow, and a perpetual re- 
 proach to my familiars; yea, and with the greatest 
 cheerfulness, can obsignate and confirm (with 
 no less zeal, than the loss of whatsoever this doat- 
 ing world accounts dear) this faithful confession ; 
 having my eye fixed upon a more enduring sub- 
 stance and lasting inheritance, and being most 
 infallibly assured, that when time shall be no 
 more, I shall (if faithful hereunto) possess the 
 mansions of eternal life, and be received into hia 
 everlasting habitation of rest and glory.".
 
 QUAKERS. 165 
 
 This is' an explicit declaration of the principles 
 of Quakerism, taken from the works of Wil- 
 liam Penn; because of all their writers, he is in 
 general the most perspicuous, and as to his cha- 
 racter, he possesses a high respectability. 
 
 Indeed, there seems to be a much greater uni- 
 formity in their dress than in their opinions, 
 though it is probable that the generality of them 
 adhere to the fundamental doctrines of the gospel. 
 As a proof of the diversity of opinion amongst 
 them, we may refer to the late proceedings of the 
 society against Hannah Barnard, a celebrated 
 speaker from Hudson, New York, in North 'Ame- 
 rica. For her opinion concerning the Jewish 
 Wars, Miraculous Conception, &,c. she has been 
 silenced. See an Appeal to the Friends, in three 
 parts : on which, however, some animadversions 
 have been puhlished by Vindex and others; but 
 to which f^crajc has replied in a pamphlet, enti- 
 tled A Vindication of Scriptural L'nitariunism, 
 and some other Primitive Doctrines, &c. 
 
 There are seven yearly meetings among them, 
 by each of which all rules and ad vices are formed 
 for the general government of the society in the 
 country where they are respectively established. 
 And no member of the society is precluded from 
 attending, or partaking in the deliberations of 
 these assemblies, which are nevertheless strictly 
 speaking constituted of representatives, by regular
 
 166 QUAKERS. 
 
 appointment from each quarterly meeting. The 
 following are the seven yearly meetings : 1. Lon- 
 don, to which come representatives from Ire- 
 land ; 2. New England ; 3. New York ; 4. 
 Pennsylvania 'and New Jersey; 5. Maryland; 
 6. Virginia; ? The Carolinas and Georgia. 
 The form and colour of their clothes, together 
 with their peculiar modes of salutation, have been 
 thought to savour of affectation, though they 
 certainly exhibit a striking contrast to the gaudy 
 frippery and artificial courtesy of modern times. 
 Voltaire, in his Letters on the English Nation, 
 has some curious remarks on the Quakers ; but 
 in certain particulars they deem themselves ca- 
 lumniated by that satirical writer. At Ackworth 
 they have a respectable school, to which (a great 
 and good man) Dr. Fothergill left legacies, and 
 where about one hundred and eighty boys, and 
 one hundred and twenty girls, are educated. To- 
 wards the close of the sixteenth century, William 
 Penn, who founded Pennsylvania, introduced and 
 established a large and flourishing colony of them 
 in America. His treaty with the Indians on that 
 occasion, has formed an admirable subject for the 
 pencil, and reflects immortal honour on his me- 
 mory. 
 
 In addition to the treatises mentioned, written 
 by the Friends, the reader is referred to the Re- 
 corder, by William Matthews of Bath, in two
 
 QUAKERS. lf)7 
 
 volumes 12ino. But the publication, perhaps, 
 most deserving attention, is Clarkson's Portraiture 
 of' Quakerism, in three volumes, 8vo. the second 
 edition of M'hich is just puhlished. It is pleas- 
 ingly written, and contains much information 
 respecting them. Some, indeed, are inclined to 
 think that the society is here described, rather as 
 they ought to be, than as they are ; hut the reader 
 is recommended to the perusal of the work itself, 
 when he will have it in his power to form his 
 own judgment respecting its justness and fidelity. 
 Certain it is that the publication is a great fa- 
 vourite with the Friends, and they are no doubt 
 much indebted to the worthy author for having 
 given so full and minute an account ot them. 
 
 I have thus endeavoured to state at some length 
 the doctrines and views of Quakerism) because 
 its advocates have been subjected to gross mis- 
 representations. Many have said they are a 
 species of Deists, exalting their natural light 
 above the scripture, which some of them have 
 called a dead letter; others have deemed them a 
 kind of Enthusiasts, violently enslaved by their 
 impulses and feelings; whilst a third class have 
 considered them, notwithstanding their profes- 
 sions respecting the spirit, as worldly-minded, 
 eagerly intent on the acquisition of property, and 
 thus commanding the good things of this present 
 world. Persons, who entertain any of these 
 
 1
 
 1(58 METHODISTS. 
 
 opinions concerning them, will perceive from the 
 above account, that though their sentiments are 
 very peculiar, as are also their manners, yet we 
 have every reason to suppose them sincere in 
 their professions, and upon the whole, steadily 
 governed by the prospects of another world. Al- 
 lowances ought to be made for human infirmitv. 
 Nor must we expect, from man more than it is 
 in his power to perform. Every individual of 
 every sect has an indubitable right to form his 
 own opinions on religious subjects: and let him 
 freely indulge those opinions which (however 
 absurd in the eyes of others) may to him appear 
 consonant to truth, whilst he holds sacred the 
 peace and happiness of society. 
 
 METHODISTS, 
 
 BOTH CALVINISTIC AND AllMINIAN. 
 
 THE Methodists in this country form a large 
 part of the community. In the year 1729, they 
 sprang up at Oxford, under Mr. Morgan (who 
 soon after died) and under Mr. John Wesley. In 
 the month of November, of that year, the latter be- 
 ing then fellow of LincolnCollege, began to spend 
 some evenings in reading the Greek New Testa- 
 ment along with Charles Wesley, student, Mr. 
 Morgan, commoner, of Christ Church, and Mr. 
 Kirkmarv, of Merton College. Next year, two
 
 METHODISTS. 
 
 or three of the pupils of Mr. John Wesley, and 
 one pupil of Mr. Charles Wesley, obtained leave 
 to attend these meetings. Two years after, they 
 were joined by Mr. Ingham, of Queen's College, 
 Mr. Broughton, of Exeter, and Mr. James Her- 
 vey; and in 1735, they were joined by the cele- 
 brated Mr. Whitfielcl, then in his eighteenth year. 
 They soon obtained the name' of Methodists, from 
 the exact regularity of their lives ; which gave 
 occasion to a young gentleman of Christ Church, 
 to say, " Here is a new sect of Methodists sprung 
 up !" alluding to a sect ef ancient physicians, 
 who practised medicine by method or regular 
 rules, in opposition to quackery or empiricism. 
 Thus was the term Methodists originally applied 
 to this body of Christians, on account of the 
 methodical strictness of their lives; but is indeed 
 now, by some, indiscriminately appropriated to 
 every individual who manifests a more than ordi- 
 nary concern for the salvation of mankind. 
 
 These heads differing soon afterwards in reli- 
 gious sentiments, their respective followers distri- 
 buted themselves into two parties; the one under 
 Mr. George Whitfield, the other under Messrs. 
 John and Charles Wesley. Educated at Oxford, 
 theseleadersstillcontinuedto profess an attachment 
 tothearticlesandliturgy of theestablished church, 
 though they more commonly adopted the mode 
 of worship which prevails among the Dissenter*. 
 i
 
 170 METHODISTS. 
 
 Upon their being excluded from the pulpits in 
 many churches, they look to preaching in the 
 fields; and from the novelty of the thing, in con- 
 junction with the fervour of their exertions, they 
 were attended by some thousands of people! In 
 their public labours, Mr. Whitfield having a most 
 sonorous voice, was remarkable for an engaging 
 and powerful eloquence; whilst Mr. John Wes- 
 ley, being less under the influence of his passions, 
 possessed, both in writing and preaching, a per- 
 spicuous and commanding simplicity. Even their 
 enemies confess that they contributed in several 
 places to reform the lower classes of the commu- 
 nity. The colliers at Kingswood, near Bristol, 
 and the tinners in Cornwall, were greatly benc- 
 filtedby their exertions. In consequence of their 
 attention to the religion of Jesus, by the instru- 
 mentality of these preachers, many of them rose 
 to a degree of respectability, and became valuable 
 members of society. The followers of Mr. 
 Wesley are Arminians, though some of his 
 preachers incline to Baxterianism. The fol- 
 lowers of Mr. Whitfield are Calvinisfs, and were 
 patronized by the late Countess Dowager of 
 Huntingdon, to whom Mr. Whitfield was chap- 
 lain, and who was a lady of great benevolence 
 and piety. Lady Erskine (a near relation of the 
 present lord chancellor) took her situation, and 
 was said to be equally attentive to the concerns of
 
 METHOBISTS. 171 
 
 this part of the religious community. She is 
 lately deceased. With respect to the splitting 
 of the Methodists into Calvinists and Armenians, 
 it happened so far back as the year 1741 ; the 
 former being for particular, and the latter for 
 vniversal redemption. Of the number of the 
 Methodists, various statements have been given ; 
 but no account has ever yet reached me which 
 bore the marks of accuracy. 
 
 Both Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitfield were in- 
 defatigable in promoting their own views of the 
 Christian religion, notwithstanding all the re- 
 proaches with which they were stigmatized. ft 
 is well known, that for this purpose Mr. Whitfield 
 went over several times to America. Mr. Whit- 
 field, indeed, established an orphan-house in. 
 Georgia, for which he made collections in this 
 country, and which was since converted into a 
 college for the education of young ren, designed 
 chiefly for the ministry. To this paragraph, the 
 American editor of the Sketch has added : " It 
 has been lately burnt, and the whole of the bene- 
 fice added to it is in possession of the state ; a 
 just judgment for purchasing slaves to support a 
 charitable institution !" 
 
 In America, the Methodists were extremely 
 
 useful, riding 20 or 30 miles in the course of the 
 
 day, and preaching twice or thrice to considerable 
 
 congregations. Take the follow ing account of 
 
 12
 
 172 METHODISTS. 
 
 their labours by Mr. Hampson, in his Memoirs 
 of Mr. Wesley: "Their excursions (says he) 
 through immense forests, abounding in trees of 
 all sorts and sizes, were often highly romantic. 
 Innumerable rivers and falls of water ; vistas 
 opening to the view, in contrast with the uncul- 
 tivated wilds ; deer now shooting across the road, 
 and now scouring through the woods, while the 
 eye was frequently relieved by the appearance of 
 orchards and plantations, and the houses of gen- 
 tlemen and farmers peeping through the trees, 
 formed a scenery so various and picturesque, as 
 to produce a variety of reflections, and present, 
 we will not say to a philosophic eye, but to the 
 mind of every reasonable creature, the most 
 sublime and agreeable images. Their worship 
 partook of the general simplicit} r . It was fre- 
 quently conducted in the open air. The woods 
 resounded to the voice of the preacher, or to the 
 singing of the numerous congregation, whilst the 
 horses fastened to the trees, formed a singular 
 addition to the solemnity. It was, indeed, a 
 striking picture, and might naturally impress the 
 mind with a retrospect of the antediluvian days, 
 when the hills and vallies re-echoed the patriar- 
 chal devotions, and a Seth, or an Enoch, in the 
 shadow of a projecting rock, or beneath the foli- 
 age of some venerable oak, delivered his primeval 
 lectures, and was a preacher of righteousness to 
 the people!" 3
 
 METHODISTS. 173 
 
 The distinguishing principles of Methodism 
 are, salvation by faitk in Jesus Christ ; per- 
 ceptible, and in some cases instantaneous con- 
 version ; and an assurance of reconciliation to 
 God, with which, they say, the new birth) or 
 bring born again, is inseparably attended. On 
 these doctrines they lay the utmost stress ; and 
 much curious information respecting these topics 
 will be found in Dr. Haweis's History of the 
 Church of Christ*. Several persons have written 
 the Life of Mr. Wesley ; there is one by Mr. 
 Hampson, another by Dr. Whitehead, and a 
 third by Dr. Coke and Mr. Moore. Mr. Whit- 
 field's Life was drawn up by the late Dr. Gillies, 
 of Glasgow. Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitfield 
 both published an account of their itinerant la- 
 bours in this kingdom and in America. These 
 sketches are entitled Journals, and though con- 
 taining many .strange things, serve to i flastrate 
 tbe principles and progress of ^Methodism. To 
 conclude this article of the Mcthodists t in the 
 words of Mr. Hampson, in his Memoirs of Mr. 
 Wesley " If they possess not much knowledge, 
 which however we do not know to he the case, 
 it is at least certain they are not deficient in zeal, 
 and without any passionate desire to imitate their 
 
 * This -work, it is to be regretted, is deficient in references 
 to authorities, the soul and substance of history.. 
 
 IS
 
 174 METHODIST*. 
 
 example, we may at least commend their endea- 
 vours for the general good. Every good man 
 will contemplate with pleasure the operation of 
 the spirit of reformation, whether foreign or do- 
 mestic, and will rejoice in every attempt to pro- 
 pagate Christianity in the barbarous parts of the 
 world; an attempt, which, if in any tolerable de- 
 gree successful, will do infinitely more for their 
 civilization and happiness, than all the united 
 energies of the philosophical infidels, those 
 boasted benefactors of mankind/' 
 
 Dr, Priestley published a volume of Mr. Wes- 
 ley's Letters, just after his decease, prefaced 
 with an Address to the Methodists ; where, after 
 having freely expostulated with them respecting 
 their peculiarities, he gives them credit for their 
 zeal and unwearied activity. The Methodists 
 have found an advocate in William Wilberforce, 
 ESCJ. M.P. who pleads their cause at some length 
 in his Treatise^on Vital Christianity*. 
 
 * The author of the Sketch thinks it proper here to notice the 
 unchristian conduct of Mr. Benson, editor of the Methodist Ma- 
 gazine, in refusing the insertion of his reply to a most virulent 
 attack upon him which appeared in that publication. Some scraps 
 of it, indeed, after various expostulations, were introduced, ac- 
 companied with Mr. B's. remarks, with the view of doing away 
 the impression on the minds of the readers: yet he concluded 
 with saying, that he had now done the author of the Sketch 
 justice! Wretched zealot! preposterous partizan ! when shall 
 the obliquities of party be sacrificed upon the ajtar of scriptural
 
 METHODISTS. 175 1 
 
 Before this article relative to the Methodists is 
 closed, it may be proper justrto add, thnt a com- 
 munication has been made me, respecting the 
 Revival Meeting's among the Wesleyan Metho- 
 dists, where certain persons, under the influence 
 of a religious phrenzy, occasion, by their groan- 
 ings and vociferations, an uncommon degree of 
 tumultand confusion. The more sensible, how- 
 ever, of the Methodists reprobate these dUgrace- 
 ful scenes. At Nottingham I witnessed them 
 with astonishment ; and there is a considerable 
 number of them at Macclesfield, in Cheshire. 
 Here they have just built a chupel. It is fer- 
 
 Christianity ? -The charge brought against the author of the 
 Sketch was, that from the perusal of the work it could not be 
 found out to which of the denominations there described, he be- 
 longed ; in other words, acknowledging that he had done ///'sduty 
 to the public in not extolling his own sect at the expence of eve- 
 ry other ! Indeed Mr. B. had the assurance in conversation to 
 tell him, that he wanted to prevent the Sketch being so much 
 read by the Methodists, as it might lead them astray ! Poor souls, 
 they must not, it seems, read and judge for themselves ! It is, 
 however, some consolation to the author of the Sketch, that 
 several sensible and worthy individuals among the Methodists 
 have been greatly disgusted at this conduct of Mr. B. and have 
 reprobated it in appropriate terms. J5ut, alas ! the precept of the 
 blessed Saviour As ye would lhat men should do to you, to ye also 
 to them likewise, seems to have been excluded from the systems of 
 some professors of Christianity. Bishop Home remarks, that a 
 man may soon by great humility, become the head of a sect, and 
 then damn all the rest of the world in the very spirit of charity 1 
 
 14
 
 176 NEW METHODISTS. 
 
 vently to be wished that inch fanaticism may not 
 continue long, and thai some persons of respect- 
 ability among them would interfere, so as to put 
 an end to practices, which cannot fail to strength- 
 en the hands of infidelity, and afford matter of 
 grief to all the friends of real and substantial 
 piety. 
 
 NEW METHODISTS*. 
 
 THE New Methodist Connection) among the 
 followers of Mr. Wesley, separated from the 
 original Methodists in 1797- The grounds of 
 this separation they declare to.be church govern- 
 ment, and not doctrines, as affirmed by some of 
 
 their ir&o^.ichts. They object to the old Metho- 
 
 . 
 dists, for having formed a* hierarchy or priestly 
 
 corporation ; and say, that in so doing, they have 
 robbed the people of those privileges, which, as 
 members of a Christian church, they are entitled 
 to by reason and Scripture. The New Methodists 
 have therefore attempted to establish every part 
 of their church government on popular princi- 
 ples, and profess to have united as much as 
 possible the ministers and the people in every 
 department of it. This is quite contrary to the 
 original government of the Methodists, which, in 
 
 * This article was sent to the editor by a correspondent at Not- 
 tingham, and is insetted with a few alterations and emissions.
 
 NEW METHODISTS. ITT 
 
 the most important cases, is confined only to 
 the ministers. This, indeed, appears most plain- 
 ly, when their conference or yearly meeting is 
 considered; for in this meeting, no person, who 
 is not a travelling preacher, has ever been suffered 
 to enter as a member of it; and, indeed, this is 
 the point to which the preachers have always 
 stedfastly adhered with the utmost firmness and 
 resolution, and on which the division at present 
 entirely rests. They are also upbraided by the 
 New Methodists, for having abused -the power 
 they have assumed: a great many of these abuses 
 the New Methodists have formally protested 
 against, which are enumerated in various publi- 
 cations, and particularly in the Preface to the 
 Life of one of their deceased friends, Mr. Alex- 
 ander Kilham. Hence these New Methodists 
 have been sometimes denominated Kilhamites. 
 
 Though these are the points on which- the di- 
 vision seems principally to have rested, yet there 
 are several other things that have contributed to 
 it. It is frequently easy to foresee and to calcu- 
 late the future changes in society that the lapse 
 of time will produce ; and in no instance is this 
 observation better warranted than in this division, 
 which most persons have long expected. The 
 old attachment of the Methodists to the Esta- 
 blished Church, which originated in Mr. \Vesley,, 
 and was cherished by him and many of the
 
 178 NtVV METHODISTS. 
 
 preachers by all possible means, and also the dis- 
 like to these sentiments in many others of the 
 preachers, and of the societies, were never failing 
 subjects of contention. As all parties are dis- 
 tinguished in their contests by some badge or 
 d recriminating circumstance, so here the receiv- 
 ing, or not receiving, the Lord's Supper, in the 
 Established Church, was long considered as the 
 criterion of Methodistical zeal or disaffection. 
 Thus the rupture that had been long foreseen by 
 intelligent persons, and for which the minds of 
 the Methodists had been un designedly prepared, 
 became inevitable when Mr. Wesley's influence 
 no longer interfered. Soon after Mr. Wesley's 
 death, many things had a tendency to displease 
 the societies, and bring forward the division. 
 Many petitions having ben sent by the societies 
 to the preachers, requesting to have the Lord's 
 Supper administered to them in their own cha- 
 pels, the people had the mortification to find that 
 this question was decided by lot, and not by the 
 use of reason and serious discussion \ 
 
 The New Methodists profess to proceed upon 
 liberal, open, and ingenuous principles, in the 
 construction of their plan of church government; 
 and their ultimate decision in all disputed matters, 
 Is in their popular annual assembly, chosen, by 
 certain rules, from among the preachers and 
 societies. These professions are at least general
 
 JUMPERS. 179 
 
 and liberal ; but as this sect has yet continued 
 for only a short season, little can be said of it 
 at present. It becomes matter of curious conjec- 
 ture and speculation, how far the leading persons 
 nmong them will act agreeably to their present 
 liberal professions. If they should become firmly 
 established in power and influence, and have 
 the opportunity of acting otherwise, they have 
 at least the advantage of the example of their 
 late brethren, and of Dr. Priestley's remarks up- 
 on them. Speaking of the leading men among 
 the Methodists, the doctor says " Finding 
 themselves by degrees at the head of a large 
 body of people, and in considerable power and 
 influence, they must not have been men, if they 
 had not felt the love of power gratified in such 
 a situation; and they must have been more than 
 men, if their subsequent conduct had not been 
 influenced by it." A shrewd hint, that Dr. P. 
 thought the Methodists had been too remiss in 
 their attention to their liberties, which they ought, 
 to convey down entire and unmutilated to posterity. 
 
 JUMPERS. 
 
 ORIGINALLY this singular practice of jump- 
 ing during the time allotted for religious worship 
 and instruction, was confined to the people called 
 Methodists in Wales, the followers of Harris, 
 16
 
 180 JUMPERS. 
 
 Rowland, Williams, and others, known in Eng- 
 land by the appellation of the Li: angelical Clergy. 
 The practice began in the western part of the 
 country, about the year 17GO. It was soon after 
 defended by Mr. William Williams (the Welch 
 poet, as he is sometimes styled) in a pamphlet, 
 which was patronized by the abettors of jumping 
 in religious assemblies, but viewed by the seniors 
 and the grave with disapprobation. However, 
 in the course of a few years, the advocates of 
 groaning and loud talking, as well as of loud 
 singing, repeating the same line or stanza over 
 arid over thirty or forty times, became m^re nu- 
 merous, and were found among some of the 
 other denominations in the principality, and con- 
 tinue to this day. Several of the more zealous 
 itinerant preachers in Wales, recommended the 
 people to cry out Gagoniant (the Welch word 
 for glory), Amen, &c. 8cc. 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 rloor, or on the field 
 where this kind of worship was" held. If any 
 thing in the profession of religion, that is absurd 
 and unreasonable, were to surprise us, it would 
 be the censure that was cast upon those who 
 gently attempted to stem this tide, which 
 threatened the destruction of true religion as a 
 reasonable service. Where the essence of tree
 
 JUMPERS. 181 
 
 religion is placed in customs and usages, which 
 have no tendency to sanctify the several powers 
 through the medium of the understanding, we 
 ought not to be surprised, when we contemplate 
 instances of extravagance and apostacy. Human 
 nature, in general, is not capable of such exer- 
 tions for any length of time, and when the spirits 
 become exhausted, and the heat kindled by sym- 
 pathy is subsided, the unhappy persons sink into 
 themselves, and seek for^support in intoxication. 
 It is not to be doubted but there are many sincere 
 and pious persons to be found among this class of 
 people men who think they are doing God's 
 service, whilst they are the victims of fanaticism. 
 These are objects of compassion, and doubtless 
 will find it in God. But it is certain, from in- 
 contestible facts, that a number of persons have 
 attached themselves to those religious societies, 
 who place a very disproportioned stress on the 
 practice, of jumping, from suspicious motives. 
 The theory and practice of such a religion are 
 easily understood; for the man who possesses an 
 unblushing confidence, and the greatest degree 
 of muscular energy, is likely to excel in bodily 
 exercise. Upon the whole, it is probable, as such 
 an exercise has no countenance in reason or re- 
 velation, that it has been, and is still, productive 
 of more evil than good. Many of the ministers 
 who have been foremost i
 
 182 JUMPERS. 
 
 seemed to have nothing in view but the gratifica- 
 tion of their vanity, inflaming the passions of the 
 multitude by extravagant representations of the 
 character of the Deity, the condition of man, 
 and design of the Saviour's mission. The minis- 
 ter that wishes not to study to shew himself of 
 God, has only to favour jumping, with its ap- 
 pendages; for as reason is out of the question in 
 such a religion, he can be under 110 fear of shock- 
 ing it. It is some consolation to real religion, to- 
 add, that this practice is on the decline, as the 
 more sober or conscientious, who were at fkst ak 
 a loss to judge where this practice might carry 
 them, have seen its pernicious tendency. 
 
 Such is the account of the JUMPERS, which, 
 with a few alterations, has been transmitted me 
 by a respectable minister, who frequently visits 
 the principality. It is to be hoped, that the ex- 
 ercise of common sense will in time recover them 
 from these extravagant ecstasies, which pain the 
 rational friends of revelation, and yield matter 
 of exultation to the advocates of infidelity. 
 
 About the year 1785, I myself happened very 
 accidentally to be present at a meeting, which 
 terminated in jumping. It was held in the open 
 air, on a Sunday evening, near Newport, in 
 Monmouthshire. The preacher was one of Lady 
 Huntingdon's students, who concluded his ser- 
 mon with the recommendation of jumping; and 
 to allow him the praise of consistency, he got
 
 JUMPERS. 183 
 
 down from the chair on which lie stood, and 
 jumped along with them. The arguments he 
 adduced for this purpose were, that David danced 
 before the ark, that the babe leaped in the womb 
 of Elizabeth, and that the man whose lameness 
 was removed, leaped and praised God for the 
 mercy which he had received ! He expatiated 
 on these topics with uncommon fervency, and 
 then drew the inference, that they ought to shew 
 similar expressions of joy, for the blessings which 
 Jesus Christ had put into their possession. He 
 then gave an empassioned sketch of the suffer- 
 ings of the Saviour, and hereby roused the pas- 
 sions of a few around him into a state of violent 
 agitation. About nine men and seven women, for 
 some little time, rocked to and fro, groaned 
 aloud, and then jumped with a kind of frantic 
 fury. Some of the audience flew in all directions; 
 others gazed on in silent amaze went ! They all 
 gradually dispersed, except the jumpers, who 
 continued their exertions from eight in the even- 
 ing to near eleven at night. I saw the conclusion 
 of it; they at last kneeled down in a circle, hold- 
 ing each other by the hand, while one of them 
 prayed with great fervour, and then all rising up 
 from off their knees, departed. But previous to 
 their dispersion, they wildly pointed up towards 
 the sky, and rem inded one another that they should 
 f con meet th. re f aud be never again separated!
 
 184 UNIVERSALISTS. 
 
 I quitted the spot with astonishment. Such dis- 
 qrderly scenes cannot be of any service to the de- 
 luded individuals, nor can they prove beneficial to 
 society. Whatever credit we may and ought to 
 allow this class of Christians for good intentions, 
 it is impossible not to speak of the practice itself r 
 without adopting terms of unqualified disappro- 
 bation. The reader is referred to Bingley's and 
 sEraws* Tour through Wales, (the latter author is a. 
 clergyman at Bristol), where (as many particulars 
 are detailed respecting the Jumpers) his curiosity 
 will receive a still farther gratification. It pains 
 the author of the present work, that he lias it 
 not in his power to give a more favourable ac- 
 count of them. The decline of so unbecoming 
 a practice will, it is to be hoped, be soon followed' 
 by its utter extinction. 
 
 UNIVERSALISTS. 
 
 THE Universalists, properly so called, are 
 those who believe, that as Christ died for all, 
 so, before he shall have delivered up his media- 
 torial kingdom to the Father, all shall be brought 
 to a participation of the benefits of his death, 
 in their restoration to holiness and happiness. 
 Their scheme includes a reconciliation of the 
 tenets of Calvinism and Arminianism, by uniting 
 the leading doctrines of both, as far as they are
 
 UNIVERSAL1STS. 
 
 found in the scriptures: from which union they 
 think the sentiment of Universal restoration na- 
 turally flows. 
 
 Thus they reason : " The Arminian proves 
 from Scripture, that God is love; that he is good 
 to all ; that his tender mercy is over all his works ; 
 that he gave his son for the world; tha-t Christ 
 died for the world, even for the whole world; 
 and that God will have all men to be saved. 
 
 " The Calvinist proves also from Scripture, 
 that God is without variableness or shadow of 
 turning; that his love, like himself, alters not; 
 that the death of Christ will be efficacious to- 
 wards nil for whom it. was intended ; that God 
 will perform all his pleasure, and that his council 
 shall stand. The union of these scriptural prin- 
 ciples, is the final restoration of all men. 
 ' " Taking the principles of the Calvinists and 
 Arminians separately, we find the former teach- 
 ing, or at least inferring, that God doth not love 
 all ; but that he made the greater part of men to 
 be endless monuments of his wrath : the latter 
 declaring the love of God to all; but admitting 
 his final failure of restoring the greater part. 
 The God of the former is great in power and 
 wisdom, but deficient in goodness, and capri- 
 cious in his conduct: who that views the charac- 
 ter can sincerely love it ? The God of the latter 
 is exceeding good ; but deficient in po,wer and
 
 JBfj 17N1VERSAL1STS. 
 
 wisdom: who can trust such a being? If, there- 
 fore, both Culvinists and Armenians love and 
 trust the Deity* it is not under the character 
 which their several systems ascribe to him ; but 
 they are constrained to hide the imperfections 
 which their views cast upon him, and boast of a 
 God, whose highest glory their several schemes 
 will not admit." 
 
 The Univcrsolists teach the doctrine of elec- 
 tion; but not in the exclusive Calvinistic sense 
 of it : they suppose that God has chosen some 
 for the good of all ; and that his final purpose 
 towards all, is intimated by his calling his elect 
 ihejirst born and tliejirst fruits of his creatures, 
 which, say they, implies other branches of his 
 family, and a future in-gathering of the harvest 
 of mankind* 
 
 They teach also that the righteous shall have 
 part in the first resurrection, shall be blessed and 
 happy, and be made priests and kings to God and 
 to Christ in the millennial kingdom, and that 
 over them the second death shall have no power; 
 that the wicked will receive a punishment appor- 
 tioned to their crimes; that punishment itself is a 
 mediatorial work, and founded upon mercy; coa- 
 sequemly, that it is a means of humbling, subdu- 
 ing, and finally reconciling the sinner to God. 
 
 They add, that the words rendered everlasting, 
 eternal, for ever,, and for ever and ever t in tlws
 
 TJNIVERSAUSTS. J87 
 
 Scriptures, are frequently used to express the du- 
 ration of things that have ended, or must end ; 
 and if it is contended, that these words are 
 sometimes used to express proper eternity, they 
 answer, that then the subject with which the 
 words are connected, must determine the sense 
 of them ; and as there is nothing in the nature of 
 future punishment which can be rendered as a 
 reason why it should be endless, they infer that 
 the above words ought always to be taken in a 
 limited sense when connected with the infliction 
 of misery. 
 
 The Universalists have to contend on the one 
 hand with such as hold the eternity of future 
 misery, and on the other with those who teach 
 that destruction or extinction of being will be 
 the final state of the wicked. In answer to the 
 latter, they say, " that before we admit that 
 God is under the necessity of striking any of hi* 
 rational creatures out of being, we ought to pause 
 and enquire 
 
 " Whether such an act is consistent with the 
 scriptural character of the Deity, as possessed of 
 all possible wisdom, goodness, and power? 
 
 " Whether it would not contradict many parts 
 of Scripture ; such, for instance, as speak of the 
 restitution of all things the gathering together 
 of all things in Christ the reconciliation of all 
 things to the Father, by the blood of the cross
 
 f88 T7NIVERSALISTS. 
 
 the destruction of death, &c." These texts, 
 they think, are opposed equally to endless misery, 
 and to final destruction. Be it recollected also, 
 " Whether those who will be finally destroyed, 
 are not in a worse state through the mediation 
 of Christ, than they would have been, without 
 it ? This question is founded on a position of 
 the friends of destruction, viz. that extinction 
 of being, without a resurrection, would have 
 been the only punishment of sin, if Christ had 
 not become the resurrection and the life to men. 
 Consequently, the resurrection and future pu- 
 nishment spring from the system of mediation: 
 but, they ask, is the justification to life, which 
 came upon all men in Christ Jesus, nothing more 
 than a resurrection to endless death to millions? 
 
 " Whether the word destruction will war- 
 rant such a conclusion ? It is evident that de- 
 struction is often used in Scripture to signify a 
 cessation of present existence only> without any 
 contradiction of the promises that relate to a fu- 
 ture universal resurrection. They think, there- 
 . fore, that they ought to admit an universal re- 
 storation of men, notwithstanding the future 
 destruction which is threatened to sinners* : be- 
 cause, say they, the Scripture teaches both." 
 
 ' * Sec Vidlcr's Notes on Winchester'* Dialogues OH the Ra 
 toratio f fourth edition, p. IT*.
 
 UNIVERSALISTS. 189 
 
 They also think the doctrine of destruction, 
 in the above acceptation of it, includes two con- 
 siderable difficulties. The Scriptures uniformly 
 teach degrees of punishment, according to trans- 
 gression ; but does extinction of being admit of 
 this ? Can the greatest of sinners be more effec- 
 tually destroyed than the least ? Again, we are 
 taught that, however dark any part of the divine 
 conduct may appear in the present slate, yet jus- 
 tice will be clear and decisive in its operations 
 hereafter ; but the doctrine of destruction (in their 
 judgment) does not admit of this ; for what is the 
 surprising difference betwixt the moral character 
 of the worst good man, and the best bad man, 
 that the portion of the one should be endless life, 
 and that of the other endless death? 
 
 They suppose the universal doctrine to be most 
 consonant to the perfections of the Deity most 
 worthy of the character of Christ, as the media- 
 tor; and that the Scriptures cannot be made con- 
 sistent with themselves, upon any other plan. 
 They teach that ardent Tove to God, peace, 
 meekness, candour, and universal love to men, 
 are the natural result of their views." 
 
 This doctrine is not new. Origen, a Christian 
 father, who lived in the third century, wrote in 
 favour of it. St. Augustine, of Hippo, mentions 
 some divines in his day, whom he calls the mer- 
 ciful doctors, who held it. The German B.ip-
 
 190 UNIVERSALISTS. 
 
 lists, many of them, even before the Reformation, 
 propagated it. The people called Tunkers, in 
 America, descended from the German Baptists, 
 mostly hold it. The Menonites, in Holland, 
 have long held it. In England, about the latter 
 end of the seventeenth century, Dr. Rust, Bishop 
 of Dromore, in Ireland, published A Letter of 
 Resolutions concerning Origen,^ and the chief 
 of his Opinions, in which it has been thought he 
 favoured the Universal Doctrine, which Origen 
 held. And Mr. Jeremiah White wrote his book 
 in favour of the same sentiments soon afterwards. 
 The Chevalier Ramsay, in his elaborate work of 
 the Philosophical Principles of Natural and Re- 
 vealed Religion, espouses it. Archbishop Tillot- 
 son, in one of his sermons, supposes future pu- 
 nishment to be of limited duration, as does Dr. 
 Burnet, master of the Charter-House, in his book 
 on the stale of the dead. 
 
 But the writers of late years, who have de- 
 fended the subject most fully, are Dr. Newton, 
 Bishop of Bristol, in his Dissertations; Mr. 
 Stonchouse, Rector of Islington ; Dr. Chauncy, 
 of Boston, in America; Dr. Hartley, in his pro- 
 found work on Man; Mr. Purves, of Edinburgh; 
 Mr. Elhanan, of Winchester, in his Dialogues on 
 Universal Restoration (a new edition of which, 
 with explanatory notes, has been lately pub- 
 lished), and Mr. William Vidler. See the Uni- 
 
 4
 
 UNIVERSALISTS. 
 
 rersalist's Miscellany, now -entitled the Monthly 
 Repository of Theology and general Literature ; 
 containing many valuable papers for and against 
 Universal Restoration, where the controversy on 
 the subject between Mr. Vidler and Mr. Fuller, 
 will be found. But Mr. Fuller's Letters have 
 been since printed separately, as well as Mr. 
 Vidler's Letters to Mr. Fuller, on the Uni- 
 versal Restoration, with a statement of facts 
 attending that controversy, and some strictures 
 on Scrutator's Review. The Rev. Mr. Browne, 
 a clergyman of the church of England, has 
 produced an essay on the subject. Mr. R. 
 Wright, of Wisbeach, has also written a tract, 
 called The Eternity of Hell Torments Inde- 
 fensible, in reply to Dr. Ryland. The late Mr. 
 N. Scarlett likewise published a new translation 
 of the Testament, in which the Greek term aw, 
 in the singular and plural, is rendered age and 
 ages ; and in his Appendix proposed that its de- 
 rivative, *OM, should be rendered age-lasting, 
 instead of everlasting and eternal. 
 
 For still further information, the reader is re- 
 ferred to a critical work, entitled An Essaj on 
 the Duration of a Future State of Punishment 
 and Rewards, by John Simpson, who has written 
 several excellent practical pieces for the illustra- 
 tion of Christianity.
 
 192 RELLYAN UNIVEKSAL1STS. 
 
 RELLYAN UNIVERSALISTS. 
 
 AMONG the professors of Universal Salva- 
 tion which have appeared in the last century, is 
 to he ranked a Mr. JAMES RELLY, who first com- 
 menced the ministerial character in connection 
 with the late Mr. George Whitfield, and with the 
 same sentiments as are generally maintained at 
 the Tabernacle. He was considered and received 
 with great popularity. Upon a change of his 
 views, he encountered reproach, and of course 
 was soon pronounced an enemy to godliness, &c. 
 It appears that he became convinced of the union 
 of mankind to God, in the person of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christy and upon this per- 
 suasion, he preached a finished salvation, called 
 by the Apostle Jude, " the Common Salvation." 
 The relation and unity of the first and second 
 Adam unto God, the author and fountain of all 
 things, was the foundation of those sentiments 
 he continued to maintain during his life ; and 
 he was followed by a considerable number of 
 persons, who were convinced of the propriety of 
 his views. Since his death, his sentiments have 
 been retained by such who were attached to them 
 in sincerity, and although time has necessarily 
 removed a considerable part to the world of spi- 
 rits, a branch of the survivors still meet at the 
 chapel in Windmill-street, Finsbury-square,
 
 RELLYAN U N' I V ER S AT.iSTS, 
 
 where tliere are different brethren who speak. 
 They are not observers f ordinances, such as 
 water baptism and the sacrament professing to 
 believe in only one baptism, which they cull a a 
 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 inculcate 
 and maintain good works for necessary purposes, 
 but contend that the principal and only works 
 which ought to be attended to, is the doing 
 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 ce- 
 remonies: 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 resur- 
 rection, and shall reign with Christ in his king- 
 dom of the millennium; that unbelievers who are 
 after raised, must wait the manifestation of the 
 Saviour of the world, under that condemnation 
 of conscience, which a mind IH darkness and 
 wrath must necessarily feel ; that believers, call- 
 ed kings and priests, will be made the medium of 
 communication to their condemned brethren 
 K
 
 ]f)4 RELLYAN U NITERS ALIST3. 
 
 and, Tike Joseph to his brethren though he 
 spoke roughly to them, in reality overflowed with 
 affection and tendernes; that ultimately every 
 knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that 
 in the Lord they have righteousness and strength : 
 and thus every enemy shall be subdued to the 
 kingdom and glory of the great Mediator. 
 
 A Mr. Murray, belonging to this society, emi- 
 grated to America previous to or about the time 
 of the war. He preached the same sentiments at 
 Boston and elsewhere, and was appointed chap- 
 lain to General Washington. There are a num- 
 ber of adherents at Boston, Philadelphia, and 
 other parts. Mr. RiiLLY published several works, 
 the principal of which were, " Union" " The 
 Trial of Spirits"" Christian Liberty"" One 
 Baptism"" The Salt of Sacrifice"" Anti- 
 christ Resisted" " Letters on Universal Salvati- 
 on" "The Clierubirnical Mystery"" Hymns," 
 &c. 8cc. His followers now meet at the chapel 
 in Windmill-street, Finsbury-squure, Sunday 
 mornings and evenings. Messrs. Rait, Coward, 
 Jeffreys, &c. speak from time to time ; and Mr. 
 Coward has published two little treatises, enti- 
 tled " Deism traced to its Source," and ". The 
 Comparison ; or, the Gospel preached of God to 
 the Patriarchs," compared with the gospel preach- 
 ed in the presentday. There are also some of those 
 of the same sentiments in other parts of the king-
 
 RELLYAN U Nl VERBALISTS. 
 
 dom, and particularly at and in the vicinity of 
 Plymouth-Dock, and Plymouth, in Devonshire*. 
 
 THE writers who have of late particularly ani- 
 madverted upon the doctrine of Universal Resto- 
 ration, are, in America, President Edwards and his 
 son, Dr. Edwards; and in England, Mr. Dan. 
 Taylor, Mr. Fisher, and Mr. Andrew Fuller}-. 
 
 Mr. Broughton, at the close of his Disserta- 
 tions on Futurity (shocked at the idea of eternal 
 punishment in every case) proposes the follow- 
 ing hypothesis : " That the spirit of God had 
 made choice of an ambiguous term, amoj, ac- 
 
 * Such is the account of the followers of Mr. Kelly, sent rre 
 by a respectable member amongst them. I have taken the li- 
 berty of applying to them the title of Ilei/yan Universalislt, 
 merely by way of diitim-tion. The term Antinomian has beeu 
 bestowed upon them ; but as it conveys a degree of reproach, 
 it is here avoided. Indeed, believing that Christ has made 
 satisfaction for the sins of all mankind, they are of opinion that 
 no future punishment attaches to unbelievers, except that con- 
 demnatory suspense, which they feel after death, till the ma- 
 nifestation of the Saviour ! This sentiment most, probably has 
 subjected them to the imputation of Antinomianitm ; and hence 
 it has been remarked that they are the on!y consistent Satistac- 
 tionists in the world : for sins once atoned for, cannot be the 
 subject of punishment. 
 
 f For most of the above account of the Universalittt, preceding 
 that of the Relluan Universalists, the author is indebted to' a popu- 
 lar minister wf that persuasion. 
 
 K 2
 
 DESTRUCTION1STS. 
 
 knowledged on both sides, sometimes to be an 
 eter'nal, and sometimes only a temporary dura- 
 tion, with the wise view, that men might live in 
 fear of everlasting punishment; because, it is 
 possible, it may be everlasting; and at the same 
 time God be at liberty, (if I may so speak) with- 
 out impeachment of his faithfulness and truth, to 
 inflict either Jinile or infinite punishment, as his 
 divine wisdom, power, and goodness shall direct.'' 
 lie, however, only suggests this scheme with an 
 amiable and becoming modesty. 
 
 DESTRUCTIONISTS. 
 
 BETWEEN the system of restoration and the 
 system of endless misery, a middle hypothesis of 
 the FINAL DESTRUCTION of the wicked (after 
 having suffered the punishment due to their 
 crimes) has been adopted more particularly by the 
 Rev. Mr. Bourne, of Birmingham ; and Mr. John 
 Marsoui, in two small volumes, of which there 
 has been a second edition with additions. They 
 say that the Scripture positively asserts this doc- 
 trine of destruction ; that the nature of future 
 punishment (which the Scripture terms death) 
 determines the meaning of the words everlasting f 
 eternal, for ever, &c. as denoting endless dura- 
 tion ; because no law ever did or can inflict the 
 punishment of death for % limited period ; that
 
 SABBATARIANS. .. 197 
 
 the punishment cannot be corrective, because no 
 man was ever put to death, cither to convince 
 his judgment or to reform his conduct; that if. the 
 wicked receive a punishment apportioned to their 
 crimes, their deliverance is neither to be attri- 
 buted to the mercy of God, nor the mediation of 
 Jesus Christ, but is an act of absolute justice; 
 und finally, that the mediatorial kingdom of 
 Jesus Christ will never be delivered up, since the 
 Scripture asserts,, that of his kingdom llic>e shall 
 be no end. Those who maintain these sentiments 
 respecting the destruction of the wicked, are ac- 
 cused of espousing the doctrine of annihilation ; 
 but this accusation they repel, alledgiag, that, 
 philosophically speaking, there can be no anni- 
 hilation, and that destruction is the express 
 phrase used in the New Testament. Of this sen 
 timent there have been many advocates distin- 
 guished for their erudition and piety*. 
 
 SABBATARIANS. 
 
 THE Sabbatarians are a body of Christians 
 who keep the seventh day as the Sabbath, and 
 are to be found principally, if not wholly, among 
 the Baptists. The common reasons why Chris- 
 
 * This account of the Destritctio/tists was sent the author of th* 
 Sketch for insert ion.
 
 198 SABBATARIANS. 
 
 tians observe the first day of the week as the 
 Sabbath, are, that on this day Christ rose from 
 the dead ; that the apostles assembled, preached, 
 and administered the Lord's Supper ; and that it 
 has been kept by the church for several ages, if 
 not from the time when Christianity was ori- 
 ginally promulgated. The Sabbatarians, how- 
 ever, think these reasons unsatisfactory, and assert 
 that the change of the Sabbath from the seventh 
 to the first day of the week, was effected by Con- 
 stantino, upon his conversion to the Christian 
 religion. The three following propositions con- 
 tain a summary of their principles as to this ar- 
 ticle of the Sabbath, by which they stand distin- 
 guished : 1st, That God hath required the ob- 
 servation of the seventh, or last day of every week, 
 to be observed by mankind universally for the 
 weekly sabbath; 2dly, That this command of 
 God is perpetually binding on man till time shall 
 be no more ; and 3dly, That this sacred rest of 
 the seventh-day sabbath is not (by divine autho- 
 rity) changed from the seventh and last to the first 
 d-tiy of the week, or thai the Scripture doth no 
 where require the observation of any other day 
 of the week for the weekly sabbath, but the 
 seventh day only. There are two congregations 
 of the Sabbatarians in London, one among the 
 General Baptists meeting in Mill-yard, Good- 
 man's Fields, the other among the Particular
 
 SABBATARIANS. 199 
 
 Baptists meeting in Red-Cross-street, Cripple- 
 gate. There are also a few to be found in dif- 
 ferent parts of the kingdom. 
 
 Mr. Morse informs us that there are many Sab- 
 batarians in America. " Some (says he) in 
 Rhode Island observe the Jewish or Saturday 
 sabbath, from a persuasion that it was one of the 
 ten commandments, which they plead are all in 
 their nature moral, and were never abrogated in 
 the New Testament. Though, on the contrary, 
 ethers of them believe it originated at the time 
 of the creation, in the command given to Adam 
 by the Creator himself." See Genesis, chap, 
 ii. 3. " At New Jersey also there are three con- 
 gregations of the Seventh-Day Baptists ; and at 
 Ephrata, in Pennsylvania, there is one congre- 
 gation of them, called Tunkers. There are like- 
 wise a few Baptists who keep the seventh day as 
 holy time, who are the remains of the Kcithcan 
 r Quaker Baptists." 
 
 This tenet has given rise to various contro- 
 versies, and writers of ability have appeared 
 on both sides of the question. Mr. Cornihwaite, 
 a respectable minister among them, about 
 the year 1740, published several tracts in support 
 of it, which ought to be consulted by tlvose who 
 wish to obtain satisfaction on the subject. The 
 reader should also have recourse to Dr. Chand- 
 ler's two discourses on the Sabbath, Mr Amiicr's 
 K 4
 
 CO MORAVIANS. 
 
 Dissertation on the Weekly Festival of the 
 Christian Church, Dr. Kennicolt's Sermon and 
 Dialogue on the Sabbath, the Rev. S. Palmer'* 
 publication on the Nature and Obligation of tJie 
 Christian Sabbath, and Estlin's Apology for the 
 Sabbath- all of which are worthy of attention. 
 But whatever controversy may have been agitated 
 on this subject, certain it is, that were there no 
 particular day set npart for the purpose of de- 
 votion (for which some in the present day con- 
 fend) our knowledge of human nature authomcs 
 us to say, that virtue and religion would be either 
 greatly debilitated or finally lost from among 
 
 The Sabbatarians hold in common with other 
 Christians, the distinguishing doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity, and thougli much reduced in number, 
 deserve this distinct mention, on account of their 
 integrity and respectability*. 
 
 MORAVIANS. 
 
 THE Moravians arc supposed to have arisen 
 under Nicholas Lewis, Count of Zinzendoff, a 
 German nobleman, who died 1/GO. They were 
 
 * Most of tli e above particulars respecting the Sabbatarians' 
 \vtre communicated to the author by some worthy individuals uf 
 that persuasion.
 
 MORAVIANS-. 201 
 
 also called Hcrnhuters, from Uerm'tuth, the name 
 of the village where they were first settled. 
 The followers of Count Zinzendorf are called 
 Moravians, because the first converts to his sys- 
 tem were some Moravian families : the society 
 themselves however assert, that they are de- 
 scended from the old Moravian and Bohemian 
 Brethren, who existed as a distinct sect sixty 
 years prior to the Reformation. They also style 
 themselves U/titas Frutrum, or the U#ited 
 Jtrethren; and, in general, profess to adhere to 
 the Augsburgh confession of faith. When the 
 first Reformers were assembled at Ausburgh in 
 Germany, the Protestant princes employed Me- 
 lanethon, a divine of learning and moderation; 
 to draw up a confession of their faith, expressed 
 in terras as 'little offensive to the Roman Catho- 
 lics as a regard for truth would permit. And this 
 creed, from the place where it was presented, 
 is called the Confession of Augsbufgk* It i* 
 not easy to unravel the leading tenets of the 
 Moravians. Opinions and practices have been 
 attributed to them of an exceptionable nature, 
 which the more sensible'of them disavow. They 
 direct their worship to Jesus Christ (addressing 
 hymns evert to the wound or hole in the side of 
 the Saviour) ; are much attached to instrumental 
 as well as vocal music in their religious services ; 
 and discover a predilection for forming them 
 K 5
 
 202 MORAVIANS. 
 
 selves into classes, according to sex, age, and cha- 
 racter. Their founder not only discovered his 
 zeal in travelling in person over Europe, but has 
 taken special care to send missionaries into almost 
 every part of the known world. They revive their 
 devotion by celebrating agapce, or love-feast?, 
 and the casting of lots is used amongst them to 
 know the will of the Lord. The sole right of 
 contracting marriage lies with the elders. In Mr. 
 LaTrobe's edition of Spangenburgh's Exposition 
 of Christian Doctrine, their principles are detailed 
 at length. There is a large community of them 
 at a village near Leeds, which excites the curiosity 
 of the traveller ; and they have places of worship 
 in various parts of the kingdom. Mr. Rimius 
 published his candid narrative of this people, and 
 Bishop Lavington (who wrote also against the 
 Methodists) replied, in \755, in his Moravians 
 compared and detected. Mr. Weld, in his Tra- 
 vels through the United States, gives a curious 
 account of a Settlement of Moravians at Beth- 
 lehem, honourable to their virtue and piety. 
 
 Dr. Palcy, in his Evidences of Christianity, 
 pnys the following compliment to the religious 
 Practices of the Moravians and Methodists ; he 
 is speaking of the first Christians : >" After men 
 became Christians, much of their time was spent 
 m prayer and devotion, in religious meetings, in 
 celebrating the c ucharist, in conferences, in ex-
 
 SANi>EMANIANS. 203 
 
 hortations, in preaching, in an affectionate in- 
 tercourse with one another, and correspondence 
 with other societies. Perhaps their mode of life in 
 its form and habit, was not very unlike that o 
 the Unitas Fratrum or of modern Methodists." 
 Be it, however, the desire of every body of 
 Christians not enly thus to imitate the primitive 
 disciples in their outward conduct, but to aspire 
 after the liberality of their dispositions, the peace- 
 ableness of their tempers, and the purity df 
 their lives ! 
 
 SANDEMANIANS. 
 
 SANDEMANIANS*, a modern sect, that origin- 
 ated in Scotland about the year 1728; where it 
 is, at this time, distinguished by the name of 
 Glassites, after its founder, Mr. John Glas, who 
 was a minister of the established church in that 
 kingdom ; but being charged with a design of 
 subverting the national covenant, and sapping the 
 foundation of all national establishments, by 
 maintaining that the kingdom of Christ is not of 
 this world, was expelled by the synod from the 
 church of Scotland. His sentiments are fully 
 explained in a tract published*! that time, enti- 
 
 * The author has been favoured with this account of the San- 
 duaianians by a gentleman of respectability, who belong* to that 
 body of Christians. 
 
 K 6
 
 204 SANDEMANIANS. 
 
 tied " The Testimony of the King of Martyrs/' 
 and preserved in the first volume of his works. 
 In consequence of Mr. Glas's expulsion his ad- 
 herents formed themselves into churches, con- 
 formable, in their institution and discipline, to 
 what they apprehend 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, pub- 
 lished a series of Letters addressed to Mr. Hervey, 
 occasioned by his Theron and Aspasio, in which 
 he endeavours to show, that his 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 faith is neither more nor 
 less than a simple assent to the divine testimony 
 concerning Jesus Christ, delivered for the of- 
 fences of men, and raised again for their justifi- 
 cation, as recorded in the New Testament. He 
 also maintains that the word faith or belief, is 
 constantly used by the apostles to signify what 
 is denoted b}' it in common discourse, viz. a per- 
 suasion of the truth of any proposition, and that 
 there is no difference between believing any com- 
 mon testimony and believing the apostolic testi- 
 mony, except that which results from the testi-
 
 S A N D E M A N I A N S . 205 
 
 .mony itself, and the divine authority on which it 
 rests. This led the way to a controversy among 
 those who are called Calvinists, concerning the 
 nature of justifying faith, and those who adopted 
 Mr. Sandeman's notion of it; and they who are 
 denominated Sandemanians, formed themselves 
 into church order, in strict fellowship with the 
 churches of Scotland, but holding no kind of 
 communion with other churches. Air. Sandeman 
 died in 1772, in America. 
 
 The chief opinion and practices in which this 
 sect differs from other Christians, are, their week- 
 ly administration of the Lord's Supper; their 
 love-feasts, of which every member is not only 
 allowed, but required to partake, and which con- 
 sist of their dining together at each other's houses 
 in the interval between the morning and after- 
 noon service; 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 expences ; mutual exhortation ; abstinence 
 from blood and things strangled ; washing each 
 other's feet, when, as a deed of mercy, it might 
 be an expression of love ; the precept concerning 
 which, as well as other precepts, they understand 
 literally community of goods, so far as that 
 every one is to consider all that he has in hispos-
 
 206 SANHEMANIANS. 
 
 session and power liable to the calls of the poor 
 and the church ; and the unlawfulness of laying 
 up treasures 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 not connected with circumstances really 
 sinful ; but apprehending a lot to be sacred, dis- 
 approve of lotteries, playing at cards, dice, 8cc. 
 
 They maintain a plurality of elders, pastors, 
 or bishops, in each church, and the necessity of 
 the presence of two elders 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 trade are no sufficient objec- 
 tions, if qualified according to the instructions 
 given to Timothy and Titus ; but second mar- 
 riages disqualify for the office; and they are 
 ordained by prayer and fasting, imposition of 
 hands, and giving the right hand of fellowship. 
 
 In their discipline they are strict and severe, 
 and think themselves obliged to separate from the 
 communion and worship of all such religious 
 societies, as appear to them not to profess the 
 simple truth for their only ground of hope, and 
 who do not walk in obedience to it. We shall 
 only add, that in every transaction they esteem 
 unanimity to be absolutely necessary.
 
 _ ._. HUTCHINSONIANS. 20? 
 
 IIUTCHINSONIANS. 
 
 HUTCHINSONIANS, the followers of John 
 Hutchinson, born in Yorkshire, 1674, and who 
 in the early part of life served the Duke of So- 
 merset in the capacity of a steward. The He- 
 brew Scriptures, he says, comprise a perfect sys- 
 tem of natural philosophy, theology, and reli- 
 gion. In opposition to Dr. Woodward's Na- 
 tural History of the Earth, Mr. Hutchinson, in 
 1724, published the first part of his curious book, 
 called Moses Principia. Its second part was 
 presented to the public in 1727, which contains, 
 as he apprehends, the principles of the Scripture 
 philosophy, which are a plenum and the air. So 
 high an opinion did he entertain of the Hebrew 
 language, that he thought the Almighty must 
 have employed it to communicate every species 
 of knowledge, and that accordingly every species 
 of knowledge is to be found in the Old Testa- 
 ment. Of his mode of philosophising the fol- 
 lowing specimen is brought forward to the rea- 
 der's attention : " The air (he supposes) exists in 
 three conditions, fire, light, and spirit: the two 
 latter are the finer and grosser part of the air 
 in motion: from the earth to the sun, the air 
 is finer and finer till it becomes pure light near 
 the confines of the sun, and fire in the orb of 
 the sun, or solar focus. From the earth towards
 
 208 DUNKERS. 
 
 the circumference of this system, in which lie 
 includes 1he fixed s'tnrs, the air becomes grosser 
 and grosser till it becomes stagnant, in which 
 condition it is at the utmost verge of this system, 
 from whence (in his opinion) the expression of 
 outer darkness, and blackness of darkness, used in 
 the New Testament, seems to be takes'..". 
 
 The followers of Mr. Hutcliinson are nume- 
 rous, and among others the Rev. Mr. Romaine, 
 Lord Duncan Forbes,, of Culloden, and the late 
 amiable Dr. Home, Bishop of Norwich, who 
 published an Abstract of Mr. Hutehiuson's writ- 
 ings. They have never formed themselves into 
 any distinct church or society. 
 
 THE Dunkcrs and Shakers are two sects pe- 
 culiar to AMERICA. 
 
 BUNKERS. 
 
 THE Dunkers (or Tunkers) arose about 1721, 
 and formed themselves into a kind of common- 
 wealth, mostly in Pennsylvania. They baptize 
 by immersion, dress like the Dominican friars, 
 never shave head nor beard, have different apart- 
 ments for the sexes, live chiefly on roots and ve- 
 getables, except at their love-feasts, when they 
 eat only mutton. It is said that no bed is allowed
 
 SHAKF.RS. 09 
 
 them but in case of sickness; for in their separate 
 cells they have u bench to lie upon, and u block 
 of wood for their pillow. Their principal tenet 
 is the mortification of the body, and they deny 
 the eternity of future punishment. They are 
 commonly called the harmless Dunkers. 
 
 SHAKERS. 
 
 Shaken, instituted in 1774, are the fol- 
 lowers of Anna Leese, whom they style the 
 elect Lady, and the Mother of all the Elect. 
 They say she is the woman mentioned in the 
 twelfth chapter of the Revelations, can speak 
 seventy-two tongues, and converses with the dead. 
 Their enthusiasm is vented in jumping, dancing, 
 and violent exertions of the body, which bring' 
 ing on shaking, they are termed Shakers. This 
 dancing, they say, denotes their victory over 
 sin. Their most favourite exercise is turning, 
 round for an hour or two, which, in their opi- 
 nion, shews the great power of God. See a cu- 
 rious account of the Shnkers in the first volume 
 ot the Duke de la llochefoucault's Travel* 
 through America.
 
 210 NEW AMERICAN SECT. 
 
 NEW AMERICAN SECT. 
 
 THE American editor of this work, has added 
 the following article : 
 
 {f Many of those who lately migrated from 
 WALES to America, have adopted the following 
 articles as their religious constitution : 
 
 " 1. The convention shall be called the Chris- 
 tian Church. 
 
 " 2. It shall never be called by any other name, 
 or be distinguished by the particular tenets of any 
 man or sect of men. 
 
 " 3. Jesus Christ is the only head believers 
 in him the only members and the New Testa- 
 ment the only rule of the fraternity. 
 
 " 4. In mental matters, each member shall en- 
 joy his own sentiments, and freely discuss every 
 subject: but in discipline, a strict conformity 
 with the precepts of Christ, is required. 
 
 " 5. Every distinct society belonging to this 
 association, shall have the same power of admit- 
 ting its members, electing its officers, and in case 
 ef mal-conduct, of impeaching them. 
 
 " 6. Delegates from the different congrega- 
 tions, shall meet from time to time, at an ap- 
 pointed place, to consult the welfare and advance- 
 ment of the general interest. 
 
 " 7. At every meeting for religious worship, 
 collections shall be made for the poor, and the
 
 MYSTICS. 211 
 
 promulgation of the gospel among the Hea- 
 thens." 
 
 This plan, which has many traits to recom- 
 mend it, originated chiefly with the late Rev. M.. 
 J. Rces, who a few years ago emigrated from 
 Wales, and distinguished himself in America, by 
 his talents and activity. He died in the prime 
 of life, December 1804, at Somerset, in Penn- 
 sylvania, deeply regretted by his numerous friends 
 and connections. 
 
 As to the other sects in the United States, they 
 are much the same us on this side of the Atlantic. 
 For an account of them, the reader may consult 
 Morse's American Geography, and Winterbothom's 
 History of America. 
 
 MYSTICS. 
 
 THE Mystics are those who profess a pure arid 
 sublime devotion, with a disinterested love of 
 God, free from all selfish considerations. Passive 
 contemplation is a state of perfection to which 
 they aspire. Of this description there have been 
 many singular characters, especially Madam 
 Guyon, a French lady, who made a great noise 
 in the religious world. Fenelon, the amiable 
 Archbishop of Cambray, favoured the sentiments 
 of this female devotee, for which he was repri-
 
 2 12 MYSTICS, 
 
 inanded by the pope, and to whose animadver- 
 sions he most dutifully assented, contrary to the 
 convictions of his own mind. It-is not uncom- 
 mon for the Mystics to allegorise certain pas- 
 sages of scripture, at the same time not denying 
 the literal sense, as having an allusion to the in- 
 ward experience of believers. Thus, according 
 to them, the word Jerusalem) which is the name 
 of the capital of Judea, signifies allegorically the 
 church militant; morally, a believer; and myste- 
 riously, heaven. That fine passage albO in Ge- 
 nesis, " Let there be light, and there was light," 
 which is, according to the letter, corporeal light, 
 signifies allegorically, the Messiah; morally, 
 grace, and mysteriously, beatitude, or the light of 
 glory. Mysticism is not confined to any parti- 
 cular profession of Christianity, but is to be un- 
 derstood as generally applied to those who dwell 
 upon the inward operations of the mind (such as 
 the Quakers, 8cc.) laying little or no stress on the 
 outward ceremonies of religion*. 
 
 * The two following sects are occasionally mentioned in con- 
 versation, and the author lias been asked by young people more 
 than once for an explanation of them. A short account therefore 
 is here subjoined. 
 
 The Fifth Monarchy $Ien were a set of enthusiasts in the time 
 of Cromwell, who expected the sudden appearance of Christ to 
 establish on earth a new monarchy, or kingdom In consequence 
 of this allusion some of them aimed at the subversion of all liu-
 
 SWEDENBOROTANS. 
 
 SWKDENBORGIANS. 
 
 THE Stccdenborg-ians are the followers of 
 
 O 
 
 Emanuel S \vedenborg, a Swedish nobleman, who 
 died in London, 1772. He professed himself to 
 be the founder (under the Lord) of the New Je- 
 rusalem Church, alluding to the New Jerusalem 
 spoken of in (he Book of the Revelation of St. 
 John. His tenets, although peculiarly distinct' 
 from every other system of divinity in Christen- 
 
 man government. In ancient history we read of four great ino- 
 niirchics, the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the I(o- 
 ui.in : and these men believing that this new spiritual kingdom of 
 Christ was to be ihcfflfi, came to hear the name by which they 
 arc distinguished. See Uurnet's Hi.-tory of his Own Times, where 
 the reader will find a particular account of them. 
 
 The Muygletonians were the followers of Ludovie Muggletnn, 
 a journeyman taylor, who with his companion, Reeves, (a person 
 of equal ohrouritv) set up foFJAvp-Wf, in the turbulent times of 
 Cromwell. The}' pretended to absolve or condemn whom, they 
 pleased, and gave out that they were the two last witnesses spo- 
 ken of in the Revelations who *vc:'e to appear previous to the 
 final destruction of the world. I pi-kcd up some tiirtt; ago a thin 
 quarto volume published by Mupg/efon ; it detailed his sufferings 
 :md persecutions, which \v<*re ma:>ifbld, and stated at large his tra- 
 vels and labours. I'ut from the wihlness and incoherency of his 
 statements, (some of which ate really ludicrous) there can be no 
 doubt of the poor man's insanity. Dr. Gregory, in hk Ecclesi- 
 astical History, remarks, that the Mnyg/etvniom, Uchreivttllis!.*, 
 Lubbadists, I'erschnrists, &c. who derive their name from their rc- 
 
 jpective founders, were rae:e ephemeral pro<Iujtions. Ttey ju.*t 
 
 appeared, and ihc.i passed away !
 
 SWEDENBORGIANS. 
 
 dora, are nevertheless drawn from the Holy 
 Scriptures, and supported by quotations from 
 them. He asserts, that in the year 1743, the 
 Lord manifested himself to him in a personal 
 appearance; and at the same time opened his 
 spiritual eyes, so that he was enabled constantly 
 to see and converse with spirits and angels. 
 
 He now began to print and publish various 
 wonderful things, which, he says, were revealed 
 to him, relating to heaven and hell, the state of 
 men after death, the worship of God, the spirit- 
 ual sense of the Scriptures, the various earths io 
 the universe, and their inhabitants, with many 
 other extraordinary particulars, the knowledge of 
 which was, perhaps, never pretended to by any 
 other writer, before or since his time. Baron 
 Swedenborg, in his treatise concerning heaven 
 and hell, and of the wonderful things therein, as 
 heard and seen by him, makes the following de- 
 claration: " As often as I conversed with angels 
 face to face, it was in their habitations, which* 
 are like to our houses on earth, but far more 
 beautiful and magnificent, having rooms, cham- 
 bers, and apartments in great variety, as also 
 spacious courts belonging to them, together with 
 the gardens, parterres of flowers, fields, &c. 
 where the angels are formed into societies. They 
 dwell in contiguous habitations, disposed after 
 the manner of our cities, in streets,, walks, and
 
 SWEOENBORGJANS. 215 
 
 squares. 1 have had the privilege to walk 
 through them, to examine all around about me, 
 and to enter their houses, and this when I was 
 fully awake, having my inward eyes opened." 
 A similar description is given of heaven itself, 
 but the reader is referred to the treatise whence 
 this curious extract is taken. He denies a Tri- 
 nity of persons in the Godhead, but contends for 
 a divine Trinity in the single person of Jesus 
 Christ alone, consisting of a Father, Son, and 
 Holy Spirit, just like the human trinity in every 
 individual man, of soul, body, and proceeding 
 operation: and he asserts, that as the latter 
 trinity constitutes one man, so the former Tri- 
 nity constitutes one Jehovah God, who is at once 
 the Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator. On 
 this and other subjects, Dr. Priestley addressed 
 letters t* the members of the New Jerusalem 
 Church, to which several replies were made, and 
 particularly one by Mr. R. Hindruarsh, a printer. 
 Baron Swedenborg further maintains, that the 
 sacred Scripture contains three distinct senses, 
 called celestial) spiritual, and natural, which 
 are united by correspondencies; and that in each 
 sense it is divine truth, accommodated respec- 
 tively to the angels of the three heavens, and also 
 to men on earth. This science of correspond- 
 encies (it is said) had been lost for some thou- 
 sands of years, vizt ever since the time of Job,
 
 21 6 SWEDENBORGIAKS. 
 
 but is now revived by Emanuel Swedenborg, 
 who uses it as a key to the spiritual or internal 
 sense of the sacred Scripture, every page of which, 
 lie says, is written by correspondencies, that is, 
 by such tilings in the natural world as correspond 
 unto and signify things in the spiritual world. 
 He denies the doctrine of atonement, or vicarious 
 sacrifice, together with the doctrines of predesti- 
 nation, unconditional election, justification by 
 faith alone, the resurrection of the material body, 
 Sec. and in opposition thereto maintains, that maw 
 is possessed of free-will in spiritual things; that 
 salvation is not 'attainable without repentance, 
 that is, abstaining from evils because they are 
 sins against God, and living a life of charity and 
 faith, according to the commandments; that man, 
 immediately on his decease, rises again in a spi- 
 ritual body, which was inclosed in his material 
 body, and that in this spiritual body he lives as a 
 man to eternity, either in heaven or hell, accord- 
 ing to the quality of his past life. 
 
 It is further maintained by Baron Swedenborg, 
 and his followers, that all those passages in the 
 sacred Scripture, generally supposed to signify the 
 destruction of the world by fire, &c. commonly 
 called the last judgment, must be understood ac- 
 cording to the above-mentioned science qf cor- 
 respondencies, which teaches, that by the end of 
 the world, or consummation of the age, is not
 
 SWEDENBORG-IANS. 
 
 signified the destruction of the world, but the 
 destruction or end of the present Christian 
 church, both among Roman Catholics and Pro- 
 testants of every description or denomination; 
 and that the last judgment actually took place 
 in the spiritual world in the year 1757; from 
 which aera is dated the second advent of the 
 Lord, and the commencement of a new Christian 
 church, which, they say, is meant by the new 
 heaven and new earth in the Revelation, and the 
 New Jerusalem thence descending. 
 
 Such are the outlines of Baron Swedenborg's 
 principal doctrines, collected from his volumi- 
 nous writings. His followers are numerous in. 
 England, Germany, Sweden, &c. and also in. 
 America. They use a liturgy, and instrument. 
 al, as well as vocal music, in their public wor- 
 ship*. Mr. Proud, formerly a General Bap- 
 tist minister, is at present the most popular 
 preacher among them. He used to officiate at 
 their chapel in Hatton Garden, but now preaches 
 in the vicinity of St. James's-square. Their mi- 
 nisters have a particular dress both for praying 
 and preaching, so that they may be said to study 
 variety. 
 
 * Almost the whole of the above account was sent to the ajuther 
 for insertion by a gentleman of that denomination. 
 L
 
 Q18 JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 JOANNA SOUTHCOTT*. 
 
 " THE mission of this prophetess commenced 
 in the year J792, and the number of people who 
 have joined with her from that period to the 
 present time, as believing her to be divinely in- 
 spired, is considerable. It is asserted that she is 
 the instrument under the direction of Christ, to 
 announce the establishment of his kingdom oil 
 earth, as a fulfilment of all the promises in the 
 Scriptures, and of that prayer which he himself 
 gave to his followers ; and more particularly of 
 the promise made to the woman in the fall, 
 through which the human race is to be redeemed 
 from all the effects of it in the end. We are 
 taught by the communication of the Spirit of 
 Truth to her, that the seven days of the CREA- 
 TION were types of the two periods in which the 
 reign of Satan and of Christ are to be proved 
 and contrasted; Satan was conditionally to have 
 
 * The author having been frequently applied to respecting the 
 opinions of Joanna Sottthcott, has procured from a literary gen- 
 tleman, who is attached to her and her cause, the above commu- 
 nication. The reader, therefore, may rely on its accuracy ; in- 
 deed be might be referred to her numerous pamphlets, were their 
 contents accessible to common understandings. They will be 
 found to be a singular compound of prose and verse. The author 
 of the Sketch would just add, that the above is the most intelligi - 
 ble account of her opinions and religious views hitherto submitted to 
 bis attention.
 
 JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 his reign tried for six thousand years, shadowed 
 by the six days in which the Lore! worked, as his 
 spirit has striven with man while under the pow- 
 ers of darkness; but Satan's reign is to be short- 
 ened, for the sake of the elect, as declared in 
 the gospel ; and Satan is to have a further trial 
 at the expiration of the thousand years, for a 
 time equal to the number of the days shortened. 
 At the close of the seven thousand years the day 
 of judgment is to take place, and then the whole 
 human race will collectively bring forward the 
 testimony of the evil they suffered under the 
 reign of Satan, and of the good they enjoyed 
 under the spiritual reign of Christ. These two 
 testimonies will be evidence before the whole 
 creation of God, that the pride of Satan was the 
 cause of his rebellion in heaven, and that he 
 was the root of evil upon earth ; and consequent- 
 ly when those two great proofs have been brought 
 forward, that part of the human race that has 
 fallen under his power, to be tormented by being 
 in the society of Satan and his angels, will revolt 
 from him in that great day, will mourn that they 
 have been deluded, will repent, and the Saviour 
 of all will hold out his hand to them in mercy; 
 and will then prepare a new earth for them to 
 work righteousness, and prepare them ultimately 
 to join his saints, who have fought the good fight 
 in this world, while under the reign of Satan.
 
 220 JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 The mission of Joanna is to be accomplished 
 by a perfect obedience to the spirit that directs 
 her, and so to be made to claim the promise of 
 bruising the head of the serpent ; and which pro- 
 anise was made to the woman on her casting 
 the blame upon Satan, whom she unwittingly 
 obeyed, jand thus man became dead to the know- 
 ledge of the good ; and so he blamed his Cre- 
 ator for giving him the woman, who was pro- 
 nounced his helpmate for good. To fulfil the 
 attribute of justice, CHRIST took upon himself 
 that blame, and assumed his humanity to suffer 
 on the cross for it, that he might justly bring the 
 cross upon Satan, and rid him from the earth, 
 and then complete the creation of man, so as to 
 be after his own image. It is declared that the 
 seed of the woman are those who in faith shall 
 join with her iq claiming the promise made in 
 the fall; and they are to subscribe with their 
 hands unto the Lord, that they do thus join with 
 her, praying for the destruction of the powers 
 of darkness, and for the establishment of the 
 kingdom of CHRIST. Those who thus come for- 
 ward in this spiritual war are to have the seal of 
 the Lord's protection, and if they remain faith- 
 ful soldiers, death and hell shall not have power 
 over them : and these are to make up the sealed 
 number of one hundred and forty-four thousand to 
 Stand with the Lamb on Mount Sion ! The fall
 
 JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 221 
 
 of Satan's kingdom will be a second deluge over 
 the earth ; so that from his having brought the 
 human race under his power, a great part of 
 them will fall with him ; for the Lord will pluck 
 out of his kingdom all that offend and do wick- 
 edly. The voice which announces the coming: 
 of the Messiah is accompanied with judgments, 
 and the nations must be shaken and brought low 
 before they will lay these things to heart. When 
 all these things are_accomplished, then the Desire 
 of nations will come in glory, so that every ey& 
 shall see him, and he will give his kingdom to hi* 
 saints ! 
 
 Tt is represented that in the Bible is recorded 
 every event by which the Deity will work the 
 ultimate happiness of the human race; but that 
 the great plan is for the most part represented 
 by types and shadows, and otherwise so wrapt 
 up in mysteries, as to be inscrutable to human 
 wisdom. As the Lord pronounced that man 
 should become dead to knowledge if he ate the 
 forbidden fruit, so the Lord must prove his words 
 true. He therefore selected a peculiar people, as 
 depositaries of the records of that knowledge ; 
 and he appeared among them, and they proved 
 themsc4ves dead to every knowledge of him, by 
 crucifying him. He will in like manner put the 
 wild olive to the same test; and the result will 
 be, that he will be now crucified in the spirit!
 
 JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 The mission of Joanna began in 17Q2, at 
 which time she had prophecies given her, shew- 
 ing how the whole was to be accomplished. 
 Among other things, the Lprd said he should 
 visit the surrounding nations \yith various cala- 
 mities for fifteen years, as a warning to this land ; 
 and that then he should bring about events here 
 which should more clearly manifest the truth of 
 her mission, by judgments and otherwise; so 
 that this should be the happy nation to be the 
 first redeemed from its troubles, and be the in- 
 strument for awakening the rest of the world to 
 a sense of what is coming upon all, and for de- 
 stroying the Beast, and those who worship his 
 image .'" 
 
 Such is the account of the opinions of Joanna 
 Southcott sent me for insertion: it may not be 
 improper to add, that this lady has recourse to 
 pictures by way of illustrating the visions with 
 which she favours the world. She used to travel 
 with these representations of the pencil : and 
 they were held up by a person standing at the 
 corner of the pulpit while she minutely explain- 
 ed them. The Papists, who are very partial te 
 paintings, call them the Books of the {Jnharned; 
 and therefore we must not wonder that they 
 should be adopted by any sect for the diffusion 
 of instruction amongst the multitude ! There i.s 
 certainly a novelty in this plan of teaching, cal-
 
 M1LLENARIANS. 223 
 
 dilated to attract attention ; and though 1 under- 
 stand that the paintings here used are very unfi- 
 nished performances, somewhat like the good 
 lady's poetry, yet they are thought sufficiently 
 correct for the purposes to which they are de- 
 voted. We do not fiud that Joanna Southcott 
 and her followers are particularly fond of music 
 like the Svvedenborgians, otherwise "we might 
 close with the observation, that this singular 
 female is determined, so far to gratify the pupa* 
 l<ir taste, as to call in to her aid the sister aits 
 of painting, music, and poetry ! 
 
 WE shall close our list of DF.NOMI NAT IONS 
 with an account of that discriminating article of 
 belief, which refers to the final triumphs of C'/w/.s* 
 tianity. Its advocates are not indeed a sect dis- 
 tinct from others, but their tenet prevails in a 
 less or greater degree throughout almost every 
 department of the religious world. 
 
 MILLENARIANS. 
 
 THE Millenarians are those who believe that 
 Christ will reign personally on earth for a thou- 
 sand years; and their name, taken from the ki- 
 tin, mil/j a thousand, has u direct allusion to 
 L4
 
 234 MILLENARIANS. 
 
 the duration of this spiritual empire. " The doc- 
 trine of the Millennium, or a future paradisaical 
 state of the earth, (says a monthly reviewer) is 
 not of Christian, but of Jewish origin. The tra- 
 dition is attributed to Elijah, which fixes the 
 duration of the world in its present imperfect 
 condition to six thousand years, and announces 
 the approach of a sabbath of a thousand years of 
 universal peace and plenty, to be ushered in by 
 the glorious advent of the Messiah! This idea 
 may be traced in the epistle of Barnabas, and in 
 the opinions of Papias, who knew of no written 
 testimony in its behalf. It was adopted by the 
 Author of the Revelations, by Justin Martyr, by 
 Jrenaeus, and by a long succession of the fathers. 
 As the theory is animating and consolatory, and, 
 when divested of cabalistic numbers and allego- 
 rical decorations, probable even in the eye of phi- 
 losophy , it will no doubt always retain a number 
 of adherents*." 
 
 * It is somewhat remarkable, that DRUIBISM, the religion of 
 the first inhabitants of this island, had a particular reference to 
 the progressive melioration of the human species. A notion of 
 a Millennium seems to have been familiar to their minds, and 
 therefore forms a striking- coincidence with Christianity. The 
 tenets of Drttidism (which also include the 1 doctrine of universal 
 restoration) are far from being extinct in the principality. See 
 a sketch of the system of Draidism, in some POEMS, by Edward 
 Williams, the Welch bard, in two volumes': And the Bev. W. 
 Richnrds, of Lynn, means to take up the subject in the Intr- 
 Auction to his Cambrian Biography.
 
 MILLENARIANS. 225 
 
 But as the MILLENNIUM has for these few 
 years past attracted the attention of the public, 
 we shall enter into a short detail of it. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Mede, Dr. Gill, Bishop Newton, 
 and Mr. Winchester, contend for the personal 
 reign of Christ on earth. To use that prelate's 
 own words, in his Dissertations on the Prophe~ 
 cies: " When these great events shall come to 
 pass, of which we collect from the prophecies, 
 this to be the proper order : the Protestant wit- 
 nesses shall be greatly exalted, and the 1260 
 years of their prophesying in sackcloth, and of 
 the tyranny of the beast, shall end together; the- 
 conversion and restoration of the Jews succeed ;, 
 then follows the ruin of the Othman empire; 
 and then the total destruction of Rome and of 
 Antichrist. When these great events, I say,, 
 shall come to pass, then shall the kingdom of 
 Christ commence, or the reign of the saints upon; 
 earth. So Daniel expressly informs us, that the 
 kingdom of Christ and the saints will be raised 
 upon tlfe ruins of the kingdom of Antichrist, vii. 
 fi6, .27. But the judgment shall sit, and they 
 shall take away his dominion, to consume and to 
 destroy it unto the end: and the kingdom and do- 
 minion, and the greatness of the kingdom under 
 the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of 
 the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an 
 everlasting kingdom t and ell dominion shall serve
 
 226 MILLENARIANS. 
 
 and obey him. So likewise St. John saith, that, 
 upon the final destruction of the beast and the 
 false prophet, Rev. xx. Satan is bound for a 
 thousand years ; and I saw thrones, and they sat 
 upon them, and judgment z&as given unto them ; 
 and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for 
 the witness of Jesus Christ and for the word of 
 God; which had not worshipped the beast, neither 
 Jiis image ; neither had received his mark upon their 
 
 foreheads or in their hands ; and they lived *nd 
 reigned with Christ a THOUSAND years. But the 
 rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand 
 years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 
 it is, I conceive, to these great events the fall 
 of Antichrist, the re-establishment of the Jews, 
 
 . and the beginning of the glorious MILLENNIUM, 
 that the three different dates in Daniel of 126O 
 years, 1290 years, and 1335 years, are to be re- 
 ferred. And as Daniel saith, xii. 12, Blessed is 
 he that waiteth and cometh the 1335 years; so 
 St. John saith, xx. 6, Blessed and holy is he that 
 hath part in the first resurrection. Blessed and 
 happy indeed will be this period ; and it is very 
 observable, that the martyrs and confessors of 
 Jesus, in Papist as well as Pagan times, will be 
 raised to partake of this felicity. Then shall 
 all those gracious promises in the Old Testament 
 be fulfilled of the amplitude and extent, of the 
 peace and prosperity, of the glory and happi 

 
 MILLENARIANS. 227 
 
 ness of the church in the latter days. Then, in 
 the full sense of the words, Rev. xi. 15, Shall 
 the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of 
 our Lord, and of his Christ, and he. shall reign 
 for ever and ever. According to tradition*, these 
 thousand years of the reign of Christ and the 
 saints, will be the seventh Millenary of the world : 
 for as God created the world in six days, and 
 rested on the seventh} so the world, it is argued, 
 will continue six thousand years, and the seventh 
 thousand will be the great Sabbatism, or holy rest 
 to the people of God. One day (2 Pet. iii. 8,) 
 being with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
 thousand years as one day. According to tradition 
 too, these thousand years of the reign of Christ 
 and the saints, are the great day of judgment, in 
 the morning or beginning whereof, shall be the 
 coming of Ctfrist in flaming fire, and the parti- 
 cular judgment of Antichrist and the first resur- 
 rection ; and in the evening or conclusion whereof, 
 shall be the GENERAL RESURRECTION of the 
 dead, small and great; and they shall be judged 
 every man according to 
 
 * See Burnet's Theory. 
 
 f Mr. Winchester, in his Lectures on the Prophecies, freely 
 indulges bis imagination on this curious subject. He suggests, 
 that the large rivers in America are all on the eastern side, that 
 the Jews may waft themselves the more easily down to the Atlan- 
 tic, and then across that vast ocean to the Holy Laud; that 
 L6
 
 228 MILLENARIANS. 
 
 This is a just representation of the Millennium, 
 according to the common opinion entertained of 
 it, that CHRIST will reign personally on earth 
 during the period of one thousand years! But 
 Dr. Whitby, in a Dissertation on the subject; 
 Dr. Priestley, in his Institutes of Religion, and 
 the Author of the Illustrations of Prophecy, 
 contend against the literal interpretation of the 
 Millennium, both as to its nature and its duration. 
 On such a topic, however, we cannot suggest 
 our opinions with too great a degree of modesty. 
 
 Dr. Priestley (entertaining an exalted idea of 
 the advantages to which our nature may be des- 
 tined) treats the limitation of the duration of the 
 world to seven thousand years as a Rabbinical 
 fable ; and intimates that the thousand years may 
 "be interpreted prophetically: then every day 
 would signify a year, and the Millennium would 
 last for three hundred and sixty-five thousand 
 years! Again he supposes that there will be no 
 resurrection of any individuals till the general 
 resurrection ; and that the Millennium implies only 
 the revival of religion. This opinion is indeed 
 
 Christ will appear at the equinoxes (either March or September) 
 when the days and nights are equal all over the globe ; and final- 
 ly, that the body of Christ will be luminous, and being suspended 
 in the air over the equator for twenty-four hours, will be sen 
 with circumstances of peculiar glory, from pole to pole, by all 
 ,l* inhabitants of the world !
 
 MILLENARTANS. 
 
 to be found in his Institutes, published many 
 years ago ; but latterly he has inclined t'o the 
 personal reign of Christ. See his Farewell 
 Sermon, preached at Hackney, previous to his 
 emigration to America. The same conjecture 
 as to its duration is thrown out by the Author of 
 the Illustrations of Prophecy ; but he "contends, 
 thatinthe period commonly called the Millennium, 
 a melioration of the human race will gradually 
 take place, by natural means, throughout the 
 world. For his reasons, we refer to the work 
 itself, where will be found an animated sketch of 
 that period, when an end shall be put to many 
 of the crimes and calamities now prevalent on 
 the globe ! 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Bicheno, of Newbury, like- 
 wise, has in his publications thrown out some 
 curious particulars respecting the Millennium; 
 and though the reader may not agree with him 
 in many things, yet he will applaud his ingenuity. 
 We will just add, that the late Mr. Nathaniel 
 Scarlett, at the time of his decease, was preparing 
 for the press a piece on the Millennium, entitled 
 the Millennial A 'ge; which was to contain all the 
 passages of Scripture relative to the subject, 
 accompanied with several admirably executed 
 plates, by way of illustration. But his death 
 prevented its publication. 
 
 This final article of the MILLENNIUM shall be 
 1
 
 230 MILLENARIAN*. 
 
 closed with one observation. However the Mil- 
 lenarians may differ among themselves respect- 
 ing the nature of this great event, it is agreed on 
 all hands, that such a revolution will be effected 
 in the latter days, by which vice and its attendant 
 misery shall be banished from the earth ; thus 
 completely forgetting all those dissensions and 
 animosities by which the religious world has been 
 agitated,and terminating the grand drama of Pro- 
 vidence with UNIVERSAL FELICITY*. 
 
 * The professors of Christianity have instituted Socielirt for 
 the advancement of Religion. There are four which deserve 
 to be mentioned: i. The Society for promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge, which erects charity schools in England and Wales, and 
 distributes Bibles, Common Prayer-Books, and religious tracts ; 
 2. The Incorporated Society fo> the Propagation of the Gospel in 
 Foreign Paris, which takes care that the West India islands, and 
 the British colonies in North America, are provided with episcopal 
 clergymen and schoolmasters j 3. A Society in Scotland for pro- 
 pagating Christian Knowledge, designed to banish ignorance and 
 profaneness from the Highlands and Western Islands ; and, 4. A 
 Society established in Ireland, called The Incorporated Society in 
 Dublin for promoting English Protestant Working Schools. 
 
 Mr. Daniel Neal, about 60 years ago, estunated the number 
 of Dissenters in England at one hundred and fifty thousand 
 families; but since that period it is believed that they have 
 declined. At present the proportion of Nonconformists to the 
 Members of the Church of England is supposed to be as one to fine ; 
 and it is singular that the same proportion holds between the 
 Episcopalians and Roman Catholics ra Ireland. Mr. Rogue, of Gos- 
 port, and Mr. Kin^sbury, of Southampton, have announced their 
 intention of giving a History of the Protestant Dissenters from 
 the revolution to the present time.
 
 MILLENARIANS. 231 
 
 THESE are the divisions of human opinions, 
 which characterize the more popular departments 
 of the religious world. I have endeavoured to 
 delineate them with accuracy and brevity. Each 
 system boasts of admirers, and professes to have 
 its peculiar arguments and tendencies. To a 
 thoughtful mind they exhibit a melancholy pic- 
 ture of the human understanding, misguided 
 through passion, and warped with prejudice. In 
 drawing out the motley catalogue, several cur- 
 sory reflections arose in my mind. A few only, 
 such as may operate as a persuasive to religious 
 Moderation, and tend also to the improvement of 
 other Christian graces, shall be submitted to the 
 reader's attention.
 
 ( 232 ) 
 
 REFLECTIONS*. 
 
 I pray God to give all his ministers and people more and more of 
 the spirit of wisdom, and of love, and of a sound mind, and 
 to remove far from us those mutual jealousies and animotitiet, 
 which hinder our acting with that unanimity which is necessary 
 to the successfully carrying on of our common warfare against 
 the enemies of CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Doddi idge's Rise and Progress of Religion, 
 
 1. SINCE the best and wisest of mankind 
 thus differ on the speculative tenets of religion, 
 let us modestly estimate the extent of the human, 
 faculties. 
 
 * As the author has in the SEQUEL to this Sketch, brought to- 
 gether One Hundred testimonies of divines'of the church of Eng- 
 land, the kirk of Scotland, and from amongst the Dissenters, in 
 behalf of candour and charity ; so with these Reflections he has 
 interwoven the sentiments of some of the most distinguished of 
 the laity on the subject* The declarations of De Thou, Lord 
 Lyttleton, Lord Chatham, together with those of Locke, Mansfield, 
 and Washington, are entitled to particular attention. See a 
 Humble Attempt to promote Union and Peace among Christians, by 
 inculcating the Principles of Christian Liberty, by R, WRIGHT, 
 of Wisbeach. It is a work of merit, and happily calculated 
 to promote the purpose for which it has been written and pub- 
 lished*.
 
 REFLECTIONS. 233 
 
 A modest estimate of the human faculties is 
 an inducement to moderation. After laborious 
 investigations, probably with equal degrees of 
 knowledge and integrity, men arrive at opposite 
 conclusions. This is a necessary consequence 
 of imperfection. Human reason, weak and fal- 
 lible, soars with feeble, and often with ineffectual 
 wing, into the regions of speculation. Let none 
 affirm that this mode of argument begets an in- 
 difference to the acquisition and propagation of 
 religious truth. To declare that all tenets are 
 alike, is an affront to the understanding. The 
 chilling hesitation of scepticism, the forbidding 
 sternness of bigotry, and the delirious fever of 
 enthusiasm, are equally abhorrent from the ge- 
 nius of true Christianity. Truth being the con- 
 formity of our conceptions to the nature of 
 things, we should be careful lest our conceptions 
 be tinctured with error. Philosophers suppose 
 that the senses convey the most determinate 
 species of information : yet these senses, not- 
 withstanding their acuteness, are not endued 
 with an instinctive infallibility. How much 
 greater cause have we to mistrust the exercise of 
 our rational powers, which often, from early in- 
 fancy, are beset with prejudices! 
 
 Our reason, however, proves of essential use 
 to us in ascertaining the nature of truths, and 
 the degrees of evidence with which they are se-
 
 234 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 verally attended. This necessarily induces a 
 modesty of temper, which may be pronounced 
 the groundwork of charity. Richard Baxter, 
 revered for his good sense as well as fervent 
 piety, has these remarkable expressions on the 
 subject: " I am not so foolish as to pretend my 
 certainty to be greater than it is, merely because 
 it is dishonour to be less certain ; nor will I by 
 shame be kept from confessing those infirmities 
 which those have as much as I, who hypocriti- 
 cally reproach me with them. My certainty that 
 I am a man, is before my certainty that there is 
 a God; my certainty that there is a God, is 
 greater than my certainty that he requireth love 
 and holiness of his creatures; my certainty of 
 this is greater than my certainty of the life of 
 reward and punishment hereafter ; my certainty 
 of that is greater than my certainty of the end* 
 less duration of it, and the immortality of indi- 
 vidual souls ; my certainty of the .Deity is greater 
 than my certainty of the Christian faith ; my 
 certainty of the Christian faith in its essentials, 
 is greater than my certainty of the perfection 
 and infallibility of all the Holy Scriptures; my 
 certainty of that is greater than my certainty of 
 the cleaning of many particular texts, and so of 
 the truth of many particular doctrines, or of the 
 canonicalncss of some certain books. So that 
 you see by what gradations my understanding
 
 REFLECTIONS. 235 
 
 doth proceed, so also that my certainty dijfereth 
 as the evidence differs. And they that have attained 
 to a greater perfection and a higher degree of 
 certainty than I, should pity me, and produce 
 their evidence to help me." This paragraph 
 ought to be written in letters of gold. It were 
 indeed to be wished, that this accurate statement 
 of the nature and degrees of belief were duly 
 impressed on the mind of every Christian ; to the 
 want of it must be ascribed the prevalence of an 
 ignorant and besotted bigotry. 
 
 Reason, though imperfect, is the noblest gift 
 of God, and upon no pretence must it be decried. 
 It distinguishes man from the beasts of the 
 field, constitutes his resemblance to the Deity, 
 and elevates him to the superiority he possesses 
 over this lower creation. By Deists it is extolled, 
 to the prejudice of revelation ; and by Enthusiasts 
 depreciated, that they may the more effectually 
 impose on their votaries the absurdities of their 
 systems. Yet, strange inconsistency ! even these 
 enthusiasts condescend to em ploy this calumniated 
 faculty in pointing out the conformity of their te- 
 cets to Scripture, and in fabricating evidence for 
 their support. But beware of speaking lightly of 
 reason, which is emphatically denominated the 
 eye of the soul! Every opprobrious epithet with 
 which the thoughtless or the designing dare to 
 stigmatize it, vilifies the Creator. Circumscribed,
 
 236 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 indeed, are its operations, and fallible are its de- 
 cisions. That it is incompetent to investigate 
 certain subjects which our curiosity may essay to 
 penetrate, is universally acknowledged. Its ex- 
 tension, therefore, beyond its assigned boundaries, 
 has proved an ample source of error. Thus Mr. 
 Colliber, an ingenious writer, (often referred to 
 by Dr. Doddridge in his Lectures) imagines in 
 his treatise, entitled The Knowledge of God, that 
 the Deity must have some form, and intimates it 
 may probably be spherical !! Indeed the abuse of 
 reason has generated an endless list of paradoxes, 
 and given bhlh to those monstrous systems of 
 metaphysical theology, which are "the plague of 
 wise men, and the idol of fools. Upon many 
 religious topics, which have tried and tortured 
 our understandings, the sacred writers are re- 
 spectfully silent. Where they cease to inform us 
 we should drop our enquiries; except we claim 
 superior degrees of information, and proudly 
 deem ourselves more competent to decide on 
 these intricate subjects. 
 
 The primitive Christians, in some of their 
 councils, elevated the NEW TESTAMENT on a 
 throne ; thus intimating their concern, that by 
 that volume alone their disputes should be finally 
 determined. The great president De Thou re- 
 marks <f that the sword of the word of God ought 
 to be the sole weapon and those who are no 

 
 REFLECTIONS. 237 
 
 longer to be compelled, should be quietly attracted 
 by moderate considerations and amicable discus- 
 sions." 
 
 2. The diversity of religious opinions implies 
 no reflections upon the sufficiency of Scripture to 
 instruct us in matters of faith and practice, and 
 should not, therefore, be made a pretence for 
 uncharitableness. 
 
 Controversies are frequently agitated concern- 
 ing words rather than things. This is to be 
 ascribed chiefly to the ambiguity of language, 
 which has been a fertile source of ecclesiastical 
 animosities. But there is not in the world such 
 a multitude of opinions as superficial observers 
 may imagine. A common gazer at the starry 
 firmament conceives the stars to be innumerable; 
 but the astronomer knows their number to be 
 limited nay, to be much smaller than a vulgar 
 eye would apprehend. On the subjects of reli- 
 gion, many men dream rather than think ima- 
 gine rather than believe. Were the intellect of 
 every individual awake, and preserved in vigor- 
 ous exercise, similarity of sentiment would be 
 much more prevalent. But mankind will not 
 think, and hence thinking has been deemed 
 te one of the least exerted privileges of cultivated 
 humanity." It unfortunately happens that the 
 idle flights indulged by enthusiasts, the burden- 
 some rites revered by the superstitious, and the
 
 258 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 corrupt maxims adopted by worldly-minded pro- 
 fessors, are charged on the Scriptures of truth. 
 Whereas the inspired volume is fraught with ra- 
 tional doctrines, equitable precepts, and imma- 
 culate rules of conduct. Fanciful accommoda- 
 tions, distorted passages, false translations, and 
 forced analogies, have been the despicable means 
 employed to debase the Christian doctrine. A 
 calm and impartial investigation of the word of 
 God raises in our minds conceptions worthy the 
 perfections of Deity, suitable to the circum- 
 stances of mankind, and adapted to purify and 
 exalt our nature 
 
 " RELIGION'S lustre is, by native innocence, 
 
 " Divinely pure and simple from all arts; 
 
 " You daub and clrcss her like a common mistress 
 
 " The harlot of your fancies ! and by adding 
 
 " False beauties, which she wants not, make the world 
 
 " Suspect her angel face is foul beneath, 
 
 " And will not bear all lights ! 
 
 The Papists deprive their laity of the Scrip- 
 ture, by restraining its use, and denying its 
 sufficiency. The same reason also was as- 
 signed to vindicate the necessity of an infallible 
 head to dictate in religious matters. Notwith- 
 standing these devices to produce unanimity of 
 sentiment, they were not more in possession of 
 it than the Protestants. The sects which at 
 different periods sprang up in the bosom, and
 
 REFLECTIONS. 239 
 
 disturbed the tranquillity of the Catholic church, 
 are proofs that they failed to attain the desired 
 object. Pretences, therefore, however goodly, 
 should be rejected, if they tend to invalidate 
 the sufficiency, or disparage the excellence 
 of holy writ. Least of all should diversity 
 of sentiment be alledged ; for it does not ori- 
 ginate in the Scriptures themselves, but in the 
 imbecility of the understanding, in the freedom 
 of the will, in the pride of passion, and in the 
 inveteracy of prejudice. Deists, nevertheless, 
 who are expert in observing what may be con- 
 strued into an objection against revealed religion, 
 declaim loudly on this topic. On account of 
 the diversity of sentiment which obtains, they 
 charge the Bible with being defective in a species 
 of intelligence it never pretended to communi- 
 cate. Unincurnbcred with human additions, and 
 uncomaminated with foreign mixtures, it fur- 
 nishes the believer with that information which 
 illuminates the understanding, meliorates the 
 temper, invigorates the moral feelings, and im- 
 proves the heart. All Scripture given by inspira- 
 tion, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
 correction, Jor instruction in righteousness, that 
 the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
 nished unto all good works. " Heaven and Hell 
 are not more distant (says Lord Lyttlcton), than 
 the benevolent spirit of the Gospel and the ma-
 
 S40 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 lignant spirit of party. The most impious wars 
 ever made were called holy wars. He who hates 
 another man for not being a Christian is himself 
 not a Christian. Christianity breathes love, and 
 peace, and good will to men. 
 
 3. Let not any one presume to exempt himself 
 from an attention to religion, because some of 
 its tenets seem involved in difficulties. 
 
 Upon articles which promote the felicity, and 
 secure the salvation of mankind, the scripture 
 is clear and decisive. ' The curiosity of the 
 inquisitive, and the restlessness of the ingenious, 
 have involved some subjects of theological dis- 
 quisition in obscurity. Dr. Paley, speaking of 
 the disputes which distract the religious world, 
 happily remarks, " that the rent has not reached 
 the foundation." Incontrovertible are the facts 
 upon which the fabric of natural and revealed 
 religion is reared ; and the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against it ! And he who seriously and 
 dispassionately searches the Scriptures, must con- 
 fess that they teach, in explicit terms, that God 
 rules over all that man is fallen from his prime- 
 val rectitude that the Messiah shed his blood for 
 his restoration and that in a future state rewards 
 await the righteous, and punishments will be in- 
 flicted on the wicked. 
 
 From the preceding sketch of the different 
 opinions of Christians, it appears that contro-
 
 . .. 
 
 REFLECTIONS. 241 
 
 Tersies have been chiefly agitated concerning the 
 person of Christ, the subject of the divine 
 favour, and the article of church government. 
 But what was the specific matter of disputation ? 
 Not whether Christ has actually appeared on 
 earth to introduce a new dispensation; nor whe- 
 ther God is disposed to shew grace or favour 
 towards fallen man ; nor whether the professors 
 of religion ought to submit themselves to certain 
 regulations, or church government, for mutual 
 benefit. These are truths revered by every de- 
 nomination, and the only point of contention has 
 been, vrh*t particular vi.ws are to be entertained 
 of these interesting facts. The Trinitarian, the 
 Arian, and the Socinian, equally acknowledge 
 the divinity of Christ's mission, or that he was 
 the Messiah predicted by the ancient prophets; 
 and the chief point of dispute is, whether this 
 Messiah be a man highly inspired, or one of 
 the angelic order, or a being possessed of the 
 attributes of Deity. The Calviuist, the .Aruii* 
 nian, and the Baxterian also, each of them firmly 
 believes that the grace of God hath appeared^ 
 and differ only respecting the wideness of its 
 extent, and the mode of its communication. Si- 
 milar observations might be transferred to the 
 subject of church government, and the uH 
 tration of ceremonies. But sufficient ! -u 
 
 said to shew that the differences su' ., '.*.. 
 
 1C
 
 242 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 tween Christians do not affect the truth of Chris- 
 tianity, nor hazard the salvation of mankind. 
 
 Faint indeed is the light thrown by revelation 
 on certain subjects. Yet no lover of righteous- 
 ness need distress himself, whether he be mistaken 
 in leading a life of virtue and piety. Practical 
 religion lies within a narrow compass. The say- 
 ings of Christ embrace almost every part of 
 human conduct, though his disciples have been 
 lamentably deficient in paying them a proper at- 
 tention. Jesus Christ assures us, that to love the 
 Lord our God with nil our hearts, is the jirst and 
 great commandment and that the second is like 
 unto it to love our neighbour as ourselves. They 
 entertain mistaken views of the glorious gospel, 
 \vho consider it inimical to the prosperity of the 
 human race. Descending from a God of love, 
 and presented to us by his only begotten Son 
 every mind should have opened for its reception. 
 Wrangling should have been prevented by the 
 clearness of its fundamental doctrines, hesitation 
 about obedience precluded by the justice of its 
 precepts, and the beauty of its examples should 
 have captivated the most indifferent hearts. 
 
 The perplexity in which some religious tenets 
 are involved, instead of alienating us from the 
 practice of righteousness, should quicken our 
 enquiries after truth. Indeed, upon a serious 
 and intelligent individual, it produces this effect.
 
 REFLECTIONS. 243 
 
 Having in his eye the scripture as the only 
 standard, he is the more alive to free enquiry, 
 when he contemplates the diversity of religiaus 
 systems ; .and more accurately scrutinizes their 
 nature, examines their foundations, and ascertains 
 their tendencies. This mode of arriving at truth 
 is attended with advantages. Our knowledge 
 is enlarged, our candour established, and our be- 
 lief founded on the basis of conviction. Such a 
 believer reflects an honour upon the denomina- 
 tion with which he connects himself. For feel- 
 ing the difficulties of religious investigation, he 
 presumes not to charge with heresy those of his 
 fellow Christians who differ from him; nor is 
 he such a stranger to the perfections of the 
 Deity, and to the benign spirit of his' religion, 
 as to consign them over to the regions of future 
 misery. Of Mr. Gouge, an eminent Noncon- 
 formist minister, it is thus honourably recorded 
 by the great and good Archbishop Tillotson: 
 " lie allowed others to differ from him even in 
 opinions that were very dear to him, and pro- 
 vided men did but fear God, and work righ- 
 teousness, he loved them heartily, how distant 
 soever from him in judgment about things less 
 necessary ; in all which he is very worthy to be 
 a pattern to men of all persuasions.'* And Lord 
 Chatham has observed : " It is said that religious 
 sects have done great mischief, when they irer* 
 M2
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 not kept under restraint; but history affords no 
 proof that sects have ever been mischievous, when 
 they were not oppressed and persecuted by the 
 ruling church." 
 
 4. Let us reflect with pleasure in how many 
 important articles of belief all Christians are 
 agreed. 
 
 Respecting the origin of evil, the nature of 
 the human soul, the existence of an intermediate 
 state, and the duration of future punishment, to- 
 gether with points or' a similar kind, opinion! 
 have been, and in this imperfect state will ever 
 continue to be, different. But on articles of faith, 
 far more interesting in themselves, i.nd far more 
 conducive to our welfare, are not all Christiana 
 united? We all believe in the perfections and 
 government of one God, in the degradation of 
 human nature through transgression, in the un- 
 speakable efficacy of the life, death, and suffering* 
 of Jesus Christ, in the assurance of the divine 
 aid, in the necessity of exercising repentance, 
 and of cultivating holiness, in a resurrection from 
 the dead, and in a future state of rewards and 
 punishment. Cheerfully would 1 enter into a 
 minute illustration of this part of the subject; 
 but the devout and intelligent Dr. Price has dis- 
 cussed! it., m his first sermon on the Christian 
 Doctrine; to which discourse I refer the reader, 
 a&d-recQmmeud it to his repeated perusal. Many
 
 45 
 
 Christians are more anxious to know wherein 
 their brethren differ from them, than wherein, 
 they are agreed. This betrays a propensity to 
 division, and bears an unfavourable aspect on 
 mutual forbearance, one of the highest embel- 
 lishments of the Christian character. An enlight- 
 ened zeal is compatible with religious modera- 
 tion, which is more particularly opposed to the 
 furious spirit of imchariubleness, the gangrene 
 of genuine Christianity 1^ From the shy and dis- 
 tant deportment of men of different persuasions 
 towards each other, a stranger to them all 
 would with difficulty be brought to believe that 
 they looked up to the same God, confided in the 
 same Saviour, and were bending their steps to- 
 wards the same state of future happiness. To 
 me, often has the Christian world iucl the rpr 
 pearance of a subdued country/ portioned out in- 
 to innumerable districts, through the pride and 
 ambition of its conquerors, and each district oc- 
 cupied in retarding each other's prosperity. Alas I 
 what would the Prince of I'eace say, were he 
 to descend and sojourn among us ! Would he 
 not reprove our unhallowed warmth, upbraid 
 us with our divisions, chide our unsocial tempers, 
 and exhort to amity and concord ? " This anti- 
 pathy to your fellow Christians," would he say, 
 " is not the effect of my religion, but proeeedi 
 from the want of it. My doctrines, precepts, 
 K.S
 
 24f> REFLECTIONS. 
 
 and example, have an opposite tendency. Had 
 you learned of mt, you would have never uttered 
 against your brethren terms of reproach, nor 
 lifted up the arm of persecution. The new com- 
 mandment I gave unto you was That you love 
 one another." 
 
 The ingenious Mr. Seed (a clergyman) ob- 
 serves, " Our own particular darling tenets, by 
 which we are distinguished from the bulk of 
 Christians, we look upon as onr private incio- 
 sures, our private walks, in which we have pro- 
 perty exclusive of others, and which we take care 
 to cultivate, beautify, and fence in against all 
 invaders. To the received notions, however im- 
 portant, we are more indifferent, as the common 
 field and public walks, which lie open to every 
 body." Were the professorsof the Gospel once 
 fully sensible how they coincide on the funda- 
 mental facts of natural and revealed religion, they 
 would cherish with each other a more friendly 
 intercourse, unite more cordially to propagate 
 religion both at home and abroad, and a superior 
 degree of success would crown their combined 
 exertions for the purpose. Much is it regretted 
 that disputes have generally been agitated con- 
 cerning unessential points, and with an acrimony 
 diametrically opposite to the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. That controversy is in itself injurious 
 to truth, no intelligent individual will insinuate.
 
 REFLECTIONS. 247 
 
 When conducted with ability and candour, light 
 has been struck out, errors have been rectified, 
 ai.d information, on interesting subjects, has been 
 communicated to the public. But, alas! contro- 
 versy has been perverted to evil purposes. To 
 many who have engaged in theological discus- 
 sion, victory, not truth, appears to have been the 
 object of pursuit. Seduced by unworthy motives, 
 they swerved from the line of conduct prescribed 
 by an apostle, and contended boisterously, rather 
 than earnestly, for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints. Fiery controversialists, hurried away by 
 impetuousness of temper, or exasperated by the 
 opposition of an acute and pertinacious adver- 
 sary, have disgraced the polemic page by oppro- 
 brious terms and ungenerous insinuations. Thus 
 are infidels furnished with an additional objection 
 to revealed religion the investigation of interest- 
 ing truth terminates in mutual reproaches; and 
 Christians of different sentiments, driven still 
 farther from each other, are the less fitted tp 
 associate together in the common mansions of 
 the blest f To this pernicious mode of agitating 
 disputes, there are, however, exceptions ; and in- 
 stances of this kind might be adduced. In the 
 defence of Christianity, and in the support of 
 its particular doctrines, writers have stood forth, 
 whose temper and liberality breathe the genuine 
 spirit of the Christian Religion. Doddridge's 
 
 Bf4
 
 f48 
 
 Letters to the Author of Christianity not founded 
 in Argument, Bishop Watson's Reply to Gibbon, 
 and Campbell's Answer to Hume on Miracles, 
 are examples of the candour with whicb religious 
 controversies should be invariably conducted. In 
 an enlightened age like the' present, this concili- 
 ating spirit was to be expected; and we indulge 
 the pleasing hope, that times still more auspicious 
 to truth are approaching, when the amicable dis- 
 cussion of every doctrine supposed to be con- 
 tained in the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall obtain 
 an universal prevalence : 
 
 * Seize upo truth where'er 'tis found, 
 " Among your friends among your fota, 
 
 " On Christian or on Heathen ground ; 
 " The flower's divine where'er it jrows; 
 
 " Neglect the prickls and assume the roe." 
 
 " No way whatsoever," lays the immortal 
 Locke, " that I shall walk in ngoinst the dictatet 
 of my conscience, will ever bring me to the 
 mansions of the blessed. I may grovr rich by 
 an art that I take no delight in I may be 
 cured of some disease by remedies I have no 
 faith in ; but I cannot be saved by a religion that 
 J distrust, and a worship that I abhor. It is in 
 vain for an unbeliever to take up the outward 
 shadow of another man's profession } faith only
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 and inward sincerity are the things that procure 
 acceptance with God." 
 
 TRUTH, indeed, moral and divine, flourishes 
 only in the soil of freedom. There it shoots up 
 and sheds its fruit for the healing of the nations ! 
 Givil and religious liberty are two of the greatest 
 earthly blessings which Heaven can bestow on 
 man. Thrice happy are the people who expe- 
 rience the benefits of good government, unbur- 
 dened by the impositions df oppression, and who 
 enjoy the sweets of liberty, unembittered by 
 anarchy and licentiousness ! : 
 
 5. We should allow to others the same right 
 of private judgment in religious matters, which 
 we claim and exercise ourselves. 
 
 It is replied " We forbid not the sober use 
 of this privilege." But who can estimate the 
 sobriety of another man's speculations ? And by. 
 reprobating the opinions which a serious brother 
 may happen to entertain in consequence of free 
 investigation, we tacitly condemn, that operation* 
 of his mind which induced him to take up such 
 tenets. This is the spirit of popery in disguise. 
 Cautiously exercising his reason, and devoutly 
 examining the sacred records, let every, man be 
 fully persuaded in his own mind. This was 
 the advice of Paul to the primitive Christians, 
 and no substantial reason has b.cen, or ever, 
 M5
 
 250 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 be, given for its being abandoned. For a 
 Protestant, who demands and exercises the right 
 of private judgment, to deny it to his brother, is 
 an unpardonable inconsistency. It is also an act 
 of injustice, and, therefore, contrary to reason, 
 condemned by revelation, and prejudicial to the 
 best interests of mankind. He who insults your 
 person, steals your property, or injures your repu- 
 tation, subjects himself to the punishment which 
 the law denounces against such offences. What 
 then can we think of the man who attempts to 
 rob you of the right of private judgment a 
 jewel of inestimable price a blessing of the first 
 magnitude! Were we once to relinquish think- 
 tag for ourselves, and indolently to acquiesce in 
 the representations of others, our understandings 
 might soon groan beneath the absurdities of other 
 men's creeds, and our attention be distracted by 
 the perplexed nature of our religious services. 
 Hitherto, persons have never been wanting un- 
 reasonable enough to impose on their brethren 
 articles of faith. The late Mr. Robinson, of Cam- 
 bridge, an avowed foe to ecclesiastical tyranny, 
 has traced its sources with his usual acuteness, 
 and pronounces them to be power, law, patron- 
 age, office, the abuse of learning, and mistaken 
 piety. These pretences for domination over con- 
 science are plausible, and by their speciousness 
 millions have been deceived. But explain to a
 
 REFLECTIONS. Sol 
 
 man of common sense the nature and foundation 
 of religions liberty, and the infatuation ceases. 
 He must perceive that the Father of spirits hath 
 authorized no man to dictate to another what he 
 is to believe, much less to impose his dogmas 
 under pain of eternal punishment: 
 
 " Let Caesar's dues be ever paid 
 
 " To Caesar and his throne ; 
 " But consciences and souls were made 
 
 " T6 be the Lord's alone !" 
 
 WATT*. 
 
 To use the language of the illustrious Wash- 
 ington, " It affords edifying prospects indeed to 
 see Christians of different denominations, dwell 
 together in more charity, #nd conduct themselves 
 in respect to each other with a more Christian- 
 like spirit, than ever they have done in any for- 
 mer age !" 
 
 Why even of yourselves judge ye not what 
 is right ? was the language in which Christ 
 reproached the Pharisees ; and Prove all things f 
 was Paul's exhortation to the church at Thessa- 
 lonica. These passages alone prove, beyond 
 the possibility of dispute, that both Christ and 
 Paul were patrons of free enquiry. Free en- 
 quiry, even in its fullest extent, has been found 
 serviceable to the interests of religion. Hereby 
 error ceases to be perpetuated, and truth emerges 
 M 6
 
 53 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 from those shades of darkness with which she 
 has been enveloped by the artful and designing. 
 Survey the page of ecclesiastical history mark 
 the intervals of languor when the right of pri- 
 rate judgment lay dormant then was the church 
 of Christ debilitated and pestered with an hete- 
 rogeneous mass of errors. Excellently is it re- 
 marked in a periodical publication : " No man 
 can write down truth. Enquiry is to truth what 
 friction is to the diamond. It proves its hard- 
 ness, adds to its lustre, and excites new admira- 
 tion. " The ablest advocates for Christianity 
 confess, that by the attacks of its enemies pro- 
 Yoking examination, it has been benefited rather 
 than injured. To infidel writers we are indebted 
 for Butler's profound .Analogy, Law's Theory of 
 Natural- and Revealed Religion, Campbell's Dis- 
 sertation on Miracles, Newton's Work on the 
 Prophecies., Watson's Apology far frhe Bible, 
 and other performances, which reflect as much 
 honour on the names of their respective authors,. 
 as they have rendered service to the cause they 
 espoused. fl Every species of intolerance," sayg. 
 Archdeacon l?aley, " which enjoins suppression 
 and silence, and every species of persecutioa 
 which inforces such injunctions, is avers* to the 
 progress of truth, forasmuch as it causes that to 
 be fixed by one set of men at one time, which is 
 better, and with much more probability
 
 REFLECTIONS. $53 
 
 of success, left to the independent and progressive 
 enquiries of separate individuals. Truth results 
 from discussion and from controversy, is inves- 
 tigated by the labour and researches of private 
 persons ; whatever therefore prohibits these, ob- 
 structs that industry and that liberty, which it is 
 the common interest of mankind to promote." 
 
 6. " Let us be careful to treat those who differ 
 from us with kindness." 
 
 Believing those who differ from us to be 
 the disciples of error, they have a claim on 
 our compassion. And as a further incentive to a 
 lenient conduct, it should be remembered, that 
 we differ from them just as much as they do 
 from us. By either party, therefore, no anathe- 
 ma should be hurled, and a proneness to per- 
 secution should be eradicated. The Quakers, in 
 their address to James the Second, on his ac- 
 cession, told him, that they understood he was no 
 more of the established religion than themselves: 
 " We therefore hope (say they) that thou wilt 
 allow us that liberty which thou takest thyself." 
 The terms schism and heresy are in the mouths of 
 many, and it is no unfrequent case to find that 
 those who use them most, least understand their 
 real import. Dr. Campbell (who favoured the 
 public with an excellent translation of the Four 
 Gospels) thus concludes a learned dissertation 
 ou the subject : " No person (says he) who
 
 2,54 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 in the spirit of candour and charity adheres to 
 that which, to the best of his judgment, is right, 
 though in this opinion he should be mistaken, is 
 in the scriptural sense either schismatic or here- 
 tic: and he, on the contrary, whatever sect he 
 belongs to, is most entitled to those odious ap- 
 pellations who is most apt to throw the imputa- 
 tion upon others." Would to God, that this ob- 
 servation were engraven on the memory of every 
 individual in Christendom*! 
 
 Upon the advantages arising from Christian 
 moderation we might largely expatiate, and to 
 detail the evils which have flown from an unen- 
 lightened and furious zeal, would be to stain my 
 page with blood. Bishop Hall, in the last cen- 
 tury, wrote a treatise on moderation, and has 
 discussed the subject with that eloquence and 
 ability which are peculiar to all his writings. But 
 this great and good man, towards the close of 
 the same treatise, forgetting the principles which 
 
 * Having had the honour of attending the lectures both of 
 Dr. Campbell and Dr. Gerard, at Aberdeen, in the year 1190, 
 the author takes this opportunity of expressing his obligation 
 for the instruction received on many important topics ; and par- 
 ticularly for that amiable spiiil of candour, which induced them 
 fairly to state opposite opinion?, and never to discover the least 
 trait of uncharitableness, which is the disgrace of Christianity. 
 The Spanish proverb says, " To parents, to teachers, and to Goo 
 all sufficient, we annot indulge too much gratitude."
 
 REFLECTIONS. 255 
 
 he had been inculcating, devotes one solitary 
 page lo the cause of intolerance. This page he 
 concludes with these remarkable expressions: 
 " Master Calvin did well approve himself to 
 God's church, in bringing Servetus to the stake 
 at Geneva." Blessed Jesus ! how art thou 
 wounded in the house of thy friends ! After this 
 deplorable instance of human inconsistency, 
 should not the most eminent of thy followers be- 
 ware, lest, by indulging even in the slightest 
 degree a spirit of intolerance, they be insensibly 
 led either to adopt or applaud practices which, 
 under the specious mask of an holy zeal, out- 
 rage the first principles of humanity? To love 
 our own party only, is (to use the words of fhe 
 excellent Dr. Doddridge) nothing else than self- 
 love reflected. The most zealous partisans, there- 
 fore, are revelling in self-gratification. 
 
 Christians, indeed, of almost every denomi- 
 nation, appear at times to have forgotten, that 
 harshness widens rather than closes the breaches 
 which diversity of sentiment may have occa- 
 sioned. Coercive measures reach not the mind, 
 and the issuing edicts to extort assent to specu- 
 lative tenets, is the bombast of civil authority. 
 Truth rests on evidence. But what has evidence 
 to do with exertions of power, implements of 
 torture, and scenes of devastation ? From the 
 commencement of tke fourth century, down to
 
 356 REFLECTIONS, 
 
 that illustrious aera of the reformation, wide and 
 unmolested was the empire of ignorance over 
 the human mind. At Rome, for a series of 
 ages, the chair of infallibility was filled by a 
 succession of intolerant and domineering pon- 
 tiffs. Systems of cruelty were devised and prac- 
 tised, for the support of their most holy faith.. 
 Out of that once respectable capital of the 
 world, the demon of persecution rushed forth, 
 brandished his torch, and deluged the church of, 
 Christ with the blood of her martyrs. Impa- 
 tient for the destruction of the human race, he 
 flew into different regions of the earth, framed 
 racks, fixed stakes, erected gibbets, and, like a 
 pestilence, scattered around him consternation, 
 and death ! Shall the mild and evangelical genius- 
 of Protestantism countenance a temper which 
 incites to such execrable deeds, and enrolls the 
 names of the perpetrators in the calendar.of the 
 saints? In this twilight state of being, to ex- 
 postulate is our province to inveigh and per- 
 secute is forbidden. The glorious Gospel- of the 
 blessed God prohibits rash accusations, crueL 
 surmises, and malignant anathemas. Had a 
 regard been paid to the golden rule, Do unto 
 others as ye would they should do unto you, 
 intolerance would never have reared its ensan- 
 guined crest to affright the children of men. Ye 
 know not what manner of spirit ye are of- was
 
 457 
 
 our Saviour's reprimand to the disciples, who, 
 in the plenitude of their zeal, would have called 
 down fire from heaven to consume the deluded 
 Samaritans. Too often does a portion of this 
 accursed spirit reign in the breasts of Protestants. 
 Hence censures are poured ferth, hatreds are 
 engendered, and a preparation for heaven is re- 
 tarded. Instead, therefore, of usurping the seat 
 of judgment, which the Almighty has exclu- 
 sively reserved to himself, and of aiming to be- 
 come the dispensers of the divine vengeance, let 
 us wait the issue of all things in deep and reve- 
 rential silence. A wise and a good God will 
 solemnly decide the business, when he judge* 
 the world in righteousness ! 
 
 7 Let us not repine because perfect unanimity 
 of religious sentiment is unattainable in this pre- 
 SCHt "me. 
 
 A repining spirit is the source of ill temper to- 
 wards those who dissent from us; but it seems to 
 be the intention of the Divine Being, that we 
 should think differently concerning certain points 
 of faith and practice. Variety marks the works 
 of God. It is impressed throughout the circum- 
 ference of the natural, the animal, and the intel- 
 lectual world. Above us, we behold the dazzling 
 brightness of the sun, the pale splendour of th 
 moon, the mild twinkling of the stars, and the 
 rariegated colours whick adorn the firmament of
 
 BEFLECTIONS. 
 
 Leaven ! Around us, the surface of the earth is 
 diversified into a thousand beautiful forms, and 
 in the animal, the vegetable, and the fossil king- 
 doms, no two individual productions are perfectly 
 alike! Within us, upon the slightest examina- 
 tion, we discern our minds stamped with an ori- 
 ginal peculiarity. From senseless idiotism, up 
 to the sagacity of JSewton, how numerous are 
 the gradations of intellect! Minds are of various 
 sizes. Their capacities, habits, and views, are 
 never in strict conformity with each other. In 
 some degree, therefore, diversity of opinion flows 
 from the structure of our understanding. To 
 fall out with this branch of the dispensations 
 of God is to arraign his wisdom. Doubtless he 
 might have shed upon us such a degree of 
 light, that we should have seen as with one eye, 
 and have been altogether of one iiiind. But 
 the Supreme Being has otherwise ordered it, 
 and with becoming resignation let us acquiesce 
 in the propriety of the appointment. " If it must 
 be with us (says good Bishop Hall) as with two 
 famous rivers in the East, that they run three- 
 score miles together in one channel, with their 
 waters divided in very colour from each other, 
 yet let it be (as it is with them) without noise, 
 without violence." And in modern times Lord 
 Mansfield, that luminary of the law, declares that, 
 " There is nothing certainly more unreasonable,
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 more inconsistent with the rights of human na- 
 ture, more co'ntrary to the spirit and precepts of 
 the Christian religion, more iniquitous and unjust, 
 more impolitic, than Persecution! It is against 
 natural religion, revealed religion, and sound 
 policy!" 
 
 Innumerahle and unavailable have hcen the at- 
 tempts made in the successive ages of the church 
 to produce unanimity of sentiment. For this 
 purpose legislatures have decreed acts, poured 
 forth torrents of blood, and perpetrated deeds at 
 which humanity sickens, shudders, and turns 
 away with disgust. Francis the First, king of 
 France, used to declare, " that if he thought 
 the blood in his arm was tainted with the iu- 
 theran heresy, he would have it cut off, and 
 that he would not spare even his own chil- 
 dren, if they entertained sentiments contrary to 
 the Catholic Church." Pride in one person, pas- 
 sion in a second, prejudice in a third, and in a 
 fourth investigation, generates difference of opi- 
 nion. Should diversity be deemed an evil, it is 
 incumbent on rational beings, and congenial 
 with the dignity of the Christian profession, to 
 improve it to valuable purposes. It is a fact, that 
 different denominations have, in every age of the 
 church, kept a jealous eye over each other; and 
 liereby the Scriptures, the common standard to 
 which they appea'ed for the truth of their re-
 
 f>0 HKFLECTTONS. 
 
 peciive tenets, have been preserved in greater 
 purity. It ID.IJ also be added, that diversity of 
 opinion quickens our enquiries after truth, and 
 gives scope for the exercise. of our charity, which 
 in one passage of the sacred writings is pro- 
 nounced superior to faith and hope, and in. an- 
 other passage termed the bond of peifectness. 
 Much improvement have good men extracted 
 from the common evils of life, by these evils 
 giving rise to graces and virtues which other- 
 wise, perhaps, would have had no existence; or 
 at least, would have been faintly called forth into 
 action. To perceive the justice of this observa- 
 tion, it is not necessary that we be profound con- 
 tern pltttors of human affairs. 
 
 Under the accumulated difficulties of faith and 
 practice, by which we are embarrassed in this 
 sublunary state of imperfection., we should m?4k 
 tate on the doctrine of a Providence, which ad- 
 ministers the richest consolation. The dominion 
 exercised by the Supreme Being over the works 
 of his hands, is neither partial as to its objects, 
 narrow in its extent, nor transitory in its duration. 
 Unlike earthly monarchs, who expire in their 
 turn, and who are successively borne into the 
 tombs of their ancestors, the King of Saints 
 liveth and reigneth for tver and ever ! Evil* 
 indeed have entered the world, and still continue 
 to distress it. But tkese evils ^ave not crept into
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 the system unknown to its great Author; and the 
 attributes of Deity ensure their extirpation. Our 
 rejoicing is the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! 
 Glorious, therefore, must be the termination of 
 the divine dispensations. The august period is 
 predicted in sacred writ, and lies concealed in. 
 the womb of time. Distant may be its arrival, 
 but its blessings once realized,- will compensate 
 the exercise of your faith, and the trial of your 
 patience: 
 
 ' One part, one little part, we dimly scan, 
 
 " Thro' the dark medium of life's feVrish dream, 
 " Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan, 
 
 " If but that little part incongruous seem j 
 u Nor is that part perhaps what mortals deem : 
 
 " Oft from apparent ills our blessings rise 
 " Ol then renounce that impious self-esteem, 
 
 " That aims to trace the eecrets'of the skies; 
 41 For thon art but of dust At- Uit.nbU and be iteS* 
 
 The Dissertations of Dr. Price (especially that 
 on Providence) are deserving of attention. An 
 elegant little work, also, entitled Intimation* 
 and Evidences of a Future State, by T. Watson, 
 cannot fail or imparting consolation to the serious 
 mind. 
 
 Finally penetrated with a sense of the im- 
 perfection ot this present life, let us be cautious 
 how we form onr religious sentiments, watch 
 unremittingly over our tempers and conduct,
 
 262 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 and aspire to that better world, where pure and 
 unadulterated truth shall be disclosed to our 
 view ! 
 
 Of all the subjects presented to the human 
 mind, religion chiims the first and the greatest 
 attention. If there be a God, a Providence, a 
 Saviour, and a Future State of Retribution^ 
 these weighty truths ought to be pressing upon 
 our minds, and presiding over our conduct. To 
 familiarize ourselves with their evidences, to lay 
 open our souls to their energy, and promote, by 
 every honourable method, their spread and 
 establishment among mankind, should be our 
 ambition. Zeal is an elevated and an useful 
 passion. It is forcibly and repeatedly enjoined 
 in the sacred writings. It forms the leading 
 trait of excellence in the best and most enlight- 
 ened characters. Indeed, an individual can 
 scarcely be pronounced truly good, except he 
 possesses a portion of this celestial fire. But let 
 us be careful that our warmth be temperate 
 and regular. Zeal, confined within the limits 
 prescribed by reason and scripture, is attended 
 with blessed consequences. Loosened from these 
 restraints, like the devouring conflagration, it 
 involves in one undistinguishable ruin the vic- 
 tims of its fury, and triumphs in the desolation 
 it has effected. How different is the Christian, 
 influenced by a zeal purely evangelical, from
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 the monster who is either swoln with the venotn 
 of uncharitableness, or is pregnant with persecu- 
 tion tor conscience sake ! " Mistake me not 
 (s;iys good Richard Baxter) I do not slight or- 
 t/iodoxi/, nor jeer at the name; but only disclose 
 the pretences of devilish zeal in pious or seem- 
 ingly pious men. The slanders of some of these, 
 and the bitter opprobrious speeches of others, 
 have more effectually done the Devil's service, 
 under the name of orthodoxy and zeal for truth, 
 than the malignant scorners of godliness." Thus 
 also the pious Matthew Henry declares, that of 
 all the Christian graces, ZEAL is most apt to turn 
 sour! And Dr. Doddridge, in his Family Expo- 
 sitor, has this remark : " Wisely did Christ 
 silence the suspicious praises of an unclean spirit; 
 and vain is all the hope which men build merely 
 on those orthodox professions of the most import- 
 ant truths, in which Satan himself could vie 
 with them." May these observations be remem- 
 bered by zealots of every description ! 
 
 Indeed, the light and darkness now blended 
 together, instead of generating a spirit of scepti- 
 cism, or precipitating us into acts of violence, 
 should impel us to look for the nero heavens and 
 the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
 What yt know not now, ye shall know here- 
 after, was our Saviour's declaration to his dis- 
 ciples, respecting an event which occurred
 
 whilst he continued to sojourn amongst them. 
 It is, therefore, reasonable to believe that we 
 shall not remain ignorant of matters of superior 
 importance, when the proper period of commu- 
 nicating higher degrees of information arrives. 
 We mry, however, be assured, that the Spirit 
 of God guides all good men into necessary 
 truth. This is a sentiment in which the wisest 
 of mankind concur ; and upon which learned 
 divines, after their most penetrative researches, 
 are obliged ultimately to rest. A venerable and 
 distinguished Christian father pronounced th 
 greatest heresy to be, a niched life. Devoutlj 
 is it wished that those who ate clamorous about 
 speculative tenets, would level their artillery 
 more against the violation of the preceptive part 
 of our religion. 
 
 The eloquent Saurin pointedly exclaims 
 " Why are not ecclesiastical bodies as rigid and 
 severe against heresies of practice as they are 
 against heresies of speculation? Certainly there 
 are heresies in morality as well as in theology. 
 Counci's and synods reduce the doctrines of faitfc 
 to certain prepositional points, and thunder ana- 
 themas against all who refuse to subscribe them. 
 They say, cursed be he who doth not believe the 
 divinity of Christ ; cursed be he who doth not 
 believe hypostatical union, and the mystery of 
 the cross; cursed be he who denies the inward
 
 REFLECTIONS. 2f)5 
 
 operations of grace, and the irresistible efficacy 
 of the Spirit. I wish they would make a few- 
 canons against moral heresies. How many are 
 there of this kind among our people!" These 
 observations, made by the intelligent Saurin, re- 
 specting the refugee Protestants in Holland, are 
 applicable to the Protestants in our times. Their 
 anathemas are directed more against error than 
 against unrighteousness. Whereas vice is the 
 more formidable enemy to th-e welfare of man- 
 kind. To the word of God, therefore, let us 
 have constant recourse, and thence derive the 
 doctrine which is according to godliness, pure as the 
 light of heaven and refreshing as the dew of the 
 morning! The Gospel of Jesus Christ, justly 
 understood and cordially believed, enlightens 
 the mind, calms the troubled conscience, rectifies 
 depraved propensities, and introduces us into the 
 habitation of the spirits of just men made perfect. 
 But, alas! mankind, instead of ascertaining 
 what is truth, and how it can best exert its in- 
 fluence over the several departments of conduct. 
 
 . 
 are occupied in schemes of interested ambition, 
 
 or sunk into criminal indifference. Upon death 
 they seldom bestow a serious thought. Though 
 awful in its nature, frequent in its recurrence, 
 and alarming in its consequences, it leaves on 
 thc'ir minds no impression. Without emotion 
 they behold their fellow-creatu res -snatched from 
 
 N
 
 266 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 off the busy theatre of action, and driven, one 
 after another, either 'by disease or accident, into 
 the house appointed for alt living! Upon the de- 
 cease indeed of relatives and friends, they heave 
 a sigh, utter an exclamation, shed a tear, 
 but clothing themselves in the sarmeuts of 
 
 c? o 
 
 sorrow, the tragedy is quickly over. lleas- 
 suming their former views, and laying their 
 minds open afresh to the dominion of their 
 passions, they return with avidity to the occu- 
 pations and amusements of life. Thus proceeds 
 the tenor of their existence on earth, till they 
 also are swept ar;ay into the receptacles of the 
 dead. 
 
 Pilgrims and sojowiiers on earth f we are 
 hastening to an eternal world, and a few more 
 fleeting years will place even the youngest of us 
 before the tribunal of Heaven. Whether we 
 can abide the awful scrutiny which shall be in- 
 stituted at the last great day, " for which all 
 other days were made," is a question of infinite 
 importance, and intimately concerns rational and 
 accountable creatures. Amidst the din of con- 
 troversy, and the jarrings of adverse parties, the 
 opinions of the head are often substituted for 
 the virtues of the heart, and thus is practical 
 religion deplorably neglected. Fleeing, there- 
 fore, those pernicious disputes, which damp our 
 devotion, and contract our benevolence, let us
 
 TIEI'LECTIONS. 
 
 cultivate the means by which our faith may be 
 invigorated, our hope enlivened, our charily 
 confirmed, and our affections elevated to the 
 things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the. 
 right hand of God ! The veil now thrown over 
 
 \s 
 
 this preliminary state, and concealing from our 
 view celestial objects, shall be speedily removed. 
 Then bidding an adieu to prejudices which dark- 
 en the understanding, irritate the temper, and, 
 deform the spirit, we shall embrace each other 
 with perfect love, and shall be astonished at our- 
 selves for having been on earth so addicted to 
 unprofitable disputations, and so backward to the 
 exercise of brotherly kindness, and of Christian 
 charity. 
 
 Almighty God ! look down, on thine erring ; 
 creatures. Pit}' their darkness and imperfection. 
 Direct them into the truth as it is in Jesus. Ba- 
 nish from their hearts the bitterness of censure. 
 Cherish in their minds a spirit of moderation and 
 love towards their fellow Christians. To their 
 zeal add knowledge, and to their knowledge 
 charity. Make them humble under the difficul- 
 ties which adhere to their faith, and patient un- 
 der the perplexities which accompany their prac- 
 tice. Guide them by thy counsel, and, through 
 the mediation of thy Son Jesus Christ, receive 
 them into thy kingdom and glory ! AMEN. 
 N 2
 
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 ITULATORY TABLE, 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES, BY WHICH THE ( 
 IAN WORLD ARE DISTINGUISHED. 
 
 >d by his Soil Jesus Christ consists of T)oc\ 
 and its Evidences are, Prophecy, Mirac 
 among Jeu's and Gentiles, 
 various opinions, and are thus denominated, 
 
 I. 
 
 ir opinions respecting the Pfrson of Christ, 
 us, which denotes a threefold unity in the Gr 
 he third century, and held a modal or nomin 
 exandria, who flourished about the year 315 
 near Cracow, in Poland, about the year 16 
 
 II. 
 
 respecting the Means and Measu.-e of God's 1 
 r, who flourished at Geneva about 1540. 
 pjplc of Beza, who flourished about 1600. 
 iuent Puritan, who died in the year 1691. 
 terms, cirri against, and K>J*O? the moral la 
 
 III. 
 
 ng Church Government and the Administration 
 ba, signifying a Father, or Parent, and ususa 
 heir native language, which is the Greek toi 
 protesting against a decree of Charles the Fif 
 term for Bishop, Inspector, or Overseer of a 
 
 RECAP 
 
 SB4WINC AT OHE VIEW THE HAMES, AMD 
 CHRIST 
 
 :HKISTIANITY is a Revelation from Oc 
 Institutions, Rewards, and Punishments- 
 together o:ith its rapid Propagation, both 
 
 Its Professors hold 
 
 According to the 
 RINITARIANS, from the Latin word Trinit 
 IABELUANS, from Sr>b?ll"/s t who lived in t 
 IRIAN'S, from Ari'is, a popular divine of Al 
 iOCINIANS, from Faust uSocinus, who died 
 
 According to their opinions 
 1ALVINISTS, from John Calvin, a lleforme 
 IRMIN1ANS, from James Arminitis, the dis. 
 JAXTERIANS, from Richard B.ixter, an emi 
 LNTiNOMlANS, compounded of two Greek 
 
 According to their opinions respecti 
 'APISTS, from the Latin word for Pope, Pa 
 5RERK CHURCH, (chiefly Russian) from t 
 'ROTESTANTS, from their most solemnly 
 ISCOPALIANS, from Episeoput, the Latin
 
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 ill Si 
 
 c5 s* 
 
 
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 PI *> S H3 ^ 
 
 .a i^ & o 
 
 a " ** .- rt 
 
 *5? * r* 
 
 
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 f ^ 1 * J 
 
 I l!^.tli 
 
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 1 1 el y .si ^ 
 
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 c/3 fcn iS 5 S ** ej*5 2 
 
 
 M .GO **ji>5 y 'or^ w ' 
 
 . i* a, -J . S 
 
 N O iSl 
 
 W 1 S <y & | " -S > 1 1 *- N 
 
 rom the Latin wort disstxtio, to disagree with, 
 ;S, from the Greek ripc:rj3t%o<, sipuifying Elde 
 S, from the independency of each Church in its 
 the G reek vrrb Basis/, signifying to baptize, d 
 >, from the Greek words Flats and $'ifit<>> a ba; 
 II, or KIRK, established in Scotland, by means 
 j the Latin sccedo, signifying to serene or withdi 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS S 
 
 CALLED, 
 
 the agitation or quaking with which their iirst pi 
 rom the first methodical strictness of their religio 
 :he act of jumping used in their religious servic< 
 3m Moravia, the country whence they first aros 
 >, from the belief that all men will be finally ha 
 >, from JM>ert Sanrfeman, a popular writer amo 
 , from their observance of the Jewish SaUafk, < 
 .NS, from John Hutchinwn, born in Yorkshire, 
 NS, from John Mvggleton, who lived in the ds 
 iwrnxo?, a Greek word importing a srcrct inyste 
 ANS, from kLmnnuel Stretienbitrg, ulio died in L 
 !, from the Latin mille, a thousand, the years < 
 V COMMANDMENT GIVE I UNTO YOU 
 
 K " = S * sl^ 
 
 Si^3l*l "< 
 
 w o ^ ^ 5 so 
 
 f"2*1^5S*S ^^2 < 
 
 mills 

 
 BRIEF TABLE 
 
 Of i-he leading Events of ECCLESIASTICAL HISIO.RY, 
 from the Birth ofCnuisf down to the present Times. 
 
 D. 
 
 1 JESUS CHRIST born at Bethlehem, in Judea, now called 
 
 the Holy Land, the World being fo'/r thousand years old. 
 8 Our Saviour disputes with the Jewish doctor?. 
 
 16 John the Baptist enters on his ministry. 
 
 29 CHRIST is baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan, 
 preparatory to his entering ou his ministry. 
 
 33 He is crucified under PONTIUS PILATE, rises from the dead 
 on the third day, and six weeks after ascends up into 
 heaven, with the solemn assurance of his appearing a 
 second time at the end of the world. 
 
 3,5 The miraculous conversion of the apostle Paul. 
 
 39 St. Matthew writes his gospel. 
 
 44 St. Mark writes his gospel. 
 
 5'2 Council of the apostles at Jerusalem. 
 
 62 St. Paul sent in bonds to Rome. , 
 
 64 Thejtrsf persecution against the Christian!, 
 
 66 TLe Jewish war begins. 
 
 67 St. Peter and St. Paul put to death. 
 
 TO Jerusalem utterly destroyed by the Roman?. 
 
 95 The second persecution against the Christians. 
 
 99 St. John dies in the 102d year of his age. 
 103 Pliny the Younger sends Trajan his celebrated account of 
 
 the Christians. "_ 
 
 1GT The third persecution against the Christians. 
 1 1 8 The fourth persecution against the Christians. 
 130 Adrian rebuild* Jerusalem. 
 135 Conclusion of the Jewish war. 
 2C2 The fifth persection against the Christians. 
 235 The sixth persecution against the Christians. 
 
 50 The seventh persecution against the Christians.
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 2,r>~ The t't.;/tlk persecution against the Christians. 
 272 The tdntk persecution against the Christians. 
 303 The tenth persecution against the Christians. 
 After this scries of persecutions Ciiristianity becomes the 
 
 established religion of the Roman empire for 
 311 Constantiite was converted to (he religion of Christ, a*d 
 
 Heathenism is every where abolished. 
 ,*!?,!> The first general council at Nice. 
 343 Persecution of the Christians in Persia. 
 +49 The Saxons arrive in Britain. 
 476 The Western Empire finishes. 
 490 Ten horns or kingdoms founded otit of the RouiUh empire, 
 
 and subject to the Pope. 
 
 49fi Clovis baptised, ..niul Christianity embraced in France. 
 516 The computing of time by the Christian sera introduced 
 
 by Dionysius. 
 
 597 Augustine the Monk arrives in England. 
 606 Bhhop of Rome constituted universal head of the church. 
 ('!> Mahomet establishes his religion. 
 Gor Jerusalem taken by the Snrncens. 
 <>98 The Picts in England embrace Christianity. 
 718 The computing of years from the birth of Christ bgan to 
 
 be used in histories about this time. 
 75G The popes become civil lords in Italy, whence they gra-. 
 
 dually claimed their dominion overall the earth. 
 8,00 The German empire founded by Charluuaagne. 
 878 Alfred founds the University of Oxford. 
 915 The University of Cambridge founded. 
 1054 Leo IX. the first pope that kept an army. 
 1065 Jerusalem taken hy the Turks from the Saracens, 
 1006 The conquest of England under William, Duke of Nor- 
 
 mandy. 
 
 1096 The first crusade to Palestine begun undor several Chris- 
 tian princes, to drive the Infidels or Unbelievers from 
 the Holy Land. 
 
 1110 Learning revived at the Univcrs ty of Cambridge. 
 1147 The second crusade. 
 
 S -I
 
 2/2 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 1177 Saladin, repulsed before Jerusalem. 
 
 1178 The Albigensestake their rise. 
 
 1 189 The kings of England and France go to the Holy Land, 
 
 1192 Richard Cceur de Lion defeats Saladiu at AscaloH. 
 
 1215 Magna Charta signed by King John. 
 
 1233 The inquisition trusted to the Dominicans. 
 
 1283 Wales conquered by Edward the First. 
 
 1369 John Wickliffe began to teach in England. 
 
 M14 The council of Constance. 
 
 1415 John Huss and Jerome of Prague, seized, tried, and 
 
 for their opinions. 
 1510 John Calvin born. 
 1517 Martin Luther writes against indulgences in Germany, 
 
 which was the origin of the Reformation. 
 JM9 Zuinglius began the Reformation in Switzerland. 
 1529 A diet at Spires, in Germany ; the. protesting against 
 
 which gave rise to the appellation Profeatant. 
 1533 Henry VII I. withdraws hi& allegiance froift, tut pope, and 
 proclaims himself supreme head of tho Church wf iirg. 
 land. 
 
 1545 The council of Trent begins, 
 1553 Michael Servetus burnt by the instigation of Calvin, at 
 
 Geneva, for the denial of the Trinity. 
 1572 The massacre of Bartholomew at Paris, when upwards of 
 
 70,000 Protestants perished ! 
 1582 Pope Gregory introduces the new stile. 
 1558 The destruction of the Spanish Armada, whose object was 
 
 to re-establish popery throughout England. 
 1593 Henry JV. passes the Edict of Nantz in favour of the Pro- 
 testants. 
 
 1618 The synod of Dort begins. 
 1621 The civil war with the Hugonots in France* 
 1649 King Charles beheaded. 
 1658 Oliver Cromwell died. 
 1660 The restoration of Charles the Second. 
 i<;62 Bartholomew Act, or Act of Uniformity, passed, by which 
 2000 ministers were ejected from the Church of England.
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 273" 
 
 1685 The revocation of the Edict of Nantz, by which the ex- 
 ercise of the Protestant religion was prohibited in 
 France. 
 
 1683 The revolution of KING WJLUAM, when the family of the 
 Stuarts were banished for attempting to introduce Popery 
 and arbitrary power into England. 
 
 1691 The battle of the Boyne in Ireland, when King William- 
 defeated James the Second, and established the Protest- 
 ant religion. 
 
 1709 Dr. Sacheverel tried and suspended. 
 
 1715 Suppression of a rebellion in Scotland, when the Pretender 
 attempted to recover the throne of these kingdoms. 
 
 1722 Bishop At.terbnry banished. 
 
 1722 Young Tching, Emperor of China, banished the Jesuits 
 and other Papist missionaries, und imprisoned those of 
 his subjects that refused to renounce Christianity. 
 
 1733 The Jesuits expelled from Paraguay,, in South America. 
 
 1746 Suppression of the rebellion in Scotland, the object of 
 which was, by the return of the Stuart family, to-re- 
 store arbitrary power and Papacy in these kingdoms. 
 
 1757 Damien, a religious fanatic, attempts to assassinate the 
 French king. 
 
 1763 The Jesuits expelled France. 
 
 1766 -The Jesuits expelled from Bohemia and Denmark. 
 
 1767 The Jesuits expelled from Spain, Venice, and Genoa. 
 
 1768 The Jesuits expelled Naples, Malta, and Parma. 
 1773 The society of the Jesuits suppressed by the pope. 
 J77J American war commences. 
 
 1779 The Protestant Dissenters in England relieved from cer- 
 
 tain grievances under: which they laboured. 
 
 1780 Riots in London, occasioned by the extension of civil rights 
 
 to the Papists. 
 1783 The termination of the American war, by which the United 
 
 States became independent of Great Britain. 
 1789 French revolution commences, by which both church and 
 
 state were overturned and destroyed. 
 1791 Riots at Birmingham, in which the houses and property of 
 
 Dissenters were destroyed. 
 v 5
 
 274- CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Lewis XVI. , king of France, beheaded. 
 1794 Missions established by the Calviiiists, both of the Church 
 
 of England and amongst the Dissenters, with the view 
 
 of converting the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, 
 
 and other remote parts of the earth. 
 T?98 Pope Pius VI. dethroned by the French at Rome. 
 1806 Bonaparte assembles the Jews at Paris for cit/V purposes, 
 
 though at the time it was thought hy some that he meant 
 
 to restore them to the PROMISED LAND. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 1. JUVENILE PIECES, 5th Edition, including an Essay on 
 
 Education, Student's Dream, Female Excellence, Early 
 Wisdom, Evening Meditation, Reflections from olf tlie 
 Monument, and on the Nineteenth Century, &c. printed 
 uniform with the Sketch, embellished with four elegant 
 Plates, price 3s. 6d. 
 A SMALL EDITION, price '2s. 
 
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 3. Sermon on the Death wf Mrs. Pine, Maidstone. !2d Edit. 
 
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