J. < . Enoraved by A.. Walter m. narrid-n RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS WORLD: COMPRISING A GENERAL VIEW OP THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND CONDITION OF TUB VAK10US SECTS. OP CHRISTIANS, THE JEWS, AND MAHOMETANS. AS WELL AS THE PAGAN FORMS OF RELIGION EXISTING IN THE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES OF THE EARTH: of % JJmnto of iatious gdigious FROM THE BEST ACTHORITIES. BY VINCENT L. MILNER. A NBTW AND IMPROVED F.DITION, WITH AN APPENDIX BROUGHT UP TO THE PRESENT TIMK, BY J. NEWTON BKOWN, D.D., EDITOR OP "ENCYCl.'ll'BMA OF BEL1QIOU8 KNOWLEDGE." SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. BRADLEY, GARRETSON & CO., PHILADELPHIA, 66 NORTH FOURTH STREET. WILLIAM GARRETSOX & CO., GALESBURG, ILL.: COLUMBUS, OHIO: NASHVILLE, TENN.: HOUSTON, TEXAS. 1872. Ertered according to Act of Congress In the year 1871, by BKADLET A CO., In th Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. THE following riew of the religious denominations of the world has been carefully compiled from the best authorities on the sub- ject. In order *o render it as complete as the limits of the volume would permit, the method has been followed of present- ing summaries of the doctrines of each sect or religion without in general adducing the arguments by which they are sustained. The latter course would have led into too wide a field of contro- versy. In order to preserve the degree of impartiality which the reader is entitled to expect in a work of this kind, the com- piler has confined himself to authorities in which the doctrines of the several sects are drawn from the published works of their founders or leading writers. The subject is full of instruction. It forms a part of the his- tory of the human intellect, as it has been exercised in different ages of the world, on topics the most interesting that can possibly claim the attention of mankind. In reviewing the various forms of faith and shades of opinion on religion which have prevailed (iii) IV PREFACE. in different ages find various parts of the world, we may loam the influence of external circumstances on internal belief; and that of speculative opinions on the actual condr-ct of life. We per- ceive also the first effect of freedom of religious inquiry, in multi- plying sects and dividing extensive religious organizations into numerous branches. Above all, we may learn from this genera] survey of religious sects, the lesson of charity and forbearance tow- ard those who may entertain theological opinions different from our own. This volume will also show the gratifying truth, that while the first effect of religious freedom may be to multiply divisions, its final effect is to heal them. Some of the most scandalous divisions in all ages have grown out of the attempts of governments, civil and ecclesiastical, to stifle freedom of inquiry and suppress its manifestations : and while such despotism continues, no restorative process is possible. Whereas, the natural growth of Christian feeling under free institutions, teijds to bring together bodies long divided and alienated, whether in the Old World or in the New. This happy effect of perfect religious freedom is most manifest in oar own country at the present time. As in the beginning, Chris- tians were " of one heart and of one soul," so it may be hoped, they will here become, through the unfettered study of the Scrip- tures and the influence of the same Spirit which then guided them into all truth : " for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord." Sects will disappear in the overflowing fulness of faith and love. Despotism in Church and State may produce hypocriti- cal UNIFORMITY, but perfect religious freedom is the primary condi- tion of CHRISTIAN UNITY. ALPHABETICAL INDEX. PAGl A.BYSSINTAN CHURCH 365 ADAMITES 366 AFRICAN METHODISTS 107 AGNOETAE 408 ALBANENSES 409 ALBIGENSES 367 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS 11? ANABAPTISTS ^. 356 ANTI-SABBATARIANS 464 ANTINOMIANS 35ft ARIANS 243 ARMENIANS 245 ARMENIANS 246 ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS ISC- ASSOCIATE REFORMED 133 ATHEISTS 464 BAPTISTS 35 BASILIDIANS 461 BAXTERIANS 249 BEREANS 403 BUAMINS 486 BROWNISTS 203 BUDDHISTS 489 CALVINISTS 344 CARMATHITES '. 439 CERINTHIANS 442 CHRISTIANS 164 CHRISTIANS OF ST. JOHN 46 Bretons, the Celts, and the Goths, concerning their divinities, have a manifest tendency to excite and nourish fortitude, ferocity, an insensibility of danger, and contempt of life. At this time Christianity broke forth from the east like a rising sun, and dispelled the universal religious darkness which obscured every part of the globe. " The noblest people," says J)r. Robertson, "that ever entered i upon the stage of the world, oppear to have been only instruments in the Divine Hand, for the execution of wise purposes concealed from themselves. The Roman ambition and bravery paved the way, and prepared the world, for the reception of the Christian doctrine. They fought iid conquered, that it might triumph with the greater ease (see INTRODUCTION. XV11 Isaiah x. 7). By means of their victories, the overruling pro- vidence of God established an empire, which really possesses that perpetuity and eternal duration which they vainly arrogated to their own. He erected a throne which shall continue foiever, and of the " increase of that government there shall be no end.'' It has been mentioned to the honor of Christianity, that it rose and flourished in a learned, inquiring, and discerning age; and made the most rapid and amazing progress through the im- mense empire of Home, to its remotest limits, when the world was in its most civilized state, and in an age that was universally distinguished for science and erudition. SECTION II. STATE OP THE JEWISH NATION AT THE BIRTH OP JESUS CHRIST THE state of the Jews was not much better than that of other nations, at the time of Christ's appearance on earth. They were governed by Herod, who was himself tributary to the Roman people. His government was of the most vexatious and oppres- sive kind. By a cruel, suspicious, and overbearing temper, he drew upon himself the aversion of all, not excepting those who lived upon his bounty. Under his administration, and through his influence, the luxury of the Romans was introduced into Palestine, accompa- nied with the vices of that licentious people. In a word, Judea, governed by Herod, groaned under all the corruption which might be expected from the authority and example of a prince who, though a Jew in outward profession, was, in point of morals and practice, a contemner of all laws, human and divine. After the death of this tyrant, the Romans divided the go- vernment of Judea between his sons. In this division, one- half the kingdom was given to Archelaus, under the title of Exarch. Archelaus was so corrupt and wicked a prince, that at last both Jews and Samaritans joined in a petition against him 2* R XVlii INTRODUCTION. to Augustus, who banished him from his dominions, about ten years after the death of Herod the Great. Judea was by thia sentence reduced to a Roman province, and ordered to be taxed. The governors whom the Romans appointed over Judea, wer frequently changed, but seldom for the better. About the six- teenth year of Christ, Pontius Pilate was appointed governor, the whole of whose administration, according to Josephus, was one continual scene of venality, rapine, and of every kind of savage cruelty. Such a governor was ill calculated to appease the ferments occasioned by the late tax. Indeed, Pilate was so far from attempting to appease, that he greatly inflamed them, by taking every occasion of introducing his standards, with images, pictures, and consecrated shields, into their city; and at last by attempting to drain the treasury of the temple, under pretence of bringing an aqueduct into Jerusalem. The most remarkable transaction of his government, however, was his con- demnation of Jesus Christ; seven years after which he was removed from Judea. However severe was the authority which the Romans exercised over the Jews, yet it did not extend to the entire suppression of their civil and religious privileges. The Jews were, in some measure, governed by their own laws, and permitted the enjoy- ment of their religion. The administration of religious ceremo- nies was committed, as before, to the high priest, and to the Sanhedrim ; to the former of whom the order of priests and iLevites was in the usual subordination; and the form of outward worship, except in a very few points, had suffered no visible change. But, on the other hand, it is impossible to express the disquietude and disgust, the calamities and vexations, which this unhappy nation suffered from the presence of the Romans, whom their religion obliged them to regard as a polluted and idolatroua people ; in a particular manner, from the avarice and cruelty of the praetors, and the frauds and extortions of the publicans. So that, all things considered, their condition, who lived under the government of the other sons of Herod, was much more sup- portable than the state of those who were immediately subject to the Roman jurisdiction. INTRODUCTION. xix It was not, however, from the Romans only, that the calami- tiet of this miserable people proceeded. Their own rulers mul- tiplied their vexations, and debarred them from enjoying any Httle comforts, which were left them by the Roman magistrates. The leaders of the people, and the chief priests, were, according to the account of Josephus, profligate wretches, who had pur- chased their places by bribes, or by other acts of iniquity, and who maintained their ill-acquired authority by the most abomi- nable crimes. The inferior priests, and those who possessed any ehadow of authority, were become dissolute and abandoned to the highest degree. The multitude, excited by these corrupt examples, ran headlong into every kind of iniquity; and by their endless seditions, robberies, and extortions, armed against them- selves both the justice of God and vengeance of man. About the time of Christ's appearance, the Jews of that age concluded the period pre-determined by God to be then com- pleted, and that the promised Messiah would suddenly appear. Devout persons waited day and night for the consolation of Israel; and the whole nation, groaning under the Roman yoke, and stimulated by the desire of liberty or of vengeance, expected their deliverer with the most anxious impatience. Nor were these expectations peculiar to the Jews. By their dispersion among so many nations ; by their conversation with the learned men among the heathens; and by the translations of their inspired writings into a language almost universal, the principles of their religion were spread all over the East. It became the common belief, that a Prince would arise at that time in Judea, who would change the face of the world, and extend his .mipire from one end of the earth to the other. Two religions flourished at this time in Palestine ; the Jewish and Samaritan. The Samaritans blended the errors of Paganism with the doctrines of the Jews. The whole body of the people looked for a powerful and warlike deliverer, who, they supposed, would free them from the Roman authority. All considered the whole of religion as consisting in the rites appointed by Moses, and in the performance of some external acts of duty. All were XX INTRODUCTION. unanimous in excluding the other nations of the world from th hopes of eternal life. The learned among the Jews were divided into a great variety of sects. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Essenes, eclipsed the other denominations. The most celebrated of the Jewish sects was that of the Pharisees. It is supposed by some, that this denomination sub- sisted about a century and a half before the appearance of our Saviour. They separated themselves not only from Pagans, but from all such Jews as complied not with their peculiarities. Their separation consisted chiefly in certain distinctions respect- ing food and religious ceremonies. It does not appear to have interrupted the uniformity of religious worship, in which the Jews of every sect seem to have always united. This denomination, by their apparent sanctity of manners, had rendered themselves extremely popular. The multitude, for the most part, espoused their interests ; and the great, who feared their artifice, were frequently obliged to court their favor. Hence they obtained the highest offices both in the State and priesthood, and had great weight both in public and private affairs. It appears from the frequent mention which is made by the evangelists of the Scribes and Pharisees in conjunction, that the greatest number of Jewish teachers or doctors of the law, (for those were expressions equivalent to scribe) were, at that time, of the Pharisaical sect. The principal doctrines of the Pharisees are as follows : That the oral law, which they suppose God delivered to Moses by an archangel on Mount Sinai, and which is preserved by tradition, is of equal authority, with the written law : That, by observing both these laws, a man may not only obtain justification with God, but perform meritorious works of supererogation : That fasting, alms-giving, ablutions, and confessions, are sufficient atonements for sin : That thoughts and desires are not sinful,, unless they are carried i into action. This denomination acknow- ledged the immortality of the soul, future rewards and punish- ments, the existence of good and evil angels, and the resurrec- tioi of the body. They maintained both the freedom of the INTRODUCTION. XXI will and absolute predestination, and adopted the Pythagoreah doctrine of the transmigration of souls, excepting the notoriously wicked, whom they supposed consigned to eternal punishment. The peculiar manners of this sect are strongly marked in the writings of the evangelists, and confirmed by the testimony of th; Jewish authors. They fasted the second and fifth day of (he week, and put thorns at the bottom of their robes, that they might prick their legs as they walked. They lay upon boards covered with flint stones, and tied thick cords about their waists. They paid tithes as the law prescribed, and gave the thirtieth and fiftieth part of their fruits, adding voluntary sacrifices to those which were commanded. They were very exact in per- forming their vows. The Talmudic books mention several distinct classes of Pharisees ; among whom were the Truncated Pharisee, who, that he might appear in profound meditation, as if destitute of feet, scarcely lifted them from the ground; and the Mortar Pharisee, who, that his contemplations might not be disturbed, wore a deep cap in the shape of a mortar, which would only permit him to look upon the ground at his feet Such expedients were used by this denomination to captivate the admiration of the vulgar; and under the appearance of singular piety, they disguised the most licentious manners. The sect of the Sadducees derived its origin and name from one Sadoc, who flourished in the .reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about two hundred and sixty-three years before Christ. The chief heads of the Sadducean doctrine are as follows : All laws and traditions, not comprehended in the written law, are to be rejected as merely human inventions. Neither angels nor spirits have a distinct existence, separate from their corporeal vestment. The soul of man, therefore, expires with the body. There will be no resurrection of the dead, nor rewards and punishments after this life. Man is not subject to irresistible fate, but has the framing of his condition chiefly in his power. Polygamy ought to be practised. The practices of the Pharisees and Sadducees were both per- fectly suitable to their sentiments. The former were notorious hypocrites ; the latter, scandalous libertines. INTRODUCTION. The Essenes were a Jewish sect. Some suppose they took their rise from that dispersion of their nation, which took place after the Babylonian captivity. They maintained that rewards and punishments extended to the soul alone, and considered the body as a mass of malignant matter, and the prison of the immor- tal spirit. The greatest part of this sect considered the laws of Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious truth, and renounced all regard to the outward letter in its explanation. The leading traits in the character of this sect were, that they were sober, abstemious, peaceable lovers of retirement, and had a perfect community of goods. They paid the highest regard to the moral precepts of the law, but neglected the ceremonial, excepting what regarded personal cleanliness, the observation of the Sabbath, and making an annual present to the temple at Jerusalem. They commonly lived in a state of celibacy, and adopted the children of others, to educate them in their own principles and customs. Though they were, in general, averse to swearing, or to requiring an oath, they bound all whom they initiated by the most sacred vows, to observe the duties of piety, justice, fidelity, and modesty; to conceal the secrets of the fra- ternity; to preserve the books of their instructors; and with groat care to commemorate the names of the angels. Philo mentions two classes of Essenes; one of which followed a practical institution. The other professed a theoretical institu- tion. The latter, who were called Theraputse, placed their whole felicity in the contemplation of the Divine nature. Detaching themselves entirely from secular affairs, they transferred their property to their relations and friends, and retired to solitary places, where they devoted themselves to an holy life. The principal society of this kind was formed near Alexandria, where they lived, not far from each other, in separate cottages, each of which had its own sacred apartments, to which the inhabitants retired for the purposes of devotion. Besides these eminent Jewish sects, there were several of inferior note, at the time of Christ's appearance : the Herodians, mentioned by the sacred writers; and the Gaulouites, bj Josephus. INTBODUCTION. XX1U The Herodians derived their name from Herod the Great. Their distinguishing tenet appears to be, that it is lawful, when constrained by superiors, to comply with idolatry and with a false religion. Herod seems to have formed this sect on purpose to justify himself in this practice, who, being an Idutnean by ration, was indeed half a Jew and half a Pagan. He, during his long reign, studied every artifice to ingratiate himself with the emperor, and to secure the favor of the principal personages in the court of Rome. Josephus informs us, that his ambition, and his entire devotion to C?esar and his court, induced him to depart from the usages of his country, and, in many instances, to violate its institutions. He built temples in the Greek taste, and erected statues for idolatrous worship, apologizing to the Jews that he was absolutely necessitated to this conduct by the superior powers. We tind the Sadducees, who denied a future Btate, readily embraced the tenets of this party : for the same persons, who, in one of the gospels, are called Herodians, are, in another called Sadducees. The Gaulonites were Galileans, who derived their name from one Judas Theudas, a native of Gaulon in Upper Galilee, who, in the tenth year of Jesus Christ, excited his countrymen, the Galileans, and many other Jews, to take arms, and venture upon all extremities, rather than pay tribute to the Romans. The principles he instilled into his party were, not only that they weru a free nation, and ought not to be in subjection to any otlwr; but that they were the elect of God; that he alone was their governor; and that, therefore, they ought not to submit to any ordinance of man. Though Theudas was unsuccessful, and hia party, in their very first attempt, entirely routed and dis- persed, yet, so deeply had he infused his own enthusiasm into their hearts, that they never rested, till in their own destruction, Uiey involved the city and temple. Many of the Jews were attached to the oriental philosophy concerning the origin of the world. From this source the doc- trine of the Cabala is supposed to be derived. That considerable numbers of the Jews had imbibed this system, appears evident boiD from the books of the New Testament, and from the ancient XXIV INTRODUCTION. history of the Christian church. It is also certain that many of the Gnostic sects were founded by Jews. Whilst the learned and sensible part of the Jewish nation was divided into a variety of sects, the multitude was sunk into the most deplorable ignorance of religion, and had no conception of any other method of rendering themselves acceptable to God than by sacrifices, washings, and other external rites and cere- monies of the Mosaic law. Hence proceeded that dissolutenesa of manners which prevailed among the Jews during Christ's ministry on earth. Hence also the divine Saviour compares the people to sheep without a shepherd, and their doctors to men who, though deprived of sight, yet pretended to show the way to others. In taking a view of the corruptions both in doctrine and prac- tice, which prevailed among the Jews at the time of Christ's appearance, we find that the external worship of God was dis- figured by human inventions. Many learned men have observed that a great variety of rites was introduced into the service of tht temple, of which no traces are to be found in the sacred writings This was owing to those revolutions, which rendered the Jewv more conversant than they had formerly been, with the neigh- boring nations. They were pleased with several of the ceremonies which the Greeks and Romans used in the worship of the i*agaii deities, and did not hesitate to adopt them in the service of the true God, and add them as an ornament to the rites, which they had received by divine appointment. The Jews multiplied so prodigiously, that the narrow bounds of Palestine were no longer sufficient to contain them. The> poured, therefore, their increasing numbers into the neighboring countries with such rapidity, that, at the time of Christ's birth, there was scarcely a province in the empire where they were noi found carrying on commerce and exercising other lucrative arts. They were defended in foreign countries against injurious treat- ment by the special edicts of the magistrates. This was abso- lutely necessary; since, in most places, the remarkable difference of their religion and manners from those of other nations, ex posed them to the hatred and indignation of the ignorant and INTRODUCTION. bigoted multitude. " All this," says Dr. Mosheim, " appears to have been most singularly and wisely directed by the adorable hand of an interposing Providence, to the end, that this people, wiich was the sole depository of the true religion, and of the knowledge of one supreme God, being spread abroad through the whole earth, might be everywhere, by their example, a reproach to superstition, contribute in some measure to check it, and thus prepare the way for that yet fuller discovery of divine truth, which was to shine upon the world from the ministry and gospel of the Son of God." SECTION III. AN ACCOUNT OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS WHICH WERB IN VOGUE AT THE TIME OP CHRIST'S APPEARANCE. AT the important era of Christ's appearance in the world, two kinds of philosophy prevailed among the civilized nations. One was the philosophy of the Greeks, adopted also by the Romans; and the other, that of the Orientals, which had a great number of votaries in Persia, Syria, Chaldea, Egypt, and even among the Jews, The former was distinguished by the simple title of philosophy. The latter was honored by the more pompou8 appellation of science or knoicledge ; since those who adhered to the latter sect pretended to be the restorers of the knowledge of God, which was lost in the world. The followers of both these systems, in consequence of vehement disputes and dissensions about several points, subdivided themselves into a variety of sects. It is, however, to be observed, that all the sects of the Oriental philosophy deduced their various tenets from one fundamental principle, which they held in common; but the Greeks wera much divided about the first principles of science. Amongst the Grecian sects there were some who declaimed openly against religion, and denied the immortality of the soul; and others, who acknowledged a Deity, and a state of future rewards and punishments. Of the former kind were the Epi cureans and Academics ; of the latter, the Platonists and Stoics I INTRODUCTION. The Epicureans derived their name from Epicurus, who was born in the hundred and ninth olympiad, 242 years before Christ. He accounted for the formation of the wrld in the following manner : A finite number of that infinite multitude of atoms, which, with infinite space, constitutes the universe, falling for- tuitously into the region of the world, were, in consequence of their innate motion, collected into one rude and indigested mass. All tht various parts of nature were formed by those atoms, which were best fitted to produce them. The fiery particles formed themselves into air ; and from those which subsided, the earth was produced. The mind or intellect was formed of par- ticles most subtle in their nature, and capable of the most rapid motion. The world is preserved by the same mechanical causes by which it was framed ; and from the same causes it will at last fee dissolved. Epicurus admitted that there were in the universe divine natures. But he asserted that these happy and divine beings did not encumber themselves with the government of the world: yet, on account of their excellent nature, they are proper objects of reverence and worship. The science of physics was, in the judgment of Epicurus, subordinate to that of ethics; and his whole doctrine concerning nature was professedly adapted to rescue men from the dominion of troublesome passions, and lay the foundation of a tranquil and happy life. He taught, that man is to do everything for his own sake ; that he is to make his own happiness his chief end, and do all in his power to secure and preserve it. He considered pleasure as the ultimate good of mankind ; but asserts that he does not mean the pleasures of the luxurious, but principally the freedom of the body from pain, and of the mind from anguish and perturbation. The virtue he prescribes is resolved ultimately into our private advantage without regard to the excellence of its own nature, or of its being commanded by the Supreme Being. The followers of Aristotle were another famous Grecian sect. That philosopher was born in the first year of the ninety-ninth olympiad, about 384 years before the birth of Christ. Aristotle supposed the universe to have existed from eternity. INTRODUCTION XXVU He admitted, however, the existence of a deity, whom he styled the first mover, and whose nature, as explained by him, is some- thing like the principle which gives motion to a machine. It is a nature wholly separated from matter, immutable, and far mperior to all other intelligent natures. The celestial sphere, which is the region of his residence, is also immutable ; and residing in his first sphere, he possesses neither immensity nor Bmnipresence. Happy in the contemplation of himself, he is entirely regardless of human affairs. In producing motion, the deity acts not voluntarily, but necessarily ; not for the sake of other beings, but for his own pleasure. Nothing occurs in the writings of Aristotle which decisively determines whether he supposed the soul of man mortal or immortal. .Respecting ethics, he taught that happiness consisted in the rirtuous exercise of the mind, and that virtue consists in pre- serving that mean in all things which reason and prudence describe. It is the middle path between two extremes, one of which is vicious through excess, the other through defect. The Stoics were a sect of heathen philosophers, of which Zeno, who flourished about 350 years before Christ, was the original founder. They received their denomination from a place in which Zeno delivered his lectures, which was a portico at Athens. Their distinguishing tenets were as follows : That God is unde- rived, incorruptible, and eternal; possessed of intelligence and goodness ; the efficient cause of all the qualities and forms of things; and the constant preserver and governor of the world. That matter is also underived and eternal, and by the powerful energy of the Deity impressed with motion and form : That though God and matter subsisted from eternity, the present regular frame of nature had a beginning, and will have an end. That the element of fire will at last, by an universal conflagration, reduce the world to its pristine state. That at this period all material forms are lost in one chaotic mass, all animated nature ia reunited to the Deity, and matter returns to its original form. That from this chaotic state, however, it again emerges, by the energy of the efficient principle; and gods and men, and all INTRODUCTION. forms of regulated nature, are renewed, to be dissolved and renewed in endless- succession. That at the restoration of all things, the race of men will return to life. Some imagined that each individual would return to its former body; while others supposed that after the revolution of the great year, similar souls would be placed in similar bodies. Those among the Stoics who maintained the existence of the BOU! after death, supposed it to be removed into the celestial regions of the gods, where it remains, till, at the general confla- gration, all souls, both human and divine, shall be absorbed in the Deity. But many imagined, that before they were admitted among the divinities, they must purge away their inherent vices and imperfections by a temporary residence in the aerial regions between the earth and the moon, or in the moon itself. It was supposed that depraved and ignoble souls are agitated after death in the lower region of the air till the fiery parts are separated from the grosser, and rise, by their natural levity, to the orbit of the moon, where they are still further purified and refined. According to the doctrine of the Stoics, all things are subject to an irresistible and irreversible fatality : and there is a necessary chain of causes and effects, arising from the action of a power, which is itself a part of the machine it regulates, and which, equally with the machine, is subject to the immutable laws of necessity. The moral doctrine of the Stoics depends upon the preceding principles. They make virtue to consist in an acquiescence in the immutable laws of necessity, by which the world is governed. The resignation they prescribe appears to be part of their scheoie to raise mankind to that liberty and self-sufficiency which it is the great end of their philosophy to procure. They assert that virtue is its own proper reward, and vice its own punishment; that all external things are indifferent; and that a wise man may be happy in the midst of tortures. The ultimate design of their philosophy was to divest human nature of all passions and affections ; and they make the highest attainments and perfection of virtue to consist in a total apathy and insensibility of human evils. INTRODUCTION. XXIX The Platonic philosophy is denominated from Plato, who was born in the eighty-seventh olympiad, 426 years before the nativity of Jesus Christ. He founded the old academy on the opinions of Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates; and by adding the information he had acquired to their discoveries, he estab- lished a sect of philosophers, who were esteemed more perfect than those who had before appeared in the world. The outlines of Plato's philosophical system were as follows : That there is one God, an eternal, immutable, and immaterial being, perfect in wisdom and goodness, omniscient and omnipre- sent. That this all-wise and perfect Being formed the universe out of a mass of pre-existing matter, to which he gave form and arrangement. That there is in matter a necessary, but blind and refractory force, which refits the will of the Supreme Artificer, so that he cannot perfectly execute his designs; and this is the cause of the mixture of good and evil which is found in the material world. That the soul of man was derived by emanation from God ; but that this emanation was not immediate, but through the intervention of the soul of the world, which was itself debased by some material admixture. That the relation which the human soul, in its original constitution, bears to matter, is the source of moral evil. That when God formed the universe, he separated from the soul of the world inferior souls, equal in number to the stars, and assigned to each its proper celestial abode. That these souls were sent down to earth to be imprisoned in mortal bodies; hence proceed the depravity and misery to which human nature is liable. That the soul \a immortal; and by disengaging itself from all animal passions, and rising above sensible objects to the contemplation of tho world of intelligence, it may be prepared to return to its original habitation. That matter never suffered annihilation, but that the world will remain forever; but that by the action of its miniating principle, accomplishes certain periods, within which everything returns to its ancient place and state. This periodical revolution of nature is called the Platonic or great year. The Platonic system makes the perfection of morality to con- sist in living in conformity to the will of God, the only author 3* XXX INTRODUCTION. of true felicity; and teaches that our highest good consts-ts in the contemplation and knowledge of the Supreme Being, whom he emphatically styles tavyaOov, the yood. The end of this knowledge is to make men resemble the Deity as much as i compatible with human nature. This likeness consists in the possession and practice of all the moral virtues. After the death of Plato, many of his disciples deviated from his doctrines. His school was then divided into the old. the middle, and the new academy. The old academy strictly adhered to his tenets. The middle academy receded from his system without entirely deserting it. The new academy, founded by Carneades, an African by birth, almost entirely relinquished the original doctrines of Plato, and verged towards the sentiments which were taught by the Skeptic philosophy. The Skeptic or Pyrrhonic sect of philosophers derive their name from Pyrrho, a Grecian philosopher, who flourished at Peloponnesus, in the hundred and ninth olympiad. This deno- mination was in little esteem till the time of the Iloman empe- rors j then it began to increase, and made a considerable figure. Every advance which Pyrrho made in the study of philosophy involved him in fresh uncertainty. Hence he left the school of the dogmatists, and established a school of his own on the principles of universal skepticism. On account of the similarity of the opinions of this sect and those of the Platonic school in the middle and new academy, many of the real followers of Pyrrho chose to screen themselves from the reproach of universal skepticism by calling themselves Academics. Pyrrho and his followers rather endeavored to demolish every other philosophical structure than to erect one of their own They asserted nothing, but proposed positions merely by way of enunciation, without deciding on which side, in any disputed question, the truth lay, or even presuming to assert that out proposition was more probable than another. On the subject of morals the Skeptics suspended their judgment concerning the ground of the distinction admitted by the Stoics and others, things in their nature good, evil, or indifferent. INTRODUCTION. XXXI Tho chief points of difference between the PyrrhoniHts and Academics are these ; The Academics laid it down as an axiom, that nothing can be known with certainty ; the Pyrrhonista maintained that even this ought not to be positively asserted. The Academics admitted the real existence of good and evilj the Pyrrhonists suspended their judgment on this point. The Academics, especially the followers of Carneades, allowed different degrees of probability in opinion; but the Skeptics rejected all speculative conclusions, drawn either from the testimony of the senses, or from reasoning ; and concluded that we can have no good ground for affirming or denying any proposition, or em- bracing any one opinion rather than another. The Eclectic philosophy was in a flourishing state at Alexandria when our Saviour was upon earth. Its founders formed the design of selecting from the doctrines of all former philosophers such opinions as seemed to approach nearest the truth, and of combining them into one system. They held Plato in the highest esteem ; but they did not scruple to join with his doctrines whatever they thought conformable to reason in the tenets of other philosophers. Potamo, a Platonist, appears to have been, the first projector of this plan. The Eclectic system was brought to perfection by Ammonias Saccas, who blended Christianity with the tenets of philosophy. The moral doctrine of the Alexandrian school was as follows The mind of man, originally a portion of the Divine Being, having fallen into a state of darkness and defilement by its union with the body, is to be gradually emancipated from the chain of matter, and rise by contemplation to the knowledge and vision of God. The end of philosophy, therefore, is the liberation of the soul from its corporeal imprisonment. For this purpose the Eclectic philosophy recommends abstinence, with other voluntary mortifications and religious exercises. In the infancy of the Alexandrian school, not a few of the professors of Christianity were led, by the pretensions of the Eclectic sect, to imagine that a coalition might, with great advantage, be formed between its system and that of Christianity. This union appeared the more desirable, as several philosojhew XXX11 INTRODUCTION. of this sect became converts to the Christian faith. The conse- quence was, that Pagan ideas and opinions were by degrees mixed with the pure and simple doctrines of the gospel. The Oriental philosophy was popular in several nations at the time of Christ's appearance. Before the commencement of the Christian era it was taught in the East, whence it gradually epread through the Alexandrian, Jewish, and Christian schools. The Oriental philosophers endeavored to explain the nature and origin of all things by the principle of emanation from an eternal fountain of being. The forming of the leading doctrines of this philosophy into a regular system has been attributed to Zoroaster, an ancient Persian philosopher. He adopted the principle generally held by the ancients, that from nothing, nothing can be produced. He supposed spirit and matter, light and darkness, to be emanations from one eternal source. The active and passive principles he conceived to be perpetually at variance ; the former tending to produce good ; the latter, evil j but that, through the intervention of the Supreme Being, the contest would at last terminate in favor of the good principle. According to Zoroaster, various orders of spiritual beings, gods, or demons, have proceeded from the Deity, which are more or less perfect, as they are at a greater or less distance in the course of emanation from the eternal fountain of intelligence, among which the human soul is a particle of divine light, which will return to its source and partake of its immortality ; and matter is the last or most distant emanation from the first source of being, which, on account of its distance from the fountain of light, becomes opaque and inert, and whilst it remains in that state, is the cause of evil; but, being gradually refined, it will at length return to the fountain from whence it flowed. Those who professed to bflieve the Oriental philosophy were divided into three leading aects, which were subdivided into various factions. Some imagined two eternal principles, from whence all things proceeded ; the one presiding over light, the other over matter, and, by their perpetual conflict, explaining the mixture of good and evil that appears in the universe. Others maintained that the being which presided over matter INTRODUCTION, Tras not an eternal principle, but a subordinate intelligence, one of those whom the supreme God produced from himself. They supposed that this being was moved by a sudden impulse to reduce to order the rude mass of matter which lay excluded from the mansions of the Deity, and also to create the human race. A third sect entertained the idea of a triumvirate of beings, in which the supreme deity was distinguished both from the material evil principle, and from the Creator of this sub- lunary world. That these divisions did really subsist, is evident from the hiutory of the Christian sects which embraced thia philosophy. From blending the doctrines of the Oriental philosophy with Christianity, the Gnostic sects, which were so numerous in the first centuries, derive their origin. Other denominations arose, which aimed to unite Judaism with Christianity. Many of the Pagan philosophers, who were converted to the Christian religion, exerted all their art and ingenuity to accommodate the doctrines of the gospel to their own schemes of philosophy. In each age of the church new systems were introduced, till, in process of time, we find the Christian world divided into that prodigious variety of sentiment which is exhibited in the following pages.* * For the above introduction, we are indebted to Mies Haiwk Adiuna Vi"w of Religions." ED. HISTORY OF RELIGIONS. BAPTISTS. THE members of this denomination are distinguished from all other professing Christians, by their opinions re- specting the ordinance of Christian Baptism. Conceiving that positive institutions cannot be established by analogi- cal reasoning, but depend on the will of the Saviour, re- vealed in express precepts, and that apostolical example illustrative of this is the rule of duty, they differ from their Christian brethren with regard both to the subjects and the mode of baptism. With respect to the subjects, from the command which Christ save after his resurrection, and in which baptism is mentioned as consequent to faith in the gospel, they con- ceive them to be those, and those only, who believe what the apostles were then enjoined to preaoh. With respect to the mode, they affirm that, instead of sprinkling or pouring, the person ought to be immersed in the water, referring to the primitive practice, and observ- ing that the baptizer as well as the baptized having gone down into the water, the latter is baptized in it, and both come up out of it. They say that John baptized in the Jordan^ and that Jesus, after being baptized, came up out (35) 36 BAPTISTS. of it. Believers are also said to be buried with Christ by baptism into death, wherein also they are raised with him a doctrinal allusion, incompatible with any other mode. Bom. vi. 4, Col. ii, 12. For baptism here appears as an appointed and expressive emblem of the death of Christ, through which our sins are remitted tor washed away, and of the resurrection of Christ, through which the Holy Spirit confers upon us a new spiritual life, in which every true believer enters into fellowship with him. In other words, Christian baptism is a figurative representation of that, which the Gospel of Christ is in testimony. To this, therefore, the mind of the baptized believer is naturally led, and every spectator in like manner is impressed with the gospel, not only as truth, but life, derived by faith from the crucified and glorified Redeemer. The Baptists, therefore, think that none ought to be baptized, but such as with all their heart believe the gospel, and that immer- sion is not properly a mode of baptism, but baptism itself. Holding convictions at once so clear and sacred, drawn from the very fountain of truth, the Baptists, while diftbr- ing from other Christians, disclaim the spirit of schism. Feeling the authority of the Great Commission, which re- mains unchanged to the end of the world, they aim to carry out all its parts in the prescribed order, with the fidelity of a good conscience, as under law to Christ, and responsible alone to Him, on whose promised presence and aid they humbly rely. Matt, xxviii: 19,20. They pro fess to love all Christians as brethren ; but they own no other Master than Christ ; no other law in religion than his word ; no baptism but that which is hallowed by faith ; no church, but that which is the living body of Christ, per- vaded and animated by his Spirit. Neither birth, nor age, nor sex, nor nation, nor condition, in their view, can qualify for Christian ordinances, but the faith that worketh by love, BAPTISTS. 37 and which naturally unfolds in obedience to all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. As to Church organization and government, Baptists believe in the spiritual Unity of the Church, the collective body of believers, of which Christ is the head. This unity it is a duty to preserve and cherish, by subjection to Him in all things. Local churches, composed of believers in a particular place, who, being duly baptized, are em- bodied by mutual consent, under the law of Christ, for extending his kingdom, are the first scriptural means of manifesting this spiritual unity. The government of these churches is congregational ; that is to say, being immediately dependent on Christ, they are severally in. dependent of all other authority as churches ; though as citizens, individually subject to the civil power, and loyal in its support. Each church is completely competent to manage its internal affairs, such as the choice of officers reception, dismission, or discipline of members. Here is the only tribunal in which Christ presides, ratifying in heaven what is done according to his will on earth. But this principle of local church independence is not held by Baptists as a law of isolation, for it is balanced by the principle of intercommunion between the churches, which binds them into one. This intercommunion is the highest form of visible unity, and is never without necessity to be interrupted. On this principle, Baptist churches associate for the accomplishment of all common ends, and especially for diffusing the gospel throughout the world. Councils also are called to advise and assist in the formation of churches, the ordination of ministers, and the settlement of any serious difficulties ; but these councils are strictly such, having no judicial or appellate powers. They are composed of both ministers and laymen ; between whom there is no distinction, but that of office. Ministers are 4 38 BAPTISTS. ordained, both as evangelists and pastors, and deacon? also, after due examination, by prayer and the laying on of hands in solemn benediction. There are no higher officers recognized than these no prelacy, no hierarchy- all pastors are equally bishops, in their sacred charge of the flock of Christ. The Baptists are zealous friends of ministerial educa- tion, as their numerous Colleges and Theological Semina- ries show ; but they do not regard such education as in- dispensable to the Christian ministry, where all the scrip- tural qualifications are found ; as in John Bunyan and Andrew Fuller, who are among their brightest ornaments. Dr. Spragrue's volume on the " Baptist Pulpit," is a monument of their eminent men, from the foundation of this country. Dr. Baird, also, in his great work on "Religion in America," has said: " The ministry of the Baptists comprehends a body of men, who in point of talent, learning, and eloquence, as well as in devoted piety, have no superiors in the country." Through their labors, accompanied by the Divine blessing, the Baptists are now, with a single exception, the largest denomination of Christians in the United States, being spread through every State and Territory, and growing at a rate which outstrips the rapid growth of population. This fact is the more remarkable, as they are less indebted to emigration from Europe than most other denominations ; discard on principle infant baptism and birth-right membership, as incompatible with the genius of Christianity, and depend on the powe:. of truth and the Holy Spirit alonu for the vital increase of thoir churches. It is the more remarkable still, because on all sides they are reproached for their strictness of practice on Church communion ; as they think, reproached wrongfully. A few words there- fore may be necessary on this point. BAPTISTS. 39 Baptists believe that, according to the scriptures, the Holy Supper is a church ordinance, intended to express their common fellowship with Christ, as the source arid support of spiritual life; and that each church must therefore judge for itself on its responsibility to Christ, of the scriptural qualifications of all who apply for admission In requiring baptism and church fellowship among these qualifications, they agree with almost all Christians in every age and country ; they differ only in their views of baptism. If their views of baptism are correct, they are bound to apply them impartially to all who apply for admission to communion. The very fact that it is the Lord's table, and not their own, forbids them, even if they would, from changing at their pleasure the divine laws of approaching it. All who agree with them are wel- come to come ; those who do not, and cannot with a good conscience, are at perfect liberty to join elsewhere. Hard cases may arise with individuals, but the churches are not responsible. The right of private judgment is sacred, but it is equally so on both sides ; and the conscience of she individual cannot over-ride the conscience of the church ; for the fellowship of the Spirit cannot be forced. These views, so far from being narrow and bigoted, as some suppose, the Baptists believe to present the only true solution of this question of conscience, when viewed in its broadest aspect, and in the spirit of brotherly love. The strictest Baptists therefore claim, that their commu- nion, in any proper use of the term, is free. A laxer and less consistent view obtains to some extent among Bap- tists in England ; but as it rests on no scriptural precept or practice, it is regarded by Baptists in the United States as a perilous anomaly, to be avoided rather than imitated. Not one of their twelve thousand churches indorses it not because they do not love and esteem other Christiana 40 BAPTISTS. but because love to their brethren must be regulated in its manifestations by the word of God. By this ive know that we love the children of God, when we love Gfod and keep his commandments. 1 John v. 2. It is this clear conviction of the truth and equity of their principles, that has made the Baptists the pioneers of re- ligious liberty in its full extent, both in the Old World and in the New. Before William Penn, before Lord Baltimore, before Jeremy Taylor, Milton, or Locke, even before William I. of Orange, in the sixteenth century, their clear testimony is on record. And theirs is the high honor of establishing in the little colony of Ehode Island, in 1636, the first civil government in modern times which declared that conscience should be free ; in which noble declaration, fifty years later, they were followed by the Friends, of Pennsylvania ; and since the Revolution of 1776, by all the United States. This honor history now awards them. But how few know what toils and sacrifices, what vigilance, patience, prayers, tears and blood, it cost the Baptists to win this boon of freedom for all mankind. As will be evident from the above exposition of their principles, the Baptists claim their origin from the minis- try of Christ and his Apostles. They further claim, that all the Christian churches of the first two centuries after Christ, were founded and built up upon these principles ; in proof of which they appeal to the highest authorities in church history, such as Mosheim and Neander. Amid the growing defection of later times, they claim to be able to trace their history in a succession of pure churches, under various names, down to the Reformation of the six teenth century. From the fifth and sixth centuries, these churches became the objects of relentless persecution but though persecuted, they were not forsaken ; though scattered, not destroyed ; a bush forever burning, but un- BAPTISTS. 4"t consumed. The seeds of their principles had long been sown throughout Europe ; the Waldenses had held them fast ; the Paterines suffered for them ; the Lollards dif- fused them ; Wickliffe embraced them. At the first dawn of the Reformation, they emerged on all sides, and after fifty years of unparalleled suffering, from Eomanista and Protestants alike, at last found protection under the Prince of Orange, the founder of the Dutch Republic. They were called indiscriminately Anabaptists, (or Re- baptizers, ) but they of course disowned the name, as in- compatible with their principles, and still more, as dis- graced by a small party of fanatics in Munster, with whom they had not the slightest identity or connection, What the main body really were, and how they bore their terrible sufferings, let Cardinal Hosius, President of the Council of Trent, testify: "If you behold their cheer- fulness in suffering persecution, the Anabaptists run before all the heretics, (i. e. Protestants.) If you have re- gard to the number, it is likely that they would swarm above all others, if they were not grievously plagued and cut off by the knife of persecution. If you have an eye to the outward appearance of godliness, both the Luthe- rans and the Zuinglians must needs grant that they far pass them. If you will be moved by the boasting of the word of God, these be no less bold than Calvin to preach ; and their doctrine must stand aloft above all the glory of the world, must stand invincible above all power, because it is not their word, but the word of the living God." If there be a tinge of irony in the last sentence, there is certainly none in the honorable testimony to the an- tiquity of the Baptists, in the following passage from the " History of the Reformed Church of the Netherlands," by Drs. Ypeig and Derrnout, clergymen of the high- est standing in that church, and published in Breda, 4* 42 BAPTISTS. in 1819. " "We have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times Mennonites, were the original Waldenses, and have long, in the history of the church received the honor of that origin. On this account the Baptists may be considered as the only Chris- tian community which has stood since the days of the Apostles ; and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the Gospel through all ages." In regard to the value of religious forms, this body of Cnristians seem to hold a middle place between the Ro- man Catholics, who multiply them at will, and magnify their efficacy to salvation, and the Friends, or Quakers, who discard them altogether as inconsistent with a spirit- ual religion. In opposition to the first view, the Baptists hold that no forms but those of scriptural institution are valid, thus repudiating all traditions of men; and in refer- ence to those of Divine institution, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, that they have no inhe- rent virtue, or saving efficacy of the Holy Spirit, inde- pendent of the receiver's faith. In opposition to the Quaker view, the Baptists hold that the reception of the Holy Spirit, though essential to spiritual religion, does not make void the authority of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, or supersede their value as the appointed expres- sions and auxiliaries of faith ; and they particularly point to the conversion of the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, at Cesarea, in proof; where Peter, full of the Holy Ghost himself, said, Can any man forbid water, thai these should not be baptized, who have received tlie Holy Ghost as well as we ? And lie, commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. (Acts x. 47, 48.) Instead of magnifying the efficacy of Baptism and making it a saving ordinance, the Baptists affirm that they make less of it than most religious denominations; BAPTISTS. 43 for they believe that infants are saved without it; in proof of which, they adduce the fact that Christ blessed little children, without baptizing them. Baptism (mean- ing immersion) is in their view but the symbol of faith, and it saves us, as Peter says, only in a figure, or so fai ' only as it is the answer of a good conscience toiuard God. In their doctrine, the Baptists are in a high degree evangelical, holding the views commonly called Calvinis- tic, as set forth in the writings of Bunyan, Gill, and Fuller. The Confessions of 1643,1689, 1742, an.l 1833, are all in harmony, differing only in the choice of lan- guage and fulness of exposition. These Confessions are never regarded as binding creeds. There is a close affinity between the Baptists and the Congregutionalists, and they are divided only on the point of baptism. The late Dr. Woods, of Andover, Mass., in 1854:, thus expresses his views of this affinity : " For my- self, I entertain feelings of the most cordial esteem, love and confidence, toward the Baptists as a denomination. I have had the freest intercourse and the sincerest friend- ship with Baptist ministers, theological students, and pri- vate Christians. And I have wished that our denomina- tion was as free from erratic speculations, and as well grounded in the doctrines and experimental principles of the Puritans as the Baptists. It seems to me that they are the Christians who are likely to maintain pure Chris- tianity, and to hold fast the form of sound words ; while many of our denomination are rather loose in their opinions, and are trying to introduce innovations into the system of evangelical doctrines. And I think that Congregationalists in general regard the Baptists much as I do, though it may be that my better acquaintance with them has led me to esteem them more highly than some of my brethren do." See COXGREGATIOXALISTS. 44 BAPTISTS. The Baptist " Missionary Union," from it? origin m Dr. Judson's change of views on baptism, as well as from tho common aim of its endeavors, is in cor- dial sympathy with the "American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions" established by the Congrc gutionalists in 1810. The following comparative tabla of their successful operations, drawn up from the reports of the two societies in 1866, will be found of great value and interest. It should be observed that the figures of the American Board, except in the item of schools and scholars, include the returns from the Sandwich Islands, and the figu^s of the Missionary Union include all their European missions, from which no schools are reported. American Missionary Board. Uniou. Date of organization June, 1810 May, 1SU. Income the past year $446,942 44 $175,354 32 Expenditures 440,27547 173,48457 Missions now maintained 20 .... 19 Stations and out-stations 526 .... 1700 Missionaries, male and female. . 312 .... 84 Native helpers 815 .... 700 Churches 194 487 Members added last year 1119 .... 2(572 Total present members 23,240 36.000 Schools of all kinds 428 157 Total number of scholars 10,901 321)5 Printing establishments 2 .... 1 Pages printed last year 13,659,826 4,375,950 The strength of the American Board in its resources, its missionary force, its vigorous schools, of which sixteen are theological and training schools, and its multiplica- tion of books, is very manifest from this table. The Mis- sionary Union's more exclusive attention to simple evan- gelization, with much less income and fewer missionaries, is alfo evident in its appropriate fruits. God's blessing has rested richly upon both. A like blessing has at- BAPTISTS. 45 tended their labors in Home Missions, as might be shown if the figures were at hand. The Baptists have indeed spread far more widely, and gathered converts more rap- idly ; from a much smaller beginning, now outnumbering the Congregationalists in this country fourfold. But, on the other hand, the Congregationalists, with a narrower field, have cultivated it more richly. At present there is a sort of interchange in the character of their home labors, the Baptists devoting themselves to a higher cul- ture, and their Congregational brethren to a more ener- getic effort of expansion. Their history, too, both in England and in this country, has flowed on in parallel streams, and the waters have often intermingled. The great names that adorn them are alike dear to both, and it may be hoped time will cement and perfect the union. The unity of the Baptist denomination, which is almost equally spread over all the United States, does not consist in any external bond of authority distinct from the Bible, but in the internal fellowship of the churches and mem- bers in " one Lord, one faith, and one baptism." (Eph. iv. 6.) It was formerly expressed also by free co-opera tion in the same general missionary and benevolent socie- ties. This was gradually interrupted, as in other de- nominations, by the different position of the North and the South on the questions of slavery and of secession, which culminated in the civil war of 1861. As early as 1845, the Southern Baptists, partly from the wish to avoid agitation, and partly from the desire to engage their members more fully in the missionary enterprise by con- centrated action, withdrew, and organized separate gen- eral societies for the South, which still continue in opera- tion, though greatly crippled by the war. The general societies for benevolent effort at the North were never so euergetiCy so well sustained, or so successful, as at the 46 EPISCOPALIANS. ' present. Since secession and slavery have now passed away, it is to be hoped that time will restore a more per- fect internal fellowship than before, on the New Testa- ment principles of equity, loyalty, and love. The changes created by the war in the Southern States make it impossible to obtain complete returns of Bap- tist communicants. The Baptist Year Book gives the total North and South for 1870 as 799 Associations, 17,745 Churches, 10,818 ordained ministers; 77,795 bap- tized within the year, and 1,419,493 communicants. Grand total for North America, including the British colonies, 1,464,638. If the minor sects of Baptists, of all sorts, are added, the whole amounts to 2,075,000. ropula- tion about 10,500,000. Baptist Colleges, 29; Theological Seminaries, 9 ; Academies and high schools for both sexes about 100 ; periodical organs, 48. EPISCOPALIANS; OR, PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. THE denomination of Christians called the Protestant Episcopal Church had its origin in England, where it is called the Church of England. The king is the supreme head ; by this authority he convenes and prorogues the convocations of the clergy. The church is governed by two archbishops and twenty- five bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury is styled the Primate of all England, and to him belongs the privilege of crown ing the kings and queens of England. The province of EPISCOPALIANS. 41 Canterbury comprehends twenty-one bishoprics. In the province of the Archbishop of York, who is called the Primate of England, there are four bishoprics. Archbishops and bishops are appointed by the king, by what is called a congk d'elire, or leave to elect, which is Bent to the dean and chapter, naming the person to be ciiosen. The bishop of London, as presiding over the capital, has the precedence of all the others. The Bishop of Dur- ham has certain prerogatives, as presiding over a see that constitutes a county palatine ; the Bishop of Winchester is third in dignity ; the others take rank according to seniority of consecration. The archbishops and bishopa (except the Bishop of Sodor and Man) have seats in the House of Lords, and are styled the spiritual lords. The archbishops have the title of grace, and most reve- rend father in Gfod, by divine providence; bishops are addressed by the title of lord, and right reverend father in Grod, by divine permission. The former are said to be enthroned, the latter installed. To every cathedral belong several prebendaries and a dean, who form the dean and chapter, or council of the bishop. The next order of the clergy is that of arch- deacons ; their number is sixty ; their office is to reform abuses, and to induct into benefices. The most numerous and laborious order of the clergy are the deacons, curates, vicars, and rectors. The office of the deacon is confined to baptism, reading in the church, and assisting the priest at the communion. A parson is one who has full possession of all the rights of a parish church ; if the great tithes are im preprinted, the priest is called a vicar ; if not, a rector : a curate is one who is not instituted to the cure of souls, but exercises the spiritual office in a parish under a rector or vicar. 18 EPISCOPALIANS. The convocation of the clergy, which is the highest ecclesiastical court, has not been permitted by government to do any business since 1717, and is merely convened as a matter of form. The doctrines of the Church of England are contained in the thirty-nine articles ; the form of wor- ehip is directed by a liturgy. The first steps to the establishment of the English Church were slow. It retained at first many of the fea- tures of the Roman Church, both in regard to doctrine and rites. After the parliament had declared Henry VIII. the only fiupreme head of the Church, and the convocation of the clergy had voted that the Bishop of Home had no more jurisdiction in England than any other foreign bishop, the articles of faith of the new Church were declared to con- sist in the Scriptures and the three creeds, the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian ; the real presence, the use of images, the invocation of saints, &c , wero still maintained. Under Edward the new liturgy was composed wi English, and took the place of the old mass ; the doctrines were also stated in forty-two articles. With the reign of Mary, the old religion was re-established ; and it was not till that of Elizabeth that the Church of England was finally insti- tuted. As no change was made in the episcopal form of government, and some rites and ceremonies were retained which many of the Reformed considered as superstitious, this circumstance gave rise to many future dissensions. The controversy concerning the ceremonial part of divine worship commenced with those exiles who, in 1554, lied from the persecutions of Queen Mary, and took refuge in Germany. On the accession of Elizabeth they returned, and renewed the contest at homo which had begun abruad. EPISCOPATIONS. 49 These were called Puritans, and at one time comprised many distinguished members of the English clergy. On the accession of James, the Puritans hoped for some relief; but an Episcopal hierarchy was more favorable to his views than the Presbyterian form of government, and he publicly adopted the maxim, "No bishop, no king." When the English divines returned from the Synod of Dort, the king and the majority of the Episcopal clergy discovered an inclination to the sentiments of Armiuius, which have since prevailed over Calvinism among the English clergy. Under Charles I., the attempts made, through the in- strumentality of Laud, to reduce all the churches of Great Britain under the jurisdiction of bishops, and the suppres- sion of the opinions and institutions that were peculiar to Calvinism, cost the Archbishop of Canterbury his head, and had no little effect in imbittering the civil contest between the throne and the parliament. After the death of Laud, the parliament abolished the Episcopal govern- ment, and condemned everything in the ecclesiastical esta- blishment that was contrary to the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the Church of Geneva. As soon as Charles II. was restored to the throne, the ancient forms of ecclesiastical government and public wor- ship were restored ; and, in 1662, a public law, entitled the act of uniformity, was enacted, by which all who re- fused to observe the rites and subscribe the doctrines of the Church of England, were entirely excluded from its dominion. In the reign of William III., and particularly in 1689, the divisions among the friends of Episcopacy gave rise to the two parties called the high-churchmen, or non- jurors, and low-churchmen. The former maintained the doctrine of passive obedience, or non-resistance to the 5 D 50 EPISCOPALIANS. sovereign under any circumstance whatever ; that the hereditary succession to the throne is of d ; vine institution, and cannot be interrupted : that the Church is subject to the jurisdiction of God alone ; and, consequently, that certain bishops deposed by King William remained, not- withstanding, true bishops ; and that those who had been appointed in their places were rebels and schismatics, and all who held communion with them were guilty of rebellion and schism. The gradual progress of civil and religious liberty during the last one hundred and fifty years, has settled practically many such controversies. The great increase of the dis- senters in recent times (they are estimated to be more numerous than the members of the established Church) has led to new concessions in their favor ; the repeal of the corporation and test acts, and the Catholic emancipa- tion, as it is called, are among the important events of the late reign. We have said that the doctrines of the Church of Eng- land are contained in the thirty-nine articles ; we are not ignorant that the most eminent English divines hare doubted whether they are Calvinistic or Lutheran, that some have denominated them articles of peace, and that not a few have written in direct opposition to them. But they are the established confession of the English Church, *nd, as such, deserve a short analysis. The five first arti- cles contain a profession of faith in the Trinity ; the incar- nation of Jesus Christ, his descent to hell, and his resur- rection; the divinity of the Holy Ghost. The three following relate to the canon of the Scripture. The eighth article declares a belief in the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds. The ninth and following articles con- tain the doctrines of original sin, of justification by faith ilone, of picdcstination, &c. The nineteenth, twentieth, EPISCOPALIANS. 51 and twenty-first declare the Church to be the assembly of the faithful ; that it can decide nothing except by the Scriptures. The twenty-second rejects the doctrine of purgatory, indulgences, the adoration of images, and the invocation of saints. The twenty-third decides that only those lawfully called shall preach or administer the sacra- ments. The twenty-fourth requires the liturgy to be in English. The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth declare the sacraments effectual signs of grace (though administered by evil men), by which God excites and confirms our faith. They are two ; baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism, according to the twenty-seventh article, is a sign of regene- ration, the seal of our adoption, by which faith is con- firmed and grace increased. In the Lord's Supper, ac- cording to article twenty-eighth, the bread is the commu- nion of the body of Christ, the wine the communion of his blood, but only through faith (art. twenty-ninth) ; and the communion must be administered in both kinds (art. thirty). The twenty-eighth article condemns the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the elevation and adoration of the host ; the thirty-first rejects the sacrifice of the mass as blasphemous ; the thirty-second permits the marriage of the clergy ; /he thirty-third maintains the efficacy of excommunication. The remaining articles relate to the supremacy of the king, the condemnation of Anabap- tists, &c. In the United States, the members of the Church of England, or Episcopalians, form a large and respectable denomination. When the Revolutionary War began, there were only about eighty parochial clergymen of this Church to the northward and eastward of Maryland ; and they derived the greater part of their subsistence from the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. In Maryland and Virginia, the Episcopal 52 EPISCOPALIANS. Church was much more numerous, and had legal establish- ments for its support. The inconvenience of depending on the mother Church for ordination, and the want of an internal Episcopacy, was long severely felt by the Ameri- can Episcopalians. But their petitions for an Episcopate of their own were long resisted by their superiors in Eug land ; and their opponents in the United States objected to the measure from an apprehension that bishops from England would bring with them an authority which would interfere with the civil institutions of this country, and be prejudicial to the members of other communions. After the United States had become independent of Great Britain, a new difficulty arose on the part of the English bishops : they could not consistently depart from their own stated forms of ordination, and these contained politi- cal tests improper for American citizens to subscribe. Dr. L' wth, then Bishop of London, obtained an act of Parliament allowing him to dispense with these political requisitions. Before this act was passed, Dr. Seabury was consecrated at Aberdeen by the non-juring bishops of Scotland ; and, not long after, Dr. W. White, of Philadel- phia, Dr. Provoost, of New York, and Dr. James Madison, of Virginia, were consecrated by the English archbishops. In 1792 there were four bishops and about 200 clergy. In 1832 there were fifteen bishops and 583 clergy. In 1855 the number of bishops had increased to thirty-eight, and the clergy to 1714, while the communicants were re- ported to be 105,350. In 1859 there were 1422 churches, with accommodations for 625,213 persons. The total value of church property was $11,261,970. Some changes in the liturgy of the American branch of the Episcopal Church were early made, in accommoda- tion to the American clergy, and the difference in the political condition of the two countries. DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. 53 The three orders of bivshops, priests, and deacons, are retained. The churches choose their pastors, but their installation or induction requires the consent of the bishop of the diocese. The churchwardens are chosen by the communicants, the vestry by the parish. Each diocese holds an Annual Convention, composed of clergy and lay delegates elected by the people, in which the bishop presides. Every three years a General Convention is held, com- posed of the bishops, who form the House of Bishops ; and clerical and lay delegates from each diocese, who form the House of Delegates : and the Episcopal Church through- out the United States is governed by the canons of tha General Convention. DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. THE colony of New Amsterdam, now New York, was settled^ in 1612 by the Dutch. Missionaries and pious immigrants arrived here in the very beginning of the colony, but it- is not known at what time a church was first organized. The Collegiate Church is supposed to have been formed in 1619. The Dutch Reformed Church is by many years earlier than any other Presbyterian church in this country. It differs but slightly from the other Ameri- can Presbyterian churches. Unfortunately, the names used for its officers and ecclesiastical bodies, and the name of the church itself, do not impart to the English reader a clear view of the things represented. It should be re- membered, then, that the Dutch Reformed Church is no longer a Dutch church. Its services are all performed ia 54 DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. English, and all its modes of action are naturalized to our country; so that no church among us is more perfectly American, or better adapted to make an effectual move- ment in the propagation of religion among our varied population. If its name were changed, and its dominie were called a minister, its consistory a session, its classis a presbytery, and its general synod a general assembly, there would be little remaining to distinguish it from the American Pres- byterian Church. From the commencement of the Dutch Reformed Church in this country, it was subordinate to the classis of Am- sterdam till 1737. In this year a movement was made to throw off dependence on the parent classis. This occa- sioned a violent contest, which was not terminated till 1771: when the Rev. Dr. Livingston, having previously convinced the classis of Amsterdam of the desirableness of the measure, and having prepared the way by concili- ating wise men of both parties, induced the consistory of Lis church to call a convention. The convention met in New York in October, and resulted in a harmonious ar- rangement for a complete organization of the Dutch Re- formed Church in this country as an independent body. It receives the confession of faith, as adopted by the na- tional synod of the Council of Dort in the years 1618 and 1G19, with the Heidelberg Catechism, the Compend of the Christian religion, and the canons of the Council of Dort on the famous five points. It is strictly Calvinistic. Th<* Dutch Reformed Church has a limited liturgy, which is allowed to be used by those who, through a defec- tive education or inexperience, need such helps. The only part which is enjoined is the reading; of the Ten Com- mandments in the opening of the morning service, the foiia of baptism, the short prayer beiorc the vows taken DUTCH EEFORMED CHURCH. 55 by parents in the baptism of infants, and the formula of the holy communion of the Lord's Supper. This last is -ead by the minister, while all the members carefully and devoutly follow him, with the book open before them. There is a single point in which their government differs from other branches of the Presbyterian Church. The ruling elders, instead of being elected for life, are appointed for two years. If acceptable to the church, they may be appointed again after having been out of office for one year. The government of .the Dutch Reformed Church is P: esbyterian. It is fully described in the article on Presbyterians. They only use a different nomenclature, in soi ae respects, in speaking of ecclesiastical affairs. The consistory, or session, is composed of the minister, or big hop, ruling elders, and deacons. The pastor and elders meet as a spiritual court to transact the spiritual concerns, such as the admission of members, and the exercise of dis- cipline. The deacons are charged with the care of the poor. The consistory, including the deacons, meet as a board of trustees, for the transaction of the secular busi- ness of the church. On great occasions, such as the call- ing of a minister, what is termed the grand consistory is called together. This is composed of the acting session, and all who have previously belonged to that body. The next court is the classis, or presbytery ; the next, the par- ticular synod, which, like the classis, is a representative body. It consists of two ministers and two elders from each classis within its bounds. The highest court, from which there is no appeal, is the general synod. This is composed of three ministers and three elders from each classis of the whole church. It holds its sessions annu- ally, and conducts its affairs much in the same method with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. 58 DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. The college and theological seminary at New Brunswick, N. J., are an honor to the Dutch Church. Amply en- dowed, and furnished with able professors, they exert their full share of influence, in raising up a learned and able ministry. This church reports in the Minutes of the Gen- eral Synod for 1847 particular synods, 2; classes, 24; ministers, 289; churches, 276; communicants, 32, 840 ; members of congregations, 110.977. In the American Almanac for 1859, the Dutch Re- formed Church is stated to have 324 churches, accommo- dations for 181,986 worshippers, *and church property to the amount of $4,096,730. The sessions of the General Synod held during the war were marked by weighty and earnest declarations of sym- pathy with the government in its struggle to maintain the integrity of the nation, and by more guarded yet suffi- ciently clear utterances in favor of the removal of slavery as the source of our troubles. No Church has a more honorable record in the work of Foreign Missions than this, and no names in this depart- ment are more favorably known to the Christian world than her Abeel, Pohlman, and above all her Scudders, father and sons. In 1817 the General Synod united with the Presbyterian and the Associate Reformed churches in forming the United Foreign Missionary So- ciety. In 1826 this was merged in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1857 an amicable separation from the Board took place, when the Reformed Dutch Church undertook the foreign mission- ary work through the ordinary denominational channels, in the separation, the Amoy mission in China and the Arcot mission in India, which had been founded and carried on by ministers of the Dutch Church exclusively, were set over to that denomination, and they have been DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH. 57 among the most prosperous missions in that .part of the world. At the time of the separation, the General Synod re- quested the ministers and churches in China, after the example of those in India, to form themselves into a classis, according to the order of the Dutch Church. This they declined doing, preferring to form, with the flourishing congregations of the English Presbyterian Mission, a separate organization, called " The Great Pres- byterial or Classical Council of Amoy." In 1863 missionaries were sent to Japan. In 1866 Rev. S. R. Bowen, missionary at Yokohama, sent a cir- cular of great interest to Christians in all parts of the world, showing the marvellous preparation for the en- trance of the Gospel in that country. He asked the co- operation of Christendom in the work of evangelizing Japan. Four of the foremost princes have requested a missionary to superintend their educational interests. Two governors consulted with the missionary on the same subject, and large numbers of Christian books in Chinese have been purchased or distributed among the natives. In 18G6, a committee of the General Classis was ap- pointed to inquire into the expediency and propriety oi dropping the word "Dutch " from the name of the de- nomination. Next year the General Synod, by 102 to 7, voted in favor of the change, and on submitting the ques- tion to the classes, 25 voted in favor and 6 against it. The adjourned meeting of the General Synod in Novem- ber ratified the action of the classes by a vote of 112 to 7. By this action, the name and style of the Church became " The Reformed Church in America." The charter of the Church was amended to conform to this change by the Legislature of New York. 58 GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. Statistics for 1870: 33 classes, 464 churches, 403 ministers, 61,444 communicants. Contributions to gen- eral benevolence $281,647.36 ; to congregational pur- poses $906,034.27. GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. THE German Reformed Church in the United States dates its origin in about 1740, and was formed by immi- grants from Germany and Switzerland. It commenced ita existence in this country in the eastern portion of Penn- sylvania, and is almost entirely confined to the German population. At an early period, however, congregations were formed in Virginia, the Carolinas, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. The German Reformed Church consists, at this time, of two independent synods. They are bound together by a triennial convention. But this convention at first was not a court of appeal, and possessed none of the power of a general synod. In 1810 or 1812, the Rev. Jacob William Dechaut was sent out as a missionary to the State of Ohio. He was stationed at Miamisburg, Montgomery County. The Rev. Messrs. Winters and Weis joined him ; and their labors were attended with so much success that a classia was organized in 1819 ; and in 1823 or 1824 the majority of the classes separated from the parent body, and became an independent judicatory, calling themselves the Synod of Oliio. In 1836 the classis of Western Pennsylvania obtained permission to unite with the Synod of Ohio, which now bore the title of " The Synod of Ohio and the adjoining States;" and by a late act, this synod, which GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 59 nad previously, been subdivided into three district synods, received a new organization agreeably to the plan of the constitution of the eastern church. The western church is jow divided into classes, and its synod is a delegated body composed of the representatives of the classes. The government of the Gerrr.in Reformed Church ia strictly Presbyterian. While t' iere was no general synod, appeals could not be carried so far by one court as in the Dutch Reformed and American Presbyterian churches. For an explanation of the terms consistory, classes, etc., see the preceding article. An appeal could be taken from the consistory to the classes, and from the classes to the synod, whose decision was final. The German Reformed Church in this country is now spread over the whole of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and over portions of Maryland, Virginia. North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and New York. There is a church in the city of New Orleans ; others formerly sub- sisted in New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Ken* tucky ; and some members are still scattered over the several States of the Union. The eastern portion of the church is the original and parent body ; and its synod, existing before the othor, bears the title of " The Synod of the German Reformed Church in the United States." Its territory extends in Pennsylvania westward to the Alloghany Mountains ; northward it includes portions of New York ; and on the south, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. It has under it3 jurisdiction ten classes, viz. : Philadelphia, Goshenhoppen, East Pennsylvania, Lebanon, Susquehanna, Zion, Mercers- burg, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. The doctrines of this church are Calvinistic ; that is to 60 GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. say, the Heidelberg Catechism is their symbol, though a large portion of the laity lean to Arminian doctrines touching the subject of predestination. They practise the rite of confirmation ; which is, however, little else than a ceremony admitting candidates, who give evidence of rege- neration, to full comim nion. They have a theological seminary founded in 182;~, and a college established in 1836; both are located in Pennsylvania, and are in a flourishing state. They have a Board of Foreign Missions, and sustain one missionary station at Broosa, in Asia Minor. Their foreign missionary transactions are all mado through the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, with which body a connection has been formed for that purpose. According to the published Minutes of 1845, the Eastern Synod then comprised 10 classes, 155 ministers, 471 congregations, and 31,170 communicants. The Western Synod contained 6 classes, 72 ministers, 236 congregations, and 7,885 communicants. A summary of the whole force of the German Reformed Church in this country, then, was 2 synods, containing 16 classes, 227 ministers, 707 churches, and 39,055 com- municants. It is remarkable that such a disproportion should exist between the number of ministers and churches. This arises from a peculiar usage of intrusting several congregations to the charge of a singJe minister. In the American Almanac for 18-59, the German Re- formed Church is stated to have 327 churches, accommo- dations for 156.032 worshippers, and church property to the amount of $965,880. Much agitation upon the expediency of a more elabor- ate and authoritative ritual, and upon "High Church" views, taught in the seminary at Mercereburg, chieily by Dr. Nevin, has been experienced in the past quarter GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 61 century of this church's history. The Western Synod has adhered to more strictly Protestant ground, but in the Eastern Synod the powerful influence of Dr. Nevin and his able associates has, until lately, quite overborne that of Dr. Bouiberger and his associates upon the other side, such men as Dr. Berg and Di. Helfenstein having mean- while withdrawn from the body, to seek more congenial re- lations in the Reformed Dutch and Presbyterian Churches. In 1863 the Triennial General Convention was clothed with judicial power. A resolution admonishing the sub- ordinate bodies of the duty of loyalty to the government was adopted. The tercentenary of the Heidelberg Cate- chism was celebrated this year, by a series of meetings lusting from the 17th to the 23d of January. The ad- dresses and essays were subsequently published in a large memorial volume. A superb edition of the Catechism, in Latin, German and English, was also published as a me- morial of the occasion. The tercentenary contributions to be applied to theological institutions and benevolent ob- jects reached $103,000. In 1866, the two classes in the South, which had been hindered but not estranged by the war, were again fully represented in the Triennial Convention. Proposals to co-operate with the Reformed Dutch Church in the work of Foreign Missions were received and considered, with- out final action. The classes were requested, a second time, to take action upon the proposal to drop the word " German " from the title of the Church, the majority hav- ing previously voted in the negative. The discussions on the liturgy were very animated. The Western Synod, which is "Low Church," reported that they were stilt engaged on the work of revising a liturgy, but were not prepared to report finally. The Eastern Synod had for some time been using a liturgy considered " High Church," 62 GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. and which they desired the Convention to endorse and authorize for the whole body. By a close vote (64 to 57) it was decided to recommit the liturgy of the Eastern and the unfinished work of the Western Synod to new hands, and to require a new revised liturgy to be presented at the next triennial session. A convention of those opposed to the " High Church " liturgy was held at Meyerstown, Pennsylvania, in September, 1867, which was very em- phatically condemned at a subsequent meeting of the Eastern Synod as irregular and schismatic. At the last general synod, in 1869, it appeared that twenty-four out of the thirty-one classes had voted in favor of dropping the word " German " from the name, and the change was declared carried. The body is therefore known as the " Reformed Church in the United States." Overtures looking to organic union from the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America were favorably entertained, but the time for definite action was not considered to have ar- rived. In regard to a liturgy, it was left optional with classes which to employ. The statistics for 1870 give 31 classes, 526 ministers, 1179 congregations, 217,910 "members," 96,728 being "communicants." The benevolent contributions were $76.453.15. In 1868 there were connected with the church six colleges, two seminaries, and one mifevsion house. The Foreign Missionary work of this church is don* through the American Board of Foreign Missions. Ono of the most successful missionaries of that Board is Rev. B. Schneider, of the Reformed Church, whose services in oounection with the great church of Aintab in the Ar- menian mission are well known to the Christian public. Congregations of from twelve to fifteen hundred assem- bled regularly in the church under his care, anJ finrth ; borrowing without a probability of paying ; or taking up goods without a probability of paying for them. "It is expected of all who continue in these societiei that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation, Secondly, By doing good ; by being in every kind mer- ciful after their power, as they have opportunity ; doing good of every possible sort, and as far as possible to all men : to their bodies, of the ability which God giveth ; by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visit- ing or helping them that are sick, or in prison ; to their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with ; trampling under foot that enthusi- astic doctrine of devils, that ' We are not to do good, unless our hearts be free to it.' " By doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith, or groaning so to be ; employing them preferably to others ; buying one of another ; helping each other in business ; and so much the more, because the world will love its own, and them only ; by all possible diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed ; by running with patience the race set before them, denying themselves and taking up their cross daily ; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ; to be as the filth and off- scouring of the world, and looking that men should say all manner of evil of them falsely for the Lord's sake. " It is expected of all who desire to continue in these societies, that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation. " Thirdly, By attending on all the ordinances of God : such are The public worship of God; the ministry of the word, eithAr read or expounded ; the supper of tho METHODISTS. 91 Lord ; family and private prayer ; searching the Scrip- tures ; and fasting and abstinence. " These are the general rules of our societies, all which we are taught of God to observe, even in his written word : the only true rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice ; and all these we know his Spirit writes on every truly awakened heart. If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be made known unto them who watch over that soul, as they who must give an account. We will admonish him of the error of his ways ; we will bear with him for a season ; but then, if he repent not, he hath no more place among us : we have delivered our own souls. "May 1, 1743. JOHN WESLEY. CHARLES WESLEY." In Mr. Wesley's connection, they have circuits and conferences, which we find were thus formed : When the preachers at first went out to exhort and preach, it was by Mr. Wesley's permission and direction ; some from one part of the kingdom, and some from another ; and, though frequently strangers to each other, and those to whom they were sent, yet on his credit and sanction alone they were received and provided for as friends by the societies wherever they came. But having little or no communica- tion or intercourse with one another, nor any subordination among themselves, they must have been under the neces- sity of recurring to Mr. Wesley for directions how and where they were to labor. To remedy this inconvenience, he conceived the design of calling them together to an annual conference ; by this means he brought them into closer union with each other, and made them sensible of the utility of acting in concert and harmony. He soon found it necessary, also, to bring their itinerancy under 92 METHODISTS. certain regulations, and reduce it to some fixed order, both to prevent confusion, and for his own ease ; he therefore took fifteen or twenty societies, more or less, which lay round some principal society in those parts, and which were so situated that the greatest distance from one to another was not much more than twenty miles, and united them into what was called a circuit. At the yearly con- ference, he appointed two, three, or four preachers to one of these circuits, according to its extent, which at first was very often considerable, sometimes taking in a part of three or four counties. Here, and here only, were they to labor for one year, that is, until the next conference. One of the preachers on every circuit was called the assistant, because he assisted Mr. Wesley in superintending the societies and other preachers ; he took charge of the socie- ties within the limits assigned him ; he enforced the rules everywhere, and directed the labors of the preachers asso- ciated with him. Having received a list of the societies forming his circuit, he took his own station in it, gave to the other preachers a plan of it, and pointed out the day when each should be at the place fixed for him, to begin a progressive motion round it, in such order as the plan directed. They now followed one another through all the societies belonging to that circuit, at stated distances of time, all being governed by the same rules, and under- going the same labor. By this plan every preacher's daily work was appointed beforehand ; each knew, every day, where the others were, and each society when to expect the preacher, and how long he would stay with them. It may be observed, however, that Mr. Wesley's design in calling the preachers together annually, was not merely for the regulation of the circuits, but also for the review of their doctrines and discipline, and for the examination of their moral conduct ; that those who were to administer METUODISTS. 93 with him in holy things might be thoroughly furnished for every good work. The first conference was held in June, 1744, at which Mr. Wesley met his brother, two or three other clergymen, and a few of the preachers whom he had appointed to come from various parts to confer with them on the affairs of the societies. "Monday, June 25," observes Mr. Wesley, "and the five following days, we spent in conference with oui preachers, seriously considering by what means we might the most effectually save our own souls, and them that heard us ; and the result of our consultations we set down to be the rule of our future practice." Since that time a conference has been held annually, Mr. Wesley himself having presided at forty-seven. The subjects of their deliberations were proposed in the form of questions, which were amply discussed, and the ques- tions with the answers, agreed upon, were afterwards printed under the title of '" Minutes of several Conversa- tions between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and others," commonly called Minutes of Conference. As^to their preachers, the following extract from the above-mentioned Minutes of Conference will show us in what manner they are chosen and designated : Q. " How shall we try those who think they are moved by the Holy Ghost to preach ?" A. " Inquire, 1. Do they know God as a pardoning God ? Have they the love of God abiding in them? Do they desire and seek nothing but God? And are they holy in all manner of conversation? 2. Have they gifts as well as grace for the work ? Have they, in some tolerable degree, a clear, sound understand ing ? Have they a right judgment in the things of God ? Have they a just conception of salvation by faith? And has God given them any degree of utterance? Do thoy 4 METHODISTS. speak jusstly, readily, clearly ? 3. Have they fruit f Are any truly convinced of sin and converted to God by their preaching ? "As long as these three marks concur in any one, we believe he is called of God to preach. These we receive as sufficient proof that he is moved thereto by the Holy G-host. Q. " What method may we use in receiving a new helper?" A. "A proper time for doing this is at a con- ference, after solemn fasting and prayer ; every person proposed is then to be present, and each of them may be asked, " Have you faith in Christ ? Are you going on to per- fection ? Do you expect to be perfected in love in this life ? Are you groaning after it ? Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and to his work ? Have you considered the rules of a helper f Will you keep them for conscience' sake? Are you determined to em- ploy all your time in the work of God ? Will you preach every morning and evening? Will you diligently instruct the children in every place ? Will you visit from house to house ? Will you recommend fasting both by precept and example ? " We then may receive him as a probationer, by giving him the Minutes of the Conference, inscribed thus : 'To A. B. You think it your duty to call sinners to repent- ance. Make full proof hereof, and we shall rejoice to receive you as a fellow-laborer.' Let him then read and carefully weigh what is contained therein, that if he haa any doubt it may be removed." " To the above it may be useful to add," says Mr. Ben- Bon, " a few remarks on the method pursued in the choice of the itinerant preachers, as many have formed the must erroneous ideas on the subject, imagining they are era- METHODISTS. 9i> ployed with hardly any prior preparation. 1. They are received as private members of the society on trial. 2. After a quarter of a year, if they are found deserving, they are admitted as proper members. 3. When their grace and abilities are sufficiently manifest they are ap- pointed leaders of classes. 4. If they then discover talents for more important services, they are employed to exhort occasionally in the smaller congregation, when the preachers cannot attend. 5. If approved in this line of duty, they are allowed to preach. 6. Out of these men who are called local preachers, are selected the itinerant preachers, who are first proposed at a quarterly meeting of the stewards and local preachers of the circuit ; then at a meeting of the travelling preachers of the district ; and lastly, in the conference ; and, if accepted, are nominated for a circuit. 7. Their characters and conduct are ex- amined annually in the conference ; and, if they continue faithful for four years of trial, they are received into full connection. At these conferences, also, strict inquiry is made into the conduct and success of every preacher, and those who are found deficient in abilities are no longer employed as itinerants ; while those whose conduct has -not been agreeable to the Gospel, are expelled, and thereby deprived of all the privileges even of private members of the society." Since Mr. Wesley's death, his people have been divided; but this division, it seems, respects discipline more than sentiment. Mr. Wesley professed a strong attachment to the established church of England, and exhorted the f ocieties under his care to attend her service, and receive the Lord's supper from the regular clergy. But in the latter part of his time he thought proper to ordain some bishops and priests for America and Scotland ; but as one or two of the bishops have never been out of Engbmd since 96 METHODISTS. their appointment to the office, it is prolable that he intended a regular ordination should take place when the state of the connection might render it necessary. During his life, some of the societies petitioned to have preaching in their own chapels in church hours, and the Lord's Supper administered by the travelling preachers. This request he generally refused, and where it could be con- veniently done, sent some of the clergymen who officiated at the New Chapel in London, to perform these solemn services. At the first conference after his death, which was held at Manchester, the preachers published a decla- ration, in which they said that they would "take up the Plan as Mr. Wesley had left it." This was by no means satisfactory to many of the preachers and people, who thought that religious liberty ought to be extended to all the societies which desired it. In order to favor this cause, so agreeable to the spirit of Christianity and the rights of Englishmen, several respectable preachers came forward ; and by the writings which they circulated through the connection, paved the way for a plan of pacification, by which it was stipulated, that in every society where a three-fold majority of class-leaders, stewards, and trustees desired it, the people should have preaching in church hours, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Sup- per administered to them. The spirit of inquiry being roused did not stop here ; for it appeared agreeable both to reason and the customs of the primitive church, that the people should have a voice in the temporal concerns of the societies, vote in the election of church-officers, and give their suffrages in spiritual concerns. This subject produced a variety of arguments on both sides of the question : many of the preachers and people thought that an annual delegation of the general stewards of the cir- cuits, to ait either in the conference or the district meet- M E I II D I S 1 S . 97 mg3, in order to assist in the disbursement of the yearly collection, the Kingswood School collection, and the preachers' fund, and in making new or revising cid laws, would be a bond of union between the conference and connection at large, and do away the rery idea of arbitrary power among the travelling preachers. In order to facili- tate this good work, many societies in various parts of the kingdom sent delegates to the conference held at Leeds in 1797 ; they were instructed to request that the people might have a voice in ike formation of their own laws, the choice of their own officers, and the distribution of their oivn property. The preachers proceeded to discuss two motions : Shall delegates from the societies be admitted into the conference ? Shall circuit stewards be admitted into the district meetings ? Both motions were negatived, and consequently all hopes of accommodation between the parties were given up. Several friends of religious liberty proposed a plan for a new itinerancy. In order that it might be carried into immediate effect, they foimed them- selves into a regular meeting in Ebenezer Chapel, Mr. William Thorn being chosen president, and Mr. Alexander Kilharn, secretary. The meeting proceeded to arrange the plan for supplying the circuits of the new connection with preachers, and desired the president and secretary to draw up the rules of the church government, in order that they might be circulated through the societies for their approbation. Accordingly, a form of church government, suited to an itinerant ministry, was printed by these two brethren, under the title of " Outlines of a Constitution proposed for the Examination, Amendment, and Accept- ance of the Members of the Methodist New Itinerancy." The plan was examined by select committees in the different circuits of the connection, and, with a few altera- tions, was accepted by the conference of preachers and 93 METHODISTS. delegates. The preachers and people nre incorporated in all meetings for business, not by temporary concession, but by the essential principles of their constitution ; for tha private members choose the class-leaders ; the leaders meeting nominates the stewards ; and the society confinr.s or rejects the nomination. The quarterly meetings are composed of the general stewards and representatives chosen by the different societies of the circuits, and the fourth quarterly meeting of the year appoints the preacher and delegate of every circuit that shall attend the general conference. For a further account of their principles and discipline, we must refer the reader to a pamphlet, entitled General Rules of the United Societies of Methodist* in the New Connection. The Calvinisdc Methodists are not incorporated into a body as the. Armenians are, but are chiefly under the direction or influence of their ministers or patrons. It is necessary to observe here that there are many con- gregations in London, and elsewhere, who, although they are called Methodists, yet are neither in Mr. Wesley's, Mr. Whitfield's, nor the new connection. Some of these are supplied by a variety of ministers ; and others, border- ing more upon the congregational plan, have a resident minister. The clergy of the church of England who strenuously preach up her doctrines and articles, are called Methodists. A distinct connection upon Mr. Whitfield's plan was formed and patronized by the late Lady Hun- tingdon, and which still subsists. The term Methodist, also, is applied by way of reproach to almost every one who manifests more than common concern for the interests of religion, and the spiritual good of mankind. Methodism in this country, as in Great Britain, was at first an arm of the Church of England, without an or- dained ministry, and without ordinances. It aimed chiefly METHODISTS. at the revival of true religion, and the conversion of sin- ners to God. Commencing with a congregation of five persons in the house of an Irish emigrant named Philip Embury, a lay or local preacher in New York, in 1766, the missionary spirit of the movement soon extended to other parts of the country. Societies \vere formed and the cause greatly advanced by Captain Webb, a British officer, who zealously preached the doctrines held by Wesley, and met with wonderful success. The classes grew and mul- tiplied on every hand until 1773, when, at a Conference held that year in Philadelphia, there were reported ten itinerant preachers and over one thousand communicants. The political revolution of 1776 occasioned some de- rangement in the work, and resulted in an entire change in the relations of American Methodism. The breaking up of the Church of England, and the return to that country of many English clergymen, left the societies destitute of the needed services of an ordained ministry. Mr. Wesley was importuned on the subject, and about the close of the war inaugurated measures for the in- dependency of the societies in the United States. This led to the formal organization and establishment of THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL ^CHUKCH. In its Book of Discipline the origin and structure of the Church are thus set forth : " The preachers and mem- bers of our society in general, being convinced that there was a great deficiency of vital religion in the Church oi England in America, and being in many places destitute of the Christian Sacraments, as several of the clergy had forsaken their churches, requested the late Rev. John Wesley to take such measures, in his wisdom and pru- dence, as would aiford them suitable relief in their dis- tress. J.OO METHODISTS. "In consequence of this, our venerable friend, who, under God, has been the father of the great revival of re- ligion now extending over the earth by the means of the Methodists, determined to ordain ministers for America, and for this purpose, in the year 1784, sent over three regularly ordained clergy; but preferring the Episcopal mode of Church government to any other, he solemnly set apart, by the imposition of his hands and prayer, one of them, namely, Thomas Coke, doctor of civil law, late of Jesus College, in the University of Oxford, and a pres- byter of the Church of England, for the episcopal office; and having delivered to him letters of episcopal orders, commissioned and directed him to set apart Francis As- bury, then general assistant of the Methodist society in America, for the same episcopal office, he, the said Fran- cis Asbury, being first ordained deacon and elder. In con- sequence of which, the said Francis Asbury was solemnly set apart for the said episcopal office by prayer and the imposition of the hands of the said Thomas Coke, other regularly ordained ministers assisting in the sacred cere- mony. At which time the General Conference held at Baltimore did unanimously receive the said Thomas Coke tnd Francis Asbury as their bishops, being fully satisfied df the validity of their episcopal ordination." The "General Conference" above referred to, was con- vened December 25, 1784. The polity which has since mainly governed the Church was approved. But two orders in the ministry were recognized, that of deacon and elder or presbyter, the bishop being different from the latter only in office. Mr. Wesley was led to this opinion, as he declared, by reading Lord King's account of the Primitive Christian Church. The two American bishops thus providentially constituted immediately pre- pared and presented a patriotic address to General Wash- M KTJIOUIPTS. 101 ington, in the name of the people they represented, receiv- ing from him as the first President of the United States a cordial recognition and the assurance of personal regard. In less than one hundred years from the date of its organization, Methodism has covered the whole continent, showing by the latest census returns, a membership in all its branches of 2,723,252, and a ministry, travelling and local, of over 37,000 men. The officers of the Methodist Episcopal Church are class leaders, stewards, trustees, exhorters, local preachers, pastors in charge, presiding elders of districts, and general superintendents or bishops, the duties of each being de- fined in the Book of Discipline. The itinerant ministers, although springing directly from the people, held the legislative, executive, and judicial de- partments in their own hands until very recently. The right of lay representation, long a subject of controvers) and the occasion of schism, is now conceded, and incor- porated in the government of the Church. A General Conference, which meets quadrennially, possesses full pow- ers to revise any part of the discipline, except certain re- strictive rules relating to doctrine and the maintenance of the system of itinerancy, the concurrence of three-fourths of all the Annual Conferences being necessary to the al- teration of any important measure needing revision. The bishops are required to travel extensively, taking the oversight of the entire work. They are elected to office by the General Conference, to which body they are amenable. They preside at all the Annual Conferences, of which there are over seventy, ordain the deacons and elders by the imposition of hands, and appoint the pastors to their several circuits and stations. An immense book-concern in New York and Cincin- nati, with branches in all the leading cities, from Boston fl* 102 METHODISTS. to the Pacific coast, supplies the literary wants of the de- nomination. It is under the control of the General Con- ference, and publishes about 2000 bound volumes and over 1000 tracts in the English, German, Welsh, Swe- dish, Danish, and French languages. The periodical litera- ture of the Church consists of an able Quarterly Review, several monthly magazines, ten official, and as many semi- official and independent weekly papers, with a great va- riety of publications for Sunday-schools, all of which have an extensive circulation. The Missionary department embraces a working force of six hundred, and a membership in foreign lands of between forty and fifty thousand souls. Uuder the auspices of the Church Extension Society, new edifices for religious worship are being constantly and rapidly built, the total number of churches owned by the denomination being 1-'5,500, with capacity to ac- commodate five millions of people, and estimated, with parsonage property, to be worth $30,000,000. The literary institutions of this Church include 6 theo- logical seminaries; 27 universities and colleges; and 69 academies and seminaries. The number of teachers, in- cluding presidents and professors, is given as about 750, stu- dents, 20,000, and aggregate value of property, $8,000,000. The latest statistics (1870) show 8 bishops, 9193 travel- ling and 11,404 local preachers, and 1,367,134 communi- cants, 16,912 Sunday-schools, 189,412 officers and teach- ers,.and 1,221,393 scholars. The benevolent contributions of the Church are reported at au average of $1,000,000 per year. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, was formed in 1844. At the General Conference of that year, differences of opinion on the subject of slavery be- METHODISTS. 103 came so antagonistic that a separation was effected, and 1155 ministers, with 639,164 members belonging in the Southern States, became a distinct ecclesiastical body. Its enterprise and ratio of increase corresponded with that of the parent Church, until the breaking out of the civil ,var, which brought serious disaster upon all Southern institu- tions. Since the return of peace the Southern Methodists have displayed uncommon energy in "building up the waste places," reviving their literature, and enlarging the borders of their territory. They now number some 35 Annual Conferences, 9 bishops, 8000 travelling and local preachers, and a membership of over 600,000. A book-publishing house at Nashville, Tennessee, and official papers in various sections, with an adequate supply of periodical literature, schools, colleges, and all the ma- chinery of an active organization, give vigor and vitality to this branch of Methodism. OTHEK BKANCHES. From time to time there have been divisions and seces- sions among the "people called Methodists," mostly on account of Church government, the leading doctrines re- maining intact, and held fast by all in common. In 1792 a secession took place in Virginia headed by a presiding elder named James O'Kelly, who objected to the absolute power of the bishops in appointing the preachers, and contended for an appeal to the Conference. This Mr. O'Kelly was a man of very considerable popu- larity, and had great influence over the minds of those with whom he associated. The spirit of dissension was fomented by the publication of appeals to the preachers and people, and a number in southern Virginia and Carolina joined themselves to his standard. They 104 METHODISTS. took the name of "RKPUBLICAN METHODISTS," though better known as O'Kelleyites. Their system of church polity was liberal, and for a time succeeded well ; but in t few years they began to decline, and finally amalgamated with a branch of Baptists known as Christians. Another small secession took place in Vermont, A. D. 1804, which resulted in the formation of THE REFORMED METHODIST CHURCH. The government established by this branch is essentially Congregational, all power being in the churches. To the annual and general conferences are delegated power to transact business of a general character, for which they are held strictly accountable to the churches. The churches select their own ministers, and stipulate with them in respect to time and salary. In the beginning the churches ordained their own ministers, but subsequently lay ordinati m was discontinued. In the fall of 1841 an association was formed between the Reformed Methodists, Society Methodists, and several churches of Wesleyan Methodists, for mutual aid. And after the organization of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1843, preliminary steps were taken with a view to the union of the two bodies. At that time they had 5 conferences, about 50 ordained preachers, and 3000 members. At present, 1870, they have 20,000 members. In 1820, a third secession from the old connection in New York took the name of THE METHODIST SOCIETY. They adopted the representative form of government. It required a majority of laymen in their conferences to form any rules for the government of the churches. The pre.ichers remain in the same charge as long as they can METHODISTS. 106 agree with the churches. Prosperity attended them foi \ few years; but most of their ministers and members united with the Metholist Protestant Church. The most promi- nent minister of the society is William M. Stilwell, pastor of the church in New York. No statistics have been fur- nished, from which to ascertain the number of their mem- bership. They probably do not exceed 5000. In 1821, an animated discussion of the principles of church polity was introduced into a periodical entitled the Wesleyan Repository, edited and published by William S. Stockton, a layman of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Trenton, N. J. It attracted general attention, and conti- nued to spread as a little leaven through the whole lump. Memorials praying for lay representation were addressed to the General Conference of 1824. Union societies were formed for the purpose of concentrating strength. These measures alarmed the powers that be, and the work of ex- pulsion commenced ; secession followed. A convention of reformers was held. The General Conference of 1828 denied the right of lay representation, and refused redress. All hope of reform fled. The expelled and their friends organized churches, known as ASSOCIATED METHODISTS ; and in 1880 a General Convention was held in Baltimore, which formed a Constitution and Discipline, adopting as the name of the association, THE METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. Thirteen annual conferences were represented in th convention. Episcopacy was rejected as a spurious order, and ministerial parity asserted. The elementary principles of the government acknowledge the individuality of the local assemblies as churches of Christ the Lord Jesus as the only Head of the Church the Word of God the only rule of faith and practice and private judgment as the METHODISTS. right of man. They secure the freedom of speech and p res8 protect church membership, and define the origin of power. The constitution recognises the mutual rights of minis- ter* and laymen, and grants an equal representation to both. The doctrines taught the means of grace mode of worship and usages common to Methodists, are retained. The Church has been steadily progressing ever since; and, ttt present, is extended over the whole of the United States There are 30 annual conferences, about 1500 ministers, and a,bout 230,000 members. In 1843, a convention of seceders from the Methodist Episcopal Church, and other Methodist societies opposed to slavery, was held in Utica, N. Y., and founded THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH. They adopted the same principles of church government held by the Methodist Protestants, but abjure all connec- tion with slavery and slaveholders. The distinguishing feaf.ure of the association is its anti-slavery character. Tbey have been strengthened by secessions from all the other Methodist churches, and now number 10 annual con- ferences, 1000 ministers (of whom 600 are travelling preach- ers), and 5 >,OUO members, confined to the free States. THE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION, or Albrights, are in fact German Methodists, as they are familiarly called. The first society was organized in 1800, under their leader, Jacob Albright. In 1803 he was elected presiding elder, arid ordained by the other preachers, and ecclesiastical regulations adopted. Their bishops, so called, are elected quadrennially. They have hitherto confined their labors to the German population chiefly. They have 1 6 annual conferences, about 500 ministers, and 72,979 uj embers. METHODISTS. 107 THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS have a number of societies in this country, planted by emigrants from England. They have (1870) 2000 mem- beis, *uid 20 preachers. CONGREGATIONAL, OR INDEPENDENT METHODISTS. Churches having no connection with any ecclesiastical body exist in many pl.-ices. A very respectable association of such might be formed, but at present they are not gene- rally known beyond the localities in which they are found. It is believe4 there are several thousand members of this class. 13esides the above, there are several distinct associations of colored Methodists. In 1816, a number of colored pei- sons finding their connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church subjected them to serious inconveniences, assembled iu Philadelphia, and organized THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAJL CHURCH. They copied after the Methodist Episcopal Church, Iev. Richard Allen being their first bishop. They have uow 5 bishops, 4000 preachers, travelling and local, and a membership of 375,000 in the United States and Canada, THE AFRICAN M. EPISCOPAL ZION CHUECH was organized by a body of seceders from the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York, October 25, 1820. This church is not strictly episcopal. Their bishops are styled superintendents, and elected quadrennially, and hold the office four years. They have 1500 travelling preachers, and 172,000 members. Another small body called UNION METHODISTS, and se- veral congregational churches of colored persons, amount- ing in all to several thousand members, exist ; but of the>r peculiar views little is known. 105 KIRK OF SCOTLAND. KIRK OF SCOTLAND.* THE conversion of the Scots to the Christian faith began through the ministry of Paladius, about the year 430, and from the first establishment of Christianity in that country till the Reformation in the reign of Mary, mother of James I. and of Mary I. of England, their church government was episcopacy ; but the Presbyterian discipline was not finally established in Scotland, until the reign of King William and Mary, A. D. 1689, when episcopacy was totally abo- lished. The Westminster Confession of Faith was then received as the standard of the national creed ; which all ministers, and principals and professors in universities, are obliged to subscribe as the confession of their faith, before receiving induction into office. The Church of Scotland is remarkable for its uncommon simplicity of worship ; it possesses no liturgy, no altar, no instrumental music, no surplice, no fixed canonical vestment of any kind. It condemns the worship paid to saints, and ohserves no festival days. Its ministers enjoy a parity of rank and of authority; it enforces that all ministers, being ambassadors of Christ, are equal in commission ; that there is no order in the church, as established by the Saviour, superior to jresbyters; and that bishop and presbyter, though different words, are of the same import. It acknow- ledges no earthly head : its judicatories are quite distinct from, and independent of, any civil judicatory ; insomuch, indeed, that the decisions of the one are often contrary to those of the other, yet both remain unaffected and unal- * The word Kirk is of Saxon origin, and signifies Church ; or, according to others, it is a contraction of the Greek word the House of God. KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 109 tered. When, for example, a clergyman hns been pre- sented to a parish by a patron, and induction and ordination Lave followed on that presentation, if afterwards it be found that the patron, who had given the presentation, has not that ri;iht, and that it belongs to nnother, the clergyman may be ejected as to all the temporalities of the office; but quoad sacra, he may continue minister of the parish, and exercise all the sacred functions : and though a new pre- sentee may obtain a right to the civil endowments of the benefice, he can perform none of the sacred duties, while the other chooses to avail himself of his privilege. There are four ecclesiastical judicatories, namely, the Kirk Session, the Presbytery, the Synod, and the General Assembly, from each of which there is a power of appeal to the other ; but the decision of the General Assembly is supreme. The lowest court is the Kirk Session, which is composed of the minister of the parish, who is the moderator or pre- sident of it, and a number of the most grave and respec- table laymen, members of the congregation. Their number varies in different parishes, five or six being about the average number ; and their services are entirely gratuitous. They are something like churchwardens in England, only they have a spiritual jurisdiction, as it is a part of their duty to visit the sick, &c. The Kirk Session takes cogni- sance of cases of scandal, sucii as fornication, Sabbath- breaking, profane swearing. It also manages the funds of the poor, a duty in which it formerly was assisted by deacons, a class of men inferior to elders, as they had no spiritual jurisdiction ; but not being found necessary, they are consequently disused. The Presbytery, which is the court next in dignity, is composed of the ministers of a certain district, with an elder irom each parish. The number of presbyteries is ID 110 KIRK OF SCOTLAND. seventy-eight. Their chief duty consists in the manage- ment of such matters as concern the church within theii respective bounds. But they may originate any matter, and bring it under the view of the Synod or General As- sembly. They have also the superintendence of education within their bounds, such as the induction of teachers, and the examination of schools. The Synod is the next intermediate court. There are fifteen synods, each consisting of the clergymen of a cer- tain number of presbyteries, with elders, as in presbyteries. Presbyteries meet generally once a month ; synods twice a year, though some remote synods, such as that of Argyle, only once. The General Assembly is the last and supreme court, and meets yearly in the month of May, in Edinburgh, arid continues its sittings for twelve days. The king presides by his representative, who is always a nobleman, and is denominated the Lord High Commissioner. The General Assembly is a representative court, consisting of 200 mem- bers representing presbyteries, and 156 elders representing burghs or presbyteries, and five ministers or elders repre- senting universities, making altogether 361 members. They choose a moderator or president, out of their own number, distinct from the Royal Commissioner, the duty of the latter consisting merely in convening and dissolving the court, and in forming the medium of communication between it and the throne. The moderator is now always a clergyman, though previously to 1688, laymen sometimes held that office. The duties of the Scotch clergy are numerous and labo- rious. They officiate regularly in the public worship of God ; and in general, they must go through this duty twice every Sunday (exclusively of other occasional appearances), dolivciing every Sunday a lecture arid a Atritjn, with KIRK OF SCOTLAND. Ill prayers. It is also expected, throughout Scotland, that tl.n prayers and discourses shall he of the minister's own com position ; and the prayers, in all cases, and the discourses, in most instances, are delivered without the use of papers. They are expected to perform the alternate duties of exam- ining their people from the Scriptures and catechisms of the church, and of visiting them from house to house, with prayers and exhortations. This is done commonly once in the year, heing omitted only in those cases in which the ministers deem it impracticable, or not acceptable, or at least not necessary. The charge of the poor devolves, in a very particular manner, on the clergy, and in them also is vested the superintendence of all schools within their bounds. Baptism in this church is practised by none but ministers, who do it by sprinkling ; and whether performed in private or in public, it is almost always preceded by a sermon. The Lord's Supper is not administered so frequently in Scotland as in some other places. Some time before this sacrament is dispensed, it is announced from the pulpit. The week before, the Kirk Session meets, and draws up a list of all the communicants in the parish, according to the minister's examination-book, and the testimony of the elders and deacons. According to this list, tickets are delivered to each communicant, if desired, and the ministers and elders also give tickets to strangers who bring sufficient testimonials. None are allowed to communicate without such tickets, which are produced at the table. Those who never received are instructed by the minister, and by themselves in the nature of the sacraments, and taught what is the proper preparation thereunto. The Wednes- day or Thursday before, there is a solemn fast, and on the Saturday there are two preparatory sermons. On Sunday morning, after singing and prayer -"a usual, the minister 112 KIRK OF SCOTLAND. of the parish preaches a suitable sermon ; and when the ordinary worship is ended, he in the name of Jesus Christ forbids the unworthy to approach, and invites the penitent to come and receive the sacrament. Then he goes into the body of the church, where one or two tables, according to its width, are placed, reaching from one end to the other, covered with a white linen cloth, and seats on both sides for the communicants. The minister places himself at the end or middle of the table. A f 'ter a short discourse, he reads the institution, and blesses the elements; then he breaks the bread, and distributes it and the wine to those that are next him, who transmit them to their neighbors ; the elders and deacon attending to serve, and see that the whole is performed with decency and order. While these communicate, the minister discourses o~> the nature of the sacrament ; and the whole is concluded with singing and prayer. The minister then returns to the pulpit, and preaches a sermon. The morning-service ended, the con- gregation are dismissed for an hour ; after which the usual afternoon worship is performed. On the Monday morning, there is public worship, with two sermons ; and these, properly speaking, close the communion-service. No private communions are allowed in Scotland. Marriage is solemnized nearly after the manner of the Church of England, with the exception of the ring, which is deemed a great relic of "popery." By the laws of Scotland, the marriage-knot may be tied without any ceremony of a religious nature : a simple promise in the presence of witnesses, or a known previous cohabitation, being sufficient to bind the obligation. The most ridicu- lous, often immoral, and almost always injurious practice, of marrying at Gf-r etna- Green was, till lately, in use ; a person said to have been a blacksmith performed the cere- mony at Gretna according to the rites of *ke church. KIAK OF SCOTLAND. Hi The Funeral ceremony is performed in total silence. The coipse is carried to the grave, and there interred without a word being spoken on the occasion. Dr. Evans, in his usual liberal strain, gives the follow- ing account of the Seceders : " Dissenters from the kirk, or church of Scotland, call themselves Seceders ; for, as the term Dissenter comes fruai the Latin word dissentio, to differ, so the appellation Seoeder 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 secession arose from vaiious circumstances, which were conceived to be grout detections from the established church of Scotland. The Seceders are rigid Calvinists, rather austere in their manners, and severe in their discipline. Through a dif- ference as to civil matters, they are broken down into Buri/hers arid Anti-burghers. Of these two classes the latter are the most confined in their sentiments, and asso- ciate therefore the least with any other body of Christians. The Seceders originated under two brothers, Ralph and Ebeuezer Erskine, of Stirling, 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 labors wholly to them. The reason assigned for this monopolization was, that they were exclusively God's people. Mr. Whitfield smartly replied, that they had, therefore, 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. "The Burgess' oath, concerning which the Seceders differed, is administered in several of the royal boroughs of Scotland, and runs thus : * I protest before God and your lordships, that I profess and allow with my heart the iu* H 114 KIRK OF COTLiND. tme religion presently professed within this realm, and authorized by the laws thereof; I shall abide thereat, and defend the same to my life's end, renouncing the Roman religion called papistry.' The Messrs. Erskine and others maintained there was no inconsistency in Seceders taking this oath, because the established religion was still the true religion, in spite of the faults attaching to it, and hence were called Burghers. Messrs. Moncrieff and others thought the swearing to the religion, as professed and authorized, was approving the corruptions, therefore the oath was inconsistent and not to be taken ; hence Anti- burghers. The Kirk of Scotland, both parties say, still perseveres in a course of defection from her professed principles, and therefore the secession continues, and is increasing to the present day. (See an Historical Account of the Rise and Progess of the Secession, by the late Rev. John Brown, of Haddington.) The Seceders are strict Presbyterians, having their respective associate synods, and are to be found not only in Scotland, but also in Ire- land and in the United States of America. Both classes have had among them ministers of considerable learning and piety. " 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 arose in 1752, and are respectable as to numbers and ability. (See a Compendious View of the Religious System main- tained by the Synod of Relief, by P. Hutchinson ; and also Historical Sketches of the Relief Church, &c., by J. Smith.) The Relief are Calvinists as well as Presbyterians, but liter"al in their views, admitting to their communion pious Christians of every denomination. They revere the union of faith and charity." In 1835, an attempt was made by the Church of Scot- KIRK OF SCOTLAND. 115 land to place itself on a more popular basis, by giving to the heads of families, communicants, a veto upon the nomi- nation of the patron ; but the ecclesiastical action by which this was sought to be effected having been declared, by the Supreme Court, to be a civil act beyond the jurisdiction of the church, and no disposition being manifested by the Parliament to aid in removing the difficulty, a number of its most distinguished members, in 1843, withdrew in a body, and formed the "Free Church of Scotland." It is probable they anticipated that a step so decided would move the legislature to action on their behalf. One of their most dearly-cherished and prominent principles was the obligation of the state to provide for the religious in- struction of the people, and the insufficiency of the volun- tary principle for this purpose ; but the state's declining to act, left them to make a beautiful exemplification of the mistake of their own theory. They seemed to have proved, by logic, that a church could not sustain itself on the vol- untary principle ; they are demonstrating, by experiment, that it can do it, not only, but also that it can do it with signal advantage to its spiritual interests. The late emi- nent Doctor Chalmers, Doctors Candlish, Cunningham, and many others distinguished for their learning and piety, took part in securing the division. Since the separation, the Free Church has erected 676 churches, 487 of which are free from debt. They number now about 600 minis ters, and have raised in less than five years 7,500,000 dol Jars for sustaining their interests. 116 ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS. ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS. THE appellation Presbyterian is in England appropri- ated to a large denomination of dissenters, 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. This misapplication has oc- casioned many wrong notions, and should be rectified. English Presbyterians, as they are called, adopt nearly the same mode of church government with the Independ- ents. Their chief difference from the Independents is, that they are less attached to Calvinism, and consequently admit a greater latitude of religious sentiment. It may be added, that their mode of admitting members into com- munion differs from that commonly practised among the Presbyterians. Recently a remarkable change has taken place in the ecclesiastical arrangements of the English Presbyterians. The Free Church of (Scotland has erected its banner in Eng- land, and is now rallying its forces. The character of this new Presbyterian church in England, is the same with that of the Free Church. The general principles of its doc- trines, order of worship and government, may be found in the article on American Presbyterians. Under the care of the Presbyterian Synod of England, besides a Theological College, there are seven Presby- teries, viz. : Berwick-on- Tweed, Birmingham, Cumberland, Lancashire, London, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Northumber- land. In these Presbyteries there are 73 clergymen, 78 churches, and 2 foreign missionaries. The Synod also AMEBFCAN P R E S B Y T E tt I A S 8 . 117 attends to various schemes of benevolence, among which are prominont, foreign and home missions, and ministerial education. Considering the comparatively short time in which this progress has been made, it appears to be highly encouraging. AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. THE word Presbyterian is often used in a wide sense na characterizing a large portion of the Protestant church, It embraces all those denominations which are opposed to prelacy. In prelatical church government and usages, a large number of sects are included. Thus, the Greek Church alone is made up of " The Greek Church proper," " The Russian Greek Church," " The Georgian and Min- grelian Churches," "The Nestorian Churches," "The Christians of St. Thomas," "The Jacobites," "The Copts," " The Abyssinians," " The Armenians," and many other minor denominations. "The Roman Church," "The Eng- lish Episcopal Church," and "The American Episcopal Church," are also each of them a portion of that great family of churches included under the term Prelacy. These all agree in one great fundamental principle. They believe that ecclesiastical government is a gift from Christ to priests, and that they possess the power of transmitting this authority to their successors. They differ in respect to their acknowledged head; some of the Greek Christians acknowledging one Patriarch, and some another, and some the Roman Pontiff. Some Romanists also acknowledge the Pope, and some deny his tupremacy. The English Episcopal Church acknowledge the king, or, during the 118 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. present reign, the queen, as their head ; while American Episcopalians account diocesan bishops as the highest eccle- siastical officers. Presbyterians differ from Prelatists in respect to the source of ecclesiastical authority; and are divided, per- haps, into an equal number of minor denominations. They hold that all ecclesiastical authority is derived from the church itself; that the teaching office is transmitted by a plurality of presbyters or bishops ; and that the whole body of believers, either as associated, or by their repre- sentatives, participate in the government. A bishop, ac- cording to the views of Presbyterians, is the pastor of a single congregation. Sometimes, as in the church of Ephe- sus, mentioned Acts xx. 28, several bishops or pastors uni- tedly presided over the spiritual instruction of a single worshipping assembly. This general system is sometimes termed '' parity," because a leading feature of it is the equal official dignity of Christian ministers. Prelacy and Parity divide the Christian world. The Presbyterian church, in this general denomination, includes Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, Congregationalists, Baptists, Scotch, English, and American Presbyterians. Among these, the English Presbyterians, Congregational- ists, and Baptists, allow the popular will in ecclesiastical matters to be expressed by the members of the church as occasion may demand; while the Dutch Reformed, Scotch, and American Presbyterians call for the exercise of popu- lar liberty in the election of lay elders, as making a part of the ecclesiastical courts, and in the election and dis- tnission of pastors, and in the entire control of the church edifices and congregational funds. Presbyterianisin acknowledges no authority, in respect to the doctrines and duties of the Christian church, but the will of God as found in the sacred Scriptures. It AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 119 to ins that God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath lift it free from the doctrines and commandments of men ; and that the rights of private judgment, in all mat- ters that respect religion, are universal and inalienable. It holds, that all ecclesiastical power is only ministerial and declarative ; that is to say, that the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and manners ; that no church judicatory ought to pretend to make laws tc bind the con- science in virtue of their own authority, and that all their decisions ought to be founded upon the word of Gcd. Ec- clesiastical discipline is purely moral and spiritual in its object, and ought not to be attended with any civil effects; hence it can derive no force whatever but from its own justice, the approbation of an impartial public, and the favor and blessing of the great Head of the church. The officers of the Presbyterian church are bishops or pastors, ruling elders, and deacons. The pastor is the spiritual teacher of the congregation. He is expected to preach the gospel in the church on the Lord's day, to in- struct the people by occasional lectures, to superintend the catechismal teaching of the young, and to visit the sick and bereaved, and console them by spiritual counsel adapted to their necessities. Ruling elders are elected by the peo- ple as their representatives in the ecclesiastical courts, and to co-operate with the pastor in watching over the spiritual interests of the congregation. They are designated by the Apostle Paul under the title of "governments," and as " those who rule well," in distinction from such as labor in word and doctrine. Deacons are secular officers whose duty is the care of the poor, and the reception and dis- bursement of the charities of the congregation. The Session is the primary court of the church, and consists of the pastor and the ruling elders. The pas- tor is the president, and has the title of "Moderator ]U AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. of the session." In this primary court originates all the legislative action of the church. If the superior courts would take any step involving new constitutional princi pies, they are obliged to send the question down to the church sessions, that they may thus know the will of the church itself, before any revolutionary measures can be adopted. The session is alsc charged with the duty of watching over the spiritual interests of the congregation. It can summon offenders to an account for their irregular- ities, or their neglect of Christian duty. It can investi- gate charges presented by others, and admonish, rebuke, or suspend or exclude from the Lord's table, those who are found to deserve censure, according to the degree of their criminality. It is the business of the session also to ap- point a delegate of its own body to attend, with the pas- tor, the higher judicatories of the church. It is required of the session to keep a fair record of all its proceedings, as also a register of marriages, baptisms, persons admitted to the Lord's Supper, deaths, and other removals of church members, and to transmit these records, at stated periods, to the presbytery for their inspection. A Presbytery consists of all the ministers, and one ruling elder from each church within a certain district. Three ministers and as many elders as may be present are necessary to constitute a quorum. The presbytery has power to receive and issue appeals from church sessions, and references brought before them in an orderly manner ; to examine and license and ordain candidates for the holy ministry ; to install, remove, and judge ministers ; to exa- mine and approve or censure the records of church ses- sions ; to resolve questions of doctrine or discipline, seriously and reasonably proposed ; to condemn erroneous opinions which injure the purity or peace of the Church; to visit particular churches for the purpose of inquiring AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 12! into their state, and redressing the evils that may have arisen in them ; to unite or divide congregations, at the request of the people, or to form or receive new congrega- tions ; and, in general, to perform "whatever may be deemed necessary to the spiritual welfare of the churches under tlieir care. A Synod consists of several presbyteries united. Not less than three presbyteries are necessary to compose a synod. It is not made up of representatives from the presbyteries, as presbyteries are of representatives from the sessions. On the contrary, each member of all the presbyteries included in its bounds is a member of the synod, so that a synod is nothing different from a larger presbytery, constituted by a combination of several pres- byteries into one. The synod reviews the records of pres- byteries, approving or censuring their proceedings, erect- ing new presbyteries, uniting or dividing those which were before erected, taking a general care of the churches within its bounds, and proposing such measures to the General Assembly as may be for advantage to the whole church. The synod is a court of appeal for the presby- teries within its bounds, having the same relation to the presbyterial courts which the presbyteries have to the sessions. The General Assembly is the highest judicatory in the Presbyterian Church. It is constituted of an equal dele- gation of pastors and elders from the presbyteries. In one branch of the Presbyterian Church in America, the General Assembly is an appellate court ; in the other it ia only an advisory council, except that it possesses power to review the proceedings of the inferior bodies, and to de- cide, as a supreme court, the meaning of the constitution. The General Assembly is not necessary to the most per- fect development of Presbyterian Church government, 11 122 AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. nor, indeed, is any court higher than the Presbytery ; but it has this obvious advantage, of representing all the con- gregations of this denomination nnder the same civil government in a single body. Thus, the General Assem- bly of the Kirk of Scotland arid the General Assembly of the United States, before either was divided, presented an imposing influence in the visible unity of each. The Church Sessions meet at stated periods, as often as may be deemed necessary. In some churches they con- vene once in each week; in others less frequently. Pres- byteries hold two stated meetings in a year, while the synods in the United States meet annually. IK the two great branches of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, one General Assembly meets annually, and the other triennially. It is a rule in all the judicatories of the Presbyterian Church, that the meetings shall be con- stituted with prayer. In the stated meetings of presby- teries, synods, and the General Assembly, the session is opened by a sermon from the Moderator, or presiding offi- cer of the preceding meeting. The Doctrines of the Presbyterian Church are Calvin- istic the doctrines of all the leading Reformers ; of the Waldenses, for five or six hundred years before the Refor- mation ; of Augustin and the primitive Church. They are substantially the same with the doctrinal symbols of the Synod of Dort, the Heidelberg Confession and Cate- chism, and of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, and of the Episcopal Church of the United States. No other branch of the Reformed Churches has maintained Caivinistic doctrines with so much tenacious- ness as Presbyterians. While the Earl of Chatham could say of his own Church of England, " We have a Popish liturgy, a Caivinistic creed, and an Arminian clergy ;" and while that denomination seem to be engaged in an AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANS. 123 nterminable controversy to decide whether their branch of the Church ought to he considered Arminian or Calvin- istic, the Presbyterian Church is unitedly Calvinistic, so that any man who should avow himself Arminian could not obtain ordination in the Presbyterian Church of either Scotland or America. The system of doctrine is clearly set forth in the West- minster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. The Presbyterian Church in the United States origi- nated in a union of immigrants from Ireland and England a blending of Irish Presbyterianism and English Con- gregationalism. The first presbytery formed in this coun- try was the presbytery of Philadelphia, organized in 1704. The synod of Philadelphia was erected in 1716, and was composed of the presbyteries of Philadelphia, Snow Hill, Newcastle, and Long Island. In 1741 the Church was divided in consequence of the inharmonious elements of which it was composed, and the synod of New York was formed. Fifteen years after the separation, in 1758, the synods of New York and Phila delphia were united again. In 1789, the year of the first meeting of the General Assembly, there were in the Church 188 Presbyterian ministers and 419 churches. In 1832 there were 21 synods, 110 presbyteries, 935 minis- ters, 2281 churches, and 17,348 communicants. In 1837, the Presbyterian Church was again thrown into a state of disunion, and divided into two nearly equal portions, Among so able and pious a body of men, the principles of the gospel are justly expected to exert their legitimate influence ; it can subserve no benefit to record the grounds of a dissension which, it is hoped, will be only temporary. These two branches of the Church are dist'nguished from each other by the circumstance that one holds the 124 REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. meeting of its General Assembly annually ; -while the other meets only triennially. According to the Minutes of the General Assembly (Old School) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States for 1859, that branch of the Church has in connec- tion with the Assembly 33 synods, 168 presbyteries, 297 licentiates, 493 candidates for the ministry, 2577 minis- ters, 3487 churches, and 279,630 communicants ; and the whole amount contributed for congregational and other purposes in the year ending May, 1859, was $2,835,147. By the Minutes of the General Assembly (New School) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States for 1859, that branch of the Church has 108 presbyteries, 1545 ministers, 134 licentiates, 370 candidates, 1542 churches, 137,990 communicants ; and it expends annually on Do- mestic Missions, $91,402; on Foreign Missions, $67,796; on Education, $65,707 ; and on Publications, $44,667. REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. IN 1588 the Scotch Protestants entered into an associa- tion which they denominated " The Covenant" The object of this arrangement was to protect themselves against an expected invasion from Spain by the famous "invincible armada." The union of the crowns of Scotland and Eng- land in 1603 resulted in a hierarchy, which was deemed dangerous, in the hist degree, to the Presbyterian interests. This united in still closer bonds the friends of parity, and of ecclesiastical liberty. In 1637 the new liturgy, modelled after the English, was ordered to be introduced into the churches of Scotland. The most determined resistance ensued, which terminated in a new covenant the year fol REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. 125 lowing. While Charles I. and the Parliament were con- tending, the Protestants in Scotland entered into " a solemn league and covenant" with the English Parliament, by which the independence of the Presbyterian churches waa confirmed. On the restoration of the Stuarts in 1661, this covenant was abolished. These successive struggles seemed to have engendered a habit of making firm compacts for maintaining what they considered important principles ; a habit which continues till this day. At the accession of William and Mary in 1689, Episco- pacy was established in England and Ireland, and Presby- terianism in Scotland. A portion of the Scottish Kirk declined to avail them- selves of an establishment of this kind, and covenanted to resist it, and protested that it was at variance with the " solemn league and covenant" which they considered a part of the constitution of the empire. They maintained that the civil rulers had usurped an authority over the church which conflicted with the proper headship of the Redeemer. For fifteen'Or sixteen years these staunch and determined men remained without pastors, preserving their distinct social existence by uniting in praying societies, and meeting statedly for religious worship. In 1706 the Rev. Johr MacMillan joined them from the Established Church. In 1743, the Rev. Mr. Nairne, from the Secession Church, then recently organized, acceded to them ; and these two clergymen, with ruling elders, consti- tuted the "Reformed Presbytery." Several families had, in the meantime, emigrated to the American colonies. About the same time in which the " Reformed Presby- tery" was organized in Scotland, the Rev. Mr. Craighead collected the Covenanters of Pennsylvania, and induced them to bind themselves together by a solemn pubtfo en 11 126 REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. gagement to maintain their peculiar principles. Their body was slowly augmented, mostly by immigration, till they were joined by the Rev. Mr. Cuthbertson, from the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, in 1752 ; and Rev. Messrs. Lin and Dobbin, from the Reformed Presbytery in Ireland, in 1774. This year the Reformed Presbytery was organized in the colony of Pennsylvania. Their growth was slow till 1782, when a union was effected between the Reformed Presbytery and the Associate Pres- byterian Church. Hence arose a new organization, deno- minated, from the name of its two constituent elements, the "Associate Reformed Church." This union, instead of combining two bodies in one, left a small minority in each of the elementary portions, which perpetuated the original organizations ; so that, in fact, two churches were divided into three, an instructive in stance of the influence of hasty and forced combinations of bodies of men. The doctrinal principles of the Reformed Church are thoroughly Calvinistic. The Reformed Presbyterians ob- jected to the Constitution of the United States, when it was formed, on account of its having no exclusive religious character, and its tolerating Jews, Mohammedans, Deists, and Atheists. They also objected to its recognition of sla- very. They declared that they would not take the oath of allegiance. In 1830, a portion of their ministers began to entertain different views, and were in favor of acknowledging the government of this country, and avowing allegiance to it This led to what was called the New Light Controversy, and the formation of two organizations, which still remain separated. The entire body of the Reformed Presbyterians in the United States, including both these organizations, embraces REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. 127 108 ministers, 15 licentiates, 25 students of Theology > 160 congregations, and 14,000 communicants. Among the well-known and distinguished ministers of this connection :tre the late Alexander McLeod, D. D. } and Rev. Samuel B. Wylie. The two bodies are known as " The General Synod " (which acknowledges the Constitution of the U. S.) and " the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church" (which denounces the Constitution as sinful). The General Synod had one congregation in the South at the outbreak of the rebellion, at Fayetteville, Tennessee. Strenuous ef- forts were in vain made to induce the people to swear allegiance to the rebel government. Every one refused, and as a consequence most of the members had to flee to the free States. In 1867, the General Synod numbered 8 Presbyteries, 66 ministers, 91 congregations and 8324 members. Given for all purposes, $123,097.34, or more than $15 per member. The theological seminary had an endowment of $23,000 and 16 students. The next year showed a far- ther increase. There were 77 pastors and 8487 members. This was the culmination of its prosperity. Wide and irreconcilable diiferences were arising in the body, which, though not created, were developed, by the movement for reunion going on among Presbyterians. Those broad sentiments of Christian sympathy and liberality which had been developed among evangelical Christians of the North by the war, and especially by the labors of the Christian Commission, had their embodi- ment in a leading member of this denomination, who had been the president of the Christian Commission. Mr. George H. Stuart earnestly desired to see his church take the honored place of a pioneer in the reunion of the various Presbyterian Churches. It was due to his zeal 128 REFORMED PRESBYTERIANS. and activity, that the Reformed Presbyterian Church, at the meeting of the general Synod, May, 1867, invited a National Convention of Presbyterians of all branches to meet in Philadelphia, to consider the subject of a general union. This Convention met in November, and embraced delegates from six different organizations. The first Re- formed Presbyterian Church, Dr. "Wylie pastor, was the place of meeting, and Mr. Stuart was elected chairman. Offence was given to the more rigid portion of the Re- formed body by the enthusiastic proceedings of this Con- vention. The adherents of an inspired psalmody were shocked at the singing of hymns. They were in no hurry to surrender their distinctive principles. So, when the General Synod met the next year, a very decided opposi- tion to the movement was shown by the majority of the members. Union only with those whose doctrines, order, and worship corresponded with their own, was now ad- vocated, and all direct overtures were confined to psalm- singing and close-communion bodies. Mr. George II. Stuart and his friends being thus out- voted, and yet boldly maintaining the rightfulness of their liberal position, it was decided by a majority vote to censure and suspend Mr. Stuart for singing hymns and communing with persons not members of the Reformed Church. Thirteen delegates to the Synod issued a formal protest against this action. Mr. Stuart was sustained by his pastor, Dr. Wylie, by the First Church and by his Presbytery. Consequently, at the meeting of the next General Synod, the delegates from the Presbytery were refused admission. The Pres- bytery has since suspended relations with the Synod, and remains in that condition. The Allegheny Presbytery, also sympathizing with Mr. Stuart sent a protest against Synod's action, and was RFFOKMED PRESBYTERIAN S. 129 pronounced out of communion, in reply. In 1870 it was received by the General Assembly of the reunited Pres- byterian Church. The missionary Presbytery of Saharanpur having, on similar grounds, suspended relations to the Synod, it was declared in secession. Steps were taken, however, to re- tain it in communion if possible, and to secure to the Synod control of its property. A basis of union was agreed upon in 1869 for an organic union with the United Presbyterians, but it has not yet (1871) been carried into effect. The total number of ministers and licentiates reported in 1870 was 41 ; the attendance at the synod of 1871 was 24. " The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church," at its meeting in 1869, formally reiterate* \ iis position of hostility toward the Constitution of the United States, as an irreligious document, which could no~ oj accepted and approved by a Christian people without sin, and declared it the duty of citizens to refuse to co-operate with a government thus founded. There is a college at North wood, Ohio, and a theo- logical seminary connected with this Church; it has a mission among the freedmen at Washington. In 1870 it had 8 Presbyteries, 87 congregations, 86 ministers, 8577 communicants. The total of contributions reported ex- ceeded $1 50,000. 130 ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS, THE ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, OR SECEDERS. THIS, like the church just described, is an offshoot from the Church of Scotland. The cause of the secession was almost identical in its nature with that of the great seces- sion of 1843, by means of which the Free Church was created. In 1649, the patronage of kirks had been for- mally abolished by parliament, as " an evil and bondage," as "a custom popish," and as "prejudicial to the liberties of the people." The act of parliament above referred to remained in force until the year 1712, when the doctrine of patronage was again revived. Many protested against it loudly at the time. The right of patronage was, for a while, exer- cised with great moderation. A case arose, however, in which a minister was forced upon a congregation against the wishes of the great body of the people. The proceed- ing came before the General Assembly at its next session In May, 1732, and this, together with other similar cases, led to the adoption of an act "Anent planting vacant churches," wherein the general doctrine of patronage waa strongly asserted. In the October following, the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, a minister of distinguished ability and influence, in a sermon preached at the opening of the Synod of Perth and Sterling, denounced, with great free- 'ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS. .131 dom, the Act of Assembly above referred to. Mr. Erskine was censured by the synod, and hence arose the secession and the organization of the "Associate Presbytery of Scotland." This organization occurred November 17th, 1733. Its growth, as might have been expected, was rapid, and in 1744 a synod was formed. The year fol- lowing, a controversy commenced, which resulted in the division of the synod into two parties, each claiming to be the "Associate Synod." The occasion of the disruption was the taking or not taking the burghers' oath. In order to be admitted burghers, or freemen of towns, an oath was required containing the following clause : " I protest before God and your lordship, that I profess and allow, with all my heart, the true religion, presently professed within this realm, and authorized by the laws thereof; that I shall abide thereat, and defend the same to my life's end, renouncing the Roman religion called Papistry." The controversy turned on the question whether it was right to take an oath which implied an approval of the estab- lished church. The division was completed in 1746. Those who opposed the lawfulness of the oath were termed Anti-burghers, and its advocates Burghers. The act re- quiring the oath objected to, being repealed, the parties again coalesced, taking the title of The United Secession Church, with the exception of a small minority of the Anti-burghers, who only are represented in the United States by a regular organization. At an early day some of the secession emigrated to this country. The Rev. Messrs. Gellatly and Arnot were sent over by the Synod to organize congregations and to con- stitute them into a presbytery. They reached the province of Pennsylvania in 1754, and organized the Associate Presbytery in the November of that year. In 1776, the number of ministers having increased to 132 ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIANS. thirteen, the presbytery was divided, and the eastern portion was denominated the " Presbytery of New York." In 1782, the division occurred by which the Associate Reformed Church came into existence, a more full history of which may be found in the preceding account of the Reformed Church. By this division, the Associate Church in this country Was almost extinguished. The Synod of Scotland, however, despatched assistance, and the church was gradually strengthened until the formation of the Synod in 1800. This was denominated "The Associate Synod of North America." It held its first meeting in Philadelphia, May, 1801. This body was subordinate to the Associate Synod in the mother country, till it was declared a co-ordinate Synod by the General Associate Synod of Scotland, in 1818. In 1841, a controversy arose in respect to principles involved in some cases of discipline, and the minority declared themselves the Synod. Since that time, until recently, there have been two bodies claiming the same name. Within a short time the two bodies have coalesced. From the larger of these bodies another secession took place in 1845, denominating itself "The Associate Pres- bytery of Philadelphia." The Associate Presbyterian Church in this country is, in all its branches, decidedly Calvinistic in doctrine. It insists upon the use of the literal translation of the Psalms in its singing. It maintains a high standard of duty in respect to the education of its children in the fear of God, making it an offence worthy of discipline if parents neglect to teach their children the Shorter Catechism. It possesses a learned and pious ministry. It has a Theological Semi- nary at Xenia, Ohio, with two Professorships, one of ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH. 133 didactic theology and Hebrew, and one of pastoral theology and biblical literature. Students 45. The strength of the whole Associate Church in this country is 20 presbyteries, 164 ministers, 267 congrega- tions, 21,588 communicants. THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH. THIS branch of the Presbyterian family of churches was called into existence, and took its name from a union that was formed between large portions of the Associate and the Reformed Presbyterian churches at Pequa, Pennsylva- nia, in June, 1782. Modifying the doctrine of the West- minster Confession of Faith concerning the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion, and adapting the form of church government and the directory of worship to the Word of God, and the circumstances of the church in this country, the synod formally issued its constitution and standards at Greencastle, Pa,, May 31, 1799. Soon afterwards, there being, from various quarters, an urgent demand for sound and faithful ministers, the erec- tion of a theological seminary was taken into serious con- sideration ; and, in 1801, the Rev. John M. Mason was sent to Great Britain and Ireland with authority to procure a suitable number of evangelical ministers and probationers, and to solicit donations, in money and books, for establish- ing an institution to train young men for the gospel min- istry. He met with considerable success ; and, immediately on his return, the synod (which, in the autumn of 1802, had divided itself, for the convenience of its members, into four synods, and formed these into a general synod, to meet by delegation, and to hold its first meeting at Greeu- castle. May, 1804) took steps for establishing its theological 134 ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH. Bchool Their arrangements were completed in May, 1805. The Rev. J. M. Mason, D. D., was appointed pro- fessor ; and on the 1st of November following, the institu- tution went into successful operation. It was the first theological seminary in the United States Thus established, the synod pursued its course, and was largely prospered until about the year 1816, when, from a gradual relinquishment of some of its distinctive features, and the withdrawal, on that account, of the synods of Sciotp into the West, and of the Carolinas, in the South, its interests materially declined. In May, 1822, a partial union was formed with the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and the General Synod was dissolved. The subordinate synods, however, continued their existence, and were active and useful in their work. Again the demand for ministers trained in the church, and sympathizing with it, in everything in which it was peculiar, was strong and urgent. Shortly afterwards, therefore, the synod of the "West established a seminary at Alleghany, Pa. The Rev. Joseph Kerr was its first pro- fessor ; and under his care, and that of his successors, Rev. Mungo Dick and Rev. John T. Pressly, D. D., it has been instrumental in furnishing the churches with a large num- ber of able ministers of the New Testament. In 1829 the Synod of New York revived the seminary at Newburgh, and placed it under the care of the Rev. Joseph MacCarroll, D. D. Already it has sent many laborers into the field; and with an excellent building, a most valuable library, a good location, and an able professor, it presents most im- portant facilities for a theological education. A younger, but flourishing and valuable theological institution was also formed in 1839 by the second synod of the West, at Oxford, Ohio, under the presidency of the Rev. Joseph Claybaugh, D. D. At Due-west-coruer, Abbeville district, S. C., au ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHtiRCH. 135 institution with literary and theological departments has also been opened, under the most auspicious circumstances. It is under the charge of four professors appointed by the synod of the South, and already numbers over one hundred students. In each of these synods there is a periodical devoted to the interests of the Associate Reformed Church, namely, in the order of their history : The Evangelical Guardian, edited by the Rev. D. Macdill, D. D., at Hamilton, Ohio ; The Christian Magazine of the South, by Rev. J. Boyce, in Fairfield district, S. C. ; The Preacher, by Rev. D. R. Kerr, at Pittsburg, Pa. ; and The Christian Instructor, by Rev. J. B. Dales, at Philadelphia. Besides projecting and sustaining these institutions and publications, the Associate Reformed Church has commenced a most interesting mis- sion to Palestine ; taken incipient steps for one in Western Africa ; appointed two ministers to explore Texas during the coming season, and resolves upon a special effort to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel in our large cities, and point them to the true Messiah, as soon as the proper men can be employed. The Associate Reformed Church is the most liberal and efficient of all the branches of the early Scotch Secession churches. It has numbered among its ministry some of the most brilliant lights of learning and religion in this country. It is thoroughly Calvinistic in doctrine, maintains the literal psalmody, and is very strict in its discipline. The Rev. John Mason, and his son, John M. Mason, D. D.; Rev. James Proudfit, and Alexander Proudfit, D. D., the late eminent and beloved advocate of African colonization, were men to adorn any church, and any age. At the pre- sent time the Associate Reformed Church comprises 5 synods, 84 presbyteries, upwards of 315 ministers, more I ban 375 churches, and about 40,000 members. loG UNITED PRESBYTERIANS. UNITED PRESBYTERIANS. In 1858, the "Associate Reformed" and the "Associ- ate" Presbyterian Churches (the two last-named bodies) were united into one organization, called the United Presbyterian Church in North America, and forming a body more than fifty thousand strong. They hold to the obligation of using only an inspired psalmody in worship, and they are exclusive in their terms of com- munion. Otherwise they cannot be distinguished from, the great body of Presbyterians in America in polity or in doctrine. Their membership is almost exclusively Scotch or Scotch-Irish, or the immediate descendants of such. Their position on national questions is strongly anti-slavery, and though owning allegiance to the Con- stitution, they have always shown great desire to secure an amendment distinctly recognizing at least the being of God in that instrument. Strong loyal and anti-slavery resolutions were adopted during the war. Rev. W. C. McCune, one of the ministers ol the body, was arraigned before his Synod in 1866, for holding loose or liberal views on the terms of communion and admis- sion to church membership. The Synod cleared him, but the case coming up on appeal to the General Assem- bly of the following year, the course of the Synod was condemned by an overwhelming vote, and the case was referred back to Mr. McC.'s Presbytery. Mr. McCune withdre to another branch of the Presbyterian Church where the terms are less stringent. In 1868, by a unanimous vote, the General Assembly declared that the terms of union between all the Presby- UNITED PRESBYTERIANS. 337 terian branches in America, proposed by the Philadelphia convention of 1867, as a whole, would not answer the purpose. There must be no relinquishment of principle for union, and especially is unqualified assent to the Con- fession and Catechisms indispensable. Statistics of 1870: 8 synods, 56 presbyteries, 553 ministers, 729 congregations, 69,807 members. Contri- butions to general benevolence, $178,155. Total contribu tions, $827,126. Average per member, $11.64. Salaries of pastors averaged by Synods, $787. The Associate Reformed Synod of the South reported 63 ministers in 1870. Negotiations for union with the Southern Presbyterian Church were carried on about the close of the war, but without result. One of the Presby- teries, however, was received by the Synod of Alabama in 1866. The Associate Reformed Synod of New York had, in 1867, 16 ministers and 1631 communicants. The Associate Synod of North America also had 22 ministers and 778 communicants. The last two bodies are fragments of the Associate and Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches, who refused to go with the mass of their fellow-members into the union by which the United Presbyterian Church was formed. 138 CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. ABOUT the beginning of the present century there arose a remarkable revival of religion among a portion of the Presbyterian church in Kentucky. Meetings were held in the open air ; and multitudes flooked together from the distance of fifty, and even in some instances, a hundred miles. This was the origin of camp-meetings. As the number of converts was great, and religion was extended into destitute and neglected regions, a strong necessity was felt for a more rapid multiplication of Christian ministers. This led the Cumberland Presbytery, in 1801, to encourage four laymen, without a classical education, to prepare written discourses with * view to the receiving of license to preach the gospel. In 1803 Mr. Alexander Anderson, and Mr. Finis Ewing, were ordained to the work of the ministry. Others were licensed as probationers, and several candidates were received under the care of the presbytery. In 1805, the Synod of Kentucky, in reviewing the book of records of the Cumberland Presbytery, took notice of their having introduced men into the sacred office who had not acquired a regular education, and who were understood to have taken exceptions to the doctrinal standards of the Church. This led to the appointment of a commission, with full powers to act in the place of the synod, botfh in holding a friendly conference with the presbytery, and in judicially terminating the case. The commission demanded that all those persons who had been ordained or licensed without an examination on all the branches of learning and doctrine required in the Confession of Faith, should appear before themselves, and CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 139 Bubmit to a full and regular examination. To this demand >he presbytery declined to submit. The commission then passed a resolution that those who had been thus licensed or ordained without a full examina- tion, should be prohibited from the exercise of official functions, until such times as they should submit them- selves to their jurisdiction. The members of presbytery continued to exercise their^ ministry, but not without making various efforts, during a period of five years, to obtain through the General As- sembly a "redress of grievances." Having failed in all these endeavors, the Rev. Messrs. Ewing, King, and McAdow, in 1810, declared themselves independent, and constituted the Cumberland Presbytery, which was the germ of the present Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In constituting the church, the following statement is made as denning their position : " We, Samuel McAdow, Finis Ewing, and Samuel King, regularly ordained ministers of the Presbyterian Church, against whom no charge either of immorality or heresy has ever been exhibited before any judicature of the church, having waited in vain more than four years, in the mean time petitioning the General Assembly for a redress of grievances, and a restoration of our violated rights, have and do hereby agree and determine to constitute our- selves into a presbytery, known by the name of the Cum- berland Presbytery, on the following conditions : "All candidates for the ministry, who may hereafter be licensed by this presbytery, and all the licentiates or pro- bationers who may hereafter be ordained by this presby- tery, shall be required, before such licensure and ordina- tion, to receive and accept the Confession of Faith and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church, except the idea of fatality that seems to be taught under the mysterious doc- 140 CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. trine of predestination. It is to be understood, however, that such as can clearly receive the Confession of Faith without an exception, will not be required to make any. Moreover, all licentiates, before they are set apart to the whole work of the ministry, or ordained, shall be required to undergo an examination in English Grammar, Geogra- phy, Astronomy, Natural and Moral Philosophy, and Church History. It will not be understood that examina- tions in Experimental Religion and Theology will be omitted. The presbytery may also require an examination on any part, or all, of the above branches of knowledge before licensure, if they deem it expedient." So rapid was their growth, that three years after, in 1813, they became three presbyteries, and constituted a synod. At the sessions of the synod in 1828, three new synods were erected, and measures were taken for the or- ganization of a general assembly. The first meeting of the General Assembly occurred at Princeton, Ky., in 1829. The doctrines of this church are a modification of the Westminster Confession. The chief point of differenceua their rejecting the doctrine of election, as in their view tending to fatality. They are strictly Presbyterian in government and order. No church, perhaps, has increased more rapidly than has this young and vigorous denomination. Its doctrines seem to have been popular not only with the masses, but with those of high culture and refinement. Although a classical course of instruction is not made a sine qua non to entering the sacred profession, yet no ecclesiastical organization, it is believed, more strongly favors a highly educated ministry. As confirmation of this, the church, though in its infancy, not only stands abreast with the older and more powerful denominations in the institutions CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS. 141 of learning established for the education of both sexes, but it now embraces in its ministry many of the fine scholars and vigorous thinkers of the age. Nor is this denomination behind others in its periodical literature, as its highly respectable weeklies, monthlies, and quarter- lies will testify. A prominent trait in this body of Christians is its con- servatism. The great civil \var between the North and the South a conflict which deluged the United States with blood, and which rent in twain the leading denominations not before severed was not sufficient, it seems, to divide the Cumberland Presbyterian Church ! This denomina- tion has never prostituted to political ends either the pulpit or the religious press. With it the church has ever been considered an asylum for the heart, and not an arena for fierce, bitter controversies in reference to the kingdom of Caesar. The General Assembly has under its superintendence 24 synods, 100 presbyteries, 1400 congregations, 1250 min- isters, 250 licentiates, 300 candidates for the ministry, and over 125,000 communicants. The number of communi- cants in some estimates has been placed considerably higher than this. The lowest has here been stated.' Reckoning four children, and other adherents, to each communicant, which it will be acknowledged is a ve*v low estimate, there will be found 500,000 persons con- uected with this branch of the Redeemer's kingdom. 142 MORAVIANS. MORAVIANS. THE Unitas Fratrum, or Church of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, was founded by followers of John Huss in the year 1457, sixty years before the Reformation. It rapidly grew and spread. In 1621, Ferdinand of Tyrol issued an edict for the suppression of the Church. The Bibles were burned and the Brethren exiled, and for a while the Unitas Fratrum seemed to be extinct. But a " hidden seed" remained. Among the mountains of Bohemia there dwelt a few devoted men who kept alive the faith of the fathers, and in Poland there survived a couple of the bishops of the Church. In 1722 some of the Mora- vians from Bohemia found an asylum upon the estates of Nicholas Lewis-, Count de Zinzendorf. Here they founded a town and called it Herrnhut. Through the Polish bishops the episcopal succession of the ancient Brethren was transmitted to the church at Herrnhut and the ancient discipline revived. Moved by a great spirit- ual awakening, the exiles, whose numbers were swelled by devout men from all parts of Europe, approached the work of Foreign Missions. In 1732 the first mission- aries went to the West Indies and the year following to Greenland. As the pioneers in the work of Protestant missions the Brethren are chiefly known in later times. The Church has missions in Greenland, Labrador, the West Indies, Central America, Surinam, Africa, Australia, Thibet, Palestine and among the North American Indians. The Church is divided into four provinces (two Ameri- can, and a British and a Continental). The government of the province is administered by Synods, which meet triennially, and the affairs of the Church at large are administered by a General Synod, which convenes in MORAVIANS. 143 Europe every ten years. The will of the Synods is exe- cuted by the Boards elected for that purpose. The orders in the ministry are bishops (of the so-called Apostolical Succession), presbyters and deacons. The doctrinal position of the Church is strictly evan- gelical. The ritual of the Church is simple. Litanies are used in connection with the various services, though their use is not binding upon the officiating clergyman. Music holds a prominent place in connection with wor- ship. The festivals, as Epiphany, Christmas and Easter, are observed. " Lovefeasts," consisting of a meal of light cakes with tea and coffee, are partaken of in imitation of the apostolical " Agapse." The Moravians do not hold to a community of goods. In the year 1736 the first colony of Moravians came to Georgia in company with John Wesley. The first permanent settlement was made in 1742 at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1749 an Act was passed by Parlia- ment recognizing the Moravian Church as "An ancient, evangelical, episcopal Church," and encouraging the emi- gration of its members to America. A large colony pro- ceeded to Salem, N. C. The membership in the United States is at present about 14,000. There are 63 congre- gations and about 100 clergymen in service, including 3 bishops. The home membership throughout the world is about 25,000 ; the membership in the mission-field is 70,000. The Church has large schools for the educa- tion of females at Bethlehem and Lititz, Pa., at Salem, N. C., and at Hope, Ind. The seminary at Bethlehem has educated over 5000 young ladies. The publica- tions of the American Province are the " Moravian," the " Brueder Botschafter" (German), " The Little Mission- ary" and the "Text-Book." 144 FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. FREE-WILL BAPTISTS. THE founder of this denomination was the Rev. Benja- min Kandall. He was originally a preacher connected With the Calvinistic Baptists. Having embraced Arminian views, and being disowned by his brethren as unsound in the faith, he organized a church in New Durham, N. H., on the 30th day of June, 1780. Soon after this, other churches were formed on the same plan ; and these churches united together, and constituted the New Durham Quarterly Meeting. They were first called Free Wlllers, by way of reproach. Subsequently they assumed the name as one by which they are willing to be designated. They are nearly allied to the English General Baptists. They have three missionaries in India; also a home mission society, a Sunday-school union, and an education society for training men for the sacred office. Their ecclesiastical government is a mixture of Congre- gationalism and Presbyterianism. The discipline of private members belongs to the churches with which they are con- nected. They have quarterly meetings, consisting of ministers and lay delegates. To these bodies ministers are amenable. The quarterly meeting possesses very much the character of a presbytery. Several quarterly meetings, united in an annual council, make what they term a yearly meeting. All the annual meetings are convened together triennially as a general conference. The denomination has been divided by the question of slavery, the greater portion of the church having withdrawn from about four thousand communicants in South Carolina, on account of their being slaveholders. For the same reason they declined receiving into their connection some twelve thousand from Kentucky, who sent a delegation to * . (7 It ^to'1 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 145 the general conference to solicit a union. They hold what is commonly understood by Armenian doctrines, denying the doctrine of personal election and the inadmissibleness of grace. They have a book concern and printing estab- lishment at Dover, N. H. Its trustees are appointed by the general conference. If we reckon in the statistics of the denomination those who have been disowned on account of their connection with slavery, we shall find that they had, according to the Baptist Register of 1846, 115 quarterly meetings, com- prised in 25 yearly meetings, 1249 churches, 1076 minis- ters, and 55,323 communicants. They have now 133 associations, 1720 churches, 965 ordained ministers, 158 licentiates, and 56,026 communicants. DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. THE Church established by Christ and his Apostles was a unit, and was designed to remain so through all time. It had the one sure "foundation," and the one Divine rule for building thereon. The gospel was preached to the people ; they heard it, believed it, and obeyed it. These obedient ones were instructed to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," to " continue steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fel- lowship, and in breaking of bread and of prayers." ]STow, it is evident that there have been many innova- tions upon and departures from the teaching and practice of the primitive Church as laid down in the New Testa- ment Scriptures. Divisions, strifes, and speculations exist; and while these exist, the world cannot be con- is K 146 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. verted to Christianity. The aim of the Disciples of Christ is to restore the taith and practice of the Apos- tolic Church, to unite all of God's people on the " one foundation/' and to have the gospel preached among all nations. As individuals, this people wear the name of " Disci- ples of Christ," or "Christians." In their organized capacity they are known as "The Church of Christ," "Church of God," or simply "The Christian Church," believing that these names are authorized by the Word of God, and were, by the Holy Spirit, applied to the Church in the days of the Apostles. Scarcely fifty years have transpired since the reformatory movement began, yet it has attained large proportions already, and is rapidly extending its influence. Churches of this faith are found in all parts of the United States, in the Dominion of Canada, in England, Ireland, Scot- land, Australia, and Jamaica. They number fully 600,000 communicants. They have 3000 preachers in the field, many of whom are distinguished for their talent and scholarship. They publish 30 periodicals : 9 of these are weeklies, 1 quarterly, and the rest monthlies. 1 is published in Canada, 2 in England, 1 in Australia, and the rest in the United States. The Disciples are distinguished for their interest in education. Their oldest literary institution is Bethany College, founded by Alexander Campbell, who for many years presided over it. Kentucky University, at Lex- ington, Kentucky, has 800 students in attendance. The university at Indianapolis, Indiana, is in a flourishing condition. Besides these, they have 12 or 15 colleges and a large number of academies and seminaries under their control. They have taken steps to found a college in Aus- tral ui to meet the wants of the Church in that locality. DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 147 They are a missionary people. They have a general missionary society, directed by a " Board of Managers," through which the offerings of the brotherhood are applied for the extension and upbuilding of the Church. They have also State and local organizations of a missionary character, which co-operate with the General Society. The following statement, taken from the writings of Mr. Campbell and others, is a very explicit declaration of the object and principles of the Disciples of Christ : " The constitutional principle of this Christian associa- tion and its object are clearly expressed in the following resolution : 'That this society, formed for the sole pur- pose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity, shall, to the utmost of its power, countenance and support such ministers, and such only, as exhibit a manifest conformity to the original standard, in conversation and doctrine, in Bcal and diligence; only such as reduce to practice the simple original form of Christianity, expressly exhibited upon the sacred page, without attempting to inculcate any- thing of human authority, of private opinion, or inventions of men, as having any place in the constitution, faith, or worship of the Christian church.' " But to contradistinguish this effort from some others almost contemporaneous with it, we would emphatically remark, that, whilst the remonstrants warred against human creeds, evidently because those creeds warred against their own private opinions and favorite dogmas, which they wished to substitute for those creeds, this enterprise, so far as it was hostile to those creeds, warred against them, not because of their hostility to any private or favorite opinions which were desired to be substituted for them ; but because those human institutions supplanted the Bible, made the Word of God of non-effect, were fatal 148 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. to the intelligence, union, purity, holiness, and happiness of the disciples of Christ, and hostile to the salvation of the world. We had not at first, and we have not now, a favorite opinion or speculation, which we would offer as a substitute for any human creed or constitution in Chris- tendom. "With various success, and with many of the opinions of the various sects imperceptibly carried with them from the denominations to which they once belonged, did the advocates of the Bible cause plead for the union of Chris- tians of every name on the broad basis of the apostles' teaching. But it was not until the year 1823, that a restoration of the original gospel and order of things began to be advocated in a periodical, edited by Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, entitled ' The Christian Baptist.' " He and his father, Thomas Campbell, renounced the Presbyterian system, and were immersed in the year 1812, They and the congregation which they had formed, united with the Redstone Baptist Association ; protesting against all human creeds as bonds of union, and professing subjec- tion to the Bible alone. But in pressing upon the atten- tion of that society and the public the all-sufficiency of the Sacred Scriptures for everything necessary to the perfec- tion of the Christian character, whether in the private or social relations of life, in the church or in the world, they began to be opposed by a strong creed-party in that asso- ciation. After some ten years' debating and contending for the Bible alone, and the apostles' doctrine, Alexander Campbell, and the church to which he belonged, united with the Mahoning Association of Ohio that association being more favorable to his views of reform. " In his debates on the subject and action of baptism with Mr. Walker, a seceding minister, in the year 1820, DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 149 and with Mr. M'Calla, a Presbyterian minister, in 1823, his views of reformation began to be developed, and were very generally received by the Baptist society, as far as these works were read. "But in his ' Christian Baptist,' which began July 4, 1823, his views of the need of reformation were more fully exposed ; and as these gained ground by the pleading of various ministers of the Baptist denomination, a party in opposition began to exert itself, and to oppose the spread of what they were pleased to call heterodoxy. But not till after great numbers began to act upon these principles, was there any attempt towards separation. After the Mahoning Association appointed Walter Scott an evangelist, in 1827, and when great numbers began to be immersed into Christ under his labors, and new churches began to be erected by him and other laborers in the field, did the Baptist associations begin to declare non-fellowship with the brethren of the Reformation. Thus by constraint, not of choice, they were obliged to form societies out of those communities that split upon the ground of adherence to the Apostles' doctrine. The distinguishing character- istics of their views and practices are the following : " They regard all the sects and parties of the Christian world as having, in greater or less degree, departed from the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians. This defection they attribute to the great varieties of spe- culation and metaphysical dogmatism of the countless creeds, formularies, liturgies, and books of discipline adopted and inculcated as bonds of union and platforms of communion in all the parties which have sprung from the Lutheran Reformation. The effects of these synodical covenants, conventional articles of belief, and rules of ecclesiastical polity, has been the introduction of a new nomenclature, a human vocabulary of religious words, is 150 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. phrases, and technicalities, which has displaced the style of the living oracles, and affixed to the sacred diction ideas wnolly unknown to the apostles of Christ. " To remedy and obviate these aberrations, they propose to ascertain from the Holy Scriptures, according to the commonly received and well established rules of interpre- tation, the ideas attached to the leading terms and sen- tences found in the Holy Scriptures, and then to use the words of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic acceptation of them. "By thus expressing the ideas communicated by the Holy Spirit, in the terms and phrases learned from the apostles, and by avoiding the artificial and technical lan- guage of scholastic theology, they propose to restore a pure speech to the household of faith ; and by accustoming the family of God to use the language and dialect of their heavenly Father, they expect to promote the sanctification of one another through the truth, and to terminate those discords and debates which have always originated from the words which man's wisdom teaches, and from a reve- rential regard and esteem for the style of the great mas- ters of polemic divinity ; believing that speaking the same things in the same style is the only certain way to thinking the same things. " They make a very marked distinction between faith and opinion ; between the testimony of God and the rea- sonings of men : the words of the Spirit and human infer- ences. Faith "in the testimony of God and obedience to the commandments of Jesus are their bond of union ; auU not an agreement in any abstract views or opinions upon what is written or spoken by divine authority. Regarding all the opposing theories of religious sectaries as extremes begotten by each other, they cautiously avoid them, as equidistant from the simplicity and practical tendency of DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 151 me promises and precepts, of the doctrine and facts, of the exhortations and precedents of the Christian institu- tion. They look for unity of spirit and the bonds of peace in the practical acknowledgement of * one faith, one Lord, one immersion, one hope, one body, one Spirit, one God and Father of all ;' not in unity of opinions, nor in unity of forms, ceremonies, or modes of worship. " The Holy Scriptures of both Testaments they regard as containing revelations from God, and as all necessary to make the man of God perfect, and accomplished for every good word and work : the New Testament, or the living oracles of Jesus Christ, they understand as contain- ing the Christian religion ; testimonies of the four evan- gelists they view as illustrating and proving the great pro- position on which our religion rests, namely, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the only begotten and well- beloved Son of God, and the only Saviour of the world ; the Acts of the Apostles as a divinely authorized narra- tive of the beginning and progress of the reign or king- dom of Jesus Christ, recording the full development of *the gospel' by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, and the procedure of the apostles in setting up the Church of Christ on earth ; the Epistles as carrying out and ap- plying the doctrine of the apostles to the practice of in- dividuals and churches, and as developing the tendencies of the gospel in the behavior of its professors, and all as forming a complete standard of faith and morals, adapted to the interval between the ascension of Christ, and his return with the kingdom which he has received from God. " Every one who sincerely believes the testimony which God gave of Jesus of Nazareth, saying, ' This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I delight,' or, in other words, believes what the evangelists and apostles have testified concerning him, from his conception to his coronation in heaven, as 152 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. Lord of all, and who is willing to obey him in everything, they regard as a proper subject of immersion into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and no one else. They consider Christian baptism, after a public, sincere, and intelligent confession of the faith in Jesus, as necessary to admission to the privileges of the kingdom of the Messiah, and as a solemn pledge on the part of heaven, of the actual remission of all past sins, and of adoption into the family of God. " The Holy Spirit is promised only to those who believe and obey the Saviour. No one is taught to expect the reception of that heavenly monitor and Comforter as a resident in his heart, till he obeys the gospel. Thus, while they proclaim faith and repentance, or faith and a change of heart, as preparatory to immersion, remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, they say to all penitents, or all those who believe and repent of their sins, as Peter said to the first audience addressed after the Holy Spirit was bestowed after the glorification of Jesus, 'Be immersed, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' They teach sinners that God commands all men everywhere to repent or to turn to God; that the Holy Spirit strives with them so to do by the apostles and pro- phets ; that God beseeches them to be reconciled through Jesus Christ, and that it is the duty of all men to belie ?e the gospel and turn to God. "The immersed believers are congregated into societies according to their nearness to each other, and taught to meet every first day of the week in honor and commemora- tion of the resurrection of Jesus, and to attend to the Lord's Supper, which commemorates the death of the 'Son of God, to read and hear the living oracles, to teach and admonish one another, to unite in all prayer and praise, to contribute DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 153 to the necessities of saints, and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. "Every congregation chooses its own overseers and deacons, who preside over and administer the affairs of the congregations ; and every church, either from itself, or in co-operation with others, sends out, as opportunity offers, one or more evangelists, or proclaimers of the word, to preach the word and to immerse those whohelieve, to gather congregations, and to extend the knowledge of salvation as far as their means extend. But every church regards these evangelists as its servants, and therefore they have no control over any congregation, each church heing subject to its own choice of presidents or elders, whom they have appointed. Perseverance in all the work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope, is inculcated by all the Disciples, as essential to admission into the heavenly kingdom. " Such are the prominent outlines of the faith and prao tice of those who wish to be known as the disciples of Christ ; but no society among them would agree to make the pre- ceding items either a confession of faith or a standard of practice ; but, for the information of those who wish an acquaintance with them, are willing to give at any time a reason for their faith, hope, and practice. " On the design of baptism, and the benefits resulting from this ordinance to the penitent believer through the blood of Christ, the Disciples have been greatly minunder- stood. That the blood of Jesus is the only procuring cause of the remission of sins, is believed by every Disciple. Baptism, they teach, is designed to introduce the subjects of it into the participation of the blessings of the death and resurrection of Christ, who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. But it has no abstract efficacy. Without previous faith in the blood of Christ, and deep and unfeigned repentance before God, neither immersion in 154 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. water nor any other action can secure to us the blessings of peace and pardon. It can merit nothing. Still to the believing penitent it is the means of receiving a formal, distinct, and specific absolution, or release from guilt. Therefore none but those who have first believed in Christ and repented of their sins, and that have been intelligently immersed into his death, have the full and explicit testi- mony of God, assuring them of pardon. In reference to ^generation the Disciples teach that an individual who is -jfst begotten of God, whose heart is imbued with tho word of God, is enabled to enjoy the life thus bestowed when immersed into Christ, as it gives him an introduction to the happiness and society of the pardoned and the spiritual. Baptism, succeeding faith and repentance, consummates regeneration. The new birth as a change of state, is a formal ingress of a penitent believer, a prior spiritual crea- tion, into the family and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Formed for a new state by faith and repentance, he enjoys its heavenly adaptations the moment he enters the king- dom by being baptized in the name of Christ. The waters of baptism in connection with the death of Jesus, afford him as great an assurance of safety, as did their type, the waters of the Bed Sea, to the redeemed Israelites, when they engulphed Pharaoh and his hosts. Thus are we taught that penitent believers are born the children of God by baptism that salvation is connected with baptism when accompanied by faith that remission of sins is to be en- joyed by baptism through the blood of Christ that per- sons, having previously believed and repented, wash away their sins in baptism, calling on the name of the Lord that they profess to be dead to sin and alive to God in the action of baptism that believers put on Christ when bap tized into Christ that the church is cleansed by baptism and belief of the Word of God that men are saved by BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 155 baptism in connection with the renewing of the Holy Spirit and that the answer of a good conscience is obtained in baptism through the resurrection of Christ. "As the Disciples endeavor to call Bible things by Bible names, they have repudiated all words and phrases in re- Bpect to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not sanctioned by divine usage. Never -employ ing such terms as 'trinity,' * eternal generation,' * eternal filiation,' * eternally begot- ten,' * eternal procession,' ' co-essential and consubstantial,' and all others of the same category, they have sometimea been denominated, but most unjustly so, Unitarians. They believe that Christ is absolutely divine, infinitely above any super-human or even super-angelic being. They believe Christ to be ' God' in nature, and not in office only, or be- cause he is invested with divine prerogatives, as Moses ia said to have been made ' a god unto Pharaoh," and as the magistrates of Israel are called 'gods,' as being engaged in administering divine laws." BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. UNDER this head it is proposed to place in a group several denominations of Baptists that are less important than those before mentioned, because fewer in their num- bers. SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS. " The terms Sabbatarian and Seventh-day Baptists are used to designate those Christians who observe the seventh or last day of the week as the Sabbath. The former term was adopted in England soon after the Reformation, when the word Sabbath was applied exclusively to the seventh day, and when those who observed that day were regarded 156 BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. as the only true Sabbath-keepers, or Sabbatarians. In the year 1818, this term was rejected by the General Con- ference in America, on account of its supposed indefinite- ness ; and the term Seventh-day Baptist was adopted in its stead, as more descriptive of the opinions and practices of the people. " The Seventh-day Baptists are distinguished from Bap- tists generally by the views which they entertain of the Sabbath. In respect to this, they believe that the seventh day of the week was sanctified and blessed for the Sabbath in Paradise, and was designed for all mankind ; that it forms a necessary part of the Ten Commandments, which are immutable in their nature, and universally binding; that no change as to the day of the Sabbath was made by divine authority at the introduction of Christianity ; that those passages in the New Testament which speak of the first day of the week, do not imply either the substitution of that day for the seventh as the Sabbath, or its appoint- ment as a day of religious worship ; that whatever respect the early Christians paid to the first day of the week, on the supposition of its being the day of Christ's resurrec- tion, yet they never regarded it as the Sabbath, but conti- nued to observe the seventh day in that character until, by edicts of emperors and the decrees of councils, the first day was made gradually to supersede it. " At what precise time the observers of the seventh day took a denominational form, it is not easy to say. Ac- cording to Ross's 'Picture of all Religions,' they appeared in Germany late in the fifteenth or early in the sixteenth century. According to Dr. Chambers, they arose in Eng- land in the sixteenth century. Assuming the beginning of the sixteenth century as the true period of their origin, would carry them back as far as any of the modern deno- minations of Christians date. But whatever difficulty BAP1ISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 157 there may be in fixing the precise time of their origin as a denomination, the Seventh-day Baptists think there is no difficulty in proving the antiquity of their sentiments. In- deed, they believe that there has been no period since the commencement of the Christian era, when there were not upon the earth more or less Christians observing the sev- enth day. " They hold, in common with other Christians, the dis- tinguishing doctrines of Christianity. There were lately two congregations of the Sabbatarians in London ; one among the General Baptists, meeting in Mill Yard, the trust-deeds of which date as far back as 1678, but which is now greatly reduced in number ; the other among the Particular Baptists, in Cripplegate. There are also a few to be found in different parts of the kingdom. " The Seventh-day Baptists in America date from about the same period that their brethren in England began to organize regular churches. Mr. Stephen Mumford was one of the earliest among them. He came from England to Newport, R.. I., in 1665, and ' brought with him the opinion, that the Ten Commandments, as they were deli- vered from Mount Sinai, were moral and immutable, and ;hat it was an an ti- Christian power which changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week.' He joined the First-day Baptist church in Newport, and soon won several members of that church to his views. They continued to walk with the church, however, for a time, until a difficulty arose in consequence of the hard things which were said of them by their brethren, such as, that the Ten Commandments, being given to the Jews, were not binding upon the Gentiles, and that those who observed the seventh day were gone from Christ to Moses. In November, 1671, they came to an open separation, when Stephen Mumford, William Hiscox, Samuel Hub- 14- 158 BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. bard, Roger Baster, and three sisters, entered into church covenant together, thus forming the first Seventh-day Bap- tist church in America. William Hiscox was chosen and ordained their pastor, which office he filled until his death, in 1704, in the 66th year of his age. He was succeeded by William Gibson, a minister from London, who continued to labor among them until he died, in 1717, at the age of 79 years. Joseph Crandall had been his colleague for two years, and was selected to succeed him. When he died, in 1737, Joseph Maxson was chosen pastor, and discharged the duties of the office until 1743. He was followed by William Bliss, who served the church as pastor until his death, in 1808, at the age of 81 years. Henry Burdick succeeded him in the pastoral office, and occupied that post until a few years ago, when he died. Besides the regular pastors, this church has ordained several ministers, from time to time, who have labored with great usefulness, both at home and abroad. It has also included among its members several distinguished characters, two of whom, Richard and Samuel Ward, governors of the State of Rhode Island, are well known to history. " For more than thirty years after its organization, the Newport church included nearly all persons observing the seventh day in the States of PJiode Island and Connecticut; and its pastors were accustomed to hold stated meetings at several distant places, for the better accommodation of the widely-scattered members. But in 1708, the brethren living in what was then called Westerly R. I., (compre- hending all the south-western corner of the State,) thought best to form another society. Accordingly they proceeded to organize the Ilopkinton church, which had a succession of worthy pastors, became very numerous, and built three meeting-houses for the accommodation of the members in BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 159 the different neighborhoods. At present, there are sever churches in Rhode Island, and one in Connecticut." There are four Seventh-day Baptist churches in New Jersey, more than twenty in the State of New York, and many more of later origin scattered over the South and West. It is now nearly a century and a half since a yearly meeting was established by this denomination in our country. A general conference was formed in 1800. The conference comprises four associations. According to the Baptist Almanac for 1860, they have 70 ordained ministers, 10 licentiates, 56 churches, and 6577 communicants, and 4 associations. EPHRATA SOCIETY OF SEVENTH-DAT BAPTISTS. The Ephrata Society arose- out of a division of the Dunkers, in about 1730. They observe the seventh day as the Sabbath. They form a settlement near Lancaster, Pa., much on the plan of the old Moravian communities. The Society was originated by Conrad Beissel, a native of Germany, and a Dunker. In 1725, he published a tract in defence of observing the seventh day as a holy time. This discussion attracted to his views several other Dunkers from the society at Mill Creek, Lancaster County. In 1728, they formally adopted the seventh day as the day for public worship. In 1732, they established a monastic society at Ephrata. They adopted the habit of the Ca- puchin friars. The men wear a shirt, trowsers, and vest, with a long white gown, and cowl. The dress of the sisters is the same, except that they wear petticoats in the place of trowsers, and a cowl of different shape. In 1*740, there were in the cloister thirty-six single brethren and thirty-five sisters. No monastic vows were taken, and a community of goods wan maintained. They consider I tGO BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. celibacy a virtue, and favorable to eminent holiness, but do not prohibit marriage. They receive the Sacred Scrip- tures as the only rule of faith. They hold to the divinity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, salvation by grace alone, the baptism of believers only, which they administer by trine immersion, with the laying on of hands, while the recipient remains kneeling in the water. Their numbers are greatly diminished, and are now inconsiderable. MENNONITES. Edwards, the Baptist historian, informs us that " some Mennonite families were in the province of Pennsylvania as early as the year 1692, who came hither from New York government, which at first belonged to the Dutch, and was called New Netherlands, extending from the river Delaware to the river of Connecticut. They settled in the neighborhood now called Germantown and Frankfort, &c. Other families soon followed ; and after them many came directly from Europe, insomuch that May 23, 1708, there was a church settled at Germantown, consisting of 52 members, which exists to this day, (1770,) and is not only the first in the province, but, in some sort, the mother of all the rest. In about sixteen years after, this church had branched out to Skippeck, Cones toga, Great Swamp, and Monatony, and become five churches, to which appertained sixteen ministers, viz.: Rev. Messrs. Jacob Gottschalk, Henry Kolb, Martin Kolb, Cleas Johnson, Michael Zeigler, John Gorgas, John Conerads, Cleas Rittinghausen, Hans Burghaltzer, Christian Heer, Benedict Hirchy, Martin Beer, Johannes Bowman, Velter Clemer, Daniel Langan- eckor, and Jacob Beghtly. The present (1770) state of the Mennonites in this province is as follows : 1st, their churches, which contain many branches, are 13 ; 2d, the meeting-houses belonging to them are 42 ; 3d, their or- BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 161 dalned ministers or bishops are 15 ; 4th, their probationary or licensed preachers are 53 ; 5th, the families are about 810, which, allowing five to a family, contain 4050 souls ; whereof 1448 persons are baptized and members of their churches. This account, I believe, is pretty exact, except the county of Lancaster hath introduced any error into it; for in that county I have not met with as much readiness to give me the information I sought as in the other coun- ties, owing, I believe, to a suspicion that a knowledge of their state would, some way or other, be to their prejudice. " The Mennonites, in common with other communities, spread abroad in different directions. They formed settle- ments, and now have congregations and churches in Vir- ginia, Ohio, and Western New York, and the Canadas ; but they are the most numerous in the State where they first planted their standard on the American soil. This remark holds true of both the old and new connection. " The new connection of Mennonites was formed by a seceding party from the old body, in 1811. Connected with it are about 700 members in Pennsylvania, from 150 to 200 in New York, about 200 in Upper Canada, and small detachments of them are found in Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, &c. The cause of the separation was purely on the principles of experimental religion, which the new interest sought to inculcate and maintain, in the spirit as well as the letter, according to the pattern set them by Menno Simon and his associates. They complain that the old body 'have deviated from time to time and fallen away, particularly in the spiritual part of religion have become lukewarm and carnally-minded, seeking transitory things more than spiritual, holding more to the letter and outward form, than to the spirit and real substance of religion.' ** The Mennonites in the old world, for ages past, hav 14* 162 BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. as a general thing, administered Laptism by pouring and laying on of hands ; and the same is true of them in this country, both of the old and new connection ; they are, however, the decided opponents of infant baptism in all its forms." The Mennonites have now 300 churches, 250 ministers, and 36,280 communicants, as reported ID the Baptist Almanac for 1860. TUNKERS OR DUNKERS. " The first appearing of these people in America was in the fall of the year 1719, when about twenty fa'niliea landed in Philadelphia, and dispersed themselves, seme to Germantown, some to Skippeck, some to Oley, some to Conestoga, and elsewhere. This dispersion incapacitated them to meet for public worship, and therefore they began to grow lukewarm in religion. But in the year 1722, Messrs. Baker, Gomery, Gantz, and the Trautes, visited their scattered brethren, which was attended with a great revival, insomuch that societies were formed wherever a number of families were within reach one of another. But this lasted not above three years. They settled on their lees again, till about thirty families more of their perse- cuted brethren arrived in the fall of the year 1729, which both quickened them again and increased their number everywhere. These two companies had been members of one and the same church, which originated at Schwardze- nau, in the year 1708. The first constituents were Alex ander Mack and wife, John Kipin and wife, George Grevy, Andreas Bloney, Lucas Fetter, and Joanna Nethigeim, These had been bred Presbyterians, except Kipin, who was a Lutheran ; and being neighbors, they consorted together to read the Bible, and edify one another in the way they had been brought up, for as yet they did not know there were any Baptists in the world. However, belie vera' bap- BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 163 tism and a congregational church soon gained upon them, insomuch that they had determined to obey the gospel in these matters. They desired Alexander Mack to baptize them ; but he, deeming himself in reality unbaptized, re- fused ; upon which they cast lots to find who should be administrator. On whom the lot fell hath been carefully concealed. However, baptized they were in the river Eder, by Schwardzenau, and then formed themselves into a church, choosing Alexander Mack to be their minister. They increased fast, and began to spread their branches to Merienborn and Epstein, having John Naass and Christian Levy to their ministers in those places. But persecution quickly drove them thence, some to Holland and some to Creyfelt. Soon after, the mother church voluntarily re- moved from Schwardzenau to Serustervin, in Friezland, and from thence migrated towards America, in 1719; and in 1729, those of Creyfelt and Holland followed their brethren. " Thus we see that all the Tunker churches in America sprang from the church at Schwardzenau, in Germany ; that that church began in 1708, with only seven souls, arid that in a place where no Baptist had been in the memory of man, nor any now are. In sixty-two years that little one became a thousand, and that small one a great nation" One of their body, in a letter to Benedict, says of their doctrinal views, that " they have been charged with hold- ing the sentiments of the Universalists, which they all deny, and often testify against them." " This statement, I suppose, refers to the no-future-pun- ishment system, as he admits that by some of this commu- nity ' the writings and reasonings of Elhanan Winchester have been well received.' He also mentions a schism in this body in 1790, when a party of decided Universalists drew off under the ministry of one John Ham, a man of 161 BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. gn at talents and popular address. Some of his followers afterward moved into the Green River country, Ky., and caused great confusion among the brotherhood there as well as in North Carolina, where Ham himself lived at the time of the division. ' Those who have imbibed his opi- nions are thought to be in union and fellowship with the German Baptist Brethren, which has not been the case since the Yearly Meeting which was held in Franklin County, Virginia, fifty years ago, or upwards.' " This class of Tunkers, at present, reside in Kentucky, in the southern part of Illinois, in Missouri, and Iowa. " Summary statement of the Tunkers : Congregations and churches, 500 ; ministers of all grades, about 2000 ; communicants, 100,000. CHRISTIANS. This denomination call themselves Christians ; but aa the name does not distinguish them from other Christians, and as the public must have a distinguishing appellation, the first part of the name is commonly pronounced as we pronounce the word Christ, when written by itself. Hence they are commonly called Christ-ians. One of their own writers gives the following account of their origin : "About fifty years ago, several Methodist preachers in he State of Virginia and in the Carolinas, became dissa tisfied with the discipline of that church, and withdrew. They then agreed to search the Scriptures for a rule of life, and to believe, preach, and walk as they should direct. The result was, they soon became agreed that Christian jras the appropriate name for all the followers of Christ, i*i all true believers hold ; and that while others go far- ther, and take some sectarian name of human origin, they ought not, and would not. receive or use among themselves *ny other By thus searching the Scriptures for a rule, BAPTISTS MINOK DENOMINATIONS. they became satisfied that as that book contained the whole of the rule of duty and faith, so no other was necessary ; and all others, if authoritative, served to divide and lead astray. Here they settled down upon the broad plan of the name all believers take Christian ; and the rule they all acknowledge the Bible. "A few years after this, several ministers of the Pres- byterian order, in the State of Kentucky, broke off frorr- that body because of the government under which it acted ; and several of their usages appeared to them both unscrip- tural and oppressive. This act threw them upon the Bible, as the like act had thrown the seceders from the Metho- dists in Virginia ; and with the same result for they soon agreed to be nothing but Christians, and to have no dis- cipline or rule but the Bible. "About the same time, a few ministers in New England, who had been connected with the Baptists, were led to see that human creeds were both useless and hurtful, and, in relinquishing these, they too were thrown upon the Bible alone. As they found there none of their names but Christian, and none of the modern denominational titles, they also soon agreed on that name, and on the Bible aa their only rule of faith and practice. " Here, then, were three companies in the United States, all agreeing in these two points. But they were strangers to each other, and even to the fact that such companies existed. But in a few years each learned that others ex- isted, and by means of letters, and a periodical which waa Boon commenced among the New England Christians, a correspondence was opened, and a union created, so that the three became one, and have to this day been known as the * Christian Connection in the United States of America.' 166 BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. " They are Unitarians in doctrine, and Baptists both in respect to the mode and the subjects of baptism. " The education of many of the ministers of the con- nection, who universally preach extempore, is defective- Their maxim has been, 'Let him who understands the gospel teach it ;' yet the sentiment is fast gaining ground among them, that literature and science are very useful auxiliaries in the illustration and enforcement of divine truth ; and a charter was obtained, in 1832, from the legis- lature of Indiana, for a Christian College, to be located in New Albany. "They are Independents in Church polity, yet repre sented in associations composed of ministers and laymen after the manner of presbyteries and synods, but without judicial authority. For the purpose of promoting the general interest and prosperity of the connection by mutual efforts and joint counsels, associations were formed, denominated conferences. Ministers and churches, repre- sented by delegates, formed themselves, in each State, into one or more conferences, called State Conferences, and delegates from these conferences formed the United States General Christian Conference. This general conference has been given up. The local or State conferences are Btill continued, possessing, however, no authority or control over the independence of the churches. " They number 40 associations, or conferences, 1100 ministers, 1200 churches, and 80,000 communicants." SIX PRINCIPLE BAPTISTS. " The appellation of Six Principle Baptists is applied at the present time to a few churches in Rhode Island and a few other States, who, grounding their belief on Heb. vi. 1-3, make the imposition of hands on all newly baptized members an indispensable pre-requisite to church fellow- BAPTISTS MINOR DENOMINATIONS. 167 ship and communion. As the people of this sentiment wfire among the first settlers in the State, where most of them now reside, the Old Baptists is a term very commonly applied to them, to distinguish them from their brethren of less rigid views on the rite in question. For a long time after the settlement of Rhode Island, the Baptist. brotherhood who carry out to the letter the six principles laid down by the apostle Paul to the converted Hebrews, had a controlling influence in Baptist affairs in the State ; but some of their churches have become extinct, and others have ceased to maintain on this point the sentiments of their progenitors ; and the Orthodox, Free Will, and other classes of Baptists occupy a large portion of the ground where the old order formerly almost exclusively prevailed. " They have twenty churches, twenty-two ministers, and 3500 communicants." WINEBRENNARIANS. This is a small denomination of Baptists, which received its origin from the Rev. John Winebrenner, of Harrisburg, Pa., in 1830. They assumed to themselves the name of THE CHUKCH of GOD. It is certainly allowed to every religious body to assume whatever name they choose in our free and happy country. If such name should not distin- guish them from others, no great evil can arise from that circumstance, inasmuch as the right of others is equally perfect to bestow a name upon them by which they shall be really distinguished. The Winebrennarian Baptist Church was organized in 1830; and, through a fervent zeal in preaching the gospel, has secured a very considerable degree of success. They reject creeds and are Arminians in doctrine. They reject infant baptism, and practise immersion, and the literal Wishing of the saints' feet as an appointed ordinance. 168 UNITARIANS. They hold that domestic slavery and civil war are sinful, and believe in the personal reign of Christ. In ecclesias- tical government they are Presbyterian. They number at the present time 132 ministers, 275 churches, and 13,800 communicants, existing in three presbyteries, which the) term elderships. UNITARIANS. UNITARIANS take their name from that point of belief whereon they first diveiged from the generally held views of Christians. Their fundamental principle may be stated to be the trustworthiness of the human faculties, and their competency, when duly trained and freed from prejudice, to receive moral and religious, no less than scientific, truths. In pursuance of this principle, they have carried to the farthest point yet reached by any denomination the Prot- estant belief in the right of private judgment and rever- ence for the individual conscience. They do not hesitate to bring all theological systems and the sacred writings of both Jews and Christians to this test. What does tho best instructed reason, the clearest ascertained science, and the most enlightened conscience decide upon them? Believing truth to be infinite, they have always declined to lay down any set of dogmas which should pretend to include it all, or to make a belief in special dogmas a test of fellowship. A very wide range of individual opin- ion is hence included in this body, it having always been its cardinal doctrine that unity of spirit and aim should take precedence' of unity of thought. There is, however, :i general similarity of conclusion arrived at by this free action of mind upon religious thought, of which the fol- lowing is an outline: (1.) A belief in a supreme God of unchanging goodness and wisdom, whose will and attri- UNITARIANS. 169 butes are made known to us in the universal order of things so far as we can understand it, in human experi- ence so far as it has been transmitted to us, and in our own reason and conscience so far as we will examine them. (2.) A grateful recognition of Jesus as the Founder of the Christian religion, and the great Leader and In- spirer of all who seek to lead a holy life, with a growing tendency to see in him this entire and perfect humanity. (3.) A persuasion that man's highest duty is to live in love toward his fellow-man, and in perfect fidelity to those convictions of truth which he has attained. (4.) A belief that the moral order which reigns here reigns throughout the universe, eternally rewarding all right action and purpose, and eternally overthrowing and pun- ishing all wrong action and purpose. In this country, the divergence of many of the Con- gregational churches of New England from the older standards toward this type came into notice about a cen- tury ago. Among a people so interested in theology as New Englauders then were, earnest discussion was at once provoked, and it was finally found that about a third of the churches held these views. New England, especially Massachusetts, still remains the centre of this form of faith, though single churches are found in almost all the large cities of the North and West. Statistics give a total of 330 churches and about 400 ministers. There are also two Divinity schools, one at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the other at Meadville, Pennsylvania. The two principal organizations connected with this body are the American Unitarian Association and the National Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches. There are pub- lished in the denomination Old and New, a monthly magazine ; The Religious Magazine, also monthly ; The Christian Register and Liberal Christian, weekly, and The S. School Gazette, bi-monthly. ift 170 UNIVERSALISTS, UNIVERSALISTS. THERE are two classes of Christians that have passed ander this general name Universalists, so called, and Restorationists. They were formerly reckoned one. The Restorationists held the doctrine of punishment in the future state, but maintained that all mankind would be ultimately restored. The other class, which embraces but few of either clergy or laity, maintain that every human being, on dying, .passes immediately into a state of eternal happiness. They are Unitarians in doctrine ; and allege that sin brings its own punishment, and consequently that to punish men in a future state would be unjust. The early Universalists in this country were Restorationists. Of this class was Dr. Benneville, of Germantown, Pa., and Rev'd John Murray, who came hither from England in 1770. In 1780, Rev. Elhanan Winchester, a Baptist preacher, embraced the doctrine of Universalism. About ten years subsequent to this, the Rev. Hosea Ballou embraced the Bame doctrine, but on the principles first described in this article. He may be properly regarded as the founder of the Church in the United States. Thp TTniversalist Expositor gives the following statistics of the denomination : " The ministry of the Universalist denomination in the United States hitherto has been provided for, not so much by the means of schools, as by the unaided but irresistible influence of the gospel of Christ. This has furnished the denomination with its most successful preachers. It has turned them from other sects and doctrines, and brought UNI VERBALISTS. 171 them out from forests and fields, and from secular pursuits of almost every kind, and driven them, with inadequate literary preparation, to the work of disseminating the truth. This state of things has been unavoidable, and the effect of it is visible. It has made the ministry of the Universalist denomination very different from that of any other sect in the country ; studious of the Scriptures, con- fident in the truth of their distinguishing doctrine, zealous, firm, industrious : depending more on the truths commu- nicated for their success, than on the manner in which they were stated. It has had the effect, too, to give the ministry a polemic character, the natural result of unwa- vering faith in the doctrine believed, and of an introduc- tion into the desk without scholastic training. But the attention of the denomination in various parts of the coun- try has of late been turned to the education of the ministry ; and conventions and associations have adopted resolves, requiring candidates to pass examinations in certain branches of literature. The same motives have governed many in their effort to establish literary and theological institutions." They have recently engaged quite earnestly in this work, and have now several flourishing literary institutions under their superintendence. Among these are Tuft's College, Medford, Mass., Dean Academy, Franklin, Mass., West- brook Seminary, Westbrook, Maine, Green Mountain In- qtitute, Barre, Vt., St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. i r ., Clinton Liberal Institute, Clinton, N. Y., Lombard University, Galesburg, 111., and six or seven others. In 1779, the first Universalist Society was organized at Gloucester, Mass. There are now 917 societies pro- fessing this faith. In 1799, the General Convention (organized in 1785^ was the only association of the clergy. There are now 172 UNIVERSALTSTS. the General Convention of the United States, 13 state conventions, and more than 70 associations. The first Universalist newspaper in the United States (the " Universalist Magazine") was commenced in Boston, July >, 1819, with less than one thousand subscribers. There are now 17 periodicals of this description, with an aggregate list of about 30,000 subscribers. We have not been able to find any reliable account of the number of communicants. They have accommodations for 205,462 worshippers, and about $2,000,000 worth of church property. In 1864 the Convention passed resolutions sustaining the government in the war for the Union, condemning oppression, and remonstrating against any concession to traitors, and any movement or adjustment which might put our colored soldiers at the mercy of their old masters. During the two years, 1864 and 1865, it was stated that the denomination had raised over half a million dollars for educational purposes. At the Convention of 1865 a Board of Missions was elected, and it was resolved to raise one hundred thousand dollars for their use. Iu 1866 the Convention met at Galesburg, Illinois, when it was reported that but seventeen thousand dollars of this amount had been raised. Stringent resolutions against the policy of the President, and in favor of impartial suffrage, wore adopted. Resolutions of sympathy with Unitarians, and offering to unite with them in any way practicable in the Christianizing of the world, were adopted by a large majority. In the Convention of the following year, this action was qualified, if not virtually rescinded, by a resolution affirming the divine authority of Scripture and the Lordship of Christ, as tests of church membership. Only one person voted in the nega- tive. A Universalist preacher in .Boston, who had had CNIVERSALISTS. 173 I trouble with his congregation on account of the extreme Unitarian views which he preached, was refused admis- sion to the Convention by a vote of 95 to 16. At this Convention, it was again resolved to raise one hundred thousand dollars for denominational purposes. The Con- vention received an act of incorporation, March 9, 1866. In 1868 resolutions were adopted recognizing a call for a general spiritual awakening and recommending confer- ence and prayer meetings, wherever practicable. In 1869 two new State Conventions, those of Missouri and Kansas, were recognized and admitted by their delegates into the General Convention, and arrangements were perfected for a very earnest demonstration in behalf of all the interests of the body during the following year, which was the cen- tenary of the establishment of Uuiversalism as an organ- ized church in America. The Register for 1871 says that the preceding or cen- tenary year was one of unprecedented activity throughout the denomination. The proposed Murray Centenary, Fund of two hundred thousand dollars was nearly all raised. The income only is to be used and applied to aid theological students, in the distribution of denomina- tional literature, and in church extension. Statistics of 1870: 74 associations, 917 parishes, 692 meeting-houses, 625 ministers, 36 new churches built, 18 installations, including one woman, 28 ordinations, contributed or pledged for benevolent enterprises, beside the Murray Fund and ordinary parish expenses, nine hundred thousand dollars. Three colleges are in opera- tion, and three more are projected. There are two divinity schools and one law school, with seven academies. These institutions own property and funds to the amount of Si ,832,000. The denomination has 5 weekly papers, and 8 monthly, 1ft 174 SWEDENBOHQIANS. quarterly, and semi-monthly periodicals. The number of tjie membership is not given. The Register claims it as " ground for just pride and congratulation that we are dealing with living forces, not with fossils and petrifac- tions capable of exact enumeration and classification." It also specifies "the better education of our ministers, the improving tone of spiritual culture among our people, the multiplying and strengthening of our religious, edu- cational and benevolent institutions" as exhibited by the record of the preceding year. These evidences of pros- perity will strike the public more forcibly, when the roll? of a large and permanent membership can be made ou< and the results spread before the eye. SWEDENBORGIANS. THE Swedenborgians are so called from the late Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, son of Jasper Swedenborg, bishop of West-Gothia. He was born at Stockholm, in the year 1689 ; and died in London, 1772. He early enjoyed all the advantages of a liberal educa- tion, having studied with great attention in the academy of Upsal, and in the universities of England, Holland, France, and Germany. Endued with uncommon talents for the acquirement of learning, his progress in the sciencea was rapid and extensive; and, at an early period in life, he distinguished himself by various publications on philo- sophical subjects. His philosophic studies led him to refer natural pheno* mena to spiritual agency, and to suppose that there is a close connection between the two worlds of matter and spirit. Hence his system teaches us to consider all the visible universe, with everything that it. contains, as a theatre and representation of the invisible world, froir SWEDENEORGIANS. J75 which it first derived Its existence, and by connection with which it continually subsists. Swedenborg's extraordinary genius and learning, ac companied with the purity of his life and uprightness of his character, attracted the public notice. Hence he received various literary and political honors. These, however, he considered of small importance, compared with the distinguished privilege of having, as he supposed, hia spiritual sight opened, and conversing with spirits and angels in the spiritual world. He first began to have his revelation in London. He asserted that, on a certain night, a man appeared to him in the midst of a strong shining light, and said, " I am God, the Lord, the Creator, and Redeemer ; I have chosen thee to explain to men the interior and spiritual sense of the sacred writings. I will dictate to thee what thou oughtest to write." He affirmed that, after this period, his spiritual sight was opened so far that he could see, in the most clear and distinct manner, what passed in the spiritual world, and converse with angels and spirits in the same manner as with men. Accordingly, in his u Treatise concerning Heaven and Hell," he relates the wonders which he saw in the invisible worlds, and gives an account of various and heretofore unknown particulars, relating to the peace, the happiness, the light, the order of heaven, together with the forms, the functions, the habitations, and even the garments of the heavenly inhabitants. He relates his conversations with angels, and describes the condition of Jews, Mahometans, Christians, clergymen of every deno- mination, laity, &c., in the other world. Swedenborg called the doctrines which he delivered, "The Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem." It is thus styled, for, according to his system, the New Jerusalem signifies the new church upon earth, which is 176 SWEDENBORG IANS. now about to be established by the Lord, and which is particularly described, as to its glory and excellency, in Rev. xxi., and many other parts of the sacred word. The holy city, or New Jerusalem, he interpreted as descriptive of a new dispensation of heavenly truth, break- ing through and dissipating the darkness which at this day prevails on earth. The laws of divine order, and the economy of God's kingdom, providence, and operation, will be more clearly and fully understood, and the hearts of men will thus be opened to a nearer intercourse with heaven, and rendered admissive of the purer influences of gospel love and charity in their lives and conversation. The following extract contains the general outlines of Swedenborg's theological system : First. That the Sacred Scripture contains three distinct senses, called celestial, spiritual, and natural; and that, in each sense, it is divine truth, accommodated respectively to the angels of the three heavens, and also to men on earth. 2dly. That there is a correspondence between all things in heaven and all things in man ; and that this science of correspondences is a key to the spiritual or internal sense of the Sacred Scriptures, every page of which is written by correspondences, that is, by such things in the natural world as correspond unto and signify things in the spiritual world. 3dly. That there is a divine trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or, in other words, of the all-begetting Di- vinity, (Divinum a quo] the divine human, and the divine proceeding or operation ; and that this trinity consisteth not of three distinct persons, but is united, as body, soul, and operation in man, in the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, therefore, is the God of heaven, and alone to SWELENBORGIANS. 177 be worshipped, being Creator from eternity, Redeemer in time, and Regenerator to eternity. 4thly. That redemption consisteth not in the vicarious sacrifice of the Redeemer, and an atonement to appease the Divine wrath, but in a real subjugation of the powers of darkness ; in a restoration of order and good govern- ment in the spiritual world: in checking the overgrown influences of wicked spirits on the souls of men, and open- ing a nearer and clearer communication with the heavenly and angelic powers ; in making salvation, which is regene- ration, possible for all, who believe on the incarnate God, and keep his commandments. 5thly. That there is an universal influx from God into the souls of men. The soul, upon receiving this influx from God, transmits it, through the perceptive faculties of the mind, to the body. The Lord, with all his divine wisdom, consequently with all the essence of faith and charity, entereth by influx into every man, but is received by every m;m according to his state and form. Hence it- is that good influxes from God are changed, by the evil nature of their recipients, into their opposites, good into evil, and truth into falsehood. 6thly. That we are placed in this world, subject to the influences of two most opposite principles ; of good from the Lord and his holy angels; of evil from hell or evil Bpirits. While we live in this world, our spirits have their abode in the spiritual world, where we are kept in a kind of spiritual equilibrium by the continual action of those contrary powers, in consequence of which, we are at per- fect liberty to turn to which we please. That, without this free will in spiritual things, regeneration cannot be effected. If we submit to God we receive real life from him ; if not, we receive that life from hell, which is called in Scripture, spiritual death. , M 178 SWEDENBORUIANS. 7thly. That heaven and hell are not arbitrary appoint- ments of God. Heaven is a state arising from the good affections of the heart, and a correspondence of the words and actions, grounded on sincere love to God and man , and hell is the necessary consequence of an evil and thoughtless life, enslaved by the vile affections of self-love arid love of the world without being brought under the regulations of heavenly love by a right submission of the will, the understanding, and actions, to the truth and spirit of heaven. Sthly. That there is an intermediate state for departed Bouls which is called the world of spirits, and that very few pass directly to heaven or hell. This is a state of purification to the good ; but to bad spirits it is a state of separation of all the extraneous good from the radical evil which constitutes the essence of their natures. 9thly. That, throughout heaven, such as are of like dis- positions and qualities are consociated into particular fel- lowships ; and such as differ in these respects are separated, so that every society in heaven consists of similar members. lOthly. That man, immediately on his decease, rises again in a spiritual 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 in hell, according to the quality of his past life. llthly. That those passages in the Sacred Scripture generally supposed to signify the destruction of the world bv fire, &c., commonly called the last judgment, must be understood according to the above-mentioned science of correspondences, which teaches, that by the end of the world or consummation of the age, is not signified the destruction of the world, but the end or consummation of the present Christian church, both among Roman Catholics and Protestants of every description and denomination. I SW EDENBORGHANS. 179 That this consummation, which consists in the total falsi- fication of the Divine truth, and adulteration of the Divine good of the word, has actually taken place ; and, together with the establishment of a new church, in place of the former, is described in the Revelations, in the internal sense of that book ; in which the new church is meant, aa to its internals, by the new heaven, and as to its externals, by the new earth ; also, by the New Jerusalem descending by Grod out of heaven. It is one of the leading doctrines of Swedenborg, in hia explanation of the other books of Scripture, that one of the principal uses for which the Word is given, is that it might be a medium of communication between the Lord and man; also, that earth might be thereby conjoined with heaven, or human minds with angelic minds ; which is effected by correspondences, and natural things with spiritual, according to which the Word is written ; and that, in order to its being divine (divinum verum in ultimo), it could not be written otherwise. That hence, in many parts of the letter, the Word is clothed with appearances of truths accommodated to the apprehension of the simple and unlearned ; as, when evil passions are attributed to the Lord, and whe^e it is said, that he with- holdeth his mercy from man, forsakes him, casts him into hell, doeth evil, &c. ; whereas such things do not at all belong to the Lord, but are so said, in the same manner as we speak of the sun's rising and setting, and othei natural phenomena, according to the appearance of things, or as they appear to the outward senses. To the taking up such appearances of truth from the letter of Scripture, and making this or that point of faith, derived from them, the essential of the church, instead of explaining them by doctrine drawn from the genuine truths, which, in other parts of the Word, are left naked, Swcdeuborg ascribes 180 SWEDKNBORGIANS. the various dissensions and heresies which have arisen in the church, and which, he says, could not be pre- vented, consistently with the preservation of man's free agency, both with respect to the exertion of .his will, and of his understanding. But yet, he says, every one, in whatever heresy he may be with respect to the under- Btanding, may still be reformed and saved, provided he shuns evils as sins, and does not confirm heretical tastes in himself; for, by shunning evils as sins, the will is re- formed, and by the will, the understanding, which then first emerges out of darkness into light. That the word, in its lowest sense, is thus made the medium of salvation to those who are obedient to its precepts ; while this sense serves to guard its internal sanctities from being violated bj> the wicked and profane, and is represented by the chorubim placed at the gates of Eden, and the flaming sw ^rd turning every way to guard the tree of life. His doctrine respecting differences of opinion in the ch arch is summed up in these words : " There are three essentials of the church: an acknowledgment of the Lord's dhinity ; an acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word; and the life, which is charity. Conformable to his life, i. e- to his charity, is every man's real faith. From the Wcrd he hath the knowledge of what his life ought to be; and from the Lord he hath reformation and salvation. If thene three had been held as essentials of the church, in- tellectual dissensions would not have divided it, but would only have varied it, as the light varieth colors in beautiful objects, and as various jewels constitute the beauty of a kingly crown." The moral doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church are comprised under general heads, collected from Sweden- borg's writings, and prefixed to some proposals, published SWEDENBORGIANS. 18] m England, for the organization and establishment of a society. Under those general heads, it is proposed to promote marriages upon the principles of the new church, which are, that true conjugal love consists in the most perfect and intimate union of minds, which constitutes one life, as the will and understanding are united in one. That this love exists only with those who are in states of regenera- tion. That, after the decease of conjugal partners of this description, they meet, and all the mere natural loves being separated, the mental union is perfected, and they are exalted into the wisdom and happiness of the angelic life. Swedenborg founded his doctrines on the spiritual sense of the Word of God, which he declared was revealed to him immediately from the Lord out of heaven. As hia language is peculiar, his reasoning cannot be abridged so as to be rendered intelligible to the generality of readers. Those who are lesirous of farther information are referred to his numerous and singular productions. Those who embrace the tenets of Swedenborg are nu- merous in England, Germany, Sweden, &c. Societies are also formed in different parts of Europe, for spreading his doctrines ; and, where societies have not been formed, there are individuals who admire his writings and embrace his sentiments, particularly in England, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Turkey, and even in the East and West Indies, and America. Their ecclesiastical order is a mixture of Presbyterian- ism and Congregationalism. They practise baptism and the Lord's Supper, and use confirmation, the solemnization of matrimony, after the ordinary ceremony at church, and a burial service. They approximate to an independent form of church govern SWEDENBORGIANS. ment, but their discipline is not yet <|efinitely settled. No candidate for ordination can be admitted till after he has been baptized into the faith of the new church, the formula of which is " I baptize thee into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." The first person who introduced Swedenborgianism into this country was a Mr. Glen, who delivered lectures on toe subject in Philadelphia, in 1784. The first American min- ister was ordained in 1798. Their increase has been slow. There is a General Convention of the New Jerusalem Church in the United States, in which are represented associations in the States of Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, besides 4 isolated societies ; and there are receivers of Swedenborg's doc- trines scattered through all the other States. The number of ordaining ministers connected with the General Con- vention, is 6 ; pastors and missionaries, 29 ; licentiates and ministers, 14. There are many societies not connected with the Gene- ral Convention. There are probably not more than 15 or 20 church edifices belonging to this denomination in the United States, and the number of communicants probably dees not exceed 10,000. The Journal of Proceedings of the General Convention furnishes no information as to the aggregate number of believers. CONGREGATIONALISTS. 183 CONGKEGATIONALISTS. SCRIPTURAL Congregationalism denotes a system of self-governed local churches, each free and yet all in fel- lowship with each other. Each church is composed of regenerated men statedly meeting in one place, united by a covenant for the worship of God and for holy living in all things. The Bible is regarded by them as the only and sufficient rule of ecclesiastical order, as well as of faith. There is no legislative or judicial power above the local church. Each church has full power to choose its officers, to receive members, to exercise discipline, and to do all things required for the common welfare. Congre- gational churches, though thus free and self-governed, are not so disjoined as to be insulated elements, but are united to Christ in one common cause, are in sympathy and fel- lowship with each other, which is to be manifested in all appropriate ways by exchange of members by letter, by regarding and sustaining the discipline of each other, by meeting in council as occasion may require, and, if neces- sary, by admonition and reproof. If any church becomes unsound in doctrine or scandalous or immoral in practice, and will not be reformed by admonition and council, the sound churches are to withdraw fellowship from the of- fending church. On these principles were the apostolic churches organ- ized, as is confessed by Mosheim, Gibbon, Barrow, and other eminent scholars of all denominations. These prin- ciples were in process of time suppressed by centralized and despotic organizations, though in every age some have 184 CONGREGATIONALIST S. held to them to some extent. But after the "Reformation restored the study of the Bible they were once more fully developed and reduced to practice by the modern Congre- gational churches. The freedom and self-government of the local churches were developed and reduced to practice by Robert Brown in 1586. But he did not as fully develop the fellowship of the churches as the scriptural ideal requires. Those who adopted his views were at first called Brownists. Others who more fully but not completely developed the fellowship of the churches, throwing off his name, were called Independents. In New England the name Inde- pendents was also rejected, and the fellowship of the churches was fully developed, and the name Congrega- tionalist assumed in the Cambridge platform. For a time, in England, the name Independents was used to denote Congregational ists, but there- also the name Congrega- tionalist has superseded it, as may be seen in the Savoy declaration, and in the declaration of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Having given this general view of the use of names and the relations of Brownists, Independents, and Con- gregationalists, let us follow the course of historical de- velopment. Robert Brown became prominent among those who, in 1567, resisted the attempts of Queen Elizabeth of England to suppress, by forcible measures, the doc- trines and assemblies of the Puritans. Brown contended that each church or society of Christians meeting in a single place was a body corporate, possessing full power wixMn itself to admit or exclude members, to choose and ordain officers, and also to depose them, without being in any respect responsible to synods, councils, or any other ecclesiastical authority. He denied the supremacy of the queeli in. religious and ecclesiastical matters, he refused CONGREGATIONALISTS. ' 185 to admit that the established Church of England was a scriptural church, and asserted that the Scriptures were the only authoritative guide in matters of faith and dis- cipline. He also held that the labors of a pastor should be confined to a single church, and that five orders or offices should be recognized in the Christian Church namely, pastor, teacher, elder, deacon, and widow. He also asserted that the priesthood should not be regarded as a distinct order from the laity. Brown arrived at the conviction of all these doctrines, and publicly proclaimed them as a separate system of belief, in 1586. As might have been naturally expected in such an age, and among such a community as England then was, the announcement of such opinions soon led to persecution. Brown was hooted in the streets, pelted with stones, and became the victim of general obloquy. Nevertheless, ha persisted in his course, and succeeded in assembling and organizing the first church on independent principles known to exist in modern times. This fact only led to more violent persecution, and the members of his society were visited with fines, arrests, imprisonments, and in some instances with death, until at last the condition of the per- secuted Puritans became intolerable. They accordingly resolved to escape, and fled in a body to Holland. Brown subsequently ventured to return to England, but he was unable to accomplish anything there, in consequence of the general outburst of persecution which overwhelmed him, not only from the fanatical mobs in the streets and in the community, but even from the pulpits and from the judicial bench. In 1602 a second society called Independents or Con- gregationalists was formed in the north of England, of whom John Robinson was the pastor. By them the fel- lowship of the churches was more fully developed, espe- 16* 186 CONGREOATIONALISTS. cially in New England. Robinson was a man of strong miud and superior intelligence. Although he and his associates lived blamelessly in the world, merely worship- ping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, j et they were soon surrounded and afflicted with the se- verest persecution. The whole power of the government and of the prelatical establishment was brought to bear upon them, and they soon found it necessary to seek re- pose and safety in flight. Mr. Robinson and his associates projected a plan of escape to Holland, but their purpose was frustrated by the treachery of the captain of the vessel which they had engaged. He happened to be a prelatist, and betrayed them to the authorities. They were im- prisoned for a time, as a punishment for offences the nature of which was undefined and unknown. Undaunted by these reverses, a portion of Robinson's followers made a second attempt to flee from the heavy hand of tyranny, which proved more successful. In the spring of 1608, Robinson, in company with Brewster, Bradford, Carver, Wilson, and other leading men, accom- panied by their families, met at night on a lonely heath in Lincolnshire, intending to escape during the night. They had secretly hired a vessel for that purpose, and at the appointed time it appeared in the offing. The work of embarkation commenced, although the wind was high and the sea rough. Only a portion of the fugitives succeeded in getting on board before the remainder were surprised by a troop of horse, were arrested, and again conveyed to prison. But thesef after the lapse of some time, were released, and eventually joined their friends, who had arrived in Holland and obtained a home and protection in Amsterdam. In that city a society still existed which traced its origin to Robert Brown. The associates of Robinson CONGREGATIONALISTS. 187 united with it, and at first all went on harmoniously. But dissensions soon afterward broke out among them, and Robinson's friends removed to Leyden. Here they remained ten years. Some of these had oeen men of wealth, but they were at that time so impoverished, by not receiving their means from England, that they were reduced to the utmost indigence, and were compelled to learn mechanical trades. Brewster became a printer, and Bradford a silk dyer. During the period of their residence at Leyden these Congregationalists were ex- empted from persecution, and Robinson published several works, in which he set forth and defended the following points as constituting his belief: 1. That no church ought to consist of more numbers than can conveniently meet together for worship and dis- cipline. 2. That the churches of Christ are to consist of those who believe in and obey Him. 3. That any competent number of such have the right, when con- science obliges them, to form themselves into a distinct and separate church. 4. That this incorporation must be effected by means of some contract or covenant, either expressed or implied. 5. That when thus incorporated they have full power and authority to choose their own officers. 6. That these officers should consist of pastors, or teaching elders, ruling elders, and deacons. 7. That the elders, though chosen and ordained, have no power to rule over the church, except by the consent of the brethren. 8. That all elders and churches are perfectly equal in their powers and privileges. 9. That baptism, is to be administered to believers and their infant chil- dren. That the Lord's Supper is to be received sitting at the table, and is to be taken every Lord's Day. That ecclesiastical censures and penalties should be wholly spiritual, and not attended with temporal punishments. 188 CONGREGATIONALISTS. 10. That no holy days were to be observed, except the Sabbath, though occasional days of fasting and thanks- giving were to be recommended. It was in 1617 that Robinson conceived the idea of removing to America. The tone of morals then preva- lent in Holland was very corrupt, and the Puritans were fearful that their children might be contaminated by the surrounding influences. The New World was then an al- most unknown wild, but perfect freedom and purity were the boons which tempted the adventurers to undertake the perilous voyage. They first selected Virginia as the spot to which their course should be directed. A committee was appointed to confer with the then existing Virginia Company, for the purpose of securing liberty and religious toleration within the limits of their jurisdiction. Although the company were sensible that the Puritans would be valuable colonists, and desired them to reside on their territory, they could not promise them absolute security, nor would the prelates of the Anglican Church promise them immunity from ecclesiastical interference, or perfect religious toleration. At length, however, the archbishop of London promised "to connive" at their presence and religious views in Virginia, and they resolved to set sail. In 1620 the preparations for their departure were completed. As their vessels could not convey all the members of the community, they were divided, and a portion of them embarked on board the Mayflower, while the remainder waited for the return of the vessel, to con- vey them on the second voyage. The emigrants were placed under the direction of Elder Brewster, while Robinson remained with the other party. It was at Delft Haven that Robinson bestowed hi<3 blessing upon about a hundred persons previous to their embarkation, who constituted this extraordinary expedi- CONGREGATIONALISTS. 189 tioia. He died in 1625, before he and his associates could accomplish their intended voyage to America, Subse- quently a few of them sailed for America, though the majority remained in Holland. The Mayflower reached Plymouth in safety, and the intrepid exiles disembarked upon a country which they were destined to render illus- trious by their own virtues and those of their descend- ants. The second Congregational church established in the New World was that founded at Salem, on August 6, 1629. In 1630 another church was organized at Charlestown. On the 30th of July, in that year, the governor, deputy governor, and the minister, Mr. Wilson, entered into a "church covenant." Several days after- ward, five others joined them. At a later period other accessions were made to the society, and they then elected Mr. Wilson as their pastor, and ordained him to that office. Emigrants continued to arrive from England who sympathized with the Congregationalists in their opinions, and thus churches continued to be gradually organized around the original settlers of Plymouth. In 1633, Mr. Cotton arrived from England, by whose means the scriptural plan of church government was developed, and generally adopted, which then received the name, and embodied the principles, of Congregationalism. In this the fellowship of the churches was first fully developed. In 1638 the Congregationalists resolved to become inde- pendent of the mother country in regard to the supply of ministers for their growing churches, and accordingly, in that year, they established Harvard College at Cam- bridge, which is the oldest literary institution in the United States. The Congregationalist churches gradually extended over the New England colonies. In 1648 a synod was held, at which a system of church order was adopted which has 190 CONGREGATIONALIiSTS. since become widely known as the Cambridge Platform. It was in 1680 that a confession or oreed which had been previously adopted by the English Congregational Churches was examined and approved by a synod as- sembled at Boston, and thus became the authoritative doctrinal declaration of the New England Congregation- alists. It is held by these Congregationalists that there is no " Congregational Church " in this or in any country, in the sense in which the word "church" is applied to other sects, such as the Presbyterian Church, or Metho- dist Church. But there is a collection of Congregational churches in fellowship with each other who constitute the denomination. The Congregationalists define a church to be an organization of professed believers statedly meet- ing in one place, and united together by a covenant or agreement mutually to watch over and edify each other, and for the maintenance of the ordinances of the Gospel. A church, as thus understood, differs from a congregation, which includes all those who assemble in a place of wor- ship, non-communicants as well as communicants. A church also differs from a "society," which is a legal phrase intended to represent those persons who are in- corporated by the law of the land for the purpose of holding and transferring property, and providing for the expenses of the church. The church also differs from the " parish," which last is a term properly employed only to designate territorial limits. Cougregationalists insist upon the competence of each church to elect its own officers, to regulate its own affairs, to receive or reject candidates for membership, to pronounce censure upon any member who is guilty of impropriety, and that its allegiance in all these matters is due to Christ alone. In the administration of church affairs all the members have equal rights. Each male member of full CONQREGATIONALIST8. 191 ago is entitled to vote on all questions appertaining to the intei'ests of the society. The internal structure of Con- gregational societies is of the simplest nature. Their only officers are pastors and deacons, for the office of ruling elder was disused about the year 1745, first at Plymouth, and afterward in all the churches. The deacons are elected from and by the church members. The pastors are chosen by the members of the church from among those persons who are either already in the ministry, and settled over other churches, or are recommended by well-known clergy- men as fit to assume the functions of the pastoral office. In electing a pastor, it is usual for the "church" to nomi- nate a person to the " society," and, upon the concurrence of the latter, to give an invitation to the candidate to settle. Provision for the support of the pastor is made, either by a voluntary subscription, or a tax, or from the pew rents. When a pastor who is selected accepts the congregation tendered him, he is inducted into office by a council of ministers, being ordained by them if he has never before been set apart to the ministry ; if otherwise, simply installed. Each church selects a clerk, who keeps their records, (and in some churches a committee appointed by the members examines candidates for admission, in con- nection with the pastors and deacons, and has a general superintendence over the interests of the church.) The pastor is the moderator of the church, the spiritual coun- sellor of its members, their authorized teacher, and has full control over the pulpit, administers the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and performs the marriage ceremony. The deacons distribute the alms of the church, visit the sick and needy, and are the counsel- lors of the minister whenever he desires the benefit of their advice. Cougregationalists believe in the parity cf the ministry, 192 CONGREGATIONALISTS. and hold that there is but one order of ministers. The deacons they regard as belonging to the laity. Licentiates are not ministers, but merely candidates for the sacred office. Those ministers who are employed to preach to churches from one year to another, without being installed, are termed stated supplies. The terms bishop and elde* are not often used by Congregationalists, but when they are employed, they are intended merely to represent the pastors. Excommunication is enforced as the penalty upon those who make themselves amenable to church discipline by irregularities of conduct. The liturgy and form of worship of Congregationalists are simple. The ordinary service of the Sabbath consists of extemporaneous prayers, the singing of psalms and hymns, the reading of the Scriptures, and the delivery of a sermon either written or unwritten. Although they are careful to preserve their congregational independence, yet they endeavor to promote sympathy and unity of aims between their churches. Hence the pastors of neighbor- ing church'es frequently exchange pulpits, and meet in deliberative consociations, in which, though they have no legislative or judicial power or authority, they consult to- gether, and suggest ways and means of mutual usefulness. The fellowship of the churches is also expressed in councils for the ordination or dismission of pastors, or for advice on questions of doctrine or practice. Such councils are commonly composed of the nearest churches, but if occa- sion calls for it, distant churches can be invited. Councils vary in size, being generally local, but on special occasions national, If a member of the church supposes himself aggrieved by church action, he has the rglit to request the church to summon a council of the pastors and dea- cons of neighboring churches, to examine into the facts of his case aiid recommend such action as may seem to CONGREGATIONALISTS. 193 them just. If they refuse, he has a right to call an ex parte council to give information and advice. In the Congregational system, the individual church is the source of all ecclesiastical authority ; hence the action of councils is advisory, and cannot interfere with the free and absolute determination of the aggregate members of any church in reference to the control or decision of their own affairs. The doctrines held by the Orthodox Congregationalists are the same in substance as those taught in the Confession of the Westminster Assembly of Divines which convened in 1643. They are Calvinistic, believing in absolute de- crees in reference to man's salvation. They are Psedo- baptists, holding to the right of infants to be baptized. They believe in man's total depravity by nature ; in the trinity, atonement, regeneration, justification by faith, and in the eternity of future punishment for the finally im- penitent. In 1750, Unitarian sentiments began to be dif- fused among the Congregationalists of New England. A public separation of such churches as espoused this system took place about the year 1815, but Unitarian churches everywhere still retain the Congregational form of church government. Harvard College is under their control, from the divinity school of which their candidates for the ministry are sent forth. But these churches are entirely distinct from the Orthodox Congregational churches, from which they originally sprung, and resemble them only in the form of their ecclesiastical government. Among the most eminent men whose names adorn the annals of Or- thodox Congregationalism are those of Jonathan Edwards, Timothy Dwight, S. Hopkins and Joseph Bellamy. The denomination co-operates efficiently with all the benevolent enterprises of the American Church, such as the Ameri- can Bible Society, American Board of Foreign Missions, Home Missions, etc. The denomination occupied a verv 17 194 CONGREGATIONALISTS. prominent and eminent place for numbers, usefulness, and influence, among the various branches of the American Church. The Baptist churches are organized on Congre- gational principles, (see p. 37.) Adding to them all other churches Congregational ly organized, we find in this counlry and England 25,000, and in this country more than one-half of all the churches of all names in the United States are Congregationally organized, so great has been the spread of Scripture principles of church order. THE MORMONS. 195 THE MORMONS. THE Mormons, or Latter Day Saints, are a denomi- nation of recent origin, having been founded by Jo- seph Smith within the present century. This remark- able man was born at Sharon, Windham County, Vermont, on the 23d of December, 1805. His father was a small farmer; and the first ten years of the life of the future prophet were spent at the place of his birth. In 1815 his parents removed to Palmyra, in the State of New York; and after a period of foui years they again changed their abode to Manchester, in the same State. During this interval Joseph was employed in the various labors of agriculture ; and hia opportunities for literary culture were very limited. It was with difficulty that he could read, or write, or perform the simplest processes of arithmetic. It was when he was about fifteen years of age that Smith seems to have received his first religious impres- sions. He professes to have then examined into the claims of the various existing denominations, and to have discovered such confusion and contradiction among them, that he turned from all of them in dis- gust. Then it was that he determined to put in prac- tice the advice of St. James : " If any man lack wis- dom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." Accordingly he retired to a secret place in a grove, and began to call upon the Lord. He declares that he was then favored with a heavenly vision ; that 198 THE MOKMONS. he saw two glorious personages, who resembled each other in form and feature, and were surrounded by a light brighter than that of the sun ; that they informed him that all the existing sects were in error, and had wandered from the truth ; and that they promised to reveal to him, at some future day, the Gospel of Truth in all its fulness, which he should afterward proclaim with great success throughout the world. He was also assured that he was the chosen instrument in intro- ducing this new dispensation ; and he was furnished with mysterious information in reference to the Abori- ginal inhabitants of this country. Smith alleged that the promise of a second vision was fulfilled in September, 1823 ; and that while pray- ing, a personage appeared to him who proclaimed him- self the angel and messenger of God, and informed Smith where there were deposited a number of golden plates, upon which were written the records of the early inhabitants of this country, and which narrated how our Saviour, after his resurrection, made his ap- pearance on this continent, and established here hia true religion, with the various orders of priests, pro- phets, and teachers; how the people were all cut off in consequence of their sins, and the last of their prophets had been commanded to write on those plates a narra- tive of those events, and bury them, that they might afterward be found, and used in the latter days for the establishment and universal diffusion of the true reli- gion in the chosen time. These plates Smith alleged that he afterward ob- tained, and that they contain the volume known as the "Book of Mormon." A very different account of the origin of this remarkable production is given by another person, whose testimony is regarded by many as un THE MORMONS. 197 biased and true. It is asserted that the Book of Mor- mon is a religious romance, which was written by a per- son named Solomon Spaulding. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, and became a clergyman, but afterward relinquished his profession, and entered into mercantile pursuits. He subsequently removed to Ohio ; there he wrote this book, and in 1812 brought the manuscript to Pittsburg, and offered it to a pub- lisher named Patterson. Before any arrangement was made in reference to the matter, Spaulding died. The manuscript remained with Patterson till his death in 1826, when it passed into the possession of Sidney Rig- don, by whose means it came into the hands of Joseph Smith. Then it was that Smith conceived the idea of founding a new religion based upon the romantic and curious details contained in this volume, in reference to the early history of the Lost Tribes of Israel, who are represented as being the ancestors of the American Aborigines, and other details. The identity of Spaulding's book with the Book of Mormon was supported by the affidavits of several persons of un- doubted veracity, who had seen {he manuscript of Spaulding, and afterward examined the Book of Mor- mon. In whatever way Smith obtained possession of the Book of Mormon, it answered his purpose admirably as a means to aid in founding a new sect, upon the accomplishment of which purpose he had resolved. He proceeded to announce his divine mission as the chosen apostle of a new dispensation, to his immediate family and relations. His pretensions were at first received with derision and contempt ; and some time elapsed before any of his own family even pretended to believe in his claims. But his earnestness and zeal 17* 198 THE MORMONS. prevailed, after a time; and first one and then another of his partizans announced themselves as converts. The first church of the Latter Day Saints was organized in the town of Manchester, in New York, on the 6th of April, 1830 ; and from that time there commenced one of the most extraordinary histories ever presented m the annals of religion. The new sect were imme- diately visited by persecution, and the indignation of the public, at what they regarded as an unparalleled instance of mingled impudence and fraud, broke forth. Notwithstanding these obstacles, Smith continued to preach zealously, and to gather around him a number of adherents. At length the Mormon leaders became convinced that it was for the benefit of their cause for them to remove to a distant locality ; and accordingly Smith and his adherents, of whom Sidney Rigdon was the chief, proceeded westward, and established themselves, after various wanderings, in Jackson County, Mis- souri. Here they remained during four years, when the persecutions of their incensed neighbors compelled them to remove. 'Smith now selected a spot in Illi- nois which he called Nauvoo, or the New Jerusalem the future home of the saints. Here his followers, who now numbered several thousand, commenced in April, 1841, to erect dwellings, public edifices, and a temple of large and imposing dimensions. In two years' time a numerous community assembled there, a city gradually arose ; many missionaries were sent forth to proclaim the new faith ; journals were esta- blished ; and the Mormon community attained a de- gree of prosperity which justly excited the astonish- ment, while it provoked the hosiihty and resentment, of the general public. THE MORMONS. 199 At that period Nauvoo contained fifteen thousand inhabitants. But success rendered them quarrelsome, and hostile factions arose among themselves. A party opposed to Smith commenced a suit against him for the alleged destruction of a printing press ; but the warrant could not be served upon the prophet m l^auvoo. He accordingly proceeded to the neighbor- ing town of Carthage to surrender himself on the war- rant; but the popular excitement had become so intense, that on the 27th of June, 1844, the jail was Burrounded by a furious mob, who overpowered the guard, and eventually phot Smith, and several of his associates. Some time afterward the whole Mormon commu- nity, harrassed by the persecution to which they were continually subjected, resolved to remove to a new and more remote location. Brigham Young, who had suc- ceeded Smith in the supreme authority among them, was the leader in this new exodus; and in the year 1847 four thousand persons of all ages and both sexes reached Salt Lake Valley, in Utah, under his guidance. There a numerous community has since congregated, amounting perhaps to thirty thousand, who now eon- Btitute the chief bulk of this extraordinary people. The doctrines which the Mormons entertain may be briefly stated as follows: They believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is correctly translated ; but at the same time they hold that the Book of Mormon is also inspired, and possessed of equal authority. They believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that all men may be saved through the atonement of Christ. They hold that the Gospel ordinances are four: Faith in Christ, Kepentance, Baptism by immersion, and laying on of PURITANS. hands, for the gift of the Holy Ghost. They believe in the power of miracles, of healing, prophecy, revelation, gift of tongues and visions among the saints at the present time. They believe in the literal gathering of Israel, the restoration of the Lost Ten Tribes, and the personal reign of Christ on the earth during a thousand years of mlllenial glory, when the saints will reign with him, and judge the Gentiles and unbelievers. They practice polygamy, and the spiritual wife system ; that is, every wife, except the first, is sealed to her husband, in order thereby to obtain salvation, inasmuch as none but the saints and their families will become partaker? of heaven and the millenial glory. PURITANS. THE name Puritans was given in the primitive Church totheNovatians, because they would never admit to com- munion any one who, from dread of death, had apostatized from the faith ; but the word has been chiefly applied to those who were professed favorers of a further degree of reformation and purity in the Church before the Act of Uniformity, in 1662. After this period, the term Non- conformists became common, to which succeeds the ap pellation Dissenter. " During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in which the royal prerogative was carried to its utmost limits, there were found many daring spirits who questioned the right of the sovereign to prescribe and dictate to her subjects what principles of religion they should profess, and what forms they ought to adhere to. The ornaments and habits PURITANS. worn by the clergy in the preceding reign, when the Komish religion and rites wei e triumphant, Elizabeth was desirous of preserving in the ^rotestant service. This was the cause of great discontent among a large body of her subjects ; multitudes refused to attend at those churches where the habits and ceremonies were used ; the conform- ing clergy they treated with contumely ; and, from the superior purity and simplicity of the modes of worship to which they adhered, they obtained the name of Puritans. The Queen made many attempts to repress everything that appeared to her as an innovation in the religion established by her authority, but without success ; by her almost un- limited authority she readily checked open and avowed opposition, but she could not extinguish the principles of the Puritans, 'by whom alone,' according to Mr. Hume, ' the precious spark of liberty had been kindled and waa preserved, and to whom the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution.' Some secret attempts that had been made by them to establish a separate congregation and discipline, had been carefully repressed by the strict hand which Elizabeth held over all her subjects. The most, therefore, that they could effect was to assemble in private houses for the purpose of worshipping God accord- ing to the dictates of their own consciences. These prac- tices were at first connived at, but afterwards every means was taken to suppress them, and the most cruel methods were made use of to discover persons who were disobedient to the royal pleasure. The severe persecutions carried on against the Puritans during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, served to lay the foundation of a new empire in the western world. Thither, as into a wilderness, they fled from the face of their persecutors, and, being protected in the free exercise of their religion, continued to increase, till in about a een- 202 PURITANS. tury and a half they became an independent nation. The different principles, however, on which they originally divided from the Church establishment at home, operated in a way that might have been expected when they came to the possession of the civil power abroad. Those who formed the colony of Massachusetts Bay, having never relinquished the principles of a national Church, and of the power of the civil magistrate in matters of faith and worship, were less tolerant than those who settled at New Plymouth, at Rhode Island, and at Providence Plantations. The very men (and they were good men too) who had just escaped the persecutions of the English prelates, now in their turn persecuted others who dissented from them, till at length the liberal system of toleration established in the parent country at the Revolution, extending to the colonies, in a good measure put an end to these pro- ceedings. Neither the Puritans, before the passing of the Bartho- lomew act, in 1662, nor the Nonconformists, after it, ap- pear to have disapproved of the articles of the established Church in matters of doctrine. The number of those who did so, however, was very small. While the great body of the bishops and clergy had, from the days of Archbishop Laud, abandoned their own articles in favor of Arminian- ism, they were attached to the principles of the first Re- formers ; and by their labors and sufferings the spirit of the Reformation was kept alive in the land. But after the Revolution, one part of the Protestant Dissenters, chiefly Presbyterians, first veered towards Arminianism, then revived the Arian controversy, and by degrees many Df them settled in Socinianism. At the same time another part of them, chiefly Independents and Baptists, earnestly contending for the doctrines of grace, and conceiving, as it would seem, that the danger of erring lay entirely on BROWNISTS. 203 one side, first veered towards high Calvinism ; then forbore inviting the unregenerate to repent, believe, or do any- thing practically good, and by degrees many of them, it is said, settled in Antinomianism. Such are the principles which have found place amongst the descendants of the Puritans. At the same time, how- ever, it must be acknowledged that a goodly number of each of the three denominations have adhered to the doc- trine and spirit of their forefathers ; and have proved the efficacy of their principles by their concern to be holy in all manner of conversation. See articles BROWNISTS, INDEPENDENTS, and NONCONFORMISTS, in this work. BROWNISTS, A sect that arose among the Puritans towards the close of the sixteenth century; so named from their leader, Ro- bert Brown. He was educated at Cambridge, and was a man of good parts and some learning. He began to inveigh openly against the ceremonies of the church, at Norwich, in 1580 : but being much opposed by the bishops, he, with his congregation, left England, and settled at Middleburgh, in Zealand, where they obtained leave to worship God in their own way, and form a church according to their own model. They soon, however, began to differ among them- selves ; so that Brown, growing weary of his office, re- turned to England, in 1589, renounced his principles of separation, and was preferred to the rectory of a church in Northamptonshire. He died in prison in 1630. The revolt of Brown was attended with the dissolution of the church at Middleburgh j but the seeds of Browuisin which he had 204 BROWNISTS. sown in England were so far from being destroyed, that Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, computes no less than 20,000 of this sect. The articles of their faith seem to be nearly the same as those of the church of England. The occasion of their separation was not, therefore, any fault they found with the faith, but only with the discipline and, form of government of the churches in England. They equally charged cor- ruption on the Episcopal and Presbyterian forms ; nor would they join with any other reformed church, because they were not assured of the sanctity and regeneration of the members that composed it. They condemned the solemn celebration of marriages in the church, maintaining that matrimony being a political contract, the confirmation thereof ought to come from the civil magistrate ; an opin- ion in which they are not singular. They would not allow the children of such as were not members of the church to be baptized. They rejected all forms of prayer, and held that the Lord's prayer was not to be recited as a prayer, being only given for a rule or model whereon all our pray- ers are to be formed. Their form of church government was nearly as follows : When a church was to be gathered, such as desired to be members of it made a confession of their faith in the presence of each other, and signed a cove- nant, by which they obliged themselves to walk together ia the order of the Gospel. The whole power of admitting and excluding members, with the decision of all controver- sies, was lodged in the brotherhood. Their church officers were chosen from among themselves, and separated to their several offices by fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands. But they did not allow the priesthood to be any distinct order. As the vote of the brethren made a man a minister, go the same power could discharge him from his office, and reduce him to a mere layman again ; and as they main BROWNISTS. tained the bounds of a church to be no greater than what could meet together in one place, and join in one commu- nion, so the power of these officers was prescribed within the same limits. The minister of one church could not tt'lminister the Lord's Supper to another, nor baptize the children of any but those of his own society. Any lay brother was allowed the liberty of giving a word of exhor- tation to the people ; and it was usual for some of them after sermon to ask questions, and reason upon the doc- trines that had been preached. In a word, every church on their model is a body corporate, having full power to do everything in themselves, without being accountable to any class, synod, convocation, or other jurisdiction what- ever. The reader will judge how near the Independent churches are allied to this form of government. See INDE- PENDENTS. The laws were executed with great severity on the Brownists ; their books were prohibited by queen Eli- zabeth, their persons imprisoned, and some hanged. Brown himself declared on his death-bed that he had been in thirty- two different prisons, in some of which he could not see hia hand at noon-day. They were so much persecuted, that they resolved at last to quit the country. Accordingly, many retired and settled at Amsterdam, where they formed a church, and chose Mr. Johnson their pastor, and after him, Mr. Ainsworth, author of the learned Commentary on the Pentateuch. Their church flourished near 100 years. Among the Brownists, too, were the famous John Robin- eon, a part of whose congregation from Leyden, in Holland, made the first permanent settlement in North America ; and the laborious Canne, the author of the marginal refer- ences to the Bible. 18 206 INDEPENDENTS. THE INDEPENDENTS A.RE a sect of Protestants, so called from their maintaining that each congregation of Christians which meet in one house for public worship is a complete church ; has suffi- cient power to act and perform everything relating to reli- gious government within itself ; and is in no respect subject or accountable to other churches. Though the Episcopalians contend that there is not a shadow of the independent discipline to be found either in the Bible or the primitive church, the Independents, on the contrary, believe that it is most clearly to be deduced from the practice of the apostles in planting the first churches The Independents, however, were not distinguished as a body till the time of queen Elizabeth. The hierarchy esta- blished by that princess in the churches of her dominions, the vestments worn by the clergy in the celebration of divine worship, the book of Common Prayer, and, above all, the sign of the cross used in the administration of bap- dsm, were very offensive to many of her subjects, who, during the persecutions of the former reign, had taken refuge among the Protestants of Germany and Geneva. These men thought that the church of England resembled in too many particulars the anti-christian church of Rome; they therefore called perpetually for a more thorough re- formation, and a purer worship. From this circumstance they were stigmatized with the general name of Puritans, as the followers of Novatian had been in the ancient church Elizabeth was not disposed to comply with their demands and it is difficult to say what might have been the issue of the contest, had the Puritans been united among them INDEPENDENTS. 2(J7 selves in sentiments, views, and measures. But the case was quite otherwise : that large body, composed of persona of different ranks, character, opinions, and intentions, and unanimous in nothing but their antipathy to the Esta- blished Church, was all of a sudden divided into a variety of sects. Of these the most famous was that which was formed about the year 1581, by Robert Brown, a man insinuating in his manners, but unsteady and inconsistent in his vievs and actions of men and things. Brown was for dividing the whole body of the faithful into separate societies or congregations ; and maintained that such a number of per- sons as could be contained in an ordinary place of worship ought to be considered as a church, and enjoy all the rights and privileges that are competent to an ecclesiastical com- munity. These small societies he pronounced independent, jure divino, and entirely exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop, in whose hands the court had placed the reins of a spiritual government : and also from that of presby teries and synods, which the Puritans regarded as the supreme visible sources of ecclesiastical authority. But as we have given an account of the general opinions and dis- cipline of the Brownists, we need not enumerate them here, but must beg the reader to refer to that article. The zeal with which Brown and his associates maintained and pro- pagated his notions, was, in a high degree, intemperate and extravagant. He affirmed that all communion was to be broken off with those religious societies tb-at were founded upon a different plan from his ; and treated more especially t,us church of England as a spurious church, whose minis- ters were unlawfully ordained ; whose discipline was popish and anti-christian ; and whose sacraments and institutions were destitute of all efficacy and virtue. His followers not being able to endure the severe treatment which they met with from an administration that was not distinguished for 203 INDEPENDENTS. ks mildness and indulgence, retired into the Netherlands, *nd founded churches at Middlebourg, Amsterdam, and Leyden. Their founder, however, returned into England, renounced his principles of separation, and took orders in the Established Church. The Puritan exiles, whom he thus abandoned, disagreed among themselves, were split into parties, and their affairs declined from day to day. This engaged the wiser part of them to mitigate the severity of their founder's plan, and to soften the rigor of his un- charitable decisions. The person who had the chief merit of bringing about this reformation was one of their pastors, of the name of Robinson, a man who had much of the solemn piety of the times, and no inconsiderable portion of learning. This distinguished reformer, perceiving the defects that reigned m the discipline of Brown, and in the spirit and temper of his followers, employed his zeal and diligence in correct- ing them, and in new-modelling the society in such a man- ner, as to render it less odious to his adversaries, and less liable to the just censure of those true Christians who look upon charity as the end of the commandments. Hitherto the sect had been called Brownists ; but Robinson having in his apology affirmed that all Christian congregations were so many independent religious societies, that had a right to be governed by their own laws, independent of any further or foreign jurisdiction, the sect was first called Independents, afterward Congregationalists, of which the ipologist was considered as the founder. The first independent or congregational church in Eng- land was established by a Mr. Jacob, in the year 1616. Mr. Jacob, who had fled from the persecution of Bishop Bancroft, going to Holland, and having imparted his design of setting up a separate congregation, like those in Holland, to the most learned Puritans of those times, it INDEPENDENTS. 209 was not condemned as unlawful, considering there was no prospect of a national reformation. Mr. Jacob, therefore, having summoned several of his friends together, and having obtained their consent to unite in church fellow- ship for enjoying the ordinances of Christ in the purest manner, they laid the foundation of the first independent church in England in the following way : Having observed a day of solemn fasting and prayer for a blessing upon their undertaking, towards the close of the solemnity, each of them made an open confession of their faith in Christ ; and then, standing together, they joined hands, and solemnly covenanted with each other, in the presence of Almighty God, to walk together in all God's way and ordinances, according as he had already revealed, or should further make known to them. Mr. Jacob was then chosen pastor by the suffrage of the brotherhood ; and others were appointed to the office of deacons, with fasting and prayer, and imposition of hands. The Independents were much more commendable than the Brownists ; they surpassed them, both in the modera- tion of their sentiments, and in the order of their discipline. They did not, like Brown, pour forth bitter and unchari- table invectives against the churches which were governed by rules entirely different from theirs, nor pronounce them, on that account, unworthy of the Christian name. On che contrary, though they considered their own form of ecclesiastical government as of Divine institution, and as originally introduced by the authority of the apostles, nay, by the apostles themselves, they had yet candor and charity enough to acknowledge that true religion and solid piety might flourish in those communities which were under the jurisdiction of bishops, or the government of synoda and presbyteries. They were also much more attentive than the Brownists in keeping on foot a regular ministry is o 210 INDEPENDENTS. in their communities; for, while the latter allowed promis cuously all ranks and orders of men to teach in public, *'he Independents had, and still have, a certain number of ministers, chosen respectively by the congregations where they are fixed : nor is it common for any person among them to speak in public before he has submitted to a proper examination of his capacity and talents, and been approved of by the heads of the congregation. From 1642, the Independents are very frequently men- tioned in the English annals. The charge alleged against them by Rapin, (in his History of England, vol ii p. 114, folio edition,) that they could not so much as endure ordinary ministers in the church, &c., is groundless. He was led into this mistake by confounding the Independents with the Brownists. Other charges, no less unjustifiable, have been urged against the Independents by this cele- brated historian and others. Rapin says, that they ab- horred monarchy and approved of a republican govern- ment: this might have been true with regard to many persons among them, in common with other sects ; but it does not appear, from any of their public writings, that republican principles formed their distinguishing charac- teristic ; on the contrary, in a public memorial drawn up by them in 1647, they declare that they do not disapprove of any form of civil government, but do freely acknowledge that a kingly government, bounded by just and wholesome laws, is allowed by God, and also a good accommodation unto men. The Independents, however, have been gene- rally ranked among the regicides, and charged with the death of Charles I. Whether this fact be admitted or denied, no conclusion can be fairly drawn from the greater prevalence of republican principles, or frcm violent pro- ceedings at that period, that can affect tLe distinguishing tenets and conduct of the Independents i i our times. It INDEPENDENTS. 211 is certain that the present Independents are steady fiienda to a limited monarchy. Rapin is further mistaken when he represents the religious principles of the English Indepen- dents as contrary to those of all the rest of the world. It appears from two confessions of faith, one composed by Robinson, in behalf of the English Independents in Hol- land, and published at Leyden, in 1619, entitled, Apologia pro Exulibus Anglis, qui Brownistse vulgo appcllantur ; and another drawn up in London, in 1658, by the princi- pal members of their community in England, entitled, "A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised by the Congregational Churches in England, agreed upon and consented unto by their Elders and Messengers, in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12th, 1658," as well as from other writings of the Independents, that they differed from the rest of the reformed in no single point of any consequence, except that of ecclesiastical govern- ment ; and their religious doctrines were almost entirely the same with those adopted by the church of Geneva. During the administration of Cromwell, the Independents acquired very considerable reputation and influence ; and he made use of them as a check to the ambition of the Presbyterians, who aimed at a very high degree of eccle siastical power, and who had succeeded, soon after the elevation of Cromwell, in obtaining a parliamentary estab- lishment of their own church government. But after the restoration, their cause declined ; and in 1691 they entered into an association with the Presbyterians residing in and about London, comprised in nine articles, that tended to the maintenance of their respective institutions. These may be found in the second volume of Whiston's Memoirs, and the substance of them in Mosheim. At this time the Independents and Presbyterians, called from this associa- tion the United Brethren, were agreed with regard to 212 INDEPENDENTS. doctrines, being generally Calvinists, and differed only with respect to ecclesiastical discipline. Independentisra is peculiar to Great Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands. It was carried first to the American colo- nies in 1620, and by successive Puritan emigrants, in 1629 and 1633, from England, and there developed more fully the fellowship of the churches, and was called Con- gregationalism. One Morel, in the sixteenth century, endeavored to introduce it into France ; but it was con- demned at the synod of Rochelle, where Beza presided ; and again at the synod of Rochelle, in 1644. Many of the Independents reject the use of all creeds and confessions drawn up by fallible men, though they require of their teachers a declaration of their belief in. the Gospel and its various doctrines, and their adherence to the Scriptures as the sole standard of faith and prac- tice. They attribute no virtue whatever to the right of ordination, upon which some other churches lay so much stress. According to them, the qualifications which con- stitute a regular minister of the New Testament, are, a firm belief in the Gospel, a principle of sincere and unaf- fected piety, a competent stock of knowledge, a capacity for leading devotion and communicating instruction, a serious inclination to engage in the important employment of promoting the everlasting salvation of mankind, and ordinarily an invitation to the pastoral office from some particular society of Christians. Where these things con- cur, they consider a person as fitted and authorized for the discharge of every duty which belongs to the minis- terial function ; and they believe that the imposition of hands of bishops or presbyters would convey to him no powers or prerogatives of which he was not before pos- sessed. But though they attribute no virtue to ordination, as conveying any new powers, yet they hold with and INDEPENDENTS. 213 practise it. Many of them, indeed, suppose that the essence of ordination does not lie in the act of the minis- ters who assist, but in the choice and call of the people, and the candidate's acceptance of that calf; so that their ordination may be considered only as a public declaration of that agreement. They consider it as their right to choose their own ministers and deacons. They own no man as head of the church. They disallow of parochial and provincial subordination ; but though they do not think it necessary to assemble synods, yet, if any be held, they look upon their resolutions as prudential counsels, but not as decisions to which they are obliged to conform. They consider the Scriptures as the only criterion of truth. Their worship is conducted in a decent, piain, and simple manner, without the ostentation of form, and the vain pomp of ceremony. The congregations of the Independents are very nume- rous, both in England and America, and generally very respectable. This denomination has produced many cha- racters as eminent for learning and piety as any church in Christendom ; whose works, no doubt, will reflect lasting honor on their characters 3ad abilities. 214 NEONOMIANS NEONOMIANS. NEONOMIANS, so called from the Greek VEOS, new, and s, law, signifying new law, the condition whereof is im- perfect, though sincere and persevering obedience. Neonomianism seems to be an essential part of the Armi- nian system. " The new covenant of grace which, through the medium of Christ's death, the Father made with men, consists, according to this system, not in our being justi- fied by faith, as it apprehends the righteousness of Christ; but in this, that God, abrogating the exaction of perfect legal obedience, reputes or accepts of faith itself, and the imperfect obedience of faith, instead of the perfect obe- dience of the law, and graciously accounts them worthy of the reward of eternal life." This opinion was examined at the synod of Dort, and has been canvassed between the Calviriists and Arminians on various occasions. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, a contro- versy was agitated amongst the English Dissenters, in which the one side, who were partial to the writings of Dr. Crisp, were charged with Antinomianism, and the other, who favored Mr. Baxter, were accused of Neonomianism. Mr. Daniel Williams, who was a principal writer on what was called the Neonomian side, after many things had been said, gives the following as a summary of his faith in refe- rence to those subjects. 1. God has eternally elected a certain definite number of men whom he will infallibly save by Christ in that way prescribed by the Gospel. 2. These very elect are riot personally justified until ihey receive Christ, and yield up themselves to him, but they remain condemned whilst unconverted to Christ. 3. By the min- istry of the Gospel there is a serious ofi'er of pardon anil NEONOMIANS. 213 glory, upon the terms of the Gospel, to all that hear it ; and God thereby requires them to comply with the said terms. 4. Ministers ought to use these and other Gospel benefits as motives, assuring men that if they believe they shall be justified ; if they turn to God, they shall live ; if they repent, their sins shall be blotted out ; and whilst they neglect these duties, they cannot have a personal interest in these respective benefits. 5. It is by the power of the Spirit of Christ freely exerted, and not by the power of free-will, that the Gospel becomes effectual for the conver- sion of any soul to the obedience of faith. 6. When a man believes, yet it is not that very faith, and much less any other work, the matter of that righteousness for which a sinner is justified, i. e., entitled to pardon, acceptance, and eternal glory, as righteous before God ; and it is the im- puted righteousness of Christ alone, for which the Gospel gives the believer a right to these and all saving blessings, who in this respect is justified by Christ's righteousness alone. By both this and the fifth head it appears that all boasting is excluded, and we are saved by free grace. 7. Faith alone receives the Lord Jesus and his righteousness, and the subject of this faith is a convinced, penitent soul; hence we are justified by faith alone, and yet the impeni- tent are not forgiven. 8. God has freely promised that all whom he predestinated to salvation shall not only Savingly believe, but that he by his power shall preserve them from a total or & final apostasy. 9. Yet the believer, whilst ho lives in this world, is to pass the time of his sojourning here with fear, because his warfare is not accomplished, and that it is true that, if he draw back, God will have no nleasure in him. Which with the like cautions God blesseib. as means to the saints' perseverance, arid these by minis- ters should be so urged. 10. The law of innocence, or oiorai law, is so in force still, as that every precept there- 216 NEONOMTANS. of constitutes duty, even to the believer : every breach thereof is a sin deserving of death : this law binds death by its curse on every unbeliever, and the righteousness for or by which we are justified before God, is a righteousness ('at least) adequate to that law which is Christ's alone right- eousness ; and this so imputed to the believer as that God deals judicially with him according thereto. 11. Yet such is the grace of the Gospel, that it promiseth in and by Christ a freedom from the curse, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life, to every sincere believer ; which promise God will certainly perform, notwithstanding the threatening of the law." Dr. Williams maintains the conditionality of the cove- nant of grace ; but admits with Dr. Owen, who also uses the term condition, that " Christ undertook that those who were to be taken into this covenant should receive grace enabling them to comply with the terms of it, fulfil its conditions, and yield the obedience which God required therein." On this subject Dr. Williams further says, " The ques- tion is not whether the first (viz., regenerating) grace, by which we are enabled to perform the condition, be abso- lutely given. This I affirm, though that be dispensed ordi- narily in a due use of means, and in a way discountenancing idleness, and fit encouragement given to the use of means." The following objection, among others, was made by several ministers in 1692, against Dr. William's Gf-ospel Truth Stated, &c. " To supply the room of the moral law, vacated by him, he turns the Gospel into a new law, in keeping of which we shall be justified for the sake of Christ's righteousness, making qualifications and acts of ours a dis- posing subordinate righteousness, whereby we become capable of being justified by Christ's righteousness." To this, among other things, he answers, " The differ- ence is not, 1. Whether the Gospel be a new law in the NONCONFORMISTS. 217 Socinian, Popish, or Arminian sense. This I deny. Nor, 2. Is faith, or any other grace or act of ours, any atone- ment for sin, satisfaction to justice, meriting qualification, or any part of that righteousness for which we are justified at God our Creator's bar. This I deny in places innume- rable. Nor, 3. Whether the Gospel be a law more ncvr than is implied in the first promise to fallen Adam, pro- posed to Cain, and obeyed by Abel, to the differencing him from his unbelieving brother. This I deny. 4. Nor whether the Gospel be a law that allows sin, when it accepts such graces as true, though short of perfection, to be the condi- tions of our personal interest in the benefits purchased by Christ. This I deny. 5. Nor whether the Gospel be a law, the promises whereof entitle the performers of its conditions to the benefits as of debt. This I deny. He goes on to say th r Michael, and the deposition of Photius, subsequent thereupon, seemed to have restored peace ; for the emperor Basil held a council at Constanti- nople in the year 869, in which entire satisfaction was given to pope Adrian ; but the schism was only smothered and suppressed a while. The Greek church had several complaints against the Latin ; particularly it was thought a great hardship for the Greeks to subscribe to the defini- tion of a council according to the Roman form, prescribed by the pope, since it made the church of Constantinople dependent on that of Rome, and set the pope above an oecumenical council ; but, above all, the pride and haughti- ness of the Roman court gave the Greeks a great distaste ; and as their deportment seemed to insult his imperial majesty, it entirely alienated the affections of the emperor Basil. Towards the middle of the eleventh century, Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, opposed the Latins with respect to their making use of unleavened bread in the eucharist, their observation of the Sabbath, and fasting on Saturdays, charging them with living in communion with the Jews. To this, pope Leo IX. replied, and, in his apology for the Latins, declaimed very warmly against the false doctrine of the Greeks, interposing, at the same time, the authority of his &ee. He likewise, 280 GREEK CHURCH. by his legates, excommunicated the patriarch in the church of Santa Sophia, which gave the last shock to the recon- ciliation attempted a long time after, hut to no purpose ; for from that time the hatred of the Greeks to the Latins, and of the Latins to the Greeks, became insuperable, inso- much that they have continued ever since separated from each other's communion. The following are some of the chief tenets held by the Greek church : They disown the authority of the pope, and deny that the church of Rome is the true catholic church. They do not baptize their children till they are three, four, five, six, ten, nay, sometimes eighteen years of age : baptism is performed by trine immersion. They insist that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ought to be administered in both kinds, and they give the sacrament to children immediately after baptism. They grant no indulgences, nor do they lay any claim to the character of infallibility, like the church of Borne. They deny that there is any such place as purgatory ; notwithstanding they pray for the dead, that God would have mercy on them at the general judgment. They practise the invo- cation of saints ; though, they say, they do not invoke them as deities, but as intercessors with God. They exclude confirmation, extreme unction, and matrimony, out of the seven sacraments. They deny auricular con- fession to be a Divine precept, and say it is only a, positive injunction of the church. They pay no religious homage to the eucharist. They administer the communion in both kinds to the laity, both in sickness and in health, though they have never applied themselves to their confessors ; because they are persuaded that a lively faith is all which is requisite for the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper. They maintain that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father, and not from the Son. They believe in pro- GREEK CHURCH. 281 destination. They admit of no images in relief or embossed work, but use paintings and sculptures in copper or silver. They approve of the marriage of priests, provided they enter into that state before their admission into holy orders. They condemn all fourth marriages. They ob- serve a number of holy days, and keep four fasts in tho year more solemn than the rest, of which the fast in Lent, before Easter, is the chief. They believe the doctrine of consubstantiation, or the union of the body of Christ with the sacramental bread. Since the Greeks became subject to the Turkish yoke, they have sunk into the most deplorable ignorance, in consequence of the slavery and thraldom under which they groan ; and their religion is now greatly corrupted [t is, indeed, little better than a heap of ridiculous cere- monies and absurdities. The head of the Greek church is the patriarch of Constantinople, who is chosen by the neighboring archbishops and metropolitans, and confirmed by the emperor or grand vizier. He is a person of great dignity, being the head and director of the Eastern church. The other patriarchs are those of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Mr. Tournefort tells us that the patriarchates are now generally set to sale and bestowed upon those who are the highest bidders. The patriarchs, metropoli- tans, archbishops, and bishops, are always chosen from among the caloyers, or Greek monks. The next person to a bishop, among the clergy, is an archimandrite, who ia the director of one or more convents, which are called mandren ; then come the abbot, the arch-priest, the priest, the deacon, the under-deacon, the chanter, and the lec- turer. The secular clergy are subject to no rules, and never rise higher than high-priest. The Greeks have few nunneries, but a great many convents of monks, who are 24* 282 MAHOMETAN ISM. all priests, and (students excepted) obliged to follow some handicraft employment, and lead a very austere life. The Russians adhere to the doctrine and ceremonies of the Greek church, though they are now independent of the patriarch of Constantinople. The Russian church, indeed, may be reckoned the first, as to extent of empire ; yet there is very little of the power of vital religion among them. The Moskolniki, or, as they now call themselves, the Starovertzi, were a sect that separated from the church of Russia about 1666 ; they affected extraordinary piety and devotion, a veneration for the letter of the Holy Scriptures, and would not allow a priest to administer baptism who had that day tasted brandy. They harbored many follies and superstitions, and have been greatly persecuted ; but, perhaps, there will be found among them " some that shall be counted to the Lord for a generation." Several settlements of German Protestants have been established on the Wolga. The Moravians also have done good in Livonia, and the adjacent isles in the Baltic under the Russian government. MAHOMETANISM Is the system of religion formed and propagated by Ma- homet, and still adhered to by his followers. It is pro- fessed by the Turks and Persians, by several nations among the Africans, and many among the East Indians. Mahomet was born in the reign of Anushirwan the Just, emperor of Persia, about the end of the sixth century of the Christian era. He came into the world under some disadvantages. His father Abd'allah was a younger sou of Abd'almotalleb ; and dying very young, and in his MAHOMETANISM. 283 father's lifetime, left his widow and infant son in very mean circumstances, his whole subsistence consisting but of five camels and one Ethiopian she-slave. Abd'almo- talleb was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild Mahomet ; which he not only did during his life, but at his death enjoined his eldest son Abu Taleb, who was brother to Abd'allah by the same mother, to provide for him for the future ; which he very affectionately did, and instructed him in the business of a merchant, which he followed : and to that end he took him into Syria when he was but thir- teen. He afterwards recommended him to Khadijah, a noble and rich widow, for her factor ; in whose service he behaved himself so well, that, by making him her husband, she soon raised him to an equality with the richest in Mecca. After he began by this advantageous match to live at his ease, it was, that he formed the scheme of establishing a new religion, or, as he expressed it, of replanting the only true and ancient one, professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroy- ing the gross idolatry into which the generality of his countrymen had fallen, and weeding out the corruptions a,nd superstitions which the latter Jews and Christians had, as he thought, introduced into their religion, and reducing it to its original purity, which consisted chiefly in the wor- ship of one God. Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary for him to begin with the conversion of his own household. Having therefore retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to a cave in Mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to his wife Khadijah ; and acquainted her that the angel Gabriel had just before appeared to him, and told him that he was appointed the apostle of God: he also repeated to 284 MAHOMETANISM. her a passage which he pretended had been revealed to him by the ministry of the angel, with those other circum- stances of this first appearance which are related by the Mahometan writers. Khadijah received the news with great joy, swearing by Him in whose hands her soul was, that she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation ; and immediately communicated what she had heard to her cousin Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being a Christian, could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed in the Scriptures ; and he readily came into her opinion, assuring her that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses, was now sent to Mahomet. The first overture the prophet made was in the month of Ramadan, in the fortieth year of his age, which is there- fore usually called the year of his mission. Encouraged by so good a beginning, he resolved to pro- ceed, and try for some time what he could do by private persuasion, not daring to hazard the whole aifair by expo sing it too suddenly to the public. He soon made prose- lytes of those under his own roof, viz. his wife Khadijah, his servant Zeid Ebn Haretha, to whom he gave his free- dom on that occasion (which afterwards became a rule to his followers), and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, though then very young ; but this last, making no account of the other two, used to style himself the first of believers. The next person Mahomet applied to was Abd'allah Ebn Abi Kohafa, surnamed Abu Seer, a man of great authority among the Koreish, and one whose inte- rest he well knew would be of great service to him, as it soon appeared ; for Abu Beer being gained over, prevailed also on Othman Ebn Affan, Abd'alraham Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abbi Wakkus, At Zobeir al Awam, and Telha Ebn Obeidalla, all principal men of Mecca, to follow his exam- ple. These men were six chief companions, who, with a MAHOMETANISM. 285 few more, were converted in the space of three years ; at the end of which, Mahomet having, as he hoped, a suffi- cient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a secret, but gave out that God had commanded him to admonish his near relations ; and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of success, he directed All to prepare an entertainment, and invited the sons and de- scendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them. This was done, and about forty of them came ; but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles, making the com- pany break up before Mahomet had an opportunity of speaking, obliged him to give them a second invitation the next day ; and when they were come, he made them the following speech : "I know no man in all Arabia who can offer his kindred a more excellent thing than I now do to you : I offer you happiness, both in this life, and in that which is to come : God Almighty hath commanded me to call you unto him. Who, therefore, among you, will be assistant to me herein, and become my brother and my vicegerent?" All of them hesitating and declining the matter, AH at length rose up, and declared that he would be his assistant, and vehemently threatened those who should oppose him. Mahomet upon this embraced Ali with great demonstrations of affection, and desired all who were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy ; at which the company broke out into a great laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience to his son. This repulse, however, was so far from discouraging Mahomet, that he began to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, till he came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of themselves and their fathers, which so highly provoked them, that they declared themselves his enemies, and would soon have procured his ruin, had he not been pro- 286 MAHOMETA.NISM. tected by Abu Taleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly solicited this person to desert his nephew, ranking frequent remonstrances against the innovations he was attempting: which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him with an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mahumet to desist. At this Abu Taleb was so far moved that he earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing the affair any further, representing the great danger that he and his friends must otherwise run. But Mahomet was not to be intimidated ; telling his uncle plainly, that if they set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his left, he would not leave his enterprise ; and Abu Taleb, seeing him so firmly resolved to proceed, used no further arguments, but promised to stand by him against all his enemies. The Koreish, finding they could prevail neither by fair words nor menaces, tried what they could do by force and ill treatment ; using Mahomet's followers so very injuri- ously, that it was not safe for them to continue at Mecca any longer ; whereupon Mahomet gave leave to such of them as had no friends to protect them to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly, in the fifth year of the pro- phet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were women, fled into Ethiopia ; and among them Othman Ebn Affan, and his wife Rakiah, Mahomet's daughter. This was the first flight ; but afterwards several others followed them, retiring one after another, to the number of eighty- three men and eighteen women, besides children. These refu- gees were kindly received by the Najashi, or king of Ethio- pia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom the Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arab writers unanimously attest, even professsed the Mahometan reli- gion. In the sixth year of his mission. Mahomet had the plea- MAHOMETANISM. 287 sure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of great valor and merit ; and of Omar Ebn al Kattab, a person highly esteemed, and once a violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution gene- rally advances rather than obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so great a progress among the Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it effectually, if possible, in the seventh year of Mahomet's mission, made a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites and the family of Abd'almotalleb, engaging themselves to con- tract no marriage with any of them, and to have no com- munication with them ; and to give it the greater sanction, reduced it to writing, and laid it up in the Caaba. Upon this, the tribe became divided into two factions ; and the family of Hashem all repaired to Abu Taleb, as their head ; except only Abd'al Uzza, surnamed the Abu Laheb, who, out of inveterate hatred to his nephew and his doctrine, went over to the opposite party, whose chief was Abu Sosian Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya. The families continued thus at variance for three years ; but in the tenth year of his mission, Mahomet told his uncle Abu Taleb, that God had manifestly showed his dis- approbation of the league which the Koreish had made against them, by sending a worm to eat out every word of the instrument except the name of G-od. Of this accident Mahomet had probably some private notice; for Abu Taleb went immediately to the Koreish, and acquainted them with it ; offering, if it proved false, to deliver his nephew up to them ; but, in case it were true, he insisted that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul the league they had made against the Hashemites. To this they acquiesced ; and going to inspect the writing, to their great astonishment found it to be as Abu Taleb had said ; and the league was thereupon declared void. 288 MAHOMETANISM. In the same year Abu Taleb died at the age of above fourscore, and it is the general opinion that he died an infidel ; though others say that, when he was at the point of death he embraced Mahometanism, and produce some passages out of his poetical compositions to confirm their assertion. About a month, or, as some write, three days, after the death of this great benefactor and patron, Ma hornet had the additional mortification to lose his wife Khadijah, who had so generously made his fortune. For which reason this year is called the year of mourning. On the death of these two persons, the Koreish began to be more troublesome than ever to their prophet, and especially some who had formerly been his intimate friends ; insomuch that he found himself obliged to seek for shelter elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tayef, about sixty miles east from Mecca, for the place of his retreat. Thither, therefore, he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and applied himself to two of the chief of the tribe of Thakif, who were the inhabitants of that place ; but they received him very coldly. However, he stayed there a month ; and some of the more considerate and better sort of men treated him with a little respect ; but the slaves and inferior people at length rose against him ; and bringing him to the wall of the city, obliged him to depart and return to Mecca, where he put himself under the protection of Al Mo*iam Ebn Ali. ?.''iis repulse greatly discouraged his followers. How r, and over which the fire will therefore ha r rm of their worship, in his return from Egypt, forced his way into Jerusalem, and murdered forty thousand of them ; and about two years after he ordered his troops to pillage the cities of Judea, and murder the men, and sell the women and children for slaves. Multitudes were killed, and ten thousand prisoners carried off; the temple was dedicated to Olympius, an idol of Greece, and the Jews exposed to the basest treatment. Mattathias, the priest, with his sons, chiefly Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, who were called Maccabees, bravely fought for their religion and liberties. Judas, who succeeded his father about 3840, gave Nicanor and the king's troops a terrible defeat, regained the temple and dedicated it anew, restored the daily worship, and repaired Jerusalem, which was almost in a ruinous heap. After his death, Jonathan and Simon, his brethren, successively succeeded him ; and both wisely and bravely promoted the welfare of the Church and State. Simon was succeeded by his son Hircanus, who subdued Idumea and reduced the Samaritans. In 3899 he was succeeded by his son Jamieus, who reduced the Philistines, the country of Moab, Ammon, Gilead, and part of Arabia. Under these three reigns alone the Jewish nation was independent after the captivity. After the death of the widow of Janneus, who governed nme> years, 316 JEWS. the nation was almost ruined by civil broils. In 3939, Aristobulus invited the Romans to assist him against Hir- canus, his elder brother. The country was quickly re- duced, and Jerusalem taken by force ; and Pompey and a number of his officers, pushed their way into the sanc- tuary, if not into the Holy of Holies, to view the furniture thereof. Nine years after, Grasses, the Roman general, pillaged the temple of its valuables. After Judea had for more than thirty years been a scene of ravage and blood, and twenty-four of which had been oppressed by Herod the Great, Herod got himself installed in the kingdom. About twenty years before our Saviour's birth, he, with the Jew's consent, began to build the temple. About this time the Jews had hopes of the Messiah ; and about A. M. 4000, Christ actually came, whom Herod (instigated by the fear of losing his throne) sought to murder. The Jews, however, a few excepted, rejected the Messiah, and put him to death. The sceptre was now wholly departed from Judah ; and Judea, about twenty-seven years before, reduced to a province. The Jews, since that time, have been scattered, contemned, persecuted, and enslaved among all nations, not mixed with any in the common manner, but have remained as a body distinct by them- selves. 2. Sentiments of the Jews. The Jews commonly reckon but fourteen articles of their faith. Maimonides, a famous Jewish rabbi, reduced them to this number when he drew up their confession about the end of the eleventh century, and it was generally received. All the Jews are obliged to live and die in the profession of these thirteen articles, Which are as follows ; 1. That God is the creator of all things; that He guides and supports all creatures; that He has done everything ; and that He still acts, and shall act during the whole eternity. 2. That God is one ; there JEW S. 317 is no unity like his. He alone hath been, is, and shall be eternally our God. 3. That God is incorporeal, and can- not have any material properties ; and no corporeal es- sence can be compared with him. 4. That God is the beginning and end of all things, and shall eternally sub- sist. 5. That God alone ought to be worshipped, and none beside Him is to be adored. 6. That whatever has been taught by the prophets is true. 7. That Moses is the head and father of all contemporary doctors, of those who lived before, or shall live after him. 8. That the law was given by Moses. 9. That the law shall never be altered, and that God will give no other. 10. That God knows all the thoughts and actions of men. 11. That God will regard the works of all those who have performed what he commands, and punish those who have trans- gressed his laws. 12. That the Messiah is to come, though he tarry a long time. 13. That there shall be a resurrec- tion of the dead when God shall see fit. The modern Jews adhere still as closely to the Mosaic dispensation, as their dispersed and despised condition will permit them. Their service consists chiefly in reading the law in their synagogues, together with a variety of prayers. They use no sacrifices since the destruction of the Temple. They repeat blessings and particular praises to God, not only in their prayers, but on all accidental occasions, and in almost all their actions. They go to prayers three times a day in their synagogues. Their sermons are not made in Hebrew, which few of them now perfectly understand, but in the language of the country where they reside. They are forbidden all vain swearing, and pronouncing any of the names of God without necessity. They abstain from meata prohibited by the Levitical law ; for which reason, what- ever they eat must be dressed by Jews, and after a man- ner peculiar to themselves. As so ?u as a child can speak, 27 318 JEWS. they teach him to read and translate the Bihle into tne language of the country where they live. In general they ohserve the same ceremonies which were practised by their ancestors, in the celebration of the passover. They acknow- ledge a two-fold law of God, a written and an unwritten one ; the former is contained in the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses ; the latter, they pretend, was delivered by God to Moses, and handed down from him by oral tradi- tion, and now to be received as of equal authority with the former. They assert the perpetuity of their law, together with its perfection. They deny the accomplishment of the prophecies in the person of Christ ; alleging that the Mes- siah is not yet come, and that he will make his appearance with the greatest worldly pomp and grandeur, subduing all nations before him, and subjecting them to the house of Judah. Since the prophets have predicted his mean con* dition and sufferings, they confidently talk of two Messiahs; one Ben-Ephraim, whom they grant to be a person of a mean and afflicted condition in this world ; and the other, Ben-David, who shall be a victorious and powerful prince The Jews pray for the souls of the dead, because they suppose there is a paradise for the souls of good men, where they enjoy glory in the presence of God. They believe that the souls of the wicked are tormented in hell with fire and other punishments ; that some are condemned to be punished in this manner forever, while others continue only for a limited time ; and this they call purgatory, which is not different from hell in respect of the place, but of the duration. They suppose no Jew, unless guilty of heresy, or certain crimes specified by the rabbins, shall continue in purgatory above a twelvemonth; and that there are but tew who suffer eternal punishment. Almost all the modern Jews are Pharisees, and are as much attached to tradition as their ancestors were ; and JEWS. 315 assert that whoever rejects the oral law deserves death. Hence they entertain an implacable hatred to the Caraites, who adhere to the text of Moses, rejecting the rahbinistical interpretation. There are still some of the Sadducees in Africa, and in several other places ; but they are few in number : at least there are but very few who declare openly for these opinions. There are to this day some remains of the ancient sect of the Samaritans, who are zealous for the law of Moses, but are despised by the Jews, because they receive only the Pentateuch, and observe different ceremonies from theirs. They declare they are no Sadducees, but acknow- ledge the spirituality and immortality of the soul. There are numbers of this sect at Gaza, Damascus, Grand Cairo, and in some other places of the east ; but especially at Sichem, now called Naplouse, which is risen out of the ruins of the ancient Samaria, where they sacrificed not many years ago, having a place for this purpose on Mount Gerizim. David Levi, a learned Jew, who in 179^6 published " Dissertations on the Prophecies of the Old Testament," observes in that work that Deism and infidelity have mad such large strides in the world, that they have at length reached even to the Jewish nation ; many of whom are at this time so greatly infected with scepticism, by reading Bolingbroke, Hume, Voltaire, &c., that they scarcely be- lieve in a revelation ; much less have they any hope in their future restoration. 3. Calamities of the Jews. All history cannot furnish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews ; rapine and murder, famine and pestilence, within ; fire and sword, and all the terrors of war, without. Our Saviour wept at the foresight of these calamities ; and it is almost impossible for persons of any humanity to read the account 320 JEWS. without being affected. The predictions concerning them were remarkable, and the calamities that came upon them were the greatest the world ever saw. Deut. xxviii., xxix. ; Matt. xxiv. Now, what heinous sin was it that could be the cause of such heavy judgments ? Can any other be assigned than what the Scripture assigns ? 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16. " They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and persecuted the apostles: and so filled up their sins, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost." It is hardly possible to consider the nature and extent of their sufferings, and not conclude the Jews' own impreca tion to be singularly fulfilled upon them. Matt, xxvii. 25. 11 His blood be on us and our children." At Cesarea twenty thousand of the Jews were killed by the Syrians in their mutual broils. At Damascus ten thousand unarmed Jews were killed; and at Bethshan the heathen inhabitants caused their Jewish neighbors to assist them against their brethren, and then murdered thirty thousand of these in habitants. At Alexandria the Jews murdered multitudes of the heathens, and were murdered in their turn to about fifty thousand. The Romans under Vespasian invaded the country, and took the cities of Galilee, Chorazen, Beth- Baida, Capernaum, &c., where Christ had been especially rejected, and murdered numbers of the inhabitants. At Jerusalem the scene was most wretched of all. At the passover, when there might be two or three millions of people in the city, the Romans surrounded it with troops, trenches, and walls, that none might escape. The three different factions within murdered one another. Titus, one of the most merciful generals that ever breathed, did all in his power to persuade them to an advantageous surrender, but they scorned every proposal. The multitudes of un- buried carcases corrupted the air, and produced a pesti- lence. The people fed on one another ; and even ladies, JEWS. 221 it is said, broiled their sucking infants, and ate them. After a siege of six months, the city was taken. They murdered almost every Jew they met with. Titus was bent to save the Temple, but could not : there were six thousand Jews who had taken shelter in it, all burnt or murdered ! The outcries of the Jews, when they saw it, were most dreadful : the whole city, except three towers and a small part of the wall, were razed to the ground, and the foun- dations of the temple and other places were ploughed up. Soon after the forts of Herodian and Macheron were taken, the garrison of Massada murdered themselves rather than surrender. At Jerusalem alone, it is said, one million one hundred thousand perished by sword, famine, and pesti- lence. In other places we hear of two hundred and fifty thousand that were cut off, besides vast numbers sent to Egypt to labor as slaves. About fifty years after, the Jews murdered about five hundred thousand of the Roman sub- jects, for which they were severely punished by Trajan. About 130, one Barocaba pretended that he was the Mes- siah, and raised a Jewish army of two hundred thousand, who murdered all the heathens and Christians who came in their way ; but he was defeated by Adrian's forces. In this war, it is said, about sixty thousand Jews were slain and perished. Adrian built a city on Mount Calvary, and erected a marble statue of swine over the gate that led to Bethlehem. No Jew was allowed to enter the city, or to look to it at a distance, under pain of death. In 360, they began to rebuild their city and temple ; but a terrible earth- quake and flames of fire issuing from the earth, killed the workmen, and scattered their materials. Nor till the seventh century durst they so much as creep over the rub- bish to bewail it, without bribing the guards. In the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, there were many of them furi- ously harassed and murdered. In the sixth century, twenty JEWS. thousand of them were slain, and as many taken and sold for slaves. In 602, they were severely punished for thei'j \orrible massacre of the Christians at Antioch. In Spain, in 700, they were ordered to be enslaved. In the eighth and ninth centuries, they were greatly derided and abused : in some places they were made to wear leathern girdles, and ride without stirrups on asses and mules. In France and Spain they were much insulted. In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, their miseries rather increased : they were greatly persecuted in Egypt. Besides what they suf- fered in the East by the Turkish, and sacred war, it is shocking to think what multitudes of them the eight cru- sades murdered in Germany, Hungary, Lesser Asia, and elsewhere. In France, multitudes were burnt. In Eng- land, in 1020, they were banished ; and at the coronation of Richard I. the mob fell upon them, and murdered a great many of them. About one thousand and five hundred of them were burnt in the palace in the city of York, which they set fire to themselves, after killing their wives and children. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries their condition was no better. In Egypt, Canaan, and Syria, the crusaders still harassed them. Provoked with their mad running after pretended Messiahs, Caliph Nasset scarce left any of them alive in his dominions of Mesopo- tamia. In Persia, the Tartars murdered them in multi- tudes. In Spain, Ferdinand persecuted them furiously. About 1349, the terrible massacre of them at Toledo forced many of them to murder themselves, or change their reli- gion. About 1253, many were murdered, and others ban- ished from France, but in 1275 recalled. In 1320 and 1330, the crusades of the fanatic shepherds, who wasted the south of France, massacred them ; besides fifteen hun- dred that were murdered on another occasion. In 1358, they were totally banished from France, since which few JEWS. 323 of them have entered that country. In 1291, king EdwarJ expelled them from England, to the number of one hundred and sixty thousand. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seven- teenth centuries, their miseries continued. In Persia they have been terribly used : from 1663 to 1666, the murder of them was so universal, that but a few escaped t< Turkey. In Portugal and Spain, they have been miserably handled. About 1392, six or eight hundred thousand were banished from Spain. Some were drowned in their passage to Africa, some died by hard usage, and many of their carcasses lay in the fields till the wild beasts devoured them. In Germany they have endured many hardships. They have been ban- ished from Bohemia, Bavaria, Cologne, Nuremberg, Augs- burgh, and Vienna : they have been terribly massacred in Moravia, and plundered in Bonn and Bamberg. Except in Portugal and Spain, their present condition is generally tolerable. In Holland, Poland, and at Frankfort and Ham- burgh, they have their liberty. They have repeatedly, but till lately in vain, attempted to obtain a naturalization irx England, and other nations among whom they are scattered 4. Preservation of the Jews. " The preservation of the Jews," says Basnage, "in the midst of the miseries which they have undergone during 1700 years, is the greatest prodigy that can be imagined. Religions depend on tem- poral prosperity ; they triumph under the protection of a conqueror : they languish and sink with sinking monarchies. Paganism, which once covered the earth, is extinct. The Christian church, glorious in its martyrs, yet was considera- bly diminished by the persecutions to which it was exposed ; nor was it easy to repair the breaches in it made by those acts of violence. But here we behold a church hated and per- secuted for 1700 years, and yet sustaining itself, and widely extended. Kings have often employed the severity of edicts and the hand of executioners to ruin it. The seditious mul- 324 JEWS titudes, by murders and massacres, have committed out- rages against it still more violent and tragical. Princes and people, Pagans, Mahometans, Christians, disagreeing in so many things, have united in the design of extermi- nating it, and have not been able to succeed. The bush of Moses, surrounded with flames, ever burns, and is never consumed. The Jews have been expelled, in different times, from every part of the world, which hath only served to spread them in all regions. From age to age they have been exposed to misery and persecution; yet still they subsist, in spite of the ignominy and the hatred which hath pursued them in all places, whilst the greatest monarchies are fallen, and nothing remains of them besides the name. " The judgments which God has exercised upon this people are terrible, extending to the men, the religion, and the very land in which they dwelt. The ceremonies essen- tial to their religion can no more be observed ; the ritual law, which cast a splendor on the national worship, and struck the pagans so much that they sent their presents and their victims to Jerusalem, is absolutely fallen, for they have no temple, no altar, no sacrifices. Their land itself seems to lie under a never-ceasing curse. Pagans, Christians, Mohammedans, in a word, almost all nations, have by turns seized and held Jerusalem. To the Jew only hath God refused the possession of this small tract of ground, so supremely necessary for him, since he ought to worship on this mountain. A Jewish writer hath af- firmed that it is long since any Jew has been seen settled near Jerusalem ; scarcely can they purchase there six feet of land for a burying-place. ** In all this there is no exaggeration : I am only point- ing out known facts ; and, far from having the least design to raise an odium against the nation from its miseries, I conclude that it ought to be looked upon as one of those JEWS. 325 prodigies which we admire without comprehending ; since> in spite of evils sc durable, and a patience so long exer- cised, it is preserved by a particular providence. The Jew ought to be weary of expecting a Messiah who so unkindly disappoints his vain hopes ; and the Christian ought to have his attention and his regard excited towards men whom God preserves, for so great a length of time, under calamities which would have been the total ruin of any other people." 5. Number and Dispersion of the Jews. They are looked upon to be as numerous at present as they were formerly in the land of Canaan. Some have rated them at three millions, and others more than double that number. Their dispersion is a remarkable particular in this people. They swarm all over the east, and are settled, it is said, in the remotest parts of China. The Turkish empire abounds with them. There are more of them at Constantinople and Salonichi than in any other place. They are spread through most of the nations of Europe and Africa, and many families of them are established in the West Indies ; not to mention whole nations bordering on Prester John's country, and some discovered in the inner parts of Ame- rica, if we may give any credit to their own writers. Their being always in rebellions (as Addison observes) while they had the Holy Temple in view, has excited most nations to banish them. Besides, the whole people are now a race of such merchants as are wanderers by profes- sion ; and at the same time are in most, if not in all places, incapable of holding either lands or offices, that might engage them to make any part of the world their home. In addition to this, we may consider what provi- dential reasons may be assigned for their numbers and dispersion. Their firm adherence to their religion, and being dispersed all over the earth, has furnished every age 28 326 JEWS. arid every nation with the strongest arguments for the Christian faith ; not only as these very particulars are foretold of them, but as they themselves are the deposita- ries of these and all other prophecies which tend to their own confusion and the establishment of Christianity. Their number furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of wit- nesses that attest the truth of the Bible, and their disper- sion spreads these witnesses through all parts of the world. 6. Restoration of Jews. From the declarations of Scripture, we have reason to suppose the Jews shall be called to a participation of the blessings of the gospel (Rom. xi. ; 2 Cor. iii. 16; Hos. i. 11); and some suppose shall return to their own land (Hos. iii. 5 ; Is. Ixv. 17, etc. ; Ezek. xxxvi). As to the time, some think about 1866 or 2016 j but this, perhaps, is not so easy to deter- mine altogether, though it is probable it will not be before the fall of Antichrist and the Ottoman empire. Let us, however, avoid putting stumbling-blocks in their way. If we attempt anything for their conversion, let it be with peace and love. Let us, says one, propose Christianity to them, as Christ proposed it to them. Let us lay before them their own prophecies. Let us show them their ac- complishment in Jesus. Let us applaud their hatred of idolatry. Let us show them the morality of Jesus in our lives and tempers. Let us never abridge their civil liberty, nor ever try to force their consciences. UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. 327 UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. THIS large and respectable society is frequently mis- taken for the Moravians, but is entirely distinct from them, being founded, near the close of the eighteenth century, by REV. WM. OTTERBEIN, a learned minister of the German Reformed Church. Mr. Otterbein was born in Germany, but came to this country in 1752. Not long afterward, impressed by the study of the Scrip- tures with the need of the New Birth, taught by Christ as the source of all spiritual life, he first sought that blessing for himself; and, having 'found it, began earn- estly to enforce its necessity upon others, however familiar they might be, as he had been, with the religion of forms and education. Numbers of professing Christians were soon roused from apathy and false security, to an active interest in spiritual things. Meetings were appointed on week evenings, not only for preaching, but for prayer and religious conversation things common now, but then counted "strange things," among his denomination. Otterbein also adopted and spread the new idea that all true Christians, of whatever name, should unite at the Lord's table. For these innovations on established order, the Synod called him to account, tried him, and though it never formally excommunicated him, nearly every pulpit was henceforth closed against him. Though sorely pained at these proceedings, Mr. Otter- bein was not silenced or dismayed. He resorted to the fields and private houses ; even the barn was welcome as a place to preach the Gospel. He travelled extensively, and success attended his labors. Many joined him from other denominations, and such was the concord between them, that they agreed to take the name they now bear, of " United Brethren in Christ." 328 UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. Mr. Asbury, sent out to this country by Mr. Wesley to form churches, labored in company with them for some time, they preaching in German, and lie in English. Hence they were called "German Methodists," though they preferred an organization of their own. Some steps were taken to this end in 1 789, at a conference held in Bal- timore, Md., but nothing effectual was done until 1 800, when an organization was formed, and Otterbein and Martin Boehm were chosen the first superintendents or Bishops. The society throve rapidly, both in preachers and people, though not as rapidly as the Methodist Episcopal Church, being confined for a number of years to the German popu- lation. Their " Discipline" was adopted in their General Conference at Mount Pleasant, Pa., in 1815. They are distinguished by no new doctrines, but by an organization in which the ministers and people have, in the main, an equal proportion of power, and the rulers hold office only by the authority and consent of the governed. In thia freedom they are chiefly distinguished from their Metho- dist Episcopal brethren. Their ecclesiastical courts consist, like theirs, of Quar terly, Annual, and General Conferences ; and their officers of ordained elders, who alone exercise the functions of the ministry ; class leaders ; stewards, who attend to the pe- cuniary wants of the ministers ; preacher? in charge, who must have the oversight of one circuit ; presiding elders ; and bishops, who have the general superintendence of the whole Church. Their ministry is earnest, quiet, and . perseveringly devoted to the salvation of souls. They allow, but do not enjoin, the washing of feet They oppose all secret societies, intemperance, and slavery, and are zealous in supporting Missions. In 1870, they had 40 Conferences, 3924 churches, 1634 ministers, and 118,055 members. PELAGIANS. 329 PELAGIANS. PELAGIANTSM is that theological view which denies the total corruption of men, attributed to the fall of Adam (original sin), and declares man's natural capacity suffi- cient for the exercise of Christian duties and virtues, pro- vided he have hut an earnest purpose to do well. It does not exclude faith in divine assistance towards man's im- provement, hut believes this assistance will be granted to those only who strive to improve themselves. This view was broached by the English monk Pelagius, who, in the fifth century, resided in Rome, with the reputation of great learning and an unspotted life, and fled from that city when it was taken by the Goths, in 409, with his friend Ccslestus, to Sicily, and thence to Africa, where Augus- tine declared him a heretic ; in which several African Bynods concurred. Pelagius travelled to Jerusalem, and there closed his life in tranquillity, in the year 420, at the age of ninety years. The philosophfcal soundness and noble frankness of his writings, together with his own great virtue in a time of universal and deep-rooted corrup- tion, procured many adherents to his opinions, which at all times have been considered, by some of the purest and most reflecting men, as the only ones worthy of the Deity. He never attempted to found a heretical or dissenting eect, yet the Pelagians, whose views were formally con- demned at the Council of Ephesus, in 431, and the Semi- Pelagians, founded by John Cassianus at Marseilles (died in 435), who somewhat modified the orthodox dogma of the utter insufficiency of man's nature for virtue, occupy a verj 'uiportant place in ecclesiastical history. 28* 330 EUTYCHIANS. EUTYCHIANS. THE Eutychians were a sect of Christians which began in the east in the fifth century. Eutyches, its reputed founder, though the opinions attributed to him are said to have existed before (de Eutychianismo ante Eutychen, by Christ. Aug. Selig, and also Assemani, Bibliotheca Orien- talis, torn, i., p. 219), was a monk who lived near Constan- tinople, and had a great reputation for austerity and sanc- tity. He was already advanced in years when he came out of his retirement, A. D. 448, in order to oppose the Nestorians, who were accused of teaching " that the divine nature was not incarnate in, but only attendant on, Jesus, being superadded to his human nature after the latter was formed;" an opinion, however, which Nestorius himself had disavowed. In his zeal for opposing the error ascribed to the Nestorians, Eutyches ran into the opposite extreme of saying that in Christ there was " only one nature, that of the incarnate Word," his human nature having been absorbed in a manner by his divine nature. Eusebius, Bishop of Dorylaeum, who had already op- posed the Nestorians, denounced Eutyches before a council assembled at Constantinople by Flavianus, bishop of that city. That assembly condemned Eutyches, who, being supported by friends at the court of Theodosius II., ap- pealed to a general council, which was soon after convoked by the emperor at Ephesus, A. D. 449, under the presi- dency of Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria, and successor to the famous Cyril, who had himself broached a doctrine very similar to that of Eutyches. The majority of the council tumultuouslv acquitted Eu- EUTTCHIANS. 331 tyches, and condemned Flavianus ; the bishops opposed to him were obliged to escape, and Flavianus was cruelly scourged by the soldiers. It was, in short, a scene of dis- graceful violence, which earned for the Council of Ephe- sus the name of "a meeting of robbers." Flavianus appealed to Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, who, in his answer, condemned the doctrine of Eutyches, but could not obtain of Theodosius the convocation of mother council: After the death of that emperor, his successor, Marcianus, convoked a council at Chalcedon, A. D. 451, which is reckoned as the fourth oecumenical council of the Church, and which the Pope's legates at- tended. By this assembly the acts of the Council of Ephe- sus were annulled, Dioscorus was deposed and banished, and Eutyches, who had already been banished by the em- peror, was again condemned, and deprived of his sacer- dotal office. The doctrine was at the same time expounded that " in Christ two distinct natures are united in one person, .and that without any change, mixture, or confusion." Euty- ches died in exile ; but several monks, especially in Syria, continued the schism, and having found a protectress in the Empress Eudocia, the widow of Theodosius, who was liv- ing in Palestine, they became more daring, and excited the people against the partisans of the Council of Chalce- don, whom they stigmatized as Nestorians. The emperor was obliged to send troops to repress these disorders. The doctrine of Eutyches was perpetuated in the east under certain modifications, or rather quibbling of words, which caused the sect to be subdivided under various names, all, however, comprehended under the general name of Monophysites, or believers in one nature. In the sixth century a fresh impulse was given to the Eutychian doctrine by one Jacob, a monk, surnained Baradaeus, who 332 EUTYCHIANS. reconciled the various divisions of the Monophysitos throughout the east, and spread their tenets through Syria, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, found supporters among several prelates (among others in the Bishop of Alexandria), and died himself Bishop of Edessa, A. D. 588. He was considered as the second founder of the Monophysites, who assumed from him the name of Jacob- ites, under which appellation they still constitute a very n-umerous church, equally separate from the Greek, the Roman or Latin, and the Nestorian churches. The Ar- menians and the Copts are Jacobites, and so are likewise many Syrian Christians in contradistinction to the Melch- ites, who belong to the Greek Church. Jacobite congre- gations are found in Mesopotamia. The Monothelites who appeared in the seventh century have been considered as an offshoot of the Eutychians or Monophysites, though they pretended to be quite uncon- nected with them. They admitted the two natures in Christ, explaining that after the union of the two into one person, there was in him only one will and one operation. This was an attempt to conciliate the Monophysites with the orthodox church, and it succeeded for a time. It was approved of by many eastern prelates, and even by Pope Honorius I., in two epistles to Sergius, patriarch of Con stantinople, which are found in the Acts of the Councils But the successors of Honorius condemned the Monothe lites, and Martin I., in a bull of excommunication, A. D. 649, consigned them and their patrons (meaning the Em- peror Constans, who protected them) " to the devil and hia angels." Constans, indignant at this, caused his exarch in Italy to arrest Martin, and send him prisoner to the Chersonesus. At last, under Constantine, who succeeded Constans, the Council of Constantinople, which is the FIFTH MONARCHY MEN. sixth oecumenical council, A. D. 680, condemned the Mo- aothelites, and with them Pope Honorius himself. FIFTH MONARCHY MEN, A SECT of religionists, whose distinguishing tenet was a belief in the fifth universal monarchy, of which Jesus Christ was to be the head, while the saints, under his per- sonal sovereignty, should possess the earth. They ap- peared in England towards the close of the Protectorate ; and in 1660, a few months after the Restoration, they broke out into a serious tumult in London under their leader Venner, in which many of them lost their lives, some being killed by the military, and others afterwards executed. Several Fifth Monarchy Men also suffered death in 1662, on a charge (most probably unfounded) of having conspired to kill the King and the Duke of York, to seize the Tower, etc. They are the same who were sometimes called Millenarians, their notion being that the reign of Christ upon earth was to last for a thousand years. They seem also, from the extravagance and vio- lence of conduct into which they occasionally broke out, to have been confounded, in the popular imagination, with the old Anabaptists of Minister. FRATRICELLI. FRATRICELLI. FKATRICELLI, or Little Brethren, also called Fratres 3,6 paupere vita, a religious sect which arose in Italy towards the end of the thirteenth century. They were Franciscan monks, who separated themselves from the grand commu- nity of St. Francis, with the intention of obeying the laws of their founder in a more rigorous manner than they were observed by the other Franciscans. They accord- ingly renounced every kind of property, both common and individual, and begged from door to door their daily sub- sistence, alleging that neither Christ nor his Apostles had any possessions, either individual or in common ; and that these were the models which St. Francis had commanded them to imitate. They went about clothed in rags, de- claiming against the vices of the Pope and the bishops, and foretold the reformation of the Church and the resto- ration of the true gospel of Christ, by the real followers of St. Francis. As the Franciscan order acknowledges for its companions a set of men who observe the third rule prescribed by St. Francis, and were therefore commonly called Tertiarii ; so likewise the order of the Fratricelk, who were anxious to be considered as the only true fol- lowers of St. Francis, had a great number of Tertiarii attached to their cause. These Tertiarii, or half-monks, were called in Italy Bizoehi or Bocazoi, in France Be- guins, in Germany Begwards or Beghards. This last appellation was generally applied to them. The Tertiarii differed from the Fratricelli, not in their opinions, but only in their manner of living. The Fratricelli were real uaoiiks, subject to the rule of St. Francis, whilst the Bizo* FRATRICELLI. chi or Beghards, as well as the Franciscan Tertiarii, ex- cepting their dirty habits, and certain maxims and obser- vances which they followed in compliance with the rules of their patron saint, lived after the manner of other men, and were therefore considered as laymen. The Beg- hards were divided into two classes, the perfect and the imperfect. The first lived on alms, abstained from mar- riage, and had no fixed dwellings ; the second had houses, wives, and possessions, and were engaged in the common avocations of life like other people. Pope Celestin V. was favorably disposed to the Fratricelli, arid permitted them to constitute themselves into a separate order. They were submissive to that Pope, but they violently opposed his successor, Boniface VIII., and subsequent Popes who persecuted their sect. The Fratricelli were accused of great enormities, and persecuted by the court of Rome ; but they found protection from princes, nobles, and towns, who respected them on account of the austerity of their devotion. The Fratricelli did not always submit with the meekness of the first Christian martyrs to their persecu- tors, but frequently opposed force to force, and evt-n put to death some inquisitors in Italy. This sect continued during the fourteenth century, and spread as far as Bohe- mia, Silesia, and Poland. The members of it were most severely persecuted in the fifteenth century, and many of them fled from France to England and Ireland. All the persecutions directed against the sect did not, however, extinguish it ; and some remnants of it existed till the Reformation of Luther, whose doctrines they embraced. Their name is supposed to have been derived from Fratri- cellus or Fraterculus, an Italian nickname which was ap- plied in the middle ages to all persons who, without be- longing to any religious order, assumed a sanctimonious appearance. 336 PIETISTS. M^M ICH^EANS. PIETISTS. PIETISTS is the name given in the seventeenth century to a kind of German Methodists or Evangelicals, who, being members of the Lutheran Church, were dissatisfied with the cold dogmatism of the generality of its clergy, and felt the want of a revival of religious feeling and of practical piety and charity. Without separating them- selves from the church, they instituted meetings called " Collegia Pietatis," from which the denomination of Pietists was derived. Philip Jacob Spener, a divine of the Lutheran Church, who was preacher at Frankfort, and afterwards at Dresden and Berlin, was the chief promoter of these meetings, which began about 1670. He wrote several ascetic works, and died in 1705. A spirit similar to that of the Pietists of Germany has arisen in our own times in the Swiss and French Protestant churches, and the promoters of it, after suffering considerable annoyance from the less religious part of the community, have suc- ceeded in effecting a revival of evangelical doctrines and practice. They have been styled in derision '* Momiers" (from momerie, mummery), a name which the great majority of them are far from deserving. MANICH^ANS. THE Manichaeans were an heretical Christian sect, who d rived their name from Mani, as he is called by the Persians and Arabians, or Manes or Manichseus, according to the Greek and Roman writers. The particulars of the MANICH^ANS. 337 life and death of this individual are variously reported by the Greek and Oriental writers ; but it appears from all accounts that he was a native of Persia, or at least brought up in that country ; that he was well acquainted with the doctrines of the Magi ; that he attempted to amalgamate the Persian religion with Christianity; and that after meeting with considerable success, he was eventually put to death by Varanes L, king of Persia. It is difficult to determine the exact time at which the doctrines of Mani were first promulgated in the Roman empire ; but they do not appear to have been known before the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth. The Manichaeans believed, like the Magi, in two eternal principles, from which all things proceed, namely, light and darkness, which are respectively subject to the dominion of two beings, one the god of good, and the other the god of evil. They also believed that the first parents of the human race were created by the god of darkness with corrupt and mortal bodies, but that their souls formed part of that eternal light which was subject to the god of light. They maintained that it was the great object cf the government of the god of light to deliver the captive souls of men from their corporeal prisons, and that with this view he created two sublime beings, Christ and the Holy Ghost, and sent Christ into the world, clothed with the shadowy form of a human body, and not with the real substance, to teach mortals how to deliver the rational soul from the corrupt body, and to overcome the power of malignant matter. Referring to the promise of Christ shortly before his crucifixion, which is recorded by John (xvi. 7-15), that he would send to his disciples the Com- forter, " who would lead them into all truth," the Mani- chaeans maintained that this promise was fulfilled in the person of Mani, who was sent by the god of light to declare 29 W 338 MANICHJSANS. to all men the doctrine of salvation, without conceali* (g any of its truths under the veil of metaphor, or under any other covering. Mani also taught that those souls which obeyed the laws delivered by Christ, as explained by him- self the Comforter, and struggled against the lusts and appetites of a corrupt nature, would, on their death, be delivered from their sinful bodies, and, after being purified by the sun and moon, would ascend to the regions of light ; but that those souls which neglected to struggle against their corrupt natures would pass after death into the bodies of animals or other beings, until they had expiated their guilt. Their belief in the evil of matter led them to deny the doctrine of the resurrection. Mani entirely rejected the authority of the Old Testa- ment, which he had said was the word of the god of dark- ness, whom the Jews had worshipped in the place of the god of light. He asserted that the books of the New Testament had been grossly interpolated ; and that they were not all written by the persons whose names they bear. The doctrines of the sect were contained in four works, Baid to have been written by Mani himself, which were entitled respectively " Mysteries," u Chapters," " Gospel," and "Treasury;" but we know little or nothing of their contents, Bower, in the second volume of his " History of the Popes," has attempted to prove that the Manichaeans were addicted to immoral practices ; but this opinion has been ably controverted by Beausobre and Lardner, who have shown that they were, on the contrary, exceedingly rigor- ous and austere in their mode of life. The disciples of Mani were divided into two classes, ono of which was called the Elect r and the other Hearers The former were bound to abstain from animal food, wine, wid all sensual enjoyments ; the latter were considered aa MANICH^JANS. 339 imperfect and feeble Christians, and were not obliged to submit to such a severe mode of life. The ecclesiastical constitution of the Manicheeans consisted of twelve apostles and a president, who represented Christ ; of seventy-two bishops, who also represented the seventy-two disciples of Christ ; and of presbyters and deacons, as in the Catholic church. The Manichaeans never appear to have been very numerous, but they were spread over almost all parts of the Christian world. Numerous treatises were written against them, the most important of which were by Eusebius of Csesarea, Eusebius of Emesa, Serapion of Thumis, Athanasius of Alexandria, George and Apolli- narius of Laodicea, and Titus of Bostra. Much valuable information concerning this sect may be found in the writings of Augustine, who was for nine years a zealous supporter of the Manichsean doctrines. The Paulicians are generally considered to be a branch of the Manichaean sect, and are supposed to have appeared first in the seventh century in Armenia, and to have derived their name from Paul, a zealous preacher of the doctrines of Mani. But this is an error. See appendix. In the sixth century the Manichsean doctrines are said to have spread very widely in Persia. They continued to have supporters, under their new name of Paulicianism, till a very late period in ecclesiastical history. About the middle of the eighth century, the emperor Constantine, surnamed Copronymus, transplanted from Armenia a great number of Paulicians to Thrace ; where they continued to exist even after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the doc- trines of the Paulicians were introduced into Italy and France, and met with considerable success. 340 MARCIONITES. MARCIONITES. THE Marcionites were a religious sect of the second and third centuries of our sera, so called from their teacher Marcion, a native of Sinope and a priest, who adopted the old Oriental belief of two independent, eternal, co-existing principles, one evil and the other good. He endeavored to apply this doctrine to Christianity, asserting that our souls are emanations of the good principle, but our bodies and the whole visible world are the creation of the evil genius, who strives to chain down our spiritual nature by corporeal fetters, so as to make the soul forget its pure and noble origin. He further maintained that the law of Moses, with its threats and promises of things terrestrial, was a contrivance of the evil principle in order to bind men still more to the earth ; but that the good principle, in order to dissipate these delusions, sent Jesus Christ, a pure emanation of itself, giving him a corporeal appearance and a semblance of bodily form, in order to remind men of their intellectual nature, and that they cannot expect to find happiness until they are reunited to the principle of good from which they are derived. Marcion and his disciples condemned all pleasures which are not spiritual ; they taught that it was necessary to combat every impulse that attaches us to the visible world ; they condemned marriage, and some of them even regretted the necessity of eating of the fruits of the earth, which they believed to have been created by the evil principle. The Marcionites spread far in the East, and especially in Persia. The chief opponent of Marcion was Tertullianus, who wrote a book to refute his doctrines. MARONITES. MAEONITES. MARONITES is the name of a community of Christians belonging to the "Western or Roman church, and living on Mount Lebanon. They are the neighbors of, and allied to, and in some places mixed with the Druses, and, like them, independent, in great measure, of the Turkish power. The Maronites occupy the valleys and fastnesses of the principal ridge of Lebanon east of Beyroot and Tripoli, and they extend inland as far as the Bekaa, 01 plain between the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, where they are mixed with the Druses, though they do not intermarry with them. The town of Zhakle, in the valley of Bekaa, contains between ten and twelve thousand inhabitants, chiefly Maronites. There are also many Maronites at Beyroot and Tripoli, but the tract of country in which the great bulk of the Maronites reside is called Kesrouan. It extends along the ridge of Libanus from the Nahr el Kelb, a stream which enters the sea twelve miles north of Beyroot, to the Nahr el Kebir, which enters the sea north of Tripoli, near the island of Ruad, the ancient Aradus, on which side the Maronites border on the Nosairis, or Ansarieh, who extend to the northward towards Latakieh, and the Ismaelians, who live farther inland, near the banks of the Orontes. To the eastward, the Maronites have for neighbors the Metualis, a tribe of independent Moslems, of the sect of Ali, who live under their own emir, and occupy the bclad or district of Baalbek and part of the Anti-Libanus ; and on the south they border on the territory of the Druses, with whom they form one political body, being subject to the Emir Beschir, in so far as they join him when he calls 29* 342 MARONITES. them to arms for the common defence, and pay him their Bhare of the tribute, which the emir paid formerly to the Porte, and n DW pays to the pasha of Egypt. But in their internal concerns the Maronites are governed by their own sheiks, of whom there is one in every village, from whose decision there is an appeal to the bishops, who have great authcrity; and in some cases to the emir of the Druses, and his divan or council. The clergy are very numerous; the secular parish clergy are married, as in the Greek church ; but the regular clergy, who are said to amount to 20,000, and are distributed among about 200 convents, follow the rule of St. Anthony, and are bound by vows of chastity and obedience. The Maronite monks are not idle ; they cul- tivate the land belonging to their convents, and live by its produce. Every convent is a farm. The convents are under the jurisdiction of bishops, of whom there is one in every large village. The bishops are under the obligation of celibacy. The bishops collectively elect the patriarch, who is confirmed by the pope, and who resides at the convent of Kanobin, in a valley of the Libanus, south-east of Tripoli, where there is a printing-press, which furnishes the elementary books for the use of the Maronite schools. Not far from Kanobin is the large village of Eden, ten miles above which, and high up the Libanus, is the famed clump of old cedars, called the " Cedars of Solomon," of large dimensions, but now reduced to seven in number (Lamartine, Voyage en Orient ; Richardson), not including the younger and smaller ones. Dr. Richardson measured the trunk of one of the old trees, and found it thirty-two feet in circumference. The whole clump of old and young trees may be walked round in about half an hour. Old cedars are not found in any other part of Libanus. At the opposite or southern extremity of the Kesrouan MARON1TES. 343 is the handsome convent of Antoura, which is the residence of the papal legate and of some European missionaries. Near it is a convent of Maronite nuns. The Maronites derive their name from a monk of the name of Maro, who. in the fifth century, collected a number of followers, and founded several convents in these moun- tains. When the Monothelite heresy prevailed in the East in the seventh century, and was favored by the court o ? Constantinople, many Christians who did not embrace its tenets took refuge in the fastnesses of Libanus, around the convents, and thus the name of Maronites was assumed by the population of the mountains. This is the account of the Maronites themselves ; others pretend that the Maro- nites were Monothelites, who took refuge in the Libanua after the Emperor Anastasius II. had condemned and pro- scrbed their sect, in the beginning of the eighth century. Joseph Simonius Assemani, and his friend Ambarach, better known as Father Benedetti, have defended the Maronites from the v/harge of Monothelitism. Ambarach translated from the Arabic into Latin the work of Stephen, patriarch of Antioch, concerning the origin and liturgy of the Maronites. In 1736, at a great synod held at Mar- hanna, the Maronite church formally acknowledged the canons of the Council of Trent, but they retained the mass in the Syriac language, and the marriage of the priests. Before that time they received the sacrament under both forms, as in the Greek church. At mass the priest turns towards the congregation and reads the gospel of the day in Arabic, which is the vulgar tongue. The Maronite population is said to be above 200,000 individuals, and to contain between thirty and forty thou- sand men fit for military service. Every Maionite is armed, and they are all soldiers in case of need. Volney reckoned them, in 1784, a* 120,000, but the pcpulation 344 CALVINISTS. has been rapidly increasing since that time. Their Ian guage is Arabic, and by their appearance and habits they belong to the Arabian race. They are a fine-looking people, high-spirited, civil, and hospitable, especially towards European travellers, and perfectly honest. Rob- bery and other acts of violence are hardly known among them. They are altogether an interesting race, full of vigor, and perhaps destined with the Druses to act an important part in the future vicissitudes of Syria. (Jowett, Light, Lamartine, and other travellers in Syria.) There is at Rome, on the Quirinal Mount, a convent of Maronite monks, who perform the service of the mass in the Syriac language, according to the liturgy of their country. This church was founded by Pope Gregory XIIL, and is dedicated to St. John. The monastery serves as a college for young Maronites who como to Rome to study and take orders, after which they return to their own country. It is one of those exotic colonies which give a peculiar interest to the city of Rome. The ceremonies of these Maronites of Rome on great festivals, their chanting in Syriac, and their curious musical instruments, are described by the Abbe' Richard, in his "Voyage en Italie." CALVINISTS. THE followers of the religious doctrine and Church government instituted by Calvin. Calvin published his system in his "Christian Institutes," in the year 1536; but it does not appear to have obtained the name of Cal- vinism, nor its supporters the name of Calvinists, till the conference cf Poissy, in 1561. The reformer was not y OALVINISTS. M5 himself present at that assembly, being prevented from attending by his local duties and the ill state of his health ; but we see from his correspondence with Beza, the deputy from Geneva, how deep was his interest in its proceedings, and that nothing was done on the part of the reformers without his knowledge and advice. In the debate which took place on the Augsburg Confession, the points of differ- ence between the Lutherans and Calvinists were drawu out; and they were such as that from thenceforth the latter became known as a distinct sect under that denomi- nation. The tenets of Calvinism respect the doctrines of the Trinity, predestination, or particular election and repro- bation, original sin, particular redemption, effectual or irresistible grace in regeneration, justification by faith, and the perseverance of Saints ; together also with the govern- ment and discipline of the Church, the nature of the eucharist, and the qualification of those entitled to partake of it. The great leading principles of the system, how ever, are the absolute decrees of God, the spiritual pres- ence of Christ in the eucharist, and the independence of the Church. Calvinism was, perhaps, like Lutheranism, exemplified first at Strasburg ; where, in the year 1538, Calvin esta- blished a French church on his own plan. But it was at Geneva the system was seen in all its vigor ; and from thence it spread into France, Germany, Prussia, the United Provinces, England and Scotland. To this last place it was carried by Knox, the disciple and intimate correspond- ent of Calvin ; and as within the little territory of Geneva there was neither room nor need for the parochial sessions, presbyteries, provincial synods, and general assembly, into which the presbyterial government expands itself in a large community, we shall briefly advert to its leading features 346 CALVINISIS. in Scotland, as it appeared there in the lifetime of Knox. We shall thus, indeed, see the Church of Scotland in its infancy ; but, at the same time, and it is this we have chiefly in view, we shall thus, perhaps, have the best idea of the matured opinions of the great reformer. The Confession of Faith, ratified by the Scotch parlia- ment in 1560, declares * that by the sin of our first parents, " commonly called original sin, the image of God was utterly defaced in man, and he and his posterity of nature became enemies of God, slaves to Satan, and servants unto sin ; insomuch that death everlasting has had, and shall have, power and dominion over all that have not been, are not, or shall not be, regenerated from above, which regene- ration is wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost working in the hearts of the elect of God an assured faith in the promise of God revealed in his word; that "from the eternal and immutable decree of God all our salvation springs and depends ;" " God of mere grace electing us in Christ Jesus his Son before the foundation of the world was laid ;" and that " our faith and the assurance of the same proceeds not from flesh and blood, that is to say, from our natural powers within us, but is the inspiration of the Holy Ghost;" "who sanctifies us and brings us in all verity by his own operation, without whom we should remain for ever enemies to God and ignorant of his son Christ Jesus ; for of nature we are so dead, so blind, and BO perverse, that neither can we feel when we are pricked, see the light when it shines, nor assent to the will of God when it is revealed, unless the spirit of the Lord Jesus quicken that which is dead, remove the darkness from our minds, and bow our stubborn hearts tD the obedience of his blessed will;" "so that the cause of good works we * We have here modernized the spelling. CALVINISTS. 347 confess to be not our free will, but the spirit of the Lord Jesus, who, dwelling in our hearts by true faith, brings forth such works as God has prepared for us to walk in ;" and " whoso boast themselves of the merits of their own works, or put their trust in works of supererogation, boast themselves in that which is not, and put their trust in damnable idolatry." It further admits that "we now, in the time of the evangel, have two chief sacraments only," to wit, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; by the former of which, " we are ingrafted in Christ Jesus to be made par takers of his justice, by which our sins are covered and remitted ;" and in the latter it is asserted there is a real though only spiritual presence of Christ, and " in the sup- per rightly used, Christ Jesus is joined with us, that he becomes very nourishment and food of our souls." The marks of a true church are said to be the true preaching of the word of God, the right administration of the sacra- ments, and ecclesiastical discipline rightly administered as the word of God prescribes. The polity or constitution of the Church, however, is not detailed ; this was done in the "Book of discipline" drawn up by Knox and his brethren. The highest Church judicatory is the General Assembly, composed of representatives from the others, which are provincial synods, presbyteries, and kirk ses- sions. The officers of the Church are pastors or ministers, doctors or teachers, and lay elders, to which are to be added lay deacons, for the care of the poor. Among the clergy there is a perfect parity of jurisdiction and autho- rity, and in the Church courts clergy and laity have equal voices. The minister and the elder indeed are both pres- lyter* the one a preaching presbyter, and the other a ruling presbyter ; and it will be remembered that when Bucer expressed his approbation of the episcopal hierarchy of England, Calvin said it was only another papacy. An- 348 MOLINISTS. other principle, recognised alike by Calvin and the re- formers of Scotland, was the education of the people ; Thich both seem to have regarded as the rock upon which the Reformed Church should be built ; and in Scotland, as was fit, this foundation was as broad as the building, it being meant that, besides the universities of the kingdom, there should be in every district a parish church and a parish school. MOLINISTS. Louis MOLINA, born at Cuenga in Castile, entered the Drder of Jesuits in 1553. He studied at Coimbra, became a learned divine, and taught theology for twenty years in the college of Evora. He died at Madrid in the year 1600. He wrote commentaries upon Thomas Aquinas, and a treatise "De Justitia et Jure;" but the work which has rendered his name famous as the head of a school of theology is his book " De Concordia Gratiae et Liberi Arbitrii," printed at Lisbon in 1568, with an appendix to it, published after. In this work Molina undertook the task of reconciling the free-will of man with the foreknowledge of God and predes- tination. He observed that the early fathers who had pre- ceded the heresy of Pelagius had defined predestination as being the foreknowledge of God from all eternity of tha use which each individual would make of his free-will ; but St. Augustine, who had to oppose the Pelagians, who granted too much to free-will, spoke of predestination in a more absolute and restricted sense. Molina says that man requires grace in order to do good, but that God never fails to grant this grace to those who ask it with fervor. MOLINISTS. 349 lie also asserts that man has it in his power to answer, or not, to the calling of grace. The opinions of Molina, which were adopted, enlarged, and commented upon by the Jesuits, and strongly opposed by the Dominicans, gave rise to the long disputes concern- ing grace and free-will. The partisans of Molina were called Molinists, and their antagonists Thomists, from Tho- mas Aquinas, the favorite divine of the Dominican order. Already in Molina's lifetime his opinions were stigmatized as savoring of Pelagianism. After numerous disputations, Pope Paul V., in 1609, forbade both Jesuits and Domini- cans from reviving the controversy. But soon after Jan- senius, bishop of Ypres, wrote a book in which he dis- cussed the question concerning grace after the manner of St. Augustine. His book was denounced by the Jesuits, and thus the dispute began afresh between the Molinista and the Jansenists. Pascal, in his second "Lettre Pro vinciale," gives an account of the state of the contro- versy in his time. He says that " the Jesuits pretend that there is a sufficient grace imparted unto all men, and sub- ordinate to their free-will, which can render it active or inactive, while the Jansenists maintain that the only suffi- cient grace is that which is efficacious, that is to say, which determines the will to act effectively. The Jesuits sup- port the 'sufficient grace,' the Jansenists the 'efficacious grace.' ' Molina must not be confounded with Molinos (Michael}* a Spanish clergyman of the seventeenth century, who was the founder of the theory of piety and devotion called Qui- etism, of which Fenelon and Madame Guyon were distin- guished supporters. so 350 MONTANISTS. MONTANISTS, OR CATAPHRYGIANS, were a sect of Christians, which arose in Phrygia about 171 A. D. They were called Montanistl from their leader Montanus, and Cataphrygians or Phry- gians, from the country in which they first appeared. Of the personal history of Montanus little is known, He is said to have been born at Ardaba, a village in Mysia, and to have been only a recent convert when he first made pretensions to *ne character of a prophet. His principal associates were two prophetesses, named Prisca or Priscilla, and Maximilla. According to some of the ancient writers, Montanus was believed by his followers to be the Paraclete, or Holy Spirit. Probably this is an exaggeration, but it is certain that he claimed divine inspiration for himself and his associates. They delivered their prophecies in an ecstasy, and their example seems to have introduced inta the church the practice of appealing to visions in favor of opinions and actions, of which practice Cyprian and others availed themselves to a great extent. Tertullian, who be- longed to this sect, informs us that these revelations rela- ted only to points of discipline, and neither affected the doctrines of religion nor superseded the authority of Scrip- ture. The doctrines of Montanus agreed in general with those of the Catholic Church, but some of his followers ap- pear to have embraced the Sabellian heresy. The Moi> tanists were chiefly distinguished from other Christians by the austerity of their manners and the strictness of their discipline. They condemned second marriages, and prac- tised fasts. They maintained that all flight from perse- cution was unlawful, and that the Church had no power to forgive great sins committed after baptism. They held the MUGGLETONIANS. 351 doctrine of the personal reign of Christ on earth at the Millennium. They are accused by some of the early writers of celebrating mysteries attended by deeds of cruelty and lewdness, but it appears quite certain that these charges are unfounded. The Montanists were warmly opposed by the writers of the Catholic party, though they were once countenanced for a short time by a bishop of Rome, whose name is un- known, but who is supposed by some to have been Victor. Tertullian wrote several works in defence of their opinions. The sect was numerous, and lasted a considerable time. They still existed in the time of Augustin ^nd Jerome, the latter of whom wrote against them. MUGGLETONIANS. THE Muggletonians were a sect of Christians which arose in England in the year 1651. The leaders of this sect were Lodowicke Muggleton, a journeyman tailor, and John Reeve, who asserted that they had been appointed by an audible voice from God, as the last and greatest prophets of Jesus Christ, that they were the two witnesses mentioned in the llth chapter of the Revelations, and that they had power to bless or damn to all eternity whomsoever they pleased. They published a great number of works, and obtained many followers. The chief writers against them were the Quakers, and among these, George Fox and Wm. Penn. On the 17th of January, 1676, Muggleton was tried at the Old Bailey, and convicted of blasphemy. He died on the 14th of March, 1697, at the age of 88. It is impossible here to give a full account of the strange 352 FLAGELLANTS. doctrines of tins sect. The chief articles of their creed appear to have been, that God has the real body of a man, that the Trinity is only a variety of names of God, that God himself came down to earth, and was born as a man and suffered death, and that during this time >Elias was his representative in heaven. They held very singular and not very intelligible doctrines concerning angels and devils. According to them the soul of man is inseparably united with the body, with which it dies and will rise again. A complete collection of the works of Reeve and Mug- gleton, together with other Muggletonian tracts, was pub- lished by some of their modern followers, in 3 vols. 4to., 1832. Among the works written against them are the fol- lowing: "The New Witnesses proved Old Heretics," by William Penn, 4to., 1672 ; "A True Representation of the Absurd and Mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly known by the name of Muggletonians," 4to., London, 1694. FLAGELLANTS, the Latin flagellare, to beat,) the name of a sect n; the 13th century, who thought that they could best expiate their sins by the severe discipline of the scourge. Rainer, a hermit of Perugia, is said to have been its founder, in 1260. He soon found followers in nearly all parts of Italy. Old and young, great and small, ran through the cities, scourging themselves, and exhorting to repentance. Their Dumber soon amounted to 10,000, who went about, led by priests bearing banners and crosses. They went in thou- sands from country to country, begging alms. In 1261, FLAGELLANTS. 353 they broke over the Alps in crowds into Germany, showed themselves in Alsatia, Bavaria, Bohemia, and Poland, and found there many imitators. In 1296, a small band of Fla gellants appeared in Strasburg, who, with covered faces, whipped themselves through the city, and at every church. The princes and higher clergy were little pleased with thia new fraternity, although it was favored by the people. The shameful public exposure of the person by the Flagellants offended good manners ; their travelling in such numbers afforded opportunity for seditious commotions, and irregu- larities of all sorts ; and their extortion of alms was a severe tax upon the peaceful citizen. On this account, both in Germany and in Italy, several princes forbade these expeditions of the Flagellants. The kings of Poland and Bohemia expelled them with violence from their states, and the bishops strenuously opposed them. In spite of this, the society continued under another form, in the fraternities of the Beghards, in Germany and France, and in the be- ginning of the fifteenth century, among the Brothers of the Cross, so numerous in Thuringia (so called from wearing on their clothes a cross on the breast and on the back), of whom 91 were burnt at once at Sangershausen, in 1414. The council assembled at Constance, between 1414 and 1418, was obliged to take decisive measures against them. Since this time nothing more has been heard of a fraternity of this sort. Flagellation has almost always been used for the punish- ment of crimes. Its application as a means of religious penance is an old Oriental custom, admitted into Christi- anity partly because self-torture was considered salutary as mortifying the flesh, and partly because both Christ arvl the apostles underwent scourging. From the first centuiy of Christianity, religious persons sought to atone for their sins, and to move an impartial Judge to compassion and so* X 354 FLAGELLANTS. pardon by voluntary bodily torture. Like the abbot Re- gino, at Prum, in the 10th century, many chose to share in the sufferings of Christ, in order to make themselves the more certain of forgiveness through him. It became gen- eral in the llth century, when Peter Damiani of Ravenna, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Croce d'Avel- lano, near Gubbio, in Italy, afterwards cardinal bishop of Ostia, zealously recommended scourging as an atonement for sin, to Christians generally, and, in particular, to the monks. His own example, and the fame of his sanctity, rendered his exhortations effective. Clergy and laity, men and women, began to torture themselves with rods and thongs and chains. They fixed certain times for the inflic- tion of this discipline upon themselves. Princes caused themselves to be scourged naked by their father confessors. Louis IX. constantly carried with him, for this purpose, n ivory box, containing five small iron chains, and exhorted his father confessor to scourge him with severity. He like- wise gave similar boxes to the princes and princesses of his house, ani to other pious friends, as marks of his peculiar favor. The wild expectation of being purified from sin by flagellation, prevailed throughout Europe in the last half of the 13th century. ''About this time," says the monk of Padua, in his chronicles of the year 1260, " when all Italy was filled with vice, the Perugians suddenly entered upon a course never before thought of; after them the Romans, and at length all Italy. The fear of Christ exerted upon the people so strong an influence, that men of noble and ignoble birth, old and young, traversed the streets of khe city naked, yet without shame. Each carried a scourge in his hand, with which he drew forth blood from his tor- tured body, amidst sighs and tears, singing, at the same time, penitential psalms, and entreating the compassion of the Deity. Both by day and night, and even in the coldest FLAGELLANTS. 355 winters, by hundreds and thousands, they wandered through cities and churches, streets and villages, with burning wax candles. Music was then silent, and the song of love echoed no more; nothing was heard but atoning lamentations. The most unfeeling could not refrain from tears ; discord- ant parties were reconciled; usurers and robbers hastened to restore their unlawful gains ; criminals, before unsus- pected, came and confessed their crimes, &c." But these penances soon degenerated into noisy fanaticism and a sort of trade. The penitents united into fraternities called the Flagellants (described above), of which there were branches in Italy, France, and Germany. After the council of Con- stance (141418), both clergy and laity by degrees became disgusted with flagellation. The Franciscan monks in France (Cordeliers) observed the practice longest. It is not to be wondered at, that a custom so absurd was so long maintained, when we remember the great advantages which the sufferers promised themselves. In the opinion of men in the middle ages, flagellation was equivalent to every sort of expiation for past sins, imposed by the father confessors. 3000 strokes, and the chanting of 30 penitential psalrns, were sufficient to cancel the sins of a year ; 30,000 strokes, the sins of 10 years, &c. An Italian widow, in the llth century, boasted that she had made expiation by voluntary scourging for 100 years, for which no less than 300,000 stripes were requisite. The opinion was prevalent, like- wise, that, however great the guilt, by self-inflicted pain, hell might be escaped, and the honor of peculiar holiness acquired. By this means, flagellation gained a charm in the sight of the guilty and ambitious, which raised thera above the dread of corporeal suffering, till the conceits uf hypocrisy vanished before the clearer light of civilization and knowledge. ANABAPTISTS, ANABAPTISTS. ANABAPTISTS are those who maintain that baptism ought always to he performed by immersion. The word is com- pounded of ava, "anew," and fSairrKtv^ "a Baptist;" sig- nifying that those who have been baptized in their infancy ought to be baptized anew. It is a word which has been indiscriminately applied to Christians of very different principles and practices. The English and Dutch Bap- tists do not consider the word as at all applicable to their sect ; because those persons whom they baptize they con- sider as never having been baptized before, although they have undergone what they term the ceremony of sprink- ling in their infancy. The Anabaptists of Germany, besides their notions con- cerning baptism, depended much upon certain ideas which they entertained concerning a perfect church establish- ment, pure in its members, and free from the institutions of human policy. The most prudent part of them consi- dered it possible, by human industry and vigilance, to purify the church ; and seeing the attempts of Luther to be successful, they hoped that the period was arrived in which the church was to be restored to this purity. Others, not satisfied with Luther's plan of reformation, undertook a more perfect plan, or, more properly, a visionary enter- prise, to found a new church, entirely spiritual and divine. This sect was soon joined by great numbers, whose characters and capacities were very different. Their pro- gress was rapid ; for, in a very short space of time, their discourses, visions, and predictions, excited great commo- tions in a great part of Europe. The most pernicious fac- ANABAPTISTS. 357 tion of all those which composed this motley multitude, was that which pretended that the founders of this new and perfect church were under a divine impulse, and were armed against all opposition by the power of working miracles. It was this faction that, in the year 1521, be gan their fanatical work under the guidance of Munzer, Stubner, Storick, etc. These men taught that, among Christians, who had the precepts of the gospel to direct, and the Spirit of God to guide them, the office of magis- tracy was not only unnecessary, but an unlawful encroach- ment on their spiritual liberty ; that the distinctions occa- sioned by birth, rank, or wealth should be abolished ; that all Christians, throwing their possessions into one stock, should live together in that state of equality which be- comes members of the same family ; that, as neither the laws of nature, nor the precepts of the New Testament, had prohibited polygamy, they should use the same liberty as the patriarchs did in this respect. They employed, at first, the various arts of persuasion in order to propagate their doctrines, and related a number of visions and revelations with which they pretended to have been favored from above ; but when they found that this would not avail, and that the ministry of Luther and other reformers was detrimental to their cause, they then madly attempted to propagate their sentiments by force of arms. Munzer and his associates, in the year 1525, put themselves at the head of a numerous army, and declared war against all laws, governments, and magistrates of every kind, under the chimerical pretext that Christ him- self was now to take the reins of all government into his hands ; but this seditious crowd was routed and dispersed by the Electer of Saxony and other princes, and Munzer, their leader, put to death. Many of his followers, however, survived, and propa- 358 ANABAPTTSTS. gntcd their opinions through Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. In 1533, a party of them settled at Munster, under two leaders of the names of Matthias and Bock- holdt. Having made themselves masters of the city, they deposed the magistrates, confiscated the estates of such aa hnd escaped, and deposited the wealth in a public treasury for common use. They made preparations for the defence of the city ; invited the Anahaptists in the Low Countries to assemble at Munster, which they called Mount Sion, that from thence they might reduce all the nations of the earth under their dominion. Matthias was soon cut off hy the Bishop of Munster's army, and was succeeded by Bockholdt, who was proclaimed by a special designation of heaven, as the pretended King of Sion, and invested with legislative powers like those of Moses. The city of Munster, however, was taken after a long siege, and Bock- hoi