Christ, by his sufferings and death, made an atonement for the sins of all mankind in general, and of every individual in particular. 3. That true faith cannot proceed from the exercise of our natural faculties and powers; since man, in consequence of his natural corruption is incapable of any good; and that, therefore, it is necessary, in order to his salvation, that he be regenerated, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God. 4. That this Divine grace begins and perfects every thing that can be called good in man—that good works are not meritorious and that grace does not compel a man to act against his inclination, and may be rendered ineffectual by the perverse will of the impenitent sinner. 5 That God gives to the truly faithful, who are regenerated, the means of preserving themselves in this state; but that the regenerate may lose their true faith, forfeit their state of grace, and die in their sins.

BAPTISTS (also called ANABAPTISTS, and ANTIPÆDOBAPTISTS) are those, who administer the ordinance of baptism by immersion only, instead of sprinkling. They contend that baptism ought not to be administered to infants or children at all, but to adults, who profess repentance for sin, and faith in Christ, and to them only. The baptists subsist under two denominations, viz. 1. The particular, who embrace Calvinistic principles, and who are the most numerous; and 2. The general, who are Arminians in doctrine. Many of these last have, of late years, deviated into Socinianism or Arianism.

BAXTERIANS. This sect strikes into a middle path, between Arminianisin and Calvinism, and thus endeavours to unite both schemes. With the Calvinist, the Baxterian professes to believe that a certain number, determined upon in the Divine councils, will be infallibly saved, and with the Arminian he joins in rejecting the doctrine of reprobation as absurd and impious, admits that Christ, in a certain sense, died for all, and supposes that such a portion of grace is allotted to every man, as renders it his own fault if he does not attain to eternal life. This conciliatory system was espoused by the famous nonconformist Richard Baxter, who lived in the seventeenth century, and who was equally celebrated for the acuteness of his controversial talents, and the utility of his practical writings. Hence came the

term Baxterians, among whom are generally ranked both Watts and Doddridge.

BROWNISTS, were the followers of Robert Brown, a clergyman of the church of England, who lived about the year 1600. He inveighed against the ceremonies and discipline of the church, separated himself from her communion, and afterwards returned into her bosom..

CALVINISTS are those who embrace the doctrines and sentiments of the celebrated reformer of the Christian church, JOHN CALVIN. Originally, this appellation was given to those who adopted Calvin's views of ecclesiastical discipline as well as his doctrines; but, since the synod of Dort, (which was held early in the seventeenth century,) the name has been conferred on those who follow that reformer's views of the gospel, in order to distinguish them from the ARMINIANS.* The distinguished theological tenets of Calvin are: 1. Predestination. 2. Particular redemption. 3. Total depravity of man. 4. Effectual calling. And 5. The certain and final perseverance of the saints. Calvin considered every church as a separate and independent body, invested with the power of legislation for itself. In France, the Calvinists were denominated HUGONOTS. In Germany they are confounded with the Lutherans, under the name of Protestants. CALVIN was the pastor of a church in the city of Geneva, where he established his form of ecclesiastical discipline. He is said to have possessed inflexible steadiness, to have been profoundly learned, and to have had an excellent genius. His morals were exemplary; he was chaste, sober, laborious and pious.

DUNKERS, a denomination which took its rise in the year 1724. It was founded by a German, who, weary of the world, retired to an agreeable solitude within fifty miles of Philadelphia, for the more free exercise of religious contemplation. Curiosity attracted followers, and his simple and engaging manners made them proselytes. They soon settled a little colony called Euphrata, in allusion to the Hebrews, who used to sing psalms on the border of the river Euphrates. This denomination seem to have obtain

* The controversy on the Eucharist first rendered Calvinism a characteristical appellation. Numerous instances of the name Calvinist iu this signification may be found in a volume of tracts by Dr. Richard Smith, printed at Louvain in 1562. All beyond this period are Zuinglians, Carolostadians, and Ecolomnadians,

ed their name from their baptizing their new converts by plunging. They are also called Tumblers, from the manner in which they performed baptism, which is by putting the head of the person while kneeling first under water, so as to resemble the motion of the body in the action of tumbling. They use the triune immersion, with laying on the hands, and prayer, even when the person baptized is in the water. Their habit seems to be peculiar to themselves, consisting of a long tunic, or coat, reaching down to their heels, with a sash, or girdle, round the waist, and a cap, or hood, hanging from the shoulders, like the dress of the Dominican friars. The men do not shave the head or beard. The men and women have separate habitations and distinct governments. For these purposes they have erected two large wooden buildings, one of which is occupied by the brethren, the others by the sisters of the society; and in each of them there is a banquetting room, and an apartment for public worship: for the brethren and sisters do not meet together even at their devotions. They live chiefly upon roots and other vegetables; the rules of their society not allowing them flesh, except on. particular occasions, when they hold what they call a lovefeast; at which time the brethren and sisters dine together in a large apartment, and eat mutton, but no other meat. In each of their little cells they have a bench fixed, to serve the purpose of a bed, and a small block of wood for a pillow.-The Dunkers allow of no intercourse between the brethren and sisters, not even by marriage. The principal tenet of the Dunkers is, That future happiness is only to be attained by penance and outward mortifications in this life, and they deny the eternity of future punishment, &c.

EPISCOPALIANS, in the modern acceptation of the term, belong more especially to the church of England, and derive this title from episcopus, the Latin for bishop. They insist on the Divine origin of bishops and other church of ficers, and on the alliance between church and state.

HUGONOTS. This appellation was given the French Protestants in 1561. The term is, by some, supposed to be derived from a gate in Tours, called Hugon, where they first assembled: according to others it is taken from their original protest or confession of faith; huc nos venimus, &c. During the reign of Charles IX. and on the

24th August, 1572, happened the massacre of St. Bartholomew, when 70,000 protestants throughout France were butchered, with circumstances of aggravated cruelty. It began at Paris in the night of the festival of St. Bartholomew, by secret orders from Charles IX. at the instigation of his mother, the queen dowager Catharine de Medicis.

HUTCHINSONIANS, so called from the late John Hutchinson, Esq. who was born in 1674. The Hutchinsonians maintain, that the great mystery of the trinity is conveyed to our understandings by ideas of sense; and that the created substance of the air, or heaven, in its three-fold. agency of fire, light, and spirit, is the enigma of the one essence, or one Jehovah in three persons. The unity of essence is exhibited by its unity of substance; the trinity of persons by its trinity of conditions, fire, light, and spirit. Thus the one substance of the air, or heaven, in its three conditions, shews the unity in trinity; and its three conditions, in, or of one substance, the trinity in unity. The philosophic system of the Hutchinsoniaus is derived from the Hebrew scriptures. The truth of it rests on these suppositions:-(1.) That the Hebrew language was formed under Divine inspiration, either all at once, or at different times, as occasion required; and that the Divine Being had a view in constructing it to the various revelations which he in all succeeding times should make in that language; consequently that its words must be the most proper and determinate to convey such truths as the Deity, during the old-testament dispensation, thought fit to make known to the sons of men; and that the inspired penmen of those ages at least were under the guidance of heaven in the choice of words for recording what was revealed to them: therefore that the old testament, if the language be rightly understood, is the most determinate in its meaning of any other book under heaven.-(2.) That whatever is recorded in the old testament is strictly and literally true, allowing only for a few common figures of rehetoric: that nothing contrary to truth is accommodated to vulgar apprehensions.

INDEPENDENTS or Congregationalists, deny not only the subordination of the clergy, but also all dependency on other assemblies. Every congregation, they affirm, has in itself what is necessary for its own government, and is not subject to other churches, or to their deputies. Thus this

independency of one church with respect to another, has given rise to the appellation, independents: though this mode of church government is adopted by the dissenters, in general.

LUTHERANS, are the followers of the illustrious reformer, Dr. Martin Luther, with regard to religion. The Lutherans are, of all protestants, said to differ least from the Romish church; as they affirm the real presence of Christ in the sacrament; and that the use of images in the churches, private confession of sins,-the use of wafers in the Lord's supper,-exorcisms in baptism,-and similar rites are not only tolerable, but some of them are useful. They further hold, that the divine decrees respect the salvation or misery of men, in consequence of a previous knowledge of their sentiments and characters, and not as free and unconditional, and as founded on the mere will of God. But from these views the Lutherans began to relax about the middle of the 17th century, and their public teachers are now at liberty to dissent from the decisions of those creeds or symbols, which were formerly deemed almost infallible rules of faith and practice.

METHODISTS, is a denomination which has been applied to both papists and protestants. In the seventeenth century, polemic doctors arose in France, &c. in opposition to the Hugonots, or protestants; these from their manner of defending popery, and speaking and writing against the protestants, were termed Methodists. But what we generally understand by the term, is the sect founded about the year 1729, by the Rev. John Wesley, in conjunction with Mr. Morgan. The Rev. Charles Wesley and others afterwards united with them, and in 1735, they were joined by the celebrated Mr. Whitefield. Between this period and the year 1741, Mr. John Wesley and Mr. Whitefield, mutually laboured in different parts of the kingdom, in Scotland, Ireland, and America, to extend and establish the cause of Methodism, but in March, in the same year, there was an entire separation between them;Mr. Wesley not holding the decrees, which Mr. Whitefield and his friends strenuously supported. So that ever since there have been two descriptions of Methodists; those of Mr. Wesley who hold general redemption; and those of Mr. Whitefield who consider such errors dangerous, and