who remain in unbelief are in a state of on all days commonly called fish days. condemnation. Any idea of authority The like injunctions were renewed ungiven to fallible, uninspired men to ab- der queen Elizabeth; but at the same solve sinners, different from this, is un- time it was declared, that this was done scriptural; nor can I see much utility not out of motives of religion, as if there in the terms ministerial or declarative were any difference in meats, but in faabsolution, as adopted by some divines, vour of the consumption of fish, and to since absolution is wholly the. preroga-multiply the number of fishermen and tive of God; and the terms above-men-mariners, as well as to spare the stock tioned, may, to say the least, have no of sheep. See FASTING. good influence on the minds of the igno- ABSTINENTS, a set of heretics that rant and superstitious. appeared in France and Spain about the ABSTEMII, a name given to such end of the third century. They are suppersons as could not partake of the cupposed to have borrowed part of their of the eucharist, on account of their natural aversion to wine.

opinions from the Gnostics and Manicheans, because they opposed marriage, condemned the use of Hesh meat, and placed the Holy Ghost in the class of created beings.

Abyss is likewise used to denote the grave or common receptacle of the dead, Rom. x. 7: also hell, or the bottomless pit, Luke viii. 31. Rev. ix. 1. Rev. xi. 7. See DELUGE.

ABSTINENCE, in a general sense, is the act of refraining from something which we have a propension to or find pleasure in. It is more particularly ABYSS, in a general sense, denotes used for fasting or forbearing of neces- something profound; in its literal sense sary food. Among the Jews, various it signifies without a bottom; in a more kinds of abstinence were ordained by particular sense it denotes a deep mass their law. Among the primitive Chris- or fund of waters. In this last sense the tians, some denied themselves the use word is used in the Septuagint for the of such meats as were prohibited by that water which God created at the beginlaw; others looked upon this abstinence ning with the earth, which our translawith contempt; as to which Paul gives tors render by deep. Thus it is that his opinion, Rom. xiv. 1. 3. The coun- darkness is said to have been on the face cil of Jerusalem, which was held by the of the abyss, Gen. i. 2. Abyss is also apostles, enjoined the Christian converts used for an immense cavern in the earth, to abstain from meats strangled, from wherein God is supposed to have colblood, from fornication, and from idola- lected all those waters on the third day, try, Acts xv. Upon this passage, Dr. which in our version is rendered the Doddridge observes, "that though nei-seas, and elsewhere the great deep. ther things sacrificed to idols, nor the flesh of strangled animals, nor blood, have or can have any moral evil in them, which should make the eating of them absolutely and universally unlawful; yet they were forbidden to the Gen- ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, that tile converts, because the Jews had such which is established in the empire of an aversion to them, that they could not Abyssinia. They are a branch of the converse freely with any who used them. Copts, with whom they agree in adThis is plainly the reason which James mitting only one nature in Jesus Christ, assigns in the very next words, the 21st and rejecting the council of Chalcedon; verse, and it is abundantly sufficient. whence they are also called MonophyThis reason is now ceased, and the ob- sites and Eutychians, which see. The ligation to abstain from eating these Abyssinian church is governed by a things ceases with it. But were we in bishop styled abuna. They have calike circumstances again, Christian cha-nons also, and monks. The emperor rity would surely require us to lay ourselves under the same restraint."-The spiritual monarchy of the western world introduced another sort of abstinence, which may be called ritual, and consists in abstaining from particular meats at certain times and seasons, the rules of which are called rogations. If I mistake not, the impropriety of this kind of abstinence is clearly pointed out in 1 Tim.iv.3.-In England, abstinence from flesh has been enjoined by statute, even since the reformation; particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, on vigils, and

has a kind of supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. The Abyssinians have at divers times expressed an inclination to be reconciled to the see of Rome; but rather from interested views than any other motive. They practise circumcísion on females as well as males. They eat no meats prohibited by the law of Moses. They observe both Saturday and Sunday sabbaths. Women are obliged to the legal purifications. Brothers marry brothers' wives, &c. On the other hand, they celebrate the Epiphany with peculiar festivity; have four Lents; pray

for the dead; and invoke angels. Ima-principles of religion and wisdom. Jeges in painting they venerate; but abhor sus Christ, therefore, is with great proall those in relievo, except the cross. priety called the Day Spring from on They admit the apocryphal books and High, the Sun of Righteousness, that the canons of the apostles, as well as arose upon a benighted world to dispel the apostolical constitutions, for genuine. the clouds of ignorance and error, and They allow of divorce, which is easily discover to lost man the path of happigranted among them, and by the civil ness and heaven. But, as we do not judge; nor do their civil laws prohibit mean to enlarge much upon these and polygamy. They have, at least, as some other sects, which belong rather many miracles and legends of saints as to philosophy than theology, we shall the Romish church. They hold that the refer the reader to Buddeus's Introsoul of man is not created; because, duction to the History of Philosophy; say they, God finished all his works on Stanley's Lives; Brucker's History of the sixth day. Thus we see that the Philosophy; or (which is more modern) doctrines and ritual of this sect form Enfield's Abridgment. a strange compound of Judaism and Christianity, ignorance and superstition. Some, indeed, have been at a loss to know whether they are most Christians or Jews: it is to be feared, however, that there is little beside the name of Christianity among them. Should the reader be desirous to know more of this sect, he may consult Father Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia; Bruce's Travels; Ludolph's Hist. of Ethiopia; and Dict. of Arts and Sciences, vol. i. p. 15.

ACACIANS, a sect of heretics in the 4th century; so named from Acacius, bishop of Casarea, who denied the Son to be of the same substance with the Father, though some of them allowed that he was of a similar substance. Also the name of another sect, named after Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the fifth century, who favoured the opinions of Eutychus. See EUTYCHIANS.

ACCLAMATIONS, ecclesiastical, were shouts of joy which the people expressed by way of approbation of their preachers. It hardly seems credible to us that practices of this kind should ever have found their way into the church, where all ought to be reverence and solemnity. Yet so it was in the fourth century. The people were not only permitted, but sometimes even exhorted, by the preacher himself, to approve his talents by clapping of hands, and loud acclamations of praise. The usual words they made use of were, "Orthodox," "Third apostle" &c. These acclamations being carried to excess, and often misplaced, were frequently prohibited by the ancient doctors, and at length abrogated. Even as late, however, as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we find practices that were not very decorous; such as loud humming, frequent groaning, strange gestures of the body, &c. See articles DANCERS, SHAKERS.

ACCOMMODATION OF SCRIPTURE is the application of it, not to its literal meaning, but to something analogous to it. Thus a prophecy is said to be fulfilled properly when a thing foretold comes to pass; and, by way of accommodation, when an event happens to any place or people similar to what fell out some time before to another. Thus the words of Isaiah, spoken to those of his own time, are said to be fulfilled in those who lived in our Saviour's,

ACADEMICS, a denomination given to the cultivators of a species of philosophy originally derived from Socrates, and afterwards illustrated and enforced by Plato. The contradictory systems which had been successively urged upon the world were become so numerous, that, from a view of the variety and uncertainty of human opinions, many were led to conclude that truth lay beyond the reach of our comprehension. The consequence of this conclusion was absolute scepticism: hence the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the preferableness of virtue to vice, were all held as uncertain. This sect, with that of the Epicureans, were the two chief that were in vogue at the time of Christ's appearance, and were embraced and supported by persons of high rank and wealth. A consideration of the principles of these two sects [see EPICUREANS] will lead us to form an idea of the deplorable state of the world at ACCURSED, something that lies unthe time of Christ's birth; and the ne-der a curse or sentence of excommunicessity there was of some divine teacher cation. In the Jewish idiom, accursed to convey to the mind true and certain and crucified were synonymous among

"Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy," &c.: which same words St. Paul afterwards accommodates to the Jews of his time, Is. xxxix. 14. Matt. xv. 8. Acts xiii. 41. Great care, however, should be taken by preachers who are fond of accommodating texts, that they first clearly state the literal sense of the passage.

them, every one was accounted accursed who died on a tree. This serves to explain the difficult passage in Rom. ix. 2, where the apostle wishes himself accursed after the manner of Christ; i. e. crucified, if happily he might by such a death save his countrymen. The preposition here made use of is used in the same sense, 2 Tim. i. 3. where it obviously signifies after the manner of.

ACEPHALI, such bishops as were exempt from the discipline and jurisdiction of their ordinary bishop or patriarch. It was also the denomination of certain sects; 1. of those who, in the affair of the council of Ephesus, refused to follow either St. Cyril or John of Antioch; 2. of certain heretics in the fifth century, who, at first, followed Peter Mongus, but afterwards abandoned him, upon his subscribing to the council of Chalcedon, they themselves adhering to the Eutychian heresy; and, 3. of the followers of Severus of Antioch, and of all, in general, who held out against the council of Chalcedon.

of gaol-delivery, appointed as often as a competent number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the evidence of certain witnesses. The process is this:-In the morning they are brought into a great hall, where they have certain habits put on, which they are to wear in the procession, and by which they know their doom. The procession is led up by Dominican friars, after which come the penitents, being all in black coats without sleeves, and barefooted, with a wax candle in their hands. These are followed by the penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, who over their black coats have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the negative and relapsed, who are to be burnt, having flames on their habits pointing upwards. After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their picture painted on their breasts, ACOEMETE, or ACOMETI, an or- with dogs, serpents, and devils, all opender of monks at Constantinople in the mouthed, about it. Each prisoner is atfifth century, whom the writers of that tended with a familiar of the Inquisition; and the following ages called Anura; and those to be burnt have also a Jesuit that is, Watchers, because they per- on each hand, who are continually formed divine service day and night preaching to them to abjure. After the without intermission. They divided prisoners, comes a troop of familiars on themselves into three classes, who al- horseback; and after them the Inquisiternately succeeded one another, so that tors, and other officers of the court, on they kept up a perpetual course of wor-mules: last of all, the Inquisitor-general ship. This practice they founded upon that passage-"pray without ceasing," 1 Thess. v. 17.

ACOLYTHI, or ACOLUTHI, young people who, in the primitive times, aspired to the ministry, and for that purpose continually attended the bishop. In the Romish church, Acolythi were of longer continuance; but their functions were different from those of their first institution. Their business was to light the tapers, carry the candlesticks and the incense pot, and prepare the wine and water. At Rome there were three kinds; 1. those who waited on the pope; 2. those who served in the churches; 3. and others, who, together with the deacons, officiated in other parts of the city.

on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hat-bands. A scaffold is erected big enough for two or three thousand people; at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other the Inquisitors. After a sermon made up of encomiums of the Inquisition, and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the scaffold, and, having taken the abjuration of the penitents, recites the final sentence of those who are to be put to death, and delivers them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching at the same time the secular power not to touch their blood, or put their lives in danger!!! The prisoners, being thus in the hands of the civil magistrate, are presently loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular gaol, and ACT OF FAITH (Auto da Fe,) in from thence, in an hour or two, brought the Romish church, is a solemn day held before the civil judge; who, after askby the Inquisition for the punishment of ing in what religion they intend to die, heretics, and the absolution of the inno-pronounces sentence on such as decent accused. They usually contrive the Auto to fall on some great festival, that the execution may pass with the more awe; and it is always on a Sunday. The Auto da Fe may be called the last act of the Inquisitorial tragedy: it is a kind

clare they die in the communion of the church of Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes: or such as die in any other faith, that they be burnt alive. Both are immediately carried to the Ribera, the place

B

ACTS OF PILATE, a relation sent by Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius, concerning Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the crimes of which he was convicted before him. It was a custom among the Romans, that the pro-consuls and governors of provinces should draw up acts or memoirs of what happened in the course of their government, and send them to the emperor and senate. The genuine acts of Pilate were sent by him to Tiberius, who reported them to the senate; but they were rejected by that assembly, because not immediately addressed to them; as is testified by Tertullian, in his Apol. cap. 5, and 20, 21. The heretics forged acts in imitation of them; but both the genuine and the spurious are now lost.

of execution, where there are as many | apostles, such as the acts of Abdias, of stakes set up as there are prisoners to Peter, of Paul, St. John the Evangelist, be burnt, with a quantity of dry furze St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Philip, and about them. The stakes of the profess-St. Matthias; but they have been all ed, that is, such as persist in the heresy, proved to be spurious. are about four yards high, having a small board towards the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder, and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the church, part with them; telling them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow, to receive their souls, and carry them with him to the flames of hell. On this a great shout is raised; and the cry is, "Let the dogs' beards be made!" which is done by thrusting flaming furzes fastened to long poles against their faces, till their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with the loudest acclamations of joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the professed are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on; so that they rather seem roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle: the sufferers continually cry out, while they are able, "Pity, for the love of God!" Yet it is beheld, by all sexes and ages, with transports of joy and satisfaction-O merciful God! is this the benign, humane religion thou hast given to men? Surely not. If such were the genius of Christianity, then it would be no honour to be a Christian. Let us however, rejoice that the time is coming when the demon of Persecution shall be banished out of this our world, and the true spirit of benevolence and candour pervade the universe; when none shall hurt or destroy, but the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea! See INQUISITION.

ACTION FOR THE PULPIT.— See DECLAMATION.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, one of the sacred books of the New Testament containing the history of the infant church during the space of twenty-nine or thirty years from the ascension of our Lord to the year of Christ 63. It was written by Luke, and addressed to Theophilus, the person to whom the evangelist had before dedicated his gospel. The style of this work, which was originally composed in Greek, is much purer than that of the other canonical writers. For the contents of this book we refer the reader to the book itself.

There have been several acts of the

ADAMITES, a sect that sprang up in the second century. Epiphanius tells us, that they were called Adamites, from their pretending to be re-established in the state of innocence, such as Adam was at the moment of his creation, whence they ought to imitate him in going naked. They detested marriage; maintaining that the conjugal union would never have taken place upon earth, had sin been unknown. This obscure and ridiculous sect did not last long. It was, however, revived with additional absurdities in the twelfth century. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, these errors spread in Germany and Bohemia: it found also some partisans in Poland, Holland, and England. They assembled in the night; and it is said, one of the fundamental maxims of their society was contained in the following verse:

Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli.

Swear, forswear, and reveal not the secret. ADESSENARIANS, a branch of the Sacramentarians; so called from the Latin Adesse, to be present, because they believed the presence of Christ's body in the eucharist, though in a manner different from the Romanists.

ADIAPHORISTS, a name given in the sixteenth century to the moderate Lutherans who adhered to the sentiments of Melancthon; and afterwards to those who subscribed the interim of Charles V. [See INTERIM.] The word is of Greek origin (adogos) and signifies indifference or lukewarmness.

ADMIRATION is that passion of the mind which is excited by the dis

and we have a perception of the moral excellency of divine things; and lastly, whether our affections have a holy tendency and produce the happy effects of obedience to God, humility in ourselves, and justice to our fellow creatures. As this is a subject worthy of close attention, the reader may consult Lord Kaim's Elements of Criticism, vol. ii. p. 517; Edwards on the Affections; Pike and Hayward's Cases of Conscience; Watts' Use and Abuse of the Passions; M'Laurin's Essays, sect. 5 and 6, where this subject is masterly handled.

AFFLICTION, that which causes a sensation of pain. Calamity or distress of any kind. The afflictions of the saints are represented in the scripture, as appointed, 1 Thes. iii. 3. Job v. 6, 7; nu

distinguishable from passion, which, depending on the real or ideal presence of its object, vanishes with its object; whereas affection is a lasting connexion, and, like other connexions, subsists, even when we do not think of the objects. [See DISPOSITION and PASSION.] The affections, as they respect religion, deserve in this place a little attention. They may be defined to be the "vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul towards religious objects." Whatever extremes stoics or enthusiasts have run into, it is evident that the exercise of the affections is essential to the existence of true religion. It is true, indeed, "that all affectionate devotion is not wise and rational; but it is no less true, that all wise and rational devotion must be affection-merous, Ps. xxxiv. 19; transient, 2 Cor. ate." The affections are the springs of action; they belong to our nature, so that with the highest perceptions of truth and religion, we should be inactive without them. They have considerable influence on men in the common concerns of life; how much more, then, should they operate in those important objects that relate to the Divine Being, the immortality of the soul, and the happiness or misery of a future state! The religion of the most eminent saints has always consisted in the exercise of holy affections. Jesus Christ himself afford's us an example of the most lively and vigorous affections; and we have every reason to believe that the employment of heaven consists in the exercise of them. In addition to all which the scriptures of truth teach us, that religion is nothing, if it occupy not the affections. Deut. vi. 4, 5. Deut, xxx. 6. Rom. xii. 11. 1 Cor. xiii, 13. Ps. xxvii. 14.

A distinction however, must be made between what may be merely natural, and what is truly spiritual. The affections may be excited in a natural way under ordinances by a natural impression, Ezek. xxxiii. 32; by a natural sympathy, or by the natural temperament of our constitution. It is no sign that our affections are spiritual because they are raised very high; produce great effects on the body; excite us to be very zealous in externals; to be always conversing about ourselves, &c. These things are often found in those who are only mere professors of religion, Matt. vii. 21, 22.

Now, in order to ascertain whether our affections are excited in a spiritual manner, we must enquire whether that which moves our affections be truly spiritual, whether our consciences be alarmed, and our hearts impressed; whether the judgment be enlightened,

iv. 17. Heb. x. 37; and, when sanctified, beneficial, 1 Pet. i. 6. Ps. cxix. 67, 71. They wean from the world; work submission; produce humility; excite to diligence; stir up to prayer; and conform us to the divine image. To bear them with patience, we should consider our own unworthiness; the design of God in sending them; the promises of support under them; and the real good they are productive of. The afflictions of a good man, says an elegant writer, never befal without a cause, nor are sent but upon a proper errand. These storms are never allowed to rise but in order to dispel some noxious vapours, and restore salubrity to the moral atmosphere. Who that for the first time beheld the earth in the midst of winter, bound up with frost, or drenched in floods of rain, or covered with snow, would have imagined that Nature, in this dreary and torpid state, was working towards its own renovation in the spring? Yet we by experience know that those vicissitudes of winter are necessary for fertilizing the earth; and that under wintry rains and snows lie concealed the seeds of those roses that are to blossom in the spring; of those fruits that are to ripen in the summer; and of the corn and wine which are in harvest to make glad the heart of man. It would be more agreeable to us to be always entertained with a fair and clear atmosphere, with cloudless skies, and perpetual sunshine; yet in such climates as we have most knowledge of, the earth, were it always to remain in such a state, would refuse to yield its fruits; and, in the midst of our imagined scenes of beauty, the starved inhabitants would perish for want of food. Let us, therefore, quietly submit to Providence. Let us conceive this life to be the winter of our existence. Now