Decorative graphic “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.”— John xiii. 35. Decorative graphic LONDON WILLIAM PICKERING 1846 “Heaven and Hell are not more distant, than the benevolent spirit of the Gospel, and the malignant spirit of party.  The most impious wars ever made were called—‘Holy Wars.’” Lyttleton . “Let those ill-invented terms whereby we have been distinguished from each other be swallowed up in that name which will lead us hand in hand t

You some time ago requested me to give you the result of my inquiries into the tenets of the different religious sects which I had been acquainted with; and respecting which we had at different times conversed.  In the time which has since elapsed I have been endeavouring, both to ascertain them more completely, and to compare them with what I conceive to be the true spirit of Christianity; but the subject has so grown as I proceeded, that even now I can only give you a very short, and I fear, i

The sect which I have placed first upon my list, arose about the middle of the seventeenth century, when a number of individuals withdrew from the communion of every visible church “to seek,” [14] as they expressed it, “the Lord, in retirement:” and George Fox, their leader, or as they termed him, their “honourable elder,” went about preaching their opinions in fairs and markets, in courts of justice, and steeple houses, i.e. churches.  He denounced the state worship as “superstitious,” and warn

When the first great movement which led to the Reform of a large part of the Christian Churches in Europe, awakened men’s minds from the lethargy in which they had slept whilst learning was confined to the cloister, the questions with regard to the nature of the Deity which had distracted the early church began again to be mooted; and as early as the year 1524, “the divinity of Christ was openly denied by Lewis Hetyer, one of the wandering and fanatical Anabaptists, who was put to death at Const

Towards the beginning of the last century, two young men at Oxford, the one a fellow of Lincoln College, struck by the thoughtlessness or lukewarmness of those about them, resolved to devote themselves to closer and more profitable study.  They were brothers, by name John and Charles Wesley; and two other students joined them in their evening readings of the New Testament in the Greek: the elder of the brothers was at this time about twenty-six. [52]   After a year of this kind of life, they adm

Among the sects which arose about the period of the Reformation of the church in the sixteenth century, we find the Anabaptists [66] playing rather a conspicuous part, by exciting political tumults in Saxony and the adjacent countries.  For this, Munzer, their leader, after the defeat of his forces, was put to death, and the sect generally was proscribed, and the profession of its doctrines punished capitally.  What those doctrines were is not easy, nor is it essential now, to state, since the m

I have already noticed that the sects into which the reformed churches are split, may be classified generally under two great divisions, the one adopting mainly the milder views of Melancthon, whose advice was much used in the reform of the Anglican church; the other following those of Calvin, which were chiefly carried out, at Geneva, the birthplace of that reformer, and among the Huguenots of France.  It may be well, therefore, before we proceed to notice the particular sects which profess to

When the preaching of Luther and his coadjutors had effectually called men’s attention to the affairs of the church, it was natural that questions with regard to its government no less than its doctrine, should be freely mooted.  The usurpations of Rome had a tendency to disgust the Reformers with episcopal government, and accordingly we find both Calvin and Luther establishing a more republican form; and instead of giving the ecclesiastical power into the hands of one man, they judged it proper

Having now given some account of the principal Calvinistic sects, I shall conclude by mentioning a few of those less numerous societies, which, whilst agreeing in the peculiar doctrines of Calvin, differ upon other points.  The particular baptists , agreeing with the General Baptists on most other practices and doctrines, differ from them on this.  The separation took place in the year 1616, when a controversy on the subject of infant baptism having arisen among the Baptists, one portion calling

I noticed the name of George Whitfield when speaking of Wesley and his followers, for during a time they acted in unison; Whitfield, however, soon embraced the Calvinistic tenets, and then the friends separated with much of unkindly feeling.  Wesley held the doctrines of Calvin in abhorrence, as altogether unchristian and unfounded in Scripture.  “I defy you to say so hard a thing of the Devil,” said he with characteristic earnestness, when speaking of the notion that God could arbitrarily creat

I promised that as the completion of my task, I would notice those differences which have occurred in the bosom of the church itself, even though they can scarcely be called sects ; I therefore propose to conclude my correspondence with a short survey of the above-named, which I think should rather be viewed as the working out of great principles, than as parties distinguished by particular creeds or opinions on abstract subjects.  I may run counter to some prejudices, perhaps, in so doing; but

The following are extracts from the “Christianæ Religionis Institutio,” of Faustus Socinus: Q .  Quid igitur de Dei natura, sive essentia, nosse omnino nos debere statuis? R .  Hæc duo in summa.  Quod sit et quod unus tantum sit. * * * * * Q .  Verum quid quæso saltem de Spiritu Sancto nunc mihi dicis de quo isti similiter affirmant eum esse divinam personam, nempe tertiam, et unum atque eundem numero Deum cum Patre et Filio? R .  Nempe illum non esse personam aliquam a Deo cujus est spiritus, d