The Book of Religions

Biographical Sketches of the Fathers of the Reformation, Founders of Sects, and of Other Distinguished Individuals Mentioned in This Volume

John Wickliffe

A celebrated doctor, professor of divinity at Oxford, and deservedly considered as the forerunner of Luther in the reformation. He was born at Wickliffe, in Yorkshire, about 1324, and educated at Queen’s College, and afterwards at Merton, and in 1361 raised to the mastership of Baliol College. In 1365, he was made, by the scholars, head of Canterbury Hall, just founded at Oxford by Archbishop Islip; but his elevation was opposed by the monks, and Langham, the next primate; and the pope, to whom the dispute was referred, displaced him and his secular associates. Thus disgraced by violence, he retired to his living at Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, meditating revenge against the authors of his unjust privation. In the works of Marsilius of Padua, and other bold writers, he found ample room to indulge his opposition; and, well aware of the popularity of attacking a foreign power, which overawed the throne, and submitted the industry and the revenues of the kingdom to its own avaricious views, he loudly inveighed against the errors and the encroachments of the Romish church. His writings alarmed the clergy, and a council was assembled at Lambeth, by Archbishop Sudbury, 1377, and Wickliffe summoned to give an account of his doctrines. He appeared before it, accompanied by the duke of Lancaster, then in power; and he made so able a defence, that he was dismissed without condemnation. His acquittal, however, displeased the pope, Gregory XI., who directed his emissaries to seize the offending heretic, or, if he were protected by the great and powerful of the kingdom, to cite him to Rome, to answer in person before the sovereign pontiff. In consequence of this, a second council assembled at Lambeth, and the nineteen propositions, which the pope had declared heretical, were so ably vindicated by the eloquence of the undaunted reformer, that his judges, afraid of offending the nobles, or of exciting a commotion among the people, who loudly supported the cause of their champion, permitted him to depart in safety, and enjoined on him silence in matters of religion and of controversy. Undismayed by the power of his enemies, Wickliffe continued to preach his doctrines, which were now more universally spread; and a third council, therefore, assembled, under Courtnay, the primate, 1382, and twenty-four propositions of the reformer were condemned as heretical, and fourteen as erroneous. The severity of the church was, at the suggestion of the pope, and the concurrence of the weak Richard II., directed with effect against the supporters of the new heresy; but, while some of his followers suffered punishment for their adherence to his principles, Wickliffe unhappily died at Lutterworth, 1384, at a time when nothing was wanting to emancipate the English nation from the tyranny of Rome, but the boldness, perseverance, and eloquence, of a popular leader. Of the several works which he wrote, his Trialogus is almost the only one which has been printed. The noble struggle which Wickliffe had made against the gigantic power of Rome was almost forgotten after his death, till Martin Luther arose to follow his steps, and to establish his doctrines on a foundation which will last till Christianity is no more. The memory of Wickliffe was branded with ignominy by the impotent Papists, and by the order of the council of Constance, whose cruelties towards John Huss and Jerome of Prague are so well known, the illustrious reformer was declared to have died an obstinate heretic; and his bones were therefore dug up from holy ground, and contemptuously burnt.

Jerome of Prague

The celebrated lay reformer was born at Prague, about the year 1370. Very little is extant relative to the early part of his life; but he was very eager in the pursuit of knowledge, and spent his youth in the universities of Prague, Paris, Heidelberg, Cologne, and Oxford. At the latter university, he became acquainted with the works of Wickliffe, translated them into his native language, professed himself, on his return to Prague, to be an open favorer of him, and attached himself to the Reformed in Bohemia, over whom Huss presided. Before the council of Constance, Jerome was cited on the 17th of April, 1415, when Huss was confined at that place. On his arrival, he found that he could not render any assistance to Huss, and therefore thought it prudent to retire; and, on behalf of Huss, he wrote to the emperor. At Kirsaw, Jerome was seized by an officer of the duke of Sulzbach, who immediately wrote to the council concerning him, and they directed him to send his prisoner to Constance. On his arrival at that place, he was immediately brought before the council, accused of his attachment to Protestant principles, and was remanded from the assembly into a dungeon. As he was there sitting, ruminating on his approaching fate, he heard a voice calling out in these words:—“Fear not, Jerome, to die in the cause of that truth which, during thy life, thou hast defended.” It was the voice of Madderwitz, who had contributed to the comfort of Huss; but, in consequence of it, Jerome was conveyed to a strong tower, and exposed to torture and want.

This suffering brought on him a dangerous illness, and attempts were then made to induce him to retract his principles; but he remained immovable. Unhappily, however, for his subsequent peace of mind, he was at length induced to retract, and acknowledged the errors of Wickliffe and Huss, assented to the condemnation of the latter, and declared himself a firm believer in the church of Rome. But the conscience of Jerome would not allow him to suffer that retraction to remain; and he accordingly recanted, and demanded a second trial.

Accordingly, in the month of May, 1416, Jerome was again called before the council, and charged with his adherence to the errors of Wickliffe, his having had a picture of him in his chamber, his denial of transubstantiation, with other matters of a similar description. On these articles he answered with equal spirit. Through the whole oration he manifested an amazing strength of memory. His voice was sweet, distinct, and full. Firm and intrepid, he stood before the council; collected in himself, and not only despising, but seeming even desirous of death.

His speech did not, however, excite pity; and he was delivered over to the civil power for martyrdom. When surrounded by blazing fagots, he cried out, “O Lord God, have mercy upon me!” and a little afterwards, “Thou knowest how I have loved thy truth.” With cheerful countenance he met his fate; and, observing the executioner about to set fire to the wood behind his back, he cried out, “Bring thy torch hither: perform thy office before my face. Had I feared death, I might have avoided it.” As the wood began to blaze, he sang a hymn, which the violence of the flames did not interrupt.

Jerome was, unquestionably, an excellent man. His Christianity must have been sincere, thus to have supported him; and the uniform tenor of his virtuous life corroborated the truth of that opinion. His temper was mild and affable, and the relations of life he supported with great piety and benevolence. He was a light set upon a hill; and though for a few moments it was obscured and darkened, yet it again burst forth, and continued to shine with splendor and advantage.

John Huss

A famous divine and martyr, born in Bohemia, 1376, and educated at Prague, where he took his degrees, and entered into the ministry. The writings of Wickliffe converted him from the superstitions of Rome, and, with eloquent zeal, he began to preach against the power and influence of the pope. His efforts proved successful; the Papal authority began to be slighted in Bohemia; but the archbishop of Prague issued two mandates against the heresies of Wickliffe, and the labors of Huss and his followers; and this exertion of power was soon seconded by a bull from Rome, for the suppression of all tenets offensive to the holy see. Huss exclaimed against these proceedings, and, though summoned to Rome to answer for his conduct, he, supported by the favor of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, disregarded the pope’s authority, and was excommunicated; and, soon after, his friends and adherents were included in the same interdict. After causing, by his opposition to the Papal decrees, various tumults in Prague and Bohemia, Huss was prevailed upon to appear at the council of Constance, to give an account of his doctrines. The emperor Sigismund granted him his protection, and insured security to his person; but when, soon after, he reached Constance, 1414, he was seized as a heretic, and imprisoned, and, after a confinement of severe hardships for six months, he was condemned without a hearing; and, when he refused to recant his errors, he was tumultuously sentenced to be burnt. The emperor indeed complained of the contempt shown to his authority, and of the perfidy used towards the delinquent, but all in vain. Huss was inhumanly dragged to execution; he was stripped of his sacerdotal habit, deprived of his degrees, and, with a paper crown on his head, with pictures of devils round, and the inscription of “Heresiarch,” he was burned alive, July, 1415. He endured his torments with uncommon fortitude and truly Christian resignation. His ashes were collected, and then sprinkled in the Rhine.

John Œcolampadius

An eminent German reformer, born, in 1482, at Weinsberg in Franconia. He was converted to the Protestant faith by reading the works of Luther; became professor of theology at Basle; embraced the opinions of Zuinglius respecting the sacrament; contributed much to the progress of ecclesiastical reform, and died in 1531.

Œcolampadius was of a meek and quiet disposition; in the undertaking of any business he was very circumspect; nor was there any thing more pleasing to him, than to spend his time in reading and commenting. His publications are numerous, consisting chiefly of annotations on the holy Scriptures.

Martin Luther

The celebrated reformer was born at Isleben, in Saxony, 10th November, 1483. His parents wished him to devote himself to the labors of the bar, but an extraordinary accident diverted his purpose. As he walked one day in the fields with a fellow-student, he was struck down by lightning, and his companion killed by his side; and this had such effect upon his mind that, without consulting his friends, he retired from the world, into the order of the Augustines. In this seclusion he found by accident a Latin Bible, which he never before had seen, and in perusing it he was astonished at the little knowledge of Scripture and of Christianity which the clergy then imparted to the people. From the convent of Erfurt he was removed to Wittemberg University; and here he read lectures on philosophy, for three years, to numerous and applauding audiences. The completion of St. Peter’s Church at Rome at this time required extraordinary sums, and the pope, Leo X., to fill his coffers with greater facility, published general indulgences for the forgiveness of sins to such as would contribute to the pious work. The Dominicans were intrusted with the selling of these indulgences in Germany, and in paying their money the good friar Tetzel informed the superstitious people that they might release themselves not only from past, but also future sins. This pious imposition did not escape the discerning eye of Luther; he published, in 1517, a thesis, containing ninety-five propositions on indulgences, and challenged opposition. Tetzel was not silent on the occasion; but while he, with the voice of authority, called his opponent a damnable heretic, and whilst he burnt the thesis with all possible ignominy, Luther asserted boldly the inefficacy of indulgences, and regarded penitence and works of mercy and charity alone capable of forming a reconciliation with Heaven. Though attacked by numbers, Luther had the satisfaction to see his sentiments embraced with eagerness by the body of the people; and, when summoned by the pope to appear at Rome to answer for his conduct, he had the firmness to refuse, though he, at the same time, in the most submissive manner, exculpated himself, and deprecated the resentment of the supreme pontiff. Maximilian, the emperor, was anxious to support the cause of Rome; but Luther happily found a protector and friend in the elector of Saxony, and, upon an assurance of personal safety, he did not refuse to appear at Augsburg before the Papal legate, Cajetan. The conference ended by the refusal of Luther to submit implicitly to the pleasure of the Papal see. The pope, however, finding that violence could not destroy the obstinacy of Luther, had recourse to milder means, and his agent Miltitius was employed to visit the reformer, to argue with him, and to offer terms of reconciliation. Luther was struck with the civilities and the temper of the Papal missionary; but, instead of making submission, he was roused to greater opposition by the exhortations of the Bohemians, and the able support of Melancthon, Carolostadius, and other learned men. In 1519, he was engaged in a personal controversy at Leipsic with Eccius, divinity professor at Ingolstadt; but it tended only to sow greater enmity and deeper variance between the disputants. The same year, his book against indulgences was censured by the divines of Louvaine and Cologne; but Luther disregarded their opinions, and appealed for protection to the new emperor, Charles V. Though he had written, at the suggestion of Miltitius, a letter to the pope, not indeed of submission, but rather of exculpation, in language bold and energetic, he was in 1520 formally condemned by a bull from Rome, which, after enumerating forty-one of his heretical opinions, denounces against him the vengeance of the church, and excommunication, if within sixty days he did not make a due submission. This violent conduct Luther answered by “The Captivity of Babylon,” a book in which he inveighed bitterly against the abuses of Rome; and then, calling the students of Wittemberg together, he flung into the fire the offensive decree, which he called the execrable bull of Antichrist. In 1521, he was summoned to appear before the emperor at the diet of Worms, with a promise of protection; and, though his friends dissuaded him, and told him that, as his opponents had burned his writings, so they would treat him after the manner of Huss, he declared, with fearless voice, “If I knew there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on the houses, I would go.” At Worms he was required by Eccius to retract his opinions; but he declared that, except what he advanced could be proved contrary to Scripture, he neither could nor would recant. His obstinacy proved offensive to the emperor; but, as he had promised him his protection, he permitted him to depart. Charles, nevertheless, published his edict against him and his adherents, and placed him under the ban of the empire. Luther, however, remained secure under the protection of the elector, who had thus effected his deliverance, and in the castle of Wittemberg, which he denominated his hermitage and his Palmos, he held a secret correspondence with his friends, or composed books in defence of his opinions. At the end of ten months, when the emperor was departed for Flanders, he again appeared publicly at Wittemberg, and had the satisfaction to find that, instead of being checked, his doctrines had gained ground, and were universally embraced through Germany. In 1522, he published, in conjunction with Melancthon, a Latin translation of the New Testament; and the work was read with avidity by the German nation. In 1524, he had to contend with Erasmus, a man who had apparently adopted his sentiments, though he had not the manliness to acknowledge them; and he now found in him an able antagonist enlisted in defence of the pope. In 1524, Luther threw aside the monastic habit; and the next year he married Catherine de Bore, a nun who had escaped from a convent; and though he was ridiculed by his enemies, and censured for taking a young wife, he defended his conduct by scriptural texts, and again set at nought the authority of Rome and the cavils of her advocates. In 1525, the emperor called a diet at Spires, in consequence of the war with the Turks, as well as the troubled state of Germany in consequence of religious disputes; and in the sitting of the next year he proposed that the edict of Worms should be duly enforced, the Catholic religion supported, and heretics punished. The new doctrines, though thus openly attacked by the head of the empire, were ably defended by the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, the landgrave of Hesse, the prince of Anhalt, and others; and in another diet, held again at Spires, these dissentient princes protested against the measures of the empire, and were consequently called Protestants. In the midst of the confusion of Germany, a confession of faith was drawn up by Melancthon, the mildest and most moderate of Luther’s followers, and, as it was presented to the emperor at Augsburg, it has been called the Augsburg Confession. Thus the opposition raised against the mighty empire of spiritual Rome by an obscure monk, was supported by intelligent princes and powerful nations, and Luther, now regarded as the champion of the faith through Germany, had nothing to apprehend from his persecutors, but had only to labor earnestly to confirm what had been so happily established. His German translation of the Bible appeared in 1535, and was received with grateful raptures by the Germans. He died at Isleben, 18th February, 1546, aged 63. This illustrious man, engaged, as Atterbury has observed, against the united forces of the Papal world, stood the shock with bravery and success. He was a man of high endowments of mind, and great virtues. He had a vast understanding, which raised him to a pitch of learning unknown in the age in which he lived. His works, collected after his death, appeared at Wittemberg, in seven volumes, folio.

Ulriucus Zuinglius

A zealous reformer, born at Wildehausen, in Switzerland, 1487. He studied the learned languages at Bâsle and Berne, and applied himself to philosophy at Vienna, and took his degree of doctor of divinity, at Bâsle, 1505. For ten years he acquired popularity as public preacher at Glaris, and in 1516 he was invited to Zurich to undertake the office of minister. The tenets of Luther, which were now propagated in Germany, encouraged the Swiss preacher to oppose the sale of indulgences, and to regard them as impositions from the court of Rome upon the superstitious credulity of the people. Undaunted in the publication of his opinions, he continued to increase the number of his adherents, and in 1523 he assembled the senate and the clergy of Zurich, and presented before them in sixty-seven propositions the minute articles of his faith. Though opposed by the bishop of Constance, his doctrines were adopted by the full senate, and he was exhorted to preach the word of God, whilst all pastors were forbidden to teach any thing but what could be proved by the gospel. Another synod still more powerfully favored the cause of Zuinglius and of truth; images and relics were removed from churches, processions were forbidden, and the greater part of the outward worship and ceremonies of the church of Rome was abolished. While, however, successful in the establishment of his doctrines in the canton of Zurich, Zuinglius met with violent opposition in the other members of the Swiss confederacy, and, after the fruitless conferences of Baden between Œcolampadius on the part of Zurich, and of Eckius on the part of the Catholics, both sides had recourse to arms. In one of the first encounters, the great champion of the reformation was slain, 11th October, 1531. As a leader, Zuinglius displayed great firmness, deep learning, and astonishing presence of mind. Though he opposed the doctrines of the Romish church, he greatly differed from the German reformer, and each, unhappily, paid little respect to the opinions of the other. His followers continued to increase; and in bearing his name they maintained doctrines on original sin, and on grace, which were rejected by the other seceders from the jurisdiction of Rome. According to Zuinglius, salvation was extended not only to infants, who died before baptism, but to heathens of a virtuous and moral life. Some alterations were afterwards introduced by Calvin, by Beza, and others; but whilst the proselytes to these new opinions acquired the name of Calvinists in France, and in other parts of Europe, the Zuinglians, who firmly adhered to the tenets of their founder, assumed the appellation of Sacramentarians. The works of Zuinglius, as a controversialist, were respectable, chiefly written in German, and were comprehended in four volumes, folio.

Martin Bucer

A Dominican, born in Alsace, in 1491, who early embraced the tenets of Luther. He afterwards inclined more to the opinions of Zuinglius, and, in his zeal for the reformation, attempted in vain to reconcile these two powerful leaders. For twenty years, his eloquence was exerted at Strasburg to establish the Protestant cause; but the turbulence of the times, and his opposition to the views of the Catholics at Augsburg, rendered him unpopular, so that he received with pleasure the invitations of Cranmer to settle in England. He was received with gratitude by the nation. Edward VI. treated him with great kindness, and he was appointed theological professor at Cambridge, in 1549, where he died two years after. Five years after, the persecutions of Mary were extended to his remains, which were ignominiously burned; but the insult was repaired by the good sense of Elizabeth. In learning, judgment, and moderation, Bucer was inferior to none of the great reformers, and, with Melancthon, he may be considered as the best calculated to restore and maintain unanimity among contending churches and opposite sects. His writings, in Latin and German, were very numerous, and all on theological subjects.

Philip Melancthon

A celebrated reformer, born 16th February, 1497, at Bretten, in the Palatinate of the Rhine. His father’s name was Schwartserdt, which signifies black earth; but the word was changed, according to the affectation of the times, by his friend Reuchlin, into Melancthon, which, in Greek, expresses the same meaning. He studied at Bretten, Pfortsheim, and Heidelberg, and with such success that, at thirteen, he wrote a comedy of some merit. He left Heidelberg in 1512, because he was refused a degree on account of his youth, and then passed to Tubingen, where he resided for six years, and gave public lectures on Virgil, Terence, and other classics. In 1518, by the recommendation of his friend Reuchlin, he was appointed, by the elector of Saxony, Greek professor at Wittemberg; and here began that intimacy with Luther, which contributed so much to the progress of the reformation. He was, in 1527, appointed by his patron, the duke, to visit the churches of the electorate, and afterwards he was employed in the arduous labors of preparing those articles of faith which have received the name of the Augsburg Confession, because presented to the emperor at the diet of that city. In the disputes which he maintained in those days of controversial enmity, he displayed great candor and mildness, which his friend Luther attributed more to a spirit of timidity, than to the meekness of the Christian character. His moderation, as well as his learning, was so universally acknowledged, that he received a liberal invitation from Francis I. to come to France, to settle the disputes of the Protestants; but through the interference of the duke of Saxony, the offer was declined, as likewise a similar invitation from the king of England. He was engaged in the various conferences which took place on religious subjects at Frankfort, Reinspurg, Worms, Spires, and Ratisbon, and every where evinced the deepest learning, the most peaceable temper, and the strongest moderation. The character of the times, and not inclination, rendered him a controversialist, and his answer to his mother displayed the great and the good man. When asked by the aged woman, who repeated before him her prayers in a simple but pious manner, what she must believe in this great confusion of creeds; he replied, “Go on, mother, to believe and pray as you have done, and never trouble yourself about controversies.” He died at Wittemberg, 19th April, 1560, and was buried by the side of his friend Luther, in the church of the castle. Among the reasons which, on his death-bed, he assigned for considering dissolution as happiness, he said that it delivered him from theological persecutions. His works were very numerous, and, as they were written in the midst of controversy and ecclesiastical avocations, they were not always so correct in language, as they proved useful in advancing the reformation. A chronological catalogue of these was published in 1582, and they appeared altogether in four volumes, folio, at Wittemberg, 1601.

Peter Martyr

A celebrated reformer and theologian, whose real name was Vermigli, was born, in 1500, at Florence. He was originally an Augustine monk, and became an eminent preacher, and prior of St. Fridian’s, at Lucca. Having, however, embraced the Protestant doctrines, he found it necessary to quit his native country. After having been for some time professor of divinity at Strasburg, he was invited to England, and appointed professor of theology at Oxford. He left England on the accession of Mary, and died in 1561, theological professor at Zurich. He wrote several works, of great erudition, among which are Commentaries upon parts of the Scriptures. His personal character is said to have been extremely amiable.

Henry Bullinger

One of the early reformers, born in the canton of Zurich at Baumgarten, in 1504. The works of Melancthon converted him to Protestantism, and he became closely connected with Zuinglius, to whom he succeeded as pastor of Zurich. He was one of the authors of the Helvetic Confession, and assisted Calvin in drawing up the formulary of 1549. Bullinger was a moderate and conscientious man; and it is much to his honor that, on the ground of its being inconsistent with Christianity for any one to hire himself out to slaughter those who had never injured him, he successfully opposed a treaty for supplying France with a body of Swiss mercenaries. He died in 1575. His printed works form ten folio volumes.

John Knox

The great champion of the Scottish reformation was born, in 1505, at Gifford, in East Lothian, and was educated at Haddington and St. Andrews. After he was created master of arts, he taught philosophy, most probably as a regent in one of the colleges of the university. His class became celebrated, and he was considered as equalling, if not excelling, his master in the subtilties of the dialectic art. About the same time, although he had no interest but what was procured by his own merit, he was advanced to clerical orders, and ordained a priest before he reached the age fixed by the canons of the church. At this time, the fathers of the Christian church, Jerome and Augustine, attracted his particular attention. By the writings of the former, he was led to the Scriptures as the only pure fountain of divine truth, and instructed in the utility of studying them in the original languages. In the works of the latter he found religious sentiments very opposite to those taught in the Romish church, who, while she retained his name as a saint in her calendar, had banished his doctrine as heretical from her pulpits. From this time he renounced the study of scholastic theology; and, although not yet completely emancipated from superstition, his mind was fitted for improving the means which Providence had given for leading him to a fuller and more comprehensive view of the system of evangelical religion. It was about the year 1535, when this favorable change commenced; but it does not appear that he professed himself a Protestant before the year 1542. He was converted from the Romish faith by Wishart, and became a zealous preacher of the new doctrines. Having been compelled to take shelter in the castle of St. Andrews, he fell into the hands of the French in July, 1547, and was carried with the garrison to France, where he remained a captive on board of the galleys till 1549. Subsequent to his liberation, he was for a short time chaplain to Edward VI., after which he visited Geneva and Frankfort, and, in 1555, returned to his native country. After having for twelve months labored actively and successfully to strengthen the Protestant cause in Scotland, he revisited Geneva, where he remained till 1559. During his residence in Geneva, he published his “First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous Government of Women”—a treatise which was levelled against Mary of England, but which gave serious offence to Elizabeth. From April, 1559, when he once more and finally set foot on Scottish earth, till his decease, which took place November 24, 1572, the reformed church was triumphant, and he was one of its most prominent, admired, and honored leaders.

When his body was laid in the grave, the regent of Scotland emphatically pronounced his eulogium, in the well-known words, “There lies he who never feared the face of man.”

Knox has been styled the intrepid reformer; and that character he unquestionably deserves. In personal intrepidity and popular eloquence he resembled Luther. His doctrinal sentiments were those of Calvin; and, like Zuinglius, he felt an attachment to the principles of religious liberty. He effected much in the great work of the reformation; but his manners were so severe, and his temper so acrid, that whilst he may be equally respected with Luther and Melancthon, he is not equally beloved. Knox was, however, known and beloved by the principal persons among the reformed in France, Switzerland, and Germany; and the affectionate veneration in which his memory was held in Scotland after his death, evinced that the influence he possessed among his countrymen, during his life, was not constrained, but founded on the high opinion which they entertained. Banatyne has thus drawn his character, and it is unquestionably entitled to consideration:—“In this manner,” says he, “departed this man of God; the light of Scotland, the comfort of the church within the same, the mirror of godliness, and pattern and example to all true ministers, in purity of life, soundness of doctrine, and boldness in reproving of wickedness; one that cared not for the favor of men, how great soever they were.”

John Calvin

A celebrated reformer, born at Noyon, in Picardy, 10th July, 1509. His family name was Cauvin, which he Latinized into Calvinus. He was first intended for the church, and, subsequently, for the profession of civil law. Having embraced the principles of Protestantism, he was under the necessity of quitting France; and he settled at Bâsle, where he published his celebrated “Institutions of the Christian Religion.” After having visited Italy, he was returning by the way of Geneva, in 1536, when Farel and other reformers induced him to take up his abode in that city. He was chosen one of the ministers of the gospel, and professor of divinity. A dispute with the city authorities soon compelled him to leave Geneva, and he withdrew to Strasburg; whence he was recalled in 1541. From the time of his recall, he possessed almost absolute power at Geneva; and he exerted himself vigorously in establishing the Presbyterian form of church government. The reformer, who so loudly exclaimed against the tyranny of Rome, directed the whole torrent of his persecution against Servetus, a physician, who had in an ambiguous style written upon the Trinity; and his vengeance was not appeased till the unfortunate heretic had expired in the flames. He died May 26, 1564; and, though he had long enjoyed a high reputation and exercised an unbounded authority, he left only three hundred crowns to his heirs, including his library, the books of which sold afterwards at a great price. The works of Calvin were printed in twelve volumes, folio, Geneva, and in nine, Amsterdam, in 1667.

Jerome Zanchius

A native of Alzano, who entered in the congregation of the Lateran canons. He embraced the tenets of the Protestants by the conversation of Peter Martyr, who was of the same establishment; and, afraid of persecution, he retired, 1553, to Strasburg, where he taught divinity and the philosophy of Aristotle. He quitted Strasburg, in 1563, for Chiavene, and, in 1568, removed to Heidelberg, where he was appointed professor of theology, and where he died 19th November, 1590, aged eighty-four. He was author of “Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles,” and other works, published together at Geneva, in eight volumes, folio, 1613. In his character he was a man of moderation, learned, benevolent, and pious.

Theodore Beza one of the most eminent of the reformers, was born at Vezelai, in the Nivernois, in 1519, and was originally a Catholic, and intended for the law. At the age of twenty, he gained an unenviable reputation by the composition of Latin poetry which was at once elegant and licentious, and which, some years afterwards, he published under the title of “Juvenile Poems.” Though not in orders, he possessed benefices of considerable value. These, however, he abandoned in 1548, and retired to Geneva, where he publicly abjured Popery. To this he was induced by his having meditated, during illness, upon the doctrines which he had heard from his Protestant tutor, Melchior Wolmar; and perhaps also, in some measure, by his attachment to a lady, whom he carried with him to Geneva, and married. He now accepted the Greek professorship at Lausanne, which he held for ten years. It was while he was thus occupied that he produced his tragedy of “Abraham’s Sacrifice,” his version of the New Testament, and his hateful defence of the right of the magistrate to punish heretics. In 1559, he removed to Geneva, and became the colleague of Calvin, through whom he was appointed rector of the academy, and theological professor. Two years after this, he took a prominent part in the conference at Poissy, and was present at the battle of Dreux. He returned to Geneva in 1563, succeeded Calvin in his offices and influence, and was thenceforward considered as the head of the Calvinistic church. After an exceedingly active life, he died on the 13th of October, 1605.

Leo X.

Pope John de Medici, the son of the illustrious Lorenzo, was born in 1475, at Florence, and was nominated a cardinal in his thirteenth year. In 1505, he was made governor of Perugia; was intrusted with the command of the Papal army in 1511; and was made prisoner, in the following year, at the battle of Ravenna. He attained the Papal crown in 1513, on the death of Julius II. He died in 1521. Leo was one of the most munificent patrons of learning and of the arts; but he was prodigal, and on some occasions grossly violated the principles of justice. To his shameless sale of indulgences, to raise money to complete St. Peter’s Church at Rome, and other extravagances, the world is indebted for the reformation of the church by Luther and others.

Justin

Surnamed the Martyr, one of the fathers of the church, was born at Neapolis, anciently Sichem, in Palestine, and was a philosopher of the Platonic school. He is believed to have preached the gospel in Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt. He was beheaded at Rome, in 165. Of his works, the principal are two Apologies for the Christians.

Arius

Founder of the sect of the Arians, was an African by birth. Disappointment made him a sectary. He propagated the opinion that the Word was not a divine person; and the heresy, though condemned by various councils, gained followers, and excited schisms in the Roman empire. The Nicene creed was drawn up to combat his errors. He was a violent enemy of Athanasius. He died at Alexandria, 386.

Athanasius

The celebrated patriarch of Alexandria was born in that city about 296. At the council of Nice, though then but a deacon of Alexandria, his reputation for skill in controversy gained him an honorable place in the council, and with signal ability he exposed the sophistry of those who pleaded on the side of Arius. Six months after, he was appointed the successor of Alexander. Notwithstanding the influence of the emperor, who had recalled Arius from banishment, and, upon a plausible confession of his faith, in which he affected to be Orthodox in his sentiments, directed that he should be received by the Alexandrian church, Athanasius refused to admit him to communion, and exposed his prevarication. The Arians upon this exerted themselves to raise tumults at Alexandria, and to injure the character of Athanasius with the emperor, who was prevailed upon by falsehoods to pronounce against him a sentence of banishment. In the beginning of the reign of Constantius, he was recalled to his happy people, but was again disturbed and deposed through the influence of the Arians. Accusations were also sent against him and other bishops from the east to the west; but they were acquitted by Pope Julius in full council. Athanasius was restored a second time to his see, upon the death of the Arian bishop, who had been placed in it. Arianism, however, being in favor at court, he was condemned by a council convened at Arles, and by another at Milan, and was a third time obliged to fly into the deserts. His enemies pursued him even here, and set a price upon his head. In this situation, Athanasius composed writings full of eloquence to strengthen the faith of believers, and expose the falsehood of his enemies. He returned with the other bishops whom Julian the Apostate recalled from banishment, and, in A. D. 362, held a council at Alexandria, where the belief of a consubstantial Trinity was openly professed. Many now were recovered from Arianism, and brought to subscribe the Nicene creed. But his peace was again interrupted by the complaints of the heathen, whose temples the zeal of Athanasius kept always empty. He was again obliged to fly to save his life. The accession of Jovian brought him back. During the reign of Jovian, also, Athanasius held another council, which declared its adherence to the Nicene faith; and with the exception of a short retirement under Valens, he was permitted to sit down in quiet and govern his affectionate church of Alexandria, until his death, in 373. Of the forty-six years of his official life, he spent twenty in banishment.

Athanasius (says the Encyclopedia Americana) is one of the greatest men of whom the church can boast. His deep mind, his noble heart, his invincible courage, his living faith, his unbounded benevolence, sincere humility, lofty eloquence, and strictly virtuous life, gained the honor and love of all. In all his writings, his style is distinguished for clearness and moderation.

Moses Maimonides

Moses son of Maimon, commonly called Moses Egypticus, because physician to the sultan of Egypt, was a Jewish rabbi, born at Cordova, in Spain, 1131. He opened a school in Egypt, and as his skill, not only in languages, but in all branches of science and of philosophy, was very great, his instructions were attended by numerous and respectable pupils. Thus eminently distinguished as a scholar, as a physician, and also as a divine, so as to be called inferior only to the legislator Moses, he beheld with indifference, and even contempt, the fables and traditions of his countrymen, and applied all the powers of learning, and the vast resources of his mind, in the cause of truth, virtue, and philosophy. Some of his works were written in Arabic, but are extant now in Hebrew only. The most famous of these are his Commentaries on the Misna; Jad, a complete pandect of the Jewish law; More Nevochim, a valuable work, explaining the difficult passages, phrases, parables, and allegories, in Scripture, and several other works. This great and learned man died in Egypt at the age of seventy, and was buried with his nation in the land of Upper Galilee. His death was mourned for three whole days by Jews and Egyptians, and the year in which he died, in respect of his great virtues and learning, was called Lamentum Lamentabile.

John Agricola

A German divine, born at Isleb. He was the friend and the disciple of Luther, but afterwards violently opposed him, and became the head of the Antinomians, a sect which regarded faith as the whole of the duties of man. He was also engaged in a dispute with Melancthon; but, with the most laudable motives, he endeavored to effect a reconciliation between the Catholics and Protestants. He died at Berlin, 1566, aged seventy-four.

Michael Servetus

A native of Villanuova, in Arragon, son of a notary. He studied the law at Toulouse, but afterwards applied to medicine at Paris, and took there his doctor’s degree. The boldness and pertinacity of his opinions created him enemies, and he left the capital to settle at Lyons, but afterwards he retired to Charlieu. On the invitation of the archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphiny, he was prevailed upon to fix his residence there, and he might have lived in peace and respected, had he been satisfied to seek celebrity in medical pursuits alone. Eager to publish his Arian opinions on religion, he sent three questions to Calvin on the Divinity of Christ, on Regeneration, and on the Necessity of Baptism, and, when answered with civility, he reflected on the sentiments of his correspondent with arrogant harshness. This produced a quarrel, and ended in the most implacable hatred, so that Calvin, bent on revenge, obtained, by secret means, copies of a work in which his antagonist was engaged, and caused him to be accused before the archbishop as a dangerous man. Servetus escaped from prison; but, on his way to Italy, he had the imprudence to pass in disguise through Geneva, where he was recognized by Calvin, and immediately seized by the magistrate as an impious heretic. Forty heretical errors were proved against him by his accusers; but Servetus refused to renounce them, and the magistrates, at last yielding to the loud representations of the ministers of Bâsle, Berne, and Zurich, and especially of Calvin, who demanded the punishment of a profane heretic, ordered the unhappy man to be burnt. On the 27th October, 1553, the wretched Servetus was conducted to the stake, and, as the wind prevented the flames from fully reaching his body, two long hours elapsed before he was freed from his miseries. This cruel treatment deservedly called down the general odium on the head of Calvin, who ably defended his conduct and that of the magistrates. Servetus published various works against the Trinity, which were burnt in disgrace at Geneva, and other places.

Simonis Menno

An ecclesiastic of Friesland, embraced the tenets of the Anabaptists, and, after being again baptized by Ubbo Philippi, became a powerful leader of his sect. He denied that Jesus Christ received a human shape from his mother, the virgin Mary; and while he maintained the necessity of again baptizing adults, he inveighed against the custom of infant baptism, which he regarded as Popish innovation. His eloquence and his learning were so much admired, that he gained a great number of followers in Westphalia, Guelderland, Holland, and Brabant; but, though a price was set on his head, he had the good fortune to escape his persecutors. He was, in his opinions, more moderate than the rest of the Anabaptists. His followers are still to be found in the Low Countries, under the name of Mennonites, divided into two distinct sects. He died at Oldeslo, between Lubec and Hamburg, 1565. His works were published at Amsterdam, 1681.

Francis Xavier

Denominated the Apostle of the Indies, was born, in 1506, at the castle of Xavier, in Navarre; studied at Paris; became one of the first and most zealous disciples of Ignatius Loyola; was sent to the East by John III. of Portugal, to propagate the gospel; performed his mission in Hindoostan, the Moluccas, and Japan; and was on the point of landing in China, when he died, 1552.

Faustus Socinus

He who from whom the Socinians derive their name, was born, in 1539, at Sienna, and was for a considerable period in the service of the grand duke of Tuscany; after which he went to study theology, at Bâsle. The result of his studies was the adoption of those anti-Trinitarian doctrines, which his uncle Lelio Socinus is believed also to have professed. Faustus settled in Poland, gained many followers, endured much persecution, and died in 1604.

Robert Brown

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 themselves, so that Brown, growing weary of his office, returned 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; but the seeds of Brownism which he had sown in England were so far from being destroyed, that Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, computes no less than twenty thousand of this sect.

James Arminius

A native of Oude-water, in Holland, 1560, founder of the sect of the Arminians. As he lost his father early, he was supported at the university of Utrecht, and of Marpurg, by the liberality of his friends; but when he returned home, in the midst of the ravages caused by the Spanish arms, instead of being received by his mother, he found that she, as well as her daughters, and all her family, had been sacrificed to the wantonness of the ferocious enemy. His distress was for a while inconsolable; but the thirst after distinction called him to the newly-founded university of Leyden, where his industry acquired him the protection of the magistrates of Amsterdam, at whose expense he travelled to Geneva and Italy, to hear the lectures of Theodore Beza and James Zabarella. On his return to Holland, he was ordained minister of Amsterdam, 1588. As professor of divinity at Leyden, to which office he was called 1603, he distinguished himself by three valuable orations on the object of theology, on the author and end of it, and on the certainty of it; and he afterwards explained the prophet Jonah. In his public and private life, Arminius has been admired for his moderation; and though many gross insinuations have been thrown against him, yet his memory has been fully vindicated by the ablest pens, and he seemed entitled to the motto which he assumed,—A good conscience is a paradise. A life of perpetual labor and vexation of mind at last brought on a sickness of which he died, October 19, 1619. His writings were all on controversial and theological subjects, and were published in one volume, quarto, Frankfort, 1661.

Francis Higginson

First minister of Salem, Massachusetts, after receiving his education at Emanuel College, in Cambridge, became the minister of a church at Leicester, in England. While his popular talents filled his church with attentive hearers, such was the divine blessing upon his labors, that a deep attention to religious subjects was excited among his people. Becoming at length a conscientious Nonconformist to the rites of the English church, some of which he thought not only were unsupported by Scripture, but corrupted the purity of Christian worship and discipline, he was excluded from the parish church, and became obnoxious to the High Commission Court. One day two messengers came to his house, and with loud knocks cried out, “Where is Mr. Higginson? We must speak with Mr. Higginson!” His wife ran to his chamber, and entreated him to conceal himself; but he replied, that he should acquiesce in the will of God. He went down, and, as the messengers entered the hall, they presented him with some papers, saying, in a rough manner, “Sir, we came from London, and our business is to convey you to London, as you may see by those papers.” “I thought so,” exclaimed Mrs. Higginson, weeping; but a woman’s tears could have but little effect upon hard-hearted pursuivants. Mr. Higginson opened the packet to read the form of his arrest, but, instead of an order from Bishop Laud for his seizure, he found a copy of the charter of Massachusetts, and letters from the governor and company, inviting him to embark with them for New England. The sudden transition of feeling from despondence to joy, may be better imagined than described.

Having sought advice and implored the divine direction, he resolved to accept the invitation. In his farewell sermon, preached before a vast assembly, he declared his persuasion, that England would be chastised by war, and that Leicester would have more than an ordinary share of sufferings. It was not long before his prediction was verified. It is not meant that he claimed the power of foretelling future events, but he could reason with considerable accuracy from cause to effect, knowing that iniquity is generally followed by its punishment; and he lived in an age when it was usual for ministers to speak with more confidence, and authority, and efficacy, than at present. He sailed from Gravesend, April 25, 1629, accompanied by Mr. Skelton, whose principles accorded with his own. When he came to the Land’s End, he called his children and the other passengers on deck to take the last view of their native country; and he now exclaimed, “Farewell, England! farewell, the church of God in England, and all the Christian friends there! We do not go to America as separatists from the church of England, though we cannot but separate from its corruptions.” He then concluded with a fervent prayer for the king, church, and state, in England. He arrived at Cape Ann, June 27, 1629, and, having spent the next day there, which was Sunday, on the 29th he entered the harbor of Salem. July the 20th was observed as a day of fasting by the appointment of Governor Endicott, and the church then made choice of Mr. Higginson to be their teacher, and Mr. Skelton their pastor.

Thus auspicious was the commencement of the settlement of Naumkeag, or Salem; but the scene was soon changed. During the first winter, about one hundred persons died, and Mr. Higginson was soon seized with a hectic, which terminated his days in August, 1630, aged forty-two. In his last sickness, he was reminded of his benevolent exertions in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. To consoling suggestions of this kind he replied, “I have been an unprofitable servant, and all my desire is to win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness.”

Richard Baxter

A Nonconformist, born at Rowton, Shropshire, 12th November, 1615. He compensated for the deficiencies of a neglected education by unusual application, and was appointed master of Dudley free-school by the interest of Mr. Richard Foley, of Stourbridge, and soon after admitted into orders by the bishop of Winchester. His scruples were raised by the oath which was proposed by the convention at that time sitting, and he was among the number of those who showed their dislike to an unqualified submission “to archbishops, bishops, et cetera,” as they knew not what the et cetera comprehended. In 1640, he was invited to be minister at Kidderminster; but the civil war, which broke out soon after, exposed him to persecution, as he espoused the cause of the parliament. He retired to Coventry, and continued his ministerial labors till the success of the republicans recalled him to his favorite flock at Kidderminster. The usurpation of Cromwell gave him great offence, and he even presumed to argue in private with the tyrant on the nature and illegality of his power; but in the only sermon which he preached before him, he wisely confined his subject to the dissensions which existed in the kingdom on religious matters. He was in London after Cromwell’s death, and preached before parliament the day before the king’s return was voted, and likewise before the lord mayor for Monk’s successes. Charles II. made him one of his chaplains, and Chancellor Clarendon offered him the bishopric of Hereford, which he declined. He was, however, soon involved in the general persecution of the Nonconformists. His paraphrase on the New Testament drew upon him, in 1685, the vengeance of Jeffreys, and he was condemned to be imprisoned for two years, from which punishment, six months after, he was discharged by the interference of Lord Powis with King James. He died December 8th, 1691, and was interred in Christ Church.

George Fox

The founder of the society of Friends, or Quakers, was born, in 1624, at Drayton, in Leicestershire, and was the son of a weaver, a pious and virtuous man, who gave him a religious education. Being apprenticed to a grazier, he was employed in keeping sheep—an occupation, the silence and solitude of which were well calculated to nurse his naturally enthusiastic feelings. When he was about nineteen, he believed himself to have received a divine command to forsake all, renounce society, and dedicate his existence to the service of religion. For five years, he accordingly led a wandering life, fasting, praying, and living secluded; but it was not till about 1648 that he began to preach his doctrines. Manchester was the place where he first promulgated them. Thenceforth he pursued his career with untirable zeal and activity, in spite of frequent imprisonment and brutal usage. It was at Derby that his followers were first denominated Quakers, either from their tremulous mode of speaking, or from their calling on their hearers to “tremble at the name of the Lord.” The labors of Fox were crowned with considerable success; and, in 1669, he extended the sphere of them to America, where he spent two years. He also twice visited the continent. He died in 1690. His writings were collected in three volumes, folio. Whatever may be thought of the tenets of Fox there can be no doubt that he was sincere in them, and that he was a man of strict temperance, humility, moderation, and piety.

William Penn

The founder of Pennsylvania, born in London, 1644, From a private school at Chigwell, Essex, he entered, in 1660, as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church, Oxford; but, as he withdrew from the national forms of worship with other students, who, like himself, had listened to the preaching of Thomas Loe, a Quaker of eminence, who was fined for Non-conformity, and, the next year, as he pertinaciously adhered to his opinions, he was expelled from the college. His father sent him to France, and, on his return, he entered at Lincoln’s Inn, as a law student. In 1666, he was sent to manage an estate in Ireland, and, during his residence there, he renewed his acquaintance with Loe, and showed such partiality to the Quakers, that he was, in those days of persecution, taken up at a meeting at Cork, and imprisoned by the mayor, who at last restored him to liberty at the request of Lord Orrery. His return to England produced a violent altercation with his father, who wished him to abandon those singular habits so offensive to decorum and established forms; and, when he refused to appear uncovered before him and before the king, he a second time dismissed him from his protection and favor. In 1668, he first appeared as a preacher and as an author among the Quakers; and, in consequence of some controversial dispute, he was sent to the Tower, where he remained in confinement for seven months. The passing of the conventicle act soon after again sent him to prison in Newgate, from which he was released by the interest of his father, who about this time was reconciled to him, and left him, on his decease some time after, a valuable estate of about fifteen hundred pounds per annum. In 1672, he married Gulielma Maria Springett, a lady of principles similar to his own, and then fixed his residence at Rickmansworth, where he employed himself zealously in promoting the cause of the Friends by his preaching, as well as by his writings. In 1677, he went, with George Fox and Robert Barclay, to the continent on a religious excursion; and, after visiting Amsterdam and the other chief towns of Holland, they proceeded to the court of Princess Elizabeth, the granddaughter of James I., at Herwerden or Herford, where they were received with great kindness and hospitality. Soon after his return to England, Charles II. granted him, in consideration of the services of his father, and for a debt due to him from the crown, a province of North America, then called New Netherlands, but now making the state of Pennsylvania. In consequence of this acquisition, he invited, under the royal patent, settlers from all parts of the kingdom, and drew up, in twenty-four articles, the fundamental constitution of his new province, in which he held out a greater degree of religious liberty than had at that time appeared in the Christian world. A colony of people, chiefly of his persuasion, soon flocked to share his fortunes; the lands of the country were cleared and improved, and a town was built, which, on the principle of brotherly love, received the name of Philadelphia. In 1682, Penn visited the province, and confirmed that good understanding which he had recommended with the natives; and, after two years’ residence, and with the satisfaction of witnessing and promoting the prosperity of the colonists, he returned to England. Soon after, Charles died, and the acquaintance which Penn had with the new monarch was honorably used to protect the people of his persuasion. At the revolution however, he was suspected of treasonable correspondence with the exiled prince, and therefore exposed to molestation and persecution. In 1694, he lost his wife; but, though severely afflicted by the event, he in about two years married again, and afterwards employed himself in travelling in Ireland, and over England, in disseminating, as a preacher, the doctrines of his sect. He visited, in 1699, his province with his wife and family, and returned to England in 1701. The suspicion with which he had been regarded under William’s government, ceased at the accession of Queen Anne, and the unyielding advocate of Quakerism was permitted to live with greater freedom, and to fear persecution less. In 1710, he removed to Rushcomb, near Twyford, Berks, where he spent the rest of his life. Three repeated attacks of an apoplexy at last came to weaken his faculties and his constitution, and, after nearly losing all recollection of his former friends and associates, he expired, 30th July, 1718, and was buried at Jordan, near Beaconsfield, Bucks. The character of Penn is truly amiable, benevolent, and humane; his labors were exerted for the good of mankind, and, with the strictest consistency of moral conduct and religious opinion, he endured persecution and malice with resignation; and, guided by the approbation of a pure conscience, he showed himself indefatigable in the fulfilling of what he considered as the law of God, and the clear demonstration of the truth of the gospel. The long prosperity of Pennsylvania, and of his favorite city, Philadelphia, furnishes the best evidence of his wisdom as a legislator.

Benedict Spinoza

An atheistical writer, son of a Portuguese Jew, born at Amsterdam, 1638. He studied medicine and theology; but his religion was so loose, and his inquiries for the reason of every thing which he was to believe, became so offensive to the rabbies, that he was thrust out of the synagogue. In consequence of this, he became a Christian, and was baptized; but his conversion was insincere, and though, during his life, he did not openly profess himself an atheist, his posthumous works plainly proved him such. He died, of a consumption, at the Hague, February, 1677, aged forty-five. He is the founder of a regular system of atheism, and by his hypothesis he wished to establish that there is but one substance in nature, which is endowed with infinite attributes, with extension and thought; that all spirits are modifications of that substance; and that God, the necessary and most perfect being, is the cause of all things that exist, but does not differ from them. These monstrous doctrines, though not new, were thus built into a regular system by this extraordinary man, who is said in other respects to have been of a good moral character in private life, benevolent, friendly, and charitable. His conduct was marked by no licentiousness or irregularity; but he retired from the tumults of Amsterdam to a more peaceful residence at the Hague, where curiosity led princes, philosophers, and learned men, to see and to converse with this bold assertor of atheism.

Ann Lee

Born in the town of Manchester, in England, in 1736. Her father, John Lee, though not in affluent circumstances, was an honest and industrious man. Her mother was esteemed as a very pious woman. As was common with the laboring classes of people in England at that period, their children, instead of being sent to school, were brought up to work from early childhood. By this means, Ann, though quite illiterate, acquired a habit of industry, and was early distinguished for her activity, faithfulness, neatness, and good economy in her temporal employments.

From early childhood she was the subject of religious impressions and divine manifestations. These continued, in a greater or less degree, as she advanced in years; so that, at times, she was strongly impressed with a sense of the great depravity of human nature, and of the lost state of mankind by reason of sin. But losing her mother at an early age, and finding no person to assist her in the pursuit of a life of holiness, and being urged by the solicitations of her relations and friends, she was married to Abraham Stanley, by whom she had four children, who all died in infancy. But the convictions of her youth often returned upon her with great force, which at length brought her under excessive tribulation of soul. In this situation, she sought earnestly for deliverance from the bondage of sin.

While under these exercises of mind, she became acquainted with a society of people associated under the ministration of James Wardly, who, with Jane, his wife, had been greatly favored with divine manifestations concerning the second appearing of Christ, which they foresaw was near at hand. Ann readily embraced their testimony, and united herself to the society in the month of September, 1758.

In this society, Ann found that strength and protection against the powerful influences of evil, which, for the time being, were answerable to her faith; and, by her faithful obedience, she by degrees attained to the full knowledge and experience in spiritual things which they had found. But as she still found in herself the remains of the propensities of fallen nature, she could not rest satisfied short of full salvation; she therefore sought earnestly, day and night, in the most fervent prayers and cries to God, to find complete deliverance from a sinful nature, and to know more perfectly the way of full redemption and final salvation.

After passing through many scenes of tribulation and suffering, she received a full answer to her prayers and desires to God. She then came forward, and, with extraordinary power and energy of spirit, testified that she had received, through the Spirit of Christ, a full revelation of the fallen nature of man, and of the only means of redemption, which were comprised in his precepts and living example while on earth. The astonishing power of God which accompanied her testimony of this revelation to the society, was too awakening and convincing to leave a doubt on the minds of the society of its divine authority. When, therefore, Ann had thus manifested to the society the revelation of light which she had received, she was received and acknowledged as their leader and spiritual Mother in Christ. This was the only name of distinction by which she was known in the society. The term Elect Lady was given to her by her enemies. Ann, with a number of her followers, visited America in 1774, and formed the first society of Shakers in this country, at Watervliet, N. Y., where she died in 1784.

John Glass

Scotch divine, born at Dundee, 1698, and educated at Aberdeen. Upon his publication of a pamphlet on the inconsistency of a civil establishment with Christianity, he was deposed from his church, near Dundee, and then became the founder of a new sect, called the Glassites in Scotland, and Sandemanians in England. As the discipline of his sect was very rigorous, few embraced his tenets, and the name is scarce known now.

George Keith

A Quaker, born at Aberdeen, and was well educated. He came, in 1682, to East Jersey, where he was surveyor-general. In 1689, he taught a school in Philadelphia. After various exertions, writing and travelling for the propagation of the sentiments of his sect, he at first seceded, and at length entirely deserted the society. In England, he became an Episcopalian, and was consecrated as an Episcopal missionary, and in that capacity officiated for a short time in New York and Boston. Returning to England in 1706, he was a rector at Edburton, in Sussex, where he died. His publications were numerous, but almost exclusively controversial.

Nicholas Louis, Count Zinzendorf

The patron of the sect of the Moravians, was born at Dresden, in May, 1700. He studied at Halle and Utrecht. About the year 1721, he purchased the lordship of Bertholdsdorf, in Lusatia. Some poor Christians, the followers of John Huss, obtained leave, in 1722, to settle on his estate. They soon made converts. Such was the origin of the village of Herrnhut. Their noble patron soon after joined them.

From this period Count Zinzendorf devoted himself to the business of instructing his fellow-men by his writings and by preaching. He travelled through Germany, and in Denmark became acquainted with the Danish missions in the East Indies and Greenland. About 1732, he engaged earnestly in the promotion of missions by his Moravian brethren, whose numbers at Herrnhut were then about five hundred. So successful were these missions, that in a few years four thousand negroes were baptized in the West Indies, and the converts in Greenland amounted to seven hundred and eighty-four.

In 1737, he visited London, and, in 1741, came to America, and preached at Germantown and Bethlehem. February 11, 1742, he ordained at Oly, in Pennsylvania, the missionaries Rauch and Buettner, and Rauch baptized three Indians from Shekomeco, east of the Hudson, “the firstlings of the Indians.” He soon, with his daughter, Benigna, and several brethren and sisters, visited various tribes of Indians. At Shekomeco he established the first Indian Moravian congregation in North America. In 1743, he returned to Europe. He died at Herrnhut, in 1760, and his coffin was carried to the grave by thirty-two preachers and missionaries, whom he had reared, and some of whom had toiled in Holland, England, Ireland, North America, and Greenland. What monarch was ever honored by a funeral like this?

William Courtney

Archbishop of Canterbury, the fourth son of Hugh Courtney, earl of Devonshire, by Margaret, granddaughter of Edward I. He was educated at Oxford, and, though possessed of abilities, owed his elevation in the church to the consequence of his family. When twenty-eight, he was made bishop of Hereford, and afterwards translated to London, where he summoned before him the great Wickliffe, in St. Paul’s Cathedral, 1377. The bold reformer was on this occasion attended by his friends John of Gaunt and Lord Percy, who, in supporting his tenets, treated the prelate with such asperity, that a tumult was excited among the citizens of London. Courtney was made chancellor, 1381, and afterwards raised to the see of Canterbury. He was a violent persecutor of the Wickliffites, and condemned their tenets in a synod. He died at Maidstone, 1396, aged 55.

Richard Hooker

An eminent divine of the church of England, was born in 1553, at Heavitree, near Exeter, and, under the patronage of Bishop Jewel, was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was distinguished for his piety and exemplary conduct. An unhappy marriage, which he contracted before he was thirty, with a scold who had neither beauty, money, nor manners, lost him his college fellowship, and was a fertile source of annoyance to him. In 1585, he was made master of the Temple; but, weary of disputes with the afternoon lecturer,—a violent Presbyterian,—and longing for rural retirement, he relinquished this preferment, and obtained the rectory of Bishop’s Bourne, in Kent, at which he resided till his decease, in 1600. His great work is the treatise on “Ecclesiastical Polity;” of which Pope Clement VIII. said, “There are in it such seeds of eternity as will continue till the last fire shall devour all learning.”

Charles Chauncey

Second president of Harvard College, born in England, in 1589. He received his grammar education at Westminster, and took the degree of M. D. at the university of Cambridge. He emigrated to New England in 1638, and, after serving for a number of years in the ministry at Scituate, was appointed, in 1654, president of Harvard College. In this office he remained till his death, in 1671, performing all its duties with industrious fidelity. He was eminent as a physician, and was of opinion that there ought to be no distinction between physic and divinity.

Roger Williams

The founder of the Providence Plantations, born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. Being a dissenter, he came to America, in the hope of enjoying in freedom his religious opinions. He arrived at Hull, February 5, 1631, and was established at Salem, Massachusetts, as colleague with Mr. Skelton. His peculiar notions soon subjected him to the severest censure. He maintained that the magistrates were bound to grant toleration to all sects of Christians, and in his actions and words avowed the liberality of his principles. After the death of Mr. Skelton, he was sole minister of Salem. Continuing to avow his opinions, which were considered not only heretical, but seditious, he was summoned before the General Court, to answer to numerous charges. He, however, refused to retract any of his opinions, and was accordingly banished, 1635. He first repaired to Seekonk: but, being informed that that territory was within the jurisdiction of Plymouth, he proceeded to Mooshausic, where, with others, in 1636, he began a plantation. The land was honestly purchased of the Indians; and the town, in acknowledgment of the kindness of Heaven, was called Providence. Mr. Williams’s benevolence was not confined to his civilized brethren; he learned the language of the Indians, travelled among them, won the entire confidence of their chiefs, and was often the means of saving from injury the colony that had driven him from its protection. In 1643, he was sent to England, as agent for both settlements, and in September, 1644, returned with a patent for the territory, with permission for the inhabitants to institute a government for themselves. In 1651, he was again sent to England, in the capacity of agent, and returned in 1654, when he was chosen president of the government. Benedict Arnold succeeded him in 1657. He died in April, 1683, aged eighty-four. Mr. Williams was consistent in his religious doctrines, and set a bright example of that toleration which he demanded from others. His mind was strong and well cultivated; and he read the Scriptures in the originals. After his banishment from Massachusetts, he maintained a correspondence with some of its principal men, and ever entertained for them the highest affection and respect. In his writings, he evinces his power at argument. In 1672, he held a public dispute with the most eminent Quaker preachers, of which he has published an account. He also published a “Key to the Indian Language,” octavo, 1643; an answer to Mr. Cotton’s letters, concerning the power of the magistrate in matters of religion, with other letters and discourses.

John Clarke

A distinguished Baptist minister, and one of the first founders of Rhode Island, was a physician in London, before he came to this country. Soon after the first settlement of Massachusetts, he was driven from that colony with a number of others; and March 7, 1638, they formed themselves into a body politic, and purchased Aquetneck of the Indian sachems, calling it the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island. The settlement commenced at Pocasset, or Portsmouth. The Indian deed is dated March 24, 1638. Mr. Clarke was soon employed as a preacher; and, in 1644, he formed a church at Newport, and became its pastor. This was the second Baptist church which was established in America.

In 1649, he was an assistant and treasurer of Rhode Island colony. In 1651, he went to visit one of his brethren at Lynn, near Boston, and he preached on Sunday, July 20; but, before he had completed the services of the forenoon, he was seized, with his friends, by an officer of the government. In the afternoon, he was compelled to attend the parish meeting, at the close of which he spoke a few words. He was tried before the Court of Assistants, and fined twenty pounds; in case of failure in the payment of which sum he was to be whipped. In passing the sentence, Judge Endicott observed, “You secretly insinuate things into those who are weak, which you cannot maintain before our ministers; you may try and dispute with them.” Mr. Clarke accordingly wrote from prison, proposing a dispute upon the principles which he professed. He represented his principles to be, that Jesus Christ had the sole right of prescribing any laws respecting the worship of God which it was necessary to obey; that baptism, or dipping in water, was an ordinance to be administered only to those who gave some evidence of repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ; that such visible believers only constituted the church; that each of them had a right to speak in the congregation, according as the Lord had given him talents, either to make inquiries for his own instruction, or to prophesy for the edification of others, and that at all times and in all places they ought to reprove folly and open their lips to justify wisdom; and that no servant of Jesus Christ had any authority to restrain any fellow-servant in his worship, where injury was not offered to others. No dispute, however, occurred, and Mr. Clarke, his friends paying his fine without his consent, was soon released from prison, and directed to leave the colony. His companion Obadiah Holmes shared a severer fate; for, on declining to pay his fine of thirty pounds, which his friends offered to do for him, he was publicly whipped in Boston.

Mr. Clarke died at Newport, April 20, 1676, aged about 66 years, resigning his soul to his merciful Redeemer, through faith in whose name he enjoyed the hope of a resurrection to eternal life.

His life was so pure, that he was never accused of any vice, to leave a blot on his memory. His noble sentiments respecting religious toleration did not, indeed, accord with the sentiments of the age in which he lived, and exposed him to trouble; but at the present time they are almost universally embraced. His exertions to promote the civil prosperity of Rhode Island must endear his name to those who are now enjoying the fruits of his labors. He possessed the singular honor of contributing much towards establishing the first government upon the earth, which gave equal liberty, civil and religious, to all men living under it.

Ann Hutchinson

A woman who occasioned much difficulty in New England, soon after its first settlement, came from Lincolnshire to Boston, 1635, and was the wife of one of the representatives of Boston. The members of Mr. Cotton’s church used to meet every week to repeat his sermons, and discourse on doctrines. She set up meetings for women, and soon had a numerous audience. After repeating the sermons of Mr. Cotton, she added reflections of her own; she advocated her own sentiments, and warped the discourses of her minister to coincide with them. She soon threw the whole colony into a flame. The progress of her sentiments occasioned the synod of 1637, the first synod in America. This convention of ministers condemned eighty-two erroneous opinions, then propagated in the country. Mrs. Hutchinson, after this sentence of her opinions, was herself called before the court in November of the same year, and, being convicted of traducing the ministers, and advancing errors, was banished the colony. She went with her husband to Rhode Island. In the year 1642, after her husband’s death, she removed into the Dutch country beyond New Haven; and the next year, she, her son Francis, and most of her family of sixteen persons, were killed by the Indians.

Michael Molinos

Founder of the ancient sect of Quietists, was a Spaniard, of a rich and honorable family. He entered into priest’s orders young, but would accept no preferment in the church. He possessed great talents, and was ardently pious, without any of the austerities of the Romish religious orders. He went to Rome, where, in 1675, he published his “Spiritual Guide,” which gave him universal reputation. The Jesuits and Dominicans, envious at his success, charged him with heresy, and at last succeeded in getting him condemned by the Inquisition. He died of torment in their dungeons, a few years after.

John Wesley

The great founder of Methodism was born at Epworth, in England, in 1703. In 1714, he was placed at the Charter House; and two years after he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford. In 1725, he was ordained deacon, and the next year became fellow and tutor of Lincoln College.

Wesley’s character, says his biographer, is itself a study. He equalled Luther in energy and courage, and Melancthon in learning and prudence. All the excellences of both the Wittemberg reformers were combined, if not transcended, in his individual character.

He possessed, in an eminent degree, the power of comprehending at once the general outlines and the details of plans, the aggregate and the integrants. It is this power which forms the philosophical genius in science; it is indispensable to the successful commander and the great statesman. It is illustrated in the whole economical system of Methodism—a system which, while it fixes itself to the smallest localities with the utmost detail and tenacity, is sufficiently general in its provisions to reach the ends of the world, and still maintain its unity of spirit and discipline.

No man knew better than Wesley the importance of small things. His whole financial system was based on weekly penny collections. It was a rule of his preachers never to omit a single preaching appointment, except when the “risk of limb or life” required. He was the first to apply extensively the plan of tract distribution. He wrote, printed, and scattered over the kingdom, placards on almost every topic of morals and religion. In addition to the usual means of grace, he introduced the band meeting, the class meeting, the prayer meeting, the love feast, and the watch night. Not content with his itinerant laborers, he called into use the less available powers of his people by establishing the new departments of local preachers, exhorters, and leaders. It was, in fine, by gathering together fragments, by combining minutiæ, that he formed that stupendous system of spiritual means which is rapidly evangelizing the world.

It was not only in the theoretical construction of plans that he excelled; he was, if possible, still more distinguished by practical energy. The variety and number of his labors would be absolutely incredible with less authentic evidence than that which corroborates them. He was perpetually travelling and preaching, studying and writing, translating and abridging, superintending his societies, and applying his great plans. He travelled usually five thousand miles a year, preaching twice and thrice a day, commencing at five o’clock in the morning. In the midst of all this travelling and preaching, he carried with him the meditative and studious habits of the philosopher. No department of human inquiry was omitted by him. “History, poetry, and philosophy,” said he, “I read on horseback.”

Like Luther, he knew the importance of the press; he kept it teeming with his publications. His itinerant preachers were good agents for their circulation. “Carry them with you through every round,” he would say; “exert yourselves in this; be not ashamed, be not weary, leave no stone unturned.” His works, including abridgments and translations, amounted to about two hundred volumes. These comprise treatises on almost every subject of divinity, poetry, music, history,—natural, moral, metaphysical, and political philosophy. He wrote, as he preached, ad populum; and his works have given to his people, especially in Great Britain, an elevated tone of intelligence as well as of piety. He may, indeed, be considered the leader in those exertions which are now being made for the popular diffusion of knowledge.

Differing from the usual character of men who are given to various exertions and many plans, he was accurate and profound. He was an adept in classical literature and the use of the classical tongues; his writings are adorned with their finest passages. He was familiar with a number of modern languages; his own style is one of the best examples of strength and perspicuity among English writers. He was ready on every subject of learning and general literature. As a logician, he was considered by his enemies, as well as his friends, to be unrivalled.

He was but little addicted to those exhilarations and contrarieties of frame which characterize imaginative minds. His temperament was warm, but not fiery. His intellect never appears inflamed, but was a glowing, serene radiance. His immense labors were accomplished, not by the impulses of restless enthusiasm, but by the cool calculations of his plans, and the steady self-possession with which he pursued them. “Though always in haste,” he said, “I am never in a hurry.” He was as economical with his time as a miser could be with his gold; rising at four o’clock in the morning, and allotting to every hour its appropriate work. “Leisure and I have taken leave of each other,” said he. And yet such was the happy arrangement of his employments, that, amidst a multiplicity that would distract an ordinary man, he declares that “there are few persons who spend so many hours secluded from all company as myself.” “The wonder of his character,” said Robert Hall, “is the self-control by which he preserved himself calm, while he kept all in excitement around him. He was the last man to be infected by fanaticism. His writings abound in statements of preternatural circumstances; but it must be remembered that his faults in these respects were those of his age, while his virtues were peculiarly his own.”

Though of a feeble constitution, the regularity of his habits, sustained through a life of great exertions and vicissitudes, produced a vigor and equanimity which are seldom the accompaniments of a laborious mind or of a distracted life. “I do not remember,” he says, “to have felt lowness of spirits one quarter of an hour since I was born.” “Ten thousand cares are no more weight to my mind than ten thousand hairs are to my head.” “I have never lost a night’s sleep in my life.” “His face was remarkably fine, his complexion fresh to the last week of his life, and his eye quick, keen, and active.” He ceased not his labors till death. After the eightieth year of his age, he visited Holland twice. At the end of his eighty-second, he says, “I am never tired (such is the goodness of God) either with writing, preaching, or travelling.” He preached under trees which he had planted himself, at Kingswood. He outlived most of his first disciples and preachers, and stood up, mighty in intellect and labors, among the second and third generations of his people. In his later years persecution had subsided; he was every where received as a patriarch, and sometimes excited, by his arrival in towns and cities, an interest “such as the presence of the king himself would produce.” He attracted the largest assemblies, perhaps, which were ever congregated for religious instruction, being estimated sometimes at more than thirty thousand! Great intellectually, morally, and physically, he at length died, in the eighty-eighth year of his age and sixty-fifth of his ministry, unquestionably one of the most extraordinary men of any age.

Nearly one hundred and forty thousand members, upward of five hundred itinerant, and more than one thousand local preachers, were connected with him when he died.

George Whitefield

One of the founders of the sect of the Methodists, born at Gloucester, where his mother kept the Bell inn, 1714. From the Crypt school of his native town, he entered as servitor at Pembroke College, Oxford, and was ordained at the proper age by Benson, bishop of Gloucester. Enthusiasm and the love of singularity now influenced his conduct, and in his eagerness to obtain popularity, he preached not only in prisons, but in the open fields, and by a strong persuasive eloquence, multitudes regarded him as a man of superior sanctity. In 1738, he went to America, to increase the number of his converts; but, after laboring for some time as the friend and the associate of the Wesleys, he at last was engaged with them in a serious dispute, which produced a separation. While he zealously asserted the doctrine of absolute election and final perseverance, agreeably to the notions of Calvin, his opponents regarded his opinion as unsupported by Scripture, and therefore inadmissible; and in consequence of this arose the two sects of the Calvinistic and the Arminian Methodists. Secure in the good opinion of a great number of adherents, and in the patronage of Lady Huntingdon, to whom he was chaplain, he continued his labors, and built two Tabernacles in the city and in Tottenham Court Road for the commodious reception of his followers. He died at Newburyport, Massachusetts, while on a visit to his churches in America, and had the satisfaction to know that his adherents were numerous on both continents.

At Newburyport, the Hon. William Bartlett has erected an elegant marble monument, on which is the following inscription:—

“This Cenotaph is erected, with affectionate veneration, to the memory of the Rev. George Whitefield, born at Gloucester, England, December 16, 1714; educated at Oxford University; ordained 1736. In a ministry of thirty-four years, he crossed the Atlantic thirteen times, and preached more than eighteen thousand sermons. As a soldier of the cross, humble, devoted, ardent, he put on the whole armor of God; preferring the honor of Christ to his own interest, repose, reputation, and life. As a Christian orator, his deep piety, disinterested zeal, and vivid imagination, gave unexampled energy to his look, utterance, and action. Bold, fervent, pungent, and popular in his eloquence, no other uninspired man ever preached to so large assemblies, or enforced the simple truths of the gospel by motives so persuasive and awful, and with an influence so powerful on the hearts of his hearers. He died of asthma, September 30, 1770, suddenly exchanging his life of unparalleled labors for his eternal rest.”

During Mr. Whitefield’s visit to Philadelphia, he preached often in the evening from the gallery of the court-house in Market Street. So loud was his voice at that time, that it was distinctly heard on the Jersey shore, and so distinct was his speech, that every word he said was understood at Market Street wharf, a distance of upwards of four hundred feet from the court-house. All the intermediate space was crowded with his hearers. Mr. Whitefield was truly remarkable for his uncommon eloquence and fervent zeal. His eloquence was indeed very great, and of the truest kind. He was utterly devoid of all affectation; the importance of his subject, and the regard due to his hearers, engrossed all his concern. Every accent of his voice spoke to the ear, every feature of his face, every motion of his hands, and every gesture, spoke to the eye; so that the most dissipated and thoughtless found their attention arrested, and the dullest and most ignorant could not but understand. He appeared to be devoid of the spirit of sectarianism; his only object seemed to be to “preach Christ and him crucified.”

The following anecdote respecting his manner of preaching will serve to illustrate this part of his character. One day, while preaching from the balcony of the court-house, in Philadelphia, he cried out, “Father Abraham, who have you got in heaven; any Episcopalians?” “No!” “Any Presbyterians?” “No!” “Any Baptists?” “No!” “Have you any Methodists there?” “No!” “Have you any Independents or Seceders?” “No! No!” “Why, who have you, then?” “We don’t know those names here; all that are here are Christians—believers in Christ—men who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of his testimony!” “O, is this the case? then God help me—God help us all—to forget party names, and to become Christians in deed and in truth.”

Selina Huntingdon

Countess, second daughter of Washington, earl Ferrers, born 1707, and married Lord Huntingdon, by whom she had four sons and three daughters. From habits of gayety and scenes of dissipation, she became all at once, after a serious illness, grave, reserved, and melancholy. Her thoughts were wholly absorbed by religion, and she employed the ample resources which she possessed in disseminating her principles by the popular arts of Whitefield, Romaine, and others. Not only her house in Park Street was thrown open for the frequent assembling of these pious reformers, but chapels were built in various parts of the kingdom, and a college erected in Wales for the education of young persons in the future labors of the ministry. After many acts of extensive charity, and with the best intentions, this enthusiastic lady died in 1791.

Robert Sandeman

The founder of the sect called Sandemanians, born at Perth, in Scotland, about the year 1718, and was educated at St. Andrews. Instead of entering into the church, for which he was intended, he became a linen manufacturer, and afterwards turned preacher. He came to America in October, 1764, and from Boston he went to Danbury, Connecticut. In that town he gathered a church the following year. He afterwards established several societies in New England. Individuals are still found who adhere to his peculiarities, and are known by the name of his sect. He wrote an answer to Hervey’s “Theron and Aspasio,” said to be a work of talent, but exhibiting great asperity.

The following is copied from the monument of Mr. Sandeman, in the burying-ground at Danbury:—

“Here lies, until the resurrection, the body of Robert Sandeman, a native of Perth, North Britain, who, in the face of continual opposition from all sorts of men, long boldly contended for the ancient faith, that the bare word of Jesus Christ, without a deed or thought on the part of man, is sufficient to present the chief of sinners spotless before God. To declare this blessed truth, as testified in the holy Scriptures, he left his country, he left his friends, and, after much patient suffering, finished his labors at Danbury, April 2, 1771, Æ. 53 years.

Deigned Christ to come so nigh to us,
    As not to count it shame
To call us brethren, should we blush
    At aught that bears his name?
Nay, let us boast in his reproach,
    And glory in his cross;
When he appears, one smile from him
    Would far o’erpay our loss.”

Samuel Hopkins

An American divine, who, in his sermons and tracts, has made several additions to the sentiments first advanced by the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, late president of New Jersey College. Dr. Hopkins was born at Waterbury, in Connecticut, 1721, and graduated at Yale College, in 1741. Soon after, he engaged in theological studies, at Northampton, Massachusetts, under the superintendence of Jonathan Edwards, and, in 1743, was ordained at Housatonic, now Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he continued till he removed to Newport, Rhode Island, in consequence of the diminution of his congregation, and his want of support. When he had resided some time in this place, the people became dissatisfied with his sentiments, and resolved, at a meeting, to intimate to him their disinclination to his continuance among them. On the ensuing Sabbath, he preached his farewell discourse, which was so interesting and impressive that they besought him to remain, which he did till his death, in 1803. He was a pious and zealous man, of considerable talents, and almost incredible powers of application. He is said to have been sometimes engaged during eighteen hours in his studies. His doctrinal views are contained in his “System of Divinity,” published in a second edition at Boston, in 1811, in two volumes, octavo.

Jonathan Mayhew

A divine of Boston, was born in Martha’s Vineyard, in 1720 and educated at Harvard College. In 1747, he was ordained pastor of the West Church, in Boston, and continued in this station the remainder of his life. He possessed a mind of great acuteness and energy, and in his principles was a determined republican. He had no little influence in producing the American revolution. His sermons and controversial tracts obtained for him a high reputation; and many of them were republished several times in England. He died in 1766.

Samuel Seabury

First bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States, was born in 1728, and graduated at Yale College in 1751. After finishing his classical education, he went to Scotland with the view of studying medicine; but soon, having turned his attention to theology, he altered his purpose and took orders in London, 1753. Returning to America, he officiated, first at Brunswick, New Jersey, then at Jamaica, Long Island, next at West Chester, New York, and lastly at New London, Connecticut, where he remained, as rector of the parish in that city, during the remainder of his life. As much as he was esteemed by his parishioners, his influence was extended among his brethren throughout the state. Consequently, when the Episcopal church was organized in that diocese, he was elected bishop. He went immediately to England, in order to obtain consecration; but, meeting with some unexpected obstacles, he repaired to Scotland. Here he was able to accomplish the object of his mission. He was consecrated at Aberdeen, November 14, 1784. As soon as he was able to reach home, he resumed his duties as parish minister at New London, in connection with his episcopal functions for the diocese. Bishop Seabury had a vigorous and well-cultivated mind, and acquired a reputation corresponding with his high station. Three volumes of his sermons have been published.

The following is the inscription on Bishop Seabury’s monument at New London, Connecticut:—

“Here lyeth the body of Samuel Seabury, D. D., Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island, who departed from this transitory scene February 25th, Anno Domini 1796, in the 68th year of his age, and the 12th of his episcopal consecration.

“Ingenious without pride, learned without pedantry, good without severity, he was duly qualified to discharge the duties of the Christian and the Bishop. In the pulpit he enforced religion; in his conduct he exemplified it. The poor he assisted with his charity; the ignorant he blessed with his instruction. The friend of men, he ever designed their good; the enemy of vice, he ever opposed it. Christian, dost thou aspire to happiness? Seabury has shown the way that leads to it.”

Richard Clarke

A clergyman of the Episcopal church, who maintained for many years a high reputation in South Carolina. He was a native of England, and soon after his arrival in Charleston was appointed rector of St. Philip’s Church in that city. Here he was greatly admired as a popular preacher, and highly respected as an exemplary, amiable, benevolent, and liberal man. He returned to England in 1759, and was soon afterwards appointed a stated preacher in one of the principal churches in London. In this station, his eloquence and piety attracted a large share of public attention. His publications, chiefly on theological subjects, were numerous, amounting to six or seven octavo volumes. He lived to a late period in the eighteenth century, universally beloved and respected.

Joseph Priestly

An English philosopher and dissenting divine, born at Fieldheald, Yorkshire, 1733. He was educated at Daventry, under Dr. Ashworth, for the ministry among the dissenters, and at the proper age he took care of a congregation at Needham Market, Suffolk, and afterwards at Nantwich, Cheshire. He became, in 1761, professor of belles lettres in the Warrington Academy, and after seven years’ residence there he removed to Leeds, and two years after accepted the office of librarian and philosophical companion to the earl of Shelburne. In this retreat, the philosopher devoted himself laboriously to metaphysical and theological studies, and published various works; and when, at last, he separated from his noble patron, he retired with an annual pension of one hundred and fifty pounds, to settle at Birmingham, as pastor to a Unitarian congregation, in 1780. While here usefully employed in advancing the cause of philosophy, and too often engaged in theological disputes, he became the victim of popular fury; and the conduct of some of his neighbors in celebrating the anniversary of the French revolution, in 1791, with more intemperance than became Englishmen and loyal subjects, excited a dreadful riot. Not only the meeting-houses were destroyed on this melancholy occasion, but, among others, Dr. Priestley’s house, library, manuscripts, and philosophical apparatus, were totally consumed; and, though he recovered a compensation by suing the county, he quitted this scene of prejudice and unpopularity. After residing some time at London and Hackney, where he preached to the congregation over which his friend Price once presided, he determined to quit his native country, and seek a more peaceful retreat in America, where some of his family were already settled. He left England in 1794, and fixed his residence at Northumberland, in Pennsylvania, where he died in 1804. His writings were very numerous, and he long attracted the public notice, not only by discoveries in philosophy, but by the boldness of his theological opinions. Had he confined his studies merely to philosophical pursuits, his name would have descended to posterity with greater lustre; but he who attempts innovations in government and religion, for singularity, and to excite popular prejudices, must be little entitled to the applauses of the world.

James Purves

A learned Arian preacher, born at a little village of Berwickshire, in 1734. His father was only a keeper of cattle, and intended James for the same profession. He, meanwhile, having obtained the loan of some books on mathematics, made himself master of geometry and trigonometry, and afterwards taught these sciences, with other branches of mathematics, and assisted some public authors in compiling mathematical works, which have been well received. He joined a party of the ancient Cameronians, and in 1769, at one of their general meetings, was called to be a pastor among them. To qualify himself for this office, he studied the Greek and Hebrew languages, and compiled a Hebrew grammar, which is still in manuscript. These acquisitions led him into the study of the Arian controversy, when finally he adopted the opinions of Arius, and afterwards became preacher to a small Arian congregation in Edinburgh, where he also kept a school and a book-shop, for many years before he died.

John Jebb

Bishop of Limerick, born September 27, 1775, and died December 9, 1833, aged 58. He was educated at the university of Dublin, where he gained a high reputation as a scholar. He was greatly esteemed as a man of a most amiable and gentle spirit; had the reputation of an accomplished orator and a learned and able theologian; and as a clergyman and a bishop he was truly exemplary. His original publications are not numerous, but are of high merit.

John Gaspar Christian Lavater

A celebrated writer, born at Zurich, 1741. He was pastor of the church of St Peter’s at Zurich, and as a minister he acquired great reputation both by his eloquent discourses and his exemplary life. He was wounded by a French soldier when Zurich was taken by storm under Massena in 1799, and died there in consequence of it, 12th January, 1801. He acquired deserved celebrity as a physiognomist, and his writings on the subject, possessing great merit, ingenious remarks, and truly original ideas, have been translated into all the languages of Europe. His Christian piety was of the highest order.

John Tillotson

An eminent prelate, was born in 1630, at Sowerby, in Yorkshire, and was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge. In 1691, after fruitless attempts to avoid the honor, he accepted, with unfeigned reluctance, the see of Canterbury, which was become vacant by the deprivation of Sancroft. This promotion, however, he did not long survive, as his decease took place in 1694.

In his domestic relations, friendships, and the whole commerce of business, he was easy and humble, frank and open, tender-hearted and bountiful, to such an extent, that, while he was in a private station, he laid aside two tenths of his income for charitable uses. He despised wealth but as it furnished him for charity, in which he was judicious as well as liberal. His affability and candor, as well as abilities in his profession, made him frequently consulted in points relating both to practice and opinion. His love for the real philosophy of nature, and his conviction that the study of it is the most solid support of religion, induced him, not many years after the establishment of the Royal Society, to desire to be admitted into that assembly of the greatest men of the age; into which he was accordingly elected on the 25th of January, 1672. His kindness towards the dissenters was attended with the consequence intended by him, of reconciling many of them to the communion of the established church, and almost all of them to a greater esteem of it than they had before entertained.

He died poor, the copy-right of his Posthumous Sermons (which, however, sold for two thousand five hundred guineas) being all that his family inherited. His works form three folio volumes.

Isaac Newton

A most celebrated English philosopher and mathematician, and one of the greatest geniuses that ever appeared in the world, descended from an ancient family in Lincolnshire, where he was born in the year 1642. His powers of mind were wonderfully comprehensive and penetrating. Fontenelle says of him, “that in learning mathematics, he did not study Euclid, who seemed to him too plain and simple, and unworthy of taking up his time. He understood him almost before he read him: a cast of his eye on the contents of the theorems of that great mathematician, seemed to be sufficient to make him master of them.” Several of his works mark a profundity of thought and reflection that has astonished the most learned men. He was highly esteemed by the university of Cambridge, and was twice chosen to represent that place in parliament. He was also greatly favored by Queen Anne, and by George I. The princess of Wales, afterwards queen consort of England, who had a turn for philosophical inquiries, used frequently to propose questions to him. This princess had a great regard for him, and often declared that she thought herself happy to live at the same time as he did, and to have the pleasure and advantage of his conversation.

This eminent philosopher was remarkable for being of a very meek disposition and a great lover of peace. He would rather have chosen to remain in obscurity, than to have the serenity of his days disturbed by those storms and disputes, which genius and learning often draw upon those who are eminent for them. We find him reflecting on the controversy respecting his optic lectures (in which he had been almost unavoidably engaged) in the following terms:—“I blamed my own imprudence, for parting with so real a blessing as my quiet, to run after a shadow.”

The amiable quality of modesty stands very conspicuous in the character of this great man’s mind and manners. He never spoke, either of himself or others, in such a manner as to give the most malicious censurers the least occasion even to suspect him of vanity. He was candid and affable; and he did not assume any airs of superiority over those with whom he associated. He never thought either his merit or his reputation sufficient to excuse him from any of the common offices of social life. Though he was firmly attached to the church of England, he was averse to the persecution of the Nonconformists. He judged of men by their conduct; and the true schismatics, in his opinion, were the vicious and the wicked. This liberality of sentiment did not spring from the want of religion; for he was thoroughly persuaded of the truth of revelation; and amidst the great variety of books which he had constantly before him, that which he loved the best, and studied with the greatest application, was the Bible. He was, indeed, a truly pious man; and his discoveries concerning the frame and system of the universe, were applied by him to demonstrate the being of a God, and to illustrate his power and wisdom. He also wrote an excellent discourse, to prove that the remarkable prophecy of Daniel’s weeks was an express prediction of the coming of the Messiah, and that it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The testimony of the pious and learned Dr. Doddridge to the most interesting part of this great man’s character, cannot be omitted on the present occasion. “According to the best information,” says he, “whether public or private, I could ever obtain, his firm faith in the divine revelation discovered itself in the most genuine fruits of substantial virtue and piety, and consequently gives us the justest reason to conclude that he is now rejoicing in the happy effects of it, infinitely more than in all the applause which his philosophical works have procured him, though they have commanded a fame lasting as the world.”

He departed this life in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and, in his principles and conduct through life, has left a strong and comfortable evidence that the highest intellectual powers harmonize with religion and virtue, and that there is nothing in Christianity but what will abide the scrutiny of the soundest and most enlarged understanding.

How great and satisfactory a confirmation is it to the sincere, humble Christian, and what an insurmountable barrier does it present to the infidel, to perceive, in the list of Christian believers, the exalted and venerable name of Newton! a man who must be acknowledged to be an ornament of human nature, when we consider the wide compass of his abilities, the great extent of his learning and knowledge, and the piety, integrity, and beneficence, of his life. This eminent character firmly adhered to the belief of Christianity, after the most diligent and exact researches into the life of its Founder, the authenticity of its records, the completion of its prophecies, the sublimity of its doctrines, the purity of its precepts, and the arguments of its adversaries.

Charles V.

Emperor of Germany, king of Spain, and lord of the Netherlands, born at Ghent, in the year 1500.

He is said to have fought sixty battles, in most of which he was victorious, to have obtained six triumphs, conquered four kingdoms, and to have added eight principalities to his dominions—an almost unparalleled instance of worldly prosperity and the greatness of human glory.

But all these fruits of his ambition, and all the honors which attended him, could not yield true and solid satisfaction. Reflecting on the evils and miseries which he had occasioned, and convinced of the emptiness of earthly magnificence, he became disgusted with the splendor that surrounded him, and thought it his duty to withdraw from it, and spend the rest of his days in religious retirement. Accordingly, he voluntarily resigned all his dominions to his brother and son; and, after taking an affectionate and last farewell of the latter, and a numerous retinue of princes and nobility who respectfully attended him, he repaired to his chosen retreat, which was situated in Spain, in a vale of no great extent, watered by a small brook, and surrounded with rising grounds covered with lofty trees.

A deep sense of his frail condition and great imperfections appears to have impressed his mind in this extraordinary resolution, and through the remainder of his life. As soon as he landed in Spain, he fell prostrate on the ground, and considering himself now as dead to the world, he kissed the earth, and said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked I now return to thee, thou common mother of mankind!”

In this humble retreat, he spent his time in religious exercises and innocent employments, and buried here, in solitude and silence, his grandeur and his ambition, together with all those vast projects, which, for near half a century, had alarmed and agitated Europe, and filled every kingdom in it, by turns, with the terror of his arms, and the dread of being subjected to his power. Far from taking any part in the political transactions of the world, he restrained his curiosity even from any inquiry concerning them, and seemed to view the busy scene he had abandoned with an elevation and indifference of mind which arose from his thorough experience of its vanity, as well as from the pleasing reflection of having disengaged himself from its cares and temptations.

Here he enjoyed more complete contentment than all his grandeur had ever yielded him; as a full proof of which he has left this short but comprehensive testimony:—“I have tasted more satisfaction in my solitude, in one day, than in all the triumphs of my former reign. The sincere study, profession, and practice, of the Christian religion have in them such joys and sweetness as are seldom found in courts and grandeur.”

Francis Bacon

Baron of Verulam, viscount St. Albans, and lord high chancellor of England, born in the year 1561. He was one of the most remarkable men of whom any age or country can boast; and his writings furnish incontestable proofs that his knowledge, wisdom, and benevolence, were very extraordinary. Lord Bacon died in 1626.

That this illustrious character was deeply influenced by a truly humble and religious spirit, is manifest from the following prayer, which was found amongst his papers, in his own hand-writing:—

“Most gracious Lord God, my merciful Father; my creator, my Redeemer, my Comforter! thou soundest and searchest the depths and secrets of all hearts; thou acknowledgest the upright; thou judgest the hypocrite; vanity and crooked ways cannot be hid from thee.

“Remember, O Lord, how thy servant has walked before thee; remember what I have first sought, and what has been principal in my intentions. I have loved thy assemblies; I have mourned for the divisions of thy church; I have delighted in the brightness of thy sanctuary; I have ever prayed unto thee, that the vine which thy right hand hath planted in this nation, might have the former and the latter rain, and that it might stretch its branches to the seas and to the floods. The state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious in my eyes; I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart; I have, though a despised weed, endeavored to procure the good of all men. If any have been my enemies, I thought not of them, neither has the sun gone down upon my displeasure; but I have been as a dove, free from superfluity of maliciousness. Thy creatures have been my books, but thy Scriptures much more so. I have sought thee in the courts, the fields, and the gardens; but I have found thee in thy temples.

“O Lord, my strength! I have, from my youth, met with thee in all my ways; in thy fatherly compassions, in thy merciful chastisements, and in thy most visible providences. As thy favors have increased upon me, so have thy corrections; as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts from thee have pierced me; and when I have ascended before men, I have descended in humiliation before thee. And now, when I have been thinking most of peace and honor, thy hand is heavy upon me, and has humbled me according to thy former loving-kindness, keeping me still in thy fatherly school, not as a bastard, but as a child. Just are thy judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but which have no proportion to thy mercies. Besides my innumerable sins, I confess before thee, that I am a debtor to thee for the gracious talent of thy gifts and graces; which I have neither put into a napkin nor placed, as I ought, with exchangers, where it might have made best profit; but I have misspent it in things for which I was least fit: so I may truly say, my soul hath been a stranger in the course of my pilgrimage. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Savior’s sake, and receive me into thy bosom, or guide me into thy ways.”

Matthew Hale

Lord chief justice of England, born in Gloucestershire, in the year 1609, and, by the care of a wise and religious father, had great attention paid to his education.

In his youth, he was fond of company, and fell into many levities and extravagances. But this propensity and conduct were corrected by a circumstance that made a considerable impression on his mind during the rest of his life. Being one day in company with other young men, one of the party, through excess of wine, fell down, apparently dead, at their feet. Young Hale was so affected on this occasion, that he immediately retired to another room, and, shutting the door, fell on his knees, and prayed earnestly to God that his friend might be restored to life, and that he himself might be pardoned for having given countenance to so much excess. At the same time, he made a solemn vow that he would never again keep company in that manner, nor “drink a health” while he lived. His friend recovered, and Hale religiously observed his vow. After this event, there was an entire change in his disposition; he forsook all dissipated company, and was careful to divide his time between the duties of religion and the studies of his profession.

He became remarkable for his solid and grave deportment, his inflexible regard to justice, and a religious tenderness of spirit, which appear to have accompanied him through life. His retired meditations on religious subjects manifest a pious and humble frame of mind, and a solemnity well adapted to excite kindred emotions in the breast of the reader.

“True religion,” says he, “teaches the soul a high veneration for Almighty God, a sincere and upright walking, as in the presence of the invisible, all-seeing God. It makes a man truly love, honor, and obey him, and therefore careful to know what his will is. It renders the heart highly thankful to him, as his Creator, Redeemer, and Benefactor. It makes a man entirely depend on him, seek him for guidance, direction, and protection, and submit to his will with patience and resignation of soul. It gives the law, not only to his words and actions, but to his very thoughts and purposes; so that he dares not entertain any which are unbecoming the presence of that God by whom all our thoughts are legible. It crushes all pride and haughtiness, both in a man’s heart and carriage, and gives him an humble state of mind before God and men. It regulates the passions, and brings them into due moderation. It gives a man a right estimate of this present world, and sets his heart and hopes above it; so that he never loves it more than it deserves. It makes the wealth and the glory of this world,—high places and great preferments,—of but little consequence to him; so that he is neither covetous, nor ambitious, nor over-solicitous, concerning the advantages of them. It makes him value the love of God and the peace of his own conscience above all the wealth and honor in the world, and to be very diligent in preserving them. He performs all his duties to God with sincerity and humility; and, whilst he lives on earth, his conversation, his hope, his treasures, are in heaven; and he endeavors to walk suitably to such a hope.”

“They who truly fear God, have a secret guidance from a higher wisdom than what is barely human, namely, the Spirit of truth and goodness; which does really, though secretly, prevent and direct them. Any man that sincerely and truly fears Almighty God, and calls and relies upon him for his direction, has it as really as a son has the counsel and direction of his father; and though the voice be not audible, nor discernible by sense, yet it is equally as real as if a man heard a voice, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”

“Though this secret direction of Almighty God is principally seen in matters relating to the good of the soul, yet, even in the concerns of this life, a good man fearing God, and begging his direction, will very often, if not at all times, find it. I can call my own experience to witness, that even in the temporal affairs of my whole life, I have never been disappointed of the best direction, when I have, in humility and sincerity, implored it.

“The observance of the secret admonition of this Spirit of God in the heart, is an effectual means to cleanse and sanctify us; and the more it is attended to, the more it will be conversant with our souls, for our instruction. In the midst of difficulties, it will be our counsellor; in the midst of temptations, it will be our strength, and grace sufficient for us; in the midst of troubles, it will be our light and our comforter.”

Chief Justice Hale died on the twenty-fifth of December, 1676.

Princess Elizabeth

Princess of the Rhine, born in the year 1620. She was the eldest daughter of Frederick V., elector palatine and king of Bohemia, by Anne, daughter of James I., king of England. This excellent princess possessed only a small territory; but she governed it with great judgment and attention to the happiness of her subjects. She made it a rule to hear, one day in the week, all such causes as were brought before her. On these occasions, her wisdom, justice, and moderation, were very conspicuous. She frequently remitted forfeitures, in cases where the parties were poor, or in any respect worthy of favor. It was remarkable that she often introduced religious considerations as motives to persuade the contending parties to harmony and peace. She was greatly beloved and respected by her subjects, and also by many persons of learning and virtue not resident in her dominions; for she patronized men of this character, whatever might be their country or religious profession.

In the year 1677, the famous William Penn paid her a visit, and was treated by her with great respect. The following account of her is taken from his works:—

“The meekness and humility of the princess appeared to me extraordinary: she did not consider the quality, but the merit, of the people she entertained. Did she hear of a retired man, seeking after the knowledge of a better world, she was sure to set him down in the catalogue of her charity, if he wanted it. I have casually seen, I believe, fifty tokens of her benevolence, sealed and directed to the several poor subjects of her bounty, whose distance prevented them from being personally known to her. Thus, though she kept no sumptuous table in her own court, she spread the tables of the poor in their solitary cells; breaking bread to virtuous pilgrims, according to their wants and her ability.

“She was abstemious in her living, and in apparel void of all vain ornaments. I must needs say, that her mind had a noble prospect: her eye was to a better and more lasting inheritance, than can be found below. This made her not overrate the honors of her station, or the learning of the schools, of which she was an excellent judge. Being once at Hamburgh, a religious person, whom she went to see for religion’s sake, remarked to her, that ‘it was too great an honor for him, that a visitant of her quality, who was allied to so many great kings and princes of this world, should come under his roof:’ to whom she humbly replied, ‘If they were religious, as well as great, it would be an honor indeed; but if you knew what that greatness was, as well as I do, you would value it less.’

“After a religious meeting which we had in her chamber, she was much affected, and said, ‘It is a hard thing to be faithful to what one knows. O, the way is strait! I am afraid I am not weighty enough in my spirit to walk in it.’

“She once withdrew, on purpose to give her servants, who were religiously disposed, the liberty of discoursing with us that they might the more freely put what questions of conscience they desired to be satisfied in. Sometimes she suffered both them and the poorest persons of her town to sit by her in her own chamber, where we had two meetings. I cannot forget her last words, when I took my leave of her:—‘Let me desire you to remember me, though I live at so great a distance, and you should never see me more. I thank you for this good time. Be assured that, though my condition subjects me to divers temptations, yet my soul has strong desires after the best things.’

“She lived till the age of sixty years, and then departed at her house in Herwerden, in the year 1680, as much lamented as she had been beloved by her people. To her real worth I do, with a religious gratitude, dedicate this memorial.”

Robert Boyle

An eminent philosopher, and a truly good man, was the son of Richard, earl of Cork, and was born at Lismore, in Ireland, in the year 1627. At Eton School, where he was educated, he soon discovered a force of understanding which promised great things, and a disposition to improve it to the utmost. During his education, and before he was ten years old, he was much afflicted with an ague, which considerably depressed his spirits; and, to divert his attention, he was persuaded to read Amadis de Gaul, and other romantic books. But this kind of reading, he says in his memoirs, produced such restlessness in him, that he was obliged to apply himself to mathematical studies, in order to fix and settle the volatility of his fancy. He died in the sixty-fifth year of his age.

He was a man of great learning, and his stock of knowledge was immense. The celebrated Dr. Boerhaave has passed the following eulogium upon him:—“Boyle was the ornament of his age and country. Which of his writings shall I commend? All of them. To him we owe the secrets of fire, air, water, animals, vegetables, fossils; so that from his works may be deduced the whole system of natural knowledge.”

He was treated with particular kindness and respect by Charles II., as well as by the two great ministers Southampton and Clarendon. By the latter he was solicited to enter into orders; for his distinguished learning and unblemished reputation induced Lord Clarendon to think that so very respectable a personage would do great honor to the clergy. Boyle considered the proposal with due attention. He reflected that, in his present situation of life, whatever he wrote with respect to religion, would have greater weight, as coming from a layman; for he well knew that the irreligious fortified themselves against all that the clergy could offer, by supposing and saying that it was their trade, and that they were paid for it. He considered, likewise, that, in point of fortune and character, he needed no accessions; and, indeed, his desire for these was always very limited. But Bishop Burnet, to whom Boyle had communicated memorandums concerning his life, tells us that what had the greatest weight in determining his judgment, was, “the not feeling within himself any motion or tendency of mind which he could safely esteem a call from the Holy Spirit, and so not venturing to take holy orders, lest he should be found to have lied unto it.”

Bishop Burnet, who was Boyle’s particular friend, and who, during an acquaintance of twenty-nine years, had spent many happy hours in conversation with him, gives a full account of his genuine piety and virtue, and of his zeal for the Christian religion. “This zeal,” he says, “was unmixed with narrow notions, or a bigoted heat in favor of a particular sect; it was that spirit which is the ornament of a true Christian.” Burnet mentions, as a proof of this, his noble foundation for lectures in defence of the gospel, against infidels of all sorts; the effects of which have been very conspicuous, in the many volumes of excellent discourses, which have been published in consequence of that laudable and pious design.

The great object of his philosophical pursuits was to promote the cause of religion, and to discountenance atheism and infidelity. His intimate friend Bishop Burnet makes the following observations on this point:—“It appeared to those who conversed with him on his inquiries into nature, that his main design (on which as he had his own eye constantly fixed, so he took care to put others often in mind of it) was to raise in himself and others more exalted sentiments of the greatness and glory, the wisdom and goodness, of God. This design was so deeply impressed on his mind, that he concludes the article of his will, which relates to the Royal Society, in these words:—‘I wish them a happy success in their attempts to discover the true nature of the works of God; and I pray that they, and all searchers into physical truths, may cordially refer their attainments to the glory of the great Author of nature, and to the comfort of mankind.’”

On another occasion, the same person speaks of him thus—“He had the most profound veneration for the great God of heaven and earth that I ever observed in any man. The very name of God was never mentioned by him without a pause and observable stop in his discourse.” So brightly did the example of this great and good man shine, through his whole course, that Bishop Burnet, on reviewing it, in a moment of pious exultation thus expressed himself:—“I might challenge the whole tribe of libertines to come and view the usefulness, as well as the excellence, of the Christian religion, in a life that was entirely dedicated to it.”

John Locke

A very celebrated philosopher, and one of the greatest men that England ever produced, born in the year 1632. He was well educated; and, applying himself with vigor to his studies, his mind became enlarged, and stored with much useful knowledge. He went abroad as secretary to the English ambassador at several of the German courts, and afterwards had the offer of being made envoy at the court of the emperor, or of any other that he chose; but he declined the proposal, on account of the infirm state of his health. He was a commissioner of trade and plantations, in which station he very honorably distinguished himself. Notwithstanding his public employments, he found leisure to write much for the benefit of mankind. His “Essay on Human Understanding,” his “Discourses on Government,” and his “Letters on Toleration,” are justly held in the highest esteem.

This enlightened man and profound reasoner was most firmly attached to the Christian religion. His zeal to promote it appeared, first, in his middle age, by publishing a discourse to demonstrate the reasonableness of believing Jesus to be the promised Messiah; and, afterwards, in the latter part of his life, by a Commentary on several of the Epistles of the apostle Paul. The sacred Scriptures are every where mentioned by him with the greatest reverence; and he exhorts Christians “to betake themselves in earnest to the study of the way to salvation, in those holy writings, wherein God has revealed it from heaven, and proposed it to the world; seeking our religion where we are sure it is in truth to be found, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

In a letter written the year before his death, to one who asked this question, “What is the shortest and surest way for a young man to attain the true knowledge of the Christian religion?” he says, “Let him study the holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament: therein are contained the words of eternal life. It has God for its author; salvation for its end; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.” This advice was conformable to his own practice. “For fourteen or fifteen years, he applied himself in an especial manner to the study of the Scriptures, and employed the last years of his life hardly in any thing else. He was never weary of admiring the great views of that sacred book, and the just relation of all its parts: he every day made discoveries in it that gave him fresh cause of admiration.”

The consolation which he derived from divine revelation is forcibly expressed in these words:—“I gratefully receive and rejoice in the light of revelation, which has set me at rest in many things, the manner whereof my poor reason can by no means make out to me.”

After he had diligently employed a great part of his life in a variety of occupations, he chose a pleasing retirement for the remainder of his days. This leisure appears to have been productive of solid improvement, by enabling him to look calmly over the scenes of past life; to form a proper estimate of its enjoyments, and to dedicate himself more fully to the cause of piety and virtue.

About two months before his death, in 1704, he wrote a letter to his friend Anthony Collins, and left this direction upon it:—“To be delivered to him after my decease.” It concludes with the following remarkable words:—

“May you live long and happy, in the enjoyment of health, freedom, content, and all those blessings which Providence has bestowed on you, and to which your virtue entitles you. You loved me living, and will preserve my memory when I am dead. All the use to be made of it is, that this life is a scene of vanity, which soon passes away, and affords no solid satisfaction, but in the consciousness of doing well, and in the hopes of another life. This is what I can say upon experience; and what you will find to be true, when you come to make up the account. Adieu!”

Joseph Addison

A celebrated English writer, born at Milston, in Wiltshire, in the year 1672. About the age of fifteen, he was entered at Queen’s College, Oxford, where, by his fine parts and great application, he made a surprising proficiency in classical learning. Before he left the university, he was warmly solicited to enter into orders; and he once resolved to do so; but his great modesty, and an uncommonly delicate sense of the importance of the sacred function, made him afterwards alter his resolution. He was highly respected by many of the greatest and the most learned of his contemporaries. He travelled into Italy, where he made many useful observations, and prepared materials for some of his literary works. On his return to England, he was chosen one of the lords commissioners for trade. In 1709, he was appointed secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, and, in 1717, was advanced to the high office of secretary of state. He died in 1729.

His writings have been of great use to the world, and his “Evidences of the Christian Religion” not the least so. Dr. Johnson, in delineating his character as a writer, gives the following amiable picture of him:—“He employed wit on the side of virtue and religion. He not only made the proper use of wit himself, but taught it to others; and, from his time, it has been generally subservient to the cause of reason and truth. He has dissipated the prejudice that had long connected cheerfulness with vice, and easiness of manners with laxity of principles. He has restored virtue to its dignity, and taught innocence not to be ashamed. This is an elevation of literary character above all Greek, above all Roman fame. As a teacher of wisdom, he may be confidently followed. His religion has nothing in it enthusiastic or superstitious; he appears neither weakly credulous nor wantonly skeptical; his morality is neither dangerously lax nor impracticably rigid. All the enchantment of fancy, and all the cogency of argument, are employed to recommend to the reader his real interest—the care of pleasing the Author of his being.”

Of his integrity in discharging the duties of his office, there is a striking proof recorded. When he was secretary in Ireland, he had materially promoted the interest of an individual, who offered him, in return, a bank note of three hundred pounds, and a diamond ring of the same value. These he strenuously refused to accept, and wrote to the person as follows:—“And now, sir, believe me, when I assure you I never did, nor ever will, on any pretence whatsoever, take more than the stated and customary fees of my office. I might keep the contrary practice concealed from the world, were I capable of it, but I could not from myself; and I hope I shall always fear the reproaches of my own heart more than those of all mankind.”

A mind conscious of its own uprightness, and humbly trusting in the goodness of God, has the best ground to look forward with complacency towards another life. The following lines of Addison are sweetly expressive of the peace and pleasure which he enjoyed in contemplating his future existence:—“The prospect of a future state is the secret comfort and refreshment of my soul. It is that which makes nature look cheerful about me; it doubles all my pleasures, and supports me under all my afflictions. I can look at disappointments and misfortunes, pain and sickness, death itself, with indifference, so long as I keep in view the pleasures of eternity, and the state of being in which there will be no fears nor apprehensions, pains nor sorrows.”

Isaac Watts

A learned and eminent dissenting minister, born at Southampton, in the year 1674, of parents who were distinguished by their piety and virtue. He died in 1748. He possessed an uncommon genius, of which he gave early proofs. He received a very liberal education, which was rendered highly beneficial to him by his own unwearied efforts to improve himself. After the most serious deliberation, he determined to devote his life to the ministry, of the importance of which office he had a deep and awful sense. He labored very diligently to promote the instruction and happiness of the people under his care, to whom, by his Christian conduct and amiable disposition, he greatly endeared himself.

Soon after he had undertaken the pastoral office, his health sustained a severe shock by a painful and dangerous illness, from which he recovered very slowly. But, in the year 1712, he was afflicted with a violent fever, that entirely broke his constitution, and left such weakness upon his nerves, as continued with him, in some measure, to his dying day. For four years he was wholly prevented from discharging the public offices of his station. Though this long interval of sickness was, no doubt, very trying to his active mind, yet it proved ultimately a blessing to him; for it drew upon him the particular notice of Sir Thomas Abney, a very pious and worthy man, who, from motives of friendship, invited him into his family, in which he continued to the end of his life, and, for the long space of thirty-six years, was treated with uniform kindness, attention, and respect.

This excellent man was, by his natural temper, quick of resentment; but, by his established and habitual practice, he was gentle, modest, and inoffensive. His tenderness appeared in his attention to children and to the poor. To the poor, while he lived in the family of his friend, he allowed the third part of his annual revenue; and for children, he condescended to lay aside the scholar, the philosopher, and the wit, to write little poems of devotion, and systems of instruction, adapted to their wants and capacities, from the dawn of reason, through its gradations of advance in the morning of life. Few men have left behind them such purity of character, or such monuments of laborious piety. He has provided instruction for all ages, from those who are lisping their first lessons, to the enlightened readers of Malebranche and Locke. His “Improvement of the Mind” is a work in the highest degree useful and pleasing. Whatever he took in hand was, by his incessant solicitude for souls, converted to theology. As piety predominated in his mind, it is diffused over his works. Under his direction, it may be truly said that philosophy is subservient to evangelical instruction: it is difficult to read a page without learning, or at least wishing to be better.

The virtue of this good man eminently appeared in the happy state of his mind under great pains and weakness of body, and in the improvement which he derived from them. Of those seasons of affliction, he says, with a truly elevated mind and thankful heart, “I am not afraid to let the world know that, amidst the sinkings of life and nature, Christianity and the gospel were my support. Amidst all the violence of my distemper, and the tiresome months of it, I thank God I never lost sight of reason or religion, though sometimes I had much difficulty to preserve the machine of animal nature in such order as regularly to exercise either the man or the Christian.”

The sweet peace of conscience he enjoyed under these trying circumstances, and the rational and Christian foundation of his hope and trust in the divine goodness, are beautifully and justly expressed by him, in the following lines:—

“Yet, gracious God, amid these storms of nature,
Thine eyes behold a sweet and sacred calm
Reign through the realms of conscience; all within
Lies peaceful, all composed. ’Tis wondrous grace
Keeps off thy terrors from this humble bosom;
Though stained with sins and follies, yet serene
In penitential peace and cheerful hope,
Sprinkled and guarded with atoning blood,
Thy vital smiles, amidst this desolation,
Like heavenly sunbeams hid behind the clouds,
Break out in happy moments, with bright radiance
Cleaving the gloom; the fair, celestial light,
Softens and gilds the horrors of the storm,
And richest cordials to the heart conveys.”

Philip Doddridge

Born in London, in the year 1702. His parents, who were persons of great worth, brought him up in an early knowledge of religion; but he had the misfortune to lose them before he was fourteen years old. This circumstance excited in his mind very serious reflections, which, however, were not wholly of a gloomy nature; for he expressed a devout, and even a cheerful trust in the protection of the God of mercies, the universal Parent of mankind.

He diligently improved his time, and was anxious to be daily advancing in knowledge, piety, virtue, and usefulness. He possessed strong powers of mind, and, by unwearied application, acquired a large fund of sound and elegant learning. His publications, which are chiefly on religious subjects, have been eminently useful to the world. By his literary acquisitions, his amiable disposition, and his desire to imbue the young mind with knowledge and virtue, he was qualified, in a peculiar manner, to become the instructor of youth; and for many years he superintended a very respectable academy. As the pastor of a congregation, he manifested a sincere and zealous regard for the happiness of the people under his care, by whom he was greatly honored and beloved.

He possessed many virtues; but the prime and leading feature of his soul was devotion. He was very solicitous to preserve and cultivate an habitual sense of the Supreme Being, to maintain and increase the ardor of religion in his heart, and to prepare himself, by devout exercises, for the important labors of his station. Nor was it to his secret retirements that his piety was limited; it was manifested in every part of the day, and appeared in his usual intercourse with men. In the little vacancies of time which occur to the busiest of mankind, he was frequently lifting up his soul to God. When he lectured on philosophy, history, anatomy, or other subjects not immediately theological, he would endeavor to graft some religious instructions upon them, that he might raise the minds of his pupils to devotion, as well as to knowledge; and, in his visits to his people, the Christian friend and minister were united.

The piety of Dr. Doddridge was accompanied with the warmest benevolence to his fellow-creatures. No one could more strongly feel that the love of God was to be united with love to man. Nor was this a principle that rested in kind wishes and pathetic feelings for the happiness of others, but it was manifested in the most active exertions for their welfare. No scheme of doing good was ever suggested to him into which he did not enter with ardor. But the generosity of his mind was most displayed when any plans of propagating religion, and of spreading the gospel among those who were strangers to it, were proposed. In every thing of this kind he was always ready to take the lead, and was ardent in endeavoring to inspire his friends with the same spirit.

He was of a weak and delicate bodily constitution; and a severe cold which he caught about the forty-eighth year of his age, brought on a consumption of the lungs. The nearer he approached to his dissolution, the more plainly was observed his continual improvement in a spiritual and heavenly temper. Indeed, he seemed to have risen above the world, and to be daily breathing after immortality. This disposition of his mind was ardently expressed in several of his letters, and is manifest from his will, which was made at this time, and is prefaced in the following language:—“Whereas it is customary, on these occasions, to begin with commending the soul into the hands of God, through Christ, I do it; not in mere form, but with sincerity and joy; esteeming it my greatest happiness, that I am taught and encouraged to do it, by that glorious gospel, which, having most assuredly believed, I have spent my life in preaching to others; and which I esteem an infinitely greater treasure than all my little worldly store, or possessions ten thousand times greater than mine.”

A short time before his death, he had been induced to try the mild air of the south; but change of climate did not produce the desired effect, and Dr. Doddridge continued gradually to weaken, till death put a period to his afflictions. In his last hours, he preserved the same calmness, vigor, and joy of mind, which he had felt and expressed through the whole of his illness. The only pain he had in the thought of dying, was the fear of that grief and distress which his wife would suffer from his removal. To his children, his congregation, and his friends in general, he desired to be remembered in the most affectionate manner; nor did he, in the effusions of his pious benevolence, forget the family where he lodged, or his own servant. Many devout sentiments and aspirations were uttered by him; but the heart of his wife was too much affected with his approaching change to be able to recollect them distinctly. Though he died in a foreign land, and, in a certain sense, among strangers, his decease was embalmed with many tears. His age was 49 years.

John Murray

A distinguished preacher of Universalism in the United States, born in Alton, county of Hampshire, England, on the 10th of December, 1741.

When he had attained his eleventh year, the family removed to Ireland, in the vicinity of Cork. While here, he was converted to Methodism, and gained the attention of John Wesley, by whom he was appointed a class-leader. He was very earnest and devout in his religious exercises, and was regarded by his brethren as a valuable accession to their church. About this time his father died, and he shortly after left Ireland for England. He took up his residence in London, and was gradually led into gay society. The secret monitor, however, frequently reproached him, and finally brought him back again to the services of the sanctuary, and quickened the flame of religious devotion. At this time his prejudices against Universalism were very strong; his soul “kindled with indignation” against them. But, shortly after his marriage to a very amiable young lady of London, he was induced to visit Mr. Relly’s chapel, the preacher of universal salvation; and, notwithstanding he had been so filled with wrath against Mr. Relly, that, as he subsequently said, he thought it would have been doing both God and man service to kill him, yet he was moved to tenderness by his preaching and subsequently became an attendant on his ministry. Rich were the consolations enjoyed by him and his amiable wife in their new faith. But great sorrows awaited him; she sickened and died; and the death-scene is described by himself, in his autobiography, with thrilling effect. He would gladly have accompanied her to the spirit-world. He was now alone; he felt himself a solitary being; he had no taste for the joys of life; his mind dwelt only on death and eternity; he was unfitted for society; and in this state of mind, Providence seems to have directed his thoughts to America. He resolved to embark; and, in the month of September, 1770, he landed upon the shores of New Jersey. Here he became at once acquainted with a philanthropic landholder, by the name of Thomas Potter, who, in the belief that God would send him a preacher, had erected a meeting-house, and who insisted that Murray was the man whom God had sent. In this house Murray commenced his labors as a preacher; and from this time, he is to be contemplated as the public advocate of Universalism, on the system of Relly. He soon visited the city of New York, and various other cities and towns in the Middle States, preaching the gospel whithersoever he went. His first visit to Boston was made in October, 1773, and his second in September, 1774. It was during this second visit that he was stoned in the pulpit of Rev. Mr. Croswell, in School Street. About this time he visited Gloucester, Massachusetts, which was afterwards his residence for many years. In 1775, he was appointed by General Washington chaplain to the Rhode Island troops, in the army then lying around Boston. He soon, however, returned to his charge in Gloucester, where he remained, making frequent visits to different parts of the United States, until October, 1793, when he was ordained pastor of the First Universalist Society in Boston, which had purchased the house of worship formerly occupied by the society of Dr. Samuel Mather. His labors were not confined to this society, however; in one respect he was a minister at large; he continued his itinerant habits, more or less, until October, 1809, when he was stricken with the palsy. He lived nearly six years after this affliction, and expired on the third day of September, 1815. He was buried in the Granary burying-ground, where his remains were suffered to lie unhonored until 1837, when they were removed to Mount Auburn, and a monument was erected to his memory. The monument is a beautiful fluted column, surmounted by an urn. It is encircled by a belt, or tablet, on which two inscriptions are placed; on one side—

“JOHN MURRAY, Preacher of the Gospel; born in Alton, England, December 10, 1741; died in Boston, September 3, 1815; reëntombed beneath this stone, June 8, 1837.”

On the opposite side—

“Erected at the recommendation of the United States General Convention of Universalists.”

Elhanan Winchester

A distinguished advocate of Universalism, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, September 30, 1751. In his nineteenth year, he was converted, under the preaching of the Baptists; and it was by his labors that the present Baptist society in Newton was originally gathered. In the autumn of 1774, he made a journey to the Southern States. Early in 1778, he first saw Siegvolk’s “Everlasting Gospel,” a work which originally appeared in Holland, but which had been translated and published by the Mennonites of Pennsylvania. It made a very deep impression upon his mind. In 1779, he came back to New England, his convictions of the truth of Universalism increasing upon him daily. He set out on his return to South Carolina in the autumn of 1780, and arrived at Philadelphia on the 7th of October. Here he intended to remain but a few days; but God evidently had a great work for him to do in this place. Even his enemies acknowledged that his “manner of preaching was popular, his address very fascinating, and his appearance dignified and commanding.” The Baptist church in that city invited him to tarry and preach to them, and he at length consented. About this time he read “Stonehouse on Universal Restitution,” which served to confirm him greatly in his belief of that doctrine. Notwithstanding his great popularity, a discontent began to show itself in certain members of the church. He foresaw that a storm was rising, and he determined to prepare for it; not (to use his words) “by denying what I had said, but by more fully examining, and determining for myself, whether the sentiment was according to Scripture, or not. If I found it was not, I was determined to retract; but if it was, to hold it fast, let the consequences be what they might.” Such was his truly Christian resolution. He avowed his belief in the final happiness of all men.

A majority of the church were in his favor; but, being a man of remarkably peaceful disposition, he did not urge them to press their claims to the meeting-house; but they retired to the hall of the university, where they held their meetings for about four years, until they purchased a place for themselves. During the rest of his life, he is to be viewed as the public advocate of universal restitution. There were several eminent men who adhered to him, and among others, Dr. Redman, and the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush, who remained his correspondent when he was in Europe. Added to all his other troubles, his domestic afflictions were very great. At the age of thirty-two, he had buried four wives. The fifth was a desperate fury, who gave him great trouble as long as he lived. After preaching about six years in Philadelphia, he was seized with an irresistible impulse to visit England. No persuasions could divert him from the purpose; and in September, 1787, he arrived, almost penniless, and a total stranger, in the great metropolis of the British empire. He preached in different parts of London, and, by his fervid eloquence and earnest defence of the restoration, he soon gathered a congregation, who took for him the chapel in Parliament Court, in which he held his meetings until his departure for America. He spent six years and a half in this country, laboring assiduously to bring men to the knowledge of the truth; and a deep and wide impression was made by his labors. In consequence of the ill treatment he experienced from his wife, he was obliged to leave her; and he quitted England privately, and came home, filling the friends whom he had left behind with amazement, being ignorant at first what had befallen him. He arrived in Boston in July, 1794. Various were the speculations in this country in regard to his return. But he commenced at once his labors as a preacher, travelling in several of the states,—visited his former friends in Philadelphia, where he was joined by his wife, who had come home to America, and whom he freely forgave. It became evident, about this time, that his health was greatly impaired; and an increasing asthma foretold a fatal termination. He came to Hartford, Connecticut, in October, 1796, and raised a congregation, to which he preached until he could preach no more. In April, 1797, he delivered a sermon, under a strong presentiment that it was his last, from St. Paul’s farewell address to the elders of the Ephesian church. He never entered the desk again. He contemplated his death with serenity and joy. On the morning of his decease, he commenced singing the hymn with several of his friends,—“Farewell, my friends in Christ below,” but his voice soon faltered, and the torpor of death fell on him. His friends became disconcerted, and ceased to sing; but he revived a little, and encouraged them to go on, joining in the first line of each verse, until his voice was actually “lost in death.” This was on the 18th of April, 1797, in the 47th year of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Strong, of Hartford, who bore a frank testimony to Mr. Winchester’s excellent character, and his final constancy in the doctrine he had preached.

The following is the inscription on the stone erected to his memory:—

“The General Convention of the Universal Churches, in Memory of their dear departed Brother, the Rev. Elhanan Winchester, erected this Monumental Stone.

He died April 18th, 1797, aged 46 years.

Twas thine to preach, with animated zeal,
    The glories of the resurrection morn,
When sin, death, hell, the power of Christ shall feel,
    And light, life, immortality, be born.”

Saint Genevieve

Born at Nanterre, about five miles from Paris, in the year 423, about the time of Pharamond, the first king of France. St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, observing in her, when yet very young, a particular disposition to sanctity, advised her to take a vow of perpetual virginity, which she accordingly did in the presence of the bishop of Paris. After the death of her parents, she went to Paris. The city was about to be deserted, when Attila, with his Huns, broke into France; but Genevieve assured the inhabitants of complete security, if they would seek it by fervent prayers. Attila took his course from Champaigne to Orleans, returned thence into Champaigne, without touching Paris, and was defeated in 451. By this event, Genevieve’s reputation was established. In a time of famine, she went along the River Seine, from city to city, and soon returned with twelve large vessels loaded with grain, which she distributed gratuitously among the sufferers. This increased her authority, and she was highly honored by Merovæus and Chilperic. Nothing, however, contributed more to her reputation for sanctity, than the circumstance, that, from her fifteenth to her fiftieth year, she ate nothing but barley-bread, except that she took some beans every two or three weeks, and, after her fiftieth year, some fish and milk. In 460, she built a church over the graves of St. Dionysius Rusticus and Eleutherius, near the village of Chasteville, where Dagobert afterwards founded the abbey of St. Denys. She died in 499 or 501, and her body was placed in the subterraneous chapel which St. Denys had consecrated to the apostles Paul and Peter. Clovis, by her request, built a church over it, which was afterwards called by her name, as was also the abbey that was founded there. Another church, consecrated to this saint, was built adjoining to the church of Notre Dame. Her relics are preserved in the former. The church celebrates the third of January, the day on which she died, in honor of her.

Gilbert Burnet

Bishop of Salisbury, was born at Edinburgh, in the year 1643. He was carefully educated by his father; and, having a strong constitution and a prodigious memory, he applied himself closely to study, and acquired a great portion of learning and knowledge, which he seemed to have ready for all occasions. He travelled through France, Italy, and Holland, where he formed connections with many of the greatest persons of his time, by whom he was much respected for his talents and virtues. At Amsterdam, he became acquainted with the leading men of the different persuasions tolerated in the United Provinces—Calvinists, Arminians, Lutherans, Anabaptists, Brownists, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians; amongst each of which, he used frequently to declare, he met with men of such unfeigned piety and virtue, that he became strongly fixed in a principle of universal charity, and an invincible abhorrence of all severities on account of religious opinions.

The following sentiments, which he solemnly uttered towards the conclusion of his days, are very expressive of the nature and power of true religion, and of its influence upon his own mind:—

“I recommend,” he observes, “to all sorts of men, in the most serious manner, the study and practice of religion, as that which is the most important of all things, and which is both the light of the world, and the salt of the earth.

“Nothing so opens our faculties, and composes and directs the whole man, as an inward sense of God; of his authority over us; of the laws he has set us; of his eye ever upon us; of his hearing our prayers, assisting our endeavors, watching over our concerns; of his being to judge, and reward or punish, us in another state, according to what we have done in this. Nothing will give us such a detestation of sin, and such a sense of the goodness of God, and of our obligations to holiness, as a right understanding and firm belief of the Christian religion.

“By living according to the rules of religion, a man becomes the wisest, the best, and the happiest creature that he is capable of being. Honest industry, the employing of time well, a constant sobriety, an undefiled purity and chastity, with continued serenity, are the best preservatives, too, of life and health; so that, take a man as an individual, religion is his guard, his perfection, his beauty, and his glory. This will make him a light in the world, shining brightly, and enlightening many round about him.

“Thus religion, if truly received and sincerely adhered to, would prove the greatest of all blessings to a nation. But by religion I understand something more than receiving particular doctrines, though ever so true, or professing them, and engaging to support them, even with zeal and eagerness. What signify the best doctrines, if men do not live suitably to them; if they have not a due influence upon their thoughts and their lives? Men of bad lives, with sound opinions, are self-condemned, and lie under a highly-aggravated guilt.

“By religion I do not mean an outward compliance with forms and customs, in going to church, to prayers, to sermons, and to sacraments, with an external show of devotion; or, which is more, with some inward forced good thoughts, in which many satisfy themselves, while these have no visible effect on their lives, nor any inward force to control and rectify their appetites, passions, and secret designs. These customary performances, how good and useful soever when understood and rightly directed, are of little value when men rest on them, and think, because they do them, they have acquitted themselves of their duty, though they still continue proud, covetous, full of deceit, envy, and malice. Even secret prayers, the most effectual means, are designed for a higher end; which is, to possess our minds with such a constant and present sense of divine truths, as may make these live in us, and govern us, and draw down such assistance, as to exalt and sanctify our natures.

“So that, by religion, I mean such a sense of divine truth as enters into a man, and becomes the spring of a new nature within him; reforming his thoughts and designs; purifying his heart; sanctifying and governing his whole deportment, his words as well as his actions; convincing him that it is not enough not to be scandalously vicious, or to be innocent in his conversation, but that he must be entirely, uniformly, and constantly, pure and virtuous, animated with zeal to be still better and better, more eminently good and exemplary.

“This is true religion, which is the perfection of human nature, and the joy and delight of every one that feels it active and strong within him. It is true, this is not arrived at all at once, and it will have an unhappy alloy, hanging long even about a good man; but, as those ill mixtures are the perpetual grief of his soul, so that it is his chief care to watch over and to mortify them, he will be in a continual progress, still gaining ground upon himself; and as he attains to a degree of purity, he will find a noble flame of life and joy growing up in him. Of this I write with a greater concern and emotion, because I have felt it to be the true, and, indeed, the only joy which runs through a man’s heart and life. It is this which has been, for many years, my greatest support. I rejoice daily in it. I feel from it the earnest of that supreme joy which I want and long for; and I am sure there is nothing else which can afford any true and complete happiness.”

This eminent scholar, Christian, and divine, departed this life on the seventeenth of March, 1714.