Part 1

The Book of Religions

Comprising The

Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions,

Of All The

Principal Religious Sects In The World

Particularly Of

All Christian Denominations

In

Europe and America

To Which Are Added

Church and Missionary Statistics

Together With

Biographical Sketches

By John Hayward

Author of “New England Gazetteer”

Boston:

Albert Colby And Company.

20 Washington Street.

1860

CONTENTS

Preface. Index. Lutherans, Or, The Evangelical Lutheran Church. Calvinists. Hopkinsians. Arians. Socinians. Humanitarians. Sectarians. Church Government. Presbyterians. Cumberland Presbyterians. Episcopalians. Historical Notice Of The Church In The United States. Articles Of Religion. Cambridge And Saybrook Platforms. Moravians, Or United Brethren. Tunkers. Mennonites, Or Harmless Christians. Disciples Of Christ; Sometimes Called Campbellites, or Reformers. Friends, or Quakers. Shakers, Or The United Society Of Believers. Reformation. Reformed Churches. Reformed Dutch Church. Reformed German Church. Restorationists. Universalists. Roman Catholics. Bereans. Materialists. Arminians. Methodists, Or The Methodist Episcopal Church. Methodists, Or The Methodist Protestant Church. Protestants. Sabellians. Sandemanians. Antinomians. Pelagians. Pre-Adamites. Predestinarians. Orthodox Creeds. Andover Orthodox Creed. New Haven Orthodox Creed. Swedenborgians, Or, The New Jerusalem Church. Fighting Quakers. Harmonists. Dorrelites. Osgoodites. Rogerenes. Whippers. Wilkinsonians. Aquarians. Baxterians. Miller’s Views on the Second Coming of Christ. Come-Outers. Jumpers. Baptists. Anabaptists. Free-Will Baptists. Seventh-Day Baptists, Or Sabbatarians, Six-Principle Baptists. Quaker Baptists, Or Keithians. Pedobaptists. Anti-Pedobaptists. Unitarians. Brownists. Puritans. Bourignonists. Jews. Indian Religions. Deists. Atheists. Pantheists. Mahometans. Simonians. Pagans. Satanians. Abelians, or Abelonians. Supralapsarians. Dancers. Epicureans. Skeptics. Wickliffites. Diggers. Zuinglians. Seekers. Wilhelminians. Non-Resistants. Southcotters. Family Of Love. Hutchinsonians. Mormonites, Or The Church Of The Latter-Day Saints. Daleites. Emancipators. Perfectionists. Waldenses. Allenites. Johnsonians. Donatists. Se-Baptists. Re-Anointers. Tao-Se, or Taou-Tsze. Quietists. Knipperdolings. Mendæans, Mendaites, Mendai Ijahi, Or Disciples Of St. John, That Is, The Baptist. Muggletonians. Yezidees, Or Worshippers Of The Devil. Greek or Russian Church. Primitive Christians. Trinitarians. Millenarians. Whitefield Calvinistic Methodists. Nonjurors. Nonconformists. Christian Connection. Puseyites. Free Communion Baptists. Transcendentalists. Augsburg Confession Of Faith. Armenians. Primitive Methodists. Novatians. Nestorians. High-Churchmen. Ancient American Covenant Or Confession Of Faith. Statistics Of Churches. Baptists. Free-Will Baptists. Seventh-Day Baptists. Christian Connection. Calvinistic Congregationalists. Disciples Of Christ. Episcopalians. Friends. Jews. Lutherans. Protestant Methodists. Methodists. Presbyterians. Other Presbyterian Communities. Reformed Dutch Church. Roman Catholics. Swedenborgians. Unitarians. Universalists. Missionary Statistics. First Protestant Missions. Moravian Missions. London Missionary Society. American Board Of Foreign Missions. Presbyterian Board Of Foreign Missions. English Baptist Missionary Society. American Baptist Board Of Foreign Missions. Free-Will Baptists. Episcopal Missions. Society For Propagating The Gospel Among The Indians And Others. Wesleyan Or English Methodist Missionary Society. Missions Of The Methodist Episcopal Church. Seventh-Day Baptist Missionary Society. French Protestant Missionary Society. Netherlands Missionary Society. Scottish Missionary Society. German Missionary Society. Church Of Scotland Missions. Rhenish Missionary Society. Missions Of The Roman Catholic Church. Jews’ Missionary Society. Indians. Biographical Sketches of the Fathers of the Reformation, Founders of Sects, and of other Distinguished Individuals Mentioned in this Volume. John Wickliffe. Jerome of Prague. John Huss. John Œcolampadius. Martin Luther. Ulriucus Zuinglius. Martin Bucer. Philip Melancthon. Peter Martyr. Henry Bullinger. John Knox. John Calvin. Jerome Zanchius. Theodore Beza. Leo X. Justin. Arius. Athanasius. Moses Maimonides. John Agricola. Michael Servetus. Simonis Menno. Francis Xavier. Faustus Socinus. Robert Brown. James Arminius. Francis Higginson. Richard Baxter. George Fox. William Penn. Benedict Spinoza. Ann Lee. John Glass. George Keith. Nicholas Louis, Count Zinzendorf. William Courtney. Richard Hooker. Charles Chauncey. Roger Williams. John Clarke. Ann Hutchinson. Michael Molinos. John Wesley. George Whitefield. Selina Huntingdon. Robert Sandeman. Samuel Hopkins. Jonathan Mayhew. Samuel Seabury. Richard Clarke. Joseph Priestly. James Purves. John Jebb. John Gaspar Christian Lavater. John Tillotson. Isaac Newton. Charles V. Francis Bacon. Matthew Hale. Princess Elizabeth. Robert Boyle. John Locke. Joseph Addison. Isaac Watts. Philip Doddridge. John Murray. Elhanan Winchester. Saint Genevieve. Gilbert Burnet. Theological Schools. Footnotes

PREFACE.

A few years since, the Editor of the following pages published a volume of “Religious Creeds and Statistics;” and, as the work, although quite limited, met with general approbation, he has been induced to publish another of the same nature, but on a much larger plan, trusting that it will prove more useful, and more worthy of public favor.

His design has been, to exhibit to his readers, with the utmost impartiality and perspicuity, and as briefly as their nature will permit, the views, creeds, sentiments, or opinions, of all the religious sects or denominations in the world, so far as utility seemed to require such an exhibition; but more especially to give the rise, progress, and peculiarities, of all the principal schemes or systems of religion which exist in the United States at the present day.

The work is intended to serve as a manual for those who are desirous of acquiring, with as little trouble as possible, a correct knowledge of the tenets or systems of religious faith, presented for the consideration of mankind;—to enable them, almost at a glance, to compare one creed or system with another, and each with the holy Scriptures;—to settle the minds of those who have formed no definite opinions on religious subjects;—and to lead us all, by contrasting the sacred truths and sublime beauties of Christianity with the absurd notions of pagan idolaters, of skeptics, and of infidels, to set a just value on the doctrines of HIM WHO SPAKE AS NEVER MAN SPAKE.

To accomplish this design, the Editor has obtained, from the most intelligent and candid among the living defenders of each denomination, full and explicit statements of their religious sentiments—such as they believe and teach. He is indebted to the friends of some new sects or parties in philosophy and religion, for an account of their respective views and opinions. With regard to anterior sects, he has noticed, from the best authorities, as large a number as is thought necessary for the comparison of ancient with modern creeds.

The Church and Missionary Statistics are believed to be as accurate as can be constructed from materials which annually undergo greater or less changes.

The Biographical Sketches are derived from the most authentic sources. While they convey useful knowledge in regard to the fathers and defenders of the various systems of religious faith, they may also stimulate our readers to the practice of those Christian virtues and graces which adorned the lives of many of them, and render their names immortal.

A few only of the works from which valuable aid has been received, can be mentioned:—Mosheim and McLaine’s Ecclesiastical History; Gregory and Ruter’s Church History; Encyclopædia Americana; Brown’s Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge; Adams’s View of Religions, and History of the Jews; Benedict’s History of all Religions; Evans’s Sketches; Buck’s and Henderson’s Theological Dictionaries; Eliot’s, Allen’s, and Blake’s Biographical Dictionaries; Davenport; Watson; Grant’s Nestorians, Coleman’s Christian Antiquities; Ratio Disciplinæ; Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates, &c.

To clergymen and laymen of all denominations, who have assisted the Editor in presenting their various views with clearness and fairness; to the secretaries of the several missionary boards; to editors of religious journals, and to other persons who have kindly furnished documents for the Statistics and Biographical Sketches, he tenders acknowledgments of unfeigned gratitude.

While the Editor assures the public that the whole has been prepared with much diligence and care, and with an entire freedom from sectarian zeal or party bias, he cannot but indulge the hope that his “Book of Religions” will prove acceptable and beneficial to the community, as imbodying a great variety of facts on a subject of deep concern, worthy of the exercise of our highest faculties, and requiring our most charitable conclusions.

INDEX.

Abelians, or Abelonians, 243

Addison, Joseph, 417

Agricola, John, 370

Allenites, 280

American Missions, 336

Anabaptists, 190

Ancient American Covenant, 308

Andover Orthodox Creed, 138

Antinomians, 128

Anti-Pedobaptists, 196

Apostles’ Creed, 102

Aquarians, 168

Arians, 18

Arius, 368

Armenians, 303

Arminians, 115

Arminius, James, 373

Assembly’s Catechism, 141

Athanasian Creed, 102

Athanasius, 368

Atheists, 217

Augsburg Confession, 302

Bacon, Francis, 407

Baptists, 182, 311, 340 Quaker, 193

Baptist Missions, English, 339

Baxter, Richard, 376

Baxterians, 169

Bereans, 109

Beza, Theodore, 366

Bible Chronology, 175

Biographical Sketches, 350

Bishops, Episcopal, 314

Bourignonists, 201

Boyle, Robert, 412

Brown, Robert, 373

Brownists, 200

Bucer, Martin, 360

Bullinger, Henry, 363

Burnet, Gilbert, 429

Calvin, John, 365

Calvinists, 11, 313

Cambridge Platform, 48

Campbellites, 58

Charles V., 405

Chauncey, Charles, 385

Christian Connection, 295, 313

Christianity, Progress of, 432

Chronology, Bible, 175

Church Government, 20

Church Statistics, 311

Clarke, John, 387

Clarke, Richard, 399

Come-Outers, 177

Congregationalists, 20, 313

Courtney, William, 384

Creed, Andover, 138 Apostles’, 102 Athanasian, 102 Augsburg, 302 New Haven, 142 Nicene, 105 Orthodox, 132

Cumberland Presbyterians, 25

Daleites, 272

Dancers, 244

Deists, 215

Diggers, 246

Disciples of Christ, 58, 314

Disciples of St John, 284

Dissenters. See _Puritans_.

Doddridge, Philip, 420

Donatists, 281

Dorrelites, 164

Dutch Reformed Church, 88

Elizabeth, Princess, 411

Emancipators, 272

English Baptist Missions, 339

—— Methodist Missions, 343

Epicureans, 244

Episcopalians, 26, 314, 341

Essenes, 202

Family of Love, 259

Fighting Quakers, 162

Fox, George, 377

Free Communion Baptists, 300

Free-Will Baptists, 190, 312, 341

French Missions, 346

Friends, or Quakers, 64, 319

Genevieve, 162, 428

German Missions, 346

German Reformed Church, 90

Glass, John, 383

Glassites, 126

Government, Church, 20

Greek Church, 288

Hale, Matthew, 408

Harmless Christians, 57

Harmonists, 163

Hicksites, 74, 319

High Churchmen, 308

Higginson, Francis, 310, 374

Hooker, Richard, 385

Hopkins, Samuel, 397

Hopkinsians, 13

Humanitarians, 19

Huntingdon, Lady Selina, 395

Huss, John, 354

Hutchinson, Ann, 389

Hutchinsonians, 259

Independents, 20

Indian Missions, 342 Religions, 210 Statistics, 347

Jebb, John, 401

Jerome of Prague, 352

Jews, 202, 319, 347

Johnsonians, 280

Jumpers, 181

Justin Martyr, 368

Keith, George, 383

Keithians, 193

Knipperdolings, 283

Knox, John, 363

Latter-Day Saints, 260

Lavater, John G. C., 402

Lee, Ann, 381

Leo X., 367

Locke, John 415

London Missionary Society, 335

Luther, Martin, 355

Lutherans, 9, 320

Mahometans, 220

Maimonides, Moses, 203, 370

Martyr, Peter, 362

Materialists, 112

Mayhew, Jonathan, 398

Mendæans, 284

Melancthon, Philip, 361

Mennonites, 57

Menno, Simonis, 372

Methodists, Episcopal, 117, 321 Protestant, 123, 321 Methodists, Primitive, 305 Methodists’ Missions, 344 Views of Perfection, 274

Miller’s Views on the Second Coming of Christ, 170

Millenarians, 292

Missionary Statistics, 333

Missions, American Foreign, 336

Missions, Indian, 342

Molinos, Michael, 389

Moravians, 49, 333

Mormonites, 260

Muggletonians, 284

Murray, John, 423

N.

Necessarians. See _Materialists_.

Nestorians, 306

Netherland Missions, 346

New Haven Orthodox Creed, 142

New Jerusalem Church, 150

Newton, Isaac, 403

Nicene Creed, 105

Nonconformists, 294

Nonjurors, 294

Non-Resistants, 247

Novatians, 305

Oberlin Views of Sanctification, 278

Œcolampadius, John, 355

Orthodox Creeds, 132

Osgoodites, 166

Pantheists, 219

Pagans, 234

Pedobaptists, 193

Pelagians, 130

Penn, William, 378

Perfectionists, 274

Pharisees, 202

Popes of Rome, 326

Pre-Adamites, 131

Predestinarians, 132

Presbyterians, 22, 322 Cumberland, 25

Presbyterian Missions, 338

Priestley, Joseph, 400

Primitive Christians, 290 Methodists, 305

Princess Elizabeth, 411

Progress of Christianity, 432

Protestants, 125

Protestant Methodists, 123, 321 Missions, 333

Puritans, 200

Purves, James, 401

Puseyites, 299

Quakers, or Friends, 64

Quaker Baptists, 193

Quietists, 283

Ranters. See _Seekers_.

Re-Anointers, 282

Reformation, 85

Reformed Churches, 88

Reformed Dutch Church, 88, 324 German Church, 90

Rhenish Missions, 347

Restorationists, 91

Rogerenes, 166

Roman Catholics, 102, 324, 347

Russian Church, 288

Sabbatarians, 191

Sabellians, 125

Sadducees, 202

Sanctification, Views on, 278

Sandemanians, 126

Sandeman, Robert, 396

Satanians, 243

Saybrook Platform, 48

Seabury, Samuel, 33, 398

Schools, Theological, 432

Scottish Missions, 346, 347

Se-Baptists, 281

Sectarians, 20

Seekers, 247

Servetus, Michael, 371

Seventh-Day Baptists, 191, 312, 345

Shakers, 75

Simonians, 233

Six-Principle Baptists, 192

Skeptics, 245

Socinius, Faustus, 372

Socinians, 19

Southcotters, 255

Spinoza, Benedict, 380

Statistics of Churches, 311 of Missions, 333

Succession of Bishops, 315

Supralapsarians, 243

Swedenborg, 150

Swedenborgians, 150, 330

Tao-Se, 282

Taylor’s (Dr.) Views, 142

Theological Schools, 432

Tillotson, John, 402

Transcendentalists, 301

Trinitarians, 290

Tunkers, or Tumblers, 55

Unitarians, 196, 331

United Brethren, 49

United Society of Believers, 75

Universalists, 95, 331

Waldenses, 279

Water-Drinkers, 168

Watts, Isaac, 418

Wesley, John, 390

Wesleyan Missions, 343

Westminster Catechism, 141

Whippers, 167

Whitefield, George, 393

Whitefield Methodists, 293

Wickliffe, John, 350

Wickliffites, 245

Wilhelminians, 247

Wilkinsonians, 167

Williams, Roger, 386

Winchester, Elhanan, 425

Worshippers of the Devil, 285

Xavier, Francis, 161, 372

Yezidees, or Worshippers of the Devil, 285

Zanchius, Jerome, 366

Zinzendorf, Count, 383

Zuinglius, Ulricus, 359

Zuinglians, 246

LUTHERANS, OR, THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH.

This denomination adheres to the opinions of Martin Luther, the celebrated reformer.

The Lutherans, of all Protestants, are those who differ least from the Romish church, as they affirm that the body and blood of Christ are materially present in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, though in an incomprehensible manner: this they term _consubstantiation_. They likewise represent some rites and institutions, as the use of images in churches, the vestments of the clergy, the private confession of sins, the use of wafers in the administration of the Lord’s supper, the form of exorcism in the celebration of baptism, and other ceremonies of the like nature, as tolerable, and some of them useful. The Lutherans maintain, with regard to the divine decrees, that they respect the salvation or misery of men in consequence of a previous knowledge of their sentiments and characters, and not as founded on the mere will of God. See _Augsburg Confession of Faith_.

Towards the close of the last century, the Lutherans began to entertain a greater liberality of sentiment than they had before adopted, though in many places they persevered longer in despotic principles than other Protestant churches. Their public teachers now enjoy an unbounded liberty of dissenting from the decisions of those symbols of creeds which were once deemed almost infallible rules of faith and practice, and of declaring their dissent in the manner they judge most expedient.

The capital articles which Luther maintained are as follow:—

1. That the holy Scriptures are the only source whence we are to draw our religious sentiments, whether they relate to faith or practice. (See 2 Tim. 3:15-17. Prov. 1:9. Isa. 8:20. Luke 1:4. John 5:39; 20:31. 1 Cor 4:6, &c.)

2. That justification is the effect of faith, exclusive of good works, and that faith ought to produce good works, purely in obedience to God, and not in order to our justification. (See Gal. 2:21.)

3. That no man is able to make satisfaction for his sins. (See Luke 17:10.)

In consequence of these leading articles, Luther rejected tradition, purgatory, penance, auricular confession, masses, invocation of saints, monastic vows, and other doctrines of the church of Rome.

The external affairs of the Lutheran church are directed by three judicatories, viz., a vestry of the congregation, a district or special conference, and a general synod. The synod is composed of ministers, and an equal number of laymen, chosen as deputies by the vestries of their respective congregations. From this synod there is no appeal.

The ministerium is composed of ministers only, and regulates the internal or spiritual concerns of the church, such as examining, licensing, and ordaining ministers, judging in controversies about doctrine, &c. The synod and ministerium meet annually.

Confession and absolution, in a very simple form, are practised by the American Lutherans; also confirmation, by which baptismal vows are ratified, and the subjects become communicants. Their liturgies are simple and impressive, and the clergy are permitted to use extempore prayer. See _Statistics of Churches_.

CALVINISTS.

This denomination of Christians, of the Congregational order, are chiefly descendants of the English Puritans, who founded most of the early settlements in New England. They derive their name from John Calvin, an eminent reformer.

The Calvinists are divided into three parties,—_High_, _Strict_, and _Moderate_. The _High_ Calvinists favor the Hopkinsian system. The _Moderate_ Calvinists embrace the leading features of Calvin’s doctrine, but object to some parts, particularly to his views of the doctrines of predestination, and the extent of the design of Christ’s death. While they hold to the election of grace, they do not believe that God has reprobated any of his creatures. They believe that the atonement is, in its nature, general, but in its application, particular; and that free salvation is to be preached to sinners indiscriminately. The doctrines of the _Strict_ Calvinists are those of Calvin himself, as established at the synod of Dort, A. D. 1618, and are as follow, viz.:—

1. They maintain that God hath chosen a certain number of the fallen race of Adam in Christ, before the foundation of the world, unto eternal glory, according to his immutable purpose, and of his free grace and love, without the least foresight of faith, good works, or any conditions performed by the creature; and that the rest of mankind he was pleased to pass by, and ordain to dishonor and wrath, for their sins, to the praise of his vindictive justice. (See Prov. 16:4. Rom. 9: from ver. 11 to end of chap.; 8:30. Eph. 1:4. Acts 13:48.)

2. They maintain that, though the death of Christ be a most perfect sacrifice, and satisfaction for sins, of infinite value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world,—and though, on this ground, the gospel is to be preached to all mankind indiscriminately, yet it was the will of God that Christ, by the blood of the cross, should efficaciously redeem all those, and those only, who were from eternity elected to salvation, and given to him by the Father. (See Ps. 33:11. John 6:37; 10:11; 17:9.)

3. They maintain that mankind are totally depraved, in consequence of the fall of the first man, who being their public head, his sin involved the corruption of all his posterity, and which corruption extends over the whole soul, and renders it unable to turn to God, or to do any thing truly good, and exposes it to his righteous displeasure, both in this world and that which is to come. (See Gen. 8:21. Ps. 14:2, 3. Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, &c.; 4:14; 5:19. Gal. 3:10. 2 Cor. 3:6, 7.)

4. They maintain that all whom God hath predestinated unto life, he is pleased, in his appointed time, effectually to call, by his word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. (See Eph. 1:19; 2:1, 5. Phil. 2:13. Rom. 3:27. I Cor. 1:31, Titus 3:5.)

5. Lastly, they maintain that those whom God has effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, shall never finally fall from a state of grace. They admit that true believers may fall partially, and would fall totally and finally, but for the mercy and faithfulness of God, who keepeth the feet of his saints; also, that he who bestoweth the grace of perseverance, bestoweth it by means of reading and hearing the word, meditation, exhortations, threatenings, and promises; but that none of these things imply the possibility of a believer’s falling from a state of justification. (See Isa. 53:4, 5, 6; 54:10. Jer. 32:38, 40. Rom. 8:38, 39. John 4:14; 6:39; 10:28; 11:26. James 1:17. 1 Pet. 2:25.) See _Orthodox Creeds_, and _Hopkinsians_.

HOPKINSIANS.

This denomination of Christians derives its name from Samuel Hopkins, D. D., formerly pastor of the first Congregational church in Newport, R. I.

The following is a summary of the distinguishing tenets of the Hopkinsians, together with a few of the reasons they bring forward in support of their sentiments:—