A power and ability of doing any thing, acquired by frequent repetition of the same action. It is distinguished from custom. Custom respects the action; habit the actor. By custom we mean a frequent reiteration of the same act; and by habit the effect that custom has on the mind or body. "Man," as one observes, "is a bundle of habits. There are habits of industry, attention, vigilance, advertency; of a prompt obedience to the judgment occurring, or of yielding to the first impulse of passion; of apprehending, methodizing, reasoning; of vanity, melancholy, fretfulness, suspicion, coveteousness, &c. In a word, there is not a quality or function, either of body or mind, which does not feel the influence of this great law of animated nature." To cure evil habits, we should be as early as we can in our application, principiis obsta; to cross and mortify the inclination by a frequent and obstinate practice of the contrary virtue. To form good habits, we should get our minds well stored with knowledge; associate with the wisest and best men; reflect much on the pleasure good habits are productive of; and, above all, supplicate the Divine Being for direction and assistance. Kaims's Elem. of Crit. ch. xiv. vol. 1; Grave's Mor. Phil. vol. i. p. 143; Paley's Mor. Phil. vol. i. p. 46; Jortin on Bad Habits, ser. 1. vol. iii; Read in the Active Powere, p. 117; Cogan on the Passions, p. 235.
A writ which anciently lay against an heretic,
who, having once been convicted of heresy by his bishop, and having abjured it,
afterwards falling into it again, or into some other, is thereupon committed to
the secular power. This writ is thought by some to be as ancient as the common
law itself; however, the conviction of heresy by the common law was not in any
petty ecclesiastical court, but before the archbishop himself, in a provincial
synod, and the delinquent was delivered up to the king, to do with him as he
pleased; so that the crown had a control over the spiritual power: but by 2
Henry IV. cap. 15. the diocesan alone, without the intervention of a synod,
might convict of heretical tenets; and unless the convict abjured his opinions,
or if after abjuration he relapsed, the sheriff was bound ex officio, if
required by the bishop, to commit the unhappy victim to the flames, without
waiting for the consent of the crown. This writ remained in force, and was
actually executed on two Anabaptists, in the seventh of Elizabeth, and on two
Arians in the ninth of James I. Sir Edward Coke was of opinion that this writ
did not lie in his time; but it is now formally taken away by stature 29 Car.
II. cap. 9. But this statute does not extend to take away or abridge the
jurisdiction of Protestant archbishops, or bishops, or any other judges of any
ecclesiastical courts, in cases of atheism, blasphemy, heresy, or schism; but
they may prove and punish the same, according to his majesty's ecclesiastical
laws, by excommunication, deprivation, degradation, and other ecclesiastical
censures, not extending to death, in such sort, and no other, as they might
have done before the making of this act.
A name given to part of the books of the Scriptures, called by the Jews cetuvim. See article BIBLE, see. 1.
A conference appointed by James I. at Hampton-Court, in 1603, in order to settle the disputes between the church and the Puritans. Nine bishops, and as many dignitaries of the church, appeared on one side, and four Puritan ministers on the other. It lasted for three days. Neale calls it a mock conference, because all things were previously concluded between the king and the bishops; and the Puritans borne down not with calm reason and argument, but with the royal authority, the king being both judge and party. The proposals and remonstrances of the Puritans may be seen in Neale's History of the Puritans, chap. i. part ii.
Absolutely taken, denotes the durable possession of perfect good, without any mixture of evil; or the enjoyment of pure pleasure unalloyed with pain, or a state in which all our wishes are satisfied; in which senses, happiness is only known by name on this earth. The word happy, when applied to any state or condition of human life, will admit of no positive definition, but is merely a relative term; that is, when we call a man happy, we mean that he is happier than some others with whom we compare him; than the generality of others; or than he himself was in some other situation. Moralists justly observe, that happiness does not consist in the pleasures of sense; as eating, drinking, music, painting, theatric exhibitions, &c. &c. for these pleasures continue but a little while, by repetition lose their relish, and by high expectation often bring disappointment. Nor does happiness consist in an exemption from labour, care, business, &c.; such a state being usually attended with depression of spirits, imaginary anxieties, and the whole train of hypochondriacal affections. Nor is it to be found in greatness, rank, or elevated stations, as matter of fact abundantly testifies; but happiness consists in the enjoyment of the divine favour, a good conscience, and uniform conduct. In subordination to these, human happiness may be greatly promoted by the exercise of the social affections; the pursuit of some engaging end; the prudent constitution of the habits; and the enjoyment of our health. Bolton and Lucas on Happiness; Henry's Pleasantness of a Religious Life; Grove's and Paley's Mor. Phil. Barrow's Ser. ser. 1. Young's Centaur, 41 to 160; Wollaston's Religion of Nature, sec. 2.
A term made use of to denote the concurrence or agreement of the writings of the four Evangelists; or the history of the four Evangelists digested into one continued series. By this means each story or discourse is exhibited with all its concurrent circumstances; frequent repetitions are prevented, and a multitude of seeming oppositions reconciled. Among some of the most valuable harmonies, are those of Cradock, Le Clerc, Doddridge, Macknight, Newcombe, and Townson's able Harmony on the concluding Part of the Gospels; Thompson's Diatessaron. The term harmony is also used in reference to the agreement which the Gospel bears to natural religion, the Old Testament, the history of other nations, and the works of God at large.
Or ASSIDEANS, those Jews who resorted to Mattathias, to fight for the laws of God and the liberties of their country. They were men of great valour and zeal, having voluntarily devoted themselves to a more strict observation of the law than other men. For, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, there were two sorts of men in their church; those who contented themselves with that obedience only which was prescribed by the law of Moses, and who were called Zadikin, i.e. the righteous; and those who, over and above the laws, superadded the constitutions and traditions of the elders, and other rigorous observances; these latter were called the Chasidim, i.e. the pious. From the former sprang the Samaritans, Sadducees, and Caraites: from the latter, the Pharisees and the Essenes; which see.
Is the aversion of the will to any object considered by us as evil, or to any person or thing we suppose can do us harm. See ANTITATHY. Hatred is ascribed to God, but is not to be considered as a passion in him as in man; nor can he hate any of the creatures he has made as his creatures. Yet he is said to hate the wicked, Ps. v. 5; and indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, will be upon every soul of man that does evil. See WRATH OF GOD.
In ecclesiastical history, the name of a modern Dutch sect, so called from Pontian Van Hattem, a minister in the province of Zealand, towards the close of the last century, who, being addicted to the sentiments of Spinosa, was on that account degraded from his pastoral office. The Verschorists and Hattemists resemble each other in their religious systems, though they never so entirely agreed as to form one communion. The founders of these sects deduced from the doctrine of absolute decrees a system of fatal and uncontrollable necessity; they denied the difference between moral good and evil, and the corruption of human nature; from whence they farther concluded, that mankind were under no sort of obligation to correct their manners, to improve their minds, or to obey the divine laws; that the whole of religion consisted not in acting, but in suffering; and that all the precepts of Jesus Christ are reducible to this one, that we bear with cheerfulness and patience the events that happen to us through the divine will, and make it our constant and only study to maintain a permanent tranquillity of mind. Thus far they agreed: but the Hattemists further affirmed, that Christ made no expiation for the sins of men by his death; but had only suggested to us, by his mediation, that there was nothing in us that could offend the Deity: this, they say, was Christ's manner of justifying his servants, and presenting them blameless before the tribunal of God. It was one of their distinguished tenets, that God does not punish men for their sins, but by their sins. These two sects, says Mosheim, still subsist, though they no longer bear the names of their founders.
Is an ordinance of divine appointment, Rom. x.
17. Prov. viii. 4,5. Mark iv. 24.
Public reading of the Scriptures was a part of
synagogue worship, Acts xiii. 15. Acts xv. 21. and was the practice of the
Christians in primitive times. Under the former dispensation there was a public
hearing of the law at stated seasons, Deut. xxxi. 10, 13. Neh. viii. 2,3. It
seems, therefore, that it is a duty incumbent on us to hear, and , if sensible
of our ignorance, we shall also consider it our privilege. As to the manner of
hearing, it should be constantly, Prov. viii. 34. Jam. i. 24,25. Attentively,
Luke xxi. 38. Acts x. 33. Luke iv. 20, 22. With reverence, Ps. lxxxix. 7. With
faith, Heb. iv. 2. With an endeavour to retain what we hear, Heb. ii. 1. Ps.
cxix. 11. With an humble docile disposition, Luke x. 42. With prayer, Luke
xviii. the advantages of hearing are, information, 2 Tim. iii. 16. Conviction,
1 Cor. xiv. 24,25. Acts ii. Conversion, Ps. xi. 7. Acts iv. 4. Confirmation,
Acts xiv. 22. Acts xvi. 5. Consolation, Phil. i. 25. Is. xl. 1,2. Is. xxxv. 3,4.
Stennet's Parable of the Sower; Massilon's Ser. vol. ii. p. 131. Eng. trans.
Gill's Body of Div. vol. iii. p. 340. oct. ed.
Is used for the soul, and all the powers
thereof; as the understanding , conscience, will, affections, and memory. The
heart of man is naturally, constantly, universally, inexpressibly, openly, and
evidently depraved, and inclined to evil, Jer. xvii. 9. It requires a divine
power to renovate it, and render it susceptible of right impressions, Jer.
xxiv. 7. When thus renovated, the effects will be seen in the temper,
conversation, and conduct at large. See FAITH, HOPE, &c. Hardness of heart
is that state in which a sinner is inclined to, and actually goes on in
rebellion against God. This state evidences itself by light views of the evil
of sin; partial acknowledgment and confession of it; frequent commission of it;
pride and conceit: ingratitude; unconcern about the word and ordinances of God;
inattention to divine providences; stifling convictions of conscience; shunning
reproof; presumption, and general ignorance of divine things. We must
distinguish, however, between that hardness of heart which even a good man
complains of, and that of a judicial nature. 1. Judicial hardness is very
seldom perceived, and never lamented; a broken and contrite heart is the least
thing such desire; but it is otherwise with believers, for the hardness they
feel is always a matter of grief to them, Rom. vii. 24.--2. Judicial hardness
is perpetual; or, if ever there be any remorse or relenting, it is only at such
times when the sinner is under some outward afflictions, or filled with the
dread of the wrath of God; but as this wears off or abates, his stupidity
returns as much or more than ever, Exod. ix. 27; but true believers, when no
adverse dispensations trouble them, are often distressed because their hearts
are no more affected in holy duties, or inflamed with love to God, Rom. vii.
15.--3. Judicial hardness is attended with a total neglect of duties,
especially those that are secret; but that hardness of heart which a believer
complains of, though it occasions his going uncomfortably in duty, yet does not
keep him from it, Job xxiii. 2,3.--4. when a person is judicially hardened, he
makes use of indirect and unwarrantable methods to maintain that false peace
which he thinks himself happy in the enjoyment of; but a believer, when
complaining of the hardness of his heart, cannot be satisfied with any thing
short of Christ, Ps. ci. 2.--5. Judicial hardness generally opposes the
interest of truth and godliness; but a good man considers this as a cause
nearest his heart; and although he have to lament his lukewarmness, yet he
constantly desires to promote it, Ps. lxxii. 19.
Keeping the heart, is a duty enjoined in the
sacred Scriptures. It consists, says Mr. Flavel, in the diligent and constant
use and improvement of all holy means and duties to preserve the soul from sin,
and maintain communion with God; and this, he properly observes, supposed a previous
work of sanctification, which hath set the heart right by giving it a new bent
and inclination. 1. It includes frequent observation of the frame of the heart,
Ps. lxxvii. 6.--2. Deep humiliation for heart evils and disorders, 2 Chron.
xxxii. 26.--3. Earnest supplication for heart purifying and rectifying grace,
Ps. xix. 12.--4. A constant holy jealousy over our hearts, Prov. xxvii. 14.--5.
It includes the realizing of God's presence with us, and setting him before us,
Ps. xvi. 8. Gen. xvii. 1. This is, 1. The hardest work; heart work is hard
work, indeed.--2. Constant work, Exod. xvii. 12.--3. The most important work,
Prov. xxiii. 26. This is a duty which should be attended to, if we consider it
in connection with, 1. The honour of God, Is. lxvi. 3.--2. The sincerity of our
profession, 2 Kings x. 31. Ezek. xxxiii. 31,32.--3. The beauty of our
conversation, Prov. xii. 26. Ps. xlv. 1.--4. The comfort of our souls, 2 Cor.
xiii. 5.--5. The improvement of our graces, Ps. lxiii. 5,6.--6. The stability
of our souls in the hour of temptation, 1 Cor. xvi. 13.--The seasons in which
we should more particularly keep our hearts are, 1. The time of prosperity,
Deut. vi. 10, 12.--2. Under afflictions, Heb. vii. 5, 6.--3. The time of Sion's
troubles, Ps. xlvi. 1,4.--4. In the time of great and threatened dangers, Is.
xxvi. 20,21.--5. Under great wants, Phil. iv. 6,7.--6. In the time of duty,
Lev. x. 3.--7. Under injuries received, Rom. xii. 17, &c.--8. In the
critical hour of temptation. Matt. xxvi. 41.--9. Under dark and doubting
seasons, Heb. xii. 8. Is. l. 10.--10. In time of opposition and suffering, !
Pet. iv. 12,13. --11. The time of sickness and death, Jer. xlix. 11. The means
to be made use of to keep our hearts, are, 1. Watchfulness, Mark xiii. 37.--2.
Examination, Prov. iv. 26.--3. Prayer, Luke xviii. 1.--4. Reading God's word,
John v. 39.--5. Dependence on divine grace, Ps. lxxxvi. 11. See Flavel on
Keeping the Heart; Jameison's Sermons on the Heart; Wright on self-possession;
Ridgley's Div. qu. 20.
Paaagans who worship false gods, and are not acquainted either with the doctrines of the Old Testament or the Christian dispensation. For many ages before Christ, the nations at large were destitute of the true religion, and gave themselves up to the grossest ignorance, the most absurd idolatry, and the greatest crimes. Even the most learned men among the heathens were in general inconsistent, and complied with or promoted the vain customs they found among their countrymen. It was, however, divinely foretold, that in Abraham's seed all nations should be blessed; that the heathen should be gathered to the Saviour, and become his people, Gen. xxii. 18. Gen. xlix. 10. Ps. ii. 8. Isa. xlii. 6,7. Ps. lxxii. Isaiah lx. In order that these promises might be accomplished, vast numbers of the Jews, after the Chaldean captivity, were left scattered among the heathen. The Old Testament was translated into Greek, the most common language of the heathen; and a rumour of the Saviour's appearance in the flesh was spread far and wide among them. When Christ came, he preached chiefly in Galilee, where there were multitudes of Gentiles. He assured the Greeks that vast numbers of the heathen should be brought into the church, Matt. iv. 23. John xii. 20,24. For 1700 years past the Jews have been generally rejected, and the church of God has been composed of the Gentiles. Upwards of 480 millions (nearly half the globe,) however, are supposed to be yet in pagan darkness. Considerable attempts have been made of late years for the enlightening of the heathen; and there is every reason to believe good has been done. From the aspect of Scripture prophecy, we are led to expect that the kingdoms of the heathen at large shall be brought to the light of the Gospel, Matt. xxiv. 14. Isa. lx. Ps. xxii. 28, 29. Ps. ii. 7,8. It has been much disputed whether it be possible that the heathen should be saved without the knowledge of the Gospel: some have absolutely denied it, upon the authority of those texts which universally require faith in Christ; but to this it is answered, that those texts regard only such to whom the Gospel comes, and are capable of understanding the contents of it. The truth, says Dr. Doddridge, seems to be this; that none of the heathens will be condemned for not believing the Gospel, but they are liable to condemnation for the breach of God's natural law: nevertheless, if there be any of them in whom there is a prevailing love to the Divine Being, there seems reason to believe that, for the sake of Christ, though to them unknown, they may be accepted by God; and so much the rather, as the ancient Jews, and even the apostles, during the time of our Saviour's abode on earth, seem to have had but little notion of those doctrines, which those who deny the salvability of the heathens are most apt to imagine, Rom. ii. 10-22. Acts x. 34,35. Matt. viii. 11,12. Mr. Grove, Dr. Watts, Saurin, and Mr. Newton, favour the same opinion; the latter of whom thus observes: "If we suppose a heathen brought to a sense of his misery; to a conviction that he cannot be happy without the favour of the great Lord of the world; to a feeling of guilt, and desire of mercy, and that, thought he has no explicit knowledge of a Saviour, he directs the cry of his heart to the unknown Supreme, to have mercy upon him; who will prove that such views and desires can arise in the heart of a sinner, without the energy of that Spirit which Jesus is exalted to bestow? Who will take upon him to say, that his blood has not sufficient efficacy to redeem to God a sinner who is thus disposed, though he have never heard of his name? Or who has a warrant to affirm, that the supposition I have made is in the nature of things impossible to be realized?" Newton's Messiah; Dr. Watts's Strength and Weakness of Human Reason, p. 106; Saurin's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 314; Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. i. p. 128; Turret Loc. vol. i. quxst. 4. $1,2,17; Doddridge's Lectures, lec. 240. vol. ii. 8 vo. edit. Bellamy's Religion Delineated, p. 105; Ridgley's Body of Div. qu. 60; Gale's Court of the Gentiles; Considerations on the Religious Worship of the Heathen; Rev. W. Jones's Works, vol.xii.
Is considered as a place in some remote part of
infinite space, in which the omnipresent Deity is said to afford a nearer and
more immediate view of himself, and a more sensible manifestation of his glory,
than in the other parts of the universe.
That there is a state of future happiness, both
reason and Scripture indicate; a general notion of happiness after death has
obtained among the wiser sort of heathens, who have only had the light of
nature to guide them. If we examine the human mind, it is also evident that
there is a natural desire after happiness in all men; and, which is equally
evident, is not attained in this life. It is no less observable, that in the
present state there is an unequal distribution of things, which makes the
providences of God very intricate, and which cannot be solved without supposing
a future state. Revelation, however, puts it beyond all doubt. The Divine Being
hath promised it, 1 John ii. 25. 1 John v. 11. James i. 12; hath given us some
intimation of its glory, 1 Pet. iii. 4, 22. Rev. iii. 4. declares Christ hath taken
possession of it for us, John xiv. 2,3. and informs us of some already there,
both as to their bodies and souls, Gen. v. 24. 2 Kings ii.
Heaven is to be considered as a place as well as
a state: it is expressly so termed in Scripture, John xiv. 2,3: and the
existence of the body of Christ, and those of Enoch and Elijah, is a further
proof of it. Yea, if it be not a place, where can these bodies be? and where
will the bodies of the saints exist after the resurrection? Where this place
is, however, cannot be determined. Some have thought it to be beyond the starry
firmament; and some of the ancients imagined that their dwelling would be in
the sun. Others suppose the air to be the seat of the blessed. Others think
that the saints will dwell upon earth when it shall be restored to its
paradisaical state; but these suppositions are more curious than edifying, and
it becomes us to be silent where divine revelation is so.
Heaven, however, we are assured, is a place of
inexpressible felicity. The names given to it are proofs of this: it is called
paradise, Luke xxiii. 43. Light, Rev. xxi. 23. A building and mansion of God, 2
Cor. v. 1. John xiv. 2. A city, Heb. xi. 10, 16. A better country, Heb. xi. 16.
An inheritance, Acts xx. 32. A kingdom, Matt. xxv. 34. A crown, 2 Tim. iv. 8.
Glory, Ps. lxxxiv. 11. 2 Cor. iv. 17. Peace, rest, and joy of the Lord, Is.
lvii. 2. Heb. iv. 9. Matt. xxv. 21, 23. The felicity of heaven will consist in
freedom from all evil, both of soul and body, Rev. vii. 17; in the enjoyment of
God as the chief good, in the company of angels, and saints; in perfect
holiness, and extensive knowledge.
It has been disputed whether there are degrees of
glory in heaven. The arguments against degrees are, that all the people of God
are loved by him with the same love, all chosen together in Christ, equally
interested in the same covenant of grace, equally redeemed with the same price,
and all predestinated to the same adoption of children; to suppose the
contrary, it is said, is to eclipse the glory of divine grace, and carries with
it the legal idea of being rewarded for our works. On the other side it is
observed, that if the above reasoning would prove any thing, it would prove too
much, viz. that we should all be upon an equality in the present world as well
as that which is to come; for we are now as much the objects of the same love,
purchased by the same blood, &c. as we shall be hereafter. That rewards
contain nothing inconsistent with the doctrine of grace, because those very works
which it pleaseth God to honour are the effects of his own operation. That all
rewards to a guilty creature have respect to the mediation of Christ. That
God's graciously connecting blessings with the obedience of his people, serves
to show not only his love to Christ and to them, but his regard to
righteousness. That the Scriptures expressly declare for degrees, Dan. xii. 3.
Matt. x. 41, 42. Matt. xix. 28,29. Luke xix. 16,19. Rom. ii. 6. 1 Cor. iii. 8.
1 Cor. xv. 41, 42. 2 Cor. v. 10. Gal. vi. 9.
Another question has sometimes been proposed,
viz. Whether the saints shall know each other in heaven?
"The arguments," says Dr. Ridgley,
"which are generally brought in defence of it, are taken from those
instances recorded in Scripture, in which persons who have never seen one
another before, have immediately known each other in this world, by a special
immediate divine revelation given to them, in like manner as Adam knew that Eve
was taken out of him; and therefore says, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh
of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man, Gen.
ii. 23. He was cast into a deep sleep, when God took out one of his ribs, and
so formed the woman, as we read in the foregoing words; yet the knowledge
hereof was communicated to him by God. Moreover, we read that Peter, James, and
John, knew Moses and Elias, Matt. xvii. as appears from Peter's making a
particular mention of them: Let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, one
for Moses, and one for Elias, 4th ver. though he had never seen them before.
Again, our Saviour, in the parable, represents the rich man, as seeing Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, Luke xvi. 23, and speaks of him as
addressing his discourse to him. From such like arguments, some conclude that
it may be inferred that the saints shall know one another in heaven, when
joined together in the same assembly.
"Moreover, some think that this may be
proved from the apostle's words, in 1 Thess. ii. 19, 20. What is our hope or
joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus
Christ at his coming? for ye are our glory and joy; which seems to argue, that
he apprehended their happiness in heaven should contribute, or be an addition
to his, as he was made an instrument to bring them thither; even so, by a
parity of reason, every one who has been instrumental in the conversion and
building up others in their holy faith, as the apostle Paul was with respect to
them, these shall tend to enhance their praise, and give them occasion to
glorify God on their behalf. Therefore it follows that they shall know one
another; and consequently they who have walked together in the ways of God, and
have been useful to one another as relations and intimate friends, in what
respects more especially their spiritual concerns, these shall bless God for
the mutual advantages which they have received, and consequently shall know one
another. Again; some prove this from that expression of our Saviour in Luke
xvi. 9. Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when
ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations; especially if by
these everlasting habitations be meant heaven, as many suppose it is; and then
the meaning is, that they whom you have relieved, and shown kindness to in this
world, shall express a particular joy upon your being admitted into heaven; and
consequently they shall know you, and bless God for your having been so useful
and beneficial to them.
"To this it is objected that if the saints
shall know one another in heaven, they shall know that several of those who
were their intimate friends here on earth, whom they loved with very great
affection, are not there; and this will have a tendency to give them some
uneasiness, and a diminution of their joy and happiness."
"To this it may be replied, that if it be
allowed that the saints shall know that some whom they loved on earth are not
in heaven, this will give them no uneasiness: since that affection which took
its rise principally from the relation which we stood in to persons on earth,
or the intimacy, that we have contracted with them, will cease in another
world, or rather run in another channel, and be excited by superior motives;
namely, their relation to Christ; that perfect holiness which they are adorned
with; their being joined in the same blessed society, and engaged in the same
employment, together with their former usefulness one to another in promoting
their spiritual welfare, as made subservient to the happiness they enjoy there.
And as for others, who are excluded from their society, they will think
themselves obliged, out of a due regard to the justice and holiness of God to
acquiesce in his righteous judgments. Thus, the inhabitants of heaven are
represented as adoring the divine perfections, when the vials of God's wrath
were poured out upon his enemies, and saying, Thou are righteous, O Lord,
because thou hast judged thus: true and righteous are thy judgments, Rev. xvi.
5,7."
"Another question has been sometimes asked,
viz. Whether there shall be a diversity of languages in heaven, as there is on
earth? This we cannot pretend to determine. Some think that there shall; and
that, as persons of all nations and tongues shall make up that blessed society,
so they shall praise God in the same language which they before used when on
earth; and that this worship may be performed with the greatest harmony, and to
mutual edification, all the saints shall, by the immediate power and providence
of God, be able to understand and make use of every one of those different
languages, as well as their own. This they found on the apostle's words, in
which he says, That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; which they suppose has a
respect to the heavenly state, because it is said to be done both by those that
are in heaven, and those that are on earth, Phil.ii. 10,11. But though the
apostle speaks by a metonymy of different tongues, that is, persons who speak
different languages being subject to Christ, he probably means thereby persons
of different nations, whether they shall praise him in their own language in
heaven, or no. Therefore some conjecture that the diversity of languages shall
then cease, inasmuch as it took its first rise from God's judicial hand, when
he confounded the speech of those who presumptuously attempted to build the
city and tower of Babel; and this has been ever since attended with many
inconveniences. And, indeed, the apostle seems expressly to intimate as much,
when he says, speaking concerning the heavenly state, that tongues shall cease,
1 Cor. xiii. 8. that is, the present variety of languages.--Moreover, since the
gift of tongues was bestowed on the apostles for the gathering and building up
the church in the first ages thereof, which end, when it was answered, this
extraordinary dispensation ceased; in like manner it is probable that hereafter
the diversity of languages shall cease."
"I am sensible," says Dr. Ridgley,
"there are some who object to this, that the saints understanding all
languages, will be an addition to their honour, glory, and happiness. But to
this it may be answered, that though it is, indeed, an accomplishment, in this
world, for a person to understand several languages, that arises from the
subserviency thereof to those valuable ends that are answered thereby; but this
would be entirely removed, if the diversity of languages be taken away in
heaven, as some suppose it will."
"There are some, who, it may be, give too much
scope to a vain curiosity, when they pretend to enquire what this language
shall be, or determine, as the Jews do, and with them some of the fathers, that
it shall be Hebrew, since their arguments for it are not sufficiently
conclusive, which are principally these, viz. That this was the language with
which God inspired man at first in paradise, and that which the saints and
patriarchs spake; and the church generally made use of in all ages till our
Saviour's time; and that it was this language which he himself spake while here
on earth; and since his ascension into heaven, he spake to Paul in the Hebrew
tongue, Acts xxvi. 14. And when the inhabitants of heaven are described in the
Revelations as praising God, there is one word used by which their praise is
expressed, namely, Hallelujah, which is Hebrew; the meaning whereof is, Praise
ye the Lord. But all these arguments are not sufficiently convincing, and
therefore we must reckon it no more than a conjecture."
However undecided we may be as to this and some
other circumstances, this we may be assured of, that the happiness of heaven
will be eternal. Whether it will be progressive or not, and that the saints
shall always be increasing in their knowledge, joy, &c. is not so clear.
Some suppose that this indicates an imperfection in the felicity of the saints
for any addition to be made; but others think it quite analogous to the
dealings of God with us here; and that, from the nature of the mind itself, it
may be concluded. But however this be, it is certain that our happiness will be
complete, 1 Pet. v. 10. 1 Pet. v. 4. Heb. xi. 10. Watts's Death and Heaven;
Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. ii. p. 495; Saurin's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 321;
Toplady's Works, vol. iii. p. 471; Bates's Works; Ridgley's Body of Divinity,
ques. 90.
See JEWS.
The place of divine punishment after death. As
all religions have supposed a future state of existence after this life, so all
have their hell, or place or torment, in which the wicked are to be punished.
Even the heathens had their tartara; and the Mahometans, we find, believe the
eternity of rewards and punishments; it is not, therefore, a sentiment peculiar
to Christianity.
There have been many curious and useless
conjectures respecting the place of the damned: the ancients generally supposed
it was a region of fire near the centre of the earth. Mr. Swinden endeavoured
to prove that it is seated in the sun. Mr. Whiston advanced a new and strange
hypothesis; according to him, the comets are so many hells, appointed in their
orbits alternately to carry the damned to the confines of the sun, there to be
scorched by its violent heat; and then to return with them beyond the orb of
Saturn, there to starve them in those cold and dismal regions. But, as Dr.
Doddridge observes, we must here confess our ignorance; and shall be much
better employed in studying how we may avoid this place of horror, than in
labouring to discover where it is.
Of the nature of this punishment we may form some
idea from the expressions made use of in Scripture. It is called a place of
torment, Luke xvi. 21. the bottomless pit, Rev. xx. 3 to 6. a prison, 1 Pet.
iii. 19. darkness, Matt. viii. 12. Jude 13. fire, Matt. xiii. 42, 50. a worm
that never dies, Mark ix. 44, 48, the second death, Rev. xxi. 8. the wrath of
God, Rom. ii. 5. It has been debated whether there will be a material fire in
hell. On the affirmative side it is observed, that fire and brimstone are
represented as the ingredients of the torment of the wicked, Rev. xiv. 10,11.
Rev. xx. 10. That as the body is to be raised, and the whole man to be
condemned, it is reasonable to believe there will be some corporeal punishment
provided, and therefore probably material fire. On the negative side it is
alleged, that the terms above-mentioned are metaphorical, and signify no more
than raging desire or acute pain; and that the Divine Being can sufficiently
punish the wicked, by immediately acting on their minds, or rather leaving them
to the guilt and stings of their own conscience. According to several passages,
it seems there will be different degrees of punishment in hell, Luke xii. 47.
Rom. ii. 12. Matt. x. 20,21. Matt. xii. 25, 32. Heb. x. 28,29.
As to its duration, it has been observed that it
cannot be eternal, because there is no proportion between temporary crimes and
eternal punishments; that the word everlasting is not to be taken in its utmost
extent; and that it signifies no more than a long time, or a time whose precise
boundary is unknown. But in answer to this it is alleged, that the same word is
used, and that sometimes in the very same place, to express the eternity of the
happiness of the righteous, and the eternity of the misery of the wicked; and
that there is no reason to believe that the words express two such different
idea, as standing in the same connection. Besides, it is not true, it is
observed, that temporary crimes do not deserve eternal punishments, because the
infinite majesty of an offended God adds a kind of infinite evil to sin, and
therefore exposes the sinner to infinite punishment; and that hereby God
vindicates his injured majesty, and glorifies his justice. See articles
DESTRUCTIONISTS and UNIVERSALISTS. Berry St. Lect. vol. ii. p. 559, 562; Dawes
on Hell, ser. x.; Whiston on ditto; Swinden, Drexelius, and Edwards on ditto. A
late popular writer has observed, that in the 35th sermon of Tillotson, every
thing is said upon the eternity of hell torments that can be known with any
certainty.
Christ's descent into. That Christ locally
descended into hell, is a doctrine believed not only by the papists, but by
many among the reformed. 1. the text chiefly brought forward in support of this
doctrine is the 1st Peter, iii. 19. "By which he went and preached to the
spirits in prison;" but it evidently appears that the "spirit"
there mentioned was not Christ's human soul, but a divine nature, or rather the
Holy Spirit (by which he was quickened, and raised from the dead;) and by the
inspiration of which, granted to Noah, he preached to those notorious sinners
who are now in the prison of hell for their disobedience.
2. Christ, when on the cross, promised the
penitent thief his presence that day in paradise; and accordingly, when he
died, he committed his soul into his heavenly Father's hand: in heaven
therefore, and not in hell, we are to seek the separate spirit of our Redeemer
in this period, Luke xxiii. 43,46.
3. Had our Lord descended to preach to the
damned, there is no supposable reason why the unbelievers in Noah's time only
should be mentioned rather than those of Sodom, and the unhappy multitudes that
died in sin. But it may be said, do not both the Old and New Testaments
intimate this? Ps. xvi. 10. Acts ii. 34. But it may be answered, that the
words, "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," may be explained (as is
the manner of the Hebrew poets) in the following words: "Neither wilt thou
suffer thine holy one to see corruption." So the same words are used, Ps.
lxxxix. 48.--"What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall
he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" In the Hebrew the word
commonly rendered hell properly signifies " the invisible state," as
our word hell originally did; and the other word signifies not always the
immortal soul, but the animal frame in general, either living or dead. Bishop
Pearson and Dr. Barrow on the Creed; Edwards's Hist. of Redemption, notes, p.
351, 377; Ridgley's Body of Div. p. 308, 3d edit. Doddridge and Guise on 1 Pet.
iii. 19.
A term occurring in the Greek text of the New
Testament, and which in the English version is rendered Grecians, Acts vi. 1.
The critics are divided as to the signification of the word. Some observe, that
it is not to be understood as signifying those of the religion of the Greeks,
but those who spoke Greek. The authors of the Vulgate version render it like
our Graeci; but Messieurs Du Port Royal, more accurately, Juifs Greca, Greek or
Grecian Jews; it being the Jews who spoke Greek that are here treated of, and
who are hereby distinguished from the Jews called Hebrews, that is, who spoke
the Hebrew tongue of that time.
The Hellenists, or Grecian Jews, were those who
lived in Egypt, and other parts where the Greek tongue prevailed: it is to them
we owe the Greek version of the Old Testament, commonly called the Septuagint,
or that of the Seventy.
Salmasius and Vossius are of a different
sentiment with respect to the Hellenists: the latter will only have them to be
those who adhered to the Grecian interests. Scaliger is represented in the
Scaligerana as asserting the Hellenists to be the Jews who lived in Greece and
other places, and who read the Greek Bible in their synagogues, and used the
Greek language in sacris; and thus they were opposed to the Hebrew Jews, who
performed their public worship in the Hebrew tongue; and in this sense St. Paul
speaks of himself as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, Phil. iii. 5,6.i.e. a Hebrew both
by nation and language. The Hellenists are thus properly distinguished from the
Hellines, or Greeks, mentioned John xii. 20. who were Greeks by birth and
nation, and yet proselytes to the Jewish religion.
A sect among the ancient Jews, thus called from
their washing and bathing every day, in all seasons; and performing this custom
with the greatest solemnity, as a religious rite necessary to salvation.
Epiphanius, who mentions this as the fourth
heresy among the Jews, observes, that in other points these heretics had much
the same opinion as the Scribes and Pharisees; only that they denied the
resurrection of the dead, in common with the Sadducees, and retained a few
other of the improprieties of these last.
The sect who pass in the East under the
denomination of Sabians, calling themselves Mendai Iiahi, or the disciples of
St. John, and whom the Europeans entitle the Christians of St. John, because
they yet retain some knowledge of the Gospel, is probably of Jewish origin, and
seems to have been derived from the ancient Hemerobaptists; at least it is
certain that John, whom they consider as the founder of their sect, bears no
sort of similitude to John the Baptist, but rather resembles the person of that
name whom the ancient writers represent as the chief of the Jewish
Hemerobaptists. These ambiguous Christians dwell in Persia and Arabia, and
principally at Bassora; and their religion consists in bodily washings,
performed frequently and with great solemnity, and attended with certain
ceremonies which the priests mingle with this superstitious service.
A famous edict of the emperor Zeno, published A. D. 482, and intended to reconcile and re-unite the Eutychians with the Catholics. It was procured of the emperor by means of Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, with the assistance of the friends of Peter Mongus and Peter Trullo. The sting of this edict lies here; that it repeats and confirms all that has been enacted in the councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, against the Arians, Nestorians, and Eutychians, without making any particular mention of the council of Chalcedon. It is in the form of a letter, addressed by Zeno to the bishops, priests, monks, and people of Egypt and Libya. It was opposed by the Catholics, and condemned in form by pope Felix II.
A sect so called from Henry, its founder, who, though a monk and hermit, undertook to reform the superstition and vices of the clergy. For this purpose he left Lausanne, in Switzerland, and, removing from different places, at length settled at Tholouse in the year 1147, and there exercised his ministerial function; till, being overcome by the opposition of Bernard, abbot of Clairval, and condemned by pope Eugenius III. at a council assembled at Rheims, he was committed to a close prison in 1148, where he soon ended his days.--This reformer rejected the baptism of infants, severely censured the corrupt manners of the clergy, treated the festivals and ceremonies of the church with the utmost contempt, and held private assemblies for inculcating his peculiar doctrines.
A sect of Christians, the followers of Heracleon, who refined upon the Gnostic divinity, and maintained that the world was not the immediate production of the Son of God, but that he was only the occasional cause of its being created by the demiurgus. The Heracleonites denied the authority of the prophecies of the Old Testament; maintained that they were mere random sounds in the air; and that St. John the Baptist was the only true voice that directed to the Messiah.
Of arch heretic, the founder or inventor of an heresy; or a chief of a sect of heretics.
This word signifies sect or choice; it was not
in its earliest acceptation conceived to convey any reproach, since it was
indifferently used either of a party approved, or of one disapproved by the
writer. See Acts v. 17. xv. 3. Afterwards it was generally used to signify some
fundamental error adhered to with obstinacy, 2 Pet. ii. 1. Gal. v. 20.
According to the laws of this kingdom, heresy
consists in a denial of some of the essential doctrines of Christianity,
publicly and obstinately avowed. It must be acknowledged, however, that
particular modes of belief or unbelief, not tending to overturn Christianity,
or to sap the foundations of morality, are by no means the object of coercion
by the civil magistrate. What doctrines shall therefore be adjudged heresy, was
left by our old constitution to the determination of the ecclesiastical judge,
who had herein a most arbitrary latitude allowed him; for the general
definition of an heretic, given by Lyndewode, extends to the smallest
deviations from the doctrines of the holy church: "Haereticus est qui
dubitat de fide catholica, et qui negligit servare ea quae Romana ecclesia statuit,
seu servare decreverat:" or, as the statute, 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15, expresses
it in English, "teachers of erroneous opinions, contrary to the faith and
blessed determinations of the holy church." Very contrary this to the
usage of the first general councils, which defined all heretical doctrines with
the utmost precision and exactness, and what ought to have alleviated the
punishment, the uncertainty of the crime, seems to have enhanced it in those
days of blind zeal and pious cruelty. The sanctimonious hypocrisy of the
Canonists, indeed, went, at first, no farther than enjoining penance,
excommunication, and ecclesiastical deprivation, for heresy; but afterwards
they proceeded boldly to imprisonment by the ordinary, and confiscation of
goods in pios usus. But in the mean time they had prevailed upon the weakness
of bigoted princes to make the civil power subservient to their purposes, by
making heresy not only a temporal but even a capital offence; the Romish
ecclesiastics determining, without appeal, whatever they pleased to be heresy,
and shifting off to the secular arm the odium and drudgery of executions, with
which they pretended to be too tender and delicate to intermeddle. Nay, they
affected to intercede on behalf of the convicted heretic, well knowing that at
the same time they were delivering the unhappy victim to certain death. See ACT
OF FAITH.--Hence the capital punishments inflicted on the ancient Donatists and
Manichaeans by the emperors Theodosius and Justinian; hence, also, the
constitution of the emperor Frederic, mentioned by Lyndewode, adjudging all
persons, without distinction, to be burnt with fire, who were convicted of
heresy by the ecclesiastical judge. The same emperor, in another constitution,
ordained, that if any temporal lord, when admonished by the church, should
neglect to clear his territories of heretics within a year, it should by lawful
for good Catholics to seize and occupy the lands, and utterly to exterminate
the heretical possessors. And upon this foundation was built that arbitrary
power, so long claimed, and so fatally exerted by the pope, of disposing even
of the kingdoms of refractory princes to more dutiful sons of the church. The
immediate event of this constitution serves to illustrate at once the gratitude
of the holy see, and the just punishment of the royal bigot; for, upon the
authority of this very constitution, the pope afterwards expelled this very
emperor Frederic from his kingdom of Sicily, and gave it to Charles of Anjou.
Christianity being thus deformed by the daemon of persecution upon the
continent, our own island could not escape its scourge. Accordingly we find a
writ de haeretico comburendo, i.e. of burning the heretic. See that article.
But the king might pardon the convict by issuing only by the special direction
of the king in council. In the reign of Henry IV. when the eyes of the
Christian world began to open, and the seeds of the Protestant religion (under
the opprobrious name of Lollardy) took root in this kingdom, the clergy, taking
advantage from the king's dubious title to demand an increase of their own
power, obtained an act of parliament, which sharpened the edge of persecution
to its utmost keenness. See HAERETICO COMBURENDO. By statute 2 Henry V. c. 7,
Lollardy was also made a temporal offence, and indictable in the king's courts;
which did not thereby gain an exclusive, but only a concurrent jurisdiction
with the bishop's consistory. Afterwards, when the reformation began to
advance, the power of the ecclesiastics was somewhat moderated; for though what
heresy is was not then precisely defined, yet we are told in some points what
it is not; the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 14. declaring that offences against the
see of Rome are not heresy; and the ordinary being thereby restrained from
proceeding in any case upon mere suspicion; i.e. unless the party be accused by
two credible witnesses, or an indictment of heresy be first previously found in
the king's courts of common law. And yet the spirit of persecution was not
abated, but only diverted into a lay channel; for in six years afterwards, by
stat. 31 Hen. VIII. c. 14. the bloody law of the six articles was made, which
were "determined and resolved by the most godly study, pain, and travail
of his majesty; for which his most humble and obedient subjects, the lords
spiritual and temporal, and the commons in parliament assembled, did render and
give unto his highness their most high and hearty thanks." The same
statute established a mixed jurisdiction of clergy and laity for the trial and
conviction of heretics; Henry being equally intent on destroying the supremacy
of the bishops of Rome, and establishing all their other corruptions of the
Christian religion. Without recapitulating the various repeals and revivals of
these sanguinary laws in the two succeeding reigns, we proceed to the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, when the reformation was finally established with temper and
decency, unsullied with party rancour or personal resentment--By stat. 1. Eliz.
c. 1. all former statutes relating to heresy are repealed; which leaves the
jurisdiction of heresy as it stood at common law, viz. as to the infliction of
common censures in the ecclesiastical courts; and in case of burning the
heretic, in the provincial synod only. Sir Matthew Hale is, indeed, of a
different opinion, and holds that such power resided in the diocesan also:
though he agrees that in either case the writ de haeretico comburendo was not
demandable of common right, but grantable or otherwise merely at the king's
discretion. But the principal point now gained was, that by this statute a
boundary was for the first time set to what should be accounted heresy; nothing
for the future being to be so determined, but only such tenets which have been
heretofore so declared,--1. by the words of the canonical Scriptures;--2. by
the first four general councils, or such others as have only used the words of
the Holy Scriptures; or,--3. which shall hereafter be so declared by the
parliament, with the assent of the clergy in convocation. Thus was heresy
reduced to a greater certainty than before, though it might not have been the
worse to have defined it in terms still more precise and particular; as a man
continued still liable to be burnt for what, perhaps, he did not understand to
be heresy, till the ecclesiastical judge so interpreted the words of the
canonical Scriptures. For the writ de haeretico comburendo remained still in
force, till it was totally abolished, and heresy again subjected only to
ecclesiastical correction, pro salute animae, by stat. 29. Car. II. c. 9; when,
in one and the same reign, our lands were delivered from the slavery of
military tenures; our bodies from arbitrary imprisonment by the habeas corpus
act: and our minds from the tyranny of superstitious bigotry, by demolishing
this last badge of persecution in the English law. Every thing is now less
exceptionable, with respect to the spiritual cognizance and spiritual
punishment of heresy; unless, perhaps, that the crime ought to be more strictly
defined, and no prosecution permitted, even in the ecclesiastical courts, till
the tenets in question are by proper authority previously declared to be
heretical. Under these restrictions, some think it necessary, for the support
of the national religion, that the officers of the church should have power to
censure heretics; yet not to harass them with temporal penalties, much less to
exterminate or destroy them. The legislature has, indeed, thought it proper
that the civil magistrate should interpose with regard to one species of
heresy, very prevalent in modern times; for by stat. 9. and 10. W. III. c. 32.
if any person, educated in the Christian religion, or professing the same,
shall, by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, deny any one of the
persons in the Holy Trinity to be God, or maintain that there are more Gods
than one, he shall undergo the same penalties and incapacities which were
inflicted on apostasy by the same statute. Enc. Brit. Dr. Foster and Stebbing
on Heresy; Hallett's Discourses, vol. iii. No. 9. p. 358, 408; Dr. Campbell's
Prel. Dis. to the Gospels.
A general name for all such persons under any religion, but especially the Christian, as profess or teach opinions contrary to the established faith, or to what is made the standard of orthodoxy. See last article, and Lardner's History of the Heretics of the first two Centuries.
A sect in the second century; so called from their leader Hermias. One of their distinguishing tenets was, that God is corporeal; another, that Jesus Christ did not ascend into heaven with his body, but left it in the sun.
A person who retires into solitude for the purpose of devotion. Who were the first hermits cannot easily be known; though Paul, surnamed the hermit, is generally reckoned the first. The persecutions of Decius and Valerian were supposed to have occasioned their first rise.
A sect of ancient heretics; denominated from their leader Hermogenes, who lived towards the close of the second century. Hermogenes established matter as his first principle; and regarding matter as the fountain of all evil, he maintained, that the world, and every thing contained in it, as also the souls of men and other spirits, were formed by the Deity from an uncreated and eternal mass of corrupt matter. The opinions of Hermogenes with regard to the origin of the world, and the nature of the soul, were warmly opposed by Tertullian.
See MORAVIANS.
A sect among the Jews, at the time of our Saviour, Matt. xxii. 16. Mark iii 6. The critics and commentators are very much divided with regard to the Herodians. St. Jerome, in his dialogue against the Luciferians, takes the name to have been given to such as owned Herod for the Messiah; and Tertullian and Epiphanius are of the same opinion. But the same Jerome, in his comment on St. Matthew, treats this opinion as ridiculous; and maintains that the Pharisees gave this appellation, by way of ridicule, to Herod's soldiers, who paid tribute to the Romans; agreeable to which the Syrian interpreters render the word by the domestics of Herod, i.e. "his courtiers." M. Simon, in his notes on the 22d chapter of Matthew, advances a more probable opinion: the name Herodian he imagines to have been given to such as adhered to Herod's party and interest, and were for preserving the government in his family, about which were great divisions among the Jews. F. Hardouin will have the Herodians and Sadduces to have been the same. Dr. Prideaux is of opinion that they derived their name from Herod the Great; and that they were distinguished from the other Jews by their concurrence with Herod's scheme of subjecting himself and his dominions to the Romans, and likewise by complying with many of their heathen usages and customs. This symbolizing with idolatry upon views of interest and worldly policy was probably that leaven of Herod, against which our Saviour cautioned his disciples. It is further probable that they were chiefly of the sect of the Sadducees; because the leaven of Herod is also denominated the leaven of the Sadducees.
Something that is contrary to the faith or doctrine established in the true church. See ORTHODOX.
A Bible disposed in six columns, containing the text and divers versions thereof, compiled and published by Origen, with a view of securing the sacred text from future corruptions, and to correct those that had been already introduced. Eusebius relates, that Origen, after his return from Rome under Caracalla, applied himself to learn Hebrew, and began to collect the several versions that had been made of the sacred writings, and of these to compose his Tetrapla and Hexapla; others, however, will not allow him to have begun till the time of Alexander, after he had retired into Palestine, about the year 231. To conceive what this Hexapla was, it must be observed, that, besides the translation of the sacred writings, called the Septuagint, made under Ptolemy Philadelphus, above 280 years before Christ, the Scripture had been since translated into Greek by other interpreters. The first of those versions, or (reckoning the Septuagint) the second, was that of Aquilla, a proselyte Jew, the first edition of which he published in the 12th year of the emperor Adrian, or about the year of Christ 128; the third was that of Symmachus, published, as is commonly supposed, under Marcus Aurelius, but, as some say, under Septinius Severus, about the year 200; the fourth was that of Theodotion, prior to that of Symmachus, under Commodus, or about the year 175. These Greek versions, says Dr. Kennicott, were made by the Jews from their corrupted copies of the Hebrew, and were designed to stand in the place of the Seventy, against which they were prejudiced, because it seemed to favour the Christians. The fifth was found at Jericho, in the reign of Caracalla, about the year 217: and the sixth was discovered at Nicopolis, in the reign of Alexander Severus, about the year 228; lastly, Origen himself recovered part of a seventh, containing only the Psalms. Now, Origen, who had held frequent disputations with the Jews in Egypt and Palestine, observing that they always objected to those passages of Scripture quoted against them, appealed to the Hebrew text, the better to vindicate those passages, and confound the Jews, by showing that the Seventy had given the sense of the Hebrew; or rather to show, by a number of different versions, what the real sense of the Hebrew was, undertook to reduce all these several versions into a body, along with the Hebrew text, so as they might be easily confronted, and afford a mutual light to each other. He made the Hebrew text his standard: and allowing that corruptions might have happened, and that the old Hebrew copies might and did read differently, he contented himself with marking such words or sentences as were not in his Hebrew text, nor the latter Greek versions, and adding such words or sentences as were omitted in the Seventy, prefixing an asterisk to the additions, and an obelisk to the others. In order to this, he made choice of eight columns; in the first he made the Hebrew text, in Hebrew characters; in the second, the same text in Greek characters; the rest were filled with the several versions above-mentioned; all the columns answering verse for verse, and phrase for phrase; and in the Psalms there was a ninth column for the seventh version. This work Origen called Hexapla, q. d. sextuple, or work of six columns, as only regarding the first six Greek versions. St. Epiphanius, taking in likewise the two columns of the text, calls the work Octapla, as consisting of eight columns. This celebrated work, which Montfaucon imagines consisted of sixty large volumes, perished long ago; probably with the library at Cxsarea, where it was preserved in the year 653; though several of the ancient writers have preserved us pieces thereof, particularly St. Chrysostom on the Psalms, Phileponus in his Hexameron, &c. Some modern writers have earnestly endeavoured to collect fragments of the Hexapla, particularly Flaminius, Nobilius, Drusius, and F. Montfaucon, in two folio volumes printed at Paris in 1713.
Heretics in the third century; so called from their leader Hierax, a philosopher, of Egypt, who taught that Melchisedec was the Holy Ghost; denied the resurrection and condemned marriage.
An ecclesiastical establishment. The word is also used in reference to the subordination some suppose there is among the angels: but whether they are to be considered as having a government or hierarchy among themselves, so that one is superior in office and dignity to others; or whether they have a kind of dominion over one another; or whether some are made partakers of privileges others are deprived of, cannot be determined, since Scripture is silent as to this matter.
A term first given to the non-jurors, who refused to acknowledge William III. as their lawful king, and who had very proud notions of church power; but it is now commonly used in a more extensive signification, and is applied to all those who, though far from being non-jurors, yet form pompous and ambitious conceptions of the authority and jurisdiction of the church.
See ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
Those who espoused the sentiments of Daniel Hoffman, professor in the university of Helmstadt, who in the year 1598 taught that the light of reason, even as it appears in the writings of Plato and Aristotle, is adverse to religion; and that the more the human understanding is cultivated by philosophical study, the more perfectly is the enemy supplied with weapons of defence.
Freedom from sin, or the conformity of the heart to God. It does not consist in knowledge, talents, nor outward ceremonies of religion, but hath its seat in the heart, and is the effect of a principle of grace implanted by the Holy Spirit, Eph. ii. 8, 10. John iii. 5. Rom. vi. 22. It is the essence of happiness and the basis of true dignity, Prov. iii. 17. Prov. iv. 8. It will manifest itself by the propriety of our conversation, regularity of our temper, and uniformity of our lives. It is a principle progressive in its operation, Prov. iv. 18. and absolutely essential to the enjoyment of God here and hereafter, Heb. xii. 14. See SANCTIFICATION. WORKS.
Is the purity and rectitude of his nature. It is an essential attribute of God, and what is the glory, lustre, and harmony of all his other perfections, Ps. xxvii. 4. Exod. xv. 11. He could not be God without it, Deut. xxxii. 4. It is infinite and unbounded; it cannot be increased or diminished. Immutable and invariable, Mal. iii. 6. God is originally holy; he is so of and in himself, and the author and promoter of all holiness among his creatures. The holiness of God is visible by his works; he made all things holy, Gen. i. 31. By his providences, all which are to promote holiness in the end, Heb. xii. 10. By his grace, which influences the subjects of it to be holy, Tit. ii. 10, 12. By his word, which commands it, 1 Pet. i. 15. By his ordinances, which he hath appointed for that end, Jer. xliv. 4,5. By the punishment of sin in the death of Christ, Is. liii. and by the eternal punishment of it in wicked men, Matt. xxv. last verse. See ATTRIBUTES.
Formed from "whole," and "I consume with fire;" a kind of sacrifice wherein the whole burnt offering is burnt or consumed by fire, as an acknowledgment that God, the Creator, Preserver, and Lord of all, was worthy of all honour and worship, and as a token of men's giving themselves entirely up to him. It is called in Scripture a burnt-offering. Sacrifices of this sort are often mentioned by the heathens as well as Jews. They appear to have been in use long before the institution of other Jewish sacrifices by the law of Moses, Job i. 5. Job xlii. 8. Gen. xxii. 13. Gen viii. 20. On this account, the Jews, who would not allow the Gentiles to offer on their altar any other sacrifices peculiarly enjoined by the law of Moses, admitted them by the Jewish priests to offer holocausts, because these were a sort of sacrifices prior to the law, and common to all nations. During their subjection to the Romans, it was no uncommon thing for those Gentiles to offer sacrifices to the God of Israel at Jerusalem. Holocausts were deemed by the Jews the most excellent of all their sacrifices. See SACRIFICE.
A day set apart by the church for the commemoration of some saint, or some remarkable particular in the life of Christ. It has been a question agitated by divines, whether it be proper to appoint or keep any holy days (the Sabbath excepted.) The advocates for holy days suppose that they have a tendency to impress the minds of the people with a greater sense of religion; that if the acquisitions and victories of men be celebrated with the highest joy, how much more those events which relate to the salvation of man, such as the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, &c. On the other side it is observed, that if holy days had been necessary under the present dispensation, Jesus Christ would have observed something respecting them, whereas he was silent about them; that it is bringing us again into that bondage to ceremonial laws from which Christ freed us; that it is a tacit reflection on the Head of the church in not appointing them; that such days, on the whole, are more pernicious than useful to society, as they open a door for indolence and profaneness; yea, that Scripture speaks against such days, Gal. iv. 9-11. Cave's Prim. Christ; Nelson's Fasts and Feasts; Robinson's History and Mystery of Good Friday, and Lectures on Nonconformity; A country Vicar's Sermon on Christmas day, 1753; Brown's Nat. and Rev. Relig. p. 535; Neale's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 116. qu.
The third person in the Trinity.
I. The Holy Ghost is a real and distinct person
in the Godhead. 1. Personal powers of rational understanding and will are
ascribed to him, 1 Cor. ii. 10,11. 1 Cor. xii. 11. Eph. iv. 3.--2. He is joined
with the other two divine persons, as the object of worship and fountain of
blessings, Matt. xxviii. 19. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 1 John v. 7.--3. In the Greek, a
masculine article or epithet is joined to his name Pneuma, which is naturally
of the neuter gender, John xiv. 26. xv. 26. xvi. 13. Eph. i. 13.--4. He appeared
under the emblem of a dove, and of cloven tongues of fire, Matt. iii. Acts
ii.--5. Personal offices of an intercessor belong to him, Rom. viii. 26.--6. He
is represented as performing a multitude of personal acts; as teaching,
speaking, witnessing, &c. Mark xiii. 11. Acts xx. 23. Rom. viii. 15,16. 1
Cor. vi. 19. Acts xv. 28. xvi. 6,7. &c. &c. &c.
II. It is no less evident that the Holy Ghost is
a divine person equal in power and glory with the Father and Son. 1. Names
proper only to the Most High God are ascribed to him; as Jehovah, Acts xxviii.
25, with Is. vi. 9. and Heb. iii. 7,9. with Exod. xvii. 7. Jer. xxxi. 31, 34.
Heb. x. 15,16. God, Acts v. 3,4. Lord, 2 Cor. iii. 17,19. "The Lord, the
Spirit."--2. Attributes proper only to the Most High God are ascribed to
him; as Omniscience, Ps. cxxxix. 7. Eph. ii. 17,18. Rom. viii. 26, 27.
Omnipotence, Luke i. 35. Eternity, Heb. ix. 14.--3. Divine works are evidently
ascribed to him, Gen. i. 2. Job xxvi. 13. Ps. xxxiii. 6. Ps. civ. 30.--4.
Worship, proper only to God, is required and ascribed to him, Is. vi. 3. Acts
xxviii. 25. Rom. ix. 1. Rev. i. 4. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. Matt. xxviii. 19.
III. The agency or work of the Holy Ghost is
divided by some into extraordinary and ordinary. The former by immediate inspiration,
making men prophets, the latter by his regenerating and sanctifying influences
making men saints. It is only the latter which is now to be expected. This is
more particularly displayed in, 1. Conviction of sin, John xvi. 8,9.--2.
Conversion, 1 Cor. xii. Eph. i. 17,18. 1 Cor. ii. 10, 12. John iii. 5,6.--3.
Sanctification, 2 Thess. ii. 13. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Rom. xv. 16.--4. Consolation,
John xiv. 16, 26.--5. Direction, John xiv. 17. Rom. viii. 14.--6. Confirmation,
Rom. viii. 16, 26. 1 John ii. 24. Eph. i. 13,14. As to the gift of the Holy
Spirit, says a good writer, it is not expected to be bestowed in answer to our
prayers, to inform us immediately, as by a whisper, when either awake or
asleep, that we are the children of God; or in any other way, than by enabling
us to exercise repentance and faith and love to God and our neighbour. 2. We
are not to suppose that he reveals any thing contrary to the written word, or
more than is contained in it, or through any other medium. 3. We are not so led
by, or operated upon by the Spirit as to neglect the means of grace. 4. The
Holy Spirit is not promised nor given to render us infallible. 5. Nor is the
Holy Spirit given in order that we may do any thing, which was not before our
duty. See TRINITY,and Scott's Four Sermons on Repentance, the Evil of Sin, Love
to God, and the Promise of the Holy Spirit, p. 86-89; Hawker's Sermons on the
Holy ghost; Pearson on the Creed, 8th article; Dr. Owen on the Spirit;
Hurrion's 16 Sermons on the Spirit.
See PROCESSION.
A sermon or discourse upon some point of
religion delivered in a plain manner, so as to be easily understood by the
common people. The Greek homily, says M. Fleury, signifies a familiar discourse
like the Latin sermo, and discourses delivered in the church took these
denominations, to intimate that they were not harangues, or matters of
ostentation and flourish, like those of profane orators, but familiar and
useful discourses, as of a master to his disciples, or a father to his
children. All the homilies of the Greek and Latin fathers are composed by
bishops. We have none of Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and many other
learned persons, because in the first ages none but bishops were admitted to
preach. The privilege was not ordinarily allowed to priests till toward the
fifth century. St. Chrysostom was the first presbyter that preached statedly,
Origen and St. Augustine also preached, but it was by a peculiar license or
privilege.
Photius distinguishes homily from sermon, in that
the homily was performed in a more familiar manner; the prelate interrogating
and talking to the people, and they in their turn answering and interrogating
him, so that it was properly a conversation; whereas the sermon was delivered
with more form, and in the pulpit, after the manner of the orators. The
practice of compiling homilies which were to be committed to memory, and
recited by ignorant or indolent priests, commenced towards the close of the
eighth century; when Charlemange ordered Paul, Deacon, and Alcuin, to form
homilies or discourses upon the Gospels and Epistles from the ancient doctors
of the church. This gave rise to that famous collection entitled the
Homiliarium of Charlemagne; and which being followed as a model by many
productions of the same kind, composed by private persons, from a principle of
pious zeal, contributed much (says Mosheim) to nourish the indolence and to
perpetuate the ignorance of a worthless clergy. There are still extant several
fine homilies composed by the ancient fathers, particularly St. Chrysostom and
St. Gregory.--The Clementine homilies are nineteen homilies in Greek, published
by Cotelerius, with two letters prefixed, one of them written in the name of
Peter, the other in the name of Clement, to James, bishop of Jerusalem; in
which last letter they are entitled Clement's Epitome of the Preaching and
Travels of Peter. According to Le Clerc, these homilies were composed by an
Ebionite, in the second century; but Montfaucon supposes that they were forged
long after the age of St. Athanasius. Dr. Lardner apprehends that the
Clementine homilies were the original or first edition of the Recognitions; and
that they are the same with the work censured by Eusebius under the title of
Dialogues of Peter and Appion.--Homilies of the Church of England are those
which were composed at the reformation to be read in churches, in order to
supply the defect of sermons. See the quarto edition of the Homilies, with
notes, by a divine of the church of England.
Is that principle which makes a person prefer his promise or duty to his passion or interest. See JUSTICE.
A testimony of esteem or submission, expressed by words and an exterior behaviour, by which we make known the veneration and respect we entertain for any one, on account of his dignity or merit. The word is also used in general for the esteem due to virtue, glory, reputation, and probity; as also for an exactness in performing whatever we have promised; and in this last sense we use the term, a man of honour. It is also applied to two different kinds of virtue; bravery in men, and chastity in women. In every situation of life, religion only forms the true honour and happiness of man. "It cannot," as one observes, "arise from riches, dignity of rank or office, nor from what are often called splendid actions of heroes, or civil accomplishments; these may be found among men of no real integrity, and may create considerable fame; but a distinction must be made between fame and true honour. The former is a loud and noisy applause; the latter a more silent and internal homage. Fame floats on the breath of the multitude; honour rests on the judgment of the thinking. In order, then, to discern where true honour lies, we must not look to any adventitious circumstance, not to any single sparkling quality, but to the whole of what forms a man; in a word, we must look to the soul. It will discover itself by a mind superior to fear, to selfish interest, and corruption; by an ardent love to the Supreme Being, and by a principle of uniform rectitude. It will make us neither afraid nor ashamed to discharge our duty, as it relates both to God and man. It will influence us to be magnanimous without being mean; just without being harsh; simple in our manners, but manly in our feelings. This honour, thus formed by religion, or the love of God, is more independent and more complete, than what can be acquired by any other means. It is productive of higher felicity, and will be commensurate with eternity itself; while that honour, so called, which arises from any other principle, will resemble the feeble and twinkling flame of a taper, which is often clouded by the smoke it sends forth, but is always wasting, and soon dies totally away." Barrow's Works, vol. i. ser. 4; Blair's Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 1.; Watts's Sermons, ser. 30. vol. ii. Ryland's cont. vol. i. p. 343; Jortin's Sermons, vol. iii. ser. 6.
Is the desire of some good, attended with the possibility, at least of obtaining it; and is enlivened with joy greater or less, according to the probability there is of possessing the object of our hope. Scarce any passion seems to be more natural to man than hope; and, considering the many troubles he is encompassed with none is more necessary; for life, void of all hope, would be a heavy and spiritless thing, very little desirable, perhaps hardly to be borne; whereas hope infuses strength into the mind, and by so doing, lessens the burdens of life. If our condition be not the best in the world, yet we hope it will be better, and this helps us to support it with patience. The hope of the Christian is an expectation of all necessary good both in time and eternity, founded on the promises, relations, and perfections of God, and on the offices, righteousness, and intercession of Christ. It is a compound of desire, expectation, patience, and joy, Rom. viii. 24,25. It may be considered, 1. As pure, 1 John iii. 2,3, as it is resident in that heart which is cleansed from sin.--2. As good, 2 Thess. ii. 16. (in distinction from the hope of the hypocrite) as deriving its origin from God, and centring in him.--3. It is called lively, 1 Pet. i. 3, as it proceeds from spiritual life, and renders one active and lively in good works.--4. It is courageous, Rom. v. 5. 1 Thess. v. 8. because it excites fortitude in all the troubles of life, and yields support in the hour of death, Prov. xiv. 32.--5. sure, Heb. vi. 19, because it will not disappoint us, and is fixed on a sure foundation.--6. Joyful, Rom. v. 2. as it produces the greatest felicity in the anticipation of complete deliverance from all evil. Campbell's Pleasures of Hope; Grove's Moral Phil. vol. i. p. 381; Gill's Body of Div. p. 82, vol. iii.; No. 471, Spect.; Jay's Sermons, vol. ii. ser. 2.
So called from the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D. 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.
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.
1. That all true virtue, or real holiness,
consists in disinterested benevolence. The object of benevolence is universal
being, including God and all intelligent creatures. It wishes and seeks the
good of every individual, so far as is consistent with the greatest good for
the whole, which is comprised in the glory of God and the perfection and happiness
of his kingdom. The law of God is the standard of all moral rectitude or
holiness. This is reduced into love to God, and our neighbour as ourselves; and
universal good-will comprehends all the love to God, our neighbour, and
ourselves, required in the divine law, and therefore must be the whole of holy
obedience. Let any serious person think what are the particular branches of
true piety; when he has viewed each one by itself, he will find that
disinterested friendly affections, is its distinguishing characteristic. for
instance, all the holiness in pious fear, which distinguishes it from the fear
of the wicked, consists in love. Again; holy gratitude is nothing but good-will
to God and our neighbour, in which we ourselves are included; and correspondent
affection, excited by a view of the good-will and kindness of God. Universal
good-will also implies the whole of the duty we owe to our neighbour, for
justice, truth, and faithfulness, are comprised in universal benevolence; so
are temperance and chastity. For an undue indulgence of our appetites and
passions is contrary to benevolence, as tending to hurt ourselves or others;
and so opposite to the general good, and the divine command, in which all the
crime of such indulgence consists. In short, all virtue is nothing but
benevolence acted out in its proper nature and perfection; or love to God and
our neighbour, made perfect in all its genuine exercises and expressions.
II. That all sin consists in selfishness. By this
is meant an interested, selfish affection, by which a person sets himself up as
supreme, and the only object of regard; and nothing is good or lovely in his
view, unless suited to promote his own private interest. This self-love is in
its whole nature, and every degree of it, enmity against God: it is not subject
to the law of God, and is the only affection that can oppose it. It is the
foundation of all spiritual blindness, and therefore the source of all the open
idolatry in the heathen world, and false religion under the light of the Gospel;
all this is agreeable to that self-love which opposes God's true character.
Under the influence of this principle, men depart from truth; it being itself
the greatest practical lie in nature, as it sets up that which is comparatively
nothing above universal existence. Self-love is the source of all profaneness
and impiety in the world, and of all pride and ambition among men, which is
nothing but selfishness, acted out in this particular way. This is the
foundation of all covetousness and sensuality, as it blinds people's eyes,
contracts their hearts, and sinks them down, so that they look upon earthly
enjoyments as the greatest good. This is the source of all falsehood,
injustice, and oppression, as it excites mankind by undue methods to invade the
property of others. Self-love produces all the violent passions; envy, wrath,
clamour, and evil speaking: and every thing contrary to the divine law is
briefly comprehended in this fruitful source of all iniquity, self-love.
III. That there are no promises of regenerating
grace made to the doings of the unregenerate. For as far as men act from
self-love, they act from a bad end: for those who have no true love to God,
really do no duty when they attend on the externals of religion. And as the
unregenerate act from a selfish principle, they do nothing which is commanded:
their impenitent doings are wholly opposed to repentance and conversion;
therefore not implied in the command to repent, &c.; so far from this, they
are altogether disobedient to the command. Hence it appears that there are no
promises of salvation to the doings of the unregenerate.
IV. That the impotency of sinners, with respect
to believing in Christ, is not natural, but moral; for it is a plain dictate of
common sense, that natural impossibility excludes all blame. But an unwilling
mind is universally considered as a crime, and not as an excuse, and is the
very thing wherein our wickedness consists That the impotence of the sinner is
owing to a disaffection of heart, is evident from the promises of the Gospel.
When any object of good is proposed and promised to us upon asking, it clearly
evinces that there can be no impotence in us with respect to obtaining it,
besides the disapprobation of the will: and that inability which consists in
disinclination, never renders any thing improperly the subject of precept or
command.
V. That, in order to faith in Christ, a sinner
must approve in his heart of the divine conduct, even though God should cast
him off for ever; which, however, neither implies love of misery, nor hatred of
happiness. For if the law is good, death is due to those who have broken it.
The Judge of all the earth cannot but do right. It would bring everlasting
reproach upon his government to spare us, considered merely as in ourselves.
When this is felt in our hearts, and not till then, we shall be prepared to
look to the free grace of God, through the redemption which is in Christ, and
to exercise faith in his blood, who is set forth to be a propitiation to
declare God's righteousness, that he might be just, and yet be the justifier of
him who believeth in Jesus.
VI. That the infinitely wise and holy God has
exerted his omnipotent power in such a manner as he purposed should be followed
with the existence and entrance of moral evil into the system.--For it must be
admitted on all hands, that God has a perfect knowledge, foresight, and view of
all possible existences and event. If that system and scene of operation, in
which moral evil should never have existed, was actually preferred in the
divine mind, certainly the Deity is infinitely disappointed in the issue of his
own operations. Nothing can be more dishonourable to God than to imagine that
the system which is actually formed by the divine hand, and which was made for
his pleasure and glory, is yet not the fruit of wise contrivance and design.
VII. That the introduction of sin is upon the
whole, for the general good. For the wisdom and power of the Deity are
displayed in carrying on designs of the greatest good; and the existence of
moral evil has undoubtedly occasioned a more full, perfect, and glorious
discovery of the infinite perfections of the divine nature, than could
otherwise have been made to the view of creatures. If the extensive
manifestations of the pure and holy nature of God, and his infinite aversion to
sin, and all his inherent perfections, in their genuine fruits and effects, is
either itself the greatest good, or necessarily contains it, it must
necessarily follow that the introduction of sin is for the greatest good.
VIII. That repentance is before faith in
Christ.--By this is not intended, that repentance is before a speculative
belief of the being and perfections of God, and of the person and character of
Christ; but only that true repentance is previous to a saving faith in Christ,
in which the believer is united to Christ, and entitled to the benefits of his
mediation and atonement. That repentance is before faith in this sense, appears
from several considerations. 1. As repentance and faith respect different
objects, so they are distinct exercises of the heart; and therefore one not
only may, but must be prior to the other.--2. There may be genuine repentance
of sin without faith in Christ, but there cannot be true faith in Christ without
repentance of sin; and since repentance is necessary in order to faith in
Christ, it must necessarily be prior to faith in Christ.--3. John the Baptist,
Christ and his apostles, taught that repentance is before faith. John cried,
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; intimating that true repentance
was necessary in order to embrace the Gospel of the kingdom. Christ commanded,
Repent ye, and believe the Gospel. And Paul preached repentance toward God, and
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
IX. That though men became sinners by Adam,
according to a divine constitution, yet they have and are accountable for no
sins but personal; for, 1. Adam's act, in eating the forbidden fruit, was not
the act of his posterity; therefore they did not sin at the same time he
did.--2. The sinfulness of that act could not be transferred to them
afterwards, because the sinfulness of an act can no more be transferred from
one person to another than an act itself.--3. Therefore Adam's act, in eating
the forbidden fruit, was not the cause, but only the occasion of his
posterity's being sinners. God was pleased to make a constitution, that, if
Adam remained holy through his state of trial, his posterity should in
consequence be holy also; but if he sinned, his posterity should in consequence
be sinners likewise. Adam sinned, and now God brings his posterity into the
world sinners. By Adam's sin we are become sinners, not for it; his sin being
only the occasion, not the cause of our committing sins.
X. That though believers are justified through
Christ's righteousness; yet his righteousness is not transferred to them. For,
1. Personal righteousness can no more be transferred from one person to
another, than personal sin.--2. If Christ's personal righteousness were transferred
to believers, they would be as perfectly holy as Christ; and so stand in no
need of forgiveness.--3. But believers are not conscious of having Christ's
personal righteousness, but feel and bewail much indwelling sin and
corruption.--4. The Scripture represents believers as receiving only the
benefits of Christ's righteousness in justification, or their being pardoned
and accepted for Christ's righteousness' sake: and this is the proper Scripture
notion of imputation. Jonathan's righteousness was imputed to Mephibosheth when
David showed kindness to him for his father Jonathan's sake.
The Hopkinsians warmly contend for the doctrine
of the divine decrees, that of particular election, total depravity, the
special influences of the Spirit of God in regeneration, justification by faith
alone, the final perseverance of the saints, and the consistency between entire
freedom and absolute dependence; and therefore claim it as their just due,
since the world will make distinctions, to be called Hopkinsian Calvinists.
Adam's view of Religions; Hopkins on Holiness; Edwards on the Will, p. 234,
282; Edwards on virtue; West's Essay on Moral agency, p. 170, 181; Spring's
Nature of Duty, 23; Moral Disquisitions, p. 40.
A passion excited by an object which causes a high degree of fear and detestation. It is a compound of wonder and fear. Sometimes it has a mixture of pleasure, from which, if predominant, it is denominated a pleasing horror. Such a horror seizes us at the view of vast and hanging precipices, a tempestuous ocean, or wild and solitary places. This passion is the original of superstition, as a wise and well-tempered awe is of religion. Horror and terror seem almost to be synomymous; but the former, I think, refers more to what disgusts; the latter to that which alarms us.
In the Hebrew ceremonies, a prayer which they rehearsed on the several days of the feast of tabernacles. It signifies, "save us now;" or "save us, we pray." There are divers of these hosannas; the Jews call them hoschamoth, i. e. hosannas. Some are rehearsed on the first day, others on the second, &c. which they call hosanna of the first day, hosanna of the second day, &c. Hosanna Rabba, or Grand Hosanna, is a name they give to their feast of tabernacles, which lasts eight days; because during the course thereof, they are frequently calling for the assistance of God, the forgiveness of their sins, and his blessing on the new year; and to that purpose they make great use of the prayers above mentioned. The Jews also apply the terms hosanna rabba in a more peculiar manner to the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles, because they apply themselves more immediately on that day to invoke the divine blessing, &c.
Kindness exercised in the entertainment of strangers. This virtue, we find, is explicitly commanded by, and makes a part of the morality of the New Testament. Indeed, that religion which breathes nothing but charity, and whose tendency is to expand the heart, and call forth the benevolent exertions of mankind, must evidently embrace this practice.--If it be asked, of whom is this required? it is answered, that the principle is required of all, though the duty itself can only be practised by those whose circumstances will admit of it. Dr. Stennet, in his discourse on this subject (Domestic Duties, ser. 10,) justly observes, "that hospitality is a species of charity to which every one is not competent. But the temper from which it proceeds, I mean a humane, generous, benevolent temper, that ought to prevail in every breast. Some are miserably poor, and it is not to be expected that their doors should be thrown open to entertain strangers; yet the cottage of a peasant may exhibit noble specimens of hospitality. Here distress has often met with pity, and the persecuted an asylum. Nor is there a man who has a house to sleep in, but may be benevolent to strangers.--But there are persons of certain characters and stations, who are more especially obliged to it: as particularly magistrates and others in civil offices, who would forfeit the esteem of the public, and greatly injure their usefulness, were they not to observe the rites of hospitality. Ministers also, and such Christians as are qualified by their particular offices in the church, and their affluent circumstances, may be eminently useful in this way. The two grand virtues which ought to be studied by every one, in order that he may have it in his power to be hospitable, are, industry and economy. But it may be asked again, to whom is this duty to be practised? The answer is, to strangers: but here it is necessary to observe, that the term strangers hath two acceptations. It is to be understood of travellers, or persons who come from a distance, and with whom we have little or no acquaintance; and more generally of all who are not of our house--strangers, as opposed to domestics. Hospitality is especially to be practised to the poor: they who have no houses of their own, or possess few of the conveniences of life, should occasionally be invited to our houses, and refreshed at our tables, Luke xiv. 13,14. Hospitality also may be practised to those who are of the same character and of the same community with ourselves. As to the various offices of hospitality, and the manner in which they should be rendered, it must be observed, that the entertainments should be plentiful, frugal, and cordial. Gen. xviii. 6,8. John xii. 3. Luke xv. 17. The obligations to this duty arise from the fitness and reasonableness of it; it brings its own reward, Acts xx. 35. It is expressly commanded by God, Lev. xxv. 35,38. Luke xvi 19. xiv. 13,14. Rom. xii. Heb. xiii. 1,2. 1 Pet. iv. 9. We have many striking examples of hospitality on divine record: Abraham, Gen. xviii. 1,8. Lot, Gen. xix. 1,3. Job xxxi. 17, 22. Shunamite, 2 Kings iv. 8, 10. The hospitable man mentioned in Judges xix. 16,21. David, 2 Sam. vi. 19. Obadiah, 1 Kings xviii. 4. Nehemiah, Neh. v. 17,18. Martha, Luke x. 38. Mary, Matt. xxvi. 6,13. The primitive Christians, Acts ii. 45,46. Priscilla and Aquila, Acts xviii. 26. Lydia, Acts xvi 15, &c. &c. Lastly, what should have a powerful effect on our minds, is the consideration of divine hospitality.--God is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. His sun shines and his rain fall on the evil as well as the good. His very enemies share of his bounty. He gives liberally to all men, and upbraids not; but especially we should remember the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. Let us lay all these considerations together, and then ask ourselves whether we can find it in our hearts to be selfish, parsimonious, and inhospitable?"
In the church of Rome, a name given to the elements used in the eucharist, or rather to the consecrated wafer, which they pretend to offer up every day, as a new host or sacrifice for the sins of mankind. They pay adoration to the host upon a false presumption that the elements are no longer bread and wine, but transubstantiated into the real body and blood of Christ. See TRANSUBSTANTIATION.--Pope Gregory IX. first decreed a bell to be rung, as the signal for the people to betake themselves to the adoration of the host. The vessel wherein the hosts are kept is called the cibory, being a large kind of covered chalice.
An appellation given by way of contempt to the reformed or protestant Calvinists of France. the name had its rise in 1560, but authors are not agreed as to the origin and occasion thereof. Some derive it from the following circumstance:--One of the gates of the city of Tours is called the gate of Fourgon, by corruption from feu Heugon, i. e. the late Hugon. This Hugon was once count of Tours, according to Eginhardus in his life of Charles the Great, and to some other historians. He was, it seems, a very wicked man, who by his fierce and cruel temper made himself dreadful, so that after his death he was supposed to walk about in the night time, beating all those he met with: this tradition the judicious Thuanas has not scrupled to mention in his history. Davila and other historians pretend that the nickname of Huguenots was first given to the French Protestants, because they used to meet in the night time in subterraneous vaults near the gate of Hugon; and what seems to countenance this opinion is, that they were first called by the name of Huguenots at this city of Tours. Others assign a more illustrious origin to this name, and say that the leaguers gave it to the reformed, because they were for keeping the crown upon the head of the present line descended from Hugh Capet; whereas they were for giving it to the house of Guise, as descended from Charles the Great. Others again derive it from a French and faulty pronunciation of the German word edignossen, signifying confederates; and originally applied to that valiant part of the city of Geneva, which entered into an alliance with the Swiss cantons, in order to maintain their liberties against the tyrannical attempts of Charles III. duke of Savoy. These confederates were called Eignots; whence Huguenots. The persecution which they have undergone has scarce its parallel in the history of religion. During the reign of Charles IX. and on the 24th of August, 1572, happened the massacre of Bartholomew, when seventy thousand of them throughout France were butchered with circumstances of aggravated cruelty. See PERSECUTION. In 1598, Henry IV. passed the famous edict of Nantz, which secured to the Protestants the free exercise of their religion. This edict was revoked by Lewis XIV. their churches were then razed to the ground, their persons insulted by the soldiers, and, after the loss of innumerable lives, fifty thousand valuable members of society were driven into exile. In Holland they built several places of worship, and had among them some distinguished preachers. Among others were Superville, Dumont, Dubosc, and the eloquent Saurin; the latter of whom, in one of his sermons (ser. 9. vol. v.) makes the following fine apostrophe to that tyrant Lewis XIV. by whom they were driven into exile: "And thou, dreadful prince, whom I once honoured as my king, and whom I yet respect as a scourge in the hand of Almighty God, thou also shalt have a part in my good wishes! These provinces, which thou threatenest, but which the arm of the Lord protects; this country, which thou fillest with refugees, but fugitives animated with love; those walls, which contain a thousand martyrs of thy making, but whom religion renders victorious, all these yet resound benedictions in thy favour. God grant the fatal bandage that hides the truth from thine eyes may fall off! May God forget the rivers of blood with which thou hast deluged the earth, and which thy reign hath caused to be shed!--May God blot out of his book the injuries which thou hast done us; and while he rewards the sufferers, may he pardon those who exposed us to suffer! O, may God, who hath made thee to us, and to the whole church, a minister of his judgments, make thee a dispenser of his favours--an administrator of his mercy!"
The exercise of the social and benevolent virtues; a fellow-feeling for the distresses of another. It is properly called humanity, because there is little or nothing of it in brutes. The social affections are conceived by all to be more refined than the selfish. Sympathy and humanity are universally esteemed the finest temper of mind; and for that reason the prevalence of the social affections in the progress of society is held to be a refinement of our nature. Kaims's El. of Crit. p. 104. vol. i.; Robinson's Sermons on Christianity a System of Humanity; Pratt's Poem on Humanity.
Is his possessing a true human body, and a true human soul, and which he assumed for the purpose of rendering his mediation effectual to our salvation. See JESUS CHRIST.
Is that state of meanness and distress to which he voluntarily descended, for the purpose of executing his mediatorial work. This appears, 1. In his birth. He was born of a woman--a sinful woman; though he was without sin, Gal. iv. 4. A poor woman, Luke ii. 7, 24. In a poor country village, John i. 46. In a stable, an abject place of a nature subject to infirmities, Heb. ii. 9. hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, &c.--2. In his circumstances, laid in a manger when he was born; lived in obscurity for a long time; probably worked at the trade of a carpenter; had not a place where to lay his head; and was oppressed with poverty while he went about preaching the Gospel.--3. It appeared in his reputation: he was loaded with the most abusive railing and calumny, Is. liii. the most false accusations, Matt. xxvi. 59,67. and the most ignominious ridicule, Psal. xxii. 6. Matt. xxii. 68. John vii. 35.--4. In his soul he was often tempted, Matt. iv. 1, &c. Heb. ii. 17,18. Heb. iv. 15. grieved with the reproaches cast on himself, and with the sins and miseries of others, Heb. xii. 3. Matt. xi. 19. John xi. 35, was burdened with the hidings of his Father's face, and the fears and impressions of his wrath, Psal. xxii. 1. Luke xxii. 43. Heb. v. 7.--5. In his death, scourged, crowned with thorns, received gall and vinegar to drink, and was crucified between two thieves, Luke xxiii. John xix. Mark xv. 24,25.--6. In his burial: not only was he born in another man's house, but he was buried in another man's tomb; for he had no tomb of his own, or family vault to be intered in, Is. liii. 10. &c. Matt. xiii, 46. The humiliation of Christ was necessary, 1. To execute the purpose of God, and covenant engagements of Christ, Acts ii. 23,24. Psal. xl. 6,7,8.--2. To fulfil the manifold types and predictions of the Old Testament.--3. To satisfy the broken law of God, and purchase eternal redemption for us, Isa. liii. Heb. ix. 12,15.--4. To leave us an unspotted pattern of holiness and patience under suffering. Gill's Body of Div. p. 66, vol. ii. Brown's Nat. and Rev. Religion, p. 357; Ridgley's Body of Div. qu. 48.
A disposition of mind wherein a person has a low opinion of himself and his advantages. It is a branch of internal worship, or of experimental religion and godliness. It is the effect of divine grace operating on the soul, and always characterises the true Christian. The heathen philosophers were so little acquainted with this virtue, that they had no name for it: what they meant by the word we use, was meanness and baseness of mind. To consider this grace a little more particularly, it may be observed, 1. That humility does not oblige a man to wrong the truth, or himself, by entertaining a meaner or worse opinion of himself than he deserves.--2. Nor does it oblige a man, right or wrong, to give every body else the preference to himself. A wise man cannot believe himself inferior to the ignorant multitude; nor the virtuous man that he is not so good as those whose lives are vicious.--3. Nor does it oblige a man to treat himself with contempt in his words or actions: it looks more like affectation than humility, when a man says such things in his own dispraise as others know, or he himself believes, to be false: and it is plain, also, that this is often done merely as a bait to catch the praises of others. Humility consists, 1. In not attributing to ourselves any excellence or good which we have not.--2. In not over-rating any thing we do.--3. In not taking an immoderate delight in ourselves.--4. In not assuming more of the praise of a quality or action than belongs to us.--5. In an inward sense of our many imperfections and sins.--6. In ascribing all we have and are to the grace of God. True humility will express itself, 1. By the modesty of our appearance. The humble man will consider his age, abilities, character, function, &c. and act accordingly.--2. By the modesty of our pursuits. We shall not aim at any thing above our strength, but prefer a good to a great name.--3. It will express itself by the modesty of our conversation and behaviour: we shall not be loquacious, obstinate, forward, envious, discontented, or ambitious. The advantages of humility are numerous: 1. It is well pleasing to God, 1 Pet. iii. 4.--2. It has great influence on us in the performance of all other duties, praying, hearing, converse, &c.--3. It indicates that more grace shall be given, James iv. 6. Ps. xxv. 9.--4. It preserves the soul in great tranquility and contentment, Ps. lxix. 32,33.--5. It makes us patient and resigned under afflictions, Job i. 22.--6. It inables us to exercise moderation in every thing. To obtain this excellent spirit we should remember, 1. The example of Christ, Phil. ii. 6,7,8.--2. That heaven is a place of humility, Rev. v. 8.--3. That our sins are numerous, and deserve the greatest punishment, Lam. iii. 39.--4. That humility is the way to honour, Prov. xvi. 18.--5. That the greatest promises of good are made to the humble, Is. lvii. 15. lvi. 2. 1 Pet. v. 5. Ps. cxlvii. 6. Matt. v. 5. Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. ii. p. 286; Evan's Christian Temper, vol. i. ser. 1; Watts on Humility; Baxter's Christian Directory, v. 1. p. 496; Hale's Cont. p. 110; Gill's Body of Div. p. 151, vol. iii. Walker's Ser. iv. ser. 3.
Duties of. See MARRIAGE STATE.
A party of reformers, the followers of John
Huss.--John Huss, from whom the Hussites take their name, was born in a little
village in Gohemia, called Huss, and lived at Prague in the highest reputation,
both on account of the sanctity of his manners and the purity of his doctrine.
He was distinguished by his uncommon erudition and eloquence; and performed at
the same time the functions of professor of divinity in the university, and of
ordinary pastor in the church of that city. He adopted the sentiments of
Wickliffe and the Waldenses; and, in the year 1407, began openly to oppose and
preach against divers errors in doctrine, as well as corruptions in point of
discipline, then reigning in the church. Huss likewise endeavoured to the
utmost of his power to withdraw the university of Prague from the jurisdiction
of Gregory XII. whom the king of Bohemia had hitherto acknowledged as the true
and lawful head of the church. This occasioned a violent quarrel between the
incensed archbishop of Prague and the zealous reformer, which the latter inflamed
and augmented from day to day, by his pathetic exclamations against the court
of Rome, and the corruption that prevailed among the sacerdotal order.
There were other circumstances that contributed
to inflame the resentment of the clergy against him. He adopted the
philosophical opinions of the Realists, and vehemently opposed and even
persecuted the Nominalists, whose number and influence were considerable in the
university of Prague. He also multiplied the number of his enemies in the year
1408, by procuring, through his own credit, a sentence in favour of the
Bohemians, who disputed with the Germans concerning the number of suffrages
which their respective nations were entitled to in all matters that were
carried by election in this university. In consequence of a decree obtained in
favour of the former, which restored them to their constitutional right of
three suffrages usurped by the latter, the Germans withdrew from Prague, and in
the year 1409 founded a new academy at Leipsic. This event no sooner happened,
than Huss began to inveigh, with greater freedom than he had done before,
against the vices and corruptions of the clergy; and to recommend in a public
manner the writings and opinions of Wickliffe, as far as they related to the
papal hierarchy, the despotism of the court of Rome, and the corruption of the
clergy. Hence an accusation was brought against him in the year 1410, before
the tribunal of John XXIII. by whom he was solemnly expelled from the communion
of the church. Notwithstanding this sentence of excommunication, he proceeded
to expose the Romish church with a fortitude and zeal that were almost
universally applauded.
This eminent man, whose piety was equally sincere
and fervent, though his zeal was perhaps too violent, and his prudence not
always circumspect, was summoned to appear before the council of Constance.
Secured, as he thought, from the rage of his enemies, by the safe conduct
granted him by the emperor Sigismund for his journey to Constance, his
residence in that place, and his return to his own country, John Huss obeyed
the order of the council, and appeared before it to demonstrate his innocence,
and to prove that the charge of his having deserted the church of Rome was
entirely groundless. However, his enemies so far prevailed, that, by the most
scandalous breach of public faith, he was cast into prison declared a heretic,
because he refused to plead guilty against the dictates of his conscience, in
obedience to the council, and burnt alive in 1415; a punishment which he
endured with unparalleled magnanimity and resolution. When he came to the place
of execution, he fell on his knees, sang portions of psalms, looked steadfastly
towards heaven, and repeated these words: "Into thy hands, O Lord, do I
commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O most good and faithful God. Lord
Jesus Christ, assist and help me, that with a firm and present mind, by thy
most powerful grace I may undergo this most cruel and ignominious death, to
which I am condemned for preaching the truth of thy most holy Gospel."
When the chain was put upon him at the stake, he said with a smiling
countenance, "My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this
for my sake, and why should I be ashamed of this old rusty one?" When the
faggots were piled up to his very neck, the duke of Bavaria was officious
enough to desire him to abjure. "No," says Huss, "I never
preached any doctrine of an evil tendency; and what I taught with my lips, I
seal with my blood." He said to the executioner, "Are you going to
burn a goose? In one century you will have a swan you can neither roast nor
boil." If he were prophetic, he must have meant Luther, who had a swan for
his arms. The fire was then applied to the faggots; when the martyr sang a hymn
with so loud and cheerful a voice, that he was heard through all the cracklings
of the combustibles and the noise of the multitude. At last his voice was cut
short, after he had uttered. "Jesus Christ, thou Son of the living God,
have mercy upon me." and he was consumed in a most miserable manner. The
duke of Bavaria ordered the executioner to throw all the martyr's clothes into
the flames: after which his ashes were carefully collected, and cast into the
Rhine.
But the cause in which this eminent man was
engaged did not die with him. His disciples adhered to their master's doctrines
after his death, which broke out into an open war. John Ziska, a Bohemian
knight, in 1420, put himself at the head of the Hussites, who were now become a
very considerable party, and threw off the despotic yoke of Sigismund, who had
treated their brethren in the most barbarous manner. Ziska was succeeded by
Procophus in the year 1424. Acts of barbarity were committed on both sides; for
notwithstanding the irreconcileable opposition between the religious sentiments
of the contending parties, they both agreed in this one horrible principle,
that it was innocent and lawful to persecute and extirpate with fire and sword
the enemies of the true religion; and such they reciprocally appeared to each other.
These commotions in a great measure subsided by the interference of the council
of Basil, in the year 1433.
The Hussites, who were divided into two parties,
viz. the Calixtines and the Taborites, spread over all Bohemia, and Hungary,
and even Silesia and Polland; and there are, it is said, some remains of them
still subsisting in those parts. Broughton's Dict. Middleton's Evan. Biog. vol.
i. Mosheim's Ecc. Hist.
The followers of John Hutchinson, who was born
in Yorkshire in 1674. In the early part of his life he served the duke of
Somerset in the capacity of steward; and in the course of his travels from
place to place employed himself in collecting fossils. We are told that the large
and noble collection bequeathed by Dr. Woodward to the University of Cambridge
was actually made by him. In 1724, he published the first part of his curious
book, called Moses's Principia, in which he ridiculed Dr. Woodward's Natural
History of the Earth, and exploded the doctrine of gravitation established in
Newton's Principia. In 1727, he published a second part of Moses's Principia,
containing the principles of the Scripture philosophy. From this time to his
death he published a volume every year or two, which, with the manuscripts he
left behind, were published in 1748, in 12 volumes, 8 vo. On the Monday before
his death, Dr. Mead urged him to be bled; saying, pleasantly, "I will soon
send you to Moses," meaning his studies; but Mr. Hutchinson taking it in
the literal sense, answered in a muttering tone, "I believe, doctor, you
will;" and was so displeased, that he dismissed him for another physician;
but he died in a few days after, August 28, 1737.
It appears to be a leading sentiment of this denomination,
that all our ideas of divinity are formed from the ideas in nature,--that
nature is a standing picture, and Scripture an application of the several parts
of the picture, to draw out to, as the great things of God, in order to reform
our mental conceptions. To prove this point, they allege, that the Scriptures
declare the invisible things of God from the formation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things which are made; even his eternal power and
Godhead, Rom. i. 20. the heavens must declare God's righteousness and truth in
the congregation of the saints, Psal. lxxxix. 5. And in short the whole system
of nature, in one voice of analogy, declares and gives us ideas of his glory,
and shows us his handy-work. We cannot have any ideas of invisible things till
they are pointed out to us by revelation: and as we cannot know them
immediately, such as they are in themselves, after the manner in which we know
sensible objects, they must be communicated to us by the mediation of such things
as we already comprehend. For this reason the Scripture is found to have a
language of its own, which does not consist of words, but of signs or figures
taken from visible things: in consequence of which the world which we now see
becomes a sort of commentary on the mind of God, and explains the world in
which we believe. The doctrines of the Christian faith are attested by the
whole natural world: they are recorded in a language which has never been
confounded; they are written in a text which shall never be corrupted.
The Hutchinsonians maintain that the great
mystery of the trinity is conveyed to our understandings by ideas of sense; and
that the created substance of the air, or heaven, in its three-fold agency of
fire, light, and spirit, is the enigma of the one essence or one Jehovah in
three persons. The unity of essence is exhibited by its unity of substance; the
trinity of conditions, fire, light, and spirit. Thus the one substance of the
air, or heaven in its three conditions, shows the unity in trinity; and its
three conditions in or of one substance, the trinity in unity. For (says this
denomination) if we consult the writings of the Old and New Testament, we shall
find the persons of the Deity represented under the names and characters of the
three material agents, fire, light, and spirit, and their actions expressed by
the actions of these their emblems. The Father is called a consuming fire; and
his judicial proceedings are spoken of in words which denote the several
actions of fire, Jehovah is a consuming fire--Our God is a consuming fire,
Deut. iv. 24. Heb. xii. 29. The Son has the name of light, and his purifying
actions and offices are described by words which denote the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world, John i. 9. Mal. iv. 2. The
Comforter has the name of Spirit; and his animating and sustaining offices are
described by words, for the actions and offices of the material spirit. His
actions in the spiritual economy are agreeable to his type in the natural economy;
such as inspiring, impelling, driving, leading, Matt. ii. 1. The philosophic
system of the Hutchinsonians is derived from the Hebrew Scriptures. The truth
of it rests on these suppositions. 1. That the Hebrew language was formed under
divine inspiration, either all at once, or at different times, as occasion
required; and that the Divine Being had a view in constructing it, to the
various revelations which he in all succeeding times should make in that
language: consequently, that its words must be the most proper and determinate
to convey such truths as the Deity, during the Old Testament dispensation,
thought fit to make known to the sons of men. Farther than this: that the
inspired penmen of those ages at least were under the guidance of heaven in the
choice of words for recording what was revealed to them: therefore that the Old
Testament, if the language be rightly understood, is the most determinate in
its meaning of any other book under heaven.--2. That whatever is recorded in
the Old Testament is strictly and literally true, allowing only for a few
common figures of rhetoric: that nothing contrary to truth is accommodated to
vulgar apprehensions.
In proof of this the Hutchinsonians argue in this
manner. The primary and ultimate design of revelation is indeed to teach men
divinity; but in subserviency to that, geography, history, and chronology, are
occasionally introduced; all which are allowed to be just and authentic. There
are also innumerable references to things of nature, and descriptions of them.
If, then, the former are just, and to be depended on, for the same reason the
latter ought to be esteemed philosophically true. Farther: they think it not
unworthy of God, that he should make it a secondary end of his revelation to
unfold the secrets of his works; as the primary was to make known the mysteries
of his nature, and the designs of his grace, that men might thereby be led to
admire and adore the wisdom and goodness which the great Author of the universe
has displayed throughout all his works. And as our minds are often referred to
natural things for ideas of spiritual truths, it is of great importance, in
order to conceive aright of divine matters, that our ideas of the natural
things referred to be strictly just and true.
Mr. Hutchinson found that the Hebrews Scriptures
had some capital words, which he thought had not been duly considered and
understood; and which, he has endeavoured to prove, contain in their radical
meaning the greatest and most comfortable truths. The cherubim he explains to
be a hieroglyphic of divine construction, or a sacred image, to describe, as
far as figures could go, the humanity united to Deity: and so he treats of
several other words of similar import. From all which he concluded, that the
rites and ceremonies of the Jewish dispensation were so many delineations of
Christ, in what he was to be, to do, and to suffer; that the early Jews knew
them to be types of his actions and sufferings; and, by performing them as
such, were so far Christians both in faith and practice.
The Hutchinsonians have, for the most part, been
men of devout minds, zealous in the cause of Christianity, and untainted with
heterodox opinions, which have so often divided the church which have so often
divided the church of Christ. the names of Romaine, Bishop Horne, Parkhurst,
and others of this denomination, will be long esteemed, both for the piety they
possessed, and the good they have been the instruments of promoting amongst
mankind.--Should the reader wish to know more of the philosophical and
theological opinions of Mr. Hutchinson, he may consult a work, entitled
"An Abstract of the Words of John Hutchinson, Esq. Edinburgh, 1753."
See also Jones's Life of Bishop Horne, 2d. edit. Jones's Works; Spearman's Inquiry,
p. 260-273.
A song or ode in honour of the Divine Being. St. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, is said to have been the first who composed hymns to be sung in churches, and was followed by St. Ambrose. Most of those in the Roman breviary were composed by Prudentius. The hymns or odes of the ancients generally consisted of three sorts of stanzas, one of which was sung by the band as they walked from east to west; another was performed as they returned from west to east; the third part was sung before the altar. The Jewish hymns were accompanied with trumpets, drums, and cymbals, to assist the voices of the Levites and the people. We have had a considerable number of hymns composed in our own country. The most esteemed are those of Watts, Doddridge, Newton, and Hart. As to selections, few are superior to Dr. Rippon's and Dr. William's. See PSALMODY.
Is a seeming or professing to be what in truth and reality we are not. It consists in assuming a character which we are conscious does not belong to us, and by which we intentionally impose upon the judgment and opinion of mankind concerning us. The name is borrowed from the Greek tongue, in which it primarily signifies the profession of a stage player, which is to express in speech, habit, and action, not his own person and manners, but his whom he undertakes to represent. And so it is; for the very essence of hypocrisy lies in apt imitation and decent; in acting the part of a member of Christ without any saving grace. The hypocrite is a double person; he has one person, which is natural; another, which is artificial: the first he keeps to himself; the other he puts on as he doth his clothes, to make his appearance in before men. It was ingeniously said by Basil. "that the hypocrite has not put off the old man, but put on the new upon it." Hypocrites have been divided into four sorts. 1. the worldly hypocrite, who makes a profession of religion, and pretends to be religious, merely from worldly considerations, Matt. xxiii. 5.--2. The legal hypocrite, who relinquishes his vicious practices, in order thereby to merit heaven, while at the same time he has no real love to God, Rom. x. 3.--3. The evangelical hypocrite, whose religion is nothing more than a bare conviction of sin; who rejoices under the idea that Christ died for him, and yet has no desire to live a holy life, Matt. xiii. 20. 2 Pet. ii. 20.--4. the enthusiastic hypocrite, who has an imaginary sight of his sin, and of Christ; talks of remarkable impulses and high feelings; and thinks himself very wise and good while he lives in the most scandalous practices, Matt. xiii. 39. 2 Cor. xi. 14. Crook on Hypocrisy; Decoetlegon's Sermon on Ps. li. 6. Grove's Mor. Phil. vol. ii. p. 253. South's Ser. on Job viii. 13. vol. 10; Bellamy's Relig. Del. p. 166.
A term literally signifying substance or subsistence, or that which is put and stands under another thing, and supports it, being its base, ground, or foundation. Thus faith is the substantial foundation of things hoped for, Heb. xi. 1. The word is Greek, compounded of sub, under; and "sto," I stand, I exist, q.d. "subsistentia." It likewise signifies confidence, stability, firmness, 2 Cor. ix. 4. It is also used for person, Heb. i. 3. Thus we hold that there is but one nature or essence in God, but three hypostases or persons. The word has occasioned great dissensions in the ancient church, first among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latins; but an end was put to them by a synod held at Alexandria about the year 362, at which St. Athanasius assisted; from which time the Latins made no great scruple of saying three hypostases, nor the Greek of three persons. The hypostatical union is the union of the human nature of Christ with the divine: constituting two natures in one person, and not two persons in one nature, as the Nestorians believe. See JESUS CHRIST.
(formed from "highest,") a sect of
heretics in the fourth century; thus called from the profession they made of
worshipping the Most High God.
The doctrine of the Hypistarians was an
assemblage of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity.--They adored the Most High
God with the Christians; but they also revered fire and lamps with the
Heathens, and observed the sabbath, and the distinction of clean and unclean
things, with the Jews. The Hypsistarii bore a near resemblance to the Euchites,
or Messalians.