whether they have not, on the contrary, discovered a visible and manifest increase in all these respects. And hence they may judge for themselves, whether the moral character of the Society, and its progressive improvement, can be ascribed to any other cause than the blessing, protection and government of Divine Power and Wisdom."

We close this article with an extract from a speech of the Hon. John Breathitt, late Governor of Kentucky.

“Much has been urged against Shakerism, much has been said against their covenant. But, I repeat it, that individual who is prepared to sign the Church covenant, stands in an enviable situation; his situation is, indeed, an enviable one; who, devoted to God, is prepared to say of his property-Here it is, little or much, take it and leave me unmolested to commune with my God. Indeed, I dedicate myself to what? not to a fanatical tenet-Oh no! to a subject far beyond: to the worship of Almighty God, the great Creator and Governor of the universe! Under the influence of his love, I give my all: only let me worship according to my faith, and in a manner I believe acceptable to my God!

"I say again, the world cannot produce a parallel to the situation which such a man exhibits. Resigned to the will of Heaven, free from all the feelings of earthly desire, and pursuing, quietly, the peaceful tenor of his way." (See Appendix, Note S.)

SIMONIANS,

OR ST. SIMONIANS.

An infidel sect recently organized in Paris; whose fundamental principle is, that religion is to perfect the social condition of man ; therefore Christianity is no longer suitable for society, because it separates the Christian from other men, and leads him to live for another world. The world requires a religion that shall be of this world, and consequently a God of this world. They reject whatever they suppose to have been derived from the philosophy of the East; they consider the Deity neither as spirit nor matter, but as including the whole universe, and are thus plainly pantheists; and they regard evil as nothing more than an indication of the progress which mankind are doomed to make in order to be freed from it; in itself, they maintain it is nothing. Its members are principally of the higher ranks, and are displaying, not without success, the greatest activity in spreading the venom of their infidel principles. They occupy, in Paris, the largest and most handsomely fitted halls, where they meet in great numbers.

What is very curious in the history of the St. Simonians is, that they were at first merely philosophers, and not at all the founders of a religion. They spoke of science and industry, but not of religious

SIX PRINCIPLE BAPTISTS-SOCINIANS.

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doctrines. All at once, however, it seemed to occur to them to teach a religion. Then their school became a church, and their association a sect. It is evident that with them religion was not originally the end of their instititution, but has been employed by them as the means of collecting a greater number of hearers. Brown's Encyclopedia of Useful Knowledge.

SIX PRINCIPLE BAPTISTS.

This appellation is given to those who hold the imposition of hands, subsequent to baptism, and generally on the admission of candidates into the church, as an indispensable prerequisite for church membership and communion. They support their peculiar principle, principally from Heb. 6: 1, 2. "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." As these two verses contain six distinct propositions, one of which is the laying on of hands, these brethren have from thence acquired the name of Six Principle Baptists, to distinguish them from others, whom they sometimes call Five Principle Baptists. (See Appendix, Note T.)

SOCINIANS,

A sect so called from Faustus Socinus, who died in Poland, in 1604. There were two who bore the name of Socinus, uncle and nephew, and both disseminated the same doctrine; but it is the nephew who is generally considered as the founder of this sect. They maintain that Jesus Christ was a mere man, who had no existence before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary; that the Holy Ghost is no distinct person; but that the Father is truly and properly God. They own that the name of God is given in the Holy Scriptures to Jesus Christ, but contend that it is only a deputed title, which, however, invests him with a great authority over all created beings. They deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteousness, and say, that Christ only preached the truth to mankind, set before them in himself an example of heroic virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his blood. Original sin and absolute predestination they esteem scholastic chimeras. Some of them likewise maintain the sleep of the soul, which, they say, becomes insensible at death, and is raised again with the body at the resurrection, when the good shall be established in the possession of eternal felicity, while the wicked shall be consigned to a fire that will not torment them eternally, but for a certain duration, proportioned to their demerits. See Acts 2: 22.-17: 31. 1 Tim. 2: 5.

SWEDENBORGIANS.

The following are the doctrines of Swedenborg, as kindly furnished the editor by a distinguished minister of the New Jerusalem Church.

Swedenborg teaches that there is one God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is a divine Trinity, which is not a Trinity of persons, but is analogous to that which exists in man, the image and likeness of God. In man is a soul or essential principle of life, a form or body, natural in this world and spiritual in the spiritual world, in which the soul exists, and by which it manifests itself in operation: these three, soul, form and operation, are as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as some affection is within all thought, and causes it, and forms it, and as all action is the effect of volition, or affection operating by and through thought, so the Father is the divine love, the Son the divine wisdom, and the Holy Spirit the divine operation. So, too, as every effect must be produced by soine cause, and for some end; end, cause aud effect consist in all things, as a Trinity. This Trinity, Swedenborg does not consider as arbitrary and figurative, but as most real, grounded in the divine nature, and existing from the divine nature in all things. With regard to regeneration, Swedenborg teaches, that, as the Lord glorified his humanity by resisting and overcoming the infernal influences which assailed it, so man, by following the Lord in his regeneration, through his divine grace, may gradually become regenerate; that is, receptive of good affection and wisdom from the Lord through the heavens; and in proportion as his sins are resisted and put away, he becomes thus receptive more and more perpetually.

Swedenborg teaches that the Lord foredooms none to hell, condemns none, and punishes none; that his divine grace is constantly with all, aiding those on earth who strive to cooperate with him, sustaining and leading forward angels in heaven, and endeavoring to preserve the devils from the evils which they love and seek; but that he always perfectly regards and preserves the free will of every one, giving to every one the utmost aid that will leave him at liberty to turn himself either to heaven or to hell, and to no one more. Salvation, according to Swedenborg, is not salvation from punishment, but salvation from sinfulness. They who cooperate with the Lord, and confirm in themselves a principle of good, in the other life become angels, and associate with angels; and their association constitutes heaven. They who resist the divine grace, and confirm in themselves a principle of self-love, which is the root of all evil, become devils; and their association constitutes hell. Both in heaven and in hell there are many societies, each influenced by some ruling principle of good or of evil, like seeking like, both in general and in particular. None go into the other life entirely good or evil: while here, the good and evil are permitted to endure the conflicts of opposing influences within them, that the good may

thereby be made better, and the evil good; but after death, when no further radical change can take place, the ruling principle of every one is made manifest, and the whole character conformed to it. This final change is accomplished by degrees; and while it is going on, deceased men are neither angels nor devils, but are spoken of by Swedenborg as not in heaven nor hell, but in "the world of spirits" and, in the writings of Swedenborg, spirits are thus distinguished from angels and devils.

With regard to the resurrection, Swedenborg teaches that it is not a resurrection of the natural body, but of the spiritual body from the natural; and that this occurs generally about the third day after apparent death, when the flesh becomes rigid, and all vital warmth and motion cease. According to him, the spiritual body forms the natural body, and, while within it, uses it as an instrument. Thus the natural eye sees only because the spiritual eye sees natural things through it, the sense strictly residing in the spiritual organ; and so of the other senses. Hence, when the spiritual body rises, it finds itself in perfect possession of the senses and organs, and the man is still perfectly a man. So the spiritual world forms the natural world, and all things which exist naturally in this natural world, are spiritually in the spiritual world. There, spiritual things affect the spiritual organs and senses of men, as natural things affect their natural organs and senses here. Hence, says Swedenborg, many who die do not know, upon their awaking, that they are in another world. They who, in this life, have their spiritual senses opened, as Swedenborg says was the case with himself, see plainly spiritual persons and things, as did the prophets in their visions. From this circumstance, say the Swedenborgians, connected with their belief in the active and constant influence of disembodied spirits upon men in the body, has arisen the common notion of their believing in a perpetual intercourse between the living and the dead. Spiritual things have not, however, a similar permanence and independent existence with natural things. Swedenborg rather represents them as appearances changing with the states of those about whom they are; existing from their relation to them, and exactly reflecting and manifesting their affections and thoughts.

From the principle that natural things correspond to spiritual things, and represent them, comes the doctrine of correspondences, according to which Swedenborg explains the spiritual senses of the Word; that is, the senses in which the Bible is read by those in the spiritual world. He teaches that this spiritual sense is within the literal, as the spiritual body within the natural, or as the soul within the body; that it is in every word and letter of the literal sense, which every where exists from it, and on account of it, and derives from it all its power and use.

Swedenborg considers the New Jerusalem, foretold in the Apocalypse, to be a church now about to be established, in which will be known the true nature of God and of man, of the Word, of heaven, and of hell; concerning all which subjects error and igno

rance now prevail; and in which church this knowledge will bear its proper fruits; love to the Lord and to one's neighbor, and purity of life. (See Appendix, Note U.)

TRINITARIANS,

Are those who believe the ineffable mystery of THREE DISTINCT PERSONS IN ONE UNDIVIDED GODHEAD-THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY GHOST. See Deut. 6: 4. 2 Kings 19: 15. Isa. 6: 3, 9.-9: 6.—11: 3.—14: 5, 23, 25. Jer. 17: 10.—23: 6. Ezek. 8:1, 3. Matt. 3: 16, 17.— 9: 6.-18:20.-23: 19. Luke 1: 76.-24: 25. John 1: 1.-2:

Ps. 19: 1.-83: 18.-139: 7.

1 Cor. 2: 10.-8: 6. 2 Cor.

1.-5: 19, 23.-10: 30.-16: 10, 15. Acts 5: 4.-28: 23, 25. Rom. 1: 5.-9: 5.—14: 12, 19. 13:14. Phil. 2: 5, 6, 7, &c.—3: 21. 9: 14.-13: 8. 1 John, 5: 7, 20. 5: 13, &c.

Heb. 1: 3, 6, 10, 11, 12— Rev. 1: 4, 5, 6, 8.—3: 14.

"The excellent and learned Stillingfleet, in the preface to his Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity, says, "Since both sides yield that the matter they dispute about, is above their reach, the wisest course they can take is, to assert and defend what is revealed and not to be peremptory and quarrelsome about that which is acknowledged to be above our comprehension; I mean as to the manner how the three persons partake of the divine nature."

TUNKERS,

A denomination of Seventh-day Baptists, which took its rise in the year 1724. It was founded by a German, who, weary of the world, retired to an agreeable solitude, within sixty miles of Philadelphia, for the more free exercise of religious contemplation. Curiosity attracted followers; and his simple and engaging manners made them proselytes. They soon settled a little colony, called Ephrata, in allusion to the Hebrews, who used to sing psalms on the border of the river Euphrates. This denomination seem to have obtained their name from their baptizing their new converts by plunging. They are also called Tumblers, from the manner, in which they perform baptism, which is by putting the person, while kneeling, head first, under water, so as to resemble the motion of the body in the action of tumbling. They use the trine immersion, with laying on the hands and prayer, even when the person baptized is in the water. Their habit seems to be peculiar to themselves, consisting of a long tunic or coat, reaching down to their heels, with a sash or girdle round the waist, and a cap or hood hanging from the shoulders. They do not shave the head or beard.

The men and women have separate habitations, and distinct governments. For these purposes they erected two large wooden