twelve, that Behmen commit- was a shoemaker by trade: he is described as having been thoughtful and religious from his youth up, taking peculiar pleasure in frequenting the public worship. At length seriously considering within himself that speech of our Saviour, My Father which is in heaven will give the holy Spirit to him that ask him, he was thereby thoroughly awakened in himself, and set forward to desire that promised Comforter; and, continuing in that earnestness, he was at last, to use his own expression, "surrounded with a divine light for seven days, and stood in the highest contemplation and kingdom of joys!" After this, about the year sixteen hundred, he was again surrounded by the divine light, and replenished with the heavenly knowledge; insomuch as, going abroad into the fields, and viewing the herbs and grass, by his inward light he saw into their essences, use, and properties, which were discovered to him by their lineaments, figures, and signatures. In the year sixteen hundred and ten, he had a third special illumination, wherein still farther mysteries were revealed to him. It was not till the year sixteen hundred and *This book was seized on and withheld from him by the senate of Gorlitz, (who persecuted him at the instigation of the primate of that place) before it was finished; and he never afterwards proceeded with it further than by adding some explanatory notes, angels and that of man.(4.) How the earth, stars, and elements, were created in consequence of the fall of angels. -(5.) Whence there is good and evil in all this temporal world, in all its creatures, animate and inanimate ; and what is meant by the curse that dwells every where in it. (6.) Of the kingdom of Christ, how it is set in opposition to, and fights and strives against the kingdom of hell.-(7.) How man, through faith in Christ, is able to overcome the kingdom of hell, and triumph over it in the divine power, and thereby obtain eternal salvation; also how, through working in the hellish quality, or principle, he casts himself into perdition. (S.) How and why sin and misery, wrath and death, shall only reign for a time, till the love, the wisdom, and the power of God, shall in a supernatural way (the mystery of God made Man) triumph over sin, misery, and death; and make fallen man rise to the glory of angels, and this material system shake off its curse, and enter into an everlasting union with that heaven from whence it fell. The year after he wrote his Three Principles, Behmen.produced his Three-fold Life of : Man, according to the three principles.* In this work he treats more largely of the state of man in this world :(1.) That he has that immortal spark of life which is common to angels and devils.(2.) That divine life of the light and Spirit of God, which makes the essential difference between an angel and a devil ; the last having extinguished this divine life in himself; but that man can only attain unto this heavenly life of the second principle through the new birth in Christ Jesus.-(3.) The life of the third principle, or of this external and visible world. Thus the life of the first and third principles is common to all men; but the life of the second principle only to a true christian, or child of God. Behmen wrote several other treatises, besides the three already enumerated; but these three being, as it were, the basis of all his other writings, it was thought proper to notice them particularly. His conceptions are often clothed under allegorical symbols; and in his latter works he has frequently adopted chemical and latin phrases to express his ideas, which phrases he borrowed from conyersation with By the Three Principles is to be understood-the dark world, or hell, in which the devils live-the light world, or heaven, in which the angels live-the external and visible world, which has proceeded from the internal and spiritual worids, in which man, as to his bodily life, lives. learned men, the education he had received being too illiterate to furnish him with them. But as to the matter contained in his writings, he disclaimed having borrowed it either from men or books. He died in the year sixteen hundred and twenty-four. His last words were, "Now I go hence into paradise !"* Behmen's principles were adopted by the late ingenious and pious William Law, who has clothed them in a more modern dress, and in a less obscure style; for whose sentiments see article Mystics. BEREANS, a sect of protestant dissenters from the church of Scotland, who take their title from, and profess to follow the example of the ancient Bereans, in building their system of faith and practice upon the scriptures alone, without regard to any human authority whatever. Mr. Barclay, a Scotch clergyman, was the founder of this denomination. They first assembled as a separate society of christians in the city of Edinburgh, in autumn, seventeen hundred and seventythree, and soon after in the parish of Fettercairn. The Bereans agree with the great majority of christians, both protestants and catholics, * Behmen's Works, vol. i. p. 6—20. M respecting the doctrine of the trinity, which they hold as a fundamental article of the christian faith. They also agree in great measure with the professed principles of the established churches of England and Scotland, respecting predestination and election, though they allege that these doctrines are not consistently taught in either church; but they differ from many other sects of christians in various particulars. 1. Respecting our knowledge of the Deity. Upon this subject they say, that the majority of professed christians stumble at the very threshold of revelation; and by admitting the doctrine of natural religion, natural conscience, natural notices, &c. not founded upon revelation, or derived from it by tradition, they give up the cause of christianity to the infidels, who may justly argue, as Mr. Paine in fact does in his Age of Reason, that "there is no occasion for any revelation, or word of God, if man can discover his nature and perfections from his works alone." But this, the Bereans argue, is beyond the natural powers of human reason; and therefore our knowledge of God is from revelation alone; and vol. ii. p. 1. Okely's Memoirs of Behmen, p. 1–8. that without' revelation man could never have entertained an idea of his existence. 2. With regard to faith in Christ, and assurance of salvation through his merits, they differ from other denominations. These they reckon inseparable, or rather the same; because, they argue, God has expressly declared, He that believeth shall be saved; and therefore it is not only absurd, but impious, and in a manner calling God a liar, for a man to say, "I believe the gospel; but have doubts, nevertheless, of my own salvation." With regard to the various distinctions and definitions that have been given of different kinds of faith, they argue, that "there is nothing incomprehensible or obscure in the meaning of the word, as used in scripture; but that as faith, when applied to human testimony, signifies neither more nor less than the mere simple belief of that testimony as true upon the authority of the testifier; so, when applied to the testimony of God, it signifies precisely the belief of his testimony, and resting upon his veracity alone, without any kind of collateral support from the concurrence of any other evidence or testimony whatever." And they insist, that as. this faith is the gift of God alone, so the person to whom it is given is as conscious of possessing it as the being to whom God gives life is of being alive; and therefore he entertains no doubt either of his faith or his consequent salvation through the merits of Christ, who died and rose again for that purpose. In a word, they argue that the gospel would not be what it is held forth to be, (glad tidings of great joy) if it did not bring full personal assurance of eternal salvation to the believer; which assurance, they insist, "is the present infallible privilege and portion of every individual believer of the gospel."-These definitions of: faith, and its inseparable concomitant assurance, they prove by a variety of texts of scripture. 3. Consistently with the. above definition of faith, they say that the sin against the holy Ghost is nothing else but unbelief; and that the expression, It shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor that which is to come, means only. that a person dying in infidelity would not be forgiven, neither under the former dispensation by Moses (the thenpresent dispensation, kingdom, or government of God) nor under the gospel dispensation, which, in respect of the Mosaic, was a kind of future world, or kingdom to come. 4. The Bereans interpret a great part of the old-testament prophecies, and in particular the whole of the Psalms, excepting such as are merely historical or laudatory, to be typical or prophetical of Jesus Christ; his sufferings, atonement, mediation, and kingdom and they esteem it a gross perversion of these psalms and prophecies, to apply them to the experiences of private christians. In proof of this, they not only urge the words of the apostle, that no prophecy is of private interpretation, but they insist that the whole of the quotations from the ancient prophecies in the new testament, and particularly those from the psalms, are expressly applied to Christ. In this opinion many classes of protestants agree with them. 5. Of the absolute, allsuperintending sovereignty of the Almighty, the Bereans entertain the highest ideas, as well as of the uninterrupted exertion thereof over all works in heaven, earth, or hell, however unsearchable by his creatures. "A God without election, (they argue) or choice in all his works, is a God without existence; a mere idol, a non-entity: and to deny God's élection, purpose, and express will in all his works, is to make him inferior to ourselves." With respect to the practice. of the Bereans as a christian society, they consider infantbaptism as a divine ordinance instituted in the room of circumcision; and they think it absurd to suppose that infants, who all agree are admissible to the kingdom of God in heaven, should nevertheless be incapable of being admitted into his visible church on earth. They commemorate the Lord's supper in general once a month; but as the words of the institution fix no particular period, they sometimes celebrate it oftener, and sometimes at more distant periods, as may suit their general con venience. Equal and univer sal holiness in all manner of conversation, they recommend at all times, as well as at the table of the Lord. They meet every Lord's day for the purposes of preaching, praying, and exhortation to love and good works. When any person, after hearing the Berean doctrines, professes his belief and assurance of the truths of the gospel, and desires to be admitted into their communion, he is cheerfully received upon his profession, whatever may have been his former manner of life. But For further particulars respecting the Berean doctrines, the reader is referred to the works of Messrs. Barclay, Nicol, Brooksbank, &c. |