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kind of worship, and who were on that account called Puritans.

About 100 years after this period, in the reign of Charles II. the act called the Act of Uniformity was passed, which took place on Bartholomew-day, and many ministers refusing to conform, left the established church, and were called Non-Conformists.

SABATARIANS

Are those who observe the seventh day, instead of the first day of the week. This custom is not of modern date, but as early as the time of the apostle St. John. It was observed by the Jewish converts, who found no command in scripture for the observance of the first day of the week. They are principally to be found among the Baptists, who are distinguished by the term, Seventhday Baptists.

They say, that the change from the seventh to the first day of the week, took place at the time of Constantine, when he embraced Christianity. The reason they give for keeping the seventh day of the week as the sabbath, is, that God hath commanded it to be observed; and that there is not any authority in scripture for its being changed from the seventh, to the first day of the week.

BAXTERIANS.

These professors are the followers of Richard Baxter, a noted writer and preacher, in the last century.

His plan was to reconcile the Calvinists and Arminians, by pointing out a middle path. He taught, that a certain number were predestinated to eternal life from eternity, that the rest were not reprobated, but that they have common grace, which, if improved, will finally end in saving grace. This is to be proved by a life of faith and obedience, and consequently they maintain, that Christ died for all men; that by his death the sins of the elect were forgiven, and that those who were not of the elect, were through his death placed in a salvable state, by an offer of that light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

In order to show, that all men are placed in a salvable state by the death of Christ; they say,

1st. It is the nature of all mankind which Christ assumed at his incarnation, and the sins of all mankind were the occasion of his suffering.

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2dly. It was to Adam, as the common father of lapsman, that God made the promise, Gen. iii. 15. The conditional grant is universal, "Whosoever believeth shall be saved."

3dly. It is not to the elect only, but to all mankind, that Christ has commanded his ministers to proclaim his gospel, and offer the benefits of his procuring.

NECESSITARIANS.

So called, because they hold the doctrine of necessity, or fatality; that all the actions of men are inevitably consequent on a superior overruling agency, which cannot be counteracted by finite beings. Necessity is but another word for predestination; for predestination

teaches, that moral agents act from necessity. They teach, that the will is in every case necessarily determined by the strongest motives, and that this moral necessity may be as absolute as natural necessity; or that a moral effect may be as perfectly connected with its moral cause, as a naturally necessary effect is with its natural cause.

The Necessitarian believes, that no event, either respecting the body or the soul, could possibly have been contrary to what it has been, is and is to be; and that all things must necessarily be what God intended they should be.

Others again hold, that God, by his omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence, superintends the most minute concerns of this world, and that from his foreknowledge, the doctrine of necessity follows, as effect follows its cause. But these latter cannot properly be believers in the doctrine of necessity; for if the foreknowledge, by which God knows who are the faithful, precedes the decree by which man is obliged to act, then the doctrine of necessity falls to the ground.

DESTRUCTIONISTS.

These professors believe, that the wicked are not to be preserved eternally, in the torments of hell, but that finally, after a period which is to be in proportion to the magnitude of their crimes, the lightning of the divine vengeance is utterly to destroy them.

They say, that this doctrine is taught in the scriptures, and that the word death means that which is everlasting, agreeably to those words Rev. ii. 11. “He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death."

They hold it to be an absurdity, to suppose, that death can be inflicted for a certain term; and they apprehend that punishment and death cannot be intended to reform the wicked, since it is not less absurd to conclude, that man should be punished with death, in order to reform his conduct, than it would be to imagine, that by death is signified eternal life, though in a state of torment, as it would be inconsistent with the obvious meaning of the words. They conclude, therefore, that it must mean annihilation, a total cessation of conscious existence; a complete destruction of being. The kingdom of Christ is to last forever, because it is said, that "of his kingdom there shall be no end," and therefore, that the mediatorial kingdom is never to be delivered up to the Father.

These have been the opinions of a very few; I have mentioned them because some have magnified them into a sect, though they have not been sufficiently numerous to be ranked as such,

MILLINARIANS

Believe that Christ will literally reign on earth a thousand years, with all those who are said to have their part in the first resurrection. After which, the second resurrection is to take place, the last judgment, and the beginning of eternal glory. Soon after the council of Nice, about the year 340, these professors increased rapidly. The doctrines they promulgated were the same as are now received by this sect. They believe, that Jerusalem shall be rebuilt gloriously, and that the saints, or believers shall see Christ descend from heaven; that

the first resurrection spoken of, will take place after the coming of Antichrist, when great destruction is to begin in all nations: that all who are found alive on the earth at the time of the first resurrection shall continue to live; the good to be associated with those who are raised from the dead, who are to be as princes, that the wicked are to be reduced to a state of obedience, and are to be in the capacity of servants. That Christ will, in the new Jerusalem, live and reign a thousand years, with the patriarchs, prophets and saints, who are to enjoy a state of perfect happiness: that at the end of one thousand years, the second resurrection is to take place, when those who had their part in the first, after the last judg ment, are to ascend with Christ to heaven.

This opinion was first introduced by Carpocrates in the reign of Domitian, sixty years after Christ. It is founded on that passage in the Revelation, xx. 4—6. "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years, But the rest of the dead lived not again, until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such, the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." 99

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