bound in heaven," etc., they consider as restricted to the apostles, and to the inspired testimony alone, and not to be extended to any church on earth, or any number of churches or of Christians, whether decided by a majority of votes, or by unanimous voices. Neither do they think themselves authorized, as a Christian church, to inquire into each other's political opinions, any more than to examine into each other's notions of philosophy. They both recommend and practise, as a Christian duty, submission to lawful authority; but they do not think that a man, by becoming a Christian, or joining their society, is under any obligation by the rules of the gospel to renounce his right of private judgment upon matters of public or private importance. Upon all such subjects they allow cach other to think and act as each may see it his duty; and they require nothing more of the members than a uniform and steady profession of the apostolic faith, and a suitable walk and conversation.

It is said that their doctrine has found converts in various places of Scotland, England, and America; and that they have congregations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, Stirling, Crieff, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, Fettercairn, Aberdeen, and other towns in Scotland, as well as in London, and various places in England.

AGNOETE.

AGNOETE (from ayvosw, "to be ignorant of,"), a sect which appeared about 370. They called in question the omniscience of God; alleging that he knew things past only by memory, and things future only by an uncertair

prescience. There arose another sect of the same name in the sixth century, who followed Themistius, deacon of Alexandria. They maintained that Christ was ignorant of certain things, and particularly of the time of the day of judgment. It is supposed they built their hypothesis. on that passage in Mark xiii. 32:-" Of that day and that nour knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." The meaning of which most probably is, that this was not known to the Messiah himself in his human nature, or by virtue of his unction, as any part of the mysteries he was to reveal; for, considering him as God, he could not be ignorant of anything.

ALBANENSES.

ALBANENSES, a denomination which commenced about the year 796. They held, with the Gnostics and Manicheans, two principles, the one of good and the other of evil. They denied the divinity and even the humanity of Jesus Christ; asserting that he was not truly man, did not suffer on the cross, die, rise again, nor really ascend into heaven. They rejected the doctrine of the resurrection, affirmed that the general judgment was past, and that hell torments were no other than the evils we feel and suffer in this life. They denied free-will, did not admit original sin, and never administered baptism to infants. They held that a man can give the Holy Spirit of himself, and that it is unlawful for a Christian to take an oath.

This denomination derived their name from the place where their spiritual ruler resided.

LATITUDINARIANS.

LATITUDINARIAN, a person not conforming to any particular opinion or standard, but of such moderation as to suppose that people will be admitted into heaven, although of different persuasions. The term was more especially applied to those pacific doctors in the seventeenth century, who offered themselves as mediators between the more violent Episcopalians and the rigid Presbyterians and Independents, respecting the forms of Church government, public worship, and certain religious tenets, more espe cially those that were debated between the Arminians and Calvinists. The chief leaders of these Latitudinarians were Hales and Chillingworth; but More, Cudworth, Gale, Whitchcot, and Tillotson were also among the number. These men, although firmly attached to the Church of England, did not go so far as to look upon it as of divine institution; and hence they maintained, that those who followed other forms of government and worship, were not on that account to be excluded from their communion. As to the doctrinal part of religion, they took the system of Episcopius for their model, and, like him, reduced the fundamental doctrines of Christianity to a few points; and by this manner of proceeding they endeavored to show the contending parties that they had no reason to oppose each other with such animosity and bitterness, since the subjects of their debates were matters of an indifferent nature with respect to salvation. They met, however, with opposition for their pains, and were branded as Atheists and Deists. by some, and as Socinians by others; but upon the restoration of Charles II., they were raised to the first dignities of the Church, and were held in considerable esteem.

ORIGENISTS.

THE Origenists were a denomination which appeared in he third century, who derived their opinions from the writings of Origen, a presbyter of Alexandria, and a man of vast and uncommon abilities, who interpreted the divine truths of religion according to the tenor of the Platonic philosophy. He alleged that the source of many evils lies in adhering to the literal and external part of Scripture; and that the true meaning of the sacred writers was to be sought in a mysterious and hidden sense, arising from the nature of things themselves.

The principal tenets ascribed to Origen, together with a few of the reasons made use of in their defence, are comprehended in the following summary:

1. That there is a pre-existent state of human souls. For the nature of the soul is such as to make her capable of existing eternally, backward as well as forward, because her spiritual essence, as such, makes it impossible that she should, either through age or violence, be dissolved; so that nothing is wanting to her existence but the good pleasure of him from whom all things proceed. And if, according to the Platonic scheme, we assign the production of all things to the exuberant fulness of life in the Deity, which, through the blessed necessity of his communicative nature, empties itself into all possibilities of being, as into so many capable receptacles, we must suppose her existence in a sense necessary, and in a degree co-eternal with God.

2. That souls were condemned to animate mortal bodies in order to expiate faults they had committed in a pre

existent state; for we may be assured, from the infinite. goodness of their Creator, that they were at first joined to the purest matter, and placed in those regions of the universe which were most suitable to the purity of essence they then possessed. For that the souls of men are an order of essentially incorporate spirits, their deep immersion into terrestrial matter, the modification of all their operations by it, and the heavenly body promised in the gospel, as the highest perfection of our renewed nature, clearly evince. Therefore, if our souls existed before they appeared inhabitants of the earth, they were placed in a purer element, and enjoyed far greater degrees of happiness. And certainly He, whose overflowing goodness brought them into existence, would not deprive them of their felicity, till by their mutability they rendered them selves less pure in the whole extent of their powers, and became disposed for the susception of such a degree of corporeal life as was exactly answerable to their present disposition of spirit. Hence it was necessary that they

should become terrestrial men.

3. That the soul of Christ was united to the Word before the incarnation. For the Scriptures teach us that the soul of the Messiah was created before the beginning. of the world, Phil. ii. 5, 7. This text must be understood of Christ's human soul, because it is unusual to propound the Deity as an example of humility in Scripture. Though the humanity of Christ was so God-like, he emptied himself of this fulness of life and glory, to take upon him the form of a servant. It was this Messiah who conversed with the patriarchs under a human form; it was he who appeared to Moses upon the Holy Mount; it was he who spoke to the prophets under a visible appearance; and it is he who will at last come in triumph upon the clouds to restore the universe to its primitive splendor and felicity.