HISTORY OF ALL CHRISTIAN SECTS

AND DENOMINATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON EXISTING CREEDS AT VARIANCE WITH CHRISTIANITY- --ATHEISTS-PANTHEISTS-DEISTSTHEOPHILANTHROPISTS-PAGANS.

ATHEISTS.

BEFORE entering upon an acccount of the various sects and denominations, into which the Christian world is divided, it will be interesting to glance at the opinions of those, who reject all revealed religion, and to review the present condition of Judæism and Mahommedanism. Indeed, a complete survey of the interesting field we propose to examine could not well be taken, without departing so far from our main subject as to include these topics.

To delineate the nature, point out the foundation, and calculate the tendency of every individual creed, would be an endless task. Our design is simply to enumerate the leading tenets of the several parties, which attract our notice; and, in accomplishing this purpose, it will be our earnest endeavor to avoid all uncharitable reflections and prejudiced misrepresentations.

As the idea of a Supreme Being is the foundation of all religion, we will first consider the opinions of those, who reject or profess to reject this idea, and who are consequently without any religion. The term atheist is derived from two Greek words, &, without, and 80s, God; and signifies one who denies the existence of a God, or a Providence; and in this sense the appellation occurs in

the New Testament, Ephes. ii. 12:-"Without God (or Atheist) in the world."

Plato distinguishes three sorts of Atheists: such as deny absolutely that there are any Gods; others, who admit the existence of the Gods, but deny that they concern themselves with human affairs, and so disbelieve a Providence; and lastly, such as believe in the Gods and a Providence, but think that they are easily appeased, remitting the greatest crimes for the slightest supplication.

It is evident that direct Atheists are few. Some persons question the reality of such a character; and others insist that pretensions to Atheism have their origin in pride, or are adopted as a cloak to licentiousness, while in not a few instances the motive is merely an affectation of eccentricity. In the seventeenth century, Benedict Spinoza was a noted defender of what comes under Plato's classification of Atheistic notions. Spinoza was a Jew of Amsterdam, born in 1634. In his work on ethics, he undertakes to deduce by mathematical reasoning from a few axioms, the principles," that there can be no substance but God; whatever is is in God, and nothing can be conceived without God." Hence his scheme is called with justice Pantheistic, from the Greek words nav, the whole, and Oɛos, God.

In 1619, Lucilio Vanini, an Italian, of eccentric character, was burned at Toulouse, for his Atheistical tenets. Being pressed to make public acknowledgment of his crime, and to ask pardon of God, the king, and justice, he replied, that he did not believe there was a God; that he never offended the king; and as for justice, he wished it at the devil! He confessed that he was one of the twelve who parted in company from Naples to spread their doctrines in all parts of Europe.

Lord Bacon, in his Essays, justly remarks, that "a little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to Atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may rest in them and go no farther; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederated and

linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity." And Dean Sherlock remarks, respecting the origin of Athe ism, that "The universal Deluge and the confusion of lan guages, had so abundantly convinced mankind of a Divine power and Providence, that there was no such person as an Atheist till their ridiculous idolatries had tempted some men of wit and thought rather to own no God than such as the Heathens worshipped."

Dr. Priestley, in one of his Fast sermons, observes, that when he visited France, in 1774, "All her philosophers and men of letters were absolute infidels; and that he was represented by one of them in a mixed strain of censure and compliment, as the only man of talent he had met with, who had any faith in the Scriptures. Nay, Voltaire himself, who was then living, was considered by them as a weak-minded man, because, though an unbeliever in revelation, he believed in a God!"

Atheism, being purely negative, is not a religion, nor have Atheists ever associated as a body for religious worsh p-the wisest do not attempt to prove this negative, but require proofs of the Deists, and other spiritual worshippers-they usually take the name of Materialists, and attempt to account for mental phenomena by the properties and combination of matter, admitting with all men, that much in nature is beyond the powers of humanity to comprehend.

THE GOLDEN VERSES OF THE PYTHAGOREANS.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY NICHOLAS ROWE, ESQ.

First to the Gods thy humble homage pay;
The greatest this, and first of laws obey:
Perform thy vows, observe thy plighted troth,
And let religion bind thee to thy oath.
The heroes next demand thy just regard,
Renown'd on earth, and to the stars preferr'd,
To light and endless life their virtue's sure reward.
Due rites perform and honors to the dead,
To ev'ry wife, to ev'ry pious shade,
With lowly duty to thy parents bow,
And grace and favor to thy kindred show:
For what concerns the rest of human-kind,
Choose out the man to virtue best inclin'd;
Him to thy arms receive, him to thy bosom bind.
Possess'd of such a friend, preserve him still;
Nor thwart his counsels with thy stubborn will;
Pliant to all his admonitions prove,

And yield to all his offices of love:

Him, from thy heart, so true, so justly dear,
Let no rash word nor light offences tear.

Bear all thou canst, still with his failings strive,
And to the utmost still, and still forgive;

For strong necessity alone explores
The secret vigor of our latent pow'rs,
Rouses and urges on the lazy heart.
Force, to itself unknown before, t' exert.
By use thy stronger appetites assuage,
Thy gluttony, thy sloth, thy lust, thy rage:
From each dishonest act of shame forbear;
Of others, and thyself, alike beware.
Let rev'rence of thyself thy thoughts control,
And guard the sacred temple of thy soul.
Let justice o'er thy word and deed preside;
And reason ev'n thy meanest actions guide:
For know that death is man's appointed doom,
Know that the day of great account will come,
When thy past life shall strictly be survey'd,
Each word, each deed, be in the balance laid,
And all the good and all the ill most justly be repaid.
For wealth the perishing, uncertain good,
Ebbing and flowing like the fickle flood,
That knows no sure, no fix'd abiding place,