compiled by B. F. Barrett, minister of the New Jerusalem Church, has recently appeared in New York. This work has been made the text for an able article in the Southern Quarterly Review for October, 1843, in which the writer places in their proper light, the claims of the great Swede. "There has been," he says, "a singular timidity evinced, even by bold thinkers, in respect to the very perusal of his works. They have been read by stealth, away from company-free from the curiosity of the prying eye. Persons have been afraid, as if they were engaged in some necromantic orgies, to breathe a word to their friends of their peculiar and forbidden occupation. They have come to their teacher, as Nicodemus came to the Saviour, in the night time, and have listened to his instructions with equal incredulity and equal wonder.

"The ridicule levelled at the celebrated Swede by Dr. Southey, more than a quarter of a century ago, in his 'Espriella's Letters,' has led many to turn with indifference and contempt from his works-works full of light and consolation-lest they, too, if detected in their perusal, should come in for a share of the sarcasm of some lively and witty satirist. The style in which these compositions are clothed-in some degree eccentric and unique-but deriving its singularity rather from the elevated character of the subjects treated of, than from any want of tact and skill in the writer, has deterred others who have commenced the examination of them, from proceeding much beyond the threshold.-Prescriptive authority-educational biases pride of opinion-of opinion imbibed in other schools-long entertained, and mistaken for truththese have stood in the way of others.

"Then the pretensions of Swedenborg, scarcely less lofty than those of a prophet, though preferred with a modesty and even a humility, which, taken in connection with the solemn and startling developments he has made, and the unblemished purity of his life and manners, forbid the slightest suspicion of imposture-these pretensions, we say, have led others to affirm, that his mind may have been shattered and warped from its healthful tone-a

charge, we know, once preferred against a greater than Swedenborg.

"But to those who are inspired with a larger share of courage-who can recognize intellectual superiority, in some cases, where there is more than a slight divergence from old and beaten paths-who have been willing to say to worldly considerations, 'Get ye behind me,' and to authority, Thou art not my master in matters of this nature;—to those who have been animated more by a love of truth, than alarmed by fears of reproach and contumely; to those, who, like the wisest of sages, could send up, from the inmost depths of their being, the earnest entreaty, 'Give me understanding'-to such-and there are not a few of them-the works of the author under consideration have proved a rare treasure.'

وو

The doctrines of the sect which bears his name, are founded on the Bible and the following books, written by Swedenborg, in Latin, between the years 1747 and 1771: Arcana Cœlestia; De Cœlo et Inferno; De Telluribus ; De Ultimo Judicio; De Equo Albo; De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus Doctrina Coelesti; De Domino; De Scriptura Sacra; De Vita; De Fide; De Divino Amore et Divina Providentia; De Amore Conjugiali; De Commercio Animæ et Corporis; Summaria Expositio Sensus Prophetici; Apocalypsis Explicata; Apocalypsis Revelata; De Vera Theologia Christiana. Of the Bible, they consider canonical only the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, the books of Samuel and of Kings, the Psalms the Prophets, the Gospels, and the Apocalypse.

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CHAPTER XIII.

BEREANS-CHRISTIAN CONNECTION-SANDEMANIANS

-COME-OUTERS.

DALEITES

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, OR CAMPBELLITES.

THIS Society is of comparatively recent origin. About the commencement of the present century, the Bible alone, without any human addition in the form of creeds or confessions of faith, began to be preached by many distinguished ministers of different denominations, both in Europe and America. With various success, and with many of the opinions of the various sects imperceptibly carried with them from the denominations to which they once belonged, did they plead for the union of Christians of every name, on the broad basis of the apostle's teaching. But it was not until the year 1823, that a restoration of the original gospel and order of things, began to be advocated in a periodical, edited by Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, entitled "The Christian Baptist."

He and his father, Thomas Campbell, renounced the Presbyterian system, and were immersed, in the year 1812. They, and the Congregations which they had formed, united with the Redstone Baptist Association, protesting against all human creeds as bonds of union, and professing subjection to the Bible alone. This union took place in the year 1813. But in pressing upon the attention of that society and the public the all-sufficiency of the sacred Scriptures for every thing necessary to the perfection of Christian character,—whether in the private or social relations of life, in the church or in the world, they began to be opposed by a strong creed party in that association. After some ten years' debating and contending for the Bible alone, and the Apostle's doctrine, Alexander Campbell, and the church to which he belonged, united with the Mahoning association, in the Western Reserve of

Ohio; that association being more favorable to his views. of reform.

In his debates on the subject and action of baptism with Mr. Walker, a seceding minister, in the year 1820, and with Mr. M'Calla, a Presbyterian minister, in the year 1823, his views of reformation began to be developed, and were very generally received by the Baptist society, as far as these works were read.

But in his "Christian Baptist," which began July 4, 1823, his views of the need of reformation were more fully exposed; and as these gained ground by the pleading of various ministers of the Baptist denomination, a party in opposition began to exert itself, and to oppose the spread of what they regarded as heterodox opinions. But not till after great numbers began to act upon these principles, was there any attempt towards separation. Not until after the Mahoning association appointed Mr. Walter Scott, an evangelist, in the year 1827, and when great numbers began to be immersed into Christ, under his labours, and new churches began to be erected by him and other labourers in the field, did the Baptist associations begin to declare non-fellowship with the brethren of the reformation. Thus by constraint, not of choice, were the Campbellites obliged to form societies out of those communities that split, upon the ground of adherence to the apostles' doctrine. The distinguishing characteristics of their views and practices are the following:

They regard all the sects and parties of the Christian. world as having, in greater or less degrees, departed from the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians, and as forming what the apostle Paul calls "the apostacy." This defection they attribute to the great varieties of speculation and metaphysical dogmatism of the countless creeds, formularies, liturgies, and books of discipline, adopted and inculcated as bonds of union and platforms of communion in all the parties which have sprung from the Lutheran reformation. The effect of these synodical covenants, conventional articles of belief, and rules of ecclesiastical polity, has been the introduction of a new no

menclature,—a human vocabulary of religious words, phrases and technicalities, which has displaced the style of the living oracles, and affixed to the sacred diction ideas wholly unknown to the apostles of Christ.

To remedy and obviate these aberrations, they propose to ascertain from the holy Scriptures, according to the commonly-received and well-established rules of interpretation, the ideas attached to the leading terms and sentences found in the holy Scriptures, and then to use the words of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic acceptation of them.

By thus expressing the ideas communicated by the Holy Spirit, in the terms and phrases learned from the apostles, and by avoiding the artificial and technical language of scholastic theology, they propose to restore a pure speech to the household of faith; and by accustoming the family of God to use the language and dialect of the heavenly Father, they expect to promote the sanctification of one another through the truth, and to terminate those discords and debates which have always originated from the words which man's wisdom teaches, and from a reverential regard and esteem for the style of the great masters of polemic divinity; believing that speaking the same things in the same style, is the only certain way to thinking the same things.

They make a very marked difference between faith and opinion; between the testimony of God and the reasonings of men; the words of the Spirit and human inferences. Faith in the testimony of God, and obedience to the commandments of Jesus, are their bond of union, and not an agreement in any abstract views or opinions upon what is written or spoken by divine authority. Hence, all the speculations, questions, debates of words, and abstract reasonings, found in human creeds, have no place in their religious fellowship. Regarding Calvinism and Arminianism, Trinitarianism and Unitarianism, and all the opposing theories of religious sectaries, as extremes begotten by each other, they cautiously avoid them, as equidistant from the simplicity and practical tendency of the promi