ACTS OF THE APOSTLES ADAMITES the church, the council of Jerusalem, and the planting of Christian Churches in the principal provinces of the Roman empire. The history is written with a tolerably strict attention to chronological order, though the author has not affixed a date to any one of the facts recorded by him. But as political events, the dates of which are known, are frequently introduced or alluded to in connexion with the ecclesiastical narrative, the chronology of the whole book is for the most part capable of being pretty definitely settled. The style of the Acts, which was written in Greek, is perspicuous and noble. Though tinctured with Hebraisms, it is in general much purer than that of most other books of the New Testament, particularly in the speeches delivered by Paul. The book forms one of the most important parts of sacred history; for without it neither the Gospels nor Epistles could have been so clearly understood; and by the correspondence of incidental circumstances mentioned in this history and in the Epistles, of such a nature as to show that neither the one nor the other could have been forged, an irrefragable evidence of the truth of Christianity is afforded. Among the most important works expository or illustrative of the Acts of the Apostles are Cradock's Apostolical History; Benson's First Planting of Christianity; Paley's Hora Paulina; Heinrich's Acta Apostolorum; Buddeus Ecclesia Apostolica.-B. such as persist in the heresy, are about four | sion of Paul, the admission of the Gentiles into yards high, having a small board towards the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder, and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the church, part with them; telling them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow, to receive their souls, and carry them with him to the flames of hell. On this a great shout is raised; and the cry is, "Let the digs beards be made which is done by thrusting flaming furzes fastened to long poles against their faces, till their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with the loudest acclamations of joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the professed are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the scat they sit on; so that they rather seem roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle: the sufferers continually cry out while they are able, "Pity for the love of God!" Yet it is beheld by all sexes and ares with transports of joy and satisfaction.O merciful God! is this the benign, humane religion thou hast given to men? Surely not. If such were the genius of Christianity, then it would be no honour to be a Christian. Let us, however, rejoice that the time is coming when the demon of Persecution shall be banished out this our world, and the true spirit of benevolence and candour pervade the universe; when none shall hurt or destroy, but the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the wea! See INQUISITION. ACTION FOR THE PULPIT. See DE CLAMATION. There have been several acts of the apostles, such as the acts of Abdias, of Peter, of Paul, St. John the Evangelist, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Philip, and St. Matthias; but they have been all proved to be spurious. ACTS OF PILATE, a relation sent by Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius, concerning Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the crimes of which he was convicted before him, It was a custom among the Romans, that the proconsuls and governors of provinces should draw up acts or memoirs of what happened in the course of their government, and send them to the emperor and senate. The genuine acts of Pilate were sent by him to Tiberius, who reported them to the senate; but they were rejected by that assembly, because not immediately addressed to them; as is testified by Tertullian, in his Apol. cap. 5, and 20, 21. The heretics forged acts in imitation of them; but both the genuine and the spurious are now lost. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, the fifth and last of the historical books of the New Testament, containing a great part of the lives and transactions of Peter and Paul, and of the history of the infant church for the space of twenty-nine or thirty years from the ascension of our Lord to the time of Paul's arrival at Rome after his appeal to Cæsar, A. D. 65. That Luke was the author of the Acts of the Apostles is evident both from the introduction, and from the unanimous testimonies of the early Christians. This book, as well as the Gospel bearing his name, is inscribed to Theophilus, and in the very first verse of the Acts there is a reference made to his Gospel, #lach he calls the former treatise. From the frequent use of the first person plural it is clear ADAMITES, a sect that sprang up in the that he was present at most of the transactions second century. Epiphanius tells us that they br relates. The design of the author does not were called Adamites from their pretending to appear to have been to give a complete ecclesias- be re-established in the state of innocence, such tical tustory of the Christian church during the as Adam was at the moment of his creation, period embraced in the work; for he has almost whence they ought to imitate him in going naked. wholly omitted what passed among the Jews af- They detested marriage; maintaining that the ter the conversion of Paul, and is totally silent conjugal union would never have taken place Concerning the spread of Christianity in the East upon earth, had sin been unknown. This oband in Egypt, as well as the foundation of the scure and ridiculous sect did not last long. It church of Christ at Rome, as also concerning the was, however, revived with additional absurdities labours and sufferings of most of the other Apos- in the twelfth century. About the beginning of ti besades Peter and Paul; but to relate the the fifteenth century, these errors spread in Gert prominent events connected with the esta- many and Bohemia: it found also some partisans ment of Christianity, and such as may be in Poland, Holland, and England. They asdered to have had the most important bear-sembled in the night; and, it is said, one of the upon its subsequent prosperity; among fundamental maxims of their society was conara may be reckoned the effusion of the Holy tained in the following verse: Sat on the day of Pentecost, the persecutions sad di-persions of the early disciples, the conver Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli. ADOPTION ADIAPHORISTS, a name given in the six- | teenth century to the moderate Lutherans who adhered to the sentiments of Melancthon; and afterwards to those who subscribed the Interim of Charles V. [See INTERIM.] The word is of Greek origin (z.popos,) and signifies indifference or lukewarmness. ADMIRATION is that passion of the mind which is excited by the discovery of any great excellence in an object. It has by some writers been used as synonymous with surprise and wonder; but it is evident they are not the same. Surprise refers to something unexpected; wonder, to something great or strange; but admiration includes the idea of high esteem or respect. Thus, we say we admire a man's excellencies; but we do not say that we are surprised at them. We wonder at an extraordinary object or event, but we do not always adinire it. ADMONITION denotes a hint or advice given to another, whereby we reprove him for his fault, or remind him of his duty. Admonition was a part of the discipline much used in the ancient church; it was the first act or step towards the punishment or expulsion of delinquents. In case of private offences, it was performed according to evangelical rule, prirately; in case of public offence, openly before the church. If either of these sufficed for the recovery of the fallen person, all further proceedings, in a way of censure, ceased; if they did not, recourse was had to excommunication.-Tit. iii. 10. 1 Thess. v. 14. Eph. vi. 4. ADOPTION adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. 3. Glorious, is that in which the saints, being raised from the dead, are at the last day solemnly owned to be the children of God, and enter into the full possession of that inheritance provided for them. Rom. viii. 19, 23. Adoption is a word taken from the civil law, and was much in use among the Romans in the Apostles' time; when it was a custom for persons who had no children of their own, and were possessed of an estate, to prevent its being divided or descending to strangers, to make choice of such as were agreeable to them, and beloved by them, whom they took into this political relation of children; obliging them to take their name upon them, and to pay respect to them as though they were their natural parents, and engaging to deal with them as though they had been so; and accordingly to give them a right to their estates, as an inheritance. This new relation, founded in a mutual consent, is a bond of affection; and the privilege arising from thence is, that he, who is in this sense a father, takes care of and provides for the person whom he adopts, as though he were his son by nature; and therefore civilians call it an act of legitimation, imitating nature, or supplying the place of it. It is easy, then, to conceive the propriety of the term as used by the apostle, in reference to this act, though it must be confessed there is some difference between civil and spiritual adoption. Civil adoption was allowed of and provided for ADONAI, Hebrew, a title of the Su- the relief and comfort of those who had no chilpreme Being in the Scriptures, rendered in En-dren; but in spiritual adoption this reason does glish by the word Lord. The original comes not appear. The Almighty was under no oblifrom Aden, a base, pillar, or supporter; and it is gation to do this; for he had innumerable spirits not a little remarkable that the etymology of our whom he had created, besides his own Son, who vernacular Lord is precisely similar, it being a had all the perfections of the divine nature, who contraction of the old Saxon laford, or hlafford, was the object of his delight, and who is styled from laef, to support or sustain, the same root the heir of all things, Heb. i. 3. When men from which also comes the English word loaf. adopt, it is on account of some excellency in the The Hebrew JEHOVAH is likewise translated persons who are adopted: thus Pharaoh's daughLord in our Bibles, and this is known by its ter adopted Moses because he was exceeding fair, being printed in capital letters, whereas in the Acts vii. 20, 21; and Mordecai adopted Esther other case the common small character is employ-because she was his uncle's daughter, and exed. The Jews, from excessive reverence, never ceeding fair, Est. ii. 7; but man has nothing in pronounce the name JEHOVAH when they meet him that merits this divine act, Ezek. xvi. 5. In with it in reading the Hebrew Scriptures, but civil adoption, though the name of a son be given, invariably substitute Adonai, which has the same the nature of a son may not: this relation may vowel points. But there is no law forbidding the not necessarily be attended with any change of enunciation of the name JEHOVAH; nor does it disposition or temper. But in the spiritual adop appear to have been scrupled by the ancient tion we are made partakers of the divine nature, Jews.-B. and a temper or disposition given us becoming the relationship we bear. Jer. iii. 19. "As ADONISTS, a party among divines and critics, who maintain that the Hebrew points or- Much has been said as to the time of adoption. dinarily annexed to the consonants of the word Some place it before regeneration, because it is Jehovah are not the natural points belonging to supposed we must be in the family before we can that word, nor express the true pronounciation be partakers of the blessings of it. But it is diffiof it; but are the vowel points belonging to the cult to conceive of one before the other; for alwords Adonai and Elohim, applied to the con- though adoption may seem to precede regenerasonants of the ineffable name Jehovah, to warn tion in order of nature, yet not of time; they may the readers, that instead of the word Jehovah, be distinguished, but cannot be separated. which the Jews were forbid to pronounce, and many as received him, to them gave he power to the true pronunciation of which had been long become the sons of God, even to them that beunknown to them, they are always to read Ado-lieve on his name." John i. 12. There is no nai. They are opposed to Jehorists, of whom adoption, says the great Charnock, without rethe principal are Drusius, Capellus, Buxtorf, generation. "Adoption," says the same author, Alting, and Reland. "is not a mere relation: the privilege and the ADOPTION, an act whereby any person re-image of the sons of God go together. A state ceives another into his family, owns him for his of adoption is never without a separation from son, and appoints him his heir. 2. Spiritual defilement." 2 Cor. vi. 17. 18. The new name ADULTERY in adoption is never given till the new creature be formed "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Rom. viii. 14. Yet these are to be distinguished. Regeneration, as a physical act, gives us a likeness to God in eur nature; adoption, as a legal act, gives us a right to an inheritance. Regeneration makes us formally his sons, by conveying a principle, 1 Pet. i 23; adoption makes us relatively his sons, by conveying a power, John i. 12. By the one we are instated in the divine affection; by the other we are partakers of the divine nature." See Ridgley's and Gill's Body of Div. art. Adoption; Charnock's Works, vol. ii. p. 32-72; Flarels Works, vol. ii. p. 601; Brown's System of Nat. and Rev. Religion, p. 442; Witsii Econ. Fed. p. 165. AERIANS affection is inflicted a wound the most painful and incurable that human nature knows. The infidelity of the woman is aggravated by cruelty to her children, who are generally involved in their parent's shame, and always made unhappy by their quarrel. The marriage vow is witnessed before God, and accompanied with circumstances of solemnity and religion which approach to the nature of an oath. The married offender, therefore, incurs a crime little short of perjury, and the seduction of a married woman is little less than subornation of perjury. But the strongest apology for adultery is, the prior transgression of the other party; and so far, indeed, as the bad effects of adultery are anticipated by the conduct of the husband or wife who offends first, the guilt of the second offender is extenuated. But this can never amount to a justification, unless it could be shown that the obligation of the marriage vow depends upon the condition of reciprocal fidelity: a construction which appears founded neither in expediency, nor in the terms of the vow, nor in the design of the legislature, which prescribed the marriage rite. To consider the offence upon the footing of provocation, therefore, can by no means vindicate retaliation. "Thou shalt not commit adultery," it must ever be remembered, was an ADORATION, the act of rendering divine honours, including in it reverence, esteem, and love: this is called supreme, or absolute. The word is compounded of ad, "to," and os, oris, "mouth" and literally signifies to apply the hand to the mouth, "to kiss the hand;" this being, in the eastern countries, one of the great marks of respect and submission. See Job xxxi. 927. The attitude of adoration, however, we find has not been confined to this mode; standing, kneeling, uncovering the head, prostration, bow-interdict delivered by God himself. This crime ing, hiting up the eyes to heaven, or sometimes fixing them upon the earth with the body bending forward; sitting with the under parts of the thighs resting on the heels, have all been used, as expressive of veneration and esteem. Whatever be the form, however, it must be remembered, that adoration, as an act of worship, is due to God alone, Matt. iv. 10. Acts x. 25, 26. Rev. xix. 10. There is, 2. what may be called adoration human, or paying homage or respect to persons of great rank and dignity. This has been performed by bowing, bending the knee, falling on the face. The practice of adoration may be said to be still subsisting in England, in the ceremony of kiss-over her ashes erected a gibbet, whereon the ing the king's or queen's hand, and in serving them at table, both being performed kneeling on one knee. There is also, 3. adoration relative, which consists in worship paid to an object as belonging to or representative of another. In this sense the Romanists profess to adore the cross, Bot simply or immediately, but in respect of Jesus Christ, whom they suppose to be on it. This is generally, however, considered by Protestants as coming little short of idolatry. See IDOLATRY. has been punished in almost all ages and nations. By the Jewish law it was punished with death in both parties, where either the woman was married, or both. Among the Egyptians, adultery in the man was punished by a thousand lashes with rods, and in the woman by the loss of her nose. The Greeks put out the eyes of the adulterers. Among the Romans, it was punished by banishment, cutting off the ears, noses, and by sewing the adulterers in sacks, and throwing them into the sea; scourging, burning, &c. In Spain and Poland they were almost as severe. The Saxons formerly burnt the adulteress, and adulterer was hanged. King Edmund, in this kingdom, ordered adultery to be punished in the same manner as homicide. Canute ordered the man to be banished, and the women to have her nose and ears cut off. Modern punishments in different nations, do not seem to be so severe. In Britain it is reckoned a spiritual offence, and is cognizable by the spiritual courts, where it is punished by fine and penance. See Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, p. 309. vol. i. 12th edition. ADULTERY, an unlawful commerce between one married person and another, or between AERIANS, the name of a sect which arose in a married and unmarried person.-2. It is also the fourth century, under the reign of Constanused in Scripture for idolatry, or departing from the tine, so called from Aerius, a presbyter of Sebastrue God, Jer. iii. 9.-3. Also for any species of tia in Pontus their founder. The errors laid to impurity or crime against the virtue of chastity, the charge of Aerius by Epiphanius are, 1. That Matt. v. 28.-4. It is also used in ecclesiastical a-presbyter or elder differs not in order and degree writers for a person's invading or intruding into from a bishop, but he who is a presbyter is called a bashopric during the former bishop's life.-5.a bishop. 2. That there is properly speaking no The word is also used in ancient customs for the ganeshment or fine imposed for that offence, or the privilege of prosecuting for it. Although autery is prohibited by the law of God, yet some bave endeavoured to explain away the moral turparude of it; but it is evident, observes Paley, that, on the part of the man who solicits the chastity of a married woman, it certainly includes the trume of seduction, and is attended with mischief sa more extensive and complicated: it creates a Bew sufferer, the injured husband, upon whose passover remaining to be observed or celebrated among Christians. 3. That fasts ought not to be fixed to certain and stated annual days and solemnities. 4. That prayers ought not to be offered for the dead. It must be accounted strange, that these doctrines should, with orthodox Christians, ever be adduced as evidence of heresy. And, accordingly, the reader will find in the works of Mr. John Glas, vol. iv. an able attempt to vindicate the character of Aerius from the opprobrium usually cast upon it by ecclesiastical writers.-B. 7147675 C18,2513: Coliera Library From the Librard of Rev. A. P. Peabody! 10 Oct. 1893. Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit: BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the first day of July, in the fifty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1830, James Kay, jun. & Co. of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "A Theological Dictionary, containing definitions of all religious terms; a comprehensive view of every article in the system of divinity; an impartial account of all the principal denominations which have subsisted in the religious world from the birth of Christ to the present day: together with an accurate statement of the most remarkable transactions and events recorded in Ecclesiastical history. By the Rev. Charles Buck. New American, from the latest London Edition. Revised, and improved by the addition of many new articles, and the whole adapted to the present state of Theological science and of the religious world. By the Rev. George Bush, A. M. With an Appendix, containing a late Account of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, and of the Associated Methodists." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned"-and also to the act, entitled, "An Act Supplementary to An Act entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.” D. CALDWELL, PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. KNOWLEDGE, in a great measure, forms the true dignity and happiness of man: it is that by which he holds an honourable rank in the scale of being, and by which he is rendered capable of adding to the felicity of his fellow-creatures. Every attempt, therefore, to enlarge its boundaries, and facilitate its acquisition, must be considered as worthy of our attention and regard. The present work is designed to promote these valuable and important ends. The plan of conveying knowledge by dictionaries has been long established, and well received in the republic of letters. A dictionary, however, of a religious and ecclesiastical nature was still a desideratum in the religious world; for although we have had dictionaries which explained Scripture terms, yet it is evident these could not embrace the history of the church since the sacred canon was concluded, nor explain the numerous terms which have been used; nor, indeed, point out the various sects and denominations which have subsisted since that time. I do not mean, by these remarks, to depreciate the valuable works above referred to: I am sensible of their excellences, and I have no wish to undervalue them in order to exalt my own. This work, however, is of a different nature, as the reader will easily see, if he takes the trouble to compare and examine. There may, doubtless, be defects in this publication which may have escaped my attention; but whoever considers the various books that must have been consulted; the discriminations that were necessary to be made; the patient investigation required; and the toil of selecting, transcribing, and composing, must be convinced that it has been attended with no small difficulty. The advantages, however, which my own mind derived from the work, and the probability of its being useful to others, greatly encouraged me in its prosecution. Besides, to be active, to be useful, to do something for the good of mankind, I have always considered as the honour of an intelligent being. It is not the student wrapt up in metaphysical subtilties; it is not the recluse living in perpetual solitude; it is not the miser who is continually amassing wealth, that can be considered as the greatest ornaments or the greatest blessings to human society:—it is rather the useful than the shining talent that is to be coveted. Perhaps it may be said, the work is tinctured too much with my own sentiments, and that the theology is too antiquated to please a liberal, philosophising, and refined age. In answer to this, I observe, that I could do no other, as an honest man, than communicate what I believe to be the truth. It is a false liberality to acquiesce with every man's opinion, to fall in with every man's scheme, to trifle with error, or imagine there is no difference between one sentiment and another: yet, notwithstanding this declaration, I trust the features of bigotry are not easily discernible in this work; and that, while I have endeavoured to carry the torch of Truth in my hand, I have not forgotten to walk in the path of Candour. It is almost needless here to say, that I have availed myself of all the writings of the best and most eminent authors I could obtain. Whatever has struck me as important in ecclesiastical history; whatever good and accurate in definition; whatever just views of the passions of the human mind; whatever terms used in the religious world; and whatever instructive and impressive in the systems of divinity and moral philosophy, I have endeavoured to incorporate in this work. And in order to prevent its being a dry detail of terms and of dates, I have given the substance of what has been generally advanced on each subject, and occasionally selected some of the most interesting practical passages from our best and celebrated sermons. I trust, therefore, it will not only be of use to inform the mind, but impress the heart; and thus promote the real good of the reader. The critic, however, may be disposed to be severe; and it will, perhaps, be easy for him to observe imperfections. But be this as it may: I can assure him I feel myself happy in the idea that the work is not intended to serve a party, to encourage bigotry, nor strengthen prejudice, but "for the service of Truth, by one who would be glad to attend and grace her triumphs; as her soldier, if he has had the honour to serve successfully under her banner; or as a captive tied to her chariot wheels, if he has, though undesignedly, committed any offence against her." After all, however, what a learned author said of another work I say of this:-"If it have merit, it will go down to posterity; if it have none, the sooner it dies and is forgot the better." 3 CHARLES BUCK. |