These titles were given by the popes of Rome. That of Fidei Defensor was first conferred by Lea X. on king Henry VIII. for writing against Mar tin Luther: and the bull for it bears date quinta idus, October 1521. It was afterwards confirmed by Clement VII. But the pope, on Henry's for if there were the least change in God's understanding, it would be an instance of imperfection, Mal. iii. 6.-5. They are extensive or universal, relating to all creatures and things in heaven, earth, and hell, Eph. i. 11. Prov. xvi. 4.-6. They are secret, or at least cannot be known till he be pleased to discover them. It is therefore presump-suppressing the houses of religion, at the time of tion for any to attempt to enter into or judge of the Reformation, not only deprived him of his title, his secret purpose, or to decide upon what he has but deposed him from his crown also; though in not revealed, Deut. xxix. 29. Nor is an unknown the 35th year of his reign, his title, &c. was conor supposed decree at any time to be the rule of firmed by parliament, and has continued to be our conduct. His revealed will alone must be used by all his successors. Chamberlayne says, considered as the rule by which we are to judge the title belonged to the kings of England before of the event of things, as well as of our conduct that time, and for proof hereof appeals to several at large, Rom. xi. 34.-7. Lastly, they are effec-charters granted to the University of Oxford: so tual; for as he is infinitely wise to plan, so he is that pope Leo's bull was only a renovation of infinitely powerful to perform: his counsel shall an ancient right. stand, and he will do all his pleasure, Isa. xlvi. 10. DEGRADATION, Ecclesiastical, is the deThis doctrine should teach us, 1. Admiration. privation of a priest of his dignity. We have an "He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his instance of it in the eighth century at Constantiways are judgment; a God of truth, and without nople, in the person of the patriarch Constantine, iniquity; just and right is he," Deut. xxxii. 4.—who was made to go out of the church backwards, 2. Reverence. "Who would not fear thee, O stripped of his pallium, and anathematized. In King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain," our own country, Cranmer was degraded by orJer. x. 7.-3. Humility. "O the depth of the der of the bloody queen Mary. They dressed him riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of in episcopal robes, made only of canvass; put the God!-how unsearchable are his judgments, and mitre on his head, and the pastoral staff in his his ways past finding out!" Rom. xi. 33.-4. Sub-hand, and in this attire showed him to the people, mission. For he doeth according to his will in and then stripped him piece by piece. the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants DEISTS, a class of people whose distinguishof the earth; and none can stay his hand, or saying character it is, not to profess any particular unto him, What doest thou?" Dan. iv. 35.- form or system of religion; but only to acknow5. Desire for heaven. "What I do, thou know-ledge the existence of a God, and to follow the est not now; but thou shalt know hereafter," light and law of Nature, rejecting revelation and John xiii. 7. See NECESSITY, PREDESTINATION. opposing Christianity. The name of deists seems DECREES of Councils are the laws made by to have been first assumed, as the denomination them to regulate the doctrine and policy of the of a party, about the middle of the 16th century, church. Thus the acts of the Christian council by some gentlemen in France and Italy, who at Jerusalem are called, Acts xvi. 4. were desirous of thus disguising their opposition to Christianity by a more honourable appellation than that of atheists. Viret, an eminent reformer, mentions certain persons in his epistle dedicatory, prefixed to the second volume of his Instruction DECRETAL, a letter of a pope, determining some point or question in the ecclesiastical law. The decretals compose the second part of the canon law. The first genuine one, acknowledged by all the learned as such, is a letter of pope Si-Chrétienne, published in 1653, who called themrícius, written in the year 385, to Himerus, bishop of Tarragona, in Spain, concerning some disorders which had crept into the churches of Spain. Gratian published a collection of decretals, containing all the ordinances made by the popes till the year 1150. Gregory IX. in 1227, following the example of Theodosius and Justinian, formed a constitution of his own, collecting into one body all the decisions and all the causes which served to advance the papal power; which collection of decretals was called the Pentateuch, because it contained five books. selves by a new name, that of deists. These, he tells us, professed to believe in God, but showed no regard to Jesus Christ, and considered the doctrine of the apostles and evangelists as fables and dreams. He adds, that they laughed at all religion, though they outwardly conformed to the religion of those with whom they lived, or whom they wished to please, or feared to offend. Some, he observed, professed to believe the immortality of the soul; others denied both this doctrine and that of providence. Many of them were considcred as persons of acute and subtle genius, and took pains in disseminating their notions. The deists hold, that, considering the multiplicity of DEDICATION, a religious ceremony, whereby any person or thing is solemnly consecrated, or set apart to the service of God and the pur-religions, the numerous pretences to revelation, poses of religion. The use of dedication is very ancient, both among the worshippers of the true God, and among the heathens. In the Scripture we meet with dedications of the tabernacle, altars, &c. Under Christianity dedication is only applied to a church, and is properly the consecration thereof. See CONSECRATION. and the precarious arguments generally advanced in proof thereof, the best and surest way is to return to the simplicity of nature, and the belief of one God; which is the only truth agreed to by all nations. They complain, that the freedom of thinking and reasoning is oppressed under the yoke of religion, and that the minds of men are tyrannized over, by the necessity imposed upon DEFENCE. See SELF-DEFENCE. them of believing inconceivable mysteries; and DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, (Fidei contend that nothing should be required to be asDefensor,) a peculiar title belonging to the king sented to or believed but what their reason clearly of England; as Catholicus to the king of Spain, conceives. The distinguishing character of moand Christianissimus to the king of France.dern deists is, that they discard all pretences to DEISTS revelation as the effects of imposture or enthusis. They profess a regard for natural religion, though they are far from being agreed in their notions concerning it. DELUGE taire, Rousseau, Condorcet, and many other celebrated French authors, have rendered themselves conspicuous by their deistical writings. "But," as one observes, "the friends of Christianity have They are classed by some of their own writers no reason to regret the free and unreserved disinto mortal and immortal deists: the latter cussion which their religion has undergone. Obacknowledging a future state; and the former jections have been stated and urged in their full denying it, or representing it as very uncertain. force, and as fully answered; arguments and Dr. Clarke distinguishes four sorts of deists. 1. raillery have been repelled; and the controversy Those who pretend to believe the existence of an between Christians and deists has called forth a eternal, infinite, independent, intelligent Being, great number of excellent writers, who have ilwho made the world, without concerning himself lustrated both the doctrines and evidences of in the government of it.-2. Those who believe Christianity in a manner that will ever reflect the being and natural providence of God, but honour on their names, and be of lasting service deny the difference of actions as morally good or to the cause of genuine religion, and the best inevil, resolving it into the arbitrary constitution of terests of mankind." See articles CHRISTIANITY, human laws; and therefore they suppose that INFIDELITY, INSPIRATION, and SCRIPTURE, in God takes no notice of them. With respect to this work. Leland's View of Deistical Writers; both these classes, he observes, that their opinions Sermons at Boyle's Lecture; Halyburton's Nacan consistently terminate in nothing but down-tural Religion insufficient; Leslie's Short Meright atheism.—3. Those who, having right ap-thod with the Deists; Bishop Watson's Apology prehensions concerning the nature, attributes, for the Bible; Fuller's Gospel of Christ its own and all-governing providence of God, seem also to Witness; Bishop Porteus's Charge to the Clerhave some notion of his moral perfections; though gy, for 1794; and his Summary of the Evithey consider them as transcendant, and such in dences of Christianity. nature and degree, that we can form no true juigment, nor argue with any certainty concernmg them: but they deny the immortality of human souls; alleging that men perish at death, and that the present life is the whole of human existence.-4. Those who believe the existence, perfections, and providence of God, the obligations of natural religion, and a state of future retributon, on the evidence of the light of Nature, without a divine revelation; such as these, he says, are the only true deists: but their principles, he Men who have not paid that regard to sacred agrehends, should lead them to embrace Chris- history which it deserves, have cavilled at the actunity; and therefore he concludes that there is count given of an universal deluge. Their obnow no consistent scheme of deism in the world.jections principally turn upon three points: 1. The first deistical writer of any note that ap- The want of any direct history of that event by peared in this country, was Herbert, baron of the profane writers of antiquity.-2. The ap Cherbury. He lived and wrote in the seven-parent impossibility of accounting for the quanteenth century. His book De Veritate was first published at Paris in 1621. This, together with his book De Causis Errorum, and his treatise De Religione Laici, were afterwards published in London. His celebrated work De Religione Gentilium was published at Amsterdam in 1663 To the above arguments we oppose the plain in Ito, and in 1700 in 8vo.; and an English declarations of Scripture. God declared to Noah translation of it was published at London in that he was resolved to destroy every thing that 17. As he was one of the first that formed had breath under heaven, or had life on the earth, deism into a system, and asserted the sufliciency, by a flood of waters; such was the threatening, universality, and absolute perfection of natural such was the execution. The waters, Moses religion, with a view to discard all extraordinary assures us, covered the whole earth, buried all the revelation as useless and needless, we shall sub-mountains; every thing perished therein that had jota the five fundamental articles of this universal life, excepting Noah and those with him in the religion. They are these: 1. There is one su- ark. Can an universal deluge be more clearly preme God.-2. That he is chiefly to be wor-expressed? If the deluge had only been partial, shipped.-3. That piety and virtue are the prin- there had been no necessity to spend a hundred cipal part of his worship.-4. That we must re- years in the building of an ark, and shutting up peat of our sins; and if we do so, God will par- all sorts of animals therein, in order to re-stock don them.-5. That there are rewards for good the world: they had been easily and readily men and punishments for bad men, both here and brought from those parts of the world not overhereafter. A number of advocates have appeared flowed into those that were; at least, all the birds in the same cause; and however they may have never would have been destroyed, as Moses says 5 red among themselves, they have been agreed they were, so long as they had wings to bear in their attempts at invalidating the evidence and them to those parts where the flood did not reach. authority of divine revelation. We might men- If the waters had only overtlowed the neighbourton Hobbes, Blount, Toland, Collins, Wool-hood of the Euphrates and the Tigris, they could Sa Tindal, Morgan, Chubb, lord Bolingbroke, Hune, Gibbon, Paine, and some add lord Shaftesbury to the number. Among foreigners, Vol DEITY OF CHRIST. See JESUS CHRIST. DELUGE, the flood which overflowed and destroyed the earth. This flood makes one of the most considerable epochas in chronology. Its history is given by Moses, Gen. vi. and vii. Its time is fixed by the best chronologers to the year from the creation 1656, answering to the year before Christ 2293. From this flood, the state of the world is divided into diluvian and ante- . dilurian. 113 P tity of water necessary to overflow the whole earth to such a depth as it is said to have been.— And, 3. There appearing no necessity for an universal deluge, as the same end might have been accomplished by a partial one. not be fifteen cubits above the highest mountains; there was no rising that height but they must spread themselves, by the laws of gravity, over K 2 DEPRECATORY DESTRUCTIONISTS Greek church is deprecative, thus expressedMay God absolve you; whereas in the Latin church it is declarative-I absolve you. the rest of the earth; unless perhaps they had been retained there by a miracle; in that case, Moses, no doubt, would have related the miracle, as he did that of the waters of the Red Sea, &c. DESCENT of Christ into Hell. See HELL. It may also be observed, that in regions far remote DESERTION, a term made use of to denote from the Euphrates and Tigris, viz. Italy, France, an unhappy state of mind, occasioned by the senSwitzerland, Germany, England, &c. there are sible influences of the divine favour being with frequently found, in places many scores of leagues drawn. Some of the best men in all ages have from the sea, and even in the tops of high moun-suffered a temporary suspension of divine enjoytains, whole trees sunk deep under ground, as ments, Job xxix. 2; Ps. li; Isa. xlix. 14; Lam. also teeth and bones of animals, fishes entire, sea iii. 1; Isa. i. 10. The causes of this must not be shells, ears of corn, &c. petrified; which the best attributed to the Almighty, since he is always the naturalists are agreed could never have come same, but must arise from ourselves. Neglect of there but by the deluge. That the Greeks and duty, improper views of Providence, self-conwestern nations had some knowledge of the flood, fidence, a worldly spirit, lukewarmness of mind, has never been denied; and the Mussulmen, inattention to the means of grace, or open transChinese, and Americans, have traditions of the gression, may be considered as leading to this deluge. The ingenious Mr. Bryant, in his My-state. As all things, however, are under the thology, has pretty clearly proved that the deluge, divine controul, so even desertion, or, as it is so far from being unknown to the heathen world sometimes expressed in Scripture, "the hidings at large, is in reality conspicuous throughout every one of their acts of religious worship. In India, also, Sir William Jones has discovered, that in the oldest mythological books of that country, there is such an account of the deluge as corresponds sufficiently with that of Moses. of God's face," may be useful to excite humility, exercise faith and patience, detach us from the world, prompt to more vigorous action, bring us to look more to God as the fountain of happiness, conform us to his word, and increase our desires for that state of blessedness which is to come. Herrey's Ther. and Asp. dial. xix.; Watts's Medit. on Job, xxiii. 3; Lambert's Ser. vol. i. ser. 16; Flarel's Works, vol. i. p. 167. folio. Various have been the conjectures of learned men as to the natural causes of the deluge. Some have supposed that a quantity of water was created on purpose, and at a proper time anni- DESIRE is an eagerness to obtain or enjoy hilated by Divine power. Dr. Burnet supposes an object which we suppose to be good. Those the primitive earth to have been no more than a desires, says Dr. Watts, that arise without any crust investing the water contained in the ocean; express ideas of the goodness or agreeableness of and in the central abyss, which he and others their object to the mind beforehand, such as hunsuppose to exist in the bowels of the earth at the ger, thirst, &c., are called appetites. Those time of the flood, this outward crust broke in a which arise from our perception or opinion of an thousand pieces, and sunk down among the water, object as good or agreeable, are most properly which thus spouted up in vast cataracts and over-called passions. Sometimes both these are united. flowed the whole surface. Others, supposing a If our desire to do or receive good be not violent, sufficient fund of water in the sea or abyss, think it is called a simple inclination or propensity. that the shifting of the earth's centre of gravity When it rises high, it is termed longing: when drew after it the water out of the channel, and our desires set our active powers at work to obtain overwhelmed the several parts of the earth suc- the very same good, or the same sort of good, cessively. Others ascribe it to the shock of a which another desires, it is called emulation. comet; and Mr. King supposes it to arise from Desirè of pleasures of sense, is called sensuality; subterraneous fires bursting forth with great vio-of honour, is called ambition; of riches, coretouslence under the sea. But are not most, if not allness. The objects of a good man's desires are, these hypotheses quite arbitrary, and without that God may be glorified, his sins forgiven and foundation from the words of Moses? It is, per-subdued, his affections enlivened and placed on haps, in vain to attempt accounting for this event by natural causes, it being altogether miraculous and supernatural, as a punishment to men for the corruption then in the world. Let us be satisfied with the sources which Moses gives us, namely, the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven opened; that is, the waters rushed out from the hidden abyss of the bowels of the earth, and the clouds poured down their rain incessantly. Let it suffice us to know, that all the elements are under God's power; that he can do with them as he pleases, and frequently in ways we are ignorant of, in order to accomplish his own purposes. The principal writers on this subject have been Woodyard, Cockburn, Bryant, Burnet, Whiston, Stillingfleet, King, Calcott, Tytler, and Worthington. DEPRAVITY, corruption, a change from perfection to imperfection. See FALL, SIN. DEPRECATORY, a term applied to the manner of performing some ceremonies in the form of prayer. The form of absolution in the God as the supreme object of love, his afflictions sanctified, and his life devoted to the service of God. Prov. xi. 23; Ps. cv. 19. DESPAIR, loss of hope; that state of mind in which a person loses his confidence in the divine mercy. Some of the best antidotes against despair, says one, may be taken from the consideration, 1. Of the nature of God, his goodness, mercy, &c.2. The testimony of God: he hath said, he desireth not the death of the sinner.-3. From the works of God: he hath given his son to die.4. From his promises, Heb. xiii. 5.-5. From his command: he hath commanded us to confide in his mercy.-6. From his expostulations, &c. DESTRUCTIONISTS, those who believe that the final punishment threatened in the Gospel to the wicked and imperitent consists not in an eternal preservation in misery and torment, but in a total extinction of being; and that the sen DESTRUCTIONISTS tence of annihilation shall be executed with more or less torment, preceding or attending the final period, in proportion to the greater or less guilt of the criminal. DESTRUCTIONISTS bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, and is destroyed; as the useless chaff, when separated from the good grain, is set on fire, and, if the fire be not quenched, is consumed: so, he thinks, it plainly appears, that the intended to signify the degree or duration of torment, but the absolute certainty of destruction, beyond all possibility of recovery. So the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to have suffered the vengeance of an eternal fire, that is, they were so effectually consumed, or destroyed, that they could never be rebuilt; the phrase, eternal fire, signifying the irrevocable destruction of those cities, not the degree or duration of the misery of the inhabitants who perished. The name assumed by this denomination, like those of many others, takes for granted the ques-image of unquenchable or everlasting fire is not tion in dispute, viz. that the Scripture word destruction means annihilation: in strict propriety of speech, they should be called Annihilationists. The doctrine is largely maintained in the sermons of Mr. Samuel Bourn, of Birmingham; it was held, also, by Mr J. N. Scott; Mr. John Taylor, of Norwich; Mr. Marsom, and many others. The images of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched, used in Mark ix. 43, are set in opposition to entering into life, and intended to denote a period of life and existence. Our Saviour expressly assigns different degrees of future misery, in proportion to men's respective degree of guilt, Luke xii. 47, 48. But if all wicked men shall suffer torments without end, how can any of them be said to suffer but a few stripes? All degrees and distinctions of punishment seem swallowed up in the notion of neverending or infinite misery. In defence of the system, Mr. Bourn argues as follows:-There are many passages of Scripture in which the ultimate punishment to which wicked men shall be adjudged is defined, in the most precise and intelligible terms, to be an everlasting destruction from the power of God, which is equally able to destroy as to preserve. So when our Saviour is fortifying the minds of his disciples against the power of men, by an awe of the far greater power of God, and the punishment of his justice, he expresseth himself thus: Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; fear him who'is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Here he plainly proposes the destruction of the soul (not its endless pain and misery) as the ultimate object of the divine displeasure, and the greatest object of our fear. And when he says, These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal, it appears evident that by that eternal punishment which is set in opposition tory of his eternal life, is not meant any kind of life, however miserable, but the same which the apostle expresses by ererlasting destruction from the presence and porter of the Lord. The very term, death, is most frequently made use of to signify the end of wicked men in another world, or the final effect of divine justice in their punishment. The rages of sin (saith the apostle) is death; but eternal life is the gift of God, through Christ Jerus our Lord. See also Rom. viii. 6. To imagine that by the term death is meant an eternal life, though in a condition of extreme misery, seems, according to him, to be confounding all propriety and meaning of words. Death, when applied to the end of wicked men in a future state, he says, properly denotes a total extinction of life and being. It may contribute, he adds, to fix this meaning, if we observe that the state to which temporal death reduces men is usually termed by our Saviour and his apostles, sleep; because from this death the soul shall be raised to life again: but from the other, which is fully and properly death, and of which the former is but an image or shadow, there is no recovery; it is an eternal death, an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power. He next proceeds to the figures by which the eternal punishment of wicked men is described, and finds them perfectly agreeing to establish the same doctrine. One figure or comparison, often ed, is that of combustible materials thrown into a fire, which will consequently be entirely consumed, if the fire be not quenched. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. The meaning is, a total, irrevocable destruction: for, as the tree that Finally, death and eternal destruction, or annihilation, is properly styled in the New Testament an everlasting punishment, as it is irrevocable and unalterable for ever; and it is most strictly and literally styled, an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glopowder. Dr. Edwards, in his answer to Dr. Chauncey, on the salvation of all men, says that this scheme was provisionally retained by Dr. C.; i. c. in case the scheme of universal salvation should fail him; and therefore Dr. E., in his examination of that work, appropriates a chapter to the consideration of it. Among other reasonings against it are the following: 1. The different degrees of punishment which the wicked will suffer according to their works, proves that it does not consist in annihilation, which admits of no degrees. 2. If it be said that the punishment of the wicked, though it will end in annihilation, yet shall be preceded by torment, and that this will be of different degrees, according to the degrees of sin; it may be replied, this is making it to be compounded partly of torment, and partly of annihilation. The latter also appears to be but a small part of future punishment, for that alone will be inflicted on the least sinner, and on account of the least sin; and that all punishment which will be inflicted on any person above that which is due to the least sin, is to consist in torment. Nay, if we can form any idea in the present state of what would be dreadful or desirable in another, instead of its being any punishment to be annihilated after a long series of torment, it must be a deliverance, to which the sinner would look forward with anxious desire. And is it credible that this was the termination of torment that our Lord held up to his disciples as an object of dread? Can this be the destruction of body and soul in hell? Is it credible that everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, should constitute only a part, and a small part, of future punishment; and such too, DEUTEROCANONICAL DETRACTION as, after a series of torment, must, next to being all kinds of persons, qualities, and actions, but made happy, be the most acceptable thing that detraction especially respects worthy persons, could befal them? Can this be the object threat-good qualities, and laudable actions, the reputa ened by such language, as recompensing tribulation of which it aimeth to destroy. It is a fault tion, and taking vengeance in flaming fire? 2 opposed to candour. Thess. i. Is it possible that God should threaten them with putting an end to their miseries? Moreover, this destruction is not described as the conclusion of a succession of torments, but as taking place immediately after the last judgment. When Christ shall come to be glorified in his saints, then shall the wicked be destroyed. Nothing can be more incongruous with the spirit of the Gospel, the example of Christ, the command of God, and the love of mankind, than a spirit of detraction; and yet there are many who never seem happy but when they are employed in this work; they feed and live upon the supposed infirmities of others; they allow excellence to none; they depreciate every thing that is praiseworthy; and, possessed of no good themselves, they think all others are like them. s ( ) ! 3. Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, cannot mean annihilation, for that would be no exertion of divine power, but merely the suspen-my soul, come thou not into their secret; unto sion of it; for let the upholding power of God be their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united." withheld for one moment, and the whole creation DEVIL, ABs, calumniator, or slanderer; would sink into nothing. a fallen angel, especially the chief of them. He 4. The punishment of wicked men will be the is called Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in same as that of wicked angels, Matt. xxv. 41. Greek, that is, destroyer.-Angel of the bottomDepart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared less pit, Rev. ix. 11.-Prince of the world, Joha for the devil and his angels. But the punish-xii. 31.-Prince of darkness, Eph. vi. 12.—A ment of wicked angels consists not in annihila-roaring lion, and an adversary, 1st Pet. v. 8.-A tion, but torment. Such is their present punishment in a degree, and such in a greater degree will be their punishment hereafter. They are "cast down to hell;" they "believe and tremble" they are reserved in chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day; they cried, saying, "What have we to do with thee? Art thou come to torment us before our time?" Could the devils but persuade themselves they: should be annihilated, they would believe and be at ease rather than tremble. sinner from the beginning, 1 John iii. 8.—Eeelzebub, Matt. xii. 21.-Accuser, Rev. xii. 10.— Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15.-Deceiver, Rev. xx. 10.— Dragon, Rev. xii. 3.-Liar, John viii. 41.-Leviathan, Isa. xxvii. 1-Murderer, John viii. 41.Serpent, Isa. xxvii. 1.-Satan, Job ii. 6.—Tormentor, Matt. xviii. 31.-The God of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4. See SATAN. DEVOTEE, in the primary sense of the word, means a person wholly given up to acts of piety and devotion; but it is usually understood, in a bad sense, to denote a bigot, or superstitious person. 5. The Scriptures explain their own meaning in the use of such terms as death, destruction, &c. The second death is expressly said to conDEVOTION, a religious and fervent exersist in being cast into the lake of fire and brim-cise of some public act of religion, or a temper stone; and as having a part in that lake, Rev. and disposition of the mind rightly affected was xx. 14; xxi. 8; which does not describe anni- such exercises. It is also taken for certain Telhilation, nor can it be made to consist with it.gious practices which a person makes it a rule to The phrase cut him asunder, Matt. xxiv. 51, is as strong as those of death or destruction; yet that is made to consist of having their portion with hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 6. The happiness of the righteous does not consist in eternal being, but eternal well-being; and as the punishment of the wicked stands every where opposed to it, it must consist, not in the loss of being, but of well-being, and in suffering the contrary. discharge regularly. "Wherever the vitol and unadulterated spirit of Christian devotion pievails, its immediate objects will be to adore the perfections of God; to entertain with reverence and complacence the various intimations of his pleasure, especially those contained in holy writ; to acknowledge our absolute dependence on and infinite obligations to him; to confess and lament the disorders of our nature, and the transgressions of our lives; to implore his grace and merey through Jesus Christ; to intercede for our breThe great Dr. Watts may be considered, in thren of mankind; to pray for the propagation some measure, a destructionist; since it was his and establishment of truth, righteousness, and opinion that the children of ungodly parents who peace, on earth; in fine, to long for a more endie in infancy are annihilated. See ANNIHILA-tire conformity to the will of God, and to breathe TION, HELL; Bourn's Sermons; Dr. Edwards on the salvation of all men strictly examined; Adams's View of Religion; M'Alla on Univer salism. after the everlasting enjoyment of his frien Siro, The effects of such a spirit habitually cherished, and feelingly expressed before him, must surely be important and happy. Among these may be DETRACTION, in the native importance reckoned a profound humility in the sivui t of the word, signifies the withdrawing or taking God, a high veneration for his presence and attrioff from a thing; and as it is applied to the repu-butes, an ardent zeal for his worship and honour, tation, it denotes the impairing or lessening a a constant imitation of our Saviour's divine exman in point of fame, rendering him less valued ample, a diffusive charity for men of all dencziand esteemed by others. Dr. Barrow observes nations, a generous and unwearied self-deni i, a (Works, vol. i. ser. 19,) that it differs from slan-total resignation to Providence, an increasing der, which involves an imputation of falsehood; esteem for the Gospel, with clearer and firmier from reviling, which includes bitter and foul hopes of that immortal life which it has brough language; and from censuring, which is of a to light" more general purport, extending indifferently to DEUTEROCANONICAL, in the school |