spiritual power is, nevertheless, in the hands || the sect of the Socinians seemed to be well of the people, without whose consent nothing of importance can be carried into execution. Their presbyters are, generally speaking, men of learning, and apply themselves with success to the study of physic and philosophy: and a public professor is supported, at present, by the sect at Amsterdam, for the instruction of their youth in the various branches of philosophy and sacred erudition.

VII. One of these Waterlandian sects divided itself, in 1664, into two factions, which were respectively called Galenists and Apostoolians, from the names of their two leaders. The founder of the former sect was Galen Abraham Haan, a doctor of physic, and pastor of a Mennonite congregation at Amsterdam, who received the applause even of his enemies, on account of his uncommon penetration and eloquence. This eminent Anabaptist, in imitation of the Arminians, considered the Christian religion as a system that laid much less stress upon faith than upon practice; and he was inclined to receive, into the communion of the Mennonites, all who acknowledged the divine origin of the books of the Old and New Testament, and led holy and virtuous lives. Such, in his judgment, were true Christians, and had an undoubted right to all the rights and privileges that belonged to that character. These comprehensive terms of communion were peculiarly favourable to his own theological sentiments, since his notions concerning Christ's divinity, and the salvation of mankind by his death and merits, were very different from those of the Mennonites, and coincided in a great measure with the Socinian system.

established, and their affairs were even in a flourishing condition. In Transylvania and Lucko, they enjoyed the liberty of holding, without molestation, their religious assemblies, and professing publicly their theological opinions. The advantages that attended their situation in Poland were still more considerable; for they had at Racow a public seminary, which was furnished with professors eminently distinguished by their erudition and genius, together with a press for the publication of their writings; they had also a considerable number of congregations in that district, and were supported by the patronage of several persons of the highest distinction. Elate with this scene of prosperity, they began to form more extensive views, and aimed at enlarging the borders of their community, and procuring it patrons and protectors in other countries. Authentic records are extant, from which it appears, that they sent emissaries with this view, about the commencement of the century, into Holland, England, Germany, and Prussia, who endeavoured to make proselytes to Socinianism in these countries, among men of learning and men in power; for it is remarkable, that the Socinians, in propagating their religious principles, have always followed a quite different method from that which has been observed by other sects. It has been the general practice of sectaries and innovators to endeavour to render themselves popular, and to begin by gaining the multitude to their side; but the disciples of Socinus, who are perpetually exalting the dignity, prerogatives, and authority of reason, have this peculiarity in their manner of proceeding, that they are at very little pains to court the favour of the people, or to make proselytes to their cause among those who are not distinguished from the multitude by their rank or their abilities; it is only among the learned and the great that they seek disciples and patrons with zealous assiduity.

Several persons opposed the sentiments of this latitudinarian, and more especially Samuel Apostool, an eminent pastor among the Mennonites at Amsterdam, who not only defended, with the utmost zeal, the doctrines generally received among the Mennonites, in relation to the divinity of Christ and the fruits of his death, but also maintained the ancient hypothesis of a II. The effect of the missions now menvisible and glorious church of Christ upon tioned, though they were conducted and exeearth, that was peculiar to this sect.* Thus a cuted by persons of whom the greatest part controversy was excited which produced the were eminent, both on account of their rank division now mentioned; a division which the and abilities, was nevertheless far from anzealous efforts of several of the wisest and most swering the views and expectations of the comrespectable members of this community have munity. In most places the success of the hitherto proved insufficient to heal. The Ga- cause was doubtful, at best inconsiderable; in lenists are not less disposed than the Arminians some, however, the missionaries were favoura to admit, as members of their community, all bly received, and seemed to employ their lawho call themselves Christians; and they are bours with effect. They had no where a more the only sect of the Anabaptists who reject the flattering prospect of success than in the unidenomination of Mennonites. The Apostoo-versity of Altorf, where their sentiments and lians, on the contrary, admit to their communion those only who profess to believe all the points of doctrine which are contained in their public confession of faith.†

their cause were promoted with dexterity by Ernest Sohner, an acute and learned cultivator of the peripatetic system, who was also professor of physic and natural philosophy. This subtle philosopher, who had joined the Socinians during his residence in Holland, instilled their principles into the minds of his scholars with much greater facility, by his having ac quired the highest reputation, both for learning and piety. The death, indeed, of this eminent man, which happened in 1612, deprived the rising society of its chief ornament and support; nor could the remaining friends of Socinianism carry on the cause of their commurity

with such art and dexterity, as to escape the || driven out of that country, some with the loss vigilant and severe eye of the other professors. of their property, others with the loss of their Their secret designs were accordingly brought | lives, as neither sickness, nor any domestic to light in 1616; and the contagion of Socin- consideration, could suspend the execution of janism, which was gathering strength from that rigorous sentence.* day to day, and growing imperceptibly into a reigning system, was suddenly dissipated and extinguished by the vigilant severity of the magistrates of Nuremberg. The foreign students, who had been infected with these doctrines, saved themselves by flight; while those natives, who were chargeable with the same reproach, accepted the remedies that were presented to them by the healing hand of orthodoxy, and returned quietly to their former theological system.*

IV. A part of these exiles, who sought refuge among their brethren in Transylvania, sunk under the burthen of their calamities, and perished amidst the hardships to which they were exposed. A considerable number of these unhappy emigrants were dispersed through the adjacent provinces of Silesia, Brandenburg, and Prussia; and their posterity still subsists in those countries. Several of the more eminent members of the sect, in consequence of the protection granted to them by the duke of Brieg, resided for some time at Crossen in Silesia. Others went in search of a convenient settlement for themselves and their brethren, into Holland, England, Holstein, and Den

vered such zeal and industry for the interests and establishment of the sect as Stanislaus Lubieniecius, a Polish knight, distinguished by his learning, and singularly esteemed by persons of the highest rank, and even by several sovereign princes, on account of his eloquence, politeness, and prudence. This illustrious patron of Socinianism succeeded so far in his designs, as to gain the favour of Frederic III. king of Denmark, of Christian Albert duke of Holstein, and Charles Louis elector Palatine; and thus he had almost obtained a secure retreat and settlement for the Socinians, about the year 1662, at Altena, Fredericstadt, and Manheim; but his measures were disconcerted, and all his hopes entirely frustrated, by the opposition and remonstrances of the clergy established in those countries; he was opposed in Denmark by Suaning bishop of Sealand, in Holstein by Reinboth, and in the Palatinate by John Louis Fabricius. Several other attempts were made, in different countries, in favour of Socinianism; but their success was still less considerable; nor could any of the European nations be persuaded to grant a public settlement to a sect, whose members denied the divinity of Christ.

III. The establishment of the Socinians in Poland, though it seemed to rest upon solid foundations, was nevertheless of a short duration. Its chief supports were withdrawn, in 1638, by a public decree of the diet. It hap-mark. Of all the Socinian exiles, none discopened in this year that some of the students of Racow vented, in an irregular and tumultuous manner, their religious resentment against a crucifix, at which they threw stones, till they beat it down out of its place. This act of violence excited such a high degree of indignation, in the catholics, that they vowed revenge, and severely fulfilled this vow; for it was through their importunate solicitations that the terrible law was enacted at Warsaw, by which it was resolved, that the college of Racow should be demolished, its professors banished with ignominy, the printing-house of the Socinians destroyed, and their churches shut. All this was executed without the smallest alleviation or the least delay, notwithstanding the efforts made by the powerful patrons of the Socinians to ward off the blow. But a catastrophe, still more terrible, awaited them; and the persecution now mentioned was the forerunner of that dreadful revolution, which, about twenty years afterwards, brought on the entire ruin of this community in Poland: for, by a public and solemn act of the diet holden at Warsaw, in 1658, all the Socinians were banished for ever from the territory of that republic, and capital punishment was denounced against all who should either profess their opinions, or harbour their persons. The unhappy exiles were, at first, allowed the space of three years to settle their affairs, and to dispose of their possessions; but this term was afterwards abriaged by the cruelty of their enemies, and reduced to two years. In 1661, the terrible edict was renewed; and all the Socinians that yet remained in Poland were barbarously

V. The remains, therefore, of this unfortunate community are, at this day, dispersed through different countries, particularly in the kingdoms of England and Prussia, the electorate of Brandenburg, and the United Frovinces, where they lie more or less concealed, and hold their religious assemblies in a clandestine manner. They are, indeed, said to exercise their religion publicly in England,§ not in conse

*The learned Gustavus George Zeltner, formerly * Stanislai Lubieniecii Hist. Reformat. Polonica professor of divinity in the university of Altorf, lib. iii. c. xvii. xviii. p. 279.—Equitis Poloni Vindicia composed an ample and learned account of this theo-pro Unitariorum in Polonia Religionis Libertate, logical revolution, drawn principally from manu- apud Sandium, p. 267. script records; which .Gebauer published at Leipsic, Lubieniecii Hist. cap. xviii. p. 285, where there in 1729, under the following title, "Historia Crypto- is a letter written by the Socinians of Crossen. Socinianismi Altorfinæ quondam Academiæ infesti, arcana."

We have a circumstantial account of the flourishing state of the Racovian seminary, while it was under the direction of the learned Martin Ruarus, in the Cimbria Literata of Moller, tom. i. p. 572, where we learn that Ruarus was a native of Holstein, who became a proselyte to the Socinian system.

Epistola de Wissowatii Vita in Sandii Bib. AntiTrinitar, p. 233.-Gust. Georg. Zeltneri His. CryptoSocinianismi Altorfini, vol. i. p. 299.

See Sandii Biblioth. p. 165.-Historia Vitæ Lubieniecii, prefixed to his History.-Molleri Introduc tio in Histor. Chersones. Cimbrice, p. ii. p. 105, and his Cimbria Literata, tom. 1. p. 483.-Jo. Henr. Heideggeri Vita Joh. Lud. Fabrich, subjoined to the works of the latter.

The Socinians in England have never made any figure as a community, but have rather been dispersed among the great variety of sects that have arisen in a country where liberty displays its most glorious fruits, and at the same time exhibits its

rate members of their community, though they all agree in rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, and that also of the divinity and satis faction of Jesus Christ.*

VI. After the Socinians, as there is a great affinity between the two sects, it is proper to mention the Arians, who had several celebrated writers in this century, such as Sandius and Biddle. Of those who also passed under the general denomination of Anti-Trinitarians and Unitarians, there are many that may be placed in the class of the Socinians and Arians; for the term Unitarian is very comprehensive, and is applicable to a great variety of persons, who agree in this common principle, that there is no real distinction in the divine nature. The denomination of Arian is also given in general to those who consider Jesus Christ as inferior and subordinate to the Father. But, as this subordination may be understood and explain

quence of a legal toleration, but through the indulgent connivance of the civil magistrate.* Some of them have embraced the communion of the Arminians; others have joined with those Anabaptists who form a sect distinguished by the name of Galenists; and in this there is nothing at all surprising, since neither the Arminians nor Anabaptists require, from those who enter into their communion, an explicit or circumstantial declaration of their religious sentiments. It is also said, that a considerable number of this dispersed community became members of the religious society called Collegiants. Amidst such frequent changes and vicissitudes, it was not possible that the Soc nians could maintain a uniform system of doctrine, or preserve unaltered and entire the religious tenets handed down to them by their ancestors. On the contrary, their peculiar and distinctive opinions are variously explained and understood both by the learned and illite-ed in various ways, it is evident that the term most striking inconveniences. Besides, few ecclesiastics, or writers of any note, have adopted the theological system now under consideration, in all its branches. The Socinian doctrine relating to the design and efficacy of the death of Christ had, indeed. many abettors in England during the seventeenth century; and it may be presumed, that its votaries are rather increased than diminished in the present; but those divines who have abandoned the Athanasian hypothesis concerning the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, have more generally gone into the Arian and Semi-Arian notions of that inexplicable subject, than into those of the Socinians, who deny that Jesus Christ existed before his appearance in the human nature. The famous John Biddle, after having maintained, both in public and in private,

Arian, as it is used in modern language, is susceptible of different significations; and that, in consequence, the persons to whom it is applied cannot be all considered in the same point of light with the ancient Arians, or supposed to agree perfectly with each other in their religious tenets.

CHAPTER VII.

Concerning some Sects of Inferior Note.

I. Ir will not be improper to take notice here of a few sects of inferior consequence and during the reign of Charles and the protectorship of note, which we could not conveniently men Cromwell, the Unitarian system, erected an Inde- tion in the history of the more extensive and pendent congregation in London, the only British important communities that we have been surchurch we have heard of, in which all the peculiar veying, and which, nevertheless, we cannot doctrines of Socinianism were inculcated; for, if While the disputes we may give credit to the account of Sir Peter Pett, omit, for several reasons. this congregation held the following notions: "That and tumults, produced in Holland in 1619 by the fathers under the old covenant had only tempo- the Arminian system, were at the greatest ral promises; that saving faith consisted in univer: height, a religious society arose, whose memsal obedience performed to the commands of God and Christ; that Christ rose again only by the power bers hold at Rhinsberg, near Leyden, a solemn of the Father, and not by his own; that justifying assembly in every half-year, and are generally faith is not the pure gift of God, but may be acquir-known by the denomination of Collegiants. ed by men's natural abilities; that faith cannot be.

lieve any thing contrary to, or above reason; that there is no original sin; that Christ has not the same body now in glory, in which he suffered and rose again; that the saints shall not have the same bodies in heaven which they had on earth; that Christ was not Lord or King before his resurrection, or Priest before his ascension: that the saints shall not, before the day of judgment, enjoy the bliss of heaven; that God does not certainly know future contingencies; that there is not any authority of fathers or general councils in determining matters of faith; that Christ, before his death, had not any dominion over the angels; and that Christ, by dying, made not satisfaction for us." See the preface to Sir Peter Pett's Happy future State of England, printed in

1688.

This community was founded by three brothers, of the name of Vander-Kodde, who

* Many examples might be alleged in proof of this. It will be sufficient to mention that of the learned Crellius, who, though he was professor of theology among the Socinians, yet differed in his opinions about many points of doctrine, from the sentiments of Socinus and the Racovian Catechism, and would not be called a Socinian, but an Artemonite.* See the Journal Literaire, tom. xvii. part i. and the account I have given of this celebrated man in my Syntagm. Dissertationum ad sanctiores Disciplinas pertinentium, p. 352.-Unschuld. Nachricht. 1750, p. 942.-Nouveau Diction. Historique et Critique, tom. ii. p. 88.

This last citation is erroneous; there is no account of Crellius in the place here referred to.

For an account of Sandius, father and son, see Arnold and other writers. The life of Biddle is to

*The Socinians, who reside at present in the district of Mark, used to meet, some years ago, at stated times, at Koningswald, a village in the neighbourhood of Frankfort, on the Oder. See the Recueil de Literature, de Philosophie et d'Historie (pub- be found in the Nouveau Diction. Historique et Crilished at Amsterdam, in 1731,*) p. 44. They pub-tique, tom. i. p. ii. p. 288. Dr. Mosheim places lished, in 1716, at Berlin, their confession of faith, in the German language, which is to be found, with a refutation thereto annexed, in a book entitled, Den Theologischen Heb. Opfern, part x. p. 852.

This community, of which an account is given in the following chapter, called their religions meetings Colleges, that is, congregations or assemblies; and hence they were denominated Collegiants.

The author of this collection was one Jordan, who was pastor of a church in the neighbourhaid of Berlin.

Biddle improperly among the Arians; it is manifest that he belongs to the Socinian sect, since, in the third article of his Confession of Faith, he professes to believe that Christ has no other than & human na ture. See the Socinian Tracts, entitled, the Faith of one God, &c. published at London in 1691. See also notes [*t.]

See note [] in the preceding chapter.

After Artemon, who lived in the reign of th Emperor Severus, and denied the pre-existence an divinity of Jesus Christ.

II. In such a community, or rather amidst such a multitude as this, in which opinion is free, and every one is permitted to judge for himself in religious matters, dissensions and controversies can scarcely have place. How ever, a debate attended with some warmth, arose in 1672, between the merchants John and Paul Bredenburg, on one side, and Abraham Lemmerman and Francis Cuiper on the other John Bredenburg had erected a particular society, or college, in which he gave a course of lectures upon the religion of nature and reason; but this undertaking was highly disapproved by Lemmerman and Cuiper, who were for excluding reason altogether from religious inquiries and pursuits. During the heat of this controversy, Bredenburg discovered a manifest propensity toward the sentiments of Spinosa; he even defended them publicly, and yet, at the same time, professed a firm attachment to the Christian religion.† Other debates of less

* See the Dissertation sur les Usages de Ceux qu'on appelle en Hollande Collegiens et Rhinobour geois, in the Ceremonies Religieuses de tous les Peucontaining an account of the Collegiants, and pubples du Monde, tom. iv. p. 323; as also a Dutch book, lished by themselves in 1736, under the following ti tle: "De Oorspronck, Natuur, Handelwyze en Oogmerk der zo genaamde Rynburgsche Vergadering."

passed their days in the obscurity of a rural | be extremely different; that it is kept together life, and are said to have been men of eminent and its union maintained, not by the authority piety, well acquainted with sacred literature, of rulers and doctors, the force of ecclesiasti and great enemies to religious controversy. cal laws, the restraining power of creeds and They had for their associate Anthony Corne- confessions, or the influence of positive rites lius, a man also of a mean condition, and who and institutions, but merely by a zeal for the had no qualities that could give any degree of advancement of practical religion, and & deweight or credit to their cause. The descen- sire of drawing instruction from the study of dants and followers of these men acquired the the Scriptures.* name of Collegiants, because they called their religious assemblies Colleges. All are admitted to the communion of this sect who acknowledge the divinity of the Scriptures, and endeavour to live suitably to the precepts and doctrines contained in those writings, whatever their peculiar sentiments may be concerning the nature of the Deity and the truths of Christianity. Their numbers are very considerable in the provinces of Holland, Utrecht, East and West-Friseland. They meet twice in every week, namely, on Sundays and Wednesdays, for the purpose of divine worship; and, after singing a psalm or hymn, and addressing themselves to the Deity by prayer, they explain a certain portion of the New Testament. The female members of the community are not allowed to speak in public; but all others, without any exception founded on rank, condition, or incapacity, have a right to communicate the result of their meditations to the assembly, and to submit their sentiments to the judgment of the brethren. All likewise have an unquestionable right to examine and oppose what has been advanced by any of the brethren, provided that their opposition be attended with a spirit of Christian charity and moderation. There is a printed list of the passages of Scripture, that are to be examined The names of John Bredenburg, and Francis and illustrated at each of their religious meet-Cuiper, are well known among the followers and adings; so that any one who is ambitious of ap- versaries of Spinosa; but the character and profespearing among the speakers, may study the sion of these two disputants are less generally known. Bredenburg, or (as he is otherwise called) subject beforehand, and thus come fully pre- Breitenburg, was a Collegiant, and a merchant of pared to descant upon it in public. The bre- Rotterdam, who propagated in a public manner the thren, as has been already observed, have a doctrine of Spinosa, and pretended to demonstrate general assembly twice a year at Rhinsberg, mathematically its conformity to the dictates of reawhere they have ample and convenient houses ty, but moreover explained, recommended, and mainson. The same man not only professed Christianifor the education of orphans and the reception tained the Christian religion in the meetings of the of strangers; and there they remain together Collegiants, and asserted, on all occasions, its divine original. To reconcile these striking contradictions, during the space of four days, which are emhe declared, on one hand, that reason and Christiployed in hearing discourses that tend to edifi- anity were in direct opposition to each other; but cation, and exhortations which are principally maintained, on the other, that we were obliged to designed to inculcate brotherly love and sancbelieve, even against the evidence of the strongest mathematical demonstrations, the religious doctrines tity of manners. The sacrament of the Lord's comprehended in the Scriptures; (this, indeed, was supper is also administered during this assem- adding absurdity to absurdity.) He affirmed, that bly; and those adult persons who desire to be truth was two-fold, theological and philosophical: and that those propositions, which were false in thebaptized, receive the sacrament of baptism, acology, were true in philosophy. There is a brief but cording to the ancient and primitive manner accurate account of the character and sentiments of ɔf celebrating that institution, that is, by im- Bredenburg, in the learned work of the Jew, Isaac mersion. Those Collegiants, who reside in Orobio, entitled, "Certamen Philosophicum propug natæ Veritatis, divinæ et naturalis, adversus Jo. the province of Friseland, have at present an Bredenburgii Principia, ex quibus, quod Religio Raannual meeting at Leewarden, where they ad- tioni repugnat, demonstrare nititur." This work, minister the sacraments, as the distance at which contains Bredenburg's pretended demonstrawhich they live from Rhinsberg renders it in- tions of the philosophy of Spinosa, was first published at Amsterdam in 1703, and afterwards at Brussels, convenient for them to repair thither twice a in 1731. His antagonist, Francis Cuiper, acquired a year. We shall conclude our account of these considerable reputation by his Arcana Atheismi desectaries by observing, that their community tecta, i. e. the secrets of Atheism detected. He was a is of a most ample and extensive kind; that it bookseller at An sterdam; and it was he that published, among other things, the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polocomprehends persons of all ranks, orders, and norum seu Unita. iorum. Those who have a tolerable sects, who profess themselves Christians, though their sentiments concerning the person and doctrine of the divine Founder of Christianity

acquaintance wit the literary history of this centu ry, know that Cui ver, on account of the very book which he wrote as ainst Bredenburg, was suspected of Spinocism, though he was a Collegiant, and a

consequence arose in this community; and the || of this sect, there were some, whose learning effect was a division of the Collegiants into wo parties, which held their assemblies separately at Rhinsberg. This division happened in 1686; but it was healed about the commencement of the following century, by the death of those who had principally occasioned it; and then the Collegiants returned to their former union and concord.*

and abilities gave it a certain degree of credit and reputation, particularly Anna Maria Schur man, of Utrecht, whose extensive erudition rendered her so famous in the republic of let ters. The members of this community, if we may judge of them by their own account, did not differ from the reformed church so much in their tenets and doctrines, as in their manners and rules of discipline;* for their founder exhibited in his own conduct a most austere model of sanctity and obedience, which his disciples and followers were obliged to imitate; and they were taught to look for the communion of saints, not only in the invisible church, but also in a visible one, which, according to their views of things, ought to be composed of none but such persons as were distinguished by their sanctity and virtue, and by a pious progress toward perfection. There are still extant several treatises composed by Labadie, which sufficiently discover the temper and spirit of the man, and bear evident marks of a lively and glowing imagination, not tempered by the influence of a sober and accurate judg

III. The Labadists were so called from their founder John Labadie, a native of France, a man of no mean genius, and remarkable for a natural and masculine eloquence. This man was born in the Romish communion, entered into the order of the Jesuits, and, being dismissed by them, became a member of the reformed church, and exercised with reputation the ministerial functions in France, Switzerland, and Holland. He at length erected a new community, which resided successively at Middleburg in Zealand, and at Amsterdam. In 1670, it was transplanted to Hervorden in Westphalia, at the particular desire of the princess Elizabeth, daughter of the elector Palatine, and abbess of Hervorden. It was soon driven from that part of Germany, notwith-ment; standing the protection of this illustrious princess; and, in 1672, settled at Altena, where its founder died two years after his arrival. After the death of Labadie, his followers removed the wandering community to Wiewert, in the district of North-Holland, where it found a peaceful retreat, and soon fell into oblivion; so that few, if any, traces of it are now to be found.

Among the persons that became members zealous defender of the Christian faith, as also of the perfect conformity that subsists between right reason and true religion. Dr. Mosheim said a little before, in the text, that Lemmerman and Cuiper were for excluding reason altogether from religion; how then can he consistently say here of the latter, that he was a defender of the conformity between reason and religion?

* Beside the authors who have been already men. tioned, those who understand the German language may consult the curious work of Simon Frederic Rues, entitled, "Nachrichten vom Zustande der Mennoniten," p. 267.

From this expression of our author, some may be led to imagine that Labadie was expelled by the Jesuits from their society; and many have, in effect, entertained this notion. But this is a palpable mistake; and whoever will be at the pains of consulting the letter of the abbe Goujet to father Niceron (published in the Memoires des Hommes illustres, tom. xx. p. 142,) will find that Labadie had long solicited his discharge from that society, and, after many refusals, obtained it at length in an honourable manner, by a public act signed at Bordeaux, by one of the provincials, on the 17th of April, 1639. For a full account of this restless, turbulent, and visionary man, who, by his plans of reformation, conducted by a zeal destitute of prudence, produced much tumult and disorder, both in the Romish and reformed churches, see his Life, composed with learning, impartiality, and judgment, by M. Chauffepeid, and inserted in that author's Supplement to Bayle.

This illustrious princess seems to have had as strong a taste for fanaticism as her grandfather king James I. of England had for scholastic theology. She carried on a correspondence with Penn, the famous Quaker, and other members of that extravagant sect. She is, nevertheless, celebrated by certain writers, on account of her application to the study of philosophy and poetry. That a poetical fancy may have rendered her susceptible of fanatical impressions, is not impossible; but how these impressions could be reconciled with a philosophical spirit, is more difficult to imagine.

and, as persons of this character are sometimes carried, by the impetuosity of pas

Labadie always declared, that he embraced the doctrines of the reformed church. Nevertheless, when he was called to perform the ministerial functions to a French church at Middleburgh in Zealand, he refused to subscribe its confession of faith. Besides, if we examine his writings, we shall find that he entertained very odd and singular opinions on various subjects. He maintained, among other things, "that God may and does, on certain occasions, deceive men; that the Scriptures are not suf ficient to lead men to salvation, without certain particular illuminations and revelations from the Holy Ghost; that, in reading them, we ought to give less attention to the literal sense of the words, than to the inward suggestions of the spirit, and that the efficacy of the word depends upon the preacher;that the faithful ought to have all things in common; that there is no subordination or distinction of rank in the true church of Christ;-that Christ is to reign a thousand years upon earth; that the contemplative life is a state of grace and union with God, and the very height of perfection; that the Christian, whose mind is contented and calm, sees all things in God, enjoys the Deity, and is perfectly indifferent about every thing that passes in the world; and that the Christian arrives at that happy state by the exercise of a perfect self-denial, by mortifying the flesh and all sensual affections, and by mental prayer." Beside these, he had formed singu. lar ideas of the Old and New Testaments, consider. ed as covenants, as also concerning the Sabbath, and the true nature of a Christian church.

It is remarkable, that almost all the sectaries of an enthusiastical turn were desirous of entering into communion with Labadie. The Brownists offe ed him their church at Middleburg, when he was sɩ s. pended by the French synod from his pastoral func. tions. The Quakers sent their two leading mem bers, Robert Barclay and George Keith, to Amsterdam, while he resided there, to examine his doctrine; and, after several conferences with him, these commissioners offered to receive him into their communion, which he refused, probably from a principle of ambition, and the desire of remaining head of a sect. It is even said, that the famous William Penn made a second attempt to gain over the Labadists; and that he went for that purpose to Wiewert, where they resided after the death of their founder, but without success. We do not pretend to answer for the truth of these assertions, but shall only observe, that they are related by Moller, in his Cimbria Literata, on the authority of a manuscript journal, of which several extracts have been given by Joach. Fred. Feller, in his Trimest. ix Monumentorum ine ditorum, sect. iii. A. 1717. p. 498-500