sion of some tremendous event. It keeps the mind in a perpetual alarm, in an eager watchfulness of every circumstance that bears any relation to the evil apprehended.

tended by a prodigious number of people, ascended the tree, dressed in white; and, with a consecrated golden knife, or pruning hook, cropped the misletoe, which he received in his robe, amidst the rapturous exclamations of the people. Having secured this sacred plant, he descended the tree; the bulls were sacrificed; and the Deity invoked to bless his own gift, and render it effica cious in those distempers in which it should be administered.

preme Being, who made his abode in these sacred groves, governed the uni. verse; and that every creature ought to obey his laws, and pay him divine homage. They considered the oak as DRUIDS, the priests or ministers of the emblem, or rather the peculiar rereligion among the ancient Gauls, Bri- sidence of the Almighty; and accordtons, and Germans. They were chosen ingly chaplets of it were worn both by out of the best families; and the ho- the druids and people, in their religious nours of their birth, joined with those of ceremonies: the altars were strewed their function, procured thein the high- with its leaves, and encircled with its est veneration among the people. They branches. The fruit of it, especially were versed in astrology, geometry, the misletoe, was thought to contain a natural philosophy, politics, and geo- divine virtue, and to be the peculiar graphy; they were the interpreters of gift of Heaven. It was, therefore, religion, and the judges of all affairs sought for on the sixth day of the moon indifferently. Whoever refused obedi- with the greatest earnestness and anxence to them was declared impious and iety; and when found, was hailed with accursed. We know but little as to such rapture of joy, as almost exceeds their peculiar doctrines, only that they imagination to conceive. As soon as the believed the immortality of the soul, druids were informed of the fortunate and, as is generally also supposed, the discovery, they prepared every thing transmigration of it to other bodies; ready for the sacrifice under the oak, though a late author makes it appear to which they fastened two white bulls highly probable they did not believe by the horns; then the arch-druid, atthis last, at least not in the sense of the Pythagoreans. The chief settlement of the Druids in Britain was in the isle of Anglesey, the ancient Mona, which they might choose for this purpose, as it is well stored with precious groves of their favourite oak. They were divided into several classes or branches, such as the priests the poets, the augurs, the civil judges, and instructors of youth. Strabo, however, does not comprehend all these different orders under the denomination of druids; he only distin- DRUNKENNESS, intoxication with guishes three kinds; bardi, poets; the strong liquor. It is either actual or havates, priests and naturalists; and the bitual; just as it is one thing to be drunk, druids, who, besides the study of nature, and another to be a drunkard. The evil applied themselves likewise to morality. of drunkenness appears in the following Their garments were remarkably bad effects: 1. It betrays most constitulong; and when employed in religious tions either to extravagance of anger, ceremonies, they likewise wore a white or sins of lewdness.-2. It disqualifies surplice. They generally carried a men for the duties of their station, both wand in their hands, and wore a kind by the temporary disorder of their fa of ornament, enchased with gold, about culties, and at length by a constant intheir necks, called the druid's egg. capacity and stupefaction.-3. It is at. They had one chief, or arch-druid, in tended with expense, which can often every nation, who acted as high priest, be ill spared.-4. It is sure to occasion or pontifex maximus. He had absolute uneasiness to the family of the drunkauthority over the rest, and command- ard.-5. It shortens life.-6. It is a most ed, decreed, and punished at pleasure. pernicious awful example to others.-7. They worshipped the Supreme Being It is hardly ever cured.-8. It is a vio under the name of Esus or Hesus, and lation of God's word, Prov. xx. 1. Eph. the symbol of the oak; and had no v. 18. Is. v. 11. Rom. xiii. 13. other temple than a wood or a grove, appetite for intoxicating liquor appears where all their religious rites were per- to me," says Paley, "to be almost alformed. Nor was any person permitted ways acquired. One proof of which is, to enter that sacred recess unless he that it is apt to return only at particular carried with him a chain in token of his times and places; as after dinner, in absolute dependence on the Deity. In the evening, on the market-day, in sus deed, their whole religion originally a company, at such a tavern." consisted in acknowledging that the Su- careful, then, should we be, lest w

"The

form habits of this kind, or choose company who are addicted to it; how cautious and circumspect should we act, that we be not found guilty of a sin which degrades human nature, banishes reason, insults God, and exposes us to the greatest evils! Palcy's Mor. Phil. vol. ii. ch. 5. Flavel's Works, vol. ii. p. 349; Buck's Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 82, 5th edition; Lamont's Ser., vol. i. ser. 15,

16.

rules of their society not allowing them flesh, except on particular occasions, when they hold what they call a lovefeast; at which time the brethren and sisters dine together in a large apartment, and eat mutton; but no other meat. In each of their little cells they have a bench fixed, to serve the purpose of a bed, and a small block of wood for a pillow. The Dunkers allow of no intercourse between the brethren DULCINISTS, the followers of Dul- and sisters, not even by marriage. cinus, a layman of Novara in Lombar- The principal tenets of the Dunkers apdy, about the beginning of the four-pear to be these; that future happiness teenth century. He taught that the law is only to be attained by penance and of the Father, which had continued till outward mortification in this life; and Moses, was a law of grace and wisdom; but that the law of the Holy Ghost, which began with himself 1307, was a law entirely of love, which would last to the end of the world.

DUNKERS, a denomination which took its rise in the year 1724. It was founded by a German, who, weary of the world, retired to an agreeable solitude within fifty miles of Philadelphia, for the more free exercise of religious contemplation. Curiosity attracted followers, and his simple and engaging manners made them proselytes. They soon settled a little colony, called Euphrate, in allusion to the Hebrews, who used to sing psalms on the borders of the river Euphrates. This denomination seem to have obtained their name from their baptizing their new converts by plunging. They are also called Tumblers, from the manner in which they performed baptism, which is by putting the person, while kneeling, head first under water, so as to resemble the motion of the body in the action of tumbling. They use the triune immersion, with laying on the hands and prayer, even when the person baptized is in the water.

that, as Jesus Christ by his meritorious sufferings, became the Redeemer of mankind in general, so each individual of the human race, by a life of absti nence and restraint, may work out his own salvation. Nay, they go so far as to admit of works of supererogation, and declare that a man may do much more than he is in justice or equity obliged to do, and that his super-abundant works may therefore be applied to the salvation of others. This denomination deny the eternity of future punishments, and believe that the dead have the Gospel preached to them by our Saviour, and that the souls of the just are employed to preach the Gospel to those who have had no revelation in this life. They suppose the Jewish sab. bath, sabbatical year, and year of jubi lee, are typical of certain periods, after the general judgment, in which the souls of those who are not then admitted into happiness are purified from their corruption. If any within those smaller periods are so far humbled as to acknowledge the perfections of God, and to own Christ as their only Saviour, they are received to felicity: while those who continue obstinate are reserved in torments until the grand period typified by the jubilee arrives, in which all shall be made happy in the endless fruition of the Deity. They also deny the imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity. They disclaim violence even in cases of self-defence, and suffer themselves to be defrauded or wronged rather than go to law.

Their habit seems to be peculiar to themselves, consisting of a long tunic, or coat, reaching down to their heels, with a sash or girdle round the waist, and a cap, or hood, hanging from the shoulders, like the dress of the Dominican friars. The men do not shave the head or beard. The men and women have separate habitations and distinct governments. For these purposes they | Their church government and discihave erected two large wooden build- pline are the same with the English ings, one of which is occupied by the Baptists, except that every brother is brethren, the other by the sisters of the allowed to speak in the congregation; society; and in each of them there is and their best speaker is usually or a banqueting room, and an apartment dained to be the minister. They have for publ worship; for the brethren deacons and deaconesses from among and sisters do not meet together, even their ancient widows and exhorters, at their devotions. They live chiefly who are all licensed to use their gifts upon roots and other vegetables, the

statedly.

DUTY, any action, or course of actions, which flow from the relations we stand in to God or man; that which a man is bound to perform by any natural

or legal obligation. The various moral relative, and spiritual duties, are consi dered in their places in this work.

EASTER, the day on which the from the Nazarenes, however, in seve. Christian church commemorates our ral things, chiefly as to what regards Saviour's resurrection. It is called by the authority of the sacred writings; for the Greeks Pasga; and by the Latins the Nazarenes received all for Scripture Pascha, a Hebrew word signifying pas-contained in the Jewish canon; wheresage, applied to the Jewish feast at the as the Ebionites rejected all the pro passover. It is called Easter in English, phets, and held the very names of David from the Saxon goddess Eostre, whose Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, festival was held in April. The Asiatic in abhorrence. They also rejected all churches kept their Easter upon the very same day that the Jews observed their passover, and others on the first Sunday after the first full moon in the new year. This controversy was determined in the council of Nice, when it was ordained that Easter should be kept upon one and the same day, which should always be Sunday, in all Christian churches in the world.

St. Paul's epistles, whom they treated with the utmost disrespect. They received nothing of the Old Testament but the Pentateuch. They agreed with the Nazarenes, in using the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, otherwise called the Gospel of the twelve apostles; but they corrupted their copy in abundance of places; and particularly had left out the genealogy of our Saviour, which was preserved entire in that of the Nazarenes, and even in those used by the Corinthians. Besides the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, the Ebionites had adopted several other books under the titles of St. James, John, and the other apostles; they also made use of the travels of St. Peter, which are supposed to have been written by St. Clenient; but had altered them so, that there was scarce any thing of truth left in them. They even made that saint tell a number of falsehoods, the better to authorize their own practices.

ECCLESIASTICAL, an appellation given to whatever belongs to the church; thus we say ecclesiastical polity, jurisdiction, history. &c.

EBIONITES, ancient heretics, who rose in the church in the very first age thereof, and formed themselves into a sect in the second century, denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. Origen takes them to have been so called from the Hebrew word ebion, which in that language signifies poor; because, says he, they were poor in sense, and wanting understanding. Eusebius, with a view to the same etymology, is of opinion they were thus called, as having poor thoughts of Jesus Christ, taking him for no more than a mere man. It is more probable the Jews gave this appellation to the Christians in general out of contempt; because, in the first times, there were few but poor people that embraced the Christian religion. The Ebion- ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, a ites were little else than a branch of the narration of the transactions, revolnNazarenes; only that they altered and tions, and events, that relate to the corrupted, in many things, the purity church. As to the utility of church of the faith held among the first adhe history, Dr. Jortin, who was an acute rents to Christianity. For this reason, writer on this subject, shall here speak Origen distinguishes two kinds of Ebi- for us; he observes, 1. That it will onites in his answer to Celsus; the one show us the amazing progress of Chrisbelieved that Jesus Christ was born of tainity through the Roman empire, a virgin; and the other, that he was through the East and West, although born after the manner of other men. the powers of the world cruelly oppos The first were orthodox in every thing, ed it. 2. Connected with Jewish and except that to the Christian doctrine Pagan history, it will show us the total they joined the ceremonies of the Jew-destruction of Jerusalem, the overthrow ish law, with the Jews, Samaritans, of the Jewish church and state; and the and Nazarenes; together with the tra- continuance of that unhappy nation for ditions of the Pharisees. They differed 4700 years, though dispersed over th.

the only object of their enquiry, and to be ready to adopt from all the different systems and sects such tenets as they thought agreeable to it. They preferred Plato to the other philosophers, and looked upon his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things invi sible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the Christian doctrine. One of the principal patrons of this system was Ammonius Saccas, who at this time laid the foundation of that sect, afterwards distinguished by the name of the New Platonics in the Alexandrian school.

face of the earth, and oppressed at difa sect which arose in the Christian ferent times by Pagans, Christians, and church towards the close of the second Mahometans.-3. It shows us that the century. They professed to make truth increase of Christianity produced in the countries where it was received, the overthrow and extinction of paganism, which, after a feeble resistance, perished about the sixth century.-4. It shows us how Christianity hath been continued and delivered down from the apostolical to the present age.-5. It shows us the various opinions which prevailed at different times amongst the fathers and other Christians, and how they departed more or less from the simplicity of the Gospel.-6. It will enable us to form a true judgment of the merit of the fathers, and of the use which is to be made of them.-7. It will show us the evil of imposing unreasonable terms of communion, and requiring Christians to profess doctrines not propounded in Scriptural words, but inferred as consequences from passages of Scripture, which one may call systems of consequential divinity.-8. It will show us the origin and progress of popery; and, lastly, it will show us,-9. The origin and progress of the reformation. See Dr. Jortin's Charge the Use and Importance of Ecclesiastical History, in his works, vol. vii. ch. 2.

ECSTACY, or EXTACY, a transport of the mind, which suspends the functions of the senses bytheintense contemplation of some extraordinary object.

ECTHESIS, a confession of faith, the form of an edict published in the year 639, by the emperor Heraclius, with a view to pacify the troubles occasioned by the Eutychian heresy in the eastern church. However, the same prince re voked it, on being informed that pope Severinus had condemned it, as favouring the Monothelites; declaring, at the same time, that Sergius, patriarch of For ecclesiastical historians, See Eu-Constantinople, was the author of it.scbius's Eccl. Hist. with Valesius's See EUTYCHIANS.

notes; Baronii Annales Eccl.; Spon- EDIFICATION; this word signifies dani Annales Sacri; Parei Univer- a building up. Hence we call a buildsalis Hist. Ecc.; Lampe, Dupin, ing an edifice. Applied to spiritual Spanheim, and Mosheim's Eccl. Hist.; things, it signifies the improving, adornFuller's, and Warner's Eccl. Hist. of ing, and comforting the mind; and a England; Jortin's Remarks on Eccl. Christian may be said to be edified when Hist.; Millar's Propagation of Christianity; Gillies's Historical Collections; Dr. Erskine's Sketches, and Robinson's Researches. The most recent are, Dr. Campbell's, Gregory's, Milner's, and Dr. Haweis's; all which have their excellencies. See also Bogue and Bennet's History of the Dissenters. For the History of the church under the Old Testament, the reader may consult Miller's History of the Church; Prideaux and Shuckford's Connections; Dr. Watts's Scripture History; and Fleury's History of the Israelites.

he is encouraged and animated in the ways and works of the Lord. The means to promote our own edification are, prayer, self-examination, reading the Scriptures, hearing the Gospel, meditation, attendance on all appointed ordinances. To edify others there should belove, spiritual conversation, forbearance, faithfulness, benevolent exertions and uniformity of conduct.

EFFRONTES, a sect of heretics, in 1534, who scraped their forehead with a knife till it bled, and then poured oil into the wound. This ceremony served ECLECTICS, a name given to some them instead of baptism. They are ancient philosophers, who, without at-likewise said to have denied the divitaching themselves to any particular nity of the Holy Spirit. sect, took what they judged good and solid, from each. One Potamon, of Alexandria, who lived under Augustus and Tiberius, and who, weary of doubt ing of all things, with the Sceptics and Pyrrhonians, was the person who form

ed this sect.

ECLECTICS, or modern Platonics,

EICETÆ, a denomination in the year 680, who affirmed that, in order to make prayer acceptable to God it should be performed dancing.

EJACULATION, a short prayer, in which the mind is directed to God on any emergency. See PRAYER.

ELCESAITES, ancient heretics, who

ELDER, (burgos,) an overseer, ruler, leader,

made their appearance in the reign of Dr. Guise, on the passage 1 Tim. v. 17 he emperor Trajan, and took their" that the apostle intends only preach name from their leader, Elcesai. They ing elders, when he directs double ho kept a mean between the Jews, Chris- nour to be paid to the elders that rule tians, and Pagans: they worshipped but well, especially those, who labour in one God, observed the Jewish sabbath, the word and doctrine; and that the circumcision, and the other ceremonies distinction lies not in the order of offi of the law; yet they rejected the Pen-cers, but in the degree of their diligence, tateuch and the prophets; nor had they faithfulness, and eminence in laborious. any more respect for the writings of the ly fulfilling their ministerial work; and apostles. so the emphasis is to be laid on the word labour in the word and doctrine, which has an especially annexed to it." Elders, or seniors, in ancient Jewish ELECTION. This word has differpolity, were persons the most consi-ent meanings. 1. It signifies God's derable for age, experience, and wis- taking a whole nation, community, or dom. Of this sort were the 70 men body of men, into external covenant whom Moses associated with himself in with himself, by giving them the advanthe government: such likewise after-tage of revelation as the rule of their wards were those who held the first belief and practice, when other nations rank in the synagogue as presidents.- are without it, Deut. vii. 6.-2. A temElders, in church history, were origi-porary designation of some person or nally those who held the first place in persons to the filling up some particular the assemblies of the primitive Chris- station in the visible church, or office in tians. The word presbyter is often used in the New Testament in this signification; hence the first councils of Christians were called Presbyteria, or councils of elders.-Elders in the presbyterian discipline, are officers, who, in conjunction with the ministers and deacons, compose the kirk sessions, who formerly used to inspect and regulate matters of religion and discipline; but whose principal business now is to take care of the poor's funds. They are chosen from among the people, and are received publicly with some degree of ceremony. In Scotland there is an indefinite number of elders in each parish, generally about twelve. See PRESBY

TERIANS.

It has long been a matter of dispute, whether there are any such officers as lay elders mentioned in Scripture. On the one side it is observed, that these officers are no where mentioned, as being alone or single, but always as being many in every congregation. They are also mentioned separately from the brethren. Their office, more than once, is described as being distinct from that of preaching, not only in Rom. xii. where he that ruleth is expressly distinguished from him that exhorteth or teacheth, but also in that passage, 1 Tim. v. 17. On the other side it is said, that from the above-mentioned passages, nothing can be collected with certainty to establish this opinion; neither can it be inferred from any other passage that churches should be furnished with such officers, though perhaps prudence, in some circumstances, may inake them expedient. "I incline to think " says

civil life, John vi. 70. 1 Sam. x. 24.-3. That gracious and almighty act of the Divine Spirit, whereby God actually and visibly separates his people from the world by effectual calling, John xv. 19.-4. That eternal, sovereign, uncon. ditional, particular, and immutable act of God, whereby he selected some from among all mankind, and of every nation under heaven, to be redeemed and everlastingly saved by Christ, Eph. i. 4. 2. Thess. ii. 13. See DECREE, and PREDESTINATION.

ELOQUENCE, Pulpit. "The chie characteristics of the eloquence suited to the palpit are these two-gravity and warmth. The serious nature of the subjects belonging to the pulpit requires gravity; their importance to mankind requires warmth. It is far from being either easy or common to unite these characters of eloquence. The grave when it is predominant, is apt to run into a dull, uniform solemnity. The warm, when it wants gravity, borders on the theatrical and light. The union of the two must be studied by all preach ers, as of the utmost consequence, both in the composition of their discourses, and in their manner of delivery. vity and warmth united, form that character of preaching, which the French call onction: the affecting, penetrating interesting manner, flowing from a strong sensibility of heart in the preach. er, the importance of those truths which he delivers, and an earnest desire that they may make full impression on the hearts of his hearers." See DECLAMA. TION, SERMONS.

Gra.

EMULATION, a generous ardour