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REFUGEES, a term first applied to the French Protestants, who, by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, were constrained to fly from persecution, and take refuge in foreign countries. Since that time, however, it has been extended to all such as leave their country in times of distress. See HUGUENOTS.

REGIUM DONUM MONEY, money allowed by government to the Dissenters. The origin of it was in the year 1723. As the Dissenters approved themselves strong friends to the house of Brunswick, they enjoyed favour; and, being excluded all lucrative preferment in the church, the prime minister wished to reward them for their loyalty, and, by a retaining fee, preserve them stedfast. A considerable sum, therefore, was annually lodged with the heads of the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, to be distributed among the necessitous ministers of their congregations.

REGENERATION, a new birth; that work of the Holy Spirit by which we experience a change of heart. It is to be distinguished from baptism which is an external rite, though some have confounded them together. Nor does it signify a mere reformation of the outward conduct. Nor is it a conversion from one sect or creed to another; or even from atheism. Nor are new faculties given in this change. Nor does it consist in new revelations, succession of terrors or consolations; or any whisper as it were from God to the heart, concerning his secret love, choice, or purpose to save us. It is expressed in Scripture by being born again, John, iii. 7. born from above, so it may be rendered, John, iii. 2, 7, 27. being quickened, Ephes. ii. 1. Christ formed in the heart, Gal. iv. 12. a partaking of the Divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. The efficient cause of regeneration is the Divine Spirit. That man is not the author of it is evident, if we consider, 1. The case in which men are before it takes place; a state of ignorance and inability. John, iii. 4.-2. The nature of the work shows plainly that it is not in the power of men to do it: it is called a creation, a

production of a new principle which was not before, and which man could not himself produce, Eph. ii. 8, 10-3. It is expressly denied to be of men, but declared to be of God, John, i. 12, 13. 1 John, iii. 9. The instrumental cause. if it may be so called, is the word of God, Jam. i. 18. 1 Cor. iv. 15. The evidences of it are, conviction of sin, holy sorrow, deep humility, knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and devotedness to God's glory. The properties of it are these: 1. It is a passive work, and herein it differs from conversion. In regeneration we are passive, and receive from God; in conversion we are active, and turn to him.-2. It is an irresistible, or rather an invincible, work of God's grace, Eph. iii. 8.-3. It is an instantaneous act, for there can be no medium between life and death; and here it differs from sanctification, which is progressive. 4. It is a complete act, and perfect in its kind; a change of the whole man, 2 Cor. v. 17.-5. It is a great and important act, both as to its author and effects, Eph. ii. 4, 5.—6. It is an internal act, not consisting in bare outward forms, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.— 7. Visible as to its effects, 1 John, iii. 14. -8. Delightful, 1 Pet. i. 8.-9. Necessary, John, iii. 3.-10. It is an act, the blessings of which we can never finally lose, John, xiii. 1. See CALLING, CONVERSION; and Charnocks Works, vol. ii. p. 1 to 230; Cole and Wright, but especially Witherspoon on Regeneration; Doddridge's Ten Sermons on the Subject; Dr. Gill's Body of Divinity, article Regeneration; Dr. Owen on the Spirit; Lime Street Lectures, ser. 8.

RELICS, in the Roman church, the remains of the bodies or clothes of saints or martyrs, and the instruments by which they were put to death, devoutly preserved, in honour to their memory; kissed, revered, and carried in procession.

The respect which was justly due to the martyrs and teachers of the Christian faith, in a few ages, increased almost to adoration; and at length adoration was really paid both to departed saints, and to relics of holy men, or holy things. The abuses of the church of Rome with respect to relics, are very flagrant and notorious; for such was the rage for them at one time, that, as F. Mabillon, a Benedictine, justly complains, the altars were loaded with suspected relics; numerous spurious ones being every where offered to the piety and devotion of the faithful. He adds, too, that bones are often consecrated, which so far from belonging to saints,

probably do not belong to Christians. From the catacombs numerous relics have been taken, and yet it is not known who were the persons interred therein. In the eleventh century, relics were tried by fire, and those which did not consume were reckoned genuine, and the rest not. Relics were, and still are, preserved on the altars whereon mass is celebrated: a square hole being made in the middle of the altar big enough to receive the hand; and herein is the relic deposited, being first wrapped in red silk, and enclosed in a leaden box.

The Romanists plead antiquity in behalf of relics: for the Manichees, out of hatred to the flesh, which they considered as an evil principle, refused to honour the relics of saints; which is reckoned a kind of proof that the Catholics did it in the first ages.

Theodosius the Great was obliged to pass a law, forbidding the people to dig up the bodies of the martyrs, and to traffic in their relics.

Such was the origin of that respect for sacred relics, which afterwards was perverted into a formal worship of them, and became the occasion of innumerable processions, pilgrimages, and miracles, from which the church of Rome hath derived incredible advantage. In the end of the ninth century it was not sufficient to reverence departed saints, and to confide in their intercessions and succours; to clothe them with an imaginary power of healing diseases, working miracles, and delivering from all sorts of calamities and dangers; their bones, their clothes, the apparel and furniture they had possessed during their lives, the very ground which they had touched, or in which their putrefied carcasses were laid, were treated with a stupid veneration, and supposed to retain the marvellous virtue of healing all disor

We know, indeed, that the touching of linen clothes, or relics, from an opinion of some extraordinary virtue derived therefrom, was as ancient as the first ages, there being a hole made inders, both of body and mind, and of dethe coffins of the forty martyrs at Con- fending such as possessed them against stantinople expressly for that purpose. all the assaults and devices of the deThe honouring the relics of saints, on vil. The consequence of all this was, which the church of Rome afterwards that every one was eager to provide founded her superstitious and lucrative himself with these salutary remedies: use of them, as objects of devotion, as a consequently great numbers undertook kind of charms, or amulets, and as in- fatiguing and perilous voyages, and substruments of pretended miracles, ap-jected themselves to all sorts of hardpears to have originated in a very ancient custom that prevailed among Christians, of assembling at the cemeteries or burying places of the martyrs, for the purpose of commemorating them, and of performing divine worship. When the profession of Christianity obtained the protection of civil government, under Constantine the Great, stately churches were erected over sepulchres, and their names and memories were treated with every possible token of affection and respect. This reverence, however, gradually exceeded all reasonable bounds; and those prayers and religious services were thought to have a peculiar sanctity and virtue which were performed over their tombs: hence the practice which afterwards obtained of depositing relics of saints and martyrs under the altars in all churches. This practice was then thought of such importance, that St. Ambrose would not consecrate a church because it had no relics; and the council of Constantinople in Trullo ordained, that those altars should be demolished under which there were found no relics. The rage of procuring relics for this and other purposes of a similar nature became so excessive, that in 386, the emperor |

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ships; while others made use of this delusion to accumulate their riches, and to impose upon the miserable multitude by the most impious and shocking inventions. As the demand for relics was prodigious and universal, the clergy employed the utmost dexterity to satisfy all demands, and were far from being nice in the methods they used for that end. The bodies of the saints were sought by fasting and prayer, instituted by the priest, in order to obtain a divine answer, and an infallible direction; and this pretended direction never failed to accomplish their desires: the holy carcass was always found, and that always in consequence, as they impiously gave out, of the suggestion and inspiration of God himself. Each discovery of this kind was attended with excessive demonstrations of joy, and animated the zeal of these devout seekers to enrich the church still more and more with this new kind of treasure. Many travelled with this view into the eastern provinces, and frequented the places which Christ and his disciples had honoured with their presence; that with the bones and other sacred remains of the first heralds of the Gospel, they might comfort dejected minds, calm

When Mr. Gillespie was deprived of
his parish, he removed to Dumferline,
and preached there to a congregation
who were attached to him, and vehe-

Being excluded from the communion of
the church, he, with two or three other
ministers, constituted themselves into a
presbytery, called the Presbytery of
Relief; willing to afford relief to all
"who adhered to the constitution of the
church of Scotland, as exhibited in her
creeds, canons, confessions, and forms
They are unwilling, it is
of worship."
said, to be reckoned seceders. Their
licentiates are educated under the esta-

ficates they acknowledge. Many of their
people receive the Lord's supper with
equal readiness in the established church
as in their own. The relief synod con-
sists of about sixty congregations, and
about 36,000 persons.

trembling consciences, save sinking | states, and defend their inhabitants from all sorts of calamities. Nor did these pious travellers return home empty : the craft, dexterity, and knavery of themently opposed the law of patronage. Greeks, found a rich prey in the stupid credulity of the Latin relic-hunters, and made a profitable commerce of this new devotion. The latter paid considerable sums for legs and arms, skulls, and jaw-bones (several of which were Pagan, and some not human,) and other things that were supposed to have beJonged to the primitive worthies of the Christian church; and thus the Latin churches came to the possession of those celebrated relics of St. Mark, St. James,blished church professors, whose certiSt. Bartholomew, Cyprian, Pantaleon, and others, which they show at this day with so much ostentation. But there were many, who, unable to procure for themselves these spiritual treasures by voyages and prayers, had recourse to RELIGION is a Latin word, derived, violence and theft; for all sorts of means, and all sorts of attempts, in a according to Cicero, from relegere, cause of this nature, were considered, "to re-consider;" but according to Serwhen successful, as pious and accepta- vius and most modern grammarians, ble to the Supreme Being. Besides the from religare "to bind fast." If the arguments from antiquity, to which the Ciceronian etymology be the true one, Papists refer in vindication of their wor- the word religion will denote the diliship of relics, of which the reader may gent study of whatever pertains to the form some judgment from this article, worship of God; but, according to the Bellarmine appeals to Scripture in sup- other derivation, it denotes that obligaport of it; and cites the following pas- tion which we feel on our minds from sages, viz. Exod. xiii. 19. Deut. xxxiv. the relation in which we stand to some 6. 2 Kings, xiii. 21. 2 Kings, xxiii. 16, superior power. The word is sometimes 17, 18. Isaiah, xi. 10. Matt. xi. 20, 21, used as synonymous with sect; but, in a 22. Acts, v. 12, 15. Acts, xix. 11, 12. practical sense, it is generally considerThe Roman Catholics in Great Bri-ed as the same with godliness, or a life tain do not acknowledge any worship to be due to relics, but merely a high veneration and respect, by which means they think they honour God, who, they say, has often wrought very extraordinary miracles by them. But, however proper this veneration and respect may be, its abuse has been so great and so general, as fully to warrant the rejection of them altogether.

Relics are forbidden to be used or brought into England by several statutes; and justices of peace are empowered to search houses for popish books and relics, which when found, are to be defaced, and burnt, &c. 3. Jac. I. cap. 26.

RELIEF, a species of Dissenters in Scotland, whose only difference from the Scotch established church is the choosing their own pastors. They were separated from the church in the year 1752, occasioned by Mr. Thomas Gillespie being deposed for refusing to assist at the admission of a minister to a parish who were unwilling to receive him.

devoted to the worship and fear of God. Dr. Doddridge thus defines it: "Religion consists in the resolution of the will for God, and in a constant care to avoid whatever we are persuaded he would disapprove, to dispatch the work he has assigned us in life, and to promote his glory in the happiness of mankind." [See GODLINESS.] The foundation of all religion rests on the belief of the existence of God. As we have, however, already considered the evidences of the divine existence, they need not be enumerated again in this place; the reader will find them under the article EXISTENCE OF GOD.

Religion has been divided into natural and revealed. By natural religion is meant that knowledge, veneration, and love of God, and the practice of those duties to him our fellow-creatures, and ourselves, which are discoverable by the right exercise of our rational faculties, from considering the nature and perfections of God, and our relation to him and to one another. By revealed

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religion is understood that discovery which he has made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Scriptures. As it respects natural religion, some doubt whether, properly speaking, there can be any such thing; since, through the fall, reason is so depraved, that man without revelation is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may be easily seen by considering the history of those nations who are destitute of it, and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So far as this, however, may be observed, that the light of nature can give us no proper ideas of God, nor inform us what worship will be acceptable to him. It does not tell us how man became a fallen sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recovered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery. The apostle, indeed, observes, that the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts, and are a law unto themselves; yet the greatest moralists among them were so blinded as to be guilty of, and actually to countenance the greatest vices. Such a system, therefore, it is supposed, can hardly be said to be religious which leaves man in such uncertainty, ignorance, and impiety. [See REVELATION.] On the other side it is observed, "that, though it is_in_the|| highest degree probable that the parents of mankind received all their theological knowledge by supernatural means, it is yet obvious that some parts of that knowledge must have been capable of a proof purely rational, otherwise not a single religious truth could have been conveyed through the succeeding generations of the human race but by the immediate inspiration of each indívidual. We, indeed, admit many propositions as certainly true, upon the sole authority of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and we receive these Scriptures with gratitude as the lively oracles of God; but it is self-evident that we could not do either the one or the other, were we not convinced by natural means that God exists; that he is a being of goodness, justice, and power; and that he inspired with divine wisdom the penman of these sacred volumes. Now, though it is very possible that no man, or body of men, left to themselves from infancy in a desert world, would ever have made a theological discovery, yet, whatever propositions relating to the being and attributes of the First Cause, and duty of man, can be demonstrated by human reason, independent of

written revelation, may be called natural theology, and are of the utmost importance, as being to us the first principles of all religion. Natural theology, in this sense of the word, is the foundation of the Christian revelation; for, without a previous knowledge of it, we could have no evidence that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are indeed the word of God."

The religions which exist in the world have been generally divided into four, the Pagan, the Jewish, the Mahometan, and the Christian; to which articles the reader is referred. The various duties of the Christian religion also are stated in their different places. See also, as connected with this article, the articles INSPIRATION, REVELATION, and THEOLOGY, and books there recommended.

RELIGIOUS, in a general sense, something that relates to religion. It is also used for a person engaged by solemn vows to the monastic life; or a person shut up in a monastery, to lead a life of devotion and austerity under some rule or institution. The male religious are called monks and friars; the females, nuns and canonesses.

RELLYANISTS, or RELLYAN UNIVERSALISTS, the followers of Mr. James Relly. He first commenced his ministerial character in connection with Mr. Whitefield, and was received with great popularity. Upon a change of his views, he encountered reproach, and was pronounced by many as an enemy to godliness. He believed that Christ as a Mediator was so united to mankind, that his actions were theirs, his obedience and sufferings theirs; and, consequently, that he has as fully restored the whole human race to the divine favour, as if all had obeyed and suffered in their own persons; and upon this persuasion he preached a finished salvation, called by the apostle Jude, "The common salvation." Many of his followers are removed to the world of spirits, but a branch still survives, and meets at the chapel in Windmill-street, Moorfields, London; where there are different brethren who speak. They are not observers of ordinances, such as water-baptism and the sacrament; professing to believe only in one baptism, which they call an immersion of the mind or conscience into truth by the teaching of the Spirit of God; and by the same Spirit they are enabled to feed on Christ as the bread of life, professing that in and with Jesus they possess all things. They inculcate and main ain good works for necessary purposes;

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but contend that the principal and only row for any thing past. In theology it works which ought to be attended to, is signifies that sorrow for sin which prothe doing real good without religious os- duces newness of life. The Greek word tentation; that to relieve the miseries most frequently used in the New Tesand distresses of mankind according to tament for repentance is pravo, which our ability, is doing more real good than properly denotes an afterthought, or the the superstitious observance of religious soul recollecting its own actings; and ceremonies. In general they appear to that in such a manner as to produce sorbelieve that there will be a resurrection row in the review, and a desire of amendto life, and a resurrection to condemna- ment. Another word also is used tion; that believers only will be among (urappa,) which signifies anxiety or the former, who as first fruits, and uneasiness upon the consideration of kings and priests, will have part in the || what is done. There are, however, vafirst resurrection, and shall reign with rious kinds of repentance; as, 1. A naChrist in his kingdom of the millennium; tural repentance, or what is merely the that unbelievers who are after raised, effect of natural conscience.-2. Á namust wait the manifestation of the Sa- || tional repentance, such as the Jews in viour of the world, under that con- Babylon were called unto; to which demnation of conscience which a mind temporal blessings were promised, Ezek. in darkness and wrath must necessarily xviii. 30.—3. An external repentance, feel; that believers, called kings and or an outward humiliation for sin, as in priests, will be made the medium of the case of Ahab.-4. A hypocritical recommunication to their condemned bre-pentance, as represented in Ephraim, thren; and like Joseph to his brethren, though he spoke roughly to them, in reality overflowed with affection and tenderness; that ultimately every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that in the Lord they have righteousness and strength; and thus every enemy shall be subdued to the kingdom and glory of the Great Mediator. A Mr. Murray belonging to this society emigrated to America, and preached these sentiments at Boston and elsewhere. Mr. Relly published several works, the principal of which were, "Union." The Trial of Spirits." "Christian Liberty." One-Baptism.' "The Salt of Sacrifice." Antichrist resisted." "Letters on Universal Salvation." "The Cherubimical Mystery."

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REMEDIAL LAW. See Law; and article JUSTIFICATION.

REMONSTRANTS, a title given to the Arminians, by reason of the remonstrance which, in 1610, they made to the states of Holland against the sentence of the synod of Dort, which condemned them as heretics. Episcopius and Grotius were at the head of the Remonstrauts, whose principles were first openly patronised in England by archbishop Laud. In Holland, the Calvinists presented an address in opposition to the remonstrance of the Arminians, and called it a counter-remonstrance. See ARMINIANS and DORT.

REMORSE, uneasiness occasioned by a consciousness of guilt. When it is blended with the fear of punishment, and rises to despair, it constitutes the supreme wretchedness of the mind.

REPENTANCE, in general, is sor

Hos. vii. 16.-5. A legal repentance, which is a mere work of the law, and the effect of convictions of sin by it, which in time wear off, and come to nothing.-6. An evangelical repentance, which consists in conviction of sin; sorrow for it; confession of it; hatred to it; and renunciation of it. A legal and evangelical repentance are distinguished thus: 1. A legal repentance flows only from a sense of danger and fear of wrath; but an evangelical repentance is a true mourning for sin, and an earnest desire of deliverance from it.2. A legal repentance flows from unbelief, but evangelical is always the fruit and consequence of a saving faith.— 3. A legal repentance flows from an aversion to God and to his holy law, but an evangelical from love to both.4. A legal repentance ordinarily flows from discouragement and despondency, but evangelical from encouraging hope. -5. A legal repentance is temporary, but evangelical is the daily exercise of the true Christian.-6. Á legal repentance does at most produce only a partial and external reformation, but an evangelical is a total change of heart and life.

The author of true repentance is God, Acts, v. 31. The subjects of it are sinners. since none but those who have sinned can repent. The means of repentance is the word, and the ministers of it; yet sometimes consideration, sanctified afflictions, conversation, &c. have been the instruments of repentance. The blessings connected with repentance are, pardon, peace, and everlasting life, Acts, xi. 18. The time of repentance is the present life, Isaiah, lv.

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