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OF ALL

THE RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS

IN

THE UNITED STATES:

CONTAINING AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS OF THE

RISE AND PROGRESS, FAITH AND PRACTICE, LOCALITIES AND STATISTICS,

OF THE DIFFERENT PERSUASIONS:

WRITTEN EXPRESSLY FOR THE WORK,

BY FIFTY-THREE EMINENT AUTHORS, BELONGING TO THE RESPECTIVE DENOMINATIONS.

SECOND, IMPROVED AND PORTRAIT EDITION.

HARRISBURG, PA:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN WINEBRENNER, V.D. M.

1848.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

JUL 1 1914

CHARLES ELLIOTT PERKINS
MEMORIAL COLLECTION

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by

JOHN WINEBRenner, V. D. M.,

in the office of the clerk of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY R. P. MOGRIDGE,
NO. 5 HARMONY COURT, PHILA.

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THE projector and compiler of this work, while examining many years since "Histories of Religions," and hearing numerous complaints by ministers and lay members of different denominations, that such books had unjustly represented their religion, was forcibly impressed, that a work like the one now offered to the public, was desirable and much needed; he then conceived the plan of obtaining the history of each denomination from the pen of some one of its most distinguished ministers or professors; thus affording each sect the opportunity of giving its own historyconsidering that a work thus prepared must be entirely free from the faults of misrepresentation, so generally brought against books of this character.

To supply this desideratum, and to furnish a comprehensive history of the religious denominations in the United States, and also to present to the public a book, as free as possible from all grounds of complaint, the projector, two years ago, made appli cation to many of the most prominent divines and lay members of different denominations, for their views of such a work, receiving in all cases their approbation, and many at once consenting to aid, by writing or procuring the necessary articles.

It would be superfluous to say any thing in regard to the contributors to this work -they are too favorably known to their own sects to need it, and their names accompanying each article, is sufficient guarantee that justice has been done to all, so far as the projector was enabled to attain it.

It is presumed, that no writer in this work can have had any motive to wilfully misrepresent the doctrine of the denomination of which he is a member; it is admitted, that he may have been influenced by a bias, natural to many, to present the "Beauties of his own Faith" in glowing colors; and where this may appear to have been attempted, it is left to the reader to make all due allowance.

In the history, and especially in the creed of the different denominations, the unprejudiced reader has a subject for candid investigation, and will be able to draw his own conclusions from authentic data. Though truth and error may be commingled, still the lover of free inquiry will have nothing to fear. It must be admitted, that many opinions are presented which cannot be maintained by "Thus saith the Lord;" but as the projector has done his part in giving each sect an opportunity of taking its own story, and in its own way, he thus leaves it to a liberal and discerning public. LANCASTER, Pa., April, 1844.

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PREFACE

TO THE

SECOND AND IMPROVED EDITION.

THIS new and stereotype edition of the "HISTORY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES," is much improved, and on several accounts vastly superior to the former edition. It is so,

I. Because it contains much additional and improved reading matter.

Four articles, in the former edition, have been thrown out, and new ones substituted, viz. the BAPTIST, the EPISCOPAL, the CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN, and the ADVENTIST articles. These, it is believed, are all much improved, and far superior to the former ones.

Eight new and additional articles are inserted, viz.: the BIBLE CHRISTIAN, the OLDSCHOOL BAPTIST, the FREE COMMUNION BAPTIST, the SIX PRINCIPLE BAPTIST, the REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN or COVENANTOR, the RIVER BRETHREN, and two AFRICAN EPISCOP:L METHODIST articles.

Several other articles, also, have been very much improved and enlarged; such as the GERMAN SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST, the CHRISTIAN, the LUTHERAN, the EVANGELICAL, the NEW JERUSALEM, the SHAKER or UNITED SOCIETY OF BELIEVERS, and the article on the CHURCH OF GOD; so that this new edition possesses claims greatly superior to the former, in respect to the subject-matter of the work. But, besides these improvements, it possesses superior claims,

II. Because it is embellished with twenty-four splendid Portraits of distinguished men in the different denominations.

In our prospectus of the work, we promised only from fifteen to twenty portraits, but we have added several more at considerable expense; so that the whole number now amounts to twenty-four. They are drawn by Messrs. WAGNER & MCGUIGAN, Lithographers, No. 116, Chesnut-street, Philadelphia, whose reputation as Artists, stands second to none on the American continent. The following is a list of the persons whose portraits will be found in the work, connected with or accompanying the several articles specified, to wit:

MARTIN LUTHER, Lutheran Article, page 320; JOHN CALVIN, Presbyterian Article, page 459; ULRICH SWINGLI, German Reformed Article, page 298; MENNO SIMON, Menonite Article, page 406; NICHOLAS LEWIS, COUNT ZINZENDORF, Moravian Article, page 350; GEORGE FOX, Friends Article, page 279; EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, New Jerusalem Article, page 421; ROGER WILLIAMS, Baptist Article, page 42; JOHN WESLEY, Methodist Article, page 358; WILLIAM WHITE, Episcopalian Article, page

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