members of the synod cannot agree concerning the discussion of it, then they cast lots. The casting of lots is of great antiquity; but how far such a practice can be justified according to the Christian institution, the reader may judge.

In the rest of their discipline they have something like the Sandemanians, for as there is a great deal of washing of feet, so their conduct is very severe to those whom they excommunicate. They resemble the Methodists in singing a number of hymns, and they are so much attached to this practice, that their children are asked questions in verse sung by the elders, and answered by the young

ones in the same mannar.

As for their keeping many things secret, we shall not judge them strictly, being willing to think charitably of all men; but this much is certain, that it cannot be done in conformity with the primitive church. The primitive Christians were obliged to meet in private in the night, to avoid the fury of the heathens, but here these people called Brethren enjoy a free toleration. Whether they lock the doors of their meetings during any part of their worship, we know not; but if they do, they are guilty of a breach of the toleration act.

We could wish that all things were free and open, that there might be no concealment; for wherever things of a religious nature are concealed in private, suspicions arise, and scandal is thrown upon men, who, perhaps, may be totally inno

cent.

From the whole account we have given of them, we have learned but little concerning the method of treating their poor members. We have already seen, that there are several societies of Christians in the Protestant world, who take no care of their poor; and where popery is established, all charitable donations are given to the monks. The Sandemanians pretend to take great care of their poor; but when they think it too troublesome to support them, they have an easy method of parting.

The friends really take care of their poor, whether old or young; and although these people are often treated with much contempt, yet they are, in the great article of unaffected charity, the most respectable in the world.

True religion and undefiled before God, is this, to visit the fatherless children and widows, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.”

No man will believe that person's religion to be genuine, whose heart is not open to the wants of his fellow creatures, as well as to his brethren in his own profession. The primitive Christians were charitable to their persecutors, which was copying, in all respects, the character of their divine redeemer; who created bread to feed the hungry; who went about doing good.

As for the United Brethren, called Moravians, it appears they collect great sums of money, but we believe the greatest part of it, according to their own accounts, is expended in missions among the Heathens. The Jesuits have done the same, and little success has attended either. Perhaps the Divine Providence frowns upon those practices, which are not undertaken in his way, and refuses to confer such upon them, because they look for the praise of men. But we will not dwell upon these things. God Almighty suffers many transactions to take place in this lower world, which our bewildered and circumscribed understandings cannot account for. Perhaps there are many things in the works of Providence, which we look on as evil, but which in the end may be attended with the most beneficial consequences. It is likewise not improbable, (nay, we believe it to be true) that many persons in their religious characters have been grossly misrepresented, by those who know little or nothing concerning them. It was so with the primitive Christians, it is certainly so with some of the modern sects. We shall therefore take leave of the Moravian Brethren, and proceed to another sect.

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the sole view of having it in their power to wreak

N that fertile age for the propagation of new especially the lower ranks of them, not only turned preachers, but likewise prophets. Some pretended to foretel future events; others said they were apostles risen from the dead; while a third sort had the assurance to assert, that they were some of those persons who had been prophesied of in the book of Revelation.

Among these were Lodovicus Muggleton, a journeyman taylor, in Rosemary-lane, and William Reeves, a cobler, in the same place. These two men meeting together, at a public-house in the minories, projected a new scheme of religion, in order to impose on the people.

They knew that the religionists who had gone before them, had not carried their pretensions high enough, and therefore they gave out that they were the two witnesses prophesied of in the book of Revelation, who were to appear before the end of the world. They held forth to the misguided multitude on Tower-hill, and on all the places of eminence near the city. They were followed by a vast number of people, which gave so much offence to the Presbyterians and Independents, that they procured an order from Oliver Cromwell to have them punished.

Oliver, it is well known, was never an enemy to toleration, and therefore, all that he would grant was, that these madmen should be whipped through the principal streets of the city. The culprits bore their punishment with that stubborn fortitude which ever distinguishes enthusiastic and ignorant characters.

As persecution is the life of religion, so these men were more followed by mad people than ever. It was found in vain to persecute them any longer; and it may be justly said of them, that they turned the brains of one quarter of the vulgar people in London. They published four volumes in 4to, which the author of this work has perused.

When we consider the nature of these compositions, and the characters of the men to whom they are ascribed, we are led to believe, that like Mahomet of old, they had some assistance. Probably some of the other sectarists drew them up, with

rested preachers, there is the same antipathy as between cats and mice.

When the restoration took place, the Muggletonians were frequently dispersed by the guards, and many of them put into prison. It was the great misfortune of these people, that although they pretended to the spirit of prophecy, yet they could not foretel what was to happen to themselves. Just like the fortune-tellers of the present age, who, although they pretend to help people to stolen goods, and tell a girl who is to be her husband, yet they cannot foresee when a constable will come to take them into custody.

However, they went on with their fanaticism and continued making prosclytes till after the revolution took place, and then they shelterd themselves under the toleration act. But they had powerful enemies to contend with. The Presbyterians hated them, because they treated their poor mean clerical characters with contempt: and the Independents did all they could to injure them and traduce their characters, because they led away many silly old women, whose credulity and pockets often furnished them with a dinner.

And yet these people grew the more; and their leaders, in order to keep them to themselves, declaimed against the vices of the Presbyterians, and the pretensions of the Independents. They told them, that they were all impostors, and wretches who lived on the fruits of the people's honest industry. There might have been some truth in this, but we have some reason to believe, that the Muggletonian teachers were as mercenary as those whom they opposed. Opposition in disputes concerning religion, may shift the outward character of the man, but it cannot change his nature. We may add further, that in all polemical disputes concerning the exteriors of religion, the means are changed; but the end held in view is the same.

And that end is neither less nor more, than to triumph over the credulity of the people; to procure emoluments at their expence; to triumph over their ignorance, and to represent themselves under the characters of saints, while, in reality, they are

like

like devils. This was the case with the Pharisees of old, and it will remain to the end of the world, as long as false religion is known, and while there is an hypocrite on earth.

At present we must compare the Muggletonians to those passionate lovers, who, after being cloyed with enjoyment, become as cold as the aged and infirm. At first they were fired with unbridled zeal of religion, inflamed with superstition; but they gradually cooled, and are now a set of jolly fellows, who drink their pot and smoak their tobacco.

There is one thing, however, relating to them. that must not be forgotten.

When their first apostles found themselves drawing towards their end, they did the very same almost that Mahomet had done before. They called the people together, and told them, they would come again on earth to visit them; but they did not, like the Arabian impostor, fix the time, which undoubtedly was a master stroke of policy. Their followers, in the present age, still retain that notion; and they believe, that these two apostles, or witnesses, will meet them when they are assembled together. They meet in the evenings of Sundays, at obscure public houses in the outparts of London, and converse about those of their sect who have gone before them. They have very little serious discourse, but are extremely free, sometimes going home drunk.

It does not appear that ever they had any public places of worship, for their first founders preached any where. Those Muggletonians of the present age make no account of either faith or duty; unless it can be called faith to believe in the coming of their founders. It is a sort of faith indeed, but it is not that which Christians are taught to believe. Their conduct in treating religion in such an irreverent manner, has had very pernicious effects on the morals of the people. It has induced many of them to become Deists and practical Atheists; and we have known several persons, who, from Methodists commenced Muggletonians, and at last reposed themselves quietly in the bosom of the church of Rome. These converted Muggletonians

are employed by the priests to pervert as many Protestants as they can, and they generally have but too abundant success.

The origin of the Muggletonians exhibits to us a melancholy picture of those times, when England. was without government either in church or state. The people were not content with hearing the Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, &c. &c. who shared the church livings among themselves, but they even encouraged taylors, coblers, tinkers, and all sorts of low vulgar mechanics to mount their stools and chairs in the streets and on dunghills. Nay, they collected money for the preachers, which answered their end much better than their trades. As the conduct of the ministers in the churches had induced them to lend a helping hand to carry on the work of reformation, so when the restoration took place, both the established clergy and the court, let loose their fury upon all sects indiscriminately..

Some of the Muggletonians were thrown into prison, and others were put in the stocks, where they continued preaching to the people, Some of thein were transported to the colonies in America; but as the Presbyterians had great power there, they harassed them from one province to another, till death relieved them from their hardships.

The intelligent reader will be able to assign a reason for their continuance in this age, when all religions are taught, but very few duties performed.

The last thing we shall take notice of concerning these people, is, that it is a melancholy consideration that men should live in the world without enjoying the smallest share of sense arising from religion: That instead of looking forward to the blessed hope of immortality, they believe in nothing but the resurrection of two impostors. To this we may add, that there must still be a considerable number of these people in different parts of England; for only a few years ago a new edition in three volumes quarto was printed, of the rhapsodies of Muggleton and Reeves, and had there not been people to purchase them, they would not have been printed.

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WE

E have left our account of these smaller sects, till the concluding part of this work, because they were never (to use a military phrase) properly embodied..

So far as we know, the first Mystic writer was St. Austin, bishop of Hippo, in. África; but this celebrated father did not dissent from the religion as established in the empire. It is true, he collected together a considerable number of young men, who lived with him in cloisters adjoining to his church, and he taught them those notions that are to be found in his confessions.

Soon after his death, we hear of nothing but ignorance, occasioned by the inundations of the barbarians; and the first Mystic writer that lived after him, seems to have been Bede, an AngloSaxon monk, who lived in the abbey of Tinmouth

in Northumberland.

The next Mystic writer we meet with is St. Bernard, who flourished about the eleventh century, and was employed by the Pope to preach up the crusades. In latter times, we meet with Kempis, Bona, and Drexilius, in all of whose writings there are many fine things. But we must now consider them as a general sect; and strange as it may appear, a woman was chiefly concerned in the institution of them.

Madam Bourignon, a French lady, and a Roman Catholic, some time before the revocation of the edict of Nantz, (1685) published several pieces on Divine love, spiritual mindedness, the elevation of the soul to Christ; the looking above all carthly things; to reject, or at least consider, the externals of religion as mere trifles, and to retire within themselves for the purposes of contemplation.

As the popish religion consists chiefly in ceremonies, so the French clergy were greatly alarmed, and Madam Bourignon, not knowing what mischief they might do her, left her native country, and retired to Holland.

In the mean time, the sect had spread far and wide, and the great Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray, wrote a book, entitled, the maxims of the No. 35.

Saints, in which he attempted to vindicate many of those sentiments professed by Madam Bourignon. The Catholic clergy were alarmed, and notice was sent to the pope..

After two years consultation, the pope with his cardinals, condemned the book, and the archbishop acquiesced in the censure. It does not seem, however, that he relinquished his opinions; for in his posthumous works, he left a vindication of what he had writen before..

The proselytes to Madam Bourignon's opinions encreased daily, and some of them came over to England. They did not set up separate congregations, but they published a considerable number of books, by which they disseminated their sentiments all over the kingdom. They ran into wild extravagancies, and although they were at first very inoffensive, yet in the end they became most mysterious indeed.

As all violent disorders in the human body either kill or cure, so violences in religion have the same tendency. This was the case with the Mystics, who, by their violent attachment to things above reason, lost what reason they had. Their successors, however, have become more sober, and several great men both in the church of England and among the Dissenters, have embraced their opinions..

Among these were the late pious Mr. Law, andthe amiable Mrs. Rowe. The writings, however, of these celebrated persons, are far from being con-temptible. They contain the most elevated flights of fancy and exalted thoughts of Divine goodness.

We shall conclude this article with observing, that whoever would devote themselves to the study. of religion, should take a little practical religion along with them. We are such a composition of flesh and spirit, that nothing less than human means can promote Divine insitutions.

If men would think soberly and look into their own hearts, they would not be led into such extra-vagancies, as they generally are. In the present age, mistakes are to be found in many of our sects,

9 X

and

Jesus, God of our salvation,

Give us eyes thyself to see, Waiting for the consolation, Longing to believe on thee: Now vouchsafe the sacred power, Now the faith divine impart; Meet us in this solemn hour, Shine in every drooping heart. Anna-like within the temple, Simeon-like we meekly stay, Daily with thy saints assemble,

Nightly for thy coming pray: While our souls are bow'd before thee, While we humbly sue for grace, Come, thy people's light and glory, Shew to all thy heavenly face,

If to us thy sacred spirit

Hath the future grace reveal'd, Let us by thy righteous merit

Now receive our pardon seal'd: To eternal life appointed,

Let us thy salvation see, Now behold the Lord's anointed,

Now obtain our heaven in thee.

Upon the whole, the Mystics, who at present seem to have hearts inclining towards piety, but very confused heads, with minds susceptible of serious impressions of religion, by neglecting the use of reason they run into a vast number of absurdities. By imagining themselves to be wrought upon by superior and supernatural influences, they neglect the use of Divine revelation. They embrace the shadow for the substance, and although we would not call them criminal, yet we are certain that they are mistaken.

A

their own interest in a better light, than the Gallic monarch, assigned them places to reside in.

This therefore weakened the trade of France, by lessening her power, in depriving the country of its most useful inhabitants. Here was a noble oppor1685,tunity for the French ministry to revive the interest and honour of their country by putting an end to the iron hand of oppressive power, by restoring the subjects to their natural rights and privileges. Here however bigotry got the better of self-interest, and the love of superstition triumphed over all those duties which men owe to their fellow subjects.

An edict passed, that every man who should be found making his escape out of France, should be condemned to the gallies for life, and some thousands of these people were apprehended and suffered the prescribed punishment. The violence of the perse