When a pastor has a call, his election and ordination, is performed in the following manner.

Whether this be done in a general convocation of the faithful, or in private and before a small assembly, prayers and a sermon, with psalms, are requisite as in the Sunday's office. They begin with singing and prayer: the faithful are warned and disposed by an exhortation, to the ceremony. The sermon is always concerning the duties of a pastor, which being ended, three pastors rise from their seats, and go to the person who is to be ordained, and who at that time is kneeling. They lay their hands upon him, and hold them on his head till prayers are ended. These prayers being finished, and the ordained person still kneeling, one of the three pastors desires the faithful to pray for him. Then all kneel, and conclude the ceremony with singing a psalm suitable to the occasion.

The sermon includes the mutual duties of pastors and elders, with those subsisting between them and their flocks. The union that should be found among them, which is not to be a blind obedience, or slavish, the pastors ruling like fathers with patience. That they prefer the interest and welfare of the flock to all other considerations, serving the church with joy and freedom, not as mercenary hired servants, but giving good examples in order to enforce their instructions, and avoiding to be concerned in temporal affairs, and worldly cases, lest their more essential duties should be neglected.

Pastoral functions consist in preaching, administering the sacrament, visiting the sick, exhorting and praying for the faithful. Preaching is one of Preaching is one of the chief parts of their discipline. Prayers and psalms, which are said and sung before and after sermon, raises their hearts to the most elevated pitch of devotion, and inflame their minds with devout zeal. The instructions are to be,

First, without any shew of erudition, wholly tending to edification.

Secondly, without disputes, and nothing to be mentioned in them but what is necessary to salva

tion.

Thirdly, without eloquence, or any ornament by flowers of speech, or any choice or fine expres

sions.

Fourthly, without confusion, clear and methodical, the arguments conclusive, earnestly moving sinners to repentance.

Lastly, without enlarging much on particular topics.

All their notions concerning divine things are very loose and carnal, and it may be justly said of them,

that they have no more than the outside of religion.

As they deny all sorts of mysteries in religion, so they make very little use of the bible but to suit their purpose.

In celebrating the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, they are plain and simple. They sit round a table covered with a linen cloth, on which is placed some bread, cut into small pieces, and an empty chalice, into which the deacon pours some wine; all this is decently covered till the hour of communion service.

The pastor stands at the table, and having administered the communion to the others, he then takes it himself sitting. Exhortation, prayer, and singing of psalms accompany this ceremony, which ends with a general blessing.

They reject infant baptism, nor will they admit any to that sacrament, till they have made a profession of their faith. When they meet for that purpose, the pastor explains the effects, excellencies, and dignity of baptism; makes an exhortation to the candidates, and desires that God will baptize them with his holy spirit. When all the people present have said Amen, the pastor goes into the water, and those who are to be baptized, go in likewise and kneel. The minister then says, "I baptize thee with water, in the name of the father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and may the Lord Jesus baptize thee with his holy spirit." While he pronounces these words, he puts one hand on the head, and another on the chin of the persons to be baptized and dips them. He then comes out of the water, and a psalm is sung, and the whole concludes with prayer.

In the funerals of the Polish Brethren, the following ceremonies are observed. The relations of the deceased are left to their choice to bury either in church-yards, or any where else: for they consider that as an indifferent thing.

The body of the deceased is placed in its coffin, at the door, or in the ground-room of the house, till the time of burial. The pastor then begins a psalm, and sings it with the faithful present. He then preaches a sermon, to comfort the relations for their loss, and to exhort them to reflect on the uncertainty and short duration of human life.

Then prayers are said, but not for the deceased, for they never pray for the dead. All this being over, the assembly go out; and the pastor, standing at the door, takes leave of the company in the name of the deceased. Before the body is put into the ground, another exhortation is made, accompanied

with

with a short encomium on the virtues of the deceased, which is generally a piece of fulsome flattery. The ceremony is concluded by eating and drinking. Wine is given in plenty to those who honour the funeral with their presence, to drown sorrow, as is the custom of all the northern countries, and as it was with many nations of old.

From what has been said of these people, it appears plainly, that they are a compound of Arianism and Socinianism. There is no doubt but they think they do God good service, by inventing a new scheme of religion; nor is there less doubt but that they look with the most sovereign contempt, on all those who differ from them in sentiment. We have our Saviour's authority to assert, that many shall say unto him, Lord, Lord, have we not cast out devils in thy name, and in thy name done

wonderful things? but he will say unto them, depart from me, I know you not, ye workers of iniquity. It would be happy for mankind, were they to attend more to the spirit and power of religion than to the externals. But human nature has been the same in all ages, and will be the same to the last.

We shall conclude with one remark, which we do not remember ever to have heard made, and that is, that the numerous sects to be met with, all professing Christianity, and yet all in one thing or other, differing concerning its most important articles, are a proof of its authenticity. Were there no real coin in the world, there would be none counterfeited; and had not Christianity been a Divine institution, we should not have found so many men, from motives of interest or pride, setting up new imitations of the genuine original.

We shall consider them in a two-fold light; first, as to their principles in general; and, secondly, their present state of Europe.

The generality of mankind know no difference between Deists and Atheists, yet they are widely different; not to say it is hard, even next to an impossibility, that there should be any real Atheists. The existence of a supreme Being is so evidently proved, the distinguishing characters of good and evil, and their consequences are so deeply engraved in the conscience of every man, that they cannot entirely throw off the notion of a God. Accordingly, we find that the most unpolished and barbarous nations have always entertained some belief of a godhead, and cannot be looked upon as Atheists. The same must be said of the Chinese, of the inhabitants of Japan, and of all idolators; for though Tertullian says truly that there is no God, if he is not one; yet it does not follow that all those who

Atheism then is a chimera, but Deism is not so; to own the being of one God, to worship him, yet so as to embrace, out of policy, what religion soever is most in vogue, and favoured by the government, is as natural to the general bent of mankind, as to live under that government as long as our affairs require it, or our inclination leads us. As for those, if there be any such, whose principles are destructive of public society, they might be thought to go beyond Deism; but either they are not serious in their lawless schemes, which if successful, would prove their own ruin, as well as of the rest of mankind; or rather they act against their own knowledge, to acquire an empty reputation of senseless wit.

On the other side, both in civil and ecclesiastical societies, several are accused of Deism, who are no ways guilty of it; and the more they complain of such usage, all their protestations serve only to strengthen the prejudice conceived against them.

Thus

of life, it is the death of the soul; whoever is sorry for a bad thought or desire, is not sorry that he is a sinner, but that his sins are discovered, and that God has made him know the state in which he is.

But the sect we are now giving an account of, is of a mixt Deism, as is evident by their tenets. The founders of it, were Pontian of Hattem, and another Dutchman named Woutelaer, who, they say, added some of their own notions to the system of Spinosa, and interlarded the whole with some mystical opinions of the Pietists. This sect of Hattem still meets, but with so much privacy, that no one is admitted to their assemblies, unless he can give evident proofs of his being a trusty member of their society. This precaution is necessary to avoid the grievous penalties inflicted upon them by an edict of the states of Holland and West-Friesland, which orders, that they shall be banished or cast into prison, and severely punished as enemies to virtue, to divine worship, and disturbers of the public peace; that their books shall be suppressed, and the authors, printers and publishers proceeded against as directed in the edict about Spinosism.

Our curious readers may find a full account of Baruch or Benedict Spinosa in Bayle's Dictionary, to which may be added his life, published by Maximilian Lucas, one of his disciples; he was born at Amsterdam, son of a Portuguese Jew: His bold explications of scripture occasioned his being excommunicated, and cast out of the synagogue; to avoid their persecutions, after they had obtained his banishment, he retired to Rhynsburgh, then to Voorburgh, and lastly to the Hague, where he died. Lucas praises much his morals, as to his forgiving injuries, outward neatness, and disinterestedness.

He seems likewise, by a conversation which Lucas relates, to have been of opinion, that God had a body, and that there are no substances merely spiritual.

Pontian of Hattem had been a minister of Zealand, in the foggy air of which country he invented the system afterwards published by his disciple Woatelaer, who lived at Amsterdam beyond the age of thirty-four, and vented his doctrine whilst he sold linen. In the clandestine assemblies which he held, he entertained his audience with the following unintelligible paradoxies.

1. Every criminal thought, word, or action, is No. 36.

2. Owning criminal thoughts, words, or actions, is not a confession of sins; on the contrary, it is a denial of being a sinner, since it is a denial of being dead; for to be dead and to be a sinner is one and the same thing.

3. All sinners are equally dead, being all equally sinners; sin may shew itself in one more than another; but it is essential to man, whoever is a sinner this day, shall not be more so to-morrow; the action of man is not to be called sin, that appellation belongs only to his state of death.

4. Actions therefore do not make the sinner; but they are sins only, because he was a sinner first; sin is the death of man, the actions are only his corruption, such corruption as manifests itself when bodies are naturally dead.

5. Works, good or bad, do not change a man; they only shew whether he be good or bad, as fruits change not the tree.

66

6. God is immutable, and suffers no change in regard to us, not even by our most criminal actions. He is not angry at inan because he has sinned, but man sinned because God was angry with him.” Satan says, "Man has sinned, let him be punished." God says, "Man is a sinner, that is, he is dead, I must raise him to life." No man can be pleasing to God, till after his renunciation.

7. From thence he concludes, that they who condemn their brethren are like the devil, and those who are merciful to them resemble God. Man is dead by sin, actions which are bad are the corruption flowing essentially from death: to be angry at bad actions is as extravagant, as to be angry at a dead corpse for stinking.

8. He calls Christ Peace-maker, It is foolish to enquire what faith a man professes; there is but one faith. "Whoever thinks himself just is quiet, he rests, and works no more; his repose is the effect of his faith. Those who do not enjoy rest, and go on with works, and do not think themselves just yet, but endeavour it, those divide themselves into sects, as Catholics, Mennonites, Socinians, Arminians, &c. they even belong to religions entirely opposite to Christianity, as Judaism, Mahometanism, and Paganism; yet all these divisions make no difference among them; they are all alike, says Hattem, they condemn Christ, crucify him

10 D

over

over again, and make him a liar and an impostor."

9. Three persons are one God, who denies one, denies all three. Jews, Mahometans, and Socinians deny the son, who is the second person of the trinity; and therefore they reject God, therefore they are Atheists. Catholics, Mennonites and Arminians are Atheists, says Hattem, because they are not at rest in quiet, but take pains to give God glory, and to do h's will.

10. God alone can do his own will, man worships him and does his will only passively, by receiving his impressions, &c. Then all religion is only passive.

11. Whoever pretends to any other but this passive religion is an Atheist, by calling the will of God any other will but that of the creator..

12. All those who believe that God has within himself a law which men are required by God and obliged to fulfil, are Atheists and Idolators; because all religion consisting in this being passive, it must be a wild and vain imagination, to pretend that religious worship consists in obeying laws, supposed to flow from God.

13. Then he concludes no one can believe in God, unless he is insensible, immoveable, and has no desires.

14. They have no faith in God, who are displeased at any thing that happens; who are not satisfied either with their own conduct, or that of others; who think they can do more, be more holy and happy, and enjoy a more desirable

state.

15. So that whoever desires to be any thing else than what he is, does not believe in God, even though he should wish a sick person to recover, or a drunkard to leave off drunkenness censures and punishments, repentance, desires and endeavours of amendment are useless; men by such sentiments resist the will of God, and become inflexible to it, and consequently are without true faith and Athiests.

16. This indifference ought, according to Hattem, to make a true faithful equally satisfied whether virtue or vice is predominant in himself or others; passiveness and quiet will be his only virtues, these will keep him even from knowing evil, and render him pleasing to God the creator, whom by the first article of the creed we are to believe.

17. The actions of men are their fruits, and are such as those who do them: good fruits cannot be expected from bad trees, men are essentially bad; it is therefore a wicked opposition to the will

18. The son is the word of God and his wisdom, our prophet and doctor, &c. all the expressions of scripture teach us, that believing in him consists in receiving his testimony as infallible. Now the testimony of the Son of God is that the will of God is not in precepts, that our actions are not the obedience we owe him: we obey by faith,. and the will of God is his eternal decree. We are neither better nor worse by our actions.

19. The corruption of man is according to God'swill, man is naturally dead, naturally wicked, naturally damned, &c. yet our works are the works of the son of God, by which we know we are sin-ners, dead, without soul, without God, in a word, perfect Athiests, &c.

20. But a true Faithful is not sorry for his sins, he owns them, humbles himself in the sight of God, acknowledges that he is dead, and that as such he can only spread infection, (commits sins) and this is all the repentance and confession required. So says Hattem, and adds "That no one believes in the Son of God, but owns that he rejects the divinity; to own a God is to deny that one is dead." Who can understand this nonsense? and what dreadful consequences flow from such principles?

21. The love of God and our neighbour docs. not consist in actions. This would be a denial of God's justice; and prove only as a disguise of our hating the Supreme Being..

22. The love of God consists in faith, and that is shewed by being pleased with the punishments he inflicts, and those are our bad actions. Probably Hattem himself did not understand his own expressions.

23. The faithful alone are filled, glad, and content, &c.. All is the work of God, therefore every thing pleases them: they are always perfect, because they are such as God thought fit they should be. Their works are their punishements, they own it and thus are justified: they alone are the regenerate children of God, his heirs, and are intimately. united to him by the most tender affection; which Hattem and most Mystics express after the model of Solomon's Canticle by the most endearing words employed in love affairs.

These are the chief tenets of Hattem, a strange jumble of Quietism and other heresies, with which, no doubt, our readers are sufficiently tired: These sectaries were accused of Atheism and libertinism, and no wonder; they supposed every body else tobe Athiests, and by retaliation the same was objected

to.

to them again, it was reported that they enlisted men in the devil's name, and made them swallow, in a glass of wine, a paper with the word devil wrote upon it; that their teachers were wizards, and used conjurations, which calumnies, if we believe this their apologist, had the desired success in reducing the Hattemites to fly their country, or to abscond. We must not omit letting our readers know that Pontian of Hattem had frequented the Cocceian schools.

Some pretended wits who have lately renewed in Holland the system of the soul of the world, and the eternity of both, might with justice be reckoned Spinosists and Deists more than Hattem. One of them indeed pretends to be far from a Spinosist, by establishing some difference betwixt God and nature. The same writer maintains also, that the Trinity is only three modifications of the supreme Being; that extension is essential to God, and is the second person; that creation is from all eternity, &c. He and some others, namely one Deurhof, have had some followers, and held, as they do still, some assemblies, in a very private manner, to avoid the persecutions which the magistrates might make against them.

The ancient and modern wits have always endeavoured to bring into contempt the religions settled in every country; but never thought fit to break society upon that account with the rest of mankind. And after all their arguments, have been forced at last to own the necessity of some religion, not only to keep men in awe, and out of fear, but because they were convinced of the being of a God by dint of demonstration; when forced so far, they have denied revelation, yet could not avoid acknowledging that God might reveal himself by some means or other, that being so much above our reach of understanding, his authority must overcome all objections; thus these libertines, Deists, pretended wits, with their bold enquiries, are reduced to own the weakness of their boasted reasonings, and to humble themselves under the powerful hand of God.

They ought likewise to be reckoned Deists, who believe that all religions are equally agreeable to God, provided they are not opposite to the laws of nature. God they say loves variety in religious worship; but if he has revealed any religion, that only can be agreeable which he has prescribed; and how can man know, without revelation, what exterior worship is acceptable to the supreme Being? They also must be deemed Deists, who, as Toland and Woolston, under pretence of crying down superstition, have attacked religion itself, as being loaded with ancient errors, ancient frauds, ancient lies,

which by length of time have been taken for truths, and which the old heathenish Romans highly prized; and I wish, says Toland, I might not be forced to say that Christians do likewise. Superstition is no doubt a great evil, fables and stories have brought religion into disrepute, and cannot be countenancedby any rational man, unless actuated by avarice, ambition, ignorance, or an over-credulous fear: We must then conclude, that a truly religious man renders to God what is due to him, submits himself, and the whole extent of reason, to his infallible word; adores him in spirit and truth; loves him, without servile fear, out of gratitude, and duty; expects all good from his bountiful hand; des-· spises the terrors of death; and rejects all false notions of an inexorable fate.

We come now to consider the present state of Deism in Europe, with its causes and consequences.

In Italy almost all the learned are Deists, except the clergy, whose interest it is to be otherwise. The Italian Deists are however arrant hypocrites, for they conceal their real sentiments while at home, and go regularly to confession and mass. However, when any of them come into Protestant countries,, they pull off the mask, and condemn the whole of Christianity..

In France they are more numerous than in Italy, and many of them have written considerable works, but then it must be remembered, that they get their works printed in Holland. There is not, that we know of, one polite French author in the present age but is a Deist; and we are sorry to add, that the worst of their books are translated into our language, and many of them have been recommended · by a noble lord, more celebrated for what is vulgarly called wit, than for either virtue or piety. Some of these books have been brought into our schools, and the youth of both sexes have greedily drank the deadly poison. What is here said, the author knows to be true; for going one day to visit a young person to whom he was guardian, he heard the dancing-master recommend some of these deistical books. Fired with indignation, he threa-tened to take the person under his care, together with five more, away from the school, which had such a good effect, that the books never made their appearance.

As for the cause which promoted Deism in Ro-man Catholic countries, we shall now consider them, because they differ much from what is attended with the same effect among Protestants. And here we are extremely happy in being assisted by the German traveller Keyşler.

Every: