with the rules respecting the use of it prefixed. Here, at a small expense, the births of the children of Dissenters are registered by the librarian, a circumstance which has been much neglected, but is deserving of special attention. The Rev. John Coates is the present librarian, and the library is open till three o'clock in the afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday excepted. A mummy, very old, but in high preservation, and a large skeleton of the first person executed on the Black Act, together with many valuable manuscripts, are among the curiosities of the institution. Near to this spot stands Sion College, in London Wall, where the London Clergy meet to transact buisness, founded by Dr. Thomas White, formerly vicar of St. Dunstan in the West, who, among other charities, left 3000l. to purchase and build a college for the use of the London Clergy, with alms-houses for ten men and ten women. He also gave 160l. a-year for ever to the college and alms-houses, being 1207. for the support of alms-people, and 407. per annum for the expenses of the foundation. A charter was procured in the reign of Charles I., for incorporating the clergy of London, by which all the rectors, vicars lecturers, and curates are constituted fellows of the college. The Rev. J. Simpson, rector of St. Olave's Hart-street, one of Dr. White's executors, enlarged the institution, by building, at his own expense, a library over the alms-houses, in which there is an extensive collection of books. The edifice was destroyed by the great fire of London. The present building, of plain brick, with a Latin inscription over its entrance, having been repaired, has the appearance of respectability. Intelligent and liberal, zealous and faithful Ministers of the Gospel of every denomination under heaven, are blessings to the community. By their labours they build up the goodly fabric of sound morals, so essentially requisite to the well-being of individuals and of society, reared upon its only permanent basis, a rational and unaffected piety Thus fired by Virtue's animating flame, Learning is the handmaid of Piety, nor are its energies ever more honourably employed than in upholding the interests, as well as in promoting the spirit of true religion, throughout the world. TWENTY-FOUR MISCELLANEOUS SECTS. To the preceding systematical distribution of the several denominations of the Christian world, shall be added a few sects, which cannot fall under the three general divisions which have been adopted. QUAKERS, OR THE FRIENDS. The Quakers appeared in England about the year 1550. See "A Summary of the History, Doctrines, and Discipline of Friends, written at the desire of the Meeting for Sufferings in London." This pamphlet was published at the end of the work, entitled "A refutation of some of the more modern Misrepresentations of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, with a Life of James Nayler," by Joseph Gurney Bevan. It is difficult to give a specific statement of their tenets; but they may be found in a well-written "Apology," by Robert Barclay, a learned Quaker, who died in Scotland, 1690. George Fox, the founder of this sect, was born 1624. He exhibited few articles of faith, and insisted mostly on morality, mutual charity, and the love of God. The religion and worship he recommended was simple and without ceremonies. To wait in profound silence for the influence of the Spirit, was one of the chief points he inculcated. The Quakers have places of worship, where they regularly assemble on the first and other days of the week, though sometimes without vocal prayer, or any religious exhortation. They reject the celebration of of water-baptism and the Lord's Supper as outward ordinances; have no distinct order of ministers, though their speakers are under certain regulations; and being firm opposers of the Calvinistic doctrines of Election and Reprobation, are advocates of the Arminian system of doctrine, so far at least as respects the universal love of God to man, in order to his salvation. Their internal government is much admired: their own poor are supported without parochial aid, and their industry and sobriety are deserving of imitation. They also reprobate the destructive practice of war, the infamous trafic in slaves, and profess their abhorence of religious persecution. Refusing to pay tithes as an antichirstian imposition, they suffer the loss of their goods and of their liberty, rather than comply with the demand, and their losses are emphatically termed by them sufferings. Many have endured long imprisonments on that account. The Quakers object to all oaths, as having been prohibited by Christ, when he said, "swear not at all;" and their affirmation is permitted in all civil, but not in criminal cases. In the tyrannical reign of the Stuarts, the Friends suffered, in common with the Puritans, the severest persecution. Even the famous William Penn was tried at the Old Bailey; and his defence on the trial, an account of which is to be found in his works, is honourable to his legal knowledge, fortitude, and integrity. A cheap edition of this trial has been printed for general circulation. It presents a sad picture of the times, and is an eloquent comment on the wretched consequences of religious bigotry. With regard to the resurrection of the body, they have deemed it more safe not to determine how or when we shall be raised; yet they have a firm belief in a resurrection of the dead, and in a future state of retribution. Sewell, in his "History of the Society," expresses himself in behalf of a resurrection, but without determining the mode in which infinite wisdom may preserve a consciousness of identity in another stage of our existence; and Barclay, in his confession and catechism, used only the words of Scripture on the subject, without expressing the manner in which he understood them. The same re mark applies to his account of the divinity of Christ, though it appears, by the whole tenor of the tenth chapter of his "Catechism," and the seventeeth article of his "Confession of Faith," concerning worship,* that he held worship, strictly speaking, to be due to the Father only; nor does he quote in either of the selections any of the texts which are supposed also to authorize offering up prayers to Christ; and he is wholly silent respecting the doctrine of the Trinity in his " Apology." But it seems that William Penn was more explicit on the subject; and no writer of acknowledged reputation among them has admitted any distinction of persons in the Deity, or in the mode of his existence, which in some form or other is maintained by all who can be properly termed Triniatarians. In Penn's "Sandy Foundation Shaken," he speaks with freedom against many doctrines which are held in general estimation. The title of the book speaks for itself, and shall be transcribed: "The Sandy Foundation Shaken, or those so generally believed and applauded doctrines, of one God subsisting in three distinct and seperate persons: the impossibility of God's pardoning sin without a plenary satisfaction: the qualification of impure persons by an imputative righteousness, refuted from the authority of Scripture testimonies and right reason.' See a learned defence of this work by Richard Clarridge, published in his posthumous works in 1726. It appears that Penn, having in his work reprobated the leading doctrines of Calvinism, a violent outcry was raised against him. He therefore vindicated himself in a pamphlet, called "Innocency with her open Face," in which he says "As for my being a Socinian, I must confess I have read of one Socinus, of (what they call) a noble family in Sene, Italy, who, about the year 1574,being a young man, voluntarily did abandon the glories, pleasures, and honours of the Great Duke of Tuscany's court at Florence, that noted place for all worldly delicacies, and * Barclay's Works, vol. i. pp. 258 to 261, and 300, 8vo. |