that can never happen but at the land retired first into Friesland, and new moon, whereas now it was then to Basil, where he changed full moon; not to mention that his name, assuming that of John the total darkness occasioned by Bruck, and died in 1556. He eclipses of the sun never continues left some disciples behind him, to above twelve or fifteen minutes; whom he promised that he would wherefore it must have been pro-rise again at the end of three duced by the Divine power, in a years. Nor was he altogether a manner we are not able to explain. false prophet herein; for the maAccordingly Luke (chap. xxiii,gistrates of that city being inform44, 45) after relating that there ed, at the three years' end, of what was darkness over all the earth, he had taught, ordered him to be adds, “and the sun was darken- dug up and burnt, together with ed;" which perhaps may imply his writings, by the common hangthat the darkness of the sun did man.

not occasion, but proceeded from, DEACON, Araxovos, a servant, the darkness that was over all the a minister.

land. Farther, the christian writ- 1. In ecclesiastical polity, a deaers, in their most ancient apolo-con is one of the lowest of the gies to the heathens, affirm that three orders of the clergy. He is as it was full moon at the passover rather a novitiate, or in a state of when Christ was crucified, no such probation fór one year, after which eclipse could happen by the course he is admitted into full orders, or of Nature. They observe, also, ordained a priest. that it was taken notice of as a 2. In the New Testament the prodigy by the heathens them-word is used for any one that miselves. nisters in the service of God: DAVIDISTS, the adherents bishops and presbyters are also of David George, a native of styled deacons; but more partiDelft, who, in 1525, began to cularly and generally it is underpreach a new doctrine, publishing stood of the lowest order of mihimself to be the true Messiah; nistering servants in the church, and that he was sent of God to fill 1st Cor. iii, 5. Col. i, 23, 25, Phil. heaven, which was quite empty i, 1. 1st Tim. iii. for want of people to deserve it. The office of deacons originally He is likewise said to have denied was to serve tables, the Lord's the existence of angels, good and table, the minister's table, and evil, and to have disbelieved the the poor's table. They took care doctrine of a future judgment. He of the secular affairs of the church, rejected marriage with the Adam-received and disbursed monies, ites; held, with Manes, that the kept the church's accounts, and soul was not defiled by sin; and provided every thing necessary for laughed at the self-denial so much its temporal good. Thus, while the recommended by Jesus Christ. bishop attended to the souls, the Such were his principal errors. deacons attended to the bodies of He made his escape from Delft, the people. The pastor to the

spiritual, and the deacons the DEAN, an ecclesiastical digtemporal interests of the church, nitary, next under the bishop in Acts vi. cathedral churches, and head of DEACONESS, a female dea- the chapter. The Latin word is con. It is generally allowed, that decanus, derived from the Greek in the primitive church there were Axa, ten, because, the dean predeaconesses, i. e. pious women, sides over at least ten canons, or whose particular business it was prebendaries. A dean and chapto assist in the entertainment and ter are the bishop's council, to ascare of the itinerant preachers, sist him in the affairs of religion. visit the sick and imprisoned, in- DEATH is generally defined struct female catechumens, and to be the separation of the soul assist at their baptism; then more from the body. It is styled, in particularly necessary, from the scripture language, a departure peculiar customs of those coun-out of this world to another, 2d tries, the persecuted state of the Tim. iv, 7. a dissolving of the earthchurch, and the speedier spread-ly house of this tabernacle, 2d Cor. ing of the gospel. Such a one it v, 1. a going the way of all the is reasonable to think Phebe was, earth, Jos. xxiii. 14. a returning to Rom. xvi, 1. who is expressly the dust, Ecc. xii, 7. a sleep, John called Javor, a deaconess, or xi, 11. Death may be considered stated servant, as Doddridge ren-as the effect of sin, Rom. v, 12. ders it. They were usually wi-yet, as our existence is from God, dows, and, to prevent scandal, no man has a right to take away generally in years, 1st Tim. v, 9. his own life, or the life of another, See also Spanheim, Hist. Christ. Gen. ix. 6. Satan is said to have Secul. 1, p. 554. The apostolic the power of death, Heb. ii, 14; constitutions, as they are called, not that he can at his pleasure inmention the ordination of a dea-flict death on mankind, but as he coness, and of the form of prayer was the instrument of first bringused on that occasion (lib. VIII, ing death into the world, John ch. 19, 20.) Pliny, also, in his cele-viii, 44; and as he may be the brated epistle to Trajan (XCVII) executioner of God's wrath on is thought to refer to them, when, impenitent sinners, when God speaking of two female christians permits him. Death is but once, whom he put to the torture, he Heb. ix, 27.-certain, Job xiv, 1, says, quæ ministræ dicebantur, i. e. 2. powerful and terrific, called the who were called deaconesses.- king of terrors, Job xviii, 14. uncerBut as the primitive christians tain as to the time, Prov. xxvii, 1. seem to be led to this practice from universal, Gen. v. necessary, that the peculiarity of their circum- God's justice may be displayed, stances, and the scripture is en-and his mercy manifested: desirtirely silent as to any appointment able to the righteous Luke ii, to this supposed office, or any 28 to 30. The fear of death is a rules about it, it is very justly source of uneasiness to the laid aside, at least as an office. rality, and to a guilty conscience

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it may indeed be terrible; but to||says Blair (vol. i, ser. 5.) was the a good man it should be obviated most critical, the most pregnant by the consideration that death is with great events, since hours the termination of every trouble; had begun to be numbered, that it puts him beyond the reach since time had begun to run. It of sin and temptation; that God was the hour in which Christ was has promised to be with the glorified by his sufferings. Through righteous, even to the end, Heb. the cloud of his humiliation his xiii, 5. that Jesus Christ has taken native lustre often broke forth, but away the sting, 1st Cor. xv, 54. never did it shine so bright as and that it introduces him to a now. It was indeed the hour of state of endless felicity, 2d Cor. v, distress, and of blood. It is distress 8. Bates's Four last Things; Hop- which ennobles every great chakins, Drelincourt, Sherlock, and racter, and distress was to glorify Fellowes, on Death; Bp. Porteus's the Son of God. He was now to Poem on Death; Grove's admirable teach all mankind, by his examSermon on Fear of Death. ple, how to suffer, and how to die.

Spiritual Death is that awful What magnanimity in all his state of ignorance, insensibility, words and actions on this great and disobedience, which mankind occasion! No upbraiding, no are in by nature, and which ex-complaining expression escaped clude them from the favour and from his lips. He betrayed no enjoyment of God, Luke i, 79. symptom of a weak, a discomposSee SIN. ed, or impatient mind. With all Brothers of Death, a denomina- the dignity of a sovereign, he contion usually given to the religious ferred pardon on a penitent fellowof the order of St. Paul, the first sufferer: with a greatness of mind hermit. They are called brothers beyond example, he spent his last of death, on account of the figure moments in apologies and prayers of a death's head which they were for those who were shedding his always to have with them, in order blood. This was the hour in which to keep perpetually before them Christ atoned for the sins of manthe thoughts of death. The order kind, and accomplished our eternal was probably suppressed by pope redemption. It was the hour when Urban VIII. that great sacrifice was offered up, Death of Christ. The circum- the efficacy of which reaches back stances attendant on the death of to the first transgression of man, Christ are so well known, that they and extends forward to the end of need not be inserted here. As the time; the hour, when, from the subject, however, of all others, is cross, as from an high altar, the the most important to the chris- blood was flowing which washed tian, a brief abstract of what has away the guilt of the nations. In been said on it, from a sermon al-this hour the long series of prophelowedly one of the best in the Eng-||cies, visions, types, and figures was lish language, shall here be given. accomplished. This was the centre "The hour of Christ's death," in which they all met. You behold

the law and the prophets standing,ness; the hour in which he overif we may speak so, at the foot of threw dominions and thrones, led the cross, and doing homage. You captivity captive, and gave gifts unbehold Moses and Aaron bearing to men: then it was that the foundathe ark of the covenant; David and tion of every pagan temple shook; Elijah presenting the oracle of tes- the statue of every false god tottimony. You behold all the priests tered on its base; the priest fled and sacrifices, all the rites and from his falling shrine, and the ordinances, all the types and sym-heathen oracles became dumb for bols assembled together to receive ever?-This was the hour when our their consummation. This was Lord erected that spiritual kingdom the hour of the abolition of the law, which is never to end. His enemies and the introduction of the gospel; imagined that in this hour they had the hour of terminating the old and successfully accomplished their beginning the new dispensation,-plan for his destruction; but how It is finished. When he uttered little did they know that the Althese words, he changed the state mighty was at that moment setting of the universe. This was the ever-him as a king on the hill of Sion! memorable point of time which se- How little did they know that parated the old and the new world their badges of mock royalty were from each other. On one side of at that moment converted into the point of separation you behold the signals of absolute dominion, the law, with its priests, its sacri-and the instruments of irresistible fices, and its rites, retiring from power! The reed which they put sight. On the other side, you be-into his hands became a rod of hold the gospel, with its simple iron, with which he was to break and venerable institutions, coming in pieces his enemies; a sceptre forward into view. Significantly with which he was to rule the uniwas the veil of the temple rent in verse in righteousness. The cross, twain; for the glory then depart-which they thought was to stiged from between the cherubims. matize him with infamy, became -The legal high priest delivered up the ensign of his renown. Instead his Urim and Thummim, his of being the reproach of his folbreast-plate, his robes, and his in-lowers, it was to be their boast, cense; and Christ stood forth as and their glory. The cross was the great high priest of all suc-to shine on palaces and churches ceeding generations. Altars on throughout the earth. It was to which the fire had blazed for ages be assumed as the distinction of the were now to smoke no more. Now most powerful monarchs, and to it was also that he threw down the wave in the banner of victorious wall of partition which had so long armies, when the memory of divided the Gentile from the Jew; Herod and Pilate should be acand gathered into one all the faith-cursed; when Jerusalem should ful, out of every kindred and peo-be reduced to ashes, and the Jews ple. This was the hour of Christ's be vagabonds over all the world.” triumph over all the powers of dark-See ATONEMENT; Pearson and

Barrow on the Creed; Owen's and harmonious, and that he obDeath of Death in the Death of serve a deportment and action Christ; Charnock's Works, vol. ii, which is expressive and graceful. on the Necessity, Voluntariness, The preacher should not roar like &c. of the Death of Christ. a common crier, and rend the ear DĚCALOGUĚ, the ten com-with a voice like thunder; for mandments given by God to Moses.such kind of declamation is not The ten commandments were only without meaning and without engraved by God on two tables persuasion, but highly incongruous of stone. The Jews, by way of with the meek and gentle spirit of eminence, call these command- the gospel. He should likewise ments the ten words, from whence take particular care to avoid a they had afterwards the name of monotony; his voice should rise decalogue; but they joined the first from the beginning, as it were, by and second into one, and divided degrees, and its greatest strength the last into two. They understand should be exerted in the applithat against stealing to relate to cation. Each inflexion of the the stealing of men, or kidnap-voice should be adapted to the ping; alleging, that the stealing phrase and to the meaning of the one another's goods or property words; and each remarkable exis forbidden in the last command-pression should have its peculiar ment. The church of Rome has inflexion. The dogmatic requires struck the second commandment a plain uniform tone of voice only, quite out of the decalogue; and, to and the menaces of God's word make their number complete, has demand a greater force than its split the tenth into two. The rea-promises and rewards; but the son is obvious. latter should not be pronounced

DECLAMATION, a speech in the soft tone of a flute, nor the made in public in the tone and man- former with the loud sound of a ner of an oration, uniting the expres-trumpet. The voice should still sion of action to the propriety of retain its natural tone in all its pronunciation, in order to give the various inflections. Happy is that sentiment its full impression on preacher who has a voice that is the mind. It is used also in a at once strong, flexible, and harderogatory sense; as when it is monious. An air of complacency said, such a speech was mere de- and benevolence, as well as declamation, it implies that it was votion, should be constantly videficient in point of reasoning, or sible in the countenance of the had more sound than sense. preacher; but every appearance

DECLAMATION OF THE PUL-of affectation must be carefully PIT. "The dignity and sanc-avoided; for nothing is so disgusttity of the place, and the import-ful to an audience as even the semance of the subject, require the blance of dissimulation. Eyes conpreacher to exert the utmost pow-stantly rolling, turned towards ers of his voice to produce a pro- heaven, and streaming with tears, nunciation that is perfectly distinct rather denote a hypocrite than a VOL. I. Ff