supporters."* What is a sect among Protestants, would, in the Romish Church, be but a new order. George Fox, had he been educated within the Romish pale, would have ranked with St. Francis, and Edward Irving with Prince Hohenlohe. Mother Leese might have founded a new order of nuns; and Mary Campbell have been received into the goodly company of saintly virgins whom the Church of Rome delights to honour. Their miracles would have been vouched for; their visions have been ascribed to angelic visitations; their heresies treated as harmless varieties of opinion. Fanaticism and imposture, when working for the authority of the Church, not against it, have been rewarded with the honours of canonization.

If Protestantism is not justly chargeable with peculiarly abounding in sects and heresies, (having borrowed its mysticism, its fanaticism, and its very sectarism from the Church of Rome,) still more utterly unfounded is the allegation, that the unrestricted circulation of the Scriptures has tended to multiply heretical divisions. In every instance brought under review in the present chapter, it will be seen, that, on one pretence or another, the sufficiency and exclusive authority of the Divine Revelation contained in the Scriptures, have been practically contravened, and the Inspired Rule of Faith set aside for Immediate Revelation, Allegorical Interpretation, new Scriptures, another Gospel, visions, dreams, signs, and prophecies. The habit of devout deference to the Scriptures as the only evidence of truth, being once thrown off or lost, imagination easily takes the place of faith; and when it has obtained the ascendancy, a waking delirium ensues, in which the mind is incapable of distinguishing between the real and the spectral, or of perceiving the incongruity of its own ideas. It is then closed, as in sleep, against all external impressions from argument and reasoning, and no longer asks, to sustain its convictions, any other evidence than sensation. The judgement is in abeyance, sometimes as completely as in cases of actual insanity; and the moral phenomena thus assume the character of physical disease. Yet, • Fanaticism, p. 326.

fanaticism is not madness, nor the result, at least in many cases, of distemper. The aberration has its origin in religious error. The mind has shaped out for itself a creed, and then worshipped it-the idolatry of speculative minds; the law of religion has been broken in the very act of doing homage to its forms; and the great lesson to be learned from all such pitiable cases, is, that it is infinitely dangerous to deal with religious verities except in the spirit of obedience.

SECTION IV.

AMERICAN SECTS.

In the United States of America, the asylum of emigrants and refugees of all religious denominations from almost every country of Europe, a great diversity of creeds and professions might be expected to exist; and the perfect civil equality enjoyed by all sects in the absence of any State Establishment, has tended to bring this diversity more broadly into view. Yet it will be seen from the following statistical view of the population, that the great body of the people are comprehended within the Presbyterian and Congregational, the Baptist, the Wesleyan Methodist, and the Episcopalian communions; that the sects are for the most part insignificant; and that scarcely any of them are indigenous, the most eccentric varieties having been transplanted from the mother country or father-land of the original settlers.

The total population of the United States is about thirteen millions, of whom two millions are slaves. Five millions of the free population are concentrated in New England and New York. The Presbyterian body, if not the strongest in numbers, is certainly so by standing and consideration. Its strength, however, is chiefly in the Middle States; as, in the six States of New England, the Congregational order prevails. "The common understanding has been, that, on passing the geographical line which divides these States, the party shall yield his distinctive opinions on church government so far as to unite with the prevailing profession; and he is passed from one church to another by the ordinary certificate. This compact includes ministers as well as laymen, and there are consequently scarcely any Presbyterian churches in New England;" as there are few Congregational churches south of that line, except in the State of New York.* The fraternal connexion between the Presbyterian and Congregational bodies has also been recognised by the reception of delegates to sit in the principal conventions of each. The Plan of Union, by which Congregational churches were thus brought into complete union with the Presbyterian church, was formed in 1801; but, after existing for six-and-thirty years, it has been annulled by the last General Assembly, held in 1837, on the ground that the Congregationalists had become so strong as to overrule by their votes the Presbyterians, and in effect to govern the church. But the Assembly profess, in this ecclesiastical separation, to retain the most cordial esteem and fraternal affection for their Congregational brethren.

* Reed and Matheson's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 80.

The Baptists rank next, numerically, to the Congregationalists in New England; but their strength lies in the west and south, where their numbers are greatly swelled by the large accessions made from the slaves: hitherto, a great proportion of their ministers have had little education. The Methodists, who are spread over most of the States, have fewer ministers, but show a larger number of communicants, including also a considerable proportion of slaves. Like the Baptists, they are beginning to take decided measures to secure an educated ministry. The Episcopal Church is the smallest of the five leading denominations; but it is considerable in point of influence, and is making rapid advances, if we may judge from the great increase in the number of its resident clergy. In most of the principal towns, there are highly respectable congregations of this denomination; but there are none in the country parts. The congregations have a voice in the appointment of their pastors, and the bishops are elected in a convention of pastors and lay delegates. In other respects, the forms and polity of the Church of England are adhered to. Like the parent church, this body is divided into two parties, the high church and the low church, the Arminian and the Evangelical.

Of the 170 Unitarian congregations, 130 are concentrated in the State of Massachusetts. In the principal towns of the eastern part of that State, the Unitarians embrace most of the wealth and literary and political influence. In Boston, their stronghold, they have twelve societies, averaging about 600. Elsewhere, their congregations are very small, not averaging more than 100; and their influence is scarcely felt except in a few counties round Boston. This sect is, in fact, rapidly declining.

Among the miscellaneous sects, the Universalists alone are numerous. The doctrine which gives name to this denomination, was held by Origen in the third century, and has found modern advocates in many learned and speculative men of

In 1834, of 638,784 members, 553,134 were whites, 83,156 coloured, an 2,494 Indians. See above, p. 453.

different theological views in other respects.* It asserts, that the plan of salvation embraces the eventual restoration of all mankind. The theory of Universal Salvation has been expounded upon very different principles. A Mr. James Relly, at one time a follower of Whitfield, and a popular preacher, having adopted this sentiment, became separated from that connexion, and formed a small congregation in London, to whom he preached till his death in 1778. He was joined by Mr. Cudworth, another of Whitfield's preachers. One of this society, a Mr. Murray, emigrated to America, and there preaching the same doctrine, founded societies of "Philadelphian Universalists." Between 1785 and 1798, an earnest controversy upon this subject was carried on by some American divines. The Rev. Elhanan Winchester, who visited this country about 1790, was another zealous advocate of this doctrine; but, we are told, "he was an Arminian, not a Rellyan Universalist." Of the societies which now bear this name, little seems to be known. Their distinguishing tenet allows of a great latitude of theological opinion, and probably covers a variety of creed ranging from Antinomianism to philosophical deism.

†

The Shakers, or Shaking Quakers, have their chief settlement at New Lebanon, in the State of New York. The number in the village was, in 1820, about 500, but, including the neighbourhood, they amounted to 1,500. They possess about 3,000 acres of land, and are distinguished by their industry, order, and neatness. Their property is all in common; and, as the unlawfulness of marriage is one of their fundamental principles, the establishment resembles a monastic institution, except that the male and female members are not separated from all intercourse. The sect is kept up entirely by proselytes. To the unfortunate, to widows and

Among others, by the Chev. Ramsay, Dr. Cheyne, Dr. Hartley, Lavater, Dr. Chauncy of America, Dr. Huntington, and Elhanan Winchester. + Williams's Dictionary of all Religions.

Dr. Dwight mentions four establishments in different parts of the Union, and supposes that there were others; but whether they are in existence now, does not appear. Their total numbers are supposed to be about 5,000.