The wanderings of the human intellect; or, A new dictionary of the various sects into which the Christian religion, in ancient and in modern times, has been divided; with an impartial discussion of the merits of their respective claims to orthodoxy. To which is prefixed, an introductory essay on universal history, as well civil as ecclesiastic, from the much-admired historical discourse of the learned Dr. Pluquet, in front of his valuable Dictionary of all religions ... By the Rev. John Bell

Front matter

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THE

"^WANDERINGS

Preface

Religious knowledge is, confessedly, of all other sciences, the most important. Important individually to each member of society, and equally important to the well-being of society at large. Whatever, therefore, has a tendency to promote this knowledge, and to widen its diffusion, is certainly entitled to the patronage of the public, and to the notice and, I had almost said, the gratitude too, of individuals. Of this description, the Editor presumes to flatter himself, the compilation now presented to the community will be deemed to partake. In it, moreover, will be found abundant matter to gratify, if not to satiate, a laudable curiosity— in the investigation of the various principles, as well moral as religious, of our fellow mortals, — and in ascertaining, in many instances, the leading causes of those astonishing revolutions in church or state, that have contributed to diversify each epoch of profane or ecclesiastic history. It does not, indeed, possess the merit of originality ; but the method, as far as the Editor has been enabled to discover, is novel to the English press, and calculated, in his judgment, to improve and interest the generality of

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IV his readers. It is needless to premise, that he has no pretensions to infallibility : consequently, he acknowledges himself liable to oversights, and sometimes too, perhaps, to defective reasoning. This he leaves to the enlightened public to discriminate : but as he is conscious he has done his best, he will not pledge himself to do away the supercilious exceptions of illiberal and self-conceited critics; of whose infallibility he thinks no better than of his own. If the tout ensemble of this performance -will not furnish adequate materials to answer their objections in a religious view, and to operate conviction on their minds, he owns himself unequal to the arduous task, and, not to fatigue the attention of the reader with unmeaning verbiage-^- Verbum non amplius addet.

He will only request permission just to observe, that the advantages of an alphabetical arrangement of the respective articles constituting this work, are too obvious to require a detail ; and will leave it to its fate — without further comment on its utility or merit. The historical analysis prefixed — must, likewise, be content to speak its own panegyric.

EPITOME

OF

UNIVERSAL HISTORY.

IN TWO PARTS.

Part I

Embraces a period of full four thousand years, from the creation of man to the establishment of Christianity by Christ our Lord.

CHAPTER I. Of the antediluvian state of mankind

Ancient Atheistical writers have pretended that men, like mushrooms, sprang spontaneously from the earth, and owed their origin to chance ; while modern materialists very gravely inform us, that their primordial existence was a necessary effect of we know not what mysterious arrangement in their beloved chaos ; and some learned naturalists have as wisely calculated and ascertained the different epochs, wherein the primeval elements of nature severally concurred in the formation of the universe, — without, however, condescending to acquaint us — by what mysterious influence mankind, or the animal species, or the vegetable world, could start forth from a globe of chrystal, all on fire (no matter how) from eternity. Certainly these gentlemen have each of them the merit of eccentricity. But their sublime theories will not bear the light ; they quickly disappear when confronted with the simple and unaffected narrative of the sacred historiographer of the book of Genesis. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. He said9 let light be made, and light was. made. And again he said : let us make man to our own image and likeness ; and God created man to his own image. ' By these few words we learn our origin j what we owe to God and to ourselves, and what we are to hope from the bounty of our great Creator.

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Is then God corporeal like man, as the Marcionites of ald9 the Manichees, the philosophers of the fourth age, and the infidels of the eighteenth, with those of the present day, erroneously infer ? By no means : the principal and the most noble part of man is the soul. This soul is gifted with understanding,— with a will and memory, and liberty of action; is capable of knowing, of loving, and adoring her Creator. la this it is* that man is like to God.

Another fruitful subject of profane cavil and irreligious witticism, unworthy any serious reply, are the circumstances which, according to holy scripture, attended the formation of the female. We will just observe, that these very circumstances teach mankind a lesson of the highest importance to their welfare, God would thus remind the female of the superiority of man, since she was formed of him ; and man, of that tender affection which he was bound to cherish for one who constitutes a part of his own substance : and both the one and the other, of their obligation mutually to preserve the strictest union, on which alike depends their own well-being, and that of their posterity.

What then would be the state of these two creatures at the moment of their production ; what their felicity before they forfeited their innocence ; and what would have been their future destiny and that of their posterity, had neither the one nor the other of them fallen into sin ? These are queries very interesting, but concerning which holy scripture has explained itself with much reserve. It informs us that God created man in righteousness and injustice, (Eccles. c. vii. v. SO. Ephes. c. iv. v. 24) ; consequently, not merely exempt from vice, but endowed, moreover, with sanctifying grace, whicli rendered him agreeable in the eyes of his Divine Majesty. It informs us too, that man was created immortal, at least in this sense, that he had it in his power to escape death by avoiding sin; death having entered into the world by sin only, and the malice of the devil, (Rom. c. v. v. 12. Wisd. c. ii. v. 24.) We are likewise given to understand (Ecclus. c. xvii. v. 6.) that God had been pleased to communicate to our first parents the science of the spirit. He filled their heart with wisdom and shewed them both good and evil. Hence it follows that the state of the first man, previous to his fall, was a state of great felicity, although his happines was not complete, in as much as he was liable to forfeit by disobedience that original justice in which he was created, together with all the gifts and privileges annexed to it. A more consummate beatitude was destined to be the fruit of his voluntary and unnecessitated perseverance in good. How long this probationary state of our first parent might have continued, in order to his perfect confirmation in justice and inamissibility of grace, the Holy Spirit has not thought good to reveal to men. Had he persevered in fact, his offspring would have enjoyed the prerogative of original justice in which he was himself created ; each individual of his posterity, would perhaps, like him have been subjected to temporary laws, exposed to the danger of violating them, and of forfeiting as he did, all the privileges of innocence. This is the opinion of the learned Estius, and of the great St Augustine, 1. 2. Sentent. Disk 20, §. 5.

On a variety of other questions regarding which holy scripture is silent, let us beware of imitating the rash curiosity of our proto-parent Adam ; nor presumptuously approach the tree of knowledge in quest of a forbidden fruit. But, why, cries modern incredulity with the ancient Manichees, — why impose a law on man, and lay on him an injunction which God foresaw that he would disobey ? I answer : because man being created a free agent, he had it at his option to obey, and strictly owed obedience to his great Creator. It is by free will, as much as by his understanding, that he is distinguished from the brute : and Almighty God most justly required of him a testimony of submission, in acknowledgment of the benefit of life, and other blessings conferred upon him ; and in conformity with the universally established dispensations of Providence it is expedient, that the perfect happiness of his creatures should not be a gift in all respects absolutely gratuitous, but a reeompence too, awarded to obedience and virtue. Nor ought the foresight which God had of the prevarication of Adam, in any wise to derogate from this eternal and infinitely wise and equitable dispensation.

When infidels also take offence, that God should have prohibited the eating of the fruit which was to impart the knowledge of good and evil, they affect — not to understand what kind of knowledge is here in question. Adam possessed already the knowledge of moral good and evil, as we learn from sacred writ, (Eccles. c. xvii. v. 6.) He would else have been as incapable of sinning, as the infant that has not yet attained the use of reason. But he had not the knowledge of physical evil, which he had never yet experienced. He had no idea of that confusion and remorse attendant upon guilt. After his sin he was made sensible of both, and was thus enabled to compare— happiness with misery and grief: such was the experimental knowledge, from which Almighty God in his goodness was wishful to preserve him. In this sense alone could the eating of the forbidden fruit communicate to man the knowledge of good and evil.

Nor was it inconsistent with justice in Almighty God to make Adam the arbiter of the fate of his posterity. It is the natural condition of humanity ; and such too, is the general order established in every political society. A father, by his personal bad conduct, may reduce to a state of wretchedness whole generations of his offspring. He has it in his power, by the perpetration of a single crime, to entail disgrace upon them

a2 all; and, where slavery is permitted by the law of the land, by bartering his own liberty, to condemn his innocent posterity to servitude. The good of society at large often seems to require such economy, in order thus to inspire parents with a greater horror of crimes — so big with fatal consequences to the interests of their children ; and children, in their turn, with gratitude to a parent, who, by his irreproachable demeanour, has placed them beyond the reach of such vexatious circumstances.

The sacred historian has again incurred the jeering sarcasms of profane cavillers — in relating how Eve was tempted, and the melancholy result of her prevarication. To these wise speculatists, the narrative appears, in many instances, absurd. First,— they do not conceive the serpent to be more sagacious than the rest of his fellow-animals, nor how he could enter into conversation with Eve, or be said to be accursed more than other reptiles like himself. — With respect to the superior sagacity of the serpent, we are not sufficiently acquainted with the serpentinian species, to pronounce how far precisely it may extend : the extraordinary facts authentically recorded of some other animals, appear at first not less fictitious and incredible. Doubtless, the wicked spirit may have been permitted to converse with Eve through the organ of the serpent ; and Eve, very possibly, had not yet experience enough to know whether an animal were naturally capable, or altogether incapable of speech.

That there exists a great variety of this species of creatures, is a fact well known to naturalists, and to travellers : some — winged and extremely beautiful, which, like the feathered race, can waft themselves with great facility through the air. Consequently it is not certain, that some which now crawl upon the ground, did so originally ; nor whether the serpent spoken of in the book of Genesis might not belong to the latter class. Again, we are not sure that none among the different species of serpents actually eat earth for their food ; were this a fact, it would sufficiently verify the malediction pronounced against that species for tempting Eve to sin.

A thousand other idle exceptions might be started against the authority of the word of God, which merit no reply. But then, was not the chastisement of Adam's disobedience too severe ? We can only here remark, that it is absurd to judge of the grievousness of a fault by any other criterion than by the greatness of its punishment on the part of God. Besides, the miseries of this life, and even concupiscence itself, are appendages of our very nature : the exemption from death ; the perfect subordination of the flesh to the spirit, were privileges by no means due to our first parents ; and of course Almighty God, with perfect justice, could deprive them and their posterity of these prerogatives, in consequence of their guilt. Nor is it an article of faith, that infants who have died under the guilt of original sin are doomed to suffer torments in the world to come. They will not enter, it is true, into the kingdom of God ; (John hi. 5.) but we are not informed by holy writ whether or not they shall be destined to a place of punishment. This is a point left undecided by the church. Our personal crimes indeed, will subject us to the most dreadful chastisement ; but then these are voluntary and by our free choice, and not entailed on us by Adam. Finally, when we speak of Adam's fall, and the punishment which followed his transgression, we must not lose sight of the glorious reparation made by our divine Redeemer Jesus Christ. The fathers of the church here remind us in the first place, that the promise of a Redeemer was as ancient as the fall of man. Previously to his condemnation to sufferings and to death, Almighty God had pronounced already his maledictions against the serpent, and had said to him — the seed of the "woman shall bruise thy head. In virtue of this promise, say the holy fathers, and of the merits of the Redeemer, Adam and his posterity were sentenced only to a temporary punishment ; and thus did the future redemption begin to operate its effect from the very instant it was first announced. They represent to us in the second place, that sufferings and death are the expiation of sin, and a subject of merit through the passion of our Divine Saviour; whence they conclude that, under this view, even the condemnation of man wras an act of clemency on the part of God ; Jesus Christ, according to the apostle, having converted the bitterness of death into a subject of real triumph, in the assured prospect of a glorious resurrection unto life — with Him, and after his divine example. (1 Cor. xv. v. 54, 55.)

They observe, moreover, that the grace so plentifully diffused by Jesus Christ renders us victorious over our concupiscence; that by this conflict virtue becomes more meritorious, and is made worthy of a recompence equal with that originally designed for our first parents. By so many different considerations do the ancient fathers make us understand — the high dignity to which our nature has been elevated by its union with the divine Word. The greatness of the evil of sin they endeavour to demonstrate — by the powerfulness of the antidote deemed neees<» sary in order to its cure.

According to sacred writ, Adam's penitential course was very long: he lived nine hundred and thirty years, (Gen. c. v. v. 5.) This long life Almighty God was pleased to grant him, in order the more easily to perpetuate among his descendants, the tradition of those grand truths to which he himself was qualified to give the strongest attestation, as having received them personally from his Maker : and could mankind desire an instructor more vene-

Table, or more worthy their attention ? But — without that promise of his merciful Creator, respecting the Redeemer to be revealed in future ages, Adam must oft have fieen exposed to the temptation of despair, upon witnessing the frightful evils of every description, which his sin had unfortunately entailed upon mankind. None, however, among the fathers of the church, have ever entertained a doubt of his salvation : all without exception were persuaded, that this inestimable blessing was secured to him by our common mediator Jesus Christ.

But, not to exceed too much our intended brevity by indulging in theological discussion, we will now simply recapitulate the recital of that most ancient and divinely inspired writer Moses. This venerable historian informs us, that an All- Powerful Intelligence created heaven and earth, and all things which they contain ; and that this Supreme Being enlightened man, became his legislator, and proposed to him rewards and punishments of his good or evil actions. He tells us, that unhappy man transgressed the laws which had been thus enjoined him ; relates the dreadful sentence denounced against him by the Almighty, and entailed upon the entire human race individually ; recounts the disorders of his late posterity ; and the severe chastisement of their irregularities by the universal flood, which engulphed the whole earth beneath its raging billows, and overwhelmed in one vast ruin all the inhabitants of the globe, with the exception only, of faithful Noe and his family. This sad catastrophe took place in the year of the creation 1656. For a more detailed account we beg leave to refer our readers to the book of Genesis.

Chapter II

Of the restoration of the human race after the universal food.

Scarcely had the waters of the universal deluge well subsided, when again all flesh began to corrupt its ways. Already the Chaldeans, like almost every other nation of the earth, had abandoned themselves to idol worship, before the lapse of four hundred and twenty-six years from the flood, when Almighty God caused Abraham to quit his native country, and to fix his residence in the land of Canaan. Here, he was pleased to make a covenant or alliance with this patriarch, by which he promised to give to his posterity the territory he then inhabited $ and this same promise he confirmed to Isaac and to Jacob, Abraham's son and grandson. (Gen. xii. Deut. vi.)

A series of events, directed by the hand of Providence, conducted Jacob and his family into Egypt, where the patriarch, on his death-bed, predicted to his children their various desiinies in future ages ; announced the distant coming of the great Messiah ; marked his distinctive characters, and declared that the sceptre should not depart from the tribe of Juda, until this promised Saviour of mankind should come to dwell amongst us.

CHAPTER IIL

Tie miraculous deliverance of the Hebrew people from their Egyptian bondage, and the promulgation of the decalogue.

In Egypt, the children of Jacob multiplied exceedingly ; till the jealousy of that idolatrous people reduced them to a state of the most cruel bondage. To effect their deliverance, Almighty God employed the most stupendous miracles. He became himself their law-giver, and reconducted them, as it were by the hand, into the land of promise. Here the Hebrew people formed a society, which had no resemblance nor connection with any other nation of the globe, — to render to the Supreme Being a true and legitimate worship, grounded upon the following principles : —

There is but one only God, who created heaven and earth, and who governeth all things by his providence : he alone is worthy of our love; he alone, above all other objects, is to be revered, and his holy name held in supreme veneration. He behokleth all things, even the inmost secrets of the heart : he is good, and merciful, and just. Man he hath created in a state of liberty, and hath left to him the free and un-necessitated choice of good or evil. It is the duty of man to receive with gratitude, all kinds of blessings, as coming from the hand of God ; and all calamities with submission, as paternal chastisements, or as certain tests of his fidelity. But, although Almighty God is merciful and good, the Hebrew people must not flatter themselves with the hopes of impunity, or of seeing an end of the evils brought upon them by their disorders, without a sincere sorrow for their crimes.

Such was the religion, such the sublime morality of the Jewish nation; a people without arts or sciences, and in every other respect ignorant and rude ; while the most polished nations of the universe, with all their boasted skill in literature and the polite arts, lay engulphed in impenetrable darkness, as to the existence and the nature of a Supreme Being, the true origin of things, and the destiny of man !

To the most exalted ideas, the Hebrew people joined hopes the most magnificent and elevated. They were taught to believe, that — of the tribe and family of King David, would be born a Saviour, destined to deliver them from all their evils, and to bring the entire human race to the knowledge of the true and living God. (Gen. xlix. v. 10. Kings 2. c. vii. v. 12. Ps. xxi. v. Is. xi. 8, 10. Ezech. xxxiv. v. 23.)

The religion, however, of this cherished nation, did not consist in the bare profession of these grand truths ; it had its peculiar rites, its ceremonies, and its sacrifices ; its holocausts, purifications and expiatory observances. It prescribed laws admirably calculated to promote social intercourse, and the happiness of the people : in a word, every thing in church and state was here divine, because the Deity himself was the immediate author— not less of their political, than he was of their religious institutions. The observance of the laws which God had prescribed, was followed with sensible and speedy recompence, besides the consoling prospect of future reward in a better world. At the head of the church presided a sovereign pontiff whose lips were the repositories of wisdom and truth ; before his breast were suspended the Urim and the Thurim, through the medium of which Almighty God thought fit to deliver his sacred oracles to men*

The Jewish nation, enclosed within its mountains, and precluded from every species of connection with idolaters by its legislative code, seemed destined to preserve its religion unaltered and unimpaired : every thing that could bear reference to religion, to morality, to social life, — was carefully inculcated to the people from their infancy, and diligently explained by the prophets or the Levites, each Sabbath day, and on all the solemn festivals : a frightful portrait was depicted on these occasions, of the mythology of other nations ; and they were prohibited, under the severest penalties, to receive from them their education in polite literature and the sciences. Their place of worship was confined to one single city, and to one temple only, which was the common centre of religion. The uninterrupted succession of the priesthood ; the continual attention of the ministers in their various sacrifices of victims ; the general obligation imposed upon all — of offering their children in the temple, and of attending there personally every year, in order to their purification, were means well adapted to perpetuate among the Jews the religion of their ancestors. All these precautions, however, proved insufficient to prevent its corruption ; and at Jerusalem itself were seen idolatrous kings, and even the very ministers of God, profaning the temple and religion with the motley worship of false divinities, in conjunction with the Supreme Being.

The Almighty, thus provoked, withdraws his protection from this infidel race ; and Jerusalem falls a prey to the Assyrians. The furious conquerors dismantle the city, level its venerable temple with the ground, and lead away the captive Jews to Babylon. After a long and tedious captivity, they are suffered to return, and to re-build their city and their temple. When Alexander he Great had conquered Asia, vast numbers of the Jews passed into Egypt, and settled at Alexandria under this conqueror and his successors, who granted them the privileges enjoyed by the Macedonians, and the unrestricted exercise of their own religion.

Length of time insensibly unbraced those ties which had attached the Jewish people to their country, and gradually enfeebled their respect for the law of Moses, and their aversion for infidelity. There went out of Israel wicked men ; and they persuaded many ; saying : Let us go and make a covenant with the heathens that are round about us : for since we departed from them, many evils have befallen us. And the word seemed good in their eyes. And some from among the people went to the king : and he gave them licence to live after the manner of the heathens. And t) hey built a place of exercise at Jerusalem , according to the custom of the gentiles.

The priests themselves were not now occupied about the offices of the altar ; but despising the temple, and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to be partakers of the public shows ,• contemning what was most honourable with their fathers. (1. 1. c. 1. Mach.) In a word, to such a height of frenzy did they carry their impiety, that they affected in all things to imitate the infidels, and to resemble in their whole demeanour the mortal enemies of their country and religion. (Ibid. v. 16.)

Chapter IV

Of the various sects into which the Jewish people were, in latter times, divided.

From this degrading epoch, the Jews began to fritter into sects. The Pharisees maintained, that Almighty God, in addition to the law given on Mount Sinai, had prescribed an infinite number of rites and dogmas, which Moses had transmitted to posterity without committing them to writing ; and, along with such traditions as were true, they intermingled a variety of ridiculous fables, false notions, and erroneous principles, borrowed from the equally fallacious maxims of pagan philosophy. Thus they corrupted the doctrine of the law. Josephus the historian informs us, that they ascribed all contingencies to an over-ruling destiny, although, at the same time, they very inconsistently allowed free will to man ; because, said they, such had been the divine pleasure. They left to him the uncontrolled election of virtue, or of vice, still maintaining that all things happen in consequence of some necessitating decree or dispensation of the Supreme Being. They held, that the souls of the wicked, after death, were confined in dungeons, and that they suffered eternal punishment ; while those of the good were restored to life, and entered into bodies, different from those which they had animated heretofore. It would be endless to detail, irt full, all their visionary traditions : they are the subject of no less than two and thirty volumes in folio, which compose what is called the Talmud.

In the Talmud are distinguished seven different orders of Pharisees. One of these orders, in their obedience to the law, had in view only worldly profit and earthly glory : another made perfection to consist in dragging their feet along the ground in the act of walking ; a third, in beating violently their heads against a wall, so as to stain it with their blood ; a fourth, in wearing a hood upon their head ; a fifth, in crying out with much ostentation, ' show me what I am to do, and I will do it ; or rather what is there that I have not done already' ? The sixth order observed the law through a love of virtue and hope of recompence ; but the seventh, for fear of punishment and the wrath of God.

Ail of them recited long prayers, and refused themselves even necessary repose. They hung their head as they walked along, fearing lest otherwise they should touch the feet of the Divinity, which they superstitiously imagined not more than four feet elevated above the ground ; and, in order to appear in the eyes of the people solely occupied with the things above, they sewed to their garments the philacteria or fillets, on which were written certain sentences of the law, wore by them in order to distinguish them from the vulgar Jews. They practised more frequent ablutions than their neighbours, to show their extreme desire of perfect purity. Their zeal for proselytism was ardent and indefatigable ; and this zeal, added to the severity of their mortifications, gave the people a high idea of their sanctity : the denomination of sage was appropriated to them by way of excellence. They kept their disciples in a kind of subjection little short of servitude, and regulated every thing appertaining to religion with absolute authority. Boundless was their influence over the minds of the populace, and of the female kind ; and they put in motion at their pleasure the stormy billows of popular insurrection, and became formidable even to their kings. Such were the men censured with peculiar severity in the gospels by our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ.

The Sadducees, in the opposite extreme, rejected the traditions of the ancients, and, like our modern Caraites, would abide by nothing but the written word. In unison with this principle, they expounded the books of Moses according to their strict and literal acceptation ; believed that the universe was the work of the Almighty, and that he continues to govern it by his providence; that he had wrought an infinite number of prodigies in favour of the Hebrew people, and in establishing its police had decreed rewards and punishments : but these penalties and these recompences they believed to be purely temporal, and confined within the limits of the present life. These Jews, strictly attached to the bare letter of the law, could discover nothing in the writings of Moses, which taught in express terms, that the soul would survive the dissolution of the body ; and, as they were enemies to all traditionary doctrine, they of course denied the immortality of the soul. This error of the Sadducees was not, perhaps, universally maintained by all who affected to adhere to the letter of the law : although their implacable enemies the Pharisees, imputed it to the entire sect without exception, in order to render them the more t>dious, or, it may be, because they deemed it a consequence naturally flowing from their principles relative to tradition: a consequence, however, which, very possibly, all the Caraites would not so easily admit.