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4. "I believe with a perfect faith, the Creator, whose name be blessed, to be the first and the last, that nothing was before him, and that he shall abide the last forever.

5. "I believe with a perfect faith, that the Creator, whose name be blessed, is to be worshipped, and none else.

6. "I believe with a perfect faith, that all the words of the prophets are true.

7. "I believe with a perfect faith, the prophecies of Moses, our master, may he rest in peace, that he was the father and chief of all wise men that lived before him, or ever shall live after him.

8. "I believe with a perfect faith, that all the law which at this day is found in our hands, was delivered by God himself to our master, Moses. God's peace be with him.

9. "I believe with a perfect faith, that the same law is never to be changed, nor another to be given us of God, whose name be blessed. 10. "I believe with a perfect faith, that God, whose name be blessed, understandeth all the works and thoughts of men, as it is written in the prophets. He fashioneth their hearts alike; he understandeth all their works.

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11. "I believe with a perfect faith, that God will recompense good to them that keep his commandments, and will punish them who transgress them.

12. "I believe with a perfect faith, that the Messiah is yet to come, and although he retard his coming, yet I will wait for him till he come.

13. "I believe with a perfect faith, that the dead shall be restored to life, when it shall seem fit unto God the Creator, whose name be blessed, and memory celebrated, world without end. Amen."

The number of Jews in the United States is estimated at 15,000. They have synagogues in Newport, R. I., New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and other places in the United States. Their mode of worship is exceedingly interesting. The number of Jews scattered over the face of the earth is variously stated from three to seven millions.

"The history of this people," says a modern writer, "certainly forms a striking evidence of the truth of divine revelation. They are a living and perpetual miracle, continuing to subsist as a distinct and peculiar race for upwards of three thousand years, and even in the midst of other nations, flowing forward in a full and continued stream, like the waters of the Rhone, without mixing the waves of the expansive lake through which the passage lies to the ocean of eternity."

LUTHERANS,

OR THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH.

THIS denomination adhere to the opinions of Martin Luther, the celebrated reformer, who was born at Eisleben, in the Electorate of Saxony, in 1483. Few men have rendered posterity more service

than this learned, pious and eloquent reformer. Luther died in his native town, 1546.

The Lutherans, of all Protestants, are those who differ least from the Romish church, as they affirm that the body and blood of Christ are materially present in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, though in an incomprehensible manner; this they term consubstantiation. They likewise represent some rites and institutions, as the use of images in churches, the vestments of the clergy, the private confession of sins, the use of wafers in the administration of the Lord's Supper, the form of exorcism in the celebration of baptism, and other ceremonies of the like nature, as tolerable, and some of them useful. The Lutherans maintain, with regard to the Divine decrees, that they respect the salvation or misery of men in consequence of a previous knowledge of their sentiments and characters, and not as founded on the mere will of God. Towards the close of the last century, the Lutherans began to entertain a greater liberality of sentiment than they had before adopted, though in many places they persevered longer in despotic principles than other Protestant churches. Their public teachers now enjoy an unbounded liberty of dissenting from the decisions of those symbols of creeds which were once deemed almost infallible rules of faith and practice, and of declaring their dissent in the manner they judge most expedient.

The capital articles which Luther maintained, are as follow:

I. That the holy Scriptures are the only source whence we are to draw our religious sentiments, whether they relate to faith or practice. See 2 Tim. 3: 15-17. Prov. 1: 9. Isa. 8: 20. Luke 1: 4. John 5: 39.-20: 31. 1 Cor. 4: 6, &c.

II. That justification is the effect of faith, exclusive of good works, and that faith ought to produce good works, purely in obedience to God, and not in order to our justification. See Gal. 2: 21.

III. That no man is able to make satisfaction for his sins. See Luke 17: 10.

In consequence of these leading articles, Luther rejected tradition, purgatory, penance, auricular confession, masses, invocation of saints, monastic vows, and other doctrines of the church of Rome.

The external affairs of the Lutheran church are directed by three judicatories, viz.; a vestry of the congregation, a district or special conference, and a general synod. The synod is composed of ministers, and an equal number of laymen, chosen as deputies by the vestries of their respective congregations. From this synod there is no appeal.

The ministerium is composed of ministers only, and regulates the internal or spiritual concerns of the church, such as examining, licensing and ordaining ministers, judging in controversies about doctrine, &c. The synod and ministerium meet annually.

Confession and absolution, in a very simple form, are practised by the American Lutherans; also, confirmation, by which baptis

mal vows are ratified, and the subjects become communicants. Their liturgies are simple and impressive, and the clergy are permitted to use extempore prayer.

The number of Lutherans in the Christian world is estimated at between fifteen and twenty millions. (See Appendix, Note J.)

MAHOMETANS.

Mahometanism is a scheme of religion formed and propagated by Mahomet, who was born at Mecca, A. D. 569, and died at Medina in 632.

His system is a compound of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity; and the Koran, which is their Bible, is held in great reverence. It is replete with absurd representations, and is supposed to have been written by a Jew. The most eloquent passage is allowed to be the following, where God is introduced, bidding the waters of the deluge to cease: "Earth, swallow up the waters; heaven, draw up those thou hast poured out; immediately the waters retreated, the command of God was obeyed, the ark rested on the mountains, and these words were heard-Wo to the wicked!'"

This religion is still professed and adhered to by the Turks and Persians, and by several nations in Asia and Africa. The best statistical writers estimate the number of Mahometans in the world at about one hundred and forty millions.

Mahomet descended from an honorable tribe, and from the noblest family of that tribe; yet his original lot was poverty. By his good conduct, he obtained the hand of a widow of wealth and respectability, and was soon raised to an equality with the richest people in Mecca.

Soon after his marriage he formed the scheme of establishing a new religion, or, as he expressed it, of replanting the only true and ancient one professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroying the gross idolatry into which most of his countrymen had fallen, and weeding out the corruptions and superstitions which the latter Jews and Christians had, as he thought, introduced into their religion, and reducing it to its original purity, which consisted chiefly in the worship of one God.

The Mahometans divide their religion into two general parts, faith and practice, of which the first is divided into six distinct branches. Belief in God, in his angels, in his Scriptures, in his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgment, and in God's absolute decrees. The points relating to practice are, prayer, with washings, alms, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca, and circumcision.

They believe that both Mahomet and those among his followers who are reckoned orthodox, had and continued to have just and true notions of God, and that his attributes appear so plain from the Koran itself, and all the Mahometan divines, that it would be loss of time to refute those who suppose the God of

Mahomet to be different from the true God, and only a fictitious deity or idol of his own creation.

They believe that the existence of angels and their purity are absolutely required to be believed in the Koran; and he is reckoned an infidel who denies there are such beings, or hates any of them, or asserts any distinction of sexes among them. They believe them to have pure and subtle bodies, created of fire; that they neither eat, drink, nor propagate their species; that they have various forms and offices, some adoring God in different postures, others singing praises to him, or interceding for mankind. They hold, that some of them are employed in writing down the actions of men; others in carrying the throne of God, and other services. As to the Scriptures, the Mahometans are taught by the Koran, that God, in divers ages of the world, gave revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every one of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Moslem to believe. The number of these sacred books were, according to them, one hundred and four; of which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Edris or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Mahomet; which last being the seal of the prophets, those revelations are now closed, and no more are to be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they agree now to be entirely lost, and their contents unknown; though the Sabians have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of those four, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, they say, have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that, though there may possibly be some part of the true word of God therein, yet no credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians.

They believe that the number of the prophets which have been from time to time sent by God into the world, amounts to no less than 224,000, according to one Mahometan tradition; or to 124,000, according to another; among whom 313 were apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition; and six of them brought new laws or dispensations, which successively abrogated the preceding; these were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet. All the prophets in general, the Mahometans believe to have been freed from great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is Islamism, notwithstanding the different laws and institutions which they observed. They allow of degrees among them, and hold some of them to be more excellent and honorable than others. The first place they give to the revealers and establishers of new dispensations, and the next to the apostles.

They believe in a general resurrection and a future judgment. The time of the resurrection the Mahometans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone; the angel Gabriel himself ac

knowledging his ignorance in this point, when Mahomet asked him about it. However, they say, the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to precede it.

Which

After the examination is past, and every one's work weighed in a just balance, they say, that mutual retaliation will follow, according to which every creature will take vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made them for the injuries which they have suffered. And, since there will then be no other way of returning like for like, the manner of giving this satisfaction will be by taking away a proportional part of the good works of him who offered the injury, and adding it to those of him who suffered it. being done, if the angels, (by whose ministry this is to be performed,) say, Lord, we have given to every one his due, and there remaineth of this person's good works so much as equalleth the weight of an ant, God will of his mercy, cause it to be doubled unto him, that he may be admitted into Paradise; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and there be any who have not yet received satisfaction from him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to hell laden with both. This will be the method of God's dealing with mankind. As to brutes, after they shall have likewise taken vengeance of one another, he will command them to be changed into dust; wicked men being reserved to more grievous punishment, so that they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence passed on the brutes, Would to God that we were dust also !

The trials being over, and the assembly dissolved, the Mahometans hold, that those who are to be admitted into Paradise will take the right hand way, and those who are destined into hell-fire will take the left; but both of them must first pass the bridge called in Arabic al Sirat, which, they say, is laid over the midst of hell, and described to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword; so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason most of the sect of the Motazalites reject it as a fable; though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this article, that it was seriously affirmed by him who never asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet; who, to add to the difficulty of the passage, has likewise declared that this bridge is beset on each side with briars and hooked thorns, which will, however, be no impediment to the good; for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or the wind, Mahomet and his Moslems leading the way; whereas the wicked, what with the slipperiness and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the thorns, and the extinction of the light which directed the former to Paradise, will soon miss their footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping beneath them.

As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mahometans are taught, that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, designed for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned.

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