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II. That mankind, therefore, are capable of repentance and amendment, and of arriving to the highest degrees of piety and virtue, by the use of their natural faculties and powers. That, indeed, external grace is necessary to excite their endeavors, but that they have no need of the internal succors of the Divine Spirit. III. That Adam was, by nature, mortal: and, whether he had sinned or not, would certainly have died.

IV. That the grace of God is given in proportion to our merits. V. That mankind may arrive at a state of perfection in this life. VI. That the law qualified men for the kingdom of heaven, and was founded upon equal promises with the gospel.

PERFECTIONISTS,

A modern sect in New England, who believe that every individual action is either wholly sinful, or wholly righteous; and that every being in the universe, at any given time, is either entirely holy or entirely wicked. Consequently, they unblushingly maintain that they themselves are free from sin. In support of this doctrine they say that Christ dwells in and controls believers, and thus secures their perfect holiness; that the body of Christ, which is the church, is nourished and guided by the life and wisdom of its head. Hence they condemn the greatest portion of the religion in the world named Christianity, as the work of Antichrist. "All the essential features of Judaism," they say, "and of its successor, popery, may be distincly traced in nearly every form of Protestantism; and although we rejoice in the blessings which the Reformation has given us, we regard it as rightly named, the Reformation, it being an improvement of Antichrist, not a restoration of Christianity." This last opinion, which has some foundation in truth, has been long held, variously modified, in different parts of the Christian world.

An attempt has recently been made to propagate the views of this sect through the medium of a paper published at New Haven, Conn. and entitled the Perfectionist. (Brown's Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.)

PRE-ADAMITES.

This denomination began about the middle of the sixteenth century. Their principal tenet is, that there must have been men before Adam. One proof of this they bring from Rom. 5: 12, 13, 14. The apostle says, Sin was in the world till the law, meaning the law given to Adam. But sin, it is evident, was not imputed, though it might have been committed, till the time of the pretended first man: For sin is not imputed, when there is no law.

The election of the Jews, they say, is a consequence of the same system. It began at Adam, who is called their father or founder. God is also their father, having espoused the Judaical church. The Gentiles are only adopted children, as being Pre

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PREDESTINARIANS.-PRESBYTERIANS.

Adamites. Men, (or Gentiles,) are said to be made by the word of God. Gen. 1: 26, 27. Adam, the founder of the Jewish nation, whose history alone Moses wrote, is introduced in the 2d chapter, as the workmanship of God's own hands, and as created apart from other men.

They argue thus: Cain, having killed his brother Abel, was afraid of being killed himself; by whom? He married; yet Adam had then no daughter. What wife could he get? He built a town; what architects, masons, carpenters, and workmen did he employ? The answer to all these questions, is, in one word, Pre-Adamites. This reasoning is opposed by sundry texts of Scripture. Gen. 1: 25.-2: 7.—3: 20. Mark 10: 6. 1 Cor. 15: 45, 47.

PREDESTINARIANS,

See

Are those who believe that God, for his own glory, hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. See Matt. 25: 34. Rom. 8: 29, 30. Eph. 1: 3, 6, 11. 2 Tim. 1: 9. 2 Thes. 11: 13. 1 Pet. 1: 1, 2. John 6: 37.-17: 2-24. Rev. 13: 8.-17: 8. Dan. 4: 35. 1 Thes. 5: 19. Matt. 11: 26. Exod. 4: 21. Prov. 16:

4.

Acts 13: 48..

PRESBYTERIANS.

The first settlers of New England were driven away from Old England, in pursuit of religious liberty. They were required to conform to the established Protestant Episcopal Church in all her articles of belief and modes of worship and discipline: their consciences forbade such conformity: their ministers were displaced: their property was tithed for the support of an ecclesiastical prelacy which they renounced; and the only relief which they could find, was in abandoning their country for the new world.

Most of the first settlers of New England were Congregationalists, and established the government of individuals by the male communicating members of the churches to which they belonged; and of congregations by sister congregations, met by representation in Ecclesiastical Councils. A part of the ministers and people of Connecticut, at a very early period of her history, were Presbyterians in their principles of church government. Being intermixed, however, with Congregational brethren, instead of establishing Presbyteries in due form, they united with their fellow Christians in adopting in 1708, the Saybrook Platform, according to which the churches and pastors are consociated, so as virtually to be under Presbyterian government, under another name.

The first Presbyterian churches duly organized in the United States, were the first Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, and the church at Snow Hill, in Maryland.

The first Presbytery in the United States was formed about 1704, by the voluntary association of several ministers, who had received Presbyterian orders in Europe, and who agreed to govern them

selves agreeably to the Westminster Confession of Faith, Form of Government, Book of Discipline, and Directory for Worship.

The reason why the Presbyterians first settled in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey, was undoubtedly this; that in these places they found toleration, and equal religious rights, while the Episcopacy was established by law in Virginia, Congregationalism in New England, and the Reformed Dutch Church with Episcopacy in New York.

The doctrines of the Presbyterian church are Calvinistic; and the only fundamental principle which distinguishes it from other Protestant churches is this, that God has authorized the goverment of his church by Presbyters or Elders, who are chosen by the people, and ordained to office by predecessors in office, in virtue of the commission which Christ gave his apostles as ministers in the kingdom of God; and that among all Presbyters there is an official parity, whatever disparity may exist in their talents, or official employments.

All the different congregations under the care of the General Assembly, are considered as the one Presbyterian Church in the United States, meeting for the sake of convenience and edification in their several places of worship. Each particular congregation of baptized people, associated for godly living and the worship of Almighty God, may become a Presbyterian Church, by electing one or more elders agreeably to the form prescribed in the book styled the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, and having them ordained and installed as their Session.

They judge that to Presbyteries the Lord Jesus has committed the spiritual government of each particular congregation, and not to the whole body of the communicants; and on this point they are distinguished from Independents and Congregationalists. if all were governors, they should not be able to distinguish the overseers or bishops from all the male and female communicants; nor could they apply the command, "obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account." Heb. 13: 17. If all are rulers in the church, who are communicants, they are at a loss for the meaning of the exhortation, "We beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake."

If an aggrieved brother should tell the story of his wrongs to each individual communicant, he would not thereby tell it to the Church judicially, so that cognizance could be taken of the affair. It is to the church acting by her proper organs, and to her overseers met as a judicatory that he must bring his charge, if he would have discipline exercised in such a way as God empowered his Church to exercise it.

The General Assembly is the highest judicatory in the Presbyterian church, and is constituted by an equal number of Teaching and Ruling Elders, elected by each Presbytery annually, and specially commissioned to deliberate, vote, and determine in all matters which

may come before that body. Each presbytery may send one bishop and one ruling elder to the Assembly: each Presbytery having more than twelve ministers, may send two ministers and two ruling elders, and so in the same proportion for every twelve ministerial members.

Every Presbyterian Church elects its own Pastor; but to secure the whole Church against insufficient, erroneous, or immoral men, it is provided that no Church shall prosecute any call, without first obtaining leave from the Presbytery, under whose care that Church may be; and that no licentiate, or bishop, shall receive any call, but through the hands of his own Presbytery.

Any member of the Presbyterian Church may be the subject of its discipline, and every member, if he judges himself injured by any portion of the Church, may, by appeal, or complaint, carry his cause up from the Church Session to the Presbytery, from the Presbytery to the Synod, and from the Synod to the General Assembly, so as to obtain the decision of the whole Church, met by representation in this high judicatory.

Evangelical ministers of the gospel of all denominations, are permitted, on the invitation of a pastor, or of the session of a vacant Church, to preach in their pulpits; and any person known properly, or made known to a pastor or session, as a communicant in good regular standing, in any truly Christian denomination of people, is in most of their churches affectionately invited to occasional communion. They wish to have Christian fellowship with all the redeemed of the Lord, who have been renewed by his Spirit: but in ecclesiastical government and discipline, they ask and expect the co-operation of none but Presbyterians. (See Appendix, Note N. Also, Orthodox Creed, and Church Government.}

PRESBYTERIANS,-CUMBERLAND.

In the year 1800, a very great revival of religion took place within the bounds of the synod of Kentucky, in consequence of which, a greater number of new congregations were formed, than it was possible to supply with regularly educated ministers. To remedy this evil, it was resolved to license men to preach who were apt to teach, and sound in the faith, though they had not gone through any course of classical study. This took place at the Transylvania Presbytery; but as many of its members were dissatisfied with the proposed innovation, an appeal was made to the synod, which appointed a commission to examine into the circumstances of the case; the result of whose report was a prohibition of the labors of uneducated ministers, which led the opposite party to form themselves into an independent presbytery, which took its name from the district of Cumberland, in which it was constituted.

As to the doctrinal views, they occupy a kind of middle ground between Calvinists and Arminians. They reject the doctrine of eternal reprobation, and hold the universality of redemption, and

PROTESTANTS, PURITANS, &c.

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that the Spirit of God operates on the world, or as coextensively as Christ kas made the atonement, in such a manner as to leave all men inexcusable.

The Cumberland Presbyterians have between sixty and seventy congregations, principally in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee.

PROTESTANTS,

A name first given in Germany to those who adhered to the doctrine of Luther; because, in 1529, they protested against a decree of the Emperor Charles V., and the diet of Spires, declaring, that they appealed to a general council. The same name has also been given to the Calvinists, and is now become a common denomination for all sects which differ from the church of Rome.

PURITANS.

This name was given to a party, which appeared in England in the year 1565, who opposed the liturgy and ceremonies of the church of England.

They acquired this denomination from their professed design to establish a purer form of worship and discipline.

Those, who were first styled Puritans, were Presbyterians; but the term was afterwards applied to others, who differed from the Church of England.

Those, who separated from the Church of England, were also styled Dissenters.

QUAKER BAPTISTS,

A party from the Society of Friends, in Pennsylvania, separated in the year 1691. It was headed by the famous GEORGE KEITH. They practised baptism, and received the Lord's Supper, but retained the language, dress and manners of the Friends or Quakers.

REFORMATION.

This term is used by way of eminence, to denote that great change which took place in the Christian world, under the ministry of Luther, Calvin, Žuinglius, Melancthon and others, who successfully opposed some of the doctrines, and many of the practices of the Roman church. It commenced at Wittemberg, in Saxony, in 1517, and greatly weakened the papal authority.

It was from causes seemingly fortuitous, and from a source very inconsiderable, that all the mighty effects of the Reformation flowed. Leo X., when raised to the papal throne, in 1513, found the revenues of the church exhausted by the vast projects of his two

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