The Book of Religions Part 7

"3. PEACE.-'Follow peace with all men,' is a divine precept; hence our abstinence from war and bloodshed, from all acts of violence towards our fellow-men, from all the party contentions and politics of the world, and from all the pursuits of pride and worldly ambition. 'My kingdom (said Christ) is not of this world.'

"4. JUSTICE.-'Render to every man his due. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another.' We are to be just and honest in all our dealings with mankind, to discharge all just dues, duties, and equitable claims, as seasonably and effectually as possible.

"5. HOLINESS.-'Without which no man shall see the Lord.' Which signifies to be _consecrated_, or set apart from a common to a sacred use. Hence arise all our doctrines and practical rules of dedicating our persons, services, and property, to social and sacred uses, having adopted the example of the first gospel church, in establishing and supporting one _consecrated_ and _united_ interest by the voluntary choice of every member, as a sacred privilege, and not by any undue constraint or persuasion.

"6. GOODNESS.-Do good to all men, as far as opportunity and ability may serve, by administering acts of charity and kindness, and promoting light and truth among mankind. 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.'

"7. TRUTH.-This principle is opposed to falsehood, lying, deceit, and hypocrisy, and implies fidelity, reality, good, earnest sincerity, and punctuality in keeping vows and promises. These principles are the genuine basis of our inst.i.tution, planted by its first founders, exhibited in all our public writings, justified by Scripture and fair reason, and practically commended as a system of morality and religion, adapted to the best interest and happiness of man, both here and hereafter.

"Manner Of Admitting Members.

"1. All persons who unite with this society, in any degree, must do it freely and voluntarily, according to their own faith and unbiased judgment.

"2. In the testimony of the society, both public and private, no flattery nor any undue influence is used, but the most plain and explicit statements of its faith and principles are laid before the inquirer, so that the whole ground may be comprehended, as far as possible, by every candidate for admission.

"3. No considerations of property are ever made use of, by this society, to induce any person to join it, nor to prevent any one from leaving it; because it is our faith, that no act of devotion, or service, that does not flow from the free and voluntary emotions of the heart, can be acceptable to G.o.d, as an act of true religion.

"4. No believing husband, or wife, is allowed, by the principles of this society, to separate from an unbelieving partner, except by mutual agreement, unless the conduct of the unbeliever be such as to warrant a separation by the laws of G.o.d and man. Nor can any husband, or wife, who has otherwise abandoned his or her partner, be received into communion with the society.

"5. Any person becoming a member, must rectify all his wrongs, and, as fast and as far as it is in his power, discharge all just and legal claims, whether of creditors or filial heirs. Nor can any person, not conforming to this rule, long remain in union with the society. But the society is not responsible for the debts of any individual, except by agreement because such responsibility would involve a principle ruinous to the inst.i.tution.

"6. No difference is to be made in the distribution of parental estate among the heirs, whether they belong to the society or not; but an equal part.i.tion must be made, as far as may be practicable, and consistent with reason and justice.

"7. If an unbelieving wife separate from a believing husband, by agreement, the husband must give her a just and reasonable share of the property; and if they have children who have arrived to years of understanding sufficient to judge for themselves, and who choose to go with their mother, they are not to be disinherited on that account. Though the character of this inst.i.tution has been much censured on this ground, yet we boldly a.s.sert that the rule above stated has never, to our knowledge, been violated by this society.

"8. Industry, temperance, and frugality, are prominent features of this inst.i.tution. No member who is able to labor, can be permitted to live idly upon the labors of others. All are required to be employed in some manual occupation, according to their several abilities, when not engaged in other necessary duties."

"The rules of government in the society are adapted to the different orders of which it is composed. In all (as far as respects adults) it is spiritual; its powers and authorities growing out of the _mutual faith, love, and confidence_, of all the members, and harmoniously concurring in the general form and manner of government established by the first founders of the society.

"The leading authority of the society is vested in a ministry, generally consisting of four persons, including both s.e.xes. These, together with the elders and trustees, const.i.tute the general government of the society in all its branches, and, being supported by the general union and approbation of the members, are invested with power to appoint their successors and other subordinate officers, as occasion may require; to counsel, advise, and direct, in all matters, whether of a spiritual or temporal nature; to superintend the concerns of the several families, and establish all needful orders, rules, and regulations, for the direction and protection of the several branches of the society; but no rule can be made, nor any member a.s.sume a lead, contrary to the original faith and known principles of the society. And nothing which respects the government, order, and general arrangement, of the society is considered as fully established until it has received the general approbation of the society, or of that branch thereof which it more immediately concerns.

"This community is divided into several different branches, commonly called _families_. This division is generally made for the sake of convenience, and is often rendered necessary on account of local situation and occurrent circ.u.mstances; but the proper division and arrangement of the community, without respect to local situation, are into three cla.s.ses, or progressive degrees of order.

"Those children taken into the society are treated with care and tenderness, receive a good school education, and, according to their genius, are trained to industry and virtuous habits, restrained from vice, and, at a suitable age, led into the knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, and practically taught the divine precepts contained in them, particularly those of Jesus Christ and the apostles.

"During a period of more than forty years, since the permanent establishment of this society at New Lebanon and Watervliet, there never has been a legal claim entered by any person for the recovery of property brought into the society but all claims of that nature, if any have existed, have been amicably settled, to the satisfaction of the parties concerned. Complaints and legal prosecutions have not, hitherto, come from persons who brought property into the inst.i.tution, but from those who came dest.i.tute of property, and who, generally speaking, have been no benefit to the society in any way, but, on the contrary, after having enjoyed its hospitality, and brought no small share of trouble upon the people, have had the a.s.surance to lay claim to wages which they never earned, or property to which they never had any just or legal claim.

"No person can be received into this order until he shall have settled all just and legal claims, both of creditors and filial heirs; so that whatever property he may possess, may be justly and truly his own. Minors cannot be admitted as covenant members of this order; yet they may be received under its immediate care and protection. And when they shall have arrived at lawful age, if they should choose to continue in the society, and sign the covenant of the order, and support its principles, they are then admitted to all the privileges of members. The members of this order are all equally ent.i.tled to the benefits and privileges thereof, without any difference made on account of what any one may have contributed to the interest of the society. All are equally ent.i.tled to their support and maintenance, and to every necessary comfort, whether in health, sickness, or old age, so long as they continue to maintain the principles, and conform to the orders, rules, and regulations, of the inst.i.tution. They, therefore, give their property and services for the most valuable of all temporal considerations-an ample security, during life, for every needful support, if they continue faithful to their contract and covenant, the nature of which they clearly understand before they enter into it.

"We believe it will be generally granted that the history of the world does not furnish a single instance of any religious inst.i.tution which has stood fifty years without a visible declension of the principles of the inst.i.tution, in the general purity and integrity of its members. This has been generally acknowledged by the devotees of such inst.i.tutions and facts have fully verified it. But we would appeal to the candid judgment of those who have known this inst.i.tution from the beginning, and have had a fair opportunity of observing the progress of its improvement, whether they have, in reality, found any declension, either in the external order and regulations of the society, or in the purity and integrity of its members, in the general practice of the moral and Christian duties; and whether they have not, on the contrary, discovered a visible and manifest increase in all these respects. And hence they may judge for themselves, whether the moral character of the society, and its progressive improvement, can be ascribed to any other cause than the blessing, protection, and government, of Divine Power and Wisdom."

This denomination is also styled the _millennial church_. Although celibacy is enjoined by the Shakers upon their members, yet their numbers rather increase, by converts from the world.

There are fifteen societies of Shakers in the United States, located in the following places:-Alfred, New Gloucester, and Poland, Me.; Canterbury and Enfield, N. H.; Shirley, Harvard, Tyringham, and Hanc.o.c.k, Ma.s.s.; Enfield, Conn.; Watervliet and New Lebanon, N. Y.; Union Village and Watervliet, Ohio; Pleasant Hill and South Union, Ky. The number of Shakers in the United States is about 6000.

This sect of Christians arose at Manchester, in England; and ANN LEE has the credit of being its founder. They derive their name from their manner of worship, which is performed by singing, dancing, and clapping their hands in regular time, to a novel, but rather pleasant kind of music. This sect was persecuted in England, and came to America in 1774. They first settled in Watervliet, near Albany, N. Y. They have, or think they have, revelations from Heaven, or gifts from the Holy Spirit, which direct them in the choice of their leaders, and in other important concerns. Their dress and manners are similar to those of the society of Friends; hence they are often called _Shaking Quakers_. They display great skill and science in agriculture, horticulture, and the mechanic arts; and their honesty, industry, hospitality, and neatness, are proverbial. These people choose their locations with great taste and judgment. A _Shaker village_ always presents a scene of beauty.

We close this article with an extract from a speech of the Hon. John Breathitt, late governor of Kentucky.

"Much has been urged against Shakerism, much has been said against their covenant; but, I repeat it, _that_ individual who is prepared to sign the church covenant, stands in an enviable situation: his situation is, indeed, an enviable one, who, devoted to G.o.d, is prepared to say of his property, 'Here it is, little or much; take it, and leave me unmolested to commune with my G.o.d. Indeed, I dedicate myself to what? not to a fanatical tenet; O, no! to a subject far beyond; to the worship of Almighty G.o.d, the great Creator and Governor of the universe. Under the influence of his love, I give my all: only let me worship according to my faith, and in a manner I believe acceptable to my G.o.d!'

"I say again, the world cannot produce a parallel to the situation which such a man exhibits-resigned to the will of Heaven, free from all the feelings of earthly desire, and pursuing, quietly, the peaceful tenor of his way."

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, Zuinglius, 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 ambitious predecessors.

His own temper, naturally liberal and enterprising, rendered him incapable of severe and patient economy; and his schemes for aggrandizing the family of Medicis, his love of splendor, and his munificence in rewarding men of genius, involved him daily in new expenses, in order to provide a fund for which, he tried every device that the fertile invention of priests had fallen upon, to drain the credulous mult.i.tude of their wealth. Among others, he had recourse to a sale of indulgences.

The Romish church believe that pious persons may do works of supererogation, that is to say, more good works than are necessary for their own salvation. All such works, according to their doctrine, are deposited, together with the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury. The keys of this were committed to St. Peter, and to his successors the popes, who may open it at pleasure, and, by transferring a portion of this superabundant merit to any particular person for a sum of money, may convey to him either pardon for his own sins, or a release for any one, for whom he feels an interest, from the pains of purgatory. Such indulgences were offered as a recompense for those who engaged in the wars of the crusades against the Infidels. Since those times, the power of granting indulgences has been greatly abused in the church of Rome. Pope Leo X., finding that the sale of indulgences was likely to be lucrative, granted to Albert, elector of Mentz and archbishop of Magdeburg, the benefit of the indulgences of Saxony, and the neighboring parts, and farmed out those of other countries to the highest bidders; who, to make the best of their bargain, procured the ablest preachers to cry up the value of the commodity. The form of these indulgences was as follows.-"May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy pa.s.sion. And I, by his authority, that of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul and of the most holy pope, granted and committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee, first, from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they may have been incurred; then from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may be; even from such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy see, and as far as the keys of the holy church extend. I remit to you all punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account; and I restore you to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism; so that, when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened; and if you shall not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force when you are at the point of death. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost."

According to a book, called the "Tax of the Sacred Roman Chancery," in which are the exact sums to be levied for the pardon of each particular sin, some of the fees are thus stated:-For simony, 10_s._ 6_d._; for sacrilege, 10_s._ 6_d._; for taking a false oath, 9_s._; for robbing, 12_s._; for burning a neighbor's house, 12_s._; for defiling a virgin, 9_s._; for murdering a layman, 7_s._ 6_d._; for keeping a concubine, 10_s._ 6_d._; for laying violent hands on a clergyman, 10_s._ 6_d._

The terms in which the retailers of these abominable licenses described their advantages to the purchasers, and the arguments with which they urged the necessity of obtaining them, were so extravagant that they appear almost incredible. "If any man," said they, "purchase letters of indulgence, his soul may rest secure with respect to its salvation. The souls confined in purgatory, for whose redemption indulgences are purchased, as soon as the money is paid, instantly escape from that place of torment, and ascend into heaven." They said that the efficacy of indulgences was so great, that the most heinous sins would be remitted and expiated by them, and the person be freed both from punishment and guilt: this was the unspeakable gift of G.o.d, in order to reconcile man to himself; the cross erected by the preachers of indulgences was equally efficacious with the cross of Christ. "Lo," said they, "the heavens are open; if you enter not now, when will you enter? For twelve pence you may redeem the soul of your father out of purgatory; and are you so ungrateful that you will not rescue the soul of your parent from torment? If you had but one coat, you ought to strip yourself of that instantly, and sell it, in order to purchase such benefit," &c.

It was against these preachers of licentiousness, and their diabolical conduct, that Luther began first to declaim.

REFORMED CHURCHES.

The Reformed churches comprehend the whole Protestant churches in Europe and America, whether Lutheran, Calvinistic, Independent, Quaker, Baptist, or any other denomination who dissent from the church of Rome. The term _Reformed_ is now, however, more particularly employed to distinguish the Calvinists from the Lutherans.

The Reformed churches in America are the two following:-

Reformed Dutch Church.

This is the oldest body of Presbyterians in America: it descended immediately from the church of Holland; and, for about a century from its commencement in this country, it hung in colonial dependence on the Cla.s.sis of Amsterdam, and the Synod of North Holland, and was unable to ordain a minister, or perform any ecclesiastical function of the kind, without a reference to the parent country and mother church.

The origin of this church will lead us back to the earliest history of the city and state of New York; for they were first settled by this people, and by them a foundation was laid for the first churches of this persuasion, the most distinguished of which were planted at New York, (then called New Amsterdam,) Flatbush, Esopus, and Albany. The church at New York was probably the oldest, and was founded at, or before, the year 1639; this is the earliest period to which its records conduct us. The first minister was the Rev. Evarardus Bogardus. But when he came from Holland, does not appear. Next to him were two ministers by the name of Megapolensis, John and Samuel.

The first place of worship built by the Dutch in the colony of New Netherlands, as it was then called, was erected in the fort at New York, in the year 1642. The second, it is believed, was a chapel built by Governor Stuyvesant, in what is now called the Bowery. In succession, churches of this denomination arose on Long Island, in Schenectady, on Staten Island, and in a number of towns on the Hudson River, and several, it is believed, in New Jersey. But the churches of New York, Albany, and Esopus, were the most important, and the ministers of these churches claimed and enjoyed a kind of episcopal dignity over the surrounding churches.