in Silesia, under the protection of the Duke of Brieg. Others went to more distant countries, Holland, England, Holstein, and Denmark, to see if they could obtain a comfortable settlement for themselves and their brethren. The most active and zealous in such embassies was Stanislaus Lubieniezky, a very learned Polish gentleman, who rendered himself acceptable to great men, by his eloquence, politeness, and sagacity. In the years 1661 and 1662, he came very near to obtaining a secure residence for the Socinians at Altona, from Frederic III. king of Denmark; at Frederickstadt, from Christ. Albert, duke of Holstein, 1662; and at Mannheim, from Charles Lewis, the elector Palatine. But all his efforts and expectations were frustrated by the remonstrances and entreaties of theologians; in Denmark, by John Suaning, bishop of Seeland; in Holstein, by John Reinboth, the general superintendent; in the Palatinate, by John Lewis Fabricius [doctor and professor of theology at Heidelberg]. The others who undertook such negotiations, had much less success than he: nor could any nation of Europe be persuaded to allow the enemies of Christ's divinity freely to practise their worship among them. § 5. Such, therefore, as remain of this unhappy people, live concealed in various countries of Europe, especially in Brandenburg, Prussia, England, and Holland, and hold here and there clandestine meetings for worship: in England, however, it is said, they have public religious meetings, with the connivance of the magistrates.8 Some have united themselves with the Lubieniezky, Historia Reform. Polon. cap. xviii. p. 285, where there is quite a long epistle of the Creutzburgers. 7 See Sand's Bibliotheca Antitrinit. p. 165. The Life of Lubieniezky, prefixed to his Historia Reformat. Polonica, p. 7, 8. Jo. Möller's Introductio in Historiam Cherson. Cimbrica, pt. ii. p. 105, and Cimbria Litterata, tom. ii. p. 487, &c. Jo. Henr. Heidegger's Life of Jo. Lewis Fabricius, subjoined to the works of the latter, p. 38. 8 The Socinians residing in Brandenburg were accustomed, a few years ago, to meet at stated times at Königswald, a village near Frankfort on the Oder. See Jourdain, (for he is the author of the paper,) Recueil de Littérature, de Philosophie, et d'Histoire, p. 44, Amsterd. 1731, 8vo. They also published at Ber lin, in 1716, a German confession of their faith, which, with a confutation of it, is printed in Die Theologischen Heb-Opfern, part x. p. 852. [In Prussian Brandenburg they found some protection, under the kindness of the electoral stadtholder, Bogislaus, prince von Radzivil, who retained some Socinians at his court: and perhaps they would also have obtained religious freedom under the electoral prince, Frederic William, had not the states of the duchy insisted on their expulsion. See Fred. Sam. Bock's Historia Socinianismi, Prussici, p. 55, &c., and Hartknoch's Preussische Kirchenhistorie, p. 646, &c. By the indulgence of the above-named electoral prince, they obtained religious freedom in Brandenburg, particularly in New Mark, under the hope that this little company would gradually unite itself Arminians, and others with those Mennonites who are called Galenists; for neither of these sects requires its members very explicitly to declare their religious belief. It is also said, that not a few of these dispersed people are members of the society that bears the name of Collegiants. Being thus situated, they have not all been able to retain that form of religion which their fathers transmitted to them. Accordingly, both the learned and the unlearned, without restraint, explain variously those doctrines which distinguish them from other sects; yet they all agree in denying the divine Trinity, and the divinity and atonement of our Saviour.9 with the Protestant churches. They likewise had churches and schools at Landsberg, down to the end of the seventeenth century. After that they were expelled; the protection of the Schwerin family, which they had hitherto enjoyed, now ceasing.-In Holland, the book of John Völkel, a Socinian, de Vera Religione, 1642, was burnt; and the states of Holland in 1653, forbade the publication of Unitarian books, and all religious meetings of Socinians. Yet Andrew Wissowatius procured the famous Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum to be printed at Amsterdam, though the place is not mentioned on the title-page; and the Socinians have been allowed to reside there, but without the public exercise of their religion. Many of them likewise are concealed among the Mennonites, and the other sects. Schl. -"The Socinians in England have never made any figure as a community, but have rather been dispersed among that great variety of sects that have arisen in the country, where liberty displays its most glorious fruits, and at the same time exhibits its most striking inconveniences. Besides, few ecclesiastics or writers of any note have adopted the theological system, now under consideration, in all its branches. The Socinian doctrine relating to the design and efficacy of the death of Christ had indeed many abettors in England, during the seventeenth century; and it may be presumed without temerity, that its votaries are rather increased than diminished, in the present; but those divines who have abandoned the Athanasian hypothesis, concerning the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, have more generally gone into the Arian and Semi Arian notions of that inexplicable subject, than into those of the Socinians, who deny that Jesus Christ existed before his appearance in the human nature. The famous John Biddle, after having maintained, both in public and private, during the reign of Charles I. and the protectorship of Cromwell, the Unitarian system, erected an independent congregation in London, which is the only British church we have heard of, in which all the peculiar doctrines of Socinianism were inculcated." Macl.Since Maclaine wrote, the Socinians, under the name of Unitarians, have become a considerable body in England, their opinions having been placed by several teachers and writers of ability in a favourable point of view. Still their sect has never been extensively popular, and it bears no sort of proportion as to numbers, to either of the two great Methodistic bodies. Its chief strength lies in the old congregations formed originally by Presbyterians, which have very generally gone over to it. Ed.] This is evident from many proofs, and among others, from the example of Samuel Crell, the most learned man among the Socinians a few years since; who although he sustained the office of a teacher among them, yet deviated in many respects from the doctrines of Socinus and of the Racovian Catechism; nor did he wish to be called a Socinian, but an Artemonite. See Journal Littéraire, tom. xvii. pt. i. p. 150, and my own remarks on this man, in my Syntagma Diss. ad sanctiores Disciplinas pertinentium, p. 352. Unschuldige Nachrichten, 1750, p. 942. Nouveau Dictionnaire Hist. Crit. tom. ii. pt. ii. p. 88, &c. § 6. Kindred with the Socinians, are the Arians, some of whom obtained celebrity in this century, as authors, such as Christopher Sand, father and son, and John Biddle'; and likewise some of those comprehended under the general appellation of Antitrinitarians, or Unitarians. For this [latter] name is applied to various sorts of persons, who agree in this only, that they will not admit of any real distinction in the divine nature. The name of Arians is likewise given to all those in general, who represent our Saviour to be inferior to God the Father. And as this may be done in various ways, it is manifest that this word, as now used, must have various significations; and that all who are now called Arians, do not agree with the ancient Arians; nor do they all hold one and the same senti ment. Of both the Sands, Arnold [Kirchenund Ketzer- historie, vol. ii. book xvii. ch. xiii. § 25, p. 176, &c.,] and others give account. Respecting Biddle, see Nouveau Dictionnaire Hist. Crit. tom. i. pt. ii. p. 288, &c. [Sandius the elder was of Creutzberg in Prussia, studied law, and filled various offices at Königsberg; but was deprived in 1668, because he would not renounce Arianism. After this he lived in retirement, and wrote only some vindications and apologies. Yet he aided his son in the composition of his works; and outliving him, published some of them after his death. The son called himself Christopher Christopheri Sandius; and wrote, besides his Biblioth. Antitrinitariorum, his Nucleus Historia Ecclesiast. on the first four centuries, in which he attempts to prove, that the early fathers before the council of Nice held Arian sentiments; and that Athanasius was the first that broached the common belief among Christians respecting the Trinity. He also wrote Interpretationes Paradoxa Quatuor Evangeliorum; de Origine Anima; Problema Paradoxum de Spiritu Sancto; and (under the name of Herm. Cingallus) Scriptura Trinitatis Revelatrix. The son died in 1680 (aged 40), and the father in 1686. Schl.-See also concerning the younger Sand, Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Sandius.-John Biddle was born in 1615, educated at Oxford, became master of a free school in Gloucester, 1641. Here he soon became suspected of heresy; and from the year 1644, till his death in 1662, he passed a large part of his time in various prisons and in exile. Whenever he was at liberty, he wrote and preached in favour of his sentiments, which caused him to be frequently apprehended, and to undergo a criminal prosecution. In the year 1651 he published two catechisms; in which, Mr. Neal says, he maintained, "1. That God is confined to a certain place. 2. That he has a bodily shape. 3. That he has passions. 4. That he is neither omnipotent nor unchangeable. 5. That we are not to believe three persons in the Godhead. 6. That Jesus Christ has not the nature of God, but only a divine lordship. 7. That he was not a priest while upon earth. 8. That there is no deity in the Holy Ghost." According to Dr. Toulmin, these are not formal propositions, but only questions in his catechisms, to which he subjoins texts of Scripture by way of answer. Thus the first proposition is this question: "Is not God, according to the current of the Scripture, in a certain place, namely, in heaven?" The answer consists of twenty-nine passages of Scripture, which represent God as "looking from heaven," as, "Our Father, who art in heaven," &c. See Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 157, &c. ed. Boston, 1817. Toulmin's Review of the Life, Character, and Writings of Mr. John Biddle. Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 411, &c. Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Biddle. Tr.] CHAPTER VIII. HISTORY OF SOME MINOR SECTS. § 1, 2. The Collegiants.-§ 3. The Labadists.-§ 4. Bourignon and Poiret.§ 5. The Philadelphian Society. man. § 1. IT may be proper here to give some account of certain sects which could not be conveniently noticed in the history of the larger communities, but which, for various reasons, should not be passed over in total silence. While the Arminian disputes in Holland were most warm, in the year 1619, arose that class of people who hold sacred conventions twice a year at Rheinsburg in Holland, not far from Leyden, and who are known by the name of Collegiants. The institution originated from three brothers, by the name of Koddeus, or van der Kodde; namely, John James, Hadrian, and Gisbert; obscure men, in rural life, but, according to report, pious, well acquainted with their Bibles, and opposed to religious controversies. They were joined by one Anthony Cornelius, who was also an illiterate and obscure The descendants and followers of these men acquired the name of Collegiants, from the circumstance that they called their assemblies Colleges. All persons may be admitted into the society, who merely account the Bible a divine book, and endeavour to live according to its precepts, whatever may be their opinions respecting God and the Christian religion. The brethren, who are considerably numerous in most of the cities and villages of Holland, Friesland, and West Friesland, assemble twice a week, namely, on Sundays and Wednesdays; and after singing a hymn, and offering a prayer, they take up some passage of the New Testament, which they illustrate and explain. With the exception of females, whom they do not allow to speak in public, all persons, of whatever rank or order, are at liberty to bring forward their thoughts and offer them to the consideration of the brethren: and all are at liberty to oppose, modestly and soberly, whatever the brethren advance. They have printed lists of the texts of Scripture which are to be discussed at their several meetings, so that each person may examine the passages at home, and come prepared to speak. Twice a year, the brethren assemble at Rheinsburg, where they have spacious buildings, destined for the education of orphan children, and for the reception of strangers; and there spend four days together, in listening to exhortations to holiness and love, and in celebrating the Lord's Supper. Here also, such as wish it, are baptized; but it is in the ancient manner, immersing the whole body in water. The brethren of Friesland, at the present day, assemble once a year, at Leuwarden, and there observe the holy supper, because Rheinsburg is too distant for them conveniently to go thither. In short, by the Collegiants, we are to understand a very large society of persons of every sect and rank, who assume the name of Christians, but entertain different views of Christ; and which is kept together neither by rulers and teachers, nor by ecclesiastical laws, nor by a formula of faith, nor, lastly, by any set of rites, but solely by the desire of improvement in scriptural knowledge and piety.' § 2. In such an association, which allows all its members to think as they please, and which has no formula of faith, dissensions and controversies cannot easily arise. Yet, in the year 1672, there was no little dispute between John and Paul Breitenburg, merchants of Rotterdam, and Abraham Lemmermann and Francis Cuiper, merchants of Amsterdam. John Breitenburg (or Bredenburg, as he is generally called,) had established a peculiar sort of College, in which he expounded the religion of reason and nature. This was disapproved of by Lemmermann and Cuiper, who wished to have reason excluded from any combination with religion. The dispute grew warmer, as Bredenburg diverged towards the opinions of Spinoza, and defended them, and yet wished to be regarded as a Christian. Some See the Dissertation sur les Usages de ceux qu'on appelle en Hollande Collégiens et Rhinobourgeois, which is in the splendid work, Cérémonies réligieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde, tom. iv. p. 333, &c. Also a book published by the Collegiants themselves, entitled, De Oorspronck, Natuur, Handelwize en Oogmerk der zo genaamde Rynburgsche Vergadering, Amst. 1736, 4to. 2 John Bredenburg and Francis Cuiper are well known among the followers and the adversaries of Spinoza; but what sort of men they were, has been unknown generally. Bredenburg, a collegiant and a merchant of Rotterdam, openly taught the doctrine of Spinoza, and demonstrated its accordance with reason, mathematically. At the same time, he not only professed to be a Christian, but actually explained, recommended, and defended Christianity in the meetings of the Collegiants, and declared it to be of divine origin. This man of a singular genius |