life, omission and commission.-3. A and laborious effort, at the dawn of reconfession of our desert of punishment, viving literature to recover these docand our unworthiness of mercy.-4. A trines, and to separate them from the confession or humble representation of enormous mass of erroneous and corour wants and sorrows of every kind. rupted tenets, which the negligence or Confession also may be considered as a || ignorance of some, and the artifices of relative duty, or the acknowledgment of avarice and ambition in others, had conany offence we have been guilty of against duced to accumulate for a space of 1000 a fellow-creature. The Romish church years, under an implicit obedience to requires confession not only as a duty, the arrogant pretensions of an absolute but has advanced it to the dignity of a and infallible authority in the church of sacrament. These confessions are made Rome. Objections have been formed to the priest, and are private and auri- against all creeds or confessions of faith, cular; and the priest is not to reveal as it is said they infringe Christian lithem under pain of the highest punish-berty, supercede the Scriptures, exment. This, however, is both unneces- clude such as ought not to be excluded, sary and unscriptural; for, in the first and admit such as ought not to be adplace, there is no proof that the power mitted; are often too particular and of remitting and retaining sins (the long; are liable to be abused; tempt pretended ground of sacramental con- men to hypocrisy; preclude improvefession) was imparted to any but the ment; and have been employed as apostles, or at the most to those to whom means of persecution. On the other a discernment of spirits were commu-hand, the advocates for them observe, nicated.-2. If our Saviour had designed that all the arts and sciences have been this to have been a duty, he would most || reduced to a system; and why should probably have delivered us an express not the truths of religion, which are of Command to this purpose.-3. This au- greater importance? That a compenthority of pardoning sins immediately dious view of the chief and most necesin relation to God (the foundation of the sary points of the Christian religion, pretended duty of secret confession,) which lie scattered up and down in the without any reference to church cen- Scripture, must be useful to inform the sures, was never claimed for many ages mind, as well also to hold forth to the after Christ. world what are in general the sentiNotwithstanding, however, private ments of such a particular church or auricular confession is not of divine au- | churches; they tend to discover the thority yet, as one observes "there are common friends of the same faith to one many cases wherein men under the guilt another, and to unite them; that the and trouble of their sins can neither ap- Scriptures seem to authorize and counpease their own minds, nor sufficiently tenance them; such as the moral law, direct themselves without recourse to the Lord's prayer, the form of doctrine some pious and prudent guide: in these mentioned by Paul. Rom. vi. 17; and cases men certainly do very well, and again," the form of sound words," in many times prevent a great deal of trou- 2 Tim. i. 13, &c.; that their becoming ble and perplexity to themselves by a the occasion of hypocrisy is no fault of timely discovery of their condition to the articles, but of those who subscribe some faithful minister; and to this pur-them; that persecution has been raised pose a general confession is for the most part sufficient: and where there is occasion for a more particular discovery, there is no need of raking into the particular circumstances of men's sins to give that advice which is necessary for the ease and comfort of the penitent."sition and interpretation of Scripture ; See ABSOLUTION; Watts on Prayer; Tillotson's Ser., ser. 160, 161; Smith's Errors of the Church of Rome.

CONFESSION OF FAITH, a list of the several articles of the belief of any church. There is some difference between creeds and confessions. Creeds in their commencement were simply expressions of faith in a few of the leading and undisputed doctrines of the Gospel Confessions were on the contrary the result of many an hazardous

more by the turbulent tempers of men than from the nature of confessions. Some think that all articles and confessions of faith should be expressed in the bare words of Scripture; but it is replied, that this would destrov all expo

that it would have a tendency to make the ministry of the word useless; in a great measure cramp all religious conversation; and that the sentiments of one man could not be distinguished from another in some points of importance. Some of the most noted confessions are. the 39 Articles, and the constitutions and canons of the church of England; the Westminster Assembly's Confession of Faith; the Savoy Confession, or a declaration of the faith

and order, owned and practised in the happened to be present at the solemnity. congregational churches in England. Throughout the East it still accompaSee also Corpus et Syntagma confessi-nies baptism; but the Romanists make onum fidei, qua in diversis regnis et it a distinct independent sacrament. nationibus ecclesiarum nomine, fuerunt Seven years is the stated time for conauthentice edita, which exhibits a body firmation; however, they are someof numerous confessions. See likewise, times after that age. The person to be An Harmony of the Confessions of Faith confirmed has a godfather and godof the Christian and Reformed Church- mother appointed him, as in baptism, es; Watts's Rational Foundation of a In the church of England, the age of Christian Church, qu. 8; Graham on the persons to be confirmed is not fixed. establishments, p. 265, &c.; Bishop Clark's Essay on Confirmation; Cleaver's Sermon on the Formation of Wood on ditto'; How's Episcopacy, the Articles of the Church of England; p. 167, 174. Paley's Phil. vol. 2. p. 321.

CONFLAGRATION, GENERAL, a term used to denote that grand period or catastrophe of our world, when the face of nature is to be changed by fire, as formerly it was by water.

CONFESSOR. a Christian who has made a solemn and resolute profession of the faith, and has endured torments in its defence. A mere saint is called a confessor, to distinguish him from the 1. Scripture assures us in the general, roll of dignified saints, such as apostles, that this earth in its present form will martyrs, &c. In ecclesiastical history, not be perpetual, but shall come to an the word confessor is sometimes used end.-2. It farther tells us, that this disfor martyr; in after times it was con- solution of the world shall be by a genefined to those who, after having been ral conflagration, in which all things tormented by the tyrants, were per-upon the face of the earth shall be demitted to live and die in peace; and at stroyed, by which the atmosphere shall last it was also used for those who, after also be sensibly affected, as in such a having lived a good life, died under an case it necessarily must be, 2 Pet. iii. opinion of sanctity. According to St. 5-7. 10, 12. where, from the connecCyprian, he who presented himself to tion of the words, the opposition betorture, or even to martyrdom, without tween the conflagration and the deluge, being called to it, was not called a con- as well as the most literal and apparent fessor but a professor; and if any out of import of the phrases themselves, it is want of courage abandoned his country, plain they cannot, as Dr. Hammond and became a voluntary exile for the strangely supposes, refer to the desolasake of the faith, he was called extion brought on Judea when destroyed terris.

by the Romans, but must refer to the Confessor is also a priest in the Ro- dissolution of the whole earth.-3. The mish church, who has a power to hear Scripture represents this great burnsinners in the sacrament of penance, ing as a circumstance nearly connected and to give them absolution. The con- with the day of judgment, 2 Pet. iii. 7. fessors of the kings of France, from the|| compared with 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. Heb. time of Henry IV. have been constantly x. 27. 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13; and it is probaJesuits; before him, the Dominicans ble that there may be an allusion to this and Cordeliers shared the office be-in several passages of the Old Testatween them. The confessors of the ment, such as Ps. xi. 6. Ps. 1. 3. Ps. house of Austria, have also ordinarily xcvi. 3. Is. xxxiv. 4. 8. 10. Is. lxvi. 15. been Dominicans and Cordeliers, but Dan. vii. 9, 10. Mal. iv. 1. Zeph. iii. 8. the latter emperors have all taken || Deut. xxxii. 22. to which many parallel Jesuits. expressions might be added, from the canonical and apocryphal books.-4. It is not expressly declared how this burning shall be kindled, nor how it shall end; which has given occasion to various conjectures about it, which see below.

CONFIRMATION, the act of establishing any thing or person.-1. Divine confirmation is a work of the Spirit of God, strengthening, comforting, and establishing believers in faith and obedience, 1st. Pet. v. 10. 1st. Cor. i. 8.-2. Ecclesiastical confirmation is a rite whereby a person, arrived to years of discretion, undertakes the performance of every part of the baptismal vow made for him by his godfathers and godmothers.

In the primitive church it was done immediately after baptism, if the bishop

The ancient Pythagoreans, Platonists, Epicureans, and Stoics, appear to have had a notion of the conflagration; though whence they should derive it, unless from the sacred books, is difficult to conceive; except, perhaps, from the Phoenicians, who themselves had it from the Jews. Mention of the conflagration

is made in the books of the Sibyls, So- | the face of the earth, and likewise the phocles, Hystaspes, Ovid, Lucan, &c. atmosphere, will then be so restored, Dr. Burnet, after J. Tachard and others, as to resemble what it originally was in relates that the Siamese believe that || the paradisaical state; and consequently the earth will at last be parched up to render it a more desirable abode for with heat, the mountains melted down, human creatures than it at present is: the earth's whole surface reduced to a and they urge for this purpose the folrevel, and then consumed with fire. lowing texts, viz. 2 Pet. iii. 13. (comAnd the Bramins of Siam do not only pare Is. lxv. 17. lxvi. 22.) Matt. xix. hold that the world shall be destroyed 28, 29. (compare Mark x. 29, 30, Luke by fire, but also that a new earth shall xviii. 29, 30.) Ps. cii. 25, 26. Acts iii. 21. be made out of the cinders of the old. 1 Cor. vii. 31. Rom. viii. 21.-3. They agree in supposing, that in this new state of things there will be no sea, Rev. xxi. 1.-4. They suppose that the earth, thus beautified and improved, shall be inhabited by those who shall inherit the first resurrection, and shall here enjoy a very considerable degree of happiness, though not equal to that which is to succeed the general judgment; which judgment shall, according to them, open when those thousand years are expired, mentioned in Rev. xx. 4. &c. 1 Thess. iv. 17. compare ver. 15., which passage is thought by some to contain an insinuation that Paul expected to be alive at the appearance of Christ, which must imply an expectation of being thus raised from the dead before it: but it is answered that the expression we that are alive may only signify "that of us that are so," speaking of all Christians as one body, 1st. Cor. xv. 49-52. Dr. Hartley declared it as his opinion, that the millennium will consist of a thousand prophe

Divines ordinarily account for the conflagration metaphysically, and will have it take its rise from a miracle, as a fire from heaven. Philosophers contend for its being produced from natural causes, and will have it effected according to the laws of mechanics. Some think an eruption of the central fire sufficient for the purpose; and add, that this may be occasioned several ways, viz. either by having its intention increased, which again may be effected either by being driven into less space by the encroachments of the superficíal cold, or by an increase of the inflammability of the fuel whereon it is fed; or by having the resistance of the imprisoning earth weakened, which may happen either from the diminution of its matter, by the consumption of its central parts, or by weakening the cohesion of the constituent parts of the mass by the excess of the defect of moisture. Others look for the cause of the conflagration in the atmosphere, and suppose that some of the meteors there|tical years where each day is a year, engendered in unusual quantities, and exploded with unusual vehemence, from the concurrence of various circumstances, may effect it without seeking any farther. Lastly, others have recourse to a still more effectual and flaming machine, and conclude the world is to undergo its conflagration from the near approach of a comet in its return from the sun.

Various opinions also are entertained as to the renovation of the earth after the conflagration -1. Some suppose that the earth will not be entirely consumed, but that the matter of which it consists will be fixed, purified, and refined, which they say will be the natural consequence of the action of fire upon it; though it is hard to say what such a purification can do towards fitting it for its intended purpose, for it is certain a mass of crystal or glass would very ill answer the following parts of this hypothesis.-2. They suppose that from these materials thus refined, as from a second chaos, there will by the power of God arise a new creation; and then

i. e. 360,000; pleading that this is the language used in other parts of the Revelation. But it seems an invincible objection against this hypothesis, which places the millennium after the conflagration, that the saints inhabiting the earth after the first resurrection are represented as distressed by the invasion of some wicked enemies, Rev. xx. 7-9. Ezekiel xxxviii. xxxix. See MILLENNIUM.

After all, little can be said with certainty as to this subject. It is probable that the earth will survive its fiery trial, and become the everlasting abode of righteousness, as part of the holy empire of God; but, seeing the language used in Scripture, and especially in the book of Revelation, is often to be considered as figurative rather than literal, it becomes us to be cautious in our conclusions. Burnet's Theory of the Earth; Whitby on the Millennium, Hartley on Man, vol. ii. p. 400; Fleming on the first Resurrection; Ray's three Discourses; Whiston's Theory of the Earth; and article DISSOLUTION in this work.

functions, after the manner of our offices and courts; such as the congregation of the inquisition, the congregation of rites of aims, &c. &c.-It also signifies a company or society of religious persons cantoned out of this or that order, and making an inferior order, &c. Such are the congregations of the Oratory; those of Cluny, &c. among the Benedictines.

CONGREGATIONALISTS, a denomination of Protestants who reject all church government, except that of a single congregation under the direction of one pastor, with their elders, assistants, or managers. See CHURCH. CONONITES, a denomination which

rived their name from Conon, bishop of Tarsus. He taught that the body never lost its form; that its matter alone was subject to corruption and decay, and was to be restored when this mortal shall put on immortality.

CONFUSION OF TONGUES, a memorable event which happened in the one hundred and first year, according to the Hebrew chronology, and the four hundred and first year by the Samaritan, after the flood, at the overthrow of Babel, Gen. xi. Until this period there had been but one common language, which formed a bond of union that prevented the separation of mankind into distinct nations. Writers have differed much as to the nature of this confusion, and the manner in which it was effected. Some think that no new languages were formed; but that this event was accomplished by creating a misunderstanding and variance among the builders without any immediate in-appeared in the sixth century. They defluence on their language; and that a distinction is to be made between confounding a language and forming new ones. Others account for this event by the privation of all language, and by supposing that mankind were under a necessity of associating together, and of CONSCIENCE signifies knowledge imposing new names on things by com- in conjunction; that is, in conjunction mon consent. Some, again, ascribe the with the fact to which it is a witness, confusion to such an indistinct remem- as the eye is to the action done before brance of the original language which it; or, as South observes, it is a double they spoke before, as made them speak or joint knowledge, namely, one of a diit very differently: but the most com- vine law or rule, and the other of a mon opinion is, that God causes the man's own action. It may be defined to builders actually to forget their former be the judgment which a man passes on language, and each family to speak a the morality of his actions as to their new tongue; whence originated the va- | purity or turpitude; or the secret tesrious languages at present in the world. timony of the soul, whereby it approves It is, however, but of little consequence things that are good, and condemns to know precisely how this was effected, those that are evil. Some object to its as the Scriptures are silent as to the being called an act, habit, or faculty. manner of it; and after all that can be An act, say they, would be represented said, it is but conjecture still. There as an agent, whereas conscience is a tesare some truths, however, we may learn timony. To say it is a habit, is to speak from this part of sacred writ.-1. It of it as a disposition acting, which is teaches us God's sovereignty and pow- scarce more accurate than ascribing er, by which he can easily blast the one act to another; and, besides, it greatest attempts of men to aggrandize would be strange language to say that themselves, Gen. xi. 7, 8.—2. God's conscience itself is a habit. Against dejustice in punishing of those who, in ido-fining it by the name of a power or falizing their own fame, forget him to whom praise is due, ver. 4.—3. God's wisdom in overruling evil for good; for by this confusion he facilitated the dispersion of mankind, in order to execute his own purposes, ver. 8, 9. See Henry and Gill in loc. Stilling fleet's Orig. Sac. 1. iii. c. v. § 2-4; Shuckford's Con. vol. i. p. 124-140; Vitringa's Obs. vol. i diss. 1. c. ix. Le Clerc's Diss. No. vi. Hutchinson on the Confusion of Tongues; Bp. Law's Theory of Religion, p. 66.

CONGREGATION, an assembly of people met together for religious wor ship. The term has been also used for assemblies of cardinals appointed by the pope for the discharge of certain

culty, it is objected, that it occasions a false notion of it, as a distinct power from reason.

The rules of conscience. We must distinguish between a rule that of itself and immediately binds the conscience, and a rule that is occasionally of use to direct and satisfy the conscience. Now in the first sense the will of God is the only rule immediately binding the conscience No one has authority over the conscience but God. All penal laws, therefore, in matters of mere conscience, or things that do not evidently affect the civil state, are certainly unlawful; yet, secondly, the commands of superiors, not only natural parents, but civil, as

For the right management of conscience, we should, 1. Endeavour to obtain acquaintance with the law of God, and with our own tempers and lives, and frequently compare them together.

magistrates or masters, and every man's private engagements, are rules of conscience in things indifferent.-3. The examples of wise and good men may become rules of conscience; but here it must be observed, that no example or 2. Furnish conscience with general judgment is of any authority against law: principles of the most extensive nature where the law is doubtful, and even and strongest influence; such as the suwhere there is no doubt, the side of ex-preme love of God; love to our neighample cannot be taken till enquiry has || been first made concerning what the law directs.

Conscience has been considered, as, 1. natural, or that common principle which instructs men of all countries and religions in the duties to which they are all alike obliged. There seems to be something of this in the minds of all men. Even in the darkest regions of the earth, and among the rudest tribes of men, a distinction has ever been made between just and unjust, a duty, and a crime.

2. A right conscience is that which decides aright, or, according to the only rule of rectitude, the law of God. This is also called a well-informed conscience, which in all its decisions proceeds upon the most evident principles of truth.

bours as ourselves; and that the care of our souls is of the greatest importance.

3. Preserve the purity of conscience. 4. Maintain the freedom of conscience, particularly against interest, passion, temper, example, and the authority of great names.

5. We should accustom ourselves to cool reflections on our past actions. See Grove's and Paley's Moral Philosophy; South's Sermons, vol. ii. sermon 12; and books under CASUISTRY.

CONSCIOUSNESS, the perception of what passes in a man's own mind. We must not confound the terms consciousness and conscience; for though the Latin be ignorant of any such distinction, including both in the word conscientia, yet there is a great deal of difference between them in our language. 3. A probable conscience is that which, Consciousness is confined to the actions in cases which admit of the brightest and of the mind, being nothing else but that fullest light, contents itself with bare knowledge of itself which is inseparaprobabilities. The consciences of many ble from every thought and voluntary are of no higher character; and though motion of the soul. Conscience extends we must not say a man cannot be saved to all human actions, bodily as well as with such a conscience, yet such a con-mental. Consciousness is the knowledge science is not so perfect as it might be. 4. An ignorant conscience is that which may declare right, but, as it were, by chance, and without any just ground to build on.

5. An erroneous conscience is a conscience mistaken in its decisions about the nature of actions.

6. A doubting conscience is a conscience unresolved about the nature of actions; on account of the equal or nearly equal probabilities which appear for and against each side of the question.

7. Ŏf an evil conscience there are several kinds. Conscience, in regard to actions in general, is evil when it has lost more or less the sense it ought to have of the natural distinctions of moral good and evil: this is a polluted or defiled conscience. Conscience is evil in itself when it gives either none or a false testimony as to past actions; when reflecting upon wickedness it feels no pains, it is evil, and said to be seared or hardened, 1 Tim. iv. 2. It is also evil when during the commission of sin it lies quiet. In regard to future actions, conscience is evil if it does not startle at the proposal of sin, or connives at the commission of it.

of the existence; conscience of the moral nature of actions. Consciousness is a province of metaphysics; conscience of morality.

CONSECRATION, a rite or ceremony of dedicating things or persons to the service of God. It is used for the benediction of the elements at the eucharist: the ordination of bishops is also called consecration.

The Mosaical law ordained that all the first-born, both of man and beast, should be sanctified or consecrated to God. We find also, that Joshua consecrated the Gibeonites, as David and Solomon did the Nethinims, to the service of the temple; and that the Hebrews sometimes consecrated their fields and cattle to the Lord, after which they were no longer in their power. Among the ancient Christians, the consecration of churches was performed with a great deal of pious solemnity. In what manner it was done for the first three ages is uncertain, the authentic accounts reaching no higher than the fourth century, when, in the peaceable reign of Constantine, churches were every where built and dedicated with great solemni

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