written revelation, may be called na tural theology, and are of the utmost importance, as being to us the first prin ciples of all religion. Natural theology, in this sense of the word, is the foundation of the Christian revelation; for, without a previous knowledge of it, we could have no evidence that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are indeed the word of God."

The religions which exist in the world have been generally divided into four, the Pagan, the Jewish, the Mahometan, and the Christian; to which articles the reader is referred. The various duties of the Christian religion also are stated in their different places. See also, as connected with this article, the articles INSPIRATION, REVELATION, and THEOLOGY, and books there recommended.

religion is understood that discovery which he has made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Scriptures. As it respects natural religion, some doubt whether, properly speaking, there can be any such thing; since, through the fall, reason is so depraved, that man without revelation is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may be easily seen by considering the history of those nations who are destitute of it, and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So far as this, however, may be observed, that | the light of nature can give us no proper ideas of God, nor inform us what worship will be acceptable to him. It does not tell us how man became a fallen sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recovered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a fu RELIGIOUS, in a general sense, ture state of happiness and misery. The something that relates to religion. It is apostle, indeed, observes, that the Gen- also used for a person engaged by sotiles have the law written on their lemn vows to the monastic life; or a hearts, and are a law unto themselves ; | person shut up in a monastery, to lead a yet the greatest moralists among them life of devotion and austerity under some were so blinded as to be guilty of, and rule or institution. The male religious actually to countenance the greatest are called monks and friars; the fevices. Such a system, therefore, it is males, nuns and canonesses. supposed, can hardly be said to be religious which leaves man in such uncertainty, ignorance, and impiety. [See | REVELATION.] On the other side it is observed, "that, though it is in the highest degree probable that the parents of mankind received all their theological knowledge by supernatural means, it is yet obvious that some parts of that knowledge must have been capable of a proof purely rational, otherwise not a single religious truth could have been conveyed through the succeeding generations of the human race but by the immediate inspiration of each individual. We, indeed, admit many propositions as certainly true, upon the sole authority of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and we receive these Scrip. tures with gratitude as the lively oracles of God; but it is self evident that we could not do either the one or the other, were we not convinced by natural means that God exists; that he is a being of goodness, justice, and power; and that he inspired with divine wisdom the penmen of these sacred volumes Now, though it is very possible that no man, or body of men, left to themselves from infancy in a desert world, would ever have made a theological discovery, yet, whatever propositions relating to the being and attributes of the First Cause, and duty of man, can be demon strated by human reason,independent of

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RELLYANISTS, or RELLYAN UNIVERSALISTs, the followers of Mr. James Relly. He first commenced his ministerial character in connection with Mr. Whitefield, and was received with great popularity. Upon a change of his views, he encountered reproach, and was pronounced by many as an enemy to godliness. He believed that Christ as a Mediator was so united to mankind, that his actions were theirs, his obedience and sufferings theirs; and, consequently, that he has as fully restored the whole human race to the divine favour, as if all had obeyed and suffered in their own persons; and upon this persuasion he preached a finished salvation, called by the apostle Jude, "The common salvation." Many of his followers are removed to the world of spirits, but a branch still survives, and meets at the chapel in Windmill-street, Moorfields, London; where there are different brethren who speak. They are not observers of ordinances, such as water-baptism and the sacrament; professing to believe only in one baptism, which they call an immersion of the mind or conscience into truth by the teaching of the Spirit of God; and by the same Spirit they are enabled to feed on Christ as the bread of life, professing that in and with Jesus they possess all things. They inculcate and maintain good works for necessary purposes;

but contend that the principal and only row for any thing past. In theology it works which ought to be attended to, is signifies that sorrow for sin which prothe doing real good without religious os- duces newness of life. The Greek word tentation; that to relieve the miseries most frequently used in the New Tes and distresses of mankind according to tament for repentance is μeravna, which our ability, is doing more real good than || properly denotes an afterthought, or the the superstitious observance of religious soul recollecting its own actings; and ceremonies. In general they appear to that in such a manner as to produce sorbelieve that there will be a resurrection row in the review,and a desire of amendto life, and a resurrection to condemnament. Another word also is used tion; that believers only will be among (μraja,) which signifies anxiety or the former, who as first fruits, and uneasiness upon the consideration of kings and priests, will have part in the what is done. There are, however, vafirst resurrection, and shall reign with ||rious kinds of repentance ; as, 1. A naChrist in his kingdom of the millennium; tural repentance, or what is merely the that unbelievers who are after raised, effect of natural conscience.-2. Á namust wait the manifestation of the Sa- tional repentance, such as the Jews in viour of the world. under that con- Babylon were called unto; to which demnation of conscience which a mind || temporal blessings were promised, Ez÷k. in darkness and wrath must necessarily xviii. 30.-3. An external repentance, feel; that believers, called kings and or an outward humiliation for sin, as in priests, will be made the medium of the case of Ahab —4. A hypocritical recommunication to their condemned bre-pentance, as represented in Ephraim, thren; and like Joseph to his brethren, though he spoke roughly to them, in reality overflowed with affection and tenderness; that ultimately every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that in the Lord they have righteous ness and strength; and thus every enemy shall be subdued to the kingdom || and glory of the Great Mediator. A Mr. Murray belonging to this society emigrated to America, and preached these sentiments at Boston and else where. Mr, Relly published several works, the principal of which were, Union," The Trial of Spirits," "Christian Liberty." "One Baptism." "The Salt of Sacrifice." "Antichrist resisted." "Letters on Universal Sal vation." "The Cherubimical Mystery."

Hos. vii. 16.-5. A legal repentance, which is a mere work of the law, and the effect of convictions of sin by it, which in time wear off, and come to nothing-6 An evangelical repentance, which consists in conviction of sin; sorrow for it; confession of it; hatred to it; and renunciation of it. A legal and evangelical repentance are distinguished thus: 1. A legal repentance flows only from a sense of danger and fear of wrath; but an evangelical repentance is a true mourning for sin, and an earnest desire of deliverance from it.— 2. A legal repentance flows from unbelief, but evangelical is always the fruit and consequence of a saving faith.— 3. A legal repentance flows from an aversion to God and to his holy law, but an evangelical from love to both 4. A legal repentance ordinarily flows from discouragement and desponder.cy, REMONSTRANTS, a title given to but evangelical from encouraging hope. the Arminians, by reason of the remon--5. A legal repentance is temporary, strance which, in 1610, they made to the states of Holland against the sentence of the Synod of Dort, which condemned them as heretics. Episcopius and Gro tius were at the head of the Remonstrants, whose principles were first openly patronised in England by archbishop Laud In Holland, the Calvinists presented an address in opposition to the remonstrance of the Arminians, and|| called it a counter-remonstrance. See ARMINIANS and DOKT.

REMEDIAL LAW. See Law; and article JUSTIFICATION.

but evangelical is the daily exercise of the true Christian.-6. A legal repentance does at most produce only a partial and external reformation, but an evangelical is a total change of heart and life.

The author of true repentance is God, Acts, v. 31. The subjects of it are sinners, since none but those who have sinned can repent. The means of repentance is the word, and the ministers of it; yet sometimes consideration, REMORSE, uneasiness occasioned sanctified afflictions, conversation, &c. by a consciousness of guilt. When it is have been the instruments of repentance. blended with the fear of punishment, The blessings connected with repentand rises to despair, it constitutes the ance, are, pardon, peace, and everlastsupreme wretchedness of the mind. ing life, Acts, xi. 18. The time of reREPENTANCE, in general, is sor-pentance is the present life, Isaiah, !v.

frailty, from inadvertency, or mistake in matters of small consequence.-4. We should never reprove unseasonably, as to the time, the place, or the circum

6. Eccl. ix. 50. The evidences of repentance are, faith, humility, prayer, and obedience, Zech. xii. 10. The ne cessity of repentance appears evident from the evil of sin; the misery it instances.-5. We should reprove mildly volves us in here; the commands given and sweetly, in the calmest manner, in, us to repent in God's word; the pro- the gentlest terms.-6. We should not mises made to the penitent; and the ab- affect to be reprehensive: perhaps solute incapability of enjoying God here there is no one considered more trouor hereafter without it. See Dickin-blesome than he who delights in finding son's Letters, let 9; Dr. Owen on the fault with others. In receiving reproof 130th Psalm; Gill's Body of Divini- it may be observed, 1. That we should ty, article Repentance; Ridgley's Bo|| not reject it merely because it may dy of Div. question 76; Davies's Ser- come from those who are not exactly mons, ser. 44. vol. iii; Case's Sermons, on a level with ourselves.-2. We ser. 4; Whitefields Sermons; Saurin's should consider whether the reproof Sermons, ser. 9. vol. iii. Robinson's given be not actually deserved; and Translation; Scott's Treatise on Re that, if the reprover knew all, whether pentance. the reproof would not be sharper than what it is.-3.Whether, if taken humbly and patiently, it will not be of great advantage to us.-4. That it is nothing but pride to suppose that we are never to be the subjects of reproof, since it is human to err.

RESENTMENT, generally used in an ill sense, implying a determination to return an injury. Dr. Johnson observes, that resentment is an union of sorrow with malignity; a combination of a passion which all endeavour to avoid, with a passion which all concur to detest. The man who retires to meditate mischief, and to exasperate his own rage, whose thoughts are employ ed only on means of distress and contrivances of ruin, whose mind never pauses from the remembrance of his own sufferings, but to indulge some hope of enjoying the calamities of another, may justly be numbered among the most miserable of human beings; among those who are guilty ; who have neither the gladness of prosperity, nor th ecalm of innocence.

REPROACH, the act of finding fault in opprobrious terms, or attempting to expose to infamy and disgrace. In whatever cause we engage, however disinterested our motives, however laudable our designs, reproach is what we must expect. But it becomes us not to retaliate, but to bear it patiently; and so to live, that every charge brought against us be groundless. If we be reproached for righteousness' sake, we have no reason to be ashamed nor to be afraid. All good men have thus suffer ed, Jesus Christ himself especially. We have the greatest promises of support. Besides, it has a tendency to humble us, detach us from the world, and excite in us a desire for that state of blessedness where all reproach shall be done away. REPROBATION, the act of abandoning, or state of being abandoned, to|| eternal destruction, and is applied to that decree or resolve which God has taken from all eternity to punish sin. ners who shall die in impenitence; in which sense it is opposed to election. SeeELECTION and PREDESTINATION. RESIGNATION, a submission withREPROOF, blame or reprehension out discontent to the will of God. The spoken to a person's face. It is dis- cbligations to this duty arise from, 1. tinguished from a reprimand thus. He The perfections of God, Deut. xxxii. 4. who reproves another, points out his 2. The purposes of God, Eph. i. 11. fault, and blames him. He who repri-3. The commands of God, Heb. xii. mands, affects to punish, and mortifies the offended. In giving reproof, the following rules may be observed: 1. We|| should not be forward in reproving our elders or superiors, but rather to remonstrate and supplicate for redress. What the ministers of God do in this kind, they do by special commission, as those that must give an account, 1 Tim. v. 1. Heb. xiii. 17.-2. We must not reprove rashly; there should be proof before reproof.-3. We should not reprove for slight matters, for such faults: or defects as proceed from natural

9.-4. The promises of God, 1 Pet. v. 7-5. Our own interest, Hos ii. 14, 15.-6. The prospect of eternal felicity, Heb. iv. 9. See articles AFFLICTION, DESPAIR, and PATIENCE; Worthington on Resignation; Brook's Mute Christian; Grosvenor's Mourner; and the books under AFFLICTION.

RESTITUTION, that act of justice by which we restore to our neighbour whatever we have unjustly deprived him of, Exod. xxii. 1. Luke, xix 8.

Moralists observe respecting restitution, 1. That where it can be made in

Kind, or the injury can be certainly vaJued, we are to restore the thing or the value.-2. We are bound to restore the thing with the natural increase of it, that is, to satisfy for the loss sustained in the mean time, and the gain hindered.-3. Where the thing cannot be restored, and the value of it is not certain, we are to give reasonable satisfaction, according to a middle estimation.-4. We are at least to give by way of restitution what the law would give, for that is generally equal, and in most cases rather favourable than rigorous -5. A man is not only bound to restitution for the injury he did, but for all that directly follows upon the injurious act. For the first injury being wilful, we are supposed to will all that which follows upon it. Tillotson's Serm, ser. 170, 171; Chillingworth's Works,

ser. 7.

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son on the Creed; Lime Street Leet. ser. 10; Watts's Ontology; Young's Last Day; Locke on the Understanding, l. ii. c. 27; Warburton's Legation of Moses, vol. ii. p. 553, &c. Bishofi Newton's Works, vol. iii. p. 676, 683.

RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. Few articles are more important than this. It deserves our particular attention, because it is the grand hinge on which Christianity turns. Hence, says the apostle, he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. Infidels, however, have disbelieved it, but with what little reason we may easily see on considering the subject. "If the body of Jesus Christ," says Saurin, "were not raised from the dead, it must have been stolen away. But this theft is incredible. Who committed it? The enemies of Jesus Christ? Would they have contributed to his glory by countenancing a report of his resurrection? Would his disciples? It is probable they would not, and it is next to certain they could not. How could they have undertaken to remove the body? Frail and timorous creatures, people who fled as soon as they saw him taken into custody; even Peter, the most courageous, trembled at the voice of a servant girl, and three times denied that he knew him. People of this character, would they have dared to resist the authority of the governor ? Would they have undertaken to oppose the determination of the Sanhedrim, to force a guard, and to elude, or overcome, soldiers armed and aware of danger? If Jesus Christ were not risen again (I speak the language of unbelievers,) he had deceived his disciples with vain hopes of his resurrection. How came the disciples not to discover the imposture? Would they have hazarded themselves by undertaking an enterprise so perilous in favour of a man who had so cruelly imposed on their credulity? But were we to grant that they formed the design of removing the body, how could they have executed it? How could soldiers armed, and on guard, suffer themselves to be over-reached, by a few timcrous people? Either, says St. Augustine, they were asleep or awake: if they were awake, why should they suffer the body to be taken away? If usleep how could they know that the disciples took it away? How dare they then, depose that it WAS STOLEN.

RESURRECTION, a rising again from the state of the dead; generally applied to the resurrection of the last day. This doctrine is argued, 1. From the resurrection of Christ, 1 Cor. xv. 2. From the doctrines of grace, as union, election, redemption, &c.-3. From Scripture testimonies, Matt. xxii. 23. &c. Job, xix. 25, 27. Isaiah, xxvi. 19. Phil. ii. 20. 1 Cor. xv. Dan. xii. 2. 1 Thess. iv. 14. Rev. xx. 13.-4. From the general judgment, which of course requires it. As to the nature of this resurrection, it will be, 1. General, Rev. xx. 12, 15. 2 Cor. v. 10.-2. Of the same body. It is true, indeed, that the body has not always the same particles, which are continually changing, but it has always the same constituent parts, which proves its identity; it is the same body that is born that dies, and the same that dies that shall rise again; so that Mr. Locke's objection to the idea of the same body is a mere quibbie.-3. The resurrection will be at the command of Christ, and by his power, John, v. 28, 29.—4. Perhaps as to the manner it will be successive; the dead in Christ rising first, 1 Cor. xv. 23. 1 Thess. iv. 16. This doctrine is of great use and importance. It is one of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ; the whole Gospel stands or falls with it. It serves to enlarge our views of the divine perfections. It encourages our faith and trust in God under all the dif. ficulties of life. It has a tendency to regulate all our affections and moderate our desires after earthly things. It sup- The testimony of the apostles furnishports the saints under the loss of near es us with arguments, and there are relations, and enables them to rejoice eight considerations which give the eviin the glorious prospect set before them.dence sufficient weight. 1, The nature See Hody on the Resurrection; Pear- of these witnesses. They were not men

cret of never contradicting themselves or one another, and of being always uniform in their testimony. It must be supposed that the most expert courts of judicature could not find out a shadow of contradiction in a palpable imposture. It must be supposed that the apostles, sensible men in other cases, chose pre

which were most unfavourable to their views. It must be supposed that millions madly suffered imprisonments, tortures, and crucifixions to spread an illusion. It must be supposed that ten thousand miracles were wrought in favour of falsehood, or all these facts must be denied; and then it must be supposed that the apostles were idiots; that the enemies of Christianity were idiots; and that all the primitive Christians were idiots."

The doctrine of the resurrection of Christ affords us a variety of useful instructions. Here we see evidence of divine power; prophecy accomplished; the character of Jesus established; his work finished; and a future state proved. It is a ground of faith, the basis of hope, a source of consolation, and a stimulus to obedience. See Saurin's Sermons, ser. 8. vol. ii. Robinson's Translation; Ditton and West on the Resurrection; Cook's Illustration of the general evidence establishing the reality of Christ's resurrection, p. 323, Ecc. Rev. vol. 4. but especially a small but admirable Essay on the Resur rection of Christ, by Mr. Dore.

of power, riches, eloquence, credit, to impose upon the world; they were poor and mean.-2. The number of these witnesses. See 1 Cor. xv. Luke, xxiv. 34. Mark, xvi. 14. Matt. xxviii. 10. It is not likely that a collusion should have been held among so many to support a lie, which would be of no utility to them.-3. The facts them-cisely those places and those times selves which they avow; not suppositions, distant events, or events related by others, but real facts which they saw with their own eyes, 1 John, i.-4. The agreement of their evidence: they all deposed the same thing.-5. Observe the tribunals before which they gave evidence Jews and heathens, philoso phers and rabbins, courtiers and law yers. If they had been impostors, the fraud certainly would have been dis covered.-6. The place in which they bore their testimony. Not at a distance, where they might not easily have been detected, if false, but at Jerusalem, in the synagogues, in the pretorium.-7. The time of this testimony: not years after, but three days after, they declared he was risen; yea, before their rage was quelled, while Calvary was yet dyed with the blood they had spilt. If it had been a fraud, it is not likely they would have come forward in such broad day-light, amidst so much opposition.-8. Lastly, the motives which induced them to publish the resurrection: not to gain fame, riches, glory, profit; no, they exposed themselves to suffering and death, and proclaimed the truth from conviction of its importance RETIREMENT, the state of a perand certainty. son who quits a public station in order "Collect,' says Saurin, "all these to be alone. Retirement is of great adproofs together; consider them in one vantage to a wise man. To him" the point of view, and see how many extra-hour of solitude is the hour of meditavagant suppositions must be advanced, tion. He communes with his own heart. if the resurrection of cur Saviour be de- He reviews the actions of his past life, nied. It must be supposed that guards, He corrects what is amiss. He re who had been particularly cautioned by joices in what is right: and, wiser by their officers, sat down to sleep; and experience, lays the plan of his future that, however, they deserved credit life. The great and the noble, the wise when they said the body of Jesus Christ and the learned, the pious and the was stolen. It must be supposed that good, have been lovers of serious remen, who have been imposed on in the tirement. On this field the patriot most odious and cruel manner in the forms his schemes, the philosopher purworld, hazarded their dearest enjoy-sues his discoveries, the saint improves ments for the glory of an impostor. It must be supposed that ignorant and illiterate men, who had neither reputation, fortune, nor eloquence, possessed the art of fascinating the eyes of all the church. It must be supposed either that five hundred persons were all deprived of their senses at a time, or that they were all deceived in the plainest matters of fact; or that this multitude of false witnesses had found out the se

himself in wisdom and goodness. Solitude is the hallowed ground which religion in every age has adopted as its own, There her sacred inspiration is felt, and her holy mysteries elevate the soul; there devotion lifts up the voice; there falls the tear of contrition; there the heart pours itself forth before him who made, and him who redeemed it. Apart from men, we live with nature, and converse with God." Logan's Sermons, vol.