2. "They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation," i. e. condemnation, “from the rulers, who are not a terror to good works, but to the evil." Again, in 1 Cor. xi. 29. "He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, cateth and drinketh damnation to himself;" i. e. condemnation; exposes himself to severe temporal judgments from God, and to the judgment and censure of the wise and good. Again, Rom. xiv. 23. "He that doubteth is damned if he eat;" i. e. is condemned both by his own conscience, and the word of God, because he is far from being satisfied that he is right in so doing.

DANCERS, a sect which sprung up about 1373 in Flanders, and places about. It was their custom all of a sudden to fall a dancing, and, holding each other's hands, to continue thereat, till, being suffocated with the extraordinary violence, they fell down breathless together. During these intervals of vehement agitation they pretended to be favoured with wonderful visions. Like the Whippers, they roved from place to place, begging their victuals, holding their secret assemblies, and treating the priesthood and worship of the church with the utmost contempt. Thus we find, as Dr. Haweis observes, that the French Convulsionists and the Welch Jumpers have had predecessors of the same stamp. There is nothing new under the sun. Haweis, and Mosheim's Ch. Hist. Cent. 14.

DARKNESS, the absence, privation, or want of natural light. In Scripture language it also signifies sin, John iii. 19. trouble, Is. viii. 22. obscurity, privacy, Matt. x. 27. forgetfulness, contempt, Ecc. vi. 4.

ness lasted; and, therefore, they ima།། gine that instead of a darkness that may be felt, the Hebrew phrase may signify a darkness wherein men went groping and feeling about for every thing they wanted. Let this, however, be as it may, it was an awful judgment on the Egyptians; and we may naturally conclude that it must have also spread darkness and distress over their minds as well as their persons. The tradition of the Jews is, that in this darkness they were terrified by the apparitions of evil spirits, or rather by dreadful sounds and murmurs which they made. What made it still worse, was the length of time it continued; three days, or as bishop Hall expresses it, six nights in one.

During the last three hours that our Saviour hung upon the cross, a darkness covered the face of the earth, to the great terror and amazement of the people present at his execution. This extraordinary alteration in the face of nature, says Dr. Macknight, in his Harmony of the Gospels, was peculiarly proper, whilst the Sun of Righteousness was withdrawing his beams from the land of Israel, and from the world; not only because it was a miraculous testimony borne by God himself to his innocence, but also because it was a fit emblem of his departure and its effects, at least till his light shone out anew with additional splendour in the ministry of his apostles. The darkness which now covered Judea, and the neighbouring countries, beginning about noon, and continuing till Jesus expired, was not the effect of an ordinary eclipse of the sun, for that can never happen but at the new moon, whereas now it was full moon; not to mention that the total darkness occasioned by eclipses of the sun never continues above twelve or fifteen minutes; wherefore it must have been produced by the divine power, in a manner we are not able to explain. Accordingly Luke (chap. xxiii. 44, 45.) after relating that there was darkness over all the earth, adds, "and the sun was darkened;" which perhaps may imply that the darkness of the sun did not occasion, but proceeded from, the darkness that was over all the land. Farther, the Christian writers, in their most ancient apologies to the heathens, affirm that as it was full moon at the passover when Christ was crucified, no such eclipse could happen by the course of nature. They observe, also, that it was taken notice of as a prodigy by the heathens themselves.

Darkness, says Moses, was upon the face of the deep, Gen. i. 2. that is to say the chaos was plunged in thick darkness, because hitherto the light was not created. Moses, at the command of God, brought darkness upon Egypt, as a plague to the inhabitants of it. The Septuagint, our translation of the Bible, and indeed most others, in explaining Moses's account of this darkness, render it "a darkness which may be felt;" and the Vulgate has it, "palpable darkness;" that is, a darkness consisting of black vapours and exhalations, so condensed that they might be perceived by the organs of feeling or seeing; but some commentators think that this is carrying the sense too far, since, in such a medium as this, mankind could not live an hour, much less for the space of three days, as the Egyptians are said to DAVIDISTS, the adherents of David have done, during the time this dark-George, a native of Delft, who, in 1525,

began to preach a new doctrine, pub- and the specdier spreading of the Gos lishing himself to be the true Messiah; pel. Such a one it is reasonable to think and that he was sent of God to fill hea- Phebe was, Rom. xvi. 1. who is exven, which was quite empty for want pressly called day, a deaconess or of people to deserve it. He is likewise stated servant, as Dr. Doddridge renders said to have denied the existence of an-it. They were usually widows, and, to gels good and evil, and to have disbelieved the doctrine of a future judgment. He rejected marriage with the Adamites; held with Manes, that the soul was not defiled by sin; and laughed at the self-denial so much recommended by Jesus Christ. Such were his principal errors. He made his escape from Delft, and retired first to Friesland, and then to Basil, where he changed his name, assuming that of John Bruck, and died in 1556. He left some disciples behind him, to whom he promised that he would rise again at the end of three years. Nor was he altogether a false prophet herein; for the magistrates of that city being informed, at the three years' end, of what he had taught, ordered him to be dug up and burnt, together with his writings, by the common hangman.

DEACON, Aianoves, a servant, a mi

nister.

1. In ecclesiastical polity, a deacon is one of the lowest of the three orders of the clergy. He is rather a novitiate, or in a state of probation for one year, after which he is admitted into full orders, or ordained a priest.

2. In the New Testament the word is used for any one that ministers in the service of God: bishops and presbyters | are also styled deacons; but more particularly and generally it is understood of the lowest order of ministering servants in the church, 1 Cor. iii. 5. Col. i. 23, 25. Phil. i. 1. 1 Tim. iii.

The office of deacons originally was to serve tables, the Lord's table, the minister's table, and the poor's table. They took care of the secular affairs of the church, received and disbursed monies, kept the church's accounts, and provided every thing necessary for its temporal good. Thus, while the bishop attended to the souls, the deacons attended to the bodies of the people: the pastor to the spiritual, and the deacons the temporal interests of the church, Acts vi. || DEACONESS, a female deacon. It is generally allowed, that in the primitive church there were deaconesses, i. e. pious women, whose particular business it was to assist in the entertainment and care of the itinerant preachers, visit the sick and imprisoned, instruct female catechumens, and assist at their baptism; then more particularly necessary, from the peculiar customs of those countries, the persecuted state of the church,

prevent scandal, generally in years, 1 Tim. v. 9. See also Spanheim. Hist. Christ. Secul. 1. p. 554. The apostolic constitutions, as they are called, mention the ordination of a deaconess, and the form of prayer used on that occasion. (lib. viii. ch. 19, 20.) Pliny also, in his celebrated epistle to Trajan (xcvii.) is thought to refer to them, when, speaking of two female Christians whom he put to the torture, he says, quæ ministræ dicebantur, i. e. who were called deaconesses.—But as the primitive Christians seem to be led to this practice from the peculiarity of their circumstances, and the Scripture is entirely silent as to any appointment to this supposed office, or any rules about it, it is very justly laid aside, at least as an office.

DEAN, an ecclesiastical dignitary, next under the bishop in cathedral churches, and head of the chapter. The Latin word is decanus, derived from the Greek Axa, ten, because the dean presides over at least ten canons, or prebendaries. A dean and chapter are the bishop's council, to assist him in the affairs of religion.

DEATH is generally defined to be the separation of the soul from the body. It is styled, in Scripture language, a departure out of this world to another, 2 Tim. iv. 7. a dissolving of the earthly house of this tabernacle, 2 Cor. v. 1. a going the way of all the earth, Josh. xxiii. 14. a returning to the dust, Eccl. xii. 7. a sleep, John xi. 11. Death may be considered as the effect of sin, Rom. v. 12, yet, as our existence is from God, no man has a right to take away his own life, or the life of another, Gen. ix. 6. Satan is said to have the power of death, Heb. ii. 14.; not that he can at his pleasure inflict death on mankind, but as he was the instrument of first bringing death into the world, John viii. 44; and as he may be the executioner of God's wrath on impenitent sinners, when God permits him. Death is but once, Heb. ix. 27. certain, Job xiv. 1, 2. powerful and terrific, called the king of terrors, Job xviii. 14. uncertain as to the time, Prov. xxviii. 1. universal, Gen. v. necessary, that God's justice may be displayed, and his mercy manifested: desirable to the righteous, Luke ii. 28. -30. The fear of death is a source of uneasiness to the generality, and to a guilty conscience it may indeed be ter

rible; but to a good man it should be obviated by the consideration that death is the termination of every trouble; that it puts him beyond the reach of sin and temptation: that God has promised to be with the righteous, even to the end, Heb. xiii. 5. that Jesus Christ has taken away the sting, 1 Cor. xv. 54. and that it introduces him to a state of endless felicity, 2 Cor. v. 8.

words and actions on this great occasion! No upbraiding, no complaining expression escaped from his lips. He betrayed no symptom of a weak, a discomposed, or impatient mind. With all the dignity of a sovereign, he conferred pardon on a penitent fellow-sufferer: with a greatness of mind beyond example, he spent his last moments in apologies and prayers for those who Preparation for death. This does were shedding his blood. This was the not consist in bare morality; in an ex-hour in which Christ atoned for the sins ternal reformation from gross sins; in of mankind, and accomplished our eterattention to a round of duties in our own nal redemption. It was the hour when strength; in acts of charity; in a zeal- that great sacrifice was offered up, the ous profession; in possessing eminent efficacy of which reaches back to the gifts: but in reconciliation to God; re- first transgression of man, and extends pentance of sin; faith in Christ; obe- forward to the end of time: the hour, dience to his word: and all as the ef- when, from the cross, as from an high fect of regeneration by the Spirit. 3 altar, the blood was flowing which washJohn iii. 6. 1 Cor. xi. 3. Tit. iii. 5. Bates's ed away the guilt of the nations. In this four last Things; Hopkins, Drelin-hour the long series of prophecies, vicourt, Sherlock, and Fellowes, on Death; Bp. Porteus's Poem on Death; Grove's admirable Sermon on the fear of Death; Watts's World to Come.

Spiritual Death is that awful state of ignorance,insensibility, and disobedience, which mankind are in by nature, and which exclude them from the favour and enjoyment of God, Luke i. 79. See SIN. Brothers of Death, a denomination usually given to the religious of the order of St. Paul, the first hermit. They are called brothers of death, on account of the figure of a death's head which they were always to have with them, in order to keep perpetually before them the thoughts of death. The order was probably suppressed by pope Urban VIII. Death of Christ. The circumstances attendant on the death of Christ are so well known, that they need not be inserted here. As the subject, however, of all others, is the most important to the Christian, a brief abstract of what has been said on it, from a sermon allowedly one of the best in the English language, shall here be given. "The hour of Christ's death," says Blair (vol. i. ser. 5.) "was the most critical, the most pregnant with great events, since hours had begun to be numbered, since time had begun to run. It was the hour in which Christ was glorified by his sufferings. Through the cloud of his humiliation his native lustre often broke forth, but never did it shine so bright as now. It was indeed the hour of distress, and of blood. It is distress which ennobles every great character, and distress was to glorify the Son of God. He was now to teach all mankind, by his example, how to suffer, and how to die. What magnanimity in all his

sions, types, and figures were accomplished. This was the centre in which they all met. You behold the law and the prophets standing, if we may speak so, at the foot of the cross, and doing homage. You behold Moses and Aaron bearing the ark of the covenant; David and Elijah presenting the oracle of testimony. You behold all the priests and sacrifices, all the rites and ordinances, all the types and symbols assembled together to receive their consummation. This was the hour of the abolition of the law, and the introduction of the Go8pel; the hour of terminating the old and beginning the new dispensation.—It is finished. When he uttered these words he changed the state of the universe. This was the ever-memorable point of time which separated the old and the new world from each other. On one side of the point of separation you behold the law, with its priests, its sacrifices, and its rites, retiring from sight. On the other side you behold the Gospel, with its simple and venerable institutions, coming forward into view. Significantly was the veil of the temple rent in twain; for the glory then departed from between the cherubims. The legal high priest delivered up his Urim and Thummim, his breast-plate, his robes, and his incense; and Christ stood forth as the great high priest of all succeeding generations. Altars on which the fire had blazed for ages were now to smoke no more. Now it was also that he threw down the wall of partition which had so long divided the Gentile from the Jew; and gathered into one all the faithful, out of every kindred and people. This was the hour of Christ's triumph over all the powers

thing upon a person for what it is not, as when falsehood is made to pass for truth See HYPOCRISY.

DECEPTION, SELF. See SELF DECEPTION.

powers of his voice, to produce a pronunciation that is perfectly distinct and harmonious, and that he observe a deportment and action which is expressive and graceful. The preacher should not

of darkness; the hour in which he overthrew dominions and thrones, led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men; then it was that the foundation of every pagan temple shook; the statue of every false god tottered on its base; DECLAMATION, a speech made the priest fled from his falling shrine, in public in the tone and manner of an and the heathen oracles became dumboration, uniting the expression of action for ever!-This was the hour when our to the propriety of pronunciation, in orLord erected that spiritual kingdom der to give the sentiment its full imwhich is never to end. His enemies pression on the mind. It is used also in imagined that in this hour they had suc- a derogatory sense; as when it is said, cessfully accomplished their plan for his such a speech was mere declamation, it destruction; but how little did they implies that it was deficient in point of know that the Almighty was at that reasoning, or had more sound than sense. moment setting him as a king on the DECLAMATION OF THE PULPIT. hill of Sion! How little did they know "The dignity and sanctity of the place, that their badges of mock royalty were and the importance of the subject, reat that moment converted into the sig-quire the preacher to exert the utmost nals of absolute dominion, and the instruments of irresistible power! The reed which they put into his hands became a rod of iron, with which he was to break in pieces his enemies; a sceptre with which he was to rule the uni-roar like a common crier, and rend the verse in righteousness. The cross, ear with a voice like thunder; for such which they thought was to stigmatize kind of declamation is not only without him with infamy, became the ensign of meaning and without persuasion, but his renown. Instead of being the re-highly incongruous with the meek and proach of his followers, it was to be their boast, and their glory. The cross was to shine on palaces and churches throughout the earth. It was to be assumed as the distinction of the most powerful monarchs, and to wave in the banner of victorious armies, when the memory of Herod and Pilate should be accursed; when Jerusalem should be reduced to ashes, and the Jews be vagabonds over all the world." See ATONEMENT; Pearson and Barrow on the Creed; Owen's Death of Death in the Death of Christ; Charnock's Works, vol. ii. on the Necessity, Voluntariness, &c. of the Death of Christ.

DECALOGUE, the ten commandments given by God to Moses.

The ten commandments were engraved by God on two tables of stone. The Jews, by way of eminence, call these commandments the ten words, from whence they had afterwards the name of decalogue; but they joined the first and second into one, and divided the last into two. They understand that against stealing to relate to the stealing of men, or kidnapping; alleging, that the stealing one another's goods or property is forbidden in the last commandment. The church of Rome has struck the second commandment quite out of the decalogue; and, to make their number complete, has split the tenth into two. The reason is obvious.

DECEIT consists in passing any

gentle spirit of the Gospel. He should likewise take particular care to avoid a monotony; his voice should rise from the beginning, as it were, by degrees, and its greatest strength should be exerted in the application. Each inflexion of the voice should be adapted to the phrase and to the meaning of the words; and each remarkable expression should have its peculiar inflexion. The dogmatic requires a plain uniform tone of voice only, and the menaces of God's word demand a greater force than its promises and rewards; but the latter should not be pronounced in the soft tone of a flute, nor the former with the loud sound of a trumpet. The voice

should still retain its natural tone in all its various inflexions. Happy is that preacher who has a voice that is at once strong, flexible, and harmonious. An air of complacency and benevolence, as well as devotion, should be constantly visible in the countenance of the preacher; but every appearance of affectation must be carefully avoided; for nothing is so disgustful to an audience as even the semblance of dissimulation. Eyes constantly rolling, turned towards heaven, and streaming with tears, rather denote a hypocrite than a man possessed of the real spirit of religion, and who feels the true import of what he preaches. An air of affected devotion infallibly destroys the efficacy of all that the preacher can say, however just

and important it may be. On the other || reformed churches, and particularly in hand, he must avoid every appearance the church of England; and to this, we of mirth or raillery, or of that cold un- || may add, that it was maintained by a feeling manner which is so apt to freeze great number of divines in the last two the heart of his hearers. The body centuries. should in general be erect, and in a na- As to the nature of these decrees, it tural and easy attitude. The perpetual must be observed that they are not the movement or contortion of the body has result of deliberation, or the Almighty's a ridiculous effect in the pulpit, and debating matters within himself, reamakes the figure of a preacher and a soning in his own mind about the expeharlequin too similar; on the other diency or inexpediency of things, as hand, he ought not to remain constantly creatures do; nor are they merely ideas upright and motionless like a speaking of things future, but settled determinastatue. The motions of the hands give a tions founded on his sovereign will and strong expression to a discourse; but pleasure, Isa. xl. 14. They are to be they should be decent, grave, noble, considered as eternal: this is evident; and expressive. The preacher who is for if God be eternal, consequently his incessantly in action, who is perpetually purposes must be of equal duration with clasping his hands, or who menaces with himself: to suppose otherwise, would a clenched fist, or counts his arguments be to suppose that there was a time on his fingers, will only excite mirth when he was undetermined and mutaamong his auditory. In a word, decla- ble; whereas no new determinations or mation is an art that the sacred orator after thoughts can arise in his mind, should study with assiduity. The design || Job xxiii. 13, 14.—2. They are free, of a sermon is to convince, to affect, and without any compulsion, and not exto persuade. The voice, the counte- cited by any motive out of himself, Rom. nance, and the action, which are to pro- ix. 15.-3. They are infinitely wise, disduce the triple effect, are therefore ob- playing his glory, and promoting the jects to which the preacher should par- general good, Rom. xi. 33.-4. They ticularly apply himself." See SERMON. are immutable, for this is the result of DECREES OF GOD are his settled his being infinitely perfect; for if there purposes, whereby he foreordains what- were the least change in God's undersoever comes to pass, Dan. iv. 24. Acts standing, it would be an instance of imxv. 18. Eph. i. 11. This doctrine is the perfection, Mal. iii. 6.-5. They are subject of one of the most perplexing extensive or universal, relating to all controversies that has occurred among creatures and things in heaven, earth, mankind; it is not, however, as some and hell, Eph. i. 11. Prov. xvi. 4.-6. think, a novel doctrine. The opinion, They are secret, or at least cannot be that whatever occurs in the world at known till he be pleased to discover large, or in the lot of private individuals, them. It is therefore presumption for is the result of a previous and unaltera- any to attempt to enter into or judge of ble arrangement by that Supreme Power his secret purpose, or to decide upon which presides over Nature, has always what he has not revealed, Deut. xxix. been held by many of the vulgar, and 29. Nor is an unknown or supposed dehas been believed by speculative men. cree at any time to be the rule of our The ancient stoics, Zeno and Chrysip- conduct. His revealed will alone must pus, whom the Jewish Essenes seem to be considered as the rule by which we have followed, asserted the existence are to judge of the event of things, as of a Deity, that, acting wisely but ne- well as of our conduct at large, Rom. cessarily, contrived the general system xi. 34.-7. Lastly, they are effectual; of the world; from which, by a series for as he is infinitely wise to plan, so he of causes, whatever is now done in it is infinitely powerful to perform: his unavoidably results. Mahomet intro- counsel shall stand, and he will do all duced into his Koran the doctrine of ab- his pleasure, Isa. xlvi. 10. solute predestination of the course of human affairs. He represented life and death, prosperity and adversity, and every event that befalls a man in this world, as the result of a previous determination of the one God who rules over all. Augustine and the whole of the earliest reformers, but especially Calvin, favoured this doctrine. It was generally asserted, and publicly owned, in most of the confessions of faith of the

This doctrine should teach us, 1. Admiration. "He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he," Deut. xxxii. 4.

2. Reverence. "Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain," Jer. x. 7.—3. Humility. "O'the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

how unsearchable are his judgments,