ty is in no danger, and therefore it gives its professors life and breath, and all things, except a power of injuring

others.

composed of the spirit of God and the opinion of men. These maxims occasioned their being called Libertines, and the word has been used in an ill "In fine, liberality in the profession of sense ever since. This sect spread religion is a wise and innocent policy. principally in Holland and Brabant. The bigot lives at home; a reptile he Their leaders were one Quintin, a Picrawled into existence, and there in his card, Pockesius, Ruffus, and another, hole he lurks a reptile still. A gener- called Chopin, who joined with Quintin, ous Christian goes out of his own party, and became his disciple. They obtainassociates with others and gains im-ed footing in France through the favour provement by all. It is a Persian pro- and protection of Margaret, queen of verb, A liberal hand is better than a Navarre, and sister to Francis I. and strong arm. The dignity of Christianity found patrons in several of the reformis better supported by acts of liberality ed churches. than by accuracy of reasoning: but when both go together, when a man of sentiment can clearly state and ably defend his religious principles, and when his heart is as generous as his principles are inflexible, he possesses strength and beauty in an eminent degree." See Theol. Misc. vol. i. p. 39.

LIBERTINE, one who acts without restraint, and pays no regard to the precepts of religion.

LIBERTINES, according to some, were such Jews as were free citizens of Rome: they had a separate synagogue || at Jerusalem, and sundry of them concurred in the persecution of Stephen, Acts vi. 9. Dr. Guyse supposes that those who had obtained this privilege by gift were called liberti (free men,) and those who had obtained it by purchase, libertini (made free,) in distinction from original native free-men. Dr. Doddridge thinks that they were called Libertines as having been the children of freed men, that is, of emancipated captives or slaves. See Doddridge and Guyse on Acts vi. 9.

Libertines of Geneva were a cabal of rakes rather than of fanatics; for they made no pretence to any religious system, but pleaded only for the liberty of leading voluptuous and immoral lives. This cabal was composed of a certain number of licentious citizens, who could not bear the severe discipline of Calvin. There were also among them several who were not only notorious for their dissolute and scandalous manner of living, but also for their atheistical impiety and contempt of all religion. To this odious class belonged one Gruet, who denied the divinity of the Christian religion, the immortality of the soul, the difference between moral good and evil, and rejected with disdain the doctrines that are held most sacred among Christians; for which impieties he was at last brought before the civil tribunal in the year 1550, and condemned to death.

LIBERTY denotes a state of freedom, in contradistinction to slavery or restraint.-1. Natural liberty, or liberty of choice, is that in which our volitions are not determined by any foreign cause LIBERTINES, a religious sect which or consideration whatever offered to it, arose in the year 1525, whose principal but by its own pleasure.-2. External tenets were, that the Deity was the sole liberty, or liberty of action, is opposed operating cause in the mind of man, to a constraint laid on the executive and the immediate author of all human powers; and consists in a power of renactions; that, consequently, the distinc-dering our volitions effectual.-3. Philotions of good and evil, which had been established with regard to those actions, were false and groundless, and that men could not, properly speaking, commit sin; that religion consisted in the union of the spirit, or rational soul, with the Supreme Being; that all those who had attained this happy union, by sublime contemplation and elevation of mind, were then allowed to indulge, without exception or restraint, their appetites or passions; that all their actions and pursuits were then perfectly innocent; and that, after the death of the body, they were to be united to the Deity. They likewise said that Jesus Christ was nothing but a mere je ne scai quoi,

sophical liberty consists in a prevailing disposition to act according to the dictates of reason, i. e. in such a manner as shall, all things considered, most effectually promote our happiness.-4. Moral liberty is said to be that in which there is no interposition of the will of a superior being to prohibit or determine our actions in any particular under consideration. See NECESSITY, WILL.— 5. Liberty of conscience is freedom from restraint in our choice of, and judgment about matters of religion.-6. Spiritual liberty consists in freedom from the curse of the moral law; from the servitude of the ritual; from the love, power, and guilt of sin; from the dominion of

Satan; from the corruptions of the || of England has added Sundays, as being world; from the fear of death, and the the greatest day for assembling at divine wrath to come; Rom. vi. 14. Rom. viii. service. Before the last review of the 1. Gal. iii. 13. John viii. 36. Rom viii. common prayer, the litany was a dis21. Gal. v. 1. 1 Thess. i. 10. See arti- tinct service by itself, and used somecles MATERIALISTS, PREDESTINA-times after the morning prayer was TION, and Doddridge's Lec. p. 50, vol. i. oct. Watts's Phil. Ess. sec. v. p. 288; Jon. Edwards on the Will; Locke on Und. Grove's Mor. Phil. sec. 18, 19. J. Palmer on Liberty of Man; Martin's Queries and Rem. on Human Liberty Charnock's Works, p. 175, &c. vol. ii.; Saurin's Sermons, vol. iii.

ser. 4.

LIE. See LYING.

over; at present it is made one office with the morning service, being ordered to be read after the third collect for grace, instead of the intercessional prayers in the daily service.

LITURGY denotes all the ceremonies in general belonging to divine service. The word comes from the Greek ATega, "service, public ministry, formed of λειτος, "public," and εgyov, LIFE, a state of active existence.-1. "work." In a more restrained signifiHuman life is the continuance or dura- cation, liturgy is used among the Rotion of our present state, and which the manists to signify the mass, and among Scriptures represent as short and vain, us the common prayer. All who have Job xiv. 1, 2. Jam. iv. 14.-2. Spiritual written on liturgies agree, that, in prilife consists in our being in the favour of mitive days, divine service was exceedGod, influenced by a principle of grace, ingly simple, clogged with a very few and living dependent on him. It is con- ceremonies, and consisted of but a small sidered as of divine origin, Col. iii. 4. number of prayers; but, by degrees, hidden, Col. iii. 3. peaceful, Rom. viii. 6. they increased the number of ceremosecure, John x. 28.-3. Eternal life is nies, and added new prayers, to make that never-ending state of existence the office look more awful and venera which the saints shall enjoy in heaven,ble to the people. At length, things and is glorious, Col. iii, 4. holy, Rev. xxi. 27. and blissful, 1 Pet. i. 4. 2 Cor. iv. 17. See HEAVEN.

LIGHT OF NATURE. See NA

TURE.

LIGHT DIVINE. See KNOWLEDGE, RELIGION.

LITANY, a general supplication used in public worship to appease the wrath of the Deity, and to request those blessings a person wants. The word comes from the Greek Arava, "supplication," of Airave, "I beseech." At first, the use of litanies was not fixed to any stated time, but were only employed as exigencies required. They were observed, in imitation of the Ninevites, with ardent supplications and fastings, to avert the threatened judgments of fire, earthquake, inundations, or hostile invasions. About the year 400, litanies began to be used in processions, the people walking barefoot, and repeating them with great devotion: and it is pretended that by this means several countries were delivered from great calamities. The days on which they were used were called Rogation days; these were appointed by the canons of different councils, till it was decreed by the council of Toledo, that they should be used every month throughout the year; and thus, by degrees, they came to be used weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient stationary days for fasting. To these days the rubric of the church

were carried to such a pitch, that a regulation became necessary; and it was found necessary to put the service and the manner of performing it into writ ing, and this was what they called a li turgy. Liturgies have been different at different times and in different countries We have the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, of St. Peter, the Armenian liturgy, Gallican liturgy, &c. &c. "The properties required in a public liturgy," says Paley, "are these: it must be compendious; express just conceptions of the divine attributes; recite such wants as a congregation are likely to feel, and no other; and contain as few controverted propositions as possible." The liturgy of the church of England was composed in the year 1547, and established in the second year of king Edward VI. In the fifth year of this king it was reviewed, because some things were contained in that liturgy which shewed a compliance with the superstition of those times, and some exceptions were taken against it by some learned men at home, and by Calvin abroad. Some alterations were made in it, which consisted in adding the general confession and absolution, and the communion to begin with the ten commandments. The use of oil in confirmation and extreme unction was left out, and also prayers for souls departed, and what related to a belief of Christ's real presence in the eucharist. This liturgy, so reformed, was establish

ed by the acts of the 5th and 6th Ed- || signifies "praising God," from the Gerward VI. cap. 1. However, it was abo- man loben "to praise, and herr, lished by queen Mary, who enacted, "lord;" because the Lollards employed that the service should stand as it was themselves in travelling about from most commonly used in the last year of place to place, singing psalms and the reign of king Henry VIII.-That of hymns. Others, much to the same purEdward VI. was re-established, with pose, derive lollhard, lullhard, or lollert, some alterations, by Elizabeth. Some lullert, as it was written by the ancient farther alterations were introduced, in Germans, from the old German word consequence of the review of the com- lullen, lollen, or lallen, and the termimon prayer book, by order of king nation hard, with which many of the James, in the first year of his reign, par-high Dutch words end. Lollen signiticularly in the office of private bap-fies "to sing with a low voice," and tism, in several rubrics, and other pas- therefore lollard is a singer, or one who sages, with the addition of five or six frequently sings; and in the vulgar new prayers and thanksgivings, and all tongue of the Germans it denotes a perthat part of the catechism which con- son who is continually praising God tains the doctrine of the sacraments. with a song, or singing hymns to his The book of common prayer, so altered, || honour. remained in force from the first year of king James to the fourteenth of Charles II. The last review of the liturgy was in the year 1661. Many supplications have been since made for a review, but without success. Bingham's Orig. Eccl. b. 13; Broughton's Lict. Bennett, Robinson, and Clarkson, on Liturg. passim; A Letter to a Dissenting Minister on the Expediency of || Forms, and Brekell's Answer; Rogers's Lectures on the Liturgy of the Church of England; Biddulph's Essays on the Liturgy: Orton's" Letters, vol. i. p. 16, 24.

The Alexians or Cellites were called Lollards, because they were public singers, who made it their business to inter the bodies of those who died of the plague, and sang a dirge over them, in a mournful and indistinct tone, as they carried them to the grave. The name was afterwards assumed by persons that dishonoured it, for we find among those Lollards who made extraordinary pretences to religion, and spent the greatest part of their time in meditation, prayer, and such acts of piety, there were many abominable hypocrites, who entertained the most ridiculous opinions, and concealed the most enormous vices under the specious mark of this extraordinary profession. Many injurious aspersions were therefore propagated against those who assumed this name by the priests and monks; so that, by degrees, any persons who covered heresies or crimes under the appearance of piety was called a Lollard. Thus the

LIVERPOOL LITURGY, a liturgy so called from its first publication at Liverpool. It was composed by some of the Presbyterians, who, growing weary of extempore prayer, thought a form more desirable. It made its appearance in 1752. Mr. Ortin says of it, "It is scarcely a Christian Liturgy. In the collect the name of Christ is hardly mentioned; and the Spirit is quite ban-nanie was not used to denote any one ished from it." It was little better than a deistical composition. Orton's Letters, vol. i. p. 80, 81. Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Diss. vol. iii. p. 342.

LOLLARDS, a religious sect, differing in many points from the church of Rome, which arose in Germany about the beginning of the fourteenth century; so called, as many writers have imagined, from Walter Lollard, who began to dogmatize in 1315, and was burnt at Cologne; though others think that Lollard was no surname, but merely a term of reproach applied to all heretics who concealed the poison of error under the appearance of piety.

The monk of Canterbury derives the origin of the word lollard among us from lolium, “a tare, as if the Lollards were the tares sown in Christ's vineyard. Abelly says, that the word

particular sect, but was formerly common to all persons or sects who were supposed to be guilty of impiety towards God or the church, under an external profession of great piety. However, many societies, consisting both of men and women, under the name of Lollards, were formed in most parts of Germany and Flanders, and were supported partly by their manual labours, and partly by the charitable donations of pious persons. The magistrates and inhabitants of the towns where these brethren and sisters resided gave them particular marks of favour and protection, on account of their great usefulness to the sick and needy. They were thus supported against their malignant rivals, and obtained many papal constitutions, by which their institute was confirmed, their persons exempted from the cog

cient rules.

nizance of the inquisitor, and subjected || that of profaning his name. No man, entirely to the jurisdiction of the bishops; therefore, whatever his sense, abilities, but as these measures were insuffior profession may be, can be held guiltcient to secure them from molestation, less, or be exonerated from the charge Charles duke of Burgundy, in the year of being a wicked man, while he lives 1472, obtained a solemn bull from Sex- in the habitual violation of this part of tus IV. ordering that the Cellites, or God's sacred law. A very celebrated Lollards, should be ranked among the female writer justly observes, that "It religious orders, and delivered from is utterly INEXCUSABLE; it has none of the jurisdiction of the bishops. And the palliatives of temptation which other pope Julius II. granted them still greater vices plead, and in that respect stands privileges, in the year 1506. Mosheim distinguished from all others both in its informs us, that many societies of this nature and degree of guilt. Like many kind are still subsisting at Cologne, and other sins, however, it is at once cause in the cities of Flanders, though they and effect; it proceeds from want of have evidently departed from their an- love and reverence to the best of Beings, and causes the want of that love both in themselves and others. This species of profaneness is not only swearing, but, perhaps, in some respects, swearing of the worst sort; as it is a direct breach of an express command, and offends against the very letter of that law which says, in so many words, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." It offends against politeness and good breeding, for those who commit it little think of the pain they are inflicting on the sober mind, which is deeply wounded when it hears the holy name it loves dishonoured; and it is as contrary to good breeding to give pain, as it is to true piety to be profane. It is astonishing that the refined and elegant should not reprobate this practice for its coarseness and vulgarity, as much as the pious abhor it for its sinfulness.

Lollard and his followers rejected the sacrifice of the mass, extreme unction, and penances for sin; arguing that Christ's sufferings were sufficient. He|| is likewise said to have set aside baptism, as a thing of no effect; and repentance as not absolutely necessary, &c. In England, the followers of Wickliffe were called, by way of reproach, Lollards, from the supposition that there was some affinity between some of their tenets; though others are of opinion that the English Lollards came from Germany. See WICKLIFFITES.

LONG SUFFERING OF GOD. See PATIENCE OF GOD.

LORD, a term properly denoting one who has dominion. Applied to God, the supreme governor and disposer of all things. See GOD.

LORD'S DAY. See SABBATH. LORD'S NAME TAKEN IN VAIN, consists, first, in using it lightly or rashly, in exclamations, adjurations, and appeals in common conversation. 2. Hypocritically, in our prayers, thanksgivings, &c.-3. Superstitiously, as when the Israelites carried the ark to the field of battle, to render them successful against the Philistines, 1 Sam. iv. 3, 4.-4. Wantonly, in swearing by him, or creatures in his stead, Matt. v. 34, 37. -5. Angrily, or sportfully cursing, and devoting ourselves or others to mischief and damnation.-6. Perjuring ourselves, attesting that which is false, Mal. iii. 5. -7. Blasphemously reviling God, or causing others to do so, Rom. ii. 24. Perhaps there is no sin more common as to the practice, and less thought of as to the guilt of it, than this. Nor is it thus common with the vulgar only, but with those who call themselves wise, humane, and moral. They tremble at the idea of murder, theft, adultery, &c. while they forget that the same law which prohibits the commission of these crimes, does, with equal force, forbid ||

"I would endeavour to give some faint idea of the grossness of this offence by an analogy, (oh! how inadequate!) with which the feeling heart, even though not seasoned with religion, may yet be touched. To such I would earnestly say-Suppose you had some beloved friend,-to put the case still more strongly, a departed friend,-a revered parent, perhaps,-whose image never occurs without awakening in your bosom sentiments of tender love and lively gratitude; how would you feel if you heard this honoured name bandied about with unfeeling familiarity and indecent levity; or, at best, thrust into every pause of speech as a vulgar expletive?-Does not your affectionate heart recoil at the thought? And yet the hallowed name of your truest Benefactor, your heavenly Father, your best Friend, to whom you are indebted for all you enjoy ; who gives you those very friends in whom you so much delight, those very talents with which you dishonour him, those very organs of speech with which you blaspheme him, is treated with an irreverence, a contempt, a wantonness,

with which you cannot bear the very throught or mention of treating a human friend. His name is impiously, is unfeelingly, is ungratefully singled out as the object of decided irreverence, of systematic contempt, of thoughtless levity. His sacred name is used indiscriminately to express anger, joy, grief, surprise, impatience; and, what is almost still more unpardonable than all, it is wantonly used as a mere unmeaning expletive, which, being excited by no temptation, can have nothing to extenuate it; which, causing no emotion, can have nothing to recommend it, unless it be the pleasure of the sin." Mrs. More on Education, vol. ii. p. 87; Gill's Body of Div. vol. iii. p. 427; Brown's System of Relig. p. 526.

LORD'S PRAYER, is that which our Lord gave to his disciples on the Mount. According to what is said in the sixth chapter of Matthew, it was given as a directory; but from Luke xi. 1. some argue that it was given as a form. Some have urged that the second and fourth petition of that prayer could be intended only for a temporary use; but it is answered, that such a sense may be put upon those petitions as shall suit all Christians in all ages; for it is always our duty to pray that Christ's kingdom may be advanced in the world, and to profess our daily dependence on God's providential care. Nevertheless, there is no reason to believe that Christ meant that his people should always use this as a set form; for, if that had been || the case, it would not have been varied as it is by the two evangelists, Matt. vi. || Luke xi. It is true, indeed, that they both agree in the main, as to the sense, yet not in the express words; and the doxology which Matthew gives at large is wholly left out in Luke. And, besides, we do not find that the disciples ever used it as a form. It is, however, a most excellent summary of prayer, for its brevity, order, and matter; and it is very lawful and laudable to make use of any single petition, or the whole of it, provided a formal and superstitious use of it be avoided.-That great zeal, as one observes, which is to be found in some Christians either for or against it, is to be lamented as a weakness; and it will become us to do all that we can to promote on each side more moderate sentiments concerning the use of it. See Doddridge's Lectures, lec. 194; Barrow's Works, vol. i. p. 48; Archbishop Leighton's Explanation of it; West on the Lord's Prayer; Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. iii. p. 362, 8vo. Fordyce on Edification by Public Instruction, p.

||

||

|| 11, 12; Mendham's Exposition of the Lord's Prayer.

LORD'S SUPPER is an ordinance which our Saviour instituted as a commemoration of his death and sufferings. 1. It is called a sacrament, that is, a sign and an oath. An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; an oath, by which we bind our souls with a bond unto the Lord. Some, however, reject this term as not being scriptural; as likewise the idea of swearing or vowing to the Lord. See Vow.-2. It is called the Lord's Supper, because it was first instituted in the evening, and at the close of the Passover supper; and because we therein feed upon Christ, the bread of life, Rom. iii. 20. 1 Cor. xi. -3. It is called the communion, as herein we have communion with Christ, and with his people, 1 Cor. xii. 13. x. 17.4. It is called the eucharist, a thanksgiving, because Christ, in the institution of it, gave thanks, 1 Cor. xi. 24. and because we, in the participation of it, must give thanks likewise.-5. It is called a feast, and by some a feast upon a sacrifice (though not a sacrifice itself,) in allusion to the custom of the Jews feasting upon their sacrifices, 1 Cor. x. 18.

As to the nature of this ordinance, we may observe, that, in participating of the bread and wine, we do not consider it as expiatory, but, 1. As a commemorating ordinance. We are here to remember the person, love, and death of Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 24.-2. A confessing ordinance. We hereby profess our esteem for Christ, and dependence upon him.-3. A communicating ordinance: blessings of grace are here communicated to us.-4. A covenanting ordinance. God, in and by this ordinance, as it were, declares that he is ours, and we by it declare to be his.-5. A standing ordinance, for it is to be observed to the end of time, 1 Cor. xi. 26. It seems to be quite an indifferent thing, what bread is used in this ordinance, or what coloured wine, for Christ took that which was readiest. The eating of the bread and drinking of the wine being always connected in Christ's example, they ought never to be separated: wherever one is given, the other should not be withheld. This bread and wine are not changed into the real body and blood of Christ, but are only einblems thereof. See TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

The subjects of this ordinance should be such as make a credible profession of the Gospel : the ignorant, and those whose lives are immoral, have no right to it; nor should it ever be administer ed as a test of civil obedience, for this