joining brook. In the reign of Henry without any exception, to all the rites VIII. Bilney, Bayman, and many other and ceremonics of the church of Engreformers were burnt; but when queen land. Above five hundred clergy were Mary came to the throne, the most se- immediately silenced, or degraded, for vere persecutions took place. Hooper not complying. Some were excommuand Rogers were burnt in a slow fire. nicated, and some banished the country. Saunders was cruelly tormented a long The Dissenters were distressed, centime at the stake before he expired. sured, and fined, in the Star-chamber. Taylor was put into a barrel of pitch, Two persons were burnt for heresy, one and fire set to it. Eight illustrious per- at Smithfield, and the other at Litchsons, among whom was Ferrar, bishop field. Worn out with endless vexations, of St. David's, were sought out, and burnt and unceasing persecutions, many reby the infamous Bonner in a few days. tired into Holland, and from thence to Sixty-seven persons were this year, America. It is witnessed by a judicious A. D. 1555, burnt, amongst whom were historian, that, in this and some followthe famous Protestants, Bradford, Rid- ing reigns, 22,000 persons were banishley, Latimer, and Philpot. In the fol- ed from England by persecution to lowing year, 1556, eighty-five persons America. In Charles the First's time were burnt. Women suffered; and arose the persecuting Laud, who was one, in the flames, which burst her the occasion of distress to numbers. Dr. womb, being near her time of delivery, Leighton, for writing a book against a child fell from her into the fire, the hierarchy, was fined ten thousand which being snatched out by some of pounds, perpetual imprisonment, and the observers more humane than the whipping. He was whipped, and then rest, the magistrate ordered the babe placed in the pillory; one of his ears to be again thrown into the fire, and cut off, one side of his nose slit; branded burnt. Thus even the unborn child was on the check with a red hot iron, with burnt for heresy! O God, what is hu- the letters S. S. whipped a second time, man nature when left to itself! Alas! and placed in the pillory. A fortnight dispositions ferocious as infernal then afterwards, his sores being yet uncured, reign, and usurp the heart of man! The he had the other ear cut off, the other queen erected a commission court, side of his nose slit, and the other cheek which was followed by the destruction branded. He continued in prison till the of near eighty more. Upon the whole, long parliament set him at liberty. the number of those who suffered death About four years afterwards, Williain for the reformed religion in this reign, Prynn, a barrister, for a book he wrote were no less than two hundred and against the sports on the Lord's day, seventy-seven persons; of whom were was deprived from practising at Linfive bishops, twenty-one clergymen, coln's Inn, degraded from his degree at eight gentlemen, eighty-four trades- Oxford, set in the pillory, had his ears men, one hundred husbandmen, labour- cut off, imprisoned for life, and fined ers, and servants, fifty-five women, und five thousand pounds. Nor were the four children. Besides these, there were Presbyterians, when their government fifty-four more under prosecution, seven came to be established in England, free of whom were whipped, and sixteen from the charge of persecution. In perished in prison. Nor was the reign 1645 an ordinance was published, subof Elizabeth free from this persecuting jecting all who preached or wrote spirit. If any one refused to consent to against the Presbyterian directory for the least ceremony in worship, he was public worship to a fine not exceeding cast into prison, where many of the most fifty pounds; and imprisonment for a excellent men in the land perished. year, for the third offence, in using the Two Protestant Anabaptists were episcopal book of common prayer, even burnt, and many banished. She also, it in a private family. In the following is said, put two Brownists to death; and year the Presbyterians applied to Parthough her whole reign was distin- liament, pressing them to enforce uniguished for its political prosperity, yet formity in religion, and to extirpate it is evident that she did not understand popery, prelacy, heresy, schism, &c. the rights of conscience; for it is said but their petition was rejected; yet in that more sanguinary laws were made 1648 the parliament, ruled by them, in her reign than in any of her predeces-published an ordinance against heresy, sors, and her hands were stained with the blood both of Papists and Puritans. James I. succeeded Elizabeth: he published a proclamation, commanding all Protestants to conform strictly, and and determined that any person who maintained, published, or defended the following errors, should suffer death. These errors were, 1. Denying the being of a God.-2. Denying his omni presence, omniscience, &c.-3. Denying | narch at the revolution. Spain, Italy, the Trinity in any way.-4. Denying and the valley of Piedmont, and other that Christ had two natures.-5. Deny-places, have been the seats of much ing the resurrection, the atonement, the persecution. Popery, we see has had Scriptures. In Charles the Second's the greatest hand in this mischievous reign the act of uniformity passed, by work. It has to answer, also, for the which two thousand clergymen were lives of millions of Jews, Mahometans, deprived of their benefices. Then fol- and barbarians. When the Moors conlowed the conventicle act, and the Ox-quered Spain, in the eighth century, ford act, under which, it is said, eight they allowed the Christians the free exthousand persons were imprisoned and ercise of their religion; but in the fifreduced to want, and many to the grave. teenth century, when the Moors were In this reign also, the Quakers were overcome, and Ferdinand subdued the much persecuted, and numbers of them Moriscoes, the descendants of the above imprisoned. Thus we see how England Moors, many thousands were forced to has bled under the hand of bigotry and be baptised, or burnt, massacred, or persecution; nor was toleration enjoy-banished, and the children sold for ed until William III. came to the throne, who showed himself a warm friend to the rights of conscience. The accession of the present royal family was auspicious to religious liberty; and as their majesties have always befriended the toleration, the spirit of persecution has been long curbed. IRELAND slaves; besides innumerable Jews, who shared the same cruelties, chiefly by means of the infernal courts of inquisition. A worse slaughter, if possible, was made among the natives of Spanish America, where fifteen millions are said to have been sacrificed to the genius of popery in about forty years. It has been computed that fifty millions of Protestants have at different times been the victims of the persecutions of the Papists, and put to death for their religious opinions. Well, therefore, might the inspired penman say, that at mystic Babylon's destruction, was found in her the blood of prophets, of saints, and of all that was slain upon the earth,' Rev. xviii. 24. has likewise been drenched with the blood of the Protestants, forty or fifty thousand of whom were cruelly murdered in a few days, in different parts of the kingdom, in the reign of Charles I. It began on the 23d of October, 1641. Having secured the principal gentlemen, and seized their effects, they murdered the common people in cold blood, forcing many thousands to fly To conclude this article, Who can from their houses and settlements na- peruse the account here given without ked into the bogs and woods, where they feeling the most painful emotions, and perished with hunger and cold. Some dropping a tear over the madness and they whipped to death, others they depravity of mankind? Does it not show stripped naked, and exposed to shame, us what human beings are capable of and then drove them like herds of when influenced by superstition, biswine to perish in the mountains: many gotry, and prejudice? Have not these hundreds were drowned in rivers, some baneful principles metamorphosed men had their throats cut, others were dis- into infernals; and entirely extinguishmembered. With some the execrable ed all the feelings of humanity, the dicvillains made themselves sport, trying tates of conscience, and the voice of who could hack the deepest into an En- reason? Alas! what has sin done to glishman's flesh: wives and young vir- make mankind such curses to one anogins abused in the presence of their ther? Merciful God! by thy great nearest relations; nay, they taught their power suppress this worst of all evils, children to strip and kill the children of and let truth and love, meekness and the English, and dash out their brains forbearance universally prevail! Limagainst the stones. Thus many thou-borch's Introduction to his History of sands were massacred in a few days, without distinction of age, sex, or quality, before they suspected their danger, or had time to provide for their defence. SCOTLAND, SPAIN, &c. Besides the above-mentioned persecutions, there have been several others carried on in different parts of the world. Scotland for many years together has been the scene of cruelty and bloodshed, till it was delivered by the mo- | the Inquisition; Memoirs of the Persecutions of the Protestants in France by Lewis De Enarolles; Comber's History of the Parisian Massacre of St. Bartholomew; A. Robinson's History of Persecution; Lockman's History of Popish Persec. Clark's Looking-Glass for Persecutors; Doddridge's Sermon on Persecution; Jortin's ditto, ser. 9. vol. iv. Bower's Lives of the Popes; Fox's Martyrs; Woodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland; mian Persecutions. verance of the saints is not produced by any native principles in themselves, but by the agency of the Holy Spirit, enlightening, confirming, and establishing PERSEVERANCE is the continu- them, of course, they must persevere, ance in any design, state, opinion, or or otherwise it would be a reflection on course of action. The perseverance of this Divine agent, Rom. viii. 9. 1 Cor. the saints is their continuance in a state vi. 11. John iv. 14. John xvi. 14.-4. of grace to a state of glory. This doc- Lastly, the declarations and promises of trine has afforded considerable matter Scripture are very numerous in favour for controversy between the Calvinists of this doctrine, Job xvii. 9. Psal. xciv. and Arminians. We shall briefly here 14. Psal. cxxv. Jer. xxxii. 40. John x. state the arguments and objections. 28. John xvii. 12. 1 Cor. i. 8, 9. 1 Pet And, first, the perfections of God are || i. 5. Prov. iv. 18. all which could not considered as strong arguments to prove be true, if this doctrine were false. this doctrine. God, as a Being possess- There are objections, however, to this ed of infinite love, faithfulness, wisdom, doctrine, which we must state.-1. and power, can hardly be supposed to There are various threatenings desuffer any of his people finally to fall nounced against those who apostatize, into perdition. This would be a re- Ezek. iii. 20. Heb. vi. 3, 6. Psal. cxxxv. flection on his attributes, and argue him || 3.-5. Ezek. xviii. 24. To this it is anto be worse than a common father of swered, that some of these texts do not his family. His love to his people is so much as suppose the falling away of unchangeable, and therefore they can- a truly good man; and to all of them, it not be the objects of it at one time and is said, that they only show what would not at another, John xiii. 1. Zeph. iii. be the consequence if such should fall 17. Jer. xxxi. 3. His faithfulness to away; but cannot prove that it ever in them and to his promise is not founded fact happens.-2. It is foretold as a fuupon their merit, but his own will and ture event that some should fall away, goodness: this, therefore, cannot be vio-Matt. xxiv. 12, 13. John xv. 6. Matt. fated, Mal. iii. 6. Numb. xxiii. 19. His xiii. 20, 21. To the first of these paswisdom foresees every obstacle in the sages it is answered, that their fove way, and is capable of removing it, and might be said to wax cold without todirecting them into the right path. It tally ceasing; or there might have been would be a reflection on his wisdom, af- an outward zeal and show of love where ter choosing a right end, not to choose there never was a true faith. To the right means in accomplishing the same, second it is answered, that persons may Jer. x. 6, 7. His power is insuperable, be said to be in Christ only by an exterand is absolutely and perpetually dis-nal profession, or mere members of the played in their preservation and protection, 1 Peter i. 5.-2. Another argument to prove this doctrine is their union to Christ, and what he has done for them. They are said to be chosen in him, Eph. i. 4. united to him, Eph. i. 23. the purchase of his death, Rom. viii. 34. Tit. ii. 14; the objects of his intercession, Rom. v. 10. Rom. viii. 34. 1 John ii. 1, 2. Now if there be a possibility of their finally falling, then this choice, this union, his death and intercession, may all be in vain, and rendered abortive; an idea as derogatory to the divine glory, and as dishonourable to Jesus Christ, as possibly can be.-3. It is argued, from the work of the Spirit, which is to communicate grace and strength equal to the day, Phil. i. 6. 2|| Cor. i. 21, 22. If, indeed, divine grace were dependent on the will of man, if by his own power he had brought himself into a state of grace, then it might follow that he might relapse into an opposite state when that power at any time was weakened; but as the perse || visible church, John xv. 2. Matt. xiii. 47, 48. As to Matthew, ch. xiii. v. 20, 21. it is replied, that this may refer to the joy with which some may entertain the offers of pardon, who never, after all, attentively considered them.-3. It is objected that many have in fact fallen away, as David, Solomon, Peter, Alexander, Hymeneus, &c. To which it is answered, that David, Solomon, and Peter's fall, were not total; and as to the others, there is no proof of their ever being true Christians.-4. It is urged, that this doctrine supersedes the use of means, and renders exhortations unnecessary. To which it may be answered, that perseverance itself implies the use of means, and that the means are equally appointed as well as the end: nor has it ever been found that true Christians have rejected them. They consider exhortations and admonitions to be some of the means they are to attend to in order to promote their holiness: Christ and his apostles, though they often asserted this doctrine, yet re PERSUASION, the act of influencing the judgment and passions by arguments or motives. It is different from conviction. Conviction affects the understanding only; persuasion the will and the practice. It may be considered as an assent to a proposition not sufficiently proved. It is more extensively used than conviction, which last is founded on demonstration natural or supernatural. But all things of which we may be persuaded, are not capable of demonstration. See Blair's Rhetoric, vol. ii. p. 174. proved, exhorted, and made use of || 93; Watts' Works, vol. v. p. 48, 208; means. See EXHORTATION, MEANS.- Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 205, 5. Lastly, it is objected that this doc- || 8vo. Edwards' History of Redemptrine gives great encouragement to car- tion, p. 51, note; Hora Sol. vol. ii. p. nal security and presumptuous sin. To 20. which it is answered, that this doctrine, like many others, may be abused, by hypocrites, but cannot be so by those who are truly serious, it being the very nature of grace to lead to righteousness, Tit. ii. 10, 12. Their knowledge leads to veneration; their love animates to duty; their faith purifies the heart; their gratitude excites to obedience; yea, all their principles have a tendency to set before them the evil of sin, and the beauty of holiness. See Whitby and Gill on the Five Points; Cole on the Sovereignty of God; Doddridge's Lectures, lec. 179; Turretini Comp. Theologiæ; loc. 14. p. 156; Economia Witsi, lib. iii. cap. 13; Toplady's Works, p. 476, vol. v; Ridgley's Body of Div. qu. 79. PERSON, an individual substance of a rational intelligent nature. Some have|| been offended at the term persons as applied to the Trinity, as unwarrantable. The term person, when applied to Deity, is certainly used in a sense somewhat different from that in which we apply to one another; but when it is considered that the Greek words Υπόστασις and Προσωπον, to which it answers, are, in the New Testament, applied to the Father and Son, Heb. i. 3. 2 Cor. iv. 6. and that no single term, at least, can be found more suitable, it can hardly be condemned as unscriptural and improper. There have been warm debates between the Greek and Latin churches about the words hypostasis and persona; the Latin concluding that the word hypostasis signified substance or essence, thought that to assert that there were three divine hypostases was to say that there were three gods. On the other hand, the Greek church thought that the word person did not sufficiently guard against the Sabellian notion of the same individual Being sustaining three relations; whereupon each part of the church was ready to brand the other with heresy, till by a free and mutual conference in a synod at Alexandria, A. D. 362, they made it appear that it was but a mere contention about the grammatical sense of a word; and then it was allowed by men of temper on both sides, that either of the two words might be indifferently used. See Marci Medulla, 1. 5. § 3; Ridgley's Divinity, qu. 11; Hurrion on the Spirit, p. 140; Doddrige's Lectures, lec. 159; Gill on the Trinity, p. PETER-PENCE, was an annual tribute of one penny paid at Rome out of every family at the feast of St. Peter. This, Ina, the Saxon king, when he went in pilgrimage to Rome, about the year 740, gave to the pope, partly as alms, and partly in recompence of a house erected in Rome for English pilgrims. It continued to be paid generally until the time of king Henry VIII. when it was enacted, that henceforth no persons shall pay any pensions, peter-pence, or other impositions, to the use of the bishop and see of Rome. PETITION, according to Dr. Watts, is the fourth part of prayer, and includes a desire of deliverance from evil, and a request of good things to be bestowed. On both these accounts petitions are to be offered up to God, not only for ourselves, but for our fellow-creatures also. This part of prayer is frequently called intercession. See PRAYER. PETROBRUSSIANS, a sect founded about the year 1110 in Languedoc and Provence, by Peter de Bruys, who made the most laudable attempts to reform the abuses and to remove the superstitions that disfigured the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel; though not without a mixture of fanaticism. The following tenets were held by him and his disciples: 1. That no persons whatever were to be baptized before they were come to the full use of their reason.-2. That it was an idle superstition to build churches for the service of God, who will accept of a sincere worship whereever it is offered; and that, therefore, such churches as had already been erected, were to be pulled down and destroyed.-3. That the crucifixes, as instruments of superstition, deserved the same fate.--4. That the real body and blood of Christ were not exhibited in the cucharist, but were merely re presented in that ordinance.-4. That the oblations, prayers, and good works of the living, could be in no respect advantageous to the dead. The founder of this sect, after a laborious ministry of twenty years, was burnt in the year 1130 by an enraged populace set on by the clergy, whose traffic was in danger from the enterprising spirit of this new reformer. PETROJOANNITES were followers of Peter John, or Peter Joannis, that is, Peter the son of John, who flourished in the twelfth century. His doctrine was not known till after his death, when his body was taken out of his grave, and burnt. His opinions were, that he alone had the knowledge of the true sense wherein the apostles preached the Gospel; that the reasonable soul is not the form of man; that there is no grace infused by baptism; and that Jesus Christ was pierced with a lance on the cross before he expired. PHARISEES, à famous sect of the Jews who distinguished themselves by their zeal for the traditions of the elders, which they derived from the same fountain with the written word itself; pretending that both were delivered to Moses from Mount Sinai, and were therefore both of equal authority. From their rigorous observance of these traditions, they looked upon themselves as more holy than other men, and therefore separated themselves from those whom they thought sinners or profane, so as not to eat or drink with them; and hence, from the Hebrew word pharis, which signifies "to separate," they had the name of Pharisees, or Sepharatists. The Pharisees, contrary to the opinion of the Sadducees, held a resurrection from the dead, and the existence of angels and spirits, Acts xxiii. 8. But, according to Josephus, this resurrection of theirs was no more than a Pythagorean resurrection, that is, of the soul only, by its transmigration into another body, and being born anew with it. From this resurrection they excluded all who were notoriously wicked, being of opinion that the souls of such persons were transmitted into a state of everlasting Wo. As to lesser crimes, they held they were punished in the bodies which the souls of those who committed them were next sent into. Josephus, however, either mistook the faith of his countrymen, or, which is more probable, wilfully misrepresented it, to render their opinions more respected by the Roman philosophers, whom he appears to have, on every occasion, been desirous to please. The Pharisees had many Pagan notions respecting the soul; but Bishop Bull, in his Harmonia Apostolica, has clearly proved that they held a resurrection of the body, and that they supposed a certain bone to remain uncorrupted, to furnish the matter of which the resurrection body was to be formed. They did not, however, believe that all mankind were to be raised from the dead. A resurrection was the privilege of the children of Abraham alone, who were all to rise on Mount Zion; their incorruptible bones, wherever they might be buried, being carried to that mountain below the surface of the earth. The state of future felicity in which the Pharisees believed was very gross: they imagined that men in the next world, ao well as in the present, were to eat and drink, and enjoy the pleasures of love, each being re-united to his former wife. Hence the Sadducees, who believed in no resurrection, and supposed our Saviour to teach it as a Pharisee, The extraordinary pretences of the very shrewdly urged the difficulty of Pharisees to righteousness, drew after disposing of the woman who had in this them the common people, who held world been the wife of seven husbands. them in the highest esteem and venc-Had the resurrection of Christianity ration. Our Saviour frequently, how-been the Pharisaical resurrection, this ever, charges them with hypocrisy, and difficulty would have been insurmountmaking the law of God of no effect able; and accordingly we find the peothrough their traditions, Matt. ix. 12.ple, and even some of the Pharisees Matt. xv. 1, 6. Matt. xxiii. 13, 33. Luke xi. 39, 52. Several of these traditions are particularly mentioned in the Gospel; but they had a vast number more, which may be seen in the Talmud, the whole subject whereof is to dictate and explain those traditions which this sect imposed to be believed and observed. This sect was one of the most ancient and most considerable among the Jews, but its original is not very well known; however, it was in great repute in the time of our Saviour, and most probably had its original at the same time with the traditions. themselves, struck with the manner in which our Saviour removed it. This sect seems to have had some confused notions, probably derived from the Chaldeans and Persians, respecting the pre-existence of souls; and hence it was that Christ's disciples asked him concerning the blind man, John ix. 2. |