Entered according to the act of congress, in the year 1831, by James Kay, Jun. & Co. N. B. Copyright is transferred to J. J Woodward. Philadelphia, Sept. 1833. 203 B85t PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. KNOWLEDGE, in a great measure, forms the true dignity and happiness of man: it is that by which he holds an honourable rank in the scale of being, and by which he is rendered capable of adding to the felicity of his fellow-creatures. Every attempt, therefore, to enlarge its boundaries, and facilitate its acquisition, must be considered as worthy of our attention and regard. The present work is designed to promote these valuable and important ends. The plan of conveying knowledge by dictionaries has been long established, and well received in the republic of letters. A dictionary, however, of a religious and ecclesiastical nature was still a desideratum in the religious world; for although we have had dictionaries which explained Scripture terms, yet it is evident these could not embrace the history of the church since the sacred canon was concluded, nor explain the numerous terms which have been used; nor, indeed, point out the various sects and denominations which have subsisted since that time. I do not mean, by these remarks, to depreciate the valuable works above referred to: I am sensible of their excellences, and I have no wish to undervalue them in order to exalt my own. This work, however, is of a different nature, as the reader will easily see, if he takes the trouble to compare and examine. There may, doubtless, be defects in this publication which may have escaped my attention; but whoever considers the various books that must have been consulted; the discriminations that were necessary to be made; the patient investigation required; and the toil of selecting, transcribing, and composing, must be convinced that it has been attended with no small difficulty. The advantages, however, which my own mind derived from the work, and the probability of its being useful to others, greatly encouraged me in its prosecution. Besides, to be active, to be useful, to do something for the good of mankind, I have always considered as the honour of an intelligent being. It is not the student wrapt up in metaphysical subtilties; it is not the recluse living in perpetual solitude; it is not the miser who is continually amassing wealth, that can be considered as the greatest ornaments or the greatest blessings to human society:-it is rather the useful than the shining talent that is to be coveted. Perhaps it may be said, the work is tinctured too much with my own sentiments, and that the theology is too antiquated to please a liberal, philosophising, and refined age. In answer to this, I observe, that I could do no other, as an honest man, than communicate what I believe to be the truth. It is a false liberality to acquiesce with every man's opinion, to fall in with every man's scheme, to trifle with error, or imagine there is no difference between one sentiment and another: yet, notwithstanding this declaration, I trust the features of bigotry are not easily discernible in this work; and that, while I have endeavoured to carry the torch of Truth in my hand, I have not forgotten to walk in the path of Candour. It is almost needless here to say, that I have availed myself of all the writings of the best and most eminent authors I could obtain. Whatever has struck me as important in ecclesiastical history; whatever good and accurate in definition; whatever just views of the passions of the human mind; whatever terms used in the religious world; and whatever instructive and impressive in the systems of divinity and moral philosophy, I have endeavoured to incorporate in this work. And in order to prevent its being a dry detail of terms and of dates, I have given the substance of what has been generally advanced on each subject, and occasionally selected some of the most interesting practical passages from our best and celebrated sermons. I trust, therefore, it will not only be of use to inform the mind, but impress the heart; and thus promote the real good of the reader. The critic, however, may be disposed to be severe; and it will, perhaps, be easy for him to observe imperfections. But be this as it may: I can assure him I feel myself happy in the idea that the work is not intended to serve a party, to encourage bigotry, nor strengthen prejudice, but "for the service of Truth, by one who would be glad to attend and grace her triumphs; as her soldier, if he has had the honour to serve successfully under her banner; or as a captive tied to her chariot wheels, if he has, though undesignedly, committed any offence against her." After all, however, what a learned author said of another work I say of this:-"If it have merit, it will go down to posterity; if it have none, the sooner it dies and is forgot the better," 3 PREFACE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. THE numerous and extensive editions of Buck's Theological Dictionary published both in England and in this country since its first appearance, together with the continued and increasing demand, sufficiently attest the estimate in which the work is held by the Christian public. The judgment, industry, candour, and impartiality evinced by the Author in the selection and compilation of the articles, embracing, as they do, the wide field of Theology, didactic and polemic, Ecclesiastical Polity, Church History, Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, and Biblical Literature, together with a copious list of references to the most valuable authorities in each department, are universally acknowledged. So far as the merit of sterling utility can entitle any book to favourable acceptance, the Dictionary of Mr. Buck presents claims which will not be contested. As a theological and ecclesiastical manual, embodying a vast amount of useful information in a moderate compass, and clearly and judiciously arranged, it would not be easy to designate its superior. Yet while this tribute of deserved commendation is readily bestowed, it must still be admitted, that the work hitherto has not been altogether adapted to the circumstances of our own country, or the wants of the present day. Considered in this view the Theological Dictionary labours under manifold defects, which it would be as easy to specify as it is obvious to perceive. As might have been expected, its local bearings and allusions are to the state of things in England, and not in this country. But a work of this nature is needed, which shall be suited to the state of religious opinion in the Christian community of the United States. Moreover, since the first publication of Mr. Buck's work, great changes have occurred in the religious world; great advances have been made in theological as well as in natural science; a fresh impulse has been given to the investigation of revealed truth; new sects, especially in our own country, have risen up, and with them new controversies, or new forms of old ones; the ever varying field of religious discussion, while it has been contracted in some of its limits, has been widened in others; besides which, nearly every department treated in the Theological Dictionary has been enriched with new treasures from the writings of modern divines, to which the reader will look in vain for any references in the previous editions. While therefore the active spirit of progress and improvement is urging its way in the province of Theological inquiry as well as every other, while modern researches are shedding light upon numberless points of Christian and Jewish antiquities, upon Ecclesiastical institutions, and Biblical criticism, it is doubtless desirable that a Theological Dictionary should be prepared, fitted to meet, in some good degree, the exigences of the present period. With this view the present edition of Buck has been undertaken. In the prosecution of the plan, the steady aim has been to increase the amount of new and valuable matter, at the same time that the accession should not swell the size, nor enhance the price of the volume. The whole work therefore has undergone a careful revisionSome few articles of trivial moment have been expunged to make way for others of more consequence-Several have been abridged-Several in whole or in part re-written: But the principal feature of the present edition is the addition of a large mass of new matter under the following heads: ABYSS, ACCOMMODATION OF SCRIPTURE, ANNIHILATION, AntiCHRIST, ANTICHRISTIANISM, ATONEMENT, Church, Commentary, CongregationALISTS, EPISCOPALIAN, GLASSITES, NEW INDEPENDENTS, NEOLOGY, PRESBYTERIANS, UNITARIANS, besides many others, which will be pointed out to the reader, wherever they occur, by the letter B. being annexed to them. Notices of all or nearly all the existing religious denominations in the United States are given, accompanied with historical sketches and ecclesiastical statistics. In this department of the work the Editor acknowledges his obligations to the very valuable Quarterly Register and Journal of the American Education Society, for Feb. 1830, by means of which, and from other sources, he has been enabled to bring down the records of the various denominations to the commencement of the present year. In the earnest hope that the attempted improvements of the present edition may be found to be a benefit, and not a bar, to its general reception, it is submitted to the candour of the public. 4 G. B. A THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY. ABBEY A. ABBOT ABBA, a Syriac word of Hebrew origin, sig-state became poor, for the lands which these renifying Father. It is more particularly used in gulars possessed could never revert to the lords the Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic churches, as a who gave them. These places were wholly title given to the bishops. The bishops them abolished by Henry VIII. He first appointed selves bestowed the title Abba more eminently on visitors to inspect into the lives of the monks and the bishop of Alexandria, which occasioned the nuns, which were found in some places very dis people to give him the title of Baba, or Papa; orderly; upon which the abbots, perceiving their that is, Grandfather; a title which he bore before dissolution unavoidable, were induced to resign the bishop of Rome. It is a Jewish title of honour their houses to the king, who by that means be given to certain Rabbins called Tanaites: it is came invested with the abbey lands: these were also used by some writers of the middle age for the afterwards granted to different persons, whose superior of a monastery, Saint Mark and Saint descendants enjoy them at this day: they were Paul use this word in their Greek, Mark xiv. 36. then valued at 2,853,000l. per annum; an imRom. viii. 15. Gal. vi. 6. because it was then mense sum in those days. Though the suppres commonly known in the synagogues and the sion of these houses, considered in a religious and primitive assemblies of the Christians. It is political light, was a great benefit to the nation, thought by Selden, Witsius, Doddridge, and yet it must be owned, that at the time they flouothers, that Saint Paul alluded to a law among rished, they were not entirely useless. Abbeys the Jews which forbade servants or slaves to call were then the repositories as well as the seminatheir master Abba, or Father; and that theries of learning: many valuable books and naapostle meant to convey the idea that those who believed in Christ were no longer slaves to sin; but, being brought into a state of holy freedom, might consequently address God as their Father. ABBE, the same with ABBOT, which see. Also the name of curious popular characters in France; who are persons who have not yet obtained any precise or fixed settlement in church or state, but most heartily wish for and would accept of either, just as it may happen. In the meanwhile their privileges are many. In college, they are the instructors of youth, and in private families the tutors of young gentleinen. ABBESS, the superior of an abbey or convent of nuns. The abbess has the same rights and authority over her nuns that the abbots regular have over their monks. The sex, indeed, does not allow her to perform the spiritual functions annexed to the priesthood, wherewith the abbot is usually invested; but there are instances of some abbesses who have a right, or rather a privilege, to commission a priest to act for them. They have even a kind of episcopal jurisdiction, as well as some abbots who are exempted from the visi tation of their diocesan. ABBEY, a monastery, governed by a superior under the title of Abbot or Abbess. Monasteries were at first nothing more than religious houses, whither persons retired from the bustle of the world to spend their time in solitude and devotion; out they soon degenerated from their original institution, and procured large privileges, exemptions, and riches. They prevailed greatly in Britain before the Reformation, particularly in England: and as they increased in riches, so the tional records have been preserved in their libraries; the only places wherein they could have been safely lodged in those turbulent times. Indeed the historians of this country are chiefly beholden to the monks for the knowledge they have of former national events. Thus a kind Providence overruled even the institutions of su perstition for good. See MONASTERY. ABBOT, the chief ruler of a monastery or abbey. At first they were laymen, and subject to the bishop and ordinary pastors. Their monas teries being remote from cities, and built in the farthest solitudes, they had no share in ecclesias tical affairs; but, there being among them several persons of learning, they were called out of their deserts by the bishops, and fixed in the suburbs of the cities; and at length in the cities themselves. From that time they degenerated, and, learning to be ambitious, aspired to be independent of the bishops, which occasioned some severe laws to be made against them. At length, however, the abbots carried their point, and obtained the title of lord, with other badges of the episcopate, particularly the mitre. Hence arose new distinctions among them. Those were termed mitred abbots who were privileged to wear the mitre, and exercise episcopal authority within their respective precincts, being exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop. Others were called crosiered abbots, from their bearing the crosier, or pastoral staff. Others were styled æcumenical or universal abbots, in imitation of the patriarch of Constantinople; while others were termed cardinal abbots from their superiority over all other abbots. At present, in the Roman Catho are forgiven through the merits of Jesus Christ; and that those who remain in unbelief are in a state of condemnation. Any idea of authority given to fallible, uninspired men, to absolve sinners, different from this, is unscriptural; nor can I see much utility in the terms ministerial or declarative absolution, as adopted by some divines, since absolution is wholly the prerogative of God; and the terms abovementioned may, to say the least, have no good influence on the minds of the ignorant and superstitious. fic countries, the chief distinctions are those of regular and commendatory. The former take the vow and wear the habit of their order; whereas the latter are seculars, though they are obliged by their bulls to take orders when of proper age. ABELIANS, or ABELONIANS, a sect which arose in the diocese of Hippo in Africa, and is supposed to have begun in the reign of Arcadius, and ended in that of Theodosius. Indeed, it was not calculated for being of any long continuance. They regulated marriage after the example of Abel, who, they pretended, was married, but ABSTEMII, a name given to such persons as lived in a state of continence: they therefore al- could not partake of the cup of the eucharist, on lowed each man to marry one woman, but en-account of their natural aversion to wine. joined them to live in the same state. To keep up the sect, when a man and woman entered into this society, they adopted a boy and a girl, who were to inherit their goods, and to marry upon the same terms of not having children, but of adopting two of different sexes. ABESTA, the name of one of the sacred books of the Persian Magi, which they ascribe to their great founder, Zoroaster. The Abesta is a commentary on two others of their religious books called Zend and Pazend; the three together including the whole system of the Ignicola, or worshippers of fire. ABSTINENCE, in a general sense, is the act of refraining from something which we have a propension to or find pleasure in. It is more particularly used for fasting or forbearing from necessary food. Among the Jews, various kinds of abstinence were ordained by their law. Among the primitive Christians, some denied themselves the use of such meats as were prohibited by that law; others looked upon this abstinence with contempt; as to which Paul gives his opinion, Romans xiv. 1, 3. The council of Jerusalem, which was held by the apostles, enjoined the Christian converts to abstain from meats strangled, ABILITY. See INABILITY. from blood, from fornication, and from idolatry. ABLUTION, a ceremony in use among the Acts xv. Upon this passage Dr. Doddridge obancients, and still practised in several parts of the serves, "that though neither things sacrificed to world. It consisted in washing the body, which idols, nor the flesh of strangled animals, nor was always done before sacrificing, or even en-blood, have or can have any moral evil in them, tering their houses. Ablutions appear to be as old as any ceremonies, and external worship itself. Moses enjoined them, the heathens adopted them, and Mahomet and his followers have continued them. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews, all had them. The ancient Christians had their ablutions before communion, which the Romish church still retain before their mass, and sometimes after. The Syrians, Copts, &c. have their solemn washings on Good Friday: the Turks also have their ablutions, their Ghast, their Wodou, Aman, &c. which should make the eating of them absolutely and universally unlawful; yet they were forbid den to the Gentile converts, because the Jews had such an aversion to them, that they could not converse freely with any who used them. This is plainly the reason which James assigns in the very next words, the 21st verse, and it is abundantly sufficient. This reason is now ceased, and the obligation to abstain from eating these things ceases with it. But were we in like circumstances again, Christian charity would surely require us to lay ourselves under the same restraint."ABSOLUTION signifies acquittal. It is The spiritual monarchy of the western world taken also for that act whereby the priest declares introduced another sort of abstinence, which the sins of such as are penitent remitted. The may be called ritual, and consists in abstaining Romanists hold absolution a part of the sacra- from particular meats at certain times and seament of penance; and the council of Trent and sons, the rules of which are called rogations. If that of Florence declare the form or essence of I mistake not, the impropriety of this kind of abthe sacrament to lie in the words of absolution, stinence is clearly pointed out in 1 Tim. iv. 3.-` "I absolve thee of thy sins." According to this, In England, abstinence from flesh has been enno one can receive absolution without the privity, joined by statute, even since the Reformation; consent, and declaration of the priest; except, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, on vigils, therefore, the priest be willing, God himself can- and on all days commonly called fish days. The not pardon any man. This is a doctrine as blas-like injunctions were renewed under queen Elizaphemous as it is ridiculous. The chief passage on which they ground their power of absolution is that in John xx. 23: "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." But this is not to the purpose; since this was a special commission to the apostles themselves, and the first ABYSS, from the Greek a Burros, composed preachers of the Gospel, and most probably re- of a priv. and Burros, Ion. for utos, signifies proferred to the power he gave them of discerning perly without a bottom. In the English version spirits. By virtue of this power, Peter struck of the Scriptures it is rendered by the deep, the Ananias and Sapphira dead, and Paul struck great deep, and the bottomless pit. Though Elymas blind. But, supposing the passage in primarily used in reference to a vast and unfaquestion to apply to the successors of the apostles, thomed mass of waters, it is also applied to proand to ministers in general, it can only import found depths, cavities, and recesses in general, that their office is to preach pardon to the peni-whether in the earth or in the sea. As the tent, assuring those who believe that their sins tombs and cemeteries in the East consisted of beth; but at the same time it was declared, that this was done not out of motives of religion, as if there were any difference in meats, but in favour of the consumption of fish, and to multiply the number of fishermen and mariners, as well as to spare the stock of sheep. See FASTING. |