BAXTERIANS

his hand, when ten young men in white, who were standing on an adjacent tower, instantly threw themselves down. To one of his guards he said, "Draw your dagger, and plunge it into your breast;" which was no sooner said than obeyed. At the command of their chief, they made no difficulty of stabbing any prince, even on his throne; and for that purpose conformed to the dress and religion of the country, that they might be less suspected. To animate them on such attempts, the Scheik previously indulged them with a foretaste of the delights of paradise. Delicious soporific drinks were given them; and while they lay asleep, they were carried into beautiful gardens, where, awakening, as it were, in paradise, and inflamed with views of perpetual enjoyments, they sallied forth to perform assassinations of the blackest dye.

It is said, they once thought of embracing the Christian religion; and some have thought the Druses a remnant of this singular race of barba

rians.

BATH-KOL (i. e. the daughter of a voice), an oracle among the Jews, frequently mentioned in their books, especially the Talmud. It was a fantastical way of divination invented by the Jews, though called by them a revelation from God's will, which he made to his chosen people after all verbal prophecies had ceased in Israel.

BAXTERIANS, so called from the learned and pious Mr. Richard Baxter, who was born in the year 1615. His design was to reconcile Calvin and Arminius: for this purpose he formed a middle scheme between their systems. He taught that God had elected some, whom he is determined to save, without any foresight of their good works; and that others to whom the Gospel is preached have common grace, which, if they improve, they shall obtain saving grace, according to the doctrine of Arminius. This denomination own, with Calvin, that the merits of Christ's death are to be applied to believers only; but they also assert that all men are in a state capable of salvation.

Mr. Baxter maintains that there may be a certainty of perseverance here, and yet he cannot tell whether a man may not have so weak a degree of saving grace as to lose it again.

BEGUINES

fance.-4. The Spirit of Christ to dwell in us and sanctify us, by a habit of divine love, Rom. viii. 9-13. Gal. v. 6.—5. Employment in holy, ac ceptable service, and access in prayer, with a pro mise of being heard through Christ, Heb. ii. 5, 6. John xiv. 13.-6. Well-grounded hopes of salvation, peace of conscience, and spiritual communion with the church mystical in heaven and earth, Rom. v. 12. Heb, xii. 22.-7. A special interest in Christ, and intercession with the Father, Rom. viii. 32, 33.-8. Resurrection unto life, and justification in judgment; glorification of the soul at death, and of the body at the resurrection, Phil. iii. 20, 21. 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 3.

Christ has made a conditional deed of gift or these benefits to all mankind; but the elect only accept and possess them. Hence he infers, that though Christ never absolutely intended or decreed that his death should eventually put all men in possession of those benefits, yet he did intend and decree that all men should have a conditional gift of them by his death.

Baxter, it is said, wrote 120 books, and had 60 written against him. 20,000 of his Call to the Unconverted were sold in one year. He told a friend, that six brothers were converted by reading that Call. The eminent Mr. Elliott, of New England, translated this tract into the Indian tongue. A young Indian prince was so taken with it, that he read it with tears, and died with it in his hand. Calamy's Life of Baxter; Baxter's Catholic Theology, p. 51-53; Baxter's End of Doctrinal Controversy, p. 154, 155.

BEATIFICATION, in the Romish church, the act whereby the pope declares a person happy after death. See CANONIZATION.

BEATITUDE imports the highest degree of happiness human nature can arrive to, the fruition of God in a future life to all eternity. It is also used when speaking of the theses contained in Christ's sermon on the Mount, whereby he pronounces the several characters there mentioned blessed.

BEGHARDS, or BEGUARDS, a sect that arose in Germany in the thirteenth century, and took St. Begghe for their patroness. They employed themselves in making linen cloth, each supporting himself by his labour, and were united only by In order to prove that the death of Christ has the bonds of charity, without having any particuput all in a state capable of salvation, the follow-lar rule; but when pope Nicholas IV. had coning arguments are alleged by this learned author. 1. It was the nature of all mankind which Christ assumed at his incarnation, and the sins of all mankind were the occasion of his suffering. 2. It was to Adam, as the common father of lapsed mankind, that God made the promise Gen. iii. 15.) The conditional new covenant does equally give Christ, pardon, and life to all mankind, on condition of acceptance. The conditional grant is universal: Whoever believeth shall be saved.-3. It is not to the elect only, but to all mankind, that Christ has commanded his benefits of his procuring. ministers to proclaim his Gospel, and offer the

firmed that of the third order of St. Francis, in 1289, they embraced it the year following.

BÉGUINES, a congregation of nuns, founded either by St. Begghe or by Lambert le Begue. They were established, first at Liege, and afterwards at Neville, in 1207; and from this last settlement sprang the great number of Beguinages which are spread over all Flanders, and which have passed from Flanders into Germany. In the latter country some of them fell into extravagant errors, persuading themselves that it was possible in the present life to arrive to the highest perfection, even to impeccability, and a clear view of God; in short, to so eminent a degrec of contemThere are, Mr. Baxter allows, certain fruits plation, that there was no necessity, after this, to of Christ's death which are proper to the elect submit to the laws of mortal men, civil or eccleonly: 1. Grace eventually worketh in them true siastical. The council of Vienna condemned faith, repentance, conversion, and union with these errors; permitting, nevertheless, those Christ as his living members.-2. The actual among them, who continued in the true faith, to forgiveness of sin as to the spiritual and eternal live in charity and penitence, either with or withpunishment.-3. Our reconciliation with God, out vows. There still subsists, or at least suband adoption and right to the heavenly inherit-sisted till lately, many communities of them in

BEHMENISTS

Flanders. Their grand rule of conduct was universal charity, and their only motive, the love of God.

BELIEVERS

self into perdition.-8. How and why sin and misery, wrath and death, shall only reign for a time, till the love, the wisdom, and the power of God shall in a supernatural way (the mystery of God made man) triumph over sin, misery, and death; and make fallen man rise to the glory of angels, and this material system shake off its curse, and enter into an everlasting union with that heaven from whence it fell.

in Christ Jesus.-3. The life of the third principle, or of this external and visible world. Thus the life of the first and third principles is common to all men; but the life of the second principle only to a true Christian or child of God.

BEHMENISTS, a name given to those mystics who adopt the explications of the mysteries of nature and grace, as given by Jacob Behmen. This writer was born in the year 1575, at Old Seidenburg, near Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia; he was a shoemaker by trade. He is described as having been thoughtful and religious from his The year after he wrote his Three Principles, youth up, taking peculiar pleasure in frequenting by which are to be understood-the dark world, public worship. At length, seriously considering or hell, in which the devils live-the light world, within himself that speech of our Saviour, My or heaven, in which the angels live-the external Father which is in heaven will give the Holy and visible world, which has proceeded from the Spirit to them that ask him, he was thereby tho- internal and spiritual worlds, in which man, as roughly awakened in himself, and set forward to to his bodily life, lives; Behmen produced his desire that promised Comforter; and, continuing Threefold Life of Man, according to the Three in that earnestness, he was at last, to use his own Principles. In this work he treats more largely expression. "surrounded with a divine light for of the state of man in this world:-1. That he has seven days, and stood in the highest contempla-that immortal spark of life which is common to tion and kingdom of joys!" After this, about the angels and devils.-2. That divine life of the year 1600, he was again surrounded by the divine light and spirit of God, which makes the essential light, and replenished with the heavenly know- difference between an angel and a devil, the last ledge; insomuch as, going abroad into the fields, having extinguished this divine life in himself; and viewing the herbs and grass, by his inward but that man can only attain unto this heavenly light, he saw into their essences, use and proper-life of the second principle through the new birth ties, which were discovered to him by their linea ments, figures and signatures. In the year 1610, he had a third special illumination, wherein still further mysteries were revealed to him. It was not till the year 1612, that Behmen committed these revelations to writing. His first treatise is Behmen wrote several other treatises, besides entitled Aurora, which was seized on and with- the three already enumerated; but these three held from him by the senate of Gorlitz (who per-being, as it were, the basis of all his other writings, secuted him at the instigation of the primate of that place) before it was finished, and he never afterwards proceeded with it further than by adding some explanatory notes. The next production of his pen is called The Three Principles. In this work he more fully illustrates the subjects treated of in the former, and supplies what is wanting in that work. The contents of these two treatises may be divided as follow:-1. How all things came from a working will of the holy triune incomprehensible God, manifesting himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through an outward perceptible working triune power of fire, light, and spirit, in the kingdom of heaven. 2. How and what angels and men were in their creation; that they are in and from God, his real offspring; that their life began in and from this divine fire, which is the Father of light, generating a birth of light in their souls; from both which proceeds the Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love in the triune creature, as it does in the triune Creator.-3. How some angels, and all men, are fallen from God, and their first state of a divine triune life in him; what they are in their fallen state, and the difference between the fall of angels and that of man.-4. How the earth, stars, and elements were created in consequence of the fallen angels.-5. Whence there is good and evil in all this temporal world, in all its creatures animate and inanimate; and what is meant by the curse that dwells every where in it.-6. Of the kingdom of Christ; how it is set in opposition to and fights and strives against the kingdom of hell.-7. How man, through faith in Christ, is ble to overcome the kingdom of hell, and triumph over it in the divine power, and thereby obtain eternal salvation; also how, through the working of the hellish quantity or principle, he casts him

it was thought proper to notice them particularly. His conceptions are often clothed under allegorical symbols; and in his latter works he has frequently adopted chemical and Latin phrases to express his ideas, which phrases he borrowed from conversation with learned men, the educa tion he had received being too illiterate to furnish him with them: but as to the matter contained in his writings, he disclaimed having borrowed it either from men or books. He died in the year 1624. His last words were, "Now I go hence into Paradise."

Some of Behmen's principles were adopted by the ingenious and pious William Law, who clothed them in a more modern dress, and in a less obscure style. See Behmen's Works; Okcly's Memoirs of Behmen.

BELIEF, in its general and natural sense, denotes a persuasion or an assent of the mind to the truth of any proposition. In this sense belief has no relation to any particular kind of means or arguments, but may be produced by any means whatever: thus we are said to believe our senses, to believe our reason, to believe a witness. Belief, in its more restrained sense, denotes that kind of assent which is grounded only on the authority or testimony of some person. In this sense belief stands opposed to knowledge and science. We do not say that we believe snow is white, but we know it to be so. But when a thing is propounded to us, of which we ourselves have no knowledge, but which appears to us to be true from the testimony given to it by another, this is what we call belief. See FAITH.

BELIEVERS, an appellation given, toward the close of the first century, to those Christians who had been admitted into the church by bap tism, and instructed in all the mysteries of religion.

BENEFICENCE

They were thus called in contradistinction to the catechumens who had not been baptized, and were debarred from those privileges. Among us it is often used synonymously with Christian. See CHRISTIAN.

BENEFICENCE

active goodness.-Next to justice, the most prominent virtue in the system of morality, is beneficence. Power makes us to be feared, riches to be flattered, learning to be admired; but beneficence renders us amiable and useful in the scale BENEDICTINES, an order of monks, who of society. Some qualifications are solitary, and professed to follow the rules of St. Benedict. centre mostly in ourselves; but this is social, difThey were obliged to perform their devotions fusive and kind. The objects of our beneficence seven times in twenty-four hours. They were are all those who are in the sphere of our influobliged always to go two and two together. ence and action, without respect to party or sect. Every day in Lent they fasted till six in the even- Towards superiors, beneficence expresses itself in , and abated of their usual time in sleeping, respect, honour, submission, and service; toward eating, &c.-Every monk had two coats, two inferiors, in liberality, condescension, protection, cowls, a table-book, a knife, a needle, and a hand- and support; toward equals, in all the offices of kerchief; and the furniture of his bed was a mat, love their cases require, and which they have a blanket, a rug, and a pillow. The time when ability for. It includes all the kind exertions on this order came into England is well known, for the behalf of the poor, the sick, the fatherless, to it the English owe their conversion from idola- the widow, the distressed, &c. and especially try. They founded the metropolitan church of those "who are of the household of faith,” Gal. Canterbury, and all the cathedrals that were af-vi. 10. The means of beneficence are-commuterwards erected. The order has produced a vast number of eminent men. Their Alcuinus formed the university of Paris; their Dionysius Exiguus perfected the ecclesiastical computation; their Guido invented the scale of music; and their Sylvester the organ.

BENEDICTION, in a general sense, the act of blessing, or giving praise to God, or returning thanks for his favours. The Jews, it is said, are obliged to rehearse a hundred benedictions per day, of which eighty are to be spoken in the morning. It was usual to give a benediction to travellers on their taking leave; a practice which is still preserved among the monks. Benedictions were likewise given among the ancient Jews as well as Christians, by imposition of hands. And when at length the primitive simplicity of the Christian worship began to give way to ceremo ny, they added the sign of the cross, which was made with the same hand as before, only elevated or extended. Hence benediction in the modern Romish church is used, in a more particular manner, to denote the sign of the cross made by a bishop or prelate as conferring some grace on the people.

Benediction is also used for an ecclesiastical Ceremony, whereby a thing is rendered sacred or venerable. In this sense benediction differs from consecration, as in the latter unction is applied, which is not in the former: thus the chalice is consecrated and the pix blessed; as the former, not the latter, is anointed; though in the common uge these two words are applied promiscuously. The spirit of piety, or rather of superstition, has introduced into the Romish church benedictions for almost every thing: we read of forms of benedictions for wax candles, for boughs, for ashes, for church vessels, for ornaments, for flags, or ensigns, arms, first-fruits, houses, ships, paschal eggs, cilicium, or the hair-cloth of penitents, church-yards, &c. In general, these benedictions are performed by aspersions of holy water, signs of the cross, and prayers suitable to the nature of the ceremony. The forms of these benedictions are found in the Roman pontifical, in the Roman missal, in the book of ecclesiastical ceremonies, printed in Pope Leo X,'s time, and in the rituals and ceremonies of the different churches, which are found collected in father Martene's work on the rites and discipline of the church. BENEFICENCE, the practice of doing good;

nication of temporal supplies, Gal. vi. 6; prayer, James v. 16; sympathy, Rom. xii. 15; appropriate advice and conversation, Col. iii. 16.-Obligations to beneficence arise from the law of nature, Acts xvii. 26; the law of revelation, Heb. xiii. 16; the relations we stand in to each other, Gal. vi. 1, 2; the example of Christ and illustrious characters, Acts x. 38; the resemblance we herein bear to the best of Beings, Acts xiv. 17; and the pleasure we receive and give in so noble an employ. See BENEVOLENCE, CHARITY, LOVE.

BENEVOLENCE, the love of mankind in general, accompanied with a desire to promote their happiness. It is distinguished from benefi cence, that being the practice, benevolence the desire of doing good. Benevolence must be universal, reaching to every man without exception; but beneficence cannot be so universal, for it is necessarily confined by several considerations; such as our knowledge of objects, and their diferent circumstances, as well as our own abilities and opportunities of exercising them. Benevolence or good will to others does not imply that we are to neglect our own interests. Our salvation, health, prosperity, and reputation, should all be objects of concern: nor will this clash with the affection we may bear to others; on the contrary, experiencing the importance of these blessings ourselves, we shall be anxious for others to possess them also. The duties of benevolence include those we owe to men, purely on the ground of their being of the same species with ourselves; such as sympathy, relief, &c.; those we owe to our country, desiring its honour, safety, prosperity; those we owe to the church of God, as love, zeal, &c.; those we owe to families and individuals, as affection, care, provision, justice, forbearance, &c. Benevolence manifests itself by being pleased with the share of good every creature enjoys; in a disposition to increase it; in feeling an uneasiness at their sufferings; and in the abhorrence of cruelty under every disguise or pretext. The desire of doing good unconnected with any idea of advantage to ourselves is called disinterested benevolence, though some doubt whether, strictly speaking, there be any such thing; as benevo lence is always attended with a pleasure to ourselves, which forms a kind of mental interest. So far, however, as we are able to prefer the good of others to our own, and sacrifice our own com

ATONEMENT

ATONEMENT

the Gospel, assuring them that if they will be lieve they shall be saved; whereas, if they wilfully reject the overtures of mercy, they will increase their guilt and aggravate their damnation. At the same time, the Scriptures plainly teach, that the will and disposition to comply with this condition depends upon the sovereign gift of God,

and as it was not designed for one man more than another, but has an equal bearing upon the whole world indiscriminately, the offers of salvation can now be freely made to all mankind without distinction. Some of the friends of this theory go still further, and deny that Christ made a plenary satisfaction for the sins of believers, because such a satisfaction would, in their view, be incompati-and that the actual compliance is secured to those ble with the grace that reigns in the salvation of only for whom in the divine counsels the atonesinners; and consequently, although a provision ment was specifically intended. has been made by which all who believe will be saved, yet they assert that the claims of the law will remain for ever unsatisfied, that the ransomed of the Lord will never be free from guilt, and that Paul and his companions now in glory, are at this moment as guilty as when on earth, and will for ever deserve the punishment of hell.

This view of the atonement is supported by the following considerations:-1. The language of Scripture. "Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." "All that the Father hath given me shali come unto me." "I lay down my life for the sheep." "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me." As to The grounds upon which this theory of the passages of apparently a contrary import, which atonement is urged, are the following:-1. The seem to extend the object and design of the atonestyle of the Scriptures; which, in speaking of ment to all, these they say are capable in general the atonement, apply to it the most universal and of being interpreted, according to the plain usages unlimited language. "Who gave himself a ran- of Scripture, as implying some of all sorts, instead som for all to be testified in due time." "Who of every individual, or as pointing out every one is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that of the class or body spoken of. 2. That the docbelieve." "He is the propitiation for our sins, trine of vicarious or substitutive atonement was and not for ours only, but for the sins of the taught by the typical sacrifices of the Jewish whole world."-2. If Christ has made an atone- economy. 3. That the meaning of the term ment for the elect, and for them only, then salva- implies an actual reconciliation as the effect of a tion is not provided for all, and those for whom it satisfaction to the demands of divine justice; conis not provided, cannot be guilty in not receiving sequently, if the atonement was made for all men, st. But this is contrary to the whole tenor of the all men are actually reconciled, which is contrary Gospel, which every where exhibits sinners as to fact. 4. That inasmuch as it is admitted on all greatly guilty for rejecting Christ. 3. The Gos- sides that the Saviour suffered and died, not with pel, or glad tidings published by Christ, is said to the actual intention of securing the salvation of all be good tidings unto all people. But if there be men universally, but only of a definite number no atonement made for the sins of all people, the determined by the gift of the Father in the decree Gospel, instead of being good news to them, is not of election, the atonement is therefore properly to addressed to them at all. 4. Ministers are re-be denominated a definite atonement, and that quired to preach faith, as well as repentance, to all sinners as their duty. But if no atonement has been made for their sins, they cannot believe; for to them Christ is in no sense a Saviour, and therefore not a possible object of faith.

The advocates of the limited or definite atonement, on the other hand, maintain, that the atonement cannot properly be considered apart from its actual application, or from the intention of the author in regard to its application-that, in strictness of speech, the death of Christ is not an atonement to any until it he applied-that the sufferings of the Lamb of God are therefore truly vicarious, or in other words, that Christ in suffering became a real substitute for his people, was charged with their sins, and bore the punishment of them, and thus has made a full and complete satisfaction to divine justice in behalf of all who shall ever believe on him-that this atonement will eventually be applied to all for whom in the divine intention it was made, or to all to whom Liod in his sovereignty has been pleased to decree its application. They believe, however, notwithstanding the atonement is to be properly considered as exactly commensurate with its intended application, that the Lord Jesus Christ did offer a sacrifice sufficient in its intrinsic value to expiate the sins of the whole world, and that if it had Deen the pleasure of God to apply it to every individual, the whole human race would have been saved by its immeasurable worth. They hold, therefore, that on the ground of the infinite value of the atonement, the offer of salvation can be consistently and sincerely made to all who hear

30

every objection brought against this view of it falls directly against the doctrine of election. If it be conceded that the Father gave to the Son in the covenant of redemption a particular definite number of the human race to save; that for these, and these alone, did the Son die with an intention to save them; that to none but this elect number will the atonement ever be in fact applied, the consequence is affirmed to be inevitable, that the atonement is definite, because election is definite. "We may call it otherwise; we may call it general, we may call it indefinite. But it retains its true charac ter. definite, limited; not, indeed, in its value, which It is what the divine purpose has made it is unlimited and infinite; but in its application, and in respect to the intention of the Father who appointed, and of the Son who made, the atone ment." ment was not made for all, then those for whom As to the objection, that if the atone it was not intentionally made are not guilty for not receiving it, and therefore cannot justly be condemned on this account, it is answered, that the primary ground of a sinner's condemnation is not so much his rejection of the Gospel as his previous violation of the law. The rejection of the Gospel when sincerely, though conditionally, offered, aggravates his guilt, and according to human modes of speech adopted in the Scrip tures, there is no impropriety in referring his condemnation to his slighting the terms of pardon; as he knows nothing of the secret purposes of Heaven in regard to himself, and, therefore, has no excuse to offer for his perverseness. Thus, if a capital offender were doomed to die for a crime