great remorse on account of the crimes she had committed when in an unenlightened state, she exclaimed, "Oh, my children, my murdered children! I am about to die, and I shall meet them all at the judgmentseat of Christ." Being asked how many children she had destroyed, she replied, "I have destroyed sixteen!"

Affecting scenes were sometimes witnessed at the examination of the school children. One of these occurred at Raiatea. Upwards of six hundred children were present, and they walked through the settlement in procession. The children had prepared flags, with such mottoes as the following:-"What a blessing the Gospel is!"-"Had it not been for the Gospel, we should have been destroyed as soon as we were born." On this occasion a venerable chieftain, grey with age, addressed those present. This chief was an arioi of the highest rank, and the laws of his class required the destruction of all his children. He exclaimed, "Oh that I had known that the Gospel was coming, then I should have saved my children, and they would have been among this happy group; but, alas! I destroyed them all; I have not one left." This chieftain had been the father of nineteen children.

One of the numerous modes of infanticide was, to put the babe in a hole covered with a plank to keep the earth from pressing it, and to leave it there to perish.

Various reasons were assigned for the inhuman practice of infanticide. The first cause alleged was their wars. These were so frequent, sudden, and desolating, that to avoid the horrors and distress thus entailed on those who had families, they destroyed many of their children.

A second cause was inequality of station. If a woman of rank was united to a man of inferior grade, the destruction of two, four, or six infants was required to raise him to an equality with her; and when this had been effected, the succeeding children were spared.

A third adduced for the practice was, that nursing impaired the personal attractions of the mother, and curtailed the period during which her beauty would continue to bloom.

The modes by which they destroyed their children were truly affecting. Sometimes they put a wet cloth upon the infant's mouth; at others they pinched their throats until they expired. A third method was, to bury them alive. And a fourth was, if possible, still more brutal. The moment the child was born they broke the first joints of its fingers and toes, and then the second. If the infants survived this agonising process, they dislocated its ancles and wrists; and if the powers of endurance still continued, the knee and elbow joints were then broken. This would generally terminate the tortures of the little sufferer; but if not, they would resort to the second method of strangulation.

PP

A BRIEF VIEW OF MINOR SECTS.*

ARIANS derive their name from Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, who flourished about the year 315. He maintained that the Son was totally and essentially distinct from the Father; that he was the first and noblest of all those beings, whom God the Father had created out of nothing, the instrument by whose subordinate operation the Almighty Father formed the universe, and therefore, inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity. The Holy Spirit, he maintained, was created by the Son. In modern times, the term Arian is indiscriminately applied to those who consider Jesus simply subordinate to the Father.

DUNKERS, OF TUNKERS, so called from a German term, implying their baptizing by immersion, a practice prevalent among them. Their founder was Conrad Peysæl, a German Baptist, who, weary of the world, retired to an agreeable solitude, about fifty miles from Philadelphia, where gathering around him a colony, he carried out his peculiar notions on religion. The chief tenet of this sect is, that future happiness is only to be obtained by penance and outward mortification, so as that, Jesus Christ, by his meritorious sufferings, became the Redeemer of mankind in general, so each individual of the human race, by a life of abstinence and restraint, may "work out his own salvation." Nay, it is said, they admit of works of supererogation. They use the same form of government, and the same discipline, as the English Baptists do, except that every person is allowed to speak in the congregation, and their best speaker is usually ordained to be minister. They have also deacons, and deaconesses from among their ancient widows, who may use all their gifts, and exhort at stated times.

HUMANITARIANS, a term applied to those modern Socinians, who maintain the simple humanity of Jesus Christ; or, that Jesus was "a mere man, and naturally fallible and peccable, as Moses, or any other prophet." Many of the Socinians of the present day are of this faith.

JERKERS, or BARKERS, a set of schismatics, who arose in Kentucky, and adjoining parts, about the year 1803, during and following a remarkable effusion of the Spirit, and who manifested their zeal in an extraordinary manner, by falling down, rolling, shouting, jerking, dancing, barking, &c. They were originally composed of Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists. In process of time, they separated from their respective

The manuscript having extended considerably beyond the author's expectations, he finds himself obliged to reject a large portion of the matter prepared for this part of the volume. But as the value and interest of the work may be found to be enhanced by the change, he trusts his readers will admit the apology.

orders, and formed a new Presbytery, called the Springfield, upon NewLight principles. This, however, was soon dissolved, upon which many of these fanatics became Shaking Quakers.

JUMPERS, so called from their practice of jumping during the time. allotted for religious worship. They originated in Wales, about the year 1760, among the Calvinistic Methodists. Led on by preachers of enthusiastic temperament, they at length considered it the essence of religion, and the most effective means of inculcating it, to exhibit the most wild and extravagant conduct. They cried out even to vociferation, in the midst of the congregation. Some clapped their hands, while others jumped up and down in apparent ecstacy. This at last came to be considered as a proof of the presence and approbation of God. The sect, at the present time, is comparatively small.

MENNONITES, originally a society of Baptists in Holland, so called from Menno Simon, who lived in the 16th century. After him, they maintain that practical piety is the essence of religion; they plead for universal toleration, deny infant baptism, reject the terms person and trinity, object to oaths, and capital punishments. In their discipline they resemble the Presbyterians. The Mennonites are a numerous and respectable body in Pennsylvania. Among them, baptism is not administered by immersion, though it is confined to adults. The person baptized kneels, and the minister holds his hands over him while the deacon pours water through them upon the head of the subject. This is followed by prayer and imposition of hands.

MYSTICS. So far as we know, the first mystic writer was St. Austin, bishop of Hippo, in Africa. The Mystics are those who profess a pure and sublime devotion, with a disinterested love of God, free from all selfish considerations. Passive contemplation is the state of perfection to which they aspire. Of this description there have been many singular characters, especially Madame Guyon, a French lady, who made a great noise in the religious world. Fenelon, the amiable archbishop of Cambray, favoured the sentiments of this female devotee, for which he was reprimanded by the Pope, and to whose animadversions he most dutifully assented, contrary to the convictions of his own mind. It is not uncommon for the Mystics to allegorize certain passages of Scripture, at the same time not denying the literal sense, as having an allusion to the inward experience of believers. Mysticism is not confined to any particular profession of Christianity, but is to be understood as generally applied to those who dwell upon the inward operations of the mind, such as the Quakers, &c., laying little or no stress on the outward ceremonies of religion.

MORAVIANS. This sect is supposed to have arisen under Nicholas Lewis, Count of Zinzendorf, a German nobleman, who died 1760. They were also called Hernhutters, from Hernhuth, the name of the village where they first settled. The followers of Count Zinzendorf are called Moravians, because the first converts to his system were some Moravian

families; the society themselves, however, assert, that they are descended from the old Moravian and Bohemian brethren, who existed as a distinct sect, sixty years prior to the Reformation. They also style themselves Unitas Fratrum, or the United Brethren.

SABBATARIANS are a body of Christians who keep the seventh day as the sabbath, and are to be found principally, if not wholly, amongst the Baptists. They assert, that the change of the sabbath, from the seventh to the first day of the week, was effected by Constantine, upon his conversion to the Christian religion. The three following propositions contain a summary of their principles as to the article of the Sabbath: 1st. That God hath required the observation of the seventh day to be observed by mankind universally for the weekly sabbath: 2ndly, That this command is perpetually binding on man till time shall be no more: 3rdly, That this sacred rest of the seventh-day is not, by divine authority, changed from the seventh and last to the first day of the week.

SANDEMANIANS, a modern sect that originated in Scotland, about the year 1728, where it is, at this time, distinguished by the name of Glassites, after its founder, Mr. John Glass, who was a minister of the established church in that kingdom; but, being charged with a design of subverting the national covenant, and sapping the foundation of all national establishments, by maintaining that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, was expelled by the synod from the church of Scotland. The chief opinions and practices in which this sect differs from other Christians, are their weekly administration of the Lord's supper; their love-feasts, of which every member is not only allowed, but required to partake, and which consist of their dining together at each other's houses in the interval between the morning and afternoon service; their kiss of charity used on this occasion, at the admission of a new member, and at other times when they deem it necessary and proper; their weekly collection before the Lord's Supper, for the support of the poor, and defraying other expenses; mutual exhortation; abstinence from blood and things strangled; and washing each other's feet.

SHAKERS, are a sect which arose in the United States in 1774. The principal or leader of this sect was Anne Leese, or Lee, who emigrated to America in the above year, with a number of followers, with whom she settled at Niskayuna, near Albany. They have flourishing establishments at Lebanon and Pittsfield. The tenets on which the Shakers mostly dwell, are those of human depravity, and of the miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit. Their leading practical tenet is the abolition of marriage; they vindicate their music and dancing as leading parts of worship, especially alluding to the return of the prodigal ; while the elder son, disliking music and dancing, represents the natural man, condemning their soulreviving practices.

SOCINIANS take their name from Faustus Socinus, who died in Poland, 1604. There were two who bore the name Socinus, uncle and nephew, and both disseminated the same doctrine. The Socinian asserts that

Christ had no existence until born of the Virgin Mary; and that being a man like ourselves, though endowed with a large portion of the Divine wisdom, the only objects of his mission were, to teach the efficacy of repentance without an atonement, as a medium of the Divine favour; to exhibit an example for our imitation; to seal his doctrine with his blood; and, in his resurrection from the dead, to indicate the certainty of our resurrection at the last day.

SWEDENBORGIANS, or New Jerusalem Church. This sect owes its origin to Emanuel Swedenborg, a native of Sweden, born 1689. In 1743, he began to disseminate his doctrines, which, as gathered from his works, are summarily as follow: 1. That there is but one God, one in essence and one in person, in whom there is a Divine Trinity, like soul, body, and operation in man, and that the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that one God. 2. That the humanity derived from the virgin was successfully put off, and a divine humanity put on in its stead, and this was the glorification of the Son of man. 3. That redemption consisted in the subjugation of the powers of hell, whereby man was delivered from the bondage of evils and errors, and that it was thus an actual work on the part of the Lord, for the sake and happiness of man. 4. That faith alone does not justify and save man; but he must have faith, charity, and good works. 5. That the sacred Scripture is divinely inspired in every particular, and contains a natural, spiritual, and celestial sense, and is applicable to angels in heaven, as well as to men on earth. 6. That man enters, immediately after death, into the spiritual world, leaving his body, which will never be reassumed, and continues, to all eternity, a man in a human form, with the possession of all his faculties. 7. That the last judgment spoken of in the New Testament was effected by the Lord in the spiritual world in the year 1757: the good were then elevated to heaven, and the evil. cast down to hell. Thus the way was prepared for the second advent of the Lord, which was a coming, not in person, but in the power and glory of his Holy Word; and a new spiritual influx being communicated, a new church would thereby be established.

This brief view of Minor Sects might be much amplified, for every age presents us with bodies of people forming themselves into new sects and parties; adopting novel customs, and professing strong peculiarities in matters of religion. The leaders of these sects are usually too highly commended by their followers, and too harshly censured by their opposers. Profiting by the experience of ages, let us, while we exercise Christian charity for all whom we believe to be in error, more humbly and watchfully read God's holy word, and more earnestly seek the influences of his Holy Spirit, which can alone protect us from all error, and guide us into all truth. Then we shall be " a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of our God."

LONDON:

PRADIURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS,