PREFACE. AS the Scriptures, from whence all Christians investigate their principles of belief, and rules of conduct, have been variously interpreted by different commentators and others, these diversities have given birth to a multiplicity of different sects and parties. And, as the history and knowledge of religious sects may be said to constitute a branch of general, ecclesiastical, and literary history, a part of the original materials, of which the following work is composed, was collected, not so much with a view to publication, as to satisfy private curiosity, and from the desire of adding to the author's stock of professional knowledge. He now submits it to public inspection with much diffidence, though not without good advice, foreseeing, that, notwithstanding all his labour and endeavours to come at the real knowledge of the history and present state of the various controversies and parties into which the religious world is unhappily divided, he will be found to have misstated or misunderstood the principles or practices of some religionists, and will be himself misunderstood in what he has said respecting others. By the operation and influence of private vanity, or of that wisdom which is too confident in its own opinions, and too contemptuous of those of others, opinions rise into doctrines, doctrines swell into distinctions, and distinctions increase and break off into sects, extending and multiplying into endless circles. And, as Dr. Hey has. well observed-"Some sects have no precise ideas, and therefore no Creeds, Catechisms, Confessions of Faith, nor any ecclesiastical history; hence their doctrines will be unsteady; sects will ramify and mix imperceptibly, keeping the same names, in such a manner as to elude all regular and systematical investigation."* Taking therefore into account, the comprehensive object of this work; the neces * Norrisian Lectures, Vol. III. p. 38. sity of close investigation, and patient discrimination ;-the great number of works to be consulted; the correspondence, and other requisites for doing justice to the subject, I may be allowed to say of my office, without magnifying it, that it is one of no small labour and difficulty. And the more heartily the reader agrees with me in this, he will of course be the more disposed to exercise candour, and make all due allowance for my failures in the discharge of it. But though, considering my delicate state of health, the little leisure that I enjoy from the important duties of a small, but laborious charge, and other disadvantages under which I labour, few may be of opinion that I was prompted by prudence to undertake it; most readers, I trust, will admit that, in discharging it, I have been guided by candour and moderation. No one, it is hoped, who shall take the trouble of looking into these volumes, will here find his principles attacked or decried; as far, at least, as I may have misrepresented those of any sect or party whatever, so far have I failed in my object, which was to give a fair and candid statement of 1 existing sentiments, and differences of opinion on the important subject of religion. Should this work, therefore, fall into the hands of any "men, brethren, or fathers," who may be disposed to estimate its value from the quantity of abuse that I have thrown upon the various sects and sectarists, or from the severity with which I have treated them, they will be much disappointed, I trust, in perusing it. To such readers, and such, perhaps, there still are, though I fondly hope," rari nantes in gurgite vasto," I have only to say, 66 Go ye and learn what that meaneth"-"Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity;" and to remind them, in the words of an able divine of the present day, whose churchmanship has never, I believe, been called in question, that—" Since, unhappily, there are still so many subjects of debate among those who name the name of Christ,' it is doubtless every one's duty, after divesting himself, as much as possible, of prejudice, to investigate those subjects with accuracy, and to adhere to that side of each disputed question, which, after such investigation, appears to him to be the truth. But he transgresses the fa |