tempest, which twenty years after entirely prostrated the glory and prosperity of the sect. For in a diet at Warsaw, in 1658, all the Socinians, dispersed throughout Poland, were commanded to quit the country; and it was made a capital offence, either to profess their doctrines, or to harbour others who professed them. Three years were allowed the proscribed, in which to dispose of their property, and settle their affairs. But soon after, the cruelty of their enemies reduced it to two years. Finally, in the year 1661, the tremendous edict was renewed; and all the Socinians that remained were most inhumanly driven from Poland, with immense loss, not merely of property, but also of the health, and the lives of many persons'.

§ 4. A part of the exiles took their course towards Transylvania: and nearly all these perished by divers calamities. Others were dispersed in the provinces adjacent to Poland, Silesia, Brandenburg, and Prussia; where their posterity still remain, scattered here and there. A considerable number of the more respectable families settled for a time at Creutzberg in Silesia, under the protection of the Duke of Brieg. Others went to more distant countries, Holland, England, Holstein, and Denmark, to see if they could obtain a comfortable settlement for themselves and their brethren. The most active and zealous in such embassies was Stanislaus Lubieniezky, a very learned Polish knight, who rendered himself acceptable to great men by his eloquence, politeness, and sagacity. In the years 1661, and 1662, he came very near to obtaining a secure residence for the Socinians at Altona, from Frederic III. king of Denmark; at Frederickstadt, from Christ. Albert, duke of Holstein, 1662; and at Manheim, from Charles Lewis, the elector Palatine. But all his efforts and expectations were frustrated by the remonstrances and entreaties of theologians;

Stanisl. Lubieniezky, Historia Reform. Polonica, lib. iii. cap. 17, 18. p. 279, &c. Equitis Polonia Vindicia pro Unitarior. in Polonia Religionis Libertate; in Sand's Biblioth. Antrinit. p. 267, and many others.

5 [Some say there were 380 of these refugees; others say 500. On the borders of Hungary, they were assaulted and plundered, so that when they

arrived at Clausenburg in Transylvania, they were almost naked. Disease now attacked them, and carried them nearly all off. See J. G. Walch's Linleit. in die rel. Streit, aus d. Ev. Luth. Kirche, vol. iv, p. 275. von Einem.]

Lubieniezky, Historia Reform. Polon. cap. xviii. p. 285, where there is quite a long epistle of the Creutzburgers.

in Denmark, by John Suaning, bishop of Seeland; in Holstein, by John Reinboth, the general superintendent; in the Palatinate, by John Lewis Fabricius [doctor and professor of theology, at Heidelberg]'. The others, who undertook such negociations, had much less success than he: nor could any nation of Europe be persuaded, to allow the opposers of Christ's divinity freely to practise their worship among them.

§ 5. Such, therefore, as remain of this unhappy people, live concealed in various countries of Europe, especially in Brandenburg, Prussia, England, and Holland; and hold here and there clandestine meetings for worship; in England, however, it is said, they have public religious meetings, with the connivance of the magistrates. Some have united themselves with

See Sand's Bibliotheca Antitrinit. p. 165. The Life of Lubieniezky, prefixed to his Historia Reformat. Polonicæ, p. 7, 8. Jo. Möller's Introductio in Historiam Cherson. Cimbrica, pt. ii. p. 105, and Cimbria Litterata, tom. ii. p. 487, &c. Jo. Henr. Heidegger's Life of Jo. Lewis Fabricius, subjoined to the works of the latter, p. 38.

The Socinians residing in Brandenburg were accustomed, a few years ago, to meet at stated times at Königswald, a village near Frankfort on the Oder. See Jourdain, (for he is the author of the paper,) Recueil de Littérature, de Philosophie, et d'Histoire, p. 44. Amsterd. 1731. 8vo. They also published at Berlin, in 1716, a German confession of their faith; which, with a confutation of it, is printed in Die Theologischen Heb-Opfern, part x. p. 852. [In Prussian Brandenburg they found some protection, under the kindness of the electoral stadtholder, Bogislaus, prince von Radzivil, who retained some Socinians at his court: and perhaps they would also have obtained religious freedom under the electoral prince, Frederic William, had not the states of the duchy insisted on their expulsion. See Fred. Sam. Bock's Historia Socinianismi Prussici, p. 55. &c. and Hartknoch's Preussische Kirchenhistorie, p. 646, &c. By the indulgence of the above-named electoral prince, they obtained religious freedom in Brandenburg, particularly in New Mark, under the hope that this little

company would gradually unite itself with the Protestant churches. They likewise had churches and schools at Landsberg, down to the end of the seventeenth century. After that they were expelled; the protection of the Schwerin family, which they had hitherto enjoyed, now ceasing.-In Holland, the book of John Völkel, a Socinian, de Vera Religione, 1642, was burnt; and the states of Holland in 1653, forbad the publication of Unitarian books, and all religious meetings of Socinians. Yet Andre Wissowatius procured the famous Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum to be printed at Amsterdam; though the place is not mentioned on the title page: and the Socinians have been allowed to reside there; but without the public exercise of their religion. Many of them likewise are concealed among the Mennonites, and the other sects. Schl."The Socinians in England have never made any figure as a community, but have rather been dispersed among that great variety of sects that have arisen in a country, where liberty displays its most glorious fruits, and at the same time exhibits its most striking inconveniences. Besides, few ecclesiastics or writers of any note have adopted the theological system, now under consideration, in all its branches. The Socinian doctrine relating to the design and efficacy of the death of Christ had indeed many abettors in England, during the seventeenth century; and

the Arminians, and others with those Mennonites who are called Galenists: for neither of these sects requires its members very explicitly to declare their religious belief. It is also said, that not a few of these dispersed people are members of the society who bear the name of Collegiants. Being thus situated, they have not all been able to retain that form of religion which their fathers transmitted to them. Accordingly, both the learned, and the unlearned, without restraint, explain variously those doctrines which distinguish them from other sects: yet they all agree in denying the divine Trinity, and the divinity and atonement of our Saviour'.

§ 6. Kindred with the Socinians, are the Arians, some of whom obtained celebrity in this century, as authors, such as Christopher Sand, father and son, and John Biddle'; and like

it may be presumed without temerity, that its votaries are rather increased than diminished, in the present; but those divines who have abandoned the Athanasian hypothesis, concerning the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, have more generally gone into the Arian and Semi-Arian notions of that inexplicable subject, than into those of the Socinians, who deny that Jesus Christ existed before his appearance in the human nature. The famous John Biddle, after having maintained both in public and private during the reign of Charles I. and the protectorship of Cromwell, the Unitarian system, erected an independent congregation in London, which is the only British church we have heard of, in which all the peculiar doctrines of Socinianism were inculcated." Macl.]

This is evident from many proofs, and among others, from the example of Samuel Crell, the most learned man among the Socinians a few years since ; who although he sustained the office of a teacher among them, yet deviated in many respects from the doctrines of Socinus and of the Racovian Catechism; nor did he wish to be called a Socinian, but an Artemonite. Journal Littéraire, tom. xvii. pt. i. p. 150, and my own remarks on this man, in my Syntagma Diss. ad sanctiores Disciplinas pertinentium, p. 352. Unschuldige Nachrichten, 1750. p. 942. Nou

See

reau Dictionnaire Hist. Crit. tom. ii. pt. ii. p. 88, &c.

iOf both the Sands, Arnold, [Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, vol. ii. book xvii. ch. xiii. § 25. p. 176, &c.] and others give account. Respecting Biddle, see Nouveau Dictionnaire Hist. Crit. tom. i. pt. ii. p. 288, &c. [Sandius the elder was of Creuzeberg in Prussia, studied law, and filled various offices at Königsberg; but was deprived in 1668, because he would not renounce Arianism. After this he lived in retirement, and wrote only some vindications and apologies. Yet he aided his son in the composition of his works; and outliving him, published some of them after his death. The son called himself Christopher Christopheri Sandius; and wrote, besides his Biblioth. Antitrinitariorum, his Nucleus Historic Ecclesiast. on the first four centuries, in which he attempts to prove, that the early fathers before the council of Nice held Arian sentiments; and that Athanasius was the first that broached the common belief among Christians respecting the Trinity. He also wrote Interpretationes Paradoxas Quatuor Evangeliorum; de Origine Anima; Problema Paradoxum de Spiritu Sancto; and (under the name of Herm. Cingallus), Scriptura Trinitatis Revelatrix. The son died in 1680, (aged 40) and the father in 1686. Schl. See also concerning the younger Sand,

wise some of those comprehended under the general appellation of Antitrinitarians, or Unitarians. For this [latter] name is applied to various sorts of persons, who agree in this only, that they will not admit of any real distinction in the divine nature. The name of Arians is likewise given to all those in general, who represent our Saviour to be inferior to God the Father. And as this may be done in various ways, it is manifest that this word, as now used, must have various significations; and that all who are now called Arians, do not agree with the ancient Arians; nor do they all hold one and the same sentiment.

CHAPTER VIII.

HISTORY OF SOME MINOR SECTS.

§. 1, 2. The Collegiants.-§ 3. The Labadists.-§ 4. Bourignon and Poiret.§ 5. The Philadephian Society.

§ 1. Ir will be proper here to give some account of certain sects which could not be conveniently noticed in the history of

Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Sandius.-John Biddle was born in 1615, educated at Oxford, became master of a free school, in Gloucester, 1641. Here he soon became suspected of heresy; and from the year 1644, till his death in 1662, he passed a large part of his time in various prisons and in exile. Whenever he was at liberty he wrote and preached in favour of his sentiments; which caused him to be frequently apprehended, and to undergo a criminal prosecution. In the year 1651 he published two catechisms; in which, Mr. Neal says, he maintained, 1. "That God is confined to a certain place. 2. That he has a bodily shape. 3. That he has passions. 4. That he is neither omnipotent nor unchangeable. 5. That we are not to believe three persons in the Godhead. 6. That Jesus Christ has not the nature

of God, but only a divine lordship. 7. That he was not a priest while upon earth. 8. That there is no deity in the Holy Ghost." According to Dr. Toulmin, these are not formal propositions, but only questions in his catechisms, to which he subjoins texts of scripture by way of answer. Thus, the first proposition is this question; "Is not God, according to the current of the scripture, in a certain place, namely in heaven?" The answer consists of twenty-nine passages of Scripture, which represent God, as "looking from heaven," as "our Father who art in heaven," &c. See Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 157, &c. ed. Boston, 1817. Toulmin's Review of the Life, Character, and Writings of Mr. John Biddle. Brook's Lites of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 411, &c. Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Biddle. Tr.]

the larger communities, but which, for various reasons, should not be passed over in total silence. While the Arminian disputes in Holland were most warm, in the year 1619, arose that class of people who hold sacred conventions twice a year at Rheinsburg in Holland, not far from Leyden, and who are known by the name of Collegiants. The institution originated from three brothers, by the name of Koddeus, or van der Kodde; namely, John James, Hadrian, and Gisbert; obscure men, in rural life, but according to report, pious, well acquainted with their bibles, and opposed to religious controversies. They were joined by one Anthony Cornelius, who was also an illiterate and obscure man. The descendants and followers of these men acquired the name of Collegiants, from the circumstance that they called their assemblies Colleges. All persons may be admitted into the society, who merely account the bible a divine book, and endeavour to live according to its precepts; whatever may be their opinions respecting God and the Christian religion. The brethren, who are considerably numerous in most of the cities and villages of Holland, Friesland, and West Friesland, assemble twice a week, namely on Sundays and Wednesdays; and, after singing a hymn, and offering a prayer, they take up some passage of the New Testament, which they illustrate and explain. With the exception of females, whom they do not allow to speak in public, all persons, of whatever rank or order, are at liberty to bring forward their thoughts, and offer them to the consideration of the brethren: and all are at liberty to oppose, modestly and soberly, whatever the brethren advance. They have printed lists of the texts of scripture which are to be discussed at their several meetings, so that each person may examine the passages at home, and come prepared to speak. Twice a year, the brethren assemble at Rheinsberg, where they have spacious buildings, destined for the education of orphan children, and for the reception of strangers; and there spend four days together, in listening to exhortations to holiness and love, and in celebrating the Lord's supper. Here also, such as wish it, are baptized; but it is in the ancient manner, immersing the whole body in water. The brethren of Friesland, at the present day, assemble once a year, at Leeuwarden, and there observe the holy supper; because