consulted by those who wish to obtain satisfaction on the subject. The reader should also have recourse to Dr. Chandler's two discourses on the Sabbath, Mr. Amner's Dissertation on the Weekly Festival of the Christian Church, Dr. Kennicott's Sermon and Dialogue on the Sabbath, the late Rev. S. Palmer's publication on the Nature and Obligation of the Christian Sabbath, and Estlin's Apology for the Sabbath-all of which are worthy of attention. But whatever controversy may have been agitated on this subject, certain it is, that were there no particular day set apart for the purpose of devotion (for which some in the present day contend) our knowledge of human nature authorizes us to say, that virtue and religion would be either greatly debilitated or finally lost from among mankind.

The Sabbatarians hold in common with other "Christians, the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity, and though much reduced in number, deserve this distinct mention, on account of their integrity and respectability.*

* Most of the above particulars respecting the Sabbatarians were communicated to the author by some worthy Individuals of that persuasion.

f

THE Moravians are supposed to have arisen under Nicholas Lewis, Count of Zinzendorf, a German · nobleman, who died 1760. They were also called "Hernhuters, from Hernhuth, the name of the village where they were 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; and, in general, profess to adhere to the Augsburgh confession of faith. When the first Reformers were assembled at Augsburgh in Germany, the Protestant princes employed Melancthon, a divine of learning and moderation, to draw up a confession of their faith, expressed in terms as little offensive to the Roman Catholics as a regard for truth would permit. "And this creed, from the place where it was pre...sented, is called the Confession of Augsburgh. It is not easy to unravel the leading tenets of the Moravians. Opinions and practices have been attributed to them of an exceptionable nature, which the more sensible of them disavow. They on all

occasions make great professions of reverence Jesus Christ; are much attached to instrumental as well as vocal music in their religious services; and discover a predilection for forming themselves into classes, according to sex, age, and character. Their founder not only discovered his zeal in travelling in person over Europe, but has taken special care to send missionaries into almost every part of the known world. They revive their devotion by celebrating agapæ, or love-feasts, and the casting of lots is used amongst them to know the will of the Lord. The sole right of contracting marriage lies with the elders. In Mr. La Trobe's edition of Spangenburgh's Exposition of Christian Doctrine, their principles are detailed at length. There is a large community of them at a village near Leels, which excites the curiosity of the traveller; and they have places of worship in various parts of the kingdom. Mr. Rimius published his candid narrative of this people, and Bishop Lavington (who wrote also against the Methodists) replied, in 1755, in his Moravians compared and detected. Mr. Weld, in his Travels through the United States, gives a curious account of a. Settlement of Moravians at Bethlehem, honourable to their virtue and piety. See also an Essay on Fanaticism, addressed to the People of his own persuasion, by John Stinstra, translated by Isaac Subremont, of Dublin, 1774. The Moravians have been distinguished for their Missionary efforts-and

have succeeded better than most of the other sects who have employed themselves in such undertakings. See a History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, in three parts, by George Henry Laskiel, translated from the German, by Christian Ignatius La Trobe, 1794.*

Dr. Paley, in his Evidences of Christianity, pays the following compliment to the religious Practices of the Moravians and Methodists; he in speaking of the first Christians says:-" After men became Christians, much of their time was spent in prayer and devotion, in religious meetings, in celebrating the eucharist, in conferences, in exhortations, in preaching, in an affectionate intercourse with one another, and correspondence with other societies. Perhaps their mode of life, in its form and habit, was not very unlike that of the Unitas Fratrum, or of modern Methodists." Be it, however, the desire of every. body of Christians not only thus to imitate the primitive disciples in their OUTWARD conduct, but to aspire after the liberality of their dispositions, the K peaceableness of their tempers, and the purity of their lives!

Periodical

acepunts of their missions are published by the Brethren's Society for the furtherance of the gospel at No. 10 Nevil's court, Fetter-lane, Holtorn. L

SANDEMANIANS.

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. His sentiments are fully explained in a tract published at that time, entitled "The Testimony of the King of Martyrs," and preserved in the first volume of his works. In consequence of Mr. Glass's expulsion, his adherents formed themselves into churches, conformable, in their institution and discipline, to what they apprehend to be the plan of the first churches recorded in the New Testament. Soon after the year 1755, Mr, Robert Sandeman, an elder in one of these churches in Scotland, published a series of Letters addressed to Mr. Hervey, occasioned by his Theron and Aspasio, in which he endeavours to show, that his

The author has been favoured with this account of the Sandemanians by a gentleman of respectability, who belongs to that body of Christians.