§ 170.5. Swedenborgianism.—Emanuel von Swedenborg was born at Stockholm, in A.D. 1688, son of the strict Lutheran bishop of West Gothland, Jasper Swedberg. He was appointed assessor of the School of Mines at Stockholm, and soon showed himself to be a man of encyclopædic information and of speculative ability. After long examination of the secrets of nature, in a condition of magnetic ecstasy, in which he thought that he had intercourse with spirits, sometimes in heaven, sometimes in hell, he became convinced, in A.D. 1743, that he was called by these revelations to restore corrupted Christianity by founding a church of the New Jerusalem as the finally perfected church. He published the apocalyptic revelations as a new gospel: “Arcana Cœlestia in Scr. s. Detecta,” in seven vols.; “Vera Chr. Rel.,” two vols. After his death, in A.D. 1772, his “Vera Christiana Religio” was translated into Swedish, but his views never got much hold in his native country. They spread more widely in England, where John Clowes, rector of St. John’s Church, Manchester, translated his writings, and himself wrote largely in their exposition and commendation. Separate congregations with their own ministers, and forms of worship, sprang up through England in A.D. 1788, and soon there were as many as fifty throughout the country. From England the New Church spread to America.—In Germany it was specially throughout Württemberg that it found adherents. There, in A.D. 1765, Oetinger (§ [171, 9]) recognised Swedenborg’s revelations, and introduced many elements from them into his theosophical system.—Swedenborg’s religious system was speculative mysticism, with a physical basis and rationalizing results. The aim of religion with him is the opening of an intimate correspondence between the spiritual world and man, and giving an insight into the mystery of the connexion between the two. The Bible (excluding the apostolic epistles, as merely expository), pre-eminently the Apocalypse, is recognised by him as God’s word; to be studied, however, not in its literal but in its spiritual or inner sense. Of the church dogmas there is not one which he did not either set aside or rationalistically explain away. He denounces in the strongest terms the church doctrine of the Trinity. God is with him only one Person, who manifests Himself in three different forms: the Father is the principle of the manifesting God; the Son, the manifested form; the Spirit, the manifested activity. The purpose of the manifestation of Christ is the uniting of the human and Divine; redemption is nothing more than the combating and overcoming of the evil spirits. But angels and devils are spirits of dead men glorified and damned. He did not believe in a resurrection of the flesh, but maintained that the spiritual form of the body endures after death.The second coming of Christ will not be personal and visible, but spiritual through a revelation of the spiritual sense of Holy Scripture, and is realized by the founding of the church of the New Jerusalem.[515]
§ 170.6. New Baptist Sects (§ [163, 3]).—In Wetterau about A.D. 1708 an anabaptist sect arose called Dippers, because they did not recognise infant baptism and insisted upon the complete immersion of adult believers. They appeared in Pennsylvania in A.D. 1719, and founded settlements in other states. Of the “perfect” they required absolute separation from all worldly practices and enjoyments and a simple, apostolic style of dress. To baptism and the Lord’s supper they added washing the feet and the fraternal kiss and anointing the sick. The Seventh-day Baptists observe the seventh instead of the first day of the week, and enjoin on the “perfect” celibacy and the community of goods. New sects from England continued to spread over America. Of these were the Seed or Sucker Baptists, who identified the non-elect with the seed of the serpent, and on account of their doctrine of predestination regarded all instruction and care of children useless. A similar predestinarian exaggeration is seen in the Hard-shell Baptists, who denounce all home and foreign missions as running counter to the Divine sovereignty. Many, sometimes called Campbellites from their founder, reject any party name, claiming to be simply Christians, and acknowledge only so much in Scripture as is expressly declared to be “the word of the Lord.” The Six-Principles-Baptists limit their creed to the six articles of Hebrews vi. 1, 2. The brothers Haldane, about the middle of the eighteenth century, founded in Scotland the Baptist sect of Haldanites, which has with great energy applied itself to the practical cultivation of the Christian life.—Continuation, §§ [208, 1]; [211, 3].
§ 170.7. New Quaker Sects.—The Jumpers, who sprang up among the Methodists of Cornwall about A.D. 1760, are in principle closely allied to the early Quakers (§ [163, 4]). They leaped and danced after the style of David before the ark and uttered inarticulate howls. They settled in America, where they have adherents still.—The Shakers originated from the prophets of the Cevennes who fled to England in A.D. 1705. They converted a Quaker family at Bolton in Lancashire named Wardley, and the community soon grew. In A.D. 1758 Anna Lee, wife of a farrier Stanley, joined the society, and, as the apocalyptic bride, inaugurated the millennium. She taught that the root of all sin was the relationship of the sexes. Maltreated by the mob, she emigrated to America, along with thirty companions, in A.D. 1774. Though persecuted here also, the sect increased and formed in the State of New York the Millennial Church or United Society of Believers. Anna died in A.D. 1784; but her prophets declared that she had merely laid aside the earthly garb and assumed the heavenly, so that only then the veneration of “Mother Anna” came into force. As Christ is the Son of the eternal Wisdom, Anna is the daughter; as Christ is the second Adam, she is the second Eve, and spiritual mother of believers as Christ is their father. Celibacy, community of goods, common labour (chiefly gardening), as a pleasure, not a burden, common domestic life as brothers and sisters, and constant intercourse with the spirit world, are the main points in her doctrine. By the addition of voluntary proselytes and the adoption of poor helpless children the sect has grown, till now it numbers 3,000 or 4,000 souls in eighteen villages. The capital is New Lebanon in the State of New York. The name Shakers was given them from the quivering motion of body in their solemn dances. In their services they march about singing “On to heaven we will be going,” “March heavenward, yea, victorious band,” etc. Like the Quakers (§ [163, 6]) they have neither a ministry nor sacraments, and their whole manner of life is modelled on that of the Quakers.The purity of the relation of brothers and sisters has always been free from suspicion.[516]
§ 170.8. Predestinarian-Mystical Sects.—The Hebræans, founded by Verschoor, a licentiate of the Reformed church of Holland deposed under suspicion of Spinozist views, in the end of the seventeenth century, hold it indispensably necessary to read the word of God in the original. They were fatalists, and maintained that the elect could commit no sin. True faith consisted in believing this doctrine of their own sinlessness. About the same time sprang up the Hattemists, followers of Pontiaan von Hattem, a preacher deposed for heresy, with fatalistic views like the Hebræans, but with a strong vein of pantheistic mysticism. True piety consisted in the believer resting in God in a purely passive manner, and letting God alone care for him. The two sects united under the name of Hattemists, and continued to exist in Holland and Zealand till about A.D. 1760.
§ 171. Religion, Theology, and Literature of the “Illumination.”[517]
In England during the first half of the century deism had still several active propagandists, and throughout the whole century efforts, not altogether unsuccessful, were made to spread Unitarian views. From the middle of the century, when the English deistic unbelief had died out, the “Illumination,” under the name of rationalism, found an entrance into Germany. Arminian pelagianism, recommended by brilliant scholarship, English deism, spread by translations and refutations, and French naturalism, introduced by a great and much honoured king, were the outward factors in securing this result. The freemason lodges, carried into Germany from England, a relic of mediævalism, aided the movement by their endeavour after a universal religion of a moral and practical kind. The inward factors were the Wolffian philosophy (§ [167, 3]), the popular philosophy, and the pietism, with its step-father separatism (§ [170]), which immediately prepared the soil for the sowing of rationalism. Orthodoxy, too, with its formulas that had been outlived, contributed to the same end. German rationalism is essentially distinguished from Deism and Naturalism by not breaking completely with the Bible and the church, but eviscerating both by its theories of accommodation and by its exaggerated representations of the limitations of the age in which the books of Scripture were written and the doctrines of Christianity were formulated. It thus treats the Bible as an important document, and the church as a useful religious institution. Over against rationalism arose supernaturalism, appealing directly to revelation. It was a dilution of the old church faith by the addition of more or less of the water of rationalism. Its reaction was therefore weak and vacillating. The temporary success of the vulgar rationalism lay, not in its own inherent strength, but in the correspondence that existed between it and the prevailing spirit of the age. The philosophy, however, as well as the national literature of the Germans, now began a victorious struggle against these tendencies, and though itself often indifferent and even hostile to Christianity, it recognised in Christ a school-master. Pestalozzi performed a similar service to popular education by his attempts to reform effete systems.
§ 171.1. Deism, Arianism, and Unitarianism in the English Church.
- The Deists (§ [164, 3]). With Locke’s philosophy (§ [164, 2]) deism entered on a new stage of its development. It is henceforth vindicated on the ground of its reasonableness. The most notable deists of this age were John Toland, an Irishman, first Catholic, then Arminian, died A.D. 1722, author of “Christianity not Mysterious,” “Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile, and Mohametan Christianity,” etc. The Earl of Shaftesbury, died A.D. 1713, wrote “Characteristics of Men,” etc. Anthony Collins, J.P. in Essex, died A.D. 1729, author of “Priestcraft in Perfection,” “Discourse of Freethinking,” etc. Thomas Woolston, fellow of Cambridge, died in prison in A.D. 1733, author of “Discourse on the Miracles of the Saviour.” Mandeville of Dort, physician in London, died A.D. 1733, wrote “Free Thoughts on Religion.” Matthew Tindal, professor of law in Oxford, died A.D. 1733, wrote “Christianity as Old as the Creation.” Thomas Morgan, nonconformist minister, deposed as an Arian, then a physician, died A.D. 1743, wrote “The Moral Philosopher.” Thomas Chubb, glover and tallow-chandler in Salisbury, died A.D. 1747, author of popular compilations, “The True Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Viscount Bolingbroke, statesman, charged with high treason and pardoned, died A.D. 1751, writings entitled, “Philosophical Works.”—Along with the deists as an opponent of positive Christianity may be classed the famous historian and sceptic David Hume, librarian in Edinburgh, died A.D. 1776, author of “Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding,” “Natural History of Religion,” “Dialogues concerning Natural Religion,” etc.[518]—Deism never made way among the people, and no attempt was made to form a sect. Among the numerous opponents of deism these are chief: Samuel Clarke, died A.D. 1729; Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, died A.D. 1761; Chandler, Bishop of Durham, died A.D. 1750; Leland, Presbyterian minister in Dublin, died A.D. 1766, wrote “View of Principal Deistic Writers,” three vols., 1754; Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester, died A.D. 1779; Nath. Lardner, dissenting minister, died A.D. 1768, wrote “Credibility of the Gospel History,” seventeen vols., 1727-1757. With these may be ranked the famous pulpit orator of the Reformed church of France, Saurin, died A.D. 1730, author of Discours hist., crit., theol., sur les Evénements les plus remarkables du V. et N.T.
- The So-called Arians. In the beginning of the century several distinguished theologians of the Anglican church sought to give currency to an Arian doctrine of the Trinity. Most conspicuous was Wm. Whiston, a distinguished mathematician, physicist, and astronomer of the school of Sir Isaac Newton, and his successor in the mathematical chair at Cambridge. Deprived of this office in A.D. 1708 for spreading his heterodox views, he issued in A.D. 1711 a five-volume work, “Primitive Christianity Revived,” in which he justified his Arian doctrine of the Trinity as primitive and as taught by the ante-Nicene Fathers, and insisted upon augmenting the N.T. canon by the addition of twenty-nine books of the apostolic and other Fathers, including the apostolic “Constitutions” and “Recognitions” which he maintained were genuine works of Clement. Subsequently he adopted Baptist views, and lost himself in fantastic chiliastic speculations. He died A.D. 1752. More sensible and moderate was Samuel Clarke, also distinguished as a mathematician of Newton’s school and as a classical philologist. As an opponent of deism in sermons and treatises he had gained a high reputation as a theologian, when his work, “The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity,” in A.D. 1712, led to his being accused of Arianism by convocation; but by conciliatory explanations he succeeded in retaining his office till his death in A.D. 1729. But the excitement caused by the publication of his work continued through several decades, and was everywhere the cause of division. His ablest apologist was Dan. Whitby, and his keenest opponent Dan. Waterland.
- The Later Unitarians. The anti-trinitarian movement entered on a new stage in A.D. 1770. After Archdeacon Blackburne of London, in A.D. 1766, had started the idea, at first anonymously, in his “Confessional,” he joined in A.D. 1772 with other freethinkers, among whom was his son-in-law Theophilus Lindsey, in presenting to Parliament a petition with 250 signatures, asking to have the clergy of the Anglican church freed from the obligation of subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Liturgy, and to have the requirement limited to assent to the Scriptures. This prayer was rejected in the Lower House by 217 votes against 71. Lindsey now resigned his clerical office, announced his withdrawal from the Anglican church, founded and presided over a Unitarian congregation in London from A.D. 1774, and published a large number of controversial Unitarian tracts. He died in A.D. 1808. The celebrated chemist and physicist Joseph Priestley, A.D. 1733-1806, who had been a dissenting minister in Birmingham from A.D. 1780, joined the Unitarian movement in 1782, giving it a new impetus by his high scientific reputation. He wrote the “History of the Corruptions of Christianity,” and the “History of Early Opinions about Jesus Christ,” denying that there is any biblical foundation for the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, and seeking to show that it had been forced upon the church against her will from the Platonic philosophy. These and a whole series of other controversial writings occasioned great excitement, not only among theologians, but also among the English people of all ranks. At last the mob rose against him in A.D. 1791. His house and all his scientific collections and apparatus were burnt. He narrowly escaped with his life, and soon after settled in America, where he wrote a church history in four vols. Of his many English opponents the most eminent was Bishop Sam. Horsley, a distinguished mathematician and commentator on the works of Sir Isaac Newton.
§ 171.2. Freemasons.—The mediæval institution of freemasons (§ 104, 13) won much favour in England, especially after the Great Fire of London in A.D. 1666. The first step toward the formation of freemason lodges of the modern type was taken about the end of the sixteenth century, when men of distinction in other callings sought admission as honorary members. After the rebuilding of London and the completion of St. Paul’s in A.D. 1710, most of the lodges became defunct, and the four that continued to exist united in A.D. 1717 into one grand lodge in London, which, renouncing material masonry, assumed the task of rearing the temple of humanity. In A.D. 1721 the Rev. Mr. Anderson prepared a constitution for this reconstruction of a trade society into a universal brotherhood, according to which all “free masons” faithfully observing the moral law as well as all the claims of humanity and patriotism, came under obligation to profess the religion common to all good men, transcending all confessional differences, without any individual being thereby hindered from holding his own particular views. Although, in imitation of the older institution, all members by reason of their close connexion were bound to observe the strictest secrecy in regard to their masonic signs, rites of initiation and promotion, and forms of greeting, it is not properly a secret society, since the constitution was published in A.D. 1723, and members publicly acknowledge that they are such.—From London the new institute spread over all England and the colonies. Lodges were founded in Paris in A.D. 1725, in Hamburg in A.D. 1737, in Berlin in A.D. 1740. This last was raised in A.D. 1744 into a grand lodge, with Frederick II. as grand master. But soon troubles and disputes arose, which broke up the order about the end of the century.Rosicrucians (§ [160, 1]) and alchemists, pretending to hold the secrets of occult science, Jesuits (§ [210, 1]), with Catholic hierarchical tendencies, and “Illuminati” (§ [165, 13]), with rationalistic and infidel tendencies, as well as adventurers of every sort, had made the lodges centres of quackery, juggling, and plots.[519]
§ 171.3. The German “Illumination.”