CHAPTER XVIII.

NON-EPISCOPALIANS AND ROMAN CATHOLICS.

Origin of the American Sects.-Their relative numbers.-Their Unity of Doctrine.-Recapitulation of the Sects.-Revivals. -Religious eccentricities.-True method of Christian Union.

HITHERTO the attention of the reader has been chiefly confined to that body which, by distinction, is denominated in England "the Church." In order to convey a correct idea of the relative importance of the American Church, it will be necessary to give a brief account of the numbers, character, and influence of those religious bodies which are not comprehended within its pale. I cannot pretend to great minuteness in treating of a subject so extensive and complicated. Yet such statements as are given will be derived from credible testimony, from official reports, and from personal observation.

The origin of many of the American sects has been briefly stated in the tenth chapter. The first Baptists, Roman Catholics, Congregationalists, Quakers, Swedenborgians, Methodists, and Presbyterians were emigrants from Great Britain. Holland sent forth the Dutch Reformed, and Germany, Sweden, and Finland, the Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, and German Reformed. The Jews emigrated from all the nations of Europe. The Shaker sect was founded by Ann Lee, an Englishwoman, the Campbellite Baptists by Alexander Campbell, a Scotchman, still living. The Dunkers were established by a German residing in Pennsylvania, and the Universalists and Unitarians derive their origin chiefly from English preachers of the last century. I am not aware that America has given birth to any entirely new sect, with the exception of the ridiculous Mormonites. Yet numerous subdivisions of sects have originated on the western side of the Atlantic. Among these may be reckoned a great variety of Baptists, the New School and Cumberland Presbyterians, the Protestant or Radical Methodists, the Hicksite Quakers, and others of less importance.

The great progress and numbers of many of the above sects, have also been accounted for in the tenth chapter. In the first place, it was remarked that the emigrants of the non-episcopal and Roman

Catholic denominations were originally more numerous than those of the English Church, and in the second place, the British Government neglecting to provide bishops for America, the number and the influence of Episcopal clergymen was restrained within narrow limits. Estimating the present number of Episcopalians at half a million, it may be stated that the Baptists of all kinds are about seven times as numerous as the Episcopalians, the Methodists of two kinds five-fold, the Presbyterians of six kinds about four-fold, the Congregationalists between two and three-fold; and the Roman Catholics considerably more than equal. The Universalists are about equal to the Episcopalians. The Lutherans about three-quarters of their number; the German Reformed one-half; the Dutch Reformed less than half; the Unitarians nearly a third, and the Quakers about a quarter. With respect to the excellent Moravians, the Jews, Mormonites, Shakers, Dunkers, Swedenborgians, &c. their numbers are too small to admit of any useful comparison, the whole together, probably, not exceeding seventy thousand.

Of the above denominations, the greater part of the Methodists, perhaps two millions of their number, the Roman Catholics, and the Moravians, recognise Episcopal jurisdiction equally with the Protestant Episcopalians. The Moravians are

under bishops of their own, who trace their succession remotely to the Greek Church. The Methodist Episcopacy originated with Messrs. Asbury and Coke, two gentlemen appointed by John Wesley as superintendents of the connection in America. This episcopacy, notwithstanding its deficiency of Apostolic authority, exerts great power, and commands the obedience of preachers and people.

Precomposed forms of worship are used to a greater or less extent by the Roman Catholics, the Moravians, the Methodists, the Dutch Reformed, the Jews, the Unitarians, and the Swedenborgians.

In regard to doctrine, I have already remarked that the great majority of American religionists are orthodox. This is most emphatically the case; and affords a strong evidence that the Bible alone is sufficient to impart a knowledge of all truth necessary to salvation. It is a fact, which even a high Churchman can contemplate with pleasure, that the Episcopalians, the Congregationalists, the Dutch Reformed, the German Reformed, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Moravians, the Presbyterians, and most of the Baptists and Quakers, agree in maintaining nearly all the truths contained in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Thirty-nine Articles. Among these denominations is found almost the whole religious energy of the country, and from these the

great philanthropic institutions of America derive their prosperity and vigour.

The Baptist sects, taken collectively, constitute the prevailing denomination. Yet their influence on society is little felt, on account of their divisions and their uneducated ministry. Altogether, they constitute a motley collection of religious bodies. Besides the old Calvinistic Baptists, who are the most numerous, there are the Free-will, the Seventhday, and the Six-principle Baptists, who, I believe, are also found in England. The Christian Baptists deny the proper divinity of Christ. The Campbellite Baptists maintain that the Holy Spirit is promised only to those who have been immersed. Many of them do not wholly admit the doctrine of the Trinity, and hold the doctrine of Atonement in a modified sense. They profess to agree with Episcopalians in baptizing for the remission of sins, and quote many of our divines in support of their theory of baptismal regeneration. My own impression is, that the success of Alexander Campbell is greatly owing to a re-action in the public mind against the lax opinions on the subject of Baptism, the antinomianism, and the enthusiastic views of spiritual agency which commonly prevail in the west. The Campbellites have a new version of the New Testament, compiled by their founder from the versions of Macknight, Doddridge and others,

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