Some of the texts quoted by the Quakers in justification of their disuse of baptism, are the following:- -1 Cor. i. 17. Heb. vii. 18. Gal. iv. 9. Coloss. ii. 20. Ephes. ii. 14, 15.

(See Note to Matt. xxviii. 19.)

MATTHEW iv. 1.

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil."

(UNITARIANISM.)

"This form of expression denotes that the historian is about to describe a visionary scene, and not a real event. See Rev. i. 10. Acts xi. 5. Our Lord was intrusted with the power of working miracles at pleasure, John iii. 34, 35.; and by the visionary scene presented to his mind on this occasion, he was instructed that he was not to exert his miraculous powers for his own personal advantage or aggrandizement, but solely in subservience to the great design of his mission and ministry. See Farmer on Christ's temptation. Some have thought that the account of the temptation is a figurative description of the train of thoughts which passed through the mind of Jesus. See Cappe's Dissertation. The introduction of the devil into this scenical representation, no more proves the real existence of such a being, than the introduction of the lamb, or the red dragon, in the apocalyptic vision, is a proof of the real existence of those symbolical agents."

Note to the Unitarian Version,

The Puritans contended that the observation of Lent, in imitation of Jesus Christ, is superstitious. See Neal's History of the Puritans.

The Russians, with their mother church, have four Lents annually, besides a great number of other abstinences or fasts, and Wednesdays and Fridays, which are fish-days throughout the whole year. The first Lent comprehends the forty days previous to Christmas; the second, which is their great Lent, the same space of time before Easter; the third, called the Lent of St. Peter, commences the week after Pentecost, or Whitsunday, and ends on the feast of St. Peter (June 29.); and the fourth, the Lent of the Mother of God, begins on the first, and ends on the fifteenth of August; this last being the day of Koimesis, or the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

They eat neither meat, nor eggs, nor drink milk, during Lent; linseed oil, fish, herbs, roots, and mushrooms, are then their sole nourishment.

Secret Memoirs, Vol. II. p. 87.

(See Note to Gal. iv. 9.)

MATTHEW iv. 11.

"Angels came and ministered."

(UNITARIANISM.)

"i. e. He received peculiar divine aid, expressed in Jewish language. SIMPSON."

Note to the Unitarian Version.

No. 1.

MATTHEW iv. 24.

"Possessed with devils."

(WESLEY.)

Wesley maintained, that madness was frequently occasioned by demoniacal possession, and in this opinion he found many to encourage him. At one țime, his prayers were desired for a child that was a lunatic, and sore vexed day and night; that our Lord might be pleased to heal him, as he did those in the days of his flesh.

Wesley's notions of diabolical agency went very far; he imputed to it many of the accidents and discomforts of life; disease, bodily hurts, storms and earthquakes, and nightmare; he believed that epilepsy was often, or always, the effect of possession, and that most madmen were demoniacs.

"Insane and epileptic persons were supposed to be possessed by demons, or the ghosts of wicked men, who were thought to have the power of entering

into the bodies of living men, and of tormenting them at pleasure. And the cure of these diseases is described as the casting out of the demons. The account which the Gospel reveals of the state of the dead is so inconsistent with this hypothesis, that it was soon exploded among Christians. But, that lunatics and epileptics were possessed by devils, or fallen angels, though it is an opinion which prevailed early, is no where asserted, nor even hinted at, in the New Testament, and is totally destitute of foundation, both in reason and revelation. See Farmer's Essay on the Demoniacs of the New Testament."

Note to the Unitarian Version.

1

MATTHEW V. 1, 2.

"He went up into a mountain and taught," &c.

(WHITEFIELD AND WESLEY.)

On the 13th Feb. 1739, Whitefield stood upon a mountain in a place called Rose Green, his first "field pulpit," and preached to as many as came to hear, attracted by the novelty of such an address.

"I thought," said he, " it might be doing the service of my Creator, who had a mountain for his pulpit, and the heavens for a sounding-board; and who, when his Gospel was refused by the Jews, sent his servants into the highways and hedges." Wesley followed the example of Whitefield.

"I could scarcely reconcile myself at first," said Wesley, "to this strange way, having been all my life, till very lately, so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church."

The next day he observed, "that our Lord's Sermon on the Mount was one pretty instance of field preaching," and, he adds, "I suppose there were churches at that time also." "On the morrow, at four in the afternoon," he says, "I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed on the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining the city, to about three thousand people."

Southey's Life of Wesley.

MATTHEW V. 17.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law.”

(PASAGINIANS OR PAŠAGII.)

The Pasaginians, an Italian sect of the twelfth century, affirmed, that the law of Moses was obligatory upon Christians in every thing except the offering of sacrifices; in consequence of which, they circumcised their followers, abstained from those meats, the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic Economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. They denied the Divinity of Christ.

Dr. Mosheim observes, that the origin of the name Pasagini, or Pasagii, is not known; but it appears, from other writers, that it is derived from the Greek words was and πας αγιος all holy; and that the name of Pasaginians was assumed by different fanatics, who pretended to particular sanctity.

See Dictionn. des Hérésies.