PRE RELIGIONS OF AMERICA. UNITED STATES. REVIOUS to an account of the prefent denomi nations in the United States of America, a fhort fketch of the Aborigines will not, perhaps, be unentertaining to fome readers. The following accounts are extracted from valuable authors. The natives of New-England believed not only a plurality of Gods, who made and govern the feveral nations of the world, but they made deities of every thing they imagined to be great, powerful, beneficial, or hurtful to mankind. Yet they conceived an Almighty Being, who dwells in the fouthweft regions of the heavens, to be fuperior to all the reft. This Almighty Being they called Kichtan, who at firft, according to their tradition, made a man and woman out of a ftone; but upon fome diflike, deftroyed them again; and then made another couple out of a tree, from whom defcended all the nations of the earth; but how they came to be fcattered and difperfed into countries fo remote from one another, they cannot tell. They believed their fupreme God to be a good being, and paid a fort of acknowledgment to him for plenty, victory, and other benefits. But there is another power, which they call Hobamocko, in English, the devil, of whom they ftood in greater awe, and worfhipped merely from a principle of fear. The immortality of the foul was univerfally believed among them. When good men die, they faid, their fouls went to Kichtan, where they meet their friends, and enjoy all manner of pleafures; when wicked men die, they went to Kichtan alfo, but are commanded to walk away; and to wander about in reftlefs discontent and darkness forever.* • Neal's Hiftory of New-England, vol. i. p. 33, 34, 35 At At prefent the Indians in New-England are almost wholly extinct.* Mr. Brainerd, who was a truly pious and fuccessful miffionary among the Indians on the Sufquehannah and Delaware rivers, in 1744, gives the following account of their religious fentiments. After the coming of the white people, the Indians in New-Jersey, who once held a plurality of deities, fuppofed there were only three, because they faw people of three kinds of complexions, viz. English, Negroes, and themselves. It is a notion pretty generally prevailing among them, that it was not the fame God made them who made us; but that they were created after the white people; and it is probable they fuppofe their God gained fome special fkill by feeing the white people made, and fo made them better; for it is certain they look upon themfelves and their methods of living, which they fay their God exprefsly prefcribed for them, vaftly preferable to the white people and their methods. With regard to a future ftate of exiftence, many of them imagine that the chichung, i, e. the fhadow, or what furvives the body, will, at death, go fouthward, to fome unknown, but curious place; will enjoy fome kind of happiness, fuch as hunting, feafting, dancing, or the like. And what they fuppofe will contribute much to their happiness in the next ftate, is, that they fhall never be weary of thefe entertainments. Thofe, who have any notion about rewards and fufferings in a future ftate, feem to imagine, that most will be happy, and that thofe, who are not fo, will be punished only with privation, being excluded from the walls of the good world, where happy spirits refide. Thofe rewards and punishments, they fuppofe to depend entirely upon their behaviour towards mankind; and have no reference to any thing, which relates to the worship of the Supreme Being.f A GENERAL * Belknap's Hiftory of New-Hampshire, vol, i. p. 124. This account is extracted from Brainred's Journal. He rode about four thousand miles among the Indians, and was sometimes five or fix weeks together without feeing a white person. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE RELIGIONS IN THE UNITED STATĖS. NEW EW-ENGLAND owes its first fettlement to relig. ious perfecution. A number of people, called Puritans, who refufed conformity to the church of England, labouring under various oppreffiors, quitted their native country, in order to enjoy the free exercife of their religion. Thefe were the first fettlers of New-England. But the noble principles of liberty ceafed to operate on their minds, after they had got the power in their hands. In a few years they fo far forgot their own fufferings, as to prefs for uniformity in religion, and to turn perfecutors in order to accomplish it. Thefe intemperate proceedings were overruled for good. As the intolerance of England peopled Maffachusetts, fo the intolerance of that province made many emigrants from it, and gave rife to various diftin&t fettlements, which, in the course of years, were formed into other provincial establish. ments. At prefent no religious teft is required as a qualification to any office, or public truft under the United States. It was one of the peculiarities of the forms of government in the United States, that all religious establishments were abolished. Some retained a conftitutional diftinction between Chriftians and others, with refpect to their eligibility to office; but the idea of fupporting one denomination at the expense of others, or of raising any one fect of Proteftants to a legal pre-eminence, was univerfally reprobated. The following denominations of Chriftians are more or lefs numerous in the United States, viz. Congregationalifts, Prefbyterians, Dutch Reformed Church, Epif 'copalians, Baptifts, Quakers or Friends, Methodists, Roman Catholics, German Lutherans, German Calvinifts, or Prefbyterians, Moravians, Tunkers, Mennonifts, Univerfalifts, Swedenborgeans, and Shakers. Ramfay's Hiftory of the American Revolution. The The Congregationalists are the most numerous de nomination in New-England, where they have upwards of a thoufand congregations. Formerly their ecclefiaftical proceedings were regulated, in Massachusetts, by the Cambridge platform of difcipline; and in Connecticut by the Saybrook platform of difcipline; but fince the revolution, lefs regard has been paid to thefe conftitutions, and in many inftances they are wholly difufed. Congregationalifts are generally agreed in this opinion, that "Every church or particular congregation of vifible faints, in gospel order, being furnished with a paftor or bishop, and walking together in truth and peace, has received from the Lord Jefus full power and authority, ecclefiaftically within itself, regularly to adminifter all the ordinances of Chrift, and is not under any other ecclefiaftical jurifdiction whatfoever." Their churches, with fome exceptions, difclaim the word Independent, as applicable to them, and claim a fifterly relation to each other. The minifters of the congregational order are generally affociated for the purposes of licenfing candidates for the miniftry, and friendly intercourfe and improvement. Congregationalifts are divided in opinion refpecting the doctrines of the gofpel, and the proper fubjects of its ordinances. Thofe differences occasion but little altercation. They, in general, agree to differ, and live together in harmony.* Next to Congregationalifts, Prefbyterians are the most numerous denomination of Chriftians in the United States. They have a conftitution, by which they regulate all their ecclefiaftical proceedings, and a confeffion of faith, which embraces the Calviniftic doctrines; all church officers and church members, are required to fubfcribe this confeffion. Hence they have preferved a fingular uniformity in their religious fentiments, and have conducted their ecclefiaftical affairs with a great degree of order and harmony, The Prefbyterian churches are governed by congregational, prefbyterial, and fynodical affemblies. These Morfe's Geography, vol. i. p. 270. affemblies affemblies poffefs no civil jurifdiction. Their power is wholly moral or fpiritual, and that only minifterial and declarative. The higheft punishment, to which their authority extends, is to exclude the contumacious and impenitent from the congregation of believers. The church feffion, which is the congregational affembly of judicatory, confifts of the minifter, or minifter and elders of a particular congregation. This body is invefted with the fpiritual government of the congregation, and have power to inquire into the knowledge and Chriftian conduct of all its members; to call before them offenders and witneffes of their own denomination; to admonifh, fufpend, or exclude from the facraments, fuch as deferve thefe cenfures; to concert meafures for promoting the fpiritual interefts of the congregation; and to appoint delegates to the higher judicatories of the church. A prefbytery confists of all the ministers, and one rul, ing elder from each congregation within a certain district. Three minifters and three elders conftitutionally convened, are competent to do bufinefs. This body have cognizance of all things that regard the welfare of the particular churches within their bounds, which are not cognizable by the feflion, Alfo they have a power of receiving and iffuing appeals from the feffions; of examining and licenfing candidates for the miniftry; of ordaining, fettling, removing, or judging minifters; of refolving queftions of doctrine or difcipline; of condemning erroneous opinions, that injure the purity, or peace of the church; of vifiting particular churches, to inquire into their ftate, and redrefs the evils that may have arifen in them; of uniting, or dividing congregations, at the requeft of the people; and whatever else pertains to the fpiritual concerns of the churches under their care.* A fynod is a convention of feveral prefbyteries. The fynod have power to admit and judge of appeals, regularly brought up from the prefbyteries; to give their Morfe's Geography, vol. i. p. 271. judgment |