LIBERALITY LIBERALITY tim after it was killed, and the several pieces of | of my tutor, that was a present of my father a the sacrifice were laid on the altar ready to be consumed in the flames. LIBERALITY, bounty; a generous disposition of mind, exerting itself in giving largely. It is thus distinguished from generosity and bounty:-Liberality implies acts of mere giving or spending; generosity, acts of greatness; bounty, acts of kindness. Liberality is a natural disposition; generosity proceeds from elevation of sentiment; bounty, from religious motives. Liberality denotes freedom of spirit; generosity, greatness of soul; bounty, openness of heart. LIBERALITY of sentiment, a generous disposition a man feels towards another who is of a different opinion from himself; or, as one defines it," that generous expansion of mind which enables it to look beyond all petty distinctions of party and system, and, in the estimate of men and things, to rise superior to narrow prejudices." As liberality of sentiment is often a cover for error and scepticism on the one hand, and as it is too little attended to by the ignorant and bigoted on the other, we shall here lay before our readers a view of it by a masterly writer. "A man of liberal sentiments must be distinguished from him who hath no religious sentiments at all. He is one who hath seriously and effectually investigated, both in his Bible and on his knees, in public assemblies and in private conversations, the important articles of religion. He hath laid down principles, he hath inferred consequences; in a word, he hath adopted sentiments of his own. "He must be distinguished also from that tame undiscerning domestic among good people, who, though he has sentiments of his own, yet has not judgment to estimate the, worth and value of one sentiment beyond another. "Now a generous believer of the Christian religion is one who will never allow himself to try to propagate his sentiments by the commission of sin. No collusion, no bitterness, no wrath, no undue influence of any kind, will he apply to make his sentiments receivable; and no living thing will be less happy for his being a Christian. He will exercise his liberality by allowing those who differ from him as much virtue and integrity as he possibly can. "There are, among a multitude of arguments to enforce such a disposition, the following worthy of our attention. friend gave me this branch of knowledge, an x- "We should believe the Christian res "Thirdly, We should be liberal, because ni other spirit is exemplified in the infallible goa whom we profess to follow. I set one la against a whole army of uninspired men: 'S preach Christ of good-will, and some of envy strife. What then? Christ is preached; a therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. On eateth all things, another eateth herbs; but wh dost THOU judge thy brother? We shall all t before the judgment-seat of Christ. We h inquire, What was the doctrine of Christ, in what was the practice of Christ; suppose were to institute a third question, Of what th PER was Christ? "First, We should exercise liberality in union with sentiment, because of the different capacities, advantages, and tasks of mankind. Religion employs the capacities of mankind, just as the air employs their lungs and their organs of speech. The fancy of one is lively, of another dull. The judgment of one is elastic; of another feeble, a "Once more: We should be liberal as wel damaged spring. The memory of one is reten-orthodox, because truth, especially the truth tive; that of another is treacherous as the wind. The passions of this man are lofty, vigorous, rapid; those of that man crawl, and hum, and buz, and, when on wing, sail only round the circumference of a tulip. Is it conceivable that capability, so different in every thing else, should be all alike in religion? The advantages of mankind differ. How should he who hath no parents, no books, no tutor, no companions, equal him whom Providence hath gratified with them all; who, when he looks over the treasures of his own knowledge, can say, this I had of a Greek, that I learned of a Roman; this information I acquired Christianity, do not want any support from illiberality. Let the little bee guard its little ney with its little sting; perhaps its little may depend a little while on that little no ment. Let the fierce bull shake his head, nod his horn, and threaten his enemy, seeks to eat his flesh, and wear his coat, and by his death: poor fellow! his life is in dang I forgive his bellowing and his rage. But Christian religion,—is that in danger? and human efforts can render that true which false, that odious which is lovely? Christian is in no danger, and therefore it gives its LIBERTINES fessors life and breath, and all things, except a power of injuring others. LITANY of all religion. To this odious class belonged one Gruet, who denied the divinity of the Christian religion, the immortality of the soul, the difference between moral good and evil, and rejected with disdain the doctrines that are held most sacred among Christians for which impieties he was at last brought before the civil tribunal in the year 1550, and condemned to death. "In fine, liberality in the profession of religion is a rise and innocent policy. The bigot lives at home; a reptile he crawled into existence, and there in his hole he lurks a reptile still. A generous Christian goes out of his own party, associates with others, and gains improvement by all. It is a Persian proverb, A liberal hand is better LIBERTY denotes a state of freedom, in conthan a strong arm. The dignity of Christianity tradistinction to slavery or restraint.-1. Natural 1s better supported by acts of liberality than by liberty, or liberty of choice, is that in which our accuracy of reasoning; but when both go together, volitions are not determined by any foreign cause when a man of sentiment can clearly state and or consideration whatever offered to it, but by its ably defend his religious principles, and when his own pleasure.-2. External liberty, or liberty of heart is as generous as his principles are inflexi-action, is opposed to a constraint laid on the exe, he possesses strength and beauty in an emi-ecutive powers; and consists in a power of rennent degree." See Theol. Misc. vol. i. p. 39. LIBERTINE, one who acts without restraint, and pays no regard to the precepts of religion. LIBERTINES, according to some, were such Jews as were free citizens of Rome; they had a separate synagogue at Jerusalem, and sundry of them concurred in the persecution of Stephen, Acts vi. 9. Dr. Guyse supposes that those who had obtained this privilege by gift were called herti (free men,) and those who had obtained it by purchase, libertini (made free,) in distinction In original native free men. Dr. Doddridge Laiks that they were called Libertines as having en the children of freed men, that is, of emanpated captives or slaves. See Doddridge and fryse on Acts vi. 9. dering our volitions effectual.-3. Philosophical LIBERTINES, a religious sect which arose the year 1525, whose principal tenets were, that the Deity was the sole operating cause in e mind of man, and the immediate author of all aman actions; that, consequently, the distinc-i. tons of good and evil, which had been establishwith regard to those actions, were false and undless, and that men could not, properly aking, commit sin; that religion consisted in union of the spirit, or rational soul, with the preme Being; that all those who had attained as happy union, by sublime contemplation and ⚫vation of mind, were then allowed to indulge, without exception or restraint, their appetites or tons; that all their actions and pursuits were en perfectly innocent; and that, after the death the body, they were to be united to the Deity. y likewise said that Jesus Christ was nothing mere je ne scai quoi, composed of the art of God and the opinion of men. These maxsoccasioned their being called Libertines, and word has been used in an ill sense ever since. Jus sert spread principally in Holland and BraTheir leaders were one Quintin, a Pir, Pockesius, Ruffus, and another, called Cho, who joined with Quintin, and became his ple. They obtained footing in France sough the favour and protection of Margaret, ven of Navarre, and sister to Francis I., and and patrons in several of the reformed churches. Lavertines of Geneva were a cabal of rakes ier than fanatics; for they made no pretence any religious system, but pleaded only for the ⚫ty of leading voluptuous and immoral lives. cabal was composed of a certain number of tions citizens, who could not bear the severe line of Calvin. There were also among In several who were not only notorious for ar dissolute and scandalous manner of living, also for their atheistical impiety and contempt LIFE, a state of active existence.-1. Human life is the continuance or duration of our present state, and which the Scriptures represent as short and vain, Job xiv. 1, 2; James iv. 14.-2. Spiritual life consists in our being in the favour of God, influenced by a principle of grace, and living dependent on him. It is considered as of divine origin, Col. iii. 4; hidden, iii. 3; peaceful, Rom. viii. 6; secure, John x. 28.-3. Eternal life is that never-ending state of existence which the saints shall enjoy in heaven, and is glorious, Col. iii. 4; holy, Rev. xxi. 27; and blissful, 1 Pet. i. 4; 2 Cor. iv. 17. See HEAVEN. LIGHT OF NATURE. See NATURE. LIGHT, DIVINE. See KNOWLEDGE, RELIGION. LITANY, a general supplication used in public worship to appease the wrath of the Deity, and to request those blessings a person wants. The words comes from the Greek TV, "supplication," of TV, "I beseech." At first, the use of litanies was not fixed to any stated time, but were only employed as exigencies required. They were observed, in imitation of the Ninevites, with ardent supplications and fastings, to avert the threatened judgments of fire, earthquakes, inundations, or hostile invasions. About the year 400, litanies began to be used in proces sions, the people walking barefoot, and repeating LITURGY them with great devotion; and it is pretended that by this means several countries were delivered from great calamities. The days on which they were used were called Rogation days; these were appointed by the canons of different councils till it was decreed by the council of Toledo, that they should be used every month throughout the year; and thus, by degrees, they came to be used weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient stationary days for fasting. To these days the rubrick of the church of England has added Sundays, as being the greatest day for assembling at divine service. Before the last review of the common prayer, the litany was a distinct service by itself, and used sometimes after the morning prayer was over; at present it is made one office with the morning service, being ordered to be read after the third collect for grace, instead of the intercessional prayers in the daily service. / LOLLARDS in the first year of his reign, particularly in th form more desirable. It made its appearan 1752. Mr. Orton says of it, "It is scarce Christian liturgy. In the collect, the nan Christ is hardly mentioned; and the Spa # quite banished from it." It was little better tat a deistical composition. Orton's Letters, va p. 80, 81: Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of 1%. vol. iii. p. 342. LOLLARDS, a religious sect, differiz; 1 many points from the church of Rome, arose in Germany, about the beginning c fourteenth century; so called, as many w have imagined, from Walter Lollard, who to dogmatize in 1315, and was burnt at Co though others think that Lollard was no surt but merely a term of reproach applied to all tics who concealed the poison of error under appearance of piety." LIVERPOOL LITURGY, a liturgy so LITURGY denotes all the ceremonies in ed from its first publication at Liverpool It general belonging to divine service. The word composed by some of the Presbyterians, v comes from the Greek Aroupy, "service, pub-growing weary of extempore prayer, thong || lic ministry," formed of Aros, "public," and sprove "work." In a more restrained signification, liturgy is used among the Romanists to signify the mass, and among us the common prayer. All who have written on liturgies agree, that, in primitive days, divine. service was exceedingly simple, clogged with a very few ceremonies, and consisted of but a small number of prayers; but, by degrees, they increased the number of ceremonies, and added new prayers, to make the office look more awful and venerable to the people. At length, things were carried to such a pitch, that a regulation became necessary; and it was found necessary to put the service and the manner of performing it into writing, and this was what they called a liturgy. Liturgies have been different at different times and in different countries. We have the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, of St. Peter, the Armenian liturgy, Gallican liturgy, &c. &c. "The properties required in a public liturgy," says Paley, "are these: it must be compendious; express just conceptions of the divine attributes-recite such wants as a congregation are likely to feel, and no other; and contain as few controverted propositions as possible." The liturgy of the church of England was composed in the year 1547, and established in the second year of king Edward VI. In the fifth year of this king it was reviewed, because some things were contained in that liturgy which showed a compliance with the superstition of those times, and some exceptions were taken against it by some learned men at home, and by Calvin abroad. Some alterations were made in it, which consisted in adding the general confession, and absolution, and the communion to begin with the Ten Commandments. The use of oil in confirmation and extreme unction was left out, and also prayers for souls departed, and what related to a belief of Christ's real presence in the eucharist. This liturgy, so reformed, was established by the acts of the 5th and 6th Edward VI. c. 1. However, it was abolished by queen Mary, who enacted, that the service should stand as it was most commonly used in the last year of the reign of king Henry VIII.-That of Edward VI. was re-established, with some alterations, by Elizabeth. Some further alterations were introduced, in consequence of the review of the common prayer book, by order of king Jaines, 236 The monk of Canterbury derives the orig the word lollard among us from lolium, “at”, as if the Lollards were the tares sown in Ch vineyard. Abelly says, that the word n "praising God," from the German loter praise," and herr, "lord;" because the LC: employed themselves in travelling about place to place, singing psalins and hymns. O much to the same purpose, derive oilhari hard, or tollert, lullert, as it was written be ancient Germans, from the old German lullen, lollen, or lallen, and the termination with which many of the High Dutch words e Lollen signifies, "to sing with a low voice," therefore lollard is a singer, or one who frequen sings; and in the vulgar tongue of the Ger. it denotes a person who is continually prais God with a song, or singing hymns to his he The Alexians or Cellites were called Lo because they were public singers, who N their business to inter the bodies of those w died of the plague, and sang a dirge over the a mournful and indistinct tone, as they e them to the grave. The name was afters assumed by persons that dishonoured it; &find among those Lollards who made ext nary pretences to religion, and spent the gr part of their time in meditation, prayer at acts of piety, there were many abonmala crites, who entertained the most rich rukous nions, and concealed the most enormous under the specious mask of this extrane. fession. Many injurious aspersions were only, but with those who call themselves wise, for propagated against those who assumed humane, and moral. They tremble at the idea of name by the priests and monks; so that, by murder, theft, adultery, &c., while they forget that es, any person who covered heresies or the same law which prohibits the commission of s under the appearance of piety was called these crimes, does, with equal force, forbid that ard. Thus the name was not used to de-of profaning his name. No man, therefore, whatany one particular sect, but was formerly ever his sense, abilities, or profession may be, on to all persons or sects who were sup-can be held guiltless, or be exonerated from the d to be guilty of impiety towards God or the charge of being a wicked man, while he lives in th, under an external profession of great the habitual violation of this part of God's sacred However, many societies, consisting both law. A very celebrated female writer justly oband women, under the name of Lollards, serves, that "It is utterly INEXCUSABLE; it has formed in most parts of Germany and Flan- none of the palliatives of temptation which other and were supported partly by their manual vices plead, and in that respect stands distinguishurs, and partly by the charitable donations of ed from all others both in its nature and degree of spersons. The magistrates and inhabitants guilt. Like many other sins, however, it is at the towns where these brethren and sisters once cause and effect; it proceeds from want of id, gave them particular marks of favour and love and reverence to the best of Beings, and breton, on account of their great usefulness to causes the want of that love both in themselves sick and needy. They were thus supported and others. This species of profaneness is not inst their malignant rivals, and obtained many only swearing, but, perhaps, in some respects, al constitutions, by which their institute was swearing of the worst sort; as it is a direct breach firmed, their persons exempted from the cog- of an express command, and offends against the ance of the inquisitor, and subjected entirely very letter of that law which says, in so many Ar jurisdiction of the bishops; but as these words: 'Thou shalt not take the name of the sures were insufficient to secure them from Lord thy God in vain.' It offends against politetation, Charles duke of Burgundy, in the ness and good breeding, for those who commit it 1172 obtained a solemn bull from pope little think of the pain they are inflicting on the IV. ordering that the Cellites, or Lollards, sober mind, which is deeply wounded when it be ranked among the religious orders, and hears the holy name it loves dishonoured; and it end from the jurisdiction of the bishops. is as contrary to good breeding to give pain, as it pope Julius II. granted them still greater is to true piety to be profane. It is astonishing , in the year 1506. Mosheim informs that the refined and elegant should not reprobate I any societies of this kind are still sub-this practice for its coarseness and vulgarity, as at Cologne, and in the cities of Flanders, much as the pious abhor it for its sinfulness. they have evidently departed from their truks and and his followers rejected the sacrifice nas, extreme unction, and penances for *guing that Christ's sufferings were suf4. He is likewise said to have set aside as a thing of no effect; and repentance solutely necessary, &c. In England, ders of Wickliffe were called, by way of Lollards, from the supposition that 3some affinity between some of their though others are of opinion that the Lollards came from Germany. See NG SUFFERING OF GOD. See PA- "I would endeavour to give some faint idea of the grossness of this offence by an analogy, (oh, how inadequate!) with which the feeling heart, even though not seasoned with religion, may yet be touched. To such i would earnestly saySuppose you had some beloved friend-to put the case still more strongly, a departed friend-a reverend parent, perhaps whose image never occurs without awakening in your bosom sentiments of tender love and lively gratitude; how would you feel if you heard this honoured name bandied about with unfeeling familiarity and indecent levity; or, at best, thrust into every pause of speech as a vulgar expletive?-Does not your affectionate heart recoil at the thought? And yet the hallowed name of your truest Benefactor, *D, a term properly denoting one who has your heavenly Father, your best Friend, to whom Applied to God, the supreme governor you are indebted for all you enjoy; who gives you er of all things. See GOD, those very friends in whom you so much delight, 'S DAY. See SABBATH. those very talents with which you dishonour him, OR NAME TAKEN IN VAIN, con- those very organs of speech with which you blasin using itlightly or rashly, in excla- pheme him, is treated with an irreverence, a conaljurations, and appeals in common tempt, a wantonness, with which you cannot bear -2. Hypocritically in our prayers, the very thought or mention of treating a human ngs, &c.-3. Superstitiously, as when friend. His name is impiously, is unfeelingly, is ites carried the ark to the field of battle, ungratefully singled out as the object of decided 7 them sucessful against the Philistines, irreverence, of systematic contempt, of thoughtless iv. 3, 4.-4. Wantonly, in swearing by levity. His sacred name is used indiscriminately ratures in his stead, Matt. v 31, 37.- to express anger, joy, grief, surprise, impatience; y, or sportiully cursing, and devoting and, what is almost still more unpardonable than or others to mischief and damnation. all, it is wantonly used as a mere unmeaning exing ourselves, attesting that which is pletive, which being excited by no temptation, 1. i. 5.-7. Blasphemously reviling can have nothing to extemate it; which, causing wing others to do so, Rom. ii. 21. Per- no emotion, can have nothing to recommend it, is no sin more common, as to the prac-unless it be the pleasure of the sin."-Mrs. More Tess thought of as to the guilt of it, than on Education, Vol. ä. p. 87; Gite's Body of Dir. sor is it thus common with the vulgar vol i p. 4 wn's Sytem of Rel. P. 526. 1 LORD'S PRAYER is that which our Lord [and by this ordinance, as it were, declares t gave to his disciples on the Mount. According he is ours, and we by it declare to be histo what is said in the sixth chapter of Matthew, standing ordinance, for it is to be observed it was given as a directory; but from Luke xi. 1, the end of time, I Cor. xi. 26. It seems t some argue that it was given as a form. Some quite an indifferent thing, what bread is ve.. have urged that the second and fourth petition of this ordinance, or what coloured wine, for Ca that prayer could be intended only for temporary took that which was readiest. The eating use: "but it is answered, that such a sense may be bread and drinking of the wine being alway put upon those petitions as shall suit all Chris- nected in Christ's example, they ought ne tians in all ages; for it is always our duty to pray be separated; wherever one is given the that Christ's kingdom may be advanced in the should not be withheld. This bread and ▾ world, and to profess our daily dependence on are not changed into the real body and bloo God's providential care. Nevertheless, there is Christ, but are only emblems thereof. See T no reason to believe that Christ meant that his SUBSTANTIATION. people should always use this as a set form: for, The subjects of this ordinance should be. if that had been the case, it would not have been as make a credible profession of the Gospel varied as it is by the two evangelists, Matt. vi., ignorant, and those whose lives are in Luke xi. It is true, indeed, that they both agree have no right to it; nor should it ever be a in the main, as to the sense, yet not in the ex-istered as a test of civil obedience, for this is j press words; and the doxology which Matthew verting the design of it. None but true bele** gives at large is wholly left out in Luke. And, can approach it with profit; yet we canns besides, we do not find that the disciples ever used clude any who make a credible profession it as a form. It is, however, a most excellent God only is the judge of the heart, whe summary of prayer, for its brevity, order, and can only act according to outward appearances matter; and it is very lawful and laudable to make Much has been said respecting the time use of any single petition, or the whole of it, pro-ministering it. Some plead for the mark vided a formal and superstitious use of it be avoid-others the afternoon, and some for the ever... ed. That great zeal, as one observes, which is to which latter, indeed, was the time of the be found in some Christians either for or against it, is to be lamented as a weakness; and it will become us to do all that we can to promote on each side more moderate sentiments concerning the use of it. See Doddridge's Lectures, lec. 194; Barrow's Works, vol. i. p. 48; Archbishop Leighton's Explanation of it; West on the Lord's Prayer; Gill's Body of Div. vol. iii. p. 362, 8vo.; Fordyce on Edification by Public Instruction, p. 11, 12; Mendam's Exposition of the Lord's Prayer. celebration of it, and is most suitable to a se, u LORD'S SUPPER is an ordinance which our Saviour instituted as a commemoration of his As to the posture. Dr. Doddridge just death and sufferings. 1. It is called a sacrament, serves, that it is greatly to be lamented that is, a sign and an oath. An outward and Christians have perverted an ordinance, inte visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; an as a pledge and means of their mutual var oath, by which we bind our souls with a bond into an occasion for discord and contents unto the Lord. Some, however, reject this term laying such a disproportionate stress on the as not being scriptural; as likewise the idea of ner in which it is to be administered, an swearing or vowing to the Lord. See Vow.-posture in which it is to be received. As 2. It is called the Lord's Supper, because it was latter, a table posture seems most elig first instituted in the evening, and at the close of the Passover supper; and because we therein feed upon Christ, the bread of life, Rom. iii. 20; 1 Cor. xi.-3. It is called the communion with Christ, and with his people, as herein we have communion, 1 Cor. xii. 13. x. 17.-4. It is called the eucharist, a thanksgiving, because Christ, in the instituting of it, gave thanks, 1 Cor. xi. 24, and because we, in the participation of it, must give thanks likewise-6. It is called a feast, and by some a feast upon a sacrifice, (though not a sacrifice itself,) in allusion to the custom of the Jews feasting upon their sacrifices, 1 Cor. x. 18. As to the nature of this ordinance, we may observe, that, in participating of the bread and wine, we do not consider it as expiatory, but, 1. As a commemorating ordinance. We are here We will only subjoin a few directions En to remember the person, love, and death of Christ, frame of mind we should attend upon the1 Cor. xi. 21.-2. A confessing ordinance. We nance. It should be with sorrow for or hereby profess our esteem for Christ, and depen- sins, and easiness and calmness of affection, dance upon hun.-3. A communicating ordi- from the disorders and ruffles of passion; nance: blessings of grace are here communicated holy awe and reverence of the Divine Ma to us.-4. A corenanting ordinance. God, in yet with a gracious confidence and earnest having been used by Christ and his apost |