they are not connected with cir-termine the most important affairs cumstances really sinful; but, ap-both of church and state. prehending a lot to be sacred, disapprove of lotteries, playing at cards, dice, &c.

SARABAITES, wandering fanatics, or rather impostors, of the fourth century, who, instead of procuring a subsistence by honest industry, travelled through various cities and provinces, and gained a maintenance by fictitious miracles,

They maintain a plurality of elders, pastors, or bishops, in each church; and the necessity of the presence of two elders in every act of discipline, and at the adminis-by selling relics to the multitude, tration of the Lord's supper.

In the choice of these elders, want of learning and engagement in trade are no sufficient objection, if qualified according to the instructions given to Timothy and Titus; but second marriages disqualify for the office; and they are ordained by prayer and fasting, imposition of hands, and giving the right hand of fellowship.

and other frauds of a like nature.

SATAN is an Hebrew word, and signifies an adversary, or enemy, and is commonly applied in scripture to the devil, or the chief of the fallen angels. "By collecting the passages," says Cruden, "where satan, or the devil, is mentioned, it may be observed, that he fell from heaven with all his company; that God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that, by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils, came into the world; that, by the permission of God, he exercises a sort of government in the world over his subordinates, over apostate angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good men, and chastise bad ones; that he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets, seducers, and heretics; that it is he, or some of his, that torment or possess men; that inspire them with evil designs, as he did David, when he suggested to him to number his people; to Judas, to betray his Lord and Master; and to AnaSANHEDRIM, a council or nias and Sapphira, to conceal the assembly of persons sitting toge- price of their field. That he roves ther; the name whereby the Jews full of rage like a roaring lion, to called the great council of the na- tempt, to betray, to destroy, and tion, assembled in an apartment of to involve us in guilt and wickedthe temple of Jerusalem, to de-ness; that his power and malice

In their discipline they are strict and severe, and think themselves obliged to separate from the communion and worship of all such religious societies as appear to them not to profess the simple truth for their only ground of hope, and who do not walk in obedience to it. We shall only add, that in every transaction they esteem unanimity to be absolutely necessary. Glas's Testimony of the King of Martyrs; Sandeman's Letters on Theron and Aspasio, letter 11; Backus's Discourse on Faith and its Influence, p. 7-30; Adams's View of Religions; Bellamy's Nature and Glory of the Gospel, London edit., notes, p. 65-125.

are restrained within certain li- || intendence of a certain intelligence mits, and controlled by the will of a malignant nature.

of God. In a word, that he is an enemy to God and man, and uses his utmost endeavours to rob God of his glory, and men of their souls." See articles ANGEL, DEVIL; Gilpin on Temptations; Brooks on Satan's Devices; Bishop Porteus's Sermons, vol. ii, p. 63; Burgh's Crito, vol. i, ess. 3; vol. ii, ess. 4; Howe's Works, vol. ii, p. 360; Gurnall's Christian Armour.

The world and its inhabitants were, according to the system of Saturnius, created by seven angels, which presided over the seven planets. This work was carried on without the knowledge of the benevolent Deity, and in opposition to the will of the material principle. The former, however, beheld it with approbation, and honoured it with several marks of SATANIANS, a branch of the his beneficence. He endowed Messalians, who appeared about with rational souls the being who the year 390. It is said, among inhabited this new system,to whom other things, that they believed their creators had imparted nothe devil to be extremely powerful, thing more than the animal life; and that it was much wiser to re- and, having divided the world inspect and adore than to curse him. to seven parts, he distributed them SATISFACTION, in general, among the seven angelic architects, signifies the act of giving complete one of whom was the God of the or perfect pleasure. In the Chris-Jews, and reserved to himself the tian system it denotes that which Christ did and suffered in order to satisfy Divine justice, to secure the honours of the divine government, and thereby make an atonement for the sins of his people. See ATONEMENT, and PROPITIATION. Also Dr. Owen on the Satisfaction of Christ; Gill's Body of Div., article Satisfaction; Stillingfleet on Satisfaction; Watts's Redeemer and Sanctifier, p. 28, 32.

To

supreme empire over all.
these creatures, whom the bene
volent principle had endowed with
reasonable souls, and with dispo-
sitions that led to goodness and
virtue, the evil being, to maintain
his empire, added another kind,
whom he formed of a wicked and
malignant character: and hence
the differences we see among men.
When the creatures of the world
fell from their allegiance to the
supreme Deity, God sent from
heaven into our globe a restorer
of order, whose name was Christ.
This Divine Conqueror came
clothed with a corporeal appear-

SATURNIANS, a denomination which arose about the year 115. They derived their name from Saturnius of Antioch, one of the principal Gnostic chiefs. He held the doctrine of two princi-ance, but not with a real body. He ples, whence proceeded all things; came to destroy the empire of the the one, a wise and benevolent material principle, and to point Deity; and the other, matter, a out to virtuous souls the way by principle essentially evil, and which which they must return to God. he supposed acted under the super- This way is beset with difficulties

and sufferings, since those souls one side and the other, without who propose returning to the Su-ever deciding between them.

preme Being must abstain from The word is applied to an ancient wine, flesh, wedlock, and, in short, sect of philosophers founded by from every thing that tends to sen- Pyrrho, who denied the real exsual gratification or even bodily istence of all qualities in bodies, refreshment. See GNOSTICS. except those which are essential to SAVIOUR, a person who de-primary atoms; and referred every livers from danger and misery. thing else to the perceptions of Thus Jesus Christ is called the the mind produced by external Saviour, as he delivers us from the objects; in other words, to appeargreatest evils, and brings us into ance and. opinion. In modern the possession of the greatest good. times the word has been applied See JESUS CHRIST, LIBERTY, PRO- to Deists, or those who doubt of PITIATION, REDEMPTION. the truth and authenticity of the sacred scriptures. One of the

Order of St. Saviour, a religious order of the Romish church, found-greatest sceptics in later times was ed by St. Bridget, about the year Hume: he endeavoured to intro1345; and so called from its being duce doubts into every branch pretended that our Saviour himself of physics, metaphysics, history, declared its constitution and rules ethics, and theology. He has to the foundress. been confuted, however, by the doctors Reid, Campbell, Gregory and Beattie. See INFIDElity.

SCHEWENKFELDIANS, a denomination in the sixteenth cen

SAVOY CONFERENCE, a conference held at the Savoy, in 1661, between the episcopal divines and the Presbyterians, in order to review the book of Common Pray-tury; so called from one Gasper er; but which was carried on the side of the Episcopalians. See Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. ii, p. 601, quarto edit.; or Introduct. to Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial. SAVOY CONFESSION of FAITH, a declaration of the faith and order of the Independents, agreed upon by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, in the year 1658. This was reprinted in the year 1729. See Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. ii, p. 507, quarto edit.

Schewenkfeldt, a Silesian knight. He differed from Luther in the three following points. The first of these points related to the doctrine concerning the eucharist. Schewenkfeldt inverted the following words of Christ, This is my body: and insisted on their being thus understood, My body is this, i. e. such as this bread which is broken and consumed; a true and real food, which nourisheth, satisfieth, and delighteth the soul. My blood is this, i. e. such its efSCEPTIC, OXETTINOS, from OXET-fects, as the wine which strength"I consider, look about, orens and refresheth the heart. Secelebrate," properly signifies con- condly, He denied that the etersiderative and inquisitive; or onenal word which is committed to who is always weighing reasons on writing in the holy scriptures was

τομαι,

endowed with the power of healing, illuminating, and renewing the mind; and he ascribed this power to the internal word, which, according to his notion, was Christ himself. Thirdly, He would not allow Christ's human nature, in its exalted state, to be called a creature, or a created substance, as such a denomination appeared to him infinitely below its majestic dignity; united as it is in that glorious state with the Divine es

sence.

may be guilty of schism by such an alienation of affection from their brethren as violates the internal union subsisting in the hearts of Christians, though there be no error in doctrine, nor separation from communion. See 1st Cor. iii, 3, 4. 1st Cor. xii, 24 to 26.

The great schism of the West is that which happened in the times of Clement VII and Urban VI, which divided the church for forty or fifty years, and was at length ended by the election of Martin V, at the council of Constance.

The Romanists number thirtyfour schisms in their church: they

SCHISM, from oxx, a rent, clift, fissure in its general acceptation it signifies division or separation; but is chiefly used in speak-bestow the name English schism on ing of separations happening from diversity of opinions among people of the same religion and faith. All separations, however, must not properly speaking be considered as schisms.

the reformation of religion in this kingdom. Those of the church of England apply the term schism to the separation of the Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and Methodists.

Schism, says Mr. Arch. Hall, "The sin of schism," says the is, properly a division among learned Blackstone," as such, is those who stand in one connex- by no means the object of temion of fellowship: but where the poral coercion and punishment.difference is carried so far, that If, through weakness of intellect, the parties concerned entirely through misdirected piety, through break up all communion one with perverseness and acerbity of temanother, and go into distinct con- per, or through a prospect of senexions for obtaining the general cular advantage in herding with a ends of that religious fellowship party, men quarrel with the ecclewhich they once did, but now do siastical establishment, the civil not carry on and pursue with magistrate has nothing to do with united endeavours, as one church it; unless their tenets and practice joined in the bonds of individual are such as threaten ruin or dissociety; where this is the case, it turbance to the state. All perseis undeniable there is something cution for diversity of opinions, very different from schism: it is however ridiculous and absurd no longer a schism in, but a sepa- they may be, is contrary to every ration from, the body.-Dr.Camp- principle of sound policy and civil bell supposes that the word schism freedom. The names and suborin scripture does not always sig-dination of the clergy, the posture nify open separation, but that men of devotion, the materials. and

colour of a minister's garment, the joining in a known or unknown form of prayer, and other matters of the same kind, must be left to the option of every man's private judgment." See King on the Primitive Church, p. 152; Hales and Henry on Schism; Dr. Campbell's Prel. Dis. to the Gospels, part 3; Haweis's Append. to the first Vol. of his Church History; Archibald Hall's View of a Gospel Church; Dr. Owen's View of the Nature of

Schism.

SCHISM BILL. See conclusion of the article NONCONFORMIST. SCHOLASTIC DIVINITY is that part or species of divinity which clears and discusses questions by reason and argument; in which sense it stands, in some measure, opposed to positive divinity, which is founded on the authority of fathers, councils, &c. The school divinity is now fallen into contempt, and is scarcely regarded any where but in some of the universities, where they are still by their charters obliged to teach it.

"Considering them as to their metaphysical researches," says an anonymous but excellent writer, "they fatigued their readers in the pursuit of endless abstractions and distinctions; and their design seems rather to have been accurately to arrange and define the objects of thought than to explore the mental faculties themselves. The nature of particular and universal ideas, time, space, infinity, together with the mode of existence to be ascribed to the Supreme Being, chiefly engaged the attention of the mightiest minds in the middle ages. Acute in the highest degree, and endued with a wonderful patience of thinking, they yet, by a mistaken direction of their powers, wasted themselves in endless logomachies, and displayed more of a teazing subtlety than of philosophical depth. They chose rather to strike into the dark and intricate by-paths of metaphy sical science than to pursue a career of useful discovery; and as their disquisitions were neither adorned by taste, nor reared on a basis of extensive knowledge, they

SCHOOLMEN, a sect of men, in the twelfth, thirteenth, and four-gradually fell into neglect, when teenth centuries, who framed a new sort of divinity, called Scholastic Theology. [See last article.] Their divinity was founded upon and confirmed by the philosophy of Aristotle, and lay, says Dr. Gill, in contentions and litigious disputations, in thorny questions and subtle distinctions. Their whole scheme was chiefly directed to support Antichristianism; so that by their means Popish darkness was the more increased, and Christian divinity almost banished out of the world.

juster views in philosophy made their appearance. Still they will remain a mighty monument of the utmost of which the mind of man can accomplish in the field of abstraction. If the metaphysician does not find in the schoolmen the materials of his work, he will perceive the study of their writings to be of excellent benefit in sharpening his tools. They will aid his acuteness, though they may fail to enlarge his knowledge."

Some of the most famous were, Damascene Lanfranc, P. Lom