mity between his word and his mind. Moses says, "He is a God of truth." He is true in and of himself; he truly and really exists; he is the true and living God: all his perfections are true and real; truth is essential to him; it is pure and perfect in him; it is the first and original in him; he is the fountain of truth: all his works in creation, providence, and grace, are according to truth. See FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. VERSCHORISTS, a sect that derived its denomination from Jacob Verschoor, a native of Flushing, who, in the year 1680, out of a perverse and heterogeneous mixture of the tenets of Cocceius and Spinosa, produced a new form of religion, equally remarkable for its extravagance and impiety. His disciples and followers were called Hebrews, on account of the zeal and assiduity with which they all, without distinction of age or sex, applied themselves to the study of the Hebrew language. Their sentiments were nearly the same as the Hattemists. See HATTEMISTS.

VERTABIETS, among the Armenian Christians, are such as have acquired a degree corresponding to that of Doctor in Divinity among us. This degree is conferred with the same solemnities as holy orders; and those who receive it are appealed to in all religious debates; they preach in the churches; reconcile differences; and exert themselves to maintain the purity of the Armenian creed. They are supported by the voluntary contributions of their hearers, or of those who apply to them for the decision of any religious question. VICAR, a priest of a parish, the predial tithes whereof are impropriate or appropriated; that is, belong either to a chapter, religious house, &c. or to a layman, who receives them, and only allows the vicar the small tithes, or a convenient salary.

VICE, a fault; the opposite of virtue. VIGIL, the eve or day before any solemn feast, because then Christians were wont to watch, fast, and pray in their churches.

VIRGINITY, PENETRATIVE, such an extraordinary or perfect gift of chastity, to which some have pretended, that it overpowered those by whom they have been surrounded, and created in them an insensibility to the pleasures of the flesh. The Virgin Mary, according to some Romanists, was possessed of this gift, which made those who beheld her,

notwithstanding her beauty, to have no sentiments but such as were consistent with chastity.

VIRGINITY, PERPETUAL, is ascribed to the mother of our Lord by the Eastern or Greek Church, which calls her caрОevos, and by the Roman, which calls her Semper Virgo. In every age of the church, however, there have been those who have maintained that she only continued a virgin till the nativity of Christ. Epiphanius, and after, him Augustine, gives such the name of Antidicomarianite. Bishop Pearson maintains the affirmative, on the following very unsatisfactory grounds: her peculiar eminency and unparalleled privilege; the special honour and reverence due to her son, and ever paid by her; the regard of the Holy Ghost that came upon her, and the power of the Highest which overshadowed her; and the singular goodness and piety of Joseph, her husband. By an accommodation of Ezek. xliv. 2, he, and many others, are inclined to support the same side of the question. With respect to Matt. i. 25, where it is said, "Joseph knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn Son," it has generally been considered equivocal; but Campbell, Whitby, Bloomfield, and other critics, regard the phrase as favouring the contrary opinion, that she did not continue a virgin, See especially Whitby's Note, and we may well acquiesce in the sentiment of Basil, there quoted: "what she was afterwards (after the birth of our Saviour), let us leave undiscussed, as being of small concern to the mystery."

Some,

Edwards and Jameson on Virtue; Grove's and Paley's Moral Phil.; Cumberland's Law of Nature, cap. i. § 4; Beattie's Elements of Morul Science, vol. ii. pp. 8, 77: Dr. Watts's Self Love and Virtue Reconciled, 2d vol. of his work, last edition.

VISION, the supernatural representation of an object to a man when waking, as in a glass which places the visage before him. It was one of the ways in which the Almighty was pleased to reveal himself to the prophets, Is.i. 1.; xxi. 2. VISITATION, the survey or inspection performed by a bishop in his diocese, to examine into the state of the church. In a divine or spiritual sense, it is taken either for a communication of divine love, or for any calamity affecting a nation.

VOW, a solemn and religious promise or oath. (See OATH.) It is more

particularly taken for a solemn promise made to God, in which we bind ourselves to do or forbear somewhat for the promoting of his glory. Under the Old Testament dispensation, vows were very common, Judges xi.; Numbers xxx. But in the New Testament there is no command whatever for the observation of them. Hence it is supposed that vows belong more to the ceremonial law than to the Gospel; and that we are to be more dependent on divine grace to keep us, than to make resolutions and vows which we do not know that we shall be able to perform; and we certainly ought not to vow anything but what we are able to perform.

VULGATE, a very ancient translation of the Bible, and the only one acknowledged by the Church of Rome to be authentic. See BIBLE, ancient versions, 10, 3.

WAHABEES, a modern Mohammedan sect, founded by Sheik Mohammed, the son of Abd el Waheb, in honour of whom they bear the name. They profess to have reformed Islamism and reduced it to its primitive simplicity. They reject the worship of the prophet as gross idolatry, and adhere strictly to the Koran. They otherwise observe all the religious rites of the Mohammedans, the number of the prayers, the genuflexions, the fast of the Ramadan, and abstinence from wine and all spirituous liquors. They inflict death on all Mussulmans who do not renounce the worship of Mohammed. The Jews and Christians they leave unmolested. They originated in the small tribe of Nedshi, in Yemen; but their founder undertook an expedition into Syria, and the regions bordering on the Euphrates; and having collected a number of tribes from the Arabian desert, who became converts to his views, he formed them into a distinct nation, under the government of Eben Send, as their civil governor, and himself as their Iman, or spiritual ruler. This appears to have taken place soon after the middle of last century; but no measures were taken against the Wahabees by the Porte till the year 1798, when they were attacked by the Pasha of Bagdad, but without effect, which emboldened them to leave the desert; and

The

in 1801 and 1802 they met with signal success, took great booty from the neighbouring Mohammedans, and captured Mecca itself, where they established their power in lieu of that of the Grand Sultan, in virtue of which he had hitherto been regarded as the head and protector of the faithful. The residence of Send was now fixed at Dreich, where he had a palace, and lived in all the pomp and splendour of an eastern prince. In 1803 and 1804 he made unsuccessful attacks on Bagdad and Bussorah, but took Medina in 1804, and in 1805 Jidda, which had formerly baffled all his attempts to subdue it. Porte was now obliged to pay a heavy tribute for permission to send an escort from Damascus with the caravans of pilgrims that annually proceeded to Mecca; and these caravans were no longer allowed to have weapons, flags, or music, or to enter the holy city on carpets, as formerly. In 1807, the Wahabees stood in the zenith of their power; since which time they have been repeatedly repulsed, but they still continue to form a powerful body, to the great annoyance of the Turkish government, and to the terror of the pilgrims, who proceed from all parts of the East to visit the tomb of the prophet.

WALDENSES, OR VALDENSES, a sect of reformers, who made their first

appearance about the year 1160. They were most numerous about the valleys of Piedmont; and hence, some say, they were called Valdenses, or Vaudois, and not from Peter Valdo, as others suppose. Mosheim, however, gives this account of them he says that Peter, an oppulent merchant of Lyons, surnamed Valdensis, or Validisius, from Vaux, or Waldum, a town in the marquisate of Lyons, being extremely zealous for the advancement of true piety and Christian knowledge, employed a certain priest, called Stephanus de Evisa, about the year 1160, in translating, from Latin into French, the four Gospels, with other books of holy Scripture, and the most remarkable sentences of the ancient doctors, which were so highly esteemed in this century. But no sooner had he perused these sacred books, with a proper degree of attention, than he perceived that the religion which was now taught in the Roman church, differed totally from that which was originally inculcated by Christ and his apostles. Struck with this glaring contradiction between the doctrines of the pontiffs and the truths of the Gospel, and animated with zeal, he abandoned his mercantile vocation, distributed his riches among the poor, (whence the Waldenses were called the poor men of Lyons,) and form ing an association with other pious men who had adopted his sentiments and his turn of devotion, he began, in the year 1180, to assume the quality of a public teacher, and to instruct the multitude in the doctrines and precepts of Christianity.

Soon after Peter had assumed the exercise of his ministry, the archbishop of Lyons, and the other rulers of the church in that province, vigorously opposed him. However, their opposition was unsuccessful; for the purity and simplicity of that religion which these good men taught, the spotless innocence that shone forth in their lives and actions, and the noble contempt of riches and honours which was conspicuous in the whole of their conduct and conversation, appeared so engaging to all such as had any sense of true piety, that the number of their followers daily increased. They accordingly formed religious assemblies, first in France, and afterwards in Lombardy; from whence they pro-, pagated their sect throughout the other provinces of Europe with incredible rapidity, and with such invincible forti

tude, that neither fire nor sword, nor the most cruel inventions of merciless persecution, could damp their zeal, or entirely ruin their cause.

The attempts of Peter Waldo and his followers were neither employed nor designed to introduce new doctrines into the church, nor to propose new articles of faith to Christians. All they aimed at was, to reduce the form of ecclesiastical government, and the manners both of the clergy and people, to that amiable simplicity and primitive sanctity that characterised the apostolic ages, and which appear so strongly recommended in the precepts and injunctions of the Divine Author of our holy religion. In consequence of this design, they complained that the Roman church had degenerated, under Constantine the Great, from its primitive purity and sanctity. They denied the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, and maintained that the rulers and ministers of the church were obliged, by their vocation, to imitate the poverty of the apostles, and to procure for themselves a subsistence by the work of their hands. They considered every Christian as, in a certain measure, qualified and authorised to instruct, exhort, and confirm the brethren in their Christian course; and demanded the restoration of the ancient penitential discipline of the church, i. e. the expiation of transgressions by prayer, fasting, and alms, which the new-invented doctrine of indulgences had almost totally abolished. They at the same time affirmed, that every pious Christian was qualified and entitled to prescribe to the penitent the kind or degree of satisfaction or expiation that their transgressions required; that confession made to priests was by no means necessary, since the humble offender might acknowledge his sins and testify his repentance to any true believer, and might expect from such the counsel and admonition which his case demanded. They maintained, that the power of delivering sinners from the guilt and punishment of their offences belonged to God alone; and that indulgences, of consequence, were the criminal inventions of sordid avarice. They looked upon the prayers and other ceremonies that were instituted in behalf of the dead, as vain, useless and absurd, and denied the existence of departed souls in an intermediate state of purification; affirming that they were immediately, upon their separation from the