Page:History of all religions.pdf/14

14 –Againſt which ſnare, as well as the temptation of thoſe who may or do feed thee, and prompt thee to evil, the moſt excellent and prevalent remedy will be to apply thyſelf to that light of Chriſt, which ſhineth in the conſcience and which neither can nor will flatter thee; nor ſuffer thee to be at eaſe in thy "

Of the BEREANS They take their name to themſelves, from Acts. xvii. "The Bereans were more noble than thoſe of Theſſalonica, in that they received the word with all readineſs of mind; and ſearched the Scriptures daily whether thoſe things were ſo." Whom they pretend to have imitated, that they might find out truth, and lay the foundation of their Church, in diſtinction from all other denominations of Chriſtians. Their founder was one Mr. John Barclay, preacher of the Goſpel in the pariſh of Fettercairn. Angus-ſhire, and aſſitant to the late Rev. Mr. Dow, an aged miniſter of that pariſh. Upon the death of Mr Dow, having little intereſt to ſucceed in the parish. Mr. Barclay ſet out for Edinburgh, and, in a ſhort time after, it was announced in the newspapers that he had formed and joined himſelf to the Berean Society in that city, about the year 1770.

So far as is known, Mr. Barclay was a man of good character, of a religious turn of mind and only rendered ſingular by his peculiar ſentiments