OF

ALL CHRISTIAN SECTS

AND DENOMINATIONS;

THEIR ORIGIN, PECULIAR TENETS, AND PRESENT CONDITION.

WITH

AN INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT

OF

Atheisies, Deists, Jews, Mahometans, Pagans, &c.
BY JOHN EVANS, L.L.D.

FROM THE FIFTEENTH LONDON EDITION.
REVISED AND ENLARGED,

WITH THE ADDITION OF THE MOST RECENT STATISTICS RELA-
TING TO RELIGIOUS SECTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

The great lesson which every sect, and every individual of every sect,
ought to learn from the history of the church, is Moderation. Want of gen-
uine moderation towards those who differ from us in religious opinions,
seems to me the most unaccountable thing in the world.-BISHOP WATSON.

SECOND EDITION.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY JAMES MOWATT & CO.

SOLD BY ALL PERIODICAL AGENTS AND BOOKSELLERS.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

C1825.5,16

JUL 1 1914

CHARLES ELLIOTT PERKINS
MEMORIAL COLLECTION

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by JAM
MOWATT & Co. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court
Southern District of the State of New-York.

of the

BEDFORD, PRINT. 138 FULTON ST.

STEREOTYPED BY CHAS. HOBBS, 111 FULTON ST.

PREFACE

TO THE FIFTEENTH LONDON EDITION.

THE reader shall be detained only by the author's grateful acknowledgement of the favourable reception given by the public to his sketch of the denominations of the Christian world. Detailing the opinions of the various sects, it addresses the curiosity of Turk, Jew, Infidel, and Christian. This accounts for its unrivalled circulation. It enjoys the honour of a niche in the royal library, whilst it has descended down to the shelves of the cottage in the obscurest recesses of the country. By its translation into foreign languages, it has spread over the con tinent: whilst it has found its way to Calcutta, to the Cape of Good Hope, and even to Rio Janeiro in South America. Thus the little volume, like a universal missionary, proceeding silently and unostentatiously on its errand of Christian love, may be said to have traversed the four quarters of the globe.

Its professed purport is to enlighten and enlarge the understanding, by imparting accurate views of the tenets characterising the several departments of Christendom. This, in many instances, it is known to have accomplished. One singular fact may be noticed. The author entering a bookseller's shop in the country, the bookseller, taking him for a clergyman, presented him with a copy, and strongly recommended its circulation among his parishioners, for the promotion of candour, peace, and charity! He had sold, he said, many among the clergy; and added, that it had never failed to produce some good effect.