FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE SECOND LONDON, EDITION.

Whitehall:

PRINTED FOR W. W. WOODWARD,
NO. 52, CORNER OF CHESNUT AND SECOND STREETS, PHILADELPHIA.

1807.

DICKINSON, PRINTER,

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L A M

|| is from their founder John La- dination or distinction of rank in badie, a native of France. He was the true church; that in reading originally in the Romish communi- the scriptures greater attention on; but leaving that, he became a should be paid to the internal inmember of the reformed church, spiration of the Holy Spirit than and performed with reputation the to the words of the text; that the ministerial function in France, observation of Sunday was a matSwitzerland, and Holland. He ter of indifference; that the conat length erected a new commu- templative life is a state of grace nity, which resided successively at and union with God, and the very Middleburg, in Zealand, Amster-height of perfection. dam, Hervorden, and at Altona, LAITY, the people as distinwhere he died about 1674. After guished from the clergy. See his death, his followers removed | CLERGY. their wandering community to LAMA-GRAND, a name giv

Wiewert, in the district of North en to the sovereign pontiff or high Holland, where it soon fell into priest of the Thibetian Tartars, oblivion. If we are to judge of the who resides at Patoli, a vast palace Labadists by their own account, on a mountain near the banks of Bathey did not differ from the re- rampooter, about seven miles from formed church so much in their | Lahassa. The foot of this mountenets and doctrines as in their | tain is inhabited by twenty thoumanners and rules of discipline ; | sand lamas, or priests, who have yet it seems that Labadie had their separate apartments round some strange notions. Among about the mountain, and accordother things, he maintained that ing to their respective quality are God might and did, on certain oc- placed nearer or at a greater discasions, deceive imen; that the tance from the sovereign pontiff. faithful ought to have all things in l He is not only worshipped by the

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Thibetians, but also is the great | hundred in his pay. Besides his object of adoration for the various religious influence and authority, tribes of heathen Tartars who the grand lama is possessed of unroam through the vast tract of limited power throughout his docontinent which stretches from the minions, which are very extensive. hanks of the Wolga to Correa, on The inferior lamas, who form the sea of Japan. He is not only the most numerous as weil as the the sovereign pontiff, the vicere. most powerful body in the state, gent of the Deity on earth, but have the priesthood entirely in the more remote Tartars are said their hands; and besides fill up to absolutely regard him as the many monastic orders which are Deity himself, and call him God, held' in great veneration among the everlusting Father of heaven. them. The whole country, like They believe him to be immortal, Italy, abounds with priests; and and endowed with all knowledge they entirely subsist on the great and virtue. Every year they come number of rich presents which are up from different parts to worship sent them from the utmost extent and make rich offerings at his of Tartary, from the empire of the shrine: even the emperor of Chi- Great Mogul, and from almost all na, who is a mancnon Țartar, does parts of the Indies. not fail in acknowledgments to The opinion of those who are him in his religious capacity; and reputed the most orthodox among actually entertains at a great ex- the Thibetians is, that, when the pence, in the palace of Pekin, an grand lama seems to die, either of interior lama, deputed as his nun- old age or infirmity, his soul, in cio from Thibet." The grand la- fact, only quits a crazy habitama, it has been said, is never to tion, to look for another, younger be seen but in a secret place of his or better; and is discovered again palace, amidst a great number of in the body of some child by cerlamps, sitting cross-legged on a tain tokens, known only to the cushion, and decked all over with lamas or priests, in which order gold and precious stones, where at he always appears. à distance the people prostrate Almost all nations of the east, themselves before him, it not be except the Mahometans, believe ing lawful, for any, so much as to the metempsychosis as the most imkiss his feet. He returns not the portant article of their faith ; esleast sign of respect, nor ever pecially the inhabitants of Thibet speaks even to the greatest prin- and Ava, the Peguans, Siamese, ces; but only lays his hand upon the greatest part of the Chinese their heads, and they are fully per- and Japanese, and the Monguls suaded they receive from thence and Kalmucks, who changed the a full forgiveness of all their religion of Schamanism for the sins.

worship of the grand lama. Ac: The Sunniasses, or Indian pil-cording to the doctrine of this mecrims, often visit Thibet as a holy tempsychosis, the soul is always in place ; and the lama always en- action, and never at rest ; for no tertains a body of two or three il sooner does she leave her old ha

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bitation, than she enters a new to the dictates of his religion, one. The dalai lama, being a di- dwells in divine tranquillity in a vine person, can find no better building that is both temple and lodging than the body of his suc. palace. If some of his votaries cessor; or the Foe, residing in the in modern times have dispensed dalai lama, which passes to his with the adoration of his person, successor: and this being a god, to still certain real modifications of whom all things are known, the the Shaka religion is the only faith dalai lama is therefore acquainted they follow. The state of sanctity with every thing which happened which that religion inculcates, during his residence in his former consists in monastic continence, body.

absence of thought, and the perThis religion is said to have fect repose of nonentity, been of three thousand years It has been observed that the standing; and neither time, nor religion of Thibet is the counthe influence of men, has had the terpart of the Roman Catholic, power of shaking the authority of since the inhabitants of that counthe grand lama. This theocracy try use holy water and a singing extends as fully to temporal as to service : they also offer alms, spiritual concerns.

prayers, and sacrifices for the Though, in the grand sovereign-dead. They have a vast number ty of the lamas, the temporal pow- of convents filled with monks and er has been occasionally separated friars, amounting to thirty thoufrom the spiritual by slight revo- sand; who besides the three vows lutions, they have always been of poverty, obedience, and chaunited again after a time; so that rity, make several others. They in Thibet the whole constitution have their confessors, who are chorests on the imperial pontificate in sen by their superiors, and have a manner elsewhere unknown. licences from their lamas, withFor as the Thibetians suppose out which they cannot hear conthat the grand lama is animated fessions or impose penances. They by the god Shaka, or Foe, who make use of beads. They wear at the decease of one lama trans- the mitre and cap like the bishops: migrates into the next, and conse- and their dalai lama is nearly the crates him an image of the divini- same among them as the sovereign ty, the descending chain of lamas pontiff is among the Romanists. . is continued down from him in LAMBETH ARTICLES. fixed degrees of sanctity; so that See ARTICLES. a more firmly established sacerdo- LAMPETIANS, a denominatal government, in doctrine, cus- tion in the seventeenth century, the toms, and institutions, than actu- followers of Lampetius, a Syrian ally reigns over this country, can-monk. He pretended that as man not be conceived. The supreme is born free, a Christian, in order manager of temporal affairs is no to please God, ought to do nomore than the viceroy of the so- thing by necessity; and that it vereign priest, who, conformable is, therefore, unlawful to make