parliament, and provision made confidence in it which belongs to against it. Stat. 14 Car. II, c. 4. the Great Supreme alone." Let COVETOUSNESS, an unrea-those who live in the habitual pracsonable desire after that we have tice of it consider the judgments not, with a dissatisfaction with that have been inflicted on such what we have. It may farther be characters, Josh. vii, 21. Acts v, considered as consisting in, 1. An the misery with which it is attendanxious carking care about the ed; the curse such persons are to things of this world.-2. A rapa-society; the denunciations and city in getting.-3. Too frequent-cautions respecting it in the holy ly includes sinister and illegal ways scripture; and how effectually it of obtaining wealth.-4. A tena-bars men from God, from happiciousness in keeping. It is a viceness, and from heaven. South's which marvellously prevails upon Serm. vol. iv, ser. 10; Robinson's and insinuates into the heart of Mor. Exercises, ex. iv; Saurin's man, and for these reasons: it of-Serm. vol. v, ser. 12. Eng. Trans. ten bears a near resemblance to COUNCIL, an assembly of pervirtue; brings with it many plau-sons met together for the purpose sible reasons; and raises a man to of consultation; an assembly of dea state of reputation on account of puties or commissioners sent from his riches. There cannot be," as several churches, associated by one observes, "a more unreason- certain bonds in a general body, able sin than this. It is unjust; Acts i. Acts vi. Acts xv. Acts xxi. only to covet, is to wish to be un- COUNCIL, Ecumenical or Genejust. It is cruel; the covetous ral, is an assembly which represents must harden themselves against a the whole body of the christian thousand plaintive voices. It is church. The Romanists reckon ungrateful; such forget their for-eighteen of them, Bullinger six, mer obligations and their present Dr. Prideaux seven, and bishop supporters. It is foolish; it de- Beveridge eight; which he says are stroys reputation, breaks the rest, all the general councils which have unfits for the performance of duty, ever been held since the time of and is a contempt of God himself: the first christian emperor. They it is unprecedented in all our exam-are as follow:-1. The council ples of virtue mentioned in the of Nice held in the reign of scripture. One, indeed, spoke un-Constantine the Great, on acadvisedly with his lips; another count of the heresy of Arius. cursed and swore; third was in a-2. The council of Constanti passion; and a fourth committed nople, called under the reign and adultery; but which of the saints by the command of Theodosius ever lived in a habit of covetous-the Great, for much the same ness? Lastly, it is idolatry, Col. end that the former council was iii, 5, the idolatry of the heart; summoned.-3. The council of where, as in a temple, the misera-Ephesus, convened by Theodosius ble wretch excludes God, sets up the Younger, at the suit of Negold instead of him, and places that torius.-4. The council at Chal

cedon, held in the reign of Mar- anathematize and oppress those tianus, which approved of the who would not implicitly submit Eutychian heresy.-5. The se- to their determinations." Fortin's cond council of Constantinople, Works, vol. vii, charge 2; Broughassembled by the emperor Jus-ton's Dict.; Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. tinian, condemned the three chap- Index.

ters taken out of the book of Theo- COUNCILS, Provincial or Occadorus, of Mopsuestia, having first sional, have been numerous. At decided that it was lawful to ana- Aix la Chapelle, A. D. 816, a thematize the dead. Some authors council was held for regulating tell us that they likewise con- the canons of cathedral churches. demned the several errors of Ori- The council of Savonnieries, in gen about the Trinity, the plurali- 859, was the first which gave the ty of worlds, and pre-existence of title of Most Christian King to the souls.-6. The third council of king of France; but it did not Constantinople, held by the com- become the peculiar appellation mand of Constantius Pogonatus, of that sovereign till 1469. Of the emperor, in which they re- Troyes, in 887, to decide the ceived the definitions of the five disputes about the imperial digfirst general councils, and parti-nity. The second council of cularly that against Origen, and Troyes, 1107, restrains the clergy Theodorus, of Mopsuestia.-7. from marrying. The council of The second Nicene council.-8. Clermont, in 1095. The first cruThe fourth council of Constan- sade was determined in this countinople, assembled when Louis II, cil. The Bishops had yet the prewas emperor of the West. Their cedency of cardinals. In this asregulations are contained in twen-sembly the name of Pope was for ty-seven canons, the heads of the first time given to the head of which the reader may find in the church, exclusively of the Dupin. Whatever may be said bishops, who used to assume that in favour of general councils, their title. Here, also, Hugh, archutility has been doubted by some bishop of Lyons, obtained of the of the wisest of men. Dr. Jortin pope a confirmation of the primasays, they have been too much cy of his see over that of Sens. extolled by Papists, and by some The council of Rheims, summonProtestants. They were a col-ed by Eugenius III, in 1148, calllection of men who were frail and ed an assembly of Cisastrian Gaul, fallible. Some of those councils in which advowses, or patrons of were not assemblies of pious and churches, are prohibited taking learned divines, but cabals, the more than ancient fees, upon pain majority of which were quarrel- of deprivation and ecclesiastical some, fanatical, domineering, dis- burial. Bishops, deacons, subhonest prelates, who wanted to deacons, monks, and nuns, are compel men to approve all their restrained from marrying. opinions, of which they themselves this council the doctrine of the had no clear conceptions, and to Trinity was decided; but upon

In

separation the pope called a con-counter difficulties and dangers. gregation in which the cardinals Natural courage is that which pretended they had no right to arises chiefly from constitution; judge of doctrinal points; that moral or spiritual is that which is this was the privilege peculiar to produced from principle, or a the pope. The council of Sut- sense of duty. Courage and forrium, in 1046, wherein three titude are often used as synonypopes who had assumed the chair mous, but they may be distinwere deposed. The council of guished thus: fortitude is firmness Clarendon in England, against of mind that supports pain; couBecket, held in 1164. The coun-rage is active fortitude, that meets cil of Lombez, in the country of dangers, and attempts to repel Albigeois, in 1200, occasioned by them. See FORTITUDE. Courage, some disturbances on account of says Addison, that grows from conthe Albigenses: a crusade was stitution, very often forsakes a formed on this account, and an man when he has occasion for it; army sent to extirpate them. and when it is only a kind of inInnocent III spirited up this bar-stinct in the soul, it breaks out on barous war. Dominic was the all occasions, without judgment or apostle, the count of Toulouse the discretion; but that courage which victim, and Simon, count of Mont- arises from a sense of duty, and fort, the conductor or chief. The from a fear of offending Him that council of Paris in 1210, in which made us, always acts in an uniform Aristotle's metaphysics were con-manner, and according to the dicdemned to the flames, lest the tates of right reason.

refinements of that philosopher CREATION, in its primary should have a bad tendency on import, signifies the bringing into men's minds, by applying those being something which did not subjects to religion. The council before exist. The term is thereof Pisa, begun March the 2d, fore most generally applied to the 1409, in which Benedict XIII and original production of the mateGregory XII were deposed. An-rials whereof the visible world is other council, sometimes called composed. It is also used in a general, held at Pisa in 1505. secondary or subordinate sense to Lewis XII, of France, assembled denote those subsequent operations a national council at Tours (being of the Deity upon the matter so highly disgusted with the pope) produced, by which the whole 1510, where was present the cardi-system of Nature, and all the prinal De Gurce, deputed by the em-mitive genera of things, receive peror; and it was then agreed to their form, qualities, and laws. convene a general council at Pisa. There is no subject concerning Murray's History of Religion. which learned men have differed COUNCIL of Trent. See TRENT. in their conjectures more than in COURAGE is that quality of this of creation. "It is certain," the mind that enables men to en-as a good writer observes, "that

none of the ancient philosophers|| the seas; all the immense varieties had the smallest idea of its being of herbs and plants of which the possible to produce a substance vegetable kingdom consists; the out of nothing, or that even the globe of the earth, and the expower of the Deity himself could panse of the ocean; these we work without any materials to know to have been produced by work upon. Hence some of his power. Besides the terrestrial them, among whom was Aristotle, world, which we inhabit, we see asserted that the world was eter-many other material bodies disnal, both as to its matter and posed around it in the wide exform. Others, though they be-tent of space. The moon, which lieved that the gods had given the is in a particular manner conworld its form, yet imagined the nected with our earth, and even materials whereof it is compos-dependent upon it; the sun, and ed to have been eternal. Indeed, the other planets, with their sathe opinions of the ancients, who tellites, which like the earth cirhad not the benefit of revelation, culate round the sun, and appear were on this head so confused and to derive from him light and contradictory, that nothing of any heat; those bodies which we call consequence can be deduced from fixed stars, and consider as illuthem. The freethinkers of our minating and cherishing with heat own and of former ages have deni-each its peculiar system of planets; ed the possibility of creation, as be-and the comets which at certain ing a contradiction to reason; periods surprise us with their apand of consequence have taken pearance, and the nature of whose the opportunity from thence to connexion with the general sysdiscredit revelation. On the tem of Nature, or with any partiother hand, many defenders of cular system of planets, we cannot the sacred writings have asserted pretend to have fully discovered; that creation out of nothing, so these are so many more of the far from being a contradiction to Deity's works, from the contemreason, is not only probable, but plation of which we cannot but demonstrably certain. Nay, some conceive the most awful ideas of have gone so far as to say, that, his creative power. from the very inspection of the "Matter, however, whatever the visible system of Nature, we are varieties of form under which it is able to infer that it was once in made to appear, the relative disa state of non-existence." It is position of its parts, or the moimpossible, however, to enter into tions communicated to it, is but the multiplicity of the arguments an inferior part of the works of on both sides; it is enough for us creation. We believe ourselves to to know what God has been be animated with a much higher pleased to reveal, both concern-principle than brute matter: in ing himself and the works of his viewing the manners and economy hands. "Men, and other ani- of the lower animals, we can scarce mals that inhabit the earth and avoid acknowledging even them to

consist of something more than va- tion of the world 3944 years berious modifications of matter and fore the christian era. The Samotion. The other planetary bo- maritan Bible, again, fixes the dies, which seem to be in circum-era of the creation 4305 years bestances nearly analogous to those fore the birth of Christ. And the of our earth, are surely, as well Greek translation, known by the as it, destined for the habitations name of the Septuagint version of of rational intelligent beings. The the Bible, gives 5270 as the numexistence of intelligences of anber of the years which intervened higher order than man, though in-between those two periods. By finitely below the Deity, appears comparing the various dates in the extremely probable. Of these spi-sacred writings, examining how ritual beings, called angels, we have these have come to disagree, and express intimation in scripture to be diversified in different copies; (see the article ANGEL.) But the endeavouring to reconcile the most limits of the creation we must not authentic profane with sacred pretend to define. How far the re-chronology, some ingenious men gions of space extend, or how they have formed schemes of chronoare filled, we know not. How the logy; plausible, indeed, but not planetary worlds, the sun, and the supported by sufficient authorifixed stars are occupied, we do not ties, which they would gladly perpretend to have ascertained. We suade us to receive in preference are even ignorant how wide a to any of those above mentioned. diversity of forms, what an infi- Usher makes out from the Henity of living animated beings may brew Bible 4004 years as the inhabit our own globe. So con- term between the creation and the fined is our knowledge of creation, birth of Christ. Josephus, acyet so grand, so awful, that part cording to Dr. Wills and Mr. which our narrow understandings Whiston, makes it 4658 years; can comprehend! and M. Pezron, with the help "Concerning the periods of time of the Septuagint, extends it at which the Deity executed his to 5872 years. Usher's system several works, it cannot be pre-is the most generally received. tended that mankind have had op- But though these different systems portunities of receiving very par- of chronology are so inconsistent, ticular information. Many have and so slenderly supported, yet the been the conjectures, and curious differences among them are so inthe fancies of learned men, re-considerable, in comparison with specting it; but, after all, we must those which arise before us when be indebted to the sacred writings we contemplate the chronology of for the best information. Dif- the Chinese, the Chaldeans, and ferent copies, indeed, give dif- the Egyptians, and they agree so ferent dates. The Hebrew copy well with the general information of the Bible, which we christians, of authentic history, and with the for good reasons, consider as the appearances of nature and of somost authentic, dates the crea-ciety, that they may be considered.