rry one woman, but enjoined them to live in the same
state. To keep up the sect, when a man and woman entered into this
society, they adopted a boy and a girl, who were to inherit their goods,
and to marry upon the same terms of not having children, but of adopting
two of different sexes.

SUPRALAPSARIANS.

Persons who hold that God, without any regard to the good or evil works of
men, has resolved, by an eternal decree, _supra lapsum_, antecedently to
any knowledge of the fall of Adam, and independently of it, to save some
and reject others; or, in other words, that God intended to glorify his
justice in the condemnation of some, as well as his mercy in the salvation
of others, and, for that purpose, decreed that Adam should necessarily
fall.

DANCERS.

A sect which sprung up, about 1373, in Flanders, and places about. It was
their custom all of a sudden to fall a-dancing, and, holding each other's
hands, to continue thereat, till, being suffocated with the extraordinary
violence, they fell down breathless together. During these intervals of
vehement agitation, they pretended to be favored with wonderful visions.
Like the Whippers, they roved from place to place, begging their victuals,
holding their secret assemblies, and treating the priesthood and worship
of the church with the utmost contempt.

EPICUREANS.

The disciples of Epicurus, who flourished about A. M. 3700. This sect
maintained that the world was formed not by God, nor with any design, but
by the fortuitous concourse of atoms. They denied that God governs the
world, or in the least condescends to interfere with creatures below; they
denied the immortality of the soul, and the existence of angels; they
maintained that happiness consisted in pleasure; but some of them placed
this pleasure in the tranquillity and joy of the mind, arising from the
practice of moral virtue, and which is thought by some to have been the
true principle of Epicurus: others understood him in the gross sense, and
placed all their happiness in corporeal pleasure. When Paul was at Athens,
he had conferences with the Epicurean philosophers. (Acts 17:18) The word
_Epicurean_ is used, at present, for an indolent, effeminate, and
voluptuous person, who only consults his private and particular pleasure.

SKEPTICS.

The word _Skeptic_ properly signifies considerative and inquisitive, or
one who is always weighing reasons on one side or the ot