In 1724 Clarke obtained the mastership of Wigston Hospital, and published a volume of sermons. He died rather suddenly in May, 1729. His Exposition of the Church CcUechum and Sermont were published after his death (London, 1730, 10 .vols. 8vo). In the Catechism he teaches that worship should be paid to the Father only, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. The moral character of Clarke is praised by all his biographers. His principal works were trans- lated into German by Semler, and prepared the way for German nationalism. " He was a wary and very skilful disputant, well disciplined in the scholastic logic. Inferior to Locke in comprehensiveness and originality, he was greatly superior to him in acquire- ments, being eminent as a divine, a mathematician, a metaphysician, and a philologist" (EngUsh Cydcpcs- dia). His Works were published in 1738, in 4 vols, fol., of which the first contains his Life (by Hoadley), and 114 Sermons, published from his MS. ; the second contains 76 Sermons and the Boyle Lectures ; the third, a paraphrase of the Four Evangelists, with minor pieces ; the fourth, the Scripture Doctrine of the Trin^ iiyt and a number of controversial tracts. Of the sep- arate works numerous editions have been published. See, besides the writers already cited, (especially) Fairbaim's Appendix to Darner's Person of Christ (Ed- inburgh transUtion, div. ii, voL iii, 870 sq.) ; Hoadley, Life of Clarke (prefixed to Works, 4 vols.) ; Hook, Eccles. Biography y iv, 88; Watson, TheologiocU Tnsti- iutes, i, 331 (N. Y. ed.); Hagenbach, History of Doc- trines (ed. by Smith), § 234, § 262.
Claromont^tiB, CODEX. See Clermont Manuscbipt.
Clarkson, Thomas, was bom March 26, 1760, at Wisbeach, C!ambridgeshire, where his father, a clergy- man, was master of the free grammar-school. He studied at St John's College, Cambridge, and became a promoter of the anti-slaveiy agitation in Great Brit- ain by a Latin prize-essay which he wrote in 1785, on the question, " Is it right to make slaves against their wiU?" In order to pursue the agitation of the question, he relinquished his chances of advancement in the Church, for which he was intended, and in which he had taken deacon's orders. His essay was trans- lated into English, and had an extensive circulation. Thenceforth his life was devoted to the anti-slarery cause. He labored indefatigably to bring to light the iniquities and cruelties of the slave-trade, travelling some years thousands of miles in fhrtherance of his benevolent designs, and publishing on the subject al- most every year. He lived to see not only the sUve- trade abolished (in 1807), but the abolition of slavery
itself in the British West Indies in 1833. H« also took an active part in other benevolent schemes, paitica> larly in the establishment of institutions for acamra He died Sept 26, 1846. His principal writinga mxt. History qfthe AhoUHan qfthe 8la9e-4rdae (2 vols. 8v«. 1808; new ed., with Preface by Brougham, 18S9i ; A Portrait of Quakerism, 1807 ; and a Life of WWiem Penn, 1813. See Taylor, Biog, Sketch of T, GoHbkm (Lond. 1847, 12mo).
Clasm-leader. See Clabs-meetikos.
Class-meetings. In the Methodist £pisoo|iai Church, and indeed in all Methodist chorches throngb- ont the worid, each congregation is divided into saaaS^ er companies, called classes. One of the more expcn- enced members is appointed by the pastm* to be leadp of the class. *' It is his duty," in the Methodist £{»»- copal Church, " I. To see each person in his dknm auu a week at least; in order (1.) To inquire bow their sonls prosper. (2.) To adyise, reprove, comfort, or ex- hort, as occasion may require. (3.) To receive wh«t they are willing to give towards the relief of the preachers, church, and poor. II. To meet the minis- ters and the stewards of the society once a week; is order (1.) To inform the minister of any that are sick or of any that walk disorderly, and will not be r- proved. (2.) To pay the stewards what they have re- ceived of their several classes in the week preceding'' (Discipline, pt i, ch. ii, § 1).
A rudiment of the *' class-meeting" may perhaps be found in the Prophesyings began at KortbampCoa. These were religious meetings for discnssions on tb^ Scriptures, prayer, and mutual instruction, oondsded by clerg3rmen under fixed rules. Bishop GrindaL Bishop Parkhurst, and other bishops highly approved them, hut Queen Eli2abeth prohibited them (May 7. 1677; Wilkins, Condi, iv, 289); they were, bowever. kept up in many places until Whitgift (who became archbishop of Canterbury ui 1683) succeeded, in his vi- olent way, in putting them down. Bfarsden (Ckarciu and Sects, i, 260) remarks that these meetings gave Wesley * * the idea of those social meetings in which the laity were to sustain an important part, thon^ still under the guidance of their pastors, and in which the strength of Methodism consists" (see alao Grant, JK*- toryofthe English Church, i, 426, London, 1811). A nearer approach to the ** class-meeting*' is to be fouid in the ^^ religious societies'^ so widely diffused in tb« Church of England toward the dose of the 17th ceo- tury. According to Woodward (IHse and Progress <f the Religious Societies, etc., Lond. 1744), it was ^ aboct 1666 that several young men in London, being brought to serious convictions by the preaching of their dei^. and applying to their ministers for leligioos counsel were advised by them to meet together onoe a week, and apply themselves to good discourse and things wherein they might edify one another." These soci- eties soon multiplied, and in 1678 a digest of rules for their conduct was adopted. Homeck, Beveridge, StiU lingfleet, and llllotson were among the pramoters of these societies. By 1691 there were forty of these re- ligious societies in London, and many in other part« of England. For their rules see Woodward (dted above), and also Hook, Ecclesiastieal Biography, u,S63 ; vi, 166. Dr. Clarke {Memoirs of the Wesley FassUy, Lond. 1843, vol. i, p. 144) gives a letter fkora Samuel Wesley, Concerning the Reiigious Societies (1699> ia which they are named as supplying the lack of confra- ternities, sodalities, etc, in the Church of England, and their objects and methods are highly commended. On the Continent of Europe, the Collegia Pi^aOs, be^ gun by Spener at about the same time, had ends and methods somewhat like those of the later daas-meet- ing (see Pibtism ; Spkneb). Woodward*s book wm translated into German by the ezoelleot D. £. Jahloo- ski (q. ▼.), and similar societies were formed in vari- ous parts of (jermany (fihritOam Remembrcmcer, Jnh-,