Purity, the freedom of anything from foreign ad- mixture; but more particularly it signifies the temper directly opposite to criminal sensualities, or the ascen- dency of irregular passions. See Chastity.
Purity implies — 1. A fixed, habitual abhorrence of all forbidden indulgences of the flesh. 2. All past im- purities, either of heart or life, will be reflected on with shame and sorrow. 3. The heart will be freed, in a great measure, from impure and irregular desires. 4. It will discover itself by a cautious fear of the least de- gree of impurity. 5. It implies a careful and habitual guard against everything which tends to pollute the mind. In the relations of the sexes purity was strictly guarded in the early Church. It needed to be so, for heathenism around it was one mass of defilement, as the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the satires of Juvenal, the poems of Catullus, Petronius Arbiter, Johannes Secundus, etc., abundantly show. Women were, therefore, forbidden to wash in the same bath with men. If a clergyman bathed with women, he was to be deposed, and a layman so guilt}' was to be excommunicated. A man, by one of the laws of Jus- tinian, might divorce his wife if she had been found bathing with men. Certain kinds of dancing and songs were also strictly forbidden, especially at mar- riage feasts, for they were the remains of old pagan obscenities. Women, also, were not allowed to keep vigils in churches under pretence of devotion, because the practice led to secret wickedness, as the council of Elvira intimates. Lascivious books were condemned, and these at the period must have been common. Stage-plays were no less put under ban. Cyprian says, " Adultery was learned by seeing it acted." To know what this means, the reader has only to be referred to the English comedies of the reign of Charles II. The
heathen deities in those primitive times were brought upon the stage— the wanton Venus and the rake Jupi- ter—and men, as Cyprian says again. " imitate the gods whom they worship." The impurities of the stage were virtually the "pomps of Satan," which Christians renounced at baptism. For similar reasons intemper- ance was reprobated. "Drunkenness and lust," said Tertullian, "are two devils combining." Changing of their respective dresses on the part of the sexes was also condemned. " If any woman," said the council of' Gangra, "on pretence of living a religious life, take the apparel of men, let her be anathema." Similar enact- ments may be found in more recent times. " The Gen- eral Assembly of the Church of Scotland, by their act, July 19, 1649, finding that scandal and abuse arose from promiscuous dancing, do therefore discharge the same ; the censure is referred to the several presbyteries." By the Church discipline of F ranee, c. xiv, art. 27, "those who make account to dance, or are present at dancing, after having been several times admonished, shall be excommunicated upon their growing obstinate and re- bellious, and all Church judicatures are to see this act put to execution." By art. 26, " all persons who wear habits to have open marks of dissoluteness, shame, and too much newness, as painting, naked breasts, and the like, the consistory shall use all possible means to sup- press such badges of immodesty by censures. All ob- scene pictures, which are apt to dispose and incite to unclean thoughts and desires, are declared to be most improper furniture for the houses of Christians, and therefore the users of them may fall under Church censure, if they be not removed." See Taylor, Holy Living; Evans, Sermons on the Christian Temper, ser. 23 ; and Watts, Sermons, ser. 27 ; Meth. Qu. tier. April, 1873, art. ii. — Buck, Theol. Diet. s. v.; Eadie, Eccles. Diet. s. v.
Purkhiser, Micah Gilbert, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Washington township, Clermont County, O., Oct. 15, 1813. In his nineteenth year he was converted at a camp -meet- ing, and united with the Church. In 1834 he was li- censed to preach, and in the following year joined the travelling connection in the Ohio Conference, and was appointed to Monroe Circuit, in Michigan Territory. During the year he rode about 2000 miles, preached nearly 200 times, obtained many seals to his ministry, and for his living received the modest sum of $47 37^. His next appointment was to Spring Arbor Circuit, His next charge was as assistant on Georgetown Cir- cuit, O. Next he preached on the West Charge, Cin- cinnati, and then removed to Batavia Circuit, where he labored two years. His subsequent appointments were : 1841, Fulton, Guyandotte, W. Va. ; Frankfort, West Union, Highland, New Lexington, West White Oak, New Richmond, Goshen, Clarksville. Highland, Lynch- burgh, New Market, Union, Miamisburgh and German- town, New Paris, Highland, and Sinking Springs. At the conference of 1869 he took a supernumerary relation, and he died April 29, 1875. See Minutes of Conferences, 1875, p. 114.
Purmarm, Joiiann G.. a German theologian and educator, was born Jan. 1, 1733, at Kbnigsberg. After having completed his studies, in 1760 he was appointed co-rector at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and in 1770 rector of the gymnasium, and there he died, Dec. 11, 1813. He wrote, A rchceologke Georyicce Spec, de Re Rustica Veterum Hebrworum (Frankf.-on-the-Main, 1786-87) : — Geschichte des Glaubens an einen Gott (ibid. 1795-96, 2 pts.) : — Fata Doctrines de Immortalitate Animorum (ibid. 1798-1802, 6 pts.) :— De Paschate Christ, ex An- tiquitate (ibid. 1799) : — Xarratio de Synodo Ecclesiast. anno 794. a Carol,, M. Francfurti ad Mcenum habita (ibid. 1794, 2 pts.). See Winer, Handbuch der theoloo. LAteratur, p. 717 and Index; Fiirst, Bill. Judaica, iii, 124. (B.P.)