RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Hale
Half- Way Covenant
two poor women to death for witchcraft, at the Bury St. Edmunds assizes, Mar. 10, 1662, has been by some considered a blot on his reputation, but, though a deplorable fact, it only shows that he was not in advance of his times. His principal religious works are Contemplations, Moral and Divine (London, 1676); Of the Nature of True Religion (ed. from MS. by R. Baxter, 1684); A Discourse of Religion (1684); and A Discourse of the Knowledge of God and Ourselves (1688). His Works, Moral and Religious, with Burnet's Life and R. Baxter's Notes prefixed, were edited by T. Thirlwall (2 vols., 1805).
Bibliography: The sources are: G. Burnet, The Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale, London, 1682, and prefixed to Hale's works, ut sup.; A. a Wood, A thence Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, iii. 1090-96, 4 vols., ib. 1813-20. Consult: J. B. Williams, Memoirs of the Life, Character and Writings of Sir Matthew Hale, ib. 1835 (careful but pragmatic); John Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justices, 3 vols., ib. 1849-57; DNB, xxiv. 18-24; W. H. Hutton, The English Church 1625-17 H, pp. 204, 336-337, Lon-
don, 1903.
HALES, JOHN: English clergyman, surnamed " The Ever-Memorable "; b. at Bath Apr. 19, 1584; d. at Eton May 19, 1656. He studied at Corpus Christi College and Merton College, Oxford (B.A., 1603; M.A., 1609), became a fellow of Merton in 1605, distinguished himself as a lecturer in Greek, and shone as a preacher. In 1616 he went to Holland as chaplain to Sir Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador, by whom he was sent to the Synod of Dort in 1618 to report the proceedings of that assembly. In 1619 he retired to his fellowship at Eton, to which he had been elected in 1612, and thereafter spent his life chiefly among his books, of which he had a noted collection. Once or twice a year he visited London, where his wealth of knowledge and ready wit made his company much desired in the brilliant circle of literary men then gathered there. Through Archbishop Laud, whose friend and chaplain he was, he was made canon of Windsor in 1639, but was ejected by the parliamentary committee in 1642. He was a man of beautiful tolerance and the foe of religious disputation, holding that mere doctrinal points about which pride and passion rather than conscience lead men to dispute have no place in any liturgy. He assisted Sir Henry Savile in the preparation of his edition of Chrysostom and published a number of sermons and tracts, of which the most important was the Tract Concerning Schism and Schismatics (London, 1642). His Golden Remains, containing his Letters from the Synod of Dort, Acta synodi, etc., with a preface by J. Pearson, were edited by P, Gunning (1659). His Works were edited by Sir David Dalrymple (3 vols., Glasgow, 1765).
Bibliography: A. a Wood, Athene? Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, iii. 409-410, 4 vols., London, 1813-20; idem, Fasti, ii. 299, 334, appended to the Athena; John Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 87, 93-94, ib. 1714; DNB, xxiv. 30- 32, where further literature is given; W. H. Hutton, The English Church 1626-17U, p. 116, London, 1903.
HALES, WILLIAM: Irish chronologist; b. at Cork Apr. 8, 1747; d. at Killashandra (46 m. w. of Dundalk), County Cavan, Jan. 30, 1831. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1768), and was for twenty years a teacher in that institu-
tion, first tutor, afterward professor of Oriental languages. In 1788 he resigned his professorship for the rectory of Killashandra, where he spent the remainder of his life in scholarly retirement. He is known chiefly for his New Analysis of Chronology (3 vols., London, 1809-12; 2d ed., 4 vols., 1830), which deals with Biblical chronology and gives a portion of the early history of the world. To be mentioned also is his Essay on the Origin and Purity of the Primitive Church of the British Isles (1819), portions of which were edited by J. Briggs under the title, A Historical Survey of the Relations between the Church and State of England and Ireland (1868).
Bibliography: J. Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary Hist, of the 18th Century, vii. 786, viii. 317, 320, 678, 8 vols., London, 1817-58; DNB, xxiv. 38-39.
HALF-WAY COVENANT: An expedient adopted by New England churches in the seventeenth century to allow baptized persons of moral conduct and orthodox belief to have their children baptized and enjoy themselves all privileges of church-membership except participation in the Lord's Supper. In the early New England colonies church members included (1) Christians who had entered into covenant with a local church; and (2) their children, who were members in virtue of their birth in a Christian household. There was thus a double basis of church membership. The children were, however, admitted to the Lord's Supper only after regeneration and taking the covenant of the church. The question whether such as were church members by birth only were entitled to have their children baptized was a matter of controversy for nearly thirty years, when a synod called by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1662 confirmed the decision of a ministerial body appointed by the same Court in 1657; viz., that non-regenerate members who " owned the covenant," publicly approved the principles of the Gospel, lived upright lives, and promised to promote the welfare and submit to the discipline of the church, might bring their children to baptism; but they themselves might not come to the Lord's table nor take part in ecclesiastical affairs. Notwithstanding much opposition, this became the general practise of the New England churches. Accordingly many persons of reputable life, especially in times of religious interest, who could make no full profession of religion, were admitted to Half-Way Covenant relations in the church and their children were baptized. Solomon Stoddard, pastor at Northampton, Mass., 1669-1729, initiated a further modification which was widely adopted: the Lord's Supper, in his view a converting ordinance, was to be participated in by " all adult members of the church who were not scandalous." The Half-Way Covenant received its death-blow from Jonathan Edwards, Stoddard's successor, although it survived for many years. The last instance of its practise was in Charlestown, Mass., in 1828. See Congregationalists, I., 4, x 3 C. A. Beckwith.
Bibliography: J. B. Felt, Ecclesiastical Hist, of New England, ii. passim, Boston, 1862; A. E. Dunning, Congregationalists in America, pp. 186-188 passim, New York, 1894; W. Walker, American Church History Series, iii.
Halitgrar Hall