A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Dorrellites

by Hannah Adams

DORRELLITES, the followers of Dorrel, a sectary, who appeared at Leyden in Massachusetts in 1797, and pretended to be a prophet, sent to supersede the dispensation of Jesus Christ, and claimed divine worship in his stead. It appears, from an account of his tenets, which was taken down from his own mouth, by the Rev. John Taylor of Deerfield, that he denied the foreknowledge of God, and his almighty power. "Jesus Christ," said he, "is to substance a spirit, and is God. He took a body, died, and never rose from the dead. None of the human race will ever rise from their graves. The resurrection spoken of in scripture, is only one from sin to spiritual life, which consists in perfect obedience to God. Written revelation is a type of the substance of the true revelation, which God makes to those whom he raises from spiritual death. The substance is God revealed in the soul; those who have it are perfect, are incapable of sinning, and have nothing to do with the Bible." Dorrel denied future judgment; and asserted, that neither prayer nor any other worship is necessary.^[1]

Original footnotes

1. See Mass. Spy, 1798