eternal punishment? It is too true to be denied, that we are led by the force of the senses, to believe many things that we cannot fully understand. But where the evidence of sense does not compel us, how can we believe, what is not only beyond our comprehension, but contrary to it, and to the common course of nature, and directly against revelation; which declares positively the unity of God, as well as his incomprehensibility; but no where ascribes to him any number of persons, or any portion of magnitude?

"Neither are my attempts owing to a strong hope of removing early impressions from the breasts of those whose early education instilled certain ideas into their minds from the moment they became capable of receiving them; for, notwithstanding great and long continued exertions on my part, to do away Hindoo polytheism, though palpably gross and absurd, my success has been very partial. This experience, therefore, it may be suggested, ought to have been sufficient to discourage me from any other attempt of the kind; but it is my reverence for Christianity, and for the Author of this religion, that has induced me to endeavour to vindicate it from the charge of Polytheism, as far as my limited capacity and knowledge extend. It is indeed mortifying to my feelings, to find a religion, that, from its sublime doctrines and pure morality, should be respected above all other systems, reduced almost to a level with Hindoo theology, merely by human creeds and prejudices.

"Having derived my own opinions on this subject, entirely from the Scriptures themselves, I may perhaps be excused for the confidence with which I maintain them, against those of so great a majority, who appeal to the same authority for theirs; inasmuch as I attribute the different views, not to any inferiority of judgment compared with my own limited ability, but to the powerful effects of early religious impressions; for, when these are deep, reason is seldom allowed its natural scope in examining them to the bottom. Were it a practice among Christians to study first the books of the Old Testament, as found arranged in order, and to acquire a knowledge of the true force of scriptural phrases and expressions, without attending to interpretations given by any sect; and then to study the New Testament, comparing the one with the other, Christianity would not any longer be liable to be encroached upon by human opinions." And, in another part of his writings, he says, "Facts coincide entirely with my own firm persuasion of the impossibility that a doctrine so inconsistent with the evidence of the senses, as that of three persons in one being, should ever gain the sincere assent of any one, into whose mind it has not been instilled in early education. Early impressions alone can induce a Christian to believe, that three are one, and one is three; just as, by the saine means, a Hindoo is made to believe that millions are one, and one is millions, and to imagine that an inanimate idol is a living substance, and capable of assuming various forms. As I have sought to attain the truths of Christianity from the words of the Author of this religion, and from the undisputed instructions of his holy Apostles, and not from a parent or tutor, I cannot help refusing my assent to any doctrine which I do not find scriptural."

Such is the testimony of this distinguished man, who has brought to the investigation of truth, talents and acquirements of a superior order; and who, by a diligent study of the Sacred Scriptures alone, in opposition to worldly interests, to early prepossessions, and the ties of affection, which sometimes bind a man to error, has thrown off every entanglement, and avowed himself a Unitarian Christian.

I hope that I have now satisfactorily removed your first objections to Unitarianism, that "it originated with the learned, and was to them almost exclusively confined." It is surely not necessary, in the present day, to prove, that in order to become a Christian, a man must not take

leave of his understanding: and the Popish doctrine, I trust, is for ever exploded, that "ignorance is the mother of devotion."

It is not either by names or numbers, that the question at issue between us can be decided. It will be found, on inquiry, that the great bulk of mankind are incapacitated, from various causes, from exercising an unbiassed judgment on these subjects, and adopt their opinions as a sort of inheritance. It is thus, that a majority are Turks at Constantinople, Catholics at Rome, Episcopalians in England, and Presbyterians in Scotland. And he who would draw conclusions in favour of the tenets of any of those denominations, from the numbers or rank of those who professed such opinions, betrays the weakness of the cause which he attempts to defend. It is an argument that may be adduced with as much force in support of error as of truth.

I am aware, that the pure and simple truths of the Gospel, as professed by Unitarians, are not likely to be agreeable either to those who are looking forward to the pomps and vanities of this life, or who are captivated by the applauses of an ignorant multitude: the religion of the Son of God" is not of this world." And had I ever dreamed differently, the recent conduct of Presbyterian Ministers, at the meeting at Strabane, must have dispelled the vision. Without any breach of Christian charity, I affirm, for I know it to be true, that there, numbers professed what they believed not! Some of these have renounced their opinions, from base and unworthy motives-they have forsaken us, “having loved this world." But there are others, for whom my heart still bleeds, who, from a natural timidity, have yielded to groundless fears, and, in an evil hour, have been tempted to inflict a wound on their consciences, which cannot be easily healed. I know such, and pity them; and mourn over the weakness of nature.

But very different is my feeling toward those men, who once entertained doubts on these questions, which have since, they say and boast, been satisfactorily removed; and, forgetful of their own difficulties, have urged and goaded others to do that for which their own minds must long reproach them-who have successfully practised on the fears of their former associates-who have driven them to the verge of the precipice, and then, with fiend-like disposition, have triumphed in their fall. "It was not an enemy that reproached me-then I could have borne it; neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me-then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the House of God in company."

September 18, 1827.

Yours, faithfully,

VINDEX.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We earnestly request our Correspondents will favour us with their Communications, previously to the 16th of each Month; and with articles of Intelligence, previously to the 20th.

CHRISTIAN PIONEER.

No. 15.

NOVEMBER, 1827. Vol. II.

Causes of the Progress of Liberal Christianity in New England.-Printed for the American Unitarian As

sociation.

(Concluded from page 64.)

Ir was this ever wakeful suspicion, this unconquerable dread of every thing like ecclesiastical consociations and tribunals, to which our churches are indebted not only for much of the liberty they enjoy, but also for much of the progress they have made in religious inquiry. As it was, we know that the almost unbounded influence of Cotton, and others of the clergy of that day, gave occasion for serious alarm to the leading men of the colony; and nothing but this determination of the people to preserve their congregational independency, could have presented an effectual barrier to the encroachments of that most subtle, plausible, and imposing of all usurpations, I mean, the usurpation of the priesthood. Could they have succeeded in establishing a spiritual court-a court claiming and exercising authority over ministers and churches, over faith and conscience, like all other courts of the kind, its first act would probably have been to decree a cessation of intellectual and religious improvement throughout its jurisdiction; and it might have made the difference of a century in the advancement of the mind on the prohibited subjects. True it might, and it probably would have disclaimed the use of the civil arm. It might have had nothing to do with racks, and faggots, and dungeons, the common accompaniment of persecution in the old world. But there may be a tyranny, where there is no visible tyranny. Men may be enslaved by the use that is made of their fears, prejudices, and superstitions. The conscience may be shackled, while the body is free. Men may wear their fetters in their souls. And that it has not been so with the people of New England, has been owing not a little to the popular and independent cast of our religious institutions.

We do not pretend, that our fathers were free from the

H

errors and the bigotry common to their times; but there is one thing in which they differed from all their cotemporaries, and which entitles them to the gratitude and veneration of their posterity. Though they had their errors and their bigotry, they did not seek to entail them on their descendants, by incorporating them into formularies and creeds, that were to be of perpetual obligation. They left their views of religion, such as they were; but they left them without any obstacle to their correction and amendment, whenever this should become necessary to accommodate them to the progressive illumination of the human mind. Compare our condition in this respect, with that of the English Establishment, from which our fathers separated. The liberal members of that Church have eight times attempted its reform, but without the least success; so as to justify the strong language used by one of its most distinguished ornaments, as he looked back on these failures, and, in the bitterness of his soul, considered that the cause of them was permanent: "Here, then, hath Terminus fixed his pedestal, and here hath he kept his station for two whole centuries. We are just where the Acts of Uniformity left us, and where, for aught that appears in the temper of the times, the last trumpet will find us."

No, it will not be so. There is a power at work, stronger-infinitely stronger-than the establishments of men, which is trying all establishments, as it were, by fire. They may multiply their creeds and subscriptions, until, to use the language of Milton, "he who would take orders, must subscribe slave, and take an oath withal;" there is that, however, in the tendencies of society and the human mind, which tells us that they cannot be for ever resisted. But though creeds and establishments cannot stop the progress of truth, they may, and they will, obstruct its natural and regular progress; and it is because they have not existed in our churches to obstruct the natural and regular progress of truth, that Liberal Christianity has made such advances. It is remarkable of Liberal Christianity in New England, that it is almost entirely of domestic growth. It was not brought here; it has grown up spontaneously. Intelligent and thinking men all over the country, without any concert, and with nothing but the Bible for their guide, have been led to adopt liberal views; in some instances without being aware, at the time, that there were any other persons in the world holding a

similar faith. Nay, I believe it to be undeniable, that wherever all artificial obstructions to free inquiry are removed, Liberal Christianity will spring up spontaneously. Its friends certainly think so; and that its enemies think so too, is proved by the fact of their resorting to these artificial obstructions, avowedly as their only security against its further and universal spread. To account, therefore, for the greater progress which Liberal Christianity has made in New England, than elsewhere, it is only necessary to consider, what all will concede, that there is no other place in the world, where so few artificial obstructions exist to the progress of truth.

I have room to consider but one other cause, which has contributed to make the progress of Liberal Christianity more rapid, and more observable in New England, than elsewhere. It is to be found in the interest taken by the people generally, and especially by the thinking and intelligent part of the community, in theological discussions.

Unhappily in most other places the reading and influential classes bestow but little attention on religious inquiries; either from indifference to the whole subject, or from disgust at the forms under which they commonly hear it presented, or from an impression that these are matters to be left to the clergy for them to manage. But in New England it has always been different. From the beginning, we find the governors, judges, and counsellors mingling with their ministers, and supporting with great ability their own views on points of doctrine and discipline. This, of course, has had the effect to elevate the standard of thought and conversation on religious subjects; and this, again, has stimulated the clergy to greater efforts, that they might bring their preaching up to this standard: so that two good influences have been exerted, and these, also, of a kind to act and re-act perpetually on one another. As a general rule, the preaching in any place will be what public sentiment demands, and never much above what public sentiment demands.

There is, also, another effect, which the interest taken by the laity, in theological discussions, has had on the progress of religious knowledge. We find, that where this subject has occupied the minds, as well as affected the hearts, of laymen, their studies have commonly resulted in their embracing liberal sentiments. I might here refer, if it were necessary, to the immortal names of Newton, Milton,