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JUNE, 1815.

REVIEWS.

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LXXV. American Unitarianism; or a Brief History of "the Progress and Present State of the Unitarian Churches in America." Compiled, from Documents and Information communicated by the Rev. JAMES FREEMAN, D. D. and WILLIAM WELLS, jun. Esq. of Boston, and from other Unitarian Gentlemen in this country, by the Rev. THOMAS BELSHAM, Essex Street, London. Extracted from his "Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. THEOPHILUS LINDSET," printed in London, 1812, and now published for the benefit of Christian Churches in this country, without note OT alteration. Third Edition. Boston; Nathaniel Willis. 1815. pp. 48.

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We regard the appearance of this pamphlet as one of the most important events, which have taken place for many years, in reference to the interests of religion in our country. It has been of known, for at least a quarter century, by those who have been well-informed on the subject, that there has been in Boston a defection from those doctrines of the Bible, which have usually been denominated orthodox in Protestant communities. It has been known, that this defection VOL. XI.

florse, Jedidiah 1761-1826.1

has gradually increased; has si
lently and covertly extended it-
self into a considerable number
of congregations in the vicinity;
and has been, in a few instances,
openly avowed. From a great
variety of anonymous publica-
tions it has been evident, that the
defection had proceeded in the
downward course to the lowest
degrees of Socinianism, and to
the very borders of open infideli-
ty. Further than this;-it has
not been in a few solitary instan-
ces only, that persons, who have
been near the centre of all these
operations, have heard from the
pulpit both sermons and prayers,
which neither expressed nor im-
plied any thing more than sober
Deism, and which were totally -
at variance with the Gospel.
These things, and many more of
a similar character, have war-
ranted such disclosures through
the medium of our work, and of
other publications, as have fully
apprized the Christian public of
the existence of such a defection,
as has been briefly described
above. But as the work of error
was carried on for the most part
in secret;-as many well-mean-
ing people were led in the dark;

and as proselytes were made
principally by suppressing truth,
rather than by explicitly propos
ing and defending error, it was a

31

VOL. XI.

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difficult matter so to expose the evil, as to present its character, extent, and design, in full view, before the eyes of its friends and its enemies. It has been an artifice practised systematically by a majority of the clergymen, who have led the way in this apostasy from the faith of the Protestant churches, and, as we believe we may safely add, in this apostasy from Christianity, to inculcate the opinion, that they did not differ materially from their clerical brethren through the country. This artifice has been carried so far as to induce them to complain, in bitter terms, that they were slandered by our work, when represented as thus differing, and as promot ing the circulation of Socinian books; although every representation, which we have made on the subject, has been warranted by most abundant evidence. They have complained, that they were not invited to preach when travelling through the country; and have imputed this neglect to the effect of slander. It is to be remembered, that the slander complained of is the allegation, that they differ essentially in religious doctrine from the great body of the American clergy. Within a very few months, a clergyman, who we feel authorized to say is a decided Socinian of the Gernian school, complained that he was not invited to preach in New York; which he imputed to the slanders of the orthodox: and yet, at the very time of making this complaint, he must have known, that his real opinions, if openly avowed, would exclude him from nearly every pulpit south of Massachusetts. He must have known,

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also, that no representations, made by the orthodox, ever placed the Boston clergy, gener. ally, lower on the scale of religious doctrine, than his own opinions actually were.

We should not be thus partic ular, were it not that the cry of calumny has been raised with considerable effect, and with the most unblushing confidence. But this cry cannot be raised hereafter on the same account, and in the same manner. The pamphlet before us furnishes most decisive evidence, on the subject of the state of religion in Boston and the vicinity. It is evidence which can neither be evaded, nor resisted, by the liberal party; as it is taken wholly from a book, published by Mr. Belsham, who is at the head of that party in England, and who lays before the reader original letters from Dr. Freeman and Mr. Wells, authenticated by their proper names.

It will be asked, perhaps, what is the meaning of Unitarianism, as the word is used in this pamphlet? The inquiry is natural; and we answer it as follows. Mr. Belsham considers himself a consistent and decided Unitarian. He evidently supposes, also, that all consistent and decided Unitarians, on both sides of the water, agree substantially with him. That the reader may become acquainted with Mr. Belsham's opinions, we shall quote his own words. The length of the quotations will be excused, when the importance of the subject is

considered.

The publisher of the pamphlet has introduced it with a very suitable preface, containing large extracts from Belsham's Review

of Wilberforce's Treatise. The greater part of these extracts we shall cite below, and add to them several passages from Mr. Belsham's Calm Inquiry and Memoirs of Lindsey.

""God is the Former, the Father, and Benefactor of the human race, whom for wise reasons, unknown to us, but perfectly consistent, no doubt, with his magnificent plan of universal order and happiness, he has been pleased to place în circumstances of frailty and danger, the natural consequence of which, in their progress through Efe, is the contraction of a certain degree of moral pollution, which, in the nature of things, and by the divine appointment, exposes them to a proportionate degree of misery here or hereafter.

But this fact by no means proves a preponderance of vice and misery in the warld; otherwise we must conclude that the Maker of the world, whose character we learn only from his works, is a weak or a malignant being. The truth is, that although the quantity of vice and misery actually existing is very considerable, there is, nevertheless, upon the whole, a very great preponderance of good in general, and with few, if any exceptions, in every individual in particular.

"The almost universal desire of life and dread of dissolution, amount to a strong presumption, that life is in general a blessing. And the disgrace universally attached to flagrant vice, proves that such vice is not common. Character is the sum total of moral and intellectual habits, and the proportion of virtuous habits in the worst characters, exceeds that of vicious ones. But no character takes the denomination of virtuous unless all the habits are on the side of virtue: whereas one evil habit is sufficient to stamp a character

vicious.

"God cannot be unjust to any of his creatures. Having brought men into existence and placed them in circumstances of imminent peril, though in the nature of things misery is necessarily connected with vice, we may certainly conclude that none of the creatures of God in such, or in any circumstances, will ever be made eternally miserable. Indeed it is plainly repagnant to the justice of God, that existence to any of his intelligent creatures, should be upon the whole a curse.

ers are suspended by death, and admit of no revival but by the revival of the man, a fact the expectation of which is entirely unsupported both by experience and anal ogy, the speculations of philosophy would commonly, and almost necessarily, terminate in the disbelief of a future existence.

""The light of philosophy affords a few plausible arguments for the doctrine of a future life: there are some appearan ces physical and moral, which cannot be satisfactorily explained upon any other sapposition. But since the sentient pow

""Here divine revelation offers its seasonable and welcome aid. God has commissioned his faithful and holy servant, Jesus of Nazareth, to teach the universal resurrection of the dead, and by his own resurrection to confirm and exemplify his doctrine.

"Jesus hath authoritatively taught, that the wicked will be raised to suffering; nor could it possibly be otherwise, if they are to be raised with the same system of habits and feelings with which they de seended to the grave, and without which their identity would be lost. But since eternal misery for temporary crimes is inconsistent with every principle of justice, and since a resurrection from previous insensibility to indefinite misery, to be succeeded by absolute annihilation, is a harsh supposition, contrary to all analogy, and not to be admitted but upon the clearest evidence, we are naturally led to conclude, that the sufferings of the wicked will be remedial, and that they will termi nate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness. In this couclusion we seem to be justified by those passages in the apostolical writings which declare, that the blessings of the Gospel shall be far more extensive than the calamities of the fall, and that Christ shall reign till all things shall be subdued unto him. (Rom. v.-1 Cor. xv.)

""The apostles were commanded to preach the Gospel to the idolatrous heathen as well as to the chosen family of Abraham, and they were authorized to confirm their doctrine by miracles. These extraordinary powers are in the Scriptures called the Spirit of God, and the Holy Spirit; and the great change which took place in the views, feelings, and character of pharisaic Jews and idolatrous heathen, when they sincerely professed the Christian faith, is called, a new creation, regeneration, rising from the dead, and the like. And as conversion to Christianity was usually produced by the evidence of miracles, this new creation, regeneration, sanctification, or passing from death to life, is in this sense ascribed to the Spirit of God.

"The Jews, having been chosen by God to peculiar privileges, entertained a very high notion of their own dignity, and expressed themselves in the most contemptuous language of the idolatrous gentiles, who were not in covenant with Je

hovah. Of themselves they spoke as a chosen and a holy nation, sons of God, and heirs of the promises. But the hea thens were represented as sinners, as aliens, as enemies to God, and the like. In allusion to which forms of expression, the converted gentiles being entitled equally with converted Jews, to the blessings of the new dispensation, they are therefore said to be forgiven, reconciled, and saved, to be fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

""The death of Jesus is sometimes called a propitiation, because it put an end to the Mosaic economy, and introduced a new and more liberal dispensa tion, under which the gentiles, who were before regarded as enemies, are admitted into a state of amity and reconciliation; that is, into a state of privilege similar to that of the Jews. It is also occasionally called a sacrifice, being the ratification of that new covenant into which God is pleased to enter with his human offspring, by which a resurrection to immortal life and happiness is promised, without distinction, to all who are truly virtuous. Believers in Christ are also said to have redemption through his blood, because they are released by the Christian covenant from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and from the bondage of idolatry. Dr. Taylor has in general well explained

ese Jewish phrases in his admirable Key to the apostolic writings, prefixed to his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.

""The Scriptures contain a faithful and credible account of the Christian doctrine, which is the true word of God: but they are not themselves the word of God, nor do they ever assume that title: and it is highly improper to speak of them as such, as it leads inattentive readers to suppose they were written under a plenary inspiration, to which they make no pretensión, and as such expressions expose Christianity unnecessarily to the cavils of unbelievers.

equally lawful and expedient on any other day. Public worship, however, must be conducted at stated intervals; and it has been usual from the earliest times for Christians to assemble together, on the first day of the week, to commemorate the death and to celebrate the resurreetion of their Master.

""Christianity sums up the whole of human duty in the love of God and our neighbor; and requiring that all our time should e employed to the best account,, and that every action should be consecrated to God, lays no stress upon ritual observations, and expressly abolishes that distinction of days, which formed so conspicuous a feature in the Mosaic institute. To a true Christian every day is a Sabbath, every place is a temple, and every action of life an act of devotion. A Chris-, tian is not required to be more holy, nor permitted to take greater liberties upon one day than upon another. Whatever is lawful or expedient upon one day of the week is, under the Christian dispensation,

""This appears to me to be the true doctrine of reason and revelation, in which the God of nature is not represented as frowning over his works, and like a merciless tyrant dooming his helpless creatures to eternal misery, with the arbitrary exception of a chosen few; but as the wise, benevolent, and impartial parent of his rational offspring, who is training them all, under various processes of intellectual and moral discipline, to perfect virtue and everlasting felicity. Such is the God of my faith and adoration, the God of nature and of revelation, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God whose existence, attributes, and government are the joy and confidence of every enlightened and virtuous believer." See Belshum's Review of Wilberforce's Treatise, Letter II."

99.95"

"The Unitarians generally believe, that Jesus, having exercised his public ministry for the space of a year, and perhaps a little more, suffered death publicly upon the cross, not to appease the wrath of God, not as a satisfaction to divine justice, not to exhibit the evil of sin, nor in any sense whatever to make an atonement to God for it; for this doctrine in every sense, and according to every explanation, they explode as irrational, unscriptural, and derogatory from the divine perfections; but as a martyr to the truth, and as a necessary preliminary to his resurrection. And they hold, that it was wisely ordered, to preclude cavils, that his death should be an event of great public noto⚫ riety, and inflicted by his enemies." See Belsham's Calm Inquiry into the Scripture Doctrine concerning the person of Christ, pp. 449, 450.

"The Uuitarians further believe, that after having given sufficient proofs to his disciples, for forty days, of the truth of his resurrection, he was in a miraculous manner withdrawn from their society, a eircumstance which is described as an ascension into heaven." lb. pp. 450, 451.

"The Unitarians maintain, that Jesus and his apostles were supernaturally instructed as far as was necessary for the execution of their commission, that is, for the revelation and proof of the doctrine of eternal life, and that the favor of God extended to the Gentiles equally with the

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Jews; and that Jesus and his apostles, and others of the primitive believers, were ccasionally inspired to foretell future events. But they believe, that supernatural inspiration was limited to these cases alone; and that when Jesus or his apostles deliver opinions upon subjects unconnected with the object of their mission, such opinions, and their reasonings upon them, are to be received with the same attention and caution with those of other persons in similar circumstances, of similar education, and with similar habits of thinking.

"The Unitarians admit, that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and especially the latter, contain authentic records of facts, and of divine interpositions; but they utterly deny the universal inspiration of the writers of those compositions, as a qualification to which indeed they make no pretension, and of which they offer no proof; and the assertion of which tends only to embarrass the evidences of revelation, and to give advantage to its enemies. And they judge ⚫of the genuineness, of the meaning, and of the credibility of these works, exactly in the same way as they judge of any other ancient writings." 16. pp. 451, 452.

"The Unitarians disavow all those personal regards to Christ, and direct addresses to him, either of prayer or praise, which properly fall under the denomination of religious worship, as unfounded in reason, unauthorized by Seripture, derogatory from the honor of the Supreme Being, the only proper object of religious homage, and as in a strict and proper sense polytheistical and idolatrous." Ib. P.454.

"The Unitarians think it superfluous to produce any arguments to prove, that a person, who is repeatedly called a man, who had every appearance of a human being, who was born, who grew, who lived, who conversed, who felt, who acted, who suffered, and who died like other men, who was universally believed to be a man by all who saw and conversed with him, and was addressed and spoken of as a human being by all his contemporaries, whether friends or enemies, was really what he appeared and affirmed himself to fe, truly and properly a man, and nothing more than a man." 16. pp. 455, 456.

"They observe, that there is no allusion tall to the supposed pre-existent state and superior nature of Jesus Christ, in three of the Evangelists, or in the history of the apostles' preaching, and of the first Mantation of the Gospel contained in the

Acts of the Apostles; and that John is a very mystical writer, abounding in harsh metaphors and symbolical phraseology, very different from the simplicity which characterizes the other evangelists. Nor can they discern any traces of that surprise and astonishment, which must have seized the minds of the disciples and companions of Jesus, when it was first revealed to them, that the master with whom they had so frequently and familiarly conversed, was the Lord their Maker, or at least a great celestial spirit in a human shape." pp. 456, 457.

"The Unitarians do not presume to say that God might not, if he had pleased, have revealed other doctrines to mankind by Jesus Christ, besides that most important one of a future life. But they profess, that after reading the New Testament with the greatest attention, this doctrine appears to be the one great ob ject of the Christian revelation, which is in this view most worthy of God, and most beneficial to men." p. 470.

"Believing that Jesus was in all respects like unto his brethren, and pursuing his principles to their just consequences, he [Dr. Priestley] argued, that our Savior came into the world with the frailties and infirmities of a human being, moral as well as physical, and that, by the peculiar process of mental discipline to which he was subjected, he grew up to that consummate dignity and elevation of character, under which he appears in the writings of the Evangelists. And this truly Christian philosopher believed it to be not only a more rational way of accounting for the excellence of our Lord's character, and more agreeable to the language of the New Testament, which represents him as growing in wisdom and in favor with God and man, but, in truth, more honorable to our Lord himself, that his perfect moral excellence should be the result of his own exertion, vigilance, and fortitude, rather than of a supernatural operation." See Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey, pp. 225, 226.

"In the present day, the alarm having subsided, and a cooler examination of the subject hating taken place, it would, I believe, be hard to find any considerate and consistent Unitarian, who does not adopt Dr. Priestley's ideas co-cerning the formation of our Lord's moral character." Ib. p. 226.

"The Unitarian doctrine is, that Jesus of Nazareth was a man constituted in all respects like other men, subject to the

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