be sufficient for us, and fatal to them. For we expect to make it appear, that, if the scriptures can be even plausibly interpreted, consistently with our system of doctrines, then these doctrines must be true. This is what we propose; and, in so far as we are successful in accomplishing our purpose, we think we shall render a service to the cause of truth. Something of this sort seems to us to be required in order to present the question in a proper point of view. We wish to give our doctrines a fair chance; to secure for them an impartial trial. We wish that the testimony of scripture may have an opportunity of being applied according to the real merits of the case. But at present it is not so. Inquirers come to the examination of this subject with crude, or false conceptions of the question at issue, the points on which it turns, and the nature and degree of proof which the subject requires. Many seem to have taken the impression, that Unitarianism is something strange and startling, every step of which is to be clearly made out by invincible and direct proofs; and fortified by a chain of demonstrations wrought out from scripture authority, link by link. This view of the subject is certainly not a correct one; and we hope to make it appear that it is not. Yet it is a very common one, and the result of very obvious causes. Orthodoxy has so long had possession of the public mind, that its roots have spread far, and struck deep.

It has infused its

spirit into the whole mass of our literature. It has tinged the very atmosphere through which the light of heaven visits our eyes. It has tainted the very springs and vehicles of thought. It is no wonder, that those who come to the study of this question in the scriptures,

with minds preoccupied by artificial formulas, inculcated from infancy into the warm and yielding texture of the growing intellect; with prejudices trained and fostered till they have overgrown the whole mind, should find in the scriptures the very things they come to look for. It were strange indeed if they should fail to do so. Nor is this all. Fear has been enlisted on the side of error, and in aid of prejudice; fear, at once the offspring and the parent of ignorance and imbecility of mind. Men have been taught to believe that it is unsafe to trust their own reason and judgment; that it is hazardous to inquire into the grounds of their faith; and fatal to relinquish certain articles of the popular creed. It is time men were disabused of this delusion, which, if universal, would endue error, once prevalent, with immortality. Let men once be convinced that they may examine the claims of Unitarianism without danger to their virtue, their peace, or their hopes, and they will not, we are persuaded, be long in embracing it. We hope we shall be able to show them, in the course of the following remarks, that they may do this; and that in so doing, they will only follow the guidance of nature, reason, and common sense. We shall be satisfied if our remarks prove not altogether unavailing to weaken the hold of prejudice; to unbind the spell of systematic error; to disenchant and set free the enthralled reason; and thus to enable men fairly and justly to estimate the testimony of divine revelation.

It

may be proper to state that, by the terms, 'Orthodoxy, Popular Creed,' &c, we mean the system of Calvinism and that our remarks are intended to apply to

:

the various denominations of the day, only in proportion as they agree with this system. Of this system we shall speak freely and without disguise. We trust we may do this without offence; for we speak of the system only. With this we have no measures to keep. We regard it as being, in its essential principles and tendency, opposite to the true spirit of the gospel. And we believe, that if the influence of its peculiar doctrines by themselves, should be fully imbibed, and permitted to operate uncontrolled, it would turn the fruits of the gospel into wormwood. Happily, this is not the case. No system of faith, in ordinary circumstances, exerts other than a modified influence on its votaries fluence checked and controlled by innumerable causes. In the present case, the doctrines of Calvinism are combined with the great system of moral and spiritual truths, common to all forms of Christianity. It is to these it owes the good which subsists-and subsists so largely too, in many cases- under its sway. Its mischiefs only are its own. Many minds, by a happy moral idiosyncrasy, spontaneously reject the poisonous properties of their faith, and imbibe and assimilate only the kindly influences of principles, associated with it. In others, they subsist as barren speculations, hardly exerting any influence on character or practice. Hence the instances

; an in

-and they are many of eminent virtue and piety to be found among Christians of this denomination, and which we value not the less, because united with opinions which we think both false and pernicious. Their piety and virtue spring from the soil of our common Christianity. They have grown up in spite of their peculiar system; and would, we doubt not, wear a fresher

bloom, and bring forth richer fruits, if these peculiarities. were done away.

Is it necessary to say more? Men of liberal minds will readily believe, that, in condemning a system of doctrines, we cannot intend to impeach the characters, or wound the feelings of those who embrace it. Those of a different temper would neither be soothed by concessions, nor satisfied by disclaimers.

One word with regard to the manner in which religious controversy ought to be conducted. Its single object should be, to elicit and establish truth. Keeping this object steadily in view, we think it best, like the Apostle, to

We would call things

We would express our

honest convictions, and assert our christian rights fully and fearlessly. Some advocates of Unitarianism seem to us to have adopted a style of defence somewhat too deprecatory. We have sometimes thought that they seemed to be oppressed by the consciousness of being in the minority. We cannot sympathise with such a feeling. Were we compelled to regard ourselves as standing alone single in the midst of the earth, we should regret the circumstance principally on the account of others. We should not feel the less satisfied with our system, or the less confident of its ultimate triumph. We meet our opponents on the broad level of our inherent rights, as men, and as Christians; rights which they have not given, nor can take away. What is it to us, if in a spirit of petulant and overweening vanity, they choose to deny our title to the christian name? Their folly and arrogance is their own affair, not ours. The first presumption we shall consider in favor of

Unitarianism is, that it harmonizes with the voice of external nature. Its doctrines coincide with the conclusions, to which an intelligent and impartial observer of the works of God would naturally come concerning the Divine character. It is certain that nature and revelation, receiving as they have done their impress from the same spirit, cannot speak a different language, though we, indeed, may err in our interpretation both of the one and the other. there is an intelligible heavens and the earth.

To him who hath ears to hear, language uttered forth by the To him, who hath eyes to see, the universe is the book of God, inscribed all over with the living lineaments of his perfections; though its still small voice is often unheard its magnificent symbols ill understood. It is certain, however, that the universe teaches nothing of a divided, or compound existence in its great first cause. Everything points distinctly to a single designing intelligence, and directing will; and this the more clearly in proportion to the accuracy and extent of our investigations. If there be any one doctrine, which nature and reason demonstrate more clearly than all others; any doctrine whch must be true, or doubt and scepticism hold universal reign, and men have no longer a foundation for either faith or reasoning; it is this of the simple unity of God. Whether we reason from cause to effect, or from effect to cause; commence the argument wherever we may, this is its inevitable result. It speaks out to us from the still depths of our own reflections it is pencilled with sun-beams on the pages of God's works. Certainly, then, we may be justified in saying, that revelation cannot contain a doctrine really inconsistent with this fundamental truth.