persecution carried the seeds of truth. Channing has done much, but he entered in some degree into the labours of Priestley in the New World, where Unitarian principles promise to be as permanent as the phenomena of her external nature, and those who seek to overthrow them, might as well attempt to shoulder the Andes from their base, or turn again the Mississippi to its source. I trust that the friends of truth in this country, will be animated by the same decided spirit. Depend upon it, temporising will serve us nothing. Instead of conciliating opposition, it invariably increases dogmatism. If, whilst our opponents are bold, confident, and sweeping in their statements, we begin to doubt, and hesitate, and draw distinctions, and advocate the truth as if we were apologising for error, the truth will win no conquests. Are your opinions false? Speak out, they will be the more speedily refuted. Are your opinions true? Speak out, they will be the sooner recognised. May our ministers universally be convinced, that it is their duty to attach their flocks by the enduring bond of principle; and that all ties of a nature merely personal, are at best but flaxen cords. May they universally perceive that a community of feeling, and on some important points, a community of faith, are the only cement which can bind a church permanently together; and that when we endeavour to substitute any other preparation, we do but daub the wall with untempered mortar. In my opinion, we should canvass the errors which surround us with spirit and freedom. We cannot do justice to our own views, without contrasting them with those of others. The You must part of Moses naturally precedes the part of Joshua. first lead out the people from the house of bondage, and then introduce them to the promised land."

In proposing the next Resolution, "That the Unitarian faith is embodied in the Bible and the whole Bible;' that consequently it intimately connects itself with the great principle of the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures; that in the dissemination of the Sacred Writings, its professors have rejoiced to find an object of religious benevolence, in which they could cordially unite with all other denominations of the Protestant world; and that, while we regret the recent attempt to exclude them by a doctrinal test, from the continuance of this union, we observe with satisfaction the spirit in which it has been rejected by the Committee of the Hibernian Bible Society;"-the Rev. Dr. Drummond, after depicting in glowing terms the beneficial effects which had resulted from the establishment of the Bible Society, proceeded as follows: "Protestants of all denominations were invited to unite their efforts in the holy cause, and numbers of them all, or almost all, were admitted to take a part in the proceedings of the Society. For a time the distinctions of what are called orthodoxy and heterodoxy were laid aside, and all seemed willing to be actuated only by principles of Christian philanthropy. The dark clouds of sectarianism and bigotry began to be dispelled from the religious atmosphere, and the genius of Christianity came forth beautiful and brilliant as a star in the firmament, that has bathed its glittering forehead in the ocean and new tricked its beams,' and

was seen for a time, by the rapt eye of faith and hope, radiating a cheering light and shedding a benignant influence on the heads and the hearts of men.

"But this happy state was not ordained to last. The glorious vision passed away; it melted into thin air. The spirit of ANTICHRIST was disturbed. And as he is said to have insinuated himself into the garden of Eden, to blight that felicity which he could not participate; so he determined to creep into the Bible Society, to create confusion, and to scatter among the sons of peace, the fiery seeds of discord and rebellion against the Most High. Under the mask of superior sanctity, and in the guise of one who pretended that he had eaten of the tree of knowledge, and had his eyes opened to distinguish between good and evil, he entered their councils, and began to whisper that their sanctified body was tainted with the poison of heresy-the leprous and soul-destroying heresy; that they ought to undergo a purgation; that the heretics should be expelled; and, to guard against their re-admission, a test of orthodoxy should be administered to every member of the holy conclave. The EVIL ONE having thus infused the venom of his serpent tongue into the bosom of his elect, left it to work and ferment; and it wrought and fermented according to his wishes. At last, some whom he had made his confidants and the organs of his counsels, had the assurance, in defiance of all shame, to give utterance to his wicked suggestions, and propose that a belief in the Trinity should be adopted as the test of membership by the Bible Society!

"This proposition was in direct violation of the principle on which the Bible Society was founded. It was annexing to the Bible a note of portentous sound-a comment of most anti-biblical, most anti-christian tendency-an audacious attempt to overthrow a system whose peculiar beauty and utility lay in the broad principle on which it was based. That such a proposition should have been a subject of discussion in the Bible Society, nay, that it was not met at once by a universal burst of indignation and scorn, is a matter of reproach. After a stormy meeting, which a reverend gentleman who was present, compared to a bear-garden, the motion was lost, and the Bible Society rescued from ruin and everlasting opprobrium.

"Foiled in their endeavours to overthrow, and to pollute with their slime, the beautiful creation of the Foreign & British Bible Society, the adversaries resolved to form a Society of their own, which they baptized with the waters of contention, the bitter waters of Marah and Meribah-The Trinitarian Bible Society. They had now got a bantling of their own to nurse, and might indulge many a glowing anticipation of its future beauty, and its future strength, when it was to come forth like Samson to smite down the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass-or rather, like a man of Gath, to defy the armies of the living God. But, lo! while they are yet gazing and gaping with parental delight on their baby giant, they behold with amazement and horror, that it is speckled like a viper-dotted all over, from top to toe, with the plague-spots of the Irving heresy! And to add to their horror

and mortification, they heard their first-born denounced, sneered at, and ridiculed, even by some of the sanctified fraternity, as a lusus naturæ, a monstrous miscreation-the ricketty abortion of bigotry and folly."

"The same antichristian spirit which wrought in England, extended its baleful influence to our own island; and attempts, though of a less public nature, similar in wickedness and folly to those made in London, were made to subvert the Hibernian Bible Society. The good sense and Christian feeling of this Society, united to a regard for principle and consistency, baffled those attempts, and it is to be hoped, will continue to baffle them, should they ever be repeated. Trinitarians are fond of boasting, to their shame, that no Socinians-meaning Unitarians, for they are fond of nicknames-are ever admitted to their counsels, or to any share in the management of their affairs. This is assuredly not fair. They who are members of the Society-who are acknowledged to be such by the receipt of their subscriptions-who have always evinced an honest desire to act faithfully to the principles on which the Society was constituted-and who, in the purity of their morals and the rectitude of their conduct, will not shrink from a comparison with the best of the exclusionists,-ought to have their representatives in the committee and on the 'platform.' Whence so much anxiety to exclude them? Have they, in any mode, rendered themselves unworthy of the holy brotherhood? Have they ever betrayed the great principle of the Bible Society, and made use of an influence derived from their connection with that Society, to circulate tracts and comments in support of their peculiar doctrines? Have they distributed the Bible without note or comment with the right hand, while, with the left, they were scattering their creeds, articles, and confessions of faith? Had they one face for the privy council, and another for public exhibition? Have they, at any time, claimed precedence of men their superiors in virtue and learning; or used an undue influence to keep an orthodox brother in the back-ground, and to plunge him in the deepest shade, lest being discovered, he might become an object of that popular regard which the orthodox are so anxious to monopolise? Unitarians know well how they have been treated by Bible Societies; and assuredly they cannot boast that it has been according to the golden rule of Christianity. But they scorned to complain. If good were done, they remained satisfied. They were little ambitious of distinction among the orators of the Rotunda. They rejoiced to know that the Bible was distributed, conscious that the Bible is their most powerful and efficient advocate. The projectors of the Trinitarian Bible Society, have given Unitarians the most decisive triumph. They have virtually sealed their testimony to the truth of Unitarian Christianity. Whence their anxiety to form a Trinitarian Society, and make a profession of belief in the Trinity the condition of membership? Whence, but from a consciousness that the Bible is a Unitarian book? Whence, but from a secret and well-founded conviction, that the Bible, without note or comment, will make all honest and unprejudiced readers Unitarians? They have be

trayed their want of confidence in the Bible to teach the doctrine of Three in One.' They would stamp Trinitarian on its back, as a talisman against the omnipotence of truth. They dare not send it forth on the strength of its own merits. They are afraid to trust it alone. It will propagate the soul-destroying heresy! It will unteach all that has been taught by Athanasius and Calvin. That it has already produced some of these effects, we may rest persuaded. And how should it not? The Bible is Unitarian throughout-anti-trinitarian in the beginning, anti-trinitarian in the middle, anti-trinitarian in the end. It knows as little of the doctrine as of the terms Trinity and Trinitarian, and that is nothing. But, it teaches that God is one person-one intelligent Being, the Creator and the Father of all. This is life eternal, to know Thee the ONLY true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' In all that was written by Moses and the Prophets, and taught by Christ and his Apostles, we can discover nothing of a Trinity-nothing of a Platonic, an Aristotelian, a Pythagorean, a Brahminical, a Runic, a Sabellian, a Swedenborgian, Trinity; nor any of the threescore and ten Trinities which have claimed in turns the belief, and imposed on the credulity of mankind. Christianity repudiates the very name of Trinity, as a heathen abomination, an insult to reason, a blasphemy against the most sublime truth of revelation. The Bible, I repeat, is essentially a Unitarian book; and if allowed to do its own work, and to go forth in its own simple majesty, without the deforming and distorting drapery in which priestcraft and bigotry would enfold it, it will Unitarianize the world. It has wrought and it is working marvellous conversions. Unitarians have no misgivings of mind as to the result. They are willing to cast their bread on the waters, assured that after many days they shall find it. They are willing that the good seed of the Word should be scattered, though by orthodox hands, for the Lord of the harvest will cause every seed, according to an invariable law of his providence, to produce after its kind, and therefore the crop must be UNITARIAN. It is from ignorance of the Bible, or from coming to its perusal with minds pre-occupied by anti-biblical notions, from blind attachment to antiquated creeds and nursery catechisms, from blind veneration for State religion and its forms established by human laws, that men are Trinitarians. Let them dare to emancipate their minds from the inglorious vassalage; let them assume courage to read the Sacred Volume with their own eyes, to judge by their own understandings; and the religious world will at last become truly Christian, and worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Dr. Stratton seconded the Resolution.

The Rev. George Armstrong, a clergyman recently of the Established Church of Ireland, proposed the following Resolution: "That as all true religion must ally itself with the advancement of the general mind, it is the character of Unitarian Christianity to rejoice in the free extension of intellectual light and moral culture through society; that the sectarianism which afflicts this land may be gradually soothed by uniting in the school-room, those who are divided in the church; and that, with these con

victions, we hail with satisfaction the project for national education which has recently been devised; and believe that, in thus attempting to re-unite those social elements which intolerance has dissevered, the Government of the country is wielding its secular power in true co-operation with the peaceful spirit of the Gospel." In recommending it, he said, “From the earliest period at which I can charge my recollection with having thought upon the subject, I can truly say, that the scheme of education for the people of this country, which has at length been put forward under the patronage of the Government, was precisely that which had always presented itself to my judgment, however faintly it might have grown upon my hopes, as one which was most adapted to our wants, and most consistent with policy, justice, and true religion."

The

"The temper of a nation is not to be changed by a wish; the prejudices of a people will not disappear at our bidding. disasters of seven centuries may instruct us, that a new method must be tried. Above all other countries on the globe, it most behoves him who would legislate for Ireland, and especially him who would enlighten the mind of this country, to remember, that the age of miracles is no more-that the age of violence is past away-and that it is time we essay what the age of intelligence may now accomplish. Sir, an opportunity of bringing such experiment into action, has now been offered to us. The government of Ireland, often mistaken, sometimes unjust, rarely enlightened, has at length put an instrument of good into our hands, by which a revolution more signal than any which her annals have yet recorded, may be effected. It gives a power which she has not yet been practised to resist; it gives us the promise of her confidence; it opens an avenue to her affections; it carries us into the hearts of her people;-a noble region, where her conquerors have never yet trodden; but where friends may gather an abundant harvest, if they have only the skill to prepare, and the patience to await it."

"But not only is it policy thus to act; but it is that without which, truly speaking, there can be no such thing as policy at all; and without which, I believe it is the irreversible order of things, that no great or permanent good ever was or ever can be effected. Sir, it is justice; it is obedience to the fundamental law of God's immutable will; it is doing to others that which we would desire others to do unto us.' For ourselves, we estimate beyond all price the privileges we would fain extend to our brethren. We regard with amazement, beyond the power of words to utter, almost beyond the power of thought to imagine, the presumption of mortal man to do irreverence to the image of his Maker, by putting chains upon the intellect which only can be great in proportion as it is free, and only can vindicate its heavenly lineage, in proportion as it has power to analyse the works, and to search into the mind of the Divinity. But if we cannot transport to the same elevation of knowledge with ourselves, the multitude who are wandering below; at least it is something that they are willing to begin the ascent; it is something at least that they do