thus orthodoxy compliments? Will our citizens allow that they have been dosed with opiates by the men they appointed to be their spiritual guardians? Is this the charity that thinketh no evil? All other doctrine but Calvinism is but a potion to destroy the soul! And this deadly mixture is deliberately administered to their wretched flocks by Unitarian clergymen! How will the thinking people of our good commonwealth account for their own stupidity in preferring these ministers of death to the charge they so abuse, and continuing them in it so long at the peril of their souls? Another allegation not less remarkable is "that a large portion of this community have been totally deceived in regard to the doctrines and preaching of the orthodox; misrepresentations the most palpable and injurious, of the doctrines, preaching, and motives of the orthodox, have been common for many years.-The apparent object has been to keep the members of Unitarian congregations from entering the doors of an orthodox church, and this has to a very unhappy extent been the effect hitherto." Coupled with this is the assertion that "Unitarians have been generally slow and reluctant to tell definitely what they themselves believe." We are unfeignedly astonished. How can a rational man persuade himself that a class of Christians who never openly avowed their own belief, could yet lead a community like ours blindfold, and keep them from ever learning what orthodoxy was, in orthodox churches, by palming on them false accounts of what it was, in their own. Is this consistent with the character of a thinking people, so flatteringly bestowed on them by this writer? What these misrepresentations are, he has not specified. We cannot discover them. Having for some years habit ually consulted every orthodox publication which was thrown in our way, we confess we see no difference bctween what they say, and what Unitarians have said, is orthodoxy. The very creed inserted in this Spirit of the Pilgrims, expresses precisely what we find represented in works on the opposite side. The fact is, Unitarians have always appealed to books of acknowledged authority, and to preaching “which was not done in a corner," as evidence of their sentiments. The public had access to all these sources of information, and could not be hindered from judging, how far the testimony which we relied upon was good. It is idle to talk of our keeping away our brethren from orthodox churches. The thing is ridiculous. Every man goes to church where and when he pleases, in Massachusetts, if nowhere else. This whole controversy has been open as day to the reading and observing portion of our citizens. They have probably judged fairly between the parties. If not, we suppose the blame may be shared pretty equally. Who has forgotten the following words of an eminent divine, in relation to Unitarians. They are a specimen of what has been common, and is now common in orthodox pulpits. They are from a sermon by Dr Mason of New York, upon quitting his pastoral charge. "Above all things, it is devoutly to be hoped, that you will never invite to the care of your souls,' a man who cares nothing about them. I mean, more particularly, for I would not be misunderstood, a man who belongs to that rank of traitors who miscal themselves 'rational Christians.' Against these men Ihave ever warned you, as the enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all that is valuable in his religion, and peculiar in his salvation. I know well that this congregation is considered by them as the very focus of what they term bigotry; and I do rejoice that thus far I and you have been counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Long may it continue so! Long may it be thought a hopeless case to attempt to bring you over to the fellowship of devils. Though I would not slander VOL. 1.-NO. IV. 18* the devil he promotes his work, as the destroyer, not by tempting men to his belief, but by persuading them to embrace what he does not believe what is too coarse and abominable for hell itself; and what the philosophical Christians shall find to be so, when they get to their own place. The pretences of these men to kindness and candor, and love, are all hollow. They mean to make proselytes of you, and twofold more the children of hell than themselves. O keep at a distance from them! Furthest from them, and their char ity, is best. Come not near their ice, never to be melted but in that fire which shall not be quenched." Such is the way in which orthodox preachers have spoken of Unitarians, to their own congregations. And can anything like it be produced on our side? No. We have one and all been ready and happy to acknowledge Calvinists as Christians, on the ground of a Christian character merely. While they would, we were in the habit of interchanging ministerial labors. When fellowship was broken between the two denominations, it was broken by the orthodox only, and not by our choice or consent. Every act by which the breach has been widened, has been the fruit of orthodox zeal. A part of the plan of the Spirit of the Pilgrims is to confound American Unitarians with German Deists. This is an act of injustice too gross to be overlooked. We were shocked at the coolness with which it is perpetrated. When German theology began to be more generally known in this country, some remarks were made by the Rev. Professor Stuart in his letters to Dr Channing, very highly in praise of the learning and talent of some of the wildest theorists on the Continent. These men had written deistical works, and Dr Stuart had read them. His praise of their learning would naturally detract something from his rebuke of their audacious attacks on Christianity. The gentleman who reviewed his letters in the Christian Disciple, spoke disparagingly of these learned Germans; took off the whole of the compliment paid them at Andover; and utterly disclaimed their theology. Besides this, we believe the deistical works imported for the Seminary at Andover from Germany, far outnumber all which could be found in Cambridge. If any leaning to the foreign theology may fairly be imputed in the one case it may be also in the other. But in good truth, there is in this country no such thing as a theology like that of Wegscheider, and others abroad, Christian evidences have never been more powerfully urged and supported, than by avowed Unitarians. A firmer attachment to Revelation exists nowhere than among Unitarians. The attempt to draw upon them the odium of secret or avowed enmity to Christianity as a revealed religion, is utterly futile, while in Buckminster's and Channing's sermons we can read a defence so eloquent, of its divine authority. The text books on this subject, of most value, are all the production of men of like religious faith. And we think it argues nothing against Unitarianism, that in casting off orthodoxy the German theologians rushed to the opposite extreme. It was orthodoxy which disgusted them with Christianity. The Spirit of the Pilgrins' comes out with a warlike aspect, and abounds in that sort of threatening which a purpose of attack and defence at close quarters, may seem to warrant. It more than insinuates that already the question has sprung up, whether the Bible is any longer to be the ultimate appeal in religious differences. Nay, it openly asserts of Unitarians that they do, as far as they dare, deny the divine authority of the sacred Scriptures. Το What is the tendency of all this? To overawe and intimidate. To fasten a stigma on their opponents which shall make them odious in the eyes of ignorant men. prepossess the public mind with a prejudice, which may serve to blunt all argument. To create a strong party spirit which shall avail to the support of exclusive measures in Church and in State too; if that ascendancy in civil affairs should be gained, to which a religious supre macy is the first step. We lament that a hostile spirit should be so unweariedly fostered in this community. The little which individuals can do toward conciliation and peace is perpetually undone by the zealous partizans who lead their sect. What would the orthodox have? Must we give up our faith? They cannot expect it. Do they wish us to be silent on the great articles in dispute? No. Then they would cry out again about dishonest concealment. If we defend our opinions and our characters we are equally reproached. How then can peace be restored and cherished? It has come to this; that no man who is not a Calvinist shall escape the treatment which is thought to be due to a subverter of all religion. We must either become orthodox, or consent to be the objects of a ceaseless persecution, sparing neither character, conscience, nor feeling; destroying our usefulness in all possible ways; and branding us till death, as the enemies of God. STEPHEN THE MARTYR'S DYING Words. It is known to every one that an argument for the deity of Jesus is raised from the dying words of the martyr |