ing subjects, whether of doctrine or duty, will be read and esteemed by the people. In justice to himself, we think that Mr Whitman should have stated in a note, that this treatise was not a sermon, delivered professionally cz cathedra, but a lecture pronounced from the rostrum of a Mechanic's Institute. This circumstance may serve as an apology, if any is demanded, for the lively spirit and animated style of the discussion. Many topics, too, might with great propriety be introduced and commented upon on such an occasion, which would be deemed unbecoming the gravity and dignity of the pulpit. Y. [By the author of " Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse."] IN vain the heart that goes astray Meek peace, Or innocence, with snowy vest, THE UNITARIAN ADVOCATE. VOL. III. JUNE, 1829. No. VI. CURSORY OBSERVATIONS ON THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE BETWEEN ORTHODOX AND LIBERAL CHRISTIANS. NO. VII. CONCLUSION. THE MODES OF ATTACK UPON LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY, THE SAME THAT WERE USED AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF THE APOSTLES, AND REFORMERS. IN being assailed as it is, Liberal Christianity meets but with the fate that naturally attends, and actually has attended all improvement. Whether Unitarianism be a real progress of truth or not, this general statement will not be questioned. Every great advancement in science, in the arts, in politics, has had to encounter this hostility. No cause has been, or is, more bitterly opposed, than the cause of political liberty. So it has been with religion. Christianity had to struggle long with the hostility of the world. Its doctrines were opposed, and its friends reproached. And when it declined from its purity, when it was corrupted through its popularity, through its prevalence, through its very orthodoxy, I may say when a revival of its true doctrines was needed, the men who stood forward in that work, the Reformers, found that innovation was still an offence, that dissent was heresy, that truth was accounted no better than ruinous and fatal I say these things, in the general, and at the outset, not to prove, nor would I any where pretend to prove by such an argument, that Unitarianism is right, but to show that opposition to it is no evidence of its being wrong; to show that a doctrine may be like primitive Christianity," every where spoken against," and yet be a true doctrine. For there are many who feel from the bare circumstance that a system is so much reproached, as if it must be wrong or questionable; and there are many more who suffer their opinions to float on the current of popular displeasure, without inquiring at all into their justice or validity. Let such remember that no new truths ever did, nor, till men are much changed, ever can enter into the world, without this odium and hostility; and let them not account that which may be the very seal of truth to be the brand of error! I will now proceed to notice some of the particular modes of attack to which Liberal Christianity is subject, to meet these assaults and objections, and to show that Unitarianism in being subjected to these assaults suffers no new or singular fate. 1. In the first place, then, it is common to charge upon new opinions all the accidents attending their progress, to blend with the main cause all the circumstances that happen to be connected with it. This is perhaps not unnatural, though it be unjust. Men hear that a new system is introduced, that a new sect is rising They know nothing thoroughly about it, but they are inquiring what it is. In this state of mind they meet not with a Unitarian book, but more likely with a passage from a book, taken from its connexion, culled out, it is probable, on purpose to make a bad impression, and forthwith this passage is made to stand for the system. Whenever Unitarianism is mentioned, the obnoxious paragraph rises to mind, and settles all questions about it, at once. Or, perhaps, some act or behaviour of some individual in this new class of religionists is mentioned, or something, it may be, which is a mere matter of physical temperament or infirmity even,-and this is henceforth considered and quoted as a just representation, not only of the whole body, but of their principles also. Thus an impediment in Paul's speech was made an objection to Christianityan objection which he thought it necessary gravely to debate with the church in Corinth. I have introduced this sort of objection, first, not only because it arises naturally out of a man's first acquaintance with Unitarianism, but because it gives me an opportunity to say, before I proceed any further, how much of what passes under this name, it is necessary, as I conceive, to defend. I say, then, it is not necessary to defend every thing that under this name-every thing passes that every or any Unitarian has written, or said, or done. So obvious a disclamation might seem to be scarcely needful; but it will not seem so to any who have observed the manner in which things of this sort are charged upon us. What is it to me that such and such persons have said or written this or that thing? What is it to the main cause of truth, which we profess to support, or to the great questions at issue? In the circumstances of the Unitarian body, in the novelty, (to a certain extent,) of their opinions, in the violent opposition they meet with, I see exposures to many faults, to excesses and extravagances, to mistakes and errors even. I could strike off half of the opinions and suggestions, that have sprung up from this progress of inquiry, and still retain a body of unspeakably precious truth. There are several things, and some things of considerable practical moment, which I seriously doubt, whether Unitarians, as a denomination, have yet come to view rightly. The violence of opposition, has undoubtedly, in some respects, carried them to an extreme, in some points, of opinion and practice. And certainly I find things in their writings, which in my judgment, are indefensible. What less can be said, if we retain any independence or sobriety or discrimination about us. What less can be said of any fallible body of men ?-of any body, comprising, as all denominations do, all sorts of men, all sorts of writers and thinkers? If they are not inspired, they must be sometimes wrong. Nay, to bring this nearer home, it were folly for any one of us to contend that every thing he has said or written is right, or even that it is done with a right spirit. Here is a conflict of opinions, the eagerness of dispute, the perverting influence of controversy. Here is an ef fervescence of the general mind. The moral elements of the world are shaken together, if not more violently, yet more intimately perhaps, than they ever were before. If any man can, with a severe calmness and a solemn scrutiny, sit down and meditate upon those things which agitate so many minds, if he can separate the true from the false, and say a few things, out of many, that are exactly right, and a few things more that are helping on to a right issue, it is, perhaps, all that he ought to expect. How much dross there may be, in the pure gold of the best minds, "He that sitteth as a Refiner," ouly can know. |