side. Hitherto they were chiefly arians; but* the unitarians became about that time the predominant party, when the elder Socinus had visited Poland. The sect of the socinians,

which had been thus formed, established itself firmly in Poland † and Transylvania; and in the latter of these countries still publicly professes its doctrines, but in the year 1658 it was banished from Poland through the influence of the roman catholics, provoked at an insult offered by some students to a crucifix.

Driven from Poland the socinians § sought asylums in the protestant countries of Europe, and among others in England, where || they had before the end of the preceding century made some attempts with little success to establish their opinions, but ** in the year 1640, when a number of canons were published for the protection of the established church, one was directed against socinianism. But though these antitrinitarian doctrines had thus an early existence in England, and the socinians of Poland, both before and after they were expelled from their own country, gave their assistance in propagating them, they made in this country a very slow and inconsiderable progress, until they were at length aided by the tendency, manifested among the presbyterians, to depart

K

Ibid.

* Mosheim, vol. 4. p. 509. † Ibid. p. 513, 514. vol. 5. p. 500, 501. Ibid. p. 503. Ibid. vol. 4. p. 515, 516. ** Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. 2 p. 331. Bath 1793.

from the original tenets of their church. This tendency appears to have operated in the earlier part of the eighteenth century. When, in the beginning of the reign of William a law was enacted for rewarding with a legal toleration the good conduct of the presbyterians in effecting the revolution, it was not judged necessary to extend that advantage to any who should not subscribe to the doctrinal articles of the established church; but in the year 1773 the great body of the dissenting ministers England preferred a petition to parliament, supplicating to be released from a subscription, which was no longer consistent with their sentiments.

of

It was not unnatural that, when the zeal of calvinistical protestants was no longer sustained by opposition, they should themselves recoil from the gloomy and terrible doctrine of the arbitrary decrees of God. Since Calvin, who seems to have been strongly actuated by the spirit of a leader of a sect, could yet † acknowledge that the doctrine which he taught, was a horrible decree, it may well be supposed that, in a later period, when the zeal of his followers had been gradually moderated by time and tran

• Thirteen ministers only dissented from the plan of preferring a petition, and only fifty signed a counter-petition. The whole number of ministers was reckoned at that time to be about 2000. Horsley's Tracts, p. 435–439.

+ Decretum quidem horribile fateor.-Inst. lib. 3. cap. 23,

sect. 7.

quillity, this doctrine should give offence to the reason of reflecting men, and dispose them to indulge themselves without any restraint in qualifying the articles of their faith, that they might form for themselves what they would denominate a rational religion.

Nor was the peculiar doctrine of Calvin free from a direct tendency to generate this corruption of the genuine principles of the christian faith. When human salvation was referred to the arbitrary and irrespective decrees of God, the second person of the trinity was easily conceived to be degraded from the rank of a primary agent in the work of redemption to that of a mere instrument in the execution of a preordained arrangement. Those who embraced this doctrine were accordingly disposed by it to attach less importance to the agency of the Son of God; and the transition was natural from a degraded opinion of his agency to a degraded estimate of his nature and character.

This account of the tendency of the calvinistic doctrine is not a mere speculation, but is strongly confirmed by the facts of history. It is known that this tendency was perceived even in the time of Calvin, who was accordingly charged with maintaining opinions derogatory

K2

*

* Calvin was obliged to plead his cause at Berne against a charge of arianism. Mackenzie's Life of Calvin, p. 43. Lond. 1809. His opinions were attacked by Lutheran writers, as of

to the dignity of the Son of God. Its actual operation was manifest at Geneva itself about the middle of the eighteenth century, D'Alembert* having declared, that in his time perfect socinianism was the religion of the greater number of the pastors. In Great Britain it was also conspicuous about the same time. A secession was in Scotland made from the national church in the year 1736, on the alleged principle, that the church had † itself declined from its original doctrine, contained in the confession of Westminster, and that it had become necessary to separate from it in recurring to its genuine tenets. Among the English presbyterians the trinitarian doctrine was so generally abandoned in the year 1773, that only fifty out of two thousand ministers expressed an anxiety, that the existing restriction in regard to the trinitarian doctrine should be retained. Among the presbyterians of Ireland the socinian doctrine has found little favour, as we have been informed

a unitarian tendency. Albertus Grawerus de novo ac horrendo errore circa doctrinam de satisfactione Christi pro peccatis humani generis, p. 8, 9. Jenæ 1621. and Locorum Theologicorum Johannis Gherhardi, tom. 3. p. 290.

* D'Alembert's Miscell. Pieces, p. 71. Lond. 1764.

+ It is stated in the history of Methodism, under the year 1751, that "one great design in sending preachers thither, is to make a stand against the overflowing of arianism and socinianism in that kingdom." Miles's Chron. Hist. of the People called Methodists, p. 57. Methodism, it is however remarked, had not prospered much in that country. The history ends with the year 1799.

by doctor Bruce himself, who* has stated, that not more than one or two ministers and about a dozen of the laity are of this persuasion. The arian doctrine has however been more successful, having been early in the eighteenth century introduced from Scotland into the presbytery of Antrim, in which it has continued to be professed. Doctor Bruce has‡ recently asserted, that this doctrine has long prevailed in the synod of Munster, and is making an extensive, though silent progress, through that of the northern province. The statement of doctor Bruce is indeed probably correct in regard to the southern synod, but in respect to that of Ulster it must be ascribed to the partiality, with which all men are disposed to regard their own opinions; the synod of Ulster is said to have. contradicted it by a formal resolution, and had already given a practical refutation, by electing for the academical institution of Belfast a professor of divinity acknowledged to hold opinions strictly trinitarian.

As doctor Bruce has manifested an anxiety to separate his doctrine from that of the unitarians, it may be useful to state in how many important particulars they agree, that it may be more distinctly seen, what that system of religious opinions is, which he has proposed to substitute, not merely for the calvinistical tenets

* See a Letter written by doctor Bruce in the year 1813, as quoted by archbishop Magee, Disc. and Illustr. etc.vol. 2. part 2, p. 338, 339.

Epistle Dedicatory, prefixed to his Sermons.