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an end to the Mosaic economy;

That it is called a sacrifice, because it was the ratification of a new covenant, which promised a resurrection to immortal life;

That believers in Christ are said to have redemption by his blood, because they are released from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and the bondage of idolatry;

That the Scriptures were not written under a plenary inspiration;

That the Sabbath is no ́more holy than any other day; and, consequently, that it is lawful to do the same things on that day as on any other;

That Christ made no atone ment for sin, in any sense what ever;

That the great object of Christianity was the revelation of a future life;

That after his resurrection he was miraculously withdrawn from his disciples, which was described as an ascension to Heaven; but we know not where he resides now, and ought not to feel gratitude to him for favors now received, nor to expect his future interposition in our behalf; and

That whenever Jesus, or his apostles, deliver opinions on subjects unconnected with the ob ject of their mission, their opinions are to be received with the the same caution as the opinions of other persons;

That the Scriptures contain authentic records of facts and of divine interpositions, but were not written by men under the constant influence of inspiration;

That all religious homage paid to Christ is strictly polytheistical and idolatrous;

That Christ was no more than a man;

That he came into the world with all the frailties and infirmities of a human being, moral as well as physical, and his perfect moral character was formed by his own exertion, vigilance, aud fortitude, without supernatural aid;

That, on the subject of demoniacal possessions in particular, he, like the mass of his nation was involved in gross darkness, and actually believed that to be true, which the wisdom of modern times has discovered to be false.

Such is the

Unitarianism which Mr. Belsham wishes to propagate, and of which he professes to write the history; so far, at least, as relates to its progress in this country. Of the existence of such Unitarianism, in the metropolis of New England, our readers have generally been well persuaded; but some have not believed that it was making any considerable progress, because they could not persuade themselves that men, occupying important places in church and state, and standing high in the public estimation were capable of concealing their true sentiments. Others have affected not to believe, because they feared the conse. quences of an exposure of sentiments so very diverse from those maintained by our pious fathers, and still cherished by a great majority of pastors and churches in the New England states. Some of our friends at a distance, who sit under their own vine and fig tree without molestation, occasionally feel, that our fears, respecting the efforts to

spread Socinian principles, are magnified beyond measure, in consequence of our living in the centre of Unitarian action. We almost envy them their peaceful undisturbed lot. One of the last things, which a Christian should desire, is, to be called to dispute with his fellow men, who bear the Christian name, respecting that blessed religion, which proclaims peace on earth, and breathes good will to man. Yet, however distressing this duty is, and however exposed to temptation one may be in performing it, there are times when the obligation becomes imperious, to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; and to place in their just light the efforts of those, whom we in conscience believe to be real ly striving to overturn this faith, whatever they may suppose to be the tendency of their meas

ures.

There is a certain class of well-meaning people, who are reluctant to enter upon any controversial discussion, and who are ready to say, on all occasions, that they are sorry to see religious controversy. These persons ought to reflect much upon the meaning of such declarations. Do they intend, that the essential truths of the Gospel will never be attacked; or that, if attacked, they should never be defended; or that there are no essential truths of the Gospel; or that, if there are such truths, it is impossible to ascertain what they are; or that error will die of itself, if never exposed. If they will assume either of these positions, they will find it untenable. They ought to consult the history of the church,

which will convince them, that the purity of religion has never been restored, in a single instance, without religious controversy; and that it has never been preserved, for any length of time, without resorting to the same means of defence. We readily admit, that there has been much unnecessary, and much very pernicious controversy in the church; that long and bitter disputes have originated on trifling occasions, and been conducted with unchristian feelings, and for very insufficient reasons, on both sides. All this is a proof of human weakness and depravity; but we see not how it tends to prove that all controversies are wrong, as it respects all the contending parties.

Political disputes have, in a vast proportion of instances, been the means of incalculable evil. Yet who supposes it to be wrong to oppose political error? Would not the suppression of all politiical controversy bring the world immediately into a state of the most abject submission to the most corrupt and despotic rulers? The fact is, that important truth of every kind, whether scientific, political, moral, or religious, must be taught and defended; but particularly religious truth; for the natural feelings of men are much more opposed to this, than to truth of any other kind. We are far from considering controversy of any sort as in itself desirable; we are far from justifying a disputatious temper, or encouraging dogmatical habits; we could earnestly wish, indeed, that the Christian world were immediately freed from all occasion of controversy. The time

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will come when controversy shall cease; but this time will not be hastened by the timid counsels of those, who would suffer the abettors of false doctrine to repeat their assertions and their sophistry without examination and without an answer. Con troversy will only cease by the universal reception of the truth, not by a complaisant deference to be exercised by the friends of truth to the promoters of all -kinds of error. One great complaint of the Papists against the leading Protestants, at the commencement of the Reformation, was, that they introduced the terrible evil of religious controversy. What would have become of the Reformation, if that complaint had been admitted as valid, and the Reformers had shut their mouths and thrown away their pens? It may be confidently affirmed, that Luther, Calvin, and Zuinglius, with the word of God in their hands and the love of God in their hearts, did more good in a few years, by entering boldly into the lists of theological controversy, than the same men with all their great talents could have done in fifty centuries, (had their lives been thus prolonged,) in the silent course recommended by those, who affect to decry all controversy. Is not the truth as important now as it was at the era of the Refor. mation? Is not Christ as precious to the souls of believers now, as he was then?

Before any person is entitled to stigmatize a controversial writing as useless or injurious, he must be satisfied, either that there is no occasion for it; that it relates to an unimportant subject; that it defends error rather VOL. XI.

than the truth; or that it is conducted in an unfair manner, or with an unchristian temper. When a controversy can be truly described as liable to either of these objections, we will not justify it.

But we shall always

hold in high honor those servants of God, who have it in their power to employ learning and talents, not only in teaching the truth, but in detecting and exposing the absurdities of error.

We are sincere believers in the great doctrines of the Reformation; in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; in the unity and perfections of the Godhead; in the Supreme divinity of the Son and Spirit; in the atonement and intercession of Christ; in the native and total depravity of the unregenerate; and in the reality and necessity of special, divine grace to renew and sanctify the souls of men, that they may be capable of participating in the holy enjoy. ments of the heavenly world. These points do not constitute the whole of our creed, but they are among the prominent and fundamental articles of it; they are points in which we differ essentially from Unitarians.

Believing conscientiously, that these doctrines are essential to Christianity, we have ever felt it to be our duty to resist, so far as lay in our power, every effort to supplant them, by substituting others, which, as they appear to us, can neither administer present comfort, nor lay any just foundation for future hopes. We readily concede, that Christianity in any forın, even in that of Catholic superstition, or the lowest Socinianism, is preferable, in a civil point of view, to Deism, or Atheism.

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Even in its most degraded forms, Christianity superadds something to the moral restraints of men; and impresses in some degree the doctrine of future retribution. So far as this goes, it is an advantage to the community. But so far as the vital, evangelical spirit of Christianity is rejected, or contemned, just so far the prospect that religion will have a benign influence on society is obscured. If a denial of the divinity and atonement of the Savior, be denying the Lord that bought us, then, whatever character a man who does this may sustain among his fellow creatures, in the sight of God he is an unbeliever; and whatever may be the degree of his guilt and punishment, he is as surely exposed to final destruction, as the Atheist, or the Deist.

It has always appeared to us, that the divinity and atonement of the Savior are essential doctrines in the Christian System; not as subjects of speculation only, but as practical truths. Such being the fact we cannot help believing, that those, who reject and contemn these doc trines, have not a fair claim to be considered as standing on Christian ground. It is a surrowful thing to be compelled to say, that there are now many persons, in the capital of New England, and not a few in its vicinity, who utterly reject the doctrines in question, and many others, essentially, if not equally, important. The Pamphlet before us offers evidence on this subject, which it is impossible to mistake.

man, we should doubtless have been met at the threshold, with the allegation of "party spirit and misrepresentation." No or thodox man could ever have hoped for such materials to compile a history as are here presented. The writer has not gathered his information from a hasty survey of the exterior of the temple, which he describes; he has had access, as high priest of his order, to the very interior recesses, and has exposed to view the most secret transactions of those, who are initiated into the worship which he approves. He has shewn us, that like the Grecian philosophers of old, many of his order, in our country, would have one religion for the vulgar, and a nother for the wise; that it is a fundamental maxim among the great body of leading Unitarians here, not to expose their sentiments directly to the inspection of the world at large, and to challenge investigation, but to operate in secret; to entrust only the initiated with their measures; and to leave the vulgar to fall into the tracks of the wise, by the force of that principle of imitation which is capable of operating so powerfully upon them.

Our own convictions respecting the nature of Unitarianism in Massachusetts, and the manner in which the cause is promoted, are not altered by the pamphlet before us. Living in the centre of action, we have long had these convictions. The Monthly Anthology; the mangled Christian Monitor; the Hymns and Psalms of Mr. Buckminster, and Mr. Emerson; the reply of Belsham to Wilberforce and to Dr. J. P. Smith; the Im

Had the facts, which this pamphlet discloses, been stated on the authority of an orthodox

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