i.l/V . UUL\Tf\CLp

1846b

THE POSITION OF UNITARIANISM DEFINED.

A DISCOURSE

DELIVERED AT SHE J^E-OPENINQ OP XH|

FIRST INDEPENDENT CHURCH

OF BALTIMORE,;

ON SU.N"pAY*;;J ACTUARY. 23, i,M8',

BY ITS $ASTOR,

GEORGE W. BURN A; P,

i

'*3&-
rmiSHED BY KEftUEST OF ?H J^BO CIETT.

BALTIMORE*
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY.

1848:

THE POSITION OF UNITARIANISM DEFINED.

A DISCOURSE

DELIVERED AT THE RE-OPENING OP THE

FIRST INDEPENDENT CHURCH

OF BALTIMORE,

ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1848,

BY ITS PASTOR,

GEORGE W. BURNAP.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OP THE SOCIETY.

BALTIMORE:
PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY.
1848.

DISCOURSE.

Jesus saith unto her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at jerusalem,
worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We enow
WHAT WE WORSHIP, FOR SALVATION IS OP THE JeWS. But THE HOUR
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh
such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. — john iv. 21 — 24.
These are some of the sublimest words which
were ever uttered on earth. It is in partial fulfil
ment of them that we, at the distance of more than.
eighteen centuries, "with half the convex globe be
tween," are assembled to worship God in the name
of Christ in this beautiful temple built upon this
distant shore, when the temple of Jerusalem, which
then glittered afar in oriental splendour, has long ago
been razed to its foundations. I shall not attempt to
describe the joy with which we again assemble in
this sacred place. To many of you it has become
endeared by the most tender and holy associations;
with the sabbath's rest and the sabbath's musings^

4 DISCOURSE.
with the soul's most consecrated hours of commu
nion with God, with the divine teachings of Christ's
blessed Gospel, with the moving symbols of his sor
rows and his death, with the anthems of God's praise,
with the hopes and anticipations of heaven, with the
memory of kindred and companions, who, you trust,
are now worshipping in that temple not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.
I have thought to add interest to this first day of
our restoration to our renovated house of prayer, by
rehearsing the history of this church and religious
society, by re-stating the principles upon which it was
founded, the objects to which its energies are directed,
the changes which have passed over the religious
world since its establishment, and the prospects which
the future presents of the dissemination of those
great truths which it maintains as vital to Christianity
and to man.
On the 12th pf October 1816, there appeared in
one or more of the Baltimore newspapers the follow
ing advertisement. "Divine service will be per
formed by the Rev. Doctor Freeman of Boston to
morrow at the Hall belonging to Mr. Gibneyin South
Charles St., to commence at 1 1 o'clock A. M. and at
half past 3 P. M."
Accordingly, at the appointed hours, an audience
assembled and services were held. On the next
Sunday, public worship was again celebrated at the
same hours and in the same place. Those who

DISCOURSE. 0
listened to the exercises of those two days, had been
accustomed to worship in the various churches in the
city, but they now heard an exposition of the doc
trines of Christianity, as it seemed to them, more
reasonable, consistent and edifying than any to which
they had ever given their attention.
To many, perhaps most of the hearers, the denom
ination to which the speaker belonged, was wholly
unknown. Their judgment of what he uttered was
formed therefore, either without prejudice, or in op
position to the bias there always exists against any
thing that is new. A simultaneous desire sprang up
in the minds of many who were there, to procure for
themselves and their children a stated ministry by
which such views of Christianity might be inculcated
and maintained.
But who was Doctor Freeman, and why does he
preach in a hall? Among all the various denomina
tions of Christians, is there no pulpit in the city to which
he may be invited? Not one. He had been almost
isolated for more than thirty years for conscience-sake.
For more than thirty years, in the way called heresy,
he and the people of his charge had worshipped the
God of their fathers. His personal history is, that
he was a graduate of Harvard University of the class
of 1777.
He pursued his preparatory theological studies
principally at Cambridge, and in October 1782 be
came Reader at "King's Chapel," an Episcopal

O DISCOURSE.
Church in Boston, and in the April following was
chosen Pastor of the Church. He continued to read
the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer till 1785,
when a Committee of the proprietors was appointed
to revise that manual of devotion and present it in a
form more agreeable, as they thought, to the word of
God. The result of their labour was the production,
in substance, of the "Chapel Liturgy," a beautiful
and almost faultless form of public devotions, now
used by that ancient society. This change, and as
they thought reform, was brought about mainly by the
studies and ministrations of their Pastor, who gave a
course of Lectures explanatory of the Scriptures in
relation to those doctrines which were left out of their
new book of Prayer. Thus the most ancient Epis
copal Church in New England, became the first
Unitarian Church in America.
Nothing then, could have been more appropriate
than that the patriarch of Unitarianism in America,
should have been the founder of Unitarianism in
Maryland. The desire to have a Church in Baltimore, modeled
upon the simple principles of the Gospel, excited
by the preaching of Doctor Freeman, found expres
sion in a meeting held by several of the citizens
on the 10th day of February 1817, for the purpose
of organizing a religious society, and taking into con
sideration the best means of erecting a building for
public worship.

DISCOURSE. I
At this meeting they adopted a Constitution, and
gave to the society the legal title of "The First Inde
pendent Church of Baltimore." They also appoint
ed nine Trustees to superintend the concerns of the
society and the erection of the building. The corner
stone was laid on the 5th day of June 1817, in the
presence of all the Trustees, most of the subscribers
and many others.
In the centre of the stone, a plate was deposited,
bearing the following inscription :
In Greek; "To the King eternal, immortal, invisi
ble, the only wise God."
In English; "This corner stone of the First Inde
pendent Church of Baltimore was laid on the 5th day
of June 1817, under the direction of the following
Trustees and Building Committee, viz. Henry
Payson, Ezekiel Freeman, Cumberland D. Williams,
James W- McCulloh, Tobias Watkins, Nathaniel
Williams, William Child, Charles H. Appleton, John
H. Poor and Isaac Phillips. Maximilian Godfroy,
Architect, and John Ready, Builder."
The Church was completed in October 1818, and
dedicated on the 29 th of the same month by Dr.
Freeman and the Rev. Mr. Colman of Hingham,
Mass. Dr. Freeman preaching the Sermon.
The pulpit was supplied by different preachers
from Boston and the neighbourhood, till May 1819,
when the Rev. Jared Sparks was ordained as the
first Pastor of this churchy his ordination took place on

o DISCOURSE.
the 5th of the month, and Mr. afterwards Dr. Chan
ning of Boston, delivered the customary discourse.
The 5th of May 1819, was a memorable day in
the theological history of this country. It might be
called the Pentecost of American Unitarianism. In
setting apart a minister to teach a faith, which,
although the most ancient, appeared to the community
in which it was to be preached comparatively a new
doctrine, Mr. Channing thought it incumbent on him
to make an open, plain and candid statement of the
principles which this new edifice was raised to main
tain and disseminate. Into better hands that task
could not have fallen. Circumstances made that dis
course a confession of faith, a manifesto of principles,
a declaration of independence, to a new association of
the followers of Christ. For its purpose it was per
fect. So clear are its statements, so simple its lan
guage, so grand and comprehensive the truths it
unfolds, such earnestness, conviction and candour
pervade it all, that it leaves very little to be desired,
and very little to be added. It made a profound
impression. None who heard it- will ever forget that
day. Its publication, which took place immediately
after, was followed by still more important results.
On the printed page it appeared no less striking,
original, powerful and convincing than it had done in
delivery. It spread over the country with wonder
ful rapidity. It was reprinted and circulated by
thousands, and no pamphlet, with one exception,

DISCOURSE. 9
and that a political publication, ever attracted in this
country so wide and universal attention.
Its author, before not widely, though favorably
known, soon rose to the highest literary eminence,
and has been since acknowledged as one of the
greatest masters of the English tongue, even in the
jealous judgment of our mother land. His works
are more read in England than those of any other
theologian. Almost every year produces a new
edition of them in this country, and this sermon,
incorporated into his works, has, on the whole, been
more read than any one perhaps, that has been
delivered in modern times.
This visit of Mr. Channing to Baltimore, was the
cause of a religious movement in another city, quite
as important as this. On his way home, he stopped a
short time at New York. His friends attempted to
procure him a place to preach on the Sunday. To
obtain a church for him was hopeless, and he held
services in a private house. Those services gave
being to a religious society, which has since ex
panded into two of the most beautiful and well
attended churches in the city.
But to return to Baltimore. The plain avowal of
principles and candid declaration of purposes made
by Mr. Channing, while it gave clearness of view,
definiteness of doctrine and concentration of action
to the new church, drew more sharply the line of
demarcation by which it was separated from the rest
2

10 DISCOURSE.
of the Christian world, and perhaps made it more
difficult to obtain even a hearing for a theology so
divergent from the doctrines inculcated in most of
the pulpits in the city. The whole population was
moved. Clergy and people vied with each other in
heaping opprobrium upon the new sect. The
churches rang from sabbath to sabbath with warning
and denunciation. The whole vocabulary of abuse
was ransacked and exhausted for terms of reproba
tion and contempt sufficiently strong to express the
general feelings of abhorrence and detestation towards
this association of the disciples of Christ. Not only
was their faith assailed as dangerous and damnable,
but their personal characters were aspersed as im
moral and unworthy of the esteem of their fellow-
citizens. And what had they done to deserve all this?
They had withdrawn from other churches to estab
lish a worship, as they honestly believed, more con
sonant with the truth of God's word. They were
doing what they conscientiously thought to be their
duty. They were exercising a right, guaranteed to
every citizen in this country, of worshipping God,
according to the dictates of his own conscience.
Their very position was a sufficient pledge of their
sincerity. It was no pleasure, and certainly no
profit to them to dissent from their fellow-Christians.
They would have better consulted their own peace
by remaining where they were, and silently aquies-

DISCOURSE. 11
cing in modes of worship which their judgments could
not approve. They did not establish this Church
in the wantonness of self-will, or that they might from
it hurl anathema and defiance upon the whole
Christian world. They denied no man's Chris
tianity on account of the errors of faith which they
apprehended him to entertain. They condemned no
man for his creed, they simply stated what seemed
to them true, and what false in it, according to the
light of the Sacred Scriptures. They saw and
acknowledged what appeared to them to be good
and true in every system of faith and discipline
which prevailed around them.
In the Catholics, they recognized the most ancient
embodiment of the Christian faith and ritual. Some
of the brightest ornaments of the Christian name
have been of its communion. In its spirit and its
worship, they recognized the manifestation of the
profoundest reverence that has ever been exhibited
in the world, but in their judgment, a reverence
unreasoning and indiscriminate, which has gathered
around the accidents of Christianity with quite as
much devotion as around its real substance; a rever
ence which embraces with equal intensity, the accre
tions which a thousand years of intellectual darkness
through which it passed, have associated with its
essential rites and doctrines, as the great truths
which its ritual is intended to represent and per
petuate.

12 DISCOURSE.
On entering a Catholic church, they saw an image
of the crucified Saviour, before which the multitude
bowed down. Their hearts too were moved by the
sculptured agonies of the man of sorrows, and it was
no want of affectionate reverence which led them to
question the propriety of such an exhibition. But
they could not avoid recollecting the prohibition,
dating fifteen centuries earlier than Christianity itself;
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or
the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or
the earth beneath. Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them." This prohibition is per
emptory, positive and absolute, and made by him
who created the human heart, and who knows infi
nitely better than we, the perversions to which the
religious principle is liable.
And even if images were permitted in Christian
churches, they felt that by the selection of the sad
dest scene of Christ's history, as the only one present
ed to the senses, the Catholic church had given an
undue shade of gloom to his whole religion. The
cross of Christ was thus made to cast its dark shadow,
not only over the whole life of Christ, but over the
whole life of the Christian world, and caused it in the
apprehension of multitudes, to be constituted of pen
ances and mortifications, rather than cheerful and
grateful obedience. The darkness that settled on the
hills of Judea at the hour of the crucifixion, did not
last long. The bright sun shone before and after.

DISCOURSE. 13
There was an hour when Christ rejoiced, and the
mount of transfiguration must be a better represen
tation of the glory and joy to which he ascended, than
the cross of Calvary which he left behind. The altar
service seemed to them rather Judaic than Christian,
inasmuch as the main employment and office of
Christ was that of Teacher. He proclaimed himself
"the Light of the world," and his parting charge to
his Apostles was, " go teach all nations."
Altars were done away. Sacrifices forever ceased
with the abolition of the Jewish religion, of which
they made a part.
The celebration of public worship in a dead lan
guage, a language which has ceased to be spoken for
a thousand years, seemed to them to savour of an
unquestioning attachment to arbitrary and obsolete
forms-, rather than of a wise and allowable conformity
to the altered condition of the world ; and the invo
cation of the Virgin, a mortal like ourselves, made
it impossible for them to acquiesce in the ritual of
the Catholic church.
In the Methodists, the next most numerous de
nomination by which they were surrounded, they
recognized a living and vital member of Christ's
body. In their genial, social and earnest spirit,
they saw a resemblance to primitive Christianity,
when "the disciples were of one accord in one
place," "and did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart."

14 DISCOURSE.
They looked on Wesley as an instrument in the
hands of Providence of breaking the paralyzing spell
of a ritual religion, and adapting the administration of
the Gospel to the poor, the ignorant and the isolated.
They saw in some parts of their church organization,
and in their freedom from written creeds, an approach
to that liberty, wherewith Christ has made his disci
ples free.
Yet there was one feature of their worship which
rendered it impossible for the founders of this church
to join habitually in it. No small part of their devo
tions was directed to Christ. God is the only proper
object of religious worship. He has strictly forbidden
divine homage to be addressed to any other being
besides himself. And Christ, before he left the
world, was equally explicit in enjoining it on his
disciples, not to pray to him, when he should be ex
alted to heaven, but to pray to God in his name.
" And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the
Father in my name, he will give it you."
To those who built this house as the place of their
worship, the Presbyterian door to the fold of Christ
was closed, for over it was written a creed which it
was impossible for them to subscribe, and which said
in effect, " Let no one enter here, who does not admit
the tri-personality of God, the total, constitutional
corruption of human nature, and the exclusive agency
of God in every act of man that is acceptable in his

DISCOURSE. 15
sight." It was impossible for them to approach the
table of communion in that church, for it was fenced
about with execrations on those who should partake
of the elements, not believing that their humble mas
ter who died on the cross to save them, was at the
same time the ever living Jehovah, to whom he com
mended his departing spirit, and to whom he prayed,
"my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me."
Many had found refuge in the Episcopal church.
Its more rational teaching and milder discipline, they
thought more calculated to embrace and edify the
various shades of belief which will ever be found
among imperfect and fallible mortals. To them there
was an intrinsic respectability in its dignified forms,
and a conservatism in its stability, which contrasted
well with the more informal modes of organization
and worship. In the religion of the Prayer Book
they could acquiesce, for to it had been contribpted
the piety of many ages. Some of its devotions, for
tenderness and sublimity, are no where exceeded out
of the Psalms of the ancient people of God. But its
theology they conceived to be unfounded in the Scrip
tures and irreconcilable to right reason when calmly
examined by an enlightened and reflecting mind.
Its Articles of Faith were adopted in England in the
twilight of the Reformation, as a matter of state poli
cy, and were a compromise between the advancing
Protestantism of the school of Geneva, and the re
ceding dogmas of the Papal ages. Their only pre-

16 DISCOURSE.
tence to authority at the present day, and in this
country, is their being contained in the same binding
with some of the most exquisite devotions in the Eng
lish tongue. Not more than half of those perhaps
who use the devotions ever read the articles of faith.
Had the creed and the devotions been kept sepa
rate, the Prayer Book would have been nearly unex
ceptionable. But the most unscriptural, and in their
judgment, objectionable part of the creed, was woven
into the liturgy, so as to implicate those who joined
in it in a breach of the first commandment. The
God who gave the first commandment, must be sup
posed to be the same who gave the fourth. In the
fourth he is identified as " Jehovah, who made heaven
and earth and sea and all that in them is." That
Being, in the first commandment, enjoins, "Thou
shalt have no other gods before me." But he who
joins^in the Episcopal service, first prays, as he ought,
to " God, the Father of heaven." Then he prays to
another God, " O God the Son." Not only is he
another God, but he has another name and another
function. " O God the Son, Redeemer of the world."
God is a spirit, but this second God has a body, and
is addressed as having human attributes, parts and
passions, and having been subjected to human suffer
ings. "By thy holy nativity and circumcision, by
thine agony and bloody sweat."
A God who has been born and circumcised, must
be another God, essentially as well as numerically

DISCOURSE. 17
different from the Almighty Creator of heaven and
earth, who inhabiteth immensity and eternity, whom
no eye hath seen or can see, the blessed and only
Potentate. Now there is no such God as God the Son, there
is no such name, there are no such words as "God
the Son" in the Scriptures.
Then a third God is introduced, with still another
name and function, " O God, the Holy Ghost, pro
ceeding from the Father and the Son." There is no
such God as " God the Holy Ghost," revealed to us
in the Scriptures. There is not a single instance of
worship addressed to the Holy Ghost, from the be
ginning of the Bible to the end. There is no such
name or phrase as "God the Holy Ghost" in the
sacred writings.
The believers in "one God and one Mediator be
tween God and men, the man Christ Jesus," could
not but feel aggrieved that such unscriptural expres
sions should have been incorporated into the forms of
public worship. Their devotions were disturbed,
their edification obstructed, and they therefore sought
a place where they could worship God in the name
of Christ, instead of worshipping Christ as " God the
Son." Another reason for dissent from the Episcopal
service, was the repetition of a creed of human device.
This appeared to them especially objectionable in a
Protestant sect, as the only authority upon which the
3

18 DISCOURSE.
creeds are received, is that of the Church of Rome,
whose general authority that sect had rejected, and
whose infallibility it had denied. From that church
it had consented to take a creed, or rather two creeds,
in England three creeds, all inconsistent with each
other, and by constant public repetition to hand them
down unexamined and unchanged from age to age.
For these causes, the founders of this church with
drew from the various communions with which they
had been associated, and sought for themselves a new
place of worship. And they were true to their
principles. They deposited in this desk a copy of
the Sacred Scriptures, as the only foundation of their
faith, the only infallible depository of truth, the only
sure guide of life. They opened the font of baptism
to all who felt it their duty to consecrate their chil
dren to God, to Christ and the Holy Spirit. They
spread the table of communion to all who acknowl
edged their allegiance to Christ as "the Way, the
Truth and the Life." They repelled no humble
disciple from it by unintelligible mysteries or incom
prehensible articles of faith. They published no
creed. They left every man to form his own. They
did better than to publish a creed. They made a
selection from the Sacred Scriptures of the most
striking texts which embodied their faith, inculcated
their obligations and expressed their hopes and as
pirations, and wrote them down on those beautiful
tablets to be seen and read of all men, as a public

DISCOURSE. 19
declaration of their standing as believers in God, and
in the divine mediation of Christ, and as a perpetual
and emphatic, though silent refutation, of the slanders
every where propagated against them as Atheists and
Infidels. In their first clergyman they had selected a man
abundantly able to make good their position, and to
vindicate to the world the faith which they professed.
The next year after his ordination, he published a
volume of " Letters on the Ministry, Ritual and Doc
trines of the Protestant Episcopal Church," which
placed him at once in the first rank of theological
scholars in this country. This was followed up in
1821 by the establishment of a religious periodical,
"The Unitarian Miscellany," a work published
monthly, and filled with thorough and able discussions
of the theological topics of the day, but chiefly
devoted to the statement and defence of the doctrines
of - Christianity as understood by Unitarians. The
matter for this periodical was mainly furnished by
Mr. Sparks, in addition to the labour of writing for
his weekly ministrations. This was kept up for
nearly three years. In this double office of Preacher
and Editor, an amount of intellectual toil was sus
tained by him truly astonishing, and credible only to
those who have measured the capacities of human
endurance, and learned the grand secret of the
economy of time.

20 DISCOURSE.
It would be difficult to find in the whole range of
theological literature, three volumes of equal compass,
which contain so much and such accurate information
on the most interesting subjects of religious enquiry.
It is rare to 'find in theological controversy, so much
candor of statement and such fairness of reasoning,
such firmness of persuasion united with so much
charity for the opinions of others. They are a
monument of theological attainment and literary
industry, which sets a high mark for the clergy of
our country.
But their author had undertaken labours too great
for the time as well as the strength of one man, and
his health at length sunk under them, and he retired
from the ministry to win a wider fame and a still
higher reputation among the historians of his country.
His place as Pastor of the Church and Editor of
the Miscellany was temporarily supplied by the Rev.
afterwards Dr. Greenwood, who had lately retired
in ill health from Church Green in Boston, and had
sought restoration in a milder climate. Under his
management the Miscellany lost nothing of its literary
power, though perhaps something of the depth of its
theological discussions. As a preacher, Mr. Green
wood had few superiors. He was made for a
clergyman. His taste in composition was perfect,
his voice deep and sonorous, his manner serious,
affectionate and impressive. And he was long a
bright and shining light in the churches. On the

DISCOURSE. 21
restoration of his health, he returned to Boston, and
became the colleague of Dr. Freeman, whose history
has already been narrated. With his departure, the
Miscellany was discontinued, having reached its sixth
volume, and done much good. Its circulation was
extensive and it had enlightened many dark minds,
removed many prejudices and convinced many en
quirers that religion was consistent with reason, and
Christianity unincumbered with irreconcilable con
tradictions. From 1824 to 1827, the pulpit was supplied by
different clergymen, generally from Boston and the
neighborhood, many of them highly distinguished by
position, talents and acquirements. In September of
1827, the present Pastor preached for the first time
from this pulpit. In the following April, he was
ordained, and from that time to this, the pulpit has
never been supplied by the society for a single sab
bath. In the space of fifteen years, the church has
been closed but three half days on account of the
Pastor's failure to officiate.
Since the very beginning, no religious society ever
struggled with more difficulties, or surmounted them
with more indomitable courage and perseverance.
It has been twice nearly prostrated by commercial
revulsions, and has often suffered severe losses by
emigration. However, " having obtained help of God
we continue unto this day." The smiles of a gracious
Providence have been granted to the members of this

22

DISCOURSE.

society in their temporal affairs in more than ordinary
measure, and this beautiful and renovated temple is
witness that they are willing to set apart a portion of
God's blessings to beautify his sanctuary and to
honour his worship. " Pray for the peace of Jeru
salem. They shall prosper that love thee."
But the building of this church was not an isolated
nor an inconsequential event. It was an epoch in
the theological history of the country. Its effects
were immediate and decisive, and their operation has
gone on deepening and widening from that day to this.
The sentiments which were here openly professed,
had been silently spreading in various parts of the
country for more than a quarter of a century. In
New England especially, many independent enquirers
had, without consultation or consent, arrived at nearly
the same conclusions from a careful examination of
the Sacred Scriptures. But their opinions when
known, did not exclude them from ministerial inter
course with their brethren in the same communion.
The publication of the discourse of Mr. Channing at
the ordination of Mr. Sparks, revealed to each party
the ground on which they stood. It was attacked by
the theological Professors at Andover, and defended
by those of Cambridge, the whole community became
interested and took part with one side or the other
of the disputants. The Orthodox withdrew from
ministerial intercourse with those who approved the
theological doctrines of that discourse, and thus the

DISCOURSE. 23
Unitarians, as they were called, were forced to assume
the position of a distinct religious denomination.
From that day to this, they have acted as such.
They have had their own theological schools, their
own periodicals, their own conventions. They have
been continually growing in numbers, strength, zeal
and enterprise.
This separation, by the Unitarians unsought and
unpremeditated, has led to some most important re
sults. One of which has been the development of
an original, independent, theological literature, drawn
from individual study of the Sacred Scriptures and
all the phenomena of humanity and religious expe
rience, wholly unbiassed by previously existing
creeds and systems of divinity. The list of Unita
rian books produced within thirty years, would fur
nish a large theological library, as large as a person
of ordinary leisure would read in a lifetime. These
works are not doctrinal alone. Many of them are
practical and devotional, and minister not only light
to the understanding but warmth to the heart. In
culcating a faith which is consistent with reason,
instead of contradictory to it, they make religion a
subject of interest to all. Starting from the point
that the object of Christianity is to change, modify
or develope the human character, not to alter the
human constitution, they propose an object which is
within the scope of human endeavours, and not
placed without the compass of human capacities.

24 DISCOURSE.
If Unitarianism as a denomination had done no
thing else than produce this powerful and diversified
theological literature, it would have abundantly justi
fied its existence to the world. It is books which
form the opinions and the churches of coming ages.
The dogmas of this age are the fruits of the thinking,
the writing, the books of the ages that are gone,
and the only possible way in which the future ages
can be made to differ from the past, is by substi
tuting other books to be the manuals of their educa
tion and the guides of their enquiries.
During the thirty years of our denominational
existence, great changes have been passing over the
whole religious world. Even Catholicism, which is
the type and representative of conservatism, has
been moved to its centre. Every denomination
throughout Christendom has been divided into two
parties, one advocating progress, the . other rest.
Most especially is this the case in this country, where
the press is free and prolific beyond all former ex
ample. Not only have parties been formed, but
communions have been divided, immense ecclesias
tical organizations have been sundered, and the
points of difference have often been the same which
have made us a distinct denomination.
It would be arrogance in us to attribute to our
theological labours any considerable part of this great
change. It is enough for us to have the confidence
that we have contributed something towards it.

DISCOURSE. 25
That those great and extensive movements are in
the same direction with our own, is at least demon
stration that our movement is in coincidence with the
tendencies of the age.
There are hundreds and thousands in all commu
nions, who sympathise with us, who conscientiously
believe that we have arrived nearer than any other
sect at the truth of the Gospel.
I have been often led to doubt, whether there are
at the present day, any real Trinitarians. The test
of this is their, own private devotions. Christians in
public will fall in without question with established
forms, and apparently acquiesce in phraseology with
which they are by no means satisfied. But in pri
vate their real belief comes out. I question whether
one person in a thousand of nominal Trinitarians,
ever prays in private to the Holy Ghost. And he
who does not pray to the Holy Ghost, is practically
not a Trinitarian. The Lord's prayer, the model of
all devotion, passes over the doctrine of the Trinity
in the profoundest silence.
There are clergymen not a few, who have inves
tigated for themselves till they have found that their
own views, when defined to their own minds, are
nearer to the personal unity of God than to the old
Trinitarian system. But in their present position,
the less enquiry the more peace, because their own
minds are not free. The conclusions of their en
quiries are forestalled by their previous ecclesiastical
4

*P DISCOURSE.
connexions and engagements. They have subscribed
a creed, or they belong to an organization which re^
quires and enforces one, and therefore their lips are
sealed. And here I should fail to do justice to the wisdom,
courage and fidelity of the founders of this church, if
J omitted to mention a vital principle which they
incorporated into the constitution Of their religious
association, and made prominent in its very name,
that of congregational independence. They had
clearly seen that this principle is an indispensable
condition to the enjoyment of that religious liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. Subscription
to a creed, the association of churches together on
the basis of a creed, enforced upon all their members
on pain of excommunication or disparagement of any
kind, involves: a surrender of all those principles on
which the Protestants separated from the Catholics,
and; upon which they have maintained a theological
controversy for three hundred years. If with the
Bible in my hands, and all the means now extant at
my command, of an independent examination, I
allow another man to write my creed, and swear to
teach his interpretation, however different it may be
from that which my own investigation convinces me
is the true one, I am false to my allegiance to the
truth, an allegiance which I never can abjure. It is
the same> to me, as far as principle is concerned,

DISCOURSE. 27
whether I adopt the Westminster Confession, or the
creed of the Council of Nice.
Had the creed-making power been permitted to
rule unbroken, Protestantism never could have had
an existence. Luther would have perished in his
first protest. So in this country, if the creed-making
power had had its own way, Unitarianism could
never have come into being. Had Church and State
been united, or had the Episcopal Church possessed
a stringent organization, the founder of this Church
would not have been permitted to revise the Prayer
Book according to the Word of God.
And now and here, among most Protestant sects,
there are nearly the same impediments to the investi
gation of truth, that there were in the Papal Church
at the Reformation. The candid enquirer and the
honest preacher, who happens to travel out of the
circumference of a human formulary of faith, is im
mediately assailed, and compelled to pass through
the same fiery ordeal which was endured by the first
martyrs, with the exception, that ecclesiastical laws
do not now touch the life.
This beautiful temple then, stands dedicated not
alone to the inculcation of religious truth, but the
establishment and maintenance of religious liberty,
by which alone religious truth can be discovered and
secured. That freedom is found alone in Congrega
tional Independency, in which every man, clergyman
and layman, has guaranteed to him as his natural

28 DISCOURSE.
and indefeasible right, the liberty to interpret the
Scriptures by the light which God has given him.
Its vast expense, its exquisite symmetry, were
originally an emphatic testimony to the world of the
priceless estimate which its founders placed upon
what seemed to them a sound and a true theology.
In the same spirit it is, that their successors have
restored the waste of years, and set it in order afresh
for the worship of God. By it they declare the
deep conviction of their hearts, that a sound theology
is the first of human wants. They see and feel, that
men must and will have a religion. The Sabbath is
set apart mainly to religious instruction. The mass
of the people will be taught something. What shall
it be? Shall it be a system of doctrines at war with
reason, Scripture and moral feeling? Or shall it be
a system of doctrines consistent with them all?
To them it seems a sore evil that the precious time
devoted to sacred instruction, should be worse than
wasted in discussions of metaphysical divinity,
wholly aside from the Word of God, and the com
mon and practical duties of every day life. It seems
to them a great public injury, that the mass of the
people should be taught, that the corruption which
prevails among them is constitutional and inevitable,
instead of being their own work in the abuse of the
nature and faculties that God has given them. They
see no hope for the moral regeneration of the world,
so long as men are taught, that in the condition in

DISCOURSE. 29
which God creates them, sin is their appropriate,
their necessary, their only possible work; that not
more than one person in a hundred has within him
the elements which are necessary to moral probation.
It seems to them, that by these dogmas all motive
to the religious education of children is paralized.
There is nothing religious in children to educate.
They can do nothing in consequence of their educa
tion, until Omnipotence sees fit to create them anew.
Probation, in any equitable sense of the term, does
not commence with rational existence, but in those
who are elected, at that point of time when the con
stitutional deficiency of their nature is supplied by
grace, and in the non-elect it never commences at
all. Then the doctrine of atonement, a cardinal
doctrine of the New Testament, as long as it is rep
resented as an agency to reconcile God to man,
instead of man to God, must, as far as it has any
influence, nullify the moral efficiency of the practical
doctrines of Christ. A theology which misrepre
sents God and man, and the relations which subsist
between them, must be essentially wrong.
Yet with these convictions, we are no sectarians.
We do not compass sea and land to make a proselyte.
We have no ambition to propagate a name or to
marshal hosts of mere partizans. Our only desire,
before God, is to propagate the simple truth. We
aspire to no other name than that of Christian. We
consider it the hardest part of our lot, and the

30 DISCOURSE.
saddest fact in the condition of the world, that in
the Christian Church we should derive a sectarian
name from maintaining the fundamental truth, both
of Judaism and Christianity, the numerical and per
sonal unity of God ; " Jehovah our God, Jehovah is
one." "
So thoroughly convinced are we of the truth of
our principles, so deeply persuaded are we that they
are the simple teachings of God's word, and that the
time must come when they will be acknowledged by
all candid enquirers, that it does not move us that
the world goeth not out after us, that our census is
no greater among Christian denominations. Nothing
true and good has ever met from the world a tumul
tuous reception. Christianity itself began in an
upper chamber, and the first Church numbered but
twelve. Our first object is theological reform, the
world we believe is ripe for it. We are striving for
the re-union of reason and faith, two principles
which God hath joined together, but which man
hath long ago divorced. Our purpose is to remove
the obstacles which now shut out the Bible from the
understanding, the conscience and the heart of man
kind. To effect these objects numbers are not ne
cessary. Truth is not propagated by armies, though
error often is. Truth conquers by her own might.
Our mission, at the present moment, requires not
numbers, but wisdom, learning, piety, patience, in
dustry. These things we covet, these things we

DISCOURSE. 31
cultivate and strive to attain. We see no reason for
discouragement. Every where we see progress,
every where fresh acknowledgment of the principles
we hold dear, and a century of advancement such as
the last thirty years have witnessed, will bring most
religious sects in this country to the ground we
occupy.