clamour, mystery, bustle, personality, jealousy, and despair, which, treading argument under foot, unite in producing on their side a convulsive and often not contemptible opposition. The very worst that can be said of us, on the supposition that we are wrong, is that we come short of the whole truth; but if they are wrong, it is manifest that their error is positive, and infinitely monstrous. Such are our overwhelming advantages, intrinsic in the very nature of the question, on which the two leading divisions of Christians are at issue.

Therefore, the fences and fortifications of orthodox principles, which, as if under an apprehension of the process we have been anticipating, it is now so much the fashion to erect, do not in the least appal us. Time has as little respect for creeds and subscriptions, as for the edifices in which they are recited. With regard to the Church of England, her orthodoxy depends pretty much on the will of the king, and of parliament assembled. The power is in his hand of calling together a convocation, which might by one decree change the whole colour and texture of that church.

In our own country, the same convention which left the Episcopal church here at liberty to introduce or not into its liturgy the "descent of Christ into hell," have still the power to exclude from it the dogma of his deification. We have much hope hereafter in that same general convention. The General Assembly of Presbyterians is at peace and harmony in itself,-a decided symptom of Unitarian tendencies; the two great connexions of Presbyterianism are effecting a reunion, which so far also indirectly argues well for our cause. Let but the spirit of bigotry in any shape go down, and the path is

so much cleared for the advance of liberality. Neither does the subscription at Andover, every five years renewed, appal us. If the wealth and resources of that institution are so locked up, that they cannot be applied to the revolving exigencies of truth, religion, and free inquiry, the new demands of society will bye and bye easily create their own supplies.

Amid the reasonable visions which we thus love to indulge, respecting the prevalence of right theological views, we are by no means so sanguine as to expect a general uniformity in exteriour modes of worship. Should the world be ever completely Unitarianized, there may still prevail different sects, of subordinate opinions, as various as the colours of the rainbow. We hope even in our own day, to see Unitarian Methodists, arranging themselves into classes, and watching over each other's moral and spiritual welfare with a profitable zeal. Is not this possible without those lamentable peculiarities which almost seem to reduce the religion of the followers of Wesley into an animal and muscular concern? In England, there is already an abundance of Unitarian Baptists, in the most flourishing state, who perpetuate among themselves the innocent custom of what some think to be the exact mode in which the Saviour was baptized. They find, too, that they can easily enjoy the satisfaction of existing as a separate sect, without setting up that last inner sanctuary of bigotry, denominated close communion. The Washington Columbian College has adopted Campbell's Gospels and Dissertations as a text book in their theological department. What a wedge for liberality! The German Lutheran Churches have only to continue employing the Liturgy of their Evangelical Synod of

New York, and it is all we ask of them. Why may there not be Unitarian Episcopalians, with expurgated liturgies, content with only asserting the expediency of their ecclesiastical polity, which is no more commanded in Scripture than is the wearing of sandals, or baptism in fresh water? They might likewise continue to be firm and true Episcopalians, without maintaining at this enlightened era the superstitious notion of a tactual communication of spiritual authority, through a long pastoral chain, that has been sometimes broken, sometimes doubled, often confused, and often composed of links, unholy, murderous, adulterous. Why can there not be Unitarian Catholics, acknowledging the spiritual jurisdiction of a Unitarian bishop of Rome, and wearing the most beautiful gowns, but paying their adorations to their Creator alone, and allowing salvation to be possible without their own pale? And why can we not conceive of a kind of Unitarian Calvinists, handling, if they choose, the inexplicable metaphysics of heaven, and reducing it, by way of exercising the mind, into creeds and systems, but not daring the attempt of bringing it down to be applied by themselves to human, practical, familiar affairs? In the mean time, they might safely take their opinions of the divine nature from Calvin's own explanations and reservations on the subject of the Trinity, or as we should rather prefer, from Professor Stuart, who at present absolutely denies that there are internal distinctions of any kind in the Deity.

Now all these shades and variations might be pardonable and even useful. Every man might have the subordinate stimulus of acting and living for the honour of his own peculiar denomination, but at the same time

of harmonizing with all other denominations in cherishing the belief of the strict unity of God, and treating his fellow creatures as God's children. That such a happy state of things may yet come round, we are surely encouraged to hope from the circumstance, that the most discordant and heterogeneous sects do really unite at present in the common object of misunderstanding, condemning, and vilifying Unitarians.

But that, on which, after all, we place our chief dependence, is the character of our doctrine itself. That doctrine, as we believe, is genuine Christianity, and therefore it must prevail. It has been stigmatized as the half way road to infidelity. Let it be seen, in coming time, whether it is not rather the only barrier against a wild, unprofitable enthusiasm on the one hand, and a deadening unbelief on the other. God is certainly still the basis of Unitarian Christianity. All the glories and perfections of his character, all the impressive and interesting relations, in which he exists towards mankind, will forever constitute the exalted themes of the Unitarian preacher, and find him hearers and followers, as long as he is true to himself and his Creator, and as long as there remains in the breasts of men a spark of religious principle and religious affection. Nor can we ever be silenced by one of those hundred dilemmas into which it is so easy for the humblest Unitarian to plunge the most learned and refined of his opponents, such as, what became of the world when its Maker and Preserver lay dead in the tomb?

The Bible too is ours. If we still labour to restore it to its true and original text, if we still inculcate the elevated morality which may be drawn from its contents, if we still catch and communicate that spirit of

lofty devotion which it in many places exhibits, if we still trace, develope, and apply that thread of inspiration which runs through it, if we still elucidate the difficulties, which antiquity, language, and prevailing associations have unavoidably interwoven into it, never fear, but that there will still exist curiosity enough among men to hear us, and moral sense enough to receive our instructions, and piety enough to join with us, and respect enough for revelation to adopt and practise upon our inculcation of its rules and lessons, and gratitude and friendship enough to animate us amidst the labours of study, or the discouragements of obloquy and opposition.

And Jesus too is ours! He upon whom our opponents lavish so equivocal a compliment, by representing our religion as worthless, because it only involves all that he taught, and acted, and suffered, and exemplified before mankind, in the name, and by the authority and power of his Father! Jesus is ours, whom they, and not we, would preposterously reduce to the level of a heathen philosopher, if he is allowed to be any thing short of that Almighty Being, who sent him, and to whom he prayed. Jesus is ours-and will that doctrine ever want the blessing of Heaven on its supporters, or fail of obtaining adherents, till it spreads from the rising to the setting sun, which has him for its chief corner-stone? As sure as repentance is the chief duty of man-or the worship of the Father in spirit any better than the grovellings of idolatry-as sure as the example of Jesus Christ has any charms, or his miracles any reality, or his revelations of the character of God any authority, or his practical precepts any use or excellence, or the spirit which he