the authorized version, instead of receiving the water of life as into transparent crystal, shewing all its purity and brilliance, has been a foul and stained cup, tinging it with the dark colours of human creeds. Right interpretation is seldom obtained where any party holds unchecked the key, and makes every thing bend to system. Intelligent Trinitarians now would be ashamed of urging for that doctrine many texts which were formerly thought demonstrative. Studies of this kind were once peculiar to the learned, and the many rested on their authority. During the last twenty years, in connexion with the progress of Unitarianism, they have become popular, and a degree of knowledge has been diffused, that elevates a considerable proportion of our societies to the level of the critics of former times. Biblical criticism, the high province of the learned, was but a cloud floating aloft for men to gaze at, and often darkening the light of truth, till, at the electric touch of controversy, the mass dissolved in a descending shower, which has enriched the vale of humble life with fruits of heavenly wisdom. Men have been made more familiar with the Scriptures, and have studied them to greater purpose. They alone have been appealed to. The word of God has been exalted. The text of the Bible has been purified, the translation of the Bible has been corrected,-the meaning of the Bible has been elucidated, the study of the Bible has been promoted. This is an important step towards the renovation of Christianity. Another encouraging symptom, resulting from the Unitarian controversy, is the gradual lowering of the standard of orthodoxy. A comparison of the language of the popular religionists of the present day, with the writings of those who lived a century ago, and with intermediate authors, indicates a very considerable change, and a much greater degree of moderation, and a closer adherence to Scripture. The Trinity is now commonly spoken of in guarded and ambiguous language. All that many will say on the subject, is, that there are three somewhats in the Deity, which, for want of a better term, are called persons. How unlike the bold descriptions of Bull, Waterland and others, of the mutual indwelling, impenetration, emperichoresis of the persons, the dictatorial peculiarity of the Athanasian Creed, or even the language of men so enlightened as Taylor, Barrow, &c.! These and other writers, both in and out of the church, spoke of Christ also, of his miraculous conception and divine sufferings, in terms which to impute now to their successors, would be deemed calumnious. Similar changes have taken place on other subjects. The doctrine of Satisfaction instead of glaring in all the enormity of a bargain between a merciless, vindictive creditor, 3 and an independent, generous surety, is softened by a surrounding shade of mystery, and thrown into the indefiniteness of moral causation. The horrid decree of Reprobation is now rarely blazoned in flaming characters on the appalled sight. Instead of being resistlessly hurled, the non-elect are suffered of themselves to fall into endless torment. The notion of salvation by faith alone is uniformly or frequently accompanied by assertions of the necessity of good works. Worship is approaching the scriptural standard. Frequent and exclusive prayers to the Holy Ghost begin to be symptoms of high, in distinction from moderate, orthodoxy. Such language as that of Watts, in the following verses, is disused by some congregations, and by many individuals is referred to with pain, shame, or condemnation : "Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood, And, "To thee ten thousand thanks we bring, Great Advocate on high; And glory to th' Eternal King, Who lays his fury by." Had the Church of England and the Calvinistic Dissenters now to frame their creeds without precedent to guide them, the Thirtynine Articles would not originate with the one, nor the Assembly's Confession with the other. The standard of orthodoxy is lower than it was; and it continues to sink but if the party be right now, they have been wrong; if now they are strictly scriptural they have been unscriptural, and they have to thank their opponents for driving or shaming them back into the right road. While individuals (in no small number) have completely renounced the system, the whole mass has slowly receded; the tide yet ebbs and flows at intervals; but the old mark is not reached at its height, and at its influx the old bank is left unwashed by the billows; for generations yet the fluctuations may continue, but all will finally settle at the point of truth. Christian liberality is indebted to the same cause for being more clearly defined, and generally cultivated. While salvation is connected with a creed, inquiry is daunted by anathemas; conscience fettered by impositions; charity restricted by unauthorized limitations; and the gates of heaven barred by human inventions. To Unitarianism belongs the glory of opening that page of Scripture which teaches that "God is no respecter of persons; but in every country he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him;" the honour of vindicating the innocency of involuntary mental error H and of embracing in fraternal love the good of all parties here, and breathing the hope of a heaven for all the virtuous hereafter. Nor has this honourable stand been altogether unsuccessful. There is a growing spirit of charity and generosity among Christians; an approach to the temper of that undying, apostolic declaration, which is the very essence, standard, soul of Christian liberality. there have been some few hearts could resist. must his heart be, and invulnerable to every generous emotion, who has, when a child, lisped his Maker's praises in the sweet simplicity of Watts's infant hymns; and in maturer life, borrowed his harmonious language to embody the pious feelings of his soul, and present them to his God; and then read his almost dying remunciation of the Trinity, in the belief of which he had been educated; who can see the high worth and piety and goodness of a Lindsey, and follow his mind through its course of inquiry and conversion, to the heroic renunciation of his earthly prospects; who can enjoy the noble effusions of a Robinson, and see the pleader for the Divinity of Christ ultimately convinced in spite of his own arguments; and yet from the heaven of his hopes exclude the converts of Unitarianism. There are still dark souls of this description ; but with Unitarianism the light of love arose on Events have aided this, and which, one would think, Stoutly cased in bigotry |