ter; but no attempt was made by the "Old School" to separate themselves from those whom they denounced as infidels.

The charge of Pantheism is brought against the Transcendentalists generally, by their Unitarian opponents; and, in fact, some of their publications are evidently pantheistic, while others are ambiguous in that respect. Some of them have borrowed largely from Benjamin Constant, and maintain that all religions, from Fetichism to the most perfect form of Christianity, are essentially of the same nature, being only developments, more or less perfect, of the religious sentiment which is common to all men. According to them, all men who have any religious thoughts or feelings are so far inspired; Moses, Minos, and Numa, and a few others, had an unusual degree of inspiration; and Jesus of Nazareth most of all. They do not believe, however, that even Jesus was so inspired as to be in all cases an infallible teacher; and they declare themselves by no means sure `that we shall not yet see His superior. They reject Christ as mediator in every sense of the term, and declare that, in order to be true Christians, we must hold intercourse with God as Christ himself did, without a mediator.

These impious doctrines have been promulgated in periodicals and otherwise, from time to time, with increasing boldness. In the spring of the year 1841, they were put forth without disguise and without reserve in a sermon at an ordination at South Boston. Several of the leading Unitarian clergy of the "Old School" were present, and took part in the services. It is said that some of them, in performing their parts, uttered sentiments at variance with those of the preacher, from which attentive hearers might infer that the sermon did not meet their approbation; but there was no explicit condemnation of the sermon either then or afterward, till public attention was called to the subject by three evangelical clergymen who attended the ordination as hearers, and took notes of the discourse. These three witnesses, some weeks after the ordination, published extracts from the sermon in several religious newspapers, and called on the members of the ordaining Council to say whether they recognized the preacher as a Christian minister. Public attention was roused. Several intelligent Unitarian laymen united in the demand. Continued silence became impracticable. A number of articles appeared in newspapers and magazines, in which individual Unitarian ministers denounced the sermon, and pronounced its doctrines deistical; but they carefully avoided the question, whether its author was recognized by them as a Christian minister. Others of them preached and wrote in his defence. His ecclesiastical relations still remained undisturbed. Some of his Unitarian neighbors recognized his ministerial character by

exchanging pulpits with him on the Sabbath; and he, in his turn, preached the weekly lecture maintained by the Unitarian clergy of the Boston Association. It is understood, therefore, that the public avowal of doctrines like his, forms no obstacle to a regular standing in the Unitarian ministry.

Why was not this defection arrested in its progress by ecclesiastical authority? The answer is easy.

In Connecticut, where one or two ministers became Unitarian while the community remained orthodox, it was done. Those Unitarian ministers were removed from their places, and the progress of error was arrested. In Massachusetts, the defection was carried on by a different process. Men did not fall, one at a time, from orthodoxy into open Unitarianism, but almost the whole community in the eastern part of the State sunk down gradually and together. For a long time there was no proof by which any one could be convicted of heresy; and when proof was obtained, the heretics were found to be the majority in the ecclesiastical bodies to which they belonged, and of course, if any process had been commenced, would have decided all questions in their own favor.

The friends and abettors of the Congregational independence of individual churches maintain that it has been the means of saving New England from universal apostacy. Had the Synod, in 1662, they say, instead of being merely advisory, possessed jurisdiction over these churches, it would have imposed the half-way covenant upon them all. As it was only advisory, a considerable number of churches rejected its advice, and adhered to the ancient practice of the Pilgrims. So, half a century later, had there been an ecclesiastical government to which all the churches owed obedience, Stoddard's doctrine of admitting the unregenerate to full communion would have been enforced upon all; for numbers and influence were in its favor. And when Edwards, after the great revival of 1740, proclaimed the ancient doctrine concerning church membership, had there been an ecclesiastical tribunal having authority over all the churches, he and his Reformation would have been put down at once, and the admission of the unregenerate to the Lord's Table would have been required of all. And, finally, consider, they still further say, the state of things in 1815, when conclusive proof was first obtained of the existence of Unitarianism among the Congregational clergy in eastern Massachusetts. The Unitarians had the majority in the ecclesiastical bodies of which they were members. Had these bodies possessed jurisdiction over all churches within their bounds, they might have established Unitarianism in them all, and might have forbidden all efforts for the revival or preservation of orthodoxy.

If there had been a body representing all the churches in the State, and having authority over all, the majority would have been orthodox; but the Unitarians were numerous and powerful enough to have thrown off its jurisdiction, and to have subsisted by themselves, as they now do. If the civil government had been invested with power to enforce religious uniformity, it could have prevented such a result; but it would not have done it: for the most important powers of the civil government were then, and, with few exceptions, have been ever since, wielded by Unitarian hands.

In all these instances, the independence of the churches, its friends firmly believe, secured to the most orthodox the privilege of adhering to the whole truth, both in doctrine and practice, and of exerting themselves in its defence and for its diffusion. This privilege there have always been some to claim and to use. Error, therefore, has always been held in check till truth could rally its forces and regain its ascendency.

Many readers, however, will be of opinion that, but for the isolation of ministers and congregations under the Congregational system, error must have been much sooner discovered, and checked in its beginnings. The same remark applies to the apostacy of many nominally Presbyterian ministers and congregations in England. These never were Presbyterians in fact. Error thus had leave to work its way unchecked by the oversight either of bishop or presbytery. We will only add that the number of Unitarian ministers in the United States is about two hundred and sixty. They have but two theological schools, one at Cambridge, the other at Meadville, Pennsylvania.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHRIST-IAN CONNECTION.

THE body that assumes the title of Christians is of purely American origin. They are more generally called in the United States Christians, the i in the first syllable being pronounced long, though this pronunciation is rejected by themselves.

Dating their rise from about the year 1803, they appeared, it seems, in New England, Ohio, and Kentucky, some say also in the South, nearly about the same time. They boast of having no founder-no Luther or Calvin, no Whitfield or Wesley-that can claim any special influence among them. They are the largest no-creed sect in

America, and had their origin in the dissatisfaction that existed in some minds with what they called the "bondage of creeds," and still more, with the bondage of discipline that prevails, as they insist, in all other churches. This may be easily accounted for. Many of the most active promoters of the new sect had been excluded from other communions because of their denial of some important doctrine, or their refusal to submit to discipline and government.

The Christ-ians, according to some of their leading authorities, had a threefold origin. The first members of their societies, or churches, in New England, were originally members of the Regular Baptist connection; in the West they had been Presbyterians, and in the South Methodists. Their Churches have all along been constituted on the following principles: "The Scriptures are taken to be the only rule of faith and practice, each individual being at liberty to determine for himself, in relation to these matters, what they enjoin; no member is subject to the loss of church fellowship on account of his sincere and conscientious belief, so long as he manifestly lives a pious and devout life; no member is subject to discipline and church censure but for disorderly and immoral conduct; the name Christian to be adopted, to the exclusion of all sectarian names, as the most appropriate designation of the body and its members; the only condition or test of admission, as a member of a church, is a personal profession of the Christian religion, accompanied with satisfactory evidence of sincerity and piety, and a determination to live according to the Divine rule or the Gospel of Christ; each body is considered an independent body, possessing exclusive authority to regulate and govern its own affairs."*

Although their founders continued to cleave more or less closely to some, at least, of the peculiarities of the various bodies in which they had been brought up, a process of assimilation to each other has been gradually going on, and has at length brought them to a considerable degree of uniformity on most points of doctrine. Trinitarians for the most part at the outset, they have now almost unanimously rejected the doctrine of the Trinity as unscriptural; and although they refuse to be tied down to a creed, the following may be considered as a fair outline of the doctrines that prevail among them: "That there is one living and true God, the Father Almighty, who is unoriginated, independent, and eternal, the Creator and Supporter of all worlds; and that this God is one spiritual intelligence, one infinite mind, ever the same, never varying: that this God is the moral Governor of the world, the absolute source of all the blessings of nature, * See an "Account of the Christian Connection, or Christ-ians," by the late Rev. Joshua V. Himes, in the "Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge."

providence, and grace, in whose infinite wisdom, goodness, mercy, benevolence and love, have originated all his moral dispensations to man that all men sin and come short of the glory of God, and, consequently fall under the curse of the law: that Christ is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and Saviour of the world, the Mediator between God and man, by whom God has revealed his will to mankind; by whose sufferings, death, and resurrection, a way has been provided by which sinners may obtain salvation-may lay hold on eternal life; that he is appointed of God to raise the dead, and judge the world at the last day: that the Holy Spirit is the power and energy of God-that holy influence of God by whose agency, in the use of means, the wicked are regenerated, converted, and recovered to a virtuous and holy life, sanctified and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; and that, by the same Spirit, the saints, in the use of means, are comforted, strengthened, and led in the path of duty: the free forgiveness of sins, flowing from the rich mercy of God, through the labors, sufferings, and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ: the necessity of repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ: the absolute necessity of holiness of heart and rectitude of life to enjoy the favor and approbation of God: the doctrine of a future state of immortality: the doctrine of a righteous retribution, in which God will render to every man according to the deeds done in the body: the baptism of believers by immersion and the open communion at the Lord's Table of Christians of every denomination having a good standing in their respective churches."*

Although each church is wholly independent of all others in the management of its affairs, yet, for the promotion of their mutual prosperity, they have associations called "State Conferences," composed of delegates from the clergy and the churches, but with only advisory powers. In 1855 there were in the United States, it was estimated, five hundred ministers, six hundred churches, and about thirty-five thousand members. The population supposed to be under their influence is estimated at three hundred thousand, which is manifestly too high, for many of their congregations are very small, particularly in the West.

Generally speaking, their ministers are men of little education, but a laudable desire for improvement in this respect has been showing itself. They have lately established a college in Ohio, called "Antioch College." It is said to be flourishing. They have no theological seminaries. For some years past they have had a religious journal

* See "Account of the Christian Connection, or Christ-ians," by the late Rev. Joshua V. Himes, in the "Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge."