have effected any lasting impressions. The expulsion of the Unitarian body from Poland was, however, attended with beneficial consequences in this respect. Those who obtained a settlement in Prussia and Brandenburg were permitted to form churches for

venire:) mera gratia et misericordia: non ex operibus legis, multo vero minus nostris propriis, sed per fidem in sanguine Filii ejus Jesu Christi. Que Fides a DEO imputatur nobis in justitiam: ita ut per eam, ex gratia Dei per Jesum Christum, REMISSIONEM PECCATORUM, ac proinde et æternam salutem consequamur. Nam Christus pro nobis et peccatis nostris mortem cruentam passus, factus est victima et propitiatio. Exemplum autem nobis reliquit, ut vestigia ejus sequamur, imitando ejus modestiam, charitatem, patientium, cæterasque virtutes, quæ potissimum in cruce ejus eluxerunt. Omnibus ergo qui remissionis peccatorum et Regni cœlorum compotes ficri volunt, vera et seria præteritorum delictorum agenda est pœnitentia fructusque ea digni ex viva Fide manantes proferendi: Nam Fides sine operibus mortua est. Præceptis igitur DE (quæ gravia non sunt) obtemperandum est, quorum summa in eo continetur, ut DEO et proximo debitam charitatem exhibeamus, Fides enim per charitatem debet esse operam. Curandum ergo, ne in cassum accipiamus gratiam Dei, quæ cunctis hominibus illuxit salutifera, et erudit eos, ut impietati, mundanisque cupiditatibus varie dicto, temperanter, juste, pieque vivant, in præsenti seculo, exspectantes speratam beatitudinem, adventumque gloriosum Magni DEI et Servatoris nostri Jesu Christi: Qui seipsum pro nobis dedit, ut nos redimeret ab omni iniquitate, et purificaret sibi ipsi populum peculiarem, sectatorem bonorum operum.

Credimus et speramus fore CARNIS RESURRECTIONEM, Cum justorum tum injustorum. Veniet enim Christus Dominus de cœlis, in Patris sui et sua gloria, et cum cunctis sanctis angelis, ut judicet vivos et mortuos, qui omnes coram Tribunali ejus comparebunt, et tunc unicuique reddet juxta facta ipsius. Impii quidem et injusti perenni destinati supplicio, conjicientur in ignem æternum, Diabolo ejusque angelis paratum. Pii vero ac justi, mortalitate deposita, et glorioso corpore induti, transferentur in locum a Christo Domino eis paratum, ubi Thronus ipsius et DEI Patris est: ita ut DEI faciem intuentes, sanctis angelis ejus æquales facti, ineffabilis gaudii et æternæ felicitatis participes sem per sint cum Domino.

Unitarian

Unitarian worship, which are yet in existence, though not in a very flourishing condition. Those who went into Flanders and Holland were not so fortunate; -the bigotry of the principal people, especially among the ecclesiastics, having defeated them in every attempt to obtain separate places of worship. They were, therefore, under the necessity of joining those tolerated communions which would admit them into fellowship. By this means, they soon lost every discriminating characteristic as a distinct religious community, and became amalgamated with the Remonstrants and the Mennonites, or the Low Arminians and Baptists of Holland.

The asylum afforded them in the Dutch states furnished them with favourable opportunities for the dissemination of their sentiments through the press. Here some of their principal literary characters, among whom must be named Andrew Wissowatius, employed themselves in collecting their scattered writings, and reprinting them in an uniform edition. Eight volumes in folio were thus in a short time given to the world,-comprising the chief works of Socinus, Crellius, Schlichtingius and Wolzogenius. Another volume was afterwards added, containing the writings of Przipcovius, with some smaller pieces by Andrew Wissowatius, the editor of the other volumes. This collection is commonly known by the title of BIBLIOtheCA FRATRUM POLONORUM *. It must be observed,

* To the writings here enumerated the works of Brenius are now commonly added as a tenth volume; and a set of the Bibliotheca is hardly deemed complete without it.

however,

however, that it comprises but a small proportion of the books which were published by the Unitarians in Poland. The others are indeed exceedingly scarce, most of them having been lost by the expulsion of the Unitarians and their dispersion through different provinces, or else by the bigotry of magistrates in their own and in other nations, by whom many of them were consigned to the flames. But some of them are still occasionally to be met with*. Among the most voluminous of these are the works of Volkelius and Smalcius, both persons of considerable eminence in the Unitarian body.

HAVING thus completed a rapid sketch of the History of Unitarianism on the Continent subsequently to the æra of the Reformation, it remains to give some account of the work which is here first presented to the public in an English dress.

After the Antitrinitarians had so far multiplied in Poland as to acquire the rank of a separate body, and to have churches of their own, they thought it proper, in imitation of the other Reformers, to draw up a summary of their religious creed in the form of a Confession or Catechism, as well, probably, for the information of others, as for the instruction of their own

* My own collection comprises of these scarcer works, not included in the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, as many probably as would form two volumes in folio, printed uniformly with the others. Among these are the works of Volkelius and Smalcius, and some of the rarest pieces of Schlichtingius. members.

members. Among the earliest of these was one composed by Gregory Paul, who at that time was regarded as one of the heads of the sect *. George Schomann, also, in his last will, inserted in Sandius's Bibliotheca Antitrinitariorum, speaks of one which he had drawn up originally for the use of his own family. Among Socinus's works are inserted two unfinished treatises of this kind :—the one intituled Christiance Religionis brevissima Institutio, per Interrogationes et Responsiones, quam Catechismum vulgò vocant; and the other, Fragmentum Catechismi Prioris, Fausti Socini Senensis, qui periit in Cracoviensi Rerum ipsius Direptione. In the year 1574 there was printed at Cracow by Alexander Turobinus (Turobinczyck) in duodecimo, a small work of this description under the following title: "Catechism, or Confession of Faith of the Congregation assembled in Poland, in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who was crucified and raised from the dead. Deut. vi. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God.' John viii. 54. It is my Father, of whom ye say that he is your God §.'" This

6

* Sandius's Biblioth. Antitrin. p. 44.

piece

+ Georgii Schomanni Testamentum Ultima Voluntatis, ad calcem Sandii Biblioth. Antitrin. p. 188. Bock, ubi supra, tom.i. p. 826, in Vita Georgii Schomanni. Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. cent. xvi. § iii. part ii. note.

These pieces were first printed at Racow in 1618 in 12mo, and are contained in the first volume of the folio edition of Socinus's Works, pp. 650—689.

§ Catechesis et Confessio Fidei Cœtus per Poloniam congregati in Nomine Jesu Christi, Domini nostri, crucifixi et resuscitati. Deut. vi. Audi, Israel, Dominus Deus noster Deus unus est. Johann. viii. dicit Jesus: Quem vos dicitis vestrum esse Deum, est

Pater

piece is ascribed to George Schomann by John Adam Müller, in his treatise De Unitariorum Catechesi et Confessione

Pater meus. Typis Alexandri Turobini, anno nati Jesu Christi, filii Dei, 1574.

We are indebted to Mosheim (cent. xvi. sect. iii. part ii. note,) for bringing us acquainted with this interesting document. I shall here insert the account which he has given of its contents, without noticing his observations upon it.

"The preface, which is composed in the name of the whole congregation, begins with the following salutation. Omnibus salutem æternam sitientibus, gratiam ac pacem ab uno illo altissimo Deo Patre, per unigenitum ejus filium, Dominum nostrum, Jesum Christum crucifixum, ex animo precatur cœtus exiguus et afflictus per Poloniam, in nomine ejusdem Jesu Christi Nazareni baptizatus. To all those who thirst after eternal salvation, the little and afflicted flock in Poland, which is baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, sendeth greeting; praying most earnestly that grace and peace may be shed upon them by the one supreme God and Father, through his only begotten Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, who was crucified.'-After this general salutation the Prefacers give an account of the reasons that en gaged them to compose and publish this Confession. The principal of these reasons was, the reproaches and aspersions that were cast upon the Anabaptists, in several places; from which we learn that, at this time, the denomination of ANABAPTISTS was given to those who, in after times, were called SOCINIThe rest of this preface is employed in beseeching the reader to be firmly persuaded that the designs of the congregation are pious and upright, to read with attention, that he may judge with discernment, and, abandoning the doctrine of Babylon and the conduct and conversation of Sodom, to take refuge in the ark of Noah,' i. e. among the Unitarian Brethren.

ANS.

6

"In the beginning of the Catechism itself, the whole doctrine of Christianity is reduced to six points. The first relates to the Nature of God, and his Son Jeus Christ; the second to Justification; the third to Discipline; the fourth to Prayer; the fifth to Baptism; and the sixth to the Lord's Supper. These six points are explained at length in the following manner: Each point is defined and unfolded, in general terms, in one question and answer, and is afterwards subdivided into its several branches in various questions and answers, in which its different

d