SIR,

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE AIM OF THE UNITARIAN CHURCH.

SOME months ago you inserted in the "Christian Reformer" a letter in which I gave a brief sketch of the "Present Position of the Unitarian Church," and expressed my earnest hope that the time was fast approaching when the two sections of that church would be united and organized. Will you again kindly spare me some short space? as I would wish to state what I conceive the AIM of our church should be.

There is, perhaps, no subject which would call forth more diversities of opinion among us than this question. Many will say that the spread of our sect is the aim for which we should strive; many will assure us that the highest object of our desire should be the diffusion of education among the poor, of enlightened liberality among the better classes, of civilization in the world at large; and a third party will content themselves, and endeavour to content us, by some vague, doubtful phrase about securing the advancement of "Christ's kingdom."

Now with none of these "aims" are we quite satisfied; for, in the first place, if we merely seek the extension of our sect as an end, we are but acting as partisans, and agitated by the natural desire of seeing our own views dominant and our party successful: this, then, assuredly, should not be our aim. Nor should we, on the other hand, believe that the spread of education and enlightenment is, in itself, a sufficient object for our exertions as a church; this is the plan of the philosopher and the philanthropist-of a Bentham, a Howard, or a Lancaster: a noble task it is to grapple with the spirits of bigotry and ignorance, and to gain the end which I imagine we should strive at; it is not only a noble but a necessary task; it is one of the many means which we must employ. And, in like manner, do we believe the extension of "Christ's kingdom," if by this is meant the extension of Christian dogmas, to be but a step which will lead us nearer to the desired goal; and that goal is the true and glorious definition of Religion which Theodore Parker (would he had shewn the same sound philosophy in all things!) has proved to be embodied in the little maxim, "Love to God-love to man." To attain, then, this love, to diffuse it throughout the world, to teach the first and the second commandments, "Love God with all your heart; love man as yourself"-this is the grand object and aim which the Unitarian church should stretch every nerve to accomplish.

Little matters it how this twofold love is attained, so that it be attained. "So the shore is won at last,

Who will count the billows past?"

The road may be longer or shorter, but it is in every man's power to reach his resting-place. Can we doubt that this religion has been gained by those who never knew the Christian name, who prayed to the Sun as he rose over the hill-top, or bent low before the mysterious Spirit of Nature? Can we doubt that Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates and Plato, felt the mighty stirrings of this heart's religion? Or can we doubt that "our Father who is in heaven" heard and answered alike the prayers of them who in their native tongues adored "Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord"?

Yet in the dark days of Pagan ignorance-dark in spite of the light-gleam from the shores of Palestine-few, very few, were they who could gain this true religion, and very "scant among the tares" grew up "the white corncrop; they had to wade through dangers thick-set as the pitfalls in the "Valley of the Shadow of Death," and it required a hardiness and a courage

* I cannot refrain from mentioning the little book whence this line came: the author of "Reverberations," be he who he may, is a man with one of those truly catholic and religious minds which the world is much in need of.

well-nigh more than Bunyan's "Pilgrim" to escape the snares of a gross and sensual Idolatry on the one hand, of a proud and self-reliant Atheism on the other. But a "good time" came, when a "light to lighten the Gentiles" shone forth upon the world, when God sent his well-beloved Son to be our guide, confirming his divine appointments with "signs and wonders." And who can tell what power this new CREED has had to diffuse religion "pure and undefiled"? The New Testament alone has done more to spread the love to God and man than every writing "of all the schools," "of academies, old and new," of all the sects of philosophy which listened to the stern dictates of a Zeno, or hung upon the gentle words of an Epicurus. Well, then, in pursuance of our high end, it is our duty to spread this Christian faith, to support it against the inroads of the sceptic,† and through it to teach that way of life which kings and prophets had sought for long in vain.

But in order to make the truth as it is in Jesus truly efficacious, we must carefully separate it from the corruptions of Platonism and Paganism, which have eaten into it; it is impossible that the differing and opposing systems of Christianity in the world can be equally powerful and equally religious. It is impossible that the belief in a tri-une rupavvos can inspire such love to God as the conviction of having a holy, loving Father, whom (like the Jews of old) we can worship, "knowing what we worship." It is impossible that the belief in "never-ending, still-beginning torments" for the majority of our fellowcreatures, especially those whose doctrine is not ours-that the belief in "original sin," in a hell "paved with children's bones," who dying unbaptized are by nature unfit for heaven-it is, we say, utterly impossible that a belief such as this can inspire such love for man (or for God either) as the conviction that man was made "but a little lower than the angels," that Jesus himself was the "Son of Man," "the being made perfect through suffering;" that, finally, when "purified by fire" (as the apostle says our works shall be), we shall all, of every race and nation, be accepted by our heavenly Father. In short, it is impossible that true religion can be universally spread throughout the world without the influence of the Unitarian faith: then, indeed, proselytism is a Christian duty-it is, perhaps, one of our highest duties; and to effect it, the diffusion of education and of liberality is most important and essential.

Let, then, our church place before it as its aim the spread of religion-of love to God and to man; on no lower ground can all its members meet: let it employ for its means Christianity, Unitarianism (which, as we think, is a convertible term), and true knowledge-the result will indeed be blessed.

In this aim can the sectarian and the unsectarian unite-in this aim can the lover of the name "Unitarian," and he who thinks it a "curse" (!) agree; this is at least common to both, and the means they will use must be to both the same: a Parker and a Channing, a materialist and a spiritualist, the follower of Priestley and the man with "a dim no-meaningness in the great big heart of him," will thus have one object and will thus pull together; then, at length, will our church begin to have a position and a name, to exert that influence which long ago she should have exerted; her light will shine forth among men-a light of Faith and Hope and Charity. A CANTAB.

* Vide "Philosophical Theories and Philosophical Experience," by a Pariah, pp. 31, 32 (Pickering): "Christianity comes but to second the dictates of man's better self, and to give a sanction to his hopes-but with this advantage, that he whose mind has not been enough cultivated to reason out a foundation for these hopes, or to argue man's duties from his nature, finds plain precepts for his guidance, which embody all, and somewhat more, than Philosophy could have taught."

† And, I would add, against the sophistries of the denier of miracles, who, by rejecting the power of Christ to work them, throws at least a suspicion upon his SINCERITY When he himself appeals to them; and with a doubt of Jesus falls the moral power of Christianity, without which long and tortuous must be the road to religion, and few will there be to find it.

"Bachelor of the Albany" on Carlyle.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

Collections concerning the Early History of the Founders of New Plymouth, the First Colonists of New England. By Joseph Hunter, F. S. A., an Assistant-Keeper of the Public Records. London-J. Russell Smith.

12mo. Pp. 70. 1849.

THIS is a most acceptable contribution to the history of the Pilgrim Fathers, exhibiting that combination of deep research, accurate local knowledge and happy conjecture, which characterizes Mr. Hunter's critical and historical writings. The history of the church of the Pilgrims has been chiefly written by their American descendants, whose curiosity respecting that portion of the life of the Pilgrims passed in England, far from being gratified by the scanty details furnished by Governor Bradford, sought in vain for fuller details in the writings of their English contemporaries. In this interesting antiquarian essay, Mr. Hunter has undertaken what to any other man would have been a forlorn hope, viz., to shew who and what the Pilgrim leaders were while they lived in England, and to trace the more conspicuous of them to their homes. We will briefly describe some of the principal of Mr. Hunter's discoveries, and select for quotation some few passages of especial interest.

In a recent article (C. R. for May, pp. 278-286) we detailed the principal events of the life of John Robinson. În attempting to fix the locality of the church in the north-east of England to which John Robinson ministered, we gave the preference to "the country immediately round Thorne." Mr. Hunter, following up a clue given in a passage of Bradford's History, where he describes the Pilgrims as ordinarily meeting at the house of elder Brewster, "which was a manor of the bishops," proves beyond reasonable doubt that the scene of these interesting meetings was the village of SCROOBY, in Nottinghamshire, which lies about a mile and a half south of Bawtry, a market town situated on the borders of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, but distant six or seven miles from the nearest point of the county of Lincoln. The principal mansion of that village was a house which had been for centuries a palace of the Archbishop of York, but which in the beginning of the 17th century was held under a lease (one of many) granted by Archbishop Sandys, and was, in fact, virtually alienated from the see of York.

This, then, was the residence of elder Brewster; and Mr. Hunter furnishes us, from Leland, with a brief description of the place. It was "a great manor place, standing within a mote, and longing to the Archbishop of York; builded in two courts, whereof the first is very ample, and all builded of timber, saving the front of the house; that is of brick, to the which, ascenditur per gradus lapideos, the inner court building was of timber building, and was not in compass past the fourth part of the utter court." The manor place of Scrooby once received Henry VIII., and here the discarded Wolsey passed some of the latter days of his life. Mr. Hunter speaks with confidence to the fact, "that there is no other episcopal manor but this which at all satisfies the condition of being near the borders of the three counties."

Scrooby will henceforth be a sacred spot, and be the resort of modern pilgrims, both English and Transatlantic, whose hearts yearn with reverent zeal to preserve and honour the memories of the Puritans who once assembled in Scrooby Manor. In Cooke's Topographical Description of Yorkshire, it is stated "The palace stood in a very damp and low situation, where the Ryton joins the river Idle. The large gateway and porter's lodge were taken down towards the end of the last century, and the only remaining part of this large palace has been many years since converted into a farm-house." But it would

* The traveller can reach it by the great North road. It lies about ten miles south of Doncaster, and about eight miles north of East Retford.

seem that even these few remains have now disappeared; for Mr. Hunter states,

"The Brewsters must have been under-tenants of the family of Sandys. The manor was after them inhabited by a son of Sir Samuel, who was named Martin, and probably by others of the family; but the house fell by degrees into decay. No portion of it is now standing, yet the site of it may be traced by a few irregularities in the surface of the ground."-P. 11.

Mr. Hunter has also added to the interest of the locality by discovering in a neighbouring village the birth-place of Bradford, the historian of the Pilgrims and the Governor of New Plymouth. His birth-place was Austerfield; and although this fact has been previously stated in print by Mr. Young, it is probable that he learnt the fact from Mr. Hunter's communication of it, in 1842, to the Hon. James Savage, of Boston.

But not only is Brewster to be tracked to this little village adjacent to Bawtry, but his fellow-labourer and fellow-sufferer, Bradford, is also to be traced to the village of Austerfield, which is about as far to the north-east of Bawtry as Scrooby is to the south. That Bradford was born at this village has been a fact long concealed from public view, owing to an unfortunate but very excusable mistake of the author or printer of the Magnalia, who, in the valuable notice which he has left us of the life of Bradford, calls the place of his birth Ansterfield. Endless have been the searches for Ansterfield, but the whole villare of England presents no place of that name; and as we proceed, most ample proof will be given of the residence of a family named Bradford at Austerfield, and of the birth in it, at the proper time, of a William Bradford. A new interest is thus thrown over this little district."-Pp. 11, 12.

Mr. Hunter has shewn who were the ministers through whose agency the Puritan spirit arose in the country surrounding Bawtry, amongst a people who would have appeared to give little promise favourable to a strenuous ecclesiastical or political movement—“ people collected for the most part in ancient villages, each with its own church and pastor, and in most of them a rural squire." One of these was John Smith, whose name is mentioned in the early history of the Baptists. Mr. Hunter conjectures that he was curate of Gainsborough. Another was Richard Clifton, whom Mr. Hunter tracks to Marnham, near Newark, in 1585, and to Babworth, in the following year. Another minister of Puritan spirit in the district was Thomas Toller, who for nearly half a century, after his removal from Nottinghamshire, was vicar of Sheffield. Another minister was Richard Bernard, who, though he never separated from the Church, was a zealous Puritan; he was vicar of Worksop during the first thirteen years of the 17th century.

Mr. Hunter fixes upon the year 1587, or 1588, as the date of Brewster's retirement to Scrooby; but the Separatist church was not formed there, he conceives, till 1606 or 1607. We must extract a portion of what our author states respecting the pastor, Robinson.

"John Robinson was one of the Puritan divines of the times, who, like Brewster and Clifton, took so strong a view of the constitution of the Church of England, its polity and its ceremonies, that he deemed it his duty to separate himself from its communion, and to make an open protest against it. When, therefore, Brewster's people wanted a minister to become either their pastor or their teacher (for it is not known which office was held by Robinson, and which by Clifton, while the church was still in England, though it may be deemed the more probable supposition that the office of teacher was that at first held by Robinson), Robinson was such a minister as they wanted. Recent writers state that Brewster and he were contemporaries at Cambridge, and that there began the acquaintance which laid the foundation of their connection with the same church. There is no doubt that Robinson did study at Cambridge, and that

Mr. Young states that he was born in 1576, entered Emmanuel College in 1592, took the degree of M. A. in 1600, and B.D. in 1607. So that he was much younger than Brewster, and not likely to have been contemporary with him at the University.

he was a regularly ordained minister of the Church of England. The place of his birth and earlier education, his family connections, and indeed every thing respecting him previously to his going to the University, are, however, unknown.' P. 40.

Hitherto all that has been known of Robinson's early ministerial life was, that he was beneficed in Norfolk, somewhere near Yarmouth. Mr. Hunter finds a 66Robinson," vicar or perpetual curate at Mundham, about 14 miles distant from Yarmouth, and about the same distance from Norwich.

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"And that this Robinson is the John Robinson who was for so many years the affectionate and beloved minister of the church of Separatists, the founders of New England, seems to be placed almost beyond doubt, by the fact that Mundham was an impropriation of the hospital of St. Giles at Norwich, and its curate appointed by the corporation of Norwich, when compared with the following passage in Dr. Hall's Apology against Brownists,' which is cited by Mr. Young: Neither doubt we to say, that the mastership of the hospital at Norwich, or a lease from that city (sued for with repulse), might have procured that this separation from the communion, government and worship of the Church of England, should not have been made by John Robinson.' I do not stay to inquire whether the insinuation in the passage cited is borne out by evidence, or is supported by what we know of the general character of Robinson. It seems to me as if it were one of those ungenerous expressions into which controversialists in those days, and sometimes even in these, are apt to be betrayed; and I shall cite by and by two or three testimonies from men who knew him, which give a very different impression of him. Here the passage is cited to shew that the Robinson of Blomefield's 'History' is the John Robinson of whom so much is said by all who write or speak of the first American emigration. I wish it could be added, that we found some account of what Robinson did for the people of Mundham; but the information which the History affords us is of the poorest description. He was there in the year 1600, and also in 1603, when he returned that there were 144 communicants in his parish; and this is all.

"It would seem, however, that he was for some time residing in the city of Norwich, by the following passage in Ainsworth's Answer to Crashaw, cited by Mr. Hanbury:-Witness the late practice in Norwich, where certain citizens were excommunicated for resorting unto and praying with Mr. Robinson, a man worthily reverenced of all the city for the grace of God in him, as yourself also, I suppose, will acknowledge.' He had probably, at the time to which this refers, given up Mundham, and might be intent on gathering a Separatist church from among the citizens of Norwich.

"That he left the county of Norfolk in some state of disgust, depends not entirely, we see, on the statement of Dr. Joseph Hall. We infer it from the above passage in Ainsworth's tract, and it is affirmed at a somewhat later period by Ephraim Pagitt, who speaks of 'one Master Robinson, who leaving Norwich malcontent, became a rigid Brownist." "Though dates are wanting, since we find him in 1603 at Mundham, and after this for some time at Norwich, we may assign, with much probability, the commencement of his connection with Brewster's people to the year 1606 or 1607. Perhaps, even, it was the prospect of securing the services of so zealous, able and beloved a minister, that determined Brewster to collect his people in regular church order, according to the proper model of an Independent or Separatist church, with its proper officers, pastor, teachers, elder and deacons."-Pp. 40-43.

These extracts will satisfy our readers that these "Collections" will sustain Mr. Hunter's high reputation for deep research and curious knowledge. We observe with satisfaction an announcement on the cover that this publication is only one of a series, and that we may expect to receive others of Mr. Hunter's "Critical and Historical Tracts."

The Voice of God in the Pestilence: a Thanksgiving Sermon on the General Abatement of the Cholera, preached in the Westgate Chapel, Wakefield, on Sunday, October 14, 1849. By Edward Higginson; and Printed by some of the Hearers. London-E. T. Whitfield."

WE thank those judicious hearers at the Westgate chapel who have enabled