and angels, to all eternity. Written by JOHN LOWDEN, London.

Thursday, August the 5th, 1773.

P. S. If you choose to send an answer or the books, direct to John Lowden, at Mr. Burford's, Great Samt Andrew's Street, Seven Dials, 'London.

SIR,

HE following remarks, extracted

of the "Christian Disciple," appear to me so valuable, so sound in the instraction they convey to Christians, and so forcible in style, that I trust you will be tempted to give them a place in the Monthly Repository. I am quite aware that that publication is generally devoted to papers of a 'controversial kind; but it seems to me that we can well afford to exchange a few pages of its usual contents for the sober and temperate animadver'sions of our Trans-Atlantic Christian brethren. Independent of the strong conviction I feel that these American "Hints to Unitarians" are no ill-timed or useless cautions, it is very delight"ful to trace the progress of religion in that part of the world where alone it may be said to have its free course. I hope we are generous enough to exult in its "glorious liberty"—and candid enough to receive with meekness the hints which our distant friends bestow upon us. I regret that the paper from which I extract is too long for publication, (unabridged,) in the pages of the Repository. It is well deserving of a reprint and extensive circulation among Unitarians.

Q. Extract from" Hints to Unitarians." Christian Disciple, January and February, 1823.

sition which we experience is universal, and is founded in sentiments (we trust they are prejudices) of almost unconquerable strength. Now our danger is just in proportion to the vehemence and universality of these sentiments.

“Do we, then, make sufficient allowance for the honest feelings and fears of our brethren? For my own part, so far as they are disinterested and affectionate, so far as they regard

And though they were altogether groundless apprehensions, the subject ought, in some measure, to sanctify them. I cannot help thinking that, with some, it is too easy to fling out vague accusations of bigotry, intolerance, uncharitableness, &c. Evil will it be for us, if a good system of faith is made the cover of a bad habit of feeling, if we have gained a truth and lost a virtue, if we have become more correct than others, only to be more proud. But some will tell us, perhaps, that they feel none of this exasperation-that they maintain a supreme indifference towards the opinion of their opposers; I do not believe it. It is not, (unless we are indifferent to our own opinións,) it is not in our "nature to feel this indifference, and it would be little to our credit if we could. Religion is a subject too important to admit of it. Violent opposition to what is believed to be the truth that God has revealed, is not to be lightly regarded. Besides, it is most unhappily true, that we are all of us more or less affected by this opposition through the relations and intercourse of life. It is here, indeed, that it comes near to us. It is not the distant sound of the controversy that disturbs our peace. It is the chilling distrust and alienation that enters our own dwellings, and, grievous to say, enters them under the sanction of religion. There is to many an almost daily temptation from this source; and it is a temptation which no smiles nor courtesies can do away. Religion is the subject of all subjects, the all-interesting theme of reflection, the great bond of friendship, the refuge for our sorrows, and the home for our best joys. Now, with those who feel such an interest in religion, it naturally forms the most interesting subject of conversation and of sym

pathy. And to have the cold hand of suspicion or silence laid upon it is a severe trial. Still more trying must it be to the temper, if not to the feelings, to meet with sour condolence, or gruff rebuke, which will always be in proportion to the ignorance or coarseness of him who offers them. And it is a great question how we ought to conduct in such circumstances, or rather it is a very great matter to conduct rightly. It is a case on which every one ought to reflect deeply it is a situation in which every one ought to be on his guard, and to fortify his mind with all those views of religion and duty that may preserve him from the great temptation. Think, then, let me say, think, at such a time, of the meekness and gentleness of Christ; think of that great and good Being whose mercy is over us all, and who bears with us all; think, with what earnestness we are exhorted in his word, to all gentleness and for bearance towards those that oppose themselves; think, in fine, that, in a few days more, when this separating cloud has passed away, you hope to meet those with whom you now differ, and to dwell with them for ever in heaven. Think thus, and it will not be with bitterness or contempt that you will regard them.

2. In the next place, it is a very great misfortune of our situation that we are so continually put upon our own defence. Nothing can be worse for an individual, or for a body of Christians, than the habit of feeling which this necessity is apt to generate. A deep sense of personal deficiencies, a wakeful jealousy, a profound humility, a disposition to see the worst of our case, are the very means of Christian improvement. But it is thought a kind of treason against the cause for us to confess our faults, as a class of Christians.

"The periodical publications of all large and well-established denominations of Christians, you find, teem with earnest expostulations and fearful warnings, on the deficiencies of their members. But when we undertake any public work of this kind, it must needs be, and indeed there is but too much occasion for it, it must needs be a citadel for defence: and we are apt to feel as if we could not very closely pry into its defects-as if it

would not do to betray any signs of weakness within-as if it were not safe to displace the stones of the wall, to see whether the cement be strong and secure, while the darts of the enemy are flying thickly around us.

"A contrast like this may occur to some of my readers in the spirit of two Monthly Magazines which come to us from abroad; the one of them, as is very natural, (in circumstances of recent change of opinion and of extreme hardship in the treatment which it suffers,) much employed in settling its own opinions, or in attacking the opinions of others:* much employed in speculation, and less about what is practical: and withal indulging a considerable share of selfcomplacency, to which I will not say how well it is entitled: and the other, acting well the part of a Christian Observer, fearlessly examining into the spiritual deficiencies and faults of the church, lamenting the decays of piety and urging repentance and reform; and shewing, on the whole, a spirit, which, if there is enough of that salt of the earth,' may preserve even the Establishment.

"It may be thought that, in speaking thus, I am forgetting the cause. But I care not for the cause. I say

Perhaps it is but fair to observe that if, as I suppose, the Monthly Repository be the publication alluded to, our American friend does not appear to that publication. It is as a vehicle for discussion, as a medium of religious communication, that it is chiefly valuable. It does not pretend to regulate the opinions and feelings of its readers. It only places different opinions freely before them. It is a sort of printed conference. Whereas the leading articles in the Christian Disciple have in general more the appearance of the decisions of a synod of divines. They are well-digested, pious and rational. They have all the calm, quiet appearance of regular pulpit distarianism in England we must have some courses-but in the present state of Unifield open for fair remark and rejoinder. That our own defects as a sect should be made the subject of discussion and animadversions, is desirable also.

enter into the character and object of

Q.

[The "Hints" being re-published in England, we propose to review them in an early Number. ED.]

it without fear or hesitation; I care not for Unitarianism, nor any other cause, any farther than it promotes a spirit of deep, rational and fervent piety. Let it come to what its enemies predict-let it be scattered to all the winds of heaven, and be without a record or a name, if it will not promote the sacred power of religion among us. If it is unfriendly to an exalted piety, let it be burned with 'the wood, hay and stubble;' and God grant that its honest advocates may be saved, though it be so as by fire!'

:

"I have, indeed, not one doubt of the truth of its great and leading principles, and as little that they will be embraced, like the early instructions, and as the true instructions of Jesus, as fast as men are able to receive them and on both accounts, because they are true and because they must prevail, I am the more anxious that they should not be made a stumblingblock to those who are yet too weak to receive them. It is a very high responsibility committed to our hands, to hold, if we do hold, the purest system of faith in the world, and it deserves to be seriously inquired if there be no danger of betraying it. If we think there is none, this only shews there is so much the more danger the less we suspect it. And this, again, is the exposure of which I was speaking. We hear perpetual warnings of our danger, and we are, in consequence, too apt, it may be, to maintain that we are safe. To give an instance or two of this exposure: we are accused of making too little of our Saviour, and we forget, perhaps, in our eagerness to defend ourselves, that we are, in common with all men, in danger of thinking too little of him. There is in every good mind, in every Christian breast, a warm veneration and attachment to Jesus Christ; there is a sympathy with him, in his holy plans and purposes, in his compassion to the sinful, ia his forgiveness and generous sacrifices, in his bitter sufferings: there is a tender and sacred admiration of his person and character. And all this feeling springs up spontaneously with the piety of Christians, and must grow with the growth of all their virtues. And it is liable on the contrary to be checked and chilled by the

Here'

selfish and unholy passions. then, is a danger of which we ought to be aware, and which in our circum stances we are too apt to forget Again, we are accused of making too little of our sins. Now the very circumstance of our having been thus accused, may have brought about the very thing with which we are charged. We deny that this is the tendency of our principles, and forget, perhaps, that it is nevertheless the tendency of our nature. We are employed about argument when we need self-examination. We are collecting proofs of the dignity of human nature, when we ought to be mourning that it is so fallen in ourselves."

A few striking remarks on other besetting dangers of Unitarians are here necessarily omitted, as also a warm animadversion on the coldness with which the subject of missions is too often treated among them. We are compelled to pass on to the following passages on "nominal Unitarians."

"There are many such who are indifferent to all religion, who are not under the strong and swaying influence even of any prejudices concerning it, and whose common sense is therefore left to operate more freely and perhaps more justly: who dread all superstitious fears, and rightly: who abhor all creeds and systems, and all human authority, and all dominion of fear over men's minds, and do so perhaps even too much. However this may be, it is certain that all this will not necessarily make them Christians; and yet it may make them, in their speculative views, as far as they have any, Unitarians: just as an opposite cast of mind, a submission to fear and prejudice and authority, may fail to make men Christians, and yet may make them orthodox: in other words, may make them of the popular, the prevailing faith. There are also people in the world who dislike restraint, who dislike seriousness, who cannot bear singularity and strictness in religion, nor do they like plain and close dealing from their religious instructors, and who are, therefore, naturally attracted to a system of doctrine and mode of teaching, that appears more cheerful and liberal. They prefer to hear those preachers, that do not (because they