vancing to the time, when the Christian world will have for its one great object, and the point to which its gaze is directed, the whole world's regeneration. The tide is setting on in this mighty movement, and those things that do not move with it will be overwhelmed by it. There will be such a deep and universal conviction that the spirit of the Gospel is a missionary spirit, and the doctrines of the gospel missionary doctrines, that a religion, which, like liberal Christianity, professes to recognize neither the truth of the one, nor the necessity of the other, will be shamed out of existence. The wheels of the missionary enterprise will roll over it, and leave it despised and deserted in the distance. Nor have we in this case, any thing to fear from any putting on even of the form of godliness, and thus attempting to commend a false religion to the nations under the appearance of the truth. Neither revivals, nor the missionary enterprise can be imitated, by the sect that denies the doctrines, which are absolutely essential to both. It were easier to make mankind do anything most hard, than to make them believe that that religion came down from heaven. 66 You are indignant, because I have called your errors wilful. I acknowledge that wilful error indicates a corrupt heart; and sadly, seriously and solemnly do I assert, that along with all, who never have experienced the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, you do possess hearts morally corrupt and at enmity against God; nor can your wilful errors be justly considered in any other light, than as one result among the consequences of your depravity. We know that you deny that depravity; we are grieved because you do; you deny that it exists in any of God's creatures. But your denial does not destroy the truth of revelation. Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." What are your errors, we do earnestly ask, if they are not wilful? Is not your Unitarianism a voluntary thing? Were you compelled into it? Is not your disbelief just as voluntary, just as much a matter of choice, as our belief? If belief is the action of the heart, and not a mere speculation of the understanding, so is unbelief. Is not our belief wilful? Will you deny that it is? And is not your rejection of our belief just as wilful? After all, we see not how you can deny that your rejection of the doctrines of the Gospel is enlightened, deliberate, wilful. We doubt not you are, some of you, sincere in your disbelief. We read in the Bible of men given over to strong delusion to believe a lie. Now their belief of a lie was surely not the less criminal for being belief: nay, the belief arose out of the very height and extremity of their wickedness. And so it is possible that the long habit of rejection of the plainest doctrines of the Gospel may at length come to the firm belief of the falsehood of those doctrines, and of the truth of a system directly opposed to them. And then, the perverted mind and heart may proceed, in full, serious, sincere enmity against the truth of God, deliberately to revile and oppose ness. it. We are greatly mistaken, if this dreadful path be not the very course, which the leading Unitarians are now wilfully and sincerely pursuing. The contemplation is a melancholy one; indeed, it fills us with deep sorrow. We would seriously ask, Was not Dr. Channing sincere, when he declared the doctrine of Atonement the CENTRAL GALLOWS of the Universe? Did he compose and utter that paragraph carelessly, involuntarily? Or, does his sincerity blot out the guilt of that daring impiety? We think not. To be sincere in error, intelligent error, when the mind has been dwelling in the midst of light, we might well fear, is to be probably in the situation of one given over, on account of his great resistance to the Holy Ghost, to believe a lie. And surely, for a man of cultivated intellect and a pure life," a man who can rule his body and do well (according to the world's standard at least) to his fellow beings, for such an one deliberately to insult his God, and stand forth in contemptuous defiance and reproach of his chosen plan of salvation, with studied caricature and ridicule, is a spiritual wickedness, that in corporeal sins finds no parallel for its greatOh, how little do the world consider, that unbelief, far from being innocent, is the greatest and most comprehensive of all sins. In consideration of the review we have now taken of your course and system, we are constrained to notice the inconsistency of those, who, under the profession of friendship to evangelical religion, are accustomed to write and speak, as if a vigorous attack against Unitarianism were contrary to the nature of the kingdom of peace and righteousness.' "First PURE, then peaceable," is the maxim of an old writer, whom we have always been taught to revere, and by whose inspired wisdom we desire in this thing to be guided. And again, "the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of FAITH unfeigned." And as to a revival of the evils of controversy, which you so much deprecate, and the breaking up of that spirit of quiet, which you assert had begun to reign in regard to your own errors, we believe it would be better for the churches to be rent asunder and scattered to the four winds of heaven, than to be left to slumber in false doctrine, or to give it a peaceable repose within their own bosom. It is most unscriptural and dangerous to be speculating on the question how much pernicious error the heart may live with, or to allow men to hope that unbelief may be innocent, or that God, after having warned them against it, will interpose to prevent its deadly consequences in those who indulge it. The cry is, that in the attack of error we are driving unbelievers still farther and farther from the truth. Surely, if under and amidst the truth they have become errorists, then, if we do nothing to disturb them, they are likely to continue such-entangled in the sophistry of Unitarianism; and since already, under pretence of receiving the Gospel of Christ, they do in effect deny the whole of it, it is most difficult to discover how they could be removed to a greater distance from it. On philosophical principles it might be proved that an opeu and declared infidel is more likely to be convicted and con verted, where a pungent appeal is made to the conscience, than the professors of the system of liberal Christianity. 66 To trace out all the consequences of that system, and to tell plainly those who embrace it that they are in fatal error, we contend is not only not contrary to the spirit of peace and righteousness, but is just one of the most legitimate results of that spirit. In that spirit Paul was speaking, when he declared (Gal. i. 7, 8, 9.) There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Now we do know exactly what gospel Paul preached. We do know it was NOT that Gospel, which denies the Deity of Christ, Regeneration, Atonement, Entire Depravity, Endless Punishment. We do solemnly believe that the preachers of this false Gospel are the very subjects of Paul's dreadful anathema. We beseech you again to consider the results of your system, as in their accumulating development for years, they are spread out before you. There is not one article of our religion, it has been truly observed, of which your system does not overturn the foundation or destroy the essence. It declares that Christ was a mere man, a man of ignorance, prejudices and frailties, and not without sin; that he was only a highly endowed teacher and prophet; that he came into the world only to teach morality, and suffered only as a martyr to the truth, and died only to prove a resurrection from the grave; that he did not die for the sins of mankind, and therefore is not our Redeemer; that he was not the Lamb of God, offered as an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of his fallen creatures; that he is in truth neither our Advocate, nor Intercessor, nor Mediator; that he is not now present with his disciples, and has not gone to prepare a place for them in heaven; that all things were not made by him, and that, when the world was created, he had not even an existence; that he does not forgive sins in person, and has not personal agency in the conversion of the Gentiles; that he is not the Judge of all, and that indeed there is no general judgement and no day of judgement; that he has not now any superintendence over the concerns of his followers, and can neither be to us a Comforter, nor send the Holy Spirit to dwell among us; that justification by faith alone is unscriptural and absurd; that there is no Regeneration, no Holy Ghost, no Divine Son of God, no Trinity in Unity; that there is no Evil Spirit, no Satan, no Devil; that Hell is a mere metaphor without existence; that the soul cannot separately exist, and that the wicked will not be eternally punished; and finally, that a man may virtuously reject Christianity; that the Holy Scriptures are not infallibly inspired; that the Old Testament is an injurious book; that the writings of the Apostles are not to be regarded in every part as inspiration, but frequently mistake and error; and therefore that the Holy Spirit We should think the slightest did not guide them into all truth. glance at the results of your system would be enough to warn you of its dangerous nature. Permit us affectionately to remind you of a very solemn passage, which we earnestly pray, by the mercy of God in your penitent acceptance of an injured Saviour, may never seal your destiny. "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" In all that I have said, I have spoken with plainness. And though it may be with severity, yet I trust without anger. It is a solemn subject; nor would I treat it in any other than a solemn, calm, prayerful manner. If there be aught in these pages inconsistent with such a spirit, may God forgive it and prevent its evil influence. It is hard to write condemning truths in perfect freedom from a condemning temper; it is equally difficult to write them in energy, even with kindness and tenderness at heart, without the appearance of harshness and hostility of feeling. I think I can say, in the deepest sincerity, in regard to those against whose errors I am writing, "my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is, that they may be saved." At the same time I know, beyond all doubt, I know, that neither you, nor I, nor any other sinful creature, can be saved without being regenerated by the Spirit of God, justified by the blood of Christ, reconciled to God by the death of his Son. I know that none can be saved without receiving Christ, and believing on him as "the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth;" none can, without justifying faith in that atoning Saviour, who "redeems us to God by his blood," but to "build the hope of pardon, on whose independent and infinite sufficiency," the Leader of your sect has impiously declared, "IS TO BUILD ON AN UNSCRIPTURAL AND FALSE FOUNDATION." It is solemn, indeed, and most truly painful, faithfully to warn those, whose system excludes a Regenerating Spirit, and rejects a crucified Redeemer, and, if persisted in, cannot but prove to its advocates endless ruin to the soul. You may declare it arrogance, but indeed, it proceeds from love; and to yourselves and to all the adherents of that system, we say earnestly and imploringly, Awake from your false security. If conscience still tells you there is danger, if you be not fortified unapproachably against the power of conviction, then be entreated to remain no longer in doubt in regard to a matter of such infinite importance as the question of your eternal salvation; flee, while you may, to the only place of known safety, to "the blood of sprinkling," to "the Lamb of God." That this may be your choice, is the earnest prayer of one, Respectfully and most sincerely, Your friend and servant in the Gospel, |