LETTERS, &c.

LETTER I.

Introductory Remarks—Design of these Letters-Unitarian Creed-Importance of the subject.

CHRISTIAN BRethren,

A TRAIN of events, as unexpected as unsought by me, has led to the present publication. When, in the course of the last year, my ardent desire to promote your welfare, and my affectionate respect for your young Pastor, prompted me to consent, on the day of his Ordination, to address you from the pulpit, I little thought that obloquy and controversy were to result from the service of that day. But so it has happened. Some of your Unitarian neighbours have deemed it proper to make me an object of repeated attack, and my sermon on that occasion a subject of protracted and tedious discussion. I have seldom been more surprised than to find, that a few plain sentences, which were delivered

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under the impression that they contained nothing more than what was universally understood to be the sentiments of the Orthodox, should give such deep offence, and lead to so much waste of ink and paper. Nor can I yet account for the fact, but by supposing that the Unitarians in the United States are determined to make the experiment whether they can write themselves into notice and importance, and in prosecuting this experiment, resolve to let nothing, however trivial, escape their animadversion. If this be their plan, I make no complaint of its operation on me. I am not certain that any thing which has occurred, is to be, for a moment, regretted. On the contrary, a consciousness of having done my duty, has cheered me under the past; and if the following pages should prove in any degree useful to You or your Children, I shall have reason unfeignedly to rejoice in what was, in itself, by no means desirable to a lover of peace.

But, although the circumstances alluded to, have certainly given occasion to the present address, and have served to create, at once, an interest in your prosperity, and a freedom in ap

proaching you, which I might not otherwise have felt in the same degree; yet I hope you will not consider these Letters as intended to answer any thing which has been recently published against me or my Sermon, by the "Unitarian of Baltimore." My account with that writer has been, long since, on my part, finally closed; and it is by no means my purpose to open or review it. Whatever may be the case hereafter, my resolution, as yet, remains unshaken, not to take the least notice of any thing from that quarter. And to this resolution I adhere, not merely because it has been once formed and announced; but also because the writer who has honoured me with so much hostile notice, has, happily, conducted his attacks in such a manner as to render defence altogether unnecessary.

My object in writing at present is your benefit. It is to put you on your guard against a system of error, which I have no hesitation in considering as the most delusive and dangerous of all that have ever assumed the Christian name. This system its advocates in your neighbourhood, are endeavouring to recommend and establish with a zeal worthy of a better cause.

From the pulpit and the press, by the formal volume, the humble pamphlet, and every variety of exhibition that ingenuity can devise, they are endeavouring to make an impression on the publick mind. In every direction, and with a profusion of the most lavish kind, they are daily scattering abroad their instruments of seduction. Probably in no part of our country out of Massachusetts, do these poisoned agents so completely fill the air, or, like one of the plagues of Egypt, so noisomely "come up into your houses, your "chambers, and your kneading troughs," as in Baltimore. In fact, the Unitarians in that neighbourhood seem to be emulating the zeal of some of their brethren in England, who have been known to go into an Orthodox church; to withdraw during the prayer, that they might not join in "idolatrous devotions ;" and on their return, to strew on a Communion table, which happened to be spread on that day, a parcel of Socinian tracts, and pamphlets.* I have heard of nothing quite equal to this in the United States; but, from present appearances, am by no means confident that something of the same

RYLAND'S Partiality and Unscriptural Direction of Socinian Zeal. p. 39.

kind will not soon be exhibited. Now, though I have no fear of the influence of all this on the minds of those who read, and think, and inquire and pray; yet there may be others to whom an antidote is not wholly unnecessary. The sagacious and eloquent Mr. Burke has somewhere said, "Let us only suffer any pers"on, however manifestly he may be in the wrong, "to tell us his story, morning and evening, but "for one twelve-month, and he will be our mas"ter." In almost every congregation there is a considerable number to whom this maxim applies with peculiar force. The young and inexperienced, who are not aware of the insidious arts of error; the busy, who have but little taste for reading, and little time or disposition for profound reflection; the amiable, who are ready to look with a partial eye on every serious and plausible claim; and the gay and worldly, who are predisposed in favour of an indulgent system;-all these, when frequently assailed by the zealous, the confident, and the talkative patrons of heresy, will be peculiarly liable to be unduly impressed in their favour. When they every day hear individuals, and every day meet with pamphlets, which, on the one hand, in the