PART IV.

COMPARATIVE MORAL TENDENCY OF

THE LEADING DOCTRINES OF CALVINISM AND THE SENTIMENTS OF UNITARIANS.

LETTER I.

Calvinistic and Unitarian Views of the Depravity of

Man.

SIR,

WE

come now to a consideration of the more peculiar doctrines of Calvinism; or those doctrines which owe their origin to the metaphysics of Austin, their growth and strength to the genius of Calvin, and their maturity to the deliberations at the Synod of Dort. They may be arranged in the following order, namely, total depravity, irresistible grace, divine decrees, particular redemption, and final perseverance. These are the five links in the Calvinistic chain, and so closely depending on each other, that, should one be broken, all the rest must fall. According to Calvinists, this chain constitutes the entire system of Christianity; it comprises faith, charity

virtue, piety; it embraces the whole compass of the divine dispensations to the moral creation, and points out the only possible method by which the Maker of the universe could bless any portion of his creatures with salvation and eternal life.

Some of these doctrines you enumerate, and you profess to account it an evidence of the immorality of Unitarians, that they do not believe and preach them. Whether this be a just conclusion we are now to examine.

you

It is but fair to premise, that you acknowledge some friends among Unitarians, whom you esteem, and who "set an example of integrity, benevolence, and active virtue." But lest it should be thought that allow even these to have the virtues of Christians, you immediately ask, “may not the same be said of many Deists, from Lord Herbert down to the present day?" Whether your unitarian friends will take this as a compliment or not, this is no place to inquire. If it has been your ill fortune, however, to find none among them, who showed from their professions, lives, and conversation, that they acted from higher motives than those of deism, I must think your acquaintance has been extremely limited, and must lament, that you should feel warranted from information so slender, in denying the christian name to a whole denomination of professed Christians. Every sincere unitarian must hope, that those who differ from him in faith, will hereafter be more fortunate than you have been, in the friendships they may form, and the acquaintances they may contract, with his brethren. I am willing to grant, however,

in passing, that so far as you have testified, that the Unitarians, who, most unluckily for their brethren, have enjoyed your friendship, are without christian morals, you have proved the fact of your charges. But your premises are too narrow for your conclusions. If you had said, that all Unitarians, whom you ever knew, were no better than deists in principles and practice, the subject would stand on a very different footing. It would be an affair exclusively between you, and your private unitarian friends. But now it comes in another, and a vastly more important shape. You embrace Unitarians "all over the world," and consequently all must feel themselves implicated in your charges.

After some preliminary remarks you go on to speak as follows.

"The Unitarian mode of preaching is more acceptable to the taste of carnal, worldly men, than any other kind of preaching. And can any one, who reflects a moment, or who has eyes to see, and ears to hear, doubt that this is the fact? All unitarian preachers, that I ever heard of, teach their hearers, that human nature is not so depraved, as calvinists believe; that regeneration is unnecessary; that the various exercises of mind, supposed by many to be essential to piety, are mere dreams of enthusiasm ; that the strictness and seclusion from fashionable amusements, such as the theatre, the ball room, and the card table, which some inculcate, are uncommanded austerities, and being righteous over much,' and that all men, whatever may be their character, will finally be saved, or annihilated."

This you state as a "fair specimen of the doctrine inculcated by unitarian preachers all over the world,” and then infer, that those, who can preach thus, and approve such preaching, must necessarily be among the more immoral part of the community.

It cannot escape observation, that you profess to build this description of unitarian preaching upon hearsay. You produce no authority to confirm your statement, nor do you pretend to derive your knowledge from personal observation, or enlarged inquiry. But admitting you sincerely believe your impressions to be correct, which I certainly do not doubt, are you willing to take upon yourself the responsibility of bringing reproach and censure on the whole body of Unitarians, with nothing better to sustain you, than idle rumour, and the poisoned breath of evil report? Nay more, suppose you can make it appear, that some individual among them has actually been known to preach exactly in the manner you describe, do you think it fair to judge them all by this example? Is there a single sect in Christendom, who would think themselves well used to be judged as a body by the opinions, preaching, and conduct of some one, two, or half a dozen prominent men, who might be selected from among them? Would you think it just, or honourable, in a Unitarian to judge Presbyterians in this way? And especially, would you think it just, or honourable, or christian-like in him, if he had never listened to the preaching of Presbyterians, and relied on what he had heard for his knowledge, to charge them as a

sect with preaching to please the immoral and licentious? This is a fair test, and one which you can apply to your own conscience and sense of propriety.

All Unitarians sincerely believe, that the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism, if allowed to have their full effect on the mind and principles, are of the most immoral tendency. They consequently believe, that preaching these doctrines will have, and does have, a bad influence on society. But would you think them justified by this belief in maintaining that all persons, who are fond of hearing these doctrines preached, thereby give unusual tokens of the depravity of their hearts, and looseness of their lives? It is presumed you would not. Why then judge others upon principles, which no man is willing to have applied to himself? Unitarians believe it possible for Calvinists to be good people and good christians, even in defiance of their principles. Conscience, reason, common sense, and the plain practical parts of scripture have a stronger power, for the most part, than the dark dogmas of theologists; and however the latter may pervert the former, it is no easy thing for them to assume an entire ascendancy.

For this reason, Unitarians do not call Calvinists deists, when they find them departing, as they think, most deplorably from the true faith of the Scriptures, or showing in their conduct little respect for their principles. We consider them christians, not for their virtues alone, nor their distinctive tenets, but because they believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and profess to be guided by his Gospel. Nor do we