and we believe it will be confirmed by the experience of every observant tutor at our universities, as well as at every Dissenting theological institution. Mr. Belsham, it seems, had stated, that while he was theological tutor at Daventry, and professed orthodoxy, many of his young men went over to Unitarianism; and that these seceders included those of the best talents, the closest application, and the most serious dispositions." On which Dr. Smith, who holds a similar office at Homerton, remarks:

"I can judge only from analogy and presumptive considerations; and I am sensible that I am advancing to tread on delicate, and to me painful, ground: but truth must be spoken. Through more than twice the number of years that the Calm Inquirer' presided at Daventry, I have been exercised with the trials and duties of a similar situation: and I also have known the bitterness of disappointed hope and a wounded heart. Some of my friends and pupils have renounced the faith which they once professed to hold dearer than life, and have become Unitarians. I lay my hand upon my heart, and in the most serious and impartial state of thought in my power to command, I endeavour to form my best estimation of the probable causes and occasions of their change of views and I cannot with truth say that Christian seriousness of disposition had apparently the smallest part of a share in producing that change. On the contrary, the amplest evidence has established to me that, the precursors of the avowed change of sentiment were generally extreme levity, pride, rashness, selfconceit, indolence, scepticism, concealed improprieties of conduct, neglect of prayer, private scorning at serious piety, and dishonourable imposition by pretending orthodox sentiments at a time in which subsequent declaration boasted of having rejected them.

"To make these animadversions on subjects so personal, I would gladly have declined; but the place which those subjects occupy, in the Preface to the Calm Inquiry, has not left me at liberty to refuse the ungracious task. Thankful, however, shall I be, if these extorted and reluctant observations should be the means of warning any against that rock of proud and unholy affections, on which others have made mournful shipwreck." pp. 164,

165.

He adds,

"Difficult is the task to assist, in the personal and successful search after sacred truth, young minds whose judgment is

immature, their experience nothing, their reading hitherto scanty, their conceptions eager, and their self-opinion often strong. If, in relation to this subject, I may presume to express my opinion and my wishes, they would be to demand, in the first place, certain pre-requisites for the of deliberate and patient thought, a restudy: good intellectual powers, the habit spectable acquaintance with the language, style, and idiomatical peculiarities of the inspired writers, a memory well stored tice in theological reading, and, above all, with the contents of the Bible, some pracand without which all the rest will be nugatory, a heart governed by genuine piety, humility, the spirit of prayer, and love to God as the God of perfect holiness. In minds thus prepared, and thus with conscientious and holy diligence exercised, the seed of heavenly truth would find a congenial soil, and a happy harvest might be expected, under His blessing who alone giveth the increase. But, without this discipline, the truth which is according to godliness' will be unwelcome and distasteful; plausible error will be agreeable, and will meet a ready reception; and the lofty boast of free inquiry will end in deep and confirmed self-delusion." pp. 161, 162.

Dr. Smith's chapter on this subject is, as we have already observed, so interesting and valuable, especially to many of those into whose hands our pages are likely to fall, that we should gladly transcribe nearly the whole of it, but we can find space only for the following extracts.

"It is not the prosecution of theological hateful passions of the human heart. controversy alone that has excited the The wordy dialectics of the middle ages, and the controversies, philosophical and critical, political and historical, which have been agitated in our own times, furnish more than sufficient proof that, in any sort of contest, men can arouse each other's feel

ings to rancour, and can employ all the unworthy arts of aiming at the mere vic

tory.

there is more to interest the susceptible "But frequently in religious questions other disquisitions; and that not only in tempers of men than is to be found in of cool and silent reflection. Nor is it the heat of controversy, but in the privacy more injurious to the serenity and purity of the soul, to have our passions heated in the public polemics of religion, than it is unfavourable state of the moral feelings, to study divine things privately under an from any cause whatever. If, in human science, the mere exercise of the intellectual faculties may enable a man to escape mistake and discover truth; the same means will not insure a similar issue in

:

feelings and character which they panegyrize, the passions which they foment, and the accessory circumstances by which they are invariably surrounded, are in flagrant contradiction to the spirit and the details of Christian morality. Against these, and against all their shifting varieties, serious Christians every where bear their practical testimony and, amidst the diversities on minor points of doctrine and on ecclesiastical order, this practical protest against the lusts and the course of the present evil world, is one of the uniting resem blances which binds together all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. How, then, does the practical spirit of Unitarianism operate in these instances? Does it generally and characteristically lead to come out from among them, and to be separate, and not to touch the unclean thing?' Is it not the truth, that all the forms of gay amusement and fashionable dissipation have generally the Unitarians of their neighbourhoods among their principal votaries, so far as station and circumstances afford opportunities? Let

theatres and balls, card-tables and billiardrooms, bear witness. Let the medicinal waters and the resorts for sea-bathing, which receive their yearly visitants for the regaining or the improving of health, let them declare whether Unitarian families do not generally mix in the full vortex of dechristianizing, though the world will not deem them demoralizing, gaieties." pp. 128, 129.

The observance of the Lord's Day is next remarked upon. This day is Divinely appointed to be holy to the Lord; and experience proves that on its sacred observance intimately depends the advancement of religion, both personally and publicly. But, asks our author,

How does the spirit of Unitarianism treat this sacred obligation? Are there many of its partisans who make conscience of strict observance of this holy and most valuable season? Is it not generally with them made a day of worldly pleasure, either in part, or, if an extraordinary occasion should occur, in its whole? Has not an eminent Unitarian (Mr. Belsham) preached and printed to persuade men that any employment, or any amusement, which is lawful on other days, is lawful on the Sunday?' And has not his example led many of his party to treat the sanctified observance of this day with the contempt of pity and the scorn of ridicule ?" pp. 129, 130. •

⚫ Dr. Smith adds in a note:

"It is with sincere pleasure that I acknowledge the just observations of Dr. Lant Carpenter, on the religious utility and obligation of the Lord's day, which he has given to the world since the first

From the walks of private life Dr. Smith advances to the pulpit instructions and public character of Unitarian communities; and we must say he proves them mournfully wanting. He illustrates his

remarks, neither unfairly nor unaptly, with the melancholy case of Geneva.

"An instructive instance of this deterioration is presented to us, in the modern history of the church of Geneva, once the glory of the Reformation. For about eighty years, Arianism and Socinianism have been spreading themselves among the pastors and academical professors of that city; for the most part under the disguise of evasions, ambiguous phrases, and faint denials; but, during the latter half of that period, with increasing boldness. Our English Unitarians have recently been gratified with discovering that, in the new Genevese Catechism, there is not only no exposition or defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, but not even an allusion to it; and that the Genevan pastors are on the high road of reformation, and their next catechism may not merely omit, but openly expose, pretended orthodoxy.' This writer was probably not aware, that he was humbly chanting to the tune which had been before sung by those consummate reformers, d'Alembert and Voltaire. The article Geneva,' in the celebrated French Encyclopédie, was written by the former of those authors, so illustrious by the splendour of their talents, so detestable for the baseness of their moral principles. From that elaborate and, but for its irreligious tincture, interesting article, I select some paragraphs.

"Very far indeed are the ministers from thinking all alike, even on those points which are regarded elsewhere as having the most important place in religion. Many have renounced the divinity of Jesus Christ, of which their leader Calvin was so zealous a defender, and for which he brought Servetus to the stake. They explain the least unfavourably that they can, the express passages of Scripture which are contrary to their opinions. In one word; all the religion that many of the ministers of Geneva have is a complete Socinianism, rejecting every thing called mystery, and supposing that the first principle of a true religion is to propose nothing to be received as a matter of faith which strikes against reason. Thus, when they are pressed upon the position which is so essential to Christianity, the necessity of revelation, many of them substitute in its place utility, as a

publication of this volume, in his Examination of the Charges made against Unitarianism, &c. by Archbishop Magee.”

softer term. If in this they are not orthodox, they are at least consistent.-At Geneva, less complaint is made than elsewhere, on the growth of infidelity; which ought to excite no surprise: religion is there reduced almost entirely to the worship of one God, at least with all above the lowest ranks: respect for Jesus Christ and the Bible is perhaps the only thing which distinguishes the Christianity of Geneva from pure Deism.'

"Great offence was taken by M. Vernet and other ministers of Geneva on the publication of this article: and an ambiguous profession of faith was by them given to the world, which, instead of contradicting, in effect confirmed the representation of d'Alembert. The correspondence of that philosopher and Voltaire contains a great number of very curious passages on the alarm and agitation which were produced among the ministers, and on the ridiculous inutilityof their evasive protestation. They give melancholy indications that Unitarianism is a downward road,' and that its progress was viewed with high delight by those desperate and malicious unbelievers.

"Another passage from the Encyclopédie will furnish additional evidence of the favourable eye with which the great leaders of infidelity viewed the character and progress of Unitarianism, and with what exultation they looked forwards to its ultimate effects. It is a part of a very long and elaborate article, evidently intended as a high panegyric upon the Unitarian system; though, as usual, the author writes under the disguise of an affected submission to the authority of the catholic, apostolic, and Roman religion.'

"The Unitarians have always been regarded as Christian divines, who had only broken and torn off a few branches

of the tree, but still held to the trunk; whereas they ought to have been looked upon as a sect of philosophers, who, that they might not give too rude a shock to the religion and opinions, true or false, which were then received, did not choose openly to avow pure Deism, and reject formally and unequivocally every sort of revelation; but who were continually doing, with respect to the Old and New Testament, what Epicurus did with respect to the gods; admitting them verbally, but destroying them really. In fact, the Unitarians received only so much of the Scriptures as they found conformable to the natural dictates of reason, and what might serve the purpose of propping up and confirming the systems which they had embraced.-A man..becomes a Protestant. Soon finding out the inconsistency of the essential principles of Protestantism, he applies to Socinianism for a solution of his doubts and difficulties; and he becomes a Socinian. From Socinianism to Deism there is but a very slight shade, and a single step to take: and he takes it.'

CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 344.

"Such has been the accelerated course of departure from its former evangelical faith, which has dishonoured the church of Geneva and it is an incontestable fact, that this unhappy progression has been accompanied with an equally advancing, and at last a hideous, dissolution of public manners. During the twenty years that the chief priest and prophet of infidelity resided at Ferney, he frequently numbered among his admiring and flattering visitors, some of the pastors of Geneva. The bonds were weakened and ruptured which religious principles would have held unbroken; and, as that little state depended more than almost any other for the preservation of social order and liberty, upon fraternal union among its citizens, it was torn in pieces by frightful and ruinous dissensions, long before it was involved in the vortex of the French revolution. Its moral state became not less deplorable. The unprecedented abandonment of public worship, the almost total abolition of family religion, the contempt of the Scriptures, the scandalous violation of the Lord's day, and an audacity of libertinism, threatening the destruction of all domestic virtues, have deeply shaded the recent picture of that always interesting and once happy people. Other causes may be admitted to have had a share in the production of these effects; but the great and predisposing cause was indifference, under the pretence of philosophy and liberality, to the doctrines of the Reformation; and then, the relinquishment of those doctrines, and of the spirit of humility and piety in which alone they can be truly held." pp. 133–137.

The close alliance of Infidelity with Socinianism is unhappily too notorious; and well might Dr. Priestley panegyrize President Jefferson, a known and avowed infidel, remarking, "He is generally considered an unbeliever: if so, he cannot be far from us, and I hope in the way to be not only almost, but altogether, what we are." Indeed, our author boldly challenges the Socinian body on this point:

"I make my appeal to intelligent and candid Unitarians themselves, whether they are not perfectly aware that a proportion not inconsiderable or uninfluential of their congregations, at the present time, throughout our country, consists of persons who do not disguise their scepticism or even settled disbelief, with regard to the Divine origin and paramount authority of the Christian religion? What has produced this coalition? Why does it continue, with every appearance of mutual contentment? Is not the undeniable cause a congeniality of spirit; and a conviction, 3 T