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    his auditory , it is believed , at any time knew what his peculiar ideas were relating to the person of Christ . When , some years since , an attention Was awakened in the

    place to the Unitarian question , by the occasional preaching of a zealous minister , some of this society , whose education and station in life , one should have

    expected would have precluded the ziecessity of such an inquiry , asked what was meant by an Unitarian ? And were surprised and

    disgusted to discover , there was any minister who taught that Je-Mis Christ was not equal to God the Father , and especially that he was only a man .

    While people belonging to a religious society know not what its distinguishing tenets are , or whether it has any or not , what tie is there to connect them with it , but that of custom or indifference ?

    But how long is this likely to hold ? If any attention to religious enquiry be accidentally excited , this kind of people never having been taught the tenets of

    their own sect , nor observing in it any zeal relating to them , nor wish to propagare them , will naturally fall in with the dogmas cfa creed , whatever it may be , that are asserted with vehemence

    and confidence . From accurate observation , I am persuaded that this want of acquaintance with the system of Christian doctrine

    usually maintained by those called Presbyterian Ministers , has been ft greater cause of the decline of their societies than any other cause , or than all other causes combined . I ' erhapstoo , a species of spurious liberality , which has

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    been held up both , by the masters and people of this denomination , has not been without a considerable influence . It has often been asserted by them , without those

    modifications that are necessary to its being rightly understood , that—^ Thefe are virtuous people of all denominations—that speculative opinions are of little or no importance—that active virtue is all in

    all—that k is to be wished there were no distinctions of secU and that they were all lost in the name of Christian . All this is very true and good , being Well analized and expounded ; but taken in the gross , leads many

    people to suppose that there is no importance in truth ; that they may join those religious assemblies as consistently , who address * The holy , blessed and glorious Trinity , " as those who pray splely to c } Our Father who is in hea

    ven ; " and that it is not worth while , especially if any degree of inconvenieficy attends it , to frequent a place of worship thinly

    attended , and thereby , without any reason , or any sufficient one ^ to separate themselves on the Sunday from the great majority of their neighbours *

    Experience and observation , Sir , confirm the truth of the following position : —No sect ^ vbich has not the emoluments and adi vantages of an established religion , can preserve itself in vigorous existence without a certain portioa

    of the sectarian spirit . By whicn I do not necessarily mean bigotry and intolerance , but principle and attachment i preferring your own religious denomination to every other , and being disposed , as the result , to undergo privations and

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    ' - ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ , ¦ On the X > edint ef Presbyterian Congregations * 485

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1809, page 483, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1740/page/13/