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    enlightened views of Christian truth began to spread amongst the Scotch clergy . Myles speaks of the year 1751 . I am inclined to think that at that period but little of Unitariauism was known amongst them , and that the preventive checks to Methodism were then the causes I have stated

    already . But an obvious channel may be pointed out , through which it flowed in a few years afterwards . —In the year 1789 , I was sent by the solicitous care of my parents , to pursue the studies at Aberdeen , which had been begun undermost favourable auspices at

    Daventry , but which were interrupted by the honourable scruples of my worthy master and friend in Essex Street ; scruples so entirely destructive of the prosperity of that institution , that we are led almost to regret it was not possible for him to hide them under the skirts of the Paleian mantle . I had

    gone through a part of the theological course ; and under the loss I , in common with my fellow-students , felt , was happy to fall into such hands as those of Doctors Gerard and Campbell , who then filled the theological chairs at the Old and at Mareschal College . Great

    indeed was my surprise , and unexpected my pleasure , when I found Gerard delivering lectures on the person of Christ , compiled on the very same plan as that which Mr . Be ) sham had adopted , giving fully the opinions of the different controversialists upon

    the disputed | exts , and , without allcging ; van opinion of his own , leaving it to his pupils to form and to avow their own opinions upon them . The effect of such a plan of lecturing may very well be imagined . The minds of the young men were enlightened ; and if they were not led to prefer the

    Arian or the Unitarian interpretation , they at least learned to know , that in those sects were no mean antagonists to the received opinions ; and it is probable , they were led to consider the questions at issue more maturely , when in their country retreats they could devote more time to these

    interesting and important considerations . Moreover , the character of Dr . Priestley , as an experimental philosopher and as a metaphysician , had then obtained so great celebrity , that the religious views which he so bbldly advanced ^ acquired wit h the m no trifling importance . It was a common

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    subject of inquiry , What are Dr .. Gerard's own theological opinion ^'* And to this the usual answer wa » " No one knows ; he never avows them , and , if urged by his familiar friends , he always evades an answer , " His friends and those who knew him

    best , made no hesitation in declaring they believed he was a Socinian : this was inferred , as well from his services occasionally in the church , as from his lectures . It is certain he had been the means of occasioning a great change in the manner of conducting the public

    services of religion in the north ^ Of Scotland . When 1 had the happiness of an intimate acquaintance with his excellent family , he had long held the office of theological professor , and was perhaps , about sixty years old : he had from early youth pursued the same

    course ; and his example , as well as his known disapprobation of the oldfashioned phraseology and of orthodox professions , had greatly influenced the clergy round about Aberdeen . The very liberal views of Dr . Campbell in Mareschal College , are also weli known : the manner in which he

    taught theology , had a direct tendency to make the clergy of those parts either extremely mild in their orthodoxy , oilcan towards a purer system . At all events , the mode of preaching which had formerly prevailed ni ^ the Scotch Church , and now prevails among , what

    are called the evangelical clergy , liad been for a long time in discredi t * The ministers adopted generally a plan of moral preaching ; they were coming- fasi into the practice of reading their sermons ; they avoided those texts and those subjects which led them into Calvinism : and both in

    their prayers and in their sermons , except in the use of a certain slang * which a long-established habit . I had rendered sacred , and in the conclusion of their prayers , in which they sometimes , but not always , ascribed glory to the three pefsons , it would have been difficult to detect them in any

    tiling like orthodoxy . Such was the general character of tlie Her ^ y in a ad about Aberdeen , in tfoe ye ;» r 1789 . I knew but of oije exception , in a Mr . Hay , a popular youug man , greatly followed , who was honoured by the appellation , however unjustly , of the gospel minister . My knowledge of the character of the Scotch clergy ;

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    The Prevalence of Unitarianism in Scotland . SSJK

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1818, page 325, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2476/page/37/