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    Untitled Article

    They had early fallen under the censure of Elizabeth * as being " overbold with the Almighty , making too many scannings of his Messed will , as lawyers did with human testaments . " When they came to a determination to establish themselves here , we have abundant documents to prove , that it was with a strong presentiment , a confident expectation , that God had , as they themselves beautifully expressed it , " more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word . " They evidently looked forward to the- time when the poor churches which they were planting in the wilderness , would take the lead

    in a much more thorough reformation than had yet been attempted , Whether this expectation was well or ill founded , it had this important practical effect on those who indulged it—it led them to study th * Scriptures with less prejudice , and a more careful scrutiny : ; believing that they might find there what they had never found there before . The impulse , which this gave to religious inquiry , has been perpetuated ; and we have but y ielded to it in coming to the opinions which w 3 how hold .

    I say again , therefore , that one cause which has made the progress of liberal Christianity more rapid , and more observable here than elsewhere , is to be found in the character of our Puritan ancestors , and in the impulse which their example gave to religious inquiry and religidus liberty . It is time foremen to nave done with the senseless clamour , that we have de * parted from die principles of the Fathers of New England . If it is merely tneant by this that we have beep , able to make some progress in religious knowledge during the two long < jenturies that have intervened , is this any cause of ^ wonder ? Is this a proper ground of accusation ? Nay , is this

    ferny thing more than what , as we have seen , otir fathers themselves expected ? Besides , it is nothing to the purpose to prove that our opinions , and practices are different from theirs ; for the circumstances are also different . It must be shewn that our opinions and practices would have been different frdm theirs , had they been placed in the same circumstances . The question i < s , whether we are in the same progress , not whether we are in the same

    staged the progress ; for , supposing us to be in progress , this must alter from age to age . The question is , whether we are men of the same cast of character ; afod being so , whether it is possible for us to hold different opinions from . tyhat we do , in the present advanced state of society and thfc human mind . For who were our fathers ?—Were they the men who thought thai the Reformation had gone far enough ? No . —Were they the men who conceived that nothing more was to be learned from the Bible ?

    No . **—Were they the men tamely to acquiesce in the imposition of a creed , which the age had outgrown ? . No . —Were they the men to shrink from ah avoWalof their dissent from popular and lotig-estabttshed errors , from a -dread of the cry of innovation ? No . All history answers , No . Neither are we ; and it is because we are ijot , that w « hold our present position in tbe religious world ; and should we ever desert it from timidity , or betray it from inconstancy , we prove ourselves , by that act , u ; nworthy of our name

    and race . I believe , as I believe I live , that if the Fathers of New England , if Robinson and Higginsoa , Bradford and Wtntbrop , had been torn two hundred years feter , they would have been fouwd among © ur warmest and most effective coadjutors . Attd in that donid of witnesses who have finished their testimony , > a * id me now looking down on the struggles and triumphs of tnaHh in this world , I believe * as I believe I live , tbat there are vtcme who

    will behold wMi more joy . than « hey , # rat ; the impulse ; whieh their -example gave « o religious rulquiry and religious liberty > has not befen lost on the generateoas tohat hafve followed « hejn *

    Untitled Article

    Progress of'LiberaJ Christianity in'N e ' vo England . 3 $ J

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 303, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/15/