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    sectarian prejudice and rancour should appear in their business and socialintercourse—nay ^ enter ilUof and corrupt , their judgment of public men jand public measures , Tne Infidel and&c 0 ptic found in scenes like these a new argument for distrusting all professions 6 f piety , and the thoughtless and dissolute new temptations to scoff . , One gqod and permanent result is , however , likely to grow out of these commotions . Unitarian Christianity is found to make progress as a refuge from the stormy and fanatical region of

    Calvinistic excitement . Alarmed at length by the cry that orthodoxy was in danger , the authors of the -schism published a document , in which they declare thqir intention of abstaining , and , as far as their influence extends , of causing others to abstain , from all publications , correspondences , conversation , and conduct , calculated to keep the subject before the public mind . From speaking of the origin and end of these fanatical excitements , we turn

    to the measures employed for awakening and conducting them . Preaching is of course one of the chief means for producing a revival . The leading and principal agent in this work was the Rev . G . Finney , a convert to Calvinism , an inflammatory , or , we should rather say , a ferocious declaimer . The following is the closing sentence of one of Mr . Finney ' s sermon ^ tp t ^ e people of Utica : " You , sinners of Utica , and some of you who now tear me , will go to hell , and the saints and angels will look down from hea / en , and when they see the sinners of Utica in the lowest , deepest , darkest , pit

    of hell , they will shout and clap their hands for joy . " In another specimen , Mr . F . is represented to have said , " We should see the Restorationists come smoking and fuming out of hell to the gate of heaven , which being opened , they will say , Stand away , you old saints of God ; we have paid our own debt , we have a better right here than you ; and you , too , Jesus Christ , stand aside ; get out of our way ; no thanks to you our being here ; we come here on our own merits . " Again : " Why , sinner , I tell you , if you could

    climb to heaven , you would hurl God from his throne ; yes , hurl God from his throne ; Q yes , if you could but get there , you would cut God ' s throat ; yes , you would cut God's throat . " Another specimen : " Now , servants and children , do you go home to night , and watch your parents and masters , and see if they don ' t pray the same old , cold , hypocritical prayer over again which they have been praying many years . " Mr . Brenan will bear a comparison with Mr . Finney in what is termed " pungent preaching . " In a

    discourse he is represented to have said , " The clerks along River Street were laughing and scoffing at God ' s eternal truth ; they were without brains * and scarcely ever read a chapter in the Bible ; and he had no doubt , if they could get to heaven , they would pull God from his throne , and burn it to ashes . " Then addressing convicted sinners , he said , " Your prayers are rebellion against God , and an abomination in his sight ; " and in addressing sinners generally he said , " If you dare do it , you would club God Almighty out of Troy . " The Re / . Mr . Nash , who was engaged in the work with Mr . Finney , could , it is said , be heard half a mile when alone in secret prayer , and so conducted his devotions , that some of his converts believed and contended that he could and had prayed his horse from one pasture into another . So

    extensively did the belief prevail in the special interposition of the Deity , that it was held that the prayer of faith would be heard and infallibly answered , or that every thing asked for in prayer made in a certain frame of mind would be immediately granted ^ All prayers which come short of this faith were not onto worthless , but reckoned a mocking and an insult to God . There was no such . th ^ g recognized by God as prayer but that which asked , *

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    The PFutekmtri . 557

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 557, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/37/