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himself to redeem us from all iniquity , and to purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works ; we profess the only business of our assemblies to . be . to exhort thereunto ; laying aside all controversies and speculative questions ; instructing and encouraging one another in the duties of a good life , which is acknowledged to be the great
business of true religion , aud to pray God for the assistance of his spirit for the enlightening our understandings and subduing our corruptions , that so we may return unto him a reasonable and acceptable service , and shew our faith by our works , proposing to ourselves and others the example of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , as the great pattern of our imitation .
I believe it has never been contended by any one that Mr . Locke was what is called a Soci 7 iiany either ancient or modern ; but that he was a Unitarian in the larger and what is now the generallyreceived sense of that word , appears to me as clearly established as any fact of the kind ( not formally avovted , but left to be inferred from the tendency of
various modes of thought and reasoning , and the consistency of . certain opinions with the general spirit and style of his criticism ) can well be . But the above pasT sage is surely a singular instance of the ignorance and misconception which may prevail even in this age of publicity with respect to the sentiments and character of different sects . I ascribe the
misstatement entirely to this cause , for the article from which it is quoted does not appear to be written with any of the spirit of personal animosity or bigotry which might have induced the writer wilfully to misrepresent the . views of his opponents . But it is more or less true of us ail , that we confine our reading and personal intercourse so much to our
own friends and our own writers , that we have each a little public to ourselves witli which we are tolerably well acquainted , while all beyond is almost a terra incognita . What difficulty the Congregational reviewer could suppose the persons whom he calls modern Socinians would have in subscribing to this passage of Mr . Locke , it is not very easy to conr
. , . In the Magazine for the present month we are presented with the 1 * ruat Peed of the Highbury College , in which we find that the benefits of the Institution are most strictly confined to those who can pronounce the shibboleth of the party . The tutors , and students tnuBt be such
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and such only as are Protestant Dissenters of t ; he Congregational denomination , and a " Schedule" is subjoined of the doctrines which it is required that they shall profess , comprising the Trinity , Original Sin , the Atonement . Salvation by Faith alone ,. Particular Election , and Infant Baptism / By what formalities the adherence to this formula is to be ascer .
tained and declared , is not distinctly set forth ; perhaps they may intend to carry their precautionary ; system to as great a length as jtheir brethren at Andover in Massachusetts , who , not content with requiring their Professors to sign the Confession of Faith once for all , demand a renewal of the subscription every live years . What a strange distrust is here manifested of the effects of free and
impartial inquiry upon their system ! Surely they can have little confidence in the truth of those doctrines on which they lay so great a stress , who cannot expose them to the test of a candid investigation without fencing them about with all manner of stipulations and restrictions . With what consistency can such Dissent ers as these complain of the exclusive
spirit of Oxford and Cambridge ? \ trust the time will never arrive when either tutors or students on entering our academical Institutions shall be subjected to any test or subscription whatsoever ^ pledging them to a particular set of opinions as the result of the inquiries in which they are about jto be engaged * We value Unitarianism only because we believe it to be the truth ; and we should
be sorry to pay so poor a compliment to our principles as to imagine that they were in any danger from the most unfettered and exact scrutiny . We prescribe no standard of doctrine but the word of God , and should deem it presumption to combine this , divine rule with any syste m of man ' s devising .
It cannot be denied , however , that there is some portion of worldly wisdom in this policy of our Calvinistic brethren . When they observe the consequences of a different procedure at Geneva , at Harvard College , or ( to come nearer home ) at Northampton or at Daventry , we cannot much wonder at their unwillingness to
peril the continued profession of their creed upon so hazardous and doubtful an experiment , put we trust that hi the present iustance it will defeat its own end ., and that this feeble attempt to keep out the daylight of truth will be so overruled as ultimately to promote tins very cause ijt was destined to oppose . W . T .
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4 / 4 Miscellaneous Correspondence
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 474, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/42/
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