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pose , among others , of attending to cases such as this . In fact , a Unitarian Association was just the thing which these people wanted ; and shall I call it accidental or providential ? This fact had not fceen one week in my father ' s knowledge , when he must have learned from the public prints that the Irish Unitarian Christiau Association had been
organized , and was in active operation . I cannot sit down without bearing my testimony , Irunible as it is , to the zeal , de ~ termination , and disinterestedness with which the Remonstrants against the late inquisitorial proceedings of the Synod of Ulster have conducted themselves , and expressing ray earnest prayers for the usefulness of their lately-formed
Remonstrant Synod . Surely this work also is in good bauds . Of one member , as has been well expressed by Mr . Madge , you have yourselves had an opportunity of judging ; I mean the Rev , Henry Montgomery , a man whom I regard as one of those distinguished individuals whom heaven occasionally indulges to the
human race for effecting high purposes ; a man endowed , as you well know , with eloquence , industry , and sagacity , which eminently qualify him for the glorious task which he has been called upon to perform , and which he has performed so nobly . When I look to him , and those who are enrolled with him in this
important warfare , —Blakely , intrepid , bold , and true ; Mitchell , mild , learned , and persuasive ; John Watson , a man endowed with apostolic singleness of character , and , as you are all aware , with not less apostolic patience in enduring , and apostolic meekness in forgiving severe , unmerited , unprovoked persecution ; Glendy , Davis , and Campbell , the
Nelsons , the Alexanders , and others , whom 1 stay not now to name , —I bless my God that there are men yet left who are equal to a trying time ; and I contemplate the establishment of their recently-farmed Synod as a new era in the history of religious liberty in my native land . Thus much I may be allowed to say , notwithstanding my connexion with one of their body ; a connexion which
forms my highest earthly pride . Most sincerel y do I pray that their measures may be made productive of righteousness and truth , liberty and peace . Surely , if ^ ny ecclesiastical associations are to be tolerated , they are those which , disdaining the petty artifices of narrow- minded mciiifor obstructing and damming up the current of religious opinion , that it may only flow in one direction , confidently launch out into the stream of time ;
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using the Scripture for their only chart ; hoisting no sail to catch the deceitful breeze of popular applause ; hanging forth no party-coloured ensign as a rallying point for popular prejudice ; not doubting that , though they may have to
pass through the waves of even stormy discussion , the tide on which they are embarked will at last convey them into the great ocean of divine truth . Such is the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster ; and as sxich do I most fervently bid it God speed 1
Rev . J . Yates . The last resolution took us across the Irish channel ; the resolution which I have to propose must take us across the water in another direction , for it refers to the Continent of Europe , and is designed to draw the special approbation of the meeting to that part of the Report which refers to those countries of Europe which are most interesting to us . The resolution is as follows :
" That the state of opinion , and the evidences of friendly co-operation , in several parts of Europe , form the strongest claim on , and offer the most animating encouragement to , the friends of Religious Inquiry and o « f Christian Truth . " lu order that the meeting may give its
assent to this resolution , which I feel to be one of great importance , it is necessary that I should nieution those parts of Europe to which it chiefly refers . I cannot but regret that I am so little qualified for the task ; nor can I approach it without expressing the high sense I entertain of the debt that is due from us
all to our Foreign Secretary ; we ought to regard it as one of the most fortunate circumstances connected with oar institution , that we are thus enabled to avail ourselves of his connexion with Europe , of his great general talents , and of his extraordinary acquirements in the
knowledge of languages . — I shall begin by adverting to Transylvania in the first instance . On the rugged soil of Transylvania was it that Christian truth found refuge in the early period of the reformation from Popery ; and there , hut for untoward circumstances , might have been consummated a reformation of a still
more glorious character than that effected by Luther and Calvin , whose names we reverence , though we think that they left their labours imperfect . The illustrious family of the Socini and others , wlio through persecution were obliged to leave Italy , passed into Hungary and Poland , and were there distinguished by their generous love of freedom—by their devotion to the cause of truth—by the
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Intelligence . —Unitarian Association * 483
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 483, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/51/
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