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their general points of agreement , except as regards their unanimous rejection of creeds , and confessions , and ecclesiastical authority , over faith and conscience . As might have been confidently expected ,
however , of a body who renounced all other guides in the investigation of re }| g 4 ous ~ tr-uth--but " -t-he ~\ vord-of"God they are understood to have become everywhere , with scarcely a single exception , anti-Calvinistic and anti-Trinitarian . In the Western
country , where they have adhered most faithfully to the original principle of union , they continue to flourish , and are increasing at this moment as rapidly , perhaps , as at any former period ; but , in other places , it is understood that serious difficulties and misunderstandings have arisen , by which their progress has been checked .
The establishment of the Christian Church in the West may be said to date from the secession of five "Presbyterian clergymen from the regular presbyteries , with which they had previously been connected , in the neighbourhood of Lexington , Kentucky , and the formation by them of an independent association , known
by the name of the Springfield Presbytery . This took place in 1803 , not in consequence of any charges brought against the moral or religious character of the seceders , but voluntaril y on their part , because they would not oe amenable any longer to human tribunals , which required them to receive for . doctrines the commandments of men .
Nothing , however , could save them from a storm of abuse and a series of petty persecutions from their orthodox brethren ; andthesynod , hoping , it would seem , by prompt and energetic measures to crush the growing" discontent , even went so far as to send agents into their societies , to declare their ministerial functions suspended , and their pulpits vacant . Happily their congregations , for the most part , remained firm ;
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the influence ; and popularity of the seceders , in the community generally , were increased , rather than diminished , by the wrongs they endured ; the Methodists , especially , received them with open arms , in .
conjunction with whom , and the Cumberland Presbyterians , they were—amoTi ^—thre — rnOst acttve ~^ anrl successful in promoting the great revival , which prevailed about that time , and for several years successively , in Kentucky and Tennessee .
The greater number of the new sect soon became converts to the practice of adult baptism by immersion , though not disposed to insist upon it , like the Reformed Baptists , as a condition of Christian fellowship . After this change they agreed , in . most respects , with the Free-will
Baptists , in regard to what are called ' doctrines of grace , ' but were understood to differ much more generally and widely than the latter from the common op rajqus r especting Jh eJTrinity and atonement , jand to be much more jealous of the absolute and entire independency of their churches
on one another . Of course , it was hardly to be expected that a sect or denomination , gatherelTrHrseasons of great excitement , having but little regular communication or cox * respondence among themselves , acknowledging no common standard or authority but the Bible , and but
poorly prepared , to understand ., that , according to fixed and generally received principles of interpretation , could go on together for any length of time in perfect harmony . On the subject of the practical errors and extravagances into which the Western Christians have fallen from time to time , Mr ? Stone * thus Writes :
* At the commencement of our struggle for Christian liberty , we acted on the defensive ; our weapons were those afforded us by the Bible , These , in the spirit of humility and * One of the proscribed five who instituted the Springfield Presbytery , and one of tho editors of the C / wislipn Messenger .
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UNITARIAN CHRONICLE , 37
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1833, page 37, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2607/page/5/
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