An examination by a minister of the Synod of Canada, in connection with the Church of Scotland, of a discourse entitled, "The faith of the Unitarian Christian explained, justified and distinguished".

The advertising of this discourse for gratuitous circulation amongst us, has naturally attracted some attention, both to the discourse itself, and the subject of which it treats.The subject is not new to any one acquainted with the controversies of the Church, and no new light is thrown upon it by this discourse* But the manner in which it has been ushered into public notice, and the reasons assigned for the proceeding, as well as the whole tone and character of the document itself, seem to invite an ex- amination of the pretensions to be received as a Christian deno- mination, thus advanced, by what we are led to believe, is the first avowedly Unitarian body gathered together in British North America, to lift up the banner of their peculiar profession amongst us, and give a reason of the Faith that is in them, to every one that askettuAt the very opening of the Sermon, the gauntlet is thrown down, and the challenge given with an air of haughtiness, and in a tone of defiance sufficiently provoking, to indicate that the champion, who is " buckling on his armour," has full confidence in his prowess to encounter all comers, and in so far at his first announcement of himself in the lists, he seems to lack something of the true character of a perfect Scriptural knight, in that he has forgotten the admonition to reserve such boasting till the time should come for " putting his armour off."u Crowds," says he, " of ignorant though honest, and yet other " crowds of ignorant and dishonest persons, and still others whose " prejudice or opposition cannot seek a shelter behind their igno- {{ ranee, as they look upon these walls, will find no pleasure in the " sight.They who have built this house have studied no conceal* * ment.They have placed upon its front the word Unitarian, u though it be offensive to many eyes, and by some observers "be deemed a contradiction of the title of Christian with " which it has been united in the same inscription."" Ignorance" and " Prejudice," and " Dishonest persons who cannot seek a shelter behind their ignorance for their prejudice or opposition," are pretty hard words to begin with, by the partizan of a party, who consider themselves as the very pink of controversial courtesy, and claiming great latitude of be- lief for themselves, are not able to insist on great strictness or precision in the articles of their creed from others, yet so plume themselves on their large and comprehensive charity ; that they are continually reading lessons of love and mutual forbearance to all parties, so much so, that they sometimes seem to consider the preaching of this too much disregarded principle their own pecu- liar mission in the Church and the world.We do not however complain of this asperity of language.When a man considers his good name as unjustly assailed, the repelling the assault with some heat and rudeness may easily be pardoned in such a world as this.Now, we look upon truth, not merely as a possession, but the most valuable possession, which either ourselves or others can enjoy.It is emphatically public property, the common pro- perty of the whole race, to the full enjoyment of which every in- dividual has an equal right ; but we do not acknowledge with regard to it, the maxim : that a man may do what he will with his own, and may take away any portion from the general stock, in order to bury it in the earth.He has no right to puddle the public fountain, because he has a right to drink at it.We con- fess we cannot, and we do not think that any man ought, without some measure of indignation, to behold any portion of important truth, torn away, or stolen away, to be huddled out of sight among things worthless and vile.Any attempt to rob the world of truth, is a thing to be repelled with no slack hand, but with all our might, and those who seem to us, endeavouring to perpetrate so heinous an offence, should be resisted and driven away at all hazards, and branded with deserved marks of reprobation and contempt, as a terror to all such evil doers.The Church must contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the saints, as being not only true, but the Truth, and of such importance, that in it the salvation of the world lies wrapt up.This much seems to be acknowledged both by Unitarians, and all who bear the Christian name.But it must also be acknow- ledged, that between them, and all who now bear, or ever bore the name of Christ, the whole substance of their Faith is the matter in dispute.We do not preach the same gospel-their glad tidings are not our glad tidings -our message of peace and good-will from heaven to earth, is not their message of peace and good-will.The atonement, of which they speak, is not our atone- ment-their Saviour is not our Saviour-their Lord and Christ is not our Lord and Christ, whom we worship, and in whom we believe-their God, the Father, is not our God the Father, for He is not one with the Son -their Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, is not our Comforter, for He is not one with the Father and with the Son.No ingenuity can make it appear otherwise, than that a whole religion is in debate between us.If their religion be Christianity, ours is not.If our religion be the truth, as it is in Jesus, then the faith which they profess is unscriptural and anti- Christian, and denies the Lord which bought them.In dealing with such, or with any whom we consider opposers of the truth ; we confess it to be our duty to lay aside all malice, and all uncharitableness ; but we consider it no duty, but a mean deception, to seek to escape the imputation of these unholy feel- ings, by searching after and selecting soft words, in which to characterize what we consider dangerous and deadly errors ; doctrines of deceit, that will conduct all who follow them, into the paths of the destroyer.We shall write as we feel, out of the fulness of our heart ; we shall not seek to conceal either dislike or contempt, if these things be in us, and be wrong, our speaking them out cannot, we think, add much to our guilt.We would not wish the world to know all the evil that is in us, but neither do we wish to pass ourselves off for very much better than we are.We do not think ourselves to have reached any such emi- nence of goodness ; that perching ourselves on its top, above the turmoil of all evil passions, we can, like some superior being, look calmly down, and deal our righteous and impartial censures to those below.We feel that we are a man of like passions with those against whom we have to contend.Nothing in them offends us so much as their affectation of superior candour and charity, and we shall not offend them by the affectation of any

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.