EVANGELICAL UNITARIANIS M ADAPTED TO THE POOR AND UNLEARNED. BY ALEXANDER YOUNG. PRINTED FOR THE American Unitarian Association. BOSTON, GRAY AND BOWEN, 135 WASHINGTON STREET. 1830. Price 5 Cents. EVANGELICAL UNITARIANISM. Ir is an objection, urged with great frequency and assurance, against liberal and rational views of christian truth, that they are not adapted to 'the common people.' Unitarian Christianity, it is said, may, perhaps, be a very suitable and convenient religion for the select and favored few, who move in the higher walks of life, the intelligent, the opulent and the refined; but it will not do for the mass of the people, in the middle and humbler ranks of society, especially the rude, the ignorant and the poor. This charge, it is readily admitted, is a very serious one, and if substantiated, must go far to shake our confidence in those principles, which we now firmly believe to be the very 'truth as it is in Jesus.' Every one allows, that Christianity was designed to be a universal religion; the religion of all mankind, in every country, and in every age. Of course it must be suited to the mass of the people, particularly the illiterate and poor, who constitute a large portion of every community. From the facts, too, related concerning its publication and reception, it is certain that primitive Christianity was intended and was fitted for the mass of mankind. Our Saviour himself mentions it as a decisive evidence of his divine mission, and a peculiar feature of his ministry, that the 'poor had the gospel preached to them.' The Evangelist also informs us, that 'the common people heard him gladly.' Now if Unitarian Christianity be the genuine faith; if it be identical with the primitive gospel, it must possess the same characteristics; it will produce the same effects. It will be level to the capacities, and will meet and satisfy the wants of the humble and unlettered. If it be incapable of this; if it be suited only to men of deep thought and cultivated intellect, then, surely, it wants one of the prominent features of the genuine, primitive gospel; and the presumption is strong that it is not the faith once delivered to the saints.' It will not, then, be deemed surprising, either by the friends or the opponents of Unitarian Christianity, that we are anxious to relieve it from this popular and specious objection. Believing the views that we hold to be the truth of God, and of vital importance to the spiritual welfare of mankind, we feel it to be a solemn and imperative duty to prove that they stand on the vantage-ground of scripture. For the same reason, we are solicitous to vindicate them from the vague and unfounded charges that are floating about in the community. These charges are calculated, if they are not designed, to render our principles suspected and odious, to create distrust and alarm in the minds of some who hold them, and to deter the inquisitive from examining them. The objection in question, we are persuaded, is utterly groundless, and as we hope to shew, is very unjustly alleged against our views of christian doctrine. In investigating the subject, I shall first mention two circumstances which may have given rise to this charge, and invested it with some appearance of plausibility. I shall then endeavour to shew that Uni tarian Christianity is, by its very nature, suited to interest, satisfy and bless the common people. And in conclusion, I shall attempt to maintain the position by an appeal to facts and experience. I. 1. A circumstance, which, perhaps, more than any other, has given rise and currency to this charge, is to be found in the manner in which Unitarian Christianity appeared and gained ground in this part of the country. Here, unquestionably, it was first embraced and maintained by the intelligent, reflecting, educated part of the people. It was natural that they should be the first to recognise and adopt the truth. Reformation in theology, as in everything else, usually originates with the thoughtful and well-informed, and by their influence and example is diffused through the community. Who were the authors and promoters of the Protestant Reformation, that glorious improvement, that important step towards the restoration of pure Christianity? Certainly not the ignorant and superstitious populace of the sixteenth century, Luther, Zuingle, Melancthon, and their coadjutors, were men of extraordinary talents and profound erudition, thoroughly acquainted with all the subtilties of the scholastic theology. Without such qualifications they would have been incompetent to detect the gross errors that had become incorporated and ingrained into the popular faith, or to defend their positions against the wily disputants of the times. The same was the case with those excellent men among us in New-England, who carried on the Reformation still farther, and led the way to the religious opinions which we now hold. From the first planting of our land, we |