UNITARIAN'S ANSWER. BY REV. ORVILLE DEWEY. THIRD EDITION. * PRINTED FOR THE American Unitarian Association. BOSTON, ISAAC R. BUTTS AND CO. PRINTERS TO THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. Price 6 Cents. THE UNITARIAN'S ANSWER. It was a recommendation of Peter to the early Christians, that they should be ready always to give an answer to every man that asked them a reason of the hope that was in them: that is to say, that they should be prepared to meet the questions and objections of those around them; to assign the grounds or reasons of their belief and hope in christianity; and not only so, but to be familiar with these reasons- -to "be ready always" to give them to every objector, that design or casualty might throw in their way. Placed as those of us in the community, who embrace the system of Unitarian christianity, are, in a situation not altogether dissimilar to that of the early Christians; suffering the lot that has uniformly attended all the advocates of progress and reform in every age of the world; beset, as it is natural we should be, with inquiries, and suspicions, and misapprehensions, and misrepresentations also; assailed, as is no less natural, by the admonitions of the weak, though well. meaning, by the confidence of the prejudiced, and by the strong arguments of the majority, we need the same familiar acquaintance with our principles and the grounds of them, the same ready preparation for the difficulties of the inquiring, and the objections of the adversaries, that was recommended to the early christians. And, in order to this preparation, we need often, and in detail, to contemplate the elements and evidences of our faith. We have the more need to do this, because our principles have not, like the doctrines of the popular theology, been inculcated upon us in catechisms; they have not been frequently exhibited in sermons; they have not been interwoven with the mass of what is called religious reading. The creeds of orthodoxy have been our teachers, in the nursery, the school, the sanctuary, and the closet. It is the distinction of our faith from the orthodox, that is, the general faith, that it has made its way through all the barriers and defences of prejudice and authority. It is the distinction of our preaching, in general, that confident as we are in the natural and unaided strength of the simple doctrine we profess, mainly concerned about what is spiritual and practical in religion,-about the application and adaptation of religion to the character and wants of society, we have been less inclined to engage in the matters of speculative and unfruitful controversy. This, though it evinces the justice and the real strength of our cause, does not favour the proper understanding of it. It is the object, therefore, of the following tract, to present a brief summary of plain reasons, such as plain men may comprehend, themselves, and may offer to others, for the faith that we have in the general system of unitarianism, and for our preference of it over all other systems. These reasons may all be reduced under two general heads; viz. that the system which we have embraced is, in our judgment, more TRUE and more USEFUL, than the systems which prevail around us. I. The first and great reason, then, why we value the Unitarian system of belief, is, that in our apprehension it is TRUER than any other system. The doctrine of the simple unity of God, which most distinctively separates our views from the views of other christians, we are persuaded, is most accordant with scripture and most agreeable to reason. We do not deny that other christians maintain the unity of God, but we think they must allow that it is in their view, a modified, complex unity, made up of parts, consisting of persons, divided according to the actual conceptions of its defenders, into three individual minds. We say according to their actual conceptions so divided. For, we desire our orthodox brethren to carry back their thoughts to the time previous to the advent of Jesus Christ upon the earth. And furthermore, in regard to this, we desire them to consider not their language only, but their actual thoughts. Here is represented, according to their views, God the Father sending God the Son into the world. Now, we say, that in this representation, they must unavoidably conceive of two minds, two agents, two beings. He that sends cannot be he that is sent. He that commands cannot be he who obeys. Let them not say, that this is a matter above their comprehension. They do to a certain extent, bring it within their comprehension. They do actually and necessarily conceive of two distinct minds in this transaction, and thus they do violate the simple unity of God, and in fact every other conceivable unity of an intelligent being. We wonder not that the missionary in Calcutta, who has lately embraced unitarian christianity, should have been |