of Uniformity (1662) and that of Toleration (1689)—as illegal, was unable to reconstitute itself, and left the name "Presbyterian" without any living significance. Hence it is in Dublin and Munster alone that, through the influx of Huguenots, Remonstrants and Swiss, who had no love for tests, a real Presbyterian Church Order constituted itself and remained to our times (I myself received ordination from it), with absolute freedom from engagement to prescribed theological doctrine. The Irish Nonconformists were in a better position than the English for giving effect to their need and claim of religious liberty; for the English Toleration Act of 1689 still required from them subscription to "the doctrinal articles of the Church of England";1 and only so far as they managed to evade this in practice (which they extensively did) had their conscience as teachers free play. The Irish Act of Toleration followed later (I think in 1719); and when the draft of it was laid before George I. by his ministers, the king, on coming to the clause requiring this subscription, ran his pen through it, and said, “You do not know what you would be at: they shall have their toleration without subscription." And in this form the act was passed. To the Southern Presbyterians this exemption was altogether congenial. But the Northerners of the Synod of Ulster, having brought over with them all their Scotch habitudes and standards, maintained ecclesiastically the dogmatic restrictions from which they were released legally; and the more progressive spirits among them, who were restive under the restraint, could emancipate themselves only by secession. Hence the schism which first broke off, early in the last century, the nonsubscribing Presbytery of Antrim," and the larger schism which, in 1834, created the "Remonstrant Synod of Ulster," in both of which, as in Munster, Arianism and Humanitarianism found acceptance and repose, in fellowship with Trinitarianism. This relegation of systematic theology to the Schools, and concentration of the Church on the Christian graces and life of holiness possible under all theories alike, was the characteristic principle of fellowship in our churches here for more than a century before your opening date;2 during the whole of which Unitarians and Trinitarians found it possible to worship together. The dissens ons which broke out among the dogmatic churches, beginning with the Church of England, doubtless made this catholic neutralism towards doctrine more and more difficult to maintain; and many a time worthy neighbors, hitherto accustomed to "go up to the house of God in company," would be persuaded to look askance at each other as heretic" and "idolater." In the case of a creed-bound church, such as that to which Lindsey was pledged, the severance was plainly necessary; and the house of refuge created for him in Essex Street was naturally dedicated to the particular type of theology which had suffered exile in his person. This gave it its essence and its name, and intimated to every Trinitarian that its invitation was not meant for him. It is not wonderful that the example of the first Unitarian church was followed, as you relate, by a gradual extension of the name to congregations 1 See p. 148. 2 Referring to the opening paragraph on p. 149.—ED. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE. 249 historically open to doctrinal variety; for had not the world scorned such catholicity, and driven its heretics into their sanctuaries alone? What could they do but accept their expulsion, and set up a separate worship in which others were not asked to join? You truly say that they yielded to this temptation, and that, within a few years of Lindsey's death, the old Baxterian congregations, deserted by their Trinitarian elements through the sharpened controversies of the times, and tired of their unmeaning "Presbyterian " name, were caught by the Essex Street example and allowed their inherited house of God, in forgetfulness of its parentage, to be stamped with the name of their own personal opinions. True, that is the beginning of the Unitarianized life of our churches. But, instead of being a development out of their original principle, it is a direct contradiction of it and apostasy from it; such a shifting of their center of gravity as to make their new doctrinal essence affirm exactly what their old catholic essence denied. I cannot, therefore, but look on all that follows on your initial date as not our proper church history, but as an aberration from it. Instead of troubling you with more words on this matter, I inclose a short paper which will perhaps better enable you to seize my meaning, and to understand my lifelong refusal ever to join, as member or minister, a Unitarian Church. A Unitarian Society, of individuals interested in vindicating the theological opinions held by them in common, I approve and gladly support, so long as it limits itself to the exposition of opinion, and refrains from all ecclesiastical function or pretension to represent churches. Harmony in the moral and affectional relations of the human spirit and the Divine (and this it is the object of a church to secure) is possible to all degrees of intelligence and all stages of culture, and ought never to be represented as conditional on finally true opinion. But this is no hindrance to an educational zeal for helping forward, by other agencies, the growth of larger thought and clearer insight. To me, therefore, it seems that you take up our history just at the point when we surrendered our birthright, and, quitting the ground of spiritual religion, were caught up into the competition of “orthodoxies" and were content to meet all opponents with the assertion that our orthodoxy was better than theirs. This is not the gospel which it was given us to preach; and any future it may have in it belongs, I fear, merely to the history of intellectual opinion without any quickening contact with our organized religious life. . . . I pray you to pardon this tedious letter. It is written under medical pro. hibition of all use of the pen, during recovery from an attack of illness which has confined me to my room for the last ten or twelve days. I ventured to disobey; and though you are the worse for it, I am not. I have no space left to thank you for your letter, and to reciprocate its kind wishes. me, always, Believe Yours most cordially, JAMES MARTINEAU. INDICES. Abbot, Abiel, 189. THE UNITARIANS. Aikenhead, Thomas, 144. Am. Unit. Association, 218. Anabaptists, 3, 4, 47, 65, 93, 127. Anthology Club, 191. Antinomians, 3, 47, 127, 177. Antioch College, 220. Bellows, H. W., 223, 225, 232, 241. Beza, Theodore, 21, 61, 87. Blandrata, 61, 62, 64, 65, 85, 104, 107; hostility to David, 110-112. Arianism, 2-5, 62, 67, 72, 91, 122, Bohemian Brethren, 75. 128, 138, 160, 180, 190. Arminianism, 176, 177, 181. Bagshaw against Socinians, 130. Baptism, 3; Servetus, 44; in Poland, mund, 113; Stephen, 83, 84, 110. Baxterians, 155. Bolsec vs. Calvin, 53. Bostwick on independency, 128. Buckminster, J., 186; J. S., 187, 190. Calvin, 25, 38, 39, 40, 42, 47, 60, 61. Bayle on Socinians, 93; Socinus, 66. Caraffa, cardinal, 17, 79. Carnesecchi, Pietro, 11, 16. Chewney, "Anti-Socinianism," 130. 66 Farel, 38, 43. Felix of Urgel, I. Firmin, Thomas, 133, 135. Free Religious Association, 228. Christian Disciple,' 192; Ex- Gentile, Valentino, 62. German Rationalism, 201, 209. Civil War in U. S., 221. Gonzaga, Giulia, 10, 16. Clarke, J. F., 227; Samuel, 142, 146. Harvard College, 181, 187. Claude of Turin, 2. Colonna, Vittoria, II, 17. Commerce, its effect in Salem, 184. Covenant, Half-way, 172; covenants Davenant, Charles, cited, 142. Deistical Controversy, 146, 148. Dissent in England, 147; terms of Edwards, John, 142; Jonathan, 176; Thomas ("Gangræna"), 127. Elizabeth, 18, 121-123. Emerson, R. W., 205-207. Emlyn, Thomas, 143, 175. Essex Street Chapel, 152, 153. Hedge, F. H., 229. Henchman legacy, 188, 189. Henry of Valois in Poland, 82. Hutchinson, Ann, 172. Huxley on Priestley, 154, 158. Independents in England, 124, 126, Inquisition, 9, 12, 17, 40, 49, 56, 59. Jesuits in Poland, 86, 87; in Tran- Joan of Kent, 4. John Sigismund, 63, 104-109. Joseph II. of Austria, 117. Ket, Francis, burned, 123. King, Thomas Starr, 221. King's Chapel, 185. Knapp, F. N., 224. Lardner, Nathaniel, 146, 157. |