You will be called Arminians and Socinians by your adversaries, or something else that shall express more of their hatred and dislike. But let not this offend you. If there be any proper meaning in those epithets, it can only be that you hold certain opinions which they deem to be false, but which you cherish as the only genuine doctrines of the Gospel. If nothing more is meant by those terms, besides mere reproach and abuse, think yourselves happy, as being reproached for the name of Christ," 1 Peter iv. 14. With many the appellation of Lutheran or Calvinist is reproachful, and with many also, that of Christian is much more so. Besides, both Arminius and Socinus were men who loved the Gospel, and who suffered more for their adherence to it than most others of the Reformers, especially Socinus.

66

If we be Christians indeed, we shall consider ourselves as not of this world, but as citizens of heaven. The friendship of this world, therefore, together with popularity, and success in it, ought not to be considered as any object for us. If we abide in Christ, and walk even as he also walked, not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds, we are heirs of a far nobler inheritance, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us; and when Christ, who is our life, and for whom we suffer reproach, shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory. I shall conclude this Address with a word of advice and exhortation to all Unitarians, whether they be members

members of the Established Church, or of any Society of Dissenters in this country.

Of such great importance is the doctrine of the Divine Unity, that nothing will more fully justify a separation from any Christian church that does not openly profess it, and much more from those that avow the contrary doctrine, directing prayers, and paying supreme worship, to any other than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was for the preservation of this great and fundamental doctrine, that Abraham, and his family by Isaac and Jacob, were separated from the rest of the world, and made a distinct people, as it were to be the depositaries of the true religion, which consists principally in the sole worship of the one true and living God, the maker and preserver of all things. The same important doctrine was uniformly taught by Christ and the apostles; though Christians in after times, like the Israelites after the time of Joshua, relapsed into that idolatry which has generally prevailed to this day.

If it was a sufficient justification of the first Reformers, that they considered the church from which. they separated as worshipping saints, and angels; will it not justify your separation from their partial reformations, that you consider them as praying to and worshipping one whom you consider as a man like yourselves, though honoured and distinguished by God above all other men?

To join habitually in public worship with Trini

tarians,

tarians, is countenancing that worship, which you must consider as idolatrous; and which, however innocent in them, is highly criminal in you. If they think it a point of conscience not to go to mass in Popish churches because, in their opinion, it is idolizing a piece of bread, you ought to make a point of conscience of not worshipping with them, because in your opinion it is idolizing a man, who is as much a creature of God as a piece of bread, and just as improper an object of worship.

Besides, the great offence to Jews, Mahometans, and the world at large, being the doctrine of the Trinity, it is highly necessary that societies of Christians should be formed expressly on this principle of the Divine Unity, that it may be evident to all the world, that there are Christians, and societies of Christians, who hold the doctrine of the Trinity in as much abhorrence as they themselves can do. For the conversion of Jews or Mahometans to Christianity, while it is supposed to contain the doctrine of the Trinity, no person who knows, or has heard of, Jews or Mahometans, can ever expect.

You will say, We Unitarians are but few even in large towns, and still fewer in villages, and there are no men of leisure or learning among us. But was not this the case with the primitive Christians? and yet this circumstance was no obstruction to the forming of a Christian church in any place. We read of churches in private houses.

Assemble together, therefore, in the name and in

the

B.

the fear of God, and according to the order of the Gospel, every Lord's day, if there be no more than two or three, or even a single family of you in a place; read the Scriptures and pray together. Also read sermons, or other works of moral instruction, of which there is, happily, no want at this day. Baptize, and administer the Lord's supper among yourselves; and, as you grow more numerous, form yourselves upon some regular plan of church discipline, that it may be the means of uniting and keeping you together; and rigorously exclude all persons whose conduct would be a reproach to you.

As to a learned ministry, it is acknowledged to be desirable where it can be had, but it is by no means necessary. The gravest and most respectable persons among you, and those who have the most leisure, will, in the character of elders, select and read proper prayers and discourses, and perform all the offices of Christian societies, just as well as the elders in the primitive churches, who had no such helps as you now have, and miraculous powers were not of long continuance with them.

you

If be at present members of the Established Church, you will find a Reformed Liturgy ready prepared for your use by Mr. Lindsey. But if you should prefer the mode of worship among the Dissenters (but men of sense will not make much account of such distinctions), you may in many authors, especially at the end of Mr. Holland's Sermons, find forms of such prayers as you have been used to; or

you

you may apply to Dissenting ministers of your acquaintance, who will cheerfully give you any assistance in their power.

All these are trifling obstacles to a great design. It requires indeed a proper degree of Christian zeal, but the object is worthy of it. The example has been already set in Scotland, where it was least of all to be expected; and the success has been such as should abundantly encourage similar attempts in this country. The Baptists and Methodists, not laying much stress upon a learned ministry, flourish greatly; the Independents are now taking the same methods and with the same success; while the rational Dissenters, fancying they would be disgraced by the want of a learned ministry, are dwindling away almost every where.

Whatever inconvenience may arise from mere novelty, it is soon over; and as the Methodists are collecting into bodies in all places, a thing of this kind will excite much less surprise. But what impression ought the censure of the world to make upon those who, as Christians, profess to be above the world, and to rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer shame in the cause of Christ, and to think themselves happy if they be reproached on that account? You should imagine that you hear that awful voice from heaven, recorded in the book of Revelation, ch. xviii. 24, "Come out of her, (i. e. of mystical Babylon, the great source of all the corruptions of Christianity), my people, that ye be not par

takers