Unitarianism | Page 9

by four.' This was widely recognized as setting open the
door for liberty in matters of religion, and the interesting fact should be
recorded that Independents and Presbyterians were found on both sides.
Here, then, we may for the present leave the English development; it
was slow, tentative, for the most part obscure. In one direction and
another the movement of thought might be perceived, in the Church,
among the 'Congregationals,' or Baptists, or Presbyterians, as the case
might be. It was only long after that much preponderance of heretical
opinion was distinctive of Presbyterian congregations. In the
Academies men like Philip Doddridge (1702-51), the hymn writer,
were affording room at least for ample discussion among the students,
and moderate as his own opinions were he is credited with having made
so-called 'orthodoxy' a byword. The Independents, Caleb Fleming and
Nathaniel Lardner (1684-1768), led the way to 'Humanitarian' views,
the latter being a learned writer of much influence. It is said that
another great hymn writer, Isaac Watts, finally shared the Humanitarian
view. On the whole, with some notable exceptions, the Dissenting
preachers seem to have been decorously dull, and uninspiringly ethical.
Without the zeal of the 'enthusiast,' whom they severely scanned from
afar, and seeking in all things to prove that Christianity was so

'reasonable' as to be identical with 'rational philosophy,' it is little
wonder that when the popular mind began to be stirred by a religious
'Revival' they were not its apostles, but mostly its critics. This is
precisely the point where we may fitly turn to consider the growth of
Unitarianism in New England.

NEW ENGLAND
I. BEFORE THE 'GREAT AWAKENING'
As in the Old Country, so in the colonies of North America, a great
evangelical revival took place towards the middle of the eighteenth
century. John Wesley the Arminian, and George Whitefield the
Calvinist, were the great apostles of this movement, and the latter
especially was very influential in America. The English revivalists
were not alone, however; among the most powerful leaders in the
colonies was Jonathan Edwards, whose name ranks very high in the
records of religious philosophy in the States. Despite preliminary
obstacles this preacher of the most stern and unflinching determinism
produced a quite extraordinary effect at last. As usually happens, his
dogmas were more easily repeated by others than his reasoning; violent
excitement ran through the colonies, and it was this that gave a decisive
turn to the liberalism which ultimately developed into a very
memorable phase of Unitarianism. The preceding steps may be briefly
indicated.
A familiar epigram preserves the acid truth that the Puritan emigrants
who left England in the seventeenth century went to North America in
order to worship God in their own way, and to compel everyone else to
do the same. Religious liberty was certainly not understood by them as
it is understood to-day. The sufferings of the Baptists and Quakers, for
example, make a sad chapter of New England history. About the
middle of the century, Roger Williams (1599-1683), having ventilated
opinions contrary to the general Calvinism, was driven out of Salem,
where he had ministered to a grateful church. His pleas for a real
religious freedom were in vain, and he was forced to wander from the

colonial settlements and find a precarious home among the Indians.
After much privation, he succeeded in establishing a new colony at
Rhode Island, where a more liberal atmosphere prevailed.
It does not appear that Williams had much influence in the general
world of religious thought, but two things at least were favourable to
the modification of orthodoxy. On the one hand there was inevitably a
looser system of supervision in a new country, and the pressure of
penal law could not be exerted so effectually as in England. On the
other hand the organization of worship and teaching, though intended
to be strict and complete, an intention fairly successful in practice, was
actually founded upon broad principles. Each township maintained its
'parish church,' but this, originally of a Low Church or 'Presbyterian'
type, was usually accommodated as years went on to a Congregational
model. These churches were looked upon as centres of religious culture
for the respective communities by whose regular contributions they
were supported and endowed. The 'covenants' by which the members
bound themselves were often expressed in terms quite simple, and even
touching; the colonists were in the main faithful to the parting
injunction of the famous Pastor John Robinson, who sped the 'Pilgrim
Fathers' on their way with the assurance that the Lord had 'more light
and truth to break forth from His Holy Word.' Occasionally, it is
expressly declared by the covenanting members that theirs is an attitude
of devout expectation of religious growth.
As would naturally be expected, the conditions of the earlier