"EVANGELICAL" DECLARATION OF WAR

AGAINST THE UNITARIANS.

"The "Evangelical Magazine" ushers in the new year with sounding the war-whoop of bigotry and persecution. For a long time this Work represented the "Socinians' as dwindled to nothing; with but few chapels, (places of worship they would hardly be called,) and those nearly empty. This artifice failing, and in despair of answering Unitarian arguments, it is now seriously proposed to the Evangelical world to try to rob Unitarians of their Meetinghouses!

The notable project has been started in Lancashire, in the course of a Newspaper controversy growing out of the report of proceedings at the Dinner given to Mr. Grundy, at Manchester, (See Mon. Repos. xix. p. 574.) It is taken up deliberately in the "Evangelical" for this Month in an article of Intelligence headed (not Socinian, but)" Unitarian Chapels" from which we shall now extract a passage (pp. 23, 24.) to which we beg the reader's attention. [Here a part of the preceding Article from the Evangelical Magazine, is introduced.]

1

Having recorded this specimen of intolerance and persecution, as far as the mind of the conductors of the Evangelical Magazine is concerned, we are contented. It would be ridiculous to argue against the principle assumed in the menace, it would be worse than ridiculous to say a word upon the result of the meditated "legal process. Let the Calvinists begin their holy war, and they will then understand "the signs of the times." But the only thing of consequence, at present, is to set down in print the memorable design. Here, in the 19th century, in the metropolis of Great Britain, in a Magazine supported chiefly by Protestant Dissenters, a Magazine too which professes to be, by way of distinction, "Evangelical," and to be devoted peculiarly to vital Christianity: in this Work, at this time of day, it is proposed to drive a multitude of Protestant

Dissenting Congregations (not less than seventy in one district) out of their places of worship inherited from their fathers, because it is alleged they do not believe all that their fathers believed! It is intended of course that the emptied chapels shall be occupied and their endowments be enjoyed (here is the temptation) by the true believers; for dominion is founded upon grace. The iniquity of the scheme may pass : but the cool blooded assurance with which it is announced is instructive. This is the "Evangelical Magazine;" this is the spirit of some Calvinists; and this we are entitled to consider as the effect of Calvinism, unless the Dissenting Ministers, whose names are published as the contributors of the Work, and the distributors of its gains, come forward and disavow the Editor's project of contending with Unitarians by "legal process" and of upholding and enriching Calvinism by a sweeping ejectment and spoliation.”

Monthly Repository, No. 229, p. 56.

When the patient writhes and screams beneath the probe, the surgeon knows that the ulcer is penetrated to its core; and nothing can be more intelligible and explicit than this Unitarian outcry, Certain trustees are required to administer uprightly the trusts to which they are appointednothing more than the faithful discharge of their duties is expected or desired-yet roused and irritated by a requirement so reasonable and so just, they exclaim" you declare war against us; you design robbery you wish to enrich yourselves with our spoils." If the property they hold in trust, be actually devoted to its legitimate purposes, they can have nothing to fear from "a legal process;"-why then are they so angry and so alarmed?

Nothing more is said to them than this; "Honestly administer the deeds which entrust you— keep by all means that which is your own; but restore that which you have taken away :" and this they stile" a declaration of war, a purpose of robbery, a design of spoliation!" They actually impute to the men who intreat them to be honest, a "cool blooded assurance !"

Is theirs the language of men safe and tranquil in the consciousness of integrity? Do faithful stewards when called to account for their stewardship, complain of injury? Why then do these ostentatious advocates of free inquiry, shrink and tremble at the mere proposal of investigation? Are these invectives the self-accusations of remorse?-and are we to receive these paragraphs as the PUBLIC CONFESSION OF THE CONSCIENCESTRICKEN UNITARIANS? The dispassionate reader will determine, whether this be not indeed their own recorded plea of "GUILTY," and whether they can evade the consequences of that plea.

It could not have been anticipated that the attempt to illustrate and enforce the simple but sacred and inviolable principle, that it is the duty of all trustees to execute uprightly and faithfully their trust deeds, would have excited this fierceness of resentment among those who boast of a rigid morality; and surely this principle which is of universal application, is not to be set aside in the case of those funds and endowments which were raised and settled by the Orthodox of former days, for the purpose of promoting the cause of Evangelical Truth. If when it is said to the actual

Trustees" fulfil the intentions of the founders, act only as you would wish succeeding Trustees to act supposing you yourselves to invest your property in trust," they choose to meet this by the angry but candid confession, that to be thus faithful in the exercise of the confidence reposed in them, would necessitate an entire change from the present application of the funds (so much so as to be equivalent to a surrender of the property) let them not be surprised if to plain understandings, this confession amounts to a public acknowledgment that these funds are at the present moment, perverted and misapplied. It is not unreasonable therefore, to call upon them for restitution, when they have confessedly done wrong. They ought to think it no hardship to be as other Dissenters, who by their own voluntary contributions, support their own respective systems: but they ought to feel that it is grievous, that it is iniquitous in the sight of God and man, to usurp and misappropriate the bequests and endowments of the pious dead.

Let them build and endow as many chapels as they please,-let them employ every fair and honest method to disseminate their opinions,-let them plant vines and fig-trees, and sit unmolested beneath them: but why do they retain the vines and fig-trees of which the rightful owners have been dispossessed?-why do they continue to occupy vineyards, which are not, and cannot be, justly theirs? If indeed these trustees are prepared to assert, that there is no departure from the intentions of the Founders,-that there is no dereliction of the letter or the spirit of the Deeds,

and to substantiate that assertion by an unreserved exhibition of the necessary documents, we are quite open to conviction. And, when they have thus shewn that all the Chapels they occupy were built and endowed by Unitarians, and that all the Benefactions they enjoy, were settled in Trust for the propagation of Unitarian doctrines, our applauses shall accompany their vindication, and we shall claim their gratitude as the reward of our exertions in this Inquiry. But this is notoriously impossible; and they have not even attempted to deny the charge.

Yet although they practically admit the truth and justice of the statements made against them, and actually acknowledge that "it would be ridiculous to argue against the PRINCIPLE”* we maintain, they endeavour to engage on their side the feelings of the charitable and humane, by accusing of harshness and severity, those who press upon them the duty of faithfully discharging their Trusts. Their complaint is, that they are to be driven out of "places of worship inherited from their fathers:" but the truth is, that they are required to be faithful Stewards of property, which is indeed committed to their charge, but which neither they nor any one living can possibly inherit. The pretence of inheriting property which is vested in Trust for certain purposes, is by its absurdity its own refutation but men who are drowning catch even at straws. Thus the Modern English Unitarians style themselves "The genuine Representatives of the English Presbyterians," than which nothing

* See p. x.