of many hearts ascended to the Giver of all good, that pros perity may attend the undertaking. We are pleased to have it in our power to lay the address before our readers, which should be read with attention by every one who wishes to have a summary of Unitarian belief.

ADDRESS.

IT is a good custom, that when about to lay the first stone of a building to be dedicated to God and his worship, we assemble together and ask his blessing on the work, and that to those who are standing around we declare the motives by which we are actuated, and explain the principles of that Christian faith in which we commence so interesting a labour.

We begin, then, the building of this house of prayer that the increasing numbers of those who are believers in the strict unity of God and lovers of real Christian liberty may have a convenient place where they may gather themselves together and unite in the solemnities of social worship-where they may pray. to the only God through the only Mediator-where they may hear the doctrine of Christ preached, as they think, in its first simplicity, and where they may be built up together in the knowledge and obedience of the truth as it is in Jesus. With the greater attention that is daily given by Christians of every name to the discovery of truth and the detection of error, and with the increase of our city, it has necessarily happened, that the number of Unitarian believers has greatly multiplied, and that more ample accommodations for religious worship are needed. It is to meet this want that we have begun to lay the foundation of this house of prayer. When, four years ago, the building of the first Congregational Church was commenced in this place, it was little thought that in so short a time the erection of a second would become necessary. But through the blessing of God on the cause of pure Christianity, the most ardent anticipations of those who first entered into this field of honourable labour have been more than answered, and we hope and pray that before an equal period shall have elapsed, through the continued blessing of Heaven, another will have been begun and completed.

To those who stand here, and some of whom may be ignorant of the principles of that Christian faith which we profess, and in behalf of which we begin this church, to them and to all who are here present, I would say, that we lay this stone, the corner-stone of a Christian temple, in the firm and happy belief of one God, the Father, almighty, wise, just, good and merciful, the God of our lives and the God of salvation. Rejecting as the inventions of a benighted age of the church all distinction of persons in the Deity, and all ideas of his character that do not comport with the paternal relation which he sustains, to his creatures, we here begin a house where God may be worshiped as the only God, the Father, without equal, without partner, through faith in Jesus Christ, his well-beloved Son, our

Saviour and Redeemer. Believing thus, as we think, on most certain warrant of holy Scripture, we look up with humble confidence for the blessing of Almighty God on our undertaking.

We lay this stone as joyful believers in Jesus Christ, as believers in the divinity of his mission, in the supreme authority of his doctrine, in the miracles which he wrought, by the power of God, in confirmation of the truths he uttered; as believers in his prophetical and mediatorial character-that he is the only true prophet of God-that his religion is the only one that has God for its author, and the true happiness of men for its endthat all the commands, precepts, institutions of Jesus, have the force and obligation of divine commands, precepts and institutions that he is the only appointed medium of approach to God by prayer-that in his name all acceptable worship must be offered up-that the rejection of him is the rejection of God— that they who despise him, despise him who sent him. And we hope that they who believe thus in Christ, will here long enjoy a holy and happy communion through him with the Father of their spirits-that their faith, will here receive new strengththeir good principles be confirmed and settled-their virtuous habits established-their devout affections enlivened and purified -that this house will indeed be then the house of God and the gate of heaven.

We lay this stone in a belief of the Christian doctrine of a resurrection from the dead, and of a state of righteous retribution beyond the grave-in the belief that all they who, according to the light they have, lead virtuous and devout lives, shall, through the infinite mercy of God, declared in Jesus Christ, be received to eternal life and joy; and that the unjust-all they who despise the riches of the goodness, forbearance and longsuffering of God, shall be reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished.

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We lay this stone as believers in the divine authority of the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We believe these books to contain the whole will of God as it was revealed to the Jews by his prophets, and to the world by Jesus Christ his Son. The Bible is the rule of our faith: its chapters and verses are the articles of our creed-the Bible is the rule of our conduct -the Bible is the charter of our immortal hopes. With this volume open in our hands, and reading as we go, we walk fearlessly through the world; sure that it will guide us right in the midst of duty and trial, and lead us at last to the desired haven. We rejoice in our possession of this blessed book; we thank God for its gift; and it is our fervent and constant prayer that the time may soon come when all men in all parts of the earth shall possess it, understand it and obey it.

We begin this church as practical believers and defenders of the great Protestant principle of the right of private judgment in matters of faith. We yield up our right to understand and interpret the Sacred Scriptures for ourselves, and to believe as we

see evidence to preponderate this way or that, to no man or any number of men, to no Church, or Council, Synod or Assembly. We think we are answerable to God alone for the faith we adopt, or the faith we reject, and that man has no power to meddle in the case. And we trust that from this place no man or woman will be denounced for their faith in Christ, be that faith what it may. And ere one such anathema should be uttered within these walls, we pray they may crumble to their foundations.

We build this church in perfect charity, we hope, with Christendom and the world; for we build it as Christians; and Christians should love not only one another, but mankind. We wish indeed that our own peculiar opinions should every where prevail, for we believe them to be the pure, undoubted truth of God; but we would not make one convert by violence, or the sacrifice of peace. An overheated zeal has been a principal source of the miseries the church has endured. Christian sects have been willing to propagate their opinions at any cost, from mistaken ideas of their importance. They have forced, not followed, Providence. May we avoid their error; and though persuaded that our opinions are true, and important as true, and must ultimately prevail, let us not hasten too fast, but wait the fit concurrence of times and circumstances. God watches over his truth as he does over his material creation, and in his own time, and in his own way, will raise it to honour and universal empire.

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And now, brethren-I use the words of another on a similar occasion-let us depart from this spot, from this moment holy ground, set apart henceforth from ordinary uses, and consecrated to things divine. Where the heavens now swell above us, declaring their Maker's glory, shall soon be interposed a roof of human workmanship, beneath which shall be declared the bright glory of his redeeming love. It shall intercept the light of der sun, whose beams shall no more fall upon this place, but the more reviving beams of the sun of righteousness shall rest there without a cloud. The dews of night shall come down on this spot no more, and the winds of the ocean shall henceforth be excluded; but the dews of divine grace, as we trust, shall plenteously visit it, and the gentle breathings of the Holy Spirit shall never cease to shed upon it life and peace. And from this place, where now perhaps for the first time the voice of Christian worship has ascended to heaven, there shall go up, generation after generation, to the end of time, incense and a pure offering from multitudes of humble and believing hearts.

CORRESPONDENCE.

WE have received the communication of Mr. J. Francis, Brede, Sussex, and will reconsider his former letter.

Though we give in this number half a sheet more than the usual quantity of letter-press, we regret that we are in arrear with some of our correspondents.

THE

Chistian Reformer.

No. CXXXVI.]

APRIL, 1826.

[Vol. XII.

Dr. Middleton's Remarks on the Story concerning St. John, the Evangelist, and Cerinthus, the Heretic.

[THE long-rejected fable of the apostle John and Cerinthus, at the Bath, has been revived for an intolerant purpose by the Rev. Robert Hall in his funeral sermon for Dr. Ryland. Some animadversions upon this part of the sermon will be found in the last number of the Monthly Repository XXI. 176. This new attempt to give currency and credit to the bigoted tale, induces us to reprint the following excellent Dissertation on the story, by the learned Dr. Conyers Middleton, Principal Librarian of the University of Cambridge, from his Works (8vo.) II. 415-436.]

The story which I am going to examine, is told by Irenæus in the following manner : "That there were some who had heard Polycarp relate, how St. John, the disciple of our Lord, going one day to the public bath in Ephesus, and finding the heretic Cerinthus in it, started back instantly without bathing, crying out, Let us run away, lest the bath should fall upon us, while Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is in it."

This story is applied by Dr. Berriman, in one of his sermons, to enforce the duty of shunning Infidels and Heretics and by Dr. Waterland, to recommend a practice, which he warmly presses upon all Christians, of rejecting from their society and communion, all the impugners of fundamentals: and it is sure to be thrown in our way, either from the pulpit or the press, by all angry divines, as oft as they find occasion, to inflame the people against an antagonist whom, through zeal or heat of controversy, they are disposed to treat as an adversary to the Christian faith.

Since this story then, as it is commonly applied, naturally tends, to excite prejudices and uncharitable aversions in the minds of men, and is considered generally by zealots as an apostolic rule and precedent for the exercise of all kinds of rudeness towards those who differ from them in matters of religion, I cannot but think it of use to the public quiet to inquire into the real state of it, and not to suffer it to have any other credit or influence, than what is

strictly due to it: for in that great uncharitableness which reigns among the sects of Christians in these days, there is no occasion to ransack antiquity for any additional motives of strife and mutual hatred.—I shall consider, therefore,

1st, What objections may reasonably be offered to the truth of it, as well from the nature of the evidence, as the matter of the story itself.

2dly, Shall shew, that though we allow it to be true, it cannot justify the use to which the doctors above-mentioned, and many others, have applied it.

1. As to the evidence of the story, it rests on the single testimony of Irenæus, and that given to us, at second hand only, or from hearsay: for he does not say, that he received it himself from Polycarp, though when young he had seen and conversed with him, but that some of Polycarp's disciples had heard him relate it; of which number there were many, who had conversed with him more familiarly and frequently than Irenæus. Since he received it, then, from certain persons unknown, who received it from Polycarp, who received it from St. John, there is room enough to suppose, that he might possibly be deceived in it: which, considering the character of the man, and of the age wherein he lived, can hardly be thought an unreasonable supposition.

But if we should allow, what many are apt to infer from this passage, that Irenæus meant here to signify that it was he himself who heard the story from Polycarp, we are then to consider what degree of credit may be due to his testimony. But this I have already considered at large in a former treatise; in which I have shewn, that though of all the fathers whose works now remain to us, he was the most diligent collector of apostolic traditions, and had gathered them, as he affirms, from the mouths of ancient men, who had conversed with the Apostles themselves; yet in every single instance of them which he has particularly recorded, and peremptorily attested, he was either deluded himself, or has wilfully deluded others, by a false and forged pretence of apostolic authority. Among many examples which I have here produced in the support of this charge, the following one will sufficiently teach us how far we may depend upon his fidelity.

There were certain Heretics in those days, with whom Irenæus was disputing, who allowed but one and thirty years to our Saviour's life, and the last of them alone to his