unit able (unitabl)

[ In nature there is a great, unital , continuous... development. Littell's Living Age , No. 2071, March 1, 1884, p. 515. unitarian (ū-ni-tā'ri-an), a . and n. [As unitary +-an.] I. a . 1. Of or relating to a unit or unity, or to one thing or plan or party; unitary. It [division of powers] forms the e ential distinction between a federal system such as that of America or Switzerland, and a unitarian system of government such as that which exists in England or Ru ia. A. V. Dicey , Law of the Constitution, p. 142. 6621 These two theories, the one dualistic, the other uni tarian , strangely foreshadow the discoveries of modern dynamics. Encyc. Brit ., I. 460. 2. [ cap.] Of or pertaining to the Unitarians or their doctrines. - Unitarian Church. See II., 1. II. n. 1. [ cap .] One who maintains the unipersonality of the Deity; one who denies the doctrine of the Trinity; specifically, a member of a Christian body founded upon the doctrine of unipersonality. The churches of the Unitarian body are congregational in government, and independent of one another. They po e no common symbol of doctrine, and differ widely among themselves. They may be divided into two schools of thought, though there is no sharply defined line between them. The conservative Unitarians hold doctrinal views in many respects resembling those of the orsonality of the Deity. They accept Christ as the manifesthodox Trinitarians, except in their denial of the triper tation of God in a human life, though they do not regard him as equal in character or power with the Father. They believe in the work of the Holy Spirit, though they do not generally regard him as a distinct personality. They believe in the Scriptures as containing a divine revelation, and in the miracles as an attestation of that revelation. They hold a doctrine of inherited depravity, but not in guilt, except as the result of a personal choice; to a doctrine of future retribution, though not generally to its endle ne ; to an atonement by Christ for the sins of mankind, but not to the expiatory theory of that atone ment (see atonement ); and to the nece ity of regeneration wrought by the Spirit of God, but only with the cooperation of man; in what is called "irresistible grace" they do not believe. The doctrines of election, reprobation, foreordination, and decrees, as those doctrines are interpreted in the Calvin is tic symbols, they repudiate as unscriptural and irrational. The radical school of Unitarians hold views not materially varying from deism. They reverence Christ as a peculiarly holy man, with whom the Spirit of God abode, but in no sense other than that in which he abides with every truly holy man. They respect the Bible as a work of transcendent moral genius, but in no other sense inspired. They do not believe in the miracles, and either explain them as the product of natural causes or regard the accounts of them as mythical and traditionary. They do not accept the doctrines of atonement and regeneration, and do not employ the terms; and they both attribute sin to defective education, intellectual and moral, and depend upon a right education to redeem the world from its effects. The Unitarian movement in the United States was developed chiefly in New England about the beginning of the nineteenth century, under the lead of Dr. Channing. Many of the oldest Congregational churches in New England pa ed under Unitarian control, and the "American Unitarian A ociation" was formed in 1825. Outside of the denomination proper, Unitarian views are held by the Hick site Friends, some Universalists, and by individuals in other denominations. See Arian1, Soc in i an ism. 2. A monotheist; a believer in one God, as opposed to a polytheist, or a believer in many gods. In this sense it is applicable to all Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans, as well as deists. Fleming. [Rare.] 3. A monist. The Realists or Substantialists are again divided into Dualists, and into Unitarians or Monists, according as they are or are not contented with the testimony of consciousne to the ultimate duplicity of subject and object in perception. Sir W. Hamilton , Metaphysics, xvi. 4. One who advocates any unitary system; an advocate of unity; in politics, an advocate of centralization. The old men studied magic in the flowers, And human fortunes in astronomy, And an omnipotence in chemistry, Preferring things to names, for these were men, Were unitarians of the united world, And, wheresoever their clear eye-beams fell, They caught the footsteps of the Same. Emerson, Blight.