UNITARIANS

Those who confine the Godhead to a single person; in which general sense the term may be taken to represent the Arians and Socinians, as well as tho sect which is more strictly denominated Unitarian. These last are the descendants of the religious communities which adopted, in the 16th century, the opinions of Socinus; but in the course of years they have gone considerably further towards reducing Revelation to a mere ethical system. They have been supplied with an abundant stream of con verts from the Presbyterians and Independents in this coun try, many congregations of whom became first Arian, and latterly Unitarian in sentiment. The principal Unitarian authorities are Drs. Priest ley, Belsham, and Channing, who have either entirely rejected or neutralized the doctrine of the atonement, and represent the language of the apostles upon this and other mysterious points as either intentionally accommodated to the ideas current among their hearers, or derived from erroneous conceptions of their own. The revelation of the New Testament is thus reduced to the a ertion of a mere historical fact — that of the existence of the man Jesus as a moral teacher. But with respect to what he taught, great latitude of interpretation is allowed to Unitarians, since it appears that in their view the expo sition of the first disciples is not to be implicitly relied on; nor do they allow infallibility to the Author of the religion himself. The Unitarians were subjected to severe penal ties, as deniers of the Trinity, long after other di enters had been relieved by the Act of Toleration: the laws against them were not repealed by statute till the yea i 1813. In this country they do not constitute a numerous body: the number of their congregations lias been stated at something more than 200; but they are principally composed of persons of the educated cla es. In Geneva the pulpits of the established church are mostly occupied by profe ors of these opinions; and in the northern states of America they form one of the most influential of Christian denominations. [s. 1298]