'This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' John xvii, 3.

'To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.' 1 Cor. viii, 6.

The security of tenure guaranteed to the property of the non-subscribing congregations of Great Britain and Ireland, by the passing of that liberal and enlightened measure, commonly known by the name of the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, appeared to the Editor a suitable occasion for collecting evidences of one of the consequences of free enquiry, and the prevalence of scriptural knowledge, in the renunciation of the pagan and metaphysical notion of the Trinity. These evidences are here presented to the public. They show an amount of Anti-trinitarian Christianity which few, perhaps, will have expected; and are thus fitted to afford encouragement to those who, in this country especially, are exposed to no small obloquy, in consequence of their maintenance of the simple teachings of the Bible; namely, that God is one, and that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true God. Nor is it, as the writer hopes, impossible that the volume may do something to extend the conviction that definite doctrines, though few in number, and simple in character, lie at the basis of the religion of Jesus Christ. It is, at the same time, highly pleasing to find many proofs, in the ensuing Essays, that these few and simple truths may enter into very diverse states of mind, appear under many modifications, and put forth dissimilar effects. What is not less important is, that the consequences of the spread of Unitarianism, here recorded, appear, without any attempt at display, to be of the most benign description. We wish to suggest no comparison disadvantageous to other denominations, but we may say, that here are genuine Christian fruits, here are tokens of the operation of the spirit of Christ—a spirit not of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Even yet the question is sometimes heard — 'What is Unitarianism?' This book gives a full as well as practical answer. Unitarianism is here expounded in its diversities as well as its unity; in its practical bearings and effects, no less than its doctrines. And though we claim for the volume no more authority than belongs to the individuals who have contributed to its pages, and utterly disown and repudiate anything like an attempt to set forth a formal declaration of the Unitarian faith, whose very life consists in liberty, yet we may affirm, that the writers whose productions are here published, will generally be acknowledged competent to give an accurate and trustworthy account of the views and condition of the several sections of the common Anti-trinitarian church to which they belong. By these expositions of Unitarianism let Unitarians in future be judged, and not by representations which emanate from opponents, and which, in too many instances, they have good reason to both disown and lament.

To a very common mistake the following pages afford a decisive answer; —' Unitarianism is a series of negations.' The denial of the Trinity, is to a well-instructed Unitarian, of importance, chiefly because it leaves room for the recognition, in its scriptural simplicity and comprehensive import, of the grand central doctrine that God is one, and that the one God is in Jesus Christ, the Father of human kind. We make the remark, mainly, because we are desirous that the term Anti-trinitarian, which is frequently employed, should not mislead the reader. That term we have used in order not to identify other Anti-trinitarian communities with the Unitarians (so specifically termed) of Transylvania or of England; and so seem to assert a greater degree of unity than actually exists. The term, however, is negative. It sets forth the one point in which all Unitarian churches agree, differ as they may in other particulars. But distinctive titles, if they succeed in assigning specific differences, are generally of a negative kind. But while such a title states what a particular class is not, it leaves to other means of information the office of describing what that class is. That office we have attempted to discharge in the Essays which form the present volume. On this point we add only, that the Anti-trinitarianism here spoken of is exclusively Christian. We have no fellowship or sympathy with any opinions which deny that Jesus received a superhuman commission, and was endowed with superhuman qualities and powers.

The actual decline of Trinitarianism would have been less imperfectly exhibited in these pages, had they contained an Essay exhibiting general evidences bearing on that fact. The writer has, however, spoken on the subject, in a treatise which may be considered as forming a prelude to the present volume ;• and must now content himself with a few additional remarks. If we were to take at their full value the words of Mr. Ward, in his 'Ideal of a Christian Church,' we should have reason to rejoice in a greater degree of progress than we have ventured to claim. These words we give as they are found in the Quarterly Review (Jan. 1845, p. 178), which states it as Mr. Ward's opinion, that 'care for dogma is gone, and that indifference to the central verity of the Gospel, the divinity of our Lord, is prevalent among us to a fearful extent.'

A recently published discourse, (' Sermons on the Interpretation of Scripture') by Dr. Arnold, formerly Head Master of the Rugby Grammar School, affords a striking proof of the extent to which the old ecclesiastical doctrine of the Trinity has gone to decay. The omissions in this sermon are full of meaning. Though receiving from its author's hand the title, 'The Holy Trinity,' the discourse itself never mentions the word. Nor does it present any definition of the doctrine. All that theologians have laid down and tried to prove on the point; all their diverse views; all their bitter disputes; all the statements of the Nicene and the Athanasian creeds, and all the propositions of the thirty-nine Articles, might have had no existence in the writer's mind. Nor from his positive teachings can any one learn what he meant by the Trinity, what views he either held or intended to set forth. His positions are simply these ;—' There is only one Lord and Master of all, whom all may and must worship,' (p. 438). 'Yet Revelation tells us, that in our religious feelings and relations we have to do with Jesus Christ, (434), who was 'in truth the maker of all things' (436). 'Furthermore, Revelation teaches us, that in our religious feelings we have to do with Him whom it calls the Holy Spirit' (436). 'The Holy Spirit is no other than He who is alone, in the highest sense, holy' (437). And so the reader is left to his own resources in the midst of these difficulties, without a word of explanation. Did not the title declare that the sermon was, in some way, intended to expound the Trinity, few Unitarians would find in its substance much to which they would take exception.

Dr. Arnold sometimes pursues modes of scriptural interpretation which must end in Unitarianism, if they do not give reason to doubt his own orthodoxy. We subjoin an example. The terms ' Son,' 'only begotten Son,' 'to beget,' are generally accounted to contain proofs of the supreme deity of Jesus Christ. Effectually have such proofs been invalidated by Dr. Arnold, in his expositions of the second Psalm:—'The second Psalm, in its first meaning, is an expression of confidence and triumph on the part of a king of Israel, that he, as reigning in God's name, and enforcing God's law, would be upheld by God's power; and that the neighbouring heathen princes, who were impatient of his supremacy, should yet be forced to acknowledge it. So fully does the Psalmist feel that he belonged to God, that he says, 'Jehovah said unto me, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ;' and again, at the end of the Psalm, he addresses his enemies with this warning, 'Kiss, that is, do homage to the Son, that is the King whom Jehovah regarded as his Son, lest he be angry and yc should perish from the right way.' The Psalmist then, a king of Israel, and one faithful to the law of God, says, that God called him his Son, and had as it were begotten him as such, in the day that he raised him up to be King over his people. So we read in Psalm Ixxxix, 27, that God declares that he will make David 'His first born, higher than the kings of the earth;' and again, He promises of Solomon, that He will be to him his Father, and Solomon shall be to him a son' (2 Sam. vii, 14). A king over God's people, ruling in righteousness, is so much in the place of God, that God vouchsafes to call him His son' (Sermons on the Interpretat. of Script, p. 444). It is true the learned author holds that, in a secondary sense, these things apply to 'one who was in truth the Sou of God.' That they apply to Jesus is not, however, the question at issue; which is, does the terms ' beget' and 'firstborn,' prove the deity of him of whom they are used. To which question Dr. Arnold's remarks supply a decided negative.

In addition to the names of authors given in the Table of Contents, the Editor must make the following statements in regard to sources of information. For the greater part of the articles on the Christian, the Hicksite Quakers, and the Universalists of the United States, he is indebted to Rupp's ' History of the Christian Denominations in the United States.'

For the laudatory expressions found in the article on Anti-trinitarianism in the North of Ireland, the Editor is responsible.

The Editor regrets that he is not at liberty to mention the name of the learned writer of the Essay entitled 'Anti-trinitarianism in Transylvania.' It is, however, written by a distinguished member of the Unitarian Church in that country, and translated by John Paget, Esq., to whom is to be ascribed the authorship of the appended notes.

The subject of the statistics of the Christian Church at large, may be found treated in Kirchliche Statistik von Dr. Julius JViggers, Hamburg, 1842, a work in the use of which the orthodox prejudices of the author render caution indispensible.

• Historical and Artistic Illustrations of the Trinity, shewing the Rise, Progress, ami Decline of the Doctrine, with Elucidatory Engravings; by the Rev. J. R. Beard, D.t) - London; Simnkiu, Marshall, & Co. Price 8s.