As in the Old Country, so in the colonies of North America, a great
evangelical revival took place towards the middle of the eighteenth
century. John Wesley the Arminian, and George Whitefield the Calvinist,
were the great apostles of this movement, and the latter especially was
very influential in America. The English revivalists were not alone,
however; among the most powerful leaders in the colonies was Jonathan
Edwards, whose name ranks very high in the records of religious
philosophy in the States. Despite preliminary obstacles this preacher of
the most stern and unflinching determinism produced a quite
extraordinary effect at last. As usually happens, his dogmas were more
easily repeated by others than his reasoning; violent excitement ran
through the colonies, and it was this that gave a decisive turn to the
liberalism which ultimately developed into a very memorable phase of
Unitarianism. The preceding steps may be briefly indicated.
A familiar epigram preserves the acid truth that the Puritan emigrants
who left England in the seventeenth century went to North America in
order to worship God in their own way, and to compel everyone else to do
the same. Religious liberty was certainly not understood by them as it
is understood to-day. The sufferings of the Baptists and Quakers, for
example, make a sad chapter of New England history. About the middle of
the century, _Roger Williams_ (1599-1683), having ventilated opinions
contrary to the general Calvinism, was driven out of Salem, where he had
ministered to a grateful church. His pleas for a real religious freedom
were in vain, and he was forced to wander from the colonial settlements
and find a precarious home among the Indians. After much privation, he
succeeded in establishing a new colony at Rhode Island, where a more
liberal atmosphere prevailed.
It does not appear that Williams had much influence in the general world
of religious thought, but two things at least were favourable to the
modification of orthodoxy. On the one hand there was inevitably a looser
system of supervision in a new country, and the pressure of penal law
could not be exerted so effectually as in England. On the other hand the
organization of worship and teaching, though intended to be strict and
complete, an intention fairly successful in practice, was actually
founded upon broad principles. Each township maintained its 'parish
church,' but this, originally of a Low Church or 'Presbyterian' type,
was usually accommodated as years went on to a Congregational model.
These churches were looked upon as centres of religious culture for the
respective communities by whose regular contributions they were
supported and endowed. The 'covenants' by which the members bound
themselves were often expressed in terms quite simple, and even
touching; the colonists were in the main faithful to the parting
injunction of the famous Pastor John Robinson, who sped the 'Pilgrim
Fathers' on their way with the assurance that the Lord had 'more light
and truth to break forth from His Holy Word.' Occasionally, it is
expressly declared by the covenanting members that theirs is an attitude
of devout expectation of religious growth.
As would naturally be expected, the conditions of the earlier
generations in the colonies were not in favour of a deeply studious
ministry; the leaders were more frequently men of shrewd and practical
piety than profound scholars. As things became more settled, and
especially after the Toleration Act had secured a more assured state of
feeling at home, the minds of men were set at liberty in a greater
degree. Locke's works were carried across the sea, and Dr. Clarke's
Arianizing writings soon followed. Apparently, the first stir of any
importance was produced by the scandal of the punishment of Thomas
Emlyn, the Irish clergyman who has been previously referred to. Emlyn's
writings received a great advertisement, and although he managed, like
Clarke, to avoid further legal difficulties by publishing a statement of
his adherence to a 'Scriptural Trinity,' his defection from the orthodox
dogma was clear enough and his arguments against that dogma remained.
Another case which was notorious in those days was that of _William
Whiston_ (1667-1752), the well-known translator of the works of
Josephus, who was dismissed from his professorship at Cambridge in 1710
for Arianism. A prolific writer and a shrewd debater, Whiston played no
small part in the general leavening of opinion.
But probably the most direct of the literary influences in this
direction came from the pen of _Dr. John Taylor_ (1694-1761), one of the
most able and learned of the Presbyterian divines. His treatises on
_Original Sin_ (1740) and the _Atonement_ (1751) dealt with subjects of
the profoundest importance in relation to the usual Trinitarian scheme
of doctrine. Preferring, for his own part, to be known by no sectarian
name but to be reckoned among 'Christians only,' Taylor was recognized
far and wide as a writer extremely 'dangerous' to the ordinary type of
belief. When the American revivalists were at their height, there were
many quiet and staid New England ministers who found in Taylor a welcome
ally against the extravagances which they witnessed and deplored. The
more logical the Calvinist was, the more vivid in depicting the horrors
of predestined damnation, the more vigorous these men became in
denouncing such a doctrine. Perhaps the growing sense of individual
liberty and personal rights had much to do with the reaction. A theory
based upon the postulate of an absolute and unconditioned sovereignty
divine did not accord with the growing democratic temper. Preachers
began to insist, and hearers to agree, that, whatever 'salvation' is, it
must be reasonable if reasonable creatures are to enjoy its benefits.
Here also, as among the English latitude-men, the conviction grew that
the essentials of a Christian belief must be few and simple and these
such as plain men could understand and discuss; and here, as among the
sober Dissenters at home, men looked askance on unintelligent outbursts
of emotion.
The process of change was not very fast, and a good many who were
sensible of change in their opinions were reluctant to accept new
doctrinal designations. Arians they might be, but they preferred to be
known as standing by a 'Scriptural Christianity.' For, whatever new
books might be written, the Bible remained their chief study and their
support in discussion. Keen, rational rather than mystical, yet deeply
interested in moral progress and human elevation, these American divines
were much of a mind with their English brethren whose path lay in the
same direction. One of the most influential preachers was _Charles
Chauncey_ (1706-87); who for sixty years was minister at the 'First
Church,' Boston. His theology was Arian and 'Universalist' (i.e. holding
the doctrine of a final universal salvation); his Anti-Calvinism came
out forcibly in his protests against the revivalist excesses. It is
recorded of him that in his youth, disgusted by noisy fanatics, he
prayed God never to make him an orator. His prayer was granted--and
still he was a power!