"But no man, whatever his moral character, can be a Christian, unless he believes in Jesus, that is, the Divine mission of Jesus."

"Then you eat your own words, deny the sufficiency of character, which you have heretofore asserted, and, contrary to your fundamental principle, introduce a doctrinal test. But I do not deny the Divine mission of Jesus Christ; I admit it."

"Yes, as you do the Divine mission of Plato, or of Theodore Parker."

"I admit it in my sense, and you only admit it in yours; and have not I the same right to interpret Christianity for myself, that you have for yourselves?"

"To interpret Christianity, but not to deny it.

We complain of you, not for misinterpreting Christianity, but for denying it, and leaving no Christianity to interpret, or even to misinterpret."

"But, before it can be determined whether one does or does not deny Christianity, it must be determined what is Christianity. I have the right to determine for myself what it is. Therefore, unless I deny what I determine it to be, you cannot, on your principles, accuse me of denying it."

"Words have a fixed and determinate sense. If you deny whatever is understood by the word Christian, in its authorized sense, you deny Christianity."

"Authorized! by whom or by what? The Catholic Church? Then you are condemned; for you are as far as I am from using the word Christian in the Catholic sense. By general usage, that is, tradition? Then, also, are you condemned; for you, as well as I, reject Christianity in its traditionary sense. And how long is it since Unitarians admitted the authority of tradition or general usage in theological matters? Admit this authority, and you must abandon all you have contended for, and make your peace with Holy Church as soon as possible."

"We admit this authority, not in settling theological matters, but simply in settling the proper use of theological terms."

"A distinction without a difference. If you accept this authority in settling the meaning of the word Christian, you accept it in settling all that you are to understand by Christianity; for all included in the word Christianity must be covered by the word Christian. To appeal to tradition or general

usage to settle the meaning of words is the same as appealing to it to settle faith itself. You and I agree in rejecting all traditionary authority, and in asserting the unrestricted right of private judgment. Then there can be, for us, no authority for settling the meaning of terms but private judgment, any more than for settling articles of faith.”

"But were we to admit this, every thing would be unsettled; no two men could talk intelligibly together for a single moment; there would be no standard, no test, for any thing. All reasoning would be at an end; for no one could convince or refute another, since one might be using the same word in one sense, and the other in a totally different sense. All science, morality, jurisprudence would be out of the question, and even social intercourse would cease, and man become solitary, for want of a medium of communication with his brother."

"Perhaps so: but this is a consequence which you must accept as well as I, unless you choose to abandon the right of private judgment. Private judgment means something or nothing. If it means nothing, let us talk no more about it. If it means something, if it means any thing, it means that the individual is his own judge of truth in all cases whatsoever. If you assert it in face of the Church, you must assert it also in face of the State, of moral codes, and even of science. It is the assertion of the supremacy of man, and the annihilation of all conventionalisms. If you recoil from this conclusion, blush to call yourselves liberal Christians, confess and abjure your heresies, and return forthwith to Mother Church. For my part, I plant myself on the indefeasible right of each man to judge for himself, and to follow his own private convictions of truth and duty, lead they were they may."

Nobody wishes to prevent you from following your own convictions of truth and duty; nor do we deny that you may be a Christian. We do not refuse to fellowship you as a Christian, but simply as a Christian teacher; not because you may not in your heart believe Christianity, but because what you teach is not Christianity."

"So you say, but not so say I; and I have the same right to say what I teach is Christianity, that you have to say what you teach is Christianity."

"No man who denies the supernatural mission of Jesus can be a Christian teacher; and you do deny it."

"A doctrinal test again! Do you or do you not discard all doctrinal tests? If not, humbly apologize for all that you have

been saying these last thirty years. If you do, you can no more insist on a doctrinal test in the case of the teacher than of the private Christian. Moreover, if you insist on a doctrinal test, I demand your authority to impose one. You are but men; your authority is only human authority, and you with one voice deny the right of any human authority to dictate in matters of faith. If you can impose one test, you may another; one article, you may two, and thus, if you choose, the whole Thirty-nine Articles, or all the decrees of the Council of Trent."

"We have heard all this said time and again; but we want no authority for saying, that a man who in express terms denies a horse to be a horse does deny a horse to be a horse. The thing is evident of itself. The supernatural mission of Jesus is Christianity, the very thing to be admitted, if you admit it

at all."

"So you may think; but suppose I think differently, who is to decide between us, pronounce you right and me wrong? But you have no right to say what you do; for you and the fathers and doctors of the sect have always maintained the contrary, that Christianity is not belief of this or that, but life, character."

"Yet these doctors and fathers have all believed in and taught the supernatural mission of Jesus."

"But they never insist on this belief as essential to one's Christianity. And what if they do? Who gave them authority to impose a creed, whether longer or shorter, to forge chains for the free-born mind? Am not I also a man? Stand I not on as high a platform of individual independence as they? Then, if you appeal to fathers and doctors, remember there are older fathers and doctors than these Unitarians, whose authority is as much against you as against me. If there must be an appeal to fathers and doctors, let us have the elder and more venerable, not the younger and less weighty."

"But it is evident from the Sacred Scriptures, and all the sources from whence information can be collected concerning the subject, that a denial of the supernatural mission of Jesus is a denial of Christianity itself."

"So you say; but is your assertion authority? You make the assertion only on the authority of your interpretation of the Bible and other historical documents; and have not I as much right to interpret these as you have ?"

"Yes, but you are bound in morals to interpret them honestly, according to their plain, obvious sense."

"Who is to decide between us, whether yours or mine are the honest interpretations?"

"If a man, having a tolerable pair of eyes and ordinary human faculties, looking at the sun through an unclouded atmosphere, should maintain that it is square or triangular, we should want no authority to call him dishonest, any more than we should any other manifest liar. Some things are so plain, that no man can deny them without prejudice to his sanity or his honesty. The fact that the supernatural mission of Jesus is essential to Christianity is one of these."

"So you say; but, if so, all Unitarian preaching has thus far been false; for its burden has been, life, not belief, is essential; be good and do good, and God will never ask you what you have believed."

"You misinterpret us. Unitarians are Christians, Christian believers, and have never taught, or intended to teach, that belief in Christianity is not essential to one's Christian characThey have insisted that all should believe Christianity; but not that it was necessary that any one should believe this or that particular explication of it."

ter.

"Eliminate all the particular explications, or expositions, of Christianity, and what will you have left?"

"Christianity."

"And Christianity in general, meaning nothing in particular! Just as if a man could even form a conception of Christianity in general, save through conception of it in particular! We learn the general in the particular. Abstract from matter all its properties, and what will be your conception of what remains?"

"We have no disposition to follow you in a metaphysical discussion, for which you yourself have no remarkable aptitude. What we mean to say is, that there are certain bounds, beyond which one cannot pass and remain within the pale of Christianity. Within these bounds we recognize the unrestricted right of private interpretation, but not beyond."

"This, in principle, is all the Catholic Church herself says. She merely prescribes certain bounds, that is, certain articles. of faith, which she holds essential to the integrity of the Christian faith; within these she also recognizes the fullest individual liberty. You are free to interpret as you will, so long as you advance nothing which is contra fidem; and you yourselves say no more than this. But where, on your principles, is the authority that prescribes the bounds beyond which one cannot pass without passing out of Christianity?"

"They are prescribed by Christianity itself."

"But what is Christianity? By what authority is this

tion answered?"

"By the Bible."

ques

"True; but the Bible as construed by the private reason of each interpreter."

"The Bible is so plain, so unequivocal, that no man who respects its authority can possibly mistake the point where Christianity ends and infidelity begins."

you.

"So you say. If you give to the language of the Bible its traditionary sense, I agree with you; but that sense condemns If you give to the Bible the sense each chooses to give for himself, then I disagree with you; for then the sense of the language of the Bible is indeterminate, and can be only what each determines it to be for himself."

"But you deny the Bible itself."

"I do no such thing. I hold it to be the greatest of books. I may deny it in your sense; but I admit it in mine, and you admit it only in yours."

"Yet you deny its inspiration."

"Not at all. It is the product of the purest, deepest, loftiest inspirations ever experienced by the human soul." "But you deny its Divine inspiration."

"I do not. I believe it Divinely inspired. All that is true, pure, deep, and noble in human life is from God. God speaks in every true thought, in every pure affection, in every lofty aspiration, in every noble deed."

"Very fine, and answers admirably the purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of the simple and ignorant. Yet you deny the supernatural inspiration of the Bible."

"That depends on the sense in which you use the word supernatural. If you mean by it that God himself inspired the authors of the Bible, I agree with you. If you mean something else, I cannot answer, till I know what you do mean.” "But you do not hold that they were infallibly inspired." "Nor do you; for you have written books not a few to prove that the sacred writers could and did err."

"But you deny the authority of the sacred writers." "When they err, but not when they tell the truth; and what more can you yourselves say ?"

"You deny the miracles."

"And so do you, in part at least; and you might as well deny those you retain as those you reject. Moreover, mira