And by the same act, if any person shall in plays, songs, or by other open words, speak anything in derogation of the same book, or anything therein contained; or shall, by open fact, cause or procure any minister in any place to say Common Prayer openly, or to minister any sacrament in other form, or shall interrupt or let any minister to say the said Common Prayer, he shall (being indicted for the same at the next assizes) forfeit to the queen for the first offence 100 marks, and for the second 400 marks, which, if not paid in six weeks after conviction, he shall suffer six months’ imprisonment for the first offence, and twelve months’ for the second, and for the third offence shall forfeit all his goods and chattels, and be imprisoned during life.
By stat. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4, Where an incumbent resides upon his living and keeps a curate, the incumbent himself, (not having lawful impediment, to be allowed by the bishop,) shall at least once a month openly and publicly read the Common Prayer, and (if there be occasion) administer the sacraments and other rites of the Church.
UNIGENITUS, THE BULL. The instrument issued by Pope Clement XI., in 1713, against the French translation of the New Testament, with notes, by Pasquier Quesnel, priest of the Oratory, and a celebrated Jansenist. The book, having occasioned considerable disputes, had already been condemned by the court of Rome in 1708; but this step being found ineffectual, Clement, who had privately spoken of it in terms of rapture, declaring it to be an excellent book, and one which no person resident at Rome was capable of writing, proceeded to condemn one hundred and one propositions of the notes; such as—grace, the effectual principle of all good works; faith, the first and fountain of all the graces of a Christian; the Scriptures should be read by all, &c. This bull, procured by Louis and the Jesuits, occasioned great commotion in France. Forty Gallican bishops accepted it; but it was opposed by many others, especially by Noailles, archbishop of Paris. Many of the prelates, and other persons eminent for piety and learning, appealed, on the subject, from the papal authority to that of a general council, but in vain.
UNION, HYPOSTATICAL, (see Jesus, Lord, Christ, Messiah, Mediator,) is the union of the human nature of Christ with the Divine, constituting two natures in one person. Not consubstantially, as the three persons in the Godhead; nor physically, as soul and body united in one person; nor mystically, as is the union between Christ and believers; but so as that the manhood subsist in the second person, yet without making confusion, both making but one person. It was miraculous. (Luke i. 34, 35.) Complete and real: Christ took a real human body and soul, and not in appearance. Inseparable. (Heb. vii, 25.)—See Burton.
UNITARIANS. A title which certain heretics, who do not worship the true God, assume most unfairly, to convey the impression that those who worship the one and only God do not hold the doctrine of the Divine Unity. Christians worship the Trinity in Unity, and the Unity in Trinity.
This name includes all, whether Arians of old, or more lately Socinians, and other Deists, who deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the separate personality of the Holy Ghost. They are not very numerous in England, although most of the old English Presbyterian congregations have fallen into Unitarianism.
These persons made little progress in England till the opening of the eighteenth century, when many of the old Presbyterian ministers embraced opinions adverse to the Trinitarian doctrine. A noticeable controversy on the subject was begun in 1719, in the West of England, and two Presbyterian ministers, in consequence of their participation in these sentiments, were removed from their pastoral charges. Nevertheless, the Presbyterian clergy gradually became impregnated, although for some time they gave no particular expression from their pulpits to their views in this respect. In course of little time, however, their congregations either came to be entirely assimilated with themselves in doctrine, or in part seceded to the Independent body. Thus, the ancient Presbyterian chapels and endowments have, in great degree, become the property of Unitarians, whose origin, as a distinct community in England, may be dated from the first occurrence of such virtual transfers, viz. from about the period just subsequent to 1730.
Persons denying the doctrine of the Trinity were excepted from the benefits of the Toleration Act, and remained so until 1813, when the section in that statute which affected them was abrogated by the 53 Geo. III. c. 160, which was extended to Ireland by 57 Geo. III. c. 70. Since that period they have been exactly in the same position as all other Protestant Dissenters with respect to their political immunities. These persons do not object to the form of attestation, “on the true faith of a Christian,” though denying the principal doctrines of Christianity as recognised by the Catholic Church.
The form of ecclesiastical government adopted by the Unitarians is substantially “congregational;” each individual congregation ruling itself without regard to any courts or synods.
Returns have been received at the Census Office from 229 congregations connected with this body.