nition of the
principles of truth. We have already described how these principles were
communicated to the Israelites by means of ordinances which the mind of
man has long since outgrown. The principles of Christianity were, in
like manner, embodied in institutions, some of which are obsolete, while
others remain; but, since Christianity is destined not to be superseded
by any other scheme, it appears to follow necessarily from the
principles on which we have been reasoning, that none of its
institutions were, like the Jewish, positive, but avowedly adopted from
motives of expediency. It is therefore the belief of a portion of the
Unitarian body, that Christ himself appointed no ordinance for permanent
adoption, and that those which were appointed by the Apostles, and
sanctioned by their practice, were established on the ground of
expediency alone. They were not therefore the less obligatory upon their
disciples in those times, nor upon us, as far as the original ground of
the ordinances remains; but as some apostolic practices have, through
the revolutions of human affairs, become obsolete, it is desirable to
to search into the foundation of all.

Baptism cannot be called a Christian institution, since the rite was
practised long before the mission of the Baptist; but some of our body
adopt it as a Christian ordinance, because it was countenanced by Jesus
and administered by his followers: while other Unitarians, deeming the
practice of baptism inexpedient in their circumstances of age and
country, decline the rite themselves, but recommend its use in cases
analogous to those in which it was first adopted, i. e. in cases of
conversion from Paganism. There are others who wish to abolish it
altogether, from a fear of encouraging superstition by an ungrounded
attachment to external observances.

The ordinance of the Lord's Supper is considered a positive institution
of Christianity by almost the whole of the Christian world, the great
majority of Unitarians included. The Society of Friends, and the
Free-thinking Christians, are perhaps the only sects who positively
decline, from principle, the practice of the rite; while some Unitarians
deem it inconsistent with their principles to believe that Christ
designed the ordinance for permanent and universal adoption. It is
practised by many as a means, a very important means, of increasing love
and exciting to obedience, while they yet cannot plead a Divine sanction
in its fa