UNION OF CHURCHES
641
UNITARIANISM
felicity (1 Pet. i, 8), spirituality (John xv, 8) ; and, in- deed, all the rich communications of spiritual blessings here and hereafter (Col. i, 22). The evidences of union with Christ are : light in the understanding (1 Pet. ii, 9) ; affection to him (John xiv, 21) ; frequent communion with him (1 John i, 3); delight in his word, ordinances, and people (Psa. xxvii, 4; cxix) ; submission to his will, and conformitv' to his image (1 John ii, 5). See Dickinson, Letters, let. 17 ; Flavel, Method of Grace, ser, 2; Polhill, (7rt Z7«jom; Brown, Co;??/;ertd V, i. — Buck.
UNION OF Churchp:s, in English law, is the com- bining and consolidating of two churches into one. It is also where one Church is made subject to another and one man is rector of both, and where a conventual Church is made a cathedral. In the first case, if two churches were so mean that the tithes could not afford a competent provision for each incumbent, the ordinary, patron, and incumbents might unite them at common- law before any statute was made for that purpose ; and in such case it was agreed which patron should present first; for though, by the union, the incumbency of one Church was lost, yet the patronage remained, and each patron might have a quare im.pedit, upon a disturbance, to present it in his turn. The license of the king is not necessary to a union, as it is to the appropriation of advowsons ; because an appropriation is a mortmain, and the patronage of the advowson is lost, and, by con- sequence, all first-fruits and tenths; whereas in a union these consequences do not follow. The three statutes in existence relating to union of churches are the 37 Henry VIII, c. 21 ; the 17 Charles II, c. 3 ; and the 4 and 5 William and IMar\', c. 12. — Eadie, Eccles. Cyclop, s. v.
UNION, Congregational. Conder says of such unions, " The recent formation of the Congregational and Baptist unions has given rise to the notion that there exists among the Nonconformists of the present day a disposition to abandon the principles of strict In- dependency, and to adopt a new species of machinery or organization more nearly approaching to Presbyte- rianism. For this idea there is no foundation. These unions differ in no other respect than in their more ex- tended or comprehensive character from the county unions and associations of churches which have ahvaj^s existed in both denominations for similar objects. They have no relation to a scheme of Church government; their object is not to set up a Church or to create a jurisdiction, but simply to facilitate a general co-oper- ation for common and public objects of a religious nat- ure."— Eadie, Eccles. Cyclop, s. v. See Independents.
UNION, Hypostatical, is a theological term de- vised b}^ the old divines to express the union of the human nature of Christ with the divine in one person. It must be observed that this union is not consubstan- tial, as of the three persons in one Godhead ; nor phys- ical, as soul and body united in one person ; nor mysti- cal, as between Christ and believers; but so that the manhood subsists in the second person, yet without mak- ing confusion, both forming but one person. See Aiu- ANiSM ; Hypostatical Union ; Person of Christ ; Sabellians.
Unitarianism, belief in the unity of God. In a comprehensive sense it includes, with a part of Chris- tendom, Jews, Mohammedans, Deists, and all who wor- ship God as one. For this use, however, the accepted term is Monotheism. Within the ranks of Christendom the name Unitarian is given to those who reject the dogma of the Trinity in its varying phases of a three- fold or tripersonal Deity, whether three in substance or only in name and form, and who maintain the essential unity of God as Creator and Father, and the created nature and subordinate rank of Jesus Christ. Within this range opinions about Jesus vary from those that as- sign him a pre-existent and superangelic rank to an es- timate purely human. While the name strictly touches this doctrine only, it is vitally related and gives charac- ter to the whole svstem of belief concerning human nat- X.— S s
ure and need, human life and its purpose, this world and its meaning, and the future world and man's destiny.
I. History of the Belief. — 1. In the Early Church. — Unitarianism has accompanied Christianity from the beginning, at least as one form of its faith. Unitarians maintain that their faith is that of the early Church as taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles. Tlicy appeal to Jesus as the supreme teacher of Christianity, finding in his word and character the essence of the Gospel. They state their chief tenets in the language of the New Test, without note or comment, "To us there is but one God, the Father;"' "This is life eternal to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." They hold that the doctrine of the Trinity, so startling to Jews trained in the worship of one God and expecting a Messiah of human lineage, would have required a statement more explicit than any found in the Bible record. They hold that the doctrine, at best, is an inference from texts of obscure meaning or doubt- ful genuineness, every one of which is separately aban- doned by prominent Trinitarian scholars as not express- ly teaching the doctrine; while the Roman Catholic holds it on the authority of the Church, deeming it not clearly taught in the Bible.