While itself built upon earlier documents, this would become the standard for generations and be the document people embraced or rejected as North American Universalists.
The text is perhaps as remarkable for its brevity as for its revolutionary character.
We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind.
We believe that there is one God, whose nature is love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.
We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.
It is an interesting historical document of Western spirituality, declaring a Christian universalism.
On the one hand its support of the scriptures is seen as a stand against the then trending current of the higher criticism. On the other hand it says the scriptures “contain a revelation,” from the beginning allowing a wide range of opinion about where else one might find divine inspiration.
Even more radical is what followed. There was a freedom of conscience clause, which would gradually be expanded over the years, eventually to the point of guaranteeing complete freedom of belief.
It can be argued this is the direct ancestor of the Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes. A stretch, admitedly. But, also, there really is a profound family connection…
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