Cheever, George B. The Course and System of the Unitarians plainly and solemnly surveyed. A Letter to the Conductors of the Christian Examiner. With an Appendix and Notes. Boston: William Peirce, 1834. [11467]
Removed, no wrapper, 8 1/2 x 6 inches, 60 pp., light foxing. Good. Pamphlet.
First published in The Spirit of the Pilgrims.
"Such an injurious device of the great adversary of souls, to accomplish his object, as is to be found in your system, ought, indeed, whenever it is contemplated, to excite feelings, both of pity and of indignation, in every pious heart. It is a system, which sets aside a Saviour, and boldly proclaims, that the religion hitherto revealed, is only an imperfect form of Christianity, suited to the circumstances of an unenlightened age..I" - p. 6.
George Barrell Cheever (1807-1890), b. Hallowell, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1825, at Andover seminary in 1830, and was ordained pastor of Howard street Congregational church, Boston, in 1832. In his preaching and writings he became well-known for his abolitionist and temperance views. He was a prolific writer, contributing to the North American Review, the Biblical Repository, and other periodicals.
A controversialist, he defended Congregational Orthodoxy in his clashes with the Unitarians. He spent 30 days in jail for libel for writing Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery, which, though an allegory, still was pointed and personal enough for his adversary to win his case against him. He was from 1846 to 1870 the pastor of The Church of the Pilgrims in New York City, where he continued to write, entering into controversy, treating with such issues as as the Dred Scott decision, the banishment of the Bible from the public schools, the operation of railroads on Sundays, the war with Mexico, intemperance, and slavery.
