the Christian life, and took the position that only what is of prime
importance is to be required of the believer. The result was that
Arminianism became a positive aid to the growth of toleration in England;
for it became what was called latitudinarian,--that is, broad in temper,
inclusive in spirit, and desirous of bringing all the nation within the
limits of one harmonizing and noble-minded church.

[Sidenote: English Rationalists.]

It was in such tendencies as these, as they were developed in Holland and
England, that American Unitarianism had its origin. To show how true this
is, it may be desirable to speak of a few of the men whose books were most
frequently read in New England during the eighteenth century. The prose
writings of Milton exerted great influence in favor of toleration and in
vindication of reason. Without doubt he became in his later years a
believer in free will and the subordinate nature of Christ, and he was true
to the Protestant ideal of an open Bible and a free spirit in man. Known as
a Puritan, his pleas for toleration must have been read with confidence by
his coreligionists of New England; while his rational temper could not have
failed to have its effect.

His vindication of the Bible as the religion of Protestants must have
commended Chillingworth to the liberal minds in New England; and there is
evidence that he was read with acceptance, although he was of the
established church. Chillingworth was of the noblest type of the
latitudinarians in the Church of England during the first half of the
seventeenth century; for he was generously tolerant, his mind was broad and
liberal, and he knew the true value of a really comprehensive and inclusive
church, which he earnestly desired should be established in England. He
wished to have the creed reduced to the most limited proportions by giving