A communication was then exhibited from the first church in Springfield, requesting that the Council now convened should adjourn till after the meeting of a council contemplated by them at a future period, as soon as may be convenient.

The Council, after duly considering this instrument, voted, unanimously, to proceed to the business for which they are

convened.

The Committee then presented a paper, containing a solemn covenant,* subscribed by thirty-one persons, members of the second Congregational Society of the first parish in Springfield, in which they engage in the fear and love of God, to walk toge ther as a Christian church in the faith and order of the gospel. The Council, having received satisfactory evidence that each of those persons were members of Congregational Churches in regular standing, and having received a declaration from them that they are satisfied with the mode of admission adopted in years past by Rev. Mr. Howard,

Voted, unanimously, that they be and hereby are organized into a regular church of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to be known as the second Congregational Church in the first parish of Springfield: that they be vested with all the powers, and entitled to all the privileges of a Christian Church, that we cordially give to them the hand of Christian fellowship, acknowledging them as brethren in one common Lord, and recommending them to the communion of all God's people.

(Signed)

EBENEZER GAY, Moderator. Attest, WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, Scribe."

After the very harmonious settlement of the Rev. William B. O. Peabody, over the new society, in October last, it was fondly hoped that the members of both societies would cast the mantle of charity over every unpleasant event which might have occurred in consequence of the separation, and study the things that make for peace; and in a short time restore that harmony

*The following is a copy of the Covenant referred to:

"We, the Subscribers, disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, do hereby, in the fear and love of God, enter into solemn covenant with each other, to walk together as a Christian church, in the faith and order of the Gospel ; and we do engage to cultivate and cherish in our hearts a sacred regard for the character and word of God, and the institutions of the blessed Gospel: we do also engage to make the Word of God the only rule of our faith and practice, humbly relying on the merits and mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and eternal life; we do also engage with brotherly regard and affection to watch over, to admonish, to instruct and to comfort one another, according to the word of God as occasion and opportunity may require. Praying for all men, that the kingdom of God may come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

1

and good neighbourhood which had so long and so honorably characterized the whole parish. But this hope has been disappointed. In January of the present year, the following extraordinary vote was passed by the first church in Springfield.

"Whereas Jonathan Dwight, Rev. Bezaleel Howard, &c. [Here follow in the original the names of twenty-three others, members of the Rev. Mr. Peabody's church] without a regular dismission or recommendation, left this church, and were professedly organized with others, and denominated a church in the third society in this town, in the month of October, 1819, and for some months before had, and ever since have absented themselves from worship and communion with this church, therefore, pursuant to the advice of the council called by this church, to advise them as to their present duty, in respect to the said persons

"Voted, That as they have gone out from us, they be no longer regarded as of us, and that this church do hereby withdraw its watch and fellowship from them.

The Council mentioned in the above vote was understood tò be formed by the following clergymen :

Rev. Dr. Chapin, of Weathersfield,

Rev. Dr. Hvde, of Lee,

Rev. Dr. Shephard, of Lenox,

Rev. Mr. Snell, of North Brookfield,

Rev. Mr. Humphreys, of Pittsfield.

It is understood that these gentlemen were all present, with the exception of Dr. Hyde, of Lee.

The Rev. Mr. Osgood, and the Rev. Dr. Chapin have been severally applied to for a copy of the result of council. If it should be obtained, it will be forwarded to the Editors of the Disciple.

Notice of some attacks upon liberal Christians at New-York.→ There have lately appeared at New-York various exhibitions of the same spirit which formerly showed itself in the Panoplist, while that work had an existence; but which seems now to be almost repressed in our neighbourhood by the decided expression of public opinion. There are many things of this sort which we are very willing to pass by without remark; because we believe that we can rely securely upon the honorable feelings of the community, and upon the prevailing sense of pro

priety and justice in our part of the country; and because we believe, if we may be permitted to say it, that we may trust for the confutation of these attacks to the general character of the great body of Christians who think with us. We pass them over the more readily also, because they are in truth nothing less than gross offences against common morality, upon which a man of correct principles can animadvert but in one mode-in the language of severe reprobation. This language it is not pleasant to use, however justifiable may be the occasion; and considering the rapid progress with which correct opinions in religion, and what is far better, correct feelings concerning religion, are making their way, we trust that we shall not often think it necessary or advisable, to remark at any length upon the very improper methods by which an effort is sometimes made to oppose their progress. We have, however, determined to say a word or two at this time with regard to a few which have come to our knowledge.

In our number for September and October of the last year, we reviewed the pamphlet of the Rev. Mr. Feltus of NewYork, the purpose of which was to show the near alliance between Unitarianism and Mahometanism. We are not at all disposed, however, to be angry with Mr. Feltus; and we have no doubt that he feels a considerable degree of self-complacency in the circumstance, that his production has attracted so much of our notice, as well as received a very able answer at New-York. To speak plainly, for we cannot allow ourselves room for much circumlocution, there was nothing remarkable about his pamphlet, but its silliness; except, indeed, that it was written with a decency of style, and moderation of feeling, which in a moral point of view put him far above some of his clerical brethren of the same city. In turning back to our review, we regret to find that we have not spoken more particularly of the full and satisfactory answer which it received from Henry D. Sewall, Esq. of New-York.

Since the pamphlet of Mr. Feltus, has appeared a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Spring, of which many of our readers may recollect that some account was published not long since in the Boston Daily Advertiser, accompanied with an extract from the eloquent and powerful answer which it called forth. The sermon is entitled with singular infelicity," A Tribute to New-England," for it contains nothing which would give it claim to a moment's attention, except several pages of virulent abuse of New-England. The rest of the discourse is distinguished only by its barrenness and triteness of thought, its want of propriety in the use of language, a general clumsiness of expression, and one or two

It is the production of a very

blunders in matters of history. ordinary and undisciplined mind; and if it be true that its writer holds a very considerable rank among the preachers of NewYork, we have only to regret that the standard of preaching is not higher in that city. In this TRIBUTE to New-England the author tells us that her growth and prosperity has been attended by a sensible and humiliating degeneracy; that there is a manifest declension of public morals in the different states of New-England;' that a regard for the institutions of the gospel is found now, with few exceptions, only on the page of some antiquated statute-book, or inscribed on the tomb of Puritanism." -But to say the truth, we believe that he did not mean to assert quite so much as is affirmed in this last quotation; his language, we suspect, in this instance, outran his temper; the sentence from which we have last quoted being somewhat long, we imagine that he blundered on to the conclusion, without perceiving the connexion of meaning, or the sense which he had actually expressed. But we proceed: There are comparatively few in the metropolis of New-England upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; that is, there are but few Christians in Boston. faith is inculcated from some of the pulpits of New-England, which so far from being humbling to the pride of man, commends itself to the unrenewed heart, and constitutes precisely the resting place for a mind awake to its obligations, and determined to maintain its rebellion against the Most High :--a faith, which the purest self-righteousness demands, and with which the most unyielding impenitence is satisfied;-a faith, which mocks at the seriousness and spirituality and self-devotement of true religion, and which considers all the tenderness of an awakened conscience, all anxiety for the salvation of the soul, all the solemnities of conviction for sin, as well as all joy and peace in believing,' the object of ridicule and sarcasm;-a faith which relaxes the obligations of personal and domestic religion; which makes no scruple in allowing ministers and people an occasional indulgence in the more refined and fashionable vices; and which often descends low enough to caricature the simplicity and purity of better days."

"A

Indecent and infamously false as all this is, we are assured on authority which we cannot doubt, that the sermon as delivered was still more offensive; and that the author, before committing it to the press, thought proper to soften and repress some of the language, which he was shameless enough to utter from the pulpit. There is but one mode of speaking of such outrageous calumny. It constitutes essentially the same crime with that of

the common defamer. It manifests a spirit, which, if exercised in a way not very dissimilar against an individual, instead of a great number of individuals, the humanity of our laws would indeed punish only with imprisonment and hard labour, but which in other countries less merciful, might lead its possessor to make his next public exhibition in the pillory instead of the pulpit.

Addison, in one of his Spectators, tells of a country clergyman, who having a quarrel with the squire of his parish, threatened to pray for him by name before the whole congregation. We believe that we have sometimes been prayed for in a similar spirit. But if the accounts which we have heard be correct, some of the clergy of New-York have used language and manifested feelings in their addresses to the Deity, in relation to the Unitarians of that city, which exceed in brutal profaneness any thing of the sort of which we recollect to have heard. The clergy of a city have, we believe, no small influence not merely upon the religious and moral character of its inhabitants, but upon the state of intellectual improvement, of taste, and of genuine refinement of feeling and manners. By their weekly services, they determine in a great degree the manner in which religion shall be presented to the minds of men; whether in its true character, or as something repulsive and odious. The opinions which they inculcate may either enlighten and improve, or debase and confound the understandings of their hearers. They may do much to give them a taste for correct reasoning and ge nuine eloquence; or they may accustom them to extravagant and unmeaning declamation, and call upon them to give up the exercise of their own judgments, and rest satisfied with the con fident assertions of their teachers, who are dogmatical in proportion to their incapacity to gain credit for their doctrines in any other way. They may do much to produce true liberality of feeling; or they may excite a vulgar, intemperate bigotry, which frequently exists, when the zealots who are actuated by it, neither know for what they are contending, nor what they are opposing By inculcating religion in its true character as bearing directly upon the social duties, and demanding from us constant exertions to promote the moral and physical good of our fellow, creatures, they may indirectly do much to lessen the mass of vice and misery which is constantly accumulating in great cities. And on the other hand, by a kind of teaching, the tendency of which is to make men narrow-minded and violent in believing their doctrines, or profligate in despising them, they may contribute no inconsiderable aid to the prevalence of irreligion and immorality. We do think that the condition of that city is not a little to be lamented, in which any considerable proportion of