the clergy are distinguished by the spirit, which we have now felt it our duty to expose.

We should do injustice to our own feelings, if we forbore to men tion the admirable answer to Dr. Spring by a member of the Unitarian Society at New York. We should give some extracts from it, but one of considerable length has already appeared in the number of the Daily Advertiser before referred to, and the pamphlet itself is for sale in our bookstores. While there are men among the Unitarians of New York who think and write like the author of this pamphlet; and we know of more than one of their number of whom any city might be proud; we think they have little to apprehend from any fair opposition which they are likely to encounter.

State of Religion in Holland.-[We think our readers will be interested by the following account of the state of religion in Holland, with which we have been favoured by a gentleman of the highest respectability, a native of that country. It was ad dressed in a private letter to one of the conductors of the Christian Disciple, and leave has been subsequently obtained for its publication.]

I have received from Holland various Reviews and Journals, published since I left that country in 1817, and observe in them, that religious opinions have undergone, and are undergoing a great change, from what they formerly were.

It appears, that a Synod of the Protestant Church for the kingdom of the Netherlands, was convened in 1817, and that among other enactments for the government of that church, it has been decreed: That at the examinations of the candidates for the ministry, no mention is to be made of the five points wherein the Arminians or Remonstrants disagree with the Cal. vinists; and that the subscription of ministers to the confession of faith, is to be made with this new and cautious condition, that they will teach and preach according to it, so far as they judge it to agree with the word of God.

The same Synod invited all the Protestant dissenters, 1. e. the Anticalvinists, to partake with their churches of the Lord's Supper.

One Review, formerly characterized as ultra-orthodox, disclaims for the present clergy of Holland, any attachment to the Canons of the Synod of Dort of the year 1618, and asserts in several places, that it considers all the different doctrines among the Protestants, as speculative opinions, having no connexion with the positive doctrines of Christianity.

A Sermon has been published, pronounced by a Professor of Theology at Leyden, in which the doctrine of predestination is described as a frightful doctrine,-dishonourable to God,-and absurd, representing the Deity as practising a contemptible deception upon his creatures, inviting and calling them to repentance and salvation, after having predetermined the everlasting misery of the greatest part of them. The reviewers, astonished at this open attack on a doctrine preached formerly by themselves, pronounce the terms here used to be too harsh, and insulting to a doctrine which during two centuries has made an interesting part of the popular belief. They agree, however, that the word Election is to be understood, as used concerning that which is chosen or preferred on account of some better quality and disposition, as Paul is named a chosen vessel, &c. They propose to explain the word in this sense, without mentioning or reproaching the former doctrine, and trust, that in so doing, the former erroneous explication will be forgotten, and the truth insensibly prevail.

Here we see in the church of Holland, another proof of the inexpediency and injurious tendency of human forms of belief, forced under the name of Creeds on Christian ministers. It is certainly not by a suddenly received light, that the clergy in Holland have discovered, that, as far as regards the doctrine of predestination at least, the Creed till of late unconditionally subscribed by them, and forced upon others, is not in accordance with the Bible. The growing disbelief in the doctrine has at length encouraged, perhaps forced them, to make this confession; they dare not however now do this from the pulpit, where they, as their brethren the Calvinists in this country, were formerly always insisting upon it. Their now determined silence on this point cannot however fail to be observed by a people, who like that of Scotland, have always put a high value on the articles of their Creed, and make them a subject for the exercise of their ingenuity; the fanatical Calvinists will cry out against them, and they are thus in danger of losing their influence and usefulness with their congregations. And when these congregations reflect, that their ministers have preached to them at least one doctrine, which they did not themselves believe; that the Creed and the Catechism remain the same, and their children are still obliged to learn and taught to believe them; is there not danger that this may lead the half informed, the great majority in all communities, to become sceptics, and entertain doubts on the essential parts of the christian religion? I do not blame the present clergy of Holland. Those who have gone before them have done the mischief. Creeds and Catechisms cannot be altered

in any country in Europe without convulsion, and unsettling the minds of the great bulk of the people, because they have been accustomed and taught to look on them as no less sacred than the bible. The safest way then certainly is, that now adopted by necessity. It is safest to introduce, as is now attempted to be done, not by authority of the synod or the churches, but by other means, different catechisms to take insensibly the place of the present one.

What the former orthodox party consider now as positive doctrines of christianity, appear to me to be few. In the great number of sermons published the last three years and mentioned in the reviews, there seems not even to have been an allusion to the doctrine of the Trinity, but in one instance, and the reviewers observe on it: "that many will be surprised, that the author has made use of the word Trinity." Professor Van der Palm, the celebrated Dutch biblical critic, and a most eloquent preacher, has published six volumes of sermons, which I have received. On the subject of the atonement he is positive; he does not however explain it as an infinite satisfaction to enable the Deity to be merciful towards his creatures, but for some reasons inexplicable to us, as a means by God ordained, and necessary to our salvation. He appears to me to have adopted, what Dr. Price calls the middle-scheme, and which the latter thinks the nearest the truth in the Gospel account. Professor Van der Palm speaks of Christ always in the language of the bible, and as the image of God's glory revealed on earth. That in him we see the Father; that his wisdom, power and love, are those of the Father, and that thus exalted, perfected and glorified by the Father, we must love and obey Christ as we do the Father. He represents Christ's present exaltation, "not because he was from eternity with the Father, but because he has been made perfect by obedience and suffering, and has obtained the delivery of men by his blood." Of the Holy Spirit he always speaks as of the power of God.

All the reviewers speak of these sermons, with unqualified praise, and recommend them as models. It seems to me obvious, therefore, that the doctrine of the Trinity is abandoned by the greater part and the most learned of the Dutch clergy, not less than the doctrine of Predestination. It is not long ago, however, that the slightest departure from the Creed established in 1618, was followed a formal dismissal of a minister from any of the established churches. The Synods and classes were particularly watchful for the preservation of the only true doctrines and the purity of the faith, as settled and declared by the Fathers of the Council of Dort.

One of the reviews, which has always, but with great caution, recommended a system of liberal christianity, comes now boldly forward and defends the perfect unity of God, on the ground of the plain and obvious declarations of the bible. It rejects and reprobates the imposition of human Creeds and systems of divinity. No professed Unitarians are more explicit on this point, than the writers in this review.

All this proves to me an amazing change in the religious opinions of my native country, which not many years ago was considered as the great bulwark of the orthodox and calvinistic system on the continent of Europe, and where that system has formerly found its most able and learned defenders. That this great change should be general, cannot be expected. But we may suppose the national general Synod of 1817, to have represented the opinions of the great majority of the Dutch Theologians, at least of the most learned and esteemed among them, and of the heads of the Universities. The perfect freedom allowed by this Synod to the ministers of religion, to take the bible as their standard of faith and doctrine, amounts to a virtual abandonment of any system of Orthodoxy. This, with the now open avowal and defence of the perfect unity of the Godhead, formerly branded and abhorred under the frightful name of Socinianism, must in time bring christianity back to its first purity and simplicity.

I see also in a work on theological subjects, that, in an introductory discourse, lately published by Professor Schulz of Breslau, the doubts about the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews are considered as finally settled, by what proofs or arguments is not mentioned, against the opinion that the Apostle Paul was the author of it. This was also the decision of the great Professor Valckenaer of Leyden, as appears by a recent posthumous publication from his writings, Selecta e Scholis.

Statements respecting Intemperance.-We have just seen the fourth annual Report of the Society for prevention of Pauperism in the city of New-York. The labours of this society are valuable, and we doubt not our readers will be interested in some quotations respecting intemperance--an important subject to which we have often called their attention. After stating "the sources of pauperism which attracted notice the last year, to be Intemperance, Ignorance, Criminal Prosecutions, Condition of Prisons, Gambling-Houses, Pardons, Lotteries, Want of Cleanliness, Emigration, Idleness and Want of Employment," the Managers proceed as follows:

During the last year, the evils of intemperance have not di

minished. By the most accurate computation, there are 1680 licenses for retailing ardent spirits, in actual force, in the city of New-York; making an average of one tippling house to every fourteen houses in this metropolis. And by adopting the mode of calculation used by the managers for the year 1819, to ascertain the sum annually expended in New-York, in the consumption of spirituous liquors, we arrive at the frightful result, that, in 1820, the sum of $1,893,011 was squandered in the use of this single article! And this, too, principally among that portion of our population, who are destitute of any permanent means of support, depending upon manual labour for their daily bread."

They add, that it is found that "the connexion between the evil under consideration, and the commission of a great portion of the minor offences which occupy our civil and criminal courts, is so close and intimate, that in proportion as the use of ardent spirits extends, crimes multiply, and vice versa. The records of the Court of Sessions show, that, as the number of licences has been augmented, assaults and batteries have multiplied; and when the former has diminished, the latter have decreased. The whole number of complaints for assaults and batteries, during the last year, was 1061. During the first six months of that year, the number was 409; in the last six months 652. Here it is to be observed, that about 180 new licenses were granted in the early part of those last six months, in the absence of the mayor. They add the following fact to prove that the use of ardent spirits is not essential to the strength of the most laborious. "Mr. Allaire is the proprietor of a large foundry at Corlaer'sHook. During the last season he employed upwards of sixty workmen, more than thirty of whom were men of families. the course of the summer, he was informed that many of them were in debt; and on investigating their concerns, with surprise he ascertained the fact, that every one who was in the habit of using ardent spirits, was involved to an extent beyond his ability to pay; and, with a satisfaction equal to his former surprise, he learned the additional fact, that those who made no use of spirits, were in easy circumstances, and their children well provided for at school. Nor did a difference of wages from seventy-five cents to ten shillings per day, make any perceptible change in the situation of the former class of workmen.

In

With this picture before him, Mr. Allaire was at once induced to prohibit the use of ardent spirits altogether, in his shops, during working hours. But one person left his employ in consequence of this restriction; and this man had borrowed of Mr. Allaire, while in his service, upwards of $300 to pay grocery bills. In conclusion of his letter, Mr. Allaire observes: I have great reason to be pleased with the happy effects of this regulation. I find my interest better served; and that those who, from excessive drinking, had be