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Justice Parker go into a consideration of this question, on the bench, and express officially an opinion respecting it? We know, too, that the decision, to which we have referred, is inconsistent, in several points, with others on the same subject which preceded it, and ininconsistent with itself; for we have examined it to our entire satisfaction, as any person of ordinary capacity can do at pleasure. See Spirit of the Pilgrims, Vol. i. pp. 131–137.

The writer in the Advocate represents our opposition to this decision as "for the most part unsuccessful," and doubts the assertion of one of our correspondents, that it "has never been well received, or acquiesced in, by the bar, or by intelligent lawyers of the Commonwealth.* We could easily remove his doubts on this subject, were it needful or proper to do so. We could refer him to lawyers and jurists not a few, of high respectability, both in the state and out of it, with whose opinions we have been made acquainted, and whom we know to be entirely dissatisfied with the principles laid down in the Dedham decision. We could name many such, who think as we do, that the churches are corporate bodies, entitled to their own property, and capable of holding it, and that to wrest it from them, under cover of law, is no better than plunder. What possible right has a parish, in case of division, to the records, the communion furniture, and other property of the church? They did not purchase such property, nor was it given to them; and they have, in justice, no more claim to it, than they have to the houses and lands of the church members. In regard to decisions, making such a disposal of church property, we repeat the language of another correspondent, "They have not been generally acquiesced in, and will not be."

"To be sure there has been, and we trust there will be, no violent resistance; but between a mere abstaining from such resistance, and cordial acquiescence, there is a very wide difference. And it is high time that our honorable Judges were given distinctly to understand, that, however much professing Christians throughout the State are disposed to respect them as magistrates and as men, and however ready they may be to sustain them in the distribution of justice, still they cannot look on, and see church after church, which the Pilgrims planted, and which God has blessed, stripped of its natural

* This writer has inserted a long note, in which he complains of some inaccuracies in the communication from which the sentence above quoted is taken. See Spirit of the Pilgrims, Vol. ii. p. 128. We have had no opportunity of conferring with our correspondent, or of learning from any source, precisely what the facts in the case are. The writer of the article in the Advocate, (if report attributes it to its real author) undoubtedly knows what they are, and we are willing to presume that he has stated them correctly. What then is the amount of misrepresentation charged upon our correspondent? Why, that a deacon (not deacons) was removed from office by Mr. Lamson's church; and he not (as our correspondent had understood) without previous notice and accusation. It gives us pleasure to correct any, the least, mis-statement of this sort, into which ourselves or our correspondents may at any time fall. If others approve our example in this respect, we hope they will follow it. In a single article on the rights of the churches, published in our number for July 1829, we pointed out more than forty misrepresentations in the Reviews in the Christian Examiner on the same subject. Not one of them has yet been so much as noticed. It would seem that Unitarians were more civil to their refractory deacons a dozen years ago, than they have been recently as it is stated positively that the Juridicals in Cambridge did undertake to remove their deacons, without previous notice, or the allegation of a crime.

rights, and its just inheritance, without deep emotion. We ask no more for the churches than what obviously belongs to them, the right of self-preservation, of self-organization, of controlling their own property, and managing, generally, their own concerns; and when this is refused them, whether under color of law, or in face of law, (though we can keep the peace,) we cannot, without treachery to Him whose are all the churches, cordially acquiesce. And in saying this, we are confident that we speak the sentiment of thousands, and of tens of thousands among the most pious and respectable citizens of this Commonwealth."

Our opponents compliment themselves and one another continually, on the fair, mild, and charitable spirit in which they are wont to conduct their religious discussions. We must furnish our readers with a single specimen, from which to judge of the propriety of such representations.

"There are strange delusions in the world. The Orthodox may oppress, deno unce and vilify, and no injustice, in their opinion, is done. They are authorized to trample the world's people,' heretics, and infidels, for so Unitarians are called, under their feet; and all this time, Unitarians are expected to be still; they cannot utter a word of rebuke or remonstrance, but they must be chastised for it. 'When Hagar offends her mistress, this is downright rebellion; when Sarah beats Hagar this is due correction.' So, according to the 'lively' Jortin, the Orthodox have thought, taking Sarah and Hagar for types' of them. selves, and of heretics. And so they appear to think now. They being the 'true seed,'' chosen,' and 'saints,' are at liberty to administer correction to Unitarian outcasts and reprobates. The blows they give are 'sanctified by the good intention, and the salutary effect.'"

If the gentleman who wrote, and those who approved and published this paragraph, think that the statements contained in it are fair and true, and the spirit manifested, kind and charitable; we sincerely pity them. They are entitled, in this case, to the commiseration of all sober, enlightened men. If, on the other hand, they were willing to publish such statements, when they did not think them true; we can only leave them to their own reflections.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

1. The Christian Student: Designed to assist Christians in general in acquiring Religious Knowledge. With a list of books suitaable for a Minister's library. By the Rev. E. Bickersteth, Minister of Sir George Wheler's Chapel, Spital Square. From the second London edition. Boston: Perkins & Marvin. 1830. pp. 362.

2. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, late pastor of the Baptist Church at Kettering, and first Secretary to the Baptist Missionary Society. By J. W. Morris. First American from the last London edition. Edited by Rufus Babcock, Jr. Boston: Lincoln & Edmands. 1830. pp. 320.

3. Exegetical Essays on several words relating to Future Punishment. By Moses Stuart, Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover. Andover: Flagg & Gould. 1830. pp. 156.

The first of these Essays is an examination of the Scriptural use of the words Aion and Aiorios, and was published in the Spirit of the Pilgrims for August 1829. The others contain a similar examination of the words Sheol, Hades, Tartaros, and Geenna. The following passages are from the General Remarks, with which the learned author closes his investigation.

"And now, in view of the results which the whole of the preceding investigations afford, what says the understanding? What says conscience?

"The question is not, what this or that individual may wish or desire to be true; but, What have the sacred writers taught?

"Our question is with the Bible. Does this reveal a place of future punishment? To say that this is absurd, or impossible, is only to prejudge the question without examining it. The results of a philological examination of the Scriptures, are, that a place of punishment after death is disclosed by the sacred writers, and by the Saviour of men. I am well aware that this is contradicted and denied. But then, neither contradiction nor denial, in this case, springs from philology, but from inclination, wishes, philosophy, or prejudice. If this be not so, why is not philology arrayed, in all its proper strength, against the idea that there is a place of future punishment? Who has done this? How is it to be done? All the examples in the Scriptures, of the various words above examined, are produced in these essays. There is no concealment. I trust there is no attempt to pervert or fritter away their obvious meaning. I am certain there is no such design, on my part. Let them be philologically and critically set aside, or shown to be erroneously interpreted, and, so far as I am concerned, I promise to institute de novo another examination.'

"I advance one step further. There is not only a place of future punishment, (just as surely as there is of future happiness, and on the like grounds,) but that place is separated by an "impassable gulf" from the region of the blessed. So the awful passage in Luke xvi. 19-26 informs us. The words of this passage, be it remembered, are those of the Saviour, who knows whether there is a hell as well as a heaven. They then that "would pass from the Hades of torments to the region of the blessed, CANNOT." (Luke xvi. 26.) There is no commutation of place for them.

"The force of all this may be denied; attempts may be made to fritter it away; they have been. There is no difficulty in all this. But how the IMPASSABLE GULF fixed between heaven and hell by an ALMIGHTY GOD, is to be removed, or rendered passible, is a question which those who deal thus with the Saviour's words, would do well seriously and timely to consider."

4. The Spiritual Mirror, or Looking Glass; exhibiting the Human Heart as being either the Temple of God, or a habitation of Devils: Exemplified by a series of ten engravings, intended to aid in a better understanding of Man's Fallen Nature. Translated from the German, by Peter Bauder. Newburyport: Charles Whipple. 1830. pp. 80.

5. The Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion. By James Douglass, Esq. First American from the second Edinburgh edition. Hartford: Cook & Co., and Packard & Butler. pp. 315.

1830.

6. A Lexicon of Useful Knowledge; for the use of Schools and Libraries. With several hundred engravings. By Rev. H. Wilbur, A. M. New York: White, Gallaher & White. 1830.

7. The Triumph of Christ's Enemies no cause of Discouragement. A Sermon delivered at Winthrop, June 21, 1830, on the evening previous to the meeting of the General Conference of Maine. By Silas McKeen, Pastor of the Congregational Church in Bradford, Vermont. Portland: Shirley & Hyde. pp. 26.

8. An Address to the Citizens of Boston, September 17th, 1830, the close of the second Century from the first settlement of the City. By Josiah Quincy, LL. D., President of Harvard University. Boston J. H. Eastburn. pp. 68.

Of this learned and eloquent Address, the following are the closing passages:

"What then, in conclusion of this great topic, are the elements of the liberty, prosperity and safety, which the inhabitants of New England at this day enjoy? In what language, and concerning what comprehensive truths, does the wisdom of former times address the inexperience of the future?

"Those elements are simple, obvious, and familiar.

Every civil and religious blessing of New England, all that here gives happiness to human life, or security to human virtue, is alone to be perpetuated in the forms and under the auspices of a free commonwealth.

"The commonwealth itself has no other strength or hope, than the intelligence and virtue of the individuals that compose it.

"For the intelligence and virtue of individuals, there is no other human assurance than laws, providing for the education of the whole people.

"These laws themselves have no strength, or efficient sanction, except in the moral and accountable nature of man, disclosed in the records of the Christian's faith; the right to read, to construe, and to judge concerning which, belongs to no class or cast of men, but exclusively to the individual, who must stand or fall by his own acts and his own faith, and not by those of another.

"The great comprehensive truths, written in letters of living light on every page of our history,-the language addressed by every past age of New England to all future ages is this;-Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom;-freedom none but virtue;-virtue none but knowledge; and neither freedom, nor virtue, nor knowledge has any vigor, or immortal hope, except in the principles of the Christian faith, and in the sanctions of the Christian religion. "Men of Massachusetts! Citizens of Boston! descendants of the early emigrants consider your blessings; consider your duties. You have an inheritance acquired by the labors and sufferings of six successive generations of ancestors. They founded the fabric of your prosperity, in a severe and masculine morality, having intelligence for its cement, and religion for its ground-work. Continue to build on the same foundation, and by the same principles; let the extending temple of your country's freedom rise, in the spirit of ancient times, in proportions of intellectual and moral architecture,-just, simple, and sublime. As from the first to this day, let New England continue to be an example to the world, of the blessings of a free government, and of the means and capacity of man to maintain it. And, in all times to come, as in all times past, may Boston be among the foremost and the boldest to exemplify and uphold whatever constitutes the prosperity, the happiness, and the glory of New England."

9. An Ode, pronounced before the inhabitants of Boston, Sept. 17th, 1830, at the Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of the City. By Charles Sprague. Boston: J. H. Eastburn. pp. 22.

By

10. An Address to the members of the City Council, on the Removal of the Municipal Government to the Old State House. Harrison Gray Otis, Mayor of the City of Boston. Boston: J. H. Eastburn. pp. 15.

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(Continued from p. 567.)

I AM confident, that in the foregoing rapid sketch, every serious and candid reader must discover the lineaments of a mind, at once penetrating, active, vigorous and steady to its high purpose, together with indubitable evidence of learning, sincerity, piety, and ardent attachment to the great principles of the reformation. But I have purposely reserved a few additional remarks for the close of the present sketch. If in our final estimate of this great reformer's character, we could truly present it to the world without a blemish, it would stand alone upon the annals of the church. Infirmities and imperfections Calvin undoubtedly had, and few men He lived have more deeply felt and lamented them than he did. in a comparatively dark age; and although he saw many things more clearly than his cotemporaries, we have to lament, much more than to wonder, that his mind was not wholly emancipated from the intolerance which every where surrounded him. I allude here, particularly, to that unhappy incident, which has been most ungenerously seized upon, magnified, distorted, and employed to hold up the Genevan Reformer, in the character of a cruel and relentless persecutor. In order to blast the character of Calvin, and to expose to general reprobation that system of doctrines which bears his name, a thousand changes have been rung upon the sufferings of that audacious blasphemer, who was burnt at Geneva, in 1553.

Servetus-yes, alas! Servetus was condemned and executed for blasphemy and heresy ; and the wonder is with many, how any one can possibly embrace and defend doctrines, which were taught by the man, who it is said, was the principal actor in that horrible tragedy! Indeed, if the modern Calvinists had actually assem

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