whose vision no darkness can obscure, whose penetrating glance no swiftness can elude? God is good, infinitely good. Where is our gratitude? Where are the generous emotions, which should rise up to swell the notes of praise to a benefactor so unbounded in the riches of his benevolence and grace? God is merciful; not to the wicked, the obstinate, and the rebellious; but to the humble, the penitent, the virtuous. Who will delay to become the object of this mercy by reforming his life, and seeking the divine favour?

Let none entertain the degrading thought, that with God's mercy can be joined any evil passion. He cannot hate his creatures; he can only love them. The wicked have not to apprehend the hatred, the vengeance of God. Not a single attribute of his nature have they to fear. Their own follies, their wickedness, their perverseness, their disobedience, are the only objects at which they need be alarmed. These God will punish, but as much in mercy as justice; he would have all his creatures happy; he would purify them from the crimes, which are at war with their well being. Let all persons know God as he is, and they will serve him acceptably.

Unitarian Society at Pittsburgh..

A NEW building for public worship has been commenced by the unitarian congregation at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This Society has for some time past been under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Campell, to whose work on the Unity of God and the Reconciliation made by Jesus Christ, we have on a former occasion called the attention of our readers.

IN your article on the Prospects of Unitarianism, in the Miscellany for July last, you have made mention of "four prominent places, where orthodoxy, since the era of the Reformation, was planted with a strength and deepness, which mere human foresight would predict could never suffer it to be eradicated, but where the result has utterly baffled such prediction." That part of Europe, generally denominated Holland, once considered as the bulwark of the reformed religion, and the strong hold of what is called orthodoxy, and where it has been defended in numerous ponderous volumes, with perhaps unequalled learning and perseverance, you have not named; but it offers at this moment another proof of the truth of your observation, that in all those places where Christianity has been partially or wholly released from her alliance with power, and the religious principle and the spirit of inquiry have together been allowed to exert their ener

gies, more liberal views of religion have been introduced.

Notwithstanding the great name acquired by the protestant church in Holland, its situation soon after the introduction of the reformation had become truly deplorable; the spirit of protestantism, a spirit of freedom, without which it is lifeless, had fled; and the understanding, even among many of the learned, had become darkened by the disputes about those doctrines, which baffled the human intellect, and contradicted the plain doctrines of the Bible.

The study of Hebrew and Grecian literature was neglected for the explanation of the writings of the first reformers; and these, and not the Bible, were explained, and their doctrines enforced. Except Drusius, Episcopius, and Grotius, none thought it of importance to study critically the sacred writings; it was only required to adhere to what were called the points in dispute; and little interest was taken in the other points of faith and practice. Scholastic philosophy was recalled; the darkness of the middle ages returned; and at the examination of candidates for the ministry, nothing was so much inquired into, as their ability to defend the five contested points.

Towards the middle of that century, the Hebrew and Greek literature was more cultivated, but only to make it subservient to the prevailing system of divinity. Some better expositors appeared, but in the spirit of the Synod of Dort, and of that translation of the Bible, which had been entrusted by the government to the members of the Synod, after the composition of their creed. They either kept to the letter of this translation, or had recourse to a hidden and mystic sense,

after the philosophy of Aristotle, under which the plain truths of the Christian religion disappeared. No preacher dared to inculcate from the pulpit the practical morality of the Gospel, for fear of being accused as a preacher of works.

To explain how this could take place in a country, where the majority of the inhabitants had lately abjured the Church of Rome, and claimed the rights of conscience, and had been taught that the Bibie alone was the creed of protestants, it is necessary to bring into view the situation in which that country was then placed.

Of the seventeen provinces which had revolted against Spain, ten had been forced to submit again to its bloody tyranny. The seven remaining in arms were composed of a population of about two millions, whereof a fourth part remained attached to their old faith. It was no wonder then that the reformers adopted the opinions of Calvin, as being the most opposed to those of the Roman church. The breach between the parties was thus made as wide as possible. Perhaps too it was thought advisable to present the multitude, educated in the mysteries of the Catholic religion, with the unintelligible and puzzling doctrines of Calvin. The reformed clergy succeeded to the unbounded influence of the discarded priests and monks, who were more abhorred for their adherence to the sanguinary and faithless government of Spain, than for their system of religion. A parallel is to be found between the revolt of the Spanish Netherlands, and that of the now United States of America; as both, in the outset, appealed to arms, to defend and preserve the civil rights which they enjoyed, on the ground of

charters and privileges. The encroachments on these rights in the Netherlands increased the attachment of the people to the reformed religion. The government of the Seven Provinces was engaged in an unequal and seemingly desperate contest with the then powerful monarchy of Spain; and it was chiefly by the influence of religious opinions and antipathies, that the nation could be brought to persevere in a protracted struggle for seventy years, attended with unparalleled sufferings and calamities. An alliance between church and state was the necessary consequence of this state of things.

By the historical records of those times, it appears, that more enlightened views with regard to the new doctrines of the reformation were entertained by many; and the zeal, bitterness, and learning, employed to defend the Calvinistic system proves also, that the number of those who dissented from it was not small, nor devoid of intelligence and learning. But the creed of the majority being formed, was strenuously defended against all further innovations, by the men who wielded its power over the nation and the government. The religious dissensions had, however, become so high and serious, that the convention of a National Synod was resolved on. Although the sovereign power was vested in the Assembly of the States General. Prince Maurice of Orange, the first captain of that age, on whom the safety of the new republic was considered to depend, exercised a great influence; and he meditated to put himself in the place of the renounced sovereign. Among the illustrious men who opposed him in this project, were conspicuous Oldenbarneveld, Grotius, and Hogerberts,