rector and four Jewish professors, who will not be admitted until after having been examined according to the regulations. NORWAY. It is delightful to witness the spread of just and generous principles of civil legislation and policy. Norway is not unworthy of a place in refined and improving Europe. A work has lately come out from a Norwegian press, and in the Norwegian tongue, On the Punishment of Death, by M. P. A. HEIBERG. This author declares against capital punishments, and supports his enlightened and humane theory with great ability. Without appearing to aim a blow at the Calvinistic scheme of theology, he contends that the principle that the law demands satisfaction is detestable, and that the principle of retaliation is still worse. How long will sanguinary systems of faith continue to countenance sanguinary forms of policy? TURKEY. There has just appeared the first publication on science in Turkey: it is a work of 300 pages in folio, with 56 engraved plates, printed at Constantinople, 1820. It is in the Turkish language: the translated title is, Mirror of Bodies, or the Anatomy of Mun, a work upon Anatomy, Medicine, and the Healing Art, by CHANI-ZADEH, Member of the Ulémah. (The Ulémah is a religious and political order, charged with the maintenance of religion and the laws.) The author professes to derive his materials from French, German and English works. His book could not have appeared but in consequence of a khatti-cherif or edict of the Grand Seignior, nor could his sublimity have issued such an edict except in the character of Caliph, or Supreme Head of the Church. The plates are rude, but the anatomy is exact. The style is said to be clear and concise. The French literati pride themselves upon being the chief teachers of the Turks in science, as they have been in fortification and the construction of a military marine. Regi Belgici, or Latin Memoirs of the Third Class of the Royal Institute of Holland, has recently appeared: in the Contents we observe a Memoir by M. VAN LENNEP, on Justin's Statement (Lib. xxxvi. Cap. 2) concerning the Origin of the Jews in Damascus, with Remarks upon it by M. Willmet, and also a Letter of M. BILDERDYK'S, entitled De Collatione Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum, necnon Specimen Emendationis Edicti Imperatorum Diocletiani et Maximiani contra Manichæos. The following is the title of a late publication here-Wesselii Alberti VAN HENGEL Oratio de Religionis Christance Disciplinâ, &c. "On the Helps that the Christian Religion furnishes to true Eloquence." M. Van Hengel succeeds M. Nuys Van Klinkenberg in the chair of Theology and of Ecclesiastical History, at the Athenæum of Amsterdam: and this is his inaugural Discourse. Three medical professors at GroHENDRIKS) have revived the pretenningen (BAKKER, WOLTHERS and sions of Animal Magnetism, which it Lavoisier, &c. had laid for ever, in a was thought that Franklin, Bailly, joint work, entitled Bydragen tot, &c., "Present State of Animal Magnetism in our Country." 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 addressed 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 enact ments 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 Calvinists; 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, i. 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 explica tion 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 thein, and forced upon others, is not in accordance with the Bible. The growing disbelief in the doctrine has at length encou raged, 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 Vander 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 Vander 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 by 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, comnes 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 Schultz, 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. NEW PUBLICATIONS IN THEOLOGY AND GENERAL LITERATURE. Specimens of the Russian Poets: Translated by John Bowring, F. L. S., with Preliminary Remarks and Biographical Notices. Second edition, with Additions. 12mo. 78. 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By the late Rev. Frederic Thruston. 8vo. 12s. Nine Discourses, on Important Subjects; delivered in St. Mark's Church, Liverpool. By William Morton. 8vo. 68. 6d. POETRY. MATIN AND VESPER HYMNS. Wednesday Morning. Extinguished is the morning star, The shadows of night are gone; And lo! in the East day's golden car Is filled by the glorious sun. And list for a thousand voices call The spirits of life and love— Attune your hymns to the Father of all, The Sovereign who reigns above. 'Tis he who opens the orient gates, Who kindles the morning's ray; "Tis he whose spirit all animates, And the darkness and the day. All the glories of the field are his, All the music of the sky: The light of hope and the smile of bliss, His temple is yon arch sublime, His worshipers are the countless train And the music of the spheres. He rides unseen on the hurrying storm, He wraps in clouds His awful form, A thousand messengers wait His will, His glorious mandate to fulfil, He smiles and worlds spring forth to birth, And suns in new glory rise; He frowns and darkness clads the earth And mantles the frighted skies. Dost thou think He speaks in the thunder's roar, Or shine in the lightning's beam? Vain man! no thought of thine can soar To any conception of Him. His strength nor perishing tongue can tell, Nor immortal hymns rehearse : "Tis high as the heaven 'tis deep as hell, And wide as the universe. The ocean to Him is a dew-drop small, Are dust in His mighty hand. |