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forth the religious and theological condition of New England "at the beginning of the present century"-so soon after the great restoration of piety and Calvinism, and while "men who sat entranced under the burning eloquence of Whitefield" were yet alive to observe the change.

"The church of the Puritans, after as fair an experiment as it was possible to make with the whole ground again to itself-eaten up, to its very heart, with Socinianism; and a Socinianism not imported, like the plague, by any intercourse with degenerate Geneva, or Halle, or Berlin, or Belfast, or Montauban, but springing up by the natural law of generation, in the moral world, from the latent germ, that, in a free-thinking theory, is at once the primordium vite and the primordium mortis to the system. The blighting angel drops ag in the cursed dew from his wing, over bright New England, and the pulpits of her capitals, and of her quiet villages; the pulpits of her Mathers, her Davenports, her Hookers, her Robinsons, her Rutherfords, are occupied by preachers who, confronted by no liturgy of purer times, preach fearlessly and blasphemously that Jesus is not 'the true God,' and that the Son and the Father are not 'One.”—p. 161.

"At the beginning of the present century," if our historical studies have not misled us, the only pulpit in New England, occupied by a preacher who dared to preach "that Jesus is not the true God,' and that the Son and the Father are not 'One,'" was the pulpit in the King's Chapel at Boston. When Massachusetts was a royal province, the congregation of the King's Chapel were Episcopalians, and generally tories. Many of them at the revolution fled to England. The remainder, though they had been taught by Anglican priests, and "moulded by a liturgical faith," made choice of a Unitarian to be their minister; and not being able to obtain for him any other ordination that would have pleased them better, they ordained him themselves. To this day the worship in the King's Chapel is liturgical, and is guided by an expurgated edition of the prayer-book. The other pulpits in Boston at that day-the pulpits of the ancient Congregational churches there were occupied by men who, however they may have doubted in their speculations the true Divinity of Christ and the Trinity of the Godhead, never dared to deny those doctrines in their preaching. Some six years later than the date referred to, William Ellery Channing preached an orthodox sermon at the ordination of the orthodox John Codman. At the beginning of this century the pulpit of Hooker at Hartford, was occupied by Nathan Strong, whose immediate successor was Joel Hawes, the one as orthodox as the other. The pulpit of Davenport at New Haven was occupied by the venerable James Dana, whose immediate successor, some five years after, was Moses Stuart, and who did not hesitate to affirm that "the Scriptures are express in giving the appellation of God to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and in declaring that these three are one." As for the pulpit of Robinson-it is not in New England, and never was; he lived and preached in Holland, and his grave is there.

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Rutherford was a Scotchman, a straight-laced Presbyterian, who
wrote against Congregationalism, and was answered by Daven-
port, Hooker, and others of our fathers, aud who never saw New
England and knew almost as little about it as our author seems
to know. The Unitarian defection in New England, after hav-
ing been for a long time slowly preparing itself, and having been
long expected by sagacious observers, was developed about the
year 1815.
All but one of the ancient churches in Boston, and
not a few of the churches in the other great towns of eastern
Massachusetts, were separated from communion with the great
body of the churches that were bound together by their adher-
ence to the ancient faith. In little more than ten years, the pro-
cess of separation was completed. A very great majority of the
Congregational churches formed in Massachusetts before the be-
ginuing of this century, are as orthodox now as they ever were.
West of the meridian of Worcester, it is difficult to find a Unita-
rian church which has not been set up since the beginning of the
Unitarian controversy. Out of Massachusetts, the churches of
the defection are so few that a child may write them. One or
two in New Hampshire, one in Maine, one or two, perhaps, in
Rhode Island, one in the eastern part of Connecticut-are all the
churches, if we mistake not, which Congregational orthodoxy
has lost beside those in Massachusetts. For more than twenty
years past, no church has gone over to the Unitarians. And at
this hour, in Boston itself, any intelligent and impartial man would
sooner expect to see the church in Brattle Square, or that in
Chauncey Place, brought back to the ancient faith, than to see
the banner of orthodoxy float no more above the ramparts of the
Old South or of Park street.

And what sort of a picture does this author give us of New
England Congregationalism as it now is? He asks,

"Why is it, that a church, which ** less than a hundred years ago, amidst a universal re-awakening, returned for a while to the manly faith of the earlier Puritans-should now, again, while hearts are yet beating that kindled and beat under the eloquence of Whitefield and Brainerd and Edwards and the Tennants, have lapsed into Socinianism-Universalism— Deism? One of their favorite divines we find, in a New York pulpit, associating, in a breath, the names of 'Socrates and Cato, of Howard and Lafayette, of Jefferson and Jesus! Such is the era,' says one of their orators in the mesmeric trance-and not unendorsed by a number of their clergy-such is the era foreseen by David, Isaiah, Zachariah and Daniel, and impressed upon Confucius, Zoroaster, Brahina, Jesus, Mohammed, Fourier-it was sung on the Orphic lyres of Egypt-preached and anticipated by Paul-and described by John in the Apocalypse! We hear Boston divines beginning at last to deny the personal existence of their Maker; and the learning of old Harvard University is at this moment employed in the grave business of seeking to convince her sons, that, although they be right in denying the three that bear record in heaven,' yet there is sufficient reason to believe that there is One? Herself the plaything of a hundred schisms and sins, the old New England church is now abandoning her children to the delirious wanderings

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of the transcendental philosophy;' and some of her leading divines are echoing the huge atrocity of Germany, that Jesus was but one of a series of Messiahs, whom the world has a right to look for, until society shall be conducted by the paths of liberty and progress to its longed for perfection.”—pp. 165, 166.

This, be it remembered, is a description of the present state not of Boston Unitarianism but of New England Congregationalism. If it were designed to represent simply the condition of the Unitarian congregations of Boston and vicinity, no candid man acquainted with the facts, would hesitate to pronounce it unfair. What terms then can sufficiently express the unfairness-the inexcusable falsehood-of the statement considered as a representation of the present religious and theological condition of the New England Congregational churches? The "old New England church," as he expresses himself in his Presbyterian dialect-is represented as having "lapsed into Socinianism-UniversalismDeism." What extravagance of defamation! What audacity in bearing false witness! Who is that "favorite divine" of the New England Congregationalists, in whose sermons, preached in New York, Jesus is put into the same class with Jefferson? Is it the venerable Dr. Woods or his successor Dr. Park? Is it Dr. Edward Beecher or Mr. Kirk? Is it Dr. Hawes or Dr. Hewit or Dr. Fitch? In the name of truth and justice, who is it? And who is the 'orator in the mesmeric trance' by whom Jesus is made one of the same sort with "Confucius, Zoroaster, Brahma, Mohammed and Fourier?" And who are those individuals of the Congregational clergy by whom the mesmeric nonsense of the orator aforesaid is "not unendorsed?" Who are those "Boston divines," in the fellowship of the Congregational churches, that are beginning at last to deny the personal existence of their Maker? Who are those "leading divines" of the "old New England church" by whom it is taught "that Jesus was but one of a series of Messiahs?" Perhaps the author who has made himself responsible for these statements was "stuffed" in preparation for his task, by some one who took advantage of his credulity. If so, he is more sinned against than sinning.

We can not but take notice that this book is published by the "General Protestant Episcopal Sunday School Union." Is this the kind of reading which the great dignitaries and counselors of Episcopalianism set forth for the use of the pupils and teachers in their Sunday Schools? Are these the lessons of history, and the lessons of charity toward fellow Christians in other communions, which "the church" chooses to impress upon the minds of her own children? We know not what other books of the same kind proceed from the same establishment, but if this is a specimen we should not be surprised to find that Peters' History of Connecticut is one of the standard publications of "the church” for the use of catechumens in her Sunday Schools.

ART. VIII. DAVID HALE.

Memoir of David Hale, late Editor of the Journal of Com merce; with Selections from his Miscellaneous Writings. By JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, Pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, New York. New York: John Wiley, 161 Broadway and 13 Paternoster Row, London. 1850.

IN our present number we have already brought to the notice. of our readers the memoirs of three distinguished ministers of the gospel. We now call their attention to the memoir of an eminent Christian layman. And we are pleased with an opportunity of doing this, because the religious memoirs of laymen are comparatively too few. This class of persons constitute the chief part of Christian communities; and it is therefore more important perhaps to teach by example how a layman should live, than how a minister should live.

There are many reasons which justify a memoir of the life of David Hale, and a collection of his writings, and which call for a notice thereof in our pages. He was editor for many years of a journal, of a high moral tone, which spoke daily to tens of thousands; and one of the ablest editors in the Union: a position hardly surpassed in influence by any other. He was an ac tive and liberal supporter of Christian principles and institutions. He was an intelligent, thorough, untiring and generous advocate of the ecclesiastical polity of New England, His life was an unusual exemplification of Christian constancy, frankness, integrity, purity and charity. And we may add that his character has been extensively misunderstood-that prejudices against him, unjust and often violent, have obtained wide currency-prejudices excited, partly by his fearlessness, independence and straight-forwardness in what he thought the path of duty, and partly, by his neutrality, as an editor, between political parties, the manifest leaning of his personal sympathies toward the democratic side, and his open and able advocacy of some theories which of late years have been favored by the party calling itself democratic.

It is said of an eccentric clergyman of the last century, that once when preaching on the Christian education of children, he stopped short, and abruptly remarked; "After all, brethren, there is a great deal in the breed." This is a truth which, in one form or other, is generally recognized; and while it does not justify that pride of blood or family, which is quite common yet totally and intensely anti-Christian, it does excite a proper interest and a legitimate curiosity respecting a person's descent.

David Hale, the subject of the memoir before us, was a full blooded Puritan. His father, Rev. David Hale, the pastor for

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some years of the Congregational church in Lisbon, Ct., was descended from Robert Hale, who came from England in 1632, and was one of the founders, and a deacon, of the first church in Charlestown, Mass. His mother, Lydia Austin, belonged to a family of the New Haven Puritans, well known for their piety and worth. On his father's side, he was nephew of that young and accomplished hero, and martyr to American liberty, Captain Nathan Hale, who, undertaking a perilous feat in his country's service and being taken prisoner by the British forces, just before his summary and savage execution, exclaimed, "My only regret is, that I have but one life to give for my country;" and, on his mother's side, he was the nephew of Dr. Samuel Austin, who was pastor at first of a church in New Haven, Ct., and afterwards, for twenty five years, of the first church in Worcester, Mass., and then was President of the University of Vermont-one of the ablest preachers and theologians of New England.

Mr. Hale's parents were of the best type of New England character, and gave their only child such a training and example as such parents are wont to give. They were well rewarded, by experiencing in him the fulfillment of the promise included in the familiar declaration of Solomon. When a youth of sixteen, according to the description of a gentleman with whom he was a clerk in Coventry, Ct., (then the residence of his father, who had been compelled by ill health to retire to his paternal farm,) he was trusty and faithful, frank, truthful and magnanimous. Not satisfied with the opportunities and prospects of a clerk in a country store, at the age of eighteen, in the year 1809, he went to Boston, and sought employment there. After spending about three years in that city, in the experience of both bad and good treatment as a clerk in the service of different employers, he returned to Coventry, in the fall of 1812, soon after the commencement of the war with Great Britian.

Not long before leaving Boston, he experienced, at the age of twenty-one, that great change, which the Scriptures denominate a new birth, or the passing from death unto life. Before this period, his moral principles were good, his moral conduct was pure, and he was accustomed to keep the Sabbath, and to read the holy Scriptures, which, like Timothy, he had "known from a child;" but he was a stranger to the faith which embraces Christ and unites the soul to him in vital and saving bonds. Under the earnest and pungent preaching of Rev. Dr. Griffin, upon whose ministry in Park street church he was a regular attendant, and whose sermons, to use his own words, often sent him home trembling to his room and to his knees, he was effectually called to repentance and faith in Christ.

Mr. Hale remained in Coventry about three years, (with the exception of a short time which he spent, as sergeant of a

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