thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,' are any thing, but an approval of his faith. And is it not evident, that his faith was not satisfactory, seeing Christ inculcated on him the necessity of believing on the Son of God, as well as of undergoing the new birth? When Peter made his celebrated confession,- that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, it was approved and applauded, and even declared to be an express revelation from the Father to the apostle. Now, Sir, mark the different reception given to these two confessions; and say, is there not a difference in the creeds themselves which led to it? And yet Unitarians mean no more by the Son of God, than Nicodemus meant by Teacher come from God. This, Sir, I call a case in point, and one that merits your serious attention, both as a man and as a minister. As a man, it is your interest to have the approbation of Christ to your creed; and as a minister, to take care that you insist upon all the faith which Christ insisted on. You deprecate, I am sure, such a reception for your flock as Nicodemus met with: it devolves on you, therefore, to guard them against stopping short where he did.". p. 24, 25.

vations, if the claims of justice, and the importance of the subject, did not demand the introduction of another short paragraph. This developes the Author's views of those general principles, which render the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ essentially necessary to human salvation.

66

Now, it is not on the doctrines of natural religion, that we differ: these are common to both. We go hand in hand, through all the range of those principles which arise out of the natural and moral relations of creatures to their Creator; and do not separate, until we reach those principles which have arisen in consequence of the creature's disregard of relative obligation. Here we divide, and continue to diverge until we lose sight of each other. For example, Trinitarians say, that the present state of mankind being depraved and guilty, has brought into REVEALED RELIGION doctrines totally different in character from those of NATURAL RELIGION, but the same in their moral influence. The former, however, are brought in so, as not to set aside the latter. The doctrine of atonement magnifies, and the doctrine of justification by faith establishes, the moral law. They are therefore additions, not substitutes for the truths of NATURAL RELIGION; additions called for by the guilt and depravity of the human race. And it surely occurs to you, that the religious system of sinners, is likely to have some peculiarities, and must differ in all the points which regard sin, from a system adapted to the condition of innocent beings. For, if it did not, there would be nothing to check or remedy sin, but its own consequences. And on your scheme, there is nothing else to do so, but law and its penal sanctions; and the first you make so lax, that it requires no satisfaction; and the second so light, that they inspire no terrors." p. 51.

It is among the infelicities of Unitarianism, to exhibit a creed, which, in some of its articles, is less calculated for the meridian of Christianity, than for the suburbs of Infidelity. Between the faith of many who advocate this system, and that professed by Thomas Paine, in his Age of Reason, there is a melancholy resemblance. In the doctrines which they reject, they mutually concur. The former indeed profess to believe the Bible; while the latter disdains its authority. But to facts and doctrines, which reason can sanction, by tracing them from given premises, to the same conclusions that Revelation has set before the eye of faith, Thomas Paine We must now take our leave of this would not have hesitated to give his Author, and his work. If any apology assent; and beyond this, it is much to be necessary for the length of this arbe feared, that many Unitarians are not ticle, we hope it will be found in the inclined to pass. In both cases, the importance of the subject which has plain result is, We will receive Reve-passed under our review. The questions lation so far as it meets our approbation, on the ground of reason, but not under the sanctions of authority." When this fails, Infidelity indeed retires; and Unitarianism only remains to accommodate, with the tortures of criticism, those truths which it would otherwise disbelieve.

66

We might here terminate our obser-
No. 1.-VOL. I.

which we have seen agitated, affect the vitals of Christianity. Of this the Author seems to have been fully aware; and, so far as popular argument and popular language can be deemed beneficial to the cause of truth, we cannot suppose that this pamphlet has been written in vain.

D

LIFE AND CONDUCT OF SERBELLONE.

puted among moralists, whether the names of men, who are indebted for the

notoriety of their characters, to the infamy of their conduct, should be preserved for the detestation of posterity, or consigned to the shades of oblivion. In the mere abstract, this is a question which we have hardly the means of deciding; since it seems to require a more intimate acquaintance with human nature, than any mortal can presume to boast. On this, as well as on most other occasions, our decisions must be governed by circumstances, which rather enable us to judge of insulated facts, than to establish general principles.

had reposed in him; nor of that sangui

Ir is a point which has been much dis-nary cause, in behalf of which he had drawn his sword. By the Catholics he was caressed in proportion to the barbarities which he exercised on the Protestants; and by these he was dreaded on account of the cruelties which every where marked his conduct. When Pius V, on the death of his predecessor, came to the Papal chair, he was so well satisfied with the fidelity of Serbellone, that he continued him in the same honorary employment to which he had been raised in 1560. But his career of wickedness was drawing to a close. In 1566 he returned from Orange, where, he had marked his footsteps with wanin conjunction with the troops of France, tonness, carnage, blood, and fire, inhim the supreme command of all the tending to repair to Rome to take upon Papal armies. But in this journey, on paying a visit to his brother, who was a cardinal, he was summoned by death to appear before a more awful tribunal than he had erected, and to receive a sions there can be no appeal. sentence from a Judge, from whose deci

When the vices of an individual receive a deceitful varnish from the pen of biography, and iniquity appears before us in the habiliments of virtue; when crimes of the deepest dye take shelter under the dignity of station, and deeds of cruelty are associated with heroic enterprise; and, when the deformity of moral character is concealed beneath a brilliancy of talents, so that even brutality itself loses half its grossness; every one must perceive, that

the various barbarities for which SerbelIn attempting to set before the reader lone was distinguished, the account shall be given as it has been recorded by Varillas, who was considered as a good Catholic. He informs us, that "Fabricius Serbellone, a gentleman of Milan, of an ancient family, and of great expe

"What better far to oblivion were consign'd, Is hung on high to poison half mankind." But when, on the contrary, we behold a character that has only been renowned for infamy; by transmitting his name to posterity associated with his real his-rience, who gave himself over to most tory, we do nothing more than place him on a literary gibbet, in company with an inscription, which informs the reader why he suffered. It is on this principle, that we hang the name of SERBELLONE in chains, and expose it to the gaze and detestation of the nineteenth century.

vices that prevail among his countrymen, as he was endowed with their virtues, joined with the Catholics of Provence, whom the counts de Sommerive, de Suze, de Carces, &c. had gathered together, and persuaded them to make an attempt upon Orange. This was done on the 6th of June, 1562. He invested that town when the whole garrison was gone out; and taking advantage of that favourable juncture, he gave an assault as soon as his battery had made a sufficient breach. During the assault, the Catholics, that were left in Orange, opened one gate to him. He went in through it, and his men were contented at first to kill every body they met in arms; but afterwards, they renewed the examples of the most refined cruelty invented formerly by tyrants. They On being raised to this "bad emi-employed their ingenuity in contriving nence," he took a most decided part how to make those, who had been so against the Protestants, and proved, by unhappy as to escape their first fury, his inhumanity, that he was not unwor-feel themselves die, and killed them grathy of the confidence which his Holiness dually. Some were thrown headlong upon

FABRICIUS SERBELLONE was general of the Pope's troops in the county of Avignon, during the civil wars in the reign of Charles IX. He was at first nothing more than a captain of an independent company, and governor of Pavia, for the emperor Charles V. Afterwards he exercised the office of commissary-general of the army in Piedmont; and in the year 1560, he was appointed governor of the state of Avignon, by Pope Pius IV, and general of his armies.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CAUSES AND
INCREASE OF PAUPERISM.

"D'Aubigne had said long before, that
the Catholic historians had related what
he says of the cruelties exercised at
Orange. Doubtless he meant Thuanus,
who relates the whole matter as fully as
related in the above passage taken from
Varillas, and as fully as Theodore Beza
had related it. He meant, I say, Thu-have provided for their relief.
anus; but he had some reasons not to
name him. It will be granted me that
the historian, whose words. I have tran-
scribed, is a writer of greater authority,

THERE is scarcely any subject of a domestic nature so interesting at present to all classes of the community, as the condition of the Poor; especially, when we view them in connexion with those means, which the laws of our country

That these laws were originally founded on principles of justice and humanity, no one will presume to doubt. But whether the changes which have taken

place in the political condition of this nation, in the extent of its commerce, agriculture, and population, have not rendered some change in these laws necessary, are points on which the opinions of speculative and practical men have of late been much divided. It is admitted by all parties, that the support of the Poor in this country is become a burden, the weight of which is almost intolerable. And if the alarm-rection can be expected to find pering progression in which the demand for assistance has of late years increased, may be taken as a fair ground for future calculations, the period is not remote, when the means of support must sink under the accumulating pressure.

to peace, be the primary cause of our distresses, we may fairly infer, that our calamities and sufferings are only of a temporary nature. Peace will direct us to new avenues of trade, which will ultimately furnish new sources of employment, where industry will exert its powers, and from which it will gather its reward. It is only in the arms of full employment, that a spirit of insurmanent repose. And it is only in this region, that those who now solicit an alms from the hand of charity, wealth, or fortune, will regain that independence of character, which makes even poverty itself cease to be discreditable.

To give existence to this unwelcome change, many causes have, no doubt, conspired; but it is highly probable, that we may find the whole, or nearly the whole, concentrated in that sudden transition from a condition of unexampled warfare, to a state of unexpected peace, which this country, which Europe, and a large portion of the world, have lately experienced. There is no thing unnatural in the supposition, that considerable degree of weakness should immediately succeed to a dangerous fever. This dreadful disease afflicted our country during a period of more than twenty years. It has, how ever, happily subsided; but its effects are more conspicuous now than they were, when nothing but paroxysm and delirium convulsed every member of the political body.

a

In the multitudes of men who have been discharged from the navy, and of soldiers who have been disbanded, we behold many thousands thrown out of all employment. These have been turned among the various labouring classes of the community, to procure a subsistence which government no longer provides. The natural effect of this vast acquisition would have been inevitable, even though the demand for every article which trade and agriculture supplied during the war, had remained. But when the energies of government were suspended, and the consumptions of war were discontinued, the employment for labourers was diminished in the same proportion that their numbers increased. Thus two conspiring causes met together; and the consequence has been, that accumulation of poverty which we every where behold.

On the demoralized condition of the Poor, much has been said, and many things have been written. It cannot be denied, that vice prevails among them in no common degree; but whether the iniquities of the lower orders have increased in proportion to the demands for assistance which they have lately made, is a point which we have yet to ascertain.

It is well known, that war is not a school, in which either the soldier or the sailor learns many lessons of moral virtue. Men accustomed to depredation, and instructed by their profession to behold plunder and murder, without associating any degree of moral turpitude with either, can hardly fail to carry these dreadful acquirements into private life. The vices are contagious. Example and precept have conspired to spread this pernicious species of learning; and the gaol, the transport, and the gibbet, point us to the melancholy result.

The calamities of which England complains, are not unknown in other countries. The nations of Europe have their share. America has noticed the growing evils; and in one of its principal cities, an enlightened committee has traced them to sources which may be found among us; and pointed out remedies, which are practicable in experiment, and promising in their issues. As all the leading principles of the Report are of general application, we shall make no apology for presenting it to our readers, in exactly the same manner in which it has reached us from New York, with the omission of a few preliminary resolutions which led to the inquiry, of which this is the result.

Report on the subject of Pauperism. AT a meeting of a respectable number But if the sudden transition from war of citizens convened at the New York

Hospital on Friday, December 16th, 1817, a committee was formed for the purpose of inquiring into the state of Pauperism, and for exploring as much as possible the leading causes of its alarming increase; and also for pointing out such means as they thought most likely to meet the growing evil. The committee, thus formed, instantly entered upon the investigation; and at a meeting of the society on Friday the 6th of February, 1818, the following Report was read; when it was resolved, that 1000 copies of the Report and Constitution be published for distribution, under the direction of the same Committee.

To the "New York Society for the Pre

vention of Pauperism."

a catastrophe would be extensively felt in this free and happy country. Yet it is really to be feared, as we apprehend, that it would not be long before some of the proximate evils of such a state of things would be perceived in our public cities, and in none, perhaps, sooner than in New York. Although these consequences are but too apparent from the numerous facts which recent investigations have brought to light, particularly in Great Britain, and in some parts of the United States, yet we are very sensible of the difficulties attendant upon every attempt to provide an adequate remedy for poverty, and its concomitant wretchedness.

The evil lies deep in the foundation of our social and moral institutions; and we cannot but consider it as one of the The committee appointed to prepare a most obscure and perplexing, and, at the constitution for the government of the same time, interesting and imposing desociety, and a statement of the prevail-partments of political economy. ing causes of pauperism, with suggestions relative to the most suitable and efficient remedies - Report,

That we entered upon the duties assigned us, under a strong conviction of the great importance of the subject of Pauperism. We were persuaded that on the judicious management of this subject, depend, in a high degree, the comfort, the tranquillity, and the freedom, of communities. We were not insensible of the serious and alarming evils that have resulted, in various places, from misguided benevolence, and imprudent systems of relief. We knew that in Europe and America, where the greatest efforts have been made to provide for the sufferings of the poor, by high and even enormous taxation, those sufferings were increasing in a ratio much greater than the population, and were evidently augmented by the very means taken to subdue them.

While their exists so great a disparity in the physical and intellectual capacities of men, there must be in every government, where a division of property is recognized by law and usage, a wide difference in the means of support. Such, too, is the complication of human affairs, the numerous connexions and close dependencies of one part upon another, it is scarcely to be presumed, and it would be extravagant to expect, that under the most moral, and the wisest civil regulation to which human society is susceptible of attaining, partial indigence and distress will not be experienced to an amount that will ever demand the exercise of Christian benevolence.

The great and leading principles, therefore, of every system of charity, ought to be, First, amply to relieve the unavoidable necessities of the poor; and, Secondly, to lay the powerful hand of moral and legal restriction upon every thing that contributes, directly and necessarily, to introduce an artificial extent of suffering, and to diminish, in any class of the community, a

We were fully prepared to believe, that without a radical change in the principles upon which public alms have been usually distributed, helplessness and poverty would continue to multi-reliance upon its own powers of body ply-demands for relief would become more and more importunate-the numerical difference between those who are able to bestow charity, and those who sue for it, would gradually diminish, until the present system must fall under its own irresistible pressure, prostrating, perhaps, in its ruin, some of the pillars of social order.

It might be long, indeed, before such

and mind for an independent and virtuous support. That to the influence of those extraneous, debilitating causes, may be ascribed nine-tenths of the poverty which actually prevails, we trust none will doubt who are extensively acquainted with facts in relation to this subject.

The indirect causes of poverty are as numerous as the frailties and vices