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    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 . AH 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

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    by the Fathers of the Council erf Doit . " One of the Reviews which has always , but with great caution , recommended a system of liberal Christianity , comes 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 Caivinistic 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 .

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    420 Notices of Foreign Literature .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1821, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2502/page/40/