Jaggernaut in Oriffa has fallen into our hands. This temple is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahomedans. It is re forted to by pilgrims from every quarter of India. It is the chief feat of Brahminical power, and a strong-hold of their fu perftition. At the annual feftival of the Rutt Jattra, seven hundred thousand perfons (as has been computed by the Pundits in college) affemble at this place. The number of deaths in a fingle year, caused by voluntary devotement, by imprisonment for nonpayment of the demands of the Brahmins, or by fcarcity of provifions for fuch a multitude, is incredible. The precincts of the place are covered with bones."—P. 49. * Chap. 5, is on the very numerous holidays of the Hindoos, as another obftacle to civilization. The obfervance of these holidays it is obferved, encourages extravagance, licentious habits, and a neglect of business, very seriously impedes the bufinefs of the flate, and deranges commercial negotiation. In part the third, we meet with fome very encouraging ftatements, proving that chriftianity has already much more footing in India than is in general fuppofed. What shall we fay to the extraordinary fact that it has exifted there, perhaps, from the time of the Apoftles, certainly from the fifth century! The statement of this fact is not only curious in itself, but fhows, in the moft ftriking manner, how much more modern than that age were the chief corruptions of the Romish Church. "We have authentic hiftorical record for the following par ticulars. In the fifth century a Chriftian bishop from Antioch, accompanied by a fmall colony of Syrians, arrived in India, and preached the gofpel in Malabar. They made at firft fome profelytes among the Brahmins and Nairs, and were, on that account, much refpected by the native princes t." "When the Portuguese first arrived in India, they were agreeably furprifed to find a hundred Chriftian churches on the coaft of Malabar. But when they had become acquainted with the purity and fimplicity of their doctrine, they were offended. They were yet more indignant when they found that these Hindoo By falling under the wheels of the rutt or car. +"Many of them to this day preferve the manners and mode of life of the Brahmins, as to cleanliness, and abstaining from animal food." Afiat. Ref. Vol. VII. page 368. "The bulk of the St. Thomè Chriftians confifts mostly of converts from the Brahmins and Shoudren caft; and not as the new Chriftians, or profelytes made by the Portuguese miflionaries, of the lowest tribes." Afiat, Ref, Vol. VII. page 381." Christians Chriftians maintained the order and difcipline of a regular church under episcopal jurifdiction; and that for thirteen hundred years paft, they had enjoyed a fucceffion of bishops appointed by the patriarchal fee of Antioch. Mar Jofeph was the bishop, who filled the Hindoo fee of Malabar at that period. The Portuguese ufed every art to perfuade him to acknowledge the fupremacy of the pope; but in vain. He was a man of fingular piety and fortitude, and declaimed with great energy against the errors of the Romish church. But when the power of the Portuguese became fufficient for their purpofe, they invaded Itis bishopric, and fent the bishop bound to Lisbon. A fynod was convened at Diamper in Malabar, on the 26th June, 1599, at which one hundred and fifty of the clergy of his diocefe appeared. They were accufed of the following opinions, which were by their adverfaries accounted heretical; That they had married wives; that they owned but two facraments, Baptifm and the Lord's Supper; that they denied Tranfubftantiation; that they neither invoked faints nor believed in purgatory; and, that they had no other orders or names of dignity in the church than bishop and deacon *.' "Thefe tenets they were called on to abjure, or to fuffer inftant fufpenfion from all church benefices. It was alfo decreed that all the Syrian and Chaldean books in their churches, and all records in the epifcopal palace, fhould be, burnt; in order, faid the inquifitors, that no pretended apoftolical monuments may remain +.’ "Notwithstanding these violent measures, a great body of the Indian Chriftians refolutely defended their faith, and finally triumphed over all oppofition. Some fhew of union with the Ro mith church was at first pretended, through terror of the Inquifition; but a congrefs was held by them on the 22d of May, 1653, at Alangatta; when they formally feparated from that commu nion. They compofe at this day the thirty-two fchifmatic churches of Malabar; fo called by the Roman Catholics, as refembling the Proteftant fchifm in Europe. At this time their number is about fifty thoufand." P. 56. The fimple and primitive manners of thefe Chriftians, the beauty of their churches, their orderly difcipline and brotherly union form the moft delightful and interefting picture and urge the queftion ftrongly upon the reader, why fhould not fimilar bleffings be diffufed through India ? * "Conferences with Malabarian Brahmins, page 15: printed at London 1719." See Appendix K." Chap. Chap. 2 of this part treats of the labours and fuccefs of Proteftant miffionaries in that country, and here due juftice is done to the fublimely apoftolical character of the excellent miffionary Swartz, who lately died there, after fifty years of diligent miffion, leaving a name which will for ever do honour to the religion he taught and practifed. In this chapter also, we have two most important letters from his Majefty George I. to the firft Proteftant miffionary in India, whofe name was Ziegenbalgius; and a letter full of piety and enlightened zeal, from Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury. This chapter concludes the important fubject of the work, and is followed only by the Appendix, which is chiefly illustrative of the barbarous fuperftitions of the Hindoos. The three laft articles, indeed, are of another nature, and are very cu→ rious, namely (K) on the Jewish Scriptures at Cochin. (L) on the Sanfcrit teftimonies to Chrift. (M) on the Chinefe verfion of the Scriptures. From the view we have thus given of this admirable memoir, may we not prefume to hope that it will attract the attention it deferves, from those who have it in their power to diffuse the bleffings for which it pleads? The fame plea was nobly urged in verfe, in the poem which gained the premium offered by Mr. Buchanan, with a paffage from which we fhall conclude this article. "Britain, thy voice can bid the dawn afcend, Awake, and meet the purpose of the skies* !" * Grant on the Restoration of Learning in the Eaft. See alfo the lines cited in our account of that poem, beginning, "Be these thy trophies, Queen of many ifles!" British Critic, Vol. xxvi. p. 259. ART. ART. II. A Tranflation of the Charges of P. Maffillon, Bishop of Clermont; addreffed to his Clergy: with Two Ejays, the one on the Art of Preaching, tranflated from the French of M. Reybaz: and the other on the Compofition of a Sermon, as adapted to the Church of England. By the Rev. T. St. John, LL. B. Price 6s. 310 pp. Octavo. Rivingtons. 1805. MR. R. St. John has affixed to the title-page of this volume an appropriate and ftriking quotation from Abp. Secker. "We should attentively read the Treatises written by wife and good men concerning the duties of God's minifters; to fee if we are fuch as they defcribe, and ftir up ourfelves to become fuch as we ought." The minifters of the Church of England are the principal inftruments, in the hands of Providence, for promoting the general welfare of the community: they, by their exhortations and example, perfuade men to a difcharge of their civil duties and their religious obligations. In their refpective parishes we see them benefitting, with the most confcientious diligence, every part of fociety. "The Clergy," fays Mr. St. John, and he exactly expreffes our fentiments, "I confider, and fuch I believe they are generally confidered, as Scholars, as Divines, and as Chriftians, the most learned, useful, and exemplary body of men, of which fociety can boaft." The excellent treatife on the Paftoral Care, by Bifhop Burnet, and the paternal charges of Archbishop Secker, are both of them written to form the minds and regulate the affections of the parish minifter. To thofe valuable productions is now added a third, publifhed for the exprefs purpose of fhowing the Clergy what they are required to be, in order to prevent their intercepting the bleffings which ought to arife from the Chriftian miniftry. Mr. St. John has felected from three volumes of the eloquent Maffillon, fixteen Charges, which are more immediately applicable to the miniftry of the Church of England, He prefaces thefe tranflations with a more than ufually interefting introduction, which we confider as no lefs entitled to regard than the Epifcopal exhortations. It contains his apology for "the want of ornament and elegance, which may, he fears, be attributed to the tranflation :"-Maffillon's views in writing thefe difcourfes, with the advantages to be derived from them, as well by the Clergy, as by parents who defign to educate their children for the fervice of the church: His His attention to the prefent ftate of our Church has alfo fuggefled fome very pertinent reflections on the reading of the Liturgy;—the progress of piety made in confequence of public preaching-and the attachment of her members to the established religion;-with a variety of other fuitable remarks. The fubject of the first charge is, the Excellence of the Priesthood, to which alone is prefixed a text, "Behold, this child is fet for the fall and rifing again of many." The good bishop inftances fome of the views, by which men are actuated in devoting themfelves to the miniftry; after which he fays, "Hence it is that where holiness to the Lord is not eminently confpicuous in the life and converfation of the minifters of the Gofpel, many people depart from the fervice of the Church, unconcerned for their fins, and indifferent about their falvation;-hence the preaching of the Gofpel without fuccefs, the prayers of the Church without avail, all the ordinances of religion, and all the means of falvation unedifying and unferviceable to Chriftianity." In the conclufion he fhows the bleflings aring from the Chrif tian ministry when faithfully difcharged. The fecond Exhortation is on propriety of character. We thall from this Charge make fome extracts, that our readers may be enabled to appreciate the merits of the work. P. 26. "The fpirit of our miniftry is alfo a spirit of labour the priesthood is a laborious dignity; the Church, whofe minif ters we are, is a vine, a field, an harveft, a building not yet finished, an holy warfare; all which expreffions indicate trouble, and imply diligence; they are all fo many fymbols of application and industry. A clergyman is placed in the church, as our first parent was in paradife, to till and to defend it. "Thus a minifter of the Gofpel is accountable to fociety for his time every part which he employs in frivolous and unneces fary engagements, all the days that he paffes in folly and diffipa. tion, all are days and moments which he owes to the falvation of his brethren, and for the juft application of which he must answer at the judgment-feat of Chrift. His leifure, his occupations, his talents, are confequently poffeffions, the joint heritage of his flock, which ought to be invariably adapted, and judiciously applied, to produce the amendment of finners, the confirmation of the doubtful, and the perfeverance of the righteous. "Surely then a Chriftian minifter ought not to be employed in going, with idle curiofity, from houfe to houfe, from one scene to another. What! fhall he confume his valuable time in ease and indolence! not only reproachful to his character as a clergyman, but even in general eftimation, improper in any one who has the pre-eminence of an intelligent, or the virtue of a moral being? You! |