mind." Under this constitution of things, "various wrong dispositions are stirred up among the members of the same community. The faithful minister is checked in his efforts, and is greatly obstructed in his usefulness: he must consult the wishes of the majority, however corrupt, or be in danger of being driven from his place; for he is dependent upon them for his continuance and his pittance of support. One separation follows after another: and these endless divisions not only imbitter the followers of the same master against each other, but give the enemies of all religion occasion to blaspheme." "In the Church of England you may not be flattered by being called out to notice or power, or be distinguished for your knowledge and zeal; but your situation is not, on that account, the less favourable to spiritual edification. "A society of Christians thus constituted, without establishing any test of orthodoxy, or forms of public devotion, though at their first union they be sound in the faith, upright in their views, and exemplary in their conduct, is likely to degenerate." "Strong, indubitable facts justify our suspicions of danger. Not a few have fallen into the Socinian heresy, who are descendants of most orthodox ancestors, and now propagate their fatal errors in those very buildings, which were erected with the view of opposing and refuting them. Here then the magnitude of the mischief appears: a society so fallen has not, like the Church, the means of correction or revival within itself. The socinianized members are principled against the truth, and more firmly than any others will resist any attempts to restore it. Such a plan, in the event, is most injurious to the interests of sound religion, and graduaily tends to its subversion." (p. 26-28). The pamphlet concludes with a serious exhortation against the sin of schism. "If divisions may be introduced," as our author observes, "for any trifling objections, or to gratify some private wish, or even in prospect of better edification, then there is an end of Christian peace and concord." That body is torn and wounded, "which we should study, by all means in our power, to render still more compact, to strengthen, and to heal." We fear that many in the present day are not "sufficiently aware of the nature and the mischievous effects of schism;" and it is too obvious, that "such very lax notions have lately prevailed concerning all ecclesiastical, as well as civil order and discipline, that almost every man has thought himself released from restraint, and at liberty to do that which is right in his own eyes." "This state of things," as Mr. Robinson observes, "cannot be favourable to the progress and continuance of sound religion, however, for the present, there may be vast appearances of zeal and fervour." (p. 29.) 66 Happy shall we be to find, that this well written tract fulfils the object for which it was composed. One of the unfavourable signs of the present times is, the little regard paid, even by men professing godliness," to those numerous and pointed passages of the New Testament, which teach us to little thought of that, in some cases dread the evil of schism: a matter so as our author remarks, diligence, no purity of doctrine or holiness "No eminence of ability, no fidelity or of life in the parish priest, have been sufficient to secure to him the affections even tion; but they have departed from him in of the most serious part of his congregamultitudes, upon the appearance of a strange teacher, whose endeavours, as it divide." afterwards appeared, were to unsettle and We apprehend that this evil will increase, unless those whose business it is to instruct, shall more generally follow Mr. Robinson's example, and while they state the importance of the opposite virtue in the scale of Christian obedience, labour, with prudence and affection, to cure men of that distempered love of novelty from which paration often proceeds. se We shall only detain our readers while we advert to the epithet by which the Anti-Jacobin Reviewers have thought fit to characterise the author of this tract, in their number for February last, p. 189. Mr. Robinson is there called a Calvinistic Methodist;" a name which they must know will be considered by many who read their work, as equivalent to an enemy Church of England. But let any canof the doctrine and discipline of the did man compare this sententious denunciation with Mr. Robinson's pamphlet now under review, and let him then say, whether Mr. Robinson can be considered as a Methodist in any sense of the word, which implies a disregard of the doctrinal truths taught, Church. The Anti-Jacobin Reviewor of the regular order enjoined, by the ers, in their number for April, page 440, deny that they "admit anonymous libels on the moral character of individuals?" We leave it to their casuistry to reconcile this hardy denial with the assertion to which we have alluded. XCI. Asiatic Researches; or, Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal, for enquiring into the His tory and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia. Vol. VI. 8vo. pp. 606. London, J. Sewell. 1801. WORKS of this description come properly under our notice no otherwise than as they bear an aspect upon religion or morality. The former volumes of the Asiatic Researches, had we existed, at the time of their appearance, in our present capacity, would, on this ground, have merited and received a considerable share of our attention; and we should have eagerly seized the opportunity of executing the most grateful part of our office that of bestowing deserved commendation. The illustrious found. er, and first president of the Asiatic Society, Sir William Jones, after a profound and rigorously impartial investigation of the evidence afforded by the new object of his researches, was rejoiced to find his historical enquiries end in a confirmation of the Mosaic account of the primitive world; thus furnishing to the disciples of the religion of Christ a signal triumph over their enemies, who by pre-occupying an unexplored field of argument appeared to gain a temporary advantage, and providing for them an impregnable body of evidence in favour of the same cause, which, we promise ourselves, no future efforts of a contrary tendency, however vigo rously or insidiously conducted, will be able to weaken or destroy. By these contributions the Asiatic Researches acquired a character, which would naturally prepossess the public mind in favour of the future volumes of that work, in respect both of the principles upon which they should be conducted, and the importance of the matter which they should contain. In both these respects, however, the attentive reader of the present volume will find cause to correct his prejudices. Infidels have not uniformly adhered to one mode of attack upon the citadel of our faith. In more simple times, they had the comparative honesty as well as hardihood, to carry on their assaults openly and without disguise, though not indeed with the fairest weapons. But a method which invited to sober and rational investi gation, was by no means found favourable to the cause which it was intended to serve. Experience has taught, and discipline has qualified, the assailants of Christianity to adopt another method, and one which is, in general, attended with far greater success; and now our religion is undermined by artful misrepresentations, by transient reflections, by an appeal to the passions, by degrading comparisons; but by no method so effectually as by insinuation; that base expedient, which produces the effect of an assertion without exposing to the responsibility of one; that stiletto of the literary assassin, which inflicts a deadly wound, while the hand that gave it is concealed. The plan and object of our work naturally attract our attention to No. VIII. of the volume bef re us, on the RELIGION AND LITERATURE OF THE BURMAS. BY FRANCIS BUCHANAN, M. D. Its subject and its length, entitle it to our principal, and indeed, for the remainder of this critique, our exclusive regard. We cannot add, without regret, that to the perusal of this paper, a considerable portion of the foregoing observations owe their origin. If our suspicions are unfound ed, it is barely possible that they should not have been dissipated by some unequivocal expression in the course of a long disquisition upon a subject, which seems to invite, if not to oblige to, a declaration of the author's own religious sentiments. Dr. Buchanan's account of his own performance is, that during a short stay in the Burma empire, he obtained the best information he was able; that being ignorant of the language, his view of the subject of his enquiry would have been very superficial, had he not been assisted by the use of three Latin treatises, communicated to him by Captain Symes; and that these treatises united into one connected account, and interspersed with some observations of his own, constitute the dissertation which he presents to the public. If this paper contained any information very remarkable either for its novelty or importance, we should be tempted to lay some extracts of it before our readers. * Dr. Buchanan sometimes ventures to set his authority in opposition to that of Sir William Jones. See pp. 185, 204, 301. But the divinity which it inculcates is our principal concern, and to that we shall confine ourselves. The observation (p. 173) that prophecies and dreams are in great credit among the Burmas, " as among all rude and ignorant nations." and the sarcastic appellation "all good people", (the same page) applied to some superstitious persons, are such as do not naturally fall from the pen of a religious writer. At page 178 is another reflection of the same stamp, passed upon Paulinus, concerning whom the author expresses his wonder, "that the vigilance of the good father did not discover it" (the rude imitation of a ship near Zabudiba) "to be Noah's ark." But the passage, on many accounts, most deserving of our attention, is that which occurs page 255. "The religion of the Burmas is singular, as exhibiting a nation considerably advanced from the rudeness of savage nature, and in all the actions of life much under the influence of religious opinions, and yet ignorant of a supreme being, the creator and preserver of the universe. The system of morals, however, recom mended by these fables, is perhaps as good as that held forth by any of the religious doctrines prevailing among mankind. The motives also by which these fables excite to good works, unite the temporal nature of the Jewish law to the future expectations of the Christian dispensation: while baving adapted the nature of the rewards and punishments to the conceptions of our present faculties, they have all the power of the Mohamedan paradise; and having proportioned these punishments and rewards to the extent of virtue or vice, they possess the justice of the Roman purgatory, but without giving to priests the dangerous power of curtailing its duration.” What is the effect of this system of morals ( perhaps as good as that held forth by any of the religious doctrines prevailing among mankind," and combining the united advantages of Judaism, Christianity, Islamism, and Popery,) our readers will be curious to learn, and our author shall inform them. ، It must, however, be confessed, that the practice of morality among the Burmas is by no means so correct as might be perhaps expected among a people, whose religious opinions have such an apparent tendency to virtue. In particular, an almost total want of veracity, and a most insatiable cruelty in their wars and punish ments, are observable among them on the slightest acquaintance." (p. 256.) The reader will observe in the first cited passage, which continues to be our text, that good morality is carefully represented as independent of important point, and we find it again true religion. This is a favourite and inculcated with respect to some former inhabitants of the Burma empire, that their morals are extremely good:" of whom "it is universally agreed, but "their religious notions are so crude, that although they believe in its being a state of reward or punisha future state, yet they are ignorant of ment." (p. 300.) But we have not yet done with the passage in question. The confusion and equalization of the true religion with an imperfect, with a corrupted, and with a false one, is of that species of the argumentum palmarium of infiof argument which deserves the title delity. Its effect with those who go no deeper than the surface of things, is instantaneous and decisive. In the same strain of argument, "the laity" (we are told page 292,) "endeavour to please God, by all kinds of amusements," &c.; and the word Bura, inscribed on some temples, and signifying respectable, "is a phrase only given either to God, and to his images, &c.; or to the king, &c." (p. 293) although Godama, a deified man, is the only object of worship among the Burmas. See pp. 265 and 271. Agreeably to the same mode of argument, a certain fast among that people is represented as "a kind of Lent," (n. 297); and Lent it is afterwards called without any qualification. (p. 299.)* That between a true and one or more false religions there may exist some general features of resemblance, we are so far from being inclined to deny or dissemble, that such resem * Revelation has been attacked, less formally and deliberately, in some former volumes of the Asiatic Researches. In that immediately preceding, we recollect an assertion invalidating the Mosaic Chronology. But a thousand years are nothing in the way of a modern speculator. In an earlier part of the work we likewise recollect to have met with some coarse reflections hostile to religion, in a paper of Mr. Reuben Burrow; and if mathematical skill qualified a person to appreciate moral evidence, or conferred upon him a di position to yield to its force, some regard might be paid to his authority. XCII. Part the First of an Address to the Public from the Society for the Suppression of Vice, instituted in London 1802, setting forth, with a List of the Members, the utility and necessity of such an Institution, and its claim to Public Support. London, Spragg, Hatchard, &c. 1503. pp. 106. blance appears to us to be a necessary which will be requited with tenfold consequence of the principle of imita- severity upon themselvest. tion, upon which every imposture must proceed, which promises to its author the smallest probability of succcss*. But together with this general resemblance, we contend that there may be found a radical and essential difference, sufficient to satisfy all whose prejudices do not stand in the way of their conviction, of which religion the pretensions are to be admitted. Where a competition of pretensions regards the temporal interest of men, they in general argue like rational beings, and do not suffer themselves to be imposed upon, without having used at least some precautions to guard themselves against deception. But in the concerns of religion it is directly the reverse; and nothing is easier than to persuade men, that, on this subject, the dis tinction between truth and error is so obscure, that all attempts to discover it must be fruitlesst. We have only to add, that those who take advantage of this infirmity of our nature, to address to it arguments, of the futility of which they themselves are sensible, are guilty of a breach of moral honesty which deserves the sharpest reprehension; and if the religion which they endea vour, by such means, to discredit be true, are authors of misery to others, *"As for any marks of resemblance in matters circumstantial, this will give us no manner of conceru, The shame of this allegation must be with the Deist; who can, in conscience, bring it into ac count, for the equal falsehood of both" (the Jewish and Pagan religions); "seeing, were the Jewish (as we pretend) true, and the Pagan false, that very resemblance must still remain. For what, I pray, is a false religion, but the counterfeit of a true? And what is it to counterfeit, but to assume the likeness of the thing usurped? In good earnest, an impostor, without one Single feature of truth, would be a rarity even amongst monsters." Warburton's Div. Leg. book IV. sect. 1. the end. + Infidels in general seem to possess, on the subject of region, the same kind of discrimination, as was exhibited, with respect to the arts, by the honest General Muminius; who, when he was sending to Rome the inimitable pieces of painting and sculpture, which he had taken in Corinth, threatened the persons to whom they were entrusted, that if any of them were injured or lost, they should replace them at their own expence. IN our first volume (pages 330 and 608), we had the satisfaction to anand we then expressed a hope that nounce the formation of this society, the public would derive extensive benefit from their future labours. Their ble. The subscribers are numerous success has already been consideraand highly respectable, and their vigorous exertions both to prevent and punish the infraction of the laws against vice and immorality, have had, we doubt not, a very beneficial influence. The address very properly commences with a copy of his Majesty's proclamation against vice and immoand authoritative injunctions containrality. On the express declarations, ed in it, the society might have fairly their claim, to general support. They rested their vindication, as well as have thought it necessary, however, to state, at considerable length, the reasons of their institution, viz; The rapid increase of infidelity, insubordination, and licentiousness; the acassisted efforts of the magistracy to knowledged insufficiency of the unrepress these growing evils; the experienced inefficacy of the aid of in To the fifth volume of the Asiatic Researches, professed to be printed verbatim from the Calcutta edition by Sewell and others, an advertisement is prefixed by the publishers, which deserves to be noticed for its impudence and profaneness. The writer of this advertisement endea vours to place the Hebrew and Hindu scriptures (for he applies the same term to the writings of Moses and the Hindus) on an equal footing as to authenticity, and under a verbal disavowal of "an intention to support the Hindu writings in preference to the Hebrew Pentateuch," clearly shews that he gives as much credit to the one as to the other, and most pointedly aims at reducing the doctrines of divine truth to the level of Hindu superstition, sulated individuals in enforcing the laws; and the evident advantages of combination in other cases; reasons which, it must be allowed, fully justify the measure. (p. 27-41.) The objects of the society are stated to be--To put those laws in force which provide for the regular observance of the Lord's day; to suppress blasphe mous and licentious books and prints; to prevent frauds in selling by false weights and measures; to protect female innocence; to correct the evils arising from lotteries; to suppress disorderly houses; and to punish breaches of the peace, profune swearing, and cruelty to animals. A numerous and respectable society instituted for such purposes, it is argued, will not only assist the magistrates, give increased energy to the execution of the laws, and obtain accurate and comprehensive information respecting the nature and extent of particular evils; but will operate powerfully, by the weight of influence and the force of example, in discountenancing vicious practices, and in exciting throughout the community a disposition to co-operate in promoting the common cause of religion and virtue. (p. 42—55.) The address then details, as a ground of encouragement in the present instance, the beneficial effects which similar societies produced in former periods of our history, particularly at the commencement of the last century. (p. 65-80.) Such associations, it is affirmed, are much more necessary in the present day, than they were in the reign of William and Mary, on account of the wider prevalence of evils which threaten the destruction of social order and call for the united exertions of the wise and good. (p. 85-99.) The report derives additional encouragement from the success which, in our own days, has attended the welltimed efforts of the proclamation society formed in 1789, for the purpose of enforcing his Majesty's proclamation. (p. 99-101.) See Christian Observer, Vol. I. p. 52. The above is a brief abstract of this address; an address which reflects credit on the patriotism and wellintentioned zeal of its authors. It paints in glowing colours the alarming deterioration of modern manners, and manifests a very commend able solicitude for the correction of prevailing enormities. We regret, therefore, that our duty to the public compels us to qualify our praise by stating some points, in which we think the publication before us materially defective. Had we perused this address before we were apprised of its origin, we should have concluded it to have been the declamatory effusion of a warm individual, and not the deliberate representation of a grave and respectable association; for, to say nothing of its diffuseness, it is greatly wanting in that dignified calmness and simplicity which give weight to public addresses, and many of its assertions are evidently far too strong and unqualified. The following extract will furnish a specimen of these faults. "At the present day, vice is bold, daring, and unawed: it is unmoved by threats, and unappalled by the fear of correction: it stalks abroad in all the careless security of hardened guilt and desperate depravity. The blush of shame is no more: the ingenuous feelings of detected irregularity, the fearful and retiring consciousness of vice are gone: a base, shameless, obdurate, and persevering obstinacy in evil has succeeded." (p. 50.) Our next criticism may appear too minute, but it is dictated by a wish to guard against the possibility of mistake, on a point of the first importance. The intention of the society (p. 42,) is said to be to attend to principles, "knowing that if the source be pure, the stream will be pure also." But in applying the word 66 principles" to the regular observance of the Lord's day, we conceive that they use it in a sense which is not very common. The regular observance of the Lord's day will be a never-failing effect of religious principle, but the day may be strictly observed, as it was by the Pharisees of old, where no such principle exists. The only true religious principles are the fear and love of God; issuing in the exercise of every holy devout and spiritual affection and in the performance of all the divine commands-a fear and love resulting from a sense of the inestimable love of God to us in our redemption by Jesus Christ, and wrought in the heart by his holy spirit. We should have been glad to see, on the part of this society, avowedly the champions of religion and morality, a more distinct acknow ledgment of these Christian principles as well as of their dependance for success on the divine favour and |