behind them, for the benefit of those who come after; and, however "secondary" the writings of Blair, Soame Jenyns, Lord Lyttleton, Johnson, Hawkesworth, and Paley, may be esteemed by many excellent individuals, they are such, I think, as must ever be found highly beneficial for rebuking the blasphemy of the infidel, and counteracting the errors of the enthusiast. Even were this all that could be said in their commendation, it might have been enough to secure them from being designated as men fit only to dictate to the deserted or despised schools of worldly or half Christianized philosophers." The pious eloquence of Blair and the irrefragable reasoning of Paley might at least have called forth a portion of that regret and palliation which is expressed by your correspondent, in his sentence of condemnation on Dr. Johnson. Something, one should think, might have been given to the golden periods so frequently to be found throughout the writings of the elegant scholar of the North; something also to the plain and manly truths of the Archdeacon of Carlisle: It is with reference to the last-mentioned author more especially, as one from whose writings much sound instruction, and that not only in speculative but also in practical Christianity, is to be derived, that the above remarks have been written. In his character of a moral philosopher, it may be, he has fallen into some mistakes; but let not, therefore, his reputation be injured by vague and unsupported animadversions, neither let it be called a "portentous phenomenon," if Christians of the present enlightened times sometimes meet with that in his pages which may chastise their aberrations: Dr. Paley is a writer against whom no accusation ought to be lightly received; and I feel assured that the perfect law of God, as set forth and united in many of his sermons ·CHRIST, OBSERV. No, 189,- with the saving doctrines of the Gospel, is admirably calculated to convert the souls of mankind. These are a part of his works, which have probably never met the eye of Excubitor; otherwise, I am persuaded, he would have been more measured in his animadversions.... In conclusion, I would request to know on what fair grounds the above-mentioned authors are spoken of as only "secondary divines" and moralists" in the estimation of "the spiritually-minded Christian," SEVI. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. "A dislike of contention hath long restrained my engaging in this work, though oft solicited thereto by several worthy ministers. Peace is the blessing which I cheerfully pursue, and is, with the truth, what I propose in this very endeavour. "I am convinced, after frequent prayers and serious thoughts, that the revival of these errors must not only exclude that ministry as 4F legal which is most apt, in its nature and by Christ's ordination, to convert souls and secure the practical power of religion, but also renders unity among Christians a thing impossible. Every sermon will be matter of debate, and mutual censures of the severest kind are unavoidable; while one side justly press the terms of the Gospel under its promises and threats, for which they are accused as enemies to Christ and grace; and the other side ignorantly set up the name of Christ and free grace against the government of Christ and the rule of judgment," (meaning, probably, the rule by which we shall be judged at last.) "I believe many abettors of these mistakes are honestly zealous for the honour of free grace, but have not light sufficient to see how God hath provided for this in his rectoral distribution of benefits by a Gospel-rule. By this pretence Antinomianism so greatly corrupted Germany; it bid fair to overthrow church and state in New-England; and by its stroke at the vitals of religion, it alarmed most of the pulpits in England. Many of our ablest pens were engaged against these errors, as Mr. Gataker, &c. whose labours God was pleased to bless to the stopping of the attempts of Dr. Crisp, &c. To the grief of such as perceive the tendency of these principles, we are engaged in a new opposition, or must betray the truth as it is in Jesus. "I believe many abettors of these notions have grace to preserve their minds and practices from their influence. But they ought to consider that the generality of mankind have no such antidote, and themselves need not fortify their own temptations, nor lose the defence which the wisdom of God has provided against remissness in duty and sinful backslidings. Who can wonder at the security of sinners, the mistaking the motion of sensible passions for conversion, and the general abatement of exact and humble walking, when so many affirm, Sins are not to be feared as doing any hurt even when the most flagitious are committed: grace and holiness cannot do us the least good. God hath no more to lay to the charge of the wickedest man, if he be elected, than he hath to lay to the charge of a saint in glory. The elect are not governed by fear or hope; for the laws of Christ have no promises nor threats to rule them by; nor are they under the impressions of rewards or punishments, as motives to duty or preservatives against sin,' &c. "In this present testimony to the truth of the Gospel, to the best of my knowledge I have in nothing misrepresented Dr. Crisp's opinion, nor mistaken his sense: for most of them he oft studiously pleadeth; of each I could easily multiply proofs; and all of them are necessary for his scheme, though not consistent with all his other occasional expressions. His scheme is this- That by God's mere electing decree, all saving blessings are by Divine obligation made ours, and nothing more is needful to our title to these blessings: that on the cross all the sins of the elect were transferred to Christ, and ceased ever after to be their sins: that at the first moment of conception a title to all those decreed blessings is personally applied to the elect, and they invested actually therein. Hence the elect have nothing to do, in order to an interest in any of those blessings, nor ought they to intend the least good to themselves in what they do sin can do them no harm, because it is none of theirs; nor can God afflict them for any sin.' And all the rest of his opinions follow in a chain to the dethroning of Christ, enervating his laws and pleadings, obstructing the great designs of redemption, opposing the very scope of the Gospel and the ministry of Christ and his prophets and apostles." In order to shew that Dr. Williams's statement of Dr. Crisp's opinions is not exaggerated, I will subjoin two quotations from the early part of the work itself, to which this is the preface. Dr. Crisp tells us, "It is thought by some, that in case such a person (i.e. one elect) should happen to die before God call him to grace, and give him to believe, that person had been eternally condemned; and that elect persons are in a damnable estate in the time they walk in excess of riot, before they are called. Let me speak freely to you, and tell you, that the Lord hath no more to lay to the charge of an elect person, yet in the height of his iniquity, and in the excess of riot, and committing all the abominations that can be committed; I say even then, when an elect person runs such a course, the Lord hath no more to lay to that person's charge, than God hath to lay to the charge of a believer: nay, God hath no more to lay to the charge of such a person than he hath to lay to the charge of a saint triumphant in glory. The elect of God, they are the heirs of God; and as they are heirs, so the first being of them puts them into the right of inheritance, and there is no time but such a person is the child of God."Again, in answer to the question, “When did the Lord justify us?" he says "He did, from eternity, in respect of obligation; but in respect of execution, he did it when Christ was on the cross; and in respect of application, he doth it while chil dren are yet unborn." (Williams, vol. III. pp. 2,3.) Again on the question, how our sins are laid upon Christ, Dr. Crisp speaks thus:-"Our sins so became Christ's that He stood the sinner in our stead, and we discharged. It is the iniquity itself that the Lord laid upon Christ: I mean it is the fault of the transgression itself, &c. To speak more plainly; hast thou been an idolater, a blasphemer, a murderer, a thief, a liar, or a drunkard? If thou hast part in the Lord, all these transgressions of thine become actually the transgressions of Christ. Nor are we so completely sinful, but Christ being made sin was as completely sinful as we, &c. and God himself did account him among the number of transgressors." Of such awful extracts, I could send you many more; but I should think the mere statement of Dr. Crisp's views sufficient to deter all serious readers from look. ing into his writings; the repub lication of which, at the present day, appears to me to indicate a rising spirit of Antinomianism, which, if not happily checked, will do infinitely more towards injuring the cause of true religiou than even those dangerous enemies, Indifference and Formality.-No thing but the importance of the case would induce me to stain your pages with such passages as the foregoing. B. J. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. PEARSON'S Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Claudius Buchanan. Continued from p. 527.) MOST of our readers will recollect the unsparing severity with which Dr. Buchanan, during his life-time, was accused, by the Anglo-Indian body, of having, in some of his writings, grossly misrepresented the character of the Hindoos; at least, of having, in almost all of them, culpably exaggerated their acknowledged defects. Sir Henry Montgomery, in a speech delivered in the House of Commons, during the discussions which took place in 1813, on the Bill for renewing the East-India Company's Charter, pronounced the works of Dr. Bu chanan" to be an imposition on this country and a libel on India." Mr. Lushington, in scarcely more measured phrase, observed on the same occasion," that no man of a liberal or candid mind could contemplate the calumnies that were directed against the Hindoos, without astonishment and pain." These calumnies he considered as originating in the offensive works of Dr. Buchanan,” by whom "the Hindoos had been told, that neither truth, nor honour, nor honesty, nor gratitude, nor charity, were to be found in their breasts;" and he proceeded to draw a sketch of their character, social, moral, and religious, directly the reverse of that which Dr. Buchanan had felt it his duty to give to the world. Both Sir Henry Montgomery and Mr. Lushington had resided many years in India. It might, therefore, be fairly presumed that their opinions were derived from an accurate knowledge of the subject on which they had ventured to pronounce so confidently. Mr. Lushington especially, as a man of liberal learning, and whose mind had been trained to habits of accurate investigation by a long course of important official engagements, was naturally listened to by multitudes with a sort of unhesitating con. fidence; and the statements of Dr. Buchanan were, of course, proportionably discredited-but with how little justice, after all that has already appeared on this subject, even in our own pages, we need not now repeat. If, however, any thing were still wanting to vindicate the character of this excellent man from the load of obloquy so profusely heaped upon it by the AngloIndian party, it would be found in a publication which has lately made its appearance under the high sanction of the Court of Directors of the East-India Company, and in which the Abbè Dubois, a Roman-Catholic Missionary in the Mysore, professes to give "a description of the character, manpers, and customs of the people of India, and of their institutions, religious and civil." This work, while yet in manuscript, strongly recommended to the patronage of the government of Madras, by Colonel Wilks, lately the governor of St. Helena, but at that time commanding in the Mysore, and whose intimate knowledge of Indian manners his own very able writings leave us no room to question, It was purchased by the Madras government for 2000 pagodas, and transmitted to the Court of Directors, under whose authority it has been published, "without any attempt to alter or improve the speculations of the author." To these testimonies may be added those of Sir James Mackintosh and Lord William Bentinck. By the former, the work of M. Dubois is described as being as being "the most comprehensive and minute account extant, in any European language, of the manners of the Hindoos*;" and the latter gives it as his opinion, that it might be of the greatest benefit, in a political point of view, to impart to the public the information which it contains. After this explanation, the reader will be prepared to appreciate the weight due to the evidence of the Abbè Dubois, on a question relative to Hindoo manners. Nor will its force be diminished in the present instance by any liability, ou the part of the witness, to those charges of religious bigotry and uncharitable zeal which the opponents of Christianity in India have brought forward, as invalidating the testimony of Dr. Buchanan and the Serampore Missionaries. The Abbè is no friend, as we have seen, to the Bible Society, and is far from indulging in any sanguine expecta tions of benefit from the labours of missionaries †. He even regards, with a tenderness which does much more credit to his candour *The work of the Rev. Mr.Ward and the masterly Memoir of Mr. Grant had not then been published. + See our last volume, p. 822. and liberality than to the purity of his taste or the soundness of his principles, some of the worst features of Hindooism. The cast itself, that most questionable of all their civil institutions, the Abbè pronounces to be "the happiest effort of Hindoo legislation." p. 14. Let us only attend to the statements of this most competent witness: we shall then see that nothing could be more misplaced and unfounded than the vituperatory expressions applied by Sir Henry Montgomery, Mr. Lushington, and the general body of Anglo-Indians to the representations of Dr. Bu chanan. "In India," says the Abbè Dubois, "paternal authority is but little respected; and the parents, partaking of the indolence so prevalent over all the country, are at little pains to inspire into their children that filial reverence which is the greatest blessing in a family, by preserving the subordination necessary for domestic peace and tranquillity. The affection and attachment between brothers and sisters, never very ardent, almost entirely disappears as soon as they are married. After that event, they scarcely ever meet, unless it be to quarrel." p. 21. "The women are held in small consideration, and always treated as if they were created for the mere enjoyment of the men, or for their service. They are supposed to be incapable of acquiring any degree of the mental capacity," &c.; consequently "the education of the women is utterly neglected." The dancing girls, &c. " are the only women taught to read, sing, and dance. It would be thought the mark of an irregular education, if a modest woman were found capable of reading." p. 217. "The Indians seem to be the only people in the universe who keep up the abominable custom of sacrificing the wife on the pile of her husband." p. 247. "When the Brahmans find them. selves involved in troubles, there is no falsehood or perjury they will not employ for the purpose of extricating themselves. Nor is this to be wondered at, since they are not ashamed to declare openly, that untruth and false swearing are virtuous and meritorious deeds when they tend to their own advantage. When such horrible morality is taught by the theologians of India, is it to be wondered at that falsehood should be so predominant among the people?" p. 107. "There is no country on earth in which the sanction of an oath is less respected, and particularly amongst the Brahmans. That high cast is not ashamed to encourage falsehood, and even perjury, under certain circumstances, and to justify them openly." p. 497. Again; "All Hindoos are expert in disguising the truth; but there is nothing in which the cast of Brahmans so much surpasses them all as in the art of lying. It has taken so deep a root among them, that so far from blushing when detected in it, many of them make it their boast." p. 177. "In every circumstance of life the Brahman conducts himself with the most absolute selfishness. The feelings of commiseration and pity, as far as respects the sufferings of others, never enter into his heart. He will see an unhappy being perish on the road, or even at his own gate, if belonging to another cast, and will not stir to help him to a drop of water, though it were to save his life." p. 197. "The right to read and learn the Vedas" (the sacred books of the Hindoo religion) "is so exclusively appropriated to the Brahmans, that the slightest penalty a Brahman would incur, by rashly or imprudently lending these sacred books, or communicating their contents to persons of a different cast, would be to be ignominiously driven from his cast, without any hope of being admitted again." p. 102. "From their earliest years the Hindoos are accustomed to scenes of impropriety." "As they grow |