lamb burning on it; and on the other, the facramental figns; behind which is a fountain iffuing from a rock. Underneath this bas-relief is the infcription tablet. On the top of the monument is a buft of Mr. Romaine, faid to be an admirable likenels. "In a vault beneath lies the mortal part of the Rev. WILLIAM ROMAINE, A.M. 30 years rector of these united parishes, and 40 years lecturer of St. Dunstan's inthe Weft. Raifed up of God for an important work in his Church; a Scholar of extenfive learning; a Chrif tian of eminent piety; a Preacher of peculiar gifts and animation ; confecrating all his talents to the investigation of facred truth, during a miniftry of more than half a century, he lived, converfed, and wrote, only to exalt the Saviour. Mighty in the Scriptures, he ahir defended, with eloquence and zel, the equal perfections of the Triune Jehovah exhibited in man's redemption ; the Father's everlasting love; the atonement, righteousness, and complete falvation of the Son; the regenerating influence of the Eternal Spirit; with the operations and enjoyments of a purifying Faith. When difplaying thefe effential doctrines of the Gospel, with a fimplicity and fervour rarely united, his enlivened countenance exprefled the joy of his foul; God owned the truth, and multitudes, raised from guilt and ruin to the hope of endless felicity, became feals to his ministry, the bleffings and the ornaments of society. Having manifested the purity of his principles in his life to the age of 81, July 26, 1795, he departed in the triumph of Faith, and entered into glory. Many witnetles of thele facts, uniting with the grateful inhabitants HINTS FOR IMPROVING THE ENERGY Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγω τὸ Θεό, καὶ ἐνεργής. remarking that Iota has, I prefume, rightly diftinguifhea the prefent as "a critical period of our national hiftory." The extent of its perils or peculiarities, I will not take upon me to define; but, if ever a period fhould arrive when any particular church should fcarcely ever be mentioned by the reft in terms of refpećt and moderation; if a lukewarmnefs, or lifilefsnefs, in the fame church thould have excited thofe without to make inroads and incurfous, and to unrp an anthority, loft by its original pofleflors; if thefe ufurpations and inroads have excited ranquences rather than the causes of this cour and ili blood against the confe divifion; if the expofure of thefe innovations tend more to exasperate than to footh, to wound rather than to heal; and if, among better advocates for a church thus aflailed, fome have defcended to perfonalities and a party fpirit, and given the reins to thofe paffions Religion is intended to fubdue; if recriminations from thefe fources have furnished the adverfary with fresh weapons; and if thefe opponents have the means of multiplying the moft plaufible avenues to the public ear, and fufficient influence to crush or filence any others who have no patron but truth; great, very great indeed, must be the dangers threatening that Church which has fuch obftacles to contend with. But, that fuch period has arrived, and that this is the relation in which the Church of England now ftands to the Separatifts (efpecially the rigid Calvin fi and the Anti-Trinitarian), will not be denied by any impartial enquirer, who has had an opportunity of obferving the manner with which fuch perfons exprefs their fentiments of the Eftablished Church, both in their converfation and in their writings. To thefe embarraffinents within, which oppose her energies and deadlen feated, but ftill prevailing difpofition of her exertion, may be added the dethe many towards fpeculative libertinifm in confequence of the late fpread of Infidelity, and the countenance ftill afforded to the writings of its advocates. Volney's Ruins of Empires, and Voltaire's Philofophical Dictionary, now appear as regularly as if they were really neceffary for the good of fociety, or a prime part of the pabulum of information. In fact, the late revolutions in religious opinions may be fuppofed fuppofed to have diftributed fome fceptical critics about every place of worhip, and in almost every place of recreation, where any opportunity occurs for the declaration or attack of fuch opinions. It is no lefs a fact, that fpeculative difbelievers who calculate upon this doubtful difpofition, at the fame time they keep an eye upon the public mind, are fiill looking forward to a kind of political millennium, because the imaginary perfectibility of human nature" is fo rauch a part of their undefinable creed, that this opinion only may jufly be looked upon as their Meah, the coming of which is ardently expected and hoped for by almoft every philofophical opponent to the Chriflian religion. Under this view of things, and in a fituation new and impofing, it certainly cannot be conceived that the ordinary energies of the pulpit are adequate to the efforts required of them. Neither am I alone in the fuppofition, that, if we were even to obtain the elevated ground upon which Gallic oratory ftands" in the pulpit, we fhould fill be unequal to thofe who come nearer to the fimplicity and the more efficacious doctrines of the Gofpel. The bett fpecimens of French eloquence, brought to the teft of English difpofitions and habits, appear more like fplendid declamation than the demonfiration of the fpirit, or of life. The firft, to borrow an illuftration from the language of the New Teftament," ftandeth in the wildom or invention of men; and the latter, in the power of God.” Not to infift upon being wanting to ourfelves, the principal opponents of the Eftablishment feem naturally to divide themfelves into two claffes, viz. Separatifts and Sceptics; now, how-to reclaim or conciliate the one, and to repel the fecond, may be an after-confideration by no means unworthy of the energy of the Pulpit. The dry reafoning malady, as it has been called, having been dilapproved of in the first part of these hints, that no charge of inconfiftency may be fupported upon the ground that it has been the ufual practice to combat fcepticism with reafoning, with eftablifhed lectures, and learned difcourfes from the pulpit, it fhould be taken into confideration, that what may be fit and practicable at one period may be totally the reverfe at another. Therefore, the pulpit occupied now as it has been be fore, when Bolingbroke or Hume were figuring as its antagonists, would be a wafte of time; Chriftianity, in fome fenfe, and Deifm entirely fo, without any trial of its principles, might then be viewed as fpeculations fet at iffue again each other. But fince even Deifin has been tried upon a very large fcale, and found wanting, the experiment is wholly in favour of the Christian fyfiem; and its advocates, who without having recourfe to metaphyfical reafoning, or far-fetched arguments, have nothing more to do than to wave the theory of the Infidel, and bind him faft to the practice, to the baleful influence, and fatal experiment, of fuch principles upon the late annals of hiftory; this will most eflectually put to filence the objections of foolish men, who have afferted that fubordination could be maintained in civil fociety without the agency of religious eftablishments. There is one argument against the efficacy of preaching, the difcuffion of which as I do not recollect in any Church apologist that I have feen, 1 fhould here with to examine, especially as it is frequently brought against this part of the Chiliian infiitution by Latitadidarians and libertines; which is, "that a certain refpectable denomina tion of Chriftians, having no diftinét order of preachers among them, fill contrive to keep a laudable degree of obedience to the laws of God and man, and rather exceed than come behind others in their inorality." Now, whatever may be the degree of credit attached to this affertion, the merit of the people alluded to arifes in part from the invariable bounds of feparation that they have fet up between themfelves and others, from a difcipline and œconomy which is heightened by contraft only, and which of courfe would lofe its principal effect, and almost every line of its proud diftinétion, if it could ever be extended to a nation at large! A dramatift would fay, that it was not from the fuperior performance of the national plot that fuch perfons as thefe derived their importance, but folely from the fituation, the ftage effect. A moralift, and a clofe obferver of men and things, will eafily perceive its refult, from the contraft of the peculiar manners of this denomination with the manners of the people at large, from the friendly and formal greetings of the one, and the unftudied and less an foothing foothing falutations of the other. Where the drefs, by a prefcriptive courtely, has been acknowledged as the fymbol of fimplicity and virtue, one of this community can fcarcely walk abroad without carrying a paliport in his own favour, or, as they would exprefs it, “ bearing a teftimony" of their feclufion from the vices and extravagance of the refi of their countrymen. And while the colour of a coat, or the cut of a hat, are received as pledges of certain amiable qualities, the merits of those who ufe none of thefe externals, and are bound by no fuch difcipline, are carried down the vortex of bufy life, unapplauded and unfeen. But in this happy community, it would appear, that difcipline nearly does every thing! Even the gravity of its exterior is continually relieved by the comparative levity that furrounds it, its fimplicity by the undifguifed artifice and competition of others, while every virtue, or even its femblance, is repaid with intereft; and thus a whole has been formed, which has long and generally poffeffed the multitude in favour of thele people, moft powerfully pleading in their behalf with a reiterated fpecies of dumb eloquence nearly as far as the eye can fee, or the car can hear. And thus the public opinion, from the reign of James II. to the prefent time, has been increafing the ettimation of these people; which efumation has amply compenfated for the manifeft, and even pitiable want of energy in their pulpits or preaching houfes. Thus it will appear that every pretext for difpenfing with the energy of the Pulpit is empty, fpecious, and fuperficial in the highest degree; becaufe its uncommon defect, even among the people alluded to, is ftill fupplied by a variety of fubfiitutes. Few, indeed, have perceived the true grounds which have concealed and qualified a defect of this kind; and this overfight was the occafion of fore remarks by a late writer, very confitiently with his own views," that the Quaker almost confelles that he has not breath enough to blow the joyful trumpet (of the Gofpel), and feems rather inclined to limit than extend the good he has found; to pull down the galleries already erected, than to make room for new comers; and, therefore, it is not among them that we are to expect orators, ready to preach the word, to per, fuade, exhort, rebuke, to be inftant in feafon and out of feafon." And now, as fuch opinions as thefe would depreciate a refpectable and opulent fociety of people too low; fo the unthinking Deift, fond of fentiments which he flatters himfelf approximate the neareft his own*, and would hold up the Quakers as fuperior to every other denomination of Chriftians, is alfo guilty of a manifest want of difcernment. The individuality of their character may be equal to all, and fuperior to many; but collectively confidered it is as a mere adjective, having no fupport infeparable from the fubftantice, or fubftantial part of the nation; as even the pacific principles they profefs could never be extended to the whole body without rendering it a prey to other nations more warlike and en terprizing. Undefended by "their gallant countrymen," as Voltaire obferves in his Letters on the English nation, the Quakers could not fubfift. But, in all wars hitherto, even their perfons and property have been protected by the blood and the fortunes of others who have no fcruples againft fighting the common enemy in the nation's defence, paying those who do, or preaching to the moft vicious and diforderly members of fociety. And as, from all thefe and other confiderations, those people enjoy advantages fuperior to the reft, however they may ornament fociety at large, as the vine and the ivy curling round the oak of the Confiitution; it must be acknowledged that they do not by any means communicate any extraordinary fupport to the original flock, but rather derive their own apparent pre-eminence from that to which they are thus attached. In a word, in all cafes of national exigence, no fumptuary, no circumlocutory appeal to the minds of men, have been found effec tive; but, in the caufe of true patriotifi and national juftice, even the energies of the field have unavoidably felt the influence of those of the pulpit. Yours, &c. YOUR W. II. REID. Mr. URBAN, Sept. 2. OUR benevolence will readily perinit you to aflift in the circulation of the propofal alluded to in p. 652. Jofeph Count Truchfefs, of Zeyl Wurzach, Grand Dean of the cathedral of Strafburg, and Canon of the metropo* See Hume's Effay on Superftition and Enthusiasm. 814 Plan for a Gallery of Pictures.-Sanfcrit Inscription. [Sept. litan chapter of Cologne, was originally poffeffed of very confiderable property on the left bank of the Rhine, which, by means of the French revolution, he has loft: this induces him to difpofe of his gallery of pictures, which he has been more than 30 years collecting at a molt immenfe expence, and with more than common judgment. This collection cannot be contidered as the cabinet of an amateur, but as one of the moft complete galleries of painting in Európe, as it confifts of fuch a number of pictures by the most capital artifis of every country. The Count propolės to difpofe of them for 60,000 guineas; which fum, large as it is, he tiates to be very inferior to their real value. The Count's well-known character for integrity, and a good taste in the arts, would give great credence to his own affertion; but he adds to it the teftimony of the Vienna Academicians, who fome years ago eftimated it at a much larger fum, and states, that Sir William Hamilton and Lord Minto, and great numbers of the first connoiffeurs in Europe, have repeatedly feen and very highly approved his collection. The plan which the Count fuggefts for the difpofal of thefe pictures is, that 10,000 perfons fhould fubfcribe the fim of fix guineas each; two guineas to be immediately paid into the hands of Meffrs. Coutts and Co. or to any other banker who will remit it to them; and when 20,000 guineas is thus raifed, the banker is to confign it to the British Plenipotentiary at Vienna, and the pictures are to be configued to London under the care of fuch trufty agent as he chufes to appoint. When arrived in London, they are to be depofited in fuch place as a committee of the fubfcribers may think proper; and each fubfcriber is to pay into the hands of the above bankers the remaining four guineas for the Count's ufe. The reafon of requesting the firft payment of two guineas, the Count frankly fates to be, that he may be enabled to answer fome engagements in Vienna, and defray the expences that will be incurred by the removal of the pictures to London. If it thould be asked, what particular advantages will accrue to the fubferibers; it will be fufficient to obferve, that they will not only have the honour of being the firft authors and creators of a ufeful and fplendid public gallery, but, as the real property and abfolute difpofal of the pictures will be vefted in their hands, it is prefumed that the collection will form fuch an exhibition, that the produce of the admiflions would be much greater than the expence of the cftablishment; and, should it at any future period be thought expedient to difpole of them, it is alfo prefumed that fo capital a collection would, when once feen in this metropolis, attract fuch notice, that they might become a national object, and thus, or by any other proper mode of fale, produce much more than the price at which they are now offered. Yours, &c. A FRIEND. Tranflation of a SANCRIT Infcription copied from a Stone at BOODDHA GAYA. the midst of a wild and dreadful foreft, flourishing with trees of fweet-fcented flowers, and abounding in fruits and roots, infetted with lions and tigers, defiitute of human fociety, and frequented by the Moonees, refided Booddha, the author of happinefs, and a portion of Narayan. This deity, Haree, who is lord of Haretea, the pofletfor of all, appeared in this ocean of natural beings at the clote of the Devapara, and beginning of the Kalee Yoog. He who is omniprefent and everlaftingly tobe contemplated, the fupreme being, the eternal one, the divinity worthy to be adored by the most praife-worthy of mankind, appeared in a portion of his divine nature. Once upon a time the illuftrious Amara, ronowned amongst men, coming here, difcovered the place of the fupreme being, Booddha*, in the great Foreft. The wife Amara endea voured to render the god Booddha propitious by fuperior fervice; and he remained in the foreft for the space of twelve years, feeding upon roots and fruits, and fleeping upon the bare earth; and he performed the vow of a Moonee, and was without tranfgreffion. He performed acts of fevere mortification; for he was a man of infinite refolution, with a compallionate heart. One night he had a vifion, and heard a voice faying, "Name whatever boon thou wanteft." Amara Deva, having heard this, was aftonifhed, and with due reverence replied, "Firft give me a vifitation, and then grant me fuch a boon." He had *Blooduha appeared on earth 2339 years ago. He was born in a country called Jamboo. Deepa died 80 years after, at Coofemarapooree. another another dream in the night, and the voice faid, 66 How can there be an apparition in the Kalee Yoog The fame reward may be obtained from the fight of an image as may be derived from the immediate vifitation of the Deity." Having heard this, he canfed an image of the fupreme fpirit Bouddha to be made, and worshiped it according to the law, with perfumes, incenfes, and the like: and he thus glorified the name of that fupreme being, the incarnation of a portion of, Villa noo: "Reverence be unto thee in the form of Booddha! Reverence be unto thee, Lord of the Earth! Reverence he unto thee; an incarnation of the Defty and the eternal one! Reverence be unto thee, O God, in the form of the god of mercy; the difpeller of pain and trouble, the Lord of all things, the Deity who overcometh the fins of the Kalee Yooz, the guardian of the Univerfe, the emblem of mercy to wards those who ferve thec-0 M! the poffeilor of all things io vital form! Thou art Brabma, Vefonos, and Mabecfa! Thou Lord of the Univerfe! Thou art under the proper form of all things moveable and immoveable, the paffeffer of the whole! and thus I adore thee. art Re (who at three rides encompaifed the Earth) I adore thee, who art celebrated by a thousand names, and under various forms, in the thape of Booddha, the god of Mercy! be propitioes, O most ligh God!" Having thus worshiped the guardian of mankind, he became like one of the juft; he joyfully canfed an holy temple to be built of a wonderful conftruction; and therein were fet up the divine foot of Vehnoo, for ever purifier of the fins of mankind, the images of the Pandoos and of the defcents of Veefhnoo, and in like manner of Brahnia, and the rest of the divinities. This place is renowned, and it is celebrated by the name of BooddhaGava. The forefather of him who hall perform the ceremony of the Sradha at this place, fhall obtain falvation. The great virtue of the Sradha performed here is to be found in the book called Vayon-poorana, an epitome of which hath by me been engraved upon fione, Veckraniadeetya was certainly a king renowned in the world; fo in his court. there were nine learned men, celebrated under the epithet of Nava-ratrianee, or nine jewels, one of whom was Amara Deva, who was the king's chief counfellor, a man of great genius and profound learning, and the greatest favourite of his prince. He it certainly was who built the holy temple which deftroyeth fin, in a place in Jamboodweip, when the mind being fieady, it obtains its withes; and in a place where it may obtain falvation, reputation, and enjoyment, even in the country of Bharata, and the province of Keekata, where the place of Booddha, purifier of the finful, is removed; a crime of an hundred-fold fight thereof, of a thoufand-fold from fhall undoubtedly be expiated from a a touch thereof, and fron one hundred thoufand-fold from worshiping thereof. But where is the ufe of faying fo much of the great virtue of this place! where the hofts of Heaven worhip with joyful fervice day and night? That it may be known to learned men that he verily erected the house of Booddha, I have recorded upon a stone the authority of the place, as a felfevident teftimony, on Friday the fourth day of the new moon, in the month of Madhoo, when in the feventh, or manfion of Ganifa, and in the year of the Era of Veekramadeetya 1005. BIRTH OF BOODDHA, God fent into the world Booddha Avatur, to inftruct and direct the fteps of angels and men, of whofe birth and origin the following is a relation. When Booddha Avatar defcended from the region of fouls in the mouth of Magh, and entered the body of Mahamaya, the wife of Tootáh Dannah, Raja of Cailas, her womb fuddenly affumed the appearance of clear transparent chryftal, in which Booddha appeared, beautiful as a flower, kneeling and reclining on his hands. After ten months and ten days of her pregnancy had elapfed, Máhámává folicited permiffion from her husband the Rajah to vifit her father; in conformity to which, the roads were ordered to be repaired and made clear for her journey; fruit trees were planted, water veffels placed on the road, and great illuminations prepared for the occation. Máhámáyá then commenced her journey, and arrived at a garden adjoining the road, when inclination led her to walk |