considerably blended; and the greatest part of the members of their societies, appear to adopt a system of independence with respect to speculative opinions, which they mostly regard as nonessentials, and which each one, therefore, models according to the light of his own understanding, and the dictates of his own conscience.

"In regard to religion, England exhibits so diversified a picture, that it would require a considerable length of time, as well as great attention, to examine it minutely, and the opinions of different sects are so various, that it is impossible to trace them through all their ramifications. It is, indeed, to be ob. served, that the creeds of the English sectaries are far from being settled. Few, even of the members of the established church, at this day, think themselves conscientiously bound to believe the doctrinal theory of the thirty-nine articles. Sever al among the adherents of Calvinistical sects, entertain ideas

which nearly correspond with the tenets of Arminius, and a great number of the members of Arminian societies, in regard to their speculative opinions, approach very near to the doctrines of Calvinism. The au thoritative sway of the creeds: and councils of former days, is, at this time, exceedingly diminished; and the Christians of the present age seem to revere their definitions and decisions, no farther than as they correspond with their own private opinions.

"Many of the ministers and others of the different sects of English dissidents have greatly distinguished themselves by their talents and learning; and several of their literary performances are held in high estimation. The clergy of the established church, and those of the various sects of nonconformists, treat one another with friendship and candor,"

Perhaps the clergy in this country will yet become as wise as they are said to be in Great Britain.

chism. 5. A Review of some of the thirty-nine articles." p. 452. The Assembly "subsisted until February 22, 1648-9," about three weeks after king Charles I. was beheaded.

May 2, 1648, the English parliament, having a majority of Presbyterians, passed an ordinance for the support of orthodoxy and the suppression of heresy, which shows in a striking manner the light and the spirit which then prevailed. The ordinance contains the following passages:

"That all persons who shall willingly maintain, publish, or defend, by preaching or writing, the following heresies with obstinacy, shall upon complaint before two justices of the peace, or confession of the party, be committed to prison without bail or mainprize till the next gaol delivery; and in case the indictment shall then be found, and the party upon his trial shall not abjure his said error, and his defence and maintenance of the same, he shall suffer the pains of death, as in case of felony, without benefit of clergy."-The heresies errors are these follow

or

head and manhood are distinct natures, or that the humanity of Christ is pure and unspotted of all sin.

5. "The maintaining that Christ did not die, nor rise again, nor ascend into heaven bodily.

6. "The denying that the death of Christ is meritorious, on the behalf of believers; or that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

7. "The denying that the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament are 'the word of God.

8. "The denying of the resurrection of the dead and a future judgment." pp. 458, 459.

By embracing any one of the foregoing supposed errors a man was exposed to suffer death. But the ordinance enumerates sixteen other opinions, to which the sentence of death was not annexed.

The person accused, if found guilty, and would not publicly renounce his error or errors, was to "be committed to prison till he found sureties that he should not publish or maintain the said error or errors any more. The errors are these following:

ed.

1. That all men shall be sav

2. "That man by nature hath free will to turn to God.

3. "That God may be worshipped in or by pictures or images.

4. "That the soul dies with the body, or, after death, goes neither to heaven nor hell, but to purgatory.

5. "That the soul of man sleeps when the body is dead.

6. "That the revelations or workings of the Spirit are a rule

of faith or Christian life, though diverse from, or contrary to the written word of God.

7. "That man is bound to be lieve no more than by his reason he can comprehend.

8. "That the moral law contained in the ten commandments is no rule of the Christian life.

9. "That a believer need not repent or pray for the pardon of sin.

10. That the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper are not ordinances commanded by the word of God.

11. "That the baptism of infants is unlawful and void, and that such persons ought to be baptized again.

12. "That the observation of the Lord's day, as enjoined by the ordinances and laws of the realm, is not according, or is contrary to the word of God.

13. "That it is not lawful to join in public or family prayer, or to teach children to pray.

14. "That the churches of England are no true churches, nor their ministers and ordinances true ministers and ordi nances; or that the church government by presbyteries is antichristian or unlawful.

15. "That magistracy, or the power of the civil magistrate by law established in England, is unlawful.

16. “That all use of arms, though for the public defence, and be the cause ever so just, is unlawful."

After reporting this antichristian ordinance, Mr. Neal has the following paragraph:

"This bluck list of heresies was taken from the speeches or writ

ing of the Papists, Arminians, Antinomians, Arians, Baptists, and Quakers, &c. of those times. The ordinance was a comprehensive engine of cruelty, and would have tortured great numbers of good Christians and good subjects. The Presbyterians of the present age are not only thankful that the confusion of the times did not permit their predecessors to put this law into execution, but wish also that it could be blotted out of the records of time, as it is impossible to brand it with the censure equal to its demerits."

If such a law were to be fully executed in our land at the pres ent day, would not one half the adult persons of the United States be put to death, and three fifths of the other half committed to prison? What reason then have dissenters from the creed of the Westminster Assembly to be thankful to God, that the punishment for dissent has been changed from a destruction of life to ruin of character! In former times the sixth commandment afforded no more security to a dissenter's life, than the ninth commandment now does to his reputation.

The third article in the list of heresies made it death for a man to deny that Jesus Christ was the "one eternal God.” The sixth exposed him to the same punishment if he denied that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. By comparing the two articles together, it must be evident, that a man was exposed to be put to death for denying either part of a palpable contradiction, or that in the sixth article, that

"BUT higher ground is taken by the opponents of this bill, than the practicability of converting the Hindoos to Christianity. The principles of the Hindoos are so good, their morals are so pure, it is said, that this conversion is not desirable; that to attempt to communicate to them our religion and our morality, is, to say the least, a superfluous, perhaps a mischievous, attempt.

"This is no new doctrine. It sprang up among the French sceptical philosophers, by whom it was used for the purpose of discrediting Christianity. by shewing, that in countries which were wholly strangers to its light, the people were in general more gentle, and peaceable, and innocent, and amiable, than in those countries, which had for the longest period professed the Christian faith. But, sir, have not moral causes their sure and infallible effects? Is it not notorions that the natives of India, from the very earliest times, have groaned under the double yoke of political and religious despotism? And in truth, we find the morals and manners of the na

tives of India just such, as we might have been led to expect, from a knowledge of their dark and degrading superstitions, and their political bondage.

"But honorable gentlemen have read us passages from their religious books, some of which breathe a strain of pure, and even sublime morality. But I ask such of our opponents as urge this argument, whether they did or did not know, that which is an undeniable fact, (I refer to Mr. Halhed's translation of the Hindoo laws,) that if a Soodra should get by heart, nay, if he should read, or even listen to the sacred books, the law condemns him to a most cruel death?

"Let me quote to you, sir, some general opinions of the moral state of the Hindoos, which have been given by authors of established credit, as well as by persons who have for many years held high stations in the company's service, and who must be supposed to have been perfectly acquainted with their real character.

"The traveller Bernier, whose work was received as evidence

at Mr. Hastings' trial, places the character of the people in general, and especially of the Brahmins, in the most unfavorable light: I only refer in general to his high authority. Bernier travelled in India about one hundred and fifty years ago. And Mr. Orme, the excellent historian of the Carnatic, leads us to form a still lower estimation of their moral qualities. He speaks of the Gentoos as 'infamous for the want of generosity and gratitude, in all the commerce of friendship; a tricking, deceitful people in all their dealings.' 'Every offence is capable of being expiated, by largesses to the Brahmins, prescribed by themselves, according to their own measures of avarice and sensuality'

"Still worse is the character of the East Indian Mahomedans. 'A domineering insolence towards all those who are in subjection to them, ungovernable wilfulness, inhumanity, cruelty, murders, and assassination, perpetrated with the same calmness and subtlety as the rest of their polities, and insensibility to remorse for these crimes; sensual excesses, which revolt against nature; unbounded thirst of pow. er, and a rapaciousness of wealth, equal to the extravagance of his propensities and vices! This is the character of an Indian Moor.' Orme on the manners &c. of the Indian Moors, vol. iv. 4to. p. 423

434.

"Governor Holwell, to say the least, was not in any degree biassed by his attachment to the Christian system, as compared with that of the natives of India. But he calls them, 'a race of

people who, from their infancy, are utter strangers to the idea of common faith and honesty. The Gentoos in general are as dangerous and wicked, as any race of people in the known world, if not eminently more so; especially the common run of Brah

mins.

We can truly aver, that during almost five years, that we presided in the Judicial Court of Caleutta, never any murder, or other atrocious crime came before us, but it was proved in the end, that a Brahmin was at the bottom of it.'

"Says Lord Clive, the inhabitants of this country, we know, by long experience, have no attachment to any obligation.'

"Lord Teignmouth paints their character in still darker colours. "The natives are timid and servile. Individuals have little sense of honor, and the nation is wholly void of public virtue. They make not the least seruple of lying, where falsehood is attended with advantage. To lie, steal, plunder, ravish, or mur, der, are not deemed sufficient crimes to merit expulsion from society."

"And four hundred years ago, said Tamerlane, their great conqueror, 'the native of Hindostan has no pretensions to humanity, but the figure; whilst imposture, fraud and deception, are considered by him as meritorious accomplishments!

"The moral standard of the natives of India, has even deteriorated of late years. Sir James Mackintosh, it is well known, lately presided on the bench of justice in Bombay; and in a charge to the grand jury at Bom