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indeed to teach children the Church Catechism at all: or that in which he asserts that our Church allows sprinkling in baptism instead of immersion (p. 46): or that (at p. 35) in which he denies the true doctrine of the Apostolical Succession: but if we ask him to pause before he reprints such passages as these, what shall we say of expressions which impugn our common Faith, such as, Many are accustomed to speak as if there were such a society on earth as the Holy Catholic Church, which decrees and appoints this or that ordinance; and which is possessed of such and such authority; whereas others deny that there is such a thing on earth as the Catholic Church existing as one community, having one visible ruler and governor." We do not, of course, suppose this to be Mr. Eden's own opinion, indeed he uses the phrase "they say," etc.; but we say that he is to blame for allowing such a barefaced attempt to confound the existence of the Catholic Church with the existence of a visible head to find a place in his book: moreover, when the writer of this article proceeds to explain away the Nineteenth Article by an impudent assertion, that the "writer (of the Nineteenth Article) either had in his mind the Anglican Church, or through mere oversight translated 'Ecclesia Christi Visibilis,' The Church, when the evident meaning is A Church"; we can only say that we think that teaching Churchmen to torture the Articles into unnatural senses is not the province of a writer of a Church Dictionary (vid. Mr. Eden's Preface). We acquit Mr. Eden of the heresy, but his book is heretical, and he ought to have seen that it was not.

Again, at p. 298, Mr. Eden's book says, that the "Real Presence is the presence, in the Sacrament of the LORD's Supper, of the real material body and blood of CHRIST, into which (say the Romish Divines,) the bread and wine is changed," etc. The remainder of the article further identifies the doctrine of the "real presence" with "transubstantiation." Here, again, we say, that Mr. Eden is guilty of culpable neglect; of course he has himself been brought up in the faith of the Church, and believes, as we all do, that we "verily and indeed take and receive" that Body and Blood of CHRIST which is really present in the Sacrament, forasmuch as it is " given, taken, and received," (Art. XXVIII.) and so he is not so careful, we say, as he might be in excluding from his book the passage quoted, which to the very serious, perhaps, irreparable scandal of numberless members of the Church identifies the true doctrine of the Holy Communion with a word or phrase which they look upon with dread and aversion. Of course Mr. Eden is not disengenuous, he expressly says that he is not in his preface, but his book is, which is every way as bad practically. Of course Mr. Eden, a Priest of the Church, abhors as impious the heresy of Sabellius; but his book, when it speaks with greater tenderness of those heretics (p. 318) (assigning as a reason that we have "no accounts" of them but by "adversaries"), than it ever does of either the Western or Eastern Churches; and when it uses the very Sabellian phrases as orthodox language; speaking (p. 369) of certain texts as inconsistent with "the belief of any division of the Divine nature in itself, but reconcileable with, and leading to the belief of a Godhead revealed to us in three persons,-standing in varied relations to us," etc.; without any caution or explanation, his book, we say, breathes the very spirit of insidious heresy; which, by breaking down exactness

and sanctioned meanings of words, prepares the way for laxity of belief in things de fide—a danger set forth as in many places, so nowhere more cogently than by S. Chrysostom in his beautiful treatise, "De Sacerdotio," (b. iv. 4. 405. seq.) which we commend to Mr. Eden's notice. We have, of course, passed over much that we might noticesuch as the pertinacity with which any notion of a visible unity of the Church of CHRIST is rejected in six several articles, on "Unity" "Unity of the Church"; "Universal Church"; "Universal Faith"; "Church"; and "Catholic"; in all which the doctrine of visible union is always represented as dependent on that of a supreme visible head or governor; or again, the two articles on reserve in communicating religious knowledge, wherein the writer labours to show that reserve means suppression; or again, the studious depreciation of the ministerial office, in four articles (pp. 4, 51, 65, 282); as also, contradictions far too numerous to particularize. We have already trespassed too much on our limits, and in conclusion will only observe, that whether we look to Mr. Eden's book for a candid account of things as they are, or for a bare statement of instructive facts, we are equally disappointed; the work has been, in fact, made the vehicle of party views and feelings; it is unsound in theology, grossly uninformed in all matters of fact, and so completely pervaded by an unnatural controversial tone, that it is not only valueless now, but will ere long become unintelligible. As we said before, Mr. Eden disclaims at the outset the "insinuation of opinions" as disingenuous," and we are bound to acquit him; but if we were asked to give an example of a disingenuous book, we should not hesitate to mention, as the most signal instance which ever came under our notice, Mr. Eden's Churchman's Theological Dictionary: our abhorrence of its pestilent dogmatism being only kept within bounds by our intimate conviction that its ludicrous insufficiency will ere long consign it to wished-for oblivion.

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THE CHURCH IN INDIA.

THE present position of the Church in India is singular. No Church has been similarly situated since the foundation of the world. It possesses supposed advantages which none have enjoyed before it, and yet it has hitherto been sadly deficient in the power of expansiveness. We propose to discuss the causes of its weakness afterwards, but shall first make some remarks upon its rise and its position in the present day. And if our reflections appear to be severe, let none suppose that it is from a spirit of unfaithfulness towards the Church, and that we wish to expose our mother's shame. Although we shall show abundant cause for humiliation, we feel confident that our Church can stand a comparison with other Churches: and although she may have neglected her duty, she will, unhappily, be found in this respect to be not without company. We are fully conscious that if just opinions are to be formed, we must not only notice our own omissions, but also those of others under

parallel circumstances. Perhaps Christianity was introduced into Spanish South America when converters and converted stood in the same relative position as they did subsequently in British India; but we could draw a comparison between the modes of introduction in each case, with the strongest confidence that it would be declared in our favour. If in India there was apathy and neglect, in America there was cruelty and ferocity; but the few names of those who mildly propagated the Gospel in the former country, stand in striking contrast to those of Cortes and Pizarro, who mixed Christianity with sanguinary ambition and a mercenary thirst for gold. With all our faults, it will readily be admitted that we have always tried the arts of conviction in preference to those of persecution.

We are not then seeking to embellish others, when we confess that our picture is a sad one. The fact is, if our Church had not been sadly abused, the nations of India would have rejoiced in her light. But what was the case? She was positively revolting. She was only in profession assimilated to the Church of the Apostles, and yet men expected to meet with Apostles' success. We will pause to establish this point, because we shall thus place the present in pleasing contrast to the past, and find cause for unbounded thankfulness.

As regards the laity, many of their crimes were of the same cast as the native heathens, but they were perpetrated with more perseverance and success. Low cunning, covetousness, and peculation are vices in which the natives have a bad pre-eminence; but at one period of history they were outvied in all these by their European conquerors. Plotting, indeed, is so conformable to the taste of natives, that if they see any direct approach to their object, they will still prefer the circuitous route of an intrigue; and yet in the conduct of sinister plots, they were immeasurably inferior to Europeans. Thornton's "History of India" shows, upon the best authority, that this was the case in Madras ; and that it was so in Bengal must be known by all who have a moderate acquaintance with the lives of Warren Hastings and his contemporaries. The genius loci was surpassed by these new invaders : it was not sufficient for them to do as men did in India, but they must go far beyond the intriguing inhabitants. Nor was it probable that their offences would be confined to intrigues and peculations; in fact, they omitted few items in the catalogue of crime. If there arose an honourable man, his is still treasured in a manner which shows memory how illustrious he was as an exception to the general rule; and such as Lords Cornwallis and Teignmouth are made brighter by the contrast of moral gloom with which they were surrounded. Looking back to times still earlier than those we have just referred to, we find one governor of Bombay, Sir John Gayer, unfaithful to his trust; and his successor, Sir Nicholas Waite, so disgusting the inhabitants by his immorality and injustice, that he was sent home by them a prisoner to England. Subsequently, Hastings was Governor-general of India, and Sir Philip Francis, his most formidable opponent, in council: the former married a woman whose husband he first bribed to divorce her; the Lord Teignmouth, in latter was a notorious seducer of female virtue. a letter written early in life, speaks of a general disregard of religion,

although he declares the number of professed infidels was inconsider. able. Still later, Bishops Middleton and Heber inform us that AngloIndians were distinguished from natives, not by the difference of their religion so much as by the absence of any. Our readers will perhaps remember the ludicrous question put to the former, whether or not the habit of whistling, unknown to the sedate Hindu, was a method of invoking the Christian's GOD. An officer, when sailing in the Straits, was asked by the boatman if the English had any religion. He knew that the Portuguese and Dutch were Christians, but he could never discover whether the English had any faith at all. There can be little doubt of the profligacy and irreligion of the laity; and when Christianity appeared in such a dress, we need not wonder that it had few admirers. May we not, on the contrary, view it as a matter of congratulation that conversions did not take place? If they had, we should have infallibly had a daughter Church which it would have been a disgrace to own, and a set of converts who would have been libels on the name of Christian.

The matter bears but a slightly altered phasis when we turn to the clergy. Indeed, in all cases, they are a sort of types of the laity; and it is scarcely possible that the one should be for long devoted or negligent, without the other being affected. Now, as before, we find here but few exceptions, although those are brilliant ones. The name of Schwartz is justly cherished by Churchmen, for it has few deserving companions; and, after him, there is a dark hiatus before we come again to such men as Martin and Corrie. Government thought it unnecessary to provide Priests, except, perhaps, one or two at a Presidency. As late as 1790, Dr. Bell combined in his own person eight offices, seven of which were clerical. Besides the Chaplainship of the Army, he held that of five regiments stationed, neither he nor they probably cared where, and the Junior Chaplaincy of Fort S. George. In addition to all these he was engaged in the invention and completion of his school system, and in the accumulation of a fortune, which in eight years was raised from £128. 10s. to £25,900. In 1806, Dr. Buchanan thus wrote:-"I am informed that there are at this time above twenty English regiments in India, and that not one of them has a chaplain. The men live without religion, and when they die they bury each other." And the same writer declares that our Bengal and Madras Governments, so far from patronising Christianity, appointed Mussulmen or Hindùs to official situations in preference to native Christians. It would appear from these and similar statements, that the East India Company did not think it necessary to provide clergy for their European servants, except when the services of such a person as Bell, who came out as a mere adventurer, were engaged; and he, in the genial atmosphere, became a pluralist and devoted servant of Mammon.

But a natural consequence of such a state of things was, that Christianity was not presented as at unity in itself, but as made up of the conflicting interests of clergy of different sects. When the Church neglects her duty, she must expect that her own peculiar ground will be occupied by others. Zeigenbalg, ordained by the Bishop of Zealand,

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is said to have been the first missionary to India not a Romanist. He arrived in 1705, and since that time the Tranquebar Mission has been increasing; so that now there are more Christians in those districts than in any other part of India. George the First and Archbishop Wake addressed letters to him and to his brother missionaries, in which the flourishing condition of the mission is alluded to; and so sanguine was the Archbishop, that he confidently declared that God would, by their means, subdue to himself "the whole Continent of Oriental India.' Miserably indeed have his pious hopes been frustrated. Although these Churches have increased in numbers, and Buchanan, when he visited them, spoke highly of the vigour and purity in which the Christian virtues were found amongst them; yet he himself admits that they suffered much from European infidelity, and in the present day there is too much reason for adopting the commonly-received opinion that they are composed of persons of the most indifferent characters. The Baptist Mission in Bengal stands foremost for the zeal and intelligence of its missionaries. Its success, indeed, has been trifling, compared with the efforts which have been made; but such appears probable, if the weak claims which Dissent must have upon credibility are taken into consideration. The early devotion, however, of its supporters to the missionary cause, will ever be a severe reflection upon the English Church, which has been provided with such more abundant resources. Viewing, then, the depravity of the laity, the state of the clergy, and especially the sectarianism of missionaries, we need not hesitate to affirm that Christianity was not only without attractions, but that even to a heathen it might have been made actually revolting.

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Now, in opposition to all this, we have much that is cheering at the present time. We cannot, indeed, yet say, This is the day that we looked for;" but we may assert with gratitude, "The LORD hath done great things for us already, whereof we rejoice." A comparison between the Anglo-Indian and the English laity would not be much to the disadvantage of the former. It must be admitted, indeed, that there are still amongst them many causes at work to produce irreligious tendencies, and more especially amongst the military. To see this, we have only to consider how their lives may probably be led. At the age of sixteen, perhaps fifteen, a boy is removed from school, fitted out and sent to India. He may at once be sent to a station, at which religious services are rarely or never publicly performed: for such stations are still numerous. At his mess he generally meets with persons a few years older, or the same age as himself. After a while, perhaps, he is ordered on detachment duty; and, by the time he again mixes in society, he has ceased to attach any value to religious observances, and he finds them both new and wearisome. If, on the contrary, he joins his regiment at a large station, he merely meets with the ordinary temptations which befal every boy when first launched into the world; whilst, in the case which we first supposed, he has the additional one of being drawn from the sight and practice of holiness. And let any reader consider what his character was at the early age which we have here mentioned, and then see if the wonder is that any men, situated as this boy, should be Christians, rather than that many should be

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