a variety of subjects, he at last pressed me to give him some account of the customs of my country; and in a more particular manner to inform him, what god or gods we worship, since I seemed to have so little veneration for theirs; and that I would be ingenuous, and tell him (as I had been a great traveller) what things I had seen, in order to improve the evening to the best advantage. And pray,' says he, what God is that you adore?' Upon this the company drew round me, and I began by asking them, in the first place, if they were not satisfied that there was a God above the skies? They told me, they firmly believed there was a God above, who was the supreme Lord of all other gods, dæmons, or spirits, of what nature or kind soever. That very God, said I, is the deity we adore; for we know of no other god, nor do we pay the tribute of divine worship to any other object than this one, this supreme and only God. Do not you, then,' said they, make prayers and sacrifices, and invoke some guardian dæmons, to assist you in the knowledge or will of that God, and to warn you of any approaching dangers?' To this I replied, that all good men in England acknowledge an overruling providence, &c. Deaan Murnanzack listened to this serious discourse of mine with abundance of attention, and then turned to some of his people, and argued with them for some time, partly in vindication of what I had asserted, and partly in endeavouring to explain to them the nature of their owleys, which I am sensible I had not a just notion of at that time: but I was too young when first I was reduced to this slavery, and had neither friends or books to assist me; besides, I was not capable of making such just remarks then, as I could do now. But to proceed, as soon as the Deaan had done disCoursing with them, he turned again o me, and said, You observed just now, as I remember, that the great supreme God had forbid you the worship of any thing but himself; pray, did any-white man ever see this great God above? Or does he often condescend to talk with your people, and not with ours?" To which I made answer, that no man ever saw God, but some of our forefathers, many ages ago, heard his voice when he descended in a cloud. But,' says he, if this was se many years ago, and there is no man now living, black or white, that ever heard the voice of this God, how are you sure it is true? And since, as you allow, it was many years ago, things may be so altered or mis-represented from what they were when your first forefathers told them, that you cannot rely upon their certainty.' I was here at some loss, as they had no knowledge of letters, and, consequently, I could not make them comprehend any thing of the sacred Scriptores; I only told them, therefore, that we had a way of preserving the memory of things, which they were wholly unacquainted with; and by that means, I said, we had an account of the beginning of the world, and of its creation by God; and that I could tell them a great many strange things in relation thereto; which they then seemed very desirous of hearing. And accordingly, I told them that the world was originally dark, and a confused chaos or mass; and that God, by the word of his power, made the sun and moon, the beasts, fish, fowl, trees, herbs, and every thing else. They still persisted in their first objection, and, as they imagined, with much more reason than before. For,' said one of them, though it is possible you may have a better method of preserving the memory of things than we have, yet you could never have the knowledge of what was done before there was any man created. To this I replied, that God had revealed the knowledge of this, and much more, to particular persons: which they listening attentively to, I went on to the crea tion of man, and then of woman's being made out of a rib, which God took from him while he was asleep. At this they all broke out into astonishment and laughter; and Deaan Murnanzack said, it was a manifest untruth; and that therefore it was a shame to tell such a story with a serious countenance: by this, he said, he was convinced that all the rest was false; for, was this true, a woman would have a rib more than a man, and a man be defective on one side. Here I was guilty of a gross error through ignorance: however, I think myself obliged ingenuously to confess it. I hope our divines, and all good Christians, will consider the circumstances I was in, and readily forgive me; for I had so little wit, as peremptorily to insist on the truth of it, and affirmed what I had heard when young from illiterate persons; that a man had one rib less on one side than on the other. Nay, I had so much assurance, as to put the whole argument upon this issue, and offered to lay any wager on the fact. The prince laughed at me, though he was willing to be convinced. We had two women with us; one was very lean, whom he ordered to be called: her ribs were told and found to be equal; and after that a man was examined, and his ribs were the same. They were not all of them, indeed, convinced of the exact number, nor could I myself, in attempting to count them after them. From this time I perceived, Deaan Murnanzack treated all I had said upon religion with contempt, and immediately resumed his former objection with more vigour, and said, that to talk of what was done before man was created, was perfect nonsense; and what I had asserted in relation to God's conversing with men, had no manner of evidence; and that the things I pretended to know and to talk of, were, in short, nothing more than old women's tales. However,' says he, pray go on, and give us some further account of this God of yours, who in former ages was thus familiar with mankind.' Then I went on with the scripture story of God's displeasure with the old world, and the flood which destroyed all men and beasts on the earth, except those in the ark; and of Noah's taking male and female of every species into it to preserve them. Upon this, one of them shortly replied, if they had been all destroyed, could not that God who made them at first, make more of them at his pleasure? But I went on, and told them of the rainbow, that it was appointed for a sign of God's promise not to drown the world again. To this Deaan Murnanzack replied, that they had no such tradition handed down to them; but besides,' says he, if none but Noah, with his sons and daughters were saved; pray was Noah a white or a black man?' To which I answered, 'Sir, I perceive you give no credit to what I say of this nature.' He said, 'There are many things which I do not rightly understand, and shall be glad to be informed of; nay, I would give credit to any thing that a reasonable man can desire, but most of these things are no better than old women's fictions; and I am fully persuaded, that all white men will not talk thus idly as you do.' These were his very words, which he repeated several times, and with which this evening's conference concluded. It was no small concern to me to find how the truth suffered by my weakness; but I was in hopes that Deaan Murnanzack, who was a man of penetration, might consider that I was but youth when I left England, and for that reason, not well acquainted with the topics I undertook to explain. "I was frequently employed to kill a sacrifice, in case of a circumcision, or when any one was sick; and since I had the conference above related with Deaan Murnanzack, I had the curiosity to listen to their prayers, and more than once attempted to speak in favour of the Christian religion. When I men some tioned the resurrection of the body, they told me it must be a mere romance; and to talk as I did, of burning in fire after death, was to them inconceivable: for (said they) no man can feel after he is dead; and unless they could see person raised from the grave, they would give no credit to my assertion. I told them further of God's appearing, and giving the Ten Commandments, but it had no influence over them; for, said they, all mankind have the purport and meaning of them by the dictates of nature. "Here are laws against adultery, theft, and murder; and they have such a veneration for their parents, that they revere them even after death: there is also a fine inflicted on any one who shall presume to curse another man's parents. They never swear profanely, but allow oaths sometimes requisite; because, as they said, they were necessary and convenient, and men could not live one by another if there were not such laws; and for that reason there was no occasion for the great God himself to prescribe these rules. The Fourth Commandment, indeed, they seem to have no idea of, unless it be that they allow even their slaves to spend one day in seven as they think proper, without controul; but they have no religious duties to perform; and when informed that we kept it holy, because God rested on the seventh day, they said this was as improbable as any thing I had before asserted; and asked how I could tell what God did before there was a man living? And in deed I could plainly perceive that they despised me for talking of these things, and looked on me as a common notorious liar, insomuch that I was obliged to desist. short, I had no way to prove what I asserted; and that mistake in regard to the rib, in my conversation with Deaan Murnanzack, was a mortifying stroke to me. Though they are fools, enough here to be imposed on by the umossees, or conjurers, yet they will entertain no no tion of conversing with the great God. They allow, indeed, that there are dæmons or spirits, which may be good or bad, who appear to them in dreams, and discover to these umossees many surprising things; yet they do not look upon them to be more pious, or better men than others; though, indeed, they ima gine they are more knowing. The awe, however, that my education had impressed upon my mind, prevented me from joining in their worship, lest it should be idolatrous; and there never was such a thing as persecution for religion ever thought of amongst them; so that I was free to think and do as I thought proper, so long as I took care not to affront them. "We white people entertain a very contemptible and mean idea of these blacks, and a high and partial one of ourselves. They, on the other hand, have an exalted opinion of our merit, and modestly imagine, that we are far superior to them in point of knowledge, arts, and sciences; and therein, doubtless, they are right; but, if an impartial comparison was to be made of their good qualities, the black heathens would, in my opinion, excel the white Christians.' To the Editor of the Christian Observer. FINDING that Mr. Yeates, of Cams bridge, is in the habit of communicating to the public, through the medium of the "Christian Observer," the result of his interesting literary labours, in arranging and collating the Buchanan collection of Oriental MSS.; I take the opportunity of asking that gentleman, through the In same respectable publication, a ques tion, which his obliging disposition will, I trust, induce him to answer, and forgive me the liberty of hav ing put to him.-It is this:-In the Christian Observer for the month of October last (1810.) p. 109, Mr. Yeates, in giving an account of the Indian Roll of the Pentateuch, brought to this country by Dr. Buchanan, observes "that the amount of the variations (of the text of that copy) from the printed edition of Vander Hooght, does not exceed forty, and that none of them are found to differ from the common reading, as to the sense and interpretation of the text." Now, after reading so general an observation, it may seem needless to ask for any more explicit information on this subject; but Mr. Yeates would confer a great obligation on me, if he would take the trouble to inform me, whether the numbers ascribed to the years of the antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchal generations and lives, in the fifth and eleventh chapters of Genesis, are quite the same in the Indian MS. Pentateuch, as in Vander Hooght's printed text. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE late Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, possessed a small summer residence at Sundridge, near SevenOaks, in Kent. In the parish is a hamlet, at a considerable distance from the church. The bishop, consulting the convenience of its inhabitants, erected a chapel there, with a chapel-house, and endowed it with five acres of glebe, and 110l. per annum in the funds, of which 100/. is to be paid to the minister, and 107. to the clerk. The following account of the consecration of the chapel is extracted from the preface of a poem, entitled "The Consecration," written and published on the occasion, and I should be glad to see it preserved in your miscellany. "The consecration of the chapel by the Archbishop of Canterbury (in whose diocese it is situated), took place on Friday, the 12th day of June, 1807, and was a most solemn and interesting ceremony. It was witnessed by a great concourse CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 108. of people assembled on the occasion, many more than the chapel itself would contain; notwithstanding which, every thing was conducted with the utmost decorum. At the entrance of the chapel, after his Grace was robed, the Bishop of London, clergy, &c. standing uncovered, a petition was addressed to the Archbishop, stating the want of a place of worship in that part of the parish, and praying him to consecrate the newly-erected chapel; whereupon his Grace proceeded up the chapel, repeating the 24th Psalm- The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein-the officiating ministers and people taking the alternate verses. Nothing can exceed the effect of this psalm when used on such an occasion, and particularly the repetition of those sublime verses; Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? it is the Lord, strong and mighty; even the Lord, mighty in battle.' "The Archbishop being seated on one side of the altar, and the Rev. Dr. Vyse, rector of Sundridge, on the other, the deed of endowment, and other legal forms, were read; after which, the prayers of consecration, also one for God's blessing on the founder, his family, and substance, were offered up by the archbishop, in the most devout and impressive manner. The morning service was then read by the Rev. Mr. Dickes, the curate of Sundridge, who was officiating chaplain; the first lesson being taken from the 8th chapter of the 1st book of Kings; and the communion service by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The 84th Psalm (How amiable are thy tabernacles') and the 100th, were sung in the service; after which an appropriate and instructive sermon was delivered by Dr. Vyse, wherein the grateful mention made of the venerable founder, was in such terms as it becomes the minister of 5 D To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I SHALI, esteem it a particular favour, if any of your well-informed readers would give his best attention to the inquiry, and communicate to the public, through the channel of your useful publication, his deliberate opinion, upon what ground unmarried women can be entitled to the office for the thanksgiving of women after child-birth, commonly called the Churching of Women:--and also upon what ground the children of such persons can be entitled to the ministration of infant baptism:---and further, if their claim can be established to baptism publicly administered, with the antecedent stipulation of qualified sponsors, how far in any case they can be entitled to the reception of this ordinance privately administered, without such stipulation. And in the dispassionate consideration of these three questions, which I conceive to be perfectly distinct, and to rest each upon a separate basis, I would request the inquirer, who may deem them deserving his attention, to bear in mind three important points: 1st. That, in the church's better days, sound divines were unanimous in the opinion, that sin notorious, without repentance publicly avowed, disqualified for church-membership. 2d. That the covenanted promises of God are, under every dispensa tion, made only to believers and to their seed. 3d. That baptism is a divine ordinance, but that the stipulation of sponsors, although an excellent and ancient institution, is yet merely of human origin. A cool and dispassionate discussion of these topics, would highly oblige CLERICUS ANGLICANUS REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The Quarterly Review. No. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. London: Murray. 1809, 1810. WE have more than once had occa sion to animadvert on the political and religious spirit of the Edinburgh Review; and while we have been forward to acknowledge the talents which it displayed in articles of merely a scientific or literary nature, and have been grateful to them for their valuable exertions in favour of the abolition of the slave trade exertions which are still most honourably continued-we couldn t but lainent that prejudice, ignorance, and party spirit, should, on other subjects of supreme importance, prevail in a journal so extensively circulated, and possessing so consi derable an influence on the public opinion. When, therefore, we heard that a new Review was in agitation, destined to rival in abilny this Giant of the North, and to coun teract what was pernicious in bis principles, we waited for its ap pearance with some degree of inpatience. In its first number, however, we sustained a lamentable disappointment. Our expectation indeed, were whimsically reversed The Edinburgh Journal, in review ing Burns's Poems, had not caly • No. XXVI. p. 249. |
