banished, or hanged. So much for the effects which might be expected to follow Mr. Hall's plan. And as for the principles upon which that plan is founded, we find him broadly stating, in the latter end of this work, with admirable consistency, that" calumny and reproach are usually the lot of distinguished virtue," and that" the unpopularity of a cause is rather a presumption of its excellence." Now, if the fact be so, it cannot be for the good of the people that this perpetually erroneous criterion should govern the affairs of the state. Mr. Hall concludes his prefixed advertisement with the hope" that the reader will recollect, as an excuse for the warmth of his expression, that the work is an "eulogium on a dead friend;" which is asserting in other words, that the press is enslaved, and its liberty departed. And having written this some years since, he now coolly republishes it after witnessing the acquittals of Hone and Wooller, and while the wretched Carlile is braving every effort that can be made to stop the torrent of blasphemy which has so long issued from his warehouse.

Again, Mr. H. assured us, thirty years since, that we had then "at length arrived at that crisis when nothing but speedy and effectual reform could save us from ruin." Now, since the first publication of this prediction, we have maintained a contest of long duration with the greatest conqueror of modern times, and have fairly subdued him. We have immensely augmented the extent of our empire, and increased its ratio of population. We have tripled our commerce and our revenue. We have improved, it is to be hoped, the state of our internal population by the establishment of schools and the increase of places of worship. And we have made some progress in the commencement, at least, of the great work of evangelizing the whole world.

JAN. 1822.

And after all this, Mr. Hall comes forward, with much admirable simplicity, to tell us of this wonderful prophecy of his, delivered only the third part of a century since, that without immediate reform in Parliament ruin was then inevitable. Now, it is certain that this same immediate reform has not yet taken place, although one whole generation has passed away since the promulgation of this prediction. Has the dreadful alternative, then, fallen upon us? Have we been crushed by this inevitable ruin?

The present comparatively prosperous and improving circumstances of the kingdom answers No! to this question. The general state of the country, the average condition of the great mass of the people, is better, and not worse, than at the time when Mr. Hall first published this direful presage.

If there be any exception to this state of general improvement, it is to be found in the depression of the agricultural interests of the country. But we are told, by those who ought to be judges, that the evils which threaten these classes have arisen from the want of sufficient legislative protection. And do we not know, from the conduct of the mobs of 1815, that a reformed Parliament, a Universal Suffrage Parliament, according to Mr. Hall's plan, would have withheld even the partial protection which has hitherto been granted, and would have thereby made what is now distress and perplexity, absolute ruin and destruction? So much for the necessity and the effects of reform.

It is with the most painful feelings that we are thus compelled to animadvert upon this uncalled-for and altogether unnecessary republication. We repeat, that the general principle upon which we disapprove of it, is, that a Minister of the Gospel will always best consult the interests of his flock and the dignity of his own character, by ab

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staining from any political discussion which trangresses the bounds prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. Mr. Hall has overstepped these limits, and has plunged into the thickest of the war of violent party politics. He has also chosen, we apprehend, the side which is generally found in most direct opposition to the Scripture injunctions of peace, quietness, and obedience. And as the weight of his character and the authority of his name render error from his pen trebly dangerous, we have felt only the more imperatively called upon to enter our protest against the principles which he has endeavoured to lay down, and to unmask the sophistry of the arguments by which he has attempted to support them.

Scripture Antiquities; or a compendious Summary of the religious Institutions, Customs, and Manners of the Hebrew Nation. By the Rev. John Jones.-Pp. vi. and 292. Seeley.

THERE are few subjects on which we have been more uniform ly disappointed than that of Scripture antiquities. We have risen from the perusal of costly and ponderous volumes without acquiring any adequate information. Nor, if we consider the case, will this appear at all surprising. There is but one book in the world which treats of this remarkable people on which we can depend, and with that book we are, or at least ought to be, familiar from our earliest infancy. Excepting some half dozen sentences in profane writers, the works of Josephus, a few extracts quoted by the Fathers, and perhaps a small part of the Targums, there is positively nothing with respect to the Jews, excepting the Sacred History, which can be traced higher than the destruction of Jerusalem; so that almost the whole of what is called rabbinical learning, is neither more nor less than the traditional account of those very traditions by which, in the time of our

Lord, the Jews made void the law of God. Yet from these corrupt and erroneous sources, Calmet, and Fleury, and Lightfoot, to say nothing of Goodwin, Cuneus, &c. &c. have largely drawn.

This little work, however, of Mr. Jones, is a pleasing exception to our general remark. It professes only to be a summary, and designed as an introductory help; but it contains within the compass of a small volume, almost all that is really worthy of notice upon the subject. It consists of five parts, in which an account is given of the sacred times and seasons observed by the Israelites; of their sacrifices and oblations; of the ministers of the sanctuary, and other ecclesiastical or sacred persons; with a concise account of the principal Jewish sects; of the sacred buildings and places, and of the peculiar civil customs and manners.

The following extracts may perhaps be considered as fair specimens of our author's manner.

The compiler of this small volume, when studying the sacred Scriptures, with an earnest desire to come to the knowledge of the whole truth, felt the need of a portable summary of Biblical antiquities, as a understanding important portions of the guide to his researches, and a help towards Scriptures; and he was therefore induced to consult the most eminent writers on the subject, within his reach, and from their learned and pious works, to compile this manual of Biblical antiquities. Without an accurate knowledge of the peculiar rites, manners, and customs of the Hebrew nation, a vast portion of the sacred Scriptures must remain unintelligible and obscure. If it be necessary to be acquainted with the antiquities of Greece and Rome, in order to enter fully into the meaning, or accurately apprehend the various beauties of the Greek and Roman classics; how much more necessary is it to be intimately acquainted with the antiquities of the Hebrew nation, to whom Jehovah originally intrusted the sacred Scriptures, and whose religious rites,

customs, and manners, widely differed from

those of every other nation, in order to enter into the full meaning, and correctly apprehend the sublime beauties of those Scriptures, which are designed to make us wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ? Without an accurate knowledge of the religious institutions and customs of

the Hebrews, we cannot perceive the reasonableness and the excellency of that worship, and of those rites and ceremonies, which God himself instituted; and which most significantly and expressly prefigured and typified the glorious dispensation of the Gospel. Hence this important branch of Biblical study is indispensably necessary, and most important to all who study the Scriptures with a desire to understand them thoroughly.-p. i.

On the feast of the Passover, it was customary for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to give the free use of their rooms and furniture to strangers. This custom explains the reason why our blessed Saviour sent his disciples to prepare for his eating the passover at a person's house, who appears, by the narration of the evangelists, to be a stranger to him. The Talmudists say, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem afforded all accommodations gratis to the people who came to the great annual festivals, and were never used to let out their houses on such occasions. p. 28.

At the first passover the blood of the paschal lamb was commanded to be sprinkled on the lintels and on the door-posts of the houses of the Israelites, which was done by dipping a bunch of hyssop into the blood. "The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are, and when I see the blood I will pass over you." Exod. xii. 13. The blood was a token to the destroying angel that the houses, on which he saw this blood sprinkled, were under the protection of God, and that no person within them was to be injured. A most significant emblem of the sacrifice and atonement made by the blood of Jesus Christ, the true paschal lamb!-p. 30.

The sacrifice of the Paschal lamb in a very remarkable manner represented several of the fruits and consequences of the death of Christ; such as protection and salvation by his blood, of which the sprinkling of the lintels and door-posts of every house with the blood of the paschal lamb, and the safety the Israelites enjoyed from the destroying angel, was an illustrious emblem. In allusion to this, the blood of Christ is called "the blood of sprinkling." 1 Pet. i. 2; Heb. xii. 24. In order to our redemption, it was necesssary that the true paschal lamb should die in our stead: and the guilt and power of sin must be taken away by the sprinkling of his blood, in its atoning efficacy and merits on our hearts and consciences. It was required that the blood of the paschal lamb should be sprinkled on every house of the Israelites, in order to their preservation: which circumstance represents the necessity of a personal applica

tion of the blood of the cross to the con

science, to take away sin. It was not sufficient for the preservation of the Israelites

that the passover was only institated; but they were also commanded to sprinkle the blood on their houses, which points out very significantly that it is not sufficient that Christ took upon him human nature, and died for the sin of mankind, but every individual must get a personal application of that death to his own heart, or he cannot be saved. Immediately after the Israelites ate the first passover, they were delivered from the servitude of Egypt, and restored to full liberty, of which they had been deprived for many years; and such is the fruit of the death of Christ, in a spiritual sense, to all that believe in him, for he hath by his death "obtained eternal redemption for us," and brought us "into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Heb. ix. 12; Rom. viii. 21. And it is fur ther worthy of remark, that all who wish for an application of the atoning blood of Christ, must partake of this spiritual passover, with a perfect readiness to depart from the land of their captivity, and travel to the rest that remains for the people of God.

By eating the flesh of the lamb, we are to understand faith in Jesus Christ; for Christ himself has expressed saving faith in him by the metaphor of eating his flesh, probably in reference to the passover. John, vi. 53. In the communion service, the communicant is addressed, "Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee; and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving." Here the type and the antitype are most expressly condensed into one point of view. And here it is worthy of remark, that the sacrament of the Lord's supper was instituted to commemorate the sacrifice and death of the true paschal lamb: for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.' And our Lord commanded his disciples, saying, "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Thus the sacrament of the Lord's supper is intended to commemorate to the end of time the death and sacrifice of the true paschal lamb. The passover was to be an ordinance for ever; and so, till the passion and death of Christ, the paschal lamb continued to be sacrificed by the Jews. Afterwards, bread and wine, according to our blessed Lord's command, were ordained to be received in commemoration of his death and passion, and to be the continual representatives of that sacrifice till the end of the world.-p. 37.

The volume is neatly printed, embellished with a plan of Jerusalem, a vignette title and wood-cuts, and will form a pleasing and useful

taught to treat all foreigners as unclean, because amongst them no attention is paid to ceremonial purity; they partake also of forbidden food; they mingle even with the lowest ranks; and, in short, they are not Hindoos. These ideas of the impurity of foreigners are carried to such an extent, that all familiar association with them renders a Hindoo infamous. If the monarch of Great Britain were to visit the East, and should accidentally touch the boiled rice of the poorest Hindon, the latter would throw it away, as rendered unclean even by the royal touch, and though he had not wherewithal to purchase another meal. How shall these persons be brought to join themselves to foreigners, and to sit at the same sacred table with them? How shall Bramhuns do this, who have been accustomed to go and bathe again, if even an inferior Hindoo has touched them after their ablutions, and before they have partaken of their food? Another obstruction arises out of the superstitious reverence of the people for the gods, the priests, their sacred books, and a thousand other objects which have been consecrated to idolatry in this, the land of the gods.

The ignorance of the people on every subject connected with the truths of divine revelation is such, that Christians at home can hardly realize it.

The want of moral powers, of a conscience, in the heathen, and the abominable associations, even in reference to religion, which possess their minds, make conversion to a religion, which is to purify the affections, and which presents to the mind only holy objects, peculiarly difficult. The levity of the Hindoos on every serious subject, and the difficulty of gaining and fixing their attention, have often made my heart sink like a stone within me.

But, in the law of the cast, we have an obstruction still greater than all these. All the Hindoos are divided into distinct tribes or casts; and the law forbids all communion among the different casts; so that one tribe can neither marry, nor eat, drink, nor smoke with another; nor practise the ceremonies belonging to another tribe. Disobedience to these rules is followed by loss of cast, whereby the outcast is cut off at once from father, mother, wife, children, brother, sister, and all his relations, as well as from all his rights of property. He can never hold the least intercourse with these persons, nor return home; never again see the face of those who have been dearer to him than life itself. And all these fearful penalties are incurred in embracing Christianity. The Christian convert must tear from his heart every tender recollection, and remain a living martyr from the hour of his baptism to the day of his death.

I recollect one of these converts coming to me one day, and saying, in the most plaintive tones, "Sir, I do not want my cast again. I do not want to go back to idolatry; but, Sir, could I not go and see my mother once more? Could I not re

turn for once and take leave of my friends?" The poor young man was overcome for a time by those feelings which Christianity refines, but never extinguishes. I had to bring to his recollection, that what he sought could not be realized; that these friends would not see him; that in this fruitless attempt he might put himself into the hands of his enemies; but that his friends could not admit him into their presence, without exposing themselves to the loss of cast.

Finally, the infamy attached to the loss of cast, infallibly insures, many will think, the perpetuity of the Hindoo superstition. Some persons who have lost cast unintentionally, have given, in largesses to the Bramhuns, as much as 10,000l. to be restored to their rank; and others have put an end to their lives, unable to endure the disgrace into which they have fallen.

These, and many other obstacles, our brethren found in the character and institutions of the Hindoos themselves. But these were far from including all the difficulties of the case.

The distance from England to the scene of action is fifteen thousand miles, in some cases a five months' voyage. To send supplies, and to carry on operations at such a distance, must impede every kind of operation, especially those connected with a great mental and moral change.

The expense attending missions at such a distance is also very great, and must exceedingly limit the extent of these exertions. To prepare, to equip, and to land each missionary, costs the British public not less than 6007. and to maintain him there, a considerable annual sum: so that charitable funds, where the numbers to be taught amount to so many millions, can do but little, except in making the commencement.

The mortality too which attends the transplanting of men from a cold into a very warm climate, must be accompanied with great losses of energy and life. Of the eight persons with whom I sailed to Bengal, four have been removed by death; and of eight persons arriving some time afterwards, only two survive.

The languages to be acquired form another order of difficulties. English is here of no use in the work to the heathen. Besides the Sungskrit, the dialects of India amount to not less than fifty. Fifty languages to be acquired before all India can be instructed!