Tenkase, Tirukuttalum, Sankaranayinarkovil, Shatur, Pasuvantanay, Devidanam, Daragapuram, Kallugumalli, Srivilliputur, Sivakasi, and Tiruttanga).

Besides the monuments before enumerated, there are several other religious edifices founded by private individuals; of these, some are endowed with perpetual revenues, and others supported by annual or occasional voluntary contributions; the expenses of the idolatrous worship of the Hindus are very considerable. The temples in Tinnevelly and its adjacent districts, have originally enjoyed, by the sanction and influence of the native government, extensive endowments of land, exempted from all taxation; every pagoda, great or small, has its resources for defraying the expenses of the establishment, and its religious ceremonies; each also has its own votaries and devotees, who bestow considerable offerings in money, jewels, cattle, provision, and other articles, which are usually divided amongst the functionaries of the temple. But since the assumption of the pagoda lands in July 1812, during Mr. Lushington's collectorship, each pagoda receives an adequate compensation in ready money and Manniams.

A sect is known in the southern provinces whose tenets and conduct excite some curiosity. The original leader was Timmapiengar, a native of Sukulapuram near Delhi, who, it is said, made a tour to Madura during the government of the Kurtacles, in the reign of Mútú Alagherrinaick (1667), of the family of the celebrated Tirmanaick, disseminating his doctrines of the system of the Ettalluttuvedam and Saktipujah of the Perria Perattiar. The followers of these mysterious rites honour the goddess by nocturnal orgies, conducted principally by a Gentoo Vassari. The anniversaries are celebrated in two places in Tinnevelly; the one on the 18th day of Chettri, corresponding to the 29th of April, at Chettiapett, in the Panchamal Talook; and the other on the 5th day of Tye, corresponding to the 16th January, at Kallugumalli in the Ettiapuram Zemindary. It is not a little remarkable that on these two festivals the devotees appear not to regard pollution, nor any acts of defilement, which on ordinary occasions would excite abhorrence. They eat and drink indiscriminately, without any regard to the accustomed usages of caste, and indeed all distinctions of caste are abolished, and the Parriar is as welcome as the Bramin, and they partake of the same morsel and drink out of the same vessel in succession. Transgressions of the most abominable kind are considered a particular moral excellence. The devotees of this sect make large offerings to the priest on these occasions.

Shiva and Vishnu are the principal deities worshipped in the southern provinces, and these are known by numerous appellations, the former by 1008, and the latter by 108 names. Brahma, though he ranks the first among the Hindu deities, has neither temple, worship, nor followers in this province. The god Shiva, is known principally by a few names, viz. Parameishuwara, Sadasiva, Iswara or Esuren, Subrahmanniar, Rudra Lingam; and the Lingam is the ordinary symbol of that deity. Some of the principal names of the god Vishnu, who is generally styled Permal, will be found below; his followers imprint on their forehead the mark of the Nama, viz. three perpendicular lines, as a symbol of their devotion.

Vignaswara, known to Europeans by the name of the elephant-headed deity, and also familiar by a few other names, as Puliyar, Ganesa, Vinoyaka, is seen more frequently than any other deity; several of their idols have small temples, whilst others are found under a tree-some are kept on a platform raised round a tree; Puliyars are seen in Muntapums or Choultries, in places of public resort, in Tamil schools, in fortifications, within and without; by the side of streams,

Permal, Nama, Faroyana, Govinda, Krishna, Tiruvenkedi

baddi.

tanks, annicuts, avenues; and in fact in all frequented places. This idol has a bandycoot for his vehicle, and receives the first worship in all public ceremonies, being presented with cocoa-nuts, sandal, and flowers.

The inferior divinities, Murda Appen, Piddari, Kali, Sattan, Marriammin, Buddrakali, are also very numerous, and are principally venerated among the Sudra and lower classes. But there are, however, some of them at whose ceremonies Bramins preside. The temples consecrated to these deities are of the most common description, consisting of sheds with tiled and thatched roofs, and some open places, where there are some earthenware figures of horses, bulls, &c. &c.

Pei-kovils, or devils' temples, are so called in Tinnevelly from being dedicated to the worship of demons; each division of a caste, in a village or family, has its own particular Pei-kovil. These structures are nothing more than solitary pyramids, built of mud, from 4 to 6 feet high; some are whitewashed with chunam, and others are besmeared with cow-dung; at these shrines propitiatory sacrifices and oblations are offered to defend them from all the evils which might arise from their neighbours or their enemies. The inhabitants also confer particular honours on certain trees, the principal of which are Allimaram, Aruli, Arshamaram, Vepamaram, Murdamaram. Beside these is a prickly shrub (Vannimaram), which grows like an umbrella; the offerings made to it consist in sticking rags on its branches.

The monuments of widows who have devoted themselves on the funeral pile of their deceased husbands are not uncommon. This horrid rite seems, with a few exceptions, scarcely to have been perpetrated within the last twenty years in this province and its neighbouring districts; and there now remain, from the numerous monuments of antiquity, 702 only that have been given in the provincial accounts of the Zemindaries; one-half of which appear to be of very ancient date. These monuments have external homage paid to them. This barbarous rite of self-immolation does not exist in Travancore, nor will that government sanction any practice foreign to their religious usages, nor permit any woman to burn, with or without the body of her husband, within the territories of Travancore or Cochin. For instance, a suttee was to have been performed at Quilon in the year 1818 (another MS. says November 1817), by a Gentoo woman, on the funeral pile of her deceased husband (late a sepoy of the 2d battalion 5th regiment N. I.). The Ranee of Travancore was solicited to sanction a custom which was said to be generally customary throughout India, and that the unfortunate woman might be permitted to destroy herself, as there could be no immorality in the action. The Ranee remonstrated, and saved the deluded woman by urging the British resident (then Colonel Munro) not to suffer any human sacrifice to be committed within the limits of her country. There is another caste of people, styled "Cottah Veltallers," whose women live in seclusion, and are never permitted to perform this practice of self-immolation on the funeral pile of their deceased husbands. The Cottah Vellallars are of a respectable Sudra origin; they reside at Sriveikuntum within a high mud-wall, situated on the left bank of the Taumbrapurney river, 13 miles S.E. of Palamcottah; within these bulwarks no males of whatever caste or persuasion are permitted to enter; their women are not allowed to come out: this prohibition stands good to the present day. A widow, after the death of her husband, must live confined, so as to let her body become emaciated by abstaining from every sort of comfort or luxury, and she must only live on rice and water, or herbs and roots: and besides, she must abstain from chewing betel, washing her head, or changing her clothes. It is said that a widow, leading this mortified life, seldom or never survives her

deceased husband more than three or four months, or at the utmost six.

These edifices are very humerous, and although almost useless as to any real benefit, the erection of them is considered one of the most honourable and meritorious works that a rich Hindu can perform. The Hindus generally undertake such works from

motives of ostentation rather than real benevolence. In fact, these buildings are more generally appropriated to their domestic establishments than for the accommodation of travellers.

[To be concluded in the next Number.]

ON THE SEVERAL POINTS OF RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH OF CHRIST:

A Sermon,*

BY THE REV. W. M. HARTE,

Minister of St. Mary's Chapel, Barbadoes, and Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of the Diocese.

MATT. xvi. 18.

Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven." And he proceeds to identify the blessing with the person who had thus nobly deserved it, if the epithet of desert can be applied to any human act, however seemingly praiseworthy. "And I say also unto thee," continues our Lord, "that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The original word, from which the name is derived, literally means a rock; but it is uncertain whether our Lord meant to say that he would build his Church on the individual thus designated, or on the confession of faith thus rewarded. If on the individual, it distinctly foretells the fact of Peter being the instrument through whom the Church was opened both to Jew and Gentile: if on the confession of faith, which I think the more probable interpreta

gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

THESE words are not less remarkable for the declaration which they contain, and the promise which they convey, than for the practical uses to which they may be applied. The occasion on which they were spoken is a remarkable one in the history of our Lord. He had wrought many miracles: he had delivered many discourses: but he seems to have not yet demanded from his apostles a confession of their faith in him, or their recognition of his divine character. The time had now arrived when it was necessary that this should be done. Accordingly, he put the question to them, first, concerning the opinion entertained of him among his countrymen. This was followed by his desiring them to explain their own sentiments. "Whom say ye that I am?" The answer to the question was given by St. Peter, with that promptitude and decision which marked the character of the apostle, however inconsistent such qualities of the mind may appear to be with the timidity and irresolution displayed by him on several occasions. "Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Whether this declaration was made by St. Peter for himself singly, or in behalf of the other apostles, also seems doubtful. The plain interpretation of the passage would induce us to suppose that it was his own individual confession-a confession founded on the acknowledged facts of his Lord's history, and willingly made by a follower of no ordinary zeal and sincerity. The benediction which it received from our Saviour was, however, confined to the individual. "Jesus answered and said unto him,

• Preached at the Cathedral and Parish Church of St. Michael, Bridge-town, Barbadoes, at an ordination of priests and deacons.

viour's divine character is the fundamental doctrine of our religion. But however this part of the passage may be interpreted, no doubt can remain on the consoling promise contained in the latter part of it: the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of Christ. The durability of its foundation, the magnitude of its superstructure, the neverfailing presence and protection of its Founder, forbid any fears with respect to its permanence. It is founded indeed on a rock: and, to borrow the well-known illustration of our Lord on a different occasion, the rain may descend and the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon it, because it is thus strongly and securely founded.

But although the promise was originally made, and has always been observed in respect to the universal Church of Christ, yet it may be said that the same promise is not given to particular Churches. One Church, namely, that of Ephesus, lost its candlestick, according to the prediction in the Revelation, because it repented not. The Church of Laodicea is no more, because it was lukewarm, and knew not its own poverty and blindness. The remainder of the seven Churches of Asia, with the exception perhaps of that of Philadelphia, have all declined in outward splendour and prosperity; leaving an instructive warning to all particular Churches to be zealous and repent, and not fall from their first works. "He that hath an ear," saith St. John, " let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches" (Rev. ii. 29).

All particular Churches, therefore, possess a certain standard, according to which they may cherish the hope, each of its own security and permanence. They know the sure promise of their Lord with respect to his uni

versal Church; and they may claim the same promise, and be animated by the same encouraging assurance of permanence, if they imbibe the spirit, and walk in the steps, of that primitive Church to which the consoling declaration was first applied.

It may not be unsuitable, therefore, I trust, to the present occasion, nor unedifying to any of us, whether clergy or laity, if I enumerate some of the instances in which I think I can trace a resemblance between our own Church and that universal one against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. If I should succeed in proving that the Church of England does in many points bear an affinity to the apostolical Church of our Redeemer, let us piously indulge the hope, that its permanence is secured by the blessing of Him whose protecting presence is with the congregation of the faithful even unto the end of the world. As many as he loves, we know that he rebukes and chastens. They may have tribulations, but against them, as a Church, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

One point of resemblance is, the conformity of the doctrines professed by the Church of England to those of the primitive Church of Christ. The doctrine of the holy Trinity of the existence of three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the unity of the Godhead-which stands at the head of our articles of religion, was, as has been fully proved, the doctrine of the primitive Church. The holy Trinity was the avowed object of belief throughout the Catholic Church in its purest ages; nor was there any considerable defection from this faith delivered to the saints by the apostles, until the novel opinions of Arius gained adherents in a luxurious and enervating age. I need not endeavour to prove, that a belief in the holy Trinity is the prominent feature in our na tional Church. The other doctrines deducible from this fundamental verity, and connected with man's salvation and his acceptance with God the Father, distinguish alike our own particular Church and the universal Church of Christ. The same veneration for the two sacraments; the same importance given to faith as the only means of justification, and to good works as the evidence of that faith; the corrupt state of man by nature, and his sanctification by the power of the eternal Spirit, these mark the character of the one and of the other.

Again; the holy Scriptures, which, in the early ages of Christ's Church, were the rule of faith and the standard of manners, still hold the same pre-eminence in the estimation of the Church of England. An early writer, who flourished in the third century, says,

"Possibly what these (our adversaries) affirm might have been credited, if first of all the divine Scriptures did not contradict them." By another writer, the Scriptures are called "the sacred fountain." "Our assertions and discourses," says a third, "are unworthy of credit; we must receive the Scriptures as witnesses." In language as strong, and with the same spirit of reverence and implicit belief, the sixth article of our Church contains the sentiments of our first reformers on the sufficiency of the holy Scriptures for salvation: "Whatsoever is not read therein, nor proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." Thus allied to the primitive Church of Christ is the Church of England in her veneration for the Scriptures.

But one circumstance which strongly proves this affinity, is that reverence for ecclesiastical antiquity which distinguishes the Church of England from all the other Protestant Churches. It is this which draws her into the closest bond of union with the primitive Church, assimilates her to it, and makes her, as it were, one with it; and gives her a share in the glorious promise, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. She does not debar her sons from any of the intellectual improvements which the inquiring spirit of the present times may have produced in the world; she is ready to go along with the increased mental activity of the age; she opens herself to all the real and substantial advantages which may be derived from the progress of time; but still she looks back with due reverence on the departed glories of the past; she dares not think for one moment that learning, and judgment, and sound criticism, belong only to modern times. "These men account us as innovators," said an old and learned prelate of our Church, "because we recommend that all persons should study with diligence, and receive with veneration, the writings of ancient doctors, approved by the Catholic Church; especially of those doctors who bordered on the apostolic age. These men account us as innovators, because, next to the sacred Scriptures, we singly regard and revere the more pure and primitive antiquity; and because we advise others religiously to follow the consenting judgment of that antiquity, wherever discoverable, as it certainly is discoverable in all matters of greater moment." "It is the ambition of the Church of England," says another of her eminent sons, to be distinguished through the whole Christian world, and judged by an equitable posterity, under this character-that, in deciding controversies of faith and practice, it has ever been her

66

Another point of view in which the resemblance can be traced, is in that form of Church government which she has derived from the earliest and purest times. In her prudent and wise, though uncompromising, zeal for reformation, she happily steered clear from the innovations in this respect, which the overstrained anxiety to escape from the corruptions of the Church of Rome introduced into the continental reformed Churches; and, what was still more to be lamented, into a communion closely allied to her by proximity of situation and by union of interests. But we rest on the comfortable and assured persuasion, that in this instance she has not swerved from the pure and apostolical Church of Christ; she has rather kept her union with it by preserving unimpaired that form of episcopal government, which the eye of sound and sober criticism can discern to have been the apostolical practice as discoverable in the sacred writings. "The belief of the primitive Church," says the learned Bishop Taylor, " is, that bishops are the ordinary successors of the apostles, and presbyters of the seventy-two; and therefore did believe that episcopacy is as truly of divine institution as the apostolate; for the ordinary office both of one and the other is the same thing. For this," he adds, "there is abundant testimony."* Herein I claim a strict resemblance between the Church of England and the primitive Church of Christ. A Church thus founded on apostolical doctrines and apostolical usages may humbly hope to be preserved from the gates of hell.

Nor is this all. One glorious mark of distinction which accompanied the apostolical Church of Christ in all its particular branches, was its zeal in spreading through the world the saving truths of the Gospel. The primitive Church, like the great Founder of it among the Gentiles, was debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. Animated by this spirit, the primitive missionary was prepared to quit home and kindred, to renounce the nearest and tenderest connexions, with a view of making known to heathen lands the unsearchable riches of Christ. The effect of

Bishop Heber's edition, vol. vii. p. 37.

such unparalleled exertions became manifest before the close of the second century, when an ancient father, in his "Apology to the Roman governors," could say, "We are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled your cities, islands, towns, the camp, the senate, and the forum."* This spirit has also animated our Church. Its two great societies, founded for more than a century on this principle, bear witness to the fact; but more especially the last thirty years have witnessed a more than ordinary zeal for effecting this glorious purpose. The Church of England has spared neither gold nor silver, neither talent nor exertion, to bear the glad tidings of Gospel-truth throughout the world. We, who are living in these lands, are witnesses to the beneficial effects produced by it among us at the present day; and in the East the valuable lives, which have been successively sacrificed for the attainment of this object, bear a strong, though melancholy, testimony to that zeal, which counts not its life dear unto itself, so that it might finish the ministry which has been received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.

If the primitive Church can boast of its long train of Christian moralists, expositors, and apologists, the Church of England loses nothing in the comparison. If the treasures of ecclesiastical antiquity are replete with sound learning, patient research, and accurate criticism, applied to the canon of holy Scripture, our Church can produce an honourable catalogue of names, venerable both for theological learning and for primitive piety; the names of men, who, from the highest to the lowest order in our Church, have applied talent, knowledge, and eloquence, to the elucidation of the Scriptures and the inculcation of scriptural truths.

The limits of my discourse will permit me only to allude to the liturgy of our Church: in its language, scriptural; in its doctrine, pure and primitive; in its prayers, exhibiting the spirit, and very often using the words, of the most ancient liturgies.

I proceed to the last point of resemblance which I have time to mention, and that will bear on a distinguishing and preeminent excellency common alike to the early ages of the Church in general, and to the Church of England in particular. The Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of St. Paul, contain abundant proofs of the attention paid by the several Churches to the temporal wants and necessities of their poorer brethren. St. Paul thus speaks of three of the apostles: "When James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me,

⚫ Tertullian.

they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do." And what enemy to the Church of England can dare to deny that, in every instance which calls for aid and relief, the Church of England is pre-eminent in her readiness to remember the poor? Whether the relief of poverty and of destitution is to be promoted; whether the education of the poor is to be advanced, and sickness and sorrow to be mitigated,—the Church of England is always foremost in every plan of benevolence. To the exertions of her clergy, the great national system of education now pursued universally and successfully is mainly to be attributed; to the labours of her clergy, the establishment of schools throughout the land is chiefly owing. To this primary object of real benevolence; to this advancement, not of the temporal only, but of the eternal interests of their poorer brethren, they have given not merely the pecuniary assistance, sometimes bountifully, according to their means, but their time, their talents, their personal superintendence, their active and unwearied influence; thus shewing to their country, and before the Churches, this proof of Christian love.

and yet true: being reviled, we bless; being defamed, we entreat."

After this enumeration of points of resemblance between the Church of England and the primitive Church of Christ, may we not humbly and piously indulge the hope, that the promise of her Lord will mercifully be extended to her; and that, against this particular Church, any more than against the universal Church, the gates of hell shall not prevail. This cheering and consoling promise must bear us up under all the threatening appearances which the present aspect of public affairs has assumed to the eye of every thinking Churchman. Schemes of spoliation are afloat; theoretical plans of reform are at the present day being devised; but, notwithstanding any faults of minor importance which the prying eye of modern innovation may discover in our ecclesiastical establishments, I firmly believe that the Church of England will continue to hold the same station which she has ever holden, "as the glory of the Reformation, and the purest branch of the Church of Christ." But let all her sons be equipped for the conflict, however it may end, with that armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, which preserved the great apostle of the Gentiles in undeviating consistency of character, "through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report; as poor, yet making many rich; as deceivers,

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Christian Observer.

In this particular Church, thus founded on prophets and apostles-Christ Jesus himself being the head corner-stone-in the Church of England, thus bearing in so many points the closest resemblance with the primitive Church of Christ,-you, my reverend, brethren, are on this day to be admitted to the second; while others among you will take their place in the first order among the beautiful gradations of her sacred ministry. Permit me, as your elder brother, to beseech you all, in the spirit of meekness, and with an humble sense of my own imperfections, to weigh well the solemn vows which you are now about to take upon yourselves, in the presence of the congregation and at the altar of your God, and which you will seal with the precious emblems of your Saviour's body and blood. Crucify him not afresh by falseness to these holy vows. Study to shew yourselves workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. "Do the work of evangelists, make full proof of your ministry" (2 Tim. iv. 5). Seeking, by all the means which the labours of the wise and good afford you, to be mighty in the Scriptures, preach the truth as it is in Jesus. "Determine to know nothing, in your respective congregations, but Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. ii. 2). Endeavour, in dependence on his grace, to enforce Christian morality from Christian principles. The inquiring spirit of the age, and the excitement every where produced by it, demand a learned clergy-a body of men prepared to defend either the evidences or the doctrines of their faith with fervour, simplicity, knowledge, and discretion. In these times, and in these lands, you will be expected to do more; you must be animated by a spirit similar to that which actuated the primitive missionary; and with prudence, yet with zeal, you are to bear the name of Christ to thousands, who know not-at any rate, feel notthe value of a Saviour. Slacken not your exertions for this high and holy purpose; but in the use of all those means which the mercies of God, through Christ, shall put into your hands, consider yourselves debtors both to the wise and to the unwise, both to the free and to the bond. "Search the Scriptures" (John, v. 39); revere antiquity, especially the antiquity of the earliest ages,-remembering, however, that "holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation;"* be not carried about with every wind of doctrine. For this purpose, let the labours of the wise, and the learned, and the good, of past times, and more particularly the golden

• 6th Article.