Pomarrce, and funk down into one of the chieftains, to give place to his child. On the day of his ina guration, the greatest preparations were made, and the feafting immenfe.

The Royal Maro, or badge of fovereignity, is a fath of network. and thrummed with red and yellow feather. This is placed on the Morai and from thence, with folemn prayers brought by a chief Prieft, and bound round the young king, who is carried on men's thoulders.

His uncle, a chief of Eimeo, firft harrangued his majefty, acknowledging his fupreme dominion. He then produced three dead human victims, which were folemnly conveyed from the canoes to the Morai. A chief Pricft, with a young plantain tree in his hand, fcooped out an eye from each of the victims, and with a long train of ceremonies presented them to the young king. The bodies were then conveyed away, and buried in the Morai. The fame ceremony was repeated by the Chieftains of the feventeen diftricts inte which the land is divided; fome odering one, and fome two human facrifices, according to the extent of their district.

There were followed by a large drove of hogs, and immenfe quantities of turtle fith, and vegetables, on which the chiefs feafted in the greatest abundance, and continued for two months. The reafon affigned by their Prielts for offering the eye of each victim to the King, was, that the head of a man being reputed facred, and the eye the principal feature, this was the propereft to be presented; as the king holds his mouth open during the prefentation, additional ftrength and difcernment is fuppofed to enter into him thereby; and as his tutelar Deity receives the foul of the facrifice, his own is fuppofed to be in confequence greatly enlarged.

The deftruction of the human fpecies by this inhuman cuftom cannot but be great, and its abolition among the mercies to be fought in conveying to them the gospel

The mode of fele&ting the victims has been fomewhat differently reported, though probably reconcileable. One fays, that whenever a victim is required, the Prieft, with five or fix other perfons, goes round the district, and that the man whom the Priest fixes upon, is immediately knocked down with a club, by a perfon coming behind him, unfufpected, and fuddenly

But a person who more explicitly defcribes the process my perhaps be more exact in the mode, and as fome circumftancestake off a little from the horror of the proceeding, I should hope the facts may be credited.

Q 2

When

When a human facrifice is demanded, the chief of the diftrict convenes the Ratirras, or principal landholders, and none are permitted to be prefent but fuch as are nobles by birth. After ftating to them the purpose of the meeting, they confer together, upon the mott criminal, and the most worthlefs fubject in their district; fixing ufually upon a culpit, who has been guilty of blafphemy, a notorious thief, or who hath fled into that diftrict from another, on account of his crimes. This decifion, once formed, is kept a profound fecret, and probably the only one of the kind. Perfons are appointed to execute the fentence with the greateft privacy. They are to watch their opportunity, ufually at night, and when the victim is afleep. The weapon ufed on this occafion is a stone adze and they are especially careful to strike on the nape of the neck, and kill with a blow, without disfiguring the body, as the Priefis may not offer any body which is mangled. And if a woman even bites a man to draw blood, he is thenceforth profane, and cannot be offered in facrifice, nor admitted to any facred fervices of the Morai. The dead body is immediately put into a basket of cocoa-nut leaves, and carried to the canoe to be conveyed to the Morai.

But it is not always that the chief can find a man, who is judged deferving of death, nor can he oblige the Ratirras to pronounce fentence, if they think the requifition improper, or find none deferving death for their crimes; for this feems the only way in which criminals are executed, as they never bring any perfon to trial face to face, left his friends fhould interpofe, and attempt a refcue: but no notice is taken of his death in this cafe, and every one fuppofes it was juft.

On fuch occafions, they who are cenicious of guilt, fhelter themselves on the facred ground near the Morai, where they may not be fla n, unless trepanned from their retreat. If the Ratirras will grant no human victim, a hog is then fubftituted.

This, with the horrible cuftom of murdering the newborn infants, a frequent ufage, forms the most forbidding feature of these otherwife mild and gentle iflanders. We hope to teach them a facrifice, that will put an end to thefe atrocities; and fet them examples of paternal love, that will make them cherish their offspring.

T. Hs.

ANSWERS

ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

No. I.

"How does God Speak peace to his people: Or, in what way "doth he fay to a foul, I am thy falvation ?"

TH

HIS queftion is founded upon two paffages of fcripture, namely, Pfal. lxxxv. 8. I will hear what God the Lord will fpeak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his faints. And Pfal. xxxv. 3. Say unto my foul; I am thy falvation, The meaning of thefe paffages requires to be afcertained from the context. The 85th Pfalm appears to have been written after the captivity; and on account of the Jews having fallen into fad declenfions, which had brought on fresh troubles. In the foregoing part of the Pfalm, the writer acknowledges God's great goodness in their restoration; and grounds a plea from thence, that he would again turn them from their fins, and caufe his anger to ceafe. And having of fered up this petition. Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy falvation, he fets himself, as it were, upon his watchtower, to receive an anfwer, which his confidence in the divine goodness prefumed would be an answer of peace. The word Shalom in the Old Testament commonly fignifies profperity. This was the object for which he had been praying; and when he fays God will speak unto his people, he means, I take it, that he will beflow profperity upon them: for to speak peace with God, is the fame thing as to beftow it; because he fpeaks, and it is done; he commands, and it ftands faft. The meaning of the other paffage is much the fame; it is a prayer of David, that God would fave him from his enemies; as if he fhould fay, "Speak but the word, I am thy falvation, and all my enemies will be difappointed."

Concerning Chriftians of the prefent day, the question amount. to this: In what form or forms does God communicate peace, and the knowledge of intereft in his falvation, to our mind? There is no doubt but that true Chriftians do poffefs, though not without interruption, peace of mind, joy in the Holy Ghoft, and a folid and well-grounded perfuafion of their intereft in eternal life: and fome have reprefented thefe enjoyments as conveyed to the heart by immediate revelation from heaven, or by the fuggeftion of fome paffage of fcripture to the mind, the import of which feems to include the happy intelligence. Suppofe, e. g. a perfon to be under

great

great dejection and fear refpecting his interest in Chrift, and while he is poring over his cafe, the paffage above alluded to is fuggefted to his mind, I am thy falvation;" fome would fuppofe that this was no other than the voice of God fpeaking peace to his foul, and that for him to question the goodness of his ftate after this would be unbelief. If this be God's way of manifefting himfelf to his people, then revelation is not perfect; but God is making new revelations, and revelations of new truths too continually: for as to the intereft that any individual has in spiritual bleffings, be it ever so much a truth, it is no where directly revealed in the Bible; nor is there any poffible way of proving it from thence, unless it be by inference. There is not a paflage in the Bible that says concerning any one of us, I am thy falvation. The fcripture, fpeaks only of characters, and if we anfwer to thefe characters, we can prove that the things promifed belong to us, but not otherwife. I own I confider all fuch fuggeftions, wherein it is not the truth contained in the paflage itfelf, but a prefumption of its being immediately fent from God to the party, that affords the comfort, as real enthusiasm; and as deftitute of all foundation in the word of God. I do not deny but that many godly people have been carried away by fuch things; but I have feen evils, more than a few, which have arifen from them

Thofe perfons who ground their evidences for heaven on impreflions of fcripture on their minds, are generally favoured, as they fuppofe, with many other revelations befides thofe which relate to their intereft in eternal life. They are often directed as to prefent duty, and foretold of future events. If they are in a ftate of hefitation as to the path of duty, they pray to the Lo d, and fo far they do well: but in addition to this, inftead of inquiring into the mind of God, as revealed in his word, they expect fome immediate fuggestion from him. And if, while they are thinking of the conduct in queftion, fuch a paffage as that in Ifaiah xxx. 21. this is the way, walk ye in it, occur to their minds, they immediately conclude that this is a direction from God to follow that particular courfe which at the time occupied the mind; and which generally, if not always, proves to be the course to which their hearts were previously inclined. By fuch means many have been deluded into great errors, to the dishonour of God, and the ruin of their future peace.

By the fame means others have been led to fuppofe them

felves in the fecret of God concerning future events. They have been praying, it may be, for the converfion of a favourite child. and fome fuch pallage as this has been fuggefted to their minds, I will furely have mercy upon him, faith the Lord; from whence they have concluded that the child would fome time be converted and faved, And this their confidence has been communicated, till the child himfelf has heard it; and being willing to catch at any thing that might buoy up his vain hope he has prefumed upon a future converfion while living in a courfe of fin. At length, however, the parent has witneffed the death of the child, and that without any figns of a change. The confequence has been defpondenty, and a calling in queftion his own perfonal religion. If, fays he, this promife did not come from God, I have no reason to think any other did; and fo all may be delufion.

But this not the worst: godly perfons are not the only characters who have fcriptures impreffed upon their minds, and that with power, as it is often termed. The most abandoned finners, if they have been ufed to read and hear the word of God, can talk of fuch things as thefe. I have feldom known perfons of this defcription but who have fome fuch falfe hope by which they quiet their minds amidst a career of iniquity. Twenty or thirty years ago, th y will tell you, they were under strong convictions, and they had a promise; and ever fince they have had fome hope that they fhould at last be faved; though they must confefs their life has been very far from what it should have been..

But the question will again be afked, "In what way does God fpeak peace to his people; or fay unto a foul, I am thy falvation? If I were to anfwer, by beft wing gfpel peace upon them, or enabling them to difcern and approve the gapel way of falvation, it would be a juft application of the pailages where thefe expreffions are found. And this accords with other fcriptures: the Lord directs poor finners, faying, Ajk for the good old way, and walk in it, and ye shall find reft for your fouls, Jer. vi. 16. Our Lord takes up this language, and applies the good old way to himself; faying, Come unto ME all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find reft unto your fouls, Matt. xi. 28, 29. Thus it is by an approving view of God's way of falvation, fuch a view as leads us to walk in it, that we may obtain peace; and it is thus that God fpeaks peace to the foul, and faith unto it, I am thy falvation.

It