spondent writes, of the date of March 20, 1823:

"I wrote you in November last from Philadelphia, acknowledging the receipt of your most valuable present of your excellent work on the Epistles, which the more I consult, the more highly 1 esteem, and think it beyond question the greatest of those great services you have rendered to the cause of Christian truth. Its effects will be widely and permanently felt in a future generation of men. I hope it will soon be reprinted in this country, and read not only on the shores of the Atlantic, but beyond the Alleghany chain on the banks of the Mississipi and Missouri. I have introduced it to the knowledge of several members of Congress, who appear to feel much interested in it. The suggestion in your esteemed favour of October 1st, respecting a public provision for the support of religion in every parish,' &c., is a thing concerning which I have no religious scruple. In the Eastern States it is adopted and maintained by some of the governments. But in the middle, southern and western States of this Union, nothing of the kind has been admitted. In this matter Congress have no power; the constitution prohibits them making any law respecting religion. In England the Imperium in Imperio which is peculiar to this country is little understood. Each of the twenty-four States is a perfect, absolute and independent sovereignty, in all things pertaining to its own territory and inhabitants. And the general government is a government of specific and limited powers, sovereign and supreme, with regard to the united force and independence of the whole, and also in all the external relations of the country with other powers, and in the collection and use of revenue for the Union; but entirely incapable of interfering with the internal legislation of each particular State. Owing to their not understanding this complicated system, we often smile to see in the English papers things said of the transactions of the American government, which are completely at variance with facts, and with its constitutional principles. I have visited New England, and am still disposed to think that their plan

of securing emoluments to the clergy, rather tends to retard the progress of truth than otherwise; it also occasions sometimes disagreeable feuds in parishes when a new sect arises. But I am not very confident in my opinion. As for the camp meetings I believe they are declining every where, and chiefly prevail in the western country. Fanaticism, however, in various shapes, is a very prevailing evil. Unitarianism will cure it, and I believe a large number of people, chiefly among the Baptists in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Vir ginia, have cast off their belief in the Trinity. They have still much to' learn. One of their preachers, a plain man without education; but good plain sense and a strong understanding, was lately on a visit ainong us and our Baltimore friends, to get information on some points. This man had travelled above 600 miles' on horseback, and perhaps may return with some new ideas." A TELANGA

I

SIR,

London, September 2, 1823. OBSERVE that a report which crept into the newspapers relating to an attempt at the late Conference of the Wesleian ministers to impose the Liturgy of the Church of England upon the societies in that connexion, has been contradicted. Perhaps some of your readers can inform the public to what this contradiction amounts whether it applies to the fact in toto, or merely to the wording of the resolution proposed. I am informed that' the question of a Liturgy was actually moved and supported by the leading ministers in the connexion, and nega tived by a majority of seventy and upwards; and also that the movers intended that the Liturgy should bring in with it, according to Jolin Wesley's original plan, episcopal ordination," the readers being designed to be taken from amongst persons in holy orders." My information leads me to conclude that this attempt to approach towards the Church of England, though defeated, will be renewed. Should this conclusion be correct, it is easy to foresee that the Wesleians will divide into the two branches of Churchmen and Dissenters.

EPISCOPUS.

derive instruction from the reasoning and admonitions of the admirable discourse to which it is transferred.

By the next, XXI., we are scarcely less impressed and gratified: it is "on the Duty and Efficacy of Prayer." [Matt. vii. 7.] A most important obfigation, an essential as well as a salutary practice, is here urged with great strength of reasoning. To the following observations we cordially subscribe, and are reminded by them of Ogden* and of Price† (310, 311):

"I know it has been said, that the important practical tendency of the exercise of prayer will, of itself, operate as a sufficient motive for engaging in it. Our prayers, it is said, for support under affliction, or of [for] virtue in temptation, though they do not induce God to bestow more of his supporting grace, than by his inherent goodness he is ever disposed to bestow, have a most beneficial effect upon our own temper, and serve to impress upon us a sense of our constant dependence upon the Almighty, for every thing which makes our lives happy. In like manner, our intercessions in behalf of our fellow-creatures, though they cannot have any direct in fluence in promoting their welfare, produce, indirectly, the most important results, by engaging us, in a solemn and impressive manner, to the performance of charitable and benevolent duties. But I think I may safely appeal to the good sense and experience of every religious person, whether these are the reasons which have ever led, or ever would lead, to that spontaneous and sincere devotion, from which alone these good effects would flow? Nay, whether they would even consider it as justifiable to use the forms of devotion, under such impressions? Could the form of petition be used with propriety by those, who do not believe that the Divine Being regards the prayers of men? Might it not appear even impious, to address the Almighty in language which we considered as expressing false and unfounded notions? For surely no apparent advantages can justify us, in acting upon fictitious principles. And in religion espe cially, where every thing should breathe simplicity and godly sincerity, it cannot be warrantable to act conformably with ideas which we believe to be erroneous;

to connect the venerable name of God

with a supposed falsehood, merely because we imagine good effects will be produced on our own minds, by such a practice. But it is altogether a fallacy; no such prayer was ever presented; aud must entirely cease, as soon the valuable tendency of the exercise worshiper believes, that nature and as the religion hold out to him no hope of obtaining a favourable answer to his sincerest prayer, under his greatest afflictions."

The arguments which the Scriptures contain in behalf of prayer, are then excellently set forth.

"A sermon on New Year's Day," (No. XXII.) closes this part of the volume: the subject [Eccles. xi. 7] is, the tenure on which we possess even the innocent and allowable pleasures of life; and the discourse receives a melancholy interest from the circumstance of its being "the last composed by the author."

Three Addresses at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, one at a funeral, and an office for public worship, are annexed; with a view to the gratification and benefit of different classes of readers.

The sermons that we have now reviewed are short; without, however, being meagre and superficial. They are, at the same time, methodical : and the method is, for the most part, announced. This we consider as a capital excellence. Hume, whose li terary taste and judgment are almost universally admitted, censures “our modern orators," for their rejection. of that order, "which seems so requisite to argument, and without which it is scarcely possible to produce an entire conviction on the mind."

Mr. Henry Turner appears to have possessed the qualifications of a sound theologian-industry, candour, a sincere and pious mind, discernment, and a correct acquaintance with scriptural praseology. He was evidently characterized by an enlightened zeal for the tenets which he embraced on inquiry and conviction: hence they are neither unseasonably introduced nor disingenuously kept back or coloured. His style is in general pure, glowing and agreeable; such as marks the scholar and the man of taste, The grand charm of these discourses

* Essays, &c. (1793,) Vol. I. p. 111.

will be found, however, in the fine spirit which they breathe, in the devotion and benevolence, by which they are manifestly dictated. This author values the simple Christianity of the New Testament, for its moral genius and excellence; and his compositions prove, as did his life, that he saw nothing in the gospel, which should forbid it to enter into all our feelings, all our circumstances, all our objects of pursuit and care. We perceive him to be in earnest, ardent, yet gentle, the determined foe of vice, but the friendly monitor of the vicious. To the religious body, of which he was an ornament, his posthumous sermons must be eminently acceptable: and we are encouraged, by the demand for them, t to hope, that they will be most extensively useful. By those of the young, at whose immediate desire they have been published, may they be read in the temper with which they were written and delivered! "There is not a stronger bond of union between the youthful heart, and those to whom the formation of the mind is," in any shape or degree, "intrusted, than that which is established by the communication and reception of knowledge." In the present instance, may the knowledge which has been so impressively recorded, make numbers of the rising "wise unto salvation!"

race

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Unitarian Controversy at Calcutta. ART. II. III. IV.-Concluded from p. 479.

N the subject of the principles

doos, Rammohun Roy is the best of all witnesses. He says that 3-5ths of the inhabitants of Hindoostan consist of this people; the remaining 2-5ths being chiefly Moosulmans. The latter are, as all the world knows, firmly devoted to the belief of one God; the former, (says our author,) are, with a few exceptions, immersed in gross idolatry, and in belief of the most extravagant description respecting futurity, antiquity, and the mira cles of their deities and saints, as handed down to them and recorded in

A second edition will soon appear.

their ancient books." Precepts of Jesus,&c., London Edition, p. 122.

"The mysterious doctrine of three Gods in one Godhead," is stated by this Christian Hindoo to be "the origin of Mohummudanism, and the stumbling-block to the conversion of the more enlightened amongst the Hindoos."-Ibid. p. 121.

In reference to this topic, he pronounces a high eulogium upon Christianity:

"If Christianity inculcated a doctrine which represents God as consisting of three persons, and appearing sometimes in the human form, at other times in a bodily shape like a dove, no Hindoo, ia my humble opinion, who searches after truth, can conscientiously profess it in preference to Hindooism; for that which renders the modern Hindoo system of religiou absurd and detestable, is, that one, as consisting of many persons, cait represents the divine nature, though pable of assuming different forms for the discharge of different offices. I am, however, most firmly convinced, that Christianity is entirely free from every trace of Polytheism, whether gross or refined."-Ibid. pp. 317, 318.

Rammohun Roy's books are rendered the more interesting by his blending with his arguments and criticisms occasional appeals to his own experience. For instance, he says,

"For my conviction, and for the satisfaction of those who consider the Precepts of Jesus as a guide to peace and happiness, his word, They may be one as we are,' John, ch. xvii. ver. 11, in God and Jesus, fully suffices. Disgusted defining the nature of the unity between with the puerile and unsociable system of Hindoo idolatry, and dissatisfied at

against Nonmoossulmans, 1, on my searching after the truth of Christianity, plexed with the difference of sentiments felt for a length of time very much perfound among the followers of Christ, (I mean Trinitarians and Unitarians, the grand divisions of them,) until I met with the explanation of the unity given by the divine Teacher himself as a guide to peace and happiness."-Ibid. p. 167.

In answer to a question of the Missionary's "Did Mohummud, arrogant as he was, ever make such a declara

with you always, even to the end of as Jesus did, namely that I am the world?" our author says,

"I only entreat the attention of the