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Eucharistic elements; and by St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians we are certified that the apostles administered the same. But as early as the time of Justin Martyr, the Church, without any scriptural authority, and probably in allusion to the water which came from Christ's pierced side together with the blood, hesitated not to add water to them. If, in this case, an addition was made, was it not made in others?

To argue, that by approximating ourselves to Romanism we can oppose Romanism, is absurd. Nor do we think that the pomp of its services is the great allurement, for there is too much mummery in them; and we agree with the Times newspaper, that the attraction lies in the music. We, therefore, can more safely oppose Romanism than by altering our services, leaving our reading-desks, and accommodating ourselves to its forms, since our Rubric gives to us the power of introducing into our Churches musical attractions as great as those by which people have been enticed to Popery; and this, far from being confined to Cathedrals, is extended to every parish Church. The psalms, the hymns, and spiritual odes (wdaí), mentioned by St. Paul, show that there were different styles of composition adapted to sacred music, of course different styles of music in the Apostolic Church; and no one can examine the modern Jewish services without perceiving the important part that music bears in them. The various titles of the Hebrew Psalms, and the account of the Tabernacle-service under David, and of the Temple-service under Solomon, with the classes of musicians arranged under their chiefs, and the evidence of pauses and alternation of singers in the Psalms, some bearing one part, others another, and all, at times, bursting into chorus, are no mean evidences that, even under the old economy, counterparts to our Cathedral-music had an existence. Musical instruments are recorded as early as the books of Genesis and Job; and the well-songs quoted by Moses, perhaps not quite dissimilar to those still sung in the deserts, lead us back to an early cultivation of the art; but in the triumphant song after the passage of the Red Sea we clearly discern the chorus and separation into parts which we remark in the Psalms. The same may be observed of the Song of Moses.*

Philo Judæus expressly says, that the music of the Jewish Sanctuary was in all-various measures and melodies; and in his description he includes the amæbean or alternate style, mentioning that women's voices frequently alternated with those of the men, or were mixed with them. The testimony

* Anciently the titles poet and prophet were synonymous, and the laws of nations were metrical, and set to music (cf. Lowthu Prælect: i. 69); those of Charondas were sung by the Athenians at their feasts. Athen. xiv. 3. Elian, Var. Hist. ii. 39. gives to us a similar account of those of Crete, and this seems to have been the case all over the ancient world. The laws of Menu are in poetry likewise. On the music of the Jews, Nathan's " Musurgia Vocalis" may be advantageously consulted; in which Adon Olam, and Yagdal ELOHIM HHAI have every appearance of a remote antiquity: and each Jew attempts to sing one of these as he perceives himself to be dying.

of Josephus gives the same general evidence. We shall, however, not occupy our space by discussing the opinions of scholars on the music of the Hebrews, or the conjectural musical parts into which they have divided the Psalms: nor shall we enter into the arguments by which the antiquity of the chant has been defended. It will be sufficient to deduce from these facts the probability that the music in the early Christian Church must have been of a like nature; in which we are confirmed by Christ and his disciples having sung the Hillel.

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Our chants and anthems, therefore, appear to be invested with a primitive character, and by no means to be the remains of Popery; we trace them beyond the Fathers, and shall not find the Fathers contradicting the antiquity of Church-music. They are rightfully our own, and have descended with our religion to our times and with us Hammond agrees, that the music of the Apostolic Church was founded on the Jewish. It scarcely could have been otherwise for the apostles were Jews; and there was no other religion on which they could have modelled their melodies, and to this Christ's example decidedly pointed them. In completion of the evidence, we would notice that St. John represents the saints in heaven singing the song of Moses and the Lamb: in which there is a plain allusion to the services of the earthly Jewish Sanctuary.

That music was no unimportant part of the worship of the primitive Church, we may collect from St. Paul's Epistles and the New Testament in general: and having investigated the nature of that music, and being thus certified of the antiquity of our Cathedral style, instead of seeking additions to our venerable Liturgy, we are bound to oppose the increasing declension to Popery, by perfecting this part of our religious exercises. We urge strenuously on the Clergy, that if this be the art by which their flocks are scattered, it becomes their duty to check it by allowing more of the service to be vocal and instrumental; by causing the music in the Church to be equal in quality to that in the Popish Chapels; and, assuredly, if this be made the means of withdrawing members from our communion, they who will not so easily counteract these means will be very culpable. What is more adapted to elevate the mind, and prepare it for the reception of divine truths? What is more likely to fill a church, and to induce people to hear those truths?

This is far more likely to efficaciously oppose Romanism, than an appeal to an Apostolical succession, which cannot be proved, and a description of the tenets of Romanism to those who never knew them. For the observations in the Tracts respecting the Papists are calculated, to say the least, to make the many halt between two opinions; and as the abuses are gently treated, on the principle of speaking "gently' of our sister's fall," there is no doubt that they will lead more unlearned persons to that Church than they will draw from it. Those Clergy, therefore, who are not infected with these notions, should leave no lawful means unessayed to check the growing evil.

ON THE STATE OF RELIGION IN CHINA.

WHETHER We consider the great antiquity of the Chinese, the immense extent of their empire, and their extraordinary civilization, as compared with their isolated state, there will scarcely be found a country on the habitable globe to which the efforts of Christians should be more strenuously directed. The two great sects of Confucius (Choo-foo-tzze) and Laou-tsze rule the higher and many of the inferior classes; the one being too sceptical, the other two superstitious: whilst the vulgar are addicted to the doctrines of Budd'hism. Reflecting, then, on the three hundred and sixty millions of human beings who bend to these philosophic delusions and these absurd superstitions, either atheists or polytheists, and in both senses without God, as revealed to mankind, we cannot avoid perceiving that this country, in particular, requires the zeal and evangelizing labours of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. There are, it is known, some few missionaries in China, English and American, men of different denominations of Christianity, who have agreed to discard controversial points and disputes about ecclesiastical discipline, and to unite in preaching the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel; but such is human nature, that we fear lest, when a fuller success may crown their labours, they will erect their separate standards, as they have done in other countries: therefore, we are of opinion that the Society belonging to our Church should most strongly direct its attention to the conversion of this empire, and seek there such a preponderating influence as may prevent these distracting impediments to the great cause.

In one sense the task will be comparatively easy; for, though the spoken dialects be numerous, and those of different districts unintelligible to the inhabitants of others, the written system is intelligible throughout the empire, and even beyond it; thus, by means of books and tablets, the good seed may be sown, even where colloquial intercourse cannot be obtained. Such books might travel through south-eastern Asia, and enlighten one-third of the human race.

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The Confucian system of religion takes the precedence of the others; but temples and priests of Budd'ha are to be found all over the country. It is strange that the doctrines of Confucius should be called a religion, since they relate to politics and ethics: the manner in which he mentions heaven and the "Imperial Supreme" conveys no notion of a particular form of worship, and seems, in one or two passages, to have been derived from some tradition of the patriarchal ages. In the Chinese philosophy there are strong resemblances to the idea of "the Soul of the World ;" and, on the other hand, perverted legends of the creation, which, without difficulty, we can retrace to some early but rude and distorted transmissions of the Mosaic cosmogony to the authorities from whence they were here received. In some degree, the opinions of the creation are like those of the ancient Egyptians; and in the diagrams connected with it, especially in the monad and duad, the Pythagorean system had a relation to this theory and, mixed up confusedly with these tenets, we discern a trace of the Indian reveries concerning Vishnu, as the tortoise, which belongs to the general deluge. In every thing the Chinese are material: even in their ideas of God we vainly strive to detect the sublime creed of a pure and self-existent Spirit. The Trinity which they acknowledge, is material, and has not one feature that may be compared to the Christian: and even although they talk of spirits and demons, they rank them below the visible heavens and their own ancient sages. There is also a tincture of fatalism, which connects them with the worst ancient philosophy; an adoration of Confucius, which sinks them to the most abject idolatry; and

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a darkness respecting the future state, producing idle speculations and degenerate fables, which is sadly inconsistent with the intelligence of the people.

The next sect is called Taou, founded by Laou-tan, more generally called Laou-tsze. This believes eternal reason to be the primordial principle, and resembles here the Logos of the Greek schools. The continual use of the Hindu word Kalpa, in the exhibition of its doctrines, naturally leads us to the idea that its source lies in the Hindu philosophy, to which it is strikingly similar. We also find in it incarnations of Laou-keun, which are the Indian Avatars: the mental abstraction and mortification which these sectaries profess, their voluntary seclusion to cultivate reason, on the plan of the Sannyasi and Brahmachari, and a pretension to controul the invisible world, are, collectively, evidences of the region whence these dogmas were borrowed. Their general superstition and faith in amulets, their habit of passing barefoot over ignited charcoal, like Sita through the ordeal fire, and annually through an immense fire, whilst it also calls to our minds the fires of Moloch mentioned in the Scriptures, afford sufficient points of identity with the Hindu system to prove to the Christian public that the plan adopted by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in our Hindu empire,, may be advantageously adopted towards the followers of these superstitions. The manner in which the credulity of the public is made the source of extortion by the priests of this sect, who affect to drive out devils, to cure the sick, and perform magical wonders, thrusting swords through their cheeks, or riding in sedans which are stuck round with sharp knives, and leading astray their dupes in all-various ways, is only a counterpart to that ancient system which prevailed in Samaria and among the apostates of Judah-only a counterpart to that great idolatry which fell before the convincing arguments of Christianity; and we may be assured that this, also, would not resist properly directed Christian efforts.

We need not describe the Chinese sect of Budd'ha, as it is sufficiently known; but since, even here, the Sanscrit is the religious language of its priests, we may readily perceive how the preceding sect became imbued with the Indian theology. Here then, again, the Christian missionary has experience to direct his steps. Both in the Chinese and Indian mythology there are so many points which must have originated in traditions of Scriptural facts, that they will naturally give the instructor opportunities of leading the erring to the truth, thus gradually introducing the whole doctrines of Christianity: the subversion of one error would not only prepare the way for the subversion of another, but smooth, by the operation of conviction on the recipient's mind, the difficulties which might seem, a priori, to bar the proposition and demonstration of ulterior truths. The tortoise rising from the river in China, or the Matsyavatara and Kurmavatara of India, would suggest the real description of the deluge from thence the confusion of tongues, and so, gradually, the subsequent history of man in its most striking periods, up to Christ and his apostles, which would be a prelude to the doctrines of our religion, would arrest the attention and establish the foundation of future missionary labours. For we are certain that nations claiming an unfathomable antiquity, and possessing some degree of learning and civilization, can only be convinced by persons knowing their opinions and literature-persons who will judiciously select those parts which, without violence, offer an introduction to Christianity. Such parts there are in every system. So, with the Jews, we would not, in limine, argue from the Hebrew Scriptures, but we would advert to passages in the Talmud and their older writers, where prophecies and types are interpreted as we

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interpret them: then we wolud appeal to the Hebrew Scriptures, and show the completion of these prophecies and types in the New; and one point gained, we would, with an equally judicious accommodation to the prejudices of early education, proceed to others. The numerous repetitions of the Divine name and attributes in the Jewish prayers, as in those of the Chinese and Hindus, should direct the attention to the battology which our Saviour denounced: the appeals to the Divinity in adjurations should also bring another passage of St. Matthew to the teacher's recollection ; and thus, from circumstances and incidents, he should eventually be able to operate solid good.

There is another point with the Chinese, which goes far to substantiate the Sacred Isles in the West, in the Asiatic researches; viz., that all the doctrines of the seat of future felicity concur in representing it in the West: on this we must not enlarge, any more than on the ancient idea which fixed the abode of Deity in the North. It is, however, capable of showing that all idolatry had many parts in common, which might be subverted by a similar process, and would be a recommendation to instructions from the West.

Christianity is not new in China: tradition assigns St. Thomas as its introducer. At a later period the Syrian Churches on the coast of Malabar appear to have had active missionaries in the empire, and in the seventh century the Nestorians established several Churches there. In the fourteenth the Roman Catholics made attempts to convert the natives; and in the sixteenth the attempt was more successfully renewed; in the seventeenth the effects were very extended, the converts were very numerous. Amidst occasional reverses, Christianity continued to prosper; and even hopes were indulged that not only China, but Corea and Tartary, would receive the religion of the Cross. Louis XIV. of France, encouraged by this state of things, sent missionaries from his kingdom, men of talent, who might also be useful in the sciences, and thus prepare the way for greater things. Everything seemed to be advancing towards the desired success, when the Dominicans and Jesuits began to quarrel about contradictory Papal bulls, which quarrel was not intermitted, though the missionaries were banished to Canton. Hence commenced a series of Papal negociations and failures. Notwithstanding these, Christianity has survived. The Roman Catholic missionaries were rather solicitous as to the quantity of converts, than as to the quality of doctrines taught. Although the Romanists possessed missionaries in China more than two hundred years, there was no Protestant mission till 1807, and that not of the Church of England: in Batavia, too, and the neighbouring places, Christian missions have been successfully planted; but our Church has not yet been advocated as it should be in these parts. As Dr. Morrison translated our morning and evening prayers into Chinese, the great difficulty is removed; and the language may be acquired without one quarter of the toil that attended its acquisition twenty years ago. The time will probably arrive, when the importance of our connexions with China may be increased; and were the evangelization of it to be more strenuously promoted, the barriers of difference would give way, and the religious advantages which we should communicate would induce temporal returns quite sufficient to satisfy the cupidity of our worldly politicians, who view not religion as a benefit per se, which should be diffused disinterestedly to the utmost boundaries of the earth. Our presidencies and episcopal institutions in India give to us far greater facilities than the Dissenters possess: and if they, without them, and the intriguing Roman Catholics, notwithstanding their many checks, have been able to maintain their ground; and if of Papist converts there are already between two and three hundred thou

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