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240 Constitution of the Theological Society of the General Seminary. [No. 8.

be careful, when they speak of other Christians, to make the just distinction between what is Catholic, and what is not so. We may call the church of England Catholic; we may call the Syrian church Catholic. But, if what is above said be true, we can hardly apply the term to the church of Rome: -much less to any of those sectaries, which have split themselves off from what we think is the true Catholic body of Christians, "the visible church of Christ."

These may be somewhat old-fashioned notions: and it is well known, they do not accord with the sentiments of many who are esteemed excellent men in the world, and exemplary Christians. Still a firm persuasion of their truth leads some to believe in them, and to hold them. If they be impartially examined, they will be found not with out some foundation; and, we think, a very solid one.

On this subject one remark more, and we have done. That remark shall be in the words of Bishop Magee, the author of the celebrated work on "Atonement and Sacrifice." "It is always to be remembered," says he, "that the REFORMERS in England protested not against the CATHOLIC CHURCH, but against POPERY, in behalf of that church. Their object was to preserve the purity of the ancient and true Catholic church against the novelties and corruptions forced upon it by Popery. And, therefore, although our Common Prayer Book abounds with what is Catholic, it is not disfigured by a single particle of what is Popish. The English Catholic church (the true designation of the church of England) need not desire to be exhibited in a stronger contrast to the church of Rome, than by comparing its Prayer Book with the Missal."* What, then, is our church in these United States? Is it not the truly Ca

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tholic and Apostolic church, whatever others may say to the contrary? If it be so, let those, who belong to its communion, remember the Catholic Spirit they profess; and let them bring it into operation in every action of their lives.

J.

Constitution of the Theological Society of the General Seminary, adopted at New-Haven, on Monday, the 30th of September, 1820, and revised at New-York, on Monday, the 23d of December, 1822.

Article 1. THIS society shall be denominated The Theological Society of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.

Art. 2. The object of this society shall be, as determined by the Statutes, (chap. x.) viz. " for the purpose of discussing questions, delivering theses or sermons, declamation, and exercises in reading, and for other objects connected with literary and theological improvement; and particularly for such religious exercises as are calculated to excite and cherish evangelical affection and pious habits."

Art. 3. This society shall be composed of the students of the abovementioned seminary.

Art. 4. One half of the members shall constitute a quorum.

Art. 5. One of the professors shall preside at each meeting of the society, agreeably to such arrangements as may be made by the faculty.

Art. 6. At the first regular meeting of the society in each session, there shall be chosen, by ballot, a vice-president and secretary, who shall enter upon the duties of their offices at the next regular meeting after their election: and the society shall have power to supply any vacancies in these offices at any regular meeting.

Art. 7. The vice-president shall preside at all meetings of the society in the absence of the professors. And, if the vice-president also be absent, the society shall elect a chairman.

Art. 8. The presiding officer shall take the question on all motions, appoint all committees, determine all

August, 1823.] Various Readings of the original Text of Scripture.

questions of order; and, if he think proper, may give his opinion on all subjects of debate immediately after their discussion.

Art. 9. It shall be the duty of the secretary to record all the proceedings of the society, keep all its books and papers, and act also as treasurer.

Art. 10. The society shall meet as provided for by the Statutes (chap. x.) weekly, on Saturday, or on such other day as may be appointed by the bylaws.

Art. 11. Every meeting of the society shall be opened and closed with of fices of devotion, appointed by the faculty.

Art. 12. The second regular meeting in each year, and every second subsequent meeting, shall be appropriated to such religious exercises as are calculated to excite and cherish evangelical affections and pious habits. For this purpose, after appropriate devotions prescribed by the faculty, a member shall read a dissertation on some religious topic of a practical nature; on the subject of which the members shall be invited to make remarks, with a view to their advancement in the graces and virtues of the Christian life, and in the dispositions and habits required by the holy calling for which they are preparing. And the other meetings shall be appropriated to declamation, the reading of a thesis on some theological topic, and the discussion of some question in divinity.

Art. 13. By-laws may be made at any meeting of the society, by a majority of the votes of the members present; but the by-laws shall be submitted to the faculty at their next meeting, and, if disapproved of by them, shall be thenceforward repealed.

Art. 14. Amendments to this constitution may be proposed either by the faculty, or by the society, and when adopted by either, shall be reported to the other; and, on being adopted by two-thirds of each, shall be considered as a part of this constitution.

The Editors of the Churchman's Magazine, the Gospel Advocate, and the Washington Theological Repertory, arc requested to give the above constitution an insertion in their re spective works. VOL. VII.

241

Various Readings of the original Text of Scripture.

[From the British Critic.]

No points of doctrine or faith are implicated in this question of various readings. Now we think, that we may call the evidence of persons unexceptionable authority, when they are competent witnesses in point of information, whilst their pursuits and attainments might have been expected to have given them prejudices, inclining them to assert the contrary of what they are found to do. Such authorities we can produce, in the persons of Dr. Bentley and the present Bishop of Peterborough. The first attended to verbal criticism in every department of ancient literature, with a degree of success which has perhaps never been exceeded; and the latter needs no compliment from us to enhance his reputation, as thoroughly versed in biblical criticism. An ordinary theologian, searching, for the first time, for their opinions as to the importance of critical researches, would naturally fear, that they might be found ascribing too much importance to the results which might be attained by success in their own favourite pursuit.

But they have both declared, in the most decided terms, that whatever texts may still continue to be of doubtful authority, leave no point of importance insecure.

"The text of scripture," says Bentley," is competently exact indeed, even in the worst MS. now extant. Nor is one article of faith or moral precept either perverted or lost in them; choose as awkwardly as you can, choose the worst by design, out of the whole lump of readings. Make your thirty thousand as many more, if numbers of copies can ever reach that sum; all the better to a knowing and serious reader, who is thereby more richly furnished to select what he sees genuine. But even put them into the hands of a knave or a fool; and yet with the most sinistrous and absurd choice, he shall not extinguish the light of any one chapter; nor so disguise Christianity, but that every feature of it will still be the same."

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To the same purport Dr. Marsh has observed, that

"To the theologian who undertakes to establish the authority of the Greek Testament, it is of consequence to ascertain its very words, its very syllables. But, for the common purposes of religious instruction, the text in daily use is amply sufficient. For, whatever difference in other respects may exist between this text and the Greek manuscripts, or whatever difference may exist among the manuscripts themselves, they will agree in the important articles of Christian faith; they all declare, with one accord, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the doctrine of the atonement by Jesus Christ."

We should have spared our remarks on this topic, important as it is, if Dr. Bentley's admirable tract was known and read, any thing like so extensively as it ought to be. But though the let ters under the name of Phileleutheras Lipsiensis have been very judiciously reprinted by the University of Oxford, in the Enchiridion Theologicum, we had lately occasion to ascertain, that their merit was unknown, or over-looked to a degree which surprised us exceedingly. What we have said has been almost entirely borrowed from his nervous and lucid Answer to Collin's discourse of free-thinking. We shall add one direct quotation more, as a proper close to the subject.

He says it has been objected, "That sacred books, at least books imposed upon the world as divine laws and revelations, should have been exempted from the injuries of time, and secured from the least change. But what need of that perpetual miracle, if with all the present changes the whole scripture is perfect and sufficient to all the great ends and purposes of its first writing? What a scheme would these men make? What worthy rules would they prescribe to Providence? that in millions of copies trans ribed in so many ages and nations, all the notaries and writers, who made it their trade and livelihood, should be infallible and unimpeachable? That their pens should spontaneously write true, or be supernaturally guided; though the scribes were nodding or dreaming? Would not this

exceed all the miracles of both Old and New Testament? And, pray to what great use or design? To give satisfaction to a few obstinate and untractable wretches; to those who are not convinced by Moses and the Prophets, but want one from the dead to come and convert them. Such men mistake the methods of Providence, and the very fundamentals of religion; which draws its votaries by the cords of a man, by rational, ingenuous, and moral motives; not by conviction mathematical; not by new evidence miraculous, to silence every doubt and whim that impiety and folly can suggest. And yet all this would have no effect upon such spirits and dispositions; if they now believe not Christ and his Apostles, neither would they believe if their own schemes were complied with." Bentley's Remarks upon a late Discourse of Freethinking. P. 1. §32.

For the Christian Journal.

On the Rubric respecting the occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings in the Common Prayer Book.

As this rubric stands in the Book of Common Prayer of our Church in this country, a considerable difficulty exists in ascertaining which are intended by the two final prayers, before which the occasional prayers and thanksgivings are to be used. Hence a difference of opinion prevails on the subject, and, of course, a diversity of practice. Those clergymen who were in orders previously to the adoption of the American Prayer Book, well know, that, in the Prayer Book of the English Church, which they then used, the two final prayers were always understood to be the Prayer of St. Chrysostom, and the Apostolic Blessing: and accordingly the occasional prayers and thanksgivings were invariably used immediately before them. Some of these, adhering strictly to the rubric, as it stands in the American book, continue to use them, as formerly, immediately before these two prayers. A greater number, perceiving the incongruity of occurring again to prayer, after having pronounc ed the General Thanksgiving, which,

in the Church of England, always succeeds all prayers, except the Prayer of St. Chrysostom, and the Apostolic Blessing; have ventured to introduce the occasional prayers before the General Thanksgiving, and the occasional thanksgivings after it. This, so far as it respects the occasional prayers, is also the practice of many who have been admitted to orders since the American book was introduced; but, that they may be considered as adhering to the rubric, they contend, that by the two final prayers mentioned in it, must have been intended theGeneral Thanksgiving and the Prayer of St. Chrysostoni; and to support this, they affirm, that the Apostolic Blessing is not a prayer. In addition to this error, in this respect for a blessing is an application to the Deity for some favour, either for ourselves or others, and of course is of the nature of prayer-they are obliged, in order to be consistent, to use the occasional thanksgivings before the general one, which was certain ly never intended, as it is a departure from the English practice, as will appear in the sequel, and does not comport with our ideas of propriety.

The cause of this difficulty, in understanding the rubric, and of the unfortunate diversity of practice which has grown out of it, may be traced to an evident oversight in that venerable General Convention to which had been committed the office of making such alterations and improvements in the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England, as would make it suitable for the American Church.

In the course of their deliberations on the subject, it was doubtless thought an improvement and very justly so to transpose from the occasional prayers and thanksgivings-where they still remain in the English Prayer Book both the Prayer for all Conditions of Men, and the General Thanksgiving, into the morning and evening services of the book to be adopted for the Church in this country. In this act it does not seem to have occurred to them that an alteration of the rubric, relative to the particular places, in the morning and evening services, where the remainder of the occasional prayers and

thanksgivings should be used, was necessary, At any rate, it was either overlooked or neglected; and therefore the rubric stands in our book-notwithstanding the transposition above stated,

precisely in the same words as it then stood, and still remains in the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England. Had it been altered in some way similar to the following, no difficulty would have occurred in comprehending its meaning. Prayers, to be used before the General Thanksgiving,and Thanksgivings, to be used after it.

As it could not have been the inten-. tion of that respectable body, in making the transposition referred to, to change the order in which the prayers were used, but merely to place the Prayer for all Conditions of Men, and the General Thanksgiving—which had from usage ceased to be occasional, as they were uniformly read, in all cases of public worship-into their proper stations, in the morning and evening services: at all events, it could not have been their intention to leave in doubt what order was designed: it therefore ought to be understood, that no rubric on the subject at present exists, and, till one is formed by the proper authority, that we should continue, or, if it has been departed from, adopt, as a usage, the course which would have been universally pursued, had no transposition of the prayer and thanksgiving above stated been made, and which is now practised by the Church of England. It is, that the occasional prayers be used, in the order in which they stand, immediately before the General Thanksgiving; and, as the General Thanksgiving in the English book precedes the other occasional thanksgivings, and is always read first, the occasional thanksgivings in our book should follow the General Thanksgiving in regular succession, as occasion may require. This is also the order which nature and propriety dictate. Observing this course, the clergy will restore the uniformity, in the case before us, which has so long unfortunately been interrupted, and advance one step nearer to that perfect union in all things, which cannot but adorn and exalt the Church of which they are ministers.

N. S.

From the Bengal Hurkaru, Oet. 23, 1822. IMMOLATION AT HOWRAH. To the Editor of the Journal.

SIR,

KNOWING that you are a philanthropist, I beg leave to inform you that directly opposite to Fort William, and not above 100 yards to the southward of the late Mr. William Jones's dwelling house at Seebpore, on Monday morning at gun-fire, a widow, the mother of a large family, was put on a pile of combustibles, and burned to death, attended with circumstances of cruelty which I shall endeavour to describe, partly as seen by myself and as I was informed by others.

On Friday, the 11th instant, about noon, an old Brahmin died, and at the time of his death was possessed of considerable riches, and had two wives, one of whom was many years younger than the other, and. by each of these wives he had a large family of children, boys and girls, now living. The moment this man expired, his eldest son, heir to all his property, posted off to Allypore, and applied to C. R. Barwell, Esq. magistrate of the suburbs of Calcutta, for a license to burn his own mother and his step-mother with the body of his father; but it appears Mr. Barwell then granted license for one wife only, the eldest, to be burned, Confident, however, that by another application leave would be obtained to burn the other wife also, the pile was raised, and every preparation made to burn them both on the following day at noon; but at the hour of noon on Saturday no license from Mr. Barwell for the destruction of the youngest woman had arrived, and no license was granted during the whole of that day.

The news of this rather novel circumstance soon spread along Seebpore and Howrah, and thousands of people of all descriptions were assembled to learn the particulars, and many of them, and to me, the family and Brahmin friends voluntarily confessed, that both wives must be burned, or neither of them could be burned, as the one for whom the license was obtained had declared that she would not be burned alone.

On Sunday circumstances remained just the same as on Saturday, for Mr. Barwell was inflexible, and no license to burn the youngest wife could they obtain from him, notwithstanding they used every art, artifice, and invention, which the craft and cunning of a Brahmin could conceive.

On Sunday, as on Saturday, crowds of people were in attendance from morning till night; and to all the Europeans who inquired, the declaration of the deceased's family, and attending Brahmin, were the same, that the one wife could not be burned alone, she having dissented therefrom; and great hopes began now to be entertained by the humane, that Mr. Barwell's firmness would save them both; but the poor creatures were all this time, from the moment their husband had breathed his last, on Friday at noon, kept locked up, and not allowed to taste a morsel of victuals of any description, and the hope which had been entertained of their being saved from the flames, was greatly damped by the fear that both would be starved to death by their merciless keepers.

On the following morning, Monday, the 14th inst. at gun-fire, notwithstanding the previous repeated acknowledgments and confessions of the attending Brahinin and the family and friends of the deceased, that they could not burn the one wife alone, at that selected period, when they thought few eyes would be open to view their proceedings, the elder woman was dragged from her prison of starvation, made to mount the pile and clasp the putrid carcase of her so long deceased husband in her arms, the stench from which, at that time, was intolerable. Two thick ropes, previously prepared, were then passed over the bodies, and two long levers of bainboo, crossing each other, were likewise employed to pinion her down, the unconsumed four ends of which are still to be seen on the spot.

All things being thus arranged, the eldest son, and heir, who was to succeed to the property, set fire to the pile, which speedily burnt and consumed his own mother; and at this act it is said that he triumphantly exulted!

The other poor woman being still

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