the Minds of religious Inquirers. 3. The Influence of human Writings. 4. The Influence of intimate Intercourse with open Transgressors 5. The Influence of worldly Professors. 6. Ridicule. 7. Backsliders. 8. Different Denominations in the Church. 9. Imperfections, of real Christians. Conclusion. It will be perceived that on most of these topics, there is ample scope for acute remark and original illustration. Our author's aim, however, has been to guide the judgment of the practical inquirer, rather than to surprise or fascinate the general reader. What he offers, is "Advice;" and that advice would be accepted with suspicion, if it startled by its novelty, or dazzled with its splendour. In a work of this description, we look, of course, for wisdom, faithfulness, and affection; and here they are united. "But the mainspring of all this opposition and petty persecution, is the enmity of the heart against God and his holy word; and it displays itself towards those who appear desirous to love God and keep his commandments. It is true, worldly men boast of their liberality, and pretend to rejoice that they are free from the fetters of bigotry which bind the saints, and they may disguise their heartless proceedings against inquirers under the garb of merriment; when they are deeply wounding their spirits, they may call it amusement; and while trying to blast all their rising hopes by a persevering system of ridicule, they may call the desolation they make, peace. But what is the fact? It is this. That throughout the whole proceeding, there is the exercise of a bitter enmity against God and spiritual things. There is the bigotry of practical infidelity; there is a superstitious regard for the good opinion of the world; there is, in short, the grossest illiberality; and, if the majority hap; pened to be persecutors, they would willingly join them rather than be singu lar. We often hear, from these men, of the cant of religious people. But grant (ing) that in some cases it is called by its right name, it is not half so disgusting as the cant of worldly men, who, at the very moment they boast of liberality in general, are actively employed in particular cases, in opposing freedom of inquiry in religious matters." "It may appear to some, as if too much were made of this petty warfare against the well-being of men. But if it is viewed as an indication of a mind contrary to every thing truly good, it is anything but trifling. For if it be true, that whoever ridicules Christianity, or those who profess it, proves his own mind to be unsanctified, at enmity with God, and under the influence of Satan, that a powerful motive to perseverance is presented to him who is searching after divine truth, he must not expect any sympathy from carnal ungodly men, in pursuits alike opposed to their opinions and their conduct. If he finds that a determined opposition is made, he should view it as the natural result of certain principles, which, though restrained and modified by circumstances in their outof all the children of Adam. The very ward manifestation, dwell in the hearts existence of a desire after spiritual knowledge places him beyond the range of ideas and of thought of worldly men. There can be no community of feeling, no oneness of pursuit. It is true, that if this difference of opinion existed only in worldly matters, there would be no interruption to the harmony of social intercourse, and no desire to distress others because of their peculiar views. it is very different in the matter of religion. It calls into exercise passions which become injurious to the possessor, as well as to him, who, for the time, is exposed to their influence."-pp. 149— 152. But If the strain of our remarks has been rather laudatory than otherwise, it is because our general impression of the usefulness of this volume is decidedly favourable, notwithstanding some occasional imperfections that may strike the critical reader. We should have been glad to see the topics handled more distinctly, without that frequent recurrence of the same elementary principles, which, however important in public discourses or in writings that come forth at long intervals, appears to us to be a fault in a small volume like the present. We would have recommended less discussion of the diffi culties, and debating with objectors. We would likewise have advised the author to infusé into his composition somewhat more of what he knows to be engaging in the style of our best religious publications. We are persuaded, that by devoting some portion of his attention to this comparatively unimportant particular, so as to introduce passages of greater point, vivacity, and occasional antithesis, the interest and usefulness of his future publications will be very greatly enhanced. Mr. M. has an enviable talent, which will, we hope, be long and successfully devoted to the instruction and improvement of his fellow-men. Guatimala; or, the Republic of Central America in 1827-8; being Sketches and Memorandums made during a Twelvemonth's Residence. By Henry Dunn. 8vo. p. 328. With a Map. 96. Nisbet. THE title of this volume may lead our readers to inquire, Does this book fall within the range of your prescribed censorship? Our answer is-Its author is an intelligent Christian, and such a man could not describe such a country without bringing the moral state of its aboriginal and European inhabitants to view; and whatever tends to illustrate the influence of genuine or spurious Christianity, on the human mind and character, is interesting to us, and will be acceptable to our readers. Not that we mean to insinuate that Mr. Dunn's book will be uninteresting to general readers. It contains much geographical, political, and statistical information, and every one who peruses it, will be gratified with the neat, perspicuous, and correct style in which he communicates the results of his valuable inquiries. With such topics, however, we have little to do, and we confess, it chiefly concerns us, as affording some singular illustrations of the utter folly and wickedness of conquerors or colonists, attempting, either by force or bribes, to bring a barbarous people to observe the forms of Christianity, while they remain uninstructed in its holy principles, and strangers to its renovating power. "Central America was subdued by Alvarado, under the direction of Cortez, the Spanish General, at the time that that commander was pursuing his conquests in Mexico. In the execution of his commission, Alvarado exercised the greatest cruelties upon the unoffending natives, and, assisted by Romish priests, obliged them to profess obedience to the Holy See." Mr. Dunn gives his readers the following rapid sketch of these the apostolical conduct of Las monstrous proceedings, to which Casas forms a striking contrast. "Like the rest of their countrymen, the Indians of Guatimala were idolaters, which soon excited in the minds of the bigoted Spaniards the same chivalric spirit that had distinguished their course in the Virgin Mary and the extension of the Mexico, while fighting for the honour of Mass-book floated along the stream of Roman apostacy. The Pope and the blood, and superseded idolatries more harmless perhaps than their own, to subthe eye, and eminently dangerous, inasstitute the forms of a worship dazzling to much as the corruptions of truth are infinitely more difficult to be eradicated than errors founded on pure ignorance monks followed the track of the conwithout system or object. Crowds of querors, and gradually riveted the chains which had been thrown over the land at the point of the sword. No tradition human victims were ever offered here exists which leads to the supposition that to idols, and the general mildness of the people would seem to repel the thought. Philip II. ordered a correct narrative of the habits and peculiarities of the inhawritten by the resident priests; but no bitants, while in a state of idolatry, to be traces now exist of such a work, if it ever was prepared. 66 But, while shuddering at the barbarities exercised under the name of religion, it is pleasant to record a noble and enlightened exception. According to Father Remesal, Bartholomew Las Casas, and others of the Dominican order, settled in Guatimala in the year 1536. 'Las Casas, who was vicar of the convent, had some years before written a treatise, which he called, 'De unico Vocationis Modo;' in which he attempted to prove, and with great erudition, that Divine Providence had instituted the preaching of the Gospel as the only means of conversion to the Christian faith; and that to harass by wars those whose conversion is sought for, is the means of preventing, rather than accomplishing, the desired object. This reasoning was deemed fallacious, and laughed at; and the author was advised to put in practice what he had preached in theory. Las Casas unhesitatingly accepted the proposal, and fixed upon a province from which the Spaniards had been three times driven back in their attempts to conquer it. This region was afterwards called Vera Paz, because, while the Spaniards were unable to subdue it by their arms, it yielded to the mild persuasion of a few zealous ecclesiastics. Las Casas, previously to commencing his undertaking, entered into an agreement with the Governor that no Spaniard should reside in the provinces subdued for five years. This arrangement concluded, the Dominicans composed hymns in the language of the natives, in which they described the creation of the world, the fall of Adam, the redemption of mankind, and the principal mysteries of the life, passion, and death of the Saviour. These were learned by some converted Indians, who traded with the provinces they wished to subdue. The chief cacique of the country, having heard them sung, asked those who repeated them to explain more in detail the meaning of things so new to him. The Indians excused themselves, on account of their inability to perform it correctly; saying, they could be ex-. plained only by the fathers who had taught them; and these were so kind, that, if he would send for them, they would gladly come and instruct them in every thing. The cacique was pleased with the information, and sent one of his brothers, with many presents, to entreat that they would come to make him acquainted with every thing contained in the songs of the Indian merchants. The fathers received the ambassador with great kindness, and much satisfaction to themselves, and determined that one N. S. No. 52. of the number should return with him to the cacique. The chief went to the entrance of the village to meet the missionary; treated him with great veneration; and, after having been made to comprehend the mysteries of the new faith, he fervently adopted it, burnt his idols, and became a preacher to his own subjects.' After this glorious triumph of peaceful persuasion over force and cruelty, the fathers returned to Guatimala, and the following year resumed their operations with similar results. In numerous instances they succeeded in collecting the Indians into villages, and brought them to form themselves into societies, and submit to be governed by reasonable laws. Impatient of this slow, though certain process, the Spanish Governor dispatched troops to the neighbouring provinces, and in some instances subdued the natives; but in others, the instant the troops were withdrawn, the villages were abandoned, and the roads blocked up by the Indians; who concealed themselves in the woods and mountains."pp. 175-179. The lapse of three centuries has done nothing to improve the degraded condition of these unhappy victims of the tyrannical cupidity of the Spaniards. Excluded from education, uninstructed in the Scriptures, they are found now as they were left by the sanguinary monsters who conquered them-a gentle, credulous racehalf pagan-half papist-robbed of their native freedom and patrimonial rights, without receiving in exchange durable riches, and that liberty which makes free indeed. The statements of Mr. Dunn fully sustain these remarks. "By far the greater part of the Indians are under the spiritual dominion of the Romish church, although several tribes on the coasts still remain entirely unsubdued. In many parts of the interior also, there are bodies of natives who have not embraced Christianity; and, as soon as they are visited in one place, to avoid further importunity they remove their wives, children, canoes, &c. to another; where they remain until again assailed by similar solicitations. But even among those who profess subjection, idols are often concealed, and Ff adored in secret, and all the exertions of the clergy have been unable to eradicate their affection for them. Nor is this to be wondered at. With them, idolatry and freedom are synonymous; while Christianity is associated only with slavery and despotism. Conversion to the Roman-Catholic faith requires no change of heart a willingness to resign old for new ceremonies, and to substitute an image of the Virgin in the room of one equally senseless, is all that is asked; and if a few prayers can be recited, Popery is content to leave the superstition of the heart undisturbed, and Satan's throne unmolested. But, from the confession of their own bishops, even this is with difficulty accomplished. One of them says, 'He found the neophytes so little improved in their knowledge of the Christian faith, as scarcely to be able to repeat the prayers in an intelligible manner.' Their Latin, as might well be expected, was difficult to be understood; and he says, 'the natives made it half Latin, half romance.' A "Their marriages and funerals are conducted according to the rites of the Romish church, but to these they add various ceremonies of their own. marriage is celebrated by savage dances to harsh and inharmonious music; and the funerals present a scene of nightly revel and drunkenness, not very dissimilar to a wake among the lower orders of Irish. "With any kind of procession they are highly delighted. When the holy oil is carried to the villages, it is preceded by a drum, and escorted by a troop of Indians. The feasts of the church are observed chiefly by dances, and the discharge of sky rockets and other fireworks, an amusement of which they are passionately fond; and as the manufacture of gunpowder is a Government monopoly, the practice is, of course, not discouraged."- pp. 575 277. "The superstitious and intolerant feelings of an uneducated population are lamentably visible among the lower orders. As the Archbishop passes in his carriage through the streets, the poor Indians are to be seen on either side most devoutly kneeling; and so ignorant are they of the object to which they bow, that they repeat the ceremony, not only when the empty carriage rolls by, but oftentimes when some other of the few clumsy vehicles kept by the wealthier inhabitants rumble along the pavement. Of this our own experience furnished an amusing, or, I ought rather to say, me lancholy proof. In this instance they bent the knee quite as devoutly to a coach full of obstinate heretics, as they could have done to the pseudo-successor of St. Peter himself."-p. 84. "The submission of the Indian population to their spiritual instructors, knows no bounds. Every one who passed the priest, when walking with us in the fields, bent for his blessing, and received his hand upon their heads with the deepest humility. The relatives of one poor woman, whom he visited when sick, actually placed flowers and branches along the path he had to tread to reach her hut; which ceremony, he told us, was in imitation of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. From whom, but from their pastors, can they have received such impious lessons ? This man was coarse, vulgar, and stupidly ignorant, and delighted in receiving homage: the poor creatures, equally ignorant, delighted to pay it."-p. 298. It is possible that the reader of these extracts is a good Protestant, who at the present juncture is peculiarly alive to the abominations of popery, and who finds in these facts additional reasons to execrate the Romish Church. Very good. But we take leave to remind those of our readers, who are nervous on the subject just now, that in the preceding extracts we have seen, that amidst these abominations in the sixteenth century, there was a Dominican friar, called Las Casas, who dared to maintain that Protestant sentiment, and successfully applied it too, "that Divine Providence has instituted the preaching of the Gospel as the only means of conversion to the Christian faith." Now, let it be remembered, that one can all Protestant clergymen, even in the nineteenth century, are not quite clear upon this point, and though after the great forbearance many of them have recently displayed, no suppose they desire a power of coercion, yet it is very evident, from a passage we shall soon produce, that some at least have discovered a shorter way of making Christians, than by teaching and preaching the Gospel to igno rant barbarians. It is necessary to premise, that in this very country, on the western shore of the Bay of Honduras, there is a British settlement called Belize, where about 4000 slaves, creoles, and free negroes, are governed by some 400 whites, who represent to the barbarous Caribs, the superstitious Indians, and the uncivilized Mosquito men, who resort to the colony, the habits, laws, and religion of this Protestant country. With this duty to perform, it is fitting that a church should be erected at the cost of £30,000. sterling-a chaplain with a liberal salary appointed; we know not whether the gentleman is in the diocese of Jamaica or of Barbadoes, but at Belize he is, with a National School, and an auxiliary of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge-both orthodox and effective no doubt. We will not trouble our readers with Mr. Dunn's account of the moral habits of the colonists who enjoy these advantages; but we must beg them to ponder the following description of a ceremony, which is likely to perpetuate on the Mosquito shore the good old watchword of " Church and King," though it is supposed to be growing obsolete in the mother country. defray all attendant expenses. From a friend I have received some particulars of the ceremony. "On the previous evening, cards of invitation were sent to the different merchants, requesting their attendance at the court-house early in the morning. tish major's uniform, made his appearAt this place the king, dressed in a Briance; and his chiefs, similarly clothed, but with sailors' trowsers, were ranged around the room. A more motley group can scarcely be imagined. Here, an epaulette decorated a Herculean shoulder, tempting its dignified owner to view his less favoured neighbour with triumphant glances: there, a wandering button displayed a greasy olive skin, under the uniform of a captain of infantry. On one side, a cautious noble might be seen, carefully braced up to the chin, like a modern dandy, defying the most while the mathematical movements of a penetrating eye to prove him shirtless ; fourth, panting under such tight habiliments, expressed the fear and trembling with which he awaited some awful "The Mosquito-men arrive in considerable numbers from the Mosquito shore, which comprises the eastern part of the provinces of Honduras and Nicaragua. They possess great muscular strength, and a fine symmetry. Their tall and erect forms, little concealed by covering, their vacant countenances, and long greasy hair, give them a wild and savage appearance, and strikingly pourtray the powerful barbarian. These people now consider themselves under the protection of the British Government, and some of their kings have been educated in Jamaica. On the accession of the last king to the throne, he expressed a wish to be crowned at Belize; and orders were received by his Britannic Majesty's Superintendant to gratify his wish, and to accident. "The order of the procession being arranged, the cavalcade moved towards the church; his Mosquito majesty on horseback, supported on the right and left by the two senior British officers in the settlement; and his chiefs following on foot, two by two. On its arrival, his majesty was placed in a chair near the altar, and the English Chaplain to the colony, who on this coronation service was read by the occasion performed the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury. When he arrived at that part of the service where Let the king live for ever, long live the it is written, And all the people said, king, God save the king,' the vessels in the port, according to previous signal, fired salutes, and the chiefs, rising, cried out, Long live King Robert.' 6 6 "His majesty seemed chiefly occupied in admiring his finery; and, after the anointing, expressed his gratification, by repeatedly thrusting his hands through his thick bushy hair, and applying his fingers to his nose: in this expressive manner indicating his delight at this part of the service. Before, however, the chiefs could swear allegiance to their monarch, it was necessary they should profess Christianity, and accordingly, (with shame be it recorded!) they were baptized 'in the name of the Fa ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!' They displayed a total ignorance of the meaning of the ceremony; and, when asked to give their names, took the titles of Lord Rodney, Lord |