MADRAS SYSTEM.

It has been for some time a favourite object with the Society to introduce the Madras System of Education into the North American Colonies; and, during the last summer, independent of many previous efforts, they have been enabled to carry this object into execution with the most favourable prospect of success. At the recommendation of the Committee

of the National Society, they have engaged with Mr. West, at a very liberal salary, who had been educated at Baldwyn's Gardens, to embark for Halifax, and superintend the formation of a School upon the Madras Principles. Information has been received, that the establishment has met with a very favourable reception among all classes of the inhabitants. The patronage of his Excellency the Earl of Dalhousie has been obtained, a considerable subscription has been raised, a School-room has been fitted up, and the names of many Scholars have already been entered upon the books. The School opened on the 2d of December; and there is every reason to hope, that under the protection of the Bishop, and the zealous superintendence of Dr. Inglis, the expectations of the Society will not be disappointed; and that the several Schools in the North-American Colonies will be induced to adopt the Madras System of Education, when the great facilities afforded by it are made

manifest.

MOHAWK INDIANS.

The Rev. George Okill Stuart announces, that, at the earnest solicitation of the Mohawks at the Bay of Kenty, he had been induced to appoint John Hill, Reader and Catechist, in conjunction with John Green, School-master. Originally, the offices were united in one person; but the difficulty of procuring a sufficiently discreet person for the functions of the offices, rendered the appointment frequently vacant; and it has been deemed more expedient to separate them, that, in case of sickness or other impediments, the one might supply the place of the other.

A Society has lately been established in North-Carolina, distinguished by the name of "The Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church of North-Carolina." It is provided in the Constitution, that persons be appointed in various parts of the State to solicit such aid for the support of Missionaries as the pious and well disposed may be inclined to contribute, Every person subscribing two dollars annually will be considered as a member of the Society, and twenty dollars will enti tle to membership for life.

Cameron, of Orange county, is President, For the present year, the Hon. Duncan and John Stanly, Esq. of Newburn, Secretary of this Society.

The following extract from the Society's Address to the public exhibits the design for which it was formed, as well as the declined state of the Episcopal Church in North-Carolina.

"There is no Church whose members are so much distressed. There are no members who stand more in need of the gospel and ordinances of Christ. What is now the state of religion in the Church of North-Carolina? Is Christianity gaining or losing ground? Does the Church which the Son of God purchased with his blood still retain her numbers? Or are not her numbers wofully decreased? And is not her spirit bowed down and sunki The most inattentive observer among the followers of Christ cannot but see and lament over her solitary places; cannot but shed a tear in contemplating her as once flourishing and prosperous.

"With a view to remedy this lamenta

ble state of things, and correct the deplo rable evils that have resulted from it, the present Society has been instituted. Its object, is to send into the destitute parts of this state, pious and devout ministers of the Church, to give comfort and aid, instruction and consolation to the members of her Zion dispersed in almost every section."

BIBLE AND COMMON PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY. A Bible and Common Prayer Book Society forthe counties of Washington, Essex, and parts adjacent, was established in September, 1817. The following are the officers elected: The Right Rev. Bishop Hobart, ex officio, President; Rev. Mr. Jewett, 1st Vice-President; Dr. Zina Hitchcock, 2d Vice-President; Rev. C. W. Hamilton, 3d Vice-President; Wads. worth Bull, Esq. Treasurer; Martin Lee, C. Martingdale, Corresponding Secretary. Esq. Recording Secretary; Hon. Henry

The following is taken from an English publication of June last.

"A measure proposed by the chancelfor of the exchequer is now before the

House of Commons, for facilitating the erection of places of worship in connexion with the Established Church, in those parishes where the existing churches and

Episcopal chapels are insufficient for the public accommodation. The details of the measure are not yet completed; but our readers will rejoice with us that something, at least, is to be at length done to a subject of such vital importance both to the interests of the Established Church, and of Christianity at large."

LATE PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLAND.

A Defence of the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour, in answer to some Letters by Mr. T. C. Holland, in which that Doctrine was attacked, with Remarks on the Personality of the Holy Ghost. By Edward Law, A. M. 12mo.

On the Impropriety of conceding the Name of Catholic to the Church of Rome and its Members, as a Title of Distinction: a Sermon preached at St. Mary's, Nov. 5, 1816. By Vaughan Thomas, B. D. 8vo.

Attachment to the Church, the Duty of its Members: a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Julian, Shrewsbury, July 17, 1816. By the Rev. J. B. Blakeway, M. A. F. A. S. 8vo.

A Sermon preached at the Parish Church of Wakefield, July 4, 1816, at the Annual Meeting of the Wakefield District Committee, to the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. By the Rev. C. Bird, M. A.

Svo.

A Sermon preached at Wakefield, May 30, 1816, at the Visitation of the Rev. Archdeacon Markham, M. A. By the Rev. C. Bird, M. A. 4to.

Dissertations on the Prophecies of the Old Testament, by D. Levy; containing all such Prophecies as are applicable to the Coming of the Messiah. Revised and amended by J. King, Esq. 8vo.

A Series of Discourses on the Festivals and Fasts (and other peculiar Days) of the Church of England, originally delivered in the Parish Church of Great Coggeshall, Esssex. By Brooke Bridges Stevens, M. A.

Svo.

A Sermon preached in the Cathe

dral Church of Chester, at a general Ordination, Dec. 22, 1816. 4to.

Reflections on the Influence of Infidelity and Profaneness upon Public Liberty; two Discourses preached at Laura Chapel, Bath, March 9, and March 16, 1817. By the Rev. E. W. Greenfield, M. A. 8vo.

The Churchinan dissuaded from becoming a Member of the Bible Society, and the extent defended to which Education is carried in the Schools of our Church: a Sermon preached at Bridgwater, September 6, 1816. By John Matthew, M. A. 8vo.

Sermons on various Subjects. By the late William Bell, D. D. 2 vols. 8vo.

Fifty-two Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England. By the Rev. Sir Adam Gordon, Bart, M. A. 3 vols. 8vo.

"All the Counsel of God." A Word in Opposition to Fanatical, Calvanistic, and Solifidian Views of Christianity; in a Farewell Sermon, March 23, 1817. By the Rev. Richard Warner. 8vo.

The Claims to Infallibility by the Church of Rome considered. By Rev. John Cousins. 8vo.

Christian Unity, Doctrinally and Historically considered; in eight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, in the year 1816, at the Lecture founded by the late Rev. John Bampton, M. A. By John Hume Spry, M. A. 8vo.

An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures; by Mr. T. H. Horne.

The Sceptic; an Inquiry concerning the proper objects of Philosophy, and the best mode of conducting Philosophical Researches; Philosophical Researches concerning the lower Animals; and Memoirs of the public and private Life of the Right Hon. George Ponsonby; all by Dr. Roche.

Memoirs and Correspondence of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton;-The Poetical Remains and Memoirs of the late John Leyden, M. D.;-and Letters on English History, by Mr. Bigland.

Printed and published by T. & J. Swords, No. 160 Pearl-street, New-York; where Subscriptions for this Work will be received at one dollar per annum, or 24 numbers.All Letters relative to this Journal must come free of Postage.

then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election has obtained it, and the rest were -blinded. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day." Rom. xi. ver. 1 to 7.

The spirit of the passage is confessedly to this effect: The Jewish people are rejected, because they refused to receive salvation through Christ, and to lay aside their dependence on the Mosaic law: but those are not cast away, who (as the converts St. Paul was addressing) have embraced justification by faith, which is of grace and not of works. The question then that remains is this: who are the "foreknown?" what is the nature of their "election?" We shall soon find reason to conclude that the Apostle uses this word according to the association invariably united with it in his mind, and in the ideas of all the Jews, not in the technical sense which it has derived from theological disputes, but to signify those who enjoyed the favour of God, an honour which was formerly common to all the nation, as an "elect people," a "holy nation;" but was now proper to those alone who received the faith of Christ, and, with them, was common to the converted Gentiles. For, if we proceed a few verses onward, we find him expressing his earnest desire to excite his countrymen to join themselves to this

* Isaiah xlii. 1, “I behold mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth :" xlv. 4, "Israel, mine elect, I have called thee by thy name:" lxv. 5, "I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there." St. Peter applies to the whole body of believers the very appellation

which had been formerly addressed to the Jews: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." I. ii. 11. The idea that his Epistles were written to the Jewish converts alone, is rejected by the best commentators, as inconsistent with the internal evidence.

election.

"I speak to you, Gentiles: inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles. I magnify my office: if by any means I may provoke unto emulation them that are my flesh, and might save some of them." xi. 14. Now, if the remnant, according to the "election of grace," were already foreknown, and elected, and the rest "blinded" by the refusal of efficacious grace, St. Paul must have been aware that there was no room left to excite others by the example of the Gentile converts, and no hope of any but those already chosen being saved: he would have known that there was no propriety in the pas sionate expression which begins the tenth chapter: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." It is evident, therefore, that the thing which "Israel sought in vain," was the honour of remaining the peculiar church of God: and that by "the election," the whole body of Christians is intended, who had obtained that which the Israelites through their blindness had been deprived of.

That this sense of the word election, the sense in which it was familiar to the Jews, and to St. Paul as a Jew, is the sense which we ought to bear in mind for the purpose of rightly interpreting it, I must confidently maintain. How new, how unexpected a thing was it to St. Paul, that any country but his own should be admitted to privileges which had been confined to the Jews for fifteen hundred years! What an unlooked-for change to the Gentiles to receive the knowledge and the law of God! How natural that this fact of the choosing and calling of the Gentiles, should form a prominent subject in his addresses to them? We have seen it already introduced to silence the Jew, and satisfy the Gentile converts, in the Epistle to the Romans: it is also largely used to excite the thankfulness of the Ephesians:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chrirt, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: accord

ing as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise and glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved: having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in kim: in whom also we* have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." Eph. i, 1,

We shall better understand the true force and import of this passage, if we place before us the situation of the members of the Ephesian church, On one side was the Jew, who from his youth up had despised the Gentiles as idolaters, alike ignorant of the true God, and neglected by him; who had always held their practices in abhorrence, and knew them to be diametrically opposite to his own. The strength of prejudices like these is seen throughout the Acts of the Apostles; and is shown in the first apostacy, the error of the Judaizing Christians, who would not admit that God had conferred upon Gentiles privileges equal to their own. On the other hand stood the Gentile convert; who had hitherto known little of the Jews, whom he was now taught to call his brethren, except that they considered themselves under the protection of a God unrevealed to the heathens; and who would now find that this belief was supported by the universal language of the Old Testa

• We, the Jewish converts to the Gospel, and united in the same faith with you, Gentiles

ment, calling the Hebrews a peculiar people. The natural subject to a church composed of such heterogeneous materials, would surely be the union of Jews and Gentiles under "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all;" would surely be the fact, to us familiar, but to them astonishing, that so many "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world," were now brought nigh to the Father by his eternal purpose through the blood of Christ." This is, in truth, the leading idea throughout the Epistle, as well as that to the Colossians, which was written at the same time, and during the same imprisonment at Rome. We can even account for the circumstance of this fact becoming the subject uppermost in his thoughts at this period, when we reflect to what St. Paul in these Epistles attributes the imprisonment under which he was then suffering: which is not to his preaching Christianity, but to his asserting the right of the Gentiles to be admitted into it without conforming themselves to the Jewish law.* It was, therefore, strictly natural that he should be led to insist upon their common fellowship under the same faith of Christ, a case so widely differing from the former habits, and prejudices, and expectations of either party. Accordingly, in the third chapter he again takes up the subject, and farther explains the mystery hidden till then, which to the Colossians he also terms "the mystery of Christ, for which he was in bonds." have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given me to you ward; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gos pel." iii. 1, &c. Under a similar impression the Apostle assures the Thes

Paley, Hora Pauline.

"Ye