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TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

THE

MAGAZINE.

HE following article in confirmation of the Scriptural account of the Univerfal Deluge, lately appeared in an American newspaper; and as there can be no doubt of the veracity of the gentleman who gave it, you will have no objection, I fuppofe, to tranfplant it into your valuable mifcellany.

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The Prefident of the United States fome time fince communicated to the Congress, the difcoveries made by Dr. Sibley and Mr. Dunbar, in exploring the rivers Mifsouri, Wafhita, and the Red River; but this official meffage did not give the details of the expedition. The account ftates a remarkable tradition among fix or feven nations, inhabiting the Western shore of the Red River, which deferves particular regard, as it adds to the teftimonies in confirming the Scripture narrative of the Deluge. The tradition is, that the world was entirely covered with water, with the exception of one hill which was inhabited by a family of one of those nations called the Caddos. This family was preserved by the Great Spirit, and the whole world is peopled with their offspring."

It may be worth while here to transcribe a few paffages from fome former travellers in that country on this fubject. Hennepin in his New Difcovery of a vast country in North America, fays thus: "Other favages upon the fame continent are of opinion, that a certain spirit called Othon by the Iroquois, and Atahanta by the other barbarians at the mouth of the river St. Laurence, is the creator of the world; and that one Meno repaired it after the Deluge. They fay that this Meno, or Otkon, being a hunting one day, his dogs loft themselves in a great lake, which thereupon overflowing, covered the whole earth in a fhort time, and swallowed up the world and they add, that this Meno, or Othon, gathered a little earth together by the help of fome animals, and made ufe of this earth to repair the world again."

Herrera in his Hiftory of America, relates the following remarkable anecdote. "An Indian in the island of Cuba, who

was

was above feventy years of age, on one Gabriel de Cabrera's quarrelling with him and calling him a dog, asked him why he abused and called him dog, fince they were brethren, as defcending from the two fons of him who made a great ship, and went into it, with his family and abundance of animals; and farther told him that he fent out a crow, which did not return, staying to feed on the dead bodies, and afterwards returned with a green branch, with other particulars; as of one of Noah's fons covering him when drunk, and the other fcoffing at it; adding that the Indians defcended from the latter, and therefore had no coats or clothes; but, that the Spaniards defcending from the other, who covered him, were therefore cloathed and had houses.'

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Acosta, in his Hiftory of the Indies, a work of high credit, and one of the earliest on the subject, fays, that the "American Indians make great mention of a Deluge which happened in their country; and that all men were drowned in it, but that out of the great lake Titicaca came one Viracocha, who faid in Tiagnanaco, and from thence came to Cufco; and fo began to multiply mankind. They fhew in the same island a fmall lake, where they feign the Sun hid himself, and so was preserved; and for this reason they make great facrifices unto him in that place, both of sheep and men. Others report, that fix or more perfons came out of a certain cave by a window; by whom men first began to multiply, and for this reason they call them Pacaritampo; and are of opinion that the Tambos are the most ancient race of men."

Nieuhoff, in his Voyages, fays" that the most barbarous of the Brafilians inhabiting the inland countries, fcarce know any thing of religion, or an Almighty Being. They have, however, fome knowledge remaining of a general Deluge; it being their opinion that the whole race of mankind were extirpated by a flood, except one man and his fifter, who by degrees re-peopled the world."

Thefe coincidences, mark plainly a common fource of original information upon a great hiftorical fact, though altered and spoiled, as muft neceffarily be the cafe, when paffing through the hands of fucceffive generations, each more barbarous and fuperftitious than the preceding.

London, Sept. 1807.

X. Y. Z.

Ccs

ON MR. VIPOND'S SERMONS.

FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. MR. EDITOR;

A Mr. Vipond, called in the Gentleman's Magazine for June," a very young but ingenious preacher in the Methodist connexion," has been prevailed upon, as he tells us, by "the earnest and repeated folicitation of feveral of the author's moft judicious friends," to print two fermons,* preached at the opening of Ebenezer Chapel at Deal. They are written in a very easy fluent ftyle, and have a very plaufible appearance; but I must crave leave to make an obfervation or two upon fome paffages in them.

Mr. V's attempt to wath an Ethiop white, is fruitless; all his fophiftry will not fan&tion fchifm; even as of old, no force of argument could put Jeroboam's priefts of the high places on a level with the legitimate fervants of the temple.

Mr. V. fays, "we (the Methodists) believe that the influence of the Holy Spirit upon our fouls is abfolutely necefsary (thefe words are in Italics) to make us holy and meet for Heaven." With the ufual charity of fectaries, Mr. V. seems to claim for them the exclufive influence of the Holy Spirit; for he does not appear to allow that the laying on of hands in the ordination of priests and deacons by the bishops and prefbyters of the church, can communicate the gift of the Holy Ghoft. He fays-the Methodists in the dedication of their minifters do not lay on hands; which they conceive "was the ufual means of conveying the extraordinary influence of the Holy Ghoft to the candidate, and confequently altogether improper now, except we could convey the fame bleffing, which we are fully perfuaded no man on earth has any power to do."-Now I would ask this young gentleman, whether he seriously believes in his heart, that, in the act of ordaining any one a deacon, when the bishop lays his hands upon him; and in ordaining any one a prieft, when the bishop and the priests prefent lay their hands upon his head; in fo doing it is intended to onvey to the candidates the

Title;-"The Doctrines, Discipline, and Mode of Worship of the Methodists, seriously considered."

extraordinary

be

extraordinary influence of the Holy Ghost, viz. a power of working miracles? No fuch thing is prefumed, or intended; but furely Mr. V. will not deny, but that the general influence of the Holy Spirit upon the fouls of the candidates, may conveyed by this outward ceremony, accompanied as it is by earneft prayer to the great Difpenfer of all spiritual gifts. Mr. V. maintains that the influence of the Holy Spirit is neceffary-now is it to be fuppofed that this neceffary influence must be intercepted or deftroyed by the laying on of hands by the bishop and the attendant priefts? will Mr. V. be so uncharitable as to deny that the Holy Spirit aids the minifters of the church in their labours? that he influences those who preach by the way-fide, in a field, in a barn, or in the fecret-chamber; and is withheld from thofe who exercise their functions in a church? that he powerfully affifts those who pour out extemporaneous effufions in the pulpit, or elsewhere; and that, though befought by earnest and humble fupplication, he is denied to the paftor, who in his closet first composes affiduously, what he is afterwards to deliver to his flock? Of old this exclufive right was fet up by those whofe zeal outftripped their knowledge.-" Zedekiah, the fon of Chenaanah (the deceived prophet) fmote Micaiah (the prophet of truth) upon the cheek, and faid, Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee? and Micaiah said, behold thou fhalt fee in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself."

Mr. V. has a fling at the delivery of preconceived fermons. "Telum imbelle fine ictu." "We conceive, fays he, that reading is not preaching; and we think that even the reasoning powers of a Newton would fail in attempting to prove that it is. We conceive it a scandal to a man, whose bufinefs it is to ftudy and teach divinity, if he be not able to speak for an hour upon the doctrines and duties of the Gofpel without firft writing it down, and then reading it as a school-boy does his theme." Intellectual powers equal to Newton's, might be better employed than in difcuffions fuch as Mr. Vipond's. The Apoftles faw the affair in another light. They deemed reading and preaching one and the fame thing. Acts xv. 21. "Mofes of old time hath in every city them that preach him; being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-Day." It does not appear that in the Apoftles' days men were fo faftidious as not to bear the repetition of a fermon, after a very fhort interval; for we find, Acts xiii. 42. that when Paul had preached to a mixed af

fembly

fembly of Jews and Profelytes at Antioch; after "the Jews had gone out of the fynagogue, the Gentiles befought that these words might be preached to them the NEXT SABBATH." But, after all, does it neceffarily follow that because a man commits his fermon to paper, he must needs read it in the pulpit as a school-boy reads (not a theme, for school-boys do not read themes but) a declamation? Has Mr. Vipond ever heard that most animated preacher, the Bishop of London, deliver a written fermon ? Has he ever heard Dr. Andrewes preach? Do they, or do multitudes of the clergy, admirable preachers, throughout our towns and villages, read their fermons like fchool-boys? Fye, Fye.-Mr. Vipond knows full well the miferable work which extemporaneous preachers make of it. Surely he must have heard them "fretting their hour," racking their barren invention; beginning fentences without finishing them; fubftituting noise for vigour of argument, and whining for pathos; eking out their frothy rant with patches of ftale common-place, or a few ready-manufactured fentences learnt by rote and repeated as often as neceffity requires.-I am fick of enumerating their wretched deficiencies and offences against common fenfe, fick of reckoning up their miserable shifts!

"We begin, (fays Mr. Vipond,) our public worship by finging an appropriate hymn." The Church of England does not commence her worship with praifing God. She first confesses her fins, and prefumes not to addrefs God with "unclean lips." In beginning Divine service with singing; the methodists harmonize with the diffenters;-not the only point in which they agree. Certainly, by giving up the neceffity for episcopal ordination, the methodists are become prefbyterians.

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Mr. Vipond fays, they "ufe the Book of Common-Prayer, or an abridgement of it, in many of their larger chapels.' They not only abridge but alter the Common-Prayer-Book. Inftead of praying for "bishops, priests and deacons," or for bifhops and curates," they pray for minifters of the Gospel. Cafting off, with the Genevan Calvinifts, the authority of bishops, and caring not at all whether they have a priest among them or no, they do not choose to say Amen to a prayer for the well-being of either; and fuperfeding as far as lies in their power the office of curates, they would fink the very appellation itself.

Mr. V. would willingly obviate an objection brought against the frequenters of methodistical meeting-houses, viz.

"that

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