Aw 
[Dec, 4; 
Exirags from the Portfolio of a Man of Leiters. 
ooooWHE SECOND-BIRTH—WHEN? 
te XCEPT a man be born again, he 
4 cannot fee the kingdom of God,”’- 
faid a celebrated teacher (John iii. 3.) to 
Nicodemus of Jéerufalem. What is meant 
by this /econd. birth ? 
There is a great refemblance between 
Jewith and Hindoo'cpinion concerning the 
Creation, the Deluge, the Trinity, and 
cther religious topics. It can, therefore, 
hardly be doubted, that the f{chools of 
the Rabbees and. thofe of the Bramins 
were, at fome remote, period (under Da- 
rius I,?),fupplied from a common. fource 
(Babylon?) with doétrine. Why not 
with ritual alfo? 
- din che “Enis of Menu (Works. of 
Sir W. Jones, vol. ii.) it 18° faid:— 
** (169) Phe firft birth is from a ‘natural 
mether; the fecond from the’ ligation of 
the zo. #'; the third from the ‘due ‘perfor- 
mance of the facrifice ; fuch are the births 
oY him who is ufually called tavice-born.” 
*¢ (142) ‘The father who performs the 
ceremonies on conception and. the like, 
according to law, and who nourifhes the 
child with his firft rice, has the epithet of 
guruor venerable.” 
. © (140) That prie&t, who girds his 
pupil with the facriticial cord, and  after- 
wards infiruéts him in the whole Veda, 
holy fages call an acharya. 
“© (146) Of him who. gives natural 
birth, and him who gives knowledge of 
the whole Veda, the giver of facred know- 
ledge 1s the more venerable father ; fince 
the jecond or divine birth enfvres life to 
the twice-born, both in this world and 
hereafter eternally. 
.“* (147) Let aman conhder that asa 
mere human birth, which his parents gave 
him fer their mutual gratification, and 
which he receives after lying in the womb ; 
“* (148) But that birth, which his 
principal ackarya, whe knows the whole 
Veda, precures for him, by his divine 
mother, the gayairi, is. a true birth, ex- 
empt from age and from death. 
*¢ (149) Him who confers on a man 
the benefit of facred Jearring, whether it 
be little or much, let him be nanied gurz, 
or veneradle father. 
<< (69) The venerable preceptor, hav- 
ing girt his pupil with the facrificial 
thread, mult rf infruGt him in purifica- 
tion, in go:d cultoms, in the management 
of the confecrated fire, and in the holy 
rites of morming, noon, and evening.” 
i 
— 
The ceremony, here repeatedly alluded 
to, of girding a three-fold ftring acrofs 
the navel, accompanied by folemn religi- 
ous injunctions and inftru€tions, was ore 
dained; for a prieft, at lateft, in the fix- 
teenth year from’ conception, that is, in 
the fifteenth year of his age, as may be 
inferred ‘from the fixty-fifth verfe of the 
firft chapter of the laws of Menu: ‘The 
gayatri, as appears from the feventy-fe-_ 
venth verfe, confifted of three paragraphs 
of holy writ, anfwering, in fome meafure, 
to cur Commandments, Lord’s Prayer, 
and Belief. To recite the gayatri duly 
feems, from the 148th verfe, to have been 
confidered, by the teachers of religion, as 
the effential {piritual part of the ceremony 
of the fecond-birth, which approaches, 
therefore, very nearly to our rite of cour. 
mation, and was moftly, in like manner, 
accompanied with warnings againft pre- 
mature exceffive ‘folitary and impure. in- 
dulgencies, and with other counfels moft 
adapted to the adoleicent time of life. 
(Vv. 175—182.) . 
To examine a catechumen as to his re- 
ligious proficiency, to corroborate his 
moral reftraints, and to confer fome pub= 
lic fymbol of acceptance, conftitutes then, 
what, in the fchalaf#ie dialect of the Eaft, 
was denominated a fecond-birth. This 
phrafe probably originates in the ufe of a 
navel-ftring as the token of reception ; 
but it is plain that {prinkling (62) ablu- 
tion (70) bathing (176) cropping {65) 
impefition of hands (63) and taking up a, 
ftaff (47) were alfo employed; either in- 
differently, or in different ftages, from ini= 
tiation to ordination. 
The facrament of confirmation, there- 
fore, which in all religions would be a 
rational rite, is, in the Chriftian, zadi/pex- 
fable, having been declared, by the higheft 
authority, fo conducive to falvation. 
The PRAYER of MANASSEH extant in 
HEBREW. 
Tn the fecond book of the Jewihh Chro- 
nicles, it is fiated. (xxxill. 9. 13.) that 
King Manaffeh patronifed idolatrous prace 
tices at Jerufalem, which, among the fo: 
vereigns of Palettine, was always fympto- 
matic of their preferring an alliance with 
Egypt, to an alliance with Affyria. In 
confequence of this apoftacy, the Babylo-. 
nian Monarch feat troops into Judea, by 
whoa Manafleh was taken prifoner among 
the thorns, bound in fetters, and carried 
; to 
