merit; nothing else whatever goes with him; he cannot take with him children, or women, or wealth, or lands. Decay is not prevented by wealth, nor is old age; the life continues only for a little time. The rich and the poor, the wise and the unwise, men of every condition, must equally encounter death; there is no one to whom its embrace does not come. The unwise man trembles at the approach of death; but the wise man is unmoved. Wisdom is therefore better than wealth; of all possessions it is the chief; it is the principal means by which evil desire is destroyed, and purity is attained. The cleaving to sentient objects is the cause of many dangers, and prevents the reception of nirwána. For these reasons I have embraced the priesthood."

V. ORDINATION.

It has been said that “ordination is nothing but a word borrowed from the Roman empire, in which it is the legitimate and customary mode of designating the institution of a person to some honourable office; and this was the original church meaning, as both Eichhorn and Rothe have shown."* The act by which admission into the priesthood is received among the Budhists may therefore not improperly be termed ordination. It binds the recipient to observe certain ordinances or rules; but it is to be regarded as conveying an obligation to refrain from certain usages, rather than as imposing a class of duties that he is to perform. On the part of the candidate it is an acknowledgment of the excellence of asceticism, with an implied declaration that its obligations shall be observed; and on the part of the priests by whom the ceremony is conducted, it is an acknowledgment that the candidate is eligible to the reception of the office, and that, so long as he fulfils its duties, he will be received as a member of the ascetic community, and be entitled to partake in all its rights and privileges.

The mode in which the ceremony is conducted is extremely simple, as appears from the formulary of admission contained in the work called Kammawáchan, of which there is a Singhalese translation. A sangha, or chapter, having been called, the candidate is asked if the requisites of the priest (as the alms-bowl, robes,

* Bunsen's Church of the Future.

&c. that have been previously prepared and deposited in the place of assembly) belong to him. On answering in the affimative, he is commanded to remain in a place that is pointed out; and he is then asked if he is free from certain diseases that are named, including the leprosy, epilepsy, &c.; if he is a human being, a man, and a freeman; if he is out of debt; if he is free from the king's service; if he has the consent of his parents; if he has attained the age of twenty years; and if he is provided with the priestly requisites. He is then asked his own name, and the name of his upádya (the priest by whom he is presented for ordination). These things being ascertained, the moderator commands him to advance; and the candidate, addressing the assembly, says respectfully, thrice, "I request upasampadá." The moderator then makes known that he is free from the impediments that would bar his admission to the priesthood, that he possesses the requisites, and that he requests upasampadá; and thrice calls out, "Let him who assents to this request be silent; let him who dissents, now declare it!" If the assembly be silent the moderator infers that consent is given; upon which he repeats to the candidate the more important of the rules by which he will have to abide-relating to the food he may receive, the garments he may wear, the place in which he may reside, the medicaments he may use in case of sickness, and the crimes that involve expulsion from the priesthood. It is declared that these ordinances are worthy to be kept unto the end of life; to which the candidate assents, without, however, making any promise or taking any vow. From this time he is regarded as an upasampadá, from upa, exceeding, and sampadá, gain, advantage.

It is not unusual for the candidate to put off the robe he had worn as a novice, and to reassume for the nonce the dress of a layman; his body is anointed with sandal and other fragrant substances; and with banners and music his friends accompany him to the place of ordination. It is said that upon some occasions the monarch of Ceylon, the two adigars, and the four nobles next in rank, accompanied the procession through the principal streets of Kandy. In like manner, the nun is arrayed in her gayest attire on the day when she finally abandons the world, and becomes what is called, though the name is too often a solemn mockery, "The spouse of Christ."

The ceremony of upasampadá is sometimes called by Europeans the superior ordination, implying that there are two orders in the

Budhist priesthood; but this mode of speaking is incorrect, as the sámanéra is regarded only as a candidate or novice, and requires no other permission for the wearing of the yellow robe than the sanction of an upasampadá priest.

In Ceylon, ordination is seldom conferred by the established community in any place but the city of Kandy, where the maha-náyaka, or arch-priest, and the anu-náyaka, his deputy, reside; but this is an innovation similar to the taking away of the power of ordination from "the hands of the presbytery," and confining it to hands episcopal, and has no sanction whatever from the earlier usages of Budhism.

Upasampadá confers no mystic power, nor is it regarded as an indelible order. The instances are numerous in which the priest returns to the state of a laic, frequently remaining in this state until death; but at other times returning to the profession; which he is permitted again to assume without being regarded as having committed a breach of the law by his temporary retirement. Indeed, it must be evident, upon a consideration of the subject, that no office or authority conferred by man, in that which relates to matters that demand the consent of the will, and righteousness of life, for their right fulfilment, can be properly indelible. The master may coerce his slave; and the liege lord, his subjects; and an unwilling service or a constrained obedience may as effectually carry into effect the command of an earthly superior as the most affectionate submission; but the bad man, or the man who after ordination has received conscientious scruples relative to the ministry, cannot be coerced into a right discharge of the duties of this sacred office. This conclusion does not at all affect the case of man's responsibility to God; when "a dispensation of the gospel" has been committed to any one, it is at his peril if he "entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;" he may not be imperatively confined to any particular course of discipline; he may modify his creed or change his community; but the work of the Lord is not to be neglected, nor the ministry of the word forsaken, so long as there is the ability to fulfil the exercise in an efficient manner.

By an express ordinance of Budha his disciples are permitted to retire from the priesthood under certain circumstances; such as their inability to remain continent; impatience of restraint; a wish to enter upon worldly engagements; the love of parents or friends; or doubts as to the truth of the system propounded by Budha. This permission would, however, open the way for the practice of

all kinds of evil, as the priest might do wrong under the supposition that, if detected, he had only to declare that he had renounced the obligations; by which means he would be saved from the penalty that must otherwise be enforced, and his character be preserved. But to prevent these perversions it is ordained that no priest shall be allowed to throw off the robe without express permission had and obtained from a legal chapter.

VI. CELIBACY.

In all ages, and among all nations, in which men have broken away from the laws of the Lord, and attempted to establish their own righteousness, the practice of celibacy has been enjoined upon those who are called upon to perform the more sacred rites of religion. The echo of the voice of God, "It is not good that man should be alone;" first heard by man in innocence, was still carried on when the visions of Paradise had faded from his sight; and its tones were sufficiently distinct many centuries after his expulsion from that scene of beauty, to exercise an influence the most powerful. The divine revelations with which he was afterwards favoured, as we may clearly learn from the comparatively few of these interpositions that are recorded in sacred writ, contributed to produce the same effect; with the caution, however, that the help-meet should not be taken promiscuously from among women; "the daughters of men," the maidens of Heth, were to be avoided. But still the wife was to be sought; and domestic relations were entered into by the most holy of the patriarchs, not excepting even the one who "was not, for God took him." At what period a different opinion began to prevail we have no evidence; but it probably commenced at the same time as polytheism, and spread co-extensively with that error. When the idea has gone forth that man possesses the power to offer a sacrifice, that as a natural consequence, irrespective of any ulterior arrangement, will bring to him merit, it is thought that in proportion to the value of the sacrifice will be the increase of the treasure of righteousness acquired by its presentation; and as it is only an expansion of the same thought, that the giving up of the will must be equally meritorious with the resignation of the substance, it follows that the more rigid

the course of self-denial that is entered upon, and the more cruel and comprehensive its requirements, the greater will be the amount of gain to the ascetic. The same consequences have been produced by another error, of separate origin but correlative effect. It has been supposed that in all matter there is an evil principle, and that the body of man is an avatár, or impersonation of this principle in its most malignant type; hence all that ministers to its gratification must be avoided; the appetites and passions must be overcome; and the man who neither eats, nor drinks, nor sleeps, who has no covering to his nakedness, no wife, and no home, is in a high state of preparation for extinguishing his existence for ever, or becoming absorbed in the ocean of the divine essence.

It were needless to multiply instances in proof of the prevalence of these sentiments. The priests of Isis were obliged to observe perpetual chastity. The persons who were initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries were obliged to keep themselves unpolluted during nine days; and the high priest was never permitted to marry at all, as he was regarded as being given up entirely to the service of the gods. The neophytes admitted to the Bacchic mysteries were obliged to abstain from sexual intercourse during the ten days of initiation. The vestal virgins were bound by a solemn vow to preserve their chastity for the space of thirty years. The more strict of the Essenes avoided marriage, and extolled the virtue of continence; in this, as in other instances, being opposed to the religion that their forefathers had received from God.

At an early period of the church, celibacy was represented as the principal of the Christian virtues; and it seemed to be the general supposition that no corporeal shrine desecrated by marriage was worthy of receiving the inhabitation of the Holy Spirit, according to the promise granted to the elect of God. Hence such declarations as that of Jerome (Adv. Jov. i. 4): “Qamdiu impleo mariti officium, non impleo Christiani ;" and such ordinances as that of Con. Carthag. iv. 13, that the newly married" cum benedictionem acceperint, eadem nocte pro reverentia ipsius benedictionis in virginitate permaneant." At first the clergy were only forbidden to marry a second time; then they were not allowed to marry at all after their ordination, unless at the time they put in a special claim to be exempted from the law, from having a previous engagement. After this no clergyman was allowed to marry, under any circumstances; and last of all, ordination was conferred upon no one who