of which we speak, for securing the ends, of which we have spoken; for there are ;-but, we do say that associations of private Christians for prayer and mutual edification are peculiarly favourable to these ends, and deserve a place among the established means and agencies of the church, for promoting her spiritual growth and activity. The limitation of these meetings by the clergy who encourage them, to the simple objects of prayer and conversation, with the " speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," thus excluding from them all approach to the duties of the ministry in the preaching of the word, is all that is necessary to preserve them from the objections so often urged against them, and to keep them pure sources of health and life to the church and the cause of Christ. Religion, the religion of Jesus, is peculiarly social; the church needs opportunities for the practical manifestation of this, not only in the stately assembly of the sabbath and the sanctuary, where fashion and form so freely mix with faith and purity, but also in those more fami

liar and unembarrassed meetings, where none but tried Christians, and those who are willing to become such, draw together to cheer and strengthen each other, and to give their sacred sympathies full exercise and free expression. Without such opportunities, religion languishes for want of her warmth and her dew, as tender plants droop, when deprived of the sun and the rain; and the church is robbed of much of her best strength, skill and experience, in every department of her work, and among all ranks of her members. That these opportunities may be abused among those, whose ecclesiastical systems tend to extravagance and fanaticism, we freely grant; so may every other good thing; but under our system of strong restraints, steady balances and sobering influences, they are just what is needed; and never, we fear, till they are generally allowed and enjoyed, will our Zion stand up before the world in all her glory, with all the impulses and activities of a living body, as well as with all the safeguards of a heaven-devised goS.

vernment.

EVERY thing relating to these ancient Christians, one of the few remaining branches of the primitive church which were never subject to the Roman See, so immediately bears on our duties in this country, and will I am sure, be so interesting to all whom I now address, and indeed so fresh on my mind, that I make no apology for adverting to it at some length, on this, to me unexpected, occasion of addressing you.

As I entered these early seats of our common Christianity, I said

to myself, these are like the church of Philadelphia, commended by our Lord in the Apocalypse, they have but little strength; strength; but they have kept Christ's word, and not denied his name. May an open door be now set before them, by the friendly communications of our Protestant Church, and the protection of the British power, which no man shall shut. Rev. iii. 7, 8.

It is the glory of our church to have sprung to the assistance of these oppressed Christians of St.

Thomas, at the earliest moment that the victories of the Marquis of Wellesley had opened that part of India. Before the erection of the See of Calcutta, a most devout chaplain, of our establishment, and personal friend of my own, now no more, hurried down to inquire after their welfare, and salute them in the name of the Lord. ... In 1808, the Church Missionary Society began to send them out holy Missionaries, five of whom are now labouring in that field of service. The honourable Residents of Travancore, likewise, have been conducting themselves in a manner worthy of the British nation, by throwing around them the Ægis of our power, and by building, with a donation chiefly supplied by the Rannee of Travancore, a college for the education of their youth.

It

Upon the contrast between the friendly succour thus rendered them by our Protestant church for thirty years, and the conduct pursued by another Christian communion,† from the middle of the sixteenth century, I will not dwell. must be a matter of thankfulness, to all who have looked into the case, to reflect on the disparity. Suffice it to say, that we have usurped no authority over a sister Christian body-aimed at no private ends-required no union with our own particular church-enjoined no decrees of western councils-destroyed no books of learning and piety-made no forcible changes in ancient Liturgies-introduced no images of the virgin or other modes of superstition; nor did we summon a second Synod of Diamper, in order to subject, by terror or chicane, an ancient, independent, and comparatively pure Christian church to the assumed supremacy of the bishop of Rome.

On the contrary, we treated them

* Dr. Claudius Buchanan, in 1806 and 1808.

Under Abp. Menezes.

from the first, and are now treating them, as a primitive and independent branch of Christ's Holy Catholic Church. We began by testifying our Christian sympathy; we inquired, whether, and how far, and in what respects, they desired our aid. We acted in every thing with the concurrence and authority of their own bishops and clergy. Let any one read the affecting interviews of Dr. Buchanan with the aged Syrian, Metran ; * or those of Bishop Middleton, ten years afterwards, with his successor; and he will be convinced of what I say. On discovering the particulars in which they first implored our help, to those particulars we have been directing our attention, and to none others. These were: 1. The multiplication of copies of the Syriac Scriptures; 2. The translation of those Scriptures into the vernacular Malayalim; 3. The establishment of schools; 4. The furnishing means for the education of their clergy; 5. The preaching, as occasion might offer, in their churches. By the munificence of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the first of these wants, that of copies of the Scriptures in Syriac, was supplied

-

Dr. Buchanan died with the sheets of the New Testament in his hand. The second has been met by the persevering labours of the Church Missionary Society. Schools have, in the third place, been established by the funds of the same institution. The fourth particular has been supplied by a college built by the honourable Resident, Colonel Munro ; where about forty deacons are under education for the sacred office of the priesthood. While the Church Missionaries in the fifth place, have been constantly preaching, with the Metran's permission, in the churches, as they have acquired the language.

* Metropolitan.

Of the happy effects of this gentle intercourse it is difficult to judge. They have been naturally slow. Many years elapsed before the Holy Scriptures were ready. General education is long in spreading; and is yet in its commencement only. Influence with the metrans and clergy varies with the personal piety of individuals. A

schism between the ecclesiastical authorities, at the time of Bishop Heber, interrupted the progress of things, and occasioned the interference of the honourable Resident. Other difficulties have arisen since and fresh ones may and will arise. Still the advance made has not disappointed those who consider all the circumstances of the case and so long as the five particulars which I have mentioned are in gradual, but unconstrained operation, I fully trust that the Syrian Churches will ultimately recover, by the mercy of God, their pristine splendour.

The little which I ventured to do myself, during the ten days that I passed among them, was, I hope, in entire accordance with the evangelical proceedings of the bishops and presbyters who preceded me. I had been invited by the metran to aid him, more than two years before. On my arrival, I acted as a brother with a brother. I openly disclaimed all authority. I professed that I had no power, except with my own people. I interfered not in the least. I conferred only with him, both in private and in the presence of his clergy. I mentioned such thoughts as occurred to me. I satisfied his curiosity concerning our own church. I preached, with his permission, three times in the Syrian churches, through an interpreter; once being before himself, about forty of his presbyters, and more than a thousand of the laity.

Matters of spiritual improvement in divine doctrine and worship, I commended to the con

sideration of the metran and clergy. For I found many things undoubtedly, among them, which a better education of the clergy, and advances in Scriptural knowledge and real primitive antiquity, will remove. On the subject of the sacraments, and in their Liturgical offices, many expressions and usages occur which Protestants account, and justly account, erroneous and superstitious. When I was present at the celebration of of their public worship, I was much distressed; and was ready to conclude that they differed little, in fact, from the church of Rome. But, so far, as I can judge, the case is not so. They are far, very far from smybolizing with the Church of Rome. They still reject, after three centuries of chicane and persecution, the supremacy of the Pope. They still acknowledge the supreme authority of the Holy Scriptures. They hold no traditions as of co-ordinate rank with the Scriptures and necessary to their just interpretation. They allow them to be translated without notes, and read freely by the people. They object not to prayers in a known tongue. They do not receive the decrees of the council of Trent. They do not

hold, as a church, transubstantiation, or the doctrine of the real presence, or purgatory, in the sense of the Church of Rome, whatever individuals may do.* They do not deny the cup to the laity. They enforce not the celibacy of the clergy. They allow not the use of images in churches. They admit all orthodox churches to be branches of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, and within the pale of

*There are many opinions and practices afloat, tending to superstition, both concerning the eucharist, and prayers for the departed. Possibly further inquiries, and a better acquaintance with their language and their numerous liturgies, may cast more light on the subject. It was in November 1835 that I made my visit.

salvation. The numerous errors and superstitions which have crept into their liturgies and services are not drawn up into articles of faith, and fixed immoveably by general councils. They still hold, as a church, the canons of the first council of Nice only, which at their ordination, their presbyters engage to observe. I trust we may, therefore, say of them, that however large may be the admixture of superstitions, they have, as a church, kept Christ's word and not denied his name.

*

It is only wonderful, indeed, considering their long total exclusion from more enlightened Christian communities, the subjugation of the larger part of their brethren under Abp. Menezes to the Roman yoke, from which they themselves escaped only by miracle, as it were, after a struggle of sixty years; the destruction of their libraries, and consequent want of an educated clergy; and the short time they have been in communication with the British power-it is only wonderful that they have retained so much of Scriptural truth, and present so striking and favourable a contrast, as they confessedly do, not only to the heathen, but to the Roman Catholic Syrians around them.

I confess I was greatly affected with all which I saw. I could not avoid comparing their doctrine, discipline, and usages with the first histories of the Christian church. The subject seemed to me full of instruction, consolation, warning in various ways; and it is for these ends that I have thought myself at liberty to give you this account of my visit; though it has compelled me to speak so much of my individual proceedings for which I crave your forgiveness.

1. Here, Reverend brethren, is an ancient church from the days

* On the conquest of Cochin by the Dutch, in 1663.

SEPTEMBER, 1839.

of the Apostles, preserved for sixteen or seventeen centuries amidst surrounding idolatry; knowing nothing of the pretended supremacy of Rome, nor of her peculiar dogmas; but standing a witness, in addition to the primitive churches in Haute Dauphine and the valleys of Piedmont, to the pure gospel of Christ; and thus demonstrating the comparative novelty of the superstitious doctrines and usages, and indeed of all the assumptions of the church and court of Romea testimony, in a day like the present, of no little value.

*

2. Nor is it a point of small moment, that these ancient churches confirm us in our belief of the apostolical origin of our Episcopal platform of church government; and display the wisdom of our Reformers, in retaining, as no other Protestant communion has retained, that beautiful system of order and edification as it existed in the apostolical age. We may be assured that the policy of our National Church, after an example of such extraordinary success, is not ill adapted to the feeble, prostrate mind of India.

2 X

3. The value of liturgies, in securing some knowledge of the great doctrines of the fall, the Holy Trinity, redemption, the atonement of Christ, his Deity as very God of very God,† the person and operations of the Holy Spirit, love to God and man, the obligations of the ten commandments, &c. in the darkest times, is again, apparent.

*For the accounts of which we are so much indebted to Mr. Prebendary Gilly. Is it improper in me to solicit his attention, next, to the history of the Christians of St. Thomas ?

The Nestorian doctrine of two natures and two persons in our Lord was succeeded by the Jacobite doctrine of one nature and one person, probably about the year 1663. The Chalcedonian or Orthodox doctrine, I need not say is, that there are two natures, the divine and human, united in the one person of our Lord.

4. Nor on the other hand, is the danger less obvious of a church losing sight of the Holy Scriptures -of its allowing that blessed book, the only rule of faith, to become rare; to remain in a language generally unfamiliar to the people, and no longer capable of being appealed to as the standard of all doctrine and worship. We see,

in these ancient churches, that when their copies of Scripture and other books were once burnt, and an unlearned clergy followed, ignorance of the mighty truths of the Gospel came on; changes were made in liturgies and customs, and much superstition and error crept in.

5. We further learn, however, from the few Syriac manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures which have been collated, the capital fact, of the integrity of our western copies; agreeing, as they do, in all main particulars, with those independent and most ancient eastern ones of the Syriac version, made by apostolical men, and retaining the very dialect which our blessed

Lord spake when on earth.

6. To which points, when I add the assurance which these churches afford us of the possibility of forming permanent Christian communities, retaining their faith from age to age, from among the natives of India-of training and fixing them in a discipline resembling our own, and guiding them by a native ministry, maintained in primitive simplicity, and yet surrounded with the respect and reverence of the people I trust you will allow that the points of instruction to be gathered from their past and present circumstances are not unimportant.

7. Nor is it uninteresting to trace those vestiges of antiquity in many of their customs; some of which we might profitably perhaps follow, though others are less adapted to our modern habits :-their respect for antiquity and the usages of their fathers-their Synods, consisting of bishops, clergy, and

laity, the consent of the parishioners obtained to the appointment of pastors-bishops sometimes

chosen by the clergy and laity, when not sent out to them from Syria-candidates continued for a series of years in the preparatory office of deacon, before they are admitted and ordained presbyters -excommunication, admonition, &c. administered by a court held in the porch of each church, and consisting of the priest and four lay elders-another species of punishment not less solemn, administered by the priest omitting to bless the offender when the rest of the congregation pass to receive that blessing, the erection of churches in every parish, with contiguous rooms for the constant residence of the clergy; separate houses being seldom built for them, but the priest living in the church itself.

But I hasten to remark, generally, on all which I have been now stating, what charity and tender sympathy we should cultivate towards these primitive Christians of St. Thomas and similar relics of the Apostolic Churches! How readily should we acknowledge what is good in them; without requiring of them conformity to our Protestant models of Liturgical worship or our western notions!

Again, our gratitude to Almighty God should surely be kindled for that complete and glorious reformation from immensely deeper corruptions, both of doctrine and worship, than the Syrian Christians ever knew; and for that deliverance from spiritual tyranny and domination, similar to that under which they so long groaned, which God vouchsafed to us in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and which have exalted, now for so many ages, our church and nation, and made us capable of compassionating and aiding other churches in their depression and sorrow.