lore of ages has been preserved in huge piles of manuscripts, that would abundantly reward the labours of the scholar and the antiquarian. They are not ignorant of the belleslettres, and they have produced some pleasing poets and rhetoricians.*

There are other ancient sects in the East who are represented as being observant of the ancient Sabbath. Of these we might instance several branches of the Nestorian fraternities, the Hemerobaptists, or Christians of St. John, and the Jusidians. How far this may be the case, I have no data for determining. Some authors have also ascribed the observation of the Sabbath to the Greek Church; but this, I believe, can only be understood in a partial and limited sense. Many have been guilty of the incongruity of including in the term "the Greek Church" all the Christians of the East. Strictly speaking, that term was, and is, only applicable to those countries in which the spiritual authority of the Constantinopolitan prelate predominated.

SECTION II.

A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT CHRISTIANS

OF INDIA.

The introduction, rise, progress, declension, and extirpation of Christianity in India, is, with some partial exceptions, wrapped in profound obscurity, yet many historians of abundant information and unimpeachable veracity are unanimous in supposing that India received the gospel probably before Great Britain.

* Those who desire a more detailed account of the Armenians may consult La Croza, Galanus, Olearius, Chardin, Fabricius, in Lux Evangelii, and, above all, Tavernier.

Rev. C. Buchanan says, "There have lately been discovered Sanscrit writings containing testimony of Christ. They relate to a prince who reigned about the period of the Christian era, and whose history, though mixed with fable, contains particulars which correspond, in a surprising degree, with the advent, birth, miracles, death, and resurrection of our Saviour." The same testimony is given by Sir William Jones, whose acquaintance with Oriental literature has never been surpassed. Another learned historian declares, "That it may be proved by the Syriac records, that in the fourth century Christianity was flourishing in the provinces of Chorasin and Mavaralhara ; and from a variety of learned testimony, that the gospel was introduced by the Apostle Thomas himself into India and China, within thirty years subsequent to the ascension of our Saviour." La Croze in the clearest manner proves the antiquity of Christianity in those countries. In the epitome of the Syrian canons, St. Thomas is styled the Apostle of the Hindoos. He is uniformly styled, in the Syrian Chronicles, the first bishop of the East. Ebed Jesus says, "India and all the regions around received the priesthood from him." Amru, the Syriac historian, traces both Thomas and Bartholomew through Arabia and Persia into India and China. Many of the Syrian writers quoted by Asseman agree in stating that a few of the twelve, and many of the seventy disciples went far and wide preaching the gospel through Northern Asia.

The Bishop of Calcutta, Dr. Wilson, says, "That the Christians of the Malabar Coast are the remnants of the ancient church of India, preserved in the midst of idolatry from the days of the Apostles."

These Christian settlements are located on the Malabar coast, in the south of India, and contain a population of probably 200,000. They are agricultural in their mode

of life, and occupy a fertile and healthy territory. They are spread along the Cunara. In Mangalore, Onore, Barcelore, and Carwar, they have flourishing churches. A large settlement of these people were discovered by Dr. Buchanan in the interior of Travancore. Their intelligence, the virtuous liberty of the female sex, and the whole aspect of society, seemed to indicate a Protestant country.

For the compilation of a history of this people we have scant materials. Unknown to the world they seem to have been most happily preserved from its troubles and dissensions. Their obscurity was the preservative of their peace and the badge of their purity. Yet we are informed by William of Malmsbury, that these Christians were visited, towards the conclusion of the ninth century, by ambassadors from Alfred of England, who paid their homage at the shrine of St. Thomas, in the vicinity of Madras, and whose return, loaded with a cargo of pearls and the richest gums and spices, amply rewarded the enterprising sovereign, who entertained the noblest projects of discovery and commerce. * They asserted that the pepper coast of Malabar, and even the islands of Ceylon and Socotara, were peopled with Christians, who were in happy ignorance of the quarrels of princes and ecclesiastics. And that the bishops who presided over this multitude of churches were unambitious of worldly honours, and received ordination from the patriarch of the East. This account, however, was received as an imposition upon the credulity of mankind, and was treated as such until the

* I am aware that the truth of this statement has been questioned, but after all there is nothing so very improbable in it. Alfred was

a prince of an enterprising disposition, and might have sent an embassy to India for several reasons, and their performance of the journey was no impossibility.

progress of modern discovery established the fact. The Portuguese, who circumnavigated Africa, and dared the dangers of unknown seas, in order to gather the Indian spoils of gold and gems, found, not indeed the boundless wealth they sought, but these companies of Christians who still preserved their faith in its pristine purity. Superior in arts, and arms, and virtues, to the idolaters of Hindostan, they appeared to the astonished adventurers like another race. They occupied extremely neat and convenient dwellings, shaded by the palm-tree, and contiguous to fields of tropical productions. The husbandman lived in peace and plenty, the merchant grew rich by the pepper trade, the young men were admitted to the service and society of the nobility of Malabar; and their simple virtues demanded and insured the respect of the king of Cochin, and the Zamorin himself. They were in allegiance to a Gentoo sovereign, but the real administration of their laws, even in temporal concerns, was lodged in the hands of the bishop of Angumala, who could trace an uninterrupted succession of prelates to the apostle himself. He still asserted his ancient dignity as metropolitan of India, and his jurisdiction extended over fourteen hundred churches, and embraced the spiritual care of 250,000 souls. He was assisted by a sufficient number of priests and spiritual teachers, who administered consolation to the dying, and reproof or correction to the living. Their meetinghouses were not different from ordinary dwellings. They had neither pictures nor images. The doctrine of purgatory, the invocation of saints, the merit of relics, and the observation of the first day, was unknown among them. On the contrary, they rested and attended to divine worship upon the seventh day of the week, administered baptism to adults, and by immersion, were not ignorant of the great doctrines of regeneration and justification, and pos

sessed authentic manuscript copies of the Holy Scriptures, which were publicly read in the churches every ensuing Sabbath. They were not degenerated into that softness, effeminacy, and licentiousness of manners, which generally distinguish the natives of Southern India. They were chaste, and observant of their conjugal relations; adultery was a crime unknown. Their priests were permitted to enter into wedlock once, with a pure virgin; they were scandalized and disgraced by a second marriage, and a third could only be consummated at the expense of excommunication.

The Portuguese were no less surprised at their profession than offended by their simplicity; but, what appeared most unaccountable, they were unacquainted with the spiritual and temporal majesty of Rome, and were ignorant that, to St. Peter's successor, all the kings and prelates of the earth owed subjection and allegiance. They adhered, like their ancestors; to the communion of the Nestorian Patriarch; their bishops had for ages been ordained by him at Mosul, and thence had traversed the dangers of sea and land to their dioceses on the coast of Malabar. Their liturgy and sacred books were in the Syriac idiom. They were acquainted with the names of Theodore and Nestorius, were strenuous advocates of the doctrine of the two persons of Christ, but they manifested a pious horror, when they heard the appellation "Mother of God" applied to the Virgin Mary. When her image was first presented to receive their adoration, they indignantly refused, exclaiming, "We are Christians, not idolaters; we worship God." It was the first care of the Romish emissaries to intercept all correspondence with the Nestorian Patriarch, to forbid their observance of the Sabbath, and to compel them to admit the baptism of infants. Their bishops and leaders were thrown into the dungeons of the Holy Office,