though mixed with fable, contains particulars which correfpond, in a furprising manner, with the advent, birth, miracles, death, and refurrection of our Saviour. Even fuppofing them to have been derived from the evangelical history, or fpurious gospels, it is remarkable that they fhould have been recorded in the facred language of the Brahmins, and incorporated with their mytho logy. The event mentioned in the text is exactly recorded, namely, that certain holy men, directed by a far, journeyed towards the Well, where they beheld the incarnation of the Deity." P. 181.

Mr. Wilford, we are informed, has tranflated thefe important records, having depofited the originals in the archives of the Afiatic Society, and has compile from them a work, entitled "The Hiftory of the Introduction of the Chriftian Religion into India, its Progrefs and Decline.” Though Mr. Wilford has fometimes, we know, been impofed on by the Pundits, refpecting the antiquity of Sanferit manufcripts, this must be a very important work; and, as foon as it comes to our hands, we fhall have great pleasure in laying an account of it before our readers.

This author next fhows that the doctrines of a trinity in unity, the incarnation of the fecond perfon in that trinity, atonement for fin by the fhedding of blood, and the influence of the Spirit of God on the minds of men, are dotuines which, at this day, prevail over all the Eaft, in the midft of idolatry and moral corruption. "They are," he fays, "the frong characters of God's primary revelation to man, which neither the power of man, nor time itself, hath been able to deftroy; but which have endured, from age to age, like the works of nature, the moon and ftars which God hath created incorruptible."

For this fimile there was no occafion; and it is a very improper one, fince every Chriftian knows that God hath not created the moon and the ftars incorrupt; while the moft eminent aftronomers, and not of the French fchool, have, difcovered fy mptoms of their decay *.

The author has given elsewhere a fuller account of the Syrian Chriftians, than he could give within the compals of a fingle fermon; and to our review of that account we reter our readers t We cannot, however, forbear to extraft the, following paffage, as it feems a complete confutation of cer-,

* We refer our author for a proof of this, to his countryman, the late Profeffor Robifon's (of Edinburgh) volum on the Elements of Mechanical Philosophy.

+ See Brit, Crit. vol. xxvii. p. 225.

tain latitudinarian notions, which we fhall immediately fubjoin to it, that our readers may judge for themfelves of the propriety of fending miffionaries to India from all the fects of Chriftians who call themselves Protestants.

"Another monument of the Chriftian religion in the Eaft, is the state of the Syrian Chriftians, fubfifting, for many ages, a fepa. rate and distinct people, in the midst of the corruption and idolatry of the heathen world. They exift in the very midft of India, like the bufh of Mofes, burning, and not confumed, fur rounded by the enemies of their faith, and fubject to their power, and yet not destroyed. There they exift, having the pure word of God in their hands, and speaking in their churches that fame language which our Saviour himself spoke in the streets of Jerufalem.

"The probable defign of the Divine Providence, in preferving this people, appears to be this-that they fhould be a feed of the Church in Afia; that they should be a special inftrument for the converfion of the furrounding heathen, when God's appointed time is come; a people prepared for his fervice, as fellow-labourers with us; a people, in fhort, in the midst of Afia, to whom we can point, as an irrefragable evidence of the truth and antiquity of the Chriftian faith." P. 192.

In a note on this paffage Dr. Buchanan informs us, that epifcopacy has prevailed in every Chriftian region of the Eaft from the first ages;" and when we reflect how tenacious the people of the Eaft have always been of ancient customs, we may fafely infer that the Syrian Chriftians are strongly attached to their form of church government, and would not easily be induced to unite in one communion with thofe by whom it is condemned. The proteflant diffenters from the established church of this country are, on the other hand, all hoffile to epifcopacy in the Church of Chrift, while many of them avow their diflike of monarchy in the ftate the only form of civil polity which the Afiatics in general have ever known. But if this be fo, and if the Syrian Chriftians have been preferved to be "a feed of the Church in Afia, a fpecial inftrument for the converfion of the furrounding nations, and fellow-labourers with us" in this great work, how can Dr. Buchanan fay, "We ought not to regret that the work is carried on by Chriftians of different denominations; for, if they teach the religion of the Bible, their labours will be bleffed." The Syrian Chriftians, if they be fuch as he reprefents them, will readily admit, that if the British miffionaries teach the religion of the Bible, their labours will be bleffed; but they

may add, and add with truth, that thofe miffionaries do not. teach the religion of the Bible, becaufe they encourage fchifms in the Church, which, according to the religion of the Bible, ought to be in the ftritteft fenfe united. They may likewife afk by what authority thofe miffionaries take upon themfelves to act as the ambaffalors of Chrift; for the religion of the Bible, as it has been under flood and practifed in every Chriftian region of the Eaft, from the first ages, gives this authority to no man bat through the medium of that order of clergy, which the millionaries reject altogether. In vain may they appeal, as Dr. B. does, to the 38th verfe of the 9th chapter of St. Mark's Gofpel; for fuch of the Syrian Chriftians as are men of found fenfe will reply, that the appeal ought to have been made to the 38th, 39th, and 40th verfes, taken together, because they all relate to the fame queftion; and that when they fhall fee the miffionaries work a miracle in the name of Chrift-the test there laid down for diftinguifhing fuch as are for him, from those who are against him-they will admit the claim of fuch miffionaries to the character which they have affumed.

We do not here mean to enter into the hackneyed queftions concerning the apoftolical inflitution of this or that form of church government, or the authority of bishops or prefbyters, or even the multitude, to fend labourers into Chrifl's vineyard. Our opinions on thefe topics are well known; and though we have often feen them controverted by those who court popularity, we have yet found no reafon to relinquish them as eroneous; but all that we contend for at prefent is, that if epifcopacy in the church be lawful, which Dr. Buchanan by his practice feems to admit, it must be a matter of deep regret that miflionaries hoftile to epifco pacy fhould be employed to convert the nations of the East. In vain does this author, in the name of thofe miffionaries, Lay,

"We have no contentions in India, like thofe in Britain, be tween Proteftants of different names. There they are all friends. The ftrife there is between light and darkness, between the true God and an idol. So liberal is the Chriftian in Afia (while he looks over the map of the world, and can fcarcely find where the ifle of Britain lies), that he considers even the term Proteftant as being, in a certain degree, exclufive or fectarian *. The religion of the Bible, or the religion of Chrift, is the name by which he

That this cannot be faid of the Syrian Chriftians, fee the article already referred to in our 27th volume, 294

would

would defcribe his creed. For when the idolater once abjures his own caft for the Gospel, he confiders the differences of Proteftants (if he ever heard of them), as being very infignificant. Indeed he cannot well understand them. In the great revolution that takes place in his mind (if his converfion be real), he cannot contemplate these minute objects." P. 202.

Are then the differences between those who believe that Chrift is "very God of very God," and fuch as contend that he was a mere man, the fon of Jofeph as well as Mary; between those who believe that "his foul was made an offering for fin," and fuch as contend that he died only to hear teftimony to the truth of his doctrine; between those who believe that he died for the fins of the whole world, and fuch as contend that he died only for a chofen few, are thefe differences so very infignificant that a converted Hindoo cannot well understand them? Nay, is it a matter of fo little importance that fuch a convert cannot contemplate it, whe ther the facraments of Chift's inftitution, which appear from Holy Scripture to be generally neceffary to falvation, be administered by those who derive authority for fuch adminiftrations from Chrift himfelf, or from a congregation of mere believers? Is it a matter of indifference, whether the glad tidings of the Gospel be first carried to heathen nations by thofe who, on every important article of faith and practice, al fpeak the fame thing, and having no divifions among themfelves, are all perfectly joined together in the fame faith, and in the fame judgment;" or by those who, on almost every article of faith, fpeak different things, and reprefent the Gofpel as a farrago of contradictions, and therefore: unworthy of the acceptation of thofe to whom it is preached.

Our heterogeneous miffionaries may indeed, in India, live together as friends, for fear of the heathen powers by whom they are furrounded, and carefully avoid all difcuffions which might endanger the public peace, and with it their own in. dividual lives; but in that cafe they must conceal from the natives every topic about which they differ among themselves; and thus, if they be fincere in their respective opinions, they must be aware that they are handling the word of God deceitfully."

We cannot therefore adopt Dr. Buchanan's notions refpecting the mode in which Chriftianity fhould be propagated in the Eaft, or indeed anywhere elfe, He feems even to think that the nations of Afia might be converted to the reli gion of Chrift, merely by tranflating the Bible into their feveral languages, and circulating thofe tranflations among

fnch

fuch of the natives as can read. That much less mischief would be produced by fuch an attempt at converfion, than by the preaching of miffionaries, who have different views of almost every doctrine and duty of Chriflianity, we are thoroughly perfuaded; but our bleffed Lord has declared that mankind can be admitted into his kingdom only by baptiẩm; and it is not conceivable how any man can adminifter his baptifm, to whom he has not given authority to do fo. Were indeed the mere Judying of the Bible fufficient not only to convert idolatrous nations from their errors, but also to make them "members of Chrifl, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven;" why were the apoftles commanded to go into all the world, and preach the Gofpel to every creature," when they could have written the Gospel in all the languages of the earth, and thus converted the nations by writing, without incurring thofe dangers to which, by their travelling and preaching, they were daily expofed? So little, however, were thefe modes of converfion, by mere books or unauthorized preachers, thought of in the days of infpiration, that St. Paul afked the Romans, "How fhall they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? and how thall they hear without a preacher ? and how fhall they preach, except they be fent?"

There are fome other things in this difcourfe, of which we cannot approve, particularly a quotation from one of Dr. Paley's fermons, in which, though we are perfuaded that he had no fuch intention, Dr. B. makes that learned and acute author give countenance to the methodistical doctrine of converfion-the very dottrine which it is the chief object of the fermon to oppofe! Still we confider "the Star in the Eaft" as a valuable and interefting difcourfe; and if it would roufe the Church of England, and the Eaft India Company, to take the work of converting the Hindoos out of the hands of felt-commiflioned apofiles, by organizing an epifcopal church, or churches, in our Afiatic dominions, in communion not only with the mother-church at home, but alfo with the church of the Syrian Chriftians, it would be productive of greater good, than any other uninfpired fermon that we have ever read. It might, perhaps, be proper, before this fhould be attempted, to fend over fome divine, in whofe knowledge and principles the fulleft confidence could be placed, to vifit the churches of the Syrian Chriftians; for though no man means better than. Dr. Buchanan appears to do, he feems to be one of thofe good and amiable men, whofe warm imaginations, prefenting every thing, whether good or bad, in the ftrongeft colours, are very apt to miflead their judgment.

ART.