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CHRISTIAN RESEARCHES
IN ASIA,

WITH NOTICES OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES INTO THE
ORIENTAL LANGUAGES,

HIS

MEMOIR ON THE EXPEDIENCY OF AN ECCLESIASTI-
CAL ESTABLISHMENT FOR BRITISH INDIA,

AND HIS

STAR IN THE EAST,

WITH THREE NEW SERMONS.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

Dr. Kerr's Curious and Interesting Report,
Concerning the state of the Christians in Cochin and Travancore,
made at the request of the Governor of Madras.

AND

To this edition is added, for the first time,

THE HEALING WATERS OF BETHESDA,

A SERMON,

BY DR. BUCHANAN.

And his SPEECH before the London Society for promoting
Christianity among the Jews.

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PUBLISHED BY WHITING & WATSON,
96 BROAD-WAY.

1. Deare, Printer, New-Brunswick, N. J.

girr Tappan Presb, Ass. 11-12-1931

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THIS EDITION.

IN offering to the public this new edition of the works

of DR. BUCHANAN, the Editors think it proper to state, that it is the only one which contains a complete collection of all the publications of this celebrated Author, which have reached this country. It is the seventh published in the United States, and the fourth in this city, of the RESEARCHES IN ASIA and some of the Sermons, within about twelve months; of the whole of which, this is altogether entitled to the preference in point of matter, price, and style of execution; unless, in the latter respect, the first American edition, in 8vo, be excepted, which, however, contains only about one half as much matter as this.

In the RESEARCHES IN ASIA, the last London edition, published under the inspection and revision of the author himself, has been followed. But as that edition was not put into the hands of the Printer until the first four sheets were struck off, it becomes necessary, in order to make it strictly conformable to it, to notice the few following additions, in their respective places:

Page 57. Note. "The Christian Church has now to lament the loss of two of the translators of the Holy Scriptures mentioned in this page, viz. the venerable bishop of the Syrian Church and the young missionary Augustus Desgranges: Their WORKS do follow

them. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the HARVEST, that he would send forth more laborers into his Harvest, Luke x. 2. See Bogue's Sermon on the death of the Missionaries."

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Page 80. Addition to note. "By them the experiment of a pure Church devoid of form was made under the most favorable circumstances; and the issue has been much the same as in former ages. The Puritan Church in England commenced under the fairest auspices. I know not what was wanting of human and local circumstance to give peculiar doctrines perpetuity. But yet, with the first generation of men (a case of frequent example) the spiritual fervor seemed to pass away. Instead of increasing it decreased and declined in most places, till little more than the name was left. For when the spirit is gone (in a Church having no form) nothing is left. In the mean time, primitive Christianity revived in England (not amongst them) but in the midst of rational forms and evangelical articles: for so it seemed good unto God;' and from that source is derived the greater part of pure religion now professed in this land, under whatever form it may exist. These observations are not made in a spirit of disrespect for any mode of Christian worship; every form, we know, is human, and, therefore, imperfect nor is perfection required; that form being best for the time which is best administered. Christ left no form: because Churches in different climates must have different forms. They may even vary in the same climate. There are differences of 'administrations,' saith the Apostle, but the same Lord,' 1 Cor. i. 12. One man esteemeth one day above another. He that regardeth the day (as Easter and Pentecost) regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it.' Rom. xiv. 6. We are not to despise a weak brother, for whom Christ died,' (1 Cor. viii. 11.) though he be destitute of learning, and think he possesses all that is necessary for regulating a Church, when he has got the leaves of the New Testament; when the truth is, that a knowledge of

contemporary history and languages is as necessary to understand the facts of the New Testament as the fact of any other book. But the above remarks have been made with this view-to qualify the contempt which ignorant persons, in small sects, frequently express for the established worship of a CHRISTIAN EM

PIRE

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Page 80, line 8th-After the words "too rigid a piety," insert:

"The following are the chief doctrines of this ancient Church:

"1. They hold the doctrine of a vicarious atonement for the sins of men by the blood and merits of Christ, and of the justification of the soul before God" "by faith alone" in that atonement.

"2. They maintain the Regeneration, or new birth of the Soul to righteousness, by the influence of the Spirit of God, which change is called in their books, from the Greek, the META-NOIA, or Change of Mind.

"3. In regard to the TRINITY, the creed of the Syrian Christians accords with that of St. Athanasius, but without the damnatory clause. In a written and official communication to the English Resident of Travancore, the Metropolitan states it to be as follows:

"We believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons in one God; neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance, one in three, and three in one. The Father generator, the Son generated, and the Holy Ghost proceeding. None is before or after the other; in majesty, honor, might, and power co-equal; Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." He then proceeds to disclaim the different errors of Arius, Sabellius, Macedonius, Manes, Marcianus, Julianus, Nestorius, and the Chalcedonians; and concludes, "That in the appointed time, through the disposition of the Father and the Holy Ghost, the Son appeared on earth for the salvation of mankind; that he was born of the Virgin Mary, through the means of the Holy Ghost, and was incarnate God and man."

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