ing might have shewn that such a line of conduct could not tend to improve them, or to render them less hostile: and, leaving out the consideration of intrusion into another man's fold, surely we cannot imagine that we shall be able to enlighten and reform those churches from without, in opposition to the clergy of them, and all the old prejudices of the people? We can do nothing more than produce such an unhappy state of things as prevails in France and Germany; and shall the English church be so far regardless of her high pre-eminence as to wish to bring the eastern churches into such a state of lamentable and almost hopeless schism? This whole train of proceeding is the more remarkable from its contrariety to that followed up by the same society during the same period in regard to the Syrian church in India. Its connexion with that church commenced about the same time with its first operations in the Mediterranean. Major, afterwards Colonel, Munro, English resident at Travancore, had conceived the idea of founding a college for the education of the clergy and laity of that church,* and of conducting it in strict union with the heads of it. He invited the Church Missionary Society to unite with him by stationing one or more of their clergy near the college; and they acceded to his wishes. Providentially, a schism which prevailed in the Syrian church was healed at that particular time, and the bishop was favourable to the undertaking. His successor was still more entirely with them. The spirit in which they acted will be most evident from a few extracts from the Missionary Register, 1820, p. 487 "We think they (the Syrian clergy) will be more delighted with the constitution of the English church the better they are acquainted with it. Not that we wish to impose any of our ceremonies upon them; much less to identify them with the English church; but a model is necessary for them in their attempts at reformation," &c. Again : "The committee have conveyed to the missionaries their decided judgment, that the Syrians should be brought back to their own ancient and primitive worship and discipline, rather than be induced to adopt the liturgy and discipline of the English church; and that, should any considerations induce them to wish such a measure, it would be highly expedient to dissuade them from adopting it—both for the preservation of their individuality and entireness, and greater consequent weight and usefulness as a church; and to prevent those jealousies and heart-burnings which would in all probability hereafter arise." What words of wisdom are these! Would that all the society's operations had been conducted in this spirit. In 1820, the mission and college were visited by the Rev. James Hough, one of the East India Company's chaplains. He found the worship carried on in the college chapel, which college the missionaries aid to support, with "incense, the adoration of the host, frequent crossings and prostrations before the crucifix," and in the Syriac language, unintelligible to the common people. And he remarks in regard to the missionaries:†— "Greatly as it must pain them to witness so much superstition and unmeaning ceremony amongst this interesting people, they have, as yet, with great wisdom and Missionary Register, 1816, p. 37. † Ibid. 1822, p. 427. delicacy, refrained from interfering in the slightest particular on sacred matters. They are respected so highly by the metropolitan and catanars, (bishop and priests,) that were they to express their wish to have a part of the Syriac prayers translated into Malayalim, I have no doubt but that it would be done. But they are too prudent to act with precipitation, or to take upon themselves the responsibility of so important a step. At present they are expending their time and strength in prepar. ing the people's minds for the reception of truth; content to shew them the light by degrees, as they appear ready to receive it." A military officer, Major Mackworth, who visited them in 1821, bears the same testimony to their spirit and plan,* and remarks "the great deference and respect" with which the missionaries treated the bishop; and with regard to the malpan, or head of the Syrian college, who was somewhat of an anti-reformer, that, " as they never even suggest any improvements without consulting him, nor adopt any without his concurrence, they are sure of never doing too much, or of advancing beyond the present light and knowledge which the Syrians possess." And what were the results of this patient and prudent conduct? Four main improvements were effected at that time" without any dislike having been openly manifested :"+ "1. The marriage of the clergy. "2. The removal of all images from the churches. "3. The reading of a portion of the scriptures, every Sunday, in Malayalim. "4. The opening of schools, attached to most of the churches." In addition to this, Major Mackworth mentions a general enlightenment of the clergy and people, and amendment of their habits. The testimony of Principal Mill, of Bishop's College, Calcutta, in 1822, is precisely to the same effect:‡ and one should have thought that experience such as this, even if sound principles had been wanting, would have not only made this line of conduct permanent at Cotym, but have introduced it everywhere else. But a fatality seems to attend the proceedings of the Church Missionary Society in regard to ancient churches. It is not my business to give a history of this mission. I pass over twelve years, and find one of the society's then missionaries pressing upon a reluctant priest the necessity of reformation,§ and remarking, that "if ever there is a reformation here, it will begin among the laity, and not among the priests." Connected with this we find the missionaries themselves more active in preaching in the Syrian churches, and yet speaking of the "very strong opposition" they expect to find offered by the priests to a reformation. We find one of them who could not recommend" a candidate for baptism "to the Syrian church," but "should procure him baptism in our own church." Surely this is quite another spirit from that which wrought the gradual and safe reforms I have specified above. Two years after,|| we find several "places of worship" open, connected with the missionaries, and a priest under their influence rejecting a communicant for ignorance; a leading man excommuni * Missionary Register, 1823, p. 154. Ibid. 1823, p. 398. † Ibid. 1823, p. 155. S Church Missionary Record, 1836, p. 283. Church Missionary Record, 1838, p. 129. cated by his church for having his child baptized by one of the missionaries ;" and the METRAN (i. e., the bishop) sending for the friends of the deacons of the several surrounding churches, and forbidding them, upon pain of his heavy displeasure, to send the deacons to the college." Alas! what a change! And whatever faults there may be on the side of the bishop and priests, yet, when we see so different a spirit on the part of the missionary from that of his predecessors,-an interfering, dictatorial spirit,-apparent in many other little things, better felt than expressed, must we not conclude that, if, like his predecessors, he had resolved to wait until the most obstinate metran should give up his prejudices, with humble prayer and fasting, he would have found himself still able to speak of the gradual reformation of a united church, instead of finding himself in a party both of clergy and people, some shutting their churches against him, some opening them, and in total and declared opposition to the bishop? By what authority can these missionaries have acted? Can the Bishop of Calcutta have sanctioned their meddling? And, if he have not, what are they but schismatical independents? If he have-but God forbid that he should have countenanced that schism in another church which he would have been the first to denounce in his own! How extraordinary is it that a body of men who could proceed so long upon a right course, and with such remarkable success, should fall so entirely into an opposite one. But I fear the governing body must be changed as to its constituent members, else we might have expected that, when opposed by the bishop of the Syrian church, they should at once have rested upon their oars, and declined to take another step until the good providence of God should open their way again, by inclining his heart towards them. If that is not the case, we are left to conclude that their first plan was adopted as a matter of expediency, and afterwards abandoned when other considerations induced them to adopt different views. I trust it will appear that I have made out my point; and that the correctness of my principles is confirmed by the Church Missionary Society, both when it upholds them and when it forsakes them; both in the good feeling and gradual ameliorations which followed them when acted on, and the jealousies, and schisms, and opposition which ensued on their abandonment. They are no less confirmed by those intelligent and able persons,- —one of them, Major Mackworth, a warm friend of the Church Missionary Society, who visited the Indo-Syrian church when the early course was still followed. The catastrophe of the Abyssinian mission is peculiarly deplorable. That Messrs. Gobat & Co. should have retired from a field which they were not qualified to cultivate, either by information or by discretion, is not in itself much to be regretted. They were acting like schismatics, and the fruit of their labours could be little else than schism. But how many painful reflections arise when we consider the circumstances of their retirement! That supposed agents and representatives of the church of England should be expelled from the territories of an ancient church as common disturbers, so headstrong and indiscreet that their very friends were obliged to give them up, is VOL. XV.-June, 1839. 4 M lamentable indeed. And yet their own accounts have prepared us for it. And one cannot avoid reflecting how different would have been the issue, if the mission had been conducted as that to the Indo-Syrian church was for so many of its earlier years. It is true that the catastrophe has been caused by the machinations of Rome; who, though unable to maintain her old ground in the east, is yet unwearied in disturbing and hindering the operations of purer churches. But what could have directed her eyes to Abyssinia? First of all, probably, the knowledge that that church is at this moment without a head; for its sole bishop is dead, and the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, upon whom it has been for generations dependent, has refused as yet to ordain a successor, because, oh, shame to speak it! the required fees were not forthcoming. But besides this apparent opening, can we doubt that ever watchful Rome was informed that the Abyssinian priesthood were incensed against the missionaries for their open denunciation of their superstitions, and hoped that they would hail the intervention of those who upheld kindred superstitions? At all events, it is equally afflicting to know that this hastiness and shortsightedness of well-intentioned men has given Rome's agents a handle against them, which, with better-weighed conduct, they could not have had ; and that the English church is now regarded in Abyssinia as an enemy, instead of a friend, and that because men who had no title to minister to Christ's flock, except from her, have acted in a manner diametrically opposed to her principles. Our only consolation is, that the church, as a body, is guiltless. But how much have those to answer for who have expended the treasure of so many well affected members of the church, committed to their care in all simplicity and confidence that they knew and would act upon her principles, and abused the trust reposed in them by some of her right reverend fathers, in giving her a wound from which it is to be feared it will take her long to recover! The principles I have laid down will, I trust, no less aid us to see what course may warrantably be followed, and with the best prospect of success, in the intercourse which the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is now beginning to open. (To be continued.) ANTIQUITIES, ETC. DISPOSAL OF HIGHER CHURCH PREFERMENT. (Continued from p. 508.) WE saw, in the last number, in the appointments of Crew and Wood, and Carlton, a specimen of the disposal of church preferment under the auspices of the Duke of Buckingham, and the rest of the ministry who ruled the court and "the bed-chamber"* after Clarendon's fall. Vid. sup. p. 504. The picture, as we saw, was happily relieved, by the occurrence, in the very midst of this, of a name like that of Pearson, consecrated at the same time with Mews, and probably owing his elevation to the same influence* which had, a short time before, been allowed to dispose of "the poor bishopric of Gloucester." Dr. Humphrey Lloyd, who was next consecrated to the see of Bangor, was, as will be seen, a person of merit for his attainments and services, while his Welsh extraction and private property might be regarded as making such an appointment especially desirable for a see so poorly endowed as Bangor. By the promotion of Pearson to the see of Chester, "the mastership of Trinity College in Cambridge became vacant. This," says Bishop Kennet, "King Charles conferred upon Dr. Barrow,† and speaking of it afterwards, he said he had given it to the best scholar in England. Dr. Barrow was then the king's chaplain in ordinary, and much in favour with the Duke of Buckingham, then chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and of Gilbert, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, both which were ready, if there had been any need, to have given him their assistance to obtain this place."‡ This notice is valuable in more respects than one. It shews, in the first place, how, in the worst days of Charles the Second's reign, and under a minister who had been "bred about the king, and for many years had a great ascendant over him," so much so, that, even after this, when, in reality, it appeared he was "alone, hated by all, as he hated all the rest," the king still "considered him, and either loved or feared him so much that he had a deep root with him,"-even at this time the sovereign disposed of church preferment as though it were not the minister's property, but his own trust. And it is still further important to observe how, at this very time, when Sheldon had lost, we are told, so that he "could never recover, the king's confidence," and had already, as it would seem, "retired from court, and from a concern in all state affairs,"§ still, considering himself, as it would seem, entitled to do so by his office and duty to the church, the primate was "ready, if there had been any need, to have given his assistance," together with the minister, to obtain for Isaac Barrow the important post which Pearson had vacated. It was in the course of the same year (1672) that Tillotson was promoted to the deanery of Canterbury; and this appointment supplies evidence, singularly concurrent, to the same point. "It should appear," says his pupil, Beardmore, in his "Memorials" of Tillotson,|| "that he had many good friends; and above all the rest, King Charles II., who, as I have heard, much esteemed him for his preaching. When Dr. Turner, the dean of Canterbury, died, I have heard that three very great persons applied to the king to make him dean of Vid. sup. p. 507. + " Being then in great esteem for his learning and accomplishments," says Anthony Wood, Fasti, p. 103. (ed. fol.) Bishop Kennet's Complete History, vol. iii. pp. 164, 5. Kennet's Complete History, vol. iii. p. 361, conf. sup. p. 505. |