to images, is no more than matter of form, and only regards ecclesiastical discipline. 3. It must be acknowledged, that they do not administer the sacrament of baptism according to the rites of the Latin church: But the form of their baptism ought not, for that reason only, to be thought null and invalid: Much less ought such persons to be re-baptized, who had before been baptized according to the custom of the Chaldeans. That which usually leads the missionaries into an unhappy mistake, when they are discoursing about matized Nestorius, and all his heresies, acknowledging Cyril patriarch of Alexandria to be a saint. Besides all these proceedings, there were several particular statutes made at this synod, for the reformation of those errors which archbishop Meneses had discovered in the administration of their sacraments and in their prayer-books. For which reason their liturgies and other offices of devotion were ordered to be corrected. As to the ordinance of matrimony, that was regulated in every point on the footing of the council of Trent. All matters like wise relating to the sacraments of penance, confir-religious points with the easterns, is their prejudice mnation, and extreme unction, were reformed according to the practice of the church of Rome. Their priests were enjoined to live in perpetual celibacy for the future; and particular statutes or orders were made for the observance of such, as were already entered into the matrimonial state. In short, the archbishop introduced the established religion of the Latins among the Chaldeans, not only in this synod, but in his visitations of the several churches. We shall now enquire whether there were any just reasons for his introducing so many innovations amongst the Christians of St. Thomas; and thereby give the reader a thoro' notion of their avowed religion. * 1. As to those errors, therefore, imputed to them by archbishop Meneses, we have already reconciled the sentiments of Nestorius, with those of the church of Rome; and the archbishop should have taken the same method to have rendered his attempt successful and lasting; for he ought to have understood them before he had condemned them, on the account only of denomination. Had he demonstrated to them, that all the quarrels and controversies in which they were engaged with the church of Rome, were only about a few ambiguous terms, they would doubtless have been much more tractable and inclined to a reconciliation. in favour of their school-subtleties with relation to the matter and form of sacraments. When they find, for instance, that a child is not baptized at the same time that the words which denote the action are pronounced, they imagine such baptism to be void and of no effect: Not considering that the method of administering the sacraments amongst the easterns, entirely consists in the repetition of sundry prayers,and they are not such profound me taphysicians as the Latins. They are perfect strangers to numberless difficult and abstruse points which our divines unravel with all the dexterity and address imaginable. 4. The unction which they make use of after baptism is looked upon by them as the sacrament of confirmation, notwithstanding it differs very much from that of the Latins. Archbishop Meneses had no such reason for introducing another unction, which, though practised in his own church, is in reality no more than a simple ceremony. He should have considered, that the Nestorians, according to the ancient custom of the eastern church, when they baptize their children, administer to them at the same time the sacraments of confirmation and the Lord's supper. He should have examined their rituals, therefore, in order to discover whether there were any erroneous practices in the adminis tration of this sacrament. Whereas Meneses seemed intent on nothing else but the abolition of their ancient customs, and for no other reason, but their non-conformity to those of the Latins. 2. With regard to their images, the Chaldeans do not manifest that awful respect for them, which the Greeks in the Levant do: And the reason is, because this profound veneration for them had been established in the Greek church no longer than since 5. The archbishop is mistaken in his assertion the second council of Nice, which is more modern that the Christians of St. Thomas were perfect than the various sects of the Chaldeans, who con- strangers to the use of confirmation and extreme tent themselves, for the generality, with having a unction as well as to their very names. It is proba→ cross only in their hand. This cross, with which ble indeed they might be ignorant of the names of the priest gives his benediction to the people, is these sacraments, particularly the latter, which is made of plain metal without the least figure or repractised only in the Latin church; for although presentation upon it. The archbishop might very the eastern church anoint their sick conformable to well have indulged the Christians of St. Thomas in the works of St. James, they do not, however, this their ancient simplicity: since whatever has call this ceremony extreme unction, for the reasons been decreed in the process of time with regard to before-mentioned in speaking of the Greeks; the the very same reasons may be applied to confirmation. The priests administer the sacrament amongst the Nestorians as well as amongst the Greeks, at the same time with that of baptism, looking on it as its final completion and inseparable. perfection. As for auricular confession which they abominated and detested, that happened, it is doubtless, by an abuse or error which had been unhappily introduced into their church; because confession is well known to be practised all over the eastern nations, notwithstand.ng most of them are of opinion, that it is not a duty incumbent on them of divine right. 6. As to those errors which the archbishop pretends he discovers in their writings; insomuch that he thought proper absolutely to abolish the office of the Advent, it was very easy for him to have put a favourable construction on those imaginary errors: Besides, the reformation which he has made in the liturgy is idle and insignificant; for nothing can be worse digested than the Nestorian mass, as he has reformed it. There we find the whole order of it altered for no other purpose, but to accommodate it to the received opinion of the Latin divines with respect to consecration, which, according to them, consists in these words, "This is my body, &c." Whereas the Nestorians, as well as the rest of the easterns, insist, that the consecration is not complete, till the priest has concluded that prayer which by them is called, the "Invocation of the Holy Ghost." And yet Meneses made the Nestorian priests adore the host as soon as ever those words were uttered, This is my Body, though they did not believe it yet consecrated. bread. in the Latin church, is very modern, and as cardinal Bona has justly observed, was introduced principally by the Mendicant friars; but more fully! confirmed and established since the introduction of the new canon law. It was likewise customary for those who formerly attended, and assisted at mass, to say a considerable part of it; and the reason was," because the liturgy was a public act wherein the congregation was engaged as well as the priest, 'as may easily be proved from the prayers contained inst the Latin mass. 9. It is very true, that the Nestorians and the other easterns, are very remiss and regardless of the ancient discipline with respect to their admission of youth into holy orders; for they never consider the exact age required by the canons; but if that ar-> ticle ought to have been reformed, as well as that other, relating to the marriage of their priests, this reformation ought to have been grounded on their own laws and institutions rather than those of Rome. 10. Meneses reckons the custom of not repeating the breviary in private families, as one of their errors, without the least reason; because it is a modern custom; besides the breviary never was de signed for that private purpose. 11. We question very much whether the tax or assessment which is laid by the Nestorian priests on the administration of their sacraments, can properly be deemed simony; for that is substituted in the room only of a benefice; and what has already been said in favour of the Greeks in this respect, may very justly be applied to them. 12. Neither, in our opinion, can the submission which the Nestorians pay to their patriach be justly reckoned amongst the number of their errors; because the easterns look upon their patriarch, and even that of Rome, as powers established by law : And whenever they are charged with an aversion for the pope, their answer is, that his holiness assumes an authority over the eastern churches which they do not acknowledge. Their having no curates nor vicars, but their most antient priest to preside over 7. Their custom of administering the sacrament with leavened bread, and mixing oil and salt with it, ought not to be imputed to them as any error, since it makes no manner of alteration in the nature of the Moreover, the ceremony observed by them in order to render this bread in some measure more sacred before consecration, it is not only very combut very ancient. They distinguish by that means, as the Greeks do, the bread, which is intended soon to be converted into the body of Jesus their assemblies, can never surely be alledged against Christ, and set apart for that sacred purpose, from all other bread whatever, which they look upon as prophane, or unconsecrated, till after the repetition of a stated number of prayers and psalms. 8. It is no great wonder that the Chaldeans should not say mass so often as the Latins, and that several priests should assist the bishop thereat, and receive the communion from his hands. For this was the ancient practice of the church; whereas the custom of saying so great a number of masses them as an error; for, on the contrary, it is a laudable and excellent piece of church-discipline, and it is very much to be wished, that the custom was introduced every where in order to rectify a world of abuses which have crept into the church relating to benefices. 13. Lastly, all the errors that Meneses charges the Nestorians with are, for the generality, not really errors and exist only in the imagination of some missionaries, who regulate all religious affairs, ac cording cording to those prejudices which they have inbibed by their education in their own schools. Shall we be so unreasonable, for instance, as to insist, that these people, and the other Christians of the cast are guilty of an error in eating meat on Saturdays, which day is a festival amongst them, according to the ancient custom of the church? Shall we presume likewise to charge the Nestorians with being guilty of an error with respect to marriage, for making their applications to the first priest they can meet with to perform the ceremony? We ought to consider that the priest in the eastern church is never made use of as an evidence of the solemnization, but as the sole person who has a legal right to administer that, as well as the sacraments and other religious ceremonies of their church. Having said thus much concerning their tenets, and stated the objections made against them by Roman Catholics, with such answers as naturally occurred to us in an impartial investigation, we shall now proceed to point out to the reader, what these people say concerning themselves. And here it is necessary to observe, that, as they were in former times subject in ecclesiastical affairs to the patriarchs of Babylon, so they are frequently called Chaldeans, a name rather local, than conveying any idea of a religious nature. In the mean time, it is not at all surprising, that we should find then traduced by the Roman Catholics, who have at all times carried their resentment against those of a different religion to an unwarrantable height. It is probable, that this story, however, which they relare concerning themselves, is no other than a perversion of the genuine account of St. Thomas the Apostle; for although we may sometimes discover the outlines of truth in oral tradition, yet there is so much fable intermixed, that we are often as it were bewildered, and frequently lost in the dark. The Christians of St. Thomas declare themselves descendants of one Mar Thomas, or Thomas Cana, an Armenian merchant, who settled at Congranor. This Mar Thomas married two wives, and had by each venter. The children by the former were heirs to all his effects and lands, which were situate in the southern parts of the kingdom of Congranor; and those of the latter, who was a negro slave, converted to the Christian faith, inherited the settlement which their father died possessed of in the north. In process of time his descendants became very numerous, and constituted two considerable branches, which were never united or allied to each other. The issue of his first wife, from whom the nobility are descended, look down with disdain on the Christians of the other branch; and carry their aversion to so high a pitch, as to separate themselves from their communion, and contemn the ministry of their. priests. Mar Thomas, whom these Christians look upon as their common parent, flourished, according to the general notion, in the tenth century: But M. la Croza rather thinks that he lived in the sixth. In time however these Christians were indulged, and enjoyed a great many very valuable privileges under the sovereigns of the country, and grew at last so powerful, that they elected kings out of their own nation and religion. They continued in this state of independence till the death of one of their sovereigns, who leaving no issue behind him, adopted a young idolatrous prince that was his neighbour, and appointed him to be his immediate successor. 1 Notwithstanding the various revolutions which have happened in the East-Indies for these two centuries last past, the Christians of St. Thomas are even now in possession of more than four hundred small towns or boroughs, that are all under the jurisdiction of one bishop who was sent to them by the patriarch of Babylon before the reconciliation of those Christians, which was more the result of compulsion, than of choice. The bishop whom the Portuguese have fixed here, is called the bishop of the mountains, because he has his residence in every mountainous part of the country. As the bishops of St. Thomas are all civil as well as spiritual judges and governors, so the Portuguese have invested theirs with the same power. The bishops of St. Thomas are extremely numerous, but their dioceses are not large, although they have many hearers, Such is the state of religion at present in that country, where there are a vast number of inhabitants; and what is very remarkable is, that the Jesuits undertook many dangerous voyages, and underwent a vast variety of hardships to convert them to the tenets of popery. The Jesuits did not, or rather would not, consider that these people had never embraced so many ridiculous notions as they themselves had done; but when learning, politics, and enthusiasm are all united in one person, then it is that we may naturally look for a very extraordiary character. THE An Account of the Religious Tenets and Ceremonies of the COPHTI, or COPTI. THES HESE people owe their origin and name to Copta, an ancient city in Egypt, often mentioned by Plutarch, and Strabo. The Christians of Egypt are at this day distinguished by this name, and speak a language peculiar to themselves, which they call the Coptic, but they never use it except in divine service for in common conversation they use the Arabic language, that being for the most part understood throughout the country. This language, which Kircher the Jesuit insists to be a mother tongue, and independent on any other, has been very much altered by the Greeks: for altho' they make use of the Coptic letters, yet abundance of their words are pure Greek. In their notions concerning the trinity, they differ from the Greeks in the Levant, and also from those in Russia; for they believe that the Holy Ghost proceeds both from the Father and the Son, so that in that sense they differ but litrle from those, whom in general we call the Orthodox. At different times they have been reconciled again and again to the church of Rome, but those reconciliations were only in appearance, for no sooner had the missionaries turned their backs than these people relapsed into their former opinions, and adhered to the practice of the ceremonies which had been used by their ancestors. Of this we have a noted instance in ec From clesiastical history under the year 1562. Flattered with the idea of making such a num to them, and he, having had some conferences with pointed, every one was supreme head, and under Christ, the soveriegn Lord of his own church. He went so far as to add, that if the pope of Rome fell into any dangerous errors, he ought to be called to account for them, and tried by other patriarchs. And as for those letters which had been. written to the pope, the contents were not be taken in a regorous sense, but only as the result of civility and compliasance; for granting that he made use of the terms, submission and obedience, he meant no more by them, than that respect which ought at all times to be paid to friends. He observed further, that if there was any thing inserted in those letters which he had wrote to the pope, that was inconsistent with the tenets of his church, the fault ought not to be imputed to him, but to the person intrusted with them, who had. corrupted their genuine sense and meaning. This Jesuit Roderic, upon his return to Rome, laid before the pope an account of the notions of these people, which upon the whole, supposing the representation to be just, does not shew them in such a disadvantageous light as the Roman catholics would have us to believe; but then it must be considered, that the Roman priests will never forgive those who do not acknowledge the pope's supiemacy, and right or wrong submit to all his dictates as coming from a person endowed with infallibility. And here it may not be improper to add, that when the Romish missionaries go into Heathen nations to make converts, they generally extol the virtues of those people, who, in their own estimation of things are sttangers to the gospel; but whenever they attempt to make converts either of the Greeks or of Protestants, and find all their designs rendered abor tive, they represent those people under far more dis them, particularly with two of their priests, whom agreeable colours than the Heathens. The errors imputed to these people by the Jesuits are the following, but the reader must attend to it as written by persons prejudiced. They divorce them afterwards, when this Jesuit pressed the same patri- selves, without shewing cause, from their lawful arch to send his letters of submission and obedience, he peremptorily replied, that ever since the council of Chalcedon, when several patriarchs were ap No. 15 wives, and marry new ones without being called to an account for it. They circumcise their children before baptism, which is a Jewish ceremony. They acknowledge 4 Y acknowledge there are seven sacraments in the church, but instead of agreeing with the church of Rome, they make the following of divine institution only, viz. baptism, confession, the eucharist, orders, faith, fasting, and prayer, without mentioning any others. They profess (say the Jesuits) They profess (say the Jesuits) that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the father, and not from the father and the son; and they admit but of three councils, namely, Ephesus, Constantinople, and Nice, and the decrees of all others they look upon as heretical, or at least so far deviating from the truth, that they are in their nature erroneous. From what we have already taken notice of concerning the Greeks in other parts of the world, it will appear that the notions embraced by the Copti, and so offensive to the church of Rome, may with propriety be imputed to all the eastern churches who have in common with these rejected the decrees of several of the general councils. As for their reckoning among the number of their sacraments, faith, fasting, and prayer, it must be observed, that they do not use the term sacrament in the same rigorous sense as we do, for which reason we may naturally conclude that they reckon only the first four as sacraments. The last three seem to have been added by some of their mystical divines; a set of men who, by their allegorical interpretations of scripture, generally make enigmas of the word of God, darken the small remains of light in the human mind, and lay a stumbling block before those who are seriously enquiring after truth. It is necessary here to observe, that the assertion of Brerewood in his inquiries, that the Copti believe that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the father and the son is an error, for that notion is peculiar to the western or Latin church. Like the Greeks in the Levant, and those in Russia they believe, that the souls of those who have departed this life neither go into heaven nor hell till the general resurrection. It is certain, however, that there is in their religious ceremonies, a strange mixture of Greek and Romish rites; thus, when the priest elevates the host at mass, the congregation smite their breasts, prostate themselves before it, make the sign of the cross, and just move their caps a little above their heads. This custom is almost the same with that of the church of Rome, and probably embraced by those Copti, within these two hundred years. When the priest receives the sacrament, he breaks. the bread in the form of a cross, and dips it into the wine in the chalice. He then repeats several prayers, and eats three small pieces of it, at the All same time drinking three spoonfuls of the wine, and then administers it in the same manner to the deacon his assistant. They never preserve any part of the bread and wine that has been consecrated after mass is over, nor do they conseciate any but leavened bread and wine mixed with water." that is left after the communion is over is given to the poor, consistent with the discipline of the primitive church, and from that circumstance alone we find that they are far from being so much sunk into superstition as the Roman Catholics. They always receive the cucharist on Saturdays, but at the same time they make it one of the articles of their religion, to meet for attendance on divine service on Sundays; which, in conformity with the practice of the primitive church, they sometimes call the first day of the week, but more frequently the Lord's day. In baptism they use the following ceremonies: It is always performed in the evening, and previous thereto mass is celebrated a little after midnight accompanied with sundry players suitable to the occasion, and then several hymns are sung in their own language. The sponsors deliver the child to the deacon, who carries it to the altar, where it is anointed by the priest with oil, which according to them is to put on the new man of regeneration. This part of the ceremony being over, they sing again and anoint the child a second time, signing him thirty seven times with the cross, which is looked upon as an exorcism, to drive the devil out, of the body and send him back to his own residence in hell. The singing begins a third time, and the women, who now for the first time make their appearance, make a very loud noise as a demonstration of their joy. In the mean time there is water prepared and put into the baptismal font, towards which the priest approaches with all the marks of exterior gravity. He first blesses the wine, pouring water into it in the form of a cross; after this he takes the infant with one hand by the right arm and the left leg, and with the other by the left arm and the right leg, making a sort of a cross with the limbs of the infant, who is dressed in a little white vestment. During the whole of the ceremony, the deacons who attend, both read and sing, and the women make loud acclamations, or rather hideous howlings. The singing being over, the priest breathes three times upon the face of the infant, in order that he may receive as they imagine, the Holy Ghost. He then dips his finger into the chalice, containing the consecrated bread and wine, and puts a little of it |