more particularly concerning various branches of church discipline, the general creed of Christians had never been infringed upon, to any great extent, since it was settled and defined by the first Council of Nice. The Faith of Catholics has, at all times, and in all places, been ever the same.-The Opinions of private individuals, members of that great and general community, haye varied. But, long *before the Reformation, large portions of Christians, in various parts of the world, had been either not subject to the papal see, or, if properly belonging to that communion, were privileged with various exemptions, and tolerated in some customs and opinions, which the peculiar nature of their circumstances or countries might obviously require. In Europe, the Greek Church was early separated from the papal jurisdiction; but they retained all the great and obvious tenets of the Roman Catholic faith; and the Greek schismatics were hardly chargeable with the crime of heresy, according to the common acceptation of that term. It is chiefly on points of discipline that the Roman and Grecian churches differ. The Muscovites, who have their peculiar Patriarch of Moscow, may be considered nearly in the same light as the members of the Greek church. Asia was very early distinguished by several sorts of Christians; as those of Palestine, under the Patriarch of Jerusalem; the Syrians, or Melchites, under the Patriarch of Antioch; the Armenians, under the two Catholic Patriarchs; the Georgians, under their respective Metropolitans; the Mingrellians, Circassians, and Christians of Asia Minor, under the Constantinopolitan Patriarch; a few Christians in the same quarter of the globe, under the Patriarch of Moscow; the Nestorians, under the Patriarch of Mousul; the Jacobite Monophysites, under their peculiar Patriarch; the Christians of St. Thomas ;* and, lastly, the Maconites, under their own Patriarch. To these Asian Christians might be added, those who were subject to the Emir of Sidon; the Mordwits, between the Russias and Tartary; and the Christians, inhabiting the great isle of Tarobana and the islands adjoining. * In a Chaldee Breviary, entitled Gaza, belonging to the church of Malabar, there is the following singular enumeration of the good deeds performed by St. Thomas :-" By St. Thomas, the error of idolatry vanished from India: by St. Thomas, the Chinese and Ethiopians were converted to the truth by St. Thomas, they received the Sacrament, and the adoption of sons: by St. Thomas, they believed and confessed the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: by St. Thomas, they kept the faith which they had received in One God: by St. Thomas, the splendour of the life-giving doctrine appeared to all India: by St. Thomas, the kingdom of heaven fled rapidly into China.” Africa, in like manner, has had its divisions of Christians; particularly, the Egyptians, or Copts, under the Patriarch of Alexandria; and the Ethiopian Christians, subject to their Abunna, or Patriarch of Ethiopia. 'On examining the several creeds or formularies of these various denominations, it will appear, though they added, in a few cases, many absurd opinions and superstitious practices to the leading articles of faith, held by the churches of Rome or of Constantinople, they might be regarded rather as schismatics than as heretics, and as differing, in doctrinals, but very slightly from the universal Church. Unless, indeed, we may except the Nestorians,* whose opinions, or * Some of my readers will think that notice should have been taken of the ancient Culdees. I have read Mr. Jamieson's very curious and interesting account of the Caldees of Iona. But I am convinced that little reliance ought to be placed on the vague and meagre Culdean history. The Culdees were certainly not of Scottish but of Irish origin, and were in fact attached to the Roman episcopacy, though they were, particularly in Scotland under their first teacher, Columba, privileged with certain favours, in having a sort of chief abbot or presbyter governor, to whom, as Bede informs us, the whole province, and even the bishops themselves, by an unusual constitution, were subject. Columba himself was not a bishop, but a presbyter and monk. Whatever might ..have been the peculiar character of the discipline or government of the monks of Iona, their leading articles of faith were, doubtless, conformable to the Catholic creed. The reader may consult, along with Mr. Jamieson's work on this subject, the Columbanus ad Hibernos of Doctor O'Connor, No. IV. p. 40, et seq. rather whose phraseology, respecting the Virgin Mary, whom they style the Mother of Christ, instead of the Mother of God, as the Latins phrase it, had some resemblance to the notions of the Arians. Since the origin of the Nestorian sect, a considerable change has taken place in regard to their opinions about the two natures in Christ. Many of them verged into a more consistent orthodoxy; and the Pope has now, I believe, a titular Patriarch of Mousul. This point of the analogy of the Latin and Greek dogmas will be clearly illustrated by the following testimonies : "With Rome the Greek Church concurs in the opinion of transubstantiation; and, generally, in the sacrifice and whole body of the mass. Dr. Potter and Bishop Forbes tell us, "That the question in the Florentine Council, between the Latins and Greeks, was not whether the bread of the Eucharist were substantially changed into the body of Christ or not, but by what particular words this wonderful change was effected." Sandys' Relation of West. Religions, p. 233, + Potter's Answer to Charity Mistaken, p. 225. Forbes' De Luc. lib. i. c. c. 3. p. 412. f "The sacrifice of the mass is also used by the Greeks for the quick and the dead."* "The Greeks of Venice, and all other Greeks, adore Christ in the Eucharist; and who dare either impeach or condemn all these Christians of idolatry?"† "The Greeks reckon seven sacraments, the " And same with the Church of Rome."‡ are no less for Church authority and tradition than Roman Catholics; agreeing with Rome, too, in praying to saints, in auricular confession, in offering of sacrifice and prayers for the dead, and placing much of their devotion in their worship not only of the blessed Virgin Mary, but in the intercession, prayers, help, and merit of other saints, whom they invocate in their temples."§ "The Greeks of note are obliged to confess four times a year; the priests obliging them to confess every thing, saying they cannot otherwise release them."|| "Though they do not hold a purgatory *Ross' View of the Religions of Europe, p. 479. Atlas Geographicus, v. 2. p. 1724. § Ross' View, &c., p. 479. !!Atlas Geographicus, p. 172. |