tian Man to be shaken, by seeing that the professors of Christianity have multiplied schisms and heresies. All these facts serve but to prove the infirmity and sinfulness of human-nature: they cannot shake the truth of Revelation. Although the evidence of the doctrine be not apparent in Palestine, yet there is, in the Christian Church, one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling: One Lord, one faith, one baptism; One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. (Ephes. iv. 4—6.) He who prays for a spiritual participation of the blessings expressed in that passage, and he alone, may, with safety and with painful profit, contemplate the following details. The professing Christians of Syria and Palestine may be thus classed : Greeks, of the proper Oriental Church- Syrians, proper— Copts and Abyssinians Roman Catholics; namely, Maronites Greek Roman-Catholics Armenian Roman-Catholics Syrian Roman-Catholics Latins, or Frank Roman-Catholics Protestants. GREEKS. The Greeks, of the proper Oriental Church, are numerous in some parts of Syria. The Greek Patriarch of Antioch resides generally at Damascus the Greek Patriarchs of Jerusalem have, for more than a century, taken up their residence at Constantinople; where they have been accustomed to assist the Patriarch and the Synod of that See. In Aleppo, Damascus, and Jerusalem, these Oriental Greeks are in considerable numbers: from the maritime towns they have found it expedient to withdraw during the present revolution, although some remain. In Mount Lebanon they are not tolerated, the Romish influence being there predominant and exclusive: but, to the south, toward Jerusalem, the Greeks probably far outnumber the Roman Catholics. Their Standard of Faith, it is almost superfluous to repeat, is that which the Author has mentioned in his former Volume of Christian Researches, p. 13.; being formed according to the First Seven General Councils, together with the Holy Scriptures. They have been found, as in Asia Minor and Greece, so also in Syria and Palestine, favourably disposed to the labours of the Bible Society. ARMENIANS. Between Syria and the British Possessions in the East Indies, there is a vast tract of country, of the actual religious condition of which comparatively very little is known. If we except a small portion of Roman-Catholic Greek influence in the more western parts of this immense region, it will be found to be occupied, so far as Christianity is concerned, by. Armenians, Jacobite Syrians, and Nestorians, more or less scantily distributed among the native Mahomedan Population. 66 The Armenian Church holds the opinion of the Monophysites, concerning the Incarnation of Jesus Christ; in such a manner, however, as to differ from the Jacobites, with whom they do not hold communion. They are governed," observes Mosheim, "by three Patriarchs. The chief, whose diocese comprehends the Greater Armenia, resides at Echmiazin. The second resides at Cis, a city of Cilicia. There is a third, residing at Aghtamar, but who is looked upon by the other Armenians as the enemy of their Church." Besides these, there are other Prelates dignified with the title of Patriarch, although not fully of the same rank; those, namely, of Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Caminiec in Poland*. SYRIANS. The Nestorians do not so properly come under the denomination of Bodies existing in Syria, belonging rather to Mesopotamia †. The Jacobite Syrians have also their residence chiefly on the banks of the Tigris; but their Patriarch, who lives near Mardin, not unfrequently visits Aleppo, where many rich Jacobite Syrians reside. He claims also to be styled Patriarch of Antioch: although, at Mosul, resides another Jacobite Prelate, who is styled, sometimes, the Maphrian, sometimes the Primate, of the East; in dignity inferior to a Patriarch, but supe Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Century xvi. Sect. 3. Part 1. chap. 2. It is, however, said that there are Nestorians in Syria. Some account of this body will be given in a Note to this Section. rior to a Metropolitan. (Vide Assemanni Vol. II. p.215. note.) The Jacobite Syrians have also a Chapel at the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. They hold the Monophysite Heresy in common with the Copts in Egypt. It was about the commencement of the Sixth Century that this Heresy was promulgated by Severus, a Patriarch of Antioch. A very short time afterwards, he was expelled from Syria; and the Orthodox Faith was re-established in that country. Ere long, however, a follower of his, James Baradæus, successfully reared again the Monophysite Standard; and, in Egypt and Mesopotamia, they have ever since maintained their opinions, receiving, from this second advocate of Monophysitism, the title of Jacobites. The following remarks of the Jesuit Missionaries in Syria relative to this Body will describe their sentiments, and the tenacity with which they adhere to them : We could greatly wish that the fruits of our Mission were more abundant among the heretics; but it is extremely difficult to recover them from the error into which they are gone. The Syrians, otherwise called the Jacobites, are most deeply attached to their peculiar error. They are very numerous. They are named Jacobites from one of the disciples of Eutyches and Dioscorus, called Jacob. This disciple revived the error of his masters in the beginning of the Sixth Century; and taught publickly, that there was only one nature in Jesus Christ, composed of two natures, the one divine the other human. The Author is, however, uncertain whether this Chapel belongs to the Jacobites or Nestorians. It is called, generally, the Chapel of the Syrians. The following words of Assemann seem to give it to the Nestorians. "In Syria et Palestinâ olim frequentissimi: nune unam tantùm Ecclesiam Hierosolymis habent." Vol. IV. p. 431. de Syris Nestorianis. Anno 1710; circiter. It is true that the chief part of these Jacobites do not understand what is the point in question; but their schismatic Bishops and Priests boast to them so often the pretended sanctity and the profound doctrine of Dioscorus and Barsamas, that the common people of this sect, prejudiced as they are in favour of these two heresiarchs, cannot imagine that these two men, so celebrated among them, should have been capable of falling into error. Thus their Priests sounding continually in their ears that these two Apostles of their sect, namely, Dioscorus the successor of the great St. Cyril in the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and Barsamas that famous Monk his Archimandrite, have taught them that the divine and human nature make but one sole nature in Jesus Christ, they obstinately hold to that sentiment; and, if you combat them, they only answer by invectives, making the sign of the cross with only the middle finger of their hand, holding at the same time the other fingers closed, in order to make you understand that they acknowledge only one nature in Jesus Christ, and that you shall never make them believe the contrary. Their obstinacy, great as it is, does not, however, shut our mouth. As their conversion depends particularly upon that of their Bishops, we wait upon them as often as possible, in order that they may be induced to come near us; and that we may have the opportunity of explaining to them what the Catholic Faith teaches us, and what we are obliged to believe in order to be saved. Happily for us, in the visits which we pay them they are the first to put us upon those articles of their belief which are contrary to ours; as, for example, the procession of the Holy Spirit, and the union of the two natures in Christ. Our custom is, to answer them simply with the Holy Gospel, which we have in our hand. We oppose to them those texts of Scripture, which clearly decide the question; and the Decrees of the Council of Calcedon, which formally condemns their errors. (Lettres Edif. et Curieuses, Vol. I, pp. 145—148.) If the following statement be in all circumstances correct, it apparently argues an extreme laxity on the part of the Jacobites, in attaching to themselves half |