as it is but a shift for a man to say he understands them not; and good St. Austine finding, that from controversies in religion there came no other fruit but indeterminata lactatio, said with sorrow, why do we strive about our father's will? Nos sumus fratres, and our father is not dead intestate, but hath left his will and testament in writing: let it be followed, and all controversies will soon be ended.

"Flatter not yourself, Walter; the remonstrance you make shows that the resignation you made of yourself to the Church of Rome was precipitate, and then the resolution to live and die there, desperate; yet you give some hopes when you say, nor do you now so desperately profess, as if it were your fortune's legacy, for you do not believe it so dangerous but it may recover. The king's benignity and goodness is always to interpret the best; but know, that his Majesty hath a better opinion of those who are bred such, than of those who become such by relapse. Nor am I willing to apprehend any change of your duty; yet take this for a caveat that commonly all changes follow change of faith. I never travelled of you till now, and it is with a great deal of pain. I thought you should have wept over me, when nature had called for her due; but you have prevented me. And yet my son, you may yet return to me; but I shall never go to you in this way, nor had I ever gone so far into

this question, but to fetch you again, my son,

otherwise a lost child.

"Thus, as your letter began, so do I end; after much debate concerning a fit expression of myself, whether it was better, by not writing, to show my dislike, or by long writing, to labour your recovery; this last was most satisfactory to my conscience, though the other more agreeable to nature displeased. I have therefore resolved, as you see, to give you this answer; and I pray God that he may bless you and me so in it, that my pen may have the fruit my heart wishes. "Your loving Father,

"MANCHESTER."

No. II.

ANCIENT CHURCHES OF THE VAUDOIS, AND SYROCHRISTIANS IN INDIA.

THE Roman Catholics insist on visibility, as one of the proofs of a true Church, and therefore object against Protestants the concealment of their Church for so many hundred years, defying them to produce any thing like a visible Church beyond the days of Peter Waldo, who commenced his opposition to the errors of Po

pery about A.D. 1160, and according to Popish writers founded the sect of the Waldenses, or Vaudois. The Rev. W. S. Gilly, in his interesting researches among these Protestants of the Cottian Alps, has shown most satisfactorily that so far from Waldo being the founder of their Church, they existed, as a distinct body, certainly as far back as the year 828, or according to some writers even from the days of the Apostles, and have ever since continued to profess a pure faith, and to resist every attempt made upon their Church by the emissaries of Rome. Here then we find a large body of Christians, the pure light of whose faith shone in the darkest times of Popish corruption, and has been preserved ever since without the slightest admixture of any one of the novel introductions of Popery. But we have a still more striking and interesting proof of the successive visibility of the Protestant Church, from the earliest age of Christianity, in the discovery of the Syro-Christian Church in the South of India, whose history, coupled with that of the Vaudois, most fully assures us that there has never been a time when some branch of the true vine, independent of Rome, has not flourished on the earth; so that let Romanists insist as much as they please on the argument of visibility, it recoils on their own head, and leaves Protestants in the clear possession of the ancient

and true faith. The existence of these SyroChristians, as an ancient and pure Church, is a fact so much to our purpose, that we shall be pardoned for introducing the notice of their discovery and history, as recorded in the interesting Christian Researches of Dr. Buchanan.

"The Syrian Christians inhabit the interior of Travancore and Malabar, in the South of India, and have been settled there from the early ages of Christianity. The first notices of this ancient people in recent times, are to be found in the Portuguese histories. When Vasco de Gama arrived at Cochin, on the coast of Malabar, in 1503, he saw the sceptre of the Christian king; for the Syrian Christians had formerly regal power in Malayala.

"When the Portuguese arrived, they were agreeably surprised to find upwards of 100 Christian churches on the coast of Malabar. But when they became acquainted with the purity and simplicity of their worship, they were offended. These churches,' said the Portuguese, 'belong to the Pope.' Who is the Pope?' said the natives: We never heard of him.'

"The European priests were yet more alarmed, when they found that these Hindoo Christians maintained the order and discipline of a regular Church, under episcopal jurisdiction; and that for 1300 years past, they had enjoyed a succession of bishops appointed by the Patri

archs of Antioch. We,' said they, 'are of the true faith, whatever you from the West may be; for we come from the place where the followers of Christ were first called Christians.'

"When the power of the Portuguese became sufficient for their purpose, they invaded these tranquil churches, seized some of the clergy, and devoted them to the death of heretics. Then the inhabitants heard, for the first time, that there was a place called the Inquisition, and that its fires had been lighted at Goa, near their own land. But the Portuguese finding that the people were resolute in defending their ancient faith, began to try more conciliatory measures. Nevertheless, they seized the Syrian bishop, Mar Joseph, and sent him prisoner to Lisbon, and then convened a synod at one of the Syrian churches, called Diamper, near Cochin, at which the Roman Catholic Archbishop Menezes presided. At this compulsory synod 150 of the Syrian clergy appeared. They were accused of the following practices and opinions :-that they had married wives, that they owned but two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; that they neither invoked saints, nor worshipped images, nor believed in purgatory; and that they had no other orders or names of dignity in the Church than priest and deacon.

"These tenets they were called on to abjure, or to suffer suspension from all church benefices.