stances and things, which were types, given under the Mosaic dispensation, were fulfilled by Christ, by whom the true spiritual Urim and Thummim were to be communicated, agreeably to the words of the inspired writer, let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, the great high-priest of God, the spiritual Melchizedek, the king of righteousness.

That this number was thus understood and so applied by the evangelist is evident. If we subtract the year of the Julian period 4115, at the destruction of the first temple, when the divine communication ceased, from the year of the Julian period at the birth of Christ 4711, the remainder is 596, the interval of time between these two remarkable epochas; then, if to this remainder 596 we add 70 years of the Christian æra, when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Romans, at the establishment of the Christian religion, it gives us this mystical number 666; comprehending that interval of time between the destruction of the FIRST TEMPLE, when the visible divine communication ceased for ever-to the complete destruction of the SECOND TEMPLE, when the Christian dispensation was confirmed agreeably to those words of our Lord. Luke ix. 27. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God,'

when the spiritual communication was given to the GENTILES at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the: dispersion of the Jews, which is to endure FOR

EVER.

So that this number has no reference to kings, kingdoms, or popes, as has been supposed for many centuries; but it refers to the time when the divine theocracy ceased in the TRUE VISIBLE CHURCH OF GOD, AMONG THE JEWS: to the establishment of the TRUE VISIBLE CHURCH OF GOD, BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, among the Gentiles.

THE

SYRIAN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN INDIA.

Although gross darkness seems to have enveloped the minds of the greatest part of the people of India, we find that the ancient Syrian Christian churches have settled there from the early ages of Christianity. I shall furnish the reader with a few extracts from BUCHANAN'S RESEARCHES; the author having visited these churches by the permission and authority of the governor-general the Marquis Wellesley, who gave orders that every facility should be afforded to him in the prosecution of his inquiries. He

says, "When the Portuguese arrived, they were agreeably surprised to find upwards of a hundred 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 patriarch 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 their 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 lately 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. They seized the

Syrian bishop, Mar Joseph, sent him prisoner to Lisbon, and then convened a Synod, at one of the Syrian churches called Diamper, near Cochin, at which the Romish 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 bishop, priest, and deacon. These tenets they were called on to abjure, or to suffer suspension from all church benefices. It was also decreed that all the Syrian books, that could be found on ecclesiastical subjects should be burned, in order,' said the inquisitors, 'that no pretended apostolical monuments may remain.""

"The churches on the sea-coast were thus compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, but they refused to pray in Latin, and insisted on retaining their own language and liturgy. This point, they said, they would only give up with their lives. The Pope compromised with them; they retain their Syriac language, and have a Syriac college. But the churches in the interior would not yield to Rome; they proclaimed eternal war against S

the Inquisition; they sought the protection of the native princes who had always been proud of their alliance."

He further says, "The first Syrian church I visited was at Mavelycar. They had been often visited by Romish emissaries in former times, and they at first suspected that I belonged to that communion. They had heard of the English, but strangely supposed that they belonged to the church of the Pope in the west. They had been so little accustomed to see a friend, that they could not believe I came with any friendly purpose. I had discussions with a most intelligent priest, in regard to the original language of the four gospels, which he maintained to be Syriac; and they suspected from the complexion of my argument, that I wished to weaken the evidences for their antiquity.

"The doctrines of the Syrian Christians are few in number, but pure, and agree in essential points with those of the church of England; so that, although the body of the church appears to be ignorant, and formal, and dead, there are individuals who are alive to righteousness; who are distinguished from the rest by their purity of life, and are sometimes censured for too rigid a piety.

This is a compound Hebrew word, literally the corn-pasture.