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we have drawn from Protestant missionaries, with the official returns made to the British Parliament, and with the accounts of Catholic missionaries, whose statements no one has ever called in question, that we have at present native churches in India consisting of about 600,000 individuals, or considerably over half a million; and this, taking it at the estimate of persons rather inclined to depreciate, than to exaggerate their numbers.

Pehaps it may be a matter of interest only to mention, that a large portion of the Catholics on the coast of Malabar consist of Syrian Christians. When the Portuguese arrived there, they found a Church of Christians, who knew nothing of any other civilized community, but were in communion with, and under the authority of, the Nestorian Patriarch at Mosul; and we have the letter which they wrote to him, giving a description of the ships which arrived, and the strangers who had landed on their coast; and expressing their satisfaction at finding that they agreed with them in every point of doctrine. In course of time, conferences were held, and the differences peculiar to their sect discussed; and the consequence was, that one half of these Churches, who may now be about 30 or 50,000, became Catholics, and have remained so ever since; having their own Bishops and Priests; using the Syriac, which is now a dead language, in their liturgy; and thus forming a body united with us in communion, like the united Greek and Syriac Churches in Western Asia.

There is a singular mistake, for I wish to call it such, in one of the missionary reports, where this passage occurs:"The number of these Protestant Christians (on the Malabar coast) is 60,000, and their churches amount to fifty-five.”* Now, would you have believed that these 60,000 are those Nestorian Christians who have not joined the Catholics; men who believe in Transubstantiation, practise confession, hold seven Sacraments, pray to Saints and Angels, venerate images and who, in short, believe every Catholic doctrine, except the supre *Christian Remembrancer, vol. vii. p. 643.

macy of the Holy See, and the existence of only one Person in Christ; and who differ from the Protestant confession of faith on all these points? And are they to be considered as Protestants, and be returned in the reports as such, to the amount of 60,000, although no attempt has yet succeeded in gaining over one of them from their original belief.

But a remark has been sometimes made in missionary reports, that it is not at all wonderful, that the Catholic Church should have succeeded so well in India, for this reason, that it had an establishment settled and provided for it by the Spanish and Portuguese government; so that when their dominions passed away, the Church continued to stand upon the foundation which they had given it. Hence the permanency of a native Church in India. I could read you a passage from Bishop Heber, in which he contrasts what the Catholics did with what the English have done since they possessed the country, and observes with what liberality the former built places of worship; while, if the English lost the dominion of India to-morrow, what very poor monuments they would leave, to show that a Christian nation had therein held rule.*

But, first, the object of my comparison between the missionary success of the two Churches, is to discover which system is blessed by God's promise being fulfilled in it. The acknowledgment that the Catholic Church has been maintained in India, is a confession that we have been able to make converts and to found a Church. This is the point at issue; and the confession, that we have had the prudence to preserve it, is no disparagement of our prowess in making the spiritual conquest.

Secondly, I will enter into some details, respecting a portion of the Indian Church,-that in the Island of Ceylon, to show you how far this reasoning is correct; and I think it presents a case which will put the two ground-works of faith on a fair comparison. This island was first converted to Christianity in the following way. The natives, having heard of what was doing by St.

*Tom. iii. p. 91.

Francis Xavier on the continent, sent a messenger, or rather an embassy, to him, requesting him to come among them. He replied that he could not go in person at that moment, as he could not abandon the mission at Travancore, but sent another missionary, who baptized many natives;-after two years St. Francis landed there in person, and finished the work of conversion. Persecution soon arose; the king of Jaffnapatam put six hundred Christians to death in one year, and among them his own eldest son; so that this Church may be said to have been watered by the blood of martyrs.

In 1650, the Dutch became masters of the island; and instantly took two very important steps. The first was, as Dr. Davies tells us in his travels, to allow Wimaladarme, son of Raja Singhe, to send messengers to Siam for twelve Buddhist idolatrous priests of the highest order. These came to Candy, and ordained twelve natives to the same order, and many to the lower order; and thus they restored the religion of Buddha, for the purpose of extirpating Catholicity from the island.* In the second place, they excluded Catholic Bishops and Priests from the country, and forbad the natives to meet for religious purposes; they built Protestant Churches in every parish throughout the island, and compelled every one to attend that worship; and they allowed no one to hold any post or office, unless he subscribed the Protestant profession of faith.

Here, then, we have a Church established for less than a century, which yet had obtained a strong footing in the island. After this we have another religion introduced, and every thing done no counteract and destroy what had been effected in favor of the other, by a double method; first by giving those who were so inclined permission to return to their old superstitions, and affording these protection and means of propagation; and, secondly, by proscription, and by endeavouring to substitute in its stead the Protestant religion. For 150 years, till it came into the possession of the English, the island of Ceylon remained in this state. During all this

* Travels in Ceylon, p. 308.

time, the native Catholics had no spiritual succour but what they received from the Portuguese priests, of the order of St. Philip Neri, who landed there from time to time at the risk of their lives, and administered the sacraments privately, going from house to house. We have an interesting account given by the missionary D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian, how, during the time of this persecution, he landed there, and, disguising his character, applied to the Governor Pavellon for leave to remain some time in the town of Colombo. Leave was given him, on condition that a guard of soldiers should constantly accompany him; as he was suspected. He contrived, however, to elude their vigilance; and, having lulled the attention of his guards, in the middle of the night, assembled the whole Christian community of the place, and administered to them the comforts of religion. The transaction was discovered; he was immediately sent for by the Governor, and ordered instantly to quit the island. He did so, and landed on the other side; but found that, in the mean time, a courier had arrived over land, to put the Governor of that district, Hoblaut, on his guard. A still more severe guardianship was the result; but, in the middle of the night, he again assembled the Christians, and administered the sacraments.*

These attempts, however, were not always so successful; for we learn that while Father Joseph Vaz, a zealous Portuguese missionary, of the order of Oratorians, was celebrating mass on Christmas night for a congregation of 200 persons, they were suddenly surprised by guards, who broke in the door, and carried the entire congregation, men, women, and children, to prison. They were very cruelly treated, and next morning brought before the Dutch judge, Van Rheede; who dismissed the women, and imposed fines on the men. Eight of these, however, were reserved to a severer doom; of whom one, a recent convert from Protestantism, was put to death

Peregrinacion del mundo del doctor D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian, predicador apostolico, En Naples, 1682, p. 277.

with studied cruelty; the other seven were condemned, after a severe scourging, to irons and hard labour for life.*

Such were the means resorted to, to put down the Church which had been established by St. Francis in that island; and this course was continued for 150 years, until the British took possession of it in 1795. Indeed, the laws which proscribed the Catholic religion, were not repealed till 1806, when Sir Alexander Johnston, to whom the Catholics of that part of the world owe more than they can repay, obtained equality for all religions, and, consequently, the free exercise of

ours.

"In

And what do you think has been the consequence of this step? Hear how Dr. Buchanan speaks on the subject. the island of Ceylon, in which, by a calculation made in 1801, there were 342,000 Protestants,-it is a well-known fact that more than 50,000 have gone over to the Catholic religion, from want of teachers in their own religion." So that, within a few years after liberty was restored, more than 50,000 have returned to the faith originally planted there, and afterwards. crushed by persecution.+ "The ancient Protestant Churches," he farther observes, "some of which are spacious buildings, and which, in the province of Jaffnapatam alone, amount to thirty-two, are now occupied at will by the Catholic priests of the order of St Philip Neri, who have taken quiet possession of the island. If a remedy be not speedily applied, we may calculate that, in a few years, the island of Ceylon will be in the same situation as Ireland, as to the proportion between Catholics and Protestants. I must farther add, however painful the reflection may be, that the defection to idolatry, in many districts, is very rapid."‡

* See the life of Father Vaz by F. Sebastian Dorego.

f The British Critic, Jan. 1828, p. 215, observes, that "the Dutch effected a nominal conversion in Ceylon." As to Dr. B.'s complaint of want of sufficient teachers in the Protestant religion, there are many more than kept up the Catholic faith through 150 years of persecution, and even as many as there are Catholic clergy there at present.

Memoir, Dedication to 4th ed. p. 3.

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