shall use the English liturgy, and be under bishops of the English church. 4thly, That any clergyman who ministers to the English residents should, with consent of their bishops, open his communion to their clergy, desire their assistance in baptisms and the like in his own absence, and in everything endeavour to make it appear that they are members and ministers of our catholic church. 5thly, That where a clergyman is sent merely to collect information, and to establish friendly relations between ourselves and them, he should offer himself to their communion, be ready to minister in their churches and according to their rites, so far as he innocently can, and perform no act of the sacred ministry without their concurrence. 6thly, That if he should be sent with a view to a permanent residence, in order to assist them and promote their welfare, he should likewise, with the consent and advice of his own original superiors, place himself frankly and entirely under the metropolitan and bishop of the place in which he has fixed his abode, make himself, if permitted, one of his clergy, identify himself as much as possible with them, adopt their habits and customs so far as he lawfully can, and wait for and discreetly avail himself of those opportunities of enlightening and preparing their minds which divine Providence will be sure sooner or later to open to him. Lastly, That if it should be his lot to witness a desire on the part of any of the members of those churches for the removal of errors and abuses, whilst he thankfully cherishes such a desire, he should not only not lend himself to the accomplishment of such a reformation, but restrain and hold back the eagerness of others, until it can be done in all main respects after the pattern of the English Reformation, that is, by the common authority of the chief pastors of the church, with the concurrence of the civil power where it is Christian, after the model of primitive usage, and in that safe and gradual manner which shall carry all hearts along with it. By proceeding in this spirit we may hope, by the blessing of the great Head of the church, gradually to restore the complete union and communion which formerly subsisted between the various branches of the catholic church, and to promote we know not what blessed ends of the all-pervading Spirit in the purification of them all; whilst, if we act merely according to our own judgment, without reference to primitive maxims, we, or those who come after us, may have to deplore that we have deepened existing jealousies, or sown the seeds of schisms and divisions of which none may see the termination. These are cautions and rules suggested by meditation upon primitive usage and the actual condition of the eastern churches as well as our own; but it is impossible to apply them now for the first time to our intercourse with them, the more especially as a missionary society, composed of bishops, clergy, and laymen of our church,-I mean, the Church Missionary Society,-has long had a mission in the Mediterranean. But as a new mission is now commencing its operations under the auspices of a society more closely connected with the church as a body, and more perfectly representing it; and as the history of the former mission will be found to illustrate what has been already said, both by a formal recognition of some of these principles and by acting in contravention of some, I think it will be useful to enter into a short review of its proceedings. We shall thus be enabled to gain practical light from the exertions of a body of men whose zeal, piety, activity, and disinterestedness, no one acquainted with them will be disposed to call in question, however he may be constrained to differ from them, whether in principle or in detail. In the year 1815, this society appointed an English clergyman, named Jowett, as their agent in the Mediterranean; and I think that it must be frankly confessed that, considering the wide ground they embraced, and that they had not the advantage of being under the patronage of the highest church authorities, their plans were judicious, their agent admirably qualified for his post, and the spirit of their instructions to him highly commendable in the main. In particular, it is impossible to read Mr. Jowett's earlier communications with the society without being struck with the excellent temper and sound judgment they exhibit. We shall have occasion to refer to them here after. His attention was directed to three classes of persons; the eastern Christians, the Mahometans, and the Jews. His objects with regard to the former were to take all opportunities of establishing friendly relations with them, to learn their language, to obtain the education of youth, to circulate the scriptures, and to procure and distribute religious tracts suited to promote practical piety amongst them. He first went to Malta; but † finding that he could not obtain a good modern Greek master there, he proceeded to Corfu. From thence he returned to Malta; and was there engaged with Dr. Naudi, another agent of the Church Missionary Society, in the preparation of tracts, and versions of the scriptures. In the beginning of 1818, he was joined by Mr. Connor,+ another clergyman, whom he left behind, and made a voyage to Smyrna, where he came into communication with Mr. Williamson,§ the British chaplain at Smyrna, who was pursuing much the same plans as himself, independently of any society. On this journey he was received in the most friendly manner by various Greek bishops, and particularly by the Bishop of Smyrna. On his return he visited Harvali (Cydonia) and Scio, then the principal seats of Greek literature; and it is worth remarking, that he found regular lectures of divinity and ecclesiastical history given there.}} But the whole of these establishments were broken up in the war of Greek independence, and desolated by the Turks. He returned to Malta; and towards the end of the year proceeded by Smyrna to Alexandria, where he opened a friendly communication with the Coptic patriarch, visited the Coptic churches in Upper Egypt, and, by the assistance of Pearce, the Abyssinian traveller, took the first steps towards Abyssinian versions of the scriptures. Meanwhile, the Syrian Advertisement to Jowett's Christian Researches. + Missionary Register for 1817, p. 88. § Ibid. p. 338. seq. || Ibid. p. 385. Ibid. for 1818, p. 74. Roman-catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem had visited England, where the Church Missionary Society had given him a very friendly reception, and entered heartily into his views for the enlightenment of his people. Mr. Jowett's associate, Mr. Connor, had likewise visited Constantinople, where he hoped to procure the co-operation of the various heads of the eastern churches, and learn modern Greek. He afterwards visited Rhodes, Cyprus, Crete, and the Holy Land, circulating the scriptures, and being received in the most hospitable manner by the archbishops and bishops of the Greek, Armenian, Syrian, and Latin churches; whilst he was in those parts there arrived two agents of the American Board of Missions, supported by all the American Calvinistic communities.+ Mr. Jowett was in Malta again in November 1819. Next year he made a voyage to Alexandria, to bring home an Amharic (Abyssinian) version of the scriptures, made by M. Asselin, the French consul.‡ Mr. Jowett having returned to Malta, and Mr. Connor to Constantinople, the two appear to have devoted themselves chiefly to the idea of circulating the scriptures in the eastern churches, and accordingly Mr. Connor betook himself to a revision of a version into modern Greek, executed by Hilarion, a Greek abbot.§ And from the Bible Society's reports we learn that in 1820, the Greek patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, and the Armenian patriarch resident at Constantinople, were actively supporting the circulation of the scriptures. To this was joined tracts, chiefly compiled from the writings of the early fathers, which the American missionaries assisted in disseminating, visiting the schools very actively for this purpose.|| In the year 1823, Mr. Jowett undertook a voyage to Syria, and visited Palestine. On this occasion he united himself in the most intimate manner with the American dissenting missionary, Mr. Fisk, being accompanied by him everywhere, and taking part with him in joint religious services, both public and private. Here we find the first symptoms of opposition on the part of the Roman Christians to the circulation of the scriptures.** It was, however, only passive; and he was in general received by them as a traveller with every mark of hospitality. Towards the end of the year 1824, the Church Missionary Society sent out another agent, the Rev. John Hartley. In 1826, he travelled through Greece and Asia Minor, received in the most cordial manner by the Greek bishops and clergy, preaching occasionally in the churches, and with caution even holding discussions with them on the differences between them and ourselves.++ In his instance we meet with strong opposition on the part of the Roman bishops and * Appendix to Jowett's Christian Researches. + Missionary Register for 1820, p. 349. § Ibid. 1821, p. 34. + Ibid. p. 208. || Ibid. 1821, p. 202. See his Journal in Christian Researches in Syria, p. 66, 69, 70, &c. This association was afterwards, as we learn from Wilson's Narrative of the Greek Mission, extended to English dissenters. ** Ibid. p. 159. tt See his Researches in Greece and the Levant. clergy to the circulation of the scriptures, and a jealousy of the Turkish emperor of the intercourse of the Greek Christians with Europeans, exhibited in an order issued by him to the patriarch of Constantinople.+ Mr. Hartley first began the habit of attempting to influence Greek laymen both by private conversation and by lectures for their benefit; and here we first meet with opposition on the part of Greek bishops to intercourse with English clergymen.§ He likewise associated with American missionaries; set up for a time a public modern Greek service at Smyrna,|| and shewed a tendency to dissuade pious Greeks from communicating in their own church, on the ground of its idolatrous worship of pictures.¶ In 1825, the Church Missionary press came into full operation. We now no longer hear of Tracts from the Fathers, but Milner's Church History, Baxter's Call, the Dairyman's Daughter, the Life and Death of the Rev. Pliny Fisk, (the American missionary,) Hale's Rules, and Original Stories, Dialogues, Meditations, Discourses,** &c. In 1826, we find a body of Germans++ in the employ of the Church Missionary Society, with a M. Gobat, a Genevese, proceeding by way of Syria to Egypt. Whilst in Syria they frequently met with the American missionaries for the purpose of consultation and prayer; and they inform us that Arabs, Greeks, and Roman catholics were excommunicated if they happened to speak with the missionaries or to visit them. Two of these, M. Gobat and M. Kugler, were destined for the Abyssinian mission. They employed themselves in Egypt in distributing Bibles and tracts, and in establishing and superintending schools.§§ The society's agents in all parts of the Mediterranean were now mostly Germans. In 1828, they took charge of a school at Syra, established by an American missionary. This they carried on and augmented under the express sanction of the Greek government, who placed two of the government schools under the care of their agent, Dr. Korck. But in 1830, through the instigation of the clergy, it was proposed to set up a picture of Christ in the schools, and to introduce a catechism containing the errors of the Greek church, and a collection of prayers, containing a blasphemous invocation of the virgin. On his resistance, the schools were taken from him.¶¶ In 1829, we find Mr. Lieder &c. still in Egypt as agents of the Church Missionary Society. Mr. Lieder employed himself in distributing the scriptures, and discussion upon practical and controversial points. Here again we find strong opposition on the part of the Greek priesthood, headed by their patriarch, whom he stigmatizes as unbelieving; and attempts made by an influential Roman catholic to induce the pacha to expel the English missionaries from Egypt. Mr. L., "in * Missionary Register for 1826, p. 390. Ibid. 1827, p. 172, seq. Church Missionary Report for 1827-8, p. 58. ** See Church Missionary Report, 1827-8, p. 57. ‡‡ Ibid. p. 65. Church Missionary Record, 1831, p. 45. + Ibid. Ibid. p. 177. ++ Ibid. p. 56, 61, 62. ¶¶ Ibid. p. 46-49. order to gain the more influence and an easier access to families, devoted himself to the study of medicine." The same year, Messrs. Gobat and Kugler went to Abyssinia. They were very well received by all parties, and hospitably entertained by the civil authorities, during the whole of their residence. We soon find M. Kugler teaching with great earnestness that baptism is not regeneration; and M. Gobat discussing confession and the worship of the saints with the general of the Abyssinian monasteries, who, in the vacancy of the episcopal see, was the principal ecclesiastic.‡ The missionaries continued to pursue their own studies, and to assist those of two natives, without any remarkable occurrence, beyond the death of M. Kugler, until 1836, when they thought proper to marry two Abyssinians of their household, according to the rites of the English church, and contemplated having the communion service in Amharic, that any Abyssinian who wished it might unite with them. These proceedings excited great jealousy on the part of the native clergy; but they were protected by the civil governor. The non-observance of the fasts and church holidays by the missionaries appears likewise to have created great umbrage.§ In 1831, modern Greek schools were set up at Smyrna, and the agent there in connexion with the agent of the Bible Society, a layman, opened a meeting to the Greeks, in which, twice a week, the scriptures were read and expounded to them. These schools went on very prosperously, with the sanction of the neighbouring bishops, until 1836, when, under the name of American schools, they were all put down by the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople. Attempts were at the same time made against the Church Missionary Society's schools at Syra, which, after Dr. Korck's removal, were conducted by M. Hildner, and which had hitherto received the warm patronage of the new Greek government. When the schools at Smyrna were suspended, the missionaries took to a tour into the interior. In their journals they record several conversations in which they spoke to the Greeks against their clergy.|| If my object was to give a history of the operations of the Church Missionary Society for general purposes, there is much which I should be sorry to omit; but as my object is particular, I am necessarily more confined. I mention this, because I fear there will be matter, not only of omission, but also of objection, in which I shall be compelled, by the view to which my principles lead me, to say what will be painful to myself in regard to a society, many of the members of which I esteem and respect more than I can express. But having been led by members of the society to examine into its operations, and having become aware that some of its leading defects had been remedied, I was concerned to find that in some quarters its agents were still far from acting in the spirit of churchmen; and still more, when a more extended inquiry taught me that, except where directly controlled by English bishops, it had, as it appeared to me, gradually de * Church Missionary Record for 1831, p. 64. Ibid. p. 56. § Ibid. 1838, p. 11. VOL. XV.-June, 1839. + Ibid. p. 127. 4 L |