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They hold an anniversary feast of five days, claim an absolute right to determine the conduring which they all go to the bishop, who bap-sciences and understandings of men with regard tizes them with the baptism of St. John. Their to what they should believe, and what they should baptism is also performed in rivers, and that only do, they answer, that all Scripture, whether for on Sundays; they have no notion of the third doctrine, correction, or reproof, was given by imperson in the Trinity; nor have they any canoni- mediate inspiration from God. If again interrocal book, but abundance full of charms, &c. gated how those books which they call Scripture Their bishoprics descend by inheritance as our are authenticated, they reply, that the Old and estates do, though they have the ceremony of an New Testaments are proved to be the word of election. God, by evidences both external and internal. See § 2, and article REVELATION.

CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS, a sort of Christians in a peninsula of India on this side the Gulf; they inhabit chiefly at Cranganor, and the neighbouring country; these admit of no images, and receive only the cross, to which they pay a great veneration. They affirm, that the souls of the saints do not see God till after the day of judgment; they acknowledge but three sacraments, viz. baptism, orders, and the eucharist: they make no use of holy oils in the administration of baptism, but, after the ceremony, anoint the infant with an unction composed of oil and walnuts, without any benediction. In the eucharist they consecrate with little cakes made of oil and salt, and instead of wine make use of water in which raisins have been infused.

II. CHRISTIANITY, evidences of the truth of. The external evidences of the authenticity and divine authority of the Scriptures have been divided into direct and collateral. The direct evidences are such as arise from the nature, consistency, and probability of the facts; and from the simplicity, uniformity, competency, and fidelity of the testimonies by which they are supported. The collateral evidences are either the same occurrences supported by heathen testimonies, or others which concur with and corroborate the history of Christianity. Its internal evidences arise either from its exact conformity with the character of God, from its aptitude to the frame and circumstances of man, or from those supernatural convictions and assistances which are impressed on the mind by the immediate operation of the Divine Spirit. We shall here chiefly follow Dr. Doddridge, and endeavour to give some of the chief evidences which have been brought forward, and which every unprejudiced mind must confess are unanswerable.

First. Taking the matter merely in theory, it will appear highly probable that such a system as the Gospel should be, indeed, a divine revelation.

In the Asiatic Researches of the Society instituted in Bengal, may be found an enlarged account of the Christians of St. Thomas, which was laid before that society by F. Wrede, Esq. See also Monthly Magazine for 1804, p. 60, and Dr. Kerr's Report to Lord Bentinck, on the state of the Christians inhabiting the kingdom of Cochin and Travancore. Evang. Mag. 1807, p. 473. CHRISTIANS, a name assumed by a religious sect formed in different parts of the United States, though not in great numbers, nor of a uniform faith, differing but little from the general body of Unitarians. They deny in the main the doctrine of the Trinity and that of a vicarious atonement. They are professedly anti-sectarian in their views, holding that Christians should know no names nor parties, and that the insisting on certain points called fundamentals, has ever been the bane of true charity among the professed disciples of Jesus. They, therefore, discard all creeds or confessions of faith, maintaining, that the Scriptures contain a perfect rule of faith and practice, and that in order to communion, no man or body of men have a right to require any more than an avowed belief in the Word of God, and an irreproachable life and conduct. In their Secondly. It is, in fact, certain, that Chrismode of church government they are Independ- tianity is, indeed, a divine revelation; for, I. The ents; in their preaching usually loud and vehe-books of the New Testament, now in our hands, ment; and in their meetings, frequently giving way to such excesses of zeal as render them scenes of great tumult and disorder.-B.

CHRISTIANITY, the religion of Christians. I. CHRISTIANITY, foundation of. Most, if not all Christians, whatever their particular tenets may be, acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the sole foundation of their faith and practice. But as these books, or at least particular passages in them, have from the ambiguity of language been variously interpreted by different commentators, these diversities have given birth to a multiplicity of different sects. These, however, or at least the greatest number of them, appeal to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the ultimate standard, the only infallible rule of faith and manners. If asked by what authority these books

1. The case of mankind is naturally such as to need a divine revelation, 1 John v. 19. Rom. i. Eph. iv.-2. There is from the light of nature considerable encouragement to hope that God would favour his creatures with so needful a blessing as a revelation appears.-3. We may easily conclude, that if a revelation were given, it would be introduced and transmitted in such a manner as Christianity is said to have been.-4. That the main doctrines of the Gospel are of such a nature as we might in general suppose those of a divine revelation would be; rational, practical, and sublime. Heb. xi. 6. Mark xii. 20, 1 Tim. ii. 5. Matt. v. 48. x. 29, 30. Philip. iv. 8. Rom. ii. 6, 40.

were written by the first preachers and publishers of Christianity. In proof of this, observe, 1. That it is certain that Christianity is not a new religion, but that it was maintained by great multitudes quickly after the time in which Jesus is said to have appeared.-2. That there was certainly such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified at Jerusalem, when Pontius Pilate was governor there.-3. The first publish ers of this religion wrote books which contained an account of the life and doctrine of Jesus their master, and which went by the name of those that now make up our New Testament.-4, That the books of the New Testament have been preserved, in the main, uncorrupted to the present time, in the original language in which they were written. -5. That the translation of them now in our hands may be depended upon as in

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all things most material, agreeable to the original. | ment be genuine, then it is certain that the apos Now, II. From allowing the New Testament tles pretend to have wrought miracles in the very to be genuine, according to the above proof, it presence of those to whom their writings were will certainly follow that Christianity is a divine addressed; nay, more, they profess likewise to revelation; for, in the first place, it is exceedingly have conferred those miraculous gifts in some evident that the writers of the New Testament considerable degrees on others, even on the very certainly knew whether the facts were true or persons to whom they write, and they appeal to false. John i. 3. xix. 27, 35. Acts xxvii. 7, 9.- their consciences as to the truth of it. And could 2. That the character of these writers, so far as there possibly be room for delusion here?-5. It we can judge by their works, seems to render is likewise certain that the apostles did gain early them worthy of regard, and leaves no room to credit, and succeeded in a most wonderful manimagine they intended to deceive us. The manner. This is abundantly proved by the vast numner in which they tell their story is most happily ber of churches established in early ages at Rome, adapted to gain our belief. There is no air of Corinth, Ephesus, Colosse, &c. &c. &c.-6. That, declamation and harangue; nothing that looks admitting the facts which they testified concernlike artifice and design: no apologies, no encomi-ing Christ to be true, then it was reasonable for ums, no characters, no reflections, no digressions; their contemporaries, and is reasonable for us, to but the facts are recounted with great simplicity, receive the Gospel which they have transmitted just as they seem to have happened; and those to us as a divine revelation. The great thing facts are left to speak for themselves. Their in- they asserted was, that Jesus was the Christ, and tegrity likewise evidently appears in the freedom that he was proved to be so by prophecies accomwith which they mention those circumstances plished in him, and by miracles wrought by him, which might have exposed their Master and and by others in his name. If we attend to these, themselves to the greatest contempt amongst pre- we shall find them to be no contemptible argujudiced and inconsiderate men, such as they ments; but must be forced to acknowledge that, knew they must generally expect to meet with. the premises being established, the conclusion John i. 45, 46. vii. 52. Luke ii. 4, 7. Mark most easily and necessarily follows; and this convi. 3. Matt. viii. 20. John vii. 48. It is certain clusion, that Jesus is the Christ, taken in all its that there are in their writings the most genuine extent, is an abstract of the Gospel revelation, traces not only of a plain and honest, but a most and therefore is sometimes put for the whole of it, pious and devout, a most benevolent and generous Acts viii. 37. xvii. 18. See articles MIRACLE and disposition, as every one must acknowledge who PROPHECY.-7. The truth of the Gospel has also reads their writings.-3. The apostles were un- received further and very considerable confirmader no temptation to forge a story of this kind,tion from what has happened in the world since or to publish it to the world knowing it to be false. 4. Had they done so, humanly speaking, they must quickly have perished in it, and their foolish cause must have died with them, without ever gaining any credit in the world. Reflect more particularly on the nature of those grand facts, the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ, which formed the great foundation of the Christian scheme, as first exhibited to the apostles. The resurrection of a dead man, and his ascension into an abode in the upper world, were such strange things, that a thousand objections would immediately have been raised against them; and some extraordinary proof would have been justly required as a balance to them. Consider the manner in which the apostles undertook to prove the truth of their testimony to these facts; and it will evidently appear, that, instead of confirming their scheme, it must have been sufficient utterly to have overthrown it, had it been itself the most probable imposture that the wit of man could ever have contrived. See Acts iii. ix. xiv. xix. &c. They did not merely assert that they had seen miracles wrought by Jesus, but that he had endowed them with a variety of miraculous powers; and these they undertook to display, not in such idle and useless tricks as sleight of hand might perform, but in such solid and important III. CHRISTIANITY, general doctrines of. "It works as appeared worthy of divine interposition, must be obvious," says an ingenious author, "to and entirely superior to human power. Nor every reflecting mind, that, whether we attempt to were these things undertaken in a corner, in a form the idea of any religion à priori, or contem circle of friends or dependants; nor were they plate those which have already been exhibited, said to be wrought, as might be suspected, by any certain facts, principles, or data, must be pre-esconfederates in the fraud; but they were done tablished; from whence will result a particular often in the most public manner. Would im-frame of mind and course of action suitable to the postors have made such pretensions as these? or, if they had, must they not immediately have been exposed and ruined? Now, if the New Testa

it was first published. "And here we must desire every one to consider what God has been doing to confirm the Gospel since its first publication, and he will find it a further evidence of its Divine original. We might argue at large from its surprising propagation in the world; from the miraculous powers with which not only the apostles, but succeeding preachers of the Gospel, and other converts, were endowed; from the accom plishment of prophecies recorded in the New Testament; and from the preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, notwithstanding the various difficulties and persecutions through which they have passed. We must not, however, forget to mention the confirmation it receives from the methods which its enemies have taken to destroy it; and these have generally been either persecution or falsehood, or cavilling at some particulars in revelation, without entering into the grand argument on which it is built, and fairly debating what is offered in its defence. The cause has gained considerably by the opposition made to it: the more it has been tried, the more it has been approved; and we are bold to say no honest man, unfettered by prejudice, can examine this system in all its parts, without being convinced that its origin is divine.

character and dignity of that Being by whom the religion is enjoined, and adapted to the nature and situation of those agents who are command

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ed to observe it. Hence Christianity may be di- | delivered the doctrines of salvation, and the rules vided into credenda or doctrines, and agenda or of human conduct, to his apostles, whom he emprecepts. As the great foundation of his religion, powered to instruct the world in all that concerntherefore, the Christian believes the existence and ed their eternal felicity, and whom he invested government of one eternal and infinite Essence, with miraculous gifts, to ascertain the reality of which for ever retams in itself the cause of its what they taught. To them he likewise promised own existence, and inherently possesses all those another comforter, even the Divine Spirit, who perfections which are compatible with its nature; should remove the darkness, console the woes, such are its a nighty power, omniscient wisdom, and purify the stains of human nature. Having infinite justice, boundless goodness, and universal remained for a part of three days under the power presence. In this indivisible essence the Chris- of death, he rose again from the grave; appeared tian recognizes three distinct subsistences, yet to his disciples, and many others; conversed with distinguished in such a manner as not to be in- them for some time, then re-ascended to heaven; compatible either with essential unity, or sim- from whence the Christian expects him, accordplicity of being, or with their personal distinction; ing to his promise, to appear as the Sovereign each of them possesses the same nature and Judge of the living and the dead, from whose properties to the same extent. This infinite Be-awards there is no appeal, and by whose sentence ing was graciously pleased to create an universe the destiny of the righteous and the wicked shallreplete with intelligences, who might enjoy his be eternally fixed. Soon after his departure to glory, participate his happiness, and imitate his the right hand of his Father (where in his human perfections. But as these beings were not immu- nature he sits supreme of all created beings, and table, but left to the freedom of their own will, invested with the absolute administration of headegeneracy took place, and that in a rank of in- ven and earth,) the Spirit of grace and consolatelligence superior to man. But guilt is never sta- tion descended on his apostles with visible signationary. Impatient of itself, and cursed with its tures of divine power and presence. Nor were own feelings, it proceeds from bad to worse, his salutary operations confined to them, but exwhilst the poignancy of its torments increases tended to all who did not by obstinate guilt repel with the number of its perpetrations. Such was his influences. These, indeed, were less conthe situation of Satan and his apostate angels. spicuous than at the glorious æra when they were They attempted to transfer their turpitude and visibly exhibited in the persons of the apostles. misery to man, and were, alas, but too success- But, though his energy be less observable, it is by ful! Hence the heterogeneous and irreconcilable no means less effectual to all the purposes of grace principles which operate in his nature; hence and mercy. The Christian is convinced that that inexplicable medley of wisdom and folly, of there is and shall continue to be a society upon rectitude and error, of benevolence and malignity, earth, who worship God as revealed in Jesus of sincerity and fraud, exhibited through his Christ, who believe his doctrines, who observe his whole conduct; hence the darkness of his under-precepts, and shall be saved by the merits of his standing, the depravity of his will, the pollution death, in the use of these external means of salvaof his heart, the irregularity of his affections, and tion which he hath appointed. He also believes the absolute subversion of his whole internal that the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's economy. The seeds of perdition soon ripened Supper, the interpretation and application of into overt acts of guilt and horror. All the hos- Scripture, the habitual exercise of public and tilities of nature were confronted, and the whole private devotion, are obviously calculated to difsublunary creation became a theatre of disorder fuse and promote the interests of truth and reand mischief. Here the Christian once more ap-ligion, by superinducing the salutary habits of peals to fact and experience. If these things are so; if man be the vessel of guilt, and the victim of misery, he demands how this constitution of things can be accounted for? how can it be supposed that a being so wicked and unhappy should be the production of an infinitely good and infinitely perfect Creator? He therefore insists that human nature must have been disarranged and contaminated by some violent shock; and that, of consequence, without the light diffused over the IV. CHRISTIANITY, morality and superiority face of things by Christianity, all nature must re- of. It has been well observed, "that the two main in inscrutable and inexplicable mystery. grand principles of action, according to the ChrisTo redress these evils, to re-establish the empire tian, are the love of God, which is the sovereign of rectitude and happiness, to restore the nature passion in every gracious mind; and the love of of man to its primitive dignity, to satisfy the re- man, which regulates our actions according to the monstrances of infinite justice, to purify every various relations in which we stand, whether to original or contracted stain, to expiate the guilt communities or individuals. This sacred conand destroy the power of vice, the eternal Sonnexion ought never to be totally extinguished by of God, from whom Christianity takes its name, and to whom it owes its origin, descended from the bosom of his Father, assumed the human nature, became the representative of man; endured a severe probation in that character; exhibited a pattern of perfect righteousness, and at last ratified his doctrine, and fully accomplished all the ends of his mission, by a cruel, unmerited, and ignominious death. Before he left the world, he

faith, love, and repentance. He is firmly persuaded, that at the consummation of all things, when the purposes of Providence in the various revolutions of progressive nature are accomplished, the whole human race shall once more issue from their graves; some to immortal felicity in the actual perception and enjoyment of their Creator's presence, and others to everlasting shame and misery."

any temporary injury. It ought to subsist in some degree even amongst enemies. It requires that we should pardon the offences of others, as we expect pardon for our own; and that we should no further resist evil than is necessary for the preservation of personal rights and socia happiness. It dictates every relative and reciprocal duty between parents and children. masters and servants, governors and subjects, friends and