take care for the truth, Christ will take care for the Church; but that if it seek to support itself by a lie, it must not reckon on the support of His Almighty arm; and they are content to look forward to a time, indefinitely distant, when the pilgrims shall be sufficiently advanced in intelligence to allow of the discontinuance of this mockery, without endangering those great truths which they do truly hold2.

But among all the exhibitions of the Christians in the Holy City that which must most scandalize the infidels is their shameful divisions, accompanied with jealousies and heart-burnings, and not unfrequently attended with sanguinary quarrels and acts of violence, which call for the interference of the civil powers. A coloured Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a picture of the religious dissensions which afflict the Holy City, and present a perpetual stumblingblock to Jews and Mohammedans-one might almost say, a standing argument against the truth of the religion which we profess; for if the unity and harmony of the Church be a note of the heavenly origin of the doctrine which it holds, the absence of these must obscure the evidence and hinder the progress of the Gospel. The superstitious practices which have been mentioned are only obtruded on the notice of the Mohammedans occasionally, at stated seasons, but the dissensions of the various sects fill the Holy City with jarring discord throughout the year. These disputes are carried to Constantinople, and submitted to the decision of the

One part of this ceremony has been discontinued for many years. A dove used to be let fly from the Holy

Cave at the time of the giving of the fire. The intention of this may be imagined, but not written.

Ottoman Porte, to be ruled, not according to the principles of justice and equity, but as bribery, or private influence, or political interests, may chance to prevail. One or two examples shall be given, which will serve better than words to manifest the feeling that exists between the rival Communions.

The Greeks and Latins both enjoy the countenance of powerful European monarchs, whence they derive an importance at Constantinople, which, independently of this, they would not possess: the Armenians make up by their wealth what they lack in this respect, and are thus able to sway the decisions of the Porte. The Syrians and Copts are too poor and too insignificant to contend with these powerful rivals; but being in communion with the Armenians, they are for the most part identified with their interests and enjoy their protection; in return for which they are expected to submit to such spoliation as their protectors think right to inflict. The facts which shall now be mentioned, as a specimen merely of what has been going on for centuries, have all occurred very recently.

The Armenians had possessed for some years a small monastery in the neighbourhood of the Church of the Ascension, on the Mount of Olives. The Greeks disputed their right to the locality, and obtained a verdict at Constantinople for the expulsion of the Armenians, not for their own establishment in their place. On the arrival of the firman, they assembled in a body by night, and tumultuously attacked the building, which they completely demolished, leaving the infidels in undisputed possession of the sacred locality! But the faults are not all on one side.

In the year 1842, the Greeks procured a firman for

the reparation of the magnificent Basilica at Bethlehem, which had fallen into a state of miserable decay. The restoration was effected at considerable expense, and with as much regard to the original design as circumstances allowed. Among other repairs they restored the North transept, which is allotted to the Armenians, and the steps which lead down from their altar to the Holy Cave of the Nativity. Can it be believed that the Armenians applied for, and procured a firman to undo what the Greeks had done?

The lead on the dome which covers the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem having become decayed through time, the Greeks obtained permission to repair it. They actually laid in a large quantity of lead for that purpose, and commenced stripping the dome, when a counterorder arrived from the Turkish capital, prohibiting, or at least suspending, the work. This obstruction had been interposed by the Latins, who have now the miserable satisfaction of seeing the sacred building fast falling to decay, with all the materials requisite for its repair close at hand.

These instances will suffice to shew the bitter hostility which prevails among the various denominations of Christians in the Holy City; and they have been cited not in triumph, but in sorrow, with the hope that the sad exhibition may indirectly tend to the removal of such unhallowed strife from around the sacred precincts. consecrated by the birth and death of the Prince of Peace. The ground of this violent opposition, even to the necessary repairs of the sacred fabrics, is the apprehension that the privilege of repair may result in the recognition of an exclusive possessory right on the part of the restorers. Thus the three most sacred sites have

been for centuries the grand points of contention among the divided Churches, and the questions which these disgraceful disputes suggested to our countryman, Maundrell, a century and a half ago, force themselves upon the mind at this day. "Who can expect ever to see these holy places rescued from the hands of the infidels? Or if they should be recovered, what deplorable contests might be expected to follow about them? seeing even in the present state of captivity they are made the occasion of such unchristian rage and animosity." Nay, I would even go further, and avow a conviction, forced upon me by such facts as these, and only confirmed by time, that the Turks are, for the present, the best and safest guardians of the holy places; and that until the Christians have laid aside their animosities, the control of an infidel, and therefore indifferent arbiter, will be necessary to restrain within some bounds those vindictive feuds which, even though kept in check, break out occasionally into acts of open and even fatal violence. It were frightful to contemplate the consequences of power being given into the hands of any one of the Christian bodies which now divide the Sacred City.

Of these it will be well to furnish some particulars more in detail, commencing with the Eastern Churches, among whom the Greeks will claim the first notice.

THE Holy Orthodox Church of the East still reckons four Patriarchs, who exercise spiritual jurisdiction over the scattered ruins of those ancient Churches in which

the light of the Gospel shone with unclouded brightness, while the western world was shrouded in heathen darkness. Of these Patriarchates, the last erected was that of Jerusalem. During the first ages of Christianity, the prelates of that city had enjoyed no peculiar privileges or prerogatives'. Cæsarea of Palestine was then the capital of the province, and the seat of the government; its bishop exercised metropolitan jurisdiction in the diocese of Jerusalem, a dignity expressly reserved to him by the first Nicene Council. But the recovery of the sacred localities, and the erection of the Church of the Resurrection, which could not fail to attract the religious devotions of the Christians of that period, served by degrees to raise the importance of the see; and in the fourth General Council the assembled Fathers consented to erect "the mother of all churches" into a fifth Patriarchate3.

In order to effect this, the Metropolitan Sees of Cæsarea and Scythopolis were detached from the jurisdiction of Antioch on the North, while Rabbath Moab and Petra of Arabia, were ceded by the Patriarchate of Alexandria on the South. Besides this, several suffragans were attached to the patriarchal chair as peculiars, from the several dioceses of the various metropolitans, and others newly erected; by which means the chief

"Hierosolymitana ecclesia usque

ad tempora Justiniani sanctæ recordationis Augusti, episcopum habuit nulla vel modica dignitatis prærogativa gaudentem." Will. Tyr. Lib. xx111. p. 1045. What argument Dr Keith can find in this against episcopal government, I am at a loss to imagine, (Land of Israel, p. 189). Surely, worldly state

and dignity (mere accidents) are not necessary to the order: the essence is contained in the words "episcopum habuit." Presbyterians will do well not to look to Jerusalem for precedents for their novelties.

2 Cited in Vol. 1. p. 252, note 2. 3 See Vol. 1. p. 273, and the references in the notes.