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long been desired by the learned. Another object of Dr. Buchanan's mission will be, to enquire into the state of the native christian churches in the provinces of Travancore and Malabar; particularly of the thirty-five congregations, denominated by the Roman Catholics, the Schismatic churches. These christians refuse communion with the church of Rome, and adhere to the simple ritual of an early age. They are noticed in history as early as the fourth century, and are supposed to have emigrated from Syria and Chaldea. At this day, the syro-chaldaic language is used in their churches, and their liturgy is composed in that language and character. Agreeably to instructions received from the ecclesiastical authorities at home, a report is to be made on the constitution and doctrine of these churches, with a view to ascertain how far it may be the duty of the English church to recognize the christians of Malabar, now that they have become subjects of the British empire. Their churches have been governed for fifteen hundred years by a regular succession of bishops. Another subject of literary research offers itself among those ancient christians. When the Portuguese first arrived in India, they burned the writings and records found in the christian churches, and amongst them, says a Romish author, some apostolical monuments, in order to destroy the evidences of their antiquity, and force them to a union with the church of Rome. But it has been stated, by a respectable authority, that certain ancient manuscripts in the Chaldaic language are yet preserved in the country of Travancore.

Obituary.

DIED, at Coopers-Town, (N. Y.) on the 31st October, in the the 57th year of his age, in the town of Hartwick, Mr. ISAAC MALLERY, of an asthmatic complaint of many years standing, leaving a bereaved consort and a num ber of children, to deplore the loss of a kind husband and parent, in which their neighbors will unite in sympathetic grief.

In the formation of Mr. Mallery, nature seemed to have deviated from her nsual uniformity. He was born without feet; the stumps on which he stood, or walked, exhibited an appearances as if his feet had been separated by an amputation, square and perpendicular, to the front of his legs. Wanting the usual springs, wherewith to poise himself, he could not walk with that ease and dignity so natural to others, and could never stand in a fixed posture; but could, in the prime of life, step a hornpipe with grace and exactness. He had but one arm, and but a deficient hand, which lacked one joint in all the fingers as well as the thumb; his fingers were webbed or joined together within an inch of the ends; he was nevertheless a beautiful writer, and an excellent School-master; from his left shoulder projected a part of an arm about eight inches in length, and without an elbow, which however he made a shift to render, occasionally, very useful, and could handle an axe, a hoe, and even a scythe, to considerable effect. By his industry he acquired a decent competence for his family, and has left them in a situation to procure a comfortable subsistence, by common industry.

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made-
"How manifold are all thy works!”

To Correspondents.

DAVID.

THE Communication from New-York, signed A. B. is received and under consideration.

The writer of the piece signed B. will not, it is hoped, think himself neg lected if we delay publishing his strictures until we shall have an opportunity of seeing and judging for ourselves, concerning the merit of the work on

which he remarks.

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The Life of the Right Rev. Thomas Wilson, D. D.

LORD BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN.

[Continued from page 86.]

ON the 15th of January 1697-8, Mr. Wilson, being first created doctor of laws by the archbishop of Canterbury, was confirmed bishop of Man, at Bow church, by Dr. Oxenden, dean of the arches, and on the next day he was consecrated at the Savoy church, by Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, assisted by the bishops of Chester and Norwich. On the 5th of April following, he landed at Derby-Haven, in the Isle of Man, and on the 11th was enthroned in the cathedral of St. Germain's, in Peel Castle: And from the prayer that he composed on the occasion, we may see with what piety and circumspection he entered upon his new dignity.* When he arrived at his bishopric, he found the palace in a most ruinous state, having been uninhabited for eight years; nothing but an ancient tower and chapel remaining entire. He was therefore obliged to rebuild the dwelling-house, and almost all the out offices from the ground. He stocked the garden with fruit trees, &c. fenced in the demesnes, planted many thousand timber trees, and laid out a farm, which afterwards became valuable to himself and successors; the expenses of these buildings and improvements amounted to the sum of fourteen hundred pounds. He says, "It having pleased God to bring me to the bishopric of Man, I find the house in ruins, which obliges me to interrupt my charity to the poor in some measure." This interruption was, however, of short duration, and his beneficence was afterwards increased with his income. About this time the Earl of Derby again offered him the living of Baddesworth, to hold in command, and probably as a compensation for the dilapidation on his bishopric ; but this our conscientious prelate refused as utterly inconsistent with his duty, and with the obligation that he had formerly made of "never taking two ecclesiastical preferments * Mr. Hewetson's memorandum book.

with cure of souls," especially says he, "when I must necessarily be absent from one of them; and of which resolution it does not yet repent me that I made it."-On the 10th of July, 1698, he laid the foundation-stone of a new chapel at Castletown, which was built and paid for out of the ecclesiastical revenues. grant," says the good bishop," that it may, when it is finished, con"The Lord tinue a house of prayer to all ages." On the 29th Sept. in the same year, he set sail for England, and landed the day following at Liverpool, whence, after a short stay, he went to Warrington, where he paid his addresses to Mary, daughter of Thomas Patten, Esq. to whom he was married on the 27th of Oct. at Winwick church, by the honourable and Rev .Mr. Finch, the rector. Previous to his marriage, we find him, as on all important occasions of his life, a petitioner to heaven. We lament the want of room to insert his excellent and fervent prayers which breathe so much of sincere christian piety. The bishop staid in England till the 6th of April, 1699, when taking leave of his friends, he arrived, with Mrs. Wilson, the next day, safe at his diocese. By this most excellent woman, who was every way the companion of his soul; pious, devout, and charitable as himself, he had four children. Of these, Thomas, born August 24th, 1703, became Prebendary of Westminster, and rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. The excellence of the bishop's piety as a parent did not consist in heaping up riches for his children; he considered himself as the steward, not as the proprietor of the revenues of his bishopric; and to what use they ought in his opinion to be applied, we learn from the following memorandum : MY CHILDREN,

If I do not live to tell you why I have saved no more for you out of my bishopric, let this satisfy you that the less you have of goods gathered from the church, the better the rest that I shall leave you will prosper. Church livings were never designed to make families or to raise portions out of them, but to maintain our families, to keep up hospitality, to feed the poor, &c. and one day you will be glad that this was my settled opinion and God grant I may act accordingly!"

And he lived to hear his surviving child thank him for the blessing he bestowed, more valuable than riches; which however his son enjoyed, for he became possessed of his mother's fortune when of age; and went out from Oxford grand compounder, with the degree of D. D. May 10th, 1739.

The annual receipts of the bishopric did not exceed three hundred pounds in money: some necessaries in his house, as spices, sugar, wine, books, &c. must be paid for in money; distressed or ship-wrecked mariners, and some other poor objects, required to be relieved with money; but the poor of the Island were fed and clothed, and the house in general supplied from his demesnes, by exchange without money.*

The poor who could weave or spin, found the best market at Bishop's Court, where they bartered the produce of their labour for corn. Taylors and shoemakers were kept in the house constantly

* Mr. Hewetson's memorandum book.

employed, to make into garments or shoes, that cloth or leather which his corn had purchased; and the aged and infirm were supplied according to their several wants. He took the greatest care to find out the most deserving objects of charity, yet was it probably often bestowed amiss, and indeed he was frequently told so by those who envied his virtues, but would not imitate his example. "It may be so," he said, "but I would rather give to ten unworthy objects, than that one deserving object should go without relief.". If the persons who applied were inhabitants of the Island, they were generally recommended by a note from their parish minister: these notes of recommendation he kept regularly filed; upon these he entered the name and circumstances of his poor, in a large book kept for that purpose, which he called Matricula Pauperum, or the Register of the Poor.

The bishop accustomed himself to frequent recollection and review of his conduct, and his pious resolutions were strictly and religiously observed. His prayers and his sermons furnish a sufficient proof of his study; his prayers were constant and devout, with his flock and with his family; and three times a day he communed with his own heart privately, in his closet. During the fifty-eight years of his pastoral life, except on occasions of sickness, he never failed on a Sunday to expound the scriptures, preach the gospel or administer the sacrament, at some one or other of the churches of his diocese; and if absent from the Island, he always preached at the church where he resided for the day. When in London he was generally solicited to preach for some one or other of the public charities, being much followed and admired; and many who heard him have remarked the great beauty of his prayer before the sermon, particularly where he offers up prayers for those who never pray for themselves.

In the year 1699, he published a small tract, in Manks and English, entitled, "The Principles and Duties of Christianity," for the use of the Island; the first book ever printed in the Manks language : and with the assistance of Dr. Thomas Bray, he began to found parochial libraries, which he afterwards established and completed through the diocese, and gave to each a proper book-case, furnishing them with bibles, testaments, and such books as were calculated to instruct the people in the great truths of the gospel, and which we hope are still remaining.

His family prayers were as regular as his public duties; every summer morning at five, and every winter morning at seven, the family attended him to their devotions in his chapel, where he himself, or one of his students, performed the service of the day, and in the evening they did the same. And thus it was be formed his young clergy for the pulpit, and a graceful delivery. In the prayer for his closet we meet with the purest sentiments of christianity, and his sacra frivata bear ample testimony of his uniform piety, and the excellency of his understanding. He kept a diary as well of the special favors in extraordinary deliverances, as of the merciful visitations, and chastisements he experienced in a variety of instances. On the 9th of December 1700, a fire broke out in the

bishop's palace, about two o'clock in the morning, in the chamber over that in which the bishop slept, "which" he says, "by God's providence, to which I ascribe all the blessings and deliverances I meet with, I soon extinguished; had it continued undiscovered but a very short space of time, the wind was so high, that in all probability it would have reduced my house to ashes."

In the year 1703, he obtained an act of settlement, of which mention is made in his history of the Isle of Man, which history was at the desire of Bishop Gibson inserted in his second edition of Cambden's Britannia :-But his great modesty would never permit him to say that he was the author of that benefit to his diocese, though it was obtained solely by his indefatigable pains and application.This year was remarkable for the ecclesiastical constitutions, which were read to the clergy, and agreed to in full convocation, and meeting with the full approbation of the Lords, Deemsters, and Keys, passed into a law. These constitutions, planned and framed by his Lordship, will afford and exhibit to the world a specimen of that primitive discipline which existed in this diocese during his Lordship's Episcopate, and long after; superseding virtually the preface to the communion office.

Lord Chancellor King was so well pleased with these constitutions, that he said, "If the ancient discipline of the church were lost, it might be found in all its purity in the Isle of Man.

On the 5th September, 1704, the bishop accompanied Mrs. Wilson, who had been some time in a declining state of health, to Warrington, for the benefit of her native air, and continued with her praying for her soul, which, full of hope of a blessed immortality, she resigned into the hands of her Creator. In this severe trial his prayers abound with religious sentiment, and christian resignation; pronouncing with a feeling emphasis, "Thy will be done, O God." He felt like a man, but not like a man without hope. He had lost a comfort; but the happiness she had gained overcome his sorrow, and gave him that serenity of mind which none but good men can feel like him in the hour of affliction.

On the 3d of March, 1707, he was made doctor of divinity in full convocation at Oxford; and on the 11th of June following, the same honor was decreed him by the university of Cambridge. About the same time he was admitted member of the society for promoting christian knowledge. In the same year, he had the church catechism translated and printed in Manks and English. On the 21st of September, 1708, he consecrated a new chapel at Douglass, to which he was a considerable benefactor. April 2d, 1710, the library of Castletown was finished; the greater part of the expence, which amounted to eighty-three pounds five shillings and six-pence, he subscribed himself.

In the year 1711, this worthy and excellent bishop, went to London, to settle some affairs relating to the excise, for the Lord and people of the Island; when he was taken great notice of by Queen Anne, before whom he preached a sermon on Holy Thursday. Her Majesty offered him an English bishopric, but he declined the favor, saying, that with the blessing of God, he could do some good

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