eriority of their own religion.

It is true of the Oriental Churches, that they have lost nearly all
the essential principles of the Gospel; at least that those
principles have, in great measure, ceased to have a practical
influence.1 Their views of the Trinity, and of the divine and human
natures of Christ, are not unscriptural; but their views of the way
of salvation through the Son, and of the work of the Holy Spirit,
are sadly perverted. The efficacy of Christ's death for the pardon
of sin, is secured to the sinner, they suppose, by baptism and
penance. The belief is universal, that baptism cancels guilt, and is
regeneration. They also believe baptism to be the instrumental cause
of justification. Hence faith is practically regarded as no more
than a general assent of the understanding to the creeds of their
churches. Of the doctrine of a justifying faith of the heart,--the
distinguishing doctrine of the Gospel,--the people of the Oriental
Churches are believed to have been wholly ignorant, before the
arrival of Protestant missionaries among them.

1 This brief description of the religion of the Oriental Churches,
is condensed from a statement by that eminent missionary, Dr. Eli
Smith, in a sermon published in 1833, but now accessible to very
few. I often use his words, as best adapted to convey the true idea.
Subsequent observations, so far as I know, have never called for any
modification in his statement.

Being thus freed from the condemning power of original sin, and
regenerated by baptism, men were expected to work their way to
heaven by observing the laws of God and the rites of the church.
These rites were fasting, masses, saying of prayers, pilgrimages,
and the like, and in practice crowded the moral law out of mind. The
race of merit was hindered by daily sins, but not stopped, provided
the sins were of a class denominated venial. These could be canceled
by the rites of the church, the most important of which was the
mass, or the consecration and oblation of the elements of the Lord's
Supper. That ordinance is to be observed in remembrance of Christ,
but the people of the Oriental Churches are taught to look upon it
as a renewal of his death. On the priest's pronouncing the words,
"This is my body," the elements are believed to be changed from
bread and wine, and thenceforth to contain the body and blood, the
soul and divinity, of Christ; so that He is crucified afresh, and
made an expiatory sacrifice