THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 323 



the time St Athanafius, St Cyril, and St Chryfoftom wrote, the 

 explanation of thefe points was uniform in favour of ortho- 

 doxy, and that while accefs could eafily be had to jerufalem 

 or Alexandria, then Greek and Chriftian cities, difficulties, if 

 any arofe, were eafily refolved ; yet, at the time the Jefuits 

 came, thofe books were very rare in the country, and the 

 contents of them fo far from being underftood, that they 

 were applied to the fupport of the groffeft herefies, from 

 the miiinterpretation of the ignorant monks of thefe lat- 

 ter times. That the Abyffinians had been orthodox availed 

 nothing : they wife then become as ignorant of tiie doc- 

 trines of St Athanafius and St Cyril, as if thofe fathers had 

 never wrote ; and it is their religion at this period which the 

 Jefuits condemn, not that of the church of Alexandria, when 

 in its purity under the firft patriarchs ; and, to complete 

 all their misfortunes, no accefs to Jerufalem is any long- 

 er open to them, and very rarely communication with Cairo. 



On the other hand, the Jefuits, who found that the Abyf- 

 fmians were often wrong in fome things, were refolved to 

 deny that they could be right in any thing ; and, from at- 

 tacking their tenets, they fell upon their ceremonies re- 

 ceived in the Greek church at the fame time with Chrifti- 

 anity ; and in this difpute they fhewed great ignorance and 

 malevolence, which they mpported by the help of falfe- 

 hood and invention. I fhall take notice of only one in- 

 ftance in many, becaufe it has been infilled upon by both 

 parties with unufual vehemence, and very little candour. 



It was fettled by the firft general council, that one bap- 

 tifm only was neceflary for the regeneration of man, for 

 freeing him from the fin of our firft parents, and lifting 



S f 2 him 



