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ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 59 



bination of the two Scraments," as it was termed, was seriously 

 discussed in the Synod of Holland ; and the opinion of the 

 clergy in the different colonies was requested. The subject 

 regarded converts from heathenism to Christianity, whether 

 adult candidates for baptism should not invariably be required 

 to observe the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper also, and 

 simultaneously, and whether the observance of the latter should 

 not be the condition of receiving the former. The question 

 arose from the discrepancy between the many baptized and 

 the few who communicated; and the object was to introduce 

 some uniformity of practice in the Colonies. The Ceylon 

 clergy thought, as far as this Colony was concerned, an un- 

 qualified union impracticable ; that it would occasion the 

 overthrow of all that had hitherto been done for the advance- 

 ment of native Christianity ; that if they rejected adult 

 candidates for baptism unless they partook also immediately 

 of the Lord's Supper, these persons would invariably apply 

 to the itinerant, so called Roman Catholic priests, who were 

 to be found in every village, baptizing indiscriminately all 

 who would consent ; whereby a wide door would be opened to 

 popery; and the clergy be subjected to great difficulties 

 whenever children were brought to them for baptism by 

 parents who made the application on the ground of their 

 own baptism by a Romish priest, but which they could not 

 verify, not being furnished with certificates by those priests. 

 They admitted that the number of baptized natives was 

 great, and that of members disproportionately small, but they 

 denied that the i two Sacraments were altogether separated, 

 as their Batavian brethren had made it appear. The great 

 number of the former class did not arise from numerous adult 

 "baptisms, for against one adult an hundred children were 

 baptized at the visitation of rural Churches, and the numerous 



