SECT. II.

Reflections upon the preceding Account.

IN viewing the progress of Christianity, our first attention is due to the number of converts at Jerufalem, immediately after its founder's death; because this fuccefs was a fuccefs at the time, and upon the spot, when and where the chief part of the hiftory had been transacted.

We are, in the next place, called upon to attend to the early eftablishment of numerous Chriftian focieties in Judea and Galilee, which countries had been the scene of Christ's miracles and ministry, and where the memory of what had paffed, and the knowledge of what was alleged, must have yet been fresh and certain.

We are, thirdly, invited to recollect the fuccefs of the apof tles and of their companions, at the feveral places to which they came, both within and without Judea; because it was the credit given to original witneffes, appealing for the truth of their ac counts to what themfelves had feen and heard. The effect alfo of their preaching, ftrongly confirms the truth of what our hillory positively and circumftantially relates, that they were able to exhibit to their hearers fupernatural attestations of their miflion,

We are, laftly, to confider the fubfequent growth and spread of the religion, of which we receive fucceffive intimations, and fatisfactory, though general and occafional accounts, until its full and final establishment.

In all these several stages, the history is without a parallel ; for it must be observed, that we have not now been tracing the progrefs, and defcribing the prevalency of an opinion, founded upon philofophical or critical arguments, upon mere deductions of seafon, or the conftruction of ancient writings, (of which kind are the feveral theories which have, at different times, gained poffethion of the public mind in various departments of fcience and literature; and of one or other of which kind are the tenets alfo which divide the various fects of Chriftianity) but that we speak of a fyftem, the very bafis and poftulatum of which, was a fupernatural character afcribed to a particular perfon of a doctrine, the truth whereof depended entirely upon the truth of a matter of fact then recent. "To cftablish a new eligion, even amongst a few people, or in one fingle nation, is a thing in itself exceedingly difficult. To reform fome corrup

tions which may have fpread in a religion, or to make new regulations in it, is not perhaps fo hard, when the main and principal parts of that religion are preferved entire and unshaken; and yet this very often cannot be accomplished, without an extraordinary concurrence of circumftances, and may be attempted a thoufand times without fuccefs. But to introduce a new faith, a new way of thinking and acting, and to perfuade many nations to quit the religion in which their ancestors had lived and died, which had been delivered down to them from time immemorial, to make them forfake and defpife the deities which they had been accustomed to reverence and worship; this is a work of ftill greater difficulty. The refiftance of education, worldly policy, and fuperftition, is almost invincible.”

а

If men, in thefe days, be Chriftians in confequence of their education, in fubmiflion to authority, or in compliance with fashion, let us recollect that it was not fo from the beginning. The first race of Chriftians, as well as millions who fucceeded them, became fuch in formal oppofition to all these motives, to the whole power and ftrength of this influence. Every argu ment therefore, and every inftance, which fets forth the preju dice of education, and the almoft irrefiftible effects of that prejudice (and no perfons are more fond of expatiating upon this fubject than deistical writers) in fact confirms the evidence of Christianity.

But, in order to judge of the argument which is drawn from the early propagation of Chriftianity, I know no fairer way of proceeding, than to compare what we have feen of the fubject, with the fuccefs of Chriftian miflions in modern ages. In the East-India miffion, fupported by the fociety for promoting Christian knowledge, we hear fometimes of thirty, fometimes of forty, being baptized in the courfe of a year, and these principally children. Of converts properly fo called, that is, of adults voluntarily embracing Christianity,, the number is extremely fmall. "Notwithstanding the labour of millionaries for upwards of two hundred years, and the establishments of different Chriftian nations who fupport them, there are not twelve thousand Indian Chriftians, and thofe almost entirely outcasts."b

a Jortin's Dif. on the Chrift. Rel. p. 107. ed. IV.

b Sketches relating to the hiftory, learning, and manners of the Hin doos, p. 48. quoted by Dr. Robertfon, Hift. Dif, concerning ancient India, p. 236.

I lament, as much as any man, the little progrefs which Chriftianity has made in thefe countries, and the inconfiderable effect that has. followed the labours of its miffionaries; but I fee in it a strong proof of the divine origin of the religion. What had the apostles to affift them in propagating Chriftianity, which the miffionaries have not? If piety and zeal had been fufficient, I doubt not but that our miffionaries poffefs these qualities in a high degree, for nothing, except piety and zeal, could engage them in the undertaking. If fanctity of life and manners was the allurement, the conduct of these men is un.. blameable. If the advantage of education and learning be looked to, there is not one of the modern missionaries, who is not, in this refpect, fuperior to all the apoftles; and that not only abfolutely, but, what is of more importance, relatively, in comparifon, that is, with thofe amongst whom they exercise. their office. If the intrinfic excellency of the religion, the perfection of its morality, the purity of its precepts, the elo.. quence or tenderness or fublimity of various parts of its writ angs, were the recommendations by which it made its way, thefe remain the fame. If the character and circumstances,. under which the preachers were introduced to the countries in which they taught, be accounted of importance, this advantage is all on the fide of the modern miffionaries. They come from a country and a people, to which the Indian world look. up with fentiments of deference. The apoftles came forth amongst the Gentiles under no other name than that of Jews, which was precifely the character they defpifed and derided. If it be difgraceful in India to become a Chriftian, it could not be mach lefs fo to be enrolled amongst thofe," quos per flagitia invifor, vulgus Chriftianos appellabat." If the religion which they had to encounter be confidered, the difference, I apprehend, will not be great. The theology of both was nearly the fame, "what is fuppofed to be performed by the power of Jupiter, of Neptune, of Eolus, of Mars, of Venus, according to the mythology of the Weft, is afcribed, in the Eaft, to the agency of Agrio, the god of fire, Varoon, the god of oceans, Vayoo, the god of wind, Cama, the god of love." The facred rites of the western polytheism were gay, feftive and licentious; the rites of the public religion in the Eaft partake of the fame character, with a more avowed indecency. "In every func

a Bagvat Geeta, p. 94. quoted by Dr. Robertson, Ind. Dis. p. 306.

fon performed in the pagodas, as well as in every public proceffion, it is the office of thefe women (i. e. of women prepared by the Brahmins for the purpofe) to dance before the idols, and to fing hymns in his praife; and it is difficult to fay, whether they trefpafs most against decency by the geftures they exhibit, or by the verses which they recite. The walls of the pagodas were covered with paintings in a ftyle no lefs indelicate."a b

On both fides of the comparifon the popular religion had a Atrong establishment. In ancient Greece and Rome it was ftrictly incorporated with the ftate. The magiftrate was the prieft. The highest offices of government bore the most diftinguished part in the celebration of the public rites. In India, a powerful and numerous caft poffefs exclufively the adminif tration of the established worship; and are, of confequence, devoted to its fervice, and attached to its intereft. In both, the prevailing mythology was deftitute of any proper evidence, or rather, in both, the origin of the tradition is run up into ages, long anterier to the existence of credible hiftory, or of written language. The Indian chronology computes eras by millions: of years, and the life of man by thoufands and in thefe, or prior to thefe, is placed the hiftory of their divinities. In both, the established fuperftition held the fame place in the public opinion; that is to fay, in both it was credited by the bulk of the people, but by the learned and philofophic part of the com

a' Others of the deities of the Eat are of an auftère and gloomy character,to be propitiated by victims, fometimes by human facrifices, and by voluntary, torments of the most excruciating kind.

b' Voyage de Gentil. vol. I. p. 244–260. Preface to Code of Gentoo Laws, p. 57. quoted by Dr. Robertfon, p. 320.

"The Suffec Jogue, or age of purity, is faid to have lafted three million two hundred thousand years; and they hold that the life of man was extended in that age to one hundred thousand years; but there is a difference antongft the Indian writers of fix millions of years in the computation of this era." lb.

d "How abfurd foever the articles of faith may be, which fuperfti tion has adopted, or how unhallowed the rites wich it preferibes, the former are received, in every age and country; with unhesitating affent; by the great body of the people, and the latter obferved with ftrupulous exactness. In our reafonings concerning opinions and practices, which differ widely from our own, we are extremely apt to erra Having been instructed ourselves in the principles of a religion, worthy, in every respect, of that divine wifdoin by which they were dictated, we frequently exprefs wonder at the credulity of nations, in embracing systems of belief which appear to us so directly repige

munity, either derided, or regarded by them as only fit to be upholden for the fake of its political utes.a

Or if it fhould be allowed, that the ancient heathens believ ed in their religion lefs generally than the prefent Indians do, I am far from thinking that this circumftance would afford any facility to the work of the apostles, above that of modern miffionaries. To me it appears, and I think it material to be remarked, that a disbelief of the eftablished religion of their country (I do not mean a rejection of fome of its articles, but a radical difbelief of the whole) has no tendency to difpofe men for the reception of another; but that, on the contrary, it generates a fettled contempt of all religious pretenfions whatever. General infidelity is the hardeft foil which the propagators of a new religion can have to work upon. Could a Methodist or Moravian promise himself a better chance of fuccefs with a French efprit fort, who had been accustomed to laugh at the popery of his country, than with a believing Mahometan or Hin doo? Or are our modern unbelievers in Chriftianity for that reafon in danger of becoming Mahometans or Hindoos? It. does not appear that the Jews, who had a body of hiftorical evidence to offer for their religion, and who at that time undoubtedly entertained and held forth the expectation of a future ftate, derived any great advantage, as to the extenfion of their fyftem, from the difcredit into which the popular religion had fallen with many of their heathen neighbours.

We have particularly directed our obfervations to the state and progrefs of Christianity amongst the inhabitants of India;

nant to right reafon ; and fometimes fufpect, that tenets fo wild and extravagant do not really gain credit with them. But experience may fatisfy us, that neither our wonder nor fufpicions are well founded. No article of the public religion was called in question by thofe p pcople of ancient Europe, with whofe hiftory we are best acquainted; and no practice, which it enjoined, appeared improper to them. On the other hand, every opinion that tended to diminish the reverence of men for the gods of their country, or to alienate them from their worship, excited, among the Greeks and Romans, that indignant zeal, which is natural to every people attached to their religion by a firm perfuafion of its truth." Ind. Dif. p. 321.

a That the learned Brahmins of the East are rational theifts, and fecretly reject the established theory, and contemn the rites that were founded upon them, or rather confider them as contrivances, to be fupported for their political uses, fee Dr. Robertson's Ind. Dif. p. 324-334.