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ftead of depending for its own reception on the previous accomplishment of this change. Chrif tianity does not require any fpecific alterations to be made in the regulations of civil or political fociety; but its fpirit is propitious to all good works, it mitigates the tempers of men, it unites them in worship, in humanity, and in love, and is thus highly favourable to civilization, and to the effential improvement of the nations.

Shall it be faid that the Indian wanderer has not a comprehenfion equal to the admiffion of the Chriftian doctrine? This is the current apology for the failure of the miflions, but is not the real truth of the cafe.-The human mind is not in any country below the reach of difcipline and religious inftruction. The American Indian, the Pacific Islander, and the African Negro are fhrewd men, whose intellectual capacity will not fuffer in the comparison with the uneducated claffes of people on the Continent of Europe. Indeed the popular fpeculation on national diverfities of character, as fixed appearances in the human fpecies, and the claffification of intellects, according either to phyfical causes or modes of living, is at beft but hypothefis; and in the degree to which it has been fome

times

fometimes carried, is extravagant hypothesis and prefumption. The favage people now mentioned poffefs already the fublime doctrines on which Chriflianity is reared. They acknowledge the great Spirit, and adore him with humble proftration; and they truft that they fhall again meet their friends and companions in the world of fpirits. With fo much true religion they have almost no fuperftition; and have little to unlearn, except in fome moral habits, which Christianity would correct and reform. What is there then in the state of these people which fhould wholly obftruct their reception of the truth? Were the poor of Syria and Palestine, to whom Chrift and his apoftles preached the gofpel, fo much fuperior in mental accomplishments to the fagacious Indian and the honeft Negro? This will not fatisfy an impartial inquirer, who knows the hiftorical facts, and who knows further how plain and fimple,and how happily adapted to the comprehenfion of mankind at large, the Chriftian doctrine is in its fubftance, even in all that is neceffary to falvation. It certainly does not require any previous proficiency in arts and sciences, to understand that God is good, and to love him; to own Jefus Chrift as a fpiritual Prince and Saviour; to love one another;

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ther; to be harmless and patient and gentle; to have pure thoughts and kind affections; and in fine, to receive the whole inheritance of faith, hope, and charity. I thank thee, O Father, faid our Lord, that those things which have been hid from the wife and prudent are now revealed unto babes. It is true, that the full elucidation of Christian theology is a work for the scholar and philofopher, and that the most profound research into this fubject will be repaid with new and glorious views of the riches of Divine grace, and of the treasures of the gospel; but the great lines of the Chriftian difpenfation are plain and obvious. It is also true, that if the teachers of Chriftianity themselves mistake their fubject, which is a poffible case, under the feduction of any falfe philofophy; if they go to the Mififfippi, or to the Gambia, with a fyfftem of metaphyfics in their hands, instead of the rational and attractive theology of the New Teftament, they will find that the natives are indeed utterly unprepared to attend to the jargon which is offered to them for religion, and that it is abfolutely impoffible to make converts to a scheme of hard words, nice diftinctions, and the quirks which European divines have

been

been accustomed to employ in their fcholaftic or fynodical litigations.

The effential excellence of the Chriftian re ligion was the first and leading caufe of its fuccefs in the early ages; it was supported and juftified before the Heathen by the lives of the Christians, and by the character and conduct of the teachers. The lives of the early Chriftians formed an experimental argument in favour of their religious principles; and a most interesting. argument it must have been, when, even in the third century, the writers in defence of Chriftianity were able to lay their appeal to the records of the Roman tribunals in support of their affertion, that no Chriftian had ever been brought before the imperial judges charged with any crime except his religion. To fuch innocence in civil life the Chriftians added the most cordial attachment to each other, proved by the daily practice of good works. This however was what might have been expected in a set of men who were as yet the minority in the ranks of fociety, and who were treated with harshness and indignity by the ruling powers: And their brotherly kindness within the pale of the church is lefs furprifing than their charity to

all

all other men. The principle of benevolence, which they learned among the earliest and the moft facred leffons in the school of Chrift, led them to look upon every man as a neighbour, even though a Pagan or an infidel. The zeal for good works which glowed in their bofoms rendered them all ready inftructors of others, and advocates for their religion amidst their civil tranfactions with the Heathen. The bufinefs of extending the progrefs of the gofpel was not left merely to a few ecclefiaftical miffionaries, but was the object of the faithful at large, as far as the influence and connections of each individual refpectively extended.

The prefbyters of the church, the public teachers, were indeed peculiarly active in advancing the progrefs of the great cause, and the obvious characters of their miniftry were favourable to their fuccefs. They had no selfish purpofes to ferve, no profeffional ambition to be gratified, by extending the bounds of ecclefiaftical dominion; they made no invafion on the rights of the people, no affociation of the idea of converfion to Christianity with that of subjection to a new facerdotal authority in all the points of opinion, difcipline, and worship. The Christian teach

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