considered as no crime-that every one takes as many concubines as he can keep that many of the common people pawn their wives in time of need; and some lend them for a month, or more, or less, according as they agree-that marriage is dissolved on the most trifling occasions-that sons and daughters are sold whenever their parents please, and that is frequently—that many of the rich, as well as the poor, when they are delivered of daughters, stifle and kill them—that those who are more tender-hearted will leave them under a vessel, where they expire in great misery-and finally, that notwithstanding this, they all, except the learned, plead humanity and compassion against killing other living creatures, thinking it a cruel thing to take that life which they cannot give. Montesquieu says, "The Chinese, whose whole life is governed by the established rites, are the most void of common honesty of any people upon earth; and the laws, though they do not allow them to rob or to spoil by violence, yet permit them to cheat and defraud." With this agrees the account given of them in Lord Anson's Voyages, and by other navigators-that lying, creating, stealing, and all the little arts of chicanery abound among them; and that, if you detect them in a fraud, they calmly plead the custom of the country.* Such are the people by whom we are to be taught the use and practice of natural theology!

If credit could be given to what some writers have advanced, we might suppose the moral philosophy and virtuous conduct of the Hindoos to be worthy of being a pattern to the world. The rules by which they govern their conduct are, as we have been told, "Not to tell false tales, nor to utter any thing that is untrue; not to steal any thing from others, be it ever so little; not to defraud any by their cunning, in bargains, or contracts; not to oppress any when they have power to do it."†

Very opposite accounts, however, are given by numerous and respectable witnesses, and who do not appear to have written under the influence of prejudice. I shall select but two or three.

* See Leland's Advantages and Necessity of Revelation, Vol. II Part II. Chap. IV.

+ Harris's Voyages and Travels, Vol. I. Chap. II. § 11, 12.

Francis Bernier, an intelligent French traveller, speaking of the Hindoos, says, "I know not whether there be in the world a more covetous and sordid nation.-The Brahmins keep these people in their errors and superstitions, and scruple not to commit tricks and villainies so infamous, that I could never have believed them, if I had not made an ample inquiry into them."*

over measure.

Governor Holwell thus characterizes them: "A race of people, who, from their infancy, are utter strangers to the idea of common faith and honesty."-"This is the situation of the bulk of the people of Indostan, as well as of the modern Brahmins: amongst the latter, if we except one in a thousand, we give them The Gentoos in general are as degenerate, superstitious, litigious, and wicked a people, as any race of people in the known world, if not eminently more so; especially the common run of Brahmins; and we can truly aver, that, during almost five years that we presided in the Judicial Cutchery Court of Calcutta, never any murder, or other atrocious crime, came before us, but it was proved in the end a Brahmin was at the bottom of it." t

Mr. afterwards Sir John Shore, and Governor General of Bengal, speaking of the same people, says, "A man must be long acquainted with them before he can believe them capable of that barefaced falsehood, servile adulation, and deliberate deception, which they daily practice. It is the business of all, from the Ryott to the Dewan, to conceal and deceive; the simplest matters of fact are designedly covered with a veil, through which no human understanding can penetrate." ‡

In perfect agreement with these accounts are others which are constantly received from persons of observation and probity, now residing in India. Of these the following are extracts: "Lying, theft, whoredom, and deceit, are sins for which the Hindoos are notorious. There is not one man in a thousand, who does not

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* Voyages de Francois Bernier, Tome I. pp. 150. 162. et Tome II. p. 105.

+ Holwell's Historical events, Vol. I. p. 228. Vol. II. p. 151.

Parliamentary Proceedings against Mr. Hastings, Appendix to Vol. II. p.

make lying his constant practice. Their thoughts of God are so very light, that they only consider him as a sort of plaything. Avarice and servility are so united in almost every individual, that cheating, juggling, and lying, are esteemed no sins with them; and the best among them, though they speak ever so great a falsehood, yet it is not considered as an evil, unless you first charge them to speak the truth. When they defraud you ever so much, and you charge them with it, they coolly answer, It is the custom of the country--In England, the poor receive the benefit of the gospel, in being fed and clothed by those who know not by what principles they are moved. For when the gospel is generally acknowledged in a land, it puts some to fear, and others to shame ; so that to relieve their own smart they provide for the poor: but here, O miserable state! I have found the pathway stopped up by sick and wounded people, perishing with hunger; and that in a populous neighbourhood, where numbers pass by, some singing, others talking, but none showing mercy; as though they were dying weeds, and not dying men."*

Comparing these accounts, a reader might be apt to suppose that the people must have greatly degenerated since their laws were framed; but the truth is, the laws are nearly as corrupt as the people. Those who examine the Hindoo Code,† will find them so; and will perceive that there is scarcely a species of wickedness which they do not tolerate, especially in favour of the Brahmuns, of which order of men, it may be presumed, were the first framers of the constitution.

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Let the reader judge, from this example of the Hindoos, what degree of credit is due to antichristian historians, when they undertake to describe the virtues of heathens.

From this brief statement of facts, it is not very difficult to perceive somewhat of that which Christianity has accomplished with regard to the general state of society. It is by no means denied

* Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Mission, No. II. p. 129. No. III. pp. 191. 230. No. IV. p. 291.

↑ Translated from the Shanscrit, and published in 1773.

that the natural dispositions of heathens, as well as other men, are various. The scriptures themselves record instances of their amiable deportment towards their fellow-creatures.* Neither is it denied that there are characters in christianized nations, and that in great numbers, whose wickedness cannot be exceeded, nor equalled, by any who are destitute of their advantages. There is no doubt but that the general moral character of heathens is far less atrocious than that of Deists who reject the light of revelation, and of multitudes of nominal Christians who abuse it. The state of both these descriptions of men, with respect to unenlightened pagans, is as that of Chorazin and Bethsaida with respect to Sodom and Gomorrha. But that for which I contend is, the effect of Christianity upon the general state of society. It is an indisputable fact, that it has banished gross idolatry from every nation in Europe. It is granted, that where whole nations were concerned, this effect might be at first accomplished, not by persuasion, but by force of arms. In this manner many legislators thought they did God service. But, whatever were the means by which the worship of the one living and true God were at first introduced, it is a fact that the principle is now so fully established in the minds and consciences of men, that there needs no force to prevent the return of the old system of polytheism. There needs no greater proof of this than has been afforded by unbelievers of a neighboring nation. Such evidently has been their predilection for pagan manners, that, if the light that is gone abroad among mankind permitted it, they would at once have plunged into gross idolatry, as into their native element. But this is rendered morally impossible. They must be Theists or Atheists; Polytheists, they cannot be.

By accounts, which from time to time have been received, it appears that the prevailing party in France have not only labored to eradicate every principle of Christianity, but, in one instance, actually made the experiment for restoring something like the old idolatry. A respectable magistrate of the United States,† in his Address to the Grand Jury in Luzerne County, has stated a few +Judge Rush.

* Gen. xxiii.

of these facts to the public. "Infidelity," says he, "having got possession of the power of the State, every nerve was exerted to efface from the mind all ideas of religion and morality. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, or a future state of rewards and punishments, so essential to the preservation of order in society, and to the prevention of crimes, was publicly ridiculed, and the people taught to believe that death was an everlasting sleep.”

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“They ordered the words Temple of Reason' to be inscribed on the churches, in contempt of the doctrine of revelation. Atheistical and licentious Homilies have been published in the churches, instead of the old service; and a ludicrous imitation of the Greek mythology exhibited, under the title of the Religion of Reason.' Nay, they have gone so far as to dress up a common strumpet with the most fantastic decorations, whom they blasphemously styled, The Goddess of Reason,' and who was carried to church on the shoulders of some Jacobins selected for the purpose, escorted by the National Guards and the constituted authorities. When they got to the church, the strumpet was placed on the altar erected for the purpose, and harangued the people, who, in return, professed the deepest adoration to her, and sung the Carmagnole, and other songs, by way of worshipping her. This horrid scene-almost too horrid to relate-was concluded by burning the prayer-book, confessional, and every thing appropriated to the use of public worship; numbers, in the mean time, danced round the flames, with every appearance of frantic and infernal mirth."

These things sufficiently express the inclinations of the parties concerned, and what kind of blessings the world is to expect from atheistical philosophy. But all attempts of this kind are vain: the minds of men throughout Europe, if I may for once use a cant term of their own, are too enlightened to stoop to the practice of such fooleries. We have a gentlemen in our own country, who appears to be a sincere devotee to the pagan worship, and who, it seems, would wish to introduce it; but, as far as I can learn, all the success which he has met with, is to have obtained from the public the honorable appellation of the Gentile Priest.

Whatever we are, and whatever we may be, gross idolatry, I presume, may be considered as banished from Europe; and,