Frederick IV., king of Denmark, when yet a youth, had entertained a desire for the conversion of the Heathen world; which did not leave him when he succeeded to the throne. Tranquebar, a Danish settlement on the coast of Coromandel, offered a suitable field for the experiment, to which, by the advice of his pious chaplain, he sent two missionaries, Ziegenbalg, and another, both of them natives of Germany. By information I obtained in Tranquebar, it appears that these devoted men were not treated with common courtesy on their first arrival; but Ziegenbalg, nothing discouraged by poverty and want, sheltered himself in a miserable. native hut, outside the Danish fort, during the night, and in the day attended a native school, loosening the tighter parts of his dress that he might more comfortably sit on the ground: he wrote the characters and words on the sand, like the school boys around him; till, by persevering labor and ingenuity, he obtained a competent knowledge of the Tamul language, in which he held conversations or arguments with the natives, and preached the Gospel with considerable success. He very early set about translating the Scriptures into Tamul, and was honored to see a great part of that important work completed. This was probably the first translation of the word of God into any of the vernacular tongues of India. It has passed through many editions, and has been frequently revised; and is probably the best eastern translation of modern times. Many other works of great utility and importance were issued from the Tranquebar Mission press, in the Tamul language, which are deservedly held in great estimation by the native Christians.

The extensive missions of Tranjore and Trichinopoly branched out from that of Tranquebar; and one of the most extraordinary triumphs of the Gospel was exhibited in the tract of country between those two places, under the ministry of the venerable Swartz. The Kollers were a nation of professed thieves, who subsisted on plunder from generation to generation; and paid a tribute to the native princes for the privilege of exercising their profession in pilfering their subjects. When the country fell into the hands of the British, Swartz petitioned the government that the tribute should not be received from them; and that he should be allowed to preach the Gospel to them. His petition was granted, and his ministry was successful. The Kollers embraced Christianity, and changed their manner of life. "They that stole, steal no more;' but, in the cultivation of their lands or otherwise, they work with their hands the thing that is good.' They have several places of worship: with pleasure and satisfaction I have preached to a congregation of the descendants of these converted thieves; and have conversed with some of the more aged among them, who had been personally acquainted with Swartz, and had enjoyed the privilege of his faithful ministry.

We contemplate the present decayed state of the Tranquebar Mission with mournful feelings, and the absence of that spiritual

discipline and oversight which are necessary to restore its character and usefulness. But we are cheered when we reflect that our own country, though tardy in commencement, has now been roused to a sense of the importance of India as a field of missionary enterprise, and of the responsibilities connected with the power and influence which the British nation has there attained. There are difficulties, discouragements, and delays, arising from the peculiarities of the country and its inhabitants; but it has its mighty advantages also, when compared with some other countries where missionaries are stationed; and when we remember that every section of the Protestant Church is becoming missionary in its character, and is bending some part of its force toward India, we may reasonably expect that it will not be one of the last portions of the world to be filled with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.'

Let the choicest of our missionary youth be selected for India; let the sacrifice of health and life, too frequently the consequence of close study in a tropical climate, be as far as practicable obviated by communicating to the missionaries a knowledge of the languages of the east before they quit this country; let the tens of millions of our idolatrous fellow subjects, and those who among them are in any method endeavoring to propagate the Gospel of Christ, be constantly and fervently remembered at the throne of grace; and Divine prophecy will be fulfilled: 'God shall enlarge Japhet, and he will dwell in the tents of Shem.' All the tribes and tongues of India shall unite to call Jesus Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' Amen.

Dublin.

E. HOOLE.

SCHOLASTIC DIVINITY.

WHEN We look into the Holy Scriptures, we are struck with the admirable simplicity of style which every where predominates in these sacred records. If we except some of the epistles of St. Paul, we shall find in no part of the sacred writings a connected chain of argumentation, or any systematic train of reasoning. The object of the inspired writers appears to have been to declare, not in a controversial, but authoritative manner, and that too in unambiguous language, the will of God to man; and to make known in a style, though commanding and energetic, yet chaste and simple, those doctrines and precepts which should regulate the faith and practice of mankind; and also to record those events which were necessary to be known, to give us a connected view of the history of God's providential dealings with the human family.

In this respect the book of God resembles the book of nature. In the natural world we do not behold that systematic arrangement of the different parts, which philosophy would dignify with

the name of system. Here the materials exist, in an apparently wild and irregular state, out of which the philosopher erects the superstructure by a systematic arrangement and adjustment of the several parts. The eye of an observant mind rests, indeed, with peculiar delight on the structure of the universe, viewing it as a matchless display of almighty skill, as an evidence of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator. In this universe of beings and things, he beholds that order, harmony, and adaptation of means to ends, which strike his mind with the profoundest awe, and fill his soul with admiration of the infinite skill of the great Architect of nature. But yet this order, this symmetry of parts, and this adaptation of means to ends, do not appear upon the surface of things. To see the admirable structure of the eye, for instance, requires the critical skill of the optician to analyze its parts, to ascertain their several uses, and thereby to exhibit how exactly adapted this delicate and useful organ is to answer the noble purposes for which it was made. While, therefore, it is allowed that the more minutely and critically we survey and analyze the several parts of the material universe, the more we shall be convinced of the skill of its Maker in fitting and adjusting every thing to its place, so as to answer, in the most perfect manner, the end for which it was made; it is equally manifest that all this nicety of arrangement lies too deep in the recesses of nature to come within the grasp of an unlearned or superficial observer. Nor is it necessary that it should. The farmer can profitably cultivate the earth-the mechanic can operate upon the materials furnished by, the God of nature-the sailor can navigate the ocean--without being able to philosophize with accuracy upon the visible objects which every where strike his attention; though it is allowed that the more scientifically he contemplates these things, the more intelligibly and profitably he can make them subserve his purposes.

The devout Christian is similarly situated in respect to the Holy Scriptures. In them he certainly beholds truths of the most awful grandeur, doctrines sublime and profound, precepts of the purest and most exalted character; and yet all revealed and expressed in the most chaste and simple, yet energetic style. These truths he receives with humble faith and pious gratitude, as the revelations of God's adorable will. While the deeply read theologian selects, analyzes, and arranges these truths so as to make a regular system of divinity, in which all the parts are seen growing out of, and being dependent on one another, as well as mutually explaining and sustaining each other; the humble, devout, but unlettered Christian feels the force of these truths in his heart, feeds on them by faith, and yields a cordial and loving obedience to their holy requisitions.

We do not mean to say that framers of creeds, or writers on systematic divinity, have always marred the beautiful simplicity of Gospel truth. We see no reason, indeed, why Christian theology should not be taught as a science, any more than we do why the

naturalist should not examine and arrange the materials of nature in a systematic and orderly manner. But the way in which both have often marred the beautiful simplicity which their Divine Author stamped upon them, is by substituting fanciful representations for solid truths, by introducing mere theoretical speculations to the displacing of simple facts, and by conjecturing analogies and dependences where none exist. These natural results of a fertile imagination have been the bane of true religion and of sound philosophy.

If we look into the primitive Church, for the first two hundred years after the birth of Christ, we shall find its disciples and members more distinguished by the fervor of their piety, the constancy of their faith, hope, and love, than for their systematic arrangement of Divine truths. Content with the simplicity of truth, as it was' arrayed in the Gospel, and from time to time presented to them by their ministers, who were the close imitators of Jesus Christ in their manner of teaching, they in general walked steadily along in the path of humble faith and love; being more studious to exemplify the purity of their religion in their lives, than they were to display the profoundness of their wisdom in the number and depth of their researches.

The first Christian teacher who made any considerable innovation upon the simplicity of Gospel doctrine was Origen. Coming into the Church laden with the spoils of the Platonic philosophy, he imagined that it might be made the test of every religious truth. Though he handled this matter with modest caution, well knowing that revealed truth was far beyond the reach of human philosophy; yet he seems to have flattered himself, that by accommodating the one to the other, and explaining Christianity by the rules of his philosophy, he would render the former more acceptable to the Heathen, whom it was his highest ambition to convert to the Christian faith. Notwithstanding, however, the cautious manner with which Origen introduced this method of explaining and defending the truths of Divine revelation, he set a dangerous example to his followers, who availed themselves of the license thus given them by their master; and boldly breaking loose from the restraints of a chaste and modest submission to the simple dictates of revelation, they 'interpreted, in the most licentious manner, the Divine truths of religion according to the tenor of the Platonic philosophy." It is from these teachers that scholastic theology derives its origin and from that time onward to the twelfth century, it continued to be taught under various modifications, suited to the vitiated taste, and according to the genius of those who became its admirers and advocates.

From the same principles, though the authors cannot be easily identified, came another sort of theology, equally deleterious in its influence upon the simplicity of Gospel truth, denominated mystic.

* Vide Mosheim, chap. iii, cent. 3.

Though the advocates of this new theology were undoubtedly led astray in their interpretation of Scripture, paying little attention to the literal, while they pretended to discover a hidden or mystical meaning in almost every sentence, yet they seem to have been regular in their morals, and pious in their deportment. Their distinguishing tenets were, that they who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs, who turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the avenues of the outward senses against the contagious influences of a material world, must necessarily return to God, when the spirit is thus disengaged from the impediments that prevented that happy union. And in this blessed frame they not only enjoy inexpressible raptures from their communion with the supreme Being, but also are invested with the inestimable privilege of contemplating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form."

**

From these mystics originated the doctrine which afterward became so prolific in producing hermits, monks, and nuns; as many of their first disciples, that they might enjoy more securely and perfectly that serenity of mind which they supposed could result only from great bodily austerity, voluntarily excluded themselves from human society, shutting themselves up in caves and lonely deserts. And though this practice evidently contravenes the great and fundamental laws of human nature, which derives so much pleasure from social intercourse; yet there are certain morbid sensations of mind, generated under peculiar circumstances, such as disappointments in our pursuits, mortifications under loss of property or character, which create a desire for such sort of seclusions from human society. But that true religion is hereby promoted, either in the individuals themselves, who choose this solitary and gloomy mode of life, or among mankind generally, cannot be safely admitted. Nay, it seems to be a direct infraction of the injunction of our Saviour, that we are to let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

But let us return to the schoolmen. We have already seen the origin of this sect. But although it had this early rise in the Christian Church, it did not assume much consistency of form until toward the close of the twelfth century. About this time arose Peter, bishop of Paris, surnamed Lombard, from the name of his native country. Being a man of profound erudition, he rose to great eminence in his profession; and acquired, by his learned and subtil disquisitions, great authority among the people. His followers, however, though they indulged in those fanciful interpretations of Scripture which a sober judgment condemns, did not plunge into the depths of those metaphysical speculations by which the schoolmen were distinguished. With these latter they had to contend.

* Vide Mosheim, chap. iii, cent. 3.