English
morality so defe£live and unsound, extorted, fropi a writer, who cannot be accused , of bigotry, the follpwing aniriqiated eulogy, n , " Christianity vindicates all its glories, all its honors, and all its reverence, when we behold the most horrid impieties committed amongst the !?68 nations on whom its influence does not shine, as a£tions necessary in the common conduct of life ; I mean poisoning, treachery, and assassina- tion, among the sons of ambition ; rapine, cruelty, and extortion, among the , ministers of justice. I leave to divines, by more san£lified reflexions', to vindicate the cause of their religion and'their God."i This vindication has been attempted in' the preceding discourses; and whateVeJ maiy be their imperfeftions in many other respe£ls, let itnot be said, in depreciation of any ^arguments which have been offered, that the represeritation of the Brahminical system has been dravvn with a; partial hand; that its disagreeabfe- features have been invidiously protuded; that the deformities inherent in it, are nothing more than deviations from its^ original perfection ; -and that the breath of vulgar superstition has sullied an otherwise beautiful theory of morals. The effe£is on the moral cha- rafter, which have been here 'pointed' out, are the natural' and necessary' conseqnences of the Brahminical creed ; some of the^se defle£liohs from the sound -principles of morality, are ex- pressly enjoined in the Hindoo code ; others'are Orme. a^9 tafiitly aljowiei;; arid all of them are in perffeft con- formity with the jgiijniBd&e: spirit of the Hindoo religion. . To jliQSe who are in.%ed't0 entertain a' high opinion QfJiwlian morality, and of the; Indian charadter, but who af e nevertheless, willing to, admit the- indisputabler :tru;th, that the national charaSiSr iSd(Btehmned! by the national religiori, and that iinational) prosperity is. inseparably: conn nested with; Rational -virtu^,ya short, but, sati* faftory, r answer rha^- be given. If there be any man, who i has. passed the < early peidodi of ' his lifbcin an Asiatic climate, and particularly in India,, who i from a few soIitaryiinstanc.es, has formed adjudgment of the Asiatic chara^r, and who re-ivisits his native shores enonapurdd of Asiatic government, and of Asiatic superstition t, tb.sufah. a man, it may Hij. fearlessly replied-, that be has returned with his discovery too 'late ,- that the whole course of Oriental history is against him ; Eknd.that ;history, furnishes a more certain criterion of manners and morals, than any Specious opinions/ derived from partial and prejudiced observation.. The pathetic invocation which the Florentine Secretary once uttered in b^halfiiof Italy, would 270 be strictly applicable to India, if a native of India were capable of feeling the depressed condition of his country. '* If," says this able politician, *^ for the mani- festation of the courage of Moses, it was necessary that the Israelites should be captives in Egypt ; for discovery of the magnanimity; of 'Cyrus, that the Persians should be oppressed by the Medes ; and- foi: the illustration of the excellence of Theseus, that the Athenians should be banished and dispersed ; so. to demonstrate and evince the necessity of an Italian spirit, it- was necessary that Italy should be, reduced to its present condi- tion i that it should be in greater! bondage than the Jews ; in greater servitude than the ;Persians j and in greater dispersion than the Athenians ; without a head, without order, harrassed, spoiled, overcome, overrun, and ^ overwhelmed with, all kind of calamity."" No words can convey a more faiithfulidescrip- tion of India, not only of its present state; but of its past condition;; and this description will tend to counteraft the unjust insinuations, which have been urged against the conduQr of European t Macbiavellii II, Principi c. g& in i^atiotis in the East. They have been accused of introducing into the territories subjefl: to their empire, those evils which they found there : they have been accused of fostering 'those seeds of anarchy, which are the spontaneous .produ£Hon'of the soil. But European conquest, far from ag- gravating, has tended to mitigate the calamities of India ; and it is a pleasing consolation to refle£t, that the period will arrive,' though ■ srbwly yet necessarily will arrive, when it will be seen how much she is indebted to the enterprising spirit of the riations of the! West. The time will arrive when the rays of intellectual light,;which we have so lon^i enjoyed, though late in their approach, shall again visit the Eastern world. i.,i Nos primus e(ii>i?;orii^ns.afllavit?inhelisj ; j ' .. Illic sera vubens accendit lumina vesper.' To hasten this happy azra must be the wish of every heart adldated by Christian benevolence. But the duty of communicating, instrufition of any kindi as it must be prosecuted by human means, fpust be undertaken in that manner, which accord- ing to.prohable calculation, will be attended with success. This duty is binding, only, where such a i Virgil Georg. Lib. J, v, 2Sa 272 prospe£l is affordedfj and on this account, every effort should' be direfted, with an ardor propor- tionable to the, wants and the wishes of those, whom we propose to; instruft, as well as jto our own powers -and opportunities of conuniinica,t}ng instru£ti6nk .- ■ .. Thus, if the case be stated concerning the differ- ence between the Africans I an<i the Asiaticsj it must be concluded, that,, with itejspeft to the, former, the duty is positive. Now description; of men are moraiversatile in .disposition than the Africans! '; in no instance do the necessities of the people raore loudly call for^ the intervention of some benevolent hand, to" rescue them from ignorance, and the miseries attendant on igno- rance ; in no instance can it he more imperiously demanded as a debt of justice, in order'to atone for the calamities inflifted by avarice and cupidity on that unhappy quarter of the Globe. i With respe£t to the Asiatics, and particularly the professors of the Brahminical faith, the case is different. Of their inflexible adherence to the religious opinions of their ancestor, sjuffic^t evidences have beert' adduced in the preceding discourses ; of their moral wants it has been truly observed, that if they are not the, most enlightened 273 they are the most refined people that ever existed in the world ; of their disposition to embrace the Christian faith it cannot be denied, that all attempts to introduce it into India, have been either fruitless, or attended with faint hopes of success. This however is a field of enquiry which has been alreadypre-occupied : but is still ample in its limits ; for on every question which becomes a subjefl: of general discussion, if it be difficult to produce novelty, it is equally difficult to preserve silence. Besides, silence is always suspe£led, and is imputed either to ignorance, to indecision, or to timidity. If therefore a future discourse shall be devoted to the consideration of the prafitica- bility of converting the natives of Hindoostan to the truths of Christianity, and of the probable success of those methods, which have been hither- to employed to accomplish that important end j whatever difference of opinion may be found in it, from some of those which have been offered to the world, that difference, it is hoped, will be received with candor ; nor can the attempt itself be attributed to any other motive, than to an honest desire of being useful. DISCOURSE IX. ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF INTEODUCING CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. DISCOURSE JX. ON THE PBACTICABILITY OF ,, " ' ', ' INTRODUCING CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. Galatians 6, V. 10. While we have time let us do good unto all men, and especially unto them which are qf the home- hold of faith. Throughout the preceding discourses. It has been the obje£t, rather to dounteraft those popular attacks which have been made on the ChHstian faith, through the mediuttl of orieiltal mythology, thanl to suggest Stiy methods, by which oriental superstition might be supplanted, by the intfodufititrn of a purer system of morality. They have been executed with a humble hope, that they may prove instrumental in preserving our countrymen, resident in our eastern settle- ttients, from the contagion of infidelity • but they have not been direfited to the arduotis task of correfting the erroneous opinions of tlje htinlic'rous inhabitants of India. t3 278 Faithful to the original design, the present discourse, though intended to discuss the expe- diency and prafticability of propagating the Gospel among o-^r Indian s.ubieftsj (and the at- tempt can be expedient only, as far as it is rationally prafticable) will chiefly refer to the religious wants of those, who have higher claims on our benevolence, and among whom our bene- volence may be niore effe£lually, and more use-, fully exerted, If it be necessary to insist on the propriety of this conduft, or if it be necessary to adduce any authority, in order to prove its propriety, we have the san£lion of the Apostolical precept contained in the text; we have the sanftion of experience to convince us, that by aimipg at obje£ls above huihan power or wisdom to ac- complish, we often lose sight of those, vvrhich are wjthin our reach j and that the most compre- hensive designs must be executed by slow and gradual advances, However we may have reason to lament the disappointment, which the missionaries of modern times have experienced in the work of conversion, yet their want of success affords an argument in favor of our religion, which cannot be too fre- 279 quently repeated ; because the evidence, which it gives "of the divine i