against him, but that of all his predecessors; for he himself declares, that as far as his knowledge extends, this method has not produced a single instance of genuine Christian piety! Nor indeed was it likely, We have already seen that a written translation was needed even for the "pative clergy" though it had been withheld from the lay converts and the natives in general. Without this continually to consult, any one acquainted with the Scriptures, needs only to reflect on the treachery of his own memory, in order to convince himself how soon they must lose the precise expressions which preserve those truths that enter into the life of christian piety; and how soon when these are lost, piety would become a shadow, and Christianity a mere name, even among protestants. Had the Abbé therefore been as full of the divine word as Paul himself, still these "native clergy" on whom would devolve the care of keeping religion alive in the native flocks, must have suffered greatly by trusting to his verbal translation of it, unless he had like Paul, written them Epistles from time to time, and like Peter, have labored, that "they might be able after his decease to have these things always in remembrance, even though they knew them and had been established in the present truth." And surely the Abbé's "native clergy" must have needed it as much as those whom Peter describes as "established in the truth," Yet we hear nothing of the Abbé's epistles,-except the Six Epistles now before us, intended to persuade the Christian world to let India perish wholly for lack of knowledge! What a contrast between Peter's ideas and his, on the subject of communicating divine truth!

But if ideas of the vital truths of the gospel taught verbally, might have become thus indistinct on the minds of these native clergy supposing them to be pi

ous men, how much more indistinct and vapid must they have been when repeated by them to others, if what our Abbé declares be true, that they are men destitute of genuine piety! In this case, as "the natural man receiveth not the things of God" even when he has them set before him in the written word; it is no wonder if when received orally, the very essence of the gospel should be lost, and nothing remain to resist the superstition and idolatry with which they are surrounded.--And if the Abbé and his predecessors, while they withheld from their native clergy the written word, mixed what they taught them verbally, with doctrines regarding "processions, images, holy water, prayers for the dead, and invocation of saints," is it strange that the result was the complete extinction of every spark of piety? withholding from them the written word therefore, the Abbé and his predecessors, although they acted wisely relative to upholding their own credit, (for in the Scriptures their proselytes would have found no trace of any of these!) they by this course, sealed the death-warrant of every thing like real piety, as they thereby rendered it impossible for any individual among them to discern how far he had forsaken the truth, and hence to recover himself to a life of genuine godliness.

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Such then is the invariable effect of giving even "native clergy" merely a verbal translation of the word from day to day. Had the written word been given them to study in an idiom familiar to them, as it is able to make men wise unto salvation," one among a multitude of them at least might have been converted to God amidst the general degeneracy, and thus Lave become the means of imparting vital piety to others. But of such an event our Abbé's withholding the word in a Written Translation, removed the most distant pos

sibility. His experience and that of his predecessors for three centuries, therefore, is decisive against every attempt to spread Christianity among the heathen without giving them a WRITTEN Translation of the Holy Scriptures into the idioms of the country.

Nor is the practice of the Apostles, particularly Peter, and John, and Paul, less against the Abbé's plan. They, it is true, translated the word of God verbally into the idiom of every people with whom they conversed; and as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they did this without the least mixture of error. But they also committed their ideas to writing as soon as possible, and in the mean time constantly referred their hearers to the Written Scriptures then in circulation among them. This they did in the very first sermon preached after the day of Pentecost, under which no less than three thousand souls were wounded to the heart with a sense of guilt, and cried out; "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" We also find Paul directing the attention of his hearers at Jerusalem,—at Antioch in Pisidia,—at Cesarea, and even at Rome, to the written scriptures: and as already hinted, those in Berea are described as searching the scriptures daily "to see whether these things were so;" and we find it added by the Holy Spirit, "therefore maof them believed."

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These facts may be of service in regulating our expectations of conversion among the Hindoos. While no one can positively say, since success depends on the sovereign will of God, in what way it will be given in India; yet were we to reason both from apostolic example, and from what has been seen in the revivals of religion which have occurred since, we might be led to conclude that any very extraordinary degree of success in conversion among the Hindoos, is not to be expected 'till

after the Sacred Scriptures shall have had such a circu lation among the natives in the idioms of the country, that the preacher can direct them to the scriptures already in their hands, and appeal to their own consciences whether these things which they verbally deliver, be not according to the Word of Truth. This was evidently the course adopted by the apostles Peter and Paul, although so richly endowed with miraculous gifts: and we see no reason why the absence of these, should render an appeal to the Scriptures of truth in any degree less necessary. But however this may eventually be, the effect of the written scriptures in the idioms of their own country in causing those who may be converted, to "grow in grace" till they become "thoroughly furnished unto every good work," is too evident to need mentioning; as well as the facility they afford for preserving in their purity both the doctrine, and the practice of Christianity.

Further the value of a Written or printed translation as the means of extending Christianity in a country, has never yet been fully appreciated. While oral instruction extends only to one circle, a thousand copies of the Scriptures may form competent and unvarying to make men wise unto salvation. It has been already hinted, that in point of correctness a written has unspeakably the advantage over an extemporaneous and verbal translation of the word of God, and that it is constantly needed both to furnish and to correct even that extemporaneous translation given by preachers. But in addition to this, its capacity of extent through the use of the press in the present day, which can multiply copies of the Scriptures a thousand fold beyond what was ever found in apostolic times, furnishes a moral pow→ er, the effects of which in diffusing Christianity among heathens possessed of a written language, when God

shall be pleased to apply it by his Holy Spirit, have never yet been fully known.

We have now met all that our Author has advanced in his work against the gospel's taking root in India; and against the Translation of the Scriptures being given in the idioms of the country. In doing this we fear that our constant reference to the Divine Records, may almost have tired our readers; although their good sense will easily discern, that on so important a subject, to be decided alone by scripture, no other course remained, particularly when our author had professed to found on the Scriptures, the fanaticism which has made him place India with its unborn millions "under an everlasting anathema."

In thus referring to the Divine Records however, we have accomplished nearly the whole of our work. It has been shown from scripture that the Abbé's own want of success and that of his predecessors for these three or four centuries, was the natural effect of the course they adopted. His not having seen one sincere christian, only adds force to the argument: from such seed it was impossible that living fruit should arise. An answer has also beeu furnished to every thing he has said respecting the Hindoos, for if they be more flagrantly and malignantly wicked than any other nation on the face of the earth, and if all this originate in their idolatrous system, as our author affirms; still since God will cause all nations to serve the Redeemer, this will only furnish an opportunity for more fully magnifying his Almighty power, by famishing the gods of India above all others, and causing those tribes most deeply sunk in idolatry and iniquity, to be "to him for a name and a praise in the midst of the earth."

We have likewise obtained from the Scripture anan