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CHAPTER III.

Small Increase of Christians since the first Ages.

THE enlarged view, given in the last chapter, of the faith required of those, who were chosen to be labourers in the Lord's vineyard, as comprising both a persuasion that he was effectually interfering to establish and propagate this Divine religion upon earth, and also an active disposition to use the means in their power, whether miraculous, natural or acquired, furnishes an answer to the objection, which may be made, against the Divine origin of the religion, from the small increase, which has for many centuries been made, beyond the pale of the former Christians and their immediate descendants. A miraculous power was necessary at the first introduction of this religion, to prove that it came from God, and an extraordinary support and supernatural influence, to enable it to overcome the obstacles which were every where opposed to it but having been once thoroughly established by these means, it does not at all weaken the evidence of its Divine origin, that they were by degrees withdrawn, and that it was afterwards left to be maintained and propagated by the usual ways of persuasion' and example, by which other necessary branches of knowledge

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1 See Law's Theory, p. 33-40. and p. 177-187.

are spread. Some degree of civilization seems necessary for the reception of this religion at all; it cannot therefore be expected that the profession of it should be found among savages: but it has been the fault of the Christian nations that they have introduced themselves into heathen countries, whether barbarous or civilized, by means very little adapted to make the natives in love with their religion; and that they have not endeavoured to introduce civilization and their religion together, when they have been in a situation, however obtained, which afforded them the opportunity of doing so, and of which their duty imperiously demanded they should avail themselves. In some instances, as in Japan, they have done worse, and have occasioned the very name of a Christian to be detested by a people, who seemed not very much indisposed to accept the invitation offered them. Our own nation, though enterprising and profuse in every thing, which could advance our temporal prosperity, has been more faulty than most others, in not even providing sufficiently for the mainte

* See the reply of the Cazique of Cuba to the Franciscan, who endeavoured to convert him.-Robertson. Book III. Cuba. After the conquest was made, the government of Spain endeavoured to protect the Indians; and the Spanish clergy, both regular and secular, from the first so behaved to the natives, that they have all through considered them as their natural guardians.-Ibid. Book VIII.

nance of religion among the professors of it settled in our extensive possessions abroad; in suffering the churches built by the late possessors, as in Ceylon, to go to decay; and in almost entirely neglecting for two hundred years (what the French have not neglected,) the religious education of even the children of the poor Africans, transported by us from their own country to a state of slavery in another. Indeed an adequate provision has never been made for instructing the individuals of all classes in religion at home. This neglect not only prevents the increase of the actual number of Christians here; but, like a canker in the bud, destroys the hope of gaining any great multitude abroad: for it is not to be expected that those, who were not Christians when they went, should persuade many to be Christians where they go. religious societies and pious individuals, with very limited means, have formed exceptions to the general apathy; and a better spirit seems now to prevail, both in the nation at large, and in the legislature; which every one, who really values the blessings both in time and eternity, conferred by the Christian revelation, will earnestly pray to the Author of our Salvation, that he will be pleased to prosper to a good end.

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But not only is the little progress made in the propagation of Christianity in these later ages,

to be lamented, but still more, the almost total extinction of it in countries, where it was for

merly flourishing. If you follow the history of the church from its first through its declining ages, you will not be at a loss to discover reasons, why Providence should suffer this deplorable event to come to pass, and the imposture of Mahomet to supersede it in so large a portion of the world. For "all authors3 agree, that what gave him the greatest room to advance his new religion, was the distracted, ignorant, corrupt state of the Eastern church at that time; the miserable contentions and most horrid persecutions on every religious pretence; the dissoluteness of all sects and parties." This terrible blow to the Christian cause, as well as that apparent inactivity in the progress of the Gospel among heathen nations, which has so long prevailed, together with the corruption which debases it and represses its real energy in a large proportion of Christendom, are the consequences of evil propensities in them, to whose fostering care it has been entrusted but

3 Law's Theory of Religion, note in p. 175. Compare however, what he says of Mahometanism, with Maundrell's first letter at the end of his journey to Jerusalem. To read the charges which Salvian brings against the Romans of the fifth century, we almost regret they had not renounced the name of Christian, before they tarnished it with such vicious conduct.De Gubern. passim.

none of the fluctuations in the reception, purity or practice of it at different times and in different places, which arise from the viciousness of those who profess it, can be urged in argument against the belief of the constant superintendence of the Divine Author of it from the first; that can be disproved only by the failure of his promise, that it shall never be abolished from the earth, till he appear again to judge all men according to it.

In the mean time our confidence in his promise is confirmed by the accordance, which these variations in the condition of the Church present, with the intimations given in his prophetical parables*. When true religion lay apparently dormant in that long night, which succeeded the fall of the Roman empire, it had not lost the active principle of the leaven, to which it was compared; but in due time burst forth in these parts, at the revival of literature, with increased force; and shewed that its divine power was not lost, by its effect on the hearts of those, who made the word of God the rule of their faith and conduct. The clearer insight, which we have been every day gaining, into the meaning of that word, and the better spirit which we imbibe from it, give a reasonable ground of hope,

* Matt. xiii. 3, 4. Whitby and Grot. on ver. 10.

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