India Christiana. A discourse, delivered unto the Commissioners, for the Propagation of the Gospel…

Upon this Good Work, there are Two or Three REMARKS, with which I am now Briefly to Entertain you.

In the First Place, It is a matter of Humble Gratitude unto GOD our SAVIOUR, that so much of His Work in this matter, has appeared unto His weak Servants, and of His Glory in it, unto their Children. The desolate Indians, that survived the Mortal Contagion, which had newly and strangely swept away such Multitudes, as to make some Room for the European VINE that was Transplanting hither, were the most forlorn Ruins of Mankind, and very doleful Objects. Their way of living was lamentably Barbarous. Beyond all Expression Dark were their Notions of a God; and Chepian, or the Evil God, had as great a share as Kautantowit, or the Good God, in their Adorations, The Manicheans (as great a Tribe of Heretics as ever were in the World) may boast of these, as being really Theirs. Tho' they saw a People Arrive among them, who were Clothed in Habits of much more Comfort & Splendour, than what there was to be seen in the Rough Skins with which they hardly covered themselves; and who had Houses full of Good Things, vastly out-shining their squalid and dark Wigwams; And they saw this People ⟨p. 29⟩Replenishing their Fields, with Trees and with Grains, and useful Animals, which until now they had been wholly Strangers to; yet they did not seem touched in the least, with any Ambition to come at such Desirable Circumstances, or with any Curiosity to enquire after the Religion that was attended with them. To Humanize these Miserable Animals, and in any measure to Cicurate them & Civilize them, were a work of no little Difficulty; and a Performance little short of what One of our most famous Physicians esteemed the Greatest Cure that ever himself had wrought in all his Practice; To bring an Idiot unto the use of Reason. But then, to Raise these Miserables up, unto an Acquaintance with, and an Experience of, the Christian Religion, and bring them not only to Know something of their SAVIOUR, but also to Live unto GOD by Him; A Noble Work This; But every One must say, No very Easy One!

In the First Place, It is a matter of Humble Gratitude unto GOD our SAVIOUR, that so much of His Work in this matter, has appeared unto His weak Servants, and of His Glory in it, unto their Children. The desolate Indians, that survived the Mortal Contagion, which had newly and strangely swept away such Multitudes, as to make some Room for the European VINE that was Transplanting hither, were the most forlorn Ruins of Mankind, and very doleful Objects. Their way of living was lamentably Barbarous. Beyond all Expression Dark were their Notions of a God; and Chepian, or the Evil God, had as great a share as Kautantowit, or the Good God, in their Adorations, The Manicheans (as great a Tribe of Hereticks as ever were in the World) may boast of these, as being really Theirs. Tho' they saw a People Arrive among them, who were Clothed in Habits of much more Comfort & Splendour, than what there was to be seen in the Rough Skins with which they hardly covered themselves; and who had Houses full of Good Things, vastly out-shining their squalid and dark Wigwams; And they saw this People