Thus her mind, amidst great distress of body, seemed to be exercised about the future welfare of her family, but more especially for the cause of God. She watched every symptom of approaching dissolution, with a kind of submissive anxiety, and every evidence of her departure, as a welcome friend. Patience seemed to have its perfect work. With a mind calm as the summer's evening, happy as a bright prospect of suddenly entering on the employment of departed spirits, could make it, without a groan, but with this language, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," she ceased to speak and ceased to live, Sabbath evening, Oct. 15, 1820, in the 44th year of her age.

ROWLAND LATHROP.

Miscellaneous.

EXPERIMENTAL VERITY.

· Extract of a letter from Miss N. T. to Miss S. B. New-York.

It stands

THAT God who blesses you is still my friend. That Saviour on whose merits you trust is my Redeemer and Mediator. He now pleads my cause before the Father, and through his intercession I find blessings divine communicated by the Holy Spirit to my soul. Though many discard the incomprehensible doctrine of the Trinity, to me it is a glorious subject of contemplation. As I meditate upon the wisdom of the Great Jehovah, manifested in the different offices of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost I behold new beauties, adorable excellencies, and amazing condescension in every varied form. And as I behold, I love the great Author of Redemption, and my hopes of salvation, through the plan which is revealed to worms of earth, grow stronger. My confidence in the sacred promises is unshaken. upon a rock which Socinian heresy can never destroy. Unworthy, weak and sinful by nature, I should have no hope if the wing of mercy was not spread over me; but under that I stand secure, depending on the meritorious intercession of that divine character who was once clothed in humanity, and who knows all my infirmities and sends his Holy Spirit to direct and help me. My heart grows warm while I write. I love my Jesus, and feel the inward testimony to witness with my spirit that I am born of God. I pity those who embrace error, and when I reflect upon the eternal consequence my soul flies to my Saviour for protection. Oh! that I may be preserved in the belief and practice of the truth. I would gladly spend the remaining days of my existence in praising Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Oh! that I

might express the gratitude and love I feel by doing the will of God in every act of obedience, that when called from earth I may engage in this blessed employment with the glorified spirits who surround the throne and behold his glory continually.

SIR,

From the London Methodist Magazine.

ORIGINAL LETTER OF MR. WESLEY.

To the Editor of Lloyd's Evening Post.

SOME years since, a gentleman published "An exact translation of the Koran of Mahomet," with a design to contrast it with the Bible, and show how far preferable it was; consequently, how greatly Mahometanism was preferable to Christianity.

As this had not all the desired effect, another gentleman has lately published an exact translation of the Koran of Indostan, of the Shastah of Bramah, undoubtedly with the charitable design to contrast this with the Bible, and to show, how great is the preeminence of Indian Paganism over Christianity.

Letting alone a thousand wonderful assertions scattered up and down his work, I would only at present, 1. Give an extract from this curious book, in the words of this writer; 2. Examine what he says concerning the antiquity of it and of the nations that hold it sacred; 3. Observe some instances of this author's esteem for the Bible; adding some cursory remarks.

And, first, I am to give an extract from this curious book. "The rebellious angels groaned in hell for four hundred and twenty-six millions of years. After this, God relented. He then retired into himself, and became invisible to all the angels for five thousand years. Then he appears again, and said, 'Let the fifteen regions of punishment and purification appear, for the residence of the rebellious angels; and let them be brought from hell to the lowest of these regions.' And it was so. And he prepared bodies for their closer confinement, and said, 'Herein they shall undergo eighty-seven transmigrations, for their punishment, and purgation. Then they shall animate the form of a cow, and afterward, the form of man. This is their eighty-ninth transmigration. If they now have any good works they shall pass from earth into the second region of punishment and purgation, and so successively through the eight, and then through the ninth, which is the first region of purification.""

Accordingly, "The souls that animate every mortal form, whether of man, beast, bird, fish, or insect, are fallen angels in a state of punishment."

"When God began to create the world, he fought with two giants for five thousand years. Then he commanded his first-born

creature, Birmah, to create the fifteen regions of punishment and purgation. And Birmah straightway formed a leaf of Betel, and thereon floated on the abyss. Then Bistnow, his second-made creature, transformed himself into a mighty boar, and descending into the abyss, brought up the earth on his back. Then issued from him a mighty tortoise, and a mighty snake, and he put the snake erect on the back of the tortoise, and put the earth on the snake's head."

"The world is to continue six millions of years in all, of which 359,126 are to come."

Such is the substance of the Shastah; far more wonderful than the Tales of the Fairies. This, Mr. H. gravely styles the word of God, and seems to believe every word of it.

As to the origin of it, we are told, "Four thousand eight hundred and seventy-four years ago, an angel received the laws of God, written in the language of angels, came down to Indostan, and assuming a human form, translated them into the language of the country, calling them Chartah Bhade Shastah of Bramah; that is, the four Scriptures of Divine words of the mighty Spirit which he promulged as the only means of salvation."

I am, secondly, to examine what is said on the antiquity of this, and of the nations that hold it sacred. "For a thousand years the Shastah remained pure; but then it was corrupted by a bad paraphrase; and still more about five hundred years after, which was 3,374 years ago."

But what proof have we of this? Why, "This account we have had from some of the Bramins, and from the most learned of the Laity. And in the earliest ages the Bramins were famed for their wisdom, by the concurrent testimony of all antiquity." Pray cite a few testimonies from authors that wrote four or five thousand years ago. We know of none such. If we except the Bible, we know of no book that is three thousand years old. And we see no reason to think, that letters have been in use so much as four thousand years.

If" Zoroaster and Pythagoras did visit them about the time of Romulus," (which I do not allow,) what then? Romulus did not live three thousand years ago; and Zoroaster, a late author has sufficiently proved, to be no other than Moses himself. The antiquity, therefore, of the Shastah is utterly uncertain, being unsupported by any clear authority.

Equally doubtful is the antiquity of that empire. Nay, "Indostan, by their own accounts, was peopled as early as most other parts of the known world." But who can rely on their own accounts? This authority is just none at all. But "the first invaders of it found the inhabitants a potent, civilized, wise, and learned people: Alexander the Great found it so." No. Arrian and Q. Curtius (the only writers who give us the particulars of that expedition) say quite the contrary. But "the Gentoo records

affirm it, which mention the invasion of a great and, mighty robber." I answer, 1. How is it proved this was Alexander the Great? There have been more great and mighty robbers than him. But if it was, 2. Of what antiquity was he who died little above two thousand years since? 3. Of what authority are the Gentoo records? As much as the visions of Mirza.

But "these doctrines were universally professed by the Gentoos, some thousand years before Christ; and the Metempsychosis was held in the most early ages, by at least four fifths of the earth; and the Gentoos were eminently distinguished in the most early times." Roundly asserted: but that is not enough: a little proof would do well.

Here it is at last. "The Gentoos admit no proselytes to their faith or worship." This proves their great antiquity. I know not how: The consequence halts sadly. But see another argument. "This is also proved by the perpetuity of their doctrine, through a succession of so many ages." Right, when that succession is proved.

A third proof! "Pythagoras took his doctrines from them, which the Egyptians took from him." I am an infidel as to both these facts, till I see some proof of them. His true doctrines I believe Pythagoras learned from the Egyptians, and they from the Israelites.

I come in the third place, to observe some instances of this writer's esteem for the Bible.-"We profess ourselves," says he, "an unworthy, though zealous subscriber, to the pure original Scriptures:" but for fear you should believe him, he immediately adds, "and propagate no system, but what coincides with every religious creed that has been or is now, professed throughout the known world." Why are there not a hundred religious creeds now in the world, that are flatly contradictory to each other? How then can your system coincide with them all? Certainly you do not understand the word. But if it coincides both with Paganism and Mahometanism, it does not with Christianity. For you every where strike at the root of those Scriptures on which alone it is built. This I shall briefly shew, both with regard to Moses, the Law, the Prophets, and the New Testament.

As to the first, "Moses' detail of the Creation and Fall of Man, is clogged with too many incomprehensible difficulties to gain our belief." (Add, for decency's sake, "that it can be understood literally.") Hence his anger at Milton's "diabolical conceits:" Because he has shewn that detail, in all its parts, to be not only simple, plain, and comprehensible, but consistent with the highest reason, and altogether worthy of God.

Again: "To suppose the Indians less the care of God than the Israelites."—that is, to suppose he ever had a peculiar people or that he regarded the seed of Jacob more than that of Esau, "This VOL. V.

14

would arraign his justice." Then what is Moses, who perpetually supposes this throughout the whole Pentateuch?

As to the Law: "Nothing but the devil himself," (insert, for decency, "The Bramins say") "could have invented bloody sacrifices, so manifestly repugnant to the true spirit of devotion, and abhorrent to," (it should be, abhorred by) "God.".

This is a home thrust at the Mosaic Law, wherein without shedding blood there was no remission. Therefore, with him, it is "manifestly repugnant to the true spirit of devotion, and abhorred by God."

As to the Prophets: "God's prescience" (so he affirms) "of the action of free agents, is utterly repugnant and contradictory to the very nature and essence of Free Agency." If so, the inference is plain: The Prophets were all a pack of Impostors. For it is certain, they all pretended to foretel the actions of Free Agents.

And this strikes at the New Testament also, werein there are numerous Prophecies. But here, indeed, the mask quite falls off. He laughs at "the reveries of Paul;" (well he might! how unlike those of his apostle, Bramah !) and tells us in plain terms, "that only the words of Christ himself are the pure original Scriptures." Nay, herein he allows too much, for some of his words foretel the actions of Free Agents.

And lest we should urge the death of the Martyrs in favour of Christianity, we are told, (which he that can believe, may) "The contempt of death is the character of the Gentoo nation. Every Gentoo meets death with a steady, noble, and philosophical resignation." And yet "The Gentoos, in general, are as degenerate, crafty, and wicked a people, as any in the known world."

To complete the contrast between the doctrines of our Bible, and his Bible, the Shastah, he adds, "The fundamental points of Religion were impressed on the heart of man at his creation; and he never has, and never will be able to efface them. These primitive truths are, 1. The being of a God, the Creator and Preserver of all things. 2. The existence of three prime created beings. 3. The creation of angels. 4. The rebellion of part of them. 5. Their fall from heaven. 6. The immortality of the soul. 7. Future reward and punishment. 8. That one angel tempted the other angel, and now tempts men. 9. The necessity of one, or more Mediators, for the expiation of sin. 10. An intermediate state of punishment and purification after death. 11. The existence of a golden age, wherein men used no animal food: And, 12 The ministration of angels. These were the primitive truths revealed by God to man, and the only ones necessary to man's salvation !” Is not this inimitable?

"Hither, ye eastern Bramins, come!

Hither, ye Western Locusts, Monks of Rome!
Behold the frontless, all imposing man,

And match him with your Priestcraft if ye can.”