§ 32. The Rev. Dr. Seiss, the author of “Ecclesia Lutherana, etc.,” to whose endeavors the religious public is mainly indebted for the appearance of the present edition, remarks in a recent notice of the work: “This is one of the very greatest and most useful practical books produced by Protestantism. Though written more than two hundred and fifty years ago, it is still unsurpassed in its department. It stands out with marked and superior distinction in the modern ages. Next to the Bible and Luther’s Small Catechism, it has been more frequently printed, more widely read, and more influential for good, than any other book, perhaps, that has ever been written. Boehm has not exaggerated, when he says that its effects, in the conversion of souls, has been such, that an account of them would make a history in itself. Nor can any one candidly read it, without finding on every page, scintillations of the sunlike splendors of a mind bathed in the purity, wisdom, and love of heaven.” Mr. Boehm, in the Preface to his translation (which is the basis both of the revision of Mr. Jacques, and of the present edition), remarks, that among the learned men in Great Britain, who had read the Latin translation, the distinguished Dr. Worthington had assigned the first rank among devotional writers to Arndt, and quotes the enthusiastic terms in which he extols that “faithful servant of God, John Arndt.” And Mr. Jacques closes the Preface to his revision with the following words: “Divines of all communions and persuasions, have united in their admiration of this delightful production. The late learned Dr. Edward Williams has inserted it in his valuable Appendix to the Christian Preacher: and the Rev. John Wesley made a most copious extract from it, comprised in Vol. I. and II. of his Christian Library.” § 33. And truly God did not design this great work solely for the comfort and aid of the German nation during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), but for all nations and all times. It has been translated into the Latin, Danish, Swedish, Bohemian, Polish, Low Dutch, English, French, Turkish, Russian, Malabar, Tamul, etc., languages. At least two editions of the work in a Latin translation were published in England; the last appeared in 1708, with the following title: “Joannis Arndtii, Theologici, etc.: De vero Christianismo. Libri IV. Cura et studio A. W. Boemi. Lond. 1708.” 2 vols. 8vo.—Another Latin edition was published in Germany in 1624. The Tamul translation had the following Latin title: “De vero Christianismo, in Tamulicum convertit Benjamin Schulzius, Missionarius Evangelicus.”(2)