And both accuse the Dutch and the English of studiously inflaming the emperor of Japan, with hatred against the Por ment of Domin. Charlevoix, who has omitted nothing that would go to exeuse the Jesuits; in his Histoire générale du Japon, tom. ii. livr. xii. p. 136, &c. The other writers are mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Lux Evangelii toti orbi exoriens, cap. xl. p. 678. Add the Acta Sanctorum, tom. i. mensis Februarii, p. 723, &c. where may be seen the History of the church founded in Japan, and the life and death of those who were first put to death by the Japanese, on account of christianity. Mammachius, Origines et Antiquit. Christiana, tom. ii. p. 376, &c.[Francis Xavier first preached the gospel in Japan, in 1549. After he left that country, in 1552, great numbers were converted; and some Japanese became Jesuits. Schools and churches were erected, even in the capital Meaco. In 1585, a Japanese embassy was sent to Rome. Christianity now seemed about to become the prevailing religion; there were at least 200,000 christians; and among them, princes, courtiers, chief nobles, and generals; the Bonzes and their religion were openly ridiculed; and the emperor had excluded paganism altogether from a new city which he founded; and he was on terms of intimacy with the Jesuits. But the base conduct of the Europeans led the emperor to suspect christianity to be all a farce; and he became jealous of the designs of these strangers. He was also offended at the refusal of some converted females to surrender to him their chastity: and at the instigation of his favourite, in 1587, he commenced a persecution. All Jesuits were ordered to quit the country. Some obeyed, but others remained, under the protection of the nobles. Out of about 250 churches, 70 were pulled down. In 1590, more than 20,000 christians lost their lives. But the next year added 12,000 new converts. In 1596, a Spanish sea-captain, driven upon the coast, showed a chart of extensive countries subject to his master; and being asked how his master could conquer so many nations, he said, their missionaries went for ward, and prepared the minds of the people to favour him, and then fleets and armies made an easy conquest. This statement was transmitted to court, and produced great jealousy of the missionaries. The emperor swore the Spaniards should never thus conquer Japan; and immediately set himself to exterminate christianity, which he called a devilish law. The missionaries were imprisoned; and not a few of them as well as their converts were put to death. The persecution continued several years. Yet in 1603, there were 120 Jesuits, most of them priests, in Japan. After this, an English officer of a Dutch ship cautioned the Japanese to beware of the military enterprises of the Spaniards; and represented the priests as designing men, who had been excluded from most European countries, and who did not teach genuine christianity. This produced a fresh persecution: and in the province of Nangasaki, where there had been more than 40,000 christians, not one could be found in 1622; all had either renounced their religion or been put to death. Hitherto, however, the number of christians in Japan had not diminished greatly; and some estimates make them to have been about 400,000, and others near 600,000. But now things began to take a different turn. In 1616, Ijejas, guardian to the young prince Fidejori, (who was favourable to christianity, as were many of the nobles,) slew his ward, and proclaimed himself emperor. The Jesuits were objects of his jealousy; and various causes induced him to forbid the further spread of christianity, and the ingress of monks and priests into the country. He likewise determined to bring back the Japanese christians to the old religion. Edicts were issued for these purposes; but they were not at once rigorously executed. At length some Franciscan monks, sent as envoys from the Spanish governor of Manilla, imprudently ventured to preach openly in the streets of Meaco, and to erect a church there. This exasperated the government, and brought on a perse therese and Spaniards, and also against the Roman pontiff, so that they aloe might have sway among the Japanese, and secure their commerce to themselves. The Dutch and English reply, that neither the Spaniards nor any other adherents to the Roman pontiff were by them accused, but only that the perfidy of the Spaniards was detected. And indeed, nearly all are agreed in this, that the emperor was persuaded by certain letters intercepted by the Dutch and by other evidence bearing a strong probability, that the Jesuits and the other teachers of the new religion designed to raise a sedition by means of their disciples, and to bring Japan under the power of the Spanish king; and hence, the tyrant, equally cruel and jealous, thought he could not be safe and quiet, unless he destroyed every vestige of christianity. From this time, Japan was closed against all foreigners; and even the shadows of the christian name were exterminated with fire and sword. A few of the Hollanders, who are allowed annually to import a small quantity of European merchandise, live in an extreme corner of the kingdom, as it were inclosed in a prison. § 17. Many respectable and pious men endeavoured to rouse the Lutherans, in imitation of the catholics, to efforts for imparting christian truth to the nations buried in the darkness of degrading superstitions. No one was more zealous in this cause, than the Austrian nobleman, Justinian Ernest, baron of Wels; who proposed the formation of a society for this purpose, which should bear the name of Jesus. But there were cution, which is without a parallel in the annals of the church. Among the causes of it were, the intercepted letters, mentioned in the text, giving account of a projected insurrection of the christians, as soon as a Spanish force should appear on the coast. As soon as these letters reached the court, in 1637, decrees were passed, requiring all foreigners to quit the country at once, on pain of death; and subjecting every foreigner to the same penalty, who should ever after set his foot in the country. The return of the Japanese christians to paganism, was now peremptorily required, on pain of death. These decrees were rigorously executed and two years after, the Portuguese were all driven from the country; and only the Hollanders were allowed to introduce a small quantity of European goods, and to live, as it were imprisoned, in a corner of the empire. Thus fell the Japanese church, after it had stood very nearly a century. See Schroeckh's Kirchengesch. seit der Reform. vol. iii. p. 668, &c. Tr.] 4 Godfr. Arnold's Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie, pt. ii. book xvii. ch. xv. § 23, &c. p. 1066, and pt. iii. ch. xv. § 18. p. 150. Jo. Möller, Cimbria Litterata, tom. iii. p. 75. [In 1664, this Hungarian baron published two letters, addressed to the Lutheran community, on a reformation of man various causes, and especially the situation of the Lutheran princes, few of whom possessed any territories or fortified posts out of Europe, which prevented this matter from ever proceeding beyond good wishes and consultations. But the Reformed, and especially the English and the Dutch, whose mercantile adventures carried them to the remotest parts of the world, and who planted extensive colonies during this century in Asia, Africa, and America; enjoyed the best advantages for extending the limits of the christian church. Nor did these nations wholly neglect this duty; although they are taxed with grasping at the wealth of the Indians, but neglecting their souls, and perhaps they did not perform so much as they might have done. Among the English, in the year 1647, by an act of parliament, the business of propagating christianity was committed to the care of a society composed of men of the highest respectability and integrity. This society was revived in the reign of Charles II. A. D. 1661; and again confirmed, and invested with extraordinary privileges and rights, by William III. in the year 1701; and being enriched with the splendid donations of kings, nobles, and private individuals, has continued down to our own times. From this noble institution, great advantages ners, and efforts for the conversion of the heathen. In the first, he proposed these three questions:-Is it right, that we evangelical christians should keep the gospel to ourselves, and not seek to spread it abroad?—Is it right, that we every where encourage so many to study theology, yet give them no opportunity to go abroad; but rather keep them, three, six, or more years, waiting for parishes to become vacant, or for the posts of schoolmasters-Is it right, that we should expend so much in dress, high-living, useless amusements, and expensive fashions; yet hitherto have never thought of any means for spreading the gospel-His proposal to form a missionary association, was approved by some, but objected to by others, especially among the higher clergy. He himself advanced 12,000 dollars for the object; went to Holland on the subject; and at length shipped for the Dutch West Indies, to embark himself in missionary labour: but he was no more heard of. Some feeble attempts were made to get up a missionary association afterwards; but to no purpose, during this century. See the authors above cited Tr.] 5 Kennet, Relation de la Société établie pour la Propagation de l'Evangile par le Roy Guillaume III. Rotterd. 1708. 12mo. [In 1649, an ordinance was passed by the English parliament, for the erection of a corporation, by the name of the President and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England; and a general collection for its endowment was ordered to be made in all the countries, cities, towns, and parishes, of England and Wales. Notwithstanding very considerable opposition to the measure, funds were raised in this manner, which enabled the Society to purchase lands, worth from five to six hundred pounds a year. On the restoration of Charles II., the corporation became dead in law; and colonel Bedingfield, a Roman catholic, who had sold to it an estate of £322 have been derived, and are still daily derived, by many nations ignorant of Christ, and especially those in America. By the labours of the Dutch, an immense number of people in the island of Ceylon, on the coast of Malabar, in the island of Formosa, and in other countries of Asia, (which the Dutch either conquered from the Portuguese, or otherwise brought under their power,) are said to have renounced the impious rites of their fathers. If perhaps some extravagance may be found in these narrations, yet it is most certain, that this nation, after it had obtained a firm establishment in the East Indies, adopted, at great expense, various measures well calculated to imbue the natives with a knowledge of christian principles'. per annum, seized upon that estate, and refused to refund the money he had received for it. But in 1661, a new charter was granted by the king; and the honourable Robert Boyle brought a suit in chancery against Bedingfield, and recovered the land. Boyle was appointed the first governor of the company, and held the office about 30 years. (See Wm. Brown's History of the Propagation of Christianity, vol. i. p. 62, &c. ed. New York, 1821, and Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, ed. of Toulmin, Boston, 1817. vol. iv, p. 433, &c. but especially the Connec ticut Erang. Magazine, vol. iv. p. 1,&c.) It was this Society which supported the various missionary operations in New-England, during the seventeenth century. Their expenditure in the year 1661, amounted to £738. 8s. 1d. or 3282 dollars. Tr.] 6 See the Letters addressed to John Leusden, de Successu Evangelii apud 1699. 8vo. 7 See Jo. Brauns, La véritable Religion des Hollandois, p. 71, 267, &c. Amsterd. 1675. 12mo. This work is an answer to the malignant tract of Stoup, entitled La Religion des Hollandois; in which he would insinuate, that the Dutch have no regard for religion whatever.-[The Dutch conquered Ceylon from the Portuguese, about the middle of this century; and immediately established there the protestant religion, excluding all others from every office. The Portuguese inhabitants, and the natives both catholics and pagans, in large numbers, embraced the established faith, at least in pretence. The country was divided into 240 parishes: a church was erected, and a school established in each. Every ten schools had a catechist, who was their superintendent. About 15 clergymen were assigned to the island. In 1672, Baldaus, one of the Dutch ministers, gives account of 30 native churches in the province of Jaffnapatnam; in which were about 30,000 attendants on worship upon Sundays, and about 16,000 pupils in the schools during the week. Near the close of the century, Dr. Leusden wrote to Dr. Increase Mather, of Boston, "that in and near the island of Ceylon, the Dutch pastors had baptized about 300,000" of the natives. (Mather's Magnalia, b. iii. vol. i. p. 510. ed. Hartf. 1820.) The Dutch had also translated and published in the Cingalese language, considerable portions of the Bible; besides catechisms, prayers, and other christian books. The Dutch having possessed themselves of a large part of the island of Java, opened a church in Batavia, the capital, in the year 1621. Pursuing much the same plans here as at Ceylon, in the year 1721, they could reckon 100,000 christians in Java; and two Dutch, two Portuguese, and one or two Malay churches at Batavia. The New Testament in Malay, was printed at Amsterdam, 1668, at the expense of the Dutch East India Com § 18. As the interior parts of Africa proper have not yet been accessible to the Europeans, they still remain wholly destitute of the light of christian truth. But in the maritime parts, especially those where the Portuguese have obtained settlements, the power of the barbarous superstitions has here and there been prostrated, and the Romish rites have succeeded in their place. Yet the ingenuous even of the Romish communion do not deny, that the number of those in this part of the world who deserve the appellation of genuine christians, is but small; that the greater part so worship Christ, as at the same time to follow the abominable superstitions of their fathers; and that even the best of them have many defects. What little advances christianity has made in that country, are to be ascribed altogether to the efforts of the Capuchins, who encountered incredible toils and hardships in bringing some of the ferocious nations of Africa to a knowledge of Christ. They persuaded, among others, the kings of Owerra and Benin of the truth of christianity; and induced the very cruel and heroic queen of Matamba, Anna Zingha, in 1652, to allow herself and people to be baptized. pany. Soon after establishing the gospel in Java, the Dutch sent ministers from Batavia to the island of Amboyna; and in 1686, it is said, they had converted 30,000 of the natives. Here, too, schools were established, and a number of ministers stationed, at the expense of the Dutch East India Company. In 1634, the Dutch formed a settlement on the western part of the island Formosa. Robert Junius, of Delft, was sent out by the Dutch government to establish christianity there. He is said to have baptized 6000 persons; and to have set up schools, in which about 600 young men were taught to read. He composed some prayers, and translated certain Psalms into the Formosan language: and though his labours were chiefly in the northern parts of the island, yet he had planted churches in twenty-three towns in the south, and had set pastors over them, when he returned to Holland. In 1661, the Gospels of Matthew and John were translated into the Formosan language, by Daniel For the Roman pontiffs, or Gravius, and printed at Amsterdam, together with a catechism. But, probably, before these books reached the island, it was captured by a Chinese pirate; and it has since belonged to the Chinese.-Besides the converts in these places, the Dutch made many others in Sumatra, Timor, Celebes, Banda, Ternate, and the neighbouring Molucca Islands. See Brown's Hist. of the Propagation of Christianity, vol. i. ch. iii. p. 15-28. Tr.] 8 For illustration of these facts, besides Urban Cerri, Etat présent de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 222, &c. see Jo. Anton. Cavazzi, Relation Historique de l'Afrique [d'Ethiopie] Occidentale; which Jo. Bapt. Labat published in French, tom. iii. p. 432, &c. tom. iv. p. 28. 354, &c. and nearly the whole work, which is chiefly occupied with the history of the missions performed by the Capuchins in Africa during the last century. [Dr. Maclaine finds all these references totally wrong. Schlegel says; Dr. Mosheim meant Father Fortunatius Alamandini's Italian his |