A

BRIEF SKETCH

OF THE

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

§ 1. Preface. § 2. Prosperous events of the church generally, and especially of the Popish church.-§ 3. The Jesuits and their institutions in China.§ 4. Protestant missions.—§ 5. Adverse events. Private enemies of christianity. § 6. Atheists: Deists.-§ 7. Romish church: the pontiffs.-§ 8. Prospects of peace between the Evangelical and the Papists frustrated.—§ 9. Intestine discords of the Romish church. Jansenist contests.-§ 10. Quesnel. The bull Unigenitus.-§ 11. Commotions from it in France.-§ 12. Supports of the Jansenists in France. Francis de Paris.—§ 13. State of the eastern church.-§ 14. External state of the Lutheran church.-§ 15. Its internal state.-§ 16. Intestine foes.-§ 17. The Herrenhutters. Zinzendorf. 18. Cultivation of philosophy among the Lutherans.-§ 19. The Wertheim translation.-§ 20. Pietistic controversies.-§ 21. State of the Reformed Church.-§ 22. Projects for union between the Lutherans and the Reformed.-§ 23. State of the English church.—§ 24. Various sects in England. Whitefield.-§ 25. State of the Dutch church.-§ 26. Controversy in Switzerland respecting the Formula Consensus.—§ 27. The Socinians. Arians.

§ 1. THE ecclesiastical history of the century now passing, affords matter for a volume, rather than for a few pages; and may expect, among those who come after us, an ingenuous and faithful historian of its own. But that the present summary may not be defective, and that myself, and perhaps others, may have a thread to guide our lectures, I will just run over

the principal subjects, and in a few words state the occurrences most worthy of notice in our own age. That the size of the book may not be unnecessarily swelled, authorities will be omitted. For what man of learning is so ignorant of the state of literature, as not to know, that there are innumerable works, from which our dry and insipid narrative might be filled out and made interesting?

§ 2. The christian name has been propagated with equal zeal, by papists and protestants, in Asia, America, and Africa. I say the christian name, not the christian religion. For it is demonstrable, that very many of those whom the Romish missionaries persuade to forsake idolatry, show themselves to be christians only in name, and as to certain ceremonies and outward forms, not in reality and in spirit; nor do they quit superstition, but only exchange one species of it for another. Among the papists, the Jesuits, and among the Jesuits, the French especially, are represented as explaining genuine christianity, with distinguished success, to barbarous nations which knew not God. And the fact is not to be denied, provided it is allowable to call those people christians, who have some knowledge of Christ, however imperfect it may be. At least it is true, that the French gathered large congregations of such christians in the East Indies, especially in the kingdoms of Carnate, Madura, and Marava, on the coast of Malabar, and in China, Tonquin, and elsewhere; and also in some provinces of America, since the time that Anthony Veri assumed the office of superintendent of the sacred missions, and by great efforts procured both men and money adequate for so great an undertaking. But these missionaries were so far from effacing the former stain upon the character of the Jesuit preachers, that they rather deepened it. For they are represented as pursuing their own honour and emolument rather than the interests of Christ; and as ingeniously corrupting strangely the holy religion of our Saviour in order to obtain the more proselytes.

§ 3. The famous question, whether the Jesuits residing in China advocated the cause of Christ well or ill among that discerning people, who are so exceedingly attached to their ancient rites; was decided in the year 1704, by Clement XI, in a

manner adverse to the Jesuits. For he declared it criminal for the new christians to practise the rites of their ancestors; and especially those rites by which the Chinese honour their deceased ancestors and Confucius. But this severe edict was considerably mitigated in the year 1715; and, doubtless, for the sake of appeasing the angry Jesuits. For the pontiff decreed, that it is allowable for the teachers of the Chinese to designate the divine nature by the word Tien; provided they add the word Tchu, to remove the ambiguity of the word Tien, and to make it appear that the christian teachers adored the Lord of heaven, (for this is the meaning of the phrase Tien-Tchu,) and not heaven itself. He also allowed those rites to be practised which gave so much offence to the adversaries of the Jesuits; provided all superstition and appearance of religion were avoided, and that these rites were regarded as mere testimonies of respect for their ancestors, or as marks of civil honour. The Chinese christians, therefore, according to this decree of Clement, may keep in their houses tablets, on which are written in golden letters the names of their ancestors and of Confucius: they may lawfully honour them with lighted candles, with incense, and with tables set out with viands, fruits, and spices: nay, they may address these tablets and the graves of their ancestors as supplicants, prostrating themselves to the ground. The first or more severe edict was carried to China, by Charles Thomas Tournon, in the year 1705; and the second or milder one, by Charles Ambrose Mezzabarba, in the year 1721. But neither of them satisfied the emperor and the Jesuits. Tournon executing the commands of his master with less prudence than the case required, was, by order of the emperor, thrown into prison; where he died in the year 1710. Mezzabarba, though much more cautious and prudent, returned without effecting his object for the emperor could by no means be persuaded to allow any innovations to be made in the ancient customs and institutions of the country. At present, the state of christianity in China being extremely precarious and dubious, this controversy is entirely suspended. And many considerations induce us to suppose that the pontiff and the accusers of the Jesuits throw no obstacles in the way of the Jesuits' adhering to their own regulations, rather than

VOL. IV.

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to those sent them from Rome. For many evils must be patiently borne, in order to avoid the far greater evil, the overthrow of the Romish religion in China'.

§ 4. The English and the Dutch, but especially the former, made much greater efforts than before to spread the knowledge of christianity among the nations of Asia and America. Among the efforts of this kind by Lutherans, the noblest and most successful is the institution of Frederic IV., king of Denmark; who, in the year 1706, sent out missionaries to preach christian truth to the Indians on the coast of Malabar. This mission, the purest and best of all, not only still flourishes, being supported by the very best regulations, but through the munificence of that excellent king, Christian VI., it is daily becoming more and more brilliant. The men who labour in it, I admit, make fewer christians than the papal missionaries; but they make far better ones,-real disciples, and not apes of disciples of Jesus Christ. The Russians have bestowed labour, not in vain, for the conversion of some of the nations bordering on Siberia.

§ 5. While the glory of Jesus Christ has been increasing in the remotest parts of our world, through the labours, the perils, and the anxious solicitudes of these missionaries, great numbers in Europe have made it their business to obscure this glory and to tread it in the dust. There is no country of Europe, and almost no sect of christians, in our age, which does not nourish in its bosom persons who endeavour either to blot out all religion and all fear of God, or at least, to sink the dignity and lessen the influence of christianity. Nowhere does this pest to the human race more abound, nowhere does it more boldly come forth to the light of day, than in the free states of Holland and England. Nor is it rare to meet, especially in England, with books which impudently deride and set at nought, not only the whole religion of Christ, but also the

[All these events are stated far more fully in Dr. Mosheim's Most recent Ecclesiastical History of China, (in German,) Rostock, 1748. 8vo. In opposition to this, was published at Augsburg in 1758. 8vo. and at Innspruck: The most recent events in China; with a solid confutation of

many unjust and erroneous statements of Dr. Mosheim, in his Most recent Eccl. Hist. of China, written from Pekin, by R. P. Floriano Bahr, then rector of the Jesuits' college in China. But this refutation only makes the correctness of Mosheim's book appear the more manifest. Schl.]