the ancient Chinese philosophers, (who, they think, had just ideas of natural religion,) to denote very clearly such a God as the christians worship: and therefore, they would not prohibit their converts from continuing to use those terms, in their prayers and discourses, to designate the supreme Being; nay, they used them constantly themselves, to denote the true God. But their adversaries maintain the contrary opinion; and contend, that the ancient philosophy of the Chinese was full of impiety, and made no distinction between God, the divine Spirit, and nature, or the material world. They assert moreover, that Confucius himself, whom the Chinese hold in the highest veneration, was a stranger to religion and piety, and one who supposed, that all existing things arose necessarily into being in the course of nature. This disagreement gave rise to very learned discussions, concerning the customs, laws, and opinions of the ancient Chinese; which have, indeed, made us acquainted with many things that were previously not well understood, but they have not decided the point for which they were undertaken. It seems, that entire assent is not to be given either to the positions of the Jesuits, or to those of their adversaries; and that the TIEN of the ancient Chinese, was indeed far inferior in his attributes to the God of christians, and yet was something different from the visible heavens or the air.

§ 14. The ancient laws of China require the people, annually, at stated seasons, to honour their deceased ancestors, with certain ceremonies which seem to be of a religious nature; and moreover, all the literati of the nation at certain times, must pay a kind of worship, which also seems to have a religious aspect, to the philosopher Confucius, (who is accounted the father of all wisdom,) in the buildings consecrated to him. Hence, a second question is, whether those honours, which the Chinese are required to pay to the souls of their deceased ancestors, and all the literati to Confucius, are civil honours, or religious; whether they are sacrifices, or only regulations established for state purposes. The Jesuits say, the ancient Chinese lawgivers instituted these rites, to keep the people in order, and to preserve the tranquillity of the state; that the Chinese do not offer religious worship to the souls of their ancestors, or to Confucius, but only testify by certain ceremonies their grate

ful sense of the merits and the benefits both of their ancestors and Confucius, and engage to copy after their example. And hence they conclude, that it is allowable for christians to observe these sacred rites of their country, provided they understand the true nature and grounds of them, and always keep in sight the object of their institution. And whoever wishes to see the cause of christianity flourish and advance in China, can scarcely think differently from the Jesuits, whether their statements are erroneous or correct. For it has been established, by public law, for many ages, that no one shall be accounted a good citizen in that country, or be admitted to any office in the state, who does not perform the ceremonies in question. But the Dominicans and the other opposers of the Jesuits, contend, that these rites are no small part of the Chinese religion; that Confucius, and the souls of their ancestors, are objects of religious worship to the Chinese; and of course, that such as observe these rites, offer an affront to the divine majesty, and cannot be accounted christians. The more candid among the Jesuits themselves do not deny that this is a very difficult question to decide: and hence some of them, at last, resorted to the plea of necessity; and urged, that minor evils, if productive of the greatest advantages, are scarcely to be accounted evils'.

[Had the early christians reasoned thus, they might have escaped persecution from the pagan Roman emperors, who only required of them to obey the public laws of the land, and thus to show themselves good citizens. No it is only on the supposition that those Chinese rites were merely cicil, and not religious, that it could be consistent for christians to comply with them. Tr.]

["The public honours paid to Confucius twice a year, used to be performed before his statue, erected in the great hall or temple, that is dedicated to his memory. At present they are performed before a kind of Tablet, placed in the most conspicuous part of the edifice, with the following inscription: The throne of the soul of the most holy and the most excellent chief teacher, Confucius. The literati, or learned, celebrate this famous

festival in the following manner: The chief mandarin of the place exercises the office of priest, and the others discharge the functions of deacons, sub-deacons, and so on. A certain sacrifice, called Ci, which consists of wine, blood, fruits, &c. is offered, after the worshippers have prepared themselves for this ceremony by fasting and other acts of abstinence and mortification. They kneel before the inscription, prostrate the body nine times before it, until the head touches the ground, repeat a great variety of prayers; after which, the priest, taking in one hand a cup full of wine, and, in the other, a like cup filled with blood, makes a solemn libation to the deceased, and dismisses the assembly with a blessing. The rites performed by families, in honour of their deceased parents, are pretty much of the same nature."

Now

§ 15. Japan, at the commencement of this century, was filled with an astonishing multitude of people, whom the Jesuits especially, had convinced of the excellence of the christian religion. But this very brilliant success was disturbed somewhat, partly by the hatred of christianity, entertained by the national priests and some nobles in the court, which gave rise to severe persecutions, in one place and another, both of the newly converted christians and their teachers; and partly by the internal broils and contentions, among those who had the charge of this rising church. For here, as in other countries, the Augustinian, Dominican, and Franciscan missionaries, waged a most pernicious war against the Jesuits. For they taxed them, both at the court of Rome and elsewhere, with insatiable avarice, with excessive indulgence both to the vices and the superstitions of the Japanese, with a crafty management unbecoming the ministers of Christ, with an eagerness to reign and give law, and with other crimes of no less magnitude. The Jesuits on the other hand complained, that their accusers, by their imprudence, their ignorance of human nature, their pertinacity, the asperity of their manners, their rustic mode of life, and other faults, injured rather than promoted, the pro

"Now in order to know, with certainty, whether this festival and these rites be of a civil or a religious nature, we have only to inquire, whether they be the same with those ceremonies that are performed by the Chinese, in the worship they pay to certain celestial and terrestrial spirits or genii, which worship is undoubtedly of a religious kind. The learned Leibnitz (Praf. Novissim. Sinicorum,) undertook to affirm, that the services now mentioned were not of the same kind, and, consequently, that the Jesuits were accused unjustly. But that great man does not appear to have examined this matter with his usual sagacity and attention. For it is evident, from a multitude of relations every way worthy of credit, and particularly from the observations made on the Chinese missions, by that learned and candid Franciscan Antonio de S. Maria, (Epp. Leibnitz, vol. ii.) not only that Confucius was worshipped

among the idols, and the celestial and terrestrial spirits of the Chinese, but that the oblations and ceremonies observed in honour of him, were perfectly the same with those that were performed as acts of worship to these idols and spirits. Those that desire a more ample account of this matter may consult the following authors: Budæi Annal. Histor. Philos. p. 287, where he treats De superstitioso Demortuorum apud Sinenses Cultu.Wolfii Not. ad Casaubon. p. 342.-Nic. Charmos, Annot. ad Maigrotti Historiam Cultus Sinensis. But more especially Arnaud, Morale Pratique des Jesuites, tom. iii. vi. vii, and a collection of historical relations published at Cologne, in 8vo, in the year 1700, under the following title: Historia Cultus Sinensium, seu caria scripta de Cultibus Sinarum inter Vicarios Apostolicos, et PP. S. I. controcersis." Macl.]

gress of the christian cause among that high-minded and discerning people. Yet all these causes were by no means adequate to arrest the progress of christianity, or to bring very great evils upon the immense multitude which had made profession of this religion. And, perhaps, means might have been devised at Rome, if not for entirely removing, yet for quieting and tempering these contentions'.

§ 16. But in the year 1615, the emperor of Japan himself commenced a most direful persecution against the christians, the like to which is not to be found in the whole history of the christian church; and this persecution continued many years, and did not cease, until it had exterminated christianity from that empire. For the christian religion was judged to be altogether intolerable; because it was deemed ruinous to the safety of the nation, and to the majesty of their supreme pontiff, whom the populace of Japan believed to be the offspring of the gods themselves, and also to the most sacred institutions and religion of their ancestors. The foreign christians, therefore, the Portuguese especially, and the Spaniards, were required to depart the kingdom: and the Japanese, who had renounced their idols, were required to abandon Christ, or undergo the most cruel death. This dreadful persecution destroyed an innumerable multitude of people, of every class, age, sex, and rank, who preferred to die amidst the most exquisite tortures, rather than violate their vows of fidelity to Christ. And if either the Jesuits, or their adversaries, were guilty of faults while pleading the cause of Christ; they now, as it were, atoned for them, by their own blood. For most of them surrendered themselves to death for Christ, with the greatest firmness, and some of them with joy and triumph.-The causes of this horrid persecution are differently stated, by different parties. The Jesuits throw some of the blame on the imprudent conduct of the Dominicans and Franciscans: and these, in return, ascribe it to the avaricious, factious, arrogant temper of the Jesuits".

2 Besides the writers mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Lux Ecangelii toto orbi exoriens, cap. xl. p. 678, &c. see Domin. Charlevoix, Histoire du Japon, tom. ii. lib. xi. &c. p. 57, &c.

3 Engelbert Kaempfer has given a

neat account of this protracted business, in the sixth of those Dissertations, which he has annexed to his History of Japan; § 4, &c. p. 64-75, of the English edition. But it will also be reasonable to hear the fuller state

And both accuse the Dutch and the English of studiously inflaming the emperor of Japan, with hatred against the Por