tuguese and Spaniards, and also against the Roman pontiff, so that they alone 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 Jesus1. But there were

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 Schrocckh'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.]

lie

5 Kennet, Relation de la Société étabpour 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'.

§ 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 Amboy na; 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

rather the society at Rome which superintends the propagation of christianity, have judged that African missions, for various reasons, were attended with peculiar dangers and difficulties, and could not well be performed by any but those early accustomed to austere modes of living and to the endurance of hardships. Nor did the other Romish monks appear to envy the Capuchins very much, their hard-earned glory.

§ 19. The India of the West, or what is commonly called America, is inhabited by innumerable colonists, professing the Romish religion, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. But these, especially the Spanish and Portuguese, as appears from the testimony of the most respectable men, themselves belonging to the catholic church, are, even the priests not excepted, the lowest and most abandoned of all that bear the christian name, and surpass the pagans in ridiculous rites and flagitious conduct'. Those of the aboriginal Americans who have been reduced to servitude by the Europeans, or who reside in the vicinity of Europeans, have received some slight knowledge of the Romish religion from the Jesuits, Franciscans, and others; but the little knowledge they have received is wholly obscured by the barbarity of their customs and manners. Those catholic priests of various orders and classes, who in modern times have visited the wandering tribes of the forests remote from the settlements of Europeans, have learned by experience, that the Indians, unless they cease to roam, and become civilized, are absolutely incapable of receiving and retaining on their minds the principles of christianity. And hence, in some

torical Description of the kingdoms of Congo, Matamba, and Angola; Bologna, 1687, fol. whose statements the Italian Capuchin and missionary, Jo. Anton. Cavazzi de Montecavallo, has copied. And these last, Labat actually translated, in a free manner, into French, and published in five volumes, 12mo, Paris, 1732, under the title: Relation Historique de l'Ethiopie Occidentale. And this last is the work which Mosheim had in his eye; and not that of the same Labat, which was also published in five volumes, 12mo, in 1528, entitled, Nourelle Relation de l'Afrique Occidentale. Tr.]

See the authors mentioned by Jo.

Alb. Fabricius, Lux Ecangelii toti orbi exoriens, cap. xlviii. xlix. p. 769, &c. The state of the Romish religion in that part of America occupied by christians, is briefly exhibited by Urban Cerri, Etat présent de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 245.

1 See in particular, Frezier, Voyage du Mer du Sud, p. 167. 218. 328.353. 402. 417. 432. 533.

2 An immense number of facts on this subject, are found in the Letters, which the French Jesuits wrote to their European friends, respecting the success of their missions, and caused to be published at Paris.