SECT I. watched, and rigorously confined from all commu- CENT. XVIL nication with the natives, but what is essentially necessary to the commerce they are permitted to carry on. Protestant XVII. The example of the Roman catholic states missions in Acould not but excite a spirit of pious emulation in sia. protestant countries, and induce them to propagate a still purer form of Christianity among those unhappy nations that lay groveling in the darkness of paganism and idolatry. Accordingly the lutherans were, on several occasions, solicited by persons of eminent merit and rank in their communion, to embark in this pious and generous undertaking. Justinian Ernest, baron of Wells, distinguished himself by the zealous appearance he made in this good cause, having formed the plan of a society that was to be intrusted with the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, and that was to bear the name of Jesus, the divine founder of the religion they were to promote. But several circumstances concurred to prevent the execution of this pious design, among which we may reckon, principally, the peculiar situation of the lutheran princes, of whom very few have either territories, forts, or settlements beyond the limits of Europe. This was by no means the case with the princes and states who professed the reformed religion. The English and Dutch, more especially, whose ships covered the ocean, and sailed to the most distant corners of the globe, and who moreover, in this century, had sent colonies to Asia, Africa, and America, had abundant opportunities of spreading abroad the knowledge of Christianity among the unenlightened nations. Nor were these opportunities entirely neglected, or misimproved, notwithstanding the reports that have generally prevailed, of their * See Molleri, Cimbria Literatu, tom. iii. p. 75, as also a German work of the learned Arnold, entitled, Kirchen und Ketzer Historie, part ii, book xvii. c. xv. § 23, p. 1066, part iii. cap. xv. § 18, p. 150. SECT. I. CENT. XVII. being much more zealous in engrossing the riches So of the Indians than in bringing about their conversion; though it may perhaps be granted, that neither of these nations exerted themselves, to the extent of their power, in this salutary undertaking. In the year 1647, the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts was committed, by an act of the English parliament, to the care and inspection of a society composed of persons of eminent rank and merit. The civil wars that ensued suspended the execution of the plans that were laid for carrying on this salutary work. In the year 1661, under the reign of Charles II. the work was resumed, and the society re-established. In the year 1701, this respectable society received singular marks of protection and favour from king William III. who enriched it with new donations and privileges.f Since that period, even to the present time, it has been distinguished by ample marks of the munificence of the kings of England, and of the liberality of persons of all ranks and orders, and has been, and continues to be, eminently useful in facilitating the means of instruction to the nations that lie in pagan darkness, and more especially to the Americans. Nor are the laudable efforts of the United Provinces, in the advancement and propagation of christian knowledge, to be passed over in silence; since they also are said to have converted to the gospel a prodigious number of Indians, in the islands of Ceylon and Formosa, the coasts of Malabar, and other Asiatic settlements, which they either had acquired by their own industry, or obtained by conquest from the Portuguese. Some historians perhaps may have exaggerated, in their relations, the numbers of proselytes made by the Dutch; it is f See Humphreys's Account of the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. & See Epist. de Successu Evangelii apud Indos Orientales ad Johan. Leusdenium scriptas et Ultraject. 1699, in 8vo. editas. SECT. 1. nevertheless most certain, that as soon as that nation CENT. XVII. had got a sufficient footing in the East Indies, they laid with wisdom, and executed, at a great expense, various schemes for instructing the natives of those distant regions in the doctrines of the gospel.h missions. XVIII. The inward parts of Africa remain still in The African the darkness of paganism, as they have been hitherto inaccessible to the most adventurous of the Europeans. But in the maritime provinces of that great peninsula, and more especially in those where the Portuguese have their settlements, there are several districts in which the religion of Rome has prevailed over the savage superstitions of that barbarous region. It is nevertheless acknowledged, by the more ingenuous historians, even among the Roman catholics, who have given accounts of the African colonies, that of the proselytes made there to the gospel, a very small number deserve the denomination of christians; since the greatest part of them retain the abominable superstitions of their ancestors, and the very best among them dishonour their profession by various practices of a most vicious and corrupt nature. Any progress that Christianity made in these parts must be chiefly attributed to the zealous labours of the capuchin missionaries, who, in this century, suffered the most dreadful hardships and discouragements in their attempts to bring the fierce and savage Africans under the christian yoke. These attempts succeeded so far, as to gain over to the profession of the gospel the kings of Benin and Awerri,i and also to engage the cruel and intrepid Anna Zingha, queen of b See Braun's Veritable Religion des Hollandois, p. 71, 267, &c. This Treatise, which was published at Amsterdam in the year 1675, was designed as an answer to a malignant libel of one Stoup, entitled, La Religion des Hollandois, in which that writer proposed to persuade the world that the Dutch had almost no religion at all. SECT. I. CENT. XVII. Metamba, and all her subjects, to embrace, in the year 1652, the christian faith. The African missions were allotted to this austere order by the court of Rome, and by the society de propaganda fide, for wise reasons; since none were so proper to undertake an enterprise attended with such dreadful hardships, difficulties, and perils, as a set of men, whose monastic institute had rendered familiar to them the severest acts of mortification, abstinence, and penance, and thus prepared them for the bitterest scenes of trial and adversity. The capuchins also seem to have been alone honoured with this sacred, but arduous commission; nor does it appear that the other orders beheld, with the smallest sentiment of envy, their dear bought glory. The American missions. XIX. The extensive continent of America swarms with colonies from Spain, Portugal, and France,' all which profess the christian religion, as it has been disfigured by the church of Rome. But it For a more ample account of this queen, and her conversion, Dr. Mosheim refers the reader, in his note r to Urban Cerri's Etat Present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 222, and to the third and fourth volumes of father Labat's Relation Historique de l'Afrique Occidentale, in the former of which he tells us, there is a French translation of Ant. Gavazzi's account of Africa. All these citations are inaccurate. Cerri makes no mention of Zingha, nor of Metamba; nor are they mentioned by Labat, in any of the five volumes of his Historical Relation, here quoted; nor is Gavazzi's account translated in that work. In general it may be observed, that the missions in Africa were greatly neglected by the Portuguese, and that the few missionaries sent thither were men absolutely void of learning, and destitute almost of every qualification that was necessary to the carrying on such an important undertaking. See Labat's preface to his Relation Historique de l'Afrique Occidentale; as also the Modern Universal History, vol. xiv. p. 10, 11, edit. 8vo. 1 See the authors mentioned by Fabricius, in his Lux Evangelii Orbem Terrarum collustrans, cap. xlviii. xlix. p. 769. There is a cursory account of the state of the Romish religion, in that part of America which is possessed by the European Roman catholics, in Urban Cerri's Etat Present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 245. SECT. I. is abundantly known, that these colonists, more es- CENT. XVII. pecially the Spaniards and Portuguese, are the most worthless and profligate set of men that bear the christian name; and this fact is confirmed by the testimonies of several Roman catholic writers of great merit and authority, who cannot be suspected of partiality in this matter. Nay, the clergy themselves are not excepted in this general condemnation; but, as we learn from the same credible testimonies, surpass even the idolatrous natives in the ridiculous rites which they perform in the worship of God, as well as in the licentiousness of their manners, and the enormity of the crimes they commit without reluctance. Those of the ancient inhabitants of America, who either have submitted to the European yoke, or live near their colonies, have imbibed some faint knowledge of the Romish religion from the jesuits, franciscans, and other ecclesiastics; but these feeble rays of instruction are totally clouded by the gloomy suggestions of their native superstition, and the corrupt influence of their barbarous customs and manners. As to those Indians who live more remote from the European settlements, and wander about in the woods without any fixed habitation, they are absolutely incapable either of receiving or retaining any adequate notions of the christian doctrine, unless they be previously reclaimed from that vagrant manner of life, and civilized by an intercourse with persons, whose humane and insinuating manners are adapted to attract their love, and excite their imitation. This the jesuits, and other ecclesiastics of different orders in the church of Rome, who have been sent in later times to convert these wandering savages, have found by a constant and uniform experience. Hence the former have m m A great variety of facts are alleged as a proof of this, in the Letters, in which the French jesuits gave their friends in Europe an account of the success and fruits of their mission, and which are regularly published at Paris. |