1

the missionaries to make use of the word tien, || and Dutch, and more especially by the former, to express the divine nature, with the addition to diffuse the light of Christianity through the of the word tchu, to remove its ambiguity, and benighted regions of Asia, and America, have make it evident, that it was not the heaven, been carried on with more assiduity and zeal but the Lord of heaven, that the Christian doc- than in the preceding age. That the Luthetors worshipped:* he also permitted the ob- rans have borne their part in this salutary servance of those ceremonies which had so work appears abundantly from the Danish highly offended the adversaries of the Jesuits, mission, planned with such piety in 1706 by on condition that they should be considered Frederic IV. for the conversion of the Indians merely as marks of respect to their parents, who inhabit the coast of Malabar, and attendand as tokens of civil homage to their law-ed with such remarkable success. This noble givers, without being abused to the purposes establishment, which surpasses all that have of superstition, or even being viewed in a reli- been yet erected for the propagation of the gious point of light. In consequence of this Gospel, not only subsists still in a flourishing second papal edict, considerable indulgence is state, but progressively acquires new degrees granted to the Chinese converts: among other of perfection under the auspicious and munifithings, they have in their houses tablets, on cent patronage of that excellent monarch which the names of their ancestors, and par- Christian VI. We will, indeed, readily grant, ticularly of Confucius, are written in golden that the converts to Christianity, made by the letters; they are allowed to light candles before Danish missionaries, are less numerous than these tablets, to make offerings to them of rich those which we find in the lists of the popish perfumes, victuals, fruits, and other delicacies, legates; but it may be affirmed, that they are and even to prostrate the body before them much better Christians, and far excel the latuntil the head touches the ground. The same ter in sincerity and zeal. There is a great difceremony of prostration is performed by the ference between Christians in reality, and Chinese Christians at the tombs of their ances- Christians in appearance; and it is very certain, that the popish missionaries are much more ready than the protestant doctors, to admit into their communion proselytes, who have nothing of Christianity but the name.

tors.

We have very imperfect accounts of the labours of the Russian clergy, the greatest part of whom are still involved in that gross ignorance which covered the most unenlightened ages of the church: but we learn, from the modern records of that nation, that some of their doctors have employed, with a certain degree of success, their zeal and industry in spreading the light of the Gospel in those provinces which border upon Siberia.

The former edict, which was designed to prevent the motley mixture of Chinese superstition with the institutions of Christianity, was conveyed into China, in 1705, by cardinal Tournon, the pope's legate; and the second, which was of a more indulgent nature, was sent, in 1721, with Mezzabarba, who went to China with the same character. Neither the emperor nor the Jesuits were satisfied with these edicts. Tournon, who executed the orders of his spiritual employer with more zeal than prudence, was, by the express command of the emperor, thrown into prison, where he died in 1710. Mezzabarba, though more cautious and prudent, yet returned home without having succeeded in his negotiation; nor could the emperor be engaged, either by arguments or entreaties, to make any alteration in the institutions and customs of his ancestors.† At present the state of Christianity in China being extremely precarious and uncertain, this famous controversy is entirely suspended; and many reasons induce us to think, that both the pontiffs and the enemies of the Jesuits will unite in permitting the latter to depart from the rigour of the papal edicts, and to follow their own artful and insinuating methods of conversion; for they will both esteem it expedient and lawful to submit to many inconveniences and abuses, rather than to risk the en-der the mask of a Christian profession; but no tire suppression of popery in China.

IV. The attempts made since the commencement of the present century, by the English

* The phrase Tien Tchu, signifies the Lord of

heaven.

Tournon had been made, by the pope, patriarch of Antioch; and Mezzabarba, to add a certain degree of weight to his mission, was created patriarch of Alexandria. After his return, the latter was promoted to the bishopric of Lodi, a preferment which, though inferior in point of station to his imaginary patriarchate, was far more valuable in point of ease and profit.

See a more ample account of this mission in Dr. Mosheim's Memoirs of the Christian Church in China.

||

V. While the missionaries now mentioned exposed themselves to the greatest dangers and sufferings, in order to diffuse the light of divine truth among these remote and darkened nations, there arose in Europe, where the Gos pel had obtained a firm footing, a multitude of adversaries who shut their eyes upon its excellence, and endeavoured to eclipse its immortal lustre. There is no country in Europe where infidelity has not exhaled its poison; and scarcely any denomination of Christians among whom we may not find several persons, who either aim at the extinction of all religion, or at least endeavour to invalidate the authority of the Christian system. Some carry on these unhappy attempts in an open manner, others un

where have these enemies of the purest religion, and consequently of mankind, whom it was designed to render wise and happy, appeared with more effrontery and insolence, than under the free governments of Great Britain and the United Provinces. In England, more especially, it is not uncommon to meet with books, in which, not only the doctrines of the Gospel, but also the perfections of the Deity, and the solemn obligations of piety and virtue, are impudently called in question, and turned into derision.* Such impious produc

This observation, and the examples by

tions have cast a deserved reproach on the || ed from that which is only accessory;* for the names and memories of Toland, Collins, Tin- whole religious system of this author consists dal, and Woolston, a man of an inauspicious in the three following points:-That there is a genius, who made the most audacious though|| God, that the world is governed by his wise senseless attempts to invalidate the miracles of providence, and that the soul is immortal; and Christ. Add to these Morgan, Chubb, Mande- he maintains, that it was to establish these ville, and others. And writers of the same three points by his ministry, that Jesus Christ class will be soon found in all the countries of came into the world. Europe, particularly in those where the Re- VII. The church of Rome has been governformation has introduced a spirit of liberty, if ed, since the commencement of this century, mercenary booksellers are still allowed to by Clement XI. Innocent XIII. Benedict XIII. publish, without distinction or reserve, every Clement XII. and Benedict XIV. who may be wretched production that is addressed to the all considered as men of eminent wisdom, virpassions of men, and designed to obliterate intue, and learning, if we compare them with their minds a sense of religion and virtue. the pontiffs of the preceding ages. Clement VI. The sect of Atheists, by which, in strict- XI. and Prosper Lambertini, who at present ness of speech, those only are to be meant who fills the papal chair under the title of Benedict deny the existence and moral government of XIV.,† stand much higher in the list of literary an infinitely wise and powerful Being, by whom fame than the other pontiffs now mentioned; all things subsist, is reduced to a very small and Benedict XIII. surpassed them all in piety, number, and may be considered as almost to- or at least in its appearance, which, in the tally extinct. Any who yet remain under the whole of his conduct, was extraordinary and influence of this unaccountable delusion, adopt || striking. It was he that conceived the laudthe system of Spinosa, and suppose the uni- able design of reforming many disorders in the verse to be one vast substance, which excites church, and restraining the corruption and liand produces a great variety of motions, all un- centiousness of the clergy; and for this purpose, controllably necessary, by a sort of internal in 1725, he held a council in the palace of the force, which they carefully avoid defining with || Lateran, whose acts and decrees have been perspicuity and precision. made public. But the event did not answer his expectations; nor is it probable that Benedict XIV. who is attempting the execution of the same worthy purpose, though by different means, will meet with better success.

The Deists, under which general denomination those are comprehended who deny the divine origin of the Gospel in particular, and are enemies to all revealed religion, form a motley tribe, which, on account of their jarring opin- We must not omit observing here, that the ions, may be divided into different classes. modern bishops of Rome make but an indifferThe most decent, or to use a more proper ex- ent figure in Europe, and exhibit httle more pression, the least extravagant and insipid form than an empty shadow of the authority of the of Deism, is that which aims at an association ancient pontiffs. Their prerogatives are dibetween Christianity and natural religion, and minished, and their power is restrained within represents the Gospel as no more than a repub- very narrow bounds. The sovereign princes lication of the original laws of nature and rea- and states of Europe, who embrace their comson, that were more or less obliterated in the munion, no longer tremble at the thunder of minds of men. This is the hypothesis of Tin- the Vatican, but treat their anathemas with dal, Chubb, Mandeville, Morgan, and several contempt. They, indeed, load the holy father others, if we are to give credit to their own de- with pompous titles, and treat him with all the clarations, which, indeed, ought not always to external marks of veneration and respect; yet be done without caution. This also appears to they have given a mortal blow to his authority, have been the sentiment of an ingenious wri- by the prudent and artful distinction they make ter, whose eloquence has been ill employed in between the court of Rome and the Roman a book, entitled, Essential Religion distinguish- || pontiff; for, under the cover of this distinction, they buffet him with one hand, and stroke him with the other; and, under the most respectful profession of attachment to his person, oppose the measures, and diminish still more, from day to day, the authority of his court. A variety of modern transactions might be alleged in confirmation of this, and more especially the debates that have arisen in this century, between the court of Rome and those of France, Portugal, Naples, and Sardinia, in all of which that

which it is supported in the following sentence, stand in need of some correction. Many books have, indeed, been published in England against the divini ty both of the Jewish and Christian dispensations; and it is justly to be lamented, that the inestimable blessing of religious liberty, which the wise and good have improved to the glory of Christianity, by setting its doctrines and precepts in a rational light, and bringing them back to their primitive simplicity, has been so far abused by the pride of some, and the ignorance and licentiousness of others, as to excite an opposition to the Christian system, which is both designed and adapted to lead men, through the paths of wisdom and virtue, to happiness and perfection. It is, nevertheless, carefully to be observed, that the most eminent of the English unbelievers were far from renouncing, at least in their writings and profession, the truths of what they call natural religion, or denying the unchangeable excellence and obligations of virtue and morality. Dr. Mosheim is more especially in an error, when he places Collins, Tindal, Morgan, and Chubb, in the list of those who called in question the perfections of the Deity and the obHigations of virtue: it was sufficient to put Mande. ville, Woolston, and Toland, in this infamous class. || VoL. II.39

A * The original title of this book (which is supposed to have been written by one Muralt, a Swiss, author of the Lettres sur les Anglois et sur les Francois,) is as follows: "Lettres sur la Religion essentielle a l'Homme, distinguee de ce qui n'en est que l'accessoire." There have been several excel. ent refutations of this book published on the conti nent; among which the Lettres sur les vrais Principes de la Religion, composed by the late learned and ingenious M. Bouiller, deserve particular notice. This history was published before the death of Benedict XIV.

ghostly court has been obliged to yield, and || the Spanish Netherlands, and all the Romanto discover its insignificancy and weakness.

suits; but it was highly detrimental to the interests of the Romish church, as many of the wiser members of that communion candidly acknowledge; for it not only confirmed the Protestants in their separation, by convincing them that the church of Rome was resolved to adhere obstinately to its ancient superstitionsport their cause, turned their views toward su and corruptions, but also offended many of the catholics who had no particular attachment to the doctrines of Jansenius, and were only bent on the pursuit of truth and the advancement of piety. It must also be observed, that the controversy relating to Jansenism was much heated and augmented, instead of being miti gated or suspended, by this despotic and illjudged edict.

||which they have attacked both the pope and the Jesuits are innumerable; and many of them are composed with such eloquence, spirit, and solidity, that they have produced a remarkable effect. The Jansenists, however, looking upon all human means as insufficient to suppernatural succours, and endeavoured to make it appear, that their cause was the peculiar object of the divine protection and approba tion. For this purpose they persuaded the multitude, that God had endowed the bones and ashes of certain persons, who had distin guished themselves by their zeal in the cause of Jansenius, and had, at the point of death, appealed a second time from the pope to a general council, with the power of healing the

XI. The dissensions and tumults excited in France by this edict were violent in the high-most inveterate diseases. The person whose est degree. A considerable number of bishops, remains were principally honoured with this and a large body composed of persons eminent- efficacy, was the abbe Paris, a man of a respecly distinguished by their piety and erudition, table family, whose natural character was dark both among the clergy and laity, appealed and melancholy; whose superstition was excesfrom the bull to a general council. It was sive beyond all credibility; and who, by an ausmore particularly opposed by the cardinal tere abstinence from bodily nourishment, and Louis Antoine de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, the exercise of other inhuman branches of who, equally unmoved by the authority of the penitential discipline, was the voluntary cause pontiff, and by the resentment and indignation of his own death.* To the miracles which of Louis XIV., made a noble stand against the were said to be wrought at the tomb of this fadespotic proceedings of the court of Rome. natic, the Jansenists added a great variety of These defenders of the ancient doctrine and visions and revelations to which they audaliberties of the Gallican church were persecuciously attributed a divine origin; for several ted by the popes, the French monarch, and the Jesuits, from whom they received a series of injuries and affronts. Even their total ruin was aimed at by these unrelenting adversaries; but this inhuman purpose could not be entirely effected. Some of the Jansenists, however, were obliged to fly for refuge to their brethren in Holland; others were forced, by the terrors of penal laws, and by various acts of tyranny and violence, to receive the papal edict; while a considerable number, deprived of their places, and ruined in their fortunes, looked for subsistence and tranquillity at a greater distance from their native country. The issue of this famous contest was favourable to the bull, which was XIII. We can say very little of the Greek at length rendered valid by the authority of the and Eastern churches. The profound ignoparliament, and was registered among the laws rance in which they live, and the despotic yoke of the state. This contributed, in some mea- under which they groan, prevent their forming sure, to restore the public tranquillity; but it any plans to extend their limits, or making any was far from diminishing the number of those attempts to change their state. The Russians, who complained of the despotism of the pon- who, in the reign of Peter the Great, assumed tiff; and the kingdom of France is still full of a less savage and barbarous aspect than they appellants,* who reject the authority of the had before that memorable period, have in this bull, and only wait for an opportunity of re-century given some grounds to hope that they viving a controversy which is rather suspended than terminated, and of re-kindling a flame, that is covered without being extinguished.

XII. Amidst the calamities in which the Jansenists have been involved, they have only two methods left of maintaining their cause against their powerful adversaries; and these are their writings and their miracles. The former alone have proved truly useful to them; the latter gave them only a transitory reputation, which being ill founded, contributed in the issue to sink their credit. The writings in

This was the denomination assumed by those who appealed from the bull and the court of Rome to a general council.

members of the community, and more especially those who resided at Paris, pretended to be filled with the Holy Ghost; and, in consequence of this prerogative, delivered instructions, predictions, and exhortations, which, though frequently extravagant, and almost always insipid, yet moved the passions, and attracted the admiration, of the ignorant multitude. The prudence, however, of the court of France, put a stop to these fanatical tumults and false miracles; and, in the situation in which things are at present, the Jansenists have nothing left but their genius and their pens to maintain their cause.t

may one day be reckoned among the civilized

* The imposture, that reigned in these pretended miracles, has been detected and exposed by various authors, but by none with more acuteness, perspicuity, and penetration, than by the ingenious Dr. Douglass, in his excellent treatise on miracles, entitled the Criterion, published in 1754.

Things are greatly changed since the learn. ed author wrote this paragraph. The storm of just resentment that has arisen against the Jesuits, and has been attended with the extinction of their order in Portugal, France, and in all the Spanish dominions, has disarmed the most formidable adversaries of Jansenism, and must consequently be considered as an event highly favourable to the Jansenists.*

* In consequence of the French revolution, more important changes have taken place since the translator wrote the last note.-EDIT.

nations. There are, nevertheless, immense || faith and worship. The method, however, of multitudes of that rugged people, who are still illustrating, enforcing, and defending the docattached to the brutish superstition and disci- trines of Christianity, has undergone several pline of their ancestors; and there are many in changes. About the commencement of this whom the barbarous spirit of persecution still century, an artless simplicity was generally obso far prevails, that, were it in their power, they served by the Lutheran ministers, and all phiwould cut off the Protestants, and all other losophical terms and abstract reasonings were sects that differ from them, by fire and sword. relinquished, as more adapted to obscure than This appears evident from a variety of circum- to illustrate the truths of the Gospel. But, stances, and more especially from the book in process of time, a very different way of think which Stephen Javorski has composed against ing began to take place; and several learned heretics of all denominations. men entertained a notion that the doctrines of The Greek Christians are said to be treated Christianity could not maintain their ground, at present by their haughty masters with more if they were not supported by the aids of philoclemency and indulgence than in former times.sophy, and exhibited and proved in geometriThe Nestorians and Monophysites in Asia and cal order. Africa persevere in their refusal to enter into The adepts in jurisprudence, who undertook, the communion of the Romish church, not-in the last century, the revision and correction withstanding the earnest intreaties and alluring of the ecclesiastical code that is in force among offers that have been made from time to time the Lutherans, carried on their undertaking by the pope's legates, to conquer their inflexi- with great assiduity and spirit; and our churchble constancy. The pontiffs have frequently government would at this day bear another attempted to renew, by another sa red expedi- aspect, if the ruling powers had judged it extion, their former connexions with Abyssinia; pedient to listen to their counsels and represenbut they have not yet been able to find out a tations. We see, indeed, evident proofs that method of escaping the vigilance of that court, the directions of these great men, relating to which still persists in its abhorrence of popery. the external form of ecclesiastical government, Nor is it at all probable that the embassy discipline, and worship, are highly respected; which is now preparing at Rome for the Abys- and that their ideas, even of doctrine, have sinian emperor, will be attended with success.* been more or less adopted by many. Hence The Monophysites propagate their doctrine in it is not surprising, that warm disputes have Asia with zeal and assiduity, and, not long ago, arisen between them and the rulers of the church gained over to their communion a part of the concerning several points, The Lutheran Nestorians who inhabit the coasts of India. doctors are apprehensive that, if the sentiments of some of these reformers should take place, religion would become entirely subservient to the purposes of civil policy, and be converted into a mere state-machine; and this apprehension is not peculiar to the clergy, but is also entertained by some persons of piety and candour, even among the civilians.

XIV. The Lutheran church, which dates its foundation from the year 1517, and the confession of Augsburg from 1530, celebrated in peace and prosperity the secular return of those memorable periods in the years 1717 and 1730. It received, some years ago, a considerable accession to the number of its members by the emigration of those protestants, who abandoned the territory of Saltzburg, and the town of Berchtolsgaden, in order to breathe a free air, and to enjoy unmolested the exercise of their religion. One body of these emigrants settled in Prussia, another in Holland; and many of them transplanted themselves and their fami- || lies to America, and other distant regions. This circumstance contributed greatly to propagate the doctrine, and extend the reputation of the Lutheran church, which thus formed several congregations of no small note in Asia and America. The state of Lutheranism at home has not been so prosperous, since we learn both from public transactions, and also from the complaints of its professors and patrons, that, in several parts of Germany, this church has been injuriously oppressed, and unjustly deprived of some of its privileges and advantages, by the votaries of Rome.

XV. It has been scarcely possible to introduce any change into the doctrine and discipline of that church, because the ancient confessions and rules that were drawn up to point out the tenets that were to be believed, and the rites and ceremonies that were to be performed, still remain in their full authority, and are considered as the sacred guardians of the Lutheran

* See the Continuation.

XVI. The liberty of thinking, speaking, and writing, concerning religious matters, which began to prevail in the last century, was, in this, confirmed and augmented; and it extended so far as to encourage both infidels and fanatics to pour forth among the multitude, without restraint, all the crudities of their enthusiasm and extravagance. Accordingly we have seen, and still see, numbers of fanatics and innovators start up, and, under the influence of enthusiasm or of a disordered brain, divulge their crude fancies and dreams among the people, by which they either delude many from the communion of the established church, or at least occasion contests and divisions of the most disagreeable kind. We mentioned formerly several of these disturbers of the tranquillity of the church, to whom we may now add the notorious names of Tennhart, Gichtel, Uberfeld, Rosenbach, Bredel, Seiz, Roemeling, and many others, who either imagined that they were divinely inspired, or, from a persuasion of their superior capacity and knowledge, set up for reformers of the doctrine and dis cipline of the church. Many writers drew their pens against this presumptuous and fanatical tribe, though the greatest part of those who composed it were really below the notice of men of character, and were rather worthy of contempt than of opposition. And, indeed,