nong their fellow-believers a knowledge and love of the genuine principles, of Christianity." What barefaced effrontery! But we must return to their precious mass of lies and fabrications. The next head is,

"PERSECUTIONS IN JAPAN."

Under this title we have the following account which it is our intention to contrast with a more authentic one, and we therefore give it in Fox's own words : :

"The first introduction of Christianity into the empire of Japan, took place in 1552, when some Portuguese missionaries commenced their endeavours to make converts to the light of the gospel, and met with such success as amply compensated their labours. They continued to augment the number of their converts till 1616, when being accused of having meddled in politics, and formed a plan to subvert the government, and dethrone the emperor, great jealousies arose, and subsisted till 1622, when the court commenced a dreadful persecution against foreign and native Christians. Such was the case of this persecution, that during the first four years, 20,570 Christians were massacred. Death was the consequence of a public avowal of their faith, and their churches were shut up by order of government. Many, on a discovery of their religion by spies and informers, suffered martyrdom with great heroism. The persecution continued many years, when the remnant of the innumerable Christians with which Japan abounded, to the number of 37,000 souls, retired to the town and castle of Siniabara, in the island of Xinio, where they determined to make a stand, to continue in their faith, and to defend themselves to the very last extremity. To this place the Japanese army followed them, and laid siege to the place. The Christians defended themselves with great bravery, and held out against the besiegers three months, but were at length compelled to surrender, when men, women, and children, were indiscriminately murdered; and Christianity from that time ceased in Japan.

This event took place on the 12th of April, 1638, since which time no Christians but the Dutch have been allowed to land in the empire, and even they are obliged to conduct themselves with the greatest precaution, to submit to the most rigorous treatment, and to carry on their commerce with the utmost circumspection."

The introduction of Christianity into Japan is here granted to the Portuguese: now the Portuguese being well known to be Catholics, the Christianity introduced by them must have been Catholicism; that is the very system which the evangelical reformers in Europe were condemning as idolatrous and superstitious. That very system which the "few plain Christians" themselves now represent in their prospectus as inseparable from persecution. That the Christianity introduced into Japan is the same that the Catholics of this day profess is undeniable, because there has been no deviation in Popery, as it is called, from the time it was introduced into Japan, and attempted to be overthrown by Martin Luther and his fellow-labourers in the work of error and iniquity in Europe. This work of opposition to Catholicism is still going on in this land of Bibles and delusion; for it is only while we are writing (Nov. 5th, 1824, the anniversary of the publication of the first number of this Review) a newspaper has been put into our hands containing a report of the proceedings of the London Auxiliary Bible Society, held on the day preceding at the Mansion-house, by permission of the Lord Mayor, who presided at the meeting. At this meeting the days of Catholicism were termed by several of the sapient speakers the days of darkness, of bigotry, superstition, and persecution; while the very. Book of Martyrs testify that Portuguese Catholic missionaries in the latter days of darkness made numerous converts "to the light of the gos

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pel" among the superstitious Pagans of Japan!!! Was ever a people so duped and gulled as the people of England have been, since the period of the pretended Reformation, and are at the present day? We have before said that the Catholic church was the only church that has produced missionaries to convert Pagan nations to the true light of the gospel; but we now find, in the just named report, that the London Missionary Society lays claim to the conversion of one whole nation to Christianity; but what kind of Christianity is not defined. As this statement is somewhat connected with the subject under discussion, we will here give the words of the report, as we find them in The Morning Chronicle. Lord Bexley (who a short time ago was Mr. Nicholas Vansittart, and Chancellor of the Exchequer,) represented himself at this meeting as the representative of his Majesty's government, and is stated to have said, that" the Bible existed in the language of almost every nation and tribe in the world; this he granted was only a preparative; but he had no doubt that good fruits would speedily arise from "it, although the seed might appear to have been lost. An instance of "this might be seen in the London Missionary Society-a Society es"tablished for the purpose of converting the inhabitants of the islands "of the South Seas. This society for many years met with no success. "Some of its Missionaries died in the prosecution of their labours"others returned, having relinquished their task as hopeless, conceiving "that there was no hope, where nothing but brutality and sensuality. "were triumphant; but perseverance at length accomplished the mighty "task. The savages acknowledged the true God, and now almost for "the first time since the days of the apostles, may be seen a whole nation "removing their idols, and adopting the only faith that could lead them, "to salvation." Well said, my lord; you are a very modest gentleman. But why did you not give us the name of this people who have thus been so suddenly blessed with the light of the "only faith" that could lead them to salvation, through the means of the London Missionary society? Besides, my lord Bexley, how long have this lucky Missionary society been in the exclusive possession of the “only faith" that leads to salvation? If they really have this peculiar grace, why did they go so far away to teach it? Why not impart it to their countrymen at home? As there is, according to the words imputed to you, but one faith, is not this something like the doctrine of exclusive salvation, against which so much has been said and written to make the Catholic church intolerant? But what are we to think of your charity, when you here consign nearly the whole world, from the time of the apostles to the present day, to perdition,-this single whole nation being the only one, you say, adopting the only faith that could lead them to salvation! We wish you had been more explicit; but that is not the forte of Bible-meeting speechifyers, whether lay or clerical, who love to deal in mystification rather than in plain language.

The report in The New Times tells us you informed the meeting that this Missionary Society, was established ten years back; that for a long time the efforts arising from it were scarcely visible; but the illumination broke forth at once, and in their own time they had before them the example of a whole nation embracing the doctrines of Christianity. This is something like the language of John Fox. The doctrines of

Christianity! Here we are at a stand again; for how is it possible, we again ask, to know what this lord Bexley, or any other lord, means by the doctrines of Christianity, when there are hundreds of discordant sects in this country laying exclusive claim to the doctrines of Christianity? But the society has been in existence TEN YEARS, during which period, or at least till within a short time, for nothing is stated definitively, the effects produced were scarcely visible. This we believe to be verily true; save and except the visible effects of collecting money from silly people to be appropriated to the benefit of the missioners and the managers of the society. Now, Christian reader, is this the way the world was brought to know the light of the gospel? Did the apostles go forth under the auspices of a Missionary society? Did the saintly converters of the nations of the world (always excepting the nameless nation in the South seas) take their credentials from a heterogeneous club of sectarians of the most discordant creeds? To be sure not. They one and all received their commission from the supreme head of the Catholic church on earth, and the nations that received the light of faith rendered obedience in spirituals to that head. Neither did they go armed with bibles which the people could neither read nor understand. They went under a divine commission received from God, and they preached his holy word, which is always one and the same. To shew the effects produced by those missionaries duly authorized to preach the light of the gospel, and those who go commissioned by selfintruders in the work of the vineyard, we shall here give an account of the progress of Catholicism in Japan, from Mr. Butler's Saints' Lives, to which we shall add a few more particulars by way of contrast with the effects of the modern Missionary Society established by Bible Saints:

"The divine seed sown by St. Francis Xavier in Japan increased so much, that when the persecution was raised, there were reckoned in that empire four hundred thousand Christians. Paul, the first fruits, or rather the father of this church, died happily, and in great sentiments of piety and holy spiritual joy in 1557. The prince of Omura was baptized in 1562. That prince and the two kings of Bungo and Arima, who had received baptism, sent ambassadors of obedience, who were their own near relations, to pope Gregory XIII. in 1582. They were conducted in their voyage by F. Valegnani, a Jesuit, and received with great honour in the principal cities of Portugal, Spain, and Italy, through which they passed, and especially at Rome. The faith flourished daily more and more in Japan, and in 1596, there were in that empire two hundred and fifty churches, three seminaries, a noviciate of the Jesuits, and several Franciscans. The Cubo or emperor Nabunanga, at least out of hatred to the Bouzas, was very favourable to the missionaries, and his prime minister, Vatadono, viceroy of Meaco, was the declared protector of the Christian religion. When the conversion of all Japan was looked upon as at hand, this undertaking was entirely overturned. Nabunanga was cut off by a violent death, and Taikosama usurped first the regency for the son of Nabunanga, and afterward the empire, by contriving to have that heir put to death. Partly by policy and partly by force, he subdued all Japan, and extinguished the Jacatas or petty kings. For some time he was favourable to the Christians, till, by various accidents, he was excited to jealousy at their numbers and progress. In 1586, he, by an edict, forbad any Japanese to embrace the faith, and shortly after caused many Christians to be crucified in the year 1590, no fewer than twenty thousand were put to death for the faith. In 1597, the twenty-six martyrs suffered, whom Urban VIII. thirty years after, declared such. On their death and miracles see Charlevoix, 1. x. c. 4. p. 330, and this work on Febr. 5. Taikosama died in 1598; and Ijedas (to whom he left the regency and care of his young son Fidejori, a priuce fond of the Christians) having murdered the heir, his pupil, and usurped the throne, continued the persecution; and in

1615 banished all the missionaries, forbidding entrance for the time to come under pain of death. The year following Fide-Tadda, his son, succeeded him in the throne, and put great numbers of Christians to barbarous deaths. Xogan or Toxogunsama, to whom he resigned the crown, or at least the regency, in 1622, carried his cruelty against the Christians to the last excess, and put incredible numbers to the most barbarous deaths. In 1636 the Dutch accused to this emperor, Moro and other Japanese Christians of a conspiracy with the Portuguese against the state, which Kaempfer (b. 4, c. 5,) pretends to have been real but Charlevoix endeavours to prove counterfeit, (t. 2, p. 406.) This charge exceedingly enraged the persecutors. The Christians in numberless crowds had suffered martyrdom with the most heroic patience and constancy: but many of those who remained in the kingdom of Arima, by an unjustifiable conduct, very opposite to that of the primitive Christians, broke into rebellion, and with an army of forty thousand men took some strong places: but being at length forced, all died fighting desperately in the field, in 1638. After this, Toxogunsama continued the persecution with such fury, that at his death, in 1650, very few had escaped his fury; and his successor, Jietznako, who pursued the same course, seems to have discovered very few to put to death. The researches have been so rigorous that in some provinces all the inhabitants have been sometimes compelled to trample on a crucifix. Only the Dutch are allowed to trade there under the most severe restrictions, but their factory is confined to the isle of Desima, i. e. isle of De, which is one long street, before the harbour, and joined by a bridge to the city of Nangasaki, on the western coast of the island Ximo. This city was subject to Sumitanda, prince of Omura, one of the first sovereigns in Japan who embraced the faith, which he established alone throughout all his dominions, situate in the kingdont of Arima. That king was himself baptized with a considerable part of his subjects. After several Christian kings, king John, otherwise Protasius, suffered martyrdom : his son Michael apostatised to preserve the crown, and became a persecutor. The rebellion of 1638 totally extinguished the faith in this kingdom and in the rest of Japan. Nangasaki in the time of the Portuguese was all Christians, and counted sixty thousand inhabitants: now about eight thousand only, and these Japanese idolaters. It is the only town in Japan which any strangers are now allowed to approach: and are here watched as if prisoners. By an inviolable edict of the emperor, all other nations except the Dutch are forbid these dominions, and all their natives are commanded to remain in their own country. The missionaries who have attempted to find admittance, seem never to have succeeded. The last that is known, was M. Sidotti, a Sicilian priest who, in 1709, found means to land in Japan: but what became of him after this was never known in Eu rope. See Charlevoix, Dr. Kaempfer, and Hist. Moderne, t. 2. des Japanois. Also Hist. Provincia Phillippine, Dominica. et Jac. Lefenas, Anual Dominican. et F. Sardimo, Jesuit. Catologus Regularium et Sæculrium qui in Japania et sub quatuor Tyrannis sublato sunt, Also the history of the Martyrs who in Japan suffered cruel and intolerable torments and death for the Roman Catholic religion, in Dutch, by Rier Guyesberts, (who was an eyewitness to several living at Nangasaki, in 1622.) printed at the end of Caron's Description of Japan. See also relations of this persecution, published by several Jesuits, Dominicans, cans," &c. Vol. xii. p. 43.

This account by Mr. Butler differs materially from that given by John Fox, and is much more clear and intelligible. Fox says the faith was first introduced in 1552, by some Portuguese missionaries, but this is contradicted by the former martyrologist, who shews that the seed of faith was sown by St. Francis Xavier, who had for his companion a Japanese, whom he had converted and baptized by the name of Paul, in Malacca. St. Francis landed in Japan in 1549. To prove the efficacy of Catholic preaching over Bible distribution, we have only to observe that the success of St. Francis Xavier, who, by the by, was a Jesuit, in the countries he visited for the purpose of carrying among the people the light of the gospel, was widely different from the success the missionaries of the Missionary Society are stated to have met with. St. Francis landed at Goa, the capital town of the Portuguese settlement of that name, in the year 1542, and the first of his missionary labours

was to reform the manners of the Portuguese settlers who were only Christians in name. This act of charity performed to men already bearing the Christian name, his next efforts were directed to those who were ignorant of the name of Christ. From Goa the holy missionary bent his steps towards the coast of the peninsula which stretches to the south and ends in a point called Cape Comorin. He was but little skilled in the Malabar language, but he had the address to make himself understood, and many of the people in the numerous villages that covered the country believed in his doctrines and were baptized. He pursued his course to the populous kingdom of Travancore, and here the harvest was so great, that in the space of one month he baptized with his own hands ten thousand souls. In a short time the whole kingdom became Catholic. From thence he crossed to the eastern shore of the peninsula, and went as far as Meliapor, where the Portuguese had erected a town and named it St. Thomas, from a tradition that St. Thomas the apostle suffered martyrdom there. From this place the saint went on board a vessel and sailed across the gulf of Bengal to Ma-lacca, and from thence to the islands of Molucca, preaching the faith of Christ wherever he went. At Malacca he met with the native of Japan before-mentioned, and accompanied by him he sailed to Japan and landed at Cangoxima, the capital of the kingdom of Saxuma, and the birth-place of Paul. Before St. Francis Xavier had been a year in this island, he made innumerable converts to the Catholic faith, and a persecution was raised, in which many of the converts sealed their faith with their blood.

The missionaries to the islands of the South Seas carried with them wives and bibles, and some of them died, we are told, while others returned, without any visible effects from their labours. Query. How much money did these missionaries receive from the London Society, collected by fools' pence? St. Francis did not carry a bible with him, but like the apostles of Christ, he carried on his back all the necessary utensils for the sacrifice of the mass, and when he made converts he had copies of the Apostles' creed and a Life of Christ translated into the Japonese language, and distributed them amongst his converts. We question whether the Japonese Christians ever saw a bible, any more than the primitive Christians. Such a thing was impossible in the latter instance, because the bible was not then collated into one book; and in the former case it is more than improbable, as it was too laborious and difficult a task to translate and print so ponderous a volume into the Japonese tongue. We even doubt whether the Bible Societies have yet a copy of the bible in the Japonese character, though they boast of having the sacred volume in one hundred and fifty different languages. From Cangoxima the holy missionary went to Firando, where he baptized more in twenty days than in the former place during a year. In these labours St. Francis was joined by other Jesuit missionaries, some of them natives, and at each place he left one or more in care of the souls converted, while he went in search of fresh harvests.

In the extract we have given from Mr. Butler there are dates, and names, and authorities, but in Fox there are none, nor has my lord Bexley been so good as to tell us which of the islands in the South