whatever*." I leave it with the Reader to apply this sentiment to the proceedings of the Roman-Catholic Missionaries, described in the preceding pages.

But, notwithstanding their unscriptural policy, and shameful compromise of every thing resembling the pure and undefiled Religion of the New Testament, the Abbé Dubois himself acknowledges, that they have totally failed of their object, and that "all this pageantry is at present beheld with indifference by the Hindoos, and the interests of the Christian Religion have not been im proved by what some may be disposed to term mere Priestcraft:" (p. 72.) In order to prove that this failure is not to be attributed to the inefficiency of the means employed, but to the peculiar character of the Hindoos and the nature of their superstitions, he shews, that those very means were successful in Japan, beyond all calculation or the most sanguine expectations. Upon a prima-facie view of this argument, it may appear to warrant his conclusion: for, if one race of people are converted to pure Christianity by the very measures which another nation has for centuries pertinaciously rejected, it would seem to furnish some plea

* Fawcett's Sermons, Vol. I. p. 448. 2d Ed.

for the inference, that the latter lie under the sentence of Divine Reprobation. This question, then, requires examination.

The Jesuit Missionary who laboured in India with the most zeal and success, was Francis Xavier. He arrived in India about the year 1522. Within the space of three years, he "is said to have made many thousand Converts:" but these being of the lowest castes, and he being dissatisfied with their character, and "entirely disheartened by the invincible obstacles he everywhere met in his apostolic career, and by the apparent impossibility of making real Converts, he left the country in disgust, after a stay in it of only two or three years; and embarked for Japan, where his spiritual labours were crowned with far greater success, and laid the foundation of those once numerous and flourishing Congregations of Japanese Christians, who, within a period of less than a century, amounted to more than a million of souls." (pp. 3, 4.)

We are not to attribute this success to Xavier alone. He was accompanied by many Jesuits from various parts of India; and several others arrived, about the same time, from Macao. Nor are we to infer from it, that there was something in the nature or character of the Japanese superior to the

mental or moral qualifications of the Hindoos, which prepared them to give the spiritual and humbling doctrines of the Cross a more favourable reception. Their success arose, first, from the extensive connexions which the Portuguese had already formed with the Natives, by their commercial intercourse, and numerous intermarriages with families of the first respectability; which circumstance would, undoubtedly, prepare them to adopt the Religion of persons with whom they were so closely related. And, secondly, the Established Religion of the country so nearly resembled the constitution and forms of the Roman Church, that it required no great sacrifice of views and principles, in the Japanese, to embrace the RomanCatholic modification of Christianity. Hitherto every Religion had been tolerated in Japan: but the established and most popular Creed was, and still is, the Sinto. The Dairi, or Ecclesiastical Emperor of Meaco, possesses a jurisdiction resembling that of the Roman Pontif. Their Holy Mother is honoured like the Sancta Maria. Their Bonzes or Priests, and Canusies or secular Clergy, in their office, dress, celibacy, shaved heads, &c. &c. strikingly resemble the corresponding characters in the Roman-Catholic

Church. Their Pilgrims, most of whom are Religious Mendicants, and Jammaboes, a kind of Hermits, with their various self-inflicted tortures, mortifications, privations, penances, fastings, &c. &c. are very like the soi-disant Holy Beggars who for many years imposed, and in Roman-Catholic Countries still impose, upon the credulity of the Western World. They have also their Sacred Vows, Religious Establishments, such as Convents and Nunneries, together with several Orders of Friars and Nuns. They even dispense Indulgences (ofarrai), for which the Orthodox Sintonists go on pilgrimage to the Holy Place (i. e. to the Temple of Tensio Dai Sin, their chief God): these are sent also by the Canusies, annually, to all parts of the Empire, and are carried about by Pedlars for sale. The Sintonists are taught to believe in pretended Miracles or Charms, and in Purgatory. They pay divine honours to Images: their Church Service is accompanied by the tinkling of bells, incense, &c. &c. In short, Sintonism resembles, in so many particulars, the institutions, pretensions, and practices of the 'Roman-Catholic Church, that the Japanese were prepared, in a remarkable manner, to embrace that Form of the Christian Religion which the Jesuits introduced into their coun

try. No wonder, then, that the Proselytes flocked to them by thousands and tens of thousands. They are said to have converted one-third of the Empire; among whom were Royal Princes, Viceroys, Magistrates, and many other Persons of Distinction. Indeed, under the then existing circumstances, it would have been matter of surprise had they not met with unexampled success.

But this prosperity was not of long continuance. In about a Century after the introduction of Popery into Japan, a severe persecution was raised by the Government of the Empire against the Roman Catholics; which, in 1639, ended in the total extermination of the Portuguese. This M. Dubois attributes to "the jealousy and alarm of the Bonzes and other Directors of the popular Faith;" awakened, as he says, by the daily increasing number of the Converts, which threatened" to supplant the Religion of the Country:" (p. 4.) That this feeling existed, is most probable. But surely the Abbé cannot be ignorant of the real causes to which this persecution is generally attributed. The Government became jealous of the immense wealth which the Portuguese were accumulating, and exporting out of their dominions. The pride and intolerance of their Bishops grew insup portable. Not content with the superintend