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and heartily acquiesced in his design. These were constituted into a society, and denominated, “the company of Jesus;" that is, the Jesuits. If some of this order have been deemed the most insidious men that ever existed, I am really of opinion, that Loyola and his first disciples were men of deep piety, and actuated with the noblest motive which can possibly inspire the heart of man. Their industry and perseverance, their sufferings and patience, their zeal and success in their respective missions, though not equal to all that fame has recorded, were doubtless admirably great.

The celebrated Francis Xavier was among the earliest converts of Ignatius. This truly apostolic man, disregarding the dignity of his birth, made himself poor for the kingdom of God. He attended the hospitals, and performed the meanest offices for the sick. When proposed with two more for the mission to India, he embraced it with a warm heart, and persevered with invincible patience and zeal. From the year 1541 to 1552, he acquired a great variety of languages, and with very few assistants taught and baptized an incredible number of heathens. His mission commenced at the isle of Goa, and extended along the coasts, and to all the islands of Indostan, and as far as the islands of Japan. His heart was chiefly fixed on the empire of China, which is said to contain three hundred millions of people; but, like Moses, he was only permitted to see the land. He died in a hut in an island near Canton, whither he was going to preach. But God did not lose sight of the faith and prayers of his servant.

Early in the sixteenth century, Matthew Ricci, a Jesuit of Margareta, near Ancona, with two colleagues of the same order, penetrated into China, in the character of European philosophers. His colleagues soon left him, and he labored alone for eighteen years. By his skill in the mathematics he became so acceptable to the Chinese nobility, and even to their emperor, that he obtained, both for himself and his asseciates, the

liberty of explaining to the people the doctrines of Christianity. Their success, considering the small number of laborers, was almost incredible, and it ex tended to the principal cities of the empire.

Ricci was very much disposed to favor the converts in all the customs of the Chinese which were not directly opposite to the laws of Christ. He went so far as to allow them to comply with the laws of the empire in bowing to the statue of Confucius, on being assured that nothing was intended by it but civil homage.

The infant churches continued to flourish and enjoy repose till the death of the first Tartar emperor, whose successor was Cang-hi, a minor. During the minority, the regency and nobles conspired to exter, minate the Christian religion. They asserted, in a proclamation, that the Christian doctrines were false; that they were inimical to the interests of the em pire; and that they should not be professed on pain of death. A severe persecution ensued through all the provinces. But the young emperor, coming to the throne, restored the peace of the churches.

Another company of missionaries penetrated to the islands of Japan; and providence enabled them to surmount the difficulties arising from the language; and the opposition of the idolatrous priests. Christianity flourished in this kingdom for seventy years, and could boast of a hundred thousand converts. But it is feared that the later missionaries gave too much countenance to a rebellion which broke out, and terminated in the total extermination of the church.

In South America, these Jesuits, having established a mission on the northern shore of the river Plate, taught and baptized three hundred thousand families. They laid out the country in plantations, instructed their converts in agriculture, which copiously supplied their wants. If all this be regarded merely as a work of civilization, it commands our admiration, and it ameliorated the condition of a people made completely wretched by the sword of the Spaniards.

In short, the Jesuits extended their missions, and with more or less success, to all the colonial dominions of France, Spain, and Portugal. What a reproach is this to the indolence of protestant nations, who, as yet, have done but little for the heathens.

A respectable society has long been formed in London, and in Copenhagen, and in Edinburgh, for propagating the gospel in foreign parts. Some of the first Danish missionaries used their utmost endeavors to instruct the Hindoos; but their successors seem to have considered themselves as gentlemen rather than laborers. It is to be regretted, that most of the men sent out by these laudable societies, should have been totally destitute of the spirit of Xavier, Brainard, and Swartz.

The Moravian brethren have been peculiarly happy in selecting missionaries formed for fatigue, and patient of hardships and labor. They have possessed a zeal which could neither be extinguished by the cold of Greenland, nor awed by the fevers of the torrid zone. These industrious men have frequently subsisted on food which the poorest man in this country would not taste. The manner in which they institute religious societies is very confined, yet they have succeeded among the Indians in various parts of North America, and have made them happy in the enjoyment of knowledge, piety, and every temporal comfort.

In 1784, the Rev. Dr. Coke, going to the United States of North America, and in company with Messrs. Whatcoat and Vasey, was driven by a tempest to Antigua. They preached to the people, and engaged to establish a mission in that island. Since then, they have sent out above thirty ministers and young men; and though their labors have been greatly obstructed by the infidel principles and great wickedness of the planters, and by a long and afflictive war, yet their labors have been crowned with a success in Antigua, St. Christophers, Nevis, St. Vincents, Dominica, Jamaica, New Providence, and

other smaller islands, which has astonished the world. The number of their members amounts to upwards of thirteen thousand; and the number of the negroes, the colored people, and the whites, who receive instructions, amounts to seventy thousand. In all these islands they have built lodgings and houses for the missionaries, and large apels for the congregations. But the most hopeful object of this mission lies in the astonishing talents of some of the negroes for preaching and prayer. The Doctor awaits but an opportumity to assist those men in conveying back to their native shores of Africa, the glad-tidings of salvation by Jesus Christ.

About fifteen years ago, two Baptist missionaries found their way, in Danish bottoms, to India. They established a college, a printing-office, and a church, at Serampore, in Bengal. The Missionary Society sent over since four young men in 1800 to their assistance, with 10,000 copies of the New Testament in the Bengalee. They have made a slow but sure progress; for their industry and excellent spirit will ensure success. They have established a small church at Dinngepore, Calcutta, Jessore, Cutwa, &c. &c. and ordained many of the converted natives to the ministry. They have likewise, by their press, laid down a plan of diffusing the sacred writings, and the knowledge of Christ, on all the shores of the Ganges. But their chief difficulty arises from the four casts into which the natives are divided. On embracing Christianity the Hindoo loses his cast, and his nearest relations regard him as an exile. Hence, there seems no remedy at present, but to form a fifth, or Christian cast. Should the gospel once obtain in a general way, it would, in every view, better the condition of the Indostan nations. They are deeply immersed in superstition and vice. The young people dance and sing, surrounded with the aged, who apparently are pining away with hunger. Among the married, it is estimated that not more than one in fifty escapes the ime of adultery. What a work of benevolence to

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