engraven on it: And those who honour'd the Cross were in fo great numbers in the Northern Provinces, that they gave Jealoufie to the Infidels. The Chriftians there were call'd Ifai, from the Name Jefus And from the Chaldee Books which were found upon the Coasts of Malabar, it appears that St. Thomas preach'd the Gofpel in China, and founded many Churches there. The Paffages which prove this, may be feen in Trigautius and Semedo, tranflated out of thofe Books. Nicolas de Conti faith of the Chinese, that when they rife in the Morning, they turn their Faces to the East, and with their Hands joined, fays God in Trinity keep us in this Law.ody

The Gospel was preach'd in China by fome who came from Judea, and feem to have been Monks, A.D. DCXXXVI, as it appears by a Marble Table, erected A. D. DCCLXXXII, and found A. D. MDCXXV. This Monument contains the principal Articles of the Chriftian Faith written both in Syriack and in Chinese Characters; the fubftance of the Infcription may be feen in Le Compte's Memoirs, and the whole is tranflated by Semedo. Hornius indeed rejects this Infcription (which was likewife produced by Kircher) as counterfeit; but without any caufe, that I can perceive: For if it were a fraud, there is no reason to think that we fhould not find all the Points of Popery inferted in it. Andreas Mullerus, in his Opufcula Orientalia, has fet down the Original, with a new Tranflation and a Paraphrafe and Comment upon it, wherein he examines what Kircher had obferved from this Inscription in favour of the Romish Doctrines.

u

Oforius writes, " that the Brachmans believed a Trinity in the Divine. Nature, and a God Incarnate to

Purch. Part 1. 1. 4. c. 16..

P. 348. Semedo, ib.

c. 15.

f Le Compte's Memoirs, Horn, de Orig. American. 1, 4

a Hieron. Ofor. de Rebus Eman. Lufitan. Regis, 1. 2.

procure

procure the Salvation of Mankind; and that the Church of St. Thomas was efteemed moft Holy among the Sa+ racens, and other Nations, for the report of Miracles wrought there.

The Gentiles of Indoftan retain fome Notion of the Trinity, and of the Incarnation of the Second Per fen, though corrupted with fabulous Stories.

The People of Ceylony do firmly believe the Refur rection of the Body. The Talapeins of Siam have their Convents and Chaplets, and there are generally both a Monks and Nuns among the Gentiles of the Eaft-In→ dies. As the Fabulous Deities of other Heathen Nations were framed upon corrupt and abfurd Allufions to feveral Hiftorical Truths in the Old Teftament; fo the Siamefes feem to have contrived their Religion by a profane Mixture of the Myfteries of Christianity with their own impious Fancies: For they report of Theverat, that he was the Author of a Schism in Religion, and that for his Enmity to his Brother Sommona-codom, he is punifhed in Hell, by being hung upon a Crofs, with Nails pierced thro' his Hands and Feet, and his Head crowned with Thorns. And this is made a great Objection by their Priefts against our Religion, that the Chriftians are the Difciples of Thevetat. e Their God Sommona-codem is faid to have been born of a Virgin, and his Mother's Name in the Books written in the Balie Tongue, which contains the Mysteries of their Religion, is Maha Maria, which fignifies the Great Mary: tho' it is as often written Mama as Maria; and thefe Books do likewife relate, that his Father was King of Ceylon. This

d

x Continuat. of Bernier's Memoirs. Tom. 3. Capt. Knox's Hif. of Ceylon, Part 3. c. 5.

z Loubere du Royaume de Siam. Tom. 1. Part. 3. C. 17. Voyage de Siam. des Peres. Jef. Vol 1. 1. 6.

Theven. Trav. Part 3. C. 36. Bernier. Memoir. Tom. 3. b Voyage de Siam, ib. Loubere, ib. c. 2.4.

c Ib. 1. 5.

Inconfiftency fhews, that they have mixt the Chriftian Mysteries with Fables and Traditions of their own.

f

The Indians in America e worshipped a God, who, they said, was One in Three and Three in One. They Baptized their Children, and ufed the Crofs in Baptifm, having a great veneration for the Cross, and thinking it a prefervative against Evil Spirits: they believed the & Refurrection of the Body; they had Monafteries, Nunneries, Confeffors and Sacraments: And the Mexicans, h in their ancient Tongue, called their High-Priefts Papa's, or Sovereign Bishops, as it appears by their Hiftories.

It is a remarkable Relation which Lerius gives of the People of Brafil, That when he had difcourfed to them concerning Religion, and endeavoured to perfuade them to become Chriftians; one of their ancient Men anfwer'd, That he had declared excellent and wonderful things to them, which put him in mind of what they had often heard from their Forefathers; That a long while ago, many Ages before their time, there came a Stranger into their Country, in fuch a Habit, and with a Beard, as they faw the French wear, (for these Americans have none) who preached to them in the fame manner, and to the fame effect, as they had now heard him do; but that the People would not hearken to him. Upon which Lerius obferves, that Nicephorus writes, That St. Matthew preached the Gofpel to Cannibals; and he thinks it not improbable that fome of the Apostles might pafs into America, that the Sound of the Gofpel might go into all the Earth. And it is obfervable, that he found many words in the Brafilian Language taken out of the Greek Tongue.

e Jof. Acoft. Hift. 1. 5. c. 28.

f Pet. Mart. Decad. 4. c. 8. & Decad. 8. c. 9.

Lerii Navigat. in Braf. c. 16, Acoft. 1. 5. c. 14. 23, 24, 25. i Lerius Navigat. ib,

Hornius

Hornius kowns, as every Man else must do, that confiders it, that there are manifeft. Tokens of the Rites and Doctrines both of the Jewish and Chriftian. Religion among the Americans, as of Circumcifion, Baptifm, the Trinity, the Lord's Supper, &c. but then he is for bringing the Jews and Chriftians thither his own way, and will have the Jews come in company of the Scythians; and the Chriftian Rites to be brought in with the Turks and Tartars, or from Japan and China Though he likewife approves and confirms the Relation which Powel and Hackluyt give of a Colony transplanted into America, by Madoc, from Wales.

Several Ufages which are obferved to be among the Natives, by the Miffionaries, both in the Eaft and Weft-Indies, and to have a near refemblance to their own Rites, feem to prove that there have formerly been Chriftian Monks amongst them; rather than that this proceeds (as the Miffionaries imagined) from an ambition that the Devil has to Ape, as they fay, what is done in God's Service; or that we may conclude, as fome Proteftants have done a little too haftily, that this it felf is a fufficient Argument that the Devil is the Author of such Rites, because they are found amongst his Worfhippers. If we confider the vaft numbers of Monks, in ancient Times, in the Eaftern Parts of the World, who were Men of an active and indefatigable Zeal, it may well be fuppofed that fome of them might find the way into thofe Countries which have been but lately difcovered to the reft of the World.

It is evident from the unanimous Teftimony both of Proteftants and Papifts, that there are manifeft Tokens, in all Parts of the World, that the Chriftian Religion has been preached amongst them. And it

Horn. de Orig. Americ. 1. 3. c. 2. & 1, 4. C. 15.
I 4

muft

muft, in common Juftice, be confeft, that the latter Miffionaries have preached the Gospel among the Indians with great zeal and fuccefs. A King of Ceylon 1 received Baptifm, and was very zealous to bring over his Subjects to the Chriftian Faith; and one of their moft learned Men became a Chriftian at the fame time; but the King was depofed by his Idolatrous Subjects. Some of the Kings of Congo m have been converted: One of whom, Alphonfo, deftroyed all the Idols, and propagated the Chriftian Faith with great zeal: He fent his Sons, Grandfons and Nephews to Portugal to ftudy; Two of them were afterwards Bifhops in their own Country. The King of Mononotapa reigning A. D. M DCXXXI, was a Chriftian. Bernier computes the number of Chriftians in the Kingdom of Bengale, at between Thirty and Forty thoufand. And in Japan 9 A.D. MDCXIII, there were Four hundred thoufand Chriftians, who were all deftroyed by the Perfecution raised, through the Covetoufnefs of fome Dutch Merchants, and their malicious Plots and Contrivances, to engross the Trade of thofe Iflands to themfelves. And indeed, by the Accounts which we have of those Parts, the Lives of the Europeans have been fo fcandalous, and fo contrary to their Religion, that befides the guilt of the fins themselves, they have a great deal to anfwer, for that hindrance which they have thereby given to the progrefs of Chriftianity among thofe poor People, who have generally fhewn a good inclination and forwardnefs to be inftructed; and in times of Perfecution, both from Mahometans and Idolaters, even Chil

r

Tavern. Voyages des Indes, 1. 3. C. 4.

A

m Varen. de diverfis Gent. Relig. Tavern. Voyage de Perfe, c. 14. & Ofor. de rebus Eman. 1. 3, 8, 10.

Faria's Portug. Afia. Tom. 1. Part I. c. 3. b Tavern. ibid. P Memoir. Tom. 4. Varen. de Relig, in Regno Japon. c. II.

q Ibid.

dren