cause he would not have his fon christened till he was fifteen years of age; the prelate very prudently replied, That though he made no doubt of their being eternally damned in the next world, yet he found them extremely neceffary to him in this.

Let us now for a while quit our own little sphere, and take a furvey of the rest of the globe. The grand feignior peaceably rules over subjects of twenty different religions; upwards of two hundred thousand Greeks live unmolested within the walls of Conftantinople; the Mufti himfelf nominates the Greek patriarch, and prefents him to the emperor; and, at the same time, allows of the refidence of a Latin patriarch. The fultan appoints Latin bishops for fome of the Greek ifles; the form used on this occafion is as follows: "I command fuch a one to go "and refide as bishop in the ifle of Chios, ac"cording to the antient custom and idle cere"monies of those people." The Othman empire fwarms with Jacobines, Neftorians, Monothelites, Cophti, Chriftians of St. John, Guebres, and Banians; and the Turkish annals do

↑ See Ricaut.

not

not furnish us with one fingle inftance of a rebellion occafioned by any of thefe different fects.

I

Go into India, Perfia, and Tartary, and you will meet with the fame toleration and the fame tranquility. Peter the Great encouraged all kinds of religions throughout his vaft empire: trade and agriculture have been gainers by it, and no injury ever happened therefrom to the body politic.

We do not find that the Chinese government, during the course of four thousand years that it has fubfifted, has ever adopted any other religion than that of the Noachides, which consists in the fimple worship of one God; and yet it tolerates the fuperftitions of Fo, and that of a multitude of bonzes; which might be productive of dangerous confequences, did not the wisdom of the tribunals keep them within proper bounds.

It is true, that the great Yong-T-Chin, the moft wife and magnanimous of all the emperors of China, drove the jefuits out of his kingdom; but this was not because that prince himself was non-tolerant, but, on the contrary, because the jefuits were fo.

They

They themselves, in their letters, have given us the speech the emperor made to them on that occafion: "I know, fays he, that your religion "admits not of toleration; I know how you "have behaved in the Manillas and at Japan;

you deceived my father, but think not to de"ceive me in the fame manner." And if we read the whole of the converfation which he deigned to hold with them, we must confefs him to be the wifeft and most clement of all princes. How could he indeed, with any consistency, keep in his kingdom European philofophers, who, under the pretence of teaching the ufe of thermometers and colypiles, had found means to debauch a prince of the blood? But what would this emperor have faid, had he read our histories, and had he been acquainted with the times of the league and the gunpowder plot?

It was fufficient for him to be informed of the outrageous and indecent difputes between thofe Jefuits, Dominicans, Capuchins, and fecular priests, who were fent as miffionaries into his dominions from one extremity of the globe to preach up truth; inftead of which, they employed their time in mutually pronouncing damnation against each other. The emperor,

then,

then, did no more than fend away a fet of fo reigners, who were disturbers of the public peace. But with what infinite goodness did he difmifs them! and with what paternal care did he provide for their accommodation in their journey, and to prevent their meeting with any infult on their way! This very act of ba nifhment might ferve as an example of toleration and humanity.

The Japo efe were the moft tolerant of all nations; twelve different religions were peaceably established in their empire: when the Jefuits came, they made the thirteenth; and, in a very little time after their arrival, they would not suffer any other but their own. Every one knows the confequence of these proceedings: a civil war, as calamitous as that of the league, foon fpread deftruction and carnage through the empire; till at length the Chriftian religion was itfelf fwallowed up in the torrents of blood it had set a flowing, and the Japonefe for ever fhut the entrance of their country against all foreigners, looking upon us as no better than savage beasts, such as those

See Kempfer, and all the accounts of Japan.

from

from which the English have happily cleared their island. Colbert, the minifter, who knew the neceffity we were in of the commodities of Japan, that wants nothing from us, laboured in vain to settle a trade with that empire; he found those people inflexible.

Thus then every thing on our Continent fhows us, that we ought neither to preach up, nor to exercise non-toleration.

Let us now caft our eyes on the other hemifsphere. Behold Carolina! whofe laws were framed by the wife Lock; there every mafter of a family, who has only feven fouls under his roof, may establish what religion he pleases, provided all those seven perfons concur with him therein; and yet this great indulgence has. not, hitherto, been the occafion of any disorders. God forbid, that I fhould mention this as an example to every mafter of a family to fet up a particular worship in his houfe: I have only introduced it to fhew, that the utmost lengths to which toleration can be carried, have never yet given rife even to the flightest diffentions.