naturally cherished the expectation, that the Christian religion would flourish among a people, who evinced so much fortitude in bearing the Cross. He determined, however, to defend them to the utmost of his power; and though disappointed for the present, his efforts for their protection were ultimately successful. A. D. 1544. expedient to 22. The Portuguese viceroy was then at His singular Cambaya, whither Xavier proceeded for the pur- convert a pose of engaging him to take up arms against libertine. the rajah of Jaffnapatam. He embarked at Cochin, and one of his fellow passengers was a Portuguese gentleman, but a libertine and an atheist, who gloried in his infidelity. Xavier determined to make his acquaintance, with a view to his conversion; and by his courteous manners and diverting conversation, they soon became intimate. But the man would not allow the missionary to speak to him about his soul; and whenever his sins were touched upon, he flew into a rage, inveighing against the practices of the Church, and swearing that he would never more go to confession. Xavier, nothing daunted, would then resume his milder deportment, until he had again conciliated him, but without the least relaxation from his perseverance to bring him to confession. The vessel in which they sailed touching at Cannanore, they went on shore together, and took a walk in a neighbouring wood. They had not been long there before Xavier stripped himself to the waist, and then, taking a Discipline,' which was pointed with wires, inflicted upon his naked body so severe a chastisement, that his back and shoulders were soon covered with blood. He then cried to his companion-"It is for 1 An instrument of penance. CHAP. III. your sake that I do this, and it is nothing to what I would cheerfully suffer for your soul. But you have inflicted a much severer penalty on Jesus Christ. Will not His passion, nor His death, nor all His blood, suffice to soften the hardness of your heart? Then, lifting up his voice, he said-" O Lord, be pleased to look on thine own adorable blood, and not on that of so vile a sinner as I am!" All this produced the desired effect. For the man immediately threw himself at the father's feet, entreated him to forbear, and promised to confess and turn from his wicked course. This is not the only instance of Xavier's undergoing such a penance for a similar purpose; a practice at that time very common with the monks of the Roman church, not merely to work upon a sinner's feelings, so as to cause him to be ashamed of himself, and to bring him to repentance, but to obtain his pardon: and the people were taught to believe, that the merit of such selfinflicted pain was to be purchased with money.2 We freely acquit Xavier of so base a motive. But while in his case we would fain look upon it only as expressive of the intense interest he took in the sinner's welfare, we cannot but de There have been Romanists enlightened enough to see, and candid enough to own, the absurdity of these practices. The Abbè Fleury reprobates them in becoming terms.-"The severities which a pious monk himself would suffer for the sinner, were never effectual to the healing of the latter; for sin is not like a pecuniary debt, which another may pay for the debtor, and in any kind of money: it is a disease which can only be cured in the person of the sick. Further, these penances which another performed, were condemned by a national council in England, which was held in the year 747. And they gave this remarkable reason for it: that by this means the rich would more easily save themselves than the poor, which is contrary to the express word of the Gospel.”– Discourses on Ecclesiastical History, p. 164. plore the infatuation which is thus seen to have 23. In the following year, 1545, he sailed again for Travancore; but the westerly winds preventing his making that coast, he concluded it to be the will of God that he should bend his course to another region. Under this conviction he bore away to the eastward, in order to visit Malacca and the Molucca isles, where the Portuguese had carried on a flourishing trade, chiefly in spices, since the year 1510. He went first to Malacca, where he arrived on the 25th September. His fame having preceded him, the natives flocked to the beach to welcome him, as soon as they heard of his arrival. There, as formerly at Goa, he found the Portuguese extremely ignorant, and abandoned to the grossest debaucheries; and again he rightly judged it to be his first duty to endeavour to reclaim them. Knowing, however, the difficulty of the task; for a sinner's pride is often more 3 Col. ii. 1, 2. CHAP. III. His hazardous mission sensitive than the greenest wound; he touched their vices tenderly, not venturing at once to startle them with severe invectives, but endeavouring by kindness and courtesy to win their confidence. When he thought that he had gained the desired influence over them, he began to address himself to their wicked courses, and succeeded in bringing many to confession: but he did not wait there long enough to see whether a permanent reformation was effected in their conduct. His efforts for the conversion of the natives not meeting with the immediate success to which he had become accustomed among the Indians, he grew impatient, and soon departed for Amboyna, where he was more successful, a great number of the inhabitants embracing Christianity without delay. Here he passed some months, building churches in several villages, and preparing the most promising of the converts to officiate in them, until they should be provided with regular missionaries. The next place he visited was the island of Ternate, where also he had to commence with the reformation of the dissolute Europeans. Here he was the means of converting a Mahomedan princess, who had lost her sons and her dominions through the wicked intrigues of the Portuguese. Her name was, Neachilé, whom, after much persuasion, he induced to embrace the Christian faith; and he baptized her by the name of Isabella. Under his instructions, she is said to have become so eminent for piety and charity, as to be more esteemed, both by natives and Portuguese, than when in the plenitude of her power. 24. While at Ternate, he heard of the diaboto the isles of lical character of the inhabitants of the islands Del Moro. of Del Moro, and determined to visit them. His friends, alarmed for his safety, endeavoured to dissuade him from his purpose; but Xavier, we have seen, courted danger, and aspired to the martyr's crown. Though we would desire for every missionary of the church of Christ a more enlightened zeal than that of this apostle of his infant order, yet his answer to those who wished to detain him, deserves the consideration of every one engaged in the service of God, especially when called to an enterprise of unusual peril. Finding their entreaties of no avail, they induced the governor of Ternate to issue a decree, forbidding, under severe penalties, any vessel to transport him to those islands. He was much displeased at this attempt to constrain him, and said-" Where are those people who dare to confine the power of Almighty God, and have so mean an apprehension of our Saviour's love and grace? Are there any hearts hard enough to resist the influences of the Most High, when it pleases Him to soften and to change them? Can they stand in opposition to that gentle, and yet commanding force, which can make the dry bones live, and raise up children to Abraham from stones? What, shall He, who has subjected the whole world to the cross, by the ministry of the Apostles, shall He exempt from that subjection, this petty corner of the universe? Shall then the Isle del Moro be the only place, which shall receive no benefit of redemption? And when Jesus Christ has offered to the Eternal Father, all the nations. of the earth as His inheritance, were these people excepted out of the donation? I acknowledge them to be very barbarous and brutal, and let it be granted that they were more inhuman than they are, it is because I can do nothing of my A. D. 1545. |