The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16Dryden, John
History
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16
Dryden, John
English literature
The Father, who was at open defiance with those men, who were the mortal
enemies of all the faithful, and whose only interest it was to hinder the
establishment of the faith, published whatsoever was told him in relation
to them, and represented them in their proper colours. These unmasked
hypocrites became the laughter of the people; but what mortified them
more, was, that they, who heard them like oracles before this, now
upbraided them openly with their ignorance. A woman would sometimes
challenge them to a disputation; and urge them with such home and
pressing arguments, that the more they endeavoured to get loose, the
more they were entangled: For the Father, being made privy to the secrets
of every sect, furnished the new proselytes with weapons to vanquish the
Bonzas, by reducing them to manifest contradictions; which, among the
Japonese, is the greatest infamy that can happen to a man of letters. But
the Bonzas got not off so cheap, as only to be made the derision of the
people; together with their credit and their reputation they lost the
comfortable alms, which was their whole subsistence: So that the greater
part of them, without finding in themselves the least inclinations to
Christianity, bolted out of their convents, that they might not die of
hunger in them; and changed their profession of Bonzas, to become either
soldiers or tradesmen; which gave the Christians occasion to say, with
joy unspeakable, "That, in a little time, there would remain no more
idolaters in Amanguchi, of those religious cheats, than were barely
sufficient to keep possession of their monasteries."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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