There were above twenty of us in a cursed Dungeon without Light. There was a deep Hole, in the middle of it for the Prisoners Necessities, but scarce any Body durst go near it for fear of falling in, which was the Reason that every one dung'd where he could, and that consequently there was an intolerable Stench.
The first Day that I was detain'd, I did nothing but sigh and groan for the Loss of my Liberty, and with the Apprehension of what I was soon to suffer from the Tyranny of the most implacable Judges in the World. But being afterwards made sensible that all this would answer no End, I thought that the best way to dispel part of my Chagrin would be to start Conversation upon indifferent Matters with the first Man that came in my Way. For this end I address'd myself to most of my Fellow-Prisoners, some of whom did not understand me, because I did not speak their Language, and the others were so dejected, that they did not care to answer me a Word; only one Man who was more patient and sociable than the rest, said to me in Portuguese;
"You have but a melancholy Reception here, but you must not be surpriz'd at it, for 'tis impossible without a happy Temper and a great Courage not to be dispirited in so disagreeable a Place as this, especially when a Man has been here some time. For my part, I thank God, I am of an Age to bear a great deal, and am so resign'd to the Decrees of Providence, that I laugh at all that Man can do to me." Those are fine Qualities indeed, said I, very few People are capable of so much Resolution. Of what Religion are you, said I? I am, said he, a Universalist, or of the Religion of honest Men. I love God with all my Heart, I fear him, I worship him, and I endeavour to do to all Men without Exception what I wish they would do to me. All that's very good, said I, but you are undoubtedly of some Communion. People seldom attain to your Age, but they declare for a certain Party or Sect. Not I, said he, I make no difference between one Society or Denomination and another; there is not one but has its Beauties and its Blemishes, and I am persuaded there is none in which a Man may not either be sav'd or damn'd. Verily, said I, what you say confirms me in the Opinion I have had a long Time, that there is not a greater Variety in Faces than there is in Sentiments. This is true, reply'd he, not only with regard to every Man in particular, but with Regard to every Day of one's Life; what we thought of Yesterday in one Light, we look upon to-day in another, and the Mind as well as the Body is subject to a thousand Alterations.
I am a Chinese, continued he, and my Father was a Man in good Circumstances, who took great Care of my Education, so that it was not his Fault if I have not a good Stock of Learning. One Du Bourg a Missionary Jesuit having heard mention of him as of a generous Man and of a numerous Family, found Ways and Means to introduce himself among us. He was a Man not only civil, but seemingly of an exemplary Piety, so that we all took an unspeakable Pleasure in hearing him discourse. He gave each of us a Catechism, which he desir'd us to read attentively, and explain'd in a very easy familiar Way. After this there were Conferences at our House two or three times a Week, in which it must be own'd, that the Jesuit neglected nothing for our Instruction. As there was little or no Perplexity in the Subjects which he treated of at first, such as the Fall of Man, his Redemption by the Son of God, and everlasting Happiness, we took great Pleasure in his Lectures; but at last after two or three Months were over, this Ecclesiastic who went on gradually, and did not care to frighten us all at once when he began to explain the Prophecies, and to display the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation, my Father's Mind began to be uneasy. He could not comprehend how Men of Sense that boast of the glorious Lights of Revelation should not see that their Worship is envelop'd in the thickest Darkness of Paganism. Is it not far flung, said he, that People should take Pleasure in being wilfully blind to such a Degree, as to have an Abhorrence of those who shew them plainly, that their chief Maxims and the most essential Articles of their Religion are miserable Puerilities, and Impertinencies which they themselves say were a Stumbling-block to the Jews, and Foolishness to the Greeks! Especially, said he, I tremble when any Man goes to persuade me, that a Being, sovereignly perfect and immaterial engender'd another corporeal God equal to him from all Eternity, and that there is also another God, an independent Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, each of the Three making a distinct Person, and being perfect God, and yet all those Three making but one only perfect God. Certainly this is making a strange Chimæra of the most simple, and most undivided Being.
The Jesuit wish'd he had not embark'd so far. He endeavour'd to remove that Obstruction by the common Method of Theologues; but not succeeding, he made use of this Comparison. Suppose, Sir, said he, a Tree that bears Fruit incessantly; in such a Tree I find three Things that have a very great Resemblance to the Holy Trinity. I observe the Analogy between the Trunk and the Father, between the Son and the Branches, and between the Holy Spirit and the Fruit. The Trunk is as the Father, because both the Branches and Fruit are produc'd from it; the Branches are as the Son, in that they are produc'd from the Trunk as so many Arms or Conveyance for distributing to Mankind, all that proceeds from the Trunk. And the Fruit is as the Holy Spirit, considering that it comes to us both from the Trunk and the Branches, as so many Assurances or Testimonies of their Goodness. I own, that when Eternity is the Point in Question, the Resemblance ceases, because 'tis not possible to find a Proportion betwixt Finite and Infinite, be the former ever so ancient and extensive. Mean time, 'tis as true on the other hand, that when we examine the Kernels, or the Seeds of the Fruit of this Tree with a good Microscope, we observe not only a Tree already form'd with its Branches, but the Fruit also, tho' a little confus'd; a true Emblem this of the Deity consider'd during and before the Creation of the World, at which Time it appear'd but as one entire Tree without Distinction of Branches and of Fruit. But to come from hence to the Thing I aim at, 'tis evident that whatever Difference you make between the Trunk, Branches, and Fruits of a Tree, there is essentially none at all; they are indeed different Parts, yet all those Parts together constitute but one Whole. It signifies nothing to say that the Trunk is not the Branches, and that the Branches are not the Fruit. I affirm that this Distinction is not real, that is to say, that those Things cannot subsist independently one of the other as when they are united. In order to make a compleat Tree such as we have imagin'd, there must necessarily be a Conjunction of a Trunk, Branches, and Fruit, yet each has its particular Use; the first, as I said before, creates or produces, the second bears, displays, and gives, and the third by its Presence and Operations confirms in the Belief we entertain with Regard to the second and the first. 'Tis one and the same Substance variously represented, one Agent which operates after divers Manners, but in the main is only one, and cannot be consider'd as several without a manifest Contradiction. God is but One in Essence: In the Oeconomy of Salvation he is consider'd as the Author and Father of Mankind: In the Affair of Redemption he is look'd upon as an obedient submissive and humble Son who satisfies the Justice of his Father; and when the Business is the Application and Distribution of his Grace, he is consider'd as the Holy Ghost.
After this Manner and no other, said my Father, interrupting him, I conceive of the Meaning of the Word Trinity, but there is something else couch'd under it, or you would not have made so many Periphrases; I don't like any of these Ways of acting; formerly I thought you an honest Man, but now I find you a Cheat, and taking him by the Arm he thrust him out of his House for good and all; then turning about to us, he said, Don't you observe the Absurdities in this Sophister's Arguments? According to his Way of talking, this Jesus whom he preaches up to us so much, and whom he makes equal with God, had not so much Credit as to pay by his ignominious Death the Debt which the first Man contracted by eating the forbidden Fruit, because Adam, who, according to him, was created to live eternally, thereby deserv'd Death Temporal and Eternal, and because Christ only preserv'd Adam's Posterity from the latter of those Deaths of which we have not any Certainty, and of which many Nations are ignorant; whereas he was not able to redeem us from the Death, which we know by Experience, and which, said he, was impos'd upon us as a Punishment. And what is yet more remarkable upon this Head is, that the Terms of this Redemption are burdensome, and much more difficult to put in practice, than those to which the Jews were subject under the old Dispensation. The Israelites, as the Christians themselves say, were only bound to do good Works; the Law requir'd nothing of 'em but Sprinklings and such other Ceremonies; but under the New Covenant Faith is added to good Works, and a Faith strong enough to believe all the Mysteries of Religion without doubting, notwithstanding they are repugnant to Reason and good Sense. As for my own Part, Children, said he, I renounce such wild Opinions, and will positively hear no more of them.
I was then twenty two Years of Age, and consequently at Years of Discretion: I could not for my Life see the Wildness of those Opinions which my Father cry'd out so much against. My Director (to do him justice) had only taught, that Adam was threatned with Temporal Death, if he transgress'd; and that the Design of Christ's Sufferings was not to take this Penalty off from Mankind, but to make them more than Amends by procuring for them Eternal Life in another World. To teach this, I thought, was not to represent Christ as wanting any Credit with God; unless it had been necessary to the Happiness of when that the Temporal Death should have been superseded, the contrary of which seem'd more probable. I saw too that under the old Dispensation Faith was required of the Jews, as it is now under the Gospel requir'd of Christians. They were bound to believe not only that there is a God, but that it Moses's Law was of Divine Origin, that he wrought Miracles, and that a Messias was to come. These were some of their Articles of Faith; and tho' the Number of a Christian's Articles is enlarg'd, yet none of those which my Director had taught me, seem'd to my Reason to contain such Propositions as a Divine Power did not reach to. However my Father's Temper was such that he could not bear his Children to make him Replies, so that I was forc'd to obey, or run the Risque of being chastis'd.
After this, I did not see the Monk above three or four times in six Months, which was such an insupportable Mortification to me, that one Day having acquainted me of a Voyage he intended to make to Goa, I inform'd myself which Way he was to go, and without saying a Word to any Soul, I set out two Days before him, and went fifteen Leagues from Home to stay for him. The good Man was transported to see me, but when I told him what was the Motive of my meeting him, he had like to have discarded me for fear of the Consequences, so that I was oblig'd to give him my Oath that I would, where ever we came, declare what indeed was no more than the Truth, that he had no hand in this Excursion of mine, and that I would always endeavour at the Hazard of my Life to clear him from any such Accusation.
When we came hither, I intreated him to find me out some Person with whom I might live in the nature of a Domestic. It was not long before Father Du Bourg procur'd what I wanted, for he plac'd me with one Pelciano a Portuguese Physician whom he knew intimately. This honest Man who had a great deal of Regard for me, took so much Pains to teach me his Language, that notwithstanding my ordinary Avocations, I was able to speak it in a very short Time. He likewise took a singular Pleasure in instructing me in his Religion, but tho' he was not so prevaricating as the Jesuit, I was shock'd at a great many Things, which I thought either ridiculous, or manifestly contradictory. I was also at some Trouble to reconcile your Chronology, which limits the Creation of the World to the Term of about 6000 Years, with ours and that of the Indians, who extend it with a great deal of Probability to a Distance almost infinite. Besides, I was extremely perplex'd which of the Sects to make choice of, when I heard that the Christians as well as others, are divided into a Number of Societies which differ so much in their Opinions as to cause an irreconcileable Hatred between them, so far as to damn one another; and that even in every one of these Societies there's I know not how many different Sorts of Opinions. My Master to whom I propos'd my Scruples, and who made use of all his Rhetoric to solve them, expected I should prefer the Romish Religion to all others, probably because 'twas that which he profess'd himself. But being shock'd at the ridiculous Superstitions which I found those of that Communion were guilty of, I earnestly begg'd him to tell me seriously what he thought it adviseable for me to do.
Well my Lad, said he, remain as you are, or else turn to that Side where you think to find most Advantage. I will not make use of the Authority of Polybius, a very famous Historian about 200 Years before Christ, who pretended, as he says in his sixth Chapter, "That the Gods, as well as Punishments and Rewards after this Life, are only the chimerical Productions of the Ancients, which would be very insignificant if a Republic was to be form'd to consist only of good Men; but because there is no State where the People are not irregular and wicked, 'tis absolutely necessary for keeping them in Awe, to make use of the Panic Terrors of another World, to admit, believe and intirely to conform to them, on Pain of passing for Madmen and Fools." As this great Man was a Pagan, 'tis not fair to quote him among us upon a Fact of such Consequence. So that it shall suffice to tell you, that 'tis a Maxim with Great Men as well as the Learned to accommodate themselves to Times and Seasons. 'Tis indifferent in what Church, or with what People we worship God, provided we serve him with Respect and Veneration. He is the only common Father of all Mankind, and is willing to grant them all Salvation. 'Tis neither the Denomination of Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran nor Anabaptist, by which People are sav'd, but by Faith and good Works, The Man that leads a good Life is acceptable; to God, wherever he dwells, and Providence which trieth the Heart and the Reins, can easily distinguish a Believer from 100000 wicked and ungodly Persons. Most of the Articles which set Men at Variance in Religion are not so essential as is pretended by the Clergy; 'tis often a Matter of Indifference whether they are accepted or rejected; and provided there are any of Consequence, 'tis always certain that no Body knows our Hearts, and 'tis an easy Thing to associate with Fools, and even to imitate their external Grimaces without embracing their ridiculous Opinions. Worship is not attach'd to any particular Place, nor is Adoration paid any longer on the Mountain or in Jerusalem. God no longer requires the Blood of Heifers for his Satisfaction, nor the Distorsions of the Body. My Son, says he, give me thy Heart. This, I said, appears to me very rational, I most humbly thank you for your Advice; and according to these Principles I shall be content with keeping up the Title of a Christian, without attaching myself absolutely to any one Sect. Ever since that Time, continued the Chinese, while I travell'd with Mons. Pelciano, I attended at all the Divine Services without any Scruple, and without giving Offence to any Person whatsoever.