Doctrine. He had in all three thousand Difciples, of which five hundred bore confiderable Employments; but the moft celebrated for their Virtue and Learning were feventy two, whofe Names, Countries, and Deeds, are recorded in the Chinese Annals. He divided his Difciples into four Ranks or Claffes; in the firft and favourite Clafs, were fuch only as applied themselves wholly to the improvement and perfection of their Minds with moral Virtues; the fecond comprised those who studied Logic and Eloquence; the Art of Government was the main bufinefs of the third Clafs; and the fourth ftudied only how to explain the Rules of Morality, in an eafy, proper, and elegant Style. The Principles he inftilled, with great care, into the Minds of all his Difciples, and endeavoured to ground them well in, were the following, viz. to fear, reverence, and obey Heaven; to conquer their Paffions; to do as they would be done by; and never give admittance to any Thought, that was not entirely agreeable to the dictates of Reafon. He required nothing of others, which he did not firft practise himself, adding to his other heroic Virtues a very low Opinion of himself. The greateft difpleasure any one could do him, was to praise him, or exprefs any kind of etteem for him. In order to leffen the great Opinionevery one had conceived of him on account of his Doctrine, he ufed publickly to proteft, that it was not his own, but that he had learnt it from the antient Philofophers; namely, from the Kings Yao and Xun, who had flourished fifteen hundred Years before he was born. We fhall hardly meet with fuch another inftance of Modefty in the Life of other Philo

any

t

Philofopher. Moft Philofophers have indeed, with fine Flourishes of Oratory, declaimed against the Defire of Glory, and exhorted others to defpife it, but to thofe very Books, which they wrote upon the Contempt of Glory, they took care to prefix their Names, as Tully well obferves, left the World should not know, who had been the Authors of them, and they by that means be robbed of the Glory which might from thence accrue to them. Our Author tells us here, that Confucius was frequently heard to repeat these Words, fi fam, yeu xim gin; That is, that an Hero of confummate Sanctity was to be found in the Weft: who this Hero was, adds he, from the Goa Edition of Confucius's Works, is uncertain; but 'tis past all doubt, that in the Year of the Chriftian Era 65, the Emperor Mim ti, (the 17th of the fifth Race) by thefe Words, and by a holy Man, who appeared to him in a Dream, and feemed to be come from the Weft, was induced to fend two Embaffadors towards the Weft, enjoining them to enquire after a holy Man, who had flourished there, and to acquaint themselves with his Law. The Embaffadors, pursuant to their Orders, put to fea, and landed in a certain Ifland, not far diftant from the Red-Sea, where they found a famous Idol representing a wicked Man, called Foe, who had flourished in the Indies about five hundred Years before Confucius, and established there a most impious and execrable Law. As the Embaffadors were afraid to proceed further, they returned home with this Law, which in procefs of time was eftablished throughout the vaft Empire of China. However incredible. this Story may appear to others, the Editors of Confucius's Works feem not in the leaft to doubt

of

of it. On this Occafion, according to them, Idolatry was introduced into China, and the wholesome Doctrine of Confucius laid afide. If fo, the miraculous Apparition, which we have mentioned above, was, we must own, very ill beftowed. Confucius died in the feventy third Year his Age, and fifty ninth of the thirty seventh Chinefe Cycle. The Chinese have now for the fpace of above two thousand Years, paid all poffible Refpect and Veneration to the Memory of this eminent Philofopher. Whether the Ceremonies, which the Chinese perform in honour of this their great Legiflator and Doctor, be religious or purely civil, has been Matter of great Debate between the Jefuits and other Roman Catholic Miffionaries in the Empire of China. The main Point in queftion was this; whether to kneel down before certain Tablets, on which the Name of Confucius was written, was to be deemed a religious Ceremony; of only an Act of Civility, fuch as it is among us, to make a Bow, or pull off our Hat to an Acquaintance. However plain it may appear, that fuch a Ceremony is not purely civil, but religious; yet the Jefuits, being accused at Rome of Idolatry, because they kneeled down before the Name of Confucius, maintained their Ground, with their ufual Quirks and Cavils, for the fpace of 60 Years, against all the other religious Orders joined together; nay, their Arguments feemed of fuch weight to Pope Alexander VIII. that by a special Decree he filenced thofe, who opposed them. Notwithstanding this Decree, the Dispute was revived in the Pontificate of Clement XI. who after having sent a Legate into China, to examine Matters on the fpot, and advised with the ableft Divines of the Church,

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Church, in the end condemned the Jefuits, and declared in a Bull dated the 5th of September, 1710, that the Ceremonies, performed by the Chinese in honour of Confucius, were fuperftitious, and therefore ought not to be practifed by the Miffionaries and their Profelytes. The Jefuits, (thofe zealous Abettors of the Pope's Infallibility) inftead of acquiefcing to this Decifion, fet abroach, in order to elude it, a Diftinction, which, as it ftruck at the Pope's unerring Privilege, gave no fmall uneafinefs to. the Court of Rome. The Subftance of their. Reply was, That, whether or not the Chinese. Ceremonies were fuperftitious, was not a Queftion de jure, which they allowed the Pope full Power to decide, but a Question de facto, which fell not, faid they, within the Verge of his In-. fallibility. That is, the Pope has a Power to declare, whether or not it is lawful to kneel down before Confucius, with a defign to wor-> fhip him, for that is a Question de jure: but cannot decide whether or not the Chinese kneel down before him, with fuch a defign, this be-, ing a Question de facto. This Diftinction was immediately embraced, and begun to be taught by the whole Order of Jefuits, who in all probability would have proceeded further, had not the Pope stopped their Mouths by granting them a great many new Privileges and Exemptions, and bribed them, by prefenting a Cardinal's Cap to Father Ptolomei, who had been charged by his General, as one of the most learned Men of the Order, to write in defence of the Chinese Ceremonies. Now who can fufficiently admire the bare-faced and unparallelled Effrontery of the Jefuit Aguillera, who, in his Answer to the Abbot Lazarini, inveighs against

him

him with the following Words: "The witty "Distinction you ufe, (fays he) viz. the Pope can decide a Queftion de jure, but not a Que"ftion de facto, is no ways to the purpose, " and moreover highly injurious to the Vicar "of Chrift? Did our Saviour, in giving the

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Keys to St. Peter, make any fuch Distinction? "&c. You have even the Impudence to father "that execrable Doctrine upon our Society. "But let me entreat you to mind, for your "own fake, what you fay: who knows but "there are ftill fome, who, deceived by your

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hypocritical Outfide, and not yet informed "of your facrilegious Amours with the Nun, "look upon you as a Man of fome Honesty "and Confcience. If therefore you are re"folved to indulge your natural Inclination, "and go on in the only thing you are good at, "that is, in lying and defaming Perfons of un"blemifhed Characters; take care at least to "give fome Appearance of Truth, to the "Falfhoods you advance. If you fay, that "the Jefuits have ever impugned, directly or

indirectly, the Infallibility of the Holy See, "you will be belyed by all Mankind; for every "body knows how heartily we espouse, on all "Occafions, the Pope's Caufe. As to your "filly Distinction between a Question de jure

and one de facto, because I am refolved to "deal fairly even with you, I own that fuch a "Diftinction was made use of in the famous "Controverfy, touching the Ceremonies prac"tifed by the Chinese in honour of Confucius, "But was it ever employed by any Writer of "our Society? 'Tis true, that fome, who in ap"pearance efpoufed our Quarrel, (and that

with no good Design) had recourse to fuch