The Jews Now in America, Part 3 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Cautions.
1. TAke heed and beware of cruelty, the God of mercy hates nothing so much, saith aIn Math▪ 16.Theophilact as unmercifulnesse; the badge of Christ is clemency, his livery love; by this it shall be knowne that you are my Disciples, saith our deare Master himselfe, if yee love one another, Io…. 13. 35. Other mens followers were known by their garments and colours, but charity and love made the first Christians famous over all the old heathen world, but in the new World the Spaniards die was not so black as bloudy, and the Indians called them bCasas. p. 66.Yares, i. e. devills, so little humanity, as they conceived, was visible among them. The same Bishop, when he made an whole book of the Spanish cruelties which he saw executed by them on the Indians, protesteth it was his opinion, that hee scarce mentioned one of a thousand of their tyrannies;p. 35. and more than once or twice he averreth, that they allwaies grew from bad to worse, and exceeded themselvesp. 34. 99. in their diabolicall doings. Nothing is more odious to this day than their name in those Countries; for where ever the spanish Christians displayed their banners saith Benzo cp. 11., they imprinted upon the Natives by their horrid cruelties, eternall monuments of implacable hatred towards them; but the faire, civill, and gentle deportment of our Nation to the Natives, hath already wonne much upon them, as is acknowledged by a dIo. d… Laet. Descr. Amer. pref.forraigne pen.
2. Take heed and beware of covetousnesse, tis our sweet Saviours own ingeminated command, Luk. 12. 15. happy shall the Natives be, and we also, if they find our conversation without covetousnesse, Heb. 13. 5. that they may see and say, the Englishmen seeke not ours, but us, and us, not to make us slaves to themselves, but fellow servants to Christ our common Master; they saw the Spaniards so guilty of this eCasas. p. 2….evill, that they conceived them to adore no other God but gold, the observation of which fetched from fp. 118.Benzo that pious exoptation, I wish to God, saith hee, wee were no more addicted to earthly things than they, the name of Christian would be glorious were it not for our covetousnes; the Spaniards indeed tell faire stories, some of them, as if their sole desire had been to Christianize the Natives, when indeed all their endeavour was to satisfie their lust and avarice; and Acosta gHist. l. 4▪ c. 2.himselfe cannot deny but that his Countreymen did commit many great outrages for gold and silver; but where those metalls were not to be found, they made no stay, continued not in such places; and▪ Benzo hp. 204.is large in producing their frequent and suddaine removes upon this occasion, and he tells that the Bracamorians are unsubdued by the Spaniards to this day, not so much because they are a warlike people in their kind, but especially by reason of their poverty and indigence.
3. Take heed and beware of complying with them in any of their rites and ceremonies, if we intend they should indeed come out of Egypt, let not an hoofe be left, as Exod. 10. 25. let them have Christian religion purely, without blinding or blending; the wisdome of the flesh must not here be heard▪ wee must listen to no other but the counsell of the Spirit. It was lEp. before s…rm. in Jona.good advice the godly Bishop and martyr Hooper gave to King Edward the sixth and his honourable privy Councellors, As yee have taken away the Masse from the people, so take from them her feathers also, the Altar, vestments, and such like as apparell'd her: there hath not doubtlesse, been any one thing so powerfull in begetting and maintaining doctrinall quarrells in Christendome, as the unhappy complication with nations and people in some of their supposed tollerable rites at their first approaching to Christianity; the Pagans of old, saith Rhenanus mIn Tertul. p. 103., were relieved by the mutation of some things in their religion, whose universall abolition had irritated, if not totally scared them from us; and Acosta nHist. l. 6. c. 28concurres with him in this matter, even in reference to the Indians: How this policy prevailed at first in the Church was long ago observed, and it became the lamentation of latter times, when men were more tenacious of humane superstructures, than of the fundamentalls laid by Jesus Christ, the shell and shadow of Gentile ceremony is yet more carefully hunted after by the Man of Rome, than the most solid and substantiall truths of the Gospel; pitty it is, that sense and eyedazlelings should prevaile more than divine verities, that abundance of good things should breed surfets, and yet it will ever be thus, where there is want of care and spirituall exercise at home, and but cold endeavours to promote piety and godlinesse abroad.
4. Take heed and beware of all and every ungodlinesse, not onelyonly for your owne sakes, but that the sweet name of our God be not blasphemed among the Nations, Rom. 2. 24. Holy examples are a nearer way to righteousnesse than verball precepts and instructions; the Indians may, even without the word, be won to the truth by a godly conversation, as St. Peter speaketh in the like case, 1 Pet. 3. 1. a corrupt life is a violent argument perswading to evill; the Americans were scared from Christianity by the scandalous iniquities of the Spaniards.
The evil example of one ungodly Christian did more hinder the Indians conversion, than an hundred of their religious could further it, * he saith it, who saw whatCas. c…ud. Hi… ▪ p. 116. he spake, for they are verily perswaded that of all the Gods in the world, the Spaniards God is the worst, because hee hath such abominable and wicked servants.Id. ibid. Benzo il. 2. c. 16.tells of a confabulation himselfe had with an old Indian, who in serious discourse said unto him, O Christian! what kind of things be Christians, they exact Mayz, Honey, Silke, an Indian woman for a concubine, they require gold and silver, Christians will not worke, they dice, blaspheme, &c. when I replyed, evil Christians onelyonly doe such things, not such as be good, his answer was ready, but where are those good Christians? I could never yet see one of them; and not this American onelyonly, but a Franciscan Fryer publickly affirmed, that not a Priest, nor Monke, not Bishop in all India, was worthy of the name of a good man; Didacus Lopez kBenzo. p. 257.in his Epistle to the Bishop of Guattimala, saith, the Christians were so prodigiously wicked, that they were odious not onelyonly to heaven and Angells, but even to the earth, and devills; doe you believe saith hee, the Indians will become Christians, when your selves are not so but in name onelyonly, and in title? surely those silly nations will sooner be perswaded to good by the example of one daies conversation, than by an whole yeers preaching; for to what purpose doe wee strew among the people odoriferous roses with ou… tongues and language, if we sting and vex them in the meane time with the thornes of our wicked doings.
But our Countrey men take care to follow the aforementioned injunction of the holy Apostle, Col. 4. 5. they walke righteously, or as in our old English it was, in right wisenesse, so they called righteousnesse, towards them without; and so their charter on earth, as well as those letters patents from Heaven, wills that the English be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderly conversation may winne and inci…e the Natives of the Countrey to the knowledg and obedience of the onelyonly true God and Saviour of mankinde, and the christian faith, which in our regallCharter. intention and the Adventurers free profession, is the principall end of this plantation.
And let these words be understood, as awakenings to those of our Nation there, and our selves also, that wee all labour mutually, and from our hearts, to propagate the Gospell there, because wee, who eate every man of his owne vine, and of his owne figtree, and drinke every man water out of his own …isterne, Esa. 36. 16. should witnesse our thankfulnesse unto God, for these favours, by sympathizing affections towards our brethren there, and the Natives.