Jews 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, Ioh. 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 themſelves in their diabolicall doings. Nothing is more odious p. 34. 99.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. de Lact. 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. 22.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 ferm. 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 what Caſ. …ud Hiſt. 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, nor 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 our 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 incite 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 regall intention and the Adventurers free profeſſion, is the Charter.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 ciſterne, Eſa. 36. 16. ſhould witneſſe our thankfulneſſe unto God, for theſe favours, by ſympathizing affections towards our brethren there, and the Natives.