The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 16
TextRichard Hackluyt, also a Protestant, and, which is more, a minister of England, commends Xavier without restriction:10 "Sancian," says he, "is an island in the confines of China, and near the port of Canton, famous for the death of Francis Xavier, that worthy preacher of the gospel, and that divine teacher of the Indians, in what concerns religion; who, after great labours, after many injuries, and infinite crosses, undergone with great patience and joy, died in a cabin, on a desart mountain, on the second of September, in the year 1552, destitute of all worldly conveniences, but accumulated with all sorts of spiritual blessings; having first made known Jesus Christ to many thousands of those Eastern people."11 The modern histories of the Indies are filled with the excellent virtues, and miraculous operations, of that holy man.
Monsieur Tavernier, who is endued with all the probity which a man can have, without the true religion, makes a step farther than these two historians, and speaks like a Catholic: "St Francis Xavier," says he, "ended in this place his mission, together with his life, after he had established the Christian faith, with an admirable progress in all places through which he passed, not only by his zeal, but also by his example, and by the holiness of his manners. He had never been in China, but there is great probability, that the religion which he had established in the isle of Niphon, extended itself into the neighbouring countries; and multiplyed by the cares of that holy man, who by a just title may be called the St Paul and true apostle of the Indies."
As to what remains, if Xavier was endued with all apostolical virtues, does it not follow, that the religion which he preached, was that of the apostles? Is there the least appearance, that a man, who was chosen by God to destroy idolatry and impiety in the new world, should be himself an idolater and a wicked man, in adoring Jesus Christ upon the altars, in invoking of the Holy Virgin, in engaging himself to God by vows, in desiring indulgences from the Pope, in using the sign of the cross and holy-water for the cure of the sick, in praying and saying masses for the dead? in fine, is it possible to believe, that this holy man, this new apostle, this second St Paul, continued all his life in the way of perdition, and, instead of enjoying at this present time the happiness of the saints, endures the torments of the damned? Let us then pronounce, concluding this work as we began it, that the life of St Francis Xavier is an authentic testimony of the truth of the gospel; and that we cannot strictly observe what God has wrought by the ministry of his servant, without a full satisfaction in this point, that the catholic, apostolic, and Roman church, is the church of our Saviour Jesus Christ.