design was begun with expedition, and carried on with severity, so
that every christian teacher in China, as well as those who professed
the faith, were struck with amazement. John Adam Schall, a German
ecclesiastic, and one of the principals of the mission, was thrown into
a dungeon in the year 1664, being then in the seventy-fourth year of his
age, and narrowly escaped with his life.

The ensuing year, viz. 1665, the ministers of state publicly and
unanimously resolved, and made a decree specifying, viz.

1. That the christian doctrines were false.

2. That they were dangerous to the interest of the empire.

3. That they should not be practised under pain of death.

The publication of this decree occasioned a furious general persecution,
in which some were put to death, many were ruined, and all were, in some
manner, oppressed. This decree was general, and the persecution
universal accordingly throughout the empire; for, previous to this, the
christians had been partially persecuted at different times, and in
different provinces.

Four years after, viz. 1669, the young emperor was declared of age, and
took the reins of government upon himself, when the persecution
immediately ceased by his order.

_An account of the Persecutions in Japan._

Christianity was first introduced into the idolatrous empire of Japan by
some Portuguese missionaries in the year of our Lord 1552, and their
endeavours in making converts to the light of the gospel met with a
degree of success equal to their most sanguine wishes.

This continued till the year 1616, when the missionaries being accused
of having concerned themselves in politics, and formed a plan to subvert
the government, and dethrone the emperor, great jealousies subsisted
till 1622, when the court ordered a dreadful persecution to commence
against both foreign and native christians. Such was the rage of this
persecution, that, during the first four years, no less than 20,570
christians were massacred. The public profession of christianity was
prohibited under pain of death, and the churches were shut up by an
express edict.

Many who were informed against, as privately professing christianity,
suffered martyrdom with great heroism. The persecution continued many
years, when the remnant of the innumerable christians, with which Japan
abounded, to the number of 37,000 souls, retired to the town and castle
of Siniabara, in the island of Xinio, where they determined to m