us. It would cost them too dear a price; and no man will deceive another
at his own expence. He only, who made the heart of man, can place it in
so great tranquillity. The force of nature cannot reach so far; and this
Christian patience must proceed alone from some divine principle. These
people cannot but have some infallible assurance of the doctrine they
believe, and of the recompence which they expect; for, in line, they are
ready to suffer all things for their God, and have no human expectations.
After all, what inconvenience or danger can it be to embrace their law?
If what they tell us of eternity be true, I shall be eternally miserable
in not believing it; and supposing there be no other life but this, is it
not better to follow a religion which elevates a man above himself, and
which gives him an unalterable peace, than to profess our sects, which
continue us in all our weakness, and which want power to appease the
disorders of our hearts?" He made his inward reflections on all these
things, as he afterwards declared; and these considerations being
accompanied with the motions of grace, touched him so to the quick, that,
as soon as the sermon was ended, he confessed that the virtue of the
preacher had convinced him; he desired baptism, and received it with
great solemnity.

This illustrious conversion was followed with answerable success. Many
who had a glimmering of the truth, and feared to know it yet more
plainly, now opened their eyes, and admitted the gospel light; amongst
the rest, a young man of five-and-twenty years of age, much esteemed for
the subtlety of his understanding, and educated in the most famous
universities of Japan. He was come to Amanguchi, on purpose to be made a
Bonza; but being informed that the sect of Bonzas, of which he desired
to be a member, did not acknowledge a first Principle, and that their
books had made no mention of him, he changed his thoughts, and was
unresolved on what course of living he should fix; until being finally
convinced, by the example of the doctor, and the arguments of Xavier, he
became a Christian. The name of Laurence was given him; and it was he,
who, being received by Xavier himself into the Society of Jesus,
exercised immediately the ministry of preaching with so much fame, and so
great success, that he converted an innumerable multitude of noble and
valiant men, who were afterwards the pillars of the Japonian church.

As to what remains, the monasteries