A display of two forraigne sects in the East Indies vizt: the sect of the Banians the ancient natiues of India and the sect of the Persees the ancient inhabitants of Persia· together with the religion and maners of each sect collected into two bookes by Henry Lord sometimes resident in East India and preacher to the Hoble Company of Merchants trading thether

The Authors Conclusion to the Reader, together with a Cen∣sure on the materiall parts of this Relation.

THus worthy Reader, thou hast the summe of the Banian Reli∣gion, such as it is; not voyd of vaine Superstitions, and com∣posed Forgery, as well may bee iudged by the precedent Discourse, wherein as in all other heresies may be gathered, how Sathan leadeth those that are out of the pale of the Church, a round, in the Maze of Er∣rour and Gentilisme. I might leaue the parti∣culars to thy Censure, as well as to thy Rea∣ding; but since I haue detected such grosse opinions in this Sect, I cannot let them passe without a rod trust at their backes, as a deser∣ued pennance for their crime.

To helpe thy memory therefore in a short reuise of their forementioned vanities; what seemeth their first Age to present, but a fig∣ment of their owne deuising, to confirme them to be the most ancient of all people? as if like the Aegyptians, in the 2. booke of Iu∣stine, they onely would boast of Antiquity; and to lay the first ground of Religion and

Gouernment, when the Scythians had better arguments to pleade than they. How fabu∣lous and like an old womans tale seeme their deuised Medium for the worlds propagation, in placing foure women at the foure windes? And for the second Age and the worlds re∣stauration therein, if by those three persons, Bremaw, Vistney, and Ruddery, they glaunce at the Trinity, how prodigious haue they made that Mystery; making it rather a Quaternity, than a Trinity? What a monstrous fancy haue they formed and shaped for the peopling of that Age; and if they ayme not at a marke so sublime, what men shall deserue the Attri∣butes to them appropiate? Touching their Law, the maine Pillars thereof haue beene demolished in its Confutation: The Kingdome of God consists not in meates and drinkes. For other their Ceremonies and Rites, contained in their second Tract of the booke, what man of reasonable vnderstanding doth not won∣der at their superstitions, which place their faith in outward washings, lotions, and sprinklings? in worshippe of Sunne, Moone, and other liuing creatures, in paintings, vncti∣ons, and garish processions, in offerings vnder greene trees, in cringings, beckings, and bow∣ings to Images, and other multifarious Cere∣monies? all euidences of braines intoxicate with the fumes of Errour and Polytheisme. As for their foure Tribes or Casts, as in all

else, how Pythagorically they stand vpon the number of foure; the world was formed of foure principles; diuided into foure points of the Compasse; to endure for foure Ages; planted by foure men, matched to foure wo∣men; restored againe by foure; and to be de∣molished by foure seuerall destructions; in foure seuerall Elements: and to conclude, like Sadduces denying the Resurrection, in which consisteth the hopes of the blessed: Of which St. Paul, 1 Cor. 15.29. If in this life one∣ly we haue hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

All these declare how they haue made their Religion a composed Fiction, rather then any thing reall for faith to leane on. Though then the Nouelty of this Relation may make it gratefull to any, who like an Athenian desireth to heare some thing strange or new: I know not wherein it may be more profitable, then to settle vs in the solidnesse of our owne faith, which is purged of all such leuities; for the vainnesse of Errour makes truthes greatest opinion, which duely considered may well moue vs to say,

Micat inter omnes, Iulium Sydus, velut inter ignes Luna minores.

That our great light outshines all these as farre, As Siluer Moone outshines each lesser Starre.

FINIS.