Three other points, on which the Bonzas more insisted, were thought to be more solid, and of greater consequence.  The first was proposed in this manner:  “Either God foresaw that Lucifer and his accomplices would revolt, and be damned eternally, or he foresaw it not.  If he had no foresight of it, his prescience did not extend so far as you would have us to believe; but if he foresaw it, the consequence is worse, that he did not hinder this revolt, which had prevented their damnation.  Your God being, as you say, the fountain of all goodness, must now be acknowledged by you for the original cause of so much evil.  Thus you are forced,” said the Bonza, “to confess, either ignorance or malice in your God.”

Xavier was so much amazed to hear a Bonza reasoning like a schoolman, that turning to Edward de Gama, who was by him, “See,” says he softly in Portuguese, that he might not be understood by the Japonians, “see how the devil has sharpened the wit of these his advocates.”  In the mean time, one of the Bonzas coming up to the charge, said, according to the same principle, “That if God had foreknown that Adam would sin, and cast down, together with himself, his whole progeny into an abyss of miseries, why did he create him?  At least, when our first father was ready to eat of the forbidden fruit, why did not that omnipotent hand, which gave him being, annihilate him at the same moment?”

A third Bonza, taking the word, urged him with another argument:  “If our evil be as ancient as the world,” said he, subtilely, “why did God let so many ages pass away without giving it a remedy?  Why did he not descend from heaven, and make himself man, to redeem human kind, by his death and sufferings, as soon as ever man was guilty?  To what degree did those first men sin, to become unworthy of such a favour?  And what has been the merit of their descendants, that they should be more favourably treated than their predecessors?”

These difficulties did not appear new to Xavier, who was very learned, and who had read whatsoever the fathers and school divines had said concerning them.  He answered, without doubt, according to their doctrine; but the Portuguese, who relates the objections, durst not undertake to write the solutions of them, if we will believe himself, because they surpassed the understanding of a merchant.  The Bonzas made many replies, to all which the Father gave the proper solutions in few words, and according to the rules of the schools.  Whether it were that they comprehended not the solutions, or were it out of their hot-headedness, or that they seemed not to understand them to avoid the shame of being baffled, they yielded not, but cried out louder than before.  As they disputed more for victory than truth, they denied all things, even to those principles which are self-evident; pretending thereby to encumber their opponent.  Xavier knew what use to make of his advantages; he turned the confusion upon them, by reducing them to manifest contradictions,