Conftantinople, in his encomium upon him, prefixed to Acropolita's hiftory, is perhaps fomewhat extravagant in his praise, when he fays he was equal to Ariftotle in philofophy, and to Plato in the knowledge of divine things, and Attic eloquence. 3. Thirty Prayers mentioned in his hiftory. 6. A Reply to those who fay, that the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of 4. A Difcourfe upon the taking of the Son, because he is of the fame Conftantinople. nature with him, or because he is given by him to thofe who are worthy. This was published by Leo Allatius. Græciæ Orthodoxia, tom.I. P. 390. 5. An Expofition (Du Pin Nouvelle Biblioth, des Aut. Ecclef. p. 89.) upon the Sermons of St. Gregory Nazianzen. ACUNA (Chriftophero de) a Spanish Jefuit, born at Burgos. He was admitted into the fociety in 1612, being then but fifteen years of age. After having devoted fome years to ftudy, he went to America, where he affifted in making converts in Chili and Peru. In 1640, he returned to Spain, and gave the king an account how far he had fucceeded in the commiffion he had received to make difcoveries on the river of the Amazons; and the year following he publifhed a defcription of this river, at Madrid. Acuna was fent to Rome, as procurator of his province. He returned to Spain with the title of qualificator of the inquifition, but foon after embarked again for the Weft Indies, and was at Lima, in 1675, when father Southwell published at Rome the Bibliotheque of the Jefuit writers. Acuna's work is intitled, Nuevo defcubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas. i. e. "A new discovery of the great river of the Amazons." He was ten months together upon this river, having had inftructions to enquire into every thing with the greatest exactness, that his majefty might thereby be enabled to render the navigation more eafy and commodious. He went aboard a fhip at Quito with Peter Texeira, who had already been fo far up the river, and was therefore thought a proper perfon to accompany him in this expedition. They embarked in February, 1639, but did not arrive at Para till the December following. It is thought that the revolutions of Portugal, by which the Spaniards loft all Brafil, and the colony of Para at the mouth of the river of the Amazons, were the cause that the relation of this Jefuit was fuppreffed; for as it could not be of any advantage to the See the preSpaniards, they were afraid it might prove of great fervice to the Portuguese. The copies of this work became extremely tranflation. fcarce, fo that the publishers of the French translation at Paris afferted, that there was not one copy of the original extant, excepting F 2 face to the French excepting one in the poffeffion of the translator, and, perhaps, that in the Vatican library. M. de Gomberville was the author of this tranflation: it was published after his death, Paris Journal, with a long differtation. An account of the original may April 19, be seen in the Paris Journal, in that of Leipfic, and in Che1683. Chevereau, vereau's Hiftory of the World. Tom. IV. P. 171. ADAM (John) a French Jefuit, and celebrated preacher of the feventeenth century. He was born in the province of Limoufin, and admitted amongst the Jefuits in 1622, at fourteen years of age. For fome years he taught claffical learning and philofophy; but his fuperiors finding he had great talents for the pulpit, perfuaded him to turn preacher. He followed this profeffion twenty years, having preached with great applaufe in all the principal cities of France, and at the Louvre. The fituation of things in his time favoured him greatly; the difputes about Janfenifm having heated mens minds to a violent degree, no perfon was more proper than father Adam to enter the lifts against the party; for he had a natural boldness and fire, with all the other qualities neceffary for a great declaimer. The Lent fermons which he preached at Paris, in St. Paul's church, in 1650, made great noife; he had gone fuch lengths therein, that had he not been powerfully fupported, he would certainly have been filenced (a). He acknowledged that St. Austin did not favour Molinifm, though at the fame time he exclaimed greatly against him. The Janfenifts published an answer to his fermon (b), and, not fatisfied with defending St. Austin, they refuted fome propofitions which this Jefuit (a) This we learn from a letter of Guy Patin: "Our archbishop (fays he) has filenced Mr. Brouffel, doctor of Navarre, canon of St. Honore, a strong Janfenist, and no friend to cardinal Mazarine, for having delivered himself too freely. Father Adam would have fhared the fame fate, for having preached against St. Auftin in St. Paul's church, (calling him the mad enthufiaftic African, and fiery doctor) had he not been fupported by the Jefuits and Capuchins, who diffuaded the archbishop." April 12, 1650. (b) It confifted of twenty pages in 4to, intitled A Defence of St. AuAin, against the Errors, Calumnies, and scandalous invectives, which father Adam threw out in his fermon preached at St. Paul's on the second Thursday in Lent, on this text of fcripture where Chrift fays to the Canaanitish woman, 66 I am not fent but to the loft fheep of Ifrael." They accufed him of having afferted, 1. That St. Auftin was perplext and obfcure in his writings; that having the vehement and fiery fpirit of the Africans, he was frequently too far tranfported by his paffion, and ran into extremes; that he had gone beyond the boundaries of truth in his conflicts with the enemies of grace, as it fometimes happens to a man, who intending to ftrike his enemy, Jefuit had advanced, particularly that relating to the infpiration of the canonical writers (c). Father Adam regarded not the clamour raised against his fermon, and against a book of his, wherein he had thrown out many bitter invectives against St. Auftin; for he retracted nothing, but continued to write in the same strain. The Janfenifts renewed their complaints, and published more writings against him, so that a particular conflict arofe betwixt them and father Adam. They criticised the books which he published, and he, on the other fide, compofed pieces for the use of devout perfons, in op enemy, does it with so much violence, that he throws him against a tree, and thereby makes him rebound back upon himself, contrary to his intention. Secondly, that St. Auftin, in maintaining the doctrine of original fin against the Pelagians, had himself fallen into an error, by declaring that original fin was punished in unbaptiz'd children with hell-fire and damnation. Thirdly, that St. Austin was not fixed in what he avdanced, fince, according to the remark of M. Gamanti, he had varied thrice on the article of grace. who did a good action. What they reproached father Adam with was, his afferting that the doctrine infpired, and the expreffion of the perfon inspired, are two different things; that the former only proceeded from God, and that he left the other to the fancy or imagination of the perfon infpired, which might exceed the dictates of the Holy Ghoft. The Janfenifts failed not to exclaim against this doctrine as impious, and as opening a door whereby a thousand attempts might be made against the authority of the Holy Scriptures. For if God (faid they) permits this weakness in his infpired writers, if there be a natural fire in St. Paul which is not of God, whatever a fibertine or heretic fhall meet with in the Scriptures repugnant to his way of thinking, he will affirm it comes from the weakness and mad enthufiafm of man, and not from the holy spirit.--To allow (fay they) any part of fcripture to have a tincture of the natural spirit and weakness of man, is granting every one a liberty to pass a judgment upon it, and to reject whatever he thinks proper, as proceeding from the weakness of man, and not the fpirit of God.-The libertine might then affert that hell-fire would not be eternal; and that when St. Matthew fays, Go ye curfed into everlasting fire; he ufed this expreffion from his imagination only to denote the long duration and the greatnefs of the torments prepared for the wicked." Def, de S. Aug, contre le P. Adam, p. 11. 16. F 3 pofition (c) "Let no one (fays one of the Janfenifts) wonder that father Adam declared in his fermon that St. Auftin's zeal transported him too far, fince that Jefuit tells us, in a wicked piece of his, abounding in falfhoods and errors, That this weakness is not fo criminal, but that God fuffers it in authors whom he infpires, and whom we call canonical; and that St. Paul's natural fire was capable of making him run out into expreffions of this nature."--- And to prove that canonical writers clothe thofe things which God reveals them in whatever expreffions fancy may fuggeft, he takes notice that the prophet Elias, complaining of the impieties of the times in which he lived, fays, that faith is extinguished in the hearts of all men, and that he is the only person who continues to worship him upon earth.-.-David declares alfo, that there never was more wickedness and corruption than in his time, and that there was not fo much as one man to be found pofition to them. For this purpose he published the Pfalms of David, and the hymns and prayers of the church, in Latin and French. The Janfenifts had endeavoured to recommend themselves by their French verfions of fuch fort of books. They attacked father Adam's tranflation of the hymns; this paper war however continued only a short time : for he began to write in 1650. and the year following laid down his pen (d), which it is probable was found not fo ferviceable to the church and the Jefuits as his other talents. He was fent to Sedan, to establish a college of Jefuits there, which he would not have been able to effect in the time of marshal de Fabert, a man who had not the least tincture of bigotry, and most remarkably ftedfaft in the principles of true religion. The Proteftants lived eafy under his government; but, after his death, things took a quite different turn. They were greatly molefted by this Jefuit, who obliged them to pay large fums of money, and to give up certain funds to enable him to found the college. He published a scheme of his defign, to which M. de St. Maurice, profeffor of divinity at Sedan, wrote a reply; but it was never answered. Father Adam continued fome years at Sedan, where he used his utmoft endeavours to promote the interest of his order, and to carry the scheme into execution which he had projected, for making converts to the Romish religion. But at laft the people in power grew tired of him, either dreading his bold intriguing genius, or perhaps thinking his manner of preaching not grave enough for a city where there was a Proteftant univerfity. They were therefore greatly pleafed when his fuperiors recalled him, and it is likely application was made for that purpose. He had been fent to preach at Loudun, at the time when the Proteftants held a national fynod there, towards the end of 1659. This in all probability induced him to write a work, which made him better known to the Proteftants of France than many other writers of the firft clafs. One Mr. Cottibi, a minifter of Poitiers, who renounced the Proteftant religion Dail!é's life, P. 33, &c. foon after the breaking up of this fynod, wrote a letter full of ill-natured animadverfions on the faft, which they had ordered throughout all the reformed churches in the kingdom. See Mr. Mr. Daillé, who had been moderator in this affembly, wrote an answer to this letter, to which the author made a reply; and father Adam, engaging likewife in the controversy, published an answer to Mr. Daillé in 1660: Mr. Daillé foon after wrote a reply to both his antagonifts; no piece of his fucceeded better than this, nor was any of his productions so much read amongst the Proteftants; and hence it is, that father Adam, who is mentioned almoft in every fentence, and painted in the strongest colours, is better known to them than a hundred other abler writers, This performance of Daillé was never answered (e); nor is this furprifing, for his antagonists were not able to cope with one of his abilities, who, had he even had the weakeft fide of the question, would have worsted them. We know not in what year father Adam was procurator at Rome for the province of Champagne; 'tis not mentioned in the Bibliotheque of the Jefuits, but we are there informed, that he was fuperior of the Jefuit's houfe at Bourdeaux in 1674, and, it is likely, he died there in 1680. had published some controverfial fermons concerning the Eucharift (the great topic of difcourfe throughout all France, during the controversy betwixt Mr. Arnauld and Mr. Claude) after the publication of father Southwel's work, and he preached them in the heat of this controverfy; they are thought to be pretty well written, but to have too much of the air of the drama, in thofe places where Mr. Claude is introduced as an interlocutor. Father Adam was attacked by Jarrige, who treated him with lefs feverity than many others, for he came off from him upon easy terms (/). (e) The reader will, perhaps, not be difpleased to hear what the fon of this able minifter has obferved in regard to this piece. "It is (fays he) in every body's hands, and has met with fuch a good reception from the public, that it has already gone through two editions. Thofe of our communion, for whofe use it was chiefly intended, have the pleasure of finding there most of our controverfies treated in a very inftruc-, tive manner, and our religion vindicated from all the afperfions of her enemies. And, if any inference may be drawn from the filence of He our adverfaries, they feem to stand (f) Jarrige acknowledges father |