A REPLY 
 
 J. K. L. 
 
 TO 
 
 THE LATE CHARGE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MOST REV. DOCTOR MAGEE, 
 
 PROTESTANT ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN, 
 
 SUBMITTED, 
 
 MOST RESPECTFULLY, TO THOSE TO WHOM 
 
 THE ABOVE CHARGE WAS ADDRESSED. 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 PRINTED BY RICHARD COYNE, 
 
 4, CAPEL-STREET. 
 LONDON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY J. BOOKER, 61, NEW BOND-STREET, AND SOLD BY 
 J. HIDGWAY, PICADILLY. 
 
 1827. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 I in 2011 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/replybyjkltolateOOjkld 
 
A REPLY, 
 
 4-c. Sfc. 
 
 Men Brethren, 
 
 A Charge, breatliing discord and 
 proclaiming dissension, has been lately addressed to j'^ou, 
 by the most dignified Ecclesiastic of the Established Church 
 in your province. This Prelate has assured you, that you 
 are competent to judge all things. I think differently ; but, 
 I am satisfied that you are competent to decide upon the 
 merits of his Charge, and it is upon those merits that I 
 appeal to your judgment. For many of you, individually, 
 I entertain sentiments of the highest respect ; to you all I 
 am bound as a fellow-clu'istian, by ties of charity — ties, 
 which never have been, and I hope never will be, severed. 
 Wlien, therefore, in the sequel of the observations which I 
 am about to address to you, the vices of heresy and schism 
 are reproved, and the conduct of some furious men 
 treated with severity — bear in mind, I beseech you, the 
 following sentiments of St. Augustin, addressed by him 
 to a numerous portion, clergy and people, of the Dona- 
 tists, — sentiments, which in your regard, I fully and une- 
 quivocally adopt. 
 
2 
 
 *' Tlie Apostle Paul," wiites this Holy Father, in his 
 162<l letter, has saitl, " an heretical man, after one reproof, 
 avoid ; knowing, that he who is of this sort is subverted 
 and sins, and is self-condemned; but they who defend, 
 not with an obstinate animosity, their own opinion though 
 false and perverse, especially if it be an opinion, which 
 they did not originate in the assurance of their own pre- 
 sumption, but which they received from their parents, 
 seduced and fallen into error, and who, seeking the truth 
 with a cautious solicitude, are ready on finding it to be 
 corrected, they are not by any means to be reputed among 
 heretics. Unless I believed you to be such, perhaps I 
 should not address any letters to you." Tlius far pro- 
 ceeds this learned and charitable Bishop, who, separating 
 the well meaning from the perverse amongst those who 
 wei'e not of his communion, discusses with an energy and 
 freedom quite apostolical, tlie pauses of that separation 
 which he deplored. This spirit of charity and zeal excited 
 liim to exclaim in another letter upon the same subject, 
 n<m debet tot tantorumque po/mlorum salutem fmiosus error 
 hominum inipedi?'e paucorum. " The furious error of a few 
 men should not be suffered to prevent the salvation of so 
 many, — of so numerous a people. Ep. Gl. ad Dulcitium." 
 Thus Augustin, whilst he looks with an eye of charity to 
 tha multitudes seduced into the ways of error, expresses 
 himself with peculiar energy when his tlioughts are directed 
 to the authors, the fomentors, the preacliers of religious 
 dissension. 
 
 I wish earnestly, that I were enabled, in addressing you, 
 to put on the spirit of this great man, but if at any time, 
 the oppression and injustice under which, as an Irish 
 Catholic, I labour, extort from me strong expressions, 
 they are to be received, as in truth they are directed, 
 
not against the multitude of my Protestant fellow- 
 subjects and fellow-christians, but against tlie vices or 
 insanity of a few furious men ; — men who either have 
 originated and established in these countries religious 
 error with its attendants, schisms and dissensions ; or 
 who still labour to perpetuate diAnsion, to strengthen 
 discord, and prevent, by every means in their power, not 
 only the peace and happiness of Ireland, but also the 
 salvation of a numerous and most deserving people. 
 
 The principal object, liowever, which at present I 
 have in view, is not to examine or detail the causes or 
 eflFects of existing divisions — diAdsions which are, per- 
 haps, too old and too inveterate to be healed : No, ray 
 object is to repel injury, not to inflict wounds — to reply 
 to an impassioned philippic, which the voice of the 
 country must condemn, and to defend an injured com- 
 munity from the unprovoked and now reiterated attacks 
 of a Christian Bishop, wlio claims to discharge an em- 
 bassy for Christ. 
 
 I had hoped that this most Reverend Prelate, em- 
 barrassed as he was by the occurrences in which he has 
 been involved since his elevation to the See of Dublin, 
 would have said with the Psalmist, in the bitterness 
 of his soul, " It is good for me (O Lord) that thou hast 
 humbled me, that I may learn the ways of thy justice," 
 and that in the silence of retirement he would have 
 labored to efface from his literary character and public 
 life, those stains which a forgetfulness of his own in- 
 firmity, and an unwarrantable disrespect for other men, 
 had imprinted on them. But whether it be a peculi- 
 arity of imderstanding, or a pride not be subdued, 
 which animates him, he appears resolved still to exhibit 
 
 *a2 
 
Ijimself from his high station as a rallying point to the 
 insane bigots who infest this country, and as a Bubject 
 of censure to those who, were he less obtruding, would 
 ^ollingly pass him by unheeded. But the sympathies 
 which the world generally bestows, even upon well 
 merited distress, can no longer be collected about his 
 Grace; and what the public should deplore is, (to recur 
 to the language of Augustin,) that by him and a few 
 other restless enthusiasts, the salvation of many is 
 endangered, and the peace and comfort of society 
 incessantly disturbed. To men of this description " who 
 wiUi not to know the truth, that they might act rightly," 
 I do not address myself; my appeal is directed principally 
 to those who, however prepossessed by early habits of 
 thought, or influenced by alienated feelings, are yet 
 inclined to listen to the accused pleading in his own 
 defence, and disposed to judge impartially between man 
 and man. 
 
 To analyse the entire Charge of the Most Reverend 
 Archbishop, would be a tedious and a useless labor, — irrele- 
 vant to my purpose, and uninteresting to those whom I 
 address. I shall therefore select, with as much accuracy 
 as I can, out of the mass of words in which they are in- 
 volved, those positions of Ids Grace which impugn the 
 religion, or social principles of Catholics, and apply to 
 them such observations as will occur to me, and as they 
 seem to merit. 
 
 But, before I proceed to this ungrateful task, it may be 
 useful, if not necessary, to premise some general reflections 
 upon that Church Authority which it is the scope and 
 purpose of this Archbishop to decry, and upon that special 
 right of individuals to judge definitely, in all matters of 
 
religious belief and practice, which it is Ijis Grace's object 
 to amplify. 
 
 'Tis true that he places a limit to this right, and casts 
 out among tlie Heathens, the Arian, the Socinian, the 
 Unitarian ; the reason why he does so, is, because those 
 denominations of Christians are not pleased to understand 
 certain texts of Scripture as he does himself; because 
 they refuse to submit to that Church Authority which he 
 discards, and are guided in their interpretation of Scripture 
 by that very private judgment whose prerogatives he exalts, 
 and whose unrestrained exercise he recommends. This is 
 no doubt a gross, a palpable contradiction in the system 
 of his Grace. I have only noticed it, however, in this 
 place, as I may again advert to it in those preliminary 
 observations to which I now proceed. 
 
 And first, what is the Church of the living God whose 
 authority is assailed? It is, 1 Tim. 3, v. 15, the pillar 
 and the ground of truth, against which the gates of hell 
 will not prevail, Math. 16, v. 18 ; and which, if any one 
 do not hear and follow, he is, by the sentence of Christ 
 himself, to be held as a Heathen and a Publican. To 
 deny the supreme authority of tliis Church in what con- 
 cerns the religion of Christ is, according to St. Augustin, 
 Lib. de Util : credend. cap. 17, " truly the fruit of impiety 
 or of the most headlong arrogance :" so that this holy and 
 learned Doctor does not hesitate to say, Lib. contra Ep. 
 Fiindam : ch. 5, that he would not believe the Gospel, if 
 the authority of the Chm'ch did not compel him thereto. 
 
 So St. Jerome, disputing with the followers of Lucifer, 
 de Cagliari torn. 4, par. 2, p. 306, says " I might dry up all 
 the rivulets of your propositions by the sun alone of the 
 
Church; but vvliereas we have ah-eady argued at length, 
 and the tediousness of our disputations has wearied our 
 hearers, I shall express to you the strong and clear con- 
 viction of my mind, to wit, men should remain in that 
 Church, which, founded by the Apostles, continues to 
 the present day ;" of this Church, writing to Pope Da- 
 masus, he speaks again, saying, " I am united to your 
 holiness, that is, to the chair of Peter ; on that rock I 
 know the Church was built, whosoever does not gather 
 with you scatters, that is, whosoever is not of Christ is of 
 Antichrist." Thus it was, that this learned Father thought 
 of Church Authority and of the successor of Peter, whom 
 he considered as the keystone of the building, outside of 
 which, all was profane. 
 
 This authority was not only considered supreme, but of 
 such necessity, that the poor and illiterate, to whom, above 
 all others, Christ came to preach, and who in all times 
 were destined to form the bulk of the heirs of his king- 
 dom, could not by any other visible means have their faith 
 secured, or even come to the knowledge of true religion. 
 This is so obvious a truth, as not to require proof; for, no 
 person who surveys in his mind, the past, or even the 
 present state of the world, will venture gravely to assert 
 that every man called to the religion of Christ, or one in 
 every ten thousand of them, could acquire a knowledge 
 of religion, or ascertain the right sense of divine Revelation, 
 otherwise than through the ministry and authority of the 
 Church. " The rude and ignorant, says Tert : Lib. de 
 Praescrip. cap. 1 4, v/hom faith has saved, not the searching 
 of the Scriptures, non exercitatio scripturarum. To believe 
 on authority is a short way, and no labom*." 
 
 This truth is admitted in practice alike by all sects, for 
 
they all have a creed, or symbolic books, or articles of 
 religion, or a confession of faith, which the parents and 
 pastors explain and inculcate, and which the Church, or 
 Kirk, or Conventicle, or Meeting, enforces by the exercise 
 of authority and the infliction of censiue, even to the 
 expulsion of the refractory or unbeliever, from the body 
 to which he had till then belonged. 
 
 This is the authority, sacred, divine, and indispensable, 
 Avhich all innovators, whilst they seek to avail themselves 
 of its advantages, yet labour incessantly to decry. They do 
 so with a view to palliate their own original sin of separa- 
 tion. They became Sectaries only when they rebelled 
 against this authority. When stricken by its censures, 
 and writhing undersuch just punishment of their own revolt, 
 they indeed blasphemed the hand that smote them, but even 
 whilst they did so, they endeavoured by human eflbrts to 
 erect a Church or Churches, and to invest them with an 
 authority similar to that which they had just rejected ! 
 They could not, 'tis true, erect their Church or Churches 
 on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, the chief 
 corner stone being Jesus Christ, for from this fotmdation 
 they had separated themselves; but, like the followers of 
 Jeroboam, having deserted Sion, they sought to build a 
 conventicle on some mountain of Gerazim ! 
 
 These Sectaries all exclaim " will you hear men rather 
 thanGod, liuman errors rather than the Sacred Scriptures?" 
 These appeals, however, are like the ories of a felon, 
 who caught in the act of stealing, would have the ministers 
 of justice to believe that he bad a just claim to the property 
 which he had stolen, and presumes even to call on the 
 right owner to produces his title deeds before his right 
 woiUd be recognized. 
 
These Sectaries always affect to forget that the law of 
 the Gospel is a real law given by God to man, as a rule of 
 conduct ; that when he gave the law he also instituted 
 Ministers to teach it and judges to administer it ; vesting 
 them with power to enforce the authority confided to them 
 by means of censures, and engaging to assist them in their 
 teaching and judging, all days, even to the end of the 
 world ; — that the judge is (to use a phrase of the civil law) 
 lex loquens, " the law speaking," and the law itself Prcetor 
 mm loquens, " the judge not speaking." The Sectaries af- 
 fect to forget all this, and whilst each of them distorts or man- 
 gles the law to suit his own caprice, or favor his own pride 
 or passion, he contemns the judge, and exclaims, " to the 
 law and to the testimony, — to the law and to the testimony." 
 
 In the long catalogue of human errors there is 
 not perhaps one more glaringly absurd, than that 
 which substitutes the private judgment of every individual 
 Christian for the authority of the Church, in deciding reli- 
 gious controversies ; it has no warrant in Scripture; it is 
 opposed to the plainest maxims of reason, to the legal 
 institutions of every civilized society ; it is, itself, the very 
 essence of all division and separation ; and, as far as it 
 extends, produces the same disorganization in the Church 
 of God, as a revolution does in a Commonwealth. 
 
 These Sectaries, to palliate their defection or revolt, say, 
 " Reason is the judge of Controversy." 
 
 Supposing that Reason, which in its exercise is as various 
 as are the faces of men, were capable of deciding controver- 
 sy ; who is bound to submit in such matters to the reason 
 of any man or number of men? If the Pastors of the 
 Church had not their commission and promise of support 
 from Cluist, we might respect their opinion, but would ^vo 
 
9 
 
 always bow to their judgment.'' Moreover, of what account 
 is it tliat reason in any person is clear or strong, whereas, 
 whatever it is, it is not the judge appointed by Christ. 
 Religion is his free and gracious institution ; it was He 
 and not we who "gave some Pastors and Doctors for 
 the perfecting of tlie Saints, for the Avorlcs of the mi- 
 nistry, for the building up of the body of Christ, (the 
 Chm-ch) until we all meet into the unity of faitli, 
 and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a 
 perfect man — that henceforth we be no more children 
 tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doc- 
 trine, by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, 
 by which they lie in wait to deceive. Eph. c. 4, 11, 14." 
 These Pastors and Doctors then, and not Reason, were 
 appointed to interpret the law of Christ, and administer it 
 in his kingdom. 
 
 Again, it is said, the Sci'ipture itself can decide contro- 
 versies. This is another error, more gross, if possible, 
 than the foregoing — for if Scripture could decide contro- 
 versy, a dumb letter could speak, and a folio Bible give 
 judgment ; — the leaves of books could cite witnesses, hear 
 e^ddence, acquit innocence, and condemn guilt. If this ab- 
 surdity were to be endured, then each and every Sect which 
 has plundered the Catholic Church of the Scriptures, 
 might compare notes, and agree upon some one error to 
 l)e professed by them all ; or, as truth is one and indivi- 
 sible, they would all discover it, and we would again return 
 to the Apostolic times, when all the believers had but one 
 lieart, one mind, and one faith, as they had but one Lord 
 and one Baptism. 
 
 Again, they say, that the Holy Ghost, if properly 
 invoked, decides for each person upon all doubts. Thjs 
 
10 
 
 opinion is not only absurd but exceedingly impious, for it 
 supposes that the Holy Ghost abides outside that Church 
 wluch he was sent to enlighten, direct, enrich, and govern, 
 and that he diffuses his light and grace to men who blas- 
 pheme or venerate, as their judgment dictates, the same 
 truth. That He, who is charity itself, dwells with heresy, 
 which is impiety ; that He, who is the uniting love of 
 the Father and the Son, teaches the most discordant opi- 
 nions ; that He, who is the God of peace and unity, war- 
 rants by his inspiration, strife and discord ; that he 
 taught Calvin to condemn what he instructed Luther to dog- 
 matize, and inspired Luther to curse what he had taught 
 Calvin and Zuinglius to preach; that he instructed Cranmcr 
 to adopt half a dozen different formularies of faith, andLati- 
 mer to disregard both truth and duty. The unction of the 
 Spirit teaches interiorly, it is true, the children of the Church, 
 not to decide on Controversy, (which the Pastors whom 
 he has placed to rule her are commissioned to do) but he 
 teaches them those heavenly truths which he conceals 
 often from the prudent and the wise, and reveals to the 
 simple and the poor — tliat sublime knowledge of the 
 Saints, known only to the perfect, which, whilst it in- 
 creases the desire of heaven, is itself a foretaste of that 
 bliss to be enjoyed by those who will see God face to face, 
 and know him even as we are known to him. 
 
 But the truth is, that in matters of fact which depend 
 only on God revealing his will, it is not on a silly hypo- 
 thesis, nor on human reason, but on a divinely established 
 authority that the mind of man ought or can repose. 
 *' Blessed are you, says Christ, Math. 26, 17, Simon, son of 
 Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to you, 
 ]but my Father who is in heaven, and I say unto you, that 
 thou art a rock, and on this rock I will build ray Church, 
 
11 
 
 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her." Heie 
 Reason is excluded, the confession of Christ's Divinity 
 is attributed to the special inspiration of God, and an 
 exercise of the same divine power, fixes for ever, the des- 
 tiny of the Church. The whole constitution of it is 
 divine, and, as Paul observes, 2 Cor. 10, 4, the arms of her 
 warfare are iiot carnal, more than the foundation on which 
 she rests, but spiritual, powerful of God to the pulling down 
 of strong holds, destroying counsels and every height lifling 
 itself against the hwwledge of God, and bringing into capti- 
 vity every understanding to the obedience of Christ, or of the 
 law which he promulged." Thus we see how little human 
 wisdom is permitted to interfere with an institution posi- 
 tive in its nature, divine in its origin, and having its autho- 
 rity vested in those who were commissioned to propagate 
 and watch over it in this world. " The weakness of 
 Reason," saysSt.Augustin, Lib. de mor. Eccl. cap. 2, " may 
 appear from this, that whenever it is adduced, it seeks for 
 gome authority wherewith it may be confirmed," so incom- 
 petent is it to decide upon religious controversy, if not 
 united to an authority established by God and enlightened 
 by his Spirit. 
 
 So with the Scriptures themselves, in which we are told, 
 and a sad experience but too well verifies what is so told 
 us, that there " are many things hard to be understood, 
 which the ignorant and unsteady wiest to their o^vn per- 
 dition, 2 Pet. ch. 3. v. 16." In place of deciding con- 
 troversies in religion, Augustin, Lib. 7, de Gen. ad lit. 
 ch. 9, judiciously observes, " do not all the heretics read 
 the Catholic Scriptures, nor are they heretics for any other 
 reason than that not understanding them rightly, they 
 obstinately assert their owti opinions contrary to their (the 
 Scriptures) truth." So Vincent of Lerins, iu his Charge 
 
12 
 
 cap. 2. gives a melancholy picture of the manner in which 
 the heretics in his time abused the Sacred Scriptures, and 
 wrested them each to support his own opinion. 
 
 In those days, as in our own, Sectaries could not agree 
 even as to what books were inspired or what were not ; 
 Tertullianin his day seems to describe the contentions which 
 once prevailed in the 16th century on this subject, be- 
 tween the Sectaries in Germany, Geneva, and England, 
 an epitome of which is now observable amongst the 
 members of the Bible Society. He says, " this heresy 
 does not receive certain scriptures, and if it receives 
 some, it does not admit them entire ; it fits them by 
 additions and subtractions to its own purpose; and if 
 it admit any entire, yet, inventing divers expositions, 
 it changes them ; so an adulterated meaning vitiates them 
 as much as the corrupted text, Corruptor Stylus." The 
 just conclusion which he di'aws is, therefore, " that 
 in disputes, the appeal should not be made to the Scrip- 
 tures, nor the contest made to depend on them." 
 
 Saint Augustin also observes. Lib. 1, Contra Crescon. 
 cap. 33, that it is only by the Church we know what is the 
 sense of Scripture, or what is not ; his words are, " the 
 truth of the Scriptures is held by us, or we jwssess the 
 true meaning of them when we do that which is approved 
 of in the whole Church, which Church the authority of 
 the Scriptures themselves commends," — so far removed 
 was he from the opinion of those who would undertake to 
 determine religious doubts, by the very book, from the 
 misunderstanding of which, they all arise. Tliat it is from 
 such misunderstanding of the Sacred Scriptures all heresies 
 arise, the Holy Doctor, Tract 18, in Johan. cap. 5. ex- 
 pressly asserts, in the following words : " Heresies have 
 arisen, and certain perverse doctrines, ensnaring souls, ajid 
 
13 
 
 precipitating them into the abyss, have been broached, only 
 when tlic good Scriptures have been badly understood, and 
 when that which was badly understood was rashly and 
 boldly asserted." 
 
 The numerous and discordant Sects which, since the 
 16th century, have sprung up in the midst of the Sclavonic 
 nations, which, as Leibnitz observes, then separated them- 
 selves from the Latin Church and name, afford ample 
 evidence of the insufficiency of human reason, or of the 
 Scriptures interpreted by private judgment, to preserve 
 unity in the body of Christ, as also of the a])solute necessity 
 of a controuling and supreme Church autliority, to preserve 
 such imity and check the spirit of religious innovation. 
 
 These Sectaries, like a discomfited army, having been 
 driven from one position to another, — from Reason to the 
 Scriptures, from the Scriptures to the Scriptures inter- 
 preted by the judgment of each individual — from the 
 Scriptures so interpreted, to the same interpreted by the 
 interior unction or taste of the Spirit ; driven, in fact, 
 from absin-dity to absurdity, with the mark of schism, like 
 that of Cain, imprinted on their forehead — without pos- 
 sessing one Church or one Altar throughout the universe, 
 connected in any way witli those which were Catholic and 
 Apostolic ; they, in the delirium of their revolt, sought to 
 break down the Church herself into an immense mass of 
 confused and jarring elements — preferring a place in this 
 chaos, to a recognition of their errors, and to the obtaining, 
 by a dutiful submission, a place in that house of peace and 
 unity, fi'om which, in a moment of passion, they had depart- 
 ed. They said that the Church of God, the Kingdom of the 
 Recdemer, the body of Christ, consisted of every sect and 
 every heresy which invoked the name of the Lord. ^^Hien 
 
14 
 
 they first broached this monstroufs opinion, it was said to 
 them," is the Church then so composed, the kingdom of 
 Christ, of whom David said, ps. 73, " and his house is in 
 peace ?" Are those contending sectaries the " men of good 
 will" to whom the angels announced at Bethlehem, Luc. 
 2, 14, that Christ came to give peace ? Are they who con- 
 tend one with the other even to excommunication, that strong 
 body, which drawing its strength from its union, is called 
 by Christ himself a rock ? Are these sectaries that one fold 
 under one pastor, spoken of by our Lord, John 10, 16, 
 where all hear the same voice, where all feed on the same 
 pasture, where altar is not erected against altar, but 
 where all are one body who partake of the same bread ? 
 Is it possible, that he who came to gather together in one 
 the children of God who were dispersed, John 17, 11, 
 should assemble them only to contend with one another ? 
 Is it for an assemblage of discordant sects that Christ 
 prayed, saying, John 17, " Holy Father keep them in 
 thy name whom thou lias given to me, that they may be 
 ONE as you and I are one ?" Was it for such assemblage 
 he invoked the Spirit of peace, saying to his Apostles, 
 John 20, 21, 22, " Peace be to you : as my Father sent 
 me, so I send you, and having said this, he breathed on 
 them, saying, receive ye the Holy Ghost ? " 
 
 It was inquired of the Sectaries, whether contending sects 
 were contemplated by St. Paul, when he so graphically de- 
 scribed the unity of the church In the following passage, 1 
 Cor. 12, 12, " As the body is one and hath many members, 
 but all the members of the body, though they be many, yet 
 are 07ie body : so also Christ : for in one spirit we are all 
 baptized into one ?" Is this unity, this indivisible conjunc- 
 tion of the members with each other and with the head 
 verified in the tumultuary and contradictory congiega- 
 tions of sects and heresies ? Can they be the persons 
 
15 
 
 addressed by the Apostle, Eph : 4, 3, saying, " be careful 
 to preserve the wnity of spirit in the bond of peace ;" for 
 1 Cor. 12, 21, " the eye cannot say to the hand, I want 
 not your labour, nor again, the hand to the feet you are 
 not necessary for me ;" as if he said, whosoever thinks that 
 he needs not the assistance of his brethren in the church, 
 but can himself by his own powers, act and think inde- 
 pendiint of them, he cannot be a member of Christ's 
 body, nor receive life from the spirit of Christ — whereas 
 he breaks the bond of peace which links together all the 
 members or brethren. " One body and one spirit," he 
 says again, writing to the Ephcsians, " as you are called in 
 one hope," and to the Hebrews, ch. 10, 24, let us consider 
 one anotlier to provoke unto charity and good works, not 
 forsaking our assembly as some are accustomed. One 
 God he exclaims, one Faith, one Baptism ; and 1 Cor. 
 12, 15, " and God hath tempered the body, that there 
 might be no schism in the body, but the members mutu- 
 ally careful one for the other," because, as he says to the 
 Hebrews, 10, 39, " we are not the sons of withdrawing 
 (or of separating ourselves) unto perdition." 
 
 These Sectaries were told, that by congregating Schis- 
 matics and Heretics within the Church of God, they were 
 subverting the faith and morality of the Christian religion. 
 The crime of schism was exhibited to them as it had been 
 painted by St. Paul, Phil. 3, 2, " beware of dogs, beware 
 of evil workers, beware of the concision" the cutting up — 
 the separation of the body, which is the work of the e^^l 
 doers — of the dogs who devour the body of Christ, which 
 is the Church — of those as Jude observes, 19 v. " who 
 separate themselves, sensual men, having not the spirit." 
 The Sectaries were told, that to admit such persons within 
 the Church, was to repeal the decree of God, wluch 
 
16 
 
 excluded schisms and heresies, as works of the flesh, from 
 his kingdom. 
 
 The authority of the early lathers on this subject was 
 exhibited to them ; of Augustin, Ep. 109 ad Felic : who 
 says, " God commanded to us union ; to himself he 
 reserved separation." " Do they," the Schismatics, says St. 
 Cyprian, de Unit. Eccles : " do they imagine that Christ 
 is with thein when they are gathered together outside the 
 Church ;" from such persons though they were killed in the 
 confession of his (Christ's) name, that stain is not wash- 
 ed away, even by their blood, whereas the gi'eat and 
 unpardonable sin of discord, will not be expiated, even by 
 the suffering of death. " He cannot be a martyr, who is 
 not in the Church," '* The sacrilege of schism, says Au- 
 gustin, Lib. 1, con*'-a Ep. ^arm; cap. 3, which surpasses 
 all crimes, &c." artd ^ni.i, contra Donat: Lib. 1, ch. 8, 
 " those whom they (the Donatists) baptize, they heal of 
 the wound of idolatry or infidelity, but they strike them 
 with the deeper wound of schism" — they have not the 
 charity of God, who do not love the unity of the Church, 
 Lib. 3, cap. 16. 
 
 The Sectaries, appalled at the contemplation of those 
 truths, and of their own crimes, sought for refuge in a new 
 theory. They said to the Catholics, you upbraid us unjustly 
 with a desire of dissolving the body of Christ, and inclu- 
 ding within the Church, all sects and heresies ; we seek 
 only to justify those who believe in the divinity of Christ, 
 we acknowledge that such as do not hold this tenet, are 
 the sons of perdition. 
 
 Vain subterfuge, replied the Catholic, by which you 
 seek to escape the guilt of schism, and the condcmnatitjn 
 
17 
 
 of it by the Lord and his apostle. It is not of this error 
 or that Wasph.emy, of this scliism or that other revolt, 
 that we ImA'e been treating, we have directed your atten- 
 tion to the guilt of breaking unity, a crime, as Augustin 
 observes, whicli no necessity can justify. We charged 
 you with separating the members of the body of Christ, 
 of setting up altar against altar, of violating charity, which 
 is the bond of perfection. We charged you with separating 
 yourselves, witli disobeying the Church which God 
 commanded you to hear, with despising the ministry, 
 and through them despising Christ and the Father who 
 sent him. You speak of the divinity of our Lord — of 
 essential and not essential truths ; we speak of unity and 
 peace ; these you have violated, whilst every page of the 
 Scriptures to which you appeal commands them, and 
 commands them as the primary - the es'">ntial virtues to be 
 observed by every child of Goa. . wiere do you find 
 from the beginning, either in the Revelation given to us, 
 or in the Canons, Decrees, or conduct of our Fathers, 
 any such distinction as you would now introduce? 
 Where is it written that one doctrine is essential and 
 that another is not ? By what authority have you drawn a 
 line of demarcation between one object of faith and 
 another, or why do you presume by your judgment, 
 weak and fallible as it is, to prescribe articles of faith to 
 the judgment of another, or to say to him " believe thus, 
 or thou shalt be condemned." Has not Peter affirmed the 
 saying of an ancient prophet, " whosoever will call upon 
 the name of the Lord shall be saved," aud Paul repeated 
 it in his letters to the Romans ? and if since the hand- 
 writing of the decree wliich was against us was taken 
 down and fastened to the cross, any one should under- 
 stand that saying in its utmost latitude, by what authority 
 can you convince him of error, or oblige him to believe as 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 you do youirself ? ViTion the Redeemer says, " tliis is 
 eternal life, tliat they know you, the only true God, 
 and him wliom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ," by what 
 authority do you compel the judgment of any person to 
 believe more than that there is a God, who will reward 
 those who love him, and a Mediator between him and 
 men, the man Christ Jesus? If Calvin, who almost 
 lighted the pile which burned Servetus for following in 
 his own footsteps, interpreted, as he did, the words of 
 Christ, " I and the Fatlier are one," to signify only a 
 moral union of will and love between the Father and 
 Son, and blamed the Nicene Fathers for understanding 
 them otherwise; — if many of CaUdn's followers under- 
 stand the words of our Lord, " before Abraham was, I 
 am" as a metaphorical expression, ha\'ing reference to 
 the decree of God, wliy, for what cause, or by what 
 authority, do you condemn the Arian or Socinian or 
 Unitarian, because they understand those texts and. such 
 others as prove the eternity and divinity of the Son of 
 God, in a sense different fi*om what you assign them / 
 Are the Socinians not men of sound judgment? Have 
 they not, according to your rule, a right, nay, are they not 
 obliged to follow the dictate of that judgment in preference 
 to all authority on earth ? and yet you exclude them from 
 the kingdom of God, because in the exercise of their judg- 
 ment, or in what you consider the discharge of their duty, 
 they differ in opinion from yourself. Your opinion of 
 them, if judged of by your own principles, is unjust, 
 uncharitable, unreasonable: you have divested yourself 
 of all right to repute any man an heretic, to censure any 
 man for being a schismatic ; you have erased heresy and 
 schism from the catalogue of vices, and said with the 
 false prophet, " peace, peace," when there was no peace. 
 
 It is not so that we Catholics have learned Christ. With 
 
19 
 
 us it is as the law and the proplicts ; it is essential in the 
 first degree with us, that we love God, which the heretic, 
 wlio separates himself, and resists the authority founded 
 by Christ, does not ; and that we love the brotlierhood, 
 which the schismatic does not ; who, as Augustin observes, 
 by an impious concision, or rending, breaks the bond of 
 union, for the doing of Avhicli, there never can be a just 
 necessity, prascmdendcB unitatis nulla potest esse justa 
 Tiecessitas. It is this heresy, which consists not in the 
 degree of error, but in a man choosing a religion or 
 a religious opinion different from that Avhich is held 
 and professed by the Church, and maintaining such 
 religion or opinion obstinately, and in defiance of her 
 authority; — it is this heresy which is condemned in the 
 Sacred Scriptures, and which the Church has always 
 condemned : one error against faith may be more impious 
 than another, but wliatever its quality or malice may be, 
 it is heresy to uphold it with obstinacy, as it is schism to 
 seperate from the unity of the Church for whatsoever cause. 
 
 And, upon this important subject, let us listen for a 
 moment, not to the voice of our own passions, or specula- 
 tions, or interests, but let us hear the voice of the Church 
 herself, expressed by those pastors and doctors given by 
 God for the building up of the body of Christ, that in- 
 structed by them we may all meet in the unity of faith — 
 in charity. If they all consider vmder the name of " the 
 Church," not a congi-egation of all imaginable sects, but 
 one only assembly or communion of Christians, outside of 
 wliich, and not within, are placed all heretics and 
 schismatics, then it will appear whether the new system 
 of congregating heretics within the Church, a system 
 more visionary than those of Malebraiiche or Berkely in 
 Metaphysics, is to bo admitted by Christians interested 
 about their eternal Salvation. 
 
 b2 
 
20 
 
 .Viid first, St. Tienceus, a man of the apostolic timeff, 
 T.ib. 3, cap. 3 & 4, adv. Her. after saying that the trutli, 
 which it is easy to find in tlie Church, is not to be sought 
 for in tlie sects of heretics, and after stating tliat Marcion, 
 who often came to the Church, was at length ejected from 
 it, then mentions, that of this Church, the much calumni- 
 ated Church of Rome w.-.s the centre, to which on account 
 of her chief principality it was necessary that every Churcli, 
 that is the faithful every where dispersed, should come in 
 accord, omnem convenire ecclesiam. And why ? not only 
 on account of her preeminence, but also as the depositary 
 of the apostolic tradition or doctrine, for as he observes, 
 I^ib. 1, cap. 10, though in the world there are different 
 tongues or languages, yet the virtue or tinith of the 
 tradition or doctrine is one and the same, nov do the 
 Churches foimded in Germany, nor in the West, nor the 
 East, in Egypt, in Africa, nor in the centre of the world, 
 think differently one from the other. Thus the unity of 
 faith and communion with the Church of Rome were the 
 touchstone of orthodoxy with Irenseus. So Tertullian, 
 Lib. de Prescrip. cap. 4, says, " that every doctrine is to 
 be considered false which does not agree vn\\\ the Ajwstolic 
 Churches," amongst which Churches he assigns the first 
 place to that of Rome. This learned man knew nothing 
 of our modern distinctions of essential, and non-essential 
 doctrines. St. Clement of Alexandria, Lib. 7, Strom, 
 says, " the Church is of one nature or kind, the whicli 
 being one, heresies seek to divide her, but she being 
 ancient and Catholic is one on account of the unity of her 
 faith." Propter luiitatem fidei. Origen on Job sajs, that 
 " all the sects and heresies," he makes no distinction, 
 ^'^ fight against the Church." St. Hilary, Lib. 7, de Trin. 
 says precisely the same, but adds, that whilst they conquer 
 each other they gain no advantage, whereas a A'ictory if 
 gained by any of them is the triumph of tlie Church ; 
 
21 
 
 for, whilst one heresy assails in another wliat the Church 
 condemns, they prove our faith or doctrine in opposing 
 one another." It would appear tliat he described the con- 
 tentions of the Lutherans .and Calvanists with respect to the 
 real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, or the essay of 
 Bishop Bull, of Oxford, arguing against the Socinians. 
 
 St. Jerome. Dial. cont. Lucif. calls the different sects of 
 Marcionites, Valentinians, Montanists, Novatians (whose 
 errors were as different as their names,) not the Church 
 of Christ, but the synagogue of Antichrist. Such is the 
 doctrine which prevails universally amongst the ancient 
 doctors of the Church on this subject. To quote St. 
 Augustin fully it would be necessary to transcribe his 
 entire work on the unity of the Church, as well as his 
 several books against the Donatists : suffice it to say, that 
 with him a unity of belief, or the same faith, and a 
 participation of the same Sacraments, are essentially 
 requisite to constitute any person a member of God's 
 Church, and that all sects and heresies, without dis- 
 tinction, condemned by her are condemned by God himself. 
 
 Then, as to the doctrine maintained on this subject by 
 the several Councils from the earliest age : — that of Nice, 
 in the formula of faith or creed which it published, uses 
 the word Church in the same sense as Catholics still do, 
 that is, as comprising persons of the same communion 
 only, and excluding all sects, whatever may be their errors. 
 This Council anathematizes or excludes from the Catholic 
 and Apostolic Church all those who do not believe that 
 the Son is of the same substance with the Father ; and, 
 again, in its 8th Canon, where it treats of the Novatians 
 wishing to return to the Catholic Churchy it considers them 
 as excluded from it, for othcr^visc how could they return 
 to it ? 
 
22 
 
 Again, the first Council of Constantinople, held sliortly 
 afterwards, cap. 7, after prescribing the mode according 
 to whicli the Ai'ians, the Macedonians, the Sabbatists, 
 the Novations, the Quartodecimans, the Apollinarists 
 were to be admitted to the communion of the Catholic 
 Cliurch, it requires that they sign a ivritten profession of 
 faith, wherein, amongst other things, they declare that 
 they anathematize every heresy ivhich dissents from the Holy 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church of God. 
 
 The Council of Sardis, held in this age, in the letter 
 preserved by St. Athanasius in his 2d Apolog}^, which the 
 Fathers addressed to all the Bishops of the world, con- 
 siders the separation from the Church the same as an 
 exclusion from the Christian name or profession. St. 
 Celestin in his letter to Nestorius, referred to in the 
 Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, admonishes that Hcre- 
 siarch that he would be separated from the commu- 
 nion of the Catholic and Universal Cliurch, if he did not 
 embrace the doctrine taught in the Churches of Alex- 
 andria and Rome. So the African Bishops in the case of 
 Seporius, tom. 2, cone. p. 1683, require of him as the 
 condition of his pardon, that he profess to receive and 
 hold what the Ordo Ecclesice, the ministry or rule of the 
 Church received and held. But perhaps the most explicit 
 declaration of the sense of antiquity on this subject is the 
 following, found in the Gth Canon of that Council of 
 Constantinople before mentioned, and which designates as 
 heretics, all " who are cast out and anathematized by the 
 Church, and who, pretending to profess the sound faitli, 
 are torn off and separated, and hold assemblies in oppo- 
 sition to the canonical bishops." 
 
 NoAv those doctors of antiquity, those councils to which 
 I have referred, wrote or published what is cited from 
 
23 
 
 tliem about three or four hundred years after the birth of 
 Christ, a period of time little more than equal to that 
 which has elapsed since the defection of what Lubnitz 
 calls the Sclavonic nations from the Latin Church. 
 Could they have mistaken the doctrine of Christ and his 
 Apostles, or the sense in which the wi'itings of the latter, 
 and the church discipline, established by them, were 
 imderstood? was such ignorance or error on their part 
 possible, leaving out of consideration all special aid from 
 God? But before we answer this question to our own 
 consciences, let us consider that these bishops and 
 writers were men of great learning, of unimpeachable 
 virtue, conversant pr.'ictically with what they wrote, and 
 living in times which may justly be called enlightened. 
 Let us, to assist our judgment, take a parallel case :— 
 suppose the bishops of Italy, Spain, France, Germany, 
 England, and Ireland, together with the most learned 
 and distinguished ecclesiastics and civilians to be found in 
 those countries, were now, whether dispersed or collected 
 together, called upon to testify as to the faith and church 
 discipline of their respective countries in the time of 
 Philip the Fifth, Francis the First, Leo the Tenth, and 
 Henry the Eighth, would it be possible that they could 
 not so testify it to the satisfaction of every unbiassed 
 mind ? and if they could, no reason can be assigned why 
 the doctors and pastors whom I have quoted should not 
 afford equal satisfaction to every candid inquirer as to the 
 Christian doctrine in the days of the Apostles. They 
 shoidd also necessarili/ testify what the universal sentiment 
 and belief of the Christian world was in their own time, as 
 to the unity of the Church, and the description of persons 
 who were supposed to belong to it. I, therefore, refer with 
 the utmost confidence to every sensible man, the evidence 
 which I have adduced, and if it be found compatible 
 with the amalgamation of all sects and heresies, or with 
 
24, 
 
 the commixture of such of them as believe the divinity of 
 Cluist,. whatever tlieir notions upon other points of 
 doctrine may be, then do I willingly resign all my notions 
 of church unity, as well as of the nature of heresy and 
 schism. Jurieu pressed by this evidence could not with- 
 stand it ; he would not, however, yield his assent, such 
 are the effects of human pride, but in the perverseness of 
 his senseless obstinacy exclaimed, that all antiquity had 
 erred on this point. It is, however, too obAaous, that to 
 condemn, as guilty of error, all antiquity, including the 
 earliest times, is to arraign the Apostles and Christ him- 
 self; it is to say that the Church never had been founded, 
 or, that founded, she had passed away like a shadow. 
 
 But again, why should we condemn those who deny 
 the divinity of the Son of God more than any others, 
 who, following their o^vn judgment, are led into error ? 
 Axe not many of our modern Arians and Socinians 
 learned and honest men ? are they not sincere in their 
 searches after truth ? far be it from me to say they are 
 not; and whilst I consider their error as heresy, God 
 forbid that I should judge between them and their Creator. 
 He made them for himself, and I hope and pray that 
 from amongst them he may, by the infusion of his light 
 and love, save many. It was only of Judas, that 
 treacherous, cruel, avaricious wretch, that the Lord 
 said, " it would be better for him he had not been born," 
 and in his mercy he has told us that a sin against himself 
 would be forgiven, but that he who sinned against the 
 Holy Ghost — he who despaired of mercy — who assigned 
 the works of God to Satan, or wilfully opposed the 
 known truth (for such the ancients considered sins against 
 the holy Ghost,) would not be forgiven, neither in this 
 world nor in the next. It is difficult to determine 
 whetlier the sins in which the understanding of man, 
 
25 
 
 clouded with ignorance on account of Adam's fall, is 
 chiefly concerned, or those in which the ivill^ infected 
 from the same source with passion, acts most prominently; 
 be the more grievous ; but, without doubt, whether we 
 attend to the catalogue of vices which the Apostle enu- 
 merates as excluding from the kingdom of God, or to the 
 sentence to be pronounced by the Lord himself upon the 
 just and the reprobate on the last day, we are induced to 
 think, that though without a right faith it is impossible 
 to please God, yet that they are the sins which proceed 
 from the heart or will, rather than those which emanate 
 principally from the mind which will fix the eternal fate of 
 man. It was a question amongst the Jews what was the 
 greatest commandment in the law, whether to worship 
 the Deity by sacrifice, which was a profession of faith — of 
 absolute dependance on the Supreme Being, and an act of 
 prayer, or to love him with the whole heart. The 
 Redeemer decided the question in favour of the love of 
 God and of our neighbour, and Paul having enumerated 
 Faith, Hope, and Charity, the three great Christian 
 virtues, says expressly, that Charity, which lasts for 
 ever, is the greatest of the three. Sins therefore against 
 Faith, such as heresy, are very grievous ; perhaps, next to 
 apostacy, this vice is the worst of all, as it cuts up the 
 root of justification; but, abstracting from this character of 
 it, it may not be so malicious, not so much opposed to the 
 nature of God as those sins which conflict with Charity — 
 and this is a reflection which ought often to occur to those 
 who, agitated by a fiery zeal, and swoln with a selfishness, 
 which they mistake for faith, break down all the charities of 
 human life, sow dissensions amohgst brethren, and forget 
 totally the divine command of doing to others what they 
 would that others should do unto them. We should 
 reprobate heresy as we reprove drunkenness or theft, 
 usury or oppression of the poor; we should denounce 
 
26 
 
 schism as we proclaim the guilt of calumny or detraction ; 
 but as we should exercise patience and long sufFeriug 
 towards the drunkard, the thief, or the (ralumniator, so 
 we should use forbearance and charity towards the wilful 
 and obstinate heretic, hoping that the Lord may perhaps 
 yet give him repentance like to other sinners. But, if the 
 person who is in error has been seduced into it by others, 
 if he have received it as an inheritance from his fathers, 
 and that his education, liis habits, his passions, his 
 interests, his connexions, raise a barrier about him which 
 the light of truth cannot, morally speaking, penetrate, 
 or the force of argument approach, still less break down ; 
 to cherish for such a person any other feeling than that 
 of the most unmixed and ardent charity would not only 
 be unchristian but inhuman ; to consign such a man to 
 futm'e suffering on account of his errors would be an 
 usurpation of the divine knowledge and power, and 
 whosoever would pass judgment on him should fear that a 
 similar judgment, without mercy, would be passed upon 
 himself. It is the duty of those who are ministers of 
 Christ to exhibit the truths of the Gospel and the errors 
 opposed to them, to display virtue in all her beauty, and 
 exhibit also the defonnity of vice ; to exhort, and to 
 beseech men in all patience and doctrine to adhere to 
 truth and virtue, and to fly from vice and error; to 
 minister the aids of religion to all who seek them at their 
 hands ; to exclude from their assemblies and communion 
 all who obstinately adhere to vice or error, but to leave 
 the judgment of mens souls to him who created and 
 redeemed them, who alone is able to discern the innocent 
 from the guilty, and who will repay to every one 
 according to what he did in the body, whether good or 
 evil. 
 
 There is no person Avho rightly understands the spiiit 
 
^7 
 
 In which Christians are called, and which spirit created 
 and preserved that nnity amongst the members of the 
 Church, who will not subscribe to those sentiments. 
 They are the dictates of charity and liberality rightly 
 understood, but far removed certaiidy from that novel 
 opinion now so prevalent amongst Protestants, which 
 would open the Church to all sorts and descriptions of 
 sects, and erase from the catalogue of vices, revealed to 
 us by Almighty God, the crimes of heresy and schism. 
 
 But the observations hitherto made on tlie miity of the 
 Church, and the criterion by which she alvi%ays regulated 
 admission to her communion naturally suggests the fol- 
 lowing inquiry: — how was this unity of faith so strict 
 and rigorous in its nature, preserved amongst so many 
 nations as composed at all times the Catholic Church? 
 To answer this inquiry we must travel once more over the 
 same ground through which we have already passed. 
 We must revert to the constitution of the Church, to its 
 order and government as presented to us in the Gospel, 
 in the acts and letters of the Apostles, in the councils of 
 the primitive times, and in the writings of those early 
 pastors and doctors whom Christ gave to his people. 
 
 The Redeemer himself established a conserving prin- 
 ciple of unity, without which it could not have continued, 
 and he did so by appointing Peter the chief, or supreme 
 head on eai'th of the whole Church, and by continuing to 
 his successors this singular and necessary privilege. This 
 supremacy and the cause of its creation are beautifully 
 expressed by St. Jerome, when he says inter ditodecim unus 
 eUgitur, ut, Capite constituto, Schistnatis tollatur occasio — 
 from amongst the twelve one is diosen, that a head being 
 appointed the occasion of schism might be taken away." 
 Yet, notwithstanding this supremacy, Paul says " here- 
 
28 
 
 sies must be" — oportet hereses esse, but without it, con- 
 fiideriiig tlie jealousies, tlic i)iques, tlie interests, the 
 passions of nations and individuals, it would be totally- 
 impossible to preserve even a semblance of unity through- 
 out the vast empire of Christ ; for men are by nature so 
 fond of novelty, that even admitting the influence of 
 divine grace, they require the strong bond of authority to 
 keep them united. But let us briefly examine the origin 
 and nature of this supremacy as it is testified to us by 
 the Scriptures and antiquity. In the 16th chapter of the 
 gospel according to St. Matthew, a profession of his faith 
 in the divinity and mission of our Lord is related, as 
 made by Peter, saying, thou art the Christ or the 
 Messias promised to us, the Son of the living God. 
 In reply, the Christ assures him that his faith was not the 
 fruit of earthly %visdom but of divine grace, imparted to 
 him by the Father of Mercies ; and the Redeemer finding 
 him as it were thus selected and gifted by Almighty God, 
 adds to this first grace a new one, not of election to the 
 faith or to the apostleship, which had been given to him, 
 but the grace or gift of election to the place of head or 
 chief of that society, or kingdom, or church, which 
 after his own ascension and the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost, was to be founded by him on the earth. " The 
 Father has selected you." We may suppose the Redeemer 
 to address him thus : — " above all others, not only to 
 believe in your heart to your justification, but also to 
 profess your belief openly with your tongue, and in addi- 
 tion to this gift of the Father, who has drawn you to me, 
 I, the Son, who do all things that he doth, say to you, 
 thou art a rock — strong and immovable in your faith, and 
 upon this rock, that is, upon you professing this faith 
 which my Father has inspired into you, I will build my 
 Church : you shall, after myself, and when I will have 
 ascended to my Father and to yom- Father, to my God 
 
and to your God, Le made the foundation, the corner 
 stone, the firm and lasting support of tliat Clmrch, 
 which through your ministry and that of your collengues, 
 tlie apostles and prophets, the pastors and doctors who 
 will be given to labour with you, (I myself being the 
 chief builder, the sovereign head and immovable foun- 
 dation), shall be established by me upon the earth. 
 Against this Church which I will raise on you, the gates 
 or force of hell shall not prevail ; fear not, even hell, for 
 I will conquer the prince of this world and cast him out. 
 He will indeed seek to grind you all like wheat, and 
 notwithstanding my grace, he will prevail over many of 
 your colleagues ; but Simon, Simon, I have prayed for 
 YOU, that though you be shaken for a moment, that 
 though your passions or infirmity become the allies of 
 Satan, and cast you down from your steadfastness, yet 
 fear not, I have prayed for you, that thy faith, imparted 
 to you by a special privilege of God, fail not ; be sober 
 and watch, be careful that recovering from your weakness 
 and resuming your former station, you confirm your 
 brethren who may waver in the faith." 
 
 I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, 
 under which name I have, as you know, so often desig- 
 nated my future Church, and as keys are the symbol of 
 power, the mark of rightful possession, and the emblem 
 of chief authority, I shall give to you, with them, this 
 power, this possession, this authority; you shall hold 
 them for ever undisputed and undivided in my kingdom, 
 which itj the Church. All other power, all other autho- 
 rity which I may impart to your colleagues shall be 
 subordinate to yours, that all things in my peaceful king- 
 dom may be done according to order. You are the foun- 
 dation, and to you the keys are given, the chief, the 
 prince whom all my subjects will be found to reverence 
 
so 
 
 niulobey. Wliatevcr you bind, whilst justly executing my 
 law in the city of God, over which you are to be placed, 
 shall be bound in heaven by my Father and by me, and 
 whatever you loose on earth, in the just exercise of your 
 power shall be loosed also by us in heaven. This prero- 
 gative or principality which was thus promised by the 
 Son of God to Peter as to the head of the Church, repre- 
 senting her unity in the singleness of his own person, as 
 St. Augustin well observes, was afterwards imparted to 
 liim, when, after the resurrection of our Redeemer, his 
 charity was proved like as his faith had been, and, being 
 found full, was rewarded Avith the entire confidence of 
 his Divine Master, and the communication of that 
 unequalled power which had been promised to him. But 
 let us cite the entire passage from the 21st chapter of St. 
 John : — " So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon 
 Peter, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than 
 these ? he saith to him, yea. Lord ; thou knowest that I love 
 thee. He saith to him, feed my lambs. He saith to him 
 again, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith to 
 liim, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He 
 saith to him ; feed my lambs. He saith to him the third 
 time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was 
 grieved, because he said to him the third time, lovest 
 thou me? and he said to him. Lord, thou knowest all 
 things, thou knowest that I love thee. He said to him, 
 feed my sheep." Christ then foretells to him his future 
 martyrdom, and by what manner of death he was to 
 glorify God, and with the recital of these things the 
 Evangelist closes his gospel. 
 
 To a candid man it should be unnecessary to argue 
 \ipon those passages of the divine revelation. How can 
 it be necessary to observe to a reasonable and unpre- 
 judiced mind, that the selection of Peter, the promise 
 
SI 
 
 made to liini, and the fulfilment ol' that jn'omlse hy 
 Christ, are distinct from every thing' else narrated by the 
 evangelists ? I am at a loss to conceive how it ever was 
 denied that Peter was selected by Christ, as the chief of 
 the future Church, vested with a singular and preeminent 
 power for its benefit, and charged with a sovereign care 
 of all its members. Wlien Christ, in the IStii chapter of 
 St. Matthew, orders the ei'ring christian to be reproved, 
 and if found obstinate, denounced to the Church, he 
 promises to each and all the apostles, that whatever they 
 would bind on earth would be bound in heaven, and 
 whatsoever they would loose on earth would be also 
 loosed in heaven, and thus gives to them a promise of 
 that apostolic authority, without which they would not 
 be rulers of the Church in their own right and by divine 
 appointment, but mere subalterns or deputies of Peter. 
 But he does not promise to them, as he did to him, the 
 keys of the kingdom of heaven, the emblem of supreme 
 authority, and the type of imiversal Jurisdiction ; he did 
 not pray for them singly, and as he did for Peter ; he did 
 not charge any of them with the duty of confirming their 
 brethren, though they should all rcpro^^e each other when 
 necessary ; but above all he did not say to any one, or to 
 all of them, " feed my lambs," and a second time, " feed 
 my lambs," and a third time, " feed my shee})," the 
 entire fold wliich I will gather from the nations. All his 
 gifts are without repentance ; that is, when bestowed he 
 does not withdraw them, unless wc cast them away, and 
 such gifts as he imparted for the sake of his Church, 
 which he espoused to himself by an everlasting covenant 
 — which he washed in his own blood — which he loves as 
 being bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, and which 
 lie will ju'cserve in his love until he presents her without 
 spot or wrinkle before the face of his Father ; ^vhatcAcr 
 gifts or graces he imparted on account of this Church to 
 
32 
 
 Peter or to his apostles as necessary loi' lier are truly 
 without repentance, he never will, he never can withdraw 
 them. 
 
 If, tlierefore, in the 16th of Matthew, he promised to 
 Peter any privilege connected Avith the foundation and 
 preservation of this Church, it must continue, and be 
 always distinct from the power and privileges granted in 
 common to the apostles. He promised to them all united 
 a power to rule the Church, and to this day we say in the 
 language of St. Cyprian, Episcopatus umis est ciijus in 
 solidum pars a singulis tenetur — " the episcopacy is one, 
 a portion of the entire of which is held by each bishop ;" 
 but how does this interfere with the supremacy of the 
 head, or rather how could it exist in order, or be carried 
 on without that supremacy ? he sent them all to teach and 
 to baptize all nations, and to command those nations to 
 observe what he had given in conmiand for them, to be 
 published by the Apostles. But how does this interfere 
 with the prerogative of Peter, which keeps the teachers 
 themselves firm in the faitli, zealous and correct in their 
 labours, uniform in their doctrine, so that they all say the 
 same thing, and that there be no schisms among them ? 
 or rather how could those advantages be, by any possi- 
 bility, secured if Peter's jurisdiction were not universal 
 and supreme ? He made them all partakers of his own 
 priesthood, saying to them, " do this in commemoration 
 of me;" he imparted to them all the Holy Spirit, when 
 having breathed on them, he said, " receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost ; whosoever sins you shall forgive they are forgiven, 
 and whosoever sins you shall retain they are retained ;" 
 but how do these exalted and superhuman powers inter- 
 fere with the charge of Peter to feed the lambs, and feed 
 the sheep of the great bishop of our souls ? No, I say 
 coiiHdently, it is impossible that an intelligent and honest 
 
33 
 
 ttlaii, who searches for truth as he seeks i*or gold, and who 
 cooperating faitlifully with the grace of God, esteems all 
 things as dung that he may gain Christ, would seriously 
 deny the spiritual prerogative and special jurisdiction oiF 
 St. Peter. The disciples and evangelists all recognised 
 them ; they name Peter the first, the Trgwros-, or as it might 
 justly be translated the primate, " they present" him as the 
 first of the disciples, to whom our Lord after his resur- 
 rection appeared — the first who after the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost preached the gospel-^underwent persecution 
 for the faith — who first experienced the divine protection 
 when in prison — the first who wrought miracles in the 
 name of Jesus — who founded the Church amongst the 
 seed of Abraham — Who confirmed the converts made by 
 others — who was first commissioned to call the Gentiles 
 in the person of Cornelius to the faith ; it was he, who 
 having founded the Church at Jerusalem) established it 
 next at Antioch, and afterwards passing to Rome, the 
 Babylon of the world in that age, laid the foundation of 
 that Church to which perfidy or apostacy, as Cyprian has 
 observed, never had access, and whose faith, even in 
 Paul's time, as in our oWn^ was spoken of and increased 
 throughout the entire world. It was Peter, who by the 
 hand of Mark, sowed the gospel seed at Alexandria, and 
 thus establishing the four great Patriarchates which 
 embraced the Christian world, verified even in his own 
 person, and in his own day, the promise of his master, 
 saying, " thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build 
 my Church." Why, after witnessing, those things should 
 we refer to his acting at all times and places, whether in 
 the temple, before the sanhedrim, at the election of an 
 apostle or of deacons, or at the council in Jerusalem, as 
 the head, the chief, the mouthpiece, to use a term of St< 
 Chrysostom, of the apostles ? 
 
34 
 
 But, it will be said that certain doctors of antiquity 
 understood the text : Simon, son of Jona, " thou art a 
 rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church ;" as if 
 the Lord had said, " thou art a rock, and upon this faith 
 in my divinity professed by thee, I will build my Church," 
 and I have no objection whatever to such mystical and 
 edifying exposition of the text, provided that no person 
 be so senseless, whilst he admits this signification, as to 
 exclude the other, which is plain, natural, and obvious, 
 for I scarcely know a text of Scripture which commen- 
 tators have not explained in a mystical or metaphorical, 
 as well as a natural and obvious sense. All I requke is, 
 that when one signification is set forth, it be not supposed 
 that the other is excluded ; for my part, I see nothing more 
 obvious than that Christ contemplated Peter as inspired 
 by his Heavenly Father with a pure and lively faith, and 
 that contemplating the man filled with this faith and pro- 
 fessing it, he immediately selected him to be the head and 
 chief of his Church or Kingdom. How justly, with such a 
 view of the question, would any person commenting on the 
 passage, treat, indifferently of the faith professed, or of 
 the person professing that faith, and assign to either, 
 without excluding the other, whereas both were indivisibly 
 conjoined, the promise of Christ ? But that Peter was the 
 living acting subject to whom the promise was directed, 
 and on whom the benediction fell, no man in his senses 
 should deny. I find St. Hilary, St. Chrysostom, St. 
 Cyril of Alexandria, St. Augustin, to treat this question 
 as I have just set it forth; at one time representing 
 Christ as contemplating Peter, at another as contemplating 
 the faith which he professed, or admitting that either may 
 be understood, whilst the greater number of the fathers 
 confine themselves to the natural, obvious, and plain 
 signification of that portion of the text. 
 
35 
 
 But where there is question of tlie promise of tlie keys 
 to Peter, and of the command given to him to feed the 
 lambs, the sheep, tlie wliole flock of God, then antiquity, 
 like a torrent, sweeps away all opposition, every obstacle 
 which a perverse sophistry would at any period oppose to 
 the supremacy of this apostle. All the fathers, for I 
 know of no exception, consider him as representing the 
 whole Church, jmd receiving from Christ, in his own 
 single person, the keys or power of its government, to be 
 exercised by himself and by his brethren with due subor- 
 dination to him as chief or head. 
 
 Origen, Hom. 2. de die., calls St. Peter the supreme 
 head or summit of the apostles ; and, commenting on the 
 6th of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans, says, that " the 
 sovereign care of feeding the sheep was given to Peter, 
 and that upon him, as upon a rock, the Church was 
 founded." Eusebius, hist. lib. 2, cap. 14, calls Peter 
 " the most powerful and greatest among the apostles, and 
 on accoimt of his virtue, the prince and protector of all 
 the others." St. Cyril of Jerusalem, catech. 2 and 11, 
 designates him as " prince and chief ;" S. Basil Procemio 
 de jud. dei., says. " that blessed Peter, preferred to all the 
 apostles, to whom singly greater testimonies or assurances 
 were given than to any other ; he who was called blessed^ 
 to whom the keys of the heavens were entrusted." St. 
 Greg. Naz. orat. 26, showing there that in disputations 
 order is to be observed by all, takes an argument to prove 
 that position from the ajMjstles, who though all great, yet 
 had one placed over the others : " see," he observes, " how 
 from among the disciples of Christ, all, without doubt, 
 great and excellent and worthy of election, one is called 
 a rock, aiul received the foundation or chief place of the 
 Church ; another is peculiarly beloved, and reclines on 
 
 c2 
 
36 
 
 the lioftoiii ol" Jesus, and the other disciples, without 
 murmuring, ^lee tlu>m thus preferred." 
 
 St. Cpil of Jerusalem, lib. 12, in Joh. speaking of 
 Peter, says, " he appears eminent aboA^e the others, lie 
 tlie head and prince of them." St. Chrysostom, hom. 5, 
 in Math, hom, 8T, in Joh. and hom. 3, in acta app., as 
 also orat. 8, in jud. employs the following language to 
 designate the supremacy of Peter, or his superiority as 
 compared with the other apostles : — " a man ignoble and 
 a fisherman, is tlie head and pastor of the CFmrch, the 
 mouth or tongue, the prince and supreme head of the 
 apostles ; the prince of the apostolic band, who every 
 where, and first of all, begins to speak ; Peter so washed 
 away that denial (of his master) that he even was made 
 or constituted the first or chief of the apostles." 
 
 These are the sentiments of the ancient Greek Church, 
 expressed through her doctors. Let the Latin Church 
 now pw:>fess her doctrine : — 
 
 TertuUian de prescript, cap. 22, refuting those heretics 
 who charged tlie apostles with ignorance or negligence, 
 says : " Was Peter then ignorant of something ? he who 
 was called the rock on which the Church was to be built, 
 and who obtained the keys of the kingdom of heaven." 
 He repeats in various forms, and in dlftbrent parts of his 
 works, that Peter represented the Church, and that what 
 the Lord conceded to her, he conceded it through Peter. 
 St. Cyprian, ep. 55, says : " Peter, on whom this same 
 Church was founded by the Lord, speaking alone for all, 
 and answering in the name of the Church;" and ep. 71, 
 this father showing the moderation with which persons 
 the most exalted should use authority, observes, that 
 when Peter was reproved by Paul, " he did not insolently 
 
37 
 
 and arrogantly assume any thing, or appeal to his primacy, 
 or complain, saying, that obedience, not reproof, was 
 due to liim by new people, and those who came after him," 
 as Paul did. It is thus that Cyprian inculcates the 
 necessity of feeding the flock of God, not by ^'iolcncc, 
 but freely, not as lording it over God's inheritance, but 
 with good will, whilst he admits the authority which 
 might have been abused. But in his book on the unity of 
 the Church, not far from the beginning, where he touches 
 this matter, not indirectly, but treats of it expressly, his 
 sentiments are more clear and full. " On him (Peter) 
 alone," he says, " Christ built his Church, and to him he 
 committed his sheep to be fed, and though after his 
 resurrection he bestowed an equal authority on all the 
 apostles, and said, " as my Father sent me so I send 
 you ; receive ye the Holy Ghost, &c., yet to render unity 
 .manifest, he instituted one chair, and regulated by his 
 own authority the source of that same unity, taking its 
 rise from one,* Thus Cj^)rian accurately defines that 
 
 * There ia a passage in the above quotation from St. Cyprian 
 which I omitted, in order to avoid cavil, though niy own opinion 
 is that the passage is genuine — exoidiiim ah unilate iwojiciscitar 
 et Primatus Petro datur. " The beginning (of the apotstolic 
 authority) proceeds from unity and the primacy i.s given to Peter." 
 
 Rigauh, as also Doctor Fell, in Ins edition of Cyprian's works, 
 reject the above passage as not found in the editions of Spires, or 
 admitted by Rerabold, by Erasmus, Gryphius, G ravins, and 
 some others, and as wanted in many manuscript coj)ies. But 
 tlio passage is found in many and most ancient manuscript copies, 
 as in that of the Vatican referred to by Manutius, that m(rnti()ne<l 
 by Onuphrius Panvinius in his treatise de Primiitii Petri, in that 
 of Cambray, in a second of the Vatican, in that of St. Sa\ i«»urs 
 at Bologna, in four in England, mentioned by Fell ; besides that 
 it was quoted in the sixth century by ^larcellus the Second, 
 writing to the bishops of Istria ; in tine, in place of being a tau- 
 tology, if admitted, as Iligault thinks, it acc-urds perfectly with 
 
38 
 
 apostolic power, one and indivisible in its nature, equal 
 in each, and first given to the college of the apostles, and 
 still continued to the unbroken and undivided body of the 
 episcopacy, whilst with equal accuracy he marks the 
 primacy of Peter, and points out the end, to wit, the 
 preservation of unity, for which it had been instituted by 
 the authority of Christ himself. 
 
 S. Optatus, lib. 2, contra Parmens, says to his oppo- 
 nent, " you cannot deny what you know, that the epis- 
 copal chair (signifying here, as in all places, doctrine and 
 authority,) was first fixed in the city of Rome by Peter, 
 in which Peter himself, the head of all the apostles, sat, 
 whence (that is from his headship,) also he was called 
 Caephas ; in which one chair unity would be preserved 
 by all, that each of the other apostles might not claim one 
 for himself — ne ceteri apostoli singidas sibi quisque defen- 
 derent, and so become a schismatic and a sinner, who, 
 against the one chair, would set up another." St. 
 Ambrose, in cap. 12, Ep. 2, ad Cor. says briefly, but 
 forcibly, " it was not Andrew, (he was the eldest), but 
 Peter, who received the primacy." 
 
 St, Augustin, lib. 2, de Bapt. cap. 1, says of Peter, 
 " in whom the primacy among the apostles is seen exalted 
 by so excellent a grace." He repeatedly observes, that 
 " Peter, on account of his primacy, represented the 
 Church." In his thirteenth sermon, de verbis domini, he 
 says " Peter was first in the rank of the apostles :" " he 
 
 the style and manner of Cyprian, as well as with his doctrine 
 throughout that entire book, as when he says, " that on Peter 
 alone the Church was built," that one chair was appointed," and 
 that " unity had its origin from one," that is from Peter, &c. &c. 
 
39 
 
 was the type of the owe Chui'ch ;" " he alone answered 
 for all ;" " he was named Peter from a rock ;" " he re- 
 presented the Church ;" " he bore tlie primacy of the 
 apostolic ojffice." 
 
 St. Leo, ser. 3, de assump. sua ad Pontiff says, " Peter 
 is elected alone from the entire world ; he is preferred to 
 all the nations — to all the apostles — to all the fathers of 
 the Church, so that though there be many priests among 
 the people of God, yet they are immediately ruled by 
 Peter, he being principally ruled also by Christ." 
 
 But why is this venerable host of primitive pastors and 
 doctors drawn forth in order to prove the primacy or 
 supremacy of Peter ? Why, because for my purpose, 
 it is necessary to bring back the minds of readers to the 
 primitive form of the Chm*ch, and to the ground work of 
 Christianity, which in these times of religious intempe- 
 rance and fanaticism seem to be entirely overlooked. 
 Political economy, or the art of founding joint stock 
 companies, are scarcely the subjects at present of less 
 rational speculation than the testament or religion of 
 Jesus Christ. The austere virtues of the gospel, such as 
 continency, chastity, fasting, watching, prayer, repen- 
 tance, joined to external mortification, which virtues were 
 religion's best support, have long since been discarded 
 from amongst the pious practices of a christian life, and 
 descending gradually from one abyss to another, men now 
 adapt their religious theories to the taste of the age, as 
 Sheridan or Moli^re did their comedies. One creates a 
 company for the conversion of the Jews, another for 
 enlightening the Hindoos, a third undertakes to instruct 
 the Blacks who border on the Cape, a fourth will eman- 
 cipate, from spiritual despotism, the slaves in Barbadoes, 
 or the more miserable Irish ; one proclaims the necessity 
 
40 
 
 of prelates and boasts of the beauty of his liturgy; a 
 8econd says, liturgies embarrass the spirit in its flight, 
 and why should those made free by Christ be subjected to 
 the rule of Bishops ? One system of religion is suited to 
 the wealthy and the proud, having order, pomp, and 
 ceremony, the other, coarse, irregular, and loud, fitted 
 to the peasant or mechanic. The word of God, the Bible, 
 is on the lips of all ; the right and power of private judg- 
 ment are unreasonably extolled — the sacraments are 
 neglected — the ministry superseded — and whilst fana- 
 ticism thus burns on the surface, immorality weighs upon 
 the heart, whilst infidelity, secretly and silently advancing, 
 prepares to erect its standard on the ruins which this 
 fanaticism will have made. If men do not return to first 
 principles, and arrest their minds in their present course, 
 if they do not review the christian religion, not as pre- 
 sented in the passing declamations of the day, but as it 
 was originally established by the Spirit of God, no gift of 
 prophesy is required to foresee how lamentable j^re the 
 results which press upon us. To bring back public atten- 
 tion then to the consideration of the leading maxims of 
 the piimitive Church is deserving at least of an effort, 
 but besides this motive, it was necessary for my special 
 purpose to show how unity (so essential to the kingdom of 
 Christ,) was preserved ip the immense society of trye 
 believers, 
 
 It was with this view principally that I endeavoured to 
 demonstrate that a primacy was given to St. Peter — a 
 prerogative which vested him with power as extensive as 
 the Church, and which might, and ought when necessary, 
 be exercised over every sheep within the fold of Christ, of 
 whatever rank or order. 
 
 TJie language of the Redeen^er, as quoted by me, from 
 
, 41 
 
 the 16th chapter of his gospel according to St. Matthew, 
 shows of itself that the authority given to Peter was to 
 last as long as the Church, for if he were made the 
 foundation of it after Christ, tlie rock on which it was 
 built, it is perfectly obvious that as long as the super- 
 structure lasted the foundation could not be removed ; in 
 other words, that as long as a Church was to remain on 
 earth the authority given to Peter should continue to it — 
 that so long as the kingdom of heaven, or city of God, 
 continued in this world so long should some person be 
 vested with the keys of government — that as long as 
 there would be a fold of sheep and lambs, so long there 
 should be a pastor to feed them in the place of Petei* — in 
 fine, that as long as the faithful were to be one body, 
 saying the same thing, and not having divisions among 
 them, so long there should be some person vested with 
 power to enforce obedience — to collect the sentiments of 
 the body — to publish its acts — to institute or sanction its 
 officers — to preach and cause to be preached the doctrines 
 of Christ — to dispense and cause to be dispensed the 
 mysteries of God, that so the people might obey then* 
 prelates and be subject to them, that the prelates might 
 not lord it over the people but be made patterns to them 
 from the heart, in fine, that all might have one faith, and 
 not be tossed about by every wind of doctrine, but be 
 kept united in that conjmon charity, which is the great 
 source, as it is the bond of perfection. 
 
 But this consequence, however plain and necessary — 
 however spontaneously flo\ving from the very source of 
 Christianity, yet it has been contradicted, and seldom 
 jnorc \aolently, or at least less temperately, than at the 
 present day. The furious men who now agitate tliis 
 country seem to know that the sword and the law could 
 pot have been drawn, or, if drawn, could not have been 
 
42 
 
 wielded mth such deadly effect against the holy and 
 ancient religion of these islands, if that religion had not 
 first been decried, abused, and maligned, until it appeared 
 TO the multitude a very moral monster. " From the sole 
 of its foot, like its founder, to the top of its head, there 
 was no soundness in it" ; it was buffetted, abused, spit 
 upon ; it was covered with a mantle of derision ; it was 
 scourged, and drenched with vinegar and gall ; the waters 
 of affliction entered into its very soul, and it was, when 
 thus disfigured by a clamorous rabble, and seemingly 
 abandoned by God, that the bigots and the fanatic cried 
 out to the agents of the law and of the sword, — " away 
 with it, away with it." 
 
 But as there was no tenet of this religion more opposed 
 to the machinations of those furious and designing men, 
 nor again, no tenet more strongly supported by argument, 
 by the practice of the Church, and an undisputed posses- 
 sion of fifteen hundred years, than that of the supremacy 
 of the successor of St. Peter, so there was no tenet 
 against which their sophistry, their misrepresentations, 
 their violence, their rancour and persecution were so un- 
 ceasingly directed. To such extremities did these men 
 proceed as not only to confound the power claimed 
 by some few popes of Rome over the temporal in- 
 terests or rights of kings and kingdoms, with the spi- 
 ritual jurisdiction of St. Peter's successor, but, in ad- 
 dition to this misrepresentation, they actually designated 
 not one or other, but a whole series of those successors, as 
 Antichrists, and excited the deluded multitude to hate 
 them and curse them as the capital enemies of our Lord 
 and Saviour. Yes, the very men who maintained from 
 the beginning, and still maintain against an infidel or 
 Arian world the divinity of the Son of God, the very 
 men who designate themselves as the last of his servants, 
 
43 
 
 and who, without any doubt, have caused his name to be 
 published and adored throughout nearly the whole christian 
 world, these men who never ask any thing of the Father 
 except through the Son, and identify him in their daily 
 prayer with the King of Ages, the immortal and invisible 
 God, to whom alone are due and given all honor and 
 glory, these very men have been called, by the ferocious 
 leaders of the revolt, " Antichrists" 1 ! and the' Church in 
 which they have always presided, and whose faith was 
 from the beginning, and still is spoken of throughout the 
 entire world, — this Church they called " Babylon," and the 
 ** great apostacy," \vith all manner of opprobrious and 
 insulting names. 
 
 To the present day this warfare of calumny is continued 
 for the same purposes, and by the genuine successors of 
 the wicked men who first commenced it ; hence it neces- 
 sarily enters into the design of these observations that I 
 endeavour, not to dissipate the cloud of calumny which 
 still prevails, (a task to which I confess my incompetency), 
 but to prove, in addition to the argument adduced by me, 
 that the supremacy given to Peter has passed to his 
 successors, the bishop, for the time being, of the See of 
 Rome. 
 
 This is a truth, like many others, connected with a 
 matter of fact, and a fact which, as it commenced with the 
 demise of Peter, cannot be found recorded in the Holy 
 Scriptures ; but it is, at the same time, as we have seen 
 above, a truth flowing necessarily from the institution by 
 Christ, of the primacy in the person of that apostle ; and 
 all antiquity, as it attests the existence of that primacy in 
 Peter, so it attests the transmission of it to his successors 
 in the See of Rome. 
 
4i 
 
 The law of nature sanctions a prosiimption in faA'our 
 of l)im who has tlie peaceable possession of any thing, 
 and he is supposed to have acquired it justly, until his 
 title to it is disproved. The buiden of proof lies on him 
 who questions the right of possession, and not upon him 
 who holds it ; but when we Catholics call for this proof 
 against the title of Peter's successor to the spiritual 
 supremacy which he enjoys, we are replied to by loud 
 declamationi by angry invective, or by visionary specu- 
 lations on the Apocalypse. If we refer to historical 
 records to show not only the possession, but also the 
 ei<:ercise of this supremacy in every age from the apostolic 
 tiihes, we are told that Mosheim (the faithless Hume of the 
 Protestant Churches,) says, that the early churches, like the 
 Greek republics, were all independent one of the other, 
 and their councils, like the amphyctionic assemblies. To 
 refute this folly we refer to Eusebius, to Fleury, to 
 Natalis Alexander, we present the long and accm'ate 
 catalogue of cases compiled by Cardinal Perron for the 
 information of King James the First, to show that no 
 Church was ever independent of the head of the episco- 
 pacy — that he exercised in every quarter of the known 
 world a jurisdiction commensurate with the exigency of 
 the case which required it. We exhibit the appeals made 
 to him from each of the three great patriarchates as well 
 as from all parts of his own in the West, and refer to the 
 decisions pronounced by him. — we mention the names and 
 the sees of the bishops whom he acquitted or deposed — 
 the natm'e of the discipline which he sanctioned or re- 
 proved — the eiTors and heresies which he condemned. 
 We refer to the councils in which he presided either in 
 person or by his delegates, from the time when councils 
 were first held; we produce copies of his instructions to 
 his legates, whether proceeding to the East or to the 
 West ; his confirmation or rejection of the whole or of a 
 
45 
 
 part of their procofidiiigs ; his spiritual ])reemineh('(i 
 asserted by liim, and for him, and admitted with accla-> 
 mation by all the orthodox, whether in comicil or dis- 
 persed, and never disputed ixnless by the wicked, the 
 refractory, and the rebellious — the successors of Core, 
 of Dathan, of Jannes and Mambre. We appeal to argu- 
 ment and common sense ; — -but the spirit of the great revolt 
 from the just authority established by Christ in his Church, 
 answers to us, s.aying, " obedience, that great virtue, by 
 which all were justified by one, is no more to be practised; 
 there are no longer judges in the Church, CA^ery believer is 
 to judge for himself; he who separates himself no longer 
 sins by so doing ; the man who chooses for himself, setting 
 at nought the judgment of those appointed to teach all 
 nations and rule the Church, is no longer condemned by 
 his own judgment ; no man is obliged to hear the Church, 
 as if Christ spoke through her ; every old man and silly 
 woman is now competent to decide on all controversies ; 
 a man may think on religion as he pleases, and speak as 
 he thinks, nor is there any one entitled to reprove him 
 and cast him out among the heathens. The day of gospel 
 liberty is at length arrived, we have been freed, not from 
 the yoke of Jewish observances, which neither we nor 
 our fathers could bear, and made the children of God, 
 under the dominion of Christ and of his heavenly grace, 
 but we haA'e been freed from all restraint upon our will or 
 passions, ujwn oiu- reason or fancy, and totjilly exempted 
 from all obedience to those pastors who were formerly 
 appointed to watch so as if to give to God an account of 
 our soids. We want no teacher, for the unction of God 
 teaches us all things, even the most contradictory, illusive, 
 and impious ; we may now without danger be tossed about 
 by every wind of doctrine; no unity of belief is required 
 of |is ; we need not worship at the Bame altar, nor partake 
 of tlie same sacraments, nor hear the voice of the same 
 
46 
 
 pastor; the body of Clirist has undergone a thorough 
 reformation ; it is now a mass of heterogeneous, discordant, 
 and conflicting members, the head and the foot and the 
 hand each goes its own way, and performs its own 
 function independent of tlie other ; in a word, there has 
 been a great and entire revolt from the mutual dependance, 
 the well regulated obedience, the singleness of faith, the 
 uniformity of discipline, the brotherhood of charity which 
 was originally established and prevailed. Formerly the 
 believers had but one heart and one mind, now no two of 
 them are of the same mind ; formerly all said the same 
 thing, nor were there any schisms among them, now no 
 two persons say the same thing, and schisms are multiplied 
 without end or number; formerly there was but one 
 church, one font of baptism, one altar in the town or 
 village, now there are as many churches or conventicles as 
 streets, some with, and some without an altar, some 
 having a font for baptism, others having no such means 
 of regeneration ; in this only are we all agreed, to condemn 
 the faith of our fathers, and to dissent from each other in 
 all things else. 
 
 We speak sometimes about essentials, and non-essentiah, 
 but incapable of ascertaining what should be designatea 
 by those terms, we say the Bible, and the Bible alone is 
 our religion (a tolerably sized one it must be confessed,) 
 and in its interpretation we seek only a justification of 
 discord and the condemnation of unity. 
 
 But leaving this view of the subject, painful, and at 
 the same time ludicrous, if the follies of christian men 
 could be a just subject of ridicule, let us proceed with a 
 sketch of the doctrine of antiquity relative to the supre- 
 macy of the See of Rome. The second schism at 
 Antioch, in the time of Clement, the heresy of Paul of 
 
47 
 
 Somosata in the East, tlie en*ors of the Montanists in 
 Africa, the question of the day on whicli the christian 
 passover shoukl be celebrated, tlie other relating to the 
 validity of baptism when administered by heretics or 
 persons not within the Church, each of these subjects 
 excited the zeal, or called forth the exercise of the autho- 
 rity vested in the bishop of Rome as successor of St. 
 Peter : but it was not until the persecution ceased, and 
 that the Arian controversy troubled the Church, that this 
 authority became unshackled and conspicuous. Pope 
 Sylvester, who, as Eusebius mentions, was too enfeebled 
 by age to leave his See, sent his legates to preside at the 
 councils held at Aries, at Alexandria, &c. but particularly 
 at the great, and always to be celebrated, general council 
 of Nice. 
 
 It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine what 
 number of canons were enacted at this council; in the 
 sixth, however, which is quoted in the 16th action of 
 the council of Chalcedop, either the words of the canon 
 or of the title of the canon are " Ecclesia Rmnatia semper 
 hahuit primatum — " the Roman Church always possessed 
 the primacy ;" and then the canon proceeds to recite and 
 settle the other patriarchal churches with their depen- 
 dancies. Volumes have been written to prove that the 
 above words were, or were not, a part of the canon, yet 
 the question, in truth, did not deserve more than the atten- 
 tion of critics or antiquarians, who love to dispute about 
 manuscripts rather than about what they record. Pope 
 Nicholas the First, writing to the Emperor Michael, lit. 
 8, explains the truth as to the meaning of this short sen- 
 tence wheresoever it might have been originally placed : 
 he says, " if the decrees of the Nicene synod be care- 
 fully examined, truly it will be found how that synod 
 conferred no increase (of jurisdiction or authority), on 
 
4g 
 
 the Roman Chut-ch, but rather took ah example from its 
 form or its custom as to what it (the council) assigned 
 specially to the church of Alexandria." The Pope not 
 only asserts the prerogative of his See, as established 
 anteriorly to any council, but he also shows that the 
 couucil of Nice, in giving the second place to the See of 
 Alexandria among the patriarchal churches, only copied 
 and confirmed that usage or regulation of order amongst 
 them, which the See of Rome had previously made» 
 
 The council of Constantinople, held in the same century, 
 whilst it seeks to change the order of precedence among 
 the patriarchal churches, leaves untouched, and formally 
 recognises the undisputed prerogative of Rome: this 
 council says, " let the bishop of Constantinople have the 
 honor of primacy after the bishop of Rome." So does the 
 council of Aquileia, in the same century. And now we 
 come to the t\vo great councils of Ephesus and Chalcedou 
 in the following Century, which not only show the primacy 
 of the See of Rome, but also the cause, the origin, the 
 source of that primacy ; that it was not an appendage 
 derived from the imperial city, as some innovators would 
 pretend, but a real and di\dne prerogative, derived from 
 Christ, through St. Peter, the founder of that See. 
 
 At the opening of the council of Ephesus, or in the 
 first session, sentence of deposition was passed against 
 Nestorius, in the foUoAving terms : — " compelled by the 
 sacred canons, and by the letter of our most holy lather 
 and fellow minister, Celestin, bishop of the Roman 
 Church, and shedding tears, we necessarily have come to 
 this decision against him (Nestorius)." In the letter 
 here referred to, and produced at length in the second 
 Action or Session, Celestin states : " We have directed^ 
 according to our solicitude, our brotliers and fellow 
 
49 
 
 priests, most approved men, and of one mind witli us, to 
 wit, Arcadius and Projectus, bishops, and Philip our 
 priest, to be present at the proceedings, and to carry into 
 eifect what lias been already decreed by us." Tlie matter 
 decreed by the Pope, and mentioned here, was the depo- 
 sition of Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, if he did 
 not, within ten days from the notification of the papal 
 decree, abjure his error, and promise thereafter to preach 
 the faith of the Catholic Ch urch. The Pope further com- 
 missions St. Cyril of Alexandria, to whom this decree 
 was entrusted for execution, to provide a successor to 
 Nestorius, in the church of C. P., if that Heresiarch 
 continued obstinate. 
 
 In this same session, we find the legate, Philip, 
 above mentioned, shewing cause why his master exer- 
 cised so high a jurisdiction. He required that the pro- 
 ceedings of the synod, had, previous to the arrival of 
 the legates, should be submitted anew to himself and 
 colleagues, and in doing so, uses the following words : — 
 " Your Holiness is aware that the blessed Peter is the head 
 of the entire faith (or Chiu'ch) or even of the Apostles, 
 wherefore, wo pray that you expose to us what<!ver 
 was done in this holy synod, previous to our arrival, 
 that we also confirm the proceedings, agreealjly to tlie 
 judgment of our holyPope, and of this present assembly." 
 
 In the third session, this same legate, again urges 
 the autliority of the Pope, as derived from St. Peter ; 
 his words are : " It is undoubted, nay, it is known to all 
 ages, that the holy and most blessed Petey, prince and 
 liead of the Apostles, the pillar of the faith, and the 
 foundation of the Catholic Church, received from our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of man, 
 the keys of tlie kingdom, and that the power of ])inding 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 and of loosing was jrjvcn to liim, wlio still lives, and 
 exercises judgement to the present time, and at all times, 
 in his successors." 
 
 It is not surprising, then, that tlie fathers of this council 
 Avith one voice, when passing sentence on the unhappy 
 Nestorius, cried oiit, " compelled hy tlie sacred canons, and 
 by the letter of our most holy father, Celestin, bishop of 
 the Roman Church, avc suffused in tears, have necessarily 
 come to this melancholy judgment against him." Nor can 
 any person reading those proceedings, doubt but the faith of 
 the council of Ephesus, respecting the papal jurisdiction, 
 was the same as ours at the present day ; — that the 
 decree of Celestin directed to one patriarch, to be put 
 into execution against another, and he, the bishop of 
 New Rome, was an act of authority as higli and as strong 
 as could well be exercised; — that the recognition of this 
 authority by one of the greatest and most revered councils 
 ever held in the Church, was most explicit, and that 
 the gi'ound upon which this authority, as well as all 
 the proceedings of the Pope's legates in the council, 
 rested, was expressly stated to ]>e the authority given 
 by Ciu-ist to Peter, and transmitted to his successors. 
 
 But the acts of the coimcil of Chalccdon, held in 
 451, are yet to be examined. 
 
 At the opening of this council, Paschasinus, one of 
 the legates, thus addresses the fathers assembled : — "We 
 hold in our hands the commands of the most blessed and 
 apostolic man, the Pope of the city of Rome, which is 
 the head of all the churches, by which his apostleship 
 liath vouchsafed to command that Dioscorus (the patriarch 
 of Alexandria,) should not take his seat in the council, 
 but be introduced for the purpose of l)eing heard. It is 
 
51 
 
 necesary to observe either let him withdraw or we 
 
 shall depart." Lucentiiis, the A'icar of the apostolic see, said 
 " he (Dioscorns) must necessarily shew cause wliy ho 
 judged, whereas when he had not a right to judge, he pre- 
 sumed to do so, and dared to liold a council without the 
 authority of the apostolic sec, which wsis never lawful — 
 which never has been done." 
 
 In tlie second session, tlie letter of S. Leo Pope was 
 read, and according to the acts of the council, " the most 
 revei'end bishops cried out, this is the faith of the fathers ; 
 this the faith of the Apostles, we all believe thus, so the 
 orthodox believe ; whosoever does not believe so, let him 
 be anathema, Peter hath spoken by Leo ; so the Apostles 
 taught." 
 
 In the third session, Paschasinus and the other legates 
 said, " Leo, the most holy, and most blessed bishop of the 
 gi-eat and older Rome, by us, and by the present holy 
 sjniod, together with the most blessed, and always most 
 praise-worthy Peter the Apostle, wlio is the rock and the 
 oracle of the Catholic Cluirch, and the foundation of the 
 true faith, hath stripped him (Dioscorns) of the dignity of 
 the episcopacy, and excluded him from all sacerdotal 
 functions." 
 
 In the fourtli sessicm, all the most reverend bishops 
 cried out, " wliy do not they (the Egj^ptian bishops,) 
 anathematize the Dogma of Eutychcs ? let tlicm subscribe 
 to the letter of Leo, anathematizing Eutyches and his 
 opinions." 
 
 In the fifth session, when some parti/ans of Eutyches 
 had created a faction in the city, and hesitated to subscribe 
 to his condemnation, tlie legates use the following lan- 
 
 d2 
 
guage, " tliey wlio oppose and do not subscribe, let tliera 
 walk away (or to Rome) whereas we have consented to 
 tlie decrees, and have not in any thing opposed them. And 
 t}ie most reverend Bishops of Illyricum said, they who 
 contradict, let them appear openly ; they who do so, let 
 them go to Rome." 
 
 When the council had terminated its labours, and it 
 had been declared, among other things, that all primacy and 
 chief honor belonged to the bishop of Rome, the fathers 
 entreat of Pope Leo, in the following words, to confirm 
 and perfect their proceedings by his decree and consent, 
 *' we pray you (Leo) therefore, that you honor our judg- 
 ment by yoiu* decrees, and as we have agreed with our 
 head in what was good, so in like manner let your supre- 
 macy complete for your children what is becoming, sic et 
 summitas tuajiliis quod decet adimpleat." 
 
 I have selected those few passages from the acts of 
 councils holden in the Eastern or Greek Church, composed 
 almost exclusively of bishops residing outside the western 
 patriarchate, which v/as -iv.f^vQ closely still connected with 
 the Pope, and more faithful at all times in adhering to the 
 apostolic doctrine, and to that centre of union by which it 
 is preserved. I have referred to tliose councils, because 
 they are admitted as general and orthodox by all ; because 
 matters of the greatest moment were discussed and decided 
 in them, such as dog^nas of faith, and the guilt or inno- 
 cence, not of ordinary individuals, or bishops, but of two 
 great patriarchs, the one of Constantinople, the other of 
 Alexandria ; I have referred to them, as to large mirrors, 
 through Avhich may be clearly seen the faith and dis- 
 cipline of that pure and primitive Church, which sectaries 
 pretend to revere; and introduced them as the deposi- 
 taries of the doctrine which prevailed throughout all the 
 
53 
 
 orthodox clmrches of the then Christian work! ; — as hoflics 
 of pastors and doctors declaring, not by tlicir hmguage 
 alone, but by their conduct, on the most important 
 occasion which could occur, that the Pope of Rome was 
 the successor of Peter, and, as such, the head of the 
 whole Chm-ch, possessing the right to preside in synods 
 wheresoever held, to giA^e judgment in matters of faith, 
 whether provisionally or finally, and to try, punish, or 
 acquit the most exalted of his colleagues. 
 
 I was about to cite, as in the case of Peter's sujn*emacy, 
 the testimony of the ancient Fathers, Greek and Latin, in 
 support of the doctrine maintained at Nice, Ejdiesus 
 and Chalcedon, but I find those preliminary observations 
 have already extended to a greater length than I anti- 
 cipated. The opinions on this subject of SS. Ircneus, 
 Dennis of Alexandria, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazian- 
 zen, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, of Throderet, all Greeks : — 
 and of the Latins, Tertullian, SS. Cyprian, Ambrose, 
 Jerome, Optatus, Augnstin, Fulgent; of Vincent of 
 Lerins, and the others up to St. Bernard inclusive, may 
 be read, in any of our books of theoloy ; so that as far 
 as human testimony can add security and stability to a 
 right evidently founded on the power, and wisdom, and will 
 of Christ — a right essential to the preservation of unity in 
 the faith and integrity in the Church — a right confirmed 
 by an undisturbed, how-often-soever-assailed possession 
 of eighteen centuries, so far is the spiritual supremacy, 
 and no other, of the Pope eminently supported and se- 
 cured ; so far is the Church of Rome, the head and 
 mistress of all other churches, the depositary of christian 
 truth, the guardian of discipline, and the centre of unity, 
 to which, in the language of Irenaius, all the faithful, 
 wheresoever dispersed, should come in christian harmony 
 and with one accord. Nor can we more appropriately 
 
54. 
 
 conclude tliose few general observations on the nature 
 and doctrine and discipline of the Catholic Church, whose 
 authority is so reviled by furious men, than with the 
 following striking passage, extracted from the Pastoral 
 Instructions, addressed, in 1 824, by all the Irish Catholic 
 Bisliops to their flocks. These prelates instructing the Ca- 
 tholics of Ireland, observes, " but above all, to protect you 
 against those men who are erring and driving into error, 
 you have the infallible testimony of the Church of God, 
 which Jesus Christ appointed the depository of his doctrine, 
 to preserve it, to explain it, to teach it, promising lier 
 that she would always be animated and diiected by the 
 Holy Ghost, and that he himself would be constantly 
 assisting her till the end of time ; that the gates of hell 
 would never prevail against this bidwark, which, as an 
 Apostle says, ' is the pillar and foundation of religion and 
 truth.'* The Redeemer foresaw how great woxdd be 
 the inconstancy, the rashness, the pride, tlie rebellion of 
 the mind of man, and that many even of tliose who would 
 venerate the holy Scriptures^, would, in searching into 
 their depths, loose the anchor of faith, see vain things, 
 and prophecy lies, saying and persevering to say, ' the 
 Lord speaketh,' when, as Ezekiel saith, ' the Lord had 
 not sent them.' f He foresaw that such men would 
 create dissensions, bring in sects and broach heresies, 
 would oppose authority, contradict the truth, fluctuate in 
 a chaos of unsettled opinions, be tossed about by every 
 wind of doctrine, condemn each other, and yet all cry out, 
 ' so saith tlie Lord, ait Dominis, whilst they all rejected 
 what the Lord had said. He foresaw that these sects, 
 turbulent and licentious, known, and scarcely known, by 
 
 * John, ch. 14. v. 16, 17. Mattli. 16. v. 18. 1 Tim.ch. 3. v. 15. 
 t Ez. ch. 13. V. 6. 
 
55 
 
 the names of their founders, would })reak the unify of his 
 mystic body, wliich is tlie Church, and of which he liini- 
 self is the Head ; of tliat Church which has hut one Faith, 
 as she has but one Saviour, one Baptism, and one 
 Lord ; and hence it was tliat he vested in her an infallible 
 authority, which, like a light always shining, could 
 dissipate the darkness of error, remove every doubt, 
 interpret faithfully the Word of God, and conduct man- 
 kind into the haven of truth and salvation. And where 
 can this Church be found, unless it be she which Avas built 
 on the Apostles, wiiich received from them tlic true sense 
 and meaning of the Scriptures, and which, at her very 
 commencement, decided tlie disputes and settled the doubts 
 which arose amongst the faithful, whilst the Holy Ghost 
 dictated her decision ; ' it hath seemed good to the Holy 
 Ghost and to us.' * 
 
 " Where can this Church be found, if it be not she 
 from that time to the present has subsisted, and been 
 governed by an uninterrupted succession of pastors ?— she 
 who was alv/ays unchangeable in her faith and morality, 
 and who, like her divine Founder, was yesterday, is to-day 
 and Avill be alwa!ys the same till the consummation of sffesr 
 that Church., which, amongst all the sects which have 
 sprung up about her, or proceed from her bosom, has 
 always, as the pagan Celsus testifies, been known by the 
 name of the great Church ; — that Ciiurch which has 
 condemned all other Churches, which, like withered 
 branches, were lopped off from the ancient and liA'ing tnink, 
 whose root is Christ ; that Church which has triumphed 
 over so many jjersecutions excited agairist her by the Jews, 
 by the pagans, by the impious, by all the enemies of her 
 doctrine ; a Church always assailed and never conquered 1 
 
 * Acts, cli, 15. V. 8. 
 
56 
 
 In a word, where can this Chm-ch he found, if it he not 
 she which is extended throughout the entire world, which 
 alone is one, Avhich alone can glory in the title of Ca- 
 tholic — a title which she has borne from' the apostolic 
 times, Avhich her enemies themselves concede to her, and 
 which, if arrogated by any of them, serves only to expose 
 their shame. 
 
 " In this Church, dearly beloved brethern, you possess 
 the fountain of all true knowledge, and the tribunal where 
 God himself presides. He speaks to you by the mouths 
 of all her pastors, whom, Avhen you hear, you hear him. * 
 Never deviate from her decisions, they are the decisions of 
 the Holy Ghost, who governs her, and always preserves 
 the purity of her doctrine. Never attend to any voice but 
 to her's, she is the tender mother who has brought you 
 forth, who has nursed you in her bosom, fed you with 
 milk from her breasts in your infancy, and now furnishes 
 you with strong food. She watches unceasingly over the 
 deposit of the faith which has been confided to her by her 
 heavenly spouse ; she is always armed against every error, 
 against every impiety, always shining in the midst of 
 the disorder and confusion of this world, like the morning 
 star fi'om the midst of the clouds, to direct her children 
 in the ways of truth and salvation. Watch, therefore, we 
 again beseech you by the mercy of God, remain firm, do 
 not fall from your stedfastness, be constant in the faith ; 
 repel with meekness, but with the zeal of God, all the 
 assaults of those who would seduce you ; be strengthened 
 and animated with the aid of divine grace against all the 
 ungodly, against all enthusiasts and impostors, ivatch^ stand 
 in tJiefaithi act manfully, and be comforted. 1 Cor. ch. 16. 
 V. 13." 
 
 * Luc. 10. V, IG. 
 
57 
 
 We have at length come to " The Charge." I shall 
 break it up into propositions and refute them as I proceed. 
 The order of my proceeding will not be exactly the same 
 as that adopted by the Archbishop. I shall commence Avith 
 those propositions of his Grace which are seemingly most 
 important ; the first of wliich is, 
 
 " The doctrine of Infallibility shuts out doubt and ex- 
 tinguishes enquiry." 
 
 This proposition is not true in the sense in which it is 
 announced. The doctrine of Infallibility does shut out 
 doubt, but not until due investigation and enquiry have 
 been made ; then it shuts out doubt, and so it ought, 
 for otherwise, the faithful, tossed about by every wind of 
 doctrine, would never, all of them, say the same thing. 
 There would be schisms among them, contrary to the com- 
 mand of the Apostle. If doubt were not excluded, the 
 belief of the Christian would not be immoveable as it 
 ought to be, nor would faith be, as St. Paul defines it, 
 the foundation or substance of things hoped for — the argu- 
 ment — the proof — the immoveable certainty of those 
 things which do not appear. Wlien the Apostles as- 
 sembled at Jerusalem, issued their decree respecting 
 the non-necessity of the Jewish rites, and did so, 
 saying, " it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and 
 to us" were not doubts excluded ? even the Archbishop 
 will admit that they were, or should have been, yet the 
 same text informs us, that this decision was not come to 
 until after " a great enquiry had been made." Hence, it 
 appears clearly, and by a precedent not to be questioned, 
 that there may be an infallible tribunal — a tribunal whose 
 decision excludes all doubt, and yet the decision be per- 
 fectly compatible, not only with enquiry, but with " great 
 enquiry." 
 
58 
 
 The question licre is not wlictlier tlic successors of the 
 Apostles enjoy a power to judge in matters disputed on in 
 tho Church, as their predecessors did ; we do not here 
 enquire, whether those pastors whom the Holy Ghost 
 appointed and appoints to rule the Church— to keep the 
 people from being tossed about by every ^vind of doc- 
 trine — the \'ictims of that cunning craftiness which lies in 
 wait to deceive them, — we do not now examine whether 
 Christ be with those pastors, teaching till the end of the 
 world, or whether the Holy Ghost abides Avith them when 
 they vindicate the truth, and eject the obstinate sinner from 
 the Church; no, the only enquiry wliich " the Charge" 
 forces upon us is, whether there can be an infallible tribu- 
 nal, whether such tribunal ought, or ought not, to " shut 
 out doubt," and whether the shutting out of doubt by a 
 regular decision, " extinguishes all enquiry." Tliis is the 
 question ; and, in reply, a case is made out, in which, even 
 Doctor Magee Mall admit, that Infallibility and enquu'y 
 are found united. 
 
 There can be no ])eace in any community, no order 
 preserved in any shiurch or state, unless there be tri- 
 bunals established to ^^^hich existing differences may 
 be referred for decision ; and if those differences relate U> 
 the truths which compose the Christian religion, it is 
 quite impossible to put an end to them, or quiet the minds 
 of the disputants, unless the decision be exempt from error. 
 Faith is not faith if the believers hesitate in doubt, for he 
 who doubts is already an unbeliever. It therefore, obvi- 
 ously and necessarily follows, that if God willed that we 
 should believe what he has revealed, he should either 
 reveal his will so clearly, as that no doubts could arise with 
 regard to its meaning, which he has not done ; or he should 
 only require of us to adopt such meaning of it as appeared 
 to us most probable — a supposition incompatible with the 
 
59 
 
 nature of fuitli ; or, lastly, he slioukl give us a tribunal 
 authorised to decide — so as not only to put an end to dis- 
 putes and preserve order in the Church, hut also which, by 
 its decision, would exclude all doubt, whereas doubt cannot 
 co-exist with faith. The existence then of an infallible 
 authority in the Church is not a matter of secondary im- 
 port, or one on which different opinions may be enter- 
 tained ; it is so necessary, that without it, revelation being 
 such as it is, the Church could not exist, nor faitli continue 
 on the earth. Without this authority, the Christian reli- 
 gion, from its very commencement, would have degenerated 
 into a system of human philosophy, and private opinion 
 would have taken the place of divine faiih in the minds 
 of men. This is the result of the rejection of Chiu-ch 
 authority throughout the Protestant Churches of France, 
 Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. (See 
 App-ondix, No. I.) 
 
 It is most afflicting, therefore, to find a Christian bishop 
 denounce to the world the great and only stay of Chris- 
 tianity as a supernatural religion, and appeal to the pride 
 of the human heart, to the fondest and strongest prejudices 
 of our nature, against the mysterious but wise economy 
 of our faith. If the Avisdom of this world were not folly 
 with God, if he had not rejected the prudence of the pru- 
 dent, and the wisdom of the Avise, in order to save men by 
 the folly of the cross, then it might be reasonable to appeal 
 to human pride, to aAvahe the passions, and rally them in 
 opposition to the authority established by tlic Redeemer, 
 
 Who, says the writer of the Charge, will submit himself 
 to authority ? Let every creature, says St. Paul, be sub- 
 ject to the higher powers. Who, says this Archbishop, 
 will relinquish the right of private judgment ? Tlie arms 
 of our warfare, cries out an Apostle, are not carnal, but 
 
Co 
 
 jwwerful of God, unto the pulling downi of every strong 
 liokl — destroying counsels and every heigtli tliat exaltetli 
 itself agaidst the kncnvledge of God, and bringing into 
 captivity every understanding to the obedience of Christ. 
 Wlio, says his Grace of Dublin, will submit to the deci- 
 sions of fallible men ? " As my Father sent me, says Christ, 
 so I send you ; going, therefore, teach all nations, and lo, 
 I am with you aU daps, even to the consummation of the 
 world ; whosoever hears you hears me, and whosoever 
 despises you, despises me and the Father who sent me." 
 
 Shall the high-minded and enlightened people of this 
 country submit to the decrees of any Church, says this 
 Christian prelate. If any one do not hear the Church says 
 Christ, let him be to thee as an heathen and a publican, for 
 that Church is founded on a rock ; or, as St. Paul describes 
 her, she is the pillar and immoveable ground or foundation 
 of truth. 
 
 How can fallible men, exclaims the author of the Charge, 
 arrogate to themselves the prerogative of infallibilty. Fear 
 not little flock, says Christ, because it hath pleased your 
 Father to give to you a kingdom. I will send unto you 
 the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, he will teach you all truth, 
 and will suggest unto you all things whatsover I will ha^e 
 said to you. 
 
 Follow our Church, says this Protestant bishop; and 
 here we recognise the language of Manes, Valentinian, &c. 
 as mentioned by Tertullian. But his Grace says, follow 
 our Church, which leaves you at liberty to think on reli- 
 gion as you please, and speak as you think. Shun 
 those, says an Apostle, who promise you liberty, but 
 who are themselves the slaves of corruption. Choose your 
 own religion, exclaims Doctor Magee. An heretical man, 
 
61 
 
 or a chooser of lils own religion, says St. Paul, after a firfef. 
 and second admonition, shun, knowing that such a man is 
 subverted or cast down from the rock of faith, that he sins 
 and is coademned hy his ov.n judgment. Wiio is the pope 
 or council, exclaims this learned prelate, that we Protes- 
 tants should regard them ? " Know also, says St.Paul, that 
 in the last days shall come on dangerous times — men shall 
 be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blas- 
 phemers, without peace, slanderers, having an appearance 
 of godliness, but denying tlie power thereof; now these 
 avoid, as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these also 
 resist the truth. Be mindful, says another Apostle, of the 
 words which have been spoken before by the Apostles of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, who told you that in the last times, 
 there should come mockers walking according to their own 
 desires in luigodlines : these are they which separate 
 THEMSELVES. Biit you, my beloved, building yoursehes 
 upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Gliost, 
 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life everlasting." These 
 latter words are the words constantly addressed to the 
 Catholics of Ireland by their pastors. 
 
 These repeated appeals which I liave noticed to the pas- 
 sions and pride of the world, are opposed to the spirit and 
 essence of the Christian religion, every principle on which 
 the author of them builds, is expressly denounced as vicious 
 and anticlnistian by our Lord and his Apostles. He who 
 employs them, assails in common with the wild enthusiasts 
 who infest this country, the authority estaldished in the 
 gospel for the government of God's people, and passing by 
 the terms of the new covenant, he endeavours to mould and 
 fashion the Christian religion, not according to the original 
 shewn to us in tlie gospel, but according to tiie model pre- 
 sented to his view by some of the worst men who ever 
 
62 
 
 disgraced tlie church of God. The Archbisliop lias, in the 
 exhibition of his system, played upon the ])assions and pre- 
 judices which prevail in this country — he has left unnoticed 
 the nature and form of the Christian dispensation, the divine 
 authority given to Peter, the Apostles, and their successors 
 for ever — he has rejected all the precedents which the con- 
 demnaton of heresy for eighteen hundred years, presented 
 to him — he has substituted opinion for faith — he has annid « 
 led as far as in him lay, the three creeds, and set at nought 
 that article of two of them which teaches every Christian 
 to believe in the Church, to believe that she exists, that she 
 administers rightly the ordinances of Christ, and teaches 
 his truths without error. He has done all this, and why ? 
 that he might vent his spleen upon an unoffending people — 
 that he might perpetuate dissensions amongst brethern — 
 
 that he miglit sustain a character, and justify that 
 
 volume of incolierent contradictory and discreditable tes- 
 timony, which he once delivered against the creed and 
 the rights of his countrymen. He did all this to uphold 
 a religious system, which is supported beyond its deserts, 
 by private interest and public law, but which, in itself, 
 is incoherent and inconsistent. 
 
 Yes, for what can merit those epithets better than that 
 system, the fruit of necessity and error, which sanctions 
 heresy and coridemns it, Avliich invites to schism, and 
 punishes it, which tells tha believer to hear the Church, 
 and teaches him to prefer his own opinion, however mons- 
 trous and absurd, to her morst solemn judgments ? Wliy 
 a Church, thus constituted, is incoherent and inconsistent, 
 a hulk throAvn upon the waters, Avithout helm or compass. 
 The " furious error" of those few men who founded such 
 a Church, and founded her as they did, after seperating 
 themselves from the whole vrorld, is one of those appalling 
 judgments of Almighty God, whereby he shews the utter 
 
impotence of liuman wisdom .ind power, and the absolute 
 necessity of Lis own lieavenly ^-ace. It is tliis " furious 
 en-or," supported by a few men, corrupted in mind, and 
 having^ their consciences seared as with a hot iron, wliich 
 drives tlie multitude into infidelity or cntlmsiasm. It is for 
 this multitude, thus deceived and abused, that I lament ; a 
 multitude which seeks for bread, and finds no one to break 
 it to them, Avhilst infected with error from their very infan- 
 cy, they are taught to blaspheme what they do not know, and 
 to resist that authority which they should love and revere. 
 In all question of private right, or public interest, men 
 almost instinctively enquire, reason, discuss ; the judge or 
 the legislative body, wheresoever it resides, examines, with 
 a care and attention proportioned to the magnitude or 
 difficulty of the matter before them, whatever can contri- 
 bute to assist them in framing a wise law or pronounc- 
 ing an equitable decision ; but the law once enacted, 
 the final judgment once pronounced, does any rational man 
 refuse obedience to the one, or submission to the other ? 
 If then the impulse of our nature, the plainest dictate of 
 reason, teach us in society how disputes are to be termi- 
 nated, order preserved, and the public interests promoted, 
 or secured, — whence the fatuity or blindness of the " furious 
 men," wlio say that in the city or house of God there is to 
 be no tribunal, competent to decide definitively ? that in 
 the kingdom of Christ there is to be no legislative power 
 which Christians would be bound to obey ? 
 
 Experience may indeed shew that the law of the state was 
 not wise, or that it was susceptible of improvement, and then 
 a new law is enacted, or the former amended or repealed. 
 This also is precisely what occurs in the Church with regard 
 to all things in it which are susceptible of improvement or 
 liable to change. But as to wliat regards that portion of 
 the sacred deposit whicli the Church cannot alter, diminish, 
 
64 
 
 or enci'easo — tliat faith wliicli was committed to her pastors, 
 that they miglit guard and preserve, hut not alter it: — when 
 questions or disputes touching this faith arise, the pastors 
 of the Church, like all other judges, enquire, investigate, and 
 then decide; their decisions, like the decisions of all tribu- 
 nals, must he as numerous as the cases in which judgment 
 is required of them : hence, new decisions, new expositions 
 of the law ; hence new, more full, clear, comprehensive 
 and explicit definitions of the one unchanged and unchange- 
 able faith. Thus we find the creed called of the Apostles ex- 
 plained at Nice, that framed at Nice, amplified at Constanti- 
 nople, that of Constantinnple, rendered after the lapse of 
 ages, more explicit, by the adoption of the woxAjilioque. But 
 these explanations are not variations, the fruit of un- 
 fiixedness, as has been insinuated, but they are, as St. Basil, 
 and Vincent of Leriiis describes them, the unfolding of the 
 same seed of faith, the developement of the same unvary- 
 ing truth. 
 
 In framing laws of discipline, or any other laws which 
 do not affect the deposit of faith, those pastors whom the 
 Holy Ghost appointed to rule the Church, act agreeably to 
 what nature and reason prescribe to be done in every well 
 ordered community, by those who are charged with the 
 rule or government of it ; but when disputes which regard 
 the faith arise, they who arc commissioned to teach all 
 nations, who are the authorized ministers of Christ, 
 proceed, as all other judges in the last resort, do; — 
 they decide u}>on the law, and declare its sense, and thus 
 put an end to litigation. If these pastors be charged, as 
 they are untruly and unjustly charged, with excluding all 
 enquiry, they have only to refer, in their o\vn justification, 
 to the numberless councils held in the Church, wherein 
 her laws have been altered, amended or rej)ealcd. If they 
 be asked, wliy they presume to give judgment on tlie 
 
05 
 
 disputes which arise amongst those who arc to learn tlie 
 law from their lips, as the prophet expresses it, their only 
 answer is : — that they have been appoijited by the Holy 
 Ghost to rule the Chm'ch, to heal divisions, to preserve 
 order, to promote peace, to keep the subjects of Clirist's 
 kingdom united in one body, having one heart and one 
 mind, — in order that all who are of that body may say the 
 same thing, and that no schisms or heresies (vices which 
 exclude from heaven) may exist among them. If the 
 nature or extent of the authority which they exercise be 
 enquired of them, they reply : — -that it is commensurate 
 with the kingdom of Christ, that it is totally and entu'ely 
 independant of earthly power, that it is proportioned to 
 the nature and importance of the subjects about which it 
 is exercised, and that the commission containing it is 
 written in the Gospel, recorded in the councils, secui'ed 
 by immemorial possession, published by all history, and 
 never disputed or denied, unless by the blind or the dis- 
 obedient — ^by those men who either walk in the darkness 
 of infidelity and the shade of death, or Avho, separating 
 themselves, and condemned by their own judgment, have 
 refused to hear it, and been therefore cast out among the 
 heathens and publicans. If it be enquired why they, weak 
 and fallible men, pretend that their decisions are exempt 
 from error, their answer is ; — we are weak and ignorant, 
 and insufficient to think any" thing of ourselves, as if from 
 ourselves ; but all our sufficiency is from God. Let men 
 consider us, when assembled in the name of Christ, as his 
 ministers, discharging an embassy for him, as if God 
 exhorted or instructed his people through us. As the potter 
 out of the same clay can make one vessel to honor, and 
 another to shame, so the Almighty hath been pleased to 
 take from the common mass of human infirmity, the weak 
 and infirm of this world, and by them to confound the 
 
G6 
 
 wise and the strong, that no flesh miglxt glory in his sight ; 
 he took tlie taxgatherer and tlie humble fishermen, and 
 gave to them the power of establishing the Church — of 
 teaching all nations, promising to be with them all days, 
 even till the end of time ; he selected one of these and 
 made him the foundation after hhnself, on which his 
 Church should be raised ; he confided to him, as the just 
 reward of his extraordinary faith and love, the care of his 
 entire flock ; he gave to him the pov/er of binding and 
 loosing on the earth ; he prayed for him that his faith, 
 however shaken, might not fail, but that, did he happen 
 to fall, he should again arise, and confirm his brethren. 
 Against the Church to be formed by those men he en- 
 gaged, that all the powers of darkness — the powers of 
 earth or hell should not prevail, until he would return to 
 separate the just from the wicked, and complete the work 
 for which he had first descended to the earth. 
 
 We, in union with our Head, are the successors of those 
 men ; for eighteen hundred years, we exhibit a regular and 
 uninterrupted succession ; during that time we have 
 preached the Gospel tliroughout every tongue almost, and 
 people, and nation upon the earth ; we have stood together, 
 ■whilst the earth has been moved and shaken, empire trans- 
 ferred from nation to nation, and thrones crumbled in the 
 dust. We have been assailed by dangers from a])road, and 
 terrors from witliin ; our own children have often raised 
 their heel against us, and in the midst of peace, our 
 bitterness has often been most bitter. The calumnies and 
 persecutions whicli beset our Divine Master, have ever 
 been employed against the entire or some portion of our 
 body; those who should support us have often deserted or 
 defamed us, but, he who first sent us, has remained with 
 us, and supported us in every tribulation. We pretend to 
 nought that has not been given to us, we were entrusted 
 
67 
 
 with tlie care of that divine faith which is one and indi- 
 visible, without which it is impossible to please God, and 
 by which the just man livelh ; to preach and to preserve 
 this faith is our office and duty : — the code, in which the 
 doctrines which express this faith is contained, has been 
 confided to us ; about the meaning of this code, and of 
 the truths contained in it, Christians often differ and 
 dispute; we are appointed to settle those disputes, 
 because we are appointed to instruct and to rule the 
 Church, and to give an account to God, of the souls of 
 those who are called to believe in Christ. Were our deci- 
 sions not final, we would not be competent to fulfil the 
 duties imposed on us by our Heavenly Master, to punish 
 the refractory, to reject the heretic, to preserve the unity 
 of the Church. Were our decisions regarding the doc- 
 trines of faith not exempt from error, there could be 
 scarcely any faith remaining on the earth ; for there is no 
 doctrine touching it revealed by Christ, which the malice 
 or folly of men has not assailed. Were our decisions not 
 conclusive, what could put an end to doubts, to anxieties 
 and distrust ? or, how would any doctrine from that which 
 Paul of Somosata, or Ai'ius assailed, down to the most 
 seemingly unimportant which has ever been disputed in 
 the Church, be finally and irrevocably determined ? and, 
 if not finally and irrevocably determined, how could the 
 belief in any sucli doctrine, so brought into doubt, or dis- 
 cussion, ever be held on any other ground than that of 
 individual judgment or opinion ? 
 
 But if the belief of, or faith in any doctrine expressed in the 
 code of revelation, restedon individual judgment, itwouldno 
 longer rest on the authority of God ; for he who thinks that 
 he finds the divinity of Christ rcAcalcd in the Scripture, 
 may not be wiser in the knowledge of this world, than he 
 who thinks that no sucli truth is there expressed. The 
 
 e2 
 
68 
 
 o])inion, tlicreforo, wliieli the one and tlie other of tliose two 
 j)ersons is supposed to hold, is only an opinion^ the fruit of 
 their respective judgments exercised upon the law. Such 
 an opinion in tlie one or the other is not that Christian 
 faith, without which, it is impossible to please God, and 
 by which the just man liveth. This faith, according to the 
 Apostle, is a gift of God, given to the believer for the 
 sake of Christ ; it is the substance or foundation of things 
 hoped for, infused or placed in the soul of man, by the im- 
 mediate operation of the Holy Ghost, and often, as in in- 
 fants, without his active concurrence. It is again, as St. 
 Paul repeats it, the argument or proof of those things which 
 do not appear in this life — an argument or proof, not de- 
 rived from our judgment, but emanating from that hea- 
 venly light and wisdom, which the spii'it of God imparts. 
 Whosoever, therefore, believes any truth of the Gospel, 
 by the mere force or power of his own judgment exercised 
 upon the law, he may have an opinion or a conviction of 
 such truth, but such opinion or conviction is not that 
 divine faith, which is the root of all justification, and 
 without which, no man can please God, nor be a living 
 member of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Not so in the Catholic Church, where, with baptism, 
 the gift of faith is infused by God into the soul, and when 
 the law, or revelation, or doctrines, expressive of this faith, 
 and explanatory of the objects or truths Avhich it regards, 
 are presented to the Catholic by the testimony and autho- 
 rity of the Church, he assents to them as to the very Avord 
 of God, and he assents to them, not by the mere power of 
 his OAvn will or judgment examining and approving of 
 them, but by the power of the Holy Ghost, enlightening 
 his understanding and guiding his Avill, which, through 
 faith, worketh in him — his belief and his assent are, there- 
 fore, altogether divine. 
 
69 
 
 Supposing, that afterwards, any of those truths or doc- 
 trines which he thus believes by a supernatural faith, is 
 through his own infii'mity or malice, or through the infir- 
 mity or malice of others, brought into doubt, he goes up 
 to the place which the Lord hath chosen, and to those 
 judges, who for the time being expound the divine revela- 
 tion or doctrines of faith, he receives their testimony and 
 judgment on the true meaning of the law; his doubt ceases, 
 and he believes, as he first believed, in virtue of the faith 
 infused into him by the Holy Ghost. The Church, whose 
 authority is altogether divine, and which authority is vest- 
 ed in those appointed to teach and rule the people of God, 
 exercises, in giving her judgment, no power over the law ; 
 her only business in such cases, is to declare with autho- 
 rity its true meaning, and, if necessary, to enforce her own 
 rightful decision, by excluding such as would not submit 
 to it from all participation in her communion. She ex- 
 pels them from within her pale, and places them without 
 amongst the unbelievers. In deciding the doubts of her 
 children, she will, if necessary, make great enquiry amongst 
 the wise and the learned, and throughout all the churches ; 
 for such is the will of God, who disposes all things sweetly, 
 and such is the precedent established by the Apostles, and 
 followed in all past ages ; but having made this enquiry, 
 she hesitates no longer, she decides and decides irrevo- 
 cably, knowing that the spirit of truth is abiding with her, 
 and that Christ himself is assisting her pastors, guarding 
 liis own gifts, and protecting his own doctrine. 
 
 The Catholic who receives her decision on the meaning 
 of the law, leans not upon his own nor upon any other hu- 
 man judgment ; he believes the word revealed by God, he 
 believes it not by the deceitfnl light which his own reason 
 may shed upon it, but by the faith or gift infused into him 
 by the Holy Ghost, and he lays aside the doubts which 
 
70 
 
 malice or infirmity suggested to him, because tlie Church, 
 whicli cannot fail, has borne testimony and pronounced her 
 judgment for him as to the true meaning of the law. His 
 faith is uniform, pure, unmixed with human pride or self- 
 sufficiency, Avhilst the unhappy beings who confide in theii' 
 own judgment are lost in their own inventions, always learn- 
 ing, as the Apostle says, but never coming to the knowledge 
 of the truth. They continue tossed about by every wind of 
 doctrine, until, haAdng suiFered shipAVTeck as to the faith, 
 they sink into infidelity or are lost in enthusiasm. They 
 may call their opinions faith, and their morality by the 
 name of religion, but that faith ^vhich is the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost, has departed from them from the moment 
 that private judgment became the ground ot their belief, 
 whilst their \drtues are no longer those living works which 
 are to be rewarded with eternal life. 
 
 Such is the account we give of our authority — such is the 
 nature of our office — such the indefeasable right we possess 
 to give judgment in questions of religion, to preserve the de- 
 posit of the faith, and to secure against all doubt and error 
 the people of God, and the religion of our Redeemer upon 
 the earth. Let no man despise our weakness, for it is not we 
 wlio teach or determine, but the grace of God with us. Let 
 no man upbraid us with the infirmity of a few of our bre- 
 thren, for though they had been but as the Scribes and Pha- 
 risees who sat upon the chair of Moses, yet were they of the 
 body commissioned to teach all nations and to rule the church 
 of God which he acquired with his blood. If worldly power 
 or a spirit of ambition sometimes infected the sanctuary, 
 there was always within it a holy fire capable of purifying it 
 from all corruption. If they who were commissioned to rule 
 and teach in a kingdom not of this world, were often led by 
 events to accept of or assume authority in states or king- 
 doms not thcii- own, impute the fault or the misfortune to 
 
71 
 
 human passion or interest, to ignorance, want or necessity, 
 but do not charge it to the account of a divine institution, 
 the only stay and safeguard of the Church of Christ. Let 
 the legislator or the judge who exceeded his poAver or autho- 
 rity, be acquitted or condemned by the voice of his fellow- 
 men, but let not the power with which he was vested or the 
 authority which he abused be annulled or rejected. If our 
 predecessors have enacted laws or given judgment conjoint- 
 ly with others, in matters which were for ages mixed to- 
 gether, but now are no longer confounded, do not impute 
 to the pastor the act of the baron, or to the successor of 
 Peter the proceedings of the arbiter of empires. Above all, 
 be careful to discern the laws of church discipline, which 
 are always mutable or changing, from decisions which re- 
 gard only the unalterable deposit of the faith, nor again 
 suffer the opinions or doctrines freely maintained or reject- 
 ed by individuals or bodies amongst Catholics, to bo taken 
 as the doctrines or opinions of the Church. Whatever is 
 contrary to the faith or morality of the gospel, the Church 
 of Christ does not, believes not, suffers not ; but unity being 
 pi'eserved in what is defined, and cliarity prevailing through- 
 out her members, she leaves to all the liberty of discussing 
 what is doubtful, and of investigating whatever is hidden 
 or obscure. 
 
 If infallibility then shuts out doubt, such was the will of 
 the Redeemer, such is the necessary effect of the authority 
 which he established, such is the prerogative required to 
 exist on earth if faith is to be preserved, schisms prevent- 
 ed, and heresies condemned ; such in fine is the result 
 necessarily flowing from the promises made and the com- 
 mission given by Jesus Christ. If enquiry be excluded, it 
 is only after the final decision is pronounced, and if not 
 then excluded, there would not be unity, nor peace, nor 
 charity, uor humility, nor obedience, nor order, nor bar- 
 
72 • 
 
 mony in the Church. The kingdom of Christ would be 
 like the congregations of sectaries throughout tlie earth, 
 concurring only in their opposition to the truth, and ha- 
 tred of the authority which condemns them all, but dissent- 
 ing from each other, anathematizing each otlier, asserting 
 and denying, condemning and pardoning, speaking Avith 
 the tongues of Babel, and verifying by their whole lives 
 and opinions, all that has been foretold of sects and here- 
 sies by the Apostle. 
 
 But, to proceed with the Charge ; " whilst from the belief 
 that out of the particular communion there is no salvation, 
 not only is the adlierent of that faith bound to cling to it 
 with a blind and desperate fidelity, but if he be influenced 
 by an ardent love of his fellow-creatures, he is impelled 
 by humanity itself to force others by whatever means with- 
 in its pale." In this sentence or paragraph, there are two 
 propositions — the first designates, in the language of Grattan, 
 (strangely perverted by the learned prelate) as blind and 
 desperate the fidelity with which the Catholic preserves the 
 faith once delivered to the saints. The second insinuates 
 clearly enough that the Catholic must, in proportion to the 
 goodness of his nature and the ardour of his charity, be 
 a persecutor of all who diifer from him in religious belief. 
 This latter idea is again a second time introduced ; for he 
 who conceived it, filled with antipopisli zeal, hesitates not 
 at a superfluity of language or repetition of thought. He 
 says, speaking of the great variety of sects which have 
 grown up beneath the shelter or protection of the esta- 
 blished church, " that they are an evil which the coercive 
 system opposed to protestantism is able by a very summary 
 process effectually to correct." 
 
 And first, in reply to those most harsh imputations, 
 permit me to observe, that the fidelity of the Catholic to 
 
73 
 
 liis faith, RO far from being blind, unless It be so througli 
 the ignorance or incapacity of the individual, is the most 
 enlightened and best secured that can well be conceived — 
 for this reason, that the Catholic possesses the most public, 
 the most certain, the most clear data on which to rest his 
 mind in all questions of religion. 
 
 In place of ascertaining the genuineness and divine inspi- 
 ration of the Sacred Scriptures, the fidelity and accuracy 
 of them in translations, in place of comparing the old 
 Testament with the new, and justifying to himself whate- 
 ver in the former might clash with his notioiis of justice, 
 truth and sanctity, — in place of turning over huge folios 
 of commentaries, in order to ascertain the sense of what, 
 with all mankind, is the subject of dispute, — of what the 
 Spirit of God designates as " hard to be understood," 
 and again not to be " of private interpretation," in place 
 of deciding between Marcion and Valentinian, between 
 Arius and Manes, between Luther and Beza, between 
 Cranmer and Hoadly, between Swift and Milton, between 
 Doctor Carpenter, a learned doctor of that name at Bris- 
 tol, and Doctor Magee — in place of doing all those difficult, 
 or impossible things, the Catholic has only to look out for 
 One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, which 
 the whole world combines to tell him is the depositary of 
 Cliristian truth, and, when he has discovered her, to hear 
 her doctrine and obey her voice. I am of opinion that in 
 religious enquiry, there is no process by which the mind 
 can arrive at certainty, so short, so simple, so plain, as 
 when its reasoning is founded on facts of public notoriety. 
 The simplicity or brevity of a demonstration does not 
 certamly diminish its force, or obscure the evidence which 
 springs from it ; and if, therefore, the Catholic by seeing, 
 with one glance, that the Church, in which all cliristians 
 confess the truth to reside, is that with which he holds 
 
74.< 
 
 communion, his fidelity to lier doctrines should be great, 
 in proportion to the value he sets on his salvation, and 
 his adhesion to them, so far from being blind, is, in truth, 
 the most enlightened, founded, as it is, on the most simple 
 and brief demonstration. The Catholic but laughs at the man, 
 whatever may be his station, who seeks to cushion the name 
 of his sect, or endeavours to confound one of the branches 
 lopped off in the sixteenth century, with the great and 
 illustrious tree from which it fell : he feels the same pity or 
 contempt for the first swarm of sectaries as for the second, 
 or as he does for all and each of those that followed them. 
 
 The followers of Luther or Calvin are precisely the same 
 in his eyes as those of Kant, or Knox, or Wesley, or any 
 other of the numberless tribes who wander about the de- 
 sert and attack the people of God as they journey under 
 the divine protection to the promised land. He may see 
 some senate, or stadtholder, or prince, or potentate associate 
 himself witli one or other of those sects, and bestow upon 
 it all the wealth and dignity which law, or rapine, or con- 
 quest placed in his hands — he may see one of them preserve 
 much of the form, order, dignity, rites and liturgies of the 
 church, whilst another strips its members in the market- 
 place, and presents itself to the world as a sad image of 
 human fatuity, or di\ane ^vi'ath ; but as to the unity, sanc- 
 tity, catholicity, and apostolicity of the Church, all these 
 sects, whether assembled in palaces, in the conventicle, on 
 the moor, or on the mountain, are equally removed from 
 them. 
 
 The Catholic, whilst he pities the delusion of his fellow- 
 men, and laments, with Augustin, that the salvation of 
 such multitudes should be placed in jeopardy by the pride, 
 obstinacy, or fanaticism of a few furious men ; whether 
 these few be clothed in purple, and faring sumptuously 
 
15 
 
 every daVs or whether they be as senseless or hj-pocritical 
 as tlie ro\ang fanatics of our own time, the Catliolic, wliilst 
 his mind is thus occupied, has no doubt or hesitation as to 
 the wisdom and propriety of his own conduct. He finds 
 all the world declare that there is a Church, the faithful 
 depository on the earth, of the doctrines and sacraments 
 of Christ ; that this Church is One Holy Catholic and 
 Apostolic, and that all are bound to hear her voice. He 
 turns over, if he will, the records of antiquity, and finds 
 the history of this One Church marked as distinctly as that 
 of the empire of Persia, Greece, or Rome ; he traces on the 
 map of the world the states or peoples who compose her — 
 his eye discovers, at a glance, the provinces which have 
 rebelled against her, the period of their rebellion, and he 
 discovers with equal facility the authors and abettors of 
 their revolt ; whUst the great empire of Christ, notwith- 
 standing the defection of some portions of her subjects, 
 continues to fill the earth, and to comprehend within her 
 pale, tribes, and tongues, and peoples, and nations, extend- 
 ing from the rising to the setting sun. 
 
 He finds all those nations varying in climate, in interest, 
 in language, laws, and customs, yet speaking with one 
 tongue, all holding the same gospel, all saying the same 
 thing — exempt from divisions, offering the same sacrifice, 
 frequenting the same sacraments, all professing the same 
 doctrine, all ruled by the same pastors, all subject to the 
 same head — He thinks on the life of Christ, liis obedience, 
 humility, chastity, his voluntary poverty, his prayer, fast- 
 ing, his zeal, liis ardour and charity, his signs and won- 
 ders in the propiigation of the gospel, and he finds all those 
 virtues and graces eminently conspicuous in that great 
 Church, and in her ajone, whose very name, like to that 
 of the God ^vho founded her, is uncommunicable to every 
 other. If any sect or sectary approach to seduce him, he 
 
76 
 
 says, who arc you, where did you come from ? from what 
 heaven have you fallen ? what earth produced you ? have 
 you not been born of flesh and all its lusts, as was Luther, 
 Cranmer, and Henry ; or of the will or presumption of 
 man, like Arius, Socinus, or Rousseau, surely you were 
 not born of God as the Church which was washed in the 
 blood of the Lamb must have been. You say, come to me 
 and possess the truth ; but did not INIanes say the same, 
 and Simon, and Paul of Samosata, and Nestorius, and 
 Bucer, and Bcza, and Cranmer, and all the others, even to 
 the present time. 
 
 Shew me the origin of your churches — shew how they 
 were founded by the Apostles, or by those who persevered 
 with them, and never separated themselves from them or 
 the body who succeeded to them. I can number the days 
 you have been upon the earth — I know the authors of your 
 misfortune who separated themselves ; the Lord warned his 
 disciples to reject such as you ; the Apostles foretold your 
 coming, your novelty and dissensions. The impiety of your 
 origin, your pride and obstmacy, your lies and uncharita- 
 bleness designate you as men subverted as to the faith, and 
 condemned by your o\vn judgment. There is no unity 
 amongst you, for you do not preach the same doctrine,, 
 worship at the same altar, participate of the same sacra- 
 ment, or obey the same pastors. 
 
 You have no holiness which . was not equally found in 
 the times of heathenism — You have discarded penance 
 and all mortification of the senses — your pride of under- 
 standing extinguishes all humility — disobedience is your 
 original sin, which, were you washed in nitre, would con- 
 tinue. Wedded to this world, a spirit of poverty is un- 
 known to you. You liave scoffed at chastity, though 
 practised and commended by Christ and his Apostles. 
 
77 
 
 Signs and wonders, though promised by tlie Redeemer io 
 tlie Omrch, and testified by the voice of mankind, are, 
 with an unparalleled effrontery and disregard for all evi- 
 dence, utterly denied by you. You cannot by any possibi- 
 lity be the people of God. Where, in what times, or 
 countries are you found why you should be esteemed a 
 universal people — filling the whole earth throughout all 
 ages, from the days of the Apostles ? or how can you, who 
 came later into the world than the art of printing, pretend 
 to any connection with the Apostles or the apostolic times. 
 Have you not the impiety to assert, that Clirist had viola- 
 ted his promise, deserted the chiu-ch which he acquired with 
 his own blood, delivered the beloved of his soul to idolatry, 
 permitted error to overwhelm truth, and the powers of hell 
 to break in pieces the rock on which he built his church ? 
 Depart, exclaims the Catholic, you are a stranger, having 
 no share in the inheritance ; a deserter, who has forfeited 
 his honor, violated his faith, and betrayed the sacred in- 
 terests once entrusted to his fidelity ! 
 
 Such would be the indignant reply of the well informed 
 Catholic to the writer of " The Charge," or to any other of 
 a similar character or name. The Catholic not versed in 
 language, but rich in the simplicity of his faith, feels, as it 
 were, within him, the possession of the faith ; he knows, 
 as well as the most learned, though incapable of expressing 
 his thoughts, that he is an heir to the inheritance promised 
 to the children of the Chmch ; the elements of Christian 
 knowledge communicated to him by his pastor, his mother, 
 or his nurse, teach him all that is necessary to be known. 
 The Creed, the Decalogue, the Sacrifice and Sacraments 
 which he frequents; the virtues and vices which he is 
 obliged to practice or avoid; all these he understands, and 
 feeling his own infirmity, he venerates the Church as the 
 pillar and ground of truth ; her lessons to him arc briei", 
 
78 
 
 her authority, which inculcates them, is sacred. She, hei'- 
 self, stands before him as a beacon on a high hill, to light 
 his way ; as a city on the mountain top, which cannot be 
 concealed ; as a great empire, standing in the midst of the 
 earth, beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun, terrible as 
 an army set in battle array — extending her dominion from 
 sea to sea, and to the utmost boundaries of the earth — 
 sending forth her ministers to publish the Gospel of her 
 God — to confound the wise, to humble the high minded, 
 and, above all, to preach to the poor, and heal the broken- 
 hearted. Tlie simple child of this Church, turns with 
 horror from all who would invade his faith, or lay waste 
 his inheritance — whatever is new to him in religion is 
 false — whatever is not Catholic, is schismatical, heretical, 
 an evil to be avoided at the expense of his fame, his for- 
 tune, or his life. 
 
 ^ So much for the fidelity witli which the Catholic adheres 
 to his faitli, and now, as to the persecuting spirit imputed 
 to us in " The Charge." 
 
 Certainly, this insinuation or imputation, comes wath a 
 peculiarly bad grace from a man who, nurtured in the school 
 of Calvin, and bred in that of Cranmer, Somerset, or Eliza- 
 beth, for I know not which of the creeds of parliament his 
 Grace professes; but such a Cliarge is most unbecoming a 
 man, who, bred up in principles of the most unrelenting 
 persecution, (see Appendix No. II.) had, himself, done more 
 to disturb the j)eace of socictj-^in Ireland, to propagate bigo- 
 try, to provoke retorts, to awaken a spirit of religious dis- 
 sension, than any other individual in the country — yes, I 
 should think the man who penned the passages quoted 
 above by me, must have mistaken altogether, or forgotten 
 the history of tlie past and later times. He could not have 
 reflected on the persecutions suffered by the Catholics, from 
 
79 
 
 the Jews and Gentiles, from tlie Arians, Nestorians, Icon- 
 aelasts, and from the swarms of insurgent sects in the 16 th 
 century. 
 
 But leaving his recollection of those sad events out of 
 view, it may be safely affirmed, that the Duke of Alva %vas 
 not half so lost to the feelings of nature and decency, as 
 Cranmer and Henry ; or that the cruel assassins of St. 
 Barthelemi were not more wicked, more heartless, more 
 cruel, than the bloody satellites of Elizabeth or Cromwell 
 in England and Ireland ; that Mary was incomparably less 
 a persecutor than her sister — that the proceedings of Knox 
 and the covenanters in Scotland — of the parliaments, pro- 
 tectors, and viceroys in this country, surpass, beyond mea- 
 sure, all that was ever done, not by Catholics, but by 
 Nero, Til^erius, Domitian throughout the Roman empire, 
 or by Pharao himself in Egypt. No, all the fiends of 
 Milton, if let loose upon the earth, could not exceed in 
 cruelty, impiety, and injustice, the persecutors of the Irish 
 people. With all the records of antiquity before this 
 Ai'chbishop — with the shade of Browne before his face, 
 and the walls of the temj)le in which he spoke encom- 
 passing him round about; — when he stood, as it were, on a 
 tripod, and invoked the spii'it of dissension, I should not 
 be surprised if fear fell upon him and made all his bones 
 to shake, or that a voice came forth and said, " there will 
 be a time for all things, and the just and the wicked shall be 
 judged." 
 
 When a presumptuous man provoked the late Doctor 
 Milner, a man whose wisdom and virtue will live for 
 many generations ; or when a man whose bigotry has out- 
 lived his genius, induced the gentle and learned Charles 
 Butler to place in parrallel lines the persecutions exer- 
 cised, all of them imjustly, in these countries, could not this 
 
80 
 
 Protestant Prelate have seen how mucli more extended his 
 were, than ours ? and when the account thus stood against 
 him, — when the scale was no longer poised, and that no 
 person could mistake the side on which the excess lay, 
 why did he return to the suhject and expose himself to 
 reproach ? But a fatality seems to attend him, that he may 
 exemplify the Gospel truth caustically expressed by S\vift, 
 " dead or alive pride will get a fall." 
 
 But his Grace alleges, that in proportion to the goodness 
 of our hearts, and the ardour of our charity we must be 
 impelled to force others by whatsoever means within the 
 pale of our Church, and that we, by a very summary 
 process, alluding, no doubt, to autos da fe, prevent the 
 growth of those sects and heresies which the established 
 Church shelters and protects. The Church of which his 
 Grace speaks, must no doubt be some Church different 
 from the Protestant Church of Ireland in 1634, which 
 subjected to excommunication, " all authors of schism and 
 " maintainers of conventicles, cutting them off rightly 
 " from the unity of the Church, so as that they be taken 
 " of the whole multitude of the faithful, as heathens and 
 " publicans." This is no doubt, a very peculiar mode of 
 affording to them, shelter and protection ; precisely and 
 identically the same as the Catholic Church affords to 
 schismatics and heretics. The established Church was, 
 and is as intolerant as any other, but the parliament which 
 has swallowed her up, only to have its bowels embittered 
 and its heart vexed by her, this parliament is tolerant to 
 authors of schism and maintainers of conventicles, and 
 and does not permit the established Church to exercise her 
 wrath upon them. This parliament indeed delivers over 
 the Catholics, the descendants of their own fatheriB, the 
 framers of their own constitution, the authors of all that 
 is great and good in the civil, municipal, or ecclesiastical 
 
81 
 
 institutions of tlie coinitry — the parliament )>y some hidden 
 judgment of God, delivers over those Catholics, now con- 
 sisting of several millions of their subjects, to be cast out, 
 reviled, insulted, and oppressed by the bishops, and minis- 
 ters, by the proctors, and surrogates, and sextons, and 
 grave-diggers, of the established Church. 
 
 Doubtless, this established Church, in excommunicating 
 "schismatics and maintainers of conventicles," is very 
 inconsistent and absurd, for she excommunicates them for 
 doing what she herself has done ; she calls them heathens, 
 because they, in the exercise of their judgment, reject her 
 creed and frame one for themselves, whilst she proclaims to 
 them that in doing so, they act agreeably to the will of God — 
 that she can give them no assurance that her own doctrine is 
 a whit preferable to theirs, and that Christ and herself 
 have given them a license to think on religion as it listeth 
 them, and speak in their conventicles as they think. This, 
 no doubt, is excessively inconsistent and absurd in the es- 
 tablished Church ; but she is rich and powerful, and there- 
 fore entitled to indulge in all the luxury of absurdity and 
 error. 
 
 If any one ujjbraid her, she orders out her proctors to de- 
 cimate his corn, potatoes, and cabbages, — his lambs, his 
 fleeces, his mint, and milk. If any one dispute with her, 
 she compels him to build for her a new church, to fill it with 
 stoves and pews, to furnish it with linen, surplices, bread 
 and wine ; with songsters and choristers, with clerks and 
 beadles, with sextons and grave-diggers, and for all arrears 
 due to her for Christmas offerings or Easter dues, she cites 
 the heathen before her surrogate, and, jadying in her ou'/i 
 caus§y gives to him the full benefit of fees, decrees aud 
 costs. 
 
 p 
 
82 
 
 If lier absurdities be binted at, she points to lier long 
 lawn sleeA'cs, lier gilded palaces, her trains of equipages, 
 ber millions of acres, ber tentbs of two kingdoms, and, in 
 the language of a bloated epicure, says, "You A'^ulgar cynic, 
 bow can I be wrong ?" Should be laugh, as I am some- 
 times obliged to do, at ber ignorance, ber insolence, ber 
 pomp and pride, she opens lier armoury, more stowed with 
 weapons than a star-chamber or inquisition — more ill-sa- 
 voured than a lady's dressing-room, and lets loose upon 
 bini a whole legicm of ber satellites, baAdngone band armed 
 with calumny and sophistry, the other filled with news- 
 papers, tracts, pamphlets, reviews, replies, rejoinders, 
 charges, sermons, speeches ! With these the heathen or 
 publican is at once oppressed, and if be learzis not to revere 
 the wisdom, and respect the power of the Church, be will 
 at least learn to protect bis own person, and to preserve, by 
 silence and submission, under AA'batsoever injustice or 
 wrong, any property which be may be suffered to possess. 
 
 But then, nature and grace impel the Catholic to perse- 
 cute ! They who say so, know not the spirit in which 
 Catholics are called, and it is because they know it not, 
 that they cannot judge of its nature or estimate its influence. 
 Could not the Redeemer, by an irresistible grace, by an 
 infringement on the liberty of human will, or by arming 
 millions of men and angels in bis cause, propagate at once 
 bis religion, and preserve it by similar means against all 
 trial and temptation ? But no ; be disposed all things 
 sweetly, so that be left to abide in darkness and the sha- 
 dow of death, such as would not be saved by preaching, 
 accompanied by signs and the folly of the cross ; this was the 
 plan of redemption by him who came to repair the ravages of 
 sin, but not to alter or infringe on the works of the Creator. 
 
 So that Godj who instituted the Jewish ccmmon wealth, 
 
83 
 
 and commissioned the liigli-piiest or judge to punish vvitli 
 death certain violations of his law, — ^vhen that covenant 
 was aholished by him, and another instituted in a kingdom 
 not of this world, he might, if he had pleased, have given 
 similar power to its rulers ; hut he did not do so : he gave 
 to them a new spirit — a spirit, not of fear or force, but of 
 humility, long suffering, and love ; — he sent his ministers 
 of this new law to preach and to baptize, to forgive or 
 to retain the sins committed against heaven ; he taught 
 them, by Avord and example, to leave human institutions 
 undisturbed, to submit to every constituted authority, 
 not to resist injury, to overcome evil by good, and to 
 receive, with tlie kiss of peace, even those who would 
 traffic in their blood. He shewed to them but too clearly, 
 that the times of violence and rev^enge had ended ; he 
 pointed out the only just and lawful means of making 
 converts to his faith, and, foreseeing that heresies should 
 come., he described their malice, but desired that those 
 guilty of them, should be left bound in tlieir own mi- 
 series, and subject to the only punishment of being placed 
 without the Church. Thus were his Apostles instructed ; 
 thus was the spirit of their calling left to o})eratc; in this 
 manner did tlie Church always act and ordain. Even when 
 an unholy alliance had bound her to the earth by associa- 
 ting her with tlu-ones and empires, her pastors never forgot 
 that meekness and mercy were the attributes of their 
 religion, and that punishment, not of a spiritual kind, 
 was reserved for the power of tliis world. If tlien, the 
 feelings, the zeal, the charity of Christ, or of his Apostles, 
 or of those holy men who walked in their footsteps, did not 
 impel them to seek for the conversion of their fellow-crea- 
 tures, by any other means than those of preaching, of 
 prayer, of signs and wonders ; if the only punishment re- 
 sorted to by them was, that of exclusion from the commu- 
 nion of the CImrch, there is no reas»on \y\\\ the avithor of 
 
 F 2 
 
84 
 
 " the Charge" s^houkl assert, that wo, wlio profess theif 
 doctrine aiul glory ni I'ollowing tlieir example, should, like 
 the Pharisees, go over laud aud sea to make proselytes by 
 the violation of every right human and diA-ine ; or punish 
 those who separate themselves, and form conventicles 
 apart, hy what his Grace intimates under cover of the 
 words, " ichat soever means." Were our notions of brotherly 
 love, and the impulses of our natui'e such as malevolence 
 suggests them to our opponents, surely it would be impos- 
 sible to account for the conduct of those Catholic states, 
 Av^hich in all parts of America and Europe, (to the disgrace 
 of England be it recorded,) cherish all their subjects alike, 
 Avithout distinction of worship, or of creed. \^Tiat was it but 
 the genius of the Catholic religion, always allied to sound 
 policy, and the charity hy which we love our neighbour, 
 whether Jew or Gentile, which operated with the Catholics 
 of Maryland, of Bavaria, of Hungary, of Austria, of 
 Fivmce, of Switzerland, to abolish the barbarous system of 
 disfx'anchisement on account of religious belief ? WTIiat is 
 it but the consciousness of injustice, or the innate Aveak- 
 iiess and inconsistency of any cluu'ch, which can require in 
 the present times that she be fenced in with laws, and ter- 
 rors, and rendered secure, not by her own truth and A'irtue, 
 but by the oppression and humiliation of those who refuse 
 to bow down and worship her like some golden calf. Let 
 the Church perish that thrives by oppression, and visits 
 with temporal penalties the consciences of men ! ! 
 
 Doctor Magee quotes TertuUian, whilst yet a Catholic, 
 where he says, non est reUgionis religionem cohere. " It be- 
 comes not religion to constrain belief." This was the 
 maxim of Ambrose ajid St. Martin, who refused to hold 
 communion with some Spanish ecclesiastics who had con- 
 curred to inflict punishment on the Priscillianists, a race 
 of wicked enthusiasts in S])aiii. It was the maxim of 
 
85 
 
 Augusthi, in liis endeavours to protect tlie Donatists from 
 the fury of tlic satellites of the Emperor, who, like thfe 
 Orangemen of our clays, deluged their native country with 
 the blood of those whom they robbed and oppressed under 
 the pretext of religious zeal. But Tcrtullian, rigorous and 
 austere in his nature, became scandalized at tlie patience 
 and mercy of the Church ; he upbraided a Pope with his 
 excessive clemency in admitting sinners to be reconciled 
 through penance ; he proceeded to deny, that all sins could 
 be remitted, even to Jiim, who with a contrite and troubled 
 spirit, offered his whole heart to God; he became a Mon- 
 tanist, because he would not, in the true spirit of catholi- 
 city, l>e merciful to his fellow-man. Strange to find this 
 Tertullian, quoted by Doctor Magee, where this prelate 
 speaks of the intolerance of the Catholic Church ; but so 
 it happens, that wisdom is justified of her own ungi'ateful 
 children, that iniquity often lies to itself, and that our 
 enemies, like Bahiam, are made to bless us or plead in our 
 justification. 
 
 Persecution, truly, then, is no portion of our creed; 
 we assail errors, but we spare the victims of delusion. We 
 arraign vice, but we pardon and embrace the sinner ; the 
 arms of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual from God, 
 and when after the example of Christ, of his Apostles, of 
 Cyril, Jerome, Gregory, and Augustine, we expose the 
 hypocrite, and denounce the furious incendiary, we pity 
 oven their misfortune, whilst we feel nought but the most 
 tender charity for the multitude of men, whom they often, 
 alas, too successfidly lalxtur to delude. For these we hope, 
 for these we unceasingly offer up our prayers to the throne 
 of grace, that the Father of lights, from whom every good 
 gift descends, may illuminate their darkness, coiTect 
 their errors, dis})cl tJieir illusion, pardon their trespasses, 
 and bring them to the jwssession of his everlasting i«cst. If 
 
86 
 
 tlicre be one class of" my coimtrymen wliom I love more 
 than another, they are they, who, in addition to the heavy 
 yoke of human misery which we all bear, are kept in 
 ignorance of tlie truth, by those furious men who, them- 
 selves not satisfied with erring, are, in the language of the 
 Apostle, constantly di'ivdng others into error. 
 
 It is upon the ground of intolerance, and the persecuting 
 spirit falsely attributed to Catholics, that this Archbishop 
 invokes the Prince and the Legislatm'e to continue the 
 oppression of his fellow-subjects ; and here I recognise in 
 his voice, the voice of Ursacius and Valens, two Ai'ian 
 bishops who opposed the faith of Nice. Two " furious men," 
 who instructed the emperors, sons of Constantine, that 
 they were entitled to judge in matters of faith, to prescribe 
 a creed for their subjects, and to persecute by imjust and 
 cruel laws, all those who adhered to the Catholic and Apos- 
 tolic faith. The empire was deluged with blood, its strength 
 and energy were wasted, its enemies acquired confidence, 
 its provinces shortly afterwards revolted, and the whole 
 fabric of its power and gieatness gradually fell to decay. 
 Ursacius and Valens died, and left after them an ignomi- 
 nious name. The princes who were duped by their coun- 
 sels, forfeited the glory acquired by their father, and by 
 themselves in their youthful days — they left after them a 
 government in disorder, an empire wasted by dissensions, 
 a human chui'ch which perished after them, whilst that 
 which they oppressed, was preserved by the divine protec- 
 tion, and transmitted their names and their errors, with 
 her own sufferings, and her final delivery, through fifteen 
 centuries, even to our own days. Had the emperors 
 disregarded the counsels of a few, vain, ambitious, and 
 furious men, had they not put their hand to the censor, an 
 office which the Almighty had not pleased to assign them, 
 liad they permitted truth and fiilschood to contend alone. 
 
87 
 
 and only laboured to promote equally tlie happiness of all 
 their subjects — had they done this, unity and strength 
 would have dwelt in their empire, victory Avould have 
 followed their standard, and they, or their children, would 
 not have witnessed the miseries of their people, nor the 
 coming ruin of the Roman name. 
 
 History has been Avritten for our instruction ; we should 
 profit of its lessons, and in place of traversing a whole 
 province, as Dr. Magee has lately done, with tlie torch of 
 religious discord flaming in his hand, casting brands of 
 fire through an inflammable population, we should attend 
 to the duty of preaching peace and good will, and, when 
 going about, endeavour to imitate the example of him, 
 " who, as St. Peter beautifully tells us, went about doing 
 good." 
 
 Were I an archbishop entitled to visit the dioceses of 
 suffragans, I would consider the end for which such visita- 
 tions were originally instituted and ordained by the 
 Church. In her ordinal I would discover, that among 
 other duties of a spiritual kind, it l»ohoved me " to enquire 
 and ascertain how the churches Avithin my jurisdiction 
 were regulated and conducted, both as to their temporal 
 and spiritual concerns — that the buildings and ornaments 
 belonging to them wore kej»t in good and sufficient repair, 
 that the sacraments were administered, and the Gospel 
 preached. I should ascertain what was the conduct and 
 morality of the ministei's and people, whether the laws and 
 constitutions of the Church were observed — whether public 
 offences against order or good morals prevailed, and when 
 this was done, and that I had explained and enforced the 
 duties of all concerned, and applied such corrections or 
 remedies to existing evils as I was enabled to apply, then 
 would I consider myself obliged to expound, even briefly, 
 
8S 
 
 the law of God, and teach the clerg}'^ and people, a« 
 tKc ordinal exj)ressly requires, that " they were hound to 
 turn away from evil and do good, to fly from vice and 
 follow after virtue, and not to do to another^ what they would 
 not that another would do zinfo themy These are a short 
 summary of the duties which a hishop or an archbishop 
 should discharge upon his A'isitation. Were dissensions, 
 heresies or superstitions found to prevail, he should labour 
 to restore union, to expound the faith in charity — not 
 rsAaling nor blaspheming ; and to remove superstitions, 
 — those noxious excrescences — by displaying the beauty, 
 usefulness, and simplicity of true religion. Such was the 
 manner in which bishops and archbishops proceeded in 
 those times, when they Avent about doing good, encom- 
 passed with the love of their people, covered with their 
 benedictions, and blessing them in return ; such was their 
 practice in those times of simplicity, piety, and peace, 
 when those mouldering cathedrals, wherein the bat and 
 owl now contend for possession with the bishop esta- 
 blished by law, were first raised and consecrated to the 
 service of the living God, — those mouldering cathedi'als, 
 which when one visits noAV, and hears a prelate bellowing 
 polemics, and breathing war, he involuntarily heaves a 
 sigh to heaven, and, in silence ejacidates, O dotmis anfiqna 
 quam dispart dominaris Domino. 
 
 We should all take lessons, from the times that have 
 gone before us ; for what is there, as Solomon observes, 
 but what has been, or what Mill be, but Avhat has al- 
 ready happened. 
 
 That philosopher of Florence, whose name is odious, 
 but whose maxims and rules seem to be adopted by the 
 generality of states-men, and by none more carefully than 
 by those who have so successfully divided, and thereby 
 
89 
 
 ruled Ireland with case and rigour — tliis pliilosoplier ob- 
 serves, and most justly, that there are times when men in 
 power should revert to first principles, and rebuild upon 
 the first foundation. There never has been a period, when 
 the adoption of this maxim by the legislature of this 
 country would be more useful, if not necessary, than the 
 present. Did they but revert to the first principles of 
 policy, and, in conformity with one of tliose principles, 
 let their subjects, without fear or favour, exercise their own 
 judgment in the selection of their religion, did they but 
 permit one man to think, that by preferring the judgment 
 of the Church on rules of faith to his own, lie might best 
 arrive at truth — and allow another to abound in his own 
 sense, unrestricted by all authority, — did tlie legislature 
 but adopt one of the first and plainest principles of human 
 and divine right, they would put an end to many bitter con- 
 tentions, they would silence many " furious men," they 
 would secure the confidence and affection of all their sub- 
 jects ; for those subjects would see in them, not the tools or 
 partizans of party in the state, but the legislators, the pro- 
 tectors, the impartial arbiters of the entire people. Under 
 a legislature so ruling, there would be union and strength, a 
 national feeling, a national interest, and a national pride. A 
 society so governed would, if its abuses in other respects 
 were not gross and incorrigible, be a mass of amalgamated 
 power, which all the force of this world could not break 
 down. 
 
 The writer of " the Charge" proceeds to combat the error 
 of a sovereign, who would ally the Catholic Church with 
 the state. 
 
 Would to heaven that no such alliance ever Iiad been 
 formed ! 
 
 If any danger existed, that such an alliance would 
 
90 
 
 ever be revived in these countries, 1 would most cor- 
 dially combine with the ^vl•iter in denouncing it as one of 
 the heaviest calamities (except, indeed, one other now 
 existing,) which could befal the empire. For I am not so 
 eaten up with the pride and prejudices of a high church- 
 man, as to prefer the aggrandizement of what is called 
 " Church and State," to the freedom and happiness of the 
 people; nor am I again, so bad a christian, (whatever 
 Doctor Magee may think to the contrary) as to desire to 
 see Catholic bishops clothed in purple, faring sumptuously 
 every day, the Assentatores of the great, the Cvbiailarii of 
 of the palace, the intriguers of the court, the pest of the 
 senate. I should be tempted to remove the cross, and set 
 up the crescent, if I saw the chief ministers of my reli- 
 gion, derive their commission to preacli the word, to 
 administer the sacraments, to ride the Church, from any 
 source that was not pointed out and established by Christ ; 
 if I saw them receive the rule of faith from the hands or 
 the tongue of any king or minister, or other, to whom it 
 had not been originally confided by the Redeemer. — I 
 should desert them as wolves in sheep's clothing, if I saw 
 them devour the pittance of the widow and the orphan — 
 if I heard them denounce peace, and preach dissension — 
 if I oliser^xd them involved in unceasing contradictions 
 between their practise and profession — reviling the most 
 exalted Anrtues practised by Christ, and recommended by 
 his apostles — heartless to the poor, insolent to the oppressed, 
 slaves to power, and buried in all the surfeitings of a 
 worldly life. 
 
 All these e\'ils, at least in some degree, I would appre- 
 hend to follow in tliose degenerate days, when the charity 
 of many has waxed cold, if liy an alliance with the state, 
 the pastors of the Catholic Church were exposed to temp- 
 tation. No ! were a spirit of proselytism stronger in my 
 
91 
 
 jnhul than a love of country, I slioultl say to the present 
 establislied union of Church and State, esto perpetiia, 
 and pray to God, that the Catliolic priesthood and 
 people might continue just exempt from tyranny, but 
 excluded from all places of power, emolument, and cor- 
 ruption. 
 
 I bear about me, however, much stronger feelings as an 
 Irishman, than as a man addicted to s certain profession ; 
 and, though I " believe in the infallibility of the Church," 
 and bear '* my intellect enslaved," and " wallow in the 
 slough of a slavish superstition," yet, am I so profane, and 
 so free in will and thought, as to desire, that all religions 
 were alike protected by the state, that she respected them 
 allj and favoured none, that she left them to the exercise of 
 their own energies and zeal, and remained perfectly 
 regardless of their respective excellence. 
 
 If ever the maxim of the Stuart, " no bishop, no king," 
 had any foundation in truth, and I belie^'e it had not, it is 
 not true at present, nor can it be true in any country 
 where the legislature holds its sittings before the eyes 
 of tlie nation, where the judicial authority is independent 
 of the throne — where the tribunals of all description are 
 open to the public praise or censure, and, v/here a press, 
 unshackled by censors, disseminates knowledge, and gives 
 j)ower and effect to the general sentiment and will. In 
 such a country, no union of Church and State is neces- 
 sary, no combination of artificial power is required, no 
 juggling of ascendancy — no corporate monopoly — no un^ 
 hallowed commixture of what is human with what is 
 divine. The liberties and happiness of all the people 
 should be the basis of such a state, the administi'a- 
 tion should be pure, and always directed to the public 
 good, and the king of such a country, encompassed with 
 
 * F 2 
 
92 
 
 tlic affections, guarded by the glory and interest of his 
 people, would not require the aid of any bishop to support 
 his throne. Bishops, indeed, would be useful to him, as 
 would the soldier, the merchant, the mechanic, the labourer 
 in the garden or the field ; all would be useful, because 
 each would be labouring in his own department, enjoying 
 security of person and property, under the protection and 
 guardianship of the common king. In such a state, the 
 Catholic Church, and every other church or sect might hold 
 its assemblies, preach the Gospel, and minister its rules in 
 peace ; they might exclude from their respective temples, 
 and place abroad among the heathens and publicans, if you 
 will, all those who dissented from their doctrine, or disbe- 
 lieved their creed. But the prince and the legislature, 
 whilst it yielded them protection, should see that they 
 troubled not the public peace, and, in place of arming 
 them with earthly power, to inflict vengeance on dissent, 
 or to oppress with temporal penalties, the brother who 
 might disobey — it should teach them all that the kingdom 
 consigned to their care was not of this world, and that 
 the loyal and industrious heretic was as acceptable to the 
 state as the most orthodox of any, even the most exalted 
 communion. In a community so governed, every reli- 
 gionist would be attached to the throne, the Catholic and 
 Protestant churches would be alike harmless or useful, 
 neither the one nor the other could ever encroach on the 
 state, and if any sect or church exalted herself beyond 
 her sphere, the public censure, independant of all other 
 power, would strip her of her arrogance, and compel her 
 to recede. I verily believe, that his Grace of Dublin, 
 corroded with fruitless care, occupied with strong pre- 
 judices, and removed, as he has been, from a little literary 
 eminence, on which an abused public had placed him, 
 I think his Grace, thus circumstanced, can scarcely esti- 
 
93 
 
 mate the few truths I have here submitted to my readei's, 
 and that he will continue all his life to speak or write 
 confused essays on the excellence of the established Church, 
 and to tremble before the bugbear of popery. But, 1 hope, 
 that there is enough of sound sense and deliberate wisdom 
 remaining, even in Ireland, to estimate his efforts as they 
 deserve. 
 
 " The monarch," he says, " cannot prescribe in fevour of 
 an intolerant religion." I say, he has allied to his throne, a 
 religion as intolerant as any in Europe ; as a proof, see 
 her creeds, her articles, or the bill of indemnity by which 
 these are neutralised; I do not refer to the popery laws, 
 all of which are the fruit of her spirit. 
 
 All religions are intolerant to a certain degree, and must 
 be so; but as their intolerance, if not adopted by the State, 
 consists in excluding dissenters from their communion ; it 
 can do no injury to a prince who honors religion, and 
 secures to each of his subjects the right of worshipping the 
 Almighty as his conscience or caprice happens to dictate. 
 What injtu-y does the king sustain from the " Religious 
 Society of Friends," who sometimes exclude a member from 
 their communion, because his hat is not of due dimen- 
 sions, or liis coat fashioned after the costume of William 
 Penn ? Is " the Friend," when cast out among the publi- 
 cans, a less useful or loyal subject than he was before ? 
 
 " Tlie pnnce cannot prescribe in favor of a religion, 
 which denies the right of private judgment, and tliat exer- 
 cises (thereby) a dominion over conscience." Tlie Catliolic 
 Church does not, cannot, prevent any man from exercising 
 his riglit of private judgment in the choice of his religion ; 
 ]>ut when any man professes to be of her communion, she 
 
94 
 
 Vetalns yiini williin lier foUl, only on the condition of pre- 
 ferring lier coninion creed und liturgy to any other which 
 his fancy might desire. Should he form a sect or maintain 
 a conventicle apart, she places him where he has placed 
 himself, that is, abroad among the heathens. She can do, 
 she attempts to do no more. 
 
 If a man do not subscribe to the thirty-nine articles of 
 religion in the established Church, or if assumed to office 
 or place of trust, he do not swear certain oaths, and sub- 
 scribe to certain declarations, which, in the most august 
 assemblies, in my own hearing, and by some of the most 
 exalted characters in the country, have been designated as 
 LIES ; he is not only liable to be ])laced among the heathens, 
 but he is disgraced and injured in all his wordly interests 
 find pursuits. The Bill of Indemnity comes to his relief 
 if ho be not a papist, but this bill is the act of the parlia- 
 ment, not of the church. The right of private judgment, 
 as allowed by the established Church, was a sort of an 
 apology for her own revolt, and a sacrifice made to the 
 Baal of Puritanism ; but it is opposed to the letter and 
 spirit of the Church creed, as well as incompatible with 
 the Gospel, which foretels of heresies and schisms ; for if 
 the right of private judgment, in opposition to the declared 
 decision of the Church exist, it is utterly impossible that 
 lieresy should be damnable or scliism a crime. Every 
 church then, that excommunicates authors of heresy, that 
 is, men, who exercising their riglit of private jvulgment, 
 choose their own religion ; or which casts out among the 
 heathen the maiutainers of conventicles, (all which the es- 
 tablished Church does,) is guilty (if guilt it be) of denj-ing 
 the right of private judgment, and of exercising thereby a 
 dominion over conscience. Wliether t lie Church doing so, 
 claim infallibility or not, is nothing to the purpose; her 
 
95 
 
 iiulgment and the effects of it to llic excommunicated 
 persons are the same. 
 
 I fully agree with the most reverend writer of " the 
 Charge," that the prince ought not to wed his throne, or 
 his office, or his laws, to any church ; hut that observing the 
 religion which he thinks most acceptable to God, he leave 
 all the Churches to travel towards heaven, restrained in 
 their excesses, but at the same time, protected in the exer- 
 cise of their ministry, by tlie laws. 
 
 " The prince," says this writer, "being bound to employ 
 a free judgment upon the written word of God, in order to 
 ascertain that what he proposes for the instruction of his 
 people, is not inconsistent with that word, he cannot deny 
 to them the same freedom of enquiry." 
 
 This sentence has within it an absurdity, to wit, that the 
 prince has a right to determine for his subjects, wliat is, 
 or is not, inconsistent with the written word of God, and 
 that this right of his to exclude or propose any particular 
 religion to his people, is the same which eacli of the people 
 is supposed to have to choose his own religion. It is, I say, 
 absurd to assert, that the prince lias a right to exclude a 
 religion which he supposes to be inconsistent with the 
 word of God, and that each of his subjects, at the same 
 time, has a right to choose his own religion. For what 
 would follow, if the subject thought pro])er to select for 
 himself that Catholic religion which Doctor Magee would 
 wish the prince to exclude as inconsistent with the word of 
 God? Where in that case is the right of the subject? 
 Again ; when the prince is vested with a power to exclude 
 certain forms of religion, has he? — will he? — has he ever 
 stopped at that point ? Will he not propose his own creed, 
 
96 
 
 whatever it may be, tliough it were as absurd as tliat of 
 Cromwell, to his people ? 
 
 But all this paragraph is silly, and the produce, not of 
 reason or revelation, but of antipopish zeal and a devouring 
 religious prejudice. 
 
 Tlie king of a Christian state has no right to prescribe 
 a religion either negatively or positively to his people, 
 though he may be empowered to protect that which the 
 people themselves have cliosen. His kingdom is of this 
 world. He received no commission fi-om Christ to teach 
 or define tenets of religion. He has got power to rule all 
 estates within his realm, (if, as formerly, but not at present 
 In this country, the lav/s did not exempt a certain class 
 from liis jurisdiction ;) and to restrain with the civil 
 sword, the stubborn and evU doer, whether he be lay or 
 ecclesiastic. This is the power, the Just power of the 
 prince. No power to prescribe a religion to his subjects, 
 or to judge in matters of faith, can by any possibility be 
 attached to the kingly sceptre, ^^lienever the prince at- 
 tempts to do so, he usurps the right of others and exercises 
 a tyranny over conscience. 
 
 The principle then upon which Doctor Magee rests his 
 argument being unsound and fallacious, the consequences 
 deduced from it deserve no attention. The tp-anny of 
 Henry the Eighth must be defended, the murder of Moore 
 and Fisher must be justified, all the cruelties of Elizabeth 
 must have been acts of justice, the refusal of Charles to 
 permit the Scotch to select their oavu religion must have 
 been sound ])olicy, the establishment of tlie Kirk in that 
 country by William, the alteration consequent thereon in the 
 oath of supremacy, all these acts and proceedings, as well 
 as the discontinuance of the test laws, and the animal enact- 
 
97 
 
 mcnt of tlic hill of indemnity, must be opposed to the right 
 and duty of the sovereign, to the religion of Christ, and 
 the public interests, if the learned prelate's position be just 
 or true. Not only that, but if his positions be true, the 
 despotic power of kings is of divine right, passive obedience 
 an indispensable duty of subjects, and bodily and mental 
 slavery the inheritance of the people of those realms. Yes, 
 for what despotism can be more perfect than that wherein 
 the monarch can prescribe a religion for his subjects and 
 enforce it with the civil sword ? What obedience more 
 unqualified or passive, than that whereby a right to resist 
 the violation of his conscience is denied to the subject ? 
 What mental or bodily thraldom more consummate than 
 that of the man who is obliged to receive his creed from the 
 executive power in the state, and that executive power re- 
 siding in the same person, who has also the chief share of 
 the legislative authority ? 
 
 Montesquieu observes, that in Spain, since the time of 
 Philip the Second, the only barrier to perfect despotism, 
 existed in the partial independence of the church ; and 
 that in the Ottoman empire, the Mufti alone could oppose 
 any stay to the absolute will of the sovereign. If in our 
 country there was no stay to despotism, no guardian of 
 liberty but a church whose creed and discipline the monarch 
 could prescribe and regidate, we should enjoy all the 
 blessings of a monarchy as absolute as that of Ferdinand, 
 or of an empire as despotic as that of the sublime execu- 
 tioner of the Greeks. The civil liberty and the true reli- 
 gion of a country are greatly impaired by any union of 
 the church with the state, but when the chief magistrate is 
 vested with a power of framing creeds and forming 
 churches, then true religion can only be preserved by a 
 special interposition of providence ; and ci\nl liberty, if it 
 survive, can only be continued by some power or powers 
 in the state, counteracting tlie power of the prince. 
 
98 
 
 It is not, tliereforc, the degree of authority claimed by 
 any church in her decisions upon religious controversy, 
 nor the width, nor the narroAvness of her road to the king- 
 dom of heaven, which can in any manner or degree affect 
 the liberties of a people or the rights of a sovereign, but it 
 is the union of any church with the supreme civil power, 
 which augments that power, and also detracts from and 
 endangers the liberties of a people. But if a churcli not 
 only be united to the supreme power, but that the deposi- 
 tory of that power can suppress her councils, annul her 
 convocations, alter her creed and discipline, then she is 
 enslaA^ed, and though she may, like the whisperer who 
 stands behind his master's chair, and poisons his ear with 
 slander, effect much mischief, yet is slie totally incapaci- 
 tated from effecting good, otherwise than as the mere 
 menial of the state. 
 
 But then, as to the attributes or characters which Doctor 
 Magee assigns to the established Church. He says, she is 
 Protestant, and so she is, nor do I know that any person 
 has ever questioned her right to that appellation. To deny 
 that she is Protestant, would be just as senseless as to deny 
 by circumlocutions the catholicity of that great and univer- 
 sal Church from which the established Church separated 
 licrsclf, and against which she has vainly been protesting 
 for three hundred years. 
 
 The Reverend Prelate continues, " This is the primary 
 character of the established Church." — In this we are fully 
 agreed ! 
 
 *'MaintaIningtheparamount authority of the Scriptures." 
 
 No; for she admits that the parliament has a power to 
 alter the religion of the land ; it is the Catholic Church 
 
99 
 
 which maintains the paramount authority of the sacred 
 Scriptures, declaring that no power on earth, either churcli 
 or parliament, can interfere with the religion revealed in 
 them. The next diiforence between her and the established 
 Church on this subject is, that when doubts arise on pas- 
 sages of the Scripture, difficult and hard to be understood, 
 the Catholic Church decides the meaning of them by the 
 judgment of the Catholic world, to use a phrase of St. 
 Augustin, expressed by her chief pastors, whilst the es- 
 tablished Church leaves such doubts to be decided by 
 the private opinion of each individual. 
 
 " Maintaining the right of private judgment." 
 
 The Catholic Church assists and directs this judgment ; 
 the Protestant leaves it to be tossed about by every wind 
 of doctrine, or to be led into error or absurdity by those 
 frantic enthusiasts, or those wily crafty-men, who lie 
 always in wait to deceive the unwary. 
 
 ** Maintaining the supremacy of the sovereign." 
 
 Is it that spiritual supremacy which, until the oath was 
 changed in the time of William, all were obliged to swear 
 that he possessed — tliat supremacy which Cranmer assigned 
 to Edward the Sixth, whereby he made the crown the source 
 of all the powers of a bishop, as much as it was the 
 source of the powers of a sheriff or of a general of division? 
 If so, no Catliolic could maintain such an impiety. Or is it 
 tliat supremacy whereby the Sovereign is entitled to rulo 
 all degrees and estates within this realm, and to punisli with 
 the civil sword the stubborn and cvW doers ? if this be the 
 supremacy wliich the Charge assigns to him, and that it be 
 fairly and liberally understood, I see no reason why any 
 person should M'ithhold it ; but if it be augmented into a 
 
 g2 
 
100 
 
 light to intcrfero witli tlie freedom of the Catholic Churchy 
 or the essential and inalienable rights of the bishops and 
 clergy in union with their head, to rule that church over 
 which the Holy Ghost placed them, as Paul testifies, by 
 their preaching the gospel, by their administering the sacra- 
 ments, and exercising, when necessary, the power of ex- 
 communication, then do we differ from all those who 
 would assign it to the sovereign. 
 
 " Maintaining the supremacy of the sovereign in oppo- 
 sition to the Church of Rome, which held and imposed 
 tenets in direct opposition to all ; it abjured the fundamen- 
 tal errors and despotism of that Church, and with them 
 the multiplied corruptions and abuses which they had en- 
 gendered." 
 
 This is the language of a man accustomed to repeat the 
 most offensive calumnies, without attempting either to up- 
 hold tlicm by argument or to justify them by even a plau- 
 sible misrepresentation. 
 
 " And so having purified them from the dross of super- 
 stition, and having restored religion to the true and ancient 
 Catholic standard." 
 
 Religion clearly could not have departed from the church, 
 nor from the true and Catholic standard, whatever the 
 learned prelate may understand by that " standard," un- 
 less the spirit of truth departed from the earth, or that 
 Cluist failed in his promise of being with his Apostles 
 in tlie persons of their successors, all days, even to the 
 consummation of the world." 
 
 "It (the Protestant Church,) became wortby of adop- 
 tion by a government that had the valour, &c." 
 
101 
 
 What then ? Docs the archbishop take to the account 
 of the Church, the cruel, the bloody, the disgraceful, the 
 horrid scenes in which she was made to act so conspicuous 
 a part in the times of Henry, Somerset and Elizabeth ? 
 
 Was the denial of the pope's supremacy the act of the 
 Church ? was the divorce of Queen Catherine the act of 
 the Church ? was the bastardizing of Mary, the lawfulness 
 of Anne Boylen's marriage, with all the subsequent di- 
 vorces and marriages of the monster Henry, were these the 
 acts of the Church ? or if they were, was the reconciliation 
 with the Pope through Cardinal Pole, or the subsequent 
 recantation of it under Elizabeth, the acts of the Church ? 
 were the several creeds of Cranmer, whether under Heniy 
 or Edward, acts of the Church ? were the backslidings of 
 the bishops in the time of Charles, acts of the Church ? or 
 was it only in the days of his profligate son that she proved 
 worthy of adoption by the government ? 
 
 It is truly astonishing to find men in those times, hazard- 
 ing before the public, assertions which must prove them 
 either profoundly ignorant of past events, or totally reck- 
 less of their own literary character, as well as of the 
 character of that Church, which, like a man of low or 
 questionable birth or descent, is best protected by silence 
 and forbearance. 
 
 There is no person in this country who knows any thing 
 of past times, who does not know that the despotic Tudors 
 changed the religion of the country, remodeled the Church, 
 prescribed to her a creed and discipline, and made her the 
 very hand-maid of the state. The feeble efforts which 
 mark her place of servitude under the Stuarts were the 
 effect, not of any virtue or independence which she retain- 
 ed as a Church, but of those feelings and passions, (many 
 
102 
 
 of them laudable,) wliich at that period animated the bulk 
 of the nation, and from which even the churchmen were not 
 exempt. 
 
 *' The Established Church is loyal," who doubts it ? 
 where is the pampered slave who is not attached to his 
 master ; whosoever has a servant under his orders, says to 
 him, go, and he goeth, come, and he cometh, and if he 
 know the will of his master and doeth it not, he will be 
 beaten with many stripes ; yet, when he has done all that 
 was assigned to him, he is still but an unprofitable 
 servant. 
 
 Tlie Catholic Church is also loyal — but she is loyal 
 through a sense of duty, and because such is the line of 
 conduct prescribed to her by Almighty God. She is 
 devoted to the prince established by divine Providence, 
 not thiough fear or necessity, but freely and chearfully ; in 
 every country, and under whatsoever circumstances, she 
 offers up, as is prescribed by St. Paul, prayers and petitions 
 for the king, and all that are in high station, that all men 
 may lead a quiet and holy life. To impugn the sincerity 
 of her children in this country in praying for the monarch, 
 and bearing towards him the most sincere dcvotedness of 
 mind and will, is one of the most unworthy deeds of 
 which any person, lay or ecclesiastic, could be guilty. 
 
 The insinuations in the Charge respecting a division of 
 allegiance, and the insecuritj'^ of that which Ave owe and 
 pay to the sovereign of these realms, are slanderous and 
 MALIGNANT. They are founded on no facts, supported by 
 no proof, they are contradicted by every page of our his- 
 tory, by the preambles of divers acts of Parliament, by the 
 statements of our friends, the confessions of our enemies, 
 by the senate and the ministers of the king. I omit our 
 
103 
 
 own oaths of allegiance, which arc incompjitible witli a di- 
 vision of allegiance, because I cannot submit to vindicate 
 myself or my fellow-countrymen from the imputation of 
 perjury. It is the grossest insult which men were ever 
 condemned to endure. 
 
 I shall never again condescend to argue this subject. 
 Let the man who lias read history, and observed the con- 
 duct of the Catholic clergy and people in the different 
 states of Europe for the last three centuries, and yet har- 
 bour this opinion, remain in his prejudice. Let him, if he 
 will be the foe of our ci\'il liberties on this ground. Whilst 
 he retained such an opinion, I should hesitate to receive 
 any favour at his hands, for if I did, I should receive it from 
 the hand I scorned. 
 
 But to such a man I would say, not that the allegiance 
 of the Catholic is undivided, but that should the Irish ever 
 violate their allegiance, they will do so, not as Catholics, 
 but as men driven by a cruel and protracted tjTaimy to 
 take refuge in dispair. Some individual of them, stripped 
 of his property, banished from his home, his religion 
 scoflfed at, his sufferings reviled — some such man may 
 wrest the child of his heart from the hands of the prosely- 
 tizer, or the embrace of her persecutor — he may take her 
 to the forum, plunge a dagger in her heart, and set a nation 
 on fire by the sprinkling of her blood. In such a case con- 
 science is silenced, the duty of allegiance is erased from the 
 heart, and he who but just before was a good christian and 
 a loyal subject, now agitated by revenge, becomes savage as 
 the tiger ; lie despises life, scoffs at danger and at death, 
 and slaking liis thirst with human blood, exclaims with Cato: 
 
 A clay, an hour, of virtuous liberty, 
 Is worth a whole eternity of bondage. 
 
10d< 
 
 To this terrific consummation this devoted country may 
 be driven, if such opinions and principles as are promul- 
 ged by Doctor Magec, become rules of thought and con- 
 duct with those who shouhl consult her peace. And those 
 men who are now reviled, because they endeavour to direct 
 the storm, which already blows too strongly, mil be praised 
 by posterity for their efforts, however fruitless, to save a 
 sinking state. Whosoever, in times to come, will walk 
 across the solitude into wliich this country may be turned, 
 whilst he sighs over the fate of its past inhabitants, will join 
 the voice of their blood in crjdng to heaven for vengeance 
 on those heartless, ruthless men, whose continued and im- 
 placable injustice, had arrayed brother against brother, 
 and settled their native country by converting it into a heap 
 of ruins. 
 
 Tlie observations of Doctor Magee, with regard to the 
 difference of the christian doctrine as taught in the Catholic 
 Church, and in the Protestant Established Chiu'ch of the 
 united kingdom, are not, probably, a fit subject of animad- 
 version by me. The Archbishop has thought proper to 
 hold forth to the public, the writer of a letter to Mr. 
 Robertson on that subject, as a person who acted " insidu- 
 ously," who " misrepresented the truth through interested 
 motives," and did I undertake to repel such charges, 
 I would seem to confess that they were credible, and that 
 deceit, or a wish to misrepresent the truth could possibly 
 find a place in that writer's breast. I might, did I dwell 
 on this subject, also appear to vindicate the private opinion 
 of an individual, rather than to refute the misrepresenta- 
 tions of the common creed and principles of Catholics 
 which abound in " the Charge ;" but individual selfishness 
 has not, thanks to God, so far prevailed over my sense of 
 duty, as to induce me to mix up the personal concerns of 
 any person M'ith the public interests. I bliall, therefore, 
 
105 
 
 leave this question to the cool and discriminating mind of 
 Doctor Lawrence, who is treated by his brother, on this 
 su])ject, witli much less courtesy tlian Ids virtues or his 
 station seemed to demand. 
 
 His Grace of Cashel has indeed, when treating of this sub- 
 ject on a late occasion in Limerick, endeavoured to make his 
 opinions acceptable to a certain class, by noticing with less 
 than his usual candour, a passage in a book quoted by his 
 Grace as written by me. I say with less than his usual can- 
 dour, for when adverting to the progress which infidelity 
 had made during the last century, and contrasting for his 
 purpose the state of a Catholic university on the continent, 
 with that of the public seminaries in these countries, it 
 should not have escaped his Grace, that lords Herbert and 
 Boulingbroke — Blount, Collins, Hobbes, Shaftsbury, all 
 English Protestants ; Spinosa, Bay le, Rousseau, and, as I 
 believe, also Helvetius, French or Dutch Calvinists, were 
 the authors or importers of infidelity on the continent; — that 
 all the Protestant seminaries there, without even an excep- 
 tion known to me, became, and continue to this day, infected 
 with the principles alluded to, and that if those principles 
 were not permitted to find a resting place in these coun- 
 tries, their exclusion was much more due to the eloquence 
 of Burke, the vigour of Pitt, the jealousy and hatred of 
 French domination, under the mask of liberty and equality, 
 than to the genius of the Protestant religion, or the dispo- 
 sitions of a great portion of the then population of the 
 empire. But however I may differ in opinion from Arch- 
 bishop Lawrence — however I may lament, that in the 
 House of Lords, his Grace of Cashel has been more in- 
 fluenced by his connexions than by the native impulse of 
 his heart — however J. K. L. may have designated his lati- 
 tude of belief, I shall always respect his talents, venerate 
 liis humune, benevolent, and pacific disposition, and though 
 
106 
 
 he be a member of a new religion, I sliall always say of 
 his Grace, as Protestants were accustomed to write of S. S. 
 Bernard and Xavicr, utinam cum talis sis noster esses. His 
 Grace is too well informed to look upon it as degrading to 
 have the 
 
 Nova superstitio veterum ignorata deorum.— Virgil. 
 
 restored to the rank and dignity of an integral portion of 
 tlie Universal Church ; and however impracticable such a 
 restoration may appear to his Grace, without doubt, he 
 must consider it as one of those beautiful speculations em- 
 inently good and supremely desirable, though not, in his 
 opinion, compatible with the infirmity or perverseness of 
 this world in which we dwell. His Grace may not see a 
 difference which could not be remedied between the rides of 
 faith in two Churches, one of which declares such rule to 
 be the word of God as proposed to the judgment of each 
 individual, by the Church ; the other presenting it as the 
 word of God interpreted by each individual, but subject 
 to the authority of the Church, she being authorized to 
 excommunicate whomsoever dissents from her interpreta- 
 tion of it. About what is, or what is not the word of God, 
 there may be an essential difference between the Churches, 
 but as to human traditions being added to the revelation of 
 God, or erected above it, as is set forth in " the Charge," 
 his Grace knows that such assertions are unfounded, nay, 
 that they flow only from minds in wliich the passions have 
 established their empire. 
 
 It is equally well known to his Grace, that of aU the 
 doctrines of both Churches, said by Doctor Magee to be 
 opposed to each other, there are several, to say the 
 least, rendered so by the distorting comments of furious 
 men, rather than by the sjiirit of union and of peace. 
 
107 
 
 A singular instance of the nature and tendency of such 
 comments may be seen in a pamphlet, signed N. and writ- 
 ten by some very grave personage, as a comment upon the 
 late Charge of his Grace of Cashel. 
 
 In this pamphlet the doctrine of Catholics, regarding 
 original sin, justification by Christ, the nature of good 
 works, is grossly misrepresented. No man of learning, 
 however, or of equity can be imposed on by such fictions ; 
 and as to the multitude who are deceived by them, and so 
 kept not only estranged from their brethern, but in a 
 state of accrimonious hostility towards them, they must 
 be objects of compassion to Doctor Lawrence, and to 
 every good man who believes that the God of the christians 
 is a God not of dissension but of peace. Doctor Magee 
 may declaim against the " numerous and deadly errors of 
 the Church of Rome," but declamation or bold assertion 
 is not proof; and every man of sense will question the 
 veracity or justice of censures so severe, until he finds 
 that they are sustained by authority or proved by argument. 
 I not only deny that there are " numerous and deadly er- 
 rors" taught by the Church of Rome, or by any Churcli 
 in communion Avith her ; but i assert, that, it is 
 
 IMPOSSIBLE to prove FROM THE SACRED SCRIPTURE 
 THAT ANY ONE ARTICLE BELIEVED OR TAUGHT BY HER 
 OR THEM, IS FORBIDDEN BY, OR CONTRARY TO THE 
 
 REVEALED WILL OF GOD : Nay, more, I assert, that 
 there is not one article or doctrine of tbe Creed of the 
 Protestant Church, which can be proved by the sacred 
 Scriptures, in that respect, or in that sense, in which it differs 
 from, or is op])osed to the doctrine of the Roman Catho- 
 lic and Apostolic Church. And I add, if " numerous and 
 deadly errors" prevailed in the Church of Rome, and in 
 the Churches in communion witli her, that the Church of 
 Christ would have failed in all that is essential to its being. 
 
108 
 
 that Christ liimsclf would hfive been wanting to liis pro- 
 mise — consequently not be the God of truth, and that 
 divine faith is no longer existing on the earth. These arc 
 strong expressions, and what they announce is of great 
 importance ; I place them in juxta position with the un- 
 called for assertions of the writer of " the Charge," and 
 should ho at any time, undertake to prove what he asserts, 
 I promise, if blessed with life and health, to refute his 
 proofs, and to establish what I have advanced. This, 
 however, would be an ungrateful task, and undertaken, 
 like that in which I am now engaged, through necessity, 
 and not through choice. 
 
 I abhor dissension, I dislike controversy ; I have never, 
 but in the lawful defence of my Country or Religion, 
 when both or either were assailed, not by vulgar calumni- 
 ators, but by men of station, opened my lips or dipped my 
 pen in ink to interest the public : I have never exhibited to 
 the disgust or indignation of my fellow subjects, the ty- 
 ranny, the absurdity, the hypocrisy of the fm'ious men who 
 assail us, unless when I apprehended that truth or justice 
 imperatively required of me to speak or write in our de- 
 fence. I have from my youth deeply imbibed the senti- 
 ment of Lucilius, 
 
 " Virtus est dare quod reipsa debetur honori, 
 
 Hostem esse morumque malorum 
 
 Contra, defensorem hominum morumque bonorum, 
 Hos magni facere, his bene velle, his vivere amicum, 
 Commoda prceterea Patrise sibi prima putare ;" 
 
 and though I may never be able to ascend to the place al- 
 lotted to the wise and good, as exhibited in the picture of 
 this life by Epictetus, I shall never, God being my helper, 
 cease to combat those furious or deceiving passions which 
 infest the way, embarrass or corrupt mankind, and aug- 
 ment the number of human ills. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 The following Series of Extracts not only shew tlie 
 present deplorable state of the Protestant Churches 
 througjhout Europe, but also that Protestantism, after 
 loosing every moral bond, terminates in infidelity. 
 
 La Religion Catholique Apostolique et Romaine, est incon* 
 
 testablement la seule sure Mais, cette religion exige, en 
 
 nieme temps, de ceux qui I'embrassent, la soumission la plus 
 entiere de la raison. Lorsqu'il se trouve, dans cette commu- 
 nion, un homme d'un esprit inquiet, remuant, et difficile jl 
 contenter, il commence d'abord a s'etablir juge de la verite des 
 dogmes qu'on lui propose a croire : et ne trouvant point cet 
 objet de la foi un degre d'evidence que leur nature ne comporte 
 pas, il se fait Protestant ; s'appercevant, bientot de I'incoherence 
 des principes qui caracterisent le protestantisme, il cherche dans 
 le socinianisme une solution a ses doutes et a ses difficultes ; 
 et il devient socinien. Du socinianisme, au Deisme, il n'y a 
 qu'une nuance tr^s-imperceptible et un pas a faire : il le fait, 
 mais le deisme n'est lui-meme qu'une religion inconsequente, 
 il 86 precipite, insensiblement, dans le Pyirhonisme, etat violent 
 et aussi humiliant pour I'amour propre qu'incompatible avec la 
 nature de I'esprlt Imniain. Eiitin il finit par tonibcr dans 
 I'atheisrae." — French Encyclopedia , Art unitaires. 
 
The State of the Protestant Churches of the Continent, by 
 Robert Haldane, in his second Review of the Conduct 
 of tlve, British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 
 " The majority of pastors and professors of divinity in Ger- 
 many, for about the last thirty years, have called themselves 
 Rationalists. Rationalism consists in a sort of idolatry of the 
 human understanding, and it therefore rejects all truth which 
 cannot be discovered, except by Divine revelation. In Ger- 
 many, the Churches seem to vanish by degrees ; they are often 
 seen in ruins. Mr, Dassel, the first clergyman in Sladliagen, 
 wrote a book in the year 1818, in which he endeavours to 
 prove, that the time is come when all Churches should be 
 changed into manufactories, because the people now are suffi- 
 ciently enlightened to reject the former use of them. About 
 the end and beginning of the last and present centuries, several 
 clergymen recommended in their writings the giving up of the 
 old superstition, and began to preach the best method of feed- 
 ing cattle, on choosing good kinds of potatoes, on agriculture in 
 general, &c. The people becoming generally dissatisfied with 
 the Scriptures, and thinking that they can find the same mora- 
 lity in other books, often gave up attendance on public worship 
 altogether. On the whole, the greatest number of the pastors 
 and professors in the north-west and middle part of Germany, 
 ai"e Rational Naturalists ; in other words, decided Deists" 
 
 " It is curious to observe in what manner the Rationalists get 
 rid of all miracles. Professor Paulus, in his critical commentary, 
 presents many instances of these explanations. The man with 
 the withered hand had, as Paulus explains it in his commentary, 
 only a luxation of the shoulder, which Jesus observing, pulled 
 it into joint. Professor Schultness explains this miracle as 
 follows : ' The man had a severe rlieumatism ; Christ observing 
 that his blood was much moved by the indignation with which he 
 heard the question of the Pharisees, said to him in that favoura- 
 ble monient, stretch out thine hand ; the man attempted to do 
 it and was healed, because that extraordinary excitement had 
 removed the impediment under which he laboured." 
 
" When Christ restored sight to the blind man, we arc in- 
 formed by such interpreters, that the poor fellow had such a 
 weakness in his eyelids, that he could not keep his eyes open. 
 But for a long time he had not attempted to open them, and 
 Christ observing that he never made the attempt to do it, said 
 to him, * thou shalt open thine eyes.' The confidence of the 
 man in him, as the Messiah, was so great, that making the at- 
 tempt with all his might, he opened his eyes." 
 
 " Christ never walked on the waves, but on the shore, or he 
 swam behind the ship, or he walked through the shallows." 
 
 ♦' The daughter of Jairus was not dead, because Christ himself 
 said, she sleepeth." 
 
 " Wlien Jesus said to Peter, ' thou shalt catch a fish and find in 
 his mouth a piece of money ;' the meaning is, before you can 
 sell it for so much, you must first open its mouth to take out 
 the hook." 
 
 " At Cana, in Galilee, Jesus gave a nuptial present of very 
 fine wine, with which, for a joke, he filled the water-pots of 
 stone." 
 
 " The paralyti'', (John 5) was an idle fellow, who, for thirty- 
 eight yeare, liad moved neither hand or foot. Christ asked him 
 the ironical question, perhaps thou wouldst be whole ? This irony 
 stirred him up; he forgot his hyj^ocricy, and running away with 
 his bed, left that hospital in which he had lain thirty-eight 
 years." 
 
 " When Jesus is said to have ascended into heaven, the disci- 
 ples lost sight of him in a fog." 
 
 " Some of the Rationalists teach, that the Apostles were 
 deceived ; others, that they were deceivers ; and some, that 
 they were at once deceivers and deceived. In short, Ration- 
 alism is Deism, ornamented with some phrases of the New 
 Testament, and produces such effects as we mightexpect from it." 
 
 SWEDEN, NORWAY, AND FINLAND. 
 
 " Tlie tide of infidelity more slowly reached these northern 
 countries, viz : Sweden, Norway and Finland ; but its arrival 
 
was only tlie lator and not iho less disastrous. The faith of the 
 people was very much overturned by the preachers of humanity, 
 sent forth by the infidel university of Copenhagen. Norway, 
 united to Denmark, at a time when that kingdom seemed to 
 have entirely abandoned the religion of the Cross, and embraced 
 the principles of the wildest and vilest infidelity, shared its fate 
 of being egregiously darkened and wholly converted into a 
 merely nominally christian church." 
 
 PRUSSIA. 
 " Among the number of stationary clergymen of the establish- 
 ment in Berlin, there are four, besides a Moravian minister, 
 who preach and live evangelically, but all the other pastors are 
 either directly opposed or indifferent to the truth. But what is 
 here stated of Berlin, is not to be taken as a criterion for the rest 
 of Prussia by any means, but rather as an exception, as it is well 
 too well known, that the rest of the Clergy, go almost where 
 you will, are in a state of neologian darkness." (Neologists 
 are the same as Rationalists, that is, Deists.") 
 
 " The City of Dantzick (with a population of about 50,000 
 souls,) affords a truly affecting spectacle, in a religious sense. 
 During a stay there of nearly two months, I had full proof that 
 the candle of the Lord was removed not from one, but from 
 every religious body in the city." 
 
 HUNGARY. 
 
 " The state of religion amongst the Hungarians filled him 
 with sorrow and grief, to behold such a multitude of people, 
 who still bear the |name of Protestant Christians, but who are 
 very little better than the heathens, either :in refined scepticism 
 or gross superstition. The value of a Minister (among them) 
 is rated according to his oratorical powers, no matter what 
 doctrine he teaches, or what tenets he holds." 
 
 HOLLAND. 
 
 " Arianism and Socinianism have, during the last 25 years, 
 
made great progress in the academies, and tlie reformed clmrches, 
 although they preserve more or less the forms of orthodoxy, yet 
 tlie spirit and life of it are wanting among the greatest number 
 of pastors." 
 
 OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS. 
 
 *' The Protestant college at Montanbau, (the only institution 
 in France for the education of Protestant pastors) has been sin« 
 gularly unhappy in the appointment of those who have occupied 
 the divinity department — while a few good pastors may be 
 found in France, who, in sjiite of that miserable course of in- 
 struction under which they were placed, have been brought to 
 the knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. It may easily 
 be conceived how unfit the great body of the Protestant minis- 
 ters must be for their office, Arians, Socinians, Neologists, of 
 no fixed opinion whatever as respects the gospel — they are in 
 general, blind leaders of the blind." 
 
 EXTHACTs from Vhistoire des Sectes Religieuses, par 
 M. Gregoire. Paris, 1814. 
 
 " Dans les remontrances du clerge presentees a Louis xviii. 
 en 1Y80 les eveques s'expriment ainsi : *sans invoquer la noto- 
 riete publique, et sans se prevaloir des aveux ediappes a I'indis- 
 cretion de celebres Calvinistes, n'avons-nous pas vu I'ecole 
 meme de Geneve, donner, ily a trois ans le scandaleux spec- 
 tacle d'une these publique non contredite, dans laquelle on n'a 
 pas rougi de mettre en probleme la divinite de notre Seigneur 
 Jesus-Christ, borne immuable qui separc toujours le simple 
 deismc du christianisme ?" 
 
 " Un Academicien de Berlin me disait que le Protestantisme 
 (c'est sa religion) est a michemin de I'incredulite ; un autre 
 savant de la meme communion, Stapfer, se plaint des Theolo- 
 giens, qui par lour uouvdle Excgcse cscamotcnt au pcuple sa 
 
 u 
 
religion : car la plupart des innovations religieuscs en Alle- 
 magne sont leur ouvrage." 
 
 " G. F. Gruner, dans ses institutions de theologie dogmati- 
 que pretend que I'Eglise est en erreur sur la Trinity et I'expia- 
 tion par Jesus-Christ." 
 
 " Le professeur Gambord, dans un ouvrage Danois intitule 
 * Jesu Moral,' ne montre le Redempteur que comme un ambas- 
 sadeur de la Divinite envoye aux hommes." 
 
 " Bassedow, a Dessaw, se disait Arien ou plutdt Deiste et 
 voulait qu'on batit un temple a la providence." 
 
 " Semler, dans ses ouvrages historiques sur le Christianisme 
 le reduit a n'etre qu'une docti'ine puremcnt huniaine." 
 
 " Le Doctcur Bahrdt, connu par I'etendue de ses connais- 
 Bances et son libertinage, revoque en doute la realite de la mort 
 de Jesus-Christ et sa resurrection." 
 
 " Le ministre Schulz a Gielsdorf, en Brandenbourg, prechait 
 contre la divinite de Jesus-Christ, sa resuiTection, sa Missiaon 
 et celle de Moise : des miiiistres ont pris, la defence de Schulz 
 entre autres Loefler, surintendant de Gotha. Quand on conuait 
 Loefler : on eprouve des regi'ets aimers de voir un homme si 
 distingue dans les range de ceux qui voudraient ebranler les 
 verites fondamentales du christianisme." 
 
 " De Vos coHseiller de cour a Weiman consent qu'on en- 
 seigne les hommes qui ont atteint la virilite d'apres I'ancienne 
 doctrine : mais il veut qu'on precede autrement pour la gene- 
 xation nouvelle." 
 
 " Le Docteur Bock, dans son Histoire des ecrivains anti- 
 trinitaues donne la notice de cent quarante-quatre. Certes 
 actuellement on pourrait en doubler le nombre." 
 
 " Sleinbart distingue deux systemes religieux : I'un pour le 
 peuple, I'autre pour les savans. La religion Chretienne n'est, 
 a son avis, que la religion naturelle clairement exposee par Jesus 
 Chiist et necessaire au peuple qui se conduit par son autorite ; 
 mais inutile aux hommes instruits, qui ont la raison pour guide." 
 
 " L'electeur de Saxe en 1776 rendit un edit contre le soci- 
 nianisme, que plusieurs savaus, dit-il, cherchent a repandre." 
 
Vll 
 
 " Le senat dTIlm a defendu aux minist.ies de precher le 
 socinianisme, qu'on preche egalemeiit a Copenhague, un miiiistre 
 ayant dans un sermon, parle de Jesus-Christ comme s'il n'etait 
 
 qu'un honime vertueux, re^ut des reprorhes de I'eveque 
 
 mais tout ce qu'il en resulta, c'est que, des le dimandie suivant, 
 toute la cour vint au sermon du cure." 
 
 " Les Protestans Fraucais 8ont arrives au meme terme que 
 
 ceux des autres contrees On voit par la collection intitulee 
 
 Acta Ecclesiastica, publiee a Weiman pendant pres d'un siecle, 
 que depuis long-temps le socinianisme s'etait repandu dans le 
 pays de Vaud." 
 
 " Les ministres Genevois interroges, il y a une cinquantaine 
 d'annees, sur la divinite de Jesus-Christ, firent attendre pendant 
 six semaines une reponse qui n'exigcait qu'une minute par oui, 
 ou non. A cette occasion J. J. Rousseau, dans ses lettres de 
 la Montague disait ' Les R6formes de nos jours, du moins les 
 ministres, ne connaissent ou n'aiment plus leur religion. Un 
 philosophe les penetre, les voit Ariens sociniens : il le dit, et 
 pense leur faire honneur : mais il ne vait pas qu'il expose leur 
 interet personnel, la seule chose qui generalement, decide 
 ici has de la bonne foi des hommes. Aussitot alarmes, effrayes 
 ils s'assemblent, ils discutent, ils s'agitent, ils ne savent a quel 
 saint se vouer : et apres forces de consultations, deliberations, 
 conferences, le tout aboutit a un amphigouri ou Ton ne dit ni 
 
 oui ni non O Genevois ! ce sont de sijiguliercs gens que 
 
 vos ministres on ne sait ce qu'ils croient ni ce qu'ils ne croient 
 pas, on ne sait pas meme ce qu'ils font seniblant de croire : 
 leur seule maniore d'etablir leur foi est d'attaquer celle des 
 autres." 
 
 Extracts f ram the Sermons of the Rev. Hugh James Rose^ 
 M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge., wi the stale of the 
 Protestant Religion in Germany. 
 
 " A large portion of the Protestant Churches of Germany 
 hailed these principles (tlie principles of Rationalism) with 
 
 w 2 
 
delight, and spread with eagenness this purer system of Chris- 
 tianity. It was taught by her divines from the pulpit, — by her 
 jn-ofess9ors from the chairs, — it was addressed to the old, as the 
 exhortation which was to free them from the weight and burden 
 of ancient prejudices and observances, — and to the young, as 
 that knowledge which alone could make them truly wise, or 
 or send them into life wnih right and rational views. With the 
 exception of I^essing, or, at most, one or two others, all the 
 writers to whom I allude, are at least doctors in divinity. Paulus, 
 one of the most atrocious of the party, was professor of divin- 
 ity at Wurlsburg. I cannot say whether he holds the same 
 office at Heidleberg, where he now resides. De Wett, Kiu- 
 noel, Wegsheider, and many others, are professors, either ordi- 
 nary or extraordinary, in the Universities to which they belong. 
 It need not be added, that the Protestant Church of that Coun- 
 try (Germany) is the mere shadow of a name. For this abdi- 
 cation of Christianity was not confined to either the Lutheran 
 or Calvinistic profession, but extended its baleful and withering 
 influence with equal force over each. It is equally unnecessary 
 to add, that its eft'ects were becoming daily more conspicuous 
 in a growing indifference to Christianity in all ranks and degrees 
 of the nation." 
 
 " They (the rationalizing divines) are bound by no law, but 
 their own fancies ; some are more, and some less extravagant ; 
 but I do them no injustice, after this declaration, in saying, that 
 the general inclination and tendency of their opinions (more or 
 less forcibly acted on) is this, that, in the New Testament, we 
 shall find only the opinions of Christ and the Apostles adapted 
 to the age in which they lived, and not eternal truths ; that 
 Christ himself had neither the design, nor the power of teach- 
 ing any system which was to endure ; that, when he taught any 
 enduring truth, as he occasionally did, it was without being 
 aware of its nature ; that the Apostles understood still less of 
 real religion ; that the whole doctrine, both of Christ and his 
 Apostles, as it is directed to the Jews alone, so it was gathered 
 in fact from no other source than tlie Jewish philosophy; that 
 
IX 
 
 Chiist himself errctl, and his Apostles spread his errors, and 
 that, consequently, no one of his doctrines ia to be received on 
 their authority ; but that without regard to the authority of the 
 books of Scriptui'e, and their assertetl divine origin, each doc- 
 trine is to be examined according to the principles of right rea- 
 son, before it is allowed to be divine." 
 
 " It will be sufficient to say, tliat they who wish to form a notion 
 of the German method of explaining the doctrines of Scripture, 
 as to the Saviour, the Atonement, and all the consequent doc- 
 trines, need only turn to the page of ecclesiastical history for 
 a record of the various heresies of the early ages, and that they 
 will also find a tolerable picture of them in the mo.st violent 
 English Unitarians. The Trinity, Incarnation, and descent 
 of the Spirit are positively denied : — Christ was a mere man. 
 The doctrine was not made up or established for nearly the 
 three first ages. The doctrine of the Fall, and of Original Sin, 
 is set aside entirely. God has always raised up men to repress 
 vice and encourage virtue, as, especially, Pythagoras, Socrates, 
 Plato, Zeno, Seneca, Marcus Antonius, Zoroaster, Confucius, 
 and Mahomet, but, among all, the greatest reverence is due to 
 Jesus the Nazerene." 
 
 " It is expressly acknowledged, that, in Scripture, literally 
 understood, there are some grounds (Semina) for the orthodox, 
 as to the two natui'es in Christ, yet, as such a doctrine is of no 
 use to the attainment of viitue, bnt rather j)rejudiciul, by di- 
 minishing the force of Christ's example, as it contradicts reason, 
 and some other declarations of Scripture, it is better to adopt 
 the other side of the question. All the notions of gloriGca- 
 tions arc either without ground, or mythi (fables,) all notion of 
 his Atonement is renounced. It appears unnecessary to go 
 through the whole doctrines usually taught by the orthodox 
 Churches, as it is obvious, tliat after these principles, the whole 
 exposition of the doctrine is, and nmst be, Socinian at least." 
 
 " Some went so far as to .attack the whole body of the Pro- 
 phets as impostors, in the most outrageous and revolting terms. 
 Faith in these deceivers, it is said in one of their books, is 'the 
 
cause of there being no real faith in the world.' There is a 
 book called, 'Moses and Jesus,' by Buchholz, published at Berlin, 
 1806, in which, Moses especially, is abused, accused first of 
 deceit and then of terrorism. Ammon says, that, leaving to 
 philosophers to decide whether the gift of prophecy be possible 
 or not, it is quite clear that Christ himself renounces the power ; 
 (Mat. 24, 36. Acts 1,7,) and that therefore there are no pro- 
 phecies of his in the New Testament ; that prophecies are re- 
 corded in the Bible as uttered by men of doubtful character, 
 as Num. 22, 5, 1st King, 22, 22, that many are obscure, and 
 are never fulfilled, and that others seem to have been made 
 after the event, that all are reckoned obscure and imperfect by 
 the Apostles themselves. As these accusations apply, he says, 
 to almost all the prophecies of Old and New Testament, it 
 must be confessed that the argument from piophecy needs 
 whatever excuse it can find, both in the delirium of the prophets, 
 who were transported out of their sense, (John 11, 31, 2nd 
 Peter 1, 21,) the double sense in which they are quoted in the 
 New Testament, (Mat. 2, 23, Rom. 10, 18,) and the remark- 
 able variety of interpretations. Ammon and Wegsheider further 
 say, that Jesus, in Mat. 11, 11, Luke 7, 28, spoke in terms 
 of contempt of the Hebrew prophets, which is quite untrue. 
 Wegshider adds, that prophecies would favour fatalism, and 
 that there are no prophecies, properly so called, sufficiently 
 clear in either Testament."' 
 
 " With respect to the miracles, when they were urged, as 
 proof of immediate agency, by some, they were said to be that 
 mythology which must attend every religion to gain the multi- 
 tude ; by some, the common and well known arguments and 
 ribaldry of the infidel were unsparingly used ; by one or more, 
 high in station in the Church, some artifice, and probably mag- 
 nitism, has been within the last ten years suggested. From the 
 less daring, however, the answer was always, either that it was 
 impossible that there should have been a miracle under such 
 circumstances ; or that, even allowing Christ to have had the 
 power of working miracles, it was highly improbable that, in 
 
XI 
 
 the particular case alleged, he would have judged it right to 
 exert it ; and secondly, the words were examined, and, by every 
 possible distortion, they were forced into any meaning but 
 their own. RosenmuUer says, that miracles have lost all their 
 force as proofs ; and Thies, the translator of the New Testament, 
 says, that neither the conversion of St. Paul nor the ascension of 
 Christ, will now make converts ; for, as the sphere of nature 
 enlarges, miracles vanish. On the conversion of St. Paul, see 
 Bretshuneider. Wegsheider says, that the story is so told, that 
 we can make nothing of it, and that we must remember that 
 St. Paul was much inclined to visions and extacies. And as to 
 the ascension of Christ, Wegsheider has written expressly to 
 prove it a mythus. Wegsheider says, that f/^oM^^A Christ seemed 
 to the slanders by to expire, yet after a few hours, being given 
 up to the sedulous care of his friends, he returned to life on the 
 third day. Paulus tells us, that Christ did not really die, but 
 suffered a fainting fit. One person, called Breneck, has written 
 a book, to shew that Christ lived twenty-seven yeais on eaith 
 after his ascension. Another author says, ' that although 
 we had better leave tilings as they are for the vulgar, who must 
 have something extreme to rely on, yet divines should examine 
 and find out the truth, that we see, in every religion many 
 my thi of the generations, incarnations, and apparitions of the 
 gods ; and that they who call Mahomet an iniposter, and Zo- 
 roaster mad — who laugh at the story of Buddha's generation 
 from a virgin, who conceived him l)y a rainbow — or at Ma- 
 homet's discourses with Gabriel, &c., should not be angry if 
 people examine the stories of Enoch, Moses, Sampson, &c. 8ic. 
 or put the greatest part of what is related of Jesus and the 
 Apostles into the class of fables ; that the real religion of Jesus 
 is rational, but that when he found that men could not be driven 
 from their views otherwise, lie began to assume a supernatural 
 authority, and play the part of a prophet, and afterwards took 
 up that of the Messiah, because some of his admirers thought he 
 must 1)0 the person.' Afterwaids ' he decides, that it was 
 mobt probable Jesus had deceived himself, and was really per- 
 
xu 
 
 suaded himself, that he did pos9csf5 supomatural powers, and 
 that he was thus an enthusiast in the best sense." 
 
 " We see," says Luther, " that through the malice of the 
 devil, men are now more avaricious, more cruel, more disorderly, 
 more insolent, and much more wicked, than they were under 
 popery." — (In Postil, Dom. part 1 ; Dom. 2, Adv. ) " If any 
 one wish," says Musculus, "to see a multitude of knaves, dis- 
 turbers of the public peace, &c., let him go to a city where the 
 gospel is preached in its purity," (he means a reformed city ;) 
 "for it is cleai-er than the light of the day, that never were pa- 
 gans more vicious and disorderly than those professors of the 
 gospel." — (Dora. 1. Adv.) — " The thing," says Melancthon, 
 " speaks for itself. In this country, among the reformed, their 
 whole time is devoted to intemperance and drunkenness, (iw- 
 manibus poculis. So deeply are the people sunk into barba- 
 rity and ignorance, that many of them would imagine that they 
 should die in the night, if they should chance to fast in the day." 
 —(Ad. Cap. 6, lat.) Neither was this gi-owth of vice and 
 ignorance confined to foreign kingdoms. " In this nation," 
 says Stubbs, (Motives of Good Works, with an Epistle dedi- 
 catorie to the Lord ^Nlayor of London, an. 1596,) after he had 
 made the tour of England, " I found a general decay of good 
 works, or rather a plain defection or falling away from Go<l. — 
 For good works, who sees not that they," (the papists of former 
 times,) " were far before us, and we far behind them ?" — Eras- 
 mus thus describes the fruits of the reformation ; he was, in- 
 deed, a Catholic ; but a Catholic whom the Protestants allow 
 to have been impai-tial. — " And who," t-ays he, " are those 
 gospel people ? — Look around you, and shew lue one who has 
 become abetter man; shew me one, who, once a glutton, is now 
 turned sober ; one, who, before violent, is now meek ; one, 
 who, before avaricious, is now generous ; one, who, before 
 impure, is now chaste. I can point out multitudes, who are 
 worse than they were before. * * * * WTiat tumults ami 
 seditions mai'k their conduct I — For what trifles do thev flv to 
 
Xlll 
 
 arms ! St. Paul commanded tJie first chilstiane to slum the 
 
 society of the wicked ; and, behold I the reformers seek most 
 the society of the most corrupted ; these are their delight. The 
 gospel now flourishes ; forsooth, because priests and monks take 
 wives in opposition to human laws, and in despite of their sacred 
 vows." Capito, a great partizan of Luther, (Epist. ad Farrell, 
 int. Calv. p. 5,) writes thus to Farrell, a leader among the 
 CalvinistH. " I acknowledge the great evils which we have oc- 
 casioned in the church, by rejecting, with so much imprudence 
 and precipitation, the authority of the Pope. The people is now 
 without bridle or curb, and despises all authority ; as if by 
 abolishing the papacy, we had suppressed, in the same manner, 
 the power of the servants of the church, and the efficacy of the 
 sacraments ! Every one now exclaims — I have enough to 
 guide myself ! As I have the gospel to lead me to the disco- 
 very of Jesus Christ and his doctrines, what need I of other 
 help ?" — " All the waters of the Elbe," Melancthon writes to 
 one of his correspondents, (Melancth. Ep. 1, iv. Ep. 100-129,) 
 " would not give me sufficient tears to bewail the miseries of 
 the reformation." Bishop Burnett gives the following view of 
 the state of morality in England, in the reign of Edward VI. 
 (History of the Reformation, part 2, p. 226) — " The sins of 
 England did, at that time, call down from heaven heavy curses. 
 They are sadly expressed in a discourse that Ridley wrote after, 
 under the title Of the Lamentation of England : he says, 
 that "lechery, oppression, pride, covetousness, and a hatred and 
 econi of all religion, were generally spread among all people ; 
 but chiefly those of higher rank." — " Lechery," says Latimer, 
 " is used in England, and such lechery, as is used in no other 
 part of the world. And it is made a matter of sport, a trifle, 
 not to be passed on or reformed." Luther describes his con- 
 duct and feelings, while he remained within the pale of the 
 Catholic religion, and observed the rules of his order : — "Wlien 
 I lived in my monastery, I punished my body with watching, 
 fasting and prayer ; I observed my vows of chastity, poverty 
 and obedience. — Whatsoever I did, it was with singleness 
 
XIV 
 
 of heart. ; with good zeal, and for the gloiy of God, kc. I 
 feared grievously the last day, and was, froia the bottom of my 
 heart, desirous of being saved." (Ad Gal.) After he had com- 
 menced reformer : — " I am burnt," he said, " with the flames 
 of my untamed flesh ; I am mad almost with the rage of lust, 
 and the desire of women. I, who ought to be fervent in spirit, 
 am fervent in impurity, in sloth, &c. (In Col. Mens.) Relying 
 on the strong foundation of my learning, I yield not, in pride, 
 either to the emperor, prince, or devil ; no, not to the universe 
 itself.— (Resp. ad Maled. Regni Anglise.) Fletcher's transla- 
 tion of these three passages. — Sermons, vol. 2, p. 116-117. 
 
 The following Quotations skew the admirable accordance of 
 the present with the past state of Protestantism. 
 
 " There are am07ig us, those not less in darkness and igno- 
 rance than those that are to be found in the pagodas of China, 
 or who, amidst the deepest wilds of Indian forests, sacrifice 
 their children, or prostitute themselves before demons, at whom 
 they tremble, but whom as Gods they adore." — Home Mission- 
 ary Magazine, Jan. 1820, p. 22. — (Speech of John Willcs, 
 Esq., Chairman at a Home Missionary Meeting.) At the same 
 meeting the Rev. Mr. Iron stated, " In our own country, there 
 were MILLIONS whose consciences were weuer appealed to by faith- 
 ful ambassadors, and who never heard of the Prince of Life." 
 The Rev. Mr. Evans stated, " that he had travelled through 
 districts of twenty miles without a single school for religious 
 instiiiction." In the Report read at the first annual meeting 
 of the Parent Home Missionary Society, held May 15, 1820, 
 it is stated in reference to " Northumberland, Cumberland, 
 Durham, and part of Lancashire," that " darkness covers this 
 part of England, and gross darkness the people" p. 2. that 
 " the more internal parts of Northumberland are awfully desti- 
 tute, and the people are living in the greatest darkness." p. 3. 
 
That the county of Worcester " has been tormod the garden of 
 England ; but in a moral light it may be regarded as a waste, 
 howling wilderness." p. 4. Staffordshire is stated to contafti 
 three hundred thousand inhabitants, " the gi-eater part of whom 
 sit in darkness and the gloomy shades of overspreading death." 
 pages 4 and 5 — Again, " Oxfordshire presents but a dreary 
 desert." p. 5. And a " moral wilderness of awful dimensions." 
 p. 7. — As to a part of Berkshire, it is stated, " no one unac- 
 quainted with similar scenes, can form an adequate idea of the 
 extreme ignorance of the inhabitants of those villages." p. 5. 
 The writer adds, " not only these villages, but a number of 
 others near us, are similarly situated ; in one of them, the vil- 
 lages are in a state of complete mental darkness." p. 6. (Se- 
 cond Report of the Home Missionary Society, p. 12.) The 
 framers of this report, state, that Mr. Sparks preached in four 
 places, which " were mere moral wildernesses, and knew no- 
 tJbing of evangelical truth." p. 14. In the third annual report, 
 it is distinctly asserted, that " none but those who have taken 
 the trouble to explore the village population, can possibly 
 conceive their wretched state of ignorance, and the degree 
 of vice that prevails amongst them." — One of the Missionaiies, 
 on entering on his station, complains of " numbers greatly in- 
 creased, moral degi'adation unusually deepened, ignorance 
 with insensibility united, wickedness blended with every vice, 
 and heightened into barbarity of manners." p. 24. Another 
 says, " I verily believe, that this is the worst place under the 
 heavens, for men, women, and children seem to glory in blas- 
 pheming the name of the Lord." p. 25. Another tells the 
 Committee, " that his station exceeds every thing he ever wit- 
 nessed for wickedness, for cock-fighting, for bull- baiting ; 
 quarrelling, drunkenness, and lewdness generally prevail." 
 p. 25. In the fourth annual report it is admitted, 
 notwithstanding all their evangelizing labours, that " infi- 
 delity like a mighty Hood, has been devastating society 
 with the most awful errors and moral abominations." p. 15. 
 Their fifth annual report, adopted 5th May last, and the reports 
 
XVI 
 
 of the Baptist Home Missionary Society, are all in the same 
 strain. In conclusion, the Committee states, " there are thou- 
 sands of villages within the limits prescribed by your regula- 
 tions, where the joyful sound of a preached Gospel is never 
 heard." p. 15. So much for the "centre of light." 
 
 " The characteristics of the present times are confessedly in- 
 credulity and an unprecedented indifference to the religion of 
 Chiist." — Bishop Prettymans Charge, 1800, p. 10. 
 
 Eveii in this country there is an almost universal lukewarm- 
 ness and indifference respecting the essentials of religion." — 
 Bishop Barringtotis Charge, 1797, p. 2. 
 
 A late. Bishop of London in his Charge, 1790, p. 14-, informed 
 us that in his diocese, there were many hundreds of wretched, 
 ignorant, young creatures, of both sexes, totally destitute of all 
 education, totally unacquainted with the very first elements of 
 religion." 
 
 "In the population of England alone 1,170,000 children 
 it is much to be feared, grow up to an adult state without any 
 education at all, and almost without any useful impressions of 
 religion and morality. In the present state of things, it is not 
 too much to say, that every thirty years, at least four millions 
 and a half of adults must, in case a remedy is not applied, 
 mingle in the general population of the kingdom without any 
 fixed principles of I'ectitude, and with very little knowledge 
 either of religion or morality." — Colquhouns New System of 
 Education, p. 72, 73. 
 
 " It appears from the official documents which Mr. Yates has 
 collected and compared, that within the small circle of ten miles 
 round London, no less than nine hundred and seventy seven 
 thousand souls are shut out from the common pastoral ofBces of 
 the national religion. — " Shut out says Mr. Yates, from the pale 
 of the Church, from all participation in its benefits, they arc 
 necessarily driven to join the ranks of injurious opposition, 
 either in dissent and sectarian enthusiasm, or in the infinitely 
 more dangerous opposition of infidelity, atheism, and ignorant 
 
•lepravity." Well he may add, that, " such a mine of Heathen^ 
 ism and consequent profligacy and danger, under the very meri- 
 dian (as it is supposed) of christian illumination, cannot be con- 
 templated without terror." — Quarterly Review for Oct. 1820, 
 p. SS-i. 
 
 *' I doubt much whether the immorality of Edinburgh is not 
 equal, perhaps greater, than that of Loudon." — JohnMacculloch, 
 M.D. F.R.S. The Highlands of Scotland. 
 
 " Let any who are acquainted with the different parts of 
 England, whose avocations cany them into connexion with 
 various persons — let them testify to the truth, and they will 
 bear me out in saying, that in England there exists a bigoted 
 obstinacy against the true religion." Again, " that the bulk of 
 the peasantry of England require immediate and continual en- 
 deavours to instruct them concerning the truth, as it is in Christ 
 Jesus." — Rev. Hugh M'- Neil, Report for the year 1824, of the 
 Continental Bible Society, p. 68. 
 
 " It is of the utmost importance, that all persons who desire 
 that the preaching of the gospel may be heard on the Continent, 
 should bear continually in mind, that the word Protestant, 
 means nothing but a person wlio does not go through the cere- 
 monies prescribed by the Church of Rome, and who has, 
 together with the superstitions, for the most part renounced 
 also every fundamental of Christianity." — Report, an. 1823, of 
 tJie Continental Bible Society, p, 41-2. 
 
 " It should be observed, that Catholicism and Protestantism 
 there, (on the Continent,) do not mean what Catholicism and 
 Protestantism mean in England. The former admits of all the 
 fundamentals of Christianity — whilst the latter denies the basis 
 of Christianity altogether."— iHfr. Drummond, Report 1824, 
 J). 63-4. 
 
 " The populace of England are more more ignorant of their 
 religious duties, than they arc hi any other Christian country." 
 It would make " any one Christian heart bleed to think (says 
 Bp. Croft,) how many thousands souls there are in this land, 
 that have no more knowledge of God than heathens ; 
 thousands of the mendicant condition, and thousands of the 
 
xnii 
 
 mean husbandry-men, as they grow up to be men, grow mere 
 babes in religion ; so ignorant, as scarce to know their heavenly 
 Father." At this day the case is worse than Bishop Croft re- 
 presented it. — Quarterly Rev. No. 37, Sep. 1818, p. 20, 
 On the means of improving the people, 8^c. 
 
 " Infidelity is a rank weed, it threatens to overspread the 
 land, its root is principally fixed amongst the great and opu- 
 lent." — JBp. Watson in his apology for the Bible, last page. 
 
 " J'ai voulu indiquer comment lee croyances protestantes ont 
 du disparoetre toutes, et laisser la religion vacante dans leurs 
 contrees respectives : comment leur diversite et en d6pit de leurs 
 professions de foi, elles ont eu pour tout product un vague de- 
 isme qui a engendre la doctrine des pretendus sages du dix- 
 huitieme siecle. J'ai la conscience intime d'avoir ecrit sans passion 
 et je donne comme resultat certain, d'apresmes rechercheset mes 
 meditations, la dispesition totale du protestantisme : II n'y a 
 reellement plus de Lutheriens ni de Calvinistes : il n'ya plus 
 de mystiques dans les rangs des reformes, il ne s'y trouve merae 
 plus de Sociniens, on n'y reconnoit qu'une masse de sentimens 
 confus composes de raisonnemens et de sensations indefinies et 
 a laquelle 1' Allemagne protestante a donne elle-meme le nom de 
 religiositc pour la distinguer de la religion. La morale s'y ren- 
 contre jusqu a un certain point : mais la foi en a dispani." — 
 M. le Baron d Eckstein, dans son Protestant converti a la foi 
 catholiqxie, ceuvre intitule " le Catholigue." 
 
 The few remarks here following, are the reluctant evidence 
 of Protestant writers, against that nominal religion, which they 
 vainly seek to uphold, and in favour of that holy and always 
 enduring faith, whose efficacy and merits they are obliged to 
 acknowledge. 
 
 " What must they (the Catholics,) conclude concerning Pro- 
 testants, and the cause of the reformation, when they seethat the 
 name Protestant pastor, is sufficient to sanction every heresy, 
 while the doctrines of the gospel are entirely disregarded ? 
 No wonder they openly declare that the state of religion 
 amongst Protestants, forms the strongest argument against the 
 
XIX 
 
 reformation I In their Chupch there arc fundamental doctrines 
 retained of tlie highest importance, whicli, if reallyiCmbraced, 
 will conduct to life eternal. But the state of the public mi- 
 nistry, in many Protestant Churches is such, that salvation, 
 by means of it, is impossible." — Second Rev. of tlie British 
 and Foreign Bible Society, by Robert Haldane, p. 120. 
 
 " At whatever hour you enter a Catholic place of worship, 
 (on the Continent) some persons will be found at one or other 
 of its altars, on their knees, abstracted in solitary devotion, 
 whether the church be full or crowded with spectators. At the 
 hour of vespers, you hear the evening hymn from every house 
 in a village : and in the streets of a busy and populous town, 
 at the sound of the vesper bell, the passengers uncover their 
 heads, and halt or utter a prayer as they pass on." " Compar- 
 ing the state of mind which is thus produced, with that of our 
 own town populace, if the populace alone were considered, we 
 might almost wish that they had still been suckled in a creed 
 out-worn." Again, " They (the Continental Catholics) may 
 have their jest against the priest, and their tale and their pro- 
 verb against the friar, but this levity leaves no leaven of infi- 
 delity behind, it passes as it comes, and the principle of faith 
 remains unaffected. The observation of every intelligent per- 
 son who has travelled in Catholic Countries, may safely be ap- 
 pealed to in proof that we have not exaggerated the effect 
 which is produced upon the popular mind, by the forms and 
 discipline of the Catholic Church." — Quarterly Review for 
 October 1820, p. 557. 
 
 " The Protestantism of the Continent, ia a system from which 
 the whole of Christianity is excluded, but the forms. In fact, 
 of the two, if I were to judge, I would say popery is the best." — 
 Rev. Dr. Thorpe, Report of the Continental Bible Society, 
 for the year 1824, p. G^. 
 
 " There are pious Catholics who adhere to the doctrine of 
 the divinity of the Son of God, who and consequently will, we 
 doubt not, be themselves saved : while on the other hand, mul- 
 titudes calling themselves Protestants, have destroyed the very 
 
XX 
 
 foundation of a sinner's hope." — Robert Haldane in his letter 
 to M. C/ieneviere, p. 1 24'. 
 
 The foregoing extracts have been selected, not withont in- 
 dustry and attention, from a large mass of others of a similar 
 nature or tendency ; they are submitted, without a comment 
 almost, to every sincere christian. Let him reflect on the oc- 
 casion which called them forth — and then refer them to the 
 tribunal of his own conscience, before he is himself presented 
 before the tribunal of his God ! 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 Extract from the Dublin Weekly Register of 
 November 4<th, 1826. 
 
 " The Church of England and Ireland presents itself as tole- 
 rant. ****** If, indeed, in the frsi 
 days of the Reformation, during the perilous struggles of the 
 glorious divines and martyrs who laboured to rescue the Catho- 
 lic Church from the despotism and corruption of the Roman, 
 some acts are discoverable, which connect our Church immedi- 
 ately with intolerance, it must be remembered that the long 
 reign of Popery had rendered Europe so familiar with the idea 
 of persecution, for the sake of religion, that it is not to be 
 wondered that some vestige of this sad con-uption of Christianity 
 should have lingered with others, from which those most excel- 
 lent of men, reared, as they had been, in all the errors of 
 Popery, were not able at once to effect their perfect emancipa- 
 tion. But from the time when the Church of England and 
 Ireland became fully released from this antichristian influence, 
 and when she had assumed her true form, adjusted to the sound 
 Scriptural principles on which she was founded, what do we 
 find in the language in which she gives her sense of the 
 Christian doctrines, in the spirit which pervades her formu- 
 laries, or in the temper which has distinguished all her genuine 
 sons and followers, but the truest toleration and the most 
 Christian charity?" — (Charge of Dr. Magee, Protestant 
 Archbishop of Dublin, at his late visitation.) 
 
 I 
 
XXll 
 
 Sir, — There can be no surer standard whereby to measure 
 the tolerance of protestantism than tlie Acts of the Englisli 
 Parliament : they are not like the Decrees of Councils, made 
 in remote ages, whose language may now be tortured by differ- 
 ent interpretations. No, the English Statutes are understood 
 to the letter, for they have been acted upon even within our 
 own time, and they cannot claim the excuse of being enacted 
 by men living secluded from the world, or whose minds were 
 soured by austerities and mortifications, for they are the coun- 
 cils of men, enjoying all the sweets of social and domestic 
 happiness. Such are the authorities by which I frame my opi- 
 nion ; and the abstract of them, which I annex, must satisfy 
 every mind, that the mild tolerance of the Church of England 
 is a gross delusion, and that there is another and a more in- 
 tolerant Church than that of Rome. 
 
 As many writers, in their zeal for the Reformation, will 
 not allow the eighth Harry to be the first Reformer, I have to 
 eschew contention, commenced with the reign of King Edivard 
 the Sixth. In the year IS^S, this young prince, as supreme 
 head, had it ordained and enacted, that any cFergyman not 
 using the Book of Common Prayer, and other rites, ' accord- 
 ing to the Church of England,' or using any other form of 
 prayer, should suffer imprisonment during life. This bold 
 beginning with the Pastors must have reduced their flock, then 
 the whole population of the kingdom, to a pretty alternative I 
 Hume says, that one third of the Clergy of England were 
 deprived for non-conformity ; and with this precedent full in 
 view, why should we wonder to see the regicides under Crom- 
 well, in the next century, depriving and abolishing Archbishops, 
 and all other Dignitaries, and selling their estates, to cany on 
 the war against their King I King Edward's attention was 
 next directed to the Laity : in 1 55 1 it was enacted, that every 
 person should resort to where the Book of Common Prayer, &c. 
 shall be used, under pain of Church censures ; and that if any 
 person be present at any form of prayer or ecclesiastical rites, 
 other than those set forth in tlie liook of Common Prayer, ho 
 
shall suffer imprisonment during life ! ! — Good God, am I to 
 believe that the Reformation and slavery went hand in hand ? 
 Where, then, were the civil liberties of Englishmen ? Was there 
 no liberty of conscience, and could some dozen of individuals 
 thus throw fetters over the national mind ? Was it thought that 
 the Reformed Religion contained nothing which might, after a 
 time, recommend it to the countiy ? — and could nothing but 
 tyranny enforce the Reformation ? Indeed, it appears not. 
 Such, at all events, was the tolerance of the infantine reformed 
 Church I Soon after it was enacted, that, for doubting *the 
 Queen's supremacy, (a point questioned by some Protestant 
 Divines, and denoimced by Hume,) christians in England were 
 to suffer the pains of death and forfeit their estates, 
 as in cases of high treason ! ! f It was also enacted, that 
 for causing any prayers to be said or sung, other than those 
 contained in the said Book of Common Prayer, you should 
 forfeit your estate and be imprisoned for life ; that to be recon- 
 ciled to the Church of Rome, or withdrawn from the Church 
 of England, was punishable as for high treason ; that if at 
 the age of sixteen you went not to Church, you should pay a 
 penalty of 20/. per month ; and if unable to pay this penalty, 
 you sliould be imprisoned until you conformed. — If, unfortu- 
 nately, you had an estate, two thirds of it were vested in the 
 Crown until you became a Protestant ; and if you had no 
 estate wherewith to satisfy those penalties, you wei'e forced 
 solemnly to abjure your country, and transport yourself beyond 
 the seas for ever, giving your personal property, chattels, &c. 
 to the crown ; and should you return, the penalty was the 
 death of a felon without benefit of clergy. If you did not 
 become a member of the Established Church, under another 
 Act, you dare not move more than five miles in any direction 
 from your oivn house. You could neither christen, marry, 
 nor bury, according to the rites of any but tlie Established 
 Religion. Many of the -Acts respecting wives, cliildren, ser- 
 vants, guardians, &c. are such as I shall not shock the feelings 
 of your readers by commenting on, but will merely refer every 
 
 i2 
 
XXIV 
 
 enquirer, anxious for truth, to the following abstract, containing 
 the principal Laws of England, connected with religion, as they 
 stood from the year 1548, until so late as the year 1791, when 
 their violence was somewhat chastened dow^n by the 31st 
 Geo. III. 
 
 A perusal of this brief summary, must lead to the conviction, 
 that intellectual slavery was the first consequence of the Re- 
 fonnation in England — that the Reformed Religion did not 
 succeed by its own merits — that no respect was paid to liberty 
 of conscience — that the Reformation was forced on the country 
 by arbitrary punishments — that under the edicts of the supreme 
 head of the Protestant Church, it was impossible to be other- 
 wise than a Protestant — that liberty, estate, country, and life, 
 became the penalties of not acknowledging that supreme head ; 
 and after gathering from the most faithful historians some know- 
 ledge of how those penalties were enforced, must you not con- 
 fess that those who now boast of the Civil and Religiotis Liber- 
 ties of Old England, are meanly pandering to public delusion. 
 
 I am. Sir, 
 
 M. H. 
 
 Abstract of Acts of Parliament made in England on the 
 subject of religion, frcnn the year 1548 to the year 179L 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN IS^S. 
 
 Any Paraon, Vicar or other Minister, refusing to use ' the 
 Book of Common Prayer, and other rites and ceremonies ac- 
 cording to the use of the Church of England,' or ' using any 
 other manner of Prayer,' or speaking against the said Book of 
 Common Prayer, and being afterwards thereof three times con- 
 victed, * shall suffer imprisonment during his life.' 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1551. 
 
 Every person shall resort to Church where Common Prayer 
 shall be used, ' upon pain of punishment by censures of th<^ 
 
xxv 
 
 Church.' And any person hearing, or being present at any 
 manner or form of Common Prayer, of administration of the 
 Sacraments, making of Ministers, or of any rites, other than 
 those set forth in the said Book of Common Prayer, shall suffer 
 
 * imprisonment dm-ing his or their lives.' 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1558. 
 
 The Queen declared to be supreme head of the Church, and 
 all persons having promotions and offices, ecclesiastical or tem- 
 poral, refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, disabled from 
 retaining or exercising any such offices during life.- Any person 
 asserting the jurisdiction, spiritual or ecclesiastical, of any 
 fereign Prince, Prelate, &c., heretofore used in this kingdom, 
 shall, with his abettors, be attainted, forfeit all his estates, and 
 
 * suffer pains of death, and other penalties, forfeitures, and 
 losses, as in cases of high treason, by the laws of this realm.* 
 
 Any Minister convicted of refusing to use the book of Com- 
 mon Prayer^ or using any other rite or ceremony but what are 
 set down in said book, shall forfeit his benefice, be imprisoned 
 for twelve months, and on third conviction, shall be deprived, 
 ipso facto, of all his spiritual 'promotions — and also, shall suf- 
 fer imprisonment during his life.' If the offender have no 
 spiritual promotion, he shall suffer imprisonment for life. Any 
 person causing prayers to be said or sung than those set down 
 in the book of Common Prayer, shall, for first offence, forfeit 
 100 marks ; for second offence, 100 marks ; and on third 
 conviction, shall forfeit all his lands and goods to the Queen, 
 and suffer imprisonment for life. 
 
 Every person absenting himself from his Church, or place 
 where the book of Common Prayer is used, 'shall suffer punish- 
 ment by the censure of the Church,' and forfeit twelve pence 
 for every Sunday and holiday so absent. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 15G3. 
 
 All persons must take the Oath of the Queen's Supremacy ; 
 and any person refusing ' shall suffer and incur the danger, 
 
XXVI 
 
 penalties, pains and forfeitures ordained and provided by the 
 statute of provision and premunire aforesaid, made in the 16th 
 year of the reign of King Richard the Second.' Refusing the 
 oath the second time, declared to be treason. And no person 
 to sit in the House of Commons witliout first proving his adhe- 
 rence to the Protestant religion by taking this oath. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1571. 
 
 Any ecclesiastical person maintaining doctrines contrary to 
 the 39 Articles, shall be deprived of his benefice. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1581. 
 
 It is hereby enacted, that it shall be treason ' to withdraw 
 any person from the Religion established, to the Romish Reli- 
 gion.' And that ' it shall be treason to be reconciled to or with- 
 drawn to tlie Romish Religion.' And all aiders to suffer as for 
 misprision of treason. 
 
 Any person saying or wilfully hearing Mass, shall forfeit 200 
 marks, and suffer twelve months' imprisonment. 
 
 Any person above the age of sixteen, not going to Church or 
 usual place of Common Prayer, shall forfeit 20/. English per 
 montli ; and should he absent himself still, he shall give suf- 
 ficient sureties for 200/. at least, ' to their good behaviour,' and 
 shall 80 continue bound until they conform themselves and 
 come to Church. Any person keeping a schoolmaster, who 
 shall not repair to the Established Church, shall forfeit 10/. per 
 month. 
 
 Every person forfeiting money under this Act, and not able 
 to pay same, shall be committed to prison, there to remain un- 
 til he pays the penalties, 'or conform himself, or go to Church, 
 and there do as is aforesaid.' 
 
 For the information of your English readers, allow me 
 (within a parenthesis, as it were) to shew the ' virgin Queen's' 
 ideas of civil and religious liberty. My author on this occasion 
 is David Hume — and when we accuse Hume of bigotry, when- 
 ever he treats of Ireland, or catholicity, let us remember, 
 
XXVll 
 
 (though contemptible indeed is the apology) that he wrote in 
 the last century, and then, too, for a London tradesman. Thia 
 extract, with others which your limits preclude, will prove by 
 what a lengthened and lamentable suspension of every human 
 right the infancy of Reformation was protected in England. In 
 the year 1584-, Queen Elizabeth 'appointed 44; Comraissionera, 
 1 2 of whom were Ecclesiastics ; three Commissioners could 
 exercise the whole power of the Court ; their jurisdiction ex- 
 tended over the whole kingdom, and over all orders of men; 
 and every circumstance of their authority, and all their methods 
 of proceeding were contrary to the clearest principles of law 
 and natural equity. They were empowered to visit and reform 
 all errors, schisms — in a word, to regulate all opinions, as well 
 as to punish all breach of uniformity in the exercise of public 
 worship. They were directed to make enquiry, not only by 
 the legal methods of juries and witnesses, but by all other 
 means and ways which tlsey could devise : that is, by the rack, 
 by torture, by inquision, by imprisonment. Where they 
 thought proper to suspect any person, they might administer to 
 him an oath called ex-officio, by which he was bound to answer 
 all questions, and might thereby be obliged to accuse himself or 
 his most intimate friend. The fines which they imposed were 
 merely discretionary, and often occasioned the total ruin of the 
 offenders, contrary to the established law of the kingdom. The 
 imprisonment to which they condemned any delinquent was 
 limited by no rule but their own pleasure. They assumed a 
 power of imposing on the Clergy what new articles of subscrip- 
 tion, and consequently of faith, they thought proper. Though 
 all other spiritual Courts were subject, since the Reformation, 
 to inhibitions from the supreme Courts at Law, the Ecclesias- 
 tical Commissioners exempted themselves from that legal 
 jurisdiction, and were liable to no controul. And the more 
 to enlarge their authority, they were empowered to punish all 
 incests, adulteries, fornications, all outrages, misbehaviours, and 
 disorders in marriage ; and the punishments which they might 
 inllict were according to their wisdom, conscience, and discre- 
 
xxviii 
 
 tion. In a word, this Court was a real Inquisition, attended 
 mth all the iniquities, as well as cruelties, inseparable from that 
 horrid tribunal. In the next century, we find the Protestant 
 Clergy of Ireland exercising the powers of those Inquisitors. 
 The Roman Catholics, then forming the majority of both 
 Houses of Parliament, tendered 120,000/. to Charles I. for re- 
 dress of ' Grievances, which,' says my Reverend Friend, Dr. 
 Leland, the government historian, ' persons of all denominations 
 had experienced.' One branch of redress which Charles pro- 
 mised was, that ' touching any contumacies pretended against 
 Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction ;' the Clergy should not ' be per- 
 mitted to keep any private prisons of their own for these causes, 
 but delinquents in that kind are henceforth to be committed to 
 the king's public gaols, and by the king's officers.' It proba- 
 bly may be necessary to say, that Charles accepted the 1 20,000/. 
 but I am sure it is wholly unnecessary to add, that he did not ful- 
 fil his promise ; and, as a proof how unchanging and unchanged 
 are some of the doctrines of Protestantism, I need only advert 
 to the well known fact, that during the present year, a respec- 
 table member of the Established Church was airested on the 
 Sabbath, in a Church in this city, and detained, during Divine 
 Service, in the custody of some of the servants, by virtue of a 
 written power signed by a Prelate. This written instrument I 
 have read, and it appeared to be, as far as its want of gramma- 
 tical correctness would allow me to understand it, an impudent, 
 illegal, and vulgar imitation of the Sci Fas and Fi Fas, is- 
 sued from the King's Courts, indicted in the Saxon, or some 
 obsolete dialect of the English language. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1586. 
 
 All Jesuits, Seminary, and other Priests, remaining in En- 
 gland, or entering the kingdom after forty days, ' shall, for his 
 offence be adjudged a traitor, and shall suffer, lose, and forfeit, 
 as in case of high treason.' 
 
 Receiving or relieving any such person shall be a felony — and 
 sending money or relief to such persons, out of England, sIiuU 
 
XXIX 
 
 be punished with the penalties of premunire, or in other woi'ds, 
 with transportation and forfeiture of property. 
 
 No children to be sent beyond seas, without license ; and 
 any knowing where a Jesuit is hi this kingdom, and not disco- 
 vering it, shall forfeit 200 marks ! 
 
 Persons submitting under this Act, and conforming to the 
 Established Church, shall not go witliin ten miles of the Queen 
 for ten years ! 
 
 Note— ^Innumerable executions took place of Priests, &c. 
 under this Act, but so late as 30th June, 1646, when the 
 English and Scotch nations were in arms for liberty of consci- 
 ence, Rushworth, v. 4, p. 305, tamely mentions, as an ordi- 
 nary occurrence, that one Morgan, for having received Orders 
 beyond the seas in the Church of Rome, and coming into En- 
 gland, contrary to law, was drawn, hanged, and quartered, 
 at Tyburn. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1587. 
 
 Two-thirds of the lands and other estates of every person 
 refusing to go to Church, shall be taken into the Queen's pos- 
 session, ' leaving the third part only of the same lands, &c. to 
 and for the maintenance of the same oflFender, his wife, chil- 
 dren, and family.' 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1593. 
 
 All recusants, (persons were so called who refused to con- 
 form to the Protestant Church, in the English Statutes) shall 
 give in their names to the Curate of their Parish, who will cer- 
 tify same to the Justices, in order to take proceedings against 
 them ; and any Priest refusing to acknowledge himself as such, 
 shall be committed to prison. 
 
 Note — How offensive it would be to hint that there was ever 
 an ' Inquisition in England.' 
 
 Any person above the age of sixteen, refusing to go to 
 Church, or impugning, by speeches, the Queen's auth )rity ec- 
 closiastical, or persuading others not to go to Church, or going 
 
XXX 
 
 to any other place of religious meeting:, shall bo committed to 
 prison, there to remain, without bail or mainpiize, until they 
 conform to the Church, and hear Divine Service, as established 
 by law. 
 
 Any person offending against this Act, and not coming in 
 within three months and conforming to the Church, must ab- 
 jure and depart out of the realm, and refusing to do so, is de- 
 clai-ed felony, without benefit of Clergy. 
 
 Any person keeping in his house any one who refuses to go 
 to Church, shall forfeit 10/. for every month, and for every such 
 person refusing. 
 
 The lands and goods of persons forced to depart out of the 
 realm by this Act, shall be forfeited to the Crown. 
 
 ANOTHER STATUTE, SAME YEAR. 
 
 All persons above sixteen years of age, convicted of not 
 going to Church, shall repair to their dwellings and ' not pass 
 or remove above five miles from thence, under penalty of for- 
 feiting all their lands, goods, &c. to the Queen. 
 
 All persons not having sufficient means to pay the penalties 
 above enacted, and who still refuse to go to Church, shall, on 
 their corporal oath before two Justices, abjure and depart out 
 of this realm for ever, and should they refuse so to abjure, 
 they shall suffer and lose, as in case of felony, without be- 
 nefit of Clergy. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1602. 
 
 Confirms most of the foregoing Statutes, and enacts that any 
 person sending a child to a Popish Seminary beyond sea for in- 
 struction, shall forfeit 100/., and such child shall be afterwaids 
 incapable of inheriting his estate, or making any purchase. 
 
 No person to keep a Scliool out of the Universities or Col- 
 leges, unless in the family of a Nobleman of the Established 
 Church, under penalty of 40*. per day. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1605. 
 
 Evci-y recusant conforming, shall receive the Sacrament once 
 
XXXI 
 
 a year in liis parish Church — Church-wardens to return montlily 
 lists of persons refusing to attend Divine Service, and of their 
 chiklren above nine years of age — Justices to make proclama- 
 tion that such offenders render their bodies to the Sherifl' — • 
 monthly penalties of 20/. on each, and two-thirds of their Es- 
 tates to be taken for the King. 
 
 Every Bishop shall examine the persons in his Diocess on 
 oath, and he who ' shall refuse to answer upon oath,' shall be 
 committed to prison without bail or mainprize. (Here is a 
 specimen of the Protestant Inquisition.) 
 
 Any person above eighteen years refusing the oath of Supre- 
 macy shall incur the danger and penalties of premunire. No 
 indictments of such persons shall be reversed for want of form. 
 
 Any person reconciling another to the Church of Rome, 
 * shall have judgment, suffer and forfeit as in cases of high 
 treason.' 
 
 Penalty of 12 pence for every time persons are absent from 
 Church, and lOl. per month penalty on those who keep or re- 
 lieve a servant not going to Church service. 
 
 The Sliertff or other Officer may bi'eak open any house 
 wherein Popish Recusants shall be. 
 
 ANOTHER STATUTE SAME YEAR. 
 
 Any person discovering where Mass was said, shall have his 
 own pardon and one-third of the goods, &c. forfeited by the 
 attainder. 
 
 No recusant to come within ten miles of London, under 
 penalty of 100/. 
 
 No man married to a Popish woman shall hold any office, 
 and every married woman not conforming to the established 
 Church, shall forfeit * two parts of her jointure and two parts 
 of her dower.' 
 
 Note — Rushworth, v. 1, p. 2i\, mentions instances of ' Gen- 
 tlemen' flying to prisons, and there remaining as ' protection 
 from the lawful proceedings (the fellow says with the coldness 
 of an Eunuch) that might be had against them for recusancy.' 
 
XXXll 
 
 Everj' Popish recusant ' shall stand and he reputed to all in- 
 tents and purposes disabled as a person lawfully and duly ex- 
 communicated,' until they come to Church and receive the 
 Lord's Supper. 
 
 Any man mamed, ' otherwise than according to the orders 
 of the Church of England, by a Minister lawfully authorised,* 
 shall be utterly disabled from taking any lands in right of 
 his wife. Any woman, being a Popish recusant, marrying, 
 shall be utterly excluded from any dower, &c. in right of her 
 husband. And if any man marry a Popish woman, who has 
 no lands in her own right, he shall forfeit 100/. 
 
 Any parent not getting his child baptised by a lawful Minis- 
 ter, shall forfeit lOOZ. ! ! ! 
 
 The executors, &c. of every person not buiied in a Church 
 or Church-yard, according to the ecclesiastical laws of the 
 Established Church, shall forfeit 201. 
 
 Children sent beyond seas, shall forfeit their estates, and if, 
 on their return, they do not conform, their next a-kin being 
 Protestant shall inherit their estate. Persons sending children 
 beyond seas to forfeit 100/. 
 
 No person not a member of the Established Religion shall 
 present to any Church, Benefice or Advowson, &c. ; but same 
 are hereby given to Oxford College for ever. 
 
 Note — Under this Act Oxford College now presents to some 
 hundreds of valuable Benefices, the Advowsons of which be- 
 longed to Roman Catholics. Is it any Avonder then that this 
 former seat of learning should be converted into a hive of 
 ignorant, indolent bigots ? 
 
 No Popish recusant shall be executor, or administrator, or 
 guardian ; and no Popish books shall be brought from beyond 
 the seas. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1609. 
 
 Every person above the age of eighteen shall take the Oath 
 of Supremacy. Any person refusing to do so, shall be com- 
 mitted to Prison, witlioul bail or jnainprize, until the Assizes ; 
 
xxxin 
 
 and if he then refuse, he shall incur the danger and penalty of 
 premunire, except women covert, who shall be committed to 
 prison only, there to remain without bail or mainprise till they 
 will take the said Oath and conform, or until her husband pay 
 to the King 10/. per month, or the tliii'd part of all his estate. 
 
 Note — So rigi<lly were all those laws executed, tliat in 1626 
 we find Lord Scroop, accused to the King for conniving at Re- 
 cusancy, inasmuch as he had only convicted 1670 Catholics in 
 the East Riding of Yorkshire ! ! ! 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1627. 
 
 Any person going himself, or sending any other beyond the 
 seas, to be bred or instructed in Popery, shall be disabled to sue 
 or use any action at law or equity, to be executor or adminis- 
 trator or capable of any deed or legacy, or to bear any office, 
 and shall lose and forfeit all his goods and chattels, ' and shall 
 forfeit all his lands, tenements, aud hereditaments, rents, an- 
 nuities, offices, and estates of freehold, for and during his na- 
 tural life.' 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1662. 
 
 That all Deans, Parsons, Vicars, Ministers, &c., refusing to 
 read and declare their assent to use ' the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and administration of the Sacraments and other rites 
 and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church 
 of England ; or who will not read the Book of Common Prayer, 
 and declare his assent thereto, shall be ipso facto deprived of 
 all their spiritual promotion.' Any schoolmaster, tutor, &c., 
 not doing the same, shall, for the first offence, suffer three 
 mouths ' imprisonment without bail or mainprize,' and for the 
 second, and every other offence, three months' imprisonment, 
 and a forfeiture of 51. to the King. And no other form of 
 prayer to be used openly in any Church or public place in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1670. 
 
 If any person above sixteen be present at any assembly under 
 
xxxlv 
 
 pretence of any exercise of religion, ' in other manner than ac- 
 cording to tlie Liturgy and practice of the Church of England,' 
 he shall be fined — any person preaching in any such meeting 
 shall forfeit 20/., and for second offence 40/. — any person per- 
 mitting such meetings in his house, offices, &c., shall forfeit 20/. 
 and Justices of Peace, Constables, &c., are empowered to 
 break open doors where such meetings they are informed may 
 be held. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1673. 
 
 All persons that bear any offices or places, &c., must take 
 the Oatlis of Supremacy and: Allegiance, and other oaths, and 
 receive the Sacrament — any person not brought up from his 
 infancy a Papist, who shall instruct his child in the Popisli re- 
 ligion, is disabled to bear any office of trust or profit, in Church 
 or State ; and such child shall be disabled also to bear any 
 office of trust or profit in the Church or State, until he * shall 
 be perfectly reconciled and converted to the Church of England, 
 and shall take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance 
 aforesaid.' 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1688. 
 
 No Peer of the Upper House, or Member of the House of 
 Commons, shall sit or vote in either House, until they first take 
 the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, and make, and sub- 
 scribe, and audibly repeat this the declaration against transub- 
 
 stantiation (Another bonus on conformity to the Protestant 
 
 religion.) 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1668. 
 
 All persons holding offices, ecclesiastical or civil, shall talse 
 the Oaths herein mentioned of Allegiance, and against the 
 Pope's supremacy — every person refusing to take same shall 
 be committed for three months and fined 40.S. — for second 
 offence, at the end of his imprisonment, he shall be imprisoned 
 for six months longer, and pay a fine not exceeding 10/. — if 
 he refuse the third time, he shall be adjudged incapable of 
 office, and shall be bound to good behaviour until he take the 
 oath. 
 
XXXV 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN SAME YEAU. 
 
 The declaration against Popery directed to be tendered to 
 all Papists, who, if they refuse same, shall forfeit and suffer 
 as ' a Papist recusant convict under the laws already made' 
 since I54'6, or in otherwise banishment or imprisonment for 
 life, loss of estate, and in some cases of life, &c. 
 
 Note. — These two Statutes are the first made by King 
 William's Parliament, and they exhibit what ideas the Protes- 
 tant Church had then of Civil and Religious Liberty. 
 
 ANOTHER STATUTE OF SAME YEAR. 
 
 Persons refusing the Oaths of Supremacy, &c. shall suffer 
 the penalties of all the laws above recited ; and after some 
 clauses in favor of Dissenters, who, by the way, were still 
 forced to acknowledge the fundamental doctrines of the Re- 
 formation before they were entitled to such benefits, it is 
 enacted, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to 
 give ease to any Papist or Popish recusant. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1700. 
 
 A reward of 100/. for taking a Popish Bishop or Priest, 
 and prosecuting him, for saying Mass, or exercising any of 
 his functions. Any Popish Bishop or Priest saying Mass, or 
 keeping school, shall be adjudged to perpetual imprisonment. 
 Papists not taking the oaths when 18 years old, shall be in- 
 capable of inherithig any lands, &c., and their next of kin, 
 being Protestant, shall enjoy their estates; neither shall Papists 
 purchase property : and if a Papist do not allow his Protestant 
 child competent maintenance, the Chancellor sliall make order 
 for that purpose. 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN lYl*. 
 
 Justices may tender the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, 
 and Abjuration, to any persons whom they may suspect, who, 
 refusing same, shall be adjudged a Popish recusant con- 
 vict ! ! ! 
 
XXXVl 
 
 No office to be held by any person, civil or military, unless 
 iJicy take the said oaths, and all heads of Colleges, Tutors, 
 Preachers, Constables, Lawyers, Proctors, Attomies, Clerks, 
 or Notaries, &c. &c., shall take said oaths ; and any person 
 refusing, and afterwards attempting to act in office, shall be 
 disabled from serving at Law or Equity, from being guardian 
 of his children, or executor or administrator, from taking by 
 deed or gift, from voting for Members of Parliament, &c. &c., 
 and shall also forfeit the sum of 500/. I ! I 
 
 STATUTE PASSED IN 1719. 
 
 Any Mayor, Bailiff", or other Magistrate, being present at 
 any religious meeting, other than the Church of England, as 
 by law established, he shall be disabled from filling the office 
 of Mayor, or any other office whatsoever. 
 
 STATUTES PASSED 1736 and 1757. 
 
 If any person neglecting or refusing to take the oaths and 
 the Sacrament, and make and subscribe the declaration, shall 
 execute any office, he shall be disabled from suing at Law or 
 in Equity, from being guardian of his children, executor, or 
 administrator, or from taking by legacy or deed of gift, and 
 shall forfeit the sum of 500/. &c. &c. 
 
 And thus far for the toleration of Protestantism from 154Q 
 until 1791. 
 
 THE END, 
 
 i 
 
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