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YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

A VINDICATION

RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL PRINCIPLES

IRISH CATHOLICS ;
IN A LETTER, ADDRESSED TO
HIS EXCELLENCY
THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY, K. G.
LORD LIEUTENANT GENERAL, AND GENERAL
GOVERNOR OF IRELAND, &C. &C.

J. K. L.
AUTHOR. OP LETTERS TO HIS GRACE THE PROTESTANT ARCHBISHOP
OF DUBLIN ! OF ESSAYS ON " DOMESTIC NOMINATION," &C. &C.

Rnnm ego vitia collegi non hominum, suolato enim tyranno tyrannidd
" taanere video." Cic. Ep. Lib. 14, AB Atticpm.

DUBLIN: PRINTED
BY RICHARD COYNE,
4, CAPEL-ST.
BOOKSELLER, PRINTER, AND PUBLISHER TO THE ROYAL
COLLEGE OF ST. PATRICK, MAYNOOTH.

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ENTERED AT STATIONER S HALL.

to his; excellency

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My Lord, Your personal character, the
po_wer with which you are vested, and the influence
which your judgment and authority must have upon
the affairs of this country, are the reasons why I address
your Excellency.
-Your Excellency is, at present, deeply engaged in
endeavours to carry into effect the system of govern
ment in Ireland, which has been approved of and re
commended by his Majesty, and which consists in admi
nistering the existing laws impartially ; giving to the
Roman Catholics the enjoyment of those privileges
which have been granted to them, and promoting, by
every legal means, a spirit of mutual forbearance and
conciliation amongst all classes of the Irish people.
This system has had to encounter greater obstacles in
its advancement, than seem to have been apprehended
by those with whom it originated : and the events of
the last two years have almost demonstrated, that now,
as in the days of Cicero, tyranny can remain though a
tyrant be removed — that the spirit of bad laws can
continue unabated, after the letter of them has been
partially effaced.
I believe it is generally admitted that, if the moral
condition of Ireland could have been ameliorated,
B

4
whilst the laws continued in their present unequal state,
that result would have been obtained by your Excel
lency's administration, " si Pergama salvari, &c." And:
if the hopes of his Majesty, and your Excellency's
efforts,, have been disappointed or unavailing, it is not
owing to a want of any one of those high qualifications
for administering the affairs of a great country, with
whieh Europe and Asia attested you were gifted. No !
It was owing to the spirit of the taws which was ta be
counteracted,, and to the dispositions of the people
generated and formed by those laws, and which were
to be controlled.
That the evils produced by a long system of misrute
could at once be remedied;,., was not to be expected ; ta
reform the courts of law —to purge the magistracy —
to cleanse the various offices connected with the re
venue — to establish a regular system of police — to edu
cate the people — to promote pubKe morality — to abolish
abuses which created spies and promoted perjury, with
all the vieiousncss consequent on nightly revellings
and fraud, these measures, and such as these, could
aot altogether, and at once, be earxied into effect ; but
their execution, whether slow or sudden, should neces
sarily call forth tbe approbation of the wise and good,
and could' never produce a clamour whieh would reach
even the precincts of your viceregal lodge.
If then, whilst your Excellency has been engaged m
Revising and carrying into effect measures of this sort,.
with various others of a salutary kind : if, whilst one
political empyrie attributes all the evils of the country
to the tythe system^ another to absentees, a third to the
ignorance of the people, a fourth to the corruption of
the magistracy, a fifth to the viees or bigetry of the
elergy, and so on, without end or number ; if, whilst
these are severally stated to be the chief cause why Ire
land is distressed and discontented, and that your Ex
cellency has been employed in seeking to remedy each

of them, how comes it that your administration has
been disturbed by factions, and assailed with all tha
zeal and bitterness which the sway of a tyrant might
merit, but would not experience. It is owing, my
Lord, not to the good you have done, or the evil which
you have prevented, but to the state of the civil laws
which you had to administer, and to the spirit of conci
liation and redress, which was known to animate your
Excellency. This spirit, my Lord, like the spirit ofthe
Cape, which appeared to the imagination of the poet,
seemed to threaten with lightning andtempests those men
whose territory you came to explore, and whose posses
sions, unrighteous many of them, you were about to
exhibit to an astonished world ; hence these wars, these
broils and contentions, which have embittered the peace of
families, interrupted the intercourse of former friends,
occupied the fruitless attention of the legislature, and dis
turbed the tranquillity of the state. To these sources,
and to the just, and noble, and conciliating conduct
of your Excellency, are we forced to trace many of
the evils which we have witnessed since the commence
ment of your administration, evils which occur in
cessantly, though in varied shapes, and which will not
cease to occur whilst the causes which give birth to them
are suffered to continue.
It is to your connection with the cause ofthe Roman
Catholics, that your Excellency may justly attribute
many of the afflicting embarrassments you have expe-,
rienced in the execution of the great trust committed to
you, and the obloquy and calumny to which your per
sonal and public virtues have been exposed, have arisen
from a deep-rooted hatred of the long-suffering people
whom you would protect from injury and insult. Your
Excellency's great mind, it is true, has abundant re
sources within itself, and you could, without doubt,
say, " sifractus illaberelur or bis, impavidum ferirent
ruin*." But though you need ne support from with-

6
out, yet it may be to you a subject of pleasing reflec
tion, that you have suffered with an afflicted people,
and borne persecution for justice sake.
It is not for me, my Lord, to deliver any opinion
on the effort which his Majesty's government is now
making, through your Excellency, to give to the Ro
man Catholics the full benefit of the concessions made
them, and to establish a system of harmony and mutual
good will between them and their fellow-subjects of the
ascendant party in Ireland; between men whom the
laws continue to place, not in opposition, but one above
the other. On this subject there is at present scarcely a
difference of opinion in the country; and I have no
doubt your Excellency has long since formed your judg
ment. My object is one more humble, and therefore
more becoming my situation and habits of life. It is
merely to offer to your Excellency some reflections in'
vindication of the proscribed body to which I belong,'
and of the insulted religion which 1 profess.
These I consider called for at the present time, (arid'
if the duties of my profession, in which I have neces
sarily been engaged until now, permitted it, I should
have offered them sooner,) in order to guard the small
portion of the public mind which still deliberates, from
being biassed by the profusion of religious frenzy or
political hate, which, through the intolerant portion- of
the public press, has, during the last few months, been
poured out upon the Irish Catholics, and upon their
religious and political principles.
If the greater portion of what I am about to submit
to your Excellency be connected with religious or ec
clesiastical subjects, and therefore, in the estimation of
many, unfit for your perusal, or unworthy of your at
tention, I would offer to them as an apology (for your
Excellency is too wise to need any), that religion is the
basis of society, that it is always important to a states
man, that it is the cause and the end of nearly all tho

7
political laws which affect Ireland, that its influence
upon the state of this country is witnessed and felt daily
by your Excellency ; and that your Excellency, as the
representative of a King who is the head of a great
church, can not be indifferent about what concerns
any religious body of his subjects — still less can you
deem it unworthy of you to hear the apology of six mil
lions of your own countrymen, for whom you have
exerted so long and so fruitlessly your labours and your
splendid talents.
The unequal state of the laws, my Lord, had created
amongst us many interests, whilst it destroyed others ;
it raised one class to a degree of eminence seldom at
tained to, even in a conquered country, whilst it de
pressed another far below the condition of free subjects,
it reduced them to a certain degree of slavery. The
privileged class were few in number — they acquired
immense possessions, and amassed enormous wealth—
they laboured unceasingly to secure both ; the protection
and aid afforded them by England, was often purchased
at too dear a price, and in order to be more independ
ent of the mother country, they employed all the re
sources furnished by her, as well by their own skill and
power to reduce the nation with which they struggled to
a state of utter darkness, and the most abject want.
They succeeded. The nation which was thus enslaved,
and which, perhaps, had never been thoroughly civi
lized, put on all the habits which had been formed for
them ; they became ferocious ; individually brave, but
cowards when collected together, cunning, astute, cruel,
strangers to honesty and truth, except only as far as
civilization was reflected upon them, or as religion,
which they never abandoned, at least, in theory, could
restrain them. Their masters first scourged them with
rods, and according as they revolted under the inflic
tion, used scorpions; the latter became hard-hearted,
cruel and rapacious. Accustomed to despoil those whom

8
they had conquared, they never regarded as sacred
even the property which they allowed them to possess.
They raised a church upon the ruins of one which they
had abolished ; they filled it with their own progeny,
and the sanctuary was invaded by the same spirit and
and the same men who had devastated the country.
The extravagance of the dominant race, the lights of
the last century, and the humanity of the late king,
mitigated these evils. The oppressed were permitted
to breathe, and straw, wherewith to make their bricks,
was given to them : not for -their own sake, but that
they might become more valuable to their proprietors-
They were allowed, under certain limitations, to acquire
and inherit property ; even the shadow of freedom, but
that only, in the elective franchise, was suffered to
appear to them. They were permitted to become edu
cated, but they had no means of obtaining education,
and no means were provided for them. They struggled
with these small advantages, and employing, like the
Jews, all their energies in the pursuits of industry,
(being excluded from every other) they acquired pro
perty, and almost became a people. Those who ruled
over them, saw they would become a nation, and they
deliberated whether they should unite with them, and
live independent of the sister country. They were not,
however, accustomed to possess a country, nor to live
in the affections of a people : they had still the passions,
and the pride, and the prejudices of those who rule
slaves, and they were duped or purchased by England
to extinguish for ever their own greatness, and the rela
tive independence of Ireland.
Since the Union, my Lord, our petty princes have
deserted those mansions and that capital where they
once were great, noble, and possessed of wealth and
power. They are become strangers to their native land ,
or are naturalized in a happier country ; but they carried
away with them whatever wa» great and glorious in that

9
which they abandoned. When about to depart, they
confided their estates to agents, or parcelled them out
to middlemen, that their income might be the more se
cure ; and a^distant government, oppressed with other
cares, sent here your Excellency's predecessors to pre
serve this country to England, and govern her as they
could. Few of these governors were like your Excellency;
and those few were quickly removed. Jn general they
gave themselves up to be directed by the rapacious and
heartless men who had lingered about the capital, and
whose sole object was to enrich themselves, and to
oppress and to degrade the struggling people who had
been deserted by their lords. In this work of oppression
they were ably supported by the Corporations, but above
all by the church. This church, my Lord deserted by
the legislature, has since not ceased to tremble for her
existence. She fears that England is not greatly inte
rested for her, and that her natural protectors are now
weak, er indifferent, or too far removed. She knows
that her wealth and possessions are immense, calculated
to awaken the jealousy of her friends, and excite the
envy of her enemies. She fears the legislature would
examine her title, and enquire whether she holds by
any other than their free gift ; and knowing, that she
does not answer the ends for which any Christian Church
has ever been erected, she apprehends that they might
new-model her constitution, or lay claim to some portion
of her spoils. She looks with extreme, and yet an idle
jealousy to what she considers a rival Church, but what
in reality is no Church, in her acceptation of the term ;
and she exerts all her energies and lavishes her wealth,
to oppose the freedom ofthe Irish people, or the equal
ization of the laws, thinking that if the reign of British
justice prevailed in Ireland, her utility might be ques
tioned, and her income and possessions proportioned to
the services she renders to religion and to the state.

10
In this situation your Excellency found your native
country, when you landed on her shores : for the jubilee
that was held to celebrate the king's arrival amongst
us was ended, and the servile war that raged in the
south was only an ordinary occurrence ; it was a pe
riodical exhibition, like the dressing of the statue — of
the depraved spirit which perambulated the country,
and which sprung out of the condition of the people,
produced by the law. The plague that went before,
and the famine which followed your arrival, were ef
fects of the same cause, and only of a different descrip
tion ; but all of these might have been engendered and
matured, might ripen and decay ; a sacrifice of half a
million of the people might, as at other times, have ap
peased the demon of pestilence, or an exertion of force,
under the name of a peace-preservation bill, or an
insurrection act might have quelled the servile insur
rection as effectually as a Coote or a St. Leger ; but
your Excellency would not have been assailed, nor the
character of the people so outrageously insulted, if you
were the abettor of the ancient system, and the patron
of every private and public delinquent. It was the
spirit of justice which was known to animate you, which
alarmed and terrified all the churchmen, all the sine-
curists, all the placemen, in fine all those who were at
tached by hope or interest to the system of mis-rule
nnder which Ireland had groaned for centuries ; they
all became alarmed, they entered into counsel against
the king and his representative, and they excited a mob
to vociferate, " Away with him! away with him! we
shall have no king to reign over us who will infringe on
our monopoly, or presume to invade our prescriptive
rights. We are the nation — the inheritance is ours."
I was about to transcribe a passage from the book of
Josue ; but your Excellency must bear it in your re
collection, and I shall not record of men who dwell in
the game land, and breathe the same air, that 1 do

11
myself, any thing so cruel aud impious as the sentiment
to whieh I have alluded.
Whilst this faction was thus arrayed in hostility to the
measures of your Excellency, they omitted no oppor
tunity of insulting and misrepresenting the prostrate
race whom they were accustomed to oppress. Theif
printing offices (of which they retained the old and
erected new ones) teemed with daily and periodical
publications, all tending to connect the disturbances in
the south with the Catholic people, with their religion,
and with their policy ; hoping, if they could not suc
ceed in their efforts to remove your Excellency, that
they would at least mar your efforts for the public good.
They laboured with the most unhallowed zeal, and the
most persevering industry, to excite the fears of the
timid, to arouse the indignation of the people, and if
possible to produce an insurrection against the govern
ment and laws ; they branded the Catholic body as abet
tors of treason, as the enemies of the constitution, as
hostile to every mental and moral improvement ; and
their religion they represented (where they allowed
them to have one) as a degrading representation, unfit
to be tolerated amongst christian men.
If the population of a district in which, until within a
few years past, the laws made it felony to educate them,
were ignorant, this was imputed to their faith. If a
ferocious or vindictive spirit appeared amongst rude
rude tribes, who had been enslaved by the laws for cen
turies, this was said to be the fruit of their creed ; and
if men writhing under wrongs and oppression struggled
against the chains which bound them, their savage and
senseless efforts for relief, were construed into acts dic
tated by ttteir religious profession. Look to the north,
said these calumniators, Where the people are protest
ant, and see them employed in industry and the works
of peace ; — but turn to the south, and view the scenes
of blood and devastation, but do not investigate the
c

12
cause — no: it is obvious — the population is catholic.
They feared the legislature would have time to reflect,
that the north was inhabited by a race of freemen , who
enjoyed all the blessings of the constitution, whilst the
south was the refuge of slaves who had never tasted the
sweets of liberty — who had until of late groaned beneath
a bondage more cruel than that of Pharaoh. Thus,
my Lord, this vile and malignant press, supported,
conducted, and patronised by the churchmen, the place
men, and the whole train of corruptionists, even by
those on whom your Excellency was compelled to
bestow your favours and your smiles, maligned, insult
ed, and calumniated the Catholic people, whom you
wished to place under the protection of the law.
One of the many events which supplied this faction
with materials for abuse and misrepresentation, was the
extraordinary cures lately performed in the capital and
in the country, and which two Catholic prelates, in the
discharge of their official duty, enquired into, ascer
tained, and published, as being of a supernatural kind —
the effect of the immediate and favourable interposition
of the Deity, obtained for the suffering patients by faith
in Christ, by sacrifice and prayer.
The belief, my. Lord, of the extraordinary interpo
sition of the power of God in altering the laws of
nature, as when he raised Lazarus from the tomb ; or
suspending their operation, as when, through the touch
of his garment, he healed the woman of the flux, is
common to all those who invoke the name of Christ-
that he did by others what he did himself "is not an in
duction from his gospel, but a truth recorded in the
Acts and Letters of his Apostles; that this power (ac
cording to his promise frequently made to his followers)
was continued in the church, is a matter of history as well
authenticated as the history of the church itself. Whe
ther his providence is altogether changed in this regard,

13
and that miracles have entirely ceased at some uncer
tain period, is a question about which, like many others,
the minds and opinions of men are and will continue to
be divided. The Catholic Church, however, has always
maintained that the providence of God, in the govern
ment of his people, is still the same ; and that when
times and circumstance which require his special inter
position occur, he does not yet cease to interpose.
In every nation, from the Indus to the Pole, from
Pera to Japan, this Church has employed her mission
aries ; they have reached, at one period or another, to
every nation over which the four winds of heaven are
wafted; and amongst every tongue, and tribe, and
people, and nation, to which they preached Christ cru
cified, they are said to have wrought miracles in attes
tation of the faith which they promulged — to have
restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, to have
cleansed the lepers, and in many cases to have raised
the dead to life.
To read the history of a Xavier, for instance — the
attestations of his friends and of his enemies (for even
he had enemies), of the magistrates, of the governors,
of the prelates and of the princes, of all the historians
of the country where he preached, and lived, and died ;
and to disbelieve all the miracles attributed by them to
his intercession with Almighty God, requires more of
what is called philosophy than falls to .the lot of ordi
nary men. The Church to which I belong has not had
the power to resist the force of human testimony and
the evidence of the senses. She has believed and taught
that miracles are wrought both at home and abroad,
through the prayers of those righteous men whose vir
tues are eminent and heroic, and whom, from time to
time, she enrols, after the strictest scrutiny, in the
calendar of the saints. She feels, however, that pre
tended miracles were often recorded as true — that the
credulity of her children was often imposed on, and

14
superstition propagated for piety ; to guard against
these evils (and -serious evils they are), she has decreed
in her last general council, that no miracles be thence
forth published nor admitted as such, which are not
previously ascertained and sanctioned by the ordinary
of the place where they are said to occur ; and this
has proved a safeguard against imposture, as well as a
means of promoting the piety of the faithful, and the
glory of €rod.
lt was, then, in accordance with the doctrine and
discipline of the Church to which they belong, that the
two bishops before alluded to, exercised, as far as they
were permitted by law, the authority which they pos
sessed, to ascertain the nature of the cures which had
occurred within their respective jurisdictions, and dis-^
charged, by publishing them, a duty which they owed
f 0 their people and to Almighty G pd .
They intended no offence, my Lord, to the professors
of any creed ; they made use in their publications of no
uncharitable reflection ; they exhorted their own bre
thren to gratitude and thanksgiving ; they directed their
thoughts to a better world ; they besought them to bear
with injuries father than inflict them ; and to give
glory to God, and to God alone.
Why then, my Lord, have they been rebuked, as
sailed, reviled ? Why has their religion been abused and
'nsulted ? Why have the most sinister and malignant
tiews been attributed to them ? Why has the degraded
Scribe dipped his pen in gall, to give vent to the feel
ings of the party for which he Wrote and toiled ? Why
has the ermine been all but stained, and one of the
princes of the people almost unrobed on the bench, that
Irish Catholics and their religion might be scoffed at?
Are they alone unfit " to abound in their own sense ?"
Are they alone not to be permitted to exercise their own
judgment? Is it not only their faith, but even their
piety, however harmless, which is to be. converted into.

15
a crime? BHt, my Lord, they suffer all this because
they are a people struggling, by legal means, to ob
tain their birth-right, against a faction who would live
by wrong, and fatten on the vitals of their country.
To enquire into the nature of the sudden and ex
traordinary cures referred to, is not, my Lord, the ob
ject, nor any portion of the object of this letter, let
physicians and men without occupation, employ them
selves with discussing the force of nature, and fixing
the boundaries of her operations ; for my part, I mix
myself with the crowd, the simple and the poor, to
whom Christ came to preach, and whom he has ap
pointed the heirs of the kingdom. I view with them,
rather than with the prudent and the wise, the cures
wrought by the Redeemer, and by those who have
walked in his footsteps. If I see a woman healed of a
grievous distemper, when in the midst of the crowd she
touches the hem of his garment, I do not enquire whe
ther the force of imagination, or the power of her
nerves, might not have stopped the issue of her blood ;
I believe a virtue went out from him in whom she be
lieved, and that this virtue, and no natural cause, re
stored her to her health. When the blind man's eye
was touched with clay made wet with spittle, and he
desired to go and wash in the pool of Siloe, and that j
find him restored to sight : I do not seek to ascertain by
any chemieal process the virtue of the water in which
he washed, more than the Jordan in which Naaman was
cleansed, to enable me to judge of the cause of their
recovery, I attribute it to the Prophet and to the Son
of God. The persons for whom and by whom miracles
are wrought, the means employed to produce them,
the end and circumstances for which, and in which
they are presented to us, their number, as well as the
substance of them, contribute to determine my judg
ment of the cause to which they are to be assigned. —

16
Whether to natural means, to the spirit of darkness,
or to the power of God.
As to the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of
the prudent, which the Lord hath rejected, I believe
them to be quite incompetent to prove his works ; I
know that " the carnal man does not understand the
things that are of the spirit of God;" and that " be
has made the wisdom of this world folly, that no flesh
might glory in his sight." I have heard his apostle de
clare, that he who is the virtue and power of God to-
those who believe, has been as scandal to the Jews, and
as folly to the Gentiles ; and I am fully satisfied, that
as the disciple is not above the master, nor the servant
greater than his Lord, that his truths and his followers
will always be a stumbling-block to many even in Is
rael, and the butt of reproach and ridieule to a profane
and sinful world. I have heard the evangelist tell how
there were divisions about Christ himself amongst the
people of his time, how some said he was good, others
not, but that he seduced the crowds, that some said it
was in Beelzebub he cast out devils, whilst others said
a great prophet had arisen amongst them, and that God
had visited his people. I find in after times, not only
men who denied "the existence of all the miracles re
corded in the gospels ; but others who, admitting their
existence, attributed them to causes such as those to
which the late miracles have been assigned. Celsus pre
tended they were produced by those secret spells which
Jesus had learned from the Egyptians. Porphirius
and Julien attributed them to magic. Hierocles op
posed to them the prodigies performed by Apollonius;
the Talmudists would assign them all to a certain mode
of pronouncing the word " Jehovah." How like are
these efforts of the enthusiasts or philosophers of anti
quity, to those which now assail us.
But the chief opposition ,to the miracles wrought by

17
Christ'came not, my Lord, from these men, but from
another class of persons, from whom least of all it
should have been apprehended.
The Chief Priests and the Pharisees gathered a council,
and said, " What do we, for this man dotli many mira
cles? if we let him alone so, all men will believe -in
him, and the Romans will come and take away our
place and nation. John xi. 47-8. One of this council
proposed, and they all agreed, that the Lord should
be put to death, rather than that the whole nation, as
they imagined, should perish. And there may not be
wanted persons even in the present day, my Lord, who
would crucify him over again, did' he appear in the
flesh, least the Romans would come and take their place
and nation.
The obstinacy and malice of these Jews in rejecting
the miracles wrought by Christ is truly surprising, much
more even than the blindness of the Greeks and Ro
mans, many of whom, for centuries, though sur
rounded with the light of the gospel, and assailed with
all the force of truth and the power of tongues, and
signs, and prophecies, yet put off to another time
whomsoever, like Paul, would preach to them of jus
tice- and charity, and a judgment to come.
If the Jews then were obstinate, there are many
causes to which their obstinacy could be justly assigned,
first their ancient prejudices, for they expected a Mes
siah who would confirm, not abrogate the law of Moses,
who would appear in splendor, and subject the world
to their sway. But Christ abolished many of their or
dinances, and commanded that tribute should be paid
to Caesar ; they became alarmed for their places and
what they called the nation !
. In the second place, their fears might seem to excuse
them. We see that, from time to time, many persons,
some of them persons of rank and importance, believed
in Christ, but were afraid to profess their faith openly,

18
least they would be expelled from the synagogue by the
Pharisees ; in other words, least they would lose their
rank, and be discarded by their friends, and excluded
from the society which they esteemed.
In fine, their passions might plead for the Jews. We
all know how fertile in invention, how full of resource
the passions are, with what ingenuity they devise pre
texts in their own justification, and what weight they
attribute to the most contemptible motives whioh appear
fo favour themselves. To embrace Christianity would
oblige that carnal race to renounce entirely their own
inclinations, to become poor, meek, humble and despised
— to break off their old connections, sacrifice their fa
mily pride and personal interest to resist the influence
of their inveterate habits, by crucifying the flesh, with
its vices and concupiscences, chastising the flesh and
keeping it in subjection to the spirit. How could men
who were accustomed fo say, " Let us eat and drink :
for we may die to-morrow," adopt a religion which
required the most painful sacrifices, and imposed as
duties the practice of the most austere virtues.
With regard to the cures, then, lately performed
amongst us, I find they resemble many of those wrought
by our Redeemer'or his followers — that the , persons re
lieved were gifted with a lively faith in Christ — their
illness such as was calculated to excite the compassion
of Him who has deigned to be called our Father; and
the means employed to obtain the interposition of the
Deity no other than prayer and sacrifice, offered up by
a man not so distinguished by his rank as by the eminent
piety which distinguishes his life.
The number and variety of these sudden and extra
ordinary cures witnessed not only in this, but in the
neighbouring nations, and attributed to the intercession
of this holy personage, or to those who unite in prayer
with him, oblige me fo think, that the grace of curing
bodily diseases, mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Cor, xii. 9. as

19
given to some of the primitive Christians, has been re
vived at present like as at many other periods of the
Church. However, I blame no man for withholding
his assent from what I, and those of the communion to
which I belong, can easily believe ; nor do I think it
at all unreasonable that such occurrences should be dis
cussed freely by the public. But I do confess, my
Lord, that I feel my indignation against a vicious fac
tion excited when I consider that these cures of what
nature soever they may be deemed, should give oc
casion to the. following charges with several others
which have been lately made or renewed against the
religion and policy of the body to which I belong,
and on each of which I shall have the honour of sub
mitting a few reflections to the great and enlightened
mind of your Excellency.
First, our Religion, is said to be Antichristian, and
so slavish a superstition as to unfit us for freedom.
Secondly, we are charged with a design of over*
throwing the Established Church, and re-entering upon
her possessions.
Thirdly, we are accused of stirring up the minds of
the people, of keeping alive in them a sense of wrongs
which they have ceased to suffer, of instigating them
to rebellion and the overthrow of the constitution.
Fourthly, we are upbraided with intolerance towards
the professors of other creeds, and an obstinate oppo
sition to the diffusion of knowledge and the progress
of education.
These charges I have collected from many of the
ephemeral productions with which the press of the Anti-
catholic party has teemed, and I have arranged them
in numerical order for the purpose of keeping them
distinct, and avoiding that obscurity and confusion in "
which truth is often involved by those who write on the
most interesting subjects.
Our Religion is said to be Antichristian, that is op
posed to Christ; but not being told in any of the pub-

20
lications which I have met with, in what this opposition
consisted, it is not easy to disprove it, but yet the name
is odious, my Lord, and odious and degrading names
when often repeated affix contempt and some portion
of scorn to the person whom they are used to desig
nate; they often lower the person too, even in his own
estimation, and induee him as it were to become what
he is called.
We are not Antichristian, my Lord, for we do not dis
solve Christ, (1 John iv. 3.) nor deny that the Son of
God has appeared in the flesh, we are unquestionably
of all denominations of christians the most uniform and
steady assertors of his Divinity, and as to the reality of
his human nature, that is not, now-a-days called in ques
tion; St, John, however, complained that Antichrfet
was in the world even in his time, not in person I sup
pose, but in the spirit of those who denied that "Jesus
is the Christ," or who would not confess "the Father
and the Sob," another class whom the apostle designat
ed as Antichristian consisted of those who went out
from himself and his followers. But on what grounds
we are to be considered as forming one body with those
Antichrists, I feel myself quite incompetent to dis
cover. We believe that Christ is God and Man, and
that Jesus is the Christ, that he is distinct from the Fa
ther and that both are ; we have not gone out from any
body, we have deserted no congregation, nor do we
rebuke those who would seem to have done so, why
then is our creed Antichristian? It is not on these
grounds however that the charge against us chiefly
rests, but on our being subject in spiritual matters to
the Pope — who is the man of sin, the harlot, the abo-
minatioh of desolation, and several other frightful
things which are not now within my recollection. The
character and virtues of the late Pope should have
protected his memory at least from insult, and an inter
regnum should have been stated to have occurred in
the kingdom of Antichrist whilst Pius the VII. wore

21
the fisherman's ring — but, no! tros lyriusvc- Our new
evangelists are no respecters of persons and the vene
rable Chiaromonte too, must have beeu drenching with
the cup of the wine of his wrath the Kings of the Earth.
I hope however he may have given it to those only who
compose the Holy Alliance, and that our gracious So
vereign has not partaken of so dangerous abeverage!
Of the reign of Antichrist orthenatureof hiskingdom,
of his signature and seal, of his signs and wonders I do
confess that I know but little, and as St. Augustin ob
serves (as 1 can recollect) of the timewhenGod created
er creates the souls of men, I would much rather learn
than presume to teach. This much however I have as
certained with great certainty, that since the beginning
of the 16th century these speculations about Antichrist
have been too frequent. His appearance under the
name of "the wicked one," or "man of sin," his for
nications under the figure of a harlot with the Kings of
the Earth, the seat of his government upon seven hills,
the extent of his empire, and its duration, as well as
the several events of his reign, his destruction by a
two edged sword, the parts which Gog and Magog as
well as Henoch and Elias were to perform in his time,
all these interesting topics have been so frequently and
so ably discussed by others, the times of his ap
pearance, of his rise and fall, have been so precisely
marked, have so frequently elapsed, aud returned, and
been expected again, that it would entirely surpass my
theological skill to throw any new lights upon his
Mightiness, or what regards him ; and whether he be
the late Pope, or he who is now to be, elected, whe
ther Prince Hohenlohe be his Avanl-covrhr *, and Doc
tors Murray and Doyle his two prophets, 1 leave these
Gentlemen to consider; being fully satisfied that the
Irish Catholics, of whom I am one, will never wear
"the mark of the beast" as ldng as they continue so
zealously attached t« the sign of the Cross as they are
at present.

22
I have received from Dublin only a short time since,
two large placards, or sheets, closely printed, the one
shewing, with proof little short of demonstration, that
in the year 1825, all the heresies which sprang up in the
sixteenth century, were to be sent with their abettors
into the bottomless pit : the other proving with similar
clearness and force, that all the woes of the Apoca
lypse were just pouringout upon the Catholics,previous
to their being buried in the lake burning with fire and
brimstone ; whilst in all probabilily, a thirdplacard might
have been procured, shewing, with all manner of proof
from the written word itself, that there was no such
place as hell.
These things are calculated to excite a sigh or a smile,
according. to the state of feeling in which they are read,
and who will not pity or despise the poor men who thus
seek to advance their own opinions; but when enthu
siasts attempt to disturb the harmony of a christian
people by ridiculous attempts to unfathom the abyss of
mystery, and penetrate into secrets whioh it hath
pleased God to cover with an impenetrable veil. When
they proceed further, and condense their ravings into
weapons with which they would assail the rights of an
entire nation, or into imputations with which they
seek to blacken the character of a great and respectable
class of christians, then they are dangerous, and de*
serve to have u.*eir folly or their malice exposed to
contempt and ridicule.
Of the numberless brochures in which we are accused
as Antichristians, there is one styled " A Letter to
Doctor Doyle," four different copies of which have
been sent to the writer of this letter ; one was trans
mitted by a most respectable gentleman of Dublin, a
member of parliament, enclosing a letter from a lady,
who, though not named, is, it may be presumed, one
not less distinguished for her religious zeal than for her
extensive charities, and in which she intreats her cor
respondent's attention to this pamphlet— to consider

23
seriously whose word it is which is there arrayed against
him, and not to permit his opposition to it to be
come the cause of his eternal ruin. How lamentable it
is, my Lordy to find the most respectable persons — the
finest ornaments of society, thus become the dupes of
knaves or fools ; to be influenced by speculations on
the Apocalypse, and " the man of sin," so as to con
sider their own brethren, men whom they sincerely
esteem, as the enemies of Christ and the abettors of an
impious superstition !
It is thus, my Lord, that our religious and political
interests are injured — that the opinions of men who
could serve or injure us are biassed, until at length
they begin to think us different from what we are, and
undeserving of their support or protection. It is thus
the mystery of iniquity works against us, and an anti
social spirit, much more dangerous to Ireland than that
of Antichrist, is cherished and strengthened.
This subject, contemptible in itself, but serious to us,
can be further illustrated by a reference to two other
expositions of the Apocalypse which have lately come
under the writer's observation. One byaprophet residing
in ornearParsonstown,who deems himself the personage
who is to dissolve the empire of Antichrist; and whose
kingdom he firmly believes, and by an exceeding great
multitude of quotations from Scripture clearly proves,
to be" that created by " a great statesman, now no
more," whom he calls " the bottomless Pit," and the
sin-king-fund! How or by what means the consum
mation is to be effected, I do not, 'tis true, rightly
understand ; but yet I have no doubt if this prophet's
dreams were published, there would be found persons
to adopt them, as perfect elucidations of all that is still
doubtful about the colour of " the harlot's" cloak, or
the " number of the beast." The other is the produc
tion of one of the sons of the prophets, a young pea
sant near Stradbally iu the Queen's County; itis a huge
manuscript, now in my possession ; aud the inspired

21
author who brought it to me described most pathetically
the influence of the Spirit upon him whilst he wrote.
Though I listened to him whilst he read several pages
of it, and then laid it up to gratify him, I do not ex
actly recollect the scope of it ; but I know he saw the
beast and her ten horns, her colour, dimensions, and
crowns; and described graphically all her evolutions,
as they appear in the events of the present times.
The charges of being Antichristian, preferred against
the Catholics of Ireland, are supported on such specula
tions as these ; and how, therefore, can they be refuted,
unless by shewing the absurdity of suchspeculations, and
deprecating the good sense of the country, not to look
with an evil eye on our religion, because it is assailed by
visions and dreams.
But it is inferred from our belief in the extraordinary
cures lately noticed by our prelates, that our religion is
a slavish superstition, and unfits us for freedom. This
latter, my Lord, is the inference dear to our opponents,
and to which they would arrive from whatever position
they might establish, or from whatever induction they
would assume. If they could but exclude us from free
dom, and perpetuate our slavery, they cared but little
whether we adopted the superstition of Juggernaut, or
professed the religion of St. Paul. A slavish supersti
tion ! Our creed, my Lord, is short; all we believe is
embodied in the profession of faith, published under
the name of Pius IV. and found in many of our books
of common prayer, and in all our rituals or liturgies;
it is detailed, and justified, and defined, in the decrees
of the Council of Trent ; and if your Excellency should
ever have cast your eye over it, you might not prefer
it to that which you profess, but it is impossible that
you would not respect it; it is quite impossible that
your Excellency would deem it a slavish superstition,
or say that those who professed it were thereby ren
dered unfit for freedom.

25
It was the creed my lord, of a Charlemagne and of a
St. Louis, of an Alfred and an Edward, of the monarchs
of the feudal times, as well as of the Emperors of Greece
aud Rome; it was believed at Venice and at Genoa, in
Lucca and the Helvetic nations in the days of theii'free-
doni and greatness: all the Barons ofthe middle ages, all
the free cities of later times professed the religion we
now profess. You well know, my Lord, that the Charter
of British freedom, and the common law of England,
have their origin and source in Catholic times. Who
framed the free constitution ofthe Spanish Goths? Who
preserved science and literature, during the long night
of the middle ages? Who imported literature from Con
stantinople, and opened for her an asylum at Rome,
Florence, Padua, Paris and Oxford? Who polished
Europe by art, and refined her by legislation? Who
discovered the new world, and opened a passage to ano
ther ? Who were the masters of architecture, of painting,
of music? Who invented the compass, and the art of
printing? Whe were the poets, the historians, the ju
rists, the men of deep research, and profound litera
ture? Who have exalted human nature, and made man
appear again little less than the angels? Were they not
almost exclusively the professors of our creed? Were
they who created and possessed freedom under every
shape and form, unfit for her enjoyment? Were men,
deemed even now, the lights of the world, and the be
nefactors of the human race, the deluded victims of a
slavish superstition? But what is there in our creed,
which renders us unfit for freedom ? Is it the dootrine
of passive obedience? No, for the obedience we yield to
authority, is not blind, but reasonable ; our religion
does not create despotism ; it supports every established
constitution, whieh is not opposed to the laws of nature,
unless it be altered by those who are entitled to change
it. In Poland it supported an elective monarch ; in
France, an hereditary sovereign; in Spain, an absolute

26
or constitutional king indifferently; in England, when
the houses of York and Lancaster contended, it de
clared that he who was king de facto, was entitled to
the obedience of the people. During the reign ofthe
Tudors, there was a faithful adherence of the Catholics
to their prince, under trials the most severe and galling ;
because the constitution required it: the same was ex
hibited by them to the ungrateful race of Stuart ; but
since the expulsion of James, (foolishly called an ab
dication), have they not adopted with the nation at
large, the doctrine of the revolution, " that the crown
held in trust for the benefit of the people ; and that
should the monarch violate his compact, the subject is
freed from the bond of his allegiance." Has there been
any form of government ever devised by man, to which
the religion of Catholics has not been accommodated ?
Is there any obligation, either to a prince, or to a con
stitution, which it does not enforce?
For nearly four centuries, whilst two nations strug
gled in the womb of Ireland, the one labouring to con
quer, the other to defend, we find religion always re
commending an adjustment, and exhibiting to her in
furiated children, the olive-branch of peace : we find
her in the person of O'Toole, the Archbishop of Dublin,
standing between the living and the dead, praying for
the people, whilst the plague ceased; and since the
eonquest has been completed, whether by force or
fraud, or both, we need not now inquire: has she not
employed all her efforts to allay our heats, to bridle our
passions, to prevent or slop the vain and fruitless at
tempts of her children to .regain what they had lost?
Has she ever ceased to pour the balm of consolation
upon the wounds ofthe country, and to instil hope or
resignation into her almost broken heart? Yet this is
the religion, which is said to unfit us for freedom !
But no, they are not her rights nor ceremonies, nor
again her doctrine of passive.obedienee, but the divided

$7
allegiance of her followers, which unfits them for free
dom. What, my Lord ! is the allegiance of the man di
vided who gives to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and
to God what belongs to God ? Is the allegiance of the
priest divided who yields submission to his bishop and
his king ? — of the son who obeys his parent and his
prince? And yet their duties are not more distinct
than those which we owe our sovereign and our spiri
tual bead. Is there any man in society who has not
distinct duties to discharge? May not the same person
be the head of a corporation and ah officer ofthe king? a
justice ofthe peace, perhaps, and a bankrupt surgeon,
with half his pay? And are the duties thus imposedupon
him incompatible one with another? If the Pope can
define that the Jewish sabbath is dissolved, and tha
Lord's day to be sanctified, may not this be believed
without prejudice to the act of settlement, or that for
the limitation of the crown ? If the Church decree
that on Fridays her children do abstain from flesh-meat,
are they thereby controuled from obeying the king
when he summons them to war? There was a time
in past ages, my Lord, when popes were arbiters of
kings, and claimed whole states and provinces as feuds
belonging to their see ; even these countries, as they
were governed by the maxims then in vogue, and of
fered up, like others, at the shrine of the apostles, were
not exempted from the sway of those haughty pontiffs,
who, whilst by their interference they gratified their
own ambition, yet contributed greatly to stop the
career of tyrants, to check the growth 'of civil wars,
to prevent the effusion of blood, to introduce law and
-justice in fhe room of single combat and all the other
barbarous usages of the feudal times. At this period,
the allegiance claimed by them, first in virtue of special
covenants, and afterwards as heads of the church,
would, if allowed at present, be dangerous to kings
D

28
and states. Bat, my Lord, these claims declined
even in the fourteenth century ; in the fifteenth they
were greatly circumscribed ; in the sixteenth they were
annihilated, extinguished; and since then they have
been forgotten, or only heard without the least alarm,
likp the roaring of thunder at a distance : to talk of
them seriously at the present time, is like the calling of
spirits from the deep, The whole civil constitution of
Europe is new-modeUed— t^c id^ft? of men have under
gone an entire revolution — the relative situation of
princes and popes is changed altogether — the influence
of the papal authority, in things temporal, is neither
feared nor felt any where, because it docs not exist ;
the spirit of the age has confined it chiefly to cases of
conscience in this country, and in others to some little
intermeddling with benefices where they exist, or tp the
settling of concordats, or ecclesiastical constitutions, in
which the pope is always yielding and the prince uni
formly acquiring. In these times all men understand
how the kingdom of Christ is not of this world ; and
whenever the ministers of religion interfere with secular
matters, they are made to feel that they have put their
sickle into another man's harvest. Rations have become
jealous of each other, all are ambitious of their own indi
vidual greatness, and whatever interferes with it they
do not tolerate ; now-a-days the pope might pray or
sing to all the nations of Europe, but if the subject
were suoh as regarded their temporal interests or civil
rights, he would be like the syren singing to the deaf or
preaching to the dead.
To me, my Lord, who am tolerably well acquainted
with the Obedience I owe the pope, and the allegiance I
owe my sovereign, there is nothing more fulsome,
more tasteless and absurd, than the grave discussions
I am sometimes induced fo read, or forced to hear, about
the divided allegiance of Catholics, and all the plausible
nonsense which follows it, and of the essential Pro
testantism of the Constitution. The essence of the

29
Constitution is, my Lord, to make all who live under
it free and happy ; and the hoary bigot, or the selfish
monopolist, who would exclude us from it on account of
our religion, neither understands that religion, nor the
law of nature, which has been written, not with ink,
but with the finger of the living God, on the fleshy
tablets of our hearts. Such an one does not, can not,
understand the heart-burnings of a high-minded man,
who is unjustly excluded from his rights, nor that first-
fruit of the law of self-preservation which makes us
love our country, reject whatever could diminish her
glory or independence, and labour to make her free
and happy. When I am told that I am unfit for free
dom, on account of the religion which I profess — when
I have considered all that has been said in support of
so heinous a proposition, I feel amazed and confound
ed, and ask, is it possible that any man could suppose,
that 'were I in possession ofthe rights and privileges of
a British subject, that all the power on earth could in
duce me to forego them ; that I could be influenced by
any consideration to reject the first and clearest prin
ciples of my religion, to hate my country, to subject
her to the sway of a stranger, to destroy my own hap
piness and that of my kindred ? No, I conclude it is
impossible that any rational man could suppose, that
the Catholics, under equal laws, would be less loyal,
less faithful subjects, than any others.
I have thus briefly disposed of the first charge against
Catholics ; I hasten to reply to, or explain the second :
it is, " that we entertain the design of overthrowing
the Established Church, and entering upon her pos
sessions." Both parts of this proposition, my Lord, are
equally false. Catholics, as such, entertain no design
hostile to the Church ; but as a class of persons almost
exclusively employed in agriculture, they object, not to
jlhe Church, but to the Establishment; as subjects who
are e«»cluded from their rights, chiefly by the wealth, and

30
influence, and intolerant spirit of tbe Church-men, they
are opposed to it ; as Irishmen they have weighty ob
jections to it, on account of its being the last strong
hold of that anti-social party, who, inverting the maxim
of the Romans, would neve.r amalgamate with the coun
try they had subdued, nor unite with the people whom
they had conquered. But as to the Church itself, her
doctrine, discipline, government and laws, they are
matters about which no rational Catholic feejs more
concern than he does about the state of Mahometanism
on the Bosphorus. In general, we respect the Church
of England, on account of " the rock from which she
has been hewn, and the pit from which she has been
digged ;" we prize her liturgy as only less perfect than
that from which it has been principally extracted ; we
admire her translation of the Bible, with all its imper
fections, as a noble work; we venerate her hierarchy
as the very image of the truth : for we Catholics give
veneration to images, on account of what they repre
sent ; but as to her Establishment, it is such in Ireland,
in the opinion of many Protestants as well as Catholics,
as should not be suffered to exist in any civilized coun
try, still less in a nation employed almost exclusively in
the tillage of land. She possesses domains, which, if
ascertained and valued, might appear more than suffi
cient for her support ; and with these, the tenth of the
produce of the entire kingdom, (the lay impropriations
excepted), which produce consists of the value of the
soil, of the manure, of the seed, of the tilling, of the
weeding, of the gleaning, of the reaping, of the ga
thering — in a word, of all the earth can produce, as
well as of the capital, skill, and industry of the occu
pant : add to these, the code of laws with which the
Establishment is fenced in and secured ; a code which
in bulk equals the mountain of Mahomet, and in wis
dom and foresight is not inferior to the books of the

31
that it could be well affected towards so monstrous an
establishment, and above all in Ireland, where those
who possess it are not the pastors of the people, and
where those who pay it are all employed in agriculture.
It is in vain to tell us, my Lord, that they are our pas
tors; such assertions may dupe the English; and a
pamphlet or charge which speaks of the intercourse
between the rector and people, the pastor and flock,
may appear plausible to those who are unacquainted
with the state of Ireland; it may also attain the object
fpr which it has been said or written : but we know there
is no such intercourse existing; the laws which suppose
it — the laws whiph designate and contemplate the Pro
testant clergy as the pastors of the Irish people, are all,
my Lord, founded in fiction, and such laws can never
tend to the public good ; no ; laws tp be jqst and equi
table, must be founded on the immutable relations of
things, or on those matters, whether causes or effects,
which really exist. To seek to create relations by en
acting laws, is to oppose the course of nature. To
found laws on relations which do not exist, is the very
extreme ofj error in legislation ; and such laws, though
written on parchment, can never have a moral exist
ence. Leges feruntur cum promulgantur, firmantur vero,
cum moribuus utentium comprobantur, is a maxim of law
which is not verified in those which regulate church
property in Ireland.
When tythes were assigned to the children of Levi,
they obtained no land, and they were one of the twelve
tribes, though not the most numerous, who had equal
rights to the inheritance of Jacob. The surplus given
them in the tythe, while the lands were withheld, does
not seem to be considerable ; and Judea, though it
flowed with milk and honey, was not, in the opinion of
Grotius, (and who was there more competent to judge?)
ever rich in agriculture. The provision therefore made
by Almighty God for the minisjters of his ark, or his

32
temple, was agreeable to the original right of the mi
nisters themselves, and bore a just proportion to their
Dumber and services; but when in the fullness of time
the social Compact of the Jews was dissolved, this or
dinance ceased with it, and the right of tythes was ex
tinguished by him who substituted for that of Aaron,
his own priesthood, according to the order of Melehi-
sedech. This divine legislator — the founder of a king-'
dom which was not to be confined to Judea, but to ex
tend to the extremities of the earth, whieh should em
brace, not the twelve tribes of Israel, but every tribe
and tongue, and people and nation, was pleased not to
enact for an empire so extensive and so varied, muni
cipal laws, as he did for the Jews, nor did he make
any special provision for his priesthood, but rather re
commended to them that piety and poverty which he
practised himself. He however published anew, some
maxims of the eternal law, such as "the labourer ir
worthy of his hire, who serves in war at his own ex-
f»ense, he who serves the altar shall live by the altar,"
and which will at all times ensure to the minister of re
ligion, a support proportioned to his deserts. Hence
yrry Lord, Christand his Apostles, as well as the primi
tive Pastors of the Church, were all supported by the
voluntary oblations qf the faithful, whether in money
©r other consumable commodities* or by donations or
Requests of immovable property.
It was only late in the fifth century, or rather in the
sixth, that the right of tythes was advanced, by the
church, and advanced as has been observed by the im
mortal Grattan, in a style no way creditable to its pas
tors, however the progress of the system was slow, for
until the beginning of the ninth century, or the age of
Charlemagne, jt obtained no considerable footing
amongst Christians whether in Europe, or in Asia.-~
That great and wise Prince who subdued nations by
force, and governed them by salutary laws, promoted

S3
the tythe system, as well adapted to all his views and
interests. He had rude, fickle, or disaffected nations
to restrain or govern, and without the aid of religion.
this could not be effected, hence he established many
bishopricks, and founded or reformed innumerable
ehurcbes ; he had no better means of attaching the cler
gy to their flocks, than by giving them an interest ia
their possessions, he had no revenue to dispose of for
their use, nay, the only source of revenue almost with
in his dominions consisted of land ; hence the tythe of
its produce was assigned to the priesthood, that they
might be tha protectors of agriculture amongst ruda
tribes, accustomed to live by plunder or the chase. —
But he was not only wise, but also religious and just ;
hence he made the inferior clergy independent of the
bj shops as to their support, by dividing one half of the
church property between them ; he assigned to the fa
bric, and to the poor, the other moiety, that all inte
rests might be promoted, and the church establishment
be a blessing not a curse fo his subjects. This systein
60 wise and provident in itself extended throughput
Europe with the feudal system, and without any other
than accidental changes subsisted generally and entire
in the 13th and 14th, and even during a part of the 15tb
eentury; the clergy indeed, as Montesquieu observes,
were continually acquiring, continually refunding, but
still they continued to acquire; hence the statute of
Mortmain, a wise and necessary law, was adopted in
one shape or other in every nation, to check thei*
acquisitions. In this state the church establishments were found,
when the events of the sixteenth century commenced
a revolution in the affairs of Europe, which is not yet
terminated ; but which, in its progress has changed all
the ideas, and all the Saws, and all the habits of men.
The church has fared like the nations and states in which
ftjsubsjsted ; and her former titles have been abrogated

84
or new-modelled, like those of the princes and barons,
who had created her establishments. Throughout Eu
rope, with only a few, very few exceptions, her bishops
are reduced to their primitive rank ; their domains have
been taken from them ; their tythes taxed or abolished,
and a new provision, more consonant to the public in
terests, and the opinions of men, substituted for the old.
This current of publio mind, and public interest, will
reach this country, my Lord, sooner or later, whatever
barriers may be raised against it ; and there is no coun*
try where it is more necessary; it would be hailed by
nineteen twentieths of the inhabitants of Ireland, Pro
testant and Catholic, as the inundations of the Nile are
hailed by the Egyptians.
Tythes in this country, my Lord, should always have
been odious; they were the price paid by Henry II. and
the legate Paparo to the Irish prelates, who sold for
them the independence of their native land, and the
birth-right of their people : until that period tythes were
almost unknown in this country ; and from the day of.
their introduction, we may date the history of our mis
fortunes; they were not the only cause, but they were
an efficient one of all the calamities which followed ;
and whilst they subsist, peace or concord will not be
re-established in Ireland.
The old pastors however, obtained the right of le
vying tythes from the king ; the legate gave to the sys
tem the sanction of the church: the petty princes slowly
yielded their assent, and the people submitted to what
they could not resist. To the honour indeed of the an
cient clergy, it is recorded of them, that no bodyof men
ever employed their wealth to better purposes, or en
forced their rights with so much satisfaction to the com
munity. But now, my Lord, we are arrived at a new
sera in the history of tythes. When the religion of Eng
land was changed, and the conquest of'this country
was completed, a period which embraces the reigns of

«5d
Henry, Edward, Mary, Elizabeth, James I. Charles I.
Cromwell, Charles, James, Anne and William ; at this
period, the English Protestants and Puritans, who had
succeeded in subduing the Irish, and possessing them
selves by the right of compact, or conquest, (the only
rights almost, by whieh every country in Europe is held)
ofthe lands and cities they had obtained or won, they
transferred the church property, from its ancient pos
sessors, to those new adventurers, who had come here.
in the name of Christ, to watch the baggage, and collect
the spoils: they did so without doubt, on the supposition
that the religion ofthe country would change here, as
it had done in England, (and where the transfer of
church property on that account was reasonable), and
that these holy harpies, who flocked about them, would
one day be transformed into the pastors of their subjects ;
this was, or ought to have been the end ofthe law which
gave the possessions and tythes ofthe Irish church to
the Protestant clergy: to suppose any other would not
be reasonable, and if the law had any end but this, it
wanted the essential conditions of a law ; namely, that
it should be enacted by a competent authority, and be
just, equal, permanent, regulated in all its details by
commutative or distributive justice, and tending to the
public good.
Your Excellency is a better jurist than I am, or can
ever hope to be ; and let me most respectfully submit to
your Excellency, whether this end has been attained,
whether it will ever be attained, whether it can possibly
be attained? And if not, whether the transfer subsists
unless by virtue of the statute, andwhatforce thatstatute
borrows from the laws of nature and of God ? What
then ! is the property of the church to revert to its for
mer proprietors ? yes, It belongs, my Lord, to the stale,
which holds Ireland by the right of conquest or of com
pact, or by that supreme and best of all rights the
"salus populi. " It does not belong to the ancient
F

36
clergy for they and their title to tythes are extinguish
ed, and the feelings and opinions and interests of all
classes are opposed to so absurd and unjust an inno
vation ; nor to their successors in the ministry, for
they can have no right to temporalities which the
law alone created, and which the law has appropriated
by the power of the state.
The foregoing argument affects the transfer itself;
but were we to consider the circumstances in which
it was made, and the consequences following from it,
the necessity of re-touching it would more clearly ap
pear. When the lands and tythes composing the esta
blishment were given to their present proprietors, the
value of them could not be ascertained, on account of
the unsettled state of the country, and as far as it was
ascertained, it was small, owing to the state of devasta
tion and ruin to which the country was reduced by the
civil wars. It continued so for a considerable time. Cat
tle not crops was the produce of Ireland, and the Irish
Commons, by a wise vote, secured their grazing land
from the inroads of the parson ; had they foreseen the
future state of this country, when by tillage she was to
be rendered the granary of the empire, and to export,
after maintaining her own vast population, corn to the
value of several millions sterling annually, would they
have assigned the tenth of this immense produce with
all her princely domains to the church ? I should sup
pose not, unless British wisdom and British justice
designated other qualities then than they do now, or if
they did, the'y would have guaranteed a competent sup
port to the officiating clergy, necessary repairs for the
parsonage and church, and some support for the naked
widow and shivering orphan ; they would not have left
the poor destitute, until their blood would be changed to
water, and " their faces become burnt," as] the prophet
expresses it, " before the face of the tempest of hunger."
Whil?t they assigned their patrimony to a pastor, who

37
was not to be their pastor, that he might be surfeited,
that the train of his wife might be borne by some pam
pered slave, and the crowd of his offspring followed
by a retinue of servants. They would not have done
so, had they foreseen that all their own future efforts to
harmonize, and improve, and enrich the country, were
to be marred by the very men they were enriching, and
that murders and atrocities which would for ever stain
the character of the nation, harden its heart, and bru
talize its feeling, as well as the most unheard of op
pressions were to be occasioned or committed by the
agents of this priesthood.
But then it is objected to any encroachmeut on the
property of the church, that if it be meddled with no
other is secure — silly objection. The tenure by which
it is held, is different, as has been shewn, from that of
every other, the nature of it is, a public fund always at
the disposal of the state, entrusted to a Corporation
for certain services to be performed ; only let it always
be employed for public purposes and the public good,
and the modifications of its use will never excite a just
alarm. But the church and state are inseparably con
nected. This can only be true of her constitution, it is
not possible that the state could be necessarily connect
ed with her wealth or possessions. One of her highest
dignitaries has lately said, she could subsist without the
state ; 1 should have no objection to the experiment
being made, I know the state can subsist without her,
as it does in Scotland, but to try the merits of the as
sumption, for it is a most gratuitous one, why could
not the state subsist in Ireland if the property of the
church were new modelled ? is the state now in the con
dition it was when that false maxim was first introduced?
no ! for then the executive power chiefly governed by
means of the church, now the church is an incubus up
on that power, thwarts all its operations, and makes it
odious to the people. The state has now all her com-

38
muaicationS easy, direct, open; her roads, her posts,
her army, her magistrates, her police, she is every
where present, she is every where felt, she does not
need the aid of a church, unless to teach mortality to
the people ; and your Excellency feels most sensibly,
that in place of aid, you receive from the church im
mense trouble ; here she produces nought to the go,
vernment but thorns and brambles.
But how could the patronage she affords be dispen-
sated with? this no doubt, if not the best is her strongest
defence, this is the very citadel of her strength. Every
free government my Lord, has two supports besides its
own virtue and wisdom, the first and best is public
opinion, the second is a just patronage, but what is
gained by fhe latter through the chOrch is lost in the
former, the establishment being opposed to the interests
of the entire community, and to the feelings and opi
nions of a vast majority of them. It would seem more
conson&ht to wise policy, to abolish those sources of
patronage which constantly meet and offend the public
eye, and to preserve, if necessary, those others, which
are more remote and hidden. But in an empire like
purs, sources of patronage can never fail, they are
furnished by Jhe army, the navy, the revenue, the <
state employments at home and abroad. Here our no*
bles may trade, our colonies are immense, the wealth
and industry of Britain has pervaded the whole earth,
education has fitted most men for enterprise, and the
spirit of enterprise enriches thousands, and frees the
stafe frofii humberless claimants.
But by diminishing the property of the church you
abolish a class of middling gentry, and thereby dissolve
one of the few links which keep the frame of our so.
ciety from falling to pieces.
Gentry, to be useful, my Lord, must be compara
tively great, entirely exempt from petty feelings, and
above such interests as only poor men, or low minds,

39
can descend to ; but a gentry whose income only raises
them to a middling rank — who possess only a life interest
in their property — who cau not transmit it to their
children — who are constantly scraping together some
little store for their families — who are invested with an
odious privilege, and exhibiting always to the people
what is most hateful in the laws ; such a gentry can
never knit society together . such moral ties as subsist
between a landlord and his tenantry, between a pastor
and his people, will never be found to unite the minister
of the Establishment and the catholic cottager.
This country must find a substitute for the social
union created by a beneficent gentry, and a cherished
people, not in the Church established, but in strict
laws impartially administered. The executive power
must be felt every where, more even to control the
petty tyrant than to secure the obedience of arestless
and impoverished people. To seek to govern the Irish
by such a gentry, is to work against the torrent; Ihey
are incapable of serving you, my Lord, even were they
well disposed: they must injure you. Their esprit de
corps — the prejudices which encompass them- — their fa
mily circumstances — the insolence, often, and immo
rality of their sons — the pomp and vanity of their
wives and daughters — their ephemeral and transitory
rank unfit them for the office of gentry- Lighten the
pressure of them on the country, give good and equal
laws, and talents and industry will produce a gentry.
But how is the Church to be wrestled with? Some
hundreds to be displeased, the fears of others to be ex
cited, or their prejudices to be shocked?
When a country is to be regenerated, a long system
of misrule to be corrected, and the reign of equitable
and just law to be established, something must be en
countered. But when a government is engaged in such
a work, it should deliberate like the Areopagus, almost
in the dark, and with closed doors; it should be inac-

40
cessible to friends and connexions, and have hung be
fore it only the naked image of its suffering countryi
the records of justice only should be opened or con
sulted. Should you, my Lord, and those who admi
nister the public interests with you, act so, you might
displease a few, but your decisions would be hailed like
the oracles of heaven by the nation, and you would
conduct the faithful people of this desart country, now
" pathless and without water," into a land flowing with
milk and honey ; your name would be more glorious
than those of Numa or Lycurgus, and you would be
venerated as the Moses of the Irish people.
It may be asked why I have dwelt so long on the con
cerns ofthe Church? — I did so, my Lord, because we
Catholics are accused with wishing to subvert it; that I
might repel so foul a charge, aud declare fully, that
my hostility is not to the doctrine or constitution of the
Church, but to her present establishment, which I con
sider opposed to all the interests of Ireland. I did so,
because the prelates and priests of this Church have
generally contributed to support and patronize a libel
lous and malignant press, which has not ceased to teem
with publications calculated to defame and injure the
body to which I belong, and the religion whieh I pro
fess. I did so, because I find them uniformly and sys
tematically opposed to every effort made in favour of a
system of equal law, and supporting an intolerant and
selfish spirit, which for centuries has kept Ireland en
slaved, and rendered her inhabitants the most miserable
in Europe; I have done so, because I am convinced
that the interests of religion, even in the Established
Church would be promoted, by accommodating the
income of its clergy to the means of the country, and
to the services which they would perform. At present
they have a profession, but no occupation : hence many
of them, destitute of employment and forbidden to ex
ert their talents and industry in other pursuits, if they

41
be religiously inclined, become enthusiasts, employ their
time in composing hymns or tracts, or in distributing
Bibles to men who want only food and employment, or
they implicate themselves in worldly concerns, contrary
to the command of the apostle ; thus degrading their
profession, whilst they seek in vain to serve two masters.
Perhaps they abandon God and the world, and become
profligates, to disgrace not only their calling, but even
their race and name.
As to our seeking to re-enter on the possessions of the
Church, the idea is absurdi — it is revolting to common
sense. We should first dissolve the connection between
the two countries — overthrow the constitution — esta
blish a new government ; and then hood-wink every
man of sense in the country, and disarm the nation
which had atchieved its freedom ; to effect all this, my
Lord, I think we would require not only the aid of
Prince Hohenlohe, of Doctors Doyle and Murray, but
of Antichrist himself. The truth is, my Lord, that the
Catholic clergy are generally satisfied with what they
receive, and the mode of obtaining it ; there are many
of them who think it a humiliation to depend on the
contributions of the poor, but perhaps it is good for
them to be humbled : others lament the necessity of re
ceiving support from those who are not able to bestow
it, and would desire some provision which would ease
the latter, and give to themselves a competency. But
acquainted as I am with their sentiments generally, I
could assert on their behalf, that so far from desiring
the possessions of the Establishment, they would not
accept of the tythes and all the odium which accompanies
them, were they (which is impossible) resigned in their
favour by the Established Church. For my part, my
Lord, I would not,, no more than I would accept of a
regium donum- The former would probably corrupt
my heart, or injure my ministry; and the latter, like
Sir Arthur Acheson in Swift, would oblige me

42
" To join with the court in every debate,
And rather than that I would lose my estate."
I need not add, if I had one. Our pretensions, my
Lord, are much more becoming our depressed condi
tion. We have been for some years now petitioning
the legislature for permission to build, and endow to any
extent that might be permitted us, schools, places of
worship, and residences for our clergy ; and though our
petition has been presented and the prayer of it enforced
by one of the most faithful and steady friends of Ireland,
a*! well as one of the most moderate and respected mem
bers of Parliament, he has not yet been able to obtain
his object. Some of our clergy are judges in eccle
siastical matters in virtue of their office, and must decide
on the validity of marriages, and on various other mat
ters on which the peace and happiness of individuals
depend through life, and yet they can not administer
an oath nor examine witnesses juridually, without being
exposed to the penalties of a prosecution ; or if they
do, they have only to look for impunity to the spirit of
the times ; and in good truth, this spirit offers no very
favourable asylum. For these are times, my Lord,
when a prelate of the established Church, famed for an
appearance of lfberality, could open heaven to every
sect of Christians, but would, by his vote in Parliament,
exclude a man who centers in himself "all the blood
of all the Howards" from the privilege of holding a
commission of the peace ; and which a majority of
the commons and of the nobility of Britain, would
concede to him. These are times, my Lord, when a
prelate once famed for his lights and his liberality,
could conjure from the depths a dormant; statute, if
such exist, that he might insult the living catholic, and
dishonour the remains of the dead.
But I shall pass from this subject, to consider whe
ther we are justly " accused" of stirring up the minds

43
" of the people, of keeping alive in them a sense of the
" wrongs which they suffer, of instigating them to rebellion,
" and to the overthrow of the constitution"
These charges, my Lord, are of so grave a nature, they
appear to me so unfounded and so malignant, as to remind
me forcibly of the conduct of his own countrymen and kin
dred towards the prophet Jeremy, when he denounced their
.guilt and oppression. They cast him into a frightful dun
geon, but not content with this degree of unmerited perse
cution, they consulted with each other, and said " let us
" put wood," poisoned, no doubt, " upon his bread, let
" us blot him out from the land of the living, and let his
" name be remembered no more," The men who charge
the priests and prelates, and even many of the gentry of our
communion, with treasonable views, are not satisfied with
the extreme rigour of the laws which aggrieve us, with the
spirit of a barbarous code which still persecutes us, but
they wish to have the few privileges already. granted with
drawn from us, new penalties inflicted upon us, and our
hopes extinguished for ever; they would (it would appear).
cut us off from the land of the living, and have even our
names to be remembered no more.
Your Excellency must be convinced, that were it not for
the exertions of the Catholic prelates and clergy, the spirit
of disaffection lately prevalent would have spread in the
country ; that a half-civilized people, goaded by distress^
and insult, excited moreover by incendiaries working upon
their religious zeal (blind and mistaken as.it was), would
have deluged the country with blood, and required not only
the vigour of the law to repress them, but other measures
also most painful to the feelings of your Excellency, and
most detrimental to the interests of the state.
Jt is not, my Lord, in the character or dispositions of
s

44
-^the Irigh people, that we are to seek for a reason why hun
dreds of families would submit to perish with hunger in
the midst of plenty, rather than infringe upon the rights of
property. No ! such sacrifices could only be the fruit of
religion pushed to an extreme extension by the influence
and exhortations of a pious priesthood ; and yet these latter
are the men who are charged with designs against the Con-
titution, men so cunning and so astute, as, in all times of dan
ger and difficulty, to preach up allegiance to the state, and yet
when the government is secure, and the people as it were
hemmed in and disarmed by the military and by the law,
to excite to disaffection !
In times when oppression is at its height, and no ray of
hope appearing, these prelates tell their people that resist
ance to the constituted authorities is forbidden. And yet
select the period of your Excellency's administration, and
of all the confidence it inspires, to infuse the spirit of re
bellion ! Such opinions no doubt are monstrous and absurd,
but they are inculcated and insisted upon by those who
could not now obtain forfeitures by an insurrection, but
who would expect to be let loose like furies to devastate, or
bloodhounds to scent out, to discover and devour. No, my
Lord, so averse afe the prelates who have lately been the
subject of so much censure, to excitement and intemperance,
that they even abstain at the present moment from the dis
charge of a duty by publishing several new and supernatural
cures which they have ascertained to be wrought amongst
their flocks, that they should not give occasion to intem
perance of any kind ; that they might not seem to continue
the present agitation of the public feeling ; in fine, that no
person might with reason have evil to say of them. They
care not for the contradiction of tongues, though some
should say "shew us a sign from heaven ," others, "he
" blasphemeth ; who can forgive sins but God only ?" or,
again, " let him come down from the cross, and we will

45
" believe :" no, my Lord, these sayings have no effect upon
their minds, but they love peace and charity more than
signs and wonders, and they know that the works of God
will have their effect independant of all human aid. The
piety of their own people will be exalted, their confidence
in the divine protection will be augmented, and the in.
fluence of that religion which gives all glory to God, and
all his rights to Cassar, will be strengthened and confirmed
'amongst those who profess it. They look for nothing
more, nothing can be more acceptable to God than this,
nothing more useful to the state !
But, my Lord, do these selfish men who impute crimes
Jo us, suppose that they can extinguish within us, a sense
of our wrongs — do they imagine, they can stifle the com
plaints of six millions of men — do they flatter themselves
that a vote of Parliament — of a Parliament which is
always deliberating, always receiving new lights, always
growing in wisdom, cannot be revised, and that when our
appeal is deferred, we are to think no more ofthe prose-,
cution of our claims. Can they prevent the ebbing of the
tide— can they stay the winds, or- atop the progress of the
light ? as well could they do so, as prevent oppression from:
producing complaint, or injury, from seeking redress.
We will never cease, my Lord, whilst our tongues can
move, or our pens can write, to keep alive in the whole,
empire, as well as in our own people, a sense of the wrongs
we suffer, -and to exhibit to an indignant world, all the
privations we endure. Our fetters are too galling, our,
chains are too closely rivetted, our keepers are too unfeel
ing, for us to remain silent, or permit them to enjoy
repose. When we speak of tithes, they may tell us we are the
allies of Captain Rock, but we reject the imputation ; and
reply, that the savage and the philosopher have the same..

46
sensibilities, and that the language of pain which they
utter, can scarcely be distinguished in its sound ; let only
the grievance arising from tithe, like the thousand
grievances we suffer, be removed, and the savage will
return to his rock, and the philosopher will retire to his
books. Let us not be told it is the law ; we know it is,
and it is of the law we complain ; but are" the laws of a
Draco always to continue ? are they not only to be written
in blood, but also, like those of the Medes and Persians,
never to be repealed. The penal laws, my Lord, will al
ways, in Ireland, produce some Demosthenes or other, like
O'Connell at present,
" Whose fiery eloquence will shake the arsenal,
5* Thunder over Greece to Macedori, and Artaxerxes'
V throne."
We do not keep alive in the people, my Lord, a sense
of their wrongs for any other purpose, than that they may
be redressed. We do not instigate them to rebellion, but
we use every means in our power to dissuade them from it.
We never repeated to them the language reported to have
been used in both houses of Parliament, by my Lord
Darhly, and Mr. Hume. We do not imagine, or desire
the overthrow of the government, for we venerate it as an
emanation of the divine power, nor do we propose to our
selves the destruction of the Constitution, which we look
to with as much ardour as the Israelites sighed for their
country, when on the banks of the Euphrates ; they hung
their harps upon the willows, and sighed, and wept, as
they remembered Jerusalem.
I come to the last charge of those which I have enume
rated, namely, that of intolerance towards the professors of
other creeds ; and an obstinate opposition to the diffusion of
knowledge, and the progress of education.

47
I do consider, my Lord, the accusation embodied in' the
latter part of this proposition, (should I call it so) the most
important of any which I have hitherto discussed ; because
it has obtained credit with many well-meaning persons,
from its being so often and confidently repeated, and hither
to deemed by us as unworthy of refutation. Moreover, if
it were well-founded, it would be a just cause, not of de
barring us from our rights as citizens, to which, .whether
ignorant or educated, we would be entitled ; but of treating
us with some asperity, and stimulating us, even by censure,
to the exercise of our judgment, and the cultivation of our
talents. I shall, therefore, devote to this subject, more
time than to the others, but yet much less than it deserves.
I shall, first of all, dispose of the charge of intolerance.
Intolerance, my Lord, is a word always odious, and
especially to those who live under the British Constitution ;
unhappily for. us, whilst the name and theory were hated, we
were the victims of the most intolerant laws : but the Greeks
and Romans, whilst most free, were the most rigorous op
pressors of their slaves. But religious intolerance is not the
same in its nature or operation as civil exclusion. The one
regards the social rights of men, the other their future inte
rests ; the former proceeds from the' social compact, the lat
ter from the decrees of God ; they do not depend one upon
the other, a Jew, Mahometan, or Hindoo may be free or
enslaved under a Christian government. Social intercourse
does not depend on the religious opinions of men ; it is
founded upon their manners or morals, and subsists by
their conduct ; when their conduct is not in opposition to
the law of nature, or to the preservation and well-being of
the state, their speculative religious opinions should never be
taken cognizance of by the law. These are principles of
legislation which no wise man has ever questioned ; and,
when the invocation of Saints, Transubstantiation, and the

- 48
sacrifice of the Mass, are recited in our oaths and declara
tions, they are a stain upon our jurisprudence, as well as a
testimony of the religious intolerance which prevailed at the
period when they were enacted. Other tests might have been
discovered, even in the days of William and Mary, to ascer
tain who were the adherents of the Stuarts, and as soon as
that worthless race became extinct, the error of the for
mer times should have ceased to be exhibited. But for the
honour of human nature, and the peace of every good man's
conscience, they should now be blotted out, though the
oath of supremacy were continued to ascertain our connec
tion with the Pope. Religious intolerance, my Lord, is
a species of intolerance distinct in itself ; it would appear to
be one of the first consequences flowing from the idea of
a divine revelation, and though we cannot easily prove this
a priori, it has the seconu best kind of argument in its
favour, namely, that wherever there existed a real or pre
tended revelation, there the doctrine of exclusion was allied
with that of salvation. It is useless to enumerate the creeds
of Zoroaster, Confucius, and the like, all who have ever
read of them know, that this doctrine is as inherent in
them as the doctrine of the castes among the Hindoos.
With the Mahometans, how many sects are there ? more,
if possible, than with^is, and they all, with the utmost fer
vour and devotion, condemn each other to hell. Abraham
was selected from a proscribed race ; and Moses founded his
law upon the doctrine of exclusion. Christ said there was
but one fold; Paul preached there was but one faith;
Cyprian, Jerome, and the other ancients, compared the
Church to the Ark, and said unhesitatingly, that outside it
there was no salvation. Chrysostom supported the doc
trine of the Bishop of Carthage, by excluding schismatics
as well as heretics, from the pale of the church, and Au
gustine, who embodied the doctrine of all who went before
him, and prescribed a rule of faith to all who have since
followed him, declares in express tcrm3, that it is never

49
lawful to break the bond of union amongst christians,
" prcecindendaz unitatis (he says) nulla potest esse justa ne-
'" cessitas.'" The several councils, my Lord, did no more
than register the opinions of these great and learned men •
and Grotius, whose authority I deem one of the greatest
that can be quoted, avers, that in the christian dispensa
tion union is so necessary, that to preserve it, a head
possessed of jurisdiction to controul and punish is neces-
saxy,jure divino, or by divine right.
From the very nature then, unquestionably from the
very origin of divine revelation, a union of true believers,
or exclusive salvation, or religious intolerance, (for these
names designate the same thing) has always been esta
blished and believed. During the convulsions of the 16th
century, there was a period when none of the new churches
had acquired form or consistency ; but, as soon as they did,
they adopted the old principle of exclusion, knowing, that
without it they could not exist. They all, of course, pub
lished their " schisms guarded," or apologies for then-
separation ; whether these were satisfactory or not, it is not
my business here to enquire ; one thing is certain, that
they rejected the maxim of St. Augustine, heretofore re
garded as a rule of faith, " Prasscindindw unitatis nulla
" potest esse justa necessitas,'1'' a breach of unity cannot be
justified. But when they had formed their new establish
ments they all published their confessions or creeds, and in
each of them as much, and as expressly as in the old
church, we find this doctrine of exclusion. It is found in
the 4th book, chap. 1, of Calvin's Institutions — in the con
fession of Augsburgh, presented to Charles V. in 1-530—
in that of the Swiss Cantons, in 1566 — in that of the Low
countries — in that of the kirk of Scotland, in 1647 — and in
the 7th of the 39 articles which constitute the creed
which your Excellency professes.

50
, It is therefore unjust, and even cruel, to impute this
doctrine to us, as if it, were peculiar to our church, whereas
it is common to all churches not only of Europe, but of
the universe. We all admit many exceptions to the gene
ral rule ; one will have it, that no person is to be excluded
from heaven because " he believes a littlemore or a little
" less than his neighbour," and exclaims, pathetically,
"whether the withered hand which Christ had made whole
" is to be raised against him;" another says, "that the
" idolatry forsooth, of the Romanist, excludes him, but all
" others may enter ;" a third, like Beza or Melancthon, may
consider this old church an excellent one, but yet their own
far better. Whilst the Catholic shuts the door against all
sects and heresies, but yet admits those who never defiled
the robe of their baptismal innocence — those whose errors
are not wilful, or, in the language of the schoolmen "in
vincible," and who have not violated the law of God ; as
well as all those to whom a God, rich in mercy, may extend
pardon at the hour of death.
Thus, my Lord, stands the account of intolerance be
tween the professors of our several creeds ; and why- we
should anticipate the judgment of God, and hate each
other for the sake of Christ who died for us all, is to me,
I confess, as unintelligible, as the imputation of intole
rance against Catholics appears to me unjust.
The Lord awards judgment without mercy, to him who -
has not mercy, and commands us not to judge a foreign
servant who stands or falls to his master, but who, he adds,
will stand ; and were a Christian, notwithstanding this
denunciation and this command, to condemn his brother
who differs from him, I would have less hopes of his
acceptance with the Father of all, than of. the heathen or
publican who never heard of Christ.

51
The writer of this letter, my Lord, (and he speaks of
himself with reluctance,) may be considered as express
ing the opinions and feelings' of every well educated
Catholic in the empire ; he has been, from his infancy, and
is still connected with Protestants, by ties of friendship; of
affection, of good offices, and of blood ; he has been
attached to them with all the sincerity which could fill an
Irish heart. In his intercourse with men he has never dis
tinguished them by their creeds ; in the discharge of his
ministry, he has never preached a sermon upon contro
versy, still less has he, at any time, used arguments or influ
ence in private, to make proselytes to his creed, and though
from time to time he has received many individuals to the
profession of his own faith, he has sought their conversion
only by expounding the truths of the gospel in public, and
endeavouring, as far as God enabled him, to exhibit it in
his conduct. Why those who think and act thus, should
be arraigned for intolerance, it is difficult to understand.
I believe it is the effect of that odious jealousy created by
the law, and fostered by the ignorance and prejudices of
interested men.
A Bishop of another church may arise, suppose in the
senate of the nation, and assert, that our clergy on enter
ing into holy orders pledge their allegiance to the Pope,
and which assertion is notoriously unfounded, as none of
our clergy at their ordination promise to him any obedience.
He may gravely assert that Catholic Bishops take an oath
which they do not take, (their consecration oath having been
new modelled, and such passages of it as prejudice had ob
jected to struck out, or satisfactorily explained by Pope Pius
the Sixth, in his rescript to the Irish Bishops, dated the 9th
June 1791, and published with his own excellent Pastoral
Instructions, by the late venerable Doctor Troy, in the
year 1793 :) — he may declare with a depth of wisdom and
consistency peculiar to his bench, that a legal provision
a

52
should be made for apostate Priests, and the elective fran
chise withdrawn from the great body of Irish Catholics. —
He might say all this, as one of our Bishops is reported to
have done during the debate on the English Catholics' Bill,
in a house where no Catholic can be present to deny his
assertions, or refute his sapient maxims, and yet never be
taxed with intolerance, with ignorance, or wilful misrepre
sentation ; but should one of our Prelates, who has per
haps been brought up in a cloister, and unable through
life thoroughly to shake off his cowl, should he intimate
'• that his brethren are of the household of the faith,"
(which is nothing less nor more than every pastor in Chris
tendom would say to his flock,) he is to be branded as into
lerant ! Verily, my Lord, these people use one measure for
their neighbours and another for themselves.
This part of the accusation is not however more unge-
nerous,nor more unjust, than that other which regards our
opposition to the diffusion of knowledge.
In good truth, my Lord, we may say to the generation
who are opposed to us, " we have piped and ye have not
" danced, we have lamented, and ye have not mourned."
We sought to give«pur people education, and you declared
by statute, that if we presumed to teach, or they to learn,
we. should be treated like malefactors, and banished from
the country which gave us birth ; we then became a nation
of Peripatetics, and perambulated Europe to acquire know
ledge, and you declared that for having done so, we should
(as I recollect, for I am not much read in statute law,) be
deemed guilty of misprision of treason, or punished with
the penalties of praemunire. We then staid at home in
contented ignorance, and you reproached us for not being
learned and refined ; alas, my Lord, how " iniquity hath
" lied to itself," and how big with injustice is our history,
and their conduct.

53
This happy race, however, which inhabited the land of
Gesson in Ireland, on whom the light shone, whilst all the
pagan Egyptians were in darkness, discovered at length,
that it would be good to have the light diffused, and that
a panacea for every evil was to be found in education.
That we had at all times set a just value on this blessing,
is not only proved, but demonstrated by the efforts we
made in despite of law and terror, to obtain it ; and by the
vast proportion of our people who at every period of our
history distinguished themselves by their learning abroad,
or acquired at home in bogs, or under hedges, the elements
of knowledge: our books, our masters and our schools were
such, no doubt, as became a people once rich and learned,
but again reduced to want and barbarism ; withal they
they were sufficient to guard the sacred fire, now turned
into thick water, until better times would return, till, like
that found by the prophet, it would be revived once more,
and borne in triumph to the temple.
I have seen, my Lord, within these few months a sta
tistical account of the education of tbe Catholics within a
diocess, comprizing the entire or portions of seven counties
in Leinster, and I can venture to aver to your Excellency,
that there is as great a proportion of the Catholic people
edur-ted, however imperfectly, within this territory, as in
ai.y other portion of the empire, with the exception perhaps
of some parts of Scotland. Moreover, that they, have,
generally, been educated by their own means, without
royal bounty, or public fund, or parliamentary aid. or
any other assistance than that derived from a few bountiful
patrons, and their own extraordinary exertions, excited
and directed by their clergy, This fact alone, my Lord,
should silence those who calumniate the Catholic priest
hood, as if they were opposed to the education of the
people. But in addition, we could refer to the public in
structions printed and circulated by our Prelates, to their

54
unwearied zeal in the establishment of schools, to the sacri
fices- they make out of their penury for their support, to
the numberless sermons preached by all orders of the Ca
tholic priesthood fpr the purpose of collecting contributions
from an' impoverished and still generous people, wherewith
to educate the poor : but there are truths so clear, that
argument only serves to obscure them, and this appears to
be one of them.
What then gives occasion to the imputation of our being
hostile to the diffusion of knowledge ? is it entirely gratui
tous ? is it the fruit of pure malice? there is much of
malice in it my Lord, but it is malice mixed with art.
These men confound things that are distinct, and uniting
the circulation of the sacred Scriptures without note or
comment, to the propagation of knowledge, they call bur
opposition to the former, hostility to education. By often
repeating the falsehood they give it currency, and men
ignorant of our principles, and too indolent to observe our
conduct, give credit to the misrepresentation: thus we
suffer alike from the malice of our adversaries, and the
neglect of those who would be our friends.
There is no Christian church in Europe, my Lord,
which uses so many, or more inspiring forms of prayer
than ours, there is no church in which so many works of
piety, and on the gospel morality have been written, there
is no people on earth more devoted to their perusal, or
more desirous of reducing them to practice than the well
educated of the Irish Catholics ; there is no priesthood in
the world more anxious for their diffusion than the Catholic
priesthood ; and there is no church has been more steady
and uniform in recommending to her children the perusal
of the sacred scriptures, where such perusal was not ex
posed to danger or liable to abuse, than the Catholic;
She has never imposed any restriction upon this practice,

55
unless when compelled to do so by some unavoidable neces
sity. Like as a tender mother, who feels delight in pro
viding for her children the most wholesome and substantial
food, but yet when they are threatened with a disease which
has already committed ravages in the neighbourhood, she
withdraws the diet by which it would be nourished or com
municated. Thus, my Lord, at a period of civil commotion, your Ex
cellency, who would be at all times the Father of the people,
recommends the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, that bul
wark of freedom, until the public mind is restored to its
proper tone, and the plans of the disaffected are dissipated.
Indeed numberless illustrations could be adduced of the
exertion of that sound discretion by which the Catholic
church suspends or regulates the inalienable right of her
children to read the word of God, and her discipline in
this respect appears to them so reasonable, that they can
not sufficiently express their surprise, that a mode of pro
ceeding should be censured in her, which is applauded
when acted on by all other bodies possessed of authority.
It is not, my Lord, because an enthusiast has lately said,
that if an angel from heaven declared to him, that the
religion which we profess is true, yet that he would not
believe in it ; nor because another less zealous against Anti
christ and his prophets, has made a similar declaration, on
the ground of our shutting up the scriptures, that I de
tain your excellency with this subject ; but because it is an
imputation which seems to have influenced some members
of your Excellency's government, in withholding from the
Catholics the full benefit of the parliamentary aid granted
to promote a well-ordered system of education in Ireland ;
it is for this purpose, and to disabuse a generous public,
which has been grossly misled on .this subject, and greatly
to our detriment, that I shall obtrude upon your Excel-

56
Jency a short exposition of our doctrine and discipline with
regard to the reading of the sacred scriptures.
The Doctors of our Church, my Lord, state, that after
the re-building of the temple of Jerusalem by Esdras and
Nehemias, and the re-settlement of the Jewish people,
when they had returned from the captivity ; that syna
gogues were erected in all the cities, towns, and villages —
the law and the prophets read in them, not only by the
priests and Levites, but also by the different members of
the several congregations ; the prevalence of this custom
is inferred, even from those passages of the New Testa
ment which mention, that when our Lord went into tbe
synagogue they handed him the books of the prophets,
from which he read that celebrated passage of Isaias re
garding himself, where it is written, " the spirit of the
" Lord is upon me," &c. so in like manner it is said of Paul
and Barnabas, " that they entered into the synagogue on
" the sabbath day, and taught the people from the scrip-
" hires," though they were not of the priesthood of Aaron,
ortribe of Levi. Even at the commencement of the law,
as is seen in the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy,
when Moses foretold that his brethren would one day have
a king, he ordained, that after he would be raised to the
throne, he should copy out the Deuteronomy of the law,
and have it with him, and read it all the days of his life;
and the learned Morinus in his Exercit. Bibl. Lib. 2 Cap.
affirms, on the authority of the Jewish Rabbins, that this
law was extended to every Israelite, so that it became an
adage amongst them, " an affirmative command is given
" to every Israelite to write out for himself a copy of the
" law.'' This precept, it is true, would bind only such as
were enabled to write a copy, or procure one to be written
for them, but yet it shews very clearly, that at least a sum
mary of the law was at one period in the hands of all.
That the sacred scriptures were in general use amongst the

57
Jews, is admitted, and it being therefore superfluous to
quote authorities to prove it, I shall merely relate one re
flection of the great Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, who in
his Discoeurs Sur L' His. Univ, 1 part, page 220, says,
" they were the books of the Mosaic law, in which the
" rules of a holy life were studied, it was nctessary to turn
" them over, and meditate on them night and day, treasure
" up their sentences, and keep them always before their
" eyes." And if this, was the duty or the privilep-e of the
members of the synagogue, it must of course belong to
those of the church, otherwise the children of tlie slave
would be more favoured than those of her who was free.
In like manner, the epistles of St. Paul to the Romans,
Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, are directed to all the
faithful who composed those churches, and though in
the first instance, they should have been delivered to the
pastors, and read and expounded by them to the people,
yet there can be little doubt but that they were imme
diately afterwards put into circulation, and read by all
those to whom they were severally addressed. The num
berless copies of the sacred Scriptures which were in circu
lation during the first ages of the church, and which ren
dered it afterwards so difficult to separate those which
were genuine, from such as were spurious, is a strong proof
of the general diffusion of the holy writings at that time.
The gospels especially, which give a detailed account of
¦ the life and actions, and words of our. Redeemer, and are
written in a plain simple style, were manifestly intended
for the use of all, so that of them at least, we can safely
say with St. Paul, " whatever has been written, has been
'¦' written for our instruction." Rom. xv. 4.
The ancient doctors and fathers of the Catholic church,
both Greek and Latin, are earnest and zealous in recom
mending the perusal of the sacred Scriptures. So Orjgen,

58
Horn. 9, in Lev. says, " We wish that you would be
" careful not only in the church to hear the word of God,
" but also, that in your houses you would peruse and
" meditate day and night, on the law of the Lord." S.
Ephrem, Ser. de comp. page 118. " As the body cannot
u live without food, so the soul is lifeless if it be not fed
" with spiritual nourishment, nourish it therefore with
" the divine word — with the reading of the holy Serip-
" tures." St. Basil, Horn, in Psal. 1. v. 1. is of opinion,
that the Scripture was dictated by the holy Ghost, that
by it, as by a general medicine, we should cure every dis
ease of the soul. But, in recommending the reading of
the word of God, no one is more earnest, no one so elo
quent, as the holy Chrysostom. To an ignorance of them
he attributes all the evils of his time ; but his Homilies
on this subject, especially that on the words of St. Paul,
" Let the word of God dwell abundantly with you ;" his
9th sermon on the Ep. to the Col. his 3d sermon on La
zarus, and several others, are so well known and so
frequently applied to this subject, that I deem it superfluous
to quote them here.
St. Jerome also recommends to the parent of a young
lady who had destined herself for a life of virginity,
that he should have her to commit the holy writings
to memory, to learn the Psalter by heart, and to make
the Gospel, Apostles, and Prophets, the treasure of -her
soul. Ep. 98 — so, writing to Eustochum, Ep. 86, he
testifies, that he had often warned Paula, the holy Roman
lady, whose devotions he regulated, not to indulge her
tears, but to spare her eyes for the reading of the sacred
Scriptures. St. Ambrose, in like manner, in Psal. 48,
asserts, that the holy Scripture edifies all, and that every
person finds in it wherewith, to cure his wounds. In like
manner, St. Augustine, who, on this subject, is not less
. urgent even than St. Chrysostom, whilst he extols the

59
depth, the difficulty, the mysterious nature of the holy
writings, recommends to all, that rejecting the shews
and trifles of poetry and the stage, they would nourish
their mind with the reading and consideration of the
word of God. Lib. de vera Relig. cap. 51. St. Gregory
the great, writing to Saint Leander, as well as in the pre
face to his book on Morals, encourages all to the study of
the holy Scriptures, " attend beloved brethren," he says,
Lib. 2 Horn. 3, in Ezech. " I beseech you to study and
" meditate on the words of God, do not despise the
" writings on our Redeemer which have been sent to us."
These testimonies of our fathers, my Lord, might be con
tinued up to the time of the predecessor of our late Pope,
namely, Pius VI. whose Brief, approving of a version of
the Bible made into the Italian langage with notes, by the
learned Martini is prefixed to our several editions of the
Doway Bible in this country." In this Brief, the head of
the church earnestly exhorts the faithful to the reading of
it, as the means of replenishing their minds with the most
salutary doctrine, and preserving them against the conta
gion disseminated at that time by means of irreligious
books throughout the north of Italy. In a word, the
nature of revelation implies the propriety of all those to
whom it is made, coming to the most perfect knowledge
.that is possible, of it ; and hence the reading of the sacred
Scriptures and meditations on them are not only approved
of, but earnestly recommended by the Catholic church.
If, at different times, she has been obliged to withdraw
them from the hands of those who might abuse them, her
doing so was the effect of a necessity which she could not
controul, and an exercise of that authority which is vested
in her, only for the good of her children. She only en
closed the law in the ark until it could be produced again
with safety ; as you, my Lord, would withdraw the great
charter, to preserve it for those, who, in their madness,
would destroy it. The integrity of the faith is the great,

60
deposit committed to the care of the Catholic churcli;
when this is endangered, every thing must be risked for
its preservation ; for this, excommunications are fulmi
nated, interdicts are imposed, the administration of the
sacraments is suspended, councils are assembled, pastors
are obliged to abandon, for a time, their flocks, the whole
christian world is put in a kind of commotion, the rights
of all are, as it were, suspended, the Scriptures them-
selves are discussed, to know whether they be authentic or
spurious, and all this for the purpose of preserving the
faith ; all things may be moved, in our system, the church
only cannot be moved. We believe that she is founded
on a rock, and that the gates of hell cannot prevail against
her ; that Christ is in the midst of her pastors all days,
teaching his divine doctrine, and that they, enlightened by
that spirit which guides them into all truth, announce, in
his name and their own, " it hath seemed good to the holy
" Ghost and to us" whatever is necessary " for the perfecting
" of the Saints, for;the work of the ministry, for the edifying
" of the body of Christ, till we all meet in the unity of
" faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto aper-
" feet man, that we be no more, children tossed to and fro,
" and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
" wickedness of menf by cunning craftiness by which they
" lie in wait to deceive ; but doing the truth in charity,
" we may in all things grow up in him who is the head,
" even Christ." Ephes. chap. 4.
On the same grounds therefore, that the Catholic church
exhorts her children to the reading of the Scriptures, she
requires of them to read them with caution, with humility,
and faith, and commands them not to interpret the mean
ing of any part of them contrary to the unanimous opinion
of her approved doctors or holy fathers. She goes farther,
and in times when she supposes a spirit of infidelity or
error to be abroad, she restricts the reading of the sacred

61
Scriptures to certain classes, or removes them altogether
from the hands of those who would be most likely to
abuse them, reserving them until better times return, and
peace and tranquillity are again restored. This authority,
which regulates whatever appertains to the sacred Scrip
tures, is believed by us, to have always existed. The
Patriarchs, without doubt, handed down, one to the other,
not only the revelations which were made to them, but also
the sense in which they were to be received. Moses not only
collected these traditions, but he also established a council
to decide, without appeal, on all disputes which should arise
as to the meaning of his law. When Esdras and Nehemias,
after the lapse of centuries, arranged anew and published
this law, with the histories, the Books of wisdom or mora
lity, the, Canticles, Psalms, and Prophecies, with which
God had inspired his holy servants from time to time, they
did not neglect to re-instate the high Priest and Sanhedrim,
in all their ancient authority and privileges, one part of
the exercise of which, as we are informed by Origen, Je
rome, and Gregory of Nazianzen, was to prohibit women,
and all persons under the age bf thirty years, from reading
certain portions of the histories of the Patriarchs, of the Pro
phecies of Ezekiah, as also the Canticle of Canticles. When
the Messiah appeared, and that Herod would discover where
he should be born, he did not recur to the Scriptures to
ascertain it, though he was a proselyte, and professed the
Jewish law ; no ! he followed the established custom, by
consulting the Sanhedrim, and they declared to him from
the prophets, that Bethlehem of Judea was to be the birth
place of the Christ. Our Redeemer, whilst he lived, paid
a due deference to the wicked men who ruled the Syna
gogue, and though they were only as white-washed walls
and painted charnel houses, he desired that their decisions
should be reverenced, whilst they sat upon the chair of
Moses. He could not preach the revolting doctrine of
discarding the constituted authorities, and whenever he

m
referred the people to the Scriptures, which bore testimony to
him, he laid a greater stress upon his works than upon his
words, no other tribunal being necessary in his life-time,
nor established as yet, though the Synagogue was waxing
old, and almost brought to destruction. 'Nay, until the
very hour, my Lord, of the dissolution of this Synagogue,
even when her high priest would condemn to death the
only Son of God, we hear him prophecy by inspiration,
and it was a perversion of a text put into his mouth, ac
cording to St. John, by the holy Ghost, which caused
Christ to be condemned in the council. That sentence,
indeed, sealed the destruction of the Synagogue, a destruc
tion foretold by all the prophets, but it also established
the foundation of the church upon the rock, which is
Christ, whose continuation to the end of the world without
any interruption, is also predicted. There is no moment
then, there is no chasm, there is no interval between the
deposition of the Jewish high priest, and the establishment
of a new authority, save that which occurred between the
death and resurrection of the Lord of glory, (a period
when heaven and earth were in suspense,) and therefore
there is no period, when a living and speaking autho
rity is not found, capable of deciding on all matters
which regard the lftw and the testimony, so that if Paul"
had never told us that the children of the free-woman were
to have a better inheritance than the children of the slave,
we could not doubt but Christ would provide better for
his church which he washed in his own blood, and espoused
to himself by an everlasting compact, than he did for the
Synagogue, who was only a hand-maid, called to beget
children in the house of the mistress. Could those who
belonged to the ancient covenant which brought nothing
to perfection, have a judge and a council who would decide
for them every question that could arise upon their law,
and the members of the new which is so privileged, not
to have pastors after God's own heart, who would feed

63
them with the word, and guide them into all truth ? These
suppositions seem to us inadmissible, and even if the pro
mises which are on record, were not made to the church,
promises so numerous, so clear and explicit, as to cause
Augustine to say, " though all things else in the Scrip-
" tures may be doubtful, the authority of the church, at
"least, is clear, even to a manifest evidence;" even if
these promises were not made, we should, as Grotius and
Leibnitz have observed, admit her authority as of divine
right, on account of the necessity of having some tribunal
to put an end to our disputes. To suppose, therefore, that
she has not authority to controul and regulate the reading
of the Scriptures, seems to us Catholics a paradox, that
there is, for instance, an authority which is supreme, and
yet need not be respected; that there is a tribunal from
which there is no appeal, and yet which each person can
elude ; that there is a kingdom established by Christ on the
earth, and' no sovereign to command ; a code of laws which
regulate the rights and duties of his subjects, and no exe
cutive power to enforce their observance ; no judicial
authority to issue decrees, or determine disputes. That
there is, in fine, in this kingdom of God, an imperiwm in im
perio, spiritual magistrates to govern, and yet every indi
vidual entitled to withold obedience. It is not surely for
this, that our Redeemer prayed, " that we should all be
" one, even as he and his Father are one ;" it is not for
this he established his one fold, his one house ; not for
this he appointed one to feed his sheep, that, as Jerome
says, " a head being appointed, an occasion of schism
" might be taken away ;" not for this he gave us that new
command which he calls his_ ozm; that we should love
one another, even to the laying down of our lives for our
brethren. It does not seem to us, that to establish this
license of withdrawing ourselves from the authority of
his church, it was necessary to declare, that whosoever did
not hear her, should be excluded from her communion.

64
The beloved apostle enforces the doctrine of his Master,
and desires us not to take food with, nor salute those who re
belled; it was against this opposition to the constituted
authorities that, (as it seems to us) Peter and Jude uttered
their frightful denunciations, comparing those lying teachers
who should bring in sects to Balaam who loved the wages
of iniquity, to Core, Dathan and Aberon, who resisted
the authority of Moses, and were swallowed alive in hell,
calling them wells without water, and clouds tossed with
whirlwinds, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved ;
who, speaking words of vanity, allure, promising liberty,
whereas they themselves are the slaves of corruption.
This license to rebel could not have been the object for
which Paul prayed, and preached, and bled ; teaching us
how we were to converse in the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of truth, constantly assimilating the
church to the human body, compact and united in all its
members under the direction of the head, exhorting us above
all things to unity and brotherly love, saying the man who
was fond of disputes was not fit to be among us ; whereas
we had no such custom, 'nor the church of God, and if
any one became a wilful and obstinate opposer of the truth
preserved in this church by faithful men, and taught by
them to others, that such a person was to be shunned, being
subverted, and already condemned by his own judgment.
In fine, it appears to us, that if the authority of the church
be rejected, the entire constitution of Christianity is dis
solved, and that nothing but confusion and anarchy can
remain ; that sects without name, number, or consistency,
must spring up, and follow each pther in rapid succession,
until the Christian system, faith, morals, and discipline,
is all dissolved, and a system of infidelity prevail ; — differ
ing only from paganism by the twilight of the gospel, which
is shed upon it, after the Sun of truth itself shall have set
for ever.

65
The Christians in communion with the See of Rome
believe, whether justly or not, that to their own church,
this supreme authority in all matters connected with the
law of God has been confided; other churches claim a
similar privilege, and their respective claims will probably
remain undecided until they all appear before Christ, but
until then, each must be allowed to act upon its own con
viction. The Catholics proceeding upon theirs, use the
following arguments to prove that the reading of the scrip
tures is not essential to Christianity ; and that they are jus
tified in regulating the use of them, or even in suspending it
altogether. They ask, my Lord, were the patriachs and
their families, men of pure religion? were not those virtuous
and holy men whom St. Paul enumerates in his epistle to
the Hebrews ? and yet for the greater part, their faith was
regulated by tradition only. Your Excellency knows that
Christ did not write any portion of his law, that the faith
was preached almost throughout the entire world before the
gospels and epistles were written, that the doctrine of keep
ing the liturgy and form of the rites and sacraments secret
prevailed up to the fourth century, and was scarcely ever
committed to writing, yet these ordinances constituted the
most essential part of religion. Even the creed or summary
of the faith was not written, as far as I can learn, until
about the time of the council of Nice : in fact it may be
said, that the whole system of religion, its rules and dis
cipline, were preserved by tradition until the conversion of
Constantine. Previous to this period, it is attested by
Irenasus, in his work on heresies, that entire nations of
those called barbarians, were converted to the faith, and
, believed, as he expresses it, without ink or paper : hence
the declaration of this writer of Tertullian, Basil, Chrysos
tom, Epiphanius, Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, and others>
respecting tradition, saying, that if nothing had been writ
ten, it alone had been sufficient — that it was equal in au
thority to the written word — that it regulated whatever wa

66
to be done or believed in the church — that the Lord during
the forty days previous to his ascension, had communicated
many truths, which were not written — that they had been
transmitted to faithful men like Timothy, who taught
them to others for -the government of. the church — that all
was not written, but handed down by tradition ; but how
ever recorded, they were of equal import.
This country, my Lord, was the chief seat of learning in
Europe during the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries, and
even afterwards; the inhabitants of it- were renowned for
their piety, and yet the Scriptures were never entirely
translated into our mother tongue. There are to this day
preserved in some districts of Ireland, sketches of the his
tory of our Lord, expositions in rhyme of the mysteries,
commandments, sacraments, rites and ceremonies of our
religion, handed down prpbably from the days of St. Patrick,
which convey more Christian truths to the mind, . and im
press more and better the moral duties of the Gospel upon
the heart than a peasant would learn from the Bible pro
bably during his whole life. This was the method which
the great apostles of Christianity adopted, in order to in
struct and confirm those converts, whom, by their preaching
and sanctity and n<5t by the distribution of Bibles, they had
brought over to the faith. Sed tempora mutantur et nos
tnutantur in ellis !
Until the 16th century, when, as Frederic of Prussia
said, (and I cannot be blamed for quoting such an authority),
a love of money in Germany, a love of women in England,
and a love of novelty in France introduced a change of reli
gion, there were but few and these imperfect editions of the
sacred Scriptures in the modern tongues ; the Huns, the
Sarmatians, the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Saxons,
and all those other tribes who over-ran the Roman empire
and exchanged their barbarity and paganism for the civiliza-

67
tion of the Romans, and the piety of the cross, all these
believed and practised the truths and duties of the Gospel,
without reading the Scriptures in their respective languages-
And though we may excel these nations in the refinement
of life and the speculations of philosophy, yet in heroism,
patriotism, a love of liberty, perhaps in faith and piety, we
may be far behind them ; from the spark hidden under the
allies of their times, the torch of science has been kindled in
our days ; the bust of our liberties, my Lord, was cast in
the feudal system, and the gothic arch and majestic spire
whieh we now behold with awe and wonder, remind us that
we are as pigmies compared with those who worshipped
Christ without letters, and built his temples after the manner
of the shade under which they worshipped in their woods.
The reading of the Scriptures without note or comment
does not therefore appear to us necessary to make men vir
tuous citizens or good christians, and if I did not fear that
I might seem to trespass on your Excellency, I would
sketch the evils which ensued, when Luther at Wirtemberg,
Zuinglius in Switzerland, and Coverdale in England, hav
ing translated the Bible, invited the common people to read
and learn their rights, and exercise the liberty with which
Christ had made them free. You know, my l<ord, the history
of England well, and of Scotland ; what it was that esta
blished the protectorship of Cromwell, and brought Mary
and her grandson Charles to the block. Your Excellency
is not unacquainted with the history of Luther in Germany,
and why the strong arm of Charles V. was not able to pre
serve the peace or almost the integrity of the empire. The
civil wars of France, the reigns of Charles, of Henry, and
the Guises, and of Henry IV. exhibit no small portion of
the blessipgs which Catholics conceive to have flowed from
the distribution of the Bible and the exercise of 'Gospel
liberty. It would be invidious to dwell upon these sub
jects or enter into a detail of what then occurred, but it
1C

68
might with some shew of reason be enquired, if the reading
of the Scriptures without note or comment by the common
people was not amongst the principal causes of all the evils
which afflicted Europe' during the period to which I have
alluded. It is not to this system of reading the Bible without note
or "comment that we owe the revival of letters, the invention
of the compass, the discovery of a new world, the present
systems of metaphysics, physics or astronomy. We are not
indebted to it for the discovery of the use of gunpowder, nor
above all ofthe art of printing; in a word, we owe nothing
to it of all these inventions or improvements which have
advanced mankind in a career of fame and glory, of what
some will call misery and others happiness ; but if there
be wars, if there be feuds, if there be dissentions, if there
have been despotisms and persecutions and star-chambers
and inquisitions, if there has been a revolution which al
most engulphed Europe, and a plague of infidelity which
nearly infected the whole western church, it would require
no extraordinary ingenuity to shew the connexion of these
evils and catastrophes with the diffusion of the Scriptures
-^pnongst the ignorant, joined to the assumed right of each
man judging of then; sense, independant of the authority
established in the church.
It was to check, as far as possible, such evils as I have
here sketched, that a committee of the council of Trent, in
ils 18th session, was appointed to consider and report to the
council of the books which were then in circulation, and
what regulation ought to be adopted with regard to them.
The report of the committee was not made till the last day
of the last or 25th session, and as the synod could not then
discuss the subject of the report, they referred it to the
Pope. The index, therefore, or list of books to be pro-

69
hibited, with the rules annexed, were noi sanctioned bjj the
council of Trent, and that which was afterwards published
by the Pope, and which includes such translations of the
sacred Scriptures as were not approved of by the proper
authority, has not the force of a church law, unless in those
countries where it has been published and received. In this
kingdom no particular permission is necessary, or is ever
required, by any Roman Catholic for reading the word of
God in an approved translation, and the several editions
through which the Douay Bible has passed in England and
Ireland is the best possible proof, that, encompassed as we
are by numberless sects, beset as we are in the streets, in
the fields,, in the highways, in the stage-coaches, in public -
society and private company with male and female, young
and old Gospel disputants, yet that we are not and cannot
be induced to relinquish the reading and study of the word
of God, nor abjure our faith. The editions of the Doway
Bible in the city of Dublin, since the period when Catholics
were permitted to breathe, have been numerous. Besides
those by O'Reilly and Cross, Mr. Coyne published an edi
tion in 1808, a second in 1816, and is at present engaged
in preparing, with the sanction and under the patronage of
the Catholic prelates, a cheap stereotype edition for the pur
pose of promoting the more effectually the diffusion of the
word of God.
However, whilst we venerate the revelation which the
Lord has vouchsafed to make to us, and would wish that
all Christians might piously meditate on it day and night,
the pastors of our church do not cease to impress on their
flocks the necessity of reading it with an humble devotion,
with a pious respect for the Spirit who dictated it, and an
entire deference to the authority of the church in expound
ing such parts of it as arc hard to be understood.

70
They recommend those notes which elucidate its mean
ing, and teach the doctrine of the church on the disputed
texts. They wish to remove it from the hands of silly
children, from the giddy and profane, and confine it as much
as may be to be read by grave and serious persons, by
heads of families, for themselves and their household, when
assembled in prayer. These pastors, acting conformably
to the discipline of that church of which they are the
watchmen, decry with all their might the impudence and
insolence of those enthusiasts who go about praying long
prayers, devouring the houses of widows, neither knowing
what they say, nor whereof they affirm ; talking disrespect
fully of every church, compassionating the blindness, for
sooth, of the poor, any one almost of whom knows from his
catechism more of the religion of Christ, than very many
of those who relinquish their humble occupations to gain a
livelihood by the Gospel.
. "We remind the people whom Providence has committed
to our care, that the bishops are appointed by the Holy
Ghost to rule the church of God ; that they are sent to
to teach and to baptize, even as Christ was sent by his
Father, and that he has promised to be with them all days,
even to the end of fhe world. We appeal to their own
experience whether we domineer over them by reason of the
faith, or whether we are only the helpers of their hope. —
We convince them of the necessity of a reasonable obedience
to those who watch for them, so as to give to God an ac
count of their souls, rep-rating often that he who hears
them hears Christ, and that he vho despises them dcspiseth
Christ anil the Father who sent him. We point out un
ceasingly the evils of disunion, and exemplify them by
referring to the numberless sects which fill the country,
daily changing and yet never coming to the knowledge of
the truth, tossed about on the ocean of controversy by evyry

71
wind of doctrine, until they are engulphed in fanaticism or
unbelipf. The Catholic prelates in this country, my Lord, exercise
the same authority in restricting and regulating the reading
of the sacred Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, as the council
of Toulouse did in the year 1229 ; as the council of Milan
under St. Charles Boromio did in his time ; as that of Nar-
bonne did in 1609; that of Cambray, in 1586; as several
councils did in Spain ; the same as that which Innocent III.
prescribed to be done in his letter ad Mitenses, and Pius IV.
after the council of Trent. Our pastors conceive it to be
their duty to select the pasture for their flock, and to turn
them away even from the flowery lawn, at a season when
the poisonous herb grows together with the sweetest herbage.
St. Jerom, in his epistle to Paulinus, and in his dialogues
against Lucifer of Cagliari ; Origen, in his 27th Homily ;
St. Basil, in his letter to Chillone; St. Augustin, in his
book on the Christian doctrine, recommend this economy,
point out the dangers attendant on the reading of the Scrip
tures at certain times and by certain persons, declare they
are necessary only for the instruction of others, and that no
heresy, however impious or absurd, has ever failed to bor
row support from them. In fine, my Lord, whether we
be in error, or whether we have ascertained the truth, the
Catholics are convinced that the very spirit and essence of
Christianity is inseparable from a reasonable obedience to
the authority of the church.
If human reason were sufficient to enable men to discover
the truths and duties which they are bound to believe and
practice, revelation itself would have been, in some degree,
unnecessary; but the errors which universally prevailed, and
the deluge of iniquity which covered the whole earth when
our Redeemer appeared, prove but too forcibly the weak

72
ness of man's reason and the propensity of his will to evil ;
" for though " God did not leave himself at any period with-
" out a testimony, doing good from heaven, giving rains
" and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and glad-
" ness," Acts xiv. 16, yet even at Athens, the cradle of
the arts and sciences and seat of literature, He only was
" the unknown God," and the few who knew him " did not
" glorify him as God, or give him thanks, but professing
" themselves to be wise, became fools, and changed the
" glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the
" image of the corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-
" footed beasts, and of creeping things." Bom. i. 21, 23.
Therefore, when he came to establish his religion upon the
earth, he did it, not by calling forth the reasoning powers of
man, nor in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in
" shewing of the spirit and power, that the faith might not
" stand, on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."
1 Cor. The sole reason he assigns why men should believe,
is, that he spoke ; " because I have spoken the word, saith
" the Lord." Jer. xxxiv. When asked, Art thou he who
art to come, or do we look for another ? his answer is not
enquire, consider, reason, but Go and relate to others what
you have heard and seen, " tbe blind see, the lame walk,
" the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again,
" the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed
" is lie that shall not be scandalized in me." Matt. xi. He
was about to establish a system of religion which would be
a scandal to the Jew and folly to the Gentile, and in place
of permitting its reception to depend on the exercise of
human reason, he declared that what this reason deemed
wisdom was folly with God, that he would reject the pru
dence of the prudent, and reprove the wisdom of the wise,
that no flesh might glory in his sight, " that the weapons
" which he would use were not carnal, neither worldly wis-
" dom nor worldly power, but mighty in God, unto the

73
" pulling clown of fortifications, destroying counsels, and
" bringing into captivity every understanding to his own
" obedience." 2 Cor. xi. It is manifest, then, that the re
ligion of Christ was not founded on the exercise of that
reason which should be reduced to the captivity of obedience
even before it could be enlightened ; it was by works, not
by words, that the faith was established ; it was by signs
and wonders it was propagated, not by the circulation of
the Scriptures, nor by the persuasive words of human wis
dom. " By praying and by suffering, by dying in a pious
" security, the laws which condemned it were made to blush
" and were changed," says St. Aug. lib. 1 de Civ. Dei. It
was only when it was established by these means, that the
powers of this world were permitted to embrace it; " And
" now ye kings understand, be instructed ye who jud<?e the
" earth,'' Psalm ii. that its truth and divinity might stand
conspicuous and uncontestable; and if so, why should it
now be made to stand on any other foundation, or why
should any person, even the most wise, undertake to judge
of it by that wisdom and reason which it so emphatically
rejects ? It must depend upon its own proofs, it must
stand upon the foundation on which it was placed by Christ
and his apostles, and there must be some means whereby
men can come to the knowledge of the truth and believe,
besides that which is so expressly excluded. This seems to
us to be no other than a continuation of the authority of
Christ committed to his church ; without some such autho
rity, it would be impossible to collect or keep together the
mass of mankind in the profession of any religion whether
true or false.
These considerations alone, without noticing the infinite
variety of opinions which different persons-form on the same
subject, even on the same passage, of holy writ, attaches us
to that authority which nature and experience dictate to be

74
necessary, and which revelation clearly designates : for what
we ask, can influence the bulk of mankind, ignorant and
stupid as they are, but authority? What can prevent
schisms and heresies but authority ? What can preserve
the Christian world from relapsing into the errors and im
pieties from which Christ redeemed it, but authority ? What
preserves unity in any church or state in the universe but
authority ? What fills, at the present day, these islands
and Germany with the most frantic opinions, but the want
of an authority sufficient to coerce them ? " Authority
" alone," says St. Augustine, " can move the foolish to seek
" wisdom ;" and again, " to confide in authority is a short
" way, and no labour. I would not believe the Gospel if
" the authority of the church did not compel me thereto."
These, my Lord, are the principles of the Catholics ;
your Excellency may not approve of them, but I am con
vinced you will be satisfied that a class of men might not
unreasonably be influenced by them. They are submitted
to your Excellency for the sole purpose of justifying, as far
as my feeble efforts in these hurried sheets could justify, the
conduct of the Catholic prelates and clergy in opposing the
introduction of the sacred Scriptures without note or com
ment into schools, as well as the implied right of individuals
to interpret them. They are not hostile to education, they
we the most zealous abettors of its diffusion, but they con
sider the reading of the Scriptures by children in this coun
try, and at this time, as an abuse, evil in its principle,
and dangerous its consequences ; and however their friends
may regret, and their enemies malign their conduct, they
will never surrender the rights with which they conceive
they are invested, to regulate the reading of the sacred
Scriptures, and the expounding of their sense to those of
whose souls they are to render an account before the tribunal
of a just judge.

75
This letter, my Lord, has extended to a greater length
than I at first anticipated, and, as Paschal said when writing
one of his provincial letters to the Jesuits, I have not time to
make it shorter. It has been composed in haste, and un
der the influence of varied feelings, and if any expression
in it should seem different from what is due to your Excel
lency's exalted station, to your personal dignity or private
worth, it has escaped from the pen, but never proceeded
from the mind or heart of him, who is, with the most pro
found respect and devoted attachment,
Your Excellency's Most obedient
and most humble Servant,
J. K. L.

L

SECOND EDITION.
.,¦!—<¦¦ — ¦¦ i mi^.i.. ¦.— -¦ ¦i—i..l— . ....... i^w>— i— ¦¦¦¦ i'i«'"'^»
LETTERS
ON THfi
STATE OF EDUCATION
v', IN
AND-pN
BIBLE SOCIETIES.
ADDRE6SEB jj|,
A FRIEND IN ENGLAND. \

BY
J. K. L.

>" DUBLIN: PRINTED
BY RICHARD COYNE,
4, Capel-street,
BOOKSELLER, PRINTER, AND PUBLISHER
TO THE R. C. C OF ST. PATRICK, MAVNOOTIC.
And sold in London, by Keating tf Brawn.
1824

OS

EDUCATION I.N IRELAND;
exo ON
BIBLE SOCIETIES.

Dear Sir,
There were not as maoy verse-makers in
Rome in the time of Horace:, as there are writers and
speakers on edncation now a days so a single assem
bly of ladies and gentlemen io Ireland. It is difficult
to obtain silence io a crowd ; It is still more difficult
to secure attention for a»y length of time, and I fear
that you are almost the only reader of this letter who
will not merely look -through it, and then give it to.
the winds, rapidis ut fiat ludibria ventis. 1 will write
it^however, and commit it, like a lottery ticket, to for
tune or Providence ; it may be forgotten amongst the
thousand blanks, it is possible that a prize awaits it.
When I look back to the splendid labours of the
lamented Whitbread oo behalf of education ; when
I consider the spirit which was awakened by him, and
so successfully disseminated by those who like Mr.
Brougham were has companions or his followers in
that godly work, and compare these men and their
views with the stunted thoughts and puerile follies of
many who now hark in the general cry, my admira
tion of the great and wise men who have sought or
still seek to advance human knowledge is enhanced,
whilst my contempt of their helpless retainers is with
out bounds.

A sort of enthusiasm in favour of the education of
the lower order*, has now prevailed in these countries
for a few years ; more than a just vajue has been at*
tached to it, and there are but few men in society who
calculate upon its possible consequences. Like every
other subject or bubble, whether it be war, commerce,
religion, or taste, when it connects itself with the feelr
ings of a people, it hurries them forward precipitately,
and they neither will, or perhaps can weigh dispas
sionately any arguments unless such as are calculated
to promote the favoured or fashionable system. I
havo mere than once for my own amusement reasoned
against the diffusion of knowledge amongst the poor,
and I was highly gratified to observe the surprise as
well as the absurd remarks which my observations oc
casioned. I took care, however, like Socrates when
disputing about the nature of the Godhead, that I did
not reason in the presence of " a Meeting of the
Friends of Education," least I would be stoned : for
if the Delphian God himself announced that evils
might arise from an imperfect education, such as at
best can be given to the poor, his oracle would be
slighted, or perhaps he would himself be thenceforth
excluded from the assemblies of the gods. It hap
pens, however, that I am truly and heartdy devoted
to the greatest possible diffusion of knowledge, even
in Ireland, and not less zealously opposed, to the
folly and malice of those who would put this mighty
moral engine to work without guards and checks to
controul apd regulate it; or who would avail them
selves of the public feeling in favour of education,
for the purpose of engrafting upon-it their own wild
theories in religion.
The state of education in tjiis country is not cer
tainly gratifying to a man of reflection. The study of.

science is confined to a few, and the only sciences
which are well cultivated amongst us are those con
nected with the physical world. Positive sciences,
which require great labour, patience, and industry,
are not suited to the Irish character, and hence, as
well as frem the small profits or honours annexed
to them they are greatly neglected. Another cause
of this neglect is found in the excessive wealth of our
University, and of the Established Chureh, where
pride and indolence, the natural growth of riches, oc
cupy the place of labour and study, whilst, on the
other hand, a want of time, and of means prevent the
Catholic Clergy from devoting themselves to literary
pursuits. Politics, political economy, religious innovation,
these are the subjects not sciences in which Irish ge
nius delights ; these studies, if such they can be called,
employ the inventive powers of the mind, they re
create the fancy, they supply food to eloquence and
lo the passions, and supersede in a good measure all
attention to matter of fact.
Most of our youth above the general condifion of
the people are acquainted with the preliminaries of
knowledge ; they acquire just as much of classics
and of science as is sufficient to deceive them into the
notion that they are educated, and to precipitate them
unprepared into the labyrinth of public life. To find in
IrelandagOod logician, alearned historian, or adeeply
read divine, is almost as difficult as to discover a ve-
nemous serpent or a monster such as Horace describes.
You could meet with apostles and prophets on any of the
high-ways, but amonst them a man of deep research
is indeed a rara avis. A mathematician or geologist,
a man skilled in plants or minerals is not a very rare
commodity in Ireland, but compared with politicians
^nd essayists and preachers of the word, he bears as

little proportion; as the handful of Greeks did, to the
myri&ds of Xerxes. That a little knowledge fo a
ufangerous thhag was in no eoHBtry perhaps more
fel|$ ptoved thaBi ia ours* For here a little seperfielal
iearnlq-g aetfirg upon the passions hy/ means of the
piress and public foeetinga,, is. one of the great causes
©if the incessant agUaUoa, in. which the public mind is*.
kept- This action is called discission., bn,t I assnpe
yoo that though I look at the papers and pamphlets;
with whieh th$ country is inundated, I do got ^always
find ia them a sonnd exposition of truth, or an essay
which bespeaks ia the writer experience of the world,
knowledge of past events, or an ijftteJieet ta>oght to,
reason justly.
But to pass from the edee&tion of those srtpposed
to be educated, to those who are not; it would be
presamptuous in me to state all I think, os even all 1
know upon this subject, as his Majesty's Commission
ers are about to report officially upon it, and have ob
tained all the information which is necessary to enable
th-^m to do so fully. It may be sufficient, to inform
yon that the wants of our poor as to a well regulated
system of education, are like their wants of food or
^toflnng. Wants, which press upon their strongest*
appetite, wants wlfich they labour to supply by every
means in their power, but which, iTrotwithstandlng all,
their exertions, are left unsatisfied. As, when, how
ever, the potatoes fail them, they have recourse to
weeds and herbs, or, as they substitute ferns for a bed,
and hay for covering, so when a good school is not
within their reach they have recourse to the hedge.
Far be it from me to complain that the poor of Ire
land have been thus abandoned ; that when the sword
ceased to, destroy them, and, the malice of the Le
gion Club itself had been exhausted in robbing them,
that then their enemies should have laboured to blind

their intellect l»y forbidding education, and sought 'to
efface the image of God from (their souls Sry giving
them ©Ver ta that ire-probate sense which a -wan* of
rfeligtous and -moral instruction generates — 1 do not
co'mpS^ti <of these things more than of the perverse
ara*d insulting ireproaehes of ignorance and immorality,
wath which they are now assailed by tlie very men -or
athelr immediate descendants who /immured them in
this mental bondage. No : 1 do not complain of these
Injuries and insults for which there is no redress on
earth. I refer them to HIM wh© says, " revenge is
ssatae, and I w31 jpepay.." What 1 complain of is,
Shat of all the endowments' for the education of the
poor in Ireland, whether fey the state or by indi-vi-
<&aals, there is as yet no one for the people at large-
Si cotinpiara that in tins -respect the sense ©f injustice
¦and wrong, as so obliterated from the minds of some
puiSie functionaries, that without fear, shame, or xe-
zooKse, they violate the laws, disregard their own
oaths, anfi trample vjpan the last testaments of the

I complain that ifonndations for education ase
tene«l Into snaec-ates — that diocesan and parochial
schools are either not held, or if held., are free only
lo those who pay for fbeir education — that charter
schools are converted into seminaries of proselyfism
and thek funds embezzled — that Catholics are ex-
dwded. fsr©«s every endowed school, or exposed in
them to have their minds trained by a master of a re
ligion different SrOm their own, or of no religion -at
all; whilst their own creed, like their Redeemer, may
•fee spitispon or bnffetied by every zealot presiding!®
them, who may imagine that he renders a -service to
Crodl and to the State, by the Injuries or insults he
offers to iL
We complain that orar chief Secretary for the dine

8
being, when he applies to Parliament for votes of
money, does not, when he has obtained what is neces
sary for the public service, apply for some hundred
thousand pounds to stay the decline of protestantism,
and suspend the growth of popery, gather than ad
vance this purpose under the name of grants for
schools,, hospitals, asylums, and education societies.
We do not complain of what is done, it has be,en done
so long and so often, that we can as little doubt of its
propriety as my Lord Roden does of his conversion ;
but what we complain of is, the misrepresentation
and the false pretences which to the great detriment
of public morals, are resorted to by high and influen
tial characters on these occasions. In their, conduct
the retainers of the system throughout the kingdoni
find a precedent and an example, which as in duty
bound, they imitate ; ad exemplum regis totus com-
poenitur orbis; so that in several departments con
nected with the church and state, but especially in
what regards grants or endowments for education,
we find the high qualifications of misrepresentation,
or embezzlement to prevail.
v Leaving these matters however to be reported by
the Commissioners, and judged of by Parliament, I
shall proceed to submit to you my ideas of Education,
by whom and in what manner it should be regulated
and eontrouled.
This will necessarily bring me in contact with these
Societies, which have taken the youth of Ireland un
der their parental care, and oblige me incidentally
to treat of the wild superstition which, under the name
of bible reading or bible distributing, is now disturbing
the peace of Ireland and threatening the safety ofthe
State. Should my observations on these subjects be
extended, I will throw them into a second letter and
should they appear tedious, I pray you may impute

9
blame to those who have excited such discussions,
arid not to me, who only endeavour to assist the cause
of education, and to divorce it from that religious fana
ticism, which in this instance, as in almost every other,
is united with dense ignorance, and the most subli
mated folly,
Next to the blessing of redemption and the graces
consequent upon it, there is no gift bestowed by God
equal in value to a good education ; other advantages
are enjoyed by the- body ; this belongs entirely to the
spirit ; whatever is great, or good, or glorious in tho
works of men, is the fruit of educated minds. Wars,
conquests, commerce, all the arts of industry and
peace, all the refinements of life, all the social and
domestic virtues, all the refinements and delicacies of
mutual intercourse — in a word, whatever is estimable
amongst men, owes its origin, encrease, and per
fection to the exercise of those faculties, whose im
provement is the Object of education. Religion her
self loses half her beauty and influence when not
attended or assisted by education ; and her power,
splendour arid majesty are never so exalted, as when
cultivated genius and refined taste, become her heralds
or her handmaids. Many have become fools for
Christ, and by their simplicity and piety, exalted the
glory ofthe cross; but Paul, not John, was the Apos
tle of the Nations,, and Doctors more even than Pro
phets have been sent to declare the truths of religion,
before kings and princes and the nations of the earth.
Education draws forth the mind, improves its facul
ties, encreases its resources,, and by exercise strength
ens and augments its powers ; I consider, it therefore
of inestimable value ; but like geld, which is the in
strument of human happiness, it is, and always must
be unequally distributed amongst men. Some will al
ways be, unable or unwilling to acquire it, others will

10
expend it prodigally, tit petvvtt il tb the worst ends,
whilst the built of rtiatikind wiil always be hiOre or less
excluded from its possession.
Doortied as we are to isafil our bread by fhe sweat of
our brdw, the great bulk of Adatn'S posterity will evef
be engaged in procuring for themselves the neces
saries, or iri supplying to others the cohifoHs or luxu
ries Of life ; this hi the ordefr Which Providence has es
tablished oh the earth, whilst ib justice to men, It has
taken care that happiness should not depend on
station. Nartif&liees agricola sua si bona tidfint.
Fram tbfe disposition, however, it appears, that as
We cannot aM be legislators, or astronomers, Or mer-
chants, or agriculturists, so we cannot all be Well edu-
cated, tiot having the means, nor the talent, nor the
time necessary to acquire much knowledge.
It behoves, however, the Government of every well
educated society, to provide, as far as may be in its
power, for each elass of its subjects, as tftueh education
and of the best hind, 6s the latter are ti&pabtie Of re
ceiving with advantage to themselves and security to
the pnblie interests.
But as- the mind of mah-, ill its unitftproved state, is
more under the influence of passions thati Of reason.,
hence it is necessary vrihM it is in training and its en
ergies employed upon itself, that no impressions be
made upon it but such as are really calculated to de-
vetope and exercise its faculties, or to plant itt it the
principles of religion and the seeds of Virtue. It is a
paramount duty, that in the instruction of youth,
that milk not Strong food be given to them ; that what
ever could introduce error Ot passion be removed
from them ; and that their teachers be as intent in
.forming in them habits of piety and virtue, as in ex-
eroising the faculties of fhfcft mind.
For theae reasons it is that in every state whether
christian or pagan, the instruction of youth has been

11
corded to the ministers of religrpu ; for those whe
are esteemed capable pf preaching truth and morality
to (he community at large, must be deemed most fit
to regulate the education of children > be whom the fa
ther looks to as ap instructor for himself, must, in his
opinion, be the very person to whom he would com
mit the pare pf his child,
If the State undertook to deprive the parent of the
religious guardianship of his own offspring, it would
violate ope of the first and most sacred rights of nature.
Charlemagne when be forced the Saxons to receive
baptism, did not separate the children from their pa
rents. This would be an injury so gross and revolting,
that the most zealous bjgqt ever ruling in a Christian
State lias not exercised it towards the Jews ; it has been
only partially attempted by the frainers of our penal
code, iu whom the devil gems to have dwelt corpo
rally; yet those insolent societies, who infest our
country, and some of whom are aided directly by the
slate, attempt to take upon themselves this guardian
ship, and to wrest it, pot by law, but by bribes, and
terror, and influence, from the parents and pastors,
to whom nature and religion consigned jt ; they force
us to cxclaiin " quern pd finem sese effrenata jactabit
audacia!" Bat I would anticipate what I have re
served for thege presumptuous men, one of whose
officers, like the officer in Swift, might adopt the silly
jargon of his brother, and say
To give a young man a right education,
The Bible is the only good book in the nation ;
With your Novids, and Blutarchs; and Omers, and stuff —
I value them not 
Leaving these societies, however, for a while, and
resuming my remarks on the *4uty of the State to pro-

12
vide education for the people, and on the class of per
sons to whom the superintendence of it should be
¦confided, I find that the theory laid down by me is not
only clear and incontestible, but confirmed, also, by
the practice of every civilized nation.
The legislature in this country has entrusted the
regulation and government of schools to chartered,
bodies, consisting, chiefly, of clergymen, or to the
Ordinary, within his own diocess. The bishop, in
deed, is entitled, by that canon law which the Church
of England carried away with her at the time of her
defection, and which she still holds in eommon with
us, to license every person who keeps a school within
his jurisdiction. But these laws of the State and of
the Church, suppose, as a matter of course, that the
creed of the bishop, and that of the people, is the
same : and so it was until the time of what Is called
the Reformation, in this country, where, however,
by one of those astounding fictions, in which the law
of England delights, it was subsequently declared by
Lord Chancellor Bowes, that Catholics were not sup
posed to exist, unless for the purpose of punishment.
If, however, their legal existence be admitted now, is
it not monstrous and absurd still to retain the fiction, in
the face of a nation and of common sense? And if it be
laid aside, and the inhabitants of the country admitted
to exist; and if the government be disposed to fulfil
one of its first and most sacred duties, by providing
for the education of the people, is not the course to
be pursued obvious? — If proselyfism be disavowed
by the government — if the disavowal be sincere
— if it be acted upon ; —why hesitate to entrust
the education of the child to his own parent, or to" fhe
pastor whom the parent selects? Why hesitate to
confide the instruction of youth to those who are ap
pointed to teach the men ? Why weigh in opposite

13
scales, the natural and original rights of the Catholic
clergy in this country, against the unfounded preten
sions and usurped authority of a self-constituted soci
ety, or of any society composed of men whose religious
opinions would form a very Babel ? — men who have
no connection, or communion, or sympathy, with the
people of Ireland ; who feel no interest in giving
them such education as their parents wish for, as their
religion requires, or as God enjoins ; nay, who feel,
and profess, many of them, a direct interest or desire
in debauching the minds of youth, by withdrawing
them from the authority of their parents and pastors,
and inducing them to go with themselvesafloatupon an
ocean of doubt, to be tossed to and fro by every wind
of doctrine, the victims' of their own ignorance, or
error, or passions.
But it is said to the Catholics : You and your clergy
are only tolerated in the State ; and therefore the go
vernment cannot be expected to* confide to you the
regulation of public instruction.
Good God ! how insulting is such language ! how
galling to the heart of a man born free, and who has
never done an act'to forfeit his rights ! But suppress
ing the movements which such an observation is calcu
lated to excite ; and it being admitted that we are
tolerated — if, then, we do deserve to be even tole
rated, we deserve to be educated : for otherwise, even
as slaves, our value is diminished ; and if it be desi
rable to educate us, and that it is a crime against
nature to withdraw our children from our authority
and controul, why not permit us to regulate their
education ? Why obtrude upon our inalienable rights ?
Why infringe upon the parental privilege of which the
Legion itself did not deprive us ?
Do we wish or require to be entrusted with the
public instruction? No: we seek only that the por-

14
tion of it which regards ourselves be entrusted to us ;
WP do not desire to put our sickle into another man's
harvest; all we require is, that yon observe the com
mandinpnt af Christ: '« Whatever you wish that men
do to you, dp you to thcin in like manner ;" you
wpuld not confide the instruction of your children to
us : dp not oblige us to entrust pur's tp you.
As to the .State he^tpwing aid— we feel indebted
fpr it^-we will be grateful fqr it ; we shftU pot even
think, if yen wjj|, that tjje State exists only for the
gppd of the PePple, that we are its subjects, that we
pay jts tajes, gnpply its luxuries, he^r all its burthens,
fight and die for its aggrftpdizernpat op glory. We
will waive all right to the publip money, and sit
like Lazarus, expecting the crums. All this we
will do, only do not afflict us by interposing your
authority between us and our children; dp not
estrange from us the mind Pr affection of oyr little
ones, or teach them from their infancy to regard the
stranger as entitled tp their confidence ; do not inti
mate to them that their parent and pastor are unfit to
train their mind, and form their heart, or introduce
them to the world. If your object be to seduce them
from the faith for which we have suffered, and into
which they have been baptised ; avow it — tell us so —
and we will retire with them into the desart, and tell
our misfortunes to the rocks ; or, we will cease tp,
beget children in pur bondage, and let our name
he forgotten, and our race extinguished.
Yes, but it is necessary that all the children Qf the
same State be educated together ; and how is this to
be effected, if the Catholic Clergy be permitted to se
lect the teachers, or regulate the instruction of the
youth of their communion? In the first place, the
interests of the many should not be made subservient
to those of the few ; but when, as is generally the

15
Case, the persons requiring the aid Of the State, are
exclusively of the Cathblte religion, theif pkSlPfs alohe
should be vested With the right of superintendence
and controul ; but Whett the Children are of different
Creeds, the interests of the majority Should prepon
derate, ahd those tif the mibbfity should be Consulted
for, at le&st, in a negative way. An assistant, of their
own creed, should be provided for therii in each
school, to Watch over their moral conduct and reli
gions improvement ; or should that not be possible,
fixed regulations, posted up in public, and enforced
by penalties, Might serve to exclude all interference
With their religious opinions, whilst increased dili
gence on the part of their parents and pastors, would,
in some degree, Supply the waht of a teacher.
But let the funds HedesSary for the education ofthe
poor in Ireland, be only vested itt Commissioners pos
sessing the confidence of the Government and of the
people, and all these difficulties Will at once Cease.
In a mixed community, Such as ours, Where mutual
harmony and good will ate to be promoted, and Chi I.
dren of different creeds to be educated together, let
intruders of no defined creed, whose only religion
seems to consist of anti-catholic -Zeal, and a Senseless
enthusiasm about bible-reading— let sttc'h intruders be
excluded, and let men of fixed and known principles,
eminent for their knowledge and moderation, as Well
aS their love of order and attachment to the State ; let
such persons be commissioned to dispense the public
bounty in a Way calculated to promote a well-ordered
system of education ; a system Which not only will not
interfere with the rehgi&us opinions of any, but which
will secure the religious instruction of all. Lief such
men be employed, and the desires of fhe government,
and of the people, Will be easily and speedily fulfilled.
Such Commissioners would not find it necessary to

16
resort to misrepresentation in order to secure their
usurped authority, and cajole parliament out of mo
ney, by representing the Catholic priesthood as hostile
to education ; they would not contradict themselves,
nor assert in the face of the nation that the Catholic
priests and people considered the, sacred Scriptures
as a fit school-book for children. They would not
be so infuriated by sectarian zeal as to convulse the
country-— setting the father against the son, and tho
son against the father — the landlord against the te
nant, and the tenant against the landlord — only that
their favourite scheme'of opening the eyes of children,
by the perusal ofthe word of God, might be advanced
— that the little ones, like Eve, might have their eyes
opened, knowing good from evil, and become like
gods, seeing and detesting the errors and abominations
of popery. Such Commissioners would not object to
the most unexceptionable characters taking a place
among them for the purpose of inspiring confidence,
and promoting concord in the community, as if these
characters, like that of Home Tooke, were not suffi
ciently purified by a quarantine of some forty or fifty
years of public service, to take a seat in their imma
culate house.* Such Commissioners would not de
clare, as a fundamental rule of (heir proceedings,
that they would afford equal facilities of education to
all, without interfering with the religious opiniqns of
any, and in the same sheet publish a contradiction of it,
by requiring that in all their schools the sacred Scrip
tures, without note or comment, should be -read by
certain classes of the children. Such men would not
have the audacious effrontery to repeat incessantly,
in contradiction to the public and repeated declara
tions of every Catholic prelate in Ireland, that such
indiscriminate perusal of the sacred Scriptures, with-

17
out note or comment, was not a direct and mis
chievous interference with the religion of Catholics.
Such commissioners would not, in and out of Par
liament, by themselves or their agents, excite odium
against the Catholic priesthood, by representing them
as hostile to the reading of the word of God, because,
after St. Peter, they considered it liable to abuse in
the hands of the ignorant and unsettled, who might
wrest it to their own perdition.
But then the systems of education devised and acted
upon by these societies are excellent ; and the books
published by them, for the use of schools, unexcep
tionable !
To the first of tbjese observations I would reply by
quoting a maxim of law — Non est major dejectus quam
defeclus juris : " there is no defect greater than a
want of right or title." These societies have no right
or title to interfere with the education of the people,
no matter how good their system ; let it be applauded
by the world, like the book of Plato on the common
wealth, but let it not be obtruded on a nation, not yet
ripe for so much perfection.
But this system is not excellent, it is defective
in a primary and essential quality, it makes no pro
vision for the religious instruction of children, it even
excludes such instruction ; 1 say so, because no child
ever was or ever will be formed to a christian life by
the mere perusal of tbe Scriptures. Some person in
Waterford, quoted with religious horror, the saying
of a priest, " that the Bible would play the "devil with
them," meaning the children ; yet the priest thought
rightly, though he expressed himself in the Irish man
ner, putting the wrong end of (he sentiment foremost.
The Scriptures would not play the devil with the
children, but the devil would play his pranks with
the children by means of the Scripture. He quoted it
c

18
acutely enough to our Redeemer saying "'it is writ
ten"— ah! and what is not written? I should be
soFry to quote all thafris writ-ten, for if I did, 1 might
like others, excite a storm against tlie church and
state; but -it is written, said the devil to our Re
deemer, "he hath given it iu command to his angels
that they bear thee in their hands, lest thou hurt thy
foot against a stone." Had a child been there, he
might have been tempted by the text to make the
experiment suggested by Satan, he might east himself
down from the pinnacle of the temple, and if he did,
he would in my opinion, not only find his. foot hurt,
but his bones broken. The Scriptures are useful for
many purposes, but if Timothy himself, and I am
confident he was an apt shoiar, -had no other means
of being instructed in religion, he never would have
been a christian, much less a bishop, and almost an
apostle. The system of education broached by these
self constituted societies is, on this head alone, essen
tially defective. Next, as to the books published by
them being unexceptionable, this assertion is far from
being correct : I have seen somp books published at
Kildare-place, which are so ; others I have heard of,
to wit, Select Passages of the Sacred Scriptures, ex
tracted from the version authorized by law, these, are
not unexceptionable, but excepted to by our church ;
so much so, that no such extracts can be read with pro
priety by Catholics, unless they are first revised, and if
neeessaiy, corrected by theproper authorities.
This objection on our part, to the scriptural ex
tracts published by the Kildare-place Society, is ap
plicable to the books circulated by each, and all ofthe
other societies. Whereas these books are composed,
at least in part, of extracts from a version of the
scriptures, which we (whether justly or not, is not
here to be diseussed,) but which we consider as an

19
adulterated copy of the word of God. It may be
said that tlie version authorized by law, does not dif
fer materially from ours; bgt even if this were the
case, it would still be objectionable, as nothing can
be deemed immaterial in a thing so sacred as revela-
tioo? and John had so much reverence for its inte
grity, that he anathemizes in his Apocalypse whom
soever would add to, or take away from it. Though
the adding to or taking away from it, are not perhaps,
the very worst modes of perverting it.. The taking
from it, is not so bad as taking from it and substi
tuting in the room of what is taken, some effusion of
Beza's spleen, as Catholics charge the English Trans
lators with having done.
But the fact is. that the Catholic and Protestant
Versions differ not in a few places only, or on indif
ferent subjects, but in several hundred places, and
almost on every subject which is controverted between
the Churches, wherever these subjects occur, from
Genesis to Revelations. The books circulated by the
London Hibernian Soci'ety, that society of whose spirit
and objects we have lately had so edifying a specimen,
are on this ground, particularly obnoxious; one ofthe
first passages quoted in fhem is from the book of Gene
sis, a part of which passage demonstrating the freedom
of the human will, is suppressed ; the quotation being
thus left imperfect and the truth untold. The Psalms
are copiously introduced by these London Instruc
tors of Hibernian Youth, though the book of psalms
alone, contains, as we suppose, more than two hun
dred passages adulterated in the authorized version.
These school books of the London Hibernian Soci
ety, give the English Canon or list of inspired books,
different from that of the Catholic Church, and marks
as apocryphal or profane, writings which the Church
of God, as St. Jerome expresses it, has always re-

20
ceived as inspired. Are these trivial things? Far be
it from a Catholic to suppose so : To him who thinks
he can believe a little more or a little less without
prejudice to the will of God, these may be trivial ;
but to a Catholic who reveres every iota of the law,
even as he does the entire, nothing which regards it
can be trivial, lt cannot be a matter of indifference
to him, to find his child taught to consider as profane,
whole books of the divine revelation ; for if he once
by his own judgment, or by the judgment of the
London Hibernian Society, or of the Church of Eng
land, equally fallible as his own, reject one or two or
three books, why may he, not gradually reject ano
ther and another untill he rejects them all, and sub
stitutes for them the pleasing reveries of Rosseau or
the blasphemies of Payne or Carlisle.
The Lord's Prayer, the best of all prayers, the
universal prayer prescribed by our Lord — this i« given
in the school books ofthe London Hibernian Society,
from the English Version, and has therefore an adf
ditiontoit: " for thine is the kingdom, &c." which
we firmly believe the Lord never added to it. And
are our- children thus to be puzzled at their very in
fancy ? A book put into their hands in school, the
master also pel-haps, who teaches them, both present
to the ehild a prayer as the best of all, as prescribed
by his Redeemer himself; and yet the child when he
goes home and repeats it for his mother, is told , that it
isnottheLord'sPrayer. The poor woman already trem
bles for his orthodoxy, and fears he is half a protestant ;
she consults the Priest, and he tells her that fhe prayer
like the rest ofthe scriptures, was perverted by Harry
the eighth and Elizabeth. Now the old woman's zeal
is excited, she repeats from Ward's Cantos the
dialogue of these deceased sovereigns in hell, and

21
piously pours out her seven thousand curses on
their heads.
It is thus the societies work ; the children are un
settled in their principles, they are made to find in their
infancy the religion of Christ, rather a bone of conten
tion than a bond of peace, a subject of dispute not a
law'of grace, a source of doubt and anxiety rather
than a fixed and settled rule of life. The very Lord's
Prayer may become to them not only a subject of dis
pute, but even of ridicule. I recollect when a boy
at school in which Protestants and Catholics were
educated, it was customary with the Catholics, by
way of jest or reproach, to call their Protestant com
panions by the name of " Father which," alluding to
the obsolete expression retained in the English ver
sion of the Lord's Prayer, and retained, no doubt,
as a relic of antiquity, to shew that the English
chUroh has not yet abandoned entirely the worship
of relics or all veneration for olden times.
These things may appear trivial to many, but we
should recollect that they are at least the forms and
circumstanoes with which religion loves to be sur
rounded. Many of our legal forms are, God knows,
palpably absurd, and yet they are retained, perhaps
wisely retained ; and why should religion which holds
her courts throughout the earth, whose forms of
prayer and worship are consecrated by a usage of
1800 years — why should she strip herself of them and
expose herself naked to the gaze of her suitors?
Why should she suffer the books of her authority, the
volume of her statutes, the very form of her proceed
ings to be despised, altered or neglected as it might
suit the caprice of the stripling, of the knave, or the
fool, who presumes to teach in her name.
But they are not only the forms of prayer, and the
words and Canon of the Scriptures which are brought
into doubt, and exposed to strife by these unhallowed

22
societies, bat the very substance and essence of the
faith. The mystery of the Trinity and the divinity of our
lioul, which as T«ftnllian says, are the.cardofidei, the
very hinges of religion, these are sought to be upturn
ed by some of these men. They endeavour to intro
duce into a country which has never generated a he
resy, that most destructive of all heresies, or as
it is ealled by the Ctmreh of England in her last
synod that wicked and damnable heresy — that
frightful Soeianism, which* rising from the ashes of
Calvin and Beta, has already infected the greater
part of their followers even in this empire, and seeks
now like the serpent to emit its poison against tbe
church of God. ,
There has iieen sent to a Catholie prelate, who is
generally confounded with your Correspondent, and
by the e sent of an English nobleman, a book compiled
for the u of schools, breathing this heresy from be
ginning to end, and calculated to instil it secretly into
the unsisspecting mind. ¦»;•
Thi# book did not come alone: as is usual, it was
accompanied with an offer on the part of this most
respected, bat deceived nobleman, or his agent, to
build or to assist in establishing schools an his exten-
siveestates in this country, if the book thus sent were
permitted to be osed by the children. Behold, Sir,
the conditions implied or expressed, on which, and
on which alone, these societies and their dupes or
abettors will educate the poor of Ireland.
Behold also, and at the same time, the force with
which these societies press en an impoverished and
broken-hearted people. Funds to the amount of, or
exceeding £200,000 a year, are at their disposal ; the
influence of the landlord, an influence paramount to
every other, the zeal of the inspector, the power of tbe

29
press, and of the tongue — cal um ufes iitcessaifltly re
peated, the hallowed name of the word of God, the
thirst of the people for education, their excessive po
verty, all these form a moral phalanx more formida
ble than that of Macedon, and if God and the unbro
ken spirit of the people did not assist us, we could
not resist if. We have borne many things, but we
have never borne a persecution more bitter than what
now assails us. As the persecution of the church by
Julian in the time of peace was more afflicting than
that of Nero or Domitian, so what we suffer from
these societies, and the power and prejudice they
have embodied against us, is more tormenting than
what we endured under Anne or the second George.
The tendency of all these societies is one and the
same, — the subversion by indirect means of the ancient
faith, and the establishment on its ruin of a wild and
ungovernable fanaticism. They have under the spe
cious pretences of diffusing the word of God, and
educating the poor, obtained the money and the pa
tronage, and the support of some of the mostexalted
and liberal characters in both countries. The bigots
in Ireland are all wifh them, actuated chiefly by the
deadly hatred they bear to our religion. The Esta
blished Church lends them its aid, as it would ally itself
with the priests of Baal against those whom it has
supplanted, and also because it cannot oppose itself
to sectaries without being taunted with its abandon
ment of the right of private judgment.
These societies have lately thrown off the mask
which had been too much worn to conceal them ;
they have openly avowed their hostility to our faith.
They have questioned the authority of those Whom
God appointed to rule his church ; they have scoffed
at the idea of tradition, and loudly professed Ihe

24
competency of all to read the word of God without
guide or instructor, and become wise by it alone to
salvation. These are the principles of all the societies without
a single exception — the very cardinal points in their
system. I shall offer you a few observations on them
in a second letter, and have fhe honor to be, &c.
J. K. L.

ov

EDUCATION IN IRELAND;

AND ON

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

LETTER II.
My dear Sir,
St. Augustine (Tract. 18. in Joh. cap. 5.) has
very justly observed, that " heresies have sprung up ;
and certain perverse opinions, ensnaring souls, and
precipitating them into the abyss, have been broached,
only when the good Scriptures were badly under
stood ; and when that which was badly understood
Was rashly and boldly asserted."
We may lament the existence of these opinions ;
but St. Paul tells us that " heresies must be;" and if
they must, we should only make the best use in our
power of them. The same Augustine, in his book on
true religion, cap. 8, says that heretics are very useful,
not by teaching the truth, which they do not know,
but by exciting the tepid Catholics to the study of
truth, and the spiritual men of them to the exposition
of it. " We use," he adds, " the heretics, not to ap
prove their errors, but that by maintaining the Ca
tholic doctrine against their wiles, we may ourselves
become more vigilant and cautious, should we not
succeed in bringing them back to the way of sal
vation." What this holy doctor says of heresies and heretics,
we may apply, with some colour-of justice to those
D

26
societies of whom I treated, en passant, in my last
letter, and who, under the pretext of educating the
poor, come not to broach auy particular error, but to
disturb the whole constitution of the "Church of God.
For my part, I cannot conceive any heresy or fa
naticism more wild or dangerous than that which seeks
to upturn the foundation placed by Christ, and to
establish another, or rather nothing, in its place. In
novators generally attacked this or that truth revealed
by God, and believed by the faithful, but here no
specific error is broached, no particular dogma is as
sailed ; but it is proposed to cast off, as useless lum
ber, the men whom the Lord deputed, in his own
name, and with his own power, to govern his people
until his second coming-
It is proposed to take the law and the testimony
out of the hands of the men witty whom it was depo
sited by Christ and his apostles, to leave the house of
God without a master, his kingdom without a spve-
reign, his fold without a shepherd, his altar without
a priesthood, and his people without a pastor. This
system will have no church to be called " the body of
Christ, compact and united ;" but every member is lo
be a head, every sense to usurp the place of the other ;
the church is no longer to be the pillar and ground of
truth, but a chaos of opinions more confused than the
tongues of Babel ; she is no more to be proof against
the powers of hell ; or divided against herself she may
continue to stand, contrary to the maxim of Christ;
heresies and sects may devour her very entrails, she
is to have no right to reject them. They no longer, like
heathens and publicans, can be excluded from the king
dom of God or Christ. If this is to be the caste, why
hath Isaias, ch. 54, addressed this church, saying
" fear not, for thou shalt not be confounded ; and
blush not, for thou shalt not be brought to reproach :

27
for thy husband is thy Maker, the Lord God of hosts
is his name ; and fl'iy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called.
For a little time did I hide my face from thee, but with
everlasting kindness I will have rrierCy on thee : for
the mountains shall be removed, and the hills shall be
overthrown; but my kindness from thee shall not be
removed, and the covenant of my peaGe shall not be
overthrown, sai'th the Lord, who beareth towards
thee the most tender affection : whatever weapon is
formed against thee, it shall not prosper, and against
every tongue that contendeth With thee thou shalt
obtain thy Cause : for this is the inheritance of my
servants, and their justification from me, saith the
Lord." Why did fhe Lord himSelf promise " that
the word which he had placed in her mouth, in the
mouths of her apostles, whom he sent to teach all
mankind till the end, should not depart from them,
nor from their seed, nor from their seed's seed, from
/thenceforth nor for ever. But whatever these Bible
Societies may think of the prophet or his divine
poetry, it may be worth our while to consider whe
ther Christ has deceived us when he said " that all
power was given tP him in heaven and upon the
earth ; and that as he had been sent himself by his
Father,- so he sent the twelve to teach all nations,
promising to be with them, even to the consummation
ofthe world ? " Why, we should ask, did he say that
" hisSpirit would abide with them forever, would teach
them all truth, and suggest to them whatever they had
heard from himself; and that whosoever heard them
would hear him ; and whosover despised them despised
him, and not only him but the Father who sent him ? "
Why did he^say these things, if they were to have no
power or authority to teach? Why did he call these
apostIes,as Aaron was called, as he himself was called,

23
when the Father glorified him, making him a priest
after the order of Melchisedech ? Why did he call
them to the priesthood, and desire them tp do as he
had done himself, and shew forth his death until his
coming ? Why did he vest them with a power of for
giving sins, of binding and loosing on earth and in
heaven ? Why, whpn thus prepared with power and
privileges altogether divine, did he give them their
last commission, to go and preach his gospel — the
truths which he had heard from his Father, and made
known to them, which, during his mission, and for
forty days after his resurrection, hp had revealed, bt^t
npt written? Whydid he send them to preach these truths
to every creature,, until the elect would be all gathered
in, and the work of the redemption consummated, if
their ministry was to be superseded by certain socie
ties ? — societies to be formed in after times, without
order, or power, or mission, or authority ; having,
with them neither sigps, nor wonders, nor tongues,
npr prophecies ; nothing but a. portion of that gospel,
which they had purloined from the body to which it
was committed by the Lord.
Frightful and impious, Sir, is this system, which
thus strikes against the cprner-stpne of Sion- — which
thus upbraids with impotence the Son of God, and
discards the Providence which built and rules his
Church. What ! Is there po regard to be paid tp Christ, or
or tp his election, or appointments? The Father of
Mercies, not flesh and blood, had revealed tp Petpr
that his Master was the Christ, the Son of the living
God ; and a divine charity, bestowed from above,
had filled the heart of that apostle, more than those,
of his companions. He is, therefore, elected to be,
the head of his brethren, that there might be no
division amongst them, and the powers given to allj

29
collectively are given to him alone, and greater
powers than these are given to him : not only is he
entitled to bind and loose throughout the world,
but the very keys of the kingdom of heaven are
entrusted to him, that he might regulate all power;
even as Christ himself, who is head over all the
churches. His prerogatives are not yet filled up.
Christ was the corner-stone, the rock — he is about to
depart ; but the Church, whilst in this desart, requires
a rock whereon to repose, or at whose fount she may
drink the refreshing waters of truth and grace : Peter,
therefore, is made a rock, firm and immoveable ; on
him the Church, by divine appointment, must be built,
that it may be safe against the power of hell. Peter
must found it a* Jerusalem, he must engraft the Gen
tiles in the person of Cornelius on the seed of Abraham
— the old trunk ofthe genuine olive ; he must establish
his chair at Antioch, fix his see in Rome, plant by the
hand of Mark the, seed of the Gospel at Alexandria,
and collect under the shade of these great Patri
archates all the nations pfthe earth, James might
labour with him, John might pray with him, Paul
might run with him, but if they laboured or prayed
pr ran without him, they wpuld as the most eloquent
and laborious of them testifies, labour and pray and
run in vain. Whosoever did not gather with him, as
Jerome said to his successor Damasus, scattered ;
whosoever d'd not eat the lamb with him was pro
fane. The Redeemer has not yet dismissed him ; he
must accumulate upon him the. plenitude of his
power ; he must pray to the Father specially for him,
that his faith should not fail, and that, if infirm for a
moment, he might return, and not only return, but
confirm his brethren less gifted, less secure than him
self. Now indeed he is prepared, and at length dis
missed to the exercise of all his powers. To feed the

30
lathhs, yea aud a second time fo feed them, not by
violence or for the sake of base lucre, but to feed them
as much by love and example, as by power, and to
feed not only the lambs, but a'lso the sheep — the Whole
fold, the pastors and the frock.
And this election, thi-s* appointment, this com-
missiPn, these unheard of privileges and powers,
merit no consideration from the Bible Societies ; br
are these the only truths Which Cannot be discovered
in the Scriptures? Have none of our societies read
these things ? Have these too not been revealed' to
the simple and the little ones1? Or is it, that these
men are always reading and never come to the know
ledge of the' truth? Has their understanding not
been opened that they might understand the Scrip
tures? DP they require a Philip' to explain them?
Does not the'unction of the spirit teach them ? Spi
ritual m A* as they arte, can they not judge all things?
Or have they never1 found that key of knowledge
Which is kept in the Catholic Church, which open's
and no man can shat, which shuts and no man Can
open£ Blind and leaders ofthe blind, fluctuating
aud carried about by every wind of doctrine, without
apostles, or prophets, or pastors, or doctors, let
them not presume to insult the Church of the living
God, which is the pillar and the ground of truth, but
venerating the authority instituted by Christ, bend
their understanding to his obedience, and seek to
obtain by humble and fervent prayer, that faith
which, and not the exercise of the Scriptures as Ter-
tullian says, has saved us ; quos fides salvos fuit non
exercitatio scripturarum.
The Scriptures alone have never saved any One,
they are incapable of giving salvation, it is not their
object, it is not the end for which they were written.
They hold a dignified place amongst the means of

31
the Institution which Christ formed for the purpose
of saying his elect, but though they never had been
written this end would have beep attained, and all
vyhp were pre-ordained to eternal life, would have
been gathered to the Church, and fed with the bread
of life.
The Scriptures were given for the most useful ends,'
as* we ghall see presently, but it is obvious to all, that
they were not written as a regular code of law, still
less were they intended tp supersede the priesthood.
They consist of history, poetry, moral and mystical
treatises, as well as ofthe ordinances prescribed to the
Jewish people, they were written generally for some
special purpose, in different languages, in various
countries', and at periods far removed from each
other; and hence, though the entire collection be
uspful, to instruct, reprove, and direct us in the
pursuit qf happiness, yet if it he looked to as the means
whereby mankind may be brought -to the know
ledge of the truth, and formed to the christian disci
pline, it will be found totally inadequate to such a
purpose. In the hands of the ministry, which Christ, like
Moses, so clearly established, the Scriptures have
been, and are, most useful. Without them, it would
require more than the ordinary providence of God fo
preserve the deposit of faith whole and entire. From
them, also, itis that the pastor exhorts, reproves, be
seeches, in all patience and doctrine ; to them the
doctor refers for the proofs of those truths and duties
which he expounds ; in them the supreme pastor, as
well as his brethren charged with the care and go
vernment of the Church, find those laws which they
are bound to enforce, as well as the patent of their
own authority, the nature and extent of their power,
and the rules according to which it should be exer-

32
Cisedr To the faithful, in like manner, they were and
are not only sources of infinite consolation, but a
principal means whereby they are brought Up and
perfected in the knowledge and observance of the
will of God. Thus, both priests and people, the wise
and the unwise, the saint and the sinner, find recorded
in them those ineffable mysteries, those prodigies of
divine power, justice and mercy, those supports in
trial and checks in prosperity, those lessons and ex
amples, those chastisements and rewards, which con
tribute so powerfully to induce us (prone, as we are,
to evil from our youth) to mortify the flesh, and live
by the Spirit ; to be crucified to the world, and fo
esteem all things as dung for the sake of Christ and
of that unspeakable glory whioh will be revealed
hereafter in his elect. But the societies, or individuals,
who would substitute the reading of those Scriptures
for the office of the ministry itself, seem not to com
prehend the substance or the form of the gospel dis
pensation. Their system is opposed essentially to the views of
St. Paul.
This apostle quotes the prophet Isaias, saying, in
the name of the apostles of the new law, " Who hath
believed our report ; and the arm or power of the
Lord, to whom hath it been revealed," or " made
known?" From this text St. Paul infers, that faith is
from the word of God conveyed to the soul by hear
ing, and not by reading: indeed if it were by the
latter means, not one, perhaps, -in a thousand, of the
elect could have believed. Another part of the apos
tle's induction is put in the form of an interrogatory :
" How," he asks, " will they," that is, the persons
to be converted — " How will they hear without a
preacher? So little did St. Paul know of the distri
bution ofthe bible without note or comment ; and so

33
could not be propagated, unless by the tongues of
men. Ah ! but, say the Bible Societies, we have our
Missionaries. Unfortunately, however, for the whole
tribe of these gentlemen, their wives and children in
cluded, the apostle is not done wifh his argument;
he asks again another most inconvenient question :
" How," he says, " will they preach unless they be
sent ?'' Let us here pause for a moment, and consider
by whom the preachers are to be sent ; whether Lord
Teignmouth (I believe his lordship is the president of
the great Leviathan), whether he, or the young gen
tlemen, or old ladies, his lordship's venerable coad
jutors — whether they have got any commission to
send forth preachers of the Word ! Good God! to
what a vile condition would these men reduce the
Church, that most magnificent fabric of the divine
wisdom ! Let us pursue the enquiry, however.
According to St. Paul, no one can take upon him
self the priesthood, nor, of course, aDy office growing
out of it, unless he be called as Aaron was ; unless,
also, amongst other things, hands be imposed on him,
and he sent to the work, as Paul himself and Barnabas
were sent. Even this does not appear to be suffi
cient ; regular vocation, ordination, and mission,
from those who received it from Christ, or from those
who succeeded to his disciples ; all this would not ap
pear to be sufficient, unless the person sent to preach
compare his gospel with that of Peter, and those who
are with Peter, though he were called from heaven,
he may, as Paul testifies of himself, be only running
in vain. He may, if he be not in ihe body of which
Peter is the head, make for himself, as Cyprian says,
a human church, an adulterous church; buthe cannot
add to the Church of God, if he be separated from
him on whom alone Christ built it. If he be pot in
the body of Christ, in the uuity of Christ, God will
E

34
not exhort through him : if he have broken through
charity, that bond of perfection whieh unites all the
brethren; or if he tear, as Cyprian again has it, by
his wicked separation, the seamless cloak of Christ,
whatever doctrine he teaches is a matter of indiffe
rence — he belongs not to the Church. No imaginary
call Will entitle him to lay his profane hand to the
Gospel. No: he must be called as Aaron was, as
Christ was, as the disciples were, as Paul was, as
Timothy and Titus, and Mark", as Clement were. No
pretended necessity can "justify him: for no neces
sity, says St. Augustin, can justify a breach of unity.
He cannot, according to the idea of St. Paul, be " a
member of Christ, or a dispenser of the word or mys
teries of God," if he usurp the right of another, ob
trude himself into the ministry, or presume to preach
without being sent ; aye, and sent too, not by the
Bible, or Home or Foreign Missionary Society, but
by those who alone were commissioned to teach all
nations, and with whom Christ, according to his pro
mise, remains — teaching all days, even to the end of
the world. I should like exceedingly to hear fhe
connection between this hody and the Missionary
Societies clearly proved.
But leaving the missionaries on their travels, let us
take another glance at the system of preaching the
Gospel,, by distributing bibles without note or com
ment. I believe this system was as little known to
the Redeemer himself, as to the prophet Isaias, or to
St, Paul. " If I," says Christ speaking of the Jews,
" bad not eome and spoken to them, they would not
have sin," or be guilty of resisting the light of faith.
And again, " If I had not done amongst them works
sueh as no other had done, they would have an ex
cuse -for their sin." He therefore, in whom were hid
den all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in_-
timates clearly enough, that the Gospel should be

35
preached, and not only preached, but until the church
was established like a eity on the mountain lop, like
a beacon on a high hill, that miracles also were ne
cessary to induce men to deny impiety and worldly
desires, and become a people acceptable to God —
followers of good works, lt was by such means that
the Apostles, as it is said in the Acts, preached, and
the Lord confirmed their words by signs. Thus the
Centurion on Calvary believed when the rocks were
rent, and the sun obscured. Thus Sergius Paulus
believed when he saw the wonders Wrought by Paul.
and the efficacy of his prayer. For these signs and
wonders ihe church (without whose authority Augus
tin would not believe the Gospel) is generally a suf
ficient substitute, but for the lawful preaching of the
word of God there can be no substitute, because the
Lord has contemplated none, no/ not even the Bible
Society, with Lord Teignmouth at its head.
But this system is not more foreign fo the views of
Christ than its immense efforts are fruitless in the
godly work it has proposed fo itself.
The types sweat, the press teems, vessels are
freighted for it, and all to no purpose! It drives an
immense trade, profitable no doubt to many, in bibles
and missionaries; it squanders hundreds of thousands
upon expeditions more senseless than the most foolish
of Sir Walter Raleigh's ; and like that pirate it repays
its dupes with reports of what never had existence.*
* It would be endless to recount the delusions which are
practised by the Missionaries in this regard. But there is one
fact, which has been vouched to me by an authority which is
unquestionable, which fact, as a curiosity in its way, I shall
take leave to mention. Among other languuges into which the
authorized version of the English Bible has been translated, is
tha- Romaic, with a view of converting the modern Greeks to
English Christianity. A cargo of these Bibles was sent out to
the Ionian Islands, and the high commissioner, as well as some
subordinate functionaries, were induced to lend the project

36
We never yet were furnished with a proof that these
societies had converted a single tribe, or a people, or
a nation to the faith, no not one! And what is more,
it is impossible they would ; for " no one can come
fo Christ unless the Father dr^w him," and he can
never draw any one by a system which is opposed to
the constitution of his church. They may make
many hypocrites, and cause thousandswho are already
tossed about by every wind of doctrine, to exchange
one error for another; they may count many converts
such as a certain distinguished nobleman on their
lists, and induce numberless old maids to exchange
their monkeys or lap-dogs for the bible, but it is quite
impossible they could ever propagate the kingdom of
God upon the earth.
the sanction of their names as subscribers. The day came
for distributing the word to the Zantists and Cephelonians,
and to the lieges of young Telemachus's patrimony — when,
behold ! the Greek bishop entered the conclave, and declared,
that no version of the Romaic Bible would be allowed except
a certain edition printed at Leipsic, aud bearing' the imprima
tur of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Latin Bishop
entered a little after, and denounced all translations, save
that which coincided with the venerable Vulgate of the Catho
lic Church. Both added, that if even the version was unex
ceptionable in point of authority, they would object against
its circulation on grounds of doctrine. This m was quite suffi
cient for Sir Frederick Adam for preventing their diffusion,
for more vulgar reasons than state policy, He speedily saw
what sad work the system would make among the Jonians,
and the Romaic Bibles acoordingly repose in some merchant's
or government warehouse. Yet in the next Report of the
Bible Societies, we shall be told, no doubt, of the amiable
ductility of the modern Greeks, and of the enthusiasm they
displayed at the very sight of \he sacred volume in their own
pwn tongue. Thus it is that the English people are gulled
out of their money — thus it is that fortnnes are made for
the Printers and Booksellers, and itinerant Charlatans. As to
notable scheme of the Irish Bfble, that is too absurd to need
exposure. But it answers the purpose of cheats ^nd hypo
crites — " Put money in thy purse — rem, quocunque moda
rern." /

37
I recollect when the Charter of the East India
Company was last renewed, Warren Hastings gave
in evidence before a committee of the House of Com
mons, that during his government in the East, Catho
lic Missionaries alone made converts ; individuals of
my own family have spent some years in the Com
pany's service ; one of my earliest and most intimate
friends, a Portuguese priest is and has been for some
years a missionary on the Coromandel coast. I have
conversed with several Tespectable and disinterested
persons who spent many years in India, and from all
the information I have been able to collect from these
various sources, I am convinced, that the state ofthe
missions in that country at present, is substantially
the same as it was in the time of Warren Hastings.—
The only converts made by the Missionary Societies
(for the bibles have made none at all) are some few
Hindoos who had lost their caste, and who listen for
hire to the preaching of those who pay them. And
though the maxim ex uno disce omnes, " judge of all
the other infidel countries by thte one," may not be
logically correct, yet I presume it would in this in
stance be found sufficiently so had we but the means
of ascertaining the justice of its application.
Let these societies with all their bibles, and all their
agents throughout the globe produce to us, not such
fruits as sprung from our Missions in China, in Siam;
in Japan, in Asia proper, in the Philippine Islands,
in Paraguay, throughout South America, and the
Islands iq the gulph of Mexico— no : but let them pro
duce to us authentic proofs of as many conversions
as were effected through the ministry of St. Francis
Xavier in one year, aye, or in one day, and I will be
come the advocate of the bible, and of the Home and
the Foreign Missionary Societies. Ah, no! the fields
with these societies are always white for the harvest,

38
ready for the. sickle, but they are never out" or
gathered in.
Then as to their labours in christian countries;
they tell us of Russia and of their immense manufac
tory in that country, yet I doubt whether they have
converted a single cossack or boor ; and if they did,
they would only take them from a schismaticai
church to no church at all. In Germany and Switz
erland, amongst the Protestant "Churches they are
quite at home. In these countries where that infi
delity which Toland, Tyndal and Bollingbroke first
introduced from England to the Continent, and
whieh was propagated with such malignant perseve
rance by their disciple Bayle — compotes with a
frightful fanaticism,, so that one knows not which of
them- will gain the ascendancy.
In France their Societies are only abetted by the
Calvinists and Infidels, and it is a fact, of which I
have been informed by a Gentlemau, of whose vera
city and knowledge ofthe matter I can have no doubt,
that the Bible has been circulated in that eountry by
the very men who lately published cheap editions of
Rousseau's Emile, and of the Pucelle d^Orleans,
for the purpose of courupting youth ; nor do I think
that these men have acted inconsistently. Had the
phain with which Henry the eighth tied the bible to the
preaching desk in England' never been broken, that
country would not have witnessed the scenes which
ier history records, apd she might this day be. the
most free and happy nation on the earth reposing in
the bosom of the Catholic Church.
Wherever the reading ofthe Bible is not regulated
by a salutary discipline such as ours, it leads a great
portion of the people necessarily to fanaticism or to
infidelity. The French Infidels knows this well, and
heuce their alliance with the Bible Societies.
But as to the progress of these societies amongst

39
Catholics, whether in France or in any other country
on the continent, it is precisely the same as on the
banks ofthe Shannon or the hills of KiMarney ;and all
they sitate to the contrary is a collection of" falsehood
transmitted home or manufactured here by men who
fare sumptuously every day on the fruit of these, their
unhallowed labours.
They tell us of the number of Bibles they distribute,
and Where is the difficulty of thus sowing the seed by
the side of the highways? Do not the pawn-Offices
in every town bear testimony of the profusion there is
of what these saints quaintly call " the bread of life,'1
of vyhat we catholics call protestant bibles; books oh
which our peasantry look not' with reverence, bat
with dread.
I heard of a poor man in the County Kildare, who
if I gave him a bible approved of by the church,
would venerate it more than any thing he possessed,
but having been favoured by the lady of his master
with one of the societies' bibles without note or com
ment, accepted of it with all the reverence which the
fear of losing his situation inspired; but, behold!
when the night closed, and all danger ef detec
tion was removed, he, lest he should be infected with
heresy exhaled from the protectant bible during his
sleep, took it with a tongs, for he would not defile
his touch with it, and buried it in a grave whieh he
had prepared for it in his garden! ! Should a pious
old lady of the society ever read this anecdote, the
hair of her head will start up, the frightful figure of
popery" pass before her eyes, and she will rehearse de
voutly the prayer of the gun-powder plot. Yet 1
who have read portions of the bible every day, these
twenty years and upwards, who have devoted many
an hour to the study of it, who have often explained it
to others, who have collected sixteen or eighteen edi-

40
tionsof it in different languages; who like August in .find
in it infinitely more beyond my comprehension than I
can understand — I, who am thus a very bible man, do
admire the orthodoxy of this Kildare peasant-^nay, I
admire it greatly; and should I happen to meet him,
1 shall reward him for his zeal. But his conduct fur
nishes to the societies an admirable lesson, did they
know but how to profit of it ; rt should teach them
why they can make no impression on the Irish Ca
tholics, nor indeed on any Catholics, and should in-
induce them to reflect on that admirable and truly
divine principle of our Church, which makes us all
one, even as Christ and his Father are one. It should
teach them that whilst we love and cherish the reading
of the word of God, as I have abundantly shewn in my
" Vindication of the religious and civil principles of
the Irish Catholics ;" yet that we always are, and
with the divine assistance, always will be, stedfast and
unbending in excluding from amongst us the gifts of
the Bible Society, and of all her filiations, as well as
in proving our obedience to the authority of that
Church, against which, not their machinations, nor
the gates of hell itself, ever will or can prevail.
As a general conclusion from the foregoing obser
vations, it seems to me — 1st, that these societies are
embarked in propagating an intolerable error, by
seeking ^o introduce the indiscriminate perusal of the
Sacred Scriptures, without note or comment, and sub
stituting a chaos of undisciplined opinion for the wis
dom, and order, and power of the Church of God ;
2d. it appears to me that their labours, so far from
being in accordance' with the spirit of the Christian
religion, are calculated to subvert it, and to plant in
its room fanaticism or infidelity; 3dly, I am clearly of
opinion, that these labours hitherto have been, and
must continue, fruitless, whether in converting infi-

41
dels, or in disturbing Catholicity, whilst they have
increased the confusion of the Protestant Churches,
and may ultimately subvert them altogether. I have
not, as yet, however, closed my accounts with them.
1 said at the commencement that they are opposed to
^tradition : I shall therefore proceed to inquire with
what justice they presume to attack this, one of the
fundamental truths of religion.
In rejecting tradition, the Bible Societies have the
merit of being consistent : for if the Scriptures, with
out note or comment, without a ministry or, liturgy,
be sufficient to make men wise unto salvation, why
admit tradition ? It would, in their system, be like
bringing coals to Newcastle : nor do they act in this
respect without a precedent. We have it upon record,
in the confession of faith exhibited to the 7th General
Council, by Basil of Andre, that this error concern
ing tradition was common to Arius, Ne,storiusj Eu-
tyches, Dioscorus — worthy predecessors of the Bible
Society ! Augustin, disputing against Maximinus, and
Epiphapius, Her. 73, also impute it to the Arians.
They themselves profess it in the Synod of Seleucia.
St. Basil attributes it to Eunomius, Tertullian, in
his Proscriptions, and Irameus, in his 3d book 2d ch.
against heresies, charge Valentinian and Marcian with
rejecting tradition. So that I know of nothing cri
minal or impious in.all ¦•antiquity which is not con
nected with our modern fanatics by this disregard fpr
tradition. And why not? These ancients became
what they were, only because they separated them
selves from the Church, and appealed for a justifica*
tion of their errors and rebellion from tradition to the
Scriptures—yes, to those Scriptures by which, as
Tertuliian remarks in the book before quoted, there
could be no victory obtained over them, or if obtained
F

43
it would be nseless, as when convicted they would
argue still— Like our young Briton, and the Scottish tar,
His worthy messmate in the bible war.
Tou Will excuse, Sir, my paraphrase ori a distich of
the Dunciad ! But then as to tradition, which these
spcieties so superciliously reject.
For our part, we find no truth of religion more ex
pressly recorded in the Scriptures themselves, more
frequently insisted on by the pripiitive fathers of the
Church, nothing more consonant to right reason, than
the existence of tradition.
" Stand to and keep," says St. Paul, SThess. eh. 2.
" the 'traditions which you have received, whether by
letters or by word." These traditions did not, it ap
pears, originate with Paul: no, like St. Luke, he col
lected them from those who, froiU the beginning,
were the witnessed and the ministers of the word.
He only handed them down to the Thessalonians a*
he did to the Corinthian*, I Cor. li. whom he praises
for observing them, and to whom he promises that
On his arrival he would arrange whatever Was not yet
regulated in their church, and which arrangements are
recorded in tradition. He had been instructed himself
by the Lord, not by letter, but byword, as to the insti
tution of the blessed Eucharist ; and the form of cele
brating it, whieh he prescribed at Corinth, is no where
found written in the Scriptures. The breaking of the
host, the mixing of water with the wine, the very words
used in blessing the chalice of benediction — these are
hot written in the Scriptures, yet all antiquity testifies
that they were handed down by the apostles. The
perpetual virginity of fhe Mother of God, the descent
of Christ into hell, the baptism of infants, its being
conferred by aspersion,, the procession of the Holy

43
Ghost from the Son, tbe very sanctifioation of the
Lord's day, are either pot written, or not so distinctly
written as they are believed io the Church ; but they
are not the less revealed by God on that account ;
they are a part of that good deposit which Timothy
received front Paul, 2 Tim. 1. of that form of sound
speech which this latter delivered to his beloved dis
ciple before many witnesses, and which he com
manded him to entrust to faithful men, who would be
fit also to teach others. John also, %A Ep. left many
things unwritten, whieh he would not commit to
paper and Ink, but promised to speak them with bis
tongue tp those disciples whom he hoped to see.
Peter wrote but two epistles— and did he spend seven
years at Antioch and twenty-five at Rome, without
committing to these churches any additional truths;
or did he not, as Tertullian exclaims, pour out to the
latter all his knowledge with his blood ? ,
That tbe Apostles delivered the Gospel partly by
.writing, partly by word of mouth, is attested by
Dyonisius, supposed by some to be the Areopagite
converted by St. Paul, lib. de ec. hier. cap. 1. Clem.
Alex. lib. de pasch. quoted by E»sebius, lib. 6. hist
eccl. cap. 2. and agsiu, lib. strom. 1. & 5. Orig. Horn.
5. in num. Papias quoted also by Euseb. lib. 5. c. 39,
Egesip. and Ignatias by tbe same, lib. 3. ch. 36. Iren.
lib. 3. e. 3, 4. TertoL de corona railitis. Cyprian de
aWutione pedis, Epiphan. throughout his whole
work on heresies, but chiefly agaiast the Arians. Jer
rom. adv. Lneif. Basil, hb. d« S- Sancto, cap. 27. &
29. Augustin, lib. 2, de Bapt. adv. Don, cap, 7. and
Jib. 4. ch. 24, and hb. Sr oh, 23. & 26.
These great luminaries of the christian law attest
with one voice the existence of tradition, "that it is
the word pf God, not less deserving of reverence than
what is written," that «' the church is enriched by it,"

44
{hat " she detects and refutes all heresies by it," that
"she brings her children to God by it," that " it alone
is sufficient to refute all error," that " a deviation
from it or contempt of it is the fruit of pride, and
the source of heresy," that " the wisest men who de
viate from it go astray,'' that ". in all doubts recourse
js to be had to it."
Whether the testimony of such men, added to that
of the Apostles themselves, is more deserving of at
tention than the opinions of those personages who
compose the Bible and other Societies, it remains for
men of sense to judge.
The truth is, that tradition is a part and parcel of
divine revelation, or rather revelation once consisted
of tradition exclusively, a portion of which was after
wards recorded in writing. The belief in a Re
deemer to come, the substance and form of the sacri
fices to he offered to God, the rite of circumcision as
prescribed to Abraham, were all preserved by tradi
tion to the time of Moses. The Israelites lived in
Egypt under this traditionary law. Hilary and Ori-
gen, and all the learned Jews tell us, that when Moses
received the law on Siha, there was also communicat
ed to him the secret meaning of it, (and that it had a
secret meaning St. Paul abundantly proves in his epis
tle to the Hebrews,) and that he was commanded to
write the law for the people, but to impart the secret
explication of it only to Josue, who in the same man
ner was to transmit it to the chiefs of the priesthood.
Anatolius quoted by Euseb. lib. 7. ch. 23. says also,
that the 70 interpreters answered to the enquiries of
Ptolemy, many things from the traditions of Moaes.
To this tradition the Psalmist seems to refer saying,
Ps. 43 & 77. " Lord, we have heard with our ears,
and our fathers have told us," and " what mighty and,

45
many things hath he commanded to our fathers to be
made known to their sons."
But leaving the old dispensation, and proceeding to
the new.
Christ wrote no Gospel, nor do we know that he
commanded one to be written. He commanded his
disciples to preach it to every creature ; they had no
types nor presses to put in requisition. It was a law,
says Paul, 2 Cor. iii. administered to us, and written
not with ink but by the spirit of the living God, not
on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tablets of the
heart. Jeremy, c. 30. had foretold its character, say
ing, "1 will give my law in their bowels, and on their
heart will I write it."
Mathew wrote his Gospel for the consolation of the
converted Jews whom he left after him in the land of
his fathers, Mark who was the companion of Peter,
took an abridgement of the Gospel of St. Mathew
with him when he went to found the church in Egypt,
Luke's Preface to the Acts, shews why he wrote a
book which might be denominated the Gospel of the
Holy Ghost, or the life of St. Paul : he wrote his Gos
pel at the desire of the Bishops of Asia, as St. Jerom
says, to pat a stop to the heresies, I think, of Ebeon
and Cerinthus. We all know that the divine epistles
of St. Paul were written for particular occasions, so
that the new Scriptures like the old, were founded on
tradition and given as helps to the church, but by no
means as a regular reoord of the Christian religion.
This is testified by Chrysostom, by Theophylactus, by
Jerom, as also by Irameus, who says, " that if the
Apostles had left us nothing written, we should fol
low the order of the tradition of the church," to wit,
that which was observed before the Gospels were
Written. Common sense taught the wisest of mankind tp

46
act in their business, as the Spirit of Wisdom taught
the Apostles how to dispose ofthe trnst committed to
them, and there is a greater analogy between true
religion and common sense, than many persons seem
to suppose.
, Anaxagoras, Thales, Socrates, taught their disciples
by word of month, not by writing. The same prac
tice was observed by Pythagoras, as all the ancients
testify, with this difference that he took more care
than the others, that the secrets of his science should
Dot be divulged. Clem, of Alex. 1. Ub. Strom, tells
ns, thai this philosopher underwent circumcision ia
Egypt, in order to gain admission to the secrets of
the Egyptian sages. Galen, lib. 2. de Anat. assures us
that the science of medicine was handed down by
tradition. Cicero, lib. 1. de leg. writes, that all things
in a State are not to be regulated by written laws. —
And the man who divulged the secrets of Numa was
pot to death for his rashness. Plato, like Pythagoras,
as Job. Pie. writes in bjs apology, thought that what
ever was most important in science should be taught
by the tongue, but not written. Lysis, the Pythago
rean, accused Hipparchus of revealing to the crowd
the Secrets of bis science, and tor doing so he was
publicly expelled fronj his school. We all know the ce
lebrated remark of Socrates on this subject. So that
pomtnon sense teaches that we should not throw pearls
to swine, expose what is sacred to the insult of the
profane, or render it yite by familiarity to the crowd.
Thus St. Paul seemed to know nothing in public, but
Christ and him crucified ; but he adds, that he spoke
wisdom amongst the perfect. If the law of secrecy,
as it was observed in the Church even to the fifth cen
tury, (I hope the bible men will not deny there was
such a law,) — but if this law never had existence,
we could not believe that the apostles would expose,

Al
in Writing, to the pagan world, to be scoffed at, or to
ihe undisciplined Neophytes, to be thought lightly of,
those mysteries and sacraments which constitute the
life and essence of the Christian dispensation. It was
necessary, therefore, at the beginning, as a matter of
ecclesiastical economy, that all that was revealed
should not be written ; and that tradition, in which
the entire of tbe new law at first consisted, should
preserve and regulate whatever was most awful and
sacred in the Christian dispensation. Bot tradition
was not more necessary for preserving the deposit,
than it was for the right understanding of what was
written. To prove, with St. Peter, that in the Scriptures
there arc many passages hard to be understood, is
quite superfluous. Every man, not entirely a sense
less fanatic, knows and admits it ; and that the diver
sity of opinion about their meaning is not a matter
of indifference — ia little Wood, hay, or stubble, piled
up on the foundation, which may be burned or not.
That the difference of opinion about the meaning of
fhe Sriptures is not so trivial, is equally clear from the
words of the Apostle. He says that this wrangling
about texts, this wresting of the Scripture by the ig
norant and the unsettled — those, to wit, who are tossed
about by every wind of doctrine — ends, not like a
comedy, in the union of the parties, but in perdition ;
in that mist of darkness, or lake of fire, where those
who do not obey the gospel will, according to St.
Paul, suffer punishment for ever, far from the face of
God. "Tis not the believing a little more or a little less, nor
a story about the withered hand, nor any such fulsome
nonsense, which will settle the matter ; the ways of
God are not as our ways— he has told us that there is
but one faith : net a word has he said about a little more

48
or a little'less of it ; but he has said, it is one ; and
that without it, it is impossible to please God. And if
we want to know what that faith is, let us not wrangle
about texts, which the devil himself could quote as
flippantly as the most devout bibleman ; but let us do
what Moses prescribed to be done, what Christ pre
scribed to betlone, what common sense and the prac
tice of mankind prescribe to be done ; let us go up,
like Paul and Barnabas, and their friends, from
Antioch, and hear what Peter, and those who are
with him, say about it ; let us hear what seems good
to the Holy Ghost and to them, or to those who were
to be teaching in their place to the end of the world :
let us hear what they- command ns to think and do
upon the matter. — If we hear them, we hear Christ,
who is with them all days, even to the end of the
world ; but if we despise them, and Christ, and his
Father with them, we must only take our place
amongst the heathens and publicans, where we will
have ample leisure to print and distribute bibles, and
dispute about them to our hearts' content.
We had better not say to them as Core did to
Moses : Who are you who would lord it over your
brethren, who would gather all things to yourself
and.to your tribe? Are not we also children of Jacob,
heirs of the promises, of the seed of Abraham ? Have
we not the testament as well as you ? Are we not born
in the covenant? Why should we not share in the au
thority, or at least be entitled to dispute with you
about the text of the. law ?
Core spoke to the passions, he deluded the multi
tude, he divided the people of God, he resisted au
thority ; but for this, he and his adherents were swal
lowed alive in hell. Jude, the apostle, directly and
expressly applies his conduct and his fate to here
tics, who with the bible in their hand, bring in sects

49
of perdition, despise the evangalical tradition, and
blaspheme authority, out of the word of God.
What, let me be allowed to ask, what is heresy if it
be not our oWn choosing of an opinion different from
the opinion of the church, and adheringly obstinately
to it? As if Christ were divided, or as if there could
be two faiths. It is not the believing a little more,
or a little less, the piling up a little wood, hay, or
stubble, which constitutes it at all ; it Consists essen
tially in the choosing to judge for ourselves, in refus
ing to hear the church, in despising her pastors, and
adhering obstinately to our own erroneous opinion,
no matter whether the error be great or small. A
man might err with regard to any truth of religion ;
but he would not on that account be an heretic. I do
not mean to say whether whosoever in this country
leans upon invincible ignorance does not lean upon a
broken reed ; but it is obstinacy added to error, which
induces men tci separate themselves and to bring in
sects and originate heresies, a crime which not even
martyrdom, if we believe St. Chrysostom and St. Au
gustin, can efface, and which St. Paul expressly tells
us, exclude from the kingdom of God.
Had the people of Antioch adhered to the obser
vance of the Mosaic rites as necessary, after the de
cree of the Church at Jerusalem, Christ would be of
no use to them, more than to the Galatians, though it
is to be observed that these rites, until the Synagogue
was buried, were io themselves matters of indifference,
as appears from PauPs own occasional observance of
them, as well as from his circumcising Timothy, in
order to conciliate the Jews. The error of the
Quartodecimans, our pious ancestors, according to
Sir Richard Musgrave, was much like this ; they
might, if apy people could, be allowed to believe a
a little more or a little less, especially when they

50
quoted in their favour the name and authority of St.
John the evangelist : yet they had no alternative, after
the Council of Nice, but to surrender their opinion,
and relinquish their practice, or take their station
amongst the heathens. As Pope Stephen wrote, on a
question pretty much of similar import, Nil inno-
vetur nisi quod traditum est — they should abide by tra
dition, or become heretics.
Egisippus, quoted by Euseb. lib. 3. ch. 32, writes,
that the Church continued a virgin, and immaculate,
during the lifetime of the apostles; the corrupters of
the truth (if any there were) lurking in the caverns
of the earth, and not daring to appear, because they
could not withstand the authority of traditionary
truth. And Ignatius, quoted by the sartie, lib. 5, says,
that the contagion of the heretics is to be avoided, by
adhering strictly to the tradition of the apostles.
Tertullian says, they are to be opposed more by tra
dition than by scripfure ; because the latter, but not
the former, he adds, can be easily warped to different
meanings. There is no heretic, as St. Hilary writes
to Constan-tme — there is no heretic, who does not ap
peal to the scripture for a proof of his blasphemies :
they all speak scripture, but without, meaning that,
as Iren. lib. 1. adv. Her. says, they may confirm their
errors by texts. "They do in this, says Vincent of
Lerins, what their father did (before them, whose
crafty wiles they imitate : for what will he not at
tempt against weak men who tempted the Lord of
Majesty, saying, "If thou be the Son of God, cast
thyself down : for it is written," &c. So, whatever
opinion a heretic broaches, he adds immediately —
" for it is written ;" and adduces, not one, but a thou
sand testimonies. He prepares a thousand examples,
from the law, from the psalms, from the apostles,
from the prophets ; by which, interpreted in a novel

51
way, he labours to support his doctrine." Thns far
this venerable writer.
There is no person j not manifestly perverse or de
luded, who cannot see that the Church of God must
be, not a house of peace and charity, but an arena of
conflicting gladiators, if the authority «ff those who
are appointed to rale it be set aside ; or if the deposit
of doctrine whieh they received be mutilated or de
nied to exist.
Clement of Rome, writing to the disciples at Jeru
salem, says, "It is according to this tradition (he is
speaking of the ancient practice and doctrine of the
Church) we mast teach, as people understand di
versely what is written ;*' and he adds, in another
place, that he received this maxim from St. Peter.
St. Dennis, de Eel. Hier. attests precisely the same
truth. Epipbanios says that tradition is necessary for
this purpose. Clement of Alexandria, lib. 7, Strom.
* says " that those who interpret the scripture against
the tradition of the Church, lose the rule of truth."
Origen, also, Tract, in Math. 29, desires " that we
do~~not, in disputing about the scriptures, depart from
the original ecclesiastical traditions, nor believe other
wise than we are taught by those who went before us
in the Church of God." But why tire you, Sir,ovith
authorities, which are numerous as the stars of hea
ven, whereas it is obvious to every person versed at
all in antiquity, that the written portion of the law
was only a supplement to tradition ; and that the
meaning of it, wherever it is doubtful or difficult,
cannot be ascertained unless by the light of this same
tradition. Where do we look for decisions upon any contested
matter of right, or privilege, or title or possession,
but to judges? Why do we employ solicitors and
lawyers to plead before them, if the law itself can

52
decide ? And why have the judges themselves re
course to the common law, which is traditionary, to
books of authority, to precedents — unless that neither
the statutes themselves, either do or can contemplate
all cases, or that even if they did, they could not be
justly or wisely administered, unless the light of an
tiquity, and the wisdom of past times, were shed
upon them ?
It is little short of insanity in a christian to deny
the authority of the Church ; but to admit it, and
deny either the existence or necessity of tradition, is
an incomprehensible absurdity — the fruit of gross ig
norance, of intolerable presumption, or of the most
lamentable fanaticism.
But these Societies assert that the scriptures are
given to all, ancHhat all aye capable of understanding
them rightly. The first of these propositions is equl*.
vocal ; the second is altogether false,
The first is equivocal, true in this sense, that they
are given to the church which consists of all true be
lievers, pastors and people,- to be expounded, and
the sense of such parts of them as are doubtful or hard
to be understood to be explained or decided upon by
those who are commissioned by Christ f o teach, whilst
the eptire or portions of thern may be read for edifica
tion and instruction by all who will not abuse them,
or who in the opinipn of those wh»m the Holy Ghost
placed to rple the church, are likely to profit by them.
In this sense they belong to all, and all have a right to
them, but all have not a right to decide by them op
questions of faith, or to administer the ordinances of
religion by them, no : not so much as all free subjects
have a right to become judges or justices of tl}e
peace, or all proprietors of bank stock to become
baqk directors.

53
That all are capable of understanding the Scrip.
tures rightly, or that the diversity of opinion about
their meaning is a matter of indifference, whether
such meaning regards morals or faith, these are errors
so gross, and so openly at variance with the history
of every christian state in the world, as well as with
that of the church, and with our own daily experience,
that a refutation of them must be tiresome, or fulsome
to every man of sense. I shall therefore pass over
this part of the subject, merely hoping that we will
have no more Waldenses quoting Scripture to gratify
their impure abominations — no more poor men of
Lyons to disgrace human nature— no moreWickliffites
or Hussites to depose all sinful princes and bishops —
no more peasants congregated in Germany to assert
at the expence of all constituted authority, the liberty
With which Christ had made them free — no more Con
venticles to decree that God is the author of sin, and
the predetermining cause of perdition — no more fana
tics to Jevy war agaiqst their Spvereign for the sake of
righteousness and the Gospel — no more regicidal
parliaments nor protectprs — po more Knoxes to de
nounce a persecuted queen as Jezabel, or sell the
blood of their king for a mess of pottage — no more
revivals, nor crucifixions, nor circumcisions, I shall
hope that all these will cease, and merely detain you
whilst I expose a few of the sophisms by which the
abettors of the intolerable error which has produced
these crimes, seek to sustain it.
They quote the bitter reproach, the severe rebuke
pf our IjOxA to the Jews when he said to them, Jno.
y. ver. 39. " Te search," or " search the Scriptures,
for in them ye thipk ye have eternal life, and they
are they which testify of me." The present race of
enthusiasts with one accord quote these words of Ihe
Redeemer, as if they conveyed a command, or at

54
least a counsel to all mankind to read the Scriptures
without note or comment, and to judge of whatever
is therein revealed. Surely there must be a veil over
the hearts of these people, as there is over those ofthe
Jews, or theyeonld not but see, that in the passage now
qooted, as well as in the twenty verses which precede
it, the Lord of Glory is only intent on proving his
own divine mission, and in confounding those
Jews, who through perverseness and obstinacy op
posed the will of God. He appeals to, the testimony
of his Father given on the banks of the Jordan — he
appeals to the testimony of John who had pointed
him out as the Lamb of God, who came to take away
the sins of the world — he appeals to his own miracles
greater than these, and having referred to the passage
in Dent, xviii. ch. where' the people prayed, " not to
hear the voice of the Lord, nor see again the mighty
fise on Horeb, least they would die," and where the
Lord in return told them, " they had spoken well,
and that he would raise up a prophet of their own
seed whom they should hear." After Christ I say re
proaching the Jews for not hearing this prophet, even
he himself who was present, he adds, still continu
ing his rebukS, " ye search the Scriptures in which ye
think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
give testimony of me, and ye will not come to me that
ye may have life."
This is also the voice of the church to her strayed
and obstinate children, whom she seeks to gather
under her wings, and they will not. She says to them,
"you have heard the words of the Lord, saying to
pie, teach all nations, whosoever hears you hears
me, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you,
yon have heard the Apostles testify of me that I am
the pillar and the ground of truth, you have seen
the sigils and wonders which I have wrought by my

55
ministers in every age, you daily confess that I am
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic, and that you believe
in me as you do in God the Father, in God the Son,
and iu God the Holy Ghost, you search the Scrip
tures which I have given to you and in which you
think you have eternal life,/ and yet you will not come
to me that ye may have life." And yet this is the
Scripture whieh the deluded christians of this tinie
quote against the church to justify their obstinacy.
The interpretation of this text is the same whether
the word " search" or Efs»»«r« be taken with St. Cyril
in the indicative mood, which is the acceptation most
agreeable to the scope of our Lord's discourse as
well as with the " «?¦»" or " for" which ^follows iu the
context, or whether it be taken with St. Chrysostom,
in the imperative. In this latter acceptation itimplies
a more bitter rebuke, as if he said " whereas not the
testimony of my Father, or of John, or of my own
works, will convince you that I am he who was
promised in Deut. go and search the scriptures in
which you have so much confidence, and there also
you will find testimonies of me." How often do we
also refer to the scriptures with indignation almost,
those who obstinately refuse to hear our proofs, that
in them where like the Jews they profess to know all
things, they may learn to know, that whieh more
clearly than all things else is revealed in them, namely,
the existence and authority and marks ofthe Church.
We desire these persons to search them, to investigate
them, to scrutinize them, not like the Jews, the
letter which kills, but to enter by humility and prayer
into the spirit of them, that they may come to us and
have life.
Let them learn what Christ wills, that his fol
lowers should do, not from this passage only, but
from his answer to the disciples of John, who came

56
to him truly desirous of being instructed in the truth,
and whom he treated with the kindness and indulgence
of a father ; to them he said hot, to go and search the
. scriptures, but " Go and tell John, the blind see, the
deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised
to life, and the kingdom qf heaven is preached to the
poor, and blessed is he who is not scandalized in me."
This is the lesson which I would recommend f o them
carefully to revolve in their minds.
They next object to us a passage from the 17 ch. of
the Acts of the Apostles, as if the Jews at Berea, to
whom Paul and Silas, preached onr Lord as the ex
pected Messias, furnished to all posterity by searching
the scriptures, an example for their imitation.
Of all the mistakes into which the present ge
neration of evangelists have fallen, I know of none
greater than this.
Because forsooth, a congregation of unconverted
Jews~upon hearing the Apostles prove from the law
and the Prophets, that Jesus Was the Christ, because
on so hearing these proofs, they went and examined
carefully the scripturesjn which they believed,, to see
whether these strangers quoted and reasoned upon
them correctly*or not ; because they did so, and acted
well in doing so : therefore, christians who have al
ready believed and entered into the church, are to
search these scriptures and judge by them on all ques
tions of faith, discipline and morals, in defiance of
the authority of this church. This is a consequence
so unconnected with the premises, so inconsistent
with all rules of logic and common sense, as to be
unworthy of a scholar, or of any but those unfledged
evangelists who propose it.
In the name of wonder, I would ask, what were
these people at Berea to do, if they were not to
prove the doctrine of the men who came to preaeh

to them a new religion, by the only test in their
power, and that a test to which the preachers them
selves appealed. They knew not as yet of the ex
istence of the Church, still less were the members of
it — professing to believe in it as they did in God him
self. It does not appear that they had seen any
miracles performed by Paul or Silas, or that any of
the tongues or prophecies or signs and wonders
which followed the Apostles, had as yet been exhi
bited to them ; they had no external motive for
believing unless the reasonableness of the doctrine
proposed, and whether they assented to Paul's doc
trine; or still doubted, there was nothing more con
formable to the dictates of piety or reason* than to
compare for their greater satisfaction, or the removal
of their doubts, what they had heard, with the reve
lation and prophecies in which they believed, and
to which the Apostles referred them.
The J"ews in Rome* are obliged to attend on certain
days at sermons preached for the purpose of shewing
the truth and divinity of the christian religion, and
these Jews are constantly referred to their own scrip
tures for the justice of the arguments addressed to
them ; but does it follow, therefore, that the Romans
who believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic
.Church, can prefer their own private interpretation
of the Sacred Scriptures, to the judgment of this
church? When doubts arise amongst christians, it
is not the example of unbelieving Jews which should
be proposed to them, but that of the christians at
Antioch, who, when a dispute occurred amongst them,
sent up an embassy to Peter and the other Apostles
at Jerusalem, in order to know what seemed good
to the Holy Ghost, and to them, upon the subject.
A passage from the second letter, 3d chapter of St.
Paul to Timothy is also objected to us, where it is
H

58
written that "all scripture, divinely inspired, is useful
to teach, to reprove, to correot, to instruct in righ
teousness;" as if there was a christian in the world
who did not admit this truth. I have adduced in my
Vindication of the Religious and Civil Principles of
the Irish Catholics, a greater number of proofs from
the scripture itself, from popes, and holy fathers of our
church, as well as from the nature of revelation tp,
confirm this truth, than many of those who impu
dently propose this objection could easily muster.
What then is the difference between us? — A very
wide one indeed : for we maintain that the scripture is
.precisely such as St. Paul describes it — useful lo the
doctor, that he may teach by it — to the pastor, that be
may reprove and instruct by it ; to all that they may,.
each in his proper station, be instructed by it unto
righteousness. Not all of it to be entrusted to each, but
what is useful to every one, that no one may be more
wise than he ought, but that he may be wise to sobri
ety, just as the Spy-it who inspired it divideth to every
one even as he listeth, or according to the measure
of the gift of Christ. This is the economy of our
Church, whilst those who mistake or abuse the text
of the apostle, give the scriptures entire without note
or comment, to be judged of by all— to the wise, that
they may go off in their own inventions-i-to the ignorant
and unsettled, that they may wrest them to their own
perdition —to all, that they may be tossed to and fro,
and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the
Wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which
they lie in wait to deceive.
If there be, however, one chapter more than ano
ther in the bible whichcondemns by anticipation those
preachers ana bible distributors, with whom we have
to contend, it is tiie chapter of St. Paul's epistle which
1 am now treating of, and that which next follows it.

59
In these the Apostle commences by felling his be
loved disciple that " in the last days shall come dan
gerous times," and fhe present seem to be replete
with danger, " men shall be lovers of theniselves,
covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection,
without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful,
witTOut kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and
lovers of pleasure, more than of God. Having an
appearance indeed of piety, but denying the power
thereof, now this avoid, for of this sort are they
who creep into houses, and lead captives silly women
laden with sins, who are led away with divers desires,"
(one imagines that he sees a bible meeting, with the
ladies applauding) ; but let us hear the apostle —
" always learning, and never attaining to the know
ledge of the truth." Now as Jannes and Mambres
Tesisted Moses, so these also resist the truth — men
corrupted in mind, reprobate as to the faith. But
they shall proceed no farther : for their folly shall be
manifest to all ; it is pretty apparent, I think, at pre
sent. Here the divine apostle commences his pa
thetic exhortation, saying, " But thou hast known wiy
doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, tong-suffering,
love, patience— (Timothy had not been a, member of
any Bible Society, he spent his life much as we do)—
What persecutions I endured ; and out of all the Lord
delivered me. And all who will live piously in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ; but evil men
and seducers" shall grow worse and worse, erring and
drawing into error. But continue thou in the
THINGS WHICH THOU HAST LEARNED (not on board
ship, I presume), and which have been com
mitted TO THEE, KNOWING OF WHOM TH0U HAST
LEARNED. Paul seems to allude to that farm of
sound speech, to that sacred deposit of doctrine,

60
which he bad committed^to Timothy. Here follows
the1 text which the bible men exult in, and whieh. I
shall give them at. full length. "^Arid because from
thy infancy . thou^hast known the holy Scriptures,
which can instruct thee unto salvation, through the
faith which is in Christ Jesus ; all Scripture, "divinely
inspired, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct,
to instruct in justice.' . Here are the'purposes ddflnled
for which Timothy no\v a bishop, and the metropo
litan of j\.sia, was to.^ use the knowledge he had
learned by the. perusal of the sacred Scriptures, ac
cording, to the discipline pf the Synagogue, which,
see my Vindication, p. 56. Was exactly similar to that
of the. church, but which knoyvledge he had acquired
chiefly from St* Paul himself, as appears from the pre
ceding verse. The apostle continues: " I charge thee
before God, and Jesus Christ who shall judge the living
and the dead, by his coming and his kingdom, be iu-
stan't in season and! opt of season, reprove, entreat,
rebuke with all, patience and doctrine. For there shal!
be a time when they shall not hear sound doctrine, bu.t
according to their own desires they will heap, to
themselves . teachers (he seems to foresee the system
of granting ..liqences for half a crown to preach tbe
gospel,) having itching ears, and will turn away indeed
their hearing from the truth, and will.be turned to fa
bles ;" the reports no doubt of the Missionaries, or
to something worse, the blasphgmous phxenzies, per
haps, Pf Johanna Sputhcptp. So far the Apostle — I
shall not add.tp, or take from his words by any com-!
ment of my own, -nor detain you further with; a
refutation of silly objections — objections much mpre
silly *ian those of Spinoza against the attributes of
the Deity, but remain, Dear Sir,
Your obpdient, humble servant,
J. K. L.

04077 1348

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