V. whom the fathers of that Council elected, published a

bull, wherein he declares that 4 it is not lawful for a man to ' perjure himself, on any account j even for the faith.' Sub- sequent pontiffs have lopped off the excrescence of relaxed casuistry.
The Pope's horns, then, are not so dangerous, as to in- duce Mr. Wesley to sing the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet, deploring the loss of Jerusalem : or to send us from London an Hebrew elegy, to be modulated on the key of the Irish Ologone. 4 Their souls are pained, and fc their hearts trembling for the ark of God.* Tell it not in 4Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon : lest the
* daughters of the Philistines rejoice : lest the daughters of ' the uncircumcised triumph.'
This same elegy resounded through Great Britain a little T>efore the ark of England was destroyed, the sceptre wrested out of the hands of her king, her pontiffs deprived of their mitres, and her noblemen banished from the Senate. Thus, as the Delphian sword slaughtered the victim in honour of the Gods, and dispatched the criminal on whom the sentence of the law was passed ; the scripture is made subservient to profane, as well as sacred purposes. It recommends and en- forces subordination; and, at the same time, becomes an ar- senal from whence faction takes its arms. Like Boileau's heroes, in the Battle of the Books, we ransack old councils ; we disturb the bones of old divines, who, wrapped up in their parchment blankets, sleep at their ease on the shelves of libra- ries, where they would snore for ever, if the noise of the gunpowder, upon an anniversary day, or the restless hands of pamphlet-writers, industrious in inflaming the rabble, did
* Defence of the Protestant Association, p. 116.
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not rouse them from their slumbers. Peace to their manes ! The charity sermon preached in Dublin, by Doctor Camp- bell— the anniversary sermon preached in Cork, last No- vember, by Doctor la Malliere — and the discourse to the Echlinville volunteers, by Mr. Dickson — have done more good in one day, either by procuring relief for the dis- tressed, or by promoting benevolence, peace, and harmony amongst fellow-subjects of all denominations, than the folios written on Pope Joan have done in the space of two hun- dred years.
I must now sound the retreat, with a design to return to the charge, and to attack Mr. Wesley's first battery, on which he has mounted the canons of the Council of Con- stance. If I cannot succeed (from want of abilities, but not from want of the armour of truth,) I am sure of making a retreat, in which it is impossible to cut me off. For, in the very supposition that the Council of Constance, and all the councils of the world, had defined * violation of faith with * heretics,' as an article of faith, and that I do not believe it; 4 violation,' then, » of faith with heretics,' is no article of my belief. For, to form one's belief, it is not sufficient to read a proposition in a book : interior conviction must captivate the mind. The Arian reads the divinity of Christ in the New Testament, and still denies it. Would Mr. Wesley assert that the divinity of Christ is an article of the Arian faith? If, then, i violation of faith with heretics,' be the tessera jidei, the badge of the Roman Catholic religion, the Roman Catholics are all Protestants, and as well entitled to sing their psalms, as Mr. Wesley his canticles. I would not be one hour a member of any religion that would profess such a creed as Mr. Wesley has sent us from Lon- don.
You may, perhaps, be surprised, Gentlemen, that the introduction to a serious subject should savour so little of the gloom and sullenness so familiar to polemical writers; or that the ludicrous and serious should be so ciosely inter- woven with each other. —
But remark a set of men who tax the nobility, gentry, and head clergy of England with degeneracy, for not de- grading the dignity of their ranks and professions. Remark them exposing their parchments in meeting-houses and
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t
vestries, begging the signatures of every peasant and men- dicant, who comes to hear the gospel : 4 Wrong no man ; * he that loves his neighbour fulfils the law,' &c. and those pious souls ' pained and trembling for the ark of God,' run- ning wi til the faggot to kindle the flames of sedition, and to oppress their neighbours. Remark, in seventeen hundred and eighty, a lord with his hair cropped, a bible in his hand, turned elder and high-priest at the age of twenty- three, and fainting for the Ark of Israel
In the fore-ground of this extraordinary picture, remark a Missionary, who has reformed the very reformation ; se- parated from all the Protestant churches, and in trimming the vessel of religion, which he has brought into a new dock, has suffered as much for the sake of conscience, as Lodowick Muggleton or James Nailer could register in their martyro- logy. Remark that same gentleman inflaming the sabble, dividing his Majesty's subjects, propagating black slander, and throwing the gauntlet to people who never provoked him. Is not fanaticism, the mother of cruelty, and the daughter of folly, the first character in this religious mas- querade ? Is it not the first spring that gives motion to these extraordinary figures, so corresponsive to Hogarth's Enraged Musician ? And in fencing with folly, have not the gravest authors handled the foils of ridicule ? To the mo- dern Footes and Molieres, or to the young student in rhe- toric, who employs irony in enlarging on his theme, should I for ever leave the « pained souls and trembling hearts,' of the Scotch Jonathan and the English Samuel, with their squadrons of Israelites fighting 'for the ark of the Lord,' if what they style in England the Gordonian Associations, had not voted their thanks to Mr. Weslev, for what they call his excellent letter. Such a performance is worthy the approba- tion of such censors : and in their holy shrines the sacred relic should be reposited. In examining a performance which contains in a small compass, all the horrors invented by blind and misguided zeal, set forth in the most bitter language, I shall confine myself to the strict line of an apologist, who clears himself and his principles from the foulest aspersions. To the public and their impartial rea- son, the appeal shall be made : to the sentiments implanted in the human breast, and to the conduct of man, not to the
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rubbish of the schools, Mr. Wesley should have made applica- tion, when tie undertook to solve the interesting problem, whe- ther the Roman Catholics should be tolerated, or persecuted? But inspired writers partake of the spirit of the seers, and copy as much as possible after the prophets ; the prophet Ezekiet breathed on a pile of bones, and lo ! a formidable army starting from the earth and ranging itself in battle array. Mr. Wesley blows the dust of an old book, andlo ! squadrons of religious warriors engaged in a crusade for the extirpation of the infidels.
The loyalty, the conduct, the virtues common to all, the natural attachment of man to his interest and country, the peaceable behaviour of the Roman Catholics, have no weight in the scale of candour and justice. An old Council, held four hundred years ago, is ransacked and misconstrued ; a Roman Catholic is unworthy of being tolerated amongst the Turks, because Mr. Wesley puts on his spectacles to read ©Id Latin.
I have the honour to remain, .: Gentlemen, Your humble, and obedient Servant,
ARTHUR O'LEARY.
MaryVLane, Dublin, February '28, 1780
LETTER II.
(Addressed as the Former.)
Gentlemen,
Fanaticism is a kind of religious folly. We laughed at it in a former letter. Whoever has a mind to indulge his humour at our expence, is heartily welcome. You now ex- pect a serious answer to a serious charge. I send you such as occurs.
' The Council of Constance has openly avowed violation 4 of faith with heretics : but it has never been disclaimed. — 4 Therefore,' concludes Mr. Wesley, ' the Roman Catholics 4 should not be tolerated amongst the Turks or Pa- 4 gans.'
A Council so often quoted in anniversary sermons, parlia- mentary debates, and flying pamphlets, challenges peculiar attention. We shall examine it with as much precision as possible, and with the more impartiality, as strict justice shall be done to all parties. Mr. Wesley knows that we are all Adam's children, who feel the fatal impressions of our origin, and that ambition which took its rise in heaven itself, often lurks in a corner of the sanctuary where the ministers of religion offer up their prayers, as well as in the cabinets of kings, where shrewd courtiers form their intrigues. At a
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time, then, when ambition, that insatiable desire of elevation, that worm which stings the heart, and never leaves it at rest, presented the universe with the extraordinary sight of three prelates reviving the restless spirit of the Roman triumvirate, and disturbing the peace of mankind as much with their spiri- tual weapons, as Octavius, Athony, and Lepidus had dis- turbed it with their armed legions — at a time when the broachers of new doctrines were kindling up the fire of se* dition, and after shaking the foundations of what was then the established religion, were shaking the foundations of thrones and empires — at that critical time, in. 1414, was held the Council of Constance, with a design, as the fathers of that Council express themselves, to reform the church in her head and members; and put an end to the calamities which the restless pride of three bishops, assuming the titles of Popes by the names of Gregory the Twelfth, Benedict the Thirteenth, and John the Twenty-third, had brought on Eu- rope, split into three grand factions by the ambition of the above-mentioned competitors. Such transactions in the ministers of a religion that preaches up peace and humility, as the solid foundations on which the structure of all Chris- tian virtues is to be raised, may startle the unthinking reader, and give him an unfavourable idea of religion : but we are never to confound the weakness of the minister with the ho- liness of his ministry. We respect the sanctuary in which Stephen officiated — though Nicholas profaned it: we revere the place from whence Judas fell — and to which Matthias was promoted: the scriptures respect the chair of Moses — though they censure several pontiffs who sat in it; and no Catholic canonizes the vices of Popes — though he respects their station and dignity. The pontifical throne is still the same, whether it be filled with a cruel Alexander the Sixth, or a benevolent Ganganelii.
To the Council of Constance was cited then John Huss, a Bohemian, famous for propagating errors tending to tear the mitre from the heads of bishops, and wrest the sceptre from the hands of kings : in a word, lie was obnoxious to Church and State ; and if Mr. Wesley and 1 preached up his doctrine in the name of God, we would be condemned in the name of the King. The Protestant and Catholic divines would banish us from their universities*, and the judges of
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assize would exterminate us from civil society. Such a Doctor had no indulgence to expect from a Council, which, after deposing two rivals for the Popedom, condemned a third for contumacy, and elected another in his room.
Burin mentioning John Huss, whose trial and execution at Constance have given rise to the foul charge of violation of faith with heretics, let none imagine that I am an apolo- gist for the fiery execution of persons, on the score of reli- gious opinions. Let the legislators who were the first tp invent the cruel method of punishing the errors of the mind with the excruciating tortures of the hody, and anticipating the rigour of eternal justice, answer for their own laws. I am of opinion that the true religion, propagated by the effusion of the blood of its martyrs, would still triumph without burning the flesh of heretics ; and that the Protestant* and Catholic legislators who have substituted the blazing pile in the room of Phalaris's brazen bull, might have pointed out a more lenient punishment for victims, who, in their opinion, had no prospect during the interminable space of a bound- less eternity, but that of passing from one fire into another. If in enacting such laws they had consulted the true spirit of religion, I believe the reformation of their own hearts would have been a more acceptable sacrifice to the Divinity, than hecatombs of human victims. ' No God nor man,' says Ter- tullian, ' should be pleased with a forced service.' ' We are 4 not to persecute those whom God tolerates,' says St. Au- gustine. That faith is fictitious which is inspired by the edge of the sword.
But still the nature of society is such, that when once the common land-marks are set up, it opposes the hand of the individual that attempts to remove them. Where one common mode of worship is established, and fenced by the laws of the state, whoever attempts to overthrow it, must expect to meet with opposition and violence, until custom softens the rigour of early prejudices, and reconciles us to men whose features and lineaments are like our own, but still seem strange to us, because their thoughts are different.
* The imperial laws winch condemned heretics to the flames, hare been put into execution by Calviu,Qneea Elizabeth, James the First, &c.
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How far opposition to religious innovations is justifiable, is not our business to discuss. But the experience of ages evinces the fact ; and in dissimilar circumstances, Mr. Wes- ley has made the trial. In kingdoms, where, as in the Ro- man Pantheon, every divinity had its altars, speculative de- viations from the religion established by law, the singularity of love-feasts and nocturnal meetings, so unusual among the modern Christians of every denomination, roused the vigi- lance of the magistrate, and influenced the rage of the rab- ble. Now, that custom has rendered Mr. Wesley's meet- ing-houses and mode of worship familiar, and that all deno- minations enjoy a share of that religious liberty, whereof he would fain deprive his Roman Catholic neighbour, his matin hymns give no uneasiness either to the magistrate, or his neighbours. But had Mr. Wesley raised his notes on the high key of civil discordance — had he attempted by his ser- mons, his writings and exhortations, to deprive the Bishops of the established religion, of their croziers; kings of their thrones; and magistrates of the sword of justice ; long ere now would his pious labours have been crowned with mar- tyrdom, and his name registered in the calendar of Fox's Saints. Such, unfortunately, was the case of John Huss. Not satisfied with overthrowing what was then the established religion, and levelling the fences of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, he strikes at the root of all temporal power, and civil autho- rity. He boldly asserts that * princes, magistrates, &c. in
* the state of mortal sin, are deprived ipso facto of all power
* and jurisdiction.'* In this doctrine was enveloped the seeds of anarchy and sedition, which subsequent preachers unfolded to the destruction of peace and tranquillity, almost all over Europe ; and which Sir William Blackstone de- scribes as follows : ' The dreadful effects of such a religious
* bigotry, when actuated by erroneous principles, even of
* the Protestant kind, are sufficiently evident from the his- 4 tory of the Anabaptistsf in Germany, the Covenanters in
* See the acts of the Council of Constance in L' Abbe's collection of Councils.
•f This is no imputation on the Anabaptists of our days, who are as peaceable and good men as auy others. Men's opinions change with the times, as in different stages of life we change our thoughts, and settle at the age of forty the roving imagination of sixteen. Custom and mutual intercourse amongst fellow-subjects of every denomina- tion, would soon quench the remaining sparks of religious feuds, if distinctive laws were abolished. But, unfortunately for the society in which we live, the laws, whose aim should be to unite the inhabitants, are calculated to divide tUem. My neighbour
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* Scotland, and the deluge of sectaries in England, who
* murdered their sovereign, overturned the church and mo-
* narchy, shook every pillar of law, justice, and private pro-
* perty, and most devoutly established a kingdom of saints { in their stead.'*
John Huss, then, after broaching the above mentioned doc- trines, and making Bohemia the theatre of intestine war, is summoned to appear before the Council. He obtains a safe conduct from the Emperor Sigismund, commanding go- vernors of provinces, &c. not to molest him on his journev to, or return from Constance ; but to afford him every aid and assistance. In all the provinces and cities through which he passes, he gives public notice of his intention to appear before the Council and stand his trial. But instead of stand- ing his trial, and retracting his errors, he attempts to make his escape, in order to disseminate, and make them take deeper root. He is arrested and confined, in order that he should take his trial, after having violated his promise, and abused a safe conduct granted him for the purpose of excul- pating himself, or retracting his errors, if proved against him before his competent judges. It is here to be remarked, that John Huss was an ecclesiastic ; and that in spiritual cases the bishops were his only and competent judges. The bounda- ries of the two powers, I mean the church and state, being kept distinct ; the censer left to the pontiff, and the sword to the magistrate ; the church confined to her spiritual weapons ; privation of life and limb, and corporeal punishments being quite of the province of the state ; one should not interfere with the other. As the bodv of the criminal is under the controul of the magistrate, too jealous of his privilege to per- mit the church to interfere with his power — so, erroneous
distrust's mc, because the penal laws held me forth as a reprobate before I was horn, and during my life encourage him to seize my horse, or drag ine before a magistrate for saying my prayers, which reduces me to the sad necessity of hating him, or considering liim a., an enemy, if in the great struggle between nature and grace, religion does not triumph. Before Lewis the Fourteenth and George the First, repealed the lawtagainst witches, every disfigured old woman was in danger of her life, and considered as a sor- ceress Since the witch-making laws have been repealed, there is not a witch in the land, and the dairy-maid is not under the necessity of using counter-charms to hinder the milk from being enchanted from her pail Thus, if the penal laws, which by a kind of omnipotence create an original sin, making rogues of Catholics before they reach llieir hands to the tempting fruit, were once repealed, they would be as honest as their neighbours, and the objects of their love and confidence.
* Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. IV. chap. 8.
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doctrines are under the controulof spiritual judges, too jea- lous of their prerogatives, to permit the civil magistrate to interfere with their rights. Hence, when the partizans of Huss raised clamours about his confinement, and pleaded his safe conduct, the Council published the famous decree which has given rise to so many cavils, for the space of four hun- dred years, though thousands of laws of a more important nature, and of which we now think but little, have been published since that time. The Council declares, ' that every
* safe conduct granted by the Emperor, Kings, and other ' temporal princes, to heretics, or persons accused of heresy, 1 ought not to be of any prejudice to the Catholic faith, or to
* the ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; nor to hinder that such per-
* sons may and ought to be examined, judged, and punished, 'according as justice shall require, if those heretics refuse to ' revoke their errors : and the person who shall have pro-
* mised them security, shall not, in this case, be obliged to *. keep his promise, by whatever tie he may be engaged, be- ' cause he has done all that is in his power to do.' I ap- peal to the impartial public, whether that declaration of the Council does not regard the peculiar case of safe-conducts, granted by temporal princes, to perons who are liable to be tried by competent and independent tribunals? And, whether it be not an insult to candour and common sense, to give it such a latitude as to extend it to every lawful promise, contract, or engagement between man and man ? As if the Council of Constance meant to authorize me to buy my neighbour's goods, and after a solemn promise to pay him, still to keep his substance, and break my word. The church and state are two distinct and inde- pendent powers, each in its peculiar line. A man is to be tried by the church for erroneous doctrines: a temporal prince grants this man a safe-conduct, to guard his person from any violence which may be offered him on his jour- ney; and to procure him a fair and candid trial, on his appearance before his lawful judges. — Has not this prince done all that is in his power to do ? Doth his promise to such a man authorize him to interfere with a foreign and inde- pendent jurisdiction, or to usurp the rights of another? Do not the very words of the Council, ' because he has done all
131 MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS.
* that is in his power to do,' prove that lawful promises are to be fulfilled ?
Such jurisconsults, whether Catholics or Protestants, such as Prenus, Speklam, and others, as I have accidently read, concerning the nature of safe-conducts, lay down for a gene- ral rule, that they are never granted to suspend the execu- tion of the laws. Sakus conductus contra jus non datur. Ft were nugatory in the Emperor Sigismund, presumptive heir to a kingdom, which Huss's doctrine had changed into a theatre of intestine wars, to grant a safe-conduct, the mean- ing and sense whereof would be equivalent to the following pass : ' Although you have set kingdoms in a blaze, by strik- ing at the vitals of temporal authority, and overthrow the ' established religion of the land, yet go to Constance and 'comeback, without appearing before your lawful judges, ' or retracting doctrines which have caused such disturbances * in church and state.' Safe-conducts then are not granted to screen delinquents from punishment, when legally con- victed ; much less, to countenance disobedience to the laws, and disorder, by impunity.
The Council was the most competent judge of Huss's doc- trine, in which he steadfastly persevered. Neither king nor emperor could deprive the bishops of privileges inseparably annexed to their characters, viz. spiritual jurisdiction, and the right of judging doctrines. Huss was degraded, and re- trenched, according to the usual formalities, from a commu- nion from which he had separated himself before. This is all the bishops could have done ; this they acknowledge after the sentence of Huss's degradation was pronounced. * This ' sacred synod of Constance, considering that the church of ' Christ has nothing further that it can do, decrees to leave 'John Huss to the judgment of the state.' His execution was in consequence of the imperial laws, enforced by the civil magistrate, as the execution of heretics in England and other Protestant states, has been in consequence of the imperial laws adopted by such powers. The Protestant clergy, as well as the clergy of Constance, decided upon points of doc- trine, and went no farther.
Thus we see, that this superannuated charge of violation of faith with heretics, resembles those nightly spectres which
MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS. 135
vanish upon a nearer approach. We find nothing in this Council, relative to such a charge, but a dispute about a pass granted to a man who goes to takes his trial before judges whose jurisdiction could not be superseded. Or if we ia- tend to do justice to men with the same eagerness that we are disposed to injure them, we must acknowledge that the fathers of that Council condemned lies, frauds, perjury, and those horrors which Mr. Wesley would fain fix upon the Roman Catholics. The foundations, then, on which Mr. Wesley has erected his serial fabric, being once sapped, the superstructure must fall of course; and his long train of false and unchristian assertions are swept away as a spider's web, before the wind of logical rules. From absurd premises follows cm absurd conclusion.
What greater absurdity than Mr. Wesley's insisting upon a general Council's disclaiming a doctrine it never taught? ,lf Mr. Wesley be so credulous as to believe that the Pope has horns, we must convene a general Council to declare that his forehead is smooth ? Is it not sufficient to disclaim the truth of the odious imputation, when the false creed is fixed on us ? We are really of opinion, that whoever be- lieves us capablo of harbouring such sentiments, is capable of putting the horrid maxims in practice. He must have studied the human heart, not in the books of nature, but in Hobbes's Leviathan ; and should curse his fate that Provi- dence had been so unkindly partial to him.
Rousseau declares, that if he had been present at the re- surrection of Lazarus, he would not have believed it. 4 The 4 apparation,' says he, 4 would have made a fool of me, by 4 frightening me out of my senses, but it would never have 4 made a convert of me.'
If a general Council were held in order to disclaim the ridi- culous and abominable creed imputed to Roman Catholics, the sceptic, who gives no credit to their doctors and uni- versities, to the oaths and declarations of millions, would give no credit to a convention of Bishops with the Pope at their head.
Let the appeal be made, not to stubborn sceptics, but to those who listen to the voice of reason, and consult the heart. This interior monitor, when passion and prejudice
136 JIISCELLANEOUS TRACTS.
are hushed into silence, is seldom consulted in vain. Let us not travel into Catholic States where perjury is punished with death, and every argument tending to prove that the Pope can absolve subjects from oaths, and grant a dispen- sation to commit all kinds of crimes, is confuted with a halter. Let us look nearer home, aitd compare what we see on one hand, with what is supposed on the other.
We see a million and half of Roman Catholics smarting under the most oppressive laws that the human heart could ever devise. When they were enacted, our ancestors had the lands of their fathers and the religion of their education. If perjury had been an article of their belief, they could have secured their inheritance, by taking an oath of abju- ration If papal dispensations were, in their opinion, leni- tives to an ulcerated conscience, when, or where could they have been more seasonably applied, than at that time and place, where the properties of millions depended on the application ?
If oaths against conviction, dispensations with perjury, and anticipated absolutions from future crimes, were articles of their belief, they would have prevented the blazing co- mets which scorch the living, and spread their influence to the dormitories of the dead, from kindling in their native air ; and hindered cruelty, which is disarmed in the tyrant's breast at sight of the expiring victim, from pursuing them to the grave, and depriving them of the cold comfort of of muigjliog their ashes with those of their ances- tors.*
Those laws which have banished our nobility from the Senate; deprived our gentry of the liberty of wearing a sword, either as a means of defence against the midnight assassin, or as a part of dress in the open day; the merchant of the power of realizing the fruits of his industry, in ob- taining landed security for his money, or the liberty of pur- chasing; the lower class of people of the liberty of becom-
* The peual laws offered the most galling- insult to the Roman Catholic gentry, at the time of their being enacted. Their burying places were in the ruins of old ab- beys, founded by their ancestors, A law was enacted, prohibiting- to bury in those dreary haunts of cats and weasels, and a fine of ten shillings was to be levied on erer.y person who assisted at the funeral.
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ing common soldiers, mayor's Serjeants, or coal-measurers, and the valiant youth of serving his king, and reaping lau- rels in defence of his country — these laws are all still in being. It is true, to the honour of the Irish senate, thev have staunched the blood flowing this long time past from one of the most tender veins of the human heart, by putting it out of the power of the profligate son to betray and rob his tender and hoary father. But, still the insidious neighbour can seize his neighbour's horse ; the unfaithful husband can banish his chaste and virtuous wife, after the oath pledged if) presence of God, at the nuptial solemnity ; the designing; villain can set fire to his house, and build a new one, at the expense of his Catholic neighbours, who were asleep whilst he himself was lighting the fagot.*
Thus like a running evil, in a successive gradation, they ulcerate every part of the body ; and, though the lenity of the magistrate is a kind of mollifying application, that may assuage the sore for a certain time ; yet whilst the noxious humour lurks within the recess of the law, we can never ex- pect a radical cure.
' It is needless to comment upon the spirit of such laws. — 1 The very recital chills with horror.' So remarks my learned and worthy acquaintance, Doctor Campbell. * Let it
* not be argued, that these laws are seldom put in execution. —
* Is property to depend upon the courtesy of an avaricious, 4 malignant neighbour ! Damocles was, perhaps, safe enough 'under the suspended sword of Dionysius; but the appre- 1 hension of danger scared away those visions of happiness ' which he had seen in the envied pomp of tyranny. f * Laws,' says the President Montesquieu, * which do all the mischief 'that can be done, in cold blood ;' and to which Lucretius might allude in his famous Epiphonema : Tanium religiopo- tuit suadere malorum ! Could religion be productive of such mischief! That philosopher, who in reading the epitaph of a voluptuous monarch, cried out that it was better suited to
* Mr. O'Leary was present when the case was tried in (he county Court-house of Cork. He has likewise seen the venerable matron, after twenty-four years marriage, banished fi'om the perjured husband's house, though it was proved in open court, that for six months before his marriage, he went to mass. But the law requires that he should be a year and a day of the same religion.
■\- Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland, p. 251, 2.
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an ox than to a king : Bove quam rege dignkts, in reading the penal code, could form another antithesis : ' The seal 'that «:ave a sanction to such laws, should rather bear ' the impression of the claws of a lion than the head of a * queen.'*
Such are the laws to whose unrelenting rigour we are every day exposed. The disposition of man, so averse to restraint, would soon suggest a method of dissolving the odious chains, which like those used by the Tuscan princes, who fastened living men to dead bodies, punish for an en- tire century, the living for the dead. The disposition of man, so averse to restraint, would soon shake off the op- pressive burden, if the importunate voice of conscience did not silence the cries of nature, and intimate to the Ca- tholic, that, ' death is preferable to perjury.' The remedy is in our own hands, and we daily refuse to apply it, though a small bandage could soon close up the bleeding veins of oppression, and a slight palliative remove the tem- poral grievances of which we complain. The churches are open, and though Mr. Wesley says, that 'our oaths are 'light as air,' yet one oath taken against the conviction of our consciences, would level the fences, and sweep away ail the penal laws, as so many spiders' webs, to use his delicate expression. This is an argument which speaks to the feelings of man, and which no sophistry can ever refute. The priests themselves are interested in the profanation ; for, by entering into a collusion with their flocks, and using their magic powers to forgive all sins, past, present, and to come, they could permit them to graze on the commons of legal indulgence ; and by turning them into a richer pasture, ex- pect more milk and wool. Avarice has ever been the re- proach of the sanctuary : it is recorded in Scripture, that the priests of the old law used to take the best part of the victim to themselves, before it was offered to the God of Israel, and
* Queen Anne, the last sovereign of the Stuart line, who, after combining1 against her father, and violating the articles of Limerick, under pretence of strengthen- ing- the Protestant religion, gave a sanction to those lawjs; though her chief aim was to secure herself against the claims of her brother. Thus, religion often becomes an engine of policy, in the hands of sovereigns. Quere to Civilians -. Should not oppressive laws cease, when the motives that gave rise to them subsist no more?
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that Judas sold our Saviour for thirty pieces of silver. Mr. Wesley then must charitably presume, that no priest will forego his personal interest in compliment to his successor, and as it is his interest to impose upon his votaries, to slack- en the rein, and shelter himself under the shade of the laws ; either perjury is no part of his belief, or he must be too scru- pulous ; which in Mr. Wesley's opinion is heresy to believe. In ethics, as in mathematics, there are self-evident demon- strations ; no proposition in Euclid is more clear than the fol- lowing : * A person who , does not think perjury a crime, * would not forfeit a guinea from reluctance to an oath.'- — The Roman Catholics forfeit every privilege rather than take an oath against their conscience.
Are not they Adam's children ? Have they not the same sensations of pain and pleasure as other men ? Their vices and virtues, do they not run in the same channels with those of their Protestant neighbours ? Are they not animated with the same desires of glory, allured by the blandishments of pleasure, courted by the charms of riches, as eager for the enjoyment of ease and opulence ? If perjury be their creed, if their clergy be endued with the magic power of forgiving not only present but future sins, why do not they glide gently down the stream of legal liberty, instead of stemming the torrent of oppression ? Why do not they qualify themselves for sitting in the Senate, and giving laws to the land in con- cert with their countrymen, instead of being the continual objects of penal sanctions ? It is, that they are diametrically the reverse of what they are represented. Their religion for- bids them to sport with the awful name of the Divinity. — They do not choose to impose upon their neighbours, or themselves, by perjury ; nor run the risk of eternal deatli for a little honey. Were it otherwise, in three weeks time they could all read their recantations, and be on a level with the rest of their fellow -subjects : they could imitate that phi- losopher who had two religions — one for himself, and ano- ther for his country. Yet the archives of national justice can prove, that Catholics, reduced to the necessity of disco- vering against themselves, preferred the loss of their estates to the guilt of perjury, when a false oath could have secured
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them in their property. Notwithstanding this imputed creed, .they prefer the smarting afflictions of the body to the sting- ing remorses of the scul ; and when worldly prosperities stand in competition with conscience, they rather choose to be its martyrs than executioners.
Gentlemen, reconcile, if you can, perjurers from princi- ple, with sufferers from delicacy of conscience, and I shall style you the children of the great Apollo. But are not the Catholics a set of passive machines, veering at the breath of the Pope, who can dispense with them in any thing ? ' Or
* what security can they give to Protestant governors, whilst
* they acknowledge his spiritual power?' If this be any ob- jection to their loyalty, Catholic kings should bisnish their Catholic subjects, and introduce Protestants in their stead — for, as the Roman Catholic faith is the same all over the world, and that France and Spain are more convenient to the Pope than the Britannic islands, he would have more machines to move, more votaries to obey his mandates, and more facility in compassing his designs. In England and Ireland all the Protestants would oppose him; whereas in Catholic king, doms, if his power has such an unlimited sway over the con- science of man, as Mr. Wesley asserts, every subject, nay, kings themselves, would be bound to obey him. But Ca- tholic subjects know, that if God must have his own, Caesar must have his due. In his quality of pontiff, they are ready to kiss the Pope's feet : but if he assumes the title of con- queror, they are ready to bind his hands. The very ecclesi- astical benefices, which are more in the spiritual line, are not at his disposal. When England had more to dread from him than now, a Catholic parliament passed the statute of premunire ; the bishops and mitred abbots preferred their own temporal interest to that of the Pope, and reserve the benefices to themselves, and the clergy under their jurisdic- tion. Charity begins at home, and I do not believe any Ca- tholic so divested of it, as to prefer fifty pounds a year un- der the Pope's government, to an hundred pounds under that of a Protestant king. Queen Mary, so devoted to the Pope's cause, both on account of her religion, and the justice done to her mother by the inflexible resolution of the sovereign
MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS. 141
pontiff, still would not cede her temporal rights, nor those of her subjects, in compliment to his spiritual power. After the reconciliation of her kingdom to the apostolical see, a statute was passed, enacting, that the Pope's bulls, briefs, &c. should be merely coniined to spirituals, without inter- fering with the independence of her kingdom, or the rights of her subjects. The history of Europe proclaims aloud, that the Roman Catholics are not passive engines in the hands of Popes, and that they confine his power within the narrow limits of his spiritual province. They have often taken his cities, and opposed Paul's sword to Peter's keys, and silenced the thunders of the Vatican with the noise of the cannon. — They know that Peter was a fisherman when kings swayed the sceptre, and that the subsequent grandeur of his successors, could never authorize him to alter the primitive institution that commands subjects to ohey their rulers, and to give Caesar his due.
With regard to his spiritual power, you will be surprised, gentlemen, when I tell you, that, from Lodowic Muggleton down to John Wesley, those who have instituted new sects amongst the Christians, have assumed more power than the Pope dare to assume over the Catholics.
They may add or diminish : but, with regard to the Pope, the landmarks are erected, and we would never permit him to remove them. If he attempted to preach up five sacra- ments instead of seven, we would immediately depose him. Mr. Wesley may alter his faith as often as he pleases, and prevail on others to do the same; but the Pope can never alter ours: we acknowledge him, indeed, as head of the Church, for every society must have a link of union, to guard against confusion and anarchy ; and, without annexing any infallibility to his person, we acknowledge his title to prece- dence and pre-eminence. But, in acknowledging him as the first pilot to steer the vessel, we acknowledge a compass by which he is to direct his course. He is to preserve the vessel, but never to expose it to shipwreck. Any deviation from the laws of God, the rights of nature, or the faith of our fathers, would be the fatal rock on which the Pope himself would split. In a word, the Pope is our first Pastor; he may feed, but cannot poison us : we acknowledge no
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power in him, either to alter our faith, or to corrupt our morals.
If the Pope's power were then rightly understood, his spiritual supremacy would give no more umbrage to the King of Great Britain, than the jurisdiction of a dio- cesan bishop. But deep rooted prejudices can scarcely be removed ; and little can be expected from the generality, when the learned themselves are hurried by the tide of popular error.
From want of rightly understanding the case, and atten- tion to the discriminating line drawn by the Catholics be- tween the Pope's spiritual and temporal power, Sir William Blacksione himself gave into the snare of vulgar delusion. This learned expositor of England's common law, declares the Roman -Catholics as well entitled to every legal indul- gence as the other dissenters from the established religion, maugre their real presence, purgatory, confessions, &c. But still the Pope's ghost haunts him to such a degree, that he would fain have the Catholics abjure his spiritual su- premacy. But Sir William, who has exposed himself to the censure of Mr. Sheridan, in establishing the formidable right of conquest over Ireland, and to the animadversions of the divines, by declaring that ' an act of parliament 4 can alter the religion of the land,' (as if, by act of par- liament, we should all become Turks, be circumcised, and expect an earthly Paradise ;) has exposed himself to the reproaches of every smatterer in divinity, who could ask him : If, in acknowledging the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop of London, he encroached upon the privileges of the Lord Mayor. «
But in talking of the power of parliament ' to alter the 4 religion of the land,' Sir William has argued from facts : and in talking of the spiritual power of the Pope, he must have argued from hear-say. The lawyer may be excused when he talks of spiritual powers : but what apology can be pleaded by the apostle and divine, who, like Tristram Shandy's priest, baptizes the child before he is born, and grants Popes and priests the power of forgiving all sins, not only past and present, but sins to come; this Mr. Wesley asserts : it is surprising magic that forgives now, the sin that
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is to be committed a hundred years hence : let no one de- prive Mr. Wesley of the glory of the invention. Past sins, in our belief, can be forgiven by Popes and priests, not as primary agents, but as subordinate instruments in the hands of the Divinity ; not according to the absolute will of the priest, but according to the dispositions of the penitent, and the clauses of the covenant of mercy, which the priest can neither alter nor disannul.
The dark recesses of the criminal consciences must be searched. The monster must be stifled in the heart that gave it birth. A sincere sorrow for past guilt, a firm resolution to avoid future lapses, and every possible atone- ment to the injured Deity, and the injured neighbour, are the previous and indispensable requisites. Take away any of the three conditions, and the Pope's and priest's absolution are but empty sounds ; the keys of the church rattle in vain, they are no more than the mutterings of sorcerers, or words of incantation pronounced over a dead body, without ever imparting to it the genial heat of ani- mation and vitality. — Popes nor priests can do no more than God himself — and the Scriptures declare, that God will never forgive the sinner, without sorrow and repentance. And the schoolmen dispute, whether, by an absolute power, he could raise to the beatific vision, a soul polluted with the defilements of guilt. If then the priest's absolution be any plea against Roman Catholics, it may as well be said, that the promise of the Most High, ' to pardon the re- 'pentant sinner, although his sins were as red as scarlet,' encourages men to commit sin ; or that a man may take an oath contrary to his conscience, under the idea, that a subsequent repentance will gain forgiveness and pardon. #
' But is it not intolerable presumption in man to arrogate 4 such power ?' Be it so ; I am no apologist when I write in a public paper : controversy I leave to the schools. If I make my confession to a priest, what is it to my neighbour? So- ciety will gain by the pretended superstition ; for the most immortal Catholics are those who seldom or never frequent the sacraments. I look on the pretended conferences ot Numa Pompilius with the nymph Egeria, as a mere fiction, devised
u
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by that political prince. Yet I admire the wisdom of the legislator, v. ho introduced a plan of softening the savage manners of his uncivilized subjects, and smoothing the aspe- rity of stubborn nature by religious awe. Those who are unacquainted with the nature of confession, may consider it as priest-craft, yet neither master nor landlord will ever lose by the imposture ; when their servants and tenants kneel to a priest, whose duty is to revive in their minds the notions of probity and virtue. Thus, the wisest of the Protestant churches have never discountenanced confession : the form of absolution, and the previous dispositions required on the part of the penitent are set down at large in the liturgy ; and as to the power of forgiving sins, granted to the ministers of religion, express mention is made of it in the Scriptures. Mr. Wesley must acknowledge the power, whether it consists in the priestly absolution, or in the preaching of the Gospel, or ' in pious canticles, sung with a skilful tongue and ! harmonious voice, lifting the rising soul and plunging it into 1 a mystical slumber, as soothing and soft as the balm of 'Gilead.'*
Such Christians as acknowledge original sin, and the vir- tue of baptism to cancel the unavoidable debt, must acknow- ledge that the minister of religion effaces the stain by ap- pKing the elements. If the Catholics believe that by the institution of Christ, the minister of religion can forgive sins ; they are convinced at the same time, that he is no more than a subordinate agent, who derives his power from a superior being, in absolving the adult, as he derives his power from the same source, when he purifies the soul of the infant. I know full well that God could change the heart of man, and forgive sins in young and old, without the interposition of a human being. The prophet, who was consulted by two Jewish kings, and before he would give an answer, called for a harp, could have received the prophetic inspiration, with- out touching the strings of the tuneful lyre. Christ could have restored the blind man to his sight without applying
* See an abridgment of Wcsloy's journal, where he compares the impressions lie made on his hearers to the balm of Gilead. As far as I can recollect, he relates in his huge journal a surprising hi>tory of one of his acquaintances, who fell into a pious slumber, which deserves to be recorded in the History of the Seveu Sleepers,
MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS. 145
the mud to his eyes, and converted the world without expos- ing his apostles to martyrdom. But am I to bring him to an account for using intermediate agents; or what I think to be an institution of the Divinity, is it not my duty to abide by it? Happy those who can save themselves without the assist- ance of any other! Thrice happy Mr. Wesley! who is al- ready registered in the book of life, and empowered to grant inamissable security to others for the anticipated enjoyment of eternal bliss. He can sum up the number of the holy souls who have climbed up the steps of the mystical ladder, and on the highest step of all, as on the ramparts of an im- pregnable fortress, reckon so many souls confirmed in a state of inamissable sanctity;* whilst I am so miserable as not to know whether I am worthy of love or hatred, and have mil- lions of times more reason than St. Paul to solicit the pravt is of my fellow-christians, lest that in praying for others, / my- self may become a reprobate.
In our communion, Gentlemen, we never hold forth our confessions and absolutions as licences for guilt, but as curbs to the passions. Our priests make their confession, as well as the laity ; for no priest can absolve himself, nor flatter himself with impunity in committing present or future crimes. — Our directors point out the path to the wayfaring pilgrim, between the two extremes 01 despair and presvm >- tion: to guard against the first, the gates of penance me thrown open, as so many avenues that lead to mercy: to guard against the second, the dread of God's judgments, the uncertainty of the last hour, the abuses of God's graces, which, if neglected, swell the long list of crimes and punish- ments, are held forth in all their terrors.
We represent to the guilty conscience, sinking under a weight of anxieties and crimes, the penitent thief crying out for mercy, and obtaining pardon. We represent to the obstinate and presumptuous sinner, the impenitent thi
* See Wesley's journal, where he declares, that on his visitation, he met so many sanctified, so many justified, and so many confirmed in love. Qui potest capiat I can- not comprehend this mystical divinity. By confirmation in love he must mean, that whoever believes himself once arrived at that happy state, can sin no more. I am glad to see a fellow-creature confirmed in the love of God. Bui I am sorry to find souse go ill-confirmed in the love of their neighbour, as to tell half Europe to their facts, that they are perjurers, and to apologize for a rabble, who set fire to their neighbours houses. This is what we call an ardent, nr bcrmxg love.
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threatening reprobation. We know, that whilst the serpent is raised up in the wilderness, no wound is incurable : we know, on the other hand, that, when criminal cities had filled up the measure of their iniquity, in vain did Abraham lift up his hands to heaven, to solicit their pardon. If Ave place be- tween the Judge and the sinner a great Mediator ; though the Mediator and Judge be the same, yet we place between the Mediator and sinner an awful Judge. We earnesly re- commend the frequent use of confession, because man is so frail that he stands in frequent need of it. But still we recom- mend it, not as loose reins to humour the sinner's passions, but as a stiff bridle to check their sallies. We never encou- rage our penitents to new disorders, but inspire them with detestation for former guilt, and fear of swelling the score ; for we know the danger of affronting mercy by new crimes, but cannot know the fatal point where paternal goodness is limited. Thus we lead our penitents in the intermediate path between despair and presumption, by the delicate clue of hope and fear, until they reach the critical term, where the soul, after bursting the chains of its earthly prison, takes its flight into the vast region of spirits; and even when ar- raigned before the judgment seat, we tremble for its destiny. Such, Gentlemen, is the nature of confession, whether you consider it in a useful or abusive light.
Had Mr. Wesley, who, after publishing twenty-six vo- lumes, knows every thing, even the language of birds, known its nature, he would not have adduced it as an argument in justification of intolerance, but rather left the imputed power of forgiving all kinds of sin, past, present, and to come, as a flower of rhetoric to grace the garden of the Cynics. Away then with his priestly absolutions and dispensing powers. — He assumes more power than any priest could pretend to. Away with violation of faith with heretics: we acknow- ledge no heresy in the duties of social life, or the obligations of Christian virtues.
Such, Gentlemen, arc the principles of the Roman Catho- lics, they are quite the reverse of Mr. Wesley's charges. — Let the impartial public decide, whether a set of perjurers, authorised to commit all kinds of crimes with impunity, (such as the Roman Catholics are painted) would suffer one
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week on the score of conscience ? In our faith we follow the maxim of St. James, 4 Whoever transgresses the law in * one point, is guilty of all.' The same rule holds good in moral ; in allowing that a man is bad in committing one crime, we do not allow that he is guiltless in committing ano- ther. The sacrifice must be entire; and grace never sanc- tifies a divided victory. The fabric of our religion is so closely cemented — the links of the chain which unites all the articles of our faith, are so fastened within each other, that if you take off one of the links, or loosen a stone in the edifice, the whole system is entirely destroyed. If then all the horrors fixed upon us by the dark pencil of misrepresen- tation, be articles of our belief, when we disclaim them upon oath, we are real heretics, and as well entitled to every legal indulgence, as those who go to church, and swear against Transubstantiation.
We admire the integrity of Regulus, who suffered the most exquisite tortures, rather than violate an oath given to his enemies. In the administration of distributive justice, the magistrate must give credit to the Heathen, who swears by his false gods, to the Jew, who swears by the Old Testa- ment, and to the Turk, who swears by the Koran. In cases of life and property, he gives credit to the oath of a Roman Catholic, whether he appears as a witness or juror. In giving no credit to the oaths of Roman Catholics, when they disclaim perjury, dispensations for frauds, rebellion, treachery, &c. he betrays his judgment, and insults humanity. But, if judgment has been ever betrayed, or humanity in- sulted, they are now betrayed and insulted by those per- sons who compose what they call the Protestant Asso- ciations, of whom Mr. Wesley is become the apologist. In taking up the pen to conclude this letter, I received their Appeal to the People of Great Britain, printed in London by J. W. Pasham.
Mr. Wesley, who has abridged his own journal to give it a greater circulation, has abridged this six-penny pamphlet, in his first letter. In the beginning of the American war, he published his 'Calm Address,' in order to unite the colonies to the mother country. The ' balm of Gilcad' proving inef- fectual beyond the Atlantic, he now has recourse to caustic*
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at home. Three years ago he intended to unite us : now he intends to divide us. Thus we find Penelope's web in his religious looms : what he wove three years ago, he now unraveis.
In this ' Appeal,' on which he passes such encomiums, and the design whereof he declares to be ' benevolent,' you can perceive the dormant seeds of antiquated fanaticism sprouting anew, and vegetating into religious, frenzy, which has deluged the earth with an ocean of calamities, and which would give heathen princes room to glory, that the Gospel has never been preached in their dominions. An apothe- cary's shop has never been stocked with more drugs, than this ' Appeal' is stocked with massacres. They have inserted in it, the bull, ' In Ccena Domini,' which has never been re- ceived in any Catholic kingdom; and from an old book, which was foisted on the public in the beginning of the Reformation, as containing the fees of the Roman chancery, they conclude, that ' a Roman Catholic can sleep with a 1 woman in a church, and commit there other enormities, by 4 paying nine shillings ;' and that 4 he may murder a man, * and commit incest,* on paying seven shillings and six- 4 pence,' though shillings and six-pences are English coins, not current in Italy ; and in Catholic countries, the murderer expires on the wheel, and whoever commits incest, or pro- fanes the churches by carnal sins, is burnt at the stake. What is more surprising, Gentlemen, these new apostles of the Gordonian Association, who, to use the words of our old friend, Hudibras,
' Their holy faith do found upon ' The sacred text of pike and gun.'
imagine that they are delegates of heaven for the salvation of souls : their hands do not brandish the glittering spear on the American plains, where d'Estaing and Prevost dispute the laurel; but, like Samuel, deploring the loss of Saul, their eyes are bathed in tears, and their ' bowels yearn for mil- ' lions of spirits that have no existence but in the prescience ' of God,' who can pity an error, and forgive it, and who is
more concerned in their salvation, than Lord G G
or Mr. Wesley.
* Sen the "Appeal from the Protestant Associations," p. 18. — Printed by Pasham.
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I am afraid, Gentlemen, that you mind your own souls and bodies more than you mind those of others. To rouse you from your spiritual lethargy, and inflame you with some sparks of love for your neighbour, I send you a piece of a sermon taken from the 'Appeal of the Associations.'
After deploring the ' loss of millions of common people, 1 who are prohibited from reading the scriptures,' (though it were charity to teach them first how to spell,) 'and who have
* souls as infinite, in value and duration, as the proudest pre-
* lates. or highest monarcha upon earth,' — they go on: ' to
* tolerate Popery, is to be instrumental to the perdition of
* immortal souls now existing, and of millions of spirits that
* at present have no existence but in the prescience of God ;
* and is the direct way to provoke the vengeance of an holy
* and jealous God, to bring down destruction on our fleets ' and armies.'* I really imagined that the Protestant asso- ciations were not so cruel as to refuse me mercy, and exclude me from the kingdom of heaven, if I lead an honest, sober, and virtuous life. I am convinced, that several of Admiral Rodney's sailors are Roman Catholics, and that the bullets which told so ivell, in mauling poor Langara, were fired by hands that crossed a Popish forehead. Oliver Cromwell, seeking the Lord, and preaching upon the Sabbath-day, in a leather breeches and buff waistcoat, with his trusty sabre by his side,f did not scruple to enter into a confederacy with Cardinal Mazarini, against the Spaniards : it was equal to England which of the two was foremost in the breach, the French Dragoon with his whiskers, after saying Hail Mary, or the Round-head with his leather cap, after groaning in tlie spirit. Spain lost Dunkirk, and England triumphed.
King William, who, to his honour, could never be pre- vailed on to violate the articles of Limerick, had six thou- sand Roman Catholics in his army, when he fought the bat tie of the Boyne ; and the Catholics and Protestants of Swit- zerland maintain their independence against all the powers of the Continent, in consequence of their union. But the Protestant Association, like Ezekiel, have wallowed a book
* See the " Appeal from the Protestant Associations," page 18, and cry out Qbon« ! •bone ! obone !
+ See Oreg-orio Leti, in hits Life of Cromwell.
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in which are written verses, and lamentations, and woe ! Al- ready their luminous souls, enlightened by the prophetic spi- rit, see future times unlocking- their distant gates, and pour- ing forth millions of monsters ; and from a desire to procure the salvation of Adam's children, it is to be dreaded, that, at long run, they will imitate the holy fanatics of Denmark, who, in order to procure heaven for young infants, after being bap- tized, used to slaughter them in their cradles.
AN
HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE
TO THE
SCOTCH AND ENGLISH INQUISITORS,
By way of an Apostrophe,
Gentlemen,
As a colour to your disorderly and unwarrantable pro- ceedings, you impose on the ignorant by your cant words of violation of faith with heretics* Like Boileau's heroes, you are ransacking old books, canvassing legends of exaggerated massacres,* and like scholars, who, after repeating their les- son, fling about the bones and skulls piled up in charnel houses, you haunt the living with the images of the dead. — * Modern philosophy proves the existence of colours in the eye, but not in exterior objects ; what is true in the physical world, is more so in your system of ethics — the purple hue and black dye in which you would fain misrepresent us to our king and the public, are the result of your organs ; and
* In their Appeal they relate that a hundred thousand Protestants were massacred in 1641 ; at that time there were thirty Catholics for every Protestant, and a hundred es- caped for every single Protestaut that perished Let now a balance be struck, and the numbers of inhabitants calculated, and Ireland must have been bHt one lai^e city, as crowded as the streets of Rome, in the times of Marius and Sylla. This massacre, which should be effaced from the records of the nation, as well as from the memory of man, was begun by a fanatical soldiery, who intended to extirpate the Pa is's and uia- lignants. Whoever has a mind to be informed about this massacre, may read Doctor Warner, Mr. Brooke's Trial of the Roman Catholics, and Doctor lurry's Historical Me- moirs, and his History of the Civil Wars of Ireland. Bat whoev r has a mind to be led astray, let him read Sir John Temple's (Secretary to Ireton) stupid legend. TJie Ap- peal of the Protestant Associations — and Hume's theatrical Description, who, neverthe- less, reduces greatly the number, which could never amount to five or six thousand — lie relates, that in hatred to the English, the Irish used to wound their cows, and in this torturing situation turn them into the woods to prolong their sofieiings. In n;y opinion, under such a government as was ihen, they wanted mine to eat them. An ; I am sorry that the gravity of the Historian has permitted Mr. Hume to rank cows amongst
the MAUTY8S OF RELIGION.
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the abortives you lay at our doors, derive their existence from yourselves. You would fain deprive us of the rights of mankind, for crimes we never committed ; for thoughts which we disclaim, and whereof the Scrutinizer and Searcher of hearts is the only competent judge. Thus you imitate the tyrant, who put an inoffensive citizen to death, because in his uneasy slumbers, disturbed by the guilt of injuries of- fered to others, he dreamt that he was cutting his throat. Our actions are the best exponents of our sentiments : our conduct is peaceable ; but, as for you, your actions and con- duct betray you, as the roaring, and impression of his claws, betray the lion. And woe to the game that is unprotected by the keeper ! in an enlightened age, when the cheerful eyes of philosophy and religion cannot bear the sight of frantic fanaticism, banished from all quarters of Europe, it found shelter among you, with its distorted features, and nu- merous train of calamities and evils. Generous hosts ! and worthy of such a guest, you sheltered, you warmed, you gave new life, to a refugee entitled to your patronage. And as a prodigal child, thriving ill in foreign countries, you received with the arms of a tender parent, you clad him in his first robes, you killed a fat calf, which the burning rafters of your neighbours' houses have roasted, and at his recep- tion the symphony of pious raptures was heard in your streets.
Whilst, in Ireland, the ministers of religion, in conformity to the Gospel rule, were preaching love and benevolence ; whilst in Ireland sixty thousand armed Protestants, without any controul, but the great principles of honour and valour, enemy to degenerate cruelty, were protecting the peaceable citizen and defenceless cottager, without any distinction of sects or parties ; whilst the Irish Volunteers were setting to the world the rare example of armed legions, without the se- vere subordination of military discipline, behaving with that noble decorum which precludes complaints, and attracts ad- miration, your pulpits resounded with the harsh language of the savage leader haranguing his warriors, and throwing down the hatchet as a signal of destruction to the neighbour- ing tribes. Some of your women, divested of tenderness and pity, so peculiar to the fair and delicate sex, reviving in their
MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS. 153
persons the savage sternness of the Spartan matrons urging on their sons to battle, rejoiced in the open day on seeing their neighbours' houses in a blaze, and blessed God that they lived to see the day when Popish abominations were purified with fire. One should imagine, that such of you as petitioned the king and parliament against granting a free trade to Ireland, should rest satisfied, without petitioning against your inoffensive neighbours. If you glory in the purity of your religion, and in treading in the steps of its Author, treat us as Christ himself would treat us, if he were on earth. He deprived no man of his property, nor of the indulgence and protection of the laws. If you glory in the purity of the Christian religion, call to mind that it suggests humility, and deference to people of superior power and judgment. Your king, your peers, and your commons, pre deemed the first in dignity and wisdom; but I forgot that you are well versed in the bible, which says, fc he that is first 4 amongst you, let him be the last.' The Scrinture must be fulfilled : take then the lead, and force them to trample on their own laws, and to banish their subjects.
Mention no longer 4 violation of faith with heretics.' You violate all the laws of civil society; in dissolving the ties of friendship, and pointing out your fellow-subjects as the victims of legal severity, you split and rend the na- tion: you weaken 'Jw power, and trespass upon the re- spect due to your rulers, whom, instead of being the fathers of their people you would fain force to become the heads of factions.
You violate the sacred rights of nature ; her bountiful Author declares, that ' he makes his sun shine on the good ' and bad.' The light of the sun, the brilliancy of the stars, the sweetness of the fruit, the balsamic effluvia of flowers, are dispensed with a liberal hand to the Heathen and Idola- ter. Must you deprive your neighbours of gifts common to all Adam's children, because they stick to a religion which all your forefathers professed, and which, if wrong, can hurt no man but themselves?
In vain do you attempt to impose upon the public, with extracts and spurious canons, obsolete decrees, patches of councils, and legends of massacres, in order to fix a creed on
o 7
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us. The world knows that Roman Catholics sway the sceptre of authority in kingdoms and republics. The very nature then of civil society is a manifest contradiction to the creed you impute to us: for, if we were no more than machines veering at the breath of Popes and Priests, whom neither conscience, religion, the sacred ties of an oath, nor the fear of God's judgment, can restrain, patentees of guilt, and sure of impunity, we could not form a society for the space of one year : for, in such a society, the notions of vice and virtue would be confounded ; the blackest crimes and the purest virtue reduced to the same level; the descipline of morals destroyed ; the harmony of the body politic dissolved ; the brother armed against the brother; and if, by a kind of miracle, in such a cursed number of men, a second Abel could be found, the earth would soon groan with the cries of his blood. If divines have attempted to demonstrate the existence of God from the nature of civil society, the very nature of civil society demonstrates the falsehood of the creed with which you compliment us. And, if the gloomy plan of such a horrid republic pleases your imaginations, go and lay the foundations of it in some distant part of the earth. Be yourselves its members and governors, for no Christian could live there.
When the delicate pencils of the Gibbons, Reynolds, and Marmontels, will paint the political scenery of the eighteenth century — when on the extensive canvass, they will represent the gloom of long-reigning prejudice scattering, as the clouds of night, at the approach of the rising sun — when they will paint the poniard, drenched in human blood, snatched from the hand of stern persecution — the French praying in concert with the American — the Americans invited into Russia — the order of military merit established in favour of Protestants, in the palace of a Catholic King- — Ireland rising from the sea, covered with her Fabii and Scipios, pointing their spears to distant shores, and holding forth the olive and sheaf of corn to their neighbours of all denominations^ — when they will contrast the present to former times result of a change of system, and prove that the world is re- fined— You, painted in as frightful attitudes as the group of figures in Raphael's Judgment, with stern fanaticism in your
MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS. 1 5£
countenances, a bible in one hand and a fagot in the other — you, I say, will be an exception to the general rule : the world will read with surprise, that, in seventeen hundred and eighty, there have been fanatics in England and Scotland, that gave birth to so many illustrious writers. Your trans- actions shall be recorded in the appendix to the history of Jack Straw and Wat Tiler; and your chaplains and apologies shall be ranked with James Nailer and Hugh Peters.
And thus. Gentlemen, I finish my Apostrophe.
Should Mr. Wesley, or any of his associators, think it worth their while to make any remarks on these letters, they cannot justly expect a rejoinder. They have started forth the unprovoked aggressors ; and, not satisfied with at- tempting to deprive the Roman Catholics of their rights as subjects, they have slandered and aspersed their cha- racters. 1 am no stranger to the ground on which they will attack me : either the rusty weapons of old councils, or a catalogue of old massacres, will be drawn out of their mouldering arsenals: arms as ill suited to the eighteenth century, as Saul's helme'" was to David's head. 1 will be attacked with the Council of Lateran, the wars of the Al- bigenses, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, &c. I am a Christian, and deny the transmigration of souls : I am nowise concerned in past transactions, or if my religion be charged with them, I have in my hands the cruel arms of retaliation : —
I shall divide the charge into two branches — barbarous actions and barbarous doctrine. If Mr. Wesley reckons all those who are not, or have not been, in communion with the see of Rome, in the number of heretics, and himself amongst them, as doubtless he does, I shall then lay at his door, all the abominable and seditious doctrines taught by those whom he styles heretics, from the time of Simon the Magician, down to our days — the impurities of the Gnostics; the enchant- ments of the Ophite- ; the perjury and frauds of the Priscil- lianists ; the errors of the Albigenses, and millions besides. If, from these distant times, I make a transition to a nearer
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sera, I shall prove to him, from the works, not only of insig- nificant writers of the reformed religion, but of the very- founders of the reformation, who assumed as much power over their followers, as the Pope assumes over the Catholics, that they taught doctrines cruel, immoral, and seditious ; and that the most horrid barbarities were committed in conse- quence of those doctrines. Calvin not only commits heretics to die flames, but moreover writes a book in justification of his proceedings ; and in his commentaries on the Scriptures he teaches, that ' Usury is lawful.' Lusher, Mahncthon, and Bucer, have authorized polygamy, and permitted a prince to marry a second wife during the life of the first. The decrees of the Synod of Dort, caused great persecutions in Holland. Knox and his followers propagated the Gospel with fire and sword. I have already mentioned the doctrine of John Huss, and his master Wickliff, so inimical to sovereigns.
If I take a review of the greatest chai npions who, within these four hundred years, have undertaken the Herculean task of overthrowing the kingdom of Antichrist, 1 see them all claiming a mission from Heaven, as well as Mr. Wesley, and still overturning thrones and empires. I see Germany deluged with oceans of blood ; boors headed by fanatical preachers, promising the deluded multitude to receive the bullets in their sleeves, attacking their princes and sovereigns ; tailors paving their way to the throne over heaps of mangled carcasses, in order to re-establish the kingdom of Jerusalem ; apostles heading armies, and commanding, by the last will, their dearly beloved children reformed from the errors of Popery, to make a drum* of their skins, in order to rouse the saints to battle ; the streets of London ensanguined with the gore of peaceable citizens, destroyed by the fifth- monarchy men, proclaiming king Jesus ; communion tables stained with the blood of Protestant kings ; solemn leagues and covenants sealed for the extirpation of Papists and malignants,f and entered into with as much eagerness as Hannibal entered Italy, after swearing the destruction of the Romans, upon the Carthaginian altars ; the poniard lifted by the hand of religious madness, and committing such slaughter and carnage, that
* Zisca, a follower of John Huss.
f A name given to the Protestants of the e^tablishfd church.
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people propose the disagreeable and odious problem, 4 whe- ther religion has been of greater use than harm to man- 4 kind?'
Still I am inclined to exculpate religion from the blame of calamities which can be traced back to the rage of fanatical preachers, the cruelty of governors, the policy and craft of ministers of state, as to their genuine sources. 'Matters 4 were first embroiled in the cabinet,' says Rousseau, ' and 4 then the leading men stirred up the common people in the 4 name of God.'
In the midst of this religious rage, I see humanity assert- ing her right, and resuming her empire : I see Catholic go- vernors refusing to comply with the imperious mandates of a cruel king, and a no less cruel queen, at the time of the mas- sacreof St. Bartholomew, and Catholic bishops saving all the Protestants in their diocese : I see in Ireland, the great Protestant bishop Bedel with his clans, and thousands, in the free exercise of their religion, in the midst of a Catholic army, whilst a Protestant bishop bleeds at the foot of a com- munion-table in Scotland, for reading the English liturgy : — Thus, I am convinced that people of all denominations would be happy together, if their clergy recommended mutual love and benevolence; and that, if we divested ourselves of pas- sion, religion would never arm the hand with the poniard. If Innocent the Third excommunicated the heretics of his time. Innocent the Eleventh entered into a league with Protestant kings.
Thus, gentlemen, you see how the world changes. On the wide theatres spread by the revolutions of time, new cha- racters daily appear, and different circumstances are pro- ductive of different events. It is in vain to ransack old councils, imperial constitutions, and ecclesiastical canons, whether genuine or spurious, against heretics, in order to brand the present generation of Catholics. In the very city, I mean Rome, where the general council of Latcran was held, Protestants are caressed, and live with ease and comfort. Travellers agree, that it is the theatre of civility, benevolence and politeness. In the German empire, where, by the con- stitutions of Frederic the Second, heretics were condemned to the stake, all religions enjoy full liberty. In some places.
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the Catholic priest and Calvinist minister officiate in the same church, and bishoprics are alternately governed by Catholic and Protestant prelates. All law^, whether civil or ecclesiastical, are done away by time, when the motives that gave them rise subsist no longer. And none but a slave to bigotry and prejudice will confound the eighteenth with the thirteenth century. Because Father Roger Bacon was im- prisoned as a sorcerer, on account of his extensive knowledge in astronomy, perspective, &c. or that Gallileo's doctrine of the motion of the earth was condemned by a numerous tribe of divines, headed by seven Cardinals, under the eyes of the Roman Pontiff, must it be obtruded on the public, that the Roman Catholics must consider the motion of the earth round the sun, as heresy, or firmly believe that there is magic or witchcraft in the Camera obscura, because Father Bacon, who described it, was seven years confined in prison ? Hence from the opinions of men, or the actions of Popes, or the disciplinary canons of Councils, or the proceedings of Bishops who composed them, in one age, there is no argu- ing to the belief of men in another. Popes have attempted to absolve subjects from their allegiance to their sovereigns; it is no more an article of my belief that they could do it by the authority of the keys, than it is an article of my belief, that I can strike a king on the cheek, because Calvin teaches, that, 'earthly princes abdicate their authority when thej 'erect themselves against God,' and that, 'we ought rather 'spit in their faces, than obey them.'* Mr. Wesley and the Association would do well to analyze some of that doctor's writings, and Knox's sermons, and to insert them in their Appeal, as a contrast to the obsolete canons which they have extracted from Sir Richard Steel's Appendix : — Erect them- selves against God, is a phrase merely spiritual, and of a fatal tendency, because the broachers of such doctrines think it a sufficient plea against kings not inclined to receive truths, they themselves arc prompted to preach : and as every one thinks himself in the right, error has many chances for the sword of authority. But in my opinion, Peter's pence, not Peter's keys, have founded the claims of Popes, when they
* CaNin in Daniel, chap. 6. v. 22.
, MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS. 159
made the unsuccessful attempt. To the investiture of bi- shoprics in Germany, which brought on the great broils between Popes and Emperors, was annexed some temporal emolument, founded upon compacts between the two powers. The English monarchs made their kingdom tributary to the apostolical see. If, then, pontiffs have deviated from the pri- mitive paths in meddling in the temporals of kings, the reason is obvious. They had prescription to plead ; oaths and treaties to support their claims. In the conduct of kings, choosing them for arbiters of their quarrels, and liege lords of their territories, they found a specious pretext to punish the infraction of treaties, and the breach of prero- gative. A repetition of the same acts, introduced custom. Custom supported by time, obtains the force of a law. The law bound the parties concerned, and the violation of the law has been attended with penalties. Hence the deposi- tion of an emperor was more owing to the code and pan- dects of Justinian, than to the gospel of Christ. Hence Henry the Eighth, and Queen Elizabeth's pretended danger from the Popes who threatened them, and attempted in vain to absolve their subjects from their allegiance.
The Popes considered themselves as the liege lords of the kingdom of England, after receiving for so many years a tribute from its sovereigns: they never absolved the Catho- lics of Denmark and Sweden, from their allegiance to Pro- testant kings, because they could plead no stipulations. According to the canon law, a hundred years prescription can be pleaded against the Church of Rome. A hundred years and more have elapsed, since any Pope has attempted to absolve subjects from their allegiance ; though armies have been poured into his territories, and his cities taken by princes. Kings have nothing to dread from an abrogated power, abolished by the same cause that gave it rise. — But if empire be founded in grace, and not in the rights of na- ture, or the laws of civil society; if a deviation from the immutable truth that saw the world in its cradle, and is to preside at its dissolution, be a plea against kings; let them be eternally armed with the scales of the Leviathan, against the barbed irons to which they are exposed, from those who frhink themselves the only persons enlightened with the rays
Y
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of trospel knowledge. Nothing then is to be apprehended from Popes. Less is to be apprehended from spurious ca- nons, or the memory of councils which gave up the ghost six hundred years ago. And any inference from the pro- ceedings of the fathers of the council of Lateran, or obsolete texts of the canon law, against former heretics, to alarm the Protestants of our days, is the fruit of ignorance or malice, or both. The Protestants of our days sway the sceptre of authority. Kingdoms and republics, laws and constitutions, fcederal unions, and civil compacts, blessings in peace, and triumphs in war, the allegiance of their sub- jects, and protection the result of allegiance, record them in the annals of fame, and put them on the same level with the Caesars to whom tribute and submission are due. How are they connected with the motley rabble of heretics who appeared and disappeared in former times, overturning and attacking church and state, and attacked by both in their turn! No state acknowledged their power; no band of civil union linked them together; no subjects swore allegi- ance to them; no Catholic recognized a king, parliament, or magistrate amongst the Albigenses, whom people dignify with the title of Protestants; and whom Protestant powers would consider as the pest and bane of society, if such were now id their dominions. Disciples of the Manicheans, they admitted two supreme and independent principles; and granted two wives, called Colla and Colliba, to the God of Truth. Had their doctrine been confined to mere specula- tions, in an age more enlightened than the thirteenth century, when the council of Lateran was held, in all appearance, humanity would pity them, and philosophy would smile at their errors.
But this wild theory was still surpassed by the most monstrous practices. They considered marriage as a state of perdition ; but chastity was not one of their vows.
More could be said ; but I am afraid that my readers al- ready blush : and whoever dignifies the Albigenses with the title of Protestants, in order to inflame the rage, and kindle the rancour of fellow- subjects, by a recital of the ill treat- ment of those pretended martyrs, should not only blush, but hide himself.
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Let none imagine, that whatever is mentioned in the ses- sions of a general council, is an article of faith. There are decrees of discipline which are at the discretion of kingdoms or provinces either to reject or adopt. There are articles of faith which, in our opinion, neither time, place, or circum- stances can alter. Thus, the council of Trent, which com- mands the Roman Catholics, under pain of anathema, or curse, to believe the necessity of baptism, and the reality of original sin, is universally received in all Catholic countries, as far as it confines itself to the decision of speculative points, and proposes them as articles of belief: but, where the same council decrees, that the manor or land on which a duel is fought, with the connivance of the owner, should be confis- cated and applied to pious uses, it is rejected. Though the motive of the decree is laudable, as it tends to suppress vice and restrain the passions ; yet, as me means, such as the for- feiture of lands, &c. are quite out of the spiritual line, this decree of discipline is not received. By the same rule, two things are to be considered relative to the council of Late ran, often quoted, and as often misapplied. The fathers of that council have anathematized the errors of the Albigenses, so repugnant to reason, morality, and the principles of revealed religion, and every similar error extolling itself against the orthodox faith. So far they confined themselves within the limits of their spiritual provinces, and so far every Roman Catholic submits to their decrees. But when they proceeded further, and granted the lands of the persons whom they condemned as heretics, to the Catholics who would take pos- session of them ; no Roman Catholic is concerned in a ver- dict that disposes of temporal property : for neither popes nor councils have been appointed as the supreme and infal- lible arbiters of succession to thrones, the transfer of pro- perty, or temporal affairs, by Him who refused to compro- mise matters between two brothers, and declared, that his kingdom is not of this toorld. Nor is it to be presumed, that the ambassadors who assisted at the council, would betray the interests of their kings, who often excepted against the competency of spiritual tribunals, as to the decision of tem- poral rights. And as to the distinction between articles of faith, and canons of discipline, we find it even in the New Testament. —
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The same apostles, who preached the divinity of Christ, which we all believe, decreed in a council, that the Chris- tians should abstain from the use of blood, and the flesh of strangled animals.* We believe the doctrine they preached : we overlook the discipline they established, because the prohibition was temporary. The doctrine is permanent : opinions are fugitive : laws, discipline, and decrees vary with time We are but little concerned in the transactions of the twelfth or thirteenth century. We are a new world raised on the ruins of the former, and if hitherto we could not agree as Christians, it is high time to live together as men. There is land enough for us all ; and it is by far better to see towns and cities rearing their heads on the banks of our rivers, than to see our fertile country de- populated by intolerance.^ Let religion be left out of the case. Whigs and tories, Guelphes and Gibelinsf may re- peat the same creed, and be still divided. The French and Sicilians went to the same churches to sing their halle- lujahs upon an Easter Sunday, when, soon after, the groans of bleeding victims began to mingle with the harmonious sound of chiming bells. The Dutch and English were Protestants, when the former massacred the latter in the island of Amboyna. Had the sufferers been of a different persuasion from that of the aggressors, religion would ap- pear as the chief character in the two tragedies. If specula- tive errors be punishable, there is a day of reckoning ; and eternity is long enough for retribution. But during the short span of life, chequered with so many anxious cares, let us not resemble those savages who glory in dispeopling the earth, and carrying the mangled heads of their fellow-creatures on the tops of their reeking spears, as so many trophies of their barbarous victory. In vain do we give ourselves up to hatred and vengeance : we soon discover that such cruel pleasure was never adapted to the heart of man ; that in hating others we punish ourselves ; that humanity disclaims violence ; and that the law of God, in commanding us to love our neighbour, has consulted the most upright and reasonable dictates of the
* Acts, chap. 15. f Two formidable factions in the time of the disputes between the popes and emperors.
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human heart. The world is tired of religious disputes, and it is high time for you, Gentlemen, to be tired of me.
It is time to agree to a truce, and leave the field to such champions as are willing to engage in national and political contests, infinitely more useful to the public than the thread- spun arguments of polemical divinity, decrees of councils, or obsolete canons.
Should any of the champions of the eighty- five legions of Glasgow, or any of their allies and confederates sound the trumpet, I shall not prepare myself for battle. If I at- tempted to throw fanaticism into ridicule, they are welcome to discharge at me arrows reposited in the quivers of the Spanish Friar and the Duenna. Of what use is it to the public, if I have recourse to Chrysal, or, the Adventures of a Guinea, where our modern apostles are taken off in the conference between Momus and Mother Brimstone.
If the attack be serious, the weapons will be taken from the mouldering arsenals of old councils, pope's decrees, and ob- solete canons. There it will be a repetition of the same thing, for ever and for aye, to use the words of old Robin Hood. But should Mr. Wesley, W. A. D — mm — d, or any apostle belonging to the eighty-jive societies, intend to be of use to the public, I shall co-operate with their pious endeavours, with all the veins in my heart.
We have obtained of late the privilege of planting tobacco in Ireland, and our tobacconists want paper. Let Mr. Wesley then come with me, as the curate and barber went to shave and bless the library of Don Quixote. All the old books, old canons, sermons, and so forth, tending to kindle feuds, or promote rancour, let us fling them out at the win- dows. Society will lose nothing ; the tobacconist will benefit by the spoils of antiquity. And if, upon mature deliberation, we decree that Mr. Wesley's Journal, and his apology for the Association's Appeal, should share the same fate with the old buckrams, we will procure them a gentle fall. After having rocked ourselves in the large and hospitable cradle of the Free-press, where the peer and the commoner, the priest and the alderman, the friar and swaddier, can stretch themselves at full length, provided they be not too churlish, let us laugh at those who breed useless quarrels, and set
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to the world the bright example of toleration and benevo- lence.
A peaceable life and happy death to all Adam's children ! May the ministers of religion of every denomination, whether they pray at the head of their congregations in embroidered vestments, or black gowns, short coats, grey locks, pow- dered wigs, or black curls, instead of inflaming the rabble, and inspiring their hearers with hatred and animosity, or their fellow creatures, recommend love, peace, and harmony !
I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen, your most affectionate, x\nd humble servant,
ARTHUR O'LEARY.
REJOINDER TO
MR. WESLEY'S REPLY.
THE following extract from Locke's letter on Toleration, together with Mr. Wesley's reply, has been sent to the author, with a request to auswer it, if in his powbb, says the writer of the letter. Mr. Locke in a profound manner opens the gate of toleration to all mortals, who do not entertain any principals injurious to the rights of civil society : but my correspondent is surprised that such an impartial writer should make an oblique charge on the Roman Catholics, if it were not grounded oa truth:—
4 We cannot find any sect that teaches expressly and
* that princes may be dethroned by those that differ from
* them in religion, or that the dominion of all things belongs
* only to themselves — but nevertheless we find those, that say « the same thing in other words. What else do they mean 4 who teach, that faith is not to be kept with heretics ? —
* What can be the meaning of their asserting that kings, 4 excommunicated, forfeit their crowns and kingdoms ? — 4 That dominion is founded in grace, is an assertion by which 'those that maintain it, do plainly lay a claim to the pos- « session of all things. 1 say, these have no right to be tole-
* rated by the magistrate.'
Again : ' That church can have no right to be tolerated 4 by the magistrate, which is constituted upon such a bottom, 4 that all those who enter into it, do hereby, ipso facto, deli- 4 ver themselves up to the protection and service of another 4 prince ; for by this means the magistrate would give way 4 to the setting up of a foreign jurisdiction in his own coun- 4 try, and suffer his own people to be enlisted, as it were, 4 for soldiers against his own government. Nor does the
* frivolous and fallacious distinction between the court 4 and the church, afford any remedy to this inconvenience ;
* especially when both the one and the other, are equally 4 subject to the absolute authority of the same person; 4 who has not only power to persuade the members of his
* Church to whatever he lists, either as purely religious, or
* as in order thereunto, but also can enjoin them, on pain 4 of eternal fire.
4 It is ridiculous for any one to profess himself to be a 4 Mahometan only in his religion ; but in every thing else a
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* faithful subject to a Christian magistrate, whilst at the 4 sarac time, he acknowledges himself bound to yield blind
* obedience to the Mufti of Constantinople; who himself is 'entirely obedient to the Ottoman Emperor, and frames the 1 feigned oracles of that religion according to his pleasure. ' But this Mahometan, living amongst Christians, would yet 4 more apparently renounce their government, if he ac- knowledged the same person to be the head of his church, 4 who is the supreme magistrate in the state.'
Locke on Toleration, p 5i!.
— assies*—
MR. O'LEARY'S ANSWER.
Mr. Locke's supposed principle are fully answered in 4 Loyalty Asserted.' With every respect due to so great a man, he was as ignorant of the Catholics' creed, as any of the London rioters. ' That the dominion of all things be- 4 longs to the saints,' was the doctrine of Wickliff, Huss, and the English regicides in the time of Charles the First : a doc- trine condemned by the Council of Constance, in the thirtieth proposition, extracted from Huss's writings.
Mr. Locke, in shutting the gates of toleration against the professors of such a doctrine, fully justifies the Emperor Sigismund in putting Huss to death : as that unhappy man not only preached, but practised it. In matters more within the verge of his knowledge, I widely differ from Mr. Locke. When he denies any innate ideas, or the least notion of a God implanted in our souls, independent of the senses, I prefer the Cartesian philosophers, Messieurs de Portroyal, the bishop of Rochester, and several others who were of a different opinion. But, when he supposes that ' the same 4 person who is head of the church, is the supreme magistrate 4 in the state ; that the people can frame the feigned oracles 4 of the Catholic religion, as the Mufti can frame them for the 4 Turks, by the direction of the Ottoman Emperor; that he 4 can persuade the members of his church to whatever he lists, 4 and enjoin it them, on pain of eternal fire,' &c. my honest good English philosopher was either snoring, or as ignorant of the Catholic creed, as the old woman that used to bring
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him his toast and ale, when he was writing on government, against Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha.
The universities of Paris, Valentia, Toulouse, Poictiers, Bourdeaux, Bourges, Rheims, Caen, &c. that is to say, the oracles of the doctrine taught in their respective coun- tries, knew their creed better than an English philosopher could teach them. They have stigmatized those assertions obtruded on the public by Mr. Locke ; and, in the con- demnation of Santorellus, who asserted that the Pope could depose kings guilty of heresy, qualify his doctrine as * new, ' false, erroneous, contrary to the word of God, calculated 'to bring an odium on the see of Rome, to impair the 1 supreme civil authority that depends on God alone, and ' to disturb the public tranquility.'
Such is the doctrine of Catholics ; and had Mr. Locke read history, or been candid enough to acknowledge it, he would have found the practice of the Catholics, in all ages, conformable to the decision.
' The Pope can persuade the members of his church to 1 what he lists, and enjoin it them, on pain of eternal 'fire.' — Doubtless ! he can persuade me to kill my wothtr, and enjoin it me, on pain of fire. He can persuade me that I eat my victuals with the big toe of my left foot ; or that John Locke's mother was a virgin, when she was delivered of the author of the * Essay on Human Un- derstanding.'
Still the Pope could not persuade the English Catholics to give their benefices to Italian incumbents, in the time of Richard the Second, nor dissuade a Catholic parliament from introducing the premunire, against provisions obtained at the court of Rome ; an evident proof that they knew the distinction between the church and the court. Pope Boniface