If, therefore, we would know whether we should rejoice in the arrival on our own shores, and in the establishment in our own Empire, of these strangers; or whether we should not rather dread and deprecate their introduction, as characters against whom the wholesome statutes and proclamations of our ancestors are yet running; we must refer to history alone for a solution of our doubts. MR. DALLAS, however, virtually denies that the appeal lies to history, in choosing to reject its testimony, and to falsify its assertions: the fact is, that its general voice proclaims too loudly another language than he would have it express; and therefore he would stifle and silence it. Thus, what were facts in other times, are facts no longer-the parties relating them were prejudiced, or interested; they were "Jansenists," or "Parliamentarians," or "Enemies of the Jesuits:" those who believed them were credulous, easily imposed upon, and afford no example for our imitation.—If indeed MR. DALLAS can succeed in this object, his end is accomplished.-If he can persuade the British Public to unlearn all that they have ever been taught; to forget all that they have ever read; and to discredit all that they have ever believed; the question between the Jesuits and their opponents is at an end: we may then burn our books, as so much waste paper; and resolve to be wise in defiance and contempt of those means of information by which our humbler ancestors were content to be guided*.

It is, however, worthy of observation, that by a striking inconsistency, not unusual, either with the Jesuits or their de fenders, MR. Dallas will, on all those occasions where he conceives that History may help him, condescend to be indebted

* There were in the Library of the British Museum between two and three hundred printed works on the subject of the Jesuits (to say nothing of MSS.) when the present Catalogue was published; to which Collection, considerable additions have been lately furnished, by a large purchase of Books recently made at Munich under the directions of the present enlightened and indefatigable Trustees and Directors of that valuable Institution.

to her.—If, therefore, he should succeed in discrediting and overturning all the testimony which has been adduced against the Jesuits; upon what better foundation will his own authorities in their favor rest? He has not failed to adduce whatever his industry could collect, in their behalf, from the records of past ages, which he appears to expect that his readers should receive with the most implicit confidence; although some of these testimonies are actually eulogiums of the Jesuits upon themselves (such, for instance, as Charlevoix, D'Avrigny *, and Garnier), and almost all are the testimonies of CATHOLICS. Does he expect that a British public will permit him thus to blow hot and cold with History? Does he think that they will believe History in the few and equivocal instances in which it answers his purpose that they should; but that they will disbelieve it, in the infinite variety of cases where it opposes his opinion?

It is time, however, to revert to THE DEFENCE OF THE JESUITS, BY MR. DALLAS; which it is therefore now proposed to examine in order.

*He was the Apologist of the cruelties in the Palatinate.

REPLY

ΤΟ

MR. DALLAS'S DEFENCE OF THE ORDER

OF JESUITS.

MR. DALLAS commences his Defence of the Jesuits by complaining that the Catholics are "attacked through the "sides of the Jesuits." (P. 6.) It is indeed almost impossible to separate them, since they hold many tenets in common, which are dangerous to Protestantism, and the world. In their MORAL CASUISTRY, for instance, as CLAUDE has most ably shewn, in his work on the Reformation, it is impossible to condemn the Jesuits, and at the same time to acquit the Catholics*.

"ONE CANNOT CONDEMN THE JESUITS WITHOUT CONDEMN"ING AT THE SAME TIME THE WHOLE ANCIENT SCHOOL OF THE "ROMAN CHURCH. For example, the one sort accuses the Jesuits of "teaching, that it is lawful for one man to rejoice within himself at · ❝ the death of another, and to desire it, not only when it is an evil to "him who suffers it, but also when it is advantageous to him who "desires it. But Guimenæus shews us that that is exactly the doctrine " of Thomas Aquinas, of Cajetan, and divers others, who all maintain "the same. The one accuses the Jesuits for teaching, that it is but a "venial sin to be disobedient to divine inspirations: but Guimenæus "shews us that it is also the doctrine of Aquinas and Cajetan. They 66 accuse the Jesuits of teaching, that it is lawful to advise, and at the 66 same time to draw in a man to commit a lesser sin, to avoid a greater 66 evil; as to persuade a lascivious man to mere fornication, that he ་ may avoid committing adultery. But Guimenæus proves this to be "the doctrine of Cajetan, Scotus, and Sylvester Prierias. They accuse

Again; the Catholics and Jesuits are united in sentiment on the expediency of PERMITTING THE COMMANDS AND RE

QUISITIONS OF THE DIVINE LAW TO BE EVADED UPON THE

warrant of merE HUMAN AUTHORITY; and they thus equally justify a course of life which is entirely at variance with that internal piety which constitutes the very essence of vital Christianity. Their pliant morality accommodates itself to human lusts and passions, with the same facility as that of the Jesuits. What else are the Absolutions, and the Indulgences, the Penances, and Fasts of that Church, and especially its doctrine of Purgatory, but Papal and Sacerdotal Licenses for Sin? If a mere man, or any set of men, may, under color of a commission from Heaven, absolve from punishment for vices that are past, or sanction the perpetration of vices to be committed-if mortification of the body may atone for the sin of the soul; and abstinence from particular food may take rank

"the Jesuits of maintaining, that a man may not only not remove an "occasion or ground of sin from another, who they know will abuse "it to that end, but that they may, at the same time, present it to him, "and by that means lay a snare for him, to make him fall into sin, "provided they do it with a good intention, either to correct his "viciousness, or to make him shun some other inconvenience; so that "a husband, who is jealous of his wife's committing adultery, may ❝ present her with an opportunity or occasion to commit it; and a fa"ther may lay an occasion in his children's way to steal from him. But "Guimenæus lets us see that this is the very opinion of Aquinas, Sebtus, "Navarre, and of Cajetan: I omit an abundance of other beastly cases, ❝which no one can propose without wounding his modesty. They "will say to this, it may be, that the Sorbonne has censured that book. "of Guimenæus: but this answer signifies nothing, for we are not concerned to know what the Sorbonne holds in these days, nor what it approves or condemns; but to know whether those authors that “Guimenæus has alleged are well or ill quoted; whether it were not "true that those scandalous and pernicious maxims were taught in the "school in the days of our fathers, and whether our fathers ought "not to have looked on them as evident and certain proofs of a great "corruption.” CLAUDE's Defence of the Reformation, vol, i. part i. ch: 3:

among the essential duties of religion-if men are to be taught that, however they may live, they may yet be redeemed, after death, by the prayers of others, from a state of being, respecting the existence of which, the Holy Scriptures afford no evidence; what can be expected to result from such radical errors, but a system of relaxed morality, or rather of actual immorality, which is the same in kind, if not in degree, with the low and debased ethics of the Jesuits?

"That Religion is chiefly designed for perfecting the nature of "man, for improving his faculties, governing his actions, and securing "the peace of every man's conscience, and of the societies of mankind ❝in common, is a truth so plain, that, without further arguing about ❝ it, all will agree to it. Every part of Religion is then to be judged "by its relation to the main ends of it; and since the Christian doc

trine was revealed from Heaven, as the most perfect and proper way "that ever was, for the advancing the good of mankind, nothing can "be a part of this Holy Faith but what is proportioned to the end før "which it was designed; and all the additions that have been made to

it since it was first delivered to the world, are justly to be suspected; "especially where it is manifest at first view, that they were intended "to serve carnal and secular ends. What can be reasonably supposed " in the Papacy (where the Popes are chosen by such intrigues, either " of the two Crowns, the nephews of the former Pope, or the craft of "some aspiring men), to entitle them to Infallibility, or universal Ju"risdiction? What can we think of redeeming souls out of Purgatory, " or preserving them from it, by tricks, or some mean pageantry, but "that it is a foul piece of merchandise? What is to be said of implicit "obedience, the priestly dominion over consciences, the keeping the "Scriptures out of the people's hands, and the worship of God in a "strange tongue, but that these are so many arts to hoodwink the “world, and to deliver it up into the hands of the ambitious Clergy? "What can we think of Superstition and Idolatry of Images, and all "the other pomp of the Roman worship, but that by these things the "people were to be kept up in a gross notion of Religion, as a splen"did business, and that the Priests have a trick of saving them, if they "will but take care to humour them, and leave that matter wholly "in their hands? And, to sum up all, what can we think of that con"stellation of prodigies in the Sacrament of the altar, but that it is an "art to bring the world by wholesale to renounce their reason and "sense, and to have a most wonderful yeneration for a sort of men,