in motion, including the Inquisition, and truly we are like to curse our stupidity in allowing the practice of Auricular Confession to gain such ground; for when Judges, Mayors, and Officers of State are Roman Catholics or Ritualists, one trembles to think of the sacerdotal wirepullers behind, and how, unknown to ourselves, we are day by day drifting back into the old religious slavery and despotism from whence the Reformation brought us at the cost of no little blood and death.

Turn we again to that Edict of the Holy Inquisition at Gubbio :

"Reminding all Confessors that with all diligence they search and investigate from their Penitents, if they know any of the above named things, warning them that not denouncing them to us they cannot be absolved as impenitent, and assuring them on our part that informing as above will undoubtedly be kept most secret by us, etc., etc."-The Inquisition, p. 33. Published by JOHN KENSIT.

Me

Here comes, by the bye, another inconsistency. thought the Confessional was inviolate; but the confessor is to get the penitents' secrets, and sub rosa, if the penitent does not denounce the heretic, the priest will. Stay yet a moment, while with horror you read how the Confessional is used, both politically and privately.

Speaking of Jesuit priests, E. DULLER, the historian, says:

"And they were further enjoined in all cases of doubt or difficulty, in which a sovereign sought their council, to refer the matter to their superior, and obtain his decision, before giving their own reply; in reference to which it must be mentioned as an essential part of the system, that the confessions of Sovereign Princes were at all times communicated to the General of the Order. This was doubtless a most criminal breach of the Confessional secrecy; but the crime was, as usual, excused on the ground of the good end for which it was committed— the advantage of the Order.-THUS THE JESUIT-GENERAL, THOUGH RESIDING AT ROME, WAS COGNISANT OF THE MOST SECRET THOUGHTS AND DESIGNS OF EVERY CATHOLIC PRINCE THROUGHOUT EUROPE, AND COULD BY THEIR CONFESSORS, WHO WERE HIS CREATURES, TURN AND GUIDE THEM AS SO MANY PUPPETS, ACCORDING TO HIS GOOD PLEASURE, AND THROUGH THEM THE NATIONS LIKEWISE."-The Jesuits, by Edward Duller; The Inquisition, p. 100. Published by JOHN KENSIT.

Says the Rev. L. Morrisy, a Roman Catholic Parish Priest and Chaplain to H.M. Prisons in Dublin :—

"I have been myself present in company at different times, where I witnessed priests revealing heinous sins sacramentally confessed to them. Priests vie at times amongst themselves to know which of them could relate and inform each other of the greatest and most odious sins communicated to them in the sacred confidential tribunal. This sacrament is now considered by many priests and bishops as the PILLAR OF THE HOLY INQUISITION, THE SOURCE OF GENUINE INFORMATION FOR SANGUINARY PURPOSES, the security of absolute and universal influence and the extermination of heretical depravity." Ibid., p. 101.

When the Roman Inquisition was broken into in 1849, evidence of the use of the Confessional was found. For says a paper of that date :

"The result of examination showed that the Papal Government made use of the Tribunal of the INQUISITION, strictly ecclesiastical in its institution, for temporal purposes, and THE MOST CULPABLE ABUSE WAS MADE OF CONFESSION, ESPECIALLY THAT OF WOMEN,

RENDERING IT SUBSERVIENT BOTH TO POLITICAL PURPOSES AND TO THE MOST ABOMINABLE LICENTIOUSNESS. It can be shown from documents that the Cardinals, Secretaries of State, wrote to the commissary, to the assessor of the Holy Office to procure information as to the conduct of suspected individuals both at home and abroad, and TO OBTAIN KNOWLEDGE OF STATE SECRETS BY MEANS OF CONFESSION, ESPECIALLY THOSE OF FOREIGN COURTS."-Le Semeur, 20 Juin, 1849; Ibid., p. 102.

An official report states :—

"I.

That the Court of Rome availed itself of the Tribunal of the Holy Office, for temporal and political ends.

662.

THAT TO SUCCEED IN ITS PURPOSES, THE HOLY OFFICE HAD ESPECIALLY RECOURSE TO CONFESSION, OF WHICH IT MADE THE MOST ENORMOUS AND ABOMINABLE ABUSE, NOT ONLY VIOLATING ITS SECRECY, BUT TAMPERING WITH ITS INTEGRITY.

"3. THAT BY MEANS OF CONFESSION, THE MOST ODIOUS LICENTIOUSNESS WAS INSINUATED IN THE CONFESSIONALS.

66 4.

That the Holy Office corrupted all classes, buying information

and secrets.

"5, and Lastly. That the ecclesiastical nuncios at Foreign Courts are în constant correspondence with the Holy Office, and from possessing means of procuring intelligence quite peculiar to themselves, keep the Court of Rome informed of the most hidden political secrets. Quoted in CUMMING, On the Seven Churches, p. 342, ed. 1851; Ibid., p. 103.

Is not this enough? "The hand that rocks the cradle is indeed "the hand that rules the world"; but unknown

to the female herself, relying on and believing the secrecy of the Confessional!

And a fig for its secrecy! What? shall we believe the imitator when the originator derides his own machinery? How reads the following, and does it not show the real object of the Confessional, its other being well developed in No. 3 just quoted?

"It is worthy of remark that in almost every instance the secrets revealed in the letters related to political and State affairs, no matter in what country. Many of the letters were written by Irish and English prelates, and from the whole of these letters it was clearly evident that the CONFESSIONAL IS NOTHING BUT an engine of police."-This by Nicolini, officer of the general staff of the Roman army.—Ibid., p.

104.

There is still one more point to be touched on before this work is concluded, i.e. :

"In England the Jesuits, at an early period, despairing of being able by direct means to seduce the Protestants back to Popery, their next grand expedient was to weaken Protestantism by creating divisions and discords, schisms and heresies amongst its adherents. IN ORDER

66

THE MORE EFFECTUALLY TO ACCOMPLISH THIS END THEY RESOLVED TO TAKE NECESSARY OATHS AND TO FEIGN THEMSELVES TO BE MEMBERS AND MINISTERS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND-such hypocritical conformity being declared to be not a sin but meritorious-the_parties taking the oath with the intention to promote or advance the Romish faith. Accordingly, in the guise of ANGLICAN PRIESTS, these Jesuits, instead of drawing their deluded followers off to Popery, pretended the most unbounded zeal against it, inveighing most bitterly against the Pope and the Latin mass, and comparing the English Liturgy to it."—The Jesuits, A. DUFF, p. 70. Therefore, to the utmost of my power, I shall and will defend this doctrine, and his Holiness's rights and customs, especially against the now pretended authority and Church of England and all adherents. I do renounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince, or State named Protestant, or obedience to any of their inferior magistrates or officers. I do further declare the doctrine of the Church of England and of others of the name of Protestants to be damnable, and they themselves are damned, and to be damned, that will not forsake the same. I do further declare that I will help, assist, advise, all, or any of his Holiness's agents in any place wherever I shall be in England, Scotland, and Ireland and do my utmost to extirand to destroy all their I do further promise and

pate the heretical Protestants' doctrine, pretending powers, regal or otherwise.

declare, that notwithstanding I AM DISPENSED WITH TO ASSUME ANY RELIGION HERETICAL FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE MOTHER CHURCH'S INTEREST to keep secret and private

all her agents' counsel, from time to time, as they entrust me, and not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing, or circumstance whatsoever; but to execute all that shall be proposed, given in charge, or discovered unto me, by you, my ghostly father, or by any of his sacred convent. All which I do swear by the Blessed Trinity," etc., etc.-Jesuits' Oath, HOGAN'S Auricular Confession, pp. 94-95.

And to confirm this, the late Lord Beaconsfield, in a letter dated 9th April, 1868, wrote:

"When I spoke, I referred to an extreme faction in the Church, of very modern date, that does not conceal its ambition to destroy the connection between Church and State, and which I have reason to believe has been for some time in SECRET COMBINATION, and is now in open confederacy with the Irish Romanists for the purpose.

And further on says:

"As I hold that the dissolution of the union between Church and State will cause permanently a greater revolution in this country than foreign conquest, I shall use my utmost energies to defeat these fatal machinations."-Annals of our Times, p. 673.

This, then, gives the writer authority for terming the Ritualists the "Half-way House, or the new Jesuit Hostelrie"; and, in conclusion, I implore the reader to calmly study the important fact that in no single instance are the Ritualist teachings wholly dissimilar to the Romanist, and, be it remembered, that it was not lack of material that prevented further most important quotations being given, but space forbade.

Mark that not only are these crosses and candles and so on contrary to the Bible, but contrary to the recognised mutual authorities, the Fathers of the Church. Note the growing tendency of the Ritualist to develop into a Romanist, and the latter, seeing this, to arrogate more and more power. See the increase of Churches and Sisterhoods of both classes where the perverted teaching is being disseminated. Mark the horrible effects on our young children; bear in mind how lately the Roman Catholics have been grumbling at having Government inspectors in their schools, and want their own.

Forget not that we have now two Cardinals in the United Kingdom, one of whom and his brother are avowedly Jesuits, and now another is mooted for Scotland.

Look on the Confessional and its use and consequences; read history; read and study works far more skilled than this. Public libraries are absolutely necessary to give the public works that will show facts in spite of Sacerdotalism and popery. Bear in mind the increasing holy jails, the convents, both secluded and open, and labour urgently and earnestly that they may be open to the inspection of all, and that no crimes may be carried on in secret.

And now, while we protect our families from that reptile, the Priest, and from his Confessional, while, to have peace in the country, we must appear intolerant and rid ourselves of the Jesuit, only because he would subvert our Government and homes, let us remember to shew a just mercy, "For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke ix. 51-56); and that it is our duty to educate our children with a deep abhorrence of popery and its ways, not of the persons but the system; to use our own, and to teach them to use their best endeavours to induce all to shun it as leprous, but to pity and pray for all who are under its sway. So in all things remember: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, EVEN AS GOD FOR CHRIST'S SAKE HATH FORGIVEN YOU" (Eph. iv. 31-32); and as our fathers suffered and prayed in the Reformation for the true faith, pure and undefiled, we too will unite—Baptists, Methodists, Wesleyans, Churchmen, or of whatever denomination they may be—and laying our hand on our one and only rock, the Holy Bible, we will sing the hymn that is so often perverted by the Ritualists :