and at least in an equal degree, transgress the Commandment of God by their Tradition. My space does not admit of proofs in detail. Were it my object to unveil that Mystery of Iniquity, the Ethics of Rome, it would be easy to fill volumes; and to substantiate the charge of recommending crimes, and palliating sins, even such as cannot be named among Christians, by reference to admired Doctors of their Communion, who seem to have vied with one another in showing, from what they deem competent authority, to what a depth of wickedness a man may deliberately descend, without risking his salvation. Decency forbids a full exposure of these abominations, and few would choose to pollute their minds by a perusal of any of the bulky works prepared for the guidance of priests, who are condemned to meditate on such topics by the practice of auricular confession, that awful prolific source of corruption, both to penitent and confessor. My own knowledge is wholly obtained from the "Provinciales" of the Jansenist Pascal, that masterpiece of wit and literature of a

g As Romanism, in too many instances, renders the word of God of none effect by Tradition, so the Jesuits have gone much farther; and in order to recommend themselves as Confessors, have annihilated Morality by their specious doctrine of Probability, so fully exposed by Pascal. I must refer to his Letters for the proof of this fact, which, except he had quoted the very words of their Casu ists, could not fail to appear to be a calumny, citing only the indignant language in which he closes his conversation with the Jesuit, and briefly stating, what most of my readers are I suppose ignorant of, the meaning of Probability. "Was it not enough to have allowed to men so many forbidden things, by the palliations which you have introduced, must you also give them opportunity to commit the very crimes which you have not been able to excuse, by facility and assurance of absolution, in destroying for this purpose the power of priests, and obliging them to absolve rather as slaves, than judges, even the most inveterate sinners without any change of life, without any sign of regret, except promises broken a hundred times, without penance, if they will not accept it, and without quitting situations in which they are exposed to the danger of sinning, if they should find it inconvenient. But you proceed still further, and the liberty you have taken of shaking the most sacred rules of Christian conduct, extends even to the overthrow of the law of God. You attack piety in the heart, you take from it the spirit that gives it life; you say that the love of God is not necessary to salvation, you even assert that dispensation from this love is

pious genius, alike unequalled in science and eloquence, who has consigned to infamy the morality of the Jesuits, as long as the language of France shall be understood. It is urged in favour of the Order, not that these treatises on Morals have not been faithfully cited, but that it is not responsible for the opinions of individual members. The remark, though plausible, will have little weight with those who know how this Society, which was founded to withstand the Reformation, in addition to the Monastic triple vow, is pledged to implicit obedience to the Pope; and that from other sources the very name of Jesuit conveys to the honest Romanist as much as to a Protestant, the idea of a dissembler, who can make vice pass for virtue, and maintains that a good end justifies assassination, or any other flagitious means. We learn from the

the benefit which Jesus Christ has brought into the world! Before the Incarnation, one was obliged to love God; but since God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, the world redeemed by Him is discharged from this obligation. Strange theology of our days! You remove the anathema which St. Paul (1 Cor. xvi. 22.) pronounced upon all who love not the Lord Jesus Christ." Letter x. "Probability is the foundation and a, b, c, of our morality. An opinion is probable which is formed upon reasons of weight, and even a single Doctor can sometimes render an opinion probable, for a person devoted to one study would not have embraced an opinion unless drawn to it by a good and sufficient reason. There are few questions on which you will not find that one Doctor speaks in the affirmative, another in the negative. The enquirer consequently chooses the opinion that is most agreeable to himself, and the Confessor, though the opinion may not appear to him or even to the penitent probable, is bound, under the penalty of committing a mortal sin, to absolve him." Letter v.

Both Henry III. of France, and his successor Henry IV. fell by the daggers of two fanatics, who had been educated by the Jesuits, and gloried in the act as pleasing to God. Sixteen years after, Sanctarellus, one of the Order, published at Rome 1626, with the approbation of the General, his Tractatus de Hæresi, in which he maintains, that the Pope, because he hath supreme power, may depose Sovereigns for any crime, and even for insufficiency, sed etiam propter sufficientiam, and after admonition punish them by death. After the murder of Henry IV. the Doctors of the Sorbonne stated to the Parliament of Paris, that the works of Jesuits were circulated full of the doctrine, that those whom they called tyrants, may be lawfully killed. The ablest of these is the Tract De Rege, of Mariana, the celebrated Historian of Spain, who derives the power of Kings from the People. He discusses at length the question, whether it be lawful to put to death a tyrant. He writes, "Henry III. lies slain by the hand of a monk

Canonists that Popes are above and beyond the law; and certainly they have the power of condemning works of an immoral as well as of an heretical character. But so far have they been from taking upon themselves this office, that they have sanctioned the violation of duty both in private and public life. Plenary absolution and the sale of dispensations not only from oaths and vows, but even for the commission of crimes, facts too notorious to be denied, originate in doctrines which no ingenuity could have wrested out of the written word. The punishment of presumed heresy by death, whether by open violence as inflicted on the Albigenses under the direction of St. Dominic, or as reduced to system by the Inquisition, is a dogma which has never been retracted; and Gregory XIII. may be said to have gloried in his shame, when he caused the massacre of St. Bartholomew to be commemorated in painting on the walls of the Vatican', and struck a medal in honour of that slaughter of the Huguenots. Their Bulls anathematising and deposing Sove

nobile monumentum, insignem, animi confidentiam, facinus memorabile,"by which Princes may be taught, that impious darings do not occur with impunity, for he was preparing to leave his kingdom to Henry, who had been infected with bad opinions on religion from his tender years, and therefore devoted to Hell by the Roman Pontiff, and deprived of the right of succession. A synopsis of the Book may be seen in Sharon Turner's History of Elizabeth, chapter xxxi. the result of which is, that any man may kill a tyrant. But who we may ask of acknowledged Sovereigns comes under that description? The Council of Constance, he admits, censures the doctrine, that a tyrant may be slain by treachery as well as by violence; but as this sentence was not approved by Eugenius IV. and his successors, he pays no respect to it. He allows however that it is braver to rush openly upon a tyrant, but the prudent will make use of fraud and ambush.

They were painted by Vasari, the author of the Lives of the Painters; but though time has faded them more than the Frescos of Raffaelle, about half a century earlier, they are still discernible on the walls of the Sala Regia, the scene of the magnificent banquets of Leo X. But since with the Reformation luxury and pleasure disappeared from the Papal court, it has only since been used for procession from the Sistine to the Paoline Chapels, at the two extremities.

The authenticity of this medal, marked with the legend Hugonottorum Strages, which are occasionally seen, has been denied by liberal Roman

reigns, from the Emperor Henry IV. to our Queen Elizabeth, and Henry IV. King of France, A. D. 1076-1585, must be known to every reader of History; and Bellarmine informs us, that such may be murdered by their subjects or whatsoever others without guilt. Pius V. in excommunicating Elizabeth, and all who adhered to her, expressly absolves her subjects from their allegiance; and the preamble of his Bull, in which he claims the right of plucking up and of pulling down, as well as of planting and of building, affords a singular contrast to the reproof of Him whose Representative he assumes to be; The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Some tell us, that the Popes of a more liberal age, though they cannot in consequence of their claim to infallibility annul the decrees of their predecessors, yet silently reject them; but as if to show how little foundation there is for this charitable conclusion, and that Rome is ever the same, after an interval of nearly a century and a half, when indignation against the Reformation might be supposed to have subsided, it pleased Clement XI. to select out of the long catalogue this Pope for an object of worship, and to place the faithful under the protection of this new saint, whom God, we are told in the Collect for his day, has vouchsafed to choose, both to restore divine service, and to crush the enemies of the Church'.

Catholics, who were imperfectly acquainted with the history and claims of their Pontiffs, but an engraving of it may be seen in the Numismata Pontificum Romanorum, by the Jesuit Bonanni, Romæ 1699, tom. ii. p. 336. and so far is he from wishing to soften down this massacre, which he himself calls lanienam horribilem, that he informs us that the Pope wrote to Charles IX. characterised by this author as a boy of generous disposition, that he should proceed with resolution, and not by mixing milder measures, ruin a cause so prosperously begun with sharp remedies. He adds, that in order to show that the slaughter was not perpetrated without God's aid and the Divine counsel, Gregory struck on the reverse an Angel, who rushes armed with a sword and a cross, on the rebels. 1 Ad conterendos Ecclesiæ tuæ hostes is correctly rendered crush in the translation of this Collect, in the Ordinary of the Mass, published by Coghlan, London

Such observations as these, which might have been greatly extended, show the consequences, both under the Jewish and Christian Dispensations, of any departure from the written word which God has provided for the guidance of individuals and communities, and ought to excite our gratitude for His Providential care, which has raised up for us such a bulwark of divine truth, against errors of faith and practice in a reformed Church, which so decidedly maintains the supremacy of Scripture.

Jesus then called the people to Him, and said, Hearken unto Me every one of you, and understand; and told them in plain terms, that a man was defiled not by what entered into the mouth, but by what came out of it, that is, by evil thoughts, which produce wicked actions. Peter afterwards, in private, asked Him the meaning of this saying, and He told him that he spake of words which betray the thoughts and desires that prevail within. We are surprised at his dulness, but we forget, that the explanation, which has been familiar to us from childhood, was then new; and that the Jews, who rested satisfied in the performance of outward ablutions, had no conception that they were appointed only to remind them of the importance of inward purity.

67. Jesus retires to the extremity of the Holy Land, where He rewards the faith of a Woman of Canaan, who would take no denial, by curing her daughter. Matt. xv. 21-28. Mark vii. 21-30.

After this offence publicly given to the Pharisees, Jesus retired to the most remote northern extremity of the land, on

1799; but softened down (as has been already observed of "impera” in a hymn addressed to the Virgin) to depress in the Roman Missal, for the use of the Laity. Keating, London 1815.