Journal, and in that paper of the Iness of superstition, priestcraft, and 4th instant, I find the defender of vice." protestantism making the following: curious declaration:

"With respect, sir, to the concessions which have been already made, I rejoice in them as much as Veritas; but he must not suppose from them that more can, or will, or ought to be conceded, nor argue from past indulgence to future folly. Let the Roman catholic enjoy as he does, his own form of worship-believe in all that his church requires, and practise [short of treason and sedition] all that she commands. Let catholics build more chapels, and colleges, and set up and endow more monasteries and nunneries among us; let them even continue to publish every month such works as the Orthodox Journal, which periodically reviles the parliament, the church, and the nation, that support, tolerate, and protect them. We can smile in perfect good humour at these affronts, because they may do all, and much more than this, with safety to ourselves, so long as our parliament shall be true to herself and to us; but let that period once arrive, when, by an act of short-sighted and temporizing policy, the legitimate guardians of their own rights and of ours shall place the weapons of legislative or executive power in the hands of an anti-christian and into lerant church, and in that moment, whether the public will hear, or whether they will forbear, the beauteous fabric which is founded upon the scriptures of truth, and has been cemented by the best blood of our fathers, MUST TOTTER TO ITS BASE. Liberty, the elder daughter of true religion, will no longer survive the fall of her parent, and all which at this moment renders life precious and valuable to Englishmen, or which they can desire should descend to their children, all must be again involved in the gross dark

66

Sure such a medley of sham liberality and real intolerance, of affected. magnanimity and genuine littleness, of pretended confidence and listless jealousy, of contempt for reproach and profusion in slander, was never before combined in so short a compass as the above quotation contains, The apparent affectation of ease in the writer at the partial privileges enjoyed by the catholics, and his good-humoured permission for me to continue my labours, are truly amusing; but what must his admirers think of that profound wisdom which could admit that the true religion which St. Paul calls the "pils lar and ground of truth," is not founded on a rock, as Christ declar ed, according to the scriptures; but that its fundamental basis rests upon the exclusion of the catholics of this kingdom from the parliamentary privileges which they enjoyed only a century and a half ago; and which they previously exercised in assisting to preserve the "beauteous fabric" from tottering in the turbulent times of our royal martyr, when such bot-headed scriptural bigots as Amicus Curia were bent upon re forming it, and at length overthrew and subverted it. So the true religion of protestants is not built upon the words of the Divine Founder of the christian church, who promised the Holy Spirit to guide her in all truth, and declared that neither the powers of earth or hell should de stroy her; but it is founded on a declaration against popery! What a basis does the religion of this "Friend of the Court" rest on!Remove the act of 30th Charles II. which general Thornton intends to persuade the house of commons to do, early in the next session, and the beauteous fabric must totter to its base! Repeal a statute which, compels every protestant to qualify

rebellion, I believe the statement to be true; or if it be meant that they have not yet renounced the gospel, I trust in God that this also is the fact: but, if it be asserted that manners and morals havesuffered no decay, that right principles, whether civil or

himself for office under the British | crown, by swearing that all the catholic sovereigns and people of christendom are damnable idolaters, and down falls the beauteous fabric of true religion, and with it Liber-religious, are as vigorous and general as ty, her eldest daughter. Now this is an acknowledgment by no means favourable to protestantism, as the writer thereby expressly declares, that it is the work of human hands, and not of divine institution. How different is the system of popery. Unsupported by human means, but resting on the sacred promises of her deified Foun der, she has withstood the vicissitudes of eighteen centuries, and though empires and kingdoms have passed away, she stands erect upon a rock, braving the storms and tempests which assail her, and bidding

defiance to all the evil machinations
of fanaticism, infidelity, and into-
lerance. What kind of liberty the
writer lays claim to, as the eldest
daughter of the "beauteous fabric,"
he has not specified. I have proved
that civil liberty bears no affinity to
her, but if he contends for scriptu-
ral liberty, I am ready to grant the
relationship. It must be admitted,
It must be admitted,
however, that she has proved a very
unnatural offspring, as well as a
very naughty one, in producing so
many illegitimate and rebellious
'children, as to cause the subversion
of her parent, and though the latter
was again restored to existence, yet
she never recovered her wonted vi-
gour, but always exhibited symp-
toms of decay, which, according to
the following extracts from a sermon
preached on the 29th of August
last, by Dr. Haggitt, at St. Mary's,
Oxford, at the primary visitation of
the bishop of Oxford, copied from
The Courier of the 18th instant, ap-
pear to be of a very serious nature:

"We are indeed assured, and by competent authority, that the bulk of the people is not unsound; and if the meaning be that the majority are not ripe for actual

heretofore, if it be denied that corruption of these principles has of late been fearfully progressive, and that even the unpolluted tolerate pollution, and thereby encourage it; if such positions be advanced, with sorrow I must say they are contradicted by experience. We must indeed be heedless of what passes in the world, if we are ig norant that a lamentable change has taken place in the habits and dispositions of the people, (more especially in towns and manufacturing communities ;) that disaffection and turbulence prevail: that licentious opinions are avowed without compunction, and licentious courses followed with impunity; that crimes and cruelties have been committed not only detrimental to society, but abhorrent from the noble character by which this nation was for merly distinguished; but the most appal

ling circumstance is, that these enormities

are abetted by men of influence; that the criminals are exculpated, and openly defended; and that all our sympathies are demanded, not for the innocent who suffer, but for the guilty who assail them.

"Whether the leaders and promoters of the scheme be numerous or not, they are certainly, become active and audacious, and There is nothing new, indeed, in taking resort to means both novel and detestable. advantage of distress to excite popular dis content, the factions of all ages and all climates have done this too for the purpose of ambition; but these men vitiate the people to make them mischievous, and disturb their principles to lull their scruples. The directors know that ere the multitude become subservient to their will, the impediis a monitor of duties, and of duties incomment of faith must be removed; for faith patible with treason. Accordingly, they try to unchristianize the land; they give lectures on impiety, which they print and disseminate around; they calumniate the tendency and tenets of religion; they insult its holiness with blasphemies, and in validate its force with mockery; well learn to scorn, and are easily detached aware that we cannot revere what we froin what we cease to value. their machinations have succeeded we cannot ascertain; it is impossible to say how many souls are irrevocably lost, how many more are advancing to perdition, and how many hesitate yet between conscience and seduction; but the bad propensities of human nature must, of course, facilitate the plan; for religion is a restraint, and no

How far

one likes to be restrained: it is a check, a salutary check on our designs; but every one is prone to gratify his desires, and they who would forward our indulgence by destroying the chief impediment, are sure to find confidence in the heart of man. ·

our friends out of purgatory must lead to a similar result. The opus operatum of the Romish sacraments, her idolatrous invocations of saints and angels, the constant recurrence

The disorder, then, which now pre-of confessions and priestly absoluvails, is of no ordinary kind: it aspect is terrific, its operation dreadful; every blessing, public or domestic, would be blighted by its touch it portends a conval

sion in the state, and the desolution of society; for national bodies are cemented

by religion. Nor would this pestilence destroy alone the establishments which made us great, and the institutions that made us happy; it would poison the source of individual good; it would sever man from man, and all of us from God: it would banish confidence, justice, and beneficence, and all the charities of life; and, amidst the desolation, no ray of comfort would appear, the surest solace of adiction, the last emollient of pain,the support, the hope, the refuge of expiring nature, all would perish in the wreck."

Really this is a deplorable picture of the present situation of this country, drawn by a protestant divine, but it is not the less true. What is to be our fate, time alone must discover; but Amicus Curiæ has bold

ly prophesied, that should the period once arrive, when liberal principles are acted upon, and the nation again behold catholic senators exerting their abilities in support of our constitutional establishments, we "must be again involved in the gross darkness of superstition, priestcraft, bigotry, and vice " The avowed object of this writer's lucubrations, according to his own words, was to show "that indulgences and prayers for the dead encourage sin, as a question of practice, though they (the clergy) may not recommend it in theory; that satisfaction for sin by bodily austerities has the same tendency; that paying the priesthood for our own sins by founding churches, leaving bequests to pious uses, or masses for our redemption from purgatory, must produce the same effect, as must pilgrimages to holy wells or shrines of saints, &c.; and that paying the priests to pray

that

tion, and especially the doctrine of Romish indulgences, have all (he says) precisely the same tendency, viz. to sanction, encourage, and facilitate the practice of VICE." Now, as all these things have been, and still are practised in the church of Rome, since her first foundation by the apostles, one would suppose during a period of fifteen centuries, when evangelical liberty began to beam on papal darkness; one would suppose, I say, that the iniquity of the people must have reached to that degree as to have called down the vengeance of the Almighty, the same But where shall we find an instance, as in the time of the general flood. of a catholic country, under the influence of priestcraft, becoming so represented to be by Dr. Haggitt, depraved as this protestant one is where evangelical liberty has had its full scope? I challenge the writer to produce a parallel instance from any authentic record of facts.-Let him name the catholic country that of irreligion, as this land of scripever presented so frightful a scene tural liberty now exhibits. O! how corrupt must be the heart of that calumniate the religious principles man, who can so boldly slander and of his unoffending neighbours, and accuse them of producing that effect which is occasioned by the unbridled and licentious opinions broached and infused by scriptural maniacs and philosophic infidels. I have neither time nor space to enter at length on the modesty of this writer, in

supposing the catholics to be under obligations to the protestant part of the kingdom for support, toleration, and perfection. Does he take us for paupers, that we stand in need of

support; and are we in a state of [thing can tend to dispel errorreous idiocy, to require protection ? Pro- impressions, either in matters of retection, truly! what would have | ligion or politics, as the free exer become of this protestant country, cise of the press.

if the Irish catholics had been with

WM. EUSEBIUS ANDREWS.

drawn from the army and navy, du- | Somer's-Town, Sept. 24, 1817. ring the late arduous and lengthen

ed contest ?

For the Orthodox Journal.

terests of man. This you have done, though surrounded by threatening dangers, difficulties, and temptations,capable of appalling an intrepid mind. May God strengthen you in your truly worthy undertaking, and | may your friends increase daily, is my sincere wish.

In conclusion, I must sincerely regret that Veritas did not notice MR. EDITOR,I shall feel myself these remarks of his sagacious oppo- much gratified if I can, from time ment, as he would have rendered a to time produce my mite, that greater service to our cause by re- shall be found worthy of a place in pelling the political objections to your excellent Journal. You have our claims, instead of confining hin- | done me the honour already, to ad self exclusively to the religious part mit several from my pen; and you of the charges brought against us. should have had many more did I The pith of Amicus Curia's labours possess abilities and time sufficient. is, to prevent our obtaining the civil I venture, however, this small triprivileges of the constitution, which bute of my admiration and sincere he calls political power-this is the esteem for you, which has been cry now set up by the “ No-pope- generated in my heart, purely by ry" faction. They have been fair- your worthy and unparalleled exdy beaten from the ground of reli-ertions, in defending the best ingious oppression, and therefore they are willing, though reluctantly, to allow us to worship God according to the dictates of our consciencebut now they make a stand under the batteries of political proscription, from which they must be dislodged before we can be said to have gained the victory. It is therefore I must confess, Mr. Editor, I should to be lamented that Veritas did not be surprised, if there could be found try his political strength with 'his one sincere and unprejudiced catholic adversary, over whom he has shewn in Great Britain, that was not struck himself superior in polemics, and is with the similarity of our circumdeserving of our thanks for the stances, with regard to our religion, same. He has had an unequal con- when compared with those of the test to maintain, but he has ably reign of Henry VIII. I have all sustained the combat. With una- along contemplated them in the same bated spirit too, he promised to keep light in miniature; and, I fear, we the field until he was fairly beaten; shall witness amongst our own body, but the combatants have both been both churchmen and politicians, deprived of the use of their weapons similar to those who concurred with by the decision of the editor, who that vicious prince in his unchristhas refused them the further liberty ian proceedings. God grant I may of his columns, and most illiberally be found in an error in my speculagave a backhanded blow to Veritas, tions. But, waiving this subject for which he has not the power of re- the present, I now, Mr. Editor, beg turning. Anxious that both parties leave to recommend for insertion in should have fair play, I hereby offer your next number, the following them the use of my pages, as no-extract, taken from a letter of spi

|

Now, to gain our end, we must lead a penitential and mortified life. There is no arriving at it but by great labour and much patience.-cent liberties of men. Are these "No one," says St. Paul, "shall be crowned, but he that has lawfully fought." St. James says, "Blessed is the man that suffers temptations; for when he has been proved and tried, he shall receive the crown of of life."