Nor must we allow ourselves to pass over another potent engine of deception-suppression. It is hardly conceivable, how much of the effect of absolute falsehood is often produced by simply not telling the whole truth. I must request permission to add one more; and it shall be done upon the testimony of the writer who has subjoined to a reimpression of the Epistle prefixed by William Watson, secular priest, to the Important Considerations, published in the name of some of his brethren, a Postscript containing the following statement. Among other arts made use of' by the Jesuits, one is, the drawing such a wild and extravagant character of a Jesuit, as no man'' ever yet fixed upon them; and then under that colour taking upon him,' the vindicator, 'boldly to assert their innocence,' &c.* This is exactly the art and fallacy of GOTHER in his Papist Misrepresented and Represented—to overstate, to deny, and then to understate and exclaim Misrepresentation! Calummy! And is this art and fallacy now fallen into desuetude?

By artifices such as these, but more especially by the one first described, as a leading one, have

* See Epistle General, as Preface to Important Considerations, first published in 1601, and republished elsewhere, and in GIBSON's Preservative, &c. vol. iii., Tit. xiii. The reference is to Vindication of Saint Ignatius, by WILLIAM Darrell.

the votaries of Rome at all times contrived to cast a mantle of plausibility over their character, their acts, and their claims; and in more instances than might have been expected they have prevailed. So complete, indeed, has been their success, that the advocates, who may likewise be called, in a modified sense, converts to the Roman cause, have adopted the very style of reasoning which distinguishes their clients, and appear to be hardly more than the organs through which are conveyed the voices of the latter.

They urge equality of rights, without allowing themselves or others to understand, in what a right consists, and that equal rights must be suspended on equal conditions; that the condition of allegiance cannot be performed when the paramount allegiance of the conscience is forestalled and possessed by a foreign power; for nothing, or next to nothing, then remains, in the absence of prudential considerations; notwithstanding the evanescent distinction of spiritual and temporal*.

* If priests and their partisans be only listened to, they will tell you,— that there cannot exist a divided allegiance and obedience towards two powers, spiritual and temporal-that it should be entire towards the Sovereign in temporal matters, and entire towards the Pope in spiritual ones. Can there be a clearer principle, they will say? But proceed to the practical application of these principles, and it will then be seen what disputes will arise! As to the term temporal, its meaning varies among these different parties. One of them represents everything as spiritual: ecclesiastical property is spiritual; ecclesiastical persons are spiritual also: hence immu

If indeed that power were not an ambitious one, or were accustomed to exercise a gentle and liberal sway, or were likely to look with a not unfriendly eye upon those who, through flames, had escaped its iron grasp, a divided allegiance would part with its main objection. But we know how the case stands. We know what are the real bonds and obligations of the Romanist; the Creed and Oath of Pius IV., embracing folios, and the Episcopal oath (as truly feudal as canonical) of allegiance to the Pope, with its persecuting clause, which, if withdrawn from peculiar circumstances, by a change of circumstances may be restored *.

nities, both personal and real; hence also the jurisdiction of the Church in civil and criminal matters. In marriage, the sacrament ought to be principally considered; from which it is inferred, that marriage should be regulated by ecclesiastical laws, Finally, every human act may be the subject matter of a sin: there are divine precepts and ecclesiastical laws for every matter: thus the aim of priests is to make themselves masters of everything, when they can.' It would not readily be imagined, that this is a quotation from an honest and intelligent Romanist: but the fact is, it is found in Catholicism in Austria, by Count FERD. DAL Pozzo, p. 182. He is, it is true, a resolute defender of what may be called the Austrian Liberties.

*See Episcopal Oath of Allegiance, &c. By CATHOLICUS-of which I acknowledge myself the author. The feudal character of this latter oath is at once evident upon comparing it with any which is strictly and exclusively so; as well as from the general and distinguishing character of the whole papal polity, as described by a very competent judge. The mode of government which Rome still maintains in this kingdom, and from which in no kingdom it ever departed but when driven to it by hard necessity, draws very near to that feudal system of polity, to which the nations of Europe were once subject. It contained one sovereign or suzeraine

They, further, press upon us the ingenious argument, that by perpetuating disabilities and exclusions, with the public disgrace ensuing, we furnish

monarch, in whose hands was lodged the supremum dominium, and this he apportioned out to a descending series of vassals, who, all holding of him in capite, returned him service for the benefice they received, in honours, jurisdiction, or lands. And to this service they were bound by gratitude, which an oath of fealty also strengthened. The application of the system to the sovereign power of the pontiff, and to a chain of descending vassalage in archbishops, bishops, and the inferior orders in the ministry, is direct and palpable.' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Catholic Religion in England, &c. By the REV. JOSEPH BERINGTON. P. 275. To affirm the oath above alluded to to be that of canonical obedience only is to defy palpable truth; and that obedience cannot be otherwise than divided, in the most unfavourable sense and degree, as heretical rulers are concerned, which gives the soul and conscience to a foreign, spiritual sovereign, and what remains alone to the actual, temporal one. CATALANI, the Commentator on the Roman Pontificale, published in 1738, in three volumes, folio, Tom. i., pp. 178 and seq., has plainly declared, that the first oath of this kind, by the Patriarch of Aquileia to Gregory VII., in 1079, 'expressed, not only a profession of canonical obedience, but an OATH OF FEALTY not unlike that which VASSALS took to their Direct Lords'—sed etiam juramentum fidelitatis non absimile illi quod Dominis suis directis Vassalli præstabant. § II. And in § IV., he adduces Florens as asserting, that the three first articles rather extended beyond those in the original oath-fuisse desumptos ex Titulo v. et vi. Feudorum Lib. II. In conformity with this representation is that of Count F. DAL Pozzo in his Catholicism in Austria, pp. 183-188. In a MS. collection in my possession, from the Cassano Library, which has the general title, Investituræ et Capitulationes Summorum Portificum, there occur—An Oath of Charles V. and Joanna his mother, professing plenum homagium, et vaxallagium to Clemens VII. for the kingdom of Sicily, which contains many of the clauses, and in the same terms, which are found in the later and longer form of the episcopal oath, the schismatic and heretic not being forgotten, whom, donec convertantur, persequentur et invadent.-Another of the king of Sicily and his procurator to Julius III., exactly in the same style, engaging that each, instead of assisting heretics, eos, juxta posse suum,

them with a bond of union, and strengthen the point of honour, which alone, in many instances, they contend, attaches the adherents of Rome to her communion; and that these, removed, converts would fall into the lap of Protestantism like the ripe fruit of an overloaded tree when shaken by the breeze. But it does not occur to these reasoners, that, if the principle be universal, as in their use of it it certainly is, it is equally cogent as applied to any class or description of men; and it will then appear, that in our system of internal government, as a nation, like most other nations, we have taken exactly the wrong course; and that the best thing we can now do, is to abolish our statute-book and common law, our courts of justice, our judges and magistrates, and above all, pains and penalties, disabilities and exclusions of every description. There is more speciousness than correctness in the common observation, that opposition increases strength by calling forth obstinacy. It is often the case; but not always. And indeed this would be found out by legislators, if it were the fact. Certain it is, as we have already observed, that the opposition

donec convertantur, persequetur et impugnabit-and Infeudatio facta per Bonifacium P.P. VIII. de Regno Sardiniæ, &c., comprehending an oath almost perfectly agreeing with the episcopal one. And the highest authorities in the papal hierarchy of Ireland could, when tempted by an obvious interest, declare on oath, that this oath is of canonical obedience only!