1017 Vindication of the Catholics. To refute this base statement of your correspondent, we have only to read the history of this event; and really I am astonished how any man in England could lend himself to the littleness of falsehood, when he must be well aware that any person, even as ignorant as myself, can without any trouble detect and expose him. Far from the Council of Constance sentencing John Huss to be burned, they solemnly declared, (Session 15.) "By an invariable rule of the Church, It is unlawful, under its highest penalty, for any ecclesiastic to concur in any capital or sanguinary punishment whatsoever." This decree must set aside the infamous charge of this rash adventurer of Protestant toleration. John Huss was put to death by the magistrates of Constance, in virtue of the then existing civil laws. The Elector Palatine and the Emperor Sigismund, expressly commanded him to suffer, on account of the open violation of the laws of the land. They had an undoubted right to watch over the peace and good of society: but I call on your correspondent to quote one single sentence of the said Council, going to solicit such punishment; and until he does, I brand him with the justly-merited epithet, "false accuser." But I may be asked, "Did not the Emperor violate faith with a heretic, by granting him a safe-conduct, and then putting him to death?" Such was the safe-conduct granted by the Emperor, that it was nothing more than a passport to protect his person from violence travelling to and from the Council; but by no means an exemption from the ordinary course of justice, in case of finding him guilty. In this we see what calumny is thrown on the holy fathers of Constance--the guardians of the faith of Jesus Christ, whose duty it was (not to put to death, but) to drive from the fold those merciless wolves, who dared to tear asunder the seamless garment of Christ. The state was threatened with such danger, that something must be done to punish the ringleaders: I see no more injustice in burning Huss than in beheading Thistlewood. The Hussites commenced by murdering the mayor of Prague; they finally overturned the government; they burned many monasteries; they murdered many priests. (See Æneas Syl. apud Fleury.) And these are your correNo. 22.-VOL. II. 1018 spondent's innocent, immaculate sufferers!! What an enlightened age we live in!!! Next comes a number of interrogatories, as unmeaning as false: “Who was it that tried to procure licenses, for the clergy, to commit murder with impunity? Who endeavoured to raise the spiritual authority above the crown? and, in pursuance of that ambitious project, encouraged the ungrateful Becket to insult his gracious benefactor the king, one of the best of sovereigns, while endeavouring to purify the streams of justice, to redress the grievances of his people, and to reform the abuses of a licentious priesthood? Who endeavoured to destroy the charter of our liberty as soon as it was formed? Was it not the Pope? Yes, it was the Pope."-I have often been informed how necessary it was for fabricators to possess good memories. Surely he should not have forgotten, that the chief tendency of his pages before me (aimed at the total condemnation of Catholics) was the supreme power of the Pope over kings and subjects, and his facility of granting licenses to commit any crime; but in this part of the drama of the nursery, he exhibits the Pope soliciting license for his clergy to commit murder!! Quere the consistency of his reasoning? but it is of a piece with the rest. But of what possible use to promote the Protestant, or condemn the Catholic cause, can a dispute between a Catholic king (Henry II.) and a Catholic bishop, at a time, when the name of a Protestant was not known on earth? Becket, primate of England, claimed not license to murder, as your correspondent wantonly asserts, but the livings, immunities, and privileges of the church, for himself and his clergy, to support and protect which inviolate, Henry was sworn; the words of his own charter are as follow:— "Sanctam Dei ecclesiam liberam concedo ita quod nec eam vendam, nec ad firmam ponam nec mortuo episcopo vel abbate aliquid accipiam de dominio ecclesiæ vel de hominibus." (Ric. Haqul, 310.)* He subscribed this charter, and laid it on the altar. (Spel. 2. 51.) This charter, commonly known by the on the Great Charter of British liname of "Benefit of the Clergy," did berty? not exempt them from ecclesiastical, but civil jurisdiction; and when once degraded by ecclesiastical authority, they were stripped of their benefices, and became as amenable to the civil law as any layman. Such exemption of the clergy was not the act or influence of any Pope, as your correspondent falsely declares: it was the law devised by some of the wisest monarchs that ever ruled the civilized world; such as Constantine, Theodosius, Justinian, and Charlemagne. On the part of Henry, he insisted that all his civil officers should be exempt from all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, to possess himself of all vacant sees; just as Bonaparte contended with His Holiness Pius VII. the jurisdiction of the church of France. Henry in thirty-one years took possession of one archbishopric, six bishoprics, and seven abbeys. (See Madax 209. Records of Exchequer.) To oppose such innovation on the discipline of the church, the holy primate stood forward, not with sword in hand, but with prayers, tears, exhortations, censures, and sufferings. He is exiled the kingdom;-some time passes, when Henry sends envoys to Pope Alexander; the contest is amicably settled;the primate is recalled home;-Henry goes to meet him, in a meadow near the town of Freitville, on the borders of Turaine; and holding his cap in his hand, thus addressed the man of God, "As for the men who have betrayed both you and me, I will treat them such as the desert of traitors." Before this conciliation took place, the king, while in Normandy, was heard to say while in a passion, "Of all the cowards who eat my bread, is there not one to rid me of this turbulent priest?" The following four knights were present, Reginald Fitzure, William Tracy, Hugh de Mooreville, and Richard Brito, who, without delay, bound themselves by an oath to murder the primate. They soon put into execution the horrid project; while at vespers they rushed into the church, followed by twelve more armed men,-they in a few minutes accomplished their barbarity. Now let me ask the liberal reader of this bloody detail, where was there a Pope soliciting license for his priests to commit murder? Where is there a Pope trampling His following apprehensions of the danger resulting from emancipating the Catholics, on account of their doctrine of transubstantiation, auricular confession, and pargatory, are the imagery of a disordered brain. Jesus Christ said, "Unless you eat (not the figure, type, &c. but) the flesh of the Son of man, you shall have no life in you." Catholics bow obedience in the words of St. Peter, "Lord, we believe that thou hast the words of eternal life." Now, against this article of the Catholic faith, the most powerful arguments I find, are acts of Parliament; and, by the bye, while they are devising means to do away with this miracle of miracles, they insist on us receiving an unmeaning mystery in its place, namely, consubstantiation. (See Dr. Lingard to the Bishop of Durham, on this subject.) And, indeed, the legislature, I hope, has more common sense than to believe that purgatory would deprive them of the loaves and fishes. Catholics always did, and always will hold, that it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the souls of the faithful departed, because holy writ says so. And as for auricular confession, when your correspondent is able to prove any evil that ever did arise from this holy practice, then both houses have a right to vote him thanks for his discovery. Before he should dare to ridicule this divine practice, it was his bounden duty to shew that it was the invention of men; and next, for what purpose; the name of the author; the age and place he lived in: then his sneers would assume a reasonable position in logic. Indeed, so repugnant to self-love is such a practice, that none but a God could enforce its observance. When Christ said, "Whose sins you retain, shall be retained; and whose sins you remit, shall be remitted;" necessarily implied a knowledge of such sins before they could be distinguished: it was by this means that St. Paul knew how to act with the wicked Corinthian, and St. Peter with Ananias and Sapphira. And I assure you, I see no reason why this practice should form an obstacle to Catholic emancipation. I take my leave of your correspondent; for his own sake, I hope he will not continue so foul a calumny against 1021 On Governing with Sincerity. a religion of which he seems to be totally ignorant. The Catholic faith is not the bantling of yesterday; in every age since the funeral of Jesus Christ, she can count her saints and martyrs, of whose sanctity God himself has borne testimony by indubitable miracles; she has to boast of subduing the world to the sweet yoke of Jesus Christ;-no Parliaments, no troops, to espouse her early and exploded cause. In the wisdom of her councils, she triumphed over error and superstition; because the doctrine she teaches is of God, and worthy his protection; she commands superiors to look upon their subjects as their children, and subjects to obey their governors, not for fear, but for conscience sake; parents to be watchful over their children, and children on their part to love, honour, and reverence their parents; judges to be just and merciful; she insists on the sanctity of the marriage bed to be kept holy and inviolate; and, commands all to love God and their neighbour; she pronounces the person unworthy the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ, who would burn, maim, or murder their fellow-creature, under any pretext whatsoever: this is the doctrine of the calumniated and suffering Roman Catholic church of Britain, of which I profess myself a member. DANIEL M'MULLIN, Liverpool, September 21, 1820. P. S. In the manly attitude of truth, I give my name to the above review of your correspondent's misrepresentation of Catholic principles. My plan by no means was to go into a general view of all controverted points between Catholics and Protestants I have been on the defensive side; and I sincerely hope, that your correspondent will affix his proper name to his unmeaning attack on the Catholic faith; unless he does, I am of opinion he cannot believe one word of what he is retailing so willingly to the public, and therefore he will be unworthy of notice. ON GOVERNING WITH SINCERITY. 1022 19th year, 10th moon, 2d day; (Nov. 13, 1814.) Govern with truth and sincerity, and order will be the result; if not, then anarchy will ensue. To an individual, a family, even to the sovereign and the whole empire, nothing further is requisite than truth. At this moment great degeneracy prevails; the magistrates are destitute of truth, and great numbers of the people are false and deceitful. The magistrates are remiss and inattentive; the people are all given up to visionary schemes and infernal arts. The link that binds together superiors and inferiors is broken. There is little of either conscience or a sense of shame. Not only do they neglect to obey the admonitions which I give them; but, even with respect to those traitorous banditti, who make the most horrible opposition to me; it affects not their minds in the least degree; they never give the subject a thought. It is indeed monstrously strange! That which weighs with them is their persons and families; the nation and government, they consider light as nothing. He who sincerely serves his country, leaves the fragrance of a good name to a hundred ages; he who does not, leaves a name that stinks for tens of thousands of years. The utmost limit of man's life, is not more than an hundred years. What hearts have those, who, being engaged in the service of their sovereign, but destitute of talent, yet choose to enjoy the sweets of office, and carelessly spend their days! The means used by the sages, to perfect their virtue, is expressed in one word, "Sincerity." Sincerity! or, in other words, Truth and Uprightness. Let my servants (the officers of the empire) examine themselves, whether or not they can be sincere; whether or not they can be upright? I fear they will give but a poor account. The virtue of the common people, is like the waving grain, (it bends with every wind that blows.) If superiors have little truth or sincerity in their hearts, the disorderly intentions of the people will certainly be numerous. THE following article published in the Small in the beginning, and not affectPeking Gazette, translated by the Rev. ing the mass of the people, they graDr. Morrison, and printed at Canton, dually increase, till the bludgeon is seizwas drawn up by his Majesty the Em-ed, and rebellion and anarchy ensue. peror of China. It is dated Kea-king, In ancient times, the heads of re bellion, styled themselves Wang and Te, Kings and Emperors; but it was never heard in ancient times, that any assumed the name of San-hwang, (or the king of Heaven, the king of Earth, and the king of Men.t) The hearts of the men of this age are daily degenerating. As we are the superiors of this people, shall we bear not to exert our hearts and strength to the utmost shall we not bend under the labour even to lassitude, if we may thereby save a ten thousandth part? If in coming forward, or in retiring, the sole object be personal gain; does a man not lower himself thereby to the common mass; nay, sink low as the filth of the age? Think, what kind of men will future ages describe you! Will they not engrave infamy on your back! For every portion of sincerity exerted by the officers of government, the nation receives a portion of felicity, and the people are spared a portion of misery. The prince and the people, alike depend on the officers of government. The happy state of the things in the time of Tang and Yu,‡ was the result of the exertions of the officers of government. Because of my moral defects, I met with the great convulsion which took place the last year. Day nor night can I banish it from my breast. My anxious and constant desire is, to bring things to a well 'governed state.' How shall I dare to be remiss or inattentive to it? But my servants of late, gradually forget the affair. When I call them into my presence, they say, "There is nothing wrong!" O, alas! The residue of the rebels, not yet taken; commotion excited by various reports. To sit down with repose is impracticable. Shall men still treat it with indifference, and allow themselves to say, "There is nothing wrong!" If this may be endured, what may not be endured! cere declarations.-If you are able to disregard this, and consider the words of your sovereign as of no importance, you are indeed harder than the rocks. You are unfit to be spoken to; and the fault of speaking to those who are unfit to be spoken to, devolves on me. But, it will be impossible for you to escape being charged by the pen of the historian, as false and treacherous deceivers. The distinction betwixt a patriot and a traitor, is expressed by the two words, " True, False." In the morning and at night, lay your hands upon your hearts, and you will understand without the aid of words. WONDERFUL BULL TO BE SEEN AT NO. 362, (EXETER CHANGE,) STRAND, LONDON, SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN BRED IN THE CITY. Ir appears, notwithstanding this imposing title, that nothing more is meant to be exhibited, than a new mode of committing suicide, through which it has lately been discovered, that any man, weary of life, may shoot himself by falling on his sword. This curious contrivance we shall give in the words of the inventor: "In the sketch of the life of Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond, undoubtedly one of the most stately and pompous dames that ever breathed, there are copies of the verses reported to have been penned in his own blood, and sent to her when Lady Hertford, by Sir G. Rodney, previous to shooting himself for love of her, and her Ladyship's answer, &c." We are then told in the concluding passage, which follows some quotations, that— "Having finished this lamentable composition, Sir George ran himself upon his sword, and so ends this sad eventful history." This important discovery we apprehend was first announced to the public, in the LONDON LITERARY GAZETTE for October 14, 1820, page 661. Whether the invention has been secured by patent we have not heard. I speak with the utmost sincerity of heart, and call upon all the officers of my court to act with sincerity of heart, and sincerely fulfil the duty of good servants. Thus they will aid my sin- Answer to several Theological Queries. cere wishes, and accord with my sin *By this it would appear, that some person had recently assumed this title. Alluding to the fabulous ages of Chinese History. About the year of the world 1700. TO THE EDITOR OF THE IMPERIAL HAVING seen in your Number for February last, col. 98, a few Theological Queries, proposed by one styling 1025 Answer to several Theological Queries. himself "Theologus," I beg leave, through the medium of your valuable Miscellany, to transmit a few desultory remarks on the subject; and though the underwritten may not be considered as satisfactory solutions by this profound querist, still, perhaps, their insertion may not be deemed altogether unprofitable or intrusive. 1026 surround us; till, lost in the labyrinths of our speculative conjectures, we are either led to unite in the bewildered reveries of the sceptic, or with humility to own the insufficiency of human wisdom to fathom the deep things of God. Respecting the Query-" 1. Can a GOOD man, consistently with the pure principles of Christianity, send an UNGODLY son to be a minister in the Established Church?" I am rather surprised, that one so enlightened as to propose such intricate questions, should not have been more cautious or correct in their composition. The word good" is a term of such extensive and indefinite import, that I am almost at a loss to conceive what idea your correspondent wishes to be attached thereto. If, however, I am to understand it as opposed to the term ungodly in the same sentence, and consider a “good man" one who, taking the word of truth for the guide of his life and the rule of his conduct, acts conformably thereto in all his dealings, he cannot (whilst he continues thus "good") do any thing inconsistent with the "pure principles of Chris With regard to the insertion of queries in your publication, in the solutions of which, the ingenuity of your numerous correspondents may be laudably exercised, I cannot but express my decided approbation, as being a mean of eliciting many sparks of genius and science, which would otherwise have been speedily extinguished, by carelessness or inattention, and of communicating much interesting knowledge, which, but for this stimulus, would, comparatively speaking, have been confined to only a few solitary individuals. But at the same time I think it indispensably requisite, that they should be accompanied with the restriction, that the necessary solutions should not tend to excite a spirit of inquiry more curious and speculative, than really useful or essentially necessary to the proper understand-tianity;"-the question will, therefore, ing of the word and will of God; or by diverting the mind from the essentials of Christianity, induce us to lay the foundation of our religious opinions rather on the sandy basis of human wisdom, than on the revealed and unadulterated word of God. Destitute of the above restriction, appears to me the communication of your correspondent Theologus; on whose questions I presume to offer the following observations: In the sacred oracles we are informed, that secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those which are revealed, to us and to our children. To attempt therefore to pry into the hidden mysteries of the Deity, further than what he has been graciously pleased to reveal unto us, must certainly be displeasing to him, and greatly disadvantageous to our increasing in that spirit of humble child-like love so strongly inculcated in the word of God. In religious science, there is a point beyond which the ken of mortals cannot pass; a maximum where me may date the summit of our knowledge in this probationary state of existence. Attempt but to pass this point, and darkness and confusion on every side assume the following form:-Is it consistent with the "pure principles of Christianity," that ungodly persons should be admitted as ministers in the Established Church? or, to extend the question still further, as ministers in the Church of Christ? And, Sir, does this require an answer? Can any one, in the smallest degree acquainted with the principles of Christianity, doubt for a single moment on the subject? Should there, however, be found such acute Theologians within the circle of your numerous readers, I would merely quote the words of an inspired apostle on this topic:-" A Bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;" and, in the same epistle we find Timothy, as a minister of Christ, exhorted to "follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness" to fight the good fight of faith," and thereby "lay hold of eternal life." Such, then, should be the character of all professed ambassadors from Christ, whether united to the "Established Church," or any other denomination of Christians whatever;-men who, by example, as well |