Truth and error contrasted : an inquiry into the necessity of promoting the Reformation of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, prefaced by an address to them; to which is subjoined, reflections on the solemn responsibilities of the Bishops & clergy of the Established Church in reference to the Church of Rome

Front matter

Wha a ay

Ne pi oR gee iS eS Ge g

OF THE

Contents

Page ADDRESS to Roman Catholics .. oe i Great Question for Roman Catholics to attend to os Vii Point on which Controversy chiefly turns He ! xii Roman Catholics and Socinians both reject the Gospel—how xvi Author’s apology for plainness and strength of expression xvii Roman Catholics victims, not authors, of their superstition xix Difference between liberty of Protestant, and slavery of Roman Catholic ee xxi False appeal of Roman Catholics to antiquity, ‘and true appeal of Protestants, proved ee Xxiii Appeal to the laws of endo to disprove the authority of Fathers <* wel tit RAVAN Criminal traffic for souls of ‘men in the Church ‘of Rome. . Xxxi Mahomedanism and Roman Catholic Religion, compared with the Gospel .. ba Xxxii Impossibility of Roman Catholic Priests preaching the Gospel xxxix Invitation to Church of Rome to produce one who can .. xli Anthor prompted by spirit of kindness, not of hostility ..— xii Roman Catholics virtually interdicted the use of the Bible xlv Earnest wishes for their happiness from Author es xl viii LETTER I, To Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine, containing _ prefatory remarks on the Article in that work ] LETTER II. Whether it is imperative on Protestants, to attempt the reformation of Roman Catholics 9 Two propositions, of passage attacked by writer in Blackwood 12 Remarks on popular meaning of the word charity oe 17 Genuine Christian Charity—what ee 19 Examination of limitation of Charity to Atheists, Deists, and Socinians ae 21

Concessions of writer in Blackwood, applied to Church of Rome 26 Principles of Church of England compared with those be advances 28 LETTER III. Enquiry into the nature of the Roman Catholic

__ religion os an oe oe oe 31 Gospel of Christ—what .. oe we ee _34 Popular errors respecting God’s law 35

Preface

THE vast importance of the subject treated of in the following pages, demands an apology for the time that has elapsed, between the date, and the publication of the Letters contained in it. A statement of the circumstances which elicited them, and which prevented their being sooner issued from the press, will, it is hoped, be considered sufficient.

In the month of July, 1829, a paper appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine, containing a very crude but acrimonious attack, on the ‘‘ Society for promoting the religious principles of the Reformation,” which had been formed in the metropolis of this country, under- the patronage of his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin. Among other subjects on which the author of that paper gave vent to his indignation, he particularly fastened on a passage in a speech, which the writer

A vi of these pages had delivered at the formation of this Society in the Rotunda; and he attempted to charge what he called its “ bigotry and intolerance,” upon the whole Society. The writer felt he was called on, either to vindicate the truth of the sentiment which he had uttered, or to acknowledge its error ; not from any considerations connected with his own character, but for the sake of truth—for the sake of his Roman Catholic countrymen, whose eternal interests were involved — and for the sake of that Society, which he considers the most important in its object, that Ireland ever saw. But this article appeared at a time, when he was ordered to Harrowgate by his medical attendants, and directed to preserve a total relaxation from every exertion both of mind and body. It was in this state, when he was unable to bear the protracted mental fatigue, and anxiety, of controversial writing, or controversial thinking, that he endeavoured to hurry over the letters, written, as they are dated, to the Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine. He had hoped to compress into one or two letters, matter, which has expanded into seven; and he sent them over, as soon as written, to be printed : but a long continuation of illness, prevented him on his return, from superintending the correction of the press: and it was not till the commencement of the present year, that he was able _ te desire the printer to proceed, This delay, and the circumstances of the Reformation Society ; the tota neglect of the Protestant Church on this most imperative and important duty, of openly endeavouring to enlighten their Roman Catholic neighbours; and the increased

Vii facility of exertion, which the relaxation of the penal statutes. seemed to afford, by removing the objection, that the Society was a cover for a mere political attack on Roman Catholics, led the writer to. consider, that it might be useful, that an individual, however insignificant, should offer some considerations, on the duties and responsibilities of the Established Church, in reference to their Roman Catholic brethren. While he was engaged in this, a sentiment expressed from very high authority, relative to the duties of the clergy, on this important subject, seemed, when it appeared, to eall for some plain and honest examination, not only on account of the high respectability and influence, of the quarter from whence it proceeded, but from the dangerous effects which it was calculated to produce upon the church ; administering an opiate, instead of a stimulant, in that protracted torpor of spiritual energy— that long continued lethargy of criminal indifference, from which, even an inexperienced practitioner might judge, thatif the church be not awakened, she cannot long survive. These considerations, added to the neglect of the spiritual interests of our Roman Catholic friends, even by those who acknowledged the necessity of exertion in their behalf, seemed to call for some faithful appeal to the understandings, the judgments, and the consciences of those, who felt any interest in the pro- ‘pagation of the Gospel, in the salvation of Roman, Catholics, or the preservation of the Established Religion in our land. In making this appeal, the writer humbly trusts he can lay claim to honesty of intention, and he does not fear to say, that he knows he has set forth the

Viil principles of truth. For the subject itself he offers no apology, he solicits no indulgence, he deprecates no severity of reproof from the theologian, or of criticism from the scholar: the dignity and importance of truth, lift it up above all such considerations. But for the numerous defects in composition, he must apologize by saying, that as the work was written at numerous intervals, during a time of continual bodily weakness, and much mental depression, he was unable to write as the importance of the subject deserved; but he was anxious to bring it through the press, from a deep sense of that importance, and the thought that his pen might soon be silent for ever. |

Although intended chiefly for members of the Established Church, yet as it was written on the controversy with Roman Catholics, and might appear in some parts likely to. wound their feelings, it seemed incomplete without a prefatory address to them. To speak the truth without offence, would be, to be wiser than Him, who spake as “never man spake ;” but the only offence which the writer would not fear to give, is the “‘ offence of the cross.” It is time that Roman Catholics should be addressed as men, and as brethren—that the distinction between the truth of the Protestant religion, and the errors of their doctrines, should be marked by some other feeling than that of political hostility and penalties of law; and if it be admitted a blessing, that Christianity should be established as the religion of the nation, it is time that a rational and intelligent race of men, should learn to recognize in it something more, than a state provision for the instruction of one portion of the people, which protests against the guilt and idolatry of the rest, and which without an effort to'save, leaves them to perish in their ignorance: The writer is aware, that by a large proportion of those who are called the enlightened part of the community, the proper exercise of Christian charity, is considered to. be a perfect toleration, not only of persons, but of principles ; and that the line of conduct thought most proper for members of the Established Church, is, to allow all men to think, and speak on the subject of religion as they please, without presuming, as it is called, to judge them—he is aware, that any attempt-to limit that religion, which alone can save the ‘soul, to certain defined principles, to the exclusion of those men who reject them, is, in their opinion, only the acme of prejudice, intolerance, and uncharitable bigotry; but there is ONE, whose word can never be accommodated to the fluctuations of our modern vocabularies, of which the firm unchanging language, like its Author, is “ ¢he same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ;” from this source, the writer has derived those principles that militate against the doctrines of this fashionable liberality—there was a time, when the Christian truth, y was exclusively identified with the laws and constitution of the British empire, and seemed to borrow a stability from human institutions, which perhaps, in the estimation of many, made it superfluous to: vindicate, and unnecessary to defend it; but that time is past for ever—the Christian faith is no longer an integral part of Britain’s Constitution—as a nation, she no longer

=z stands up in that capacity, in which alone the acts of a nation are to be recognized viz.—in the enactments and administrations of her laws, to identify herself with the God of truth, as He is: revealed in his Holy Word, to bear her testimony against the principles that undeify her Redeemer by their infidelity, or nullify bis great salvation by their superstition—as a nation she has held up her forehead to receive the mark of the beast, and when the mark of the beast is branded on her brow, the God of mercy alone can tell, when the judgments. of the beast shall overtake her guilt. The writer does not mean to raise a cry against the administration that repealed the acts, whichexcluded infidelity from offices of trust, and superstition from them, and from the parliament of England—they acted as politicians under the pressure of a necessity which they were alike unable. to. encounter, or avoid —they saw what any man of common sense could see, that the penal laws could only have been continued -at the point of the bayonet. in Ireland, and they could not feel, that such an alternative was eligible, either on the principles of policy or of humanity. The objections urged against Roman Catholics in the legislature, were the evil tendencies of @ their political principles, but the administration must have gone to study the obsolete works of our Reformers, to have discovered the evils in their religion: they felt it the province of legislators to come to-a decision. on the policy, as. they perceived, that the Church had long since abandoned the theology of the question. They laboured under evils that had been long and progressively accumulated, under the pressure of nexi cessities, to which every day was bringing aggravated weight, which they thought it were a less convulsive struggle, to heave from their shoulders, than to attempt to carry on, till they should sink under the load.

Perhaps the mind of a soldier does not readily comprehend the nice refinements of casuistical distinctions, under which the penal code could have been continued. It may have struck a plain straight forward man, that when a nation had gone on for years, to train up a college of Priests, to teach the people a certain code of . principles, it were not within the strict limits of justice, to punish them, and that people for profiting by this edueation. It may have seemed anomalous, that the expression of principles, should have been continued to be gravely, and solemnly imposed on men by law, on the occasion of entering into the legislature, which were scouted by common consent, out of the ordinary intercourses of society—and that a people, whose opinions were tolerated to acquiescence, if not to. approbation, as being those of Christianity in the common usages of national intercourse, should be pronounced “superstitious and tdolatrous,’”’ on certain state occasions, by those, of whom many stood up the next moment, even on that very spot, to disclaim the very principles they had expressed, and virtually to recant the asseverations they had uttered.

While torrents of opprobrium are poured out by Protestants, upon those who have brought in Roman Catholics to participate in the councils of the nation,

XII let us ask what have they done? Let the man who counts it the greatest curse, that ever fell upon an infatuated country, as it certainly is, to sever its laws, its government, and its constitution, by a- legislative enactment from the truth of the living God, and to take infidelity and idolatry into’ partnership in her politics, let him ask, what has the administration done ? Let him ask, to what is their conduct to be traced ? and what man of common sagacity, and principle, and knowledge, can beat a losstoanswer? They have enacted ~ into the law of the land, what the criminal neglect of true religion had long since permitted to be surreptitiously established in the law of opinion—this transition may be slow, but it is certain. In a free country, like Britain, the laws of the land must borrow their complexion from the law of public opinion; and on a question which agitates the public mind, or which endangers the public security of property, or life, it is not’ possible, that they can hold for any length of time, an opposite tone of language. What then, has been the case in Britain ? the total neglect of the Roman Catholic superstitions, and of the truth of God, as contradistinguished from them, on the part of the Established Church, had allowed the public mind to stagnate into such ignorance, and apathy upon the subject, that it was considered at length uncharitable to suppose, that. Roman Catholics were not just as safe and gust as good Christians as Protestants, provided they conducted themselves as sober and respectable members of society, notwithstanding they held certain opinions which might not be very good, itwassaid thatthe former errors of their

Xili religion were passing away, that the Roman Catholics of the present day were enlightened and liberal, and had guiterenounced those dogmas which had been maintained in the darker ages of the Church. One person who was thought their ablest advocate, introduced a bill’ into parliament on one occasion in their behalf, which they properly termed his “ humbug bill)? when he made an oration, denying that they held the doctrine of transubstantiation, and explaining it away in such terms, that one of them wrote an instant, an honest, and an indignant answer, spurning the imputation, and him who cast it on them, in unmeasured language. In short, the universal ignorance, the universal apathy, the universal blindness as to the errors of their religion, had so lowered the law of opinion on the subject, that there was scarcely to be found, shall I say, a man in the Parliament of England, who would have ventured, in any company, to. assert, that the terms, which he was constrained officially to apply to the religion of Roman Catholics, were to be justified on the authority of reason, and the Holy Word of God. It was laid down as charity in Protestants, not to cast any imputations on their religion ; but to counterbalance this, Protestantism was attempted to be upheld, by proportionably severe reflections upon their loyalty—Guy Faux was duly carried round in England—“ No Popery” was annually chalked in legible characters upon the walls in her streets—the “ lorious and immortal memory” was drank, with three times-three in Ireland—and the statue of King William was dressed on the 12th of July, and the 4th of No-

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‘vember; and if these, and the orations of Brunswick Clubs, and the parading of Orange lodges, had been the proper means of upholding the Gospel of Christ, of subverting the evils of Roman Catholic superstition, and of counteracting the solid, growing influence of six millions of men, acquiring rank, and -property, and education, and influence, in every corner of the country —-men, whose religion was the pretext for their exclusion from the state; but the errors, of whose religion no man would dare to impeach, and the teachers of whose religion, the very government of the country was training up in a college for their profession, the constitution of England had been Christian to this day. It is not then the crime of Kngland, when the growing weight and power of Roman Catholics, and the laxity and ignorance of Protestants, in not only tolerating, but acquiescing in, extenuating, softening down, and explaining away the errors of their religion, had so lowered, so debased the standard of public opinion, that the distinction between truth and falsehood, was almost totally lost sight of in the nation—that her government did not permit the law ofthe land to borrow a sanction fromthe Established religion for itsenactments, which that religion appeared utterly unwilling or incompetent to justify——it was not the crime of England, that when the swords of a divided nation were already half drawn from their scabbards, the administration had rather force them back into the sheath, than permit the people to bury them, each in the bosom of his neighbour —it was not. the crime of England, no longer to permit the highest official authorities in the nation, to pledge

XV = themselves, as to the superstitions and idolatries, of a vast body of her subjects within the walls of her senate house, to. which, without those walls, even her spiritual peers, with one or two exceptions, did not venture to allude, except with reference to their political bearing on the interests of the nation— it was not the crime of England to admit into the participation of the rights, immunities, and privileges of all her constitution, avast, and growing body of her . subjects, whom she had nurtured, cherished, fostered, and educated with her treasures in the principles of their religion—whom her monarch and his representatives had laboured to conciliate—whose title to the name ofgenuine Christians, hardly one of all the learned, talented, exalted, and endowed ministers, professors and dignitaries of her church had ventured to impeach; and whose errors seemed so venial, that not one of them attempted their reform. This was not the crimeof England

No—but her crime as 2 nation—her crime as a Christian nation—her crime as a nation, with a Church so excellent in its principles, so honoured, so gifted, so exalted by its God, as never Christian church was honoured and gifted and exalted upon earth, was this--that the Church, of that nation, could have so far forgotten its professions, its duties, its obligations before God and man, as to allow such a state of principles to arise, to progress, and to accumulate to such a consummation. Her crime was this,that that Church could have permitted the principles of superstition, of idolatry, and of true religion, to be so blended, so confounded, and so melted down together in the crucible of public opinion, that

XVI the base alloy, the product of the process, was circulated by moral impostors, under the name of charity and Jiberality throughout the nation. It was a convenient medium for ignorance to trade with ; it rose in popularity, till it is at last adopted, and sanctioned by the law, cast at the mint, stamped with the king’s image, and has become the current coin of the country. Her crime is this—not that the votaries of infidelity, idolatry, and superstition were admitted to hold offices of trust in her state, and to legislate for her Church— but that that Church, could have so forgotten her duties to her fellow-creatures, and to her God, that with all her gifts, her powers, her privileges, her dignities—with all that talent could command, that learning could acquire—that wealth, and rank, and honour could bestow -—with the homage of a nation prostrate at her feet, and the principles of a people ready to be moulded to her will—and if we look to her invaluable principles, with the girdle of truth on her loins, the “helmetof salvation” on her head, the “shield of faith”’ on her arm, and “the sword of the Spirit” in her hand—-with all the pri- _vileges of earth, and all the blessings of heaven—that with all these, she has allowed six millions of her subjects, multiplied by all the generations that have passed since God showered down these mercies on her head, to remain sunk in ignorance, idolatry, and superstition, whom she has not honestly attempted to instruct, to enlighten, or to reform. The talents that have been entrusted to her—as far as Roman Catholics have been concerned—she has buried in a napkin: the light that has been vouchsafed to her—as far as their interests

XVil have been involved—she has hid under a bushel. Here —here is the crime of Britain as a Christian nation ; and if ever Church and State were identified together, it is here—not, that she has emancipated Roman Catholics from political restrictions, but that she has not emancipated them from all the awful tyranny of error that ever rendered those restrictions necessary for the security of true religion in the country. Not that she has placed Roman Catholics to legislate for herself and her religion, but that there remains in the nineteenth century, one single man, so ignorant of the Gospel, as a Roman Catholic, to be found in her land. What was she to have done with them? To have expelled them—persecuted them —coerced them? God forbid. T'o persecute a man for following the dictates of his conscience in the worship of his God, is a crime abhorrent from the spirit of the Gospel : to coerce him against his conscience, is, if possible, an aggravation of that crime; but to possess, in the fullest sense, all the means of dealing with him, as a rational, and intelligent, and reflecting immortal being—to have the power of displaying towards him, from the superiority of circumstances, all the anxieties of Christian benevolence, of exercising the energies of Christian fidelity, and discharging the offices of Christian love—to possess all the human means of appealing to his understanding, of improving his judgment, and of enlightening his conscience, by supplying it with a proper standard of principle and conduct—and in the midst of all these advantages, to protest against his errors, to apbraid him with his ignorances, but to leave him to grow, and to harden, and to perish in them, without one B

-XvVill e honest uncompromising effort to enlighten, to instruct, 1) rescue, and to save him, appears as criminal a system of delinquency as ever yet disgraced a people who called themselves by the name of Christian. How far this has been followed by us, the members of the Established Church, in reference to Roman Catholics, let facts, and Ireland determine.

To suppose that the nature of the Roman Catholic

1 eligion is altered, is to exhibit an ignorance only com- :nensurate with such conduct. It is to suppose that the enemy of man’s immortal soul, has abandoned the inost perfect system for his enthralment, his incarceration in mental] darkness, his subjugation in a state of alienation from his God, and his total and eternal ruin, that he has ever invented since the fall. To suppose - that he will not use every advantage, which temporal advancement and power can bestow, to subvert and crush every effort to enlighten and emancipate the people of this nation, from the darkness and thraldom in which he holds them, is to suppose, that his nature is regenerated, and that he has ceased to be, ‘ the old servent, the devil.’ The crisis is drawing near, in whatver way men may interpret the predictions of the Vord of God, when the rightful Monarch of. the rorld, shall assert his just dominion, and “ take unto --Limself His kingdom’—when He, who has gone into the “far country,” shall return, and demand of his servants their account. The signs of the times speak louder than the trumpets of war, and give no uncertain sound of His approach. “ Upon the earth distress of

"xix nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring —men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth ;” the ranks are mustering—the line of demarcation is drawing upon the world, and the question, “ Who is on the Lord’s side 2 Who 2” is sounding in the ears of every man’s conscience, who is not dead in his trespasses and sins. What are Constitutions? Hstablishments ? Ancient Institutions ? Thrones ? Vapours, bubbles, shadows, clouds; every country in Europe echoes round its mountains, hills, and vallies, the breath of the mob that blows them to the winds. Where is Britain, and where is her Established Church, to look for her security ? where, but in fidelity to the cause of her Redeemer ? where, but in holding up His truth with boldness ; and, instead of accommodating herself to the enilt and errors of those, who are apostatized from her God; in putting on His armour, and going forth in His strength, to fight His battles in her spiritual conflict with His foes? Let all who know the value of the Gospel in the land, awaken to a sense of their duty to the Roman Catholic population of this country—let the minds of the miserable inhabitants, be turned from the machinations of those who would mislead them into temporal and eternal ruin; to the contemplation of those truths in which their real happiness consists, and in which alone they can discover, the guilt and misery of their present state of spiritual bondage, and moral degradation.

But as this subject is treated of at length in the following pages, it is unnecessary to anticipate it. Every scene exhibited upon the theatre of Kurope since xX this work has been in the press—every movement in this country, which indicates a determination in the minds, at least of some incendiaries, to get up, if possible, some tragedy in our native land, evinces, that it is only in the favour and protection of God, the nation can be safe, only in His arm, she can be strong. To halt between two opinions, and neither to follow God nor Baal, to conciliate falsehood by the abandonment of truth, to temporize, and to substitute a contemptible expediency, for boldness, decision, fidelity, and zeal for the glory of God, and the salvation of men, is only to . draw down deservedly on the head of any Church, » and any nation, contempt, instead of respect from their fellow-creatures, and to invite an unmingled outpouring of just indignation from their Creator. A consideration of the varied attacks from every quarter, made in this day upon our Church, led the writer duly to consider, whether it were a time for one who loved her, to point out the failure of her members in any branch of duty: but he is firmly persuaded that her danger, which he feels and deplores as much as any individual within her pale, arises from the just judgment of her God, for her criminal neglect on the subject on which he has written. That her only security is to be found in repentance, and “ zz doing her first works ;”’ and that if no higher motive in reference to the salvation of guilty and perishing millions, should call forth the energies of those who love her, for the glory of God; common prudence, common sense, common policy, should point out exertion as affording the only human prospect of her preservation. The open and avowed object of the

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great Roman Catholic demagogue, is to subvert the Established Church, and to set up the Popish religion in its place in this country. If Popery be truth, let him

“prosper ; but if not—if it is calculated to bring destruction on man’s immortal soul—then, in the name of truth, of charity, and of the God of our salvation, let the nation be appealed to; let the truth be proclaimed boldly and loudly to the people; let the word of the Judge of heaven and earth be lifted up as the arbiter between God and Baal; and let that God bear witness for himself to the souls and consciences of men.

The writer feels so strongly the truth of what he has written, that he considers “great plainness of speech” alone, as suited to the vast solemnity of the subject, and he cannot apologize for using it—he likewise offers no apology for the reiterated statements of the salvation of the Gospel, which so frequently occur in this little work ; the errors and superstitions which he is combating, are fatal to the everlasting salvation of those who maintain them; they arise from ignorance of the salvation that is in Christ; every mode of controverting those errors, that does not bring that salvation into clear, simple, systematic contrast with them, is nothing but some weak impertinence, however learned it may be; itis like a physician coming to aman, who is dying of inflammation on his lungs, and spending his time in interrogating about, and prescribing for a wart on his face. The Roman Catholics of Ireland need salvation from the wrath to come-—of the Protestants who are living in neglect of them, multitudes seem

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, a very little better ; to apologize for reiterating statements of the Gospel in contradistinction to their errors, is like apologizing to a criminal for bringing him a reptieve. May the Almighty and eternal God, bless His own truth to his own glory, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.