sonable objection, we imagine, could have been made to it. Indeed, in some eastern churches presbyters may ordain deacons, if there be no Bishop present to perform the service. But it was out of all rule for the superior order of Bishop to be conferred by presbyters. To assert the validity of such a consecration is to compromise the essential character of Episcopacy; and it soon appeared that the Archdeacon and his cattanars understood this too well to be satisfied with what they had done. There can, therefore, be no doubt, that nothing but necessity induced them to deviate so far from well-constituted Church do that, their act is not only unlawful, but is null and void. For here obtains the axiom of Hugo, What is performed contrary to the institution is accounted null. But in a disturbed Church, where all the Bishops have fallen into heresy or idolatry, where they refuse to ordain orthodox ministers, or where they account those alone to be worthy of holy orders who participate in their error and faction, if orthodox Presbyters be compelled to ordain other Presbyters, that the Church may not perish, I could not venture to pronounce ordinations of this kind vain and invalid. For if the danger that threatens a single infant be sufficient to transfer the office of baptizing to any layman, which, by institution, belongs to ministers alone, why is not danger impending over a particular 'church, sufficient to transfer the office of ordaining to simple priests, which, by institution, belongs to Bishops alone? Necessity has been aptly called temporary law; and in such case it defends that to which it compels. It is the opinion of Armachanus, (Richard Fitzralph, Archbishop of Armagh,) that if all Bishops were dead, inferior priests could ordain. Certainly the consideration is much alike, when all have become sworn enemies to the truth. For as a commonwealth, so a particular church, has a certain extraordinary power for the necessary preservation of itself. If, then, certain Protestant Churches, which could not look for ordination from Popish Bishops have, under this necessity, ordained Presbyters, with the consent of their own Presbyters, they are not to be judged as having injured the episcopal dignity, but to have yielded to the necessity of the Church."-Bp. Davenant's Diversity of Degrees, &c. Vide, his life prefixed to Mr. Allport's translation of his Exposition of Colossians, pp. 58, 59. A. D. 1656. CHAP. Consterna tion of the Jesuits and the ancient constitution of their Church. They were, in fact, resolved, like Luther and the German reformers, to emancipate themselves from the tyranny of the Jesuits, at whatever sacrifice of personal feeling and ecclesiastical order. May those who may be inclined to censure them, never be placed in a similar dilemma ! 12. This decisive step very naturally occasioned astonishment and alarm at Goa; and Inquisition. the inquisitors wrote repeatedly to the Archdeacon to deter him from proceeding in the course he had begun. They represented his consecration as the most heinous sacrilege: but he had taken his ground, and was resolved not to abandon it. He and his church were heartily tired of the oppression of the Jesuits, and they were not likely so soon to be dissatisfied with the air of liberty which they had again begun to breathe. Martyrdom of Attalla at Goa turpitude of this act. 13. But the apprehension of losing their jurisdiction in Malabar which this bold procedure had awakened, did not deter the Jesuits from their design against the unfortunate Attalla. The vessel that brought him from Meliapore to Cochin transported him, about this time, to Goa, where he was condemned by the Inquisition as a heretic, and put to a cruel death. The Jesuits have laboured hard to transfer the odium of his murder to the Portuguese and for this purpose a letter was written some years ago from Cochin, in which it is asserted, that this unhappy prelate was drowned by the Portuguese in the Cochin roads, at the time when the Syrians appeared in force before that city to rescue him out of their hands." But we have the testimony of the 6 Quatorziéme Continuation des Lettres des Missionaires de Tranquebar, p. 71. La Croze, 362. Carmelite Vincent and others to the fact of his martyrdom at Goa." Were the Inquisition less known than it now is, one would stand amazed at its immolation of so inoffensive a victim. Attalla came to India upon the express invitation of the Christians of the country, deputed by the ancient Patriarch of their Church. He had never been subject to the Pope, neither had he ever given him just cause of offence. What shadow of justice, then, could the inquisitors discover for putting him to death? Those who are unacquainted with the character of the Roman hierarchy, must really find it hard to believe that they could perpetrate so horrid and iniquitous a crime. It will be seen, however, in the sequel, that the Jesuits, who are intimately acquainted with all the mysteries of their church, have ever proceeded on the assumption, that all men on the face of the earth, and especially those who have been baptized, no matter by whom, are amenable to the Pope; that for the conversion of pagans the ecclesiastics of the Roman Church have a right to employ fire and sword; and that Christian toleration, so far from being a virtue, is "an abominable motive of action, which nothing but the most inflexible necessity can justify. All this, be it remembered, is their own avowal, not the accusation of an enemy. The Jesuit du Souciet, in one of his critical dissertations on the Talmud, actually deems it necessary to apologize for the toleration that it was found expedient in certain cases to afford. Although the notion has been maintained, and, we regret to say, propagated with too much success in Europe, that the religion 7 Pages 171 & 216. Raulin, 442. La Croze, 363. 8 Page 609. La Croze, pp. 364, 365. A. D. 1656. CHAP. CHA of Rome has grown more tolerant, and is therefore as innoxious as any other Christian sect; yet the authorities of that Church, while making their advantage of such a persuasion in the public mind, are most careful to prevent its prevalence in their own community. Following the example of du Souciet, they also account for their apparent toleration of all sects opposed to their Church, by appealing to the rule of expediency. It is declared, that they are restrained only by the necessity of the times; and they insist on the duty of enforcing obedience to Rome, or extirpating the rebellious, as soon as a favourable opportunity shall arrive for the execution of this merciless design. The Jesuits have never abandoned the maxim, Sub : 9 This statement is confirmed by the Romish Comment on the Bible quoted above (b. v. ch. i). In the Parable of the tares, to the servants who inquired, whether they should go and gather them up, their Lord answered, "Nay; lest while "ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. "Let both grow together until the harvest and in time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first "the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn." (Matt. xiii. 28–30). Representing the wheat as Catholics, and the tares as Protestants, the Comment interprets the passage thus-"The good must tolerate the evil when it is so strong that it cannot be repressed without danger or the disturbance of the whole Church: otherwise, where ill men, be they heretics or malefactors, may be punished or suppressed, without disturbance and hazard of the good, they may and ought, by public authority, either spiritual or temporal, to be chastised or executed." 2 Tim. iii. 8, 9.-"Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was." Upon this passage the Romanist is furnished with the following significant comment.—“ All Heretics, though in the beginning they may appear to have some show of truth, yet, in due time, their deceits and falsehoods shall be known by all wise men, though for troubling mission or excision: and in enforcing it, they have not only usurped the supremacy over earthly potentates, but have also invaded the prerogative of the Almighty. Jesus Christ hath said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind."1 Multitudes, because actuated by this principle, have suffered the tortures of the Inquisition, their sole offence being, that the love of God, instead of the authority of the Church, has been their ruling motive of action. What is this but usurping the throne of God in the consciences of His reasonable creatures? What other consequence can ensue from the dogma, that there is no salvation out of the Roman Church, accompanied by the right she assumes, and the duty she inculcates, of constraining all to submit unconditionally to whatever she may decree ? That many Romanists would hesitate to subscribe to this doctrine, is readily conceded. But if any conscientiously doubt the state of such Commonwealths, where, unluckily, they have been received, they cannot be so suddenly extirpated." In the Notes to the Synod of Diamper, proofs have been adduced, that amidst the light and intelligence of the 19th century, the ignorance and superstition of the Church of Rome remain unaltered. Here it is seen, that the freedom of the 19th century has tended as little to meliorate the intolerant character of that Church. It should be remembered, that this Comment was republished in Dublin in 1816, under the sanction of the Romish Archbishop of that city and his brethren. It is, therefore, to be taken as promulgating the sentiments of the Roman Church at the present period. She has not relinquished one iota of her claim to supremacy in Christendom, and is every where showing that she wants nothing but power again to wield her iron crosier over the world. But in the editions of the Romish Bible published for circulation in England, they have suppressed these and similar passages calculated to awaken the slumbering apprehensions of this nation. 1 Luke x. 27. A. D. 1656. |