that the new Philosophers abhorred the Jesuits because they were the chief instruments in preventing the spread of impiety and rebellion; that they conspired to suppress the Order on this very account; and that if the Jesuits had never been suppressed, the French Revolution, with all its direful train of evils, would never have occurred. MR. DALLAS has in the first place failed to prove that the new Philosophers had any particular quarrel with the Jesuits, or had any hand in their suppression; and much less has he proved that if such suppression had not taken place, the French Revolution, would never have happened.

What, then, was the real occasion of that confederacy of wit and talent, which burst forth with such scorching and destructive effects at the period alluded to?

This question admits of an easy solution. The progress from Superstition to Infidelity, or from a corrupt religion to no religion at all, is very simple: the history of mankind, in all ages, furnishes examples to prove this point.-Under the Pagan system, which was no other than a corruption of the Patriarchal and Primitive Dispensation, the lapses from the national faith were almost of course, and the wise and learned men of Greece and Rome (as a general question) either openly denied the authority of" them that were no Gods," and derided the claims of the Priesthood; or else acquiesced in such a system, from a notion, that even a false Religion was, as a question of State, better than none at all.—In like manner, under the corruptions of the Papacy, it was impos sible that as knowledge was diffused through the world from the period of the Reformation downwards, and men were permitted to think for themselves, the errors and inconsistencies of Popery should not become apparent, precisely in that proportion in which light was thrown upon the human intellect. Inquirers of this description found that the Religion of the Romish Church would not abide a close examination, and that it would much less endure the test of a comparison with the Scriptures of Truth.-The doctrine of Papal Infallibility, for example, was too monstrous for good men to recognise with

safety to their consciences, when they observed the errors which the Popes had committed, and the vices in which they had indulged: while that of Papal Supremacy was too gross, either for wise Statesmen or true Patriots to admit with safety to their country. Thus also it was found, that the spiritual power claimed and exercised by the Romish Clergy (each of whom became the Pope of his own district), was equally at variance with the dictates of good sense and sound reasoning. They found that the doctrine of Purgatory accorded no better with any thing which the Scripture had revealed in support of it, than it did with the constant declaration of Scripture, that the present was a state of probation, and the future, of retribution. The doctrine of Papal or Priestly Absolution appeared to them only an usurpation, by man, of a power which belonged to his Creator, while that of Papal or Priestly Indulgences afforded sanction and toleration for every species of crime. They considered the terrors of Excommunication and Anathema, as the mere engines of temporal power, assumed for secular purposes alone. They regarded the doctrine of Transubstantiation as an invention, by which a mystery was introduced into the simplest Institution, for no other purpose than to enforce the necessity, and exalt the authority, of a standing Priesthood. They found that Auricular Confession, while it enabled the Ministers of Religion to penetrate into the secrets of families and individuals, tended, above every other expedient, to consolidate their power, and to multiply their resources. They considered the denial of the Bible to the common people, as an evident mark of the departure of that Church from the truths which it revealed, and the strongest proof of the weakness of a system which could resort to such a measure. They further regarded all the attempts of the Romish Church to mix human Tradition with divine Revelation, as utterly unjustifiable upon every principle; and as little could they endure to see Tradition putting its own gloss and comment upon the Scripture, and virtually invalidating the sanctions, and evading the force, of the word of God him

self. They observed that a contempt of the Institution of the Sabbath was a characteristic of Popery, wherever that Religion prevailed; and that the violation of the Marriage Vow was almost peculiar to the same system. They observed a religion of forms, processions, ceremonies, and externals, usurping the place of that Holy Faith which invariably produces the fruits of Holiness, without which the Religion of every man is in the sight of God utterly vain. There appeared, further, in Prayers and Invocations being offered to Saints, many of whom had been canonized by the Romish Church, after lives of open and notorious sin, to be something as repugnant to reason as it was contrary to revelation: They observed further, that the cruelties and persecutions which that Church had exercised in every age, were altogether opposed to the religion of the Prince of Peace, and calculated only to alienate the friends of Religion, and multiply its enemies. When to these considerations, men who were in search after truth, added the immoral and scandalous lives of the Catholic Clergy as a Body, chiefly arising out of their self-imposed Celibacy, they were still further revolted*. In cases where inquiries of this description had their proper operation, many of the Individuals who made them, silently consulted their Bibles; looked up for the wisdom that "de"scendeth from above;" and, without openly quitting a Church

*This was peculiarly the case in Spain. -"The religion of Spain" (says Mr. Pinkerton in his Geography)" is the Roman Catholic, which "in this country and Portugal has been carried to a pitch of fanati"cism.-The Monks being extremely numerous, and human passions "ever the same, those Ascetics atone for the want of marriage by the "practice of Adultery, and the Husbands, from the dread of the Inqui"sition, are constrained to connive at this enormous abuse. The con"science is seared by the practice of Absolution; and the mind becomes "reconciled to the strangest of all phenomena, theoretic piety and practical "vice united in bonds almost indissoluble. The vice becomes flagrant beyond "conception, as it is practised by those very men who ought to exhibit examples

of pure morality." Pinkerton's Geography, vol. i. pp. 409 and 415.

which had departed from her first faith, secretly renounced her errors, became spiritually enlightened; and receiving in sincerity the great fundamental truths, which the Romish Church holds in common with the Protestant, they rejected those doctrines of human imposition which were unnecessary to salvation, and those depraved practices which were absolutely opposed to it: with some such humble and honest worshippers, the Romish Church has been graced and blessed in every age; and such, many such, are at this moment to be found within her pale. Other inquirers who had arrived at the same conclusions, openly deserted the Church of Rome, and went over to the reformed Faith.

A third class, however, which was by far the most numerous, having talent enough to detect the absurdities of the Romish Church, and wit enough to expose them; observing the grossest errors both of doctrine and practice passing current under the name of Religion; and being too proud to inquire, whether, amidst such a mass of evil, some good might not lie concealed; themselves sensual and profligate, and determined, notwithstanding, to hold fast their vices, these men did not care to go over to a purer system, of which they knew as little, and thought as ill, as of their own; and yet they would not permit the multitude to continue in a track which could so easily be demonstrated to be a wrong one. They visited therefore the abuses of the Catholic Religion upon Religion itself, and judging of every other Religion by the specimen before them, they invited the world to do the same, and unfortunately succeeded too well. With men whose abilities enabled them to expose the abominations of the national faith, but whose profligacy made it necessary for them to wish there was no better, there was no other resource than in something worse, and that alternative was INFIDELITY: once embarked on an ocean like this, it was only natural that they should desire companions for such a voyage; in other words, that they should wish to render all men as wicked and wretched as themselves. In attacking the Clergy, in order to attain their object, they cer

́tainly were not likely to spare any part of that body: but to contend, as MR. DALLAS does, that they singled out THE JESUITS, as more peculiarly against their new Philosophy than others, and that, by doing so, they proved the Jesuits to be the steady friends of true Religion, regular government, and the peace of the world; these are positions which Mr. Dallas must be content to have asserted, for they are utterly incapable of proof.

If, indeed, the new Philosophers had pursued a course decidedly hostile to the Jesuits, there would have been nothing surprising in it, when it is considered that the Order of Jesuits formed the most corrupt modification of a corrupt system: and therefore, so far from that event (if it had taken place) having in any way assisted MR. DALLAS in establishing either the moral purity or political utility of the Jesuits, it could only have gone to confirm the fact already advanced; namely, that the debased condition into which the Catholic Religion had sunk, was in fact the occasion of an Infidel attack upon Religion itself, through the medium of a Church whose members, whether they might call themselves by one name or another, had, as a general question, apostatized from the truth.

In confirmation of this opinion, a thousand modern authorities might be cited; one only may suffice: it is that of PINKERTON" It may perhaps" (says he) "be asserted, that the "Roman Catholic system in the south of Europe is the only

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Superstition in the universe which has at any period necessi"tated the practice of vice; thus confirming the maxim, that "the corruption of the purest and best system, is always the "worst. Were an Apostle again to visit SPAIN, he would cer

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tainly begin with preaching the Christian practice, as if the 66 very idea of Christianity had perished, and his first duty "would be TO CONVERT THE ECCLESIASTICS."-Again, speaking of France, he says, "The laws and decency of marriage are. "frequently sacrificed, and the looseness of the French morals "in regard to the female sex has become proverbial." And further, "The religion of FRANCE was the Roman Catholic,